Static
Steve's never certain if he hates walking through the crowds after a match or not. Sometimes, when he walks back to his flat, all bloody and bruised and exhausted, the press of so many other people feels oppressive. Sometimes he wants nothing more than to pretend the rest of the world doesn't exist, that he's in a little bubble of his own space and nothing can touch him. But sometimes, even though there's an edge of pain in every step, the bustle of people reminds him of why he does this, reminds him of everyone he's trying to protect and everything he wants to be able to keep on going exactly as it is.
Today is not a hates day.
Today the crowds feel warm and full of energy, and he basks in it, lets the feel of so much life wash over him.
Today he buys sunflowers at his favorite florist, listening to the soft hum of bees he can hear in the back of their shop. Today he asks if they have any honey, tucks a bottle of it into his pocket and sucks on a piece of the soft, sticky candy that Mrs. Anderson makes from it. The augment he keeps for show chimes softly in his ear, alerting him that funds have been withdrawn from his arena account. He doesn't know how much, but it doesn't matter. He trusts Mrs. Anderson enough not to rip him off, and anyway, he makes more than enough from his fights to get anything he wants.
It'd be enough to get out of this place ten times over, if the credits Creel gave his gladiators were good anywhere else but the citydome he runs.
Mrs. Anderson wraps up his flowers for him, and Steve gives her a warm smile when she gives him an extra one for his girl.
He can't remember if she thinks his girl is Robin, or Nancy, or Max, or Erica, or El, but it doesn't really matter.
They're all his girls, and he'd do absolutely anything at all to give them the world.
He settles the bouquet under his arms, counts the flowers - there's enough to give each of them two, but he knows he won't see them in person any time soon.
It's been quiet enough that he might have suggested a meet up, but there's… something that stops him. Steve doesn't know what it is, can't put words to what he's picked up on, but it settles heavy in the pit of his stomach. He's learned the hard way to listen to it.
They can't risk it.
Static blares in his mind as he opens his communication link, feeling out for who's listening in and smiling to himself when he senses El.
El's favorites are sunflowers, same as him. They're Max's favorites, too, but only because he knows they remind her of El.
‘Sunflowers!’ El says immediately, delighted.
‘Fresh cut,’ he tells her. ‘Want to smell?’
Her presence is suddenly much stronger in his mind, and he dutifully leans in to pull in a deep breath, holds it for a few moments, then lets the honey candy in his mouth settle right over his tongue.
There's a pleased little sigh, a soft touch of gratitude, then she withdraws.
‘When's your next match?’ Lucas asks.
‘In two days,’ Steve replies.
There's no response, not even a wordless one, but Steve knows Lucas well enough to tell that he's disappointed. Two days isn't enough time for him to sneak out, let alone have a Creel sanctioned vacation.
‘It's not the same without you here.’ Dustin's voice is colored with disappointment, too, and Steve can feel the sharpness of what he isn't saying.
‘I know, buddy. I miss you guys, too.’
He wishes he could tell them that it wouldn't be much longer. Steve's got plenty on Henry Creel, more than enough to have made this mission a success already, but they're never going to get an opportunity like this again.
He needs to stay as long as possible.
‘I'll ask for a vacation after my next couple of matches. How did your collaboration with Suzie go?’
Steve listens to the Party over the comm links for a little while longer, just to keep his own longing for home at bay, until he gets out of the busy part of the citydome and has to say goodbye.
His head goes silent as he closes his comm link, and he's alone once more - aside from the ever present trace of Robin, all wrapped up in his neural pathways that are more circuits than synapses these days, but she doesn't count. She's as much a part of him as his own thoughts are.
Tension prickles at the back of his neck when he picks up on footsteps approaching, more purposeful than anyone else passing by. Sure enough, someone falls into step with him, and his head jerks over - then relaxes.
“My liege,” Munson greets, throwing a grin at him.
Steve rolls his eyes. “What do you want?”
He didn't think it was possible, but Munson's smile widens even more.
“To celebrate!” he announces, arms spread as though gesturing to the wide expanse of celebratory pleasures to be had around them.
Which are exactly none, considering Steve'd already passed the pleasure district. He raises one eyebrow to convey just that.
Munson is undeterred.
“Come on, your Majesty,” he cajoles. “Look at you! First time in weeks that a gladiator walked away from a match with barely a scratch on them! Surely such a transcendent performance from the King is worthy of deigning to mingle with the Freak?”
Steve's going to say yes, he already knows he is, but he makes him wait a little longer, making a big show of sighing and crossing his arms and looking him up and down.
It's then that he sees it.
If Steve was everything he was pretending to be and nothing more, he never would have picked up on anything. There's nothing in Munson's demeanor that is any different from the handful of other times they've caught up with each other for a drink after a match.
It's only because his scans pick up so much more that he detects the unsteady beat of Munson's heart, how he holds himself ready the same way he does in the arena.
And the gun tucked in the inside pocket of his leather jacket.
Right.
Looks like he's out of time here, then.
If Steve's honest, he's a little surprised that it's Munson. The rivalry between the Freak and the King is all for show in the arena - not like it is between him and Billy Hargrove or between Munson and Jason “the Prophet” Carver.
If Steve's even more honest, he's disappointed, in more ways than he can spend time sorting through right now.
“Fine,” he says, letting himself sound long suffering. “Where are we going? I'll swing by home to drop these off and meet you there.”
Something tense but otherwise unreadable flickers behind Munson's eyes, and Steve wonders if he's been ordered not to allow him to leave his sight. He doesn't have a choice, though - it's a reasonable request, exactly what Steve would have said if he hadn't caught on, and his only other option is -
“Allow me to accompany you,” Munson says, bowing low in a show of gallantry.
It's a risk.
Steve's never let another gladiator come to his flat before, and there's very little chance that he'd let Munson come now, even if he didn't realize what Munson's true intentions were. He wonders what the back up plan is if he says no, wonders if Munson will do it right here in the open.
“Why?” Steve asks, unable to stop himself from pushing, even though he knows it's a bad idea.
Munson peeks up from his bow, flutters his lashes, all playful exaggeration. “And risk you backing out and abandoning the likes of little ole me?”
“Never backed out before after I've said yes,” Steve points out, digging in. Pushing harder. “Unless you have a reason for inviting yourself over? Maybe a different kind of celebration in mind?”
Munson tips his head back down, but Steve's scanner can pick up the way he swallows, harsh and rough. “Yeah.” It's flat and hollow, and it immediately sounds wrong to Steve's ears. “Yeah, maybe I had something different in mind.”
That's -
Not what Steve was expecting.
Would he, Steve wonders? Would Munson play that card, even though he clearly doesn't want to, even though he kind of sounds like he hates himself a little for it?
“Hey,” Steve says, unbidden. “I'm just messing with you, man. It's fine, you can come with me to drop them off.”
Steve might be well aware that he's going to have to kill Munson, but he doesn't want to be cruel about it.
Munson straightens, his usual smile back on his face, and he checks his shoulder into Steve's hard enough that it stings a little. “Asshole,” he says.
“You're the one who hangs out with me,” Steve replies.
The crowd thins even more as they move into the residential blocks. They're not going in the direction of Steve's flat - but they are going in a direction that he could live in, and it's not like Munson knows where he actually stays. It's not like Munson knows that Steve's already activated his comm link and told the Party his cover's been blown, and that he has to get out of the citydome tonight.
“Hey, Munson?” Steve asks, slowing to a stop.
Munson hums, looking over at him with a brow raised in question.
Steve pulls the extra sunflower that Mrs. Anderson had given him free from the bouquet, tucks it into the front pocket of Munson's jacket.
“I really am sorry about before, I shouldn't have messed with you like that,” he says.
He's sorry about a lot more than that, but this is what he's got.
Munson's lips twist down, and he sighs as he pushes Steve's hands away - though he leaves the sunflower there.
“Steve,” he says, soft and filled with something like regret.
Nothing follows it.
There's a beat where they look at each other, and Steve thinks -
And then there's the sound of harsh laughter, boots dropping onto the ground as someone swings down from one of the platforms overhead.
“King Steve,” Hargrove drawls. “Sweet on the Freak. You're really making it easy to knock you off that throne, aren't you?”
Shit.
Steve's in worse trouble than he thought.
He steps back automatically, shooting a betrayed little look over at Munson - it's one thing for Munson to be planning on killing him, it's another for him to lead Hargrove to him.
But Munson looks surprised, and then furious, and Steve realizes -
Hargrove isn't here for Steve. Or at least, not just for Steve.
“I told Creel you couldn't do it,” Hargrove tells Munson, voice conversational. “You're all bark and no bite, aren't you?”
“Get the fuck out of here, Hargrove,” Munson says tersely, teeth gritted.
“No can do, Junior,” Hargrove replies. “I have to clean up your mess.”
“You set me up,” Munson bites out. “This was never going to be a fair chance, was it?”
Hargrove shrugs, unconcerned. “You want me to drag you back to Creel to explain yourself, or should I just put you out of your misery here?”
The thing is, Steve thinks Munson would have done it before Hargrove showed up. Steve and Munson are friends, maybe, but loyalty to other gladiators only goes so far, and Creel keeps them all under a heavy thumb. It wouldn't have been anything personal - it would have been just what Munson had to do to survive in this place.
The thing is, Steve knows he would have put a bullet in Munson's brain right here. It would have destroyed a piece of him to do it, he can acknowledge that now, but he would have done it without hesitation if it meant keeping the resistance in general - and the Party in specific - safe.
The thing is, even if Hargrove does kill Steve - even if Munson kills Steve, even if he manages to kill Hargrove before he can report back to Creel - Munson is finished, now. Unfair or not, he's failed the test. There's no going back, not if Creel doesn't trust him, and Steve knows Munson's smart enough to have realized that.
The thing is, if Creel suspected Munson enough to have Hargrove follow him to make sure he got the job done, there must be a reason why, and Steve wants to know it.
‘Change of plans,’ he tells Robin, even though he can already feel her at the back of his mind like fingertips ghosting through his hair, downloading his memories until she's caught up. She already knows exactly what he's going to do.
The piece of him that would have died with Eddie Munson finally settles into place, the circuitry that makes up more of him than he usually lets on humming softly in his veins as it adjusts to account for it.
Steve swings around to stand in front of Eddie, and plants his feet.
“If you want him,” he says, and he can hear the echo of it through the static of his communication link, calm and determined.
Steve's never felt more steady than he does when he's standing between a looming threat and one of the people who've become part of the very core of him.
“You'll have to go through me.”
Hargrove sneers at him. “You can barely hold your own against me in the arena.”
“The arena’s all show.” Steve laughs, a little mean. “You think I'm sitting here with prototype Harrington augments and all they've got is what you've seen?”
He's not sure why he's keeping up the pretense that he's nothing more than what he seems. If Creel is sending people to kill him, he has to know Steve's part of the Party. But it's ingrained in him, somehow, to protect them until his last breath, whether it's artificial or not.
The question makes Hargrove scoff, and Steve swings at him.
Hargrove lets it hit, laughs at him again with blood dripping from his mouth, and then -
They've fought in the arena, before. Not often, because they're brutal with each other, and because Creel knows their matches always draw a massive crowd and likes to drag out the tension, keep the audience wanting more.
This is nothing like that.
Despite their brutality, there's an element of safety in arena matches. The punishment for killing one of Creel's gladiators is harsh and swift, and so they're almost never in any real danger.
This is - Steve can see the hatred in Hargrove's eyes, same as he always does, but now there's intent, now Hargrove's own augments have been let loose, and there's more power behind every punch than Steve's ever felt before.
Steve's starting to think the only way he can beat Hargrove is to really let himself go, and it makes his heart quicken, makes the dread in his chest coil tighter and tighter - makes Robin even more present in his mind, makes her whisper ‘you have to, it's okay, I'm here, I won't let you lose yourself,’ -
Until a shot rings out, clipping Hargrove on the shoulder.
It's not that Steve forgot Eddie.
It's just that he kind of assumed that Eddie would run off after Steve took his first swing at Hargrove. It'd been part of the reason that he pulled Hargrove's attention onto himself in the first place.
The expression on Hargrove's face says that he'd assumed the same thing, and he shoots a venomous look over at Eddie.
“Who's cleaning up messes now?” Eddie asks.
Hargrove snarls, drawing his own gun on Eddie, and -
Steve's too close for Eddie to get a clear shot at Hargrove, and by now he's starting to think that Eddie won't take the shot if it means he'll have to shoot through Steve, but he knows damn well Hargrove won't have the same reservations.
‘Robin,’ Steve says, even though she's already there, flooding his mind until she's all he can feel.
He can't lose himself when he does this if he's so much her that they can't separate each other out.
Steve lets go.
Electricity flares under his skin, crackling and humming, and when he grabs Hargrove's hand it immediately shorts out his gun. It flows out - and out and out and out and out, overloading the circuitry of Hargrove’s augment and threatening to burn it through completely if it keeps going, and he needs to -
He needs to -
‘Stop.’
Steve can't tell if it's Robin's voice or his, but it doesn't matter.
It's enough to get him to pull himself back. He lets go of Hargrove, breathing heavily as he shuts himself down. Steve's expecting to have to fight with himself, with the way the power in him wants an outlet, but it simmers back down with little more than a whisper. It's easier than it's ever been before, and he can feel Robin's pride whispering through him.
Steve looks up, just in time to see Eddie pointing his gun at Hargrove.
“Don't,” Steve says, stepping between Eddie and Hargrove.
It isn't the same as when he stood between them last time.
For one, Billy Hargrove isn't exactly conscious. For another - Steve doesn't care about Hargrove himself, not the way every part of his being screamed at him to protect Eddie. The only reason Steve's standing here at all is for Max.
“He'll tell Creel,” Eddie says. “You know if he's still alive, if he gets back to him, we're finished.”
“We're finished here either way,” Steve points out. “And Billy Hargrove isn't our decision to make. It belongs to someone else.”
Eddie looks at him searchingly, for a long moment. “If not you, then who?”
It's a fair demand.
As far as the general public knows, as far as Henry Creel knows - the rivalry between Billy Hargrove and Steve Harrington is as intimate as it is intense. Steve would be lying if he pretended like he didn't know that there was a fan favorite theory that there was something more behind their fights.
But it's never been true. Steve's only ever hated Hargrove for what he did to Lucas and Max.
“Come with me,” Steve says. “And I'll introduce you to her.”
Eddie's eyes are dark, unreadable.
Except -
Except.
Except Steve can read into them, can read hesitancy, longing, hope.
He reaches out, snags Eddie's hand, links their fingers together.
“Come with me,” Steve says again. “And I'll protect you.”
“Okay,” Eddie says, soft and almost surprised. “Okay.”
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