[ it is powerlessness. it is hopelessness. because at the end of the day, even as gods, there wasn't anything they could do. steve feels it just as eddie does, a kind of restlessness under the surface, coupled with a kind of weight. they've lost friends before now - max, robin, more they met here - but dustin somehow feels different. hits harder.

but steve knows how this feels - has spent the last few months feeling loss like he couldn't put words to. nero is still dead, that hasn't changed, and dustin-

he's not dead. he's not dead. but the longer that he thinks about it, the more he doesn't know what he believes. or what he can believe. and maybe that's why he feels the need of it now. why he's suddenly so motivated to do anything at all. oh yeah? eddie says, and it sounds just detached enough, just tired enough, that steve's resolve hardens. ]

Yeah. [ steve says, noting how eddie won't look at him. knows what he's probably thinking, too. it's what pushes steve over, what makes him decide. he turns, kicks his legs over the other side of the desk and then pushes off. when he lands, he turns, standing right in front of eddie - his hands on his hips, feeling a little...he doesn't know. off? wild? loose? ]

Fuck work. Fuck all of it. [ he paces for a moment, takes a couple of steps to the left, then a couple of steps to the right. he turns, again, standing just in front of where eddie is still sitting on the counter. ] We've gotta- I don't know. Get out of here? [ a beat, and then steve decides to fuck it, to not think that hard, to not question it. he leans forward, putting his hands on the counter on either side of eddie's legs. ]

Get wasted, party, I don't know. You're the creative one- you figure it out. But it has to be something.