22. Never Change

☾.˚˖⁺✦ Never Change ✦˙⊹˚☽

TW // Horror

Song Guide: Separate Ways (Worlds Apart) Bryce Miller // Alloy Track Remix by Journey , Steve Perry

Everyone was outside getting their weapons ready for battle. The anxiety was rising within them all as the seconds grew closer to when the plan had to be fulfilled. Dustin, Eddie, and Victoria were hammering nails onto trash lids in a way to create a lethal shield.

Eddie grasped hold of his holding it out in front of him for an inspection.

"How's she feeling?", Dustin questioned the older boy.

"Light. But durable. Deadly. But reliable."

Victoria softly laughed, "Sounds about what we need."

Dustin chuckled as Eddie stepped with one foot over the crate they had been using to create the shields. Holding his hand out dramatically into the distance, "Hear me now. There will be no more retreating... from Eddie, The Banished."

The brunette girl frowned. The feeling of knowing that there was nothing she can do to change that horrific nickname of his because of the circumstances, but she still attempted to lighten the mood. "How about we start calling you Eddie, The Brave or something."

Eddie smiled softly at her as he slowly shook his head. He knew he wasn't anything close to being able to use the word bravery as a description for himself, but to Victoria he was brave. He had made it through the forced isolation having to hide from the cops, and he had not once complained about it now that the Victoria began to think about it.

Her best friend had gone through the worse of the worst in these past few days, yet he still somehow always had a smile on his face. That was one of the good things she loved about him, he always smiled through the rough times.

Victoria watched as her brother stood up with his own shield in hand cracking in laughter. "Hey, you're really ready for bat-tle!"

Eddie and Victoria paused on what they were doing as they shot an unamused look at Dustin. "Seriously?"

"You guys get it?", the boy's smile soon was replaced with confusion.

Eddie raised his brow at him waiting to understand the joke as Victoria already knew what her brother meant, but she just didn't find it funny.

"Bat-tle. B.A.T.", Eddie still looked at the younger boy with a blank stare, "No?"

He frowned as he looked down at the ground. "I thought I had a good one."

Eddie glanced over at Victoria with a devious grin as he motioned to Dustin with his head. They both had a silent agreement to lunge at her brother. Victoria yelled on the top of her lungs, "ATTACK!"

Dustin held up his hands in defense. "Whoa, Whoa, Whoa!!"

The two of them tackled the boy pushing him far out into the field as they both laughed at their accomplishment.

"What are you guys doing!", the younger boy yelled.

Dustin managed to retreat away from them as he carefully eyed them down. He made his way running at Victoria as at the last second he siked both of them out proceeding to wrestle Eddie. "You son of a bitch!"

Victoria fell to the ground laughing at the two boys as they began to throw each other around in circles. Eddie leaned forward trying to yank on Dustin's underwear as the brunette girl was in tears out of how much she was laughing.

Dustin yelled, "No wedgies! NO WEDGIES!!"

Eddie grasped onto the back of Dustin's head bringing him to look up at him. "Never change, Dustin Henderson. Promise me?"

Feeling gutted by Eddie's words, something behind them felt like there was a sense of her friend saying goodbye to her brother. Her smile had disappeared as the knowing feeling of something happening to any of them was a bigger possibility than surviving all this.

Dustin had a look of confusion as he nodded his head. "I wasn't planning on it."

"Good. Good."

"Good."

She had known from the day Eddie and her had become friends that her friend had also taken Dustin under his wing. He almost felt the need to step up in a fatherly/older brother role in spite of the absence of their father. No one else knew better what life was like without a father then Eddie Munson, given his history with his own dad.

But something about the way he was concerned suddenly about Dustin changing was beginning to worry her. It wasn't much like him to say stuff like that out of the blue, everything he said that was serious had an intention behind it.

Eddie pulled away from Dustin as he brought his attention towards Lucas and Erica. "Hey, Sinclair's! How are those, uh... those spears coming on?"

Lucas held up a thumbs up, but Victoria was still pondering on what Eddie had said. He knew something was bothering her as he glanced over to her on the grass beginning to zone out into the distance. Before she knew it, Eddie had thrown himself on top of her as now she was squished into the grass.

"I. Can't. Breathe!!!", she attempted to push him off of her.

He rolled off has chuckled clasping onto his stomach from how much he was laughing. She found herself joining him as they were now laying side by side staring up at the blue sky. It was a pretty view for such an unfortunate day.

Eddie turned his head to look at the girl. "Alright, what's up?"

"Just nervous, I guess.", she lied.

He knew she lied, he always did.

The boy tugged on her hair until she finally got annoyed and looked back at him. "What?"

"You know what.", he responded.

She took a deep breath trying to not think about crying because lately that's all she could find herself doing. "Why did you tell Dustin that? 'Never change.' "

Eddie nodded his head as he took some time to think about how he wanted to respond. He finally sighed. "They're just kids, Victoria. He's still a kid. None of them should be having to be put through all this bullshit. Not even us."

She tore her eyes away from his as she looked back up into the sky. That was the worst part of this whole thing, all the kids having their childhood and memories ripped away from them. Eddie, Victoria, Nancy, and Robin unsure if they would even make it to their graduation. Steve, the boy with the dream of starting his own big family. It wasn't fair to any of them.

Eddie readjusted himself to lay fully on his side the way he did when they had something important to tell each other. He tugged on her again until she laid fully facing him now. "You know I love you, right?"

She could feel her bottom lip begin to quiver, she didn't want to cry now. "Don't do this again."

"Do what?"

"Acting like one of us is going to die."

"I'm not... But the past few days has really shown me we need to say it more."

His eyes were now glossy as he attempted to look elsewhere then looking in her eyes. She laid her hand softly against his cheek. "I love you too, E. Always."

He nodded his head bringing her hand to lay a kiss on top.

"Do you think we've changed?"

Eddie laughed. "Not sure about me, but you, heck yeah."

"In a good way?"

"Yeah, you're becoming the person I have never doubted you to be."

"And you?"

He exhaled deeply as he didn't want to respond. His eyes wandered around them as if he was deep in thought trying to figure out what words he wanted to use to respond.

"I don't know.", was what he ended up saying.

"Eddie..."

"Yeah?"

"Follow your own advice, never change."

Eddie met the girl's eyes with a painful look, all he could do was just nod his head at her.

A smile started growing onto his face. "I mean who would Eddie be if he didn't graduate this year? I mean we still got to fucking walk the stage and flick off all those motherfuckers at Hawkins High."

She laughed. "That we do, huh?"

The boy sat up, dragging her up with him. "Anddddd our trip, Queen V, can't forget our journey to conquer the Great Smoky Mountains!"

She laughed, "Yeah which um, thoughts on making it a field trip?"

He paused as he pulled back from her, "Come again?"

"Like with everyone? Maybe we can all do a victory trip and escape Hawkins with all the kids and-"

"And Steve?"

"You said it not me.", she teased.

He shook his head aggressively as he waived his finger in her face. "Nope, no. No kids. No Steve. Just me and you against the world! Like we've always planned, hmm. Come on, V. Before we know it, you're gonna get married and have kids. Gotta enjoy you before I gotta share you."

She ruffled his hair with a smile, "You act like you aren't going to be the crazy uncle getting my kids into trouble."

A smile grew onto his face as he stood up offering his hand to Victoria, "Oh, I bet on it!"

☾.˚˖⁺✦˙⊹˚☽

Robin's Pov

Robin and Steve were both tasked to create the explosives for tonight's plan as Dustin had spent the past hour during the drive back to Hawkins explaining everything they had to do. Now sitting outside as they poured lighter fluid into vodka bottles, Robin watched as Steve occasionally glanced up to look at everyone else working, making sure the group was doing what they were supposed to.

The brunette boy focused back on holding the cylinder for Robin as he muttered, "It just doesn't make sense."

She glanced over to him as she continued to poor fluid into the bottle. "What doesn't make sense?"

"That was Dan Shelter. He graduated, like, two years ago."

This was a topic she didn't want to even speak about. She had already put what had happened at War Zone past her, but Steve always had a way of bringing things up that needed closure in his eyes. "So?"

"So, he's in college. Which means he was visiting on spring break. Fast Times was returned, like, I don't know, a week ago? Right? Unless she's got some corndog brother we don't know about."

There he goes, rambling in the way he did to make Robin feel better about the situation. But the miserable truth was that the girl she had set her eyes on, falling head over heels for, was not into girls like she was. She was so sure she had been too.

Both her and Vickie were into similar things. The movies rented under her name were evidently the ones that only no other than a person who liked girls would watch. It didn't make sense to her how Vickie had a boyfriend. Which now stuck on the topic, this means she was going to have to force herself to stop thinking about her. To stop thinking about the way she smiled or the way she was obsessed with the way Vickie handled her instrument in band.

Oh, god stop thinking about it, she scolded herself.

"Which is possible. Or she's just really into Judge Reinhold?", Steve continued.

"Steve."

Robin just wanted him to shut up already. The more they talked about Vickie, the more it was going to start hurting the fact that she couldn't be with her.

"Nah. What?"

"I don't care", she lied, "I don't understand why you do either with everything that's going on."

Great cover up, Robin. There was no way Steve was believing this right now, but he was too oblivious not to.

"Honestly, this feels like a perfect time for that little pull of the rug because, in the face of the world ending, the stakes of my love life feel spectacularly low."

As soon as the words jumbled out of her mouth, the aching reality settled. Thinking about it now, it sounded pretty absurd to be busy worrying about a love life when the fact was they had to face one of the most dangerous beings from the Upside Down not knowing if even any of them would make it out.

"Yeah. I mean, I get you there, but... I still have hope.", he replied with a sigh as he handed her the filled up vodka bottle.

"Not everything has a happy ending."

And they didn't, at least not for her. Her whole life had felt like as if it was disappointment after another. Look at her now falling for her the girl she had imagine being the perfect match all for it to be just a figment of her own imagination. She couldn't even accept her brutal reality that she may be the only girl at Hawkins who wasn't exactly like the other girls.

"Yeah, yeah, believe me, I know.", Steve said with a bit of sorrow in his tone.

Robin scoffed as she looked over to Victoria who was busy being a goofball alongside her brother and Eddie. "No, you don't, Steve."

He glanced over to her with a confused look. "I'm not talking about failed romance. I just..."

Was she about to say the one thing that was terrorizing her this whole day?

"I have this terrible, gnawing feeling that... it might not work out for us this time."

There it was. She had finally admitted it. The feeling that was aching away in her chest. Something about this mission, felt wrong. It hadn't felt like the summer before where she was so confident nothing bad would actually happen to any of them, but now? Things were different.

Steve paused from what he was doing to look at her with a serious expression. "You think we shouldn't be doing this?"

"I think we're mad fools, the lot of us, but...", she glanced upwards to look at each one of those in their group.

Nancy was practicing her shooting with Max beside her. Victoria, Eddie, and Dustin were chasing each other around with their newly made shields. And Lucas and Erica were testing out the spears they had made, twirling it around in their hands.

"...But if we don't stop him, who will? We have to try, right?", this time she was seeking reassurance from Steve.

Robin knew she always had the bad tendency to assume everything was doomed, but if Steve also had his doubts this wasn't a good sign for any of them.

Steve nodded his head, a bit unsure, but he glanced back at Robin. "Yeah."

She could tell by the look in his eyes, he too, wasn't too sure if they would be making it out this time.

Trying to distract the fact he held up the Vodka bottle up to her. "To killing Vecna."

She picked up the one beside her to join him in a cheer. "Slash Henry."

"Slash one.", he added as they struck the bottles into each other.

Catching sight of Steve glancing to Victoria, a devious smirk grew on Robin's face. "Wanna promise me something?"

He glanced back at her already knowing what she was about to be on about. "Shut up."

"No, come on, pleaseeee!"

"Ugh, what?"

"When all this is over will you, please, ask her out on a date for real.... Instead of, um, sneaking around at 3 in the morning."

"You... You know about that."

Robin smiled as she got up from her spot. "I know everything, Steve."

☾.˚˖⁺✦˙⊹˚☽

Victoria's Pov

The sun began to set over Hawkins as the ride to Victor Creel's house had been a silent one. The silence was making Victoria's anxiety spike up. She didn't like any second of this. Her stomach was twisting into knots as her palms were now sweaty. Finding herself spinning her thumb ring around in a way to calm her nerves, she could feel Steve's glance on her.

She felt his hand reach over to take grasps of hers as she looked up at him. Giving her a soft smile he turned back to keep his eyes on the road. Glancing back she looked at the look on everyone's faces, they all had the look of fear.

If there was anything Victoria could do to make all of this go away, she would do it in a heartbeat.

The RV came to a sudden stop as her hand tightened around Steve's. They both glanced over at each other as he spoke to the group. "Alright.. Max, Lucas, Erica, this is... this is you."

Victoria got up as she climbed down the steps holding the door open for them. Watching as Erica  stepped out first then Lucas and finally Max. The brunette girl froze by the door as she turned to look at the three of them. She hated the idea that they had to do this alone. Letting the door slam close, she called out for Max as the girl spun around to look at her.

"Be, um, be careful... All of you.", she glanced now over to Lucas and Erica.

Max nodded her head, "We will."

"Now if anything goes wrong, you get out of there. Is that clear?"

"Yes."

"Lucas? Erica?"

"We abort, we got it.", responded Erica.

She met Max's blue eyes again. The younger girl was trying her best to hide her fear from Victoria, but she knew. Victoria pulled her in for a hug not caring if Max hated hugs. Max wrapped her arms back around her as she settled her head against Victoria's shoulder. She whispered for only the brunette girl to hear, "I'm scared."

Those words were enough to tear Victoria's heart. She couldn't let herself break, not now, not in front of them all. She pulled away from the girl as she grasped onto her shoulders.

"You have all the power, Max", Victoria pointed at Max's head, "You control where you want to be. So, stay in the happy thoughts, alright?"

"Happy thoughts.", the girl nodded.

Max joined the other two as they prepared to enter the Creel home. "And!"

They all turned for the final time to look back at Victoria. "I love you guys."

Eddie was right.

Nothing shows you more than a time like this the need to tell those you love that you love them. She did love them after all. They had been apart of her family, growing up with each one of them almost as if they had been her own siblings as well. Victoria wouldn't know what to do with herself if any of them got hurt, but she clung onto the hopeful feeling she had that they would all make it out okay, even Max.

Victoria waited until she had no sight of the three kids anymore. She took a moment to stand there until she heard Steve honk.

She climbed back inside taking her seat once again. Steve started the car, but didn't proceed on as he looked at Victoria. "Sorry..."

"Hey", he spoke to her, "they're gonna be okay."

The brunette girl quickly wiped the tear that had snuck out of her eye as she nodded her head. "Yeah. Um, we should probably get going."

"Yeah, right.", he glanced back at everyone, "Everyone ready to go?"

"Been ready for the longest, Steve.", Dustin muttered.

Steve scoffed, "Always such an attitude, dude."

And they were off.