before i knew it - eddie x steve

before i knew it

Steve looked at the clock for the fifth time within a ten-minute span. He groaned loudly and Robin chuckled behind him.

"Looking at the clock isn't going to make it go any faster Steve." She said as he turned to look at her. She was flipping through yet another magazine, occasionally showing him a page that had a half-naked model promoting Coca-Cola or fancy perfume. Sex sells as they say.

"I know." He said but he turned his eyes once more to look at the clock. "I just don't know how it's only been ten minutes." He whined. The shift had been dragging on more than usual, it was extremely slow for a Tuesday. Even if they had a two-for-one deal going on for the summer. Keith had implemented the system to draw more traffic to the store, and most days it worked. Today was the odd exception.

The bell chimed, indicating that someone had walked in. Steve turned to the door about to welcome whoever came through. But stopped once he saw Dustin walk through the door, well it was more of a limp. His leg is still in the process of healing from the jump he made into the upside down to save Eddie.

"Hey Dusty!" He said with a smirk. He knew the boy got tired of the constant teasing surrounding the nickname that Suzie had given him. But Steve was allowed to poke fun at the kid, occasionally.

"Hey, Steven." He shot back with his eyes scowling at Steve, he knew that was one of the things he could not stand to be called.

Steve rolled his eyes at the comment. And even though he wouldn't admit it, he was glad Dustin came into the store on occasion, especially today. He needed any distraction from the time loop he felt he was in.

"What's up?" He asked leaning on the counter, watching Dustin immediately go to the mature section of the store. Had Keith been in, Steve would have not allowed Dustin the chance to even browse the films they had located at the back of the store. But he couldn't care less, as long as he didn't get caught renting a rated R film to the kid.

"Why don't we have a movie night, my mom won't let me take home a horror movie that is above PG-13. So, I was thinking you could host? He says casually, picking up The Shining.

Robin finally looks up from her magazine. "Ooh, I love that movie!" Dustin looks proud of his choice when Robin says this. It was quite adorable how much the kids liked Robin; she was always on their side, so it made sense.

"So, what do you say? Friday?"

They both look at him with big eyes and how can he say no to them? He rolls his eyes and nods "Sure why not, my parents are at a work event." The house gets lonely without anyone in it anyway, he thinks but chooses to keep that to himself.

"Yes!!" Dustin and Robin high-five.

-

The next few shifts at Family Video roll by, thankfully being a bit steadier with customers. Steve was working alone on Friday; he was okay with the quiet, but he did miss Robin's entertaining ranting about Vickie. They had gotten closer since that day making sandwiches together. Steve felt proud of how far Robin had gone from only observing Vickie in private to finally getting to hang out with her more.

He was finishing up with sweeping, moving on to the next task that needed to be done before closing. He still had an hour, so he wasn't rushing through the list. He sorted the tapes that had been returned into the correct genre, moving them to their designated spot on the shelves.

The familiar sound of the doorbell rang through the store.

"Welcome to the family video, how can I help you?" He turned and was met with none other than Eddie Munson, his all-familiar grin stretched across his face.