Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

He was running away from the Lab.

The Lab wasn’t something Seven could run away from in the past, he was escorted from place to place, no one trusted him by himself, the cameras set up in every room a sign of that. Seven never cared before, never thought to question it.

Until Papa came back a year ago.

The moon was almost high enough to see through the trees, the bright light guiding Seven forward as blood dripped from his nose and into his mouth, Seven’s head pounding like the rapid beat of his heart.

His lungs ache for a breath he couldn’t catch, his limbs burning hotter than anything he’s ever felt before, but for some reason Secen hasn’t collapsed yet.

Seven doesn’t hear the sound of yelling, nor guns anymore, and he wonders if he could allow himself to take a break.

Then when he starts to slow down the mantra of keep going, keep running, fucking run, burst through his mind and Seven pushes on, ignoring the fact each step felt life shattering. Seven’s feet have gone numb a long time ago, either from the oncoming cold weather or from the fact he’s been running barefoot through the woods for hours now.

Seven was going to die, or worse, be put back in the rainbow room.

The thought alone causes him to become distracted, missing the fallen moss covered log in his path, Seven’s foot smashes right into it, pain shooting up through his toes and across his whole foot as he goes tumbling down towards the ground.

Right where a hill was.

Seven’s last thought before bracing himself for pain was of course.

Covering his head with his arms Seven crashes into the ground, not being able to grab anything or slow down Seven goes tumbling down the hall, hitting every stone, bush and lump on the way towards the bottom.

Hitting the bottom and rolling onto his back, Seven’s met with dizzinging trees, the wind picking up as the brushes sway above him, and for a second he forgets all about running.

That is until the pain sets in, aches turning into full blown spikes of painful bruises that are sure to be forming all over his arms and legs. “…Fuck.” Seven groans, the world not having stopped spinning since it started.

The wind sends shivers down his whole body, the blood stained gown he has on hardly doing anything to keep in the warmth he so desperately needs. Seven lays there for a long while, eyes trained on the star shattered sky like it would pick him up and push him to keep moving.

It doesn’t.

Was this even far enough? Could he just pass out here, and not be found? Seven wasn’t much into wishful thinking, but even he had enough of reality when it came to today.

“Get up.” Seven huffs, hands gripping the grass. He just needs to get back on his feet, then he can keep running until it’s day, until he’s sure he can’t be followed. “I just—get up.” Pushing off of the forest floor immediately causes black spots to litter his vision, the action almost sending Seven back towards the ground. Gripping his hands into fists, Seven closes his eyes and takes a deep breath.

He can do this, he knows he can do this, if he doesn’t then the outcome would be worse than just a little bit of vertigo.

Pushing himself into a crouch Seven braces his hands in front of him, he takes a deep breath in as he slowly opens his eyes spotting a tree a couple feet in front of him. Seven scrambles forwards to press himself against it.

He is making good progress.

Seven struggles on shaking legs to pull himself into a standing position, using the tree as a sort of crutch to keep him somewhat steady. Looking back over towards the hill, Seven silently curses it, wishing it wasn’t even there to begin with.

Turning to the opposite direction Seven takes a slow step forward, ignoring the blooming bruises that ache along his legs as he starts to slowly walk forwards. Each step sets his body on fire, each step Seven has to remind himself that it was worth it, every step he gets further away from the Lab.

Seven never learned to tell time, so he didn’t know how long it took to come across a road in the middle of the woods. Stopping in the middle of it, he looks from left to right.

What was the best way to go? Where did he even want to go? Seven never thought of what to do after this…

Seven turns and walks right, down the center of the road as he keeps his head down towards the concrete below him. Licking his lips, the taste of iron pushes the thoughts of sleep to the back of his head. He needs to get to some kind of safety spot before he passes out from exhaustion, which is becoming more of a ‘now’ problem then a ‘later’ problem.

The edges of his vision start to blur and blacken, his head fuzzing at the edges, he was positive he didn’t have much time until he drops.

A bright light down the road has Seven stilling, head whipping upwards in time for someone to have turned the road corner, a flashlight in hand as she shines it his way. The girl stills, Seven coming face to face with someone he’s never met before.

If he’s being honest with himself, if she wasn’t someone he’s never seen before he’d be turning tail and running the other direction.

Seven’s chest tightens, heart pounding against his ribcage as he stands straighter, forcing his body not to collapse onto the floor, curling his hands into fists at his sides he prepares to bolt. “Hey, are you from the party too?” The girl calls, a smile coming up to her face as she walks closer.

The light isn’t on him directly yet as his form is shadowed by the night. Seven takes a step back. Biting his lip, Seven looks towards the trees. “Because honestly I was afraid I was the only one ditching the Halloween—“ The light shines on him, momentarily blinding him. Seven raises his mud-covered hands to block out the light, his eyes watering from the sudden shine. “—party…” The girl stops walking and Seven lowers his hand slightly.

The girl’s eyes widen, mouth falling slightly open revealing a set of fake fangs that fall to the ground, the light is taken a bit off his face but it does nothing to shield him from the bright light. “Holy shit.” The girl breaths, her shoulders hiking up to her ears as she stares at him.

Vertigo grasps Seven then, the woods and the girl herself spinning and turning, the moonlight and light in her hand morphing into one as he feels himself fall, knees finally having given out. They hit the ground hard, but the jolt isn’t enough to snap him out of the exhaustion pulling his body down down down—

The last thing Seven sees is the blurry figure of the girl running towards him, the light having dropped to the ground as a scream fills the air.

Seven wakes up to something soft cushioned underneath his head.

He has a mini panic attack as the thought of being back in his room at the lab comes to mind but as Steven scrambles to sit up - ignoring the groaning of his limbs - he’s met with an unfamiliar room, nothing like the lab and most importantly nothing like he’s seen before.

Instead of a blinding white, the room was filled with colors, browns, moss greens, pops of blues. The bedsheets that were thrown over him were blue and heavy, comfortable.

Seven pushes the blankets off of himself as he thinks back on what got him here. He was running away, which was a stupid yet somehow successful plan in of itself and then he ran into a girl before passing out.

She must have taken him here, but why? She could have easily moved on and let him wake up wherever he was, it made leaving now more difficult.

Dragging his feet over the bedside, Seven is met with his pale skin covered in ugly purple bruises and shall cuts. He thinks his knees had the worst of it but Seven couldn’t tell over the white bandages that were tied around them, stopping whatever bleeding was going on under the soft white stripes.

Sighing Seven pushes himself to his feet only for his legs to scream at him, begging him to sit back down. Seven swallows back the need to cry out as he staggers to the side, hands fumbling for a purch. He quickly finds a tall dresser and grabs onto it, legs sprawling from side to side like he was some kind of baby deer.

Seven stays there for a moment to catch his breath before he shuffles his way into a proper standing position. He just needs to find a way out of here then he can continue getting as far away from Papa as possible.

The door swings open.

Seven jolts from the sudden entrance and almost loses his grip on the dresser. He snaps his head over to look at the door spotting the brown haired girl from the night before in the doorway. She was holding a tray in her hands stacked with a plate on top, looking at the bed he was just on.

Her eyes widen as she looks around the room seeing him quickly from his awkward possession leaning against the dresser. “You’re awake!” She gasps, body going rigid as her hands tighten around the tray.

Seven takes a step to the side and further into the room, eyes narrow as he looks her over. She didn’t seem to be from the lab but he knew they were very manipulative and talented people, they could be whoever they wanted you to think they were.

“I made you some food.” She voices after a few moments of silence, gesturing down towards the plate on the tray with her head. “I thought you’d be hungry after last night…”

The girl takes a breath in, moving over to her bed as she sets the tray down. Seven glances down at the food, finding weird round fluffy looking things that smelt like butter and sugar. Something was on top of it and it smells equally as sweet.

“It’s pancakes.” The girl says, catching his attention. She takes a few steps away as she gestures to the food again. “…Do you know what pancakes are?”

Despite the probably very dangerous situation he finds himself in Seven shakes his head. His stomach growls then choosing the worst time to announce that he was starving. His mouth is watering and he wonders if it tastes as good as it smells. It looks amazing, better than anything Papa or Mama has ever given him.

This girl was definitely not from the lab. “My name is Robin.” The girl - Robin? - introduces herself, smiling up at him when he looks back over to her. “You don’t even want to know how much time it took to get you here without my parents knowing, but I couldn’t just leave you there. After…whatever happened to you?”

Seven knew the last part of her words weren’t a question, more so she was trying to guess what exactly got him here. Robin sways from foot to foot looking him up and down without much effort of hiding it. He must have been a confusing sight, Seven doesn’t think many people find teenagers in the state that he was in.

Was she the one to patch him up? If she was, why did she do it? Did she want something from him? Seven tries to catch Robin’s eyes, he knows this was going to suck but it isn’t like he had much of a choice. He needs to know if it was time to make a run for it.

Seven takes a deep breath through his nose, focusing on Robin as he tries to pull at her emotions, dragging them up from underneath her skin to be bare to his eyes alone. A headache starts to bloom between his eyes, a pressure forming in his nose as he sinks his metaphorical nails into her mind.

Never deep enough for his powers to matter, never far enough to please Papa. Just far enough for him to see.

Concern—fear—worry—relief

“You're bleeding!” Robin startles, the pressure in his nose bursting as blood drips down his nose. She runs over to the other side of her room, pulling out a box of tissues. Seven let’s his powers release her emotions as she walks back over, holding them out towards him. 

Seven let’s his guard down now having felt what she was feeling. There were no bad intentions he could feel that could mean she was with the lab, not strong ones anyways. Slowly he takes a few of the tissues and presses them to his nose, his headache lulling a tiny bit. “…Thank you.” Seven whispers, Robin’s eyes widening at the sound of his raspy voice.

Robin lowers the tissue box, staring at him in awe. “You can talk!?”

.

Pancakes were amazing Seven decides as he shoves another piece into his mouth, the ‘syrup’ made it even better. He was also right with guessing it was sweet, his tongue aching to get any more sugar. He was never allowed much sugar, said it’d dull his senses.

Robin is sat across from him in a chair as she watches him eat. After finding out he could talk - barley, his vocabulary was trash - she started hounding him with questions. Seven immediately clamped up, startled by the reaction she took.

Robin saw this and started back tracking, saying he could answer his questions after eating something. Which leads him to where he is now, finishing a plate of delicious pancakes.

“I’ll make you more for breakfast tomorrow.” Robin says a smile on her face as Seven wonders if it would be considered rude to lick the plate. It would be more rude to waste the maple syrup would it not?

Seven starts licking the plate.

“Can I ask a question?” That draws his attention away from the maple syrup, looking a little over the plate to meet the girl's eyes. “You can ignore it if you want. I just thought I should get to know the boy I saved from getting run over by a car in the middle of the road.”

If he could say no then a question couldn’t hurt him, right? Seven nods, setting the plate down on his lap. Robin leans forward, her happy expression softening slightly. “What’s your name?”

Seven blinks caught off guard, he expected a different type of question. Like maybe why he was bleeding and had passed out in front of her, not what his name was. His name was never important, it was generic, like the others were. It was the birth order, nothing more nothing less. Not like Robin, that was a good name, a pretty name.

Seven takes a quick breath in, turning his hand over as he puts it out towards her. His wrist was uncovered, a bold ‘007’ clear for her to see. “Seven.” He says, pointing to the mark.

“Your name is Seven?” Robin asks, her voice sounding a bit choked up. Seven nods, taking his arm back as he crosses his arms over his midsection. Robin clears her throat, rolls her shoulders and then juts her arm out towards him. “Well, good to meet you Seven.”

Seven looks down at Robin’s hand held out towards him and he couldn’t fight the small smile it brings him. This was so different from what he knew, somehow it was better. He takes her hand, Robin shaking it up and down once before letting go.

“Second question,” Robin looks down at his gown. “Are you running away from something?” Her voice was quieter now but stern, Seven could respect the bluntness she gave him.

He nods, frowning. “Bad men.” Seven says, pointing to a bruise on his arm.

Robin takes a sharp breath in, humming. “Well good thing you're with me, huh? No bad men will get to you here, I promise. You’re safe with me.” There had to be something in the way she says it because Seven wasn’t even using his powers and he believes her. She was good, not like Papa, Mama or the plenty of other people who didn’t have names.

Robin was nice, kind, caring. It’s hardly been an hour and Seven already trusts her with his life. “Okay, last question.” Robin grins as she stands up from the chair, dusting nonexistent dirt off of her pants. “Do you know your clothing size?”

“…What?” Seven asks, standing up with her. He was careful to not send the plate in his lab flying, grabbing it with his hands.

“Your clothing size! No offense but you can’t be wearing a hospital gown around the place. That and you need a shower, you smell like the forest.” Robin walks towards the door to her room, opening it up. “My parents are at work and my dad has a ton of clothes from his highschool days, he won’t notice if we borrow some.”

She waves for him to follow, leading him out of the room and into a hallway. “Highschool?” Seven repeats, he’s never heard that word before. What was high school? Was it one word or two?

“Don’t worry about it.” Robin shrugs, leading him to another room. This room was more boring than the other one, there were no small stuffed animals in this one. Robin walks over to another door that was in the room, opening it to reveal a lot of clothes hanging up. Robin moves them out of the way, dragging out a box that was on the floor.

She opens it, taking out a couple of pants, shirts and shorts. “This will do until I can buy you some of your own things. “Robin goes to hand over the clothes, pausing when she sees that he’s still holding the plate. “You can put that down now.” She chuckles, switching their hands so she was the one holding the plate. “Do you know how to use the shower?”

Seven nods, already itching to feel the cold water on his skin and to get to the grime of the forest out from underneath his nails. “Good because I really didn’t want to teach you how to shower, no offense. I’ll show you where the bathroom is.” With that Seven is back to following Robin, not finding that he hates it.

It was a hundred times better than the alternative.

Chapter Text

Seven has scars all over his body not from the Lab but because of it, because of how they treated him. Because of who else was there.

He likes to believe they weren’t there, reminding him that the Lab wasn’t the worst thing out there.

Seven sighs, flicking his gaze away from a particular scar on his stomach as he stares off into the bathroom mirror. The clothes Robin gave him were a little big, falling off of him in places. He had to tighten the pants with the little dangly laces they had to make sure they didn’t slip off of him.

It was nice of her to let him borrow them, he didn’t really want to look like he stuck out like a sore thumb.

There were a lot of things in the bathroom, different types of toothpaste and brushes. There were three brushes, one of them Robins and the other two probably her dad and moms.

Looking back into the mirror, Seven is met with his reflection, dark circles around his eyes. He ran his hands over his buzzed head, frowning. He never understood why he couldn’t have long hair like the adults, any time he asked to grow his hair out he was met with a stern ‘no’. Maybe now he could since he wasn’t there anymore?

Seven leaves the bathroom feeling a lot more refreshed. He finds Robin in her room, arms full with blankets and pillows. “Sorry, it isn’t much.” Robin apologizes, setting the blankets on the floor. “I thought maybe you could sleep here, not like you could crash on my couch tonight with my parents coming home.”

Seven nods, walking over to the pile of blankets and plopping himself down in the middle of it. Robin sits down beside him, she stares for a few minutes but not at him. She was looking into the distance, like her head was filled with too many thoughts she couldn’t figure out which one was more important.

“Did the Bad Men take you from your family?” Robin asks after a while, looking back over to him.

Family? Seven scrunches his eyebrows with his confusion, he doesn’t know what a family was. Was it something he should have? He’s never heard of the word, then again Robin was saying a lot of things he didn’t understand fully.

“Maybe?” Seven shrugs, picking at the seam of one of the blankets. “What is ‘family’?” It sounds like one of those things he should know, something he shouldn’t have answered ‘maybe’ to.

He’s realizing he’s having a lot of these moments now that he’s ran away. Moments where he finds himself asking himself about how much he really doesn’t know. He didn’t know what a pancake was, how shampoo could smell like strawberries and now he doesn’t know what a family was.

Robin’s voice hitches, her eyes growing slightly wide. She shakes her head, clearing her throat a moment later. “I guess that answers my question.” She waves off his confused look. “So we have a few hours until my family gets back, I guess I could teach you a card game or something.”

.

Seven has to be quiet.

The thought doesn’t have him hyperventilating nor does it cause him to be in a cold sweat. It was just that Robin’s parents were home downstairs, the other teen with them and trying her best to not reveal the fact there was a whole other person in the home.

He wonders what would happen if he was ever caught but Robin said her parents weren’t like the Bad men. They were adults, people who wouldn’t understand, but were nice despite it. So no Seven wasn’t afraid of getting caught, he was just bored.

He lets his fingers graze across the wall as he walks around the room, eyes roaming around the varying objects that litter the shelves. They land on a cup sitting on Robin’s desk, papers scattered around it. The cup was empty, probably forgotten there.

Seven could hear Papa’s voice in the back of his head, a whisper of a memory. “All you have to do is crush the can, Seven. It’s not hard.” But it was, which he never said. He would only try harder before Papa had enough of him.

Before he was tossed into the closet to think about what he couldn’t do.

Seven raises his hand, focuses on the cup in front of him. He focuses on the material, trying to imagine the weight of it if he was holding it in the palm of his hand. He wills it to move just an inch.

His skin prickles uncomfortably, headache forming behind his eyes as his ears pop, blood flowing down his lips. His chest is tight like it was going to incave on itself and rip his body apart as it does so.

Seven stops before he can do any real damage, sucking in large breaths of air as his arm falls limp beside him. The cup hasn’t moved. He huffs, licking the blood off his lips only to regret it seconds after. He hated the taste of blood on his tongue, it was so gross.

“Again?” Robin’s voice draws his attention away from the blood on his lip. He looks over, watching as Robin closes the door behind herself. He didn’t even hear her walk in. Robin glances at his nosebleed for a few seconds before shaking her head, she walks over towards her desk and moves the cup to the side.

Robin grabs a few tissues from the tissue box before handing them over to him. “I’m starting to think you have chronic nosebleeds.” She says, crossing her arms over her chest.

Seven takes it, wiping his lip off before placing it underneath his nose as he tilts his head forwards. The pounding headache behind his eyes doesn’t go away, a rhythmic sensation that causes him to scrunch his eyes shut in pain.

He doesn’t know why he even tries anymore, it’s not like Papa was forcing him to continue trying. Papa wasn’t here, he hasn’t been here for months now. Even before escaping the Lab, when Seven would have to be poked and prodded by Mama instead, Papa wasn’t here to force him to use his powers. To see if he was at all capable like his siblings.

Seven doesn’t know why he hasn’t given up on moving things with his mind even though he knows it was impossible.

“My parents are probably going to be up for a while.” Robin starts, dropping down to sit on her bed. “After they go to sleep I’ll warm up the leftovers for you, okay?”

“Okay.” Seven replies, tossing his bloody tissue into the garbage. He grins when the tissue doesn’t miss the garbage. He always had a good shot.

“You could be a basketball player.” Robin notes, watching as he goes to ball up another tissue to toss a few feet away. Another one in.

“Basket—basketball?” Seven questions, taking a few steps back until he was right next to the wall. He lines up the new shot, throws the balled up tissue and dunks it right in the middle. Mr never misses right here.

“It’s a game people play. They run around the gym court and try to dunk a ball this big—” She opens her hands wide, showing the size of the ball. “—into a hoop for points. Whoever has more points wins.” 

Seven pauses in getting another tissue from the box, humming in thought. He didn’t know what a court or a gym was but it sounded fun. Throwing balls into hoops. Back at the lab Seven was regularly tested for his aim along with other physical abilities, Papa made it apparent that just because he lacked other skills didn’t mean he could sit around and be useless.

He could still be useful and Seven wanted to be useful.

“I want basketball.” Seven announces, tossing another tissue into the garbage bin.

“I’ll get you a basketball then.” Robin says as she stands, picking up the box of tissues off the desk. “Only if you stop wasting all my tissues.”

“Okay.” Seven agrees, smiling. Maybe if he gets good at this ‘basketball’ he wouldn’t be so bored in Robin’s room when she’s gone.

It was a few hours later when Robin snuck down stairs to heat up leftovers for him. It was meatloaf she said, Seven calls it delicious. He’s licking the plate clean when Robin decides to switch topics from food to something else.

“You need a nickname.” Robin states, pointing at him.

Seven lowers the plate to his lap. “Nickname?” Seven tilts his head, he was unfamiliar with the word. What was a nickname? Was it like a name? It had ‘name’ in the word, so it had to be.

Robin nods, getting up from her spot on the bed as she begins to pace back and forth. “Yeah! It’s something people call you that’s not your actual name. You need a nickname that I can call you because if I’m being honest your name kinda sucks.”

Seven snorts, the sound causing Robin to smile wider. His name did kind of suck, didn’t it? He never really liked it to begin with, being called a number. The younger kids never cared much but he knew better. Papa had a name, why couldn’t he have a proper one? One that he loved?

“How do…” Seven thinks over his words, trying to say he wants the other to know. When the words don’t come forth he huffs, crossing his arms over his chest. 

Robin chuckles as she sits down across from him, setting her elbows on her knees. “How do you get one?” She guesses and he perks up, nodding. “Lots of ways,” She shrugs, looking off in the distance for a few seconds. “Most of the time they come about because of something you’ve done. But I’ll just pick one out, think of it as a gift from me to you maybe.”

She leans back on her hands. “So I may just be totally unoriginal but what about Steven?” Robin asks, pointing at him. “Seven, Steven, they sound close enough and it’ll be easy to remember.” Robin’s eyes then widen, a gasp escaping her. “I can call you Steve for short! It’s like a layered nickname. Like an onion.”

“Onion?” Seven laughs. His cheeks are hurting as his smile grows wider, his chest filling up with butterflies. He has a nickname, two actually. He has two nicknames. “Steven.” Seven breaths, trying to get familiar with the name. “Steve.” He couldn’t believe it.

His name was Steven.

“Yes, you're Steve.” Robin claps her hands together, looking way to proud of herself. “Wait right there while I get a pen and paper, I need to show you how to spell it.” Robin scrambles to stand, speed walking over to a bag in the corner of the room. She takes out a bunch of papers and a case, walking over to the desk.

Steve puts down the plate and walks over, watching as Robin uncaps the pen in her hands. She starts to scribble something over the page. “It’s spelt S, T, E, V, E, N. Steven. To spell Steve you just drop the N at the end like…this! See?” She looks up, waiting for his reply.

Steve stares down at the paper, eyes running over the letters. He runs his finger across the ink, smudging it slightly. He was trying to burn the image into his mind so no one could take it away from him. This was his, something no one could touch now that he had it.

“I love it.” He breaths, eyes watering at the corners. “Can I?” He reaches for the pen, Robin handing it over easily. He tries to copy how Robin spelt his name but his letters were shaky. Robin didn’t say it was horrible though when he finishes, only patting him on the shoulder and saying he needs a little more practice.

.

“Oh shoot.” Robin sucks her teeth. She was looking at a big paper, numbers and dates scrawled across it. “I have school tomorrow and my parents will kill me if I miss it.” She sighs, crossing one of the boxes with a pen. 

“Kill!?” Steve shouts, standing up from where he was laying on his stomach on Robin’s bed. 

Robin’s eyes widen as she turns to him, shaking her head quickly. “No, not like that! I mean technically like that—but not actually kill kill, I mean it as a figure of speech!” His shoulders hike up further with the new words he doesn’t understand, hands itching to reach forward, to dig further into Robin’s mind to see for himself if this is something he should be running away from.

To see if he needed to take Robin with him.

Robin takes a breath in, her shoulders relaxing as she takes a step towards him. She seems to sense his confusion, further explaining. “A figure of speech is like being very dramatic. My parents won’t actually kill me, but they’ll definitely ground me.” She explains slowly.

Oh, well that’s much better than what he was first thinking. “Ground you?” Steve latches into the word, scrunching his nose up with confusion.

“It means that I won’t be able to go out and do fun things besides going to school. You don’t know what school is, do you?” Steve shakes his head no. Robin walks around her room, thinking. “School is where I go to learn things, it’s Monday tomorrow and so I have to go.”

So it’s like when Papa is teaching him new words. Steve sits back down, understatement drawing on him. No wonder Robin doesn’t seem like she wants to go to this school thing, Steve always hated when Papa taught him new things. Do this, do that, you disappoint me Seven, try harder. You're not doing it right.

Despite this Steve couldn’t help but be intrigued about what school was like for Robin. Who was her teacher? What did she learn about? Was it interesting? Fun? “Can I come?” Steve asks, hopeful.

Robin stops mid-step, biting her bottom lip. “You can’t, I’m sorry. It’ll be too dangerous, I don’t know who’s after you and we can’t have people know you're living with me. You’ll have to stay here by yourself.” She sighs, running her hands over her arms. “It won’t be that bad, I’ll leave you with the deck of cards we’re played with earlier. And you can probably walk around the house once my folks leave.”

“Oh…” Steve nods, looking away from her. That made sense, the Bad Men were still out there. Maybe they were looking for him still, though he doesn’t think they’d be able to find him here. It wasn’t like he knew anyone, at least until he met Robin, they would probably think he was still running as far away from the lab as possible.

Maybe they had finally given up on him?

“Don’t sound so heartbroken.” Robin says, moving so she was in his line of sight. “I’m only gone for part of the day, I’ll be back before you know it!” Steve couldn’t really agree, being left alone sounded boring beyond belief but he’ll trust her. He has no reason to start doubting her now.

Robin makes his bed on the floor, using most of her thick blankets to cushion the hard surface as she gets ready for bed. Steve helps the best he can, though much slower with his still healing feat. He thinks he may have cut them more then he first thought during his escape, only noticing now that the adrenaline was gone.

It hurt to walk around but not enough to stay sitting all day. That felt more unnatural to him than the feeling of moving with his feet injured in the first place.

After his bed for the night was set up Robin left the room to change into her pajamas. Steve walked over to the window in Robin’s room, looking out into the dark streets. He didn’t know where he was but he couldn’t help but let the smile on his face show.

He was finally free.

<0>

At various places across Hawkins…

Dustin’s feeding a little creature that had more ties to a different reality then it does to this one, some chocolate. 

Eleven has locked herself in her room, having been let down one too many times.

Hopper is left cleaning up a mess, his own emotions shimmering underneath his skin. He loves her but damn can she get on his nerves.

A group of kids are falling asleep over radio chatter, hoping that the nightmares that plague them can stay just that, nightmares.

A scientist is trying to clean up something that was left behind in Hawkins Lab, burning it until it retreats far enough. At least for a little while longer.

And in an underground lab, further out on the very edges of Hawkins, a woman is being screamed at over the phone. Dr. Martin Brenner, a man thought to be dead, demanding that she finds their lost property. That they find Seven, before history can repeat itself.

Lastly underneath the whole town, the Upside Down continues to spread as it slowly takes over.

Chapter Text

Steve was forced to wake up early with Robin as she hurried to get ready for school. The sun was barely above the horizon, the cool air nipping at his bones telling him to stay under the thin covers he was given. It’s hard to ignore Robin however as she walks around the room shoving things in her school bag.

“I’ll be gone for around six hours.” Robin says between her frantic searching, Steve didn’t even know what she was looking for but it seems to be impotent. “My parents will be gone all day and I get home before they do so when you hear them leave you're pretty much fine to walk around the house if you want.”

She lets out a breath of air when she spots a folder filled with paper, she grabs it and shoves it underneath her arm before glancing up at him. “Just stay out of sight.” Robin asks, leveling a look at him. “Please?”

“Okay.” He replies, feeling somewhat obligated to soothe the other any way he could. He didn’t like the thought of staying behind but it shouldn’t be that bad, right? He could have been trapped in a closet.

“I have to go now, see you when I get back.” Robin slings her bag over her shoulder as she leaves the room, closing the door softly behind herself. He sighs as he settles himself to waiting, hearing pointed for any noise to suggest anyone was coming back towards the door. When he doesn’t head a thing he makes his way to the window, watching as Robin gets on a bike and leaves.

Steve waits there until he sees Robin’s parents leaving the driveway for work an hour later before he leaves the room, creeping down the hallway with a change of clothes. He showers first, using the nice smelling body wash and maybe a little bit too much shampoo. Make sure to get underneath his nails digging out the dirt and grime, then he dries himself off before using the small med kit Robin had shown him to re-wrap his injuries.

It was healing slowly but he was thankful that he was healing at all. After feeling more awake Steve heads downstairs. He does as much as he can, fiddling around with the weird black brick that changes the moving pictures on the bigger black brick in the living room, he snoops through all the rooms. He doesn’t find anything very interesting. He even takes a nap because he’s so bored.

Steve only wakes up when his stomach rumbles, demanding food late into the afternoon. He has already had breakfast, Robin having gotten some for him before her parents woke up, so he busies himself with looking through the fridge to find something similar to what he had that morning.

After finding that he couldn’t read half of the things in there he shuts it, a headache already forming from not knowing what he could and couldn’t eat. Maybe he should wait for Robin to get back to ask for food? It was either that or risk poisoning himself. Steve doesn’t do sitting around, he was always busy, always being asked to do something and now he was just…left alone.

Steve turns to go adventure more around the house, he hasn’t seen the backyard yet. Her home was already so different then his, so many new things to see and ask about. Maybe he could find a basketball somewhere, if Robin even had one.

He doesn’t get very far, spotting a folder left forgotten on the kitchen counter. Robin’s folder, the one she had just been searching for before she left. She had forgotten it. “Oh no…” Steve walks over to it and picks it up, confirming to himself that this was the same binder from that morning.

It was important, at least important enough that Robin looked so relieved when she found it. What if she got in trouble for not having it? His hands shook at the thought, when Steve wasn’t good enough he got punished, he didn’t want Robin to get punished. She didn’t deserve that, no one did.

His hands grip the binder harder, his jaw setting as he looks over towards the door.

Robin said not to leave the house but this was an emergency! Maybe if he catches her in time she wouldn’t get in trouble, or even notice she doesn’t have it. Steve nods to himself as he walks towards the door, polling on the only pair of shoes that didn’t seem to be too small for him. He shoves the laces into the sides as he hooks the folder underneath his arm. Steve unlocks the door, taking his first step out into the sunlight.

Only to turn right back around and grab a random coat from the closet because it was colder then he first thought it was. He slips it on, then once again turns towards the open door. “For Robin.” Steve says to himself, walking out of the house. He closes the door behind himself, looks from left to right and picks the direction he saw Robin going.

He quickly realizes that Robin’s house wasn’t somewhere in the woods. He could see the other houses from the window but it didn’t really click in his mind that Robin lived next to a lot of people. For some reason he thought some people live next to each other, they’ll be some woods and then another cluster of people.

But no, everywhere Steve looks he sees cars, houses and streets. Most importantly however he sees a lot of different types of people. Young, old, very old, they all walk around him as if he was one of them. Only a few spared him a glance before moving on with their day. Steve couldn’t help but feel a flutter in his chest any time he passes someone and they don’t immediately single him out.

He clings the folder to his chest, walking with a brisk pace as he continues down the sidewalk. He keeps pulling up his sleeve to hide the number on his wrist and to try and chase away the cold that tries to nip at him. After a while Steve finds himself lost, the sidewalk ending with a split in the road. Left or right.

He bites his lip, looking both ways to try and figure out where he’s supposed to be going. Robin never told him where school was. He doesn’t know how long he stands there, trying to pick a way to go. He’s taken out of his thoughts by a tap on the shoulder. Looking to the left Steve was met with an older woman.

Her hair was mostly black, strands of gray peppering through it with her eyes having creases at the corners. She was shorter than him, even while wearing those weird pointy shoes. “You okay there young man? You look lost.” The woman asks, concern lacing her words.

Steve holds the folder closer to his chest. “I am.” He says, trying to find the words. It was hard when he didn’t know many things to fall back on. “I’m looking for school.” He really needs to find it, he feels like time is something running out. He’s already been out here for an hour or so just trying to make his way around.

The woman gives him a look, clearing her throat she points off down left. “The school is just down there. It’s the end of the day, dear, don’t think you’ll have much to do now.” With that she turns, her shoes making clicking sounds as she continues on her way. Steve doesn’t have time to say thank you as he’s hurrying in the direction she pointed to.

After a few minutes of walking he thinks he spots it, a giant building with teens of varying ages walking around, coming in and out of the building. He pats himself on the back for making it this far, now all he has to do is find Robin. He walks onto the property and towards the doors. People were rushing out, bags slung over their shoulders, pushing and shoving each other.  People were leaving, was he too late?

Picking up his pace Steve shoves past the wall of people leaving the building, looking around for Robin. He debates calling out for a second to try and find her but quickly decides that maybe yelling his lungs out in a school wasn’t the best way to not get noticed. Instead he walks the halls, peeking into the small windows the doors had as he looks for her.

He does this for a few minutes until everyone has left the hallway, he stands in the middle of one as he looks down at the folder in his hands. He was too late, Robin must be in trouble now. He sighs, feeling his chest squeeze up uncomfortably. His hands start to feel clammy, heart rate speeding up as it becomes a little harder to breathe.

Only for him to feel his heart at a steady pace.

Steve pauses for a second. That shouldn’t be right, he doesn’t have two heartbeats. The one beating in his chest was steady, the one in his mind was quicker and unfamiliar. This one wasn’t his own. His hearing goes a little staticy as he forces it to follow the new heartbeat, powers lurching out, searching for whatever they had originally picked up on.

It was definitely a bad idea to follow it but before he could make any actual good decisions Steve was turning right, following the string of emotions. He tries to figure out what they were but the person was too far away from him to latch onto properly. He walks down the winding halls for what feels like forever until the heartbeat quickens even more, pounding behind his own.

He’s never felt anything like this before, how his powers searched out on their own. Steve wasn’t ever able to do things subconsciously, he always needs intent behind his abilities. Yet the further into the back of the school he goes the more his powers latch onto these other persons, their emotions turning ugly in his gut.

He lets it guide him. To where, he has no clue but there had to be a reason behind it. Steve finds his way to the back door leading out to some sort of field. He looks around, finding no one nearby. “…Okay.” He takes a deep breath and turns back to the door, opening it. He sees a boy in the center of the field, shaking violently. Then like a sting snaps the second heartbeat stops.

There was something in the field, dark and evil. Steve’s powers hiss away from it like it was burning them. The sky snaps to a clouded darkness, the boy that once was standing in the field shrouded in a dark cloud. It was everywhere and it was attacking.

The folder drops to the ground as Steve rushes forward, taking off towards the cloud of darkness. It didn’t notice him yet, that or it didn’t care. What is that thing!? It took up the whole field, the sky crackling dangerously.

Pain—pain—pain

It was hard to breathe. Not the out of breath or panicing type of way but in the suffocating type of way, like someone had a pillow over his face or was pushing his head under water. Steve doesn’t hesitate as he sprints into the darkness, something roaring around him as the wind picks up, trying to push him out.

He digs his heels in, covering his eyes with his hand as he pushes forward, arm outstretched. He waves blindly, head pounding as pain erupts in his mind, whispers and demands in his ears. Steve takes a deep breath, forcing his powers to the surface and outwards.

He tries to dig past the evil his powers try to shy away from and tries to latch onto the feelings he felt before. It was this boy his powers are drawn to, this boy who needs his help.

Sadness—anxiety—fear

He grabs blind in the direction of the emotions, hand finally touching something. Steve pulls it towards him, the boy slamming into his chest. He was feeling light headed now, blood pouring down his nose and into his shirt. He hasn’t ever bled this much before. Steve grabs onto the boy's shoulders, shaking him. The kid's eyes are rolled back, the darkness funneling itself into his eyes, nose, ears and mouth. 

“Hey!” Steve screams, hardly heard over the thundering in the sky. “Hey!” He shakes harder, nothing happens. “Fuck!” Steve digs his nails into the boy's shoulders, forcing his powers to further invade the kid's mind. His stomach twists, it’s getting hard to see now, blood pouring out the corners of his eyes.

The emotions get stronger, Steve feeling them like they were his own. He forces them out and away, pushing them away from the two of them. For a split second there was a gap in the clouded darkness, the boy looking over at him. “Hey!” Steve shouts, shaking the kid again. The boy’s eyes widen, his hands grip back onto Steve like he were a lifeline. He lets him, nodding. Grip back, hold back, he was an anchor.

The boy takes a deep breath in and suddenly they are thrown back into the baby blue skys, the darkness snapping away. The kid stumbles but Steve tightens his grip, only for his knees to give out and send them both tumbling to the ground. Steve coughs, blood dripping from his mouth.

He must look horrible with all this blood on his face, eww. “Wh-who, what…” The kid was gasping for breath, looking at Steve with wide terrified eyes.

Steve doesn’t have time to explain himself before the doors to the school are being shoved open, people screaming “Will” as they run towards them. There were five of them, all running, none of them notice him yet.

The world is dizzying, the boy beside him, probably Will, was staggering to his feet. “Mom!” He yells, reaching out. The only adult in the group reaches forward and grabs Will, hugging him close to her chest.

Steve wipes the blood that’s dripping down his face with his sleeve, blinking a few times to clear his vision. His whole body was alight with pain, his ears ringing. His old injuries burned and demanded attention he couldn’t spare. He looks down at his shirt and confirms his past thoughts, he looks like he was just murdered.

“Mike.” Someone says as Steve tries to push himself to his feet. He fails, flopping back down on his butt. He guesses he’s staying here for a little while then…

“Are you okay!?” A girl yells, drawing his attention towards the group of people who had run out. The girl had orange reddish hair. He didn’t know people could have that kind of hair color. The girl took a step forward, a board with wheels in her arms. Her yelling causes the others to turn to him, with varying looks of shock.

“Oh gosh.” The adult, Mom, he thinks she was called, says as she takes a step towards him. “You’re hurt! Will, what happened!?” She turns back to the boy, her focus split between the two of them.

“I-I don’t know! I was in the field and then-then he was pulling me out of an episode.” Will stutters, breathing returning to normal.

The kid with curly hair and a little box thing in his hands was staring down at something, mouth hanging a little open. Steve follows his line of sight, flinching when he sees his number on his wrist. “Guys…”

Steve’s own heartbeat picks up as he forces himself to stand, Mom reaching out to help steady him. He staggers away from the outstretched hand. He should have never left Robin’s house, now look where he was.

“He has a number.” The boy points to his wrist but before the others could take a look Steve was pulling his sleeve down. It must have ridden up his arm when he didn’t notice. “On his wrist. He has a number on his wrist!” The kids yelling down, frantic.

Steve couldn’t move. His knees were too weak for anything but standing unevenly, even then he doesn't think it’ll take long for them to give up once more. Even if his legs weren’t trying to cause him to fall over again his headache was sure doing a good enough job. The edges of his vision were dark, fuzzy spots swimming in his vision.

“You’re like Eleven.” Steve snaps his gaze over to the boy who said it, he has short black hair, taller than the rest but not as tall as Mom. He knows Eleven, how did he know Eleven? No one should know Eleven, she was being kept at a different lab. She was supposed to be stuck there like he was stuck in his lab.

But he knew about her so that meant she was here. She was out and walking around, she was free. He couldn’t breathe, air avoiding him as he shook. “…No” Steve croaks, hand clutching his chest. His old scars itch underneath his clothes, a reminder.

“Hey, it’s okay. We’re not going to hurt you.” Mom says softly, looking over the kids then at him with big worried eyes. She was reaching out again, Steve having to trip over his two feet just to get away from her. This couldn’t be happening, shouldn’t be happening. He escaped her, like everything else in those horrible labs.

The kids were yelling between themselves, Will looking at him as if he was something recognizable. Mom puts her hands up, her mouth moving but no sound coming out. Steve struggles to push himself away from them. Were they working with Papa and Mama? They had to be, they were here to take him back, kicking and screaming.

He can’t go back, not after everything he’s been through. “Stay away!” Steve screams, voice raw and cracking. He gets his hands underneath himself, pushing himself up slightly. Vertigo hits him then, sending him sprawling back onto the ground.

Steve doesn’t get another chance to try and run away before the darkness fully clouds his vision and he passes out.

Chapter Text

“Oh my God, oh my God!” Dustin yells as Joyce carries the person they had just found out was really into number tattoos or was one of the people like Eleven. Dustin didn’t even know there were others like her, though it made sense. Eleven was, well, eleven. There had to be others before her, maybe even some after her? Who knows.

“You're not helping Dustin!” Lucas shouts, not looking much better than any of them. First it was Will potentially having another episode and now they were taking an unconscious person to Joyce’s car. Did this count as kidnapping? He thinks this counts as kidnapping.

“He has a number! I think we should be thinking about that!” Mike shouts, staring at the boy in Joyce’s arms. She looks seconds away from dropping him, it was a miracle she was still holding on.

“Boys yell later, car door now!” Joyce says, her knees wobbling a bit. Will rushes forward and opens the back door to Joyce’s car, Joyce hurrying over to set the boy into the car. She lays him down, buckling him in haphazardly. “Okay he’s in.” She huffs, shutting the door shut. “Now any of you care to explain what’s going on?”

“You and me both.” Max says, narrowed eyes on all of them. Dustin thinks she would have her arms crossed if it wasn’t for her skateboard.

Dustin looks over at Lucas, then Will and lastly Mike, who shrugs. “We have no idea.” Dustin speaks for them, mind still trying to explain this in any other way that wasn’t there was one of Eleven’s siblings running around that neither of them knew about. The guy was coughing up blood and his eyes and nose were bleeding! Just like Eleven when she uses too much of her powers.

“Did you see him use any powers?” Dustin asks, turning his attention to Will.

“Powers!?” Max scowls, looking even more lost.

“No, I didn't.” Will replies as he looks at the car window. “But he helped me somehow, I don’t know how to explain it. One moment I was lost like there was only darkness and the next I was looking at him. He was shaking me, trying to get me to notice him.”

“So this random stranger shows up out of nowhere and tries to help you? That doesn’t make any sense.” Mike raises his hands in the air, looking frustrated. Dustin can understand it, not wanting to be left out of whatever loop they found themselves in.

“Can someone please explain to me what’s going on?” Max interrupts, shaking her hands in front of them all.

Joyce takes a step forward. “I need to get Will home and this boy somewhere safe. We don’t know if he’s more hurt then he already seems to be. Are you four okay with biking?” She asks, putting her hand on Will’s shoulder.

“Sure, Mrs Byers.” Lucas says, running his hand down his face. Then he looks over at Max, taking a breath in before speaking. “We’ll explain later.” Max huffs but doesn’t say anything. Joyce gets into the car, Will getting into the passenger seat before the two of them drive away.

“Come on, we have to meet them.” Mike speaks up, speed walking back towards the school. The rest of them hurry after him. Dustin keeps a tight grip on his ghost capture with Dart inside, wondering if this had something to do with him.

Dustin’s foot hits something on his way inside. He looks down, finding a red folder laying on the ground. Crouching he picks it up, flipping it open. It was algebra, something from an upperclassmen. He looks at the name, Robin Buckley staring back at him.

“Are you coming?” Mike calls back. Dustin shoves the folder in his bag along with the ghost capture before continuing on after his friends. 

They walk through the school, the boys keep sharing glances at each other. “I can’t believe there’s more kids like Eleven.” Mike says as they make it to the bike racks at the front of the school.

“Eleven… Like El, your mage?” Max asks, putting her skateboard down on the ground.

Dustin and Lucas both turn to Mike then. Did he tell her about Eleven? Without asking the Party? That breaks like, very rule they had! “You told her about Eleven?” Dustin asks, unlocking his bike from the rack. “Mike!”

“I didn’t tell her much!” He yells back, nose scrunching up. “Just that she’s a part of our Party.”

“But there’s something more,” Max states, putting her foot atop the board. “Or else you all wouldn’t be freaking out about some guy having some weird medical condition in the field earlier. Who is he, anyways?”

“We don’t know.” Lucas answers, getting on the back of Dustin’s bike. “But we think he’s related to Eleven somehow, right? You said you saw a number on him?” The question is directed at him this time, Dustin nodding.

He did see a number, 007, which would make sense why he looks older if he was born before Eleven with a number like that. “He’s Seven.” Dustin guesses, pointing at his wrist. “Zero zero seven, that’s what was on his wrist.”

“How much do you want to bet he escaped just like Eleven did?” Lucas says as Dustin starts to pedal. Mike and Max flank him as they ride out of the school's parking lot.

“I still don’t understand what’s going on.” Max sighs, yet she keeps following them. Dustin wonders just how similar this ‘Seven’ guy was to Eleven. He couldn’t shake the look of fear that appeared on the guy's face, like they were going to hurt him. It causes shivers to run up his spine, a frown forming on his face.

Dustin has never seen someone look so terrified in his life, nevertheless after hearing El’s name.

.

The moment they pull into the Byer’s house driveway they ditch the bikes and run towards the door, Mike leading the charge like always. The door was unlocked, Mike barging in. Dustin will apologize later, right now they have to get to the bottom of this.

And ‘this’ was passed out on the couch, Joyce squatting beside him as she cleans off his face with a wet rag. Will was sitting on the arm rest, his gaze snapping to meet theirs as they came in. “I saw it.” Will says first, gesturing to the guy's wrist. His sweater was on the ground, bloodstains drying. His sleeve is rolled up to his elbow, exposing the numbers he saw out in the field.

“Whoa.” Max says. She shuts the door behind herself, eyes locked on the guy on the couch. “That’s uh…a lot more blood then I first thought.”

“Whatever he did must have taken a lot of energy.” Will explains, hugging himself with his arms.

Mike makes his way to his side. “So this is Seven, then.” Mike guesses.

“So he’s like Eleven?” Joyce asks, standing up. She squeezes the rag into a bucket, the water tinted red. Her expression was pinched, worry lines lining her forehead.

“Maybe.” Dustin replies. He walks over to the couch, looking down at the guy. He looks nothing like he did in the field, with his face now washed and the fear gone. He looks peaceful now, like the horrors of whatever he was thinking about in that moment was so far away.

What brought him to the field? Was he looking for Eleven? There was something going on they had yet to have a part in, something Dustin needs to figure out before someone can get hurt. He doesn’t want another person taking the punches like Eleven had last year, he can’t have that happen again.

“I’m going to call Hopper.” Joyce announces, walking over to her phone. “If the lab is involved again he needs to know about it.” She starts to dial, turning her back towards them.

Max turns her back on Seven, gesturing to him all the same. “Okay everyone slow down! Lab? What the hell is going on!?” Max yells. “You can’t leave me in the dark anymore, so spill!” She points to Lucas, lifting her chin up as if to say try and ignore me now.

Lucas holds his hands up, backing up a little bit. “Alright.” He gives in, shoulders slumping.

“You can’t just tell her!” Mike steps in, looking between Lucas and Max. “That's for the party to decide as a group.”

“I’m all for telling her.” Dustin raises his hand. She was already in deep, with Dart possibly being from the Upside Down and now with one of Eleven’s maybe lap siblings, keeping her out of the dark wasn’t really serving a purpose anymore.

Mike turned towards Will, eyes pleading to keep a secret that none of them could hold close to their chests anymore. “She needs to know.” Will whispers, hands curling in his lap. “She already knows too much.”

Mike sighs, head hanging low. “Fine.” He starts walking down the hall, gesturing for them all to follow him. They end up in Will’s bedroom with the door shut, Joyce’s voice being cut off as it closes. The four of them look at each other for a second, trying to decide who would be the one to tell her.

“Well?” Max says, waiting.

“I guess I should start with when Will went missing.” Lucas takes charge, taking a deep breath in. Dustin stands to the side as Lucas explains Will’s disappearance, then Eleven showing up, the bad guys and the lab, the Upside Down.

All throughout this Max’s face changes from wanting to know everything to looking like she wanted nothing more than to not hear a word of it. She settles on acceptance at the end of it, staring intently at the ground.

“So who’s on the couch?” Is the first thing she says after they are done explaining, looking back up at them all.

“I think it’s one of the lab kids, like Eleven was.” Dustin speaks up. “With the same tattoo, only this one is a seven instead of an eleven. He looks older than her, it makes sense.”

Will shakes his head, wrapping his arms around himself. “Nothing about this makes sense!”

“Will’s right, it’s not adding up.” Mike continues, eyes narrowed in thought. “We were at the lab last year, there was no one else. Eleven would have told me if she had any siblings.” That was true, it was hard to not see how Eleven and Mike act with each other, there were no secrets between them.

“Unless she didn’t know about him?” Lucas questions. All of them look over to him at that. “I mean, she wouldn’t have left him behind. We all know what she’s like, she sacrificed herself for us. If she had an older brother she wouldn’t have just left him behind.” Lucas explains.

That made more sense, in a way Dustin didn’t like how it fit together. Maybe Eleven didn’t know about Seven? The five of them stay in Will’s room for a little longer, answering any questions Max could come up with. Like no, Eleven isn’t with us and no we had no clue there were more people with superpowers.

After the interrogation they left Will’s room and went back into the living room, where Joyce was whisper-yelling at the phone. She hangs up soon after, huffing as she moves her hair out of her face. “Mom?” Will asks, walking over to her. “What is it?”

“I can’t get a hold of Hopper.” Joyce says, walking back over to Seven’s side. He was still out cold. “He isn’t even at the station.” She picks up the bucket of water she was using to clean off Seven’s face, walking over towards the hallway. She pauses at the entrance. “You guys should start making your way home. I can watch him.”

Mike bristles, opening his mouth to say something. “No buts.” Joyce cuts him off, shaking her head. “If this is centered around the lab I don’t want any of you kids to get wrapped up in it. Let me and Hopper handle this.” Joyce finishes and starts walking down the hall, leaving them just standing there.

It wasn’t fair to leave right now but at the same time Dustin couldn’t hang around and wait for Dart to make another escape attempt. He felt bad even thinking about it but he wouldn’t be any help here.

“I’ll call you guys on the walkie-talkies if something happens.” Will says, drawing their attention back to him.

“You promise?” Lucas asks.

Will nods. “Not much else I can do.”

“Be safe.” Dustin finds himself saying, not knowing who he was aiming the words at. Maybe everyone.

“I will.” Will says, smiling. “See you guys later.” With that Will sees them to the door, shutting it softly behind them. Dustin takes a deep breath in, the anxiety in the pit of his stomach slowly growing. He doesn’t know how or why, but things have gotten a lot more complicated.

Will was sitting at the kitchen table. It was a couple hours after his friends had left. The moon was out and the chill of the night had set in, though it was more like a slight buzz across his skin. Will has never liked the cold before but something about the night's chill was satisfying.

It cools down the ever present anxiety swirling in his stomach. Mom was checking on Seven once more. There was something about the older teen that has his mother, well, mother henning.

Joyce walks in a few minutes later and sits down across from Will. She sets her hand on his, a caring and gentle, yet very concerned look on her face. “You have to tell me what happened in the field.” Joyce says, head held low so she was more at her son's level.

Will sucks in a short breath while looking down at the table. “I can’t remember.” He replies meekly as he tries not to meet his moms gaze.

“I need you to try.” Joyce squeezes his hand.

“I was on the field and…” Will bites his lip, pulling away from his mom. “Then I saw it. Everything went blank, then he was there.” Will looks over towards the entrance to the living room where he knew Seven was sleeping. It was weird to think about Seven. 

“Will, I need you to tell me the truth.” Joyce cuts through his fleeing mind, voice now with a slightly rough edge.

Will leans away from the other, frowning. “I am.” He protests, though lacking the conviction of someone telling the truth.

Joyce sighs before getting up. She leaves the kitchen for a moment, coming back with a drawing. She sets it on the table and immediately Will knows what it is, or should he say who it was. “This shape, I saw it on the video tape from Halloween night. It’s the same shape as your drawing.” She says, pointing at the picture.

Will remembers when he first drew it, when he could see what he was drawing as easily as he could breath. It was like something took over him as he scribbled on the pages. He doesn’t like how he feels when he’s drawing them, like he was seeing something he shouldn’t.

 “These episodes that you’re having, I think Dr. Owens is wrong about them. I think what you're going through is real. But sweetheart I can’t help you if I don’t know what’s going on.” Joyce sets her hand on Will’s shoulder. Finally he looks up at her. She pleads with her eyes and Will knows then he couldn’t keep this all to himself. No matter how much he wants to.

“So you have to talk to me. Please. No more secrets, okay?” Joyce pleads and Will loses any resistance that was still left in his mind.

“…Okay.” Will whispers, eyes watering.

Joyce smiles, like he’s just given her the world. Will wonders how much of the world his mom even saw as good anymore. There was a lot of it that didn’t make sense, not after everything. “Did you see this thing again on the field?” She asks.

“Yes.” Will says hesitantly. 

“What-what is it?” Joyce taps the drawing, looking down at it.

“I don’t know. It’s almost like a feeling.” Will shrugs. It was like something was crawling underneath his skin, demanding that he pay attention. He shivers at the reminder.

Joyce hums. “Like the one you had at the arcade?” 

He nods. “Yes.” The arcade is where it started, where things started to take a turn for the worst. Or maybe it started that first night in the Upside Down, with Will shivering and drenched in things that smelt closer to puke than to dirt and water. He’s not even sure if it was just dirt and water, not when there was a predator hunting him. It very well could have been its last meal.

“What does it want?” Joyce rubs his shoulder, watching as he starts to stare off into the distance.

“I don’t know. It came for me, and…” Will’s voice cracks and he’s forced to take a breath in. “And I tried. I tried to make it go away.” He whines, looking back over to his mom. She smiles encouragingly, yet he could still see her own deer behind her eyes. “But it got me, Mom.” Will breaths.

“What does that mean?” Joyce questions unsteady.

“I felt it… It was everywhere.” Will whisper, shivering once more. “Everywhere.” He adds with more emphasis? “I-I still feel it. I just want this to be over.” He feels a tear fall down his cheek, his bottom lip quivering.

“It’s okay. Hey, listen. Look, look at me.” Joyce squeezes his shoulder, moving him to look at her. “I will never, ever let anything bad happen to you ever again. Whatever’s going on in you we’re gonna fix it. I will fix it.” Her voice trembles as she brings him in, her arms wrapping fully around him in a hug. “I promise. I’m here.” She kisses the top of his head, Will melting into the embrace.

Then a breeze flows in, Will shivering in his moms hold. He looks over towards the living room. “Did you leave the window open?” He asks. He likes it, the cold, but Seven probably wouldn’t like being frozen out of a deep sleep.

“I didn’t.” Joyce pulls back a bit. She stands, Will following after her as they make their way into the living room. Will looks to the closed window then over towards the door, which was swinging open. “Mom—“

“He’s gone.” Joyce cuts her son off, running over towards the empty couch. The blankets were tossed haphazardly onto the ground. Will stares with wide eyes as his mom runs out the door, leaving him to stare at the empty couch.

Seven ran away.

Chapter Text

Steve’s heart was pounding so hard he thinks it just may jump out of his throat and splash onto the pavement. He doesn’t know where he is or how he’ll get back to Robin, all that he knows is that he needs to get as far away from where he woke up as he possibly can.

His clothes stick to him uncomfortably, rain pouring down and soaking him to the bone. The night breeze feels more like tiny little daggers cutting him up, leaving him freezing. His memories from before he passed out were a bit fuzzy, flooded with pain and a bone aching fear.

There was a kid he thinks, named Will? He needed Steve’s help, so he tried to help. Only for a bunch of strangers to show up who somehow know Eleven. Steve shivers then but it wasn’t because of the cold. Then he passed out and they took him. They took him. Steve bites his lower lip, gnawing on it like the action could wipe the memory fully away.

He woke up to two people talking, Will and Mom if he remembers the names correctly. Steve looks over his shoulder as he continues to run, looking into the darkness. He half expects the two to be running after him, hunting him down. He made sure to leave quietly and sprinted for it the second he was off the wooden, squeaky floorboards.

Mom sounds a lot like Mama and he really hopes they weren’t related somehow. Steve can’t handle another Mama, one was more than enough. He focuses forward, feet splashing through the deep puddles that fill his shoes. He runs and he runs until he can no longer breathe in a deep enough breath and he’s forced to slow down to a walk.

Steve wraps his arms around himself, body shaking violently. With each step his shoes make a squish sound, which was the only other sound besides his breathing and the thudding of the rain across the road.

Until the sound of a motor hits his ears.

Steve looks up as bright headlights practically blind him. He stops walking as the vehicle passes him only to slow down a moment later. Steve was at a crossroads, the car going across from the road he was heading down. The car slowly starts backing up. Steve takes a few steps back, teeth chattering.

The car stops in front of him, a man leaning slightly out of the window. “You okay kid?” The man asks, something looking like a small stick on his mouth. He takes it out and holds it between two fingers, lifting his hat a little with his other hand. “It’s pouring out, shouldn’t you be at home?”

Steve narrows his gaze on the other man, smoke leaving his mouth. The little stick between his fingers was smoking too, was he breathing it in from that? It smelt bad either way. “Hey, did you hear me? Are you okay?” The man asks again a little louder this time.

He opens his mouth to reply but shuts it a few seconds after. He thought he was safe this far away from the lab, but he’s not. Anyone could be from the lab out here, even this stranger. Instead of replying Steve starts walking around the car. Robin has to be worried about him, he needs to get to her and under a warm roof as fast as possible.

He ignores the “Hey I’m talking to you.” The man shouts as Steve continues to walk down the road. A slamming sound hits his ear but he pays it no mind. Not until a hand lands on his shoulder. Steve flinches away, whipping around to face the man from the car, who was no longer in his car. Crap, he followed him out.

The man immediately puts his hands up afterwards, taking a small step back. “Whoa calm down.” The man says, slowly lowering his hands. “What’s your name?” He asks suddenly, catching Steve off guard.

The lab people already know his name, they wouldn’t be asking for what it was if they already knew him. Which meant this man didn’t know who he was. Like how Robin didn’t know who he was. “…Steven.” Steve replies slowly, keeping a good distance from the other. “It’s also Steve.” He adds, remembering what Robin had said before. Steve was a shorter version of Steven, so technically he had three names.

The man hums. “I’m Jim Hopper, but everyone just calls me Hopper.” Hopper says. Steve couldn’t help but cling onto the name, like it was something he should remember. Jim Hopper. The man had more than one name, like he did. “I don’t know about you but I’m freezing my ass off out here. How about we go to my car and I can blast the heat as I drive you home?” Hopper suggests.

Steve considers it for a second, fingers going numb. He wasn’t an idiot, he knew if he stayed out in the cold for any longer he risked freezing to death out here. Hopper seems trustworthy enough, at least enough until he’s warmed up a bit.

“Okay.” Steve agrees. Hopper’s shoulder sag as he leads him to his car, opening the side without the wheel. Steve climbs in, Hopper shutting the door quickly behind him. Hopper gets in on the other side, turning a dial on the control panel. Suddenly warm air is blasting onto him, Steve reaching out towards it. His hands are red, shaking as he rubs them together.

“Buckle in.” Hopper asks, clicking in something across his chest. Steve looks at it for a moment then looks to the side, spotting his own strap. Steve copies him and clicks the thing on, moving it across his chest. “So,” Hopper starts, his fingers tapping on the wheel. “What’s your home address?”

Address? Steve didn’t know what an address was. He knew what home was, Robin was his home. He needs to get back to Robin. “Robin.” Steve says. His fingers were getting feeling back to them now. He rubs them harder, the sting of the cold fading to the background.

“Is Robin your mom?” Hopper asks, his body turned in his direction.

Steve shakes his head. “Robin isn’t Mom.” Mom was the last person he wanted to be taken to, well not really. First it was Papa, then Mama and then Mom. Still the thought still stands.

“Is Robin your sister?” Hopper goes on to ask, eyebrows lowering. Steve shakes his head again. He doesn’t want to see any of his sisters, though he’s pretty sure only one was still alive. “Kid I can’t help you if you don’t tell me your address. Unless you don’t have one?” The last part was spoken slowly, like it was something Hopper didn’t want to say. Given the fact Steve didn’t know what it was, he’s pretty sure it’s not something he would have. So Steve shakes his head again.

Hopper takes a deep breath, leaning back. He looks Steve up and down, for a second stopping at his shaking hands. He sighs, runs his hands down his face and then starts the car. It rumbles to life as he starts to drive. “Okay, I can deal with this.” Hopper whispers, though Steve could still catch it. 

Steve stares out the window as the man drives, watching the trees pass by quickly. Soon enough he feels warm enough to put his hands down on his lap, leaning back in the seat. The car rocks slightly, soothingly and before Steve could stop himself he yawns and closes his eyes.

He wakes to his shoulder being shook slightly. Steve stirs, someone sighing next to him as he’s shook slightly harder. He stretches his legs, eyes blinking open. Hopper was standing in front of him while holding the door open. “Come on kid.” Hopper gestured to a path into the woods, his car parked off the road. “I have a cabin off the path, you can stay there until tomorrow morning where I can take you into the station.” Hopper says.

Steve gets out of the car, rubbing his eyes sleepily. “Robin?” He asks, looking over at the other man.

“Yes, I’ll also ask around for a Robin.” Hopper replies as he starts walking down the path. Steve follows, keeping close to the other as to not get lost. It took a few minutes of walking through the woods before Steve could see this ‘cabin’ Hopper was speaking of. It was a smaller version of Robin's house, made out of wood instead of gray hard stone. 

Who is too dark to see anything beyond the cabin. Hopper climbs the steps quickly and knocks rythmatical on the door. After a few seconds of silence how put the repeats they’re knocking but louder this time. Steve looks around the woods, the sound of crickets and other insects buzzing around foliage. For some reason he always thought the woods would be quiet like the lab, but it wasn’t.

“Damit.” Hopper seethes as he opens the unlocked door. He marches in, leaving Steve to stand alone on the steps. After a few seconds Hopper reemerges. “Come in.” He says gruffly, shoulders held tight. Steve cautiously takes a step forward. Hopper moves out of his way as he walks fully into the cabin.

“I’ll set up the couch for you in a minute.” Hopper says as Steve looks around the small space. Robin’s place was much bigger, had more rooms, but something about this cabin was still as warm and welcoming. Hopper walks over to a door and knocks, waits a few seconds, then opens it to look inside. He must not like what he finds because he’s closing the door roughly a second later.

Steve looks at the door, eyebrow raising. What was behind that door that would cause that kind of reaction? Hopper must see his confusion as he walks over to the couch, dusting it off quickly as he says, “My daughter doesn’t like to stay put.”

Daughter? What’s a daughter? Steve just nods as Hopper explains that his ‘daughter’ was supposed to keep the door locked when he’s away. Steve just hums, not completely understanding the point in keeping the door locked. They had windows. Windows could easily be broken.

Hopper sets the couch up with a pillow and a blanket, looking annoyed. Papa would look at him like that, when he couldn’t do as he was asked. When he failed to be everything his siblings were. Hopper didn’t look at him like that. Instead he looked out the window like he was aiming it at something, or someone, else.

“Thank you.” Steve speaks up after a few minutes as he sits atop the blanket he was given.

Hopper looks over from where he’s standing near the windows, his eyes softening at the edges. He smiles slightly, like he was trying to hide it. It confuses Steve a bit. Mama would smile a lot, too much actually, but the edges of her eyes never softened. Steve learned that it was fake, every time she smiled it was because she was hiding her true emotions. He felt so out of depth. People had too many expressions.

“No problem kid.” Hopper shrugs, leaning on the windowsill as he turns his full attention to him. “Steve, why were you out on the road so late? While it’s pouring, too.” Hopper asks.

“I’m looking for Robin.” Steve replies easily, leaning against the back of the couch.

“Is Robin out there too?” Hopper asks, sounding slightly worried. Steve shakes his head, yawning. “Is she at home?” Steve nods, the older man humming in thought. It’s why he needs to find her, she’s at home, her home and he really wants to find her again. So he doesn’t have to go back to his last home, which never felt like a home at all. “So she’s at her home, but you don’t have a home?”

Not one that he wanted to go back to. “No.” Steve says. He doesn’t want to continue this conversation, so before Hopper could ask anymore questions he moves the blanket on top of himself and shoves his face into the pillow. He closes his eyes, lifting the blanket so it’s over his face as he hides from the eyes of the older man.

He’s tired and all he wants is to find Robin and never leave her room again. He hears Hopper move around the cabin for a few minutes before he lets sleep take him.

.

Steve wakes up only a few minutes later to loud voices outside the cabin. He sits up slowly at the sound, heart beating slightly faster in his chest as he scans the small space. Hopper wasn’t here anymore but it was his voice that woke him up. Steve kicks the blanket off of himself and he pushes himself onto his knees.

Leaning over the back of the couch Steve strains his hearing to try and catch whatever was happening outside. The door and windows were closed, making everything really muffled. He quickly gives up on trying to stay undetected as he walks over to one of the windows. There was paper covering them, tapped at the edges.

Steve pulls some of it back, peeking out towards the voices. Hopper was standing in front of the door, another person standing in front of him. They were shorter, glaring up at Hopper with a frown. Was this Hopper’s daughter? The one he said should have been here already? He puts his ear closer to the cold glass, words coming out of the once muffled voices. Steve strains to hear what they were saying out there.

“You promised, I go.” Hopper’s daughter points at him. “And I never leave! Nothing ever happens!” She shouts, something familiar in her tone. Steve couldn’t place it, where he’s heard that tone before. Had he heard that tone before?

“Yeah! Nothing happens and you stay safe!” Hopper shouts back, slamming his hand down on the wooden railing. Steve and Hopper’s daughter both flinch at the action but he couldn’t force him to pull away from the window. Steve couldn’t help but feel like he was missing something.

“You lie!” She yells, getting into the older man’s face. 

“I don’t lie! I protect and I feed and I teach! And all I ask of you is that you follow three simple rules. Three rules. And you know what? You can’t even do that!” Hopper huffs, flicking the stick that was in his mouth to the ground and stomping it out with his foot. “You’re grounded. You know what that means? It means no Eggos and no TV for a week.” Hopper turns on his heels and goes to open the door but something stops him from opening it. It bulks against the frame, like it was locked.

Steve looks over at the door, at the chain left dangling in the air. The door wasn’t locked, yet it didn’t move. “All right, knock it off. Let go.” Steve hears Hopper say, muffled now that his ear wasn’t close to the window anymore. Hopper tries to open the door again but he’s met with it not even budging. 

“All right, two weeks.” Hopper grunts, trying to open the door again. It bulks against the frame like it did before. “Let go!” He yells. Steve feels something get stuck in his throat as he quickly goes back to looking out the window, eyes wide. The door should have opened. Why wasn’t it opening up? The lock had to be broken somehow, or the door itself was broken.

The palms of his hands start to sweat, his cheek freezing as his head is pressing against the window. Gaze locking onto Hopper’s daughter. Hopper says something again but Steve could no longer hear him over his own blood rushing in his ears. He watches as Hopper’s daughter says something back as she shakes her head.

It was hard to see her face in the darkness but he tries, his eyes locking on the place right underneath her nose. It was too dark to see if her nose was bleeding, which was a crazy thing to even let pass through his thoughts. Of course her nose wouldn’t be bleeding, she wasn’t like him. But then why was the door not opening?

The yelling only gets louder until Steve finally catches something over the loudness of his own quickening heart rate. “You are like Papa!” Hopper’s daughter yells.

“Really? I’m like that psychotic son of a bitch?” Hopper has his hand on his forehead, leaning on the railing to the cabin.

Steve’s heart stops and along with it his lungs. Actually he finds the whole world slowing down as he registers the name. You are like Papa. “No…” Steve whispers, backing up from the window. “Not you.” Anyone but her. “Not again.” Steve wraps his arms around himself tightly, trying to keep his mind in the now and not in the before.

Windows could easily be broken.

He grabs the first thing he could see, which was a lamp, and runs to the other side of the cabin. Steve rips the paper off of the window there, the yelling outside getting louder and louder. Things in the cabin were rattling. Steve raises the lamp above his head, the rattling getting louder. He slams it against the window. It doesn’t break. He does it again. It cracks. The door handle was ratting now. Steve ignores it.

With one last powerful downwards hit the lamp flies through the window, glass shattering. Steve crawls through the now open window, glass tearing at his palms and clothes as he falls out on the other side. His face hits the muddy ground but he doesn’t care. Steve gets up and starts running. He doesn’t get very far before he hears her screaming and the inside of the cabin being torn apart.

“Why!” Steve screams into the wilderness, the scars over his body beginning to aggravate as he runs. She was supposed to be with Papa and locked away. That monster was never supposed to see the light of day again. Yet everyone he seems to meet knew her, she had escaped long before he had.

Was she here to take him back? Or kill him? To finish what she started all those years ago. Steve had to get out of here, had to get Robin and leave this town. It was too dangerous to stay here now. Tears run down Steven’s cheek. He wipes them away, trying not to remember the pain of that night.

However in the darkness, all alone, it was hard to forget his siblings' screams as Eleven killed them all.

Chapter Text

The sun was rising above the horizon by the time Steve finds his way back to town, with the buildings and the old women who keep looking at him weirdly. He ignores the looks as he tries to spot anything he remembers from yesterday. It takes a while but Steve does spot something familiar. A building that he passed when he was looking for Robin’s school.

Then he recognizes more buildings, then the street he’s on. Steve picks up his pace slightly as he heads the opposite way of the school. Soon enough everything looks familiar and he’s sprinting, throat aching to call out Robin’s name. Steve keeps his mouth closed however, not wanting to draw more attention to himself.

He’s already done that enough. Steve only slows down when he finally sees Robin’s house, somewhere he’s only seen once in the light, when he was leaving it the day prior. Steve rounds the house, going to where Robin’s bedroom window overlooks the street. Staring up at it, Steve tries to think of how he’ll get Robin’s attention. He could scale the house but that would be dangerous.

There were a lot of people nearby, walking past him to and from places. They could see him and demand that he come down. Steve hasn’t been around houses like this before but he’s pretty sure it was rude to climb them. Looking around for something to help him out, Steve spots a few small pebbles on the ground.

“Pebbles.” Steve says to himself, looking down at the small rock. Then he gets an idea, picking it up. He doesn’t need to get inside, he just needs to let Robin know he’s back and have her help him.

Steve takes a few steps back from the house, looks up at the window while pulling his arm back and throws the pebble at the window. It hits the side of the house, tumbling down to the ground. “Fuck.” Steve curses, groaning as he goes to pick up another pebble.

Steve throws another pebble at the window, the small stone thudding against it this time and hitting its mark. It tinks onto the window, falling down the side of the house as it lands back on the ground. He waits a few seconds to see if Robin heard him, with nothing changing. He picks up another pebble and tries again. It hits the window, falls and then he waits. Robin doesn’t answer.

Maybe she didn’t hear it? Or was too far away, Robin could very well be in the bathroom nowhere close to her bedroom window. Or maybe she was just ignoring him, not wanting to see him. Maybe Steve broke her trust by leaving, maybe she didn’t want to ever see him again.

“Steve?” A soft voice calls out, making him still, a new pebble in his hand. Steve turns his head slowly, spotting Robin a few feet away on her bike. Her feet were planted on either side of it, her cheeks flushed and her breath ragged. It was hard to make her out in the darkness, but he could still spot the surprised look in her eyes. One that was quickly turning to anger.

Oh no.

“Where were you!” Robin yells as she gets off her bike, dropping it onto the ground as she runs over. Steve tenses as she comes barreling towards him. Wrapping her hands around him Robin forces him into an embrace, pushing her face into the side of his neck. “I thought I lost you!” She yells, her grip around him becoming almost suffocating.

“I don’t know.” Steve replies honestly. He drops the pebble in his hand and wraps his arms around her, not knowing what they were doing but knowing that Robin seemed to want it. He’s been all over the place, meeting weird people, bad people. His own sister…

He didn’t want to think about her. Instead he presses his nose to the top of Robin’s head, letting the other’s body heat warm him up. Robin wasn’t just warm in the physical sense, she made his heart feel warm. She made him worry for her, in a way no one has before.

“I said to not leave the house.” Robin states as she lets him go. She crosses her arms over her chest, glaring up at him.

Steve’s throat becomes tight, his mouth going dry at the words. She did tell him to stay put and he didn’t listen. But it was for a good cause! “I had to.” Steve says, trying to find the right words to explain himself. It was hard to do when he felt like he was being scolded. “You left your folder.” Steve explains.

Robin stares at him for a moment, then understanding dawns on her, her eyes widening slightly. “My folder—you left to give me back my folder.” Robin repeats, groaning. She takes a deep breath in, looking around the street. “We should go inside.” Robin turns and walks back over to her bike, picking it up off the ground.

“I’m sorry.” Steve says as Robin wheels her bike over. He doesn’t know why he feels the need to say it, he did what he thought was best. But Mama always said that even if it wasn’t his fault he should apologize. It got him in trouble less often.

“You don’t need to apologize for being a good friend.” Robin says back, walking towards the front of her house. Her parents' cars were in the driveway. Robin sets her bike to the side of the driveway, out of the way of the cars as she goes to open the front door. She pauses, looking over at him. “I’ll distract my parents, you sneak past me and into my room. You have to be very quiet.” Robin says.

“Okay.” Steve nods, lowering his body slightly. He was tall compared to mostly everyone around him, he could do with a few less inches in height. Robin counts down from three on her fingers before she opens the door, shouting out a greeting to her parents to cover his quick footsteps.

Robin heads into the living room, most likely where her parents were as Steve makes his way upstairs and into Robin’s room. Once in her room Steve sits down on her bed, letting his body relax for the first time in hours.

Joyce paces back and forth, mind running a mile a minute as she tries to think of what to do. She didn’t know what to do or who to call, Hopper wasn’t picking up. Will was in his room after she had run him a warm bath, only to have to switch it to a freezing cold temperature. Something was wrong with her boy and she was starting to fear it was something she couldn’t fix.

Then there was Seven. A boy that brought with him too many questions to past unanswered ones. Was he like Eleven? He has the same tattoo on his wrist she had. Joyce never wanted to think about the meaning behind the numbers. That there were ten other kids just like Eleven, ten helpless kids. Her ignorance was being broken now, smashed to bits.

Joyce stops in the middle of her kitchen, redirecting herself to a pack of smokes forgotten on the counter. She quickly lights them with a lighter from her pocket and breathes in the smoke, letting it rush into her lungs.

Seven looked so young and scared. Around Jonathan’s age. His head was shaved like Eleven’s was, but she could tell it was starting to grow back. How long had he been out of the lab? How long has no one noticed a helpless teenager on the streets? How hasn’t Hopper found out yet?

Like her thoughts were heard Joyce hears a car pulling up, engines shutting off. She takes a second to think about everything he wants to say. Which was a lot, even for her own brain. When she has some semblance of understanding of what she wants to say she turns. Joyce takes another inhale from her cigarette as she grabs the ashtray, moving to the living room.

“Hello?” Hopper calls, stepping through the threshold of her house. He knocks softly on the wood.

Joyce quickly taps the ash of her smoke into the ashtray. “Leave it open.” She says, walking over to him. She pulls slightly on the sweater around her shoulders. “Where the hell have you been?” She asks in a hushed tone.

Hopper looks over at her, his eyebags darker than she’s seen them in a long time. For a second she wonders about the reason she hasn’t been able to get a hold of him. Then pushes it down because nothing could be as important as this.

“I overslept. What the hell’s going on? It’s freezing.” Hopper says as he takes off his hat, looking around the room as if he was looking for an explanation in the walls. His voice was rough. Joyce didn’t totally believe it was because of lack of sleep.

Instead of answering him she gestures to follow. Hopper opens his mouth to say something but she holds a finger up to her lips. Setting down her smoke and ashtray Joyce leads Hopper down the hall. Once at Will’s bedroom she knocks softly, opening the door. “Hey, we have a visitor.” Joyce speaks up, Hopper giving her a look as he crosses into the room with her.

Will was facing away from them on the bed, shirt forgotten. No doubt the cold should have him diving for a blanket. Instead he sits still, no hint of freezing in the cold room. Will turns towards them, his lips held in a tight line as he maneuvers himself to facing them.

Joyce looks over at Hopper. First things first, her son. “Will saw something in the field yesterday.” She says, watching Hopper’s expression. He’s good at keeping it neutral, as if he didn’t know the implications. He does, they both do.

“What did you see?” Hopper asks, turning his attention onto Will.

Soon enough they find themselves back in the middle of Joyce’s living room, Will’s scribbles running across the floor, taped down and connecting to each other. Shades of blue, black and brown stretching into each other in pathways Joyce couldn’t hope to understand.

It’s Hopper who figures it out. “He’s drawing vines.” Hopper breaths, staring at the floor with recognition. He knows something, something Joyce doesn’t. He’s moving towards the door before Joyce could fully register the word. Hopper grabs his hat and coat, placing it on his head as he opens the door. He’s moving too fast with a sense of urgency that means danger.

“Wait!” Joyce yells, tripping over a few papers as she rushes forward. Hopper pauses to look at her, eyes screaming like they did last year. When they were in the Upside Down looking for her son. They were the eyes of a man who knew what needed to be done. She couldn’t help but feel awful for getting in the way of that look. She knows however what she needs to say couldn’t wait.

“What?” Hopper asks, urgency in his voice.

Joyce looks at the floor, then over at the couch. “There’s something else I need to tell you.” She says. Her hands were balled into fists, trying to starve off the cold. “Will wasn’t alone in the field when I found him.” Joyce explains, turning back to face Hopper.

Hopper let’s go off the door handle. “Who else was with him?” He asks.

“A boy. Brown hair and eyes, this tall.” Joyce lifts her hand held above her own height. It was dark when she could finally get a good look at him, at Seven. She didn’t want to look that much, not when his face was covered in blood. She didn’t see him move anything with his mind. There was nothing in the field. At least not when she got there.

Hopper fully turns towards her, eyes winding. “What was he wearing?” Hopper demands. He takes a few steps forward, looking around the room like the kid was still here. “Is he here?”

“He was wearing just some simple clothes, he looked swamped in them. He’s not here anymore.” Joyce replies quickly. Hopper knew something about the boy, she was sure of it. He wouldn’t be acting like this, asking questions if he didn’t. “Have you seen him too?” She asks, hope in her chest. Seven could be at Hopper's house, or the station, or somewhere else where she could find him. Help him.

Hopper looks at her for a moment, eyes searching. His shoulders slump as he quickly looks away, cursing underneath his breath. “I saw a boy matching the description last night walking in the rain. I drove him to my place but while I wasn’t looking he ran away. You're saying he was with Will?” Hopper barrels on.

It was hard to understand what he was thinking. Being a parent Joyce could understand losing a child under her watch. Hell, it was the same child! In the same night! “It looked like he was helping Will when he was having that episode. His nose was bleeding.” Joyce explains slowly, putting emphasis on the nose bleed.

Hopper’s eyes narrow on her, disbelief crossing his face. He sighs. “Joyce, it’s just a lost kid—“

“I saw the number seven tattooed on his wrist, the same as Eleven.” Joyce cuts the man off. This wasn’t her losing her mind or looking too far into things. This was something more important than a woman having been through too much and was steadily losing it. She lost everything a year ago, there wasn’t any further she could go.

“He was so scared, Hopper. He thought we were going to hurt him. He recognized Eleven’s name when Mike mentioned it. He…We always thought there was a possibility of other children like her.” Joyce finishes off her ramble.

Hopper doesn’t say anything at first, staring at her like she wasn’t even there. He takes a sharp breath after a while, fixing his hat atop his head. “They said they checked everything at that god forsaken lab.” Hopper grits out, hands curling into fits at his side. “There was no information about anyone else alive like her.”

“They could have kept him somewhere else. A separate facility.” Joyce guesses. It wasn’t a far fetched idea. They didn’t want to put all their eggs in one basket. “What are we going to do?” She asks then. This was bigger than the two of them but by god was she going to try and keep this contained. No doubt the other kids were already looking into things on their own. She wouldn’t be able to stop them no matter how hard she would try.

“I’ll check out the vines.” Hopper starts as he turns on his heels, heading for the door. “You can look for the boy. If he really is like Eleven then whoever was keeping him has to be already here.” Hopper says as he opens the door.

“Hopper.” Joyce calls a final time, the man glancing over at her. “Be careful.” She states, frown now ever present on her face.

“I will.” Hopper promises as he leaves, shutting the door behind himself.

.

Joyce slings a shawl over her shoulders as she rubs her hands together. Will was drawing Seven on a piece of paper, a frown placed upon the teens face. She didn’t like the idea of calling the boy Seven, but she couldn’t think of something else to call him. Just like Eleven he’s being named after something traumatic.

“Do you think he came looking for Eleven?” Will ask as he looks up from his drawing. He’s picking up a red crayon, adding Seven’s nose bleed.

“Maybe.” Joyce replies. She reaches out for Will, her son grabbing onto her as she squeezes him in a hug. His body was cold.

“How do we tell him she’s dead?” Will questions, looking up at her. She feels her stomach sink at the question, her mouth going dry. How do they tell him she’s gone? He was scared to death, passing out before they could even explain themselves. He’s probably going to be hard to find, nevertheless talk to.

“I don’t know honey.” Joyce says slowly, running her fingers through his hair. “We’ll think about it after we find him.” If they find him, she doesn’t say. She won’t allow herself to speak it into the open, where it might come true. She can only hope he’s still in Hawkins and whoever might be after him wasn’t.

A knock on the door has Joyce tightening her grip on Will slightly, head turning towards the room entrance way. After a second of nothing happening she loosens her grip on her son and stands. “I’ll go see who it is.” She says as she walks out the room. Joyce quickly walks to the front door and swings it open.

Mike stands there with his hand raised, his bag slung over his shoulder. His cheeks her slightly red with his bike standing up at the bottom of the steps. He must have sped his way over the moment class was out. “Oh, Mike—“

“We’re here to see Will.” Mike cuts her off quickly, jaw squared, like he was waiting for her to say he couldn’t see her son. She wants nothing more than to say no, to ignore Mike.

“Will’s resting.” Joyce tries, knowing it wasn’t going to pay off. Mike looks up at her with wide eyes, looking too much like a child who’s seen too many things.

“It’s about the shadow monster, isn’t it?” Mike states, his brows furrowing.

Joyce’s walls crumble down to a pile of dust as she sighs. “It is.” She says as she opens the door wider. “Come in.” She didn’t know what else to do. It was too late to shield these kids from the dangers of a world she once had no clue even existed. She could try but she knew she’d end up failing.

Mike scurry’s inside like she was going to change her mind, darting right for Will’s room. Joyce closes the door behind herself and spares the room a quick look. Will’s drawings taped to every surface and crevice they could tape them to.

She heads towards the boys after and hangs in the doorway, watching as Mike and Will exit a hug they were sharing. “I'll make you boys a snack.“ Joyce announces, needing something to do with her hands.

“Thanks mom.” Will smiles up at her, Mike humming in his own thanks. With that she ducks out once more, forcing her hands into her pockets. One thing at a time. She just needs to make sure Will’s all right and find wherever Seven is hiding. Can’t be that hard.

Chapter Text

“Code red!” Dustin shouts into his walkie-talkie head piece, grip tight on his bat as he rushes around his room. Putting the bat on his bed he goes and grabs his sweater, haphazardly putting it on. 

He could hardly believe that Dart was a baby demogorgon. The cat carcass he had to bury and the fact he had to lock Dart in the cellar in the backyard was evidence enough. Still, he didn’t want to believe it. Not his Dart. Just yesterday he was crawling around. “Hopper is MIA, so I repeat, code red—“

“Could you please shut up?” Erica’s voice filters through his ear, Dustin pausing in his steps. 

“Erica? Erica, is Lucas there? Where is he?” Dustin asks quickly, going back to his closet. He grabs his backpack, pouring it out onto the floor. He doesn’t even know what to pack. What screams ‘I need to protect myself’ but also ‘I’m not a threat, please come with me’? 

“Don’t know, don’t care.” Erica replies, sounding annoyed at him for just existing.

“Is he with Mike?” Dustin questions, throwing a nuget bar into his bag. 

“Like I said. I don’t know and I don’t care.” Erica sasses back. Usually it was amusing but now that her attitude was directed at him specifically instead of her brother, Dustin’s getting pretty annoyed himself. 

Huffing, he places the speaker closer to his mouth. “Please tell him it's super important.” He starts as clear as he could. “Please tell him that I have a code—“

“Code red?” Erica interrupts him. 

He sighs, nodding. Dustin crosses the room and grabs his back up walkie-talkie, built for long range. “Yep, code red. Exactly.” He confirms, placing the extra walkie-talkie into his bag. He stares at the bat for a second, then decides he better be safe than sorry and places that in the bag too. The handle part pokes straight out of his bag, Dustin using both zippers to keep it in place. 

“I got a code for you instead.” Erica comes in through his headpiece and he hums, listening. “It’s called code shut-your-mouth.” She states, the line going dead a second later. Static is left in her place. 

Dustin takes a pause, eyeing the wall in front of him. “Erica?” He says, adjusting his headpiece. “Oh my God!” He huff’s, tugging the headpiece off his head. She hung up on him. Of course. Right when he needed someone to finally answer him no one but Erica did. 

“Great.” Dustin shoulders the bag and heads for the door. His foot hooks onto something in the pile of schoolwork on his floor and he trips, falling face first towards the floor. His walkie-talkie gets sent a few inches forward on the ground. Groaning, Dustin picks himself up and reaches over towards it.

Picking it up Dustin goes to place it around his neck, only to pause at the sight of a familiar folder. It was the same folder that Seven left behind in the field. Picking it up he opens it. Some papers fall out, not yet having been clipped in. “It’s for science.” Dustin mumbles to himself, turning it over in his hands.

After finding nothing distinctive he opens it again and flips to the back. On the back a small piece of paper is taped to the inside of the folder. “If found, call…Yes!” Dustin shouts, standing up as he stares at the phone number.

Truth be told Dustin didn’t think Seven would willingly talk to him, not after the look he gave all of them. Like they were the dangerous ones. Seven wouldn’t help him, not now at least. But Seven was in that field for a reason. Probably to return the folder to its owner. The owner obviously being someone who goes to the same school as him, who’s not part of the lab.

If Dustin finds whoever Seven was at the school for, then he could explain Dart. He can get that person to talk to Seven for them, to tell him that he needs to help them. That he’s in danger from the lab still. Because what’s more convincing than a friend? Someone you trust?

Heading downstairs Dustin goes to his mothers yellow pages by the phone, flipping it open. With the folder still in one hand and his mothers phone book in the other, Dustin looks for the number printed down somewhere. It takes him a while but soon enough he finds it, and right underneath it is an address.

“Okay.” Dustin breathes as he takes a pen out of his pocket, printing the address on his hand. “First I find whoever here knows Seven, then I bring them to Seven and have them convince him that we're the good guys.” Turning, Dustin heads for the door. “Then I have Seven do freaky powers on Dart, hopefully send him back to the Upside Down. Happy ending.”

Then Dustin can put all of this behind him again. Things will go back to normal and maybe, just maybe, they can even start to think about taking down the lab.

“So that guy, Seven, you think he’s a part of all this?” Max asks as she leans against one of the arcade machines. She doesn’t look as lost anymore, eyes set on him in the way he knows she’s going to dissect anything he says. 

They were in the arcade, hiding from the world in the back with all the broken down machines. It was the only place they both knew how to get to without a car. With Maz being knew and all, they needed somewhere familiar to both of them.

“Probably.” Lucas says as he shrugs. He’s been thinking about Seven since they saw the guy. He looked so scared. It’s a bit of a contrast to El, where she looked more enamoured with the world around her then fearful. Seven was different, like he knew nowhere was truly safe. “It’s no coincidence that he was in the field. Maybe Will drew him to him?”

It sounds far fetched but between demon creatures from the Upside Down and girls with telekinesis, this wasn’t that strange. Max hums as she flicks her hair out of her face.

“So this guy shows up, passes out and I'm supposed to think he’s the good guy?” Max voices.

Lucas takes a step back, frowning. “What are you trying to say? That Seven is with the lab?” He asks.

Max shrugs, pushing off of the broken arcade machine. “I mean, he’s new, right? What if he’s working for the Lab to…I don’t know, destroy Hawkins?” 

Lucas snorts, shaking his head. “I don’t think Seven is evil.” Or at least working for the lab. He looked like a kicked over puppy.

“I’m not saying he is.” Max holds up her hands, looking deep in thought. “He could be being forced. We just don’t know.” She says. The thought puts Lucas on edge and he frowns. He tries not to shoo the idea away, choosing to actually think it over.

Seven could be working for the lab. They were lucky with Eleven and she had clearly just escaped. But Seven? He wore actual clothes and looked like he could blend right in with everyone else. Even if his wardrobe needed an update. “Fuck…” He curses, running his hands down his face. It was becoming more of a possibility. “We should warn Joyce.“ he announces, heading for the door. 

“Where’s your walkie-talkie?” Max questions as she grabs her sweater, throwing it on.

Lucas leads her past kids and teens as he heads towards the front door. “Forgot it at home.” He says. It’s a stupid mistake but there’s nothing he can do about it now. Not like he brings it around with him everywhere. It mostly stays home if the Party isn’t on the go all together.

Max nods as she follows him out of the arcade. “We can bike to Joyce’s first. I think warning her and Will is the best—“

“Max!” A voice yells from across the lot. Lucas jolts, head whipping up. A guy he remembers scaring the crap out of him the last time they ran into each other comes barreling over, nose and eyebrows scrunched in anger. Billy, Max’s older brother. 

“Crap.” Max hisses as she steps in front of Lucas. Her whole demeanor changes. She looks smaller, less vibrant. Scared.

Lucas frowns at the sight of the normally boisterous girl. “I told you to stay away from him.” Billy seethes, pointing at Lucas as if his finger were a gun. Lucas couldn’t help but shrink underneath it.

“We just ran into each other.” Max lies, hand clutching her skateboard. “He’s a classmate, it’s not like I'm searching for him.” He huffs.

Billy doesn’t seem like he believes her, but he does seem to lose some of the heat. He pulls on her arm, dragging her away. “Get in the car.” Billy demands, anger lacing his tone. Lucas looks at Max, searching her face for a reason to step in. She just huffs, looking more defeated than anything else.

She does look back once, giving Lucas the ‘we’ll talk later’ eyes behind her brother's back. Billy turns his anger onto him, stepping forward to get into his face. Taking a step back Lucas hits the arcade glass door. “You leave her alone.” Billy seethes. “Or do we have a problem?”

“No problem.” He raises his hands, shaking his head. “I’ll stay away from her.” Fat chance, but he would really rather not get punched by Billy Hargrove.

Billy backs off then, turning back towards his car. Max is standing at the passenger side, watching them. Lucas doesn’t risk waving as Billy slams his car door shut. Max slowly gets in, Billy speeding off the second she closes the door.

Sighing, Lucas heads towards his bike. He has better things to worry about then Billy, but he couldn’t help but feel heat bubbling up beneath his skin. How can he talk to his sister that way? To him? A guy he doesn’t even know? Shaking the thoughts away, Lucas gets on his bike and starts to head back home.

He hardly gets halfway when a familiar face is practically speeding down the road. “Lucas!” Dustin yells, skirting to a stop next to him. A bat handle is sticking out of his backpack, hand covered in sharpie as he wears a startling look. If Lucas heard sirens he would think someone died. Again.

“What’s going on?” He asks.

He’s already turning his bike around when Dustin starts. “So it turns out the animal I found was actually a baby demogorgon. One that likes to eat cats.” Dustin huffs. He then reaches his hand out, palm up. Lucas stares down at the sharpie on his friend's hand. An address? “I think I found out where Seven was staying by using my mothers yellow pages.” He ends off, starting off down the road. “Come on!”

Lucas starts off after his friends, head whirling with what was just said to him. “Wait…” He narrows his eyes, looking over at Dustin. “Is your cat okay?”

Steve looks at the buttons on the remote, then over at the tv. Robin said he could pick any channel he wants to entertain himself. It would help if he knew how to work either but at this point he’s too embarrassed to ask. He’s been poking at the remote for a few minutes now, which makes it definitely too late to call Robin to explain it to him.

He’ll suffer in silence then. “Do you need help with that?” Robin asks, poking her head in from the kitchen.

Steve jolts, head whipping to the side as he stares at her. “Uh…”

“Pass it.” Robin sighs, walking into the living room with her hand outstretched. Steve does as he’s asked. Robin settles down beside him as she leans over, showing off all the buttons to the remote. “This one turns the volume up and down, this one changes the channel.” She explains, pressing the buttons to prove her point.

The volume turns up a notch, then down, then the picture in the tv changes. “Thanks.” Steve says, taking the remote back. He presses the button to change the channel, the tv following his command easily.

“You never had a TV before?” Robin asks, watching as he continues to change channels.

“We had static.” Steve says. A box full of grey fluff that was supposed to help them with their powers. Of course Steve never got the hang of using the white noise to help him. Papa hated that most about him, how much he failed over and over again. How much the older man couldn’t fix him. Mama on the other hand wasn’t so tough on him. Stating that people were just made differently.

That he’ll find his strength eventually. He never did of course, but he likes to believe that he may have one day if he stayed at the lab.

“We?” Robin asks and Steve stills. He didn’t mean to let that slip.

“Me and the Bad Men.” Steve replies quickly. It wasn’t a total lie, but it wasn’t what he originally meant either. Robin didn’t need to know that. If he can help it, he wants to keep Robin far away from Eleven.  He won’t allow Eleven to hurt any more people he cares for.

“Okay.” Robin nods. He doesn’t even have to use his powers to know that she’s concerned for him. He likes the idea of it. How worried Robin seems to be for him, like he was something that needs to be kept safe. But not in the way Papa and Mama kept him safe, locked up, caged.

But in the way he feels about Robin and how he doesn’t want to see her hurt. “I’m going to make us some lunch. Have you ever had a tuna sandwich?” Robin asks as she stands, walking over towards the kitchen. 

“I don’t think so.” Steve replies as he turns the volume up slightly on the tv. “Is it good?” He asks then, relaxing back into the couch.

“It’s like, the best sandwich choice ever.” Robin states. He can hear her moving plates around from his position in the living room.

There's a show about penguins on, a documentary of some sort. Steve watches as they waddle around, the babies covered in fluff as they trip over themselves. Soon enough, Robin is walking back into the living room. She sets down a plate in front of him, grabbing a sandwich off of it for herself. “An animal documentary?” She smiles, moving to sit next to him.

A loud repeating knock rings out on the door. Steve stiffens, moving to get up and hide. If it’s Robin’s parents then he shouldn’t be down here. Robin holds her hand up, mouthing ‘wait’ before turning towards the sound. “Coming!” She calls, sparing him a quick glance. “My parents have keys.” She voices when she catches his anxious gaze. 

Slowly lowering himself back to the couch, Steve stays put. Robin leaves his side and heads for the front door. Hearing the door open, he stresses his hearing to figure out who was at the door. Was it a friend of Robin’s? Or someone else?

“Hello?” Robin says, tone questioning. He doesn’t try to, but he feels his powers slither out. It curls around something, queasy and filled with unease. It doesn’t feel like one of Robin’s emotions.

“Are you Robin Buckley?” Someone huffs, sounding out of breath. He holds a slight lisp to his speech. Familiar…

“Who’s asking?” Robin replies. 

“We uh, found your binder at school. In the field.” Another voice speaks up. Again, familiar. He can’t place his finger on it—

Wait, field? Standing up, Steve locks his jaw as he takes slow but steady steps towards the hallway. “Oh, thank you.” Robin replies, losing that edge to her voice.

“We were also wondering if you’ve seen, uh, friend of ours?” The first person asks. Turning the corner, Steve peaks past the wall and to whoever’s at the front door. Only for his eyes to land on a very familiar set of eyes. They were with Will, with Eleven. And now they're here for him.

Balling his hands into fists, Steve looks over at Robin. “Robin, move from them.” He calls. Pushing down the lump in his throat, he’s met with all three of them turning to him. Something ugly churns in his stomach, his head starting to steadily pound behind his ears. 

“Seven.” The kid with the lisp whispers, eyes wide. Steve bites down on his inner cheek to stop from flinching. 

Robin straightened up, looking between them all. She does shuffle closer towards him, but not behind like he wants. Instead she puts herself in between, like a shield. “Who are you two?” She demands. She reaches back, grabbing his hand. He doesn’t know it was shaking until she stops it, hand going still in her grasp.

“Lucas. And that’s Dustin.” The second kid replies, holding his hands up. “We’re just here to help—“

“Why aren't you at the Bryers!?” Dustin shouts, taking a step into the house.

“The Bryers?” Robin questions. Then, she shakes her head, adding. “I never said you could come in!” 

Dustin stops midstep, holding his hands up. He doesn’t look at Robin, instead looking right at him. His powers curl around the kid, settling on his mind. It’s him he felt, the queasy unease. The fear. “You were—we know about the lab. About the Bad Men.” Dustin states.

His lies don’t prickle at his powers, leaving Steve reeling. Blood drips down his nose, causing both boys to take a step back. “We’re not here to hurt you we—we need your help.” Lucas says.

“Hold on!” Robin yells, stopping everyone. “Bad Men? The lab!? What’s going on?” She asks, looking back at him slightly. Steve could only shrug, wiping at his bloody nose with his sleeve.

Steve clears his throat “How do you…know?” He asks. If they aren’t with the lab, then who are they?

“We helped Eleven when she escaped.” Dustin answers him. Steve snaps his eyes over to him. “We can help you to, Seven—“

“Steven.” Robin cuts the other off, grimacing. “His name is Steven.” 

Understanding dawns on both boys, the two slowly nodding. “Steven.” Lucas voices, clearing his own throat. “The lab is back, or at least we think. And we need help. You have powers too, right? Your nose bleeds.”

Robin’s hands tightens around his own. “Powers?” She whispers, fully turning towards him.

Steve flicks his gaze between Robin and the kids before looking down. His eyes catch on the blood soaking his shirt cuff. “If I help,” he starts, taking a deep breath.

Hope—fear—anxiety 

“You leave me alone.” He says, looking back up. “And Robin.” He adds.

For a second the two don’t seem to like this condition. They look over at each other, Lucas looking seconds away from disagreeing. Dustin beats him to it. “If you help us I promise you we won’t bother you anymore.” He promises.

Hesitation—unease—worry

Letting out a deep breath, he nods. “Okay.”

“Okay!?” Robin exhales, looking like she wants to rip her own hair out. “I am very confused!” She says, looking down at the ground for a moment. “…I’m still on the fact you said Steve has powers.”

“It gets easier?” Lucas says, shrugging.

“What exactly do you need our help with?” Robin asks then. Maybe he should have asked that question before agreeing to this.

“…Killing a monster?” Dustin answers, smile wavering.

Robin stares at him for a few seconds. Steve couldn’t help but share the expression, eyes widening. “Monster?” He voices. He definitely should have asked what they needed him for before agreeing.