, but it was just another new development that Ringo had brought to his life. Anxiously, he tapped his fingers against the steering wheel, eyes glancing back and forth between the road and the roses that were settled on the passenger seat.

He had been out with Ringo before so many times, but this was different. This time, they would be going on an official date.

Steve had fretted all day over their plans - whether she wanted to go to a restaurant or if she even would feel uncomfortable with that. In the end, he settled for a picnic that he personally prepared (meaning sandwiches and cans of coke).

Ringo was far more difficult to take out than any other girl he had ever dated. She didn't go wide-eyed over expensive jewellery and fancy restaurants, he knew that a girl like Ringo Wheeler only ever wanted something meaningful - not just something pretty and costly.

The roses he decided he simply had to include, for she herself had said she never was truly treated well by any previous guys she was with. Steve intended to break that cycle today.

Elsewhere, a couple of blocks away, Dustin was similarly eagerly making his way towards Ringo Wheeler's home. Instead of a car, he rode on the back of his bike as fast as he could, desperate to enlist the girl's help with his hellish new pet.

It seemed logical he would choose to ask for her help - his own friends, including Jonathan and Nancy, were M.I.A. as of late.

The second he reached her apartment building he practically flung his bike into the grass after hopping off of it, praying that she would be home. If it had been a less stressful situation, he would have been happy to see the girl as his crush remained undying. But there was no time for that today.

Steve happened to arrive, conveniently, at the same time as Dustin. Except he didn't even notice the younger boy, too preoccupied with checking his hair in the rear view mirror and rehearsing what he would say to Ringo.

"Would you, Ringo, do me the pleasure of escorting-" he cut himself off with an eye roll, finally looking away from the mirror and reaching for the door handle. "Jesus, what am I? A hundred years old?"

As he rounded the car, the sight of the tall, fluffy haired teenager stopped Dustin in his tracks - excitedly so.

"Steve!" He yelled, jogging towards him just as he reached the steps to the entrance.

Steve slowed down considerably, but continued up until he was at the door, looking at the Henderson boy in confusion.

"What?" He asked, the bouquet of roses clutched in hand.

"Are you going to get Ringo?" Dustin pressed, meeting him at the door.

"Yeah-" he began, but was cut off by Dustin yanking the roses out of his hand and suddenly sprinting through the open door towards the staircase, ready to run the entire way to her apartment.

"Hey!" Steve bellowed, chasing behind him. "Give that back!"

"I need you guy's help! Let's get Ringo!" Dustin called over his shoulder, practically taking the steps two at a time. "Hurry up, damn! I thought you did sports!"

"We kinda have plans, Dustin!" Steve replied frustratedly, hot on Dustin's heels.

"We have bigger problems than your love life, Steve," Dustin retorted, holding the bouquet up. "Roses? Seriously?"

"What? It's romantic!"

Before Dustin could add to the insult, he raced up the correct hallway to her door, panting breathlessly from the exertion while Steve coolly followed behind. The latter of the two knocked politely, but when she didn't answer within five seconds, Dustin hit his fists against the wood impatiently.

"Jesus, who died?" She hissed the second she opened the door, her face contorted with equal parts confusion and anger. Steve had silently wished Julia opened the door instead, so she could rip Dustin apart for banging on her door.

"We need your help!" Dustin demanded, all but throwing the bouquet at her, causing her to fumble about in an attempt at not dropping it.

"With what?" She questioned, eyeing him suspiciously, but Dustin had taken off again.

"Hey, you look beautiful," Steve stepped toward her, unphased by Dustin's panic as he leaned in and pressed a sweet kiss to her forehead, causing her heart to flutter. "The roses are for you."

"Thank you," she smiled bashfully, cheeks heating up as she carefully placed them on a table beside the door and stepped into the hallway.

"Come on, people! Is this how you all would act in a fire?" Dustin yelled from the door to the staircase, waving his hand in an attempt to get them to hurry up.

"What's his damage?" Ringo whispered to Steve as they were pressured to jog to catch up with him, staying at each other's side as they followed Dustin down to the street again.

"He won't say," Steve shrugged with narrowed eyes, slightly peeved that Dustin was so heavily interrupting.

"Steve, you still got that bat?" Dustin asked as he helped himself into Steve's backseat, keeping the door open so he could talk to them before they entered the car.

"What bat?"

"The one with nails."

"Why?"

"Just get it!" Dustin huffed, eyes fixating on Ringo. "Sweet cheeks, still got that axe?"

"Wow, I must have left it in my other purse," she drawled sarcastically, "but call me sweet cheeks again and I'll use it on you."

"I have it in the trunk with my bat, don't worry," Steve murmured to her as they separated to sit in their respective car seats. Ringo raised an eyebrow at this, buckling her seatbelt and gesturing at Dustin to do the same, who rolled his eyes and followed.

"Why would you have that?" She tilted her head.

"Never know when the Mystery Inc has to get back together," he winked at her, before turning to put the car in drive, heading off in the directions Dustin was giving.

✵

The first thing Ringo did while Dustin finally explained what he desperately needed help with, was to look at Steve with a bored look in her eyes.

"So," she began, turning to look at Dustin in the backseat. "Have you tried taking it to the vet?"

"No- it's not a dog, Ringo!" He exclaimed in frustration.

"How do you know it's not a dog?" She continued. "I've seen some demonic, ugly ass dogs back in the trailer park."

"Because it grew like three times its size in a week!" He huffed, shaking his head in disbelief. "Jesus, you ran an axe through a demogorgan and don't believe this could happen?"

"Wait a second, how big did it get?" Steve interrupted, looking to Dustin in the rear view mirror for an answer.

"First it was like this," he made a measurement with his hands, "and now he's like this," he widened the gap between his palms.

Ringo couldn't help but snort, childishly amused by the gesture.

"You sure it's a creature and not a penis?"

"Ringo-" Steve's laughter cut his own words off, booming through the car and only furthering Dustin's frustration. "Look, I swear to god man, it's probably just some kind of lizard or something," he continued when he calmed down.

"If you're dragging my ass out here for a lizard, Dustin I swear-" Ringo threatened.

"It's not a lizard!" He threw his hands in the air in exasperation.

"Well, how do you know?" Steve asked.

"How do I know it's not just a lizard?"

"Yeah! How do you know it's not just a lizard!" His voice turning to a shout, clearly frustrated his plans for a date with Ringo were interrupted for what was most likely nothing.

"Because it's face opened up and it ate my cat!" He yelled back, silencing Steve's protests. Ringo whipped around in the seat again with eyes widened in horror.

"What?! Well what the hell are we supposed to do? Lay down rat traps?!"

Just as she finished talking, Steve pulled into the Henderson driveway, prompting Dustin to jump out of the car once it stopped before he could argue them any more. He would prove it to them that he wasn't being silly.

Steve gestured with his head towards the trunk of his car, Ringo and Dustin quick to follow. She shivered in the cold night air from her lack of a jacket, and before Steve could offer her anything, Dustin cut in.

"Here, Ringo! Take my jacket!" He reached for the zip sleeves, ready to tug it off and hand it to her.

"Um... thanks but I think your size is a little smaller than mine," she played it off politely, watching as Steve opened the trunk to his car and reached for his own spare jacket that he always kept stored. He handed it over to Ringo, dropping his left eye in a wink as he did so.

Eagerly, she shrugged it on over her shoulders, welcoming the heat on her cold skin. It was too big for her, but she didn't mind.

"Yeah, that doesn't look like your size either," Dustin enviously remarked under his breath.

"Here, babe," Steve grabbed for the axe, passing it gently into Ringo's waiting hands. She tested the weight of it, never thinking she'd see a day where she'd hold it again.

As she remarked upon its familiarity, Steve hoisted up his infamous nailed bat and shut the trunk, raising it up as the trio began to walk towards the garden - Dustin leading the way.

The curly haired boy led them straight to a set of red doors, buried into the ground that surely led to a sort of basement. Ringo recoiled at the sight of the padlock keeping the doors closed, immediately uncomfortable with the idea of venturing inside even if she didn't agree with Dustin's story.

They waited for a minute, listening intently, and Ringo begged silently that Steve wouldn't want to play the hero and go inside, where she'd have to follow of course.

"I don't hear shit," he remarked.

"He's in there," Dustin replied ominously.

"Can't it stay in there?" Ringo narrowed her eyes, "what do you really need a basement for? Christmas decorations?"

Dustin threw her a glare, which she responded to with one of her one. The two were engaged in a stare off until Steve smacked the head of his bat against the metal door, causing them to snap out of it with a jump.

He waited for a second, before hitting it again, the thud much harder and louder this time. Ringo waited with bated breath, still not hearing anything.

Annoyed, Steve raised the glare of his flashlight up to Dustin's face, temporarily blinding him.

"Alright I swear kid, if this is some kind of prank-" he kept the light shining on the boy's face, "you're dead."

"Yeah," Ringo agreed. "And I'll tell the boys you wear underwear with days of the week written on them."

"How did you know that?!" Dustin demanded, cheeks heating up.

"I didn't, but now I do!"

"Look, it's not a prank, all right!" He scowled, pushing at the torch. "Get that out of my face."

"You got a key for this thing?" Steve prompted, much to his date's discontent. As Dustin fished the key out of his pocket, she took a moment to voice her distaste for the idea.

"A dark basement? You'd be the first to die in a horror movie, Steve."

"You don't have to come," he lightly shoved her shoulder with his own. "But if you do, don't worry I'll protect ya."

"If anything I'll be the one watching your ass," she grumbled. In awe of how she still looked cute despite her annoyance, Steve couldn't help but swoop in and press a lingering kiss to the corner of her mouth. The action soon dissipated the worry from her expression.

"What the hell!" Dustin called out, breaking them away from their moment. "Hello! Demon dog in the basement! Swing your bat, not your lips!"

Steve caught the keys as Dustin tossed them, crouching down to open up the doors with a creaking sound that echoed inside. Timidly, the blonde shone the flashlight down the set of concrete steps, worried for what she might see at the end of the beam.

"He must be further down there," Dustin remarked.

"Of course he is," she retorted, "he's down there chilling with Freddy Krueger and Michael Myers."

"I'll stay up here. In case it tries to escape."

"You know," Ringo became inspired, "I should stay up here too. I mean, what's Dustin gonna do? I'm the one with the axe."

Steve threw them both an exasperated look, before reaching for the flashlight in her hand and starting to trail down the steps, slowly.

Ringo held her breath at the top, equal parts worried for Steve and for herself if the demon dog decided to make a run for it. She gripped the handle of her axe with both hands until her knuckles whitened.

Every second felt like a minute and the more Steve was away, the more concerned she became.

"Steve?" She tentatively called out, listening intently for any sound incurring he was still there. Tensions rose as dead silence filled the air, prompting Ringo to suddenly become very fearful something was about to happen - if horror movies had taught her anything.

He finally appeared in their view, so suddenly that both Ringo and Dustin jumped in shock - although the former of the two let out a slight scream.

"I will fucking dump you, Steve Harrington," she yelled down at him, hand clutching her chest to still her racing heart.

"Get down here," he demanded, nodding his head towards the area behind him and stifling a laugh at her rage. As the two shuffled down to inspect, Steve waited until Ringo had reached him to move, wrapping his arm around her shoulders and giving her a light squeeze as a form of an apology.

"Oh shit," Dustin's comment dragged her attention forward to the gooey skin that hung off of Steve's bat.

"What the hell?" She remarked, staring at it in disgust. "What is it?"

"Oh, shit!" Dustin reiterated, capturing their attentions towards a hole that was burrowed into the wall. The trio headed towards it to better look at it, but when Steve shone the light down it was clear that whatever was here was long gone.

"I don't suppose your mother is a mole, Dustin?" Ringo asked him, crouching down and peering into the dark tunnel.

✵

"This shit better not be happening again," Ringo remarked, tossing a canister of gasoline into the shopping cart as she and Steve hurriedly made their way around a 24-hour supermarket for 'supplies', while Dustin waited in the car.

"What shit?" Steve inquired, looking over the array of uncooked meat on selection they could lure 'Dart' in with.

"The whole 'giant ass demon tries to kill me and my friends deal'," she huffed, making the decision to toss in a bag of Lays chips as well. If they were going continue searching for the thing all night, she was going to have snacks.

"I know," he huffed, pushing the cart in the direction of the tills. "I made a freakin' picnic for us and everything."

"You did?" She caught onto his words, awing at his revelation.

"Yeah," he muttered, trying to act cool in the face of the girl he liked. "Just sandwiches, it's no big deal."

"You so like me," she hummed, happily grinning as they waited in line and began to lift their items onto the conveyor belt.

"Well yeah," he screwed up his expression, "I literally told you I did."

"See," she pointed out, "you do like me."

Steve rolled his eyes playfully at her goofiness, paying the cashier the required amount while she looked at their items with suspicion.

"This some kinda weird party y'all are setting up?" She nosily asked, handing him his change.

"Just a barbecue," Ringo explained, watching as the cashier rudely checked her watch and raised her eyebrows at the late hour, clearly not believing her lie.

"Um..." she stammered, "I'm European. Time is a social construct for me."

"Finally!" Dustin exclaimed when they reached the car, digging through their bags of 'groceries'.

"Hey, where are your friends anyway? Shouldn't they be the ones chasing monsters with you?" Ringo asked suddenly, ripping open her bag of chips and starting to munch away.

"They're completely MIA. So I'm stuck with you two."

"Now that I think about it," Steve began, starting the car's engine and putting it into drive. "Nancy and Jonathan have been gone lately too."

"So we're like the leftovers, here to save the world," Dustin sarcastically remarked, "kinda like the Scooby Doo gang."

"No, we already have a Scooby Doo gang. We need a new name for this band," Ringo interjected, tapping her finger on her chin as she mused. "I know! We'll be Charlie's Angels!"

"Seriously?" Dustin whined, at the exact same time as Steve did.

✵

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