✧*~☽༓･*˚⁺‧͙ - .*☆

"What are you guys doing after school?"

Max asked as she sat with the boys at lunch.

"Wanna go to the arcade?"

She purposed.

"No."

Dustin replied and Max raised a brow at him.

"Why not? You guys always want to go to the arcade after school."

She said.

"Let me guess, is Mike going to spend time with his girlfriend?"

She asked as she turned her piercing eyes to Mike.

"Well I was going to-"

He began but Lucas interrupted him.

"But now Dustin is convinced that Steve Harrington has a girl from another dimension staying at his house and won't stop talking about it until we agree to see her for ourselves."

"DUDE!"

Dustin hissed at him suddenly.

"Keep your voice down."

"Why? It's not like anyone here would believe that."

He added.

"Why would Steve, of all people, be hiding a girl from another dimension at his house?"

Max asked and Dustin turned to her with a grin.

"Because she jumped out of a portal and saved us from a demo-dog last night!"

Dustin replied and Max's green eyes widened.

"She saved you from a what?"

"I know."

Lucas said.

"It's too crazy to be real."

"I thought we got rid of all the demo-dogs."

Max said.

"So did I."

Lucas replied.

"That's why we need to go to Steve's after school so I can prove to you that she's real."

Dustin said before looking to Mike.

"And I think we should bring Eleven too."

"But Hopper won't let her leave."

"Shit you're right."

Dustin said.

"Then we'll bring the girl to her."

✧*~☽༓･*˚⁺‧͙ - .*☆

"This is crazy, just crazy this is crazy."

Steve said with his head in his hands as Asling tried to explain the lore of her home to him.

"It's not crazy, Steven"

"Steve"

"You just don't want to understand."

She said flatly.

"Well you aren't saying things that make sense."

Asling scoffed.

"Things that make sense?"

She said,

"Well there's plenty of things you have here in your world that don't make sense."

She snapped.

"Like what?"

Steve said, raising his head to look at her.

"Like that."

She said as she pointed to something in the kitchen.

"That's a phone."

Steve said flatly.

"You don't have phones where you're from?"

"No."

Asling said. Almost as if on cue the phone rang and Asling flinched, startled by the noise.

"Calm down."

Steve said as he stood.

"I'll get it."

He added as he walked over to the wall phone and answered it.

"Hello you've reached the Harringtons."

He said. He paused as he listened to the caller on the other end and Asling looked on in wonder, studying him and the way he talked to the small hand held device.

"No sorry not interested."

He replied before hanging the phone back on the receiver on the wall.

"What did you do?"

Asling asked as he walked back over to her.

"It's a phone. I answered it. People call you with them and talk to you."

He replied and Asling nodded, trying to wrap her mind around the concept of a phone.

"You still don't understand it, do you?"

"No not at all."

She said and Steve sighed. Like clockwork the phone rang again and Asling jumped up out of her seat, racing to go answer it like she had seen Steve do earlier. Perhaps if she gave it a try, she would understand it more.

"Asling the apprentice and baker's daughter, what's your favorite color?"

She asked in the same tone of voice steve had used. But Steve sighed as he stood to walk over and take the phone from her.

"Hey!! I was using that!"

She hissed.

"Not correctly."

Steve said before lifting the phone to his ear.

"Hello?"

"Steve?"

"Dustin?"

Steve said and his eyes widened.

"Is that the small human with the curly hair?"

Asling whispered to Steve who did his best to ignore her while he was on the phone.

"Was that her? The girl from last night?"

He asked and Steve sighed.

"Yeah, yeah it was Dustin. What's up? Why are you calling me? Shouldn't you be at school?"

"Shouldn't you also be at school?"

Dustin countered.

"Listen, I asked to call my parents during recess because I 'wasn't feeling well' but I called you instead to see if you still had that girl with you."

Dustin said.

"I'm bringing the other's to see her today."

"No- Dustin-"

Steve began but he could hear another voice on Dustin's end.

"MISTER HENDERSON!"

It sounded like a teacher.

"Student phone calls are for emergencies only!"

the voice added.

"Gotta go steve."

And the line went dead.

✧*~☽༓･*˚⁺‧͙ - .*☆

Steve signed as he hung up the phone again and turned to see Asling sitting on her seat at the table with her legs criss-crossed her chair. She peered up at him with with curious apple green eyes.

"Well that's just great."

Steve said as he walked back over to where she sat, took her plate and his, and walked to over to the sink to clean them off.

"Dustin and his friends are coming over after school because they're curious about you."

He said.

"I don't understand why you're so upset about that."

Asling replied.

"They're just being curious children."

She added.

"There's more to it then that, Asling."

He said as he used a dish rag to dry the wet plates.

"Bad things follow these kids in Hawkins."

"How bad?"

She asked.

"Very bad. Like dangerous bad."

Steve replied.

"Oh, speaking of danger,"

Asling said as she stood,

"Where did you put my things?"

She asked.

"They're in my room."

Steve said.

"Come on I'll show you."

✧*~☽༓･*˚⁺‧͙ - .*☆

Asling's wet clothes had been hung over the shower rod in Steve's bathroom, allowing them to drip dry. But her master's sword, her satchel, and bow and quiver laid underneath the window.

"This is your room?"

she asked.

"Yeah."

Steve replied.

"It's so boring."

Steve looked a little taken back by what she had said.

"What?"

"You have no decorations, your lighting is just your over head light, and it smells."

Steve sighed.

"We can address the decorative issues of my room later."

He said, walking over to the pile of Asling's things.

"Here are your uh- things."

He said. Asling's eyes immediately went to the sword. It seemed to awaken an emotion within her, Steve noticed.

"That's the sword you talked about, isn't it?"

He asked. While Asling told Steve all the lore of her home she also mentioned the circumstances of her escape and her master delivering her here with Kierran's sword. Asling nodded.

"Kierran's sword."

She said as she stooped down to pick it up. It's crystal blade was scuffed and dirtied from it's heavy recent use in battle, but seeing it now in the light of another world brought the reality of her situation back to Asling. Not only was she in a new world that she had no knowledge of, but her master was gone. Everyone was gone. She could feel it. The familiar presence of Kierran, her master, was gone like a river that had dried up during a drought and no longer flowed with fresh cool water.

"Listen I uh don't know anything - or understand anything - about wherever you came from, but I can tell that this man - your master - did what he did to save you, Asling."

"He died saving me."

she said as she gently cradled the hilt in her hands, looking down at the sword.

"Was it worth it, Kierran?"

She breathed to herself.