His Favorite Flavor//Steve x Fem!Reader//Stranger Things

For Life

{WORD COUNT: 2014}

TW: CUSSING

I might have to steal some lines from other characters, but I'll do my best not to sorrryyyy.

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    That night after the mall was pretty much closed down Dustin, Steve, Robin, and I continued working on translating the Russian codes. "The week is long. The silver cat feeds. When blue meets yellow in the west." we all chorused. As we finished we headed to the front of the store to close up. "I mean, it just...it just can't be right."  Steve protested. "It's right." Robin stated. "Honestly, I think it's great news." Dustin informed us. "How is this great news? I mean, so much for being American heroes. It's total nonsense." Steve huffed. "It's not nonsense. It's too specific. It's obviously a code." Dustin told us. "What do you mean, a code?" Steve questioned. "Like a super secret spy code." Dustin answered. "That's a total stretch." Steve said. "I don't know, is it?" Robin puzzled. "Who knows? Maybe it is. Why would Russians say things exactly how they are?" I questioned. "Exactly." Robin agreed. "You two are buying into this?" Steve wondered. "Listen, just for kicks, let's entertain the possibility that it is a secret Russian transmission. What'd you think they were gonna say, 'Fire the warhead at noon?" Robin asked. "Exactly." Dustin agreed. "And my translation is correct. I know that for sure, so...'The silver cat feeds.' Why would anyone talk like that unless they were trying to mask the true meaning of their message?" she puzzled. "Exactly." Dustin agreed. "And why would anyone wanna mask the true meaning of their message unless the message was somehow sensitive?" Robin continued. "Exactly." Dustin dragged out his word. "So I guess that confirms your suspicion." Robin finished. "Evil Russians." Dustin added. "I can't believe I'm about to agree with this strange child, but, yeah, totally evil Russians." Robin agreed. "So how do we crack it?" Dustin asked. "Well, I guess we translate the rest and hopefully a pattern emerges." Robin said. We continued walking to the front of the mall to leave. "A pattern. Right, like maybe 'silver cat' is a meeting place?" Dustin questioned. "Or a person." Robin added. "Or maybe it's a thing." I continued the list. "Or a weapon." Dustin added. "It's probably gonna take a super genius to crack it, but...Where's Steve?" Robin asked when she realized he wasn't with us. We turned around to see him digging for change in his pocket at the little golden horse ride. "Hey, Steve. What are you doing?" Robin asked. "Uh, it's a quarter. I need--Do you have a quarter?" he asked. Robin chuckled and we ran back toward him. "Sure you're tall enough for that ride?" Robin asked jokingly. "Quarter!" Steve yelled. I tossed him a quarter as he put it into the coin slot. Then Daisy Bell started playing. "You need help getting up, little Stevie?" Robin joked. "Shh!" he quieted as Dustin chuckled. "Would you three just shut up and listen?" Steve huffed. "Holy sh!t. The music." Dustin started taking his bag off. "The music!" he called. He grabbed the walkie-talkie thing and started playing the recording. In the background of the recording, Daisy Bell was playing. "I don't understand." Robin said. "It's the exact same song on the recording. "Maybe they have horses like this in Russia." Robin suggested. "Indiana Flyer. I don't...I don't think so. This code, it...didn't come from Russia. It came from here." Steve told us. We waited for the ride to end and then ran outside. "There's no way. There are Russians in Hawkins. Possibly even Starcourt Mall." I marveled. 

    The next day Dustin was telling us about what he saw on a stakeout he was doing an hour before while Steve, Robin, and I were working at Scoops Ahoy. We were all sitting in the back room while Dustin was pacing in front of us. "That keycard opens the door, but unfortunately, the Russian with this keycard also has a massive gun. Whatever's in this room, whatever's in those boxes, they really don't want anybody finding it." he told us. "But there's gotta be a way in." Robin said. "Well, you know...I could just take him out." Steve suggested. "Take who out?" Robin asked. "The Russian guard." Steve answered. Robin leaned back in her chair. "What? I sneak up behind him, I knock him out, and I take his keycard. It's easy." he explained. "Steve, I love you, but you could not take that guard." I laughed. "Did you not hear the part about the massive gun?" Dustin asked. "Yes, Dustin, I did. And that's why I would be sneaking." Steve huffed. "Ah. Well, please, tell me this, and be honest, have you ever actually...won a fight?" Dustin questioned. "Okay, that was one time--" Steve began, "Twice. Jonathan. Year prior?" Dustin cut him off. "Listen, that doesn't count." Steve told him. "Why wouldn't it count? Because it looks like he beat the sh!t out of you." Dustin began. "It was..." Steve tried to interrupt. "You got a fat lip, crooked nose, swollen eye, a lot of blood..." Dustin continued when I noticed Robin looking elsewhere. "What is it, Robin?" I asked. "That just might work." she said and got up. She ran out the door and stole cash from the tip jar. "Robin." Steve said as she dashed out of Scoops Ahoy. "Robin! What are you doing?" Steve yelled as we ran out of the back to follow her. "I need cash." she told him. "Well, a third of that is mine and the other third is Y/n's." Steve told her. "Where're you going?" he asked her. "To find a way into that room, a safe way." she called as she walked backward into the main part of the mall. "And, in the meantime, sling ice cream, behave, and don't get beat up. I'll be back in a jiff." she called and ran out. He looked back over at Dustin who was licking the ice cream scooper clean of ice cream. "Oh, dude. Come on, man, not my scooper." he griped as he flipped the ice cream scooper back into his pocket. 

    For about 45 minutes Steve and I were serving ice cream when Robin finally came back. We all went into the back since no customers were at the counter. "It is fascinating what 20 bucks will get you at the County Recorder's Office. Starcourt Mall." she said laying a giant map of the mall on the back table. "The complete blueprints." she finished. "Not bad." Dustin complimented. "So, this is us, Scoops, and this is where we want to get." she told us pointing to each place. "I mean, I don't really see a way in." Steve told her. "There's not if you're talking exclusively about doors." she enunciated as she pulled away part of the map to reveal the ventilation system blueprints. "Air ducts." Dustin smiled. "Exactly." Robin grinned and walked over to the board at the back of the room to grab the whiteboard pen off of it. "Turns out, this secret room needs air just like any old room. And these air ducts...lead all the way...here." she said as she drew on the map following the room we need to get to and the room we're in now. Scoops Ahoy. We all looked up at the vent and a few minutes later Steve was pulling it off to get into the air duct itself. "Flashlight." he said with a screwdriver in his mouth. Dustin handed him the flashlight and he turned it on inside the air duct. "Thank you." he said dropping the screwdriver out of his mouth. "Yeah, I don't know, man. I don't know if you can fit in here. It's, like...super tight." Steve told him climbing down from the latter. "I'll fit." Dustin said. "Trust me, no collar bones, remember?" he questioned. "Uh, excuse me?" Robin puzzled. "Oh, he's, uh...Yeah, he's got some disease. Chry, uh...It's chrydo, um...Something. Yeah, I dunno. He's missing bones and stuff. He can bend like Gumbo." Steve told her. "You mean Gumby." Robin corrected. "I'm pretty sure it's Gumbo." Steve incorrectly corrected her. "Steve, just shut up and push me!" Dustin yelled from the duct. "Okay. I'll push ya." he sighed. "Cleidocranial Dysplasia." I whispered to Robin. "What?" she puzzled. "Dustin. He has cleidocranial dysplasia." I told her. "Oh. That makes more sense." Robin laughed. "Yeah, Steve's an idiot. But, he's my idiot." I smiled. "Not my feet, dvmb*ss. Push my *ss." Dustin coached. "What?" Steve puzzled. "Touch my butt! I don't care!" Dustin yelled. "Come on! Harder! Push harder!" Dustin yelled. "I'm pushing!" Steve yelled back. "You're playing with my legs." Dustin sighed. "I'm not playing, I have terrible footing." Steve disagreed. "Come on!" Dustin screeched. "I'm gonna just shove you, ready?" Steve asked. "Just shove me?" Dustin questioned in a slight panic. "One, two..." Steve shoved but Dustin didn't budge very much. "Sh!t." Dustin huffed. "That work?" Steve asked. "They'll never get him in." I whispered. "Never." Robin whispered back. At that moment Erica and her friends rang the bell. "Ahoy, sailors! All hands on deck! Ahoy!" she called and continued ringing the bell. "Come on. Get over here and serve me some samples." she continued. Robin smirked and I knew she had thought of something. "Will you help us with something?" I asked as I walked over to the counter. "With what?" She asked. "Come with me." I said and had her follow me to the back. I explained what we needed to do and then we got Dustin out of the air duct. She climbed up the ladder and turned on the flashlight. "Hmm..." she wondered as she climbed back down. "Yeah, I don't know." she said. "You don't know if you can fit?" Dustin asked. "Oh, I can fit. I just don't know if I want to." she told him. "Are you claustrophobic?" Robin asked her. Erica snickered, "I don't have phobias." she bragged. "Okay, well, what's the problem?" Steve asked. "The problem is, I still haven't heard what's in this for Erica." she dragged out the last two words of her sentence. We thought for a second and a few minutes later we were sat at one of the booths with at least 15 ice creams in front of Erica. "More fudge, please." she asked politely. "Go on." she motioned her hand towards the counter. Steve got up and went over to the counter. "All right. You see this? This is the route you're going to take. Then we just wait till the last delivery goes out tonight. Then you knock on the grate, jump down, open the door." Robin coached. "Then you find out what's in those boxes?" Erica asked. "Exactly." Robin smiled. "Mh-hmm. And you say this guard is armed." she said. "Yes, but he won't be there." Dustin told her. "And booby traps?" Erica asked. "Booby traps?" Robin puzzled. "Lasers, spikes in the wall?" Erica questioned. "What?" Robin laughed. "You know what this half-baked plan of yours sounds like to me? Child endangerment." Erica dragged out. "We'll be in radio contact with you the whole time--" Robin was cut off by Erica. "Ah, ah, ah! Child...endangerment." Erica complained. "Erica? Hi. Uh...We think these Russians want to do harm to our country. Great harm. Don't you love your country?" Dustin coaxed. "You can't spell America without Erica." she said. "Uh, yeah, yeah. Oddly, that's, uh, totally true. So, so, don't do this for us. Do it for your country. Do it for your fellow man. Do this for America...Erica." Dustin bribed. "Ooh! I just got the chills. Oh, yeah, from this float, not your speech. Know what I love most about this country? Capitalism. Do you know what capitalism is?" she asked. "Yeah." Dustin answered. "It means this is a free market system. Which means people get paid for their services, depending on how valuable their contributions are. And it seems to me, my ability to fit into that little vent is very, very, valuable to you all. So, you want my help? This U.S.S Butterscotch better be the first of many. And I'm talking free ice cream for life." she said.