Ok @chocoarts , I'm Ready To Go On A Ramble! Thanks So Much For Answering My Request! I Hope My Ramble

Ok @chocoarts , I'm ready to go on a ramble! Thanks so much for answering my request! I hope my ramble does your art justice!

So! Steve and Robin are destined to work together, no matter how they meet or what they do. I know that most folks on the internet think that Robin wouldn't be great with little kids, while Steve would be the master. However! I personally like the idea that they're /both/ great with kids! I'm not usually one for no-Upside-down aus, but I can't really think of another way that this would work, so.

I'll bet that Steve and Robin met while volunteering at the Hawkins Daycare center. They bond over a love of kids and hatred for the people in charge. Y'see, Hawkins kinda reminds me of the area I grew up in a little bit, and something that's happened, both in my community and the town where my mom works, is that daycares and pre-schools start out as genuine nonprofits, existing for the sake of the community. But over time, they become super exclusive, expensive, and mildly corrupt. I imagine that if Hawkins had a daycare center, that's what would happen.

*oh, by the way, I have nothing against day care centers or all you folks who run them in a general sense. I know how difficult it is to take care of little kids to an extent, and I respect you all for what you do. It's just the ones in my community that I know of that are like that.*

Anyway...

So Steve and Robin see this and decide, hey, Steve's parents may be assholes, but they haven't cut him off yet, so why don't they use that money to open their own daycare center? They would call it Bat-man and Robin's Junior Bat-cave, because Steve plays baseball in this au. Also because of this meme:

By the way, they decided to add hyphens to the DC related parts of the name to escape a potential lawsuit. That's my logic, and I'm sticking to it. Cool? Cool.

So Steve and Robin open their daycare, and they keep their fees as inexpensive as they possibly can without it being detrimental to the business. One of their first customers is a single mom by the name of Claudia Henderson.

It takes a minute for Dustin to warm up to Steve and Robin, because even as a 3-year-old, people give him a hard time about his disease, cleidocranial dysplasia (CCD), which he worked really hard to learn how to pronounce.

Steve and Robin don't treat him any differently. The only acknowledgement they make of his CCD is when they have to follow his daily medical needs, which I assume exist, but I have no idea what they'd be. When this sinks in, he warms right up to them. His favorite thing to do is play spies with the toy walkie-talkie set that Steve got especially for him. He gets bad dreams sometimes about his dad leaving, but Steve is always right there when he wakes up with a sci-fi picture book or Star Wars stuffies to help him feel better.

The next kid to show up is Max Mayfield. She's a sassy little thing. And in this au, N*il dies in a car crash or something, and Billy's mom gets custody of Billy, because he deserves good things, dammit, but Susan doesn't have the money to move her and Max back to Cali. The Junior Batcave is affordable for her. It takes Max a hot second to warm up to Steve, because of N*il, but Robin helps her feel safe, and Steve never pushes her boundaries. That is what gets her to warm up to him. Max likes playing spies with Dustin, but her favorite thing to do is use cardboard as ramps and play with those tiny skateboard toys.

Jane Eleanor "El" Hopper shows up after Hopper adopts her and gets her out of the foster system. She's pretty quiet and timid, but she's got good judgement for a 3-year-old. She warms up to Steve and Robin pretty quick. She calls them Auntie Robin and Mom-Steve. She likes any kind of game, as long as she's with her best friend Max. But her favorite thing to do at daycare is play with Steve's hair. One day, she brings all sorts of clips and ribbons from home. El gets a little sad, because Robin gently tells her, "if it touches your hair, you don't share." Steve immediately goes out to the store to get some new hair supplies, and then El just goes ham on his hair. When she's done, she says that "Mom-Steve is the prettiest ever!" Hearts melt, and there are tears.

When Will shows up, his family is fresh out of a divorce, so he's really quiet and sensitive. He knows that he's welcome to play with Dustin, Max, and El, but he's just too shy. Luckily for him, Mike starts attending at around the same time. They bond over Star Wars with Dustin. And Will just has the best ideas for games if make-believe! When Will leads, Max and El get to be the knights, and Mike is the one who needs saving. Will gets attached to Steve and Robin when they agree to play the dragon and the queen respectively, and help him practice reading when he's not up to playing. Eventually, Will spends so much time reading with Steve that Mike gets jealous, which I think would explain the ankle-biter moment in chocoarts's picture.

Mike is a bit of a jealous kiddo, because baby Holly gets all of Mom and Nancy's attention, and Dad isn't home too often cause of work. That's why, if any of his friends start spending more time with Steve than him, his ankle-biting tendencies surface. Oh, Will would rather read a story with Steve than play knights and castles with Mike? CHOMP! Even so, Steve and Robin both give Mike plenty of attention, so he warms up to them. He copies El, calling Steve Mom-Steve. He also starts calling Robin Auntie Birdie.

Last, but certainly not least, the Sinclair siblings. In this au, I think Lucas and Erica would either be twins, or the age gap would just be a year instead of 4, as it seems to be in canon (Lucas seeming to be a 15-year-old freshman when Erica is 11). Lucas likes playing catch a little more than the other boys, and Steve is always happy to play with him. But, I'm getting ahead of myself. Y'see, I just had the thought that when the Sinclairs tried sending Lucas and Erica to Hawkins Daycare, the two were surrounded by white children who didn't know anything other than the racist bullshit their parents said around them. The employees weren't much better. When the Sinclairs reached out to the Junior Bat-cave, on the other hand, Steve and Robin were perfectly respectful, and made sure the other kids knew to be respectful to Lucas and Erica, too. Anywho, as the two adjust, Steve loves to see how Lucas is just the best big brother. He knows that Erica is still a bit too small for catch, so he rolls his favorite ball around with her, instead. Also, Erica likes dogs in this au, so Steve helps Lucas draw and/or color in pictures of dogs and puppies. Robin is always happy to play with Erica, too. In fact, all the girls love finding all the dog stuffies in the daycare to play dog school, Erica's favorite game.

Alright! That's all I've got for this ramble. If anyone wants to take these ideas and just roll with them, feel free to do so. I hope my ramble did chocoarts's drawing justice!