Our Never Ending Story | Steve Harrington x Reader

[2] The Code

Another miserable day at work. I sigh and serve customers before going on my break with Steve.
"So, are we going to talk about last night?" He asks.
"Nope." I say and eat some ice cream.
"Do you regret it?" He asks me.
"I said we weren't gonna talk about it." I say.

"Are they here?" A familiar voice asks.
Me and Steve look at each other. We run out the door.

"Henderson!" Steve says smiling. Dustin starts laughing as Steve runs to him.
"Henderson! He's back! He's back!" Steve yell.
"I'm back! You got the job!" Dustin shouts.
"I got the job!" Steve repeats and imitates a trumpet and they do their handshake.
"How many children are you friends with?" Robin asks him.
We sit down and give Dustin a free ice cream boat. He tells us about his "new" girlfriend.
"No way. Hotter that Phoebe Cates? No." Steve says.
"Mm-hm." Dustin says, "Brilliant, too. And she doesn't even care that my real pearls are still coming in. She says kissing is better without teeth."
"Gross." I comment when Steve nudges me.
"That's great. Proud of you, man." Steve stammers.
"Yeah, that's kinda romantic." I say nodding my head slowly.
"So do you really just get to eat as much of this as you want?" Dustin asks us.
"Yeah. Sure." Steve says.
"Not a good idea for little Stevie though. Gotta keep in shape for the ladies." I say winking at him.
"Yeah, and how's that working out for him?" Robin asks laughing.
"Ignore her." Steve says.
"She seems cool." Dustin says.
"She's not. So, where are the other knuckleheads?" Steve asks.
"They ditched my yesterday." Dustin says.
"No." Steve says.
"You're first day back?" I ask.
"Mm-hm. First day back and they ditch me. Can you believe that shit?" Dustin asks annoyed.
"Whoa. Seriously?" Steve asks.
"I swear to God. They're gonna regret it, big time, when they don't get to share in my glory." Dustin says.
"Glory?" I ask.
"What glory?" Steve asks.
He signals for us to come closer so we move our heads closer and he whispers something.
"What?" I ask and he huffs.
He whispers again but we can't hear him.
"Dude, speak louder."
"I intercepted a secret Russian communication!" He yells.
Everyone looks at us.
"Jesus, shh. Yeah, okay, that's what I thought you said." I say.
"What does that mean?" Steve asks.
"It means, my dear friends, we could be heroes. True American heroes." Dustin says and I roll my eyes.
"American heroes." Steve smirks.
"Just think, you could have all the ladies you want and more." Dustin boasts.
"More?" Steve asks.
"More." Dustin says.
"I like more." Steve says.
"What's the catch?" I ask.
"No catch, I just need your help translating." Dustin says and pulls out a Russian book.

We go to the back and Dustin plays the Russian message.
"So what do you think?" Dustin asks.
"It sounded familiar." Steve says putting a chunk of banana in his mouth.
"What?" Dustin asks confused.
"The music. The music right there at the end." Steve says.
"Why are you listening to the music, Steve? Listen to the Russian! We're translating Russian!" Dustin yells annoyed.
"I'm trying to listen to the Russian, but there's music-" Steve begins when Robin bursts through the door.
"All right, babysitting time is over. You need to get in there." She says.
She looks at the wall where we've put the Russian alphabet on it and gets annoyed.
"Hey, my board! That was important data, shitbirds." Robin yells.
"I guarantee you, what we're doing is way more important than your data." Dustin says.
"Yeah?" Robin asks.
"Mm-hm."
"And how do you know these Russians are up to no good anyways?" Robin asks and Dustin looks up at me.
"How does she know about the Russians?" He asks me.
"I don't know?!" I shrug.
"You told her about it?" Dustin asks.
"Wasn't me." I say.
"Hello, I can hear you. Actually, I can hear everything. You three are extremely loud. You think you have evil Russians plotting against our country, on tap, and you're trying to translate, but haven't figured out a word because you didn't realise Russians use an entirely different alphabet then we do. Sound about right?" She asks us and we all look at each other. She goes to grab walkie talkie when Steve pulls it away from her.
"Whoa! What do you think you're doing?" He asks her.
"I wanna hear it." Robin says.
"Why?" Me, Dustin and Steve all ask at the same time.
"Cause, maybe I can help. I'm fluent in four languages, you know." Robin says.
"Russian?" I ask.
"Ou-yay are-yay umb-day." Robin says in pig Latin. Steve and Dustin laugh at each other impressed.
"That was Pig Latin, idiots." I say and Steve hits Dustin with his banana peel.
"Idiot." He says.
"But I can speak Spanish, French and Italian and I've been in band for 12 years. My ears are little geniuses, trust me." Robin says and we look at each other, not sure weather to let her.
"Come on, it's your turn to sling ice cream, my turn to translate. I don't even want credit. I'm just bored." Robin says and Steve hands her the walkie talkie and she hands him the scoop.

After what seems like forever, we finally translate most of the message;

"The week is long, the silver cat feeds, when blue meets yellow in the west."

We lock down the ice cream parlour.
"Are you sure you translated it correctly?" I ask Robin.
"Yeah, I'm sure." She says.
"Honestly, I think it's great news." Dustin says.
"How is this great news? I mean, so much for being American heroes. It's total nonsense." Steve complains.
"It's not nonsense. It's too specific. It's obviously a code." Dustin says.w
"What do you mean a code?" I ask.
"Like a super secret spy code." Dustin says.
"That's a total stretch." Steve says.
"I don't know, is it?" Robin asks and Steve sighs in disappointment.
"You're buying into this?" Steve asks her.
"Listen, just for kicks, let's entertain the possibility that it is a secret Russian transmission. What'd you think they were gonna say? Fire the warhead at noon?" Robin asks.
"That's a good point." I say looking at Steve.
"Exactly." Dustin says.
"And my translation is correct. I know that for sure, so... the silver cat feeds. Why would anyone talk like that-" Robin begins.
"Unless it's a code." I finish.
"Exactly." Dustin agrees.
"And why would anyone mask the true meaning of their message unless the message was somewhere sensitive." Robin says.
"Exactly." Dustin says repeats.
"So I guess that confirms our suspicions." I say.
"Evil Russians." Dustin says.
"I can't believe I'm about to agree this this strange child, but, yeah, totally evil Russians." Robin chuckles.
"So how do we crack it?" Dustin asks.
"Well, I guess we translate the test and hopefully a pattern emerges." Robin says.
"A pattern. Right, like maybe 'silver cat' is a meeting place?" Dustin suggests
"Or a person?" Robin says.
"Or a weapon." I say.
"It's probably gonna take a super genius to crack it, but.." Robin says and stops and looks around.
"Where's Steve?" She asks and we look behind us and see him emptying his pockets infront of a riding horse.
"Hey, Steve! What are you doing?" Robin asks him.
"Uh, it's a quarter. Do you have a quarter?" Steve asks us all.
"Are you sure your big enough for that ride?" I ask him making Robin laugh.
"Quarter!" He yells and I give him one and he puts it in and listens.
"You need help getting up, little Stevie?" Robin asks him. Me and Dustin laugh at her comment.
"Shh!" Steve says, "would you two just shut up and listen?"
I listen and realise the music sounds familiar. The music in the background of the message.
"Holy shit." I say and Dustin and Robin look at me confused.
"The music." I say and get out Dustins walkie out of his bag and turn it on to the message. You can hear it.
"I don't understand." Robin says.
"It's the exact same time on the message." I say.
"Maybe they have horses like this in Russia." Robin suggests.
"The Indians Flyer? I don't think so." Steve says.
"So the message didn't come from Russia-" I start to say.
"It came from here." Steve says.