Chapter Twelve:
Peanut Butter Pancakes
.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

A spew of curses left Ramona's mouth as she watched Dustin slowly approach Dart. "Fuck, shit, fuck, shit, fuck! Sorry, sorry. Fuck-"

"Sh. Stop." The boy hushed, raising his hand to silence the group. "Trust me. Please."

"Dustin.." Ramona muttered under her breath. "Careful."

"Hey, it's me. It's just your friend. It's Dustin." Dustin cooed, pulling down his mask and pulling off his goggles. "It's Dustin. You remember me? Will you let us pass?"

Ramona jumped, her grip tightening on the sleeves of Steve's jacket as she stepped back when the creature snarled at him. Dustin squeezed his eyes shut, "Okay.. Okay, I'm sorry. I'm sorry about the storm cellar. That was a pretty douchey thing to do. You hungry? Yeah?"

"What is he.." Ramona's voice trailed off as she leaned forward, her sentence being cut short when Steve put his arm in front of her to stop her from moving. He sent her a warning look, silently telling her to stay put.

"I've got our favorite. See? Nougat." Dustin held the candy bar. He slowly unwrapped it as Dart approached him cautiously. "Look at that. Yummy. Here, all right? Eat up, buddy. Come on. Come on."

Ramona held her breath as she tiptoed past the demo-dog. A sigh of relief left her lips as Mike made it over, now the only one left was Dustin. She watched Dustin slip his goggles on over his face with baited breath. "Good bye, buddy."

"Let's go, let's go." Steve said urgently, pointing up. "Come on, come on, let's go!"

"Whope-" Ramona stumbled over her feet as Steve pushed her in front of him, wanting to make sure that she got to safety before he did.

"Careful, Jesus!" Mike scoffed, rolling his eyes. "You've already damaged her enough!"

A silence

A disbelieving laugh slip past Ramona's lips, breaking the awkward silence, as she covered her face with her hands. "Holy shit. I thought we were fucking dead."

"Not on my watch." Steve pointed out, "Told you I wasn't gonna let you die and-"

"That's what you intend to do, I know." Ramona cut him off, deepening her voice to mimick his. "Should start calling you Mr. broken record."

Steve scoffed jokingly, "Okay, García."

"Okay.. Harrington." Ramona mimicked again, a giggle slipping past her lips as Steve nudged her.

"Quit it." Steve said, "All right, come on. Let's go. It's this wa-"

Steve's sentence was cut off as the tunnel began to rumble. Ramona raised her arms, wincing as pain shot through her arm, trying to keep her balance. "Shit."

"What was that?" Max asked at the sound of the monster's disant roaring.

"We need to get out of here." Ramona said shakily, shining her flashlight around the winding tunnels.

"They're coming.." Mike said slowly, his voice lowering as the growling grew closer. "Run! Run!"

"Shit!" Ramona cursed, stumbling back as she turned to run towards the exit. "Joder, joder, joder, joder .. mierda, mierda, joder, mierda."

"Let's go, Let's go!" Steve said, gently shoving Ramona in front of him. "Go, go, go!"

Yells and other shouts filled her ears as her eyes landed on the rope. "There there!"

She sighed in relief as she wrapped her hand around the rope, holding it still so that Max could get up. She rapidly tapped her foot against the unstable ground as Lucas disappeared above the tunnel.

"Shit." Ramona's blood ran cold as the shadows of the demo-dogs ran past the opening. She raised her arms to cover her face, accepting the oncoming death, knowing she couldn't do anything about it. The roars of the creature slowly became quiet, but she kept her hands firmly planted against her face. 

"Up, up! Let's go, let's go!" Steve shouted to Dustin, but it was muffled in Ramona's ears. The ringing increased as Steve helped Dustin above ground.

"Ramona, Ramona!" Steve pulled her hands away from her face, "It's your turn."

"H-Huh?" She stammered, "You're not dead? I'm not dead? Is-"

"Ramona, shush and climb the rope so we don't die!" Steve said, pointing to the opening above the two.

"Right, got it." Ramona nodded quickly, wrapping her right hand around the rope.

"I'm gonna help you. Don't hit me." Steve said slowly, sliding his arms around her waist as he helped Ramona climb the rope.

Max grabbed her hand, careful to avoid her damaged left arm, and helped pull her up. "You okay?"

Ramona let out a breath of air as she laid on the ground. Her cheeks flushed and her eyes fell shut as she tried to catch her breath. "Holy shit."

~~

"I'm so hungry I could eat a horse!" Ramona exclaimed as she shut the drivers side door.

"Stop messing with it!" Steve said, pulling her hand away from the newly bandaged wound. Thankfully, it hadn't gotten infected. Steve liked to believe that was because of his skilled bandaging tactics but Ramona thought otherwise. "The doctors did a good job on it."

"Unlike some people." Ramona joked, the corner of her lips curving into a smile.

Steve scoffed, rolling his eyes. "You know, I could just take your ungrateful ass home."

"Not today, Steve." Ramona said quickly, "My mom's there and I haven't thought of an excuse.. and you promised me food!"

Steve shrugged, raising his hands in surrender as Ramona pointed an accusatory finger at him. "Fine, fine, fine."

"Fuck yes. Gonna eat so many pancakes." Ramona sighed happily, "And then hopefully sleep until I'm dead."

"You can't do that!" Steve huffed as he pulled out of the hospital's parking lot. "All my hard work would go down the drain!"

"Oh, and we can't have that, can we?" Ramona said sarcastically.

"Exactly. See, you get it." Steve nodded to himself in satisfaction.

"Jesus Christ, Harrington." Ramona muttered, "Just get me some damn pancakes."

Steve nodded, letting silence fall over the car as Ramona focused on the whirring of the buildings and trees as they sped past them.

"What kind?" Steve asked, breaking the silence. Ramona knitted her eyebrows together, looking over at him.

"Huh?"

"What kind of pancakes, Ramona. Geez, keep up." Steve joked, snapping his fingers at her.

"Oh!" Ramona blushed in embarrassment as she looked down at her hands, "Um.. chocolate chip with peanut butter."

"Peanut butter?" Steve repeated, raising his eyebrows, "On pancakes?"

"Yeah, peanut butter." Ramona nodded, her mouth watering at the thought of her favorite breakfast delicacy. "You spread peanut butter on the pancake and then put maple syrup on top."

"That sounds..." Steve trailed off, tearing his eyes from the girl and focusing on the road ahead.

"Heavenly." Ramona finished with a dreamy sigh. "You have to try it."

~~

"Just try it!" Ramona rolled her eyes, waving her fork in his face. He looked down at the piece of pancake sticking off of the end and reluctantly took the fork from her fingers. "Trust me."

Steve glanced up at her, raising an eyebrow as he slowly bit into the breakfast food. His eyes widened as the taste flooded his mouth, "Wow."

"I know." Ramona nodded.

"Holy shit. You were right." Steve nodded with wide eyes as he handed her back her fork.

"See? Told you so." Ramona laughed as she cut another piece of her pancake. She grinned at him as she pulled the fork from her lips, "I'm always right."

"Not always." Steve pointed out, "You said you were gonna die.. you don't look very dead to me."

Ramona scoffed, rolling her eyes. "Oh, whatever, Steve. I got you to eat the pancake and that's what matters."

"Right, right, sure." Steve nodded slowly, "Sure. You believe that."

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

{ A/n: Im gonna make some bombass cupcakes also i got like 2 hours of sleep }

{ Translations: Fuck fuck fuck fuck shit  shit fuck shit fuck }

{ Edited: No }