#starts us at silver cat feeds then says when blue meets yellow in the west

[chirpsythismorning]

Yeah there’s gonna be plenty of little details in s5 confirming byler, but there’s one thing in particular that I feel like would be too hilarious to pass up on…

[demi-god77]

BYLER GATES: A GUIDE

(Explaining all the different theories, for anyone who is also lost with how many there are)

THE BIG 4

Flickergate: This theory involves a lot of time shenanigans and is connected to the Will having powers in s5 one (possibly manipulation of time or electricity). Theory claims Will and Mike will kiss in the UD, specifically outside Mike's garage, paralleling 1x01. Will is going to tell the truth at the same time his s1 self is ("it was a seven"), causing the garage light to flicker on Nov. 6th 1983.

Birthdaygate: This theory suggests that the Duffers didn't actually forget Will's birthday is March 22nd (the day of the rink-o-mania incident). It claims that Vecna is actually manipulating the characters' memories (possibly even Will's), making them forget his birthday in the process, maybe in an attempt to make him feel excluded/lonely and making him vulnerable. (Similar to the beginning of Harry Potter and the chamber of secrets, which happened to be on the inspo board for S4)

But also the Creel murders themselves happened on March 22nd.

Churchgate: More UD kiss related theories! This one claims Will is going to get Vecna'd or possessed in the Upside Down church (and that he's going to hurt/choke Mike in the process). With a crazy amount of religious symbolism, Mike would be the one breaking him out of his trance, through a kiss or a confession.

(More thorough explanation here.)

Lettergate: This gate's truthers believe that Mike did actually write to Will in the time period between s3 and s4, but never sent the letters. Said letters (signed "Love, Mike") are going to make an appearance in s5, revealing his true feelings. (Great post that has to do with this gate here)

Also related to:

OTHER GATES

Pocketgate: Very connected to Lettergate™️, this theory has to do with Mike's infamous triangle shaped pocket in S4. It suggests that the letter signed Love, Mike is hidden in said pocket throughout s4, since it very closely resembles an envelope. Triangles have also been used in ST as a queer symbol (with Robin) and Mike's pocket consistently points to Will like an arrow.

Phonegate: Kinda similar to the previous two, this gate claims Mike did actually call the Byers in Lenora. For some reason, the calls didn't go through, either because of Joyce's telemarketer job OR because of Vecna manipulating things again (cough, birthdaygate, cough).

This is backed up by one of Dustin's lines, saying that the Byers' phone line is always busy and Mike won't stop complaining about it. We know he must have been calling WILL, since the whole reason he was communicating with El using letters is that they couldn't talk on the phone.

Loverslakegate: Related to Lovers' lake (obviously). The lake is shaped like a heart, tying into its name, but it was split in two after the gates opened, now resembling a broken one (and Mike is ofc referred to as "the heart" so it could be a reference to him).

According to this theory, Mike and Will are going to kiss/become lovers near said lake/Reefer Rick's house.

Heartgate: To put it simply: Heart reflections EVERYWHERE. This one is better explained through pictures:

Also: Different heartgate but really interesting

Colorgate: I don't think I have to explain this one tbh but anyway

Blue meets yellow in the west.

Mike and Will have been HEAVILY associated with blue and yellow respectively since the beginning of the show (even wearing eachother's colours in both of their arguments). There's an insane amount of evidence that backs this one up.

It's speculated that the Russian code in s3 was foreshadowing for s4 ("The silver cat feeds when Blue meets Yellow in the west") Silver cat: Vecna who started killing when Mike (Blue) met Will (Yellow) in the west (California, literally west of Indiana)

Curtaingate: "They don't spent their lives trying to get a look at what's behind the curtain [...] They like the curtain. It provides them comfort, stability, definition" -Murray 2x05

Mike and El are pretty consistently framed in front of CLOSED (and more often than not, yellow) curtains, or ones that have closed blinds. According to this theory, closed curtains represent not being honest with one's true feeling. So, the truth about Mike's feelings is beyond the curtain and in s5 he will open it (and come out)

Motelgate: This one has to do with the dreaded two day time skip at the end of S4. Theory claims the Cali crew stayed at a motel during that time skip and the scenes were cut for time, but we'll flash back to them in s5. It's based on a photo a production assistant posted from the New Mexico filming, as well as some bts pics of the Cali Crew playing board games in a motel.

Shoegate: In S4, we see a pair of Will's shoes in his bedroom. In s5, Mike seems to be wearing that exact pair. This, in addition to the fact that they wear the same shoe size (a 10 according to their rollerskates from 4x02), lead people to theorize they will share clothes/shoes in s5. More importantly though, this theory suggests Mike is figuratively being put into Will's shoes (maybe pining?). Also, both of them wear the same shoes they wore in s2. Interestingly enough though, even though the design is the same, the colors are reversed (so their roles will be reversed too).

Possessiongate: This one runs DEEP so I'm going to link a bunch of posts

To put it VERY simply: this theory claims Vecna somehow attached himself to Mike (maybe when the vine grabbed him by the leg in the S2 tunnels- right before he started acting weird in s3 and s4) and he has been influenced/possessed for some time now.

He's not the dungeon master anymore, he's not in control. Both in s3 and s4 someone ELSE is the DM when they play D&D (Will and Eddie respectively)

More here and here

Victimgate: Very closely related to the previous one, this one suggests that MIKE was originally supposed to be Vecna's 4th victim instead of Patrick. Since Max escaped the first time, SHE ended up being the last victim but the original plan was for it to be Patrick. However, Patrick's curse doesn't fit the theme of all of the previous ones. We only see one of his visions, he gets cursed for ONE DAY, as opposed to the other 3 that are cursed for almost a week and we also know very little about him, even though we gradually knew more about the previous victims. Chrissy (no relation to main characters) -> Fred (friends w/ Nancy) -> Max (main character who we've known since s2)

More thorough explanation here

Twelvegate: This one is not really Byler related but i wanted to include it anyway

Theory claims Will was one of the lab kids (specifically 012) and him and El are actual twins. There are mentions of Will and El looking similar since s1, and a lot of twin imagery.

This theory obviously ties in with the Will having powers one and some people believe he wasn't 012, but him and El have a deeper connection/may be actually related. It could theoretically explain Henry's connection to Will, as well as things like El seemingly recognizing him in s1.(Alternatively called rainbowshipgate, because of the rainbow ship drawing Joyce mentions in s2 and the rainbow room)

Eightfifteengate: Again, not explicitly Byler but it's quite crazy.

TL;DR: The time 8:15 seems to have great significance in the show and it's mentioned all the time, if not by the characters themselves, (Eg. "It's 8:15, you're late"- El s2) then by small details in the background. There's even a whole track named after it.

Will left the Wheelers' house at 8:15 and it's the EXACT timestamp of his disappearance in 1x01. It's also the time in which most of the UD related weirdness happens and so it's very likely the UD is stuck on 8:15. (Also you know, 15-8=7)

Radiationgate: Related to the previous one! Clocks in Chernobyl are stuck on 8:15 and Hiroshima has been described figuratively as being frozen in time. Henry has burns identical to Chernobyl victims and almost all of his + his victims' symptoms can be explained through radiation exposure. As this post explains, for radiation levels between 8.3-11 Gy (SI unit for absorbed radiation), symptoms start with headaches and disorientation, move on to unconsciousness and bleeding (the exact symptoms of his victims) and finally, death happens at around 7 days (which is about how long Vecna's curse lasts AND how long Will was in the UD for)

Whiterabbitgate: The song "White Rabbit" is the first song in the show and it plays when we first get a sense of El's powers. Theory suggests it will also be the last song in the show (coming full circle) with either Will using his powers, or Willel using their powers together.

In general though, ST has a lot of similarities/parallels to Alice in Wonderland. The white rabbit constantly being late (Mike is late to something at the start of every season), great significance to clocks/ticking/time, a lot of hallucinations/visions, the overall similarities between the Upside Down and Wonderland. Henry's sister was literally named Alice Creel and there is SO much rabbit imagery throughout the show. There are also direct references to AIW with set pieces and paintings.

Soundtrackgate: This one has to do with the Stranger Things OST and the overall insane musical symbolism throughout the show. A lot of different theories talk about the show's soundtrack, but this one talks about 3 tracks in particular: Being Different, The First Lie, The First I love You

To put it briefly: "The First I love You" plays in both Robin's coming out scene and El's kiss with Mike at the end of s3 (Already a weird parallel). The three tracks not only share the same melody, but they also sync up perfectly. "Being Different" (s4 van scene) and "The First Lie" (Nancy and Jonathan's kiss in s2) especially, match up together to create an entirely new track, completing eachother. The scenes featuring those three tracks also share very similar themes at their core. (This post goes into a lot of detail!)

Playlistgate: Character playlists! At a certain point, every character's official playlist on Spotify was deleted, except for three: Mike's, Will's and Billy's. Songs were seemingly being added/deleted for no reason to the Mike and Will ones and people were struggling to make sense of it all.

Also, Mike's character playlist in particular is VERY interesting (so many byler coded songs, as well as "Smalltown Boy" a gay anthem, about a young gay boy forced to leave his home town to escape from their disapproval and homophobia.) There are three playlists on Finn's spotify that are very incriminating. "Love songs" (That has "BOYS DON'T CRY" on it, a song that Will literally has a poster of in his room), "drive" and the most recent one "STurn". These playlists feature songs like "Let her go", "Angst in my pants", "Me and Michael", "Gay thoughts" just to name a few. Basically a lot of the songs on all four playlists seem very relevant to some complicated feelings about Mike's relationship with El/Will but also with himself and his sexuality.

Scriptgate: Oh boy. Here we go.

On August 5th 2022, the byler fandom got #bylerscript trending worldwide on Twitter while waiting for the 8flix account (run by Nick Runyeard) to release some supposed s4 scripts (that people PAID for, mind you). These scripts dropped on August 8th, featuring lines like: "I hate who I am" from Will in the van scene, "His mouth dry, like a California summer" from the bedroom apology scene and also, Will seemingly recognizing Brenner at NINA, despite never meeting him in canon.

These turned out to be fake and the community was in shambles. Nick started calling people psychos, the Stranger Writers tweeted that everyone got scammed, Nick privated his account and the authenticity of some released s2-s3 scripts was questioned. This post explains the entire situation in detail.

Breathgate: This one is also script related and specifically about a Mike/Max parallel.

In the official van scene script, when Mike sees Will's painting "his breath catches." Then, when Lucas asks Max to the Friday movie date, "(her) breath catches" as well. People caught on that parallel very fast and since the latter is obviously a romantic moment, it boosted their confidence for both Byler and Lumax endgame.

Piggybackgate: This one refers to two different situations/theories.

One, the seemingly deliberate framing of Mike and Will inside the little bubble in El's piggyback drawing (and it referening to Byler). The framing is especially suspicious, because the bubble drawing was drawn two separate times (it's different from one shot to the other). In the second shot, they're framed directly inside of it.

Two, Mike in his monologue essentially piggybacking off of Will's van confession. His monologue was going off of El's feelings, but since they weren't actually El's, the speech was based on Will's feelings. It also ties in with the parallel/foreshadowing between the monologue and Suzie's house, with Will being paralleled to the "director" kid, directing a "choking" Tabitha and their dad (more thorough explanation here).

THE SILLIES

(aka the joke-theories/memes)

Miniongate: Mike and Will are secretly minions. (Because you know, minions are primarily blue and yellow)

This information will be revealed to us in s5 and they will have a magical girl-esque transformation where we see their true minion form. (Original post here)

Localvillagegate: Related to the leaked Mike and El rooftop scene.

Basically, a mlvn used AI to lip read the scene and try to figure out what Mike is saying (and then posted the video on Twitter).

According to them, Mike was telling El they were going to leave the local village (AKA Hawkins) together and travel to a beautiful faraway land with "like, three waterfalls or something" (and also that she has to "improve her motivation", whatever that means).

People thought it was hilarious and started making a ton of memes based on it.

Parrotgate: This is directly connected to localvillagegate™️ and it was created by @cloudycleric in one of his streams.

Basically, the parrots are gay and represent Will and Mike, who in s5 will kiss under the three waterfalls depicted on the image.

Backgroundguygate: People making headcanons and creating backstories for random extras. The star of this gate is Barrett, an extra from the Lenora high school, who wears a barrette, bright red pants and a shirt that says "Hell".

According to this gate, he's actually gay and in love with Will. He has a goth best friend named Claire who is a lesbian and in love with El.

Chancegate: The theme of shipping Will with random extras continues on strong

Chance is one of Jason's friends and part of the basketball team. People thought he was attractive and somewhere along the line started making headcanons for him and shipping him with Will (Bychance). Basically, they're gonna date and Mike will be jealous.

Mikhailgate: More shipping Will with randoms! (I'm beginning to see a pattern here)

Originally created by @paladin-n-cleric

Enzo in S4 mentions his son, Mikhail Antonov. Mikhail is the Russian name for Micheal.

People started making jokes that Mikhail would arrive to Hawkins from Russia in s5 and shipped him with Will (Willhail), since he's like Mike but Russian and cooler. They made fanart, edits and posted pictures of Finn as Boris in "The Goldfinch" claiming it's Mikhail.

@will80sbyers then begun to ship Mikhail with El and thus the ship "Jail" was born.

Baldmikegate: Did you know Mike is actually bald and is bullied for it? Well, now you do.

In 2022, a cult was born and the byler tag was filled with edited pictures of Bald!Mike. Terrifying honestly.

Some people made posts about how the rest of the party feels about Mike's secret baldness and some even wrote FANFICS.

Gridgate/whiteboardgate/pixelgate: The Stranger Writers posted a picture of a pixelated/blurred whiteboard that had the entirety of s5 mapped out. People were desperately trying to decode it and figure out what was written on it.

On the space for episode 7, there was a "big black hole" that people went crazy trying to make sense of, only for it to be revealed as a pen holder.

Babygirlgate: The babygirlification of Mike Wheeler. That's it. That's the gate.

I think pretty much every line Will has ever said to Mike has been posted with the word "babygirl" replacing his name (it's hilarious and I love it)

Some examples here and here

Mattduffersbasementgate: Finn and Joe made up a third Duffer brother named Pete, who has no hair for some reason and is the actual writer of Stranger Things, while Matt and Ross are just the faces of it. Pete lives in a shed/Matt's basement and that's where he writes all of the scripts.

Finn and Noah are both also being held in Matt's basement however, and they're not allowed to leave so that they don't spoil byler endgame.

I definitely missed some gates, but omg this took SO LONG

(this post is for you @felix-fathoms @bibylers)

[strawberrybyers]

so i’ve been wondering about the imagery of the cats throughout stranger things, right?? so of course i turn to google and type in “cats and lgbt community in the 80s” and came across an article about the gay bar called “The Black Cat”. The events that took place at The Black Cat was pre-stonewall and was actually a significant moment for the lgbt community. what happened at The Black Cat helped start organizations like PRIDE.

here’s screenshots of the article explaining it

what i also find interesting is that the image used for the black cat bar is basically the same type of cat as the cat clock in mrs. driscoll’s house in stranger things??

and we know that “the week is long. the silver cat feeds when blue meets yellow in the west. a trip to china sounds nice if you tread lightly.” it’s already been decoded that “the week is long” = spring break, “the silver cat feeds” = vecna/mindflayer, “blue meets yellow in the west” = mike going to california, and “a trip to china” has been said it’s another way of saying “digging a hole to china” because that phrase is used when a hole that has been dug so deep, it seems like you could go to the other side of the world . so “a trip to china” = the upside down.

so i think my hunt for the feline imagery meaning is over. cats are everywhere because vecna/mindflayer has always been watching. he’s never left. even the image of mrs. driscoll and the cat seems to be saying “she’s the next target and time is ticking before the silver cat (vecna/mindflayer) feeds”. so yeah, the cats symbolize vecna/mindflayer and the lgbt community because it’s been theorized that henry was queer and the mindflayer first targeted will, who is gay, and now season 5 is theorized that vecna will go after mike, another queer. so yup more proof stranger things is gay as hell 😭

[dwobbitfromtheshire]

From Hell to Home to Back Again

Summary: At the talent show, Chrissy Cunningham is so hungry that she nearly collapses. When she's found by Hopper, her parents ended up losing custody of her. She ends up being placed in the care of the Hendersons, and she finally finds the family she so desperately needed. She also ends up falling in love. What other changes are made in this alternate universe?

@emen-98 @1lostsoul0fishbowl @vulpixsworld

Prologue . . . Chapter Twenty-Six

Chapter Twenty-Seven

"The week is long. The silver cat feeds when blue meets yellow in the west," Chrissy, Robin, Ronnie, Dustin, Steve and Eddie read together.

They had finally gotten the message translated. It was long after closing, and all the customers had left. They were the only ones left in Scoops Ahoy and in the mall. Chrissy still felt that sense of fear that something was wrong with Heather. It lingered in the back of her mind no matter how many times she reassured herself. She promised herself to call the Holloways when she got home. Hopefully it was nothing.

"It just can't be right," Steve said as he closed Scoops Ahoy.

"It's right," Robin replied.

"I think it's great news," Dustin said.

"How is this great news? So much for being American heroes?" Steve asked. "It's nonsense."

"You guys want to be American heroes?" Chrissy asked in amusement.

"It certainly would change people's perspectives of us," Eddie said and sighed. "As much as I try not to care about that. . ."

Chrissy and Eddie's hands swung together as they walked through the empty mall. Since no one else was here, Robin and Ronnie were doing the same. It was strange being in the mall alone at night. It made the hairs on Chrissy's neck stand up.

"It's not nonsense. It's very specific. It's obviously a code," Dustin said.

"What do you mean a code?" Steve asked.

"Like a super secret spy code," Dustin exclaimed.

"That's a total stretch," Steve said.

"I don't know, is it?" Robin asked. "I mean, after all that we have been through? With, you know, Higgins selling drugs to kids, Billy putting Chrissy in the hospital. . .Eddie's house blowing up because his father got him involved in a drug heist. . .and other things. . .okay, so let's say this is a secret Russian transmission, what do you think they're going to say? Blow the warheads at noon?"

"Yeah, okay, so you have a point," Steve frowned.

"She usually does," Ronnie said and then frowned. "I'm just going to ignore the other things that you won't tell me about. I trust you, I guess."

Robin looked guiltily at her and then shared a look with Chrissy. She looked back with sympathy, knowing how much you wanted to talk with your partner about these things but also knowing you couldn't. Robin quickly changed the subject back to the secret message, discussing with Dustin what it might mean. Meanwhile, Ronnie stared at her suspiciously. Chrissy had been watching them so closely that she didn't even notice that Steve had fallen behind. They found him putting quarters into a little horsey ride for kids. He fumbled with his change and cursed as it spilled all over the floor.

"Hey! I need a quarter," Steve said.

"Are you sure you're tall enough for that ride?" Robin asked and Eddie snorted with laughter.

"QUARTER!" Steve yelled urgently and Robin tossed him one.

They all watched him as he put the quarter in to start the machine.

"Need help getting up, little Stevie?" Robin asked, and Dustin laughed.

"Would you two just shut up and listen?" Steve asked as he pointed at the Indiana Flyer.

"Holy shit," Dustin realized. "The music. . .the music!"

"It was on the tape!" Chrissy gasped.

"Shit, nice catch, Stevie," Eddie said and clapped him on the shoulders.

"I don't understand," Robin said.

"It's the exact same song on the recording," Dustin told her.

"Maybe they have these in Russia," Robin said.

"An Indiana Flyer? I don't think so," Steve said.

"This code. It didn't come from Russia. It came from here," Steve said.

They all stared at the rocking horse in shock. Russians in Hawkins? No fucking way. Chrissy shared a look with Eddie. Well, there was another world under Hawkins. . .why not Russians, too?

"No way, that's insane. Russians in Hawkins, you've got to be shitting me," Ronnie said. "What would they be doing here? This is a joke, right?"

"Oh, yeah. Total joke. Got you!" Robin chuckled weakly.

"Okay, babe, you're a terrible liar," Ronnie said. "What the fuck is going on? What aren't you telling me?"

"What? I'm not - I am telling you the truth!" Robin exclaimed.

"I don't think any of you have been telling me the truth since Chrissy was put into the hospital," Ronnie sighed. "But whatever, if you don't want to tell me what's going on. Fine."

Ronnie walked off, far ahead of them. Robin watched her, looking sadly at her retreating form.

"She's not going to let this one go, is she?" Robin asked.

"She's Ronnie Ecker. Of course she isn't," Eddie said. "I hate lying to her, too."

Eddie put his arm around Robin and hugged her tightly. Steve moved to her side.

"Hey, if Nancy and I can get through this, then so can you and Ronnie," Steve said. "She's just mad because she cares about you, about all of us."

That night, they all went home with their thoughts running wild. Chrissy went to the phone and immediately called the Holloways.

"Hi, Mrs. Holloway," Chrissy greeted cheerfully.

She never really had a problem with her, but her husband, on the other hand. . .he was a real meathead. She knew Heather hated how much her mother drank, though, because of him.

"Oh, hello, Chrissy, how are you?" She greeted politely.

"Oh, I'm good, Mrs. Holloway," Chrissy said. "How are you?"

"Well, some days are better than others but I'm getting by," she said.

"That's good. . .well, I was calling to check on Heather to see how working at the pool went," Chrissy said.

"Oh, she absolutely loved it until that awful Billy fellow started working there. I know how much he bothers her. You're such a good friend for checking on her," Mrs. Holloway said. "Heather isn't here right now. She's spending the night at Tina's, I think. Hopefully, my baby will be a good influence on that girl."

Chrissy rolled her eyes. If only she knew. . .which she didn't. Heather's mother was usually too deep in her own problems to notice what was going on with her daughter. She didn't even know Heather was a lesbian or that she and Chrissy used to date. After talking with her for a while, Chrissy was finally released from the conversation and hung up the phone. She went to her room and plopped on her bed, feeling a sense of relief. Heather was with Tina. So. . .why did she still feel so worried? Chrissy rolled over and hugged Peggy to her chest, letting Eddie inside her head. She drifted off to sleep with Eddie's presence washing over her.

The next day, Chrissy was dragged to Scoops Ahoy by her very annoying brother. Robin was leaning against the counter with headphones over her ears as she looked over the translation again. Meanwhile, Steve was busy trying to cover for her. The last customer walked away, and the Hendersons took their place at the counter.

"Ready to scout the area for any. . .enemies?" Dustin asked cheerfully.

"Yeah, just hold on," Steve said as he took off his hat and apron.

"Oh, hey, I didn't ask. . .how's Nancy doing at the Newspaper?" Dustin asked.

"Oh, well, she actually has an investigation of her own going on. Something about the rats going crazy and eating fertilizer. . .I don't know what that's about, but Nancy's determined to crack the case even if those stupid misogynistic assholes at the paper try to stop her," Steve replied.

"Well, I'm sure Nancy will show them," Dustin said.

"Yeah, she's great like that," Steve said smiling fondly.

"STEVIE! DUSTY!" they heard a voice yell.

Eddie skidded into the ice cream parlor with a pair of binoculars around his neck. Breathing heavily, he stood in front of Dustin and Steve. He was wearing his cutoff shorts again and a stolen polo of Steve’s. He had torn off the sleeves as well. Eddie was wearing a bright pink scrunchy of Chrissy's in his hair. It wasn't that strange. They had all stolen each other's clothes from everyone amongst their friend group. Gareth had stolen a couple of pieces from Jeff and Eddie. One of them was a red flannel that he cut the sleeves off. Robin either stole from Tina or from Ronnie or Steve. Nancy, Chrissy, and Heather usually swap amongst each other. Robin always joked that no one would be able to tell if anyone was cheating. It was just something that they did.

"Jesus, I don't think the entire mall heard you, Eds," Steve said sarcastically. "Might want to yell a little louder."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. . .Reporting for duty, captain," Eddie said, and Chrissy cleared her throat. "Oh, hey, Chrissy. . .what are my orders?"

"And he greeted me like I wasn't his fucking girlfriend," Chrissy pouted.

"Oh, shit, no! Hi, my love!" Eddie exclaimed. "I swear I'm just excited about the quest."

"I'm really worried that you really are going to leave me for Steve," Chrissy said.

"What?! No, I love you!" Eddie yelped. "Baby, listen. . ."

Eddie pressed his forehead against hers, and she smiled as she felt his love for her pour through their connection. Chrissy sighed happily.

"I love you, too," She said and paused. "Okay, I've decided. You can go play your little spy game with Dustin and Steve."

"Yes!" Eddie exclaimed and kissed her deeply, pouring everything he had into the kiss.

Chrissy watched him fondly as he took off with her brother and Steve as they went to look for evil Russians. Ronnie had entered just as they had exited.

"Do I want to know?" Ronnie asked.

"No," Ronnie and Chrissy said.

"I came here with him, but the asshole took off when we came through the door," Ronnie said. "I figured he was excited to see you, Chrissy."

"At the end of the day, he'll come running to me when he tires himself out," Chrissy giggled and stepped aside to let Ronnie approach the counter.

"Are we okay?" Robin asked Ronnie.

"I thought a lot about it last night, and I can't force you to tell me if you're not ready to. It's just frustrating not knowing what's going on with the people I love," she said.

"I'm sorry, I wish I could tell you," Robin said softly.

"Well, that makes me feel a little better," Ronnie said. "I love you."

"I love you too," she said. "Does it make you feel even better to know that I wish I could kiss you?"

"It does. . .you still working on that message?" Ronnie asked.

"Yeah."

"Let me help."

" . . . A trip to China sounds nice if you tread lightly," Robin read the other part of the message to her.

Ronnie leaned against the counter, frowning thoughtfully. Yeah, Chrissy couldn't figure it out either. Before Ronnie could open her mouth, Erica Sinclair marched her and her friends into the parlor to take advantage of their company policy. Ronnie and Chrissy moved back to let Robin deal with her. Once that was done, they went back to it until a delivery guy dropped off a package for Scoops Ahoy, and that's when Robin connected the dots. The message was talking about the stores in the mall. It was a time and place for them to meet or to drop something off. Chrissy and Ronnie had stared at her like she was crazy as she stood up tall in the middle of the mall. Although, Ronnie looked at her more appreciatively. They had run into the guys on the way out, and they had followed after them.

"I cracked it," Robin said. "I cracked the code."

It was how they later ended up looking down at the back end of Starcourt wearing raincoats late at night as the rain came pouring down on them.

"The things I do for you," Ronnie muttered, and Chrissy giggled.

"There's your Russians," Robin said.

"What do you think in there?" Steve asked, talking about the boxes they were moving.

"Guns? Bombs?" Dustin asked.

"Chemical weapons," Robin said.

"Dragons," Eddie said, and they all looked at him. "What? Like that idea is totally out of the realm of possibility?"

"Well, whatever it is, they're armed to the teeth," Dustin said as he looked through Eddie's binoculars.

"Great, that's great," Steve said.

They watched as the Russians down below opened a set of double doors to put boxes inside a room.

"It's just more boxes," Dustin said.

Of course, Steve and Dustin had to fight over the binoculars. Their tussle ended up causing a ruckus and alerted the armed guards. They all quickly ducked for cover, and Chrissy squeezed Eddie's hand with hers. She noticed Robin, Ronnie, and Steve doing the same. They managed to make their way safely back inside and out of the rain.

"Well, I think we found your Russians," Robin told Steve.

"Holy shit! Russians really have invaded Hawkins. . .what the fuck?!" Ronnie exclaimed. "I mean, why would they come here of all places? What's so special about Hawkins?"

Chrissy shared an uneasy look with her brother, Eddie, Robin, and Steve. Ronnie definitely didn't miss the way the way they all tensed up, and she let out a frustrated yell.

"Still excited about your quest?" Chrissy asked Eddie.

"Not so much," Eddie said. "The minute I saw the guns. . ."

They all waited inside the ice cream parlor for the rain to let up, and then they all escaped the mall. Eddie offered to drive Dustin and Chrissy home, squeezing in the back of his van with their bikes. He dropped a quiet Ronnie off at her house, wincing as she slammed the door. Chrissy crawled into her spot.

"I hate when she's mad at me," Eddie nodded.

"She'll understand," Chrissy said softly.

"Is it really that much safer if she's left I'm the dark?" Eddie asked.

"We have no choice, Eddie, we all signed NDAs," Dustin spoke up.

"Yeah, I know," Eddie replied. "I just put her through hell before with lying to her and everything about what happened with my dad."

"Yeah, you put Chrissy through hell, too," Dustin said, narrowing his eyes at him. "Don't think that I forgot about that. Any, you can NOT tell because they'll cart all of us off to jail or juvie or foster care. Hell, maybe they'll kill all of us and cover it up. Whatever they do, I'd rather we keep our family together."

"Dustin!" Chrissy exclaimed.

"What? It's the truth!" He yelled.

"You could be a little more sensitive about it," Chrissy said.

"I don't know how anyone can soften the blow for that," he replied.

"By the way, I think you're being a little hypocritical for someone who ended up being the one that let it slip about all of this," Eddie said.

"That's exactly why I'm saying this, Eddie! I did all that to impress a girl! I brought something dangerous into the house! It killed Mews, but it could have killed Chrissy or our mom or you! Bringing you into all of this, it's my fault. I can't stop you from following me and making sure I'm safe and we have no other choice but to stop these bastards from coming into our home! We have to cause as little damage as possible, and we can't worry about NDAs or worry about more people getting involved when they shouldn't!" Dustin yelled.

It got quiet in the van, and a moment later, they heard Dustin sniffling. Eddie stopped the van and turned around.

"I'm sorry, shrimp," Eddie said.

"I'm just tired," Dustin said softly as he rubbed his eyes. "I just don't want anything to happen to anyone, but I also want all the shit that we've been through to mean something."

Eddie leaned over to wrap his arms around Dustin, hugging him tightly.

"You've got the biggest heart of anyone that I have ever met," Eddie said. "Never change, Dustin Henderson."

"I won't," he said and sobbed into Eddie's shoulder.

"You don't have to carry this crap alone either," he said. "Okay?"

"Okay."

"We're going to get through this together," he said.

Chrissy watched them fondly and let them have their moment before wrapping her arms around both of them. After all the tears were shed, Eddie pulled away and started the van back up. When they pulled up in front of their house, Chrissy turned to her brother.

"Why don't you go in? I'll be there in a few minutes," Chrissy asked.

"Why? What are you going to do to Eddie?" Dustin asked.

"Do you really want to know?" Chrissy asked and Eddie snorted.

Dustin huffed, pulled the door open, and slammed it before storming into the house.

"I love you," Chrissy said softly to Eddie.

"I love you, too," he replied and paused. "You know that I don't want anything to happen to Ronnie either."

"I know that," Chrissy said. "And Dustin does too."

"Do you think the reason that the Russians are here is because of the Upside Down?" Eddie asked.

"I can't think of any other reason they'd be here," Chrissy said.

"Yeah," Eddie said. "Fuck!"

"I'm tired of this shit, too, Eddie," Chrissy sighed.

The wall that they had put up earlier was still there, and Chrissy could feel it now more than ever. She hugged him but they didn't kiss goodbye and as she walked to the front door, she couldn't help but wonder why she didn't kiss him. Maybe she was just too tired. When Chrissy entered the house, she found their mother fussing over Dustin and his wet clothes. Claudia had immediately turned on her as well. After drinking hot chocolate and watching some TV with their mother, they went off to bed. Dustin had nodded off on the couch and nearly spilled his hot chocolate. Chrissy crawled into bed and curled up with Peggy Munson. Thoughts of Russians, Eddie, and Heather filled her head. It was too late to call Nancy and talk about it all with her, Chrissy thought as she drifted off to sleep. Shit! Steve said something about Nancy investigating rats, and she had been dreaming about rats. Chrissy fell asleep before she could question it further.

Chrissy was falling, and she was falling fast. She was in the void, and she could hear someone calling her name.

"Chrissy?!"

"Heather?!"

She appeared before Chrissy, looking gaunt and scared, tears running down her face.

"I just wanted to help. I know he hurt you, and even though he did that, I couldn't help but reach out to him. . .but there's something wrong with him, Chrissy. There's something wrong with Billy, and I don't know where he brought me. I don't know where I am," Heather sobbed.

"Heather, what happened?" Chrissy asked.

"He attacked me, and there was this monster. . . ," she cried.

"What monster?" Chrissy asked.

Suddenly, the void and Heather disappeared. Chrissy was standing in an old abandoned house.

"Chrissy. . .she does NOT matter to you," a voice in the darkness called out to her. "She's unimportant, unlike me. . .you shall soon discover. . .where your heart truly belongs. . ."

A dark figure came rushing out at her, and vines wrapped around her body. Chrissy screamed. Darkness overcame her.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

[allthingsfangirl101]

Last-Minute Leverage–Steve Harrington

Steve's POV

I woke up, my head pounding. I looked over my shoulder to see Robin behind me.

"Hey," I said, my voice breaking. "You okay?"

"Me?" Robin chuckled. "You're the one who took a beating."

"It wasn't that bad," I shrugged and instantly cringed. "On second thought. . ."

I let my sentence drop when the door opened. Some weird guy in a uniform walked in with his hands folded behind him.

"I have one question for you," he said in a thick Russian accent. "Who do you work for?"

"Scoops Ahoy," Robin answered instantly. I laughed but the Russian didn't.

"I'm only going to ask nicely one more time," he threatened. "Who do you work for?"

"She already told you," I sighed dramatically. "We work for Scoops, Scoops Ahoy!"

"Fine," he scoffed. "I guess we're going to play this game."

He looked over his shoulder and nodded. Just then, the door opened and two men dragged in the last person I wanted to see them holding–my girlfriend.

"Oh shit," Robin mumbled.

"Y/N," I gasped. I tried to stand up but forgot I was tied down. "What are you doing with her?" I asked through my teeth.

"How do you say. . . Motivation." The Russian Captain smirked.

The men holding Y/N dragged her toward us. I angrily grunted when they practically threw her down.

"Hey!" I yelled. "Be careful! You're going to hurt her!"

"We'll do a lot worse if you don't answer my question," Russian Captain warned.

I looked down when Y/N mumbled. She slowly started waking up. My heart jumped into my throat when she slowly started waking up. As she sat up, she looked at me.

"Steve?" She stuttered, her eyes widening. "What's going. . ."

The Russian Captain grabbed her and pulled her to her feet. She looked at him and then looked back at me. She gasped and I screamed as the Russian Captain pulled out his gun and held it to Y/N's head.

"I'm going to ask one more time," he said through his teeth. "Who do you work for?"

"No one!" I yelled. "We work at a damn ice cream shop."

My heart jumped into my throat when I heard the click.

"We heard a code," I stuttered out. "We accidentally heard a code over our radio. Please don't hurt her."

"What code?" He asked between his teeth.

I stuttered, not remembering the code. But luckily Robin remembered.

"The week is long," she started to recite. "The silver cat feeds when blue meets yellow in the west. Blah blah blah. You broadcast that stupid spy shit all over town and we picked it up on our Ceerebo. And we cracked it in a day. A day! You think you're so smart, but a couple of kids who scoop ice cream for a living cracked your code in a day. And now people know you're here."

The Russian Captain smirked as he threw Y/N to one of the guards and refolded his hands. "Thank you," he said in a voice that made my blood boil. I glanced at Y/N, wanting nothing more than to run to her and wrap her in my arms.

"Let's go," the Russian Captain ordered.

"No!" I yelled as they started to drag Y/N out of the room. "Get your hands off her!"

"Steve!" She gasped. She looked at me and the second our eyes landed on each other, she smiled.

"I love you."

My heart jumped into my throat as the door slammed shut.

"Whoa," Robin mumbled. "Is that the first time either one of you has. . ."

"She loves me," I whispered. "She just told me she loved me and I'm tied to a chair in this stupid sailor uniform. I can't even tell her I love her too."

                                * * * * *

"Alright, let's go."

"No!"

"Steve, we gotta go," Dustin sighed.

"We can't," I pushed. "They got Y/N."

"Wait, what?"

"They used her as leverage to get information," Robin explained.

"Did it work?" Erica asked.

"They pointed a gun at her," Robin said, her voice dropping to a whisper.

"Damn," Dustin sighed. He looked over at me, his eyes soft. "Don't worry, Steve, we'll find her."

We searched almost every room in this weird underground bunker and Y/N was nowhere to be found.

"Where is she?!" I yelled as I slammed another door closed to an empty room.

"We'll find her," Robin reassured.

"Hey!" We heard Erica yell. We shared a look before running around the corner. Just as we rounded the corner, Erica ran out of a room down the hall.

"She's in here."

I sprinted past her, into the room. The second I saw Y/N cowered in the corner, I felt like I was going to burst.

"Y/N," I whispered her name. Her head snapped up and her eyes filled with tears as she found me.

"Steve?"

I ran over and tore the ties off her hands. She quickly got to her feet and instantly jumped into my arms. I wrapped my arms tightly around her. As she snuggled into my chest, I could feel her shaking.

She slowly pulled out of our hug and looked up at me. She opened her mouth to say something, but I cut her off and pressed my lips to hers. She started kissing me back as we tightened our arms around each other.

I broke the kiss and leaned my forehead against hers.

"I love you too," I whispered.

"Umm. . . Guys?"

We turned around to see Robin, Dustin, and Erica in the doorway. "I really hate to break this up," Robin said without an ounce of sarcasm in her voice, "but we should really get out of here."

I refused to let go of Y/N's hand as we ran out of the facility and through the mall. The entire drive home, Y/N's hand stayed in mine. We dropped off Erica, then Dustin, and lastly Robin.

I was about to pull out of Robin's driveway but I turned and saw Y/N staring blankly ahead. I put the car in reverse and started heading to Y/N's house. I suddenly got a sinking feeling in my stomach.

"I want you to stay at my house tonight."

"Really?" She asked, looking at me.

"Y/N," I said, shakily, "when he pulled that gun out. . . It scared me. And I haven't been scared in a long time. He held that gun to your head and I started imaging what would happen if he pulled the trigger. I can't. . . I can't imagine losing you. I don't want to imagine it."

"You aren't going to lose me," she said softly.

"Well, I almost did and that's as close as I want to get to losing you."

Y/N leaned over and kissed my cheek.

"I'm not going anywhere," she said as she tightened her grip on my hand.

"I love you, Y/N," I whispered. "I love you so much."

"I love you too, Steve Harrington."

[alloftheimaginess]

I know someone

Word count: 1062

Warnings: none

"We're never going to solve this alone" Dustin says giving up and throwing the translation book on the table.

"You can't give up we're so close" Robin says running her hands over her face trying to keep herself awake.

"How are we close? We haven't even figured out a single word" Steve says running his hand through his hair frustrated that they've been at it all day and haven't gotten anywhere.

"I know someone, she's fluent in like 7 languages but you aren't going to like it" Dustin says sitting straight up.

"Who is it?" Steve asks propping his feet up on the table.

"It's (Y/n)" Dustin says trying to avoid eye contact with Steve.

"(Y/n)?" Robin asks and they both nod before looking to Robin.

"Steve's ex fling and my best friends older sister" Dustin tells Robin.

"And she speaks russian?" She asks and once again they both nod.

"Well what are we waiting for? Call her" Robin says and Dustin jumps up grabbing his walkie.

"(Y/n) do you copy, come through. Over" I hear Dustin say through Lucas' walkie.

"(Y/n/n). This. Is. A. Code. Red" he says pausing after every word and I go into lucas' room grabbing his walkie talkie and I press the button down.

"Dusty this is (y/n/n). Over" I say waiting for a response.

"(Y/n/n), I need you to meet me at scoops, I really need your help. Over" he says.

"I have to pick up Erica so I'll be there in 10. Over" I say turning it off and throwing it on his bed before walking out.

I walk into the mall and I see Erica and she starts to get up "stay put, I have to go help Dustin so you can stay here and hang out" I say and she nods sitting back down. I walk into scoops and Steve is standing at the front and he turns around opening the window.

"She's here" he says and the door opens and it's Dustin.

"Come back here" he says and I nod following him and I look around at the room and notice the board on the wall with the alphabet on it.

"What am I here for?" I ask super confused.

"We need your help translating" Steve says coming inside the back room.

"Translating what?" I ask looking between the three of them.

"Russian" the girl says.

"I'm sorry I didn't get your name" I say.

"Oh yeah it's Robin" she says smiling at me.

"(Y/n)" I say.

"I know" she says and I look back at the board.

"Is that what that is?" I ask pointing to it and Steve nods and I start laughing and he groans rolling his eyes.

"She's going to do this thing where she makes us feel stupid because we all can't graduate with the highest gpa or figure out some stupid language" he says.

"I was just going to say that Russian doesn't use the same alphabet as us" I say holding my hands up ignoring how much that actually hurt but I push it down.

"It's not my fault that you didn't know that" I shoot back while fixing it.

"Now what am I translating?" I ask sitting down at the table with Dustin and he presses play. I listen a few times.

"It says the week is long" I say listening to it again.

"The silver cat feeds when blue meets yellow in the west" I say.

"What else?" Dustin asks jumping up and writing it down.

"A trip to China sounds nice if you tread lightly" I say and I pause.

"What's this for?" I ask and no one answers me.

"Seriously after I just decoded this for you" I say and Dustin sighs.

"I was trying to talk to suzie and I picked up a Russian code and we had to see what it was because I think I picked up a secret code and we could be heroes" he says and I start laughing.

"Seriously" I say and I see Robin and Steve with straight faces so I stop laughing.

"Wait. Is this for real?" I ask and they all nod.

"Dusty just be careful, you're like a little brother to me and I would hate for anything to happen to you" I say and he nods and I turn to Steve.

"If anything happens to him, I promise on everything I will never let you live it down" I say standing up and I kiss Dustin's head and I nod at Steve and Robin before walking out.

I round the corner and I hear footsteps behind me and I stop and get knocked over by Steve and he tries to help me up but he trips, landing on top of me.

I look up at him "excuse me" I say nodding at him and he gets up.

"I just wanted to see if we could talk" he says.

"Why so you can just insult me for knowing something you don't or maybe shoot me down when I try to tell you that I'm in love with you" I say.

"(Y/n) I wanted to apologize" he says and I shake my head.

"It's fine" I say not wanting to talk to him.

"I'm in love with you and I have been for 7 fucking years and if you can't see that then I don't know what else to do. I was scared when you told me that you loved me because you are better than me and it couldn't have been real because why would you love me, I was just a dick" he says all in one breathe before taking a deep breath.

"I didn't want to hurt you but I didn't know what else to do so I ran and for that I am so sorry because you-" I quickly cut him off by kissing him just to shut him up.

"Get a room" I hear Erica say behind me and I laugh pulling away.

"You can make it up to me by taking me to dinner, I'm always hungry" I say and he quickly nods.

"And some flowers" Erica adds looping her arm through mine before pulling me off and I turn around smiling at him and he smiles at me before running back to work.

[strangerthingsharrington]

Can’t Fight This Feeling

-17-

The uniformed men filed into the room after the main guard stomped in. A couple guards lifted Steve and I back up and set our attached chairs up right.

"Let us go," I demanded, turning my head to look at the man.

He sneered at me, "No, no we're not going to do that," he told me before walking over to Steve's side of the chairs. I began squirming. I knew how bad his face looked when they threw me in here. I wouldn't let them do any more damage to him.

"Don't touch me," Steve warned.

The man laughed, "Will you stop me?"

"Hey!" I called, turning my upper body as much as I could, "don't touch him! You've done enough!"

"But we're talking to him," he told me, "I'm going to make him talk to me. Try telling me the truth this time. It will make your visit with Dr. Zharkov less painful."

Steve stayed silent on the other side and I heard the man chuckle.

A man wearing a white lab coat with a black apron over it turned and began walking towards Steve with a large needle in his hand that had blue liquid attached to it.

My stomach dropped realizing he was going to inject whatever that was into Steve. I began trying in vain to free myself but it was no use.

"Don't you dare," I yelled to him, "don't touch him!"

The man said something in Russian and I heard Steve with panic in his voice, "Wait a second. Hold on."

I saw the man in the apron walking back over to Steve and I tried to release my arms but I couldn't. I couldn't help him. My eye filled with tears and my stomach began knotting, I felt like I was going to puke everywhere.

"Okay! Wait, wait, wait!" Steve shouted, fearfully, "What is that thing?"

"It will help you talk," I heard someone say, assuming it was the man with the needle gun.

"Did you even clean that thing?" Steve asked before he began screaming. I heard the trigger being pulled and I knew they had stuck the needle into Steve.

My fingernails were digging into the arm of the chair, trying to give me leverage to release my arms but there was no way for me to get myself and Steve out. The man in the apron walked in front of me.

"No," I shouted, fighting the restraints, "get away from me!"

The man smiled at me, "This will help," he said before grabbing my head and moving it to the side, exposing my neck.

I began screaming and the tears rolled down my face. Was this it? Were they going to kill us by injecting something into us? Was this a drug? They wanted us to tell the truth, did this drug have something to do with it?

I felt the needle pierce the skin on my neck and instantly my body became hot. I squeezed my eyes closed as the pain shot through me.

I knew he had taken the needle out of my skin but the sensation was still there. My heart was beating harder than it ever had before.

I knew Steve was still moving behind me because I could feel him. Within a minute my brain started feeling foggy and the pain had pretty much disappeared.

The men left the room, leaving Steve and I alone. I was pretty sure that this drug wasn't going to kill us, which, given the circumstances, was a small positive.  At least not an instant kill and I could take that.

My body began to feel heavy. It was a weird feeling, I couldnt place it. I felt fuzzy all over. I couldn't keep track of all my thoughts, everything was racing through my head all at once.

Was Dustin okay? Did the three of them make it out of here? What was going to happen to Steve and I? Would we be found? Did they get to Hopper?

I didn't feel...bad? Something was definitely off but I couldn't place it.

I sighed deeply and leaned my head back gently, meeting the back of Steve's head.

I blinked slowly and let my heavy eyes roam around the room.

"Honestly, I don't really feel anything," Steve said suddenly, "Do you?"

I smiled, "I mean...I think I feel fine? Like...normal, maybe?"

"Yeah, I feel normal," he mused, "I kinda feel good."

I began to laugh as soon as the words left his mouth and he joined in. How did we feel okay after having needles shoved into our necks? How was that possible?

"Morons, they messed up the drugs!" Steve said through a laugh, causing me to laugh once again with him.

"They messed it up!" I laughed, shaking my head, "Morons! You messed up the drugs!" I taunted, leaning my head back, which pushed Steve's head down as he laughed with me.

"Morons! Morons! Morons!" I chanted through laughter.

"Whoa!" Steve called laughing.

My laughter trickled off and I knew that that there was absolutely something wrong with us.

"Steve, there's definitely something wrong with us," I told him with a small chuckle.

"Somethings wrong," he agreed with a small giggle.

I heard the buzzer and turned my head to the door when the main guard came through again, staring at us sternly.

I bit my lip to keep my laughing, but I flinched after realizing how swollen my bottom lip was after being slapped.

After the main guard came the doctor carrying a black leather bag with him, which he set on a table and began to open.

The main one came and stood right in front of me, I tried to lean back as far from him as possible.

He smirked at me before walking around us to Steve. I looked back to the doctor and saw him taking things out of the bag, metal instruments that he was placing on a separate metal tray. I wasn't sure what any of it was until I saw the huge knife he took out and inspected before putting it onto the tray.

"Let's try this again, hm?" the man asked from Steve's area to which Steve murmured in response to, "Who do you work for?"

I giggled slightly and shook my head as Steve answered with a chuckle, "Scoops...Scoops Ahoy."

I joined in Steve laughing at the insanity of the questions. How many tiles would Steve have to say it?

"How did you find us?"

"Totally by accident," Steve laughed.

The man said something in Russian, I looked to the doctor who nodded and turned to tray of objects where he grabbed one. Was that...pliers?

"What's that shiny little toy?" Steve asked.

"Hey, where are you going with that, Doc?" I asked as he bypassed me and went to Steve's side.

Steve began freaking out behind me, I turned as far as I could to try and see what was happening but I had no idea. Steve was leaning into me, which was pushing me down slightly. I didn't come this far with him to let him get hurt if I could help him. The words were on the tip of my tongue and I let them fall out.

"There was a code!" I yelled, turning my head.

Footsteps, "Code," the guard said as he stepped into my line of vision, "What code?"

I stared up at him, "The week is long, silver cat feeds, blue meets yellow in the west blah blah blah," I said with an eye roll, "you announced it all over, you broadcast your stupid message everywhere. We picked it up on our radio!" I said with a smile as his face dropped slightly.

I kept my eye contact with him, "You guys thought you were so smart," I said lowly, "so clever...making up a secret code that you thought that no one would ever be able to crack," I smiled at him, "but a few kids were able to crack it in a day! One whole day! You stupid bastards! How does that feel? Hmm? To be bested by some teenagers who had nothing better to do than work for a few hours on a top secret message?! People know you're here!"

It happened before I could process anything. For the second time his hand came up and slapped me hard across the face, my head whipped violently to the side. I tasted the blood in my mouth instantly.

"Don't you fucking touch her! You hear me?" Steve yelled as I turned my head to face the man again.

The man laughed, "I already did."

"I will fucking kill you! You hear me? Kill you!" Steve was shouting but I was seeing stars, I felt the chairs moving because of Steve trying to free himself. But I was spinning.

"Who knows we're here, bitch?" he demanded, lifting my face up to look at him once again.

"Dustin. Dustin knows," Steve announced from the other side of us.

"Steve!" I said with wide eyes.

I knew it was something beyond his control. I had a feeling whatever shit they gave us was making our lips pretty loose.

"Which is Dustin? The small curly headed one?" the man asked.

"Curly headed," Steve agreed, "good kid. Not big hair, ya know? But good-good hair."

"Where is he?" The man spat to Steve.

Steve chuckled and leaned his head back slightly, "Long gone, you big asshole," he said easily, "and he's probably calling Hopper and Hopper's calling the US Calvary. They're gonna come in here, gun outs and kick everyone's ass back to Russia," Steve began laughing and I couldn't help but to begin laughing too.

It was true. It had been hours since we separated from the rest of the group. They had the key card they could get out and they were going to get help for us.

"Is that so?" the man asked sarcastically.

"Yeah," Steve and I answered at the same time causing us to burst into more fits of laughter.

The alarm in the room went off suddenly and I looked over towards the door where the guards had been coming in and out of. I could see through the small window in the door that people were running all over the place, which led me to believe the alarm wasn't just going off in our room it was going off through the whole facility.

Were we about to get out?

The guards left the room quickly leaving us with only the doctor.

"Steve?" I asked, beginning to feel overwhelmed.

"Lou?" he said back.

"What do you think?" I asked.

He leaned his head against mine and sighed, "I think we're about to be rescued," he said with a chuckle.

"Me too," I grinned.

The door in front of me burst open and in a flash my little brother was running into the room screaming with some sort of...electric poker and ran to Steve's side, where I could only guess he got the doctor with it, after I heard the low yells coming from someone who was definitely not Steve.

Erica and Robin were in the room right in front of me, both their eyes widening when they saw me, but I smiled widely back at them.

"Henderson!" Steve exclaimed, "Man...that's so weird we were just talking about you!"

I turned my head as much as I could and managed to see the top of my brothers hat as he undid the leather strap that was wrapped around us.

"Get ready to run!" he instructed.

I smiled as I felt the strap loosen around me and Robin came over to make sure they were fully off of me.

"Robin!" I yelled happily pulling her into a hug, "I missed you!"

"Comes on, Lou," she said gently to me pulling out of my embrace, "we have to go," she said, taking my hand and leading me out of the room.

"Steve," I said quickly, looking behind me to him.

When I saw his face, I could feel mine break into a smile even though my lip and inner cheek were extremely sore. The area around his swollen eye had gotten darker and there was more blood on his face then I remembered from before they tied us up.

But I was absolutely ecstatic to see him.

I held my hand out to him, he smiled back at me and took my hand squeezing it tightly before I turned to follow Robin into the hallway where Erica was waiting by one of the carts I had seen people driving before.

"In, in, in," Dustin instructed opening the back covered area of cart and shoving me and Steve inside it before shutting it harshly and getting into the front with Robin and Erica.

"Dusty!" I said through the grate separating the back from the front, "I missed you! Are you okay?"

"Yeah, but you almost gave me a heart attack when I saw that you weren't in the vent," he scolded turning to look at me.

"I'm sorry!" I whined, "I had to help Steve or else no one would have gotten away!" I said, holding up mine and Steve's intertwined hands.

Dustin sighed and turned back to face the hallways Robin was driving us down, "Just...don't do it again."

I lifted my hand up and saluted him even though he couldnt see me, but Steve and I laughed at it.

"Erica, are you okay?" I asked, moving my attention to the young girl.

She turned to look back at me and Steve before rolling her eyes dramatically, "Would be better if I didn't have to risk my life to rescue you two nerds again!"

"We're not nerds!" Steve replied and we laughed once more.

Erica scoffed and looked away from us as the alarm continued the blare in the background.

"You're going over the speed limit, Robin," I stated before Steve fell into me laughing.

"Yeah!" he yelled through his laugh, "We're not in NASCAR!" Steve added as I continued to giggle from next to him.

I could hear the others talking up front but I wasn't sure exactly what they were saying.

"It's like a hot wheel track or some shit," Steve told me.

I laughed and nodded, "But we don't even have a cool car to be racing in! We need a red one with flames on the side!"

Steve's eye widened, "Yes! Robin!" he called up front to our rescuers, "Why didn't you get a cooler car to pick me and Lou up in?"

I threw my head back laughing as Robin called us both dingus' and told us to shut up while turning her head to look at the both of us.

Dustin's yelling brought the attention back to the hall in front of us right as Robin hit a few barrels, which sent me and Steve into the separation grate, each of us hitting the sides of our heads.

I squeezed my eyes shut and groaned, letting go of Steve's hand to rub the side of my head. I opened my eyes and saw Steve doing the same.

"Everyone okay?" Robin asked.

"Just add it to our list of issues today," I grumbled.

They all got out of the front and ran around to the back door where Dustin opened it quickly, "Come on! Let's go!"

Steve got out first then turned to help me out of the back, offering his hand to help me step down. Dustin took us to the elevator and took out the key card.

I turned to look at Robin and grinned at her, "What happened in the vents?" I asked, widening my eyes.

"We'll talk about it later," she said gently as I heard the elevator door open behind me, "come on, Lou, Steve. We have to go!" 

She pushed my gently towards the elevator behind me, and Steve had begun slightly dragging me into it by my hand from behind as well.

We entered the infamous elevator of terror and Dustin and Robin shut the doors, hitting the buttons to get us back above ground.

I felt beyond elated as at elevator began the climb up. The speed was making me feel a bit off balanced but Steve kept his hand in mine and it seemed to keep me standing.

"Lou! Check this out!" Steve said before he hopped onto a dolly and began miming like he was surfing.

I began laughing and rested my empty hand and the one that was still gripping onto Steve's hand on the handrail.

"Be careful!" I told him through a smile.

He smiled back at me and laughed loudly before swaying side to side then jumping off to stand with me again.

Dustin jogged over to us and out his hand to Steve's head, "Jesus, you're burning up."

"You're burning up!" Steve retorted breaking out into a laugh.

Dustin lifted his hands to Steve's good eye and pulled it open.

"Be careful!" I told Dustin, trying to swat his hand away.

Dustin let him go and looked behind him to the other two, "His pupils are super dilated."

Robin came over to me and did the same to my eye with Steve trying to swat her away this time.

"Lou's too," she confirmed.

"Hey, that rhymed!" I pointed out with a smile but Robin shook her head at me.

"Maybe they're drugged?" Erica asked.

Steve and I looked at each other before we fell against each other laughing hysterically.

"Hey! Steve! Louise! Hey-stop!" Dustin said, trying to grab either of us, "Steve! Are you drugged?" Dustin asked loudly.

Steve looked at my brother giggling, "How many times, Dad?" he began which started another round of laughter from me, "I dont do drugs. It's only marijuana."

"Listen, dingus! We need to know what they did to you-to both of you," Robin said looking from Steve to me.

Dustin groaned, "Are you two gonna die on us?"

Steve lifted a finger and poked Dustin's nose, "We're not gonna die today," I told him.

"Good," Dustin told me with a small grin, "listen people are gonna be looking for us up there...where is the car parked, Steve?"

Steve shook his head and brought both of his hands up to Dustin's face, while still gripping mine, and place them on each side of my brother face, "No, no. They took the keys, like forever ago," he said dropping his hands from Dustin's face.

I hummed, "That sucks!" I exclaimed, "But when we get back to the mall can we get some food? Oh! A drink! I'm so thirsty! Orange Julius! The berry one Steve gave me! So good!"

"It's so good, right?" Steve agreed excitedly with me, looking down at me.

"Yeah, sure, whatever we'll stop and get food and drinks," Robin said exasperated as she ran a hand through her hair roughly.

We came to a stop suddenly which made me and Steve fall backwards into the wall but it didn't bother me at all. I knew it meant we were out and I was elated about it.

Once Dustin opened the elevator door and I saw the outside loading dock, I let go of Steve's hand and ran out there into the cool night air which was refreshing and honestly, the best thing I had ever experienced.

I turned towards the others and stretched my arms out, "Do you taste the air right now?" I asked leaning my head back, "It tastes so good!"

I looked up just in time to see Steve take a deep breath and grin up at the sky, "So good!" he agreed, "Holy shit, this is amazing!" he said looking back at me.

I laughed and nodded and he came over to me, "See, told you we were getting rescued," he told me.

I nodded, "Yes!" I laughed.

"Shit!" Dustin yelled.

I looked behind me to see the other three spin on their heels and run back over to the two of us, I managed to see a glimpse of two men dressed in black at the loading dock gate.

The other three grabbed us and began shoving us over to the door to get back into the mall while shouting at us to hurry up.

"Why? Who are they?" I asked Dustin, who had his hand wrapped around my wrist as he kept dragging me behind him down the back hallways of the mall.

"Be quiet, Louise," he begged me.

I looked back to Steve and he made a face at me which made me laugh quietly to myself before looking back ahead of me to my brother.

Dustin finally opened a door and peeked out quickly before dragging me out behind him with everyone following me. I knew where we were instantly and my eyes widened giddily.

"The movies," I whispered loudly.

"Quiet," Dustin scolded, as we entered the jam packed theatre that had a move playing on the screen.

Dustin kept searching the rows to find some empty spots before leading me to two empty seats on the end of a row, but they were right at the very front. The worst seats to watch a movie.

"Sit," Dustin instructed pushing me into a seat and Robin pushing Steve into the second seat next to me.

"These seats suck," Steve whispered to Dustin who rolled his eyes in response.

"Yeah, were too close, Dusty!" I whined.

Dustin scoffed, "Then don't watch the movie!"

I frowned, "We wanna watch it!"

"Then watch it!" he exclaimed, frustrated.

"Shh!" I heard loudly from behind me.

I spun around in my seat to the guy sitting there looking at us angrily, "Shh!" Steve and I shushed him at the same time.

"Hey, listen, don't go anywhere, got it?" Dustin asked.

"Fine, dad," Steve sassed before the two of us laughed quietly at that.

The others walked away from us and I grabbed some of the popcorn from the bag Steve had. I didn't even notice him going to the popcorn stand.

"I don't know what's happening," Steve whispered to me.

I smiled over at him, "I can't focus on this! I need something to drink!"

I hummed, "Water," I answered, "I need the hydration!"

"The water fountain! There's one in front of the theatre!" he told me.

I nodded, "Can we go?"

Steve leaned forward and looked down the row, "Dads just left," he whispered to me.

"Let's go!" I told him offering my hand to him.

He smirked and put the popcorn bag down on the ground and took my hand, "Let's go!"

——

Title credit to REO Speedwagon and gif credit to owner

[fandomoblivion]

Ella Enchanted (part three)

Fandom: Stranger Things season 3

Pairing: Steve Harrington x Reader

Summary: (Y/N), also known as Nine, was a girl being experimented on all her life by the Hawkins Lab, conditioned into following every command her brain heard. She managed to escape the lab, with the help of her little sister Eleven, and was taken in by Hopper. Now, it’s a year later, and the three of them are a happy family. She just got her first job, where she works alongside Steve “The Hair” Harrington… who her father doesn’t much like.

Warnings: Swearing

Word Count: 1,088

Notes: ask and you shall recieve the next part! i know there’s not much here, and there’s not much steve in this part, but their section of episode 3 was very short. i promise you there will be more to come thanks to Miss Rona though :)

prologue / one / two

The next day, as you were walking on the first floor of the mall on your way to your shift, you spotted a familiar face hiding behind binoculars in the bushes. It seemed as though they had spotted you too, so you awkwardly waved.

Steve didn’t respond, but Dustin grinned and yelled, “(Y/N)! Get over here!” 

You felt your brain go fuzzy as your feet dragged themselves over to where the boys were. Steve was yelling at Dustin in hushed tones about getting “caught being spies,” but you tried to ignore the dumbassery.

“Hi.” You said quietly. You still weren’t comfortable talking normally around anyone except Hopper. Even sometimes with El, you had problems getting out full sentences. She understood, though. Quite often you two could have full conversations, only speaking one word each back and forth. 

“I can’t believe she’s with him.” Steve grumbled, clearly looking at someone through the binoculars, ignoring you completely.

“Dude, you are the worst spy in history, you know that?!” Dustin said, grabbing the binoculars.

Steve choked around the neck strap for a second, saying, “Stop, hey. Stop.”

“Give me those!” Dustin said, taking the strap off Steve.

You stood awkwardly, rocking back and forth on your heels. You felt uncomfortable standing there, being a part of this conversation. You felt even more uncomfortable when Dustin said, “I don’t get why you’re even looking at girls anyway. You have the perfect one right in front of you.”

Steve rolled his eyes. “If you’re talking about Robin, I-”

“Robin?! No! (Y/N).” Steve looked at you and met your eyes. You felt the blood drain from your face. 

“She’s an experiment, Henderson. She’s not a girl.”

Ow.

You felt like you had been slapped. Here, in the middle of the mall, Steve just said the words that had been haunting you, keeping you from acting like a normal teenager this whole time.

“Steve!” Dustin said. “(Y/N), he didn’t-”

“You’re right.” You huffed, walking away as swiftly as you had walked there. You were glad they didn’t tell you to stay, or come back, or… 

You were upset. So, you rushed up the escalator to Robin to start your shift. “Hey, Translator.” She joked, handing Lucas’s little sister a taste of some flavor she didn’t need to taste. Robin looked up at you, used to you not saying hi back. She furrowed her brow when she saw your glossy eyes. “Shit, what happened?” She asked, closing the ice cream case.

Erica started to protest, but Robin just shut her up with a quick “I’m going on my break, twerp.” And she grabbed your arm, pulling you into the back room.

“What happened?” She repeated. You avoided her gaze, but she ducked and dodged her head around to meet your eyes. “(Y/N).”

“Steve said something.”

“What did he say? Tell me.”

Oh fuck. 

Your brain went numb as you repeated Steve’s words: “She’s an experiment, Henderson. She’s not a girl.” Robin didn’t know about Eleven, or about Hawkins Lab, or about your past at all. She didn’t know what Steve’s words meant. And yet…

“Dick. He called you an experiment? I mean, sure you’re weird, but like in a cool way.” You let out a breathy laugh. “Seriously. That’s a messed up thing to say, and it’s so not true. Got it?” You nodded. “Cool. So I’ve been trying to translate this bit of Russian all day, and I cannot for the life of me get it down. Can you do it?”

You nodded. You needed her to tell you straight out to translate it, not ask you to. You thought for a second, then asked, “Um, do what?”

“Translate this.” She said, playing the full tape.

Fuzzy brain. “The week is long. The silver cat feeds when blue meets yellow in the west. A trip to China sounds nice if you tread lightly.”

“Tread! That was the word. I was thinkin’ squeeze. That is so not squeeze.”

Suddenly, you heard a knock at the back door. “I got it.” Robin went and opened it, and a delivery guy was standing there. You saw her sign for a package, and then he left. After he left, she ran into the hall and stood, watching him walk away.

“Are you okay?” You asked, walking over. 

“Silver cat.” Robin said, pointing at the delivery guy’s uniform. Sure enough, on the back of his dorky LYNX DELIVERY shirt was a picture of a silver cat.

Robin grabbed your hand and the two of you rushed out of the ice cream parlor, pushing past Steve and Dustin on your way. She pulled you to the center of the mall, up onto the planters.

“A trip to China sounds nice.” She said, repeating it over and over to herself as she looked around.

Then it clicked in your brain. “Imperial Panda.” You said, looking at the Chinese restaurant. 

“If you tread lightly.”

You pointed right above the restaurant. “Kaufman Shoes.”

“When blue and yellow meet in the west.”

 Your head felt like it was spinning. You and Robin looked around and around, until Robin stopped, looking up at the clock. There was a blue hand and a yellow hand. 

“Robin.” You two looked down and saw Steve standing there. “The hell are you doing?”

“(Y/N) cracked it.” Robin said, grinning.

“Cracked what?” Dustin asked.

Robin jumped down, helping you down too. “She cracked the code.”

“Of course she did.” Steve mumbled under his breath. 

“Let’s take a walk, Steve. I’ll explain the code to you in big, slow words so you understand.” Robin said, leaving you with Dustin.

“Is he always mean like that?” You asked the kid.

He groaned. “Sorry about him. I kinda yelled at him for you after what happened earlier. He apologized, and then I was all ‘Uhh, dude! Don’t apologize to me! Apologize to (Y/N)!’ and then he was all ‘Durrr my brain no workey.’” You laughed at the kid’s energy, and the two of you started walking towards the food court. 

“Thank you.”

“Anytime.” There was a pause. “So… the code?”

“Right. Yes.” You tried your best to explain what you and Robin figured out to the kid, stuttering over your words and trying to form full sentences. You did your best, but still not good. He did his best to understand though, repeating everything back to you to see if he was understanding. 

He’s a sweet kid. You realized you’re gonna need him if you intended to work around that Steve Harrington much longer. 

-----

TAGLIST 

@alina-margaret . @almostsecretmusic . @american-duchess . @anamcg317 . @annaewww . @bubblegumcat229 . @bucky-newtlock . @canny1902 .  @christinawxxx . @cosmickha0s . @creativedogs . @darkcrystal-wolf . @decaffeinatedtachycardia . @djisprobablydead . @eliza-kat . @eyeballtoes . @fandomsstolemylife00 . @fredweasleysupportgroup . @ggclarissa . @ginger-swag-rapunzel . @gracelynns . @grippleback-galaxy . @gruffle1 . @hananabee . @hannarudick . @harrys-kiwi . @hayadora . @heavenlyholland . @hellhoundschewtoy . @izabellah816 . @likemeonlyme . @lilyhw1 . @loco-latte . @l0ve-0f-my-life . @mackycat11 . @megsell99 . @metuel18 . @phluffyphantom . @potterhead-witch . @pppsssyyyccchhhiiiccc . @princessrow12 . @queen1054 . @rainbowmarta . @sheridans-dynamos . @sunshine-and-riverwater . @thecaptainsgingersnap . @thegloryofliterature . @thoughstofaredhead . @ucantknowmeyet . @used-avocado . @whataloadofmalarkey

[idumpyourgrass]

Always Waiting - Chapter Eleven

Always Waiting- Steve Harrington x Henderson!Reader

Always Waiting Masterlist

Summary: Dustin tells Y/n and Steve about the super-secret Russian code, Mark Lewinsky stops by Scoops Ahoy, steve??? jealous??? The code gets translated.

Pairing: Steve Harrington x Henderson!Reader

A/n: I’m back!! I hope you are all staying healthy! Now that all my classes are online and I’m back home I will have plenty of time to write! As always lmk if you want to be added to the taglist!

Warnings: Swearing, typos

Word Count: 1.6k

“Hi Robin, is, uh, is he here?” You overhear Dustin talking to Robin at the front of the shop. Steve heard it too, nearly knocking you down as he busts through the door.

“Henderson! He’s back!” Steve jumps over the counter running up to Dustin.

“I’m back!”

Robin looks back at you giving you a puzzled look while Dustin and Steve do a dorky handshake. They both start laughing once it’s done.

“What the hell did I just witness?” You ask. They both look up at you with smiles on their faces. “Alright Dusty, I’ll get you some ice cream and we can sit down and catch up, yeah?” Dustin nods and goes to sit down.

*.    *.    *

“Hotter than Phoebe Cates? No, no way.” Steve crosses his arms.

“Yes she is, brilliant too. And she doesn’t even care that my real pearls are still coming in. She says kissing is better without teeth,” Your eyes nearly bulge out of your head. You look over at Steve who has a shocked looked on his face.

“Oh… Wow Dustin. That’s, yeah, that’s great,” you stutter.

“Wow man, I’m- I’m proud of you. That’s kind of romantic.”

Dustin shoves his spoon into his ice cream sundae and takes another big bite. You and Steve just watch him. “Do you really get to eat as much as this as you want?” Dustin looks up to you.

“Yeah, I mean sure. It’s not really a good idea for me though, I gotta keep in shape for the ladies.”

Rolling your eyes, you stick your spoon into Dustin’s sundae, “Oh yeah? And how’s that working out for you?” You raise your eyebrows at him, grinning. Dustin giggles.

“Ignore her.” Steve tells Dustin.

“And how are you two getting along?” Dustin points his two fingers at you.

You glance over at Steve, feeling your cheeks getting red. “Um, yeah, it’s been good.” Steve nods.

Dustin raises his eyebrows and smirks. You clear your throat, “So, did you like the Party’s surprise yesterday?” Dustin puts his spoon down and slouches back in the booth.

“Yeah it was cool, I guess.”

“You guess?”

“Yeah, afterwards they ditched me!”

“What?” You frown.

“My first day back, can you believe that shit?”

“Woah, seriously?” Steve pipes up.

“Yeah, but they’ll regret it, big time, when they don’t get to share my glory.”

You and Steve share a glance. “Glory, what glory?” Steve asks.

“Well I was trying to contact Suzie and I uh…” Dustin looks around then covers his mouth with his hand. “I…” Dustin mumbles something you can’t quite make out. You furrow your brows.

“What?” You lean closer.

“I….” Dustin mumbles again.

“Dustin, man, speak up we can’t hear you.”

“I intercepted a secret Russian communication!” Everyone around you goes quiet. You can feel eyes on you from everyone. You put your head in your hands.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought you said.” Steve says, looking around.

“So uh, what does that mean exactly?” You ask.

“It means we can be heroes, true American heroes.” You squint your eyes and cross your arms. “What’s the catch?”

“No catch, I just need help with translation.”

*       *       *

You, Steve, and Dustin all stood around the back room, listening to the recording.

“So, what do you think?” Dustin asks.

“That music sounds familiar.” Steve says.

“Why are you listening to the music Steve?” The two of them start bickering back and forth. The sound of Robin’s voice gives you an idea.

“We need Robin,” You open up the window and shout at Robin.

“Hey Robin, I’ll take over up front, we need your help back here. Dustin and Steve can fill you in.” You put on your stupid sailor hat and make your way to the cash register.

*       *      *

“I would like to try the peppermint stick please,” Erica Sinclair points to the ice cream.

“Haven’t you already tried that one?” You ask, getting out a sample spoon.

“Yes and I would like to try it again,” you groan and scoop up her ice cream.

You hear the window open, “Hey Henderson, how’s it going up here?” Steve asks, climbing through and hopping over the counter.

“Erica was just asking for more samples,” you tell him. He scoffs, spinning his ice cream scoop and putting it in his belt.

“Erica, you are abusing our sample policy, no more samples today.” You tell her. She huffs and stomps out of the shop. Steve leans over to you, “Do you think Suzie is real?”

“You know, it’s hard to tell, it really is.” You grin up at him.

“Excuse me?” A voice speaks up. You turn around and see Mark Lewinsky.

“Oh, hi Mark!” You smile. Mark looks over to Steve. “Hi Y/n,”

“Hey Harrington,” he gives Steve a wave. Steve leans against the counter with his arms crossed, looking less then amused. “Lewinsky.”

“What kind I get for you today?” You ask.

“Uh, actually I was wondering if you wanted to go on a date? With me? Tomorrow?” He awkwardly combs his fingers through his hair.

“Yes! Absolutely,” you say a little too quickly, you feel your face heat up, “I mean, I would love to, yes.”

“Ok great, I’ll pick you up tomorrow,”

“You’re holding up the line Lewinsky, either buy something or leave,” you forgot Steve was still standing there.

“Alright then, I’ll see you tomorrow Y/n,” you wave goodbye then turn around to face Steve, giving him a good punch to the arm, “What the hell, Steve! There’s not even a line!”

“He’s a douche! Why would you want to go out with someone like him?”

“Well that’s really none of your business,” you say, hitting him one more time.

“Ow! Would you stop that?”

“Hey!” You and Steve turn your heads to see Dustin and Robin watching you, “Would you two lovebirds knock it off, we’re trying to focus,” You feel your cheeks heating up, Steve stumbles over his words and in the process knocks his hat off., “See, I told you, if you want to make them flustered, call them lovebirds,” Robin tells Dustin, they start laughing. You glare at them.

“Have you two figured out the code yet?”

“So far we have “the week is long,” Robin says, pointing to her whiteboard.

“Well that’s thrilling,” Steve says, sounding defeated. The sound of giggling causes you to turn around. You see Eleven and Max. Your jaw drops.

“What are you doing here?” You whisper to El.

“Mike is being an asshole so we’re having a girls day,” Max says.

“Without me?” You ask. They order and you hand them their ice cream.

“Y/n you should come with us!”

You turn and look at Steve, “Think you can hold down the ship, sailor?” He looks towards Max and El then looks back at you, he sighs, “Yeah, sure, go have fun,” You finger gun and him and hop over the counter. You take off your hat and throw it towards Steve.

“I’ll be back in 30!” You shout as you and the girls run out of the store. Steve laughs and shakes his head, spinning your hat around his finger.

*     *       *

You and the girls shopped for clothes, did a photoshoot, and then sat and talked. Max and El caught you up on the whole Mike situation.

“Guys are such assholes,” you roll your eyes.

“That’s what I’m saying!” Max agreed. You looked up at the clock.

“Oh shit, I gotta go back to work,” you turn towards El, “El, Mike’s an asshole, you don’t need him!” You say giving her a hug, “Alright, I’ll see you guys later, have fun!” You yell as you run off.

*       *       *

You, Dustin, Steve, and Robin all stood staring at the board, reciting what was written on it, “The week is long, the silver cat feeds, when blue meets yellow in the west.”

“Huh,”

Steve locks up while you all stand around and wait for him. “I mean, it just can’t be right,” Steve stands up, “No it’s right, it’s obviously like a code or something,” Robin argues. You all start heading towards the mall exit. “It could be a spy could,” Dustin suggests, “Oh yeah! Like a super-secret spy code,” Robin agrees.

“That’s a total stretch,” Steve speaks up.

“I don’t know, is it?” You ask.

“Oh come on, you’re buying into this?” Steve looks over at you in disbelief.

“Listen, just for kicks, let’s just entertain the possibility that it is a secret Russian transmission, I mean, what are they gonna say? Fire the warhead at noon?”

“Exactly,” Dustin states.

“And my translations are correct, I know they are,” Robin confirms.

“So, I guess that confirms your suspicion. Evil Russians,” you teased. You go to look over at Steve but he’s not there.

“Hey, where’d Steve go?” You ask Robin and Dustin. You turn around and see him knelt by the automatic horse. “Steve, I think your too old to ride that” you joke, making your way over to him.

“Just give me a quarter,” he says, fumbling around in his pockets.

“Need some help getting up there Stevie?” Robin jokes, you laugh.

“Quarter!” Steve yells. You throw one to him.

“Are you… going to get on?” You ask, confused as to why he needed the quarter.

“No, I am not going to get on,” he sneered, “would you all just shut up and listen?”

The music that was playing sounded familiar, but you couldn’t put your finger on it.

“Holy shit, the music,” Dustin says. Then it hits you.

“It was on the recording!” You exclaim.

“Maybe they have horses like that in Russia?” Robin asks.

“The Indiana Flyer? No I don’t think so. This code, it didn’t come from Russian,” Steve looks up at you all.

“It came from here.”

Taglist:

@loulouloueh​ @nighttwingg​ @hauntedduckdefndor @l0ve-0f-my-life​ @labrujaprincess​ @welcomethefears​ @metuel18​ @polynesianmayo​ @readinthegarden12​ @alafolieee​ @yoheyyosup​ @loco-latte​ @daddystevee​ @hannarudick​ @gertenbert​ @used-avocado​ @70sgubler​ @ggclarissa​ @alonewolfsblog​ @phoebethepheebs​

[bxcketbarnes]

Deep Shit

Pairing: Steve Harrington x Reader

Words: 4000+

Author’s Note: Hey, guys! Another Steve fic here! I apologize in advance that it’s so long, but it’s cute. I really hope you guys like it and I literally based this off of this gif. xox

I walk into Scoops Ahoy! around five, seeing Robin standing at the counter and handing out spoonfuls of ice cream to Erica, Lucas' sister. She's such a little brat. "Hey, Robin!" I grin at the girl and her head snaps towards mine.

"Bestie! You're here, finally," she laughs after Erica and her little friends leave. After I get behind the counter I wrap my arms around her shoulders.

"Where's Steve?" I ask with furrowed eyebrows.

Robin smirks after pulling away from me, crossing her arms over her chest. "What? Am I not good enough for you anymore?" She asks me and my eyes widen.

"Wha-N-No. I was jus-"

"I'm kidding, don't get so flustered. He's in the back with his child friend," she informs me. Dustin?! He's back?!

A gasp leaves my lips as I quickly ran into the back, seeing Dustin sitting at the metal table as Steve stands beside him eating a banana. "Dustin!" I shout and the curly-haired boy picks up his head, a smile coming to his lips.

"Y/N!" He gets up from the chair and runs to me, wrapping his small arms around my waist.

"Look at you. You're getting too big, kid," I chuckle and my eyes meet Steve's. I smile softly at him and he returns it, running a hand through his hair. "What are you guys doing?"

Dustin pulls away from me and sits back in the chair. I sat my beg against the surface, my Scoops uniform sitting inside it as my shift starts soon.

"We're trying to crack a Russian code," Dustin nonchalantly says and my lips part a bit.

"What now? Steve, is this true? What did I miss?!" I ask in confusion as I glance between my two favorite boys.

Steve tosses the banana peel away before nodding his head. "Yeah, it's true. Dustin came across it last night while trying to talk to his girlfriend."

"Girlfriend?! Dusty!" I grin and walk over to him, hugging his head. "My little boy's growing up."

Dustin groans, trying to push me off him. "Stop!" He mumbles and I chuckle, letting him go. "Can we get back to cracking this? Please?"

Steve nods and Dustin presses play on the tape recorder. I grab my bag off the table, heading towards the employee bathroom so I can change clothes.

I step back out after changing into my uniform, soothing out the pleated dress as I heard Dustin yelling at Steve.

"Why are you listening to the music Steve?! Listen to the Russian! We're translating the Russian!"

"I'm trying to listen to the Russian, but the music-," Steve comments and gets cut off by Robin walking into the back while I walk up to the table.

"Alright. Babysitting time is over. You need to get in there," she tells him as Steve stumbles back a bit. The light-haired brunette looks towards her whiteboard. "Hey, my board! That was important data, shitbird."

I chuckled a bit, biting my lip as I recall her making tallies of all the times Steve failed to flirt with a girl. I wish he'd flirt with me…

"I guarantee what we're doing is way more important than your data," Dustin comments and my eyes move to Robin who moves to stand beside me.

"Yeah? And how do you know these Russians are up to no good anyway?"

Dustin's lips part as he looks up at Steve. "How does she know about the Russians? Did you tell her?"

"I didn't tell her anything!" Steve says while shrugging his shoulders.

"Hello, I can hear you," my bestie cuts them off and I nudge her a bit. She gives me a quick glance before returning her gaze. "I can actually hear everything. You two are extremely loud. You two think you have evil Russians plotting against our country on tape and you're trying to translate, but you haven't figured out a single word because the Russians use an entirely different alphabet than we do. Sound about right?"

I press my lips together, trying to hold the laughter as the two boys look at each other. There's a quiet pause between all of us before Robin lurches forward, reaching for the device.

"Woah, what are you doing?" Steve asks after he grabs the recorder before she could.

"Steve-" I start but get cut off by Robin.

"I wanna hear it," she states.

"Why?" Both Steve and Dustin ask simultaneously.

"Because maybe I can help. I'm fluent in four languages you know."

"Russian?" Dustin asks and she replies with pig Latin, snickering as the two look at her like she has two heads. "Holy shit," he grins while looking up at us.

"That was pig Latin, dingus," Robin informs them and Steve hits the kid with the banana peel, uttering the word idiot.

"But I can speak Spanish and French and Italian and I've been in band for twelve years. Y/N knows," she mutters and glances back at me as she sits down. "My ears are little geniuses, trust me."

Steve stutters, trying to come up with an excuse for her not to help. "C'mon Steve," I mentioned before she has the chance to speak up. "You can help me scoop ice cream?" I smile at him and his eyes dart towards me.

"Yeah, go help Y/N! I don't even want credit, I'm just bored. Let me help," she tells him as she held out the scooper. He sighs and gives in, grabbing the metal utensil and hands her the tape recorder.

-

I smiled at the little girl that just bought an ice cream cone with her mother, wishing the two of them a good night.

"So, have you applied to any colleges?" Steve asks as the place suddenly became dead.

I hop up on the counter, crossing my leg over the other. "I've looked at some, but I'm just afraid that I won't be able to get in," I tell him and he shakes his head.

"No, no. I'm sure you will. You're super smart," he mentions and takes a step towards me.

I chuckle, shrugging my shoulders as his hand fiddles with the skirt of my uniform. My cheeks flush, looking at him through my lashes as his eyes were set on his hands.

The sliding window opened abruptly, Steve and I jumping a bit as he stepped away from me. I got down from the counter, seeing Robin giving us a skeptical look before speaking up. "We have our first word," she tells us.

"Yeah? What is it?" We both asked at the same time.

"The week is long," she states in a bad Russian accent and I let out a laugh.

"That's it?" Steve asks.

Robin nods her head. "Yeah. It's going slowly, but it's coming along," she tells us before closing the window again.

The bell rings and I turn around, seeing a guy that went to school with us standing on the other side of the counter.

"Ahoy! What can I get for you?" I ask with a fake smile on my lips.

"Can I get a cone of peppermint swirl, gorgeous?" He flirts and I nod, trying not to roll my eyes.

I heard Steve scoff as he washed some of the scoopers out in the small bin of water. I open the sliding door to the freezer, bending over slightly to scoop out some of the ice cream, giving him two scoops. I close the door afterward, feeling a pair of eyes on me as I take a glance behind me, seeing Steve's eyes raking down my body.

"Here you go, that'll be a dollar twenty-five," I tell the guy and he pays me, giving me a wink before leaving the parlor.

I turn back around to face my friend, his eyes still wandering as I snap my fingers. "Steve?! Enjoying the view?"

His cheeks heat up in embarrassment as his hand begins to scratch the back of his neck. "I-Uh, sorry," Steve mumbles and I chuckled softly.

"It's fine. I mean what can I say? It's an honor to be checked out by King Steve himself," I smirked with a wink and he rolls his eyes before glancing at the clock.

"Finally," he mutters and grabs the keys from inside the drawer, heading towards the front of the parlor, "I've been waiting almost all day to be closed."

I lean against the counter, watching him as he closes the metal gate. I softly bite my lip, deciding to check him out as he locks up. “Could you be any more obvious?” Robin’s voice reaches my ears and I snap out of my gaze, looking towards my right to see her standing by the door, arms crossed over her chest with a large smirk on her lips.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I tell her, my own smirk present on my lips. A scoff leaves her lips as she shakes her head while Steve walks back over to us, flinging the keys around his finger.

“So, we finished cracking it,” Robin informs us and we walk into the back room, seeing it written down in both Russian and English.

“The week is long,” all four of us began reading slowly as Steve’s hand brushes against mine, “the silver cat feeds when blue meets yellow in the west.” What the fuck does that mean? I grab my bag off the ground as everyone else gathers their things. Dustin, Robin, and I walk out of Scoops after Steve opened the gate back up, allowing us to go through before him.

“So, what do you think it means?” I ask my best friend as Steve locks back up, shoving the keys into his pocket.

We began walking towards the main door as Steve speaks up before she could. “I don’t think it’s right.”

“It’s right,” Robin confirms and ignores my question entirely.

“Honestly, I think it’s great news,” Dustin pipes up while glancing over his shoulder.

“How is this great news?” Steve chuckles before continuing, “I mean, so much for being American heroes. It’s total nonsense.”

“It’s not nonsense. It’s too specific. It’s obviously a code,” Dustin tells us.

Steve’s hands find my hips and I jerk a little bit, giggles leaving my lips as I look back at him, seeing him give me a cheeky wink. “What do you mean a code?” He asks while walking beside me.

“Like a super-secret spy code,” he explains.

“That’s a total stretch.”

“I don’t know, is it?” Robin chimes in, glancing back at the two of us.

“You’re buying into this?” The older teen asks.

“Listen, just for kicks, let’s entertain the possibility that it is a secret Russian transmission. What’d you think they were gonna say, “fire the warhead at noon”?” Robin mentions and Dustin mutters an exactly. “And my translation is correct. I know that for sure, so, “the silver cat feeds.” Why would anyone talk like that unless they were trying to mask the true meaning of their message?”

“I agree with Robin here,” I speak up and Steve looks towards me, letting out a deep sigh. “Why would anyone mask the true meaning of their message unless the message was somehow sensitive?” I ask the three of them, looking at each person.

“Exactly,” Dustin mentions once again, holding his hand out as Steve imitates us.

I nudge his arm with mine, noticing what he’s doing and lets out a chuckle before rolling my eyes. “So, I guess that confirms your suspicion,” Robin utters and looks towards the curly-haired kid.

“Evil Russians.”

“I can’t believe I’m about to agree with this strange child, but, yeah, totally evil Russians,” Robin laughs and I lay a hand on her back. We continue walking and none of us notice Steve had stopped towards the mechanical rides as Dustin proceeds to ask how we’re going to crack the code. “Well, I guess we translate the rest and hopefully a pattern emerges.”

I look to my left to see that Steve’s not by my side anymore, not paying attention to what Dustin is saying as I look behind me, seeing the older teen standing by the Indiana horse ride, shuffling through the change in his hand. “Steve! What are you doing?” I ask, gaining the other’s attention as I jog over to him.

“Uh, it’s a quarter. I need- Do you have a quarter?” He asks me, looking down into my eyes as my lips part before I begin to look through my bag, not finding one.

“No, I don’t,” I tell him and look back towards Dustin and Robin.

My best friend chuckles while the two jog over to us. “Sure you’re tall enough for that ride?” She asks.

“Quarter!” He practically yells in my ear and I jump slightly. He mutters an apology to me, his hand resting on my arm for a few seconds. Robin throws him a quarter and he catches it, shoving it into the machine. Music begins to play as the horse rocks back and forth, the four of us staring at it as I try to figure out what Steve’s trying to get at.

“Need help getting up little Stevie?” Robin asks and he hushes her immediately. I recall hearing the end of the tape before Steve and Dustin began arguing after I got dressed into my uniform, a gasp leaving my lips as I kneel beside him.

His eyes meet mine as he nods his head. We continue to listen in silence for a bit longer before Dustin speaks up. “Holy shit.” Steve and I look up at the kid as Robin stares at him in confusion. “The music.” He takes his bag off his back, grabbing the tape recorder out of it before playing it, hearing the same song in the background of the recording.

“I don’t understand,” Robin pipes up and I look towards her.

“It’s the exact same song,” I inform her, Dustin nodding his head in agreement.

“Maybe they have the exact same horses in Russia,” she tries to debate.

“Indiana Flyer? I don’t… I don’t think so. This code, it… didn’t come from Russia,” Steve pauses, looking towards the two before his eyes met mine again, “it came from here.”

-

Steve and I were sat in my room, my fingers fiddling with the hem of my sweater as his leg brushes against mine. “So, you couldn’t get a shift for tonight?” He asks me and I shake my head, feeling utterly disappointed.

“No, I tried just about every reason. I know Friday’s are busy and if it’s just you and Robin, you’re going to get swamped,” I tell him and he nods his head. “If you want I can come by, later on, distract you guys from your job.”

Steve laughs as I give him a wink, giggling myself. “That would be fantastic. And if you can’t make it, I’ll call you from the store if we find anything out,” he lets me know and I nod.

He looks down at his watch, sighing softly before his honey brown eyes look into mine. “What’s wrong?” I whisper, noticing our faces inches apart.

“Nothing, I just… I just need to leave. My shift starts in an hour,” Steve mentions and I frown a bit. I nod my head, understanding as I get up from my spot on the bed and heads towards my bedroom door.

A hand wraps around my wrist and I stop in my tracks, looking behind me to see Steve staring down at me. Neither of us says anything as my heart begins to pound against my chest. “S-Steve I…” I trail off, my eyes fluttering shut as his nose brushes against mine.

“Y/N! Can you come here for a minute?!” My older sister yells and Steve and I jump apart, heavy breaths leaving my lips. He clears his throat and runs a hand through his hair as I open the bedroom door, the two of us heading downstairs.

“I’ll see you later, okay?” Steve asks, his fingers grazing against my arm. I nod my head, giving him a quick hug before he leaves the house.

I watch as he leaves, the door closing behind him before I let out a sigh. “You guys aren’t dating, yet?” My sister asks me and I let out a scoff and laugh.

“Are you kidding me? No, of course not. I don’t know where we stand, honestly,” I tell him and lean against the kitchen island. “I think he was gonna kiss me when we were upstairs.”

My sister, Julie, smirks at me with a raised eyebrow. “Oh, really now? What stopped him?” She asks and I let out a laugh.

“You, stupid. You yelled my name and we pulled apart,” I tell her and she lets out a groan.

“Goddamn it. Sorry, didn’t mean to cockblock you.”

-

Steve ended up calling me a few hours later, telling me that Robin had figured out the code and that we’re gonna meet up after the mall closes and the shipments come in. I left the house before it started storming, immediately regretting not bringing a change of clothes.

“Are you kidding? We’re gonna do a stakeout in this?” I asked the three of them and they nod their heads. I groan slightly, following them to the roof that’s across the shipment door.

My clothes are soaked by the time we reach the roof, getting into position as Dustin uses the binoculars, looking at the lit-up area. A truck pulls up to the building, the beeping of it backing up to the door getting lost in the sound of the rain and thunder.

“Look for Imperial Panda and Kaufman Shoes,” Robin yells over the rain. I kneel in between Steve and Robin, watching the older boy wiping the rain out of his eyes. I look towards Dustin as he adjusts the binoculars before looking down at the truck, seeing two men with guns and another man rolling the shipment into the building.

“They’re with that whistling guy, ten o’clock,” Dustin shouts.

“What do you think’s in there?” Steve calls out, glancing towards the kid.

“Guns, bombs?”

“Chemical weapons?” Robin and I question at the same time, the two of us looking towards each other. She smiles at me, nudging my arm a bit as I let out a laugh, moving the wet hair out of my face.

I lean towards the girl, kinda shouting in her ear. “Did you ever think we’d be doing this right now?” I ask her and she shakes her head with a grin on her lips, adjusting the hood on her head.

“Whatever it is, they’re armed to the teeth,” Dustin mentions right before thunder cracks loudly.

I jump a bit and grip onto Steve’s arm, looking up at the sky. “Great,” Steve mutters and wipes the rain from his eyes again. “That’s great.”

“Hey, what’s in there?” Robin asks and I snap my head towards the group of men, seeing the doors now open as the guy wheels the boxes into it.

“It’s just more boxes,” Dustin tells us.

“Let me check it out,” Steve mentions and grabs the front of the binoculars. I shake my head, watching the two fight over the binoculars before one of them smashes it against the metal railing. A loud thud rings out over the storm, my heart in my throat as Dustin yells for us to duck.

I drop to the floor quickly, my fingers intertwining with Steve’s as the four of us breathe heavily, staying still. My eyes glance at our hands before looking towards Steve, seeing his eyes on our hands. I fully expected him to let go, but instead, he squeezed my hand, silently telling me that it’ll be alright as our hands move to the ground, still intertwined.

One of the guys yells in Russian and that was our cue to get up, not fully, but enough for us to get off the roof without being seen by anyone. I shiver as we walk down the dimly lit hallway, just wishing I can be home and wrapped in a warm blanket.

“Well, I think we found your Russians,” Robin tells Steve.

We all went out separate ways, Robin driving Dustin home and I sat in Steve’s car as he drives us to his place. I called my sister when we reached Scoops to tell mom and dad that I’m staying the night at Robin’s, not exactly knowing how they’d react to me telling them that I’m actually staying with Steve.

“You still cold?” He asks and looks over at me.

A cough leaves my lips as I shake my head, feeling the warmth of the heater blasting me in the face. “No, I’m alright, thank you,” I tell him and give him a small smile.

We arrive at his house about five minutes later and Steve turns the vehicle off before the two of us book it into his house, not getting any wetter than we already were. He locks his front door behind us before we head up to his room, glad his parents were out of town.

“Do you wanna use the shower?” He asks, pulling the soaked jacket off his upper body and tosses it into the laundry basket.

“Yeah, that’d be great. Can I uh, can I borrow some clothes?” I ask him while pulling the sweater off me, literally peeling it off my skin.

“Yeah, yeah, of course,” Steve mumbles and walks over to his dresser, getting a pair of boxers and a t-shirt. He steps towards me, holding them out to me and I gently take them from his hands. I give him a smile, our fingers brushing against each other.

“Would it be too far to ask if you wanna shower with me?” I ask in a whisper, not meeting his eyes as my cheeks flush in embarrassment.

His finger hooks under my chin, lifting my head so I’m looking at him as his eyes roam over my face. “You want me to take a shower with you?” He asks, his voice becoming a little deeper as I swallow thickly and nod my head. “I’ll try my best to keep my hands to myself.”

-

I brush my hair as the fluffy white towel is wrapped around my body, watching as Steve runs a towel through his hair in the mirror. I press my lips together as he wraps the towel around his waist before resting his hands against my hips.

“You’re stunning, you know that?” He asks and presses soft kisses against my shoulder. My cheeks blush a bit, setting the brush down before turning around in his arms.

“I didn’t know that, but you’re way more stunning than me,” I tell him, glad I can be open about my feelings towards him. I move my hand up, running my fingers through his damp hair.

Steve shakes his head, chuckling a bit and we move to his bedroom, putting on dry clothes before getting into his queen-sized bed. He moves a bit of my wet hair out of my face, his thumb stroking my cheek softly. “Is it safe to say that you’re mine now?” He asks me and I can’t stop the smile coming to my lips.

“Do you want me to be yours?”

He gives me a look before leaning his head down, pressing his lips to mine. My eyes flutter shut, kissing him back as I shuffle my body closer to his. One of his arms wraps around my waist, his fingers dipping under his shirt that I’m wearing. Steve pulls away after about a minute, resting his forehead against mine. “Does that answer your question?” He questions and I bite my lip, nodding my head.

I rest my head against his chest, feeling his hand gently stroke up and down my back as the warmth began to come back to my body after being in the rain for so long. I feel Steve place a kiss to the top of my head as my eyes begin to droop shut, falling into a deep slumber.

“You don’t know how long I’ve been waiting to officially call you mine…”

-

Stranger Things Taglist: @whiitee--sxxl​ @joyfullyswimmingface @lovefilledtragedy​ @morningfears​ @adumbledoreable​ @vanitysfairr​ @lay-all-on-me @kaelyn-lobrutto24​ @fangirlinganditswonders​ @ria132love​ @hhal0 @rissa067​

[mss4msu]

Call Me Doctor. (Steve’s Chapter 9)

Summary: Fresh out of graduate school, you had somehow landed a spot in the faculty of a prestigious university. The small anthropology department has too many faculty and too few offices; sharing an office does not go as you expected.

Pairing: Professor!Steve x Professor!Reader 

Words: 4295

Warnings: Language and ANGST

A/N: Another chapter, another false deadline promise. I’m sorry for how late this has come out. I got dumped at the beginning of July and have had a lot to deal with since then as my ex and I lived together and I had to get him off the lease, figure out how to afford the apartment on my own (but I got a new job so I will be able to!), and start getting my apartment clean of him. But here’s a chapter. 

IMPORTANT: THIS IS WRITTEN FROM STEVE’S PERSPECTIVE!!!!!!! THIS DEPICTS STEVE’S VIEW FROM CHAPTER 9 OF CALL ME DOCTOR!!

Catch Up On the Story Here

“Oh, shit,” James muttered. “We should say something to her right?” 

“I don’t know,” Steve said, his face revealing the defeat he felt. “I doubt she would trust anything I said to her now anyway.”

“We can’t just let her go out with that snake,” James flopped down into a seat next to Steve. 

“No, we can’t. But do you really think she’d believe the truth about him if I told her?”

“Probably not...shit.”

Yup,” Steve began to pack up his things, “but I have a class to teach right now. Let’s get dinner tonight and figure it out.”

“Sure, I’ll be at your place at 7. I’ll grab some takeout?” 

“Yeah, sounds good,” Steve replied, leaving the library. 

Steve spent his class unable to concentrate on what he was lecturing, his mind too preoccupied on (Y/N)’s weekend plans. He finished his class early, something he had never done before, and sped home. He tried to busy himself with work, but he couldn’t stop thinking about (Y/N). 

James let himself into Steve’s apartment and found him pacing the living room.

“Alright, I brought pad thai, pineapple fried rice, and drunken noodles. I thought that might keep you from having to get actually drunk tonight.”

“Very funny,” James responded without smiling, “I don’t plan on drinking for quite a while after last weekend.”

“So what’s our game plan?” James asked as he opened up the takeout containers on the table. 

“I don’t know,” Steve slumped into a chair at the table, grabbing a fork. 

“Well that isn’t helpful,” James said before shoving a forkful of noodles into his mouth, “So we don’t think she’ll believe the truth,” James sat back thinking, “What about doing something about his tenure? Can we try to get it canceled so he has to move away? Who runs that department? Heimdall?”

“Yeah, Heimdall just became chair two years ago. I sat on a selection committee with him last year and I think I formed a good enough connection with him that he’ll listen and help out.”

“So you think he could actually do something?”

“We would have to have a reason for him. I doubt they would just fire him and I’m not sure how much I can affect their decision on his tenure in general, but I think I could convince them to at least force him to turn in book chapters sooner? I could say that the University was pressing for me to get a new book out right away, and see if anyone in that department had something they’re already working on that could take its place. It would definitely be a favor though. But that added work might mean that Loki would have to cancel the date.”

“That could work? Seems like a valid enough reason to me.”

“Should I email him or call him? Would a text work? We need to get this to him as soon as possible.”

“Is he the kind of guy who actually checks his email on the weekends?” “Yeah he is,” Steve said, pulling out his phone and typing furiously, “I’ll do that and if that doesn’t work we’ll go to Plan B?”

“What’s Plan B?” James asked, stopping his fork before it reached his mouth.

“I don’t know yet,” Steve replied, finally taking a moment to eat. 

The two men sat in silence as they ate, both thinking about the situation. After they had finished eating, the chime of Steve’s phone broke their silence. 

“It’s from Heimdall!” Steve’s heart was racing as he opened the email and read it aloud. 

“Dear Steve,

I would be happy to help out with the book deadline situation. One of our faculty, Loki Laufeyson is currently up for tenure and working on a book. I’ll let him know immediately that he needs to adjust his schedule and get things submitted faster than originally intended. 

Best,

H”

“Yes!” James exclaimed, clapping his hands together. “Would it be weird if I texted (Y/N) to check?”

“Yes, it probably would be,” Steve replied, although he wanted to reach out to her too. 

The two men spent the rest of the night trying to put the situation out of their minds. After James left, when Steve got into bed, he tossed and turned, unable to get comfortable. As much as he tried not to, he kept thinking of last weekend. If it hadn’t been for his drunken stupidity, (Y/N) would never had agreed to go out with Loki in the first place.

After a sleepless night, Steve awoke late on Saturday already in a bad mood. He went about his day unable to concentrate on anything as he was too busy picturing the date (Y/N) was going on the next day. He hadn’t heard anything else from Heimdall, which he hoped meant that Plan A worked. As he sat on the couch watching a movie Saturday night, trying to relax just a bit, his phone vibrated. He grabbed it quickly and thought he was going to vomit after reading the message.

Nice try, smart guy. A change in deadline isn’t going to keep me away from (Y/N). Good luck finding something that will. 

Steve immediately took a screenshot and sent it to James. Less than 30 seconds after hitting send his phone was ringing. 

“What the fuck??” James yelled through the phone. 

“That about sums up how I feel,” Steve said, defeat in his voice.

“We have to think of something else to stop him.”

“What if I just beat him up? Would that solve it?”

“Do you want (Y/N) to hate you forever?” James asked. 

Steve let out a long sigh, “You’re right. Shit.”

“What if I told her the truth?” 

“She would probably think I made something up about him and told you to tell her and then she would just end up hating you too.” 

“Damn,” James said, followed by a few minutes of silence. “God, it just makes me sick to think that lying, cheating bastard is going out with (Y/N).”    

“Me too,” Steve replied, his stomach in knots. 

“Ok, I’m going to text him something.”

“James, what are you going to text him that he will listen to?”

“I don’t know, I’ll invite him out or to work on a project or something...I’ll think of something, but I know he doesn’t hate me like he hates you, so maybe it’ll work.”

“Ok, tell me how it goes,” Steve sighed before hanging up.

An hour later Steve’s phone began to vibrate uncontrollably. He unlocked the phone and found screenshots from James.

Hey, Loki! It’s James. I’m working on a new research project about the potential of Russian spies using Nordic religious terms and concepts as code. I’m hoping to really kick this project into gear so I can have something to publish by Spring. I would really like to consult you on this project as I know you have a vested interest in part of the topic. Could we meet up tomorrow and I could get some of your expertise? 

James, as interesting as this topic seems to be, doing a quick google search I have found no reason for the two topics, those being Russian spies and Nordic religion, to be connected. I would need more information before I consider changing my schedule for you. 

I’ve found information on Russians using random phrases, like “The silver cat feeds when blue meets yellow in the west,” and I’m wondering if there are “pagan” religious connotations to them. For example, I’ve talked to (Y/N) and she said that the Egyptians made connections between colors and directions, so could that be something that this code uses? So they aren’t necessarily coming right out with the religious affiliations, but I’m wondering if that was the inspiration for them. 

You talked to (Y/N) about it already?

Yes I did. So are you willing to meet tomorrow?

I guess so. However, I am busy at 2pm and likely will continue to be preoccupied through the rest of the night.

Oh, shoot. I was actually thinking 2:00 would be perfect. I have a meeting with Natasha at 1:00 to go over the spy aspect and was hoping to be able to stack the meetings. 

Well that’s too bad. I could meet in the morning, but otherwise you will have to wait. 

Are you sure there isn’t a chance you could meet at 2:00? That would really be ideal for the project.

No. I will not miss the things I already have planned for you. 

What if I asked Nat to switch times? Could you meet at 1 instead? 

That would be cutting it close.  

I’d be happy to include you as an author on it to compensate you for your time.

Fine. I will meet you at 1:00 on campus. But this meeting can not go for more than an hour.

Loki, thank you so much for making the time to help me with this project. I’ll meet you in my office on campus at 1:00pm. See you tomorrow!

Steve’s phone rang just as he finished reading the text messages. 

“So, seems like a good plan right? I’m going to have him come to the office and then hopefully make the meeting go long so that he has to stay longer than he wanted to. And then won’t be there for the date!” James said with glee in his voice. 

“God I hope so.”

“And if he’s late, I bet (Y/N) will hate him.” 

Steve’s hopes were rising for the first time since he had first kissed (Y/N), “Buck, thank you for this.” 

“I want you to know that, as much as I love you, I’m not just doing this for you, Steve. (Y/N) is a fantastic woman and she deserves so much better than Loki. She deserves someone who won’t lie to her, cheat on her, lie to her again, make it all seem like it was her fault, and then ruin her career. You definitely made an ass of yourself and her in that bar, but I know you wouldn’t do any of that shit to her.”

“Wow, thanks, just when I was feeling a bit better you had to bring me back down.”

“Sorry man, but I have to be real with you.”

“Yep, sure.”

“Steve, we’re at Plan B. You don’t think we’ll need a Plan C do you?”

“If your plan doesn’t work, I’ll go talk to him.”

“Does that really sound like a safe and productive option?”

“Buck, if your plan doesn’t work, I’m afraid it will be the only option we have left.”

After a long pause James whispered, “Fuck.”

“I feel the same way. Hopefully it won’t come to Plan C.”

“I’ll keep you posted about tomorrow’s progress, just in case. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

“Sounds good.”

The pounding of Steve’s heart was the only thing to break the silence after James hung up the phone. He got ready for bed and flopped down on top of the covers. He just lay there, thinking and worrying. 

Steve didn’t remember having falling asleep when he awoke Sunday morning. His neck was stiff from the angle he had slept at and he had struggle sitting up from the pain. He reached around for his phone but couldn’t find it. With panic setting in, he forced his neck to bend so he could check the floor. He picked up his phone and found it to be dead, which only increased his panic. He hastily plugged it in, and started pacing the floor, his heart thumping painfully in his chest as he waited for the phone to turn back on. As soon as he saw the screen light up he raced to his phone, holding it until it turned on. The phone finally booted up and Steve hastily unlocked it. 

It’s only 8am, he thought to himself. There’s no reason why I should have any messages yet. 

After 5 minutes of waiting and staring at the phone with no new notifications aside from a few emails, he decided there were no updates that he needed to worry about. His breathing finally started to slow down and he relaxed into bed. He scrolled through the new emails, none of which demanded replies, feeling his eyelids getting heavier with each sentence he read. He dozed off with his phone still in his hand. 

Steve awoke to a buzzing on his chest. By instinct he silenced his phone, letting out a big yawn as he groggily rubbed his eyes. He picked his phone up and turned the screen on. He instantly felt sick as he read the messages on his screen. 

Steve, Loki just got here and I think it’s gonna go well (Sent 1:00pm)

Ok, I severely misjudged this. I’ve already excused myself to the bathroom to try to kill time but I think he might be on to me. I don’t know how much longer I can keep him (Sent 1:32pm)

STEVE THE MEETING IS ALMOST OVER AND I CANT STALL HIM AND HES LEAVING TO GO TO (Y/N)’S AND YOU NEED TO STEP IN AND WE HAVE TO GO TO PLAN C (Sent 1:43pm)

STEVE HE HAS LEFT AND I COULDNT KEEP HIM AND YOU NEED TO STEP IN. WHY THE FUCK ARENT YOU ANSWERING (Sent 1:47pm)

In addition to the texts, Steve also had 5 missed calls. He looked at the time and realized he had less than 10 minutes to get to (Y/N)’s to hopefully cut Loki off before he got there. Luckily he was still in his clothes from the day before. He quickly got out of bed and ran through his apartment finding his keys, wallet, and helmet before racing out the door. He quickly jumped onto his bike and wove his way in and out of cars to get to (Y/N)’s apartment. He got to the front door with 3 minutes to spare before 2pm. Just as he was getting off his bike he saw Loki walking up the street. He took a deep breath, and walked up to the front door, standing in front of it like a club bouncer. 

“Loki,” he huffed as the other man walked up to him. 

“Steve. I wondered if I would run into you today,” Loki replied with a sly smirk twisting his lip upwards.

“We both know why I’m here.”

“Because you came to admit defeat to a real man?” Loki sneered. 

“Is there one coming?” Steve asked snidely.

“Funny,” Loki said without cracking a smile, “I’m going to need you to get out of my way now.”

“Oh really? And what are you going to do about it if I don’t?” Steve puffed out his chest. 

Loki walked up to Steve until there was just an inch between them. Although Loki had height over Steve, Steve had more muscle. 

“I am warning you one last time. Get. Out. Of. My. Way.” Loki spat. 

“No.”

No sooner had Loki pushed Steve on the shoulder than Steve had grabbed his wrist and spun him so Loki’s hand was flush with his own neck. Holding Loki’s arm in a compromising position, Steve shoved him up against the apartment building, keeping him from having an exit.

“I have no problem breaking your arm right now,” Steve hissed into Loki’s ear. 

“Go ahead, tough guy. Let’s see who (Y/N) chooses if you do so.”

“Stay away from her.”

“No, I don’t want to.”

“Loki. I swear to God, you better stay away from her.”

“Good thing I don’t believe in your puny God.”

Steve tightened his pull on Loki’s arm, causing a yelp from Loki.

“Fine, fine, I’ll go,” Loki said with defeat.

Steve loosened his grip on Loki’s arm, “And where will you be going?”

“On my date!” Loki exclaimed as he took advantage of Steve’s lack of grip and broke free, spinning around and punching him in the face. 

Steve was knocked backwards and just barely grabbed the end of Loki’s shirt as he ran for the door. He didn’t get a strong enough grip on the shirt tails, and Loki made it to the door and called the intercom to (Y/N)’s apartment before Steve could stop him. 

“Hello?” (Y/N)’s voice rang through the intercom, causing Steve’s stomach to flip. 

“(Y/N), apologies for my tardiness,” Loki replied giving Steve a wink and a smirk, “Are you still wanting to go out?”

“Of course!” She replied with an excitement in her voice that made Steve feel sick, “Be right down.”

“Better luck next time, Stevie,” Loki spat. 

Steve growled and got on his bike, walking it forward so he could be concealed behind a minivan parked on the street. Moments later he heard a door open. He watched through the windows of the van as (Y/N) came out the door, a huge grin on her face as she met Loki.

“(Y/N)! Again, my deepest apologies. I was held up,” Loki cleared his throat and adjusted his shirt, trying to smooth it out from where Steve had rumpled it. 

“Well you’re here now, so all is forgiven,” she smiled at him. 

“Really? Just like that? Well perfect! Shall we?” Loki asked, nodding ahead. 

“Love to,” she replied.

Loki took her hand and tucked it through and around his arm before guiding her forwards toward the main strip of shops and restaurants. Steve felt absolutely nauseous watching the events before him. He slowly walked his motorcycle down the street, creating a safe distance between himself and Loki and (Y/N) where they wouldn’t see him, but he could still hear them. 

“So, I thought we could go to three different cafes today and get drinks at one and pastries at the others,” he said, loosening up. 

“Sounds perfect,” she said, enjoying the warmth he gave off as you walked arm-in-arm. 

Steve followed them, silently, for a few blocks, pausing behind cars when Loki would look around for him. He was incredibly thankful that there wasn’t any traffic so that he could continue on with what had now become Plan D. 

When they stopped at a cafe, Steve watched as Loki held the door open for (Y/N). He waited a few minutes before parking his bike and going in after them. He quickly grabbed a newspaper from a rack near the door and walked straight to the bathroom as he saw (Y/N) in line, staring at the menu board. After they walked to their table, Steve hastily ordered a coffee to not raise suspicions.

Steve found a seat far enough away from them that he could observe, but kept the newspaper up so that he could be concealed. Although he couldn’t hear their conversations, (Y/N)’s laugh would ring through the shop. Every time he heard it, his stomach lurched. They talked for what felt like eons. Steve had reread the newspaper 8 times when he heard them walk past him, discussing where they were going next. After hearing the door shut, he put down his paper and watched the direction they left. He waited a few moments and then followed them out, trying to keep a safe distance.

When they got to another cafe, Steve repeated the same process. He waited until they were walking away with their own drinks before he ordered. He then found a table of his own near them and resumed his reading of the paper. Steve couldn’t help but slightly drop the newspaper and watch her walk away when she went to the bathroom. The hair on the back of his neck rose, as he felt like she had seen him too. He removed himself a little farther from where they had been sitting when she was in the bathroom and pulled out his phone, concealing it with the newspaper. 

Wrap this shit up, Loki.

Or what?

Or I will talk to your Department Chair and ensure you have a new reason to leave.

Ha, yeah right. What are they gonna do? Give me a deadline of tomorrow for a chapter?

A few people owe me favors, so yes, maybe they will.

The shop was quiet enough that he could hear (Y/N) asking Loki if something was wrong. Steve slipped his phone into his pocket and waited for a moment to step in. Steve watched as Loki hurried (Y/N) out of the cafe, but quickly pulled the newspaper up as Loki began looking around for him. 

Steve repeated his previous actions from the last two cafes when he went to the final one. He felt a fire building inside of him when he realized Loki had taken (Y/N) to his own personal favorite coffee shop. He watched through the window as (Y/N) looked around the shop with wonder and excitement, which made the anger inside of him grow. He wanted to have been the one to bring her here. He should be the one with her right now. Once he saw that they were getting their drinks he went inside and snapped out an order to the waitress, his anger getting the better of him. He apologized when they gave him his coffee and he found a seat to resume his watch. 

Steve sat closer to them at this cafe than he had at the others. He listened in to their conversations, the anger causing the heat to grow in him as he listened to (Y/N)’s enjoyment at being there with Loki. He couldn’t help himself, he pulled out his phone and texted Loki. 

Alright, you son of a bitch. What is it going to take to get you away from her.

He listened as Loki exclaimed about the vibration of his phone and (Y/N) excused herself to the bathroom. Steve held the newspaper up as (Y/N) walked past him, but was afraid she would become suspicious as his hands were shaking with anger and causing the newspaper to slightly move. His phone buzzed on the table before him. 

Nothing you say or do will keep me from her, Steve. I win, you lose. Get over it.

Steve had never felt more angry in his entire life. Nothing with Sharon had ever pushed him to such an anger as this. Knowing that Loki, the man who had stolen his own brother, Thor’s, girlfriend from him, dated her for a month, and then cheated on her with James’s girlfriend, and then turned the blame on Thor and James for not being enough for the women, to the point where James had a breakdown that almost caused for removal from his job due to him skipping classes and missing deadlines, was out with (Y/N) and she was actually enjoying herself had brought Steve to his breaking point. Hearing Loki laugh with her was the final straw. Steve crumpled up his newspaper and threw it to the floor. He stood up and walked towards Loki and (Y/N).

(Y/N) looked up at him and dropped her cup, which smashed into pieces as soon as it hit the floor. 

“Steve?” (Y/N) asked with confusion in her voice.

“Steven,” Loki softly said with panic in his voice. 

Seeing the show that Loki was putting on with (Y/N) just pushed Steve even further over the edge of anger. He took a moment to think and put the right words together to not raise suspicion with (Y/N). 

“Loki, any word on tenure?” he growled out, narrowing his eyes.

“None that I would tell you,” Loki spit back, puffing out his chest.

“And none that you’ll receive,” Steve said,  with an evil smirk.

“Steve, what the fuck?! Have you been following us?” She demanded. 

“I have far better things to do than spend an afternoon off following two dimwits around coffee shops,” Steve replied, the reflection of the fire from the fireplace dancing in his eyes embodying the fire he felt within himself.

Loki sarcastically laughed in response.

“Let’s just go, Loki,” (Y/N) said, offering her hand to pull Loki up from the couch, “He isn’t worth it,” She spit at Steve. 

“Gladly,” Loki replied, taking her hand.

Loki walked over to Steve with (Y/N)’s hand held tightly in his, “Rogers, if you ever threaten me again, I will take this up with the Dean and I don’t think she would be too happy to hear of it.”

Steve just growled in reply, unable to think of anything else he could say that wouldn’t get him into even more trouble with (Y/N) than he was sure he was already in. Steve didn’t bother following them. As soon as they left the anger seemed to leave his body and he was left feeling sick, sad, and lost. It was as though his heart had been crushed and stomped on by (Y/N). He felt terrible that she had been the victim of his anger once again, but even more awful that Loki was the one to pick her up.  

He slowly walked out of the cafe, apologizing quietly to the baristas for causing a scene. He trudged to his motorcycle and drove himself straight to James’s. He didn’t want to be alone. He fumbled with his keys and got himself into the apartment building. He knocked on James’s door and waited for his friend to open it. 

“Steve? What happened?” James asked after opening the door, his face falling as he looked his friend up and down. 

“We lost,” Steve choked out before entering the apartment, slumping onto the couch, and crying. 

CHAPTER TEN

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[unfortunate-stranger-losers]

Right-Side Up AU, Part Three: It’s the End of the World {AO3} {tumblr} {Part One} {Part Two}

Chapter Six → The Case of the Missing Lifeguard

Will and Dustin decided to go to the mall again. “It was, um, fun. And we get free ice cream.” Will said, not looking anyone in the eye. 

“Are you sure?” Lucas asked. 

“Yeah, it’s always fun to bother Steve.” Dustin said. “See you guys tonight.” 

“Right. See ya.” El looked a bit concerned as the boys left. “Listen, Max-” 

The second the door closed, Lucas said, “Billy’s being scary and we’re gonna run away and track him down and probably interrogate him.” 

Max immediately slammed her hand onto her forehead. “What?” 

El blinked. “Excuse me?” 

“Lucas thought the best way to explain the situation was to be as honest as possible.” Mike said. 

“What about Billy? What?” 

“Lucas!” Max snapped, fury in her eyes. “I told you to leave him alone! And not to tell anyone!” 

“But this is important.” Lucas said, flinching a little; he hadn’t really expected her to be this pissed. 

“Lucas, what did you do?” 

“I just told Mike!” Lucas said. “And he found Billy in the Void and he was being… weird.” 

“I told you to leave it alone!” Max hugged herself. “I can handle this!” 

“Wait, time out.” El interrupted. “Billy’s here?” 

“In town.” Lucas nodded. “We saw him at the pool-” 

“Lucas!” 

“She asked!” 

“Because you brought it up!” 

“Are they fighting?” Mike asked, concerned. “I didn’t mean to-”

“Why is Billy here?” El asked. “Max, is your family back?” 

“No! No, he’s just- he’s just an asshole, okay, we can just ignore him-” 

“We saw him in the Void, and… and he saw me.” Mike said. “We just wanna see what’s going on.” 

“What’s going on is he’s a dick!” Max said. “This isn’t-” 

“Look, Max,” El said carefully, “The boys are… just trying to help.” 

“I don’t need your help!” Max shouted. “And I don’t want you anywhere near-” 

“Look!” El got to her feet, crossing her arms. “Fighting’s not going to solve anything. Boys, what were you going to do?” 

Lucas was staring at Max, shock in his eyes as she glared at the floor. “We… we were hoping to check the house. See if something…” 

“How about that, Max?” El looked to her. “We go to your old house, snoop around a bit, and leave. Be gone in an hour.” 

“No! No, Billy-” 

“Will he be there?” 

“Mike can look.” Lucas suggested. 

Mike shook his head rapidly. “I don’t want him to see me again.” 

“Are you sure he saw you?” 

“Yes.” 

“All the more reason not to go near him.” Max said. 

“No!” Lucas said. “All the more reason to find out what’s happening!” 

“No fighting! Everyone shut up!” El said. “Max, you still have a key to your place somewhere? Look, we’ll just go now. Literally nobody will notice. Worst case scenario, Mike and Lucas can kick his ass. Okay?” 

Max kept her eyes glued to the carpet. Then she spat, “Fine.” 

“So we’ve got all the translated shit.” Robin sighed, clicking the pen and staring down at the notecards they’d managed to piece together. “But it’s all gibberish.” 

“It’s not gibberish.” Dustin said, flipping through. “It’s code. We talked about this.” 

“And it’s coming from here.” Will added, sketching a little in his notebook. “Which is, well, very scary.” 

“I’m sorry, who are you again?” Robin said. 

“It’s not important.” Will waved his hand awkwardly. “What’ve we got again?” 

“The week is long,” Robin read, “The silver cat feeds, when blue meets yellow in the west. A trip to China sounds nice, if you tread lightly.” 

“Do any of the words sound like…” Dustin hesitated, and then said, “ворота. Gate?” 

“Uh, no.” Robin said. “Why-”

“Maybe we could sneak out and look for Russians.” Dustin suggested. “Steve can take us when he’s on break and it’s your shift, Robin.” 

“Yeah, do you think Russian spies just walk around with t-shirts saying ‘hello, I’m Russian’?” Robin asked. 

“Well…” Dustin bit his lip, glancing at his friend. “Will’s very good at reading people.” 

“No one’s that good.” 

“Uh, you’d be surprised.” 

Robin looked about ready to ask something, but then she stopped and asked something else. “What are you doing, kid?” 

Will flinched. “Just… sketching.” 

“Does it have something to do with the secret Russian messages?” 

Dustin glanced over at Will’s notebook, and then his face paled. Shit. “He just sketches when he’s concentrating.” 

“Well, let’s-” Robin leaned over the table, peering over, and she froze. Will immediately withdrew his notebook, shoving it against his chest, but it was too late. “Were those bodies?” 

Will opened and closed his mouth several times, before turning to Dustin, pleading with his eyes. 

“He’s a little morbid sometimes.” Dustin said, unhelpfully. 

“Kid, why are you-” 

Thankfully, at that moment, Steve walked in. “Robin, it’s your shift. Heads up- if Holly Wheeler shows up, she will ask for a million samples.” 

“I am aware.” Robin sighed. She stood up, and shot Will a concerned look, before heading out. 

“So, what’ve we got?” Steve asked. 

Dustin carefully put a hand on Will’s shoulder and started explaining. Will, meanwhile, slowly lowered the paper and stared down at his drawing. It was from the week two years ago, when they’d escaped. They’d been cornered in the school, and Mike had… he’d protected them. That was what was important. 

If they needed it, Mike could protect them again. If the Lab was here… 

Will shut his eyes, and remembered the year before, when they’d been with Kali, their sister. That man had said that Papa wasn’t gone. Will had gotten mad, and he’d… he’d done something. To his aura. 

Perhaps, if they needed it, he could protect them. 

But, by God, he really hoped it didn’t come to that. 

“We’re all going to die.” Max said. 

She hadn’t been back to her old house since they’d finished moving her stuff to the Hopper house, and it didn’t look much better than she remembered. In fact, it looked worse now that she had a different home. 

“Can we go now?” 

“I only just got the door unlocked, Max.” El said. “Come on, nobody’s home. We’ll just be in and out.” 

“Isn’t this illegal? Breaking into someone else’s house?” Max said. 

“First of all, it’s your house.” 

“What, did I buy it?” 

“Second, since when have you given a shit about illegality?” 

Mike sighed and pushed past the arguing girls, stepping into the foyer. “Billy’s room.” he said. “Where?” 

Max let out a loud groan, but she followed him in, trying to ignore Lucas close at her heels, and El kicking the door shut behind them. “Um, if he has the same one, it’s down this way.” 

She crossed her arms, not looking anyone else in the eye as she directed them down a hall. She kicked the door, watching it swing open. “See? It’s not even that messy. We’re fine-” 

Mike went into the room, glancing around with narrowed eyes, trying to find something out of the ordinary. A radio was still blasting some heavy music, but other than that, everything seemed relatively normal; crinkled cans and snackbags were spread across the floor, along with dirty clothes. The dresser held an ashtray and a pack of cigarettes, as well as several magazines. Lucas moved towards a dartboard on the wall, nervously running his hand over the darts that were all pretty close to center. 

Max stalked in, glaring around, while El went towards a drawer, peering in. Upon seeing several rather explicit magazines, El groaned and said, “Gag me with a spoon!” and shut it as fast as she could. 

Lucas went to Max, and said, “Are you mad?”

“How could you tell?” she snapped. 

“You look like me when I’m mad, when I get-” 

“It was a rhetorical question!” 

“What’s a-” 

“Why couldn’t you just leave it alone?” Max turned sharply to him, and he stepped back a little. “I told you to forget it. And if Billy finds out-” 

“Max.” El turned to her, her face falling. “He can’t hurt you anymore. We have Hop, and the boys-” 

“Did he hurt you?” Lucas asked, eyes wide. 

“El!” Max turned on her foster sister, furious. 

The only one not paying attention to the argument was Mike, who wandered his way towards a connecting door. He swung it open with a creak, glancing into a bathroom. He walked in, ignoring the shouts behind him, his eyes fixed on something floating in the bathtub. 

After a moment, El realized he’d gone, and held up her hand to stop Max’s tirade. “Where’s Mike?” 

Max froze a moment, and then whipped around, eyes darting around until her gaze landed on the swinging bathroom door. She pushed past Lucas, flinging the door open and calling, “Mike?” 

Mike knelt by the tub, having pulled back the curtain. Max cautiously approached him from behind, following his intense looks. “What? You find-” 

She stopped as soon as she saw what he did, completely paralyzed, not moving until El and Lucas had already entered to see what was going on. 

Slowly, Mike reached out and touched a floating bag of ice. There were several floating empty bags in the bath, turning the water as cold as possible. 

“What the…” El began. 

“It’s- it’s probably just some kind of exercise thing.” Max stuttered, though her eyes were still fixed on the bags. “Probably for his- his muscles or something, works out like a maniac.” 

Mike didn’t look convinced. He looked up at Max, a suspicious fear in his eyes. El went to the tub, pulling out a bag, shivering slightly with the chill. 

As she did, Lucas turned around, towards the mirror in the back of the room. He glanced down at the drawers, and froze upon seeing a dark red stain on the white wood. He quietly walked over, swinging open the doors behind the stain, finding a trash can that had some kind of awful smell. He grabbed it and pulled it out, and glanced inside. “What’s this?” 

El dropped the icebag back into the bathtub and came over, as Mike and Max turned around. She reached into the can, and pulled out some kind of red fanny pack, labelled Hawkins Lifeguard. She placed it on the sink, and then reached in again and pulled out a whistle, the kind the lifeguards wore when they shouted at kids to stop running. 

It was also stained with blood. 

“That’s- no.” Max shook her head. “No, I know what you’re all thinking and- he probably just spilled some soda on his lifeguard stuff. He works at the pool now, somehow-” 

“And so he just threw it away?” El asked. “If he still- he’s probably there now, he’d have this shit.” 

“He wouldn’t be there now.” Mike said. “It’s raining.” 

“What?” 

Mike pointed upwards, and they indeed heard a soft pitter-patter. “Rain.” 

“Um, yeah, if he’s not at the pool, would that mean he’d come back here?” El asked. 

They looked at each other in horror, and then El grabbed the fanny pack and whistle and said, “Well, if he’s not at the pool, we can at least find out who owns this shit. Come on, squad.” 

“The- no! Hey! Leave it alone!” Max said, but El was already running out of the room, with Lucas and Mike close at her heels. 

Max hesitated a moment, and glanced back at the tub. She wanted to get out of there as fast as possible, obviously, but… 

She slowly reached her hand into the tub, feeling the ice-cold water. 

“He likes it cold.” she whispered to herself, almost as a secret. 

No. No. No. 

[strangerthingsharrington]

Can’t Fight This Feeling

-7-

"The week is long. The silver cat feeds when blue meets yellow in the west. A trip to China sounds nice if you tread lightly," Robin and I spoke together.

"Why would they be talking about China if they're here in Hawkins?" I wondered, looking at the sheet of paper in front of us with the translated code.

I looked to Robin, she looked equally as confused, "I dont know...maybe they're working together on something?"

I sighed, shrugging my shoulders lightly, "But then why be in Hawkins? Russia is a lot closer to China, so why come all the way to Hawkins?"

Knock knock knock

Robin and I both looked at the back door of the store, she quickly looked to the front of the store before crawling gracefully though the partition and off the shelf where I was sitting, I slid off of it to join her.

"There's something here," I muttered quietly to her as we reached the back door, "they're in Hawkins for a reason, Robin."

"Agreed," she said quietly before opening the back door where a delivery man in a blue uniform was standing.

Robin took the clipboard from him to sign. I looked at the man and politely smiled at him before I looked down, as my mind continued to race.

Week is long. Silver cat. Blue meets yellow. Trip to China. Tread lightly.

Week is long. Silver cat.

"Thanks," Robin said quietly.

I looked up at the man before I caught the writing on his chest. Lynx.

I squinted before looking to Robin who had a bewildered look on her face. I looked back to the man who looked at us strangely before taking a step back and turning to walk away from us.

But not before I saw it.

He began walking down the hallway and I pulled Robin into the back hallway and pointed at his retreating back.

A silver cat.

We both looked at each other in amazement. Had we just cracked part of this code?

She pulled me back inside the shop and closed the door, locking it behind us.

"Holy shit," I whispered, looking at my friend.

She ran a hand through her short hair and looked at me with wide eyes.

“Holy shit," she agreed.

Realization set in. Starcourt. We already knew it was all happening at Starcourt. But clues and message were related back here. We would be able to crack this code because of the mall.

She lunged and grabbed the notebook and she ran from the back room with me right on her heels.

“Louise, you're never gonna believe who Dustin thought was a Russian," I heard Steve say, but I didn't even bother to look for him.

"You did too!" Dustin defended as Robin and I ran between the two of them.

I heard them calling both our names but we didn't stop. We ran into the middle of the sitting area and stepped up onto a bench.

"A trip to China sounds nice," we kept repeating to each other as we turned slowly in circles, looking to find the answer to this.

The florescent glow caught me. Imperial Panda.

"A trip to China," I smiled, motioning to Robin.

She nodded to me, "Tread lightly," she directed us to find this one next.

I suddently felt my whole body go warm at the same time. I was clenching my fists and releasing them over and over. We were so close to solving this. We were almost there.

"Lou!" Robin exclaimed, grabbing my hand, I looked at her and she nodded her head to the second level of the mall. Kaufman Shoes.

"If you tread lightly," she breathed out.

"When blue meets yellow in the west," I began whipping my head around trying to figure out this last one. I turned slowly and saw it. The big neon clock. A blue and yellow hand. When blue meets yellow in the west...at 9:45.

I latched my hand around Robins wrist, she had seen it too.

"When blue meets yellow in the west," we chorused.

"Holy shit we did it," I marvelled, looking at her.

She looked back to me with wide eyes, "We cracked it," she said as a small smile took over her face.

"Louise!" I looked over and saw Steve looking up at me with a perplexed look with Dustin next to him with the same look on his face, "Robin...what are you guys going?"

"We cracked it," she said quietly with a small excited smile, "we cracked the code."

Both the boys eyes went wide, "Seriously?" Dustin asked.

I nodded, grinning, "Yeah...we figured it out! We did it!"

A small smile took over Steve's face when we made eye contact, "You're a genius, Lou," he said before looking over to Robin where his face turned red, "both of you," he added hastily.

"Well come on," Dustin interjected, "let's discuss it in the privacy of the shop."

Robin hopped down from the bench and high-fived my awaiting brother.

Steve extended his hand towards me with a small smile, "Let me help."

I grinned and let out a small laugh, too excited about figuring out the code in such a short amount of time to even think twice about taking Steve's hand for the second time in two days.

I took his hand and let him help me from the two foot tall bench. He smiled back at me, "I'm serious...for you guys to figure it all out...genius."

I breathed out a laugh and let go of his hand to push some hair behind my ears. He used his suddenly unoccupied hand and ran it through his usual perfectly coiffed hair.

"Just a bit of dumb luck," I shrugged.

"Lou," Dustin said quietly from next to me.

I looked down at him and saw his big smile,

"Come on, let's talk about it at the shop," he said before leaving with Robin right next to him.

I took a few steps to follow behind them but turned to make sure Steve was with me. Which he wasn't. He was still standing at the bench in his dopey little Scoops uniform with his knee high socks. It was Steve. The same Steve I had known of my entire life. King Steve.

But in that instant he looked like a completely different person. Not the same one that I had known of forever. His face was relaxed and he had a small grin still there that seemed to grow when he realized I was looking for him to follow.

"Come on, Steve!" I called over to him, waving him over with my hand.

He was by my side in an instant and I, brazenly, wrapped my arm around his and walked side by side with him.

I was feeling almost euphoric walking with Steve because of figuring out the code. My heart rate felt accelerated and I felt like I couldn't get my brain to focus. I just felt so happy.

I let go of Steve's arm only when we got past the counter of the shop and we went in the back where Dustin and Robin were getting settled into chairs. I took a seat across from Dustin and Robin, with Steve taking the empty spot on my other side.

"Okay...so what are we looking at here?" Dustin asked looking from me to Robin.

Robin and I took turns explaining sections of the story, filling them in on the fully translated code, the delivery man, and finding the other parts of message within the mall.

Dustin and Steve listened intently with small smiles on their faces, every so often their brows would lift up in surprise.

"Holy shit," Dustin said once Robin completed the whole explanation.

"So, now what?" I asked, looking across the table at Dustin.

He sighed, "I'm not sure," he shrugged, "when blue meets yellow in the west is the time. So nine forty five tonight. We should probably check out the loading dock."

"So a stake out?" Steve confirmed, I looked to him and nodded.

"We need to know what they're bringing in there, the schedule and the comings and goings," Robin said, propping her foot up onto her chair.

“We have to go up there tonight," I stated, "we've come this far...we're checking it out and we're going to find out what's in there. What they're hiding and why they're in Hawkins."

—-

Steve and Robin rushed through their closing, we left the store with Steve closing the gate and locking it up. We walked through the doors that that led us through the back halls of the mall before we found the roof access. We all followed Steve up to the little door where he pushed it open and I could instantly hear the rushing of the water from the rain.

I pulled my raincoat close to me and pulled the hood over my head, Steve looked back to the rest of us, "Ready?"

I nodded back to him as Robin and Dust confirmed that they were too.

"Stay low," Steve reminded us.

He turned and ducked down before making his way to the ledge with us following behind him.

It was quite dark out and thankfully the rain would, hopefully, cover up any additional noise that we might have made.

We got to the ledge and looked over it, at the delivery people coming unloading trucks.

"Two guards at the door," Steve said, leaning over the ledge more.

Dustin went to his bag and pulled out his binoculars, he brought them up and kept watching.

I wiped away rain that had fallen into my face and began to shiver slightly, partially from the cold rain and the realization that this was a serious situation. It was kind of fun to crack the code and all that shit...but now we were looking for Russian spies and trying to find out what they were doing here. We were digging ourselves deeper and deeper and soon we wouldn't be able to dig ourselves back out of this hole.

"Make sure you look for Kaufman Shoes and Imperial Panda deliveries," I reminded Dustin.

He nodded and continued looking through his binoculars, I tried readjusting my raincoat but the rain was slowly starting to dampen my sweatshirt. I ran my hands up my arms to try and create some friction to warm myself up again, but it was useless.

"You okay?" Steve asked me.

I looked over at him, "Yeah," I said quickly, "just cold, I guess."

"Do you want my jacket?" he asked quickly, going to remove his coat.

I shook my head quickly, "I'm good, Steve. But thank you."

"Whistling man, ten o'clock," Dustin said.

"What do you think he's got in there?" Steve asked.

"Guns, bombs," Dustin started.

"Chemical weapons," added Robin.

"Whatever it is, they're armed to the teeth," Dustin said, I squinted and could see, clear as anything even through the heavy downpour that the two men guarding the door were armed with guns. Really big guns.

"Great...that's great," Steve groaned, wiping his eyes from the rain.

One of the guards went to the door and suddenly it opened. Maybe a passcode or key card?

"What do you thinks in there?" I asked.

"It's just more boxes!" Dustin said quickly, not pulling the binoculars away from his face.

"Let me check it out," Steve said, blindly reaching for Dustin's binoculars.

"No-I'm still looking!"

"Let me see it!" Steve insisted.

"Dustin, let him look," I calmly told my brother, wouldn't hurt to have Steve check it out too.

"No, in a minute!" he snapped.

Then the binoculars were slammed against the metal ledge making an extremely loud banging sound.

"Shit," I said quietly, just before the guards took on an alerted position, holding their guns tighter to themselves.

The four of us ducked down at the same time so we would be hidden from view of the guards. Even though I knew they would still come to investigate a sound that was so out of the ordinary.

I squeezed my eyes shut and gripped onto the loose gravel under my hands out of fear. The gravel was replaced by Steve's hand within seconds holding it tightly and squeezing.

I opened my eyes and looked over at him, he was staring back at me with wide eyes.

"We have to go, they're going to come look," I told him.

He looked from me to the door that led us up here and nodded, "Let's make a break for it guys," Steve said to us, before getting up and ducking low and running back towards the door.

Once we were back in the door I dropped Steve's hand again to brush off some of the water from my coat and push some out of my hair.

"Quick," I panted, as I began leading them back down the stairwell. We got the bottom but we came to a fork, and I knew that one of the guards was going to be coming up any second. I knew which way we came in, it was closest to where the guard would be, so I started heading down the other hall.

"Lou! This way!" Dustin called.

I looked back and shook my head, "He's going to be coming through that door! Trust me!"

I heard their footsteps scurry behind me, just as we reached another set of doors marked mall entrance we heard the faint sound of another door being thrown open.

"Good call, Lou," Steve gushed.

I smiled over at him, "Well," I began and looked to Dustin, "guess we found your Russian."

I pushed open the door and found ourselves on the opposite end of the mall from where Scoops Ahoy was. We continued speed walking over towards the other end.

We didn't stop until we reached the doors at the parking lot where Steve parked his car that morning. That felt like ages ago.

The four of us ran through the rain and into Steve's car, me in the front and Robin and Dustin in the back.

"We have to get in there," I said instantly.

"We've come this far," Robin agreed, "I'm finding out what the hell is in there."

"Tomorrow," Dustin stated, as Steve left the malls parking lot, "we'll figure out a way in tomorrow morning."

"I'll pick everyone up," Steve told us.

I say silently in the front seat with my thoughts. But the adrenaline was still pumping through my whole body. That was close. Too close. We have to be smarter tomorrow when we tried to get in the room and get to the bottom of this.

By the time we got to our house Dustin had come up with about ten thousand way to get it which included finding a way to disguise ourselves and get access and ended with him thinking we could dig our way in there.

Dustin offered a swift goodbye to Steve before leaping out of the car before it was fully in park and slamming it shut behind him.

I opened the car door, "See you tomorrow, Steve!" I said before taking a step out.

"Lou?"

I looked back to Steve, "Yeah?" I asked as my leg began getting soaked because the door was still open.

He hesitated and began rubbing the steering wheel, "Lou...you don't have to do this," he told me quietly, "this could be dangerous, you know? I...um, don't want you to get hurt or anything."

I stared at him and watched his eyes dart back and forth while he looked at me, I closed my eyes and smiled slightly.

"Don't ruin all the fun, Steve," I said jokingly, "I still need more information for my what I did this summer essay," I said, throwing it back to our first conversation in the back of Scoops Ahoy.

He smiled at me and nodded, "Yeah...yeah if you're sure then okay. I'll um, see you tomorrow then."

"Bye Steve," I said quietly before getting out of the car, shutting the door and running over to my door that Dustin had left open for me.

I went to shut it, only to find that, once again, Steve was still sitting in his car with the window down, surly getting drenched. He raised his hand in a small wave to me which I returned before he finally began backing out fo the drive way and I finally shut the door.

I walked straight to my room, the exhaustion was finally setting in after the events of the day and the lack of sleep from the night before.

But even though I was beyond tired, my mind continued to race at an alarming speed and I couldn't quiet it down. I kept running through everything over the past few days and it was filling me with fear, stress, anxiety, eagerness, adrenaline and excitement.

Russian code. Star court. Steve smiling at me. Guards. Imperial Panda. Steve grabbing my hand. Translation. Steve driving me home. Steve making me laugh. Maybe he wasn't a jerk anymore. Maybe he hides it more.

Finally, thankfully, my eyelids became too heavy and I drifted off.

—-

Title credit to REO Speedwagon and gif credit to owner!

[fandomoblivion]

Ella Enchanted (part two)

Fandom: Stranger Things season 3

Pairing: Steve Harrington x Reader

Summary: (Y/N), also known as Nine, was a girl being experimented on all her life by the Hawkins Lab, conditioned into following every command her brain heard. She managed to escape the lab, with the help of her little sister Eleven, and was taken in by Hopper. Now, it’s a year later, and the three of them are a happy family. She just got her first job, where she works alongside Steve “The Hair” Harrington… who her father doesn’t much like.

Warnings: Swearing

Word Count: 1,318

Notes: sorry this is kinda short, i’m really sick but i needed to get some creativity out tonight, ya dig?

prologue / one 

The next day, you, Steve, and Robin took turns manning the counter. While Robin was in the front, you and Steve didn’t speak to each other. In fact, he altogether ignored your existence. After you told him your story, you told him that you had to get home to Hopper, and Steve didn’t say another word. 

You were confused. A little hurt, too. You were finally making friends with someone who could begin to understand you, and it was all for naught. 

“Is, uh, is he here?” You were brought out of your thoughts from a voice out front, which made Steve perk up. 

“Is… who here?” Robin’s voice answered. 

Steve jumped up and and slammed the door open to the front. “Henderson!” He exclaimed. You opened the window just in time to see Steve do a little jump and yell, “Henderson! He’s back, he’s back!” as the middle schooler in front of him laughed gleefully. 

“I’m back! You got the job!”

“I got the job!” Steve whooped, followed by his (hopefully not) best imitation of a trumpet. He and the kid then did a sort of handshake with each other, complete with lightsabers and Steve getting stabbed by one.

“How many children are you friends with?” Robin asked dryly. 

Steve just sighed and put his hat on the counter. “I’m going on my break. Come on dude!” 

Right as they were going to turn away, the kid turned back around. “Banana boat please! Oh, hey! It’s El’s sister! Hi El’s sister!” He said, waving to you. You awkwardly smiled and waved back, still leaning through the window. 

Robin made the ice cream as quickly as she could, handed it to Steve, and ushered the two of them away. She then turned to face you, leaning back onto the counter. “God, can they be any dorkier?”

You shrugged. “They seem to have fun.” Robin rolled her eyes and turned back to the counter, where an eager Erica Sinclair was waiting with her friends. So, you went into the bathroom in the back for a breather. You sat on the cold linoleum floor of the bathroom, ignoring all the germs that you knew were down there with you. You weren’t used to being in the real world yet. You were still getting used to talking to people without them barking orders at you. In the lab, your mind was fuzzy 24/7. 

You exited after a few minutes and saw Steve and the kid, whose name you quickly learned was Dustin--that’s right, he was there when Hopper rescued you--in the back room. Dustin was playing and replaying a tape, and Steve was pacing nervously.

“What are you guys doing?” You asked.

“It sounded familiar. The music right there, at the end.” Steve ignored you. Of course.

“Why are you listening to the music, Steve?! Listen to the Russian! We’re translating Russian!” Dustin turned to you. “We’re translating Russian.”

Steve nudged Dustin’s shoulder, his back to you, and very clearly whispered, “Why did you tell her? She can’t help.”

You stood up a little straighter. “I want to help.” 

Dustin grinned and picked up the tape. “Do you know Russian, El’s Sister?”

“Jesus, her name is (Y/N).”

“Okay, (Y/N). Do you know Russian?”

“I… I can.” 

“Alright, babysitting time is over. You need to get in there,” Robin huffed, swinging the door open. She stopped when she saw her whiteboard, which was now covered in a Russian-to-English alphabet key. “Hey, my board! That was important data, shitbirds!”

“I guarantee you, what we’re doing is way more important than your data.” Dustin replied. 

“Yeah, and how do you know these Russians are up to no good anyway?”

Dustin looked baffled. “Great, does everyone know about the Russians?!” 

“You are both extremely loud. You think you have evil Russians plotting against our country, on tape, and you’re trying to translate, but haven’t figured out a word because you didn’t realize the Russians use an entirely different alphabet. Sound about right?” There was a pause.

“I want to help.” You repeated. “Play it again.”

“Also, it’s your turn to sling ice cream, dingus.” Robin said, handing Steve the scoop. He sighed and headed out the front door.

“Okay, you know Russian, (Y/N)?” Dustin asked. 

“I can. Tell me to translate it.”

“Huh?” 

“Tell me to translate it.”

“Okay… can you translate this?” 

“No, like… like tell me to.”

“Dude, what are you into?!” Robin chuckled.

“Okay! Translate this, (Y/N).” Dustin hit play on the tape. 

Your mind went fuzzy. When the tape was over, you automatically said, “Nedelya dlinnaya. Serebryanyy kot pitayetsya, kogda siniy tsvet vstrechayetsya s zheltym na zapade.”

“Oh, shit.” Robin said, leaning forward in her chair towards you. “Where did you learn that?”

You didn’t respond. You didn’t even hear her. “The week is long. The silver cat feeds when blue meets yellow in the west.” There. Your mind was clear. 

---

That night, when you were closing up the shop, Robin told Steve of your findings.

“I mean, it just… it just can’t be right,” Steve said, pulling down the gate in front of Scoops Ahoy. 

“It’s right.” You grumbled.

“Honestly, I think this is great news.” Dustin said.

“How is this great news? I mean, so much for being American heroes. It’s total nonsense.” Steve said, catching up with you guys all headed for the parking lot. Robin had, thankfully, agreed to give you another ride home. 

“It’s not nonsense.” Dustin protested. “It’s too specific. It’s obviously a code.”

“What do you mean, a code?” Steve asked.

“Like a super secret spy code.” You laughed at your own answer, making Steve scowl.

“And how do we know her translation is right? I mean, did we even check it with a dictionary or anything?”

“Steve, she’s right. She broke it down for us and everything.” Robin pointed out. “Listen, just for kicks, let’s entertain the possibility that it is a secret Russian transmission. What’d you think they were gonna say, ‘Fire the warhead at noon’?”

“‘The silver cat feeds.’ Why would anyone talk like that unless they’re trying to mask the true meaning of their message?” You said.

“Exactly. And why would anyone want to mask the true meaning of their message unless the message was somehow sensitive?” You and Robin were bouncing off each other at this point, and Steve was just scowling every time you opened your mouth.

“Exactly. Evil Russians. So… how do we crack it?” Dustin asked.

Robin knew the answer to this one. “Translate the rest, and hopefully we find a pattern.”

“Maybe ‘silver cat’ is a meeting place. Or a person. Or a weapon!” You added. You turned, seeing that Steve wasn’t with you guys anymore. “Where’s Steve?”

You three looked around to see Steve rapidly fumbling for spare change in his wallet in front of a single-ride mechanical pony. “Steve, what are you doing?” Robin asked. 

“Uh, it’s a quarter. I need- do you have a quarter?” 

Robin chuckled and said, “You sure you’re tall enough for that ride?” as the three of you jogged over. 

“Give me a quarter!” Steve demanded. Fuzzy brain. You reached into your pocket and pulled out a quarter, holding it out for Steve before the other two even had time to register his words. Steve grabbed the quarter and put it into the machine. The horse started going, and a song played. Immediately you recognized it. 

“Holy shit.” Dustin whispered. “The music.” He went into his bag and pulled out the recorder. “The music!” He hit play, and you all listened to the track in the background of the Russian words match up to the horse in front of you. 

“Maybe they have horses like this in Russia?” Robin asked. 

Steve pointed to the name of the horse. “Indiana Flyer? I don’t… I don’t think so. This code, it… didn’t come from Russia. It came from here.”

TAGLIST

@alina-margaret . @almostsecretmusic . @american-duchess . @anamcg317 . @annaewww . @blackandwhiteimagines . @bubblegumcat229 . @bucky-newtlock . @canny1902 .  @christinawxxx . @cosmickha0s . @creativedogs . @darkcrystal-wolf . @decaffeinatedtachycardia . @djisprobablydead . @eliza-kat . @eyeballtoes . @fandomsstolemylife00 . @fredweasleysupportgroup . @ggclarissa . @ginger-swag-rapunzel . @gracelynns . @grippleback-galaxy . @gruffle1 . @hananabee . @hannarudick . @harrys-kiwi . @heavenlyholland . @hellhoundschewtoy . @in-my-dreams-2000 . @izabellah816 . @likemeonlyme . @lilyhw1 . @mackycat11 . @megsell99 . @metuel18 . @morganmindflayer . @phluffyphantom . @potterhead-witch . @pppsssyyyccchhhiiiccc . @princessrow12 . @queen1054 . @rainbowmarta . @sheridans-dynamos . @thecaptainsgingersnap . @thegloryofliterature . @thoughstofaredhead . @ucantknowmeyet . @whataloadofmalarkey

[strangerthingsharrington]

Can’t Fight This Feeling

-5-

“The week is long. The silver cat feeds, when blue meets yellow in the west."

We all stood there in silence after reading the half of the code we had translated. And by we, I mean Robin.

"Wait what?" Steve asked.

I looked over at him, raising an eyebrow.

"What?" Robin questioned.

He looked from us back to the whiteboard and back to us again, "Are we all reading the same translation?"

Dustin, Robin and I looked at each other before letting out little laughs. I shook my head before picking up my bags and heading to the front of the shop.

The others followed, Dustin and I stood just outside the entrance and waited as Robin and Steve quickly closed the store since the mall had been closed for the last twenty minutes.

"That was pretty good just for working on it today," Dustin told me as they shut the lights of Scoops Ahoy off.

I nodded, "Robin's a master," I chuckled.

I looked over at him as he smiled, Robin came out and stood next to me, beaming.

"Our little Russian translator," I said as I ruffled her hair which made her laugh.

Steve came out and pulled the gate down, where he locked it quickly.

"I mean...it just...it can't be right," Steve said, talking about the translation.

"It's right," Robin defended as we began slowly walking to the mall entrance.

"Honestly, I think it's great news," Dustin added, looking proudly over at Robin.

Steve scoffed, "How is this great news? I just...so much for being American hero's! It's total nonsense."

"It's not nonsense," I interjected, looking back at him.

He looked over at me and jogged to catch up with me.

"It's too specific, it's obviously a code," Dustin stated as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"What do you mean, a code?" Steve asked as he fell in step with me.

Dustin looked back, disbelieving, "Like a super secret spy code."

Steve, once again, scoffed, "That's a stretch."

I hummed and looked at him as Robin piped up, "I dunno, is it?"

"You're buying into this?" he asked her.

She hesitated only for a second, "Listen, just for kicks let's entertain the possibility that it is a secret Russian transmission? What did you think they were gonna say 'fire the warhead at noon'?"

"Exactly," Dustin said, extending his arm out to Robin.

"What do you think, Lou? You've been quiet," Steve said.

I looked over at him and shrugged lightly, "I agree with them. I mean...if you were going to send out a transmission you wouldn't want just anyone to be able to crack it. It makes sense, to me, for them to make it into something that not everyone would be able to figure out. Something so...so weird that people wouldn't even know where to start when it comes to translating and cracking it."

Steve opened his mouth but closed it quickly, sending me a small noncommittal nod.

"My translation is correct, I know that for sure. So...the silver cat feeds, why would anyone talk like that if they weren't trying to mask the true meaning of their message?" Robin definitely posed a good question.

"Exactly," Dustin and I said at the same time, but Dustin looked back at Steve with a wide eyed 'told ya so' look to which Steve made a face back at him.

"And why would anyone wanna mask the true meaning of their message, unless their message was somehow sensitive," Robin kept going on her train of thought.

"So I guess that confirms your suspicions," Robin told my little brother.

"Evil Russians," Dustin concluded.

I smiled a little and rolled my eyes slightly. What else could I do. Dustin didn't seem to be wrong here.

Robin looked back at me and Steve, "I can't believe I'm about to agree with your little brother but yeah...evil Russians."

I shook my head and looked over at Steve, who was looking in my direction but not right at me.

"Steve?" I asked quietly.

He looked at me before taking a few steps towards me, grabbing my hand that wasn't holding my bags from my earlier shopping trip. Before I knew of the evil Russians.

Regardless of what my feelings about Steve were during school and how I thought he was an asshole, the heat on my face was enough to throw me off a bit still. I was confused about why he was acting so nicely to me, even though lots of the evidence was pointing at him possibly redeeming himself over the last little while.

He pulled me over to a mechanical horse at the kiddie rides and looked over at me, wide eyed.

"What?" I asked quietly.

He gripped my hand tighter before he reached into his pocket hastily with his other hand.

"I need a quarter," he muttered.

I put down my bags and let go of his hand, then dug into my bag for my wallet.

"Lou?" Dustin called.

I pulled out a quarter and handed it to Steve, "Thanks," he told me quickly.

"You tall enough for that ride?" Robin asked with a laugh as her and Dustin walked over to us.

"Shut up," he sassed back.

"What are you doing?" Dustin asked.

"Will the both of you shut up and just listen," he said as the ride began moving.

The music...it was the same as the recording.

"Holy shit. The music..." I said looking over to Steve.

"I knew it I heard it before," he told me, his eyes were absolutely wild looking.

Dustin quickly pulled out the recorder and played the message again. The music was unequivocally the same music that was coming from the kiddie ride.

"Okay," Robin started, "so they have some musical kiddie rides that like in Russia, so what?"

"An Indiana flier? Doubt it," Steve said looking at the name of the ride that was posted on it.

"So wait...that means that the transmission...it didn't come from Russia," I said, looking down at my little brother.

Dustin was wide eyed, he looked like a deer caught in the headlights.

"It means....that this came from Hawkins...right here at Starcourt," Steve concluded, effectively finishing my sentence.

I had never wanted to leave somewhere quicker than I did right then and there. It was too close to home. Maybe right under our feet.

"We should go," I said quietly, as I grabbed my bags from the ground, "never know who might be around in an empty mall."

We all jogged out of the mall and stood together in a circle out in front of the main doors.

"Okay, well, tomorrow we'll keep working on it. We'll figure it out and I dunno...maybe talk to Hop or something," Robin suggested.

"I agree, let's just go home, regroup and come back tomorrow," I stated.

Robin looked into the parking lot, "My moms here," she told us, "see you all tomorrow," she said, walking over to the bike rack.

I looked in the opposite direction at the bus area, "Come on, Dustin, let's go. See you tomorrow, Steve," I said, looking briefly at Steve, before poking my brothers shoulder.

"You're gonna take the bus?" he asked us.

I looked at him again, "Yeah, we didn't call our mom so the bus is just easier now. She won't wanna come out now," I explained.

He shrugged, "I can take you guys home?" he offered.

I grinned but shook my head, "No no, that's okay, Steve thanks."

He pulled his car keys from his pocket, "Seriously, let me drive you guys. It's late, I dont know if I trust the bus this late."

Dustin stepped over next to Steve, "Yeah come on Lou," he said with giant eyes.

I sighed and looked behind me, the bus wasn't anywhere in sight. But did I want to be stuck in a car with Steve for an extra ten minutes longer than I needed to be?

"Okay," I agreed looking back at the two of them, Dustin was grinning like a madman.

Steve nodded with a smile, "Okay, it's right over here."

He led us over to his BMW and unlocked his door, and then he unlocked the rest of the doors from inside. I went to the backdoor but Dustin bumped me to the passenger door.

"What are you doing?" I asked him.

He looked at me and smiled, "Older sibling privilege, remember?" he asked, before opening the back door and jumping in, closing the door behind him.

I sighed and opened the passenger door, I put the bags on the floor and got in, closing the door gently.

"Ready?" Steve asked me.

I did up my seatbelt and looked over at him, "Ready," I confirmed with a smile.

"What time are you working tomorrow?" Dustin asked.

"Ten to nine," Steve responded.

I kept looking out of the window, watching the streets and houses pass us by, like I usually did. It had all been too much to take in today. With the Russians and translating a code and Steve being a decent human being.

I was still harbouring some ill towards Steve, but I didn't think that would change any time soon. Or ever for that matter. Him not making me feel like shit, or buying me a drink, or driving me and Dustin home doesn't make him a fully changed person in my opinion.

But.

There was no denying that he was at least a tiny bit different though. He didn't seem to have that weird like...vibe around him of being overly pretentious and an all around asshole.

Maybe I was reading too much into it.

But we were involved in this whole evil Russians in Hawkins thing so, we had that going for us now, I guess.

"Yeah you can pick us up, that'd work out better, right Lou?"

I looked away from the window and behind me to Dustin.

"What?"

He raised his eyes brows and shook his head slightly, "Steve? He offered to pick us up and take us to the mall since mom is working tomorrow? So we can decode the rest of the message?"

My eyes shifted to Steve and saw him take a peek at me out of the corner of his eye, "No, that's fine you don't have to."

"It's really not a big deal, Lou, I figured you want a ride rather than the bus again," Steve said.

I sat facing the windshield again and toyed with the hem of my shorts, "It's out of your way, Steve. It's fine."

Steve chuckled, "It's like, four minutes out of my way, it's really nothing."

"I dont know about you, Louise, but I'm gonna get a ride, you can take the bus alone if you really want to," Dustin piped up.

I rolled my eyes, "Wow, a true gentleman," I said sarcastically.

"And yet you're not taking the ride offer from Steve?"

"Maybe it's because that's too early to be hanging out with you, Dusty."

"Insanity. You don't have a choice because we're going to decode a Russian message, Lou. Should have thought of that before."

"Maybe you should think about shutting up."

"Oof, ya got me!"

I laughed a bit and shook my head, feeling a small sense of relief at seeing my house come into view.

"Fine," I relented.

Steve parked the car in our driveway and turned to face me, "Good, so I'll see you in the morning?"

"Sure," I confirmed with a small nod.

Dustin's head popped into the front between us, "And me too."

I smiled and opened the car door, "Yes, Dustin we know. You're the only one anyone wants to see."

He stuck his tongue at me, "See you tomorrow, Steve," Dustin said, pulling his head back and getting out of the car quickly.

I was out of the car and scoffed at my brothers retreating back, "Don't even offer to help with my bags!"

"Don't worry, I didn't!"

I smirked and leaned into the car to grab the few bags I had, "Did you want some help?" Steve asked.

I breathed out a laugh, "No no, I just like to try and make Dustin feel guilty but it never ever works pretty much."

He smiled at me and nodded, "Gotcha."

I grabbed my bags and took a step away from the car, "Okay...well thanks for the ride, see you tomorrow."

"Bye, Lou," Steve said before I closed the door and walked around the front.

"Louise?" Steve called.

I looked back at the car and saw that he had rolled his window down with his arm hanging out.

"Yeah?" I called back to him.

He hesitated, "Do you drink coffee?"

I tilted my head with a small smile, "What?" I laughed.

He laughed too and ran a hand through his hair, "Answer the question!"

"Yes!" I told him, while continuing to laugh. What a strange question.

He nodded with a large smile, "Okay...alright then I will see you tomorrow."

I rolled my eyes with a smile on my face, "Bye, Steve."

I turned back around and walked through the open door, I turned to face outside to close the door and saw Steve still sitting in the parked car looking my way.

I raised my hand and offered a small wave, he waved back to me, before finally putting his car in reverse and leaving the driveway.

I closed the front door and locked it, turning to the living room where I spotted Dustin sitting on the couch watching me.

"What?" I asked, before walking past him to the hall.

"What 'what'?" he asked as he followed me to my room.

I opened the door and walked to my bed, dropping my bags onto it, and removing my bag from around my shoulders.

"I literally don't know what you're talking about?"

He scoffed and sat on my bed, I sat next to him.

"Steve," he said, elongating his name.

"What about him?" I questioned.

He nudged me with his shoulder, "Still think he's a giant douchebag?"

I rolled my eyes, "I know that he was a giant douchebag."

"But is he still?" he shot back.

I rolled my eyes and look at him, "What do you want from me, Dust?"

He shrugged, "I want you to try to admit that Steve isn't that bad of a guy anymore. You have to realize that now that you've hung around him today."

"I think there were many more pressing things on my mind today...for example the evil Russians that are probably here somewhere in Hawkins."

He hummed, "That's true. But, see, the thing is, is that I like to know when I'm right, so if you could just tell me that I am, I'd be good for the evening."

I looked over at him and flicked his nose, making him mumble a small 'ow' before I laid back on my bed.

"Steve doesn't seem to be as douchy as he was during most of high school, does that work for you?" I asked as he laid next to me.

"I'll take that," he agreed.

"So," I began, "how the hell am I supposed to sleep knowing that there are evil Russians in the town?"

He hummed, "Just close your eyes," he said simply.

I turned my head to look at him, only to see him staring up at my ceiling, "That simple, huh?"

He closed his eyes, "That's how I seemed to sleep after everything else that's happened."

I furrowed my brow, "Everything else? What everything else are you talking about?"

He opened his eyes and scratched at his neck, "You know....with Will missing and being dealing with the cops that night...the lab and everything....you know?"

"Dust," I said quietly.

He turned to look at me with sad eyes, "Yeah?"

"You've...never told me about what happened with all that...Will missing and everything that happened that night," I prodded a bit.

He nodded and sat up, with me following suit.

"It was...a really weird time, Lou...I cant really get into it," he murmured.

I sighed and nodded, "That's okay, Dust. I know that was a rough time...sorry, you just never talk about it is all."

He looked over at me quickly, "I'm gonna head to bed," he told me as he stood up, "see you in the morning," he said wearily before walking out of my room and closing the door silently behind him.

Dustin Henderson was hiding something from me. Whether is was about Russians or about something more that happened when Will went missing...there was something.

Title credit to REO Speedwagon and GIF credit to owner.

[bxcketbarnes]

Russian Translations

Pairing: Steve Harrington x Reader

Words: 1800+

Author’s Note: Steve is back baby! Watching the third season of Stranger Things have lit a fire, ngl. The season was so good and emotional like damn. Also, Steve was so fucking adorable in this season. Anyway, I hope you guys like this and let me know if you guys would maybe want a part two with more fluff, fluff, and flufffff. xox

“You’re going to love it here, I promise,” my mother, Kathleen, tells me and I roll my eyes a bit. Mom and I are sitting at the kitchen table while eating dinner and a chuckle leaves my lips.

“I like how you say that a week after we moved in,” I mention with a small grin before shoving the forkful of potatoes into my mouth.

She gives me a smile, shrugging her shoulders. “I was just reassuring you in case you were having doubts. I know you loved the college you were going to,” mom reminds me and I nod slightly. “The number of friends you had.”

“I know. You know, to be honest… most of them weren’t really my friends. They were Daniel’s and since he was a huge dick to me, they weren’t really there for me after we broke up,” I open up to her, poking at my food as I feel my stomach drop.

“Well, I’m sure the people here are a lot more real. How about this,” she pauses and sets her fork down on her plate, “why don’t you go to the mall nearby? You can take my car.”

I finish the food on my plate and bite the inside of my lip as I quickly think about it. “I guess I can, yeah. Never really been to a mall before, so it’d be cool to witness.”

“Great! Someone at the gas station gave me the address when I asked if there was anything to do around here. I’ll give it to you and once you’re done the dishes you can go.”

-

I pull up to the large building that’s adorned with bright colors that slightly lit up the night sky. Jesus, that’s pretty as hell. I pull into a parking space as I notice a whole bunch of people coming in and out of the mall. I swallowed the lump in my throat, a little shy with large crowds of people. Well, here goes nothing.

My lips part a bit at the gorgeous interior, looking completely around at the names of places I’ve never heard of before. I glance up, seeing the name of the mall hanging above the courtyard. “Starcourt, cute,” I chuckle as my eyes come into contact with a place called Love Lace Lingerie. I blush a bit before shrugging my shoulders, making my way towards the small store.

“Hi! Can I help you find anything?” A very cheerful lady asks me and I let out a quiet squeak.

“I, uh, I have no idea. I just moved here and I’ve never seen…” I trail off embarrassingly while scratching the back of my neck.

The brunette lady gives me a small smile and lays a hand on my shoulder. “That’s okay. We’ll figure it out. You’re a very gorgeous woman so, we’ll have to find the right stuff that’ll knock the breath out of guys,” she tells me and I let out an awkward chuckle.

I spent almost an hour in the lingerie store, trying on almost everything that’s in this small place. The lady helping me, Chloe, have picked out some pretty cute stuff, but I don’t know if I would ever have the courage to even get to that step with someone. I left the store with a few bras, panties, a babydoll, and a bodysuit. “I cannot believe that just happened,” I say to myself and glance towards my left, seeing Scoops Ahoy!. “Ice cream, huh? Guess I can reward myself after getting out of my comfort zone.”

As I walk into the ice cream shop I notice a guy standing by the window, looking into it as hushed whispers were heard. “Uh, excuse me?” I quietly call out while tapping the silver bell in front of me.

The man jumps, quickly turning around to face me. I had my lingerie bag on the counter, watching his eyes look me over before they met with the shopping bag. My cheeks heat up as I quickly move it out of sight, clearing my throat a bit. “Hi, welcome to Scoops Ahoy! What can I get you?” He asks in a smooth voice.

“U-Uh, I’m new here so what do you recommend,” I pause to take a look at his name tag, “Steve?”

“I personally recommend the USS Butterscotch. It’s literally to die for,” he tells me while leaning onto the counter.

I nod my head, humming quietly at the suggestion. “I do like butterscotch. I’ll take a small cup of that, please,” I mention with a smile. He nods his head, hair flopping all over the place as I check him out. “I-I love your hair,” the compliment slips out before I was able to stop myself.

“Oh, thank you,” Steve smirks and hands me my cup of ice cream. “That’ll be a dollar twenty-five,” he trails off, raising an eyebrow.

“Y/N. My names Y/N,” I tell him with a small smile while giving him the exact change. “Pozhaluysta,” I grin and turn to walk away when a door slams open.

“Hold on, hold on!” I heard a girl call out and I stop in my tracks, glancing behind me to see a girl my age standing beside Steve. “What did you just say and what language was that?” She asks in a hurry.

My lips move as I stutter over my words a bit. “I-I said you’re welcome in Russian… why?”

Both of them gave each other a look before their gazes returned to me. “Russian?! Oh my god. Are you like, fluent in it??” Steve asks me frantically and I shrug my shoulders.

“Kinda. I took it at college before I moved here,” I inform them and Steve lets out a chuckle.

“Holy shit a super cute girl commented my hair and could possibly help us find evil Russian spies?!” He tries to whisper to his co-worker, but it wasn’t quiet enough for me not to hear.

I couldn’t help the smile that came to my lips, kinda liking this place already as I decide to speak up in the middle of their whisper fight. “Evil Russian spies?” I pipe up and their heads snap towards me. "You guys aren't very quiet."

"What will it take for you to help us translate something?" Steve asks and I shrug.

"I'll do it for nothing. I don't have friends and this sounds interesting so I'm in," I tell them and they give each other a high five as I take a bite of my cone.

Steve opens the little gate, allowing me behind the counter before the three of us go into the back. My eyes widen as I see a child, glancing towards the two teens.

"Who's this?" The child and I ask at the same time.

"Dustin, this is Y/N. She's new here and she can speak Russian. Y/N, this is Dustin," the cute teen introduces and I nod.

I look towards Dustin as he waves and gives me a smile. Aw. He's adorable. "Hi, Dustin," I grin before setting my back on the floor, taking a seat beside him. "So, what's the thing I'm supposed to translate?"

Dustin takes out a tape recorder, rewinding it real quick before pressing play. "Nedelya dlinnaya. Serebryanaya koshka kormit kogda siniy vstrechayetsya s zheltym na zapade."

I furrow my eyebrows together as I feel everyone's eyes on me. I fiddle with the Russian translation dictionary in front of me. "Can you start it again?" I ask the curly-haired child and he nods, rewinding it before playing it again.

"Nedelya dlinnaya-"

"Stop it," I muttered and it stops. I repeat it to myself a couple of times. "So, this part means the week is long."

Robin sits up from leaning on the table, writing it down on the whiteboard. My eyes met Steve's as he watched me intently and Dustin presses play, the voice continuing.

"Serebryanaya koshka kormit-" the man's voice cuts off as it gets paused, allowing me to figure it out in bits.

"Uh," I pause while closing my eyes, snapping my fingers together, "the silver cat feeds," I translate as Robin wrote it down. 

"-kogda siniy vstrechayetsya s zheltym na zapade."

“When blue meets yellow in the west. What the hell?” I mumble as Robin finished the last bit. Dustin stops the tape as they stand in front of the board, all of them looking at it. I stand up as well, moving to stand behind Steve as I look over his shoulder. “What does this mean?”

“Good question. I’ve got no idea,” Steve mutters to me while glancing at me. “Thank you for helping us. I think we’d be here all night if it wasn’t for you.”

A chuckle leaves my lips, crossing my arms over my chest. “It’s not a problem really. You guys seem fun, so I thought why not? If you… if you ever need my help again don’t hesitate to ask,” I tell him while grabbing the pen off of the table before grabbing his hand, writing my number down onto it. “And maybe, if you guys wanna be friends that’d be cool.”

“I’ll definitely keep you around,” Robin speaks up, wrapping her arm around my shoulders, “you seem pretty cool and it seems like our Steve here might have a crush on you.” She smirks at the tall-haired man as his cheeks blushed, lips part a bit before he hits Robin’s arms.

“Robin shut the fuck up. Don’t listen to her. She likes to be a dick sometimes,” Steve mumbles and I laugh lightly. “Come on. I’ll walk you out.”

Steve and I walk out of Scoops Ahoy!, noticing that the mall has actually closed. “Holy shit. I’ve been here quite a while, I see,” I chuckle while looking around the empty mall. The two of us walk out of the building, heading towards my car that’s at least ten feet from the main door. “Thanks for walking me out.”

“It’s no problem, really. Just want to make sure you get home safe, especially now that you know there are evil Russian spies out and about,” he mentions as I step up to the driver’s side door.

“Will you let me know the next step. I wanna be apart of this. I’m intrigued,” I tell him and his eyes widen, feeling his hands gently grab mine.

I take a quick glance down at our hands before looking back up at him, his hair in his face slightly. “I would love to, but I don’t want you to get hurt,” Steve informs me and I furrow my eyebrows.

“But you’r-”

“Yeah, but I’ve been in some weird shit before already. You just moved here and you’re so innocent I just-”

“Innocent? I just helped crack a Russian code. I’d say I’m in this now. Plus, if something goes wrong you’ll be there to protect me. Steve… please,” I beg and squeeze his hands.

Steve sighs, his thumbs rubbing the back of my hands. “Fine, fine. I’ll call you later tonight. I’m sure when I go back in there Dustin will have a plan.”

I grin, getting pretty excited and I lean on my toes to kiss his cheek. “Thanks, Steve. My mom was right… I am going to like it here.”

-

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