fireworks - steve harrington

2.04

DART

Saturday night was date night. It had been for almost a year, ever since they first started dating. Steve would come to Ren's back door with a flower or two and stand there until 6:03 pm, at which time Ren would open the door to join him outside for their weekly picnic in his backyard. They had thought about having it at Steve's place, but if his dad caught them, Ren would never see Steve again. Thankfully, Ren's mom was a workaholic, so she almost never left her office and was barely ever home.

Steve happened to be walking over to Ren's backyard like usual with a few roses when Dustin Henderson walked up to him. He pointed to the flowers, "Are those for the Wheelers?"

"Uh, yes?" That's a good cover-up, right? I mean, they do live right next to each other, and I guess it looked like I was headed for Nancy's house.

"Too bad."

Dustin took them from his hands and Steve shouted, "What the hell?"

"I need your help. Do you still have that bat?"

"Bat? What bat?"

"The one with the nails."

"Why?"

"I'll explain it on the way, now let's go." He opened the passenger door to Steve's car and slid in.

Steve huffed and walked up to him. "Fine, but I have to get Ren first."

Dustin rolled his eyes and nodded as Steve ran back down the hill and knocked on Ren's front door at exactly 6:01, two minutes early and at the wrong door. He heard thumping footsteps and then a half-dressed teenage boy opened the door. "Steve! Hey, what happened to our plan?"

"We're needed by a thirteen-year-old prepubescent kid."

"We are?" Steve smiled sheepishly. "Who's the kid?"

"Dustin Henderson."

"Right. Mike Wheeler's friend. Okay, sure, lemme just go get some pants on."

Steve groaned loudly. "Do you have to?"

"Yes. Just because you have an obsession with my legs doesn't mean I'm not going to wear pants."

"Okay, but will you at least wear skinny jeans? Please? For me?" Steve clasped his hands together and pleaded like a little kid who wants candy. To be fair, Ren's legs were much like that to him. He had a weird fetish.

He waited outside for a good two minutes before Ren came back in what were possibly the tightest skinny jeans ever. "This good?"

"Fuck." Steve stood there just staring at Ren's legs.

"You haven't seen the best part." Ren smiled and started walking toward the car.

"What's the best pa-- oh god." His ass. His ass was the best part. Steve was absolutely mesmerised for a few seconds until he realised he was supposed to be following Ren. The only benefit to that was getting to stare at his ass some more.

"Finally," Dustin sighed when they got to the car. "Now let's go. Sorry, Ren. I get shotgun."

~•~

"Wait a sec. How big?" Steve asked.

Dustin demonstrated with his hands. "First he was like this," about the size of a pencil, "now he's like this," a skateboard.

"I swear to god, man, it's just some lizard, okay?"

"It's not a lizard."

"How do you know?"

"How do I know it's not a lizard?"

"Yeah, how do you know it's not a lizard?"

"Because its face opened up and he ate my cat."

"Well, shit, man," Ren said from the back seat. He seemed to get stuck there a lot.

Steve parked at Dustin's house and the three went around the back to his trunk where he kept the bat, and they walked to the basement doors.

"I don't hear shit," he said after a moment.

"He's in there."

After thumping the bat against the door twice, Steve turned to Dustin. "Alright, listen, kid. I swear, if this is some kind of Halloween prank, you're dead."

"It's not a prank."

Dustin unlocked the padlock on the doors and Ren opened them, staring down into the dark abyss. "I don't see anything."

"I do," Steve grinned, forgetting they weren't alone. Ren was leaning down at the perfect angle for Steve to get a wonderful view of his ass.

"Shut your hole, Steve." Ren took the flashlight from Dustin and aimed the beam at the floor below.

"It must be further down there. I'll stay up here in case it tries to escape."

"Fine. Ren, you too. You're staying up here."

Ren stood up immediately. "What? Why?"

"Because."

"Steve, I can take care of myself."

"I know. I'm going down alone."

Ren sighed and gave in. "Alright. Don't die."

"I'll try not to."

Steve stepped carefully down, flashlight in one hand, bat in the other. He pulled the cord on a light in the middle of the room and was both horrified and disgusted when he saw what appeared to be a shed skin. He rushed back over to the stairs and motioned for both Ren and Dustin to come down.

"Now he wants us," Ren muttered, rolling his eyes.

They met him at the bottom of the stairs and both said "Oh, shit," when they saw the dog-sized hole in the wall that seemed to go on forever.

"No fucking way," Steve said in a hushed voice.