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mothguillotine · 8 months ago

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Chapter 6: Let’s Get Them Russians

Main Masterlist

cw: swearing, descriptions of death, and violence

word count: 9.5k (I am so sorry and I don't wanna talk about it)

Summary: It's time...

You weren’t exactly sure where your life went wrong. Before you found yourself spying on Russians you would have said when you first realized that you liked girls, or when you realized that you just did not like boys. But given recent events, you would definitely say your family moving to Hawkins was the worst idea ever. However, you can’t find yourself becoming too upset with your dad about taking that stupid job offer because, in the end, it resulted in you holding Robin's hand.

Even in the most terrifying moments of this ordeal just seeing her face, well, it made everything okay to you. You weren’t sure when in the last 48 hours you realized that you were in love with her but looking back on it now, it seems rather obvious that you love Robin and she is holding your hand right now. Given at the moment she is drugged and may just need extra help running through the back halls you don’t wanna hope too much.

“Come on,” Dustin urges the two of you, “We need to lay low for a little bit.”

“And how exactly do we do that?” you ask him, “We have two drugged friends and a whole bunch of Russians after us.”

“Just trust me,” he tells you, opening the door he was leading you to, then peeks out.

“All clear,” he says after a moment, moving out of the doorway.

The rest of you run out and you realize that Dustin has taken you all to the movie theater. You follow him into one of the theaters still holding Robins's hand. Dustin throws open the double doors and runs down the stairs to the front row.

“You two sit,” Dustin tells Robin and Steve.

“No, no, no,” Robin says, “These seats are too close and I wanna sit by her.”

“Okay,” he tells her, “How about we compromise and you sit here and she will sit on the ground.”

“On the ground?” you ask him in a low voice.

“Yes, on the ground,” he tells you, “Watch them.”

“Fine,” you tell him and sit down on the ground next to Robin.

“Dude, these seats blow,” Steve tells Dustin.

“Then don’t watch the movie,” he tells Steve.

“We wanna watch it,” Robin tells him.

“Then watch it!” Dustin shouts at them.

“Shh!” you hear from someone behind you.

“Shh!” Robin turns and tells the person who did it first.

“Whatever you do,” Dustin instructs them, “Don’t Go Anywhere.”

“Fine, Dad,” Steve retorts and Robin chuckles.

Dustin and Erica both run down to the other side of the row to find seats, “Do you want some popcorn?” Steve leans down and asks you.

You look at him confused, “Steve, where did you get that?”

“What?” he asks, looking at the snack in his hand.

“I-, you know what, never mind,” you tell him, “I haven’t eaten in forty-eight hours so I don't care.”

“All of this popcorn is making me thirsty,” Robin moans.

“There is a water fountain right outside the movies,” Steve tells her.

“No,” you tell them, “Dustin said we need to stay put and to lay low.”

“Oh, come on,” Robin pleads, “I haven’t drank anything in forever!”

“Okay, okay,” you tell them, “But we need to be quick.”

You stand up and crouch down with Steve and Robin behind you all of you run out of the theater. Steve directs you towards the exit and to the water fountain. Steve runs over to it and puts his entire face into the stream. Robin leans back on a wall full of different movie posters.

“Is this what all drugs feel like?” Robin asks out loud.

“No,” you tell her.

“oh,” Robin stops and thinks then quietly whispers to you, “do you do drugs?”

You let out a laugh, “Yes, Robin,” you tell her and then match her low whisper, “I do drugs.”

Robin starts laughing as well.

“That’s amazing,” Steve says after waterboarding himself for a minute straight, “You guys need to try this.”

“Were you guys paying attention to the movie?” Robin asks changing the subject, “Because, like, I wasn’t totally focused on the movie or anything, but… I’m pretty sure that mom was trying to bang her son.”

“Wait, wait, the hot chick was Alec P. Keaton’s mom?” he asks, confused.

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure,” she tells him.

“But they’re the same age,” Steve says.

“No,” Robin says dramatically, “But he went back in time.”

“Then why is it called Back to the Future?” Steve asks her.

“He has to go back to the future,” Robin explains, “Because he’s in the past, So, the future is actually the present, which is his time.”

Steve stops and thinks for a moment, trying to process this new information, “Wh- what?”

“No, no,” Robin says and pushes Steve out of the way, “It’s my turn. You’ve had enough.”

Steve walks away from the fountain, “Can you hold my hair back?” Robin asks you.

“Yeah,” you tell her and pull back some stands.

“Wow,” Steve says and just stares at the ceiling.

“You okay bud?” you ask him to which you get no response.

“Hey, guys,” he says to the two of you, “You gotta check this out.”

Robin stands up from the drinking fountain and stumbles over to where Steve is standing. You follow her over and look up to see what Steve is looking at, “Check this out.”

“This… the ceiling,” he tells you both, “It’s beautiful.”

“Oh, wow,” Robin says.

“Do you see it?” Steve asks you and grabs your shoulders.

The ceiling is made out of glass, nothing remarkable, “Uh, yeah Steve,” you tell him, “We should get back in there though we don’t want them worrying.”

“I uh,” Robin says and clutches her stomach, “I’m gonna barf.”

Robin runs to the right where the restrooms are followed closely by Steve who is also holding his stomach.

“Oh, that’s just great,” you mumble but follow them into the bathrooms anyway.

By the time you open the door both of them have claimed separate stalls to barf into, “Are you guys okay?” you ask.

“No!” Robin shouts and then immediately gets sick.

“Oh, God,” Steve moans, “It’s in my hair.”

“Do you want me to hold back your hair for you?” you ask him jokingly.

“Yes,” he says quietly.

You take a moment to look up at the fluorescent lights on the ceiling, let out a breath, and then you agree, “Okay, fine.”

After quite a long time of making sure no vomit gets into Steve's precious hair his stomach finally seems to calm down. He flushes the toilet one last time and wipes his mouth, “Thanks.”

“Yeah, well after everything that's happened,” you tell him, helping him sit next to the toilet just in case, “The last thing I'm worried about is getting your puke on my hands.”

Steve laughs but then groans in pain, “The ceiling stopped spinning for me, is it still spinning for you?” you hear from the next stall over.

Steve looks up to examine the ceiling, “Holy shit,” Steve says, “No. You think we puked it all up?”

“Probably,” you tell him, “Or it’s just been long enough that you guys are coming down.”

“I definitely feel less druggie,” Robin confirms, “Ask me something. Interrogate me.”

“Okay, interrogate you,” Steve says, “Umm, when was the last time you, uh, peed your pants?”

“Today,” Robin says truthfully.

“What?” Steve asks her, surprised.

“When the Russian doctor took out the bone saw,” she explains.

“Yeah,” you laugh, “Makes sense.”

“Oh, my God,” Steve says simultaneously and starts laughing hysterically.

“It was just a little bit, though,” Robin tells him.

“I’m gonna go make sure Dustin and Erica aren’t freaking out since you two are feeling better,” you tell them and leave the bathroom.

Outside the putrid-smelling room, you find Erica and Dustin wandering around, presumably looking for their missing friends.

“Hey,” you call to them which makes their heads turn around, “They are in the bathroom right now, I would not go in there.”

“Why?” Erica asks you.

“It smells really bad,” you tell them.

“Did they shit themselves?” Erica asks.

“What?!” you ask her, taken aback, “No, they just threw up.”

“Oh, well I can handle that,” Dustin tells you and strolls past you followed by Erica.

“I mean okay,” you say mostly to yourself.

You just take a moment to think about how absolutely fucked your life has become. Somehow moving to a small town in Indiana got you involved in extra-dimensional monsters and Russian spies underneath your workplace. If only your family could see you now, your parents are probably freaking out right now and your sister, god, you have no idea where Tee is.

You can only hope that she isn’t wrapped up in all of this but you know she was hanging out with Dustin's group. Realistically you know that she probably is. When you catch up with Dustin and Erica you hear laughter coming from the bathroom.

Back in the bathroom, the smell has significantly decreased but the mood is still the same, hysterical laughing coming from Robin and Steve. Dustin and Erica stand there looking at each other and the two on the floor.

“Okay, what the hell,” Dustin says, which makes Robin and Steve laugh more, “I told the three of you specifically to stay in the theater, not to go anywhere.”

“I thought you wanted us to not attract attention?” you ask him, “Do you think the two of them barfing in the middle of a movie was a good way to achieve that? If someone made one radio call about two people throwing up in sailor costumes we all would have been screwed.”

“Okay,” Dustin says, “That is true. We will just have to wait till the movie is over and leave with the crowd.”

“I think that’s a good plan,” you tell him. After another twenty-ish minutes, you hear chatter from the movie being done. All of you peek out of the bathroom and look around for any trouble.

“Blend,” Dustin tells you all and joins the crowd of people making their way to the parking lot. Most people talk about how amazing the movie was but you all have a different focus. The five of you walk amongst the patrons, making sure you haven't been spotted or followed.

“Well, shit,” Erica says, “It worked.”

“Of course, it worked,” Dustin tells her, “Now we just have to get on the bus with the rest of these plebes, and home sweet home, here we come.”

“Uh, Dustin?” Steve says.

“What?” he asks.

“Yeah, we might not want to go to your house,” Steve tells him.

“Why?”

“Well, I might’ve told them your full name,” Steve explains.

“What?!” you ask him, “And you didn’t think to tell us sooner. What else did you guys say?”

“I’m sorry okay,” he tells all of you, “I was drugged, we were drugged.”

“So?” Dustin asks.

“So?” Steve repeats.

“So you resist,” Dustin tells him, “You tough it out. You tough it out like a man.”

“Oh, yeah,” Steve says sarcastically, “It’s easy for you to say.”

“Guys?” Robin says in alarm.

All of you look in front of you and see people checking IDs, most definitely the Russians.

“Abort,” Dustin says, then makes eye contact with one of the guards, all of you run back the way you came into the crowd of people.

Robin leads you all to the escalators which are closed off for the night. Behind you two of the guards are coming after you, Robin gets into the space between the escalators and slides down with all of you going down one after the other. When you get to the floor you stand up and run behind one of the food stands hoping that no one saw where you all went.

All of you just sit quietly for what feels like forever, trying not to move or make any noise. You opt to put your head on your knees like you're in a tornado drill, knowing it won’t actually make you any safer. You can hear the passing of shoes every so often but at some point something doesn’t sound right. The sound of people approaching seemed to draw more and more near. All of you are holding your breath at this point waiting for gunshots or an attack.

Suddenly you hear a car alarm go off, likely the prize model sitting in the food court. After a moment of the car alarm going off you hear a gigantic crash, all of you slowly look over the counter at what happened.

When you do you see all of your pursuers lying in blood on the ground and the car smashed against the other side of the room. When you look back you see a girl and a few moments later you see the kids you hit with the car, Dustin's friends, which of course includes Tee. As well as two people who look about the same age as you that you don’t recognize.

All of you run toward the escalator, “Tee!” you shout and run towards her giving her the biggest hug you possibly can.

“I can’t breathe,” she tells you and you release her, scanning her for any injuries.

“Are you okay?” you ask her, “I’ve been so worried about you.”

“I should be asking you that,” she tells you, “You’ve been gone for days.”

“I know,” you tell her, “You wouldn’t believe what happened to me. Are Mom and Dad upset?”

“I told them you were staying with your friend for a few days,” she says, “A little upset that you didn’t ask, but for the most part okay.”

“El, you flung that thing like a Hot Wheel!” Dustin yells and runs to two of his friends and pulls them in for a hug.

“Lucas?!” Erica says confused.

“What are you doing here?” Lucas asks her.

“Ask them,” she says pointing at the four of you, “It’s their fault.”

“True, yeah,” Steve confirms, “Totally true. It’s absolutely our fault.”

You nod your head in agreement with Steve, “To be fair, it's not like we forced her to do it,” you tell him.

“I don’t understand what happened to that car,” Robin says.

“Steve didn’t tell you about her having powers?” you ask Robin, “Dustin told me a while ago.”

“A while ago?” Dustin asks, “It was only a few hours ago.”

“Okay, well my sense of time really got fucked when we were locked in a basement for a few days,” you tell him.

“She has powers?” Robin asks, confused.

“Yes,” Dustin says, “Keep up.”

“I’m sorry,” Robin says, her brows furrowed, “What does that mean?”

“Superpowers,” Dustin says, “She threw it with her mind.”

“That’s El?” Erica asks.

“Who’s El?”

This is your first time to really take in the whole group, “So is this like everyone?” you ask.

“I’m sorry,” one of the teens who came in with the others says, “Who are the both of you?”

“I’m Robin,” she says, “I work with Steve.”

“I, too, work with Steve,” you tell her, “And Tee is my sister.”

“They helped crack the secret code,” Dustin explains.

Steve nods, “Yeah, that's how we found out about the Russians.”

“Russians?” the other new one asks, “Wait, what Russians?”

“Wait,” you say, “You guys don’t know about the Russians?”

“The Russians!” Steve says and points to the dead bodies.

“Those were Russians?” Max asks.

“Yeah!” you exclaim, “We were locked in their basement!”

“But, that was only some of them,” Erica tells everyone.

“Yeah, there are a lot of them,” you tell them, “Well, I guess less now, but still a lot.”

“What are you talking about?” Lucas asks.

“Didn’t you hear the code red?” Dustin asks.

“Yeah,” Mike says, “We couldn’t understand what you were saying.”

“Goddamn low battery,” Dustin curses.

“How many times do I have to tell you with the low battery,” Steve yells.

“Well, everything worked out, didn’t it?” Dustin yells back.

“Worked out?” Erica repeats, “We almost died!”

“Girls, you are both very beautiful but let's get back to the task at hand,” you tell the two of them, “Russians remember.”

“I uh, don’t really think that’s the most concerning problem,” Tee says and scratches the top of her head.

“What do you mean?” you ask nervously, “What could be worse than a Russian invasion?”

Everyone pauses, “Guys, what’s- what's going on?” Dustin asks.

The five of you look as confused as you feel, and then you hear a thump and a grunt come from behind you, “El!” Mike yells and runs over to El who is lying on the ground turning her onto her back, “El?”

“What’s wrong with her?” Erica asks and El starts crying, in obvious pain.

“What’s wrong?” Mike asks El.

“My leg,” El gets out between sobs and reaches down pulling one of her pant legs up, “My leg!”

You take a step back and watch as they pull up her pant leg and reveal a wound that was patched, “Get that off,” the girl your age says and the other pulls it off.

Deciding that nothing you can do will help you decide to pull Robin off toward one of the undamaged eateries.

“What are we doing?” Robin asks.

“When was the last time you ate?” you ask her, to which you get no response, “None of us are gonna be any help if we are about to pass out from malnourishment.”

You both make your way towards the pizzeria and you hop over the counter, and start to gather as much food as you can carry. Robin follows your lead and starts gathering food.

The screams are starting to get louder as they echo through the empty mall. You hear someone run down towards you both and they hop over the counter throwing open the drawers. Until he finds a knife and lights the oven holding the blade over the flames.

“What are you doing?” you ask, concerned.

“Surgery, I guess,” He explains and runs back to the group.

“Come on,” you tell Robin behind you, “We need to get back over there.”

You riffle through the cabinets under the counter, finding a few things of mushrooms and other dry goods. A window loudly shatters as El lets out a gut-wrenching scream and lights go crazy. You stand up and turn to look at what happened. Unfortunately, Robin has the same idea as you from the fridge and you run into each other dropping everything that the two of you were carrying.

“Oh, shit,” you say under your breath and drop to the ground trying to pick up all of the food, “I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine,” Robin tells you and crouches down to help you.

“I should have been more aware of my surroundings,” you tell her, “Especially right now.”

“Hey,” Robin says and grabs your hand which makes you look up at her for the first time, “It’s okay.”

You swear you see Robin look down at your lips for a split second before looking back up at your eyes and just like magnets the two of you draw closer together, closing your eyes you lean in. Not a second later you feel her soft lips press against yours and it feels like only a second before she pulls away. Looking at your face for any signs of disgust.

“Was that okay?” you ask her after a moment.

“I-” Robin starts but is interrupted.

“You guys okay?” you hear Dustin ask.

You gather some of the food and stand back up, “Yeah just had a spill,” you tell him and put the food on the counter, “Help us carry it back.”

Dustin starts to pick up some of the supplies from the counter and you hop back to the other side, “Robin what did you get?” Dustin asks.

“Uh, some pepperonis and cheese. A few peppers,” she tells him, still picking up her things from the ground.

“Okay, let’s get back,” Dustin encourages, “The chief is here now.”

“The what?” you ask him.

“The chief of police,” Dustin explains, “He’s El’s dad.”

“So are the rest of the police here or what?” you ask him.

“No, just him, unfortunately,” he tells you and walks back to the group.

You turn back around to the counter and start gathering the food but Robin notices a look on your face.

“What is it?” Robin asks, putting her food on the countertop as well.

“I uh,” you pause trying to find the right words then whisper, “I have a joint.”

“What?” Robin asks, “Where?”

“My bra,” you tell her and see her look down and back up.

Robin takes a moment to answer, “I think out of everything he is the least concerned about a little weed.”

“Yeah,” you say, “That’s probably true… but it doesn’t make me feel any better.”

Robin hops over the counter landing on her feet next to you, “How are you paranoid without smoking?”

“Fuck off,” you laugh and elbow her in the side, “Grab what you can, and let's get back.”

The rest of the group are all patching themselves up as you approach, “We brought some food,” you announce to everyone including the newcomers, the only actual adults here. Laying out the goods on a nearby table.

“Oh thank god,” Steve says and goes to get sustenance.

“That’s not my name,” you tell him, shaking your head.

“Hardee har har,” Steve says dryly, “You should have a comedy show.”

“So are you guys gonna explain what's going on now?” you ask the others.

“Yeah, I’m really confused,” the adult woman says, “What is going on? And who are you?”

“Oh uh yeah, I, well we,” you say gesturing to Tee, “Just moved here and I got trapped in the Russian basement with Steve and Dustin. To be honest they kinda dragged me, Robin, and Erica into this mess.”

“Hey, that is not true,” Steve defends, “I take total fault for Erica but Robin wanted to!”

“Yeah, well you weren't completely honest with us,” you tell him.

“Okay, children!” a balding man yells, “Can we focus on what’s important.”

“What is important?” you ask him, “Because if you say Russians I’m gonna smack you upside the head, I was in a goddamn Russian underground base for days. So if you think I don’t know that, I do, so add something new to the conversation, or don’t speak at all!”

He doesn’t respond and instead walks off, “The Russians are the least of our problems right now,” Mike tells everyone, “The Mind Flayer, it built this monster in Hawkins, to stop El, to kill her, and pave a way into our world.”

“And it almost did,” she says, “That thing was just one tiny piece of it.”

You look towards the sluggish-looking piece of mush that she gestured to, “Ew,” you express.

Everyone ignores your comment, “How big is this thing?” the chief asks.

“It’s big,” Jonathan tells him, and the rest of them mummer amongst themselves.

“Thirty feet, at least,” Mike says with the agreement of the others, “Kinda looks like a big spider.”

“Just don’t ask what it’s made out of,” the older girl says and cringes.

“Well, you can’t just say that and not tell us,” you say to her.

She takes a moment and bluntly states, “Humans.”

“It sorta destroyed your cabin,” Lucas tells the chief, “Sorry.”

“Okay, so, just to be clear, this… this big fleshy spider thing that hurt El,” Steve says, “It’s some kind of gigantic… weapon?”

“Yes,” she says plainly.

“But instead of, like, screws and metal, the Mind Flayer made its weapon…” Steve starts, “With melted people.”

“Yes, exactly,” she confirms.

“Yeah, okay,” Steve says, “I- yeah, I’m just making sure.”

“And this is what you have been dealing with for the last few days?” you ask Tee.

“Yep,” she confirms, nodding her head.

“Are we sure this thing is still out there, still alive?” the woman asks.

“El beat the shit out of it, but, yeah, it’s still alive,” Max tells her.

“But if we close the gate again-” Will says.

“We cut the brain off from the body,” Max starts.

“And kill it,” Lucas finishes, “Theoretically.”

“Yoo-hoo!” you hear the balding man call from behind you, turning you see him flapping around papers and walking over to a table.

All of you make your way past the more than totaled car and gather around him.

Robin takes a seat at one of the surrounding tables and you follow her lead, taking a seat next to her, “Okay, this is what Alexei called “the hub,” the balding man says and traces down the map, “Now, the hub takes us to the vault room.”

The chief, who is looking over his shoulder at the map, asks him, “Okay, where’s the gate?”

“Right here,” the balding one says, “I don’t know the scale on this, but I think it’s fairly close to the vault room, maybe fifty feet or so.”

“More like five hundred,” Erica exclaims, “What, you’re just gonna waltz in there like it’s commie Disneyland or something?”

“I’m sorry,” the man says sarcastically, “Who are you?”

“Erica Sinclair,” Erica tells him, “Who are you?”

“Murray…” he pauses, “Bauman.”

“Listen, Mr. Bunman,” Erica says to Murray, “I’m not trying to tell you how to do things, but we’ve been down in that shithole for twenty four hours. And with all due respect, you do what this man tells you, you’re all gonna die.”

While all of this is going on you can’t help but feel a sense of recognition at the name Murray Bauman. Looking at Tee you can’t tell if she is experiencing the same, leaning over to where she is sitting next to you, you whisper to your sister, “Do we know him?”

“You know,” she pauses, “He looks really familiar, but I just- I don’t know, I just can’t place him.”

“Yeahhh,” you drag out, “Me either.”

“She’s right,” you hear when you tune back into the conversation, Dustin backing up Erica, “You’re all gonna die, but you don’t have to.”

“Excuse me,” Dustin tells Murray and moves toward the map, “Sorry, may I?”

After Dustin corrects himself, Murray moves out of the way, “Please.”

Dustin sits down and pulls the map towards himself. You decide to stand up and move closer to get a better look, on the map you see a very small version of the Russian lab, probably 1/10th scale of the actual basement.

Dustin points at one of the rooms, “Okay, see this room here? This is a storage facility.”

“That’s where the cages were,” you add.

“The cages?” the chief asks you.

“Uh, yeah,” you tell him, “Like eight feet tall, made out of metal, like most cages are.”

“Anyways there is a hatch in here that feeds into their underground ventilation system,” Dustin continues ignoring you, “That will lead you to the base of the weapon.It’s a bit of a maze down there, but between the three of us, we can show you the way.”

“The three of you can show us the way?” the chief asks.

You nod and Dustin responds verbally, “Don’t worry, you can do all the fighting and the dangerous hero shit, and we’ll just be your…” Dustin looks at the two of you.

“Support,” you add.

“Well I was gonna say navigators,” Dustin says, “But whatever.”

The three of you look back at the chief nodding in agreement, “No.”

All of your smiles fade, “Why?”

“Well all of you are children,” he tells you.

“They are children,” you tell him, “Few more months and I won’t be.”

“And when was the last time you closed a gate?” he asks you, “You shouldn’t even be involved with this.”

“Oh please,” you tell him, “You don’t even know me.”

“Which makes your idea even worse,” he says.

“Okay, fine,” you tell him, “You're gonna go down there and die, not from the gate, but from Russians.”

And to that he just nods with a smile, “I might.”

After that you all disperse from the table and the area around, you see Robin and Steve walk over to one of the food stalls. Steve decides to lay down over the counter dramatically with just enough room for you and Robin at the end. Robin sits on the counter and pats the space next to her. You pull yourself up on the counter and sit down.

“How are you guys doing?” you ask, after all they were just drugged.

“Tired,” Steve answers first.

“I think we all are,” Robin tells him.

“I cannot wait to sleep for a whole day after this,” you tell them.

“I think I might sleep for a whole week,” Steve says groaning, “At least when I was high my face didn’t hurt.”

You pat his leg, “It’s okay bud. Next time we all will have a much better experience.”

“Next time we get locked in a Russian basement?” Robin asks.

“No!” you exclaim with a laugh, you take a moment to make sure no one is around, “I meant next time we get high.”

“Ohhhh,” Robin says, “That makes more sense.”

“You guys can come over to mine,” Steve tells you, still laying on the counter, “My parents are never there.”

“Sounds like a plan,” you tell them.

“Now we just have to get out of here,” Robin says.

You watch as the chief, whose name you learned is Hopper, runs around gathering supplies. He walks up to one of the Russian guards and takes his gun off of his corpse.

“You know I gotta say,” you start, “Today has been the weirdest of this whole experience.”

Robin huffs then says, “Yeah.”

Steve takes a moment then he too agrees.

“So who are the other people, like I know Mike’s whole group, and Hopper,” you start, “But what about the two that came in with my sister and the woman?”

Robin starts laughing and Steve moans and puts his hands over his face, “What? What did I say?”

“That’s Nancy,” Robin explains, “And her new boyfriend.”

“Ohhhhh,” you say, after all you had worked with Steve for almost a month at this point so you had heard about Nancy, “Damn Steve, you dropped the ball.”

“Yeahhh,” Steve drags out, “I know.”

Both you and Robin break out laughing, “It’s not that funny,” Steve tells you.

“I disagree,” you tell him and wipe away a faux tear, “Okay, what's everyone's names though.”

“You know Nancy, she is Mike’s sister, her boyfriend is Jonathan, Will’s brother,” Steve tells you, “The woman is Joyce and she’s Will and Jonathan's mom.”

“Okay, I think I got it,” you tell them, “Why is everyones siblings here?”

“You know,” Steve says, “That’s a good question.”

“Yeah, it’s like only you guys, Dustin, and Max,” you tell them, “It’s really weird, hopefully no one else's shows up.”

“Oh Steveeeee,” Dustin calls, “I have some keys for you!”

Steve shoots up from the counter, “What am I driving, Henderson?”

Dustin throws the keys to Steve, “Let’s go look.”

You and the OG’s, Steve, Dustin, and Erica, all go out to the promised land, the parking lot.

Steve opens the double doors allowing all five of you to get through at once, “Oh, man, now this…” Steve says, “This is what I’m talkin’ about!”

“The Toddfather?” Robin asks and looks at you.

“This is disgusting,” you cringe and shake your head.

“Oh, screw Todd!” Steve shouts and lunges over the car door landing in the driver's seat, “Steve’s her daddy now.”

“Did you just refer to yourself in third person?” Robin asks and opens the door for you, like a normal person.

“Ew Steve,” you shake your head and get in the car followed by Robin, “If you ever say anything like that again, I swear.”

“Did he call himself daddy?” Dustin asks and gets in the car.

“Just… don’t,” you tell him as Erica jumps into the back.

“All right,” Steve says, “Where are we going?”

“Weathertop,” Dustin tells him.

“Weathertop?” Steve asks.

“Just drive!” Dustin yells.

“Okay,” Steve says back and starts the engine, “Jesus.”

He puts the car in reverse and the five of you squeal away from the mall for the first time in days. I’ll be it in a car with the license plate, TODFTHER, and well, with a license plate like that you can only imagine what has happened in this car.

“Let’s listen to some jams,” you tell them and push in whatever is in the cassette slot.

When you do that you are met with a cheery tune that you recognize, and soon enough Jackie Wilson's voice fills the car, “Why did you do this?” Dustin asks.

“I need something,” you tell him, “I’m this close to having a full mental breakdown and I just wanna listen to this goddamn song.”

“Okay,” Dustin says, a little worried, “You can listen to the song.”

“Okay, good,” you tell him, “Because that’s what I was gonna do anyway.”

Out of your view Dustin and Erica look at each other in the backseat and give each other a look, “Steve you are gonna make a left up here.”

“Okay,” Steve says and turns further out of town.

After the song ends it loops back to the beginning, “Is this like just ten hours of this song?” Steve asks, “Like over and over again?”

“I don’t know,” you tell him, “Only one way to find out.”

After the song plays a few times it’s clear all of you are starting to get frustrated, with the music, and with how long this is taking.

On the fourth time the tape plays Steve has had enough, “Jesus, how far is this place, man?”

“Relax,” Dustin tells him, “We’re almost there.”

Out of the speakers you hear Jackie sing his iconic line, ‘your love, liftin’ me higher.’

“I can’t take it anymore!” Steve yells and grabs for the cassette, to which you smack his hand away, “What the fuck?”

“Leave it alone, Steve,” Robin tells him.

“No,” he says and reaches for it again knowing you will hit him out of the way he is still able to grab the cassette.

You reach over to Steve and try to grab it back, “Give it back!”

“No!” he yells, “I’m done.”

Steve then moves his hand to the window crank and begins opening it, throwing the cassette out onto the road.

“Bro!” you yell at him, “What the hell!”

Steve looks at you, taking his eyes off the road, “It’s all gone now!”

“Turn left!” Dustin yells, catching both you and Steve off guard.

Steve turns at a complete ninety degree angle throwing you against Robin and her against the door, “Jesus, Steve!” Robin yells.

The car runs down a completely innocent fence, “WHOA!” Steve shouts, “Henderson, where are we going?!”

“UP!” Dustin yells back and when you look ahead of you, you see what he is talking about.

Steve speeds up the car as you all approach a really big hill, trying to gain as much momentum as possible. The RPM’s hitting the very max that will allow as the five of you speed up this hill.

“We’re not gonna make it!” Robin shouts.

“Yes, we are,” Steve tells her, “Come on, baby. Come on, baby!”

Not a second later you get stuck on the hill, Steve presses the pedal all the way down trying to move the car. But the tires just spin, trapped in the mud.

“Guess the Toddfather has its limitations,” Robin tells Steve.

All of you move to get out of the car and run the rest of the way, as much as you wanna poke fun at the car, it did get you halfway up the hill. The doors slam as the five of you run up the remainder of the hill to the top.

When the five of you reach the top you see the giant antenna that Dustin built, “Damn,” you huff out between breaths, “That’s- pretty- impressive.”

“Thank- you,” Dustin says, breathing hard.

You give him a thumbs up, Dustin walks over to the radio and picks up the walkie, “Bald Eagle this is Scoops Troop, do you copy?”

“I don’t remember agreeing to that name,” you tell Robin under your breath.

“Well, do you have any other ideas?” Dustin asks, hearing what you said.

You wait a second, thinking, “No.”

“Okay,” Dustin says and presses the button again, “Bald Eagle, I repeat, this is Scoops Troop, do you copy?”

“Yes,” you hear Murray say from the otherside of the radio, “I copy.”

Dustin smiles and looks back smiling, “Call sign?”

“Bald Eagle,” you hear him huff out over the radio.

“Please repeat?” Dustin asks, voice laced with mischief.

“Bald Eagle,” Murray repeats, “This is Bald Eagle.”

“Copy that,” Dustin says with a smile, “Good to hear your voice, Bald Eagle. What’s your 20?”

“We reached the vent,” you hear through the static, “I’ll contact you when I need you. Until then, silence.”

“Roger that, Bald Eagle,” Dustin tells him, “This is Scoops Troop, going radio silent. 10-10, over.”

Steve pats Dustin on the shoulder in support, “Okay, now what?” Steve asks.

“We wait, dummy,” Robin tells him.

You turn to look out at Hawkins, everything is so far away. Walking closer to the other side of the hill. As you get closer you recognize more of the buildings. Miles away you can see the mall, cars drive by having no idea what is inside.

It’s strange to think that your parents are just enjoying their nights while you and Tee are fighting to stop the end of the world. Strange is maybe a bit of an understatement, impossible to believe if you weren't living through it.

“You okay?” you hear from behind you, knowing it’s Robin you don’t turn around.

“Yeah,” you tell her and she joins you looking out, “This is just a lot.”

“Trust me I know how you are feeling,” she tells you then pauses.

“Are we okay?” she asks after a minute.

You take your eyes off of the city and turn to her, Robin is looking out near where her house would be if you could see it.

“Why wouldn’t we be?” you ask her confused.

She looks down at her feet, “We just-,” Robin pauses and looks at you trying to find the right words, “We haven’t talked in a while.”

You look back at the group, all of them focused on the radio, then turn your attention back on her, “I promise we will talk after all of this is over, okay?”

Robin breaks your eye contact and looks down again, “Do you,” Robin stops, lets out a breath then continues, “Do you regret it?”

Immediately you answer, “No, do you?”

“What?!” Robin asks, “No, I just-,”

You give her a moment, “Just what?”

“I was worried you did,” she tells you.

“Well, I don’t,” you say with absolute certainty and turn back to face the city.

Not a moment later you feel a hand grasp yours and you smile together, albeit secretly.

But behind you two eyes do see you both, standing together in the light of the moon and Steve can’t help but mutter under his breath, “Told you so.”

“What was that, Steve?” Dustin asks him.

“Oh, nothing,” Steve tells him hurriedly, “So how far away is he now?”

“He’s about-” Dustin starts but is cut off by another radio transmission.

The two of you are still just looking out across the city, when you see it, the lights flickering at the mall, “Do you see that?”

“Oh, no,” Robin says, letting go of your hand.

“Guys, we have a situation over here!” you yell for the rest of the group.

The others run over to the two of you, “What?” Dustin asks.

“Look,” you tell him simply, pointing towards the mall.

“Oh, shit,” Dustin says and runs back to the radio followed closely by the rest of you, “Griswold Family, this is Scoops Troop! Do you copy? Over!”

Dustin takes a breath, “Griswold Family, I repeat, this is Scoops Troop. Do you copy?”

You all hear the button suddenly pressed down and a terrifying screech, “Griswold Family? Do you copy?”

Then you hear a roar and Dustin yells, “Griswold Family! Please confirm your safety!”

No one responds.

“They aren’t still there, right?” you ask them.

“Mike wouldn’t have left his radio,” Dustin tells you.

“Okay,” you say, “Steve, give me the keys.”

“What?” he asks you.

“Give me the keys,” you repeat, holding out your hand.

“You aren’t going anywhere,” Dustin tells you, “We need to stay together.”

“Dustin, I can’t just wait around and hope,” you tell him and point towards the flickering lights, “My sister is down there!”

“No,” Steve tells you, “You are just gonna get yourself killed.”

“I need to go and help them!” you yell, tears building in your eyes, “I need to make sure she is okay!”

Even after everything you have been through, this feeling of terror has never felt this out of control. In fact you have never felt this out of control ever.

“No,” Steve repeats, “Not without me.”

You and Steve start running to the car, “Where are you going?!” Erica yells.

“To get them the hell outta there!” Steve yells back, “Stay here, contact the others!”

By the time the two of you make it to the car you see Robin running as well, “Wait, wait!” she yells, “I have a radio!”

As soon as Robin is inside the car Steve puts the TODFTHER in reverse and all three of you speed off the hill back towards the mall.

As you all drive back you hear lots of chatter over the radio, unfortunately nothing about Tee. When you make the final turn to get onto the mall road you see the neon reflection of the brightly read Starcourt Mall sign plastered on the building. As you approach the mall you see a car revving its engines directed towards another in the parking lot.

“This can’t be good,” you say to them.

“Guys,” Steve has seriousness in his voice, “Hold on.”

Immediately you grab onto whatever you can, “Steve, what are you doing?”

Robin who has lodged herself in between you and the door looks just as worried. The car that was revving its engines suddenly starts accelerating and Steve floors it.

“Oh, shiiiiitttt,” you yell out as Steve smashes into the side of the car you now recognize as a camaro.

As soon as the cars hit one another the force pushes all of you to the side, the car skids to the side until you stop. All of you are silent, just grateful you didn’t get flung from the car.

“You guys okay?” Steve says after a moment.

“Ask me tomorrow?” Robin tells him, obviously terrified.

“I don’t know,” you tell him and your eye catches something moving atop the mall, “That was intense but not as intense as that.”

The two of them look up, “I think they lied about how big it was.”

“Oh, shit,” Robin exclaims, the three of you paralyzed in terror.

Next to you, you hear a car horn, “Get in!” Nancy yells at the three of you.

All three of you get in the trunk as fast as possible, “Go, go, go, go!” Lucas yells at you.

As soon as you are in, Steve yells, “Go!”

The car drives off before you can even shut the door, just in time as the monster places one of several feet where the TODFTHER is sitting. You swear you see a single tear come out of Steve's eye.

Taking in all of the people sitting in the car you see a familiar head of hair, much like your own, “Tee,” you say and she turns, her face covered in dirt, “I’m so happy you are okay.”

“Do you think mom and dad are gonna be pissed?” she asks.

“About what?” you ask confused.

“Missing Fourth of July?” she says, “You know how dads cousin was gonna come over…”

“Oh, shit,” you exclaim, “To be honest I completely forgot.”

Tee lets out a laugh and it makes you start to giggle. Soon enough both of you are hysterically laughing, not because it was particularly funny, but because you both can’t believe what you have lived through.

“Who was that anyway?” you ask.

Steve cringes, “That was Billy, Max’s brother.”

“What was with the face?” you ask him.

He doesn’t answer so Lucas does for him, “He beat the shit out of him last year.”

“Damn, really?” you ask Steve and you get a simple nod, “Well shit, you just hit him with a car, so I think you got payback.”

Steve cracks a smile and then says, “Yeah, I guess that's true and I beat up that Russian earlier. Man, Steve is really coming out on top.”

“Steve, what did I say about referring to yourself in third person?” Robin asks.

“Not to do it anymore,” he says under his breath.

Suddenly you hear an unfamiliar voice come through the radio, “Dusty-bun, you copy?”

“I copy, Suzie-poo,” you hear Dustin say through the radio, “It sounds much better now, thanks.”

“Awe, it's his girlfriend,” you say.

“Suzie,” Robin and Steve say at the same time.

“Do you know Plank’s constant?” Dustin asks.

“Do you know the Earth orbits the sun?” she responds.

Dustin comes through again, “Okay, so I know it starts with two sixes, and then a-,” Dustin stops, “W-what is it?”

“Okay, let me just be clear on this,” Suzie says, “I haven't heard from you in a week, and now you want a mathematical equation that you should know so you can… save the world?”

Through the static comes, “Suzie-poo, I promise, I will make it up to you as soon as possible.”

“You can make it up to me now,” she responds.

“Not right now,” Dustin tells her voice coming over the radio.

“Yes, now, Dusty-bun,” she insists.

“What is going on right now?” you ask Steve.

“Yeah, I have no idea,” he tells you.

Everyone in the car has the same confused expressions on their faces, “Suzie-poo, this is urgent.”

A click and then, “Yes, yes, you're saving the world, I heard you the first time,” Suzie tells him, “but Ged is also saving Earthsea and he’s about to confront the shadow, so this is Suzie, signing off.”

“Oh he whiffed it,” you cringe, some of the others nod their heads in agreement.

“Wait, wait, wait!” Dustin shouts, “Okay. Okay. Okay.”

Nothing else comes through for a moment, “I’m like, really confused right now,” you tell Robin, whose focus is only on the giant monster chasing the car.

“Uh huh,” Robin responds without taking eyes off of the monster, who is knocking over trees as it stomps angrily down the back road.

What happens next you can only describe as, well, a fever dream, “turn around,” someone sings and it takes you a moment but it’s definitely Dustin, “look at what you seeeeeee, in her face. The mirror of your dreeeams.”

Everyone in the backseat turns to listen to the radio, expressions laced with amusement and some bafflement. You, Steve, and Robin all look at each other and then back at the radio.

“make believe I’m everywhere,” Suzie joins in with Dustin as they both sing, “given in the light, written of the pages is the answer to a never-ending story, ahahahaha!”

“I truly didn’t expect the day to end like this,” you tell them.

“You know,” Steve says flatly, “Neither did I.”

“reach the stars,” they continue, “fly a fantasyyyyyy, dream a dream, and what you see will beeeeeee. rhymes that keep their secrets will unfold behind the clouds and there upon a rainbow is the answer to a never-ending storyyy, ahahahaha. storyyy, ahahahaha.”

The singing stops for a moment, “Planck’s constant is 6.62607004,” you hear Suzie over the radio.

“You just saved the world,” Dustin tells her and although you can’t see him you know he has the biggest smile on his face.

“Gosh, I miss you, Dusty-bun,” she says.

“And I miss you more, Suzie-poo,” you hear Dustin say.

“I miss you more, multiplied by all the stars in our galaxy,” Suzie says back.

“No, I miss you-” Dustin is suddenly cut off.

No one says anything so you do, “That was weird, right?”

Still no answer is given when Steve says, “It’s turning around.”

“What?” Nancy asks and turns around in the passenger seat.

“It’s turning around!” Steve yells.

“Maybe we wore it out,” Lucas suggests.

“I don’t think so,” Jonathan says, “Hold on!”

He suddenly turns the wheels making a u-turn and going back towards the mall and for the third time today, you go back to the mall.

All eight of you are not far behind the monster who stomps back down the road it went down previously. It knocks down more trees as it moves.

“So what exactly is our plan here?” you ask, “Because I’m down to fight a giant monster, but with what?”

Lucas looks back at you, “Look in the boxes.”

You open one of the cardboard boxes that were pushed to the side, “Jesus, where did you get all this?”

“Oh, you know, the grocery store,” Will tells you.

“What?!” you ask concerned, “They just have these out?”

“Well, if they didn’t we would be screwed,” Steve tells you.

“Yeah, I guess,” you tell him, completely unsure.

On the car ride your heart feels like it’s gonna beat out of your chest, watching the creature move closer and closer to the mall. As you pull into the parking lot you watch as it scales up the mall to the roof. Jonathan drives the car as close as he can get and all of you move to get out of the car.

You grab the boxes and move them to the front of the trunk where everyone can reach. Everyone grabs a box as well as a kitchen lighter and rush into the building. You grab your box, running into the building you see everyone running up the escalators as quietly as possible.

Everyone splits off into groups, you and Tee, Steve and Robin, Will and Lucas, and finally Nancy and Jonathan. All of you position yourselves as evenly as possible around the second story walkway and start to take in what is going on. On ground level you see the giant monster (not that it would be hard to miss), Billy (who looks entirely fucked up), and El (lying on the ground at Billy’s feet).

The monster leans down closer to El who looks absolutely terrified. As it gets closer it opens its mouth and lets out a horrible noise before extending something out of its throat, almost like a xenomorph.

Lucas lands his shot before it is able to reach El, “Flay this, you ugly piece of shit!”

He then throws another in its mouth, “Tee, light one up,” you tell your sister, placing down the box of fireworks at your feet.

She hands you a lit firework and you waste no time throwing it at the monster, it spins through the air landing at the same time as Lucas’ next throw. Both fireworks land on either side of the monster, yours hitting it in one of its legs and Lucas nails it in the back.

After that everyone is throwing fireworks back to back, nearly all of them landing on the target. All of you continue your attack for a while until you hear Tee say, “We’re all out!”

“Okay,” you tell her, “I uh, shit, I have no idea what to do.”

While there is still fireworks going, you see that Steve and Robin have also run out, “Come on,” you tell Tee and grab her hand running down the mezzanine.

“Where are we going?” she yells, trying to keep up with you.

“Oh, we ain’t getting separated from them,” you tell her as you continue to run, “Haven’t you seen any horror movies?”

“This is real life,” she pants out.

When you get to Robin and Steve both of them watch as you approach, “You guys run out too?” Steve asks.

“Yeah,” Tee tells him in between deep breaths.

“How is everyone else doing?” you ask.

“Probably running low too,” Robin says and not a moment later the last firework fizzles out. You wait a moment but another explosion doesn’t follow instead a roar. The monster still isn’t even hurt.

“Oh god,” you say and run over to the barrier, “What are we gonna do?”

You watch as the monster, who doesn’t even look damaged, gets closer to El yet again, who is still on the floor. Billy faces the monster and you all watch as the monster sticks out its tentacle thing again from its mouth. It rears back and shoots at El, Billy throws up both of his arms holding it back.

“No!” you hear him yell as he tries to stand his ground, pushing back against its force. He slides back as it tries to get to El, while he is able to keep the main tentacle away, more grow out of its sides. You watch as they stab into Billy, staining his white tank a dark red.

Billy screams out in pain as they breach his skin but he still stands, until they all descend on him. His screams echo through the mall as more pierce into him. Around the monster flames billow higher catching more on fire and producing more and more smoke.

“Close it now!” you hear Dustin scream from the radio Steve is holding, “Close it now!”

The monster takes its main tongue and stabs Billy in the center of his chest. All of the tentacles retract leaving Billy without support. As his body is dropped Max yells out for her brother, “Billy!”

Not a moment later the monster lets out a horrible screech as if it was in anguish and it stumbles away from El and Billys body. It smashes into the sides of the mezzanine coming right at the four of you making you all throw yourselves back from the impact.

You land on your ass of course and Tee lands into you, knocking all of the wind out of your lungs. All of you stumble back over to the railing to see the monster laying on the tiled floor, dead.

You wait for a moment to be sure.

“Did they do it?” you ask.

“I think so,” Steve tells you.

“We need to get out of here,” Robin says looking at the growing flames starting to overtake the monster's body.

As the four of you make your way to the mall entrance people bust through the doors all of them armed with guns. Quite obviously the military or government all of them run past you, much to your relief, and you continue outside where ambulances, fire trucks, and helicopters are all parked/landed. As soon as you all exit the building a paramedic runs over to the four of you.

“Are any of you hurt or injured?” she asks, holding up a flashlight examining each of you visually.

“His face is hurt real bad,” Robin tells her, pointing at Steve.

“What happened?” she asks, stepping towards Steve.

“I uh, tripped,” Steve offers, not very convincingly.

“Yeah, okay,” she tells him, “All of you follow me.”

The four of you follow her to an ambulance as firefighters run by carrying hoses into the building. She makes Steve sit down inside her ambulance while she examines him and Tee sits on the step into the ambulance. You and Robin stand, waiting for Steve. Everyone slowly filters out of the mall joining you in getting examined by paramedics, except the adults.

“Okay, it mostly looks superficial,” she tells him, “Put some ice on it for bruising and you should be all good.”

“Thanks,” he tells her and she climbs out the side of the ambulance.

“I think I’m ready to go home now,” you say watching your place of employment burn up in front of you.

“Yeah,” Tee agrees.

All of you stand and watch as the once brightly colored mall is now burned, not just by the fire but with the memories of what took place deep underneath it.

Soon enough you see more soldiers march out Joyce and Murray, with a noticeable lack of Hopper. Will sees his mom and immediately runs to her, clutching on to each other in a tight grip. El stands up trying to find her father in the sea of people, but you can see when it hits her, the absence. That he is gone.

Epilogue

#robin buckley x reader #robin buckley #y/n #reader #fanfiction #stranger things #stranger things x reader #slow burn #friends to lovers #fluff #angst #fluff and angst #original character #wlw #sapphic #cannon lesbian character #canon compliant

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mothguillotine · 8 months ago

Text

Chapter 5: The Good Kind Of Drugs

Main Masterlist

cw: swearing and violence

word count: 3.9k

Summary: Just when you thought things couldn't get any worse everything does.

The five of your faces are smushed against the glass trying to see into the room. You are still not completely sure what you are looking at though. Robin is on your right looking into the room and you realize that you really could die today.

“Holy shit,” Dustin exclaims almost in recognition.

“How the hell did they build this without anyone knowing?” you ask them.

“The more important question is what the hell is it doing?” Erica says.

All of you continue to look out at the horror show that you all have stumbled upon.

“The gate,” Steve says to Dustin.

“What the hell does that mean?” you ask him to which he ignores you and walks out of the room with Dustin following him.

You look at Robin as if to say, ‘What the hell was that.’

And she looks back at you with a face of, ‘I have no fucking clue.”

“What the hell was that?” Erica asks, looking between the two of you.

“We just- never mind,” Robin says, “Let’s go.”

Robin stands up and rushes out the door after the boys, “Steve, Steve,” Robin calls after him, “I don’t understand. You’ve seen this before?”

“Not exactly,” Steve says almost at the bottom of the stairs.

“Then what, exactly?” she asks him, running down.

“All you guys need to know is it’s bad,” Dustin says.

“It’s really bad,” Steve says.

“Like worse than a nuke?” you ask him as you approach the bottom of the staircase.

Steve stays silent and looks over to Dustin for a response.

“Potentially,” Dustin tells you.

“What the hell does that mean?” you ask him.

“Like, end-of-the-human-race-as-we-know-it kind of bad,” Dustin says.

“The fuck?!” you shout, “What the fuck?”

“And you know about this how?” Robin asks him.

But before Dustin can answer your day goes from the worst day ever possible to even worse. Erica is of course the person who notices first, “Um, Steve?” she asks, “Where’s your Russian friend?”

As soon as she ends her sentence an alarm starts going off ensuring the fact that he definitely didn’t get amnesia from the hit over his head.

“Oh goddamn it,” you sigh, letting all of the air out of your chest.

Steve runs over to the door and looks out, “Shit,” he says in response to whatever he sees out there and quickly slams the door again., “Go, go, go!”

Steve moves toward the stairs and all of you race up the steps, “Shit!” Dustin yells as you all run.

All of you run through the doors and into the room with all of the scientists, who all turn and look at the ruckus. The five of you run through the lab coats and down into the cavern with the machine. Guards continue to shout after all of you as you make your way down the catwalks. One of the scientists in a radiation-proof suit tries to stop Dustin, to which he high-pitched screams at him and pushes him away.

At the end of the catwalk, Dustin stops and shouts, “Holy shit! Holy shit! Holy shit!”

And you can't help but feel the same as you look at the ginormous crack and the beam of light slowly cracking it open.

“Guards!” Erica shouts, “Go!”

Steve runs back and sees stairs leading down, “This way!” he shouts and pushes another scientist out of the way. As he rounds the corner he sees guards enter the room, “Oh, shit!”

Steve pushes over a conveniently stacked pile of barrels and pushes them onto the guards knocking them back allowing for the five of you to run further into the room until Robin spots a door. All of you run into the room and then Steve holds the door. Not a moment later you hear pounding against the door and people yelling in Russian.

“Shit!” Dustin says as he scans the room.

“Help me!” Steve says to you and Robin as he struggles to hold the door closed, “Come on!”

Both of you run over to him and push against the door, knowing that the three of you are nothing compared to a whole bunch of Russians.

“Here!” Erica shouts lifting up a grate on the floor, “Come on, let’s go!”

“Come on!” Dustin shouts at the three of you.

“Go!” Steve shouts, “Go with them! Make sure they get out safe!”

“What?!” you ask him.

“Go!” he shouts at you and Robin looks at you. You know what she is saying, to get out of here, “Just get out of here! Go get some help”

You release your hold on the door and run toward the vent, you look back to see Robin smiling at you. Then you take the grate and cover the vent back up, “Let’s go,” you tell them, staying in front so they are unable to see your tears.

The three of you make your way down the vent, crawling as quietly as you possibly can. The quiet lasts for maybe five minutes before Erica stops, “Dustin, what’s going on?”

“I don’t know if that’s a good idea,” he says.

“Dustin, we are hundreds of feet underground, in a secret Russian lab and or base, with a really weird machine, we need to know what's going on,” you tell him.

“Okay, fine,” he relents, “Let’s keep moving.”

“Finally,” you say.

“Well, just so you know it’s a lot,” he says.

“Well we have a while to crawl,” you tell him.

And after listening to Dustin tell the story, you wish that it was a nuke in the basement of the mall because that would be a lot simpler than another dimension leaking into yours.

“So after we set fire to the hub we drew the Demodogs away so El could close the gate,” Dustin explains while fiddling with an electrical panel, “But now for some insane reason the Russians appear to be trying to reopen it, which just destroys everything we risked our lives for.”

“By ‘we,’ you’re including Lucas?” Erica asks.

“Yes,” Dustin says, “Of course.”

“Wait, does Tee know?” you ask him.

“Well she knows El has powers, but besides that, I have no idea,” he tells you.

“So, all that shit you told me, Lucus was there?” Erica asks.

“Yes, that is what he said, Erica,” you tell her.

“I’m having a hard time believing that my brother, Lucas Sinclair did all of that,” she tells him.

“Wait, so you believe everything about El and the gate and the Demodogs and the Mind Flayer,” Dustin lists, “But you question your brother’s involvement?”

“That’s correct,” Erica confirms while nodding her head.

“Makes total sense,” Dustin says, returning his attention to the panel.

“Um, do you need help with that?” Erica asks.

“No,” Dustin says curtly.

“Well, I mean it’s taking a while, so-,” Erica starts.

“Yeah, no shit, Sherlock,” Dustin cuts her off.

“All right, so if we don’t find a more efficient method to stop these fans,” Erica explains, “We’re never gonna find help, and your ice cream buddies are screwed.”

“Yeah,” Dustin says, “With that attitude, they are. Jesus!”

“Okay, well, both of you arguing is not helping anyone, is it?” you ask them, “Also need I remind you that there are guards right above us? Shh!”

“I’m just being realistic,” Erica tells the both of you, “I mean, we’ve made it about point-three miles in nine hours. Then we had to walk down that tunnel, so I’d estimate ten miles back to the elevator, which should take us approximately twelve-and-a-half days.”

Both you and Dustin are staring at her then look at each other, “Did you just do all of that in your head?” he asks.

“I’m good with numbers,” Erica shrugs.

“Holy shit,” Dustin scoffs, “You’re a nerd.”

“Come again?” she asks.

“No he’s right,” you tell her, “You wanna give us shit about it but you are too.”

“Okay, both of you better take that back, Nerds!” she says.

“Can’t put the truth back in the box,” Dustin remarks.

“But it’s not the truth,” she denies.

“Let’s examine the facts, shall we?” Dustin asks, “Fact one: you’re a math whiz, apparently.”

“That was a pretty straightforward equation,” Erica tells him.

“Fact number two: you’re a political junkie,” Dustin says.

“Just because I don’t agree with Communism as an ideology-,” Erica starts but is cut off.

“Fact number three: you love My Little Pony,” Dustin finishes and holds up her bag as an example which has, in fact, a few ponies on it.

“And what does My Little Pony have to do with this?” Erica asks before snatching her bag from him.

“Ah, let’s recall the ponies’ last adventure, shall we?” Dustin asks and looks off as if trying to recall a distant memory, “The evil centaur team and Tirek turns Applejack into a dragon at Midnight Castle, and then Megan and the other ponies have to use Moochick’s magic to defeat his rainbow of darkness, saving them from a lifetime of enslavement. All the pink in the world can’t disguise the irrefutable fact that centaurs and castles and dragons and magic are all standard nerd tropes. Ergo, My Little Pony is nerdy. Ergo, you, Erica, are a nerd.”

Erica sits for a second, “Damn he really ate you up,” you tell her.

“And how does he know so much about My Little Pony?” she defends.

“Because I’m,” he pauses, “A nerd.”

Dustin pops off the panel and rips out some of the wiring which makes the fan stop spinning, “Nice going dude,�� you tell him and pat his shoulder.

“Let’s get going, nerds,” Dustin tells you both.

“You-” Erica starts but Dustin simply turns around and crawls under the fan blade.

After the two of them are through you move through the blades, “Okay, let's go get some help.”

The three of you move as quickly as possible through the vents, being careful not to hit your head on the low ceilings. Dustin leads the group in the front deciding each and every turn that you take. Over the next hour, your knees start skinning making the experience five times more uncomfortable. You can tell all of you are starting to feel the lack of sleep and food over the last day. Has it been a day? Or has it been longer? Down here with no windows or visible clocks, it’s impossible to know really.

Lost in your thoughts you don’t notice Dustin stop and run directly into him, “A little bit of warning before you stop next time, please,” you tell him.

“Sorry,” he says and looks up at the vent cover, “I think we are here though.”

“Finally,” Erica says.

Dustin pushes up the panel and moves it out of the way allowing you all to see where you have ended up, you climb out of the vent followed by Erica taking your place standing in the vent, “Jackpot!” Dustin says, looking at all of the green capsules that surround you.

You lean over and offer your hand to Erica which she takes then you help her out of the vent. Once Dustin is out something catches his eye right away, “Oh,” he says and runs down a few stairs to where a vehicle is sitting.

Erica chases after him closely with you following directly behind, “Do you even know how to drive?”

“How hard can it be?” he retorts, “Max did it.”

Dustin hops in the driver's seat and looks around noticing the lack of keys, “Oh, dang it.”

“You really think they’d just leave the keys in there?” Erica asks him.

“There’s gotta be a spare,” Dustin says and Erica walks away from him towards a giant cage. You can’t help but walk closer as well making sure that Erica would be okay.

“Hey, Dustin?” Erica calls to him.

“Yeah?” he says.

“How big did you say that Demogorgan was?” Erica asks him.

Dustin, who is growing frustrated by the lack of keys, responds, “Big. Nine feet or so. Why?”

Erica looks at you and you know that this is really bad. Something else catches her eye and you follow her deeper into the room. You notice the cabinets in the back and when Erica opens the door and reveals a whole bunch of high-tech cattle prods. Erica picks one up and looks at you, “I’m going to scare the shit out of him.”

And after a moment of thinking, “Yeah, okay, go for it.”

You hide behind the cage while Erica sneaks up behind him and a moment later you hear Dustin shout both of your names. Not a second after that Erica turns on the prod and you hear him shriek.

“What the hell is that?” he asks and you move from behind the cage, unable to hold in your laughter any longer.

“A deadly weapon,” she tells him, “Could be useful.”

“And you,” he calls, “You're okay with her doing this?”

“I thought it was funny,” you tell him seriously and Erica turns on the prod again, scaring Dustin.

“Why do we even need that?” Dustin asks.

“What do you think?” Erica asks, “Taking down Commies, saving your friends.”

“Thought you both were more realistic than that,” Dustin tells you, “We don’t even know where they are, and even if we did there are a million guards up there with weapons way deadlier than that. The best thing we can do for them is to get out of here and find them help.”

“Well, what does she think?” Erica asks, “She’s the closest thing to an adult and she’s in charge.”

“Okay,” Dustin says throwing his hands up and getting in the vehicle, “What do you think we should do? Risk our lives and save them or get them help safely.”

“I- uh,” you stop and think, Robin and Steve could be dead by the time help comes, you all could help them now.

“Honestly, I think we should try,” you tell him, “I feel like it will be too late by the time we come back, and I don’t want that to happen. I think we don’t leave until we find them and take them with us, but if you can’t, you should leave. That goes for both of you.”

“No,” Erica says, “I’m staying.”

“Okay,” you tell her, “What about you Dustin, you coming?”

“Jesus!” he yells and slams his hands and head down on the steering wheel, “Fine, let's go.”

“Move,” you tell him and he begrudgingly scoots over while Erica gets in the back.

“Ugh,” Dustin scoffs, “I never get to do anything fun.”

“Oh, what?” you ask him as you put the vehicle in drive, “Was being trapped hundreds of feet underground in a Russian maze your idea of summer fun?”

Dustin just scoffs and you drive off down the hall, hoping you can find the two missing members of your group.

The drive takes a while, luckily you are pretty sure that the base is running on a skeleton crew at the moment which makes avoiding people easy. Most of them were scientists talking amongst themselves or guards wearing heavy boots stomping down the hall. Unfortunately, the entire place looks the same and you can’t tell if you are going in circles, resulting in Dustin guiding you with the promise of not going in a circle.

This goes on for a while until you hear the blessed word, moron. You aren’t sure which of them said it, but you could tell apart accents to know a few Americans. Immediately you stop the vehicle with a small grunt from Dustin who was not expecting the quick break.

“Did you guys hear that?” you ask the two of them in a hushed voice.

“No?” Dustin says.

“Hear what?” Erica asks.

“Listen,” you tell them, and not a moment later you hear it again.

“Morons!” you are pretty sure Steve shouts, voice muffled by a door or something.

“That was Steve,” Dustin tells you.

“Where did it come from?” Erica asks.

“Somewhere down the hall,” you tell her, “There’s no way we can check all of the rooms.”

“I have an idea!” Dustin says.

This results in you driving back to the green capsules and grabbing one. You make your way back to the junction where the comms room was. You take the canister and smash it on a cart. As soon as the liquid passes through the floor, alarms start blaring. Taking that as your sign to get out of there you do and drive as fast as you can away.

As you turn into the hall you see all four of them running down the hall toward you. Dustin and Erica are leading the charge while Steve and Robin are struggling to keep up.

“Come on!” you yell down the hall, “Pick up your feet!”

“We’re going as fast as we can!” Robin yells at you.

As soon as they get to you they all pile in the vehicle and you speed out of there, only leaving four skids on the floor and the smell of burning rubber.

“Jesus!” Steve yells at you, “Slow down!”

“Yeah,” Robin slurs, “What is this, like, the Indy 500?”

“It’s the Indy 300,” Steve tells her.

“No, dingus,” Robin yells at him, “It’s 500!”

“It’s 300!” Steve yells back.

“Let’s say a million,” Robin suggests which makes both of them start laughing.

“What is wrong with them?” Erica asks.

“I don’t know,” Dustin tells her.

“I think I have an idea,” so you ask them, “Are you guys on drugs?”

“How did you know?” Steve asks, suddenly paranoid.

“Oh,” you say, “uh, just a guess.”

“Answer me truthfully right now,” Robin tells you and you look back at her, “Are you a mindreader.”

“What?” you ask her.

“Well, how else would you know?” Steve asks.

“Just perso-” you start to say but are cut off.

“Watch out!” Erica yells and by the time you look back you hit a bunch of barrels.

You slam against the steering wheel, “Ugh,” you moan.

“Nice going,” Steve says, rubbing his head.

“You guys were distracting me,” you tell him and Robin.

“Whatever, let’s just get out of here,” Dustin says hoping out of the vehicle.

You and Erica get out and walk to the back where Dustin is releasing them. After Dustin swings open the gate you watch as Robin and Steve just stay seated rubbing where they hit on the metal.

“Come on!” Erica yells at them, “Get out!”

“Let’s go!” Dustin yells as well.

“We’re coming,” Steve tells him and moves to get out.

Dustin reaches into his pocket and pulls out the card he stole earlier, “Here goes nothin’.”

“This sucks,” Steve moans as he climbs out of the trunk.

Robin is directly behind him, “Watch your head,” you tell her as she exits.

“It worked!” Dustin yells as the doors slide up revealing the cursed elevator, “Everyone get in!”

You guide Robin and Steve into the elevator making sure that you don’t leave without them, “Move it, come on.”

“Do you not see me?” Steve asks, pointing to his face, “I am moving as fast as I can.”

“I don’t know what your face has to do with walking,” you tell him, “And the faster you move the faster you get medical attention.”

Steve chooses not to respond to you and instead picks up his speed going into the elevator. When all of you are inside Dustin presses the button to close the door and you all shoot up.

“Oh god,” you say, feeling the elevator gaining speed, “This is going to suck.”

“I don’t know what you mean?” Steve asks, “This is fun!”

“Here, here,” Robin says, grabbing a cart, “Get on!”

“You guys are going to get yourselves killed,” you tell them, grabbing onto a shelf.

Steve ignores you and gets on the cart while Robin pushes him around the elevator.

“Hey!” Robin says, “You look like you are surfing!”

“Surfing!” Steve yells, “Yeah! Whoa.”

You, Erica, and Dustin all watch them in confusion.

“What drugs are they on?” Erica asks.

“How would we know that?” Dustin asks her.

“I don’t know,” she says, “Why would they give them drugs?”

“I have no idea,” you tell her.

“I’m a natural! Check it out!” Steve yells drawing your attention back onto their buffoonery during which you see him lose his balance and fall into a bunch of boxes, “Whoa!”

Robin laughs and yells, “Wipeout!”

Which makes Steve start laughing as well. Dustin, who is extremely concerned, crouches down to Steve and presses his hand onto his forehead, “He’s burning up.”

“You’re burning up,” Steve retorts from the floor.

“That doesn’t even make any sense,” you tell him.

“You don’t even make any sense,” he tells you.

“Yeah, okay,” you tell the children, “This is useless.”

“Hey, Steve,” Dustin starts saying to him while gently smacking him on the face, “Come on, I need to know what drugs you are on!”

“How many times, Dad?” he asks obviously high as fuck, “I don’t do drugs. It’s only marijuana.”

“This isn’t funny, okay?” Dustin tells Steve, who is cracking up, “I need to know what they did to you. Are you gonna die on us?”

“Dustin they didn’t poison them,” you say, “They needed information so that makes no sense.”

“We all die, my strange little child friend,” Robin tells him, “It’s just a matter of how… and when.”

Dustin looks back down at Steve, “They’re gonna be looking for us up there,” he explains, “So I need you to tell me where you parked your car.”

“Oh,” Steve says, “Can we make a pit stop at the food court?”

“I would kill for a hot dog on a stick,” Robin says.

“Ooh,” Steve says, imagining it.

“All right food,” Dustin agrees, “Yes, you can have as much food as you want, but only if you tell me where your car is parked.”

Steve thinks about it for a second, “Uh-oh.”

“Uh-oh?” Dustin asks.

“The car’s off the board,” Steve tells him.

“What?” Dustin asks.

“They took the keys,” Steve says, pulling out his pockets just to show how empty they are, “The Russians, they took the keys. Like, forever ago.”

This news makes Robin start laughing again and clapping her hands together. Then Steve starts laughing as well, “That’s a bummer right?” he asks.

All three of you that are sober look between each other with the same look, oh shit.

At the top of the elevator shaft, the car slams up and nearly knocks you over. Dustin and Erica are quick to slam open the doors to the outside.

“Come on,” you tell both Robin and Steve, “Let’s get out of here.”

Both of them follow you out the doors, “Oh, my God!” Robin shouts, “That tastes so good. Steve, can you taste the air?”

“I taste it!” He agrees, “I can taste it!”

As soon as the words leave his mouth you see the gate start to open and directly behind are two men who yell, “Stop!”

“Shit!” Dustin yells and turns around, “Come on! Come on!”

“Stop right there!” you hear from behind you as you run through the door back into the mall where you have spent more than enough hours of your life.

Next Chapter

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mothguillotine · 8 months ago

Text

Chapter 4: Never Trust Elevators, Ever.

Main Masterlist

cw: swearing and violence

word count: 4.8k

Summary: After you gain a fear of elevators, you explore a basement from Hell.

You weren’t entirely sure when the elevator stopped. It felt like it went forever and with everyone screaming it was hard to ask anyone else so you screamed along with them. Not really out of terror, well actually yes, you are terrified, but you are also frustrated with yourself. You knew that something didn’t feel right and what did you do? Go inside the dangerous Russian elevator that is most likely only supposed to be used for transporting whatever the hell is in that container.

“Shit!” Dustin yells and tries smashing the buttons once again, “Shit!”

“We’re going down!” Steve yells hysterically and in any other situation you would have laughed but you get it.

“Yeah, no shit, Harrington!” Robin yells at him.

All of you are bracing onto the shelving or anything else to hold yourselves upright, “Fuck!” you yell as you slip off the shelf you were holding only to be caught by Robin who helps you stand back up.

“Why won’t these buttons work?!” Dustin screeches.

Erica runs over to him, “Press the button!”

“What do you think I’m doing?!” Dustin asks.

“Come on, press something!” Steve yells at him, “Just press the button!”

“Push it!” Erica yells at him but before he has the chance the elevator stops making you all slam into whatever you were holding onto. And in your case that happens to be Robin, who also falls, which makes you both land on the ground. The boxes that were sitting on the table fall off in the lurch and onto Steve.

You hear him groan, “My groin. It fell on my groin.”

Robin moans in pain behind you so you stand up and help her stand as well.

“Stop talking about your di- groin.” you correct yourself remembering that Erica and Dustin are present.

“Dustin!” Steve yells, “Get this off of me!”

Dustin lifts the box off of Steve and places it back on the table, “I can’t move,” Steve says.

“Is everyone okay?” Robin asks.

“Yeah,” Steve says sarcastically, “I’m great, now that I know that Russians can’t design elevators!”

He then pushes Dustin out of the way of the button panel and proceeds to press them all over and over.

“I think we’ve clearly established that those buttons don’t work,” Robin tells him.

“They’re buttons,” Steve retorts, “They have to do something.”

“Yeah,” Robin says and gestures to the panel, “If we had a keycard.”

“A what?” he asks.

“You don’t know what a keycard is?” you ask him, furrowing your eyebrows.

Steve stays silent so Robin explains, “It’s an electronic lock. Same as the loading dock door. If we don’t have a keycard, it won’t operate meaning-,”

“We’re stuck in here,” Dustin finishes.

“Yeah,” Robin agrees.

“Just so nerds are aware,” Erica tells you all, “I’m supposed to be spending the night at Tina’s, and Tina always covers for me. But if I’m not home for Uncle Jack’s party tomorrow, and my mom finds out you four are responsible, she’s gonna hunt you down, one by one, and slit your throat. Probably starting with you since she knows where you live.”

“I didn’t even wanna get you involved in the first place!” you tell her.

Steve is fed up and slams his hands down on the box in front of him, “I don’t care about Tina! Or Uncle Jack’s party!” he yells at her, “Your mom’s not gonna be able to find us if we’re dead in a Russian elevator!

“Hey,” Dustin says pointing up, “What if we climbed out?”

All of you look up at the ceiling and see the hatch he is pointing at. Steve pushes over the table and Dustin jumps on top. He pushes open the hatch and climbs up with Steve close behind him. You, Robin, and Erica all stay inside the elevator instead of going up.

“Are you okay?” Robin asks you.

“I mean, not really,” you tell her, “What are we going to do? There is a literal child with us.”

“Honestly?” she asks and you nod, “I have no idea.”

You put your hands over your eyes, “This was such a fucking bad idea.”

“I know,” she says, “I- I’m sorry.”

“Sorry?” you ask looking back at her, “Sorry for what?”

“For making you take this job and shit,” she says and sighs, “If you wouldn’t have ever come into Scoops that day we would have never met and you wouldn’t be in this situation, I just-”

“Let me stop you right there,” you tell her, grabbing her hand, “First of all you didn’t make me take the job, I wanted to work with you. And second of all, I would never wish I didn’t meet you. I l- I am lucky that I met you.”

You wish that you were alone right now, instead of Erica being in the same room. Maybe then you would have the balls to kiss her because as of this moment, it has moved up substantially on your list of things to do, all the way up to number one. Robin’s face is unreadable though, so you probably wouldn’t and won’t. Robin smiles in a way that doesn't quite reach her eyes and looks away.

Steve comes back down through the ceiling, “Yeah, there is no way to get out up there.”

“Damn it,” you say and lean back ready for a long night.

“What are we gonna do?” Erica asks.

“Nothing,” Steve says, jumping down from the ceiling.

“Nothing?” Erica asks.

“Nothing,” Steve reiterates.

“Why?” she asks.

“We have to wait until morning,” he tells her, “Then people will be awake.”

Dustin hops down after him and walks over to the button panel. Erica is sitting on the ground trying to rest the best she can.

“My mom is going to kill me,” you say out loud.

“Maybe she thinks you are at my house,” Robin offers.

“She wanted us all home tonight for a family dinner,” you tell her, “Tee has been gone the past few days and she wanted us all together.”

This catches Dustin's attention and he turns around, “Wait, your Tee’s sister?”

“Uh, yeah,” you tell him.

“I had no idea,” he says to you.

“Well, I mean I don’t just go around talking about my sister,” you tell him.

“Oh, she talks about you all the time,” he tells you, which you find hard to believe is true, “I only hung out with her for one day and she brought you up like ten times.”

“No, she did not,” you refute.

“Yes, she did,” he says, still focused on the panel, “Also why wouldn’t she? You are like super cool.”

“What?” you ask confused, “What exactly did she say?”

“I don’t know specifically,” Dustin tells you, “But the gist of it was that she thinks you are cool and after hanging out with you for a few days I agree.”

“Well, thanks,” you tell him.

“No problem,’ Dustin says.

“God that makes me feel like a bitch,” you say.

“What do you mean?” Robin asks you.

“It just puts mine and Tee’s argument in perspective,” you tell her, trying to hold back tears, “Like, if I die, then one of the last times I saw her was an argument.”

You look at the ceiling, willing the tears not to come out, and take a deep breath that sounds shaky. Everything feels like entirely too much all at once and you feel like curling up into a ball and crying your eyes out. Just when you are going to break down you feel Robin’s hand rest gently on your back.

You let her pull you into a side hug, “I don’t wanna promise that everything is okay,” she tells you, “But at least you will go out of this world with Tee thinking you are a cool older sister, even though she never told you.”

You take a deep breath in, “Does anyone have a watch?” you ask.

“Yeah,” Dustin says.

“How much longer until the mall opens?” you ask him.

“Ah,” he says and looks down at his wrist, “About 12 hours.”

“Well, I’m going to sleep,” you tell them and walk to the side of the room. When you lay down and close your eyes you can only hope you sleep through the night.

Robin doesn’t know if she will survive this anymore. Sure she originally thought ‘What is the harm in trying to take down a bunch of Russian spies?’ but as she stepped onto the elevator, she knew she was in much deeper shit than that. Although at that point she didn’t know it was an elevator, just a room that was heavily guarded with guns.

As soon as she felt the ‘room’ move her only thought was making sure that you were okay and as much as she wanted to pretend that she was okay, she wasn’t. She was beyond terrified and looking between you and Erica it was a wonder that either of you were asleep. Robin has been surprised with how well Erica in particular has handled the situation, never crying even though she should have never been put in this situation.

All she kept trying to do before she went to sleep was try to provide solutions. Robin wanted to be like that, she is normally, but right now her mind is elsewhere. She couldn’t stop thinking about you, that was not uncommon, but no matter how much she tried she couldn't stop thinking about what you told her earlier. Repeating every word in her mind. You didn’t know how much she wanted you to say exactly that, but what Robin kept going back to was what you almost said, or what she thought you almost said. You love her? Robin just couldn’t believe it.

And you couldn’t believe that you almost said that to her, with Erica in the room, overhearing everything you say, that is a slippery slope. You tell her that you love her and then the next day half of Indiana would know. Although, in this case, it would be Russia eventually.

The floor is horribly uncomfortable to sleep on so you only get a few hours after that you just lay there hoping the hours will pass by quickly. At some point, Erica wakes up and starts talking to Robin, both of them talking about random shit. With them talking you decide to get up as well.

“Finally,” Robin says, “I thought you died or something.”

“Ha, ha,” you say sarcastically and then feel your stomach rumble, “God, I am so hungry.”

“I know right,” Robin says.

She is sitting at the edge of a table so you walk over and sit with her.

“I am gonna get like 55 burgers and 55 fries from the burger place,” you say dreamily, “With a whole bunch of mayo and ketchup.”

“Mm,” Robin says, “Stop, you are making me hungry.”

“I hope the slop is good in the gulag we are imprisoned in,” you say and Robin laughs.

“Oh god,” she says, “I hope they kill me on sight.”

“Well if you are going out,” you tell her, “Then I am going with you.”

Robin doesn’t know what to say, well actually she usually doesn't know what to say, especially to you. A million things she can think of to say right now but instead she elects to stay silent. Ever since the other night, you have been acting… different. Not in a bad way, actually the opposite which leaves Robin confused.

Robin doesn’t know why exactly you are acting like this, she wonders if you do.

You hear a thumping noise behind you and when you turn around you see Dustin climbing on top of the table to get to the hatch again. Steve is quick to take notice and follow him.

“I’m just tired of waiting,” you tell her and then groan, “I wanna go home.”

You can both hear Dustin yelling into his radio, trying to get someone's attention.

“I can’t wait to get away from dingus one and two up there,” Robin tells you and you laugh.

“You’re not getting sick of me yet?” you ask her.

“I don’t think I could,” she tells you and puts her hand over yours on the table.

You can feel your cheeks start to warm up at the action and look away. Specifically at the wall and notice a patch of wall that is progressively getting wetter. Your face changes into disgust when you realize what it is.

Robin notices the change on your face, looks at the wall, and comes to the same realization that you have, “Can you redirect your stream, please?” she asks loudly and you both watch as the wall gets wet zig-zags across it.

“Ugh,” you and Robin both say at the same time.

Then you hear sharp banging coming from behind you, “Erica what are you doing?” you ask.

When you both turn you see her taking the tube of neon green substance and hitting it repeatedly on a metal barrel behind you.

“Hey, hey! Be careful,” Robin shouts, “We don't even know what that is.”

“Exactly,” Erica says to the both of you, “It could be useful.”

You and Robin both look at each other in bewilderment, “Useful how?” Robin asks her.

“We can survive a long time down here without food,” she explains, “But if the human body doesn’t get enough water, it will die.”

“I hate to break it to you,” Robin tells her, “But this is not water.”

“No,” Erica says, “But it’s a liquid, and if it comes down to drinking that shit or dying of thirst, I drink.”

Erica takes the container out of Robin’s hand and you watch as Robin goes over to the door, but your attention is still on Erica.

“Erica, this literally looks like it will kill you,” you tell her and take it back from her.

“And?” she asks sarcastically, “So does Mountain Dew.”

“This isn’t Mountain Dew!” you tell her.

“Shh,” Robin tells you both and whispers, “They’re here.”

“Shit,” you say under your breath, “Let’s go up top.”

All three of you climb on top of the elevator and Robin carefully shuts the hatch behind her. You all gather around the ceiling grating and watch as two men open the door. They take some of the boxes and then hear them drive away in a vehicle.

Steve quickly hops down and props up the door with the container leaving only a foot of room to escape out of. Erica throws him her backpack and at the same time he is helping her under the door you go under the other side. Dustin crawls out right after you do then Robin rolls herself under closely followed by Steve.

Right as he is passing under the door the canister starts to break and not a moment after he is through the door closes shattering it. You all watch as the liquid bubbles and then melts a hole through the floor.

“Jesus Christ,” Steve exclaims.

“Ooh!” Erica shouts.

You quickly turn to her and raise your finger to your lips, “Shh, we don’t know if anyone is around.”

“Look at it,” she tells you and walks closer.

You follow her to where the rest of them are investigating the hole in the floor, “Imagine if you drank that.”

“Yeah,” Robin adds, “You still wanna drink it?”

Erica rolls her eyes at you both and leans in closer to look at the hole. You can’t help but join her out of curiosity leaning against Robin to peer into it.

“Holy mother of God,” you hear Dustin say from behind you.

When you turn around you see what looks like a never-ending hallway, “Oh, god.”

“Well,” Steve starts, “Hope you guys are in good shape.”

Then he walks past all of you into the hall. As he passes by Dustin he pats his chest, “Looking at you, roast beef.”

You all watch as Steve walks away, “Come on, let’s go,” Robin tells the three of you.

“Woah,” Dustin says, “Look at the supports, this place is awesome!”

You, Robin, and Erica watch as he runs to catch up with Steve who is further down the hall.

“Tell me why I think he is going to be annoying the entire time?” you ask them.

“When is he not?” Erica asks you.

“Probably,” Robin agrees with you, “But all I know is that me and him have very different definitions of awesome.”

“Well, he did just spend a whole month at a camp for science, so…” you say.

Robin yawns, “I should have slept last night instead like you guys,” she mumbles.

“Why didn’t you?” you ask her.

“She was up all night talking to Steve,” Erica teases her.

Robin looks visibly uncomfortable, “Yeah, we were talking about how to open the door.”

“Uh huh,” Erica rolls her eyes and speeds up walking.

“We should have left the children up there,” Robin tells you.

“I know,” you say, “I grew up with my sister. I should have known not to get trapped with them.”

Both of you walk in silence for a minute until Robin breaks the silence.

“How long do you think this hallway is?” she asks you.

“I don’t know,” you tell her, “Forever?”

You were proven correct though, Dustin would not stop talking about the Russian basement that you all were currently trapped in.

“Look at all of the supports!” Dustin says enthusiastically.

“Yes, Dustin,” you tell him, “We’ve all seen the supports.”

“It’s just so cool,” he says to you.

“Ah, yes,” you say sarcastically, “So cool that we are trapped in a Russian secret base and no one knows where we are. And we don’t know how to get out.”

“I mean, you have to admit,” Dustin says, “That as a feat of engineering alone, this is impressive.”

“What are you talking about anyway?” Steve asks, “It’s a total fire hazard. There’s no stairs, there’s no exit, there’s just an elevator that drops you halfway to hell.”

“Their commies,” Erica says, “They don’t pay people, they cut corners.”

“To be fair to our Russian comrades,” Robin says, “I don’t think that this tunnel was designed for walking. Think about it, they designed the perfect system for transporting that cargo.”

“It all comes into the mall like any old delivery,” Dustin says.

“And then they load it up onto the trucks and nobody’s the wiser,” Robin says.

“Do you think that they built this whole mall so they could transport that green poison?” Steve asks.

“I mean it’s definitely possible,” you tell him, “But it’s just so weird to make it here, like, shouldn’t they be near the capital or something important.”

“I very seriously doubt that it’s something as boring as poison,” Dustin says, “It’s gotta be much more valuable, like promethium or something.”

“What the hell is promethium?” Steve asks.

“It’s what Victor Stone’s dad used to make Cyborg's bionic and cybernetic components,” Robin explains.

“You all are so nerdy,” Erica says and grabs her stomach, “It makes me physically ill.”

“No, no, no.” Steve denies, “Don’t lump me in with them. I’m not a nerd, all right?”

“Why so sensitive, Harrington?” Robin asks him, “Afraid of losing cool points to a ten-year-old child?”

“No, I’m just saying I don’t know jack shit about Prometheus,” he says.

“So what is it Steve?” you ask him, “Do her mean comments hurt your feelings that bad?”

“No,” Steve denies.

“Yeah, okay,” you tell him, rolling your eyes.

“All I’m saying is,” Dustin says, “It’s probably being used to make something.”

“Or power something,” Robin says.

“Like a nuclear weapon?” Dustin asks.

“Totally,” Robin says.

“Walking towards a nuclear weapon,” Steves says, “That’s great.”

“Do you wish you thought it was poison?” you ask him.

“If they are building something, why here?” Robin asks, “I mean, Hawkins. Seriously. Of all places.”

“That’s what I’m wondering,” you say, “Before I moved here I was not excited to be here.”

“Honestly, at the very best, we’re a toilet stop on your way to Disneyland,” Robin tells you, “Maybe that's it, we have the very best toilets.”

“What?” you ask her, “Robin, that makes zero goddamn sense.”

“I don’t know, maybe,” Robin says.

“Robin, be for real right now,” you say laughing and shaking your head, “No the fuck it's not.”

“You never know, they could-,” Robin stops talking and turns around, “I’m sorry, is there something you’d like to share with the class?”

When you turn you see Steve and Dustin both stop talking and then look at each other, obviously sharing a secret between the two of them. Unfortunately, before you can question them more you hear the radio pick up a signal, “Walkie,” they say in unison.

Erica kneels and puts her bag on the ground reaching in to grab the walkie. She hands it to Robin who pulls out the antenna all the way to better pick up the signal. The man speaks the same code you have listened to for the past few days.

“It’s the code,” Robin confirms with a smile.

“Wherever that broadcast is coming from-,” Dustin starts.

“It’s close,” Robin finishes, “And if there’s one thing we know about that signal…”

“It can reach the surface,” Dustin says.

“Let’s go,” Robin says and stands up to continue walking down the hall.

All of you stand up to follow after her down the hall, hopefully finding the long-awaited end. Unfortunately, as you draw closer you start to hear noise and at a certain point, you realize that the noises that you are hearing are the vehicles you saw earlier. As you turn a corner you see a few people in uniforms. Dustin and Erica run and hide behind a large metal crate, Robin pulls you into the small area followed closely by Steve.

All of you wait for a minute, listening for anyone who could have seen you. Steve peaks out and looks around making sure the coast is clear.

“Okay, clear,” Steve says and all of you follow him out, “Come on, let’s go.”

“Okay, that was close,” Robin says.

“Too close,” Dustin says.

“Relax,” Steve says, “All right? Relax, nobody saw…”

Steve stops in his tracks as he rounds a corner and when you see what he is looking at, you can’t help but have the same reaction. You see a whole bunch of people either in military uniforms or lab coats, and you even see radiation-proof gear. Which makes Robin’s idea of a nuclear bomb seem all that more real. More importantly, though, you see a mass amount of guns. All of you come to your senses and duck behind a wheeled cart.

“Jesus!” Erica exclaims.

“Red Dawn,” Dustin says.

“I saw it,” Erica says, “First floor, northwest.”

“Saw what?” Steve asks.

“The comms room,” Erica tells him.

“You saw the comms room?” He asks.

“Correct,” Erica confirms.

“Are you sure?” Dustin asks.

“Positive,” Erica tells him, “The door was open for a second and I saw a bunch of lights and machines and shit in there.”

“That could be a hundred different things,” Steve tells her.

Robin looks back at you for a split second and then turns back to Steve, “I’ll take those odds.”

Steve sighs and shakes his head then looks in your direction, “And what about you?”

“I’m with her,” you tell him.

Steve shakes his head again and peers around the cart observing the Russians again which causes you all to look around the cart. The room, that Erica claims she knows is the comms room, is on the left of the hub probably 50 feet away. All of you move back behind the cart after a few moments.

“All right,” Steve says, “We’re gonna move fast, we’re gonna stay low. Okay?”

“Okay,” Robin says.

Steve crouches down and walks quickly to the crates a bit further down the hall, Robin follows closely after him with the children right behind her and you in the back. As soon as it’s clear Steve moves a bit further urging all of you to hurry. You all watch as one of the scientists opens the door and the five of you run into the room without alerting any of the Russians.

That is until you turn around and see a guard sitting in front of the comms table, who of course, notices you as soon as you all enter the room. He stands up and his face matches all of yours in the amount of surprise.

Robin, in a moment of genius, or stupidity, starts speaking Russian to him and of course, you recognize the code right away. He reaches down slowly for his gun anyway and Robin steps forward with her hand out, trying presumably to calm him down.

The man responds in Russian, which none of you are actually fluent in no matter how long of a week you had studying it.

Robin, who must understand at least the basic idea of what he was trying to say, tells him in Russian, “Silver cat, silver cat.”

The man who still doesn’t look too convinced says something else which you don’t understand, Robin one last phrase which must make the guard realize that you guys really aren’t supposed to be there. But before he can aim his gun Steve lets out a bloodcurdling scream, rushes over, and tackles the man onto the panels. The Russian pushes Steve off of him onto another table and then swings at him, which Steve narrowly dodges. He then grabs Steve by his sailor's uniform and slams him onto a desk, Steve is able to get his bearings quickly, elbows him in the stomach, and then kicks him back.

Steve moves over to the comms panel, picks up the receiver, then smashes the guard in the head which causes him to fall over and smash his forehead on the edge of the comms table, knocking him out. All of you are staring in shock at the events over the last 30 seconds all while Steve is still standing there as if he would wake back up at any second.

“Dude!” Dustin shouts, “You did it! You won a fight!”

Steve looks at him, then back down at the unconscious man, then back at Dustin and smiles. Dustin runs over to the guard and begins looting him.

“What are you doing?” Erica asks him.

“Getting us our ticket out of here,” Dustin tells her.

“You want to walk all the way back?” Erica asks him.

“Well, Erica,” you say to her, “It’s either that or we wait here until the government comes and gets us. I’m gonna say it’s probably gonna be faster just to walk.”

“It took us hours to get down that hall,” she tells you.

“Yeah,” you say, “And the government isn’t exactly known for their response time,”

“While we are waiting why don’t we have a picnic, we can relax, and make nice with the Russians,” He tells her, “I’m sure they won’t just shoot us or torture us.”

“Have a picnic?” Erica says, ignoring the more concerning aspect of the conversation, “We came here for the radio.”

Behind the children bickering you see Robin climbing up a staircase, “Robin?” you call after her, “Where are you going?”

Instead of verbally answering you she reaches out her hand. You move to the stairs and take her hand in yours then make your way up the stairs. At the top, a faint blue light is emitted from beyond a glass door, as the two of you reach the top and look inside the room, you realize this is a lot more fucked than you could have possibly imagined.

“Robin, what the fuck is that?” you ask her.

“I have no fucking clue,” she responds to you, gripping your hand a bit harder.

As the two of you descend the stairs you can hear Dustin and Erica arguing still, “Guys,” Robin says loud enough to get their attention and moves away from you, dropping your hand, “There’s something up there.”

“It’s, like, really freaky,” you tell them.

The three of them follow you up the stairs and go through the door into a room with glass windows. All of you look through the glass, astonished. Past the glass is a command room filled with scientists all working at a desk pressing various buttons or standing taking notes. Just past the last desk is a wall with floor-to-ceiling windows which reveal a large machine sitting in a cavern.

The machine shoots out something that looks like lightning which is pointed at the cavern wall which is glowing orange with patterns that look almost like veins. But in the very center, a large crack is slowly growing. The likes of which you just don’t know how to describe. If you didn’t know any better you would almost say that the wall is coming to life.

Next Chapter

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mothguillotine · 8 months ago

Text

Chapter 3: The Art of Being in a Homoerotic Friendship

Main Masterlist

cw: swearing

word count: 6.8k

Summary: You, Robin, Steve, and Dustin try to figure out where the Russians are in Hawkins.

When you get home that night your mom tells you that Tee is spending the night at one of her friend's houses and that she will be back tomorrow. You go and take a shower as soon as you finish eating the dinner your mom set aside for you. By the time you are all clean, you are exhausted and fall asleep in your bed rather than doing anything else.

The next morning you wake up feeling ready for the day even with the sun being covered by rain clouds. You are more excited to go to work than ever before, you get ready an hour in advance and pack a bag with spy gear. Well, not actual spy gear, more like things from around your house that might be useful like an old pair of binoculars from when your mom was really into bird watching and a pair of sunglasses that make you look like a spy.

While you are gathering your supplies you see Tee, she is wearing her green raincoat and is getting ready to go out.

“Hey,” you greet her, “What are you doing today?”

“Uh-,” Tee says startled, “Nothing.”

“Oh- uh, okay,” you say, realizing she doesn’t want to discuss it.

“What about you?” she asks you.

“I- um you know, work,” you say gesturing to your uniform.

“Yeah,” she says, “uh, have a good Monday.”

“Uh, yeah, you too,” you tell her and you watch as she opens the front door you can see two of her friends waiting for her, one of them is Max and the other is a girl you haven’t seen before. All three of them are wearing raincoats to protect against the rain, which is coming down hard. When she leaves you grab your leftover mac n cheese and leave for work, and like every day your mom drives you to work.

She pulls the car up as close to the door as possible without driving on the sidewalk, “I hope you have a good day. And remember your dad’s cousin is coming to spend the day with us on the forth, so make sure you get that day off.”

“Okay, mom. Thanks for the ride,” you tell her before kissing her on the cheek, “Love you.”

When you open the door the rain hits you right in the face so you run in as fast as you can shielding your eyes with your hands. Inside the mall already has crowds of people hiding away from the storm in the building. You see the same little girl who always asks for a million samples with all of her friends. The number of people already here today may be one of the busiest since you started working. It made sense though, people don’t wanna be at the pool so they come to the mall instead.

At Scoops the crowd luckily hasn’t reached the shop yet, “Hey,” Steve greets you when he sees you walk into the store.

“What's up?” you ask him walking over and leaning on the counter with your hands under your chin, “Any revelations about the spies?”

“Shh,” Steve quiets you, “They could be listening.”

“Okay, sorry.” you tell him and stand up straight, “Is Robin in the back?”

“Yeah,” he says, “She and Dustin are already working on translating the rest.”

“Cool, cool,” you mutter, “I’ll come back when I put my stuff away.”

“Okay,” he tells you, “Me and Dustin were going to go out in a bit to look around when more people show up.”

“Oh so you leave me and Robin with the hard work?” you ask him and walk to the door, “Real nice.”

“This is important work!” he shouts but you walk through the door before he can finish his sentence.

Robin and Dustin are in the same spots as yesterday, “Finally you are here,” Dustin says as soon as you get through the door.

“Sorry,” you say and walk over to your small locker, “My mom drives me.”

“Me and Steve are going out,” Dustin tells you.

“Yeah, yeah,” you say waving him off, “I know, Steve told me. I have something to help you guys out.”

You reach down into your locker and your bag. When you stand up you are holding your mom's pair of binoculars, “Here you go,” you tell him, “They’re my mom’s so be careful, please.”

Dustin gives you a thumbs-up and leaves the room presumably to go spy, “I’ll go out there and if I need you I'll call,” you tell Robin.

“Okay,” she tells you, “I’ll just be uh- working on this.”

“Yeah, you better,” you say, “Or you would be out there with me. Which is obviously torture.”

Robin laughs, “I would much rather be with you than translate some stupid Russian.”

“Yeah?” you ask, smiling.

“Oh, definitely,” she says.

“Well anyways,” you say, “I should uh- get back out there.”

“Yeah,” she says, “You should go.”

You turn and leave the room fast, thinking to yourself, why did that almost feel like flirting?

Robin was having a difficult time translating. She kept thinking back at the interaction long after it was over. Are you still thinking about it? The last sentence of Russian had been played over and over as Robin couldn’t truly focus on the words being said. Still, she is their only hope of translation so she persists and tries to shove everything about you as far down as she can.

This lasts until you tell her you need a bathroom break and her mind is focused on you yet again, “Yeah,” Robin says, “Can I use your headphones?”

“Mhm,” you tell her, “They’re in my bag.”

When Robin goes out to the counter she puts on your headphones and tries to start translating again. She goes undisturbed for a few minutes until she hears a quiet ringing noise which makes her take off her headphones. When she looks up she sees the little girl who terrorizes the three of you for samples. Robin watches as she slams her hand down on the bell repeatedly.

“I’d like to try the peanut butter chocolate swirl, please,” the girl tells Robin.

“No,” Robin says, “No more samples today.”

“Why not?” she asks.

“Because you are abusing our company policy,” Robin tells her.

“Where’s the sailor man?” the child questions.

“Sorry,” Robin says to her and turns around, “He can’t help you. He’s busy.”

“Busy with what?” she asks.

Robin turns dramatically to face her, “Spycraft.”

You hated using the bathroom at work. It was always dirty and smelled like feet. Not to mention FUCKING FREEZING. It did have the perk of only being accessed by staff which meant no wait times and you didn’t have to walk through the mall to get there since the bathrooms were in the back hallways.

In times like this, you were always grateful for bringing a sweatshirt to work. The halls were freezing which meant the bathroom was bound to be worse. You feel a shiver run through you and you pull your sweatshirt around you more. The bathroom is thankfully empty when you get there so you go as fast as possible and get out quickly.

When you get back you see Robin arguing with the sample-stealer at the counter all you hear at the end is Robin saying, “Spycraft.”

The child looks very confused and she raises her eyebrows at her, “Okay,” the child says then notices you, “Tell her to give me my sample.”

“If she said no more,” you tell her, “Then no more.”

She huffs and looks back toward her friends, “Let’s go.”

The group leaves the store and moves to terrorize a different worker to get free food.

“She is starting to get on my nerves about the sample thing,” Robin says to you.

“Tell me about it,” you tell her after turning around to face her, “Have you had any luck?”

“Uh-, I’ve got the first few words done,” she lies, “But one of them is giving me trouble.”

“Well, you are super smart,” you tell her, “So you should have it figured out in no time.”

Robin’s face starts to turn red, “I um, should get back in there.”

“Go,” you tell her, “I’ve got it from here.”

“Okay,” she says and backs through the door.

The shop doesn’t get too busy and you can manage by yourself while Robin translates in the back. Still, you have a few customers, you use the ice cream scoop and roll a perfect scoop of cherry chip and another of vanilla on a waffle cone. After that, you put a single cherry on top and hand it to the customer.

“That will be $3.55,” you say to the woman who has one hand digging for money and the other is holding onto the arm of a child.

“Here,” she says and gives you the money and drags her kid away.

“Have a nice day,” you call after her even though you aren't sure she will.

As soon as she has left the store Robin comes out of the back and you turn to look at her, “I did it!”

“I knew that you could,” you rush over to her and pull her in for a hug.

Robin stays still until you let her go, “So what is it?”

“Okay, are you ready?” she asks, continuing in an equally bad Russian accent as yesterday, “A trip to China sounds nice if you tread lightly.”

You try not to laugh but you can’t hold your laughter in, “Was it that bad?”

“No, no,” you say trying to hold in your laughter, “The important thing is that you translated it.”

“Was it at least better than yesterday?” she asks you, which makes you start laughing all over again.

In your laughing fit you manage to get out, “Don’t do that infront of Dustin and Steve.”

“Whatever,” she says, “Help me figure out what this shit means.”

“Okay,” you tell her, “Say the whole thing.”

“The week is long.” Robin starts, “The silver cat feeds when blue meets yellow in the west. A trip to China sounds nice if you tread lightly.”

You stay quiet for a moment and then look at Robin, “Honestly, I have no fucking clue.”

“Ah, thanks,” she says sarcastically, “Really helpful.”

“Sorry,” you roll your eyes at her, “You know, I feel like I’ve said that a lot today.”

“I’m gonna go try and figure it out,” she says to you.

“Stay out here,” you tell her, “You don’t have to listen to the tape anymore and I’m out here.”

“Yeah,” she says, “Okay.”

Robin hops up onto the counter and gets to work trying to solve the puzzle. You take care of all of the customers that come into the store while she bounces ideas off you. Each of your ideas leads you nowhere though, instead having to reread the passage over and over again trying to come up with something.

Until you are interrupted by a knock at the staff door. Robin opens the window and hops through then walks over to the back door. When she opens it the two of you see a delivery man standing in the hall.

“Delivery for you,” the man says.

“Thank you,” Robin says and takes the package from him. She puts it on the table and returns to the man to sign for it. When she does it takes her a moment before she hands the man the pen back, looking him over.

“Have a nice day,” he tells Robin and turns to walk down the hallway.

“Yeah, you too,” she says.

After a minute Robin goes into the hall after him, “Robs, what’s going on?” you ask leaning into the back through the window.

“I uh,” she says and holds out her hand, “One second.”

“Silver cat,” Robin says under her breath.

“What?” you ask her, unable to hear from the front.

“Silver cat,” Robin says as she runs past you as if that would explain it somehow.

“Robin, what do you mean?” you ask and chase after her pushing past Steve and Dustin who are arguing about something.

Robin runs out to the middle of the food court and stands up on a platform. You run up to where she is and stand below her. She spins around examining the room repeating the same phrase from before.

“Robin,” Steve says from behind you, which makes you turn, “What are you doing?”

“I cracked it,” she tells him and Dustin, which makes you realize what exactly just happened.

“Cracked what?” Steve asks at the same time you grab Robin's arm and say, “Holy shit.”

Robin jumps off the planter and tells them, “I cracked the code.”

Later that night just before nine o’clock all four of you go up to the roof with your binoculars. You are all wearing raincoats and are down low to prevent anyone from seeing you. The rain has gotten worse since you went in to work, each of you is soaked even with the raincoats on.

“Look for Imperial Panda,” Robin says, “And Kaufman Shoes.”

Dustin is looking through his binoculars and you are looking through yours. On the roof, you are overlooking the loading area, down below you can see a few security guards as well as delivery people. One of them is rolling a dolly with stack boxes, from the roof, you can hear him whistling.

“Hey,” you say and pass the binoculars to Robin so she can see, “You see him?”

“Yeah,” Dustin says, “They’re with that whistling guy, ten o’clock.”

“What do you think’s in there?” Steve asks.

“Guns, bombs?” Dustin suggests.

“Chemical weapons?” Robin adds.

“Body parts?” you say finally.

All three of them look at you, “What?” Steve asks.

“Body parts,” you reiterate.

“What do you mean body parts?” Dustin asks.

“I don’t know,” you say, “Like their victims.”

“Whatever it is,” Dustin says moving along the conversation, “They’re armed to the teeth.”

“Great,” Steve says, “That’s great.”

Robin returns your binoculars and you peer through them. The security guard is letting one of the delivery people into the locked door when you look back.

“Hey, what’s in there?” Robin asks and you hand the binoculars back.

“It’s just more boxes,” Dustin says.

“Let me check it out,” Steve says and tries grabbing Dustin's binoculars.

“No,” Dustin tells him, “I’m still looking.”

“Lemme see,” Steve says, trying to wrestle them from Dustin.

“Hang on!” Dustin yells but then suddenly the binoculars hit something metal and make a loud clang.

“Duck!” Dustin says.

All four of you move behind the wall that hides you. During the panic, Robin grabs your hand as well as Steve’s. As quick as it happens Robin lets go of Steve's hand but continues holding yours, even as you run down the stairs, and doesn’t let go until you are back in Scoops.

When you get through the back door you lock it behind you. All four of you are trying to catch your breath from running down a flight of stairs and through the back hallways. As soon as you take off your rain jacket you realize that your clothing is soaked, “Guys, we need to call the police,” you tell them.

“Oh, yeah,” Steve says, “Because the police have been so helpful in the past.”

“What do you mean?” you ask him.

“I uh-,” Steve looks guilty, like he said something he wasn’t supposed to.

“What he means is that the police can’t handle a bunch of Russian spies,” Dustin says quickly, both of them obviously trying to move on.

“Okay,” you say, “The government then.”

“That’s an even worse idea,” Steve tells you.

“No,” you tell him, “If they bring tanks and shit it would be no problem. They could just roll in and the security guys wouldn’t stand a chance.”

“We are not calling anyone,” Steve insists, “We have everyone we need right here. Right Dustin?”

“Yep,” Dustin says cheerfully.

“Robin?” you ask her, “What do you think?”

“I uh,” Robin stops herself, “I think we should investigate.”

“Really?” you ask.

“Definitely,” Robin tells you.

“Are the police really that bad?” you ask.

“One hundred percent,” Dustin says.

When you all leave that night the mall is just as abandoned as the night before. The difference is that tonight you are all silent with the only sounds being the squeaking of your shoes which are still wet. As you get to the exit you don’t see your mom out front yet.

“Do you want a ride?” Steve asks, also noticing.

“No,” you tell him, “She should be here in a bit. Besides, Robin has to wait too.”

“Okay,” Steve says, “Hey, starting tomorrow why don’t we just carpool?”

“I’m sure my mom would thank you,” you tell him with a laugh.

“Then I’ll pick you both up before work tomorrow,” then he and Dustin go out into the storm to Steve’s car.

“Do you wanna spend the night?” you ask Robin.

“I don’t have any clothes,” Robin says.

“You can borrow some of mine if you want,” you tell her then add, “You don’t have to come over if you don’t want to.”

“If you want me to, I can,” she says.

“Yeah,” you say to her, “I do.”

“Okay,” she nearly whispers.

Both of you stand there looking at each other, when Robin moves to tuck a piece of hair behind your ear you let out a breath. A bolt of lightning hits right outside but neither of you looks away from each other. Instead, you take a step towards her, “Why were you so weird about Tee wanting me to date Steve?”

“What?” Robin asks.

“Why were you so weird about Tee wanting me to date Steve?” you repeat.

“Um, I don’t know,” she says, “Steve is a douchebag.”

“Are you sure that’s it?” you ask her.

“Yeah,” she tells you, “What else would it be?”

“I don’t know,” you say, “Maybe you like me.”

“What?” she asks, “No, that’s- that’s crazy. You just shouldn’t date Steve.”

“So you don’t like me?” you ask.

“No,” Robin gulps.

“Okay,” you say and back away from her, “Let’s go.”

You run out into the rain to your mom’s car leaving Robin standing in the entrance to the mall. Robin doesn’t know why she said no, as soon as it came out of her mouth she regretted it. The fact is that she is scared, with good reason. She didn’t want her life to become a horror story but that didn't mean that her hopes and desires went away and at the moment all she wanted was to kiss you. Instead, she runs out in the rain after you and quickly hops into the back of your mom’s car.

The ride to your house is filled with you and your mom talking, she asks all the normal questions like how was your day, was it busy, do you wanna hear what Mrs. Dickerson told me from across the street? Robin sits quietly in the back, lost in her thoughts. When you get back to your house you both dry off and you give Robin a sweatshirt and a pair of sleeping shorts.

“Do you wanna watch a movie or something?” you ask her.

“Uh, no,” she tells you, “I kinda just wanna go to sleep. It’s been a long day.”

“Oh, yeah,” you say, “Of course, I'm just gonna go eat some food.”

“Okay,” Robin says, “I’ll just go to bed.”

When you come back to your room after eating Robin is out cold. The rain is starting to calm down to the point you can only hear soft pattering. Even as you get into bed you feel unable to fall asleep, everything that happened playing through your head. So you stare up at the ceiling for what feels like hours until sleep finally takes hold of you.

The next morning you wake up to the sun shining in your eyes, the rain from yesterday stopped sometime last night. Robin isn’t in bed next to you and downstairs you hear some noises sounding like they are coming from the kitchen. When you walk into the kitchen you see Robin sitting at the island sipping a mug of coffee.

“Morning,” you greet her.

“Hey,” Robin greets back, “Are you ready for today?”

You shrug and open the cabinet grabbing your favorite mug, “All I know is that I am still tired from yesterday.”

Taking the coffee pot you pour yourself some coffee leaving room for milk and sugar, “I still can’t believe that we found Russians at the mall.” Robin tells you.

“I know right,” you say while reaching into the fridge to get the milk, “I still don’t understand why spies would be here.”

“Well, I mean there is the lab,” she says offhandedly.

“What lab?” you ask.

“Nobody told you?” she asks.

“No,” you tell her, “Nobody said anything.”

“A few years ago there was this girl, Barbra, who went to Hawkins,” Robin starts, “We were in band together and she died because of a chemical leak from a government lab and then there was the whole thing with the Byers. It was just a big mess.”

“What happened to the Byers?” you ask.

“Well, Will went missing at the same time as Barbra,” Robin tells you, “A few days or so after he went missing they found a body in the quarry and identified it as Will. Then a few days later he comes back.”

“Did they ever figure out who was in the quarry?” you ask her.

“I don’t know they never said anything about it again,” she says, “It was like they wanted to forget it happened.”

“Well I get why Steve doesn’t trust the police,” you tell her.

“I can’t believe that nobody told you,” she says.

“I only hang out with you Robin,” you pull out the sugar and stir it into your coffee, “You should have told me. And when you say Will do you mean the same one that comes in with my sister and her friends.”

Robin nods, “Well shit,” you say, “That’s horrible.”

“Yes,” Robin agrees, “Yes, it is.”

By the time Steve gets to your house, you have had two cups of coffee and are well caffeinated, “You guys ready to catch some Russians?” Dustin asks from the passenger seat as the two of you walk to Steve’s car.

“You’re gonna tell my whole neighborhood about what we are doing,” you tell him and grab the handle to the back passenger door and Robin walks around to the driver's side.

The drive to the mall is full of Dustin talking about his plans for today's spying, “We will keep eyes on that door at all times,” he tells the three of you, Steve just nods his head and focuses on driving.

“I don’t think we will see too much from outside,” you tell him, “We need to get in there.”

“And how do you imagine we take care of the security guards?” Steve asks, “Who let me remind you, have guns!”

“Whatever,” you say brushing him off, “When we don’t learn anything today don’t blame me.”

When you get to the mall and Steve parks his car Dustin is the first one through the doors. All three of you are nearly running to keep up with him, “Dustin, slow down!” Steve shouts after him.

“Come on,” Dustin says and waves for you all to go faster.

“Jesus Christ,” you mutter, “This kid is going to kill me.”

After you all get inside Dustin is quick to go off to the roof with his binoculars to spy on the Russians to gather intel for you all.

When Dustin comes back he looks at you, “You were right,” he says, “I couldn’t really see anything else.”

“So we need to get in there,” Steve says.

“That keycard opens the door,” Dustin tells you all, “But unfortunately, the Russian with this keycard also has a massive gun. Whatever’s in this room, whatever’s in those boxes, they really don’t want anybody finding it.”

“But there’s gotta be a way in,” Robin says.

“Well, you know…” Steve says and leans forward in his seat, “I could always take him out.”

“Take who out?” Robin asks.

“The Russian guard,” Steve says, like it should be obvious.

“Let me get this straight,” you say to him, “You are going to take out an armed Russian guard?”

“What?” Steve asks, “I sneak up behind him, I knock him out, and I take his keycard. It’s easy.”

“You will, with one hundred percent certainty, get fucking killed,” you tell him bluntly and he rolls his eyes, “You are delusional.”

“Did you not hear the part about the massive gun?” Dustin asks him.

“Yes, Dustin, I did,” he tells him, “And you haven't seen me in action. I wouldn’t die, because I would be sneaking.”

“Yeah,” you say sarcastically, “Right.”

“Well, please, tell me this and be honest,” Dustin says to Steve, “Have you ever actually… won a fight?”

“Okay,” Steve says, “That was one time-,”

“Twice,” Dustin cuts him off, “Jonathan. Year prior?”

“Listen,” Steve tells you all, “That doesn’t count.”

“Why doesn’t it count?” you ask him.

“Right, because it looked like he beat the shit out of you,” Dustin says.

“Steve, you will either get your ass kicked or you will die,” you tell him.

“You weren’t here last time he got into a fight,” Dustin tells you, “He got a fat lip, a crooked nose, swollen eye, a lot of blood.”

“Jesus Steve,” you say, “You will die.”

“Oh, he is exaggerating,” Steve tells you, “It wasn’t that bad.”

“It sounds like it was that bad,” you tell him.

Suddenly Robin stands up and runs to the front. All three of you watch as she takes all of the tip money and runs out from behind the counter.

“Robin?” Steve asks her but is ignored, “Hey, Robin! Hey, what- what are you doing?”

“I need cash,” Robin tells him, turning around and walking backward out of the store.

“Well, some of that is mine,” he tells her pointing at the money, “Where are you going?”

“To find a way into that room, a safe way,” she tells you all, “And in the meantime, sling ice cream, behave, and don’t get beat up. You are in charge, I’ll be back in a jiff.”

All three of you stand at the counter watching as Robin runs through the crowd of people, “Why are you in charge?” Steve asks.

“Because I am the most responsible,” you tell him, “Especially compared to the two of you.”

Then you turn and sit at the register, “Just don’t get into any trouble.”

“Okay,” Dustin says and picks up Steve’s scooper. He puts it to his lips and licks the ice cream off it, you make a disgusted face.

“Oh, dude,” Steve says and grabs the scooper from him, “Come on, man, not my scooper.”

You and Steve work while you wait for Robin to come back, which takes a while, “It is fascinating what twenty bucks will get you at the County Recorders Office,” Robin tells you all while laying down blueprints, “Starcourt Mall. The complete blueprints.”

“Not bad,” Dustin tells her.

“So, this is us, Scoops,” Robin says and circles an area of the blueprint then moves to another section, “And this is where we want to get.”

“I mean, I don’t really see a way in,” Steve says.

“There’s not,” Robin tells him then rips away the first page revealing a second, and adds, “If you’re talking exclusively about doors.”

“Air ducts,” Dustin says looking up at Robin.

“Exactly,” Robin tells him and grabs a red marker putting it on the blueprints to show the way, “Turns out, this secret room needs air just like any old room. And these air ducts lead all the way here.”

All four of you look up at the air duct, “How are we gonna do this?” you ask.

Steve grabs a ladder and brings it over to the air duct. When he climbs on top of it and examines the grate he turns around, “I need a phillips-head screwdriver.”

Dustin reaches into his tool belt and pulls out the tool, “Here you go,” he tells Steve and hands him the screwdriver.

Steve turns back around and unscrews all four bolts holding the grate up then takes it off the vent, “Flashlight?” Steve asks, his voice obstructed by the screwdriver in his mouth, he trades Dusting the flashlight for the screwdriver, “Thank you.”

Steve clicks on the flashlight and looks into the vent, “Yeah, I don’t know, man,” Steve says, “I don’t know if you can fit in here. It’s, like… uh super tight.”

“I’ll fit,” Dustin reassures him, “Trust me. No collar bones, remember?”

“What?’ you ask him.

“Uh, excuse me?” Robin asks at the same time.

Steve hops down off the ladder and looks at the two of you, “Oh, he’s, uh… Yeah, he’s got some disease,” Steve tells you both, “It’s called, uh, Chry, uh… it’s chrydo, um, something. Yeah, I dunno. He’s missing bones and stuff. He can bend like Gumbo.”

“You mean Gumby,” Robin says.

“I’m pretty sure it’s Gumbo,” Steve tells her.

“No,” you tell him, “I’m pretty sure it is Gumby.”

“All of you shut up!” Dustin yells, “Steve! Push me!”

“Okay,” Steve mutters and pushes Dustin’s feet, “I’ll push ya.”

“Not my feet, dumbass,” Dustin tells him, “Push my ass.”

“What?” Steve asks.

“Touch my butt!” Dustin shouts, “I don't care.”

Steve climbs up the ladder and starts pushing on Dustin's ass, “Come on!” Dustin shouts, “Push harder!”

“I’m pushing!” Steve shouts back.

You put your hands into your face as they continue arguing. Then you look at Robin and roll your eyes while shaking your head at their antics.

“I’m just gonna shove you,” Steve tells him.

“Shove me?” Dustin asks.

“Ready?” Steve asks him and without giving him much time to prepare he starts, “1, 2, 3!”

“Shit!” Dustin says in pain after Steve tries shoving him in.

“That work?’ Steve asks him.

“One more time!” Dustin shouts and then you hear the bell go off at the counter. When you and Robin turn around you see a familiar little girl.

“Ahoy, sailors!” she says, visibly annoyed at the lack of service, “All hands on deck! Ahoy! Come on! Get over here and serve me some samples.”

“I think I have an idea,” Robin tells you.

“What is it?” you ask her.

“How do you feel about child labor?”

Both Dustin and Steve are on the same page as you, “Why are we trying to get other people involved?” Steve asks.

“Dustin can't fit,” Robin tells him, “We have tried for like half an hour and what happens when Steve can't reach you anymore? You are just gonna get stuck.”

“I still don’t think this is the best option,” you tell Robin.

“Well, it’s the only one,” she says to you.

“None of you know any shorter, older people?” you ask the three of them and all of them shake their heads no.

“If there was anyone else we wouldn’t be going to her,” Steve tells you.

“I just have a bad feeling about all of this,” you tell them.

“It’s going to be fine,” Dustin reassures you, “She will be completely safe.”

“Okay,” you say, and then Dustin leaves the back room to go and get the child.

When he comes back he is with Erica, “Show me the vent,” she tells all of you.

You hand Erica a flashlight and she climbs on the ladder to look into the vent, “Hmm,” Erica says then hops off the ladder, “I don’t know.”

“You don’t know if you can fit?” Dustin asks.

“Oh, I can fit,” Erica tells you all, “I just don’t know if I want to.”

“Are you claustrophobic?” Robin asks.

Erica laughs and shakes her head, “I don’t have phobias.”

“Okay,” Steve says, “Well what’s the problem?”

“The problem is,” Erica tells him, “I still haven’t heard what’s in this for Erica.”

“Oh, Jesus,” you say, “She’s talking about herself in third person.”

“Yes, she is,” Erica says.

“Okay, okay,” Steve tells her, “What about ice cream? We all know that you like ice cream and we have some to spare.”

“I’ll think about it over your menu,” Erica says and walks back out to the shop.

“What are we gonna do?” Dustin asks.

“Serve her some ice cream,” Steve tells him.

All three of you prepare a mass of ice cream for her, many waffle bowls, different sprinkles, and sauces, and a huge banana boat, “More fudge, please,” Erica tells Steve and pushes the banana boat back, “Go, on.”

Steve grabs the banana boat and leaves to put more fudge on it, “All right,” Robin says and pulls out the blueprints, “You see this? This is the route you’re going to take.”

Erica looks at the red line drawn through the ductwork, “Then we just wait till the last delivery goes out tonight. Then you knock out the grate, jump down, and open the door.”

“Then you find out what’s in those boxes?” Erica asks.

“Exactly,” Robin tells her.

“Mm-mhm,” Erica says, “And you say this guard is armed.”

“Yes,” Dustin tells her, “But he won’t be there.”

“And booby traps?” Erica asks.

“Booby traps?” Robin asks.

“Laser, spikes in the wall?” Erica explains.

“What?” Robin laughs.

“You know what this half-baked plan of yours sounds like to me?” Erica asks, “Child endangerment.”

“We‘ll be in radio contact with you the whole time-” Robin starts.

“Ah, ah, ah!” Erica yells, “Child endangerment.”

“She isn’t wrong,” you tell them.

“Uh- Erica, hi,” Dustin draws her attention to him, “We think that these evil Russians want to do harm to our country. Great harm. Don’t you love your country?”

“You can’t spell America without Erica,” she tells you all and takes a sip of her float.

“Uh, yeah, yeah,” Dustin says, “Oddly, that’s, uh, totally true. So, don’t do this for us. Do it for your country. Do it for your fellow man. Do this for America, Erica.”

Erica slurps over top of Dustin’s yapping, “Ooh, I just got the chills,” she says, “Oh, yeah from this float, no your speech. You know what I love most about this country? Capitalism. Do you know what capitalism is?”

“Yeah,” all three of you say.

“It means this is a free market system,” she explains, “Which means people get paid for their services, depending on how valuable their contributions are. And it seems to me that my ability to fit into that little vent is very, very valuable to you all. So you want my help? This USS Butterscotch better be the first of many. And I’m talking about free ice cream for life.”

Erica pinches one of the many maraschino cherries on her ice creams and plops it into her mouth.

Later that night, when most people have gone home from the mall, all five of you are standing in the back of scoops, “Okay,” Robin says after you put the helmet on Erica, “You should be all set.”

Erica huffs and tells her through the mic, “You better have a table full of ice cream for me when I get back.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Steve says, “Get on with it.”

Erica climbs up the ladder, “Commence operation child endangerment.”

“Can we maybe not call it that?” Robin asks her.

“See you on the other side, nerds,” Erica tells all of you and disappears into the vent.

You run through the back halls and up the stairs to the roof where Steve, Dustin, and Robin are all waiting. All three of them are crouched by the edge of the roof watching for Erica to come through the door. After waiting for a while Erica finally reaches the room.

“All right, nerds,” Erica says into the mic, “I’m there.”

“Do you, do you see anything?” Robin asks.

“Yeah,” Erica says, her voice coming out a bit staticky through the radio, “I see those boring boxes you’re so excited about.”

“Any guards?” Robin asks.

“None,” Erica tells her.

“Booby Traps?” Robin asks.

“If I could see them, they'd be pretty shit traps,” Erica says, “Wouldn’t they?”

“Thank you for that,” Robin tells her.

Through the radio, you can hear Erica grunt and then a big clatter happens, “I’m in.”

All of you let out a sigh of relief, “Oh god.” Steve says and rubs his hands down his face.

A minute later the doors open revealing Erica, “Free ice cream,” Erica says into her headset, “For. Life.”

All four of you get up off the roof and run to join her in the room.

“Took you all long enough,” Erica says when you all finally get to the room.

“Sorry,” you tell her.

“Little Stevie had to go to the bathroom,” Robin says.

“Whatever,” Erica says and walks back into the room, “Come on!”

“Let’s go,” Dustin says and walks in.

Steve follows closely behind waving you and Robin in, “Let’s not keep her waiting.”

You stand outside the room, looking at it. In your stomach, you can feel a weight, like something isn’t quite right.

“Are you okay?” Robin asks, grabbing your hand.

“I- I don’t know,” you tell her, “I feel like something bad is gonna happen.”

“You don’t have to come in,” she reassures you, “We can handle it.”

“No, no,” you tell her and lead her into the room by hand, “It’s probably nothing, just being over dramatic.”

“Okay,” Robin says, but doesn’t sound too convinced.

All three of them are waiting for you around a box, “Come on,” Dustin urges you both, “We wanna open it.”

You and Robin join them at the table and Steve brandishes a box cutter. He slices open the brown tape holding the lid closed and hands the knife to Dustin. Then he opens the flaps and reveals a metal box with a handle. Steve grips the handle and twists, pulling up, “That’s definitely not Chinese food.”

“No shit, Steve,” you tell him.

Steve rolls his eyes at you and then urges you all to step back, “Uh, maybe you guys should, you know, stand back.”

Robin, still holding your hand, grabs Erica’s as well and drags both of you back.

“No,” Dustin tells him.

“Just step back, okay?” Steve says.

“No!” Dustin insists.

“Step back,” Steve says and tries pushing him with his arm, “Seriously.”

“No! No!” Dustin yells back at him, “If you die, I die.”

“And men call women emotional,” you whisper to Robin and she laughs.

Steve just stares at Dustin for a bit until he just says, “Okay.”

Steve twists the cylinder and pulls up releasing air in a hissing noise. When he fully reveals the tube it’s full of green shit that looks like a biohazard.

“What the hell?” Steve ponders out loud.

“What is that?” Robin asks.

As soon as the words leave her mouth the whole room shakes, startling you all.

“Was that just me, or did the room move?” Dustin asks.

“Booby traps,” Erica whispers.

Then the room shakes again and you can hear some sort of mechanical whirring from outside the room.

“I thought this was a bad idea,” you say, realizing just how bad this could possibly get.

“You know what?” Robin says, “Let’s just grab that and go.”

Robin takes the cylinder out of Steve's hand and puts it in her bag. You are starting to hear more noises coming from the walls, “Robin, we need to get out of here right now.”

“I know,” she tells you and looks back at Dustin who is currently struggling to open the door.

"Which one do I press, Erica?” Dustin asks her, looking down at the panel full of buttons.

“Just press the damn button, nerd,” Erica tells him.

“Which one?” Dustin says again, “I’m pressing the button, okay?”

“Press ‘open door,’” Erica says, annoyed.

“I’m pressing ‘open door!’” Dustin shouts at her getting frustrated.

“Just open the-,” Steve starts but cuts himself off by walking over to the button panel and pressing the same button himself, “Press the other buttons.”

“Would you stop?” Dustin asks.

“I’m trying,” Steve tells him.

Robin moves her hand to rub her forehead, “Ugh, I wish I would have taken motrin before we left.”

“As soon as we get back,” you promise her.

“If they would hurry up and OPEN THE DOOR!” Robin yells mostly at the boys.

Then you hear a loud clunk and the room drops, “OH MY GOD!” you yell in terror.

“Oh, shit!” Steve says looking at the wall and when you look you realize why he is upset, you are in an elevator. Most likely going to a Russian base hidden underneath the mall.

All of you start screaming as the elevator descends further away from the surface but you realize on the way down that Robin still hasn’t let go of your hand.

Next Chapter

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mothguillotine · 8 months ago

Text

Chapter 2: There’s Spies in Your Radio?

Main Masterlist

cw: swearing

word count: 5k

Summary: It's been almost a month since you moved in and things seem pretty normal, until a new person shows up.

The next morning you wake up later than you usually do. By the time you wake up, everyone is gone. Your dad is at work, your mom is out shopping, and Tee is with her friends. So you decide to call Robin to see if she wants to come over before work.

“Hello?” Robin asks when she picks up the phone.

“Hey,” you say, “Do you wanna come over before work?”

“Uh, yeah,” she says, “Can your mom drive both of us?”

“Yeah,” you tell her, “Just bring your uniform.”

“Okay,” she says, “I’ll be there in twenty.”

A little later Robin shows up on your doorstep, “Well hello there,” you greet her.

“Okay, Obi-Wan,” she says and you laugh at her.

“Come in,” you tell her and she walks into your home.

“Do you want some mac n cheese?” you ask her, “I was gonna make some for lunch.”

“Yeah,” she says, “That sounds delicious.”

“Perfect,” you tell her, “I’ll start boiling the water.”

You reach down and open the cabinet to get a pot out and take it over to the sink. Then you turn the water on to the hottest temperature and fill up the pot.

“How was your night?” you ask her while the pot is filling up.

“It was good,” she says, “I just went home and watched a movie, nothing special. What about you?”

“It was fine,” you say and take the pot from the sink to the stovetop, “But my sister tried to convince me to go out with Steve.”

“Really?” she asks while you light the burner, “What did you say?”

“Well I kept telling her no because she would just not stop,” you tell her, “I mean she did, but I don’t understand why she was so persistent about it.”

“Why don’t you?” she asks.

“What do you mean?” you ask.

“Why not go out with Steve?” she asks.

“Why would I?” you ask.

“I mean he is obviously into you,” she says, “So why not?”

“I uh, he isn’t really, my type I guess,” you tell her, “Besides I’ve seen him interact with women before, I’m good.”

Robin laughs, “Yeah, that makes sense.”

It didn’t actually make sense to Robin, nothing about you made sense to Robin actually. You were more confusing than when she first met you a month ago. Sure, the two of you were friends, but something else was there. You never flirted with anyone at work, even when boys would make it very obvious that they wanted to take you out. So she couldn’t blame it on you being oblivious and you weren’t in any sort of relationship that she knew of.

Robin knew it was wrong to start liking you, all you had wanted was to make a friend here. But now she couldn’t stop spending time with you. It was addicting to her. She had never tried any drugs before but this is what she would imagine it would be like. If she could be with you 24/7 she would.

To be fair at first Robin really only wanted to be your friend until you realized that there were much cooler, more awesome people than her. Then one day you sat too close while you were watching a movie together. Your thighs just barely grazing hers drove her crazy, if she didn’t know any better you were doing it on purpose.

“It should be done in like thirteen minutes,” your voice breaks her out of her head.

“Oh, yeah,” she says, “Sounds good.”

“Ugh,” you exclaim, “It’s so hot.”

“I know,” Robin says, “I hate it.”

“I wish we had a pool,” you tell her, “It would make my life less miserable.”

“That would be nice,” she says.

“Oh before I forget,” you say, “Did you want me to come over tonight?”

“Yeah, sounds good,” Robin tells you.

“Okay, I will pack a bag when lunch is done,” you say.

The two of you talk while you wait for the timer to go off, as soon as it does you take the macaroni off the stovetop and drain the water out from the pot. Then you mix in the cheese packet, milk, and butter until the mac n cheese is done.

“Can you grab some bowls and forks from the dishwasher?” you ask Robin.

“Yeah,” she says and grabs the dishware and utensils.

After lunch, the two of you go up to your room. Robin sits on your bed as you pack your bag for her house later.

“You finally hung everything up,” she says.

“Yeah,” you say, opening your pajama drawer, “The paint was dry enough finally.”

Robin stands up and looks around at your walls with interest, “Linda Ronstadt?”

You look over and see her looking at said poster, “Yeah, I love her music.”

“Hm,” Robin says and continues moving around the room asking you questions about posters or pictures on your walls while you pack your bag. By the time you are done packing Robin has completed her lap around the room.

“What do you wanna do now?” you ask her.

“Listen to music?” she asks.

“Okay,” you say and walk over to your dresser where your radio is. Looking through the cassettes you select one and pop it into the tape slot. Robin is back sitting on your bed waiting for you, “I picked out one of my favorites.”

Surely enough Linda Ronstadt’s voice comes through the speakers, “Who is this?”

“It’s Linda Ronstadt,” you tell her.

“I like it,” she tells you.

“Do you wanna paint each other's nails?” you ask her.

“What colors do you have?” she asks.

“I’ll show you,” you tell her and stand up. You walk over to where you keep your nail polish and grab the bag. Then you bring it over to Robin.

“What one is your favorite?” Robin asks, peering into the bag.

You reach into the bag and grab a bottle of sparkly purple polish, “This one,” you tell her, showing her the bottle, “The sparkles are kinda rainbowy.”

“That one is pretty,” she says.

“Oh,” you say and grab her hand, “What if we wear each other's favorite color?”

“Yeah,” Robin says, “My favorite color is red.”

“I actually have a red one with the same sparkles,” you tell her, “Then we can really match.”

“Why don’t we paint one nail the other color?” Robin suggests.

“I love it,” you tell her.

You paint her nails first, all of her fingernails are dark purple and her ring finger is bright red. Then she paints your nails the opposite, most of your fingers a bright red and your ring finger a dark purple. By the time your nails are done drying it's time for your mom to drive the two of you to work.

In the car, you take the front and Robin sits in the back, “So are you girls excited for the Fourth of July?”

“Yeah,” Robin says, “I don’t usually do anything really, but the fireworks are cool.”

“Well this year we will do something together,” you tell her looking into the back.

When your mom pulls up out front of the mall both of you get out. When you are walking away your mom rolls down the window and shouts, “Have a good day, hunny!”

You turn back and wave at her then quickly walk inside in embarrassment. Robin quickly follows behind you, “That was embarrassing.”

Robin just laughs and you both hurry to the shop to arrive on time. Steve is already in the back waiting for the both of you. He is already wearing his sailor cap with blue printing spelling ‘AHOY’.

“Both of you are two minutes late,” he says as soon as he notices the two of you.

“Don’t blame me,” Robin says.

“Yeah,” you say, “Blame my mom.”

“Whatever,” he says, “Just get ready.”

Then he pushes open the door and walks out to the front. You shake your head but reach into your bag and pull out your sailor cap, “God kill me now.” When you and Robin are ready you go out to the shop and find a lack of customers at the moment.

“We are waiting back here until more people are here,” Robin tells Steve and drags you into the back before he can protest.

“Open the window,” he tells you.

The two of you wait in the back while Steve takes care of the sparse customers. You read a book while Robin is bouncing a ball against the wall.

“Why do you think the sky is blue?” Robin asks you.

“I don’t know,” you tell her without looking up from your book, “I think it’s something to do with how the sun reflects off something in the air.”

“Hm,” Robin says.

Steve is taking care of another customer at the counter, “Alrighty, one scoop of chocolate,” Steve says, “That’s a buck-twenty-five.”

“Anything else?” he asks, obviously trying to flirt, yet again, “Ooh, Purdue. Fancy.”

“Yeah,” the customer says, “I’m excited.”

“Yeah, you know,” Steve continues, “I considered it, Purdue, but then I was like, you know what? I really think I need some real-life experience, you know, before I hit college, see what it really feels like.”

At this point, you are struggling to hold in your laughter at his horrible failure at flirting. You look over and see that Robin is in the same boat as you, red in the face holding back her laughter.

“Kinda like, uh, I don’t know,” Steve says, “See what it’s like to earn a working-man’s wage, you know? Uh… oh I’m sorry.”

The register starts beeping, interrupting his talking, “I think that’s, like, really important.”

“Yeah, totally,” the customer says, voice dripping with sarcasm.

“Yeah, anyway, this was, like, so fun,” Steve says, “We should kind of like, you know, I don’t know, maybe hang out this weekend or-”

You hear the customer's coins fall onto the counter clattering, “Oh, sorry about that, uh… I don’t know. Maybe next weekend or-,”

“Yeah, I’m busy,” she tells Steve.

“Oh, that’s cool,” he says, “I’m working here next weekend, so… the following weekend’s better for me.”

“No,” she says, “I’m sorry, I can’t.”

“I- This is my first day here,” Steve tries to explain himself.

You hear the girls laugh as they walk away from the counter, Robin grabs the whiteboard she keeps next to the window and a black marker.

“And another one bites the dust,” Robin says, “You are oh-for-six, Popeye.”

Robin draws a sixth tally in the ‘YOU SUCK’ category while the ‘YOU RULE’ is completely blank.

“Yeah, yeah,” Steve says, “I can count.”

“You know that means you suck?” Robin asks.

“Yep,” Steve says, “I can read, too.”

“Since when?” Robin questions.

“It’s this stupid hat,” he tells the both of you, “I am telling you two, it is totally blowing my best feature.”

“Yeah,” Robin says, “Company policy is a real drag.”

“Honestly, Steve,” you say to him, “That was just sad, with or without the hat.”

“You know,” Robin starts, “It’s a crazy idea, but have you considered… telling the truth?”

“Oh, you mean, that I couldn’t even get into Tech and my douchebag dad’s trying to teach me a lesson, I make three bucks an hour, and I have no future? That truth?”

“Hey, twelve o’clock,” Robin says and points at a group of girls who just walked into the shop.

“Oh, shit,” Steve says, “Oh, shit. Okay, uh… I’m going in. Okay? And you know what? Screw company policy.”

Steve throws his hat into the back.

“Oh, my god, you’re a whole new man,” Robin says.

“How much do you wanna bet this goes terribly?” you ask her.

Before Robin can say anything Steve goes in strong, “Ahoy, ladies! Didn’t see you there,” Steve says loudly which startles one of the girls, “Would you guys like to set sail on this ocean of flavor with me? I’ll be your captain. I’m Steve Harrington.”

“Can I get you guys a taste of the cherry jubilee?” Steve asks, “No? Anybody? Banana Boat? Four people, four spoons?”

Robin scoffs at him and draws a seventh line on the whiteboard. The rest of the day goes by slowly, more people come in later in the day which requires all of you to be behind the counter. But by the end of the day, you are ready to leave and go over to Robins. When the last customer leaves you both quickly close up and walk out to the parking lot.

Your mom isn’t there yet so you both sit on a bench enjoying the warm summer air, “It’s so nice outside,” you tell her.

“Yeah,” she agrees, “It’s beautiful.”

Robin was sure that this wasn’t just a crush as she looked at you. The way the wind slowly blows your hair across your face makes her desperately want to tuck it behind your ear. Headlights gently light up the both of you.

“My mom’s here,” you tell her looking over.

“Let’s go,” she tells you.

Your mom drives the two of you to Robin's house, “Have fun,” your mom tells you when you get there.

“Okay,” you tell her, “I love you, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Love you too,” she says.

You get out of the car and follow Robin up to her front door. As soon as it’s open you both walk over to her couch and fall onto it.

“Ugh,” you complain, “I hate work, I never want to go back.”

“Me too,” Robin says, her voice full of exhaustion, “Do you wanna wash your uniform for tomorrow?”

“Yeah,” you say sadly, “Let me change.”

“You can go in my room,” she says.

“Okay,” you say and walk up the stairs to her room. The inside of her room is dark so you turn on her lava lamp.

Robin’s room is one of your favorite places. Her room felt like an extension of herself. It felt like nothing could bother you both here, at your house your mom or sister would always bother you no matter if you had company over. At work, customers would come in and you would have to stop talking. You never wanted Robin to stop talking, honestly you could listen to her for hours on end. Not that you would ever tell her that, you were content with friendship. Even though you desperately wanted more.

Going into your bag you find your t-shirt and pj shorts then you change into them. When you are picking up your uniform you notice a photo strip on Robins dresser. It’s one of the two of you from the mall. You had taken it during one of Robin's breaks a few weeks ago.

“Are you dressed?” Robin asks from outside the door.

“Yeah,” you say, “Come in.”

“Hey, I just need your uniform for the wash,” she says but stops when she sees you.

The two of you look at each other, her face gently lit pink from the light. You wait for her to say something but she continues to just stare at you.

“What?” you ask confused, “Do I have something on my face?”

“No,” she says, “I just, uh- need your uniform.”

“Here you go,” you tell her and hand her the soiled clothing.

“I’ll go put these in the washer,” she says.

“Okay?” you say still confused.

“Do you need anything?” she asks.

“No,” you tell her and shake your head.

Robin leaves you confused standing in her room. She knows that she can see it on your face. You deserve a better friend than this, someone who doesn’t want to kiss you when she sees you. She desperately wants her feelings to go away. Robin has never had as good a friend as you and she refuses to let anything as trivial as emotion drive her away. So she decides right then that she will push her feelings so far down she will forget.

Which is decidedly harder when she actually sees you again after putting the laundry in the machine. Then the next morning when she wakes up before you and watches the sun gently light your face. And of course when she accidentally turns around and sees your bare back. All of this makes her life that much harder.

You unfortunately are oblivious to this. Most of the time chalking it up to nothing but exhaustion. But when you get ready for work the next day and Robin doesn’t speak, you start to think differently.

Robin’s mom graciously takes the both of you to work, “How many times do you think Steve is going to strike out today?” you ask her on your way inside.

“As many times as he tries,” she jokes, but her voice lacks humor.

“Are you okay?” you ask her.

“Yeah,” she says, “I am fine, I- I just didn’t sleep very well.”

“Oh,” you say, “Was it me?”

“No,” she says quickly, “I’m just not a very good sleeper.”

“Okay,” you say, “Well hey, we aren't late, so Steve can’t be upset.”

“Yeah, I guess you are right.”

By the time the peak amount of customers is in Robin looks exhausted, she has dealt with several unpleasant guests. Which in turn is making you feel tired while scooping. Steve decided that he needed his break and went in the back ten minutes ago. The most recent order is a waffle cone with birthday cake ice cream and the other is cookies and cream with chocolate sprinkles on a regular cone. You hand them both to Robin and she hands them to the customers.

“Have a nice day,” Robin says unenthusiastically to the pair.

“Thank you,” one of them says and moves to find a table.

The next kid in line comes up to the counter smiling, “Hi,” he greets Robin.

“Hi,” she says back.

“I’m Dustin,” he says.

“I’m Robin,” she responds.

“Pleasure to meet you,” Dustin says, “Uh, is- is he here?”

“Is who here?” Robin asks.

Suddenly the door swings open and Steve comes out looking extremely excited, “Henderson!”

The kid laughs and Steve continues, “Henerson! He’s back!”

You look over at Robin who is standing there very confused. The boys continue their interaction, loudly, while the two of you look at them.

“Oh my god,” you say to Robin.

They do a complicated handshake that ends with Dustin stabbing Steve with a faux lightsaber.

“How many children are you friends with?” Robin asks Steve.

“And why are you friends with them?” you ask.

Steve looks less excited and decides to leave to hang out with Dustin on his break at one of the tables in the shop. The two of you work while the two of them catch up. Both of them are quieter than before while chatting until you hear Dustin shout, “I intercepted a secret Russian communication!”

Which catches quite literally everyone's attention, making multiple heads turn to look at them. Including yours and Robins. While you are sure that this isn’t anything actually serious, after all what can happen in Hawkins, you still want to be involved. Purely because you are a curious person by nature.

Unfortunately, Steve shuts both of you out and takes over the back for his and Dustin’s spy operations, which leaves the two of you to fend off the mob of children that appear demanding sample after sample. You hand Robin a small spoonful of mint chocolate chip to give to the tyrant. The child takes it and eats it, then throws it in the trash.

“Can I try the peppermint stick?” the child asks.

“Haven’t you already tried the peppermint stick?” Robin asks.

“Yes,” she says, “And I’d like to try it again.”

“Steve!” Robin shouts into the back, fed up with the current situation.

Both of you wait for him to come out from the back to no avail. When he doesn’t come out you both walk briskly into the back to find out what is so important.

“All right,” Robin says, “Babysitting time is over. You need to get in there.”

“The children are eating us alive,” you tell him.

“Hey!” Robin shouts, “My board! That was important data, shitbirds.”

“I guarantee you what we’re doing is way more important than your data,” Dustin says to her.

“Yeah?” Robin asks, “And how do you know these Russians are up to no good anyways?”

“How do they know about the Russians?” Dustin asks.

“I don't know,” Steve says with half a banana in his mouth.

“Did you tell them about-” Dustin starts.

“It wasn’t me,” Steve defends himself.

“Hello, we can hear you,” Robin says, “Actually, we can hear everything. You are both extremely loud.”

“Do neither of you know how to talk quietly?” you ask, “Also you are listening to that at full volume, everyone in the store can hear it.”

“You think you have evil Russians plotting against our country, on your tape,” Robin explains pointing at the table full of supplies, “And you’re trying to translate, but haven’t figured out a word because you didn’t realize Russians use an entirely different alphabet.”

“Did she miss anything?” you ask.

Both Steve and Dustin are quiet and then Robin reaches for the recording that Dustin made, but before she can grab it Steve snatches it away.

“Whoa!” Steve says, “What do you think you’re doing?”

“We wanna hear it,” Robin tells him.

“Why?” they both ask at the same time, looking between the two of you suspiciously.

“Cause maybe we can help,” Robin says, “I’m fluent in four languages, you know.”

“Russian?” Dustin asks.

“Ou-yay are-yay umb-day,” Robin says which impresses them immediately.

“Oh, oh, oh!” Steve says in excitement.

“Holy shit!” Dustin yells.

“That was Pig Latin, dingus,” Robin says and then sits down at the table.

“Idiot,” Steve slaps Dustin on the arm.

“But I can speak Spanish and French and Italian, and I’ve been in band for twelve years. My ears are little geniuses, trust me.”

“Uh- okay and what about you?” Dustin asks, “What do you bring to the table?”

“Um- I know a little German and Spanish,” you offer, which leaves Dustin unimpressed.

“We are a package deal,” Robin says, “Both of us or neither of us.”

Dustin looks up to Steve for guidance but he looks hesitant, “Uh, I don’t,”

“Come on,” Robin says, cutting him off, “It’s your turn to sling ice cream, our turn to translate. I don’t even want credit. I’m just bored.”

“Honestly I’m just curious,” you tell the two of them and a bell rings at the counter.

You hold out the ice cream scooper to Steve which he takes and give the recording to Robin. Progress moves fast as soon as the two of you start helping to translate the recording. The three of you pick through the recording, listening for anything that can help translate. But when you are halfway through the first sentence Steve comes back interrupting the two of you.

“I need some help out there,” Steve says, “More children are requesting samples and there are a bunch of people behind them.”

“Okay,” you say, standing up from your chair, “I’ll come and help.”

“Thank you,” Steve says and rushes back out to the front.

“Let me know if you figure anything out,” you tell Robin and leave to go help Steve out.

Robin was starting to grow a bit concerned with the number of children Steve Harrington was friends with. But not only was he just friends with them he was also some sort of role model. The really concerning part was that their parents were letting them hang out with Steve-the-hair-Harrington. Although she did have to admit Dusin was the least annoying child that had come looking for Steve.

It was strange that once he left high school instead of being surrounded by girls he was surrounded by kids, but she tried not to focus on that, instead on translations. The recording is played and reversed multiple times until one of them can make out a word, once the first sentence is completely translated Robin slides open the window.

“We’ve got our first sentence,” she says proudly to the two of you.

Both you and Steve turn to look at her, “Oh, seriously?” Steve asks.

“Yeah,” Robin says, both you and Steve move in close to her. When Robin continues it’s in a bad Russian accent, “The week is long.”

“Well, that’s thrilling,” Steve says sarcastically.

“I know,” Robin says smiling, “But progress.”

Then she slides the window shut, “Okay,” Robin says and turns back to Dustin, “Let’s work on the next sentence.”

By closing the translation is complete for the first four lines. The whiteboard that once contained the Russian alphabet is now full of red and black ink. Robin is impressed with herself and more importantly, you tell her that you are proud of her.

“It just doesn't make sense,” Steve complains.

“Maybe we translated it wrong?” Dustin suggests.

“No,” Robin says, “I didn’t, we didn’t.”

“Let's read through it again,” you tell them.

“Okay,” Steve says, voice full of hopelessness.

“The week is long. The silver cat feeds, when blue meets, when blue meets yellow in the west.”

“Yeah,” Steve says, “I have no clue.”

The four of you leave the shop feeling disappointed, “I mean, it just-,” Steve says while shutting the gate to Scoops, “It just can’t be right.”

“It’s right,” you and Robin say at the same time.

Once the shop is locked up the four of you head out of the abandoned mall. Most of the lights are turned off for the night leaving the mall feeling like something out of a horror movie. Robin and Dustin walk in front of both you and Steve.

“Honestly, I think it’s great news,” Dustin says.

“How is this great news?” Steve asks him, “I mean so much for being American heroes. It's total nonsense.”

“It’s not nonsense,” Dustin insists, “It’s too specific. It’s obviously a code.”

“What do you mean, a code?” Steve asks.

“Like a super secret spy code,” Dustin says, like it is obvious.

“That is a total stretch,” Steve tells him.

“I don’t know, is it?” Robin asks.

“Robs, that seems like a stretch,” you say, “Let’s be realistic, why would there be spies in Hawkins?”

“Finally someone with common sense,” Steve says gesturing to you, “And Robin I can’t believe you are buying into this.”

“Listen,” Robin starts, “Just for kicks, let’s entertain the possibility that it is a secret Russian transmission. What’d you guys think they would say, ‘fire the warhead at noon’?”

“Exactly,” Dustin says.

“And my translation is correct,” Robin says, “I know that for sure, so… ‘the silver cat feeds.’ Why would anyone talk like that unless they were trying to mask the meaning of their message?”

“Exactly,” Dustin says.

“And why would anyone mask the true meaning of their message unless the message was somehow sensitive?”

“Exactly,” Dustin repeats to the two of you.

“So I guess that confirms your suspicion,” Robin tells Dustin.

“Evil Russians,” Dustin says.

“I can’t believe I’m about to agree with this strange child,” Robin says, “But, yeah, totally evil Russians.”

“So how do we crack it?’ Dustin asks.

“Well, I guess we translate the rest and hopefully a pattern emerges,” Robin says.

“A pattern,” Dustin says, “Right, like maybe “silver cat” is a meeting place?”

“Or a person?” Robin suggests.

“Or a weapon.”

“It’s probably gonna take a super genius to crack it, but…” Robin stops in her tracks and asks you, “Where’s Steve?”

All three of you turn around and see Steve standing next to a children's pony ride. He is digging in his pockets looking for change, most likely for the ride.

“Hey, Steve,” Robin calls to him. The change that he found falls out of his hand and onto the ground with a soft clatter, “What are you doing?”

“Uh, it’s a quarter,” Steve says, “I need- do any of you have a quarter?”

“What are you doing?” you ask him, walking over with Robin and Dustin.

“Sure you’re tall enough for that ride?” Robin asks.

“Quarter!” Steve shouts at the three of you and Robin throws him one.

Steve puts the coin into the slot and the horse starts moving, Robin looks down at him “You need help getting up, little Stevie?”

“Shh!” Steve says.

“Steve, I want to go home,” you tell him, “What are we doing?”

“Would all three of you shut up and listen?” Steve asks.

The three of you look at the mechanical horse and listen to the music that is playing, Dustin comes to the realization first, “Holy shit.”

Both you and Robin look at Dustin as you haven't quite put the puzzle pieces together yet, “The music,” Dustin says, “The music!”

You watch Dustin as he pulls out the recording and presses play. The same voice repeats what you have been listening to all day but in the background, you can hear the same music from the horse playing.

“Oh my god,” you exclaim suddenly putting it together.

“I don’t understand,” Robin says confused.

“It’s the exact same song on the recording,” Dustin tells her.

“Maybe they have horses like this in Russia,” Robin says.’

“Indiana Flyer?” Steve reads from the side of the ride, “I don’t, I don’t think so, this code, it didn’t come from Russia. It came from here.”

The four of you stop and sit with the information while listening to the music. You were wrong, something is definitely happening here in Indiana.

“Well shit,” you say, “I guess there really are spies in Hawkins.”

Next Chapter

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mothguillotine · 8 months ago

Text

What’s the Worst Thing that Can Happen in Indiana?

Summary: After moving to Hawkins and getting a job at Scoops Ahoy, you are quickly wrapped up in the small town's dark secrets. Specifically, what is underneath the seemingly innocent mall.

Chapter 1: Two Scoops of Ice Cream, Please.

Chapter 2: There’s Spies in Your Radio?

Chapter 3: The Art of Being in a Homoerotic Friendship

Chapter 4: Never Trust Elevators, Ever.

Chapter 5: The Good Kind Of Drugs

Chapter 6: Let’s Get Them Russians

Epilogue

Spotify Playlist

Hey, everyone! I'm so happy to be ready to put out my next fic! This is something I've been working on for months and am so excited for it to be out!

12 notes · View notes

mothguillotine · 8 months ago

Text

Chapter 1: Two Scoops of Ice Cream, Please.

Main Masterlist

cw: some swearing (and a near vehicular manslaughter)

word count: 5.7k

Summary: You move into your new house and explore the unfamiliar town, meeting new faces.

The only thing you were looking forward to about the move was the promise of a newly built mall. You were not excited to move away from your friends, but you were decidedly not excited about moving to Indiana of all places. You weren't too excited when your parents first sat you down to tell you about the move, but you tried to make the best of it for your family's sake.

Your parents promised to help you redecorate your room, and you would get first pick of the rooms before your younger sister, who was just as unpleased about your move. By the end of April, your parents had bought a house in Hawkins, Indiana, and at the beginning of June, you officially moved. The movers carry the boxes and furniture from your old house, putting them into moving trucks. When you get to the town, barren is an understatement, the town looks abandoned.

Looking out the car window, you can’t see anyone, and when you turn to look out your sister's side, no one is around either. Theresa, your younger sister, looks very unhappy with your current surroundings. While the two of you can’t agree on very much anymore, both of you are mutually upset about the move.

“Where is everyone?” Theresa asks your mom, who turns in her seat to face the two of you.

“I think they built a new mall here recently,” your mom says, smiling at the two of you, “Why do you both look so depressed?”

“We just are tired from the care ride,” you tell her, knowing best it's just to make up an excuse.

“Well we are almost there,” your mom says, turning back around to face the road, “John, we were supposed to turn right back there.”

You ignore the sound of your parents arguing in the front of the car. Unfortunately, your Walkman batteries had run out an hour into the drive. It was stupid of you not to make sure to grab spares, but you just didn’t think about it. After such a long drive, you were excited to get up and move around, putting all of your stuff in your room and finally being alone.

When you get to the house, it's honestly not too bad. The house seems freshly redone and smells like new carpet. All of the bedrooms are on the second floor, and staying true to her word, your mom, let you pick the first bedroom, aside from your parents' room. The room you pick is at the front of the house with a large bookshelf with a built-in desk. All of your books would fit well, and you would have room for more in your other bookshelf.

You walk downstairs to where your parents are standing in the kitchen. Your dad is on the phone, the cord wrapped around one of the columns while he stands over your mom, who is taking notes on her notepad. Both of them look incredibly upset, especially your dad who, by the looks of it, is trying his hardest not to yell at the person on the other line.

“I don’t understand,” he says, “Why did you hire him if he wasn’t licensed?”

He stays quiet for a moment, listening to the phone.

“So when is the soonest it can be here?” he asks and listens, “Tomorrow?! That's not going to work for me. I have my first day at my new job tomorrow. I need my furniture today!”

“John, remember, deep breaths,” your mom whispers.

“I need you to figure out something,” your dad says to the phone. Your mom stands up and walks to the living room, motioning you to follow.

“Take your sister to the mall,” she tells you, “It will be easier to keep Tee distracted when she is out.”

“I’ll take the car?” you ask.

“Yeah, yeah,” she says, “Pick up a pizza when you come home.”

“Okay,” you tell her.

“Here is $20 for the pizza,” she says and hands you a crisp green bill.

Tee being excited to go to the mall is an understatement. She is ecstatic. The possibility of meeting new friends was exciting to her. You were a little less so. For Tee, it would be easier. She was only 13, and you were graduating after this next year. The chances you would be stuck by yourself for the next year were high compared to hers.

When you pulled your mom's car into the parking lot, it was clear that nearly all of Hawkins was there, just like your mom said. Cars take up most spots in the lot, and when one is available, it is almost immediately taken. People of all different ages are going in and out with bags full of newly bought merchandise.

When you are nearing the end of a car lane and are about to turn out, a few kids on bikes ride by, narrowly missing your front bumper, a few boys, and a girl.

“Hey,” the girl shouts, “Watch where you are driving!”

“You almost hit them!” Tee says from the passenger seat.

“If anything, they almost hit me,” you tell her.

“I hope they didn’t see my face,” she says, putting her hands over her face to shield it.

“Oh stop being so dramatic,” you tell her, rolling your eyes, “Oh look, there's a spot!”

“I’m not being dramatic,” she tells you.

“Okay,” you tell her, “But there is no way I would have seriously hurt any of them.”

“So you admit it,” she says as you shift the car into park, “You almost hurt them.”

“No,” you tell her, looking over, “Why do you think I want to hurt children?”

“They weren’t children,” she says, “They were like, the same age as me.”

“Yeah, exactly,” you tell her, “Babies.”

From the outside of the mall, you knew that it was gonna be big, but the inside you would describe as huge. Hundreds of people are traversing the mall, each of them walking with their families or friends, either window shopping or making purchases. It’s also apparent that this is where all the teenagers hang out given the number of high schoolers and middle schoolers.

“Where do you wanna go?” you ask Tee.

“Uh, the Gap?” Tee says.

“Okay, let's go,” you tell her and start walking towards the storefront.

The store is full of brightly colored garments with different patterns, many of them being geometrical. Tee picks through the first rack in the store, trying to find her size in the multitude of clothing. For example, the shirt Tee is currently looking at looks like a geometry textbook threw up on some fabric.

“Look at how cute this is,” Tee says, holding up the shirt to rest on her torso.

“You look like a geometry teacher,” you tell her.

“Just because you aren’t as stylish as me, you have to be rude,” she tells you, her face a bit upset.

“If you wanna buy it, be my guest,” you tell her.

“Well, I don’t have any money,” she tells you.

“I guess you can’t get it then,” you tell her.

Tee huffs but puts the shirt back on the rack. Both of you move around the store looking through each of the racks. A few things catch your eye, but not enough to make you wanna try anything on. By the time you reach where you started, you are tired of the Gap. The pop music is starting to burn your ears, and the neon clothes are starting to kill your eyes.

“Mom wants us to pick up a pizza on our way back,” you tell your younger sister.

“Ugh,” she exclaims, “Pizza, again? This is like the fifth day in a row.”

“I know,” you tell her, “But we don’t have our kitchen stuff yet. I’m sure tomorrow we will cook something different. Maybe we can convince Mom to take us to the mall again. Then you can try and get her to buy you that ugly shirt.”

Tee stops walking next to you, and when you turn around, Tee has a hurt look on her face, “Do you really think it’s ugly?”

You take a moment to think about what to say, “No, I don’t actually think it's ugly. Besides, if anyone could look gorgeous in that, it would be you.”

“You think so?” she asks.

“Of course,” you tell her, “I was just messing with you. I don’t really have any room to talk, have you seen how I dress?”

Tee laughs, “I think you could pull it off too.”

“Oh, shut it,” you tell her, laughing.

“Ooh look,” Tee says, pointing at a small ice cream parlor.

“Scoops Ahoy?” you ask her.

“I have like, two dollars,” she tells you, “Can I please get a small cone?”

“You have money?” you ask her.

“Yeah,” she tells you, “Mom let me have all the change she found from the old couch.”

She reaches into her pocket and presents you with a dollar and some change, “Okay,” you tell her, “But I am not paying for any extra sprinkles or hot fudge.”

“I know,” she says and starts walking to the shop.

The shop is something you would expect to see off the coast. Everywhere you look, there is a nautical theme going on. If it wasn't wrong to use the same joke twice you would say a sailor threw up after eating too much ice cream and if the music for the Gap wasn’t bad enough, this place is constantly playing weird boat music. Working here seems like hell, and when you both get to the front of the line, you are correct.

The two employees who are working at the moment seem a bit uncomfortable. One is standing at the freezer scooping ice cream for the people in front of you, and the other is at the register. Both of them look like they would rather be anywhere else.

“Hi,” you greet the girl at the register.

“Ahoy,” she says, her gaze still on the register, “Would you like to try our flavor of the week, Iceberg Mint?”

“Uh, no,” you say, “That name seems a bit insensitive, though.”

The girl finally looks up, making eye contact with you, “What?”

“Like, to the people who died on the Titanic,” you explain, “Sorry, it was just a joke.”

“Oh,” she says, it’s obvious that you have caught her off-guard.

“Well, ahoy there,” the other worker says to you.

“Uh, hi,” you wave your hand at him.

“I haven’t seen you around before,” he says, trying to flirt with you.

“Yeah,” you say, “Anyways, we want two small cones, I want the chocolate pudding. What do you want, Tee?”

“Uh, can I try the birthday cake?” she asks the guy at the freezer, he grabs a sampler, and reaches into the freezer.

“Do you want any toppings?” she asks.

“Just chocolate sprinkles on mine,” you tell her.

“Okay,” she says, “That will be $2.50.”

“Here you go,” you tell her, holding out a five-dollar bill.

“They should be right out,” she says and hands you the change.

“Okay, thanks a lot,” you tell her and read her name tag, “Robin.”

“Uh, yeah,” she says, all of a sudden more tense than before, “It was nice meeting you.”

“Have a good night,” you tell her.

“Yeah, you too,” she says.

You put a dollar in the tip jar.

When you get home with the pizza, the moving trucks are thankfully there with the rest of your stuff. Most of your things are already in your room, which means you can start unpacking your boxes after dinner. By the time the pizza is all gone, your sister has convinced your Mom to go to the mall tomorrow.

“Do you wanna come with us?” your mom asks.

“Yeah, that sounds like fun,” you tell her.

The next morning, you are woken up by the smell of pancakes. Looking at your alarm clock, you see that it's almost 10:30, you roll over on your back and look up at the ceiling. It's silent for a bit until someone knocks on your door. You push your blankets off of yourself and walk to the door.

Tee is standing in front of your door, ready for the day.

“Why aren't you dressed yet?” she asks you.

“I just woke up,” you tell her, rolling your eyes.

“Okay, well, Mom made pancakes, so hurry up,” she tells you.

You give her a thumbs up and close your door. Thankfully, all of your clothes arrived intact, and you were able to put them all away last night. You grab a t-shirt and jeans from your dresser. Downstairs, your Mom and sister are waiting for you at the dining room table.

“Good morning,” your Mom greets you, “I made pancakes!”

“Thanks,” you tell her, “They smell amazing.”

You sit down in the chair next to Tee and put a few pancakes and some bacon on your plate. Your mom pours you some orange juice in the cup set out for you.

“So I was thinking that I would drop the two of you off at the mall later so I can pick up some things from the hardware store,” your mom tells you, “I gave Tee some money for some new clothes for the both of you.”

“Okay,” you agree.

After breakfast, you go back upstairs to continue unpacking until it's time to leave. At noon, you all get into the car and drive to the mall, you in the passenger seat and Tee in the back.

“I will be back at 5,” your Mom tells you when you are out front of the mall, “Here's some money for lunch.”

You and Tee get out of the car and wave to your mom. There is still the same number of people in the mall as last night. You also see the kids that nearly hit you yesterday

"Where do you wanna go first?” you ask her.

“I wanna get that shirt!” she tells you excitedly.

Both of you make your way back to the Gap and to the same rack of shirts from yesterday. Tee is happy to find one in her size and takes it right up to the counter to pay. The line is a bit long, so the two of you have to wait for a few minutes.

“Lucus, what do you think?” a voice asks from nearby.

“I think it's pretty?” another voice responds.

“Wow, thank you so much for your help,” the first voice says.

“I don’t know what you want me to say, Max,” the other voice tells the first.

“Ugh, whatever,” the first voice says and walks into your view followed by the other person.

As fate would have it, the girl, presumably Max, who yelled at you yesterday is in the same store. The other person, Lucas, is one of the kids riding the bikes. Lucas is carrying a few different pieces of clothing, most likely belonging to Max.

“Hey, you're the girl who almost hit us yesterday,” Max says, looking directly at you.

“More like you kids are the ones who almost ran into my car yesterday,” you tell her.

“We had the right of way!” she tells you angrily.

“You guys didn’t even look, if the cops came they would have said you were at fault,” you tell her.

“Okay, both of you stop,” Tee says, “Both of you should have looked again but nobody got hit. Both of you apologize to each other.”

“Are you being serious right now?” you ask Tee.

“Yes,” she tells you, nudging you forward.

“Okay, I am sorry for almost hitting you with my car,” you tell other kids, “I should have looked both ways.”

“Yeah, I’m sorry too,” she says and the boy hits her arm with his, “For yelling at you today and yesterday.”

“If we get in line behind you, you won't try to fight each other, right?” the boy asks.

“I promise I won’t beat up a middle schooler,” you tell them.

“I’m not in middle school,” she says and then adds, “Anymore.”

“Well, the point still stands,” you tell her.

“Hi, I’m Tee,” she introduces herself to the two of them, “And that’s my sister.”

“Are you new?” the boy asks.

“Yeah,” Tee says, “We just moved here yesterday.”

“Max was new last year,” he says.

“Where did you move from?” Tee asks Max.

“Uh, California,” she says.

“You moved here from California?” Tee asks, confused.

“Yeah,” she says.

“I love that shirt that you have,” Tee tells Max, pointing at the shirt in her hands, “It will make your eyes stand out.”

“You think?” Max asks.

“Yeah,” Tee says, then asks Lucas, “What do you think?”

“Yeah, your eyes, will, uh be nice,” Lucus offers.

This satisfies Max, “You should come to watch this movie with us.”

“Oh, when?” Tee asks.

“Like in twenty minutes,” Max says, “We get in for free.”

“Really?” Tee asks.

“Yeah,” Lucas says.

“Can I?” Tee asks you.

“Yeah, just give me the money,” you tell her, “You can have the change from this.”

“Okay,” she tells you now with a smile on her face.

After all of you check out, you walk towards the food court. When they turn into the same ice cream parlor from yesterday you can only hope that the one guy isn’t working again but hopefully Robin is. You weren't sure exactly why you wanted to see her so much, sure she was beautiful and could kill it in that sailor's outfit but what did that mean? You had barely spoken to her and yet you wanted to see her again.

When you get inside the ice cream shop there are fewer people than the day before which allows you to see that the same people from yesterday were working. There is only one customer in front of you, Robin again looks uninterested in her job. As soon as the customer in front of you leaves Lucas and Max rush toward the counter where the guy from yesterday is waiting for them.

“You guys are starting to abuse this,” He says to the two of them.

“Mike and Will are already in there,” Max says.

“Yeah, I know, I let them in,” he says, looking disinterested in the conversation.

“Come on, Steve,” Lucas pleads.

“Fine, hurry up,” Steve says.

“Come on, Tee,” Max says.

“Wait, wait,” Steve says, “Who is this random kid?”

“She’s her sister,” Max says and drags Tee and Lucas into the back of the shop.

“Your sister, hm?” Steve asks.

“Yeah, they met earlier,” you explain.

“They are good kids,” Steve tells you, “Are you going to school around here?”

“I will be a senior in the fall at Hawkins,” you tell him.

“I graduated last month,” he tells you, “Just taking some time to get real job experience, you know?”

“Uh, yeah,” you tell him, trying to find a way out of the conversation.

“Steve, I wanna take my lunch break,” Robin says from the register.

"Fine Robin,” Steve says and walks to the register where a customer is waiting.

You leave the ice cream shop and decide that lunch sounds good to you too. Going over to one of the many food places you grab some lunch. When you get to the seating area you see that all of the tables are taken. You also see Robin sitting by herself at a table, so you decide to walk over to her.

“Can I sit?” you ask.

Robin looks up and chokes on her food, “uh, yeah.”

“Thanks,” you tell her.

Both of you sit in silence for a minute until Robin says, “I'm sorry about Steve.”

“Is he always like that?” you ask her.

“If you have boobs, then yes,” she says.

You laugh at her statement, “So, do you go to Hawkins?”

“Yeah,” she says, “I'm going to be a senior too.”

“So we might have classes together?” you ask.

“Yeah,” she says, “You just moved here, right?”

“Yesterday, actually,” you tell her.

“In town?” she asks.

“Yeah, on Jackson Street,” you tell her.

“No, shit, that's right by my house,” she says, “I’m, like, two streets over.”

“Really?” you ask, “You should totally come over sometime.”

“Yeah,” she says, “That sounds fun.”

You and Robin talk until her break comes to an end with the promise of her coming over on her next day off. She also gave you her phone number so that way you could call her if you needed anything, her words exactly. After your lunch, you went shopping for a new pair of shorts. Given that it was getting hotter by the day you knew you needed something that would let you cool off.

After you find and try on nearly every pair you decide on a pair that's high-waisted in a light blue color. When you leave the store you see Tee standing outside Scoops Ahoy with all of the kids who were riding bikes. All of them seem to be getting along well. Hopefully, she found a group of friends to hang out with.

“That’s her,” you hear Max say as you come closer to the group. She is pointing at you and the two other boys you have yet to be introduced to are looking for you.

“You're the girl who almost hit us yesterday?” the taller one asks.

“You know what,” you say, “I’m sorry, okay? Both of us should have looked. Truce?”

He looks at you for a moment, “Okay,” he says.

“It was nice to meet you Tee,” the shorter boy says and brings her in for a hug.

“I’ll see you guys later,” she says.

“Bye!” Max says.

The two of you walk away from them and towards the exit of the mall, “Did you have fun?”

“Yeah,” she says, “It was, did you find everything you were looking for?”

“Got a new pair of shorts,” you tell her, “What did you eat for lunch?”

“I went to the pretzel place after the movie,” she tells you as you push through the doors.

Your mom is parked in front of the mall and the two of you get in, “Did the two of you have fun?”

“Yeah,” you tell her.

“I made some new friends,” Tee tells her.

“Oh, yeah,” your mom says, “and what about you?”

“I think I met someone,” you tell her.

“Great!” she says and starts the car, “I picked up the paint and wallpaper for your rooms so we can paint tomorrow.”

“Okay,” you tell her.

“Awh, but Mike invited me to hang out at his house with everyone tomorrow,” Tee complains.

“You can at least help me with the first wall,” your mom says, “Then you can go over to Mike’s, which means the earlier we get it done the sooner you can go over.”

“Okay,” Tee says, even though it’s clear she isn’t happy with this either.

“Are you okay with painting by yourself?” your mom asks.

“Yeah,” you tell her, “That's fine.”

The next day is full of paint and music, given that you were painting by yourself you can listen to your Walkman. By the end of the day, your room is all finished and you just have to wait a few weeks before hanging anything up. You decidedly pass out for a third day in a row in your bed.

The next morning you wake up to complete silence which is unusual. When you walk downstairs you find a note from your mom on the counter saying that she was gone and Tee was at Mike’s again. You go over to your purse and take out the napkin Robin wrote her number on.

Then you dial the number from the napkin. The line rings long enough that you are sure you will be met with an answering machine, until the line clicks.

“Hello?” a woman answers.

“Hi,” you greet, “Is Robin there?”

“Yeah,” she says, “Give me a minute.”

On the other end of the line, you hear her call Robin from somewhere in the house. After a minute you hear the phone being picked up and hear Robin, “Hello?”

“Hey, Robin,” you say to her, “I was wondering if you wanted to come over?”

“I uh- yeah,” she says, “That sounds fun.”

“Okay,” you say, “My address is 547 Jefferson.”

“I will be there in like half an hour,” she tells you.

“Okay, see you then.”

Robin was not prepared to meet you. She was awkward and said stupid shit, all the things she mercilessly teased Steve about. All of this combined made it obvious to her that you wouldn't want to see her again, but you had sat down with her yesterday and today you were inviting her over. Someone like you shouldn't be hanging out with her, someone like Steve would make more sense. But you seemed uninterested in Steve, not that she could blame you.

“Hey,” Robin shouts from her doorway, “I’m leaving in a little bit.”

“Okay,” her mom shouts back from somewhere in the house.

The fact is that Robin just doesn’t understand what you want from her still, she gets ready to leave. Today has been especially hot unfortunately so Robin wears a pair of shorts and a tank top, with of course her red Converse. The walk doesn't take too long thankfully and when she gets to your house there appears to be no one home.

Robin walks up the footpath to your front door and rings the doorbell. It’s silent for a moment until she hears someone running down the stairs. A moment later you are opening the door smiling at her, “Hey,”

“Hi,” she says coming into your house, noticing how out of breath you are, “Are you okay.”

“Oh- uh yeah,” you tell her, “I was just rearranging my room a little bit.”

“Do you need any help?” she asks you.

“No,” you tell her, “I just got done.”

You start walking away so Robin follows you into the kitchen. She watches as you grab two cokes from the fridge and open them, you hand her one and take a sip out of the other.

“So, what did you want to do?” she asks.

“I don’t know,” you tell her, “We could watch a movie or listen to some music in my room, whatever you want to do.”

“A movie sounds nice,” she says.

“Okay,” you say, “Do you wanna pick out the movie?”

“Uh- yeah,” she says, “Where are they?”

“Inside the TV stand,” you tell her, “I will make some popcorn.”

After this, it was like you and Robin were inseparable. Whenever Robin wasn't at work she was at your hour or you were at hers. Until work started taking longer due to the increasing heat. Then you and Robin only started seeing each other on the days she wasn’t working. But by late June Robin was exhausted.

“I wish someone else would apply to work my shift,” she tells you on one of her rare days off.

You are both in her bedroom, you are sitting on the ground with your back to the bed while Robin is dramatically hanging off the side of the bed. Today was a record hot day for June and it was killing the both of you.

“At least your job is air-conditioned,” you tell her, “My mom told me to either get a job or help out with the house. I got stuck on fixing up the flowerbeds.”

Robin stays quiet for a minute, “I have an idea,” she says, “Why don’t you apply to Scoops?”

“Ugh, no,” you tell her, “I would have to wear that ugly outfit and listen to annoying music all day.”

“Come on, please,” she says and bats her eyes at you.

“Oh, fuck off,” you tell her laughing and flicking her forehead.

“We would work together,” she says, “It would be so much fun!”

“And I didn’t even mention Steve,” you tell her, “He wouldn’t leave me alone.”

“Honestly if you tell him you aren’t interested he would probably leave you alone,” she says.

“Really?” you ask her.

“Yeah,” she says, “He might be a bit of a douchebag but he knows what no means.”

You laugh at that, “You really want to spend every day with me?” you ask.

“Yeah,” she says, “You would make work way more tolerable.”

“Only tolerable?” you ask with a raised eyebrow.

“You know what I mean,” she says, “So will you?”

“I will think about it,” you promise.

And that promise leads you to a few days later, standing in Scoops Ahoy being trained by Steve and Robin on how to scoop ice cream and how to greet customers. Thankfully Steve has left you alone for the most part instead of just focusing on training you. Robin was very excited when you told her, promising that you would love working with her.

Tonight was the second night you were working which means you were done with training. Steve and Robin were both confident you could handle yourself. Like most nights the mall was packed, you had been working for what felt like forever and it's not even close to closing time yet. Back at home, Tee was gone most days at Mike’s or wherever else she goes, your mom is slowly redoing the house, and your dad was working most days except for the weekends.

“What are you doing this weekend?” Robin asks you from the register.

“I don’t know,” you tell her, “Probably nothing.”

“You should spend the night at my house,” she says.

“Yeah,” you say, “That sounds fun.”

Not a moment later Mike, Lucas, Will, Max, and Tee all rush into the ice cream parlor. Robin leans back over the counter, prepared to talk with the younger teens. As soon as the group reaches the counter Mike repeatedly slams the bell trying to be as annoying as possible.

“Hey, Dingus,” Robin calls, “Your children are here.”

Steve opens the sliding partition separating the backroom and store.

“Again?” Steve asks, exhausted with the children, “Seriously?”

Mike presses the bell yet again, while the others look annoyed. Steve relents and leads them to the back where the back hallway entrance is.

“I swear if anyone hears about this,” Steve yells at the kids from the back before returning to the front of the store.

“It’s time for your break,” he says to you.

“I can’t believe you let the kids bully you into this,” you tell him.

“Now that they have your sister the group is too big to argue with,” he tells you.

“Oh please, they walk all over you,” you say, “And you let them.”

Your break is only 15 minutes so you get to eat your snack right away, propping your feet up on the table, and trying to relax. This does happen for a few minutes until the power decides to go out.

“That’s weird,” you hear Steve say from behind the counter.

You put your sandwich down on the table and walk out to the front.

“What is going on?” you ask.

“No idea,” Steve says and then starts flicking the light switch up and down.

“That isn’t gonna work, dingus,” Robin says to him.

“She’s right,” you tell him, “It’s just annoying.”

“Oh, really?” Steve asks then starts flipping the switch faster than before.

You look at Robin and shake your head while rolling your eyes, “He is more than just annoying,” you tell her.

“I know right,” she says.

The lights stay out for another minute and Steve continues his light switch flipping. As soon as the lights come back on Steve gives the two of you a look that says ‘I told you so’.

“Let there be light,” Steve says.

“He didn’t do shit,” you whisper under your breath and Robin laughs.

“What was that?” he asks.

“Nothing,” you tell him, “I’m going to finish my sandwich.”

That night after you are done closing up you finally catch up with Tee, “Hey,” you greet her.

“Hey,” she says back, “How was your day?”

“Ugh,” you moan, “Busy. Did you see the power outage earlier?”

“Yeah,” she says, “It was weird.”

“Mh,” you agree, “Besides that, was your day good?”

“Yeah,” she says happily, “I had a lot of fun.”

“So you guys are all friends?” you ask.

“Yeah,” she agrees, “They are all super nice.”

“That’s good,” you tell her.

“Are you and Robin friends?” she asks.

“I mean, I think so,” you tell her, “We hang out all the time.”

“Nice,” she says smiling, “Now we both have friends.”

“What are you guys doing tomorrow?” you ask her.

“We are surprising one of their friends,” she tells you, “He was at camp all month, and he's coming back tomorrow.”

“Well that will be fun,” you tell her.

“What about you?” she asks.

“I work again,” you tell her, “But I think I am spending the night at Robins so that will be fun.”

“You should date Steve,” Tee says, which obviously catches you off guard.

“What?” you ask, stopping in your tracks, “No!”

“Why not?” she asks.

“Why do you want me to?” you question.

“Well I think that the two of you would be good together,” she reasons.

“Yeah, absolutely not,” you tell her and continue walking past her.

“Oh, come on,” she says, “He definitely would want to.”

“No,” you say.

“But he would be a good boyfriend,” she tells you, “Mike told me so.”

“Mike? Why did you-” you cut yourself off, “Okay, no, please drop it Tee.”

“Okay,” she relents, “Fine.”

The both of you continue walking out of the mall in silence until you reach your mom's car. You get into the passenger seat and Tee gets into the back.

“How were your days?” your mom asks the two of you.

“Tiring,” you tell her.

“I had fun,” Tee says.

When you return home you go to take a shower and then get ready for bed. After all, it had been a long day.

Next Chapter

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mothguillotine · 8 months ago

Text

Despite the heavy rain, millions of Yemenis took to the streets to march in the capital Sanaa in support of Gaza.

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mothguillotine · 1 year ago

Text

”There’s nothing I could do to help” WRONG

the least you could do is :

SPEAK UP about it, USE YOUR VOICE

REBLOGGING the postings (updates about palestine, links for donations, videos and pictures & many more)

SHARE LINKS such as for donations, ways to help, link to educate people for people who still have zero knowledge about it

TAKE PART IN GLOBAL STRIKE FOR PALESTINE that held in FEB 18 til FEB 25 that is like a few weeks til now and if you’re seeing this in global strike please participate even if you’re few days late, it still counts ! therefore if your beloved author haven’t publish or post fics for you to read, don’t be mad at them but be ashamed of yourself!

there’s a genocide going on and you think about reading smut (or other than that)???

is your fics WAY MORE IMPORTANT than palestine??? if you said yes, i wish you well (in hell ^_^)

NOT BUYING TLOU2 REMASTERED, idc how HOT both ellie and abby are in their skins but you do know that neil is a fucking zionist right? and not forget to mention he donated to israel MORE THAN ONCE. oh i wonder where he got his money from 💭? OH WAIT FROM THE MONEY THAT YOU USE TO PAY TLOU2 REMASTERED!!!!!

BOYCOTTING BRANDS, there are A LOT brands that support israel and donate to them for examples starbucks, mcdonalds, pizza hut and many more. my question is that some of you guys said that starbucks is expensice and the food is not full filling YET you still buy them???

here are some links that could help you guys !!

WAYS TO HELP PALESTINE

WAYS YOU CAN HELP PALESTINE (if you’re a kid/minor!!)

MORE INFORMATION ABOUT PALESTINE

WHY YOU SHOULDN’T BUY TLOU2 REMASTERED

DONATIONS

DONATION (if you don’t have a bank acc / still a student / cant afford donating)

SOME RESOURCES

MORE RESOURCES

WHAT TO BOYCOTT

FOR THE AUTHOR IN THIS APP

EDUCATE YOURSELF ABOUT PALESTINE

i hope this helps even just a little but it still counts, and i wish you use your voice to speak up about this.

FROM THE RIVER TO THE SEA

PALESTINE WILL BE FREE 🇵🇸

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mothguillotine · 1 year ago

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VIII.

When you wake up you are in a familiar place, the hospital wing of the school. Your head is pounding from your injury but when you reach up to rub your head you are unable to. Both of your hands are cuffed to the bed not allowing you to move much. Looking around you see the privacy panels are blocking you from seeing most of the room. You can hear a few voices speaking near you.

“If she did aid in helping Sirius then she will be sentenced by a court,” a man's voice says, “Nothing will change that, Dumbledore. One of your professors has volunteered to be a witness in her trial and with all of the evidence we have found she will most likely be sent to Azkaban.”

“Now if you will excuse me,” the man says, “I have to check on Black.”

The sound of his footsteps fall away and you hear Dumbledore sigh from behind the panels. A few moments later you hear him walk around the panels into your view. His usually comforting presence is now disgruntled, “I assume you heard that?”

You nod your head unable to vocally respond, there is no way that you can survive in prison. Both of you know this, “Thank you for trying.”

“Don’t worry, my dear,” he tells you, “I still have a few more tricks up my sleeve.”

The much older man walks back out from your makeshift room and out of the hospital wing you can assume by the large doors being thrown open and closed. You sit silently for a while, enjoying your last few hours of freedom. Until you hear the door open yet again, the footsteps walk over somewhere for a moment and then make their way over to your panels.

Hermione walks out from behind them seeing that you are awake she greets you, “Professor Figg,” she says, “I just wanted to say thank you for everything, Harry and Ron are still knocked out from everything that happened.”

“I’m just happy that the three of you are okay,” you tell her sincerely.

“What will happen to you?” she asks looking at your wrists.

“Honestly, Hermione,” you tell her, “I will probably go to Azkaban or worse.”

“What?” she asks loudly, “How could they do that? You didn’t even do anything.”

“Well, aiding and embedding in one of the most wanted criminals is probably pretty damning,” you tell her.

“But you just can’t! They just can’t!” she yells, frustrated, “Sirius is getting executed by dementors and you are being sent to jail.”

“Not everything works out all the time Hermione,” you tell her sadly.

“Are you really going to give up?” she asks you.

“Hermione,” you start, “There is nothing I can do. I am quite literally chained to this bed.”

Hermione lets out a breath, “I’m sorry.”

“Sweetie, it’s okay,” you tell her, “It’s not your fault, but there is something that you can do for me. Just tell my aunt that I love her and I will miss her.”

“Of course,” she promises, “Is there anything else, Professor Figg?”

“Well, you don’t have to keep calling me professor,” you tell her, smiling trying to lighten the mood, “I doubt that Dumbledore would allow a prisoner to teach so…”

“Will you be okay?” she asks.

“I don’t know Hermione,” you tell her, “My aunt does work for the ministry so she might be able to pull some strings, but this whole situation is so public that it probably won’t work.”

“I wish everything worked out how you wanted it to,” she says sadly, “Sirius deserves to be free and so do you.”

“You should go before someone comes in here,” you tell her, “I don’t want you getting in trouble.”

“Bye, y/n,” she says.

“Goodbye, Hermione.”

Her shoes make little echoes as she walks somewhere else in the room. Whispers come from behind the panels making you unable to hear anything. For a few minutes that is how it stays until you hear Harry, “I saw my dad.”

“What?” Hermione asks.

“He sent the dementors,” he says, “I saw him across the lake.”

“Listen, Harry,” she says, a bed creaking under the pressure of someone sitting down, “They’ve captured Sirius and, well they think that Professor Figg was helping him try to kill you. Any minute the dementors are going to perform the kiss on him and y/n will be sent to Azkaban.”

“You mean they are going to kill him?!” Harry asks.

“No,” she says, the bed rustling as Harry quickly gets up, “It’s worse than that. Much worse. They’re going to suck out his soul.”

The heavy doors open and in walks someone with heavy steps, “Headmaster, you’ve got to stop them! They've got the wrong man and y/n is innocent!”

“It’s true, sir!” Harry says to Dumbledore, “They are both innocent!”

“It’s Scabbers who did it,” Ron says, who must have woken up during Harry’s outburst.

“Scabbers?” Dumbledore asks.

“He’s my rat, sir,” Ron explains, “He’s not really a rat. Uh, well he was a rat. He was my brother Percy’s rat. But then they gave him an owl, then I got…”

“Point is, we know the truth,” Hermione says, “Please, believe us.”

“I do, Miss Granger,” he says, “But, I am sorry to say, the word of three 13-year-old wizards will convince few others.”

You hear Dumbledore walk over to the bed next to you, where Ron is, “A child’s voice however honest and true, is meaningless to those who have forgotten how to listen.”

He stops for a second, “Mysterious thing, time. Powerful. And when meddled with, dangerous. Sirius Black is in the topmost cell of the Dark Tower. You know the laws, Miss Granger. You must not be seen and you would do well, I feel, to return before this last chime. If not, the consequences are too ghastly to discuss. If you succeed tonight more than one innocent life may be spared –three turns should do it.”

Dumbledore walks out of the room but before fully leaving he says, “Oh by the way,” he says, “When in doubt, I find retracing my steps to be a wise place to begin. Good luck.”

The doors shut, leaving the four of you alone in the medical ward, “What the bloody hell was that all about?” Ron asks.

“Sorry, Ron,” Hermione says, “but seeing as how you can’t walk…”

A few moments later you hear Ron exclaim, “Bloody hell!”

“What is going on, Ron?” you ask him.

“Harry and Hermione, they just- disappeared!” he yells, “It was wicked.”

“What happened exactly?” you ask.

“Hermione had this necklace,” he says, “She put it around their necks and then they were gone.”

“Well, I hope everything goes well,” you tell him and not a minute later the doors slam open again. This time rushed footsteps are quick to run over to the panels that surround you, no one is there for a second until Hermione reveals herself, pulling off a cloak. She looks much more exhausted than when you last saw her, hair sticking out all over the place.

“We need to go now,” she tells you, brandishing her wand and shooting a spell to rid you of the cuffs.

“Hermione, what is going on?” you ask her.

“I don’t have time to explain to you,” she says, “They will only be gone for a bit while they search for Sirius.”

“Okay,” you tell her, “Let’s go.”

You get out of bed and rush over to her following her out of the paneled area. Ron is, as you correctly guessed, on the bed next to you looking confused. Hermione stops at his bed and looks at him, “If anyone asks, you were asleep.”

“Oh- okay,” he says, then she walks to the doors and peaks out.

“Bye, Ron,” you tell him, waving.

“Come on,” Hermione rushes you, “We need to go!”

You run to the front of the room and Hermione wraps the cloak around the two of you, turning you invisible. Both of you slink down the halls to the courtyard where three figures wait in the darkness. The moon is bright in the sky, as you both make your way further from the castle.

“Harry,” Hermione whispers when you grow closer.

“Hermione?” Harry asks from the shadows, Hermione takes the cloak off the two of you with the confirmation that her friend is indeed there.

“I got her,” she says and Harry and Sirius emerge from the darkness, along with Buckbeak.

“Sirius, are you okay?” you ask him, actually having the chance to talk for the first time since everything started.

“I should be asking you that,” he tells you, with a look of regret in his eyes, “We need to go.”

“Yeah,” you tell him.

“I hope you are okay with flying,” he says which you take to mean that you would be flying on Buckbeak.

“Yeah,” you tell him, then you turn to Hermione and pull her in for a hug, “Thank you.”

You then move towards Harry, “Promise me that you will stay safe?”

“I wish I could,” he tells you smiling which you reciprocate and pull him in for a hug as well.

“Hey, Hermione,” you say to her which catches her attention again, “Give Ron a hug from me will you?”

She blushes and nods at you, probably wondering if she had been that obvious about her feelings. You walk over to where Buckbeak is waiting while Sirius says goodbye to Harry, Hermione stays by his side.

Sirius moves toward you, “Are you ready?” you ask him.

“Well you are the one who is about to be a wanted criminal,” he says, “So, are you?”

“Let’s go,” you tell him.

He pulls himself atop Buckbeak and then sticks out his hand for yours, grabbing his hand he helps you climb up the hippogrif. Hermione hands Sirius the chains that are wrapped around Buckbeak's neck, “You really are the brightest witch of your age,” he tells Hermione.

Hermione smiles and walks back to join Harry, who is standing further back. Sirius raises his arms and sets Buckbeak off. Both of you flying into the night.

<Previous Part

Masterlist

AN: Thank you all for reading! The next part of the story will be out soon! I hope you all enjoyed it, please remember to like and comment if you want. It helps me know what is working and what is not!

#Sirius Black x Reader #Sirius Black #Reader #fluff #slow burn #Harry Potter fanfiction #y/n #fanfiction

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mothguillotine · 1 year ago

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VII.

“y/n, he is right there,” Sirius says to you, “Let's get him.”

“Sirius,” you tell him, turning your back to Ron, “This was not the plan, you were only supposed to grab the rat.”

“This year is almost over,” he tells you, “I want to be free, it’s been twelve years.”

“We are so close,” you tell him, “You are so close to being free.”

“Professor Figg?” Ron asks, “Harry trusted you, we all trusted you.”

“Someone is coming,” Sirius says, pulling you back behind the open door as footsteps come pounding up the stairs.

“Ron!” Harry says worriedly as he rushes in to help his friend followed closely by Hermione.

“Ron, you're okay,” Hermione says with relief.

“The dog,” Harry asks, “Where is it?”

“Harry, it’s a trap!” Ron says pointing at the both of you, “He’s the dog! He’s an Animagus! And he’s been working with her!”

Harry and Hermione turn to look at you both and the door in front of you slams shut revealing you and Sirius.

“Professor Figg?” Harry asks confused and angry, “You are working with Sirius this whole time?!”

“Harry,” you start walking towards him.

“If either of you want to kill Harry,” Hermione says, putting herself in front of him, “You’ll have to kill us too.”

“No,” Sirius says, “Only one will die tonight.”

“Then it’ll be you!” Harry shouts pushing past Hermione and grabbing Sirius by the neck and throwing him to the floor. He takes out his wand and points it at Sirius’ face.

Sirius chuckles, “Are you going to kill me, Harry?”

The door suddenly bursts open, drawing your attention away from Harry and Sirius, finding Remus, “Expelliarmus!”

Harry’s wand shoots out of his hand and Remus motions to Harry to move. He stumbles back to where Hermione and Ron are still waiting and Remus positions his wand towards Sirius. You put your hands up showing that you aren't holding anything and back up towards the window.

“Well, well, Sirius,” Remus says, slowly approaching Sirius who is still on the floor, “You look remarkably put together for someone imprisoned for the last twelve years. The photograph in the paper made you look mad, the madness within finally reflected on the surface.”

“Well, you’d know all about the madness within,” Sirius says, “Wouldn’t you, Remus?”

Everyone is silent and you can’t help but look between the two men, wondering what is going to happen. Remus suddenly lowers his wand still looking at Sirius then smiling and reaching out his hand to help him up off the floor. Sirius gladly takes his hand and pulls him in for a hug as soon as he is up.

“I found him,” Sirius says to Remus, “He’s here!”

“I understand,” Remus says to him taking his forearms.

“Let’s kill him,” Sirius tells him.

“No!” Hermione shouts, “I trusted you! And all this time y-you’ve been his friend. He’s a werewolf! That’s why he’s been missing classes.”

“Oh shit!” you exclaim, you really had not paid attention to the staff this year.

Remus (and thankfully no one else) reacts to your outburst instead he walks towards Hermione, “How long have you known?”

“Since Professor Snape set the essay,” Hermione says to Remus.

“Well, well, well, Hermione,” Remus says, “You really are the brightest witch of your age I’ve ever met.”

Sirius looks done with this topic of conversation, shaking his head and walking behind him, “Enough talk Remus! Come on let’s kill him!”

“Wait,” Remus says trying to calm him down.

“I did my waiting!” Sirius yells, “Twelve years of it- in Azkaban!”

For a moment the room goes silent as Remus looks between the kids and Sirius, “Very well.”

“Okay, wait,” you tell the both of them as Remus hands Sirius his wand, “We at least deserve an explanation to them.”

“Yes, I agree with y/n,” Remus says facing Sirius, “Harry has the right to know why.”

“I know why!” Harry yells, “You betrayed my parents! You’re the reason they're dead!”

“No, Harry,” Remus corrects, “It wasn’t him. Somebody did betray your parents, but it was someone who, until quite recently, I believed to be dead!”

“Who was it, then?” Harry asks him.

“Peter Pettigrew!” Sirius shouts, “And he’s in this room! Right now! Me and y/n have been trying to get him for nearly this entire year! Come out, come out, Peter! Come out and play!”

Before you know it Snape is at the top of the stairs and rushing into the room, “Expelliarmus!”

Remus’s wand flies out of Sirius’s hand making all three of you defenseless. Sirius backs up against the piano behind him.

“Ah! Vengence is sweet,” Snape says, his wand still directed to Sirius, “How I hoped I’d be the one to catch you.”

“Severus, it…” Remus starts but stops when Snape redirects his wand towards Remus instead.

“I told Dumbledore you were helping an old friend try to get into the castle,” Snape says walking towards Remus and Sirius, causing them to back towards you, “And as for you, Figg, I have informed Dumbledore about my stolen classroom items and will be sure to report you to the ministry given your involvement. And now, here is all the proof I need.”

“Now Snape don’t be rash,” you tell him and he directs his wand towards you instead, “There is a perfectly reasonable explanation for this.”

“Save it for the courts,” Snape drawls, “You should also learn to take better care of your things, although in Azkaban there won’t be much use.”

“Brilliant, Snape,” Sirius says stepping in front of you, blocking you from Snape, “Once again, you put your keen and penetrating mind to the task, and as usual, come to the wrong conclusion. Now if you’ll excuse us, we have some unfinished business to attend to.”

Sirius continues walking forward toward Snape, who looks flabbergasted and reacts by shoving his wand towards Sirius’s neck his face now full of disgust, “Give me a reason. I beg you.”

“Severus, don’t be a foul,” Remus says walking towards Snape and Sirius.

“He can’t help it,” Sirius says laughing, “It’s habit by now.”

“Sirius, not the right time!” you shout.

“Be quiet,” Remus suggests to him.

“Oh, both of you be quiet,” Sirius says to which Remus walks away from the two of them.

“Oh listen to the three of you,” Snape says.

“Why don't you run along and play with your chemistry set?” Sirius jests which results in Snape’s wand pressing hard against Sirius’s neck.

“I could do it, you know?” Snape asks Sirius, “But why deny the dementors? They’re so longing to see you. Do I detect a flicker of fear? Oh, yes. A dementor's kiss. One can only imagine what that must be like to endure. It’s said to be nearly unbearable to witness, but I’ll do my best.”

“Severus, please,” Remus begs.

“Snape, at least give us a minute to explain,” you plead. Snape ignores the two of you, pointing his wand toward the door gestering for Sirius to leave.

“After you,” Snape says to Sirius and turns his head towards the kids, wanting them to leave the room.

Harry walks over to Snape slowly and points a wand at Sirius, who looks down not able to meet Harry’s eyes. As he grows closer he suddenly moves the wand to point at Snape, “Expelliarmus!”

Snape flies back across the room hitting the old bed which collapses when he hits one of the supports. When he flies back a familiar-looking wand falls out of his robes landing on the ground by Sirius’s feet.

“Harry, what’d you do that for?” Ron asks, both he and Hermione wearing shocked expressions.

“You attacked a teacher!” Hermione shouts.

Harry ignores the two of them aiming his wand between the three of you, “Tell me more about Peter Pettigrew!”

“He was at school with us,” Remus explains, “We thought he was our friend.”

“No,” Harry says, “Pettigrew’s dead. You killed him!”

Harry’s wand is directed at Sirius alone again and Remus steps in front of Harry, blocking his view of Sirius, “No he didn’t! I thought so, too until you mentioned seeing Pettigrew on the map. Then y/n explained what she and Sirius have been trying to do this year.”

“The map was lying then,” Harry says.

Both Remus and Sirius look exasperated by the course of the conversation, “The map never lies!” Sirius shouts, “Pettigrew’s alive! And he’s right there!”

Sirius points in Ron’s direction, “Me?” Ron asks confused, “He’s mental! I-”

Sirius cuts him off, “Not you! Your rat!”

“Scabbers has been in my family for-” Ron starts but is cut off yet again.

“Twelve years?!” Sirius asks, “A curiously long life span for a common garden rat. He’s missing a toe, isn’t he?”

“So what?” Ron asks.

“All they could find of Pettigrew was his fing-” Harry says, starting to put the pieces together.

“Finger!” Sirius exclaims, “The dirty coward cut it off so that everyone would think he was dead. And then he transformed into a rat.”

“Show me,” Harry says.

Sirius reaches down to grab the rat out of Ron's hands, which causes Ron to pull the rat closer to him. Squeaks coming from the protesting rat as well as Ron desperately trying not to lose grip of him.

“Give him to him, Ron,” Harry says.

“What are you trying to do to him?!” Ron yells but loses his grip on the rat, “Scabbers!”

Sirius takes Pettigrew by his neck, carrying him over to the back of the room. Remus watches as he walks past him, Ron is being held back by Hermione, “Leave him alone! Get off him! What are you doing?!”

Sirius places the rat on the top of the open piano, to which it immediately runs off. Both Sirius and Remus move after it and you move to grab your wand off the ground. The rat dashes past all of the spells thrown at it and runs towards the door trying to escape, just as it reaches the hole in the wall that would allow it to be free a spell finally hits it, revealing Peter Pettigrew. The man is halfway through the hole when he is transformed so is trapped for a moment until Sirius and Remus pull him out, covered in dust from the wall and looking very rat-like.

“Remus?” he asks, “Is- is this Sirius? My old friends!”

Pettigrew immediately tries to run for the door again but is blocked by the two men who shove him back. All three of you have your wands directed towards him. Knowing that he can’t convince them of his innocence he looks around and finds a new target in Harry.

“Harry, look at you,” Peter says, walking towards him, “ You look so much like your father, like James. We were the best of friends, he and I…”

“How dare you speak to Harry!” Sirius yells which scares Pettigrew away from Harry and back towards the piano, Sirius chases after him, “How dare you talk about James in front of him!”

Remus joins Sirius by the piano, making sure Pettigrew doesn't escape, you move over to the kids to make sure they stay safe. All of your wands pointed in the direction of Pettigrew.

“You sold James and Lily to Voldemort, didn’t you?!” Remus questions.

“I didn’t mean to!” Pettigrew cries hysterically, “The Dark Lord-, you have no idea the weapons he possesses! Ask yourself, Sirius? What would you have done?”

Sirius takes a moment before yelling, “I would have died! I would have died rather than betray my friends!”

Pettigrew suddenly decides to crawl under the piano, Harry runs in front of the door stopping him from leaving. Peter grabs his shoulders and leans in to whisper in his ear. Remus and Sirius struggle to pull him off Harry.

“You should have realized Peter,” Sirius says, he and Remus pointing their wands at the man pathetically pressed against the piano, “That if Voldemort didn’t kill you, then we would, together.”

“No!” Harry shouts still standing in the doorway.

“Harry this man is…” Remus tries to explain.

“I know what he is,” Harry says, “But we’ll take him to the castle.”

“Oh, bless you, boy,” Pettigrew says going down on his knees and reaching out to grasp onto Harry’s pant leg in a disturbing scene, “Bless you!”

“Get off!” Harry shouts at him moving away from the whimpering man, “I said we would take you to the castle. After that, the dementors can have you.”

The whimpering unfortunately grows louder, now his whole body shaking in terror. The man looks around yet again his eyes landing on you.

“Miss, please,” he begs, crawling over to you, “Have mercy!”

“If you are looking for sympathy,” you tell him, “Look elsewhere.”

The man starts sobbing pathetically, Remus and Sirius both come over to lift him off the floor, “Please! Children, Ron, Hermione!” he begs as he is dragged away.

You turn to face Ron and Hermione, “Are you both okay?” you ask them, “I know that this is a lot to take in all at once.”

Ron and Hermione look at you in bewilderment still huddled together, “Yeah,” “Mhm,”

“Okay,” you tell them, “We should probably, you know, get out of here.”

They both get off the chasse and leave the room after Sirius and Remus, Hermione helping support Ron with his mangled leg. After they leave only Harry and you remain in the dusty room.

“Are you okay?” you ask him, “I know that it’s probably a stupid question but I need to ask.”

“I- I don’t know,” he says, “I still don’t understand why you were helping him?”

“What do you mean?” you ask him confused.

“Why you were helping Sirius, I mean.” he says, “Why take the risk of helping him and making sure I didn’t get hurt?”

“Like, what was in it for me?” you ask him, to which he nods and you think for a second before answering, “Well, I didn’t really do this for any particular reason. I just wanted to help.”

You place your hand on his shoulder, “Come on let's get out of here.”

The two of you make your way out of the old bedroom and down the stairs to join the rest of the group. When you reach the bottom of the steps the rest of the group is all standing around the hatch in the floor, Sirius notices the both of you coming downstairs and smiles. Remus sits down at the opening and jumps down.

“Now, you Peter,” Sirius says pointing his wand in his direction and gesturing toward the trapdoor. Pettigrew scurries towards the hole in the floor, carefully making his way down the rocks.

“y/n,” he says, motioning you to come over, “You’re next.”

You nod your head and he reaches out his hand, helping you get down under the floor. Remus already has his wand out when you reach the bottom, emitting a soft light that reaches the walls around you. Harry comes down after you, followed by Ron, and then Hermione.

Harry helps support Ron until Sirius gets to the bottom of the passage, also choosing to help Ron. You and Hermione trail in the back behind the three of them as you all make your way out. Remus chooses to lead you all out as well as keeping a close eye on Pettigrew, who is being tightly held onto by the arm.

After a few minutes of walking in silence, Sirius decides to break it, “Sorry about the bite. I reckon that twinges a bit.”

“A bit?!” Ron asks, “A bit?! You almost tore my leg off!”

“Now, I was going for the rat,” Sirius says, “Normally, I have a very sweet disposition as a dog.”

That makes you chuckle a bit, seeing as how you met because of him as a dog, who was very strange and not as he put it sweet, “Is there something you would like to add?”

“No,” you tell him, laughing a bit, “It’s just that, I never took you for a sweet dog is all.”

He turns his head to look at you, his expression mildly offended, “What is that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing,” you tell him, “Never mind.”

“Anyways, your dad,” he says, directed at Harry, “In fact, more than once suggested I make the change permanent. The tail I could live with, but the fleas- they’re murder.”

Harry smirks at the mention of Sirius's dog-related challenges. The group continues walking through the underground passage, the dim light casting eerie shadows on the rocky walls. As the group nears the exit, you notice the familiar feeling of dampness and the earthy scent that signifies the Hogwarts grounds. The passage opens up into the moonlit night, and the cool breeze greets you as you step out into the open. The castle stands majestically against the night sky, clouds cover most of the stars, but beautiful nonetheless.

Harry and Sirius place Ron next to the tree, Hermione immediately moves to look at the damage to Ron’s leg and Harry stands observing them. Sirius on the other hand walks away, taking in his surroundings as a proven innocent man. After all of these months of work, it’s finally over.

“You better go,” Ron tells Harry.

“No,” Harry says, “No, don’t worry. Okay?”

“It’s fine we can stay,” Hermione says to him, “You go.”

“You okay?” Harry asks Ron.

“I’m fine,” Ron tells him, “Go.”

“He’ll be fine Harry,” you say, “I promise.”

Harry nods and walks away from the three of you, bending down you look closer at Ron’s leg with Hermione, “Ow,” she says, “That look’s really painful.”

“So painful,” Ron says, “They, uh, might chop it.”

“Ron,” you tell him, “They will not chop off your leg because of a dog bite.”

“Yeah Ron,” Hermione says, “I’m sure Madame Pompfrey will fix it in a heartbeat.”

“It’s too late,” he says dramatically, “It’s ruined. It’ll have to be chopped off.”

“Ron,” you tell him seriously, “They NOT going to chop off your leg. You probably won’t even have a scar.”

“Professor Figg is right,” Hermione says backing you up, “No one is going to cut off your leg.”

“Turn me into a maggot!” you hear come from beyond the tree. Looking over you see Remus chasing after Pettigrew, who is coming straight towards the tree, “Dung beetle. Flobberorm! Anything but the dementors!”

“Shh,” Remus tries to quiet him while attempting to drag him away.

“Ron,” he says, “Ha-haven’t I been a good friend? A good pet? You won’t let them give me to the dementors, will you? I was your rat! Oh! Sweet girl! Clever girl! Surely you won’t let them…”

“Get away from them!” Remus shouts and grabs onto Pettigrew's arm dragging him away.

“All right,” he concedes, “Please, please! No! No! I’m weak. I couldn’t help it.”

Pettigrew continues shouting for help even though it has been made very clear that he will not be receiving any, “Quiet!” Remus shouts at him, “No one is going to help you.”

Remus has Pettigrew standing far away from the three of you and has his wand on him.

“You think they will let me skip my exams when this is over?” Ron asks you.

“They might,” you tell him, “You never know until you ask. I would recommend doing it when Dumbledore comes to visit you in the medical wing, but that will have to wait until this is all over.”

Hermione suddenly takes notice of something looking beyond the tree, “Harry!” she cries pointing at something.

Everyone turns to look at what she is pointing at and unfortunately, Remus sees it first, the moonlight. The moon rises above the landscape exposing his face in the white light. His expression changes right away going blank staring into the moon.

“Remus,” Sirius says to him running up the hill to join you all, “My old friend, have you taken your potion tonight?”

Remus grunts out in pain and Sirius rushes over to him, “You know the man you truly are Remus! This heart is where you truly live! This heart here!”

Remus does not respond to him though and instead continues grunting in pain. During the struggle with Sirius, Remus drops his wand. You watch as Pettigrew reaches down and picks up the wand from the grass. Before you can cast any spell, Pettigrew beats you to it, “Expelliarmus!”

You fly back into the tree hitting your head, knocking you unconscious.

Masterlist

#Sirius Black x Reader #Sirius Black #Reader #fluff #slow burn #Harry Potter fanfiction #y/n #fanfiction

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mothguillotine · 1 year ago

Text

VI.

Both you and Remus discuss late into the night, what exactly will happen on Friday. You go through details you hadn’t thought about yet with Sirius and end up making the plan airtight.

Unfortunately, that plan is thrown out the window early in the morning. The plan was to go to Ron after breakfast in the morning and ask him to take Scabbers, aka that little rat Peter, to Hagrid’s on Friday. Eating breakfast, all you wanted to do was get up and talk to Ron, and now that you and Remus were on the same page he knew what your anxiety was about. As soon as breakfast is started to be cleared you see Harry, Ron, and Hermione all stand up ready to leave the Great Hall.

You quickly approach them, catching up with the trio before they can make their way out of the Great Hall. Hermione looks at you with curiosity, while Ron and Harry exchange glances.

"Morning, Professor," Hermione greets you.

"Good morning, Hermione, Ron, Harry," you nod at each of them. "Ron, may I have a word with you?"

Ron's eyebrows knit together in confusion, but he nods and follows you to a quieter corner of the hall. You take a moment to gather your thoughts before addressing him.

"Ron, I wanted to talk to you about Scabbers," you begin, “I was thinking that it might be a nice idea to take him over to Hagrids later this week, maybe it will help boost his spirits a bit.”

"Yeah, well, Scabbers is unfortunately missing,” he tells you, “So I won’t be taking him anywhere.”

“What?!” you ask horrified, knowing that isn’t true, “Why didn’t you tell the staff? We could have looked for him.”

“I blame Hermione’s bloody cat,” Ron says and you raise your eyebrows, “Excuse me, I think it was Hermione’s cat, Professor Figg. I woke up a few days ago and he was missing, blood was everywhere.”

“What about Redeye?” you ask him, concerned about the other rat.

“He’s fine,” Ron tells you sadly, “Crookshanks only seemed to wanna eat Scabbers.”

“Really?” you ask him, “And you didn’t find that weird… at all?”

“I just thought that Crookshanks was scared of him,” he tells you reminiscing over his thought to be dead pet, “Scabbers was a bit less intimidating given he was missing a toe and fat.”

“What day was this exactly?” you ask him.

He thinks back to a few days ago before telling you, “It was the same day as the trial for Buckbeak,”

“So the last time you saw him was on Friday night before going to bed?” you ask him.

“Yeah,” he says, “That sounds right.”

“And I’m just curious,” you start, “Do you normally… sleep with Scabbers?”

“Yeah, why?” he asks.

“You know bud, it’s probably not the greatest idea to do that,” you tell him, “Given the bubonic plague and all.”

“What?!” Ron asks you confused.

“The bubonic plague was started by fleas on rats, who went onto ships and bit people. They got infected and passed it on to others all because of the fleas,” you tell him, Ron looks horrified, “Do you understand?”

“Ye-, yes, Professor,” he says, “Is that all?”

You look around to find the Great Hall mostly empty, “Yes, that's all Ron.”

“Okay see you, Professor Figg,” he says turning and walking impressively fast out of the hall.

This was the worst possible thing to happen, you should have tried to capture him earlier. It didn’t matter though, Peter Pettigrew was gone. As much as you wanted to go and find Sirius to tell him about this development you had classes for the next few hours, so it would have to wait until later.

As the hours slowly pass you feel yourself growing more anxious. You can't shake the feeling that the situation is escalating, and you're running out of time to help Sirius prove his innocence. It's difficult to focus on the curriculum when your mind is racing with the implications of Peter's escape. The day passes in a blur until it's the last class of the day and you can’t help but rush out of the room.

You rush up to your room and throw your books and papers on your bed. Quickly you violently kick off your pair of clogs, one hitting the wall and the other flying out the window. Shit. Not important right now, you remind yourself.

Throwing on your trusty Converse and grabbing your wand, you leave your room in a rush, shoes squeaking down the corridor instead of your usual clomping. Running past many students who watched as you ran by. You run down the stairs and follow the path to Hogsmeade until you are panting as you walk into the woods. Trying to catch your breath, you walk briskly to the clearing.

You find yourself standing alone, the eerie silence of the forest surrounding you. Sirius isn’t here. While you hadn’t expected him to always be in the woods, you had no idea where else he could be.

“Okay,” you tell yourself, “If I was Sirius what would I do? He would probably want to be as close to the school as possible but he couldn’t take the path, so he went through the forest.”

Clouds cover the sun making the once-green forest look hauntingly dark, your wand’s light doesn’t expel the darkness all the way. The light is enough to see a trail of paw prints, most likely from the day before after your meeting, or at least you hope.

‘Hopefully, it’s not some other animal.’ you think to yourself.

Following the tracks with your light, you make your way through the dark forest. No birds seem to be chirping and you see no flowers or any greenery, everything instead is silent and grey. The light from the sun doesn’t reach through the canopy of trees and you can only rely on your wand to see, but even then the light only reaches a few feet around you leaving the rest of the forest ominously dark.

*CRUNCH*

You turn around quickly expecting to find some sort of hideous beast but find nothing. As ridiculous as you feel being this scared you can't help but feel anything besides that. As you move deeper and deeper some light starts to return, lighting the forest up little by little. Reaching the other side of the forest you see that you have ended up near the Whomping Willow, which is a relief now knowing where you are. Looking around you decide to walk over that way.

“Wait!” you hear someone yell and you see Ron running toward the tree chasing something.

Harry and Hermione come chasing after him a moment later seeing Ron lying dangerously close to the tree holding something in his hands. You take off running towards them due to their accident-prone nature.

“Ron!” Harry shouts, “Run!”

“Harry, Hermione, Run!” Ron shouts at him pointing behind them you look and finally find Sirius, “It’s the Grim!”

“Oh, shit,” you say under your breath trying to reach them.

You aren't fast enough and Sirius jumps over Harry and Hermione instead focusing on Ron, biting his pant leg, dragging him towards the tree.

“Harry!” Ron cries out, “Harry!”

“Ron!” Both Harry and Hermione shout over and over again chasing after Ron.

“Harry, help!” Ron shouts and Harry dives forward as a last-ditch attempt, unfortunately missing and Ron is dragged into the tree. The tree finally seems to come to life, swiping Harry and Hermione away from itself, both of them land at your feet.

“Are you both okay?” you ask them.

“Professor Figg?” Hermione asks, “What are you doing out here?”

“I was on a walk, but that’s not important,” you tell her, “We need to help Ron. You both stay here and I am going to help him. It’s very important that you both stay safe, okay?”

The pair of them give you a non-committal nod but you are too focused on helping Ron to care, slowly you make your way towards the tree dodging each of the swings towards you. Not moving gracefully just with pure adrenaline you are able to dive into the hole after Ron and Sirius. Unfortunately, the rock floor that you fall onto scrapes up your hands making your wand fall somewhere in the shadows. You search for a minute crawling on your hands and knees but ultimately give up instead you walk up the stairs that are lit dimly.

The farther down into the cave you go the darker it gets, you end up running your hands along the sides of the cave to ensure you are going the right way. The end of the cave comes suddenly and you nearly run head-first into it. Looking up you can see a little bit of light peeking through cracks, not nearly enough to light up the cave floor. The wall in front of you has large flat rocks sticking out of it, two on one side and three on the other. ‘It’s a ladder,’ you realize.

You plant your foot onto the bottom rock and hoist yourself up, when you reach the top the trapdoor comes loose easily when you push on it. Pulling yourself up out of the hole you begin to hear Ron crying from deeper in the house and Sirius yelling. After you replace the cover you rush up the stairs and fall on one of the steps, tumbling but picking yourself up quickly to make your way up the remaining steps.

“Ron!” you yell, “Ron where are you?!”

“Professor Figg, in here!” you hear him shout from the room in front of you, running in you see Ron sitting on an old chasse cradling his rat and Sirius standing on the other side of the room from him. While Sirius looks exceptionally less crazed than when you first met him, you can see how Ron would be frightened.

“Professor Figg,” Ron says, “Thank Merlin you are here, It’s Sirius Black!”

“It’s okay, Ron,” you tell him, “Everything is going to be okay.”

Masterlist

#Sirius Black x Reader #Sirius Black #Reader #fluff #slow burn #Harry Potter fanfiction #y/n #fanfiction

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mothguillotine · 1 year ago

Text

The walk back to Hogwarts is full of you trying to figure out how to ask Ron to take his pet rat to Hagrid without sounding weird. You had decided to go for the route of comfort after his Hippogriff was executed. When you get back to the school lunch has passed and you head upstairs to grade assignments. The wooden desk in your room had stacks of assignments to be graded, many of them looking no better than chicken scratch. You sit down, take a deep breath, and prepare to translate for the next few hours.

As the hours pass you make a sizeable dent in your papers, and when dinner time comes around you decide that you have done enough for the day. Dinner is in fifteen minutes so you decide to head down to eat. Missing lunch had made you ravenous for some good food so to say you were happy was correct. Dinner is loud as always but you don't care. The food smells amazing and you enjoy your dinner, eating just the perfect amount of everything.

After dinner, you decide to walk around the grounds of the school, given you would be gone from campus for the whole summer. You knew that you would miss being at Hogwarts and teaching but you were looking forward to summer break. After all, you were invited to stay with Sirus and Harry, which you were really looking forward to. Many of the students had abandoned the Great Hall after dinner had concluded including Harry, Ron, and Hermione. You were hoping to be able to speak to Ron tonight but you would have to find him tomorrow.

Walking around past curfew was a luxury only given to staff so about an hour after dinner no students are in sight. Your shoes make quiet clomping sounds on the floor, cursed fucking loafers you had to wear given the dress code for teachers. While the herbology staff has a bit more leniency than the rest of the staff, the first day you showed up wearing a pair of old Converse Snape made a remark about them. After that, you dug through your closet to find the horrific shoes.

Of course, you can’t have a moment of peace and your walk is interrupted by a “Luminous” while you are passing a corridor. The light in your face makes you unable to see who is behind the wand but you would know that voice anywhere, Snape.

“Professor Snape, Is there a reason you are shoving your wand right in my face?” you ask him.

“I apologize, Miss Figg,” he says insincerely, “I mistook you for a student.”

“It’s Professor Figg,” you correct him, “And if I am not mistaken you still shouldn’t be putting your wand in someone's face let alone a student's.”

“Professor Figg,” he says, “Is there a reason for you to be wanding the halls so late?”

“Not that it is any of your business but I am just out for a walk,” you tell him.

“Be quiet,” he says, the darkness reappearing in the hall for a moment before you hear Snape walk down the hall you decide to follow him quietly. Around the corner, you see a soft light, and a few of the paintings are speaking to someone.

“Turn off the light!” “Watch it there, boy.” “We’re trying to sleep here.” “Yes, we are.”

As you both round the corner you know exactly who it is, Harry Potter. You hear him mubble a few words as well as “Nox,” shrouding you all in darkness yet again. Of course, yet again Snape shoves his wand into a person's face. Goddamn it.

“Potter,” Snape says with his usual distaste, “What are you doing wandering the corridors at night?”

“I was sleepwalking,” he says which you honestly don’t believe.

“Harry, please return to your dormitory,” you tell him shaking your head hopefully displaying your disappointment.

“No,” Snape draws out his wand still raised at Harry, “How extraordinarily like your father you are, Potter. He, too, was exceedingly arrogant, strutting about the castle.”

“My dad didn’t strut,” Harry says, “Nor do I. Now if you don’t mind, I would appreciate it if you could lower your wand.”

Snape tilts his wand out of Harry’s face, “Turn out your pockets.”

Harry reaches into his hoodie pocket and produces a piece of parchment, a very familiar piece of parchment. While this one had no writing on it let alone a map of the castle, it was very reminiscent of the one you had seen Fred and George with months ago.

“What’s this?” Snape asks.

“Spare bit of parchment,” Harry says.

“Really?” Snape asks, “Open it.”

Harry folds open the parchment, “Revel your secrets.”

Writing appears where the once empty space had been, “Read it,” Snape says.

Harry takes a breath, “Messers. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs, offer their compliments to Profesor Snape and…”

“Go on,” Snape says to him.

Harry continues, “And request he keep his abnormally large nose out of other people’s business.”

You can’t help but laugh, but Snape does NOT find it as humorous, “Why, you incolent, little…”

“Professors,” Lupin says from behind you.

“Well, well. Lupin,” Snape says pointing his wand towards the other professor, “Out for a little walk in the moonlight, are we?”

“Harry, are you alright?” Lupin asks instead of responding to Snape.

“That remains to be seen,” Snape says snatching the parchment out of Harry's hand with a big swish of his cape, or robe? Cloak? Doesn’t matter. “I have just now confiscated a rather curious artifact from Mr. Potter. Take a look, Lupin. Supposed to be your area of expertise. Clearly, it’s full of dark magic.”

“Oh, I seriously doubt it, Severus.” Remus says, “It looks to me as though it’s merely a parchment designed to insult anyone who tries to read it. I suspect it’s a Zonko product.”

Snape reaches to grab the parchment from Lupin who quickly moves it away, “Nevertheless I will investigate any hidden qualities it may possess. It is after all, as you say, my area of expertise. Harry, Professor Figg, would you both come with me please?”

“Professor Snape, good night,” Lupin says walking away with Harry and you trailing slightly behind him.

All three of you walk through the corridors to Lupin's classroom without speaking, awkwardness evident. Your loafers make their obnoxious clomping sound, echoing throughout the halls, causing some paintings to wake up and scold you. So you try your best to make the least amount of noise as possible until you reach the classroom.

“Come in,’ Lupin says opening the door to his class which is lit by beams of moonlight coming through the window, “Now I haven’t the faintest idea, Harry, how this map came to be in your possession, but quite frankly, I am astounded that you didn’t hand it in.”

“Should I leave?” you ask a little shocked that you were correct in assuming that this was the same parchment as the map from the semester prior, “I feel like I shouldn’t be here and that this is a private conversation.”

“No,” Lupins says looking at you, “Sit down.”

“Yeah,” you say relenting and sitting at a desk, “okay.”

“Harry, did it ever occur to you that this,” Lupin says gesturing with the map, “In the hands of Sirius Black, is a map to you?”

“No,” Harry says, “No, sir,”

Lupin approaches Harry, who can’t seem to look him in the eyes instead tilting his head down, “You know, your father never set much store by the rules, either, but he and your mother gave their lives to save yours. And gambling their sacrifice by wandering around the castle, unprotected with a killer on the loose, seems a pretty poor way to repay them! Now, I will not cover up for you again, Harry. Do you hear me?”

“Yes, sir,” Harry says.

“I want you to return to your dormitory and stay there,” Lupin tells Harry who turns around, “And don’t take any detours. If you do… I shall know.”

“As for you,” he says walking over to the desk you are currently sitting at, “We need to have a serious conversation.”

Before Harry leaves the room he turns around, “Professor, just so you know, I don’t think that map always works. Earlier on, it showed someone in the castle. Someone I know to be dead.”

“Oh, really?” Lupin asks walking up to the front of the class, “And who might that be?”

“Peter Pettigrew,” he says, you make a face that you think Lupin unfortunately catches.

Lupin shakes his head a bit, “That’s not possible.”

“It’s just what I saw,” Harry says then turns to leave, “Goodnight Professors.”

Lupin stands still at the front of his classroom still holding the map, his face barely lit by the moon. He holds out the map in front of him, pointing his wand at the parchment.

“I solemnly swear I am up to no good,” he says.

You move out of the desk and join Lupin, who is staring down at the map.

“Wanna go rat hunting?” you ask him.

Lupin points his wand at you, “How do you know?” he asks.

“It’s a really long and complicated story,” you tell him putting your arms up in defense.

“I believe we have time,” he says not relenting with his wand.

“Listen I swear I had NO IDEA any of this was happening when I originally signed up to teach here,” you tell him, “At the beginning of this year when we first met on the train I recognized you, I didn’t know where though until I found a picture of my aunts sister and you were in it. The Order of the Phoenix. It had a whole bunch of people in it, Dumbledore, Hagrid, and all of the Mauraders. You, James, Sirius, and Peter. I didn’t really know what to make of it at the time until… well-”

“What?” Lupin asks you.

“Listen, I need you to keep an open mind about this part,” you tell him, “In Hogsmeade, I kept seeing this black dog, something just wasn’t quite right with him, so one day I followed him into the forest. And well, I ran into a very wanted criminal, Sirius Black, and before you freak out I a not working with Sirius to kill or maim Harry in any way. Anyway moving on, I figured out that something wasn’t quite right with the whole story and Sirius told me all about how he found out Peter was still alive. Since then I have been getting him supplies and we have been planning the safest way to get Peter away from Ron.”

Lupin looks speechless for a moment, his mouth agape, “If you know that Peter and Sirius are animagus then do you also know about…”

“About what?” you ask him, confused you had never bothered to ask why they decided to secretly become animagus.

“Sirius never told you why?” he asks.

“I mean, I never asked,” you tell him, “It wasn’t really important, was it?”

“What’s your plan?” he asks.

“Well that is also pretty complicated,” you tell him.

“Talk me through it.”

Masterlist

#sirius black x reader #sirius black #reader #fluff #slow burn #harry potter fanfiction #harry potter #y/n #fanfiction

6 notes · View notes

mothguillotine · 1 year ago

Text

IV.

Staying true to your word you showed up the next weekend and every weekend, snow being inevitably replaced by the green returning to the world. Neither you nor Sirius brought up the meeting after Christmas again, which made it obvious to you that he regretted what had happened. So you try to forget, try to stop thinking about him, but no matter how hard you try you just can’t.

On the other hand, at least the snow had melted and you could easily reach Hogsmeade. The days were longer now leaving you more time to spend at the clearing with Sirius. It hadn’t been awkward the times you visited after Christmas, but you could tell something was bothering him. Throughout the months of visiting him on the weekends, you watched as he became himself again. While still not completely put together, his overall look had improved greatly. He looked nearly completely different now, well everything except his teeth. Unfortunately, you had not found any books at the school about magical dentistry. At the bookstore in Hogsmeade, they had looked at you like you were crazy but ordered the book nonetheless. Today you finally received the book after the backlog of orders came through.

While you were still fast asleep this morning, a loud *BANG* came from your window. You shoot up out of bed grabbing your wand from the side table, you walk over to investigate. When you open the window you are pleasantly surprised to see an owl with a package.

“Sorry, buddy,” you tell him, scratching his head. To which the owl drops the package and flies away.

You cut the twine holding it together and tear open the brown paper wrapping, Dentistry: A How To. Just what you expected, the aforementioned book. You look through it, and many pages are full of diagrams of different types of teeth from wizards to werewolves. Flipping through the pages you find just what you are looking for, the ingredients and steps to make Dentiserum. Which, while a painful process, will regrow teeth. Unfortunately, the potion makes new teeth for you while pushing out your old ones. Ew. Looking at the list you realize that all of the items are going to be in Hogsmeade, making your life very easy in this regard.

So you get up for the day, putting on some clothes, brushing your teeth, dealing with your hair, and finally grabbing the book. When you leave your room, you go down the halls to the potions classroom. You peek your head in, making sure Snape isn’t in the room. In there, you steal a small cauldron and a vial, placing them in your bag with the book.

For the past few months you hadn’t really paid attention to much of the staff, save for Professor Lupin. Although you did hear that Hagrid’s hippogriff was under trial. You hated that an innocent animal was being punished for Draco’s stupidity. While you luckily had managed to avoid that little shit this year, last year he would constantly make remarks throughout your lectures. To say you had no love for him was an overstatement.

As much as you wanted him to win you knew it would be near impossible given he was going up against the Malfoy’s. And last weekend when Hagrid came back from the trial visibly upset you knew you were right. Buckbeack’s execution was set for the following Monday which is tomorrow. Hagrid's mood had significantly darkened throughout the week leading up to Monday.

Making your way back down the halls, footsteps echoing through the empty corridor, you are the only person awake enough to visit Hogsmeade at this moment. Although you suspect more people will join you given how nice of a day it was. Instead of the coat you usually wear you opt for overalls and a t-shirt. It was nice to be able to walk down the path to Hogsmeade without freezing at the end.

The sun was out now no longer being hidden by the winter storm clouds, warmth radiated through you, feeling the sun on your face. When you get to the village you are quick to visit the alchemy store, picking up each of the necessary ingredients for the potion. The shop is near the entrance so you enter quickly to get the supplies.

The shop is lined with shelves and baskets, each one labeled with the ingredients it holds. While outside the sun is bright, here it feels, dreary. Walking down the first aisle you scan the shelves for your ingredients.

“Do you need any help?” a voice asks from behind you, startling you. When you turn around you see an older woman, who is about the same height as you. Her hair is gray and cut short curling gently around her ears.

“No,” you tell her, “I think I can get everything myself, but thank you.”

“Well if you need anything,” she says, “I will be over there.”

As you continue looking through the shelves, you feel her watching you. But when you look up she is looking at a book, checking inside the register, or keeping busy. While it takes you a while to look through each of the shelves for the ingredients, around fifteen minutes, you choose not to ask her for help, getting creeped out more by the second.

“Did you find everything all right dear?” the older woman asks you at the register.

“Yeah,” you tell her, “How much is it?”

“Seventeen galleons,” she tells you with a bright smile.

You look through your bag for money, eyes landing on your wallet. Rifilliling through it, you pull out the coins and hand them to her.

“You're the new herbology professor?” she asks, “Right?”

“Uh- yeah,” you respond, confused.

“Is this for a school project?” she asks you.

“Well, no,” you tell her, “It’s more of a- personal project.”

She holds out the little sack for you, full of the ingredients, “Well I just ask because my grandson is in your class.”

“Oh, what's his name?” you ask her.

“Rodney Striker,” she says, “Every weekend he comes by and tells me that you are his favorite.”

You know very well who her grandson is. Rodney Striker was a menace in your class, most definitely one of your least favorite students. Like many Slytherins, he had made your life trouble the moment he showed up on the first day of class months ago. So to hear this made you more than surprised, the correct term being mind-boggled. It wasn’t like you would tell her that though, even if he was the biggest troublemaker in his class.

“Ah, yes,” you tell her, faking a smile, “I believe I have him in the morning, he’s never late to my class.”

“He gets his punctuality from his father’s side of the family,” she tells you laughing, laughing with her, I'll be it a bit uncomfortably. Why is she telling you all this?

“Well, I have to get going,” you tell her, “It was nice meeting you.”

“It was nice meeting you too, dear,” she tells you.

You grab the sack off the counter and leave her shop. On the street there is a few students just arriving in the village, moving quickly to the edge of the increasingly busy street to make sure you aren’t spotted. The treeline is just beyond the buildings so you make a run for it, hoping the buildings block anyone's view. Dashing past the first few trees you slow down once you know you won’t be seen anymore.

The forest is regaining the lushness it lost when it was cold. The once white-covered bare trees were now full of leaves. Green was almost completely surrounding you, with the exception of the sky, a brilliant blue. The walk down your path was pleasant, the birds chirped, rays of sunlight peak through the trees, and you picked a few flowers along the way.

Continuing through the woods, you follow the familiar path that leads to the hidden clearing where you meet with Sirius. The air is filled with the sweet scent of blooming flowers, and the sunlight dances through the foliage, creating a warm and serene atmosphere. Despite the pleasant surroundings, your mind is preoccupied with the events unfolding at Hogwarts, particularly the unjust trial of Hagrid's hippogriff.

As you approach the clearing, you see Sirius waiting patiently. His eyes light up as he sees you, and a smile plays on his lips. The magical world around you seems to dim as your attention is solely drawn to him.

“Hey,” Sirius greets you, standing up from the tree stump he was seated on.

“Hi,” you reply, a small smile forming on your face.

You hand him the sack filled with alchemical ingredients, and he glances inside with curiosity, “Working on something interesting?” he asks.

“Just a potion to help fix your teeth,” you respond, “How was your week?”

Sirius shrugs, “Same old, same old. Avoiding Dementors, contemplating life choices, you know, the usual.”

You both share a chuckle, and the atmosphere lightens. Finding a comfortable spot on the ground, you settle in for your weekly meeting. Pulling out the cauldron and grabbing the ingredients from his hand.

As you discuss your week and share anecdotes, all while stirring the ingredients together. For a moment you both stay silent, Sirius's gaze shifts to the flowers you picked on the way here, “Those are beautiful,” he comments.

“Thanks,” you say, handing him the small bouquet, “I thought they might brighten up this place a bit.”

He takes the flowers, a genuine smile on his face. “You know, you bring light into this place every time you come.”

The sincerity in his voice catches you off guard, and you feel a warmth spreading through you. The connection between you and Sirius is undeniable, and even with the unspoken tension, there's comfort in being with him.

The conversation turns serious as you share the details of Hagrid's trial and the challenges he's facing. Sirius listens attentively, his expression growing more somber. “It's not right,” he mutters, “Hagrid doesn't deserve this and neither does that innocent animal.”

“I know," you agree, "But the Malfoys have a way of manipulating things. It's going to be tough for him.”

After you finish all of the instructions in the book, you reach for the vial in your bag, pouring in the potion from the cauldron.

“For you kind sir,” you say in a faux British accent, trying to lighten the mood.

Sirius crinkles his nose, “How long have you lived here?”

“Oh, shut up,” you tell him laughing, holding the vial out to him.

“You are not trying to poison me?” he asks, “Right?”

“I think that if I wanted to poison you I would have put it in the food,” you tell him, “Which I have been giving you for months. So why would I try to kill you now?”

“Just curious,” he says, “I- i was joking by the way…”

“Yeah, I know,” you tell him laughing, “Anyways, the potion is going to hurt pretty bad, you can read all about it.”

“Ahh, yes, another book,” he says.

“The pictures in that one are horrifying to look at,” you tell him, thinking about the monstrosities of diseases in that book.

You hand him the vial full of light blue liquid, “It takes a few hours to work and you will be in pain the whole time.”

He gives you a wry smile, “Well, bottoms up, I suppose.”

With a swift motion, Sirius brings the vial to his lips and drinks the potion. Almost immediately, a surge of magical energy emanates from the concoction. Sirius winces, his features contorting in discomfort. You watch with concern as the potion works its effects on him, Sirius sits on the ground next to you holding his jaw with both hands.

As the next few hours go by you try to comfort Sirius as much as you can, rubbing his back whenever he seems to be in especially bad pain. About an hour into it, the first tooth comes out, and then another, then another. At one point all of his teeth had fallen out of his mouth, and his pain seemed to let up for a bit, letting him catch his breath. After though the pain returned, teeth growing in at an alarmingly fast pace.

Another hour or so passes before Sirius has a full set of new teeth, grabbing his mirror he examines his new set of pearly whites.

“Bloody hell,” he exclaims, “You did it!”

“What can I say,” you tell him, “I suppose I am just amazing.”

“More than amazing,” he says, “You have been helping me so much, I just don’t know how I could ever repay you.”

“You act like I don’t want to do this,” you tell him, “I want to help, not just because of Harry, you are innocent, I’ve believed that since the first time I met you. I want to help you.”

Sirius looks at you, a genuine gratitude in his eyes. “It means more to me than you know. Having someone believe in my innocence, it's... well, it's a rare and precious thing. You've become a beacon of light in this dark period of my life.”

You offer a reassuring smile, “You deserve to have your name cleared, Sirius.”

“Thank you for everything,” he says.

“I have to get back to the castle,” you tell him, “Next week are exams so of course all of my students are turning their papers in at the last minute.”

“You must be everyone's favorite professor,” he tells you, “All of my professors wouldn’t take any late assignments.”

“Trust me, I am not everyone's favorite professor,” you tell him, “Many of my Slytherin students do not feel the same.”

“They just don’t want to admit it because you were in Gryffindor,” he tells you, “I have said it once, and I will say it again, I wish that-”

You cut him off, “That I was your professor, yeah,” you laugh, “You’ve said it more than once.”

“We need to talk about the rat problem,” he says, “It’s almost the end of the year and Ron hasn’t brought Peter to Hagrid’s once.”

“I’ll ask him about it,” you tell him, “Maybe I can get him to go to Hagrid’s with him on Friday or something to say goodbye.”

“Okay, Friday it is,” he says.

“What?” you ask, “Like the plan is happening on Friday?”

“We need to do it before the school year ends,” he tells you.

“Okay, I’ll talk to Ron tomorrow,” you tell him, beginning to pack up all of your belongings.

Masterlist

#sirius black x reader #fanfiction #reader #y/n #sirius black #harry potter #harry potter fanfiction #slow burn #fluff

7 notes · View notes

mothguillotine · 1 year ago

Text

III.

Back at Hogwarts throughout the week, you gather the supplies to bring to Sirius, you gather the largest clothing that you own, which turns out to mostly be large sweaters as well as collect food during each meal that wouldn’t go bad, such as loaves of bread and some apples. The final item you collected just before leaving on Saturday morning, is a pair of scissors and a hair brush.

When you arrive in Hogsmeade you make your way over to the shops to buy a few more things, such as a pair of pants and some undergarments. You also threw in a toothbrush and toothpaste just to be safe. After a bit of shopping, you make your way to the clearing that you had met at the week prior. There you wait for a bit for him until you see him in his animagus form come out from the shadows of the forest. He looks around before transforming back into himself as a human.

“Wanna do your haircut first?” you ask him.

You ask him questions while you do so, nothing serious, just to fill the time while you cut his hair.

“What’s your favorite color?” was your first question.

“You want to know what my favorite color is?” he says, laughing. It was the first time you heard him do such, his laugh was deep and you could tell what you said was humorous.

“What’s so funny?” you ask him, “It was a serious question, Sirius.”

Which makes you both laugh, you try to focus on the task at hand, which is cutting his hair. “So what is it?” you ask.

“Hm I would probably say blue,” he tells you, “Like the sky. And you?”

“What?” you ask him.

“What’s your favorite color?”

You stop and think about it, “When I was in South America studying plants I came across this beautiful flower. When it was dark the flower released gorgeous lights, it was its pollen. The petals were this gorgeous violet color. But that is probably my favorite color.”

“You traveled?” he asked you, “Where?”

You both go on like this for a while enjoying the comfortable conversation. After spending two days with Sirius you were honestly confused as to why anyone thought he would be capable of killing anyone, let alone one of his friends. By the end of his haircut, he looked much more put together. At the end of your time together for the day, you both agreed that just taking the rat was too dangerous. Ron for some unknown reason really cared for the rodent and you were left wondering why. Agreeing that you needed to wait to get him alone before acting. Both of you knew this plan came with many risks but you knew that you could protect Harry if it came down to it.

At school you kept a close eye on Harry and the rat, it was hard not just to expose him, not go to Dumbledore and tell him everything. This week you collected food from each meal like the week prior, you also decided for your next meeting you would bring him a washcloth and some water. Throughout the week you find your mind constantly thinking about Sirius, about things you think he might like. You also ask Harry about a few things, such as quidditch, his favorite classes, and anything else you think Sirius may want to know. Unfortunately, your secrecy is soon found out by none other than Remus Lupin.

The man had been suspicious of you since the beginning of the year and these past two weeks solidified his concerns. You had been avoiding him since the first day which he found weird, and then you started actively avoiding him. Which did work for quite some time, from the beginning of November until nearly the end of the semester he would walk into a room and you would immediately walk out. At first, he thought you may have some sort of crush on him but after trying to talk with you once a week ago he figured out that this wasn't the case.

That same day last week he began to notice you taking food from each meal, which on its own wasn’t really concerning, but then last Saturday he saw you leave. On your back was a bag full of things stuffed inside and when you returned he didn’t see any of it. He concluded that that is where you took the food, which is correct. This week after observing you closely he sees you frequently speaking with Harry and keeping a close eye on him. All of this information is starting to make you look very guilty to Remus, of what… he did not know.

“y/n, can I talk to you for a moment?” Remus asked, his tone serious.

You nodded, feeling a bit anxious but also slightly curious about what he had to say. You both found a quiet corner of the corridor, away from prying eyes.

“I've noticed you've been acting strangely lately,” Remus began, “and I can't help but wonder what's going on. You've been collecting food and asking Harry a lot of questions.”

You hesitated for a moment, trying to come up with a reasonable explanation. “Well, you know, I just care about Harry and his well-being. I thought I'd try to make sure he's getting enough to eat and enjoying his time here.”

Remus raises an eyebrow at you, “I understand what it's like to lose both of your parents before you even knew them. And I know that what happened to me is nothing really compared to him but that makes me want to protect him even more.” you tell him honestly.

You didn't feel bad about withholding the truth from him. Sirius had told you how mistrusting Remus became of him in the end, he still truly thinks he's guilty. Nothing you could say would change his mind so you would just have to prove his innocence first.

Remus seemed to consider your words, his expression softening with understanding. "I appreciate your concern for Harry. Losing his parents at such a young age is undoubtedly a heavy burden for him to bear. And I appreciate you looking out for him.”

He sighed, running a hand through his hair. "I can't fault you for caring about Harry's well-being, y/n. It's just that your recent actions seemed a bit... secretive. I've been worried, and I guess I jumped to conclusions."

You gave him a reassuring smile. “I understand, Remus. I didn't mean to come across as secretive, and I appreciate your concern. If you ever have any questions or if there's anything you'd like to discuss, I'm here.”

Remus nodded, still looking thoughtful. “I trust you, y/n. And I'm here for you as well.”

“I hate to leave in a hurry but I do have another class to teach,” you tell him, “I’ll see you at dinner?”

“Yeah,” he says smiling at you, “See you later.”

While Remus’s fears are soothed he still can't help but wonder, what was in your bag then?

You walk through the corridor to the greenhouse, your students are all talking amongst themselves. Oblivious to the fear that you are feeling at the moment. Has he been watching you this entire time? How did you not notice? Knowing that Remus was a little less suspicious, you felt a bit better, but it made you more cautious. You didn’t take as much food as before during meals, opting just to buy food when you got to Hogsmeade the next day.

That night you pack your bag for Sirius, you feel bad you can’t bring him more but given the fact that Remus took notice, anyone else could too. Besides the water, washcloth, and the minimal amount of food you collected, you also don’t want him to be terribly bored. So you grab the picture that once belonged to your aunt's sister and put it in as well, but not before scratching out Peter Pettigrew’s face and name. After packing a few more surprises for him you crawl into bed for the night.

The next morning you put on warm clothes and grab your bag, go down the stairs and out of the castle. You don’t bother getting breakfast, planning on grabbing something when you get into town. The snow is becoming treacherous as the end of the year comes up, having to pick up your feet to make it to Hogsmeade.

You stop at the bakery first for breakfast and a few more items for Sirius. Making sure you aren't being followed you head into the forest to meet with Sirius. Next week is mid-year exams and then it's holiday break. You are excited to have a break for a few weeks, even though you will be staying at Hogwarts this year.

It’s the first time you will be spending the holidays without your aunt, even when you were traveling you still made an effort to go home during the holiday season. While you are sad you know that it is necessary to protect Harry. Your meeting with Sirius goes as planned, you give him all the necessary supplies he needs first but then you move on to the more fun items.

“Okay,” you say, “Now close your eyes.”

“What?” he asks, confused but laughing a bit.

“Just do it!” you tell him with a smile.

He relents and does as you ask, “Okay keep them closed until I say so,”

“Yes, of course,” he says.

You grab the items from your bag, excited to see if he will like them, “Okay, hold out your arms,”

When he reaches out you place the items in his hands, a blanket, and your book, “Now, open your eyes.”

When he does he looks at the book first, “ Botany in the World of Magic: A Complete and Comprehensive Guide by y/n Figg.” he reads, “I had no idea I have been spending time with a published author.”

“I thought you might want something to read and that's the only thing I have an abundance of copies.” you tell him, “It’s signed too, so you might get some money if you try and sell it.”

He looks mildly offended, “You think so little of me?” he asks, “It would be wrong.”

“I just wanted to give you your options,” you tell him throwing your hands up in defense.

“Thank you,” he tells you, “I wish I had something to give you, but being an escaped convict doesn't fare well with money.”

“Oh please, your presence is enough for me,” you tell him smiling, “I also have something else.”

“Well, now I’m just being spoiled,” he tells you.

“If anyone deserves to be spoiled it's you,” you tell him reaching into your bag to procure the photograph, “Given that you were locked up without trial for twelve years.”

“I promise to pay you back someday,” he tells you sincerely.

“Oh please,” you tell him, “Do not, trust me I want to help. Here you go.”

You hand him the photograph and he looks at it for a moment, examining it. “Thank you,” he tells you.

“I just wish I could do more honestly,” you tell him.

“You have done so much for me and Harry,” he tells you, “but come to think of it I do have something I want you to do.”

“Of course,” you tell him, “What is it?”

“Can you send him a gift from me?” he asks you, “I can't exactly go to the store myself and send him an owl, can I?”

“Yeah, you have any ideas on what to get him?” you ask.

“I do.”

After your meeting you head back to Hogsmeade to order said present, sending it to the castle. You also decide to shop for a few gifts of your own, Harry gets a bag of sweets, and Hermione gets a few new books that you think she hasn't read yet, but you wouldn’t be surprised. Ron’s present has been a long time coming though, seeing as how his pet is a grown-ass man. You buy him a new non-animagus rat, it's a white one with red eyes. You also buy your aunt some new notebooks, seeing as how she fills hers up so quickly with notes from ministry meetings.

You make your way back to Hogwarts through the crowded streets, full of students doing last-minute shopping. The snow was coming down heavier than before, making it horrendous to walk through the snow. With each pass of your foot the more wet the inside of your boots grow. You are passing right by the pub when you hear something that catches your ear.

“Harry Potter?!” a woman nearly shouts.

You turn your head to look and see Professor McGonagall escort the pub owner inside. Following them is none other than Minister Fudge and Hagrid. While that is a bit concerning it’s not like you can turn invisible and follow them. Not that you really want to, getting caught would not be good, especially with Sirius relying on you for food. So while your curiosity IS peaked, you decide heading back to Hogwarts would be best.

So you make your way back, freezing your ass off. The snow unrelentingly comes down as you walk down the paths to the school. While walking your mind wanders from the situation at the pub to Harry to Sirius, while on your way back. You wanted Harry to like his gift from Sirius, knowing that he would smile at the story you would tell him after Christmas. You just wish he was there to see Harry himself, so you did the next best thing.

On Christmas morning you go into the Gryffindor common room to give the kids their presents, also bringing your camera so you can show Sirius some pictures of the holidays. All of the kids were up already, presents were all torn open. While you had hoped to be there when the broom was opened, Harry seemed to love it. The room had been decorated fully, even with a Christmas tree of its own. The kids are sitting on the couches around the fire talking to each other, unaware of your arrival.

“Merry Christmas!” you tell them.

“Professor Figg?” Hermione asks, “What are you doing in the Gryffindor common room?”

“I just came to give you all your presents,” you tell her, showing her the three packages you were carrying, “I hope you all like them.”

You walk over to the kids and hand them their presents one by one, starting with Ron. The rat you had gotten for him had behaved amazingly for you for the past week leading up to Christmas, “Okay open it.”

He begins unwrapping his present and you snap a picture of him when he's done, holding his new rat, Redeye.

“Look at his eyes,” he says, “They are red!”

“Yeah,” you tell him, “He has been a good rat for me, not running away.”

“Yeah,” he tells you laughing, “Maybe Scabbers can learn a thing or two from him.”

“Okay, Hermione next,” you tell her, handing her present over.

“Professor, you didn't have to get me anything,” she tells you.

“Just open your present,” you tell her holding up your camera.

“Alright, alright,” she tells you relenting, opening her gift. You snap a picture of her as well, she looks so entrailed by the books.

“Have you read any of them?” you ask her.

“No,” she tells you examining each of the books, “Thank you.”

“Of course,” you tell her, “I wanted you all to know secretly that you are my favorites. And of course Harry finally.”

Harry takes his present and as he opens it you take yet another picture. All three have come out quite well and you plan to take a few more.

“I do have to tell you though, this wasn't your only present from me,” you tell him, “I had it sent to the castle and they put it here for you.”

“The Firebolt is from you?” Harry asks, surprised.

“Yeah, I was hoping to see you open it but it's alright,” you tell him, “I just hope you like it.”

“Professor Figg!” he says, “Why did you buy me this.”

“Well I am a bestselling author so money isn’t really a problem,” you tell him, “and someone else helped me get it, so do not fret young one, I wanted to give it to you.”

“Also, how else is the best seeker gonna go back out on the field with a broken broom?” you ask him.

“Well, in any case, thank you, Professor,” Harry tells you sincerely.

“Of course, Harry,” you tell him, “Here let me take a picture of you with it.”

He stands holding the broom in one hand poses, smiling widely with happiness. You take the picture of him capturing the moment nicely.

“Okay, now one with you all together,” you tell them, receiving groans from them, “Come on it’s the last one.”

The three of them gather in front of the tree, going from Harry, Ron, then Hermione. Ron wraps his arms around both of his friends, you take the picture, “Okay, now a silly one!”

They all pose crazy-like and you take the final picture, Harry is putting bunny ears behind Ron’s head and is crossing his eyes. Ron has grabbed both of them pulling them in close and makes a goofy-looking face. All while Hermione looks completely over their shenanigans. The picture is perfect, each of them showing off their individualities.

“Okay,” you tell them, “I will let you all go back to your Christmas, see you.”

You make your way back to your room, looking over each picture. Deciding to keep the ones of the kids opening your gifts for them, as well as the silly picture. Sirius would want the picture of Harry holding the broom, as it had been his idea in the first place, and you also decide to give him the picture of the kids around the tree.

“I took some pictures for you,” holding out the photos to Sirius, “The first one is of Harry holding your present and the other is of him and his friends.”

He takes them out of your hands, examining them both. They had been taken a week ago and you hadn’t seen Sirius since before Christmas. By the looks of it he had started using the mirror to take care of himself, his beard was less ruly as well as his hair. He also looked as if he wasn't caked in at least an inch of dirt. Less of a crazed vibe going on and more of a… homeless one? It honestly didn’t matter to you, seeing as how he looked more like himself.

Since Christmas, the snow has continued falling in mass amounts each day, making it nearly impossible to get to the clearing you would meet at, but to sheer willpower you made it. You were on a mission and no amount of snow would make you unsuccessful, leaving you to jump through the snow to get through the woods. Seeing Sirius smile though made the trip worth it.

“What’s their names?” he asks you.

“Well, in the middle is Ron, who became friends with Harry on the train in first year,” you tell him, “Next to him is Hermione, who they became friends with during the same year.”

“Did he like his present?” he asks you.

“I think he did,” you tell him, “He seemed really excited to test it out.”

He stays silent for a moment, “He looks just like his father.”

“So I’ve heard,” you tell him, “You can’t really tell in the picture because it's not in color, but people say that he has his mother's eyes.”

“How does he act so much like his father without ever having met him?” he asks.

“We need to come up with a plan,” you tell him, “You deserve to have your name cleared and Harry deserves his godfather. You both deserve so much more than you have gotten out of life so far.”

“Do you have any ideas?” he asks you.

“Kinda,” you tell him.

“Kinda?” he asks you.

“Like the beginning of a plan,” you tell him.

“Okay?” he says.

“So obviously you can’t be seen and it’s not like I can just go and grab him, but what if you were in your animagus form and got him?” you ask, to which he looks a bit apprehensive, “We get him somewhere away from the school and take him somewhere. Then I will get Dumbledore and explain everything. If we have Peter no one could possibly believe him about anything, seeing as how he’s been masquerading as a family's pet rat for over a decade.”

“Do you really think that would work?” he asks, “What happens if Ron tries to get him back?”

“That's why I am there,” you explain to him, “To make sure the kids don’t follow you. I tell them that I will go and investigate, follow you to make sure he doesn’t escape, then go to Dumbledore.”

“How will we get him out of the castle?” he asks you.

“Harry and them go to Hagrid’s when the weather is warmer,” you tell him, “We just have to wait until he brings his rat.”

“Honestly, that's not a bad plan,” he tells you.

“If everything goes to plan you should be able to have Harry with you this summer,” you tell him, “He will be excited to leave his aunt and uncle's house and stay with you, even if he doesn’t know it yet.”

“You really think so?” he asks.

“Definitely.”

“You will have to visit us over the summer,” he tells you, “Harry will want to see his favorite professor.”

“How do you know that I am his favorite?” you ask him humorously.

“Well you did just gift him a new broom from the both of us,” he explains, “Besides, speaking from personal experience, if I had a professor as beautiful as you I might have not failed herbology second year.”

You smile at him and shake your head, “Oh, please, you would just be even more distracted.”

“You might be right,” he says laughing, “Although your book does seem very educational.”

“You read it?” you ask him.

“Well, there isn’t a lot for me to do,” he says to you, “So reading your book has been most enjoyable.”

“Well I am happy you enjoyed it so much,” you tell him, “I do have a few more options for you this time. One is a muggle fantasy book that I got when I was younger and the other ones are just from the library.”

“You are a wonderful, wonderful witch,” he tells you, grabbing your head and planting a kiss atop. You laugh at his actions and when he pulls away he is grinning, both of you stay like this for a moment. Still holding the books you brought for him as he is cupping your cheeks the snow continues to come down. He moves his hands from your face to the books you are holding taking them from you.

He steps away suddenly and you can't help but feel a bit disappointed, which surprises you. While you are aware that he is attractive you never really thought about actually kissing him. You didn’t think that you had a crush on him, but you do enjoy spending time with him, you like picking things out for him, you like hearing him laugh, seeing him smile, and of course hearing him speak. You don’t say anything though, allowing him to back away from you.

“I- uh, should get back soon,” you tell him, turning around to pack your bag but also secretly cringing at yourself.

“You will be back next week,” he says to you, voice echoing through the forest, “Right?”

“Unless I tell you otherwise,” you respond, “I will be back every weekend.”

“I just wanted to make sure.”

The walk back to Hogsmeade is full of too much thinking, did you like Sirius? How did you not realize before now? Did he feel the same? He had held on to your face far longer than most would consider friend-like behavior, although is that what friends do? You had never done that with any friends before, so probably not.

Masterlist

#fanfiction #reader #y/n #sirius black x reader #sirius black #harry potter #harry potter fanfiction #slow burn #fluff

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