wires, steve harrington

forty-four.

her brow raised, and her lips came to a smirk. "why the change of heart, harrington?"

"i almost just watched you die." he deadpanned. "and i know that, with everything going on and all this.. all the upside down shit.. we're never promised to get the forever that i want to have with you. and there isn't enough time in one lifetime for me to waste it being insecure and jealous. all i want to do while we're here is just love you, and let you see how much i love you."

meadow looked up at him, and hadn't even realized that they'd fully stopped walking, just standing in the grass between eddie and max's trailers. "i love you." she said. "when we finish all this, you tell me what you want to fill the rest of our lifetime doing and i'll do it. we can.. move to hawaii, or go skydiving, i don't care. as long as you're in my future, it's the future i want."

steve grabbed one of her hands and held it up to his mouth, pressing a kiss to her knuckles. "i love you so much. i'm sorry i've been difficult with my whole.. macho man jealousy thing."

she laughed, moving closer to him. "i love love you. but, right now, we're standing in the middle of someone's lawn." she said.

he laughed as he pulled her even closer to press a kiss to her forehead before settling on just grabbing her hand and walking with her into max's trailer.

once everyone was seated, nancy relayed to them everything vecna had shown her, including that he had been an experiment just like eleven, and that he had become corrupt and she had thrown him into the upside down as a child.

"he showed me things that haven't happened yet." nancy said. "the most awful things. i saw a dark cloud spreading over hawkins. downtown on fire. dead soldiers. and this.. giant creature with.. a gaping mouth. and this creature wasn't alone. there were so many monsters. an army. and they were coming into hawkins. into our neighborhoods. our homes. and then he showed me my mom, and holly. mike. and they.. they were all.." she took a shaky breath, recalling everything vecna had showed her.

meadow frowned from her seat on the couch between steve and eddie, who both seemed still on edge. steve shook his head. "okay, but.. he's just trying to scare you, nancy. right? i mean.. i mean, it's not real."

"not yet." she replied. "but there.. there was something else. he showed me gates. four gates. spreading across hawkins. and these gates, they looked like the one outside of eddie's trailer, but.. they didn't stop growing. and this wasn't the upside down hawkins. this was our hawkins. our home."

dustin turned to his sister. "did you see any of this shit?"

meadow shook her head. "no. no, but i'm not sure why. he seemed like he wanted to get me, like what he was doing to max. i know he was just getting in my head, but why did he tell you his plan?" she asked, looking to nancy. "he scared you pretty good, but he didn't actually want to kill you. so why did he show you all of this?"

"he wanted me to tell eleven." nancy replied. "he said so himself. he said to tell eleven everything he'd shown me."

the oldest henderson sibling fell back on the sofa in defeat. "okay, shit, that's great."

"how come he didn't kill you, then?" dustin asked, his hands on his hips as he paced about. "why tell nancy everything but then still try to go after you?"

meadow shrugged. "i have no idea. maybe he just wanted to ask me out for brunch or something, dustin."

"that's not funny." he replied.

"four chimes." max piqued. "vecna's clock. it always chimes four times. four exactly."

nancy nodded. "i heard them, too."