HIGHER and HIGHER - Steve Harrington x Reader

xxvii - the battle of starcourt

He makes his way to a table and the group follows him. I try to stand, but Steve pulls me back down.

"Hey, you have to rest. You've been through too much." He says to me.

"No, I have to help." I say.

"You've done enough, (Y/N). Just sit and try to relax."

I stand up and he keeps his hand on my wrist.

"There's no way I'm gonna be able to relax, so, just let me do my thing." I say.

He looks at me for a moment and then stands up as well. He puts his arm around my waist and one of my arms on his shoulder. He helps me walk over to the table, and the man in glasses slaps the papers he was waving in the air down onto the table.

"Okay, this is what Alexei called 'the hub'." He says, pointing at the papers, "Now, the hub takes us to the vault room."

"Okay, where's the gate?" Hopper asks.

"Right here. I don't know the scale on this, but I think it's fairly close to the vault room, maybe fifty feet or so." The man says.

"More like 500." Erica says, "What, you're just gonna waltz in there like it's commie Disneyland or something?"

"I'm sorry, who are you?" The man asks her.

"Erica Sinclair. Who are you?"

"Murray... Bauman."

"Listen, Mr. Bunman, I'm not trying to tell you how to do things, but I've been down in that shithole for twenty four hours. And with all due respect, you do what this man tells you, you're all gonna die." Erica says.

"I'm sorry, why is this four-year-old speaking to me?" Murray says.

"Um, I'm ten, you bald bastard!"

"Erica!" Lucas scolds.

"Just the facts!" She says.

"She's right." I say.

My dad turns to me.

"You're not telling me you were down there, too?" He says.

"That's exactly what she's saying. You're all gonna die, but you don't have to." Dustin says, approaching the table, "Excuse me. Sorry, may I?"

"Please." Murray says.

"Okay, see this room here? This is a storage facility. There's a hatch in here that feeds into their underground ventilation system. That will lead you to the base of the weapon. It's a bit of a maze down there, but between me and Erica, we can show you the way." Dustin says.

"You can show us the way?" Hopper says.

"Don't worry, you can do all the fighting and the dangerous hero shit, and we'll just be your... navigators." Dustin says, shaking his head.

"No." Hopper says, shaking his head, "Nope."

The group separates to look for weapons and other things and Steve and I stay with Dustin and Erica.

"Well, that settles it. He's gonna die. They're gonna die." Erica says.

"Yep, most likely." Dustin agrees.

"Thanks for the optimism, guys." I say to them.

"You guys survived." Lucas says behind them.

"Barely." Dustin says, turning to face Lucas, Mike and Will, "We could've really used you guys down there."

"Could've used you up here, too." Mike says.

"Yeah, man. We missed you, dude." Lucas adds.

They all gather in a hug and Erica makes a disgusted face. I turn to Steve and he quickly meets my eye contact.