Beyond the Battle: Action & Consequence (Steddie, Stranger Things)

Chapter 2: The Aftermath

Clean and in army fatigues, Steve found himself sitting at a long table with most of the rest of their rag tag group, eating something he hadn't even asked what it was, but that tasted pretty good.

"How's the head?" he asked Will, who had ended up sitting opposite him.

"Mostly okay," Will replied and gave him a smile. "How's yours?"

"Mostly okay," he echoed Will's sentiment, which made the kid's smile even wider.

"It's like cafeteria mystery meat casserole," Robin complained from beside him as she prodded her portion with a fork.

"Tastes good," Steve promised.

"How could you tell?" she asked. "I'm pretty sure you inhaled yours without anything touching the sides."

Steve looked down and realised his plate was all but empty. Possibly he had been a little hungrier than he had realised.

"In my defence," he said, "I haven't eaten anything since yesterday morning before dawn."

"All yours," Robin said, pushing her plate towards him. "I'm going to find some toast. They're bound to have toast, right?"

Steve felt guilty for about ten seconds, before he gave in to his stomach and ate Robin's donated lunch as well. When Robin returned with a plate piled high with hot buttered toast, he might possibly have given her the puppy eyes until she let him have a slice of that too.

"Only because I love you," she told him as she fended off anyone else who so much as looked at her prize.

"No fair," Dustin complained and almost pulled back a stump when he tried to sneak a triangle.

That they had been fighting for their lives the previous morning and now they were arguing over toast made Steve smile and then laugh when Mike got hit with a fork.

"Get your own," was all Robin growled.

Steve was considering seeing if he could wangle another helping of mystery meat when something distracted him. It was weird, at first he had no idea what had grabbed his attention, even though something definitely had. Almost like hearing a noise, but not knowing where it was coming from. When he looked up and saw Will looking around, brow crinkled in thought as well, the back of his neck prickled.

Their eyes met.

"Do you think ..?" Steve started to say, but he really wasn't quite sure how to express what he was feeling.

"We need to be somewhere else?" Will asked quietly, also clearly confused.

Steve nodded.

"El," they both whispered at the same time and Steve stood without even thinking.

"Hey, Steve, where are you going?" Robin asked him, but Steve barely heard her.

With Will at his shoulder, they walked very quickly towards part of the base Steve hadn't been to yet, but that seemed like the right way to go. Of one accord they both broke into a run. Luckily everyone got out of their way because Steve was in full tank mode, his body moving of its own accord while his higher thoughts didn't even try to keep up.

They burst into a room about twice the size of the one Steve had woken up in, to find a lot of worried people and some machines making peculiar noises, all centred around El, lying in a bed looking much smaller and more fragile than Steve had ever seen her. Hopper was standing anxiously at the end of her bed, while two white coated people stood either side of it.

Neither Steve nor Will hesitated as they crossed the distance between them and the bed.

"Move," Steve said when the doctor failed to get out of his way.