Evening finds him on the living room couch again, staring up at the ceiling as he lies there, tired but too strung up to find sleep. Helpless to stop them, his thoughts wander to Robin, imagining the familiar weight beside him on the couch. How often they lay here together, staring at his ceiling and holding hands when they crossed a thought they didn’t like.
He hasn’t been alone in this house in almost a year, it doesn’t feel right without her here — it never really felt right to begin with, but with Robin here it was a bit more of a home most days.
It’s cold without her. It hurts. It hurts so much, but Steve can’t stop thinking about her, can’t stop feeling like she’s right here with him, about to turn the corner and throw a comment at his head and watch it bounce off. Like she’s about to tuck her head under his chin and ask what he’s doing. Ask, What’s with the long face, Dingus?
Steve swallows and presses the heels of his palms into his eyes in an attempt not to cry again. He’s so tired of crying. Even for Robin.
So instead of crying, he talks. “I miss you, Robs,” he whispers into the empty house. She should be here. Should come bursting out of the bathroom and say something stupid that will make him laugh, and then she would laugh, and her eyes would shine, and she would drop onto the couch, onto his chest, and be a nuisance.
But she’s not here. And she won’t be. She can’t be, not until Steve figures it all out — which, fat chance without her and the superkids.
“I miss you so much. I’m… ‘M gonna save you this time, okay? Promise that I’ll try.”
I hope that isn't too long of a selection. I am just, on a deep level, fascinated by situations that separate Steve and Robin.
⭐️fanfic writer director's cut⭐️
🌷the fic: i'll try. ill try. (but i couldn't be better)🌷
first of all, hi! it's absolutely not too long of a section, don't you worry! :D and even if it were, you know i will always indulge you 🤍 but i'm gonna break this down into pieces, so uh. i have no idea how long this is going to be...
He hasn’t been alone in this house in almost a year, it doesn’t feel right without her here
so i love the fanon idea that everyone just always hangs out at steve's, but it's not quite realistic. what is realistic, though, and what i am absolutely convinced of, is that robin stays at steve's most of the time. they just hang out, he picks her up from school if he doesn't have a shift, he makes sure there's something for dinner, they watch movies together, she does her homework and her projects, steve comes home after a late shift and robin is there on his front steps, her bike on the curb, waiting for him to get home.
steve is not alone, and neither is robin. they're joined at the hip, they're codependent, and it's been almost a year of that. so he hasn't been home alone like this in almost a year – because even on the days when robin can't come over, he knows that tomorrow she will, and her presence is still everywhere, her stuff lying about, etc etc. so she's always there, even if she's not.
It’s cold without her. It hurts. It hurts so much, but Steve can’t stop thinking about her, can’t stop feeling like she’s right here with him, about to turn the corner and throw a comment at his head and watch it bounce off.
but here, now, back in the past, she isn't. and it makes the entire house feel even more alien to him. it doesn't feel right, and there's no reassurance in his chest that at least tomorrow she'll be here again. this absence of robin just heightens his alienation from his house, his home, and his person, and it highlights it, too, because he is so endlessly aware of it. he misses her, with everything he has and everything he is. but it's not just the i wish you were here kind of missing, but a deeper, darker sense of having lost something you can never get back, and living in the aftermath of it. in a world that doesn't even know about your loss.
Like she’s about to tuck her head under his chin and ask what he’s doing.
they're in platonic love, your honour. they're one. they touch and they ask and they know and they see.
and steve needs someone to see him, so he longs for robin, aches for her, thinks of the small things, the tiny gestures that mean the whole world to him like her tucking her head under his chin just because she can. just to be a little bit obnoxious and a large bit his soulmate.
but also
It's cold without her
i feel like one of the heaviest things about grief is the way you will feel like you'll never be warm again. like you'll always be cold. shivering.
(plus, warmth and cold is one of the motifs in this story. remember the way he made sure el was warm again in chapter 6? and then in chapter 9, wrapping her in all the blankets even though there were none left for himself? and then (spoiler) in chapter 10, when hopper makes him take a shower and puts him to bed. or when steve, panicked, tells him that she's cold, she's cold, she doesn't like the cold, please, she's going to be scared again.
being warm, and warmth, is a symbol for hope. a placeholder. a harbinger of comfort. being cold is the exact opposite. think of steve in the upside down, shivering, or him in the cabin when el has all the blankets. so steve's It's cold without her is really just a whole bunch of symbolism in one sentence that continues throughout the story.
She should be here. Should come bursting out of the bathroom and say something stupid that will make him laugh, and then she would laugh, and her eyes would shine, and she would drop onto the couch, onto his chest, and be a nuisance.
it's not even her death he's thinking of or obsessing over. he misses her. this isn't grief or mourning first and foremost, this is dwelling on the good things. and as much as it hurts, as much as it cuts him open, it's still a good thing. compare this to how in chapter 9, he was reminded of her cold, dead eyes, the moment she died, or her sickening cries and just. you know. the bad things.
the worse steve gets, mentally, the more his thoughts of robin morph into something horrible. it is almost tragically ironic, then, that he thought right after the scene you sent me, "I think I'm gonna have to stop thinking about you." – and he did, but in fact what he did stop thinking about were the good times. and it's breaking him further.
But she’s not here. And she won’t be. She can’t be, not until Steve figures it all out — which, fat chance without her and the superkids.
he doesn't think he can do this, doesn't think he can pull it off, saving all of them
“I miss you so much. I’m… ‘M gonna save you this time, okay? Promise that I’ll try.”
but he's gonna try anyway.
i'll try. i'll try. (but i couldn't be better)
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chapter 6 is out now
El's hand is tiny where he’s holding onto it, stealing the cold away from her and replacing it with his own warmth — or whatever is left of it. He'd absorb it all, freeze to death if only it would get the colour to return to her face. Her fingers are scraped up and dirty, cuts and abrasions mapping the skin, telling the tale of the past few days. Running away, tripping, falling, but always getting back up again. All by herself, because no one else was there to catch her. Because he wasn't there. Because Mike and Lucas and Dustin weren't either, because Will wasn't missing, because...
Things have changed. And proof of it is lying on his couch, unconscious and shivering and so, so small.
Steve covers her hand with his, encasing it in his hold, and pretends that it can mean something.
“Wake up,” he whispers, almost flinching away from his own voice in the eerie quiet of the room, the calm after the storm — except, nothing in Steve is calm. Not until she wakes up, not until she remembers, not until they can figure out a way to get back, or move on; together. “Please,” he rasps again, tears back in his eyes. “Please wake up.”
read i'll try. i'll try. (but i couldn't be better) on ao3
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