❁

seemingly analyzing it. "hm. i don't know." she said as she climbed back down the ladder.

"you don't know if you can fit?" dustin asked

erica practically scoffed, sending him a look. "oh, i can fit. i just don't know if i want to."

meadow looked to steve, who was standing next to her, both standing with their arms crossed over their chests. they'd worked with children before, but they'd never before tried to persuade someone this young. they knew that bribing might end up being necessary.

"are you claustrophobic?" robin asked.

"i don't have phobias." erica snickered.

steve shrugged his shoulders. "then what's the problem?"

"the problem," erica began, "is that i still haven't heard what's in this for erica." meadow, dustin, steve, and robin all sent each other looks, knowing what had to be done.

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

as meadow watched steve set down another one of erica's free icecream cups, she couldn't help but roll her eyes. the whole situation was ridiculous to her, and she hoped that robin was right about the code and that whatever was in that room was really all it was cracked up to be. at this point, the anticipation was killing her, and she was tired of watching this little girl just eat icecream. "any day now." she mumbled, barely loud enough for anyone to hear.

"ah ah ah. more syrup." erica then said, annoying steve, who reluctantly stood up, for the thousandth time, to add syrup as she requested.

meadow stood up with him, following the boy behind the counters. "hey." steve said, looking up from the ice cream in his hands when meadow rested her chin on his shoulder, standing on her tippy toes.

"hey." she replied with a small smile, watching him add chocolate syrup to the top of the icecream. "we haven't had much time together and i missed you." meadow mumbled into his shoulder, feeling him pull away only to turn around and wrap both arms around her waist.

steve put two fingers under her chin, lifting her head up so she was looking at him. "once all this is over i'm going to spend all the time in the world with you, alright?" he promised, a boyish grin on his face. "but, for now, we still have some work to do."

the thing was, she knew that he would definitely keep that promise. she could only hope that whatever the russians were doing, it was unimportant enough that the town of hawkins could slip right back into being the unassuming small town where nothing interesting ever happens. and she hoped that, in addition, she'd be able to just spend the rest of her summer with him.

but, she was trying to look on the positive side, and so she cleared her head, reminding herself to live in the moment and to be thankful for what she. had.

meadow smiled up at him. "well, at least there isn't a monster or anything." steve chuckled in response, pressing a soft kiss to her forehead before kissing her lips. "come on, let's give that girl her icecream."

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

as fate would have it, erica was a very persuasive little girl (and also their last hope at getting into that room) and now had free ice cream for life. but, in exchange, she had agreed that she would crawl into the small vent.

meadow, robin, steve, and dustin were all outside at their position on the roof, preparing for erica to get into the secret room and open the doors for them. "erica, do you copy?" robin asked into her walkie-talkie.

"yeah, i copy." she relied sassily. "are you nerds in position or what?"

"yeah we're in position." robin said. "it's all quiet here, so you've got the green light."

"green light, roger that." erica replied. "commence operation child endangerment."

while meadow chuckled, robin merely rolled her eyes. "can we maybe.. not call it that?" she asked.

"see you on the other side. nerds." erica simply said. "i'm in." she then said after a few minutes. the door opened, and the small girl stepped out. "free ice cream for life." she reminded them, and meadow merely shook her head, smiling down at her.

once the group were all inside the room, they made their way to the boxes, which had become the object of all of their anticipation. steve cut one of the cardboard boxes open, revealing a silver box with a handle in the middle. when steve twisted the handle, it released a suspicious steam, opening to reveal four individual circular compartments with the same kind of handle.

"that's definitely not chinese food." he joked. "maybe you guys should just.. stand back."

robin, erica, and meadow gladly took a few steps back, but dustin stayed in place. "no." he said, planting his feet even while steve tried to push him away.

"just step back, seriously."

"no!" dustin repeated. "if you die, i die."

steve looked at him for a second before shrugging. "okay." he said nonchalantly. steve twisted one of the handles, taking out a tube filled with green liquid.

"what is that?" robin asked, looking at it. after hearing a creaking sound, the group looked around, alarmed.

"was that just me or did the room move?" dustin asked, looking over to his sister with fearful eyes.

"boobytraps." erica pointed out in a whisper, looking amongst the group.

meadow looked to her brother, putting a comforting arm over his shoulders. "you know what, i think we should just take that and go." she pointed to the green vial in steve's hands before following robin over to the controls to open the door.

"which one do i press?" dustin asked, pressing the buttons. "erica?"

erica rolled her eyes. "just press the damn button, nerd."

"which one? i'm pressing the button, okay?" steve went over to help, pressing literally every button as he and dustin argued over which one unlocked the doors.

suddenly, the entire room dropped, and robin and erica immediately fell to the floor. meadow grabbed steve's shoulder, a lame attempt at keeping the both of them steady. she followed his gaze to the wall, noticing that they were going down and past lights.. just like in an elevator. "oh shit." she mumbled, looking up into his eyes.

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

the entire group been collectively screaming for minutes, attempting to press buttons to stop the "elevator", so it apparently was. meadow had eventually given up and crouched down onto the floor, holding onto the wall. finally, the elevator abruptly stopped, sending everyone falling onto the ground.

"my groin!" steve exclaimed. "the box fell on my groin." if it weren't for the severity of the situation, meadow would have died laughing. instead, she and her brother moved the box off of steve so he could stand. "i cant move." steve gasped, getting up.

"is everyone okay?" meadow asked, ruffling dustin's hair through his cap as she checked him for any injuries.

steve was going insane. "yeah, i'm great, now that i know russians can't design elevators!" he exclaimed, moving over to the controls again.

robin stood up. "i think we've already established the buttons don't work." she told him.

"they're buttons, they have to do something." steve reasoned, pressing them.

"yeah, if we had a keycard." robin replied.

"what?" meadow and steve asked in unison.

"it's an electronic lock." robin said. "same as the loading dock door. if we don't have a keycard, it won't operate, meaning-"

"-we're stuck in here." dustin finished.

robin looked over at him, knowing there was no way to sugarcoat it. "yeah."

meadow sighed deeply, running a hand through her hair as she often did when she was stressed. not only was she now probably on some russian's radar, she was also stuck in a russian elevator with no food, no water, and no means of contact. though she wasn't going to make as outward of a display about her feelings as her boyfriend, she agreed with him. this was great, just great.

"just so you nerds are aware," erica said, "i'm supposed to be spending the night at tina's, and tina always covers for me. but if i'm not home for uncle jack's party tomorrow, and my mom finds out you four are responsible, she's gonna hunt you down, one by one, and slit your throat."

"i don't care about tina!" steve yelled, getting animated with his hands. "or uncle jack's party! your mom's not gonna be able to find us if we're dead in a russian elevator!"

meadow made her way over to him, running a hand up and down his arm to comfort him somewhat. he breathed deeply, both hands tightly gripping the box in front of him. once he'd calmed a bit, she rested her head on his shoulder, looking up at him as she lightly rubbed his back. "it's okay." she mumbled into his shirt, though she was convincing the both of them.

"hey," dustin said, pointing up. "what if we climbed out?"

meadow and steve followed dustin up to the top of the elevator. the girl looked up, seeing how far they'd managed to fall down. "what were you saying about climbing?" steve asked dustin as he looked up, seeing it was impossible. the amount of stories above them seemed to be endless, and there was no way they'd make it if they ever tried to climb out.

"as much as i do love diehard, i don't actually want to die hard." meadow said, patting dustin's shoulder. "good idea, bud, but i don't think it's gonna work." the group then climbed back down into the elevator, now left with no possible way out.

hey babes first of all thank you so much for almost 2k, this story truly means everything to me. also, i changed the faceclaim for meadow again and i think i've found someone who better captures the way i think of meadow (except imagine her with super curly hair like dustin's). if you want to go check her out, the initial wires and afraid chapters are updated with the new face claim :)