American Heroes: A Stranger Things 3 Fic

Looking for Russians

Will wakes up to Dustin shouting his name over and over again on his walkie-talkie. He changes into his clothes before answering. "Yes, Dustin?"

"Where are you, Byers? Over."

"Home. It's only eight thirty. What do you-"

"Get to Scoops now! Over and out!"

"Wait, what? Dustin? Hello, Dustin? Are you there?"

Silence from the other end. Will groans, lugging himself out of his room and into the kitchen where his mom and Jonathan are already eating breakfast. "Morning, sweetie," Joyce says as Will grabs a waffle and proceeds to devour it. "Are you in a hurry?"

"Yeah, Dustin wants me to meet him at the mall."

"Oh, so you boys made up?"

Will swallows a bite of waffle. "What do you mean?"

"Mom..." Jonathan eyes their mother.

Joyce lets out a heavy sigh. "Jonathan mentioned you and your friends may have had a fight. I just wanted to make sure you were alright."

Jonathan huffs. "Really, Mom?"

"I didn't fight with Dustin," Will says. "It doesn't matter anyways. I'm fine."

"Are you sure?" Joyce asks.

"Yes, Mom. Can I just go to the mall now?"

Joyce gets out of her chair and grabs her keys. "Okay, but I can drive you since I'm headed out anyway."

Will and Joyce say bye to Jonathan before leaving. As they drive down the road, Will watches the trees rush by and thinks of the night two years ago when he fell off his bike in those woods and soon after came face to face with the demogorgon. He couldn't go a day without the thought of it and the Mind Flayer coming up in his mind. Not to mention the nightmares. Every night he would wake up trembling and crying. What he would give for all of it to disappear.

"Will?" Joyce says.

"Yeah, Mom?"

"Are you sure everything's okay?"

"Positive."

Joyce purses her lips, unconvinced. "You would tell me if something isn't, right?"

"Of course."

"So, I don't have to worry about whatever fight you and your friends had?"

Will gives her a reassuring smile. "No, you don't have to worry. It was just a stupid fight. Not a big deal. We're fine."

Joyce glances at her son and smiles. "Okay. I love you, you know."

Will laughs. "I know, Mom. I love you, too."

For the rest of the ride, they talk about new movies and ideas Will has for a Dungeons and Dragons campaign. When they arrive at the mall, Will hugs his mom and gets out of the car. "Thanks for the ride, Mom."

"Oh, Will, make sure you're not out too late tonight. It's supposed to storm," Joyce calls through the car window.

"Okay," Will says before she drives off, and he heads into the mall. He's glad to get his mind off the Mind Flayer and his fight with Mike and focus on more fun things like translating a secret Russian code.

Will enters Scoops Ahoy with a smile on his face.

"Move, nerd!" Lucas's sister, Erica, says as she shoves past him. Will ducks out of the way to avoid getting hit by her ice cream cone.

At the counter, Robin chuckles and shakes her head. "Hey, dingus, get over here."

Will walks up to the counter and leans his elbows on it while Robin scoops chocolate ice cream into a cone. "Are Dustin and Steve in the back?"

Robin shakes her head. "No, they're somewhere out in the mall looking for Russians." She hands the ice cream to Will.

"What's this for?" he asks.

"To boost morale." She holds up a hand when Will starts to sift through his pockets for change. "It's on me."

Will pauses then smiles. "Thanks, Robin."

"No problem. Now, why don't you join our two morons? Last I saw them, they were hiding behind some plants."

Grinning, Will thanks Robin again before leaving Scoops to find Steve and Dustin. He finds them a few feet away, crouching behind a large fern, Dustin squinting through a pair of binoculars. Will kneels behind them, careful not to drop his ice cream. "Hey, guys," he whispers.

Steve and Dustin fall forward, Dustin face-planting into the fern. Will stifles a laugh.

"Byers!" Dustin hisses, brushing himself off. "Don't sneak up on us like that! We're doing important work."

Will furrows his eyebrows. "And what exactly is that?"

"We're looking for Russians."

"How do you know if you see one?"

"Just look for, you know, someone intimidating, blond, who looks like they're hiding something."

"Have you spotted any yet?"

Steve shakes his head. "Nope, nothing."

"Steve was just complaining about some random girl he can't get when he's got the perfect one right in front of him," Dustin says.

Steve rolls his eyes. "Enough about Robin. Like I said, she's not my type."

"Oh, c'mon, Steve, she's amazing. Back me up, Will."

Will shrugs. "Yeah, she's cool."

"See, Harrington? She's perfect."

"Cool isn't the same thing as perfect. And don't back him up, Byers. He doesn't know what he's talking about." Steve grabs the binoculars from Dustin and looks through them himself. "I'm not seeing any Russians. I doubt they'd be that obvious."

Dustin makes a face. "Right, well, what do you expect us to do anyway? The transmission is nearly all translated."

"Really?" Will says. "When did that happen?"

Dustin shrugs. "Robin's been working on it. She's a genius."

"All she got was 'a trip to China sounds nice,'" Steve says. "What the hell does that even mean?"

"As we've already established, it's a code. We're not going to understand it until the rest of the transmission is translated." Dustin grabs the binoculars back from Steve. "In the meantime, we should be looking for Russians."