Chapter Text
It was supposed to be easy, and it was supposed to stay easy like that. He was the popular douchebag, King Steve, no one would ever question all the gaps in his story. That’s what he counted on, that’s why he always tried to stay just that. Just the arrogant asshole that every girl was after but no one ever thought to look deeper than that. It was supposed to stay like that.
It didn’t.
Steve hadn’t expected the Starcourt thing to escalate so quickly, to find himself tortured by Russians who just didn’t want to believe that he was telling them the truth. He was glad that they were focusing their torment on him, leaving Robin alone for the most part. He Hadn’t meant to pull her into this, but he did and he could never forgive himself if she got hurt because of him.
He actually thinks they might be able to become friends. After she told her about that class they had together, he remembered her even if he didn’t want to admit it to her. Couldn’t risk the King Steve reputation, couldn’t risk her digging deeper.
Now, with the Russian truth serum out of their systems, he was finally able to formulate clear thoughts again. He was just glad that he hadn’t let anything slip, Robin didn’t even know about what had happened in Hawkins the last two years, he didn’t need to drop anything else on her. He never planned on telling anyone why his documents were so patchy, why his parents were never around, why he never talked about his childhood, why he had absolutely no pictures of himself as a child. Even now when he thought that Robin and him might actually be able to become friends, he still wouldn’t tell her anything, he couldn’t. He silenced the part of him that was reminding him to not get too close, to not let her see even a tiny bit of who he really is.
The universe or whatever higher power there was seemed to have other plans for him. They were hiding from the Russians, again, this time behind the desk of some store in the mall and they were close, couldn’t hear them talking to each other just a few feet away. They were coming closer. They were done, they would all die if he didn’t do anything. But could he really risk it? He knew that it didn’t matter, after everything was done he could just run away, hide somewhere else. He would never have to explain anything to them if he just got away fast enough.
With a half-baked plan in mind he got to his feet, hand raised next to his head. Robin and Dustin both grabbed at him, trying to pull hi back down at his shirt but Steve didn’t budge.
He glanced over to the car he had seen earlier, it was standing on display in the middle of the mall floor. Just what he needed to finally get rid of their pursuers. He didn’t want to, could already think up countless scenarios of how exactly this could go horribly wrong but there was no other way. With new determination he focused on the car, focused on the powers he had hidden away for years. It’s not like he never used them ,he just hadn’t done it often, afraid his cover would blow.
The first few seconds nothing happened and the Russian guard looked at him in confusion, guns still pointed at his chest, their fingers at the triggers. Steve took one more deep breath and with a fluid motion of his arms he grabbed the car and flung it over towards them. They had no chance to react before they were all swept away by the car hitting them at full force. They had no chance of surviving this.
Just a moment later he could hear running steps approaching them but they were too light to be more guards. Dustin called out to his friend before Steve could really comprehend what was happening. Robin, Dustin and Erica were standing next to him now that the threat was dealt with and on the level above them where the others. Nancy and Jonathan with the whole bunch of kids, they were all here. Steve felt a small trickle of blood underneath his nose and quickly wiped it away, hoping that no one had seen it.
They made their way up to the others, Dustin leading the way. They all looked like they had had their own problems to deal with. Nancy was glancing around from time to time, most likely still paranoid from what had happened. They were all talking over each other, sharing what had happened to the respective groups.
Steve’s face was still pounding from the beating he took and he could feel the headache forming but he still caught the gist of it. The mind flayer was back and it wanted to kill Eleven. It made sense considering that they had uncovered that the Russians had opened a new portal to the Upside Down.
Suddenly Eleven started screaming in pain and sank down to the floor. She had a wound on her leg and he didn’t even want to know how exactly that happened. Everyone crowded around the girl but he stood back. He had tried to keep away from her as much as possible, it didn’t seem like she recognised him, but he very much did. He had seen Eleven regularly at the Lab before he managed to escape, but she was still a few years younger than him, probably too young to remember or at least recognise him. He couldn’t complain about it, it made his life easier. But last year, when they had met the first time, he had still felt a bit of fear when she looked at him for a brief moment. The moment had faded and he hadn’t talked to her ever, so it seemed fine.
Seeing her lying on the ground like that now, something moving underneath the skin of her leg, he just wanted to get closer and help her. It still felt like she was his little sister, even if she didn’t even know him.
Steve stood back while Jonathan ran off to get something to help and Mike held Eleven. He wanted to help, he really did, but he couldn’t. He couldn’t get involved in this or else his cover would blow. But did it really matter when this girl was in so much pain, when he could help relieve that pain?
Before he could think more about it Jonathan had cut her leg open and was now grabbing inside, trying to get the thing out. Steve could already see that it wasn’t working, and Eleven seemed to know that too. She told him to stop and Jonathan did.
Eleven pushed herself into a sitting position and Steve already knew what she wanted to do before any of the others seemed to catch on and no. He couldn’t let her do that, she shouldn’t have to pull that thing out of her leg herself. She had gone trough enough and she shouldn’t have to do this when he was just there.
The others seemed to be of a similar opinion but no one wanted to stop Eleven, there was no other option for them.
Steve pushed himself away from the wall he had been leaning against and sat down in front of Eleven and she stared at him, wide-eyed, when he grabbed her hand and gently pulled it away from her leg.
He met her gaze and tried to convey what he wanted to do with just his eyes, didn’t want to say it out loud. She stared at him for a moment more, then glanced down at his right forearm, the part of his arm that was covered by a thick leather band. She glanced over to her own arm where the numbers where on full display. Eleven looked up at him again and she nodded. “Okay.”
Steve let go of her hand and tried to blend the others out, tried to pretend they were alone. Just two escaped experiments by themselves.
The thing underneath her skin started wiggling around again and Eleven let out another scream. Suddenly Nancy was standing in front of him. “What are you doing Steve, let her get the thing out.”
He couldn’t acknowledge her right now, might loose his nerve if he did. He took a deep breath before he raised his hand over her leg and started to pull at whatever was trying to make itself at home in his sister’s leg. As soon as he was able to grasp it he pulled and Eleven’s screams started to fill the empty mall again. She grabbed his free hand and he let her, let her squeeze it even if it hurt. He could feel the blood slowly trickling out of his nose but he ignored it. He yanked at it one last time and it was finally out. Steve didn’t hesitate to fling it against the nearest wall from where it slid down to the ground as if in slow-motion.
He let himself fall backwards and dragged a hand through his hair to get it out of his face. The whole mall had fallen into an uncomfortable silence and Steve could feel them all staring at him. He wanted to hide, just leave like he had already planned out in his head but he never got the change to actually make the decision as Eleven finally broke the silence.
“Why did you never say?”, she whispered into the silence and Steve ducked his head down, afraid to meet her eyes.
He shrugged. “I couldn’t risk it, he already knew that I was staying in Hawkins but as long as I laid low he never came after me.”
Her next words where still only whispered into the silence. “Papa knew?”
Steve nodded and finally raised his head to look at her again.
“I stole some files when I escaped, blackmailed him. He never risked coming after me because of it but if anyone had found out he probably wouldn’t have cared about that.”
Eleven nodded in understanding and they fell back into silence but it didn’t last long before the boys all started to talk over each other. He couldn’t really make out what they were saying but they were definitely enraged that he never told any of them. Nancy and Jonathan looked at him with barely concealed shock while Robin just seemed very confused.
He knew he shouldn’t have told them but he couldn’t have let Eleven suffer either. He’d rather skip country than leave her to pull that disgusting thing out of her leg herself.
A hand on his arm pulled him out of his thoughts and he glanced up to see Eleven intently looking at him. He tapped the leather band wrapped around his wrist, hiding the number that was permanently etched into his skin. She understood without her saying a word, she wanted to see it. And while his mind was still reeling from everything that was happening right now he nodded. He knew he could trust her, just like she could trust him even without knowing him. They were the same in a way and that’s why he didn’t care if she saw or not. He just had to pretend that no one else was with them.
He slowly unfastened the band and pulled it off his wrist. Eleven took his wrist in her hands as soon as it was out of the way. She slowly inspected his wrist and Mike was staring at it as well, Steve had forgotten that he was sitting behind Eleven. She touched the numbers carefully. 007.
“Seven?”
Steve nodded and smiled at her. “Yeah.”
She frowned at him. “I don’t remember you.”
Just as he opened his mouth to explain himself the sound of car doors being slammed shut echoed around them. They all scrambled to duck for cover in case it was more Russians but it turned out to be a false alarm. Just Mrs. Byers and Hopped with some other dude Steve had never seen.
While everyone was planning what to do next, Steve somehow ended up sitting on the ground next to Robin. He had lost the leather band sometime earlier while they were scrambling for cover and his left hand kept wandering over to his right wrist to cover up the numbers. It was purely habit at this point.
After sitting in silence for a few minutes, Robin grabbed his hand and pulled them over to her to inspect the numbers. Steve tried to pull them away but it was only half-hearted, he didn’t really try to get away from her.
“Why did you never say anything?”
Steve shrugged. “Would you have believed me?”
Robin shrugged. “Guess not.”
They sat in companionable silence while Steve watched the others bringing together a full plan. Eleven had latched onto Hopper and Mrs. Byers seemed like she couldn’t decide which of her sons needed more of her attention. Dustin and Erica were arguing over something with the dude that had been dragged here by Hopper. They also seemed to form teams, deciding who should go where to make this work. Steve couldn’t bring himself to care where they would send him, he would help wherever he could.
Suddenly Hopper was in front of him, way too close for comfort. The man stared at him as if he would be able to look into his head if he just stared hard enough. Steve sighed. “What is it, Chief?”
Hopper didn’t back off. “Oh I don’t know Harrington, just wondering why El is suddenly so intend that you stay close to her in case something goes wrong, but she won’t tell me why. Care to enlighten me?”
Steve let out a long breath. He had hoped this wouldn’t happen, had hoped he could brush it over in front of the adults but he never seemed to be lucky when it got to these kinds of things.
“Fine, but can we not play twenty questions about it right now, I don’t think we have time for that.”
Hopper huffed and suddenly he pulled him up to his feet by the front of his stupid sailor uniform.
“Stop joking around Harrington.”, he said when Steve was standing on his own two feet in front of him, the chief’s hands still tightly balled to fists in his shirt. “Just tell me why you should stay with them even though you look like someone just beat the shit out of you!”
Steve shook his head, not impressed by the man’s words or display of brute strength. He’s had worse. He nodded once and it seemed to be enough for the chief to at least let go of his shirt.
Steve had no plan to actually put it onto words, didn’t know if he could yet. Maybe some day he would tell them, but today was not that day. Instead he just raised his right wrist so Hopper could see it. As soon as his eyes fell on the tattoo he grabbed his arm and pulled it towards himself, more careful than Steve would have ever expected. He stared down at his wrist for a while before he looked up again. There was shock written clearly all over his face. “You’re like El.”
Steve just shrugged. “You could say that.”
Hopper just nodded and went back to planning with the others. A few minutes later everything was settled and they all set out to do their parts. For Steve that meant telling Robin, Dustin and Erica to be careful and getting into a car full of people that still didn’t quite know how to act around him. As soon as they were gone Nancy tried to start the car but something was wrong and then there was Billy and they had to get back inside.
The rest is a jumbled mess, one adrenaline driven moment bleeding into the next until it was finally over. He silently watched as everyone reunited and fell into each other’s arms, glad that it was over. He watched with dread already pooling in his gut when he thought about returning to the empty house. It would be better that way.
At some point Eleven walked over to his and fell into his arms. He just held her close and let her cry into his shoulder. Hopper didn’t come back with the others.