wires, steve harrington

nineteen.

erica sinclair peered into the vent with a flashlight, seemingly analyzing it. "hm. i don't know." she said as she climbed back down the ladder.

"you don't know if you can fit?" dustin asked

erica practically scoffed, sending him a look. "oh, i can fit. i just don't know if i want to."

meadow looked to steve, who was standing next to her, both standing with their arms crossed over their chests. they'd worked with children before, but they'd never before tried to persuade someone this young. they knew that bribing might end up being necessary.

"are you claustrophobic?" robin asked.

"i don't have phobias." erica snickered.

steve shrugged his shoulders. "then what's the problem?"

"the problem," erica began, "is that i still haven't heard what's in this for erica." meadow, dustin, steve, and robin all sent each other looks, knowing what had to be done.

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

as meadow watched steve set down another one of erica's free icecream cups, she couldn't help but roll her eyes. the whole situation was ridiculous to her, and she hoped that robin was right about the code and that whatever was in that room was really all it was cracked up to be. at this point, the anticipation was killing her, and she was tired of watching this little girl just eat icecream. "any day now." she mumbled, barely loud enough for anyone to hear.

"ah ah ah. more syrup." erica then said, annoying steve, who reluctantly stood up, for the thousandth time, to add syrup as she requested.

meadow stood up with him, following the boy behind the counters. "hey." steve said, looking up from the ice cream in his hands when meadow rested her chin on his shoulder, standing on her tippy toes.

"hey." she replied with a small smile, watching him add chocolate syrup to the top of the icecream. "we haven't had much time together and i missed you." meadow mumbled into his shoulder, feeling him pull away only to turn around and wrap both arms around her waist.

steve put two fingers under her chin, lifting her head up so she was looking at him. "once all this is over i'm going to spend all the time in the world with you, alright?" he promised, a boyish grin on his face. "but, for now, we still have some work to do."

the thing was, she knew that he would definitely keep that promise. she could only hope that whatever the russians were doing, it was unimportant enough that the town of hawkins could slip right back into being the unassuming small town where nothing interesting ever happens. and she hoped that, in addition, she'd be able to just spend the rest of her summer with him.

but, she was trying to look on the positive side, and so she cleared her head, reminding herself to live in the moment and to be thankful for what she. had.

meadow smiled up at him. "well, at least there isn't a monster or anything." steve chuckled in response, pressing a soft kiss to her forehead before kissing her lips. "come on, let's give that girl her icecream."

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

as fate would have it,  erica was a very persuasive little girl (and also their last hope at getting into that room) and now had free ice cream for life. but, in exchange, she had agreed that she would crawl into the small vent.

meadow, robin, steve, and dustin were all outside at their position on the roof, preparing for erica to get into the secret room and open the doors for them. "erica, do you copy?" robin asked into her walkie-talkie.