Beautiful Destruction.

One.

She stood, on the pavement, waiting for him to appear. She knew he would be here any minute now. It was just unfortunate that it was dark earlier since they were in the later months of the year. On the bright side, she'd almost completed a year of therapy, and served her sentence. And she was more than thankful to Hopper for keeping her out of jail. Even though that event very well brought some of the best moments of her life, it also brought the worst. She shuddered everytime she thought about it. Everytime she thought about those words.

"You are the upside down."

She didn't believe him. How could she? It seemed too far fetched to be true. And yet, as she stood, on the pavement, waiting for him to appear, she looked up, and found the sky was no longer just dark, but it was now red too. She turned her head, finding a thick layer of dust in the air, and a completely empty street around her. The crack of lightning cause her to look back to the sky, and as it sounded again, the outline of a figure could be seen lurking above Hawkins. In was huge, standing on more that eight legs. It looked almost as if it was made out of clouds. Not that she could tell if it had a face, but she knew with every cell in her body that it had seen her, and it was looking right at her.

"You are the upside down. And the upside down, is you."

She was caught by surprise when a pair of arms snaked around her waist, causing her to turn her head, a smile then coming over her face when she heard his voice.

"Hello, my gorgeous girl." He spoke.

"Where've you been, I've been waiting." She said, the world around her -or lack there of- completely slipping her mind.

"I know, their doing some work on the next street, the traffic's been backing up." He sighed. She turned to face him, draping her arms around his neck and his hands found her waist. "How'd it go today?"

"Good, I think." She shrugged.

"She ask about the crash again?"

"That's all she wants to talk about. I mean, I get it, but... I don't wanna relive it anymore, y'know."

"I know."

"We did talk about you though, actually."

"Me?" She nodded. "Why?"

"Because you're my medication, Harrington, and it's best that she knows that I'm being looked after."

"Well, I do try my best." He smiled, pressing his lips against hers for a moment. "Alright, c'mon. We're picking up Dustin next."

"Are we?"

"Yeah, he called me and asked if you were with me for a ride home, and I said no, and he then very passive-aggressively suggested that if I don't pick him up, there's a strong possibility he's gonna murder me, and act sad when you tell him I'm missing so..."

"He said that?" He nodded. "That litte- you don't have to do him any favours, y'know."

"He's your brother, and you love him more than life, and if we're gonna be together, we're gonna be together, we've gotta learn to get along, me and him. 'Cause what's he gonna do when we get married? Is he still gonna hate me then?"

"Doing what he tells you isn't a good way to win him over... he knows you'll do whatever he says, whenever he says it because you're after his approval, which you don't need, by the way."

"You don't get it, and it's fine, why would you."

"Steve-"

"Look, it's not that I'm after his approval, it's just that he's not okay with the fact that there's another man in your life, and I want him to know I'm in it for the long run, alright, so if he wants a ride home, he'll get a ride home."