꧁꧂
ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ᴛᴡᴇɴᴛʏ-ꜰɪᴠᴇ: ʙʀᴇᴀᴋ ᴍᴇ ᴅᴏᴡɴ
"Who do you work for?" I stared up at him with the blandest face humanly possible. After six punches to the face and two to the stomach, I still hadn't brought up some fake idea of a secret spy organisation plotting against the Russians. Because it wasn't the truth.
"I go to middle school." I repeated, again, seeing the second ugly Russian move over as I spoke. "I'm serious-" Panic grew within me by the moment, though. "I'm in the middle school's AV club, and I don't even know why... it's high school next year anyways- but the other two? Look at their outfits, they work for an ice cream parlour. They're dressed up as sailors. Scoops Ahoy. It's above us- at the mall-"
I guess the second ugly Russian didn't wanna hear it, though, because I then continued to obtain a punch to the face. Rule number twenty-three: don't talk about ice cream to Russians, they don't like it...
"Uncalled for..." I murmured, looking down at my lap. The first one stared right at me, waiting for the response he was needing. As I concentrated on the whole breathing thing, I told him the same thing, over and over again. "I'm telling you. I'm a middle school, soon to be high schooler, with a severe liking to my best friend." I say, stating only the facts. "We're not spies. We're people who didn't mean to get here- it was an accident-"
"Who do you work for?"
And it went on. It went on and on before he couldn't stand it anymore, leaving me alone in the room, taking ugly Russian number two with him.
It was nice to have a moment of silence there and then: to be alone right there and then after so long of not having that. Sure, the handcuffs hurt like a bitch, and there was definitely an easier way to get such a silence than breaking into a super-secret Russian base.
Ever since school had broken up for the summer, Max had left my side only so many days in those few weeks. And even then, it would be for a date with Lucas, which she'd immediately report back to me in the evening at a sleepover she'd chosen to go ahead with on the spot.
Max...
I wonder what she'd tell me to do if she knew this was what I was up to right now? Would she be mad I didn't go with Dustin? I couldn't fit in any ventilation system at that moment with my stomach, though, and that was fact. Would she tell me to stop being a hero? It wasn't like I wanted to be an American hero like Steve.
I just wanted to be happy with her.
The door opened up suddenly, two more Russians walking in and dragging an unconscious boy's body across the floor. They practically threw the boy on the floor, and after they did, they left just as quickly as they'd entered.
Kneeling down beside him, I quickly called for him to wake up, slapping the side of his face lightly before seeing the bruising, the blood and the cuts on the side of his face. He'd not had it well with them, that was for sure.
"Steve? Wake up." I told him, breathing a little heavily before checking for a pulse. Grabbing his wrist, I waited, moving my two fingers slowly across his skin in hopes to find one. What was this? A threat? Finding the pulse, I let out a sigh of relief, momentarily, before a door on the side opened.
"GET YOUR HANDS OFF ME-" Robin shouted at the two men as they then continued to throw her over to where me and the boy were. "Steve?" Her head turned to the boy who was sprawled across the floor, shaking him to wake. "Steve?"
"Robin, he's unconscious." I say, causing her eyes to meet with mine. "He's not gonna wake right now." She nodded slightly as the door buzzed and opened, with a guy with this big special hat came in, proving that he must be some big deal to the Russians.
"What did you do to him?" Robin asked, looking between the three men that were not Steve in the room. "What did you do?!" As she shouted, the man took one step closer before slapping her across the face. Oh, bitch, he must be mad. The girl let out a yell in pain, and my protective ass came into play.
As I went to move towards him, most likely to kick him in the shin, Robin put her hands out in front of me not to move. Glaring up at the man, I stared at him as he spoke to the other men, causing them to all suddenly move around, picking up chairs and placing the two older ones at the middle of the room, meanwhile I was almost benched by the side.
"Steve? Wake up, Steve?" Robin continued to call for the boy as the two were belted together, and the girl let out another yell. Meanwhile, one soldier came towards me, smirking slightly as the same was done to me, the belts done up a little too tight than what would be preferred. "WHAT DID YOU DO?!"
The new guy, who'd just slapped Robin and was now on my list of murder, stepped towards the unconscious Steve, lifting his head up to get a good look. "Don't you dare touch him." I warned from my seat, far in the corner, and unable to move. I was definitely not one to talk, but Steve was not about to die in front of my eyes, that was for sure.
The man clicked his tongue before letting Steve's head fall back down again. "STEVE? Steve, can you hear me?" Robin tried her best, and I couldn't blame her at all.
"I think, your friend need a doctor." When he spoke, there was nothing more that I would've enjoyed doing than to punch him right in the middle of his punchable face. As he walked around for Robin to see him, he looked between me and her. "Good thing, we have the very best." He leaned down in front of her in this teasing manner.
The man looked over at me, still leaning over to her before beginning to laugh, glancing at his fellow Russians of who laughed along until stopping dead when the main guy did. Robin had spit in his face. Balls of steel; that was what she had.
He grabbed the cloth from his other hand and wiped the bridge of his nose before the rest of his face and looking back down at it in his hand. Slowly, the man looked up at her, shaking his head. "You're going to regret that, suka." He didn't tare his eyes away from her for moments, speaking to one of the Russians before finally leaving for the door.
"BASDARDS." Robin was definitely the brave one of the two of us, that was for sure. "LET US OUTTA HERE!" As the last of them left, she continued to shout. "BASTARDS, LET US OUT-" Then the door slammed shut. Rule twenty-four: get balls of steel, like Robin's.
⊹˚˖⁺
Hanging my head low, I stared down at my lap as my eyes opened up. I don't know how long I'd been asleep for. The last thing I remembered was Robin shouting and calling for help and her voice echoing all over the room repeatedly.
Laughter could be heard in the room. Nothing other than that. Which, you know, was weird considering the last thing I remember we were not at the circus but stuck in an underground Russian base.
Glancing up I saw them both on the floor. What the fuck had happened in the few minutes I was out was beyond me. "The fuck you two doing on the floor?" I asked, half smiling. Steve's head leaned on the floor as whatever laughter once was slowly died down.
"We uh- we tried to hop over to those scissors on the side, see, over there?" He did his best to gesture over to said scissors with a nod, and it took me a good minute to see where he was talking about. They were total idiots. My god, they were both total idiots. Silence grew between us, not with tension, or awkwardness, though.
"Hey, Steve?" Robin called over to him from the other side. "Do you remember, um, Mrs Click's sophomore history class?"
The boy wasn't following, shaking his head as he listened. "What?"
"Mrs Clickity-Clackity." I could hear Robin smiling without even seeing her face. "That's what us band dweebs called her." The boy let out a sigh, leaning his head against the floor as he tried his best to remember. "It was first period, Tuesdays and Thursdays, so you were always late." Steve was so different to Sophomore him. I didn't know him that well back then, I'll be honest, but even then, I knew what a douche he was known to be.
"And you always had the same breakfast. Bacon, egg and cheese on a sesame bagel." Furrowing my eyebrows a little, I let it all sink in. Robin seemed to know quite a bit about Steve. "I sat behind you two days a week for a year. Mister Funny... Mister Cool." Oh. "The King of Hawkins High himself. Do you even remember me from that class?" Steve looked so broken and lost for words when he shook his head. The girl chuckled. "Of course you don't. You were a real asshole, you know that?" That tension that I said wasn't present earlier on? Yeah, there it was. It was definitely there now. Rule number twenty-five: don't get stuck in an evil Russian base with two older teens who unknowingly have a history together.
"Yeah, I know..." Steve tells her.
"But it didn't even matter." Every word the girl said, it sounded as though she'd thought all about this so many times in the past it was almost unbelievable. You could hear her heart breaking. "It didn't matter that you were an ass. I was still... obsessed with you." It shocked me to the core that the girl was saying all of this, knowing I wasn't asleep anymore. "Even though all of us losers pretend to be above it all, we still just wanted to be popular... accepted... normal."
"If it makes you feel any better," Steve says. "having those things isn't all that great." The boy let out a quiet sniff and it hit me that he was close to tears, if he wasn't crying slightly already. "Seriously." He then sighed. "It just baffles me. Everything that people tell you is important, everything that people say you should care about, it's all just..." Then, chuckling, "bullshit."
There was a lot to unpack in this, and I certainly felt like I was sticking out like a sore thumb. I didn't say anything. I couldn't. Especially after what Robin had just said. "But I guess you gotta mess up to figure things out, right?"
"I hope so." Robin murmured just as quietly in return. "I feel like my whole life has been... one big error." That I could drink to. One big error. As Steve chuckled, I found myself smiling. Looked like we could all agree to it in the room.
"Yep..." Steve's smile broadened as he agreed.
"But, hey Park, at least it can't get any more messed up than this, right?" Robin called over to me, making me nod.
"Yeah..." I didn't want to jinx it, but she was right. "The only more messed up it can get is if I'm on the floor with you guys." The two laughed and chuckled a little.
"You know, I wish I'd known you in Click's class." The boy tells her.
"Yeah?" Robin's head turned a little, almost excitement in her voice.
"Really, I do." He says, and she let out a dry chuckle. "Maybe you could've helped me pass the class." Yeah, Steve didn't seem like the kind of guy to pass History, I won't lie. "Maybe instead of being here, I'd be on my way to college right now."
"And, I would have no idea that there were evil Russians beneath our feet." Robin remarked, voice still soft as she said it. "and I would be happily slinging ice cream with some other schmuck." At the end of her sentence, I smiled and Steve did the same, chuckling quietly. There was something there between the two of them. But it was hard to see what it was.
"Gotta say, though, I liked being your schmuck." Steve tells her. "It was fun while it lasted."
If Steve was accepting the fate that we weren't getting out of here alive, then that worried me. The babysitter, the mom and the defender of the group had seemingly lost hope, and was beginning to talk about it all in the past tense.
I wish I'd told Max sooner. It wasn't like she'd ever reciprocate the feelings, but the thought that she'd know the truth would be nice to know.
The door opened up again, and the Russians walked back in, with that ugly guy that Robin had previously spat at, leading. The man stared down at the two and let out a single chuckle as a scientist-looking science guy that was bald and wearing a lab coat which made him look like one of those mad scientists from cartoons followed behind him.
"Where were you two going?" He asks them both on the floor, then clicking his tongue again.
They were picked up from off the floor, along with me being scooted over to the middle beside them. "Try telling the truth this time," The man tells Steve. Notably, a little scar sat under his right eye, making me wonder if he'd been in a fight with something not from around here. "yes?" He placed a hand on his shoulder. "It will make your visit with Dr Zharkov less painful." That sounded like an evil doctor name, too.
⊹˚˖⁺
Now, I dunno what the injected in us, but it didn't work. Honestly, like what did they think was gonna happen? We were gonna blab? About them working at Scoops? And me being in love with my best friend? Who will never ever like me back no matter how hard I tried?
"Honestly, I don't really feel anything." Leaning my head against the two's shoulders, I listened to what Steve had said and nodded a little. "Do you, Park?" There was a nice feeling going around in my head. It was like, as they say, walking on clouds.
"Nah..." I replied after a second, staring at the door in front of us all. "Robin...?"
"I mean... I feel fine." She tells me. "I feel normal."
"Yeah, I feel- I feel fine." Steve repeated, and I could feel him nodding a little bit. "I kinda feel good." Chuckling, I leaned my head against their shoulders as the laughter began. Were we high? Maybe. But this feeling was pretty nice to have when you were in a place like we were. Fuck, it seemed as though this was the one thing that was making the idea of being in a Russian base was to be high on drugs.
"Wanna know a secret?" Robin asked us, laughing. "I like it too!" Letting out a loud chuckle, I closed my eyes and imagined myself where I wanted to be most. I guess you could do that when you were like... this.
"They're morons." I murmured between laughs. "I mean, they- they messed up the drug."
The other two broke into laughter. "They messed it up!" Robin agreed, leaning her head onto the top of my own. "MORONS!"
"Hey, Morons!" We called the Russians whatever the hell we liked, laughing and chuckling to each other as time passed by. We were idiots, that was for sure. But the good news was my stomach wasn't hurting anymore.
"There's definitely something wrong with us..." Robin murmured, making me burst into another fit of laughter. She couldn't have put it better herself. We were idiots. Complete dumbasses. Rule number twenty-six: get drugged by evil Russians more often!
"You're not wrong..." I muttered with another laugh, watching the door open up with a buzz. Uh oh!
The man walked through after another Russian holding a gun, hands behind his back as he looked over at the three of us. Then, after him, the doctor whatever his name was, followed, placing a bag on the side. Staring over at the doctor, I watched him empty the bag's contents with different metal tools. Oh fuck. Oh shit.
"Would now be a good time to tell you that I don't like doctors?" Robin suddenly said, making me bite back a smile or smirk. The doctor placed down the large bone saw that was once in his hands, down on the side next to the other tools.
"Let's try this again, yes?" The man was desperate from getting something from us. Well, good luck to him because if he spoke to me, then it was gonna be a long story about my love life and Pac-man. Steve nodded and then the questioning began. "Who do you work for?"
Silence. Then, I smiled. Who do you work for? What am I supposed to say? Jesus? "Scoops." Steve said proudly, chuckling with Robin. "Scoops Ahoy."
"How did you find us?" He wasn't seemingly finding it as funny as we were, which was kind of sad when you thought about it. This was fucking hilarious.
"Totally by accident." More chuckling and giggling came from us when Steve replied, but we couldn't help it. This was funny as hell. The man spoke over to the doctor on Russian while we laughed.
The doctor picked up one of the many tools, making my laughter begin to slowly die down. "Woah...." I say, eyebrow raised.
"What's that shiny little toy?" Steve asked, looking over, along with Robin.
"Where are you going with that, doc?"
Slowly, the doctor walked around, stopping over at me. "WOAH- WOAH WAIT SHIT FUCK I DON'T-" Panic grew in me fast as he began to cut at the finger. Jesus fucking Christ I was about to die in front of two older teens who knew hardly anything about me compared to others.
"THERE WAS A CODE, WE HEARD A CODE-" Robin's shouts became the last for a moment as the doctor stopped midway, looking over at the man. He didn't move away, but he certainly released the pressure from my finger slightly. I wonder if my Pac-man skills would go down with one less finger...
"Code? What code?" He stepped around to look at Robin.
"The week is long. The silver cat feeds when blue meets yellow in the west." She recalled. "Blah, blah, blah. YOU broadcast that stupid spy shit all over town, and we picked it up on our Cerebro," if it weren't for the fact that I was a moment away from losing my finger, I would've been laughing. "and we cracked it in a day." The girl was laughing, while I stared down at my hand, hoping this was gonna get me or my hand, safe. "A DAY! You think you're so smart, but a couple of kids, who scoop ice cream for a living cracked your code in a day. And now, people know you're here."
"WHO KNOWS WE ARE HERE, SUKA?" The man's voice echoed on the room's four walls when he raised his voice at us.
"Uh, well, Dustin knows." Steve suddenly said, making me wide my eyes. Rule number twenty-seven: don't have drugged Steve Harington with you when inside an evil Russian base.
"Steve?!" I called over to him. He needed to shut up, now.
"Yeah, Dustin Henderson, he knows." Fuck. This wasn't looking good.
"STEVE!" Robin shouted over at him, too, realising.
"Dustin Henderson..." The man repeated the name, and I gave the doctor a cautious look while the man walked back towards Steve. "Is this your small, curly-haired friend?"
"HMMMM." Robin tried to cover up our tracks, but it was too late. Steve was too far gone. He was a lost cause to say the least.
"OH, Curly-haired. Great hair. Small. Kind of like a 'fro. Yeah." Steve was definitely the one that was most high out of us three.
"Where is he?" I nearly caught myself smiling at that question. Whoopsies...
"Ohhhh, he's long gone, you big asshole." Steve, the highest man on this planet, says, to a man who was definitely not to be messed with. The boy's words made Robin laugh a little. "And he's probably calling Hopper, and Hopper's calling the US cavalry." A part of me really hoped that that was true, too. Steve laughed. "They're probably gonna come in here, commando-style, guns a-blazin', and kick your sorry asses back to Russia. You're gonna be two pieces of toast." The two snickered uncontrollably as the man looked at the boy, not believing a word.
"Is that so?" He asked us, leaning down to our level.
"Yeah...?" The two broke down laughing, making me laugh momentarily before stopping to see why the two Russians in the room were doing the same. Well, that can't be good, but oh well.
Just when I think that I'm about to lose my finger for good, an alarm blared, the same to the one we'd heard running around the place. Oh boy, I hope that was a good alarm. The smile that was once on the man's face fell quickly as he looked between me and a bragging Steve, while Russian yelling was heard in the distance.
a/n- there will be slower updates, please bear with me ! <3