KAT

THIS HAD JUST GOTTEN A LOT MORE COMPLICATED. For one, she was kissing Steve Harrington. Second, she was kissing Steve Harrington. Kat gently pulled away as their initial adrenaline dimmed, though her cheeks were flushed, her hands were shaking, and the taste of him sang on her lips like a choir. She opened her eyes to look at Steve, who also had his eyes opened now. 

He had a small line of stubble going up to his ears, due to not being able to shave the past week. Small scars dotted his face, from growing up to Jonathan to Billy. A small sloped slit curved over one eyebrow, slitting it in half, though barely noticable. His nose was also just the slightest to the right, the result of a punch from two years ago. And a bit of his lip was just the smallest bit raised, back when Billy had broke the skin there and it had gotten a little infected. But his eyes were the greatest majesty, the elevator lights reflected in them. They were dark brown in the lighting, and Kat longed for them both to be in sunshine, for when Steve's eyes came in touch with a yellow ray, they flashed into a enchanting golden, warmer than any streetlamp or fireplace on a snowy day.

"I love you," Steve whispered to her as both his arms curled behind her back. Kat's heart tha-thumped at that, not expecting him to say it so quick. She opened her mouth in surprise, before Steve whisked the tip of his thumb across her bottom lip, the tingle making her look down and back up again. "You don't have to say it back. You just had to know,"

Kat swallowed, feeling like she was forever riding the slope of a rollercoaster, the euphoric firecrackers lighting and relighting in her stomach. Her lips mouthed something along the lines of an 'okay', but her voice didn't catch up with the signal. Did she love Steve? Except she wasn't right for thinking that right now, as she remembered that they were still in the elevator, and all the shit she'd just spewed in his face. "Steve- I'm sorry for what I said,"

"Oh, that?" Steve waved a hand. "It's all good,"

"No- I," Kat took a breath, knowing Steve would rather hear it than feel it on his lips. "I made a mistake, I shouldn't have yelled, and I shouldn't have shut you down for continuing the plan ahead," She looked up, anxiously awaiting Steve's response. Steve smiled at her, wider this time, and gently tucked a curl of her hair behind her ear. His hand brushed the nape of her neck, sending rushing signals all over at the sensitive contact.

"Thank you," he murmured, before his eyes widened as well, as if he remembered something else, too. "And- also, I'm sorry too, I messed up, I shouldn't have yelled, and I should've listened to you. Before, all the days ago,"

"Ya think?" Kat said against his lips. "It's all good,"

"Yeah?" Steve grinned, and the elevator lights looked like stars in his midnight shaded eyes. "Can Mission Ladybird still commence?"

Kat laughed, the sound breaking from her dry, parched throat, sliding jaggedly through the cracks. "Can I still pull you up?"

Steve grinned again, and Kat watched as the sides of his face pulled in opposite directions, making room for the lips she ever loved. "Step Three, then. A Starcourt Mall spy mission?"

He held his hand out to her like the first time he'd done at the Middle School Playground. The space between them was cramped in terms of movement and buzzing with energy, yet Steve managed to hold his hand up between them, extended out in an offered handshake. Kat smiled down at it, thinking foldly of the memory, before reaching out her own right hand and clasping them together. She'd held his hand before, but this time it was different. "What's the plan, Mr. Steven Harrington?"

They hadn't let go of their connected hands until, as they came down from the hatch on the elevator ceiling, that Steve had to scratch his butt. Kat had giggled at the sheepish face he made as they settled onto the floor. Maybe it was all the emotion, but throughout the entire night, Kat slept somewhat soundly, surrounded by all the warmth her thoughts of Steve provided.

It was only until a few hours later that she'd woken up to Dustin yelling through the hatch, which he hadn't decided to close. In fact, she was the last person to have woken up, as Steve was up there alongside Dustin and Erica was busy inspecting a poison bottle. It was only until Robin pressed her face along the elevator door and announced company that Kat fully awoke, frantically climbing up above the hatch with everyone else.

They peered down, watching two Russians pick up a few boxes. "Ty eto slyshal?" One of them, an older, crabbier guy asked. "Chto?" the other one responded. The other one picked up a box, juggling it around for a bit before turning around. Kat winced at the thought of the poison slushing around, smelling the pungent smoke from his cigarette. "Eti chasy,"

The other guy shrugged, before the two hopped onto their little red cart. Steve raised a finger, before looking at them and nodding quickly. They jumped down from the hatch as the sound of the door closing blared into Kat's brain. And Steve shoved the bottle of green between the ground and the door, creating a foot-tall gap that was barely crawlable.

"Erica, go, go, go go," Steve whisper-shouted, with an 'I'm going!" from the mentioned. Dustin followed, scrambling between the gap with a colorful string of swear words not for the faint of heart. Robin went after, and Steve glanced at Kat. Not this time.

"Hell no," Kat whispered, and before Steve could say another word, she shoved his head down and gave his torso a mighty push until he was halfway through. For Kat had seen enough of Steve playing as a test subject, and as cracks began to slit through the jar of poison, Kat squeezed herself under the door, her limbs janked by Robin and Dustin. And as Kat watched, the bottle shattered under the force of the door, the inch-thick glass splintering into a million pieces, and the liquid itself sinking deep into the earth in a sickly pool of lime green.

"You still wanna drink that?" Robin grinned at Erica, who looked back witheringly.

"Holy mother of God," Dustin said loudly, his tanned face sweaty, as the rest of them turned to face a hallway, at least a mile long. 

"Shit," Kat breathed. Did they have to walk that?

"Well, I hope you guys are in good shape," Steve said from behind, brushing past Kat's shoulder as he took a few steps ahead, patting Dustin's stomach. "Looking at you, roast beef,"

Kat scrunched her brows as the rest of them walked ahead. "Why me?" Dustin whispered to her. Kat shrugged, shooting Steve an exasperated glance, as they continued walking.

After way too long, they'd managed to sneak into the comms room. The door clicked shut behind them, and they pressed against it, breathless. Except they weren't alone, as a guy in a yellow-green uniform with shiny buttons and red flaps stood up in panic at the sight of them. 

Kat saw his greenish eyes flicker from one of them to the other, his hand going up to his pocket to pull out a gun or a walkie or whatever it was he had. Kat's heart skipped a beat in panic, and she frantically started talking.

"Ty eto slyshal?" she said, her mind blurred as it recalled what they guys from earlier were talking about. "Ty eto slyshal?"

"Kto ty?!" the man sputtered, looking at her outfit, which made her look like the lover child of a clown and a prostitute.

"Eti chasy," Kat said eagerly, narrowing her brows in confirmation.

"Otkuda ty znayesh' pro chasy?" the man replied, his eyes going wide, and for a minute Kat saw that he was actually scared, and reaching for his pocket once more.

Steve yelled out a battle cry that definitely should've alerted more people than it did, full-on sprinting at the guy and tackling him in a football move. Except the guy was older, and chucked Steve to the side. However, Steve planted his feet, ducked a punch, dodged another, before grabbing an extendable speaker and whomping the guy with it. He took a breath, running his hand through his hair as he looked at her. Kat stared in shock, feeling the urge to run her own hand through his hair instead.

"Dude! You did it! You won a fight!" Dustin yelled in triumph, pointing at Steve brilliantly.

Kat's mind cried out in joy, though something else inside her tugged in another direction. Her vision blurred again, just like it did the elevator, starting from the corners. Her stomach did an unpleasant flip that reminded Kat of the urge to throw up, as she slowly turned to face a staircase. Dustin and Erica's arguing faded away, as Kat faced the steps. She was rather unsure why she was so focused, it was like the tips of her hair, the fingers on her hands, were all being pulled in one way like a puppet. Robin had noticed it too. Maybe she didn't feel the same odd tingle, but she noticed the blue flashes coming from above.

"Steve?" Kat murmured, and she could sense Steve's attention on her. Then, the tingle reached from the tips of her head to her toes, and Kat took a step forwards, almost instinctively.

"Guys!" Robin said. "There's something up there,"

And indeed there was, for as they peered through the two panels of glass, they saw first, a room with Russians all dressed up in white lab coats, more soldiers, and then a space where the rooms gave away. For beyond that was a test space, filled with soldiers in red astronaut suits, and a mighty machine that resembled a cannon, gears whirring and whistling with energy as bottles of poison were plugged in, a laser of white shooting out and blazing into the wall. Except it wasn't a wall anymore, as the fabric of the cement fluctuated like a breathing animal, rising and falling as the laser seared into it, tearing it apart like ripping a shirt, and revealing a nasty, enchanting amber color underneath.

What happened next was like a fever dream. Among Kat's dazed vision, the Russian guy had disappeared, the alarm went off, and they were being chased around the base. Kat's weathered tennis shoes weren't built for high-speed chases, and as Dustin and Erica escaped through the vents, Kat, Steve, and Robin were cornered into a 'hands-up' by a squad of Russians.

Kat swallowed one of the mountain of pills stuck in her throat. Her eyes watered with exhaustion and pain as she looked up at the Russian guy interrogating her. Her hands were tied together in her lap, and her arms were tied against her thighs. The guy in front of her was wearing a similar uniform to the guy Steve had fought, except this time it was a ginger with pale brown eyes and a pug smile. Another guard stood by the side.

"Who do you work for?" he said calmly, though there was a vein in his head that pulsed with every heartbeat. 

Didn't Nancy's magazine say that if you stare at somebody's forehead it makes them uncomfortable? Kat didn't really care whether it was legit or not, as she glared into the bobbling vein on the guy's wide forehead.

"Jazzercise. I work out," Kat grinned wickedly, as if that would make it better. "To Jazz music," The guy snickered. He looked about Kat's age, barely out of high school. Except he was a commanding Russian officer, and Kat was a marionette in a stranger's world.

"How did you get in?" he snarled, and the vein bubbled up further. Kat wished she could get a hammer and knock it back underneath his thick skull.

"My friends were exploring, we accidentally went in your room-" Kat said steadily, before the guard by the door didn't hold back to give her a firm kick in the stomach.

A breath of air was knocked out of her chest by the kick, and Kat felt a bit woozy for the tiniest second, bracing herself for the soreness, before the pain miraculously vanished. The hell? Whatever. At least they didn't kick her in her chest area.

"You take punches easily, yes?" The guy said icily. "What. Did. You. Steal?"

"Steal?" Kat furrowed her brows. "We didn't steal shit, why'd we want your stupid green poison? We're kids, for fuck's sake! Look at my outfit! Why'd I wanna hijack your stupid base dressed like this, huh?"

The officer nodded to the guard, who swung a firm punch at the side of her face. That one stung, though not in the resolute way, ringing through her cheeks. "Fuck you," she spat, and felt the rise of something salty, not necessarily blood, in her mouth. She spat it out in the guard's face. It was blood. And the guard took that opportunity to swing another punch at her, that one hitting her ear, mostly, and making a weird sound as the cartilage crunched.

Another weird scientist-looking guy entered with a syringe and a needle.

"Whoa- whoa, whoa, I'm gonna need to stop you ther-" Kat said, trying to back away. But it was no use. The doctor jabbed her with the needle, causing a loud yelp. But it didn't hurt as much compared to the punches. Kat's yells of panic eventually subsided as the needle was retracted, filled with her blood, as her blurry gaze focused once more on the guy in the uniform.

"Let's try this again," the main guy said, crouching down. "Who do you work for?"