Chapter Text
Steve hasn’t been able to hold an ounce of focus for the past week, constantly being plagued with the absolute worst headaches. His head feels like it’s splitting in two and now amount of pressure on his temples will relieve it. On top of that he’s been getting terrible nosebleeds, not only being an inconvenience but a clear indicator of the worst. I mean the clock hallucinations confirm it really.
He’s well aware of the danger he’s in, but he’s been finding it difficult to actually bring it up. I mean how do you tell someone “Hey Vecna is going to coming after me, be prepared to watch me float and every bone in my body snap till I die”. Steve finds that he’s struggling.
Maybe it’s the abandonment issues…
Besides everyone needs to focus on Max and Eleven, Max having encountered Vecna only a week ago. And El is tied right in the centre of it all which has to be weighing so heavily on the poor girl. God they were so young, all of them.
So Steve stayed quiet, dealing with it silently. He wasn’t keen on dying a useless death, so he wasn’t going to, he would deal with this, without bothering everyone, it was going to be fine, he’d be fine. He was the protector, he can handle this.
Right now he was driving towards Hopper's cabin for a meeting, Robin in the passenger seat, and Eddie, Dustin and Max in the back. Apparently Hopper had found some files in an old Russian base that might help them destroy Vecna, or One, or Henry, god this guy needed to pick a name and role with it, it’s ridiculous.
Anyways the kids convinced Hopper to let them at least help sorting through what most likely was just going to be junk but he you never know shit could prove useful. Although Steve wasn’t looking forward to touching anything Russian, he’d been in enough contact with the fuckers, he didn’t want to know what they were up to. But if it helped everyone else, he’d suck it up.
Pulling up at the dead end road, Steve parked his car and the 5 of them set out towards the hidden cabin. Steve secretly popping about 3 Tylenol to combat his growing headache, he sighed, closing his eyes and leaning his aching head on the cold metal of his car. If this headache could fuck off, just the thought of reading added more tension in his face.
He was quickly jarred out of his thoughts by Dustin yelling at him to “Hurry the fuck up Steve”. Kid better watch his fucking tone or he can walk home.
Quickly locking his car he jogs catching up to the others as they trek through the shrubbery. He hangs back slightly behind the group, warily taking in his surroundings, scanning them for any dangers, human or otherworldly. Morbidly hoping that something would come out and he could die protecting the group instead of just dying uselessly.
“Hey man you good?” Steve just about leapt out of his skin when he felt something brush his arm. Realising it’s just Eddie he let out a breath of relief, “Y-yeah man, sorry just paranoid” he responded.
“I mean fair enough, I’ve been losing my shit this whole time, you guys all seem almost normal about all this, shit, even the kids” Eddie responded, Steve looks up at Eddie “Don’t worry we are all freaking out, but it’s also because this is like the 4th time we’ve gone through this rodeo” Steve comforts, “seriously man, we’re all losing our shit” he huffs out a laugh, Eddie joins him before falling silent.
After a couple beats of silence Eddie broke it again “You sure you’re good though? It’s just you’ve been acting real spaced out and distant these last couple days” Steve automatically nodded, but then processing what the metalhead had said felt taken aback by how this guy he’d only just properly met around 2 weeks ago could notice his odd behaviour. He must not be hiding it as well as he thought he was.
“Yeah, yeah, just headaches, I think the stress is getting to me, all the head trauma as well” He joked, why the hell did he just say that. Eddie gives him a concerned look, “that sucks man, have you gotten that checked out or anything?” he questioned, Steve shrugged “don’t worry, there’s honestly not much to be done” Eddie gave him one last glance, but let the topic drop.
Steve speeds up his pace slightly with the cabin in view. Steve let out a heavy sigh, climbing the stairs, he knocked on the door using the coded knock. One-pause-three-pause-one-one.
There’s a series of clicks as all the locks were unlocked before the door swung open revealing El, her once again shaved head. Poor girl, it had taken her so long to grow out her hair, just for those scientist fuckers to shave it all off again. She grins up at Steve, well not that much up anymore, god she was getting so much bigger, so much older, all the kids were really. Steve pulled her in for a quick hug “Hey El, how's the cabin fever?” At least this time she had Joyce, Will and Jonathan keeping her company, Mike having to go back to his own house when they all had arrived back in Hawkins from California.
It was nice having the full party back together, and to have actual adults there again. Being one of the eldest, and one of the people that everyone is looking up towards, for guidance and what to do. But Steve didn’t know what to do, he was almost always at a loss, he wasn’t smart like Nancy, or Jonathan, hell even the kids were smarter than him. Dustin, Will, El, Max, Mike, Lucas, all those little shits had more brains than him and he’s already graduated highschool! They are just going into highschool!
Steve sighed feeling his head twinge, as he walked through the threshold of the door he caught sight of the rest of the party. He smiled softly, shoved aside by Dustin as he and Max ran past him to the rest of their party. “Aye, some manners would be nice Henderson, I’m not above making you walk home” he complained lightheartedly, which wasn’t even given a response, whether the asshole actually heard him or not. He could bet good money on the latter.
Rolling his eyes he huffed, tilting his head slightly and looking back at Eddie “You hear this little shit, so rude” he complained. Eddie chuckled lightly, shaking his head “Oh no not the disrespect, the youth these days, no respect for their elders or royalty” he teased. Steve rolled his eyes again, shoving Eddie lightly “Can it with the King Steve shit, I’m burying highschool, I think I’ve fallen far off that weird social throne at this point”.
Eddie nodded, grinning and leaning towards him “Just gonna have to make a new nickname for you huh pretty boy?” Steve felt heat immediately rushing to his cheeks and ears, he snorted pushing Eddie’s face away from him. “Get outta my face you weirdo” he teased.
Eddie leaned back on the balls of his feet, smug at pulling the flustered reaction out of the other boy. Steve barely contained his grin.
Turning slightly towards Robin who was not so subtly gagging jokingly at their behaviour “God the sexual tension between you two, just bone and get it over already, quite frankly this is pathetic and embarrassing for the both of you” she said which made Steve’s face heat up even more, barking out a sound of surprised indignation.
“Excuse me?!” he squawked, he heard Dustin cackling from across the room, obviously having heard Robin's less than favourable comment.
Eddie’s face had also turned a deep shade of crimson, “can it Buckley like you can say much with a curly haired someone in the room” he whispered to her making her eyes widen and give him a sharp wack. That had Steve cackling at her embarrassment, earning him a sharp, but playful glare.
Hopper cut off the childish bickering, calling everyone over “Alright! You guys wanted to help so bad, come help”.
“It’s probably nothing too exciting, I’ve gone through some of the boxes already, and it’s mostly computer stats, nothing really useful” Hopper announced. Everyone groaned, they were hoping for something more exciting.
“No no, not complaining you all begged me, especially you Henderson” Hopper said, pointing sharply at Dustin whose protest was the loudest and most dramatic.
Earlier in the week, the California crew had come across the base on their trip back down to Hawkins, Eleven begging Hopper to stop saying she had a feeling. Couldn’t argue with the psychic.
Hopper had 4 boxes on his coffee table, ready to be sorted through, splitting the group up to split the four boxes in between the smaller groups.
Steve got paired with Hopper and El, they were handed one box and off they went. (The other groups if you are curious is Nancy, Jonathan and Robin, Joyce, Max and Eddie, and Dustin, Lucas, Mike and Will).
As they were sorting through their box Steve was just reading through boring notes about what exactly, not really a clue. It was some boring statistics on some sort of water supply, it wasn’t really important, especially to their mission. His sharpening headache wasn’t helping any with his focus. He sighed in mild frustration, setting his file down, looking around the room slowly, and by the looks on everyone else's faces they weren’t having much more luck than he was.
Suddenly he heard a noise, it sounded like a choked gasp. Everyone's heads swivelled to the source of the noise, seeing Eddie with a horror stricken face. “S-Steve?” he croaked as he looked up right at him, “What?” Steve said, feeling his stomach drop, quickly getting up and making his way towards Eddie.
“What’s wrong Eddie” Dustin asked, Eddie shook his head “I-, this file- it’s- oh god, it’s about Steve and- they, oh my god” He choked out, looking actually quite green. Steve froze in place, he could see Robin tense up out of the corner of his eye, they both have probably the same idea what that file contained.
“What do you mean it’s about Steve?” Nancy asked, unease set in her features.
Hopper walked over and took the file from Eddie, scanning over it, seeming to get the gist of whatever was on that paper, flicking rapidly through the papers in the file. “Harrington? What is this about” Holding it out towards him, Steve just stood frozen wide eyed “I- uh, me and Robin- when we got- the Russians- captured, remember? Dustin, Robin, I” he looked towards the two, Dustin seeming to only just click onto what the file was about.
“Care to explain a bit more?” Hopper asked, eyebrows raised. “I-uh, well it’s all in the file” he bit out, already feeling agitated at the questions. His headache surging with a new vengeance.
Hopper sighed, dragging a hand down his face, “God, Steve, when did this happen?” He questioned, many were confused what they were even talking about Lucas piping up “what are we talking about, why’s Steve in the russian files?” he questioned.
“Well that’s what I want Harrington to explain, care to jump in here Steve?” Hopper said Dustin cut in before Steve could get anything out though. “Remember the transmission, the code that we cracked, me, Steve, Robin and Erica and we went down to that Russian base under the mall, it was last summer.” They nodded, “Yeah well Steve and Robin got captured there, we told you guys this!” Dustin said, they all nodded along “Oh yeah, Steve's face was all busted up, again, wait that’s what that was from?!” Lucas piped up again.
“Yes! We told you guys this! Well I thought Steve and Robin told you at least?” Dustin trailed off seeing Steve shaking looking down, hard at the ground. “Wait.. You didn’t tell them!? Dude!” He yelled out, “We were drugged out Henderson I dunno, I thought everyone knew?! Besides shit was crazy and the Mind Flayer was happening and then the mall was destroyed and Hopper was missing and people were hurt. I didn’t wanna bring it up, no one asked or brought it up, I just thought we all knew about this” Steve argued.
“Well we’re bringing it up now and quite frankly I don’t really want to get this information from a russian file, care to explain in your own words, Buckley, Harrington?” Hopper said, continuing to look between the two. The two of them were moving and sitting on the couch when he gestured at them.
Looking at each other Robin started nervously rambling “Well you know me and Steve, we got captured by the Russians when we were there, and they separated us immediately, I can’t really say much on Steve’s part, but they left me alone for ages, and I just sat in this room by myself before they moved me into a different room where Steve was lying unconscious and bleeding all over and then they tied us up together and left us alone saying they were going to get a doctor and then came back and drugged us and then it all just gets a bit blurring from there and I don’t know what more you want me to say cause I mean you know most of this, sort of so.” Robin shut up from a gentle nudge from Steve, Hopper sitting across from them on the coffee table nodding along
“Ok, Harrington, anything to add?” Hopper turned towards Steve who was looking down, body tense and shaking.
“I-, it’s nothing, they left me alone as well” He choked out, “Bullshit! That is bullshit and you know it Steve, Robin just said you were split up and she found you bloody and unconscious. Besides, your face was all busted up when we saw you, and you were DRUGGED” Nancy argued.
Steve felt himself trying to come up with a response, “I-I well you know, they roughed me up a bit I guess,” Steve tried again. Hopper shook his head, pinching the bridge of his nose, chucking the file down and walking away, muttering under his breath.
He felt Robin squeeze his arm, “You deserved everything in that file and you know it”
“What?”