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frankenstein-ate-my-left-shoe · 2 years ago

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video stores, shopping malls, and ren faires part 2!

Pt. 1 | On AO3: video stores, shopping malls, and ren faires | song for this chapter

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There’s about an hour ‘till closing when Claudia Henderson drops Dustin off at Scoops Ahoy.

“Hi Ms. Henderson!” Steve greets the woman as she enters, Dustin just behind her with a backpack on his shoulder.

“How many times do I have to tell you to call me Claudia, Steven dear?” she chides.

“At least once more, Ms. Henderson.” he returns, turning on the charm that more and more frequently only worked on women hers and Ms. Byers age than on the ladies his age that he tried (and failed) to flirt with during his shifts.

Dustin grimaces, “Dude. Don’t flirt with my mom.” He scoots past his mom and heads towards the back of the store where he knows there’s a worn-in couch and wi-fi waiting for him.

Claudia shakes her head at her son, but continues on. “Thanks again for agreeing to watch him, Steven, he’s been super excited about it!”

“Oh, has he now?” Steve grins politely, but he knows he’s going to give Henderson so much shit about this.

“Moooom..” Dustin whines through the open window to the back of the shop.

She leans in closer to Steve like she’s telling him a secret. “Dusty said he was excited to spend time with his brother.”

Steve’s throat clenches tight at that.

“Oh shoot, I wasn’t supposed to tell you that!” she says with a wink. “He’s had dinner already, but I’m sure he’ll try to get some sort of junk food out of you.

“I’ll be back tomorrow afternoon, maybe early evening, and I’ll take you both out for dinner then, how’s that sound?”

He shoves past the emotion in his throat “Sounds great, Ms. Henderson, I’m looking forward to it.”

She gives him a smile, and calls towards the back of the shop, “Bye Dusty-buns! Behave!”

“Goodbye, mom!!” Dustin yells back, fully annoyed.

She and Steve share a covert snicker, and she heads back out the entrance with a final wave.

As expected, the last hour continues on without a customer showing up

Steve spends the entire time after Ms. Henderson leaves trying to get the persistent sticky film off the cracking linoleum of the tables; the register’s been counted since the last customer left about an hour before Dustin arrived, and he does NOT want to mop, so he just focuses on restocks and the tables.

Dustin comes out of the back at some point and plops himself onto a tabletop in the middle of the store, telling Steve all about his time at his nerdy summer camp (to which Steve sends back the appropriate ‘mhm’s and ‘Oh yeah?’s to his story while he cleans).

He zones back into the conversation when Dustin says “...hang on, I’ll go grab it from my bag and I can show it to you!”, jumping down off the table to go grab whatever it is that he was talking about.

As soon as he leaves, through the stark quiet of the empty mall, Steve hears the notes.

Thirteen notes. Whistled from somewhere in the building, that both strike him through the heart with overwhelming happiness and freeze him where he stands.

He has no clue as to why, but it’s as if his body recognizes the emotion that he’s supposed to feel upon hearing the tune, but his mind only registers it as vaguely familiar .

“What the fuck?”

“What?” Dustin says, coming back up to the table Steve’s been scrubbing with some sort of…thing in his hand.

“Nothing, forget it, what’s that now?” Steve nods toward the device and goes back in on the table in front of him.

He finishes with the last table just in time for closing, 9 pm, and for Dustin’s explanation about….okay, he still doesn’t know what it is that Dustin was showing him, to also come to a close.

“Okay Henderson, I’m just about done here, wanna help me with the cage?”

“Duh.”

“Alright, lets close this up and go out the bac–”

He hears the notes again.

“Did you hear that?”

“What?”

They’re both quiet, listening for the sound again, but nothing comes.

Dustin grabs the hook from next to the entrance to bring down the metal cage. “You hearing things Ste–”

There they are again.

“Ah ha! You heard it too! What the hell is that?”

“Uh, whistling? C'mon Steve, I know you’ve had a good couple hits to your noggin, but do you not remember what whistling is?" Dustin teases, but when Steve doesn’t say anything, “Steve? You still know what whistling is, right?”

“Huh? Yeah, yeah, obviously man,” Steve waves him off, “I'm just trying to find out where that’s coming from. I swear I know that tune from somewhere."

He mumbles the last as he steps out of the entrance to Scoops, walking slowly towards the center of the floor. He doesn’t get far, however, before he hears it again, coming from his right.

Whipping his head around, there are only two stores down that leg of the mall with the lights still on, Wyatt’s all the way down at the end, and the vintage Sam Goody record store two doors down from Scoops.

The whistle cuts through the quiet of the building and Steve follows the sound, the only thought that registers is that he’s glad whoever’s doing it seems to have the song stuck in their head so he can follow it better.

It’s definitely coming from much closer than Wyatt’s so he sneaks back to the wall and follows it to the record store.

“Damn it, I know that tune! Why can’t I place it??” He whispers, potentially to no one since he doesn’t know if Dustin followed him.

“I don’t recognize it at all.” Okay, Dustin followed.

The two sneak up to the mostly closed store and hide behind one of the columns that make up the doorway, its metal cage door still most of the way open, and listen.

They hear it getting closer to the entrance from inside the store before it gets drowned out by the rattle of the gate closing.

Whoever it is whistles the tune once more then goes quiet.

Steve sits and waits, still scrubbing through his memories to try and find the song. Soon enough though, Dustin whispers “C'mon man, let’s go.”

“No way dude, I gotta know who it was at least!”

“Well then look!”

Steve moves to peek around the column and scans over the aisles of vinyl…only to come up empty. They must’ve gone into the back.

He turns back and says as much to Dustin, “They must be about to head out, I didn’t see anyone in there.”

“You’ll figure it out another day then. Can we go?”

Steve sighs, but nods, a weird melancholy coming over him, knowing he’s not going to figure out what that song was.

He takes a single step back towards Scoops when the person starts singing; the lyrics match the earlier tune and their voice is low and raspy.

It legitimately makes Steve weak in the knees and sends him to the floor.

“What the hell, are you okay?”

“Shush!!" Steve scoots back against the column and sits there in the dusty corner, listening to the song.

“I'll swim and sail on savage seas with ne’er a fear of drowning and gladly ride the waves of life if you will marry me.”

Oh shit.

Oh fuck.

He does know this song.

The memory of his grandpa Otis singing this to his grandmother almost every morning while he stayed with them over summer is so clear now that he has hold of it, but how the hell does this person know it?

‘Dammit Steve, remember the lyrics!’ He scrubs his face with his hands and scans his memories for the next lines, pleading with his brain to give them up.

“No scorching sun nor freezing cold will stop me on my journey,” the person continues, quieter while they shuffle around the store.

It’s the next line that triggers Steve’s memory: “If you will promise me your heart, and lo—“

“And love me for eternity.” he sings aloud the next line, his butt getting cold from sitting on the floor.

“Who's that? Is someone there?” A jingling sound comes closer to the door, they must’ve been near the back of the store, did he sing that loud? Did this person have super hearing??

He looks over at Dustin, wide-eyed, to which the younger boy gives him an encouraging ‘shoo’-ing motion with a similar wide-eyed, smiling expression.

Steve stands and steps around the corner to face the other half of his duet before he can chicken out.

He’s greeted with the sight of Eddie Munson, local freak of Hawkins High, and subject of Steve’s longest standing, and most annoying crush. His long, dark hair is down but half hidden under a red bandana, his bangs and a few whispy pieces are pulled out from under it to fame his face. Dark jeans, a band tee, some retro reeboks on his feet and his store vest still over his shoulders...damn he's cute.

‘Has he been working here all summer? Oh fuck, that means he’s seen me in my uniform.’ his thoughts catch up to where he is. ‘Shit! I’m still in the damn thing! This is so embarrassing, can I still leave and not have it be weird..?’

Steve’s mouth and brain ignore his frazzled thoughts and take the reins for him, continuing the song on their own and sliding him past the gate into the store towards the other man as he does.

“My dearest love, my darling dear, your mighty words astound me,” he feels his face grow into a grin and reaches for the other man unconsciously to start the dance he’s known associated with full and true love all his life. “But I’ve no need for mighty deeds when I feel your arms around me!”

Eddie, who’d gone stock still, also seems to have a brain that’s working for him on its own accord and reaches back to take Steve's outstretched hand.

As soon as their fingers touch, Eddie unfreezes with a glowing grin and bright laugh, stepping with Steve in the long-learned dance as he continues the song. “But I would bring you rings of gold and even sing you poetry, and I would keep you from all harm if you would stay beside me!”

“I have no use for rings of gold, I care not for your poetry, I only want your hand to hold,”

Eddie cuts in with the echoing response “I only want you near me!”

“To love and kiss, to sweetly hold! For the dancing and the dreaming! Through all life's sorrows and delights, I’ll keep your laugh beside me!” the two race on together, picking the song and dance up in pace; kicking out their feet opposite the other while both their hands are grasped between them, Steve spinning Eddie out from him and pulling him back against his chest with his arms wrapped over and around him…Steve hasn’t felt this light in years.

The very last verse of the song has them locking their forearms together and spinning, practically prancing, in a circle. “I’ll swim and sail on savage seas with ne'er a fear of drowning and gladly ride the waves of life,” Faster and faster until:

“If you will marry me!”

Steve picks Eddie up at the waist, much like his grandfather would his grandma, spinning him through the line until they can’t hold the note any longer.

He sets Eddie back on his feet and they double over in laughter. Dustin, having entered the store at some point during their dance, is looking on like they're crazy.

“Munson! How do you know that song?!” Steve finally gets out, face hurting from how much he’s grinning.

“How do I— how do you ?? My mom would sing it constantly, even taught me the dance! How the hell do you know it?”

“That’s my grandparents’ song! Literally, like, okay not literally, I’m sure he didn’t write it or whatever,” he shakes his head and waves his hands, getting back on track, “but my grandpa would sing it to my grandma while he was doing his whole courting thing to get her to marry him. They’d sing and dance it almost every morning! How’d your mom get it?”

“She learned it from—“ Eddie's eyes widen in realization “From the couple whose house she helped take care of when I was little…”

Steve gapes at him in wonder. “Was that my—?” ”Was that your—?” they start at the same time, both men breathe out laughter.

“Steve Harrington.” Eddie shakes his head in delighted disbelief, eyes twinkling.

“That’s me Munson.” Steve can’t seem to stop grinning. “Better get used to that name too, cause as of now, we’re officially engaged.” He nods with finality, and heads back toward the exit, and waves at Dustin to follow.

“Oh yeah? That how it works? Maybe you need to sing it some more to convince me.”

Steve spins with a grin, walking backwards. “Anything you need, Future Mr. Harrington.”

Eddie splutters, his face turning a lovely shade of pink, but manages to quip back, “Who says I’m taking your name??”

Steve stops, pretending to think. “Hmmm. You know what? You got me, I’ve been writing ‘Steve Munson’ in my notebooks for years now.” Steve relishes in the bright red blush that spreads over the other man’s face at his (truthful) admission.

He gives the other man a wink and smirk before turning back and sliding out into the mall.

As soon as they are, Steve is accosted by Dustin's teasing.

“Ew! That was so gross and smarmy!” he’s grinning and jumping around, obviously trying to copy the footwork he just saw while they walk back to finish closing down Scoops.

Steve smiles, thinking back on Eddie’s flushed and happy face, his wild curls spinning out from him, the feeling of his hands around his slim waist, the feeling of Eddie in his arms…

Huh.

That was…definitely a series of thoughts he just had.

“It was the truth, Dusty.” He admits aloud.

“Pfft, yeah, sure Steve.” Dustin dismisses him, and Steve just shrugs it off, immediately imagining how funny it’d be, Dustin not taking him seriously until he’s invited to be Steve’s best man at his and Eddie’s wedding.

—-

“Aw fuck, it was right there, you even told me!”

“I did, yes.” Steve nods, leaning all his weight on the counter closest to him, elbows on the countertop. “Though I was just as surprised by the thought at the time that you are now.”

“How does he still think that you don’t like him?” Will laughs.

“He thinks I don’t like him?” he says, frowning over to Robin, down at the other end of the counter from him.

“Don’t look at me! We literally just had to force a musical number upon him in order to get him to figure out his own feelings; I don’t even want to know what we’ll have to do to convince him of yours.”

“I don’t know how much more obvious I can be, Bobs.”

Robin snorts, and the three teens start talking over one another at that. “You’ve already been–?”, “How’ve we not noticed…”, “Apparently you could be more obvious.”

“How Max, how?! Apparently he’s already proposed and Eddie’s none the wiser!”

“Don’t yell at me, Dustin.”

Steve huffs at the twos’ arguing, his brow furrowing further.

He looks back at Robin and before he can even get a word out, she says “I’d love to help Dingus, but I’m going to be absolutely no help in the ‘Guy’ area.”

Steve lets his head fall down between his shoulders, she’s right of course, but It’s actually Will that comes to his rescue.

“I might have an idea.”

Part 3 here!

woo!! part two! tbh, it's 10 pm and to me this looks good and is coherent but i'll probably re-read it tomorrow and have an annurysm...

anyway, shoutout to @/stevie.boy_19 on tiktok who made this video that i haven't stopped thinking about (obv.)

tagging those who seemed interested on part 1, hope that's ok!! @ent-is-indecisive, @mightbeasleep, @eyesofshinigami

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