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neonponders · 1 year

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Part 5 for @wrecked-fuse ‘s pocketverse ~

~ Part 4 here ~

~ on ao3 ~

• • •

“Steve. Explain yourself.”

He rolled his eyes and adjusted his Family Video vest over his shirtfront. “How I spend my break isn’t up for criticism.”

Robin kept gaping at him, her head rocking in a nod as she sank into a seat opposite him at the backroom table. “And...which girl is this supposed to impress?”

He sighed heavily, miniature doll bed in hand as he rearranged the little ones’ shoebox into a proper room. However, his coworker and best friend continued to rattle off, “Is it Janine? She has a doll collection. Or Crystal, but Crystal is a Barbie person, not a...fine carved dollhouse person. Bridgette dresses like a doll, which is totally indicative of a freak in the sheets.”

“Are you done? I got standards to meet here.”

She lifted a skeptical brow and picked up one of the mutilated VHS boxes used to provide little posters on the shoebox walls. She watched Steve glue down the legs of the beds, while the plushies sat in the opposite corners. Then he maneuvered a string of tiny fairy lights along the perimeter of the room, stapling it down and lifting the box to fold the metal bars flush underneath.

“I didn’t realize you were a handyman.”

“Electricity’s easy enough - ow!”

“You sure?” Robin smiled.

“Keith’s stapler is the most dangerous thing here,” he sassed, inspecting his thumb for blood. “I need one of those skinny knives to cut windows out of this thing.”

Robin jabbed a thumb over her shoulder. “We’ve got box cutters.”

Steve perked up and went to the back of the store where deliveries were made. He found the stanley knives and inserted a fresh blade before returning to the break room. Robin had the shoebox in hand, drawing on the outside with marker. “What’re you doing?”

“Adding a woman’s touch. If you’ve got lights on the floor, you need a light source closer to the ceiling.”

Steve eyed the semi-circular palladian windows with blatant concern. “I don’t know if you’ve ever cut on a curve, Buckley, but the stapler isn’t my worst enemy anymore.”

“Stevie?”

Steve froze with Robin’s eyes locked on him. For a second, she looked behind her at the door into the main room of the video store, but Steve’s stone expression made her frown at him. When she opened her mouth, he held up a hand. “I need you to be cool, on pain of all your late fees being exposed.”

Robin’s eyes narrowed, “You wouldn’t dare.”

Steve counted off with his fingers, “Keith’s been asking where Terminator, Cabaret, and Romeo and Juliet are. He’s been accusing me of holding bra-less Sarah Connor hostage for months, but my file is clean. How he thinks I rented Romeo and Juliet, I have no idea.”

Robin pursed her lips to the side. “Aren’t you an authority figure on movies that have boobs?”

That wiped Steve’s expression clean. “Does it?”

But then his whole shirtfront began to move, rippling underneath the vest and causing Robin to rear back in her seat. “Steve. What the hell is that?”

“I said, be cool!” he warned, moving his vest aside and revealing the lump in his pocket.

Robin’s nostrils flared as she inhaled for calm as she watched him murmur into the depths, “Hey, guys? What’s goin’ on?”

But she started to lean forward to hear the small voices that replied:

“Stevie? Where are we?”

“It’s stuffy in herwe!”

“I almost have your room done,” Steve promised with a glance up at Robin. “I have someone for you to meet, if you’re up for it?”

“No!”

“She’s nice. I promise.”

“...How nice?”

“She keeps the M&M’s stocked and she’s working on the windows for your room.”

Right before her eyes, Robin met the eyes that popped up over the edge of Steve’s pocket. Bright blue eyes in a weirdly familiar face, but it had nothing on the brunette head that joined the blond one. “Biwwy? Is it safe?”

“Do you have M&M’s?” the blond one interrogated.

“Uh...” she breathed. “Yeah...little Hargrove. I do.”

The both looked up at Steve. “Hawrgrwove?”

“That’s big Billy’s last name,” he explained.

Robin set her elbows down on the table to cover her mouth in awe. “Steve, you have a tiny Steve. Oh my god.”

“Hawwington!” the little one confirmed.

“Oh my god, I’ll murder for them.”

“Stop,” the large Steve groaned as he fished the little ones out of his shirt. “Can you get my lunch bag and a bag of M&M’s?”

She retrieved his lunch and ducked into the empty store for the candy. When she returned, Steve had a small tupperware open and the little ones were eating tiny morsels of cheese and deli meat. Billy came right over for the treat when she let the package fall open across the table.

“No, B - your teeth - ” Steve tried, but Billy chomped right into a red M&M.

Robin collected the candies so the little ones didn’t get too wild. “Candy coating’s got nothing on the rat teeth, huh?”

Steve sighed and raked a hand through his hair. “Brushing their teeth is an ordeal.”

“Where did they come from?” she asked, overlapping her hands and resting her chin on top.

“I don’t know. Hopper just delivered them. I guess because...” he opened a hand behind the smaller version of himself. The small Steve noticed and put his hands on Steve’s fingers. “Now they’re mine.”

Little Steve held onto his hand but pivoted to look at Robin. Big Steve introduced, “Guys, this is Robin. She’s my best friend.”

“Don’t get sappy,” she teased.

“Sarah Connor, Buckley,” he hushed.

Billy had chocolate on his shirt as he said, “Wobin Buckwey?”

“That’s right,” she smiled and extended a finger to pet the top of his head. “Wow, you’re soft - OW.”

“They bite,” Steve informed too late, but he didn’t sound particularly bothered.

#harringrove #wrecked-fuse #neonponders #ficlet #pocket!au #pocketverse

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