— SOMEWHERE AMONG THE STARS
season three — episode seven

CHAPTER SEVEN

IF YOU WERE TO tell Oliver Choi a year ago that he would be running away from evil Russians with Steve Harrington, Dustin Henderson, Erica Sinclair, and Robin Buckley by his side, he would call you insane.

But now that it was actually happening, he was still thinking that maybe this was all some sort of crazy dream. But the grip that Steve had on his forearm and the panicked looks on everyone's face was enough for him to realize that this was actually happening. "And. . . blend," Dustin said and they tried their hardest to blend into the crowd that was leaving the theater. However, since there were two people dressed in sailor outfits it was quite difficult to do so.

However, it seemed like it was going smoothly so far. "Well, shit, that worked." Oliver let out a sigh and kept his eyes ahead, gazing at all of his surroundings. "Course it worked."

"We just have to get on the bus with the rest of these plebes, and home sweet home, here we come," Dustin said, and Oliver shared a look with Steve. He bit his lip, chewing on it for a moment. "Hey, Dustin. . ." Oliver started, running a hand through his hair, completely forgetting about his scratched scalp, immediately moving his hand away. "We might not want to go to your house."

Dustin turned to face Oliver, eyebrow raised. "Why is that?" He narrowed his eyes and Oliver cleared his throat, nudging Steve. "This dumbass revealed your full name to the Russians." Steve looked at him and then at Dustin, at a loss for words. Dustin slowly turned to look at Steve. "What is wrong with you?" Dustin scolded, a scowl growing on his face as he studied the man.

      "Dude, I was drugged." Steve tried to explain but even Robin and Oliver were aware enough to know to not reveal his name. Then again. . . Steve isn't very bright. "So?" Dustin asked him, throwing his hands up in exasperation. "So?" Steve asked as if making sure he was really asking that at that moment. "So, you resist. You tough it out. You tough it out like a man." Dustin seethed, starting to get a bit riled up.

"Oh, yeah, it's easy for you to say." It was at that moment that Oliver suddenly became aware of everyone around them. He could hear the conversations that people were having and could almost sense their stares. When he looked ahead toward the entrance, he could see multiple guards decked out in armor and weapons checking everyone that left. "Abort." He heard Dustin say and Oliver wasted no time subtly slipping over to the side, grabbing ahold of Steve and Erica's hands, dragging them along with him. He let out a shaky breath when he suddenly felt one of the guards' eyes on them, watching them like a hawk. It was at that point that he gave up trying to be discreet and just started full-on sprinting, everyone trailing behind him. They found themselves in front of the escalator that was shut down for the night and Oliver urged them to slide down the middle area where nothing was blocking it.

He sent the girls down first and made sure each of them got down safely for pushing himself down the metal that was smooth enough to make it seem like a slide. It was enough for him to feel a bit dizzy. He let out a breath and shoved everyone behind a counter. It was the most obvious place to hide, but they really had no other option. He sat at the end, turning his head to the side so that he would be able to hear them better if they got too close for his liking. "We've found the children. They are still in the mall. Lower level. Keep all entrances locked down. I repeat — Keep all entrances locked down." Those words were enough to send chills down his spine.

He felt his heart pounding against his rib cage, quietly bringing his legs up to his chest to be able to push himself off the ground quicker. He closed his eyes and tried to breathe steadily, trying his hardest to make sure that the others would be safe. He felt someone grab onto his hand and automatically knew who it was, keeping the hand a squeeze. It was an attempt to reassure each other that they would be okay. No matter what happens, they would be okay.

At this point, Oliver heard multiple pairs of footsteps, some of them closer than others, but it was so quiet that you would be able to hear a pin drop. He jerked his head to the right when he heard someone's shoe squeak, wincing when he heard the pair of footsteps closest to them stop abruptly. "Everyone, get over here. I found them." Oliver stopped breathing for a moment. He felt as if his whole life was shattering.

He looked around, eyes widened, and the others with him realized that he must've heard something that wouldn't end up being good for any of them. Oliver brought a finger up to his lips and quietly shushed them, trying to assure them that things were gonna be okay with a quick smile.

He started looking around again, looking for anything that might give him a chance to act in self-defense. However, before he could find anything at all, a car alarm started blaring. The car that was on display just next to them. "What the hell?" Oliver felt the earth being lifted off of his shoulders when he realized what was causing it. Or more specifically, who.

He kept himself backed up against the counter even as he heard the car being thrown across the mall, the sound of glass shattering echoing through the empty mall. It was then and only then did he place his hands on the counter and slowly peer over it. His breath was shaky as he looked at the four dead bodies surrounding that general area, looking off to the side at the beaten-up car that was only being held up by a counter.

He turned his head and felt relieved when he saw El, Max, Lucas, Mike, everyone. . . Everyone was okay. He felt like crying at that moment, he felt so relieved. Oliver made his way over the counter with everyone else, making sure none of them were hurt before they all made a run for it toward the group that was making their way down. "Haha! You flung that thing like a Hot Wheel!" Dustin laughed as he ran ahead, throwing his arms around El and Mike — who was helping El walk.

"Lucas?" Erica asked when she saw her older brother with the group of kids. Lucas seemed just as confused as she was. "What are you doing here?" He questioned, wanting to know why his little sister was just being chased down by four grown men. "Ask them. It's their fault."

"She's right, it was our fault," Oliver spoke up, his voice still hoarse from having thrown up his guts not even twenty minutes earlier. Everyone looked at him for a moment and noticed the fresh and dried blood that was now dripping down both sides of his face, but they didn't ask him what happened. "I don't understand what happened to that car," Robin said, still in disbelief that a car was thrown across the mall by itself. "El has superpowers," Dustin said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"I'm sorry?" Robin asked, a small smile growing on her lips, thinking that they were joking with her. "Superpowers. She threw it with her mind. C'mon, catch up." Erica looked at the girl in front of them, pointing at her. "That's El?"

"Who's El?" Robin asked, still wondering how she had managed to end up in this situation, and how she was supposed to just take this all in like it was just another Tuesday. "I'm sorry, who are you?" Nancy asked the blonde in front of her, wondering who this random girl was. "I'm Robin. I work with Steve."

"She cracked the top secret code." Robin reached over and smacked Dustin on his and just a bit, pointing at the blonde that was standing right next to her. "Don't give me all the credit, this genius did most of it."

"Yeah, which is how we found out about the Russians in the first place." Steve pointed out, nodding his head with every word that he said, still not completely aware of his surroundings. "Russians? Wait, what Russians?" Jonathan asked, not knowing what the hell they were talking about.

"The Russians!" He said, gesturing over to the dead bodies that were laying on the floor, suddenly feeling like the smartest in the room. "Those were Russians?" Max asked, tearing her eyes away from Oliver's very clearly injured state to look at the men on the ground. "Some of them." Erica clarified.

"Oh, and Oliver speaks Russian now."

"What? Since when?"

"Since yesterday."

"That's unimportant right now."

"What are you talking about?" Lucas intervened, bringing the conversation back to the Russians. "Didn't you hear our code red?" Dustin asked them, eyebrows furrowed. Oliver raised an eyebrow before realizing that he must up talked to them while they were high off of their asses. "Yeah. But I couldn't understand what you were saying." Mike told him, causing Dustin to look off to the side with a sigh. "Damn low battery."

"How many times do we have to tell you the low battery," Steve asked, smacking the back of his hand against his palm as if it was going to get the words into Dustin's brain quicker. "Well, everything worked out, didn't it?" Dustin asked, not feeling like getting scolded at that exact moment.

"Worked out? We almost died." Erica told Dustin, trying to get him to realize the reality of the situation they were in. "Yeah, but we didn't, did we?" Dustin argued back. "It was pretty damn close," Steve told him and Oliver nodded along. keeping his eyes on the brown-haired girl that was walking away from the group, a grim look on her face. "Okay, Russians? As in, they're working for the Russian government."

"Why are you not comprehending?" Dustin asked the boy in front of him but Oliver could no longer pay attention to them, looking directly at El, who was bringing her hand up to his ear to plug them. "El. . ." He mumbled, pushing past Steve and Robin to get to the girl just as she collapsed, making sure she didn't hit the ground. "Whoa, whoa, whoa."

Everyone else came rushing over and started asking her what was wrong, a grimace resting on El's face as she tried to ignore the agonizing pain she was feeling, but there was no use. "My leg. My leg." Oliver carefully set the girl down, letting her rest her head on his thigh as he watched them unwrap the bandages around her leg. It looked exactly like how his did the year prior, except it also looked worse.

He pushed his eyebrows together when he saw something moving around in her skin, his mouth opening in shock. "What the fuck is that." He breathed out, leaning forward to shield El's eyes from the blinding fluorescent mall lights. "El! El!" Mike grabbed her by her shoulders to try and calm her down, even asking if she was okay. "Obviously she's not okay. Do you see her fucking leg?" As if to prove Oliver's words, El let out the most gut-wrenching scream he had ever heard, causing Oliver to screw his eyes shut as he tried his hardest to rack his brain for something that he should do. "Someone hold her." Oliver quickly passed her to Mike, who was the first to reach over to grab her, and dashed down the mall, ignoring the confused shouts from behind him.

      He rounded the corner quickly and hopped over the counter of a food chain, walking into the back where he knew they would have some sort of disinfectant. He rummaged through the counters and grabbed bandages, gauze, the disinfectant, a wooden spoon, gloves, and finally, a butcher's knife. He held each of those things in his hand carefully, making sure not to drop any of it as he walked into another store, knowing that they were more than likely to have what he was looking for. His eyes scanned the shelves and counters until finally he saw it. Numbing spray. He quickly grabbed it and wasted no more time making his way back over to the group, where they were all trying to calm El down.

      "El, I'm gonna warn you now, this is gonna burn like a bitch." He told her as he set everything down. "Why the hell do you have a knife?" Mike asked him but Oliver didn't answer him and instead handed El the wooden spoon. "Bite down on that if you have to." He advised, pouring just a bit of the disinfectant on his hands to try and prevent too much bacteria transferring without having to run across the mall once more to wash his hands. He then tugged the pair of gloves onto his hands. He grabbed the numbing spray and sprayed some on her leg, muttering an apology when he heard El hiss in pain.

      "Someone go heat this up while this works." He held up the knife and didn't even pay attention to who grabbed it. "Please explain what you're doing." Oliver finally looked at Mike, his bangs covering his eyes. "I'm fulfilling my dreams of becoming a doctor." Oliver stared at him with a straight face. "What the fuck does it look like I'm doing? I'm saving your girlfriend." He turned when he heard footsteps running toward them and watched as Jonathon ran to him with the searing knife in his hand. Oliver held his hand out and quickly grabbed the knife, letting it hover over her leg for just a moment.

      He looked up at her, meeting her eyes. She nodded her head, letting him know that he could continue, and he reciprocated the action, bringing the knife down to her skin, holding her leg down with his other hand. He  let out a breath before slicing the irritated skin, not ignoring the groan he heard from the girl on the floor. He tried his hardest to not meet her eyes, knowing that if he did, he would falter and might not be able to help her. He set the knife down when he had made a long enough cut and let out another breath. He raised his hand, looking up at her once more. 'I'm sorry.' He mouthed when he saw her clouded eyes, noticing the teeth marks on the wooden spoon from how hard she had bit down on it.

      He frowned before screwing his eyes shut, clearing his head before looking back down at her leg, sticking two fingers into her leg. He dug around the wound, feeling for whatever was crawling in her skin, drowning everything out. He heard her screams of pain and bit down on his lip, almost having caught whatever was in her leg. "No! Stop it!" He immediately stopped, not wanting to push her over the edge for anything at all. He looked up at her, noticing that she had spit the wooden spoon out. "I can do it." She said, pushing herself up into a sitting position. Oliver nodded and backed away from her, feeling someone place their hands on his shoulders. She stuck her hand out toward her leg, shouting out in pain. Oliver could only watch as she started to pull whatever was in her leg out. He jumped a bit when the glass from the store beside them shattered, falling all over them. With a struggle, she managed to get it out, chucking it across the mall with a yell. Oliver let out a sigh of relief, looking at the thing from afar.

SLAM!

Everyone turned to look at the source of the sound, looking at a heavy boot that had stomped on the creature. Oliver slowly looked up and felt like crying when he saw Joyce Byers, Jim Hopper, and some random guy he didn't know. Maybe just for a minute, he could relax.

"The Mind Flayer, it built this monster in Hawkins, to stop El, to kill her and pave a way into our world." Mike had explained to everyone — who had all gathered around the fountain to fill each other in on things that were happening. "And it almost did. That was just one tiny piece of it." Max added on. Oliver listening from where he stood in between Steve and Max, arm wrapped around the redhead as a way to comfort her.

"How big is this thing?" Hopper asked from where he sat on a bench, hugging El like he was afraid to let her go again. "It's big. Thirty feet, at least." Oliver raised his eyebrows at the sound of that. He had only ever seen Demodogs in person, and they were small, so this was a big difference for him. "Yeah. It sorta destroyed your cabin. Sorry." Lucas apologized.

"Okay, so, just to be clear, this. . . this big fleshy spider thing that hurt El, it's some kind of gigantic. . . weapon?" Nancy nodded at Steve's question, a 'yes' flying out of her mouth quickly. "But instead of, like, screws and metal, the Mind Flayer made its weapon. . . with melted people." Steve wanted to make sure he was hearing this all correctly and that he wasn't getting the wrong idea from what they had told them already. "Yes, exactly." Oliver chewed on his lip, his head started to pound from the adrenaline wearing off. "Yeah, okay. I— Yeah, I'm just making sure."

"Are we sure this thing is still out there, still alive?" Joyce asked, wanting to make sure that it was still there before they jumped straight into action. "El best the shit out of it, but, yeah, it's still alive." Max confirmed for her. "But if we close the gate again—." Before Will could finish what he was saying, he was cut off by someone. "We cut the brain off from the body."

"And kill it. Theoretically." Lucas finished, looking around at everyone to see their reactions. "Yoo-hoo!" Oliver turned to look over his shoulder, watching as the random man he didn't know waved around pieces of paper, waving them over to a table. He slammed the pieces of paper down as everyone circled around him. "Okay, this is what Alexei called 'the hub.' Now, the hub takes us to the vault room." Oliver leaned over the table, looking at the sketched on blueprints of what seemed to be the place he had been stuck in for hours. "Okay, where's the gate." Oliver reached forward and pointed at the area the gate was in at the same time that the guy did. "Right here. I don't know the scale on this, but I think it's fairly close to the vault room, maybe 50 feet or so." Oliver laughed at that, shaking his head, causing the guy to look up at him. "What's so funny?"

"It's definitely not 50 feet. It's more like 500 feet." Erica walked forward, standing next to Oliver. "What, you're just gonna waltz in there like it's commie Disneyland or something." Oliver tried his hardest not to smile at her remark, causing Steve to smile form beside him. "I'm sorry, who are you?"

"Erica Sinclair. Who are you?" She asked him, looking him up and down. "Murray. . . Bauman." Erica nodded her head, pursing her lips. "Listen, Mr. Bunman, I'm not trying to tell you how to do things, but I've been down in that shithole for 24 hours. And with all due respect, you do what this man tells you, you're all gonna die." She pointed out, Oliver nodding along with what she was saying.

      "She's right. It's not the most pleasant down there." Oliver gestured to his and Steve's faces, and it clicked in everyone's mind what exactly had happened while they were down there. It seemed like Steve had more injuries, but Oliver's injuries seemed worse in a way, like they were deeper. "I'm sorry, why is this four-year-old speaking to me?" Murray asked out of exasperation. Erica raised he eyebrows, looking at him with distaste written all over her features. "Um, I'm ten, you bald bastard!" Murray only looked at her in shock. "Erica!" Lucas went to scold her from where he stood.

      "Just the facts!" Oliver cleared his throat quite loudly, gaining everyone's attention. Oliver grabbed the small pen that Murray had used to draw the homemade map and circled a room. "This room right here, fucking hate it, is a storage facility. There's a hatch that will ultimately lead you to the weapon. . . or, well, the base of it anyway. Don't get fooled, it's difficult to figure out where you're going, it's like a maze." Dustin looked at him in shock. Oliver hadn't even been with them when they had been figure out where to go, so how in the world did he even find the time to figure that out. "How did you. . ."

      "When you're being dragged to be held hostage you can study quite a lot if you pretend to be unconscious." Oliver told him, setting the pen down and looked up at Hopper. "I'm sure you guys are smart enough to figure this out on your own because I refuse to go back down there." Hopper reached forward and placed a hand on his shoulder, giving it a squeeze. "Don't worry, son. You rest for a bit, you look like you haven't slept for weeks. Thanks for your work." Oliver stared at him for a moment, not knowing how to feel about the compliment, not having received many, but he eventually smiled at that and nodded, blinking to keep his eyes open.

      On that note, everyone walked away, leaving Oliver sitting at the table by himself, resting his head on the cold surface of the table top. He sighed in content when he felt the coolness soothe his bruised cheek, sinking into the feeling, letting his eyes close for just a moment. He relaxed. For the first time in days, he allowed himself to completely relax. He heard the sound of a chair scraping the floor and peeled open his left eye, staring at the familiar sailor outfit that he had been stuck with for hours at this point. "Hey, Ollie. How you feeling?"

      "Fine. Are you okay?" He lifted his head slightly and rested it on his hand now, meeting Steve's eyes. "As best as I can be right now." Oliver nodded in understanding, knowing exactly what he meant. Steve seemed nervous about something, his leg bouncing as he messed with his fingers. Oliver raised an eyebrow as sat up, turning his body to face him. "You sure you're okay? Something you wanna talk about?"

      "Yeah I'm. . . I'm." Steve sighed, running a hand through his hair, closing his eyes as he collected his thoughts. "Everything's so confusing right now, I don't know what to feel anymore."

      "Yeah, same. Everything's so hectic with the Russians and all—." Steve interrupted the blonde with a shake of the head and a nervous neck scratch. "I'm not talking about the situation at the moment. I'm talking about. . . other feelings." Oliver furrowed his eyebrows and looked off to the side, trying to figure out what he was talking about. Steve watched him as his confused features softened, telling him that he had figured out what he was implying. "Oh. . . You're talking about. . ."

      "Something else." Steve nodded, confirming Oliver's suspicions about his thoughts. Oliver stayed silent and Steve couldn't help but feel like he had said something wrong. "I mean, I'm not sure if you're feeling it too, but when I'm around you I feel different than I have with any other person and its making me confused and—and feel weird and I just don't know what to—."

      "Steve. . ."

      "Do because I know what I'm feeling isn't necessarily seen as okay in this day and age but theres no denying that what I'm feeling is real and—."

     "Steve."

      "I completely understand if you're don't feel the same way and if you're disgusted by me now, I don't ever wanna make you uncomfortable because that would just mean that I had done something to cause that and that would just make me feel like a horrible person because I really care about you and it would tear me apart if I had done something to hurt—."

      "Steve." Oliver reached forward and grabbed ahold of Steve's shaky hands, giving them a tight squeeze. Suddenly, all of Steve's worries vanished when he looked into Oliver's eye. His kind eyes. His beautiful eyes. "First of all, I would never be disgusted by you, you're still the same person I knew five minutes ago. Second of all, you shouldn't feel ashamed of how you're feeling despite how many times people tell you it's wrong, when, in fact, they are the only ones in the wrong. And third, I know exactly how you're feeling because. . . I've been feeling the same way." Oliver reassured, a small smile growing on his face when he saw Steve's eyes cloud over with relief.

      "R—Really?" Oliver nodded with a quiet chuckle, his hands still holding onto Steve's. "Have since last year." Steve let out a huge breath, laughing a little as he leaned forward, resting his forehead on the table. "God, you have no idea how long I've been wanting to tell you this. I could just never find the right time." Oliver smiled at that and nodded along, despite the fact that Steve couldn't see him. "And as much as I would love to continue this conversation and try to figure things out, we have a monster to defeat." Oliver told him, pushing some of Steve's hair out of his face.

"Yeah. . . unfortunately."

"But, as soon as all of this is over. . . how would you feel about, maybe. . . seeing a movie?" Oliver suggested, immediately noticing the red that rushed to Steve's cheeks. "Uh—I—Uh—Yeah. Totally!" Steve brought one of his hands to his cheeks and felt how warm he was getting just from a simple question that in any other context would be normal for them. "Didn't think you would be the one to ask me out on a date." Steve admitted, being used to asking girls out and never them doing the work for him. Oliver laughed and just stared at him for a moment, smile on his face. "God, I'm so relieved. I don't think you understand."

      "Oh, no. I definitely understand." Oliver reassured, only just then pulling his hand away from Steve's despite how much he didn't want to. "Let's get this over with so we can go on that date, huh?"

      "That sounds like the best plan in the world, on with it!" Steve shouted, finger raised in the air, causing the others to place their attention on them for a moment, not expecting Steve to just randomly shout out of no where. "On with it." Oliver repeated quietly, still smiling at the brunette that got up and walked away, listening in on the plan that the others were discussing.

      He was so relieved.

coughs awkwardly
hey
i haven't posted in like 4 months but
i've had insane writers block
BUT
THEY FINALLY CONFESSED GUYS WOOPEE