𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐦𝐲 𝐰𝐚𝐲

vii. taking sides.

AT THE table, Mike dumped out his D&D figurines from the little blue drawstring bag that he keeps them in, before picking up one of them. "This is Derek." He said, setting down the figurine. Joyce, Will, Dustin and Lucas stood to the left of him, while Jonathan, Nancy, James and Steve stood to the right of him, and Robin was on the other end of the table, "and this is the rest of the Turnbow family." He sets down three more of the figurines next to the first.

"We're gonna need to recruit someone that the family trusts, someone that can gain access to the house." He said, before he sets down another figurine on the other end. "This person will knock the family out. Then we'll extract the family from the house." He added, looking to Joyce on his left. "Knock them out?" She asked. "Well, safely. With sleeping pills or something." The Wheeler says, looking all around.

"I might know where we could get some benzos." Robin spoke up, so Mike looks over at her, as did everyone else surrounding the table. "Those things could knock an elephant on its ass." She tells them. "Perfect. That way, if Vecna spies, he'll just assume Derek is fast asleep in bed. He'll send his Demos to grab him." He sets down one of the monster figurines.

"Only he won't find Derek. He'll find us." He said, looking up at them all. "And we'll be ready. We'll get Murray to supply us with the traps. We'll burn the sucker. Send him scampering home to its master, but not before we stick him with one of these." He says before setting down one of the telemetry trackers. "We'll track the Demo across the Upside Down in the Squawk van just like we did with Hopper. And if we're lucky, the Demo will lead us back to its lair, to Vecna, to Holly." He looked around at them. "Holes?" But there was none, it sounded perfect.

The plan was set into motion, James called up Murray, informing him of the list of things they needed from him. Which were mostly a lot of things from Dustin, and not a lot from the rest of them. Mike and Lucas then left on their bikes to go and get Erica from her school since she's friends with Tina Turnbow. Will is the one who accompanied Robin to the hospital so they can steal the benzos. And as for the rest, they all went to the farm to get it all set up.

It's on the ride over to the farm in his boyfriend's car when Steve looks over at James, "you okay?" He reached out, touching the Hopper's neck gently. "Yeah." James whispered, glancing out the window of the passenger side before looking back over at his boyfriend with a small smile. "I'm okay." He reassured him.

"You sure?" Steve's thumb is gently brushing against the side of his neck and the younger nods, smiling at his boyfriend. "I'm--I'm really worried for my dad and El. But I know them. And I know they can take care of themselves and each other..." He said and the Harrington nods, finally pulling his hand away from him.

"Yeah. They'll be fine. Your dad survived Russia. And... you know, the kid survived the lab." He said as he glanced over a couple of times. He could see that his words were enough to make James feel better, looking over at him with a small smile. "I love you." The Hopper says suddenly and the Harrington blushed. He really did like hearing him say those words, whether it was whenever they were alone, or a small hushed whisper to one another around others, Steve never got tired of it.

"I love you too." He reached over, gently touching the back of James' head again. His fingers brush through the short strands there and the younger is smiling, glancing away. It was really cute how touchy Steve was. He always had a hand on James somehow, somewhere, when they kissed, or hugged, or cuddled.

At the farm, they waited for Murray to arrive and when he did, they all gathered together as the man hopped out his car and opened up the back to give them the supplies. "Okay, so, I couldn't get any ethanol, but I was able to scrounge up a gallon of acetone." He tells them, holding out the container to Steve. "Now, be very careful. You light a Virginia Slim too close to this stuff, it'll catch fire, okay?" He advised.