"I GAVE HER WHAT SHE WANTED," Lucas whispered. "It, uh, took a couple tries but I think she's right on the edge of believing me,"

"Nice," Kat bumped her shoulder against his. "I think I'm still the littlest bit skeptical,"

"You don't believe in demogorgons?" Lucas said, looking incredulously at the fortifications they'd made. 

"No, I believe in Dart. Just the whole 'other dimension', mind control, telekinetic girl, what happened to Will? You gotta admit it's a lot,"

"Yeah, I guess. We've been through a lot this past year,"

"And you know you can talk to me, yeah? About anything this past year?" 

"Don't I already do?" Lucas said bluntly.

"True," Kat shrugged.

She heaved herself down the rusty ladder, where Steve, Dustin, and Max were.

"Shit. Don't be an idiot. Okay? It wasn't a bear. Why are you even hereif you don't believe us? Just go home," Dustin said heavily in one breath.

Kat's eyes widened at his tone, slowly sitting down on a craggly bus seat.

"Geesh. Someone's cranky. Past your bedtime?" Max said, defensively as she headed up the ladder to Lucas.

Steve also had the same dumbfounded expression, before getting a hold of himself. He clearly hadn't expected Dustin to take his advice into 'completely trash talk Max'. He went on the safer route, though, with; "That's good. Just show her you don't care."

"I don't," Dustin said, quickly and casually.

Steve winked.

"What're you doing, Harrington?" Kat said in disgust. That man could not wink.

"Why are you winking, Steve? Stop." Dustin said curtly, before going to sulk in a corner.

"Little shit," Steve muttered, flicking his lighter on and back off.

"Cut him some slack, he's going through his early love life. Just like you," Kat said, 

Steve scoffed. "Sure. By the way, I didn't tell you earlier; Nancy and I are toast,"

"I knew that," Kat said. "From the night of the party, you two seemed distant,"

"Yeah. But we're actually not a thing anymore. Toasted as in golden-brown bread. She might've told me I'm bullshit and we weren't in love," Steve said, rambling. He wasn't quite sure why he was ranting about Nancy to her elder sister, probably the worst person at Hawkins he could be telling this to, but they were about to face a demogorgon, so why not?

"Wow, was she drunk when she was saying that?" Kat was genuinely shocked.

"Yeah, but y'know, drunk words, sober thoughts," Steve mumbled.

"Damn. I'm sorry about that; I'll talk with her when I see her tomorrow,"

"Nah, it's good. She's better off with Byers, anyway,"

Kat gave a simple 'hmm' as a response, not knowing what else to say. She fiddled with the tip of her band-aid.

"You, uh, probably shouldn't play with that wound," Steve said. "Might get infected,"

"Don't worry," Kat smiled slightly. "I used to get scratched all the time looking after Mike. He used to say my white blood cells were invincible, I got a lotta experience,"

"You never know; the bear-thing might be able to sense blood,"

"You have a point there," Kat admitted.

"Yaknow, you're not as mean as people say you are," Steve leaned forward, placing his elbows against his knees and his head on his hands.

"Maybe," Kat shrugged. "But I guess as we've all grown up I tended to stay away from all the things people liked. Drama, sex, they weren't for me. And that automatically made me unlikable,"

"Yeah. Wow, that actually explains a lot about Hawkins High," Steve said.

"It does," Kat laughed. "Breaks down the school dynamic,"

"Actually," Steve laughed alongside her.

A screeching growl shuddered through the cold fog, sending a prick down Kat's spine running through her fingertips. Dart. Dustin and Steve scrambled to the metal netting, looking outside.

"You see him?" Dustin asked anxiously, fear creeping into his voice.

"No,"

"Lucas? What's going on?" Kat called upwards.

"Hold on!" Lucas yelled back. "I've got eyes! Ten o'clock!"

"Where?!" Kat yelled. "Speak English!"

"Up left! Northwest!"

"There," Steve subtly pointed into the fog.

"What's he doing?" Kat murmured, feeling Steve's gentle breath pat against her cheek.

"I dunno," he said dubiously.

"He's not taking the bait. Why is he not taking the bait?"

"Maybe he's not hungry?"

"Maybe he's sick of cow." Steve said, a strange determination filling his voice as he reared back from the broken window.

"Hey, where're you going?" Kat said.

"Steve? Steve, what are you doing?" Dustin asked.

He picked up his baseball bat from the floorboards. "Just get ready," he said, tossing the lighter to Dustin.

"Hey! What're you doing?!" Kat hissed, moving closer.

"He's not taking the bait," Steve whispered back. "I'll lure him in,"

"Are you insane? You'll be fried before you see him!"

"Unlikely, maybe a little boiled, but not that extreme," Steve said, eyes shining with strength Kat had never witnessed before. "I'll be fine,"

Kat nodded reluctantly, and watched as he stepped through the sliding metal, closing it behind him. She pressed her face against the netting in front of the windows, watching him slowly move outwards from the bus. Her heart hammered against her chest as she could hear Dustin's anxious breath from beside her.

"Come on, buddy," Steve whistled, his body tense.

"What's he doing?" Max said, coming down the ladder in a flurry.

"Suicide," Kat murmured.

"Expanding the menu," Dustin said.

He walked far enough out so they couldn't hear him, standing in front of the meat pile. He swung the bat a couple times. It was kinda hot, but they were facing death, so Kat didn't fully process the thought. He wiggled the bat again, eyes scanning the fog patches.

"He's insane," Max said, red brows round in shock.

"He's awesome," Dustin said, somehow smiling through the fear.

Then Steve tensed further, the bat stilling. Kat squinted her eyes, before stretching them wide as she noticed a skinny creature, no more than three feet tall with an oval face and four legs, stalking towards him.

"Steve! Watch out!" Lucas screamed unecessarily from above.

"A little busy here!" he yelled back.

"Three o'clock! Three o'clock! East!"

Kat whirled her head around, and to her horror, another animal just like the first one was creeping on top of a car, snarling at Steve.

"He's not gonna make it," Kat whispered, ice in her bones.

"Steve! Abort! Abort!" Dustin yelled as he flung open the sliding door.

One of the creatures' faces opened like a flower, and charged at Steve. And as it was doing so, two- no, three more demogorgons leaped out of the fog. It leaped at his legs, but Steve dodged, it, rolling over a car for protection.

"Steve, run!" Kat yelled behind Dustin, both hands on the door handle to close it once Steve got inside.

He thwacked another demogorgon with his bat, before taking off in their direction, Max and Lucas yelling for him as well. Just as the demogorgon was about to get him, he jumped straight into the bus, Kat slamming the door behind him before nearly falling over due to the demogorgon pushing it from the other side.

"Steve! Gimme the metal!" Kat cried, pushing the door with all her body weight.

"Are they rabid or something?!" Max screamed. Steve pressed another metal board into her arms and she leaned it against the door, her back against the two pieces of metal, pressing on it with her body and closing her eyes in desperation.

"They can't get in! They can't!" Lucas said as Steve pushed on the metal with his feet.

The bus shook, the kids grabbing the walls for support and Kat with the metal as it tilted on one angle. Then, one demogorgon leg tore through the boards like jello, clawing at the air before it tore through Kat's left arm as she screamed in more shock than pain. Droplets of blood leapt out of her skin like a popped balloon, scattering over the ground like a painting.

"Shit!" Lucas said as Steve swung his bat repeatedly at the leg. Kat held her arm, which, due to adrenaline, didn't hurt yet as Lucas dragged her farther inside the bus.

"Is anyone there? Mike? Will? God! Anyone!" Dustin yelled into his headset as Kat looked down at her injury, which started to bleed further. A clawmark appeared on the board behind them, causing them to scramble in the opposite direction, but then another appeared where they were going. Kat got up to join them, but her head swam with sudden nausea and her arm dragged her down.

"We're at the old junkyard, and we are going to die!" Dustin screamed, before the roof clattered. Four pounding sounds came from above, as Kat looked up to the roof exit, eyes round in terror.

A creature looked down, skin slimy as it growled. Max's breathing grew heavy as she screamed.

"Out of the way! Out of the way! You want some? Come get this!" Steve yelled frantically as he swung his bat at the bottom of the ladder. The demogorgon opened it's face, revealing thousands of tiny teeth that were no more than speckles all around its mouth. 

Spit dribbled from its teeth, leaning closer to Steve, before it's mouth closed, and it's body relaxed, like it just aborted its mission. It looked to its left, taking its claws off the ladder as it leaped away. Kat's brows narrowed in confusion before the whole bus violently shook once more. Her number one fear was earthquakes. She gripped the floor for support, but her body turned with the momentum and she hit her bloody arm on a seatback.

"Fuck- Shit," Kat said through gritted teeth as she pulled it back to herself. 

They all waited with bated breath before one nerve at a time, they relaxed. 

"Hey, you okay?" Steve said, dropping his bat as he knelt down in front of her. He took her arm and held it up to his eyes in the dim light, Kat hissing with pain as he did so.

"Yeah," she said, face twisted. "It's not that deep,"

"No, no, this'll probably scar," Steve said, a bit panicked.

"Fuck me," Kat said, throwing her head back against the wall. The demogorgon had tore her flesh starting from the palm of her hand all the way up to near her elbow, just barely missing the bone.

"Here," Max said, scared as took off her thin jacket and wrapped it tightly around her left arm. Kat bit her tongue as the fabric came in contact with her skin, though she was glad for the numbness the tightly bound cloth gave her.

"I'm gonna go outside to check it out, yeah?" Steve looked back at Kat, his tone hovering between asking someone for permission and the tone Kat used on Holly whenever she got a paper cut.

"Go ahead," Kat was too tired for a biting remark.

He picked up his bat again, slowly inching open the sliding door. It banged slightly, causing Kat's heart to do a little hiccup. But he stepped down all three stairs, sounding like he was in one piece.

"What happened?" Lucas said in half wonder.

"I don't know," Max said in the same voice.

"Steve scared 'em off?" Dustin speculated.

"No," Steve breathed. "No way. They're going somewhere,"

"Yeah- almost- shit, no, the sticky part is on the scabby part," Kat murmured. 

Her and Steve were walking sideways so they could face each other, using Steve's makeshift first-aid (aka bandaids and rubbing alcohol from the bottom of his backpack) to fix up her arm. They were currently sticking bandaids over the tops, trying to make the stickiness of the bandaids hold her wound together like how doctors did stitches in the movies.

"Yeah, I'll stick this one here," Steve murmured in concentration.

"I'm still shocked you have this many bandaids in your bag," Kat tried to make conversation in order to not focus on the stinging.

"Y'never know when you need them," Steve said, going a bit red at the ears. "I used a couple two days ago, scraped my knee during gym,"

"Oh, I saw that," Kat laughed. "Hargrove pushed ya, pretty sure that's a foul in basketball,"

"Coach would never foul somebody like him, he's too good,"

"I'd disagree, he's ninety percent ego,"

"Definitely," Steve scoffed, chuckling.

"In all seriousness, though, were you okay after that? Seemed like a pretty hard push, physically...and emotionally,"

He didn't seem affected by her bluntness. "Yeah, uh, Nancy gave me a pretty hard push right before gym that day; Hargrove just made me hit the ground,"

Kat frowned, before deciding to extend an offer. 

"Well, if you ever need someone to pull you back up, just grab my hand," she said, and he smiled slightly.

━━author's note ━━

so idc if its cliche or anything that kat got hurt. i know its common in these stories to have the mc get hurt or whatever, but its my story and idgaf. kat's demogorgon wound has both plot and character significance, and cmon, its a miracle that none of the other kids got hurt in this scene.