𝐌𝐎𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 𝐒𝐈𝐂𝐊𝐍𝐄𝐒𝐒 steve harrington

xix. sorry that it all went down like it did

    Erica slides beside him. "So. Babe."

    Jack moves his head to his knees and groans. "I said Steve, not babe."

    Erica pulls his head back out. "I just find it strange considering I've probably only ever heard you say Steve once my whole life."

    "I say it when I'm concerned." Jack defends himself. It wasn't a lie, he usually did call Steve by his first name when he was worried. But, he did call him babe before, nobody needed to know that last part.

    "Mm-hmm." Erica hums unconvinced.

    Jack starts to hear a crinkling noise from the corner of the room and makes a face of disgust when he realizes one of the boys is peeing.

    "Can you redirect your stream, please?" Robin yells.

    When Jack turns back he notices Erica is no longer beside him and banging the green liquid against a crate.

    Robin carefully runs toward her. "Hey, hey!" Be careful, careful!" She removes the cylinder from Erica's hands. "We don't even know what this is."

    "Exactly. It could be useful."

    "Useful how?"

    "We can survive down here a long time without food, but if the human body does not get water, it will die."

    "I don't think that's water," Jack says skeptically from the other side of the room.

    "No, but it's a liquid, and if comes down to me drinking that shit or dying of thirst, I drink." Robin scoffs.

    Robin pauses and shoves the liquid into Erica's chest she runs towards the door and places her ear against it.

    "Miller, help me up." She says quickly and stands on Jack's shoulder, who hisses in pain.

    She slips her head into the vent. "We've got company."

    "Jesus, Robin. Get off." Jack moans and the girl hops fully onto the elevator.

    "Get Erica." She whispers and Jack motions for the girl to come over.

    He grabs her by the waist and lets Robin and Steve pull her up. He places his hands up as the group of four pulls Jack up. Once they're all on top of the lift, they slam the door shut.

    "Are you okay?" Steve breathes into Jack's ear.

    Jack nods. "Just a little lightheaded. I'll be fine."

    Robin shushes them as a few Russians pour into the shaft. They're filling the boxes out of the room, bringing them to an unknown location.

    Steve motions for Erica to hand him the cylinder, and he slowly slips out of the vent after the Russians have left.

    Jack watches as his boyfriend stops the closing elevator by blocking it with the green liquid.

    "Let's go." Steve whisper-shouts. The four quickly jump out of the vent and under the door. First, Erica, then Robin, then Dustin, next is Jack, and Steve is the last as the jar begins to crack.

    They watch the liquid splash onto the ground, creating a giant hole inside the floor.

    "You still wanna drink that?" Robin smirks at Erica.

    "Holy mother of God." Jack hears Dustin mutter, and the group turns around.

    An almost endless hallway is revealed.

    "Well..." Steve starts. "Hope you guys are in good shape." He taps Dustin on the chest. "Looking at you, roast beef."

    The group hesitantly begins to walk down the hallway, but they follow Steve nonetheless.

˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳❥

    "I mean, you have to admit, as a feat of engineering alone, this is impressive." Dustins' eyes examine the long hallway.

    "What are you talking about?" Steve asks. "It's a total fire hazard. There's no stairs, there's no exit, there's just an elevator that drops you halfway to hell."

    "God. You're such a mom, Harrington." Jack complains.

    "Oh yeah? Guess that makes you the dad." Steve winks. Dustin and Erica give them confusing looks, while Robin smirks to herself.

    Erica raises her eyebrows and then snickers to herself, and retreats back to the conversation.  "They're commies. You don't pay people, they cut corners."

    "To be fair to our Russian comrades, I don't think this tunnel was designed for walking." Jack makes a mental note to later thank Robin for being the only senseful one in the group.

    "Think about it, they developed the perfect system for transporting that cargo." She continues.

    "It all comes into the mall like any old delivery," Dustin adds.

    "And then they load it up onto those trucks and nobody's the wiser," Jack says.

    The teen is well aware he has definitely lost his job by now. He didn't show up yesterday, obviously because of the Russian elevator issue. And, he most likely won't make it today, considering they've been walking down this hall for hours.

    He knows his mother is probably worried, and that his father is pretending to be worried. He hasn't been home in over two days, from sleeping over at Steve's to sleeping in the elevator.

    The group discusses the Russian topic for a few more minutes, still not reaching the end of the hallway.

    "You're all so nerdy, it makes me physically ill." Erica holds her stomach as if she is about to throw up.

    "No, no, no." Steve whines. "No, don't lump me in with them. I'm not a nerd, all right."

    "Says your Star Wars obsession," Jack mumbles under his breath, and Steve playfully hits him in the shoulder.

    "Why so sensitive Harrington?" Robin questions. "Afraid of losing cool points to a ten-year-old child?"

    "No, I'm just saying I don't know jack shit about Prometheus."

    "Promethium." Dustin corrects. The boy and Robin continue to discuss the Russians, Jack could care less, he'll probably die today, that's cool.

    "How's your head?" Steve whispers so only Jack can hear him.

    Jack warmly smiles. "Better."

    Erica eyes them up and down. "Hmm."

    'Does she know?' Steve mouths and Jack shrugs.

    "I mean, Hawkins. Seriously. Of all places." Robin complains. Steve, Dustin, and Jack make knowing eye contact. Their walking slows down, while Robin and Erica continue up the corridor.

"You think the Russians know?" Dustin asks. "They could."

"So, it's connected?" Steve asks, raising an eyebrow

"I don't know, but it's..." Dustin trails off.

"Possible." Jack finishes for the boy.

Robin turns around. "I'm sorry, is there something you'd like to share with the class?"

The three quickly try to think of an excuse but are saved by the static of a walkie-talkie.

Erica rips the electronic out of her bed and hands it to Robin. She translates the code they all know well.

"Wherever that broadcast is coming from-"

"It's close." Robin cuts Dustin off. "And if there's one thing we know about that signal..."

"It can reach the surface." Robin looks up towards the roof and grimaces.

"Let's go."

AN
last night i had a dream i was
jack. it was so weird and it confused
me for the whole day i seriously
spent an hour of my day thinking
it was an actual scene i wrote in
this fic.