THE HENDERSON'S
AND THE SECRET SHIT
THE RUSSIANS ARE PLANNING !
☀︎
STARCOURT MALL HAD BEEN CROWDED WITH THE PEOPLE OF HAWKINS. Erica Sinclair had taken a break from going over her strongest opinions long enough to race off with her friends to terrorize the rest of those in the mall for some free samples of anything they had. Left to herself, Alex Henderson had taken her time away from babysitting to go to the only place in the mall she ever found herself— Scoops Ahoy.
Just by seeing the sign of Scoops Ahoy coming into view, Alex could feel her mood completely turn around to know who would be waiting inside for her. As she had gotten closer to the entrance, the sound of laughter could already be heard as Dustin Henderson finally reunited after a long month being away from Steve Harrington.
Making her way inside, Alex's eyes lit up as soon as Steve's had met hers. "Another Henderson!" His arms extended out towards her as she collided into him and lifted her off her feet. Setting her back down, he had draped his arm around her, "There she is!"
Standing before them, Dustin's smile had dropped as he had played his brotherly role well. "Don't make me regret being home. No one wants to see that."
For someone that had seen the two falling in love over the summer, Robin had pulled her hands off the counter as she made her way into the break room just to place a mark on her whiteboard under something she had liked to call Heart Eyes Harrington.
Leaning forward off of Steve, Alex had given Dustin a small shove and a look of excitement. "Come on, Dustin, be excited we can all hang out again. Besides, we have to tell Steve about what we were doing last night and all about Suzie."
"Oh, shit," he whispered to himself just as a smile had slowly started to creep back onto his face. "Yeah, we need to talk."
Pulling his arm off from around Alex, Steve had clapped his hands together as he grinned at the both. "Awesome. Let me just prep the usual before we sit." The usual had been a bowl of ice cream for the only girl Robin would be fine allowing Steve to give free ice cream to. Except, when he had turned back to the counter, Robin had been back and had slid across two sundaes for each of the Henderson's.
Taking the sundaes, Alex had sent a warm smile towards Robin, "I love you so damn much, Robin." As she had turned to give Dustin his sundae, Robin had turned her back to the counter as she leaned against it, allowing a genuine smile to come to her face. Though Robin wasn't sure if her and Alex were friends just yet, she did always enjoy having her around Scoops Ahoy all summer. While Robin had longed to be friends with the girl that had somehow made the Steve Harrington step down from his throne and accept that he was, indeed, a nerd.
The three had left Robin to work her shift as they made their way to a booth further away from the rest of the Scoops crowd. Each of Steve and Dustin had slid into the booth from either side of the table while Alex had waited for her chance to scoot in. Leaning back into his seat, Steve had propped his arm up as he waited for her to slide in beside him as she normally did and move in close beside him.
Instead, Alex had shuffled into the spot beside Dustin and moved her sundae closer to her. With him being away from home for so long, she was eager to sit with him a catch up some more rather than take notice of Steve's slightly disappointed facial expression as he sat back up properly in his seat.
Last night had been a small, yet thrilling adventure for the Henderson's. After visiting Billy last night, Alex had headed to the highest point in Hawkins to visit her brother where they had come across some information that they found themselves diving right in to discover. However, Alex secretly had her fingers cross this new information they discovered would not be as life threatening as the last had been for her.
First, Dustin needed to explain how he had even gotten himself into this situation and there was no better way to begin than Suzie— his girlfriend he had met back at Camp Know Where. The retelling of his story of meeting his first love, Steve had been listening intently, waiting for his opening to say what was on his mind.
As Dustin took an other bite of his sundae, Steve had sat up as he motioned over to Alex. "That's great, man. You know, we met when we were around your age too and..."
"Sure, but I also made my move right when I saw the chance," Dustin added in through a mouth full of food. As he had swallowed, he pointed his spoon over to Steve, "She's also hotter than Phoebe Cates."
"No. No way," he scoffed in disbelief. "Hotter than Phoebe Cates? No."
Nodding his head excitedly, Dustin was proud to call Suzie all his. Bragging about her was the best part of it all too. "Brilliant, too. And she doesn't even care that my real pearls are still coming in. She says kissing is better without teeth."
His words caused both Steve and Alex to immediately look to one another in disbelief at the information they never asked for. "That's so gross, Dustin. Too much info, man," Alex said with disgust.
"Steve cares," Dustin shot back over to her. Turning to Steve, he had raised his brows, leaning in anticipation for him to jump in with his agreement.
Steve had felt put on the spot as he started to stumble over his words. "W-wow. Yeah, that's great. Proud of you, man. That's, uh, yeah, that's kinda romantic."
Soaking in Steve's approval, Dustin nodded his head as he glowed with happiness. It was exactly how he wanted someone to react when he had told his story of Suzie. Of all the people, he knew Steve would be the one to care the most. However, Dustin's focus was turned to his second love in life— ice cream. "So do you really just get to eat as much of this as you want?"
"Yeah. I mean, sure. It's not really a good idea for me, though. You know, I gotta keep in shape for..."
As Steve's hand had turned to motion towards Alex, Dustin interjected as he shoved his hand back down. "Don't say my sister or I'll kick the shit out of you."
"You'd probably win," Robin had called. The three had turned their heads to watch as she was clearing a table just in time to overhear their conversation at what she thought was the perfect moment.
"Ignore her," Steve said in annoyance as he rolled his eyes. Working alongside Robin Buckley had been exhausting when he felt it was his mission to deflect her comments just to save himself some embarrassment.
Dustin didn't seem to think Robin was all that bad. "She seems cool."
"She is," Alex said with a small smile just as Steve was right there to disagree. "Don't be jealous," Alex whispered. Leaning towards Dustin, she whispered her final thoughts over to him. "She's the coolest."
Ignoring her words, Steve had looked around Scoops Ahoy as he realized that there really was a lack of chaos. "So, where are the other knuckleheads?"
"They ditched me yesterday. My first day back. Assholes didn't even wait for Alex to show up," he scoffed. Being gone a month, he had expected much more from his friends, but returning had felt different. Mike and Eleven ran away from the group whenever they had the chance, Max and Lucas would stay until they would get bored, and Will just wanted to play D&D. It wasn't the same as how he left it.
"First day back and they leave him all alone with his cool thing he made. Can you believe that shit? I think they're just jealous Dustin got a girlfriend that's hotter than Phoebe Cates," Alex stated. Spending the night with Dustin last night when he had told her about his time at camp had been the most relaxed she felt all summer. Playing with the thing he had made at camp and laying in the grass late into the night as they told stories about their month apart was what they had needed.
Dustin felt the exact same way as her. Alex may have been his sister, and he was supposed to be the annoying younger brother, but he wasn't afraid to admit that he could always count on her to be there for him. Grabbing her arm, he squeezed on tight from the excitement he held in since last night. "They're gonna regret it, though, big time, when they don't get to share the Henderson glory." Letting go of her, he had lightly patted her arm, "Get on his other side. This has to stay between the three of us."
Sliding her sundae towards Steve, she scooted herself out of the booth and made her way around the table before sliding in beside Steve. Scooting in, she had settled in beside him and used both her hands to hold onto one of his.
Taking his eyes of Dustin, Steve had looked over to her but refrained himself from kissing her with Dustin sitting right there. Instead, he had picked up her spoon and fed her another scoop of ice cream. As he took another scoop for himself, Alex had leaned closer to him, "Last night, we were trying to connect to Suzie..."
"And we intercepted a secret Russian communication," Dustin finished in the softest whisper, right into his hand. His extra careful tactic to keep it between the three hadn't gone as planned because it meant Steve was unable to hear.
Leaning towards him, Steve whispered back, "What?"
Clicking his tongue, Dustin prepped himself for another go at sharing top secret information in such a crowded area. Holding his hand back up to his mouth, he gave it one more go, "We intercepted a secret Russian communication."
Leaning back into Alex, Steve shook his head. "Just speak louder."
"We intercepted a secret Russian communication! There, Dustin, not that hard." Alex's loud voice had Dustin lean forward frantically as he tried to reach his hands out to cover her mouth. Only, his main focus had been on the several heads turning their way.
"Jeez, shh. Yeah, okay, that's what I thought he said. Just eat your ice cream," Steve said, holding another scoop up to her mouth. "So, uh, what does that mean anyways?"
"It means, Steve, we could be heroes. True American heroes!" Dustin exclaimed.
"American heroes," he repeated back in interest. "Hear that, Alex? You could be dating a hero pretty soon."
Grabbing Steve by his shoulder, Dustin brought his focus onto himself. "Just think, you could have all the ladies you want and more."
"More?" Steve said with a raised brow, "I don't like more..." he said, snaking his arm around Alex despite the annoyed look on Dustin's face. Normally Steve would've been hopping on any chance to have more girls fawning over him yet now, the thought of another girl had never crossed his mind when he knew he had the perfect one sitting right next to him.
"We just need your help. We have to translate whatever they're saying," Alex said excitedly. "Think about it, the Henderson's shutting down whatever secret shit the Russians are planning."
"And Steve," he had coughed out.
"You're close enough to a Henderson," Dustin said as he dug around in his bag for his translating dictionary. "So what do you say? Let us hang around here and work on this?"
"Yeah, man. I mean, this is how you two want to spend your summer, hanging out where I work with me?"
Both Alex and Dustin looked to one another with small frowns. It was clear to the two that Steve Harrington didn't have many friends that would rather spend time with him than to run off and leave him behind. Each had shrugged as they gave him his answer in unison, "Of course."