fireworks - steve harrington

3.05

RUSSIAN ELEVATORS

Steve opened the box and revealed a metal case with four containers inside of it. "That's definitely not Chinese food." He got ready to pull one of the containers out, but first he said, "Maybe you guys should, uh, you know, stand back."

Dustin and Ren both said "No," at the same time. Steve tried to keep them away but both of them refused.

"If you die, I die!" Dustin yelled.

"If anyone's gonna die with Steve it should be m--" Ren stopped himself. "Right, yeah, I guess it should be you." He stepped back, not missing the strange look Robin gave him as he leaned against the wall of the room.

Steve pulled the container out, which wound up being a tube of unidentified liquid. Well, they thought it was liquid. "What the hell?"

"What is it?"

Suddenly, the entire room shifted.

Dustin was the first to speak. "Was that just me, or did the room move?"

"Booby traps," Erica whispered.

"You know what," Robin started, taking the tube from Steve, "Let's just grab that and go."

They all argued while Steve and Dustin tried to open the door, until another door closed over that one.

"No, no, no. No. Ren's claustrophobic. We've gotta get out of here, like, now. Or he'll have a panic attack," Steve yelled. When the room started to move downwards, he shouted again, "This is so much worse, oh my god!"

Ren tried to keep his breathing calm and reached for Steve's hand as they rapidly dropped down into the ground. Finally, the room, which was apparently an elevator, landed with a crash and knocked them all onto the floor with a heavy thunk. Ren hit his head hard against one of the shelves and fell in a heap on the floor, immediately passing out, unlike everyone else. But no one had noticed just yet because Steve and Ren's hands were ripped apart.

A heavy box had fallen onto Steve, and he and Dustin struggled to get it up and off of him.

"Is everyone okay?"

"I'm great now that I know Russians can't design elevators!" Steve stomped over to the panel of buttons right as Robin spoke again.

"I think we've clearly established that those buttons don't work."

"They're buttons. They have to do something."

"Yeah, if we had a keycard."

"A what?"

"It's an electronic lock, same as the loading dock door. If we don't have a keycard, it won't operate, meaning--"

"We're stuck in here," Dustin finished.

"Just so you nerds are aware, I'm supposed to be spending the night at Tina's, and Tina always covers for me. But if I'm not home for Uncle Jack's party tomorrow and my mom finds out you four are responsible, she's gonna hunt you down, one by one, and slit your throat."

"I don't care about Tina!" Steve shouted back at Erica. "Or Uncle Jack's party! Your mom's not gonna be able to find us if we're dead in a Russian elevator!"

"Steve?"

"What?"

"Where's Ren?"

The colour drained from Steve's face. He shoved past all the boxes to where his boyfriend should have been, and there he was. But there was a lot of blood on the floor. "Oh my god." He dropped down to the elevator's floor and checked Ren's pulse, making sure he was still breathing, which he was. Blood slowly seeped out from the back of his head, and Steve started to get a little woozy.

Robin ran over next as Steve tried to wake Ren up. "Steve. You need to stop the bleeding, I'll wake him up." She pulled the vest of her outfit off and handed it to Steve. "Take this and put pressure on the wound, wherever it is. And don't let up until I tell you to."

Steve nodded and moved Ren's hair until he found a deep gash at the very back of his head. The lightheadedness got worse for a moment when he saw blood drip out of his boyfriend's skull, but he sucked it up and just breathed out of his mouth instead of his nose. He balled up the vest and pressed it against the cut. His leg shook as he did so, watching Robin try to wake Ren up and fail. He had absolutely no idea what to do in this kind of situation, especially since it was Ren. Ren had never been hurt this bad, and Steve was scared to death.

Finally, Ren coughed a little and started to open his eyes. Steve breathed a huge sigh of relief and immediately hugged Ren, not caring that Robin was right there.

"Steve?"

"I'm right here."

Ren relaxed a little and leaned into Steve's lap. "What the hell happened? My head hurts like someone shoved a knife through it."

"I don't know. I think you fell or something." Steve closed his eyes for a second and exhaled harshly as he felt the blood on Robin's vest.

"Robin, Erica and I found a hatch that leads up and out of here. Can you help us up?" Dustin asked.

She nodded and walked over to them, leaving Ren and Steve relatively alone.

"I'm not gonna die, right?"

Steve's breath caught in his throat. "No, babe, you're gonna be fine."

Ren sighed and reached for Steve's hand, the one that wasn't keeping him from bleeding to death. About an hour later, the blood slowed to a stop, and Ren fell asleep. Steve stayed awake the entire night, stressing over Ren and how injured he was, and not focusing on anything else.

In the morning, or what they assumed was morning, when Ren woke up, Steve noticed that his boyfriend's shirt was covered in blood. And he felt horrible.

"I never should have brought you into this. It's my own goddamn fault. Just wanted to be with my boyfriend this summer, but apparently I can't without you almost dying."

"Steve, you're rambling."

"Right, sorry."

"And I'm fine. This isn't your fault. I decided to get involved. And Dustin asked both of us to help. Really, you didn't do anything wrong."

He sighed. "But I feel horrible! If I wouldn't have brought you with us to fight the Demo-Dogs, then you wouldn't be in this mess."

"Steve, what are you saying? And why are you saying it?" Ren's eyes were wide, and his heart started beating way too fast. "Steve."

As if he could read his boyfriend's mind, Steve quickly said, "No, no, no. I'm not trying to break up with you or anything. No. I just mean to say that I'm sorry. If I wasn't such an asshole in junior year, then you wouldn't have helped patch me up that day that we fought the demogorgon."

"Don't apologise. That was the first time we kissed. I don't look back on that day with resent. I'm so glad we went through all that, because you and I might never have gotten together if it weren't for that stupid monster."

Steve laughed. "Yeah. Yeah, you're right. I love you."

"I love you too."