~ Our Forever ~ Steve Harrington

*S3 Chapter Six*

"So you're telling me after an entire day of decoding... you've come up with absolutely nothing?"

"It's not my fault-"

"Russian is really hard-

"A day is hardly enough time to even begin-"

"English is hard enough for me-"

"If there was some sort of direct translator, then maybe-"

"Im a failure, I failed you-"

"Hey hey, woah, you're right, it's ok," I put my hands up, silencing whatever excuses they had. "Sorry I wasn't able to help at first, but Billy was kinda in a bad mood yesterday and I really didn't wanna have to explain to him why I was sneaking out to decode a secret Russian transmission my 13-year-old friend found."

"I'm fourteen!" Dustin protested, looking up at Steve in annoyance, who raised an eyebrow in return.

"I thought you were twelve."

"Wha- I turn fifteen in like four months!" he yelled, his voice cracking slightly. I couldn't help but laugh, but immediately shut up when I saw his face.

"Alright, sorry, you just look a lot younger," I deadpanned, to which Dustin threw himself back against his chair in frustration. "Anyway, my point is I couldn't come yesterday, I'm here now, let's get to work."

The two boys shared a look, before Dustin sighed and pulled out the walkie-talkie. He held it out and pushed the play button, repeating the Russian message. I nodded as if I had somehow made sense of the code, and ran my hand through my thick brown hair.

"So where do we start?" I was staring down at the floor in an attempt to replay the words in my head.

"That's kinda our biggest dilemma, we don't really know," Dustin sounded tired as he played the sound again. Steve, who had started eating a banana in the corner, raised a finger at the machine.

"Is anyone else hearing that music?" He questioned.

Dustin seemed annoyed with this question. "What music, Steve?"

"On the message, the music in the background, it sounds familiar," he elaborated further, eating another bite of banana.

"Why are you focusing on the music? We're trying to decode the Russian!" Dustin snapped.

"No, no, Steve has a point..." I couldn't help but agree, reaching over to grab the walker as Dustin pulled it away. "Hey, can I at least see it?!"

"You guys aren't focusing on what really matters!"

"Just let her play the damn tape, genius, what harm does it do?"

"Alright, babysitting is over, you need to get in there" a new voice chimed in from behind me. Someone screamed... I think it was Steve.

My head whipped around to see a bored-looking Robin, who was now stalking over to the whiteboard we had been using to decode the letters. "Hey- my board! That was important data, shit-birds."

If I was remembering correctly, that board was to count all of the times Steve "sucked". I don't think he was doing very well.

Dustin rolled his eyes at the tall brunette. "I guarantee what we are doing is much more important than your data."

"Oh yea? And how do you know these Russians are up to no good anyway?" Robin announced, staring at us all with a proud smirk. The three of us fell silent.

After a beat, I held my hands up.

"Before anyone asks, I didn't tell her"

Steve and Dustin began openly accusing the other in hushed tones.