The age old story of two best friends falling in love...
... Only, one's a lab experiment with an entire Upside Down hunting her down, and the other won't leave her side, no matter how hard she tries.
steve harrington x fem oc / season 2 o...
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chapter forty slipping through my fingers
🖤
RUBY LOVES THIS TIME OF YEAR; when the evenings are slowly becoming warmer, the nighttime air chilly, but not freezing anymore. So, as everyone else falls asleep in her grandfather's living room — deciding it's best for them all to keep Max watch for the foreseeable future — she finds herself outside, on a swinging bench her grandpa must've installed in the seventies. She has a blanket draped over her legs, a hoodie wrapped around her torso, but the crisp breeze makes her feel comforted.
She misses California, misses how warm it was there. She's thankful Hawkins is warming up again for summer, because she doesn't think she'd cope with the cold anymore. Ruby's always liked to run hot, but ever since being Flayed, she has gained a paranoid aversion to being cold — as if she'll feel one chill down her spine, and the monster will find its way back in. But, this breeze is manageable, as she looks out at the trees, at the nothingness, listening to the crickets chirping.
"Room for one more?"
Ruby looks up. Steve is standing in the threshold of the house, and she nods, softly patting the seat next to her. He closes the door softly, sitting down.
"OK, we've got everyone's favourite song written down, and first thing tomorrow, we'll make a mixtape with them all on," says Steve. "And we'll make backups, and we'll all—"
"Steve," says Ruby. "Shhhh."
He goes quiet, astonished she's told him to shut up. He opens his mouth to speak, but Ruby catches it before he can, putting her hand up.
"There's tomorrow," she tells him. "None of that is going to be solved tonight, when we can't even get empty cassettes. Or a recording of Neverending Story." Dustin's choice of song. Ew. "... Chrissy's funeral is tomorrow, so I'll go to the store afterwards."
Steve raises his eyebrows, surprised. "Already?"
Ruby shrugs. "I guess her parents want to get it over with," she says. She looks ahead, at the quiet street her grandpa, mom, and aunt once lived. A tree across the road shivers in the breeze. "I don't really want to go, to be honest, but you can't decline a funeral invite."
"I can come," says Steve, quietly.
Ruby looks over at him, surprised.
"I just thought... Then you're not completely on your own."
Her entire body feels relieved. "Would that be okay?" she says.
"Yeah, of course," he says, unbothered. Ruby wonders if he realises how nice that is, that he's suggested that. "None of us should be alone right now, you know? And that includes you, even if you don't think it does."
Ruby smiles softly at him. "Well, it's appreciated."
They pause for a minute. Then, he changes the subject: "Why'd you choose yours?"
