꧁꧂

ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ɴɪɴᴇᴛᴇᴇɴ: ʟɪᴠɪɴɢ ɪɴ ᴀ ᴅᴀʏᴅʀᴇᴀᴍ

"Don't tell me, dumbass." Dustin muttered over to me, storming across the mall towards the designated store. Or should I say... Ice cream parlour...

"Have a nice day." By the time we got to the front of the line, Steve was no longer on his shift, and Robin already looked like she wanted to be anywhere by here.

"Hey Robin." I smiled, and she nodded in my direction, probably assessing if I was trying to sneak into another movie or not.

"Hi." Dustin said, broad smile on his face as he looked at the serving lady.

"Hi..." She replied, not knowing what else to say.

The boy took a moment for himself. "I'm Dustin."

She gave me a look momentarily before another confused reply. "I'm Robin..."

"Pleasure to meet you." Dustin told her. "Uh- is- is he here?"

She didn't get where he was going with it. "Is who here?"

As if on cue, the back door opened up and Steve stood there as if his favourite child had finally returned from his trip. He held his hands in the air in complete happiness and winning style. "HENDERSON!" Dustin laughed as he looked over at him, meanwhile Steve was jumping around like he'd never been so happy. "HENDERSON! HE'S BACK!" Robin stared, completely lost for words, looking over at me, expecting there was a logical explanation. "HE'S BACK!"

"I'M BACK!" Dustin shouted just as loud. "YOU GOT THE JOB!"

"I GOT THE JOB!" He replied, still shouting as he imitated a trumpet with his hand and nose, walking over to us. The two continued to go on and do their long and complicated handshake, including imitations of a lightsaber battle, because that was... normal.

The two laughed and laughed while Robin looked over at Steve, with the most confused face I'd ever seen since Steve meeting Max at the junkyard. "How many children are you friends with?" Rule number seven: don't make friends with children. Adopt them. 

⊹˚˖⁺

"No! No way!" Steve says, leaning back in the booth we were sat in, after I'd listened for the second time, in twenty-four hours, the story of Dustin's new girlfriend. The boy scooped up a spoonful of ice cream, nodding as Steve spoke. "Hotter than Phoebe Cates? No."

"BRILLIANT, too. And she doesn't even care that my real pears are still coming in... She says kissing is better without teeth." As Dustin says the last bit, I mentally note to stay out of asking any questions of his relationships and love life.

Steve took a moment to take in his words before nodding. "Wow... yeah, that's great. Proud of you, man." Dustin nodded along to the boy's words. "That's kinda romantic..." I gave him a look as he hyped the boy all up, confused at where this was coming from.

"So, do you get to just eat as much ice cream as you like?" I ask, changing the subject quickly and eating a large mouthful from my own scoop.

Steve nodded, not really that interested in both subjects. "Yeah, I mean, sure. It's not really a good idea for me, though. You know, I gotta keep in shape for the ladies-"

"Yeah, and how's that working for you?" Robin suddenly called out, making snicker for a moment.

"Ignore her." Steve tells us both, like I'd never been here before.

"She seems cool." Dustin said, and I nodded. Robin was, as I'd previously said, one of the coolest people I know.

"She's not." Steve replied, too quickly. "So, where are the other knuckleheads?" He asked, subject changing again, far too quickly.

"They ditched me yesterday." Dustin blatantly said, causing me to kick him under the table. "Other than Park." He added on.

"No..." Steve murmured, disbelief in his voice.

"My first day back!" I felt the need to speak about how it took us so many hours to walk up a hill, get pissed at Mike and El and then set up Cerebro to not even get a reply from his girlfriend, but chose against it. "Can you believe that shit?!"

"Whoa, seriously?" Steve asked, leaning over the table. Mom mode activated, once again.

"I swear to God!" Dustin took another mouthful of ice cream before sliding the rest of the banana boat over to me. "They're gonna regret it, though, big time, when they don't get to share in my-" I sent him another glare as I took a mouthful of food. "our," he corrected, "glory."

"Glory?" Steve shook his head, not understanding and looking between us. "What glory?" Dustin glanced around sheepishly before moving over, closer to Steve to whisper.

"So last night, I was trying to get in contact with Suzie..." Steve nodded and smiled understandingly as the boy spoke, looking around at the busy ice cream parlour. When he whispered, Steve didn't really... hear.

"What?" Steve asked him, trying to stay patient.

"Uh..." He looked around, trying to stay casual before he whispered over at his basically second mother again.

"Just speak louder-"

"I INTERCEPTED A SECRET RUSSIAN COMMUNICATION." All heads turned towards us, including Robin's as Dustin spoke up too loud for Steve, all deciding if he was telling the truth or not. Rule number eight: never shout about secret russian communications so loudly.

"Jeez... shh." Steve tells him. "Yeah, okay, that's what I thought you said." Steve lied as everyone slowly forgot what they'd just heard. "Wait, what does that mean?" He asked, looking between the two of us.

"You're hopeless." I muttered, sliding the ice cream away.

"It means, Steve, that we could be heroes." Dustin informs the boy, causing his head to turn up at the words. He was liking the sound of this. "True American heroes."

"Huh..." He says, smiling and nodding.

"You're both such a lost cause...." I muttered, rubbing my eyes slighty as I spoke.  

"Just imagine- you could have all the ladies you want and more." Dustin tells Steve ignoring the comments I'd just made. I don't think they liked the sound of my reality check.

"More?"

"More." Dustin nodded.

"I like more." Steve was already in his daydreaming ways, thinking a lot.

"Mm-hmm..."

"What's the catch...?" He asked, glancing over at me and I smirked, leaning over to my bag.

"There's no catch." Dustin says. "Just need your help." As he spoke, I took out a book from the front of my bag, sliding it across to him.

RUSSIAN TO ENGLISH. ENGLISH TO RUSSIAN DICTIONARY

"With what?" Steve asked, only then looking down at the book.

"Translation."

⊹˚˖⁺

The boy paces back and forth, listening to the whole tape for the second time in the last three minutes, while he ate the banana. Dustin sat there, waiting for some kind of a response from him while it played, and I? I watched as they completely gave off only chaotic energy.

Dustin turned it off, looking straight over at him. "So, what do you think?"

"It sounded familiar." Steve says, eating his last piece of fruit.

"What? Do you speak Russian or something?" I asked, furrowing my eyebrows.

"The music." He says, chewing away. "The music right there at the end." I leaned back in my chair, no longer as interested as I once was.

"Why are you listening to the music, Steve?" Dustin asks him. "Listen to the Russian! We're translating RUSSIAN."

"I'm trying to listen to the Russian, BUT THERE'S MUSIC-" Robin suddenly broke open the door, holding up her ice cream scoop to interrupt us all.

"All right, babysitting time is over." She told Steve, of who staggered back. "You need to get in there." Then she saw the whiteboard. What was once a YOU RULE | YOU SUCK tally chart, now was the Russian alphabet. "HEY, MY BOARD! That was important data, shitbirds." Rule number nine: don't rub off the important tally chart.

"I guarantee you, what we're doing is way doing is way more important than your data." Dustin told her, but I pulled a face.

"I dunno, her data seemed pretty important." I murmured.

"Yeah? And how do you know these Russians are up to no good anyways?" She asks, looking mainly at the two boys as I snickered.

Dustin looked straight up at Steve, and then at me. "How does she know about the Russians?"

"I don't know-"

Glancing over at Robin, I smile sympathetically. "Sorry about this..." I muttered to her.

She nodded over at me as the two boys bickered. "Hello, I can hear you." She says, and they looked back at her. "Actually, I can hear everything. You are both extremely loud, and then there's Park, bored out of her mind."

"It's quite entertaining..." I comment, looking between the two dumbasses.

"You think you have evil Russians plotting against our country, on tape," She says to them. "and you're trying to translate, but haven't figure out a single word because you didn't realize Russians use an entirely different alphabet." At that point, I was snickering again, and Dustin kicked my shin. That was gonna bruise... "Sound about right?"

She went for the tape but Steve got in first, taking it off the table while we both watched. "WHOA, WHOA-" He began. "What do you think you're doing?!"

"I wanna hear it." She explained, like it wasn't obvious. It was either that or she was gonna smash it to pieces outside on the ground.

"Why?" The two boys asked in unison.

"'Cause maybe I can help." Robin explained herself. "I'm fluent in four languages, you know." One day, I might have to ask her for her autograph...

"Russian?" Dustin questioned, hopeful.

The girl spoke in a different language and the boys went wild, while I pulled a face. "That's not like anything I heard on the tape..." I murmured.

She nodded over at me, lightly raising a hand over at me. "That was Pig Latin, dingus." She tells them both. Steve slapped Dustin's shoulder with a banana peel. "But I can speak Spanish and French and Italian," She pulled a chair next to mine. "and I've been in band for twelve years." Sounded like she knew a thing or two, then. "My ears are little geniuses, trust me."

A bell goes off from the desk up front and Steve pulls a face. "Come on, it's your turn to sling ice cream, my turn to translate." She held out the ice cream scoop, still whining and complaining. "I don't even want credit, I'm just bored." The bell went off again at the counter, multiple times.

Steve gave Dustin a look, reluctantly stepping forward and taking the scooper out of Robin's hand and replacing it with the tape. We were in better hands, now.

⊹˚˖⁺

"I'm bored." I tell them all honestly, slowly pushing the chair away from the table. The tape played again, over and over while Robin worked her magic. She was much better than Steve, I won't lie.

"Wait- that last part, just one more time-" Dustin rewound it and I groaned, standing up, telling them I'd be back and walking out to Steve, picking up the spare hat off the side.

"Can I work here?" I asked him as he handed a couple an ice cream each. He looked over at me, and pulled a face. "I'm like... free-lance."

"That's not what it means." He tells me as I walked around, seriously bored out of my mind. "How're they getting on in there, anyways?" He asks, closing the window of where the ice cream was kept.

"Better than you and Dustin were doing." I muttered, sitting up on the countertop.

"Rude-"

"They're about to get their first sentence, you know." I tell him, and that was all he needed to rush back, seriously?! being said by him as he went next door.

Oh. Yeah, just leave me sat here-

The bell rang from behind, causing me to nearly jump out of my skin. "Ahoy." I turned to the familiar voice and found myself looking right at a red head with freckles, and a girl with a lovely new fashion sense.

"Ahoy..." I say, jumping off the counter rather quickly to get a better look at them both. My cheeks were definitely getting warmer as I spoke to her.

"Did you get a job here?" Max asks me, gesturing up at my new hat.

"Yeah..." I say in a mocking tone, smiling a little. "I can't lie, I'm bored out of my mind right now..."

"Why're you here...?" She asked, eyebrow raised.

"Something about... evil Russians, ice cream and Pig Latin." I say, rounding up the last few hours I'd been through. "What can I get you?" I asks, leaning my hands across the counter as if I worked there, moving on quickly from the topic.

Although Max had obviously noticed I had brushed over the topic, she had El try each and every flavour there was, while I quickly made her a Strawberry one in advance.

"We've got our first sentence." I turned around, scooping as much as I could into the vanilla and walked towards Robin and the open window between the counter and back room.

"Thank God, good news..." I muttered, leaning over to hear.

"The week is long." The smile that was once on my face fell quickly by her Russian accent boring sentence.

"Thrilling..." I sighed, giving her a small smile of thanks before moving back to the girls. "Strawberry, and vanilla with sprinkles." I say, holding them out for the girls to take. The two thanked me in unison and I held back a stare at Max as she went to get money out of her pocket. "Don't you dare-" I began. Rule number ten: do NOT let her pay. 

"Too late-" As the girl held out money for me to take, I walked away, taking the hat off and throwing it over at her as I moved towards the doors. The girl caught it just about with the same hand as the money, glaring over at me at the thought of nearly dropping the ice cream.

"Sorry, I'm off shift now." I teased her with a smirk before walking my back into the door and pushing it open to see how it was going with the others. In that moment, I saw a glint in her eyes which set my heart practically on fire. It was this teasing, happy and loving look that I could drown in if I had enough time to.