The Long Game━ (l. sinclair)

sam streams songbird by fleetwood mac (for no apparent reason)

Bingo.

Auggie laughed, forcing himself to lie. Light-heartedly, he teased, "Nice ego there, Harrington. Apparently the reformed Steve still thinks everything revolves around him."

"Auggie," Steve breathed sadly.

"I'm just joking," Auggie nudged his shoulder, playfulness so forced that Steve was a little put off by it. "God, you're so easy to fuck with."

Steve's brows pulled, and he still didn't seem deterred. "Auggie, I'm sorry I didn't notice you. Seriously."

He gave up a little, and while his body didn't let on how much the apology meant to him, his eyes did. Auggie knew it wasn't Steve's fault, because it wasn't like Auggie had ever actually talked to him; he was a hopeless mess, though, so it all still hurt no matter what.

"It's — fine, really," Auggie eventually said. "I mean, I'm here now."

Auggie watched Steve's Adam's apple bob before he nodded a little nervously. "Yeah, I mean, I was going to say... I mean, what I want to say — I guess — You know, I'm glad you are. Here, I mean. It's nice. I... I notice you now, Smiths. I do."

Auggie was about to pass out from either lack of breathing, or... or something else he couldn't quite name entirely. Stronger than fear and better than any movie he'd ever watched.

"I — um," Auggie swallowed, feeling a little faint. "Thanks."

Then, he literally just turned around. Literally. Back to Steve, pretending to search around the room because the amount of flustered he was feeling felt as strong as an oncoming heart attack.

'Thanks'? Turning the fuck around? Was he fucking joking? Could Vecna kill him already? Like, seriously. Auggie was done.

Steve smiled, and the bastard sounded amused. "Any time," he said, because it was his turn to tease Auggie a little now. "And, you know — maybe after we find Vecna, kill him, save the world and stuff, you can finally... go to familyVideo, or something..."

"Maybe," Auggie squeaked out, before clearing his throat in embarrassment. "That sounds, you know, nice. It sounds nice."

With his back still turned to Steve, Auggie yelped entirely, flinching away so his back ran right into Steve.

Jesus, this couldn't get more embarrassing.

"Woah, woah, woah," Steve worried, stopping Auggie with hands on his forearms. "You good, Smiths?"

"Oh, my god, I'm gonna kill myself," Auggie squeezed his chest, breathing in and out.

"What? Why? Please don't."

Still in Steve's grasp, Auggie glanced his head behind him towards a floor vent. "I think I saw something in that," he explained in terror. "It's covered in fucking cobwebs."

"Oh," Steve breathed out in relief, grateful that Auggie wasn't actually going to kill himself. He stared at the vent for a moment. Then— "Wait..."

Steve let go of Auggie, and his amazed voice had Auggie facing him completely. The older boy looked like he'd just seen the Messiah.

"Are you afraid of spiders?" asked Steve, thoroughly amused and definitely teasing Auggie now.

Auggie wanted to throttle him. "Yes, I'm fucking afraid of spiders! Why the fuck would I not be? Those stupid little shits are evil and they're tiny and you never know when they could be injecting you with deadly poison that makes your fucking brain bleed! And don't come to me with that, 'Oh, but Spiderman is so cool and awesome!' because Sam's already argued with me about this! I fucking hate Spiderman, too, because he's creepy as shit!" Under his breath, he muttered, "Cabrón."