Beyond the Battle: Action & Consequence (Steddie, Stranger Things)

Chapter 19: Details

As the planning meeting broke up into smaller groups, Steve made his way towards Hopper.

"Hi," he said.

"Let me stop you right there," Hopper said before he could say anymore. "If you are going to suggest you can finish fixing me first, then the answer's no. Even if we don't get to implement this plan until tomorrow, you need to be in top form. And if you are going to apologise that you can't finish fixing me, because of Max, don't, because of course the kid who got Vecna'd is in front of an old man with a bad ankle in the queue." 

Steve blinked.

"God I'm too predictable," was what he chose to say, shaking his head.

"Yes, Steve, you are," Hopper said with a rather smug smile. "Out of interest, which one was it?"

"The second one," he replied. "I'm not actually as dumb as the kids like to make out."

"Kid, you're not dumb at all, you just have some wildly fucked up priorities," Hopper told him and patted him on the arm.

He tensed for a moment, but he relaxed as soon as the onslaught he was expecting didn't come. It helped.

"See, you do a good job," Hopper said and grinned at him.

"Let's hope I can do as good a one with Max," he replied, doing his best not to let his insecurities rise up.

"No doubt from this direction, Steve," Hopper said, expression turning serious. "Now I think my daughter is trying to get your attention."

Steve turned to see El smiling at him.

"Guess it's time for the pre-game pep talk," he said, more to himself than Hopper, but the man clapped him on the back as he walked away anyway.

Talking to El was surprisingly easy. They went over the plan in a bit more detail before shifting into discussing possible other practice sessions they could do along with Will. El had plenty of ideas which were only slightly terrifying as far as Steve was concerned. He was listening to El and Will discussing the Void when he heard the phone ringing. Jonathan disappeared to answer it, but Steve wasn't really paying attention.

"Robin, it's your mom," did however get his attention.

"Oh, thanks," Robin said, climbing over Dustin and Mike who had sprawled onto the floor rather than just sitting on it.

"If you get any closer I'm gonna need Steve to fix what you squashed," Dustin complained.

"Then move, Doufus," Robin replied, but she was already mostly through the obstacle course.

Steve tuned back into what El and Will were talking about, but kept one eye on the door, in case Robin needed anything. He was relieved to see her bounce back into the room smiling a minute or so later.

"Hey, Dingus," she called across the room, "good news, technically we're still employed, bad news, Family Video is not going to open for at least a month."

"Problem for another day?" he asked, just in case it was something Robin needed to deal with before she could settle.

Sometimes she was like that, and he always liked to make sure.

"Oh, hell yeah," she replied. "I will miss our mornings of double boxsets if we have to quit, though."

"Highlight of my days," he told her with a hand on his heart.

"You have no taste," she shot back, before tucking herself back on the couch with Nancy.

With that dealt with, Steve returned to his previous conversation and asked what he hoped was a sensible question.