de·sire

noun

a strong feeling of wanting to have something or wishing for something to happen.

"So..." Dustin said from the back seat. "What are you two doing together...?"

Emilia looked up at the rear-view mirror and made eye contact with Dustin, raising an eyebrow and making sure he knew that there was nothing between her and Steve. With that simple look, a look only women managed to give off, she made it quite clear. Dustin made some sort of "ah" noise and sunk back down into the seat. Within a split second, he was back between the passenger and drivers seat, arms up on either headrest.

"But really, I'm just curious," Dustin pursued.

"We went for coffee," Emilia told him.

"Ooooooh," Dustin made a dramatic pullback of his head as if it all made sense, but the sarcasm in his voice was the cherry on top. "Coffee, I get it."

"You're an idiot," Steve muttered, reaching back and pressing his palm to Dustin's forehead and shoving into the backseat. "Sit back properly and put your seatbelt on."

"Yes, okay, mother," Dustin rolled his eyes and put his seat belt on properly.

"So, explain why we are driving to your house at seven o'clock at night on a Friday? Instead of actually enjoying the start to our weekend?" Steve asked, his eyes now taking their turn to look at Dustin in the rear-view mirror.

"Well," Dustin began. "The thing is, I found what I thought was a lizard from another country. You know, brought here by some tourist or something-"

"A tourist in Hawkins?" Emilia asked mockingly. "As if."

"I know, I know, it wasn't the smartest. But I thought I was discovering a new species! Do you know what that would do for a guy like me?"

"Make you more of a nerd?" Steve asked.

Dustin sighed, but didn't give up. If anything, he was persistent as ever. "So I brought him to school and lost him... then when I found him, he had grown, shed his skin! Now I think... it's a Demagorgon baby."

"What?!" Steve and Emilia yelled in unison.

"It has the same-" he put his hands up to his face then flared them open- "face."

To her utmost surprise, Emilia didn't feel a cold chill running down her spine. She didn't feel her breath quickening and then her throat tightening, thus preventing the air from going in. The panic attack never kicked in, she felt slightly numb and nothing more. Instead of freaking out that this truly was back, the Upside Down, Demagorgons, all of it, she knew that they could defeat it again. Last time everyone had been fighting it in their own way, this time they would be smarter and work together. El, Hopper, Joyce, all of the kids, Steve...

But not Nancy and Jonathan, Emilia realized.

And Joyce was occupied with Will, who was potentially possessed.

And Hopper and El were no where to be found.

So, it was just them after all.

Dustin's voice brought Emilia back, "Well I got it in the cellar and it's locked in there right now. I guess we need to... ki... No I can't say it..."

"We need to kill it," Emilia said firmly, her word final.

They finally arrived at Dustin's, who took the rest of the drive to explain how he baited the Demagorgon and got it to go into the cellar, where he locked the doors and made a run for it looking for any of his friends, who all seemingly disappeared from Hawkins when he needed them most. Instead of finding Will, Mike, or Lucas, he had found Steve and Emilia. He also made it clear that he was glad to have found them, given that they were bigger and had also experienced the Upside Down.

Steve stared at the cellar door, waited a moment, then said, "I don't hear shit."

"He's in there," Dustin said.

Steve lightly tapped the bat against the metal doors. Then smacked it loud enough to make Emilia jump.

"Alright, listen kid, I swear if this is some sort of Halloween prank," Steve said, wielding the bat with nails protruding from it. "You're dead."

"It's not." Dustin yelled as they reached the cellar.

"Alright?"

"It's not a prank!" Dustin said, then winced at the flashlight in his eyes, "Get it out of my face."

Emilia backed Dustin when she thought about what happened to Will the day before. "Steve, I don't think it's a joke. We have to trust Dustin on this, he wouldn't lie about something like this."

"Alright, alright," Steve still didn't sound entirely convinced, but they opened the cellar doors and Steve glanced down the stairs. It was pitch black down there, and utterly silent. Not a noise, which was very strange.

"You should go down and check, and Emilia and I will stay up here in case it tries to run out," Dustin suggested.

Emilia raised an eyebrow, and then rolled her eyes. "It's best that we kill it down there than risking letting it loose up here. I'm going in."

"You don't have a weapon!" Dustin protested, all while Steve was standing with his hands on his hips, eyes darting from the bottom of the cellar to the two bickering beside him.

"Are we doing this, or what?"

Emilia grabbed the hockey stick that lay beside the door and twisted it over in her hands twice. "This'll do."

Together they embarked on the frightening journey down those ten steps into the cellar base. Silence continued to creep in, making goosebumps rise on their arms, the hair on the back of their necks stand. Nervousness filled the room like a smell, musty along with all the old shelving units and canned goods that sat under layers of dust. At the base, back to back, they discovered that there was nothing down there.

Relief and disappointment simultaneously flooded Emilia.

Until she spotted the hole in the wall, and Steve found the skin that the creature had recently shed when it grew again.

Steve retrieved Dustin, who nervously came down the stairs. He then llifted the skin with the bat.

"Oh, shit," Dustin said.

Steve shone the flashlight at the hole in the wall.

"Oh, shit!" Dustin repeated.

Jonathan laid in the pull-out couch, thinking about what Murray said after they had a few too many drinks. The vodka didn't sit well within Jonathan, he could feel it still inside his stomach, sloshing around, and a dull throb beginning to reach his head. He contemplated getting some water but didn't want to move due to the fact he was angry. Angry that Murray thought he and Nancy were in love, and that they should embrace it. He wasn't in love with Nancy, he deeply believed that, but he didn't believe that there was nothing there either.

He rolled onto his side, unable to fall asleep, and then kicked the blanket off. Sitting up, Jonathan walked towards the kitchen to grab a glass of water, the intent was to drink enough to avoid a hangover for the drive home tomorrow. As he walked past the door where Nancy was sleeping, he approached it without thinking anything of it. His feet acted on their own, and he was suddenly there. Turning around, he heard the door open, and he quickly spun back, spilling water out of the side of the cup and onto his bare feet and the floor.

"Hey," Jonathan said, thumbing a droplet of water from the side of the glass.

"I just, uh... I just wanted to say that..." Nancy clasped her hands together awkwardly before her.

Jonathan knew what she was talking about, "Oh, no, don't... I mean... he is so drunk."

"Wasted," Nancy agreed.

"I mean, what? He knows us for a couple of hours and now he's got us all figured out?" Jonathan crossed his arms over his chest, the glass still in his one hand.

"Exactly. God, okay, yeah. I'm glad we feel the same way," Nancy whispered.

"Yeah, yeah I mean it's fine," Jonathan put his cup down then.

"Uh, so... good nigh, I guess," Nancy said as she walked back towards her room for the night.

Jonathan was backing towards his, "Yeah, good night."

Back in his own room, he felt his heart hammering in his chest. He thought about what Emilia might have felt when Steve kissed her. He wanted to know. If he had any feelings towards Nancy and they were real, he should test the water's shouldn't he? He should know if he is following his heart, like his mum had told him. But he owed it to Emilia...

He didn't even know what him and Emilia were anymore.

Before he knew it, he was outside Nancy's door again, and she opened it from within, obviously with the same thoughts on her mind, it was clear from the look in her eyes too. Those eyes read of only desire and passion, something Jonathan wanted in that moment. He felt so alone, hurt by Emilia and both of them hurt also by Steve. It felt, in that moment of heated passion, like the right thing to do.

Nancy and Jonathan both stepped in for the kiss, lips locking for the first time. The desire and passion sparked, then, all at once, it completely faded for Jonathan. Instead he was filled with a sense of dread and utmost regret, how different this was from what happened between Steve and Emilia. Steve had drunkenly kissed her, Jonathan was willingly and knowingly hurting Emilia by kissing Nancy.

He pulled back, a bit forcefully.

"What's wrong?" Nancy asked, a sadness in her eyes now.

"I can't do this... I can't do this to her," Jonathan said as he placed his hand over his mouth, shocked by his own actions. He quickly stumbled back to his own room, shocked and appalled by what he did. 

When you have prime writing time and you get sick and want to be asleep by eight every night. *eye roll*. At least these chapters have been really easy to write.

Question of the Day: Do you think I handled this scene well? I wanted something to happen between Jonathan and Nancy, but I didn't want it to go all the way. And I know none of you did either.