the day the earth stood still

Robin and Steve are dancing, swinging each other around like little kids at a wedding, singing off-key into each other’s faces. They emanate joy like a neon sign in the middle of the night, and Eddie feels so warm for them, something bright and airy and miraculous expanding in his chest.A broom leans, discarded, against an empty shelf nearby, the task of sweeping abandoned for their impromptu dance recital. As Eddie watches them, cataloguing the way they flail and spin, he realizes that he recognizes the song playing, and he’s dying to know how, exactly, they know it.Robin throws an elbow around Steve’s shoulders, Steve singing the lead melody while Robin crows the response.Steve has a surprisingly nice tenor, even though he’s more than a little pitchy as he sings, “By R.K.O.”Robin’s voice is offkey and flat and Eddie thinks it sounds better than any Stevie Nicks record as she responds, “By R.K.O.”Or: in which Eddie discovers he has more in common with Robin and Steve than he thought, all thanks to Tim Curry in fishnets.