the case of the missing life guard
july 1st 1985.
"Silver cat, silver cat."
Dallas looks up from her tub of chocolate chip ice cream and watches Robin runs back inside, "What?"
"Hey, you're not gonna believe who Dusitn thought was a Russian."
"You did too."
"No I did not."
"Yes, you did."
"No, I did not."
Robin pushes her way between them, a confused Dallas following after her ignoring the bickering pair behind them.
She jumps up onto the fountain looking around as she repeats the translated phrase under her breath, "A trip to China town sounds nice." She spins as she keeps repeating it and Dallas hops up onto the fountain beside her looking around.
She finally stops and gasps as she looks down at her book, Dallas looks in the direction she was just looking and her face lights up, "Robin, you beautiful genius, you."
She starts laughing as Robin reads off the next one, "If you tread lightly, tread, tread, tread."
She stops looking up at the shoe store on the floor above them, "When blue and yellow meet in the west. When blue and yellow meet..."
Robin huffs as she starts twirling around and Dallas does too, slapping her arm and pointing up at the clock, with one blue hand and one yellow, "In the west."
"Guys?"
"Robin, ha! I could kiss you right now." Dallas says, shaking her shoulders and kissing her cheek before she jumps down still laughing, she grabs her brother's hat from his head grabbing both his and Steve's arm before flinging her arms over their shoulders and bringing them in closer.
"Our little birdie is the smartest person around."
"She cracked it?" Dusitn asks, looking up at his sister with a grin.
"She cracked it."
The two siblings laugh as they twirl each other around, linking arms as they skip off back to the ice cream shop, leaving behind two blushing sailors.
─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───
"This is a stupid idea." Dallas whispers, getting shushed by both Steve and Dustin.
"Look for Imperial Panda and Kaufman Shoes."
Dallas grunts as she slips, catching herself as she settles between Dustin and Robin, she huffs, readjusting her hood to try and protect herself from the rain better.
"They're with the whistling guy, ten o'clock." Dusitn comments as he watches the men in the weird storage room through the binoculars.
"What do think's in there?" Steve questions watching the man drop down a bunch of boxes before going onto the next load.
"Guns, bombs?"
"Chemical weapons?"
"Whatever it is, they're armed to the teeth."
Steve slaps a hand to his face trying to get the water from his eyes as he nods sarcastically, "Great, that's great."
Dallas rolls her eyes, "It's like having a child." She pulls his coat all the way up from where the collar was rolled down when he'd rushed to put it on, then she moves to push the hair from his face for him, he hits her hands away, the pair of them starting to bicker, "I'm helping."
"I can do it myself, Hopper."
"Alright, alright." She holds her hands up in defence, shaking her head as she takes her hands away, watching as his hair falls down again. "I can do it myself, Hopper." She mimics making her voice go deeper.
He wipes his hand along the wall in front of them, scooping up the water and splashing it into her face making her knee him in the side as she falls backwards.
"Hey, what's in there?"
Dallas readjusts herself as she leans back between Robin and Steve watching as one of the guards swipes his card to let the man in, "It's just more boxes."
"Let me check it out." Steve grabs the binoculars but Dustin pulls back.
"No, I'm still looking."
"Lemme see it."
"Hang on."
Steve pulls on the binoculars and the rain causes him to lose his grip making him pull it back and let go, it thuds against the wall letting a loud ring fill the air.
"Shit."
"Duck."
Steve pushes Dallas down, lying on top of her as Dustin and Robin turn onto their backs. "You two are so stupid!" Dallas whisper shouts at them.
Steve's arms are planted either side of Dallas who is lying on her stomach, his chest is pressed to her back as he lies above her.
"Harrington?"
"Yeah?"
He looks down, breath catching in his chest as she looks up at him over her shoulder, rain falling down her nose and droplets stuck on her eyelashes.
He blinks a little, trying to get rid of some water in her eyes, he freezes looking down at her, and her red hair sticking to her forehead.
"Get off me."
"Right." They all scramble to their feet running down the stairwell and into the back corridor connecting all the stores in the mall.
"Well, I think we found your Russians."
─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───
Dallas sighs as she leans forward, dropping the towel she was using to dry her hair on the counter beside her as she grips the sink and leans over it, she glances up at herself in the mirror and closes her eyes seeing the paleness and large circles under her eyes.
"You okay?"
She flinches and turns quickly and Steve holds his hands up in defence, "Jesus, Harrington."
"Sorry," He crosses his arms and tilts his head letting it rest on the door frame he's leaning against, "Kids flat out, he didn't even get to the good part."
"Good part? What were you guys even watching?"
"Fast Times."
"Don't let my brother watch that, he's fourteen."
"So?"
"It's rated 16."
"So what, you see a little boob."
She shakes her head trying to hide the smile on her face and he walks over to her, poking her in the side, "I saw that, nothing escapes the great Steve Harrington."
"Nothing?"
"Nothing."
She holds up his wallet that she'd taken from his back pocket and grins, "Nothing?"
"Hey- how'd you do that so fast?"
She tosses the wallet back to him and smirks as she walks out of the bathroom, since it was raining so bad and the storm was only getting worse Steve let the siblings stay at his place.
Their mother wasn't home as she had the night shift again and his parents were out of town for work again meaning they'd have all been alone anyway.
"Thanks for letting us stay."
"No, no, thank you, if I had to have one more take away by myself this week it would have driven me crazy."
She pops her head into the spare room where Dustin is flat out, spread out like a starfish on the bed snoring away, Mac (who had been staying with Steve the past two days since his parents left so he wouldn't be alone) is asleep beside him, but lifts her head when she hears the creak of the door, following the pair downstairs.
"I have Star Wars, if you want to watch that."
"Is that even a question?" She shakes her head as she walks backwards to look at him, "Of course I want to watch Star Wars."
She crosses her legs as she sits on the sofa and he takes her in watching as she pats the spot beside her for Mac to get settled down.
The dog jumps up on her left side, curling up in a ball leaving the right side open for Steve, he rushes to take a New Hope out of the case and shove it into the VHS and then turns back around watching Dallas cuddle closer to her dog.
She's dressed in a pair of his old X-Men pyjama bottoms from when he was twelve-which seem to fit her perfectly- and one of his shirts, a Joy Division one he bought at Ray's store on one of the occasions he went with Nancy. -Definitely to buy the shirt because he is such a big fan of the band and not to just catch a glimpse of Dallas- and she has on her cute little glasses that she just so happens to hate.
He finally settles beside her once the familiar music of Star Wars fills the room, he leans back arms spread across the back of the sofa, one subtly resting behind her head, and every few seconds he leans further and further into her, leaning his head closer.
"Dal-"
"You don't think those Russians are connected to the upside down, do you?"
He closes his mouth quickly when she looks up at him and he straightens himself up shrugging slightly, "Not sure, I mean, how would they even know?"
She sighs turning her attention back to the film playing on his TV, pushing her glasses up her nose a little as she leans back, she's shifted her position now her body slightly tilted and back pressed up to Steve's side, head resting back on his arm that rests behind her and her knees pulled up to her chest with he arms warped around them.
Steve tilts his head back trying to find the words for what he wants to say. He wants to reassure her, let her know that as long as he is around the upside down or Russians or whatever the next threat is won't harm her.
"It's just-" She sighs, one hand moving to the other to play with Steve's watch that is still strapped to her wrist, "-If they do know about it, I mean, what do they want with it?"
"To take over the country state by state by using a bunch of soldiers to do it and their secret weapon-" He turns pausing and raising a brow watching as she leans a little closer showing him he's piqued her interest, "The Death Star."
She shakes her head, elbowing him in the side as she turns away from him, watching on the screen as Luke picks out a droid, "Don't tease me."
"I'm not teasing you."
"You are, it's not funny."
He hides his smile as he lifts his feet to rest on the coffee table, "Alright, sorry, princess."
She elbows him again, the frown on her face lifting to a little smile that makes his wider, "Come on, Harringotn, we both know I'm not a princess."
─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───
"Guys?"
Dustin sighs muttering under his breath, "They better not have forgotten me again."
He walks around the corner only to pause as he sees them curled up, the TV is still playing on the set up page, the word 'play' highlighted in yellow.
Dallas is curled up against the back of the sofa, her head is resting on his shoulder, tucked into his neck, his chin is against her forehead, lips resting on her hair line, both his arms are holding her to him one threaded through her hair the other resting on her hip. One of Dallas' hands is curled over his shirt, the other resting behind his head.
Dustin walks over quickly, hitting Steve making him flinch up, "Dude, what the-"
"Shh."
Steve's brows furrow, his eyes blinking as he tries to get up only to feel something on his chest, "Mac."
"It's not Mac."
Steve looks down slowly at the sleeping Dallas on his chest and his eyes widen, "Shit."
"Did you sleep with my sister?"
Steve looks up, eyes widened as he slides off the sofa, pausing when Dallas shifts mumbling under her breath as she spreads out.
"Well, did you?"
"What? No!"
His eyes widen again as he stands and he lowers his voice, "No, we watched a movie, that's it."
Steve sighs and looks over at the clock on the wall, "Shit, shit. Hopper."
He shakes her shoulders a little and she mutters something as she pushes him away, "Hopper, come on, we're late."
"What?"
"We're late, late."
"Shit."