#stobin moves to chicago together

[catharusustulatus]

Possible plot points for Stranger Things have been bouncing around my head like the DVD logo screensaver, so here's some of what I think is going to happen in season 5. Cue the bingo cards!

Multiple time jumps; one between S4 and S5, one mid-season

Max wakes up with a connection to Vecna and/or the Upside Down

The gang has a tactical montage set in Hopper's cabin

Sinkholes open up all over Hawkins, one swallows Family Video

Mrs. Wheeler gets involved in the action somehow

Jancy breaks up, Stancy is either endgame or Steve dies

Dustin has nightmares about Eddie the way Max did about Billy

Steve and Dustin brotherly moment post-nightmare/panic attack

Eddie comes back but not as Kas, more like Billy did in S4 if at all

Robin and Vickie flirt, maybe even kiss, Vickie leaves for safety

Murray dies, either sacrificing himself or killed by gov agents

Suzie assists the gang against gov agents using Cerebro

Big fight/shootout with evil government guys is B plot

Argyle is the comic relief until he has a heroic scene

Dustin forms a plan to use time travel in Upside Down for final fight

Will comes out to Jonathan and Joyce and is accepted

Will comes out to Mike, is supported but rejected romantically

Will's feelings for Mike and possible rejection will awaken powers

Will is trained by El and/or 008 to use his powers

Badass moment of Steve w/ the nail bat set to music goes viral

Steve dies in penultimate episode or act 2 of the finale in a final sacrifice for Nancy/Robin/Dustin/everyone

Final fight against Vecna is over 2/3 through finale

Emotional high school graduation scene post final fight

Lumax, Mileven, and Jopper endgame

Finale montage to emotional 80's song ties up lose ends

Jopper wedding is final scene

Heroes cover by Peter Gabriel is used at least once

[aidaronan]

Welcome to the Lube Chute!

Some We're-A-Package-Deal Summer Job Stobin crack, dedicated to @griefabyss69. Also shout out to @wynnyfryd who said the Lube Chute sounded like the location of Stobin's next fail summer job after Family Video got destroyed. "No, I'm telling you, Steve. We have to say it every time."

"We have to say, 'Welcome to the Lube Chute, where our main goal is fillin' all your holes,' every time?"

"Every time." Robin shrugged her shoulders. "It's the whole 'ocean of flavor' thing all over again." She'd started at the Lube Chute a week before him, owing to his need to hover over Eddie while his body knitted itself back together. By the time Steve had decided Eddie could get to the fridge and the bathroom on his own, she had been deemed competent enough to show him the register and inventory procedures.

"Yeah, except 'ocean of flavor' was about ice cream," Steve said. "And this is about, you know, rubber dicks."

"That's the way of stupid retail, huh." Robin sighed dramatically and hopped upon the counter. Next to her sat an open box of flavored lubes. She picked up a pricing gun and started affixing them with stickers.

A few minutes later, the door dinged with the sound of someone pushing their way into the shop. A regular-looking latino man in jeans and a faded Zeppelin tee stepped into the shop.

Steve gave Robin a pleading look, and she pulled her lips thin in sympathy and mouthed, "sorry, your turn." God. Welp. He may as well rip off the Band-Aid.

"Welcome to the Lube Chute," Steve said flatly, "where our goal is fillin' holes."

The guy snorted softly and went on his way, moving toward a rack of adult video tapes. Meanwhile, Robin kept her head down, looking pointedly to where she'd slapped a $.3.99 label onto a bottle of Maxxx Slick Strawberry.

"Like obviously I don't care," she said. "But it is 'where our main goal is fillin' all your holes.'"

"Ugh." Steve rolled his eyes up at the ceiling. "Why is it, like, so long?"

Curling his chin back around, he found the customer at the counter holding Dr. Lovesmuscles's Foot Long Schlong. The customer looked between it and Steve before raising his eyebrows. Shit and fuck. For the first time in literally ever, Steve wished he was back in those tiny Scoops shorts.

"I wasn't... I didn't mean the... I..." Steve stared at the guy over the counter and then gave up on trying to explain, punching things into the register as fast as he could so he could end the interaction. "So for the video and the toy, that comes to $18.39 with tax."

Steve made made change for a $20, put the guy's things into a nondescript brown paper bag, and then bit back a groan when he realized he had to embarrass himself one more time before it was all over.

"Thank you for visiting the Lube Chute. Remember if the base ain't flared, it doesn't go up there. Have a nice day!"

Next to him, Robin coughed into her elbow. When Steve looked over, he found her reading the back of one of the lube bottles, this one watermelon flavored.

"What do you think potassium sorbate even is?" Robin asked. "I mean, I know what potassium is. I passed chem and got into college—go Wildcats. Just... potassium sorbate. What does it even do?"

Steve stared at her for a long moment and then snatched the pricing gun from her hand. #

It was late July. August loomed and with it so did the end of possibly their last summer job together. After this, they were both slated to leave Hawkins. Robin to Northwestern, Steve to Chicago to be near her (and because it made sense as a base for Eddie to work on growing his music career.)

On this particular Wednesday, they had a huge shipment of video tapes to go through. Other than the scantily clad and sometimes fully nude women on the covers, it felt a lot like being back at Family Video. They quickly priced and stocked the tapes that were for sale, and then they worked on storing the covers for the rentals and putting them in the rental cases and then into the system.

"God, Steve, I am just, like, so gay," Robin whispered under her breath for the fifth or sixth time as she stared wide-eyed at a VHS cover. On it, a redheaded woman stared into the camera, her breasts exposed, her hand disappearing down the front of her very thin white panties. "You do know you can just, like, check one of these out, right?" Steve asked. "You're an adult. No one would—" Steve cut himself off when the bell over the door jingled. Jumping at the sound, Robin almost dropped the tape, fumbling with it several times before Steve snatched it from the air and handed it back to her. She was blushing hard when she went to put it into the computer.

One crisis averted, Steve turned toward the door to find one of the owners coming in. Shit.

Steve had slacked off on the welcome and goodbye phrases over the course of the summer because, well, he didn't want to say them. And now he wasn't sure he even remembered them properly. Shit, shit, shit.

He smiled and nodded as the owner approached the counter. Stephanie was a sleek, blonde woman who looked nothing like the kind of person you might expect to own a sex shop.

"Order come in okay?" she asked.

"Oh, uh, one damaged tape so far," Steve said. "Definitely an improvement over the last order."

'If the base is too...' No, that wasn't it.

"Love to hear that since I spent 3 hours yelling at the distributor after that incident."

'Where we fill holes for...' Definitely not.

"Yeah, right, sucked for us too beca—" Steve froze as a customer walked into the shop. He looked over at Robin, hoping to catch her eyes for a save, but she was laser-focused on sorting another box of tapes into alphabetical order for processing.

Fuck. Steve smiled at the incoming customer. Okay, he could do this. Deep breath, winning smile. "Welcome to the Lube Chute, where our main goal is fillin' all your holes."

Robin inhaled a deep gasp right around the same time that Stephanie burst into raucous laughter, throwing her head back and exposing her slender throat. In another life where he wasn't already tits over ass for Eddie Munson, he would've had to fall a little in love with her.

"Oh my God, that is too good." Stephanie wiped tears form her eyes with her thumbs and then giggled a few more times. "Jesus, Steve. Did you come up with that on your own?"

"Wha—?" Steve snapped his eyes over to Robin, who had her teeth set in grimace that would have been comedic at any other time. Shoulders pulled up around her ears, her eyes bled with apology.

Steve clenched his jaw and turned back to Stephanie, slipping into the most suave persona he could muster under those conditions. "Oh, you know, just thought you'd get a kick out of it."

"Well, you were right about that." Stephanie shook her head and grabbed the money bag to take it to the bank. "'Fillin' holes!" She laughed again on her way out the door.

Steve watched like a hawk as her car pulled out of the parking lot and then rounded on Robin, voice low as the customer browsed the "New Videos!" display.

"You told me we HAD to say..."

"Oh my God, I was gonna tell you after, like, a week, but then you stopped doing it on your own, so I just kinda..." Robin made a wobbly gesture with both hands, and Steve sighed deeply.

"You're walking home today," he said, but they both knew he didn't mean it, especially when his lunch break rolled around and he saved her half his orange as usual. # It was still July, and they could see the customer approaching from the parking lot. "Steve," Robin said. "Steve, please." "I want to point out that it's your own fault that you have to do this now, officially, as part of company policy. Because Stephanie liked it so much." "Steve, but..." Steve jutted his hip out against the counter and crossed his arms, waiting. With the same put-upon sigh he'd grown used to at Scoops and Family Video, Robin drew herself up taller and slapped her hands down on either side of the register. Through the front door, a fat woman with curly brown hair stepped into the shop. Robin beamed at her. "Welcome to the Lube Chute! Where our main goal is fillin' all your holes."

[shares-a-vest]

@flufftober Spring Edition Day 5: Honey & Bees

wc: 468 | Rated: G | cw: None

Tags: Platonic Stobin, Robin Buckley, Cool Aunt Robin, Steddie Dads (Eddie not present), Implied Ronance, Backyard, Springtime Flowers

'Buzz, Buzz, Buzz'

Steve’s hearing isn’t what it used to be when he was seventeen, but he is fairly certain the buzzing sounds coming from Claudia Henderson’s backyard aren’t in his head.

He flicks wet hands into the sink and haphazardly dries them on a nearby damp dishcloth so he doesn’t drip water everywhere as he heads to the back door.

And sure enough, Robin is buzzing about, rocking baby Joanie in her arms as she walks through Claudia’s modest, blooming garden.

“What are you doing, Robs?” he chuckles to himself, stepping from the back deck as his best friend now swishes the pink-clad bundle about.

“Buzz, buzz, buzz…” Robin chimes, in her own world as she holds Joanie impossibly close.

Steve moves forward, the freshly cut (by him) grass pillowing his feet as he reaches his best friend, who stands cheek-to-squished-cheek with his beaming daughter. It appears as if Robin is directing Joanie’s gaze to the nearby bees – half a dozen or so moving between a perfectly pruned patch of pink peonies.

The child points at a bee and hums, eliciting an enthusiastic nod from Robin.

“Yeah, Joans, bees!” she beams, giving Joanie’s clothed tummy the softest tickle in praise, “Bees make honey and help the flowers grow. Buzz, buzz, buzz.”

Joanie tries to mimic the sound but only blows a raspberry – a noise that is so hearty that she tips her head back and almost loses her pink sunhat.

Steve smiles and bites the inside of his cheek, refraining from gushing over a sight he is glad to have caught on the flying trip back to Hawkins. He makes a mental note to thank Wayne Munson for convincing him and Eddie that they needed to get the hell out of their tiny, baby-proofed apartment for at least one Spring weekend.

“Don’t look at me like that,” Robin glares.

But the look doesn’t last too long as Joanie begins squirming about, alerted to the presence of somebody else who might dote on her as much as her beloved Aunt Robin.

Steve tips his head to the side, catching his daughter’s eye so she doesn’t lose her hat for good.

“But look at you two…” he teasingly grins, reaching to playfully flick the brim of Joanie’s sunhat and earning a giggling squeal.

“Well…” Robin begins, feigning a grumbling tone Steve can see straight through, “What do you expect? Nancy had to stay in Chicago for work. So lucky for me, I get this little squirt all to myself. Can’t a girl be selfish when it comes to the cutest, most chubby-cheeked niece on planet Earth?”

“Fine,” Steve laughs, “Carry on with your buzz-buzz-buzzing.”

He wiggles his fingers and takes a step back, leaving them to their quality (Nancy-free) time together.

But it doesn’t mean he can’t watch on from the window!

[talanashta]

Sept Stobin Extravaganza Day 1: Scoops Ahoy

Rated T | No CWs | @sept-stobin-extravaganza

They didn’t really plan much about their move. Honestly, Steve was still surprised that they did move. With how Hawkins was, and the Upside Down, he thought he’d be in that town until he died. But the kids were graduated now and had all moved away, even Erica. He didn’t have anyone he needed to protect anymore, and everything had been quiet since the “Final Showdown” or “Boss Fight” or whatever it was that the kids called it.

As soon as Erica had pulled out of the Sinclair’s driveway, headed to Harvard – Harvard! (She wanted to be a lawyer, and he was sure she’d be great at it) – Robin turned to him and just gave him a look, and he knew.

All he could do was nod back.

“Indianapolis or Chicago?” she asked.

In the end, they decided Chicago, more on a whim than anything, but they thought it’d be better there, and easier for Robin to finally find a girlfriend.

As they were unpacking boxes in their new apartment, Steve said, “Fuck! We have to find jobs now.”

“Yeah, dingus,” she said, rolling her eyes. “That is kind of how we’ll be able to pay for this place.”

Steve just sighed. He hated job searching.

Robin ended up lining a few interviews up for them, but nothing had panned out yet. Most places weren’t looking to hire two people at once, and if they were, they couldn’t get their shifts (mostly) scheduled together.

One night, though, as Steve was laying on the couch, staring at the ceiling, Robin entered his field of view. She had this mischievous look on her face that was never a good sign.

“You know how we’ve been having trouble finding a job?”

“Yeah?” He wondered where she was going with this.

“There’s always the Scoops Ahoy a couple blocks over,” she suggested with a grin.

Steve shot up on the couch, visions of those scratchy shorts and awful hat filling his head. “No!”

[chaosgremlinmunson]

STWG daily prompt 5/10/23

Prompt: quiet

Pairing: Steddie, platonic Stobin, and Eddie/Robin friendship

Subject: unexpected child, Steve has bad parents.

When Eddie came bounding up the driveway he was thinking he'd get to see Steve, cause some chaos while making his boy smile, and snuggle up all night. What he wasn't expecting was to get there, and as she opened the door be cornered by Robin who immediately shushed him, pulling him back outside for a moment.

"What's going on Birdie? Why did you kidnap me back outside?" Eddie was staring at Robin now, who was biting her thumbnail.

"Look, uh, something unexpected happened this morning and well, I don't really know how to say this." Robin was rambling, "Ok, so uh, so there's a baby in the house. And well you know Steve's parents are horrible but we haven't even heard from them since spring break of last year, and then today this girl showed up. Well, anyway Steve apparently now is responsible for his little sister, the girl is two years old and they're just now dumping her on him?! I mean, could they not find his dad, why Steve? Why is it always Steve?"

Eddie just stood next to Robin, his arms wrapped around his torso, rocking back on his heels as he stared up into the cloudy sky, "You, know. He's lucky has you Birdie. But if you bringing me outside was warning because you thought I'd run-"

"I know you're not going to. If you break his heart I'll make you wish those bats finished the job Munson, and you know it."

"Yeah, I know Bucks. I love him. No matter what baggage comes with that I'm not letting him go, I hope I can talk him into leaving this Podunk town, maybe bring you with us, we can move to Indianapolis, or God I don't know, just somewhere far from Hawkins. The kids are all leaving, you know. I heard they Byers are all going back to California and Hopper is of course following his family. The Sinclair's apparently are fostering Max and moving them all to Chicago since Max's mom can't be found, and Dustin and his mom said wherever we go she'll move Dusty close by. The Wheelers are apparently moving down to Texas, something about Ted's father owns a ranch and they need a fresh start anyway. Just, let's go be with our boy, be whatever he needs right now and we can figure out everything else later." Eddie knew he just rambled for too long, but he needed Robin to know this wasn't spur of the moment. This was something he wanted, and if Robin needed to come so Steve was there he was thrilled. He loved them both.

They walked quietly back in being sure to make no noise, and they rounded the corner to Steve singing softly to his sister holding her close as she slept. Eddie knew in that moment, he was going to marry this man and that little girl would know nothing but true unconditional love for all of her life. He quietly sat next to Steve on one side while Robin took the other, and together they just watched the newest angel of their little family as she held on to her big brother even in her sleep.

[ladydorian05]

A Home for Broken Hearts ~Masterpost~

Co-written with @made-ofmemories (she made the header!)

Big shout out to @firefly-party for the amazing art, Check her stuff out She has a lot of amazing Steddie fanart!

Rated: M

Relationships: Steve Harrington/Eddie Munson, Platonic stobin, Platonic Eddissy, Past Steve Harrington/Nancy Wheeler Characters: Steve Harrington, Eddie Munson, Robin Buckley, Chrissy Cunningham, Maxine "Max" Mayfield, Dustin Henderson, The Party, A bunch of oc background characters, Corroded Coffin, Gareth, Jeff, Unnamed Freak (I hope they give him a name next season), Nancy Wheeler, Jim "Chief" Hopper, Joyce Byers Tags: Teacher! Steve Harrington, Bartender! Eddie Munson, Bisexual Steve Harrington, Based on the movie The Broken Hearts Gallery, Broken Hearts Gallery AU, Steddie Bigbang 2023 entry, Proof read by the authors, Steddie romcom style, fluff, Meet-cute

Warnings: Alcohol consumption, Weed mentioned/Implied consumption

Sumary:

Steve has never been the best at letting go, ever since he was a child with absent parents and a house void of any kind of personality he learned to hold onto any kind of memento he got his hands on. Reaching his twenties, a move to Chicago with his best friend Robin, a struggling career, and a string of failed relationships later and he still finds himself clinging to souvenirs from the past.

Things start to change when a drunken encounter leads to a chance meeting with Eddie, a bartender with dreams of opening his own bar. Together (with some assistance from Robin) they open the broken hearts gallery, a place for the broken-hearted citizens of Chicago to leave behind their baggage.

Inspired by ‘The Broken Hearts Gallery’ (knowledge of the movie not essential).

Read it on AO3 too

Chapters:

Chapter 1: A not so miserable night

Chapter 2: Of broken hearts and healing ideas

Chapter 3: First Donations

Chapter 4: A Walk Down Memory Lane

Chapter 5: Like Icarus, Steve is Falling

Chapter 6: In shades of grey with specks of light

Chapter 7: A Tragically single young man and his Wise sister

Chapter 8: I Had the Time of My Life