Rhiannon // Max Mayfield

14: Bad habits

"C'mon Steve," Atlas called, making the Harrington boy join the sibling hug. They held each other for a while before separating.

"Your all bruised and gross, what happened?" she asked, looking at both her brother's beat up faces and swelling.

"Evil Russians," They say in synch to her, then look down at her bandaged stomach, "What happened to you?"

"The mind flayer, but i won the fight." Alex said, causing both her brothers jaws to drop, "Hey, just be happy i won a fight, you wish you could say the same," She mocked, not wanting to tell them that she was stabbed by her girlfriend.

"What are you doing here?" Lucas asked his sister in confusion, since when was she even friends with Dustin?

"Ask them, it's their fault!" Erica sassed back, pointing over to the older kids but specifically Steve who was still checking over Alex like an overprotective mother.

"True, yeah. Totally true. It's absolutely our fault," Steve says in a mix of sarcasm and truth as he let go of Alex.

"I don't understand what happened to that car," Robin spoke up confused.

"El has superpowers," Dustin says, as if that was explanation.

"I'm sorry?"

"Superpowers, she threw it with her mind," Steve says, jokingly rolling his eyes, "C'mon catch up."

"That's El?" Erica asked with wide eyes, having heard many stories about her from Dustin and Lucas.

"Who's El?" Robin asked, still confused.

"I'm sorry, who are you?" Nancy asked Robin accusingly.

"I'm Robin, I work with Steve," She explained.

"She cracked the top secret code," Dustin tells them proudly, with a little grin.

"Yeah, which is how we found out about the Russians," Atlas says.

"Russians?" Johnathan asked, not following, to be fair neither was Alex, "Wait, what Russians?"

"The Russians!" Steve stressed.

"Those were Russians?" Max asked, in utter confusion.

"Some of them," Erica nods.

"What are you talking about?" Lucas asks to is sister, how did she tie into this.

"Didn't you see our code red?" Dustin asks him.

"Yeah,  but i couldn't understand half of what you were saying," Mike tells him annoyed.

"Goddamn no battery!" Dustin cursed, looking at his walkie.

"How many times do i have to tell you with the low battery!" Steve shouts at the boy.

"Well, everything worked out well didn't it?" Dustin says annoyed.

"Worked out? We almost died!" Erica shouts.

"Yeah, but we didn't did we?" Dustin snaps.

"It was pretty damn close." Steve mumbled, growing more annoyed.

"Okay, Russians?" Alex asked for clarification, "as in working for the Russian government?"

"What is it that you're not comprehending?" Dustin asks her confused, "am  i not speaking English? We have a full blown red dawn situation."

"So this has noting to do with the gate?" Max asks, looking over to Alex as she put a hand on her stomach.

"This has everything to do with the gate," Dustin argues.

"That's how the mind flayer got back," Alex realised, her eyes widening in shock.

"What? That things back?" Steve shouted and turned back to his sister, "are you.."

"Still connected to it, no. I threw it up after it possessed me."

"You were possessed by the mind flayer!" Atlas exclaims, holding his sister protectively.

"Yeah, we've dealt with it now, not important!" Alex argued back.

"not important! I think it is!" Steve said, stepping into the argument.

"It's fine!" Alex shouted back, wincing at her stomach.

"You winced, why did you wince?" Atlas says, noticing the blood on the girls fingers and then following it to her stomach.

Steve gasped, "What the fuck happened," he looked around the group, Max looked down, "Who did that?"

"Steve, really it doesn't matter, it helped to save me!" Alex pleaded as Steve settled his eyes on Max.

"How could you, i thought you were supposed to take care of her!" He said accusingly to the ginger.

Alex walked over to Max in annoyance, sure she loved Steve but when he was threatening her girlfriend she drew the line.

"Steve, for fucks sake, stop." The boy looked at Alex, just wanting her to be safe, "She did it to save me, if she didn't i would probably be flayed still and that would make it way worse for us."

She defended. Steve nodded and backed down, over to his group who dealt with the Russians as Alex leant on Max slightly, their hands linked.

~~

"My leg! My leg!" El screamed, clutching her wound from the mind flayer. Turning the attention to her.

Totally loosing motivation and back to school tomorrow so updates will be less often.