#(this story would have been an excuse to do survivalist steddie cuddling for warmth but like scifi flavored)

[shushmal]

small part of a bigger wip i don't think i'll ever fully flesh out but i like it so i wanted to share. very loosely based on franchises like halo, alien, portal, etc.

Steve steps through the portal like a god descending from the heavens, straight backed and powerful, even as he's dragging Dustin kicking and screaming away from the chaos just on the other side.

"I won't leave him," Dustin is screaming.

Robin doesn't know if she's ever heard a more inhuman sound, the way grief and rage has twisted Dustin's voice into something other. And Robin's entire life has been dedicated to new and untouched worlds, to the pursuit of everything alien and non-human.

"Let me go, Steve, let me go! I won't leave him, fuck, fuck you, I WON'T LEAVE HIM! EDDIE! EDDIE!" Robin watches the way he digs his fingernails into the exposed skin at Steve's neck, unprotected by his suit, drawing blood with each rake of his fingers.

Steve is unfazed, his eyes hard and intense as he drags Dustin towards the quarantine doors. Robin can't hear what he says to Dustin, even when Dustin screams back.

"I HATE YOU."

It hurts her, because she knows how it's no doubt hurting Steve, even as he shoves Dustin through the air lock, sealing him behind glass and silencing his screams.

Steve should have gone through too, but Robin knows him. It's why she hasn't closed the portal yet, why she hasn't moved from her station to do damage control, to log the losses:

Crew Member Eddie Munson — KIA

She watches Steve instead, as he picks up his saber and weaponry again, pulling it over his shoulder as he steps back up to the platform, the static electricity of the portal arching up to meet him, like fingers begging to draw him through.

He stops though, and Robin could cry—unsurprised and still grateful that he treats her to one last look. It says everything and nothing, because nothing needs to be said, not between the two of them.

I love you. I'll miss you. I'll come back to you, in this life or the next.

And then Steve turns, and steps through the portal. Robin cuts the contact as he goes, killing the link between them with a sob tearing through her chest. She adds him into the mental log in her list:

First Lieutenant Steve Harrington — KIA

She only allows herself the barest moment to grieve before she moves. The entire ship will be cut off and isolated soon, until central command can guarantee the ship isn't infected. She only has so much time to get to a rescue pod. She only has so much time until Nancy—

"Robin."

Robin doesn't slow her pace, even as Nancy catches up to her, her hand on Robin's wrist. She doesn't let Nancy turn her away, doesn't let her slow her down.

"You can't," Nancy says, hisses, her ire hiding her own grief. Nancy always turns emotion into cold rage. "He's gone, Robin. You can't save him."

"I can," Robin snaps, snarling when Nancy sighs, like Robin is some overemotional child.

"Do I really mean so little to you?"

"That's the difference between us," Robin says, ripping her arm from Nancy's fingers. She turns on the heel of her boot, and it's the first time that she's ever dared to look down her nose as Nancy, Nancy who she loves, love to hold, to kiss, to touch. Her Commander off-world. "Between Steve and the rest of us. You've got everyone sorted so easy in your head, each one ranked higher than the other, who you can and can't live without."

"Robin—"

"And I do, too," Robin admits, teeth grinding together, the fear and sadness burning a hole through her chest, yawning wide and wider and threatening to consume her. "I do, too, and I can't live without him.

"But Steve? Steve would die for any of us, every one of us, even your fucking brother who already left him for dead once."

Nancy gapes at her, her pretty face pale and her eyes red.

"Steve would die for me a thousand times," Robin tells her, her voice wobbling, the righteousness bleeding from her mouth like an open wound, leaving on the anxiety, the fear. "And he'll die for Eddie a million times.

"But I'm not going to let him. I'm going to go get them both and bring them home and fuck you if you think you can stop me."

Nancy stares. Says nothing.

And Robin leaves.