Chapter Text
March, 1986
Steve
Steve is fucking exhausted. But, to be fair, so is all of Hawkins. And most of these people didn’t even almost die multiple times before killing (?) a monster in a different dimension in the last week. So when the Upside Down ash (or spores, like Dustin says, or whatever it is) falls from the sky and the military sounds the alarm, he doesn’t blame himself for considering just leaving the school, going home to sleep, and pretending none of this is happening. But Dustin begs him to drive them to Hopper’s cabin after getting a code red alert on his walkie.
“Please?” Dustin’s voice cracks as he asks, his eyes that watery red they’ve been since they left the Upside Down. That one word in Dustin’s desperate tone is what stops Steve from turning his back on everything, if even for a few hours.
“Fine,” Steve sighs, motioning Robin away from Vickie. Her face falls and Steve hates that she knows something is wrong immediately. “I exist to chauffeur, I guess.”
They drive there in silence, even Robin, who is watching the billowing smoke out the window. Dustin is faced that way too. And he’s crying again, without making any noise, but Steve can see his shoulders shake in his rearview. But instead of sympathy, he feels that anger flaring up again. The anger that flooded him after Max had died, and the earth split open, and Vecna’s body had disappeared, and they returned to Eddie’s trailer to find a fresh nightmare.
He’d helped carry Dustin back through the gate angrier than he’d ever been. Angrier than he was when he got dumped by the woman he thought was the love of his life for Jonathan fucking Byers. Angrier than when his dad hit him for the last time and he finally fought back. Angrier than when that racist asshole Billy beat the shit out of him too. Angier than when that fucking clock chimed and he realized that they’d failed, that Max was dead. Angrier than ever – because he nearly lost this kid, this stupid kid too, who promised he wouldn’t be a hero. Promised. He wanted to scream at him, at both him and Eddie, for being so stupid.
But Steve couldn’t do that, not with Dustin sobbing and cradling Eddie’s corpse. The girls next to him were frozen, Robin wailing and Nancy staring, shellshocked. Not wanting the last image in his head of the vibrant Eddie Munson this lifeless form, Steve didn’t look directly at him as he scooped Dustin up by the underarms and dragged him away from the body, ignoring his cries of “We can’t leave him! Stop!” and focusing on getting the four of them back home, finally safe.
But they weren’t safe, not really. Because when they crawled through the open ground by the trailers, Hawkins looked like some sort of warzone. Steve was wondering if they’d ever be safe. One code red after another, for years. God, he wants to sleep.
“Wait,” Robin’s voice cracks as they pull up to find a group walking toward the cabin from elsewhere in the woods. “Does Henry have me in a trance, or am I losing it from lack of sleep? Because I see –”
“Hopper.” Dustin is out the door as he says it, not waiting for Steve to turn off the car.
“Thank god,” Robin chokes out. “Because I’ve read that not sleeping can cause irreparable damage to the ol’ noggin. And I don’t need anymore damage.”
Steve gives her a smile, too tired to reply and trying to compute how zombie Hopper fits into the mix. After much embracing and everyone explaining everything to each other until Steve’s head hurts even more, silence settled over the group.
“What do we do now?” Will asks in a much deeper voice than Steve remembers. Then he realizes that the scrawny kid he saw last summer is now as tall as him, and possibly broader. “If Vecna isn’t dead, I mean.”
“He could be,” Robin offers. “We barbecued him pretty good.”
“Extra toasty,” Steve confirms.
“But no body,” Nancy shakes her head. “He got what he wanted and, if his plan is anything like he showed me, we can’t wait around. We need to find him and end this for good.”
“We need help,” El says and stalks off into the cabin, leaving the rest of them standing there.
“El, wait,” Mike reacts first, taking the stairs in two steps.
“Here we go again,” Will whispers next to Steve so quietly that Steve thinks he’s the only one who hears him.
“El,” Hopper follows them and then everyone is heading into the cabin, except Jonathan and the random friend that drove him back to Hawkins. They’re walking to the yellow pizza van, saying their goodbyes. Steve lingers by the front steps and debates getting in his car again to sleep, but decides he can nap inside while he waits for marching orders from whatever is happening in there.
Steve plops on the couch, sandwiched between Robin and Dustin, and tries to nod off as they wait for El to do whatever superhero shit she is doing. But for a group trying to be quiet, the cabin is excruciatingly loud. El sits in her room, the radio static pouring through the closed door. Mike and Nancy are both pacing, Hopper and Ms. Byers are whispering to each other in the corner, Will, Lucas, and Dustin are arguing over what Vecna might do next. Robin is so anxious that her legs are shaking the couch enough that Steve can’t nod off.
“Rob,” he whispered, putting a hand on her knee to make it stop.
“Sorry,” she whispers back with a sheepish grin that morphs into a grimace. He retracts his hand as she adds, “I’m just worried. What if this doesn’t work?”
“I don’t even know what’s happening,” Steve sighs, closing his eyes and pinching the bridge of his nose. “Who is she looking for in her head? Vecna?”
“Keep up, Dignus –”
“I found her.” The door swings open and El adds in that deadpan voice of hers, “I found my sister. The bad men have her.”
Sister? That can’t be right. Wasn’t she raised in Hawkins Lab, like some sort of experiment? He hadn’t heard her talk about any siblings, but, to be fair, he talked to El the least out of all the kids even when she lived here. His knowledge of her is limited to what he’s seen and Dustin’s long admiring rambles. If he wasn’t dating Suzie, Steve would swear the kid had a crush on El.
“You have a sister?” Steve asks, but it’s lost as the room explodes into everyone talking over each other. They form a circle, the noise getting louder. From what he can tell, both Mike and Hopper don’t want her to run into danger, whereas Nancy and Ms. Byers think retrieving this mystery sister is the smartest thing they can do considering, well, everything going wrong around them.
“I’m going to get her,” El shouts above it all, silencing the room. “I’m not leaving her behind. Not again.”
“Especially not if she can help El stop Vecna,” Nancy says with a glare at Mike who scoffs loudly, then scoffs again.
“If he’s still around after the, uh, barbeque,” Will offers with a weak smile at Steve. But Steve doesn’t respond, turning toward the armchair to study Lucas, who looks like he’s gotten even less sleep than Steve. If there is another person out there with powers like El, stopping Vecna isn’t the only thing she could help with.
“Vecna or not, can she fix Max?” Steve asks, feeling all the eyes in the room land on him. No one responds, so he digs into his pocket and fishes out the folded up envelope he’d been carrying since Max gave it to him. “Because I won’t read this. Her goodbyes to us.” He pockets the letter again and adds, “I don’t want them be her last words.”
“Fix Max,” Lucas repeats in a whisper, his eyes focusing on El, a fresh spark in them. “Could she?”
“Maybe,” El whispers, and it sounds like it’s coming from the back of her throat. “Kali is in a facility in Illinois.” She says it broken, like Ill-annoy, but Steve can’t find it in him to even crack a smile. “The scientist talking to her said Army.”
“Might be Fort Hearst, right over the border,” Hopper mutters. “I can call Murray, he’s talked about that place before. If we can get in touch with Owens maybe we could figure something out…”
“Hold on, hold on. We just got you back. Barely,” Mike says, grasping El’s hands. “Let’s slow down. All of us can help.”
“We don’t have time,” El says as she gently takes back her hands, her face a mask. “I left her and now they have her.”
“That isn’t your fault,” Hopper says, with a protective squeeze of her shoulder.
“It is. And now we’ll fix it.” El and Hopper give each other a knowing look that Steve doesn’t really understand and she turns back to Mike. “Hop will call Murray and we will go. Alone.”
“El, don’t,” Mike’s voice cracks and Steve feels like he’s overstayed his welcome watching something private and slowly gets up, yanking the back of Robin’s shirt to break the teen melodrama trance. They walk out the cabin and stand by his car.
“That was awkward.” Robin says. “Do you think they’re fighting? Mike seemed so upset.”
“Maybe. But Wheelers are…resilient.” Steve offers, thinking of Nancy gunning down a literal monster. “Besides, if the superhero says she needs to be alone to focus, I say we give her what she wants and figure out the relationship stuff later.”
“Fair enough,” Robin replies with a shrug. “Do you think Leo’s is open? Or was it melted into the ground? Right on the cusp of the scary gates, but I could kill for a slice.”
Pizza. Sudden, insatiable hunger hits Steve. When was the last time he even ate? “Let’s find out.”
The pair get into his car and the door to the cabin swings open again.
“Wait for us!” Dustin called as he, Lucas, and Will all run out of the house, piling into the backseat.
"What do you think you're doing?" Steve asks. "Aren't you needed in there?"
Will gestures to the cabin. "Everyone in there is arguing."
“Fine, fine, but then I’m clocking out as driver for the day.” Steve starts the car before adding, “Seatbelts.”
He drives back towards the dark smoke clouds in the center of Hawkins, his mind racing. Nancy didn’t think this was over, and Nancy was usually right. He’ll probably never sleep again.
“Max is going to be pissed she missed Hopper coming back to life,” Dustin laughs, but it’s mirthless. None of them smile.
April, 1984 - Three weeks later
Steve
Steve is restless. They’ve been on military lockdown for two and a half weeks, with a fence around Hawkins. Quarantine sucks. He, along with the rest of the Hawkins population that didn’t run in the few days after the “earthquake,” are itching for freedom. Personally, he’s surprised there haven’t been riots in the street, but maybe he’s just watched too many terrible apocalypse movies with Robin in the last few weeks.
It’s not like there is much for them to do, despite the looming threat of Vecna’s possible return. El and Hopper are still on their mission, working with Murray and Dr. Owens’ contacts within the military to jailbreak the sister and somehow smuggle themselves back into Hawkins. Ms. Byers, Will, and Jonathan have moved into the Wheeler house, which Nancy has made the HQ for her plan to take down Vecna. She’s apparently come up with some sort of mapping system for the Upside Down. Lucas and Erica have been taking up vigil over Max. And sure, the others visit, but Steve is pretty sure Lucas is sleeping there more than at home.
Which leaves the three of them: Dustin, Robin, and Steve all sit inside the WSQK building. It’s become their new hang since nearly the entire station staff was out of Hawkins before the lockdown happened. Robin and Steve started working there since the Family Video had been in the path of destruction, Steve full-time and Robin after school. And that’s been okay.
Their little band of monster-fighting friends is…well, adjusting isn’t the right word. Coping, Steve guesses. They’re coping together. Staying at each other’s houses when they can, which mostly means everyone is staying at Steve’s since his parents were in Europe when the lockdown happened and they’ve elected to stay there until it’s lifted. Which is mostly fine, since he can’t imagine having to be trapped with his dad with no escape for who knows how long. But that leaves him the huge, empty house that he hates being in alone. So he doesn’t mind hosting, for the good days and bad days of this weird waiting game they’re playing.
But today is an especially bad day. Because, for no reason Steve can understand, Dustin breaks up with Suzie.
He’s curled up on the green couch and Robin and Steve sit next to him.
“Just apologize, man,” Steve says again, running his hands through his hair. “Say some nerdy shit about your love being more infinite than the stars –”
“Ew.” Robin scrunches up her nose. “No.”
Steve ignores her. “Or sing her that song she likes, I guess. And call a flower shop in Salt Lake City to deliver her flowers. Women love flowers.”
Dustin finally picks his head up off the couch and looks to Robin.
“No, yeah, that part is true. They’re pretty,” Robin stretches out the last word in that way of hers.
Steve smiles. “See?”
“This is something we can’t come back from,” Dustin sighs, sitting up. He hadn’t told them exactly what he’d said, just that he’d lashed out at her and that it had been bad. Which wasn’t surprising – Dustin has been lashing out at everyone lately. “Her dad banned us from dating anyway. So it’s a moot point.”
“But you love her…” Steve trails off, his stomach sinking. Dustin wouldn’t just give up on someone he loves; Steve doesn’t think he knows how to quit. He’s still wearing his Hellfire shirt, despite being told by everyone to take it off for his own safety. He's preaching being loyal to Eddie. But this breakup feels different. It reminds Steve of Max, before Vecna got her. “C’mon, man. Hotter than Phoebe Cates. That’s worth fighting for, right?”
“No offense, but neither of you are qualified to give love advice,” Dustin’s quip doesn’t have any of his snarky bite, but Steve pretends like it does, trying to distract him from the grief that festering inside of him.
“Her, I get,” Steve says point at Robin and ignoring her when she smacks his shoulder. “But Steve Harrington gives great love advice.”
Both Dustin and Robin stare at him before Robin says, “No third person, please. Gross.”
Steve waves her off. “And, and it’s been a little bit of a dry spell lately, but we’ve had more important things going on. Saving the world. No time for romance.”
That hasn’t stopped Robin, who is officially dating Vickie. Though only Steve is aware of that, so he knows she won’t argue with him.
“Dustin’s right, though,” Robin says. “With Jonathan back, I guess your chances with Nance are zilch.”
Steve still expects to feel something when she says that, but there’s nothing. Not even an echo of a feeling or a ghost of an echo, like there had been last month. So, he says, “It wasn’t like that.”
“Wasn’t like what?” Robin asked, raising an eyebrow. “Because to me it looked like there was something happening.”
“I think we both missed each other, as people,” Steve says, surprised by the words coming out of him. But he’s always liked to process out loud. Maybe that’s why he and Robin get along so well. He huffs out a laugh at that and continues, “And maybe we missed what we had. But that was before all,” Steve pauses gesturing out the window, ‘this. We were kids, it was first love. And I still care about her, ya know? But I don’t love her, not like that. Not anymore.”
It felt good to say it, to name how he was feeling. He wasn’t in love with Nancy Wheeler anymore. And that was okay.
“Noted,” Robin says, patting both of their shoulders. “Just three single friends being totally normal and not sulking on a Saturday evening.”
“Really?” Steve asks and the silence settles around them, stiff and uncomfortable.
“Dustin, do you copy?” Mike’s voice crackles through Dustin’s walkie-talkie.
Relief crosses Dustin’s face as he shoots across the room to get his radio from his backpack and Steve tries to not be offended.
“I copy. What’s going on?” He’s hunched over the bag in a way that makes Steve think of him holding Eddie. The air goes out of him and squeezes his eyes shut, trying to push the memory away. He is here now, in WSQK, he’d gotten almost everyone out. Almost.
“You okay?” Robin whispers and he blinks his eyes open to see her studying him with a frown. “Earth to Steve.”
“Okay,” he forces out and takes a deep breath.
He turns back to Dustin as Mike’s voice replies, “Come to the Eagle’s nest, now. Eagle has landed.”
Dustin turns to Steve. “He means Hopper is back.”
“Yeah, I know that.” He furrows his brow. “Why did you only explain it to me?”
“Because we all know I’m a super genius,” Robin says as she springs up from her spot.
“With Hair and Songbird,” Dustin says into the walkie as he walks towards the door. “Be there in a few. Over and out.”
“Let me guess…I’m driving,” Steve says as he follows them out.
When they get to the cabin, they find almost everyone there, deep in discussion: El, Hopper, Ms. Byers, Jonathan, Nancy, Will, Mike, and Murray. Steve is guessing Lucas and Erica are with Max.
“What happened?” Dustin asks as they join the circle in Hopper’s living room. “Was the mission successful?”
“In more ways than one,” Murray answers, wiggling his eyebrows and giving no additional context.
“What does that even mean?” Steve asks and Murray just smiles. Okay, then.
El answers, “We found her. She wants to help.”
“Okaaaay,” Robin says, looking around. “By my count, we’re one superpowered girl short.”
Ms. Byers leans into Hopper and says, “It was a tough escape. She’s resting.”
“Like El should be,” Mike adds with a frown. “Low battery.”
El and Mike start to bicker about her limits when El’s bedroom door swings open.
Standing in the doorframe is one of the prettiest girls Steve has ever seen.
But not pretty in the way Steve is used to, not the pretty he usually seeks out for dates in Hawkins. Not even Robin pretty, which admittedly is the usual type of pretty with some rough edges. But this girl, who is looking around the room with her full lips in a sneer, has a haircut he didn’t think was possible (what would he even call it – half-shaved and purple-streaked?) and way too much black makeup that makes her look like she is trying to turn into a raccoon and yet – he feels like he’s taken a punch to the face. It’s something about her eyes, dark and intense like coffee, even hidden under the makeup, that he can’t stop staring at.
“This is my sister,” El says, her smile the widest Steve has ever seen. “Meet Kali.”
The corners of Kali’s lips turn up and Steve feels that ghost of an echo of something in his chest that he hasn’t felt for anyone but Nancy Wheeler in a long time.
Uh-oh.