fireworks - steve harrington

3.03

INDIANA FLYER

Ren was having what you would call a slow day at work, which was rare for The Gap. He was trying to logically think through the tape recording and what it could possibly say, without knowing any Russian, but then his two favourite girls showed up.

He rushed out from behind the counter and straight to them. "El! Max! Hey!"

"Ren!" they chorused.

"What are you guys here for? El, I thought you weren't supposed to be out until this next school year?"

"Shopping," Eleven supplied with a smile.

Max elaborated. "Mike's being a dipshit, so we're shopping."

Ren nodded. "Can I help?"

He walked around with them, picking out clothes left and right and showing each item to them both in the hopes that Eleven would like at least one or two things. She wound up grabbing about seven, heading straight to the dressing rooms while Max picked out some sunglasses.

"So what did Mike do?"

She sighed. "He ditched El and lied about it, said his Nana was dying when she isn't."

"I know he's like basically my kid and everything now, other than Dustin, but I can kick his ass if you guys need me to." Max laughed. "Especially after he ditched Dustin."

"Oh, uh," Max started, but Ren interrupted her.

"Wait. Did you ditch him too?"

"Kind of? I mean, it was like 11:00 pm. And we were still up there."

"Yeah, but Max, it was his first night back. He'd been without you guys for a month, and all he wanted was to spend quality time with you."

She nodded and looked down at her feet. "Yeah, you're right."

Eleven walked out then, wearing what was possibly the best outfit Ren had ever seen, and he liked to think of himself as very fashionable. "This one. I want this one."

Ren grinned. "You look awesome, El. I can ring you up if you want. My shift is almost up anyway."

"Are you gonna go see Steve?" Max asked in a sing-song voice.

"Maybe," he replied, trying not to show emotion.

"You are! How long have you been together now?"

"18 months, going on 19. So like a year and a half."

Their jaws dropped. "Wait, really? And you've never broken up?" Max asked.

He shook his head. "No, but we had a really big fight last year and almost did."

"Are you going to get married?" Eleven tilted her head as she asked.

Ren immediately started stumbling over his words, and his face went beet red. "Wh-what? No, uh, it's not, um, not legal. And plus, we're, um, we're just 19. That's a little too young, right?"

The girls shrugged.

"Are you at least gonna live together?"

"We're actually saving up to get a place just a couple towns over. It's taking a while because of Steve's classes, but I'm working two jobs, and he's got one at Scoops, so we'll eventually get there."

Ren finished ringing them up, and they said thanks and left. A few minutes later, he grabbed his bag and left the store just a little while before his shift was technically over. His coworker was already there, so hopefully it would be fine.

After spending about an hour at Scoops Ahoy in the back room working on the transmission with Robin, Steve, and Dustin, it was finally closing time.

"It just can't be right."

"It's right."

"Honestly, I think it's great news."

They all stared at Dustin in confusion.

"So much for being great American heroes," Steve said, rolling his eyes. "It's total nonsense."

"It's not nonsense. It's just too specific, like a code."

Steve and Ren lagged behind Dustin and Robin, holding hands as they walked through the empty mall. "What do you mean, a code?"

"Like a super secret spy code."

"That's a total stretch."

"I don't know, is it?" Robin asked. She turned to look at Steve, so they quickly dropped each other's hands. Sure, Dustin knew, and they were fine with that, but they weren't sure how Robin would react.

"You're buying into this?"

"Yeah, I mean, let's just entertain the possibility that it is a secret Russian transmission. What did you think they were going to say? 'Fire the warhead at noon?'"

Ren nodded in agreement with Robin. Steve saw it and whispered, "Traitor," only to quickly kiss Ren's temple.

"And my translation is correct. I know that for sure, so 'The silver cat feeds'... Why would anyone talk like that unless they're trying to mask the true meaning of their message?"

"Exactly," Dustin answered.

"So then why would anyone mask the true meaning of their message unless it was like super sensitive?" Ren asked, drifting a couple more inches away from Steve. He expected Robin to turn and look at them again, and they already raised enough suspicion as it was.

Steve frowned and mocked Ren, causing his boyfriend to playfully slap his chest.

"So I guess that confirms your suspicion."

"Evil Russians."

"I can't believe I'm about to agree with a strange child and I'm assuming you're related to him? Since you brought him here."

Ren chuckled. "No, we're not related. Just friends."

"Weird. But yeah, this is probably evil Russians."

"So how do we crack it?"

"Well, I guess we translate the rest and hopefully a pattern emerges."

Steve fell further behind, causing Ren to turn around and see what he was doing. He had stopped in front of a little kids' ride, a ceramic pony that moved in a circle to music. "Steve, what are you doing?"

"Do you have a quarter?"

"No."

"Do any of you guys have a quarter?"

"You sure you're tall enough for that ride, Steve?"

"Can it, Robin."

She tossed him a quarter and he put it in the slot for the ride. Once the music started playing, Dustin figured it out. He pulled the tape player out of his bag and played it at the same time as the horse. "It's the exact same song on the recording."