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Unknown Fact, Steve Harrington can understand and speak Italian.
Another even lesser known fact, Dustin Henderson can do the same.
It just never came up.
Until one day it did. Steve had been tired, he wasn’t really in his right mind at the time. He was in his room, reading some official documents for his grandmother because she didn’t know how to speak English even though she immigrated here years ago. As he was reading he went downstairs with the paper in hand. His Noona was sitting on the couch.
“Stefano, cosa dice?” Stefano, what does it say? He looked at it for a second more. “Vogliono solo che rinnovi la bolletta della luce.” They just want you to renew the light bill. He looked at the words again before getting some paper and rewriting them in Italian for his Noona to read. “ Dove vado a farlo?” Where do I go to do this? Steve looked at the bottom of the paper. “Conosci il posto vicino al negozio di alimentari? È quel posto dell'elettricità proprio lì.” You know the place next to the grocery store? Its that electricity place right there.
His Noona nodded. They hopped into the car and Steve drove her over there. They payed and she had her lights. She called him, “Mio piccolo genio.” My little genius. And Steve blush and smiled. He was glad that he could help her. That was just one instance.
—
The party was at Steve’s house for a little. They were watching a movie when Steve heard the phone ring. Nobody thought much if it when he got up to answer.
“Hello?” There were some sounds from the other side. “ Il tuo profumo? Quale?” Your perfume? Which one? When the unfamiliar words flowed from his tongue every all but whipped their heads back. “Aspetta, mamma, quale?” Wait, mom, which one? Silence from the other end for a second. “Quello azzurro di Parigi? Sì, penso che l'abbia portato con sé a scuola.” The blue one from paris? Yeah, I think she took it back with her to school. A second of silence again. “Pensava che non lo usassi più.” She thought you didn't use it anymore.
He nodded as the other person spoke. “Sì, posso chiamarla e chiederle di lasciarlo qui. Ma non ne hai un altro?” Yeah, I can call her and ask her to drop it off here. But don't you have another one? He paused for a second. “Sì, posso controllare, resta in linea.” Yeah I can check, stay on the line. Everybody watched as he ran upstairs and then returned with a ocean blue glass bottle with black words on it in another language.
“ Sì, ciao?” Yeah, hello? A mummer from the other line. “Sì, l'ho trovato. Lo lascerò sul bancone per quando torni a casa.” Yeah, I found it. I'll leave it on the counter for when you come home. He nodded to himself. “ ti voglio bene.” Love you too. He made a few kisses to the phone and then he sat it down. Then then went to the kitchen and put down the glass bottle. When he returned to sit on the couch he saw everyone looking at him like he’s grew a second head.
He chuckled but it was kind of weak. “Are you guys okay?”
Robin was the first to speak. “Yeah, no it’s just..since when did you speak another language?” Steve claimed when he realized that he didn’t do anything wrong. “I grew up speaking it. I guess it never really came up.”
—
And it didn’t come up again until Dustin was the one speaking. He had all but ran to Steve with the rest of his friends trailing behind him. “ E sta uccidendo le persone! Pensiamo che sia un cancello ma non l'abbiamo visto bene, quindi non ne sono sicuro. Ma questo può essere brutto, molto molto brutto. Quindi possiamo usare il tuo telefono?” And he's killing people! We think that it's a gate but we didn't really get a good look at it so im not sure. But this can be bad, very very bad. So can we use your phone? The kid didn’t seem to realize that he wasn’t speaking English or just his fast he was talking. “Woah woah woah, slow down. Who’s killing people?” Steve managed to translate it in his head faster than it came out of his mouth.
He had to ask in English so the other children could explain.
It would later come up when everyone was asking Dustin when he learned Italian to which he replied that he grew up speaking as well. Just another thing that connect them as brothers.