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bellatrixscurls · 13 days

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Dustin with a… hammer? | an Eddie Munson Series

pairing : henderson!reader x eddie munson. summary : eddie is your longtime crush. so what happens when you get him all alone, one wednesday afternoon? warnings : eventual smut, friends to lovers, dustin freaking out, kissing, pet names. a/n : this will be a series. please lmk if you like it!

You heard a loud bang, and seconds later your door was slammed open, revealing an unkempt Dustin with a… hammer? in his hands.

“Y/n/n! You have to help me!” He screamed at the top of his lungs, yet you remained unimpressed and it was driving him nuts. “Get up!”

You squinted at him, eyeing the hammer in his hand. And then his face again. “What are you doing with that, you wombat? Put that down” you rolled your eyes and looked back down at your book.

Yet you could hear his breathing, well, it wasn’t something unusual. But he was getting agitated and you could feel it in the air. “It’s Eddie” spluttered Dustin, and your ears immediately perked up. “W-Well, actually it’s Vecna. But I am way more concerned about Eddie.”

“What’s up with Eddie?” You asked, looking back at him as you walked down the stairs, your brother following right behind. Your book was already long forgotten, and any plans you had had before Dustin mentioned Eddie.

You liked the boy. He was sweet, pretty, and he always gave you free weed, blushing like crazy when you kissed his cheek as a thank you.

“I am supposed to meet him here in a few minutes, but Steve called and said that he needs me because Vecna is back and he wants Max and obviously-” he rushed out, but when you gave him a weird look he paused, clutching at his chest. “I need you to distract him until I get back from Steve’s.”

Your eyes were shining. And if Dustin saw, he didn’t say anything. He accepted the urgent nod you gave him, and left, but not before hugging you and yelling “He should be here soon.”

This should be good.

♡

You made sure to do it all. You took a shower first, using your favourite sprays and creams. You put on perfume, cleaned the living room, put on cute clothes. Well, not too cute, you didn’t want him to realise what you were doing. At least not at first.

It was perfect. You had waited for some alone time with Eddie since forever, and Dustin gave it to you on a silver plate, albeit unknowingly.

You jumped a bit at the knock on your door, adrenaline rushing through your veins. “Henderson, you better be ready! I even came a few minutes late so you could-… Oh, hello. You don’t look like you’re into D&D” he smiled that charming smile of his, and you took a moment to admire him. He was wearing a black shirt, black jeans and black boots. His usual clothes, but now he seemed to look even better in them.

You smiled back, opening the door so he could come inside. “I could be” you mumbled and he heard it. Of course he did. His eyes met yours, a mischievous glint in them as he kept eye contact, making his way into your living room.

“So” Eddie rubbed his hands together, falling back down on the comfortable couch. “Where’s Dusty Bun?”

You laughed out loud, sitting down next to Eddie, keeping a fair distance at first. “I see you met mother” he hummed and looked at you expectantly, to which you responded with a shrug and a small “What?”

You tried your best puppy eyes on him, hands toying with the hem of your bycicle shorts. Eddie bit back a smirk, shaking his head “He isn’t here, is he? Little fucker.”

“Actually, he told me to take care of you!” You rushed out when you noticed Eddie beginning to get up, and he looked back at you, wide-eyed. “No! I mean, he told me to stay with you until he gets back.”

Eddie exhaled loudly, ring clad fingers covering his face. “He said what?”

You were taken aback. Was he annoyed?

“Yeah, I’m sorry” you mumbled, mood already ruined. You didn’t know what to do, so you just kept fiddling with your fingers.

Eddie raised his head, looking at you through the space between his fingers. He fucked up big time. His eyes softened and one of his hands found your thigh, squeezing gently. “No, sweetheart. I just- God, he’s cancelled on me too many times now. The campaign is in two days, for fuck’s sake.”

You hummed, hand covering his, still on your thigh. His eyes met yours and he was looking at you carefully, feeling his whole body tense at your touch. “I could try to help you. I mean, I know a few things about D&D. Dustin won’t stop talking about it.”

Eddie’s heart swelled in his chest at your offer. If there was anything he liked more than a pretty girl, was one who actually showed interest in the things he liked. Especially D&D.

“Buckle up, dollface.”

♡

“God, Eddie” you sighed, finally finishing your 3 hour session of helping Eddie with his campaign. He was really passionate about it, and you loved hearing him talk, occasionally asking you for your opinion, which made you feel included and content. “This is harder than it looks. Now I understand why Dustin freaks out so much about every game.”

Eddie chuckles, running a hand through his curly hair and messing it up a little more. “What can I say, sweetheart? It’s not for the weak.”

“What are you implying, Munson?” You snort, swatting his shoulder as he laughed even louder.

Even his laugh was something to die for.

Eddie tipped his head back, leaning on the couch. “I’m joking, Y/n. You have helped me a lot, Henderson must thank you for not getting in trouble with me.”

He put on a serious face, big eyes looking at you as seriously as he could. But it didn’t last long as you both burst out laughing. He was so unserious.

“I’m joking, obviously” he rolled his eyes, still laughing a little bit. “I have some weed in my bag by the way… That’s not a joke” he grabbed his bag from the floor, searching through it.

You put your hand over his, stopping him. “I have some in my room. Come” you took a hold of his hand, dragging him up the stairs and straight to your room.

You left Eddie to sit on your bed as you searched through your makeup drawer, taking a big amount of weed from there.

Eddie’s eyes widened when he saw how much it was in there. “Woah, I don’t have that much weed at home… Where did you- how do you have that?”

Looking down at the floor timidly, you responded. “S all the weed you have ever given me.”

His eyebrows shot up, a confused look on his face. He understood, I mean, he saw the weed, but he didn’t understand… the other parts. “Why did you keep all of that? Sweetheart, that’s gold. How come you have never tried that?”

Sighing, you sat on the bed as well, legs crossed. “I don’t exactly smoke, Eddie” you explain to him, hoping that his questions would stop there. They didn’t.

“Well, what the hell do you use weed for? Wait- you snort it? That’s so fucking cool-”

“Eddie, I don’t know how to!” You raised your voice, and his words are cut short, a flabbergasted look all over his face. “Anytime you’d offered me weed, I couldn’t just say no to you. I wanted you to think I am cool.”

He said nothing and you felt even worse now. You’d just, albeit indirectly, admitted you had something for the boy, and he had no reaction. “I just wanted us to have things in common and-”

Warm. He smashed his lips against your own, and they were so soft and warm. He couldn’t hold back anymore as his once gentle hands found your hips, gripping them and bringing you to sit on his lap.

When Eddie pulled away for a moment to catch your breath, he leaned his forehead against yours, your hands still holding his face between them. You took your turn to look at him confusedly, breath uneven. “Your lips are soft” you blabbered and Eddie chuckled, kissing your nose.

You were staring unseeing into Eddie’s eyes, and he couldn’t help but bring you even closer to him, face against your neck. “You are so perfect. Fuck- I love kissing you.”

His lips were a sin against the sensitive skin on your neck. So skilled and full, you just had to grip the back of his neck, head tipped back in pleasure.

“You can do more” you whimper, pleased when you felt Eddie’s bulge against your clothed cunt, closing your eyes tightly at the sinful feeling.

Heavy silence enveloped them as Eddie stilled, because, well… he had two options. Possibly screw his friendship with Dustin or… not.

Oh no. Eddie began to panic.

“I can’t” he pulled back, shaking his head as if he was having a whole ass discussion in his mind. And boy, was he. “I can’t, Y/n. This is not right, that’s not how this is supposed to happen.”

He got up, brushing down his clothes with his hands. You had no words as you stared up at him, shivers ran down your spine when you realised that he was practically running down the stairs and you were left alone. He didn’t care, of course he didn’t. You had tried everything to make him like you, but it still wasn’t enough for him.

#eddie munson x you #eddie munson series #eddie munson fanfic #eddie munson x reader #eddie munson x y/n #eddie munson fluff #eddie munson smut #eddie munson imagine #stranger things fanfiction #stranger things smut #eddie munson x henderson!reader #Dustin with a… hammer?

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penny00dreadful · 5 months

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STWG Prompt: Chill/Give In

Double prompt day! A happy whoopsident!

“Just talk to him. Be chill about it.”

“‘Be chill about it?’ Seriously, Robin?” Steve bit at the skin on the side of his thumb but pulled his hand away when all he could taste was kerosene.

He looked out across the field towards Dustin and Eddie, chasing after each other, playing at battle with their shields.

He could feel his heartbeat in his sides through the bites and on his back and arms where he was dragged over the lake bed but that pain didn’t compare to the near constant fucking heartache he felt every time he looked in Eddie’s direction.

“Steve-”

“Didn’t you just give me a whole speech about how our love lives don’t matter right now because the world might be ending?” He cut her off, a little petulant.

“No,” Robin said firmly. “I said my love life. Because there’s nothing there, there’s no hope. But you-”

“You don’t know that, Vickie could-”

“Steve.” Robin said, almost as if she was begging him. “Please. Go talk to him.”

He had to admit defeat at that, nodding to her and trying not to feel too much about her small sigh of relief as he stood and started to make his way across the field.

Eddie and Dustin were posturing to each other, acting out their victorious return, knights coming back from battle successful.

They both had matching smiles on their faces, those dimples cutting into Eddie’s cheeks and his eyes bright and alight with laughter.

When Steve came to a stop in front of them, arms folded over his chest and they both turned to him, Eddie’s bright eyes turned hard and his mouth fell into a frown while Dustin just looked up at Steve expectantly, still smiling.

“Can I talk to you?” Steve asked, sparing a glance at Eddie’s face and nearly withering under the glare he was sent.

“Can’t imagine we’d have anything to talk about, Harrington.” Eddie turned his back and crouched down, picking back up the hammer and starting to whack nails through the shield again, with far too much force.

“Eddie.” Steve tightened his arms around himself. “Please?”

There was silence between the three of them for a breath, Dustin’s eyes darting from one to the other before Eddie slammed his hammer back down and straightened up.

“Have it your way, then. You always do.” Without a backwards glance, he stormed off towards the tree line, leaving Steve behind feeling like he’d been punched in the gut.

“What’s going on?” Dustin asked, watching Eddie’s retreating form. “He looks like he might try to kill you.”

“If he does, I’d probably deserve it.” He patted Dustin on the shoulder as he passed, following Eddie into the forest.

Steve found him, still scowling, leaned up against a tree a few feet in, trying to blow up Steve’s head with his mind.

Steve could only stare at him for a moment, trying to figure out how to start, not daring to close the distance in between them.

“Talk.” Eddie snapped.

He opened and closed his mouth, eventually figuring it was best to start with his apology.

“I’m sorry.”

He was met with an eye roll and a scoff.

“Oh, now you’re sorry?”

“Yes.” He answered back, firm and resolute. “I’m sorry. I’ve always been sorry.”

“Right.” Eddie nodded, condescending. “And what part are you sorry for, exactly? Or are you just sorry it even happened in the first place?”

Steve huffed to himself, pinching the bridge of his nose and trying his best to keep his emotions from cresting. He’d been so raw for weeks and it was so much worse now, having to face it head on.

“I never wanted to hurt you-”

“Hurt me? Hurt me?” Eddie exploded, out of nowhere. “You didn’t fucking hurt me, Harrington. You eviscerated me. You tore my fucking heart out, and what’s worse, is that you knew you were doing it. I could see it on your face! I can see it right now!” He took a few steps forward, jabbing Steve hard in the chest. “You didn’t even give me a god damned reason and now, because the world is about to fucking end you decide you need to get me off your conscience?”

“No! That’s not what this is-”

“Then what is it!”

“It’s this whole fucking situation!” Steve threw his hands out to the side. “It’s this fucking apocalypse and people fucking dying and getting hurt and I couldn’t have it be you! Not you. Never you.”

“Never me, never me. Story of my fucking life. What could never be me, huh?” He snapped. “Could never be permanent? Could never be what you need? Can’t be your fucking breeder for your all American dream, is that it? No? Then make some fucking sense, would you?”

“It’s not that, jesus, did you listen to anything I said the whole fucking time we were- It wasn’t about my white picket fence fucking dream that I would still be happy to have with you-!” He shook his head, he was getting off track. “I always knew this supernatural shit wasn’t over, Eddie. They said it was done. Hopper died, the Byers moved themselves and El away, they said it was done. But never fucking is. And I couldn’t stand the idea of you being hurt by it.”

Eddie paused, his big brown eyes darting between Steve’s own, searching, gears in his head clicking, until Steve could see the moment the puzzle pieces slotted into place.

“This is why you went missing for a couple of days? This is why you turned up at the trailer looking like you’d been fucking tortured after the mall burned down?”

“Yeah,” Steve sighed, the fight leaving him. “And I knew it was going to happen again. I’d already gotten Robin and Erica mixed up in the shit, I couldn’t have it happen to you too.”

Eddie was no longer glaring at him but he didn’t look happy either.

He looked disappointed.

Disappointed and hurt.

“So, what?” He asked, taking a step back and crossing his arms. “Instead of talking to me about it, you just decided to break up with me?”

“Eddie,” He reached out to him but Eddie took a step back. Steve felt like he’d been stabbed in the heart all over again. “I didn’t ‘just decide’ anything-”

“But you did! You did! You decided for me. You made the decision for me. You didn’t even give me the option- You didn’t tell me what was going on-”

“I couldn’t! There were NDA’s and government agents-”

“Oh fuck off, Steve.” Eddie snapped. “Like you ever gave a shit about what some suits said to you.”

“This is different, this is getting black bagged and never seen again type of shit-”

“Look me in the eye. You look me in the eye and tell me you’ve never broken one of those NDA’s or told one of those agents to shove it up their ass. Go on.” Eddie stepped closer again but it definitely wasn’t an invitation to reach out, it was a challenge.

Steve looked Eddie in the eye.

He could lie.

He could say he always followed those NDA’s to the letter.

He could say he had never bitched out those agents along with Joyce to declare Hopper a hero and not brush him under the rug like they tried to do with Barb, making him some crooked, power hungry, drugged up cop who ‘went missing’ after he was last seen standing at the quarry’s edge.

But he couldn’t.

He couldn’t lie to Eddie, not anymore.

Eddie wilted. His eyes went from hard and defiant down to soft, sad and resigned.

“I thought so.” He said, quiet and vindicated, though he sounded the opposite of happy to be so. “You made decisions for me Steve. You took my agency away. No one gets to do that. Not my father, not Wayne and not you.”

“Eddie.” He said, his voice cracking. “I just wanted to keep you safe.”

“Well look around you, sweetheart.” He replied, opening his arms and gesturing around. “What a great job you did.”

Eddie shoulder-checked Steve hard as he passed, making his way out of the forest without looking back.

When Steve finally reappeared at Robin’s side, his eyes red and puffy and his throat raw, she silently took his hand and tugged him in close.

“Nancy.” Steve snapped, grabbing Dustin by the shoulders and wrenching him away. “Get him out of here.”

He threw Dustin into her arms, not letting himself care about the pain he’d probably just caused, he couldn’t. He couldn’t lose focus, there was too much blood and he had to do something.

“Robin, with me.” But he needn’t have even said it. Robin was already kneeling down by Eddie’s side, checking his breathing, looking for a pulse while Steve started to rifle through the pockets and pouches on his War Zone vest, pulling out bandages and gauze.

They wouldn’t do much, but hopefully it would be enough until they could get him somewhere safer.

Safer and cleaner.

It had to be enough for that.

It had to be.

Steve couldn’t lose him.

He handed some of the bandages off to Robin who had moved down to work on his stomach while Steve wrapped up his neck.

“Baby?” Steve couldn’t help but put a hand on Eddie’s cheek.

His uninjured cheek, because jesus christ the bats practically bit the whole way through on the other side.

“Eddie, can you hear me? Please, baby?” He begged. “Come back to me.”

His heart was in his throat and he was in the middle of trying to shove it the fuck back down because he needed to concentrate when Eddie’s eyes fluttered.

“S’vie?”

“Yeah.” Steve exhaled in relief. “Yeah, it’s me baby. I’m here, you’re gonna be okay.”

Eddie didn’t say anything else, just groaned in pain when Robin cruelly tightened the bandages, but it had to be done.

His eyes fluttered closed again and he didn’t move, save for the small rise and fall of his chest that Steve watched like a fucking hawk.

When he positioned himself in between Eddie’s legs with his back to him, gesturing for Robin to lift Eddie up so he could drag his arms over his shoulders, she paused for a second, giving him a look.

“Your injuries-”

“Birdie, please.”

“Okay, okay. Shit.”

She grabbed Eddie tight under the arms and though she struggled with his dead weight, eventually the two of them were able to manoeuvre him in such a way so he was draped over Steve’s back.

He would have expected a whimper of pain or a shout or something but Eddie was deathly silent, his breaths coming in short sharp rattles.

“Go ahead,” He said to Robin, starting the long and painful trek back to the trailer. “Get the portal ready for me.”

She didn’t hesitate, just nodded and ran.

Steve tightened his arms and grit his teeth.

One foot in front of the other.

“Don't do this to me, baby.” He panted. “Don't go.”

Each step was like a fresh knife through his sides, the raw wounds on his back screamed at him and his vision was starting to swim but he refused, he refused to give in.

There was a small moan in his ear and he could feel Eddie’s eyelashes brushing against his neck as he blinked his eyes open.

“What day s'it?” He slurred, breath hot against Steve’s skin.

“It's-” Steve inhaled, feeling like he couldn’t get a proper lungful, “Thursday.”

“T'm'rrow's date night.” His voice was so quiet, so thin that Steve could barely hear it. He wanted to tell him to stop talking, to conserve his energy but at the same time, talking meant alive.

“Yeah.” Steve huffed. “Yeah, it is, so just-” He stumbled, nearly falling to his knees but managing to catch himself, “Just hang on a little-”

“Dn't know if… if 'm gonna make it.”

“Don't-” he breathed, each pass of air through his lungs getting more and more painful. He was just at the trailer steps now and he could see a figure coming back through the portal from behind the door.

“M'sorry.”

“Eds, don't apologise.” He tried to soothe, everything within him screaming as he lifted a leg to go up the steps. He’d never make it. He’d never be able to carry him up, but he had to try. “Just stay awake, please baby. Please.”

Eddie didn’t respond, but there were still those small puffs of air against Steve’s neck.

The trailer door burst open, Robin and Nancy rushing down the steps to take Eddie’s weight.

For one delirious moment he held on tighter, he didn’t want to let him go, didn’t want him out of his sight, but he came to his senses quickly, letting the girls drag him up the stairs.

Robin looked back at him torn but Steve waved her off.

“Get him through, Birdie!” He said from his position, holding himself up on the bannister.

Robin glared at him. “God fucking damn it, Steve!”

But she turned and started to drag Eddie inside because she was his fucking soulmate, god damn it and best fucking friend.

The ascent up and into the trailer was slow.

By the time he made it to the makeshift stairs they had created up to the portal, the girls and Eddie were already through and Robin was on her way back to him.

“Evie, come on!” Robin begged, tears in her eyes, reaching a hand out to him.

His vision was starting to darken around the edges, but he was able to grasp at her fingers.

With one last push, he felt gravity shift around him and then everything went black.

“-ere are you going?! We need… hospital!”

“My mom… nurse training until-”

“-some fucking suburban housewife-”

“-don’t know shit-!”

“-innocent-”

“Don’t let your father-”

When Steve blinked his eyes open, he was in the last place he expected to be, back in the Wheelers basement, lying on a bundle of blankets on the ground, Robin curled up next to him asleep and Karen Wheeler’s pink pumps disappearing up the stairs.

He was right next to the couch and looking up, he saw an arm hanging over the side, a familiar spattering of bats inked down his forearm and a messy shock of brown curls just barely visible.

He could already feel consciousness leaving him again, but with the last of his strength he lifted his own arm up, grasping Eddie’s hand in his and squeezing.

All of the tension, apprehension, fear, heartbreak and grief left his body when he felt Eddie squeeze back.

So this fic (because it turned into a fucking oneshot) is actually a bit of background I had imagined for an upcoming future fic that I had never planned to write, but was in my head for later context for the story. Eventually, once that fic has been uploaded (it will be, it's one of my 1st Year Anniversary Event fics), I will upload this lil oneshot to AO3 seperately.

#steddie #stranger things #eddie munson #steve harrington #steve x eddie #penny00dreadful #eddie x steve #stwgdailyprompt #dailydrabble #steddie fanfic #steddie fic #fanfic

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myosotisa · 1 year

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i'm starvin, darlin - e.m.

Eddie Munson x Reader

ǁ summary: Since coming back from the Upside Down, Eddie has slowly been changing. Each week seems to bring something different and he finds himself doing things he never thought he would.

ǁ tags: gender neutral reader, no pronouns, no y/n. nickname used (sweetheart). mentions of season 4 final episode and what occurred. canon divergent (every one lived). it's not smut, but smut adjacent. it's sexy

ǁ word count: 2k

ǁ notes: i sat down and wrote an entire one shot in one sitting again. and i am also not going to edit this one. and i do not feel bad for lowercase hozier title, so don't even try me like that. if y'all really like it, i can add a part 2 with smut, but this is it for now

There are still a lot of things Eddie is having to come to terms with since the night his heart stopped.

That night in the Upside Down, laying in Dustin’s arms, he had died. Without a doubt. Dustin had felt his pulse and there was nothing there. And though he didn’t know CPR, had no idea what he was doing, Dustin had laid him down on the ground and started to beat against his chest. Like maybe if he hit hard enough and in the right place, his friend would come back to life.

Somehow it worked. No one bothered to ask why.

But they all knew something was wrong two days later. Eddie, barely breathing and with a weak heartbeat, had been dragged back to the surface and hidden away in the RV they had stolen. Someone watched him round the clock as they debated what to do. If they should try to get him to a hospital, how they’d be able to explain it. But then something miraculous began to happen:

Eddie started healing. All on his own. Way faster than any person should have been able to.

His skin stitched itself back together faster than should be possible, leaving less scar tissue than it should have behind. His chest began to rise and fall in more steady breaths, his heart beat getting stronger, bones resetting themselves with slow and quiet creaks as he laid in that RV bed and slept. He’d been asleep since they brought him back.

The day he woke up, his body had almost entirely healed itself. From the brink of death, having even stepped over to the other side, and now he was almost back to before it ever happened. It had only been a week.

Everyone rejoiced, refusing to question anything weird that may have happened in the Upside Down and just thinking they finally won for once. Max had casts on both her arms but was otherwise unharmed, Steve had recovered from his own injuries at the rate of a normal human and now sported a scar around his throat that he sometimes felt self conscious about. Dustin was on crutches with his broken leg for another month at least. Eddie was alive and whole and back to himself. They’d made it, everyone had made it.

He began to notice more and more things that were different as the days went on.

The first thing he caught on to was that he had the capability to be strong. Way stronger than someone who had recently been bed ridden should be. It was like in the comic books with the Hulk – if he wasn’t paying attention or if he got too emotional, he could easily break anything. A walkman destroyed, a ceramic bowl reduced to shards, a metal pipe bent beyond fixing, the wooden handle of a hammer shattered in his grip. The boys were all present for the hammer incident and sighted it as one of the coolest things they had ever seen. They swarmed him, asking him how he did it, what else he could do, how strong he really was.

Only the other teens, Steve, Nancy, Robin, you, started to look a little bit closer.

When the next few changes became apparent, it was clear something unnatural had happened to Eddie that night in the Upside Down. He could feel other people's feelings. They brushed against his consciousness like ghosts whenever he looked at someone. Happiness like warm rays of sunshine, fear like a shuddering gust of wind, anger like hot coals pressed to his skin. It wasn’t a conscious effort – in fact, there were a lot of times he wished he could turn it off. Whenever he looked too hard at someone, it’s like his brain adjusted to a different frequency and their emotions reached out to him, no matter what they were. And he didn’t struggle to make sense of the sensations like he thought he might, his brain completed the dots easily at first, but then he began to recognize them consciously. It was certainly useful sometimes, especially when it came to you, but it still felt a bit invasive. When he’d explained it to a few people, he assured he tried to ignore it whenever he could, but sometimes he couldn’t help but react. The icey spike of terror he felt when you woke up next to him from a nightmare. The velvet comfort that enveloped you and him when he held you after.

The first time he spoke into someone’s mind it was an accident. Steve had whipped toward him, breath catching in his chest, eyes wide and mouth open in a gasp. Eddie felt it like ice down his spine. “Did you… You did that?” He’d asked breathlessly. It had been so shocking, Eddie wasn’t even sure what’d he said, or projected, or whatever it was.

“I - I don’t know.”

Steve stepped closer, suddenly looking determined. “Try to do it again.”

It was a slithering feeling when he dipped back into Steve’s mind. Like sliding his way in between cracks to a place he didn’t belong, seeping into the forefront of his thoughts to plant one of his own. It made him feel dirty, uncomfortable, and wrong. But it worked. Steve explained it as having a thought like his own but it came out in Eddie’s voice instead. An intrusive thought but not an uncomfortable one.

As with all of the other discoveries, a meeting was called. Dustin, Mike, Lucas, Max, Will, El, Robin, Jonathan, Nancy, Steve, and you. Steve did most of the talking while Eddie sat and looked at his hands. These meetings, while he acknowledged were important for everyone to keep track of his progression into… something, it still made him feel a bit like a zoo animal in a cage. A magician with a magic trick. All the boys immediately begged him to do it to them, they wanted to see what it felt like, wanted to see how easy it was for him to do it.

Nancy and Jonathan had shooed them, catching on to how overwhelmed Eddie was, their excitement and curiosity battering against him like a whipping wind of too much. Once it was just the older people in the room, you crossed over to where he was, kneeled down in front of him, reached out to hold his hand.

Pity felt like someone was pissing in his pants.

“Are you okay?”

How could he say no? How could he admit that he was scared, confused, and feeling more and more like a monster with the passing days? “It’s just a lot. To deal with.”

Your smile was pained as you pushed yourself up onto your calves and wrapped your arms around his shoulders. His came around your waist on instinct, the breath feeling like a wheeze in his lungs as he held tight. Face pressed into your hair with his eyes squeezed shut, he inhaled deep in relief.

That was when the next thing changed.

It was a desire. A need. One he couldn’t place a name to. Like he was desperately missing something, desperately craving something and he didn’t know it was. It crawled under his skin like ants and sent him scratching for a feeling that couldn’t be satiated. No matter what he tried: eating, drinking, masturbating, exercising. The feeling wouldn’t go away. It got stronger day after day, his mind focusing more and more on the void it left behind until it was all he could think about.

Steve threw a little get together at his house once a month or so. Just time for everyone to get together, eat some food, listen to music, play board games, maybe watch a movie. This was the first get together since his hunger began.

He was sitting on the couch on his own, decompressing. While normally he was right in the middle of everything, today it was a lot to handle when he was hyperfocused on the crawling beneath his skin. He had his legs spread wide, hands resting on them, leaning deep into the cushions of the couch in Steve’s basement. While he had initially tried to close his eyes, hang his head back, maybe stare at the ceiling – he couldn’t stop his attention from drifting back to you.

You and Eddie had been friends for a long time. Understandably, you’d gotten much closer after the events in March. The two of you had helped each other through hard nights of nightmares, panic attacks in parking lots, flashbacks in public. You’d been a great comfort to him since he came back. But today your laugh sounded like music. The smell of your perfume hit him even across the room. Each emotion crashed over him in waves, pushing and receding like the tide as he tried to get off your frequency, unentangle himself from you before he did something he didn’t mean to do.

I’m starving.

Your back stiffened, the grip on your plastic cup getting just a bit tighter. A moment of fear quickly shifted to mellowed surprise, curiosity. He’d never spoken into your mind before, hadn’t meant to do so now. But you still shifted, your eyes slowly coasting across the room until you caught sight of him on the couch.

A shock of electricity shot down his spine as you made eye contact, his hands tightening over his thighs in reaction. Unsure exactly what to do, he settled for projecting again. Slithered his way into your ears and settled a respectful distance from the area he’d never been brave enough to venture. Sorry, he offered with a wince, didn’t mean to.

What he didn’t expect was the utter flood of feeling that hit him next. Like a drip of warm honey settling into the space between his hips, pooling there in a subtle swirl as the warmth from it started to diffuse outward. You realized you’d been staring and your eyes flit away, but the feeling didn’t cease. In fact, it only got stronger. Your lower lip caught on your teeth as you shifted between your feet. Things that would be completely normal to see, wouldn’t have anyone looking twice, but Eddie could. Your desire. The want that poured from you like water when your eyes first met his.

Was this the first time? Had something changed between you and him? Or had he just never caught on before?

The ants beneath his skin began to vibrate as he narrowed in on the feeling, on you. Like the part of him that had slithered into your thoughts was now bearing down, digging in for purchase, wanting to stay awhile and feed on this new feeling, what you were offering. It didn’t even occur to him what he was doing, how invasive it might be, how wrong he normally would have felt. All he knew is that it felt like licking at the thing he’d been craving for so long and he was helpless to chase after it.

Sweetheart. It came easy as breathing now, teeth sunk into your consciousness from where you stood across the room. You whirled on him again, another flood of warmth hitting him deep as you leaned your hip against the counter you were standing next to and focused on him. What’s got you so worked up?

He couldn’t even consider how bold he was suddenly being, the fear that he might ruin this friendship well out of his grasp. Especially when your embarrassment spiked along with the want, the pool of warmth now suddenly coming to life to have a heartbeat of its own. Your eyes widened, shifting on your feet again as you broke eye contact. It only took a few moments before you couldn’t help but look back at him again. The buzzing settled further, now like a purr beneath his skin. It was bearable as long as you kept your eyes on him.

You wanna do something about it?

thanks for reading, please reblog and leave a comment if you liked it!

#eddie munson x you #eddie munson x reader #eddie munson smut #eddie munson fluff #eddie munson hurt/comfort #eddie munson fanfic #eddie munson fanfiction #eddie munson imagine #eddie munson imagines #eddie munson blurb #eddie munson blurbs #stranger things fanfic #stranger things fanfiction #myos ideas #vampire!Eddie munson #kas!eddie munson #myo4munson

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lengthofropes · 2 years

Photo

"It's Forced Conforming. That's What's Killing The Kids"

ID under the cut

1.Eddie - freakin’- Munson

The aesthetics.

2. D&D. The Hellfire club

The "Hellfire Club" is an official D&D club at Hawkins High School. Membership came with a degree of protection, but demanded loyalty to campaign nights. Members of the club both create and wear white raglan shirts with black long sleeves, finished with the Hellfire Club name and logo on the center. Hellfire Club is hosted in a drama/theatre room.

MEMBERS:

Eddie Munson († - Head) Mike Wheeler Dustin Henderson Lucas Sinclair Erica Sinclair(substitute) Gareth Jeff "Freak"(unnamed)

3. The Sweetheart

Custom 24 fret, supercharged NJ Warlock with B.C. Rich Pickups, Floyd Rose Tremolo and jumbo frets.

(*description taken from official B.C. Rich Instagram)

The B.C. Rich Warlock is both an electric guitar and bass guitar made by B.C. Rich. It features a distinct jagged shape and two humbucker pickups. It was designed by company founder Bernie Rico in 1969.The introduction of the Warlock in 1981 marked the beginning of B.C. Rich's rise to iconic status in heavy metal. The confluence of B.C. Rich's far-out designs and the emerging hair metal culture of the late '70s and early '80s helped cement the brand's place in the market. Over the years since its introduction the Warlock has become a de facto image of a heavy metal guitar.

4. Corroded Coffin

THE BAND

Corroded Coffin is Eddie Munson's band that plays in Hawkins, Indiana. It consists of four students from Hawkins High School. They have rehearsals in Gareth’s garage and perform at The Hideout club on Tuesdays and usually get a crowd of about five drunks.

DRUMS - Gareth. Plays Sabian B8 crash and B8 Pro ride cymbals, Zildjian ZBT hi-hat (all models of 2010’s btw) and black Gretsch drum kit.

BASS GUITAR - ‘Freak’ (unnamed). Plays 4-String Squier Bullet bass by Fender.

RHYTHM GUITAR - Jeff. Plays Peavey T-15.

5. Sweet old tatties

ALL TATTOOS: DESIGN by @1sutton1; CONCEPT by @amylforsythe

THE BATS -back of the right forearm

THE PUPPETMASTER - inner side of the right forearm

THE WYVERN - back of the right arm

THE SPIDER - left side of the сhest, under the collarbone

THE DEMON - under the spider tattoo

(*names of the tattoos are taken from the Amy’s instagram)

6. The chains

RIGHT HAND. Chain bracelet with two rivets leather clasp.

LEFT SLEEVE. Accessory chain over the zipper.

VALLET CHAIN. Accessory first came to prominence with biker subcultures during the '50s, created to keep the wallets intact. Soon become popularized by the early pioneers of '70s punk, who not only incorporated them into their way of dress as a means to prevent pickpocketing along with securing their stash while flailing about in mosh pits, but also promoted them as a fashion accessory. Eventually was adopted by variety of music subcultures that spawned after punk: goths, rivet heads and a multitude of heavy metal enthusiasts. throughout the '80s.

7. The rings

LEFT HAND. Three biker rings of G&S Jewellery company, casted in bronze, silver plated.

On the index finger: a cross and 4 small skulls ring On the middle finger: a hog head ring. On the ring finger: big skull ring.

RIGHT HAND. On the ring finger: jewelry ring, oxidized metal and black (most likely, obsidian or onyx) gemstone.

(*rings company is identified by smart dudes of Internet)

8. Patches & pins

PINS:

Judas Priest (English heavy metal band)

W.A.S.P. ( American heavy metal band)

Accept (German heavy metal band)

Mercyful Fate (Danish heavy metal band) album, “Don’t Break The Oath”(1984)

PATCHES:

LEVIATHAN CROSS PATCH - Alchemical symbol for black sulfur, associated with the fire and brimstone of Hell. Also known as 'Satan's Cross'

MOTORHEAD PATCH - "Hammered Cut Out" design, with Snaggletooth (official band’s mascot)

IRON MAIDEN PATCH - "Eddie the Head" (official band’s mascot)

MEGADEATH PATCH - band logo

DIO BACK PATCH - album “The Last in Line”(1984)

(*Accept and Mercyful Fate pins are identified by smart dudes of Internet)

9. & other cool accessories

GUITAR PICK - on a neck ball chain

THE WATCH - CASIO w 700 (548 module), 100 m water resist, alarm, chronograph

BLACK BANDANA (or handkerchief) with white skull and bones pattern. Although bandanas are a common accessory among metalheads, it’s interpretation within the LGBT community should also be taken into account. According to the Hanky code, it means that Eddie is top (left pocket placing) and into S&M (black color).

10. Dexterous hands

Proficient guitar playing (A.K.A. slaying)

Advanced hotwiring

11. The Hair

No, that’s it. It’s just gorgeous.

(*all the accessories and musical instruments are identified by me, if not stated otherwise)

END ID.

#strangerthingsedit #stranger things #eddie munson #joseph quinn #fuck this is a gifset of a lifetime.....#st4 #cowboycoven2 #useralison #userdorksinlove #tuserpris #userange #useraurore #tusersclara #anzgifs

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dontcallmeeds · 1 year

Text

PART 2 OUT NOW! PART 3 PART FOUR IS FINALLY HERE

Eddie doesn’t know when it started, making little things for Steve Harrington.

Rings and chains for both around his neck and wrist to compliment his moles. He had been making his own jewelry for years now, but he draws a blank when it comes to what he makes for Steve.

No one knew Eddie made his own pieces, not even Dustin Henderson, the nosy little shit. He kept it secret, made something up when people on the rare occasion asked where he got his stuff from. Including when Steve asked.

“I don’t know man, some little shop in Indy,” Eddie had lied. Doesn’t know why he even did, they had become good friends in recent months.

No, no, that’s a lie too. Eddie knows why he lied to Steve.

It was always in the back of his mind, and one day he finally started making them. Simple things at first. A plain band, a dainty chain. Didn’t think he’d even give them to Steve and never thought in a million years the ex-jock would wear them.

Eddie never really thought he’d even give them to him.

But he does, little boxes he leaves on the Harrington porch, on Steve’s BMW, on the Family Video counter when Steve and Robin are on one of their gossip sections in the back.

The only note he really leaves with it is that it’s for Steve and no one else, doesn’t sign it with “secret admirer” he thinks it’s too…well, he doesn’t really know. It’s not beneath him, he’s a romantic at heart. Eddie just doesn’t even know if he’s ready to admit that’s what he is.

An admirer.

It’s one day that Eddie and the party are getting pizza at the local parlor that he notices Steve is wearing one of the rings.

It’s plain silver, but hammered on the outside. Nothing fancy, nothing like he makes for himself. But Eddie was proud of it in that sense, it was outside his comfort zone and he had made it perfect.

And Steve was wearing it.

Eddie had to act like he wasn’t five seconds away from dying of how adorable it was before his heart sank, because Steve didn’t know it was from him.

Steve probably thought it was from a girl, especially because duh, a girl would make jewelry. Especially jewelry like that.

He watched as Steve twirled it on his middle finger, with a small smile on his face to himself. Eddie looked away before he got caught, tears threatening to boil over, his face on fire.

The next time Eddie sees Steve, he’s wearing the small chain that Eddie had left the other week. It’s a bit hidden by the collar of the polo he’s wearing, but Eddie catches the flash of silver out of the corner of his eye.

But again, it’s something maybe dainty, delicate hands would make. Steve does seem like the type of sweet guy who’d wear whatever thing a girl bought or made for him.

Maybe next time Eddie won’t make something so dainty.

#WELCOME TO MY FICLET SERIES BABIESSSS #probably only doing like 3 parts but still #i don’t write a lot of ficlet stuff but this possessed my body #stranger things #eddie munson #steve harrington #steddie #steddie ficlet #stranger things ficlet #steddie ring ficlet #part 1 of steddie ring ficlet

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rogueddie · 3 months

Text

Safety Net T | 545 words Prompt for @steddielovemonth: Love is feeling safe

When Eddie told Steve that he would be there for him no matter what, that the monsters he's trying to keep Eddie safe from don't scare him, that Steve will always be his number one...

Well, he didn't think the monster part was literal.

He's sure that the only thing getting him through the Upside Down was pure adrenaline.

But, now that they're out, he can feel it catching up to him. He struggles to keep his hands still as he points out the war zone ad.

Steve is the only thing holding him together. He keeps shifting closer, swaying so their shoulders bump together or finding an excuse to lean over, so their sides are pressed together. He even managed to use Max on the phone as the perfect excuse to throw his arm over Eddie's shoulders.

But, holding a bin lid with nails hammered through it and looking down at Dustin... a kid, someone so young and small and...

"Eddie?" Dustin calls, worried.

"I need a minute, alone, ok? Just- one moment."

He stumbles back into the RV, relieved to hear Dustin arguing against whoever tries to follow him inside.

Until the door opens and Steve snaps back at him; "I'm making sure he's ok. If he doesn't want me here then he can tell me and I'll leave."

Dustins response is lost in how hard Steve slams the door shut, locking it before turning to Eddie.

"Oh, Eds," he whispers.

He sits next to him, wrapping him up in his arms. It's easy enough with how Eddie is sat, arms curled around his knees and hugging his legs to his chest.

"This is horrible," Eddie mumbles, turning so he can bruy his face in Steves neck, grabbing onto the front of his top. "I hate this, I hate this so much."

"I know," Steve shushes him, rocking him slightly, brushing one hand through his hair. "I know. I've got you. We're gonna win this, ok? We've got a plan. We've done this before. It's going to be ok. You're going to be ok."

"You can't promise that. This whole... thing... it's fucked, man, it's so fucked."

"I can and I am. You're going to be ok," Steve gently pulls back a little, so he can look Eddie in the eye, one hand cupping his face. "You are. You just have to listen to Dustin on this. He's a shit, but he cares about you. You just need to get through the gate, that's it. You'll be alright."

Eddie snorts, grabbing hold of Steves wrist and keeping his hand pressed to his face. "Telling me to listen to Dustin? Now I know you're lying, it's the end of the world, he's gonna hold that over our heads for the rest of our lives."

"Oh, it'll be terrible." He lifts his other hand, holding Eddies face in his hands, leaning forward to press their foreheads together. "Seriously though, Eds, you'll be fine. You're gonna be safe, I'll make sure of it. I'll give Dustin whatever rant he needs to hear. You're gonna be fine and then we can finally go on that coffee date."

"Steve-"

"I promise. I'll do anything I need to do to keep you safe. Anything."

"Just... come back to me."

#stranger things #steve harrington #eddie munson #steddie #steddie fic #ficlet #nav.slm

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worth-the-chaos · 2 months

Text

Adventures in Babysitting - Steve Harrington x female!reader - Chapter 15

Chapter Summary: Racing against the clock, you and your friends desperately attempt to connect the dots before it’s too late. Your efforts bring both progress and peril as you and your boyfriend dive headfirst into life-threatening scenarios in order to save each other.

Content Warning: swearing, trauma, angst, upside down scary shit

Word Count: 8.8k

Author’s Note: sorry this chapter took so long for me to get written. Life has been crazy, but here’s a longer one for you, so I hope you enjoy! I really enjoyed writing this one and I hope you enjoy reading it just as much!

Message me to be added to the taglist and get updated when the next chapter is posted! I highly recommend this if you want to keep up with the story since I don’t do regular updates!

ALSO, I am thinking about revamping the masterlist for this story and adding chapter summaries and word count…let me know if you think this would help!

Series Masterlist | Part 14 | Next Part

***

You all got out of your respective vehicles and looked at the dilapidated house in front of you. The lawn was overgrown with weeds, and every window was boarded up. The house’s facade itself screamed “go away,” looking like something out of a horror movie, but there you all were. You pressed yourself into Steve’s back, grabbing onto the back of his jacket to ground yourself. No one moved, everyone hesitant to approach the foreboding home, so you took one more deep breath and pushed past your boyfriend.

Steve was surprised by the confidence in your stride. He knew that you were cracking under the pressure. He knew you had to be scared out of your mind. Yet, you were facing it head on. He watched the way you tossed the hammer you were holding a bit before flipping it around and beginning to remove the nails from the board across the front door. Though he would never say it out loud, the way you looked so incredibly tough was incredibly sexy to him, and his eyes wandered your frame as he took in the sight of you.

Suddenly Steve felt an elbow in his side, jumping a bit as Robin glared at him and whispered, “dude, why don’t you stop undressing her with your eyes and help the fuck out.”

“What the hell are we supposed to be looking for in this shit hole anyway?” Steve grumbled as he made his way to the door to start removing nails on the opposite side.

“I don’t know…I-I just know it’s important,” you responded, momentarily stopping what you were doing to look at your boyfriend. You didn’t want to explain any more of what you saw and Steve didn’t press you for details as he continued removing nails.

“Maybe it has a clue as to where Vecna is,” Dustin spoke up, “you know, like why he’s back, why he killed the Creels, and how to stop him before he comes back for y/n.”

Your heart sank at the mention of your name. You weren’t sure that you’d be able to save yourself again if Vecna came back for you. The visions you were having were getting progressively longer, and your physical symptoms in the real world were getting progressively more terrifying. How long was it going to be before your bones were snapped every which way and your eyes were sucked into the back of your skull?

Steve removed the last nail and he looked at you, silently asking if you were ready. Though you weren’t, you nodded and the both of you dropped the board. It fell with a sickening thud, kicking up decades worth of dust up from the front porch. You coughed, waving away the haze before turning back to the front door. You saw the stained glass rose and suddenly your mind flashed to the sinister reds painted across the sky when Vecna had his hand around your throat.

“Hey, are you okay?” Nancy asked, gently putting a hand on your shoulder. You jumped a little, before turning slightly towards her, meeting her concerned expression.

“Yeah…yeah, I-I’m good. This is definitely it; no doubt about it,” your voice got small as you said it.

Steve tried the doorknob which didn’t turn, announcing the obvious, “it’s locked. Should I knock? See if anybody’s home?”

You rolled your eyes at Steve’s sarcasm before moving towards him. “It doesn’t matter. I have a key.” Steve looked at you quizzically, but before he could ask any questions, you shoved him to the side a bit before aggressively driving your elbow through the stained glass. It made a satisfying shattering sound as you listened to the shards hit the floor inside. You reached through the window and felt for the lock, turning it swiftly before shoving the door open.

Lucas flipped a light switch to no avail. “I guess somebody didn’t pay the electric bill,” he joked quietly as the room remained shrouded in complete darkness. The only light was the minimal sunlight peaking through the slats of the boarded up windows.

You pulled a flashlight out of your bag and handed it to Steve, knowing full and well that he didn’t bring his own, before you pulled out a second one for yourself.

“They just left everything,” Nancy breathed out, pointing her flashlight into the family room.

“Yeah, I guess a triple homicide isn’t good for resale value,” Robin responded. You barely heard her as your eyes remained fixed on the sight in front of you. You had to readjust your grip on your flashlight as you willed your hands not to shake.

“Guys, you see that too, right?” You asked quietly, the beam of your flashlight unsteadily illuminating the familiar grandfather clock in front of you.

“Yeah, we do,” Steve assured you, wrapping a hand around your shoulder and pulling you into his side. He could tell you were scared, and wanted to do everything in his power to comfort you. He couldn’t really imagine what it must be like to not be able to trust anything that you were seeing. His heart broke at the way he could see the fear in your eyes. His picture of you in his mind was always so fearless and stoic. You were always prepared to face any threat, regardless of whether or not it was supernatural.

This time was different though. This time they were racing to postpone the inevitable. It felt like a jack in the box, every attempt to investigate being another crank of the handle. He didn’t want to know what was going to happen when they pushed too far.

“Is this what you saw in your visions?” Max asked you gently. You turned to look at the girl and saw how she stared up at you with a furrowed brow, her worry painted across her face. Your expression faltered for a second before you regained your composure, readopting the stoic facade you tried to maintain; putting on a brave face for the kids.

Robin could sense your anxiety; in fact, it was radiating off of you like crazy. She was your best friend and she could read you like the back of her hand. “I mean…it’s just a clock, right?” She spoke up, trying to sound reassuring. She stepped past you and wiped the dust of the clock’s face, turning back towards you before adding, “just a normal old clock.”

“Why is this wizard obsessed with clocks? Maybe he’s like a clockmaker…or something?” Steve spoke up, and honestly it kind of broke the tension as you bit back a giggle. Steve was smart in so many ways, but in this moment, you were glad your survival was not up to your boyfriend being able to problem solve.

“I think you cracked the case, Steve,” Dustin replied sarcastically. You glared at him before elbowing him in the side. Steve was doing his best and you didn’t need the Henderson boy making him feel bad about it. Hell, you were going to take all of the help you could get…even if it was borderline idiotic.

“All I know is the answers are here…somewhere,” you added quietly, looking around the dust covered room. The longer you stayed there, the more unsettled you felt. You shook your head to clear the negativity from your mind before speaking up again. “Okay, let’s just split off.”

Robin nodded and quickly followed Nancy upstairs, and Lucas and Max darted off to the kitchen, begrudgingly followed by Henderson. The boy had wanted to stay with the two of you, but the look that Steve had shot him was clear in letting him know not to push it.

“So, I guess it’s you and me,” Steve spoke up, reaching to gently grab your hand. You jumped a bit at his touch and he immediately backed off, “sorry, I shouldn’t have—“

“No, it’s…it’s fine. It’s not you, it’s me. I-I just need to get my head on straight is all,” you quickly responded, your hand darting to grab his. You interlocked your fingers and placed a gentle kiss to the back of his hand, shooting him a weak smile. He didn’t look convinced, but he didn’t argue either.

You both entered some sort of family room, your flashlights sending light beams to scatter through the dust particles swimming through the air. You let go of his hand as you both spread out around the room to reach high and low for anything that might point you in the right direction. Though, you weren’t entirely sure what the right direction even was.

Steve was trying not to lose his mind. All he could think about was the way you had looked when you had gone into a trance at the cemetery. It was like you weren’t even there anymore. For a brief moment, he experienced what the world was like without you in it and he was sure that he couldn’t stand to live another moment like that. He looked back over his shoulder to make sure you were still there; that you were still in his sight. You were blowing a thick layer of dust off of the mantle of the fireplace, backing up and waving a hand through the air as you coughed.

Steve sucked in a deep breath and then turned back around, though it was hard for him to take his eyes off of him. You could go into another trance at any moment. He would never forgive himself if something happened to you. He redirected his gaze to his flashlight beam, noticing the way the light reflected off of something underneath a floor vent. He moved the vent out of the way, reaching in and pulling out a jar with the body of a dead spider in it.

Suddenly he felt movement on his jacket, looking over to see a spider crawling up his arm. Fear settled deep within his chest as he stood up, dropping the jar in the process and frantically backing away as he tried to get the damn thing off of him. He was embarrassed to admit it, but even Steve “the Hair” Harrington was afraid of spiders. He bumped into something (or more accurately, someone) barely noticing it was you until your voice rang out.

“What’s wrong? What happened? Are you okay?” You frantically asked, your heart pounding in your chest. You had heard the distinct sound of shattering glass and immediately started assuming the worst. You attempted to steady your boyfriend, your hands reaching for his arms, but he yanked them out of your grip, clearly still reeling from whatever encounter he just had. “Please, Steve; tell me what’s wrong!”

Your face was twisted with worry as your eyes scanned your boyfriend. He was still breathing heavily, but he was beginning to calm down. He brushed his hands down his arms, just to make sure, before pulling you into a bear hug as he rested his chin on the top of your head.

“There was a spider,” he breathed out, “black widow I think.”

He added the last part as he placed a kiss to the top of your head, squeezing you a little bit tighter. Your heart skipped a beat and you bit back a smile at how goofy Steve was sometimes. Even though he tried to be the tough guy, it was nice to know that he got scared of dumbass shit too.

“Poor baby,” you patronized, pulling away slightly to look up at him. Steve was going to stand up for himself but his words died in his throat as he just admired the way your eyes shined up at him. Recently, he hadn’t seen the light in your eyes. Even before these Vecna visions, you hadn’t been the same since what happened at Starcourt.

“Everything okay over here?” Robin’s voice rang out as she began to round the corner. The two of you quickly stepped away from each other, and Steve cleared his throat as you attempted to act natural.

Robin stopped in her tracks and glared at you, watching as you attempted to innocently shake out your hair, trying and failing miserably to pretend that you hadn’t just been pressed up against her best friend.

“Oh would you two just fuck already?” She rolled her eyes as she continued through the room, brushing past Steve on her way out. Your face immediately turned beet red and your mouth fell open, a small squeak escaping your lips as you tried and failed to defend yourself.

Steve’s face was equally red, but he chuckled as he tried to brush Robin’s comment off. He thought back to how the past him would have immediately corrected Robin; bragged about how he had in fact already slept with you. You would have been another notch on his belt, another conquest to tell Tommy H. about in the cafeteria. He was glad that he wasn’t that person anymore.

Besides, he felt somewhat self conscious about it. He knew that it had been your first time, which made it all the more nerve wracking…especially since you both hadn’t really talked about it since then. Sure, Nancy and him had slept together, and he had thought he had loved her, but since meeting you he wasn’t so sure that he really had. This—what he had with you? That was love, plain and simple. He’d never experienced anything quite like it.

He had to stop his mind from thinking about the way you had looked underneath him. The way your bare skin felt against his as he finally got to see all of you. He had to stop himself from thinking about the sounds you made, how reactive you were to his touch.

He cleared his throat, throwing an arm around your waist, feeling the need to be touching you in some capacity. He squeezed your hip a bit and smiled down at you, as the two of you shared a knowing look. He bent down to tell you something and you tried not to go weak at the knees at his warm breath whispered in your ear.

“I’m not sure about ‘already,’ but I could definitely go for ‘again.’” You could see his smirk in your mind’s eye as your breath hitched in your throat. Before you could even think about how to respond, Steve spoke up again. “Well, I guess we should get back to investigating.”

He let go of you and sauntered forward, confidence in his stride at how he’d so easily gotten a reaction out of you. You stood there for a second, staring at him in complete disbelief before biting back a smile and hustling to rejoin him. You only made it a few paces before you stopped dead in your tracks, your sneakers squeaking against the hardwood floor.

Steve whipped around to see you staring wide eyed at a lamp on the table next to you, sparking to life with erratic electricity. His heart jumped to his throat, and when you opened your mouth to speak, he wasn’t sure if the fact that your voice sounded so calm and collected made it more or less terrifying.

“I promise I’ll stop asking, but you see that too, right?”

“Yeah…yeah, I do,” Steve spoke up, fishing through his jacket pocket frantically before pulling out the walkman and headphones. He gingerly placed them over your head, hitting play on the device. You jumped at the contact, eyes previously still drawn to the flickering light at the lamp. You looked up at him confused as your hands went to the headphones on your ears. “Just in case,” Steve added in a whisper, struggling to speak past the lump in his throat.

He went to quickly turn away from you, not wanting you to see him cracking under the weight of the situation, but you quickly grabbed onto his jacket sleeve to catch his attention. “Hey, everything’s going to be okay, yeah?” You tried your best to reassure him, trying to believe the words yourself. You wanted nothing more than for them to be true.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Everything’s gonna be alright,” Steve agreed, but you could tell he believed it about as much as you did…which was barely at all. Normally these sort of sentiments would be followed by a pinky promise, but neither of you reached for each other’s hand as you continued to stare at the lamp humming with electricity.

Slowly but surely, you reached one of your trembling hands towards the lamp shade. As you got closer, the light intensified before flickering out altogether as soon as you made contact, plunging the room back into darkness. You could hear Steve suck in a breath and you felt his hand on the small of your back.

“Look,” Steve whispered, pointing to another lamp down the hall that had come to life with electricity. With much trepidation, you began to move towards the light source. No sooner had you started moving, did it jump to another lamp….and then another and another.

You continued to follow, but you quickly felt a force pulling you backwards as Steve’s fingers looped through the belt loops of your jeans. “Hey!” You called out, your brows stitched together in frustration as your attention was pulled away from the task at hand. “Let go of me, Steve,” you warned, your hand attempting to pry his away, but to no avail.

“Y/n, what if it’s a trap?” You could hear the fear in his voice and you saw the way it was reflected in his eyes. You two had been through hell together and lived to tell the tale. You had seen him scared all the damn time but never like this. This time your life was on the line much more directly than it had in the past. This time a miss step meant you’d be gone.

“Steve, we’re here to look for clues, so I’m looking for clues. End of discussion,” you yanked his hand away and attempted to continue down the hallway, but he caught your arm first, pulling you back again.

“Steve—“ you began again, but the rest of your sentence died in your throat as he wrapped his arms around you, his head buried in the crook of your neck as he hugged you. He held onto you as if he might never get to hold onto you again and you couldn’t help but feel tears well in your eyes as you hugged him back. He placed a tender kiss to your neck.

“I love you,” he whispered into your skin. He stayed like that for a little longer before pulling away and looking you in the eye adding, “I need you to know that y/n.”

“I know, Steve,” a tear rolled down your cheek, “I love you too. More than anything.” Your voice was a whisper, the emotion behind your words nearly rendering you speechless. You held onto each other for a few more moments before letting go and turning to follow the light.

***

Night had fallen and the seven of you stood under a cobweb chandelier, blinking haphazardly above a dining room table. You felt uneasy as you watched each bulb flicker, your hand instinctively going to grab Steve’s for comfort. He immediately reciprocated, giving your hand a tight squeeze and sending a reassuring smile your way.

“It’s like the Christmas lights,” Nancy spoke up, her eyes glued to the light fixture above you. Your mind flashed back to the Byers’ living room and the gashes now permanently etched across your arm. That was the first time you and Steve had faced threats like this together, back when you didn’t even really know each other outside of reputation.

Steve’s mind thought back to that time too, his hand letting go of yours and moving to rub up and down your upper arm. By now he had each scar perfectly memorized. He used to trace them with his fingers when you were asleep beside him as a reminder that you were still here; as a promise that he would protect you better. He felt a pang in his chest as he was painfully reminded of how he couldn’t keep that promise.

“Vecna’s here,” you spoke up, “in this house, just on the other side.

The light slowly fizzled out, nothing left but the long shadows cast by the beams of your flashlights. “I think he just left the room,” Robin spoke up, her eyes still glued to the chandelier.

“Did he hear us?” Max asked, her eyes widening with fear as she considered the possibility that Vecna may be able to discern their next move from the Upside Down.

“Can he see us?” Dustin asked further. You and Steve locked eyes before he quickly spoke up.

“Headphones!”

You abided by his instructions and quickly hit play on the walkman. “Everyone turn off your flashlights and spread out,” you added, darting away from Steve before he could protest. Everyone followed suit (though Steve did so much more begrudgingly).

You hated the way it felt being alone though. You honestly couldn’t remember the last time you were, considering the amount of time you spent sleeping over at Steve’s while his parents were traveling the world on various business trips. Your hands trembled as you waved your flashlight every which way, attempting to maybe, just maybe, pick up Vecna’s movements through the Upside Down.

All the sudden, Robin’s voice rang out through the deafening silence of the Creel house. “Got him!”

Before you could even think, your feet were taking off towards the sound of her voice. You stopped in your tracks, your breath catching in your throat as you saw the way the light hummed from her flashlight. As soon as it had started though, the light fizzled out. She made a sound of annoyance, but it didn’t last long as your flashlight suddenly sparked to life. The light jumped once more to Steve’s flashlight, and this time you were all ready.

“He’s moving! He’s moving!” Steve shouted, moving his flashlight in front of him as he followed, trying to maintain the gentle yet unsettling stream of light radiating into the empty house. You followed closely behind him, a hand loosely grabbing hold of the fabric at the bottom hem of his jacket as you tried your best to keep up with him. You ascended a staircase and once Steve reached the top, the light dissipated, leaving you all in the dark once more.

“You lost it,” you whispered, staring at the flashlight, disappointment settling into your chest as you attempted to shove it down so it wouldn’t turn into panic.

“No he didn’t,” Max spoke up, shoving past the two of you and opening a door that led to another corridor bustling with light and electricity. You all cautiously made your way up the stairs into the attic, anxiety settling in your bones. Steve instinctively wrapped his hand around your wrist for reassurance, needing a reminder that you were there.

A single light bulb thrummed with electricity, pulsing rhythmically and casting eerie shadows across the dilapidated floor. You took a cautious step towards it, and suddenly your flashlight began flickering, the beam growing stronger the closer you got. Steve’s light did the same until all of you were standing under the singular bulb, each of your flashlights synchronizing to the flicker of the attic light.

“What’s happening?” Steve whispered, eyes glued to the light above you. You had no words to answer his question, staring just as mesmerized as he was. This house likely hadn’t had electricity in the last thirty years. Thirty years! You had to remind yourself of the impossibility of it all, and you wished it was just a dream that you would wake up from, curled up in Steve’s arms.

Without warning, the light grew to a blinding intensity, and suddenly the bulbs in each of your flashlights began to burst, shattering as the light abruptly disappeared. You shrieked as you attempted to shield your eyes from the shards.

The room was plunged into a nearly pitch black darkness, the only light being the soft moonlight filtering in through the slats on the boarded up windows.

“Is everyone okay?” Nancy called out, looking over Max to check for any cuts. Robin helped her check over the other two kids while Steve turned to you.

“Hey, you’re bleeding,” his hands darted to your face, wiping blood away from a tiny cut on your cheek. His eyebrows knitted together with worry.

“Nothing a little band aid won’t fix,” you reassured him, pulling him into a hug. His hands wrapped around your waist and you felt comforted by the way they felt at the small of your back.

You thought back to the way the lights shattered as the cut on your cheek began to sting again. You felt a sinking feeling in your stomach, but you shoved it down and held onto Steve tighter.

You tried to convince yourself that this was progress. You knew something more now. What that something was, you weren’t sure. It seemed to be that you kept finding puzzle pieces but they were all impossible to connect. It was all just a big jumble.

You weren’t sure you were going to like it when the picture cleared.

***

You sat in the back of Nancy’s station wagon eating Pringles with Steve as you drove back towards Rick’s house to let Eddie know what you had found out. Robin was in the front seat rambling, clearly stressed about all that you did and didn’t know, but all chatter halted when Nancy turned the corner and noticed the crowd surrounding the lake house.

“Shit,” you whispered as you quickly yanked the trunk door open, flying out of the back seat with Steve hot on your tail as the car barely slowed to a stop. You ducked around the news van to tune into what the police officers were saying.

“….reporting a homicide here on the lake. Officer Callahan here and myself were the first on the scene. We found the victim, an 18-year-old senior from Hawkins High, Patrick McKinney, on the shore of Lover’s Lake. His limbs were…” you heard Chief Powell’s voice, but it faded out as your ears started to ring.

You stumbled backwards, needing room to breathe, shoving past all of your friends and walking down the street away from the yellow crime scene tape and the nightmares and the terror that just wouldn’t seem to stop despite how hard you tried to have a normal life.

“We’ve also identified a person of interest. Eddie Munson,” Chief Powell held up a picture of the boy to show the news camera. “We encourage anyone with information to please come forward.”

Steve immediately followed you, a sinking feeling in his chest as he ran towards you. “Y/n….y/n!” He whisper-shouted, trying to get your attention without drawing attention to you.

You didn’t react, continuing marching forward, so Steve jogged to catch up to you, grabbing onto your wrist and spinning you around to face him. His frustration over you ignoring him quickly disappeared when he noticed your tear stained cheeks and the blood trickling from your nose.

“Steve,” you breathed out, your voice dripping with sorrow, “I think I’m next.”

“Woah, woah, woah, baby, don’t say that….th-that’s not true, we don’t know that,” Steve was quick to try to comfort you, swiftly wiping at your nose with his jacket sleeve, his heart breaking as you broke out into a sob.

“We don’t know that! W-we don’t know anything! For all we know, I could go into another fucking trance right now and just like that—“ you snapped your fingers, “I’m gone.”

“Don’t fucking talk like that, y/n! I…I-I mean we found out the music thing! We’ve bought some time! You’re going to be okay, y/n, I promise, we-we just have to—“

“But how do you know that? How can you promise me that?” You cried.

“Because you have to be, okay? You just have to be,” Steve’s voice was full of fear and unshed tears and it just made yours fall faster down your face as you allowed yourself to break. The rest of the group cautiously made their way towards you as you gathered some of your composure. Suddenly, the walkie talkie sprung to life in your pocket.

“Dustin? Wheeler? Can you hear me?” Eddie’s voice crackled out of the speaker.

“Eddie! Holy shit, are you okay?” You asked, your brow furrowed with worry as you waited on bated breath for his response.

“Nah, man. Pretty….pretty goddamn far from okay.”

You could hear his exhaustion through his voice and your heart broke a little. “Where are you?” You inquired.

“Skull Rock. You know it? It’s by—”

“Yeah, I know where it is. Just hold on, okay?” Your face flushed as you thought back to the times that Steve had taken you there, but now was not the time to think about those kisses that you’d shared.

Right now it was you guys against the town, and you were damned if you were going to let them find Eddie first.

***

“Dude, you’re taking us the wrong way,” Steve complained at Dustin who was religiously following his map and compass.

“It’s north. I’m positive; I checked the map,” Dustin replied, irritation lacing his tone. You rolled your eyes at their bickering, but felt the need to speak up yourself.

“Normally I wouldn’t trust Steve’s judgment on something like this considering he bases 90% of shit like this on a hunch, but this time he’s right.”

Steve didn’t know whether to feel flattered or offended, but it didn’t matter, as he spoke up to defend himself. “Yeah Henderson, you do realize Skill Rock is like a super popular make-out spot?”

“Yeah, so?”

“Yeah, well, it wasn’t popular until I made it popular, alright? I practically invented it; we’re heading in the wrong direction,” Steve turned away from where Dustin was heading and you began to follow him. Dustin looked at you both in shock before shouting back at Steve.

“Yeah? Well just because you’ve stuck your tongue down y/n’s throat there doesn’t mean that your sense of direction is better than a goddamn compass.”

You gaped at the Henderson boy, and your glare must have shut him up because he quickly tried to back pedal his way out of it. “Woah, um that was my bad; I think I perhaps took it a little bit too far.”

“You think?” You rolled your eyes and continued on next to Steve.

“I mean, he’s not wrong…well, he definitely is about the damn compass, but we have had some pretty good times at Skull Rock,” Steve whispered to you with a smirk plastered across his face.

“Sure, whatever,” you rolled your eyes again. At the rate these boys were going, you were sure that they would roll out of your head before Vecna could suck them into the back of your skull. You immediately went nauseous at the thought.

“What do you mean ‘whatever?’ Come on, you’re telling me you don’t think about that time you skipped third period last semester?” Steve shot you a knowing look.

“Shut up,” you responded as your face went red.

“See! I know you too damn well, baby. Besides, I think about it all the fucking time so if you don’t that would be kind of embarrassing for me.”

“You think about it all the time?” You looked at him annoyed, not believing a word that was coming out of your perfect jock boyfriend’s mouth.

“I mean, yeah! Why wouldn’t I?”

“Why would you though?”

Steve paused for a second, contemplating how much he should say before he continued. He flushed a little and decided that there wasn’t much point in keeping secrets, especially since your time together may be more limited than he had thought.

“Well, I mean….okay, sometimes I think about the fact that you spend seven hours in that damn school everyday with guys that undoubtedly want to hook up with you, and-and I’m not there anymore to keep those assholes in line, you know?” Steve started and you stared at him in disbelief before he continued, “But!—but then I think about how fucking stupid that is of me and I don’t want to be one of those disgustingly possessive toxic boyfriends, so to keep myself in check I think about that time you skipped third period so that we could make out instead…and-and it calms me down a little…because if I keep kissing you like that then I would hope you wouldn’t be tempted by any of those dumbasses at Hawkins High.”

You began cackling and Steve turned beet red. “Hey! I’m pouring my heart and soul out to you here, you little shit! You don’t get to laugh!”

“No, you’re right; I’m sorry,” you giggled as you wrapped an arm around his and leaned into him. “It’s just…you’re you.”

“—and?”

“And—if either of us was going to be worried, it should be me,” you argued with a chuckle, “I mean, I spent so much time watching you flirt with other girls right in front of me when we worked at Scoops!”

“That was stupid of me, I don’t know why I did that,” Steve shook his head and looked down at his feet, a bit disappointed in his past behavior. “I was honestly just so in love with you at the time and it scared the shit out of me—it still scares the shit out of me, by the way—that I thought an appropriate solution would be to find someone that didn’t scare me so that I wouldn’t fuck it up and lose you, you know?”

“You’re not gonna lose me,” you nudged him in the side and smiled up at him, a silent gesture that you forgave him for his past mistakes. “I’m in it for the long haul, alright?”

Steve smiled back at you and shook his head. You were just so perfect.

“Besides,” you spoke up again before adding the rest in a whisper, “I think about that time during third period all the time too.” And with that you sauntered ahead of him, your hips swaying back and forth, in a way that had Steve thinking…well, about that third period.

You shoved forward through some overgrowth to a clearing to see the one and only Skull Rock. Steve pushed through shortly after you and you could see the self-satisfied smirk stretch across his face.

“Bada bing, bada boom. There she is, Henderson. Skull Rock. In your face, man. In your stupid, cocky little face,” Steve shouted out, and you smacked his arm with the back of your hand. You had only ever officially been Dustin’s babysitter, but sometimes it really did feel like you were babysitting Steve too.

“Cool it, Harrington,” you warned.

“But it doesn’t make sense,” Dustin stared at the boulders confused, and suddenly you got a sinking sort of feeling in your stomach.

“Yeah, yeah, even with it staring you in the face, you can’t admit it. You just can’t admit that you’re wrong, you little butthead,” Steve retorted. Suddenly, you heard something behind you, and you quickly turned on your heels as you heard the familiar voice ring out.

“I concur. You, Dustin Henderson, are a total butthead.”

“We thought you were a goner,” Dustin quickly hugged Eddie, relieved to see that he was okay given the police cars and news vans that had infiltrated his hiding spot.

“Yeah, me too…me too,” Eddie replied, patting the boy on the back before letting him go. “Teach, glad you could make it, sorry about the…you know,” Eddie gestured to his neck, apologizing for the small cut that he had left on yours.

“No apologies necessary. We’re just glad that you’re okay,” you replied, pulling Eddie in for a hug as well. You hated that he was involved in all of this shit. You hated how you always managed to bring more people into this mess; that it grew and spread like weeds in a garden.

Eddie explained what had happened with Patrick, and your heart sank at the fact that he had to experience all that trauma all over again. “…and when I got to shore, I tried to call you guys but my walkie was busted, so, uh, I did the thing that I do now apparently: I ran,” He chuckled exasperatedly.

“Do you know what time this was exactly?” Nancy inquired.

“Yeah, no, I…I know exactly what time it was. My walkie wasn’t the only thing that got soaked,” Eddie replied, taking off his watch and tossing it to Nancy.

“9:27,” she read the time out.

“Same time our flashlights when kablooey,” Robin added the proper context.

“Which means what, exactly?” Steve asked.

“That that surge of energy was Vecna attacking Patrick,” Nancy explained.

“Well, we’re one step closer. At least we know how Vecna attacks,” you tried to be optimistic, but it didn’t really feel like much of a win.

“And where he attacks from,” Lucas spoke up.

“So, now we just need to sneak into his lair in the Upside Down and drive a stake through his heart,” Max emphasized. All jokes aside, it sounded simple when she said it, though you knew that wouldn’t be the case.

“A stake? Is he like a vamp—is he a vampire?” Steve asked.

“It was a metaphor, sweetheart,” you replied. Oh how that boy was great at not catching on.

“A bullet should work on him, right?” Eddie asked.

“I say we chop his head off,” Lucas suggested.

“Hey, uh, Henderson’s not, uh, cursed…is he?” Eddie pointed and you all turned to see the boy pacing back and forth.

“Cursed? No, no, no, he’s fine. Mental? Absolutely,” Steve answered.

“Boom!” The boy suddenly shouted into the wilderness, “I was right! Skull Rock was north.”

“Seriously? Are you serious? This is Skull Rock!” Steve shouted back. That sinking feeling in your stomach returned as you took a deep breath awaiting Dustin’s explanation.

“This compass worked correctly when we left the Wheelers’. It was correct when we got in the car on Kerley. But it started to slip the further east we went. Now, it’s way off. When I was leading us here, I wasn’t wrong; the compass was. Do you remember what can affect a compass?”

“An electromagnetic field,” Lucas answered as his eyes lit up, beginning to connect the dots.

“I’m sorry, I must’ve skipped that class,” Robin spoke up, requesting an explanation.

“In the presence of a stronger electromagnetic field, the needle will deflect towards that power,” you began and Steve looked at you incredulously. You shrugged as Dustin continued.

“So, there’s either some super big magnet around here, or there’s a gate.”

“But we’re no where near the lab,” Nancy pointed out.

“But what if, somehow, there’s another gate? A gate that we don’t know about. It would have to be smaller, way less powerful,” Dustin proposed.

“A snack sized gate,” Robin contextualized.

“But how? Why?” Steve asked the hard questions.

“I don’t know. All I know is that something is causing this disturbance and the last time we saw anything like it, there was a gate. And if there is a gate that means we can get to Vecna and we have a shot at freeing y/n from this curse,” Dustin explained and then turned, his eyes glued back to the faulty compass.

“Hey, woah, woah, woah,” Steve spoke up, a hand on his hip and giving peak paternal vibes, “Eddie’s still a wanted man. We can’t just go on a hike in the woods.”

“This compass might be the key to saving Eddie and y/n. What say you, Eddie the Banished?” Dustin replied.

“I say you’re asking me to follow you into Mordor, which, if I’m totally straight with you, I think it’s a really bad idea…but uh, the Shire…the Shire is burning,” Eddie replied and Dustin began to jump up and down in excitement. You rolled your eyes and chuckled at Steve’s confused expression.

“So Mordor it is,” you added as Eddie hopped up to follow Dustin, the rest of the gang following suit.

“What is Mordor?” Steve asked quietly.

“Oh, baby,” you replied pitifully as you placed a hand on his back and led him to follow the others.

***

Night had fallen and you were still walking through the woods following the damn compass. Your feet were getting tired and if one more low branch hit you in the face you were pretty sure you were going to scream.

Robin and Steve were arguing over the plot of the movie they had watched at your last shift together and you fell into step with Eddie.

“So, I take it when I saw you all beat up in the movie theater last summer, it was related to all of this shit, right?” Eddie inquired.

“I mean yeah…well, kind of,” you replied, your face scrunching up in thought as you considered how you would have contextualized those specific injuries.

“What do you mean ‘kind of’?”

“Well, it was related to all of this supernatural bullshit, but not quite supernatural. Long story short, I got the shit beat out of me by a bunch of Russians who were secretly in Hawkins trying to reopen the gate to the Upside Down,” you explained. Eddie stared at you for a second, not really sure how to respond.

“So…you did all of that…and then just came back to school, like it was nothing? Started tutoring me in physics?”

“I mean, it was the third time some crazy ass shit had happened, so I guess afterwards all there is to do is to try and return to some form of normalcy. What else were we supposed to do?” You asked rhetorically. “Also, Steve and I started dating which made things a lot easier. You know, just having someone to rely on like that and all.”

It felt natural confiding in Eddie. He never judged you and you never judged him. He felt like the type of person that would be in your corner despite your ups and downs and you appreciated that tutoring him had given you the opportunity to see that side of him.

“Bullshit. You had to have been dating Steve last school year. Like before the mall fire. You two were all over each other after him and Nancy broke up; you were practically together all of the time!”

“It was…complicated before last summer,” you chose your words carefully. “I don’t think we knew how to tell each other how we felt, you know? I mean, we had already watched the world nearly end twice at that point, and the thought of ruining our friendship to pursue a relationship that might not work out was scary then. Looking back it was stupid of us, but we’re together now and that’s all that matters.”

“You think he’s the one?” Eddie asked and your face went bright red. You hadn’t really thought about it, but then again, you hadn’t really needed to because you already knew.

“Yeah…yeah, I think he is,” you smiled, your eyes focused on Steve’s back, watching how he laughed at something Robin had said. “Don’t fucking tell him I said that though or I’ll kill you myself,” you threatened.

“Surely he has to already know,” Eddie argued. You felt your insecurity festering in your chest. Sometimes you still couldn’t believe that he loved you. You weren’t the kind of girl he would have paid any attention to in the past and sometimes that thought ate away at you. You knew that he was it for you, but sometimes you doubted whether or not you were it for him. You hoped with all of your heart that you were.

You shrugged, “I don’t know. I mean, I’m probably going away to college next year and I don’t really know how we’ll make it through that. I don’t want him to have to wait for me, you know?”

“Oh, he’s waiting for you, honey. Don’t worry your pretty little head about that,” Eddie chuckled, speaking as if the idea was absurd. You felt a weight fall off of your shoulders as he said it. You bit back a smile as the two of you quickened your pace to rejoin the rest of the group.

“Dustin? Can you slow down? Dustin?” Steve called out as he attempted to follow the all-too-energetic boy.

“I think we’re getting close!” Dustin called out as he turned over his shoulder as you all entered a clearing, and you quickly pushed past Steve, grabbing the back of the boy’s collar just in time to keep him from stepping right into the lake.

“Woah, cool it alright?” You warned, your babysitting instincts still prepped and ready for action.

“You gotta be shitting me,” Steve breathed out. You were right back where you started. Lover’s Lake.

“There’s a gate in Lover’s Lake?” Max asked, trying to sort out the pieces of the puzzle in her head.

“Whenever the demogorgon attacked, it always left an opening. Maybe Vecna’s the same way,” Nancy suggested.

“Only one way to find out,” Steve spoke up. You all wandered the shore of Lover’s Lake until you found a boat. Steve held it steady as Robin, Nancy, Eddie, and you piled on. You had come prepared, again all thanks to the babysitting, and had the walkman and headphones safe in a ziplock bag to avoid them getting damaged from the water.

Dustin attempted to board the boat, but Eddie swiftly stopped him. “Woah, woah, woah. You trying to sink us? This thing holds four people tops, okay?”

“It’s better this way. If we all disappear, people are going to get suspicious,” Nancy argued.

“It’s my goddamn theory!”

“You heard Nance,” Robin warned.

“Who put her in charge?!” The boy asked in exasperation.

“I did,” Robin replied simply.

“Compass,” you held out your hand and Dustin begrudgingly gave it to you.

Steve pushed the boat off the shore, boarding it as it started to float away. “You said four!” Dustin shouted, angry at the way he’d been conned.

“Sorry,” Steve offered as the boat continued on. He threw an arm around you and hugged you to his side. He was nervous about the fact that you weren’t on the shore with the kids, but he knew that you would find a way out on the lake one way or another so he didn’t really feel like fighting the inevitable…even though you all were quite literally fighting the inevitable.

You thought about how this would be fun in any other context. Just you, three of your close friends, and your boyfriend, out on the lake at night. You thought about the way you would all probably crack jokes and share stories, passing the time away until it was way later than you realized. You wished that could be your reality, and you swallowed the lump in your throat as you accepted that it wasn’t.

The compass jumped to life in your hands, the needle spinning every which direction. “Woah, woah, woah! Slow down guys!” You called out, eyes glued to the small device in your hand.

“Woah,” Steve breathed out as you stopped to watch the compass needle spin. It was a mesmerizing sight, and your hands slightly shook as you watched it. Steve noticed and quickly grabbed your other hand, running his thumb over the back of it to calm you down.

“Guys what’s going on?” Dustin’s voice crackled through the walkie talkie. Robin quickly attended to it.

“Uh, Dustin, your compass has gone from wonky to wonky with a capital ‘ahhh!’” You barely paid any attention to her words, more preoccupied with the way Steve began quickly removing his shoes.

“Steve, what are you doing?” You were quick to question, though you already knew the answer. Your heart stopped in your chest and you felt like you could barely breathe anymore.

“Somebody’s gotta go down there and check this out. And unless one of you four can top being a Hawkins High swim co-captain and a certified lifeguard for three years, then…it’s gotta be me. No complaints, alright?” He made eye contact with you as he said the last part. You gaped at him, struggling to find the words to voice your very obvious complaint.

“Hey, I’m not complaining,” Eddie spoke up, “I do not want to go down there.”

Eddie wrapped his flashlight in a plastic bag and handed it to your boyfriend, and suddenly you were at a loss for words at the only other man on the boat too. Typical.

Steve took off his yellow crewneck and you flushed at the sight of his bare back. He was toned in just the right way that made you want to run your hands all over him, and you could go weak at the knees at the sight of his chest…but that was besides the point; right now, you needed to focus on the task at hand: not letting your boyfriend go kill himself trying to solve an inter-dimensional mystery.

“Steve, just let me go, okay? I’m practically dying anyway,” you argued, trying to pry the flashlight out of his hand. He swiftly pulled his hand above his head and out of your reach.

“Okay, absolutely not. No way…in hell. Alright?”

“Steve,” you looked up at him with so much worry that he about broke right then and there. But what he was doing was to save you, so that you would still be around for him to keep looking into those beautiful eyes.

He pulled you into a tight hug, placing a kiss to the top of his head. You placed a gentle kiss to his bare chest as you tried to swallow the worry that had leapt to your throat. “I’ll be alright, okay? I promise.”

He extended his pinky towards you and you hooked yours around his, taking a deep breath and nodding. “Be careful,” you warned him, and just like that he dove into the lake, disappearing under the surface of the water.

“Holy shit,” you whispered, holding a hand to your chest as you tried to remain calm. Normally when the two of you had faced supernatural bullshit together, you faced it together. The fact that Steve was on a solo mission right now was enough to make your heart explode. Maybe that made you codependent but right now you didn’t care.

“Woah, y/n are you okay?” Robin asked, noticing the way your breath was shaky.

“Yeah, I-I’m fine, I just need….to catch my breath is all,” you responded. She rubbed circles around your back, trying to comfort you while the four of you waited for Steve to resurface. How long could he even hold his breath for? You couldn’t even fucking breathe and you had access to plenty of oxygen.

“Where we at, Wheeler?” Robin asked, starting to get worried herself.

“Closing in on a minute.”

You all stared at the undisturbed lake. The silence was deafening and you were about fifteen seconds away from jumping in yourself when the surface of the water broke and Steve emerged, causing all of you to jump.

“I found it,” Steve reported, swimming towards the side of the boat to get back in.

“You found it?” You asked, hope starting to build in your chest, relieved that your boyfriend was no longer in the depths of Lover’s Lake searching for inter-dimensional portals.

“I found it, yeah, I found it,” he reiterated with a chuckle, his eyes shining as hope began to build in his heart as well. He grabbed onto the side of the boat, and it gently rocked towards him.

“Dustin, you are a goddamn Einstein! Steve found the gate!” Robin reported back to land.

“It’s pretty wild,” Steve explained, “it’s more of a snack sized gate than the mama gate, but still, it’s pretty damn big.”

No sooner had Steve finished his sentence, did he suddenly dip below the surface of the water, his shout cut off by his head nearly going under. He gripped the side of the boat more firmly, it teetering to the side, causing the rest of you to fall off balance. Steve bobbed back up, looking you in the eye, before he was suddenly yanked under the water again, this time losing his grip on the boat and disappearing completely below the surface of the lake.

“Steve!” You shouted, beginning to hyperventilate. You felt your stomach drop as he didn’t resurface. Everyone else on the boat was yelling and shouting and everything was starting to go fuzzy. They sounded far away and all you could hear was your heart beating in your chest.

Eddie, Robin, and Nancy were shouting at each other, arguing about what they should do. Your mind finally cleared in the chaos of the moment. You didn’t think twice, standing up and ignoring their protests as you dove headfirst into the cold water of the lake.

***

a/n: shit’s gettin’ real. Anyway, again so sorry about taking forever, but I hope it was worth the wait :). Reblog if you’re feeling generous and want to make me smile! Also comment! I love hearing what you think and it helps motivate me to write more when I see people interacting with the story! Love you all <3

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