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worth-the-chaos · 11 days

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Adventures in Babysitting - Steve Harrington x female!reader - Chapter 16

Chapter Summary: For all your encounters with the Upside Down you hadn’t had to deal with it directly. Now, in a fight in foreign territory, you and your friends must struggle to find your way back to the Hawkins that you are familiar with.

Content Warning: swearing, upside down freaky shit, blood/injury, trauma, angst

Word Count: 9.7k

Author’s Note: Yo sorry this has taken a while for me to finish, life has been low key a bit of a bummer recently. Also, (from the time I posted this) about 20 minutes ago I nearly deleted this. Like all of it. In a way that would have been borderline unrecoverable. So I think I deserve a cookie and a pat on the back for not doing that.

Message me to be added to the taglist and get updated when the next chapter is posted! I highly recommend this if you want to keep up with the story since I don’t do regular updates!

Series Masterlist | Part 15 | Next Part

***

The water stung your eyes and you could only make out blurry shapes. You had never been the strongest swimmer and you were scared out of your mind that you would drown before you made it to Steve, but you didn’t care as you kicked your legs as hard as you could. You could make out red light radiating from a spot on the bottom of the lake and you redirected yourself towards it. That had to be the gate that Steve had seen, and he was no doubt on the other side of it, fighting for his life.

You pushed through the permeable membrane of the gate that seemed to pulse as if it was alive, shoving your way into the unknown. You were immediately met with the frigid sting of the cold air, but you could barely feel it as your eyes were immediately glued to your boyfriend, being attacked by several bat-like creatures.

“Steve!” You shouted as your instincts kicked in, grabbing an oar from a shipwrecked boat and smacking one of the creatures away from his side. The winged monster screeched and it was nearly enough to make your ears bleed. Suddenly, Robin, Nancy, and Eddie were right behind you, each with their own improvised weapons.

“Quick! Hold it, Robin!” Nancy shouted as her friend moved you pin the bat strangling your boyfriend down. Both you and Nancy continued to strike it with all of your might in an attempt to get it to release its grip around Steve’s neck but it seemed like it was no use.

“Come on!” You shouted, your eyes welling with tears as you became increasingly panicked by the second. You made eye contact with Eddie, your eyes begging for him to intervene. “Do something!” You yelled out, though you weren’t quite sure if your words were meant for your friends or yourself.

You could hear Steve struggling for air as he continued to choke under the pressure of the strangulation. And you felt your heart sink halfway to hell at the way his legs were flailing in every direction, his hands in an iron clad grip on the creature’s tail wrapped around his neck.

“Y/n! Behind you!” Eddie yelled out and all of the sudden you were knocked off kilter by a force from behind, claws digging into the tender skin of your back through your soaking wet clothes. You screamed out in pain, desperately reaching behind you trying to pry the thing off, but it was to no avail.

“Robin! Help!” You shrieked and she grabbed onto the bat’s tail, yanking at it harshly. You cried out in pain as her efforts to remove the monster caused its talons to dig further into your skin as it resisted her attempt to thwart its attack.

She finally was able to yank it free, slamming it into the ground as Nancy struck it with her oar. You turned to see that Steve was now standing and you almost cried out in relief that he was okay, but you were still very much in the thick of the fight and you weren’t about to celebrate too soon.

Steve continued slamming the bat back and forth on the ground until he finally stepped on one of its wings, pulling aggressively on its tail causing the monster to be ripped in two. He panted as he attempted to regain control of his breathing.

“Steve!” You called you, running towards your boyfriend as tears welled in your eyes. Your hands hovered over his body, afraid to touch him as you took in the sight of all of his wounds. He had deep gashes on his abdomen, skin missing from where the bats had been feeding on him. Your breath started to pick up, beginning to panic at the extent of his injuries. You didn’t care if you were the one to get hurt, but seeing Steve injured like that in such a life threatening scenario was enough to make you break down. “Baby,” your lip wobbled and a tear rolled down your cheek as you looked him in the eyes.

“Are you okay?” Nancy frantically asked, her eyes scanning over Steve’s body to assess the damage, gasping as she understood the severity.

“They took about a pound of flesh,” Steve replied and goosebumps erupted over your entire body, “but other than that, never better.”

Steve looked you in the eye as he added the last bit, clearly attempting to calm you down. Inside he was absolutely scared shitless, but he figured the better he did at maintaining a calm exterior, the less upset you would be. You didn’t even know how to respond, so instead of trying to formulate any words, you decided to pull him in for a gentle hug, being careful not to disturb his wounds.

He pulled you in tighter, not caring about his injuries and just needing more than anything to hold onto you. He swayed side to side as he rested his chin on the top of your head, knowing that whatever pain and scarring that followed was worth it if it meant that all of his efforts would contribute to saving your life.

“Uh, do you guys think that these bats have, like, rabies?” Robin suddenly spoke up. She was crouched down, inspecting a creature’s lifeless body.

“What?” Steve asked as his face contorted in confusion. Everyone turned to look at her with a very similar expression, her question seeming so out of place given everything that had just transpired.

“It’s just that rabies are like my number one greatest fear and I think we should probably get you to a doctor really soon because once the symptoms set in, it’s too late; you’re already dead,” she rambled on. Before anyone could respond to her, more screeching rang out from above you. Several more bats were flying in, no doubt responding to the casualties of their fellow creatures at the hands of trespassers. They flocked to the opening of the gate, sitting perched on the mess of vines, waiting for the next thing that unwittingly found itself stuck in this alternate dimension.

“Alright. There’s not that many. We can take ‘em, right?” Steve breathed out, gently nudging you behind him to protect you. You curled an arm around his, desperately clinging to him. In the past, every time you had fought off the supernatural, it had been on home turf. You were afraid of the odds now that they had the home advantage.

In the distance, more nauseating shrieks sounded off and through the lightning in the unnaturally red sky, you could see an entire swarm of the bat-like creatures approaching. “You were saying?” The words escaped your lips as you stared in awe at the monsters.

“The woods! Come on!” Nancy pointed toward the thicket of crooked branches, and the five of you took off running. You sprinted as fast as your legs could take you, but being less than coordinated, you stumbled a bit as you tried to keep up with your athletic boyfriend. He was quick to help you right yourself, making sure you were in front of him until you reached the tree line.

He felt his heart nearly stop when he noticed the blood soaking through the back of your shirt. He immediately felt guilt swarm in his emotions, wishing that he hadn’t brought you into this mess. Everything he did was to make sure you wouldn’t get hurt, and here he was, bringing you straight into the crossfire.

You had reached the forest, slowing down to a quick walk as you made your way farther and farther into the woods. You were still trying to catch your breath from running when Steve spoke up.

“Baby, your back,” his voice cracked a little as the words came out, and you could tell that he was mentally kicking himself for that fact that you had gotten hurt.

“Oh, Steve, it’s okay,” he opened his mouth to protest but you were quick to cut him off, “seriously. It doesn’t even really hurt; I swear.” It was a lie, but he didn’t need to know that. Besides, it’s not like you hadn’t gotten ripped to shreds by an inter dimensional creature in the past. This was not your first rodeo.

He stared at you in disbelief, but didn’t argue. “Let me see it at least,” he offered a compromise, to which you couldn’t really say no. You walked a few steps ahead of him and lifted up your shirt, revealing the expanse of your back. Steve struggled to swallow the lump in his throat as he assessed the damage. Deep gashes littered your back and it was caked in blood that was beginning to dry. You shivered as the cool air hit your skin, and Steve hurried towards you to pull your shirt back down.

He thought about the scars on your arm from the Byers’ living room. He thought about the way that he had just let you go back into that house. Steve had never quite gotten over the guilt of not immediately running back in to help you. He thought back to how your immediate instinct had been to care for others, always acting in compassion and selflessness.

“Y/n, what are you doing?”

“Steve, we can’t leave, are you kidding me? They’re in way over their heads. They need help.”

“It’s too dangerous. I don’t want you in there. It’s not up for discussion,” Steve argued, stepping around the door and reaching out to grab your wrist again. You quickly stepped back, pulling your hands out of his reach.

“Y/n, you’re not going back in there. I’m not joking.”

“Neither am I,” you shot back, turning back towards the door. You heard him call out your name again, but you were already through the front door, back in the discomfort of the Byers’ family room.

Steve watched you enter the house and felt his chest tighten. He couldn’t quite place the feeling because he’d never quite felt that way before. It was like a deeply rooted panic; like something was about to go horribly wrong.

He tried to shove it aside as he fumbled with his keys again, pulling the car door open. His heart still felt like it was sinking in his chest. His mind quickly flashed to how surprised he had been that you had knocked on his door. He thought about the fact that you must’ve walked all over town trying to find the Henderson boy. He thought about the fact that you had responded in compassion rather than condescension when he told you about what happened with Nancy.

You had every reason to not give him the benefit of the doubt, but you did anyway. He looked back at the house once more and the lights suddenly came to life, haphazardly flashing in a display of colorful chaos. With each flash of color, he could see your silhouette outlined through the shades adorning the front window of the Byers’ residence. By all accounts you should have been trembling, scared out of your mind, but to Steve you looked stoic.

He had a feeling that this was just the beginning of your story together, and he wasn’t about to let it end prematurely. He slammed the car door shut and sprinted towards the front door.

When he threw it open, he was thrust into the middle of the attack. His heart stopped when he noticed the way you were pinned to the floor, shrieking in pain as the creature’s claws were digging roughly into the skin of your arm.

“Give me that!” Steve yelled, ripping the bat out of Jonathan’s hand. He had been staring dumbfounded at the monster, petrified by his own fear. Steve reared back and swung as hard as he could, landing a solid hit to the creature’s side and knocking it off balance. He would never be able to describe the relief he felt as he saw you roll out of the way, no longer confined to the monster’s viselike hold.

Seeing the gashes on your back now just reminded him of the fact that had he acted sooner, had he simply followed you back in the house immediately rather than nearly bailing on you, the scars that littered your arm wouldn’t even be there. You’d have been safe. You wouldn’t have passed out and needed to go to the hospital. You wouldn’t have had to continue wearing long sleeves in public to avoid stares and questions.

You would have been okay.

But he didn’t go back in immediately. And now you had more scars because he didn’t just get out of the damn water quick enough.

Suddenly your voice registered in his consciousness, and he whipped his head around to attend to it.

“Steve? Hey, baby, you disappeared for a second there. Are you okay?” you inquired, staring up at him with the sweetest look on your face, so sweet in fact that Steve could’ve probably dropped to one knee and proposed right then and there. Guilt tore at his chest in a way that was much more painful that the physical damage those bats had done.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I’m fine; just thinking, is all,” he replied, trying his best to sound nonchalant, not really needing you to know the weight he had been carrying since that fateful day.

You didn’t really believe him, but there wasn’t really time to talk about it as the bats had reached the tree line and you all had to break out into a sprint to avoid another attack.

***

You all crouched under Skull Rock in the Upside Down and you couldn’t help but feel uneasy at how weird it all was. You thought about all the time that Will spent in this place and you felt like you could throw up. He was just a kid. You were basically an adult and you could barely handle being down there; you couldn’t imagine how he had been able to survive it.

For your sanity, you shoved the thought away.

The shrieking of the bats dissipated as they finally cleared from the area. “That was close,” Robin sighed, releasing the breath she’d been holding as you all stood up.

“Yeah, too close,” Eddie complained, his eyes wide considering the fact that he was thrust into all of this. The rest of you had at least had enough experience with all of this crazy shit that nothing could really surprise you too much anymore. You were sure that Eddie was probably about to go insane with the impossibility of it all.

Suddenly, Steve stumbled, falling harshly against the side of the rock formation as he tried to steady himself.

“Steve?!” You shouted out, running to your boyfriend as he pushed himself back to a somewhat upright position.

“I’m fine, I’m fine,” he promised you, but you weren’t believing it for a second.

“No, no, no. You’re not. You’re losing blood!” You cried out, tears beginning to cloud your vision. “Come on; sit, please,” you begged him. Combined with the fact that he could barely stand anyway, your teary eyes were enough to make him comply. You tore a strip of fabric from the bottom of your shirt, hesitating as you looked at the severity of his wound.

You sniffled a bit before asking him, “you ready?”

“Just do it,” he replied, squeezing his eyes shut as he awaited the pain he knew would inevitably follow as you bandaged his injury. His heart broke at your whispered apologies as you wrapped the fabric tightly around his torso. After you secured the fabric, you leaned into him, wrapping him in a tight hug. You placed a small and gentle kiss to his neck before pulling away. “Thank you,” he whispered, and he wasn’t sure if he was thanking you for the bandage or the show of affection, but he decided it was both.

“So, uh,” your attention was drawn to Eddie, who had climbed on top of Skull Rock, “this place is like Hawkins but with monsters and nasty shit?”

“Pretty much,” you answered as you wrapped an arm around Steve’s back to brace him while he regained his balance. Eddie paused for a moment before he began to get down. “Wait! Watch out for the vines!” You were quick to add before he could even take a single step.

“It’s all a hive mind,” Nancy quickly explained, recognizing just how dire this situation could become. You didn’t know what you were supposed to do if one of you misstepped and brought on an army of monsters directly fucking to you.

“It’s what?”

“All of the creepy crawlies around here, dude. They’re like one or something. You step on a vine, you’re stepping on a bat, you’re stepping on Vecna,” Steve explained and though it wasn’t the most eloquent explanation, Eddie got the point and carefully maneuvered around the vines covering the iconic rock. If Steve had cared even a modicum more about school, he could probably tutor Eddie way better than you could.

“But everything from our world is still here right? Like besides the people?” Robin asked, her mind quickly trying to hatch a plan.

“As far as I understand, yeah,” you confirmed, looking at her with a bit of hope forming in your chest at the way her gears were clearly turning.

“So, theoretically, we could go to the police station and get guns and grenades and whatever we need to blow up those bat things that are guarding the gate.”

“I highly doubt that the Hawkins PD has grenades, Robin, but guns, yeah sure,” Steve responded, a hint of annoyance in his voice. You shot him a look that screamed “be nice” but you decided that you would give him a little bit of slack considering the fact that he was probably about two minutes away from dying if you guys didn’t show up when you did to save him. You felt like you could vomit at the thought.

“We don’t have to go all the way downtown for guns, I have guns…in my bedroom,” Nancy spoke up and looked between all of you.

“You, Nancy Wheeler, have guns—plural—in your bedroom?” Eddie asked incredulously. Eddie didn’t know the half of it. Wait until he found out that you had guns too (but Steve didn’t really know about that either).

“A Russian Makarov and a revolver,” Nancy confirmed.

“Yeah, you almost shot me with that one,” you reminded her, your mind flashing back to the way she’d pointed the revolver in your face as you had tried to deescalate the situation. In hindsight, there was absolutely no way in hell that you could have calmed that situation down.

“Yeah, sorry about that,” Nancy replied sheepishly, and you just shot her a smile that let her know that she was forgiven…it would be kind of hard not to forgive her given the circumstances. Suddenly, something flashed across your face as Eddie’s denim vest hit Steve across the chest with a thud.

“For your modesty,” he glared at your boyfriend and you couldn’t help but chuckle. The levity didn’t last long as the ground began to shake. You stumbled, nearly falling, but Steve caught you and pulled you into him as you both braced yourself agains the side of the rock. You spun around in his arms, burying your face in his chest and clinging to him. Everything about this place was so unpredictable; he was your only constant.

“You’re okay, you’re okay, you’re okay,” Steve whispered into your ear as the ground continued to rumble and ripple underneath your feet. “I’m right here and I’m not going anywhere, baby. I love you.” He placed a small kiss to your temple. You tried to take deep breaths to calm down, beginning to settle as you focused on the way that Steve’s arm felt around you. You tried to imagine yourself in his bed, lying together on a lazy Saturday morning, pressed into his bare chest.

The earthquake slowed to a stop and snarling and screeching sounded in the distance. You shuddered, goosebumps erupting over your entire body as you pressed yourself further into Steve.

“So guns seem like a pretty good idea to me,” Eddie finally spoke up, Robin nodding aggressively beside him as they both began sitting up from their place on the ground. You took a deep breath as you looked up at Steve, worry tugging at the corners of your lips. There was so much you wanted to say to him as you looked up into his brown eyes, but instead, you pulled away, grabbing his hand and pulling him alongside you as you and your friends took off towards Nancy’s house.

***

Steve watched as you walked ahead of him, talking with Nancy and Robin as you tried to formulate a more thorough game plan. While you all considered what ifs and discussed the pertinent unknowns about the Upside Down, Steve fell into step with Eddie.

“Hey, Eddie,” Steve finally spoke up to get his attention, “Hey, man, I just want to say thanks…for saving my ass back there.”

“Shit, you saved your own ass, man,” Eddie replied, “I mean, that was a real Ozzy move you pulled back there.”

“Ozzy?”

“When you took a bite out of that bat.” When Steve looked at him confused, Eddie continued, “Ozzy Osbourne? Black Sabbath? He bit a bat’s head off onstage? You know?”

“No.”

“Doesn’t matter,” Eddie trailed off, shaking his head. “It’s very metal what you did, that’s all I’m saying...Y/n told me you were a badass—insisted on the matter, in fact.”

“Wait, she said that?” Steve confirmed, not quite believing his ears. Though he hated to admit it, he couldn’t help but feel jealousy deep within his chest when he thought about the fact that you were tutoring Eddie.

Steve always just thought about all the times that he would quiz you to help you prepare for tests and how cute you looked when you were trying to remember something. Or how you were so sweet and patient with him when he was barely going to graduate and you helped him get a high enough mark in his history class. To know that Ms. O’Donell had set you and Eddie up as study buddies was nearly enough to make his blood boil. How long was it going to take you to realize that he wasn’t good enough for you anymore? How long was it going to be until you decided you needed something new and exciting, like resident bad boy Eddie Munson?

“Are you kidding? She worships you, dude,” Eddie explained, “you have no idea…it’s kind of annoying, to be honest. I don’t know why I care what she thinks, but, uh, guess I got a little jealous, Steve.”

Steve whipped his head up, anger beginning to grow in his chest as he tried to decipher what Eddie meant. Was he jealous because he was into you? Because that was simply not going to happen.

“I guess I couldn’t accept the fact that Steve Harrington was actually a good dude,” Eddie continued. Steve released the breath he’d been holding as he realized Eddie’s jealousy lied elsewhere. “Rich parents, popular, chicks love him. Not a douche? No way, man. No way. That like flies in the face of all the laws in the universe, and my own personal Munson doctrine.”

Steve didn’t know what to say. He was honestly a bit flattered by Eddie’s statement because it confirmed that he had changed for the better. Steve never felt like he was enough for you, but maybe—just maybe—he was becoming the kind of person that could be. Eddie quickly pulled him out of his thoughts as he leaned in and spoke up again.

“Still super jealous as hell, by the way. Which is why I would never have jumped in that lake to save your ass. Not under any, uh…normal circumstances. Nope. Outside of D&D I am no hero; I see danger and I just turn heel and run, or at least that’s what I’ve learned about myself this week.”

“Give yourself a break, man,” Steve gave Eddie a sympathetic look. He wasn’t quite sure if he was saying it for Eddie’s benefit or his own as his mind flashed back to the way he was about to run that fateful day at Jonathan’s house.

“See, the only reason I came in here was ‘cause those ladies came in straight after you,” Eddie explained, his expression set in a way that made it clear he was serious. He gestured ahead to the three of you girls, walking alongside each other. “I was too ashamed to be the one that stayed behind. But y/n? She didn’t waste a second. She just dove right in. That was as unambiguous a sign of true love as these cynical eyes have ever seen.”

Steve felt his stomach drop at Eddie’s words as he thought about the lengths you would go to keep him safe. It didn’t sit right with him and he was internally panicking at the thought of you putting yourself in harm’s way for him. His thoughts were interrupted as the ground began shaking again. His heart stopped as he watched the way that you refused to brace yourself, instead bounding forward into the clearing just past the trees. In the distance, you could see Nancy’s house and your stomach dropped at the sight of it. There wasn’t any way to describe it other than that it looked…wrong.

You jumped a bit as you felt a hand on your shoulder, relaxing slightly as you realized it was just Steve. You turned and looked up into his brown eyes, worry etched across your face. He looked tired and you knew that you probably looked the same. You were racing against time and fate and you weren’t sure this was the type of disaster that you would both make it out on the other side.

This time felt like an ending, and it felt inevitable. You shoved the thought down and swallowed the lump in your throat as you turned away and pushed forward.

“Hey,” you heard Steve’s voice as you felt a hand wrap around your wrist, slowing you down slightly. The rest of the group continued on, clearly reading the tension in the air and wanting no part in it.

“What?” The word came out more exasperated than you had originally intended. You could see Steve bristle at your attitude, and you watched as he took a deep breath, clearly trying to push aside his irritation.

“I just…you…you’re like really being impulsive right now, okay?” Steve finally settled on the words, knowing that they were probably very much the wrong ones, and his voice was tinted with annoyance. He hated that he felt like he couldn’t just talk to you; he never used to feel that way.

“What the fuck are you talking about?” Your eyes narrowed as a quiet rage built in your chest.

Steve looked at you for a second, his eyes wandering across your face as he took the time to think about what he really wanted to say, his conversation with Eddie at the forefront of his mind.

“Eddie told me about how you dove in right after me. You can’t do that shit, y/n.” Steve warned you, his voice low as he tried to stay calm.

You scoffed, in disbelief of the words coming out of your boyfriend’s mouth. “Are you serious right now? What the hell did you expect me to do, Harrington? I wasn’t going to fucking let you drown! If-if we hadn’t gotten there when we did, you would have…” your voice trailed off, unable to verbalize the fate that Steve had narrowly avoided.

“It doesn’t matter, y/n,” Steve shook his head at you, his eyes locked onto yours. “I couldn’t live with myself if something happened to you. Especially if it was because you were trying to protect me. I want to protect you.”

“How is that fair, Steve?” Your eyes began welling up with tears, the anger slipping away from your tone replaced with a deeply rooted sorrow that tore at your chest.

“None of this is fair,” Steve’s voice failed him as his words came out in a whisper. It was weird standing across from him in this moment. Suddenly you felt like the girl that knocked on his door that November evening your sophomore year. You felt a pang in your chest as you thought about the chaos that brought you together, doubt creeping up in your throat.

Did Steve only love you because you were just victims of circumstance? If none of that had ever happened, would you have just been some girl he wouldn’t take the time to care to remember? How long was it going to be before he woke up and realized that there was someone better than you out there for him?

How long would it be until he was no longer yours?

A tear rolled down your cheek and you felt guilt flood your veins as Steve wiped it away, his hand moving to cup your face as he looked into your eyes. You tried and failed to swallow the lump in your throat, a small sob escaping your lips as you squeezed your eyes shut tight and turned your head to the side. Looking at him with all that love in his eyes was too much to bear.

“Hey, hey, hey,” his voice was soft as he brought his other hand underneath your chin to bring you back to him. “Would you please just look at me baby? Come on, let me see those pretty eyes.”

You were falling apart and you didn’t know how anything or anyone could pick up the pieces.

“Talk to me,” his voice was a whisper. “Please.”

Your eyes were still shut tight, but you could feel his lips ghost over the skin of your neck as he dipped his head down to place a gentle kiss below your ear. His hands had dropped from your face, pulling at your waist until you were pressed together. He swayed gently from side to side, moving to cradle the nape of your neck in his hand as you buried your face in his neck. You inhaled deeply, trying to take in his scent, the only familiar thing about this foreign land.

“I’m just scared,” you whispered, gasping in air afterwards, barely in control of your own voice. You finally looked up at him and your watery eyes were enough for him to break.

“Me too,” he admitted. You took a deep breath and pulled away from him. He nodded at you and reached out to grab your hand while you rejoined your friends who were a ways ahead of you now. You were glad they were willing to give you guys the privacy you needed to figure out all of your bullshit emotions. Young love was usually messy, but it typically didn’t involve monsters and near death experiences. As Steve walked beside you, you noticed the deep bruise around his neck and thought back to the viselike grip that bat had him in and you shuddered.

When you reached Nancy’s front door you felt nauseous as you watched the way vines crawled up every wall, wrapping around her front porch. You took a careful step over a vine pulsing beneath your feet, wondering just how fast Vecna would know you were there with one misstep.

You wondered how fast everything would be over. If he would just take care of you then and there. Your hand went to the walkman in your pocket, still dry, sealed in its plastic bag. Steve’s hand darted out and gripped yours in his, his fingers interlocking with yours. He felt unsteady as he used his other hand to point the flashlight into the dark entryway of the Wheeler residence.

It was all ash and rot and vines, and it made you sick to your stomach.

“Might be time to hire a maid, Wheeler,” Robin attempted to lighten the mood but to no avail.

“Come on. I don’t want to stay here any longer than we have to,” she replied, and you didn’t blame her. You were glad you weren’t at your house; you didn’t think you’d ever be able to look at it the same again if you saw it in the state that Nancy’s was.

You all carefully made your way up the stairs, but you felt a tug on your hand halfway up and you turned around confused, Steve lagging behind and looking out over the banister.

“Steve, come on,” you shook his hand and he quickly whipped around to face you. He stared at you blankly, dropping your hand before responding.

“You head up there, I’ll be right behind you.”

You felt your chest tighten at his words. “Steve—“

“Y/n, just trust me, okay?”

The sincerity in his eyes is what caused you to cave as you took a deep, shaky breath and turned away from him, leaving him behind.

You joined your friends at Nancy’s desk where she was removing the lid of a shoebox to reveal…well, shoes.

“Those aren’t guns,” Eddie pointed out the obvious.

“These heels are pointy, but I was hoping for something more along the lines of a deadly projectile,” Robin stared at Nancy with intensity, the plan you had all crafted slowly falling apart before your eyes.

“I don’t understand,” Nancy whispered, her brow furrowed as she inspected the shoes.

“Maybe you left them somewhere else,” you offered, trying to keep the last little bit of hope you had in your chest alive.

“There’s a six-year-old in the house. I know where I keep my guns,” Nancy breathed out, looking at you with desperation. You knew the feeling. “And also, I threw these away years ago.”

The spark of hope fizzled out, turning to dread as you picked up a stack of index cards, clearly from one of Kaminsky’s insanely difficult chem tests your sophomore year. You felt a bit of jealousy tear at your heart, knowing that Steve used to quiz Nancy for that class. You had sat a row behind her and spent the rest of the year trying to push that envy down in your chest as he walked her to class each day. You took a deep breath and reminded yourself that was over…but why had Nancy kept the flashcards? She was going into journalism.

Nothing made sense.

“Nancy…” you started off slow, afraid of the dots you were connecting. “These are from sophomore chemistry.”

“A-and…and this wallpaper…this is old wallpaper. And this mirror went to a yard sale!” Nancy darted around the room, pointing out all of the inconsistencies with the state of her room and the sinking feeling in your stomach grew.

She suddenly picked up a journal and started furiously flipping through pages, stopping dead in her tracks as she reached the last entry.

“Nancy, you’re scaring me,” Robin spoke up. You couldn’t help but feel the same.

“I think the reason my guns aren’t here is because they don’t exist yet.” She turned towards you and held up the closed book. “This diary should be full of entries but it’s not. The last entry is November 6th, 1983.”

You shuddered, goosebumps erupting over your entire body. “The day Will went missing,” you whispered. “We’re in the past.”

You all stared at each other wide eyed, trying to comprehend the implications of your discovery. Your moment was cut short when you heard Steve’s voice ring out, yelling. You felt like you could vomit as you cursed yourself for leaving him behind, sprinting down the stairs and bumping your hip on the corner of the banister in the process.

You hissed in pain, but you didn’t let it stop you from flying around the corner, where you were met with the sight of your boyfriend screaming out into the empty room.

“Dustin? Hello? Hello? Dustin?!”

“Maybe he really does have rabies,” Robin spoke and you elbowed her in the side, not thrilled with her joke.

“Steve? Baby, what are you doing?” You slowly approached him. He whipped around, shining his flashlight in your eyes.

“He’s here. Henderson. That little shit, he-he’s here. He’s like…in the walls or something. Just listen,” Steve explained through gasps of air. He began calling out to Henderson again, his flashlight searching around the room as if the boy would appear.

You were about to go retrieve your boyfriend from his obvious psychotic break when Dustin’s voice suddenly filled your ears. He sounded far away, but Steve was right. It was him.

He was here.

Your heart sank in your chest at the thought that Dustin might be in this alternate dimension with you. You began frantically searching the room looking for him as you all shouted his name.

“Alright, either this kid can’t hear us or he’s being a total douchebag,” Steve spoke up and you rolled your eyes.

“Will. He found a way to speak to Joyce through the lights,” Nancy explained, quickly trying to flip switches on lamps to see if anything would happen.

You spun around quickly, ready to try any other lights in the room, when you noticed a shimmer around the overhead light of the Wheelers’ kitchen table. It looked like magic and you couldn’t take your eyes off of it as it pulsed and wavered in the otherwise dark world you were in.

“Guys,” you breathed out, and Steve shined his flashlight up at the light fixture. You slowly reached your hands towards it and you could feel the way the particles in the air swirled around your fingertips, feeling a sense of electricity in your nerves as the lights pulsed on and off.

Your friends all joined you, each taking a turn to investigate the strange phenomena laid out before you. “It…kinda tickles,” Eddie spoke up, and in any other situation you would have laughed at Hawkins High’s biggest metalhead making a comment like that.

“Does anyone know morse code?” You asked, knowing that Dustin knew it like the back of his hand.

Robin and Nancy both shook their heads and your heart began to sink. It was all useless if no one knew how to properly communicate.

“Wait,” Eddie spoke up, “does SOS count?”

“Yes!” You exclaimed, stepping aside to give Eddie room to tap out the code in the light fixture. Steve’s hand found the small of your back and you allowed yourself to smile up at him for a moment.

Maybe things were looking up after all.

***

You all sat with bated breath as you crowded around the side of Nancy’s bed. You ran your fingers through your hair, the anticipation making you almost want to pull it out. Steve wrapped a hand around your waist, squeezing your side as a signal to calm down.

It was sweet, but it didn’t really help.

“Come on, come on,” Steve whispered, his voice sounding desperate. He let his hand slip from your waist, allowing it to slide down your back and towards your back pocket, needing to check for himself that the walkman was still there. After he confirmed it was, he let his hand linger there a little longer, before slipping his hand into your other back pocket.

Steve’s love language was physical touch. There was no doubt about it. But you couldn’t help but roll your eyes at the fact that his need to have a hand on your ass outweighed the fact that you were in a scary as fuck alternate dimension.

“Are you guys seeing this?” Dustin’s voice rang out, echoing throughout the bedroom. Suddenly, you were staring into the shimmer from before, and you reached your hand out to touch it, desperately needing to find that warmth again in this cold, unforgiving place.

“Holy shit!” Erica exclaimed. You cringed as you thought about how she had been brought into this mess again too. You tried to shove the thought aside. You didn’t want to feed the guilt that Vecna was exploiting.

“Okay, we’re gonna unplug it but leave it there…try it now!” Dustin’s voice filled the room again.

Your hands hesitantly reached out towards the bed, hoping with all your heart that your message would translate to the Lite-Brite the kids had. You shakily wrote out the letters, cringing at how shaky your handwriting looked from how nervous you were.

Suddenly, Dustin’s laughter filled your ears. “It worked!”

You released the breath you didn’t even realize you’d been holding, and you just wished that you could somehow travel across time and space to give the Henderson boy a hug.

You wracked your brain trying to think of how to quickly explain what was going on. You decided on the word “stuck,” writing it out as fast as you could.

“They’re stuck in the Upside Down,” this time it was Lucas’s voice filling the room, echoes drifting through the open space. It was disorienting and it would be scary if it wasn’t the goofball kids you’d come to know and love.

“You can’t get back through Watergate?” Dustin asked.

“What the hell’s Watergate?” Your boyfriend turned to you, looking completely and utterly lost. You grabbed onto his hand, rubbing your thumb across the back of it as you looked up at him lovingly (and somewhat pitifully too, if you were being honest).

“Because it’s in the water and it’s a gate...” Robin explained so that you didn’t have to.

“Oh, that’s cute,” Eddie joked, and you rolled your eyes. You weren’t sure why Dustin had such an affinity for coming up with dumbass nicknames for the component parts of the Upside Down, but unfortunately he did.

G-U-A-R-D-E-D, you spelled out in the shimmer in front of you.

“We think we have a theory that can help with that,” Dustin spoke up and your heart soared. You didn’t want to spend any more time here than you had too, desperate for some sort of escape. “We think Watergate isn’t the only gate; that there’s a gate at every murder site.”

You felt your stomach drop at his words, your mind suddenly being pulled back towards your seemingly inevitable fate. You barely heard your friends discussing what Dustin could possibly mean. Their voices sounded faint and far away as you tried and failed to calm yourself down. Steve squeezed your hand, breaking you away from your thoughts and shooting you a look that said “are you okay?” to which you nodded. He didn’t really believe you, but he guessed that now wasn’t the time to argue as he watched Nancy draw out a question mark.

“Seriously guys? How many times do I have to be right on the money before you trust me?” The boy sounded exasperated and you couldn’t help but roll your eyes.

“This kid’s gotta get his ego in check,” Steve spoke up, a look of disgust plastered across his face.

“I know! It’s his tone!” You complained. Steve opened his mouth again to continue your conversation about the Henderson boy when Robin cut you off.

“Hey, can you two stop talking about your pseudo-son and can we get back to figuring how the hell to get out of here, please and thanks?”

“How far is your trailer?” You turned to ask Eddie.

“Seven miles.”

“Uh, I know your house here is like weirdly, creepily frozen in time and shit, but haven’t you always had bikes?” Robin asked.

Nancy didn’t say anything, quickly leading you all back down the stairs towards the garage, no doubt to find the bikes in question.

“This reminds me of when I taught you how to ride a bike,” Steve spoke up, a smirk plastered across his face. You smacked him in the arm and rolled your eyes as your face heated up, thinking back to the time he was describing.

It was the spring of your junior year, after Tina’s Halloween party and Dart and the tunnels. Your parents had picked up a lot of extra shifts and were gone most of the time, so you were staying at Steve’s pretty frequently.

He was driving you back to his house after school when he finally broke your comfortable silence, turning the radio down.

“Hey!” You whined, reaching forward to turn the song you had been humming along to back up, but he grabbed your hand and gently pushed it away. “I was listening to that, you know.”

“I’ve been thinking…” he started, and for a second you were worried he was going to ask you out. You felt your heart start racing and your palms start sweating as you tried to think of what you’d even say. It seemed way too soon; after all, him and Nancy had pretty much just broken up a few months ago, and you didn’t want to be some rebound for him to dump once someone better came along, besides, what if it ruined your friendship or—

Your thoughts were cut short when he finished his sentence, “I think it’s about time I taught you how to ride a bike.”

You stared at him dumbfounded, barely believing the words that had exited his mouth. “You’re fucking joking, right?”

“No, I’m dead serious, y/n.”

You chuckled, but it awkwardly died in your throat when you realized he was looking at you very, very seriously. “Why? Like pardon my French, but what the fuck?”

At this point he was pulling into his driveway, putting the car in park and turning towards you. He grabbed one of your hands before he spoke up again. His fingers toyed with yours as he stared down at them, too embarrassed by what he was about to say to make eye contact with you.

“It’s just that….ugh, I don’t know. It’s hard to explain,” he mumbled, and immediately alarm bells were going off in your brain. Steve didn’t get like this; he was confident, he said what he thought, and that was that. The fact that he seemed to be at a loss for words was more than a little concerning.

You pulled your hand away from his and you moved your hands to the sides of his face, tilting his head up to look him in the eyes. “Steve, what is going on? You’re scaring me.”

“I just think about how Dustin ran off from you in the fall when all that shit was going down and how you had to run after him. With all the crazy, fucked up shit that goes on here, I just would feel a little bit better if you at least had a more reliable form of transportation other than walking everywhere.”

You giggled a bit, and Steve glared at you, clearly not happy with that response. “Steve, I’m fine, I swear. I get around just fine.”

Your words didn’t seem to ease his frustration, so you tried again. “Besides, why ride a bike when I can be chauffeured around by you all the time?”

Steve rolled his eyes before taking the keys out of the ignition. “Come on, get out. You’re learning how to ride a bike.”

You sighed, unfastening your seatbelt as you followed Steve to his garage, He guided a bike out onto his driveway and placed a helmet haphazardly on your head, reaching up to fasten it under your chin.

“I feel like an idiot,” you spoke up, and Steve tried really hard not to chuckle at how cute and sweet you looked.

“Well, you’re such a genius that I think feeling like an idiot every once in a while isn’t such a bad thing.”

Steve held the bike up for you while you mounted it, placing your feet on the pedals.

“Alright, so you’re just gonna pedal your feet, and I’m going to hold onto the handle bars and everything’s going to be fine, okay?”

You nodded and did as he said, shakily moving your feet as you attempted to steer the bike. You practiced that for a while before he moved his hands to your hips to help you keep your balance, so that you could work towards steering the bike yourself without assistance. Finally, he let go and just like that, you were riding a bike.

“I’m doing it Steve! Holy shit!” You couldn’t believe it. Your parents had never been able to afford a bike, so you just never learned.

“That’s my girl!” Steve shouted out, and your heart nearly stopped. His words caught you so off guard that you lost balance, the bike toppling over onto the street. You caught yourself on your hands, but skinned them and your knees in the process.

Steve rushed over to you, his hands hovering over you as he assessed the damage. “Y/n! I’m so sorry, are you okay?”

“I’m fine, Steve, calm down,” you assured him, hoping he didn’t see how beet red your face was. You began to stand up, but faltered a bit, pain shooting through your ankle as you came to the realization that you must have sprained it. You hissed in pain, and suddenly, Steve was picking you up bridal style to carry you back to his house. “Steve! Put me down!”

“Nope,” he replied simply, and you tried to keep your face from heating up at the way his arms felt around your body.

He spent the rest of the afternoon profusely apologizing, and you continued telling him that it was okay, but he was still clearly mad at himself when you went to bed that night.

He laid facing away from you, and it made your heart hurt. You decided you needed to show him that you didn’t care and that you were okay.

Your heart was beating a million miles a minute as you wrapped your small frame around his. Normally in bed, you were the little spoon in your weird in between relationship that you occupied. Never once had you been the one to initiate it. This was new territory.

You pressed yourself into the bare skin of his back and sighed at the warmth he radiated. Slowly, he turned in your embrace to face you, gently pushing a strand of hair away and tucking it behind your ear.

“I’m sorry, y/n,” he whispered, “I shouldn’t have pressured you. It was wrong of me and I’m sorry you got hurt.”

“Oh would you just stop it! I’m fine, Steve! My ankle doesn’t even hurt anymore, and I’m glad I know how to ride a bike now. All’s well that ends well, okay?”

He was still mad at himself, but he decided not to argue, instead choosing to take a calculated risk.

He gently grabbed your upper arm, pushing you down to lay flat on your back as he shifted so he was hovering above you. He gazed down at you with a look that screamed determination as he slowly closed the gap between you.

He shot you a look that seemingly asked “is this okay?” and you just nodded, unable to speak in anticipation of whatever was about to happen. This was all the confirmation he needed before he dipped his head down, his lips settling below your ear as he placed a gentle kiss there.

You let out a shaky breath as you closed your eyes, reveling in the way his lips felt against your skin. He kissed down your neck and across your exposed collarbones, and you thanked your lucky stars that you had put on a tank top that left enough available skin for him to pay attention to. Your chest heaved a bit at his touch, and your hand darted to the back of his neck, holding him to you and running your hands through his hair. After a few more kisses that were getting dangerously close to your cleavage and progressively more intense, he placed one more below your ear before pulling away.

You stared up at him in awe as he grabbed your wrist, pulling your hand away from his hair as he held it up in between the two of you. He took a moment to inspect the damaged skin on your palm, red and raw from when you had fallen. Slowly, he brought it to his mouth, placing the gentlest of kisses on it without breaking eye contact with you.

“There,” he whispered, “all better.”

That had been the first time he had ever kissed you and you felt your body growing hot just at the thought of it.

“Yeah, it’s a good thing you didn’t try to teach me how to drive,” you rolled your eyes, trying to play it off like you weren’t turned on by the memory of his lips against your skin.

Steve thought about it, and he wondered if teaching you to drive wouldn’t be such a bad idea. If you weren’t even dating and he had been able to kiss you like that when he taught you how to ride a bike, he was pretty sure the two of you were going to have a much more fun time in the back of his BMW after having you drive around the block for a little while.

Now was not the time to think about that though, and the two of you continued down the stairs, finally making it to Nancy’s garage as you each grabbed a bike.

Your legs were tired by the time you reached the trailer park, not being well suited for riding a bike such a long distance considering you had just learned how to about a year ago. Red lightning cracked through the sky, and you jumped every time you heard it. You gripped the handlebars tighter as you continued pedaling towards the Munsons’ trailer.

As soon as you pulled up, you all quickly ditched your bikes, each of you panting as you tried to catch your breath from the seven mile trip.

“That’s gotta be a Guinness World Record,” Robin spoke through gulps of air, “most miles traveled inter-dimensionally.”

“Just inhaled a bunch of that crap,” Steve grumbled referring to the ash as he coughed for emphasis, “it’s stuck in my throat.”

“Poor baby,” you attempted to patronize him, but your words died as a cough escaped your own throat, to which Steve shot you a condescending glance.

“Yeah, and who’s the baby now.”

“Will you two just shut the fuck up,” Robin coughed through her words, while Nancy rolled her eyes at the three of you. You crossed the threshold of Eddie’s trailer and you all stared silently at the pulsing, glowing gate above you.

“This is where Chrissy died,” Eddie spoke up, “like right where she died.”

A chill shot down your spine as you thought about Eddie’s description of Chrissy’s death. You tried to push the thought aside, but to no avail.

“Holy shit,” you whispered unable to pull your eyes away from the portal back to the familiar, despite how much you wanted to.

You watched as a shadow passed over the opening, and you felt nauseous at the thought of what it could be. “I think there’s something in there,” Robin announced what you were all thinking.

Something pressed into the gate, pushing at the glowing membrane before it suddenly burst, light pouring in through the now torn opening. You all backed up, shrieking as you all took defensive stances, ready to fight whatever you had to in order to survive.

Steve slowly crept towards the gate, looking up through it before whispering in awe.

“No way.”

A chuckle rang out that you would have recognized anywhere and you joined Steve to see Dustin smiling up at you alongside Max, Lucas, and Erica. They were upside down and it was do disorienting it was almost nauseating as you each looked up at each other through your respective ceilings.

“Holy shit this is trippy,” you laughed as Dustin continued to celebrate above you, thrilled that his theory was correct. The kids went off to go gather materials to hopefully bring you back to the real world as you waited in the Upside Down. Max and Lucas returned to your field of view, setting down a mattress that they had dragged from Eddie’s room to cushion your fall. You tried not to make a face at the way the sheets were stained.

“Those stains are, uh…I don’t know what those stains are,” Eddie began to attempt to explain but quickly gave up. Dustin walked over, holding together a rope he fastened out of several sheets.

“I’m not quite sure how these physics are going to work, but here goes nothing,” he said as he tossed the rope up through the gaping hole in the ceiling. “There we go,” he added as gravity caused one end of the rope to fall towards the floor in the Upside Down, “and if my theory is correct…”

He trailed off as he let go of the blanket and you watched as it miraculously hover around a central point between the two worlds, gravity working on either side to hold the rope securely in place.

Robin tugged on it to confirm it would hold and you couldn’t really believe what you were seeing.

“This is the craziest shit I have ever seen in my life, and I’ve seen some crazy shit,” Erica announced and you couldn’t help but chuckle, knowing just what crazy shit she was likely referring to.

“Guess I’m the guinea pig,” Robin spoke up as she attempted to climb the rope. It was surreal watching as the pull of gravity shifted, watching her tumble to the mattress below her as soon as she crossed the threshold back into the Hawkins you knew and loathed.

The four of you that remained looked at each other, silently trying to debate who would be next to leave the Upside Down.

“Alright, guess I’ll go,” Eddie spoke up hesitantly, climbing up the makeshift rope. Nancy followed after him and then suddenly it was just you and Steve, staring at each other through the ash floating through the air.

“See you on the other side,” Steve smirked at you, and you couldn’t help but grin back at him. Though you knew your tribulations were far from over, at least you were getting the hell out of this place, finally home free.

“On the other side,” you agreed. Steve helped to hoist you up, and you climbed towards the familiar. You passed the center point of the rope, bracing for contact with the mattress but it never came.

Instead everything went dark as you continued falling into oblivion.

***

a/n: I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! If you did and you wanted to reblog and comment I’d be so so grateful (it really makes my day to see what you guys think of the story). Since I’m getting close to the end of the content we have, I probably will open requests soon. These can be related to Adventures in Babysitting if you’d like (like I’d love to write about some mundane shit for the in between moments of conflict in Hawkins) or they could be completely separate! Also, writing the bike flashback was my favorite part of this chapter :)

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