Chapter Text
Steve tries to convince himself that what he is about to do isn't a weird thing, it just isn't what people normally do.
That doesn't stop him from looking at the red 'sign up!' button like it has personally offended him.
Robin had been the one to suggest it after, in her opinion, he had been whining about having a hard time now that his asshole of a father decided to stop funding him, Steve definitely hadn't been whining, he was just making an observation.
"There are people that have it much worse" she had told him, rolling her eyes as if what he was saying was funny, "you're pretty tough, so just stop complaining and go find a sugar daddy that's interested". So, after a long and embarrassing explanation of what a sugar daddy was and why Steve would want one, even if he already had a dad, she had given him a link in case he was interested.
In a rush to put the small piece of paper in his back pocket before anyone could notice, although the only people in the back room where the two of them, he had forgotten to ask her why she had something like that memorized and ready to share, maybe he would ask next time.
Which is the whole reason why he is sitting in front of the computer reading all his replies over again and making sure he didn't miss any of them by accident, Steve can feel his face go warm once he reaches the bottom of the page. It's not as if the questions are evasive, just personal for him.
He does end up checking the 'male' option as a gender he is attracted to, quickly signing up before he can change his mind.
It opens a new page, informing him that the request has been sent and they will get back at him once there's a match.
It sounds professional, which wasn't something that he was expecting coming from these sorts of websites but then again, he doesn't think Robin would suggest a website that she didn't think was trustworthy.
Steve looks at the time, it reads 10:30pm and he has to get up earlier if he wants to make it for work on time, so he shuts the computer off. He still feels weird looking at the small room he's currently renting and can't help but miss his old house, his parent's house, the fact that he doesn't have to see them anymore reassures him, even if just a bit.
***
The next few days seem to blur together and he all but forgets about the website once it becomes apparent, he isn't going to be getting that e-mail anytime soon. It wasn't as if he was expecting to get any in the first place because that would mean someone is interested in him and no matter how nice Robin could be, she was his friend and she was just trying to lift his spirits up.
He hadn't dated anyone since he had broken up with Nancy, which had been months ago, and it doesn't seem it was going to change anytime soon. So Steve continues working on his shitty job and changes the conversation anytime Robin tries to ask him if he took her advice if she notices it she doesn't mention it, and he isn't sure how to handle the look of pity once he explains it.
It's a great plan. He just forgets how pushy and direct she can be once she wants information from someone and that means trapping Steve in the backroom once they are on break.
Steve absolutely does not shriek when she comes from behind him and closes the door.
"Did you sign up?" He opens his mouth to reply, but apparently, Robin doesn't need an answer because she simply stares at his face before continuing, "This is great! Don't forget who helped you once a rich guy is buying you whatever you want alright?"
"I don't have a rich guy," he says, feeling ashamed of saying it out loud.
"You don't have a rich guy yet, it takes time for things to get verified or else it wouldn't work and - you know this right?" she gives him an annoyed look before he even shakes his head because, no, of course, he didn't know that. "Listen up you dingus, first of all, you should start reading things before accepting them! Because if you read it then you would know this is a selective website and it takes time. Is this why you have been mopping around? It is isn't it? You're every rich guy wet dream, well, most of them at least, now get up and go back to work."
"I'm not," he says, although Steve is pretty sure she isn't listening to him, "every rich guy wet dream."
It does make him feel more relaxed and less anxious whenever he is checking his e-mail, it's stupid to carry so much about those type of things but it hurts his pride to think that no one is interested enough to send him a message.
If he just deleted his profile and pretended like it never happened then he would stop expecting someone to be interested, it would be the sensible thing and yet he still gives himself a few more days before he does it.
On a beautiful sunny day where Steve would want nothing more than to be at the pool, things start taking a path that he wasn't expecting and he finds himself wanting to yell at Robin for letting him go through with this idea.
He does tell her, but his voice is nowhere near what could be considered yelling and he's closer to looking like a kicked puppy complaining about his problems.
"I told you so," she says before shrugging her shoulder, "are you complaining about being too pretty?" before turning around and greeting a client.
Does he feel mortified for ever doubting Robin and complaining to her about not having people interested in him? He had no idea what he was thinking back then, maybe his break-up with Nancy had been worse than he had imagined.
Because now he's whining about the number of messages he's receiving. He hadn't expected for things to get sexual in the first message that people sent to him, Steve wasn't even sure if he was interested in having sex or commit to the type of kinks that came with having a fucking sugar daddy and he had been open about it on his profile but it didn't seem as if anyone cared to read it.
So he had decided to just delete it for real without telling Robin, there was no way Steve would be able to explain to her the reason why he had done it. It was pointless to have a profile there when no one seemed bothered enough to read the whole thing before sending him obscene messages.
Except after three awful days of being harassed by strangers and spending most of the time deleting messages, there's finally an e-mail that catches his attention. Two e-mails and he almost jumps out of the bed to check if there's been a mistake.
Because 1) those messages were sent at 3:00 in the morning and 2) someone just sent him $500 on PayPal and that has to be a mistake because Steve isn't supposed to get paid anytime soon. So he opens his laptop, squinting his eyes before turning the brightness down and logs into his PayPal account so he can check. It isn't a mistake, someone named Billy just sent him that amount of money and left a message attached to it.
"Enough for more pictures of you in that uniform, princess?"
And he isn't sure how to react to that, he doesn't enjoy being called princess when he's clearly a guy but it isn't a rant about how he wants to fuck him in whatever scenario people imagine him and the guy isn't even asking for sexual pictures. It's just a couple of pictures, he can do that. There's still a couple of hours before he has to pick up Dustin and take him for lunch, that's more than enough for him to take a couple of pictures to send to Billy.