Chapter Text
It was a regular day at the Family Video in Hawkins, the morning shift was always a little quiet compared to the afternoons and evenings, even during Spring Break. Robin and Steve took it as an opportunity to goof off and unwind without the overbearing eyes and ears of customers with Steve still teasing Robin about Tammy Thompsons performance at the basketball game from the night before.
“I don’t like Tammy anymore dingus, I keep telling you” she huffed while shelving some of the new releases.
“I know but it’s still so funny Robin” Steve chucked from the counter, he just couldn’t help himself but tease her for it relentlessly, at least now she had slightly better taste, “remind me how the conversation with Vickie went again?”
The boy managed to duck just as an empty VHS case flew past his head, Robin made her way around the counter to stand next to her friend. “You know I have this problem where I can’t stop talking, and I know that I should, it’s like I’ve said everything that I need to say but… I just can’t stop and then I… I make a fool of myself. It’s like the filter is totally gone” she explained with her arms flailing.
He smiled fondly, “I know Rob and there’s nothing wrong with that, you’ll get the girl, I mean she definitely likes boobies.”
“How many times do I have to tell you to stop saying boobies dingus.”
Before he could respond, the bell above the door rang signalling customers, they both turned, ready to put their professional facades on until they spotted Dustin and Max rushing towards the front desk.
“How many phones do you have here?” Dustin rushed out, hopping over the counter and knocking over a stack of tapes.
“Dude what the hell” Steve called, trying to pick up the fallen tapes as Max followed behind.
“Guys come on, it’s a Saturday, we’re going to start getting busy soon” Robin tried to reason with the two younger teens while Steve continued to pick up the fallen tapes.
“It’s really important, how many phones do you have?” Dustin asked again.
“Two, three if you include Keith's in the back.”
“Perfect for a base of operations.”
“What operations Henderson” Steve slammed the pile back onto the desk.
“We need to call all of Eddies friends” Max explained to the pair.
“Eddie Munson?” Robin asked, concerned.
“Yeah, you know him?” Max asked, eyebrow inquisitively.
The older girl sighed “yeah I know him a little, why are we calling all his friends?”
“I promise we’ll explain but it’s really important, can we please use your phones” the young boy sounded desperate as he pleaded with his older friends for help.
“Sure, there’s one I better call though” Robin told the group before making her way to the back room, she was just hoping he’d be awake at this time.
XXX
It was quiet in the Buckley household, with both of the women away to work, the only other resident of the house was currently curled up in a pile of blankets completely passed out. Last night's Hellfire campaign had been a massive success, they would 100% be inviting Erica back for their next campaign, Lady Applejack was a brilliant addition to their merry band of heroes after scoring them the win against Eddie’s main villain. Of course they had missed Lucas at their meeting but the kid had ambitions of changing his social status and wanted to play Basketball, he couldn’t really fault him for wanting more for himself so there were no ill feelings towards him from the Buckley boy.
The older guys had gone to a late night diner after the campaign for some burgers and shenanigans, except for Eddie who had to bail last minute to help out a friend, only Nick was privy to the fact that that friend was Chrissy Cunningham. He didn’t mind his best friend ditching their post campaign chow down for the cheerleader though, she was always nice to them and from what Eddie had said, seemed to be going through a rough time, he just hoped she would be alright.
A ringing phone pulled him out of his slumber with a groan, struggling to untangle himself before getting out of bed and nearly tripping over a discarded shirt on his way to the phone on his desk.
Sighing and rubbing his face, he answered on the seventh ring, “Hello” his voice croaky from lack of use.
“Hey dingus it’s me-” the voice of his sister came through the speaker “-I need you to come here as quick as you can, it’s something about Eddie.”
He was suddenly more alert at her tone and the mention of his best friend “what’s up with Eddie?”
“I’m not sure yet but Dustin Henderson is here saying they need to call all of his friends and that it’s an emergency-” he could picture her playing with her rings while she spoke on the phone “-so please just get your ass here, it doesn’t sound good.”
After a quick goodbye, the assurance that he would be there as fast as he physically could be and the quickest shower he had ever taken in his life, Nick grabbed his skateboard and made his way to Family Video. It wasn’t too far away but still the distance by board instead of taking a car meant it took longer than he would have liked given the intensity of the situation. At least he had his walkman and a few cassettes in his bag for the ride, trying to take his mind off of all the disastrous situations he could be walking into.
Finally arriving at his destination, he ripped his headphones off and picked up his board before heading into the building, the bell above the door jingling as he did. He was met with the sight of Robin, Steve, Dustin and a redheaded girl he assumed was Max, if his powers of deduction and what the kids had told him were correct, behind the counter huddled over a pair of phones and the computer. The group turned to look at him as soon as he arrived with the older two looking relieved, Dustin looking ecstatic and Max looking a little confused, in fact she kinda looked like she was looking into his soul, it was a little unnerving.
“Finally Nicky” Steve called to him, throwing his hands up in relief.
“Nick!” Dustin called, leaping over the counter to get to him, “I’m so glad you’re here, where’s Eddie?”
“Woah woah, first of all, hey Henderson it’s great to see you too, secondly, I don’t know where he is, so catch me up.”
Dustin and Max recounted what had happened to Chrissy and how Max had seen her and Eddie head into his trailer last night. The cops were after him for murder but they hadn’t released his name to the public yet meaning they only had a small window of time before it became public knowledge that Eddie Munson was a wanted man. The kids however had a different idea of what happened, not believing Eddie to be responsible at all.
“You know how people say Hawkins is cursed?” Dustin started.
“Yeah” Nick replied “yeah, I know all about it, everything that happened at Starcourt, the Russians, the weird flesh monster, all of it-” both Dustin and Max looked taken aback at this, not expecting the boy to know anything “-I also know that Eddie had nothing to do with this, he wouldn’t hurt a fly.”
“How do you know about everything?” Max was sceptical of this guy, she’d seen him at school, knew he was a member of Hellfire, hell she’d even seen him behind the counter of Ricky’s Records in town, but he definitely wasn’t there when they fought the Mind Flayer.
He smirked at her, looking almost exactly like Robin in that action, it was almost as though a lightbulb had suddenly turned on inside her head. Looking at him now she could see the similarities in the pair, they shared the same blue eyes, their hair was the same shade of dirty blonde with Robins hanging just above her shoulder and Nicks being trimmed down on the sides and pushed back out of his face. They both seemed to talk animatedly with their hands, stood at the same height and when you took an extra second to look at the pair it was obvious that they were related.
Seeming to catch on to her deductions, Nick nodded at the redhead, “yeah, twins are usually pretty close, it’s difficult to keep things that big from each other.”
“Wait, you're twins?” Dustin was confused.
“Henderson you literally know us both.”
“Well yeah but-”
“We have the same last name.”
“-I thought it was a coincidence.”
“Dude for someone so smart you’re kinda dumb Henderson” Steve crossed his arms and shook his head at the boy.
After a few rounds of bickering and all agreeing that yeah, Dustin was one of the dumbest smart people they all knew, they eventually got back to the task at hand. Nick was sure that if Eddie was hiding out to avoid detection, he was probably at reefer Ricks, the only problem was, Nick wasn’t entirely sure where Rick lived. Luckily for the group Robin had the brilliant idea of checking for all the Ricks and Richards in the Family Video customer database and after checking a few and ruling them out via their rental choices, they finally had their location. A cabin at Lover’s Lake, a perfect place to stay out of sight.