❁

resting her head on the wall behind her and draping her arms over her legs. "you okay?" steve asked softly, sitting down next to her in a similar position.

she nodded silently, looking up at him. "yeah. but, considering everything that's happened in the past few years, i didn't think i'd die of starvation in a secret russian elevator." she teased, making steve lightly chuckle.

"yeah, well, i'm not letting you die down here." steve told her, looking down at her with fond eyes. meadow smiled at him, kissing his cheek and resting her head on his shoulder. "i'm serious. you can eat me if you're seriously about to die." she laughed at his comment, snuggling into his side. "are you tired?"

meadow let out a soft 'mhm', feeling her eyes involuntarily shutter closed. she then suddenly shook her head, waking herself up. "no, i'm not tired." she lied, making steve shake his head fondly. "i wanna talk to you." she said, taking one of his hands into hers.

"what do you wanna talk about?" steve asked, squeezing her hand lightly.

"something happened.. with billy." steve's ears practically perked up at her words, and he almost got into defensive/protective mode, thinking billy had specifically done something to her. she noticed the look in his eyes and immediately held up her hand. "no, no, no. we, uh.. well, me, max, and eleven think he may have potentially killed my coworker."

steve blinked twice. "what?"

meadow shook her head. "i know it sounds insane, but they found a bloody whistle and some of her belongings in billy's bathroom. not to mention the fact that we already know he's a creep who would one hundred percent do something to someone if provoked." steve shook his head in disbelief. "also.. dustin told me what you said. i had no idea you felt that way."

steve shook his head again, looking down at his hand, which was holding hers. "it's just.. it's hard to not feel insecure about myself when i'm dating the most beautiful girl alive." meadow shook her head, silently telling steve to be serious (which he was). "i saw billy take my school status immediately, and i don't want to see him take you away, too."

"steve." meadow said quietly, lifting his chin so that he was looking at her. "i love you. and nothing billy hargrove does will ever change that, okay?" as she smiled, a smile reluctantly broke into steve's face. "okay?" she repeated.

"okay." steve replied with a soft nod, looking down at her. meadow rested her head on his chest, their legs entangling from their seated position.

"and, for the record," she continued, "you have absolutely nothing to be insecure about."

he chuckled, shaking his head. "you're just trying to flatter me. it's fine, it's just sometimes i get worried, i get in my own head. it's like my father's voice is screaming at me, but it's masked as my own."

meadow frowned at his words, though she understood what he meant. "if you ever start to feel that way, please know that it isn't true. i don't think i've ever met someone as pretty as you, genuinely." the words slipped out before she could stop them, and she saw steve's eyes go wide. "steve?"

he was seemingly malfunctioning as a wide grin spread across his face. "you think i'm pretty?" he said after sitting in shock for a few more seconds.

"yeah?" she said as if it were obvious, which she thought it was. "pretty boy harrington." she mumbled sleepily into his shoulder.

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

meadow didn't know when she fell asleep, only that she woke up to steve's soft snoring, feeling his arms both wrapped around her. at her slight movement, he woke up, which made her guess that he had gotten barely minutes of sleep.

once dustin was awake, he got on top of the elevator, where signal would be better, and began speaking into his walkie talkie, signaling a code red, stating their location, and asking for help. steve followed him, and meadow could faintly hear the two talking.

she moved so that she was sitting next to robin, both girls discussing possible means of escape, but quickly finding that they were doing so in vain. nothing would help, and nothing would work. after a few minutes of talking, both girls looked up at the sound of a noise. they both noticed a dark liquid appearing on the wall.

"disgusting." meadow mumbled, standing up. "steve!" she yelled, robin standing to join her.

"can you redirect your stream, please?" robin asked, making meadow laugh. the sound made robin smile, and steve barely moved at all to annoy them.

"hey, hey, hey, what are you doing?" meadow asked erica, who was banging a green vial from the boxes in an attempt to break it. "we don't even know what that is." she said as she took it from the younger girl.

erica looked up to her. "it could be useful. we can survive down here a long time without food. but if the human body doesn't get water, it will die."

"i hate to break it to you," robin said, "but this is not water." she pointed to the tube in meadow's hands.

"no," erica countered, "but it's a liquid, and if it comes down to me drinking that shit or dying of thirst, i drink." she smiled up at the two teens. meadow and robin both scoffed in defeat, looking up at the sound of a distant electronic whirring.

robin moved over to the wall, pressing her ear against it to hear better. her eyes widened, and meadow noticed, moving over to hear, too. "we've got company." robin said to steve and dustin, who were still on top of the elevator.

the group all crawled to sit carefully on top of the elevator as two "russians" opened the door, removing boxes and putting them onto a cart. through the small holes in the top of the elevator, meadow and steve inspected their movements.

once they had gone, steve dropped into the room, seeing this as their exit. thinking quickly, he propped one of the green tubes between the closing door and the floor, stopping the door from closing. he quickly tossed erica's backpack through the gap, helping her slide underneath. dustin followed her out, shortly followed by meadow, robin, and then steve.

the tube was crushed by the door as soon as steve made it out, and meadow grabbed his hand with a sigh of relief, helping him to his feet. the green liquid from inside the vial quickly steamed and dried, disintegrating slightly. "you still wanna drink that shit?" meadow asked erica, whose eyes widened in response.

"holy mother of god." dustin said, gathering the attention of the others. meadow followed her brother's gaze, seeing an endless tunnel in front of them.

"well," steve said, "hope you guys are in good shape. looking at you, roast beef." he said, patting dustin's chest.

"careful, harrington." meadow said defensively, following her boyfriend down the tunnels.

dustin followed closely behind her. "why me?" he mumbled softly.

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

the group then began their trek down the tunnels, which were an unsettling dark and hazy blue. "you have to admit, as a feat of engineering alone, this is impressive." dustin said.

"what are you talking about?" steve replied. "it's a total fire hazard. there's no stairs, there's no exit, there's just an elevator that drops you halfway to hell."

"they're commies." erica pointed out. "you don't pay people, they cut corners."

robin nodded. "to be fair to our russian comrades, i don't think this tunnel was designed for walking. i mean, think about it, they developed the perfect system for transporting that cargo."

"it all comes into the mall like any old delivery." dustin agreed.

"and then they load it up onto those trucks and nobody's the wiser." robin continued.

"you really think they built this whole mall to transport some green poison?" steve asked.

"i very seriously doubt it's something as boring as poison." dustin replied. "it's gotta be much more valuable, like promethium or something."

steve looked over at him. "what the hell is promethium?"

"it's what victor stone's dad used to make cyborg's bionic and cybernetic components." robin replied.

"you're all so nerdy," erica said, "it makes me physically ill." she clutched her stomach.

"no, no, no." steve replied. "no, don't jump me in with them. i'm not a nerd, alright?"

meadow shook her head fondly as he squeezed her hand. "why so sensitive, harrington?" she asked with a smile. "afraid of losing your cool to a ten year old child?"

"no, i'm just saying i dont know jack shit about prometheus." he said in response.

"promethium." dustin corrected. "prometheus is a greek mythological figure, but whatever. all i'm saying is, it's probably being used to make something."

"or power something." meadow added.

"like a nuclear weapon?" dustin asked her.

"always a possibility." she replied.

"walking towards a nuclear weapon." steve narrated. "that's great. that's just great."

robin ignored him. "but if they're building something, why here? i mean, hawkins. seriously, of all places. at the very best, we're a toilet stop on your way to disneyland, but maybe that's it."

she and erica continued walking while the henderson siblings and steve, who were aware of the upside down, trailed behind. "you think the russians know?" dustin asked them.

they didn't have to say what it was to know that they were all thinking the same thing. it was entirely possible that the russians had somehow caught wind of the news of the upside down. it was the only thing that made hawkins any less than a toilet stop, as robin had called it. all that the average hawkins resident would tell you was that the lab had covered up a murder. but this.. this could be something far greater, and far more dangerous if whoever they were tracking down was aware of the upside down.

"they could." meadow agreed as steve nodded.

"so it's connected?" he asked.

"maybe." dustin replied.

"how?" steve asked again.

meadow shook her head. "i don't know, but it's.." she trailed off.

"possible." all three said together, looking at each other with fearful eyes.

robin turned around. "i'm sorry, is there something you'd like to share with the class?" she asked.

the three looked to each other for a second, not sure if they could come up with an excuse at this point. they could be walking right into a demogorgon death trap, for all they knew. before anyone could reply, they heard radio static and a russian man speaking on the radio. "walkie." steve, meadow, and dustin said, and all five of the kids immediately moved towards dustin's walkie talkie. the man continued to speak.

"a trip to china sounds nice.." robin said in russian. "if you tread lightly." she looked up. "this is the code."

"so wherever that broadcast is coming from-" dustin began.

"it's close." meadow finished.

robin nodded. "and if there's one thing we know about that signal.."

"it can reach the surface." dustin said with a smile.

"let's go." robin said, standing up.