Love in the Future

Chapter One: Thrown into the 10's

Robin sighed, hearing the bell chime. It was yet another child, probably wanting to beat the heat by sitting in the ice cream shop she worked at. Scoops Ahoy! The worst place in the world. Well, worse than her last job, but at least this one has air conditioning. She couldn't complain about that part of the job. Nor could she complain about Steve, her doe eyed, overconfident coworker. He was nice, but annoyed her a lot.

"Hi," he said once he reached the counter.

Robin gave a bored smile. "Hi."

"I'm Dustin," the boy said.

Robin gave her best fake smile. "I'm Robin."

"Nice to meet you. Is he here?" The boy asked, big brown eyes crinkled at the corners as he looked around. His dark, wild curls were kept under a baseball cap.

"Is who here?" The redhead asked, confused. She was already annoyed with this kid, and he walked through the door twenty seconds ago. Just then, she heard her coworker walk through the back door.

"Henderson!" he yelled, running to the boy, "You're back!"

"I'm back!"

Robin watched as Steve and the boy, Dustin, did a weird, nerdy handshake. She hated it here. "So, how many children are you friends with, Harrington?"

Steve just looked over at Robin, opening his mouth to reply, before closing it again, not sure what to say in response. "I'm going on break," he replied, "Henderson and I need to catch up."

Robin just rolled her eyes and went back to her job, picking up a magazine and reading it.

Minutes later, Steve and Dustin were seated in one of the booths, catching up, talking about their summers, Dustin's summer camp experience, his girlfriend that may or may not be real, and how great kissing is. Steve was surprised to hear that the rest of the party ditched him, deciding to hang out with their girlfriends instead. "I even created a radio so I can talk to her long distance. I call him Cerebro." Dustin then leaned in, looking around in case anyone heard. His voice was hushed as he said to Steve, "But while I was trying to get in contact with her, Cerebro picked up something weird, Some sort of interference. I think I picked up some Russian broadcasts. I bought a Russian dictionary to try to figure it out but all I could get were the words 'time' and 'future.'"

Steve thought for a moment, letting the words soak in. "Maybe time travel? Like they were going into the future?"

Dustin cocked an eyebrow. "Use your brain, Steve. Time travel isn't real."

Steve frowned, looking down at his hands resting on the table. "Geez, man. It was just a suggestion," he muttered, "I mean, we fought monsters. Anything is possible at this point."

"I just need to translate what the rest of the message says, and then I'll be able to show you that it's not time travel, something that is not real," Dustin said, sounding annoyed.

"What message?" It was Robin, standing at the side of the booth, arms crossed. "Your break is over, by the way." She reached down and grabbed the dictionary before Dustin could take it back, opening it and flipping through the pages. "I can help with the translation. I've always had a knack for languages. Picked them up easily." She shrugged. "So, what message?"

Dustin sighed, looking up at the redhead. "Look, Robin, was it? You seem nice."

"She's not."

Dustin shot Steve a look. "Do you think you're helping?" He then looked back at Robin. "But we don't want to include any outside people for this. Top secret."

Robin couldn't help but to giggle. "Steve Harrington? This Steve? For a top secret mission? Yeah right."

Steve chose to ignore Robin's comment. "Alright, man. Just show me the message."