Chapter Text
The morning after the first death was a quiet one for Family Video.
Soft light filtered through windows made hazy by morning fog, illuminating vibrant window displays for the latest movie hits. Neon lights cast colors over hundreds of VHS boxes sorted neatly along metal racks, while posters and framed prints covered large swaths of wall, complemented in their chaotic nature by a carpeted floor reminiscent of the kind one might find in a bowling alley or arcade. Despite the loud interior décor, the store itself was quiet, aside from the omnipresent hum of electricity and the occasional sigh from one Steve Harrington, who was sorting through the clearance rentals.
Robin thought these kinds of mornings were the best kind. She was naturally a morning person, but the comforting atmosphere of a customer free store was nigh unbeatable in her eyes. Leaning atop the sales counter, chin in hand, taking in the sweet silence that hung over the store like a cozy blanket, she wondered if she would ever know peace like this again.
Probably not.
She knew this particular moment couldn't last much longer, either. Customer free mornings, like all good things, must come to an end; the cruel hands of fate and time made sure of that. That didn't stop her from wishing she had a way to stretch this moment out forever. While recent events in her life had made it hard for Robin to say it was entirely impossible to stop time like that, she knew that it was unlikely that she would ever happen upon this ability herself.
In recognition of this fact, Robin decided to take matters into her own hands and end the peace herself, grabbing a copy of Grease and chucking it in Steve's general direction. It bounced off the clearance rack with a crunch and clattered onto the floor, where Steve bent down to retrieve it.
"You missed one." Robin teased, eyes twinkling with trademark mischievous intent.
"Yeah, so did you. My head. If you're going to throw something, get better aim." Steve remarked, resuming his organization of the clearance as if a VHS box had not just been hurled in his direction.
Robin scoffed, then left her position at the sales counter to walk over to where Steve was working. She grabbed a nearby box labelled Q-Z and began to arrange the boxes into alphabetical order.
"Keith didn't take out the garbage last night."
"How do you know?"
"I can smell it. It reeks of moldy cheese."
"So you just-" Steve gestures in the direction of the trash can. "You know what moldy cheese smells like?"
"Are you telling me you don't?"
"No, do not turn this around and make it seem like I'm the crazy one for not knowing what moldy cheese smells like."
"This nose knows, Steve." Robin scrunched up her nose and tapped on it twice. "What more can I say?"
"Yeah yeah, you and your freaky nose. I'll go get the trash, just finish these boxes and call me if anyone comes in."
"Oh, God forbid Steve Harrington miss a customer, who knows who could show up." Robin raised her hand to her forehead dramatically, looking at Steve from under it and winking at him.
"You better call!" Steve shouts over his shoulder as he walks to the back.
Robin smiled mischievously as he walked away. She was not going to call him.
-
Unfortunately for Robin, no one came into the store while Steve was away. He came back rather quickly, speed walking over to where Robin was working.
"Be honest, did anyone show up?"
"Oh yeah! You just missed Madonna and Olivia Newton-John! I wanted to call but I figured you would smell bad after taking out the trash so, I decided to spare you the embarrassment."
Steve said nothing, instead just looked at her, eyebrows raised.
Robin relented.
"No one came, I swear."
"Thank you."
"Why do you care so much anyway? Didn't you have a date with Heidi last night? I don't think she would appreciate you eyeing someone else."
Steve dropped his gaze, smile faltering as he looked anywhere but Robin's face.
"We're done. It was a one-time fling, she didn't want anything more."
"Oh." Robin replied neutrally, not wanting to sound pitying despite her heart breaking over the how dejected he sounded.
"Yeah, just wasn't meant to be. 'S fine and all, I just don't know what I'm doing wrong. I feel like, I don't know... I feel wrong. But I can't figure out what it is."
"It's not you. She's just not right for you, you'll find the one someday."
Steve said nothing, instead retreated into himself, his face uneasily contemplative as he thought.
Robin wished she could yank those thoughts out of his brain and drop kick them into outer space. She and Steve were prone to bickering and ragging on each other, but their friendship was a deep, unshakable bond that transcended all known laws of the universe for how unlikely a duo they were. The two were never meant to coexist, and yet…
and yet.
Steve was her comfort zone. Out of everyone she knew in her life, she was easily the most comfortable with him. Comfortable enough to divulge both of her deepest, darkest secrets in one fell swoop, which the stupidity of plagued her around 3 am every night. She had run the gauntlet big time when she told Steve about both her sexuality and her werewolf status in the same night, a decidedly poor decision that could have ended horribly had Steve not been the person he was today. She did not regret the decision- Steve had been nothing short of supportive, save for judging her taste in girls and making awful wolf puns. But she knew how badly it could have ended if she had been wrong about him. That night, she decided that no one else in the world would know her secret but him, and she was more than okay with that. She did not need anyone else to know, just her and her best friend.
And right now, that best friend needed to get out of his own head. She knew that look, the one where his confidence and self-worth were being called into question. She was not about to let that continue; she knew the perfect way to get him out of his own thoughts for a while.
"Hey dingus, you in there?" Robin asked softly, studying his face in concern.
"Yeah, just... thinking."
"Ok, well the thinking has gotta wait cause I have a movie for us to watch!" Robin bounded over to a display case near the counter and snatched up one of the boxes. She turned and held it up so he could see.
"Fast Times at Ridgemont High? We've seen that five times. You don't even like that movie."
"It's a little pedestrian, sure. But it has Phoebe Cates and Jennifer Jason Leigh, so it's definitely watchable."
Steve snorted, grinning while shaking his head.
"Alright, let's do this."
"Yes!" Robin climbed over the counter, box in teeth, and walked over to the tv monitor they kept behind the counter. She opened the box, only to find that the contents of the box were no longer there, likely stolen by some idiot kid with too much time on their hands. She angrily relayed this to Steve, and they both began searching for another copy in the back of the store. Steve paused when he saw a particular title, grabbed it off the shelf, and turned to look at Robin.
"Wasn't it my turn to pick this time? You refused to watch The Howling with me last week, I think I'm owed a turn."
"Yeah, for two reasons. First being that it's not Halloween, Steve."
"Does it have t-"
"Yes. God that shouldn't even be a question, that is prime Halloween content we would be wasting. And second-“ Robin began pacing, hands gesturing dramatically as she spoke.
"It’s bordering on sacrilege! They aren't even like. Actual wolves. Just hairy men running around at night. If I wanted to see hairy men run around at night, I would go to one of our football games at school."
Robin broke her pace and abruptly turned around to look at him, giving him a knowing look. “And I'm not even talking about the athletes."
"Hawkins dads sure do love their football games.”
"I think it's some kind of cult ritual at this point.”
Steve shook his head tiredly. "As if we need cult shit happening in this town, or anything else supernatural honestly.”
Robin contemplates that point for a moment, running her tongue over her bottom lip.
Fair is fair. Even if the vast majority were not aware of it, Hawkins did not need another supernatural threat looming over their heads like the world's most vengeful raincloud. Robin always feared the potential of someone malicious finding out about her werewolf status, but when she learned of the Upside Down, and all the damage it had caused Hawkins, she took extra precautions at keeping her identity a secret. She knew that if something as feared as the mythical werewolf was found in Hawkins, the paranoia that plagued the residents would likely evolve into a full-blown satanic panic. Pitchforks and all. This would go beyond her becoming the town pariah- she would be dead.
“Robin?”
Robin hadn’t realized she had gone quiet, and now Steve was looking at her carefully.
“Hey, I totally didn’t mean it that way. I’m not counting you in this, you’re barely even supernatural. I’m talking about like, actual threats to society.”
“Are you saying I’m not, Harrington?”
“You are a bigger threat to society as a human. I’ve seen you try to mow Mrs. Loudry’s lawn.”
“Oh my god, it was not that bad.”
“You killed her bushes and took out her lawn gnome, I really don’t see how that could have gone worse.”
Robin grinned. "I still can’t believe she paid me."
"Yeah, paid you to stay away from her at all costs."
"I did tell her I didn't have a driver's license."
"You did, that was on her."
They chatted for a while longer before growing silent, resuming their search for Fast Times. While Robin combed through the '82 releases, a thought she could not suppress quick enough bubbled out of her mouth.
“Did I scare you?”
“What?” Steve asked, stopping his search to look at her, confused. "What are you talking about?"
“When you first saw me. Did I scare you?”
“I mean… yeah, a little. No matter how close you are with someone, I think anyone would be scared a little shitless when that someone turns into a seven foot tall wolf monster. But then I watched you fall down a small hill and I realized that everything was going to be okay.”
Robin stared at the floor, not daring to look up.
That night was one she did not care to remember, regardless of Steve telling her it was okay. She had already told Steve of her werewolf identity previous to that night, but she remembered shaking at the idea of Steve seeing her in her wolf form. She had been so afraid he would be afraid of her, or hate her, or shun her entirely. But she had called him, because that night’s transformation was the worst she had ever experienced.
She had been alone in the woods behind her house, body trembling as she writhed in agony on the forest floor. Liquid fire raced through her veins, her entire body screaming in agony as white hot flashes of pain danced across her skin. She could not move. She could not breathe. Every second felt like an eternity trapped in her own personal hell. She had no recollection of calling Steve, had no idea how she managed it, but before she knew it he was there, holding her head in his arms, asking frantically how he could help. She only had time to look at him for a single second, eyes both pleading and fearful, before a white hot flash ran through her and she transformed before Steve’s very eyes.
Her face elongated and thinned, rounding out into a muzzle full of fangs the size of Steve’s pinkie finger. Her physique expanded three times her size, rippling muscles covered by waves of shaggy brown fur and the tattered remains of her clothes. Razor sharp claws sprang from her fingers and toes, and a bushy tail waved behind her. The creature that stood where Robin once did fell to its knees, panting hard. Steve instinctively took a step back, rustling some leaves in the process. The creature’s head snapped up, a low growl emanating from its throat.
Robin closed her eyes, not caring to remember the rest.
“You could have run,” Robin whispered. “I know you wanted to, when I growled at you for stepping back. Why didn’t you?”
“Well…” Steve ran his hand through his hair and sighed. “When you looked up, I saw your eyes. They were your eyes. They didn’t look it, I mean, yours are blue and wolf you has brown eyes, but I knew it was you looking at me, not some monster.”
Robin fidgeted with her rings, refusing to look at Steve. “I could have killed you. Almost did.”
“Eh, you’re not the first,” Steve shrugged his shoulders. “Probably not the last. I don’t take it very personally anymore. All I know is…”
Steve nudged her with his elbow, grinning softly.
“You aren’t the monster you think you are. Don’t beat yourself up for something you can’t control. You didn’t ask for this, but it’s part of what makes you who you are. And I'm gonna be there for you, no matter what, okay? We got this."
Robin didn't dare respond. Instead, she just smiled, eyes misty. She knew Steve understood the unspoken, the two small words that could never encapsulate her gratitude.
This would suffice instead.
-
They continued to search until Steve whooped in delight.
"Found it! Found it first, eat shit Buckley!"
"Where the hell did you find it? It wasn't in the '82 section where it was supposed to be."
"'85."
"That's not fair! You sorted it into the wrong section, dingus!"
"Don't hate the player Robin! Hate the game!" Steve crowed as he booked it to the tv.
"I don't think that means what you think it does!" Robin yelled after him, taking off after him.
By the time Robin made it over the counter, Steve had flipped on the television to some sort of news broadcast.
"Hey! Turn that off, we have a date at Ridgemont H-"
"Shut up."
"What?"
Steve didn't reply, instead gestured with one finger pointed at the television.
Robin looked. The local Hawkins news broadcast was on, and a reporter was standing in what appeared to be the trailer park on the west side of town.
"We don't have a lot of details at the moment, but we can confirm the body of a Hawkins High student was discovered early this morning. We have no indication of whether the death was the cause of suicide or foul play, but police are beginning to suspect foul play was involved. Police also have not yet released the name of the victim, but updates will follow as the investigation continues."
The broadcast cut to commercial as Steve turned the television off. He stood silently for a couple moments, staring at the empty air before him.
"Holy shit... what the fuck."
"No way..." Robin half-whispered, voice hoarse with fear and disbelief.
"What the fuck? What the hell happened, I mean-" Steve looked at Robin frantically. "It can't have been-"
Robin shook her head tiredly.
"I don't know. It could be, it might not be."
She looked out the front store window, chills running down her spine as she looked into the maw of the woods beyond the parking lot.
"But I have a terrible feeling we're going to find out soon enough."