"AND HOW'D YOU TWO SLEEP LAST NIGHT?" Dustin asked.

"Good enough," Kat said, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. "Thanks for having us over,"

"Yeah, no problem," Dustin said. "I honestly don't know what I'd do if you guys weren't here,"

"Thanks, man," Steve yawned as he set a bucket of raw meat on the driveway concrete.

Kat and Steve had pooled all their pocket change (which was all of Kat's monthly allowance) to buy bait for Dart.

"Dustin! Dustin, this is Lucas! Do you copy, Dustin!" Lucas said through Dustin's headset.

"Well, well, well, look who it is," Dustin said sarcastically, putting his hands on his hips and leaving Kat to drag the heavy can of gasoline out of the trunk.

"I'm sorry, man. My stupid sister turned it off,"

Kat chuckled at the idea of Erica listening into Dustin's code red.

"Well, when you were having sister problems, Dart grew again, he escaped, and I'm pretty sure he's a baby Demogorgon."

"Wait, what?"

"I'll explain later. Meet me, Kat and Steve at the old junkyard,"

"Kat?"

"And bring your binoculars and wrist rocket,"

"And Steve Harrington?"

"Alright, let's go. Just be there, stat. Over and out," Dustin said, taking the pail Kat handed to him.

They headed down the old railroad path, feet crunching on the fallen leaves. Kat dropped a piece of red meat every two steps, wondering how long the path was. A few pebbles lined the road, skinny trees growing around the tracks as if trains would still belt past the rusted rails. Leaves, moss, and sticks were sticking out 

"I still can't believe you kept that thing," Steve said.

"I thought I knew what I was doing, okay?" Dustin protested

"Yeah, but, like" Kat said, throwing a piece of meat between two rails. "Why? What was the motivation?"

Dustin sighed, knowing his previous alibi had been weak enough and he might as well let his pride go to come clean.

"This new girl at school. Her name's Max Mayfield, I wanted it to impress her,"

"Wait, red hair?" Kat asked.

"Yeah, why?"

"That's Billy Hargrove's sister," Kat frowned, and Steve screwed up his face in disgust.

"Okay, lemme get this straight. You kept something you knew was probably dangerous to impress a girl you just met?"

"Alright, that's grossly oversimplifying things," Dustin defended.

"I mean, why would a girl like some nasty slug anyway?"

"An inter-dimensional slug? Because it's awesome!" Dustin exclaimed, before hesitating. "Well, even if she thought it was cool, which she didn't, I- I just..."

"I dunno, I just feel like you're trying way too hard," Steve patted Dustin's shoulder.

"Yeah, I feel like Max would like a more casual movie date thing more than a demogorgon," Kat agreed. She ignored the discomfort she felt knowing that Lucas also liked Max.

"Well, not everyone can have perfect hair, like you guys,"

"Why thank you," Kat smiled, pleased as she patted her blowout, one of her best features.

"But it's not about the hair, man," Steve said. "They key to girls is acting like you don't care,"

He regretted saying that the moment he saw Kat's face.

"Excuse me? Says the person who took roses to a girl's house to apologize yesterday," she said.

"And that didn't work, did it?" He bit back, although with less intent and more reflection.

"So you do it even if you do care?" Dustin interrupted.

"Yeah, exactly. It drives them nuts,"

"Then what?"

"Then they dump your ass," Kat said snarkily.

"No, you just wait. Till you feel it,"

"Feel it?" Kat said incredulously, eyes wide in unimpressed disbelief.

"Feel what?" Dustin pressed.

"It's like before it's gonna storm, you know? You can't see it, but you can feel it, like this, uh, electricity, yaknow?"

Kat called bullshit.

"Oh, like in the electromagnetic field when the clouds in the atmosphere-"

"No, no, no, no, no.Like a... Like a sexual electricity."

"Let me die," Kat groaned and kicked a piece of meat around with her hockey stick, ignoring the way her stomach flipped around in grossness at the word sexual.

"You feel that," Steve ignored her. "Then you make your move." He pointed at the ground dramatically.

"So that's when you kiss her?" Dustin said hopefully.

"Hey, back up, back up a sec," Kat raised both of her gloved hands, alarmed.

"No, whoa, whoa. Slow down, Romeo." Steve said in sync.

"Sorry," he mumbled, looking between Kat and Steve.

"Sure, okay, some girls, yeah, they want you to be aggressive," Steve said, looking overly invested in the topic. "You know, strong, hot and heavy, like a...I dunno, like a lion,"

Kat's face twisted in disgust at the thought of Nancy with a lion.

"But others, you gotta be slow,you gotta be stealthy, like a...ninja," Steve finished.

"A ninja? Like all the times you snuck through the window?" Kat said snidely.

"The window? What'd ya mean- talking about?" Steve said, turning embarrassed as he fumbled around with a piece of meat.

"Anyways," Kat turned to Dustin, smiling saucily at Steve. "You've forgotten the unknown, unspoken third type of girl,"

"How do you make a move on the third type?" Dustin asked anxiously.

"You don't" Kat tossed a piece of meat straight up and watched it fall. "Some girls don't want you to be gentle or aggressive, they don't want you to make a move, they just wanna be by themselves,"

"Sure," Steve scoffed. "Dustin; the third type doesn't exist,"

"Hey! If you opened your eyes just a little wider instead of narrowed on my sister, tons of girls fit into the third type!"

"So which type is Nancy?" Dustin asked, confused as ever.

"Nancy's different.She's different than the other girls. Different than the third type," Steve said firmly. Kat lowered her eyes in thought. Nancy was definitely not the lion type. But the ninja type? Maybe...No. She'd want someone to take charge. Actually, if Kat tried really hard, to her suprise, she couldn't distinguish Nancy in the ridiculous categorization system Harrington used. 

Guess she didn't know much about Nancy's love life after all.

"Yeah, she seems pretty special, I guess." Dustin murmured.

"She is," Kat and Steve said at the same time. They looked at each other, before looking downwards.

"Nancy's totally special," Kat continued. "She's still figuring herself out, that's one reason, so she's still in between. But she's amazing; she's sweet, caring-"

"-And a really good kisser-" Steve cut in. 

"-And she really can make you think about yourself. Like knowing yourself, better because of what Nancy does. She kinda gives you a bonk on the head,"

"A really hard bonk," Steve finally agreed on something she said.

"But this girl's special, too, you know. It's just, like, something about her." Dustin said, clearly in his mind about Max.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hey, hey, hey." Steve interrupted.

"What?"

"You're not falling in love with this girl, are you?"

"Uh, no. No,"

"Okay, good. Don't."

"What's wrong with falling in love?" Kat asked out of genuine curiosity.

"She's only gonna break your heart, and you're way too young for that shit." Steve said.

"You have a point," Kat said, and Steve gestured to her with his arm as a way to prove to Dustin what he just said was legit.

The autumn skylight filtered through the leaves, and if it weren't for the sheen layer of clouds obsuring the direct rays, light dapples of forest patterns would surround them. Birds chirped faintly nearby, as Kat took a variety of distances for steps, trying to step on the crunchiest leaves. The smell of meat from the buckets would make her nauseous, but the triple-folded bandana she wore kept it from being too much. They walked in a horizontal format, three people, three feet stepping forward at once. This better work, Kat thought. She really didn't want a supernatural monster attacking Hawkins.

"Fabergé." Steve broke her line of thought.

"What?" Dustin asked.

"It's Fabergé Organics. Use the shampoo and conditioner,and when your hair's damp- It's not wet, okay? When it's damp, You do four puffs of the Farrah Fawcett spray," he finished in a rush.

"Hey!" a smile grew on Kat's face. "I use that shit too!"

"What? Really?!" Steve looked at her intently, breaking into a beaming grin.

"Yeah! One puff for layers and two for volume in the front," Kat said enigmatically.

"Nah, you only need one for the front, the back needs two," Steve shook his head slightly.

"Who's gonna see the back of your head?" Kat said, wincing.

"Uh, everyone that's gonna see the front? The back needs to be stellar,"

"I guess," Kat rolled her eyes. "If it weren't for fact that people have eyes on the front of their faces,"

"Farah Fawcett spray?" Dustin interrupted, still processing what Steve had originally said.

"Yeah. Farah Fawcett. You tell anyone I just told you thatand your ass is grass. You're dead, Henderson. And you too, Ice Wheels. Understand?"

"Jeez, a bit harsh," Kat muttered. "We won't tattle on your hairspray habits,"

"Farrah Fawcett, really?" Dustin murmured.

"I mean, she's hot," Steve defended himself.

"Gorgeous" Kat chimed in, shaking a few pieces of meat off her gloved fingertips.

Plane streaks scorched across the blue sky, as the trio looked down upon the old junkyard. Buses, rusted cars, all things broken and dangerous were scattered along the wasteland.

"God, I remember playing here as a kid," Kat smiled. "Before Mike was born, I'd come out here all the time, breaking bones and spraining ankles,"

"What happened when Mike was born?" Dustin said.

"Oh. Uh, nothing, just that I had more younger siblings then, especially with Holly. I had a little less time to play," Kat lied. Not to mention the fact that I basically had to parent Mike and Holly from then on.

"Oh, yeah. Yeah, this will do." Steve came up behind them, taking off his sunglasses in one gesture. "This will do just fine. Good call, dude,"

They sprinkled more pieces on the ground like sprinkles on a cupcake, before dumping the rest into one big pile.

"I said medium-well!" Lucas's voice came from the top of the hill. 

Kat recognized him, and instinctively smiled at the energetic wave he was giving. He was standing to Max Mayfield, she noticed. Hey, he finally talked to her. She needed to congratulate him sometime after this.

"Who's that?" Steve asked.

"Hey, I'm Max," Max mumbled with a smile.

"Hi!" Kat said, probably with too much energy. "I'm Kathryn. Or Katie, or Kat,"

"You go by Katie?" Steve looked to her in befuddlement.

"Childhood nickname," Kat said.

"Lucas's talked a lot about you, Kat," Max said, looking up at her curiously.

"All good things, I hope?"

"Yeah. He says you guys like doing illegal stuff together,"

"Right, yeah," Kat tucked her lips in to make an expressionless smile. 

"Anyways, we got some work to do. We need those boards there to be stacked up against the bus, and to scatter some broken glass around the meat pile," Steve said, placing his hands on his hips.

"On it," Max said, and reached for the metal boards.

"I'll get the glass," Kat said, heading for the nearest run-down car.

It was a Dodge Challenger with a broken windshield. Kat carefully scooped some pieces of glass into her now-empty meat bucket, though she accidentally scraped her exposed arm against it, causing it to bleed a bit. She swore quietly, and dabbed at the shallow wound with her jacket sleeve. A loud clang sounded from behind as Steve banged a lawn chair against a dented red Ford.

"Hey, dickheads! How come the only onehelping me out is this random girl and Katie?" he said in frustration. "We lose light in 40 minutes. Let's go. Let's go, I said!"

"All right, asshole! God!" Dustin said, annoyed.

Laughing, Kat walked over to the meat pile and tossed a few glass pieces nearby into a halo shape, making sure the reflective parts were facing downwards and into the grass.

"Hey, you okay?" Steve asked, noting the few spots of blood on her navy jacket.

"Yeah. A little cut from the glass; you got a band-aid though?"

"Oh, yeah, I think I got one," he said, taking off his bag and fumbling through it. To her suprise he did have a bandaid, though sitting at the bottom of his bag, extremely crumpled, and barely sticky. It worked, though.

They moved barrels as blockades, boards as shields against Dart. Gasoline was poured 'strategically' by Steve. Max set up a ladder for an emergency escape route, and Kat boarded up all windows of the bus with firewood found nearby. Finally, they clambered into the bus, lit by the hues of sunset.

━━author's note ━━

yep! a lesser known form of child trauma, kat was very much, 100 percent parentified as a kid! with 3 younger siblings, a decently absent father and a younger mother, there was a ton of pressure on her growing up to look after her younger siblings and be responsible; the affects of which are gonna be explored!