The babysitters club|| Steve Harrington

41

"Scoops Troop, this is–" There was a grumbling noise, "Bald Eagle. I've reached another junction"

Matteo and Steve paced, watching Dustin, Erica and Robin who were sitting on the grass next to Cerebro.

"This is what?"

"The fourth junction" Erica provided.

"All right, so if memory serves, this is right after the My little Pony thesis" Dustin mumbled to himself.

Steve glanced at Matteo questioningly, but the boy only shrugged.

"We went left" Erica recalled, "So he has to go right"

"Fly right, Bald Eagle" Dustin spoke into the radio. "Fly. Right."

"Roger that" Came Murray's voice, a bit sardonic though it was hard to tell through the radio, "Flying right"

Matteo fidgeted with his rings. His knuckles were still a pale red from when he had punched the Russian guard. Whenever he flexed his hand, pain flared through it.

Technically, pain was flaring all over him. But he had to ignore it, they had no other choice. To his right, Steve massaged his jaw. He seemed to be going through the same thing.

The moment they had time to sit and relax, all their injuries caught up to them. One good thing about Matteo being hyperactive was that it was easy to ignore things like eating, sleeping, peeing, basic human functions, when he was really focused on something. And right then he was really focused on saving the world.

Steve wasn't like that, apparently. But he still put on a brave face.

"How's the eye?" Matteo asked him. They hadn't really spoken since the bathroom. Even that felt like ages ago.

"It fucking hurts, dude" Steve admitted, "Please tell me it doesn't look as bad as it feels"

Matteo considered lying, but shrugged in the end. "Sorry, man. Gotta say, it looks horrible"

"At least we got all the blood and puke out" Steve gestured to his face and his shirt.

"I want to brush my teeth so bad"

"I feel like I haven't had a shower in years"

"What will you do?" Matteo asked suddenly, "After, I mean. How do you guys just deal with this stuff? Forget it happened? Have monthly I-saved-the-world meetings? I dunno, this sort of stuff seems pretty significant"

"It's mostly El that saves the day" Steve shrugged, "The rest of us just help. We kind of avoid each other, after the whole— saving the world business. But that's because the whole Nancy and me thing. There is this... understanding though, sort of"

"Can't really talk to a shrink about this"

Steve gave him a small smile. "Usually after this sort of thing, I just go home and have a really good dinner and just pass out"

"You could..." Matteo began, fingers drumming on his leg, "You could come to the diner. My mom's diner. She taught me how to make the best pizza in town"

"I don't know, man, have you tried the one in the food court?" Steve scoffed, "It's pretty damn good"

Matteo balked, "Are you shitting me, Harrington? You call that greasy piece of shit a pizza? It's a disgrace to my mother's culture. It's a fucking disgrace!"

Steve laughed and it felt like the sun was rising even though it was the middle of the night.

"Don't ignore us" Matteo said, wondering where he got the courage to keep talking, "Afterwards. Don't ignore us. Me and Robin, I mean. We're not just saving-the-world-buddies."