Late Nights

Posted originally on the Archive of Our Own at http://archiveofourown.org/works/42070716.

Rating: General Audiences

Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Category: Gen
Fandom: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Relationship: Robin Buckley & Steve Harrington
Character: Robin Buckley, Steve Harrington
Additional Tags: Nightmares, Discussion of Canon Typical Violence, Platonic Cuddling,
discussion of shitty parents
Language: English
Series: Part 1 of Lovetober22
Collections: Lovertober 2022
Stats: Published: 2022-10-01 Words: 853

Late Nights
by K1313

Summary

Robin can't sleep and goes to visit Steve. For Lovetober22

Notes

See the end of the work for notes

After everything that had happened, it was often hard for Robin to get a lot of sleep. Usually, she
tried to kill time in her bedroom. But tonight, she’d been really feeling the weight of everything, so
she slipped out her window and headed to Steve’s.
He opened the door in pajamas. “Something wrong?”
Robin shrugged. “I can’t sleep or be alone and I just figured I could come here? Were you asleep?
You probably were. Sorry! I wasn’t really thinking about it,” she babbled.
Steve rolled his eyes and moved for her to come inside. “I wasn’t asleep either. Come on in.”
Robin followed Steve through his house and into the backyard. The full moon had the entire yard
well lit, but Steve turned on the outside lights anyway. Robin plopped down and Steve offered her
a drink. She agreed and took the beer that he handed her, even though she didn’t usually drink.
“Want to talk about what’s keeping you up?” Steve asked.
Robin shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s everything, isn’t it? Like how can I sleep knowing everything
that’s still going on?”
Steve said, “Yeah. I get that. Knowing we’re just waiting to figure out a plan and knowing Henry
slash Vecna slash One is still out there. Hard to feel safe.”
“Yeah. I can usually handle it, but some nights I just wish we were all together, you know? Like at
home with my parents it’s like they don’t know anything. I mean he could walk in our front door,
and they wouldn’t even know what was happening. But if I’m with you or Nance or even the kids,
 I know that if something goes wrong it’s not just me,” she said.
“I get that,” he said. “It’s weird being all alone here.”
“Your parents still haven’t come home?”
Steve sighed. “No. They don’t even call anymore really. It’s crazy right? They know I’m here, and
they can’t have missed the fucking news coverage about this stuff. And they’ve done nothing
about it.”
“That sucks,” she said.
“What’s worse,” he said, “them just disappearing without checking on me or everyone else’s
parents who are here and still don’t seem to care?”
Robin leaned against his shoulder. “It all just sucks. I miss my life before all this when I was just
worried about band and girls.”
“You know that’s where this all started for me,” Steve said, gesturing with his beer at the pool.
“All I was worried about was hooking up with Nancy and her best friend got dragged to the
underworld in my pool. And now I can’t come out here without the lights on.”
“You think about it a lot?” she asked.
Steve nodded. “Yeah. I have nightmares about it sometimes still. I have nightmares about all of it,
to be honest.”
“Yeah,” she said. “But you know you could tell me when you’re having a hard time.”
He nodded. “I know. But I mean we’ve all got so much going on, I hate to put any of it on people.”
“You’re my best friend,” Robin said. “That’s kind of the whole thing.”
“Want to stay over?” he asked.
Robin nodded and they headed inside. They both settled in on the couch and popped in a VHS tape.
As the movie got started Robin put her arm around Steve. “Have you ever thought about having
people stay over more? It’s not like your parents are here to be mad about it, and we all like to be
together.”
“Not a bad idea,” he said, yawning.
“I’d be happy to stay more,” she said.
He laughed. “Working with you and living with you seems like a lot.”
“That’s what my mom says,” she said.
Steve wrinkled his nose. “I meant it in a good way though. Your mom’s trying to be mean to you.”
“Not trying, succeeding,” Robin said. “Guess there’s a lot of reasons I don’t always want to be in
the house.”
“I’ll get you a key over here,” he said.
By the time the movie ended, they were both drifting off a bit. “Want to crash with me or in the
guest room?” Steve asked.
Robin considered it for a minute. “With you, I think,” she said. He nodded and helped her up and
they headed to his room. Robin was grateful to be tired enough that she didn’t immediately start
messing with his stuff and driving him crazy. She just got into bed. Steve turned off the lights and
paused. “You good?”
He rubbed his neck. “Mind if I open the curtains more?” Robin shook her head and he opened the
curtains all the way, letting the moonlight flood the room.
“Is it the dark?” she asked once he’d laid down next to her. “Cause I could totally see that. It’s like
the last thing we need is more mystery and unknown.”
Steve chuckled softly. “Feels silly to need a nightlight as a grown man, but… I wonder sometimes
if it’ll get better once things are really done.”
“Got to hope so,” she said. “Goodnight Steve. Thanks for letting me stay here.”
“Goodnight.”

End Notes
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