Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“NANCY!” Mike shouted from downstairs.

“Give me a second!” she shouted back at her brother. Nancy continued what she was doing, gently placing her stuff in the closet where it most likely wouldn’t be found, a small blanker thrown over top for good measure. Her parents didn’t really come into her room, and if Mike barged in it wasn’t like he’d go through her stuff. Hopefully. She stepped back and looked it over quickly before closing the closet.

She left her room, closing the door behind her. She’d lost track of time, but they weren’t late. Mike was just impatient. Honestly, she should just make him ride his bike over. Why was she even driving him? He'd probably end up back at their house to grab it later anyway.

Nancy heard Mike dramatically groan from the first floor about her being slow. That boy had no patience. “Yelling at me is not going to get us to the Byers’ any faster,” she reminded him when she finally came downstairs. She gave a quick greeting to her father, who didn't look up from the paper.

“What took you so long?” he complained, standing cross-armed at the doorway. He was raring to go like usual when visiting the Hopper-Byers kids. “I was ready ten minutes ago.”
“Just cleaning up a few things,” she answered, which was true. What she had to clean up was none of his business. “And you said we were leaving at noon, which it isn’t yet. Technically, we’re early. Remind me again why you can’t just bike over there?”

“Whatever,” Mike said, rolling his eyes. “The car is faster, and you’re probably going to use it again anyway. Let’s just go already.” He wasn’t wrong. Nancy was going to be heading out anyway.

"Try to be back in time for dinner?" their mother asked, knowing that if her kids decided to stay out late, there was nothing she could really do about it. Well, she could go look for them, but Nancy knew she wouldn't bother. "Don't worry Mom, I'll pick Mike up on my way home."

"Where you going?" Mike asked. "Let me guess. Family Video. You're there all the time now."

"Not all the time." Nancy argued. It just so happened that Steve and Robin worked there, so that's where they all hung out. Kevin didn't really care if Nancy and Eddie were around. Mike gave her a look, clearly disagreeing. "Just get in the car Michael."

Nancy grabbed the keys as Mike rushed out the door. They hopped in the car, although Mike practically fell into the car with his boundless energy, and started driving towards the Byers’ house. “What even were you cleaning anyway?” Mike asked nosily. “Your room is practically spotless all the time.”

Herbs, supplies, my spell book. Nancy thought.

“Just some clothes,” she replied. Mike once again gave her a look like he didn’t believe her but didn’t call her out. God, she couldn’t even imagine the world of trouble she’d be in if anyone found out she was practicing actual witchcraft in her bedroom.

"You should have just taken your bike," Nancy told him. "I'm betting you end up going back to the house to get it anyway. Did you guys even plan anything, or are we just showing up?" Mike opened his mouth to snap back but then was left with nothing to say. Nancy smiled.

"It-it doesn't matter." Mike settled on finally. Whatever. It was his fault if he ended up going back to the house. Like Nancy had said before, she was already heading out anyway. When they pulled up to the house, Mike excitedly got out of the car, followed closely behind by Nancy. “You’re coming in?” Mike complained when he saw her get out. “I thought you had places to be.”

“I want to say hi to everyone,” she said, “I know them too. Don’t worry, I won’t be long. You can have all your alone time with Will and El in a minute”. Mike grumbled something Nancy couldn’t pick up on, but he didn’t argue further. They approached the door, but it opened before they even had the chance to knock.

“Mike!” El exclaimed.

“Hey, Mike!” Will added, poking his head out from behind his sister.

“Guys!” Mike replied happily as they moved out of the way to let the Wheeler siblings inside. Nancy walked in behind her brother and smiled at the two kids. El and Will were the two of Mike's friends she saw the most, although with the Wheeler household being a popular place for the kids to crash, being second only to Steve's, she had seen her fare share of all the kids. Nancy quickly scanned the space she could see for any sign of Jonathan, but he was nowhere to be found.

Will noticed Nancy looking around. “Jonathan isn’t here right now,” he said, almost apologetically. That was fine. Nancy wasn’t really here to talk to Jonathan anyway. Don’t get her wrong, she loved talking to Jonathan, but he was always off doing something it seemed these days. He rarely hung out with everyone else. It might have had something to do with the strained end of his and Nancy's relationship. Scratch that. It absolutely had to do with that.

“He’s out with his friend Argyle,” El supplied. Okay, so Jonathan was probably out getting high. Good to know. Nancy didn’t really know much about Jonathan’s friend Argyle, either than they both smoked. Honestly, she didn’t even know where he came from. He kind of just… showed up one day.

“Nancy!”

Nancy turned to see the familiar sight of Joyce Byers. “Hey, Mrs. Byers,” Nancy replied.

“Just call me Joyce,” she insisted like she always did. “How is… everything?” ‘Everything’ was Joyce’s way of asking how Nancy was managing her magic.

“Fine,” Nancy replied.

When Nancy first started showing signs of magic, about a year ago, it kind of freaked her out. Things kept happening that she didn’t have an explanation for, and she’d almost hurt herself and family members multiple times (when the chandelier shatters during an argument with your brother, you should be concerned). The terrible stuff seemed to happen whenever Nancy's temper was set off, so she had been trying to not get upset. It worked for a bit, but Hawkins was full of assholes, so incidents kept happening.

Then one day, after dropping Mike off, Joyce pulled her aside. As it happened, Joyce was also a witch and sensed Nancy’s magic when she came to the door. Nancy was relieved. Maybe Joyce could tell her how all this stuff worked; maybe even help her get it under control, or at least manageable. Joyce explained that witchcraft was hereditary, and asked her about Karen, but her mom didn’t seem to have anything magical about her, so Nancy was, and still was, slightly confused.

Over the last couple months or so Joyce had been trying to help Nancy learn, but it was difficult when they had such different types of magic. Joyce’s magic was more practical, like fixing things or healing. Nancy’s was… more destructive. For example, she once put a hole straight through a tree trunk with some kind of projectile by accident.

“That’s good,” Joyce said. “I’m glad.”

So was Nancy. She’d finally made some progress with an old spell book of sorts she’d found in her attic. When she’d subtly asked her mother about it, Karen replied that it used to belong to Nancy’s grandmother, and although Karen didn’t understand anything inside, she’d kept it for sentimental value. Maybe Nancy's grandmother had had magic, and it had skipped a generation? Unfortunately, Grandma was not alive to ask, which left the only other witch Nancy knew to be Joyce.

Once, Nancy had asked if Joyce knew anyone else who could do magic. Joyce had answered that she was honestly surprised that Nancy could. Before that, she had thought that it was only the women in her family that knew witchcraft, but now she assumed there must be more. Likely not in Hawkins though, two was more than enough.

Thank god for that book though, seeing it had proven a lot more useful than Nancy and Joyce’s trial and error. Accidentally blowing something up in the woods behind your brother’s best friends’ house was not the best way to fly under the radar. Thankfully, either the Byers children had poor hearing, or they just didn’t seem fazed by large sounds in their backwoods. Slightly concerning, but Nancy didn’t question it. As well, the book had helped her manage to branch out and use a few simple spells that did not involve destroying anything. It was progress.

She was glad Joyce didn’t give up on her, but she could tell the woman was glad to not have to worry about Nancy destroying the natural ecosystem. “How about you?” she asked Joyce.

“Oh, I’m doing fine,” Joyce said. “I’ve been busy… but everything is good.” Nancy could tell Joyce was tired. Her aura, a soft yellow, wasn’t as vibrant as it would have been if Joyce was well rested. Nancy had just been practicing in her room, so hers, which Joyce had told her was a dark purple, should’ve been decently noticeable due to recent use. Nancy also hadn't had much to do this summer, due to an incident that may or may not have involved magic at the Hawkins Post last year that resulted in the loss of her internship and a couple of injuries to the higher ups.

Suddenly, there was crash somewhere in the house and Mike yelped. Nancy hoped whatever he knocked over, because Mike was one hundred percent the culprit with how much energy he had leaving the house today, wasn’t fragile.

“I should probably go make sure that wasn’t anything important,” Joyce sighed. Knowing her brother, Nancy could assume something was most definitely damaged if not broken.

“I’ll be back later to pick him up,” she said, “Is five o’clock, okay?” She decided to heed her mother's wishes to be home on time. She also didn't want to leave Holly by herself for too long.

“Of course,” Joyce replied, “And Jim can always drive him home when he gets back from work.” Although Nancy appreciated the offer, she knew Hopper wasn’t her brother’s biggest fan. It wasn’t her brother’s fault; Hopper was just protective of his kids.

“I’ll be back to pick you up later!” She shouted into the house, knowing Mike could hear her.

“You’re still here?!” He shouted back. His voice was up an octave, so there was definitely something broken. Nancy rolled her eyes before stepping out the door as Joyce headed towards what was likely a small disaster. She was sure Mike would live.

When Nancy arrived at Family Video, just as expected, all three other members of her group of four were there. Steve and Robin were behind the counter, and Eddie was sitting on the counter while Steve attempted to push him off, probably arguing that he wasn't allowed on there because he was technically a customer.

Robin was the first to notice her before she even got the door open. "Nance! Hey!" she said as Steve and Eddie's eyes flicked to the door. Using the distraction, Steve pushed Eddie off the counter, and he stumbled to the floor.

"Came to help me with these two idiots, Wheeler?" Eddie asked jokingly. Nancy laughed. If someone had told her four years ago that she'd be close with Eddie Munson of all people, she would have never believed them.

Honestly, the same could be said for all of her friends. Steve was always 'The King of Hawkins High', so he was untouchable. Everyone kind of assumed he was an asshole. But, a couple years later, he was one of the best guys Nancy knew. He was basically a mother of six to those kids, especially Dustin. Steve's loyalty knew no bounds. And Robin...

Well, she was Robin. Nancy's first impression of her was simply Steve's hyperactive... whatever the two of them were. But Robin was so much more than that. She was super smart, being fluent in multiple languages; she was kind, especially to the kids; and she was genuine. She didn't lie or change herself for other people like most people her age that Nancy knew. Robin was unapologetically herself, whether that entailed rambling about her interests or relentlessly teasing Steve, who she was practically attached to.

How the four of them started hanging out was a bit complicated. It all started years ago when Nancy met, like really met, Steve when they were helping Jonathan look for his brother in the woods. A couple years ago, Will got lost out in the woods for a few days. No one is really sure what happened, Will didn't talk about it, but that's when Nancy kind of got to know Steve. The kind Steve who wanted to help find the lost boy. They didn't start hanging out after that, but they would occasionally talk at school.

When they started to get close was after the death of Nancy's best friend Barb. Everyone said it was a freak accident, some kind of animal attack in the woods, but Nancy didn't believe that. She'd tried to investigate, to find something to prove she wasn't crazy, but they never found Barb's body. They didn't even know if she was truly dead, but no one thought she was alive. There was too much evidence, too much blood, at the scene to suggest otherwise. For some reason, Nancy didn't know why, Steve reached out. He went out of his way to make sure Nancy was okay, even though she never truly was. She still didn't know why he had done that, but she was thankful for it none the less. She didn't really have any friends besides Barb. At the time, she didn't know Jonathan well enough to classify him as a friend, despite technically knowing him through Mike and Will's connection. They'd even been together for a bit, but it didn't work out. Thankfully, it didn't crash and burn, and they'd stayed friends.

It was through Steve she had met Robin. With Robin, Steve had met her through their first job together at the ice cream shop in Starcourt Mall before it burned down last summer. Steve just started bringing her around, and Nancy didn't feel right arguing. Turns out, Robin and her get along great, which was good because Nancy really needed another friend either than Jonathan and her ex. Soon the three of them, with the occasional Jonathan since he had yet to discover weed and they're relationship was still... existent, that hung around each other. This was also the same summer Nancy's magic started getting problematic, which resulted in her losing both her and Jonathan's internships at the Hawkins Post. Just one of the many things Nancy regretted.

With Eddie, it seemed like he and Steve knew of each other for a while, which was weird, but Eddie never really hung out with the rest of them. Once the kids hit high school and Eddie became their Dungeon Master for D&D, he started popping up more. Nancy got to know him from when she would randomly discover that Mike and the others had invited him over and they were all in the basement. Oddly enough, she an Eddie formed some kind of odd friendship that looked like it shouldn't work, but it did. Eddie became the 'Steve' to her 'Robin' for lack of better term. He was the one who'd fully support things like taking her father's gun out to the woods to learn how to shoot, which they'd actually done before. Nancy was a good shot with the gun, surprisingly, and once she got the hang of that, her skills could roughly translate into aiming magical projectiles. Those, unfortunately, were much more difficult than aiming a gun, so she'd rather stick to that if she needed to defend herself.

One day, she invited Eddie to hang out with Steve and Robin. He seemed reluctant to go, but did end up coming in the end. Weirdly, him and Steve were kind of awkward around each other which left Nancy and Robin to be confused and watching... whatever was going on between the two of them. They seemed to have worked it out though, because by the second time they all got together, about a week later, the two were fine. Nancy had originally wanted to talk to Robin about it but never found a good time and eventually felt it didn't matter.

Now the four of them were thick as thieves.

"I'm sure you can handle two idiots on your own, Munson," Nancy replied with a smile.

"You'd be surprised," he continued. "If they work together, they become quite the force to be reckoned with."

"Hell yeah we are!" Steve exclaimed, holding a hand for Robin to high five.

"You just spent ten whole minutes trying to Eddie off the counter," she pointed out as she gave him the high five, "All of which could have ended much sooner if you had asked for help, but noooo. Steve's strong enough to push little Eddie off the counter by himself. Clearly you need me."

Steve pulled his hand back to his chest with a dramatic gasp. "Of course I need you Rob! If you weren't here, I'd be left at the mercy of them."

"Do we scare you, Steve?" Nancy said with a smile, hopping up onto the counter to sit herself. Notably, she was not pushed off.

"Nancy, I think everyone is a little scared of you," he replied. Eddie chuckled.

"Yeah, Wheeler. I've seen you with a gun. I'd be stupid not to be at least a little intimidated."

"You've seen Nancy with a gun!?" Robin exclaimed.

"Here we go..." Nancy said.

"That doesn't sound safe," Steve said at the same time Robin shouted, "Why haven't I seen Nancy with a gun!?"

"It's fine," Nancy waved off Steve. "I was careful, oh great mother of six." Steve went to argue, only for her to hold up a hand. "Don't even try to argue with me on that one. You know just as well as everyone else here does that you basically adopted the kids."

Robin laughed. "Yeah, Mama Steve. You'd probably kill for those kids."

"I would," Steve said, suddenly serious. He'd frozen, eerily still.

"Okay, so, Stevie," Eddie said quickly, smacking him on the arm and snapping him out of whatever just happened, "I was wondering if I could host a campaign over at your house some time? I know the kids like it there and I'm sure Wheeler is tired of me crashing at hers..." He continued talking to Steve and Nancy glanced over at Robin.

That was weird. Right? she mouthed. Robin returned it with a shrug and grimace that roughly translated to What can you do?. Nancy returned her attention to the conversation, but something didn't sit right with her. She'd have to look into it later.

Chapter Text

“You’re screwed Mike,” Will said to his friend, who had accidentally knocked over Jonathan’s camera from where someone had put it on the table in the living room. The device was face down, so they couldn't see if the most important part, the lens, was damaged. None of the three teens had gone over to look at it, afraid of the outcome.

“If it’s broken,” El said, “Jonathan is not going to be happy.” That was an understatement. Jonathan's camera was like Will's art supplies. It was their lifelines. The things that kept them sane.

“Yeah, no shit,” squeaked Will’s idiot friend. Mike Wheeler, apparently a ball of energy this morning, hadn’t moved a muscle since knocking into the camera, as if his movement would trigger further damage to it. That wasn't likely, but it was better safe than sorry.

Will’s mom entered the room from where she'd been talking to Nancy, quietly in the kitchen, just out of earshot, and saw the camera on the floor, quickly figuring out what had happened. Without a word she scooped up the camera to inspect it. Will’s heart skipped a beat; he could have sworn the lens was cracked.

His mom studied the camera. She ran her thumb over the lens a couple times and muttered to herself and then checked the rest of the camera for damage. “It’s okay,” she declared. Will’s eyes narrowed when she turned the camera around to face them. The lens was fine, but he could have sworn…

“Oh thank god,” Mike gasped, interrupting Will's thought process, as he collapsed onto the floor. “Jonathan would’ve killed me.” He probably wouldn’t have killed Mike, but he might’ve chewed Mike out about it; Will too probably. Maybe have made Mike pay for repairs or something.

“Oh, I’m sure he would've been fine,” Joyce said.

Possibly would have set something on fire. Will’s thoughts continued. Although, neither he nor Jonathan had done that in a while, so maybe they were in the clear.

“Please try to be more careful,” Will’s mom implored them. She took the camera with her when she left, as was smart, and went to most likely return it to Jonathan’s room.

“So,” Mike continued, “Did you guys make any plans? Because I didn't. Nancy kind of bullied me about it in the car.” Translation: Mike didn't have a plan, and Nancy called him out about it.

“We could go meet up with the rest of the party,” Will suggested, “I’m sure they aren’t doing much.” It was noon on a weekend in the middle of summer. Will was sure at least one of their missing members, choosing from either Lucas, Dustin, or Max, would be available. Dustin had recently gotten back from camp after all, so it would be good to spend time together.

“I’m sure Max is free!” El said, eyes lighting up. She pretty much took any excuse to hang out with her best friend.

Mike shrugged. “Yeah, Dustin and Lucas probably aren’t doing much either. Worst case scenario, Dustin is talking with Suzie," Suzie was Dustin's girlfriend from camp, who not everyone was fully sure existed when he first mentioned her last year. Every time they tried to talk with her, something went wrong. Finally, after he went back to camp again this year, they'd been able to talk to Suzie over the new and improved radio, at a specified and agreed time. "or Lucas has to watch Erica or something." Which wasn’t saying much, since Erica could probably take care of herself better than Lucas ever could. “I just have to be back before Nancy comes to pick me up.”

“We’ll drop by your house to grab your bike,” Will said standing up. He flushed slightly as he continued, “You can share with me on the way over.”

Mike groaned but thankfully not at Will's offer. "Nancy's never going to let this go. She told me we'd end up grabbing my bike anyway. Whatever. We'll ride by Family Video on our way to wherever and tell her I don't need a ride."

“How do you know Nancy will be at Family Video?” El asked.

He shrugged. “Told me earlier. She’s likely gone to see Steve and Robin. Eddie’s probably there too.” That made sense. Those four had gotten pretty close recently, occasionally with Jonathan joining too.

The three of them went into the garage to grab the bikes. Before they left, Will shouted inside to tell his mom where they were going. He didn’t want her to be worried. Will going anywhere without his mom knowing would always make her very anxious, ever since he got lost in the forest a couple of years ago. Will shivered. He did not need to be reminded of that.

“Okay, be back before dinner,” she replied. “It’ll probably be ready around six.” Mike would be home by then, since Nancy had said five o'clock, so that was a good time frame.

“Okay, Mom!” Will said with a smile. He ran back into the garage and hoped on his bike, El already inching out onto the driveway. Mike hopped onto the back of Will’s bike, pressing his body to the other boy’s to fit on the seat. Will felt his face flush and hands heat up.

Not right now dammit. You’re going to melt the handlebars.

“Let’s go!” El shouted back at two boys. She’d already turned onto the road.

Will kicked off and started peddling, the bike wobbling with the extra weight. “Try to stay as balanced as possible,” Will advised Mike nervously. He could practically hear Mike roll his eyes.

“I know, I know, Will,” he said. “Don’t worry. Geez you’re warm.” Will’s body always ran hot, which probably had something to do with the fact he could light fires out of thin air.

Pyrokinesis. He remembered Jonathan explaining to him after an incident when thankfully no one had been home. They both had it and assumed they must have gotten it from their dad’s side. It was hard to be sure though because they couldn’t just go up to their mom and ask, “Hey mom, did dad ever start fires from nothing?”. That obviously wouldn’t make a lot of sense and then they’d have a lot of explaining to do.

Unfortunately for Jonathan and Will, no matter their attempts, it was very difficult to control. Fires could start just from getting upset or, in Will’s case, being flustered by one Mike Wheeler. They had been able to wrangle their abilities, Jonathan having more control right now due to simply being older, but there was always the fear of slipping and accidentally getting someone hurt. Any intense emotion could set it off, but there were lots of warning signs, so Will could usually calm himself down before something was set alight.

“Okay,” Mike said as they approached his house. They skidded to a stop, and he hopped off Will’s bike and ran into the garage to grab his own. “Let’s go to Lucas’ first.” If they were starting with Lucas, they’d get Dustin next before finishing off with Max.

They rode their bikes down to his house, stopping out front. “Lucas!” Mike shouted. There was no answer. “Ugh, I’ll just…” Mike dropped his bike and ran up to the house, banging on the door. Erica opened it. She glared at Mike.

“Lucas!” She shouted back into her house. “Your friends are here!”. She tapped her foot impatiently while Lucas could be heard running to the door.

“What are you guys doing?” Lucas asked as Erica disappeared into the house once more. He looked through the doorway, past Mike, to see Will and El still on their bikes at the edge of the road.

“How did you not hear us? Also, we’re getting everyone and then probably going to the arcade or something,” Mike said. “You free?” Will could sense his sister getting restless as he heard El's foot tap against the pavement. He assumed she wanted them to hurry up so she could go see Max. The thought made him smile.

“Yeah, sure,” Lucas said. “We don’t have anything going on. Let me grab my bike.” Lucas disappeared into the house, closing the door, only to reappear as his garage slid open. "And why would I be able to hear you from all the way inside?" Mike ran back to his bike, picking it up out of the grass. Lucas joined the others, and they sped off towards Dustin's house.

Mike shot a glance over at Lucas. "How the hell are you wearing a sweater in this heat?" Lucas looked down at himself quickly. He was wearing a long-sleeved red sweater. He shrugged at Mike.

"It's not that hot." Mike just shook his head as they continued riding.

El slowed down slightly to line up her bike with Will's. The other two boys pulled ahead. "I didn't bring any quarters for the arcade," she said to Will. "Did you?"

"Not a ton," Will said. "Just the spares in my pocket. I'm sure I can give some to you."

"Only if you have enough," his sister replied, "although I'm sure Mike would be happy to give you some." She giggled and pulled ahead of him.

What was that supposed to mean?

The group pulled up in front of Dustin's house. "Dustin?" Will called out this time. The response was quick, with Dustin's head poking out the door within a few seconds.

"See?" Mike said, turning to Lucas. "How did you not hear us from outside?"

"I don't know!" Lucas said defensively. "Maybe Dustin just has weird hearing?" Mike gave him a what the hell look before Dustin chimed in.

"What are you guys doing?"

"Not sure yet," Mike replied. "Maybe the arcade. Wanna come?"

"Sure!" Dustin replied. "Lemme grab some quarters." Dustin disappeared inside for a minute before reappearing with a rather large bag. About the size of his fist. Will's eyes widened.

"Dude!" Lucas cried. "Where did you get all that?" Dustin shrugged.

"Just been saving up for a while I guess. Let's try not to spend it all? I'll share!"

"We're definitely going to the arcade now!" Mike said with a grin. Will laughed.

"I didn't think we had another plan." he said.

Mike paused. "That's true. Whatever. We know we can at least play more than a couple games now."

"So we go to Max's, then Family Video," El counted out, "and then the arcade?"

"Family Video?" Lucas asked.

"Got to tell Nancy she doesn't have to pick me up. Ugh. She's going to say, 'I told you so' when I show up on my bike." Mike grumbled.

"I can say hi to Steve!" Dustin said happily.

"Checking in with your mom?" Lucas chuckled.

"Uh, our mom Sinclair. Don't act like you know it isn't true."

"Come on, guys," Will interrupted. "Let's get a move on." The longer they spent picking everyone up, the less time they would have to all hang out together.

"Yeah," Mike agreed, "we're wasting time." He pushed off and began pedaling away, the rest of the group following suit.

When they all finally arrived at Max's house, she was already outside, skateboard in hand. It was all most like she knew they were coming.

"Hey, El. Hey, guys," Max greeted, hopping onto her skateboard and rolling down towards her best friend.

"She gets a greeting, and we're just 'guys'?" Lucas said. Max shrugged and El laughed.

"How did you-" Mike began.

"I heard you. You guys are stupid loud; you know that right?" Max said, smiling. Will frowned. They weren't that loud, were they? He didn't think so. Dustin did hear them when they went to pick him up, but Lucas didn't. Weird.

"Are you going to be okay on your skateboard?" Will asked. "We're all on bikes."

Max scoffed. "Don't worry. I can keep up." It was true. Max kept pace with them the whole way to Family Video, the road flying underneath her. She should've probably been wearing a helmet or something. When Mike hopped off his bike to pop inside, Dustin and Lucas did as well. Will, El, and Max shared a glance before deciding to dismount and head inside themselves. As soon as they walked inside all four of the older teens' attention snapped to the doors.

"Henderson!" Steve and Eddie exclaimed at the same time. Robin burst out laughing.

"Look, Steve," she chuckled, "your kids are here."

"Hey!" Dustin responded excitedly as he ran up to them, sharing some kind of odd handshake of sorts with Steve. After greeting his 'son' Eddie turned to Will.

"Hey, Mini-Byers," he said, "what's up?"

Will shrugged. "Nothing much." Will, in his opinion, got along best with Eddie. They both shared a love for D&D, and while Eddie was a very experienced Dungeon Master, he would consult Will with setting up campaigns and even let him DM sometimes. It meant a lot to Will to be able to have someone like that. His friends of course loved D&D, but Will always struggled as they all got older to bring everyone together when he wanted to play. They always seemed to have other stuff to do. But, with Eddie's help, it seemed that his friends were really getting back into it.

"Mike," Nancy sighed, looking disappointedly at her brother.

"I know, I know," Mike groaned, "I went back and grabbed my bike and 'you told me so'. I came to tell you don't have to pick me up. We're going to the arcade and I can ride home."

Nancy smiled. "Well, thank you for telling me instead of taking off. Make sure you're-"

"-home for dinner. Yeah, I know," Mike finished. "Come on, guys." He grabbed Will's arm, whether he thought it through or not, and dragged him outside. Will blushed, and glancing over his shoulder he saw Max give him a look. He quickly whipped his head back around and grabbed his bike.

"To the arcade!" Dustin proclaimed dramatically, clutching his bag of quarters.

"Where did you get all those-" Max began.

"We have no idea," Lucas interrupted. "We're kinda just going with it." They continued on.

"I like this," Will said, mostly to himself as they rode.

"Like what?" Mike, being the only person close enough to hear, asked.

"Us," Will continued, "all being together. It's nice." Will looked over at Mike, who was looking slightly confused. He turned back to the road and explained, "When we all hang out together, I'm probably the happiest I've ever been."

"We hang out together all the time," Mike stated, still not really getting it. Will shook his head.

"I just... like making memories."

Mike stared at him silently before Will looked away. It was hard to explain. The fear of being left alone, autophobia it was called, though he didn't think his fear was that intense. It was from his time in the woods. It scarred him and his family pretty badly, and he didn't like to talk about it. The fear of his friends leaving came mostly from how he got lost in the first place, trying to bike home alone in the dark after their campaign; Dustin and Lucas having already gotten home. He thought there was a small shortcut through the woods that would get him home and safe faster, but he somehow messed it up and was stuck, injured from a fall, in the middle of nowhere.

That was actually how he met El. He didn't know how she ended up there that night. She had never told anyone. Whatever happened, she'd stumbled across him late in the night, yellow rain jacket barely keeping the downpour off of her small frame. She found him under an overhang with a broken ankle he couldn't walk on, trying to get out of the rain. He tried to speak to her, but she wouldn't respond. He learned later it was because she didn't speak much English at all.

For some reason, she decided to stay. She tried to share what little of her coat she had with him, and that's how the two of them were finally found by none other than Mike. The rest was history.

That's why being together with everyone meant so much. As long as he wasn't alone, he wasn't afraid. His fire... complicated things to say least, since he pretty much needed to be alone when it flared, but he had Jonathan for that, so it was enough.

"Okay," Mike replied, drawing back Will's attention. "I like making memories too." He smiled brightly at Will. He didn't get it, Will could tell, but at least he was trying.

They pulled up to the arcade and locked up their bikes before heading inside. Max insisted that if anyone tried to steal her skateboard, she'd know, when Lucas and Dustin tried to somehow lock it up with the bikes awkwardly. They went inside, and after Dustin gave everyone a couple of his quarters, waving off any arguments, they agreed to split off into small groups of two: El and Max, Lucas and Dustin, and Will and Mike.

While the other two groups heading in the same direction, likely to watch Max and Dustin fight aimlessly over the Dig Dug high score, Mike and Will went deeper into the arcade. They each tried a couple of games before Will ended up in front of Centipede.

"Oh! I know this one," Mike said. Will did too, but he'd never actually played. "The centipede moves down the screen and you have to shoot it. If you shoot in the middle, it splits in two. If it hits one of those mushroom things, it bounces off and goes a different way." Mike looked away from the game and at Will. "And if you hit the head, it gets smaller. There's some other stuff to look out for too but they're not too bad."

"Okay," Will said, "I've got a couple of quarters left. What about you?"

"None," Mike replied. "I spent a ton on Dragon's Lair."

"Want to have a go at it?"

"Nah. I'll watch you."

"Okay," Will accepted before turning to the game. He inserted the quarter and put his hands on the trackball and button. He tested it by rolling it around a bit. He hadn't seen a ton of controls that looked like this, most usually having a joystick, but it didn't seem too difficult. The game booted up and Will managed to get a little bit into the game until the amount of things on screen simply overwhelmed him.

"One more try!" Mike exclaimed when Will stepped back in defeat. "Come on! We'll do it together." Mike squished right next to Will so he could grab the trackball.

"Mike," Will said, flushing at the very close contact, "We can't both control the game. It wouldn't work."

"Umm..." Mike faltered, "I point, you shoot?"

Will shrugged, but Mike apparently took that as a yes, pulling him in a little and putting Will's hand on the button. "Let's do this."

They started the game and although all Will theoretically had to do was push the button to shoot, he also has to struggle to keep his temperature down. He was so close to Mike, for no reason either than Mike had pulled him there and Will hadn't moved. Mike didn't seem concerned, being completely focused on the game with the occasional, "Shoot him!" thrown in the mix. So Will tried to put his focus completely on the game in an attempt to not like accidentally light Mike on fire.

Why do I do this to myself?

------

Max stepped back from Dig Dug, triumphant at beating Dustin again.

"It's getting ridiculous at this point," Dustin sighed.

Max shrugged. "You have gotten better than you were before camp somehow, I'll give you that, but you still can't beat me."

"Let's go try something else," Lucas said, "Come on, Dustin."

The two walked away and Max turned to El. But before she could say anything, she noticed an interesting sight behind her.

"Well, look what we have here," she said smugly, gesturing behind El. She turned around to see what Max was pointing out, which was Will and Mike hunched over Centipede.

"I don't know how Will can stand there like that," El sighed.

"I don't know how Wheeler is too stupid to realize what goes on between the two of them," Max scoffed. "Come on. I've spent enough of Dustin's money on Dig Dug. Let's find something for you to play."

Chapter Text

"See you tomorrow, Rob?" Steve said when he dropped Robin off at her house.

"I better," she responded, "You're driving. If you don't show up, I'd have to walk. Do you know how far Family Video is from here on foot? I don't, and I don't want to."

"You need to get a license." Steve sighed. "I can't drive you everywhere forever."

"Why not?" Robin laughed, "but even if I did, it's not like I have a car, and that's not bound to change anytime soon." She shrugged. "I'll just catch a ride for now. I know you don't mind, or you would have told me, right?"

"Of course I don't mind," he replied. They were going to the same place anyway; it didn't matter to him. Hell, Eddie rode with them sometimes and he didn't even work there.

"Okay," Robin said with a smile, "see you tomorrow!" She ran up to her house and nearly tripped on the first step before confirming she was fine and disappearing through the door. Steve sighed, when she walked inside unharmed. Robin was probably the only person he knew who could trip on air and somehow hadn't seriously gotten hurt yet.

He started the car again and drove off towards his house. He swallowed painfully as he drove, since he hadn't eaten in a couple of days, but he had to get the car home first.

He pulled into the driveway of his empty house and parked the car. Getting out, he unlocked the door and entered to find Eddie in his house. Of course.

"How did you get in this time?" Steve said, "You better not have broken anything." Last time Eddie decided to let himself in, he'd 'accidentally' broken Steve's mother's vase when he came through a window and fell onto the table beside it.

"Don't worry Harrington," he said with a smirk, "you left a window open. Second floor."

"Seriously? Second floor? Someone could have seen you."

"It's at the back of your house! No one was looking. What would they do anyway? They certainly can't catch me."

"We're not invincible Eddie," Steve reprimanded as he stepped further into the house. He'd never forget that, not after the fire.

"We're pretty darn close," Eddie argued as he followed Steve's movement, walking backwards to remain facing him. "And you know I'm careful. You just have mom instincts."

Steve groaned. "I'm never living that down, am I?"

"Dustin said, 'Mom' and you responded, Steve,"

"That was a long time ago! And don't you act like you don't treat Dustin like your kid too."

Eddie chuckled. "Just hurry up and change so we can go. I'm starving."

"You could go hunt yourself," Steve said as he went upstairs. "We did it loads of times before we teamed up."

"It's easier with two people," Eddie countered. A weak counter, seeing as the two of them were both strong enough alone to take down a bear, but Steve knew the real reason Eddie wanted to stick together. It was the same reason for him.

Being a vampire is lonely.

Eddie was the only the person Steve could be around that he didn't want to kill every second. Although he highly doubted either of them would attack Nancy, Robin, or any of the kids, it was still a danger they had to think about. It was hard. Steve went from the most popular kid in school, to only having Nancy and Robin for the single reason of not being able to trust himself around other people. Hell, his struggles were one of the many reasons he and Nance didn't stay together, not that he told her that of course.

Eddie understood though. He was in the same boat. His social life wasn't as ruined, he still had his band and ran Hellfire, but the same issues presented itself: the need for blood.

"Anything interesting out there?" he asked Eddie after changing into black clothes that wouldn't stain.

"Herd of deer," Eddie listed off, "pack of coyotes passed through, but I think they're gone; couple bobcats; and I thought I smelt black bear, but I could be wrong."

One of the few perks of their... situation was that they're senses were supercharged. Well, the three senses that were actually useful for hunting: hearing, sight, and smell. They also became super strong and fast, which was how Eddie was able to routinely find ways of breaking into Steve's house, like jumping up to an open second floor window for example.

"Deer are probably best," Steve replied. "They're pretty easy, decently big, and we can grab more than one if we want."

"One each will probably be fine," Eddie assured him, "it's only been, like, three days."

"Whatever, let's go before the sun sets completely. I'd like to not get home too late."

Thankfully, not all vampire stereotypes were correct. Pop culture, as it turns out, was wrong about a lot of things. For example, sunlight. Steve could go out in the sun as much as he wanted, except he did now burn pretty easily. A load of sunscreen and keeping in the shade during really bright days solved the problem just fine. Robin made fun of him the one time they went to the beach because he looked as white as a ghost covered in the sunscreen. Somehow, he still burnt that day.

Another stereotype that didn't work was whole reflections, shadows, and photographs thing. Steve still showed up in photos and had both a reflection and shadow. If he didn't, someone would have probably figured out something was wrong a long time ago. Nancy probably. She noticed everything.

Steve and Eddie stepped out the back door, and Eddie took off at an inhuman speed.

"Catch me if you can, Harrington!"

"Eddie!" Steve exclaimed before racing after him. The ground flew by beneath his feet, his instincts barely keeping him from crashing into trees. He could tell Eddie wasn't trying to hard, since he would normally be faster, because he was gaining ground slowly. He could hear Eddie cackling ahead of him, so Steve pushed his speed faster until he managed to catch up and tackle Eddie to the ground. They both skidded forward a bit from the speed.

"Holy shit," Eddie coughed, flipping onto his back to face Steve, "don't do that. Knocked the wind right out of me." That's when Steve realized he was on top of Eddie.

"Shit, sorry," he stammered, backing off. Eddie laughed before standing up and brushing himself off.

"It's fine, Steve," Eddie said, "You got anything?"

Steve closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

"That way," he said after a couple seconds, pointing what he thought was north-west. The two took off again and came across a rather small herd of deer. They were grazing in a small clearing, the sun setting behind them through the trees. It was... peaceful.

"I hate this," Steve admitted, as he often did when they were out.

"I know, me to," Eddie comforted, "but it's either this, or someone gets hurt."

That was true. The longer they went without eating, the harder it was not to snap and for an accident to happen. Eddie told him a story about a couple years ago, before they started hunting together and they had just turned, that he'd tried to not eat anything and made it a week before nearly killing his uncle when he cut himself making dinner. His uncle didn't push for why Eddie lashed out thankfully, but it was scary nonetheless.

"Do you ever wish we hadn't been there?"

Eddie turned to Steve, surprised at the question. They didn't really talk about what happened that night. The night they were cursed and scarred forever. Steve wished he could forget it, but that was impossible.

"Every day, Harrington," he responded. "Every day."

The two sat in perfect silence for a bit as the sun finally dipped under the horizon, a full moon shining brightly in the darkness.

"Well," Eddie said, "Let's get going." He began to advance quietly towards the herd, the long grass making a barely audible rustle beneath his feet.

Steve alternatively traced the tree line, trying to get on the opposite side of the clearing away from Eddie. When Eddie took down one of the bucks, that being the most likely choice due to a current abundance of them, the rest of the herd would be scared in Steve's direction. Steve suddenly stopped at a thought.

I feel like an animal

Sure, he'd been doing this since 1983, but he hadn't really put it together like that until now. Whatever, he needed to just get it together already. Eddie wasn't still freaking out about this, so why should he?

Suddenly one of the huge stags cried out and a dark blur tackled it to the ground, because of course Eddie picked the one thing that could probably give him a good beating. The rest of the herd startled and ran directly towards Steve, not knowing he was there. He waited until they hit the edge of the clearing before bolting out and grabbing the nearest target, a younger buck, and quickly dispatching it as the rest of deer disappeared into the trees.

"I'm sorry," he said quietly for biting into it. When he was finished, he felt satisfied, but not fully satiated. This was the price of animal blood. It was barely enough. He left the carcass on the ground. Some animal would find it and get a better meal than he did.

"You have blood all over your face, Munson" Steve deadpanned after he walked over to Eddie.

"Not all of us can be such dainty eaters, Stevie," Eddie said before Steve grabbed his face and tried to wipe it off with his sleeve. Eddie squirmed under his grip. "Let me go!"

"There," Steve said, "Now you don't look like you just came back from murdering someone."

"Murderers don't get blood on their faces Steve. That would be weird."

"Exactly. So what would you look like?"

"A vampire," Eddie said with a smirk, fangs showing, "because that's what I am. I could have wiped it off myself you know..."

"Well-" Steve was cut off by a bone chilling howl followed by a gunshot. Both of them stood, frozen in place. Steve turned to the general direction of the gunshot, but nothing appeared through the trees. Whatever it was, it wasn't here.

"What...was that?" Eddie whispered.

"I don't know," Steve faltered, "but-"

"No, Steve. Absolutely not," Eddie interrupted, predicting his thoughts. "We are not going towards the scary gunshots and wolves."

"Wolf," Steve corrected. "It was only one. What if it's in trouble?"

"Why are you such a good samaritan?" Eddie hissed.

"Come on," Steve ignored him. Eddie growled as Steve took off, but ended up following him. As they ran, the wolf yelped again in response to a second gunshot, but this time they were close enough to hear the angry voices of people. The two vampires slowed as they reached a section of the forest where a bunch of people stood just through a couple trees.

Eddie grabbed Steve's attention and pointed upwards. Smart. Nobody ever looks up. They climbed a tree and got as close as they dared to an odd scene before them.

There were a bunch of armed military-looking people with a few, presumably, scientists in white coats standing around a wounded and panting wolf. They had guns trained on it, but one of the scientists was yelling not to fire.

The wolf was unlike anything Steve had ever seen. It was enormous, it's back coming almost up to where his shoulders would be. Its fur was light brown, almost blonde-ish. Could wolves even be that color? It's eyes almost glowed in the darkened forest, being a brilliant gold.

"Holy shit, what the fuck is that?" Eddie whispered.

"I have no idea," Steve replied quietly, "but even better question, who are they?"

They continued to observe, not entirely sure of what to do for now.

"We only have so much silver," growled one of the scientists, "and Brenner needs the wolf alive."

"Why?" argued one of the soldiers. "It's a werewolf. It's dangerous until it's dead."

"Have you considered that maybe learning about the werewolf could help us catch other werewolves?" the scientist shot back.

"And that worked so well last time," the soldier countered.

Another scientist sighed. "That was an unfortunate accident. We've improved so much since that happened that it could never happen again."

The group continued to talk, but Steve shifted focus to Eddie.

"Did you hear all that? A werewolf."

"It's not the most outlandish thing," Eddie admitted. " I mean, vampires exist. Why not werewolves?"

Steve looked back towards the scene. The werewolf was obviously in pain, and whatever the scientists wanted to do with it certain wasn't going to be much better. That left one option.

"I say we help it."

"What?" Eddie hissed. "There are guys with guns, Harrington."

"I don't see any flamethrowers, so it's fine. We go in, knock them out, let the wolf go, and get out of there. No killing."

"Ugh, fine," Eddie said. "If you die somehow, I'm giving you a shitty headstone."

The two leaped from the top of the tree, Steve landing directly on top of one of the soldiers. He punched him hard in the face, but not hard enough to cave his skull in. Eddie grappled a gun from another soldier and slammed it into his head. The soldiers started firing, to no avail, as the scientists fled. A stray bullet or two must have hit the werewolf, because it yelped in pain again before lunging at a solider, distracting him long enough for Steve to knock him out. The two vampires cleaned up the rest of the soldiers quickly, leaving the unconscious bodies strewn across the forest floor.

"Fuck," Eddie cursed, "I liked this shirt." It was riddled with bullet holes, but Eddie was unharmed.

Steve turned towards the giant wolf next to them and held up his hands.

"We're not here to hurt you. I swear."

The wolf's eyes narrowed, before seemingly coming to a realization and they widened in surprise. The wolf sat back with a huff. The gold bled from its irises leaving a bright blue.

Steve paused. Something was...off. "Who are you?"

The wolf huffed in clear annoyance and gave him what was probably a look of Are you serious right now?

As Steve stared silently at the massive beast, a realization came upon him. He knew those eyes.

"Robin?"

Chapter Text

"Okay," Robin said with a smile, "see you tomorrow!" She ran up her front steps and nearly tripped, wobbling to keep upright. She quickly turned around to throw a thumbs up to an unimpressed Steve before heading inside. Taking off her shoes at front door, Robin yelled out into the house of her arrival, but there was no answer.

Guess they're not home.

Did she know where her parents were right now? No. Would they be home tonight? Yeah. So it didn't matter that much. Anyway, she had stuff to do tonight, so it was not on the top of Robin's theorical list of priorities, which she totally would have if she wasn't just making stuff up half the time.

She changed into some comfortable clothes, but cheap enough that it wouldn't be that big of a deal if they got ripped. She didn't want to ruin clothes, but she also needed to be decent beforehand, middle of the forest or no. So, the solution was cheap clothes because Robin was not ruining that jacket because she was nearly mauled to death by a big ass wolf three years ago and now is said big ass wolf.

Well, she was pretty sure that wolf was bigger than hers, but it's not like the thing was around to compare. Not that she'd want it to be, because one near death experience and curse was enough for a lifetime.

Robin quicky checked out the window. The sun was just beginning to sink under the horizon. Perfect. She needed to get out of here before the moon rose and preferably shift beforehand so she wasn't forced into it.

That was one of the weird things about being a werewolf. You could shift into your wolf any time you wanted, but you were forced to under a full moon. I mean, at least it was semi-controllable, unlike most movies. Robin originally watched a bunch of movies to learn about werewolf stuff, but most of it was wrong. There were some things it got right though, like silver. That stuff burned. She'd had to start using plastic utensils instead of the silverware in the house, but her parents didn't question it. At this point, they assumed Robin did stuff they wouldn't understand, which was great for keeping the whole becoming-a-murderous-beast thing a secret.

The best part of being a werewolf was the enhanced strength and senses. Robin could hear a lot of stuff, which kind of sucked sometimes if she was in a really crowded area, but she tried to tune it out. Better was the strength, which was super useful once she stopped breaking things by accident.

Robin left the house and walked a bit into the forest. She checked a bag she had out there, a waterproof bag with a handful of clothes in it for after, and continued onward. She could feel herself getting restless as she walked deeper and deeper into the woods. The light had begun to fade, casting shade throughout the undergrowth, which caused Robin to almost trip. Twice.

You'd think being a supernatural creature I'd have better coordination.

Suddenly, she doubled over like she was punched in the chest, coughing as a rib cracked.

Shit. It's early.

The worst part about being a werewolf was that your body didn't just magically change or whatever; it actually had to reform. Let's just say the breaking and reforming of almost all of Robin's bones kind of hurt.

First it was her arms and legs, getting longer, larger, and shifting to a quadrupedal shape. Her jaw grew bigger, growing more and larger teeth; her ribs expanded to an enormous size; and there was fur everywhere. Her hearing sharpened even more than it had been, and her eyes adjusted to the low light. Suddenly, she was just a really sore wolf, no longer human.

Well she still kind of felt human. Her brain didn't change, at least not unless she was in danger and became more wolf than person, but that was only temporary even if it did happen.

Robin tested out her legs, making sure everything was still working correctly, which it was. She'd be stuck until sunrise, so having a leg not work would suck. With everything in tip top shape, she pushed the now tattered pieces of cloth off to the side and took off into the woods. Being a wolf was much more coordinated than being human. Who knew walking on two legs would be harder than four?

As she was running, she picked up on an odd scent North of her, in the direction of the old Hawkins Laboratory the Department of Energy used to use. It smelt like exhaust from a bunch of cars, but no one had been out that way since it got shut down in 1983. Curious, she shifted her path towards the mystery.

Reaching the lab in no time, she crouched in the bushes along the tree line and watched the crazy sight: military trucks and white vans filling the parking lot. A group of soldier-looking people with a couple of science-y people stood close to her, at the edge of the parking lot.

"What are we even looking for?" one of the soldiers grumbled, "There hasn't been any SN's here since they all got out in '83"

"There's been an influx of energy signatures in the area in the last couple of years," a scientist replied. "We thought it was just left over from the accident, but it didn't disperse. Either there's an extremely dangerous SN here, which could only be one person and that isn't possible, or there's an abundance of supernatural activity in the area."

Abundance? Robin hasn't seen any other werewolves around here.

"Well is there anything specific we're looking at?" a gruff soldier, probably the toughest, asked.

"We could be dealing with anything," another scientist admitted. "The energy seems mixed."

Okay, what were these guys even talking about? Energy? This was confusing. It was only when the soldiers started building and loading their guns that Robin realized something.

They're hunting supernatural creatures.

"Hey," one of the scientists said. "I'm picking something up."

Robin froze. The group looked around and Robin knew if she moved she'd be spotted immediately. She didn't know how, but one of the soldiers, the gruff leader looking one, looked in her direction and his eyes lit up.

"There!" he cried, somehow spotting the wolf in the bushes. He whipped his gun up and shot as Robin turned and fled.

Shit! Silver!

She bounded through the woods as she heard ATV's rev behind her. How did they get on vehicles that fast? If Robin hadn't been shot with silver, she might have outrun them, but she was limping on an injured front leg as she tried to flee. They caught up to her and cut her off. Another soldier shot at her and she fell as her other leg collapsed underneath her.

The soldiers dismounted as she stood up shakily, growling as her vision blurred. She could feel the shift where she lost a little bit of humanity. Right now, she was a wild, cornered animal.

"Don't shoot!" yelled one of scientists as the soldiers trained their guns on the giant beast. "We only have so much silver, and Brenner needs the wolf alive."

"Why?" argued a younger soldier. "It's a werewolf. It's dangerous until it's dead."

"Have you considered that maybe learning about the werewolf could help us catch other werewolves?" the scientist shot back.

"And that worked so well last time," the soldier countered.

Another scientist sighed. "That was an unfortunate accident. We've improved so much since that happened that it could never happen again."

This seemed like an important conversation, but Robin wasn't listening. She was watching one of the younger soldiers slowly inch towards her. She whipped her head around to snap at him, and he jumped back.

"Careful," growled the gruff soldier. "Watch yourself."

"It can't run very far on those legs," suggested a soldier. "Maybe someone can drive back and grab a silver net?"

How the hell did theses people have this much silver. Did they know she was here the whole time?

Suddenly, while the group was still debating what to do with Robin, two black blurs shot out from a tree and landed on top of two of the soldiers. They were impossibly fast, knocking out the soldiers and snapping guns in half like they were made of paper. The soldiers began to fire on the whoever their attackers were, and a stray bullet hit Robin in the side, causing her to yelp and lash out at the nearest soldier, who was distracted long enough for one of the attackers to knock him out.

Whoever these blurs were, they didn't kill anybody, just leaving them unconscious on the forest floor.

"Fuck. I liked this shirt," swore one of the blurs when they finally stopped moving. The second blur turned towards her and held up their hands.

"We're not here to hurt you, I swear."

Robin still crouched, hackles up, with her vision blurred by pain and werewolf rage. As it cleared, she recognized the boy in front of her.

Steve?

Robin sat back in surprise, all aggression fading and being replaced with confusion. What? Steve was here? And he just beat up a bunch of random guys? She looked at the other blur, now recognizing Eddie, who's shirt was riddled with bullet holes. How was he not bleeding out right now? What the hell was going on?

Steve was giving her a confused look.

"Who are you?" he asked.

She huffed, annoyed.

Seriously, dingus? You think I'm able to tell you? You can figure it out.

Steve continued to stare until he lit up with recognition.

"Robin?"

She perked up when he said that. He figured it out quicker than she thought. Points for Steve.

"Holy shit," Eddie said, walking up to her, "That you, Buckley?"

She poked him with her nose, not really sure how else to communicate. He'd get it. Probably.

"How? Why? What..." Steve sputtered.

I can't exactly explain it to you right now, can I?

"You can't talk," Steve said, picking up on her glare. "Are you stuck until morning?"

She poked him, signaling a correct answer.

"We can stay until you're back," Steve suggested.

Robin yelped. Nope. No way. That was not happening.

"Steve," Eddie explained to him, picking up on it, "Robin doesn't have any clothes on."

Steve looked mortified, his face flushing very lightly. "Shit, Rob. Sorry. I...um... didn't think about that." He lapsed into silence, embarrassed.

"How about," Eddie suggested, "we all head back to Robin's place. I'm sure you have some kind of emergency stuff near there, right?" Robin confirmed. "Alrighty then. That's the plan. Can you walk, Buckley?"

Robin tested her weight on her front legs. It hurt, but she could walk. She demonstrated this.

You two idiots better explain to me whatever the fuck just happened as soon as I can speak again.

The three made it back to where Robin had stashed her stuff in a couple of minutes. They sat for the night, the boys joking and filling the silence Robin couldn't, before the sun began to rise and she dragged the bag out of the tree, looking back towards the two guys.

"We'll be a bit over there," Steve said.

"Covering our ears like gentlemen," Eddie smirked as he dragged the other boy off into the woods. They left Robin to once again go through the pain of reconfiguring her entire body before changing as fast as humanly possible.

"I'm decent," she called out into the trees. Eddie and Steve appeared instantly with inhuman speed.

"That sounded," Steve said concernedly, "extremely painful."

"I thought you were covering your ears like gentlemen," Robin hissed.

"We were, but the snapping of bones is pretty damn loud."

Robin looked sheepishly at the ground. Now how exactly was she going to explain all of this? Speaking of explaining things...

"Care to share how you two are able to move at impossible speeds and knock out a bunch of armed guys?" Robin questioned. "Not to mention that fact you were shot multiple times and yet there's not a scratch on you! Did you see how big those guns were? Hell, I still have a bullet in my side, and it hurts like a bitch, so how were two random teenage guys able to beat the crap out of trained military like they were moving at the speed of light? Not that you were actually moving at the speed of light, otherwise—"

"Robin," Steve cut her off. "You're rambling. Also, you're...um...bleeding..." Steve looked ill. Robin looked down at her shirt, which was slowly being stained red. Shit. She put her hand on her side to try and apply pressure.

"Hey, Steve," Eddie said putting himself in front of Steve and Robin. "Look at me. You're fine. I'm fine. We're fine." What was this?

"Yeah," Steve took a deep breath. "Yeah, I'm good. Let's go somewhere to get that bullet out?"

"Who's going to get the bullet out? We can't do it."

"We could try?"

"Do you really want to risk that?"

Robin felt like she was missing out on some pretty important context here. Why were they even arguing about this? They probably couldn't even get the bullet out if they tried anyway.

"Look," Robin cut in, "I have no idea what you are talking about, and I still expect an explanation, but can we please just get inside so I can take at least look at it?"

The boys nodded and the three went inside. The house was dark and empty, so Robin's parents weren't home yet. Thankfully.

"Where are your parents?" Steve asked.

"Who knows," Robin shrugged, but then she saw a note on the counter she hadn't seen before she left. It read:

We're just out for the morning. If you're up, we'll be back by eight

"Oh, shit." Robin cursed, "They can't be back while we're doing this. What time is it?"

"Almost six," Eddie said, glancing at an old clock her parents bought a while back for... some reason. How it still worked was a mystery. "But who knows how long it will take."

"We could go to my house," Steve suggested. "There's definitely nobody there."

Robin nodded. "Sounds like a plan. Wait, will I bleed out by the time we get there? I mean, I feel fine oddly enough, despite the intense burning, but shouldn't I be feeling light-headed from blood-loss or something?"

"You haven't actually lost that much blood," Eddie said, peering at her stained shirt. "It's stopped bleeding."

Robin pulled up her shirt.

"Shit! It's healing over!" Curse werewolf healing. If they didn't get this bullet out, they'd have to cut her open again to get to it.

"Okay," Steve said, "We have to go." Then, unexpectedly, he picked Robin up.

"What the fuck, Steve?" Robin exclaimed.

"Calm down," Steve replied. "It's faster this way. Eddie and I can run faster than you." Eddie opened the front door, and they both dashed out at lightning speed that should not have been possible, but Robin had accepted something was seriously up with the two of them and simply hung on for dear life.

They arrived at Steve's house in under a minute and Robin squirmed out of Steve's arms, falling to the ground in a painful heap.

"Never again," she growled, wincing as she stood. "Now let's get this bullet out."

The boys, for unexplained reasons she cursed them for, left her to dig the bullet out of her quickly healing flesh herself. It was especially difficult when she burnt herself on the silver every time she tried to grab it. Eventually, with the help of some gloves she found under the sink, she managed to get the damn thing out and wrap up the wound.

"Okay," Robin said when she returned. "Spill. What the hell is going on with the two of you?"

"Well, you see—" Steve began.

"We're vampires," Eddie interrupted.

"Eddie!"

"What? It's like ripping off a band-aid. Better to get it over with quickly."

"Wait what? Back up," Robin stopped them. "Vampires? Like drinking blood and burning in the sun vampires?"

"Blood, yes. Sun, no," Eddie replied. "Pop-culture is wrong about a lot of things."

"I did find that," Robin agreed. "But how? Have you always been vampires or something?"

"No," Steve explained. "It was three years ago. I was driving home from helping the Byers look for Will—"

"I remember that!" Robin interrupted with a smirk. "It was the start of you not being an asshole."

"Thank you for reminding me," Steve said unimpressed. "May I continue? So, I was driving home from helping with the search for Will when I saw Eddie's car pulled over at the side of the road. Since yes, I was trying to be less of an asshole, I stopped to see if he was alright."

"I told him something had come out of the woods and totaled my car," Eddie said. "I don't have the car anymore obviously, I'm surprised my uncle even let me get a vehicle again, but the whole front side of the car was smashed in. Whatever it was clipped my right headlight at a stupid fast speed. And then—"

"The thing came out of the woods and attacked us," Steve cut in, Eddie looking confused at the interruption, "I don't know why it didn't just kill us there, but it bit both of us and left us presumably to die at the side of the road. We weren't bleeding much, but it hurt like hell. I managed to drive us back to my house without hitting anything, but we weren't human when we woke up the next morning."

"It was a... weird experience to say the least," Eddie picked up, "and we ended up going our separate ways and not talking about it. We didn't really meet up again until Wheeler dragged me to one of your hangouts."

"That's why the two of you were acting weird that day," Robin realized, "Nancy and I were super confused."

"Yeah," Steve continued, "After that we met up privately and began this sort of arrangement to help each other out. It also helped to have someone around who understood."

"My favorite part is getting to break into Steve's house," Eddie smirked.

"Of course it is," Steve sighed. "Whatever. It's your turn Robin. What the hell happened out there?"

"Okay, here we go," Robin rubbed her hands together. "So around three years ago, same time as you guys oddly enough, but not exactly on the date since it was a couple days after Will was found, I got bored and like an idiot went out into the woods. I was trying to go to this spot I'd been to before where a bunch of fireflies come out and it's really pretty, but I didn't make it all the way there. This giant wolf, like even bigger than me, came out of nowhere. I don't think it saw me at first, but obviously I freaked out and screamed and the thing attacked me. I swear it was going to kill me when it suddenly backed off and ran away like it was running from something. I'm not sure what happened, but I booked it all the way back to my house. I was bleeding pretty bad and before I could call someone for help, I passed out. I woke up in a pool of blood, but all my cuts and bites were gone except for this."

Robin pulled down on her shirt a bit near her collarbone to show a huge bite scar.

"Rob," Steve sucked in a breath.

"Ah," Robin cut him off, "no interrupting. I'm fine. Obviously, I didn't tell anyone, since I had no proof either than a scar that didn't make sense and for a couple of weeks I was fine too until a full moon. I can shift whenever I want, but for some stupid reason I'm forced during a full moon. Who knows why, but anyways I turned enormous in the middle of my bedroom. I panicked and ended up knocking over a bunch of stuff and breaking some things. It was an awful experience and when I turned back in the morning and after very slowly getting my mental state back together, I started researching. Figured out pretty quickly the whole shifting thing, which was not fun. Weak to silver, obviously since that stupid bullet, and I'm basically allergic to wolfsbane which I haven't tested much since the one time I was around it I don't remember what happened except that I came to and had killed a rabbit with my bare hands so that's never happening again preferably."

"Damn," Eddie said. "You had it figured out better than we did. We didn't figure out what could hurt us until..." he trailed off, glancing delicately at Steve.

Steve tensed up, crossing his arms tightly before whispering, "Starcourt."

Robin's eyes widened and she shivered at the memory of that now ruined mall. Fire. They could be killed by fire.

She remembered that day clearly. How could she not? She still woke up in a cold sweat sometimes from it. It must've been worse for him, knowing it was the only thing that could kill him. She and Dustin barely gotten him, Steve, Erica, and herself out alive. Robin had also heard Hopper nearly died in that fire too.

"Well," Robin tried to change subject, "I found those lab weirdos when I smelt their cars over by the old Hawkins Lab. I went over there to check it out and there were a bunch of military people. They said they were hunting supernatural creatures."

"What?" Eddie said, "How they know we were here?"

"Maybe it was all those times you jumped up to my second-floor window?" Steve smirked. Eddie went to argue before Robin cut them off.

"No, they said something about energy signatures," Robin said. "I think supernaturals emit some kind of energy they can pick up on. They said there was loads in Hawkins."

"That doesn't make sense," Steve replied. "There's only three of us."

"Don't you get it?" Robin prompted. "There must be more of us."

"I think we'd know if there were more vampires and werewolves in town," Steve argued. "We'd see or hear them out hunting."

"Unless..." Robin waved her hands for the boys to go on.

"They aren't vampires or werewolves," Eddie sorted out. "What if there are other types of supernaturals?"

"Exactly!" Robin exclaimed with a clap. "It's not impossible. Hell, it's very possible."

"Again,' Steve said, still skeptical, "Wouldn't we have figured them out by now? We've got super senses, and Hawkins is a small town."

"We didn't figure each other out," Robin countered, "and we've hung out nearly everyday for two years, dingus."

"That's fair," Steve relented.

"We should do some research on supernatural creatures. Maybe on Hawkins legends? I'm sure the library has some stuff."

"Where's Wheeler when you need her," Eddie joked, but it was true. Nancy could have probably figured all this out twice as quick than the three of them combined. She was amazingly smart. They'd partnered for a project once in school, and Robin was baffled by all the things that could go through Nancy's brain all at the same time. She noticed everything too, so she always had to be extra careful she wasn't, like, grabbing something that was supposed to be really heavy. Or, you know, accidentally do something stupid that'd out herself, but the werewolf thing was probably a more concerning issue.

"We can't do anything today," Steve reminded her. "We have work in a couple of hours."

Robin groaned.

Only Robin could get shot, find out her best friend and other close friend were vampires, and still have to go to work.

-----

It felt weird to just continue their lives normally. Now that she was aware, Robin noticed the little things that hadn't stood out before. How pale Steve and Eddie were, their eerie stillness when they weren't moving, and how no matter how quiet it was she couldn't hear their heartbeats. She noticed that Steve had never really eaten his lunch, and now that the secret was out, he didn't even bring one anymore.

It'd only been a couple of days since the incident in the woods and the three had been trying to get some information on other types of supernaturals in the library without much luck. Most things they found were absurd conspiracy theories and odd happenings that were explained away with further research. The closest thing they'd gotten to an answer was an old poem about fae creatures that lacked any real information that they could use.

"We're not getting anywhere," Steve complained one afternoon the three of them had met up at Family Video. "Is there even a point in going today? Clearly the library has nothing useful."

"There must be something." Robin insisted while reshelving movies. "There's no way no human in Hawkins has ever seen any weird stuff going on if there's truly a large amount of that energy stuff."

"Maybe it's more recent," Eddie suggested. "Asking around rather than digging through books might work better."

"How exactly would we explain that?" Robin asked.

"Explain what?"

The three whipped their heads towards the door, somehow having not heard the newcomer come in.

"Eddie was suggesting Steve and I ditch and hang out somewhere else for a change," Robin made up on the spot somehow, "but how would we explain that to our boss?"

"Mike is staring to be able to predict where I am at all times, so it might be time for a change of scenery," Nancy replied, "but I agree. You wouldn't want to lose your jobs."

"Kevin's chill," Eddie said, playing along, "I'm sure you wouldn't lose your jobs."

"We're not ditching Eddie," Steve replied.

"Very well. Enjoy your boring mundane job that I, Eddie Munson, will have to keep entertaining."

Nancy shot Robin an amused smile. Robin turned back to shelving movies to hopefully hide the heat she could feel crawling up her neck. Okay, you can't really blame her for having a teeny tiny crush on Nancy Wheeler. It was honestly unfair. She had always been beautiful, Robin knew that, but a couple years ago Nancy was just some priss she saw around school occasionally. She didn't know her. Now, knowing the whip-smart, ever determined, scarily observant, and badass Nancy (because watching her nearly kick Jason Carver's ass defending Chrissy Cunningham last year was an experience), Robin never stood a chance.

"Do you guys have any plans today?" Nancy asked. "Mike's sleeping over at Will's and I was wondering if you all wanted to have a movie night?"

Robin grinned. This would be a perfect break from long afternoons in the library. "That's a great idea, Nance! Do you have any movies in mind?"

"I was hoping you would help me pick one? I mean, you guys have probably watched a lot of the movies in here."

"Of course," Robin scoffed. "And I have watched way more than Steve has."

"Hey!" Steve said. "You have an unfair advantage. You'd already watched half of them before we even started working here."

"That sounds like your problem, Steve" Nancy smirked. He threw up his hands in defeat as Robin led Nancy into the aisles.

"Alright," Robin began, "What exactly are we looking for? Horror? Action? Any specifics?"

Nancy crossed her arms in thought. "I don't know. Preferably I'd like to get something we all want to watch. I'm not a big fan of horror though."

"So no horror," Robin mentally jotted it down for later before beginning to drift. "What about... have you watched this one? It's pretty popular."

Robin plucked a movie off the shelf. Raiders of the Lost Ark.

"I think I remember it. It came out a while ago right?"

"Five years, yeah," Robin replied before turning and without thinking, speaking at normal volume said, "Steve have you watched this one?"

"Steve's all the way over there he can't—"

"No," Steve replied from the front desk, "What is it?"

Nancy had a confused look on her face and Robin realized what had just happened. Shit. Please let her just brush it off.

"Shit," she heard Steve whisper quietly. She walked up to the front desk to talk with Steve from a normal distance and prayed Nancy would let it go.

She really should have known better.

Chapter Text

Nancy had noticed them acting weird for a while.

The three of them had always acted kind of off for as long as she'd known them, so it didn't set off any alarms at first, but the last couple of days had been increasingly weird.

Firstly, it seemed as if Steve had stopped eating. He still went on break and said he was going to eat, but he never brought a lunch when they all walked in together, and he sometimes forgot to take a break at all and just went on as if nothing had happened. She'd also picked up on Eddie not eating either. It was possible that, like Nancy, he just ate before he got there, but when they got together outside of Steve and Robin's work hours, he didn't eat much then either.

Next, the three of them kept talking about something they wouldn't tell Nancy about. She didn't know what, because they always seemed to hear her before she even got close, but once with the help of a risky (only risky because Nancy wasn't supposed to be doing practical magic) silencing spell that cloaked her footsteps and the bell on Family Video's door, she'd been able to overhear a snippet of conversation. They were looking for something, and they hadn't had much luck at the library. Whatever it was, they apparently couldn't just go asking around either.

The final straw was when that very same day, Robin asked Steve a question from all the way across the room, at a volume he shouldn't have been able to hear her at, and he answered clearly. Something had passed across Robin's face in that moment as she had walked over to Steve to continue to talk about the movie that they were probably going to end up watching tonight. She became more tense than her usual generally nervous self. Something was clearly up with them.

When Nancy got home, she disappeared into her room with a quick greeting to her mother. She pulled out a pen and some paper, sat down, and began to write down the stuff she knew so far. If she was going to figure this out, she needed to see what she already knew and work from there.

- Steve (and possibly Eddie) have stopped eating (have they ever really eaten much?)
-At least Steve can hear oddly well (maybe the others too?)
-They're keeping something from me. Researching at the library. They can't find anything.

This was the more recent stuff, but what about all the things she'd already noticed, but brushed off just thinking they were normal for her friends?

-Steve is always freezing cold, no matter the temperature (and Robin runs hot)
-Steve and Eddie were weird the first time they met, but then got over it (too quickly?)
-Sometimes Robin will look like she didn't sleep. Always at least once a month. (Happened a couple days ago)
-When Steve and Eddie stand still, they stand really still (no twitching, breathing, or blinking it seems)
-Steve and Eddie are oddly pale (and burn really easily)
-Robin won't use the silverware
-Eddie has weirdly fast reflexes.

Nancy tried to think of other things, but those were the only ones think of right now. Just looking at them, some of them seemed like she was just grasping at straws. Was this even worth it? Was she overthinking this? Maybe, but she did know they were for sure keeping something from her. She heard that herself.

Let's see. What are some possible answers for all of this? For starters, Nancy could be completely wrong about everything and whatever they're doing doesn't matter in the slightest, but she had a gut feeling that this wasn't the case.

They could be doing something illegal, which would explain the secrecy, but wouldn't explain away most of the weird occurrences. Plus, what would they even be doing? Yeah, Eddie dealt in his free time, but Nancy already knew that, so why would they keep that a secret?

She leaned back in her chair, thinking. Maybe it could be something magic related? Just because Nancy and Joyce only knew about themselves didn't mean there weren't other witches in town. If they didn't use their magic, their auras wouldn't appear, and they'd be completely hidden. Unfortunately, while magic could explain some of the odd stuff, it would have to be active magic, meaning Nancy would be able to see the aura of the witch casting it.

A curse, maybe? Nancy had never heard of any curses, but that didn't mean they weren't possible. She could ask Joyce next time she saw her, but again, something didn't sit right with that solution. Whatever this hypothetical curse was, it would be so complicated that there'd be no way it could remain undetectable. Magic always leaves some kind of trace; you just have to be able to see it.

A thought suddenly came to Nancy. Could it be something else entirely? Some other form of supernatural weirdness that also existed? It wasn't unreasonable. If witches could exist, why not other things like it? That opened up a ton of possibilities, leaving Nancy stuck. There was no way she'd be able to puzzle this out just in her own head. Maybe she could stop by the library.

The library! That's it! If she could figure out when Eddie, Steve, and Robin went to the library and then came in after them or maybe even before them, it's possible she could figure out what they had been looking at. There's no way the three of them wouldn't leave at least one book lying open.

"I'm heading over to Will's!" She heard Mike call out from downstairs.

"Okay, be safe," her mother replied. The door slammed shut and Mike presumably biked off. Last time he'd gone over, for a sleepover, was when Nancy, Eddie, Steve, and Robin had watched Raiders of the Lost Ark while Robin and Eddie critiqued Steve on his 'lack of movie culture'. Nancy hadn't actually finished watching it because by the time the movie reached its end, she'd accidentally fallen asleep on Robin. The three ended up sleeping over, at Karen's insistence that they don't drive home in the dark. Nancy, mildly embarrassingly, woke up still on Robin, who apparently hadn't tried to move her. When she'd asked, Robin replied that she hadn't wanted to accidentally wake her up.

Nancy came down the stairs, grabbing her keys as she shouted to her mother, "I'm heading to the library. I'll be home later. Don't forget, Holly's in her room."

"Be home before dinner," he mom replied. Nancy smiled in response before shutting the door behind her.

When Nancy got to the library, she didn't inform the librarian of her arrival, instead using a spare key to the archives she may or may not have forgotten to give back after doing research for the school to access the archives. With some luck, she'd get information and maybe even have the three suspects show up part way through. She'd find a place to hide, do a tiny bit of harmless eavesdropping, and crack this whole thing wide open. Nancy just had to not get caught.

She checked her pockets, which she should have done before she left, for her spell components. Since Nancy couldn't do practical magic naturally, only being able to use offensive magic, so she needed a little bit of assistance for those kinds of spells. Usually it was just a type of plant, stone, or other small item. Right now, she had lavender and a very rare barn owl feather. Both were used for silencing, but she'd only use the feather for emergencies, since it would be practically impossible to find again. Nancy was surprised she'd found it in the first place.

All of these components were listed in her spellbook, since her bloodline had been entirely offensive witches as well. They'd figured out how to use components and had written in down in the book. Nancy had even taken to adding small things she discovered on her own to the book when needed. For example, she added how barn owl feathers were a lot stronger than lavender. One feather was equal to around five or six sprigs of lavender. It didn't grow naturally in Indiana, but her mother had grown some in her garden around the back of house this year. Nancy had collected and dried enough to last for a while.

Now, where to begin? She started looking through articles, selecting some that seemed like it might contain local legend or unordinary related things, but wasn't really coming up with any results. It was dead end after dead end. When something seemed interesting, further scrutiny revealed nothing of value. Article after article was searched until Nancy begun to feel frustrated. How was it that nothing weird or out of the ordinary had even happened in Hawkins? The town seemed to be truly the most boring place on earth.

After an hour or so of fruitless investigation, Nancy sat back with a sigh. Cleary, this wasn't going anywhere. Maybe they'd have a book of legends upstairs or something?

"I don't think it's worth it, Rob. There's nothing here."

"There has to be something Steve."

Nancy was gripped with panic and practically dove behind a stack of old boxes she'd set up earlier just in case, grabbing and crushing the lavender while whispering a quick spell. The spell would keep her, and the items close to her, quiet just in case she bumped into something. Nancy heard her quick breaths grow silent, although she could still feel herself breathing.

"We've only been looking for a couple of days," Robin continued, "so there's no way we've gone through all of this."

"Okay," Steve shot back, "but most of this wouldn't have anything we're looking for anyway. We've checked everything that could possibly have any of the information we need."

"Not everything," Eddie chimed in, alerting Nancy to his presence, "We haven't checked The Weekly Watcher."

"What's that?"

"A bunch of guys with conspiracy theories," Robin explained, "But it's worth a shot. If someone's gonna write about supernatural stuff, it's gonna be these weirdos." Nancy heard Robin dash down into the archives before coming back upstairs.

Nancy sucked in a breath. They were looking for information on supernaturals, so clearly, they knew they existed. Was it because they were supernatural, or did they just find out about them? What was their reason for looking for this stuff?

The three walked over somewhere, Nancy couldn't see, but then realized where they were when Eddie said, "Wait, there's still an archive in there. Take it out first."

"Someone must have left it here when they were using it earlier," Robin brushed off, thankfully. Nancy, despite being magically silent, had the urge to hold her breath. They were so close to her, and with Steve's alleged super-hearing, if the spell wore off before they left, she'd be done for. She wasn't sure how much lavender she'd used in her panic, so she didn't know how long she'd be safe.

Nancy heard the sounds of the three flicking through The Weekly Watcher. They were chatting about the weird stuff in it, but none of the articles were interesting to either party in the room.

"Victor Creel Claims Vengeful Demon Child Kills Family: The Murder that Shocked a Small Community" Robin read aloud. "Get over here guys, this could be something."

"So this Victor guys claims his son was possessed?" Eddie said.

"Yeah, he tried exorcists and other stuff, but it angered the 'demon'. His son allegedly killed his entire family, draining them of blood. They never found the son though, so they assumed it was Victor who killed them, and hid his son's body."

"Draining them of blood?" Steve said, "I mean that does sound like..."

"Yeah," Robin agreed. "But this is all the way back in the fifties. What are the chances this guy is still around?"

"He could be the guy," Eddie said mysteriously.

"Maybe," Steve replied. What guy?

"What guy?" Robin echoed Nancy's thoughts.

"The guy from the road that night," Steve explained, unhelpfully, but Robin seemed to get it.

"Oh shit, that guy. But why would he attack and not kill you guys but kill his own family?"

"Maybe something scared him off," Steve said haltingly. He sounded like he was keeping something from Robin.

"Who knows," Robin sighed, "But there's our proof. There have been other supernaturals in Hawkins. He might be the cause for the weird energy shit."

Weird energy shit? What in the world were these three involved in? But there was confirmation: 'other supernaturals'. It at least implied that they too weren't human. The guy they were talking about, Victor's son, he was probably a vampire or something, right? Draining of blood was pretty stereotypical vampire. And apparently this guy attacked Steve and Eddie possibly? There was a lot of information Nancy was missing.

"What time is it?" Eddie asked.

"Six o'clock ish. We've been here for like two hours." There was no way Nancy's spell would last much longer. She needed them to leave.

"So we come back tomorrow and look more into this Victor Guy?" Steve suggested.

"Yep. And keep looking through The Weekly Watcher. If there's one article, there's probably more," Robin replied.

"Thank god we finally found something," Steve sighed as Nancy heard them climb the stairs. She waited about five minutes after they left, afraid they'd somehow come back, before getting up slowly as she removed herself from her hiding place, noises began to fade back in. The spell had just barely lasted.

Nancy let out a sigh of relief. It probably wasn't super ethical that she'd spied on her friends using magic, but now she knew what they were up to. They were, like her, researching supernaturals. There were more questions than answers though. Why were they looking for this stuff? Were they supernatural too? If so, what kind? What was that 'weird energy shit' Robin was talking about? What was 'that night' that Steve had mentioned? And most importantly, who was 'that guy'?

Clearly the three of them assumed in was Victor Creel's son, but who was Victor Creel's son? She would have stayed to do more research, but as Robin had said, it was around six o'clock. She had to get home.

Driving back home, it felt like there were a million thoughts running around Nancy's head. She knew something was up now, but what to do about? She could theoretically confront them, but she didn't know what she was up against. If they were supernatural, and she went in unprepared, they could overpower her easily. Hell, it was three against one, and magic wouldn't be able to make up that difference, at least if she didn't want to hurt them.

She pulled into the driveway and then headed inside. "I'm home, Mom,"

"Nancy!" cried an excited young voice. It was Holly.

"Hey, Holly!" Nancy said, kneeling to hug her sister.

Holly looked up at Nancy when they pulled away. "Will you come see what I drew?"

"Of course," Nancy smiled, letting Holly lead her upstairs to her room.

When they entered, Holly grabbed a bunch of papers off the floor, handing them to Nancy. As Nancy flipped through them, she began to feel unsettled.

"Holly," she asked, "What are these?"

"Uh... dunno," the five-year-old said. "I made them up."

Paper after paper, each on held a single drawing. It was a large circle, with lines and geometrical shapes held within it. Nancy recognized these, but just barely. They were sigils. She only knew them from a brief description in her book, since sigils were apparently a lost art due to the use of spell components instead. Nancy was careful not to touch them and only touch the sides of the paper. She didn't want her magic to react to it somehow, having no idea what would happen.

"How did you come up with these?" Nancy continued to question carefully. Holly shouldn't know how to draw these, and even if magic somehow allowed her to, she shouldn't have magic this young. Nancy's didn't start showing signs until she was fifteen or so. Even then, it wasn't powerful enough for Joyce to notice until she was sixteen.

Nancy looked up at her sister. She had no aura, so she wasn't using magic, but that didn't mean much. Once again, Nancy's aura didn't form until nearly a year after she first started experiencing magic.

"I don't know," Holly answered. "I just made them up."

Nancy tried her best to hold back showing any signs of anxiety. First her friends, now this? Hawkins was supposed to a mundane, ordinary town for god's sake.

"Alright," Nancy said, "They're... wonderful. Let's go downstairs and see if Mom has dinner ready, okay?"

"Okay!" Holly replied, running out of the room and down the stairs. Nancy took the drawings, muttering a silent apology to Holly, and put them in her room to look at later. Now was not the time for this. Before heading downstairs, she took a deep breath and tried to eliminate any signs of worry from her face. Her mom would notice right away if she didn't, and there wasn't any way to explain to her what had happened.

"Hey, Nancy," her mom greeted her when she made it to the table, "did you get a lot done at the library?"

Yes. I found out my friends are investigating supernatural creatures and might be ones. And Holly might be a witch like me and coming into her powers way too early.

"Yeah. Just some personal stuff I was curious about."

"Like what?" Her mom pressed, trying to make connection, but now was probably the worse time for it.

"Just some," Nancy made up on the spot, "journalism stuff. Looking at old articles. I wanted to see how they were written and how different it was from now." The best way to lie was to work in a little bit of truth to your statement. She was looking at old articles, just not for that reason.

"That sounds wonderful, sweetheart," Karen replied. "You were so disappointed from that internship last year. I'm glad you're still interested."

Ah. The internship. What a trainwreck that was. The men running The Hawkins Post treated her like garbage. Like a servant. All she had wanted was to write a story on something, anything, and yet they wouldn't listen a single word she said. She'd snapped one day, and her magic had lashed out, causing a printer right next to one of her bosses to explode, injuring him and a few others. There was no way to prove it was Nancy's fault, but since it coincidentally happened at the same time she'd yelled at her 'superior', she'd ruined both her and Jonathan's internships, and their relationship, which would hold on for only a few months after that.

"I'm having my friends over for a movie," Mike added. He'd come back from Will's around the same time she'd gotten back from the library. "I hope that's okay?"

"Of course, honey," Karen said. "What are you watching?"

"Dunno yet," Mike replied, poking at his food. "I want to watch Alien, but they might want to watch something else."

Conversation carried on haltingly throughout dinner, with Karen trying to spark conversation, but Nancy was quite distracted, Ted didn't care, Mike being generally quiet today, and Holly couldn't add much to a conversation. Eventually the dinner ended, and Nancy went to put Holly to bed while her mother washed up. Thankfully, Holly didn't seem to care about her missing drawings and went to sleep easily.

When Nancy went back to her room, longing for a distraction, she decided to check her stores of spell components and see if she was low on anything. It was a decently bright night, so she could sneak off to collect some tonight to clear her mind. Sifting through components, Nancy realized she was completely out of yarrow. Yarrow was for the only, and extremely simple, healing spell that used a component. She knew of a nice patch, but it was out in the woods a little bit across town, actually quite close to Robin's house.

Nancy threw on a jacket. She wouldn't be long, an hour at most. It would be good to clear her head, and to stock up. She hated not being prepared.

It took about fifteen minutes to walk all the way over there, but finally she found the patch where it grew. Picking some carefully and storing it away so it wouldn't break, Nancy prepared to walk back home when she heard a crack. It sounded like bone.

Nancy froze. It came from her left. Cautiously, she crept towards the sound. While the moon lit up the forest well in some parts, right now, it was near blackness. Nancy tried hard to focus on where she'd heard the cracking, and her eyes settled on the silhouette of a person. She watched as their shadow slowly morphed with the sounds of snapping bones until there was no longer a person. What was left was a huge wolf.

Nancy, not knowing what else to do, fled. She hoped and prayed that thing didn't see or hear her. She stumbled through the undergrowth until she burst out of the trees and back into Hawkins.

"Holy, shit," she whispered, heart pounding and out of breath.

That was a werewolf.

Chapter Text

Max hated being alone.

Well, she hated how difficult it was. Keeping up the illusion, both literally and figuratively, that she didn't live alone took a lot of time an effort. It had to be done though because it wasn't legal for her to not have a parental guardian, which was bullshit since she could take care of herself just fine.

She ran away from her family a couple of years ago, around 1984, and came to Hawkins for a fresh start. It was a hell of a journey, and Max hadn't expected to end up in Hawkins, but here she was. Alone in a house she'd tricked the real estate agent into giving her. It wasn't even that hard, the illusion used being easy. She'd done much more complicated illusions before, so she'd come to the conclusion that most humans were relatively stupid. This theory continued to prove itself as she hadn't come close to getting caught yet.

Max grabbed a handful of cash, and refreshed her illusion, before walking out the door. She'd run out of fruits and vegetables and needed to get some more. Looking at her small stash of money, she decided that it might be time to stock up. She'd do it after.

She walked to the supermarket, since it wasn't too far away and she would have had nowhere to put her board. Going anywhere was always nerve-wracking, no matter how confident she was in her own abilities. Max knew any number of things could go wrong, the worst one being one of her family members finding her.

They had to have stopped looking, since there was no way they'd chased her for two years. Maybe if Billy had run away, but he, despite being even more of a problem child, wouldn't jeopardize his chances at taking the throne from Max's stepfather. He was power hungry, where she wanted nothing to do with Court. Unfortunately, there wasn't a way to tell if they'd backed off or not, so Max always had to keep an eye open.

At the supermarket, while she was grabbing the stuff she needed, she heard someone behind her.

"Max!"

She turned around to see El, Will, and Joyce, who also happened to be shopping today. El's shout had caught the attention of both her mom and brother, who also turned. After recognizing her, they walked over from what they were doing to say hello.

"Hi, Max," said Joyce. "How are you?"

"Good," she shrugged before spinning a quick lie. "We're out of fruit and stuff, so my Mom sent me to grab some."

"By yourself?" Joyce questioned. She was probably one of the only parents in all of town that actually cared where her kids were during the day. Hell, there were reminders on the TV asking parents if they knew where their kids were. Joyce's worry and caring also extended to all of El and Will's friends, which made Max's life just that little bit harder, but she didn't blame Joyce. Max was glad she cared so much about her kids.

"It's fine," Max brushed off. "I don't live too far."

"Are you free tonight?" El asked.

"We're watching a movie at Mike's after our D&D session," Will elaborated. "We were hanging out earlier today and planned it."

"Does Wheeler know you're inviting me?" Max asked. She and Mike... tolerated each other. It was the kind of friendship where it probably wouldn't exist without other people pushing them together. It had gotten a lot better since Max first joined their group, but there were still little things. It didn't help that pissing Mike off was so entertaining.

"He will be fine," El insisted. "Just do not try to make him angry on purpose."

Max smirked. "No promises."

"We'll be starting the movie at seven or eight o'clock," Will added, "but you can come earlier if you want to see us play. Eddie's our Dungeon Master, but he's not staying for the movie."

"Maybe," Max replied, "I'll see how it goes."

"See you later then!" El beamed as the group of three walked away. Max waved as the turned down an aisle and then went back to her shopping. She'd go to the movie. It's not like she had anything better to do.

Summer's were hard because unless she was with everyone else, there was nothing but her empty house to go back to. At least during the school year she had school, despite how awful it was, to keep her busy during the day. During the break, she was left to stew in paranoia that she'd be found out. It was a shitty existence. Her friends did make it better though. El, Lucas, Will, Dustin, and even Mike, kept her sane.

After paying for the groceries, Max began her walk home. She bumped into a couple of people, apologizing for not being careful, and then carefully looted and ditched their wallets once she was out of sight. She felt bad for doing the pickpocketing but had no other way to make enough money to feed herself. Once she got a job, she'd stop, but that was still a couple years away. It wasn't her fault that it was stupidly easy as well.

Then, only a few streets away from her house, but still generally in the middle of town. Somebody caught her eye.

Fuck

She panicked, ducking into the gap between two buildings. She threw up an illusion, hopefully making her fully invisible while she calmed down.

"Shit," she whispered. "Shit. Shit. Shit."

How did he find what town she was in? Fuck him; his illusion was shit. She'd always been better than him at that. He was better at beating the shit out of people. Had he seen her?

Max, still holding her illusion up, peaked out into the street. There he was, walking down the sidewalk slowly, scanning the faces of the pedestrians. His illusion was poorly made, wavering and shimmering at the edges if you knew what to look for. Nobody noticed though.

Billy still looked nearly the same as he did when she left, which was to be expected since fae aged so slowly once they hit adulthood. What was he now? 19? Young for a fae, but she was fifteen, so he still felt significantly older. He walked around with a certain air about him, like he thought he was better than everyone else. Knowing Billy, he probably did. He barely respected other fae, why would he respect humans?

How had he gotten here? He must've been looking for her, since there was no other explanation. Had she not gone far enough away from Court? No way! Court was in California and Hawkins was in Indiana. She'd spent weeks moving across the country, trying to get as far away as she could. Hawkins seemed like the most boring, mundane, town out there when she'd first got here. Clearly it wasn't ordinary enough.

Maybe he didn't actually know she was here. If Max waited long enough, maybe he'd move on to searching another town. For now though, she had to wait until he walked away so she could get home.

It took the dumbass ten whole minutes to get fully out of sight. Max dropped her second illusion, keeping the first that made her look human, and tried not to run home at top speed. This was awful. She was doing so well. Would she have to move if he fully found her? She liked Hawkins, and she had some semblance of a life here. Back at Court, she was nothing; a talented doll for her stepfather to show off when he felt like it.

Max made it back to her house and dropped the groceries on the counter. As she turned her gaze caught on her reflection mirror in the house. It was some random decoration that came with the house.

She dropped her main illusion, the one she kept on near constant, and looked at herself in the mirror. Unnaturally sharp blue eyes, the points of her ears that poked through her hair, and the slight glow that fae tended to have. It wasn't a lot, but she'd be called out right away if anyone saw her like this. She put the illusion back up and looked away.

What Max wouldn't give to be normal. Human.

She stayed inside the rest of the day, worried if she went out again that Billy would somehow find her, until seven o'clock when she decided to go over to the Wheelers' house. It'd be a good distraction. Grabbing her board, she skated to their house, using a little bit of her strength to go a bit faster than should be possible. Not enough to be super noticeable, but enough to get her to Mike's house quickly.

When she knocked on the door, Mrs. Wheeler answered.

"Come on in," she said, "Everyone else is downstairs." Max could hear them before she even reached the stairs.

"Just fireball him, Will!"

"No! You won't roll high enough!"

"The vampire lord is getting impatient," Eddie said, nodding as he looked up from his campaign to quickly acknowledge Max's arrival. "He readies an attack."

"Fine!" Will cried. "I cast fireball!" He frantically rolled and the dice went flying. Everyone scrambled try and find it. They were, unfortunatly, unsuccessful.

"Come on!" Mike yelled dramatically, throwing his hands into the air.

"It's okay Mini-Wheeler," Eddie chuckled. "It's time for you guys to watch your movie anyway. We'll continue next week."

Mike continued his pouting, while also assuring Will it wasn't his fault, while El and Lucas went to greet Max.

"I didn't know you were coming," Lucas said. Max shrugged.

"El and Will invited me at the supermarket today... I hope that's okay?"

"Yeah, of course," he quickly amended. "I didn't mean it like...I just didn't know..."

"It's okay, Lucas," Max laughed. "What are we watching?"

"They cannot decide between Star Wars and Alien," El replied, seemingly exasperated. "I do not care which one we watch."

"That makes you the tie breaker," Dustin cut in, rubbing his hands together. "Lucas and I want to watch Star Wars, the clear right choice, while Mike and Will want to watch Alien."

"Will does not want to watch Alien," El snickered quietly so only Max could hear. Max suppressed a smile. Those two needed to figure their shit out.

"We've already watched Star Wars so many times!" Mike argued, still channeling his D&D disappointment.

"We've watched Alien even more than that!" Dustin shot right back. "Plus, Star Wars has an arguably better story."

"Alien has a great story!" Mike exclaimed defensively. "Come on, Max, back me up."

She raised her eyebrows. Mike gave her a pained face like he knew exactly what he just asked and knew why it didn't make a lick of sense.

"Although I wish I could agree with Mike," Max said sarcastically, as Mike glared at her, "I've never actually seen Alien. So I wouldn't know."

"No way," Lucas said in disbelief. "We watch it all the time. There's no way you haven't watched it with us."

Max shrugged. She really hadn't seen it.

"If Max hasn't seen it," Mike put his foot down, "then we have to watch it."

Dustin groaned, defeated by the need to culture Max. "Fine. We'll watch Alien." He went to grab the tape and put down the Star Wars one he had already been holding with disappointment.

"You excited?" Max said as she plopped down across from Will on the couch, startling him.

"What? Huh?"

"I mean," Max smirked, "You got to watch the movie you wanted, right?"

"Oh!" Will said, "Yeah. Can't wait..." He tapped his hands on his legs nervously.

Max just shook her head and laughed quietly. Mike was an idiot. How he hadn't seen the way Will looked at him was a mystery. She hoped it wouldn't take too much longer for the two of them to sort it all out, or she'd have to intervene just to stop everyone else's (meaning her and El, since she didn't know whether the other boys noticed) suffering. For now, she could just discreetly tease Will about it. Fae were tricksters after all.

She remembered when Billy had played a 'trick' on her when they were younger. He'd locked her on top of the belltower to see how long it would take for someone to let her down. He'd had to come back a couple hours later to get her down himself when no one had noticed, and he felt bad. He acted like an asshole, but he wasn't cruel enough to leave her there for very long. Unfortunately, she still couldn't go on top of that belltower. He'd locked her out there at night.

Max shook her head. This was supposed to be a distraction from Billy, who could be anywhere in town right now.

On the couch, from left to right, was El, Max, Lucas, and Will. Dustin and Mike were sentenced to the floor, with Dustin sitting near Max and El's feet, and Mike by Will's.

"Why do I have to sit on the floor?" Mike complained, "Can't I switch with Lucas?"

"Then I'd have to sit next you," Max joked, "so no. You got your movie; stop complaining."

During the movie, Max was half focused on the screen and half focused on how loud Will's heartbeat was. His was always decently louder than everyone else's, although Lucas' was scarily fast, but it had picked up in volume when Mike had leaned back, resting his head against Will's legs. It was distracting, but it's not like she could say anything. Right now there was... nine heartbeats in the house.

Max paused. Nine? Shouldn't there be ten? The six of them, Nancy, Holly, and Mr. and Mrs. Wheeler.

Suddenly, the tenth heartbeat returned. It was beating fast, not unlike Will's, but at a different kind of fast. Will's heartbeat was nerves. This was panic. Fear.

"I have to go to the bathroom," Max said, getting up, "Don't pause it. It's fine."

"You sure?" Lucas asked.

"Yeah," Max said. She went up the stairs and began to quietly creep through the house, following the sound of the now slowing heartbeat. It lead all the way to the top floor and to Nancy's door. Gathering some courage, she knocked on the door.

"Who's there?" Nancy asked from within the room.

"Max," she replied, now realizing she didn't exactly have a good reason for being up here, "I thought I heard a bang up here. I just wanted to make sure everything is okay." That lie was probably fine.

She heard Nancy laugh quietly; the kind of sarcastic everything-is-not-fine laugh.

"Yeah, Max," Nancy replied. "Everything is fine. I just dropped something. Go enjoy your movie."

Clearly, Nancy was lying her ass off, but Max wasn't going to call her out on it. She'd probably just sneaked out somewhere and was nervous of getting caught coming back in the house. Who was Max to judge?

"Alright," Max concluded. "Umm...call down if you need anything? I guess?"

Nancy laughed again, but this time it was more genuine. Max made her way back downstairs.

"What took you so long?" Mike whined when she returned. The movie was paused.

"I told you to keep watching," Max said. "You didn't have to pause it."

"El and Lucas made them pause it, " Will explained. Max smiled.

"You didn't have to," she added as she took her place once again between the two.

"It wasn't that big of a deal," Lucas said.

"Yeah," El said. "And you should not have to miss part of the movie because you have to leave. Mike can be patient."

"Yeah," Dustin jumped in with a teasing tone. "Mike can be patient." Mike grumbled and went to resume his movie.

Max settled back into the couch, trying not think of her brother prowling the Hawkins streets looking for her.

Chapter Text

Nancy was not panicking. No. That wasn't the right description.

It was more of a slow dread that crawled over her mind, blurring her vision and muddling her thoughts. Her heartrate was finally beginning to slow, as she sat taking quiet, heaving breaths on the floor of her bedroom. When she'd scrambled in the window, she must have knocked something over, which would explain how Max had heard her from the basement. Although she did appreciate the girl's concern, it's not like she could tell her what she'd been running from. Nancy hoped whatever noise hadn't woken up Holly.

That thing, person, in the woods; was that what she thought it was? There was only one explanation after all. The cracking of bones as she'd watched that silhouette change still echoed in her mind.

It was a werewolf, or something of the sort. It had to have been. How it hadn't noticed her was a miracle.

That must have had something to do with what Robin, Steve, and Eddie were investigating. Another supernatural, here in Hawkins. It was almost hard to believe, but she'd seen it with her own eyes. There was a werewolf in her town.

She had to do something, right? There was something extremely dangerous roaming free, doing god knows what, in the middle of the night. Who knows what it could do. Hell, there wasn't a full moon tonight, so who's to say this thing was even confined to turning at night? It could be a danger to her family, her friends, the kids. No. She couldn't leave this be. There must be something she could do.

Nancy took a deep breath and began to form a plan in her mind. Firstly, she'd need to find as much information as she could. There was no telling what could be true or not, as nearly everything about witches documented was false, so she'd have to take most, if not all of it, into consideration. She could already cross off only transforming under the full moon, since the last full moon had just ended a little less than a week ago, so already she had some information. It wasn't exactly comforting information, but it was information nonetheless.

Secondly, get something it's weak to. What were werewolves supposed to be weak to? Silver? Maybe she'd try that. Bullets were probably her best bet, seeming that her revolver was her best weapon either than magic. Magic! The thing probably hadn't dealt with that before, so it was always worth a shot. She'd stock up on components incase she needed practical spells, but she could do all of the real damage herself.

Where she'd get silver bullets was an issue for Future Nancy.

Thirdly, and finally, track the fucker. Find out who it was and question them. Make sure they weren't a threat. If they were... she'd cross that bridge when she came to it.

Idea formed, there was nothing else she could do about it tonight. She'd have to try and get some sleep, even if she could still hear Mike and friends watching their movie. From the sound of it, he'd gotten his wish to watch Alien. He'd probably been begging on his knees for it and they'd all felt bad.

She changed out of her leaf strewn and dirt-streaked clothes, made so by her mad dash through the woods, and into pajamas. Faintly, she heard the sounds of Mike asking their mother if his friends could stay the night.

Unfortunately, as she lay down in her bed, she knew she wouldn't be getting much sleep tonight.

Getting up before most of her household, the exception being her mom, Nancy began the day with her mind set on her plan. She'd had her moment to be afraid yesterday, and now she was determined to solve this. Today, if she was lucky. She recited her mental list once again to herself as she left the house.

1. Find some info on werewolves
2. Find where to get silver bullets
3. Find the werewolf

It seemed simple, in theory, and the first on that list was. She'd just stop by the ever-useful lately library and skim through some stuff. The latter two of her checklist were more concerning. She was sure silver bullets existed somewhere but they'd most likely be astronomically expensive and probably not sold anywhere near Hawkins. And finding and confronting the wolf? She could very well die.

Anyway, first things first. To the library.

Nancy spent around two hours in there, searching and scanning for answers in every line. There wasn't much to go off of, since there were a lot of discrepancies and it wasn't like her sources were very trustworthy, but she had a good feeling about of couple of things. First, silver. It was one of the most, if not the most, consistent thing she found other than the full moon stuff, which she'd already disproven. There were no other large mentions of werewolf weaknesses either than wolfsbane and occasionally fire. Fire wouldn't be too hard to spell in a pinch, but she'd have to hold out on wolfsbane. Nancy wasn't even sure where she would find that kind of stuff.

Second, the werewolf likely had extremely good senses, especially hearing and smell, even in human form. The human form part of that was a bit less supported, but Nancy had to account for everything. She'd need some lavender, and to find a spell to mask scent. Maybe a certain herb? She'd have to experiment a bit.

Third, werewolf often had packs. Lone werewolves existed too, but she had to be prepared for the possibility of more than one giant predator to face. Now that Nancy was thinking about it, maybe this wasn't such a good idea. No. She'd already committed. This was happening.

Lastly, if she got bit, she'd be a werewolf too. She didn't know if already being a witch would prevent that, like already being one type of supernatural would prevent you from becoming another, but probably not. She'd have to be very careful.

While Nancy was looking through old news articles, just to see if the other investigators of the supernatural had missed anything, she came across a very interesting article from not that long ago. It was about a crazy conspiracy theorist raving about supernatural things going on in Hawkins. No one had believed him, so he'd left town. Intrigued, Nancy read further to try and find who this theorist was.

Murray Bauman.

Oh! She actually remembered this guy. He'd been an investigator on Barb's case, but Hopper had taken him off due to fact he apparently 'wasn't taking it seriously'. She'd overheard it once when she'd been over at the Byers' house before Joyce and Hopper got together. He was over discussing Will's case, him being recently found at the time, and they must have drifted topics.

Thinking of Barb sent a pang of grief through Nancy's chest. It was getting better, with her not being in a constant state of grieving, but it still hurt when she thought about her best friend who had died.

She scrolled through the article, which held a surprising amount of detail about this man, some more and came across the place he'd moved to on a picture of business card.

Illinois? That was pretty far. A four-hour drive if she wasn't mistaken. What were the chances this guy had some silver bullets?

Let's see, she'd gotten up at seven, it was now nine, and if she drove four hours and there and back, accounting for traffic and whatever time she'd spent there, she'd get back around seven at night. Not ideal, but if she managed to somehow find and track the werewolf that quickly, with a little bit of luck and hoping that the werewolf would go out tonight, she could do it. Or even, she could do it and spend all of tomorrow hunting.

All this considering this Murray would even have anything worth her time (ie. silver bullets). Maybe all she'd get was a face full of false information. Anyway, this guy might at least know something, like maybe where she could get the bullets if he didn't have any. She'd decided it was worth a shot.

Exiting the library, Nancy got in the car and prepared for a long drive. She should probably tell her parents where she was going, but they'd ask questions and waste time. Better to beg for forgiveness than ask for permission. God she was beginning to sound like Eddie. When had she become this impulsive?

She drove, despite her better judgement, for four hours all the way to Illinois with half a plan, only stopping once for gas. The half a plan was: if this Murray had something she needed, she try and trade it with him for information. If he was such a big conspiracy theorist, maybe he'd like the chance for a real witch to answer some questions.

When she got to the address, she almost thought she had the wrong place. It didn't even look habitable. It was some kind of warehouse with a large garage door in front and a door to the building on the left. It looked almost like something out of a junkyard.

Again, ignoring all of her rational thinking, she walked up to the door and knocked loudly. Then waited. Then did it again.\

zzt-camera-zzt

Some kind of speaker went off. Nancy looked around and found it, leaning closer.

zzt-no! above you-zzt

Nancy startled and backed up, searching above her eyeline for a security camera until she locked eyes with it. She a gave a half-hearted and nervous wave.

Suddenly a man appeared at the door.

"Nancy Wheeler. What a surprise."

"The fuck," Nancy swore unexpectedly, "How do you..."

"You're not subtle," Murray, assumedly, deadpanned. "That shit at the Hawkins Post? Just be glad Hawkins has their heads too far up their asses to see what's right in front of them."

Nancy was stunned silent.

"Come in," Murray said, "I assume you need something, yes?" He disappeared into the building, Nancy on his heels. She was surprised to see the inside fully furnished, although there was stuff scattered everywhere. Papers were taped to the walls with string connecting them, and random things she didn't recognize were strewn across the tables. Murray walked over to his refrigerator, pulling out what Nancy could only assume was alcohol.

Seeing her judgmental glare, he replied, "I'm going to need a drink for this. I can tell." He flopped into a chair, gesturing for Nancy to sit across from him on the couch. "What do you need, Wheeler?"

"First off," Nancy said, still off balance, "How do you know about me."

"As I said the first time," Murray sighed, "You were not subtle. You've gotten a lot better, as there haven't been any incidents I've picked up on, but you were quite the chaotic witchling."

Nancy bristled at the term. She had assumed he'd known about her being a witch, as he had heavily alluded to it, but this was the first time he'd said it aloud.

"I still keep a good eye on Hawkins," Murray continued, taking a swig of his drink, "It's a god damn magnet for weird shit. Unfortunately, none of them would believe me anyway. At this point, I do it to keep me sane."

"Let's get to the point," Nancy interrupted. "I drove four hours out here and I need to know something."

"Shoot."

"Do you have any silver bullets that'd fit in this?" She pulled out her gun, which she'd begun carrying on her.

Murray whistled.

"So you think you've got a werewolf," he said in an almost condescending, sarcastic tone. "And yes, I do have bullets. I'm nothing if not prepared. The question is, how are you paying for them? I assume you don't have any money."

"No," Nancy agreed. "But I'd be willing to pay in information."

"What can you tell me that I don't already know?"

Nancy smirked. "You've ever seen someone do magic before?" Nancy threw her hand out to the side, not even looking, and threw her magic from her core into her hand causing it to shoot outwards and crash into an empty glass bottle that had been left on the table, shattering it.

Murray's eyebrows raised.

"Impressive. Can you do other things?"

Nancy shrugged. "Yeah. If it involves attacking stuff. If I want to do practical magic, I need these." Nancy pulled out a couple of spell components from her pocket. Lavender, yarrow, and a small bit of sunstone she'd pried out of her grandma's old bracelet. It was used for light spells.

She used this a demonstration, holding the sunstone in one hand and summoning a small ball of light in the other. The fun thing about stones as spell components was that they could be used multiple times.

"How does it work?" Murray asked, now thoroughly intrigued.

Nancy paused to gather her thoughts. It was hard to explain.

"I have almost, a core of magic somewhere inside of me. I draw on that for spells, and channel it through spell components for other types of spells. It takes a lot of energy though." Nancy was already sweating. She dispelled the light.

"Alright, alright," Murray said. "That's plenty more than you even think it is. I'll give a round, a round, of bullets." He walked over to green box, opening it and pulling out a handful of bullets in his hand. He turned back to Nancy.

"Look, Nancy Drew," Murray said as Nancy narrowed her eyes at him, "I'm going to give you these, but I don't want you to use them unless absolutely necessary, okay? Just know who you're shooting at before you shoot."

Nancy took the bullets from him. "You know who the wolf is, don't you?"

"No, actually," Murray replied, "They've somehow done a better job than you. I only know they've existed for a while. They could be anyone, so I don't want you to accidentally end up shooting someone you'd regret later."

"I wasn't planning on it," Nancy said. "I'm not going to shoot unless I'm in danger."

"Good. And don't tell anyone I gave you these; it's not exactly legal," Murray said. "Now get out of here."

He watched Nancy leave and then sighed to himself when she shut the door.

"She better not kill Buckley."

------

Robin was beginning to lose hope. Sure, they hadn't been at this whole investigating-supernatural-shit long, but she'd hoped to have found something more than just 'creepy old man might have a vampire son who likely hasn't been around since he maybe fucked up Steve and Eddie's entire lives. That maybe meaning it being him, not the fact that their lives were screwed up. They most certainly were.

For all the pain spent rummaging in the library, since it took all of Robin's energy to stay focused on the task, they'd found suspicious article about a kid who was probably a vampire back in the 50s. Their running theory was that it was the same person who'd attacked Eddie and Steve that night on the road, but there wasn't a way to be sure. Time travel sadly did not exist, so they were stuck spinning in the dark.

Do to the lack of general results, she'd agreed to meet up with Steve and Eddie tonight to go over to the Hawkins Lab to see if they could get some info directly from where they'd originally got it from. They'd gone the night before too, but no one had been out and about and it's not like they could just break into the building. They'd get caught in a heartbeat. Tonight would be their second attempt.

During the first attempt, they'd gained a little bit of information due to certain walls of the lab being pretty thin. There had been some man talking to scientists about finding an experiment he'd lost. This was confusing. Did he lose some kind of science experiment? How would he even misplace a bunch of science shit?

They'd gone home after to try and brainstorm, but they'd been seriously lacking enough context to put their scraps together. That would probably continue to be a problem today, but Robin was cautiously optimistic that they'd get some concrete evidence. Maybe they'd even figure who another one of the supernaturals was.

Robin, bag of clothes for after in hand, met up with the two vampires at an arranged meeting point in the woods, generally close to Robin's house, at nine. From there, they'd run over to the lab and see if there were sketchy people about, this time being more careful not to get shot at. Robin did not need to deal with bullet wounds again. Thankfully, due to supernatural healing, she was fine, but she'd still been shot only last week. It was insane to think about.

"Hey, Rob," Steve greeted before he even saw her.

"Ready for another night of attempting to spy on the government?" Robin joked.

"Technically, we don't know if they're government," Eddie pointed out, "They could be like... something else."

"What else would they be?" Robin said. "A military looking group of monster hunters that has nothing to do with the government?"

"That's not completely off the table," Eddie shrugged. "They certainly look the part."

"Whatever," Robin said. "Let's get going?"

"Waiting on you," Steve reminded her, turning around to give her some form of privacy. Eddie also turned around, covering his ears. It took Robin around fifteen seconds to shift, and she prodded at the boys once she was done.

"How do you even afford to destroy all those clothes when you shift?" Eddie asked. "You'd think it'd be easier to just change first."

I'm uncomfortable enough as it is.

"It probably feels less weird," Steve replied for Robin. He'd gotten pretty good at telling what she was thinking. "Now let's go."

The three shot off into the darkness, Robin on Eddie and Steve's heels but not quite fast enough to catch them. Ground and trees flew by as Robin began to smell the acid stench of car exhaust. Looks like they might just be in luck tonight.

They slowed as the lab came into view. Unlike the last time they were here, there were people mingling out front. They stayed far enough away as to not be detected, but close enough to hear and slightly see.

"How are the energy levels?" ask one scientist to another as they approached them.

"Even stronger if you can believe it," the second scientist replied. "There must have been an uptick in supernatural activity, or even some more SNs entered the area."

"We know there must be at least more than one," the first scientist added. "That werewolf from last week wouldn't be enough to make that large of a signature. Heck, four or five werewolves wouldn't make that kind of signature. Think we're dealing with a large pack?"

"No," the other scientist said, "Whatever attacked our men last week wasn't more wolves. I think there's more than one species in the area. From the looks of this, there's either large groups of a couple different ones, or a lot of different ones on their own or in small groups."

"How many are we talking?"

"At least ten. Maybe more."

Ten? Maybe more?

Robin looked at Steve and Eddie, who seemed just as bewildered. They knew that there had to be more than just the three of them, but how ten more have hidden for so long? It almost seemed impossible.

The trio of them made an excellent spy team, since they could all hear unnaturally well. If someone were to talk about supernatural stuff, at least nearby, they'd have heard it. It was possible all other supernaturals were soloing it, but with seemingly so many, that couldn't be the case. Maybe these people—creatures— lived so far on the edge of town that they'd never come into contact with Robin or the two vampires?

"You've got to be kidding," the first scientist echoed their thoughts. "All in Hawkins? What would make it such a magnet?"

"SNs tend to be drawn to their own energy," the other scientist, clearly the smarter one at this point, explained, "They group up, even if they aren't the same species. Even if they don't know they're supernatural. They also tend to be drawn to places that already have traces of supernatural energy. For example..."

"Four years ago..."

"Exactly."

Ugh. Robin wished they'd stop dancing around whatever the hell happened four years ago. Just say it so she could know what it is already!

"So how does Brenner plan on doing this discreetly?" the first scientist asked. The way they said that made it seem like this Brenner guy was super important. Maybe he was like the big boss or something?

"He's already found his little experiment and has been monitoring it," the other scientist said. "He'll probably make a move to get it back soon. If he can find a way to control it, it'll be our best bet for finding and catching the others."

Experiment? The experiment was a person! There was some kind of escaped experiment loose in Hawkins? What was it? Why was it their best bet at catching supernaturals? Robin hated not being able to ask questions. They were losing a lot of information from people already knowing things and not needing to have them explained. Guess exposition didn't really work in real life.

"It's his fault we're in this mess in the first place. His first experiment is what drew all these freaks here, according to you."

"No one understood how powerful One really was. Anyway, at least it keeps our jobs."

Oh great. There was more than one experiment now? Maybe whatever this first one did had something to do with their mysterious event four years ago.

"Whatever," the first scientist grumbled. "If I die doing this shit, it better be cool as fuck."

"Not us," the other scientist laughed. "We've got the safest job out of everyone: monitor these readings to make sure nothing gets too close to the lab and get the guards to shoot it if they do. Speaking of readings..."

And that was their cue to leave. Robin turned and bounded into the woods, followed by her friends who quickly caught up to her. When they got back to their spot, Steve and Eddie automatically, without saying anything, went into the bushes to let Robin shift back. She did so, changing back into warm clothes, and the boys returned.

She was about to open her mouth to start conversation on what had happened, when something cold pressed against her neck. Robin froze.

"The bullets are silver," growled a familiar voice. "Start talking."

Chapter Text

Robin knew that voice. She'd know that voice anywhere. It was close to her pissed off, dangerous voice. Robin had never had it directed towards her before.

"Nancy," she whispered.

She heard Nancy startle at the sound of her voice. She hadn't been expecting Robin. Robin almost felt her hand drop, but nonetheless, she still held the gun at Robin's head. Robin tried her best not to move.

"Start talking," Nancy said again, her voice wavering slightly. The barrel of the gun wobbled where it was aimed at the base of Robin's skull. Nancy was scared. Dread filled Robin's chest. She scared Nancy.

Now that she was thinking about it, they'd been so wrapped up in their research, they hadn't noticed Nancy not coming around to Family Video anymore. She must have been doing her own research and, apparently, buying werewolf killing ammo. Had she somehow gotten it from the Lab? No. Nancy would never work with people like that. Would she?

"Nancy," Steve took a step forward. Nancy shot her hand out in front of her, Robin seeing it on her left, and fire materialized in a line in front of Eddie and Steve. Steve leaped back faster than she'd ever seen. His eyes betrayed his pure panic at the mere sight of the flames. Eddie grabbed his arm, snapping him out of it before he could spiral. Robin too took a step back instinctively, and her neck bumped against the gun, reminding her it was there.

"Not a step closer," Nancy yelled.

"What the fuck?" Robin whispered. That was impossible. How had Nancy done that? She probably could have figured it out, since the answer wasn't too hard, but her mind was spinning to fast from the cold metal of the gun and the memory inducing heat of the fire.

"How did you..." Eddie began.

"I did my research," Nancy said, clearly trying to steady her voice. "Clearly, wolves are also weak to fire."

Oh! She thought Steve and Eddie were wolves too. So she didn't know everything, but how did she know about werewolves? Also, how did she summon fire from nothing?!

"Yes, that," Eddie said, not correcting her about the wolf mix up, "But also how did you do that?"

"I'm asking the questions," Nancy growled again, turning off the fire and adjusting her aim. Robin felt the gun slide slightly further down her neck. It continued to shake ever so slightly. Nancy was trying to slow her breathing, but her heart was still pounding. "Now explain."

"Alright, Nancy," Robin pleaded, "Please please don't shoot me, okay? I didn't do anything! Clearly you know about the whole werewolf thing, but I swear I'm not doing any bad or sketchy shit. You know me Nancy. Your brother probably does sketchier stuff than me. I just happen to turn into a giant wolf, but I've never hurt anyone I swear! Except that rabbit the one time... but that was an accident! I'm not dangerous. I'm serious. Please."

Robin turned her head slightly, just so she could catch Nancy's eye. She looked into her eyes and saw fear. Pure, unbridled, fear. It hurt like a silver dagger through the heart to see Nancy so afraid of her.

"Please, Nance," she repeated pleadingly.

Something must have clicked because, after a few seconds of silence, Nancy sighed and dropped her gun to the side. She still gripped it tightly, ready to use, but at least it wasn't aimed at Robin's head. She could still hear Nancy erratic heartbeat and see her shake subtly.

"Rob!" Steve cried, moving at vampire speed to throw her behind him, putting himself between her and Nancy, even knowing Nancy could apparently just summon fire whenever. She appreciated his bravery, but she really didn't think Nancy would shoot her anymore.

Nancy took a fearful step back at Steve's sudden burst of speed, now holding a hand up defensively instead of her gun. That must have been how she did whatever she did to make fire.

"Steve," Robin said forcefully. Her best friend turned and looked at her, scared. "It's okay." He relaxed, but was still wary of Nancy, who was letting out quick, panicking breaths.

Her eyes kept scanning across the faces of the three, clearly not humans, in front of her. She was clearly scared out of her mind, but she still held her steely determination and unmatched courage in the way she stood; not hunched to make herself smaller defensively, but ready to counterstrike should they try anything.

"How about we all relax," Eddie cut in, "and just... talk." That sounded like a great idea. Talking was much better than shooting.

"How about we go to my house?" Steve suggested after a second. "It's late."

The three looked at Nancy. Her eyes flicked between them. She lowered her stance slightly, putting her hand down to her side again.

"Alright," she sighed. "But don't try anything." She gestured for them to lead the way, probably not wanting to walk in front where she couldn't see them.

They began to walk, at normal speed since doing what Steve did to Robin that one time would be a recipe for Nancy freaking out, towards Steve's house. Nancy still gripped her gun so hard her knuckles turned white. The air was tense; they didn't speak.

Steve and Eddie led the way, while Robin walked next to Nancy. It took all of her willpower not to try and ask questions to girl beside her, or try to explain herself. What had driven Nancy to aim a gun at her? She stole a glance over at her. Nancy wasn't paying attention to Robin, seeming to be slightly zoned out but probably still fully capable of reacting quickly should she be attacked, so Robin could take a good look at her.

Nancy's clothes were straked with dirt, small leaves caught on her curls, and there was a scratch, that importantly hadn't broken skin, right under her eye. The moon, not full, but still bright, was almost directly above of them, so it cast a slight shadow over Nancy's face. She was on edge; you could see it in the tension in her shoulders and the stiff way she walked. Her heartbeat still pounded loud enough that Robin knew the guys could hear it too.

What Robin wouldn't give to go back to the Nancy from last week, whose smile lit up the room, at least for Robin, when she walked in. The Nancy who'd laugh and tease Eddie for teasing Steve. The Nancy who'd fallen asleep on Robin during their Raiders of the Lost Ark movie night and left Robin at such an impasse on what to do she'd just left her there, and they'd woken up like that on the couch the next morning. Robin had thought she was having a heart attack.

Eventually, they reached Steve's house. When he unlocked the door, they got inside and sat down in his living room. Nancy was the first to say something.

"Explain," she stated simply. "Everything."

"I'm a werewolf," Robin began, "as you know. I got turned by a giant werewolf out of nowhere years ago a couple days after Will was found. I don't know where it went, but I know it isn't in Hawkins anymore. I can shift whenever I want, but I'm forced to under the full moon. I'm not actually weak to fire, just silver and I think wolfsbane might make me, like, blackout high or some shit."

"If you're not weak to fire," Nancy said, immediately picking out the piece of information that didn't fit in her head, "then..." Her gaze shifted to the guys.

"Yep," Steve cut in. "Eddie and I are not werewolves."

"We're vampires," Eddie continued, "but we don't bite humans or anything I swear. Just animals. It's like we're vegetarian vampires." Nancy's mouth twitched at Eddie's humour. "We got jumped by some rando vampire dude on Steve's way home from looking for Will. Motherfucker had hit my old car, and Steve stopped to help before that thing leaped out of the woods at us."

"Alright," Nancy said. "That makes... some sense? Now why were you—"

"Nope. Now it's your turn," Robin said. "Spill. How did you go from hanging out with us a couple of days ago, content and happy, to pointing a gun at my head and lighting the air on fire?"

Nancy looked down at her feet, almost ashamed.

"Fine... so first of all," she spread her hands open, "I'm a witch. I do magic and stuff."

Holy shit. Nancy was supernatural. Wait, do witches count as supernaturals? Probably. Normal humans didn't do magic. Robin probably should have figured she was supernatural when she started lighting things on fire.

"Wait, really?" Eddie said in disbelief.

Nancy shrugged with a 'guilty as charged' nervous smile. So this whole time, they'd been searching for other supernaturals and information about them, when they had one close by the entire time? It made a bit of sense, since Eddie, Steve, and Robin already knew each other. What did that science guy say about being drawn together?

"No way," Steve said. Nancy gave him an unimpressed look and flicked her hand to the side, summoning some fast projectile that shattered a vase into small pieces that went everywhere. "Hey! I didn't mean I didn't believe you! My mom likes that vase...when she's home. It's gonna be a pain in the ass to clean up."

"Sorry. Moving on," Nancy continued, "I was out grabbing some spell components—"

"What are spell components?" Robin interrupted. She shot Nancy an apologetically glance for cutting in.

"Just random stuff that helps me do magic," Nancy answered, "that doesn't, you know, involve blowing stuff up. Anyway, I was out grabbing some spell components, when I watched what I now know was you,"—she pointed at Robin—"shifting. After getting my shit together, I came back to the spot to try can catch you to make sure you weren't going to hurt anyone. I got there when you shifted back."

Robin flushed scarlet.

"You didn't happen to," she coughed, "see? Anything?"

Nancy's face went red and Steve bust out laughing.

"Shut up, Steve!" Robin cried. Hypocrite.

"N-no. I didn't. I gave you your privacy."

Robin let out a sigh. Thank god. She did not need to have Nancy seeing her naked go on the list of 'stuff to freak out about later' that was steadily growing the more this interaction went on. She was assuming this would all hit when she tried to go to sleep tonight, if she even slept at all.

"You know the rest," Nancy said without making eye contact with Robin. She could tell Nancy felt bad about the whole 'holding her at gunpoint' thing, but seeing how scared Nancy had been, Robin didn't blame her at all.

"So, what now?" Steve asked, glancing at Robin and Eddie. "Do we bring her into the loop?" Absolutely. They needed Nancy. She had figured more stuff out than the three of them combined in even less time. Then again, she did have the luck of accidentally seeing Robin, and she hadn't realized Robin was the wolf, but she was giving credit where credit was due. Nancy had somehow gotten her hands on silver after all.

"Yeah, no shit dingus," Robin scoffed. "We'd have solved this days ago if we'd have had Nancy."

"I'm glad you think so highly of me," Nancy smiled, finally relaxed slightly for once in the whole conversation, "but I'm going to need some context. I'm assuming this is about your investigation." She knew about that?

"How did you know about that?"

Nancy blushed, embarrassed again.

"I... may or may not have spied on you in the library once." When? Wouldn't the three people with supernatural hearing have heard her?

"Why didn't we hear you?" Steve asked, echoing Robin's thoughts.

Nancy pulled something out of her pocket, lavender from the smell, and crushed it. She whispered something in a language Robin didn't recognize, and her heartbeat and breathing went quiet. Nancy stood up and clapped a couple of times, but it didn't make a sound. Magic.

She then pulled a second thing out of her pocket and used it. Her sound returned.

"Woah..." Eddie whispered softly, like a kid who was shown their first magic trick, which, in a way, he was. "That's sick."

"Nothing much," Nancy shrugged, "but I did hear you guys in the library about that Victor Creel guy. I'm assuming that didn't go anywhere, so what are you looking for?"

Robin took a deep breath and prepped for the weird stuff. Honestly, she was struggling to wrap her head around all the stuff the lab was talking about herself.

"There's some guys," she began, "around the old Hawkins Lab. We're pretty sure they're hunting supernaturals. We're trying to find the, SNs as they call them, first, but without much luck. The library doesn't seem to hold a lot of the answers."

"How do they know we're here?" Nancy questioned.

"Some kind of energy we put out or something," Steve answered. "We're not entirely sure. All we know is there's a lot of it, so it must be more than the four of us."

"More than five?"

"Yeah. Why? Do you know someone?"

"Yes," Nancy replied, crossing her arms. "But I'm not saying who without their permission."

"That's fair," Eddie agreed. "I'd rather them be okay with it, so I didn't feel like a weird spy creep or anything."

"So more than just us..." Robin could almost see the gears turning in Nancy's head. "Do you think we'd know them?"

"One of the lab guys said supernaturals tend to clump," Steve shrugged, "or something like that. It's possible."

"What about one of the kids?" Robin suggested. The other three looked at her. "What?"

"I'd think I'd know if my brother was supernatural." Nancy said.

"Yeah," Robin agreed, "But it could be another one of the kids. They do weird shit all the time!"

"Just a couple days ago Dustin literally drank boiling hot soup without letting it cool down," Steve said. "That stuff should've burned him bad enough to at least have a reaction, but he didn't. He just kept eating it!"

"Okay, so we keep our eyes open," Nancy relented, "but if we suddenly stick our noses in their business, they'll be suspicious."

"We have to figure it out before the Lab does," Eddie insisted. "If it is one of the kids, I'm not putting them in danger." Everyone nodded in agreement. If, by any chance, one of the younger kids was supernatural, they had to at least find a way to warn them; to get them to be careful.

Robin watched Nancy squeeze her eyes shut and them open them again. Now that she wasn't coursing with adrenaline, she was probably tired. It was pretty late, and Robin didn't think Nancy was built for nighttime like the rest of them.

"We should go," Robin said. "I'll walk you home?"

"You don't have to," Nancy replied.

"I'm not letting you walk alone in the dark," Robin insisted. "Come on."

Nancy gave in and they said their goodbyes to the guys before heading back towards Nancy's house. Before they left, Nancy said one more thing.

"I'll warn the person I know, and I also might know a guy in Illinois who could have some information. Last resort though; I am not driving all the out there and dealing with him again so soon." The two girls then left the house.

As they walked, Nancy had slipped her gun back into her pocket, and now had her arms wrapped around herself. The temperature had dropped with the absence of the sun.

"Here," Robin said, shrugging off her jacket. She handed it over to Nancy, who looked like she was about to argue. "Just take it, Nance."

She took the jacket and put it on. The jacket was covered in patches. It was a bit big, but it looked really good on her. Robin wondered if her other jackets would look like that on Nancy.

Shut up, Robin.

"Rob, I," Nancy began, "I'm really sorry. I shouldn't have done that. As soon as I knew it was you I should have—"

"Nance it's—"

"Don't say it's okay, Robin!" Nancy stopped walking. "It's not okay. I pointed a gun at your head. I wasn't—" Nancy held the bridge of her nose and sighed. "I wasn't thinking. I should have known better. I wasn't acting like myself. I don't know..."

"Nancy you thought there was a monster," Robin replied, standing a bit ahead of her. "You didn't know it was me, and when you did, you still didn't know if I was dangerous or not. You didn't shoot me. That's what's important, right? I mean, what? You probably were scared for your family, right? I'd do the same thing in your shoes. Well, I probably wouldn't get as far as you did, but that's just because you're awesome and smart—"

"Okay," Nancy laughed. "I get it. You don't have to say all that."

Robin blushed, hoping Nancy wouldn't see it in the dark. Her mouth had run away from her again, but it was worth it to bring a smile back to Nancy's face. It's not like what she was saying wasn't true though; Robin would never have been able to put the pieces together like Nancy did. She only figured out who Steve and Eddie were because they'd saved her life. Oh, she'd probably have to tell Nancy about that at some point. Whatever. They had time.

They continued walking for a bit before Nancy spoke up again.

"I've never been that scared before," Nancy admitted. "At first, I was scared because I might get attacked or get hurt, but when I heard your voice... I was scared I might hurt you."

"You wouldn't have hurt me."

"I might have. If I'd thought you'd hurt other people."

"I would have deserved it then," Robin joked. "But honestly, Nance. I'm not upset or anything. I don't blame you. It was brave as hell though."

That got a small smile out of Nancy, causing Robin to smile in return. They came upon the Wheeler household and Nancy walked up to the door while Robin waited at the end of the driveway. Before going inside, Nancy turned around.

"Thanks for walking me home."

"Anytime, Wheeler."

Nancy smiled fondly before disappearing inside.

Robin made it halfway to Steve's house before she realized Nancy still had her jacket.

Chapter Text

The day began like any other. No plans; just waking up to enjoy a nice day at home. Maybe he'd draw or work on his painting. That sounded nice.

When Will ventured into the kitchen, he saw Jonathan at the table, sifting through photos. Jonathan noticed him and looked up.

"Mom and Hopper went to work," he said. "Is El up?"

"I don't think so," Will replied. "Why?"

Jonathan smiled. "Come over here."

Will walked up to the table and looked over Jonathan's shoulder at the photo he held. There was a person, who he eventually recognized to be Jonathan, facing away from the camera. Jonathan was completely surrounded by fire, like he was the sun. The background looked like it was on the edge of Lover's Lake, or some similar body of water. The moon reflected off of the surface of the water, which glowed golden with the fire reflecting as well. It was stunning.

"Woah," Will whispered. "How did you take it?"

"Argyle took it," Jonathan said. "I just told him which buttons to push. I had to light up right before he took it because it burned all of my clothes."

Will's mind backtracked to what Jonathan had said first.

"Argyle took it? So he..."

"He's chill," Jonathan insisted. "Don't worry."

It sat weird with Will that Jonathan had just told Argyle when Will had never told anyone about himself. Wasn't the whole point of keeping it a secret for their own safety? That's what Jonathan told him a million times when he had first started.

"Are you sure?" Will questioned again. "I thought we weren't going to tell anyone ever."

Jonathan tore his gaze away from his photos.

"Look, he didn't find out on purpose. I promise," Jonathan said. "It was an accident."

Will's eyes widened in surprise. Jonathan hadn't slipped up in a long time. Will was always on the edge of slipping up, and that's not even mentioning what happened last summer, and Jonathan always seemed perfectly in control.

"What'd you do?" Will asked.

"It's nothing," Jonathan waved him off, seemingly embarrassed. "Do you have any plans for today?"

"No," Will replied. He'd probably just stay inside. Maybe he'd go out if El wanted to.

Speaking of El, Will could hear her door opening, and Jonathan quickly put away his photos before putting an Eggo in the toaster in preparation. She thanked him when she entered the kitchen and noticed. Jonathan simply smiled and went to his room, probably to hide the photos.

When El sat down at the table, she proposed something to Will.

"I want to get Joyce flowers."

The thing about the three of them, being Jonathan, Will, and El, was despite their parents being together, they still called one of them by their actual name. El called Will's mom 'Joyce', and Will and Jonathan called El's dad 'Hopper'. It was just what felt right in a way.

"Why?" Will asked. "Is there a special occasion or something?"

El shook her head.

"I just want to do something fun to make her smile," she said. "But I do not want to go in the woods to get them alone."

Will froze up.

"We're not going too far into the woods, right?"

"No," she replied. "Just on the edge to find some flowers."

Will nodded. Edge of the forest he could do. The toaster popped and El went to grab the Eggo.

"Okay. After breakfast?" he asked. El nodded.

"Are you going to eat something?" El asked. Will shook his head.

"Not really hungry this morning," he shrugged. "I'll eat at lunch."

"Okay," she replied before lapsing into silence like they both often did. It wasn't uncomfortable silence though; they were just naturally quiet people.

This gave Will a little of time to think. So far, his summer had been amazing. He'd done a whole bunch of stuff with his friends, like playing D&D and watching movies, and he hadn't slipped up. Already, it was better than last year. It had been... normal. Well, as normal as it could be.

Normal. What an odd concept. Nothing about Will's life had even been textbook 'normal', but it didn't feel all that different to him. Unconventional things just seemed to go hand-in-hand with his life. First it had been El and the woods, then his fire, and of course his ever present, and ever incessant, feelings.

His chest twisted familiarly when his thoughts drifted. It was... well, annoying wasn't the correct word. He both hated and loved the way he felt. He both desperately wanted to be rid of them and wouldn't trade them for the world at the same time. It was hard. Sometimes he'd lie in bed and just want to scream. Scream until he was heard and maybe someone would understand.

But he couldn't. Because it was 1986; and he lived in Hawkins, Indiana; and nobody would understand. At least, nobody who was willing to put their own wellbeing in jeopardy for Will's. He was sure there were others like him, but they wouldn't speak up for the same reasons he wouldn't. It was like constantly wearing a disguise that you couldn't let slip, or else the ground would fall out from underneath you and nothing would ever be safe again.

Maybe he was overthinking it, but the basic facts remained steadfast and true; Will was hiding, and if he was found, he would get hurt. It was simple logic.

He must not have been as good at hiding as he thought though because somebody had apparently figured it out. Max hadn't exactly said that she knew, but she'd always given Will a certain look when he was with Mike. Lately she'd gotten bolder, subtly teasing him without ever elaborating, but he had a feeling they both knew what she was talking about. Somewhere deep inside of him, there was a sense of relief. Max knew. She knew and didn't hate his guts. She knew and didn't think it was disgusting. She knew and she didn't care.

He was snapped out of his thinking by the sound of clinking plates. El had finished breakfast.

"Ready to get going?" he asked, pushing back his chair and standing up. He looked up to see his sister has already migrated towards the back door. It made him smile.

"We'll be back!" Will shouted into the house to Jonathan. He received an affirmative shout from his brother, and they went outside and into the woods past the shed.

The woods wasn't exactly a meadow overflowing with wildflowers, but it was summer in a wild place filled with plants, so there were pockets of smaller flowers sprinkled in between towering maples and gnarling undergrowth. The sun, not yet at it's highest in the sky, made flickering shadows that danced through the trees. It was beautiful, and Will briefly considered trying to paint it later if he found himself inspired.

They went around collecting flowers, mostly yellow and purple, and generally enjoying the sun. It was nice outside today, and since it was morning, he could still see. That was important.

Eventually, they happened upon a large tree with something making noise at the base. It looked like a bundle of sticks or grass.

"What is that?" El asked. Will shrugged and walked over to see, looking inside. It was a small bird's nest with a chick inside. It was fluffy and frail with wide, dark eyes. It chirruped loudly, calling for its mother. It didn't look hurt, since the nest must have cushioned it's fall, but it must have fallen out of the tree.

"It's a bird," Will replied. "I think it fell out of the tree." He scooped up the nest, careful not to touch the bird inside lest his humanness rub off on it, making the mother abandon it.

"We can't just leave it here," he said sadly, looking up into the tree. Maybe he'd be able to put it back? There were lots of low hanging branches for him to use, so it was possible. He walked over to the tree and grabbed onto a branch, cradling the nest in the crook of his arm.

"Will, this is not a good idea," El insisted as he climbed.

"It'll get," Will grunted with effort as he hauled himself higher, "eaten if we leave it." The branches were getting thinner as he got higher, but he could see the hole in the tree where the nest had previously been, evidenced by bits of nest resting on the edges. He could feel bits of bark getting stuck in his hair when he scraped by certain branches. The leaves were thick, and he could barely see El below him.

He carefully transferred the small creature in the nest out of his arms and fit it snuggly into the cavity. The baby was still squawking loudly and wriggling about. It seemed so small compared to Will and the tree. How big would it grow to be? Maybe a raven or a hawk. Or maybe it would just be a small sparrow. Whatever it turned out to be, now it had a chance to do thanks to Will. How might this have gone if he hadn't decided to come out here today, or if they'd taken a different route?

"Will," El repeated worriedly. Will removed himself from his thoughts.

"Okay, okay," he called out, "I'm coming down." Now having access to both his hands, he began to make his way down the tree. The branches were a lot thinner than he'd originally thought and they kept bending slightly under his weight. Wow. He really was high up wasn't he.

"Hey, El. I'm not sure—"

Crack.

The branch beneath him snapped and his hands slipped off the branch he was holding in his unpreparedness. They say your life flashes before your eyes when you're about to die, but it wasn't like that for Will. It was quiet, like the world had been submerged underneath the water. It reminded him of summer's spent in the pool, both the public one when they were younger and Steve's more often nowadays, when he would dive into the deep end and for a split second the world stopped and there was nothing but a slight blur of light entering through the water before it was shattered by someone else joining him. He'd tried to capture it once before in paint, but he couldn't quite grasp the sunlight through water.

There was a scream that cut through the quiet, probably El's, but it was muffled by Will's heartbeat which roared in his ears as his fire burned right beneath his skin in his desperation. Suddenly, he jerked to a stop. Had he hit the ground? Will opened his eyes he hadn't realized he closed, but he wasn't looking up at tree branches far above him. They were still around him, and he could feel nothing underneath him. Was he dead? A ghost maybe?

He lifted his head. No, he wasn't dead, but he was floating in mid-air halfway between the tree and the ground. This must have been what it felt like to be in space, except he wasn't in space. He was on Earth, and gravity still existed. The bark falling around him from the broken tree limb proved it. An unseen force slowly moved him downwards, like sinking after a dive, until it unceremoniously dropped him onto the ground.

For a second, he didn't move, almost stuck in a moment, stunned. Then, he whipped his head around to look at El. She stood behind him, panting like she'd just exerted herself. Her arm was held weakly out in front of her like she'd just started to drop it to her side. Her nose was bleeding.

"How...did you... I don't..." Will struggled to form words. Suddenly El's eyes drooped and she began to lean forward and Will scrambled onto his feet to catch her, both of them sinking to the ground.

"You are...heavy," she laughed tiredly. "I have not done that in a while. I was not ready."

"That was you?"

"Yes," She looked up at him with a spark of nervousness in her eyes. "You are not going to tell anyone right? It's not safe. I can't...they..."

"Of course," Will said, "but, who's they?"

El opened and closed her mouth like she was trying to decide to speak or not before settling on, "It's not safe."

"Are you safe?"

El thought about it for a moment.

"Right now, yes. I think. Maybe."

"Alright then," Will replied. "I won't force you to talk about it. Let's go back home?" El nodded in agreement and Will helped her stand up. As they were walking back, Will considered telling her about himself. It was only fair right? Almost like a trade. Argyle knew about Jonathan, so surely it wouldn't be a problem if El knew about Will. He honestly didn't know. Keeping secrets felt terrible, but he'd been doing it for so long he didn't even know how to begin. How would he even explain?

He looked down at his hand. He knew that if he wanted to, he could set the entire forest ablaze with just a thought. He might even set the trees on fire without a thought. He'd done something similar before; an outburst he'll regret until the day he dies.

Would she be afraid of him? He would hope not. Her abilities seemed much scarier than Will's, but fire was a funny thing when it came to people's fear. It's ingrained in kids from a young age to never play with fire. Don't touch the stove. Don't play with matches. Stay back from the campfire. Fearing fire was natural. Will was scared of himself sometimes.

He felt like a living bomb with the clock slowly ticking away until he exploded and reset the timer. He didn't want to hurt anyone, but fire burns anything it touches. The disconnect was there, stemmed from a broken ankle, pouring rain, and days in the woods. He could feel when he drifted off center from his friends because they could never understand, and even more so when suddenly he became a walking matchbox.

Will tried to go back to normal, but he'd been shifted out of alignment. He'd had to find a new normal where he constantly had to check himself to make sure he didn't slip. It was exhausting.

They got home El grabbed a glass of water while Will put their flowers in a vase for Joyce to find when she got home. "Jonathan?" Will called out into the house. He didn't get a response, so Jonathan must have left while they were out. Just then, there was a knock at the door, so he went to answer it while his sister stayed in the kitchen. He opened it to see a woman he didn't recognize. Behind her stood a tall man with white hair.

"Hello!" the woman greeted. "Is this the Byers residence?"

"Yeah," Will replied, "but my mom isn't home, so, bye." He motioned to close the door.

"Young man," the tall man caught the door with his hand before pulling back. "We're with the Department of Energy. We just need to do a quick to make sure your electricity is functioning. We're doing this for all the houses."

"Uh..." Will didn't know exactly what to do. They looked professional, but letting strangers into the house was an inherently bad idea.

"Will, who is there?" El came around the corner to look at who was at the door. It must have been only a second, so fast that Will didn't fully understand what happened, but El's eyes widened and the door suddenly slammed like it had be blown by the wind. She bolted and Will ran after her, panicked.

"What was that? Are you okay? Why did you close the—" BLAM. BLAM. "—are they trying to get in?!"

"Bad men," El replied unhelpfully. She sounded terrified. "We need to leave."

"Where?" Will floundered.

"Anywhere!" she cried back, and they both bolted out the back door and into the woods. They might be able to lose them in there.

Will could hear the revving of some kind of engine behind them. They had vehicles of some sort, but the two kids had a head start and the advantage of them not knowing where the two were going. Once they got some distance between them and house, they cut back into Hawkins. They needed to find a place to go where they wouldn't be found for now, just until they could figure out what was going on.

"Aren't we near Max's house?" Will asked, looking around. El's eyes lit up.

"Yes! Maybe we can hide there for a bit?" Will, although reluctant to drag another person into this weird manhunt with 'the bad men' didn't have a better idea, so he agreed and followed El in the direction of Max's house.

When Max opened the door her face cycled through about five or six different emotions in the span of a second before settling on confusion.

"What are you two doing here?"

"Can we come in?"

"Umm..." Max looked back inside the house. "My... mum isn't home right now. Is that okay?"

"It's probably better," Will said. Max once again looked extremely confused, but moved aside to let them in. Will, simply being the way that he was, studied his surroundings.

The house looked barely lived in. There were traces of Max littered about, like a stray sweater or hair elastic, but he didn't see any other bits of people in the house. Maybe her parents were just really tidy. When they moved further in, Will saw a couple of dishes in the sink, not yet washed. Max's skateboard was leaning up against the wall, and her Walkman was on the kitchen table.

"Okay, spill," Max said. "You two are being weird." Will glanced at El. How much could they tell her?

"There are bad men after us. Me," El explained. "We were close to your house."

"Bad men?" Max questioned. "Like a gang or something? Why would they be after you?"

"They said they were with the Department of Energy," Will divulged further, "but I'm pretty sure they're lying."

"Yeah, no shit. Now, again, why are they after you?"

El shifted uncomfortably.

"You don't have to say, I guess," Max quickly added, noticing her shift in demeanor, "but it would help me wrap my head around all of this."

"No, it's okay," El replied, "but it would be easier to show you." El turned her focus to the skateboard, which was leaning a little ways away from her. She held her hand out, seemingly focusing. A little bit of blood trickled from her nose and the board flew into her hand. Max jumped back, startled.

"Holy shit. That's insane."

"She caught me when I fell out of a tree," Will expanded.

"Do I even want to know?"

"I was saving a baby bird..."

"Whatever, Byers." Max pinched the bridge of her nose. "Well, I don't know. I'd love to let you stay, but I don't exactly live in a fortress. They'll find you here at some point I'd think, probably will check every house in town."

The three sat in silence for a bit trying to think. Where could they go? There wasn't a lot of hiding spots in Hawkins. Castle Byers maybe? That wasn't good long term though. El suddenly clapped her hands.

"Dad’s old cabin!" She exclaimed. "Do you remember, Will?" He did in fact remember. It was where Hopper had lived for a while when he first started taking care of El, before he moved in with them. He still owned the cabin, but they hadn’t been out there in a while, only for upkeep until they could figure out what to do with it.

“That,” he replied, “Just might work. Hop never really talked about it, so it would be pretty secretive. It’s in the middle of nowhere.”

“Sounds perfect,” Max agreed. “Let’s go.”

Will gave her a questioning look. “You’re coming?”

“Of course,” Max scoffed. “I’m not going to just leave you to get hunted. I can help. Trust me.” Will didn’t exactly know how a regular person was going to help against a bunch of adults who at this point probably had guns, but the relief on El’s face was enough for him to keep quiet. “Now where is this cabin?”

“Few miles outside of town I think,” Will replied.

“You guys didn’t happen to bring your bikes?” Both siblings shook their heads.

“We’ll have to walk then,” Max sighed. “What’s the fastest way?”

“Cut through town,” El replied. “It is on the other side.” Max oddly looked reluctant to cut through town, but it would take way too long to go all the way around. It was unreasonable.

“Alright, alright,” Max said. “We’ll go through town quickly and then head to the cabin. The ‘bad men’ are probably still looking for you guys near your house.”

“And the forest,” El added.

“We ran here through the woods,” Will explained.

“That’s good, actually,” Max replied. “If they’re looking for you over here, they won’t be look in on the other side of town.” Will nodded, but how long would it take until they gave up and started searching wider?

“Let’s get out of here,” Max concluded, grabbing a blue jacket off a chair and throwing it on. Even though it was summer, today was windy causing the temperature to drop a little. At least, that’s what El had told him in the woods. Will couldn’t feel the difference do to how hot his regular body temperature was.

“What about your parents?”

“It’ll be fine,” she brushed off. “What about yours?” Will had forgotten about that. His mom would be worried if they just disappeared.

“We can’t exactly go back to the house,” he answered reluctantly. “Mom’s smart though. She’ll figure out where we are, and she has Hop to help her. ”

“Okay,” Max replied. “Take these, it might help.” She threw them both one of her jackets, El’s with a hood to put on, and the three of them headed out the front door.

While they were walking, all three had their heads a on a swivel, looking around for any sign of the Department of Energy people. There were midday shoppers out and about, but there were no white vans or suspicious looking people to be seen. Will knew he couldn’t relax though, as they could appear at any moment.

Unfortunately, as they were walking down the road just past town, so there were no houses for now, a white van appeared on the horizon. They were less than a mile away from the cabin.

“Shit, do we run for it?” Max asked, “It’s only one.”
“We can’t outrun a van,” Will replied. “Even if we go into the woods, they’ll catch up to us or call in back up.”

“Maybe we can hide?” El suggested. It was too late for that though, as the van had spotted them and was speeding up.

“Shit!” Max yelled as they spun and started to sprint. If they ducked into the woods now, they’d be followed to the cabin. The van was gaining fast, so Will did something he’d never thought he’d do in a million years.

“DUCK!” He screamed to his sister, who was behind him and now flung herself to the ground, as he spun and threw his hands out in front of him. He forced all of his heat into his hands and let it go as the car got in range.

Flames burst from his hands and engulfed the truck, which swerved off the road before exploding into a flaming ball of death as it rolled over into the ditch.

“WHAT THE FUCK, BYERS?” Max cried.

“Go, go, go!” Will pulled El to her feet and pushed the girls forward as they continued to run towards the cabin. Eventually, they made it there, panting and tired.

“I’m going to need a goddamn explanation,” Max whirled on Will. Will shrugged in response, not really sure what to say.

“It’s called pyrokinesis,” he began. “I’m basically like a living, breathing, furnace. I can make fire.”

“Is that why you are so warm all of the time?” El asked.

“Probably,” Will shrugged again.

“How are neither of you a regular person?”

“…I’m adopted.”

“My dad I guess.”

Max sighed. “Let’s just go inside please.”

The Hopper-Byers kids followed their friend inside, El unlocking the door with her mind. It was just how Will remembered it from the couple times he had visited. It was slightly smaller than their normal house, little but comfortable furniture situated in the centre, connected to the kitchen and with two rooms, presumably Hopper and El’s old rooms respectively, also off to the side separated by doors. It was eerily clean like it hadn’t been lived in, which it hadn’t for a while, and it almost seemed like they were disturbing something by entering.

Obviously though, not to Max, who immediately flopped onto the couch and let out a frustrated groan.

“This is insane,” she spoke into her hands, which covered her face. “This is actually insane.”

“Tell me about it,” Will sighed. Not only had he been chased by a bunch of random dudes after his sister, who apparently had powers like him, he had also revealed his powers to not one, but two people. All he had wanted was a nice day at home to draw and relax, maybe going out with everyone if they found something especially fun to do. This wasn’t even remotely close to what he imagined could happen in just a day.

El had walked over to her old room and pushed the door open to look inside. Nothing had really been moved, either than all of her belongings, which now resided in her room back home.

“What do we even do now?” Max asked. “We don’t have any food. The water still runs here though, right?”

“Yeah,” Will replied, walking over to and testing the sink just in case. It worked. “I’m sure Hop must have left some canned food or something around. Plus, it shouldn’t take too long for Mom to find us.”

“Question is, who finds us first?”

“My mom. I hope.”

“Joyce will find us,” El said hopefully. Will prayed she was right.

“So, before we get all settled in and stuff,” Max added, “There’s something I want to show you guys. You know, eye for an eye and all that.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I mean, you both trusted me with your…abnormality, so it’s only fair I add my own to the mix, right?”

“You don’t have to tell us anything you don’t want to,” El replied.

“It’s fine,” Max said. “As long as you don’t sell me out to anyone or anything, which you won’t because I have blackmail.”

Will rolled his eyes with a smile. “We wouldn’t tell even if you didn’t know about us, right El?”

“Yeah!”

Max laughed. “I still want to. It’s not like I could back out at this point anyway.” Will was curious now.

Max took a deep breath and the air in front of her shimmered and wavered like a mirage. Suddenly, Max was still there, but different. Something poked out through the sides of her hair, which Will realized were actually the tips of her ears, and there was something… sharper about her. She was still Max, but something had changed.

“Woah,” Will whispered, “What did you do?”

“This is what I actually look like,” The air shimmered again, and Max was back to normal. “I’m a fae.”

“Like…”

“Magical creature, yes. Wings, no. Thankfully.”

“How?” El asked.

“It’s an illusion,” Max explained, “I can bend light to change what people see. I can even turn invisible if I want.” Max suddenly disappeared before reappearing seconds later.

"That's so cool," El replied with awe. Max flushed, embarrassed, and looked down at her feet.

"I guess," she said. "Isn't it a bit weird that were all... you know..."

"It's only three of us," Will shrugged, "but yeah. It is kind of weird."