Just a Bad dream

Posted originally on the Archive of Our Own at http://archiveofourown.org/works/39951774.

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Category: Gen
Fandom: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Relationship: Robin Buckley & Steve Harrington
Character: Robin Buckley, Steve Harrington
Additional Tags: Hurt/Comfort, Nightmares, Alternate Universe - College/University,
Robin and Steve are roommates, Comforting Robin
Stats: Published: 2022-06-28 Words: 1007

Just a Bad dream

by amaraa137

Summary

Steve has a nightmare. Robin comforts him.

Notes

See the end of the work for notes

Robin is staying up late, her final English project is due tomorrow, and she has procrastinated it
like a pro. Her roommate, Steve Harrington, has passed out of his bed on the other side of their
shared dorm. This is typically how it goes, Robin who tries to scrape by and Steve who doesn’t
really give a damn.

Steve is one of the most unlikely, yet best friends Robin has ever had, previous harbourer of a
crush on Robin that was quickly forgotten upon telling him that she was, in fact, a lesbian. Robin
had been nervous, but Steve had been one of the most respectful people she had told. Never judge a
book by its cover, she supposed.

Steve, since his confession, had continued to surprise Robin in a multitude of ways. He’s the
unofficial assigned babysitter to a rowdy group of teenagers who Robin has grown to love and care
for. He’s a cat person, and not a dog person. He holds the door for any person he sees. He sees
pennies on the sidewalk and leaves them there, says you never know when a penny could make the
difference between a warm meal and going hungry for a person who needed it.

He was a good man, one of the best Robin has ever known.

Aaaand… she’s getting side-tracked. She should probably stop staring at Steve like a weirdo whilst
he’s sleeping. The assignment’s due midday, and she’s barely started her first paragraph of her
essay. She’s working on in silence, until she hears a sniffle from Steve’s bed.
“Steve?” She asks, swivelling around on her chair

“Bad dream” He mumbles into his pillow, seemingly in an attempt to cover up the fact that he’s
clearly crying.

Robin clicks her lamp off, and pads over to Steve’s bed, where she slips into his bed and rests her
chin on his shoulder.

“Cmon. Tell me about it.” She says, poking him lightly in the back.

“It was scary. You, Nancy, everyone else, Dustin, Mike, Jonathan. Everyone. You were all dead.
And I don’t know how but it was my fault. I just knew, I had this feeling inside of me, I could tell. I
was covered in blood, and I was running. I wanted to turn back, to try and save everyone but I
couldn’t. I was stuck, running away.” He’s not trying to cover the fact that he’s crying now, thick
tears rolling down his cheeks and his breathing shallow. Sometime during his explanation, Robin
has taken his hand in hers and interlaced their fingers, rubbing constant circles into the back of
Steve’s hand.

“And then I stopped running, and I got home. I thought the police were coming after me, and I
would have let them arrest me. And then -then.” His voice is cracking, and he’s clearly finding it
harder to breathe, “You were there, sitting on my couch, covered in blood with knife wounds all up
your arms. And you weren’t saying anything, you weren’t shouting at me. You were just crying,
sobbing, saying that I had betrayed you and that you couldn’t believe you trusted me.”

Steve has broken down into full sobbing now, anything else he wanted to say incomprehensible,
and Robin has her arms wrapped around him and they’re gently rocking back and forth on the bed,
Robin trying to find a calm and smooth rhythm to bring Steve back to Earth.

“Shhhh, Steve, It’s OK. I’m here. I’m here. I know it’s not much, but I’m here for you. Always
will be.”

Steve sniffs, wiping his eyes and drawing back from Robin.

“You being here will always be enough for me, Robin. More than enough.”

Robin slips out of Steve's bed again, switching a switch on the wall. Fairy lights light up across
their ceiling, forming their own personal galaxy of stars. Steve put these up as a surprise for her
during their first week of the semester. She gets back into Steve’s bed, lying facing upwards
towards their sky. Her hand finds Steve’s again, clutching him tight to her.

“Do you remember the night you first put these up for me? I had been homesick all week, saying
how I missed the stars in Hawkins, and how I missed my stargazing spot. Then I came home to
find you with this wide grin on your face, telling me to turn the lights off and flip that switch.”

“You were so happy.” Robin can hear Steve smiling now, a wild improvement to the crying.

“I know you, Steve. I was thinking about you earlier. About how much you do for others, whether
they see it or not. You’re a great man, Steve. I wish you could see yourself the way everyone else
sees you.”

Steve has gone quiet, at Robin turns around to look at him. He looks peaceful and serene, his eyes
filled with stars. He’s crying again, one single tear falling down his cheek. But Robin can tell that
it’s not a sad tear, It’s a grateful one. A happy one. A tear full of so much emotion, Robin remarks
as she wiped her thumb across his cheek, smearing the tear away. This is what she wished she
could do, take some of Steve’s pain and pressure and bear it upon her shoulders for him. But she
 can’t.

So, the best she can do is be there for Steve, remind him that he is loved and that it is normal to
have feelings which carry so much strength, strength that may terrify him but that she’ll always be
there to fight it head on with him. But also to laugh with him, to crack jokes and make fun of
people. To spend time with him and his many tiny friends. To give him space where it’s needed.

She’ll always love Steve, in a way others don’t seem to understand. Their relationship may not be
romantic, but romance is overrated anyways.

“Thank you, Robin” Steve murmurs, already starting to fall back into a hopefully undisturbed
sleep.

End Notes

Not a ship ofc, but I literally love Robin and Steve's dynamic more than anyone else's

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