(      darkest before dawn      /      act three    )
episode two   |   stranger things

❛ YOU MISSED MY HEART ❜

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      SHE HAD TEARS STREAMING like never ending waterfalls down her cheeks as she turned away from her five friends, leaving a piece of her heart with them. She didn't know where to go, she didn't want to cry in front of people, so she went to the first place she knew would be okay, Scoops Ahoy.

      Running through a mall with four shopping bags on your arms as tears fell down your face wasn't the best look, but Aurora didn't care. She could hear Max yelling behind her, but she didn't care to glance back, she just needed to be as far as from Mike as possible.

      Robin was at the register when Aurora walked in, but she abandoned her post as fast as she could when she saw the girl. Robin hugged her before ushering her to the back as fast as she could. Robin didn't even get the chance to complain about her whiteboard being erased — though she stored the scolding in the back of her mind.

      "What the..." Steve started before he noticed it was the only other kid he liked rather than simply tolerated.

      "Rory?" Dustin questioned as Robin hushed him before setting her down in a chair.

Robin softly wiped away Auroras tears, though the action seemed to be useless as they were immediately replaced. Before sitting in a chair right across from the blonde, "what happened?"

"He called me needy," her words were broken by hiccups and sniffles but the three others in the rooms stiffened at her statement. "Am I needy?"

      "Aurora," Steve spun her chair around to face him, "you are not fucking needy. You are amazing, like literally you could do anything. That little shithead doesn't know what he means, he's stupid and dumb and—"

      "Don't call him names," Aurora mumbled, some part of her feeling bad even with everything.

      Steve scoffed, and Robin spun her chair around to face her, "Aurora, you are amazing and wonderful and no man will ever deserve even an ounce of your love. Mike fucking Wheeler doesn't know what he just lost, he's stupid and dense and he doesn't deserve to even think of you. Just remember that."

      Robin pulled Aurora into another hug, squeezing tightly before kissing to top of her head and standing up. "For one, dingus, my board? That had very important statistics! And for two, we're switching, I want to help translate your apparent evil Russian plot against our country."

      "What? How—" Dustin slapped Steve's arm and the boy brought us voice down, "how to do you know that?"

      "You two are very loud. I want to help!"

      Aurora sniffled, and harshly wiped at her eyes, "I can help too."

      "One," Steve pointed at Robin, "how can you help?" He turned to Aurora. "Two, you just got done sobbing your eyes out, by the way made me very uncomfortable, you can not help."

      "Um," Aurora spoke up again, her voice scratchy, "I'm fluent in four almost five, languages one of them being Russian, I think I can help."

      "Really? Me too!" Robin grinned, "how come I never knew this about you? What languages?"

      "French, Spanish, Italian, Russian, and almost Portuguese," Aurora nodded, before asking Robin that same question.

      "Same for the first three, but Pig Latin as well." Robin grinned, before Steve clapped his hands together.

      "Ugh, fine, I guess you two will be some help. But! You get no credit when we become famous." Steve nodded, placing the tap recorder on the desk in front of them.

      "Deal!" The two girls nodded, before Steve sighed and grabbed his hand before stomping out from the back.

      Dustin grabbed his stuff, moving to sit next to Aurora, before he pulled her into a hug, silent asking her if she was okay.

      "I'm sorry." When Aurora received no response from him, she continued. "About last night, Mike was...I don't know. Point is, I was super rude and we should've stayed longer, I'm sorry Dustin. I don't want it to seem like we abandoned you, even though in most ways we basically did, I don't know. I'm sorry."

      Dustin smiled against Auroras head, before they pulled apart, "fine, it's fine if you two can help us translate this."

      Aurora and Robin nodded, before Dustin clicked play on the tap, starting a cycle of playing and stopping the recording. Turns out, being fluent in Russian, meant she had taken a class in the fifth grade and knew some Russian.

"Okay, play that again. That last part," Robin pointed out, as Dustin clicked the pause button before rewinding it slightly. The recording playing again, before Robin cut it off, "that word, um...it's pronounced..."

"Dly-nna-ya," Aurora piped in, a cup of chocolate ice cream sitting in her lap as she ate it

"Thank you," Robin gestured to the girl, "which is spelled..."

"If I'm remembering correctly, that line translates to, 'The week is long' or something along those lines." Aurora added, racking her brain for anything other than Mike.

Robin smiled, before throwing open the shutters to mention their win to Steve, who, after congratulated them, mentioned two people here for Aurora. When he sent them back, Dustin had hidden the tap recorder and the whiteboard, whispering something about double agents before Max and Eleven rushed in.

"Aurora!" The two girls pulled her into a long, tight hug, before Max pulled away giggling.

"Oh my god, that was such a badass move! I can't believe you did that, Rory! You should've seen them after you walked off, they were all just a blubbering mess!"

"And!" Eleven piped in, "he even tried to blame us two, saying we corrupted you, and then she tried to blame me, because I'm not supposed to be here."

Aurora stood there, nodding and soaking all of their information in, "I'm sorry."

"Please, El threw a drink all over them, and then when they were walking away," Max giggled before she could finish her sentence, "El um, El tripped them, and all three of them ended up in the fountain!"

That story brought a grin to Auroras face, thankful that they didn't mention powers with Robin there. Speaking of Robin, the two girls just seemed to notice the other two bodies, Eleven and Max both greeted Dustin with an enthusiastic wave before Aurora introduced them to Robin.

Max and Eleven only stayed for a while, Aurora promising to call when she got home ( Robin had quickly offered her a ride after hearing what happened ), before leaving with two ice cream cones and a large grin on their faces.

Aurora felt slightly more relaxed knowing that her two friends had her back, before her mood dropped when she realized that Will had inadvertently sided with Mike in the argument. Of course, they had been friends longer but Will seemed closer with Mike, so it made sense, but some part of Aurora ached for Will to have chosen her.

To get her mind off of things, Aurora helped with the translations of the recording, and by the end of the night, the crew had successfully translated almost the entire first sentence. Robin and Aurora being the most helpful of the group, though Steve complained about being stuck on cleaning duties by himself and when they had to close the store up.

      The entire mall had been shut down by the time the four left Scoops Ahoy, Aurora reciting the translations in her head over and over as they walked to the front. "The week is long, the silver cat feeds when blue meets yellow in the west."

      It was clear that it was an encrypted code for something, and when the group figured that out, their mystery would be solved. Hopefully.

      "It just," Steve grunted as he pulled the gate down to finish closing the shop, "it just can't be right."

      Aurora and Robin spoke up at the same time: "It's right."

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

      Steve scoffed as he pushed off the ground, "how is this great news? I mean, so much for being American heroes. This is total nonsense."

      "It's not nonsense," Dustin protested.

      "But how did you catch it on your radio?" Aurora spoke up, the question plaguing her mind for hours now.

      "What?"

      "I mean obviously, you heard it on Cerbero, but when we had connected it nothing worked, not even static. I mean we caught some of the police reports down town, but nothing that far, so, again how did we manage to hear this recording?" Aurora finished her speech as the group passed a carousel, causing Steve to pause. "Steve?"

He had stopped in front of the kids carousel, digging in his uniform pockets. "Hey, Steve? What are you doing?" Robin shouted.

Steve mumbled something as he dug through his change, trying to find a quarter, "uh it's a quarter. I need—do you have a quarter?"

Robin laughed before the three walked over to the boy. Robin pulled a quarter from her pocket and handed it to Steve with a laugh, "are you sure you're tall enough for that ride?"

Steve rushed to load the quarter in, and quickly an almost familiar sound began playing. It was in the tip of Auroras mind as the horse moved up and down slowly.

"You need help getting up, little Stevie?" Robin mocked.

Steve shushed her as Aurora and Dustin couldn't help but laugh, before Steve turned to glare at the three of them. "Would you three just shut up and listen for three seconds?"

Aurora stopped, realizing that Steve wasn't joking as he watched the horse intensely. The sound admitting softly from a sound box underneath it. It only took Dustin a few more moments before he put together what Steve had, causing Aurora and Robin to glance at each other confused.

"Holy shit," Dustin scoffed before sliding his bag off his back, rushing to grab the recording. "The music!"

When Dustin pulled the recorder out and pressed play, Aurora could almost quote the beginning half of the words. But what the two boys were trying to have her focus on was the background sound. The exact same song that was playing right in front of them.

Though, Robin didn't seem to get it, "I don't understand?"

"It's the exact same song on the recording!" Dustin and Steve laughed together.

"Maybe they have horses like this in Russia?"

"Or," Dustin spoke up, "Aurora was right, and Cerebro didn't reach all the way to Russia, maybe all it need to reach was right here."

"The code," Steve added, "it didn't come from Russia. It came from here."

The four of them ended up leaving quickly afterwards, all of them slightly creeped out by the idea of secret Russian Spies plotting a government takeover — or at least what the four of them ( Dustin and Aurora ) believe could be one — inside of the brand new mall.

The four of them said goodbye to each other, Aurora and Robin got into the matters car, while Dustin and Steve did the same. The entire drive to Auroras house was spent in uncomfortable silence. Aurora knew that Robin wanted to ask a few questions about what had happened, but after a silent response to one, the two had fallen into silence.

Aurora had thanked Robin for everything ( including her comforting hugs and the translation help ) before closing the car door and rushing inside the house. When the door was shut, Mary, Flora and Fauna all rushed to Auroras side as she crumpled into a ball on the floor. The tears began again, and this time Aurora didn't care about the volume of her sobs.

The three aunts didn't bother to ask any questions, before grabbing Mango, who already seemed to be on the way to Aurora after sensing her arrival and emotions. Even cuddling her cat, with her aunts surrounding her did no help in her situation, she didn't know how to heal a broken heart.

Flora stumbled, as Aurora lost control of her powers for a moment before falling to the couch — asleep. Fauna rushed to help her, while Mary tried to calm Aurora just a bit more.

"Hey, hey," Mary ran a hand down Auroras back, brushing her fingers through her hair. "Remember, emotions heighten your powers, you have to control it. You have to fight it, that urge to just let everything go because you can't. You have to control it, Aurora."

Aurora nodded, sleepily. She could feel her power seep back into herself, as she control it. Just as she had been taught to do. Her eyes began to feel like weights in her arms as she sniffled, and even the softest action felt horrible. It was quick as Aurora succumbed to her sleep, falling forward in Mary's arms. The older woman grabbed Aurora as Mango climbed from her arms, but didn't go far, standing next to her side as she meowed softly.

      "Oh shush, cat," Mary whispered, standing with Aurora in her arms as she quickly walked her to her room. Laying her down on her bed, knowing that the cloth overalls would be fine to sleep in, before softly closing the door, after making sure Mango made it in safely.

Flora was awake by the time Mary made it to her, and the three aunts all stayed up in the living room, all night long. Just in case Aurora needed them.

But silently they were planning the demise of Mike Wheeler.

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(      LET ME SPEAK    :      )

okay guys...how do we feel??? i'm so
happy to finally include her aunts and
MANGO!? bc they haven't shown up
in a hot second so this season is
FOR THEM promise:)
also her and robin will be besties stg
and steve acting like a brother>>>>
i love everything about this chapter just
fyi!!!!
ALSO HAPPY PRIDE MY DARLINGS

credit goes to fivehxrgreeves