What Lurks in the Mists

by Sirenfox

Last Time: Steve and Robin go to a party where Steve got drunk and ran into a 'should be dead' Billy Hargrove, things took a turn for the strange when Billy crowded him against a wall and bit him.

Chapter 2: A Strange Morning

***WLitM***

The black blanket of night lay over the valley as it slept. A light scattering of clouds drifted slowly across the night sky, flirting with the luminous jewel that was the moon.

Stars splayed out around them like diamonds that had been slowly chipped away and tossed into the heavens.

Below them, in the dark valley, was a lake shrouded from the rest of the world by a dark, twisted forest that guarded it like a jealous lover. A white fog drifted down from the trees to kiss the shores of the lake before meandering towards the dark, foreboding castle that stood proudly over the lake.

Lights flickered from several windows, but the majority of the structure remained shrouded in darkness.

***WLitM***

Searing pain ripped through Steve's abdomen, wrenching him from his restful slumber. The burning sensation started in his side, and spread up and around, tracing the scars on his chest and back until they felt like someone had stabbed them with a hot poker. And on top of all of that his head pulsed like it might explode at any moment.

Steve moaned unhappily, curling up in his bed away from the sunlight streaming in through the window, and tucking his face under his arm, and growling like a distressed cat. He pushed his face further into his pillows hoping that it would block out the rest of the world and make the pounding in his skull less severe, although it would do nothing for the inflamed burning in his scars.

He grit his teeth and rode the pain out, knowing that it wouldn't last long. The agony of it lingered for a few miserable moments before fading out.

Sure, his scars no longer hurt, but his hangover would not be so merciful. He lay in his bed for a few minutes panting, and hiding his face in the cool fabric of his pillow, mourning the sleep he knew would not be returning.

A good night's sleep was hard to come by already, nightmares plagued him anytime he closed his eyes, adding a band of gorillas pounding on bongo drums inside of his skull seemed a little unfair. If it wasn't for that he might even try to return to his dreams since this had been the first time in what felt like years that he hadn't been visited by said nightmares.

The hangover was expected, and that burning sensation in his scars wasn't new. Those demonic bats were only one of the many monsters that haunted his dreams. The pain in his scars had been Steve's unwelcome companion since that last disastrous venture into the Upside down. It was the one constant in his life right now. Every morning was the same, waking up disoriented and in pain as his scars caught fire and reminded him that even awake he could not escape the nightmare.

Thankfully the pain never lasted long. Thirty seconds at most, but those were the worst thirty seconds of Steve's young life, and he was stuck on repeat.

Unfortunately this morning his scars weren't the only problem, and even after they faded back into obscurity, the Headache from Hell refused to let him rest. so he lay in miserable silence in his bed before the cold caress of an October breeze snuck across the room and traced its freezing hand up the back of his neck. Goosebumps spread like frost, and he couldn't stop a shiver from following them.

Steve rolled over and sat up with a low string of curses, his blankets sliding down his chest to pool around his waist, effectively leaving his bare torso exposed to the chill in the air. It was like he had jumped straight into lovers lake in the dead of winter, shockingly cold and horribly unpleasant. He dragged himself out of bed, pulling one of his blankets out of the pile and wrapping it around himself like a robe to block out the chill. He then took a moment to look around, squinting with a low moan when the sun from outside his window glared directly into his eyes.

It took a moment for him to realize that the window was open, he was too busy fighting his headache to notice right away. But when he was given a moment's reprieve he stared at the 4 inch gap between the pane and the seal with baffled confusion.

Odd. But not unheard of. On particularly hot nights he had been known to leave it open. But it wasn't a particularly hot night. In fact, Steve would categorize this as a fairly cold one, being in the bracing clutches of late October. This was the type of night that Steve usually closed his windows for fear of freezing to death if he didn't.

The cracked window would certainly explain the pile of blankets he was cocooned inside of. Although, he likely wouldn't have needed them all if he wasn't currently stripped down to just his boxers.

Another oddity.

Steve didn't usually sleep fully clothed, but he definitely wore more than this.

Why wasn't he wearing any clothes? And where were the ones he was wearing last night? Had he really been so hot that he hadn't bothered putting anything on, even after cracking the window open? A quick glance around his room turned up nothing. Had he stripped in the hall after he got home?

That brought up another good question, what time had he gotten in last night? He didn't remember driving at all. Did Robin bring him home? She must have, he couldn't think of anyone else at the party who would not just leave him where he passed out and forget he existed. And there was no way Robin would have allowed him to drive if he was so shit-faced that he couldn't even remember most of last night.

He really couldn't complain, though. Hungover or not, that was still the first uninterrupted sleep Steve had had in months. No nightmares in sight, no waking up at odd hours unable to go back to sleep. He even appeared to have slept in if his alarm clock was anything to go by. It clearly read 1: 37 pm.

If it wasn't for his aching brain, the tired drag of his eyelids, and his sandpaper dry mouth; he might even say he felt refreshed. If he didn't have visitors coming over later, he might even laze in bed. Call it a day and try to sleep off the hangover.

But the unfortunate truth of the matter was that the entire 'party' was going to be here in just a couple hours to play dnd and he had things to do before they arrived (as per Dustin's highly specified instruction).

Still a little reluctant, Steve crawled across the room, dragging his feet every step of the way, to the window so he could slam it back into place and block out the chilly morning air. He winced when the loud crash caused his hangover to explode, and leaned his poor head against the cool glass of the window for a few minutes before gathering whatever willpower he had, and turning around to try and start the day.

His throat felt like he had tried to swallow a desert, so his first order of business was to locate some water. He dragged himself to the nearest bathroom and practically dunked his head under the faucet as he tried to quench his thirst.

After a few minutes of that he turned his attention to rifling through the medicine cabinet for some painkillers, popping them in his mouth and swallowing them dry. He closed his eyes and leaned against the sink for a few seconds, the sound of running water splashing into the sink was an almost pleasant background noise.

Eventually Steve reached out to turn the water off and finally opened his eyes. Expecting the worst, he stared up at the mirror behind the sink to see what kind of damage he would be working with today. He hadn't bothered turning on the light when he came in the room and so it took him a few minutes of staring at his reflection to notice that something wasn't right.

He squinted at himself, was that a bruise? It sure looked like one but how in the world had he gotten a bruise there?

He turned to flick on the light, groaning and squeezing his eyes shut when the light tried to stab him in the brain. A few painful moments later Steve was trudging back to the mirror to get a better look at that bruise.

"What the hell." He muttered, leaning forward over the sink and tilting his head to the side to get a closer look.

Yes, that was most definitely a bruise spanning a good portion of his neck and he thought he might even be able to make out the slight indentation of teeth at the very center of it.

He stared at his reflection uncomprehendingly for a few moments, his mind drawing a blank as he tried to process what he was seeing. When had that happened? He felt like he should remember if things had gotten that passionate.

Obviously he thought wrong.

Steve certainly didn't remember that being there before the party, nor could he recall when, or who, had given it to him. He reached up to poke at it with a slender finger, only to be distracted by the black ink smeared over the underside of his arm.

The fuzzy memory of dancing with a pretty girl rose to the forefront of his mind. He didn't remember her name at all, but he did recall her heated kisses and wandering hands. Had he spent the night with her? Was that why he was sleeping almost naked?

But, no. He sort of remembered her scribbling her number on his arm with a sharpie. He glanced back down at his arm, (oh...well, that certainly explained some things), before he had wandered off for some reason that seemed to be escaping him.

Blond hair, mocking blue eyes, and a sharp white smile.

He shook that image away briskly, with an ease that only came with practice. A practice that was becoming more and more frequent over the last year. It wasn't unusual for him to have to think past the image of black blood and determination colliding in the most horrible of ways.

Steve studied the smear on his arm for a few moments, only half interested in deciphering the mess. It was still faintly legible though, and he was able to make out a series of digits, which he assumed were the girl's phone number.

He quickly headed back to his room to find a pen and scrap of note paper to jot it down on. He would need them later if he planned to go on that date. He was still on the fence about that though.

The girl was pretty enough, but there was also no excitement there. He couldn't care less if he never saw her again, he had no anticipation at the thought of the impending date.

Half of him didn't even want to try. What was the point, after all? There was no way she would ever understand him, and if she did stick around she could get dragged into the whole upside down mess and he would never wish that on another human being.

Especially not after Starcourt, and that last horrible trip into the Upside down just a few months ago...They had lost too many people to that darkness for him to feel comfortable introducing it into someone's life if he didn't have to.

He set the notepad back down, the messy scrawl of the number stark against the white page staring at him accusingly. He turned away, determined to not worry about that right now, he had other things to do.

He glanced around his room one more time, wondering where he had left his clothes last night. He really couldn't just leave them lying around. But he once again realized that they were not in his room. He sighed, running a hand through his messy hair, and headed for the door.

Walking outside his room to clean up his mess, though, revealed no mess at all. He stood at the top of the stairs, staring down into the first floor as he tried to piece together this strange puzzle he had set for himself.

He decided, in the end, that it wasn't that important and headed into the bathroom for a quick shower. He would find those missing clothes when he found them and he wasn't going to stress about it until then. He had plenty of other things he could wear, it wasn't like he didn't have a closet full of clothes he had never worn before.

Fully clean and feeling a little more like a normal person again, Steve set about getting dressed for the day; going through a mental list of things he needed to do before the kids arrived later.

He needed to do a load of laundry before heading to Melvald's. He would usually leave it for later, but he knew if he didn't do it now, he would forget all about it as soon as the kids showed up and wouldn't remember that all his work clothes were dirty until he needed them again on Monday.

Out of sight, out of mind, and all that.

It did not take long to go around and grab all his clothes from the hampers, he'd always been a stickler for keeping the house clean in case his parents showed up randomly. That was more and more unlikely to happen now that he had graduated and his father had pretty much given up on him, but old habits die hard, as they say.

He didn't bother with a basket, just gathered the pile up in his arms and carried them all to the laundry room, hoping he didn't drop anything on the stairs or in the hallways. He maneuvered the load so he was holding it mostly in one arm while he pulled the washer lid back, ready to throw it all in there and forget about it for most of the day. Only, upon opening the washer he discovered it was already occupied.

He stared down in confusion at the damp clothes that he had been searching for since he had gotten out of bed.

This was the last place he ever expected to find them. He really could not imagine himself doing chores of any kind while he was so shit-faced he couldn't remember driving home. He doubted he couldn't have cared less about the state of the clothes he had on.

So...someone else had put these here while he was passed out. It was an extremely creepy thought, if he thought about it too deeply. But he really didn't need to worry about it, since it was probably just Robin.

And while that was super sweet of her, it was also kind of disturbing in its own right. He must have been really messed up if she had been unwilling to let him wallow in his own filth.

Had he spilled his beer on himself? That didn't seem like enough of a horrible enough circumstance for Robin to actually feel the need to strip a man down to his underwear. So maybe he had upchucked all over himself? Short of him bleeding out, that was really the only thing he could think of that might be drastic enough for her to do something like that.

The idea of it made him uneasy, knowing that he had put his best friend into a situation that he knew would make her uncomfortable (no matter how unknowingly on his part)..it made him feel sleezy and gross. Like he let King Steve take advantage of her.

It was unacceptable, and he would thank you for her kindness, apologize for being such a dickish friend, and promise it will never happen again.

He put all that to the back of his mind to deal with later and moved his damp clothes into the dryer to make room for the load he was currently trying not to drop on the floor.

With the laundry handled, Steve headed down the stairs taking them two at a time and skipping the last stair completely. He slid his shoes on, grabbed a jacket for the cold, and picked his keys out of the bowl by the door before heading outside.

His car was sitting in its usual spot in his driveway, and sitting on the roof above the drivers side door sat a cinnamon colored cat, daintily licking its paw. The tiny creature froze when he stepped out of the house, paw suspended in the air as it glanced up at him with huge green eyes.

Those eyes never left him as he walked across the yard, paw slowly lowering down to tuck behind the tight curl of its long slender tail.

It was a beautiful cat, but he could not remember seeing it before. Stray cats were not really a thing in Hawkins, probably because of the upside down monsters that seemed to frequent the forest at various times throughout the year.

Maybe it had gotten out of one of his neighbors' houses? It certainly didn't look like a stray.

He slowed down as he moved closer, wondering if he should try to catch the thing before it got eaten. He could leave it in the garden shed while he went to the store and then ask around for its owner when he got back.

That seemed like a pretty good idea, but as he tried to creep up on it the cat lashed its tail, ears pinning back on its head as it bared its tiny sharp teeth at him. It turned around and darted off the roof of the car and dashed into the forest before Steve even had time to react.

There wasn't really anything he could do now, but he hoped that it found its way home before it became somethings dinner. He watched the place the cat had disappeared into the trees before sighing and turning back to his car.

Steve was a little worried that he had made a mess in his car on the way home last night and that was why Robin had taken him inside to clean up and put to bed like an errant child. It came as a relief to discover that his car had been spared the indecency of having been puked on, and he eased into the driver's seat, not even noticing that it had not been adjusted for a petite woman to drive it.

He turned on his radio, flinching when harsh screaming metal blared out of the speakers and assaulted his ears. It rang in his ears as he scrambled to turn it off or even just lower the volume. It had been turned up to an unbearable level and it clashed horribly with his pounding migraine. It took a few moments longer than usual as his fingers refused to cooperate and he ended up fumbling with the dials before it finally shut off.

The silence was like a cool dip in the pool after a boiling summer day. He stared at the radio, silence stretching in the car around him like a living thing.

Why?!

Why in the world would Robin pull a prank like that? Was it payback for her having to take care of him last night? That didn't really seem like something Robin would do though. It was weird, for sure, but again, there wasn't much Steve could do but ask Robin about it later.

***WLitM***

It was close to two by the time Steve got home, his backseat was filled with more snacks than Steve would be able to eat in a month. He figured he'd be storing most of it away for next time the little gremlins decided they wanted him to host one of their little nerd parties at his place.

There was no way they would be able to eat all of that, but Dustin had been adamant that all of it was essential for a successful d&d night. He had even bought five different frozen pizzas for them, which he thought was maybe not enough. He could usually eat most of a pizza on his own if he was really hungry, so he suspected the boys would absolutely demolish them. But with all the snacks too...well, they better not be leaving hungry tonight, was all he was saying.

He piled his arms full of bags, wanting to make as few trips as possible, and headed for the front door. It took a bit of finagling, but Steve was able to unlock the door, turn the nob, and push it open with his foot without spilling any of the contents of the bags on the ground around his feet.

He carried it all into the kitchen and began dumping it all on the island counter, shuffling his way between two stools so he wouldn't accidentally drop anything.

He sighed once his arms were empty, raising them over his head in a satisfying stretch that ended with his shoulders giving a relieving pop; before turning around to head out for another armful.

His heart just about leapt out of his chest and he shrieked like a frightened rabbit, stumbling backwards into the sharp edge of the counter when he saw that there was someone standing in the archway behind him, arms crossed and waiting for him to turn around.

It took longer than he would like to admit, before he recognized the person. He stood there, wide eyed with panic, hand pressed against his frantically beating heart as he tried to calm back down to a reasonable level.

"Fuck...Robin! Don't do that." He rasped, "I need to get you a bell or something." He straightened up slowly, his back screaming in protest from where it had been slammed into the marble countertop.

Robin continued to stare him down, completely unimpressed, and with a mean case of angry eyes. "You have a lot of explaining to do, Steve Harrington." She told him, her tone stony and bordering on cold ,"I can't believe you just left me there!" She exclaimed, unfolding her arms and stepping forwards to emphasize her words with a sharp gesture in his general direction, "No warning at all, just 'poof' gone."

She glared at him with all the vitriol of a woman scorned, "I had to walk home Steve. Walk! By myself. A one in the morning." She was practically growling at him now, but Steve was just standing where she had found him, looking like an idiot as he tried to get his brain to process her angry rant. "I could have died!"

He hadn't forgotten, no, but things weren't adding up in his head. "What are you talking about? You drove me home." And if that was the case, why hadn't she just stayed the night, it wouldn't have been the first time. And why in the world would she walk home?

"What?" Robin exclaimed, losing her offensive stance and softening with her confusion, "You ditched me Steve. I know you said you were going to find a date, but I didn't think you meant for last night. I needed you Steve! I needed you, and you weren't there because you decided that getting laid was more important than me. Your best friend."

She was clearly hurt, and Steve hated to see her like this, but he was kind of freaking out right about now. "What? No! Robin. There is no girl. Well, I guess there is, sort of. But I didn't take her home, and I'm not seeing her again until Monday. I promise, I did not take her home...or...well...I don't think I did?"

He swallowed heavily, thoughts turning to the open window, and waking up almost naked. And the clothes in the washer.

"Uh, Rob. You said you walked home...right?" He asked, voice going a bit high with his rising distress.

"Yeah," She said, eyes narrowing as she picked up on his growing panic.

"Oh. Okay. Cool." He said, running his hands through his hair, stress causing him to start rocking back and forth, heel to toe, on his feet. "But if you didn't drive me home...who did?"

Robin dragged him into the den and pushed him onto the couch, sinking onto a cushion herself, and pulling her bare feet up under her as she prepared herself for a long story, "Okay. Talk." She ordered, before doing a double take and zeroing in on his neck, "Wait, hold on. What the hell happened to your neck?!" She demanded, scooting closer and leaning invasively into his space so she could get a better look.

"Uh..." Steve stalled. His neck throbbed painfully, as if her saying something about it had reminded his body that it really should hurt. He'd honestly forgotten it was even there. Except for the few times he had turned his head too quickly, or stretched his neck uncomfortably far, it didn't really hurt. "I don't remember?"

"What do you mean you don't remember?" Robin asked, pulling back to stare at him incredulously. "It looks like someone tried to take a bite out of you, how can you possibly forget that?"

"It doesn't really hurt." Steve admitted, self consciously covering the bruise with his hand. "I don't remember how I got it either, just noticed this morning when I went to take a shower."

"Did you put any disinfectant on it? Or maybe ice? That bruising is pretty bad." Steve shrugged, dropping his hand back down to his side. Honestly, it didn't hurt so it hadn't even occurred to him that he might need to do that. Robin continued to invade his personal space, probably checking to make sure he wasn't dying or anything. He felt her gently trace a finger over the wound and he jerked away from her with a shocked cry of pain.

"Ow! What the hell, Robin!" He glared at her.

She slowly pulled away, a frown on her brow. "Sorry, sorry!" She said, hands up in the air as she backed off. "Seriously though, If I didn't know any better," Robin added as she leaned back into her spot on the couch, a slow smirk curling her lips. "I'd think you'd been bitten by a vampire." She chuckled

"Ha, ha." Steve droned, "You're so funny." She meant it as a joke, and he knew that. But for some reason, the thought stuck. Because she was right. It did kind of look like he'd been bit by a vampire, what with the two bold scars in the very center of the bruise.

Golden curls and the flash of white teeth, far sharper than Steve ever remembered them being.

"You wanted me to talk, remember?" Steve said, bringing the conversation back on track. Robin perked up and nodded her head, suddenly attentive. So Steve did. He told her what he could remember from the party, leaving out his hallucinations. (those weren't important right that minute). Then explained his whole strange morning.

Robin sat next to him, letting him talk everything through as she tried to process what he was telling her. "That's weird dude." She finally agreed.

Steve groaned, leaning his head back against the couch cushion and closing his eyes, "Yeah. And there's not really much to do about it except make sure all the doors are locked and the windows are all closed. Can't really call Hopper with something so stupid. There's not really any way of figuring out who it was, if there really was someone here at all and I wasn't just imagining everything."

"Yeah, maybe. But...I dunno, it is kind of creepy. Did you check the other rooms, you know. Just in case." Robin asked, shooting a nervous look at the dark hallway.

Steve's head snapped back up fast enough to threaten whiplash. He stared at his best friend in utter horror, feeling himself blanch as the thought sank in.

No. No he had not.

Robin swallowed, her own nervousness spiking up a level with his reaction, fingers tap tap tapping on the arm of the couch, "Steve." She pleaded softly, as if suddenly worried that raising her voice might attract the attention of whoever ...or whatever...might be in the building with them. "Steve, please tell me you checked the other rooms. You live in a god-damn castle! You can't just not check, it would be so easy for someone else to be living in your house and you would never know."

"I...I didn't think.-'' That's right, he didn't think. That was the problem, wasn't it. He never thought things like this through, just let everything play out and reacted accordingly. And in doing so he was putting Robin in danger.

Oh god. The kids! The whole party was supposed to be coming over tonight.

The children were coming to his house, and there might be a dangerous stranger camping out in one of his unused rooms planning to do who knows what to them.

Adrenalin pumping now, Steve rose to his feet and glanced around the room for a weapon of some kind that he could use. The bat was up in his room and he didn't want to risk trying to get it before doing any exploring.

"Should we call the cops?" Robin asked, voice barely a whisper, following him across the room like a hyperactive shadow.

"Not yet." Steve told her, picking up the fire poker from its spot by the fireplace that he never really used, and tested its weight. Not bad. "We might be blowing this whole thing out of proportion. There's probably no one here but us, I'll just check real quick." He told her, turning to look at her seriously, "Stay here, I won't be long." He pushed gently past her stunned figure and headed for the hallway.

Before he had even moved more than three feet he heard Robin hiss behind him, "Over my dead body." There was the sound of metal scraping against metal as Robin pulled another tool out of the fire equipment.

The sound dragged Steve's attention back to her and he turned to look over his shoulder, seeing her marching towards him like a badass Viking warrior, determination in every line of her body, "Let's do this." She said as she moved into place at his side.

Looking at her standing there, beside him, fierce courage shining in her eyes, brought a swell of warm affection bubbling up inside him, and he couldn't help but to grin at her.

She grinned back and nodded, then they headed into the dark to look for any sign of someone who was not supposed to be there.

***WLitM***

As Steve had suspected, there was no one but Robin and himself in the building. There weren't even any signs that anyone but Steve had been living there. Including all traces of his parents, who hadn't visited him since Christmas last year.

It was almost eerie how normal everything seemed, after the adrenalin rush they had leading up to it. It was kind of a let down. Steve almost wished there was something for them to find, anything that might make Steve's paranoia grounded in reality instead of fueled by a wild imagination.

The fact that there was nothing at all set him even more on edge, though he tried to play it off as him just being excited about tonight.

"Look." Robin said as they headed back to the main room to return their makeshift weapons to their rightful places, "It's pretty obvious that you got wasted and drove yourself home. It's not the smartest move you've ever made, true, but it's nothing for us to be freaking out about." Steve wasn't sure if she was trying to convince him of that, or herself. "There's no secret plot here, no monster lurking in the shadows. Everything is completely fine."

Steve wished he had her confidence in the matter, but he couldn't shake the feeling that something was horribly wrong. Yet he wasn't willing to freak her out more than she probably already was. "Yeah. Course." He said. Nonchalant and unaffected, He couldn't say how successful that bluff had been since she wasn't really looking at him now, "Nothing weird at all."

He tried to tell himself that it was all in his head, that he was just imagining everything. Absolutely nothing strange was going on here, everything was fine.

More than fine even, perfect. Everything was perfect.

But even as he told Robin that lie, he could not shake the feeling, the foreboding anxiety that had been building inside him for days.

"Your band of children are coming over later right?" Robin asked, clearly done with that conversation and wanting to move on.

"Yeah, they really wanted to play their game here tonight. Said there is more room and they don't have to be as quiet. And since they are spending the night, they can play as long as they want." Steve fully expected them to end up passing out from exhaustion at some point and sleeping the majority of tomorrow away. But he wasn't their mother, so it wasn't his job to get them to bed early. He glanced down at his watch, "They should be here in...an hour. Shit, they'll be here in an hour." He hadn't done anything but run to the store so far. He still needed to cook the pizza's, find dishes for all the snacks he had bought, and air out the dining room which hadn't seen the light of day since the last time he had seen his parents.

He had never hosted one of these d&d parties before since the party usually convened at the Wheelers. He'd made one off hand comment about his nice hardwood dining table and suddenly the kids were wanting to play at his house instead. He really should have known better.

Robin didn't share his sudden sense of urgency, merely grinning and saying, "Sweet! El has been trying to teach me how to play." They shared an amused grin. El was sweet, but she still had no idea how to play D&D.

Steve couldn't really blame her, too much math for him. She was probably hoping the older girl could help explain it to her. Steve's smile faded. El had been having a rough time of things lately. What with her best friend, Max, still being in the hospital. The little firecracker had always been more than willing to help El out when all the boy's got too carried away and forgot everyone else was still new to the game.

"I even brought my new dice and a brand new character." Robin grinned, pulling out a small velvet bag and rattling the contents at him, inordinately pleased with herself at the little clicking sounds it made. "What about you?"

"Uh...I think I'll pass." Steve told her with a self-conscious grimace and a dismissive shrug of his shoulders. "I'll just watch." Steve really wasn't a fan of playing make believe. don't get him wrong, he loved listening to them all play. They were so good at it, and so creative. But that was just the thing, Steve was neither good at it, nor creative. It always left him feeling stupid and inadequate, like he was dragging everyone else down and slowing their progress.

So, yeah. He would much rather watch.

"Again?" Robin whined, "come one Steve, where's your sense of adventure?"

"Up in my closet hanging next to my bat, waiting for the next Upside-Down questline." He said, only half joking. Time to change the subject, "Do you mind helping me get those pizza's in the oven?" He asked, turning to head towards the kitchen, and not waiting for her answer.

"Sure," She agreed easily, dropping the subject and falling into step beside him. "What temp?" She asked when they reached the kitchen, veering off to start the oven.

"Uh..." He picked up one of the pizza boxes and flipped it over, "375...So how did last night go?" He asked, pulling a knife out of the block and slicing the plastic open to free the pizza inside. "You ever find Lacie?"

It was silent for a moment as Robin fiddled with the dials, "Yeah. I found her."

"You don't sound too happy about that." Steve noted, turning to lean on the counter.

"Yeah, well. Lacie's a jerk." Robin told him, bitterness in every word as she snatched one of the pizza's off the counter and spun around to shove it into its place in the oven.

Steve kept his 'I told you so." To himself, it really wasn't needed, nor would it be appreciated. "what happened?" He prompted, picking up another pizza to hand off to her.

"It seemed fine at first. She was even happy to see me, I think. I thought we were having fun. Drinking, dancing, talking...flirting...But the more she drank she more she started to talk about him." She finished up with a snarl, slamming the oven door shut and turning around to lean against it while Steve went to rummage through his cabinets.

"NO matter what I tried, she always wound up right back to moping over how much she missed him...I kind of stopped listening when she started going off on what a good kisser he was. Did not need to know that." She was flailing her arms as she spoke, like she usually did, animatedly accentuating her points, "Like, I thought she was mad at him! But nope. All she wanted to talk about was how great the guy is and how..." She cuts herself off with a huff, her animated gestures jerking to a stop before curling up over her chest as she pouted at the floor.

"And all that was before he showed up. He waltzed right into the room, looked directly at us, then turned around and ignored us completely to flirt with some of the other girls hanging out.

"It was infuriating!" She fumed, once again swinging her hands about wildly as she told her story, "He knew exactly what he was doing. I could see it on his stupid smug face, he was trying to rile her up on purpose." Steve ducked under one of her flailing fists and slid up to the counter on her other side. He pulled the different bowls he had set down towards himself and started popping open chip bags to dump into them.

"Lacy was fuming, and ranting and then the guy had the audacity to kiss one of them! Can you believe it?!" He could. "And do you know what Lacy did?"

"Uh...no. What did Lacy do?" He was only half paying attention to the story as he set about organizing all the snacks and trying to think if he was forgetting anything, so it was almost a surprise when she answered, practically shouting at him with her barely contained rage.

"Instead of walking away like any sane woman, she stomped over to them like a huffy three year old throwing a tantrum, and dragged the other girl away by the hair!"

"Wait...really?" Steve gaped, glancing up at her in surprise. "Are we really talking about the same Lacie?" Lacy had always been one of the more down to earth girls, quiet and nice to everyone. She was one of Chrissy's best friends and they had shared a lot of traits. It was hard to imagine the normally mild mannered girl acting out in irrational jealousy.

Then again, jealousy could make a person do horrible things.

"Exactly! It was so out of character, I was completely blown away. It was kind of hot, though...but then she turned and attacked his face with her lips and that was much less hot."

"Wow. That...sucks." Steve commiserate ,fiddling with a large bag of candy as he tried to think of something to say, "What did you do then?"

"Well, I left. Obviously." Robin said, "I had no interest in watching them suck face, so I figured it was about time to get out of there."

Steve knew where this was going, and he felt awful about it, "You went to find me." He said with a wince, "Sorry."

The young woman waved away his apology, she didn't seem as upset about it now that she knew what had been going on with him (well, she knew as much as he did, anyway) and she was well aware of his habit of self flagellation.

"Yeah, I realized pretty quickly that you weren't at the party anymore. I figured you were just waiting in the car...but...no car."

Yeah, he still had no idea how he had gotten home without killing someone or wrapping his car around a tree. He had certainly been in no condition to drive, he knew that much, "You said you walked home?"

Steve definitely didn't like the sound of that.

"Yeah. There was no way I was gonna call my dad to come pick me up. You know how he is. I would never see the light of day again if he knew I was spending my time at a party like that."

Robin's dad was extremely religious. Most of the time he was content to just ignore his daughter but other times...well, Steve knew they could end in some really intense screaming matches. Robin was aware that she had a place to stay here if it ever got too much for her, if she ever needed it, but there wasn't much else he could do about it.

Steve raked a hand through his hair, stress and guilt eating away at his insides. "Listen, Rob, I really am sorry about leaving you there. I don't know what I was thinking." Nothing probably. Because if he had been thinking there is no way in hell he would have allowed her to walk home. Not in Hawkins.

"I am not going to say it's alright, because it's not." Robin said seriously, "But I'm not actually that angry with you."

"What?! Why not?" That made literally no sense to Steve. There was little he hated more than having to go anywhere in Hawkins at night, and that was before factoring in the fact that she had had to walk.

"Well, um..." She stuttered, "You see. -I."

"Wait." He interrupted, eyeing her with growing suspicion, "Robin...are you blushing?" He asked incredulously. What on earth was going on right now? Robin was not a blusher. Not really. Nothing ever seemed to phase the girl.

Steve admired that about her, he certainly could not say the same for himself. He knew he tended to blush like a virgin at the most inopportune times. And it was always over the stupidest things, too. Just him being his usual awkward self. He didn't mind being the goofball that made people laugh usually, but sometimes the looks he got were more pitying than amused and he really would rather not get those.

"Okay, so I met someone." Robin gushed, lighting up like a firework in the middle of winter, a bright explosion of color on an otherwise bleak landscape.

"At one in the morning?" Steve asked, incredulous "While you were walking home?" He just needed to make sure they were on the same page here because that sounded...suspicious to say the least. Did she not see that?

"Yes!" Apparently not. "She was sitting by the side of the road," weird, "Sobbing her eyes out," really? "And the poor thing was just covered in blood." What?! "I was so worried she was hurt."

Was Robin listening to herself at all? Steve thought, staring at his friend in horrified silence. This sounded like one of those ghost stories Tommy used to tell him when they were ten and camped out in his backyard because neither of their parents wanted to put them in the boy scouts...said it was a waste of time and money.

"Blood?" He repeated, feeling stupid for doing so, but not really sure what else to say and feeling like he should at least try to point it out to her.

"Yeah," Robin said, expression going soft. "I think her home-life must be pretty rough, why else would she be out there so late and in such an awful state." Steve could think of a few reasons. Namely: murder. But he wisely kept those to himself. "She didn't actually explain," Uhuh, I wonder why…, "And it doesn't matter either," Kind of did. "She was so sweet too, practically melted into my arms when I sat down beside her. It took a little while, but I was able to get her home and cleaned up." Robin sounded so proud of herself, and despite how creepy it all sounded…nothing bad had actually happened. So Steve set aside his concerns, for now, and just let Robin be happy.

She deserved a bit of good luck, and she really seemed to like this chick.

"What did your dad think of that?" He asked, worried that she might have gotten into trouble for her good deed.

"Oh," she said with a little self satisfied smirk, " He didn't even know she was there. He was asleep when we got home, and she was gone before he woke up."

Sneaky. Like a ninja. Steve approved.

And it sounded like the girl had gone home willingly so her home life couldn't be as bad as Robin was imagining. Maybe now that it was all over Robin would be able to move on and they could forget all about this weird creepy shit that was going on.

One look at his friend's besotted expression and dewy heart eyes told him otherwise.

"Did you get her name at least? Her number? Is she new to town?" He hadn't heard of anyone new moving into town since the Hargoves, but he could have just missed it. It wasn't like he was on top of the food chain anymore.

"I think so, yeah. She said that they haven't set up their phone yet, so she couldn't give me her number. But we are going to meet up tomorrow night to hang out. I figured I can show her around town."

"That's great Rob." Steve said, a soft smile curling his lips, truly happy that things were looking up for his friend. He tried to ignore the swooping feeling in his stomach and the shadow of foreboding lingering over him, that was growing stronger the longer they talked about this.

It was fine, he was just being paranoid. There was no rational reason for him to be feeling this way.

Robin beamed at him, looking as if she was on cloud nine, and this woman had just hung the moon in the sky above her. He really hoped she turned out to be everything Robin dreamed of, and that this feeling of unease was just him freaking out for no reason.

"Okay, so enough about me." Robin said abruptly, giving Steve one of her expectant looks that he had been pinned with quite often since they had become friends. He wasn't sure what she was expecting of him this time, but he knew he was about to find out. "You said a girl gave you her number last night? Have you called her yet?"

Steve groaned, he had completely forgotten about that. He buried his face into his hands at her reminder, Robin's snickers filling the kitchen around him. "Come on, tell me everything! We still have a few minutes until the kids get here."

Steve sighed, peeking at her from over his folded arms. "I hate you. I hope you know that."

AN: This was a long one. 20 pages, actually. I really wanted to get it up last week, but I got burned out and had to put it off. I have part of the next chapter started, and I know exactly what I want to happen.

Let me know what you think of the chapter, I've been starting at it so long that I'm starting to doubt it's any good. lol. I'm not really a slice of life type of writer, but this is what the story needed, and there's a lot here that will be important later.

I love all of you, and I can't wait to hear your thoughts on the story. I also love hearing all of your theories about where I'm going with it, so please feel free to drop them in the comments. I've taken inspiration from readers before, so it's possible you could spark something really good.

See you all soon, Sirenfox