Willow hadn't heard from Robin or Steve in nearly a week. Which was fine, considering it gave her the peace and quiet she needed to finish her summer reading.

On the other hand, on this particular evening, Willow was mentally cursing Robin.

With her summer reading done, the short assignment paired with it completed with ease, Willow finally had time to think. There was no longer any distraction in front of her to stop her mind from ricocheting thoughts of Steve, of Nancy, of Steve with Nancy, and most peculiarly, Eddie Munson , around. Robin had planted this ridiculous idea into Willow's head, and it didn't matter how many times she mentally reprimanded herself, she couldn't stop entertaining it. Maybe if that day at Scoops, Steve hadn't spoken up once Eddie left, this wouldn't be plaguing her. If she stopped having to see the clench of Steve's jaw as he lectured her on why she shouldn't date Eddie Munson every time she closed her eyes, stopped having to hear the echo of his words in her mind.

You're just too good for all of them.

Did Steve Harrington really believe that? More importantly, was there a slim chance he also believed Willow was too good for him?

She couldn't take the overthinking anymore. Within mere seconds, Willow had leapt up from her bed (rather ungracefully) and gone sliding down the hallway to her house phone. Her fingers almost couldn't move fast enough as she shakily started to turn Robin's phone number into the phone. The soft clicking with each number only added to her annoyance.

"Come on, come on, come on," she mumbles to herself as she hastily plugs in the final number to her best friend. She waits with bated breath for a few beats of silence when she hears ringing from the phone, " finally ."

One ring.

Two rings.

Willow pinches her eyes shut, anxiously awaiting for her best friend to pick up. It honestly wasn't just her insane need to ramble about her situation with Steve, she just missed Robin. She missed her stupid jokes and teasing, and even her hugs she'd force Willow into at any given chance. It had only been a week, but for Willow, it had been a week too long.

While lost in thought, Willow hadn't even heard the soft whine of the power outage. It took her a second to realize that the third ring wasn't coming, and the soft hum of her AC was nowhere to be found.

"What the..." her eyes flash open immediately, glancing around her now dark kitchen, "What the hell?"

Willow immediately moves to the small window above the kitchen sink, using the counter as leverage to lift herself onto her tippy toes and peek outside. She could see storm clouds in the distance of the quickly fading evening sky. But even more than that, she noticed the darkness. Not the sky's darkness. The town's darkness. She immediately fell back onto her bare heels and carefully navigated to her garage. Was the entire town's power out? Chills ran down her spine as she let the darkness of the carport encapture her. Her mom was working a night shift at the hospital, leaving her completely alone.

"Okay, focus. Flashlight," she says out loud, trying to break the silence of being alone with her own voice. The concrete is cold on her feet as she pads over to the small toolbox they kept out here. It was bright red, still looking as new as the day they moved here and bought it. Her mom said they needed it, needed a few basic tools so if anything ever came up, they could fix it.

" See? We've got these. We can fix just about anything now, who needs your dad? "

Willow still doesn't know who her mother was trying to convince of that to this day.

"Aha!" she shouts as she finds the metal flashlight right on top of the tools. Power outages were fairly normal in Hawkins, especially in the last few years. The flashlight has gotten its fair use.

Once Willow's fist is white-knuckling the flashlight, she wastes no time sprinting back into her house, not even taking the time to turn on the flashlight. As the door to the garage slams shut behind her, she jumps slightly.

It's fine. It's just a power outage. Don't be a baby.

It takes a few tries for her to find the switch to turn on the flashlight, but once she does, it flickers. "Jesus christ, no, no, no. C'mon."

Her pleads only fall on her own ears, drumming from her heartbeat. It was silly, being scared of the dark as a senior in high school.

Finally, the beam of light pours out of the flashlight, stable except for the shaking of Willow's hand. "Thank God."

Ironically, right in the moment, Willow nearly passes out as banging sounds from her front door. She stares, dumbfounded for a moment.

Another bang sounds, and Willow jumps out of her skin.

"Coming!" she means to yell it out confidently, but it comes out a whisper instead. It's only when the frantic ringing of her doorbell sounds that she knows she'll have to answer the door no matter what. She still drags her feet, hesitant as she presses her eye to the lookout.

She wasn't sure what she expected at her door. A murderer, or maybe some terrifying creature of the night.

It was neither. Instead, she caught sight of her best friend distorted through the dingy glass of the peephole.

"Rob?" Willow questions as she flings the door open, "What the-"

Nothing could have prepared Willow for the bone-crushing hug that Robin attacks her with.

" Oh my gosh, Willow ! You have no idea how happy I am to see you, oh my gosh. I've had the craziest week! I cracked a Russian code! And then there was this giant thing called the Mind-Flayer and Billy Hargrove - you know that asshole, right? - he...he got attacked and now he's dead and the mall is destroyed and I don't think me and Steve have jobs anymore and did I mention there were Russians-"

Robin doesn't take a single breath as she spews all this information into Willow's shoulder, bouncing a little as she continues to squeeze her. Willow finally has to pull herself free, holding her friend by her shoulders as she cuts her off. "Woah, woah, woah. Rob. Slow down. What happened?"

"Okay, okay," Robin takes a few deep breaths, closing her eyes softly. Willow takes the moment to notice that she's still wearing her Scoops uniform. When Robin opens her eyes once more, she's smiling softly, apologetically almost, as she says, "Before I begin, do you have any pizza rolls?"

—

The girls end up sitting across from each other on Willow's bed, a plate of pizza rolls between them and the flashlight long discarded somewhere under Willow's pillows.

"I don't believe you," Willow scoffs, taking a pizza bite as she shakes her head. Admittedly, what her friend was telling her sounded insane.

"It's true!" Robin defends, waving her hands wildly, "This girl's name is Eleven, they call her El for short. She literally moves things with her mind. I watched her force this gross like, baby monster out of her leg! It was disgusting! But not as disgusting as that time that one girl we knew broke her leg-"

"I think I got the picture, Rob. I don't particularly want to remember... that ," Willow scrunches her nose and tries to force the memory of what a bone sticking out of a leg looks like.

Fucking gross.

"Sorry," Robin shrugs, smiling apologetically. "So, you believe me, right?"

Willow pauses, considering all she just learned. It sounded like something straight out of a fantasy novel. Actually, scratch that, a horror novel. But as she watches Robin animatedly talk about it, watches her process her emotions of the entire deal, she finds it hard to call her best friend a liar. Robin had no reason to lie about all of this.

"It's just insane , Rob. And you said these kids already dealt with this shit? That Steve had already been involved once? How does that even happen?"

"Honestly? I don't know. Maybe he had his own version of Russian code they needed him to crack."

"Steve doesn't know Russian."

"I know that. I just mean, the way they needed me to crack the Russian code. Maybe they needed him for something like that. He was looking after Dustin and the kids after his breakup with Nancy."

"I..." Willow trails off, realization hitting her, "Oh my God! Henderson is involved! Steve's kid from the mall! Oh my God, that kid is fighting monsters while I'm still scared of the dark ?"

"You're still scared of the dark?" Robin questions with a giggle.

Willow reaches behind her and grabs a pillow, chucking it in Robin's direction. "Shut up."

"You're never living that down."

"I know," Willow sighs as she uncurls her legs and lifts herself off her bed, "But the point here isn't my irrational fear. The point is... monsters exist, and they exist in Hawkins?" she originally meant for her sentence to come out as a statement, something to solidify all that Robin had just clued her into. The waver in her voice has it coming out as a question.

"Yep."

"And you technically helped fight them?"

"Crazy, right?"

"And so did Steve..." Willow trails off, staring into the carpet as she tries to picture Steve Harrington being a hero. It isn't a hard concept to wrap her head around. Honestly, it's easier to accept that than the part about monsters.

"Alright, I know that look. You're fantasizing about Steve, aren't you? Actually, don't answer that, I don't want to know," Robin says as she stretches her arms out above her head with a yawn, "I'm sorry, I know this is a lot to take in."

Willow snaps out of her daze easily. "I mean, yeah. But... What am I supposed to do? Just not believe you?"

"You say that as if you've never called me a liar. I distinctly remember trying to be the first one to tell you that Nancy broke up with Steve and you responded with, and I quote, 'Bullshit'."

Willow doesn't respond, instead beginning to pace her room.

"Or what about when Steve first got hired on at Scoops? You claimed the Steve Harrington would never be so desperate for money as to put on a sailor outfit!"

"I get it, Robin!" Willow finally sighs, "I've called you a liar plenty of times. But you wouldn't lie about something this big, right?"

Robin doesn't respond, instead shrugging with her shoulders as her eyes follow Willow's pacing.

"B-But if you're telling the truth then...then...my fear of the dark for example! It's not insane. Jesus Christ, Robin, there are monsters in Hawkins," Willow exclaims as she tosses her arms about, accidentally reminding herself of the outage as she glances into the darkest corners of her room. Her eyes land on the abyss she can see a glimpse of under the edge of her bed.

"There were monsters. Not anymore," Robin finally stands, casually stepping right in front of the space Willow had been staring down, "We defeated them. Don't worry, you can thank us later, but for now... just, please don't freak out. And don't mention to Steve that you know about the monsters. We aren't supposed to tell anybody. Look, let's talk about something else! Like...like... What were you doing before I showed up?"

Willow pauses, wanting to say so much more on the topic. But there's a pleading look in Robin's eyes that tells Willow to let it go, to move on despite how much this knowledge has shook her to her core. So instead of pressing the issue, she says, "Ironically? I was calling you when the outage happened."

"Really? Damn, my timing is good."

"Uh huh," Willow agrees, grabbing the now empty plate off of the center of her bed, "Impeccable, really."

"So why were you calling me? Please tell me I've missed something absolutely bat-shit crazy during your week," Robin trails along behind her, both girls' eyes now adjusted to the dark so they no longer need the flashlight as they make their way to the kitchen.

"It's not quite bat-shit crazy," Willow admits, "It was just me driving myself insane."

"Over what?"

"I'll give you two guesses."

" Oh . Oh my God, Willow! Wait, is it about Steve? I might have an update on that," Robin excitedly says, bouncing on the heels of her feet as Willow places the plate into the sink.

Willow gives her a strange look, only mildly concerned. "Update? Should I be worried?"

"Nope! It's good! Very good!" Robin continues to bounce as she exclaims this, and Willow leans on the counter behind herself as she faces the girl who's currently resembling a puppy, "So it is about Steve?"

"Yeah, but honestly? Let's not talk about that," Willow looks at her best friend and realizes that really, boy talk is the last thing she wants. She missed Robin. And on top of that, her head is still reeling from all the information she's just been overloaded with ( she means, seriously? Monsters? In Hawkins? ).

Robin looks surprised, but recovers quickly with a grin. "Okay, cool. I'll just keep my little secret to myself," she wiggles her eyebrows as she says this, "Is there something else on your mind, though?"

Willow thinks for a moment, looking over at her refrigerator. Her eyes catch sight of some school photos from elementary school that her mom keeps captured with a 'Welcome to California' magnet. She's never understood that magnet; she doesn't think her mom has ever even been to California.

"I wanna dye my hair before school starts," Willow admits, finally looking back to meet Robin's gaze. Somewhere between her pining and her reading this week, Willow found herself deciding she needed a change for senior year. It didn't have to be major, just enough to feel slightly monumental to herself. Outside change to distract from all the internal change she was sure to face this year.

She tenses her shoulders in preparation for a lecture.

"Dye? Like, go to a salon or..." Robin makes a slight face as she asks this, clearly not liking where this is going.

"Nope. I want to do it right here at home."

"That is such a bad idea."

"I wanna go ginger. Like, darker ginger. Nothing crazy."

"That's an even worse idea."

"My hair's already brown, it can't be that hard to make it ginger."

"You're going to end up bald."

"I was thinking you could help me do it tomorrow."

"What time?"

By the end of their back-and-forth bickering of the idea, both girls are grinning ear-to-ear. This has always been how their friendship worked - if one of them had a terrible idea, they both had a terrible idea. In eighth grade, just two months after Willow had first met Robin and confided in her that her mother had promised to take her to get her ears pierced for two years now with no prevail, they tried to pierce their ears by themselves at home with a lighter stolen from Willow's mother and a needle stolen from Robin's mother. They only managed to do Robin's right ear and Willow's left ear, and Robin's mother had to angrily take them to get their other ears pierced the next day in town. Freshman year of high school, Robin decided for the first time she wanted to cut her hair. Short . Practically a pixie cut. Her mother refused, going on and on about how unladylike it would be. And so the night before their first day of high school, Robin sat on Willow's toilet as Willow took a pair of her mother's sharpest kitchen scissors to Robin's hair (They were both grounded the entire first month of school for that one). There was also the time in which they could never agree on who had the ridiculous idea to go camp in the woods behind Willow's house with nothing but sleeping bags and a stolen bottle of rum from their parents, but they stayed by each other's side that entire night, matching bright pink noses and egos glowing. Every time Robin Buckley decided to cross a busy road, Willow Jenkins was right there behind her every step of the way. Nothing had changed over the years. And nothing ever would as long as the two were best friends.

"Wanna just sleep over and go get the stuff first thing in the morning?" Willow suggests.

Robin doesn't even hesitate. "Absolutely I do. You still have my Blondie shirt?"

"Okay, that is so not your Blondie shirt," Willow rolls her eyes as she pushes off the counter, "But yes, I do. I think you also left a pair of shorts here that my mom washed."

"Sick!" Robin doesn't even wait for Willow, practically sprinting towards her bedroom.

"Robin! Rob- it is still dark Buckley! Slow down, be careful !"

a/n: i hope everyone is having a good day!! i appreciate everyone who's reading and voting and commenting y'all make my day