Royal Pain || Stranger Things

thirty-two || sailors and soviets

"Who do you work for?"

The world swirled around Steve Harrington as he hung on to reality for dear life, blood pooling down his face and his hair deflating. He spit a hefty wad of blood onto the ground, groaning. "For the millionth time, I work at Scoops Ahoy!" he shouted, voice growing scratchy. "Scoops Ahoy."

But that wasn't the answer Ozerov was looking for.

The assisting soldier slammed a fist into Steve's stomach yet again, the feeling in his hand practically gone from hitting the unusually dressed American so many times.

Steve keeled over as he let out a guttural shout. "What the hell? Look at my outfit! You think I just wear this?! Think I'm a spy in a sailor's uniform?" He took a sharp inhale as yet another fist collided with his chest.

Ozerov sighed, hands folded behind his back. "How did you get in?"

"I already told you," Steve replied through gritted teeth, gasping for air. "I told you before. My delivery didn't come, and my friends and I, we thought that it was left at the loading dock, so we went in the room, and then it turned into an elevator, and then...and then we dropped and then, next thing I know, I open my eyes and we're in this...wonderful facility." He sighed, rambling for his life. "But I swear to god, nobody knows about us, nobody saw us. You could just let us go, all right? And I'm not gonna tell anybody about this, okay? Shit happens, life goes on. And, uh...ice – ice cream. Ice cream, okay? You guys know what ice cream is. Everybody loves ice cream. I don't know if you have Russian ice cream or if that's considered gelato. I don't know what's what, but whatever you guys want, seriously. USS Butterscotch, I mean, you gotta try it. It is out of this world, I'm telling ya!"

Ozerov's flat face faltered into an all-out laugh, looking to his henchman with a wide smile as Steve nervously laughed in the background. "I like this guy!" he said vibrantly, laugh slowly filtering out. "USS...Butterscotch." Chuckling, he leaned down and rested his hands on his thighs, any glimpse of a smile disappearing. "Who do you work for?"

Steve's bloodied face slowly looked from Ozerov to the man who'd been wailing on him harder than Billy had the November before. "Oh, come on. No, no! No, seriously-"

But instead of feeling the contact of fist to face, the world went black around him.

"Put him in the room with the girl," Ozerov ordered as he switched from English to Russian, opening the exterior door for another soldier to assist in moving the teenager. He picked up his radio from the table behind him, eyes narrowing at he pressed the talk button. "Has anyone seen Doctor Alexei?"

Converging at the same time, both Robin and Steve were thrown into a holding room for safe keeping while the interrogations were swapped.

And while Robin had all the fire in the world, Steve never felt himself make contact with the ground, but was instead suspended in dreams and memories of the one he hoped would save them.

"Get your hands off me!" Robin screamed, given her wish as the Russian tossed her down next to her counterpart. Recoiling from the pain on her spine, she rolled over. "Steve?" She shook his shoulder. "Steve?"

Ozerov, declined an audience with Alexei, mostly because no one could find him, entered the room, his henchmen quieting their laughter.

"What did you do to him?" Robin asked him, kneeled over Steve. "What did you do?" A hand collided with her face, sending her to the ground as the soldiers were ordered to strap them down.

"Steve, wake up," Robin pleaded against the throbbing in her head, placed back to back with him only to be secured to one another. "Steve?" She yelped against the belts tightened around the duo. "What did you do!?"