STEVE HARRINGTON WAS DUMPING SCRAP PIECES OF METAL BESIDE A RUSTED CAR. He sorted through the mess, retrieving useful sheets and metal bars. His hair was stuck down with sweat, messed up from the wind and grazing fingers.

Sara Hopper was across the clearing, hauling large pieces of junk across the yard. The shaky plan which they'd decided on with Dustin relied heavily around the broken-down bus, and therefore it had become their job to Demogorgon-proof it. She tried to pick up a rusted car door laying on the ground, but dropped it as it became too heavy. It left imprints in the dry dirt.

"Hey, Steve, help me out?" she called to him. He dropped what he was doing and walked to her side, helping her to lift the door up over their heads. They forced it down on the outside of the bus, leaning it up for later. They could use that to barricade the inside of the bus. She wiped the back of her hand over her forehead. Her eyes darted over to Steve, smile warm and playful. "You know I love that stupid, preppy-ass green sweater," Sar mused, nudging his shoulder with her own. It really was her favourite "You wear it to impress me?" Her tone was clearly joking, yet Steve's ears turned pink. She squinted at him playfully, not understanding his blush. "Or for Nancy?" The suggestion sent her own heart aching but she nudged him again lightly, still forcing a smile. James had really got her on that one.

Steve mumbled something under his breath she couldn't quite catch, but she nodded still in understanding. Steve and Nancy must have made up—Steve must have taken Sar's advice for once in his life. Sara was still swinging his spiked bat in one hand, something which had become a habit for her whenever it was present (namely only the monster hunting) and she was nervous.

Then she lifted her eyes back to him. "Thanks for the help," Sar said, lips twisting into a smile that didn't quite meet her eyes. She bumped her shoulder against his again and then went to go finish laying sheets of debris up against the bus. Steve was left watching as she bent over to pick up a barrel. Her face was crumpled and Steve wondered why she seemed so sad.

•°•☆•°•


THE TWO OF THEM WERE TAKING A BRIEF BREAK FROM THE LABOUR, SAT ON ONE OF THE RUSTED DOWN CARS. Sar had her legs dangling beside Steve from where perched on the roof. She'd been brilliant enough to take some sandwiches from the grocery store—which none of the boys had even thought of, proving her point that she was the real mastermind. Now she and Steve were eating them, watching the forest in silence.

She seemed to pause for a moment, watching Steve as he looked over the junkyard. "Hey," she said. "You're not bullshit, you know." He looked up at that, eyes flickering with something akin to pain. "And I mean it." She put her feet flat down on the hood beside him. "You're a really great person, Steve. You care about people, and you put in the effort to make things better. You weren't a shitty boyfriend and you're not a shitty friend. So I don't want you ever using the excuse that you're bullshit, alright? Cause I think that's bullshit." She nudged his shoulder with her knee. "Alright?" Steve seemed to be dumbstruck, staring at her with some form of awe flickering across his features.

"Thanks, Sar," he said after a moment, still staring. She just smiled at him, touching his shoulder gently before turning back to her sandwich and looking towards the woods, unaware that he was still watching her. He sighed after watching her golden hair flick around her shoulders for a moment. Then, with a certain confliction, he stood up from his position and walked over to help Dustin.

•°•☆•°•


SAR HAD BEGUN TO TIE SHEETS OF RUSTED METAL OVER THE WINDOWS OF THE BUS. The russet coated her fingertips in fine dust of metal. It would be dark in a few hours. She stood on an upside-down metal sink basin which groaned with each movement of her weight. The girl really wished she'd worn her hard boots instead of sneakers as she tried to stand on her toes to hammer in a corner.

"Looks like you guys could use a hand!" Sar turned, along with the other two boys, to face Lucas on the hill. He had the handlebars of his bike in one hand, waving at them with the other. Max stood beside him, smiling though looking nonchalant with a hand in her jacket pocket. Sar's nose crinkled in confusion as the two began to walk towards them. What is Max doing here?

"Who's that?" she heard Steve ask Dustin about Max from a pile of junk nearby. Dustin's silence and annoyed face made Steve look confused, and Sar wondered if Max had been one of the things they'd been discussing on the tracks earlier.

Sara walked up to meet them, followed closely by Dustin who still looked upset. He looked slightly betrayed. "Hey," Sar greeted as she approached them, eyebrows lowered. Max was standing beside Lucas, looking at her with curled eyebrows. "You brought Max?" Sar spoke the words with confusion, looking over Lucas. What use would bringing the clueless girl to help fight Demogorgons do? 

Max looked like she was tossing around an idea. "You... are you Six?" Max asked her slowly.

Sara stiffened. Every muscle in her body seemed to seize as she turned to Lucas, who looked guilty and was glancing at his foot kicking against the ground. "You told her." He pursed his lips. "You— Lucas." Her face was tightened. Goosebumps had rose on her arms. She shouldn't have been so afraid, but something had triggered inside her and now she couldn't stop.

"Just her. It's not like I'm going to tell anyone—"

She was shaking her head, eyes wide and frightened. "No. Lucas. You don't... If anyone hears about this, they'll come for me. They'll take me back there." Her face was stricken, tense and pale. "They'll take me and they'll take James and they'll take Katie, and they'll... they'll..." she faded off, tongue numbing. She shook her head instead. The boys had never seen her so afraid. "You don't want to know what they'll do." God. Her fingers came to scratch at the skin of her tattoo, an involuntary habit that too often got out of hand. Four years we've been gone. Four years we've been disobeying them. That's four years to catch up on.

She knew that her lips were trembling and her body was shaking, and that she was on the verge of having one of her episodes in front of the kids. She couldn't move. Then Steve stepped up beside her. He'd thrown whatever item he'd been holding to the side and pulled his arm over her shoulders, tucking her closer to his side. She looked down, lips still trembling. Brenner is dead. Brenner is dead. Brenner is dead.

But... those men are not.

"Max," she said, and the girl seemed to jump at the action. The red-head was wide-eyed, as if Sar was crazy. "You can't tell anyone. Please, you can't. They'll..." She stopped, knowing she sounded insane. Instead she just shook her head and let Steve pull her into a hug, strong, warm arms wrapping around her and his chin coming to rest on her head.

The kids had gone towards the cars, so Steve and Sar were left standing behind the rusted down bus. Sar was still in a dull state of shock, frozen and shaking slightly.

"Hey," Steve murmured to her. "You're safe." When she didn't reply, blue eyes focused on the ground, he raised his fingers to tilt her chin up to look at him. The sun glinted off the bus by her shoulder. "Sara. You're safe here." He never called her by her full name. "They're not going to take you, okay? We won't let them."

She searched his face. "You don't know that," she told him. "You don't... understand." Her voice was low and trembling, lips quivering. "You don't know what they'd... what they'd do to get to us..." Her fingers scratched harder down on the number on her wrist so it stung. Steve reached out with his other hand to take her wrist, pulling her hand away before it could do further harm. The action drew them closer together.

"So help me understand." She was painfully aware his hand was still on her face. "Sar. What did they do to you?" She just shook her head quickly, tearing her gaze away and to the ground. She reminded him of a frightened animal. The quick shaking was fearful and somewhat shamed. She couldn't even see the kids now. It was just the two of them between the bus and the woods beyond. "What did they do to the other kids?"

Her gaze was frozen, body rigid. "You—" the word came out in a quick breath, "you don't want to know." She shook her head at the ground bitterly, but fear was still shaking her voice. "Why do you think I have nightmares every night?" The words were just above a whisper. "Why do you think going back there is the one thing I fear most in the world?" She was shuddering. "You think they just made us do some things we didn't like? They just took us away from our mothers and fathers and that was it?" She seemed to be in a panic now. "Where do you think I got these scars from? Where do you think I got these nightmares from? They..." Her voice broke off, as if she couldn't say it. She raised her hand over her mouth. "God." Sara's shoulders began to shudder.

He wrapped his arms around her, pulling the girl to his chest. "I'm sorry," he murmured guiltily into her hair as she whimpered, fingers tightening around his shoulders. His embrace was warm and she wished she could stay there forever.

"The other kids," she cried, pulling her arms around the back of his neck so she could bury her face in his shoulders, "God— they killed them." Her voice shuddered. She closed her eyes as he tightened his grip around her back. "Oh, God, Steve, they killed them all."

•°•☆•°•

SHIT SAR MAKE UP YOUR MIND. Why do my two idiots always have no idea what's going on? ALSO THIS MAKES ME SAD!!! THANKS

Is it just me who when on wattpad on their phone and in the edit tab on their posted stories, is terrified they're accidentally going to press a button while doing something else and delete their story? Because once I accidentally was on the settings of my notes app on my Samsung and was clicking to get out of it and accidentally pressed the uninstall button, and with my insistent clicking I accidentally then clicked on the confirm uninstall and I lost a bunch of writing notes I kept on there, and ever since then I've been scarred. And so I'm always scared shitless I'm gonna delete this story by accident lmao.

Listening to the Infinity War album while writing this and very sad™.