AT LEAST WE'RE GETTING OUR STEPS IN
November 4th, 1984
⏰ 6:00 pm, 📍Hawkins, Indiana
༺♥༻ Max and Stephanie are holding hands while they walk on the old train tracks, swinging their hands back and forth as the rest of the group is walking in front of them, talking about the attack.
"You're positive that was Dart?" Lucas asks, still unsure.
"Yes. He had the same exact yellow pattern on his butt," Dustin confirms with a nod.
"He was tiny two days ago," Max argues.
"Well, he's molted three times already," Dustin says as he holds up three fingers.
"Malted?" Steve repeats.
Stephanie scoffs. "Molted, Steve. You learned this in second grade." Stephanie turns to Max and rolls her eyes, making Max laugh.
"When's he gonna molt again?" Lucas asks.
"It's gotta be soon," Dustin insists. "When he does, he'll be fully grown, or close to it. And so will his friends."
Fabulous.
Steve shines his flashlight around the area. "Yeah, and he's gonna eat a lot more than just cats."
Lucas stops Dustin in his tracks. "Wait, a cat? Dart ate a cat?"
"No, what? No," Dustin stutters, making it painfully obvious he's lying.
Steve shakes his head. "What are you talking about? He ate Mews."
"Mews? Who's Mews?" Max turns to Steve, looking at him as if he's clinically insane.
"It's Dustin's cat." Steve gestures towards Dustin.
"Steve!" Dustin yells, feeling as betrayed as ever.
Lucas hits Dustin in the shoulder. "I knew it! You kept him!"
"No! No. No, I...No, I..." Dustin sputters. "He missed me. He wanted to come home," he tells Lucas.
Lucas crosses his arms. "Bullshit!"
"I didn't know he was a Demogorgan, okay?" Dustin admits, averting his gaze away from Lucas.
Lucas scoffs. "Oh, so now you admit it?"
"Guys, who cares?" Max looks between the two, obviously tired of the bickering.
"Yeah, we have to go," Stephanie says, rolling her eyes.
"I care! You put the party in jeopardy! You broke the rule of law!" Lucas yells, listing out words that mean pretty much nothing to Max and Stephanie.
"So did you!" Dustin defends himself.
"What?"
"You told a stranger the truth!" Dustin shines in flashlight in Max's face.
"A stranger?" Max yells, letting go of Stephanie's hand.
All of the yelling voices quieted when Stephanie noticed Steve shining his flashlight through the woods.
Stephanie walks up to her brother. "Steve, what are you looking at?"
Steve doesn't answer and instead walks farther away.
"Guys?" Steve finally says. "Guys!"
The fighting stops and everyone hears roaring that sounds like Dart's from earlier tonight.
Everyone besides Max and Stephanie run towards the roars.
"No, no, no. Hey, guys, why are you headed towards the sound?" Max yells. "Why do they always do that?" She rolls her eyes as she turns to Stephanie
"Maybe because they're boys?" Stephanie suggests with a shrug.
Max runs off to follow the group.
"Glad I don't like boys," Stephanie mutters to herself.
Max turns around. "What did you say?"
"I didn't say anything," Stephanie lies with a sweet smile, hoping with every inch of her being Max'll buy it.
"Oh. Okay." Max runs off again.
Well that was close.
Stephanie runs to catch up with Max and the others.
As they walk, following the distant roars, they make it to the edge of the woods, looking out onto the town.
Lucas takes his binoculars and looks around to try and locate the roars.
"It's the lab," Lucas finally says. "They were going back home."
Stephanie sighs. "Well, that's great."
"Why don't we loop back around and go to the lab?" Dustin suggests.
Without speaking, everyone turns around and starts walking.
————
༺♥༻ After what felt like miles and miles of walking, the group nears the end of the woods.
"How long have we been walking for? Feels like hours," Stephanie asks again, she has been asking this question probably every five minutes.
Max shrugs. "I mean, at least we're getting our steps in."
When everyone makes it to the outside of the lab, it sounded like talking coming from ahead of them. Walking closer and closer revealed that Nancy and Jonathan had made it to the lab before Steve and the kids.
"Steve?" Nancy and Jonathan both say at the same time.
Steve stops in his tracks. "Nancy?"
"Jonathan," Dustin pants as he catches up to Steve.
"What are you doing here?" Nancy asks with a confused look on her face.
"What are you doing here?" Steve repeats.
"We're looking for Mike and Will."
"They're not in there, are they?" Dustin nods his head towards the lab.
Nancy looks at Jonathan. "We're not sure."
"Why?" Jonathan asks, visibly concerned.
Suddenly, a monster screeches from what everyone can only assume inside the lab.
Stephanie sighs. "Well, I hope they're not in there."
"What do we do?" Steve crosses his arms.
Everyone begins to talk at once, yelling out ideas and plans they have to get inside the lab.
"We haven't seen Will-"
"I haven't seen him since..."
"I am not going in there."
"We have to go in!"
Nancy cuts the yelling off. "The powers back."
Jonathan runs to the controls and starts pressing all the buttons to try and open the door
Dustin walks up to the door. "Let me try."
"Hang on-"
Still, Dustin persists and pushes Jonathan out of the way. "Let me try, Jonathan!" Dustin starts pressing the buttons the same way Jonathan did.
"Son of a bitch! You know-"
"You cannot press those buttons any differently than how he did," Stephanie cuts Dustin's dramatics off.
Dustin scoffs. "Screw you!"
He goes back to practically hitting all the buttons, until the gate actually opens.
"Hey! I got it!" Dustin chuckles. "I got it."
Jonathan and Nancy run to get inside Jonathan's car and they pull away, heading towards the lab.
As the gate opens, the kids stand in front of the opening doors. Watching. Waiting. For what? Who knows.
"Guys?" Max says.
Stephanie looks up and sees two cars honking their horns speeding towards them.
Steve pulls the kids aside. "Look out!"
"Guys get back!" Max yells.
After almost getting run over, Stephanie finds herself holding Max's hand. Again.
The girls look down at their hands and Stephanie quickly pulls hers away.
"You scared?" Max asks, putting on her best mean face.
Stephanie rolls her eyes. "Like almost getting hit with a car isn't scary."
The second car pulls up to the kids and Steve. "Let's go," a man says sternly. It's the police chief, Jim Hopper.
Without hesitation, everyone piles in to the car.
Max takes Stephanie hand and pulls her along into the car. Stephanie looks at Max with a 'what was that?' expression. Somehow, Max knew exactly what Stephanie meant. "Oh shut up, Steph."
Stephanie takes notice of Joyce in the car, too. She's holding Will who looks too lifeless for Stephanie's preference.
Her face must've been a clear window to how she's feeling because Joyce puts her hand on Stephanie shoulder, "He's sedated, he'll wake up soon."
༺♥༻
lots of maxanie moments 🤭🤭
(and hand holding) (AHH)
