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WHO: Robin and Eddie M
WHAT: Hanging out and catching up
WHEN: 8/28
WHERE: Apartment 302

It's all kinds of mind-bendingly crazy that people who died can be alive here. Robin's still trying to wrap her head around this place. There are too many things that've changed between her time and now so she's forever feeling like she'll never be able to catch up.

One thing she can do, though, is keep her promise to Steve to check in with Eddie and see how he's doing. She has a feeling that Steve is still a little bit bitter about the fact that Eddie didn't follow his directive not to be a hero because it ended up getting him killed. She can't figure out why else Steve wouldn't just check in on Eddie by himself, but she doesn't mind. It'll be nice to see him in person when she isn't being deafened by too-loud music, anyway.

She makes her way up to the third floor and disembarks the elevator, heading toward his apartment. Then, she knocks three times firmly and steps back from the door, fidgeting anxiously as she waits for him to answer.

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It’s taken him a little while to accept the reality of his situation. Or rather, to accept the impossible reality of his situation. He remembers dying in Dustin’s arms and knowing that was it. While he hadn’t felt like he’d wasted his life, he had felt like it had been much too short. So when he’d woken up to a second chance in Eglaf he’d assumed that he would get busy living it up again..

Eddie had wasted no time falling back into his old habits. And if the weed helped keep some nightmares and questions of ”Why me?” at bay, even better. He had done his best to hold on to the tenuous relationships he had from Hawkins because while he’d only been friendly with Chrissy, Steve and Robin for a short period, he was pretty sure the trauma they’d all experienced together created a bond that wasn’t easily broken. He’d also made new friends, despite this excessive smoking, drinking and moodiness, which had helped.

Being able to play live again had gone a long way towards helping him release some of the frustration and confusion he felt about being thrown into a new world and knowing that there was no returning to the old one, but it did little to ease his guilt about those he’d left behind. Basically, he’d been doing his goddamn best to deal with all this shit and some days were better than others.

Today was one day that laid somewhere in the middle. Eddie had just woken up and hadn’t yet gotten dressed when he heard the knock on the door. He opened the door, a large grin spreading across his face when he saw Robin at the door. Wearing a Slayer t-shirt and a pair of boxers and his hair is mess, expanded to twice it’s size and frizzed everywhere due to the humidity.

“Well, well, well,” he says, leaning against the doorway. “If it isn’t the legendary Buckley herself.”

"In the flesh," Robin replies wryly as Eddie greets her, leaning casually against the doorway. It's weird knowing how uncool he was in school while also seeing him act like literally one of the coolest, most chill people she's ever met. So weird, that dichotomy. Not as weird as him literally being alive and standing there talking to her right now, but weird. Definitely up there on the weird scale, at least respective to a normal person's existence. She's seen a lot more weird shit than a normal person.

Realizing her mind is already wandering down random paths, she lifts her eyebrows at him and gives him a sheepish grin. "Can I come in or should I find a comfy spot on the wall to lean against, too?" she asks playfully.

Her eyes shift past him, over his shoulder at the flash of movement behind him and her stomach knots up, wondering if he's got Chrissy in there and she picked a bad time — she's so not ready to face Chrissy in person yet. Even this is a little awkward but somehow less awkward than facing the late cheerleader whose death started an essential witch hunt with Eddie in the crosshairs. Hopefully, it's just his roommate.

"I come bearing a stipend payment and an empty stomach so we could totally order a pizza, my treat," she offers in the hopes of enticing him a little more to want to spend some time with her. It can't be easy, the prospect of having to catch up with her the same way he probably had to with Steve. Robin wonders if he remembers his death and what it felt like and shudders to think he might. She can't even begin to imagine what that must be like for a person and she doesn't want to. Maybe her being here wanting to reconnect with him will just trigger a whole shitload of memories he doesn't want to deal with. Maybe she should've sent him a message first, but this technology is weird and she hates the idea of whatever texting is.

Eddie shoots her a grin and then steps back out of the doorway to let her in, gesturing with a hand that his casa is her casa. He raises his eyebrows at the mention of food, his grin turning into a smile.

"Well, you don't have to bribe me, but I'll happily accept it anyway." He likes Robin. It shouldn't be that surprising, considering she's not one of the cool kids like Chrissy or Steve or even Nancy to a degree were. She was one of the geeks that were lumped in with him and the freaks. He would've picked her side over any of the other immediately on that alone before everything. But having gotten to know her had quickly meant getting to like her. He'd been glad to see her face when it had popped up on the network.

He shuts the door once she's inside and throws himself in a comfy chair, propping his hand on his chin and giving her his full attention. "So," he says. "Here you are in an alternate universe. I told you it was trippy. Thoughts? Feelings? Misgivings?."

Grinning back at him, Robin gives him a playful half-curtsey before making her way into his apartment. There's another flash of movement in her peripheral but she realizes that it is not, in fact, Chrissy, but Eddie's stupidly gorgeous roommate — why are literally all of my friends living with the hottest girls I've ever seen and I live alone? This is bullshit — disappearing into her bedroom. Damn...

Once she's in, she makes her way far enough into the living room to flop onto the sofa. "It's not like they make us pay rent or utilities, so I can afford it. Besides, you basically single-handedly made it possible for us to end Vecna and save Hawkins, so the actual least I can do is a hero's feast...by which I mean...pizza and wings and Coke," she replies, laughing a little sheepishly at the end of her response, wrinkling her nose a little at how dumb that sounded. Hero's feast, what the fuck? So dumb.

Eddie drops into the chair and starts asking her questions Robin has no idea how to answer, but when that happens, she does what she always does: she wings it.

"Trippy is putting it lightly. Everything is different here. They don't even have video stores, anymore, they just have whatever the hell Netflixandchill is," she complains, having completely misunderstood Steve's attempt to explain to her about Netflix. "Like, how can they stand not being able to walk up and down the aisles of the genres of movies and check out the back of the covers to see if the movie will be any good? I mean, seriously, it's so stupid.

"Also? I hate texting. Steve likes it so I'll do it, but it's not my thing. Just call, you know?" she rambles rapidly, words blurting out every which way as though he's broken the dam and she can't stop the word vomit from flooding out.

"And the music in 2022 is..." her voice trails off and she makes a face, shaking her head. Yikes. That's all that she can say about that. "But the people here seem pretty cool and everything. Plus, you're here, which is so weird but really cool." She pauses, realizing she's been talking for entirely too long and people don't generally like that about her. It's why her only real friend is Steve.

Clearing her throat, she shrugs and looks down. "Anyway...what about you? Thoughts? Feelings? Advice...?" That last word comes out with an upward lilt of hope to it.

He chuckles at the half courtesy, charmed despite how nerdy it is. He catches Lydia disappearing into her room out of the corner of her eye and hopes he's not sending her into hiding with his unexpected guest.

He huffs a little at hero's feast. It reminds him of Star Wars - does this make him Han Solo? - and the games they played in Hellfire where the towns had feasts before the next big event sent them all running. "Well, I make it a habit not to turn down food. Especially if it's offered in thanks." He pauses, chewing the inside of his lip for a moment. "I was hoping I'd see more of you."

Eddie nods, pausing slightly when she mentions Netflix and chill. The corners of his mouth turn up knowingly, eyes sparkling a little while he waits for a pause. "Netflix and chill is code for sex," he supplies, happily. "But I get what you're saying. I miss being able to actually see what I'm going to watch in a physical form. There's too much to choose from. It's too much. All of it."

"Yeah! Yes!" Eddie says, reaching his arms out toward Robin as if she's completing him in some way. "Texting is so stupid. Just fucking call them if you need something. Jesus Christ, how hard is it to pick up the phone? It's with you all the time, anyway!"

"Trash?" Eddie supplies when she touches on the music, raising his eyebrows. "Complete and utter trash?" He smiles at her when she mentions him in the plus column. "Very weird," he agrees with a deep breath. "Not that I'm complaining. I'd rather be alive than dead, but it takes some getting used to."

He shakes his head. "I'm the last person you should ask for any of that. I've been trying my best not to have any thoughts or feelings, but success has been mediocre at best. Advice wise, I'd probably ask Harrington. He seems to have it together here."

He pauses. "Actually, I do have one word of advice." He leans forward in the chair, fixing her with a serious look. "Don't let this place change who you are. There's a lot of cool shit here, yeah, but I want to know the girl who stuck her neck out for me without even knowing who I was." He leans back. "You know, the one that blatantly lied to me about who was in charge and jumped in that lake after her best friend?"

Robin looks surprised to hear that he'd been hoping to see more of her. That's not something she hears terribly often from people. The thing about Robin is that she's constantly go, go, go. Some people can't keep up and more don't want to even try. She doesn't really have any close friends outside of Steve and even he's still a new friend, relatively speaking. It's nice to hear someone other than Steve say they want her around. "Well, I'll try not to make you regret saying that," she replies with a little grin.

That grin drops away into a slack-jawed surprise when he smirks and lets her know what Netflixandchill — Netflix. and. chill. — actually means. "Okay, first of all, why do you know that?! And second of all...that explains why Steve laughed so hard when I told him I was going to hang out by myself and Netflix and chill for the night the other night. What a smart ass..." she mutters, wrinkling her nose.

Robin mirrors his physical enthusiasm for her opinion on texting, her eyes widening. "YES! Just frickin call! It's literally so much faster!" she exclaims. Trush might be a strong word, so she doesn't necessarily agree vocally, but she does nod. "It is not great," is how she actually responds.

Chewing her bottom lip thoughtfully, Robin leans forward, too, when Eddie does, her brows lifted with interest to hear what his advice might be. Her face warms and her cheeks pinken a little as he leans back again and she ducks her head a little, smiling slightly. "It takes a lot to make me want to change, so I think we're good. What do you wanna know?" she asks, curious. Not unlike the limited number of people who tend to want to be around her, it isn't often she has people wanting to get to know her more. "Oh, and where do you want me to order? Which places are good here? I haven't had a chance to try a whole lot of them yet."

He laughs at her response. "Lydia told me my first week here. She's let me in on a lot of the stuff that doesn't make sense. And if you want to stay in and Netflix and chill with yourself for the night, that's none of Harrington's business." He wags his eyebrows playfully at her.

"Do you think you're going to stick around?" Unlike Chrissy and him, Robin actually had a chance of going back home. He couldn't blame her if she wanted to go finish the rest of her life.

"None of them really measure up to Pizza King, but there's one on the fridge that's decent." He pushes himself out of the chair and moves to the kitchen, grabbing the magnet off the fridge and bringing it back to her. "I'll eat anything, so order whatever you want."

Robin's face goes beet red and she reaches forward to slap his arm. "Shut up! I didn't mean that! I thought it just meant watching TV," she laughs, covering her face with both hands.

His question takes her off her guard and her laughter slows until it ceases. Then, she chews her bottom lip. "I don't know..." she admits. When she first got here, she just planned on leaving again after a little break from Hawkins, but now knowing that Eddie is here and Steve isn't sure he's going home, never mind that he's like falling for his roommates who don't live in 1986 Hawkins... "I really don't know, yet..."

Robin watches as he disappears into the kitchen briefly before returning with a menu. "Okay, but it's not my hero's feast, so...start naming favorite toppings, pal."

Robin has a great laugh. That's something Eddie's going to have to remember so he can make her do it as much as possible. He grins at her, wagging his eyebrows. "You don't have to explain anything to me, Buckley."

"Well, as far as I understand it, you can leave and come back whenever you choose." It's not the same for him or Chrissy, but he's getting adjusted to that. Slowly. He almost wants to tell Robin to take a message to Wayne or Dustin if she goes back, but he thinks that might just make the fact that he can't go back that much worse. "This place doesn't seem that bad, music aside."

"Meat and cheese," he says, intentionally giving her a hard time. He shrugs, falling into his chair again. "Honestly, if it has cheese, meat and sauce, I'll eat it. So get what you like. It's more about the company, anyway."

"What apartment are you in?"

"I hate you," she laughs and the still-wide smile as well as the tone of her voice should tell him that she means the opposite. Eddie's actually really funny, she finds herself thinking. He's like a whole different person when he's not in mortal peril. She can't help wondering if he thinks the same things about her and maybe even Steve. It makes her wonder, too, if Eddie's someone she could become close friends with. Robin can't imagine being as close to anyone as she is to Steve, at least not until she finally meets The One, but she has so few friends and she finds herself feeling a little bit hopeful that she and Eddie could make a good friendship fit.

Her eyebrows lift. "Steve said that, too, but...I don't know if I believe it. I didn't come here on purpose, you know? So what if I go back and can't get back here? Or what if I want to go home a second time after coming back here and it doesn't work?" she asks. The whole thing makes her really nervous to think about, but at the same time, she trusts Steve and if he says it works, then it must work. "No, it seems pretty cool so far. Crappy music and texting aside," she agrees.

Rolling her eyes at his answer, Robin sighs and smiles. "Yeah? Well, I'll remember that next time and you can be the food provider," she jokes. After looking over the menu for a minute, she dials the number at the top to call in the order. While it rings, she answers his question. "104."

Another ring later, someone answers the phone and Robin places an order for two large pizzas, one meat lovers with extra cheese and one supreme with pepperoni added; a dozen hot wings with ranch and bleu cheese; and a two-liter of Coke. Then, she turns her attention back to Eddie.

"I was living alone at first, but then that last guy that showed up, the one on the network talking about like universe hopping or something moved in. Peter. He seems pretty cool so far, for an old guy. I think he's like thirty. Little weird that they gave a grown man a room in the apartment where they stuck a seventeen-year-old girl, but at least he's not a creep." She pauses, eyes shifting reflexively to the room where the redhead disappeared before looking back at Eddie.

Her voice lowers a little because she's curious but doesn't want to be overheard. "What about your roommate, is she cool? I saw her at your show but she was like hanging out with Chrissy and I'm still not...like, there, yet..." Meaning: Chrissy is still, in Robin's mind, Too Cool to hang out with someone like her, so if Lydia looks like she does and hangs out with Chrissy, then she, too, must be Too Cool for Robin.

He may not know Robin well, but he’s spent enough time with her to know that run away thoughts are part of her personality. He listens to her as she runs through all the possibilities. “I don’t think anyone came here on purpose,” he points out. “But a lot of them have talked about going home and coming back. Steve included.”

He picks at the skin on his palm. “Maybe you should talk to some of the others if you don’t trust Steve entirely. My roommate, Lydia, works at the Department, maybe she can answer some of your questions. She’s been here a long time by choice.”

While Robin’s ordering, Eddie retreats to his room and comes back with rolling supplies. He begins his daily routine of preparing for the rest of the day. When she mentions her roommate, he looks up. Eddie had thought the same thing about Chrissy being placed with an older guy, but he also seemed pretty harmless. “If you have any trouble with your roommate just let me or Harrington know. We can talk to him.”

Eddie raises his eyebrows a little at the question about Lydia. “Yeah,” he says, nodding his head. “I’m pretty sure Lydia invented cool. I’ll introduce you to her when she comes out.”

He pauses. “I think you’d like Chrissy. She’s not what you think she’d be.”

"Well, yeah, but like...if those portals are under control, then wouldn't they stop dragging people in who didn't volunteer to come? You know? I'm not, like, mad about it or anything, it just makes me not really...trust it, I guess," she clarifies, shrugging a little bit.

When he suggests she talk to his roommate about it, Robin's face warms and she can tell she's blushing a little. So, she looks back down at the menu in an attempt to distract herself, all the while hoping that Eddie doesn't notice or that the blush is subtle enough that he couldn't see it unless he were closer to her. "Yeah, maybe. It's not that I don't trust Steve, it's just that I don't trust the technology as much as he does."

While she's on the phone, Robin watches him get to his feet and disappear into a bedroom that she can only assume is his. When he comes back, she smirks a little, rolling her eyes playfully when she notices what he'd gone to get. "Yeah. ...oh, it's apartment 302. ...how much?" she asks, her attention still on watching Eddie prepping his things with some interest. She's never actually tried pot or seen anyone roll a joint, so she can't deny it's interesting to watch. "Okay, great, thank you," she finishes up the call and hangs up.

Shaking her head, she shrugs. "Nah, he seems pretty cool so far. But I know, I will. Don't worry," she promises, a small smile tugging up the corners of her mouth with endearment. It's nice that he cares enough to say that.

Robin looks appropriately surprised at his casual response. Lydia doesn't look like the type that Eddie the Freak Munson would find "cool." Her face colors again and she shrugs, trying to look casual.

"Wow, that's pretty high praise," she points out. "Yeah, cool. Thanks," she adds when he offers to introduce Robin to the roommate. That'll be helpful, especially if he thinks Lydia will be Robin's best source to attempt to answer her questions about the portal and how safe it is to travel through more than once.

She lifts her eyebrows again with interest and surprise. "Yeah? What's she like...?"

It's hard not to see the way that Robin's face heats up at the mention of Lydia. Eddie watches her for a moment, a small smile blooming on his lips, but he doesn't push. Instead he shakes his head. "Yeah, how did you and Harrington become best friends, anyway? Not that I don't like him. He's actually not the douchebag I thought he'd be. But you two are so different."

When he sees her face warm again at the mention of Lydia he grins and offers her one of the joints. Robin doesn't seem like the type to smoke, but these are stressful times all around.

"Chrissy?" This time, it's Eddie who feels the tips of his ears warm slightly. He's grateful that his mane of hair hides the give away. He shrugs, trying to stay cool. "She's nothing like Jason. I always thought cheerleaders were fake. Soul-less. But she's the real deal. Sunshine in a short skirt."

"Oh wow, man I've never actually had to try to tell that story," Robin laughs in reflexive response. She drops herself back against the back of the sofa, chewing on her bottom lip. How to tell this story so it doesn't sound like the biggest bullshit lie anyone has ever told...?

Clearing her throat, she sits back up again. "So, Steve and I were both working at Scoops Ahoy, you know, at the mall? Last summer, or whatever, and I couldn't stand him but it was super fun ragging on him every time he tried to pick up a girl and failed miserably because he looked like a rejected Village Person in our uniform.

"Anyway, you know how he and Dustin are friends and Dustin and Steve were trying to figure out some code that Dustin found, I think, and I actually speak Russian, which is what the 'code,'" she says, giving heavy finger quotations, "was. So there were these Russians that were trying to build a secret Soviet base under the Starcourt Mall, right? So I go with Steve and Dustin and Erica on this like mission or whatever to find out what they're doing putting a Soviet base under the freaking mall."

Robin stops suddenly, eyes widening a little. "Wow, I am rambling..." she realizes aloud. "Anyway, so long story short, Steve and I got kidnapped by the Russians, they drugged us and beat the shit out of him, and we kind of trauma bonded while escaping. You know, like you do," Robin finishes, giving the latter part of that end statement a bit of a silly voice to indicate how completely ridiculous and over the top their lives are when they try to verbalize what they've been through.

"So...yeah. I thought he was a douchebag, too, but I think he just used to pretend to be a douchebag because it was important to him to be cool. But he's not like that anymore. He's really cool, I kinda love him," Robin says with a fond smile.

Eddie offers her a joint and even though she's never tried pot before, she's kind of always wanted to. Just to say she had. "Don't laugh at me if I look stupid, I've never smoked this before," she warns. Then her cheeks go pink again and she wrinkles her nose. "...what do you do?" she asks, embarrassed that she hasn't ever smoked a cigarette, either, so she has no idea if there's any special trick beyond lighting it, inhaling the smoke, and then exhaling again. She's not even sure if that's what you do, just that's all it looks like it is, from what she's seen. Maybe there's a science to it when it's pot instead of cigarettes, or something.

Her eyebrows shoot up at the way he refers to Chrissy as Sunshine in a short skirt. "A cheerleader with a cheerful demeanor? You don't say!" she gasps playfully, grinning. "What does that even mean to you? 'The real deal'?" she asks, genuinely interested to hear what he would consider 'the real deal' for a person.

Edited 2022-09-21 02:58 (UTC)

Eddie listens to Robin as she rambles about codes and Russians and Soviet bases, his eyebrows inching higher and higher as she goes on. When she finally stops to take a breath he chuckles and then breaks out into a full on laugh.

"Jesus, okay," he says, shaking his head and raising his hands in surrender. "Don't tell me. Did you just come up with all of that on the spot?"

"Love him?" Eddie asks, needling her a little as he gets up and moves to sit beside her on the couch. That would certainly explain why they made such an odd couple. Sometimes what you wanted was the opposite of everything you were.

He takes the joint back and grabs a lighter from the table, carefully lighting the end and rolling it between his fingers. "You want to make sure you get an even burn to start off with," he says, showing her. "Then you inhale, hold it for two beats and exhale." He demonstrates, blowing the smoke away from them. "You probably got a good pair of lungs on you with all that band practice."

He hands the joint back to her. He shrugs, tapping his fingers against his knees. "She's... real. Honest. Doesn't put on airs like the rest of the popular kids."

Robin makes an indignant sound, looking offended. "Oh yeah, because getting kidnapped by Russians building a base under the mall is so much less believable than demobats and Vecna, Eddie. It's true! I didn't even get into the crazy part," she says, wrinkling her nose and leaning back into the cushions again.

Her face goes red again, not because she's blushing over being caught admitting feelings for Steve, since she didn't. It's because she probably would have feelings for him if she wasn't gay and Eddie doesn't know that she is. She's trying to decide whether he would take it as well as Steve did, but in the end decides to hold off. "Not like that," she laughs, rolling her eyes. "We're just friends."

Robin's eyes follow him as Eddie moves to join her on the couch and shows her how to light and smoke the joint before offering it to her. "Don't make fun of me for band, either," she says, "it's no less nerdy than Hellfire Club." Grinning, she sticks her tongue out at him and takes the joint and lighter.

It's easy enough, she realizes, and she'd sort of stressed over nothing. Robin inhales and holds it for a couple of seconds, handing it back to him before exhaling. The exhalation of the smoke starts smoothly enough but ends in a coughing fit that she's attempting to hold back. She's still listening to him respond, telling her what he means by Chrissy being the real deal and Robin is choking on the coughs she doesn't necessarily want to let out because that'll make it harder to hear him. When he finishes, Robin stops holding back and pats herself on the chest with a closed fist as she finishes the coughing fit. "Oh my God, did I do it wrong or something? Wow..." she gasps.

After a moment of considering what he's said, Robin gives a thoughtful facial shrug. "So she's pretty, popular, and she doesn't suck? That seems pretty fucking unfair," she says, only half-joking, a lopsided smile crossing her lips. She blinks a few times slowly then. "Whoa...wow, okay...all right, I can get behind this little swimmy head feeling..." she thinks aloud softly, looking impressed at how quickly she feels it starting to work its way into her.

"You're seriously not fucking with me?" Now he suddenly believes her and he really, really wished he didn't. "What the hell is going on in Hawkins?" He asks, his face scrunching up into one of disgust. "Russians, demons, evil sorcerers, upside down dimensions... just what the fuck?

When her face goes red at the mention of Steve, Eddie starts to wonder if maybe he hasn't hit the nail right on the head. She says they're just friends, but her face says otherwise. He wonders if Harrington has any idea or is completely oblivious.

He reaches out instinctively and pats her on the back as she coughs. He's seen plenty of people take their first hits, the coughing part isn't uncommon. "No, just takes a little practice."

He sighs, wondering if it's worth trying to explain how Chrissy is different. He can hear the same judgements he had about her and the rest of the crowd before he'd actually gotten to know her in Robin's words. As a band kid, she's probably about as sympathetic towards them that a Freak would be. "It is pretty fucking unfair. People like her aren't supposed to exist."

He grins at her, patting her on the back and taking a drag. "Enjoy, Buckley. Just let it all go."

Robin huffs a laugh, shaking her head. "No, I'm not fucking with you. In what other circumstance can you see me wanting to spend enough time with someone like King Steve to get to know the better part of him he hides behind the hair, huh?" She gives him a performative shrug. "Honestly, it's all tied together from what I can tell. But...I was a little late to the party, so I don't know as much as Steve does. You want to know all the secrets, we're gonna have to find a way to get Dustin here."

His reassurance actually means a lot. The thing is, Robin's always kind of peripherally known who Eddie was. She sort of views he and Steve on opposite ends of a Cool People spectrum; Steve is mainstream cool and Eddie is rebel cool, like James Dean if James Dean was also kind of a nerd. "Well, then there's that at least," she chokes out between a few stray, lingering coughs.

A lazy, dopey smile creeps over her lips and she slumps a little, melting into the couch with contended relaxation. "Oh, I'm gonna. I like this," she says with a little giggle. "Where do you even get this stuff here? You've been here long enough to have A Guy already?" she asks, holding her hand out toward him, opening and closing it in an exaggerated beckoning gesture to ask for another puff. "Tell me more about Queen Chrissy," she adds.

He smiles at the relaxed look on her face, pleased that the hit is working for her so quickly. He shrugs, reaching out to take the joint back so he can take a hit for himself. He holds it and lets it out. "It's pretty easy to find a guy, you just have to know the right places to look."

He hasn't taken up selling it again, though it's always a possibility. With his gig at the CrowBar he could probably do okay well enough, but he's not ready to put that much effort into anything other than playing guitar.

"Only if you tell me more about King Steve," he says, giving her an amused smile. He leans back against the couch beside her, turning his head on the back cushion to look at her. "You sure you're not into him?"

"And why are you so interested in Chrissy, anyway? You know none of that popularity shit matters here. She's not some celebrity, she's just a normal person like we are." He chuckles. "Well, I haven't been called normal in a while, but you know."

Robin looks appropriately impressed. "Well, yeah, but I wouldn't know where to look so consider me impressed," she confesses, looking over at him. She gives a soft huff of amusement, rolling her eyes. "What do you want to know about him? And yeah. I'm 100% sure I'm not into him," she says, shaking her head. "He's great, but let's just say he's not my type."

Taking a deep breath, she sighs it back out again with another shrug. "I'm not, actually. I'm more interested in what you see in Chrissy, specifically because it seems weird that you'd hang out with her unless there was something especially cool about her and I'm curious." She reaches for the joint again. "Besides, you know that she's absolutely a celebrity as far as Hawkins High goes. Don't pretend you don't know that, you lying liar who's lying right now."

"What was his come to Jesus moment? 'Cause the guy I remember from school was a total asshole. Was it Wheeler? I saw her meltdown at him at a Halloween party once and let me tell you, it was fun to watch." He likes Steve, he really does. The guy came through for him along with the others in ways that he hardly expected. But that doesn't mean that he is able to forget the way his crowd went out of their way to make his and the other Hellfire club members miserable. He's more curious than he'd like to be about what made Steve change.

He hums, looking at Robin pensively. "What is your type, Buckley?"

He sighs deeply and shrugs, his fingers tapping on his jeans. "I guess it's the way she doesn't look at me the way other people do. She's never acted like I was beneath her because I didn't look like everyone else. She wasn't too concerned with how things would look to ask me for help when she needed it. Me.." He shakes his head. "And now that we're both dead everywhere but here, she feels like the only one that understands. Only one from Hawkins, anyway."

"She's kinda keeping me sane, Buckley."

Shrugging, Robin shakes her head. "Your guess is as good as mine," she replies. "Whatever it was, it happened before I met him. He was a self-absorbed dick in high school. It was probably Nancy, I never asked him. I figured if he wanted to share, he would." Does she wonder, sometimes? Absolutely. They're best friends, but that doesn't mean they know every tiny thing about each other, or even every big thing right away. There are some things that can't be easy to talk about. Steve's been through some traumatic shit, that's for sure. It hardly surprises her that he hasn't talked to her about everything. Something tells her it's got a lot to do with the crazy shit that happens in Hawkins.

Robin's face colors and she looks away from Eddie at his question. She shrugs again. "Not Steve Harrington," she mumbles, clearing her throat. Does she even really know what her type is, other than pretty, smart, and fun to talk to? Besides female? "I don't know, just...yeah. Not Steve." She can't even tell him the things that she does find attractive, because if she omits the female part of it, it's going to sound like she's literally just describing Steve.

As Eddie answers her question, though, Robin looks back up, giving him her undivided attention. "I guess she did always seem really nice when I think about it. I think I just assumed it was an act because you know how that group is," she says, sounding a little bit sheepish at the admission. "I'm glad you have somebody who understands. I wish I could, but I'm also glad I can't...if that makes sense..."

Eddie tilts his head slightly, studying Robin as if she's a puzzle he's trying to piece together. "All right," he says, finally giving her a small grin as he raises his hands in surrender. "Not King Steve, got it."

"Believe me, I get it," Eddie says, twisting his rings on his fingers. "I thought the same thing. But I guess if I've learned anything over the last couple of weeks it's that you really can't judge people. Even High School royalty."

He grins at her. "Yeah, it makes sense. Don't worry, Buckley, I'm not going to hold the fact that you're glad you're not dead over your head." He pauses. "Your taste in music on the other hand..." He shakes his head. "Madonna, Bowie, Blondie, Beatles? Really?"

"Yeah, I just...don't really know how to put it into words, but I know what you think and you're wrong," she says decisively with a small smile, reaching for the joint again.

It's really hard not to judge because that's what high school is, isn't it? Just a shitload of judging everyone around you all the while being judged by everyone around you. If you're straight and hot and athletic, you're in. Robin is...none of those things. She's always been on the outside looking in. She'd be lying if she said there wasn't a tiny part of her that was insanely curious to know what it might've been like to be Steve's best friend while he was still in high school; how her social circle would've shifted entirely, if his people had accepted her. Or, she supposes, if they didn't, how either he would go with her and his circle would shift or he wouldn't and she'd have been right all along. Robin likes to think he'd have found a way to integrate her into the cool kids with him. She'll never know.

"It's so weird to think about Chrissy like a person," Robin blurts out. Then, a beat later, realizing how stupid that sounds out loud, she scrabbles to explain herself. "I mean, like, as opposed to this, like, untouchable entity. Do you know what I mean?" she asks, crinkling her nose. She knows what she means, in any case.

Blushing a little, Robin ducks her head and wrinkles her nose. "Well, thank you for that," she starts, but he keeps going and she grunts indignantly. "You know what? Challenge. Accepted," she says stubbornly. One of her and Alyssa's coworkers at Hot Topic is forever saying challenge. accepted, and Legen—wait for it—dary and Robin's found herself saying the former, picking it up from him.

"I'm going to find a band from the future that I love, that'll blow your mind. That's my new mission. I'm going to make it happen, you just wait," she insists, all the while she's been leaning toward him pointing a finger at his chest. When she finishes her declaration, Robin melts back into the couch again. "Lucky for me, I'm bound to have at least one customer or coworker with a suggestion that falls somewhere between Bowie and Metallica."

Robin takes a long pause, closing her eyes and humming slightly with contentedness as she lets herself just revel in the floaty-headed feeling she's got. This is a way better feeling than when the Russians drugged her and Steve. This is more relaxing, though, the floaty feeling is a little funny and she has a feeling that she'd probably never stop laughing if something made her start, so she doesn't think about it too long.

"So you're, like, really into her, then? Chrissy, I mean?" Robin asks finally, opening her eyes again and looking over at her friend with a knowing smirk. Then, she lowers her voice to a stage whisper. "Don't worry, I won't tell," she offers, as if she even has the line of communication with Chrissy to tell.

"Yeah, I know what you mean," he says, giving her a small nod and a smile. He kind of still feels that way about Chrissy sometimes, even though he knows she's not the girl that she pretended to be. Even though he knows that she has problems like everyone else. Her smile is so blinding, sometimes, it's easier to believe she's above them all.

He snorts, amused by the finger being nearly shoved into his chest. "I don't think it's possible, but okay. If you can find one decent band in this time period, I'll listen to them."

He watches her as she closes her eyes and hums, a slow grin spreading across his face. "It's nice, huh? Slowing things down. Letting go of some of it." He pauses. "How the hell have you guys gone through this shit before?"

He sighs, taking a drag of his own and sinking back against the sofa. "Nothing to tell," he says, giving a small shrug. "I don't really think I'm her type, anyway. Metalhead and cheerleader usually don't end up together."

"Oh, I will. I will find the best band that blows you away, watch me, Munson," she insists.

Robin lets herself lean toward him until she sort of falls against him, her shoulder against his arm and her head against his shoulder. "I kind of love this...it's probably really bad that I could totally get used to this."

She takes a deep breath and sighs it back out again, shaking her head against his shoulder before groaning with disappointment and pushing herself upright again only to melt back into the couch once more. "I have no idea. I know that it's a damn miracle that we're all still alive after it when we probably should've ended up...y'know..."

Robin lolls her head toward him and lifts her eyebrows. "That's not what I asked and you know it. Besides, we're not in high school right now and that bullshit only matters in high school. That's why people like us hate high school, Eddie."

He chuckles, patting her head fondly. "Would getting used to it be that bad, Buckley?" He asks, grinning down at her. "I've already got a great dealer, but if I decide to go to business on my own, you'll be my first customer." He pauses. "But until then, if you want to come over and have a smoke, I'm not going to hold it against you. I appreciate the company."

"Yeah," he says when she trails off. He and Chrissy had ended up y'know and it had sucked, but at least they were here. With each other. "It's fucking crazy that a bunch of kids are the ones dealing with it. Like no one else can get their heads out of their ass enough to help?"

She's right. It is high school shit and after everything, it doesn't matter one bit. So why is it so hard to admit? "Maybe," he says, taking one last drag and offering it to Robin. "Maybe, I am."

"Knowing me? Potentially," she confesses, a lopsided grin sliding over her lips as she swats lazily at his hand. "You're probably going to regret that offer sooner than later, but I'm going to have to take you up on that. This is awesome."

Robin shrugs, not having an answer to his question. She's wondered that for a long time. Will and Jonathan's mom was in the thick of it and so was Hopper, but other than that, they were all kind of on their own.

When Eddie admits that he's into Chrissy, Robin smiles. "She's pretty," she says, as if attempting to validate his feelings without having any frame of reference to give him something deeper. Robin takes the joint and takes another drag from it, bursting into another coughing fit only a couple of seconds after inhaling. "Are you gonna ask her out?"

"As far as coping mechanisms go, there are worse ways," he agrees, giving her a grin. At least with weed it was a release without the self-destructive tendencies that tended to come with alcohol.

"You'll get used to it," he says, chuckling at her cough. He's seen plenty of people cough their first couple of times. It's not that unusual.

Eddie shrugs, taking the joint back from Robin, afraid that she might be taking in too much, too fast. He presses his lips together, mulling the question over before wagging his eyebrows at her. "Maybe."

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End?