[ The sky is blue, water is wet, Steve Harrington managed to put his foot in his mouth in a way he wasn't aiming for.

Branch's response is enough to soften his tone out, at least. ]

Hey, man. If I didn't think that shit was the most important thing to take care of, I wouldn't keep trying to do it.

[ Trying. Steve has to add the qualifier at this point, keep trying. Because he has to think about what happened to Max and Lucas and Erica when he wasn't there last time. What happened to Dustin and Eddie when he wasn't there. He has to think about every time he's screwed up keeping his collection of weirdos safe: wrong place, wrong time, wrong fight to pick, whatever.

'It could just be that people really admire you for that.'

Cool. He doesn't deserve it. ]

Guess it's better than four shirts about me being a dick, anyway.