(Your wish is my command, Part 3!)

(Thank you for all the supportive comments!)

A detour of sorts was in action. Hopper had sent code that he and Joyce had returned and he wanted to see Eleven before she went off to her dance. So Steve had pulled over, waved Jonathan over, explained the situation and promised to get the girls to the dance on time. Great.

Steve turned up the road to the cabin, listening to the soft chatter in the backseat. El, had been fully pissed that anyone was preventing her from attending the dance ASAP and was bouncing in her seat from anticipation. Max had quieted down after the initial rush and was just going along for the ride.

Steve stopped the car and twisted the key out, and hurried out of his door before the girls had even undone their seatbelt. He ran around the car to open the door for them, like some sort of fancy chauffeur. El grinned and took his offered his hand to exit the vehicle. Max did not copy the set example and just rolled her eyes at his antics. Steve slammed the door and followed them up the porch. Eleven preformed the "special knock" (useless now with no known threats) and several locks clicked open. Hopper stood in the open doorway, Joyce several feet behind him.

"Look at you kid, all dolled up."

Eleven grinned and hugged him, careful with her hair. Hopper held her at arms length, confused at the sight before him.

"I thought Nancy was sick, who did all this?"

El's grin widened. "Steve did it!"

With the look on Hopper's face, Steve felt his whole masculinity had dropped several levels in the Chief's book.

El stepped further into the house to be cooed over by Joyce, and Max stepped forward.

Hop surprised Steve by pulling her into a hug.

"You look good too Max."

She smiled and scrambled after El.

Hopper rubbed a hand over his face and stared at Steve.

"I tried really hard to get out of it Chief, I've never done any of that before." Steve grumbled, trying to save his dying reputation in the eyes of Jim Hopper.

The Chief just slapped him on the back and called for the girls to get going. They all met at the door and after some goodbyes and "If the Wheeler boy tries anything, public use of powers is permitted" they were off again.

They loaded back up to into the car and Eleven's excitement leveled up a few notches.

It didn't take long for them to pull into the school's parking lot, where they repeated their fancy car exit, with Max participating this time, and walked up to the school. In the entryway, Steve marked himself as a chaperone on a lined sheet and walked the girls towards the event. He walked over to the other chaperones ho awkwardly hung around the edges of the dance and talked.

He kept his eyes trained on both girls, El who made a beeline for Mike and Max who tailed her. Mike and El gazed all gooey at each other and immediately stepped out to dance. Dustin was talking up some new girl and Will had captured the attention of some blonde who was following him around. Max and Lucas tried to appear much cooler then everyone else (failure because, well Steve was here, obviously) and stood leaning near drinks and food.

Steve scanned the dance, and its windows and doors, for any threats to his little family. Nothing yet. Mike and El were hopping around the crowd with stupid grins, never breaking their eye contact. El was easy to spot, she was the only one in such a bold red. And Mike was always inches from her so he was easy to spot. Dustin was loud and had gathered quite the cluster of girls, so he was easy to track. Will was constantly moving now to escape whoever was so interested in him so looking for a little dart of a person was the best technique to find him.

Max and Lucas were nowhere to be found. Damn damn damnit. Steve left his perch to hunt them down. He did not trust either of them, no matter how cool and mature they thought they were. Actually, that was what he was afraid of. They were no longer lining the refreshment table, or around the edges of the room. Steve left the dance to go skim the boy's bathroom and peek his head into the girls (nothing but a sobbing mess surrounded by her girlfriends) but no Max or Lucas appeared.

He ran back to the party happening in the gym and took a mental head count of his kids. Dustin hadn't moved, Will was cornered and Eleven and Mike were dancing together, much closer now. He would have to fix that later but he had bigger fish to fry at the moment.

He was about to go check some unused closets and classrooms when he spotted a flash of red hair in the crowd that was cluttering the dance floor. He pushed his way around the perimeter of the crowd and sure enough, Max and Lucas had given into the music and were dancing together. Steve heaved a sigh of relief and leaned against the wall again.

Over the next hour or so, he was rather bored, fidgeting with some streamers and eating pretzels. He had sat with Dustin for awhile and had drastically assisted in expanding his clump of females. He'd rescued Will from whoever had been so persistent and talked with the little weirdo for a awhile. He didn't dare even try to distract the lovebirds from each other and he was afraid to bother the house of cards that was Max and Lucas together, one touch and it might all go to shit.

Only an hour remained of the dance and the kids were still going. God, the people at his age would have all run off to some after party or at least have gone out and away from the watchful. Eye of the adults but this age was more cautious, less trusting of the outside world. Steve frowned at the lack of innocent excitement that came with rebelling against the rules. These kids just worshipped anything that promised safety. This gained another huff from Steve who was getting very bored very quickly. He checked the clock. 10:27. Not long now.

How had Nancy even considered this a good waste of her time? This was boring as hell. Jesus. Well she was kinda boring anyway and Jonathan hadn't helped that but still, this had nothing appealing to it except that he could watch over his little kids. The entire mood in the room shifted when the music turned slow and soft. Half of the kids left the floor, the ones who hadn't attended the dance with a date, but the designated dancing area was still full of people. This was when Mama Steve got a little more protective. He found Max and Lucas dancing awkwardly at an arms length, which he was completely fine with until Max got bold and planted a kiss on Lucas' dumb mouth. This did not settle well with Steve. He was about to go and break the pair apart when he saw a flash of red that reminded him to keep an eye on El.

She was much much closer to Mike then Max to Lucas, with her chin on his shoulder and bodies pressed together as they swayed. This was little close for him comfort but at least they weren't kissing. He turned back to Max and Lucas only to find them missing. Again. But this time it was worse because they had actually done something concerning to their "Mother". He hurried back out of the celebration and scanned the bathrooms again, only to return empty handed (poor kid was still crying in there) and so he went off on a little adventure to find them again. He went off down several hallways, with no Max and Lucas in sight. He burst out the doors on the side of the building that led to a darker corner that few found in their time there. Sure enough, Max and Lucas were up against a wall, clothes still intact but mouths hadn't left each other. Ick.

Well, mama had to break this up.

"Maxine!"

They broke apart and flew to opposite sides of the little alley. Steve crossed his arms and glared.

"Max, inside now."

She huffed and stomped back into the building with Steve hot on her heels.

Lucas awkwardly shuffled back into the dance while Steve herded Max off to a secluded corner.

"What were you thinking kid?"

She scoffed and crossed her arms.

"I was thinking enough."

"Max, you're too young for this stuff."

"I am not, if anything I'm way old enough for the stuff, all the shit that went down, this past few years? That made me old enough."

Steve chocked. She didn't deserve anything that had happened. He just opened his arms and she buried her face into his coat.

They stood like that for a while, Max taking comfort in him, and he was thinking of how much he wanted to tear apart every Demogorgon, every lab worker, every bully, every abusive brother, everyone who had ever even considered hurting his kids with his bare hands.

God damnit these kids held his heart.

They walked slowly back to the dance, more then a little heartbroken. Steve's whole damn heart was shattered every single time something happened to one of these little guys. And a whole lot had happened. He wondered how much of his heart he could piece back together and how much was crushed too finely to fit back into place.

They returned to the dance, and Max swayed off to the group of kids. Steve had slumped against the wall, worn through and did a head check again. Lucas, Max, Dustin, Will, and..

Shit. Poor damned Steve.

In the center of the dance floor, surrounded by others, were Mike and Eleven, and of course, they were kissing.

Damn it.

Steve was so screwed.

(Thank you so so so much for all of the support that came with the story!)

Leave any ideas or stories you want to see me do in a review/comment and I'll do my best to make it happen!