CHAPTER FOUR
PRINCESS BADASSERY
The crew drove down the dark gravel road and into the driveway with the mailbox that said Lipton. The house looked abandoned, and it probably was, since Reefer Rick allegedly got arrested months ago. The crew walked up to the door, Dustin leading the pack. He slammed his thumb on the door bell as it rang over and over and over again. Steve argued that they should give up, go home, and call the police, but Dustin didn't take that for an answer.
"Reefer Rick!" Sloane banged on the door as she screamed.
"REEFER RICK!" Dustin screamed louder, peering in the window.
"Don't scream that!" Steve protested.
"Hey guys?" Max called from the distance, and the group walked over to where the girl stood. They looked up to see a boathouse - a fairly large boathouse, at that - with the door open in a fashion that made it seem as if it was a welcome invite.
"I don't think drug dealers just leave doors open like that, let's go check it out," Sloane started to walk down the hill, but Steve grabbed her arm before she slipped away. "Stay behind me," he pulled his sister back as the crew walked down towards the boathouse.
They searched the place from top to bottom, and while everyone was looking in corners, under shelves, and other places a five-foot-ten male would never fit into, Steve was looking skeptically at the boat with tarp covering it. Sloane, noticing her brother's behavior, grabbed the oar from the wall and started wailing the tarp boat with said oar in a clumsy fashion. The sudden outburst of peculiar behavior caused the group to turn heads and stare.
"What the hell are you doing?" Dustin whisper-yelled at Sloane, earning himself a warning glare from Steve. Steve, walking over to the other side of the boat where Sloane stood, grabbed the oar from her, jabbing at the tarp himself.
"He might be in here."
"So take the tarp off!" Dustin argued.
"If you're so brave you take the tarp off!" Steve shot back.
The boys continued to whisper-argue as Robin and Max came to the revelation of empty candy bar wrappers, soda bottles, and soup cans. Sloane walked over to the girls to inspect what they had found.
"Guys, don't worry, Steve will get 'em with his oar!" Dustin said, voice practically dripping in sarcasm.
"Sloane, this reminds us of that one time last August where we—" Robin started, before Sloane's eyes grew wide and shot towards her brother.
"Don't finish that story," Sloane warned, earning a set of furrowed brows from her brother.
While Steve went back to arguing with the shorter boy, on some little tangent about how the entire group had faced death once too many times, his statement was cut off by the jolt of movement from the thing under the tarp. The group erupted into a fit of screams as the mysterious figure ran around the boathouse with Steve by the neck, pinning him against the wall with a broken beer bottle held to his chin. The group continued to scream in fear, but Dustin immediately recognized the long hair on the figure: Eddie. Dustin called and called his name to try and allow for Steve to run away. Sloane soon, too recognized who it was and screamed his name.
"It's just us," the girl stated cautiously as silence fell upon the boathouse and she met eyes with Eddie. The nausea was back in full force, but she had to ignore it this time due to the complete chaos of the situation. It seemed to be a pattern that whenever she and Eddie were together, hell itself unraveled: first with Chrissy's death and now with Steve's face-off with death - again.
"This is Steve," Dustin added carefully as the long haired boy, "Steve isn't going to hurt you. Right, Steve?" Steve nodded and agreed quietly.
"Steve, let's drop the oar, yeah?" Sloane carefully added, and Steve threw the oar down, nervously smiling at his sister.
"What are you doing here?" Eddie defensively tightened the grip on Steve's throat, and Sloane puffed her chest up at Eddie, about to make a beeline for Steve's car to get his infamous nailed bat. She would've, too, had Steve not practically read her mind and given her a look as if he was begging her to specifically not do that.
"These are my friends. Steve is cool, right Steve? and you know Robin from band," Robin added a little trumpet noise to lighten the mood, "and this is Max! The one who never wants to play D&D! Last but not least, this is Sloane, m'lady." He purred, causing Steve and Sloane to roll their eyes, but neither of them could help but smile, despite the urgency and danger of their current situation.
All it took was one look at Sloane Harrington for all of Eddie's walls to break down. Even when she was yelling his name to put Steve down, he hadn't truly noticed her until now. His body was in pure fight or flight mode until those damned eyes he hated to love. He took note of how pale her face was and how red and puffy her eyes were as she stared at her brother. Her brother whose neck was in Eddie's hand as he struggled to breathe. The guilt rose from his gut to his throat as he remembered Sloane's smile the night prior. Eddie dropped Steve and leaned against the wall, sliding down to the ground. Guilt, shame, and fear washed over his body as he knew the only reason the crew was here was to get all the information they could - to run back to the Sheriff. This was it, he was toast. Little did Eddie know.
Sloane rushed to her brother's aid, making sure he was okay. Needless to say, Steve had nothing to be afraid of. He'd faced demogorgans and demobats and Russian guards head on, he could handle Eddie Munson. Sloane hoped.
"Look, Eddie, we just want to talk." Dustin broke the ice, sitting in front of the boy.
"I told them my side of the story, Eddie. Trust me, they'll believe you. We've seen stranger things," Sloane grabbed his hand as she whispered.
"Wait, you were there, Sloane?" Max asked, confused, earning a nod from Sloane in response. Sloane looked back at Eddie and gave him a soft smile, then took her place and sat next to Steve.
As Eddie recapped the night at his trailer, Sloane squeezed her brother's hand for comfort as flashes of Chrissy flooded her mind. Eddie was crying as he told the story, too. Sloane wiped her tears as fast as they fell; Steve knew in his mind something was wrong, but he didn't think anyone or anything could've prepared him for how wrong things actually were in Hawkins. He focused on his sister's hand, which was sitting in his for her comfort, as he let her cry silently into his shoulder.
But something in Eddie's story caught the Harrington siblings' attention.
The stories didn't add up.
Sloane didn't cover her tracks.
"Wait," Steve paused, the gears turning in that big head of hair, "Sloane said she was at your trailer for a biology project?"
"A biology project?" Eddie furrowed his brows, equally confused. Robin's eyes widened as she completely facepalmed, not being able to drag Sloane out of this one.
"There's no time for the stupid details, guys!" Robin snapped in an unusually rude tone, then shooting Sloane a wink. The girl bit back a smile as she mouthed, "thank you."
"So, what do we think this shit is this time?" Sloane changed the subject, ignoring the look from Steve that told her, they were definitely talking about Eddie's house later.
"Vecna's curse," Dustin blurted in sudden realization, causing Sloane, Robin, Steve, and Max to share a confused look, while Dustin and Eddie seemed to know exactly what the other was talking about.
"What's Vecna?" Steve and Sloane asked quietly in unison.
"It's more of a who." Eddie added before Dustin could cut the older boy off off.
"An undead creature of great power." Dustin looked back at Steve and Sloane with a near-terrified look.
"Well, we need a plan or a miracle!" Sloane slumped back against the box Steve was sitting on.
"Well..." Dustin smiled innocently before ranting on and on about his said plan.
After they left the boathouse that night, Steve and Sloane were practically running a taxi-cab service around Hawkins.
First stop: Dustin Henderson's house.
"Steve, I need your advice on my new cologne, come check this out," Dustin prompted Steve to walk inside with the younger boy, leaving the trio of girls sitting in the car silently. Robin poked Sloane's shoulder, causing her to glance back into the backseat with the two girls. Robin looked at her with knowing eyes, but Max stayed silent, dazed gaze out the window, with her headphones on and was practically blaring Kate Bush's Running Up That Hill.
"Sooooo," Robin started, "are we not gonna to talk about... it?"
"About what?" Sloane shot back, looking at Robin in the rear view mirror.
"The way Eddie looked at you! The way you looked at him! The tension! You grabbed his hand, Sloane! I know you don't believe me and you think it's just the drugs talking or something but listen, listen to me. I was on drugs, last summer. Remember the Russians drugged us? If I can spend like, ten hours with Steve The Hair Harrington, and the Princess of Hawkins High, drugged, and not fall in love with either of you — " Robin rambled.
"You hated us."
"...right. That isn't the point! What I'm saying is - "
"You're saying you can be on drugs and not fall in love, which only further proves my point, Rob." Sloane leaned her head back on the seat as a tired smile wiped her lips.
"All I'm saying is, even when drugged by Russians, Steve and I don't look at each other like that," Robin pointed out, and before Sloane had a chance to argue back, Steve was opening up the car door again, shaking his head and laughing at whatever Dustin had shown him.
The four continued to drive to the opposite side of Hawkins, where the trailer park was.
Second stop: Max Mayfield's trailer.
Sloane shuttered as she took a look at Eddie's trailer. The police tape, the vacant police cars, the barriers, and the abandoned riot signs were enough to give the girl the heebie-jeebies. Steve noticed the shift in comfort for his sister and kept a close eye on her as he threw the car in park.
"Thanks for the ride," Max said drily, slamming the car shut and marching to her front door. Steve watched carefully as Max walked across the lawn, making sure she was inside the house before pulling off down the road to their third and final destination.
Third stop: Robin Buckley's house.
Robin lived in a small house in one of Hawkins's lower-middle-class neighborhoods. She wasn't dirt poor, but she wasn't wealthy either.
"Bye Steve! Bye Sloane!" Robin stuck her face to the front seat, planting a kiss on each of the Harrington's cheeks. Hopping out the car and rushing to her front door, Steve and Sloane giggled at the enigma that was Robin Buckley.
They made their way home, sharing a comfortable silence as the backroads of Hawkins twisted and turned. Finally, pulling up behind Sloane's white BMW, the boy turned the key and shut the car off.
"Sloane?" Steve interrupted as his sister got out the car, causing her to turn and crouch back down to look at his face, "are you okay? You seemed, off when we were at the boathouse."
Sloane nodded as she looked down, not being able to face her brother as she completely lied to him. The Chrissy thing was traumatizing, to say the least, and Sloane was having a really hard time shaking the image of mutilated Chrissy at her feet, and an even harder time shaking the image of Eddie's framing.
The pair walked into the empty Harrington house as Steve opened the door for Sloane, following behind her. Sloane started marching up the stairs while Steve paused in the foyer of the house.
"Are you hungry?" Steve asked, "it's like - midnight and we haven't had any dinner."
"Hell yes!" Eddie shot up.
"We could order a pizza from the new Domino's! They deliver! What kind do you want?"
"Sloane?" Steve asked again, snapping the girl out of her daze - a happy memory that was completely tainted as she got a vision of Chrissy's face just before she fell to the ground. Suddenly, the girl's nausea was back in full force as she plopped down on the steps.
"Should I turn myself in? I was there, too, I mean, no one would ever believe me, that I-we didn't do it, but the shock of Hawkins's princess murdering someone would wipe Eddie's name and he could go back to school - "
"Sloane!" Steve interrupted, trying to reel in his thoughts as they scattered all over creation. "Don't talk like that. Don't talk crazy," Steve sat down beside her, his eyes began to water at the thought of his sister being gone forever, locked away in prison, "I would take the blame before I let you. But, we're not gonna do that. We're gonna figure out a way to get this shit figured out! We always do! Just like when Will disappeared, and just like last year, and just like the summer!" Steve reached forward after his rant, wiping a single tear from Sloane's red cheeks.
"You clearly seem upset, and I'm not gonna push, but please just tell me what happened — at Eddie's. I'm so confused. Why were you really there?"
His timing was poor, but nonetheless Sloane's shoulders sank and Steve knew he'd cracked her. Sloane could tell little white lies that were meaningless, but she couldn't blatantly lie. Not to Steve, anyway.
"We smoked."
"What?" Steve's anger rose quickly, jumping up and running two hands through his hair - a major sign of distress for the Harrington boy.
"I went over there to smoke, Steve. Mentally, I've just been exhausted, the thought of leaving Hawkins, of leaving you behind, is catching up to me." That was the short story, the long story was much messier and included boy drama, girl drama, and a bunch of other high school stuff.
Sloane wiped a tear from her brother's face as she contemplated her own fall from grace. Smoking and maybe committing murder. Despite common belief, she hated being the princess everyone said she was. She had fought a Demogorgan with a pick axe, lured demo-dogs with bits of raw New York strips, and hacked a secret Russian base - yet, it still didn't change the way people saw her. They didn't know. They couldn't know. At school, she was still a goody-two-shoes or an angel in the flesh, a ditz with a credit card. Of course, the group of kids practically worshipped her for it, thinking she was totally badass - but even Robin and Steve still viewed her as fragile or breakable, even after her badassery. And Eddie, too.
But she didn't care what he thought, anyways.
"It'd be a hell of a whole lot easier if we just had El."
Steve agreed, throwing his arm around Sloane. Steve knew his sister had looked at Eleven like a little sister. Hell, Sloane took El and Max shopping at the mall shopping last summer, despite knowing Eleven was specifically instructed to not leave the cabin. She even taught the girls how to dump boys, something about women empowerment, Steve didn't know.
So as Sloane laid down that night to sleep, Steve sitting at the end of her bed while they talked about everything under the sun: the good times, the bad times, the everything in between. Laughing, she thought about what it might be like if she stopped being princess and passed the torch to someone else, someone like Nancy Wheeler, who would die for it. What if she stepped down from the throne she really didn't want in the first place, and what if she could show everyone how non-gender conforming and badass she could be, and what if she could be Sloane Harrington and not Steve Harrington's little sister, and what if Eddie somehow cleared his name, and what if they could be friends at school.
And what if they could be something more.
***
Little bit of a filler, not sure how I feel about this chapter... opinions? thoughts? I definitely am loving Steve's big bro vibe though, as much as I love him as a hopeless romantic in the show, I like seeing him in this light too! He is my faveee character but Eddie's kinda stealing my heart not gonna lie lol!!