27- It's Okay to Be Scared

Summary: Hopper, Steve, and Robin all bond over the Russian experience. But for some reason, Steve and Robin are scared of Yuri and Enzo.

Requested by: Darkpanicatthedisco

Hopper sighed as he sat down. He may have been buffer because of the Russians, but that didn't mean spending a whole day moving heavy boxes doesn't take its toll.

There were two teenagers on the couch beside him.

One he recognized as Steve Harrington, the Babysitter as the kids call him and a girl that he saw at the mall. A bird name, he remembers.

They all sat in comfortable silence, listening to the scatter of the kids outside.

It had been two weeks since spring break. El and Hopper were still secretly living with the Byers, until the cabin was in shape and the paperwork for Hopper's return is ready.

El and Steve had finally been able to pry Lucas away from Max's bedside, creating a healthy schedule for the kids.

Dustin was quiet, but he had a cheeriness that nothing could shake. It was just a bit faded.

Yuri and Enzo were living with Murray, until Enzo could get back to his family and they could find a place for Yuri.

They had come down about a week ago, after they were settled.

"Hop?" a voice snapped him out of his chain of thoughts. "You good?"

Hopper looked over to a worried Steve.

"Yeah, kid," Hopper reassured him. "Just thinking."

The girl snorted.

"I know what you mean." she said. "After the thing last summer, all I did was think."

"Well, there was a lot to think about." Steve said, pulling her close to his chest.

Were they dating?

"So, Chief," the girl said.

"Just Hopper, kid." Hopper corrected her.

"Ok, Hopper," she went on. "I heard something about Russians?"

Hopper sighed through his nose.

"Yeah, turns out Russians are the worst."

"Have to agree with you there Hop." Steve said, nudging the girl, he really should learn her name.

"Yep, they really are." the girl, still had to learn her name, agreed.

Hopper was confused.

"How would you know?" he knew that they had been in the base, but they only saw the operation, right?

Wrong.

"Robin and me," Ah! Robin was her name. "Were also captured by Russians."

"What?" Hopper was shocked.

"You didn't know?" Robin asked. "Well, I guess we only you saw you for like 5 minutes and then you had to go fake die on us."

"Ok, first of all, that was not my choice." Hopper defended. "And second, how did you two get captured?"

"Russians found us and we had to protect Erica and Dustin." Steve explained, as if it was nothing.

"So, what happened?"

"Well, they separated us," Robin said. "Beat Steve up." she started to count on her fingers, as if they made a list already. "Brought us back into a room. Steve passed out; they tied us to chairs. They left; I started screaming. Steve woke up, we tried to escape. Didn't work, Russians came back in, pumped us full of drugs which turned out to be a loopy truth serum. Tried to make us talk, oh, I spit in one of their faces somewhere in there by the way, almost pulled Steve's fingernails out. Kids saved us, brought us to a weird movie, and then we went to the bathroom and threw up all the drugs."

Hopper was speechless.

Until...

"You spit in one of their faces?"

Steve and Robin burst out laughing.

"Out of all that," Robin exclaimed between giggles. "That's what you questioned?"

"Well, it was brave." Hopper said, not being able to hold back a chuckle of his own. "And they deserved it."

"I'm just glad about one thing," Steve said, after he got his breathing under control. "That we didn't get captured by the Russians who like to shave their hostages bald."

They all burst out laughing. It felt good to joke about a serious subject. It was a good way to cope.

The three continued on talking about the Russians, making jokes for hours.

Somehow, the conversation looped back to Robin spitting in the Russians face when the door opened.

And in walked Yuri, Enzo and Murray.

"Hey!" Hopper said, getting up.

What Hopper did not notice that the two teens on the couch tensed at the sight of the trio that walked through the door.

Steve and Robin avoided Enzo and Yuri for the rest of the night.

Hopper only noticed when they were trying to play/teach a board game, (they were trying to keep their minds off of all the crap though they all knew nothing would really work) and the only spots were by Enzo and Yuri when they got to the table. The two teens asked the kids to move down claiming that, "they wanted to be closer to the snacks." Everyone seemed to buy it, but Hopper, not so much.

Later that night, when everyone went outside to do their nightly sweep, Hopper and the two teens stayed back to sweep the cabin.

This would be the perfect time to ask them, Hopper decided.

Robin was in the kitchen, Steve in the dining room.

"Hey guys," Hopper called.

"Yeah, Hop?" Steve turned to face at them.

"Are you scared of Enzo and Yuri?"

Steve's face paled, Robin almost dropped a plate.

"It's ok if you are." Hopper assured them, walking closer, acting as he was just making chit-chat. "I would be too, if I hadn't spent some time with them and the last time I encountered Russians was scary as crap."

Neither teens were looking at him.

"Guys," Hopper said sternly, making both teens look at him. "It's ok to be scared."

Robin went up and gave Steve a side hug.

Again, were they dating?

They didn't have time to talk about it more, the rest of the group filed into the cabin.

For the rest of the night, Steve and Robin started to make conversation with Enzo and Yuri.

They were in the middle of listening to one of Yuri's stupid stories, when Robin and Steve caught Hopper's eye.

'Thank you.' they mouthed in unison.

'No problem.' he mouthed back.

Maybe some Russians weren't so bad after all.

Seriously though, were they dating?

AN: I hope you liked it, Darkpanicatthedisco! Requests are open!