••••• "Don't don't you want me? / You know I can't believe it when you say that you don't need me" •••••
"This might be the stupidest thing I've ever gotten myself involved in, but I'm in."
In which Steve Harrington and Kimberly Henderson go from be...
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Steve woke up the next morning on the Wheeler's basement floor, this time with his arm wrapped securely around Kim's waist. He'd missed this. The last few nights all he had wanted to do was hold her close and make sure that nothing was going to happen to her.
She shifted against him, muttering incoherently in her sleep. She continued moving around, her face scrunched up in confusion. Steve had slept next to Kim enough times to recognize when she was having a nightmare. He gently shook her awake.
Her eyes flew open, darting around before realizing she was only at the Wheeler's house.
"Are you okay?" Steve whispered, not wanting to wake the rest of the group.
"Yeah, yeah," she said while trying to catch her breath. "Just a nightmare, I'm fine."
Steve studied her suspiciously before pulling her close to him again. "I've got you, Kimmy. Go back to sleep. It's gonna be okay."
She nodded against his chest, closing her eyes. She stayed like that, trying to steady her breathing and hoping Steve would think she had fallen back asleep. She felt him drift back off but she stayed on high alert. She couldn't let herself fall back asleep. If she did, horrible visions of Barb and her father waited for her when she closed her eyes.
•••••
"Not to be a wimp, but can I sit in the car?" Robin asked as they drove to Reefer Rick's house to bring Eddie his food supplies. "Cause this is gonna totally and royally suck."
"It'll be fine," Nancy reassured her from the driver's seat.
"I just can't stand to see those dull eyes of Eddie's break again. I really, really can't." Robin sighed.
"At least he can drink himself into feeling better," Steve said, holding up the six-pack they had bought per Eddie's request.
"Yeah, that's a great solution," Kim said sarcastically.
"That's what my mom does," Max mumbled.
"Why don't we just give it a trial run?" Robin suggested. "'Hey, Eddie. Uh, good news first this time. We got you some Dustin approved junk food and that six-pack you requested. Oh yeah, and we found Vecna. Only the bad news is that he's in that other, darker, much scarier dimension that we told you about, and the gate's closed, so we have no way of getting to him. Like, he's entirely shut off to us, so basically you're screwed. And, no, I know you were already screwed, but now you're, like, doubly, triply screwed.'"
"Maybe we don't put it like that," Lucas said.
"We're one step forward to finding Vecna," Nancy reminded them. "That's what we say. That's what's important."
"See, Robin?" Steve said, eating the Pringles that were meant for Eddie. "Positive spin can make all the difference."
