May 29th, 1985

Hawkins, Indiana

"I can't believe you're going to England dude!"

Steve flinched at Dustin's voice. He didn't expect him to react in that way after telling him about his surprise trip. "Woah, Henderson, I'm just visiting my cousin for a week, no need to scream in my ear." Steve said, glancing at Dustin slightly as to not take his eyes off the road.

"Dude! What if you miss your interview for that new ice cream place that's opening up in the new mall?!" Dustin exclaimed in worry. He could see where he's coming from, he's never been good with managing his time.

"Well, it's my parents' idea and I'm not gonna miss that interview," Steve sighed, he didn't know why his parents wanted him to meet his cousin but he had his guesses. "I'm pretty sure they've been planning this trip for me since they found out I didn't get into tech and they wanted to show me how much better my cousin is then me. Besides, they said I'd be back before my job interview, so you don't gotta worry about that."

"Bullshit!"

"Woah! Cool it man, where is this coming from?"

"Where is this coming from?" Dustin repeated almost mockingly. "Steve, be honest with me, do you even want to go?" He questioned further.

"I don't know… I guess?… maybe it'll be a cool experience."He's not sure if he even wants to go but he doesn't have a choice.

"Come on Steve, you're eighteen now, you've finished highschool, you're basically an adult now, you don't have to take shit from them anymore."

"Well as long as I'm living under their roof, I have to follow their rules." And he's had to follow their rules for as long as he remembers, like he's sure many others have had to as well, but he's always wanted to rebel - stick them the middle finger - but he's never been able to do it; and he doesn't know why. There's just this urge to do what they say.

"But dude, do you even know your cousin? You've never mentioned them before. And what if you don't make it back in time?" Dustin raised a valid point, but he was quick to defend his parents for some reason.

"Well, my parents have never talked about them before-" Steve started to explain, until Dustin interrupted, "And doesn't that seem suspicious? Hm?" He's not sure where this is going but he continues. "No, they're my parents. They're always gone so they barely have time to talk to me about what's happening in the family, let alone if I have any relatives. I wouldn't be surprised if someone came up to me and said they're my long lost brother."

Steve feels like crap by now but he tries to put Dustin's mind at ease. "And if I don't make it back in time then I'll find a different job. You helped me find this one, you can help me find another."

And with that, Dustin throws his hands up in the air and makes a big declaration, "Nope, this seems suspicious. I think they're trying to get rid of you, it's better you stay here then go. You can sleep on my couch too so you don't have to stay with your parents, I'm sure my mom wouldn't mind. Then you would have to miss the interview and when you get the job, we can relax and have free ice cream."

Steve now feels like there's something else that Dustin's not telling him. He's been acting strange since he brought up this trip and this was the final nail in the coffin. "Why are you so against me going to England, and since when have you cared about free ice cream? This is about something else, isn't it?"

"What! No!"

"You denying it makes it true."

"No it doesn't." Dustin denies frantically.

"With that tone it does. What's this really about? Scared I'll make a new best friend?"

"No, it's not that."

"Aha! So you admit it is about something."

"What? Nooo!" Dustin realizing his mistake tried to backpedal but it's too late for that. He's got him hook, line, and sinker.

"Admit it Henderson, you want me to stay. It's alright, you can tell me why."

"Hmph, fine." He whined. "You were going to find out from the rest of the party anyways, but I might as well tell you now since you're leaving early."

"What is it?" Steve interrupts unknowingly. "I'm getting to it, ugh why'd you have to make it so difficult," Dustin said with a huff, "I'm going to camp in June for a month."

Steve suddenly pulls over the side of the road and looks directly at Dustin. He could see that he's sad he's leaving but also excited to go to camp. " Why are you telling me this now? Why not earlier?" Dustin looked up at him and then looked down.

"I don't know, guess if I didn't tell you it'll seem farther away."

Steve smiled at that, who knew a child would miss him the most out of his group of friends that he'd tell him last. "Aww, little Henderson wanted to spend some time with his ol' pal Steve Harrington before he leaves for camp." Of course he doesn't want to show how he feels so he hides it with a snarky remark.

"Come on dude." Dustin whined again.

"Don't worry, we can spend the rest of the week before I leave having some fun, sound good?"

"Fine, so when are you leaving?"

With slight hesitation, Steve slowly said, "The 31st…"

"Dude!"

"I know, I know, but you know how my parents are," To make sure he got his point across, he waved his hands around the air as if that meant something. "But I'll be sure to bring you back a cool souvenir though."

"It better not be a stupid snowglobe."

He didn't know what to make sure of this but he got an idea. "I make no promises!"

"Dude!"

"I'm kidding, I'm kidding." Messing with Dustin was always fun. It made him happy wherever he would joke with him because he knew he wasn't serious. "So, what camp are you going to exactly'?"

"It's called Camp Know Where." Dustin said dreamily.

"Oh yeah, what is that? I've never heard of it before. What is it, some sort of place they take kids to do experiments on?"

"Whoa whoa, don't even joke about that." Dustin looked at him warily and he didn't know why but then he remembered about what happened with Eleven.

"Sorry… sorry… not cool… not cool." Steve apologized.

"Yeah, not cool."

Steve felt bad for what he said and was about to say something, but Dustin beat him to the punch. "And no you haven't heard of it because it's a science camp."

"What are you, a nerd?" Steve said automatically.

"Ha ha, very funny." Dustin said unamused.

After dropping off Dustin at his home, Steve drove straight to his house. He thought about his conversation with Dustin and how the little shit thought he couldn't make it back in time for his interview. There was no way he was going to miss this interview because he was going to be working with ice cream. In the summer. And you know that means, hot babes coming in to cool down.

That's when he'll pull out the good old Harrington charm. His boss would praise him for getting a bunch of babes coming back as regulars. So long as his best feature - his hair - isn't hidden then this was going to be easy.

As Steve pulled up to his driveway, he noticed that his parents car was gone which must have meant that his parents had already left for work, leaving him alone with a big house. Back before the whole Upsidedown ordeal happened, he would have thrown a party. Now he doesn't have the energy to deal with fake friends, and the friends he did have didn't really like to party.

So in a feudal attempt to drown out the silence, he turned on the TV and put it on the news. The noise usually helps him not feel as lonely as he was and he needed that if he was going to pack his bags today. He didn't pay much attention to what was going on, happy for the sound being there, but he heard glimpses of little girls going missing around the world.

He would only be gone for a week, so he packed enough clothes to last him a week and a half, which was most of his clothes. He really didn't have that much clothes since he usually didn't have enough money to buy new ones after he grew out of his old ones.

Taking a break from packing, he went to his kitchen to make himself something to eat as it was getting fairly late into the evening. As Steve entered the kitchen he decided to make enough dinner for today and tomorrow. Steve learned early on in his life that if he wanted to eat something, he better make it himself. There was enough food in the house that he could usually make what he wanted, but if something was missing he would go out and buy it using what little allowance he had saved up.

Looking through the cookbook that was left in the kitchen, he settled on making some French Onion Soup. Before he began, Steve read the little blurb of text that the author wrote at the beginning of the recipe about how when she was a little girl, her grandmother would make her this soup whenever she came over. Steve wonders if he ever had a grandmother. He knows he has to, but his parents never mentioned their parents before and it irked him. In less then two days he is going to board a flight to a place he's never been, was going to meet some he never knew existed, and was expected to treat them like family.

After reading the rest of the instructions and adjusting them to his needs, Steve started cooking. He often found the task relaxing as he would get into the motions he's memorized: slicing the onions, mincing the garlic, shredding the cheese. He gets mesmerized by the smells coming from the dutch oven he's using as he stirs the ingredients together. Looking closely at the recipe, he sees that it calls for a twelfth of a cup of port wine - not enough to get drunk off of, but enough to bring out the flavors - and he thinks to himself that he should use the oldest, most expensive port that his father has as revenge for sending him off to England.

He remembers the day his father brought home the port when he was a kid. He said that he got it from a business friend and that it was one of a kind, only being produced in one part of the world. Where exactly, Steve didn't know, but that didn't matter, his father saw it as something important. Only to be opened for a special occasion. The words his father said to him stuck with him like magnets to a fridge. "Steve," he said, "you shall not open this bottle ever in your lifetime, so don't even look at it." He cared for it more than his own son.

Grabbing the wine from his dad's office, Steve poured the right amount into the dutch oven with the rest of the ingredients and a little in glass for himself to taste. While he was never a wine guy himself, he could see the appeal. It was a bit salty for him, but it was still overall good. It made the wait for the soup to be ready easier and when it was done after an hour, he grabbed a bowl, filled it with soup, got a glass, and filled it with wine.

Walking into the dining room with a bowl of soup and a glass of wine, Steve found something strange sitting on the dining room table. It was present from the looks of it, with red wrapping paper and a blue ribbon. As he went to inspect it, he felt his foot step on something. Looking down he found a small grey tape recorder. 'Great, Dustin must've forgotten his stuff at my house again.'

Setting his bowl and glass down on the table, Steve bent over and picked up the small device. He looked it over to see if he damaged it by stepping on it but he didn't notice anything except for a small dent on its corner. That could have happened when it was dropped seeing as he found it on the floor. Deciding that he'll drop it off at his house tomorrow, he puts it on his coffee table and goes back to see what's up with the present.

When he sees the present again he notices that there's a little folded piece of paper that's sitting next to the present. Picking it up, Steve sees that it's a note and judging by its handwriting it's from his parents. "Sorry we couldn't see you off at the airport, but there was this important emergency going on and we had to leave in a rush. So, to make it up to you we got you this present. Make sure you don't open it until you get on that plane. We have a special surprise for you. Love, Mom & Dad"

Maybe he was a little too harsh on his parents. Sure they were absent a lot of the time, but they still cared for him. That's all anyone can ask for. They could have left him at an orphanage, but they didn't. They took care of him. Sitting down, Steve began to eat his soup - which tasted good - alone. As he ate, he thought of what could have been so important that his parents wouldn't be seeing him off.

December 15th, 1984

Rapture

Deep under the water, in the middle of nowhere, stood a brute with slicked back black hair and a crooked nose. He had his arms crossed as he stared at the man below him who had messy brown hair and was wearing a dirty lab coat.

"The device almost complete, sir." The scientist told him in a thick russian accent as he looked at the machine that had taken up most of the space of the lab they were in. It looked like a large cannon with a strange claw at the end of its barrel. It looked as though multiple parts of it could spin.

"And you made it just like Suchong did?" He asked in a gruff voice. This was a far cry from what it looked like on the schematics he gave him and the one he found in the Silver Fin Restaurant down in Fontain's Department Store. That one looked more like an archway and didn't have any moving parts.

"Suchong dumb, plans doesn't make sense. Use secret Russian information to make better." That got him intrigued again. Although the English-to-Russian tonic wasn't working as good as it said it did - maybe because he found it unfinish in the back of Suchong's lab - but he understood that the commie said the Russians had some type of way to make tears into other universes.

"So the Reds got themselves a similar machine do they?"

"Yes, didn't work. But with Suchong's note, I make work."

"Well you better because I ain't letting this all go to waste, got that?" He threatened.

"Yes sir!" The commie replied, frantically getting back to work. Lamb's Rapture Family has been eating up all his resources and if his plans for world domination were going to work, he needed her out of the picture soon. After she was gone he'd become the king of Rapture and then the world; And nobody was going to stop him.

AN: So hey, this is my first time writing a fic so I'm sorry if this doesn't flow well. If you could help me by writing so constructive criticism in the comments that would be really appreciated. I've had the idea of "what if so-and-so had plasmids?" for a while and I thought "why not have it be Steve Harrington?" And so this story was born as a way to justify it while bringing old ideas and new ideas together and combining both universes into one narative. Since this is more Steve-centric and his adventure through Rapture, I'll probably write another story where Steve has the power of plasmids in season 3 after this one is finished as to not make this one long and have the tone more consistent. And no, Steve is not Jack.