#like. the night before the ending. if you talk to erica she'll be like

[applescabs]

the t4t girlies btw. if you even care.

[kedreeva]

I hope I'm doing the thing right... I would love some post trauma bonding between Erica and Steeeeeve. I feel like they are about on a par for intellect and they would have a lot in common in the giving face of not being traumatized, and also about having to live with crushing social expectations.

(My askbox is open for ST prompts!)(Previous Prompts)

Steve sees her lingering around the edge of the Red Cross food distribution table, even after Robin's gone to wash her hands and get ready to go. She picks at the tablecloth and looks as inconspicuous as she can, but he catches her glancing his way as he folds. He doesn't stare, and he doesn't stop, because when Erica wants to be addressed, she'll make it known.

Robin comes out of the back, still drying her hands on her pants. She smiles brightly at Erica, says something Steve can't hear, and Erica shakes her head. Robin stares for a second and then shrugs, and skirts around the table to head for Steve.

He nods his chin a little in Erica's direction as she approaches, and Robin shakes her head. She looks down at his piles of clothing and then glances slightly back in Erica's direction. He glances as well, and then nods, and she smiles.

"I'll wait in the car," she says as she brushes past his table, heading for the exit. He pulls out his keys and lobs them to her before she gets too far away.

It takes a little longer for Erica to meander close enough to him to talk, and he gives her a few minutes before he decides to start it. "Where's your brother?"

"Over at Mike's," she says, like she doesn't care, even though he knows she does.

"Why aren't you over at Mike's?" Steve asks, as nonchalantly as he can, not stopping folding.

She shrugs, not looking at him. "Boys night."

Steve nods, like he understands. He doesn't. Maybe he does- the boys can be idiots sometimes. They're playing their dragons game again, a single shot game according to Dustin, but they could have taken Erica. He'd heard Dustin talk about her game-saving play at Hellfire. He knows she's impressive, even if he doesn't know exactly why.

"You want a ride back early?" he asks instead. She looks past him, uncertain, and doesn't answer for long enough that Steve adds: "I do owe you free ice cream for life."

Erica looks him over, judging the sincerity of the offer, but she lifts her chin. "Yeah, okay. I gotta call my mom."

"Phone's in the back," he tells her, and watches as she goes.

He finishes the pile he's on before she gets back, and then he comes around the table to walk out with her. There's still light out, but the chill of evening prickles at the air. She walks a little close to him, and he thinks Robin had been right to ask him to stay and wait for her. Something's off. He catches Robin's eye through the windshield, and she nods.

Erica slips into the backseat without comment, and as soon as all the doors are closed, Robin says: "You mind dropping me off first? I'm supposed to help my mom with some stuff tonight."

"Sure," Steve says as he starts the car.

She picks a soft radio station, something that could be talked over even though it isn't. Erica stares out the window, quiet the entire ride to Robin's house. It's a short drive, uneventful and Robin thanks him at the end of it before she clambers out of the car. Without words she promises to call later, and he nods her off. He's got this.

"You wanna come up here?" he asks of Erica, who hesitates before climbing out of the and getting into the passenger seat. He glances sidelong at her and then puts the car in reverse to get out of the driveway. "Twist and Shake, or Dairy Dan?"

"Twist and Shake, obviously," she says.

Steve smiles. It's not a far drive to get to the ice cream shop, either, and Steve parks around the back instead of on the street, because it's quieter. Maybe not quieter by noise, but quieter by who is watching. Quieter by who Erica thinks can see her.

They sit on the hood of his car and eat their ice cream in companionable silence. She darts a few looks sidelong at him and he doesn't pry. He's learned to be patient about this stuff. He'll ask if he has to, he won't let things fester the way they'd done inside of Nancy, but he can wait a little longer.

"It's not as good as Scoops," Erica says eventually.

"Yeah," Steve agrees, even though he actually thinks it's better. This place had been here before Scoops Ahoy, and it had outlasted the commercial chain. "Sorry we had to burn it down. Monsters really... mess up a lot of stuff, huh?"

Her face does something strange, and she nods. She sticks her spoon in her mouth - she'd gotten some mixture of candy stirred into her ice cream in a paper cup, the way they'd started doing at Dairy Queen last year - and doesn't look at him, and he reminds himself that she's only eleven. Maybe talking about stuff doesn't fall on her shoulders.

"It's uh... it's okay, you know," he ventures gently. "To be upset about... the stuff that's changed. The stuff that's lost."

"I'm not upset," she says, too quickly, and Steve hurries to nod in agreement.

"No, I know. I know. I'm just saying, if you were, it'd be okay," he explains.

It hasn't even been two weeks since the gates opened, only a few days since El managed to close the last one. Vecna's still out there somewhere, and the guy, the human, that had attacked her wasn't going to face any consequences for it- well, no legal ones. Steve had already tracked him down and ensured he would never look twice at Erica or Lucas ever again. He'd never tell the others - doesn't need the judgment from Nancy or Robin, doesn't need the kids taking after his bad example - but he couldn't have sat by and done nothing. No regrets this way- he'd limp himself back to the hospital to have his popped stitches redone again if he had to, to protect any of them.

"I kind of miss it," he says. "The video store's okay, I- I like the uniform better."

That, at least, gets a little smile. "Still not cool."

"Less humiliating," he says, smiling too. "Probably less conspicuous inside secret Russian military bases. Still... it's where I met Robin."

She breathes out and lowers her ice cream into her lap. "Yeah. But... you couldn't have found Eddie if you were at Scoops."

He nods a little. They'd all traded stories at the hospital. "I'm not sure we did him any favors, finding him. He'd probably have been safer with the police."

He'd thought about it a lot; if Eddie had gone to the police, his name would have been cleared immediately. Fred would have been seen by the officer that stopped Nancy, while Eddie was in custody. Patrick, too, if they had not been sure. He'd have been safe. He'd have been free.

"He's gonna be okay," Erica says, but her voice wobbles and when Steve looks over, her eyes are glassy in the low light.

"Oh," he says softly, setting down his own cup and scooting to put an arm over her shoulders. "Yeah, of course he's gonna be okay. He's tough, Erica. You don't get to be a- a metalhead dungeon guy if you're not tough."

"Master," she says wetly, rubbing at her eyes with the heel of her hand.

"What?" he says, with a little huff of a laugh.

"It's called a dungeon master. A DM." She sniffles and finally leans against him a little, shoulders heaving in little twitches as she tries to keep from actually crying.

"A- Okay, you don't get to be a dungeon master if you aren't tough," Steve amends. "He'll wake up soon. Max, too."

"You don't know that," she says.

He considers saying he does, might have said it to one of the other kids, but Erica's quick as a whip and she's not interested in placation. "I don't," he agrees, "except I think it's true. If the doctors didn't think they'd wake up, they'd start talking about how to let them go. And they haven't done that, right?"

She's quiet for a few long seconds before she relaxes just a little. "Right."

"So... I think it's going to be okay."

She sits, letting her ice cream melt in her hands, and he stays where he is until she sits up a little, away from him.

"Thanks," she mumbles.

He nods and picks up his own cup again. It's not really worth eating most of it anymore, but he scoops out the small floating bit that's still mostly-frozen and pops it into his mouth. Then he scoots, sliding down the hood of his car to the ground, and turns around to see if she wants help getting down. She doesn't; she scuffs the hood, but he doesn't comment about that, either.

"Hey, um... did those little shits really tell you it was a boys night?" he asks, once she's standing. He holds out a hand for her finished cup, intending to go throw them both away so they can go.

"Yeah," she says, a little bitterly, handing over the garbage.

Steve flicks a glance at his watch. They'd probably been playing for a little while, but there was no way they were done. He stacks the cups carefully, pulling the spoon from the bottom one and sticks it in the top one, and then looks up to her. "I'm gonna go toss these, and then what do you say we go crash a single game party?"

Erica closes her eyes. "A one shot?"

"What?" Steve says, brow knitting.

"It's called a one shot."

He snorts, but smiles. "Yeah, okay. You wanna go crash a one shot? Make sure the boys don't forget how awesome you are?"

"You know," she says, a little slyly, "I think I do."

(on AO3)