𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐓𝐖𝐈𝐍; steve harrington

FIFTEEN

Aven furrowed her brows, looking down at the concrete beneath her as she fought through her thoughts, eyes quickly flicking back up. "The waveless sea. It runs beneath the material plane, right? Oh, wait, oh my god! Like the Upside-down? Does that mean it's all foggy and stuff. That- oh shit, I get it now!"

Dustin bounced excitedly on his feet as Aven smiled, finally grasping some sense of the situation, all while Steve watched with confusion. "Yeah, I didn't get any of that." Dustin stopped jumping as he held back a roll of his eyes, Aven laughing at the small interaction.

Dustin shoved the bat Aven hadn't seen into the older boy's hands. "You can just stick to your job," he teased. Steve stepped back due to the sheer amount of force the younger teen had implemented into his movements. He widened his eyes as he tightened his hold on the bat, admiring the sight of it in his hands once again.

"What is that?" Aven asked, face holding shock and utter fright. She subconsciously stepped back, eyes wide.

Steve looked up with a reassuring grin. "This is what I used last year to kill a Demogorgon," he said, mind fuzzy with a blur of recognition.

"Please tell me you cleaned it," she muttered, eyes locked on the weapon dangling carelessly from the boy's fingers.

Dustin raised his brows. "Steve doesn't clean anything," he retorted smartly, face void of emotion.

Steve let his mouth fall open in horror, eyes wide and full of offence. "What the hell, Henderson? I clean stuff. Of course I cleaned this." Dustin raised a brow. "Well, I think I cleaned it."

Aven stepped forward, locking eyes with Steve as her finger pointed at the bat with nails. "You're telling me there may or may not be alien guts on that thing, and you're holding it like that?"

Steve furrowed his brows as he looked down. "Well, how do you want me to hold it?"

"I don't," she said, shrugging her shoulders with a shiver of disgust at the thought of the chunks of old, flaying skin sticking to the individual nails.

Steve sighed, looking down at the bat in his hands with confusion, before Dustin smacked him on the shoulder. The Harrington teen recoiled with a mutter of an ouch.

"Come on, we don't have all night."

Dustin walked around the house, leaving the two older teens alone out the front. Steve moved the bat from his left side to his right as he stepped beside Aven, making sure it was further away from her.

He watched her watch the floor. "Are you sure you're okay?"

Aven looked up, brows raised and eyes soft in the glimmering moonlight. She stared for a moment, merely admiring the boy's features in the dark. His brown eyes. The curl that always fell over his forehead. The crease between his brows. The utter, hopeless, desperate amount of care present in the expression covering his face.

She smiled fondly. "Now that I'm not alone, I think I'll be fine. It's all just . . . I don't know, a bit surreal? It doesn't make sense."

Steve playfully bumped his shoulder with her own. "When you really think about it, nothing makes sense."

Aven grinned. You, she wanted to say. You make sense.

She kept quiet. "Thanks," was all she murmured.

Steve furrowed his brows, steps slowing to a stop. He held her shoulder, gently forcing her to a stop as well. "Why are you thanking me? What for?"

"For caring enough to ask," she whispered, finally meeting his sight. As soon as the words hit the boy's ears, he felt himself fall.