Chapter 46

Robin couldn’t stop crying. In Sofia’s arms, crying softly. She felt like she had failed, like they had failed. The danger that they were about to face was devastating.

Sofia tried not to cry, but it hurt her so much to see her girlfriend like that. But she wasn’t really in the moment, it was like she was floating. Her head was throbbing, the headache worse than a hungover.

When Sofia let go of Robin to look at her, tell her I’m here, I got you – instead of saying I really thought this was how you were going to die – she saw a bruise starting to form around her eye. She put her hand there, applying a slight pressure. Robin whinsed. 

“It hurts?” Sofia asked, though she knew the answer.

“Yeah” Robin whispered, looking at the glassy eyes in front of her, about to crack, about to break, but not there yet.

Then Murray showed up. He looked at the dead demogorgon and the empty truck and didn’t say anything at first. Sofia knew he’d start rushing them to move and to act and to react, but she and Robin didn’t want that. They wanted to dwell on it, to feel really shitty, to feel the pain. 

They wanted to really take in what just happened, so everything that might happen ahead gets more numb.

The rest of the group then showed up by the tunnels. The two girls got up straight away, and at the sight of blood, Sofia rushed towards them.

“Are you guys okay?” Sofia asked, walking towards them, the three kids that are her brother’s best friends, the three kids she’s known for a long time. “What happened?”.

At the Squawk, Will explained exactly what went on. Sofia first helped with Lucas’ wound, because they had a better first aid kit in there. She tried to close the skin and well as she could, so it would lessen the chances of infecting.

In the meanwhile, Robin grabbed an instant ice pack from the kit and put it in her eye, then giving one for Sofia to put in her head, along with ibuprofen for the huge headache.

So, while Will explained exactly what had happened, Sofia was curled up in the couch, head resting in Robin’s shoulder, ice pack in her head.

But it was when Joyce started saying her plan that she got overwhelmed and remembered about what she stole from Murray.

Sofia got up, opened a drawer and grabbed a lighter, before sitting by an open window and lighting the joint. She sighed, satisfied.

They looked at her but she didn’t notice. It was definitely mostly tobacco, but anything is better than nothing. Robin could be mad.

“We could build another telemetry thingy. And then we could find El and Jonathan and the others, and hope they have a track on Vecna” Joyce suggested, Sofia not really listening.

“Dustin hand-built that tracker himself. I have no idea how it works. Maybe we could put our heads together and try to figure it out, but it’ll probably take-” Mike said.

“Days, days that we don’t have” Lucas completed.

“What if we put Will in the back of the van and drive him around like a human antenna?” Robin suggested, and everyone looked at her weird. “What? She said no bad ideas…”

“Is anyone else starving?” Sofia asked, out of the blue, looking outside the window. As the smoke left her mouth, the group turned their heads to look at her weirdly too. Then they agreed.

In the middle of getting snacks, Robin hadn’t shared a word with Sofia, but did hand her a sleeve of saltines. Is she mad?

“Thanks” Sofia said, and before she had the time to read Robin’s face, Murray showed up.

“Is that mine?” Murray asked, pointing at the cigarette between her fingers.

“Yeah, and it sucks” Sofia replied. Something about him made her so mad. Perhaps the bad memories, perhaps his bad temper. But the joint is really bad.

“Oh, I’m sorry that’s such an inconvenience to you. You stole from my stash and you’re the one being rude?” Murray complained, loudly. The constant crunch that came from everybody’s mouth stopped.

“Why do you have a stash anyway?” Sofia asked, a shy smirk in her lips, before taking a hit of the joint. The room was silent, everyone was listening, he wouldn’t dare to snitch on Jonathan in front of Joyce.

He scoffed and left. Sofia smiled. “How’s your head?” she asked Robin, though the one with a bump was herself.

“Why were you so rude to him?” Robin asked, quietly, but angry, yes.

Sofia wasn’t expecting her to be so direct. The tone scared her. “I don’t know… he just gets under my skin” she replied, quietly too, her once cocky smirk only a confused frown now.

Before Robin could say something, commotion from the other side of the room was hard.

Sofia didn’t walk over to the rest of the group, but Robin did. Sofia didn’t really hear anything, because everything sounds so stupid. What is she even doing here? Where’s Dustin? Why is this joint so bad?

“So we’ll… frankenstein the demo?” Robin asked, a little confused. That’s all Sofia heard, because that’s all Robin said.

The group started to prepare everything, to put the plan in action. But what plan? Sofia didn’t know, she fell asleep. She took a nap. No one said anything, not even Robin. She just wanted to clear her mind.

“Hey, so, um, I realize, and I know that I’ve waited just long enough to make this super awkward, but I never thanked you for saving my life, which is, you know, kind of, sort of a big deal. Especially to me” Robin said, chuckling by the end.

“You’re welcome. I… I mean, I should be thanking you” Will said back, a shy look on his face, before adding “For talking to me about Tammy and… and your life. It was… It was so… helpful”.

“Me? Talking? Helpful? Someone should really tell my mother” Robin joked, making him smile too.

“So… after… after this Tammy and this whole tape epiphany, is that when you and Sofia started to…” Will asked, choosing his words with hesitation.

“No, no, no. Um… I mean, I never would have had the guts to talk to Sof back then. I was finally cool with myself, but sharing that part of myself with someone else, that was a whole other thing. I just yearned. A lot. But eventually, I… I did it. You know, I told someone” Robin said, getting up.

“But… Wait. But… But who did you tell?” Will asked, curious.

“Oh. The obvious. Steve” Robin replied, before disappearing into the voltage room.

“Wait, what? Robin, I… I mean, I don’t understand. I mean, not the same… As in your Steve, like Steve…” Will said, confused. 

“Steve “The Hair” Harrington, my once sworn enemy. All right, watch out!” Robin said, before turning on the electricity.

“That’s good! But wait, Robin. I mean, I like Steve. I just… I don’t understand. He seems…” Will said.

“Like a bonkers choice?” Robin said, appearing again.

“Yeah” Will said, nodding.

“Believe me, I know. To be fair, we had just been injected with truth serum by evil Russians, which is kind of like liquid courage on steroids. Really, drugs or not, just saying it out loud to someone and hearing him be cool with it, you know? It’s like this weight lifted. And, you know, if I hadn’t have told Steve, then I probably wouldn’t have had the courage to ask Sofia to the movies, and probably wouldn’t be talking to you about it either. You know, you’re only audience member number four? I’m hoping to double my audience by the end of this year, but that’s only if you out-sorcerer the sorcerer, and we don’t all die” Robin said, entering a stage of monologue.

“You don’t by any chance have any of that truth serum left, do you?” Will joked, but not really.

“It’s different for everyone, you know? It was tougher for Sofia” Robin added, the cool night wind brushing against her face.

“How so?” Will asked, curious.

“It took her more time to accept. For a week or two I thought she was stringing me along… but she just needed to come to terms with herself before commiting to a relationship” Robin explained, her voice more quiet now.

Will nodded slowly.

“Are you two fighting, or…?” he asked, after hesitating, after a moment of introspective silence.

Robin sighed, shifting positions. “No, we’re not… I don’t think so, at least. Sometimes things are just complicated, and we don’t know how to deal with everything” she said, not sure of her words, not sure of anything.

“Everything?” Will asked, trying to get a hang of relationships, something so new to him, especially queer ones.

“Yeah, I mean… People come with baggage. And if you love them, you accept the load. Sometimes it’s heavy, and it takes time to get to know it all. And once it’s out in the open, it’s like it’s stronger and just always there. But when that person is your person, you manage it. It can be a struggle, but you manage it” Robin said, quietly, her gaze fixed in the horizon, messing with her rings.

“You think Sofia’s your person?” Will asked, a slight smirk on his lips, in awe.

“I know” Robin said, no hesitation. “We’ll get married someday, maybe have kids… When I’m alone, thinking about her, my mind always wanders to how I want to get her pregnant, so she can hold a baby with my hair color and her eyes… I know that’s not possible, obviously. But that’s what I learned that you do with your person, so…”.

Sofia woke up alone, drooling in a sofa at the Squawk. Where the fuck is everyone? 

Her head hurts, so she takes some aspirin. It’s still night, why am I alone? 

So, she walks out, and by the time she reaches the cold night air, she sees a demogorgon on the top of the voltage room, Will sitting on the floor, Robin rushing to the room. “What’s going on?” Sofia asked, walking towards everyone.

“I’ll explain it to you in a second” Robin said, her eyes softening at the sight of her girlfriend, after a double check.

Sofia rubbed her eyes, still too sleepy to try to register what was happening. She only properly woke up when sparks started to come out of the demo. Oh, Frankenstein.

Robin rushed to Sofia’s side, the group standing around Will and Joyce. Robin explained everything quickly, in a whisper. Sofia said she was sorry, Robin said they would talk later, but she let her hold onto the end of her sleeve, so they were going to be okay.

But then Will got projected into the air, collapsed on the ground. Their worries turned to him.

A/N: guys i did not forget this book ive just been so so so busy… i promise you’ll learn the end to my version of this story/the whole season5???!!!!!!!

please vote :)) xoxo