Chapter Text
The vines caught them easily. They never stood a chance. Steve could see as they strangled Robin and Nancy to the wall, just like they were doing to him. He couldn’t move. They were losing. They failed everyone. He closed his eyes. Accepting defeat as he again wasn’t able to breathe.
When he opened them the vines were gone. He still felt an echo of them squeezing the life out of him. But they weren’t there, he was laying on water. In a pitch black and seemingly infinite place. Hearing breathing he looked to the left. Nancy was laying on the floor just like him. And to the right was Robin who looked back at him with scrunched up eyebrows and wide eyes.
”Hello”
Steve hurriedly sat up to see the young boy standing in front of them. His skin was pale and his frame thin. The boy’s hair was shaven like Eleven’s had been years ago and he wore a hospital gown.
Nancy was quick to get on her feet ”Who are you?”
He spoke in a stilted manner ”They called me Ten”
”But…” Nance faltered ”Henry showed me how he… killed… all the other kids at the lab?” Steve got up as well and heard Robin do the same.
010 continued ”One is too strong. You lost” he took a step forward ”But I can help. I can give you one more chance”
Robin’s voice trembled ”H-how would you help us?”
”I can send you to a place where this has not happened yet. You can use what you know to stop him”
Steve frowned. A place? ”What?”
”You will understand. Do you want to stop One?” All three said ”Yes” with conviction. Of course they want to. They have to.
”Thank you”
Ten closed his eyes and it was like the floor underneath them disappeared. And they fell through, getting swallowed by the darkness.
~~~
Steve sits up gasping for breath. A blanket slips down to his lap. Looks around for Robin and Nancy but soon finds that he’s in a bed, alone in… his room? The layout is the same and he can see the eerie glow of the pool through the window. But the furniture looks different. Most notably are the walls. The dizzying blue plaid has been replaced by baby blue with lilac and white fuzzy looking flowers. The drapes are a matching lilac, all flowy with ruffles. His bed is different in the way that beside the normal two pillows and a comforter, there are five pillows and three different kinds of blankets. It’s really comfy but his parents would never get him all of that. Except… thinking about it, he remembers them giving him at least half of the stuff.
The room in all honesty looks kinda pretty, a bit less staged than how his room normally looks. But what reality is this where his parents allowed his room to look like this? Oh. OH. It might actually be another reality. 010 did say he would send them to place.
He needs to call Nancy and Robin. So he throws off the blankets and gets up, faltering when he sees his legs. They're shaved. His brain supplies him with the memory that he’s pretty serious about swimming, hoping that he’s good enough to get a scholarship. Also, no one likes a cheerleader with hairy legs.
Hold up- he doesn’t do cheerleading! Right?!
He’s dragged away from his thoughts by the phone ringing. Fuck, where did he put the cordless? Steve runs downstairs where the ringing seems to come from. Sounds like it’s in the kitchen. He finds it beside the microwave. ”Hel-”
”Steve! Oh thank god! Are you okay?!”
He breathes out in relief ”Robin-”
”I just woke up at home! This is insane! Wait, have you called Nancy?!”
”Rob-”
”We should all like, meet up or-!”
”Robin!” Her rambling finally stopped ”We’ll hang up, I’ll call Nance while you get ready to leave. Then I’ll call back and one of us will come get you. Okay?”
”Yeah. That sounds good. Call back in a minute?”
”Yeah, hang tight” and so he called Nancy’s line.
”H- Hello?”
”Nance, it’s Steve”
He hears a shaky sigh from the speaker ”Wow… I don’t think I’ve ever been so relieved to hear someone’s voice... Are you okay?”
”Yeah. I just spoke with Robin. We should all meet up”
”Yes. Are your parents home?”
As she asks the question he somehow remembers that no, they’re not home ”No, you can come here. But could you pick up Robin?”
”Yeah, of course”
”Okay, good. I’ll call and tell her you’re on the way”
”Yeah. See you soon”
He calls Robin but they keep it brief. They’ll talk when the girls get there. So Steve goes back up to his(?) room. Looking at himself in the full length mirror, he doesn’t look that different. But he’s wearing soft pastel pink shorts and a black T-shirt so big it’s slipping off his left shoulder.
The shirt used to be Hopper’s. He remembers picking up Dustin and Max from the cabin and being invited to stay for dinner. Dustin talked animatedly at the table, waving his hands around. Including the hand holding the fork. He ended up flinging a piece of chicken covered in sauce onto Steve’s chest. Hopper gave him the shirt and told him to keep it.
He should probably change before the girls get there. So he goes to the closet. It doesn’t take him long to find blue sweatpants and his Hawkins swim team tee. It’ll do, so he pushes his shorts down.
Only to pause when he sees pink underwear with a tiny bow on the front. He hops out of the shorts and runs back to the mirror and lifts up the shirt. What he sees makes his face heat up. It’s panties. He’s wearing pink cutesy panties.
He’s an omega.
Wha…? Somehow he remembers that he has a secondary gender. Everyone has. And he’s an omega. But he’ll think about that when the girls get there. For now he’s gonna put on pants. After changing he goes back to the kitchen and puts on coffee in need of something to do. The clock reads 3:17 am. With a cup in hand he goes to the living room. Everything had a blue tint due to the pool. The darkness behind the sliding glass door makes his skin crawl as always since… since…
Someone knocks on the door and he drops the mug. He gasps as it shatters and hot coffee soaks his toes. He whimpers and hears a key going into the lock, it twists and Robin’s voice travels from the entrance ”Steve? I used the key under the doormat, hope that was okay” Steve stumbles to the hallway, the girls are taking off their coats but when they see him they look at him with worry.
”Barb… she- Tommy” he breaks off to hold back the sob trying to force its way out.
Nancy gasps, eyes wide ”Oh my… she’s alive” Steve tries to smile for her. He really is glad that Barb is alive.
”But Tommy isn’t…” Robin’s voice is barely above a whisper. A choked up sob wrecks its way through him and he moves his gaze to the floor.
”Oh Steve…” Robin's gentle hands cradle his elbows ”Come on, let's go sit down. Wanna go to your room?” Yes, that sounds nice. So he nods. Nancy tells them she’ll come up in a moment. She’s gonna clean up the coffee and shards on the floor.
”He was an asshole” They’re going up the stairs. He wants to feel that Tommy being gone is better than Barb, she’s a better person than he was. ”Yeah, I know, Steve. He was still your friend for years though” They enter his room and Robin gawks ”Wow… this is different…” The boy chuckles ”Yeah, a lot of things are different” They sit down on the bed and Steve picks up a mint green blanket that he drapes over their shoulders. He wants her close.
”Wanna talk through what actually happened with him?”
Steve sighs ”We had a small get together, I’d just started seeing Nance. Tommy he… he felt threatened by her since she’s… an alpha… and he was a beta”
Robin grimaces ”I’m still confused about that stuff”
”Yeah, me too” he leans a bit closer and breathes in through his nose ”You’re a beta, right?”
”Yeah” she chuckles gestures at the room ”And you’re an omega”
Steve also lets out a chuckle ”Yeah, I am” He clears his throat ”Anyway, Tommy accidentally cut himself. Later when we all went inside he realized he’d forgotten something by the pool and… he never came back in”
Him and Nancy had gone up to his room. He remember feeling excited and nervous, being with an alpha girl he actually liked. Female alphas and male omegas were less common, especially in small towns like Hawkins. So he’d only ever been with one female alpha before her. Kathy Walsh, she was a senior and he’d been a junior. That had just been a one time thing, he was mainly curious and Carol had encouraged him to go for it. But with Nancy he saw a future. He imagined it would be the start of their perfect life where they would get married, have kids, and love each other until they grew old and died.
He hadn’t yet realized that Nancy is destined for so much more. As they were making out on his bed, Carol stomped in to ask if they had seen Tommy. He was just gone. Later they found out that Jonathan had taken pictures of him and Nance in his room. Nancy taking off her shirt. Steve without his. Them making out.
Nancy enters the room ”Carol found out that Barb, Jon and I were looking for the demogorgon. She brought you with her and demanded we tell you two everything. And then when the demogorgon came you two insisted on helping us ”She took a seat by the desk.
”And all of us fought the demogorgon…” Steve and Carol had stumbled upon the others as they were luring in the demogorgon, just like Steve had done on his own.
Robin looked between them ”So not only is Barb alive, she also knows about the Upside Down, and so does Carol?”
”Yeah” ”Yes” they affirmed simultaneously.
Robin nods thoughtfully ”Okay… so those are some big changes… I remember Carol being… less mean after losing him… but isn’t she dating Hargrove now?” The question holds a hint of disgust.
”No”
Nancy raises an eyebrow ”She’s not?”
Steve shakes his head ”Nah, they’re good friends, they look out for each other. Although they do hook up sometimes. Before, Tommy… Tommy and her planned on getting married. She still has uh, remnants of a bite. They were mean teenagers but they really loved each other. And Hargrove has stuff he’s dealing with. They understand each other, and have since…” his eyes get wide as saucers ”Holy shit. He knows too”
Robin frowns ”What?”
”When Will was possessed Barb went with you guys” he bobbed his head at Nancy ”Carol stayed with me and the kids. And when Hargrove forced his way into the house Carol pushed him so he bumped into the fridge. The demo-dog fell out and we had to tell him everything”
Nancy scratched her chin ”You’re right… he knows”
Robin jerks and sits straighter ”Guys, I just remembered, it’s spring break… We went back a year…”
Nancy gapes at the other girl ”You’re right… Spring break of 85”
The boy deflates and pouts ”Noo, I gotta graduate again?” Robin pats his shoulder ”Well, this time you’ve got me to help you”
Nancy smiles ”I’ll help too. You’ve already done it once, you’ve got this”
They quietly absorb it all, it’s crazier than anything they’ve been through before. But eventually Nancy breaks the silence ”Do you think anyone else remembers? Or is it just us?”
The other girl thinks it over ”We were the only ones in that void, so it would sort of make sense for it to be just us”
Steve thinks of Dustin, he was in the Upside Down. If anyone else remembers, it would be Dustin and Eddie who were in the same world. In his new memories he doesn’t know Eddie yet, but he could call Dustin ”I’ll radio Dustin and see how he reacts” he goes to the desk where the walkie the kids gave him lies.
”Steve, it’s not even five in the morning”
He picks it up and grins at Nancy ”He calls me at dawn like every weekend begging me to drive him somewhere. He doesn’t get to be mad at me” back on the bed he turns on the Channel he and Dustin talk on ”Dustin? Hello Dustin, are you there? Over” nothing ”Dusty? You awake? Over”
Someone mumbles incoherently through the speaker.
”Sorry, what? Over”
”I said: Why the hell are you awake? Over” Hearing Dustin’s voice is a huge relief. But the main focus is to figure out if he remembers ”Iii… I had a dream. Over”
”A nightmare? Over”
”I dreamt I was in the Upside Down. With Nancy and Robin. Over”
”Who’s Robin? Over”
Steve feels like he’s been gutpunched. And by the look of the girls’ faces and the bitter scent in the room, so do they.
He clears his throat ”She’s someone from school. Look, I just wanted to hear someone’s voice, so thank you. But you should probably get back to bed. Over”
Dustin’s yawn gets picked up by the speaker ”No problem, man, what are pack for? Oh, and don’t forget tomorrow. Over” Steve frowns. Pack?
”Tomorrow? Over”
”The arcade, at six. Over” the older boy drags a hand through his thick hair ”Right. Of course. I’ll pick you up a quarter to. Over”
”See you then. Over and out” there’s a click and then the line goes silent.
Robin chews her lip ”Well, it’s safe to say they don’t remember. They don’t even know who I am” Steve grazes his fingers against her knee, hoping it’s a little soothing.
The other girl turns to him ”When were you meeting Dustin?”
”Tomorrow around six, so we have a day and a half until then”
She places her hands on her knees and stands up ”Well, then I suggest we try to get some sleep, and try to figure out more when the sun is up”
~~~
Since Steve and Robin are two halves of a disaster human being, Nancy made breakfast. Bacon and eggs. Steve cleaned up after her while Robin got out plates. Now they’re seated at the kitchen island. Sun shining through the window, bathing them in warm light. Nancy clears her throat ”So, we remembered a lot of stuff last night. But we didn’t really discuss this secondary gender stuff”
Robin perks up ”Well, there are three secondary genders. I’m a beta, Steve’s an omega and Nancy, you’re an alpha” said alpha nods and Robin’s smile grows at being correct “Being a beta is, I guess, the closest to how I was before. I don’t look any different, just got a sliiightly heightened sense of smell” she squishes a finger to her cheek in thought ”My dad is an alpha but my mom is a beta, like me”
Like Robin said, both female and male betas are very similar to what they knew as normal.
Nancy looks at her almost empty plate ”Being an alpha is… a lot different… I’ve been treated more like a boy than a girl most of my life. And my…” she glances nervously between her friends, her face turns red ”genitals look different” all three of them must look like tomatoes, no one’s exactly prepared to discuss Nancy’s netherregion.
Robin pipes up in a squeaky voice ”Right, all alphas have… dicks” Steve’s memory hadn’t been wrong after all… he’d been on the receiving end a majority of the time when he and Nancy dated.
The alpha nods ”Yes, but as a girl I have both… bits. So does male omegas” Their eyes move to Steve. His face is on fire, but he clears his throat ”Yeah… but uh, I think m- my balls are gone”
Robin gapes at him ”You’re not sure?”
The omega scowls ”Dude, I haven’t like, checked” his shoulders are almost up to his ears.
”But you remember it right” interrupts Nancy ”Male omegas don’t have… those. But female alphas do…”
Robin asks curiously ”How does that even work?”
The other girl’s Face is on fire and her eyebrows pull together downward ”I’m not explaining more about my genitals. If you’re really curious, look it up in a sex ed. book”
The beta winces and awkwardly finger guns ”Got it”
”Anyway, My sense of smell feels like it’s doubled. I feel much more hormonal, and on top of that I go through a rut every month which means my hormones go crazy for around three days. Oh, and no alphas have periods, they can’t bear children” it sounds crazy, but they also remember it all as normal.
”As for my family, mom is an omega, dad is an alpha, so is Mike. He’s just hit his growth spurt and could have his first rut in a year or something. Holly is an omega” she then turns her head to look at Steve.
It takes a moment for him to figure out that she deems it his turn to speak ”Um… I guess we’ve already covered the genitals part… It’s the same as Nance with the smells and hormones, but omegas… go through a heat every month, it’s pretty much the same as a rut. But then after a heat… we do get periods” He’s dated enough girls, and Robin has ranted about it more than enough for him to not feel grossed out by periods. But saying out loud that he gets them now is wild.
The beta gasps “Oh my god, you can get pregnant”
She’s right. He can.
But he barrels past that for now “And like Nancy has been treated kinda like a boy, it’s been the opposite for me. You saw my room”
“And your parents are betas?” Questions the alpha. He nods, there’s not much else to say about them.
“But I have a pack…”
Robin frowns in thought, then she brightens again “Right! Some call their family pack. But nowadays it’s more commonly what you call chosen family”
He smiles “Yeah, the Hendersons are my pack”
Nancy perks up “Yeah, He called you pack earlier” the other girl asks him when that happened, finding pack in another family like that isn’t the most common. Especially in a town like Hawkins.
It takes a moment for the memories to hit “During the Billy chaos I fell and hit my head on Joyce's kitchen table. My parents weren’t home and Dustin insisted I stayed with them while recovering. I’ve been one of them since” A warm scent envelopes them, the omega’s fondness of his chosen family is too large to contain.
~~~
Eventually they have to discuss what they’re gonna do henceforth. Nancy has taken a seat on the Harrington’s white expensive and uncomfortable couch “We should tell them everything, so we can avoid the mistakes we made”
Robin is seated on a pillow on the floor, because… why not? She’s Robin “We should make a list of things we need to do differently” Steve agrees and fetches a pen and paper so they can do that. He sits on the couch with Nancy whom he gave the pen and paper to.
First they make a list of everyone they remember getting flayed in 85. Then a list of goals.
- Don’t tire out El
- Don’t let mindflayer get her
- Avoid Russians
- Save Hopper
- Know Planck’s constant
“I think these are our main objectives for this year” says Nancy.
“I don’t think we should tell them everything” The girls look at him questionably.
Nancy challenges “Why?”
“Because if we tell Dustin about the Russians he might not want to look for them. He only did it because he’s too curious for his own good. Also, if he knows that we’ll get caught, he won’t want to do it, or god forbid he’ll do it behind our backs so we don’t get hurt”
Nancy considers that “Could we perhaps avoid all of you going in there?”
He sighs and Robin shakes her head and points out that “If Dustin and Erica don’t go through that place, Hop, Joyce, and Murray would be screwed”
She thinks things over again “And you guys don’t remember enough to guide them?”
Robin huffs out a laugh “We were drugged like, half the time we spent in the actual base. There’s no way we could do that. Besides, we never even went into the vents like the kids and later Murray did”
“Shit… So we don’t mention the Russians to anyone?”
The beta agrees “That’s probably for the best”
The alpha straightens again “So, the only person we need to warn about something specific for now is Billy?”
Steve sinks into the stiff cushions “Well need to tell everyone if we want him to even consider believing us”
“You’re probably right about that”
They agree to gather everyone in two days. Nancy goes home but Robin stays for a while longer. It feels weird, but they have a ton of catching up to do now. They’re not supposed to know each other yet.
Back in Steve’s room they put on Wham! Make It Big. It has been a tradition between them that started after Starcourt. After the whole ordeal was over and they’d been cleared to go home, someone from the government gave them a ride. Just the two of them. Neither felt like they could talk after everything, and the silence in the car intensified until Robin felt like she was going to snap.
So she leaned forward and asked the driver if he could put on some music. He turned on a tape and Wake Me Up Before You Go Go blasted through the speakers. The guy was even bopping his head to the beat.
The laughter that took over the teens when they were dropped off at Robin’s was uncontrollable. They could barely talk to Robin’s parents who were appropriately concerned. After finally explaining to them what happened, and that Steve’s parents were out of state, they settled in Robin’s room. Instead of talking about torture, monsters, or people that were no longer with them, they talked about government agents that listen to George Michael.
So no matter how bad Robin thinks Wham! Is, it will always be their thing.
With Wake Me Up Before You Go Go playing on low volume they lay on the bed. Robin with her back propped on pillows against the headboard and Steve on his stomach with his head resting under her chest, and one arm on the other side of her. Cuddling works for them. Neither one expects anything of the other besides platonic touching. With girls, physical touch makes Robin too nervous, and with guys she’s usually too scared of them expecting things of her. Steve has always been a fan of intimacy, but is rarely held outside of sex, and then it’s him doing the holding. But with Robin he gets to feel small in a comforting way.
“I get hugged more here” Robin strokes his head and lets out a soft “Hm?”
Steve smiles “Carol has been a lot more touchy feely since we’re both omegas. I’ve been much closer with her than Tommy here” his friendship with Carol is vastly different from what it was in their previous… life? Timeline? Reality? Whatever, the previous.
“Also, do you remember scenting?”
She hums “Yeah, Betas don’t really scent others. But my dad’s an alpha, so he sometimes scents me and mom. They like, nuzzle their neck and wrists against someone to make their scent stick to them. Alphas and omegas have scent glands there”
Steve smiles “Yeah. Since Dustin and his mom are my pack, we scent each other sometimes. It’s nice”
The beta lets out a soft laugh “Your scent is very nice. Like lemon curd and freshly baked bread”
He looks up at her with a pinched frown “Lemon curd?”
“Yeah, my mom makes it all the time. It’s delicious”
“Ew. Don’t call me delicious”
“Hah! Too bad you smell like a warm pastry, dingus”
Freedom comes on and they end up singing along to the upbeat song and dancing around like idiots. They needed it after the week of hunting Vecna.