THE HEADLIGHTS WERE CUTTING THROUGH THE DARKNESS OF THE STREET. Sar peered through the night as she sat at the wheel. Jonathan's car was harder to drive than she initially thought. It was probably the oldest, crappiest piece of junk on the market (not that she blamed him or his mother for that), and she had to pull extra hard on the gears to change them. It had her on edge. The tires skidded as she rounded the corner. "Damn it," she muttered.

She adjusted her position in the seat. Her skirt was rising up her thighs and she pulled it back down, annoyed. How damn impractical. She let one hand control the steering wheel as she felt for the familiar metal of her gun in her pocket. She pulled Jonathan's car into Steve Harrington's driveway.

Sar flicked off the ignition and hopped out of the car, shoving her cold hands into the pockets of her jacket. The autumn leaves blew down the Harrington's drive, Sara's boots clicking on the pavement. His house lights were on, naturally. She could just imagine him sulking inside. She knocked firmly on the door.

There were a few moments of soft silence, where Sar's eyes darted around behind her because she had been in this position as Steve's house before. But then footsteps came towards the door and a lady exclaimed: "Coming!" Sar furrowed her eyebrows. That was definitely not Steve.

A woman with a giant mass of curly brown hair opened the door. Sar was blinking, mouth slightly open. "Mrs... Harrington," Sar said in surprise, eyebrows raised. At least now she knew where Steve got his hair from.

"Hello, Dear," Steve's mother said. She had her eyebrows pulled together as she looked past Sara's form, perhaps looking for any other people. She only saw the beaten up car in the driveway. "Do you need something?"

"Oh, I'm Sara. I'm just looking for Steve." She gave her a quick, pinched smile. "He's my friend," she explained, raising her eyebrows.

"Oh, of course." Mrs Harrington's fingers curled around the side of the door as she turned back to call inside the house. "Stevie! You've got a friend here!" Sar's lips quirked up at the nickname. No matter how angry she was at Steve, that made her smile. New nickname for him, she guessed. Sar couldn't really be angry at him, though. Not really. Sar heard footsteps walking down his stairs. His mother turned back to talk inside the house, blocking Sar's view of indoors. She waited there patiently. "There's a girl out there waiting for you," Steve's mother said. "I'll be in the kitchen if you kids need anything." She left the door slightly ajar.

The door swung open again. He was wearing a simple light green sweater that clung around his shoulders. There was still blood dried on his face and Sar winced at that. His eyes widened as he saw her. "Sar," Steve said in surprise.

She had her arms crossed over her chest, eyebrows quirked. "I've come to collect you," the girl stated, leaning against the doorframe. "We're going to kill the monster." She was still aware of the wetness of her skirt and shirt. Her bloody knuckles still stung.

"Kill... the monster?" he asked slowly. "We're..." He sighed, and turned his gaze away. "Look..." Steve raised a hand to cup his hair. Sar crossed her arms expectantly, looking up at him with a perfectly raised eyebrow. "I was an asshole," he sighed apologetically.

"You were," she agreed, both of her eyebrows raised now. He shook his head embarrassedly.

"I'm really sorry, Sar. I never meant what I said about you," he told her. "About you going back to the lab and calling you a freak. And... about the kids dying. I'm so sorry. I never meant... any of it. I promise." He looked desperate for her to forgive him, eyebrows tilted upwards pleadingly.

She rested her head against the wood frame. She'd understood his anger. He hadn't meant anything he'd said about her. Sar could tell without even looking into his head that she was his friend. He'd never wanted to hurt her, let alone tell her he wished she'd go back to the very place he told her he'd protect her from. But he was angry at the thought of his girlfriend cheating on him, while they were going through a monster, crisis. And she had been there—trying to stop him. It was only common sense he'd lash out at her.

"You should have listened to me, you fucking idiot. What, you thought I wouldn't tell you that you were being cheated on?" She had the edge of her lips curled upwards now, standing straight. "You're so stupid."

He winced. "Yeah, I know. I'm an idiot." He shielded his eyes with his hands. Then he looked up at her hopefully. "Forgive me?"

She leant against the doorframe again, both arms crossed over her chest. Her mouth was pursed. Then her lips tugged into a playful smile and her eyes became creased in the edges. "You know, you're not so bad, Harrington."

"Oh so now we're reduced to last name basis?"

She gave him a look. "It's reduced to last name basis, until you make it up to me, Harrington."

He was shaking his head playfully at her. "And how am I going to do that?"

She swung the door wider open and cocked her head. "By killing the monster." There was a tight smile on her face.

"We better get on with it then," he said, stepping through the doorway. Steve took another glance back at his house, where his mother was in the kitchen.

"That's what I said," she mused. She looked at where Steve was glancing. "Your mom's nice," Sar said.

Steve shrugged with a nod, putting his hands in his pockets. "When she's around. Yeah."

"Around more than your dad, though?"

He shrugged again. "They're not really together much." She pursed her lips and gave him a calculating look. He turned his head away from her. "How exactly are we killing this thing?" he asked, changing the subject. She could see the open wound on his lip. It looked painful.

She looked back towards the beaten up car. "We already have it planned out. Nancy and Jonathan and I, I mean. It's what we were shopping for before you and your asshole friends interrupted us."

Steve winced again, avoiding her gaze. He'd closed his front door and the both of them were standing out on his front doorstep. He shoved his hands in his pocket. "I ditched them anyway."

"Good. They were dicks." She tilted her head slightly.

"I can't believe Tommy hit you," Steve told her, eyes lingering on her bruised cheek.

She raised a gentle hand to touch it experimentally. "Well, to be fair I hit him first. But for a skinny ass he's got an okay punch." She had her eyebrows raised as Steve peered at it. The girl covered it with her palm, rubbing the bruise. She nodded her head towards Jonathan's car and the two began to walk towards it. The cold autumn air began to freeze her cheeks. "Oh, and I found my dad." She said it as if it was some nonchalant thing. Steve's head snapped towards her, and she was smiling.

"W-w... you...— uh?" His eyebrows were raised at her as he struggled to form a complete sentence. He was blinking.

She shoved her hands into her jacket pockets, leaning her head onto one of her shoulders. There was a skip in her step. "Mhmm. My name's Sara."

"Sara." He tried the name on his tongue. "It's nice. Suits you." She smiled at that, trying to hide her happiness. Naturally, Steve saw right through her. She skipped along with her braided hair falling loosely around her face. "But Sara is pronounced totally differently to Sar." His eyebrows were crinkled.

She was grinning. "I guess it was just my nickname, you know? Sara, Sar..." she was shaking her head, lips turned upwards in a sly smile. "It's great." Such genuine happiness was spread across her face that it made her glow.

"So who's your dad?" he asked her.

She pulled her eyebrows in. "Chief Jim Hopper." She nodded. She took another happy leap towards the car, unlocking it. Steve stopped by the passenger side door, hands resting on the roof of the car.

"The chief?" He asked, eyes widened. She gave him the small shrug of her shoulders, a grin on her face. Her tied hair was cascading over her shoulder. "You're... you're that Sara? But... you died. When you were like six or something. Everyone knows that."

She raised her hands into the air in a shrug. "Guess not." She pulled the driver's door open.

Steve seemed to stop. "Hey, Sar?" She looked over at him. "I don't think they're going to want to see me."

She lowered her eyebrows. "They'll be fine. They can deal with it." She swung herself into the seat. "Come on. This Demogorgon isn't going to slay itself," she said, starting the ignition.

•°•☆•°•

"YOU'VE BEEN UP TO A LOT OF WORK IN HERE," SARA SAID, LOOKING AROUND AT THE SET-UP. She'd pushed through the Byers' door, boots landing on the rug. There were few lone stains of blood beside the coffee table. The Christmas lights had been reinstalled, hanging above from the ceiling like silent alarms. Both Jonathan and Nancy visibly stiffened as Steve entered behind her. The two of them had been sitting on the couch together, hands holding each other and wrapped in bloody bandages. "I see you've started the blood thing without me," she said, nodding at their bandaged hands.

Jonathan stood up as Steve stood behind Sar. He stepped in front of Nancy, who had a surprised look on her face. Steve may have had his arms crossed over his chest but Sar knew it was just a sign of his nervousness. Jonathan began to walk towards the other boy, a storm look on his face. Sar moved forward to intercept. "Hey, hey." She pushed Jonathan's chest with a gentle hand. "He's not here to cause trouble. Actually, he's here to apologise, and help in killing the monster." Jonathan pushed his hands into his pockets. He looked at Steve with narrowed, suspicious eyes. Sar carefully took her hand off his chest. "Good?" she asked. Jonathan stepped back in response, eyes flickering to Sar gently. She shrugged and gestured to Steve. "Well, I mean he's admitted he's an asshole."

"You got that right," Jonathan mumbled under his breath.

"I'm guessing he's been an asshole for a long time. You'd think with all this monster shit it would be getting better."

Steve grimaced, "It's happening." She smiled fondly at him, the bloody idiot. (She kind of hated how fond she'd grown of him — People you become fond of fucking die, Sar. Don't forget that. She couldn't help it anyway).

Sara eyed the length of weapons on the table. There was that bat they'd brought, hammered through with inch-long nails; the axe which she very much intended to use; an extra lighter; a hammer; and a bloody knife that Sar could only assume was used to slice open Nancy and Jonathan's hands. She rolled her eyes. They were idiots. Someday she needed to teach them about the major veins in their palms, which should be avoided with a knife at all costs. She put it on her mental list to do, instead fumbling with one of those long nails that had been left on the table.

"What's that smell?" Steve asked, looking around. His eyes were widened. "Is that gasoline?"

Sar moved to pick up her axe from the table. It was heavy in her hands—probably not the best balance to be swinging at a creature but she fucking hoped to hell it would kill that bitch of a monster. "I told you, we have a plan."

He looked at her. "And what kind of plan can kill an inter-dimensional monster?"

"The one which can kill an inter-dimensional monster," Sar shot back. She swung the axe experimentally. "We lead it here with blood," she pointed at the Nancy and Jonathan's hands, "then get down the hallway and...?" she looked towards Nance for support.

The girl sighed, wrapping her other hand around the bandaged wound across her palm. "There's a bear trap in the hall. We get to Jonathan's room and then wait for the monster to step in the trap. When it does, the yo-yo will spin... and then we set it on fire."

"And we're sure fire can beat this thing?" Steve asked, eyes darting between the two. He still looked relatively uncomfortable in their presence. "I mean, what if it's immune to fire... like some kind of... I don't know. We don't know anything about this thing."

Sar raised her eyebrows. "We know it comes when the lights flicker. We know it's coming. That's enough. If the fire doesn't kill it... then we improvise." She shrugged.

"Improvise?"

"Yeah." Sar shrugged her shoulders again. She'd re-tied her hair into a higher ponytail. "But fire will kill it."

"This is a shit plan," he complained.

Jonathan stepped forward, an angry look on his face. "Yeah? Well no one asked you to be here." He was standing face-to-face with Steve, who was glaring him down.

"Actually, I did," Sar argued. "Obviously. So both of you, just back off, okay? We're here to kill the monster, not each other." She was staring at the sharp edge of her axe, wondering if such a thing would even hurt the Demogorgon. It glinted off the light from the lamp in the corner of the room. She dropped it back by her side. "Got it?" she asked them, eyebrows raised. "Great. Now let's kill some fucking monsters."

•°•☆•°•

BTW SAR'S NAME IS PRONOUNCED SAR, LIKE BAR WITH AN 'S', NOT LIKE SARE, LIKE BEAR, WITH AN 'S'. I KNOW IT REALLY SHOULD BE PRONOUNCED THAT WAY SINCE SARA IS PRONOUNCED SARAH, BUT IT'S HOW I'VE ALWAYS SAID IT SINCE THE PLANNING. IT'S JUST HER NICKNAME.