╭                                                                 ╮
━━━━ " 📂  "

𝙋 𝘼 𝙍 𝘼 𝘿 𝙄 𝙎 𝙀

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SADIE HAD WOKEN UP in a far too familiar position. Steve was laid next to her, in her bed, arm thrown out over her waist somewhat comfortably, head resting in the pillow far too close to falling off the edge of the bed. She didn't wake him up, instead going to change, and within two hours Steve had left, they had waved their mom off as she went to buy groceries and meet up with one of her friends for lunch (in an attempt to forget about Mews being out in the world), packed their bags and waited on the front porch for Steve to return.

He did, eventually, and the dull feeling that had been sat in Sadie's stomach disappeared as she slipped into the passenger seat. Within several minutes of Steve listening carefully to Sadie's instructions of where to go and getting slightly annoyed by Dustin's backseat driving, they had found the spot where Sadie deemed it perfect to leave the car and they came to a stop.

"You're gonna try to get Lucas on the line again, right?" Sadie asked, breaking the short concentrated silence that had fallen at their arrival. In her hands sat one of her paper copies of the map of Hawkins generally used by Hopper in the police department - it was a little more precise than usual tourist maps - and it was newly plagued with red-ink notes of where they were to go, a circle marking the very area they were stood in and an 'X' over the junkyard, with a line connecting the two together.

"Yeah, I'll try." Dustin confirmed, although there was a hint of annoyance now on his tone; he had been trying to reach Lucas for hours by that point and he was simply getting bored of it. But he needed to know, so Dustin knew he couldn't stop.

Sadie, admittedly, was rather pleased with herself as she followed Steve around to the trunk of his car. They had come up with a well-thought-out plan as Steve randomly appeared for breakfast that morning, greeting a very confused Claudia Henderson with the biggest smile and handshake and the three of them muttered whilst Mrs Henderson, happy to have so many mouths to feed all at once, served french toast and bacon. After that, Steve had disappeared to arrange the meat they would need to lure Dart and Sadie picked out a wholly appeasing outfit; the dark blue jeans she never wore yet had embroidered in patterns of moss green, brick and cream, a beige turtleneck over which she wore her old, brown, faded patchwork cardigan and the beat-up old sneakers she had to tie tighter each time.

From her shoulder hung a backpack, which contained snacks (Dustin tended to get hungry at times she was certain they wouldn't be at home), a book, some spare change, and where she also managed to fit a towel-wrapped nail-studded baseball bat, although the handle was sticking out of where the zips met at the top. It swung at her waist and dug into her side, but she didn't mind it so much.

As Steve pulled the trunk of his car open and began to pull out the three buckets of chopped up meat they had acquired to lure Dart to them, the radio pack that Dustin had fashioned into a hands-free system using bits and pieces of his Halloween costume crackled to life. "Dustin!" A voice echoed through. "This is Lucas, do you copy? Dustin!"

"Well, well, well, look who it is." The headset microphone that curled around the younger boy's ear was pulled down to his lips. Sadie's eyebrows rose, not unfamiliar with the annoyed tone in his voice.

"I'll take one of them." She murmured to Steve, not wanting to interrupt their conversation as the Harrington hauled the pails out of the trunk and onto the floor below them.

"You sure?" Steve checked, but she didn't say otherwise and he shrugged, nodding to the buckets below them. "Take your pick."

"Sorry, man." Lucas's voice continued to crackle through the walkie-talkie. "My stupid sister turned it off."

"Well, while you were having sister problems," The eye-roll was audible in Dustin's tone. "Dart grew again, he escaped, and I'm pretty sure he's a baby Demogorgon. Sadie confirmed it."

"Wait... what?"

"I'll explain later." Dustin waved away his question. "Meet me, Sadie and Steve at the old junkyard. We have a plan."

"Steve?"

"And bring your binoculars... and wrist rocket." Dustin finished, hand reaching round to pull the walkie-talkie out of the holder.

"Steve Harrington?" Lucas's crackling voice managed to get out one last questions to do with Dustin and Sadie's choice of help for that day before Dustin interrupted again. Behind him, Steve crossed his arms.

"Alright, let's go." He said, urging for the hurried conversation to come to an end.

"Just be there, stat," Dustin replied. "Over and out." He pushed down the antenna without another question and placed it back in his pack, then he turned towards the teenagers. "Are we going or what?"

"We were waiting for you, dingbat," Sadie said, her hand reaching to steal the red, white and blue baseball cap pulled down over his curls. "Thanks." She grinned, reaching for one of the pails and standing up on her tiptoes to stop him from getting it back. She paused and stood still for a moment by the car. "Steve, could you get my book from my bag for me?" She asked.

Neither of them questioned it.

✧

Sadie didn't have a documented time on how long it took her to walk to the old junkyard. More often than not she went by car and it didn't really take her a long time, although the bumps in the road were more than painful and the actual journey needed to take to actually get there circled all around Hawkins. But, as she predicted way before they set off, including the casual throwing of the meet, necessary breaks and resting their arms and eating lunch, it would take the three of them quite a few hours to get there.

It didn't help that the Henderson girl found herself increasingly bored as she walked along and instead of joining in Steve and Dustin's conversation... which she believed had originated with Steve asking where Dustin got Dart from, she hung behind and let the handle of the bucket slip into the curve of her elbow, other hand holding the thick copy of Anna Karenina. She was lucky she had somehow developed quite the strength in her wrist from all that fiddling and tightening and loosening of bolts. Otherwise, she would have been in trouble and ultimately wearier on their journey, braindead because of the boys' conversation.

Talking of, Steve and Dustin's conversation seemed to weave its way through the intake of Russian literature, and the girl's eyebrows rose and sank as her interest in the conversation spiked and fell each time.

"All right, so let me get this straight." Once again, Steve's voice managed to permeate the words of Tolstoy and momentarily, Sadie glanced up. "You kept something you knew was probably dangerous in order to impress a girl who...who you just met?"

Dustin threw a chunk of meat and cautiously, nose wrinkling from the idea of it, Sadie tipped her bucket to the side and watched as a couple dropped out. "All right, that's grossly oversimplifying things." Her younger brother replied and Sadie settled back into the walk.

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

"A girl would love some nasty slug." Sadie protested, the two boys turning back to her as though they had forgotten she was even there. "I would be impressed if a guy turned up with an intermittently shedding, constantly growing, interdimensional slug. That's awesome."

Dustin turned back to Steve, triumphant. "Shut up, your sister's weird." Steve waved her away, eyes catching for a moment and a triumphant twinkle appeared in her's. "Well, even if she thought it was cool, which she didn't, Sadie's an exception. I... I just... I don't know. I just feel like you're trying way too hard."

"Well, not everyone can have your perfect hair, all right?" Dustin said pointedly, the hat he wanted to wear still perched on his sister's head. There was no reaction from the girl; it was clear her interest was momentary and fleeting and had been drawn back to her book.

"It's not about the hair, man." Steve let out a sigh. "The key with girls is just...just acting like you don't care."

"Even if you do?"

"Yeah, exactly. It drives them nuts."

"Then what?"

"You just wait until, uh... until you feel it."

Dustin's confusion was evident enough, despite the emphasis Steve had put on this feeling before running a hand through his famed hair. "Feel what?" He asked.

"It's like before it's gonna storm,you know?" Steve replied."You can't see it,but you can feel it, like this, uh... electricity, you know?" His gaze, although resting on Dustin to the right of him, flickered backward for half a moment.

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

"No, no, no, no, no." Steve cut him off, eyes rolling. He was beginning to see that he had never seen a pair of siblings who were more alike than Dustin and Sadie. "Like a... Like a sexual electricity." Behind them, a gagging sound could be heard. "Shut up, Sadie."

"Oh."

"You feel that and then you make your move."

"Right." Dustin nodded, chucking a piece of meat. That seemed to make sense. "So that's when you kiss her?"

"No, whoa, whoa. Slow down, Romeo."

"Sorry."

"Sure, okay, some girls, yeah, they want you to be aggressive." Steve began his thought process, etching it out completely. "You know, strong, hot and heavy, like a... I don't know, like a lion. But others, you gotta be slow, you gotta be stealthy, like a... like a ninja.

Dustin stared at him for a moment, before turning around. "Sadie? is this true?"

"Hm?" Her face appeared as she lowered her book, looking between them,

"About some girls wanting a lion and then... others wanting a ninja." Dustin waved his hand dismissively. "Is it true?"

"I don't know Dustin, really." Sadie shrugged, finger slipping down over the corner of her page to mark it whilst she engaged in such... riveting conversation. "I'm not either of those types of girl. And dude - he's like thirteen, and totally doesn't need to have strategies and approaches to girls right now. He should just be himself."

"No - you're different." Steve agreed, before turning to face Dustin again. "Sadie's different." He repeated and took a step away from the younger brother towards his sister, holding his hand out. "Give me that bucket of meat."

Sadie stared before realising what he had said. "What? Steve, you already have one. I'm not giving you my bucket."

"You keep making faces every time you have to throw a bit. And you're about this close to tripping over your own feet, just focus on.. what are you reading?"

"Anna Karenina," Sadie replied dutifully.

"What is that.. like Russian?"

"Mhm.. but it's a copy I got which it part English, part Russian - so I can keep up with my language skills. It's a very interesting read, a lot more entertaining than the normal translation."

"You speak Russian?" He honestly didn't even know why he was surprised; of course she spoke Russian. He was more than aware that she spoke several languages, not just the one, but she just kept amazing him and Steve was kicking himself that he had spent so long not talking to her.

"Bits and pieces." Sadie shrugged, before holding out the pail of meat. It appeared she had changed her mind. "Here." She wiggled it around in her hand and Steve took it with a smile, returning to Dustin and falling in step beside him.

"What do you mean my sister is different." It didn't take Dustin long of staring at the stupid grin that appeared on Steve's face to bombard him with the question that came from it.

"She's different, okay?" He said. "She's... not like other girls. She doesn't want someone rough or someone stealthy.. she just wants someone truthful and who likes her for her. Doesn't matter how they approach her."

Steve... hated that. He knew exactly what she wanted, knew her enough to understand the type of person yet was sickened with himself because he hadn't been that person for so long. He hadn't approached her with utmost honesty - then, after originally finding himself way more interested in anything she said to him than anyone else, he wouldn't have lied to himself or Nancy. And for so long he hadn't stopped Carol and Tommy from their comments, even if he disagreed with them being so cruel he couldn't deny that he had enabled that.

"And did you approach her like that?"

Steve's steps faltered. It was like this kid could read his mind. "What?" He asked, distracted.

"When you started getting all..." Dustin waved his hands around. "...Whatever with my sister, did you approach her as someone who likes her for her? Are you telling her the truth?"

"What - I - er - um.."

"You know we can both tell when you're lying, so it's better to tell the truth," Dustin said plainly, although neither of them were too sure that Sadie was listening at this point; now she didn't have a heavy bucket weighing her down her walking in a straight line and reading was consuming her concentration entirely. "Do you have a thing for my sister?"

"No, okay?" Steve swallowed. "I don't. Nothing's happened, okay?"

Dustin's eyes narrowed. "I didn't say anything about what's happened, liar... So what's happened?"

Damn. Steve swallowed. "Nothing to do with you." It wasn't entirely denial, but it didn't stop him from at least making his way towards that destination. "Your sister's special, that's all. Surely you can see that. You wouldn't want your sister dating some jerk like.. like Eric whats-his-name. The jerk who works at the cinema."

"Eric Murphy likes my sister?" Dustin's nose wrinkled. "Gross."

"Right? Exactly. And Billy Hargrove, so you know, a range of guys. But, Sadie's special."

"But this girl's special, too, you know." Dustin was, by no means, any less suspicious of Steve than he had been before, but he would waste too much energy arguing otherwise. "I don't know... it's just, like, something about her."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa." Steve cut him off with a series of exclamations that even caused Sadie to look up. "Hey, hey, hey."

"What?"

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

"Uh, no." Came Dustin's instant reply. "No... You're not falling in love with my sister?"

"No. And good. Don't." Steve swallowed, precise, almost snappy words proving - to him at least - that he was only lying to himself and Dustin beside him. "She's only gonna break your heart,and you're way too young for that shit. Way too young."

They fell silent after that, Dustin having heard of him and Nancy breaking up through Mike two mornings after Halloween and knowing for a fact that he was only referencing that. But... as much as Dustin had hated Steve for being a dick, he was at least somewhat nice for agreeing to help them out. And there was no denying that his advice would be useful; Steve knew what he was talking about when it came to dating and Dustin could trust him, especially if Sadie liked him and she would often the toughest critic of character, able to notice things that others didn't and stress on points that would otherwise go undetected.

"Fabergé"

Dustin's focus was broken. "What?"

"It's Fabergé Organics." Steve pointed to his hair was a spare hand. "Use the shampoo and conditioner, and when your hair's damp. It's not wet, okay? When it's damp, damp. You do four puffs of the... Farrah Fawcett spray."

He blinked. "Farrah Fawcett spray?"

"Yeah. Farrah Fawcett. You tell anyone I just told you that and your ass is grass." Steve drew in a breath, looking behind him. "You too, Sadie, I know you're supposed to be reading but I know you're listening."

"I'm not falling in love with you either, just so you know." Sadie hummed her reply. "My mom uses that hairspray." She added.

"Shut up." Steve shook his head. "You're dead, Henderson, do you understand? Dead. You're in that clause too." He directed his cause to Dustin, who held his hands up in mock surrender the best he could, bringing them back down to throw another piece of meat out into the wilderness.

"Hey - we got it!" Sadie called, and when they looked back, her face was covered in a book.

✧

It was, as Sadie predicted, a little later than they could have hoped when they finally arrived at the junkyard. In fact, it was a little less than an hour until the sun began to properly set, and if they wanted to be ready in the time they would have to work hard. They had eaten actual food and they had slung chunks of raw meat into the woodland, and now Steve was holding what was once Sadie's pail, which was still pretty full, and they were coming to a stop as their path opened up to a clearing facing the abandoned bus her brother was rather familiar with.

Above them, the sky was patterned with the condensation trails from airplanes. "Oh yeah." Steve nodded, looking around. He pulled his glasses from his eyes. "Oh yeah, this will do. Good call." He turned toward Sadie. "This will do just fine."

"You think so?" She followed behind him, using her singular gloved hand to throw one of the pieces of meat behind them, narrowly avoiding hitting Dustin and completing their trail. "I think it's the only place in the town which would really work. I mean, last time in the Byers house was a little bit enclosed."

"Yeah." Dustin slipped into step beside them. They paused and looked at him. "I've been there, I can imagine it would be." He added hastily.

This time it was Sadie who waited behind, book closed in her hand and hurrying to put it away but using the lull in actions to scrutinise her brother's expression as he looked up at Steve. Although usually, she wouldn't hesitate to comment on it and exercise the practised sarcasm that so easily slipped from her tongue, she would withhold it this time; Dustin didn't have many male role models in his life, and although Sadie did her best to appear as strong as a man could be and held way too many traits of her own father - who she knew he struggled to remember - there were things she couldn't do to help that. Steve, although a little clueless and somewhat... ditzy at times, could be that for him. And she wouldn't hesitate in allowing him.

There was an excited spring to her step as she followed after them, watching as they exchanged a few words before deciding to tip out the remains of the raw meat there.

"I said medium-well!" Came a shout from behind them, and as Sadie reached the two of them they turned towards the gap. Stood there was not only Lucas as expected, but the girl she knew to be Max Mayfield, Billy's step-sister.

"Who's that?" Steve asked, glancing toward Dustin. There wasn't a reply and Sadie tore her own gaze away. Her younger brother's face was unreadable - but clearly hurt. "Is that-"

"Hi." Sadie stepped forward as opposed to nobody doing anything. She offered her hand. "Max, right?"

"Yeah, and you're Dustin's sister, Sadie." Max replied, tucking waves of ginger hair behind her ear as she shook her hand. "Er - I heard my brother talking about you as well."

"She tends to make impressions on people." Dustin quickly interrupted: nobody needed to talk about Billy Hargrove at that moment. There was a shine of pride in his voice.

"Does she know?" Sadie asked, looking around the two boys she was more than familiar with.

"And she has no tact." Dustin swallowed. "Lucas, can I talk to you real quick? Just - just - over there."

There were a couple of nods before Steve, Sadie and Max were left together in a moment of awkwardness before Sadie sprang into action and began laying out her plan to them; they would set up camp in the old bus but would need to reinforce it and create some sort of door. She had the tools for that in her backpack but would need to gather bits and pieces beforehand before setting it up.

And so she, alongside Steve and Max, got to work on putting together a pile of useful metal which was deemed strong enough to actually help them. It wasn't easier work, but it was made all the more harder when Dustin and Lucas spent half the time talking.

Which was why she welcomed the sound of an old chair colliding forcefully with the bonnet of the old car Lucas and Dustin were hiding behind. "Hey! Dickheads!" Steve's shouts interrupted their muttered conversation. "How come the only one helping me and Sadie out is this random girl? We lose light in 40 minutes. Let's go." He ordered and the two boys stood up, although unwillingly. "Let's go, I said!" He repeated, and found that insults thrown at his back only propelled him towards Sadie as she kicked some old corrugated metal with her sneakers.

"Alright, Mussolini?" She asked as he came to a stop beside her. "Help me with this, would you?"

Steve nodded, picking up the bottom of the sheet and carrying towards the bus. "Mussolini? That's that... that Italian dictator guy, right?"

"Yeah. The Italian fascist dictator." Sadie nodded. "Colour me impressed, Harrington."

"What can I say, I know my stuff." Steve watched as she came to a stop by the door and dropped the end of the metal, coming to balance his elbows on top of it. Sadie copied his actions and grinned as she looked up at him. "I figure I've earned bragging rights, no?"

"Bragging rights over what, exactly?"

"Well, I managed to keep up with one of your historical references," Steve replied. "I think you should make some kind of ladder rewards system. First one, then five, then ten and so on."

"And what do you suggest the prizes are?" Sadie asked and her eyelashes fluttered once, twice. Steve didn't say anything for a moment, staring down at her and feeling an unfamiliar ache in his chest. So he had lied to Dustin earlier. And Sadie as well. His lack of reply seemed to mean something else to the girl, who averted her gaze first as a dusting of pink tinted her cheeks. "Sorry, I didn't mean-"

"No." Steve shook his head quickly. "No - no, you're fine. I don't even know what the prizes could be anyway. Maybe we should... we should get back to hauling ass and barricading the bus, right?" His tone was jokey and Sadie nodded, no idea why she felt even the slightest hint of upset.

But she didn't protest as he turned away, although her brain scrambled to find a topic. It landed on one and she made her way after him, leaving the metal leaning on the bus. "Hey - er - just a moment?" He turned to face her, looking more hopeful than she dared hope. "I just wanted to thank you."

Steve looked confused. "For what?"

"You know, for coming and helping when I said Mews was missing... for last night. For Halloween, for giving Dustin all the advice he would ever need to approach a girl like the Steve 'the hair' Harrington." Sadie replied with a smile, crossing her arms over her chest. "All that stuff. I just... I'm grateful."

The ache in his chest seemed to swell at that and momentarily found himself speechless. Steve didn't get like this - other than the time at the party. 'This' being the incessant need to kiss Sadie Henderson, of course. Instead of being any kind of polite, he instead just grinned. "So, you like my hair, huh?" He asked.

"Ass." Sadie punched his shoulder. "I'm being serious here. Thank you for that. I'm not one to get all sappy and shit because... well I don't really have a reason, but I can do only so much for him, despite how perfect I am." She continued, still smiling. "Thanks for that anyway."

"You're welcome. Very welcome, I'd be glad to help again if I could." Steve replied. "Any way I can help."

"Yeah?" Sadie smiled up at him before looking away. "I should get back to it before Lucas and Dustin start on me for slacking off and you allowing it."

"Yeah." He repeated her own answer back to her. "Yeah, I'll help too. I should... we should... yeah." Steve agreed. Sadie didn't pause any longer and turned away, unaware of the gaze that remained over her as she began tinkering with a couple of small objects, pocketing a few. "Yeah." Steve breathed out, and turned away.