Halley's comet | Steve Harrington

iii.iii i'm half crazy

"𝑱𝒆𝒔𝒖𝒔—𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒑. 𝑺𝒕𝒐𝒑 𝒊𝒕,"

⋆༺𓆩❀𓆪༻⋆

"It sounds familiar," Steve said, popping the bottom of his banana into his mouth. Halley sat atop the table Dustin was sitting at with his recorder rewinding his tape to play it again and again. And then again, once more.

She'd been dragged into the backroom after Dustin's little outburst, and he'd given her the run down of his radio signal interception. She was vastly confused on what plans Russians could possibly have in Hawkins, but she did not voice that to her present company.

"What?" Dustin asked, pressing the stop button, finally.

"The music." He gave Dusin a look as if what he was saying was blatantly obvious. "The music. Right there at the end."

"It's Daisy Bell," Halley supplied, her voice low as she gestured at the recorder, "I hate Daisy Bell." It had been her parents' wedding song, the one that Joyce used to play over and over when things were first getting bad with Lonnie, to try and 'remember the good times'. The first notes alone were enough to make Halley sick.

Dustin gave the two of them an incredulous look. "Why are you listening to the music? Listen to the Russian. We're translating Russian!" he was waving his hand around as if it would make him more authoritative. He looked the same as when he was younger and got angry during a campaign. Halley stifled a smile.

"I'm trying to listen to the Russian, but the music the—Daisy Bell—I guess, it's—"

The door swung open, and Robin entered with a dull look in her eyes. "Alright, babysitting time is over. You need to get in there," She jutted over her shoulder with her scooper. From the brief view from the swinging door, there was a line forming at the counter. Robin went rigid then her movement became more intentional, her eyes glancing over the three, then settling on the whiteboard covered in the Russian alphabet. "My board! That was important data, shitbirds!"

Dustin scoffed, "I guarantee you, what we're doing is way more important than your data."

Robin was unamused. Raising an eyebrow as she turned from her board to face Dustin and Steve. "Yeah? And how do you know these Russians are up to no good anyways?"

Halley watched as the two boys to her side paled, looking down at each other. "How does she know about the Russians?" Dustin asked, his voice barely a whisper.

"I don't know."

"You told her about—"

"It wasn't me."

Dustin's attention went to Halley, eyes narrowing. "You told her?" The boy was plagued with betrayal, but before Halley could defend herself, Robin spoke again.

"Hello, I can hear you." She waited for the realization to hit, a mirthless smile on her face, "Actually, I can hear everything. You are extremely loud." She pursed her lips, raising an eyebrow as she continued, "you think you have evil Russians plotting against our country, on tape, and you're trying to translate, but haven't figured out a word because you didn't realize Russians use an entirely different alphabet." She watched Steve and Dustin share another look. "Sound about right?"