DUSTIN HENDERSON WAS SCARED SHITLESS. His lizard had suddenly turned to murder and none of his friends were responding to his code red.

He frantically sped towards the Wheeler house, chucking his bike along the side of their driveway as he ran to ring their doorbell. 

However, he noticed Kathryn Wheeler standing on their porch, scanning the road with eyes sharp. 

"Dustin?" She asked in confusion at his urgency. She had previously been waiting for Monique so they could go play ice hockey, but Monique had just called and said there was only a thirty percent chance she could make it with her newly announced double shift. "What are you doing here? Mike's out,"

"What?!" he said in panic. "Where?"

"I dunno," Kat said. "What are you planning?"

Dustin took a breath, placing his hands on his knees as he panted from the bike ride.

"Hey, are you okay?" Kat asked in concern. "Do you need me to get you some water from inside?"

"No, no, this is urgent," he replied, and then got a rather funny look in his squinty eyes. "Are you wearing shin guards?"

"Oh. Yeah, I am," Kat said, laughing. "My friend Monique and I were supposed to go play ice hockey, but we postponed just now,"

"Wait- so you- oh," Dustin's eyes went big. "Oh. This is good, this is better,"

"What?" Kat was the confused one now.

"Hey," Dustin's voice dropped to sudden seriousness. "Was Mike lying when he said you got an award in hockey?"

"Uh, no. It was several years ago, but yeah. Why?"

"Perfect. Come with me,"

"Hey! Wait, where are we going?" Kat yanked his arm from where he tried to grab her. "Cause if it's somewhere that requires fighting I don't think we, a.k.a you, should be there,"

"I'll explain on the ride," Dustin said impatiently.

Now, Kat trusted Lucas's friends, and had an extra-high opinion of Dustin. But this was a little strange.

What was even stranger was when Steve Harrington out of all people walked out of a burgundy BMW 733i, holding a bouquet of roses.

"Listen- I've been thinking...I love you, I'm sorry, I'm sorry? What the hell am I sorry for?" Kat could hear him mutter as he walked across their carefully-mowed lawn.

"Steve!" Dustin walked up to him. And Steve recognized him. Wow, Kat was wrong. Believe that. "Are those for Mr. or Mrs. Wheeler?"

"Good," Dustin said, and snatched them right out of his arms.

"Hey, what the hell? Hey!" Steve started calling.

"Nancy isn't home,"

"Dustin! Where're you going?!" Kat yelled behind him, running a little to catch up.

"What're you doing here?" Steve looked down at her. "Why are you dressed like you're gonna wrestle someone in ice?"

"That's a little dramatic," Kat said sarcastically. "And it's my house,"

"Well, where's Nancy?" Steve turned to Dustin again.

"Doesn't matter. We have bigger problems than your love life," he opened Steve's car door. If they were in any other situation, Kat would've laughed, but Dustin had roped them both into a probably-dangerous situation if he'd considered Kat's fighting skills.

"Do you still have that bat?"

"What bat?" Steve and Kat said at the same time.

"The one with the nails," Dustin waved the bouquet around a little, as if that would explain it.

"You own a bat with nails?" 

"Why do you want it?" Steve questioned, ignoring Kat.

"I'll explain on the way. Kat, c'mon." he said, and dragged Kat into Harrington's passenger seat and himself onto the backseat.

"Where are we going?" Kat demanded.

"My house," Dustin said breathlessly. "Steve, come on. Drive!"

"O-kay, okay! Jesus," Steve said, unimpressed but obeying nonetheless.

Fast forward half an hour and they were still driving. Kat had forgotten how far Dustin lived compared to their house, the sun had set already.

"Wait a sec, how big?"

"First he was like this-" Dustin held his hands up. "-how he's like that,"

"Pretty sure nothing on earth can do that," Kat said speculatively. "Can you turn the fan up?"

"Yeah. Sure," Steve said under his breath. "I swear to God, man, it's just some lizard, okay?" 

"It's not some lizard," Dustin maintained.

"How do you know?"

"How do you know it's not?"

"How do you know it's not just a lizard?!"

"Because his face opened up and he ate my cat!"

"He ate Mews?" Kat said, scrunching her face.

"Yes, he ate Mews?"

"Your cat's name is Mews?" Steve asked.

"How would a lizard eat a cat from a face opening?" Kat continued

"Why would you name a cat Mews?" Steve frowned.

"He's big now! And his face just- opened! Like a flower or something,"

"A flower?"

"He's a demogorgon!"

"Like from Dungeons and Dragons? Thought that was a board game?"

"It is! But it's real!"

"Dungeons and Dragons is real now?" Kat raised a brow.

"No, just the demogorgon!"

"Riight,"

Something poked her foot. She looked down, and it was a piece of women's clothing. Nancy's clothing, she realized. A hand-me-down from a year ago.

"Hey, that's Nance's!" she said indignantly.

"What?" Steve asked as he took a look at her from his left.

"This!" Kat picked up the pale pink sweater. "Christ, it's filthy. How long'd you keep her clothes in here?"

"Don't get all stuffy at me," Steve muttered. "Didn't know that was in there, she must've dropped it,"

"We'll, I'm taking it and giving it back," Kat said, shoving it in her bag. 

"Feel free,"

Looking down once more, Kat found that the spot where her feet lay was probably the only thing on Steve's car bottom that was clear. Shoved under the seat were multiple other things she couldn't distinguish in the dim lighting.

"Jeez, how much gunk do you have in here?"

"None of your business,"

"Cold. Maybe you should take up the Bitch title from me," Kat looked up and laughed.

"Can you two please stop arguing?" Dustin said impatiently from the backseat. "We have a problem here!"

"Yeah. Harrington's car," Kat said. 

"Oh yeah? And how'd you compare? I bet I'd take one look at your car; boom. Conditions in hell,"

"I'll take that bet," Kat challenged. "Just so you set some time out to clean this place up,"

"Never knew you were such a mom," 

"Guys!" Dustin yelled from the back, way too loud.

"Jesus," Kat and Steve muttered at the same time, before looking at each other, annoyed.

Steve pulled up near Dustin's house.

"God, I'm sore as hell," Kat said, stretching as she clambered out of his passenger seat.

They opened the trunk, revealing several bras, two beer cans, hairspray, and a bat with nails shoved haphazardly into every inch of wood.

"That's the secret weapon?" Kat looked down.

"It's effective," Steve protested, giving it a swing.

"I bet," she said insincerely, taking out her hockey stick.

They walked uneasily to Dustin's back yard, stopping in front of his storage door, bound tightly with chains and a heavy-duty lock.

"So it's is in here?" Kat mumbled.

"Yeah,"

"I don't hear shit," Steve said, probably still a bit heated they'd interrupted his apology attempt.

Kat leaned forward and gently prodded the metal with her stick.

Nothing.

She took a step back and hit it harder, twice. Still nothing.

"Alright, listen, Ice Wheels," Steve said harshly to them both. "If you dragged this kid into some post-Halloween prank, you're dead,"

He directed his flashlight right into her face.

"Jesus, get that outta my face," Kat spat, and used her stick to poke it out of his hands.

"It's not a prank," Dustin said, ugency spilling over. His large brown eyes widened to genuine hysteria, and Kat's heart sparked with concern.

"Fine," Steve sighed. "You got a key for this thing?"

"Yeah. Oh, right," Dustin said. "'s in my room,"

And the little shit leaped right out.

Now Kat was beginning to wonder if this was a prank.

"Believe me, I don't know what this is either," she said, placing her hands on her hips. "I was supposed to go out with Monique Beverly, but then you both showed up,"

"Guess so," to her suprise, Steve believed her.

"Were you coming over to apologize to Nance?"

"Yeah," he muttered, sounding rather defeated. "I was,"

"Didn't think you were the type for being sappy,"

"Tell me, do you have to ruin every conversation you have?"

Your intrusive thoughts borne from trauma may cause some unwanted arguments with people around you. Start by recognizing it, then alter the direction of the conversation before it gets a bit worse.

"Sorry," she said through gritted teeth.

"Didn't think you were the type for being sappy," he snorted, and Kat had to physically bite her lip to stop herself from making it worse.

"If it makes you feel better, whenever she's with Byers she always comes home with a stick up her ass,"

It was true. She'd always come home late past curfew, looking depressed or frustrated, as if she was looking for answers to something she never found.

"Sure," he scoffed.

"I'm not lying," Kat said. "'least she was sorta smiley when she was with you,"

She left out the part when it was a smile solely made up of phermones.

"I guess,"

"I got 'em!" Dustin called from the back door. He walked over and unlocked the door. Steve heaved one of them over before shoving the other one as well. 

"It'd be a lot less spooky if we did this in daylight," Kat murmured. In front of them was a dark stairwell, its emptiness causing greater fear than if it was filled. Dustin shone his flashlight in, the thin beam slicing through the emptiness to reveal a miniscule patch of cement aglow in the light, leaving most of it in looming darkness.

"He must be down there," Dustin sounded just as scared. "I'll- be up here in case he tries to escape,"

Steve looked up at Dustin unbelievably, before looking back down and slightly shaking his head.

"Great idea," Kat said quickly. "I'll be right behind ya,"

Steve shot her a glare, before crouching as he stepped down the stairs. Kat followed after, placing her footsteps in nearly the exact same spots. They walked forward a couple feet, Steve pulling on a light switch. A few shelves with mason jars were illuminated, as well as a few flour sacks. Steve then stopped in his tracks, causing Kat to ram into his back.

"Jeez- sorry," she mumbled, and he said something just as incoherent back, before lifting his bat, and along with it, a mass of what looked like a huge lop of slime with a few leaves attached.

"Oh my god," Kat said in awe and disgust as a few patches of slime dropped off the tip of the a nail.

"Kat? Steve? What's going on down there?" Dustin called from the top.

"Get down here," Steve replied back, voice taut with urgency.

Dustin scrambled down the stairs, eyes widening at the mass of goop hung up by Steve's bat.

"Oh, shit," he said in shock, before noticing the giant hole in the wall. "Oh, shit,"

The trio stepped closer to the gaping hole, unnaturally round and tunnel-like as it went straight out of the cellar, neverending.

"So, uh, there's the sun room. We don't have a guest room, or a pullout couch. Sorry," Dustin said.

They had mutually agreed to stay the night and investigate further in the morning.

"Yeah-" Kat and Steve said at the same time. 

"That's not an issue,"

"No problem at all,"

"Great," Dustin said. "Mom's spending the night in Roanoke, she's still looking for Mews,"

"You didn't tell her about Dart? Or at least that Mews was killed?" Kat said disbelievingly.

"Are you kidding? She would freak out even more!" Dustin said, before kicking the air mattress into the sun room. It filled up nearly all of the space, the bluish material looking lumpy but comfortable.

"Wow," Kat said. "That's a pretty big mattress,"

"Yeah, it's for the Party, we used to do sleepovers on this," Dustin grinned as he thought of his friends. "You and Steve can share it,"

"Oh, I don't think-" Steve began.

"We don't have any sleeping bags," Dustin said flatly.

"Right," he said.

Kat reached into the bag of Chinese food they'd bought an hour ago. 

"Rice, and dumplings," she said, giving the rice to Dustin and the dumplings to Steve.

"Wha'd you order?" Steve asked, snapping the wooden chopsticks to break the part that held them together.

"Steamed chicken," she replied, taking out the last paper box. And boy, was it steamed. She might as well have gotten a facial from the whiff of steam that escaped from the box when she opened it.

After Dustin put his rice to heat up, the trio sat on the ground and began to eat, it being almost eleven o'clock and none of them having eaten a lot of dinner. Dustin had been too stressed about Dart, Steve about Nancy, and Kat about life.

"So after Will went missing, you found out about this- upside-down world? With Dart?" Steve asked through a mouthful of fried dumpling.

"No, Upside Down. Proper noun, with capital letters. And the demogorgons, with Dart," Dustin replied.

"Let me get this straight," Kat said, gesturing with her hands. "You then kept a demogorgon as a pet?"

"I didn't know it was a demogorgon, okay?!" Dustin said in defense. "It was way smaller, and looked harmless!"

"Kids," Steve shook his head, and Kat half-smiled.

"I'm thirteen," Dustin said, irritated, but in vain.

"You know, this morning I never would've thought I'd end up eating Chinese food with Dustin Henderson and King Steve,"

Dustin had left to go sleep upstairs, so Kat and Steve were setting up to sleep on the mattress. Kat felt plenty of awkwardness at sleeping in the same room as Nancy's (ex?) boyfriend, and she knew he felt the same, but there wasn't much else they could do.

"Don't call me that," Steve shook a blanket over the large mattress. "People like Hargrove fit that nickname better,"

"Hargrove," Kat scoffed. "He's such a bitch,"

"You think so?" Steve asked, a slight smile on his face. "I thought you'd like him. Since you two are so alike,"

"That's a good one, Harrington," Kat laughed, cheeks lighting up and dark grey eyes curving. "Nah, he's too much for me. And he smokes,"

"Oh, yeah," Steve screwed up his face in disgust. "Hate smoking,"

"Really? What about the rumor from sophomore year?" Kat threw two pillows down.

"Nah, that was Tommy. My dad smokes, so I don't," he said, grinning slightly.

"I still don't believe that. King Steve, no smoking? Next you're gonna tell me no drinking and no speeding,"

"And Kat Wheeler, Ice Wheels? Not a total bitch? Next you're gonna tell me you were speeding on a Sunday,"

"Lucas is one of Dustin's friends, I tutor him in science. We were trying to get back to his house before his mother got home and found out we were getting milkshakes instead of talking about physics," Kat chuckled, figuring she might as well explain.

"Never thought you were the rebellious type,"

"Eh, I show different sides to different people," Kat plumped her pillow, before looking down onto the mattress. 

The somehow easy conversation quickly ebbed away, as they looked at the, albeit large, but still singular bed they were sharing.

"So, uh, which side do you want?" Steve asked.

"Oh. I'll take right, I guess, unless you want to be against the wall...?"

"No- no, I'm fine anywhere."

"Nice- great," Kat gave a tight-lipped half-grin, before clambering onto the springy mattress. 

Steve made the same expression, before lying down as well, both of them looking up at the wallpaper-covered ceiling.

The awkwardness was rather stuffing up the room. Kat was afraid to move, to get comfortable since Steve wasn't doing it either. They just lay in silence for a good fifteen seconds.

"Do- do you want me to get the lights?" he asked into lights.

"Uh, yeah- sure, if you don't mind," Kat hoped he could hear the smile through her voice somehow.

She could hear him reach up and pull the lights closed, the room fading into darkness, the only light being the streetlamps outside.

Kat could hear Steve's breathing rather loudly, but it wasn't annoying because she felt so awkward anyway. She wondered if she reminded Steve of sleeping with Nancy. Her stomach shifted at that, and the awkwardness filled further. They were both awake, she knew, and Kat tried to slow her breathing, to try and fall asleep. 

One sheep, two sheep, three sheep- wait what was the plural form of sheep? Was it also sheep?

Whatever. She could hear some faint fumbling going up upstairs as Dustin tumbled around in his sleep. She really didn't feel at ease, with a demogorgon on the loose, and sleeping next to Steve Harrington. But maybe it was the stress of the past few hours, or her tiredness from bantering with Steve, that made the uncomfortableness overshadowed with the desire of sleep, and after another few minutes Kat fell into a deamless slumber.

━━author's note ━━

heyoo! so this chapter was pure action compared to the last two, so the plot is kicking in! 

in the show, dustin + steve just found the tunnel and went looking for dart the next morning, and there's nothing about what happened between those 2 events, so i made them & kat spend the night at dustin's. hope you enjoyed!