chapter nine
hot-and-sexy-ness

🖤

THE NEXT MORNING, RUBY FELT EVEN worse — she couldn't sleep, the thought of a new monster making her toss and turn. She kept on thinking about Harrington, too, which she hates to admit. All in all, everything is going terribly — and now, she's got to spend the weekend figuring out how to stay popular without Billy, and she doesn't even know where to start! Operation Snowflake Queen is already a nightmare.

She's wearing her favourite set of pyjamas, a satin camisole with shorts, because last night she thought that would cheer her up...

... It did not.

She throws on her robe, feeling a little too exposed in just the little set. Ruby brushes her hair and walks downstairs, where her aunt's left a note: Had to leave to work over weekend. I'm so sorry!!! I've left $100 on the side, treat yourself. I love you xx

Ruby makes herself some pancakes, taking her time in the measuring, the mixing, the careful zig-zagging of maple syrup, in the hopes that the concentration on that will distract her from everything else. She digs into her breakfast and sits in shitty silence. She should've broken up with Billy a long time ago, but she recognises how much he boosted her popularity the start of this year. Like, yeah, it was nice to hear that there's no one else like her (her ego's gonna remember that one) but that doesn't mean anything if the student body doesn't recognise her hot-and-sexy-ness! She know that people like her now, but what if breaking up with Billy crushes all of that and she goes back to zero?

Her stomach is overcome with anxiety, too, which Ruby struggles to grapple with. She feels like she's anxious all of the time right now, but she doesn't know how to even aid it, or what in particular is causing it. She just feels overwhelmed with nervousness. She looks down at her coffee and decides that won't help in her current malady, brewing herself one of her auntie's chamomile teas instead.

The day is spent in this awful state, Ruby awkwardly sitting around the house, trying to productively finish her plan for popularity. She only takes a break to get dressed, which turns into an hour's ordeal that she doesn't have the right outfit. Eventually she decides upon light-blue jeans, a lacy camisole, and a zip-up hoodie that she thinks is Harrington's. (She can't remember, it's been so long.) She walks downstairs just as the doorbell rings out.

"One sec—oh."

As she opens the door, she sees Harrington standing on her porch, holding a bouquet of red roses. Ruby frowns.

"Can we talk?" he asks.

Ruby keeps on looking down at the flowers. She guesses they're for her but why did he do that? Since when did he buy her flowers?

"Uh, I guess..."

She lets him in, awkwardly closing the door behind him. Her heart is starting to beat faster; she thinks of how disappointed she felt last night, and the fact he's here makes her feel comforted. She isn't sure how that leaves her quest for Snowflake Queen, but she cares more about Harrington than that in this moment.

"I got you these," he tells her, and hands her the flowers. "I remember you saying you liked roses the most..."

She smiles softly, looking down at them. Rose was her mom's name. "Yeah, uh... thank you," she says. "Why did you get me flowers?"

"I thought you'd be more willing to talk if I got you a present," he says with a shrug. It's moments like these that she remembers how long they were friends, before all of this happened and tore them apart... Tore her apart, and made her fuck up everything around her. She remembers this one time, when she read this Cosmopolitan article about all of the different ways people express their love, and how to tailor that to your significant partner. Some people prefer affection, others prefer presents, other prefer compliments. Ruby read this out to Steve, and she said with a frown, "But I want all of that?" He used to make fun of her for that.

Ruby places the flowers on the coffee table for now, and sits on her sofa. She feels incredibly awkward at how formal all of this is.

He sits down, too, and what follows is the most painful moment of silence Ruby's ever experienced. She watches his knee start bouncing, so she knows he's nervous. Her own hands feel a little shaky. Her mind races back to last night, how she had so many things to say to him. In the nervousness of this moment, she can't remember any of it.

"So you and Hargrove broke up," says Harrington.

Ruby glances at the flowers, and then back at Harrington. "Uh—?"

"I'm not here to ask you out," says Harrington, realising what she was thinking. Ruby nods, but she isn't exactly relieved. Part of her's a little hurt, which annoys her. "I just wanted to talk about everything."

"Everything is a lot of stuff," says Ruby, but the second she says it, she knows she's being defensive. Instead of making another quip, she sighs. "I'm sorry about yesterday."

Harrington looks surprised. Sorry didn't come out of Ruby's mouth all that often, this past year even less so. "Oh, uh, it's fine."

"No, it's not," she says. "I have been a bitch recently..." She wants to add it's because you know about my powers, but she stops herself, like she always does. It's as if she thinks he'll forget if she doesn't mention them for long enough. But that thought alone is what makes her realise, that if she wants to move on from this, she's got to make changes. "I don't like talking about things... but I guess I've got to, sometimes."

"That's why I came over, actually," says Steve.

"So you got me flowers to butter me up?" she says, raising an eyebrow.

"Uh, exactly," he says, and she smirks. "I've been thinking... it would be nice to be friends again." She takes a minute to respond, her mind running to questions of social status. He must've noticed that, though, because he quickly continues, "I know I'm not cool anymore, but people still like me, y'know? I'll even pretend to like Carol and Tommy. I might kill myself after a week..." Ruby scoffs, and he smiles at her. "I just miss having you around."

Her lips part, and she's about to respond, but he continues: "But I can't do any of that if you don't tell me what happened to you."

Ruby takes in a deep breath. She should've known that he'd ask her this, and deep-down she knows she should tell him. It's unfair to want to be friends again, but refuse to tell him this. Nancy and Jonathan know.

But if Steve knows — that makes it all real. And Ruby knows there's no point hiding from all of this now, but still. If Steve knows — if the boy she's been best friends with for all this time, who never knew, who gave her that normalcy she craved for so long — then her chance of a normal life will be over. But the thought of never being friends with him again, never having the possibility of something more happening, when it almost did so many times last year... Ruby, in spite of everything she's said and thought about him since last Christmas, doesn't want to give up Steve. Not for real.

So she stands up. "Give me a second."

Harrington looks confused, but she leaves him anyway, quickly running upstairs to her bedroom. She kneels on the carpet next to her bed, and pulls out her memory box. For a moment, Ruby hesitates, looking down at the box. She can't remember the last time she even looked at this, should she even show Steve this? No, no, she should. She knows it's fair. She just feels nervous about it.

As Ruby walks back downstairs, tightly holding the box, she tries to encourage herself. This is the right thing to do. He's never going to tell anyone, she knows that. He jumped to kill her monster last year, just to keep her safe. He won't tell anyone about this.

"OK..." says Ruby, noticing her voice is shaky. "If I tell you this, you can never tell anyone else."

"Got it," he nods.

"No, I mean, like, even if I'm a complete bitch to you and you hate me, you still can't tell anyone."

Harrington frowns. "You already are a bitch to me."

Ruby rolls her eyes. "OK, yeah, but like, they will literally kill you if you tell anyone. This is JFK level shit."

"I won't tell anyone," says Steve, earnestly.

"OK. OK..." She trails off for a second, having to reassure herself that this is fine to talk about. She sits on the floor, opening up the box to show some of the documents on the coffee table. As she opens the box, the first photo on the pile is her mom, Rosemary Brenner (almost Hopper). Her yearbook photo from when she was a senior. Ruby's age.

ROSEMARY BRENNER
"A wise girl knows her limits,
a smart girl knows that she has none."
— Marilyn Monroe

Elsewhere in the yearbook are pictures of her mom winning Prom Queen, her mom at cheerleading practice, her mom winning Best Dressed. Her mom moved to Hawkins in freshman year of high school, and she was pissed about it. She grew up in Chicago, but her dad's new job meant they had to move to this shitty small town. Ruby's auntie always told her how Rosemary almost lived with her best friend to stay in Chicago, but her dad grounded her all summer for being ungrateful. By the time she got to Hawkins, Rosemary Brenner was angry — but of course, all of the boys thought she was hot, and the aggressiveness made her even more so. Eventually she calmed down, after spending two years acting out and throwing the wildest parties whenever her dad was absent. This 'calming down' came as a result of her new boyfriend, captain of the basketball team, Jim Hopper.

She knows that when this school photo was taken, her parents had been dating for almost two years. He was a year older, so when they started dating in Rosemary's junior year, it gave her instant cool points. The school's king, Jim Hopper, dating the new cheer captain, Rose Brenner. By the time Hopper graduated, his relationship with Rose had solidified her as the school's newest it girl. The world revolved around Rose Brenner!

But her dad was drafted the second he left school; in his absence, Rose moved to New York to model. At twenty-three, she was two signatures away from a Playboy centrefold when her long-distance boyfriend came to stay. She fell pregnant and moved back to Hawkins the next week.

"So..." says Ruby. "That's my mom."

"... I know," says Steve with a frown.

"OK, so..." She tries to think of the best way to explain all of this. "Did you hear about MK-Ultra?"

"What, the lab experiments?"

"Yeah... So, some of them were in Hawkins. And that's what my grandpa did at Hawkins lab... But when my mom got pregnant with me, my grandpa said that the Hawkins hospital was shitty, so my mom should have all her scans at the lab, because they had better doctors. My mom didn't know any better so she agreed, but my grandpa did that to start his newest experiment. Me."

Ruby pulls up her sleeve, to show the XO.

"My grandpa wanted to see if he could create the perfect human. He had done all these experiments and they worked, so he wanted to channel all of that into creating a genetically perfect human. That's why my face is so symmetrical."

Steve frowns. "If this is your way of saying you're hot—"

"I mean, I am, but that's beside the point!" says Ruby. "So. I was born. Perfect human. But I still had to go to the lab every month for check-ups. But then, then I was five, though, at one of those check-ups I managed to walk off. And that's when I saw the monster for the first time."

She can remember that day so clearly, she doesn't think she'll ever forget. She wishes she could've blacked it all out, because that would've made things so much easier.

"No one else was there, and the monster was about to kill me. But all of those injections and experiments awakened something inside of me. I wasn't supposed to have powers... They were triggered to stop the monster, to keep me safe... So every time you've seen, like, a ball almost hit me and it misses, or any of that weird stuff, it's because of that; I've gotten the hang of them, kinda, and I can sort-of control them,  but most of the time it happens without me realising."

Steve frowns. "So why did you keep on seeing the monster?"

"I don't know. I think it's because when I got those powers, I became the best thing to kill it. Like, there's so much other stuff that lab did, and I don't understand any of it like others do. But my powers are to protect me, and to kill the monster, and no one else is like that. I think the monster kept on following me because it knew I could kill it..." Ruby feels like she's just word-vomiting now. "I think that's why I've got good intuition too. Because my brain's designed to protect me. I get a, like, sixth sense when somethings going to go—"

But Ruby's forced into silence, another sensation taking over her body. Her insides cramp up, squeezing her. She gasps, and her hand tightens around something to help her through. Ruby feels an overwhelming sense of dread, and her heart races as though the monster's in this very room. Her mind is running and running, and she knows it's trying to figure out what's happening. But she knows one thing, that she only gets this awful sensation when something awfully terrible is about to happen.

And then, all of her thoughts come to a halt, and the answer escapes her lips:

"My dad's in trouble."

Steve's eyes widen."What?"

"I don't know, but this is what I mean!" she says in a panic. "I just know random shit!" She looks down, and realises that she held onto Steve's hand a minute ago. Quickly she lets go, pretending that didn't happen. "I need to find my dad."

As Ruby stands up, Steve does the same. She frowns.

"Uh...?" she begins.

"I'll drive," he tells her. "You can't if you're doing that every ten seconds."

"I am not doing it every—"

But she proves him correct, blinking and envisioning the Upside Down; long, thick tentacles knotting around her dad, slowly suffocating him...

Ruby comes to again, and looks up at Steve. "OK. Fine. Let's go."

Not that she knows where.

Ruby squeezes her eyes shut when she gets into his car, trying to picture the In-Between Space. She knows she normally has to be submerged for this to work, but she doesn't have the time. She tries to concentrate, to think of where her dad is. Her stomach is lurching the longer her dad's in trouble. This what she means — she wasn't built to do anything of this stuff, to search in her mind to figure things out. She's just told what to do with the Upside Down. She wishes Eleven was here to help.

"C'mon, c'mon, c'mon, c'mon—"

A tight squeeze fastens around her head, and the location comes to her mind.

"OK!" Ruby turns to Steve, who looks frightened beyond belief. "You know Johnson's farm? The pumpkin patch? They had, uh, the cowboy-scarecrow and they used to have the maze at Halloween—"

The car engine roars to life, and the car screeches off the driveway without another word. "Jesus fuck, Steve!" she exclaims, grabbing onto the car door for support. He's speeding more than Billy.

"So what does that mean?" says Steve, shouting over the sound of the engine. "Johnson's trying to kill your dad?"

"No — the Upside Down's got him!"

Steve looks like he's going to shit himself. "What the hell is that?"

"Where the monster lives!"

Steve swears. "I thought the monster's dead!"

"It is — no, maybe it isn't — but the dimension it lives in is still alive—"

"What do you mean, the monster might be alive—?"

"Because I saw a mini one last night and I killed it!"

"And you didn't say anything?"

"It didn't seem important!"

"Well, it kinda fuckin' is!"

"But I killed it so it's fine! There's nothing to worry about!"

There was a lot to worry about. Namely, her father, who somehow transported himself into the Upside Down. Ruby remembers the same happening to Nancy last year, and the ordeal it took to get her back. She yanks the hair tie off her wrist and throws her hair into a bun. Don't talk to her about the damage that slime took on her hair last year. Eugh.

They reach the farm, and Ruby bolts forwards in her seat when she sees her dad's car parked in the field. The car skids to a halt, Ruby's car door swinging open and her feet hitting the muddy ground.

And that's when they see the Byers' car.

Ruby runs over to find Mike and Will sat in the car. Mike furiously winds the window down, shocked that she's even here.

"They went to find Hopper! He's in the tunnels!"

"The tunnels? What tunnels?"

"Uh, Rubes..."

Ruby looks over at Steve, who's standing next to a massive gaping hole in the earth. She turns back to Mike.

"Why are there holes?"

"I don't know! But Will knows about them."

"Uh — OK, I'll be back soon. Stay here!"

Ruby runs over to Steve. "They're in there."

Steve's eyes widen. Ruby looks down at the hole, and without another note, jumps down.

She lands on the ground rather ungracefully, and her palms hit the slimy surface to try and steady herself. Steve appears next to her, stumbling too, just as she wipes her hands clean. She hates the Upside Down.

Ruby lets the sixth sense take over, and grabs Steve's hand, running down the tunnel in the direction it tells her to. "DAD!" she shouts, as high-pitched screeches sound around her. It doesn't like that she's here, she knows that, but she doesn't care. "DAD!" She keeps on shouting, and she hears Steve catching up to her. Eventually she appears in an opening, two tunnels on the other side. She looks down, and alongside old bones, she sees her dad's chief of police hat, and, faintly, his hand.

Joyce and her boyfriend (Ruby's got no idea who) are trying to cut her dad free of the roots trapping him, which she realises are the screeches. Ruby can feel her palms warming up.

"What are you doing here?" Joyce exclaims.

"I knew something was wrong!" says Ruby. "Get back!"

Joyce ushers her boyfriend out of the way, and Ruby extends her hand, feeling the warmth from her palms trickle down to her fingertips. She watches as sparks of fire erupt around the tentacles, severing themselves and releasing her dad. Ruby falls to her knees, helping her dad up.

"RUBY?" he lets out, amidst a splutter of coughs.

"I'm not going to let you die, am I?" she says, but all at once, countless torch lights descend upon her. Men in radioactive suits are closing in around them, and pull her to her feet, alongside her dad. Ruby's panic starts to set in at the thought of being brought back to the lab. She knows her dad needs to go, but she looks up at Steve, and she wishes she could make the two of them disappear...

... Wait.

Ruby breaks free of the men, and grabs a hold of Steve, pulling him away from the man holding him. She thinks as hard as she can, make us invisible. Blood trickles down from her nose, as she watches the men forget they were trying to catch her. Steve looks down at her incredulously.

"They can't see us," she says. "I don't think."

"How—?"

She closes her eyes and tells him she'll tell him later, but she needs to focus until they leave, or else it might stop working. "Just keep a hold of my hand... That's how it's working for you."

"I think you just wanna hold my hand," says Steve, beginning to guide her towards the hole they entered through. If Ruby had energy to spare, she would roll her eyes. Instead she promises to herself that she'll make a quip back later, once they're far away from everything here. Her heart is shaking still from the stress of her dad being in danger, which feels like a first in a long time. Even last year, she was pissed he was involved in all of this.

They get back out of the Upside Down, undetected thankfully. Ruby keeps her hand tightly clasped against Steve's, though, as she watches Mike and Will being taken away. She knows the lab isn't bad anymore, but Ruby still doesn't trust it there. She thinks it's valid that she thinks that. That place lied to her for years.

But all of those tunnels alongside the mini-monster she saw last night... Ruby can't help but worry about the future of all of this. If things go out of hand again, it'll be up to Ruby to fix it. She knows there's other people involved now, but she still feels such an overwhelming level of responsibility over this. This is her monster, her fight... She glances over at Steve, who's driving carefully back into town, and she feels a pang in her heart. She's grateful he's here to help... She just wished he wasn't anywhere near danger. For a moment she misses last year, where, yeah, Ruby was shit-scared and wished he was there to comfort her, but she was so thankful that he was still hanging out with Tommy and Carol, because she knew he was safe. Now, though...?

"Hang on," says Steve, and he pulls over to the side of the road.

Ruby frowns, as he swings his car door open. She's about to ask what he's doing, but he pukes up black goo.

"Ew," she says.

Way to kill the moment.

i wrote this before season 4 so uh if steve dies im gonna be having words with netflix thank u xxx

but i hope you guys enjoyed!! as of writing this, this fic finally reached 10k which is super exciting!! i used to write fics all of the time so it's been nice to get back into it writing this, so i'm happy you guys are reading this too :) fun fact: i started writing this last may/june but forgot all about it until i posted it in october. but i still love ruby 4ever!! (also the next chapter!! it's gonna be good) it's also kinda fun because when i first got into writing fics (literally in 2013 how gross... i had to lie about my age on here for ages lmao) i always felt like there were so many rules about writing fics? like romantic things shouldn't happen until after chapter 10, chapters should be 3k words upwards, there shouldn't be many mentions of sex if the fic isn't just smut... so it's nice that now, as a 21 year old, i can write this how i imagine it without all that stuff. (also part of me wants to write smut for this but we will see lmao)