Don't You Want Me? ✵ Steve Harrington

Chapter 34

Kim, Steve, and Dustin poked their heads out from behind the leafy plant they were crouching behind, trying to spot any evil Russian. It wasn't as easy as they had thought it would be.

"You see anything?" Kim asked, the most impatient of the three.

"Uh, I guess I don't totally know what I'm looking for," Steve said, scanning the crowd with his binoculars.

"Evil Russians," Dustin reminding him, wondering how one person could be so incredibly stupid.

Steve rolled his eyes, the binoculars blocking anyone from being able to see his reaction. "Yeah, exactly. I don't know what an evil Russian looks like."

"Tall, blond, not smiling," Dustin listed. "Also, look for earpieces, camo, duffel bags, that sort of thing."

"Right, okay, duffel bags," Steve nodded. "Oh, you've gotta be kidding me."

"What?" Kim asked, trying to take the binoculars from him.

"Anna Jacobi's talking with that meathead Mark Lewinsky," Steve said.

Kim rolled his eyes. "Babe, if you're not gonna focus, just gimme the binoculars."

"Aw, Jesus Chris, whatever happened to standard?" Steve asked, ignoring her.

She finally tore the binoculars from his grip. "Apparently they went down the drain when I started dating you," Kim joked.

Dustin just stared at the two. "Sometimes I can't tell if you guys are in love or if you want to kill each other. And you're both the worst spies in history."

"Well then, Steve and I will just go and you can do all the spy stuff by yourself," Kim shrugged.

"I don't think so," Dustin said, grabbing his sister's arm before she could ditch him. "You guys just want to leave so you can go make out somewhere."

"Yeah, duh," Steve nodded.

"You two a the worst," Dustin muttered, rolling his eyes. "Me and Suzie aren't like this."

"Oh, Suzie," Kim scoffed. "Yeah, you mean, 'hotter than Phoebe Cates.' Yeah, that Suzie."

"Hang on," Steve said, holding a hand up. "You think Phoebe Cates is hot."

Kim rolled her eyes. "First of all, I was just quoting Dust. And second of all, even if I do, you think she's hot too, so shut up."

Dustin ripped the binoculars out of Kim's hands. "If you two are just going to bicker the whole time, I get the binoculars." After a minute Dustin spoke again. "Target acquired."

"Where?" Kim and Steve asked at the same time.

"Ten o'clock," Dustin replied, pointing to the man. "Sam Goody's."

"Shit," Kim whispered, noticing him too. He was tall, blond, dressed in all black with a duffle bag hanging off his shoulder. He fit Dustin's description of an evil Russian perfectly. The three got up, quickly starting to follow the man through the mall.

"Slow down," Dustin warned the older kids as they got too close to the man.

"No, we're gonna lose him," Steve protested, bumping into someone as he walked.

"Hey, watch it dick ward," the man yelled at Steve.

The Russian started to turn around at the commotion. Dustin rushed to the phone on the wall, pretending to talk to someone while Kim and Steve retreated to a corner. As the Russian's eyes fell on the couple, Steve lowered his lips to Kim's. The man quickly looked away, feeling very uncomfortable.

Dustin rolled his eyes as he hung the phone back up and tore Steve and Kim apart. "I really hate you guys."

"Yeah, well it made him look away from us, so I'd say it was a win win," Kim smirked.

"Alright, everyone, listen up!" the blond man yelled, walking into a Jazzercise studio and pulling a boombox out of his duffle bag. "I just have one question for you. "I just have one question for you. Who is ready to sweat?"

The jazzercise women cheered as Kim, Steve, and Dustin exchanged looks of confusion and disappointment.

•••••

Meanwhile, Robin sat in the backroom of Scoops Ahoy, trying to make sense of the Russian code. "The week is long," she read out loud. "The silver cat feeds when blue meets yellow in the west. A trip to China sounds nice if you tread lightly." She took another side of her Pepsi, trying to see if the caffeine would provide her with any answers. She looked up as someone knocked on the delivery door.

"Delivery for you," the man said, holding out a box.

"Thank you," she replied, her mind still on the code. She set the box on the table and then took the pen he offered her to sign the document. She looked up, her eys catching on the word 'Lynx' on his work shirt.

"Have a nice day," the man said, turning to leave.

"Yeah, you too," Robin said, watching the silver cat on the back of his shirt get smaller as the man walked down the hallway. Robin rushed out of the back room and into the food court, bumping into Kim's shoulder as she did so.

"Robin?" Kim called watching as the other girl jumped up onto a fountain ledge. "Robin, what's going on?"

Robin spun around in a circle, repeating the words of the code words until she had figured it out.

"Robin? What are you doing?" Steve asked the girl, Kim and Dustin following behind him.

"I cracked it," Robin said proudly.

"Cracked what?" Steve furrowed his eyebrows.

Robin jumped down from the fountain ledge. "I cracked the code."

•••••

The quartet sat on top of the mall's roof, watching the delivery truck come in that night. Kim felt herself shiver, the cold rain running down her face and drentching the the kids. Steve noticed her chill and pulled her close to him, trying to keep her warm.

"Look for Imperial Panda and Kaufman Shoes," Robin instructed.

Dustin put his binoculars up to his eyes. "There - with that whistling guy, ten o'clock."

"Could you just point for once?" Kim asked. "It would be a lot easier for me if you just pointed."

"Not my fault you're stupid," Dustin shot back.

"Hey, she's not stupid," Steve defended, flicking Dustin's head. "What do you think's in the boxes?"

"Guns, bombs?" Dustin suggested. He would never be able to comprehend how Steve and Kim would call each other idiots, but then yell at other people for doing the exact same thing.

"Chemical weapons?" Robin added.

"Well, whatever it is, they're armed to the teeth," Kim said, watching the scowling, muscular men with machine guns.

"Great," Steve muttered, whipping wet hair from his eyes. "That's great."

One of the threatening men opened a door with his key card and put the boxes inside. "Hey, what's in there?" Robin asked, trying to get a better look inside the room.

"It's just more boxes," Dustin replied, the only one with binoculars.

"Let me check it out," Steve said, trying to take the binoculars from Dustin. The two boys squabled over the thing until they made a loud thud when it hit the brick wall. Kim shoved her friend's heads down, clutching Steve's hand for dear life as more rain splattered across her face.

"You guys are gonna get us all killed," Kim whispered, glaring at Steve and her little brother.

Steve gave her hand a small squeeze before starting to lead them all to the door to the roof and back into the mall.

"Well, I think we found your Russians," Robin said, once it was safe to speak loudly again.