Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

May 15th, 1986.

Hawkins, Indiana.

Max sits in a wheelchair, eyes blank and white, tucked in the corner of Mike Wheeler’s basement, a comic laid open in her lap and she slowly turns the pages. Lucas sits on the couch, leaning over, head hovering over her shoulder and he’s reading the pages out loud to her, every now and then describing the panels for her and she just nodded here and then.

Will lays on the ground, flat as he looks up at the ceiling, mouth taut as it pulls into a frown. His hands are folded neatly and resting on his lap and he’s breathing steady.

El sits on the couch, fiddling with her shirt and mumbling quietly to Mike. Mike’s pushing his hair back over his shoulders repeatedly as it keep falling back over no matter what he does. He’s nodding here and there, whispering back to her. They broke up after Vecna a few months back, they needed to focus on the town right now, and they still hadn’t properly resolved their last argument, they needed a break.

That’s what they were calling it, a break.

Everyone was pretty sure that was the end though.

Dustin was fiddling with some machine at their D&D table, dismantling one of their radios despite Will telling him to stop that because it was their only communication to the adults and older teens. He just kept waving his hands frantically and telling him to shut up, he’s working . Erica was ridiculing him for his “shoddy workmanship” and he was simply flipping her off.

El stood up and sat down, moving to lay next to her brother and Will turned his head to look at her.

She smiled weakly.

“You okay?” She asked and Will sighed.

“I can… feel him. The Mind Flayer.” Will mumbled. “Have ever since we got back.”

El nods, her short hair barely brushing against the floorboards as she does so.

“Me too,” She mumbled and then moved her arm, palm up. Will grabbed it and she held it tightly. “But we all have each other. And hope.”

Will sighed and looked back up at the ceiling. “It just… It feels like every time we defeat him, every time we get closer to winning, we just take even more steps backwards. He’s back again and what if we can’t stop him again? What if we can’t even slow him down.”

“Will,” El said firmly, eyes determined and she squeezes Will’s hand. “We can do this. Okay?”

She looks at her brother so determinedly, her eyes shining as if daring him to disagree. He’s silent for a moment, tongue heavy with an unknown weight in his mouth and he sighs out slowly. 

“Okay.”

The front door of the house slams open and everyone jumps into action, grabbing the nearest weapon and moving to stand in a half circle in front of Max. El stood in front of them all, hand raised and they all stared at the basement door as feet moved around upstairs. Erica grabs Lucas’ arm tightly, small hand shaking violently and he moves to stand directly in front of her, arm out to stop anything from getting to her.

Someone knocked on the door, four times quick, then a pause, twice more, pause, then five times.

They all turn to Dustin and he takes a shaky step forward, readjusting his grip on his bat as he stares at the door, reinforced with four different locks and a board across to keep it shut.

“Password!” He shouts out, voice wavering a little.

Someone behind the door groans loudly. “Are you serious?” They shout and Dustin frowns.

“Pass! Word!” He shouts out firmer and the person groans even louder.

“Omigod okay, Ewok!” The person shouts and jiggles the handle. “Now let us down, Henderson!”

Dustin turns to El and nods. She tilts her head, undoing all the locks and the door opens.

At the top of the stairs stands Steve, Robin, Jonathan, Nancy and Argyle, carrying vast assortments of grocery bags and backpacks. They wore near battle outfits, vests, baggy pants, hats or bandanas, long socks, long sleeves, outfits to cover them up completely. As Robin kept calling it, they all looked “totally Post-Apoc.”

“Jesus dude,” Steve said as he began to descend the stairs, kicking off his shoes. “What’s even the point of a secret knock if you’re gonna make us do a damn password anyway?”

“Extra security! Why do we have locks on the basement door if we have locks on the front door, Steve ?” Dustin shot back as Steve dumped the bags on the table.

“Fine, fine, okay, I get it.” Steve waved him off and Mike departed from the group to rush to Nancy, eyes searching her face. “Did you see them? Dad and Mom? Holly?” He asked her, as he always asked whenever she came back from a run.

Nancy’s eyes drop to the ground, hands tightening around the plastic bag she held.

“No,” She mumbled. “Didn’t see them.”

Mike’s jaw tightens and his lip quivers a little and Nancy’s eyes soften and she pulls her younger brother into her arms, holding him tightly. Mike doesn’t hug back but he doesn’t push her away either.

“We’ll find them, Mike.” She promised, a hand caressing through Mike’s hair gently. “We will find them. They were out shopping when the cracks happened, they might just be stuck in another part of town, they’re going to be fine.”

“You can’t promise that,” Mike said, trying to keep his voice even, not let his fear and tears slip through. “I know I bullshit about hating our parents all the time, but I can’t- I can’t lose them, Nance. And Holly- She’s six . She’s so little.”

“I can’t promise they’re alive, that’s right,” Nancy said with a small nod. “But I can promise I won’t stop looking for them.”

They stay holding each other for a long moment before Mike pushes out and shakes his head, wiping at unfallen tears. “So, what did you guys score?”

“We got a lot, little dudes,” Argyle says, a lazy smile on his mouth as he starts taking out everything in his bag. “We got some beans, chips, rice, we even got like, the last cases of soda they had at the store.”

“Yeah uh, we’re gonna have to start going out farther for supply runs,” Jonathan says as he dumps out his load, consisting mostly of clothes and medical supplies. “Almost everywhere within a square mile has been completely looted. Getting harder to find supplies and food for all of us.”

“You know we can help, right?” Will said. “Go out, forage with you guys.”

“You know what Hopper said,” Robin said. “You twerps are top priority to keep safe and it’s hard enough with all of us out there, you would all just be a liability. It’s better you all stay down here, tucked up safe and sound, while us older kids go out and do the dangerous stuff.” 

“We were out doing the dangerous stuff before you guys,” Lucas argued. “Literally before all of you.”

“Yeah, when you guys were ten and shouldn’t have even been involved in all this shit anyway.” Nancy argued. “Will was stuck, Eleven escaped, that doesn’t mean you guys are experts on this.”

“But we can help!” Dustin argued. “We can-”

“You kids stay here! End of story!” Steve interrupted. “Look, we aren’t even being allowed to help out with the important shit, okay? Joyce and Hop have us benched, they’re out scheming and plotting with Murray and we aren’t allowed to know what about!” 

Dustin stares hard at Steve for a long, long moment and no one else speaks as Steve holds the stare.

“Fine.” Dustin mumbled and Steve raised an eyebrow. “Fine?” He echoed.

“Yeah, fine! Fine we’ll stay here and not do shit and waste away slowly doing nothing because we haven’t seen sunlight for weeks! Fine!”

“For the record,” Robin says, a finger held up. “ We haven’t seen the sunlight for weeks either. No one in Hawkins as there’s like… a red cloud over everything.”

Dustin just rolled his eyes and grabbed a can of soda before storming off to a corner away from them all.

“Oh, Sinclairs,” Steve said and Lucas and Erica looked over. “We passed by some group of people when we were out, one of the survival groups left. They mentioned having seen your parents out with another group once. As far as we know, they're completely safe right now.”

Lucas and Erica sigh in relief and smile. “Thanks, Steve.” Lucas said and Steve nodded.

“It’s nothing. And we can try and get the all clear from Hopper to go up and see them soon, once we find out where they're staying, okay?” Steve said and Lucas nodded.

The group begins to mill about again, Nancy and Robin putting their supplies away neatly, cans stacked in the corner, clothes folded up into a basket. Steve and Jonathan reinforced the boarding on the door that led outside, making sure the lock on the garage door was still secure. Argyle walked about leaning in too close to the kids, trying to see what they were doing.

It was just like every other day had been for the past few weeks.

A monotonous, endless loop. First, wake up, surrounded by limbs and bodies in a too warm basement. Do round checks to make sure every board, every lock, was tightly sealed in place. Do a headcount, make sure every kid, every teen and every adult was accounted for. Once everyone is collected, they eat in the living room, one of the only times the kids were allowed up on the main floor (The older people were afraid someone would spot them, that a demobat would peek through a crack, see them and attack, something would find Eleven and kill them. So they kept them in the basement much to all of their protests. Eleven had teased Mike though when he argued).

Then after breakfast, after moving around in a more open space, all the kids would cram in the basement again, whining and groaning and protesting as they descended the stairs. They’d sit around playing games, most times D&D, or trading off on the few Atari’s they’ve gotten. The young adults would sometimes upstairs on watch, armed to the teeth with traps, guns in one hand, matches in the other, ready for attack just in case. The adults would go off somewhere, likely Murray’s bunker, to plan their next move of attack. Eventually the adults would come back and they'd all head downstairs, talking for a bit before they'd split up times for showers.

Every Wednesday, Joyce and Murray (sometimes Steve) would wash all their clothes, leaving them all chilling in comfy pyjamas as Will hosted a D&D session for all of them as they waited for their clothes to air dry.

Fridays, the young adults went out to gather supplies, armed even more with weapons, sneaking their way down the streets of Hawkins, avoiding demobats and demodogs that roamed the streets freely, breaking into stores and stealing every non-perishable thing they could get their hands on.

Sometimes Steve would detour, see some game that he thinks Dustin would like or a funny shirt that reminds him of Max. Sometimes he’d come very close to dying just to get those things, but he always told the others it was worth it.

He also never told the twerps how he risked his life for the small things, asked the others not to tell the kids either. He didn’t want them to worry, didn’t want them to tell him to stop getting them things.

Because no matter how close he came to death, the way Max’s face lit up as she rubbed the fabric in between her fingers, the way Dustin laughed gleefully when he opened a new game case, it was worth it all.

His, so far, favorite day had been when he had come back with a plastic wrapped wig from Eleven. Steve had come the closest to dying that day, and Robin had been clinging to his side as he handed the wig over to Eleven. But seeing her eyes light up and fill with happy tears had made it worth it. She had hugged him tight, her face buried in his chest as she sobbed happily to him, thanking him a million times before rushing over to Joyce and asking for help putting it on.

The end of their daily schedule concluded with the adults coming back from their scheming, not telling them anything new about their plans, but jumping into action to make them food. Murray would sing some song in Russian and 9 times out of 10 he was the one cooking for them. Then they’d all gather in the basement to eat together, and talk about their day, but it was nothing ever really eventful.

Then they’d clean up, and then they’d set up their sleeping spots, the adults swapping off who would sleep upstairs so they’d be ready to attack any intruders and they’d talk in hushed voices until they fell asleep.

Routine like this is what drives a person insane, Mike had argued once.

But it’s to keep them all safe, Hopper had argued back and that was that.

It was Friday, there had been the supply run, and now it was waiting for the adults to get back.

Will was tucked into himself on the couch now and his jaw was set. Mike sat next to him, Jonathan sat next to Mike. They said nothing.

El was reading with Lucas and Max now, Erica close by and listening in as she repainted a D&D figure. 

Argyle walked around hovering while Nancy walked around, doing a headcount and making sure everyone was okay. They were talking to each other, or more, Argyle was talking and Nancy was listening with an amused smile.

Robin was talking to Max about something, her expression uncharacteristically serious but Max was grinning from ear to ear, so there was no real cause for concern.

Dustin grabbed Steve and pulled him to the side, notebook in hand and as far into the corner away from everyone as possible.

He looked at the group, then Steve, then shoved the notebook in his hand.

Any sign of Eddie? Was written on the notebook page.

Steve sighed and shook his head and Dustin frowned.

“Henderson, I told you,” Steve’s voice low. “Those demobats they- They probably ate his remains, that’s why nothing was there when you went back.”

“There would be a skeleton,” Dustin insisted and then glanced over his shoulder again, scribbling quickly onto the notebook.

Eddie is alive, I know it. I know you know it .

“Look, let’s- Let’s just say he is, okay? I told you a million times before, it’s too-” Mike looks over at them and Steve clears his throat, grabbing Dustin’s notepad and writing down.

It’s too dangerous to go back!

And so began the quick exchange back and forth of writing down on the notepad, Dustin getting increasingly frustrated.

It’s not dangerous if we have weapons!

I’m not letting you go back alone

So come with me! We can sneak out tomorrow, gather gear, armour, we have it all, slip into the Upside Down, find Eddie and bring him here!

What if he’s dead?

Then we can at least give Wayne a peace of mind .

Steve stares long and hard at Dustin and Dustin rolls his eyes, not doing this Mexican standoff again and just raises an eyebrow.

Steve bites the inside of his cheek.

“Fine,” Steve mumbled and Dustin grinned wickedly. “But, I lead. We leave at 8 am tomorrow. If you aren’t awake, we don’t go .”

Dustin nodded. “Okay! Okay, I’ll be awake and ready.”

Steve nods and then Dustin scampers off.

Mike turns to Will.

“What do you think that was about?” He whispered and Will turned his head to look at Mike. They’re close, basically breathing each other’s air.

“With Dustin and Steve? He’s probably trying to get Steve to ask Robin out, again .” Will said and Mike gives him a crooked smile.

“Yeah, yeah totally. I mean, when do you think Dustin is going to realise that boat is never gonna sail.” Mike said and Will snorts, a small smile forming quickly. "I mean personally I think Robin is way too cool to ever date Steve."

“Don't be mean.” Will joked and Mike just chuckled. “With everything going on, I think maybe Dustin's brain has just erased all senses of logic.”

And the two dissolve into giggles then, much to the annoyance of almost everyone in the basement.

“What time is it?” Max asked and Lucas paused his reading to check his watch.

“It’s seven fifteen, why?” Lucas asked and Max’s hands still on her comic. “They’re normally back by six.”

Twelve heads turn to look at the door, varying expressions of worry or concern.

“I’m sure they’re fine,” Jonathan says, but his hands curled around the lighter in his pocket. 

“Yeah,” Robin says nervously. “I mean, it’s not like it’s a rule they have to come back at six, sometimes they’re late.”

“They’re fine guys, don’t begin worrying yet.” Steve reaffirmed.

And the adults are fine, the three of them are surrounded around a table in Murray’s bunker’s basement, maps of varying sizes and information spread across the table, some of Will’s D&D figurines placed across some.

“Okay, okay so you said that the cracks all formed from kill spots, meeting up in the centre?” Joyce said, pointing at all the four red dots on the map that resembled where every victim had died.

“That’s what the kids said, yeah,” Murray nodded, pushing his glasses up. “Back when the cracks formed, that was as far as the cracks had gone, but now they’ve grown way farther back. They’re all circling, like this,”

Murray picks up a red marker and begins to draw a line connecting the end of every line to each other. “It- Vecna, is trying to trap us all here, us less fortunate guys who didn’t have money to just pick everything up and leave.”

“We can’t leave Murray, we can’t leave the government to deal with this shit, they never deal with it right,” Hopper said, an unlit cigarette hanging between his lips. “How close do you thing the chasms are to closing? And why aren’t they closing as fast as the other ones formed?”

“I think he’s waiting for everyone else to leave, I- I mean, his whole plan is to stop El, or at least a big part of it is. What if he’s- He’s just waiting until everyone else is gone to face her off alone?” Joyce suggested. 

“I don’t think that’s it, the kid beat his ass pretty well, it could be he doesn’t have the power to do it this fast. The other ones formed after all four deaths were sealed, so it could be that those were enough to power on their own, but if he's out of commission right now, he may be using the smallest amount of power to close it up, biding his time to attack so once he’s got us fully trapped he can make his move.” Murray explained.

“This chasm here,” Murray points to the one in between Chrissy and that jock kid's death scenes. “It’s moving the fastest. I’m not sure why, maybe because the distance is bigger? But the one between the jock and that nerd haven’t moved much even though it’s the same distance. We should try and figure out why that is, it could be potentially helpful information.”

“Potentially,” Hopper scoffs with a shake of his head. “Do we even have any idea what we’re heading into, Murray?”

“No, Jim, because you refuse to let us get the kids to help us with this,” Murray argued.

“Because they’ve been through enough, okay? Unless we absolutely need El, she stays put and the rest of her friends stay put, okay? I’m not going to traumatise those kids anymore than necessary.” Hopper argued right back.

“Yeah, but we could really use their information and strengths. Nancy said she got to see inside Vecna’s mind, that he showed her the future of his plans and that his future has already begun happening. We could really use her help.” Murray said. “And Lucas was right there when it all happened. And Will has inside information and yes, El, she’s strong, stronger than before. We could really use their help, all of their help.”

“Not happening,” Hopper argued, arms crossed.

Joyce groaned out. “Look! Can we just- Try and figure this all out? I mean, have there been any other irregularities? Besides the chasms, when the commies were here to open the gate, there was the whole mess with my magnets, anything like that happening here?”

“We’d need to go out, search or investigate, collect data.” Murray said. “Which will take forever since it’s just us three.”

“We’re not getting the kids in on this.” Hopper said firmly.

“Hop,” Joyce said, hand waving around a bit. “... They could help.”

“No, Joyce, we’re not putting the kids in danger again.” Hopper insisted.

“It wouldn’t be danger! They can handle themselves, they’ve handled themselves repeatedly, some investigating, they’d be a big help.” Joyce said and smiled gently. “I know you want to protect them, and I love you for that, but they are capable, and they have each other. I mean, even Argyle is pretty tough in battle.”

Hopper is quiet for a long moment, simply staring down at the maps and Joyce stares at him, waiting for an answer.

Their walkie talkie statics before Mike speaks through it: “Ancients, what’s your status? This is the Party and the Watchers speaking, Ancients, what’s your status? Over.”

Hopper groans and picks up the walkie.

“How many times have I told you, stop calling us Ancients.” Hopper says into it, not giving Joyce an answer.

Silences fills the air and Hopper groans.

“Over.” He growls into the walkie.

“Your name is Ancients cause that’s what you are. What’s your status? Over.” Mike’s voice crackles through and Hopper looks at Joyce.

“I’m going to kill that kid.” He mumbled and Joyce chuckled. 

“Can’t do that, my kid’ll be very upset if you do,” She teased and Hopper rolled his eyes.

“We’re at Murray’s, why, do you runts need something? Over .” Hopper said.

“Checking in because it’s almost eight now. Over.”

Hopper whips around to look at the clock on Murray’s wall and Joyce and Murray also look, neither of them seeming to have realised just how late it is.

“Shit,” Hopper grumbled before turned to the walkie. “Look, we ran over time some, we’re gonna start heading back now. Don’t go upstairs, understand? Over.”

“We’re hungry,” Max’s voice chimes through now. “Are you really going to deprive a bunch of children of their necessary sustenance because you don’t have proper time management? Over.”

“Bother Steve about it, over.” 

“Hey wait! Do not make this my proble-” Hopper turns the walkie off as Steve yells at him and begins to pack his bag as Joyce makes sure all their guns are loaded, Murray making sure all their lighters have proper fluid in them.

The main reason they’re always back by six is because after that, it gets dark. And when it gets dark, more Upside Down creatures come out. It’s not that they’re adverse to the light, but it’s like the creatures know how creepy it is, how to keep them in check, by roaming the streets freely at night.

The first time they’d gone out late, Murray almost lost his leg to a demodog. They’d learned their lesson and tried to always be back before late.

But sometimes, like tonight, they ran late.

Hopper grabbed a gun from Joyce, book bag strapped on his back securely as Joyce cocks her gun.

“Let’s go,” Murray said as he began the extensive routine of unlocking the bunker door.

They began to slowly slink out, looking around carefully as they made their way to Joyce’s van.

There was chittering heard nearby, but not close enough that it would be able to smell them. They were slow, careful not to make too much noise but it was hard when the ground was completely gravel.

Hopper led the group, Joyce pressed almost right up against his back as Murray walked half backwards, making sure nothing snuck up on them.

Hopper walked slow, and they walked slower, letting him lead the short trip to their vehicle and they heard chittering get louder before something screeched.

The three adults all turned to the side, seeing a demogorgon far down the street, screeching at a demodog that was blocking it’s path.

They continued towards the car, almost successfully there without a single bump in their trek.

Which of course, meant something had to go wrong.

A rat ran across the ground, right under Murray’s foot and the other jumped back a little as to not step on it, which unbalanced him and sent him falling onto his ass.

The fall made a loud thud as some of the gravel scattered underneath him and the demogorgon down the road turned to them.

“Shit,” Hopper grumbled and turned to pick Murray up to his feet. The three ran off full speed to the car, not caring how much sound they made as they ran across the gravel, the demogorgon rushing full speed at them and Murray grabbed a can of hairspray, courtesy of Steve, from his bag, lighting the lighter in front of it, creating a makeshift flame thrower as he got in the car.

The demogorgon reeled back but the demodog they’d heard before came running from the other side, Joyce shutting her door just in time as it began scratching at the door.

Hopper quickly started the car, attracting the attention of even more monsters and Joyce rolled her window down to begging shooting them, getting them to back off enough for Hopper to pull out and drive quickly down the road.

They passed a handful of monsters as they drove, speeding because there was no reason not to anymore, trying to outrun them.

Joyce stuck her head out the window to try and shoot them all back and her eye widened. 

“Hop? We got a problem!” She shouted.

“What is it?” Hopper yelled back.

Something thudded on the roof of the car and she turned.

“That.” She said and a clawed hand punched through the roof of the car and began clawing around, scratching at Murray’s face and digging a deep cut in his cheek.

“Oh fuck, everytime!” He shouted, hand pressing to the wound as Joyce empty an entire round in the arm, enough that the arm fell off and into the car.

“Oh, just gross!” Murray shouted as he picked up the twitching hand and tossed it out the window.

Joyce quickly reloaded her gun and shoved it up the hole, shooting at the demogorgon on the roof until it fell off, tumbling against the road.

“Are the others gone?” Hopper asked, quickly checking the rearview mirror.

“Yeah, yeah we’re good Hop.” Joyce said and Hopper turned down the road to the Wheeler’s house.

They rushed inside, aware that any monster nearby definitely heard them and locked the front door, rushing to the basement door and frantically knocking.

“Password!” Mike shouted and Hopper wanted to kill the kid, he really did. In fact, he genuinely thinks he might one day if the kid kept annoying him.

“Ewok, let us in!” Hopper yelled and the door unlocked and the three all rushed in, El locking it behind them just as fast once they were in.

“Holy shit! What happened?” Jonathan asked as Murray rushed over to the corner where they kept all their first aid supplies.

“Take a wild guess,” Hopper said as he set his gun down. 

“I’ll start dinner soon, just give us a moment,” Joyce said as she hugged her sons real quick.

“It’s okay, Steve’s already on it.” Dustin said. “He’s upstairs in the kitchen making something , he wouldn’t tell us.”

“He’s got a weapon, right?” Joyce asked.

“No, he’s a complete and utter idiot,” Robin said sarcastically. “He may be a dingus, but he’s got common sense. He’s got a gun and lighter.”

“Did he give you a time he’d be down?” Joyce asked. 

“Yeah, eight twenty five. It’s eight seventeen now, don’t worry yet.” Robin said and Joyce nodded.

“I always worry about you kids.” Joyce said softly.

“We’re not kids though, mom.” Jonathan said and Joyce sighed, pinching one of his cheeks.

“You will be 35 and still be my baby, Jonathan.” She said and Jonathan groaned as Nancy cooed.

Murray drops his bag onto the table. “Alright twerps, enough mushy shit, we do have something important.”

Everyone gathers around the table as Murray begins unloading a shit ton of blank cassette tapes and walkmans. Joyce grabs Hopper’s bag and pulls out batteries and headphones. 

“Okay, we figure Vecna is getting pretty close to coming back and we want everyone to be prepared.” Murray said. “You’re all going to tell us your favourite song, or song that holds a lot of meaning to you, whatever, and we’re going to record loops for you.”

“You kids are to keep this on you at all times, with backup batteries, understand?” Hopper said. “If anything happens, if the tape gets messed up, if the cassette tape breaks, your headphones won’t connect, you tell us immediately . We are not taking any chances here, understand?”

A chorus of understands, and got it, and we’re not idiots, and yeah yeah yeah fill the room as Joyce hands out the blank tapes.

“Write down your favourite song, artist and title, and your name and we’ll record them tomorrow.” Joyce said and everyone began to look around for a marker or pen or pencil.

Will sits down on the couch, a pencil in his hands as he thinks. Mike sits next to him with a purple pen he found in Nancy’s stash.

“Are you… thinking about what your favourite song is?” Mike asked as he begins writing down.

“Yeah,” Will said and shrugged. “I don’t want to get it wrong, you know. Like, what if I think I know what my favourite song is, but then I’m actually wrong and then I’m screwed?”

Mike pauses in his writing to look at Will.

“I mean… shouldn’t your favourite song be an easy thing to know?” Mike asked, brows furrowed.

“Well, I mean sure ,” Will mumbled. “But with Max it was also a song that meant something to her. I have a favourite song that I like to listen to but then a song that means a lot to me but isn’t exactly my favourite.”

“Well what’s your favourite song?” Mike asked. 

“Should I Stay Or Should I Go, has been, since, forever.” Will said with a smile. “But it also… kind of means a lot to me? Jonathan showed me it once when… Our parents were arguing. And it introduced me to a whole lot of new music. And it did save me when I was stuck in the Upside Down.”

“So why not use that song?” Mike asked as he finished writing down on his cassette tape.

“Well,” Will waves a hand around. “There’s another song that… It also means a lot to me. I relate to the lyrics I guess? It’s a new song I heard in Lenora, it’s kind of goth, but I really like it.”

“What is it?”

“Uhm, Boys Don’t Cure, by The Cure.” Will said.

“Oh, uber goth.” Mike said and Will snorted with an eyeroll. “If you’re that divided on it, just tell your mom to make you two tapes. Then if one doesn’t work you pop in the other. And if you can’t pop the other in, I’ll be right there to do it for you. It’s good to be prepared.”

Will nods and then scribbles down on his tape.

“So, what’s yours?”

“Hm?”

“Your favourite song, what is it?” Will asked and Mike’s cheeks turn a little pink as he ducks his head.

“Oh it’s… Okay don’t like, make fun of me. It’s by Ozzy Osbourne.” Mike said and Will raises an eyebrow. 

“Ozzy? Never thought you’d be a fan.” Will said and Mike shrugged.

“Gotta be honest, not a super big fan.” Mike chuckled. “But this one song, it’s good. Secret Loser, I like the lyrics, the ones I can understand at least. And it’s not just the song it-”

Mike pauses and sighs.

“We’ve talked about Eddie a bit, but he was- He was really cool. Took Dustin, Lucas and I in when we were struggling to make friends. He was awesome and I really looked up to him. He showed me this song one time when we were hanging out for his D&D campaign, and it was just- He was so cool, he got so into the song and it was my first time hearing something that wasn’t the top 40s, you know?” Mike said and smiled gently. “So, it’s not like… I like this song, but it’s more than that.”

Will smiles softly and rests a hand on his shoulder.

“Eddie sounded like a really cool guy.” Will said and Mike nodded.

“I think you would’ve really liked him. He always wanted to meet you, you know. Wish you guys got that chance.” Mike said, voice a little solemn for a moment but then he shakes his head. “It’s whatever though, that’s just it is all. Secret Loser, that’s my song.”

“The metal head and the goth, what a pair we are,” Will jokes and Mike chuckles.

Robin grabs two cassette tapes and a pen and rushes upstairs, other hand holding their nail bat firmly as she sneaks into the kitchen.

“Dingus,” She says and Steve jumps from where he’s hunched over the stove.

“Jesus Robin!” He hissed out. “I’m almost done, my time isn’t even up, what are you doing up here?” 

“The olds want us to give them our favourite songs. Which Tears For Fears song should I write down for you?” She said and Steve rolled his eyes.

“Hah hah, my favourite song isn’t a Tears For Fears song.” Steve said and she grinned.

“So Duran Duran then?” She asked and when Steve says nothing she giggles.

“Well, what’s yours then since you want to be so judgy?” Steve asked and Robin smiled.

“Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, Cyndi Lauper.” Robin replied and Steve turned over his shoulder to look at her.

“Don’t get into another argument with El about Lauper being better than Madonna.” Steve warned and Robin grinned as she wrote hers down. 

“Can’t help that she is, Steve-O!” She sang and then looked at him. “So which Duran Duran song?”

“Girls On Film.” Steve replied with a casual shrug, not caring much for how stereotypical he may be at times, and shuts the stove off. “I think I’m done here, can you help me carry?”

Robin tucks the cassette tapes into her pocket, same with the lighter, and then grabs Steve’s gun with one hand and a pot with the other. They leave the nail bat up there as they descend the stairs carefully, making sure not to drop any food.

“Alright twerps, dinner is served.” Steve announces once they get to the bottom and they all cheer as El makes quick work of locking everything up again.

Everyone sets up, either sitting down at the table, on the couch or on the floor near either, as they begin digging in and talking.

“So, you guys got a plan yet?” Lucas asked as he shovels food into his mouth. “Or are you still coming up with one?”

“If we had a plan, we wouldn’t tell you guys,” Hopper said and Lucas points at him.

“So there is a plan?” Lucas asked with a brow raised.

“No, there’s no plan,” Hopper grumbled. “And you kids need to stop trying to find trouble to get into.”

“It’s not trouble, we just want to help,” Erica said. “Unless you don’t think we’re capable of helping. I mean, we've only saved your sorry asses, like, a hundred times.”

“Language, no asses at the dinner table,” Joyce said and Erica nodded. “And we just want you kids safe, but we will need you in the future and we will reach out to you when we need it.”

She gives Hopper a pointed look, which he promptly ignores by focusing on his food.

“Oh, Hop, I gotta talk to you later about something,” Steve said and Hopper waves a hand around.

“About what?” Robin asked, frowning. “Are you keeping secrets from me dingus?”

“No, not a secret Rob, I’ll tell you later, okay?” Steve promised and Robin squints at him for a moment and nods.

“If you guys don’t have a plan, then what do you do all day?” Will asked around food in his mouth and Joyce gives him a look and he shuts his mouth.

“We don’t have a plan yet , but we’ve been trying to come up with one,” Joyce said. “We’re aren’t telling you guys anything yet though.”

“Oh come on, mom you can trust us!” Jonathan insisted and she sighed.

“I know honey, but I also know once you guys know even the smallest bit of information, you’re all gonna take off on your own and I can’t have you all doing that.” Joyce said and rested her hand in his. “Just trust me on this, okay? We’ll tell you once we’re sure nothing will go wrong with whatever plan we make.”

“Joyce, respectfully, we can help you though,” Nancy said. “It’s been almost two months since this all started and Hawkins just keeps getting worse. If we all put our heads together, we can come up with a solid plan faster.”

Joyce turns to stare at Hopper again and Hopper groans.

“You kids will be let in on the information when we allow it, got it? For now, shut your pie holes and eat what Harrington made you.” Hopper ordered.

“I’m tired of the same food everyday,” Eleven mumbles and Hopper laughs.

“Says the girl who would eat Eggos everyday for every meal if allowed.” Hopper joked and she smiled a little. 

Their repeated meals were tiring, but it was either the same meals every week, or starve, so they may complain, but it was better than the alternative, and after Hopper jokes, everyone goes back to their own covnersations as they eat.

They all mumble on about nothing, a new D&D campaign Will was writing to fill the void of time, Robin talking about a new language she’s learning while Steve teases her for being a nerd, Murray going on about something not at all table appropriate while Argyle laughed joyously at him, and more.

Their words were all muddled together, becoming a loud buzz in the room as they all tried to find something to be excited about, something to talk about that wasn’t complaining about being trapped .

Eventually, everyone finished and Steve and Hopper grabbed all the dishes and went upstairs to put them in the sink.

“So, what was it you wanted to talk about?” Hopper asked as Steve went through and made sure everything was still locked up.

“Dustin still believes Eddie is out there,” Steve said and Hopper sighed as he turned the sink on, beginning to wash the dishes. “And he wants to go out and find him.”

“No,” Hopper said and Steve rolled his eyes. “I wasn’t asking for permission. I’m giving you a heads up,” Steve informed, arms crossed and Hopper shook his head.

“Not a heads up, you two aren’t leaving this house.” Hopper said firmly.

“Look, you and I both know Henderson will sneak out, without either of us, if we don’t let him. So I’m going with him, tomorrow morning. We’re going to make a quick trip to the Upside Down, go to where he died and then check around some. When we don’t find him after an hour, I’ll drag the little shit back,” Steve said.

Hopper stared at him for a moment. “You don’t believe he’s out there.” Hopper said and Steve frowned.

“What?”

“You said when you don’t find him,” Hopper noted and Steve sighed.

“Look, as much as I want Munson to still be out there, the chances are slim. I mean, we’ve dealt with all this shit for years and we’re all still only alive because we’ve been hiding out. I mean, I’ve come pretty close to dying just on our food runs. Eddie doesn’t have the experience we do,” Steve mumbled and ran a hand through his hair. “So, yeah, I hope he’s still alive for the little shit, but I don’t think he is.”

Hopper sighed and paused in his dish washing.

“You guys get an hour there. That means two hours round trip, if you’re not back by, when are you leaving?” Hopper asked.

“8,” Steve replied.

“If you’re not back by 10 exactly , neither of you leave this house ever again.” Hopper said.

“Oh come on, that’s total prisoner behaviour!” Steve argued.

“Ten, or not at all.” Hopper said and Steve groaned.

“Fine, fine, we’ll be back by ten.” Steve said and rolled his eyes.

“And you go out in full combat gear, long sleeves and pants. Lighters, hairspray, guns and the damn bat, understand?” Hopper said and Steve groaned.

“Yeah yeah, I’m not gonna let the brat get hurt, don’t worry.” Steve grumbled and Hopper laughed gently.

“Those kids really grew on you, huh?” Hopper joked to him and Steve rolled his eyes again .

“Don’t act like they didn’t grow on you too. Even Mike.” Steve said and Hopper shakes his head.

“He’s grown up. They all have. Doesn’t mean Mike doesn’t still get on my nerves now and then.” Hopper said.

“Oh, he’s just like that to everyone, don’t worry.” Steve said and Hopper laughed boisterously.

They finish cleaning up and return downstairs, where Nancy is currently trying to get Erica to get into her bed.

“I don’t want to, Lucas smells like feet.” She complained and Nancy groaned.

“So sleep somewhere else, but you need to go to bed and be well rested.” Nancy said.

“Well rested for what? Another day in solidarity?” Erica asked.

“I think you mean soli-tary and yes, you need to be well rested in case god-forbid a monster breaks in.” Nancy said and Erica groaned but laid down in her spot, next to her brother despite her arguments.

Steve chuckles a little as he comes down and Nancy rolls her eyes at him as he passes by her over to Robin.

“So, secret?” She asked and Steve looks around. Mike is the closest to him, curled up in his sleeping bag, turned on his side facing Will, who’s snoring away. They’re both definitely sleeping as Mike insists he’s a back sleeper and Will argues that he does not snore at all.

“Dustin and I are gonna check for Eddie tomorrow.” Steve said and Robin’s eyes go wide. “I wasn’t but I knew Henderson would’ve snuck off alone, I’d rather I back him up. I had to get permission from Hopper.”

“Do you think you’re going to find him?” Robin asked and Steve shrugged.

“If we do, I doubt he’s going to be alive,” He mumbled and Robin frowned and nodded. “But Dustin insisted so.”

Robin smiles.

“It’s cute how much you care.” Robin said and Steve flips her off, grabbing a blanket and wrapping it around himself as he settles onto the couch with her.

“Hey dingus, that’s for both of us!” She argues and Steve leans back and immediately pretends he’s asleep as she tries to grab some of the blanket.

The next morning, Dustin is awake and ready at 8 like Steve told him to be, dressed, fed, and geared up. Steve had kind of wished he would’ve slept in like everyone else so they didn’t go.

But he was awake and Steve promised him.

So Steve makes sure they’re stocked up, food in bags too just in case, first aid, water, extra ammo, extra hairspray and lighter fluid, everything they could need, just in case.

“Ready?” Steve asked and Dustin was bouncing on his feet, his weight shifted to one side (his broken ankle had never properly healed and now left him suffering with acute chronic pain) as Steve began to unlock the first door.

Dustin rushed under his arm outside and spun around in a circle as Steve locked everything back up from the outside.

“I haven’t been out for so long!” Dustin shouted. “Fresh air, how I missed you!”

Dustin takes a long, deep inhale before he bursts into dramatic coughing, banging on his chest as he tried to clear his throat.

Steve snorts at him as he turns back around, hand firmly holding a gun as he walks over.

“Not so loud, there’s still some demos out there, don’t signal them all over here.” Steve said and Dustin rolled his eyes.

“Oh come on, I know there’ll only be like three at most.” Dustin said. “But okay mom , I’ll be more quiet.”

They begin the long bike over to Eddie’s trailer, quiet enough to not run into any creatures, but fast enough so Steve can ensure they make their curfew. They run into a few other people going out for supply runs, greet them and wish them luck. It’s still weird to see so many people in Hawkins, trapped in this crazy new world.

Steve was aware most didn’t have the money to get out, or, like him, had no way to get out, but it was still weird that the people not involved with this mess didn’t try to find some way to get out.

News stations had made fun of the ones who stayed, calling them idiotic, morons for not getting the hell out of dodge. Steve hated it, because he knew full well most of the people here trapped wanted out, they just couldn't afford to pick up their entire life and move somewhere else for god knows how long. 

He thinks briefly he should start keeping a list of who he has seen staying though, just so they can get a general headcount of who is and isn't here, see if there's people that might help them or possibly people they'd need to protect.

“Hey, get in contact with Suzie at all yet?” Steve asked, breaking himself free from his thoughts and Dustin sighed.

“No, I need Cerebro to get to her. She’s probably worried to hell right now, seeing the news about everything. But I can’t reach her from the basement. Hey, you should help me sneak out to get there one day!” Dustin said and Steve shook his head with a smile.

“Maybe,” He said and Dustin laughed joyously.

After about half an hour, they finally got to the trailer park. 

Dustin’s mouth dropped when the saw the chasm growing beyond Eddie’s Trailer and off in the direction towards where the nerd had died just a woods away.

“Woah, what the fuck?” Dustin mumbled and Steve’s brows furrowed. 

“This grew,” He stated and Dustin scoffed.

“Understatement of the year, this is way worse than when it happened.” Dustin mumbled. “Okay, what’s the plan to get to the Upside Down?”

Steve looks down at the chasm then over at the trailer.

“I don’t know,” Steve mumbled. “We’ll have to hope the gate is still there from Chrissy, but uh, if it’s not that may be it, dude.” 

“Oh come on, we can’t give up that easily!” Dustin whined and Steve shook his head.

“We don’t have the time to mess around, I promised Hopper we’d be back by 10,” Steve mumbled, looking down over the chasm outside the trailer.

“Oh come on, we have a curfew?” Dustin whined and Steve nodded.

“Yes and if we break it, neither of us get to go outside ever again, which means I can’t get you new videos games so let’s stop fucking around here,” Steve said and Dustin groaned but walked up to the trailer, walking inside carefully since there was in fact a giant chasm through it.

“Aha! Still there!” Dustin shouted, looking up into the gate on the ceiling which was huge now.

“Okay, now what’s your plan to get up there?” Steve asked and Dustin looked around, finding no sort of rope or anything to get up there.

“Put me up on your shoulders,” Dustin said.

“Okay genius, then how do I get through?” Steve said and Dustin groaned.

“Uhhh,” He looked around some more, eyes landing on the couch.

“Come on, we can move this up, use it like a ladder? Help me,” Dustin said and began pushing the couch.

“Help you how?” Steve asked.

“Push that end! Damn, you really do need to be told everything,” Dustin mumbled and Steve glares at him.

“I can drag your ass right back to Wheeler’s.” Steve threatens but proceeds to do as instructed and Dustin glares at him.

“You wouldn’t dare, you want to find Eddie as badly as I do.” Dustin said and shook his head. “Though I don’t really know why, you knew the guy for like three days.”

Steve groaned as he began to push the couch vertically up on the wall.

“Trust me Henderson, I don’t know either.” Steve mumbled. And he really didn’t but ever since Dustin came back, face dejected and distraught, telling them all that Eddie hadn’t made it, he felt his heart drop, like something was being torn from him. He hadn't ever really been close to Eddie, hell the only real interaction he's had with him lately was Eddie taking off his vest and throwing it at him. 

But Steve knew Dustin cared about the guy, and for some reason, Steve did too, so yeah, he hoped that somehow they'd find Eddie, alive and safe, even if that possibility was very slim.

The couch was set up and Steve pushed against it a little to make sure it was sturdy and then helped Dustin climb up before following after, back hitting the trailer ground hard flat on his back and he coughed out.

“Jesus fuck,” Steve groaned in pain as Dustin pulled him to his feet. “Why didn’t you move the mattress back?” 

Dustin grinned cheekily. “If I had to deal with it, so did you. Be glad you didn't break anything. Now come on!”

Dustin ran out of the trailer and Steve quickly followed, worried there’d be tons of monsters crawling around, waiting for them to come out to attack.

There were a few, but enough that they could fight them off quickly and flee the scene before anymore were summoned to their location.

“So where do you even think he’d be?” Steve asked, following as Dustin began to trek into the woods.

“Not sure, but he couldn’t have gone too far, right?” Dustin said and Steve groaned.

“It’s been two months, almost three, he could literally be anywhere.” Steve groaned but followed after.

Back at the house, Lucas was just rising, blinking around the room and immediately noticing Steve and Dustin were missing. He looked around the room, doing a headcount on everyone else. 

Joyce, Hopper and Murray were gone, but Lucas could hear them talking upstairs. 

Argyle was sat in the corner, meditating, Lucas thinks, he’s not entirely sure. It’s been two months and Lucas still isn’t really sure what Argyle’s deal is, but he was a funny and chill guy, so Lucas didn't mind his presence one bit. He was just.... odd in ways Lucas didn't fully understand.

Mike was curled up into Will’s side, a hand wrapped firmly around Will’s upper bicep (which was like four times the size it was when he left Hawkins, Lucas had noted). They were still knocked the hell out, so were all the girls. 

Jonathan was awake, an arm around Nancy as he held her with the most care and love in the world and Lucas smiled gently at that, immediately turning back to where Max was laying.

Max was passed out, snoring with no care in the world and drooling a little. Her hair was a mess, never taken out from her braids but the braids themselves were falling apart. She wore Ted Wheeler's work shirt and it was four times her size, her arms were sprawled out and her legs were gently raised on top of a pile of pillows. Max looked like a right mess but Lucas only felt love in his heart as he looked at her.

He slowly got up, carefully manoeuvring his way through the sleeping bodies and going up the stairs, queitly and slowly to find out where Steve and Dustin had gone.

“I can’t believe you let them out! After all your arguing and complaining!” Joyce was whisper yelling at Hopper.

“The kid would've snuck out on his own, we both know that and it was either I approve it, or we lose a kid.” Hopper said and Joyce sighed deeply.

“Dustin is strong, we wouldn't have lost him. But you're just- You're such a hypocrite sometimes!" Joyce informed and Hopper scoffed.

"You know she's right though, you're the biggest hypocrite known to man." Murray said and Joyce and Hopper turned to him.

"Shut it!" They said in unison ad Murray gave them a soft glare but contently drank whatever the hell was in his mug. Joyce turned back to Hopper, pointing at him.

“So you can trust them to go to the Upside Down by themselves but not enough to be let in on our plans?” Joyce asked and Lucas entered the room then, their conversation cutting off the moment he steps foot into the room.

“Where are Steve and Dustin?” Lucas asked, even though he heard enough of their conversation to figure it out himself.

“They’re… out, honey. Murray’s making pancakes, is that good with you?” Joyce asked and Lucas nodded.

“Yeah, but he’ll have to take it up with El.” Lucas joked and she smiled before patting his head gently.

“It is literally the same exact ingredients!” Murray argued, having already having to deal with Eleven’s “waffles are better than pancakes” argument a dozen times.

“Same ingredients, but cooked differently,” Lucas said and smiled. “Just give in one day and get a waffle maker or some shit for her. She deserves it you know.”

“I’m not saying she doesn’t, but it’s literally impossible to just conveniently find a waffle maker when we’re out, you know.” Murray said and Lucas laughed.

“I’m not the one you need to say that too.”

The door opens and a few footsteps enter the room, the sound of something clanging up the stairs and thudding.

Lucas turns and grins.

“Speak of the devil,” he says as he sees Eleven and Max. Eleven is using her powers to help steady Max’s wheelchair up the stairs and her nose is bleeding but she’s focused as she sets the chair down.

“We should really get a ramp. Or a slide,” Max suggested as she wheels over to them, stopping a few feet too far from them. “Or you know those thing where it’s like those old people carts?”

“If we could, we would get all of those for you,” Joyce said and Max smiled in her general direction. 

“Or we build you super cool robot legs.” Lucas suggested and Max brightened when she pinned Lucas’ location, wheeling over to him and reaching her hand out. He grabbed it quickly and smiled at her, and he knows she can't see it, but part of him hoped she could feel that he's smiling at her. That he only ever smiles at her. “You become part robot, that’d be cool.”

“That’d be sick ,” Max corrected with a wide smile. “For now though I’ll take air surfing with El’s powers.”

“Are these pancakes?” Eleven asked and Lucas looks over to see her frowning deeply.

Murray and her begin a long argument about pancakes versus waffles, again , and Max turns around, trying to listen.

“Where are Dustin and Steve?” she asked and Lucas and Hopper look at each other.

“LOOK AT THIS!” Dustin shouted at Steve, pointing at a giant cove in between a brush of trees. 

"What did I say about yelling?" Steve sighed as he walked over to where Dustin was. Whatever the hell he found was most likely nothing, just like the past five "look at this"s have been. "You're gonna attract every Hell creature over here and then we're gonna die and then Hopper is gonna kill us. You need to be more quiet when-"

Steve paused in his scolding as he came up to stand next to Dustin, looking down at his findings.

There’s a mess of blankets and food, a dead squirrel rotting to the side, chip wrappers crinkled up. A pillow is slightly torn up and bloody, but fluffed up regardless. There’s a few fraying shirts around the mess and Steve leaned down and picked one up, looking at Dustin with wide eyes.

“It’s Ozzy,” Steve said and Dustin began bouncing gleefully, wincing for a moment but he couldn't contain his joy.

“It’s Eddie! Steve, he survived! He survived!” Dustin shouted and Steve actually can’t believe it because how the hell did Eddie survive getting attacked by all those demobats? 

There was no way, Steve had barely survived an attack from five, there was no way Eddie survived fifty.

Especially not out here in the Upside Down with no proper medical care.

But what the hell was all this stuff?

Steve leaned down and he rested his hand down to balance a little bit as he looks around.

“This is definitely lived in. Don’t get too excited though, this could be from a while ago. Or someone else. Or a trap.” Steve said and Dustin rolled his eyes.

“God, don’t be such a downer, let’s keep looking!” Dustin proceeds to then run off into the woods more and Steve paniced, chasing right after him.

“Henderson! Calm down!” Steve shouts out.

“Oh come on!” Dustin shouts. “Eddie! Oh Eddie! Are ya out here? Pspspsps, Eddie Eddie Eddie!”

“Be quiet!” Steve yells at him, finally catching up. “Jesus it’s like you want us to get attacked.”

“Oh come on, you can take anything here one on one.” Dustin said. “I mean, you’re One to Two on winning and losing a fight. Of course it’s two you lost, but that Russian guy was more recently.”

“I can win a one on one fight,” Steve insisted. “But with these things? They’ll summon one of their buddies if they think they’re in trouble and I’d also really rather not fight anything more today.”

“Live a little Stevie.” Dustin said. “If you aren’t living by dating Robin, aka literally the most perfect girl ever and she actually tolerates you? Then live by fighting.”

“I already told you, me and Robin are never gonna happen and I’m fine with that,” Steve said and he’s ready to go on an entire rant about how Dustin shouldn’t pry into his personal life anyway, despite how privacy no longer really exists for the group when a low chittering sound interrupts him.

Dustin and Steve both freeze immediately, Steve turning to point his flashlight over to where the sound is and a demodog jumps out from behind a tree.

“Shit!” Dustin shouted as Steve fumbles with his gun and flashlight, shooting the monster a few times in the face until it whines and dropped dead.

Steve is breathing heavily and so is Dustin as he puts a hand to his chest.

“Holy shit!” Dustin mumbled and Steve nodded, standing upright.

“Is that two to two now?” Steve asked and Dustin rolled his eyes.

“I don’t think shooting something in the face counts as fighting.” Dustin argued, crossing his arms and Steve rolled his eyes.

“Oh? Well okay Mr. Fight Expert.” Steve said, hand on his hips. “Pray tell, what does count as-”

Steve is cut off by 160 pounds of something tackling him to the ground, flashlight and gun flying out of his hands as he hits the ground and Dustin screams out. 

Steve gasped out but a large clawed monstrous hand wraps itself around his throat and squeezes, the other claw pushing his shoulder down against the ground.

Steve used one hand to grab at the creatures claw around his throat, trying to get it off of him, the other tried to grab for his gun but it’s just out of reach.

Steve turned to focus on the monster attacking him, trying to figure out if it’s a demodog, a demogorgon, or a new thing that they'll have to worry about.

When he comes face to face with a ridiculous amount of hair, he decides it’s a new thing, which panics him because does this mean fire or a gun will work better? With the gorgons, fire was always the better bet, and with dogs, guns were more convenient. Something new left him clueless.

His vision began to go spotty as the creature pushed against his throat more and his heart is racing in panic.

Dustin began attacking the creature, banging his flashlight against its head and the creature turned and hissed at Dustin. Steve panicked at that and the sudden attention caused Dustin to freeze completely and Steve took the monster’s moment of distraction to attack it, twisting and wrapping his legs around the midsection of the monster, giant wings bigger than any demobat they’ve ever seen fluttering out behind the monster, Steve’s arm reaching out far enough to grab his gun as he pushed the monster down into the ground, pressing the gun to the monsters’ head.

Steve just puts his finger on the trigger when he goes completely still, eyes wide. His heart almost stopped in his chest as the monster flails underneath him, trying to break free.

“Kill it, Steve!” Dustin shouted and Steve looked over at him.

“Dustin, ” Steve said, breathless and the creature pushed Steve back, but doesn’t attack, just hissed and screeched as it backed up against a tree in front of them, monstrous arms wrapping around itself. 

The creature was frightened, scared. It was as if a switch had been flipped and it's attack mode had washed away. Now it was just shaking, it's head ducked as it's wings tried to wrap around it.

Dustin turned to look at it at Steve's breathless word and his eyes went so wide they practically fell out of his head.

“ Eddie ?”

Chapter Text

Will bolts upright from where he’d been laying, gasping out harshly and Mike wakes up seconds after, scooting impossibly closer and grabbing Will by the shoulders.

“Will? Hey, hey, are you okay? Was it a nightmare?” Mike asked and Will’s eyes are wide, frantically scanning the room and his chest is moving up and down drastically, trying to suck in all the air they can. “Will?”

Jonathan looks over from where he and Nancy lay and he sits up. “Is he okay?”

“I- I- I don’t know! He’s not saying anything?” Mike stammered and shook Will a little. “Hey, hey, come on talk to me, what’s wrong?”

Will grabs Mike’s arm and turns to face him wide eyed.

“Eddie.” He gasps out.

“Eddie?” 

“ Eddieeee ,” Dustin is crouched down, the monster looking at him with bright, red, fearful eyes, wings wrapped around him tightly. “Hey, say something.”

“Henderson?” Eddie breathed out and then his panicked expression slowly morphed into joy and he jumped to his feet, picking Dustin up into a hug and spinning him around. “Omigod! I never thought I’d be so fucking happy to see your shitty little face!”

Dustin laughed joyously and kicked his legs as he was spun around. “Eddie! We were worried you died but then I came back to get your body and it was gone and I knew you were alive!”

Eddie places Dustin down and smiles blindingly at him.

“ Are… you alive?” Steve asked and Eddie turns to him, eyebrow quirked up and it’s like Eddie remembers what he looks like.

He looks down at himself and then back at Steve, who’s just taking him in. His skin is pale, like paper white. His eyes are right red and around them there are visible black veins crawling down his face. His cheeks are sunken in, skin almost falling off his bones. He has bat-like ears peeking out from his long hair, which is a little wet with sweat. His hands are clawed, long, pitch black fingernails curling out from his hands. He has massive bat wings stretching out from behind his back, but one is bent at an awkward angle.

“That’s a pretty hard question to answer,” Eddie mumbles, shrinking in on himself a little, crouching and his wings curling around him.

“But- But you’re here!” Dustin said, absolutely thrilled and Eddie smiled at him. “Come on, you- You gotta come back with us! We’ve set up base at the Wheeler house, and- And you can finally meet Will! Come on, it'll be so fun!”

Eddie nods a little and then stops, taking a step back. “I- I can’t come back with you guys,” He said and Steve stared at him strangely.

“Why not?” Dustin asked and Eddie looked at him, then Steve and picked at a clawed hand. 

“I- I’m not like… I’m not the same anymore, okay? I’m dangerous, I almost killed Steve literally a few minutes ago. I’m not in control all the time, I get these- These blind moments of rage, where I just want to tear into the flesh of any living creature near me. I- I’d hurt you guys.” Eddie said.

Steve and Dustin look at each other, trying to figure out what to do, how to handle the situation and Steve steps forward a little, Eddie mimicking him by taking a step back.

“Eddie, we’ll figure it out, okay? We’re all pretty capable of taking care of ourselves. So don’t worry about that.” Steve said and Eddie scoffed.

“There’s the other thing,” Eddie mumbled.

“What other thing?” Dustin asked him.

Eddie licks his lips, large fangs blocking the path for him to fully wet them, and he shrugs a little.

“I need… Blood? Like as much as I need regular food, I need blood. Like human blood. I- I already tried animal blood, it didn’t work.” Eddie said and Dustin shakes his head.

“So we’ll figure something out, just- Eddie please!” Dustin begged. “I lost you once already, and we finally found you! You want me to just- Leave? Wayne has been-”

“Is he okay?” Eddie rushes forward, grabbing Dustin by the shoulders and staring at him intensely and Dustin nods.

“He’s okay , he’d be better knowing you were out here still though.” Dustin said and Eddie looked away, biting the inside of his cheek.

He sighs deeply, and as he does, his wings shrink a little, his claws retract, his fangs retreat into his mouth and his eyes turn brown.

He nods a little. 

“Okay,” He mumbled and Dustin laughed joyously, jumping up in the air. “I’ll go. But no promises that I’ll stay with you guys, it’s too risky.”

“We’ll figure it out, man,” Steve said and Eddie turns to him, eyes shining a little and he nods.

Back at the house, Will is curled up on the couch, blanket wrapped tightly around his shoulder, tucked under Mike’s arm while his head rested on his shoulder.

Joyce was knelt before her son, hand on his knees and he looked blankly at her.

“Honey, do you think you can tell us what you saw? Or- Or heard?” Her voice was soft and steady, speaking gently so as to not spook him. Will worried his bottom lip between his teeth and looked around the room, then down at his mom.

“It’s hard to explain really,” Will began. “It’s not really… A hearing or a seeing. More- More like a knowing . Like I didn’t know something before and suddenly someone else’s knowledge was just… like transferred over.”

Joyce nods and Jonathan bites his thumbnail, other arm crossed as he stares at Will from the corner, everyone else is gathered around listening as well.

“So what do you know now?” Joyce asked and Will opens his mouth but his head snaps up, looking up at the stairs at the door and everyone’s head turned to follow.

A beat of silence passed over and then someone was knocking at the door.

Everyone exchanged wary looks with each other and Eleven got to her feet.

The person at the door knocked again, rhythmic and pausing.

They all stayed quiet, unsure of what to do and suddenly commotion behind the door happened.

“You have to say the password,” Someone’s muffled voice said.

“For the love of-” The other person mumbled. “It’s Steve and Dustin guys, let us in!” 

They all sighed and Eleven opened the locks and three figures came down.

Everyone immediately jumped to their feet as they took in the third figure.

“Who the fuck is this?” Hopper asking, pointing a gun right at Eddie, who was hiding behind Steve, eyes peeking out from over his shoulder. He raised his head more into view and waved awkwardly at the former chief of police. “Munson?”

“Eddie?” Mike shrieked. “They said you died !”

“I… did?” Eddie responded with a shaky grin and jazz hands. 

“Why does he look like he crawled out of a horror movie?” Erica asked, which earned her a half glare from Eddie.

“What? What does he look like?” Max asked. 

“He’s all… batty.” Lucas said and Will stood now.

“Demobat,” Will said and everyone turned to him. “He’s… part demobat. A vampire, kind of.”

“That would explain the blood,” Steve mumbled.

“I’m sorry, blood?” Murray asked but was promptly ignored.

“So instead of dying, he got, what, turned into an Upside-Down vampire?” Robin asked, hands gesturing a little vaguely at Eddie. “I mean, is that safe?”

“No,” Eddie answered quickly and Steve covered his mouth with his hand. “We’ll be fine,” Steve answered and Eddie glared at him.

“It’s as safe as it was to have me around when the Mind Flayer was controlling me,” Will answers and Dustin and Steve turned to look at him. Eddie gives him a long look. “The- The knowing feeling from before. You… attacked Steve and Dustin, didn’t you?”

Steve and Dustin share a look and Eddie moved to take Steve’s hand away from his mouth.

“How did you know that?” Eddie asked and Will opened and closed his mouth, looking down at his hands and then back at Eddie and shrugging.

“I’m not really sure. But I-” Will pauses and shakes his head. “I don’t know.” 

“Wait, you attacked them?” Nancy asked, stepping forward now and Eddie smiles warmly at her.

“Yeah, but he stopped when he realised it was us,” Dustin informs.

“This basement is getting way too crowded,” Murray mumbled and left up the stairs.

After the shock of Eddie being… not dead and all bat-like washed away, everyone had begun to settle back into their new norm.

Eddie was going around, greeting everyone and hugging them, telling them he missed them and was glad to be back.

Mike introduced him to Jonathan and Argyle and Eddie noted to himself they were definitely potential customers if he could ever find his stash.

And then the Party was all but dragging him over to Will for a proper meeting.

“So, now that you two are done being creepy,” Dustin said, shoving Eddie forward. “Eddie this is Will, Will this is Eddie.”

Eddie laughed at that and stuck a ring clad hand out to Will, who was back in his curled up position on the couch, shoulder to shoulder with Mike.

Will grabbed it and shook it and Eddie smiled wide.

“The boys have told me a lot about you, Will the Wise.” Eddie said and then grinned maliciously. “Especially good ol’ Mikey.”

Mike’s long and lanky leg unfurls from where it was tucked underneath him and kicks Eddie in the shin harshly, the older man crumbling to the ground in pain and making a hissing sound much like a bat.

Will, Lucas and Dustin all laughed at the scene before them while Eddie furiously rubbed at the wounded spot before standing back up.

“I have heard a lot about you too,” Will said with a kind smile. “Though not until recently.”

“What, Mike wasn’t gushing about my total awesomeness over the phone when you were away?” Eddie said, tossing his hair over his shoulder dramatically. Both Mike and Will go quiet at the question and Will’s smile drops a little.

“What? What did I say?” Eddie asked after neither of them said anything for too long.

“So, you created the Hellfire Club?” Will asked instead and Eddie squints at that but answers anyway.

“Damn right I did! No teacher wanted to back it so it was an officially unofficial club. We had enough members to be considered one for the yearbook, but not enough to benefit from fundraisers so we played out of the old AV room.” Eddie said. “Even made up our own designs and t-shirts.”

“We made you one too!” Lucas said and Will brightens at that. “You guys did?” He asked and Lucas nodded.

“Yeah, Mike has it still, probably.” Lucas said and Will turns to Mike, who’s avoiding his eyes.

“Is it here?” Will asked and Mike grimaced. “ Yessss… But I made a small error when making yours.” He mumbled and Lucas and Dustin began giggling.

“Error? What error?” Will asked and Mike stayed silent so Eddie answered.

“He made yours an extra small.” Eddie replied. “I’m not so sure that’ll fit you. You’re kind of buff.”

“I’m not-” Will’s face goes red in embarrassment and Lucas and Dustin snort.

“Dude, you’re like, ripped,” Lucas said. “Like, it’s weird cause it’s not like defined muscles, but you definitely seem like you could bench press me or something. Did you work out in Lenora or something?”

“No!” Will said and turned to Mike. “Did you think I’m buff?”

Mike shrugs small. “You kinda are.” He said and Will groaned. 

Max wheels over and Will flinches when she wraps her hands around his bicep.

“Totally ripped, dude.” She said, hand just resting on his bicep. “You sure you haven’t been working out? Your arms are, like, way bigger than Lucas’.” 

Lucas throws his hands up at that and Max retracts her hand, giggling as she can hear his exasperation.

“I’m very sure.” Will said.

“Your paint cans are heavy,” Jonathan pitches in from where he’s sat with the older teens. “You carry them everywhere.”

“I tried to carry one and I dropped it. You’re always carrying like four,” Eleven adds on.

“Unintentionally working out,” Eddie chimes in. “It’s all chill, I’m sure Wheeler wouldn’t mind making you a new one.” 

“Yeah, I can totally make you a new one!” Mike said, smiling easy. “And then you and Eddie can co-host a D&D session, make this whole hiding out shit not as boring.” 

“Okay!” Hopper shouted, interrupting any further conversation as he came down the stairs. “It’s getting dark, you guys need to get downstairs before the streets are crawling again.”

Eddie frowns and hooks a thumb over his shoulder.

“I should go,” Eddie said and Mike got to his feet. 

“What? But you just got here.” Mike complained, frowning deeply at the DM and Eddie sighed, shrinking in on himself again. The others began to swarm around and listen in now.

“I know, I know but it’s just-” Eddie shook his head, his hair a frizzed mess and following. “It’s not safe . Not with me like this.”

“Okay but we’re not just gonna kick you outside,” Dustin argued. “It’s crazy out there! There’s all sorts of demos everywhere!” 

“You’d be as good as dead,” Lucas added on and Eddie turned to Will, who said nothing, but gave him an intense stare.

And it was weird, neither said anything, and they just met, but Eddie could almost tell what Will was thinking, telling him it was risky but it was safer for him to stay then leave.

Eddie shakes his head a little, giving Will a strange look and turning to where the older kids are.

“Can you guys knock some sense into them?” He asked. “Tell them it’s not safe for me to stay?”

“I’m with Dustin, we can’t just throw you to the wolves.” Steve said, crossing his arms.

“There’s wolves now?” Murray asked, popping his head out from the kitchen and Joyce just pushed him back into the kitchen.

“I don’t think it’s safe to have you cooped up with us all down there,” Nancy states but shakes her head. “But I don’t have sunny warm feelings about leaving you to fend for yourself either. There’s more of us then there are of you. God forbid something does happen, we can handle it.”

Eddie looks around at everyone, at their adamant expressions and how they seem to refuse to change their opinion and he sighs.

“Fine, whatever,” He mumbled, rubbing his arm self consciously. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

“Great, now that you’ve all solved that, get downstairs .” Hopper said, beginning to push everyone down, leaving Eleven and Max last so Eleven could carry her friend down.

Eddie looked around the small basement with wide eyes, curling even more in on himself and Dustin was at his side in seconds, frowning.

“Dude, what’s wrong?” He asked, never having seen the older teen this scared in his life. 

“It’s-” Eddie made a vague gesture before his made the motion of a box. “Small? There’s too many of us. Not enough space to- To run if I flip out or something. Dustin, I really shouldn’t be here.”

“Hey,” Dustin grabbed Eddie’s arm hard and the metal head looked down at him, a little surprised at the strength in his grip. “We can handle ourselves just fine. I know you’ve only seen this shit for a few months or so, but we’ve seen it for years. We’ve been prepared to deal with it for years. I promise, we’ve got it handled if anything goes wrong.”

Eddie looks around the room warily but nods, grinning down at Dustin and then grabbing him under his arm, the younger teen shouting in protest as Eddie digs his fist into his head.

“Eddie!” Dustin cried out and Eddie laughed.

“How can I expect you to protect yourself when you can’t even dodge a simple noogie, Henderson?” Eddie teased but released him. “I’ll just have to take your word for it.”

Dustin punches his arm in retaliation but smiles.

“Good, we’ve got your back.”

Everyone settles down then, the older kids rope Eddie into playing a card game (that is absolutely not poker because betting rations would be unethical, according to Hopper and Joyce, so it’s absolutely, definitely not poker they’re playing), Will is writing in his notebook while his feet rest on Eleven’s lap, she has a hand rested on his calf while she talks to Mike, Max and Dustin.

Lucas is sat at one of the card tables with Erica at his feet and she’s yelling at him while he braids two fat braids in her hair.

“It’s too tight!” She yells, moving to hit him and Lucas dodges quickly.

“It has to be!” Lucas defended. “Do you want it to be too loose and come undone when we’re running from demodogs?!”

“Oh, we won’t be running from anything,” Erica huffed, crossing her arms. “We never leave this goddamn basement. I haven’t gotten the opportunity to talk to Tina, or Jessica, or Lorelai, or Sahari, or any of my friends. Haven’t gotten to breathe fresh air or even look at trees. I’ve just been looking at your dumb face for weeks on end.”

“Hey brat, we share a face,” Lucas said and tugged on a strand of hair a little harder than he needed to as he crosses it over another. “And you know, it’s for our... safety or whatever. I wanna go outside just as much as you do, but we’re stuck down here.”

“Yeah, and it’s bullshit!” Erica groaned.

“Language,” Nancy half heartedly warned from across the room and Erica threw her arms up. 

“English!” Erica shouted. “It is bullshit. All of this is bullshit! We could be helping the adults figure out how to close the gates and defeat Vecna for good and get all those Upside Down creeps back to their hell and be done with all this way sooner!”

“You know the rules.” Nancy said, turning around and setting her cards down. “With Max injured, we’re down a person. And Eleven is the only one with powers to stop this and we can’t depend solely on her to stop this, it wouldn’t be fair. The adults are doing what they can and so are we. You guys need to stay down here and stay safe . It’d be too much to have you all running around trying to help.”

“She’s right though,” Mike grumbled and Nancy frowned at her brother. “What? She is! We have three people working on how to fix this problem, but with all our heads together, it would go so much faster. We could try and find some of the remaining survivors and recruit them too, make an entire apocalypse survival team.”

“You watch too many movies,” Robin commented.

“We don’t argue with the plan,” Steve said. 

“Actually we do,” Dustin chimed in. “We argue about the plan, like, everyday.”

“And the plan hasn’t changed!” Nancy said. “The plan is there to keep you all safe .”

“What it’s doing is just keeping us as sitting ducks,” Will grumbled. “Vecna is only getting stronger by the minute. And the Mind Flayer. I can feel how strong they’re getting and the more time we give them, the harder it’s going to be to defeat them. They’re right, we should all be helping so we can attack before they’re strong enough to overpower us.”

“It’s not our decision.” Jonathan reminded. “Look, we want to be out there just as much as you all do, if not more. But we’re not the adults, our hands are tied and unless you guys want to take it up with Hopper, then the plan stays as is.”

The room falls silent then and Mike settles back on the couch next to Eleven with his arms crossed and a tight pout on his lips that makes Eleven laugh and poke his cheek.

The basement door opens and Joyce and Murray come down with a giant pot of steaming stew and a tray of assorted buns and rolls.

“Okay guys, chow down, take small portions at first, we didn’t have enough cans for as big a stew as I would've liked,” Murray warned.

“How the hell not, we just went out.” Robin said, clumsily getting to her feet. Murray and Joyce share a wary look as Hopper now bounds down the stairs, carrying arms full of bowls and plastic utensils.

“We’re lower on rations than we thought,” Joyce said slowly. “We’re gonna need to start preserving our food more. Almost every store within our area is looted empty and we don’t know how long we’re going to stay in this situation.”

“We can just go out further to get more food.” Steve claimed. “We could grab some bikes, ride out past the town border, get some food from neighbouring towns and come back.”

“Absolutely not.” Hopper said as he sets the bowls down on the table and everyone starts to scoop some food into their own bowls. “The town’s borders are heavily patrolled, you know that. And it’s too far, too risky to go without some form of protection.”

“We have protection.” Steve argued. “Look, the six of us older kids can go out, Nancy is a great shot with her gun, Jonathan has years of experience fighting these, so do I, with Eddie’s... situation he can protect himself fine and Argyle and Robin are great at defending themselves. We’d be fine to go out.”

“Not without an adult.” Hopper argued and Steve scoffed.

“We are adults.” Steve said. “As you love to remind us over and over again. Telling us we need to protect the kids because after you guys we’re the only other adults. We can handle ourselves.”

“It’s too far and too dangerous.” Hopper repeated.

“And we can handle it.” Steve argued.

“You won’t go out and that’s final. ” Hopper said, posture straight so he towered over Steve and the other man sighed, crossing his arms and looking at the others for help. 

“Hop,” Joyce said, voice gentle as she rested a hand on his shoulder. “We’re really low on rations. And there’s a lot of us, we can’t live like that, live in fear. Steve is right, they’re all more than prepared to fight and protect themselves, especially if Eddie has their back now. I’d feel safer knowing none of our kids were in trouble of starving while we’re trying to figure out how to end this mess.”

Hopper’s stance relaxes a little under Joyce’s touch and he looks over his shoulder at her, trying to stay firm in his stance.

“Can’t you just side with me once?” He asked, a little defeated and Joyce smiled warmly, patting his cheek lovingly. 

“Where’s the fun in that?” She asked and Hopper sighed as she stepped away.

“Fine,” Hopper said. “But you stay in Hawkins, there’s still plenty of stores in Hawkins that haven’t been looted yet, you check those, do not , I repeat: Do. Not. Go outside the borders. Don’t go near the borders, don’t even think about the borders, understand?” 

Steve straightens up and nods, awkwardly saluting. “Yes, Sir.” He said and Hopper rolled his eyes, getsuring for Steve to get some food of his own.

“While we’re on the topic-” Erica began.

“You kids are not leaving this basement.” Hopper said firmly and Erica cursed under her breath.

The next day, the older kids are all geared up and ready to go out to further stores to loot.

They're all carrying mostly empty bookbags, filled with only the most basic of weapons to leave plenty of room for loot. They’ve all mounted onto one of the many bikes left in the garage and are ready to go, but they’re waiting on Eddie, who’s struggling to balance on his bike.

“I’ve seen you ride a motorcycle before,” Robin stated, watching almost fascinated as Eddie’s wings flap behind him to try and help him balance on the bike.

“That’s-” Eddie groans as he almost falls over again. “Different. Very different. This is so tiny in comparison to a motorcycle.”

“Can’t you just fly?” Argyle asked, watching his wings flap helplessly.

“In theory,” Eddie said and then turned to look over his shoulder, stretching that wing out slowly to reveal it fully. “Except a demodog attacked me about a weak ago. Snapped the wingbone in half. Also, I never learned how.”

“It’s broken?” Nancy asked. “Shouldn’t you have gotten that fixed?”

“Oh yeah, totally. Let me just go call up the Hell Doctor and ask him when he’s available.” Eddie gave Nancy a deadpanned look as he readjusted himself on the bike. “I never went to medical school, I didn’t know what to do. It hurts like a bitch but, eh.”

“We’ll get Joyce to look at it when we get back,” Steve said and then got off his bike and walks over to Eddie. “Okay, stop wiggling around, that’s not helping.”

Steve grabbed the handle to steady the bike as Eddie got on and then looked up at Steve, a little flustered and Steve squinted at him.

“You do know how to ride a bike, right?” Steve asked.

“Yes.” Eddie said quickly and Steve raised an eyebrow at him. “Maybe.... No.”

“How do you not know how to ride a bike?” Jonathan asked. 

“It wasn’t a priority!” Eddie defended. “I was back and forth from my parents house to foster homes to Wayne’s house a lot and then failing school most of the time and being the town freak, and then running for my life. Never really sat down and thought, this would be a perfect time to learn a useless skill like riding a bike.”

“Not very useless in the face of the apocalypse.” Robin said with a lazy, teasing grin and Eddie glared at her. 

“Shut it, Buckley.” Eddie mumbled under his breath and almost fell off the bike as he tries to stay upright and Steve sighed.

“Okay, Eddie, real quick bike tutorial, you gotta learn.” Steve said and Eddie said nothing but nodded slightly. Steve moves to hold the back of the seat and keeps the bike steady. “So just pedal ahead and try to keep your body centre, it’s easy to learn.”

Eddie shakingly lifts one of his feet up and places it on the pedal, lifting the other foot up quick and only managing to not immediately fall over cause of Steve still holding the bike.

Eddie begins to pedal and moves forward very slowly. Jonathan sighed annoyed and gets off his own bike, mounting it and sitting down. The others follow suit and just watch as Steve teaches Eddie how to ride a bike.

It takes a few more tries before Eddie can actually move at a normal pace and the moment Steve lets go, Eddie loses balance and falls to the ground.

“We’ve got limited sunlight,” Jonathan reminded and Eddie flips him off quickly.

“Look, if you can’t ride a bike, you’re gonna have to stay behind,” Nancy said, expression a little pinched as she frowns. Steve sighed heavily as he tries to get Eddie to try again and the metal head begrudgingly plops himself on the bike seat, shakingly pedalling. 

“We can’t leave him behind,” Steve said simply as he holds onto the seat of Eddie’s bike for a bit longer than last time before letting go. “Hopper will say the whole thing is off if we don’t have his protection.”

Eddie gets a little further than last time before falling off the bike again and he jumps to his feet, angrily kicking the bike harshly.

“How can you guys even be sure I can protect you?” Eddie grumbled and his eyes were glowing red and his nails were growing into talons as he kicks the bike again. “My wing is broken and I can’t even ride a stupid bike, how would I be able to protect you guys from anything? I’m just gonna be more of a hindrance than help.”

“Hey man,” Argyle said. “I don’t know about you but I’d feel safer with a wingy sharp dude on my side than if he was sitting home.”

Eddie gives Argyle an incredulous look and Jonathan smiles weakly as he turns to try and get Argyle to just be quiet.

“Eddie,” Steve said, sighing and running his hands through his own hair, which was falling a bit flat from lack of styling products. Strands fell in his face as he moves his hand through it but he doesn’t bother to push them out of the way. “Come on man, I know you think you wouldn’t be any help, but we’d all feel much safer with you joining us. And you’ve only tried twice, they say third times the charm, right?”

Eddie looks at Steve with a mixture of emotions tight on his face and he sighs, crossing his arms across his chest and he half heartedly kicks the bike one last time.

“Come on,” Steve said, taking a step closer and resting a hand on Eddie’s bicep. The metalhead relaxes a bit under his touch and his eyes dull to their normal brown and his talons shrink back. “You got this man, gotta be easier than facing off a swarm of demobats.”

Eddie laughs then and rolls his eyes before shoving Steve off him and picking up the bike.

“Fine, fine, whatever. But if I fall again, I’m never riding this stupid thing again.” Eddie declared.

Down in the basement, Mike throws a bouncy ball at the wall repeatedly, slouched in an armchair off in the corner.

Will and Dustin are laying on the floor on their stomachs, reading a comic together and Eleven is sitting with Erica, attentively listening as the younger girl explains D&D to her.

Lucas is sat with Max at the dinner table and they’re sharing a box of dry cereal together while talking about random things.

“Mike if you bounce that ball one more time, I’m gonna get up and break your hand.” Dustin snapped suddenly and Mike pauses to look at Dustin, before giving him a shit eating grin and tossing the ball at the wall once more.

Dustin scrambles to get to his feet and Will just grabs his arm boredly, holding him down effortlessly.

“Calm down, killing each other won’t help any.” Will grumbled.

“Would help our food situation,” Lucas said and Max makes a face.

“Gross,” She said and Lucas frowns before his face lights up in recognition.

“No! No, I don’t mean cannibalism, I mean we’d have one less person to worry about!” Lucas said and Max grinned, nodding teasingly. 

“Suuuure you did.” Max teases and Lucas gently reaches out and kicks her leg, making her roll her eyes.

“One person down doesn’t help that much,” Erica said. “I think all the girls should get to eat and the guys can forage in the woods. Go back to your roots. Girls have a longer lifespan than guys anyway.”

“We are not choosing who does and doesn’t eat,” Joyce says as she walks down the stairs. “And we are not killing each other.” She gives Dustin a pointed look as he settles back down next to Will.

“I know you kiddos are getting antsy and you just want out, but the plan is the plan for a reason.” Joyce said as she walks over to the table Max and Lucas are at, setting down a lot of walkman players and headphones. “Everyone come claim a player, Hop, Murray and I are going out for batteries and to record everyone’s chosen song since we got distracted by the chaos of yesterday. It’s important that you all have these with you at all times. If your batteries die, tell someone immediately .”

Everyone gathers around the table to grab a player and untangle headphones from the giant mess. Joyce then sets down a book of stickers, glue, paper and markers.

“What’s all this for?” Erica asked, picking up a marker and Joyce smiled with a gentle shrug.

“I thought it would be fun for everyone to decorate their players. Give it some personality, you know? Maybe something fun to do to distract you from the endless cycle of our new routine.” Joyce said and Will smiled at her.

“Thanks Mom,” He said, grabbing a handful of markers and some paper. 

“What would be fun is getting out of this basement,” Mike grumbled and Will elbows him with a pointed look. “What?! I’m sick of sitting here all the time.”

“Look,” Joyce said and then looked over her shoulder at the stairs before leaning down, lowering her voice and all the kids leaned in close. “I’m trying to get Hop to change his mind. I agree, it’d be a lot better with you all helping. Will has a connection to the Mind Flayer, Nancy has seen what Vecna plans to do, Eleven has her powers and Max has survived Vecna. That combine with everyone’s intelligence and experience can help way more than just the three of us. But you guys need to be patient . Hop isn’t one to change his mind so easily.”

“We’ve been patient,” Eleven said. “We sit all day doing nothing . We can help, we can work together.”

“I know,” Joyce said, turning to her pseudo-daughter and placing her hands on her shoulder. “Trust me, El. I know you can help, I know for the most part you can all handle yourselves. But that doesn’t stop Hopper’s worries, or mine . I want you out there just as much as I want to wrap you all up in bubble wrap and keep you away from all that is bad in the world. But I know that’s unrealistic. You have to give me time . I’ll crack him sooner or later, just be patient.” 

“Fine,” Eleven said and then held her hand out to Joyce. “But you have to be safe too. Stay safe and come back.”

“I promise,” Joyce said and held her pinky out. Eleven smiled and linked their pinkies together. “I’ll stay safe and you’ll stay safe, good?”

Eleven nods and Joyce presses a kiss to their pinkies.

“There, now it’s sealed.” She said and Eleven nodded before grabbing the sticker book and running over to where Will was sitting on the floor, furiously scribbling stars on a paper.

“What are you gonna add on yours?” Eleven asked and Will smiled up at her as the others grab or ignore the decoration supplies.

“I’m gonna try and see if I can stick a piece of paper on the inside window, like this,” Will opens the cassette and presses his piece of paper in so the stars he was drawing show through the clear front window. “And then on the outside, I’m gonna add all the party members as D&D characters.”

Will gestures at the tiny figures he began sketching on a separate piece of paper. “Speaking of, what race and class do you think you’d be if you were a D&D character?”

Eleven thinks for a moment as she flips through the sticker book, peeling some off and stick them to her own player.

“Maybe a Warlock,” Eleven said, smiling to herself. “Cause, you know.” She mimes using her powers with her hand and Will laughs and nods.

“What about Max? She says she’s our zoomer but that’s not an actual thing.” Will said. “I want to include all of us. The party I mean. If I tried to include the older kids there’d be no space left.” 

“If what Erica explained earlier is accurate, I think Max would make a bitchin’ rogue.” Eleven said and Will grins at her, nodding.

“Totally,” He said and Eleven smiles brighter as she grabs a big sticker and places it in the very centre.

Joyce looks around the room with a small smile before she turns and goes up the stairs, where Murray and Hopper are getting ready to go to Murray’s place.

“You gave the kids the players right?” Murray asked and Joyce nodded. 

“And stuff to decorate so hopefully that’ll keep them occupied for a while. Or at least Will and as long as he’s occupied, neither Mike or Eleven will do anything and hopefully Lucas and Dustin can hold down the fort to keep Erica from sneaking out.” Joyce said and Hopper chuckled. 

“Eh, if Eleven stays, then Max will be a voice of reason and Lucas will listen,” He said. “Dustin and Eleven are close too, I think they’ll be fine.”

“So Will’s the answer to keeping them in line?” Murray joked as Joyce gets geared up.

“Will’s always been the answer,” She says with a smile as she tries to pull on her jacket but keeps missing the sleeve. “He’s the reason they met El. The reason Lucas and Dustin ever had enough confidence to introduce themselves to Max. The reason they’re all into D&D and therefore by extension the reason Erica is into D&D. None of them would be here if it weren’t for my kid. Not Nancy or Steve and those kids either cause it all started with Jonathan looking for Will.”

“Huh,” Murray mumbled as he helps Joyce situate her jacket. “It’s like a domino effect.”

“A butterfly effect?” Hopper corrected and Murray glared.

“No, a domino effect.” Murray said. “Will goes missing. Your kids band together to find him. Meet El. Jonathan looks for Will, enlists Nancy’s help. Steve helps cause he’s in love with Nancy or whatever. Then what, they meet the others later?”

“Yeah,” Joyce said, zipping up her jacket now. “Robin, Steve and Dustin met last summer. That’s when Erica got involved too. They had to deal with the Russians under the mall, remember. If I recall correctly, Robin was actually the one to break the code. Then Eddie got involved this summer and Argyle came back with the kids.”

“Wow,” Murray said. “Will is the centre.”

“That’s one way to phrase it I guess,” Joyce joked and grabbed her bag. “Come on, let’s go now. We don’t wanna be out too long in case the older kids need our help.”

The older kids are all biking fast, speeding to the furthest possible store and hoping none of the others in town had looted it yet.

“I can’t believe it took you almost half an hour to learn how to ride a bike.” Jonathan said, voice getting caught in the wind and Eddie glares at his back as he shakily pedals behind him. The others are standing up as they bike but Eddie is adamantly staying seated. “You’re 19 . It took Will like ten minutes when he was 4 to learn how to ride a bike.”

“Okay well sor- ry that I’m uncoordinated.” Eddie tries as an excuse.

“So is Robin,” Nancy says and Robin dramatically squeaks at that.

“Hey! I’m perfectly coordinated, thank you.” Robin claimed and Steve laughs loudly at that, earning himself a harsh glare from his best friend.

“What? Rob, you can’t lie to me of all people,” Steve said. “I’ve once watched you trip over air. And your hand-eye coordination is subpar at best.”

“Okay well not all of us were Mr. King Steve Harrington: God at Every Sport Ever.” Robin shot back and Steve rolled his eyes.

“My point is,” Nancy continues. “That Robin can still ride a bike.”

“Oh I’m sure I can do a million things none of you can do,” Eddie shot back. “You don’t see me lording it over you all, do you?” 

“I actually remember you lording the fact that you knew how to play guitar over my head all throughout junior year band,” Robin shout back.

“You guys were in a band?” Nancy asked.

“No, we were in band , not a.” Robin corrected. “Though Eddie was only there for like, two weeks before quitting.”

“It was not my jam,” Eddie said and Robin scoffed.

“Are you sure it’s not because Miss Riley said your hair would need to be put up for concerts?” She teased and Eddie has no response so he just pedals faster, barely passing Argyle who looks so at peace just listening to everyone talk back and forth.

“Nah man, I get it,” Argyle says. “This one place I applied to work at said I would’ve needed to put my hair in a hairnet or at least braid it for work everyday. Couldn’t have that, gotta let the ladies see the full Argyle hairness.”

“See?” Steve said to Robin. “It was totally the hat’s fault, not mine.”

“Steve,” Robin said with a grin. “There’s a certain point in a man’s life when he has to come to terms with the fact that he’s just very unlucky with the ladies. I watched you strike out eighteen times in less than two weeks. It wasn’t the hat’s fault.”

“What are you talking about?” Nancy asked with an interested grin and Robin turns to her (and Eddie cannot understand how Robin is barely even looking forward while biking and not losing balance but he stays quiet).

“Steve tried to pick up girls at Scoops Ahoy, right?” She said and Nancy nodded with a teasing grin that matched Robins while Steve groans in shame. “But he never picked up any dates, like he struck out again and again and again . I began a board, a you suck, you rule board. I had to restart the count almost every month because there were so many strikes out.”

Nancy tosses her head back and chuckles gently, causing Robin to lose herself in senseless laughter and Steve groans again, slowing his bike some to ride next to Eddie.

“I hate you!” Steve told Robin and she looks over her shoulder at him and winks playfully. 

“You can’t get enough of me,” She said and Steve just smiles back at her before turning to Eddie.

“You doing okay?” He asked and Eddie hummed, a little confused.

“What?” And Steve smiles.

“Your wing. You mentioned it was broken, I’m sure it being pushed back in the wind doesn’t help much.” Steve said. “And also, everything else. You’re not feeling like, super vampy or anything?”

“Hungry,” Eddie mumbled and frowned. “I haven’t- I haven’t eaten for a month. Not properly at least. I haven’t eaten properly since I was... what is it, turned, sired, whatever. Since I became this . And I think it’s making me weak, lightheaded.”

Steve listens attentively, his expression gentle. 

“We’ll figure it out soon,” He promises. “You didn’t ask to be turned into this, but that doesn’t mean you should go hungry or anything. Does normal food help at all ?”

Eddie sighed and shook his head. “No, I already tried. Real food, junk food. None of it worked. I even tried animal blood but- It made it worse. It made me sick.”

Steve is silent and then reaches over (while still riding his bike and how the hell- ) and rests a hand on Eddie’s shoulder. Warmth floods over his cold body and Eddie relaxes a little, his bike stops shaking and he risks turning his head to meet Steve’s eyes.

“We’ll figure it out.” Steve said firmly and Eddie stares into his eyes, nodding a bit as he feels the warmth spread to his face, turning to face forward again before he thinks too much about that.

“Alright!” Jonathan called out as they approached an abandoned store, stopping his bike. “We’re here. It doesn’t look like there’s any demo-creatures nearby but act like there are, okay? Be careful, we’re here for loot, not to get injured.”

“Got it.” 

Chapter Text

Jonathan leads the group, eyes darting around the empty store frantically before he waves the others in.

Nancy holds her gun up high, breath steady and ready to shoot anything that gets in their way and Jonathan leaves himself a moment to appreciate just how utterly badass his girlfriend is before he moves forward some more, sneaking low and quietly as he scans down the aisles.

Once he gets to the end, he sighs and stands up straight, turning to the group hovering by the door.

“It’s clear.” He calls and they all sigh in relief, the tension easing out of their bodies as they walk freely through the fully stocked store, getting ready to loot.

Robin takes off down the cereal aisle and Steve follows after, telling her it’s still not safe to be running but she just ignores him.

Eddie and Argyle head to the back counter where there’s still dozens of smokes hung up on the wall and start gleefully filling their pockets while Jonathan and Nancy head to the canned goods.

Nancy glances over at where she can slightly see the two at the back counter and smiles at Jonathan.

“Think they’ll become close friends?” She joked and Jonathan glanced over at the duo before he turned back to Nancy with a matching smile.

“Definitely,” He jokes and then nudges her with her elbow. She grins and nudges him back. “Speaking of, you gonna befriend Robin anytime soon? She looks like a kicked puppy every time you ignore her.” 

Nancy sighs and tilts her head in thought as she grabs a few cans of beans and fruit.

“We don’t have a lot in common.” Nancy said with a dismissive hand wave. “I don’t think we’d get along.”

“Come on, you’ve barely even talked to her,” Jonathan said, leaning on the shelves as he watches Nancy pack her bag full of cans. He’s not the least bit worried it would be too heavy, knowing full well at this point Nancy probably has more physical prowess than he does.

“She’s just... different, you know?” Nancy said. “Super energetic, and she talks really fast. And she’s in band and watches a bunch of nerdy movies like Star Trek. I don’t know what we’d bond over.”

“Well, you guys are the only two girls that are older.” Jonathan said. “I can imagine it gets lonely not talking to others. I mean, you can talk to me of course, I’m always- Always you know, there to listen. But like. Girl stuff, I wouldn’t get it.”

“I’m not so sure she would either,” Nancy said and shrugged. “I just... It’s weird how she and Steve are, right?”

Jonathan raises an eyebrow. “Is the problem that she’s all flirty with Steve? Cause like, I know- I know we’re together but if you- You’re still having feelings for Steve or something and are jealous of her-”

Nancy turns and frowns at him. “What? No,” She shakes her head and grabs his hand, intertwining their fingers. “Jonathan, I love you, you , not Steve. It’s just, I dunno. There's a girl code, you know? You don’t date the ex of your friend. I feel like if we become friends, then it’s weird.”

“But they’re not dating, right?” Jonathan said. “They have that whole saying, they’re Platonic with a capital P.”

“Yeah but they could just be saying that.” Nancy said. “I mean, Steve’s Steve, what if he’s just embarrassed to be dating a nerdy girl?”

“As much as I hate to admit it, and trust me, I really, really hate to admit it,” Jonathan said. “Steve has changed. He’s a good guy, you see how he is with the kids. I trust him with my life, with Will’s life. I don’t think he’d keep it a secret if they were dating. I think they’re actually really just good, close friends.”

Nancy looks into Jonathan’s eyes for a long moment and nods slowly. “You’re probably right,” she said and then grins. “Which you know, I hate to admit.”

Jonathan laughs at that and turns to the shelves, letting go of Nancy’s hands to start grabbing some more cans and putting them into his own bag. 

“But still,” Nancy said, looking in the direction of where Robin and Steve are, even though they’re on the opposite side of the store and far beyond her eyesight. “They’re like, seriously codependent.”

“Oh, I won’t deny that,” Jonathan said. “Steve refused to go to sleep the other night until Robin moved off the floor to cuddle with him. It’s like if you separate the two, they stop working.”

Nancy laughs cheerfully at that. Jonathan smiles at her for a long moment before he bumps their shoulders together.

“Hang out with her, just once, okay?” Jonathan asked. “She seems kind of lonely.”

Nancy sighs deeply and smiles back at her boyfriend, rolling her eyes. “ Fine , but if we don’t get along, I’m blaming you.”

Down the store, Robin is grabbing boxes of cereal and tearing them out of their boxes and opening the bags to let the air out before stuffing them into her bag. She was crouched on the floor over her bag while Steve simply watched her.

“They’re gonna go stale so fast that way,” Steve informed and Robin snorted at him.

“Dude, they’re probably already stale. And this way, there’s more room in my bag for more stuff, you know?” Robin said and looked up at Steve. “And stop being lazy, get some snacks for your kids.”

“They are not my-” Steve pinches the bridge of his nose as Robin begins to evilly cackle. “I hate you.”

“You can say it over and over again, it’ll never make it true.” Robin joked and motioned for him to start grabbing food. “Come on! You’re the only one who knows the kids' favourites.”

“It’s not that hard to remember.” Steve said as he grabbed his bag off the floor. “Eleven likes waffles, we all know that. Dustin likes anything with nougat in it after the whole Dart thing. Mike loves M&Ms, and never tell him the colours don’t mean different flavours because he will argue about it. Lucas likes anything sweet and salty. Max loves the basics, potato chips, hershey bars, twinkies. Erica will eat anything that has a pound of sugar in it. And Will loves popcorn even though it gets stuck in his teeth. It’s not that hard to remember.”

Robin stands up with her bag now and laughs at her. “Sure, whatever you say,” She said and patted his shoulder affectionately as they go to the candy and chips aisle.

Eddie grabs a smoke and lights it, jumping up to stand on top of the counter as he does so.

“Woah dude, save that for later.” Argyle says and Eddie waves his hand. 

“We’ve got plenty. I haven’t had a smoke for weeks dude, I need this.” Eddie states and Argyle shrugs and grabs a fancy zippo lighter, opening and closing it over and over.

Eddie stares across the store. Standing up like this, he can see the others walking around the store. Jonathan and Nancy are leaned in close, smiling and flirty as they collect food. On the contrast, Robin is sticking her tongue out as Steve hits her before grabbing a bag of M&Ms. 

Eddie smiles at the sight and feels a weird sense of nostalgia as he watches the group loot the store, but that feeling is quickly ruined when a cold shiver trails up his spine.

He suddenly gets and intense feeling his being watched and his head hurts. He groans and hunches over, holding his head on pain.

“Man, you chill?” Argyle asked, frowning and worried as Eddie closes his eyes.

There’s a loud ringing, his skin is buzzing, he feels anxious and watched, and it’s suddenly freezing cold.

Then all of a sudden, the feelings all disappear in a flash that leaves Eddie slightly breathless and alarmed.

~

Will gasps loudly from where he’d been laying on the ground, eyes wide and sitting up. Mike gives him a strange look and glances around the room worriedly.

“Will?” He asked in the voice he reserved just for the other, leaning over and shuffling on the couch so they’re closer. “Everything okay?”

Will opened and closed his mouth, frowning before nodding and turning to him.

“It was like a thought,” Will said. “Like, an almost formed thought but it went away before I could really focus on it. I think the others might be in trouble.”

~

Eddie gets off the counter and runs over to Nancy and Jonathan since they’re closest.

“He knows where we are,” Eddie says, gasping for air and a little panicked now, shaking his hands out.

“What?” Jonathan asked and Eddie’s jaw tightened.

“Vecna, Henry, One, whatever we decided to call him. He knows where we are. He knows we’re here.” Eddie said and Nancy mumbles a shit under her breath, rushing over to inform Steve and Robin.

“How do you know?” Jonathan asked, resting his hands on Eddie’s shoulders to try and ground him and Eddie tries not to dwell on the fact it doesn’t work as well as when Steve did it. 

“I’m not sure.” Eddie said. “It’s- Weird. Like this overwhelming sudden knowing . Everything got too loud, too bright, too- Too much and then it was gone and I just knew .”

Jonathan gives him a wary look and his tired eyes look more tired as he shakes his head a little.

“Will described something like that yesterday. He knew you were alive suddenly, he didn’t know how but he just knew .” Jonathan said and then shook his head. “We need to get out of here though. If Vecna knows where we are, then it’s only a matter of time before this place is flooding with demodogs.”

Nancy comes back with the other three, Steve now gripping his nail bat firmly in his hand and Nancy’s grip on her gun is firm.

“We need to go, now .” Nancy said and they all rush outside back to their bikes.

“I’m sorry, this is my fault, he must’ve found me.” Eddie mumbled as they all furiously pedal off to the sound of howling. “I knew I shouldn’t have come.”

“It’s not your fault.” Steve reassured as the woods around them are full of howling and the sounds of multiple things running. “And it’s better you were out here and not back with the kids when this happened. Rather get attacked out in the middle of nowhere then have to worry about them.”

Eddie doesn’t feel too much calmed but he just nods as he pushes to keep up with the others.

Nancy fumbles for her walkie and calls in.

“Party, this is The Watchers. We’ve run into some trouble, we might be a little delayed getting back.” Nancy said before hastily adding “over” at the end.

“Watchers, this is The Party,” Mike called back. “Will suspected so. What kind of trouble?” 

“Vecna knows where we are. We think Eddie might be a beacon of some sort.” Nancy informed and the howling gets louder. “We’ve got some demodogs on our heels, we’re gonna try and lose ‘em before we head back, over.”

“Want us to relay the info to the Ancients, over?” Mike asked, and the teens voice has barely masked worried laced into it. 

“Ancients are on the same channel, idiots.” Hopper’s voice crackles through and Nancy bangs the walkie talkie to her forehead a few times. “We’re heading to you right now, Watchers. Over.”

“Don’t,” Nancy called back. “It’ll only attract more. We can handle ourselves, Hopper. Trust us for once . Over.”

There’s dead air for a long moment and demodogs emerge from the woods along their sides, chasing after their bikes and they all pedal as fast as they physically can.

“Keep us informed. The moment you think you need any assistance, tell us.” Hopper said. “We’ll talk more once we get back, over.”

Nancy tucks the radio back into the water bottle pocket on her bike and curses under her breath.

“They are never letting us out again.” Jonathan laments.

“Don’t be so negative,” Robin said. “This could be our chance to prove ourselves to them.”

“Or die trying,” Eddie mumbled and Robin shoots a glare at him, but her eyes widen upon seeing how close the demodogs are.

“Guys, there is no way we’re outrunning them, we need to fight.” Robin said, breathless and anxious.

“By the school,” Jonathan said. “We can stop there, try and lose them in the hallways.”

“What if the doors are locked? We’d be trapped outside.” Steve said.

“We’ll just have to hope they’re not locked.” Nancy said and they all turn down the road to the high school.

Hopper slams his walkie talkie down and gives a pointed glare to Joyce.

“They can handle themselves.” She says as she takes out the freshly recorded tape and puts it in a clear case, writing in marker Eleven on it before she places a blank cassette into the recorder. “They’ll be fine.”

“You’re not even a little bit worried?” Hopper asked and Joyce smiled at him.

“Hop, I’ve been worried about my kids since the first day I held them after they were born. A mother never stops being worried about her kids, against supernatural forces or everyday life.” Joyce said. “But I also know those kids, and I know they’re fully capable of handling themselves, of surviving this. And I trust they know when they can’t and will call us for help if they need it. You need to trust them more.”

“I do trust them.” Hopper said and Joyce tilted her head. “You don’t do a good job of showing it.” She informed. “They all think you don’t trust them one ounce because you, won’t tell them any plans, don’t let them go out ever and refuse to let them even consider helping.”

“I do trust them,” Hopper repeated. “But they’ve already dealt with all this shit, it should be our burden now.”

“I agree,” Joyce said. “I want to protect these kids from everything. But, I also know they can help. That everything would go faster with their help, maybe even smoother. Murray agrees.”

Hopper turns and glares harshly at Murray, who gives Joyce a betrayed look.

“I- I do! I do, but I also agree with Jim that keeping the kids safe is priority.” Murray said and now Joyce glares at him. Murray switches out his own tape, scribbling on it before adding another one in. “I do think the kids should help and that Jim should stop acting like a dictator though.”

Joyce grins smugly and turns back to Hopper, crossing her arms defiantly and Hopper sighed, looking back at her.

“I’ll think about it.” Hopper said and Joyce brightens. “ Think about it. That doesn’t mean anything.”

“Means enough to me,” Joyce reassured and turned back to the cassettes, sighing as she watched it spin. “I wish these didn’t take so long.” 

“ Ugh! What’s taking them so long?” Dustin groans, pacing in circles in the basement while he holds the walkie talkie to his chin. “I should check in.”

“You should not,” Max informed him, crossing her arms and staring off in his general direction. She was getting better at using her sense of sound to locate things but it was still something to get used to, she didn’t just suddenly become a god at super hearing overnight. Her senses were all screwed and she had to get readjusted. But she was readjusting as best as she could. “If they’re hiding or something, you calling them would give away their location.”

Dustin groans at the fact she’s entirely correct and continues to pace, muttering and mumbling to himself over and over again.

“Dude, you’re making me dizzy,” Lucas said, watching his best friend worry a hole into the ground. “You know they can handle this.”

“Steve’s only won one fight.” Dustin said. “And Robin’s all weird and uncoordinated. They need our help.”

“We’d get into so much trouble if we did anything.” Will informed, still sat on the floor again, surrounded by paper and markers. Eleven sat with him, covering her player in so many stickers you could barely even tell what it was anymore. Erica had joined them at some point and was adding flames to hers. “Jonathan and Nancy have handled worse.”

“And Nancy has gotten really good at shooting,” Mike chimes in, sitting next to Will with his own blank cassette tape, not doing anything to decorate it. “They got this dude.”

“Steve is super badass, remember?” Lucas said and Max enthusiastically nods in agreement. “And I know he’s an idiot but he has at least some survival instinct. If they need help, they’d tell the others.”

“So sit down,” Max said, motioning him down like one would a dog. “You're gonna pace yourself to China.”

Dustin promptly sits down exactly where he was standing, crossing one arm defiantly while staring at the walkie talkie intensely.

“Please be okay,” He willed at the poor thing.

~

Steve jumps off his bike and it goes crashing into the wall of the school as he rushes up and tugs on the doors. 

Thankfully for them, they’re not locked and fly open as he waves the others over.

“Come on!” He shouts and none of them bother to get off their bikes, just duck their heads and pedal into the halls.

Steve is quick to get back on his and gets inside just as the demodogs come crashing in.

“Separate!” Steve shouts and they all take off down different halls.

A majority go after Robin and she slammed her hand on her handle.

“Shit!” She screams. “Why me?!” 

She takes one hand off her handle and grabs a ready made molotov off her waist, where a few had been tucked into pockets and strung on a belt for convenience. 

Robin fumbles with the lighter that’s resting on her handle to light it, losing speed a bit before she tosses it blindly over her shoulder and flinches only a little at the sudden screeches and frowns when she doesn’t hear any dying .

She rides into the gym and jumps off her bike, locking the door quickly behind her.

~

Two are chasing after Nancy and Argyle and Argyle coughs to alert the preppy girl in front of him.

“Yeah, I hear them!” She shouted and readjusted her one hand on her gun. She exhales slowly, trying to find focus as they turn down a long part of the hallway and she quickly turns completely on her bike, aiming and shooting at one right in the face.

It whines in pain as it goes flying backwards with the force of the bullet and the other rushes to catch up.

Nancy turns around on her bike to regain her balance for a moment before she’s shooting the other.

They aren’t dead, but they’re injured enough they’ve gained a good distance.

“Holy shit,” Argyle says, drawing out the words in that lazy way he tends to speak. “That was so totally badass.”

Nancy gives him a tight smile as they turn down another hall, circling back to the entrance.

~

Eddie is pedalling down the hallway towards the old AV room and he’s delighted that none of the demodogs followed him, so he exhales and lets himself bike a little slower, turning down a hall that’ll hopefully bring him back to the entrance with the others so they can escape easily.

~

Steve and Jonathan almost crash their bikes together as they quickly turn down the same hall, a demodog’s teeth brushing harshly against Jonathan’s ankle and the photographer shouts in pain but only pedals faster in retaliation.

“Goddamn, this one is fast,” Steve mumbled under his breath as Jonathan pedals past him and the demodog’s flowery mouth snaps at his heels. “How the hell are we gonna lose it?”

“The cafeteria,” Jonathan nods forward. “Should be a hall and a turn ahead.”

Steve nods and follows as Jonathan pedals like his life depends on it, which it kind of does.

~

Robin slowly backs away from the door as the demodogs body slam into it and the doors shake. She keeps her eyes on the door, breathing shakily as she takes another, slow step backwards.

There’s a hand on her shoulder and she shrieks loudly, turning around to come face to face with another person.

“Robin?” A voice says and Robin has to ease her panic away to focus on the fact the person stood right before her is Vicki . 

“Omigosh?!” Robin said and then looked around the gym, finding a few other kids and teens and very few adults coming out from under the bleachers. It was then she noticed blankets and empty bags of food and a makeshift fireplace scattered about. “You’re alive?! And- You’re still here! Why didn’t you leave like everyone else?” 

“Why didn’t you ?!” Vicki shouted back, but she smiled brightly like the very mere existence of Robin was so amazing and Robin felt her face heat up. “I thought for sure you would’ve been out by now!”

“No!” Robin said, shaking her head. “It’s- This is all- Okay, it’s kind of a long story. Is this some sort of refugee?”

Vicki nods and turns around, gesturing at everyone about. 

Kids from ages 5-12 are staring shyly and awkwardly at her. A handful of teenagers relax in the bleachers and three adults walk around, checking on everyone and carrying weapons. 

“Yeah,” Vicki said. “When it got bad, really bad and everyone started to leave, some of us got trapped in here. We were still handling donations, you know. And then some of us stayed to take care of those who couldn’t leave. We gather food now and then together, you know, the cafeteria is still pretty stocked. And it’s... you know. Good to have people.

“The group has been growing a lot since day one. We’ve got a lot of kids who were separated from their families, lots of teenagers who didn’t have homes to flee from anyway. A few adults that came to help. We were thinking about trying to start a refugee centre, reinforce every exit, get food coming in and out regularly. Hopefully enlist a nurse or doctor who can treat wounds and injuries. One of our guys lost a lot of blood the first day in, took him a long time to recover, so we also had thought of an emergency blood drive.”

Robin looked around in awe. It was such a small community, but they were survivors, like her group back at the Wheelers. If she wasn’t already head over heels crushing hard on Vicki, seeing all this would’ve made her fall face first for her.

“That’s-” Robin grinned and laughed a little breathlessly. “I mean, this is incredible. I- I’ve got a group I’m with, we could come out, help you with setting up sometime.”

Vicki smiles shyly and ducks her head, tucking a curl behind her ear. “That would be cool,” Vicki said and chuckled gently. “That’d actually be really nice. I haven’t seen any familiar faces in a while.”

“Missing everyone from band?” Robin asked and Vicki kind of hugs herself a little, cheeks flushed.

“Maybe just you,” She mumbled and Robin swears her heart stops. In a good way, not a mortal peril kind of way.

Robin has so much she wants to ask, to talk about, but the demodogs slamming into the door remind her she’s here for a reason. 

“Uh, speaking of that group I mentioned, I kind of gotta- Got to take care of those puppers out there to help them.” Robin said and Vicki’s eyes widened.

“Do you know how to beat them? We’ve been stuck in here cause we don’t know how to fight them.” Vicki said and Robin’s eyes widen.

“Fire!” Robin said. “Fire works- It works really well. Do you guys have lighters? Or hairspray?”

Vicki shakes her head and Robin digs into her bag, pulling out the only two cans of hairspray that sit in there with her abundance of bagged cereal and she hands over a handful of lighters, keeping one for herself.

“Here that- That should help a little, at least enough for you guys to secure everything.” Robin said and then grabbed another molotov from her belt, turning around. “Now, time to torch these suckers.”

~

Eddie meets up with Robin and Argyle, slightly breathless as he gets off his bike to sit for a moment.

“Dude, are you okay?” Argyle asked, watching him with a worried expression and Eddie goes to nod before turning and spilling his stomach all over the floor.

“Lightheaded,” He mumbled weakly before leaning back against the wall.

Nancy gets off her bike and crouches before him, worried expression tight on her features as she looks over him. She rests her hand on his forehead and makes a confused expression when she feels ice.

“Dead, remember?” Eddie mumbled to her and Nancy nodded slowly, but her worry didn’t disappear.

“Are you feeling sick? Or are you just overexerted?” Nancy asked. “I know you’re not yet used to this whole, end of the world stuff so you might not be in shape for all this exercise.”

“I did plenty of running before this all, Wheeler.” Eddie said, breathing ragged as he focuses on the flickering light above them. His vision blurs a little. “What, with being the town Freak and all, you gotta be good at running for your life.”

Nancy pouts at him and her eyes are shining with gentle pity. She rests a hand gentle on Eddie’s shoulder and sits him upright as he had begun to lean over.

“Are you sick then?” Nancy asked and Eddie shook his head.

“Hungry,” He mumbled weakly and shivered with the ache of hunger his stomach had. “I haven’t- Haven’t fed yet.”

Nancy’s lips press together in a thin line before she’s rolling up one of her sleeves and shoving her arm forward. Eddie blinks blearily at it and then looks at her with slight confusion.

“Come on,” She said, shaking her wrist a little. “You’re about to pass out, you need to eat, so I’m offering up my blood. Don’t take too much, I still need energy to run too.”

Eddie swallows thickly and then looks down at her wrist like it’s a loaded gun pointed right to his heart.

“If I- If I do this, I’m really a monster and there’s no going back,” He said, voice so quiet it was just barely a whisper.

Nancy seems out of her element trying to comfort Eddie but she doesn’t run from the challenge, simply offering that gentle smile that had most boys tripping over their feet in highschool to him. Eddie stares back at her with wide, teary eyes.

“None of us will ever think you’re a monster, Eddie.” She promised. “I know my brother worships the ground you walk on, so do all those other little nerds. The rest of us? We understand what you have to do. And if it’s between you dying or you drinking some human blood, I think we’d all rather you drink. So please , or I’m gonna have a very mad little brother when we get back.”

Eddie shakingly lifts one of his hands up to wrap around her wrist and she pushes her arm forward so her forearm is pressed to his mouth. 

Eddie very hesitantly opens his mouth and sinks sharp fangs into Nancy’s skin and the girl hisses at the pain but doesn't move away. 

Argyle watches with morbid fascination as Eddie slowly sucks the blood from Nancy’s veins and he every now and then glances up and down the hallways to make sure they don’t have any demodogs as sudden company.

~

Steve almost trips over the bike as he rushes to jump off it once entering the cafeteria.

Thankfully for them, the tables and everything are still set up, which acts as obstacles in the way of the demodog.

Jonathan wastes no time in grabbing a can of hairspray and lighter and turning to torch the demodog, only for it to chase after Steve.

The former jock does not shriek but he does yell as he scrambles to grab hold of his bat, getting a firm grasp on it before swinging at the creature and sending it flying across the room. It scrambles to its feet but Jonathan is quicker, flames roaring as he aims the can and lighter right in it’s face and it lets out a pitiful whine as it all but melts into a puddle.

“Ugh,” Steve said, raising his arm up to cover his nose. “I’m never going to get used to that smell.”

Jonathan laughed gently with a grin as he turned to Steve. 

“What, your nose is too sensitive for the smell?” Jonathan asked as they walk back over to their bikes and Steve glares at him.

“You cannot tell me that smell doesn’t invade your nose.” Steve accused. “It’s literally putrid.”

“Putrid?” Jonathan repeated. “Didn’t know you knew such a fancy word.” 

Steve gently hits him and Jonathan offers him a lazy grin as they move to head out, only to freeze when they hear a scream.

“Was that Robin?” Jonathan asked and Steve frowned and shook his head. “Well it wasn’t Nancy screaming so who?”

Steve is silent and the scream happens again and then there’s the sound of a creature whining. 

“There’s someone else in here.” Steve said and took off running towards the scream.

~

Nancy taps Eddie’s shoulder after she starts to feel just a little woozy and he pulls away from her quickly, looking a little less pale, but also now worried.

“I’m sorry,” He said quickly, wiping his mouth free of the drips of blood that had slipped past. Nancy cradles her arm to her chest. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to take too much, I just got carried away and-”

“Eddie, you’re fine ,” Nancy reassured with a shaky smile. “I just wanted to stop you before it got too much. Are you feeling better now?”

Eddie gives her an up and down look, making sure she’s absolutely okay before he nods.

“Better than I have in weeks. I- It still wasn’t enough I think, after weeks of not eating but- It helped. A lot, thanks.” Edide said and Nancy smiles as she stands up and offers her hand out to him. He takes it and is surprised with the strength she uses to pull him up.

“It’s no problem,” Nancy said and smiled, fingers pressing down on the bite marks to stop the blood from continuing to flow out. “Now our current problem: Where are the others?”

~

“Nonono!” Vicki tried to grab the little girl that ran out into the hall, screaming in fear and trying to escape the demodogs, but the girl just escaped her grasp.

“Shit,” Robin said, jumping over the two melted corpses of the demodogs she’d already handled as the third sprints after the little girl.

The girl is screaming in fear and running as fast as her little legs will take her and the demodog chases after with frightening speed.

Robin and Vicki are close behind and Robin is trying to light the molotov in her hand but the lighter is refusing to light and her hands are shaking.

“Shit, shit, shit!” Robin screams in frustration as the girl trips and the demodog pounces on her. Robin feels near tears when the molotov still won’t light and almost falls to her knees when she sees Steve appear on the other end, bat in hand and hitting the demodog off with a speed that would frighten a cheetah.

“Steve!” Robin shouted and Steve looked up at her, eyes widening when he sees Vicki. “Get her out of the way!”

Steve follows orders and grabs the little girl quickly as the demodog scrambles to its feet. He holds the sobbing child close to his chest. Robin tries lighting the molotov once more and it finally catches and she throws it fast at the Upside Down creature and watches as it melts into a puddle.

Her heart is racing terribly fast and she feels like her entire life just flashed before her eyes as she runs up to her best friend.

“Perfect timing as always,” Robin said, giving him a side hug because she really needed his warmth and comfort in that moment and Steve using the hand not holding the little girl to wrap it around Robin’s waist and pull her in close.

“I’ve always got your back, Rob.” Steve said lowly, pressing a friendly kiss to her hair and she almost cries in relief.

Jonathan comes running up to them now and his eyes widen when he sees the girl.

“What is a kid doing here?!” He asked and Robin pulled away from Steve to gesture at where Vicki stands, her lips pulled into a small frown as she stares at Robin and Steve. She blinks once Robin turns to her though and an all too obviously fake smile stretches across her lips that Robin just chalks up to as worry for the kid.

“We have a refugee.” Vicki informed Jonathan, who grabbed Steve’s shoulder and was leaning heavily on him. It’s then Robin looks down and realises his entire ankle is covered in blood. “She’s part of our group, some kids had gotten separated from their parents. She got scared when she heard those monsters and ran.”

Steve sets her on the ground and she goes running to Vicki, sniffling and sobbing and wraps her arms around Vicki’s legs tightly, shyly smiling at Steve through her tears.

“You wouldn’t happen to have a Holly Wheeler with you, would you?” Steve asked. “About this tall, blonde hair, not very social.”

Vicki is silent for a moment before she shakes her head. “No, sorry. But I’ll keep my eye out.”

“It’s probably better,” Steve said. “Means there’s still a chance she’s with her folks.”

“Asking for Nancy?” Vicki asked, eyeing Steve a little suspiciously and he shakes his head.

“No, her little brother, Mike. He’s gonna worry himself sick, soon.” Steve said and rolled his shoulders back. Vicki gives him a wary once over, like she’s not quite sure what to make of him and Robin suddenly remembers Vicki hasn’t been there the past two years to see the transformation from King Steve “The Hair” Harrington into Single Mother of Six, Steve Harrington like she has.

“One of the kids in our group,” Robin explained. “Nancy’s there too. A handful of others. It’s actually getting.. Kind of crowded.”

Vicki turns to focus on Robin and softens a little, smiling warmly at her and she gestures around.

“Well, we have plenty of space if you guys ever need a new place to bunker down.” Vicki said and Robin smiled brightly.

“Will definitely consider.” Robin said and finger gunned at her before mentally cursing herself. “Well, thank you my sweet ginger fire, but we need to get back soon so our kids don’t think we’ve perished at the hands of monsters.”

Vicki’s cheeks flush and she smiles so brightly at Robin.

“Oh! Of course! Sorry I didn’t mean to keep you or anything.” Vicki says. “But you know, now that you know where we are, you should like, you know come by stop in say hi. Not to- To just me or anything, say hi to everyone, of course, why just come stop by for me ? I mean it would probably be good for everyone to have some sort of social interaction they haven’t and uhm... I’m rambling.” 

Vicki clears her throat and waves goodbye. “I will see you around?”

“Definitely.” Robin said and turns around as Steve helps Jonathan hobble back towards the entrance. Robin picks up her abandoned bike and flashes a wide smile at Vicki, who returns it before going back into the gym.

Once they’re far away enough, Robin melts into a puddle of shame while Steve laughs at her.

“I finger gunned at her!” Robin cries out in mortification. “I called her ginger fire .”

“Well if it’s any consolation, she seemed fine with it,” Jonathan said, and it’s strange. Robin’s not out to him, she didn’t mean for him to see her tragic attempt at flirting, and he looks at her in a way that lets her know he knows she was trying to flirt, but she doesn’t feel that creeping giant monster of fear and dread crawling up ehr abc at him knowing.

Okay, she does a little but it’s more a little bug on her spine than a giant monster leaning over her shoulder.

She still ducks her head in embarrassment at him knowing and becomes a little closed off.

“You won’t tell the others, right?” She asked, nervously.

“What, that you’re terrible at flirting?” Jonathan asked and Robin hits him while Steve only laughs more at them. 

“That... you know .” She mumbled. She can’t even say it.

Jonathan softens at her and smiles, and even though he looks like shit (what with the dark circles under his eyes and the stress lines an 18 year old should not have deep in his face) it’s a gentle smile that reassures her.

“Robin, I lived in California. This is nothing new, and I promise unless you’re okay with it, I won’t tell a soul.” He promised and it eases Robin’s nerves a little.

“Thank you,” She mumbled and he smiled at her.

They walk slowly in silence for a bit longer before Steve pitches in.

“You’re terrible at flirting,” He agreed and Robin whines.

“I know !” She cries.

~

“They should’ve met us by now,” Nancy says, tapping her foot anxiously and Argyle is leaning forward on his bike, arms draped over the front. 

“Chill dudette, if they were in trouble they would’ve called us.” Argyle reasoned. “Probably just lost their bikes or something.”

“We need to get out of here before more come after us,” Nancy said. “But we can’t leave without them.”

“Sure we could,” Eddie said and Nancy turned to him. He shrugged loosely. “What? We could, they know where we’re going.”

“We are not leaving them behind.” Nancy said. “They might be hurt.”

And Nancy looks about a few seconds away from marching down the halls and finding them herself but then they hear sharp claws and paws running down the hall and they’re jumping into action.

“Shit,” Nancy said, trying to quickly reload her gun as the two demodogs she’d shot before come running around the corner straight at them.

Argyle quickly fumbles for fire but he’s going too slow and Nancy’s gun is jammed and the demodogs are getting closer and they are screwed-

Except Eddie gets to his feet quickly and stands in front of the two, his wings spreading as large as they can in the hall, his stance wide, making himself seem large and his fangs and talons grow, eyes burning red as he violently hisses at the demodogs approaching.

The creatures whine and slide to a stop before Eddie, looking like they want to run far, far away as Eddie towers over them.

He screeches at them now, the sound coming from his throat inhumane and Nancy pauses, watching the scene before her with wide eyes.

It’s not until she sees Jonathan, Steve and Robin coming down the other end of the hall that she finally moves into action.

She grabs the lighter and hairspray from Argyle, who’s still fumbling and rushes forward, moving Eddie to the side and torching the creatures.

They whine and pant but melt into a puddle on the ground, leaving them all breathless and staring wide eyed at Eddie, who’s still all batty.

Steve walks up to Nancy, hand on their bikes and he hands the injured Jonathan over to her, who winces and tries to rest his weight on his uninjured ankle. It’s bleeding like crazy and Nancy doesn’t like the looks of it.

Robin walks up to Eddie cautiously, expression open but Eddie hisses at her, his wings flaring out behind him before he pulls on his injured wing and winces, whining a bit.

“Eddie, come on,” Robin said, softly. “Danger is gone, you scared them off.”

Eddie growls low in his throat, stopping her from getting any closer and Robin puts her hands up in surrender to show she gets it and won’t get any closer.

“Eddie?” Nancy asked and the metal head turns to her, eyes a bright, vibrant red and it feels like they’re piercing into her soul. She almost feels like choking from the force of the stare and she goes stiff with fear, Jonathan also going tense next to her.

“Dude, chillax.” Argyle said, only to get the same glare back in response.

There’s a distant howl outside and Nancy looks at Steve with a frown. 

“We don’t have time for this,” She said urgently.

“Eddie,” Steve said and Eddie whips his head to him and hisses lowly. “Dude, calm down. Henderson’ll kill me if we come back without you.”

Eddie’s shoulders roll back and he frowns a little.

Steve jumps on that with a grin. “Dustin? You know? Remember him, about this tall, with curly hair hidden under that stupid hate of his, bright shiny teeth he never stops flaunting around?”

Eddie stands up a little straighter and tils his head at Steve, looking him up and down as Steve gets a little closer, placing his hand on Eddie’s arm. The musician looks down at the touch and then back at Steve, baring his fangs but making no move to attack.

“Little shit will never let us hear the end of it,” Robin grumbled in addition. “Come on man, we need to get back to him. Reassure him you’re fine, can be trusted. Dustin would be really, really upset if he found out you went all insane on us.”

Eddie calms down some more, exhaling deeply and Steve gently squeezes his arm. A moment of silence passes as the demo-vampire stares off into space, expression slightly confused before he’s blinking a few times, red eyes fading back to their usual dark brown.

Eddie looks around at everyone staring at him, then looks down at where Steve is still holding him. The other pulls his hand back, face a little flustered before he shoves his hands in his jeans.

“You all good now?” Steve asked and Eddie nodded, slightly confused and looking around.

“What happened?” He asked and Robin rested a hand on his shoulder. 

“Explain later,” She promised. “Right now, we need to get back.”

“Watchers to Ancients, Jonathan got injured but we’re all safe, on our way back now,” Steve’s voice crackles over the walkie talkie and Joyce’s shoulder falls in relief.

“I’m glad you’re all safe,” She said, smiling at the device. “You guys got supplies and everything?”

“Yeah, Robin has a shit ton of cereal. Nancy and Jonathan got canned foods, I got snacks and- Okay, I’m not entirely sure what Argyle and Eddie got but their bags are full too.” Steve informed. “Also, we stopped at the highschool, they have a refugee camp up there.”

Joyce looks wide eyed at Hopper, who raises an eyebrow at that.

“Other people? How many would you say?” Joyce asked.

“Probably 20 minimum, 30 max. Didn’t really have time to count heads. But they have plans to set up a public refugee once they get the whole school safe and taken care of,” Steve said. “Robin heard most of the plans. They want to set up the donation centre, basically how it was before everyone ran out.”

“That would be... That would be helpful.” Joyce said. “How many adults?”

There’s a moment of silence before Steve replies.

“Rob said only three. It was mostly kids and teens.” Steve informed.

“Okay, Hop, Murray and I will check in on them another day. Focus on getting back safely, okay? We’re almost done recording and we’ll be back before sundown.” Joyce informed. 

“Okay. Got it.” Steve said.

“Is Jonathan okay?! Over.” Will’s voice is frantic over the line suddenly and there’s a beat of silence.

“I’m okay,” Jonathan speaks now. “Demodog was a fast bugger and got my ankle. Just needs to be patched up and get a few days of rest. Over.”

“We’ll get everything set up to take care of it then, over.” Will said and it warms Joyce’s heart hearing her sons care for each other. 

“Focus on getting back home, not talking,” She still scolds with a smile and both of them que in just to sigh exasperatedly at her before going silent.

Joyce puts the walkie talkie down and turns back to the cassette player.

“Another group?” Murray commented. “Maybe they have supplies they can share that could help us? Or we could enlist their help in dealing with all this.”

“Wouldn’t be the best idea.” Hopper said with a hand wave, writing on a cassette tape before putting his last blank one in. “No one else knows how to handle this shit like we do.”

“So we teach them,” Murray stated like it was obvious. “We can’t just leave the people who chose to stay or got left behind for dead. They should at least know what they’re going up against.”

Hopper sighs deeply but doesn't argue against that point so Murray takes that as a silent win, humming joyfully to himself as he takes out his last tape and puts the rest he’s recorded into his own bag gently.

Will is running frantically around the basement to make sure every medical supply they could’ve needed was set up and ready so he could take care of Jonathan the moment he got back. 

Eleven followed back and forth behind him holding a roll of gauze, not saying anything but worry was also creased in her features.

“He said he was fine, it’s not like he’s dying.” Erica said, watching the pseudo siblings rush about.

“Jonathan also said there was nothing going on last summer when there very much was something going on , so he’s not entirely a reliable source.” Will pointed out as he placed medical scissors down on the table next to the medical tape, towels, and antibacterial spray.

“He also says he’s fine a lot when he isn’t.” Eleven chimes in. “He says I’m fine all the time but then he has sad eyes and makes his room smelly.”

“That too,” Will said, turning to her and reaching out for the gauze. Eleven hands it over to him and looks over everything on the table.

“Water,” She said. “To clean the blood away. Towels won’t be enough.”

“Do we have anymore water bottles down here?” Will asked and Lucas scoffed.

“You are not wasting our water bottles on an injury when there’s working water upstairs.” Lucas pointed out and Will crossed his arms, frowning down at his friend. 

“Well we aren’t allowed upstairs without an adult present so give me a water bottle, Lucas.” Will said, towering over the other teen as Lucas was sitting on the couch. 

Lucas stares up at him for a long moment and Will stares back, glare challenging and Lucas sighed deeply before leaning over the couch and handing him two water bottlers.

Will smiles cheerfully at that and turns. “Thank you!” He practically sings as he walks back to El.

“Weak,” Erica said and Lucas scoffed at her. “ You try saying no to Will, I dare you.” Lucas said and Erica rolled her eyes but said nothing.

The older kids come running in the front door quickly, banging on the basement door and Jonathan is a lot paler than he had been when they’d left the school, hanging off Nancy’s shoulder weakly.

The door flies open without a demanded request for a password and Nancy carries her boyfriend down the stairs as fast as she could, resting him on the table Will and Eleven set up.

“You said he was fine!” Will shouted when he sees Jonathan’s weakened state. 

“He was fine!” Nancy said in defense as Steve begins to grab the water bottles from Will’s hand, giving one to Nancy and taking the other to clean the blood off Jonathan’s ankle. “He got injured a bit ago though, was still walking around with it, he might just be feeling weak from the blood loss.”

“I’m fine ,” Jonathan weakly mumbled and Argyle hovers near his head, shaking his head.

“Nah man,” Argyle said. “You’re white as a ghost, kinda spooky. You’re losing your amazing California tan.”

“It only hurts a little,” Jonathan insisted and Nancy carefully brings the waterbottle sup to his lips. He greedily drinks from it as Nancy runs her other hand through his hair.

Once he’s drinken enough, he weakly slaps it away and shakes his head. “I can clean the wound myself, I’m fine.”

“Babe?” Nancy asked sweetly, fingernails gently scraping along his scalp. Jonathan smiled lazily and leaned back into her touch.

“Mhm?” He asked and Nancy leaned a little over him.

“I need you to shut up,” She said, pressing a kiss to his forehead and Jonathan groaned but obeys, the fight leaving his body as he lets Will and Steve clean and treat his wound.

Steve and Will work fluidly around each other, Steve washes away the blood, Will presses a clean towel to the wound for a moment to stop the bleeding, Steve adds some neosporin to the outer affected areas, Will is quick to pull out the clean bandages and wrap them tightly but not too tightly around Jonathan’s ankle, Steve tapes the ends firmly so they’re secure and not going anywhere before adding a clear piece of tape over to try and keep the dressings dry.

Will feels like his heart is beating out of his chest as they work but once they’ve finished up and Nancy convinces Jonathan to eat some of the stale cereal Robin collected, the colour returns to his brother’s skin and he’s able to relax.

Will goes boneless on the couch and Steve plops down next to him.

“You did good, kid,” Steve said and Will turns and smiles, chest puffing up with pride some. 

“Yeah?” He asked and Steve nodded. 

“Where’d you learn to take care of wounds like that?” Steve asked and Will’s face drops a bit and he ducks his head, picking at the seam on his jeans.

“You know my dad was... not so great, right?” Will asked and Steve nodded. It was a small town, news of Joyce and Lonnie’s divorce had spread like wild fire. Then once he got to know Jonathan more, he’d heard the passing comments about Lonnie, about his shithole dad. “Well, you know... Sometimes he- he hurt Jonathan. Not- Not too bad just, enough sometimes, you know? So, I learned how to take care of the wounds. Just in case. It was never that bad, but I still learned.”

“Jesus Christ,” Steve mumbled and Will nods a little. “And I thought my dad was shitty.”

“Your dad is never home,” Will said. Cause yeah, after getting close to a bunch of teenagers for a few years, they sometimes learn things about him too. “That’s not so great either.”

Steve offered him a weak smile and bumped their shoulders together.

“Screw our not so great dads, am I right?” He said and Will smiles small, laughing a little and he nods. 

“Yeah.” Will agrees.

Joyce, Hopper and Murray come back from recording their songs and Hopper comes storming down the steps.

“You didn’t close the front door behind you,” He scolds the older kids and Nancy jumps in frist.

“It was my fault, okay? I was carrying Jonathan in and we were so worried and it was an emergency, okay? It’s my fault, not theirs.” Nancy explained.

“You could’ve let demodogs in,” Hopper said, like she didn’t already know. “Dozens could’ve come down and you wouldn’t have been able to protect yourselves.”

“But that didn’t happen,” Max says now, crossing her arms and looking in Hoppers general direction. “No demodogs came down and attacked us, we’re safe, Jonathan is safe. And even if there were any demodogs in this area, what are they gonna do when they see a locked door? Just walk away? We’re as safe in here with the door open as we are with it closed, and you know that.”

“We are trying to keep you kids safe, we can’t do that if you’re continuously making it harder to stay safe.” Hopper said and then he pointed at Eddie. “We’re not safe with him down here if he’s acting like a honing beacon to Vecna.”

“We don’t know that’s what happened!” Dustin shouted. “What we know is that we think he acted as a beacon! Will felt it too, are you going to suggest we get rid of Will now too?”

“We are not getting rid of Will!” Joyce defended. “ Or Eddie.” Joyce targets that comment at Hopper. “This is a democracy, not a dictatorship, Hop. You don’t get to run around making all the decisions for all of us, okay? We aren’t making any decision about this until we find out why the demodogs chased after Eddie. Or what’s even going on with him. Or what’s going on with the town. Understand?”

Hopper gives her a long stare, but there’s only reluctant agreeance in his eyes, none of the defiance from earlier and Joyce smiles at him.

“So what’s the plan now?” Dustin asked. “Because we won’t be able to figure out anything in this basement. To try and figure out how much of him is still human and how much is demobat, we’d need some serious gear. Science equipment that we don’t have here.”

“Well where could we get some?” Hopper asked, serious and Dustin turns to Lucas, Will and Mike, expression curious and they all think for a moment.

“The middle school,” Will said and Lucas nods. 

“Yeah, from Mr. Clarke’s room, or maybe even his house? He always had the top gear, whatever was newer to study things. He’d have everything we would need, stuff the high school doesn’t even have yet,” Lucas said.

“Well, what would we need?” Hopper asked and Dustin moves to grab a paper and crayon from the floor, sitting down and writing a list.

“There was just this entire study done on DNA analysis,” Dustin said as he scribbled down on the paper. “Crazy research, our chemistry teacher was telling us all about it, I even stayed after to ask more questions. Did you know to find out stuff about your parental DNA, they use this technique thing called Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism, or RFLP for you unintelligent. It’s insanely accurate, more accurate than scientists had ever been expecting to get.

“There’s a bunch of stuff our DNA can tell us, what kind of illnesses spread in your family, who your mom is, who your dad is, with enough collected data it can even go back centuries . It can also identify stuff like races, tell you what part of you is Italian and shit like that,” Dustin explained. “I’m hoping it’ll tell us how much bat is in Eddie, and if there’s any way to turn him back, or at least stop him from going full bat, you know?”

Dustin gets to his feet and looks over the list for a moment before he turns to Will.

“Think this is enough?” He asked and Will looked over the list and started to nod before Mike pushed Dustin out of the way, grabbing the list.

“You need more than one beaker, dumbass. And what about a double edged beaker holder? You’re just gonna set it on the table? Did you never learn about lab safety?” Mike said and then shoved the list back. “Speaking of lab safety you should add goggles.”

“You should add goggles, ” Dustin mimics and Mike goes to hit him over the head but Dustin is faster, ducking and dropping back to the ground to add a few more things then shoving the list into Mike’s chest.

Mike looks over the list and nods. “Better,” He said and handed the list to Hopper, who reads down the list, scratching at his forehead.

“What- What is an Erlen- Iylern- Ehler-” 

“Erlenmeyer Flask,” Dustin corrected. “It’s another word basically for beaker.”

Hopper nods slowly, frowning as he continues to read the list.

“And what’s a 50 millilitre burette?” Hopper asked and Dustin turned to share an exasperated look with Mike.

“Are you kidding?” Dustin asked. “You don’t know what- It’s a burette. That holds 50 millilitres.”

Hopper just stares blankly at Dustin.

“Yeah, most of us who don’t speak nerd don’t know what a burette is, idiot.” Max chimed in and Hopper nodded.

“It’s just a little, little like squeezy thing, a burette!” Dustin exclaimed. “Are you kidding me?” 

“No,” Hopper said and shook his head. “I don’t know what most of this list is. And why do you need needles ?” 

“How else are you supposed to draw blood to do a DNA test?” Dustin asked, like he was talking to the biggest idiot in the world. “We need that equipment if we have any hope of figuring out how to fix Eddie.”

Hopper just stares at the list for a long moment before turning to Joyce, who’s looking over the list just as confused as Hopper.

“You don’t have any clue what any of this is, do you?” Hopper asked and Joyce shook her head.

“Murray?” Hopper asked and Murray put his hands up in surrender and took a step back.

“I did well at public speaking, not science,” Murray said and Hopper groans, pinching the bridge of his nose and the room is silent for a long moment.

“Okay,” Hopper said and Dustin raised and eyebrow. “Okay?” He echoed.

“ Okay , you come with.” Hopper said and Dustin’s eyes went wide and the room all looked at each other in surprise. “El goes too, we’ll need her protection.”

“I’m going too,” Nancy said. “I can shoot well, be extra guard.”

“I should go with too,” Eddie said. “The others said I was able to get the demodogs to back down before by controlling them, if we get in trouble I can help.”

“Okay,” Hopper said and as the kids began to look ready to volunteer, he makes a cutting motion with his hand. “That’s it . No more, the groups already big enough. But depending on how this goes, I will maybe think about lifting the rules some.”

The kids all turn to grin at each other in excitement and Hopper sighed, looking abc down at the list.

“We’ll go tomorrow, the sun’s already setting.” Hopper said. “We go and get your stupid equipment, and we come back, and that is it for the adventures tomorrow, understand? We’ve already been out too much, the demogorgons are going to start figuring out where we are.” 

The room choruses with “Got it’s” and “understoods” and Hopper sighed, crossing his arms.

“Well, what are you all staring for? Let’s eat some canned shit.”

Chapter Text

May 17th, 1986.

Hawkins, Indiana.

Nancy grabs a can of beans from Joyce a little hesitantly but she smiles warmly anyway and walks over to Jonathan, who’s looking better but still not amazing and sits next to him.

“Are you feeling okay?” She asked and Jonathan nodded. Nancy gives him a pointed look and he sighs heavily, shrugging.

“Little drained, but that’s what losing some blood will get you.” Jonathan said and Nancy hummed, eating a spoonful of beans and cringing a little at the taste. However, food is food and she’s starving, also still feeling a little woozy from Eddie drinking from her before. 

She lifts another spoonful up to her mouth before turning to Jonathan and feeding him some. Jonathan makes a face at the taste as well but swallows the food down quickly. 

“You know, I used to complain to my mom all the time when I was younger, right?” Jonathan started. “About how she always fed us like it was the end of the world. It was never this bad.”

Nancy laughs at him and scoots closer, leaning against Jonathan’s shoulder.

“We’ll be back to steaks and mashed potatoes soon enough,” She said. “And we’ll be out of this mess in time for the first semester.”

Jonathan tenses a little at the mention of college and Nancy pretends not to notice. It’s not their main problem right now, she decided forever ago, when she realised how Jonathan always seemed skittish about college talk. Once all this shit is done, she’ll sit down, and they’ll have a long, much needed conversation about it.

But for right now, she just leans into Jonathan more as he moves his arm to rest on her shoulders, pulling her in even closer.

“Dingus!” Robin shouted, tackling Steve across the room while Steve moved his hand away from her. “That is my cranberry sauce!” 

“You ate it all last time!” Steve shouted, back on the ground as Robin pins him down. “This is payback!”

“You literally said it was fine last time!” Robin whines, reaching for the can she had begun to open before Steve snatched it from her. “You don’t even like cranberry sauce!”

“I don’t mind it!” Steve defended. “You know I hate the beans!”

“So do I!” Robin whines as she climbs up his body, pressing him to the ground roughly as she tries to grab the can away.

“Eddie!” Steve cried out to the other man, who was sitting nearby, thumbnail in between his lips as his eyes worriedly darted around the room. His eyes snap to Steve in seconds and his eyes flash red for just a moment. “Help a guy out?”

Eddie grins mischievously, any panic previously shown now washed away as he gets up and moves to wrap his arms around Robin’s middle, pulling her off of Steve.

“HEY!” Robin shouted, kicking her legs in the air as Steve scrambles to his feet and finishes opening the can, sticking a spoon in and taking a massive bite out of it. “ Steeeeve! ” Robin whines as Eddie sets her back down.

She turns around and slaps his arm harshly but Eddie doesn’t seem the slightest bit phased, grinning sharply at Steve, who looks smug as he looks down at Robin.

“I hate you,” Robin said, pointing her index finger into Steve’s chest sharply. Steve only grins wider and hums as he eats another spoonful.

“You can say it all you want, doesn’t make it true,” He sang out, mocking and quoting his best friend before he made a dash across the room, darting in and out of the small crowd of other people and Robin gasped loudly, trying to chase after but not as gracefully.

“Kids!” Joyce shouted, watching amused as two fully grown adults chased each other around the room like they were angry toddlers. “Kids, come on, there isn’t enough space in here for that.”

Joyce tries to smother her smile as Robin turns to her with a look of betrayal, Steve diving to hide behind the couch all the Party members were sitting on. 

“Joyce!” Robin said. “You could at least let me catch him first!”

“Sorry, honey,” Joyce said, looking not one bit sorry. “I just don't want anyone getting hurt, we don’t have the space for it.”

“Speaking of that, actually.” Steve said from behind the couch, not daring to move from his hiding space. “I was actually thinking that like... maybe we should try and hide out in my house instead?”

He peeks out from behind the couch warily and Robin glares at him with her arms crossed as she leans against the stair railing.

“I know it’s a bit away, but there’s more room, more beds, more showers. And my parents have a backup generator. Like, three of them. So we wouldn’t have to rely on the small amount of electricity Hawkins still has from the Upside Down’s energy surges.” Steve said and gestured around the dimly lit room that was mostly lit by a few candles and flickering lights. “We have gas powered heating too. It’s already been getting a bit colder each day as more Upside Down creatures come up here. It would be best to, you know, have a way to not freeze to death at least. And to have warm showers.”

Joyce nods carefully at his proposition and turns to Hopper, who’s mulling the idea over in his head.

“Not a terrible idea,” He admits and Steve brightens a little at the notion of being helpful. “But your house is big , which means more areas to try and clear out, keep track of. It works here right now because we’re all in one room and it’s small. We know where every exit is because all our kids have been here a dozen times. Only Nancy and Jonathan have been to your house, it seems, no one knows the layout enough.”

“I’ve been to Harrington’s house,” Eddie said, leaning against the staircase lazily and everyone turned to Eddie with a confused or surprised expression.

“Why are you shocked?” Dustin asked Steve, who also stared with a mouth open.

“Cause I didn’t know this!” Steve said and Eddie shrugged.

“I mean, I’m your local-” Eddie paused, casting a glance at the kids and then Hopper worriedly. Hopper’s expression hardens a bit and he watches Eddie carefully, Eddie shifting under the chief’s hard gaze. “Uhm, local- Local fun dealer! You know? Always- Ahem, always going to parties, to uh, deliver the fun.”

“Nice save,” Jonathan said, completely unimpressed and Eddie flushed out of embarrassment, grabbing a piece of his hair and pulling it in front of his face to shield his flushed expression.

“Anyway, you know, Tommy H. and people like that paid me to be there. To- To deliver the fun.” Eddie said and cleared his throat, ducking his head as he was met with the disappointed look of Joyce. “Also, when I was all... batty in the Upside Down, I walked a lot around town. I mean, it’s almost empty down there now that everything’s up here. So it was easy. I just went to like every building, walked through houses and stuff. That’s.... Okay that sounds a little weird when I say it out loud.”

“Nah,” Argyle said. “I’d totally do the same man. If the world was all abandoned and I was alone? Would totally just check out people’s houses and shit.”

Everyone gives Argyle a strange look, to which he seems to not care for as he just goes back to contently eating baked beans from a can. 

“But uh, anyway- Just... my point was I’ve been to his house,” Eddie mumbled, still ducking his head. “So has Dustin.”

“Right,” Hopper said and continued on. “My point is the others haven’t, not inside at least. And it is far away, and near the woods where almost all of this shit has happened near. It would be more space, but it wouldn’t be more safe.”

Steve frowns a little and sighs, but knows better than to argue when Hopper was just beginning to lighten up on the rules. “Okay,” He grumbled and suddenly Robin, who’d been slowly sneaking up on him, tackled him behind the couch and he screamed out.

“Why are you two even fighting?” Dustin asked. “There’s an entire pile of cranberry sauce cans over there.”

“That’s not the point!” Robin said as she pulled on Steve’s hair. The older man shrieks and knees her in the stomach. “The point is he took my can!”

“Omigod,” Nancy said, pinching the bridge of her nose. “You two are ridiculous.”

“Are they always like this?” Eddie asked, watching as Steve gets out from under Robin and tries to make a break for it, only for Robin to grab his ankle and trip him. 

“Unfortunately,” Jonathan said as Robin jumps on top of Steve again and begins to tickle him.

“This is weaponised affection!” Steve shouted, flailing and trying to get Robin off.

“You two are so gross,” Max said and Lucas nodded. 

“At least you can’t see it, it’s terrible.” Lucas said and had a moment of panic flash across his features at mentioning Max’s disability, but it dissipates when she bursts into laughter at the comment instead. 

“We’re not like that!” Steve pants from how hard he’s laughing. “Platonic with a capital P , people!”

“Yes, this is a very non-couple thing to do,” Mike said, teasingly as Robin is sat on Steve’s thighs to hold him down, tickling his sides while he tried to push her off.

“Robin!” Steve squeaks out. “You’re not helping!”

“Am I supposed to be?” Robin asked and she just tickles him even more frantically until he’s wheezing and gasping for air desperately.

“Okay, okay, you two have had your fun,” Joyce said, coming over and gesturing for Robin to release Steve. The girl stands up, wearing a victorious expression and Steve pants out, collapsing weakly on the floor and staring wide eyed at the ceiling.

“I’m dead,” He groaned. “Someone write my will, everything goes to Dustin, you little shits.” 

“YES!” Dustin screams out while the others roll their eyes. Eddie walks over and reaches his hand out to Steve, the other grinning and grabbing it, Eddie pulling him up to his feet.

“Alright, calm down, no one’s actually dying.” Eddie said, glancing over his shoulder at Dustin, who just shrugged.

“I mean, there’s still time -” Dustin began but Joyce gave him a sharp look and he wilted a bit.

“And we like Steve now, so let’s not kill him just yet.” Nancy chimed in and Steve whipped his head around at her.

“What do you mean yet ?” Steve asked, finally letting go of Eddie’s hand. His hand feels a little tingly and he side eyes Eddie for just a moment before looking at everyone else.

“Finish eating everyone, we need to start rotating shower shifts.” Hopper announced and everyone resumed eating.

“Nancy, what do you mean yet ?” Steve asked again but he’s ignored as Robin pulls him to sit down.

Nancy smiles, rolling her eyes as she raises her fork to her mouth.

Jonathan’s hand snaps forward though, grabbing her wrist and staring at it, wide eyed. Nancy turns to him with a raised eyebrow and follows his line of sight, revealing the bite mark from earlier.

“Nancy! When did you get this?” Jonathan asked, worrying. “It’s still bleeding a little, that’s dangerous! This needs to be treated, why didn’t you tell anyone you got attacked?!”

“Jonathan, I didn’t. It’s not-” Nancy pulls her hand out of Jonathan’s hold and waves it around a bit. “I’m fine .” 

“That’s not fine!” Jonathan stood up, grabbing the medical kit from before and coming over to her. Nancy fondly rolls her eyes but extends her arm to Jonathan, letting him disinfect the wound. “You can’t hide things like this!”

“Jon,” Nancy said, smiling fondly at her boyfriend. “I didn’t get attacked.”

Jonathan scoffs at that but before he can say anything else, Eddie nervously steps forward.

“Sorry,” He mumbled. “I was- I was about to pass out. Nancy offered- I didn’t mean to hurt her.”

“You didn’t,” Nancy lies with a soft smile, not wanting to worry Eddie when he already looked seconds away from spiralling. “You did what you had to.”

“Wait, Eddie drank blood?” Dustin asked. “Did he drink a lot?” 

“Well, no, I drank enough .” Eddie said and inhaled deeply. “But there’s no going back now. I’m- a monster .”

“Hey,” Steve gets to his feet and rests a hand on his shoulder, expression gentle but serious. “You’re not a monster, dude. You did what you had to, and you tried to hold off as long as you could. But you can’t be any help to us if you’re lying somewhere dying because you’re refusing to eat.”

Eddie hugs himself and hunches over a little, and Steve squeezes his shoulder. Eddie leans a little towards him and shakes his head.

“It’s just- It was a dumb thing to do. Cause I’m still- Still hungry and all I did was hurt Nancy.” Eddie said.

“Well of course you’d still be hungry,” Dustin stated like it was obvious and Eddie looks over at him curiously. “I mean, you’ve been this demovamp for how long? And haven’t drinken any human blood? And you only had enough to keep you from passing out? Makes sense that you’d need more.”

“And besides, I’m fine ,” Nancy reassured as Jonathan finishes cleaning her wound and begins wrapping it up carefully. “Doesn’t hurt, it’s not infected and I’ve gotten much worse. You did what you had to.”

Eddie looks at her nervously, brows furrowed and she gives him a gentle smile back. He inhales deeply and relaxes a little, nodding shyly and looking at Joyce and Hopper. Hopper stands up straight, but he doesn’t look at Eddie like he’s a monster he can’t trust. He only looks at him with a slightly pained expression, similar to how he looks when El is forced to overexert her powers. And Joyce is giving him a soft, motherly smile, reassuring eyes glancing at him.

A quick glance around the room reassures him no one there fears him, most of the kids aren’t even paying attention to the conversation and he feels just a little less like a ruthless monster and more like a human being who’s been dealt an unlucky hand.

“We need to come up with a plan though,” Steve said, hand still on Eddie’s shoulder and Eddie kept leaning into it, like it was a grounding point for him. “For the future. I mean, Eddie can’t just keep starving himself until he snaps.”

“He’s right,” Murray piped up. “It would only get worse each time, he would probably lose his ability to keep control, if he keeps starving himself, the risks of him attacking people get higher.”

“I don’t- I don’t want to just keep feeding on people,” Eddie said, shaking his head.

“We know,” Steve said, softly, voice careful and kind. “But unfortunately, you’re going to have to or you’ll die. And we just got you back, man.”

Eddie nods, small and sniffles a little. “Fine,” He mumbled, miserably and Steve nodded too.

“For now, I’m okay being a blood bag if you need it,” Steve said and looked at the others. “Unless anyone else wants to offer?”

“It’s probably not smart to let him rely solely on you,” Joyce noted, arms crossed. “I volunteer too, just so you’re not getting drained.”

“Me too,” Hopper said and shrugged. “Long as you’re fine with some iron deficiency, that is.”

Eddie nods shyly, a small smile growing on his lips, thought he’s still a little shaky and nervous. “I think- I think as long as it's human blood I’m fine.”

“Vicki has plans to set up a blood drive once the school group reinforces everything,” Robin piped up. “Blood expires so if they have any bags they don’t need that are getting close to their expiration date, we could always grab them for you too.”

“We’re going to help you, Eddie.” Steve said, squeezing Eddie’s shoulder reassuringly. “You’re not a monster, and you didn’t ask for this. And you’re not going to deal with this alone.”

Eddie nods, small, before he’s overwhelmed with emotions and rushes forward, burying his face in Steve’s neck as he wraps his arms around him.

Steve seems a little awkward for a moment before he slowly wraps his arms around him, patting his back, gentle and comforting.

Everyone is quiet for a moment, letting Eddie sob.

They weren’t sure what to say or do really, besides Dustin, Mike and Lucas, none of them were really super close with Eddie. And Dustin, Mike and Lucas were shit at the whole comforting people unless it was Will or Max. 

And this? This is also a lot bigger than anything they’ve dealt with before. Eddie is grappling with the loss of his humanity, the fact that he’s turning into this creature , losing control over himself, drinking human blood . It’s not something that’s going to go away anytime soon, and it’s not something any of them are equipped to help with.

“Hey, let’s all get some rest.” Joyce suggested in a soft motherly tone and Eddie pulled away from Steve, embarrassedly wiping away his tears. Steve offers him an awkward, yet reassuring smile and Eddie’s cheeks turn pink and he turns away. “Eddie, come here though, I want to take a look at your wing.”

Eddie follows her upstairs a little awkwardly and Steve goes over to join Robin and Argyle on the floor in the corner of the room. Robin is giving him a sceptical look as he sits down.

“What?” Steve asked, grabbing the bag of dominos that Argyle was playing with and dolling out a handful to the two adults in front of him.

“What was that?” Robin asked, nodding her head at where Eddie just left. “I didn’t think you two were close.”

“We’re- We’re not ,” Steve said. “But like, he’s cool, or whatever. And dude is having a hard time, I’m not gonna deny him comfort. He seems fine with me and Dustin mainly.”

“Mhm,” Robin said in a tone that implied she was far too suspicious about any ulterior motives and Steve frowned at her

“What? Why are you being weird?” Steve asked and Robin just squinted at him. “Stop that.”

She squints harder, just to spite him and Steve puts a hand on her face, pushing her backwards and she shrieks.

“Uno,” Argyle says, having placed all his dominos down while they were talking and Steve turns to find he’s somehow managed to play half a game by himself.

“That’s- not what we’re- okay. Argyle you win, rematch?” Steve asked and Argyle smiled happily at him.

Argyle was a... A character indeed. Steve hadn’t quite figured him out yet. He’s so laid back and chilled, but about a week into staying hidden, Steve found out it was just because the dude was constantly high. When he wasn’t stoned, he was actually stressed the hell out really bad. He had been shaking and freaking out one night when they’d been getting food late and he hadn’t had time to smoke.

The only way he’d been able to calm down was by Jonathan singing some hippie type song Steve didn’t recognise and holding his hand. After that, Steve sort of earned a little respect for the guy. He wasn’t just a stoner, he was just as fucking stressed as the rest of them and had just found his own coping mechanism.

Argyle was also always smiling, making jokes and causing everyone to laugh.

It was good, with everyone else stressed and you know, being kids so they couldn’t just get high or wasted like the rest of them, it was good to have someone who was constantly in a semi-state of euphoria to make them all laugh and giggle.

He may not seem like it, but Argyle was very important for the group to have. Steve is pretty sure that without him, everyone would’ve lost their minds to despair weeks ago. Jonathan especially.

So Steve makes an effort to not act like Argyle is stupid, and he’s not stupid he’s just sort of out of it from being constantly stoned. 

Steve grabs all the dominos and jostles them around as Jonathan comes over to join them, sitting cross legged next to Argyle.

Argyle grins at him and rests his head on Jonathan’s shoulder as Jonathan begins talking about some random nerd shit that Steve has no idea about.

Nancy walks over too, seeming a little bit awkward.

“Robin?” She asked nervously and all four of them on the ground turned to her. “Would you, would you wanna like, go up to my room and paint each other’s nails? Or something?”

Robin blinked up at Nancy, then turned to Steve, before her face broke into a blinding smile and she jumped to her feet.

“Hell yeah! Joyce gave us permission?” Robin asked and Nancy seemed to relax a little, nodding as she led the other girl up the stairs.

“Yeah, it’s not too late yet and Hopper just finished reinforcing the entrance apparently. She said as long as we aren’t too loud, we should be good to have some time to ourselves,” Nancy said as they make their way up to her room as Joyce and Hopper assign shower times to the kids (there was one on the top floor and one of the bottom, both only had cold water, but it was either that or sit in a basement with a bunch of smelly teenage boys so... cold water it was).

She’s... she’s a little nervous. 

Robin isn’t the type of person she’d normally befriend, but Jonathan was right. Robin seemed a little lonely, and it just wasn’t right of Nancy to avoid her because she thought something might be going on with her and Steve.

Besides, it’s not like Robin was terrible, she was tough, she was bubbly, and she tried to make the best of their situation. She made a big show of being strong in front of the kids, but Nancy has caught Steve calming her down from panic attacks more than twice. It was a relief to know she wasn’t the only one stressed the hell out about all this.

She leads Robin into her room, which has been pretty much untouched except for the closet when she’d grab clothes for them or El and Erica. (Max had taken to rooting through Mr. Wheeler’s closet for some reason, seeming to find absolute joy and humour in wearing an oversized business shirt in the middle of an apocalypse) 

Robin grins and makes a big show of plopping down onto Nancy’s bed and Nancy grins at that as she grabs her nail polishes from her dresser top.

“Okay, so I mostly have pastels and then like, five different reds.” Nancy said. “But I also have those little decal brushes and some cute nail stickers somewhere too.”

“Do you have black?” Robin asked and Nancy snorted, having expected that question.

“I have grey but Mike should still have one in his room.” Nancy said and then ducked her head low, whispering to Robin. “He bought it back when he first joined Hellfire to be more like Eddie, but he hasn’t had the confidence to actually put it on yet.” 

Robin giggled a little, face lighting up as she leaned back a little.

“I think you should pick out a colour for me,” Robin said. “Change it up a little. End of the World is the perfect time to venture out into new styles.”

Nancy grinned at her as she set the nail polishes down, setting aside pink and purple, which Robin grimaces at and seems to immediately be regretting her decision to let Nancy pick. But Nancy isn’t gonna let her back out as she grabs a nail file.

“This is just to give your nails some shape,” Nancy explained, reaching out for the other girl’s hand and Robin nodded a little, watching as Nancy carefully filed each nail. “Or at least, a better shape than the jagged edges you have.”

“Hey you try cutting your nails with kitchen scissors.” Robin shouted back with a grin. “Steve keeps stealing the nail clippers and I get impatient.”

“Ah yes, our dear Steve needs to always be the prettiest, even in the face of danger.” Nancy joked and Robin giggled.

“ Tell me about it, it’s like, dude, we need those cans of hairspray to fight off monsters!” Robin complained. “He uses like, two a day, I swear.”

They spend about two hours up there together and Nancy has to admit, Robin is a lot more likeable than she had thought she’d be.

Sure, the girl is overly-excited about any and every little thing, she’s loud and talks fast, but it’s actually not too overwhelming, especially when stuck with boring slow silence for days on end. 

They only go back down when Joyce tells them it’s their turn for showers and Nancy feels a whole lot lighter after the interaction. She realises that she had needed the one-on-one girl time just as much as Robin had, the sense of normalcy in the face of danger. 

She mentally curses her boyfriend for yet again being right about something as she quickly washes her hair.

Downstairs, El is sitting on the floor, staring at her cassette player as she carefully places a long piece of clear packing tape over the front to keep any of her decorations from falling off or scratching. She then turns to proudly show Mike, who squints at it for a moment, eyes looking all over, and then he gives her a soft smile back.

“Looks bitching,” Mike said and El’s face lights up even brighter as she looks at her finished work.

She, like Will had earlier, had drawn out each member of the party. Her drawings were stick figures though, but she made sure to make it clear who was who by adding hair or a hat to each one.

They all held hands and looked up at a shadowy figure, as if ready to fight. There were rainbow and unicorn stickers along the edges, some trimmed to fit fully onto the player.

It was very crudely drawn, reminiscent of a five year old’s art project, but El was proud of it all the same. It was hers, she made it, she personalised something just for herself. So she loved it.

El gets to her feet and walks over to Max, resting the player in her lap so Max can run her fingers over it.

Max can’t make out the bumps well enough, she is still getting used to the whole being blind thing and it’s not like all her other senses just suddenly completely adapted to make up. Everything felt louder, her skin was more sensitive and she was getting good at pinning people by listening to their voices, but it’s not like she was good at seeing without being able to actually see. It would take her time to figure it out.

Like right now, when she felt over the taped down player, she could feel the bumps of stickers, the indents of pressed crayons, but she had no idea what the player looked like at all.

It frustrated her to no end of course, she was just lacking sight now, never to see her friends again, never to see her beautiful boyfriend, her beautiful best friend, her friends, anyone. 

But she was dealing with it on her own, and she knew that El was almost just as upset about the whole loss of vision thing as she was, and she didn’t want to dampen the excitement she could feel rolling off of Eleven in this moment.

So Max focuses as hard as she can, she thinks she can feel a stick figure, a few of them, and she can feel the very clear braids one of the stick figures has on and it hits Max that El drew the Party and she smiles at that. Smiles that she’s able to make it out enough and smiles at the antics of her best friend.

“Hell yeah, extra protection from Vecna,” Max said, handing the player back to El before making a big show of flexing her bicep. “Extra muscle from the Party.”

“Exactly!” Eleven said and she sounded so excited Max could almost imagine the smile splitting her face in two. “To also help ground me, I can look down and remember who I’m fighting for, and with . That I have people I love looking out for me.”

Max smiled and reached a hand out to Eleven, the other girl taking it quickly and interlacing their fingers together. Max’s heart rate quickened and she smiled softly at El. 

“We’ve got your back,” Max promised, voice soft and just meant for her and Eleven squeezed her hand. 

“And we’ve got yours too,” El promised, moving a little closer. “You won’t get left behind.”

Which had been Max’s biggest worry since she left the hospital.

Her legs and arms had healed from being broken, but they were still in extreme pain and she had a lot of weakness in both due to the fact she hadn’t been able to do her physical therapy like she was supposed to after the world started ending. She couldn’t stand for long, not without her legs buckling or pain shooting up her spine. She also still dealt with frequent headaches, but now they were from pain rather than a creature from behind tormenting her.

And like she said before, she couldn’t see. She was scared, scared the rest were going to decide she was useless, that she couldn’t help, that they were going to just give up protecting her and leave her behind.

Realistically, Max knew none of them would, they were her friends, they were good people. But she was still scared. She was dragging them down, making them run to the pharmacy on the outskirts of the town to get her new pain meds each week, she consumed far more water than the rest of them, it would be easier for them all to just leave her to fend for herself.

She knew it wouldn’t happen, but it didn’t stop the fear it might.

Max smiles shakily at where she thinks El is and the other girl squeezes her hand once more before pulling away and hearing footsteps.

“Okay rugrats, we’re done, who’s next?” Robin called out and Joyce looked down at her notepad. 

“We just have Mike and Max left, then we’ll lock up,” Joyce explained, getting to her feet and motioning for El to telekinesis Max’s wheelchair up the stairs.

Mike took the shower on the top most floor, letting Joyce and El help Max into the one downstairs.

The top shower was just that, only a shower, but the main floor had a bathtub and Hopper had built a shower chair around their second week for Max to use. 

Showering was always awkward, Max’s arms got too tired too fast for her to reliably be able to wash herself, so Joyce would help her. And yeah, they were both chics or whatever, but Max barely ever let her own mom see her even half undressed, so it was just always awkward to be fully nude with someone she had only just started getting to know.

But Joyce never made a big deal out of it, always kept her eyes up and would talk to Max about random things while she helped her wash up. Eleven would sit outside the bathroom, the door cracked a bit and she would chime in now and then, waiting for them to finish so she could help Max back downstairs.

Getting dressed was always the hardest though, Max would tightly hold onto Joyce while the woman helped her into Ted’s old clothing.

Max, despite having the option to wear Nancy or Karen, or even Mike’s clothing should she need it, was the only one besides Hopper and Murray who would wear Ted’s clothing.

She thought it was absolutely hilarious to do so and it brought her immense joy in doing something so stupid during such a serious time of their life so she would not stop until someone forced her too. And no one dared to take away her small spark of joy in the midst of terrible times.

Joyce tightens the belt around Max’s waist to the smallest loop to keep the pants from falling down and quickly buttons up the shirt before helping Max back down onto her wheelchair.

Max felt a little winded, but grinned enthusiastically back up at Joyce as she’s wheeled out of the room.

When they all get back downstairs, everyone is quiet and getting ready for bed after the long day they had with the promise of an even longer one tomorrow.

 Max is helped onto the raised mattress in the corner over where Lucas and Eleven have taken up to bunking and she’s not tired yet so she rolls over and reaches out for her boyfriend’s hand.

Lucas grabs it immediately, intertwining their fingers.

“I asked them to grab you a rubix cube,” Lucas whispered, voice low since people were trying to sleep. “I’m gonna tape different textures on each colour so you can still solve it.”

Max grinned. “Promise you won’t set me up to fail,” Max asked. “Change the textures so they’re on the wrong colours?”

“I’ll make sure he won’t,” Eleven promised and Lucas chuckled lowly. Max could feel it through her arm. “Promise.”

“Thanks El.”

Across the room, Mike lays on the floor, limbs sprawled out in every direction and Will is trying to roll him over onto his side.

“Why do you do this?” Will asked, trying to keep his voice and laughter down low and Mike grins up at him.

“What? Think the end of the world will stop me from being annoying?” He asked and Dustin threw a pillow at him. 

“One could only hope,” He grumbled and Will and Mike erupt into hushed laughter at that

“Hey, I’m trying to keep a sense of normalcy here,” Mike defended. “If I was suddenly nice, that would be startling.”

“One can only hope,” Nancy, who they had assumed was passed out already, grumbled from their left and the trio of boys burst into childish giggles, only stopping when Hopper hushes them.

Robin is latched onto Steve’s arm, snoring loudly and Steve has a leg strewn loosely over her stomach, mumbling in his sleep.

Eddie sits in a corner, fully awake and watching over the room as Murray and Hopper check over everyone, making sure everyone’s as comfortable as they possibly could be in the small room. 

Argyle is still awake as well, chatting casually with Joyce who’s acting as a human pillow to Erica, the small girl curled up impossibly small. Anyone who looks at her would only see a ten year old girl, not the ten year old girl who’s already seen unimaginable horrors, who had to rush to her brother’s side as he screamed in agony over his girlfriend’s dead body.

Joyce holds her in a gentle motherly way. Jonathan is asleep at her feet, having passed out mid conversation.

The room is quiet, saving from hushed conversations, stifled laughter and snores that fill the room. It’s comforting and eerie all at once, and Joyce, looking around the room, feels a painful pang through her heart.

She would do her best to convince Hopper to let them move to the Harrington’s place, to move into a place where everyone can sleep on a bed, have their own space, not have to be pressed shoulder to shoulder every waking minute.

~~~

“Dustin, if you don’t finish packing in the next 30 seconds we are leaving without you,” Hopper threatened, standing at the top of the steps with Nancy and Eddie.

“Hang on!” Dustin shouted, shoving the list into his small bookbag and haphazardly zipping it shut. “You can’t leave without me anyway!”

“I’ll bring Lucas instead.” Hopper stated, to which Lucas brightened and Dustin glared at him warningly.

“Lucas lost all his nerd points once he started playing basketball.” Dustin said. “I bet he wouldn’t even know what a microscope looks like anymore.”

“What the hell man!” Lucas shouted. “I didn’t become dumb once I started doing sports!”

“You’re a jock or a nerd, you can’t be both,” Dustin informed.

“Leaving in three, two-” Hopper threatened and Dustin jumped to his feet, tripping as he tried to gain his balance.

“I’m coming!” Dustin yelled but Steve stopped him before he got to the stairs.

“Cane,” Steve said, sternly and holding out an old man cane to Dustin.

“What?! No, I don’t need it.” Dustin declared, trying to stand up straight, but he winced when he put weight on left leg, making Steve’s eyes narrow.

“Take it, don’t think I didn’t see you limping in the Upside Down,” Steve said, almost threatening and Dustin crossed his arms, glaring at him challengingly. Steve turned to Hopper with an exasperated look and the man rolled his eyes.

“Dustin,” Hopper said. “Take the damn cane or we’re taking Lucas.”

“Stop using the same threat!” Dustin cried but snatched the cane out of Steve’s hands. Dustin gave him a betrayed glare while Steve just grinned back at him. 

“Okay, now let’s go,” Nancy said, opening the basement door. “Faster we get the supplies, the faster we can figure out how to help Eddie.”

“I mean, it’ll still take a lot of time to study everything and come up with solutions-” “Let’s go, ” Nancy interrupted Dustin and Dustin groaned but followed them all out. 

“Has anyone ever told you that you’re all really bossy?” Dustin grumbled and Eddie’s wings flapped behind him as he laughed at Dustin.

“Has anyone told you that you’re really bratty?” Eddie asked and Dustin glared at him as they all grabbed a bike or two and set out to the middle school.

“I wonder if there’s a survival group at the middle school too,” Dustin wondered aloud. “Since there’s one at the highschool. I mean it’d be smart, right? Cause there’s a lot of doors and places to hide out and cafeteria food.”

“Hopefully not,” Hopper gruffed. “One other group I can handle looting the same areas as us, but two? It’d be only another week or so before we’re all out.”

“What happens then?” Nancy asked, ahead of all the guys, looking over her shoulder as she biked. “When we run out of food?”

“We haven’t run out of food.” Hopper reminded firmly and Dustin frowned at that.

“But we will, I mean, eventually.” Dustin said. “The older kids are already scouting out places farther away because everything nearby is empty. There’s only the two grocery stores in all of Hawkins, and most shit is expired by now. So what happens?”

Hopper is silent for a long moment, which casts a foggy cloud of uneasiness over the other three. 

“We’re trying to figure it out,” Hopper said. “But as of right now, we don’t know. Which is why I’ve been getting harder on you all about rations.”

“Oh,” Dustin mumbled guiltily, remembering just the other day when he and Lucas had been fighting and spilled two cans of beans all over the floor. They had both laughed it off and been pissed that Hopper had gotten so mad at them, it had been an accident. But the stress of not knowing when your next meal would be properly snapped inside Hopper watching them waste food like it was nothing.

“Don’t worry about it though, okay?” Hopper told them, trying for reassuring but it fell a little flat. “It’s my job to think about all the intense shit like that. Joyce, Murray and I’ll figure it out before it’s a concern, okay?”

“Okay,” The three mumbled in unison as they pulled up to the middle school. 

Nancy cocks her gun, looking around warily as everyone dismounts their bikes, Hopper shoving Dustin’s cane into his hand and not letting him take a single step forward until he grabbed it.

“Okay, so far so clear, but no one lets their guards down, okay? They like to take us off guard.” Nancy said firmly, and everyone nodded at her warning as they slowly made their way into the building.

There’s creaking sounds, and the interior is colder than it was outside, causing Dustin to shiver a little, rubbing his hands on his arms to try and warm them up. Of course though it doesn’t do much to warm him up and a chill jolted down his spine, making him shiver even more. 

Eddie came up behind him, a wing wrapping around Dustin, the warm limb providing a nice shield from the cold, almost frosty air. The younger teen gives Eddie a strange look at the action, looking at the leathery wing now partially draped on his shoulder like a blanket.

“What?” Eddie asked, voice defensive and slightly on edge. Dustin shook his head, deciding to let it go and revelling in the break from the cold air as they all cautiously made their way to the science lab. 

“This is like, ominously too easy,” Dustin said as they approached the lab. He reached out to open the door, but suddenly Eddie is tackling him, pushing him out of the way as the door burst open on its own. A demodog comes flying out, just barely missing shredding Dustin’s face off.

“Yeah, that’s what I expected,” Dustin groaned in pain as all 160 pounds of Eddie fell onto him, the sound of a demodog screeching as Nancy shot it point blank in the face. 

“Get up,” Hopper urged, trying to get the demodog away from where Eddie and Dustin were sprawled on the ground, fumbling with his lighter before torching the creature.

Eddie jumped to his feet and helped Dustin up, looking sheepish. “Sorry, didn’t mean to tackle you like that.”

“I’ll take that over getting my face torn off any day,” Dustin groaned and his face twisted as a shock of pain jolted from his ankle to his thigh as he stood up. “Don’t tell Steve though.” He ordered as he leaned heavily on his cane now.

“How the hell did one get in the classroom?” Hopper grumbled. “Unless they learned how to open doors, that shouldn’t be possible.”

Dustin pushed past everyone into the lab and instantly froze.

“Uh, unless there was a gate in here.” Dustin said and Hopper rushed in, staring at where a classroom chalkboard would’ve been, if not for the hell portal.

“Shit,” Hopper mumbled, rushing over. There weren’t currently any other demo-beings in the room, but the open gate held the very real threat that any amount of hell creatures could swarm that at any moment. “Nancy, Eddie help me over here, Dustin, get everything as fast as you can.”

“Why is there a gate over here?” Nancy asked, almost hysterical at the shock that their mission was now a lot more dangerous than they had expected. “No one died over here, not that I’ve ever heard of.”

“I mean, maybe the chasms are causing a rift of weakness throughout the town or something?” Eddie suggested, his nails elongated into talons and ready to attack should anything jump through the gate. 

“But that doesn’t make any sense,” Dustin shouted over his shoulder as he rushed around the classroom, grabbing everything they would need to run any tests on Eddie as fast as he could. “I mean, not really. It’s not like Vecna created the chasms for no reason, he created them because that was where the four victims died. And they died to open up gates for Vecna.

“If he could just open gates at will, he wouldn’t have needed to kill Chrissy and everyone else. He wouldn't have taken the risk of causing such a disturbance if he could just do it whenever.” Dustin said matter-of-factly. “Unless he did that as a warning which is kind of stupid since he seems scared of Eleven and giving us a warning gave her time to catch up on everything.”

“He didn’t,” Nancy said. “And nothing in his visions showed him opening more gates. It wouldn’t line up with anything he’s done before.”

There’s chittering from the gate and Nancy immediately stands on guard gun aimed directly for the entrance and she steadies her shaking hands.

“Enough talk, we’ll figure it out later, right now, we need to focus on staying alive.” Hopper ordered, also standing on guard and ready to blow torch whatever the hell came through, and Eddie nodded.

“Henderson, almost done over there?” Eddie asked and Dustin sighed heavily, hands shaking as he prepared all the equipment.

“No, I’m having to pack everything in cases, otherwise it’ll all break so it’s taking longer than I expected,” Dustin said, worry etched in his voice. “You guys- You’ll make sure I don’t die, right?”

“Nothing’s gonna even touch you,” Eddie promised, eyes intense as he looked at the kid. Dustin nodded, swallowing thickly but rolling his shoulders back a little as he carefully but quickly packed the microscope into its proper casing.

The chittering sounds again, this time followed but a hissing and Eddie on instinct hisses back, almost a warning to whatever the hell was trying to come through.

A whining sound this time, as if Eddie’s hissing had genuinely frightened whatever was on the other end, followed by a low growl and then the sound of something running to them.

“Incoming,” Hopper grumbled and Dustin tensed, almost dropping the flask he was holding as a demodog crashed through the gate, hissing at all of them.

“Dustin keep going,” Nancy ordered as she started unloading her bullets in the demodogs face while Hopper torched it’s face.

“I’m a little stressed!” Dustin defended himself. “I mean! The only time I’ve ever really been this close to a demodog willingly was when I had Dart.”

“What do you mean since Dart?” Eddie asked, looking over at Dustin incredulously and Nancy rolled her eyes.

“It’s a long story,” Dustin mumbled sheepishly.

“Dustin found a demodog and raised it as a pet.” Nancy explained and quickly reloaded her gun when they heard two more creatures approaching.

“You what?! ” Eddie asked and Dustin spluttered.

“Look at first I didn’t know he was a demodog! Not until he ate my cat...” He mumbled the last part but Eddie still heard it.

“He ate your cat?!” Eddie yelled and Dustin threw his hands up. 

“He was hungry! Besides, after that I realised he was a demodog,” Dustin defended. “Also, Will thinks that he might’ve been something he threw up, I don’t know if we ever actually like, resolved that or not-” 

“Can you stop talking about your dead murder pet and finish packing?” Hopper asked and Dustin nodded frantically, rushing to pack the last small pieces of everything.

On the other side of the gate, a chorus of chitters and growls sounds and the four of them all pause as they try to focus.

“That’s like five of them,” Nancy said, her voice low and Eddie readjusted his stance, more on guard, wings raised high as if he were making ready to take flight. His talons were sharp and his canines slowly grew into fangs, black veins standing stark against his pale skin as they etched along his face. Despite that, he still seemed in control, just ready to attack at any moment’s notice.

“Dustin?” Eddie asked, wary as he listened to the sound of Dustin closing cases.

“Almost done!” Dustin promised, voice scared and shaking.

There’s the sound of flapping wings and running and two demodogs, two demobats and a whole ass demogorgon come rushing through all at once. The demogorgon lunges at Hopper, who’s reflexes are faster and he torches it’s face before it can fully attack him. It screeches in pain, but doesn’t go down as easily as demodogs do, a clawed hand holding it’s melting face while the other lunges out at Hopper.

At the same time, a demodog rushes to nip at Eddie’s legs, making the older teen jump and then swing his hand down, talons slashing through the demodog easily and it screeches out in unison with the demogorgon. It whined in pain as Eddie kicked it back through the gate, eyes wide and worried.

The demobats swarmed Nancy, one landing it’s claws in her hair and pulling while the other tried to bite at her arms. She swatted at them, wincing in pain as she readjusted her grip on her gun. She couldn’t shoot at the one on her arm because, well it’s on her arm and she’s kind of using both of those to aim, and she can’t shoot the one currently tangled in her hair because she might miss and blow her own brains out. 

Nancy reached up with one hand, blindly grabbing and the demobat helped guide her hand by biting it harshly. She cursed under her breath, mentally praying that demo-rabies aren’t a thing, and grabbed the bat firmly, swinging it down and slamming it on the ground and then shooting it point blank in the face. It screeches and Nancy grabbed the other one, tossing it to make it join the fate of the other demobat and shooting it. 

The demogorgon attacking Hopper turned on Nancy then, but Hopper was faster and torched it again, this time longer and practically coating it’s body in hairspray to act as better fuel. 

The demogorgon fell to it’s side, joining the mess of the other creatures and Hopper made sure to torch them all for good measure.

They’re all brought out of their fighting focus though when Dustin shouted behind them.

One of the demodogs that had snuck through had completely ran past the three of them, bolting towards the kid on the ground and taking him by surprise, tackling him to the floor.

Dustin shouted in fear as he tried to shove the demodog off, no gun, no fire, no way to properly fight off the hell hound and his heart was racing in his chest so hard he felt like his chest might burst.

The demodog slashed at his face, drawing trails of blood behind and it was only by the grace of timing that Dustin shut his eyes in time, or his left eye surely would’ve been gone. 

His face explodes in pain though and the cut wasn’t deep enough to cause any seriously concerning wounds, but it was still deep enough to draw blood and dammit, he wasn’t used to pain so it fucking hurt! 

Dustin doesn’t even have time to process the pain as he raised an arm to shield his face from the demodog, hoping and praying it wouldn’t eat his face as it slashed again, this time harsher into his arm. 

Dustin howled in pain, almost near tears as his arm burned in pain.

The demodog is pulled off of him before it can attack again and Dustin looked up, wide eyed as Eddie looked at the demodog furiously.

His long talons rip the demodog to ribbons, Eddie pulling it apart until it stopped making any noise and then some. His hands were covered in demodog flesh and goo and he looked entirely nasty and a little frightening as he dropped the few remaining chunks of the beast on the ground before rushing over to Dustin.

“Are you okay?” Eddie asked as Dustin pulled his arm away from his face. Eddie’s hands instantly held onto his face, looking over it panicked. “Holy shit you’re not.”

Dustin is in shock, chest heaving heavily, heart still racing, face and arm hurting like fucking hell. He swallowed thickly and part of him almost wanted to cry. But no, he wasn’t going to dammit. He’s been dealing with all this horrifying Upside Down shit for years and he hasn’t cried before (lie) he wasn’t going to now.

Still, his throat feels thick and his eyes burn and he kind of really wants his mom right now but like the Wheelers, he had no idea where his family was in all of this. He kind of hope she got out, but he also knows she wouldn’t just up and leave without him.

“Dustin, can you hear me?” Eddie asked after Dustin made no verbal acknowledgment, didn’t even move his eyes to look at him, still looking at the dismembered pile of demodog in front of him. “Have some sort of response, you little shit, you’re scaring me.”

At the request, Dustin swallowed thickly and met Eddie’s wild frantic eyes. Eddie sighed a little, relaxing just a fraction and Dustin’s eyes began to tear up.

“Fuck that really hurt,” Dustin shakily manages out and Eddie pulled him into a bone crushing hug. 

“I’m sorry,” Eddie apologised. “I didn’t see it sneak past, I should’ve been paying more attention, I promised nothing was gonna touch you and I failed. I’m sorry.”

Dustin’s arms unsteadily wrap around Eddie, clutching onto him like he was his only lifeline, still very shaken by the whole almost dying thing. 

“It’s okay,” Dustin mumbled, voice hoarse. “I lived.”

“You’re allowed to be mad at me,” Eddie said, but Dustin truthfully isn’t. He’s just... shocked right now.

“Not to rush you two,” Nancy interrupted and they both looked over at her. She had a hand wrapped around her arm, specks of blood dusting her fingers and spots on her arm. “We hear more, we gotta get going.”

“Right,” Dustin mumbled, clearing his throat. “Right, right, yeah.”

“Here,” Eddie pulled away a little bit and it was only by the grace of the fact Dustin was a teenage boy that he didn’t frown and cling onto the older teen. He began putting away the final supplies into their fitted cases before tucking them into Dustin’s bag and his own. “Let’s go, we gotta fix up your face.”

Dustin nodded a little blankly as he slowly got to his feet, wincing in pain and his heart started to race again for another reason.

“Oh shit ,” Dustin whined, closing his eyes in frustration as he grabbed his bag. “Steve’s never gonna let me out again.”

Eddie and Nancy at least have the kindness in their hearts to give Dustin a sympathetic look at that, knowing full well that Steve would soon rather shoot himself in the head than ever let Dustin out after this. 

“Well maybe it’ll be safer,” Hopper grumbled as they all quickly rush out of the middle school. “Second time I listened to you kids and the second time one of you got hurt.” 

“It’s not like we’re not being careful.” Nancy defended, now realising that he was talking about Jonathon’s injury. “It’s all situational, you know.”

“In the past weeks and months this has been happening, Murray, Joyce and I haven’t once gotten attacked by these monsters,” Hopper informed as they all mounted their bikes and rushed off. “The moment we started to lay lax and let you kids do what you want, you all started getting hurt.”

Neither of the them have a response for that, keeping their mouth shut because, well unfortunately for them, Hopper was right. Letting the older kids go out farther than their normal limit? Jonathan gets attacked and Eddie loses control. Letting Dustin out for the first time in months to help? They get swarmed by demo-creature and Dustin almost dies.

Dustin, who was still quiet, gritting his teeth in pain as he pedalled on his bike, only pushing his aching leg even further, the cold air nipping at his wounds and his face and arm still burned. He was actively fighting the urge to break down crying at the sheer pain of it all but he would not burst into tears. Not yet at least.

Eddie rides close by him, almost a shadow as he watched over Dustin’s every move, ready to launch into action for whatever Dustin needed if something happened.

Nancy was at the front, her face set as she kept a watchful eye on the horizon, trying to breathe slowly and fight back her own frustration that was brewing underneath her cool demeanor. She hated Hopper treating them all like they were kids, like they were making stupid ass decisions and getting attacked intentionally. But she also knew better than to fight with him, so she bit her tongue and let her anger stew in her chest as she focused her frustration into pedalling.

Hopper remained at the back of the group, sighing heavily as he looked at all the kids, feeling a sense of helplessness in the fact he can’t protect them the way he wants. And that when he does protect them, they only get pissed at him for doing so. 

The trip back to Home Base (as Erica had dubbed it) is mostly quiet between the four of them, save for Eddie every now and then asking Dustin if he was okay and needed to take a quick break, to which Dustin turned down each time, insisting he could make it.

Once they’re back and safe in the basement, Dustin is swarmed by his friends, concern all dripping from their lips as they ask what happened, is he okay?

“I’m fucking fine, back off,” Dustin grumbled, trying to push everyone away, they were overwhelming him and all he wanted was to get fixed up and then take a long, long nap. 

Will’s face faltered a little at the harsh words and Dustin sighed seeing that, exhaling slowly and trying to calm himself. 

“Sorry,” He mumbled, recognising his friends were just worried. If one of them came back with huge fucking wolverine like slashes across their face and arm, he’d been equally as panicked. “Just- It’s too much all of you like this.”

Will nodded, relaxing a little and offered him a small smile as the others (besides Steve) listened and gave him some space. 

“I get it,” Will mumbled, remembering how much everyone hovered after he had been rescued from the Upside Down. “It’s just- I mean have you seen what it looks like? I almost thought you were dead when you came down.”

At the mention, Dustin shook his head, realising he in fact had no idea what he actually looked like.

Steve, who was to his left, only not swarming him with questions because he was frantically setting up all the medical equipment up on the table next to them, turned and handed him the small mirror from within their kit.

Dustin took it and turned his face, observing his reflection with a grimace.

Okay, so it hurt like hell, like literally felt as if molten lava was etched into his face. However as he looked at his reflection, he almost thought it looked worse than it actually felt.

There were three violent and jagged cuts across his face, starting from the middle of his left cheek and dragging over to his forehead, running across his right eyes. The blood had begun to dry, dark red and brown along the edges, but certain spots were still pinpricks of blood forming at the surface. The cuts were beginning to swell a little too, puffed up from the smooth planes of his face and he winced at his reflection.

“Yeesh,” He said and Will chuckled, a small smile gracing his lips at the comment.

“Yeah, yeesh ,” Will said, shaking his head. 

Dustin looked at his reflection for another moment and then made eye contact with Will, suddenly worried.

“Do you think Susie is into scars? Cause if not I’m gonna need a really good makeup artist.” Dustin said, panicked as if what his long distance girlfriend’s reaction to the cuts would be were more important than literally anything else they had going on.

“I don’t think Susie is with you because of your looks,” Steve commented, teasingly but there was still worry etched into each word. “Sit.”

“You can’t tell me what to do,” Dustin shot back.

“ Sit ,” The room suddenly chorused as Hopper, Joyce, Eddie, Will and Steve all commanded him too.

Dustin gives the overall room an annoyed expression but follows orders as he sat down on the worn out chair and let Steve finally fret over him.

Across from him, Nancy is also being fussed over by Jonathon, who once again is stressed over Nancy having a surprise arm wound. She and Dustin share they’re so annoying look with each other that has Dustin smiling a little.

“The next time you leave this house I am coming with,” Steve informed and Dustin groaned, rolling his eyes. “No, none of that. This wouldn’t have happened if I was there.”

“You don’t know that, maybe you would’ve died or something,” Dustin grumbled. “And Eddie tried, okay? There was a lot going on and I’d be dead if it weren’t for him.”

“I’m not trying to diss Eddie,” Steve defended. “I know he’s looking out for you or whatever. I just don’t like any of you getting hurt when I can’t even be there to help.”

“Okay and if it happened when you were there, you’d still be beating yourself up,” Dustin shot back. “You can’t protect all of us all the time. I mean, not even Hopper can.”

“Just because I can’t doesn’t mean I won’t still try,” Steve said and Dustin rolled his eyes.

“Okay, mom ,” Dustin said with a taunting grin. Steve gave him a deadpan look and pressed the napkin covered in antiseptic to his wound, making Dustin hiss and flinch away.

“Dude!” Dustin complained and Steve gave him a shit eating grin in response, pressing the napkin to his face again, making Dustin try and duck and avoid him.

“I have to clean your wound!” Steve defended, laughing as Dustin tried to bat his hand away.

“You’re being mean about it!” Dustin shot back.

“I’m not being mean about it!” Steve argued. “I’m just slightly pressing too much force with no warning.”

“That’s being mean!” Dustin informed and his face twisted up as Steve grabbed his chin holding his face in place so he can (carefully this time) drag the napkin across and dutifully clean his wound.

“Don’t be a baby,” Nancy said as Jonathon all but poured the antiseptic over her wound and she didn’t so much as flinch. Dustin stared mildly incredulous and she grinned wickedly back. Jonathan makes quick work of making sure her wound was clean and definitely had no chance of giving her demo-rabies before bandaging it up.

The bandage sits neat and clean right under her other bandage from less than 48 hours before. Jonathan’s fingers gently hover over the edges of both of them and Nancy softened, raising a hand to rest on his.

“I’m sorry,” She said and Jonathan shook his head.

“You have nothing to be sorry for,” Jonathan said. “You’re strong, I know that. You can handle this and everything, I just- You know I don’t exactly like seeing you hurt.”

Nancy smiled and leaned over, pressing a kiss to his cheek.

“Well that makes two of us.” Nancy said and then pulled back a little, patting her lap. “Leg up, we’re swapping roles now.”

Jonathan smiled and rolled his eyes as he did as told. Nancy carefully unbandaged his own wound to check on it, making sure it was starting to clot and heal up. Nothing looked wrong, but she still went through the process of gently cleaning around it and rebandaging it up.

“I need all of you to listen up.” Hopper said, voice booming amongst the basement. Joyce and Murray were at his side, Murray looking tired and ready to crash on the floor and Joyce looked firm, giving Hopper an intense look. 

“Oh no,” Mike said dramatically, rolling his eyes as he turned to his friends. “Here comes the you’re never allowed out of the basement again talk.”

Hopper glared at Mike with the fury of a thousand fires and if it were possible to kill someone with a single gaze, Mike would’ve exploded right then and there. 

Joyce put her hand on Hopper’s arm and gave him a scolding look, causing the man to exhale slowly and try to calm himself.

His efforts were diminished when Mike laughed and Will reached over, covering Mike’s mouth with a pointed look before he said or did anything else that would make Hopper actually kill him.

“ No actually,” Hopper began. “Despite my own hesitance to let you kids out of here again after everything that keeps happening, some people ,” This comment earns him a glare from Joyce. “Think that this shouldn’t diminish the chances you all have of being able to help.”

“So after Dustin almost died we’re still gonna be able to go out?” Lucas asked.

“Not what I said,” Hopper said. “It means that despite what happened today, I’m not going to go back on the fact I’m okay with beginning to loosen up on the rules. You kids are still not allowed to just go outside whenever. You will only go out when we permit it and if it is deemed necessary.”

“Great, so it’s exactly like it was before,” Mike groaned. “You never deem it necessary!”

“We did today,” Hopper reminded. “And we may in the future. But we will not consider certain individuals to go out into that hellscape if they keep arguing with the chain of command.”

Mike grumbled something low under his breath that Hopper couldn’t hear, but Will and Eleven did and they both smother their laughter as Mike grinned smugly at their amusement.

Hopper gives Mike another sharp glare, looking almost as if he were somehow trying to manifest Eleven’s abilities and blow her ex-boyfriend up.

“We’re heading out today to try and gather our plans,” Joyce said. “See if we can get any sort of idea about what Vecna is planning. Based on what we can conclude from there, we’re going to start making groups.”

“Groups? What kind of groups? What for?” Erica asked, almost demanding and the other kids nod in agreement, curious.

Hopper sighed heavily and crossed his arms. “It’s pretty clear we aren’t making any headway by ourselves. And as much as I want to keep you kids away from all this, you’ve also all dealt with this longer. You kids know how to figure this shit out and so, under supervision , we’re gonna let some of you start helping out. See if we can put a stop to Vecna once and for all before he can do anything too serious.” 

“You guys really believe in us so much you think we can figure this out when you haven’t been able to?” Lucas asked in slight disbelief. “I mean, like thanks and everything but that’s kind of a lot of pressure.”

“With what Vecna showed Nancy, Eleven’s connection to him, Will’s past Mind Flayer experience and the rest of your history with dealing with all of this, yes , we believe if we can’t solve it, you guys can.” Murray pointed out. “You guys are all pretty smart. Smarter than some of us.” 

Murray gave a side eye to Hopper, which made all the kids laugh and Hopper bristled but ignored the jab. 

“It’s based on what we figure out today,” Joyce reminded. “And it may not be all of you, definitely not at first. But you’re not little kids anymore. Most of you are intelligent young adults and all of you have handled this before. We just- We all want to protect you as well. So we’ve been hesitant to let you jump back in.

“Max almost died in March,” Joyce reminded them all. “Eddie did die . We aren’t exactly jumping for joy at the thought of thrusting you all back into this danger, but we can’t stop you forever. Especially when we know you’ll go behind our backs and do it anyway.”

The kids all share awkward knowing looks with each other, having briefly mentioned the idea of just busting out and doing their own shit. They didn’t realise they were that predictable.

“It all depends on how today goes. What we can find, if we can find anything.” Joyce said. “But we aren’t going to keep ignoring the potential you all have to help. Even though the last few trips out haven’t gone as swimmingly as we’d like.”

“Hey we got Eddie back on one of those.” Dustin pointed out, talking as Steve gently bandaged over his facial cuts. 

“Which was technically not even an approved trip,” Hopper reminded. “So don’t try getting smart.”

Dustin huffed angrily as he let Steve grab his arm and begin to clean that up now.

“The point is, as long as you all promise to stay safe and not do anything too stupid or rash,” Joyce said. “You guys will be free from staying trapped down here all the time. We clear?”

“As ice.” The room chorused, the phrase having become a continuous mantra between the kids and adults. Joyce gave them all a soft smile and straightened up. 

“We’ll head out after lunch, the only ones allowed upstairs while we’re gone will be Jonathan, Will and Dustin so they can set up all the equipment they need to. When we get back, we’ll update you all on what’ll happen going forward.” Joyce said. “Who wants sandwiches?”

(Their “sandwiches” were actually just peanut butter spread onto tortilla rolls and then either folded, bunched into a mess or rolled up. Dealer’s choice. They didn’t have actual bread because this late into the literal apocalypse, all known bread expired. Honestly the tortillas probably were too but they didn’t have mold on them and none of them have gotten sick. Yet.)

Argyle raises his hand so fast he almost fell off the couch if it wasn’t for Robin reaching out and grabbing him. Others raise their hand too and Joyce nodded, heading up to grab plates, knives and ingredients to bring down, Hopper following.

“What happened when you were out?” Will asked, sat next to Dustin, hovering over his friend a little. “Like you got hurt, obviously, but how?”

“There was a gate inside the classroom.” Dustin explained and suddenly everyone is listening in, surprised at this information. “Bunch of demo-beings came through. Hopper, Nance and Eddie were guarding but a demodog slipped through, caught me off guard.”

“Wait, a gate inside a classroom?” Lucas asked, face twisted up a little. “That’s weird.”

“Wait, in Mr. Clarke’s room?” Will frowned. “Why would there be one in there?”

Eleven and Mike’s whip to look at each other, eye wide as they clearly figure something out. Everyone notices and turned to the two, eyebrows raised and curious.

“What?” Steve asked, frowning at their expressions. “What do you two know?”

“Do you guys remember, back when all this shit had literally just started?” Mike asked. “How Eleven had disappeared?”

Dustin and Lucas’ faces light up in recognition now while everyone else only gets more confused.

“Hey? Can you all share with the class?” Robin asked. “Some of us don’t know all the details about every crazy thing that’s happened.”

“We were being chased be a demogorgon.” Dustin explained. “Lucas had fought it off a bit, but we were pretty much about to die, until Eleven stepped in. She did- I don’t know, something , and it opened a portal.”

“We thought she died actually,” Lucas said before he turned to look over at Mike with a shit eating grin. “Mike had been really broken up about it.”

“Shut up!” Mike said and leaned back on the ground, stretching across the floor so his leg could reach Lucas and he kicked him hard.

“But the point is ,” Dustin continued. “Is that it was in Mr. Clarke’s room. Exactly where this gate was.”

The room is silent for a moment as everyone takes that in.

“Do you,” Steve started, paused and then sighed. “Do you think there’s anyway it could just be a coincidence?” 

“I don’t think anything involving Vecna has been a coincidence.” Murray spoke now, shaking his head. 

“So what does this mean then?” Robin asked. 

“It could mean he’s re-opening past gates.” Nancy informed, standing now to gain everyone’s attention. “He- He showed me Hawkins in ruins. No survivors,  buildings destroyed. He wants to get rid of everything . It’d be easier for him to re-open gates where they’d been open before, right? 

“Weaker wall to punch through if there had been a gate there already. And we haven’t seen any of the other old gates opened, not yet at least, so he could be starting one at a time.” Nancy continued. “But this means we’ll have to be on guard. We don’t know where every portal that’s ever been opened before is, or maybe even remember. And we know that when Will was trapped, a lot were opened.”

“Uh, none have been opened here , right?” Robin asked, nervously and looking around the basement like one of the walls might spontaneously come alive and try to eat her.

“No,” Nancy said, shaking her head then sharing a worried look with Mike. Mike shrugged carelessly, but he had a small frown on his lips, as if he were trying to remember every single event that ever occurred in the last few years of his life. “No,” Nancy repeated, firmer. “Definitely not.”

“That means the Byers house is way out of any place for us to crash though,” Steve said. “I think like three gates alone in the first year of this bullshit opened there.” 

“The woods too.” Nancy said. “Your pool.”

“My pool? What happened in my pool?” Steve asked, brows furrowed.

“That’s where,” Nancy paused and took a deep breath, swallowed thickly and her voice came out shakily. “That’s where Barb was taken.”

“Not that we were ever planning on going near there, but all of the mall is out too, then.” Robin added. 

“The public pool also,” Max added now. 

They all spent the next few minutes, doing their best to try and remember off the tops of their heads where any and every possible gate would have opened. By the time Joyce comes downstairs, they think they have a pretty good idea of where and what to avoid, but they can’t all help but feel as if they’re also missing a good chunk of gates.

They fill Joyce and Hopper in on their findings, a little worried that they might suddenly turn back on their deal to start letting them out.

Instead though, Joyce turned with a smug grin to Hopper, who pointedly avoided her gaze.

“See Jim?” Joyce said. “We wouldn’t have put that together for a while, they figured it out quickly. This is why we need their help.”

“Yeah, yeah, I get it.” Hopper groaned and took a grumpy bite out of his PB&J tortilla (he was a “bunch it up into a messy ball” kind of person). “Let it be known, I never kept them down here because I didn’t think they were smart. I was doing it for their safety.”

Joyce gave him a warm smile and shoulder bumped him. “Yeah, yeah,” She mocked back. “I’m just proving my point.”

Hopper rolled his eyes at her but gave her a warm smile back.

On the couch, Argyle and Robin sit shoulder to shoulder, Erica next to Robin but perched on top of the arm rest despite being repeatedly told not to do that. Argyle PB tortilla is rolled up so tightly that he’s squeezed some of the peanut butter out by accident and it keeps falling out onto his lap. Robin has her PB&J (less peanut butter and mostly raspberry jelly) haphazardly crumpled up as she tried her best to fit her mouth properly around the mess. Erica’s PB&J (exactly equal parts peanut butter and jelly) was folded in half twice, making a pizza slice shape as she nibbled on it, listening as Argyle rambled on about a dream he had.

“-then this unicorn swept in and stole my bro. Like literally picked him up on it’s back and flew off into the wind.” Argyle was saying and he made to continue on but Erica briefly interrupted him.

“That’s an alicorn, idiot.” Erica said. “A unicorn only has a horn, hence the name uni-corn .”

“What?” Argyle asked curiously, squinting at her.

“ Cornu is latin for horn. So a unicorn’s name is literally one horn . An alicorn is a unicorn with wings though, the latin word ala meaning wings.” Erica informed. “Anybody with a brain knows that, stupid head.”

Argyle doesn’t take her childish insults to heart, only nodding and then jumping back into the story.

“Okay then. So the alicorn took my bro and this wizard appeared and made me go on a quest to find him.” Argyle said. “I don’t remember most of the quest. I think it involved making pizza.”

“Did you just go to bed hungry?” Robin asked curiously. She had a mess of jelly on her face from attempting to eat her PB&J ball but she made no move to clean it. 

“Probably.” Argyle said, smiling lazily. “I’m always hungry. I’m hungry right now.”

“Eat your sandwich,” Erica pointed out and Argyle looked at his hands as if suddenly remembering he was literally holding food. His face lit up like this was the best thing to ever happen to him and he took a happy bite as Robin and Erica giggled. 

Mike finished making his sandwich at the table and plopped himself next to where Dustin and Lucas were currently trying to remember every gate that they had witnessed open.

“You’re going to hurt your brains thinking that hard.” Mike commented as he took a bit out of his PB&J tortilla. He was a “fold neatly” kind of person, except he always failed on the neatly part. He’d get it one day.

“Har har,” Dustin snarked, notepad in his hands and he wrote down all the locations he could remember. “We’re writing down the times, or the years at least, when each gate opened. That way we can have a general idea when we’re actually like, doomed.”

“Don’t say doomed, it’s not the end of the world.” Lucas said and Max, who was sat with Eleven and Will a few feet away, snorted and looked over at them.

“It literally is.” She said and Lucas rolled his eyes. 

“Okay not yet ,” Lucas shot back. “I mean if it was, we’d all be dead. We’re not dead, so it’s not the end of the world. It just almost is.”

“Okay, nerd.” Max said with a grin before turning back to Eleven.

“Writing down the years is a good idea,” Mike said, nodding a little. “Except you’re writing it down stupid.”

Dustin squawked at that as Mike snatched the notebook from his hands and looked over the page.

Mr. Clarke’s room- 1983
Russian Base under Mall-1985
Byer’s shed-1983
Pumpkin patch-1984

Government hospital-1984

Joyce’s living room-1983

Steve’s pool-1983

“How am I writing it stupid?” Dustin asked, frowning as Mike turned the page, setting his “sandwich” on his leg as he began writing things down.

“You’re making it confusing to read like this,” Mike informed. “List each location by year, not just however you remember it.”

“Oh wait, that is smarter,” Lucas said and Dustin smacked him. “Don’t smack me, it is!”

“You’re supposed to agree with me, not him!” Dustin said and Lucas scoffed.

“On what grounds do I have to agree with you over Mike?” Lucas asked and Dustin crossed his arms. 

“Cause I’m your best friend!” Dustin defended and Lucas laughed.

“Sorry, no, Will’s my best friend.” Lucas informed and Mike gave a sort of pout that he’d deny actually being a pout at that.

“Will is my best friend,” Mike informed and Lucas shook his head.

“He can be multiple people’s best friend.” Lucas said. 

“Yeah but Will is, like, everyone’s best friend,” Dustin grumbled. “Make me your new best friend.”

“Why, am I your best friend?” Lucas asked, crossing his arms now to mirror Dustin, who rolled his eyes.

“ Yes, ” Dustin said, very much lying and Lucas raised an eyebrow. “Okay fine, my best friend is also Will. God, you guys need to get original.”

“He was my best friend first!” Mike defended.

“Well then get a new one.” Dustin said. “You can’t have the same best friend for ten years, it’s greedy.”

Mike threw his hands up, incredulous as he turned around, looking at the others in the room as if to check if he was actually hearing Dustin correctly or not.

“Stop fighting over Will like he’s a shiny new game,” Eleven said to them, her hands on her waist and Will was next to her, smiling so brightly he almost blinded them all. “Besides, I’m his sister, so he’s my bestest friend ever.”

The trio of boys grumbled, not picking to argue with Eleven, especially not when she had that sharp twinkle of determination in her eyes, like if someone even dared to argue she might tackle them.

She smiled to herself and turned back to Max and Will. Will was smiling so brightly and warm still and Max was grinning sharply, a teasing edge to her smile.

“So I’m not your best friend?” Max said, faking an upset voice and jutting her bottom lip out in an overdramatic pout.

Eleven’s eyes went wide and she rushed forward, grabbing Max’s hand tightly.

“You are!” She said forcefully. “I can have two best friends. It’s allowed.”

“Yeah Eleven can have a million best friends if she wanted,” Will, who saw right through Max’s dramatics, said. “You’re just under me on the best friend list.”

Max gasped, hand on her chest and Eleven glared at her brother, who just smiled back at her.

“Equal,” Eleven insisted. “Both are number one on my list.”

Max gave Eleven’s hand a gentle squeeze. “Aw, you sure know how to make a girl blush,” Max teased and shook her head with a soft smile. “Relax El, I’m just messing with you anyway. Besides, you’re my best friend and that’s all that really matters.”

Eleven smiles brightly at that and then turns to Will, as if to make sure he heard. Will chuckled a little and gave his sister a warm smile, making Eleven’s smile brighten even more.

“Wait,” Lucas said, turning back to them, suddenly very serious. “Will who’s your best friend?”

Will suddenly has five pairs of questioning eyes on him, four very curious and one very smug and grinning evilly. Will glares at Max for that.

“I mean, you’re all my best friends,” Will said, fidgeting with his fingers a bit at the sudden intense scrutiny of his closest friends. “I wouldn’t pick any of you over the other.”

“Yeah, okay but hypothetically,” Dustin began. “If someone was holding you at gunpoint and you had to name one person who was your closest best friend, who would it be?”

Will looked Dustin deadpan in the eyes before answering. “The gun would go off.”

“Okay, gun held at all our heads then and you have to answer or we all die,” Lucas said, pointing at Will with the most serious expression drawn upon his face. 

“I’m letting them kill you.” Will informed and Eleven gave him a sad look. Will turned to look at her and shook his head at her, trying to let her know he was kind of just joking and sick of this conversation. Eleven nodded a little a relaxed, turning back to the group.

“Come on, none of us will be like, actually mad,” Mike is saying now. “We’re just curious is all. I mean you’re all our like, first best friend, so it serves right we’d be curious who yours is.”

“I just don’t want to upset anyone,” Will said, shaking his head. “This is also a stupid conversation to be having when we’re mid apocalypse.”

“No, this is a perfectly reasonable time to be having this conversation.” Max said, nodding and looking very serious. “What if we’re all being attacked by demodogs and you can only save one of us? We need to know who you’d save.”

“Okay that’s an entirely different conversation from who my best friend is,” Will defended. “For example, I know you’re all at different levels of capable. In an instance like that, I would have to think about who had the least chance of survival and help them , that doesn’t necessarily mean that person is my best friend.”

Max nodded with an understanding look. “Valid counterpoint.” She said with a grin.

“You’re dodging the question,” Dustin said. 

“About who I’d save?” Will asked, dodging the question even more.

“No! Well, actually after what you said, I’m curious, but no!” Dustin said. “Who’s your best friend?”

Will leaned back so he was practically laying on the floor and turned over to look where his mom and Hopper were.

“Mom! They’re trying to force me to choose a best friend!” Will shouted.

Joyce turned his way, giving a very miffed looking expression like she too couldn’t believe they were having this conversation at a time like this, but she smiled after a moment.

“Is it not clear it’s Mike?” She asked, almost genuinely confused and Will would believe she meant the question innocently if it wasn’t for the mischievous gleam in her eye. Will gaped at her as his friend group exploded into conversation.

“I knew it! I’m better than all of you!” Mike sang out tauntingly to the friend group.

“No, no no, Will has to say it or it doesn’t actually count,” Lucas said, shaking his head adamantly.

“Well I’m his favorite sister so I still win actually,” Eleven said, crossing her arms and giving Mike a slight glare.

“Well that’s not fair anyway, there’s a bias because he-” Dustin cuts himself off quickly when Will gives him a sharp and murderous glare. Will can suddenly feel his heartbeat racing in his chest, like it’s going to break free and fall onto the ground in a gross mess and start shouting his feelings from the rooftop, leaving him emotionally bare and vulnerable.

The entire vibe of the group shifts at Dustin’s cut off sentence. Lucas stops fighting for the best friend title and tackles Dustin. Will can’t tell if it’s for saying that or if it’s to provide a distraction, but either way it works for both. Max cleared her throat awkwardly, tapping the edge of her wheelchair armrest and Will now has to deal with the horrifying mortifying realisation that She Knows Too. 

The only two who seem to be unaware are Eleven and Mike, who look at the group’s sudden antics with confusion. Mike goes to ask a question, and Will panics so he stands up.

“I changed my mind, Lucas is my best friend.” Will informed the group and Lucas cheered from where he was tumbling on the floor with Dustin and Mike sputtered as Will rushed away from the group.

“Get demoted!” Lucas shouted at Mike, who began arguing that Lucas wasn’t actually Will’s best friend and to lay off, but Lucas wasn’t having it.

Hopper interrupts the sudden chaos that had broken out by shouting to get all their attention.

“Listen up!” He shouted. “We’re heading out now, no one upstairs except for who we cleared earlier, keep your voices down and do not open the door for anyone until we get back. Got it?”

The room mumbled their agreements as Joyce picked up her bag, ready to venture out. She smiled at everyone as Hopper spoke to the room. 

“See you little brats later!” Murray bid them farewell cheerfully and everyone wished the older trio good luck as they left, locking the front door up as Dustin, Lucas and Eddie all dragged the science equipment to the living room.

The living room windows were boarded up, blocking any outside beings from seeing the inside, which was one of their only sources of comfort as Dustin began to get everything ready.

“Okay, let’s hope Hawkins can keep the power running for at least an hour,” Dustin said as Lucas began to carefully take everything out of their cases.

“Hawkins still has power?” Eddie asked. “To be honest, I thought we were running on a Wheeler generator or something.”

“Sometimes,” Dustin was. “But their generator runs on gasoline and apparently gasoline expires so we’ve been trying to reserve it a bit for things that actually need it.”

“According to the news that comes through now and then, there’s military stationed at the edges of the town too,” Lucas explained. “They’re the main ones keeping power running through the town, but it’s really finicky, goes out all the time.”

“We once went almost two weeks with no power,” Dustin explained. “Most boring week ever.”

Dustin finished getting everything into place, sat on his knees and he turned to Eddie with an intense look. “I need your blood,” He informed and Eddie raised an eyebrow high.

“What?” Eddie asked.

“It’s how I’ll be able to observe anything. I mean unless you want to give me a like 1x1 inch of your skin, that’ll work too.” Dustin said and Eddie’s eyes only widened even further.

“He’s joking.” Lucas said and Eddie gave him a doubtful look, looking between Lucas and Dustin, who still looked very, very serious.

“How much blood?” Eddie asked and Dustin shrugged.

“Enough.” Was his simple answer and Eddie swallowed thickly.

Chapter Text

Mike is laying on his back, glaring at the ceiling.

“They better figure something out,” Mike announced to the room. “Find something we’re capable of doing. I need to get outside, I’m sick of sitting in this damn basement.”

“Oh no, how terrible,” Eleven said, deadpan from across the room. Mike turned to look at her. “Being stuck in Mike Wheeler’s basement, unable to leave or do anything? Can anyone imagine? Can you believe how awful that would be?”

“Okay, okay I get it,” Mike grumbled. “This is some sort of karmic retribution.”

“Well can it be just for you since you’re the one who decided to stow away a superhero girl when you were twelve?” Nancy asked. “I want to go out and punch something.”

“It’s your basement too,” Mike shot back and Nancy threw her hands up.

“I didn’t even know she existed, how am I getting roped into this?” Nancy asked.

“Wait, Eleven stayed in your basement?” Erica asked and Eleven nodded.

“When they found me,” She clarified. “I wasn’t allowed out though.”

Erica gives Mike a weird, grossed out look.

“Creepazoid,” She said and Mike sat up.

“It wasn’t like that!” He defended.

“Keeping little girls locked in your basement, not a good look Wheeler,” Argyle commented and Mike’s face flushed out of embarrassment.

“I was twelve!” Mike cried. He turned to Will for help but Will just shrugged at him.

“I mean-” He began but Mike cut him off by groaning loudly and flopping backwards onto the ground.

The room laughed at him and Steve methodically cracked his knuckles as he looked towards the stairs.

“Do you think they’re making any progress?” He asked to the room and Nancy shrugged.

“I mean it’s been what? Like two hours?” Nancy asked. “I’m smart, Steve, but these kids are little geniuses. I don’t entirely understand what it even is that they’re doing, but I’m gonna assume it’ll be a lot longer than a few hours.”

“Technically we’re lucky if Dustin figures this out in a week,” Mike commented. “He’s trying to get a read on his DNA, which is still new science to us and he’s working with middle school lab supplies, so it’s probably gonna take forever.”

“Great, so what happens if Munson doesn’t have that long?” Steve asked. “I mean, he’s already lost his shit once and if he is a honing beacon, then what?”

“Well, we’re not just throwing him out to fend for himself,” Mike said defensively, glaring at Steve. 

“I didn’t say that,” Steve argued back. “Look, I’m worried about him, okay? About all of our safety but if Vecna or whatever is finding shit out about us through him, is that safe?”

“He can help us,” Lucas chimed in now. “Like when Will was dealing with the Mind Flayer, he can spy for us.”

“Yeah? And how exactly did that go?” Steve asked and received a few glares in response, causing him to sigh heavily. “Look, I’m not trying to cause any problems, just- Let me know the plan? You all make fun of me for not knowing shit so fill me in! Let me know shit!”

Mike and Lucas share a long look and sigh.

“The plan is a lot of workshop right now,” Lucas explained. “Right now, we need Dustin to find out molecularly what has changed. Once he does, we as a group can run a few equations, see what can interact and change him, what affects him positively, see how we can change a sample test back.”

“Yeah and after we figure that out, it’s just a matter of putting it into effect.” Mike said, nodding a little. “But this shit is a lot of testing, we don’t even know how or why he’s changed, if the change is surface level or truly molecular, how fast it’s accelerating, and what can interact with it to reverse the effects that’ve been caused.”

Steve nodded slowly as they spoke, sucking on his teeth for a moment and Robin chuckled.

“How much of that did you actually process?” Robin asked. “Or is that pretty head of yours only good for showing off that sweet ‘do?”

Steve flipped Robin off with a snarky grin before turning back to Mike and Lucas, sighing heavily.

“So what I’m gathering is basically it’s gonna take a shit load of time?” Steve asked and they nodded in unison. “Great, just- Say that next time.”

“Well that was the plan.” Mike grumbled and Lucas chuckled.

--

“Okay, so do you two have some secret plan I’ve been unaware of this entire time?” Murray asked, sighing heavily once they were secure in his bunker. He has his hands on his hips and looks at Joyce and Hopper expectantly. 

Joyce and Hopper share a look before turning to Murray. 

“There’s no plan,” Hopper informed, grumbling almost as he crossed his own arms. 

“So then what’s with all the we’ll share with you’s to the kids?” Murray asked. “Is this a cry for help? It’s a cry for help, isn’t it?”

“I have theories,” Joyce said and Murray scoffed.

“Theories! Theories, just great. Hey, Jim, do you hear that? We’re saved, Joyce has theories!” Murray’s tone was dripping in sardonicism and Joyce rolled her eyes.

“Well it’s more than you have,” She rebuttaled. “And I’ve been directly involved in this for longer than you, so you should listen to me.”

“Well, I’m listening.” Murray said, gesturing for her to go on. “What’re your theories?”

“So,” Joyce turned and rushed over to their maps laid out on the table, picking up a marker and beginning to scribble. She marked out four X’s and then drew lines, almost connecting each one. She pointed at the map to gain the two men’s attention.

“Vecna opened the four gates, right? We know that, when the fourth one was open, it split the town down the middle like this,” She draws another line connecting from Patrick’s death and Chrissy’s. “There’s branches from the other kid and Max, but the main chasm was here. There’s a circle going around connecting all four, trapping everyone within the main area of town. Now this becomes a main problem for us because the moment those gates close, we’re stuck. 

“We won’t be able to get into the main fight, won’t be able to get into the Creel House or almost anywhere inbetween. I think, even though it may be dangerous, that we’ll need to move into the center of that circle.”

“Wait, you want us to go into the hell circle?” Murray asked, looking down at the map curiously. “Look, we’re safe at the Wheeler den, far enough away from all of this that nothing can even touch us.”

“We’re too far away from the fight,” Joyce pointed out. “And this? I think he’s locking us out for a reason, trying to make sure we stay away from where he’s weak, keeping us away enough so that we can’t hit him where it hurts.”

Hopper sighed heavily, running a hand down his face.

“We don’t know the real limits of what he’s blocking off,” Hopper pointed out. “The circle might be bigger than this.”

“And it might be smaller,” Joyce pointed out and then connected each X together as loosely as possible. Murray snorted next to her and she turned, raising an eyebrow.

“You drew a penis,” He remarked and Joyce looked back at the map, then deadpan at Murray. “What, excuse me to have some humor in light of the apocalypse, okay?”

Joyce ignored his comment and then drew their attention back to the map by tapping it with her pen.

“I think Steve’s house might be a better bet. It’s closer to the action, within the predicted circle but far away enough to still be considered safe.” Joyce informed. “And it’s bigger, enough space for everyone to move around and the Harrington’s have good security.”

“Okay, okay I had been considering relocating to Steve’s house but it’s out of the question now.” Hopper said and Joyce scoffed at him.

“Why? What happened that took his house off the list?” She asked.

“The gates.” Hopper said, eyebrow raised. “Look, you heard the kids, that gate at the middle school was one El opened years ago.”

“What does this have to do with Steve’s?” Joyce asked.

“Steve’s pool is where Barb went missing,” Hopper pointed out. “And if it’s where she went missing, there’s a gate.”

“That’s not entirely true.” Joyce said, though her expression faltered for a moment. “Will said he was taken in the shed, but there was never a gate there.”

“Not a permanent one, but there was one at some point for both of them to get through.” Hopper said. “And I don’t think Vecna really cares how strong or weak a gate was, I think he’s just opening them all.”

“Okay fine, going under the assumption then that there was a gate opened in Steve’s pool,” Joyce shook her head. “We’d still be safe.”

“Joyce-” “No, listen. Unless he has some other pool I’ve been unaware of, Steve’s pool is outside. If we reinforce every window and door, every entrance like we did at the Wheeler’s, it wouldn’t matter.” Joyce said. “It’s still safe and it’s closer to where we need to be.”

“It’s risky.” Hopper said and Joyce shook her head.

“Everything is risky at this point, Hop.” Joyce said. “I want our kids safe, but I also want them to be happy. They’ve been trapped in that basement for months, Hop. They’re teenagers, kids, they at least deserve more space, privacy. Erica deserves to go to bed without Lucas shoving her feet in her face, Eleven deserves to have space to express herself, Nancy and Jonathan deserve space where they can be all in love and happy without four teenage boys calling them gross every five seconds.

“I know you want to keep everyone safe, and I do too. But they need this, okay? And I understand the risk, I’m not ignoring the risk, but please? For the sake of the kids just consider it before you completely give up. And again! We aren’t even 100% sure that there will be a gate in his pool.”

Hopper ran a hand down his face, silent and thinking and Joyce gave him the time to mull over the thoughts.

Murray sat down on the couch, watching them as he opened a bottle of miscellaneous alcohol he grabbed from god knows where.

“We need to drive around town,” Hopper said. “Mark down where every single gate is. Keep track of what is and isn’t active, where we should worry about. Depending on whatever data we collect from that, I will maybe consider packing up and moving over to Steve’s.”

Joyce gave him a small, victorious smile, nodding.

“That will be a group,” Joyce said, writing something down to her side on a notepad. “We can send them out tomorrow. It’ll probably take all day.”

“I know neither of you actually care for my input,” Murray began, now eating chips from a bag. Joyce gave him a weird look for the random acquisition of the snack. “But we should also send a group to do the same for the Upside Down.”

“What? That’s too dangerous.” Joyce said and Murray gave a look to Hopper.

“No, I hate to admit it, but I think he’s onto something,” Hopper said and Joyce turned. “When Steve and Dustin went to find Eddie, Steve said the Upside Down was practically empty. There’s still things creeping around, but most of them are up here.”

“Makes sense,” Murray said. “All their food is up here. Besides, a group for the Upside Down can help us. If they deem that using the Upside Down is actually easier to travel than here, that can help us get a one up on Vecna, like the tunnels.”

Joyce nodded and wrote something else down on her notepad.

The three of them then spend the next few hours talking about any possible theory they could pull from their ass. Anything they think might be happening, anything they can think of to help.

When they finally return, all the kids are waiting expectantly downstairs, wondering if any of them were going to get the chance to leave anytime soon.

The moment they descend down the stairs, almost a dozen pairs of eyes lock onto them and Hopper sighed heavily.

“We’re going to break you guys up into four groups,” He informed and the room exploded into hushed cheers and excited rambling. “Don’t get too excited, one of the groups is staying here.”

“How is that a group then?” Mike demanded. “That’s just- That’s just doing what we do everyday!”

“This group will stay to protect the house, make sure no demo-whatevers try to get in because we won’t be able to keep the doors locked with this many people out. If there’s an emergency and you need to rush inside, having all the doors quadruple locked is a hazard. So the group staying will be doing a bit more than normal.” Hopper explained and that settles them all.

“So what’s going on then?” Jonathan asked his mom. “Did you guys figure anything out?”

“No,” She admitted. “But hopefully each group will figure things out on their own, we’re going to need one group to drive around with Hop and mark out where every gate is. It’ll keep us alerted about what areas are the most dangerous and where to expect danger. Another group will do the same, but in the Upside Down.”

The kids turn to each other with bright eyes, clearly excited to get out of the damn basement and back into action. 

“What’s the last group then?” Argyle asked, raising his hand up high like he was in a classroom, but speaking anyway.

Joyce smiled. “The fourth group will be coming with me. I’m going to swing by Melvald’s, grab some of the radios they have there and try and get into contact with Dr. Owens.”

Will and Eleven perk up slightly at the mention of Owens.

“Are you sure he’s even still out there?” Eleven asked, nervous. “After... NINA, I was sure they had... killed him.”

“We don’t know that for sure.” Joyce said, kneeling before Eleven, resting a comforting hand on her shoulder. “And if he is still alive, he’s one of our best bets for getting outside help.”

“If he is out there, wouldn’t he have seen the news?” Will brought up, shrugging a little. “Would’ve come to help already.”

“He might not know we need help.” Joyce said. “We’ve handled crazy things before without him, maybe he doesn’t know.”

“Or maybe he’s dead.” Will stated and Joyce sighed, reaching a hand out to Will now. 

“Hey,” She said gently. “We gotta have hope, okay?”

Will said nothing but shrugged and she sighed, pulling away from the two kids and standing again to address the room. 

“So, who will go with me to hit up Melvald’s?” Joyce asked, hopeful and Jonathan stood up.

“I’ll go,” He offered immediately and Joyce smiled. Jonathan gives her a gentle teasing smile back. “You can barely work a camera, mom, someone’s gotta help you work the radios.”

Joyce’s smile only grew wider and Robin stood up too. 

“I’ll go with you guys too!” Robin said. “Just in case we come across any interference or anything. I was in the AV club when I was in high school and we figured that sort of stuff out. I may not look it but I’m a little bit of a genius myself, you know. Tech whiz, you might need it.”

“I’ll go too!” Lucas said, jumping to his feet. “Same reason.”

“Wonderful!” Joyce said, relaxing a little. “The more people we can have working on the radios the better. More signals to try and find to contact.”

“You guys will need someone to watch out.” Nancy chimed in now. “To have your backs while you’re all working through that.”

“Thanks Nance.” Jonathan said with a smile to his girlfriend and Nancy smiled back. 

“Okay, I think that’s enough people going with Joyce.” Hopper interrupted. “We need some people for the other groups.” 

“The Upside Down was one of them, right?” Eddie asked, standing a little tense as he spoke and Hopper nodded. “I mean, I think it would make most sense for me to go there then, right? Since I can go pretty much undetected.”

Hopper stared hesitantly at him, then Joyce. He was worried about that exactly, in fact. Sure, Eddie going to the Upside Down made sense, unless he was somehow some sort of tracking device. Whoever went with him could be dooming themselves, stuck in Vecna’s territory with him knowing their every move.

Joyce was hesitant too, but she also knew that Eddie would be able to move around the Upside Down with ease, and he’s been there since they lost him, so he clearly in general knew his way around. That and in the grand scheme of things, if he was a honing device, it’d be best to have him not with any of the other groups.

“Look,” Steve said after a long beat of silence. “If Eddie goes to the Upside Down, I’ll go with him. I was able to sort of figure out how to calm him down before, I can do it again.”

Steve rested a hand on Eddie’s shoulder, nodding at him and Eddie nodded back, relaxing a little and Hopper watched the interaction with careful eyes, noting the way the dark black veins crawling up Eddie’s neck lightened the slightest, the way the bat like ears hidden amongst his voluminous hair shrunk a little. Noted how just existing near Steve seemed to appease Eddie, even if so slightly.

“Okay,” Hopper settled, nodding. “Take one of the kids with you, better to travel in packs of three in case one of you gets hurt.”

“I’ll go!” Dustin said, jumping to his feet before anyone else could even try to volunteer. “I mean, come on, Steve barely knows what he’s doing half the time if I’m not there to watch out for him.”

“Watch it.” Steve said sternly and Dustin just grinned at him.

“Fine, that works out best.” Hopper agreed. “Now who’s going to come with me to map everything out?”

“I’ll go!” Eleven said, raising her hand and smiling up at her dad. Hopper looked slightly hesitant, definitely having wanted El to stay back with home base. However Joyce shot him a steady glare and he knew there was no point in fighting, so he just smiled down at the girl.

“Okay, at least one more person then.” Hopper said and Will’s hand shot up.

“I’ll go!” Will said. “I can draw up a pretty good map of the town, accurately mark down whatever we find to make it fit to scale, less confusion for reading it that way.”

“Alright,” Hopper agreed. “So then-”

“Wait, if they’re both going, then I’m going too.” Mike butted in and Hopper turned to give him a long sharp glare. “You need me. Will and Eleven don’t know where every gate is, I do. You might drive right past a potential gate spot and never even notice. And then the map is screwed and there’s no point really.”

Will and Eleven nod at Mike’s reasoning, turning to Hopper, who turned and gave Joyce an annoyed expression. Joyce grinned.

“He’s right, Hop.” Joyce said. “You gotta take Mike with you, the only other ones who know where the other gates are, are Dustin and Lucas, but they’re already in other groups.” 

“So we trade.” Hopper said. “Lucas can come with us and Mike can go with you.”

“Sure, but only if Lucas is okay with that.” Joyce said with a sharp grin, turning to the other boy. “Lucas, do you want to trade groups?”

Lucas stared wide eyed at them, looked at Eleven and Will who raised an eyebrow, curious at him, looked at Hopper who was giving him a desperate please agree look, looked at Mike who had crossed his arms, glaring at him as if daring him to agree.

“Yeah, that’s not my mess.” Lucas said, hooking his thumb over his shoulder. “Ima just stick with Ms. Byers.” 

Joyce smiled and Mike nodded while Hopper looked completely and utterly defeated.

“See? You have to take me.” Mike said with a shit eating grin and both Eleven and Will tried to hide their amusement as Hopper groaned. 

“Fine,” Hopper grumbled and the three teens all cheered. 

“Wait,” Max spoke up. “Can I go with one of the groups?”

Murray, Joyce and Hopper all shared a hesitant glance with each, and then looked at the others.

Max frowned at them all. “I can hear you being weird,” She informed. “Guys, come on, please?”

“Max, honey,” Joyce started. “It’s best if you stay here, okay? We’re all going to be moving around a whole lot.”

“I can keep up!” Max argued. “I know you’re all worried and shit but I can still do things!” 

“We need a group to stay here.” Hopper said. “And we’ve already decided that you and Erica will be part of that group.”

“Hey!” Erica shot to her feet, enraged. “Don’t forget who helped save all your old asses when those Russian commie bastards were invading!” 

“But you’re still a kid.” Hopper pointed out. “Your brother and everyone else is already on thin ice, you are not coming with any of the groups.”

“That’s so not fair!” Erica shouted. “You don’t see me pointing out that you’re geriatric and a liability, do you? This is discrimination! Against the young and the disabled.”

“She’s right!” Max shouted. “Look, we can help! We can help just as much as the rest of all of you!”

“You can’t see,” Hopper pointed out. “Or walk. I’m sorry Max, I know you’re smart, I know you can help, but right now we need to be able to focus on the issues at hand.”

“Wow,” Max said, voice full of disdain and then she looked vaguely around the room after noticing her friends had all been quiet. “None of you are gonna back me up?”

“Max,” Lucas began, tone heavy and unsure and Max scoffed. “You died. Okay? If it was up to me, even if you were perfectly able to see and walk, I wouldn’t want you back out there after that. Not so soon.”

“Well good thing it’s not up to you then.” Max snarked and turned. “Dustin? El?”

“They’re right, Max.” Dustin said, nervously. “It’s better if you stayed here.”

Max looked heartbroken and she turned to Eleven, her last hope for help. Eleven frowned, a deep, sad frown. There were years of grief and despair etched into the grooves of her lips, a frown no child her age should have to bear, yet she did. She says nothing, but moved, shuffling over to Max and resting her hand on Max’s.

Max’s jaw clenched and she looked down at Eleven’s general direction. No words were exchanged between the two girls, only the soft gentle touch of Eleven’s hand. Max ducked her head, scoffing meanly, shaking her head, but she said nothing to Eleven, simply turning back to the others with unfallen tears in her eyes.

“You all suck.” She informed meanly. “You know that, right? That you all absolutely fucking suck.”

“My decision will not change.” Hopper informed, and the tension in the room was thick as Erica crossed her arms and glared at them all defensively at Max’s side.

“Oh shit,” Argyle suddenly spoke up. “That means I’m staying too right, cause I didn’t claim a group? Can I still claim a group?”

The tension in the room got thicker. 

“Argyle,” Joyce began. “Sweetie, you haven’t... You haven’t handled any of this sort of stuff yet. You aren’t prepared to deal with the craziness of it all.”

“But I helped with those scary government baddies.” Argyle said, now frowning too and Max scoffed. “I’ve not even smoked today, I’m good. Like real good to go.”

“You guys are such liars!” Max shouted accusingly. “We’re not here to protect the house, we’re all here because you think we can’t keep up!”

“That’s not true.” Joyce said, shaking her head. “We need people to stay here, to protect the house, we trust you guys to be able to do that.”

“But you also don’t want us in the way.” Max stated. “Face it, you know that’s the truth. The kid, the crippled and the stoner. You expect us not to realise what’s going on?”

“It’s not like that.” Hopper argued. “We want you to be safe, but we still trust you to protect the house.”

“Really?” Erica asked, disbelieving. “That’s why you’re leaving Murray with us, right?”

“Hey, I’m staying because they trust me to be able to work well with you little twerps.” Murray said to her. 

Erica laughed. “You don’t even realise.” She said, shaking her head. “I’d feel sorry if you weren’t so stupid, you bald headed bitch.”

“You can laugh all you want,” Murray said. “But we’re staying because they trust us to protect the place.”

“No,” Max said, shaking her head. “You’re our babysitter. They don’t trust you either, that’s why you’re staying back while they both go out.”

“That’s not true.” Murray said and turned to Joyce and Hopper, Hopper who’s expression has now become indifferent and Joyce who’s intentionally avoiding eye contact. Murray frowned. “That’s not true, right Joyce?”

Joyce opened her mouth, then closed it, then shrugged.

“Murray,” She said slowly and Murray’s mouth dropped open.

“Omigod! You don’t trust me!” Murray shouted. “After everything we’ve been through, really?”

“We trust you!” Joyce said empathically. “Trust you so much to stay and watch guard! You know, no one else will keep the fort locked down like you will!”

“I can’t believe this.” Murray said, shaking his head. “I went to Alaska with you.”

“And you were wonderful.” Joyce said with a wince. “I need you to stay here with them. I need all of you to stay home and keep the place on lock down. I trust you all with a gun, to hold your own.”

“If that were really true we’d be out there with you!” Max shot back and Joyce sighed.

“Look, you, Erica, Argyle and Murray are all staying here.” Hopper said, tone harsh. “End of story, no debating. You don’t like it you can go find another place to bunker down for the fucking apocalypse, go it?”

Max glared towards him while Erica crossed her arms with a firm pout. Argyle swallowed thickly, sighing as he sort of gave up, sinking into the couch and Murray grumbled under his breath.

“Wonderful,” Hopper said sarcastically. “My team, we leave tomorrow at 6am.”

“What the shit, why 6am?” Mike argued. “This isn’t the army!”

“We leave at 6am because I said so.” Hopper said. “Joyce and I’ve been tracking the demo-beasts schedule and they’re less active around early morning hours, which will be the safest times for us to travel about. Got a problem with it, you can stay.”

Mike crossed his arms but stayed silent. 

“Radio team we leave at 10.” Joyce said with a kinder smile. “Melvald’s isn’t too far, we’ll have to take two vehicles though, in case we need space for gear.”

“I’ll wake you two whenever I’m ready to go,” Steve said to Eddie and Dustin, who both laughed a little.

“We’re going to be well awake before you, Steve.” Dustin teased and Eddie grinned.

“Leave him be!” Eddie said fake dramatically. “He needs all his hours of beauty sleep.”

“Okay, fuck you guys,” Steve rolled his eyes and Dustin laughed harder. “Fine, wake me up when you’re both geared to go.”

“My team don’t even bother waking up.” Murray grumbled spitefully. “May as well sleep the day away.”

Hopper sighed heavily but clapped his hands, gaining everyone’s attention. 

“Now that that’s settled.” Hopper groaned. “Let’s get lunch dinner figured.”