Tk and Dustin were on the way scoops ahoy to see steve. Steve had applied for scoops ahoy before Dustin left but when he got hired Dustin had already left. Tk would have told Dustin about it but steve said he wanted to. So here they were at scoops ahoy but steve wasn't working the counter it was robin.

" hi" Dustin greeted her, Tk also waved at her.

" hi," robin replied while giving Tk a little wave.

" I'm Dustin"

" I'm robin"

Tk was feeling a little awkward so decided to introduce himself as well. " I'm Tk". Robin gave him a smile in return.

"Pleasure to meet you. Is he here?" Dustin asked.

" is who here?" Robin was asking when steve burst through the door that lead to the back room.

" Henderson. Henderson! He's back! He's back!" Steve exclaimed. He started jumping around and laughing, they then did their handshake which was just them pretending to fight with lightsabers. Dustin won seeing that steve got stabbed.

The whole time robin was giving Tk a confused look, to which he just shrugged knowing this was normal for them. It was only after their handshake that Steve then noticed Tk standing next to Dustin.

" hey, cowboy didn't see you there" steve spoke as he pushed Tks hat down so now he couldn't see.

"it's Tk" he corrected while pushing his hat out of his eyes. Steve just waved him off.

" how many children are you friends with?" Robin questioned Steve, didn't want to answer that so he distracted them with ice cream.

Dustin got a banana split while Tk got a strawberry sundae. Dustin was telling steve all about suzie, Tk could tell that steve was a little freaked out when Dustin said she thinks kissing is better without teeth, which made Tk have to try and hide his laugh.

" do you really just get to eat as much of this as you want?" Tk gestured to the ice cream in front of him.

Steve shrugged. " yeah. I mean, sure. It's not really a good idea for me, though. I gotta keep in shape for the ladies"

" yeah, and how's that working out for you" robin shouted from the counter.

" ignore her," steve told them.

" she seems cool," Dustin said.

" shes not"

" she is"

" so, where's the other knuckleheads? You know besides this one" steve added as he was pointing at Tk. He got a very offended look in return.

" they ditched me yesterday" Dustin replied.

" no," steve said in disbelief. He then turned to Tk for confirmation, Tk nodded telling him that it was true.

" my first day back. The only one who stayed was Tk. Can you believe that shit?" he added.

"Whoa. seriously?"

" seriously" Tk chimed in, before going back to his ice cream.

" they're gonna regret it though, big time when they don't get to share in our glory." He told the older boy.

" Glory? What glory?" Steve asked.

Tk looked around making sure no one was looking at them before scooting closer to steve. " so last night, we were trying to get in contact with suzie and uh"

Tk then mumbled something incoherent, steve wasn't able to catch what he said and asked him to repeat it. He did a little louder this time but steve still didn't get it. Tk was going to whisper it in his ear but Dustin decided to shout it out loud.

" We intercepted a secret Russian communication!" Which caused everyone in the shop to look at them. Tk did not turn to look at the people instead he decided he would just let the ground swallow him whole as he sank under the table. He was unfortunately pulled up before he could sink all the way down.

Tk stopped paying attention to the convocation that was taking place between Dustin and steve. Even though the embarrassing moment was over Tk still opted to try and hide himself by Steve's side.

─── · 。ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

The three boys were in the back room of scoops ahoy listening to the tape Tk recorded the other night. Steve was pacing back and forth while eating a banana he looked like he was in deep thought.

" so what do you think?" Dustin asked.

" is sounded familiar" he replied.

" What?" Tk questioned, now sitting up from the counter he was laying on behind Dustin.

" the music. The music right there at the end."

" why are you listening to the music, steve? Listen to the Russian! We're translating Russian!" Dustin exclaimed.

" How are we supposed to translate Russian if we don't even speak the language?" Tk spoke up.

" aren't you like a genius or some shit aren't you supposed to know this?" Steve told him.

Tk just rolled his eyes. " Genius or not, foreign languages are not my thing. If you wanna learn about space I'm your guy but everything else is off the table,"

Steve was gonna say something back but robin came into the room. "All right, babysitting time is over. You need to get in there" she then noticed her whiteboard that had " you rule, you suck" on it was replaced with the Russian alphabet. "Hey, my board. That was important data, shitbirds''

" I guarantee you, what we're doing is way more important than your data" Dustin dismissed.

" yeah, and how do you know these Russians are up to no good anyways?" She questioned, which made the boys turn to look at each other, they were whispering about how she knew. Well, they were kinda whispering.

" Hello, I can hear you. Actually, I can hear everything. You three are extremely loud. You think you have evil Russians plotting against our country, on tape and are trying to translate, but haven't figured out a word. Because you didn't realize that Russians use an entirely different alphabet than we do. Sound about right?" Robin explained.

The three boys just stared at her not saying a word. Robin then went to grab the tape but steve grabbed it before she did. She said she wanted to help but steve and Dustin were still on the fence about it.

" I'm fluent in four languages, you know" she stated.

" Russian?" Dustin asked.

She simply replied with. " ou-yay are-yay umb-day" Steve and Dustin looked very impressed while Tk just shook his head in disappointment. Although he didn't speak Russian it didn't take a genius to figure out that that isn't Russian. " that was pig Latin, dingus. But I can speak Spanish, French and Italian, and I've been in band for twelve years. My ears are little geniuses, trust me"

Steve still didn't look focused so Tk decided to speak up" just give her the damn tape. She already knows what we're doing and she has proven to be smarter than you two"

the bell at the counter could be heard, so steve reluctantly swapped out the tape for the ice cream scoop. Robin and Dustin were in the back trying to decode it while Steve and Tk were out front.

Steve was doing his job meanwhile Tk was mostly stealing the free samples of ice cream. Every time steve caught him he'd just say he was making sure they went poisoned.

" we've got our first sentence" robin announced as she opened the window.

" what is it?" Tk asked, not making any moves to move from the ground where he was drawing on his shoes.

" the week is long" she replied in a Russian accent.

" well, that's thrilling"

"I know. But, progress." She said as she closed the window. It was only then when steve went to give the people their ice cream that he noticed it was Max and El. Tk left his bag on the floor and started to get up to follow them.

" Hey, where are you going!" Steve called out to him.

" I'll be back, I'm just making sure they get him okay!" The boy shouted back before leaving the store.

He saw the two of them walking towards the main entrance. He had to jog a little to catch up to them but he did. " Hey, guys. I didn't know y'all were friends" The two girls jumped at the sound of a new voice but calmed once they saw it was Tk.

" max is new friend" El stated to which Tk nods he was happy that they were on good terms it would be easier to hang out that way.

" what are you guys doing here?" He asked.

" shopping" El replied.

Max then gestures to El's new clothes. " this is her new style. What do you think?"

" I think it will be nice to have my clothes back" Tk joked, the three of them laughed at his joke before Tk turned to El. " but seriously you look stunning"

El then looked at Tk's outfit. " stunning too" Tk then wrapped his arm around El and she wrapped her arm around Tk.

" and of course, we can't forget about the mad max, you look absolutely darling as well" he comments as he wraps his other arm around her, she wraps hers around his waist as they exit the mall.

" Oh, you've got to be shitting me" max complained as she looked to her right, causing the other two to look to the right as well.

Mike, Will, and Lucas were taking their bikes out of the bike rack. Tk kinda found it ironic how they were all at the mall but didn't know it.

" Well I ain't this a nice surprise," max said as they walked closer to the boys. Apparently, they weren't expecting them because mike dropped his bike.

" what are you doing here?" Mike asked El.

She just replied with " shopping".

" This is her new style. What do you think?" Max asked him.

"What's wrong with you? Both of you. You know she's not supposed to be here ''Mike started raising his voice.

Tk put his hands up. "I didn't even know they were here until five minutes ago."

" what is she your little pet?" Max spoke taking the heat off of Tk which he was thankful for.

"Yeah, am I your pet?" El added.

"What? No!" Mike exclaimed.

" then why do you treat me like garbage?" El questioned him.

"What?"

" you said nana was sick"

"She is. She is. She is sick" Mike said as he turned to Lucas to help him convince them that she was and he almost did but then he caught the look Tk was giving him.

Although Tk didn't know what was going on between the two lovers. The one thing he did know is that he was on El's side and if Lucas wanted to help Mike lie he was not going to be happy.

So Lucas had two choices, he could either help Mike lie and have Tk be mad at him or he could keep his mouth shut and have Mike be mad at him.

He decided to keep his mouth shut. Tk was kinda scary when he was mad. Eventually, Lucas chose to live. Tk'sglare turned into a smile which made Lucas feel a lot more at pice.

" you lie. Why do you lie? ''Mike didn't have anything to say. The bus had now stopped behind them. "I dump your ass" was the last thing she said before she and Max left.

Once Tk was sure that they got on the bus safely and said his goodbyes to the remainder of the party he walked back into the mall. He was close to scoops ahoy when he was suddenly dragged to the bathroom.

When they were in the bathroom he could finally see who it was, it was Lucas.

When Tk could bearly get a word in when he felt a pair of lips on his he very quickly melted into the kiss. Lucas's hands were around Tks neck bringing him down to his height and Tk placed his hands on the boy's waist. When the two boys pulled away they were both kinda out of breath.

"Hi, babe"

"Hi, cosmo"

" What was that for?" Tk asked still breathing heavily.

" Oh, so you didn't like it," Lucas teased, walking away from Tk.

Tk's face had gotten even redder if that was possible, he was already red from the kiss. " I didn't say that. It was just unexpected, that's all" he said while pulling Lucas back into his arms.

"I just missed you," Lucas says.

" yeah, I gathered that," Tk laughed.

"What are you doing here at the mall anyway," Lucas asks.

" I'm helping Steve with scoops ahoy for some extra cash" it wasn't a total lie he was helping steve in a way.

"Why"

" So I can take my beautiful boyfriend out on dates," Tk said confidently. It was now Lucas's turn to be flustered, Tk wasn't usually like this Lucas usually took the lead on romantic stuff.

" but the real question is what happened between mike and El?" Tk was still lost on the whole thing.

Lucas explained that hopper threatened mike so he lied to El and then called him to help find an I'm sorry gift and how they got here. The only thing Tk got out of that is that if they had a normal conversation like regular people this could have all been avoided.

Eventually, the couple had to part ways, Lucas was needed at Mike's house and Tk was needed at scoops ahoy. The two lovers share one last kiss before leaving the bathroom one at a time so it doesn't raise any suspicions.

─── · 。ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

It was dark by the time they were done with the riddle. The mall had already closed so it was just them in the place.

" The week is long, the soldier cat feeds when blue meets yellow in the west." The group read in unison.

" it just can't be right," Steve said as he's closing up scoops ahoy.

"it's right," Robin told him.

" Honestly, I think it's great news," Dustin spoke. Tk agreed with Dustin he liked the thought that it might just be nothing. They have fought monsters for two years maybe it was the universe's way of giving them a break.

" How is this great news?" Steve questioned. "I mean so much for being American heroes. It's total nonsense"

"It's not nonsense" robin replied.

"It's too specific. It's Obviously a code" Dustin told him.

" what do you mean, a code?" Steve questioned.

" you know, like a super secret spy code. Or in our case a supper secret Russian spy code" Tk informed him.

"That's a total stretch," Steve said.

Robin shrugged. "I don't know, maybe the kids are onto something"

" you're buying into this?"

" Listen just for kicks, let's entertain the possibility that it is a super secret Russian transmission. What'd you think they were gonna say " fire the warhead at noon"?" Robin stated.

Robin and Dustin kept talking about the Russian when Tk noticed that Steve had gotten distracted by one of the pot rides. He was desperately looking for a quarter, but Robin eventually gave him a quarter.

Robin was making jokes about helping him up on the horse. When the music started to sound familiar to Tk.

"That's the music from the tape!" Tk exclaimed. Dustin then pulled out the tape and sure enough, it was a perfect match.

Robin suggested that they have horses like this in Russia. But the name of the ride was Indiana flyer, not exactly something you'd see in Russia.

That's when they realized the code didn't come from Russia, it came from Hawkins.

Maybe the universe just hates them.