╭                                                                 ╮
━━━━ " 📂  "

𝙋 𝘼 𝙍 𝘼 𝘿 𝙄 𝙎 𝙀

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"SEE ANYTHING?" DUSTIN ASKED. "See anything?" He repeated, with the tone of a particularly petulant child asking 'why' as a response to every question they got and a well-aimed elbow.

"Ouch, dude!" Steve protested, as he almost poked his eye out with the pair of binoculars he was currently peering through. "What exactly are we looking for?" He asked.

"I don't think you're gonna find it staring into Orange Julius." Dustin warily stood up a little taller to bypass the blockage of green foliage. "You can't even see my sister dude, what the hell."

"No, she's there," Steve confirmed with a certain confidence, "you just can't see her because that asshat Eric has been blocking the view and talking her ear off for the last ten minutes."

"Dude. We're supposed to be trying to find some totally suspicious Russian spy, not Eric from Orange Julius." Dustin rolled his eyes. "You think Eric from Orange Julius is spying for the Russians?"

When the boy had been woken up that morning by the sound of Steve and Sadie sneaking back into their house, it hadn't taken him very long at all to entirely agree with Sadie's theory that the Russians were operating somewhere in Starcourt Mall - regardless of the question of why they were there at all - and after Sadie had informed Robin of the revelation, it had been decided that they would spend the day trying to figure out well... something.

And Dustin and Steve had decided to spy on the everyday shoppers of the mall. Sadie had been happy to let them, handing over her binoculars with a smile. It wasn't that she thought the suggestion was wrong; they very well might be correct and that their day of spying, on the lookout for evil Russians, could yield some positive results for their investigation. It was just that... well, she thought that perhaps the Russians using Starcourt Mall as a front for their operations were as close to hiding in plain sight as they would get, and they wouldn't just be wandering around in broad daylight.

"No..." Steve countered. "No, I don't think Eric from Orange Julius is spying for the Commies-" He began in a mocking tone.

"Say Russians."

"Commies."

"Russians."

"Commies sounds cooler."

"Russians." Dustin insisted.

"Fine, shit, whatever - no, I don't think he is spying for the Russians," Steve replied, with a sigh of resignation. "It's just... the dude has got zero game. He never even got off the bench! He's annoyed your sister at every chance he's gotten, dude can't pass a class to save his life... why does he even think he has a chance with Sadie?"

"Gross, dude."

"Seriously, zero game. Nothing, nada. Zilch." Steve shook his head. "He just keeps annoying her and-"

"Dude, we are not using the binoculars so you can spy on your girlfriend and some guy she works with." Dustin protested once again.

"It's your sister!" Steve lowered the binoculars for a brief moment. "You should be way more concerned about this."

"If I think of Sadie as my sister and your girlfriend simultaneously it makes me feel like I wanna vomit." Dustin rolled his eyes. "And we're not here to spy on Sadie, we're here to find evil Russians."

"Look, dude, I get to do a little spying, alright?" Steve raised the binoculars once again, squinting slightly through the glass lenses. "You weren't woken up at four in the morning so she could recognise a carnival tune and broke into the mall with her! I get to do a little spying, okay? Especially if that asshole-"

"No, you don't!" Dustin argued. "Evil Russians. Your spying - nay, your stalking of my sister can wait."

"Don't you 'nay' me." Steve looked particularly affronted by this, but once again was forced to admit defeat on the subject; he knew full well just how stubborn both Sadie and her brother could be. "Fine. Whatever. Evil Russians." He moved the binoculars around, sweeping over the mall in front of them. "I guess... I don't totally know what I'm looking for."

"Evil Russians," Dustin replied as if it was obvious.

"Yeah, exactly," Steve said. "I don't know what an evil Russian looks like."

"Tall, blond, not smiling," Dustin replied. "Also, look for earpieces, camo, duffel bags... that sort of thing."

"Oh..." Steve was squinting as he looked through the binoculars. "Like the dude in the new Rocky?"

"The dude in the new Rocky? There's not a new Rocky out." Dustin frowned.

"I know there isn't, Dustybuns, but the trailer is, and it showed when me and Sadie went to see the new Rambo whilst you were off at Camp Know-It-All," Steve said, briefly looking back at his friend before returning his attention to the search. "Right, okay, duffel bags."

"It's Camp Know Where first of all..." Dustin sounded annoyed, but his tone was quick to change. "But there's gonna be a new Rocky?"

"Yeah, dude, there's this freaking huge Russian guy - blonde, definitely carries a duffel bag - and nobody thinks Rocky can fight him, but Rocky thinks he can," Steve told him. "And he looks like the Russian guy who was in the new Bond film as well. So basically, yeah, blonde, duffel bags, camo - oh, you've gotta be kidding me."

"What?" Dustin asked. "What!"

"Eric's disappeared and now that meathead Mark Lewinsky's trying it with Sadie!" Steve leant forward, almost falling into the plant box as he did so.

"Dude, if you're not gonna focus, just gimme the binoculars," Dustin complained, for what might have been the twentieth time since their spying began.

"Aw, Jesus Christ!" Steve was never letting go of said binoculars, fully focused on the sight now. "Whatever happened to common sense? Neither of these idiots ever made it off the bench and I know full well they both know that she has a boyfriend who was an actual player!"

"Steve, I don't think Sadie is dating you because you were on the basketball team." Dustin groaned. If Sadie was to date anyone, if the person she was to date happened to be Steve, it was fine, it was whatever, but the poor boy would really rather have any other conversation with his friend. "I think that might actually be the last thing on her list of reasons why."

"She has a list?" Steve looked back at him.

"No, disphit!" Dustin had had enough now; "Dude, you are the worst spy in history, you know that?" And he reached over to pull the binoculars away. "Give me those."

"Stop - hey! Stop." Steve winced as the black cord tugged around his neck. "Careful, dude," he added, reaching around to pull the strap over his head. "Geez."

"I don't get why you're so bothered about Eric, and Mark talking-"

"Flirting." Steve corrected, with a roll of his eyes.

"Sorry, geez, flirting with Sadie," Dustin said, "when she is seemingly happy dating you. For some weird reason."

"Hey!"

"Dude, if she's happy, and I don't have to hear about it, I don't care." Dustin waved a hand. Like he often did, and like Sadie often did, he had taken on the tone of someone more mature, more intelligent beyond his years. "But do you really think Sadie - my sister Sadie - is gonna... she's gonna... well, that."

"Dude, of course, I don't." Steve rolled his eyes. "Obviously not." It was so incredulous that Dustin couldn't even form the words. "I don't care about Sadie. Sadie can do anything she wants to."

"Dude." Dustin brought the binoculars away from his eyes. "You're jealous."

"What?" Steve jerked back. "I'm not jealous."

"Yes - yes you are, because Sadie, like all Hendersons, is pretty perfect," Dustin replied in a hum, returning to his scanning of the crowds. "And whilst yes, you're dating Sadie, and neither of you will ever let me forget it, apparently, you're still way too stuck in high school! You asked her out the day of your graduation! Don't you think it's time to move on and leave the primitive constructs of jealousy behind?"

"Oh, primitive constructs?" Steve repeated.

"Yeah."

"That some shit you learnt at Camp Know..." his gaze flickered up to the print on the front of Dustin's camp, "...Nothing?"

"Camp Know Where, actually." Dustin replied, deadpan. "And no, it's shit I learned from life." Steve nodded and resisted rolling his eyes. "Instead of worrying about Eric from Orange Julius and Mark who never made it off the bench, why don't you just enjoy the fact that you have a girlfriend who is insanely cooler than you? Like me and Suzie."

"Ohhh, Suzie." Steve said, "Yeah, you mean 'hotter than Phoebe Cates'. Yeah, that Suzie. And uh, let's think about it. How exactly did you score that beautiful girlfriend?" He asked, in mock confusion. "Oh, yeah. With my advice. Because that's how this works, Henderson. I give you the advice, you follow through. Not the other way around, all right, pea-brain?"

"Sure. Totally. It's not like Sadie told me to ignore your advice or anything." Dustin hummed.

"It doesn't matter what Sadie said." Steve sniped back. "I still got her, didn't I?"

"I think that might have been her decision."

"Her decision? Her decision?" Steve repeated, before he let out a sigh. "No, you're totally right on that bit, but... give me the binoculars."

"What?"

"Give me the binoculars, pea-brain!"

✧

As much as Sadie disliked working entirely, given that she would much rather be helping with the whole secret Russian transmission thing that the staff of Scoops had going on (or doing absolutely anything else during her summer break), it really wasn't so bad working at Orange Julius.

If Eric also working there was removed from the equation, then Sadie was sure she would be having a whale of a time. It was juicing oranges and other such fruit, and sure, sometimes she smelt like hotdogs and the small freezer which held the packaged ice cream sandwiches would break all the time, but it wasn't all that bad. Besides, she might not be able to get involved with the secret Russian investigation until her break, or until she got off work entirely, but Robin was on the case and Dustin and Steve were... well... Sadie wasn't sure what they were doing.

They called it spycraft, but for the majority of her shift thus far, they had been hiding pretty poorly behind one of the bushes surrounding the fountain. It was Steve's fault she had seen them so quickly really; that sailor outfit she knew and loved and he hated so ardently was possibly the worst outfit for spying, or whatever it was that they thought they were doing.

"There you go." Sadie placed the small, branded cup down at the edge of the counter. "One..." she took a deep breath in, "sample of the original Orange Julius."

"Do I not get a straw?"

"You used to be so sweet." Sadie huffed out, all but throwing the straw in Erica Sinclair's direction. "I was your babysitter for several years, do I not get a please, or a thank you?"

"Can I please get a sample of the Strawberry Julius." Erica sniped back, head tilted as she stabbed the oversized straw into the tiny cup. "One for all of my friends?"

"Why aren't you bothering Steve and Robin anymore?" Sadie asked, turning to retrieve more fruit. "I thought you wanted the samples from Scoops. USS Butterscotch? Peanut Butter Chocolate Swirl? Cherries Jubilee? You know, the unhealthy stuff. This has fruit it, this is no fun."

"The sailor girl said no more samples." Erica stood up on her tiptoes, peering over the counter. "Can we get some more strawberries with that?"

"Can I get a please, with one of your demands?" Sadie replied but reached for another handful of the strawberries anyway.

"What are you doing?" She looked up, rolling her eyes at the sight of Eric hovering over her shoulder, glancing furtively from the pile of ingredients she was loading into the blender and the sight of Erica Sinclair's fingers tapping impatiently on the counter.

"I'm making a Strawberry Julius," Sadie replied. Eric's eyebrows raised and he spluttered something stupid, probably annoying and entirely incoherent. Over his shoulder, she saw Dustin and Steve slowly rising up out of the bush they had been hiding behind and moving particularly oddly towards the elevator. Clearly, a target had been spotted. "Then, I'm gonna take... five or six of those cups people take for the fried onions and fill them with it."

"You can't do that!" Eric complained. "That's against company policy?"

"Is it really?" Sadie asked. Steve and Dustin were going up the escalator, pushing past the daily shoppers. "Fascinating."

"You can't give out free samples!"

"Have you tried saying no to Erica?" Sadie asked. Eric stared at her briefly, before shaking his head gormlessly, as if the simple question had stumped him. "You know what?" Sadie took a step back. "Why don't you try!" She patted him on the shoulder. "I'm taking my fifteen. Or twenty, haven't decided yet."

"You can't do that!"

"Eric," Sadie heaved in a sigh, "you can't tell me what to do. You're not a manager, you're my coworker. We get paid the same thing - it's not worth it." And she left behind the shop front with the sound of Eric's nonsense splutterings, hurrying through the crowds towards the escalator she had just seen the two boys go up.

"Watch it, dickwad!" Sadie pushed passed the last couple of people steadily making their way up to the second floor of the mall just in time to see the two freeze; Steve had bumped shoulders with some guy; and all of a sudden the two were dashing over to the side of the walkway. Dustin picked up a phone, talking robotically into the receiver and Steve, well Steve stood, frozen behind the leaves of a plant.

A moment passed, anyone interested in the sound of the conflict now bored and turning back to their shopping, and Steve and Dustin were on the move again. With a sigh, Sadie moved to click the receiver back into place on the payphone and continued after them, around the corner from the entry into the other side of the mall and past the windows of Waldenbooks before they came to a stop, hiding behind the store directory and looking into... Jazzercise?

"You two are the worst spies in history." Sadie interrupted, as the first telltale beats of a Wham! song began, grinning as the two jumped out of their skin and swivelled around to face her, looking almost guilty. "You thought Kyle the Jazzercise instructor was a Russian spy!"

"He fit the profile!" Dustin defended. "Blond, wearing all black, carrying a duffel bag... how do you know his name?"

"Some of the moms at the pool the other day were talking about him," Sadie replied nonchalantly. "Hey, Sailor." She smiled, head tilting. "Hey, where's your cap?" Her hand reached up to adjust Steve's hair, fingers brushing through a few loose strands.

"Probably lost it when he was busy spying on you," Dustin grumbled.

"Dude!" Steve shoved his shoulder. "Hey, Henderson." He changed his tone quickly, arm sliding around her waist and hand slipping into the back pocket of her skirt. "Good morning?"

"Eh, not too bad." She replied, as her brother let out a groan and began to lead the way back downstairs. "Eric's being an ass, like always... Erica Sinclair's now abusing the lack of policy on free samples and.. oh, Mark Lewinsky stopped by, asked if I wanted to go to the County fair with him on the fourth, and Eric told him that we were dating."

"Eric told him?"

"He might be an obsessive ass, but he's gunning for that promotion to assistant manager and will not let the distraction of being asked out get in his way." Sadie hummed, as Steve took Dustin's distraction (that truly was just an attempt to get away from them as quickly as possible), to press kisses to the top of her head. "So no luck on the Russian spy thing?"

"Nope." Steve shook his head. "We thought we had something with the Jazzercise guy but I think that might have just accidentally scarred Dustybuns for life."

"He'll get over it." Sadie dismissed. "Did he mention Suzie yet?"

"'Hotter than Phoebe Cates' Suzie?" Steve asked. "Sure, he mentioned her. And then he might have mentioned that you told him to ignore my advice?"

"Sure I did." Sadie frowned. "When your advice consisted of telling him that girls either wanted a lion or a ninja. That I told him to ignore and just be himself. But since then I've not mentioned it. My mom's said it multiple times, you've boosted the kid's confidence to like a million, so even if he decides not to take your advice then you've still got that, right?" She smiled up at him, arm snaking around his waist.

"He said she's hotter than Phoebe Cates, and nobody's even let him watch Fast Times at Ridgemont High yet." Steve replied. They were wandering along at a pace that was needlessly slow; they hadn't even made it to the escalator yet and they were pissing off every single shopper behind them. And as workers in the mall, there was nothing Sadie would rather do on her break. "And he said she's smarter than you! Nobody's smarter than you, and I pride myself on it."

Sadie's lips curled up in a smile. "Either way... and I don't want to sound too cocky, but unless Suzie has a photographic memory then it's scientifically impossible to be smarter than I am." She shrugged. "Recent research suggests that as well as the different speed of cognitive processing, that due to having a difference in the balance of excitatory and inhibitory neurons in the brain as a child could contribute to having a memory such as my own."

"You've done research into research on yourself?" Steve asked.

"Maybe just a bit. In between the whole Russian plane thing." Sadie shrugged. "Why?"

"Nothing. You're insane... Dustybuns is crazy, my advice has to be incredible."

"What do you mean?" Sadie asked, as they thoroughly pissed off even more people and continued to stand side by side as they went down the escalator. Dustin was standing at the bottom of it, staring at something.

"Well, I got you, so something must have worked, right?" Steve asked her. Something weighed in his chest, something he didn't want to think about, didn't want to talk about.

"You got me my interdimensional slug. You got me." Sadie confirmed. "Is Robin still cool watching the front of the shop?"

"Sure, she should..." Steve trailed off. "Dude, what is she doing?"

They stepped off the escalator and came to stand next to Dustin, all wearing identical expressions of complete confusion, and the slight addition of being a little weirded out, as they stared at Robin as she stood on one of the benches surrounding the fountain, circling around slowly and muttering to herself.

"Robin." Steve stepped forward. "What are you doing?" He asked.

"I've cracked it." Robin said, her eyes wide.

"Cracked what?" Steve asked.

"I cracked the code."

✧

Sadie was right. Of course she was right, but for once in her life she had truly hoped she wouldn't. But Robin had cracked it. She'd cracked the code and as it turned out, the Russians were somewhere in Starcourt and the whole thing was being used as a front for whatever the hell they were doing. And Sadie had her suspicions of what that was, but she didn't want to freak Dustin out and Robin had no idea about any of it so that was going to be her and Steve's secret for now.

But Robin had cracked it, and the Russians were in the mall, and every part of Sadie told her that Larry Kline had something to do with it. He would totally be corrupt, for the right price... although she wasn't sure how the Russians knew about what lay under Hawkins Lab, other than the idea of actual Soviet government espionage and not two teenage boys with a pair of binoculars and the Cadillac of HAM radios.

Although... Sadie had translated the code and Robin had cracked it. They might be a group of teenagers with a pair of binoculars with the Cadillac of HAM radios, but the two girls would make great spies themselves and, well, three of them had saved Hawkins twice before, so what was a third?

The week is long. The silver cat feeds when blue meets yellow in the west. A trip to China sounds nice if you tread lightly.

'The week is long' - that was just the timing for the intended message, 'the silver cat' - the LYNX delivery company delivered to all businesses within the mall, 'when blue meets yellow in the west' - the colours were the hands on the clock and, well, that pointed to 9:45 that night. 'A trip to China sounds nice if you tread lightly' - Imperial Panda and Kaufman shoes. Robin explained all that very well, stood up on the benches next to the fountain.

As such, the four of them ended up with the secondary translation of the code. They didn't know the exact purpose of the code, whether it was simply a reminder for guards or the delivery drivers, but the secondary translation told them that something important was happening when LYNX delivered for Imperial Panda and Kaufman Shoes at 9:45 that night. It was the end of the week after all.

That was why it was decided that the four of them were going to be there, that night when the scheduled delivery arrived. Sadie would've happily been there all that evening, should she not have discovered, upon searching through the hidden hallways behind each store for an exit out onto the roof (a door which she had to disable the alarm on to even get out of), that it was storming. And not just wind, not just a bit of rain, but thunder, lightning and the sort of rain that hammered down against the ground at a speed, beating against the brightly coloured PVC raincoats belonging to anyone who dared leave the sanctity of the inside.

But nothing was to deter them. Sadie ended up working late, as did both Steve and Robin because Robin claimed that she swore it was her who was scheduled - Sadie figured she was lying and just didn't want to miss anything, given that this was the most exciting thing to happen to Hawkins in a long time. Well, to Robin's knowledge, it was.

And when they were finished with work, and no more customers came milling on through like they had all the time in the world, Sadie made her way over to Scoops where it was decided they would hide Dustin in the back and the three teenagers would act as if they had been asked to do something of a deep clean of the shopfront. Sadie came up with that; lying was all but second nature to her; ice cream was sticky, the sauces were sticky and every time she walked into the place there were about a million sprinkles everywhere.

And despite their usual hatred for the ice cream shop, that seemed to instil a sort of odd pride in Robin and Steve, and with Dustin hiding out in the back, Sadie was free to switch between the two. Despite this pride, Robin and Steve were incredibly lazy cleaners; they couldn't give less of a shit about the store especially if they weren't getting paid for it and considering they cleaned during the day anyway and their version of the supposed deep cleaning included swiping a dry cloth across tables, sitting on the ground with a dustpan and brush discarded by their feet or laying on the red leather of the booths as they made snarky conversations about each other.

When in the front of the store, Sadie sat with an array of colourful plastic spoons, trying each and every flavour of the ice cream, occasionally commenting on something someone said, pretending to flirt with Robin and promptly being teased and flirted into the back of the store where Steve would toss Dustin his stupid sailor cap and kick him out to the front of the store. And when Dustin grumbled his way back in, Sadie joined him in tinkering with various inventions and ideas. Namely, Dustin wanted to build a secondary HAM radio to see if he could replicate Cerebro and Sadie... well, Sadie was brushing up on her Russian.

By the time quarter past nine came about, Sadie began rousing the troops. She thought it was a good idea to get there early, for surveillance and safety purposes - they were a lot less likely to get caught if they were there beforehand - and after fifteen minutes of her trying to convince them that a bit of rain wouldn't kill them and that Steve could deal with getting his hair wet just once, they finally agreed to make their way up to the flat rooftop Sadie had found that looked over the loading bay.

One by one as Steve held open the door, the four of them hunched over as they crept out towards the edge of the roof, kneeling down on the smooth concrete at what was considered the best place to observe.

"Okay." Steve nodded, wiping the rain from his eyes. "Okay, Sadie, you listen for any Russian, we'll keep an eye out... Dustin, you got the binoculars?"

"They're my binoculars, I think I should get to look out of them." Sadie hissed.

"It's my Russian transmission!" Dustin replied, as defensive as could be.

"And I'm your sister, who you didn't tell about your Russian transmission who can speak Russian!" Sadie replied. "Steve, I don't just want to listen."

"I'm not saying that you should just listen." Steve raised his hands in a mock surrender. "I just think it's important that you do, seeing as you speak Russian!" He let out a sigh, glancing between the two siblings who were, despite their closeness, competitive at best. "Dustybuns, they are Sadie's binoculars."

"Yeah, and it's a good job you don't have them so you can't stare at her all day when we're supposed to be looking for Russian spies!" Dustin sniped back.

"Shut up!" Robin rolled her eyes, shaking her head. It really was a shame that this was so interesting because there was little to no chance she would have gotten caught up in all this otherwise. The three people in front of her were just far too involved with each other, for some reason. "We all have eyes, don't we?" She continued. "We can all look, and you two, it's just Steve, you don't need to fight over him."

"Hey!"

"You have nice hair, I guess, but otherwise you just sling ice cream and befriend preteens." Robin pointed out. "It's kinda weird."

"I'm their babysitter, I don't just befriend-"

"Hey - shut up." Sadie hissed, as Dustin reached out to jab Steve in the side with his elbow. The two Hendersons, now uninvolved with the argument, had diverted their attention to watching the activity in the loading bay. "Two armed guards - what are they... AKs?... no... ooh. Maybe their Zastavas... they do have longer forearms..."

"What the fuck are Zastavas?" Dustin hissed. "Why do you know shit about guns?"

"Someone needs to go with Nancy to a gun range!" Sadie replied in a whisper. "Besides, I've done my research, Zastava M70s were the standard service rifle of the Yugoslav People's Army, a variant of the Soviet AK-47. Yugoslavia's neutral in the Cold War, so the production of Zastavas are unlicensed, which is probably why they're here. Licensed guns can't just keep going missing out of Russia without question, can they."

"Listen, Sadie, you're very smart, but I don't think what type of gun it is is important right now." Robin said. "Why the fuck do they need armed guards for a delivery! What are they delivering."

"I think we're about to find out." Steve jerked his head to the side, licking his wet hair back from his forehead and the four lowered down as far as possible to remain out of sight as they watched one of the LYNX delivery trucks backed into the loading bay.

"Look for Imperial Panda and Kaufman Shoes." Robin reminded, Dustin hurriedly wiping the lenses of the binoculars before raising the eyepieces up.

"They're with that whistling guy, ten o'clock," Dustin replied.

"What do you think's in there?" Steve asked, as the three without binoculars squinted in the direction given.

"Guns, bombs." Dustin offered.

"Chemical weapons?" Robin said.

"Nerve agents... stuff for the nuclear arms race... stuff for a fusion reactor... you know, uranium." Sadie said. She received a couple of looks. "Listen, we haven't come near to a nuclear conflict since the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, this shit is kind of expected."

"Whatever it is, they're armed to the teeth." Dustin drew attention away from that suggestion, as terrifying as it sounded.

"Great." Steve said, as thunder boomed above them. "That's great."

They watched as one of the armed guards turned away from the LYNX truck, using a keycard to open the metal doors behind him. The delivery driver directed his hand truck through the doors.

"What's in there?" Robin asked. Dustin adjusted his binoculars.

"It's just more boxes." He replied.

"Let me check it out," Steve said, reaching blindly to the side to snatch the binoculars off him.

"No! I'm still looking." Dustin argued, trying to pull them back away.

"Lemme see it!" Steve insisted, hand wrapping around one side.

But it was simply too rainy, the water coating the metal in a sheen and both of their hands slipped away, and the binoculars fell to the ground with a loud clang. The four of the rooftop ducked behind the small ledge they had been hiding behind, and Steve's hand found Sadie's, fingers knotting together.

Thunder rumbled above them, and with no eyes on the ground they had no choice but to remain as still as possible, praying that the guards simply took the noise as a result of the delivery and not that someone was watching. But they were armed, so of course somebody had to be watching.

"остаётесь здесь и наблюдаете за дверью." A gruff voice shouted out, louder than the rain. None of them moved for a second, gazes flickering over to Sadie, who was staring out into the storming abyss in front of her, muttering herself.

"Shit." Sadie's eyes were wide, and if Steve hadn't been holding her back she would've shot up. "наблюдаете за дверью. Shit, we gotta go."

"What?"

"He said 'stay here and watch the door'," Sadie said. "Quick, quick." She let go of Steve's hand, leading the way as she crawled away from the edge and when she deemed it far enough, got to her feet and hunched over once more, led the way to the door.

"I think we found your Russians," Robin said, looking between the other three, their expressions indescribable as they raced through the labyrinth of hallways away from the rooftop, and any conversation ceased in favour of listening closely for any opening doors or movement as they made their way back to the entry into Scoops Ahoy.

And when Steve ushered them through the door into the backroom and locked it behind them, they let out sighs of relief. Being back in the bright colours, the stupid sailor jingle still playing and the smell of the stacks upon stacks of waffle cones welcomed them back to safety, leaning on the fridge. Sadie pulled herself up onto the countertop

"Jesus Christ." Steve looked around them, as he decided he had tested the door enough and that it was definitely locked. "Okay... so the Commies are smuggling shit in through Starcourt. So... mission over."

"Steve, we have to know what's in those boxes. If Sadie's right, and they're building nuclear shit under Starcourt, we have to know." Dustin said. "And it's Sadie. You have said, on multiple occasions, that she is always right."

Steve looked between the two siblings. "Seriously? You want to break into a storage room?"

"Steve," Sadie smiled at him, head tilted. "I know when this sort of thing has happened in the past, you've not exactly had much of a say in participating in the matter. First time around, you didn't have a choice, second time around you were passed out, now, we're not on the bench anymore... we're on the front lines?"

"You were doing so well." Steve shook his head, pulling his hair back from his eyes.

"That's not a sports reference?" Sadie looked confused. "The front lines - there's lines everywhere on a court. One of them has to be a front line, right?" Steve slotted into her side, shaking his head. "Either way, we're the only ones that know about it, so we have to do something!"

"What do you mean 'this sort of thing'?" Robin asked.

Eyes shot over to her as the three of them froze. Sadie had almost forgotten that, really, Robin knew nothing at all. She didn't know about who El really was, she didn't know about the lab, or MKUltra, or the Upside Down.

"Nothing." Dustin choked out. He appeared to have forgotten as well and was looking between Sadie and Steve in an almost panic.

"They... they used to do these..." Sadie cleared her throat. "You know Eddie Munson?" She offered, Robin nodded slowly. "You know his club, Hellfire?"

"Right, they play that game... Dragons and... something?"

"Dungeons and Dragons." Dustin corrected. "I thought you were cool." He looked almost disappointed as he shook his head.

"Right, right, Dungeons and Dragons." Sadie nodded. "Yeah, Dungeons and Dragons... they - the kids, the kids that always come by, Max, Will, El, Mike, Lucas, Dustin too - yeah, well, they used to have these super, super intricate campaigns for the game."

"Would go on for days." Dustin nodded. "We did one a year, it was tradition." He added, far too energetically. "Steve never liked them."

Sadie elbowed her boyfriend. He sniffed, waving his hand dismissively. "Never got into it, I guess." Steve shrugged.

"Right. Well, this isn't some game, Steve." Robin sounded like she almost didn't believe them, but Sadie looked just about confident enough about the lie that she didn't have a choice. "These are actual Russians, and nobody's gonna believe us, so we're breaking into that room." She looked between the group. The Hendersons were more than happy to agree with her, it was just Steve left. "It's more fun than slinging ice cream, right, Dingus?"

"...Right." Steve nodded. Maybe, even if he didn't want to admit it, but the idea of secret Russian spies, hiding under their noses - even if they were doing what Sadie thought they were doing - was exciting. "Fine."

"Wonderful." Sadie pressed a kiss to his cheek. "Shame, this has made me decide I don't like Russians very much." Sadie's nose wrinkled and Steve slung an arm around her shoulders, pulling her tight into his side. "They're still interesting, though." She muttered, before realisation came. "You two owe me a new pair of binoculars!"

"Blame your boyfriend! He's the one who dropped them."

"I'll get you new binoculars." Steve smiled down at her, pulling her down off the counter. "C'mon, I'll give you all a ride home."

"You two are disgusting. I feel sick." Robin reached for her bag.

"Now you know how I feel." Dustin shook his head and led the way out.