Flipped: A Steve Harrington Enemies to Lovers

E Pluribus Unum - Steve's POV

With each flicker and pulse, The Gate beckons, and you all squint against its unbearable light, undulating at you in demonic red.

Despite the incessant rise and fall of her chest, Robin tilts her head to you and Steve and Dustin to ask, "I don't understand. You've seen this before?"

"Not exactly." Dustin answers.

"Then what, exactly?"

You motion desperately at the rift with a hand, voice raised to match your panic.

"This is what I've been trying to tell you about! The monsters, the alternate dimension, everything!" You turn back to it, brows pinched, to gape at the terrible, ethereal glow.

"That was real?!" Her voice is almost demanding, betrayed even, downright horrified and her mouth hangs open wide.

"Yep, and it's bad."

"Like, end-of-the-human-race-as-we-know-it kind of bad." Dustin elaborates.

Robin shouts in disbelief, "I just thought your secret was, like, you were dealing drugs or something!"

"What?!" You question. "You thought I was a drug dealer?!"

"I don't know! There was that time last year when you were all beaten up! I thought it was that or you and Steve were in like, some illegal underground boxing club or something!"

"You can't be serious!"

"You were being so shady-"

"-And you landed on an illegal underground boxing club?!"

Steve tries to explain, "Last year, we-"

"-Um, Steve? Where's your Russian friend?" You interrupt.

The boy averts his gaze from the monstrous vortex, to where a Russian guard should be lying unconscious on the floor.

The floor is notably empty.

"Shit."

Next, the sound of angry Russian voices indicate you've been spotted.

"Go! Shit! Shit, shit, shit!"

You all scramble to escape, sprinting through a door and slamming it shut, bolting down some steps, down a passage, towards the opening to a large vent.

But the Russians keep on coming.

"Hold the door with me!" Robin urges, pressing her back to the doorframe, her red sneakers scudding against the floor the more she digs in her heels.

Without a second thought, Steve barrels over beside her to tackle into the door, grunting and panting as he labours to keep it shut.

You freeze. Then, you inch round to glimpse the image that is your two best friends, sacrificing themselves.

"Robin! Steve!" Anxiety courses through your veins, splits you in two - a part of you wishes to spring to their aid, the other is being dragged desperately away towards protecting Dustin and Erica, their small, clammy hands clutching you tight, also unwilling to leave anyone behind.

You lock eyes with Steve, his face contorting in his struggle with the door. All the while, a cacophony of jackboots pound the ground, the force at which they push through the blocked door growing evermore irresistible.

The boy's honey-sweet eyes convey a promise to you. To keep you safe. That this is the only way. They plead at you to go, get out of here and save the children.

Then, there's Robin, gritting her teeth and slapping a sweaty palm to the door, also begging you to leave.

"Go! Just get out of here!" Steve shouts, a vein pulsating from his neck.