#steve harrington / keith (stranger things)

[morganbritton132]

Steve’s hearing just gets progressively worse with every knock to the head and he just…never says anything about it. No one notices that he can’t hear very well either.

And then one day, Tommy and Carol come into Family Video and they’re kinda giving him a hard time but something is off like, “Dude, do your ears not fucking work? What the fuck?”

Then Keith - of all fucking people - is like, “Yeah, he’s deaf. We get a tax cut for it.”

“How do you know?”

“It’s true?!” Robin asks and then everything goes to hell. “I could I not know???”

The whole party is mad at him and they’re all so loud about that he can hear them.

[shieldofiron]

Steve: Is that not right?

[paxbe]

if we ignore the fact that this doesn't fit with canon at all, i like to imagine a scenario where eddie somehow doesn't know who steve ‘the hair’ harrington is and, through a series of mix-ups, accidentally makes everyone think he has a huge crush on keith from the video store

like imagine a scenario where eddie is still friends with the kids and he's also friends with robin, so he's heard plenty about their friend steve and he just happens to have never met him or even seen him ever. like he's heard the kids gush about steve (leaving out the killing monsters part because that's classified) and robin mentions like ‘yeah i know steve! i work with him at the video store, you've probably seen him when you've swung by’. but somehow eddie has only come by when keith is working and he thinks ‘yeah sure, that looks like a guy the kids would be hanging out with’ and files that assumption away and doesn't question it.

and maybe they've even talked on the phone like eddie calls robin at the store or at home and she's like ‘yeah i’m just here with steve’ (as usual) and they chat about the kids and whatever and so eddie feels like he's got a pretty solid idea in his mind of this guy “steve” that his friends seem to like so much, and he seems like a nice enough guy even if they don't really have anything in common.

and yeah maybe he does think some of the comments that robin or the kids make are a bit weird, like when he thinks about “steve” (keith) he's a bit surprised that this guy apparently gets so much attention from the ladies, and eddie doesn't think his hair is anything particularly special. but eddie's not the most conventional looking guy either so who is he to judge! and he appreciates that robin offered to help set them up one time but “steve” just isn't his type (and she knows his type well enough so he doesn't know why she's so surprised). but still, there's no reason for eddie to think that he might be picturing an entirely different guy.

and then one day he walks past the video store and steve is working and eddie's like, mouth open ‘hang on who is this??’ and steve makes eye contact with him through the window and smiles or even waves because that's eddie, he knows eddie, they're kind of friends almost. and eddie just panics and books it out of there.

and like a week later he's still not over it and he calls robin (and of course steve is also there) and it's like

eddie: ‘hey who's that other guy you work with at the video store??’

robin and steve: ‘who, keith? yeah he's the guy who hired us, he's alright, we're not that close though’

and eddie's scandalised like: ‘how could you go on and on about steve (no offense steve) and somehow neglect to mention you work with maybe the most beautiful man in the world??’

and steve and robin are like: ‘keith????’

[paperbackribs]

[spirit-meets-the-b0ne]

God I love Dustin Henderson so much man, I know Will is in love with Mike because only a deeply down bad homosexual would be able to say Mike “is the heart” when Dustin is alive and in the party. Dustin is the one constantly mediating in S1 between Mike and Lucas, he’s even insecure of his own newness to the group when he conciliates. Because even though the party are all HIS best friends he is able to rationalize why they might have a hierarchy based on seniority. Mike makes it clear that isn’t the case. It’s partly why Dustin is quicker to accept Eleven and partly why he’s so open to including Max “as the new kid” because that was him once. Dustin’s iconic “she’s our friend and she’s crazy!” Dustin and Lucas having parallel deviations from their code of honor in ST2 and Dustin being (so dramatic ik) literally ready to fall on the sword for his misdoings. Dustin basically involving Steve out of necessity but then cultivating that relationship to make Steve a good friend, Steve who had the shittiest friends in high school and attention for all the wrong reasons. Steve never had a true friend in his life and then some 12 year old basically gave him a crash course. In ST3 when Dustin earnestly challenges Steve’s socially conditioned need to be seen as cool only for Steve to become bffs with a band geek. A band geek who is also a lesbian that Steve would rather be seen as a rizzless hack of a womanizer than out her to anybody, even Dustin. All of Dustin and Steve. Dustin going from calling Steve a douchebag, to Eddie saying the kid worships him and thinks he’s a total badass. Dustin who in ST4 is once again demolishing social norms of high school vs middle school because FUCK, his friend is in middle school! His friend Erica, his comrade Lady Applejack, is a black girl in junior high and he dgaf what anyone thinks about it. ALL OF DUSTIN AND ERICA. Dustin teaching Erica to embrace her inner nerd, to Erica staunchly declaring “I’ve bled with him!” When asked if she knows Dustin. Dustin who is the FIRST person that Max goes to when shit hits the fan in ST4 because god damn dude Dustin is the heart. Dustin’s unwavering support of Eddie even when the evidence is stacked against him, Dustin always believed in Eddie Munson. Dustin is the only one who truly offers Wayne condolences. He is the friend of all friends. Dustin is constantly carrying the party through crisis and discomfort, he’s dedicated, he’s unabashedly caring, and he’s the character that is able to socially move across the board in every direction. I fuckin love this little curly haired drama king because these geeks would be LOST without him!!! If Dustin isn’t the heart; he’s the Central Nervous System, he’s the nucleus, he’s fucking vital to not only the party but every other tertiary character of importance. He’s constantly inspiring and providing direction. He’s a goofball, he’s wise beyond his years, he’s a lover and he’s a fighter, he always has a plan and he always has a bad idea, he’s the voice of reason and the resounding falsetto alarm of things gone wrong, he’s never done anything wrong ever in his life, one time something ate his cat but besides that. He’s my heart of the show damn it!

[jonathanbyersphd]

Do y'all think Robin & Steve got fired for closing the video store/not showing up for multiple days and that's why they're working at the radio station now?

[2xheart]

stranger things modern au but it’s just steve’s doordash struggles

[mourningthem00n]

Guysssss I found all the ones of my fave ships omfgg

This meme is so fckn cute like I make the most ridiculous noises any time I come across it ahhh

LOOK AT THEMMMMMMMMM

[lovelylittlegrim]

One of my Favorite headcanons for Keith is that he is as close to being in the know about the upside down as possible without actually being in the know.

Like this man has multiple jobs and has to deal with the wonder duo that is Steve and Robin on a near daily basis now too. (Neither of whom know how to actually whisper.)

Keith does not have time to care about Hawkins being infiltrated by Russians, or monsters or little girls with super powers and people floating and dying all over the place.

He has work.

[wheneverfeasible]

Stranger Tides: The Pirate King and the Freak (part 1)

wc: 2.5k || rated: M (to be safe) || cw: reference to suicide, non-consent, and other general piratey things || ao3

When one thought of the phrase ‘Pirate King’ there were always certain expectations involved. An older pirate, grizzled and uncaring beyond his own interests, vicious with blade and pistol, quick to stain his hands red with anyone he deemed foe. To be fair, that had been his father.

The former Pirate King was truly a degenerate, disgraced nobility who stole from his provinces, who cheated and lied and stole from commoners and royalty alike. His failed coup would have had him and his young pregnant wife on trial for treason had he not escaped to the sea on a pirate ship with what portable wealth he had managed to secret away.

He had taken his wife along, at first, before dumping her at some port town to focus on his new rise to power. And rise he did over the next decade.

He was cunning, and ruthless, and he knew the tricks of the trade from how often he had hunted pirates in the past. He made a name for himself, dubbed The Fallen Noble, until that had not been enough for him. No, this time, he was determined not to fail the coup.

Eventually the Pirate King before him fell to his blade and he took it upon himself to pick up the crown, striking fear across sea and land both. His exploits were well-known, his viciousness the stuff of nightmares, and his taste for violence bloodthirsty. He had gone back to his wife and young son then, had stopped by occasionally during his rise though his son feared each one of those stops, and swept them away back into the world of deceit and power.

The son, only a young boy at the time, was raised like a prince, the Pirate Prince, and taught to be just as cruel and bloodthirsty as his father. And for a time, he was. The boy’s mother tragically passed away one fateful night when she was swept off the bow during a storm, though for the life of him the boy did not remember any such storm that night.

The boy, though raised first in negligence and then in violence, secreted the softness in his heart away, playing the role given to him to the point where he almost started believing it himself. Until he fell in love.

She had been stolen from her home with her young brother, with the boy meant to be inscripted into service while she was meant to be a prize for the Pirate Prince. She was unlike anyone he had ever known before and it wasn’t hard to fall in love with her. She would not be cowed, however, and he was not his father who took what was not freely given.

However, despite his love for her, in truth she loved another.

It would have been all too easy to dispose of the boy who held her heart, but that thick shell he had hidden within to be his father’s son had been cracked beyond repair. He aided her in her and her brother’s escape, watching the small boat drift away from his father’s ship and exchanging a solemn nod with the boy she loved who had come to rescue them.

His mask would no longer fit, he could no longer be who he had once pretended to be, and it was then that the boy became a man and in an act of defiance fought and slew his own father to end his tyranny once and for all. This young man stood above his father’s corpse as the new Pirate King.

Despite his young age, the Pirate King was not to be underestimated. When a mutiny rose of his father’s crew who remained loyal to the fallen tyrant and those who sought the power for their own greedy hands, the young man stood firm and dispatched those who coveted his crown. He would not bow to another monster.

Imagine his surprise when, only a year under his crown, the young brother of the girl he’d once loved returned to him to join his crew of his own free will. He did not come alone either, bringing with him a small pack of youths who wanted more than what society dictated for them, who heard of the fabled Pirate King, youngest in history, who refused to be the evil that had been his father and who protected those who bent the knee.

Though they had nothing in common, the Pirate King felt a kinship with these brave youths who wanted more, wanted to be more, and who stubbornly would not take heed when he tried to banish them off the ship. There was fierceness in their eyes, a hunger he knew all too well, and so while it at times made him feel more like a babysitter than a Pirate King with their youthful exuberance, he could do nothing but accept their honest fealty.

Along the way he met other wayward souls, including the sister of one of his greater rivals and the daughter of the man currently spearheading the hunt for pirates, as well as the young woman so desperate for a life of freedom, a life to be herself, that she soon found her way to being his second-in-command and who was almost as feared as he was.

Well. Feared by everyone except her and the youths he’d taken under his wing.

“Captain Dingus, sir, the rodent is on board.”

Steve Harrington, Pirate King and Captain of the Loch Nora, glanced up from where he was carefully sliding his dagger against the stone in his hand, a less than pleased expression pulling at his face at his quartermaster’s continued insubordination. He only sighed, however, since she at least had the decency to only do so when they were alone or among very select company.

Dropping his feet from his desk where he was leaning back in his thick, ornate chair that was more like a throne than anything else, Steve stood as he wiped his blade on a scrap of cloth before sliding it into home on his belt.

“Come now, Buck. He’s at the very least a snake,” he teasingly reprimanded with a grin as he moved towards her to follow her out of his cabin. “And just like one, he may be crawling on his belly soon enough if he isn’t prepared to pay off his debt.”

Robin was uncharacteristically quiet at that, and when Steve glanced over at her, he could see her teeth gnawing at her bottom lip. He raised his brows at that under the swoop of his hair, something telling him that he was going to find something far more interesting than the coin the man in question owed them. Whether that something interesting was going to be good or not was still to be decided.

It took only moments to move onto the deck of his ship, eyeing his crew as they stood encircling the kneeling figure in the middle. No. The kneeling figures.

Steve cast a quick glance Robin’s way at the sight before them, taking in not a chest or even bag of coins to pay off the man’s debt, but rather a younger man around Steve’s own age, bound and gagged kneeling next to the proverbial snake.

“Munson,” Steve drawled, and both pairs of dark eyes snapped to him. It was almost uncanny, making the resemblance even more obvious between the two kneeling men.

Alan Munson gave Steve a briefly panicked looked, before his mask of bravado settled over his features and he, neither bound nor gagged, shot Steve a smile that might have soothed his ruffled feathers had he not grown impervious to such looks thanks to his younger crew members’ own beguiling smiles. Munson clasped a hand over his chest above his heart.

“My liege, it is an honor to see you once more,” the older man formally intoned, bowing his head as though Steve were a real king and not just one who roamed the seas. His tone was light though, only the slightest tremor and the sweet dotting his brow belied the man’s nervousness.

Steve stopped in front of the two men, resting his weight on one leg as he brought his hands to settle on his hips. He cocked his head to the side slightly as he took in the tableau before him. Alan tried to meet his gaze with confidence he obviously did not feel, his eyes skittering away whenever Steve glanced at him, while the younger man glared up at Steve with all he was worth.

The young man’s eyes were rimmed with red, glassy in the way that spoke of past tears, and his thin chest heaved with the emotions swirling in his brown eyes so deep they were nearly black. The glare was not reserved only for Steve, however, as those dark eyes kept landing on Munson with anger and heartbreak and betrayal.

“Tell me, Munson. Are you hiding my money somewhere on your body in a questionable location, or are you planning on being another stain on my deck?” Steve said in an almost conversational way, though he had to withhold a snort as both pairs of identical dark eyes moved as one to look down at the dark stain inches from where they kneeled.

(The stain was actually due to Robin’s clumsiness spilling her dinner one night, but it made for a good impression.)

Munson recovered first with his smile only slightly shakier than it had been. He looked up at Steve in what he obviously hoped was a charming as disarming way. “I would never do you the disservice of cheating you, your majesty,” he said, and Steve might have believed him had the man not been infamously known in town to be a swindler and a cheat.

Munson’s eyes darted over to the younger man beside him before looking back up at Steve. “I regret that I don’t have your money at the moment—but I have something better!” he hastened to add on when the sound of drawn steel began ringing out as the surrounding pirates began drawing their various blades.

Steve held up a hand halting his overzealous crew mates, though he had to suppress a smile as well. Though most of the youngsters had once been squeamish at the darker aspects of the pirate lifestyle, they had since grown accustomed to the needs and requirements Steve placed on them. It helped that Steve did not needlessly shed blood, even when faced with the likes of Alan Munson.

“I am a very particular man, Munson. You will find that when I request my coin, it is not a request at all, nor am I interested in substitutions,” Steve's tone continued to drawl, though it became sharper towards the end as his wrist moved to settle meaningfully over the hilt of his sword at his waist.

Munson swallowed thickly with a jerking nod. “I understand, your majesty,” he rushed to say, before settling his hand on the young man’s shoulder beside him, causing said young man to flinch away with a shout muffled by the cloth in his mouth. When he tried to jerk away, two strong hands moved to force him back to his knees, courtesy of Steve’s crew.

Steve did not so much as bat an eye, merely lifting a brow to encourage Munson to continue. Without looking remorseful at all, he did so.

“My son, Edward,” Munson clarified, indicating the young man beside him though he did not reach out to touch him again. “I offer my own flesh and blood, my only child and son, into your generous hands. He is a hard worker, stronger than he appears, and capable of whatever task you set him.” There was not even a hint of a trace of hesitation on Munson’s face as he sold his own some out. “I give him to you to cover my debt, whether you keep him or sell him for profit.”

More angry, muffled noises came from the young man, from Edward Munson, son of Alan Munson, who was being treated as little more than chattel now and a bargaining trip to clear his father’s debt. Steve wanted nothing more than to slide his blade through Munson’s neck in that moment. His face hardened, but he let a deceptive smile curl over his lips.

Steve was, in the end, a pirate. And the Pirate King himself at that. His hands were hardly clean. The idea that a father would sell their child into slavery just to save their own neck, however, seemed far more evil than anything he had ever done, up to and including killing his own father.

Stepping towards the bound young man, Steve reached out to grasp the young man’s chin, squeezing sharply when Munson Jr. tried to jerk away. He angled the young man’s hand this way and that to examine him, before roughly releasing him to face the elder Munson.

“I will accept this trade only with a provision,” Steve began, Munson’s ecstatic expression dropping to one of wariness as Steve’s tone turned darker. “If your son does not perform his duties properly, or if he does not return to me what your owe with interest, I will gut him like a dog in front of you before doing the very same to you. Do I make myself clear, Munson?”

Munson’s eyes widened, his face rapidly paling, but he was nodding quickly once more. “Y-yes, I understand, your majesty. He won’t disappoint.”

“Let us hope so, for your benefit.” Steve glanced at the crew behind the kneeling man with a subtle jerk of his chin, the silent communication having them hauling him roughly to his feet and shoving him towards the boat they’d dragged him in on. Steve then cast his eyes towards Robin. For the benefit of the bound man still kneeling before him, he spoke his next order out loud, despite Robin already knowing what he would say.

“Mr. Buckley, see to it that Mr. Munson is left with a reminder as to why it’s important to always pay your debts promptly and fully,” he said with a small smirk, dropping his gaze to the young man who was struggling against his bonds and gag, his eyes desperately on his father. “Just something he can live without. Maybe a toe, or his little pinky finger,” he grinned.

Robin unsheathed her own blade strapped to her thigh with a dark grin of her own. “Gladly, Captain,” she replied with a nod, and he knew he would soon hear the pleasant music of a scream of fear and pain.

Steve’s eyes cut to the pirates holding Munson Jr. down. “Let’s be gracious hosts and escort our guest here to his quarters,” he said, tone ripe with sarcasm. “And then let’s get the hell out of here once the riffraff is gone.” He smiled as, at that moment, Munson’s scream filled the air, causing Munson Jr. to flinch as Keith hauled him to his feet and began pushing him to the brig below deck.

Steve had been correct, he thought as he gazed out to the sea, feeling the winds of change in the air. Munson’s payment had been interesting. Now he just had to decide what he wanted to do with his payment.

To be continued…

-

Hostage tag: @derythcorvinus

[morganbritton132]

The first person Robin comes out to is Steve.

The first person Steve comes out to is Robin.

The second person they both come out to Keith. By accident. Because they constantly forget that he works there too.

Honestly, he’d prefer to hear them lament about how they’re both loveless queer losers than when they muse about how they got a settlement when the mall burnt down.

[vthx]

The Sword of Damocles

This is the Steve/Keith rarepair story for the STWG Steith week, and it comes in explicit and mature versions depending. The unofficial summary is "god damn it, I can't believe you made me care about Keith!"

As usual, thanks to the amazing @tinytalkingtina for the beta. <3

Being a creep is easy; being the right kind of creep is tricky.

Keith prefers it at one step removed, lets rumor do the brunt of the work for him, like extorting Nancy Wheeler's brother for a date with her, which he knows she won't agree to. (Even if he's wrong, even if she does, Keith can weaponize unpleasantness so it never happens again.) But scathing rumor will ensure everyone knows about his "crush" on Nancy; if the pathetic loser is hung up on her, no one will question why he's not going after other girls. Nancy will turn him down or avoid him (or both), and he'll buy himself breathing room.

Rinse, repeat. If the loneliness eats you alive, at least you are alive.

Keith can hire a girl like Robin Buckley at Family Video. Robin's awkward, antisocial, mean. She's in his league, so ostensibly, demonstratively "not his type". Keith doesn't dare hire Steve Harrington, with his coiffed hair and pretty eyes and prettier smile, fallen just far enough down the social ladder to make Keith fantasize that he has a shot.

Keith can stick to his guns at the interview, invent petty quizzes like "top three movies" that Steve is predetermined to fail, be a dick about giving him no time to think, except Steve's a excitable dork about trying to come up with the movie names and trips his way over the Fast Times cardboard cutout, doing that fake-nonchalant thing no one falls for, and shit, turns out Keith's type is loser after all.

He wishes he could blame his dick for this decision, but it's his stupid heart.

He schedules Steve with Robin whenever he can; gives him to the other employees when he can't. He only puts the two of them together when he has no choice. Neither Steve nor Robin questions that Keith doesn't like Steve, avoids him, although Robin tries an annoyingly high number of times to convince him that Steve's improved since high school, that he's actually a good guy, and Keith's carefully pruned crush does not need to know that. He takes petty, dark satisfaction that she tries so hard.

It means he's convinced her.

There's a trick to living under Damocles' Sword: never look up. Keith gets his first death sentence when he's eight: when it turns out that what was making him grow so fast—tall, but spindly, with slender wrists and flat feet—might also tear his eyes or heart apart.

Marfan Syndrome is a banal diagnosis for a literal nightmare: the doctors show him pictures of "potential consequences" to "make him take this seriously", and he's haunted for years by dreams where his spine twists until he's a caricature of a boy, where his chest caves in and he wakes up unable to breathe, where his eyes fall out of his head, where his heart dissolves in his chest. He mostly learns to live with it—learns to not look—when his spine grows knobby but straight, when he doesn't drop dead sprinting away from would-be bullies through the trailers to the relative safety of his parents' Fleetwood, when his vision slowly blurs but doesn't go dark.

When he's diagnosed, the doctors recommend yearly echocardiograms and eye appointments to "monitor his condition", like Keith's parents have health insurance or "yearly echocardiogram" money. Preventative care isn't for people regularly choosing between heat and groceries. Kids like Keith get to pray the chest pain is panic, is heartburn, isn't the heart attack that's going to kill him.

Keep reading: explicit or mature

[wynnyfryd]

“Stee-ee-eeve,” Robin groans miserably into the Family Video countertop, voice muffled by her folded arms. “I’m gonna get fired.”

“What? Why?” Steve gives her a sharp look, because Robin just came out of the back office after a private conversation with Keith and oh god, if Robin gets fired then Steve will have to quit, and he hates job hunting, man, he really—

Robin lifts her head, leans forward on her elbows, and says in a rushed stage whisper, “I cannot stop being a total asshole to Keith!”

Steve huffs a laugh.

“It’s not funny!” she hisses. “Our very jobs are at stake!” Her hands reach up to tug the ends of her hair into two tight fists, and her eyes go wide with worry.

Okay. Steve can be a good friend. “What happened?”

“He pulled me back there to tell me that he’s- ugh” —Robin’s face looks like she just bit into moldy leftovers— “that he’s going into his dad’s insurance business and would I like to go to lunch with him to talk about insurance? Long term care insurance, Steve!”

Steve’s cracking up by the end of her rant, because her voice has cranked up to full volume and her hands are flapping all over the place like her wrists aren’t totally screwed on right and he really just loves his best friend so much.

“Yeah, yeah, keep laughing, pal.”

“Pal?” Steve laughs.

“Whatever! Anyway, so he says all of that to me, and my stupid brain-to-mouth filter just evaporates, apparently, because I look at him and suddenly cannot contain the PFFFT noise that wants to come out of me. Only I squeeze my mouth shut too tight, so instead, I end up making this high, crunchy snort sound like kkkrkrkrht to his face!”

Tears. There are tears pouring out of Steve’s nose. He’s doubled over laughing with his hands braced on his knees, and Robin whines “oh, my god!” and thumps him right in the middle of his spine.

“Ow!”

“Stop laughing and tell me what to do!”

“Okay! Jesus! Stop thumping me!”

“No!” And now Robin’s laughing, too, unleashing a flurry of blows all over his arms and ribs with her freakishly long fingers.

“Excuse me,” the stern, quivering voice of an old woman cuts through their slap fight. They turn in unison to see a mop of tight gray curls barely peeking over the candy display. (Oh, god. Robin’s gonna spend a whole week now talking about how Sophia Petrillo came in to return a video, he just knows it.) “Are either of you two going to assist me?”

[queenofshenanigans]

Family Video Employee Evaluation

Summary: Family Video is boring. Steve thinks of a way to liven up a shift. He's always been an act first, think later kind of guy. What's a little role-play between coworkers?

Rating: Explicit

Tags: Co-workers with benefits, first time blowjobs, casual sex, developing relationships, period typical attitudes, porn with feelings, steve harrington needs a hug, post-canon, not a lot of roleplay discussion before just jumping into it.

I'm tagging people who sent me a WIP Weekend ask about this, since it's done and posted. @vthx, @tinytalkingtina, @yesdangerpls, @hbyrde36, @vegasol, @sourw0lfs since I won't be answering the asks O_O

This was written as part of the @strangerthingswritersguild #steithweek2025 challenge, which was an incredible amount of fun!

Snippet below the cut

Steve was bored. Family Video shifts sucked without Robin. They sucked with Robin, because it was still Family Video, but they sucked less because Robin was there to tell him jokes and stories about her college classes and call him dingus when he failed to flirt with the pretty coeds that came in from the community college. And he got to tease her for the way she tripped over her words and forgot titles to movies whenever those pretty coeds smiled at her instead of at him, and then they'd get distracted throwing stale popcorn and expired candy at each other until their shift ended.

The shifts he worked alone were fine. He'd put on a random movie while he rewound all the tapes that customers returned un-rewinded, whatever new release had just come out that was popular but not too popular to be overly in demand. Usually it was something with explosions and dirty jokes, sometimes a romantic comedy that would have Robin rolling her eyes at him. If he was sure no one was going to come in and distract him—especially Henderson, who had opinions—he'd risk one of the Star Trek movies. Rewinding tapes was mindless work, something Robin complained about endlessly, but Steve didn't hate it. There was something soothing about it that calmed the thoughts that raced around sometimes. He'd pop a few into the machines, and try to time it so they finished at the same time. Sometimes he'd pit different actors in races to an imaginary finish line; so far, Tom Hanks was leading this week, with Tom Cruise in second place. He'd declared it the Battle of the Toms in his head, though Harrison Ford could prove to the dark horse—he was currently in third place and Indiana Jones and Star Wars had been popular rentals over the weekend.

It was the shifts he worked with Keith that sometimes sucked the most. The guy just wouldn't shut up. He kept trying to educate Steve on important cinematic history or some shit, and sometimes Steve didn't mind—Keith was passionate and knew his movie trivia—but sometimes that passion crossed the line from almost cute to totally annoying. Today, when Steve was already bored and had a borderline headache from the late autumn heat wave, there was something about his voice in lecture mode, especially the tone that made it clear he thought Steve was an idiot, that made Steve want to do anything just to shut him up.

"…Bava didn't need Karloff for The Telephone or The Drop of Water, but bringing in a ringer like him for The Wurdulak really elevated the weakest of the stories—Harrington!" Steve fought back the wince as Keith snapped his fingers in his face, pulling him back from his wandering thoughts. "Pay attention! This is important. We have a lot of customers who are into classic horror, and are going to want to know this sort of stuff!"

"That has literally never once been true." Steve had worked here for months now, and could count the number of times a customer had questioned him at length about elevated anything on one hand and still have five fingers left over. "People just want to rent movies, man. They usually just pick out whatever cover is prettiest." He had had people ask him which movies had the most naked boobies, or if Tom Cruise actually showed his ass in Risky Business—you know, the actual important things people cared about in movies. But every time he tried to explain that to Keith, or even Robin when she got all intellectual, he got waved off as being just another meathead jock, and it wasn't worth arguing over. He knew he was right—the rental numbers backed him up—but people like Keith just needed to talk themselves out sometimes. "I'd bet you five bucks that most people who rent this Korlaff guy rent him because he's hot, not because he elevates anything."

Read the rest on AO3

[lilacstarryskies]

keith is to steve harrington what mr wheeler is to dustin

(tho at first glance, keith and dustin have more similarities to each other as nerds, and so do steve and ted as washed-up jock…in this specific context, steve and dustin are the same, suffering due to these irritating motherfuckers who hate them back 😭)

[desolateyears]

con haul, Eddie cup being my most prized possession hehe :3