Chapter Text
Link to Alduade's Art Master Post - Go give much love!
Steve opened his eyes, or at least he tried to, but it seemed to be much more difficult than usual. His thoughts were foggy and mixed up as he did his best to make sense of what was going on. He didn’t like the feeling over his eyes at all. The back of his brain was also whispering about pain, but the fog was keeping that at bay.
It took him a while, but he came to the vague conclusion that he was probably on some seriously strong medication.
At least he managed to get his eyes to open, finally. Not that he quite followed how, but his vision slowly brightened, like an old TV set warming up or something, and the world around him began to make sense, so that had to be what had happened. It was hard not to recognise a hospital room when he saw it. He’d been in one enough when visiting Max before they’d finally gone after Vecna for the last time. This one looked almost like hers, except it seemed to be the other way round.
He tried to remember why he might be in the hospital, but his brain was not in the mood to cooperate. That was especially true when it dawned on him, he was not alone. His left hand was warm and a little bit numb because Robin was apparently sleeping on it. He wiggled his fingers.
At the time it seemed like the right thing to do. When Robin shot upright as if she’d been electrocuted, he wasn’t so sure.
“Steve!” she said as he turned his head to look at her.
“Hi, Robs,” he replied and discovered his tongue was all but glued to his teeth.
“Oh, thank God. They didn’t know when you’d wake up. You hit your head again, Dingus,” she babbled. “I remember specifically telling you not to do that. You could have killed yourself, and then I’d have had to deal with the gremlins by myself. Can you imagine what a disaster that would have been. I mean, I can’t even drive and …”
“Hey,” he said, reaching his right arm over to cup her hand in his, “it’s okay.”
He couldn’t be one hundred percent sure he was right, especially since the world was a very floaty place at the moment, but leaving Robin to spiral was unacceptable.
“Steve,” was all Robin said and he suddenly had a face full of hair and arms full of his platonic soulmate.
“Don’t cry, Robs,” he told her, patting her on the back as she sobbed into his shoulder.
“I thought I’d lost you, you big oaf,” she cried. “You couldn’t leave it to anyone else, could you? No, you had to be all heroic and throw yourself in front of an exploding Demogorgon. It was on fire, Steven, and you hit it with a bat, and it exploded in your face! You promised not to die. You promised.”
“And I didn’t,” he pointed out. “Um, don’t take this the wrong way, but what exploding Demogorgon, and why did I do that?”
Robin pulled back.
“You don’t remember?” she asked.
He shook his head.
“To be honest, I’m flying high right now,” he admitted. “I think I’m lucky I remember my name.”
“Jesus, I am being such a bad friend,” Robin chastised herself. “You must be in pain, and then there’s your eyes. There I am losing it, and you must be freaking out. They were right, I should have let Nancy or Dustin do this.”
“Robs, hey, Robs,” he said, squeezing her hand, “it’s okay, you’re doing fine. I’m okay, I promise. Did we win?”
She stopped for a moment and took a deep breath.
“Yeah,” she said with a nod, “we won, Venca/Henry/One is crispy shish kebab. Everyone made it out with only minor injuries except you, and Max woke up. The gates and fissures have closed, and the sun is out.”
“See, that’s what I needed to know,” he told her, doing his best to smile, although he was pretty sure it probably looked weird, “you’re being a perfect friend.”
“You’re high and in the dark,” she countered, “but the doctors said your eyes will be fine. You might need glasses, which would look really cute by the way, but, once they’re healed, you’ll be able to see again. But you have to rest them until then. No taking up sharpshooting or anything like that and no movie marathons with the kids until you’re all healed.”
She was winding herself up again, he could tell.
“Robs…”
“And you’ll be allowed to wear dark glasses inside for a while, so your coolness score is bound to go up…”
“Robs…”
“Not that you should let that go to your head. Will I need a new white board?”
“Robs, it’s okay, I can see,” he eventually managed to say.
“What?” she said, reaching out towards his face. “No, the doctors said you need to rest them. You better not be trying to open them under the bandages. Your eyes need time to heal.”
“Bandages?” he asked, doing his best to process at least part of her deluge of words.
“Of course bandages,” she replied, touching his face and around his eyes lightly. “They aren’t coming off, are they?”
He felt her fingers on his cheek and then the touch moved and felt different, and it was a little much for his drugged brain. Lifting his own hand, he touched his face carefully. When he hit dressings, it caused enough of an adrenaline spike to push through a bit of the fog.
“That … that …” he couldn’t figure out what was going on.
“Breathe, Dingus,” Robin said, pulling his hand away from his face. “Don’t panic. It’s going to be fine.”
“No,” he tried to explain as his heartbeat skyrocketed, “no, Robin, you don’t understand.”
“I know I can’t,” she told him, “but I can imagine. I was blindfolded once at a party when I was six and it scarred me for life.”
“Robin,” he said as firmly as he could manage at the moment, “no, you don’t understand. I can see. There are bandages on my eyes, but I can still see. You’re wearing your blue striped shirt with the suspenders and a green tie. You have your hair pulled back because you still need to get it cut. I can see you.”
For a moment Robin stared at him, then looked down at herself before staring at him some more.
“How..?” she started to say but trailed off.
“I don’t know,” he said, and he could feel the edges of panic this time.
This made no sense. And it didn’t help that his brain was all messed up and he couldn’t think.
“Okay, okay,” Robin said, gently patting his shoulders, “but this is good right? Even if it takes a while for your eyes to heal normally, you can see. No stumbling around in the dark.”
“Robin, I shouldn’t be able to see. How is this good?” he asked kind of desperately.
“We’ll figure it out,” she replied. “I mean it’s not the weirdest thing we’ve dealt with.”
“It’s the weirdest thing I’ve dealt with,” he disagreed, not even Russian truth serum compared to whatever the hell this was.
“I’ll get Dustin,” Robin decided.
“Wait, what about El, she might…” he began to suggest.
“El’s in hiding,” Robin interrupted him.
Steve sagged in the bed.
“But she saved the world,” he said, “how can the military still think she’s dangerous?”
“They’re morons,” Robin replied. “Doctor Owens is back in town full force with his government people, and I heard him telling Hopper that he’s working on it, but the crazy colonel we had to dodge before we went into the Upside Down is still here too and making trouble. Nancy says there are people watching the hospital, so we can’t risk El coming here.”
Steve swore colourfully, mostly because he was fed up with the damn government.
“Dustin it is then,” he decided because he was too high to think hard.