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sunflowersteves · 2 years

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family video || e.m.

pairing || eddie munson x fem!reader

summary || robin and steve were able to snag eddie munson a job at Family Video and it just so happens that the person of his dreams would be a regular customer.

author’s notes || i refuse to believe vol 2 just happened so here’s a fluffy fic where eddie is most certainly alive

warnings || season 4 vol 2 spoilers, fluff

masterlist

“Does it always feel this weird?”

Robin tapped her finger on the table, bored out of her mind. “Does what feel weird?”

Eddie shrugged, “I don’t know, maybe the fact that we saved the world a week ago from a monster-psychopath that tried to open four portals to another dimension in the middle of Hawkins and everything is just…Normal?”

Steve grunted while continuing to shelve the movies onto the small cases, “after the four times you save the world,” he sighed, “you get used to it.”

Eddie could only groan, feeling like he was slightly going insane. After the entire town was out to get him for being a ‘freak’ and accusing him of starting a cult for Chrissy’s murder, he’s not sure he could move on.

The government tried its best at covering everything up, immediately giving Eddie an alibi and insisting he was innocent. The Goverment also made sure that Chrissy’s death had been a closed case, giving some excuse about drugs and her abusive mom being the culprit. Jason was then put under investigation as a suspect for her murder, just so the accusations could be muddled easier. After a couple of weeks of investigating, Jason was arrested for attacking Lucas and Erica.

Eddie would still sometimes get looks from neighbors and people in Hawkins, but for the most part, he was left alone. No one really wanted to confront him after everything that had happened.

Robin and Steve luckily were able to beg Keith for Eddie to get a job. They had to practically be on their hands and knees. Eddie was grateful, though. It was a distraction where he could fuck around with his friends and not worry about his problems.

“Great, love to see it.” Robin just snickered at Eddie before immediately receiving a glare.

"How are you so unaffected by this?" Eddie started to fiddle with his rings.

Robin shrugged, "What, Eddie, you want credit or something?" Before he could make a snarky comment back, their conversation cut off by the sound of the ringing bell on top of the door.

“Welcome to Family Video—” Eddie’s breath left his lungs when he looked up from the computer. Oh, wow, oh shit—

You stood there with a genuine smile on your face, elbows leaning on the counter, while looking at the metalhead in front of you. You were talking to him, and he, for sure, had no idea what the fuck you were saying.

He just had the wind knocked out of him, and all he wanted to do was stare at your perfect—beautiful—lovely face. The curve of your nose, the way your tongue clicked against your teeth, your eyes staring right back at his—yeah, he was totally fucked.

“Hey, dingus, she asked you a question.” Robin had her eyebrow raised at the metalhead in front of him. He snapped out of his daze, brown doe eyes wide as he tried to recall what you had said.

“I–Um–” Robin couldn’t help but have an amusing look on her face. The Eddie ‘the freak’ Munson was nervous? He was normally the utmost confident one by shouting and yelling about everything and anything. But here he was, completely and utterly speechless.

“I was just wondering if you had a copy of Teen Wolf. Sorry, I just couldn’t find it on the shelves when I came yesterday.”

He swallowed. “Yeah, I–um–can show you.” He led the way towards the back of the video store and picked out the exact copy for you. He couldn’t help but feel hot—sweaty and sticky. Was it hot in here? Did Steve forget to turn on the AC?

“Here.” He handed you the copy, but not before your fingers brushed against each other. He could feel his own heart pounding against his ears. You were soft—so so soft. The tingling sensation never left while you smiled brightly at him.

God, you were just so beautiful. He hoped you would come to see him every single day of his entire life.

“See you around, Munson.”

He deadpanned. You knew his name?

The next time that you came back to the video store was three days from when he had first met. And you bet, Eddie definitely counted each passing minute that you didn’t return the VHS. But he knew that you had��to. You just did.

It was another very boring day with Steve and Robin, not much traffic since the weekend was over. He was currently sketching in his book and trying very hard to come up with a new story for the campaign on Friday.

He heard the bell to the door ring but didn’t bother to look up. He figured that if they needed anything, they would ask him or Robin for help. He was still sketching, his pencil making light marks on the sheets of paper.

“What are you up to, Munson?”

His heart immediately burst. You. You were here. You were standing right in front of him with a slight teasing gleam in your eyes. Your head was cocked slightly to the side, and your smile was so completely infectious.

“Oh, it’s just– it’s just for my club that’s this Friday.”

You blinked, eyelashes falling perfectly onto your face. “Hellfire club? Aren’t you the president?”

Oh. Oh. You knew of the hellfire club? He knew that you weren’t a part of the popular crowd, but he didn’t realize you were into nerdy stuff either.

He was floored, absolutely floored. “You know of my club?”

You propped your elbows up onto the counter, trying to get a better look at his sketching. “Yeah, my little brother loves D&D, so I’ve played it quite a few times.”

He licks his lips, eyes darting slightly nervously. “Yeah?”

“Yeah.” He sees that you still had Teen Wolf in your hands, and it was leaning against the side of your hip. Right, yeah, work. He has stupid work to do.

“Here, I can check that back in if you want.” He reaches for the movie, and your eyes widen slightly. Oh, yeah. The movie that you had rented. To be honest, you had forgotten about it.

You hand it back to him and watch as his eyes scan for your name on the computer. He then types a little on the computer, which you definitely took advantage of by looking at his hands. And oh, wow, his hands. They weren’t perfectly manicured or anything, but the rings that adorned his fingers definitely sprouted butterflies in your stomach.

He turned to you, smiling, “there. you’re all set.” You give him one right back and almost turn to leave.

“Hey, what if you came to our club?” He leaned just a bit closer towards you.

“What?”

“This Friday at 6:30. Our club meets in Ms. Hank's classroom.”

You look down at the fake wooden table for just a second as if you’re contemplating. In reality, you were trying to hide that bubbling feeling inside you as he stared at you with such intensity.

“I might just take you up on that offer.” Before he could even react, you gave a quick kiss on his cheek. His mouth popped open in surprise, he could hear Robin and Steve gasp in the background.

But you had that cheeky smile on your face. Your eyes sparkled once more as you stared at his startled face. You let out a consent sigh before turning around and leaving the store. All he could do was beam.

“See you around, Munson.”

#eddie munson x reader #eddie munson x you #eddie munson x y/n #eddie munson imagine #eddie munson blurb #fix it fic #stranger things #stranger things fanfiction #stranger things 4 #stranger things vol 2 spoilers #eddie munson #eddie munson fluff #fluff #eddie munson x fem!reader

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artiststarme · 1 month

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Steve had spent his entire life trying to be perfect. He tried to be the perfect son with sports and popularity, he even tried his best with his grades which was evident until his first major concussion. He tried to be the perfect friend to Carol and Tommy H., even the basketball teams and other jocks, by providing free rides, parties in his house, and being a listening ear for their teenage drama. He even tried to be the best Steve he could be after the popularity faded and the demons from the shadows of Hawkins emerged. Nothing was ever enough.

He wasn’t a good enough son that deserved not to be ignored or neglected by his parents. He wasn’t a good enough student to be allowed to get into a good college or even a local community one. He wasn’t a good enough friend to the people in High School and that’s why they left him.

Through everything though, he thought he was a good person afterwards. He helped the kids the best he could, he protected them with his life, and he would do anything to ensure the survival of everyone in the Party. He knew he was good at that.

Or he thought so until he saw Eddie wasting away in a hospital bed with handcuffs on his wrists and blood soaking through the bandages on the mauled skin of his chest. He tried his best to be a good friend that could support the Party until Dustin broke his heart into splinters for something he couldn’t predict.

“You were so jealous of Eddie that you gave him the most dangerous job?! You knew how harmful the demobats were and you sent him there for a reason! That’s why you didn’t let him go with you, you wanted Eddie to die!”

After all he’d done to be good, to be the person people could count on, to be perfect; he still wasn’t enough. The kids still looked at him as the mean boy of the town and if the kids did, what did the others think?

Did Mrs. Byers still see him as the teenage dirtbag that got into a fight with her son and got him arrested?

Did Hopper still see him as the scoundrel that drank underage and threw parties that upset the neighbors in Loch Nora?

How did Nancy see him? She was the person who actually saw him at his worst, the one who opened his eyes to his failures. Did she still see him as the guy that he never wanted to be?

Steve had worked so hard his entire life to be what everyone else always wanted him to be. He hid so deeply beneath fake masks and facades that he didn’t even know who he truly was anymore, he didn’t know if he ever had.

All he knew was that after their latest run-in with the Upside Down, he went home to an empty house. He ignored the broken glass and the damage caused by the earthquake. He only focused on the fact that everyone else was currently with their families. His parents were who knows where doing who knows what but they were together, the only family they had ever wanted.

Robin was at her place with her family, her parents probably doting on her after worrying for so many days. They’d let Steve in but he didn’t want to intrude more than he’d already had. Nancy and Mike were with their parents, Jonathan, Will, and El were with Joyce and Hopper, Lucas and Erica were with the Sinclairs and Max, and Dustin was with Mrs. Henderson and Mews II. Even Eddie in a pain-induced state of unconsciousness was with Mr. Munson.

Despite all of his efforts to be perfect, to be deserving of love and pride, Steve was still alone. He’d worked for years to be someone worth loving, hell, someone worth tolerating, and it still wasn’t enough. All he had were his friends in the Party and after his talk, nay the lecture, from Dustin, he wasn’t even sure he had them. If he didn’t have them, what did he have?

Depression, PTSD, chronic debilitating migraines, night terrors, and scars?

What was the point of anything if that’s all he had? Did he really want to stick around to find out just for things to worsen like they always did?

After years and years of trying to be perfect, Steve realized he never truly would be. The night he got back to his house after watching the rest of his friends reconnect with their families, he packed up the Beemer and left Hawkins in the rear view.

He was sick of the expectations, the disappointments, and trying to reach a standard he could never sustain.

He left his heart behind wrought with guilt at leaving the Party without any notice and leaving before he knew Munson would be alright but he had no choice. If he didn’t have the kids, he had nothing and that was something he couldn’t face.

#Steve hasn’t had an existential crisis in awhile #stranger things #might as well have one today #fanfic #steve harrington #eddie munson #robin buckley #dustin henderson

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stevesbipanic · 3 months

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To my most lovely @undreaming-fanfiction Happy Valentine's Day love youuuu 💕💕💕 I hope I managed to do all three of your prompts justice (small routines, learning new things about each other, and ghosts of your past) ENJOY!!!!! And Ty @artbean for putting this together 💕💕💕

After five years together there's not a lot of things Eddie doesn't know about Steve.

He knows that Steve likes to colour co-ordinate the calendar on their fridge and that his favourite day of the month is the first since he gets to write out everything on a clean slate.

He also knows that Steve has a particular way he does his hair, and that it was a big deal just seeing it done let alone being taught how to do it, it helps he now knows Steve loves a good head scratch.

He knows that Steve is an early riser and always goes on a run, but will shower and curl back in bed with him if Eddie is still asleep.

He knows that there's an order to how and when he checks on their family. The Sinclairs are first, making sure he's waited until Lucas should be back from training and Erica back from Tracey's, calling there too if there's a sleepover. Next is the Wheelers, Nancy promising him they're all ok if they're visiting and Mike letting him know if she's available that night if she's at college. Then the Hendersons, Claudia inviting him to dinner in the background as Dustin regales his day. Max is next, letting Steve know if she wants to stay over that night. The Byers are the end of the kids, El and Will promising him it's really over. Wayne is near the end, back from his shift safe and sound. Before they dated Eddie was during this time too, helping him to sleep just hearing Steve's voice. Robin is last and she'll be on the line until they're both safely in dreamland.

Eddie loves learning new things about Steve, especially when now they're further and far between. It comes as a suprise when it's something as simple as tea that teaches him something new about his sweetheart.

They're visiting Steve's grandma, who was a lot cooler about the whole boyfriend thing than Steve's parents were.

"Your grandpa, Otis, had a friend, Freddie, who kept a picture of his boy in his pocket, would've gotten him in a lot of trouble back then but love like that was worth dying for."

She had been I'll lately so him and Steve had taken a drive up to visit her, now living in a retirement home in Indy. She was a riot in Eddie's opinion, and made a mental note to make sure they visited her more, he was happy to drive them, anything for Steve.

They were halfway through a game of Scrabble, where Eddie had successfully convinced Steve that Megadeth should be allowed (it shouldn't), when the question was raised.

Edith, yes Eddie also got a delight out of the fact that they shared a name, buzzed her nurse who popped her head in knowing there were visitors.

"Everything good, Eds?" Eddie's eyes twinkled in mischief, he was teasing Steve about the name similarities when they got home.

"A spot of tea, darling? I'm parched and I'm sure these lovely boys are too. Steve, sweetheart?"

"Oh yes, milk and two sugars please, but cubes on the side instead of scoops of it's not trouble."

Eddie's heart skipped a beat at his answer, "Eddie, you want a tea?"

"Oh um, yes, same as him, please ma'am."

"Such polite boys, we need more grandsons like you visiting," she laughed leaving to make the tea. It was surely just a coincidence that Steve took his tea like that, he's sure plenty of people do.

The real suprise came when the tea was set down, cubes on the side, and Steve picked one up and mixed it in, leaving the other alone. The game continued, Eddie eyeing that lone cube, a similar one on his own saucer. When Steve took his last sip of tea he picked up the cube and popped it into his mouth, crunching it. Eddie did the same.

"Done that since you were a kid, always a sweet tooth."

Steve laughed, "It's how my nanny did it when we played tea party with Carol."

Edith smiled, "She was a lovely woman, shamed they moved outta town."

Something settled deep in Eddie's heart. The rest of the afternoon it sat there, and through the goodbyes and hugs, all through the drive home too.

Eddie didn't mention it as they made dinner, Steve doing the chopping and as always Eddie dutifully stirring. The feeling sat there through the night as they watched tv, curled up in a blanket built for one not two. Nothing was brought up as they cleaned up, Steve washing, Eddie drying. It wasn't until bed, in the safety and quiet of their room that Eddie asked.

"Your nanny? What was she like?"

Steve's eyes lit up, "Oh she was the best, noone as good before her and no-one as good after. She loved taking me to the park, sometimes if his dad said it was ok her son would come too, he was fun, built the best sandcastles. She always baked me cookies too, especially if Carol was coming over for a tea party. And she would tell me the little extra sugar was a treat and that I should always have something a little sweet in life."

Eddie's eyes were tearing up by the time Steve finished, "Eds, baby are you ok?"

"What was her name?"

Steve's eyebrows crinkled, "Sarah, why? Oh." He said, remembering the dark curls that surrounded her face, the ones on her son, the boy laying across from him.

"Your mum, oh Eds, so when the tea? I'm sorry." Steve knew about his mum and how when she died it left Eddie all alone.

"Can't believe in five years, we've never had tea," a wet chuckle followed Eddie's words.

A sad smile graced Steve's face, "We should have more, need a bit more sweetness in my life."

Eddie smiled at him, "Knew there was a reason I called you sweetheart, and I clearly won you over with my awesome sandcastles."

A laugh burst out of Steve and that sound was sweeter than any sugar Eddie could eat.

#happy valentine's day #stranger things #steve harrington #eddie munson #steddie #sweetandspicyexchange

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strangersteddierthings · 8 months

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Daily Ficlet 4

I'm challenging myself to write a little ficlet every day, using the prompts from this list. Today's prompt is jukebox.

Steve's oh moment comes to him at The Hideout of all places. Dingy, dirty, with a bartender who served Will Byers a drink without so much as pretending to contemplate if he should or not.

The point Steve is making is he's just realized he might be a lot in love with Eddie and that it's not exactly the most romantic of settings. They're all here because they came to watch Corroded Coffins first gig since before... well, since Before.

Before Vecna. Before spring break. Before Steve was even aware of his attraction to guys.

A lot of Before that led them to this now. This oh.

It wasn't watching Eddie in his element, up on the stage. Seeing that for the first time was actually a Before thing, too. Steve's been to The Hideout before. The same bartender served Steve a beer back when he was a sophomore and Tommy H had heard the rumor that they didn't card here. The first time he'd watched Eddie Munson in his element had been shortly after his graduation, coming here to pretend he wasn't as alone as he felt as he drank a beer or two.

Watching Eddie on the stage knowing he has a crush on him certainly made the show better but didn't push him from crush to in love.

It also wasn't after, watching Eddie and Robin have a silent conversation of only gestures and eyebrows and pointed looks, though it did make Steve rush with adoration for them both. Knowing that Eddie and Robin got a long so well, cared to each other, made something settle inside Steve's bones. Steve hasn't been serious with anyone since Starcourt, and he's aware enough to know it's because he can't explain his codependency to Robin to anyone. Not with the truth, or in a way they're understand. He wouldn't need to do that with Eddie.

It wasn't that Eddie had then come checked on him, either. Asking if the place was too loud, and how Steve's head was doing. Steve had just recovered from a migraine and Eddie was worried about this bringing it back. It hadn't. The ear plugs were great. And Eddie beamed at him.

No. None of those were the oh, though they were all reason enough.

No, the oh was this.

Watching Eddie 'metalhead' Munson teach Will, El, Dustin, Lucas and Erica how to square dance. He'd tried to coax Mike onto the floor but that wasn't happening, and Max couldn't with her crutches still, but she'd promised to learn from Lucas once she was on the mend.

Eddie had pilfered most of Steve's quarters and slid them into the jukebox, picking the same country song 5 times in a row for the kids to practice to. "Just to wait, Stevie. These kids'll be winning square dancing trophies when I'm done."

Steve had laughed, sipping on his beer as Eddie danced his way to the jukebox.

And here, on the fifth song, watching Eddie improvise some swing dancing into their established routine with Erica being easily twirled about, trying to glare at Eddie for picking her but also doing nothing to stop him from throwing her around the dance floor, Steve thinks oh.

Oh. I love him.

He stands and heads to the jukebox, and queues up the same song once more, then turns to the group. "Alright Munson, teach me, too!"

Dustin whoops, Erica slips back into her place in line, and Eddie beams at him, hand outstretched and waiting.

#my fic #daily ficlet #steddie #eddie can square dance #wayne taught him

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omartinyosef · 1 month

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ST5 POTENTIAL SPOILERS!!!

GUYS I FOUND THIS ON REDDIT AND ACTUALLY IT'S QUITE INTERESTING

ST5 Leaks/Fleaks

Gen Plot

Season picks up briefly where we left off in 1986 before jumping into either late 1987 or early 1988. The season is contained entirely in apocalyptic Hawkins. Things with the government are shaky. Owens doesn't appear in the beginning of the season and it's unclear if he's returning, but Ellen Stinson is the new Owens. Hawkins is like a combination of the UD and Kamchatka.

Labyrinths/Mazes being important to both the supernatural plot and the interpersonal relationships. They're inherently linked.

Two songs to be featured are 'Listen to Your Heart' and 'Alone,' both of which were apparently foreshadowed in a previous conversation between Hopper and Joyce, similar to how Hopper's "I'm the puppet, you're the master" to Joyce in S3 basically foreshadowed Eddie's 'Master of Puppets' in S4.

S1 and 2 scenes being referenced are "Nancy and Mike's conversation in the bathtub" and "Hopper + Lando Calrissian"

Lots of importance in COLOR CODING and blocking from the final shot of S4, and a good chunk is told in the costuming—like passing the torch from one character to another as their arcs overlap. For example, Hopper and Will share the "am I the curse and therefore putting my loved ones at risk by being near them?" sentiment for S5, therefore their wardrobe in the final shot of S4 is similar. Joyce/Jonathan and Nancy/Mike's costuming also similar for the same reason, whereas Eleven stands out because she's the first one coming into her own this season. The white for her represents shedding of false skins.

Character duos this season will be primarily dressed in colors of blue/green and yellow/red.

There's lots of symbolism and foreshadowing for every character in S5 from the moment Will touches his neck in the last sequence of S4.

S4 focused on themes of lies and miscommunication, and everyone is going to have to work through these lies before they can defeat Vecna.

Murray and Argyle are both back. Dimitri and Yuri don't seem to be in the beginning of the season.

One thing left unresolved with the Russian plot. Something important will happen involving the machine and the green liquid from the Starcourt bunker. Reference of Dustin vowing to die with Steve when they initially discovered it.

Hopper, Joyce, Mike, Will, and El had to be away from Hawkins, otherwise Vecna wouldn't have won.

An important death that they're nervous about given the reception to Eddie (not Joyce or Jonathan—see details below).

Eleven

We'll see her unlike we've seen her before. A badass who doesn't take shit from anyone. Not a Monster, not a Hero, Jane. Think: adult El could be headed for a Charles Xavier type role.

Erica, Lucas, and El will share scenes together.

El has significant blocking and development with many characters this season.

Max, Eleven & Max

The "kaleidoscope of colors" from a script the writers posted makes a feature in both the scene where young El remembers her mother's love in order to defeat Henry in the lab, as well as the scene where El revives Max. This is significant because it's the first time we see El using her powers on someone in a non-violent way.

El was able to revive Max because of she, herself, being revived in the bunker by Brenner and Co. It's a show, don't tell moment from the writers.

Max getting Vecna'd was foreshadowed in the beginning of 2x01.

Will, Henry/Vecna, The UD

Filming was supposed to commence mid-June, but Noah and Jamie were set to begin in May due to more complicated costuming. Will is going to require heavy prosthetics at some point.

Will's character design is blocked in three stages. The more the UD bleeds into Hawkins, the more connected to it he feels. The gates being open will physically influence him, especially when he's not as mentally strong.

He's kind of like "the card up Vecna's sleeve."

It appears they want to confuse the audience about Will.

Will wrestling with his own morality

Henry/Will mirrors. Will will sympathize with Henry because, unlike El, he knows how and what Henry thinks, and he can feel him.

Vecna and Will are very similar, but the difference is Will is made stronger by love not hate. They will play into that duality.

Vecna was nerfed in S4 compared to how we see him in S5. He'll be much stronger.

At the beginning, he'll be taking a hiatus while he plans how to divide and conquer now that everyone's back together in Hawkins.

Soteria will be the key to saving Will. If they want Will to be untraceable to Henry, they'll have to insert it into his neck and it'll be painful. Vecna not having access to Will fucks up his ability to leave the UD.

Byler/Mileven Triangle

Apparently, it's complicated and up in the air as of now.

Mike dealing with guilt this season. He feels guilty/responsibility for El. He feels stuck in a loop that keeps him from a truth he's scared to face.

Will and Mike to spend a good chunk of the season together based on character designs and blocking.

Will telling El that Mike won't like being lied to comes back with the painting. During a pre-time jump scene in 5x01, while everyone's together plotting how to defeat Vecna and brainstorming how to save Max, Mike brings up the painting El commissioned for a D&D analogy. Will has to pull Mike aside and confess he lied about El commissioning the painting. Mike gets angry, because he doesn't know about Will's feelings and feels embarrassed that Will thought he was that pathetic he needed to be given a pep talk. Their own version of a "fight you can't come back from." Immediately after their fight, we get the time skip.

Mike's character motivations are unclear and seem to be kept under wraps. After the time jump, he and El won't be talking as much because he's keeping the details about Will's painting from her. She's gonna ask what's wrong between him and Will, and he lies/is very vague.

Joyce, Hopper, Jopper

Joyce feels immense guilt/responsible over Bob's death since she's the one that asked him to help in S2, which is why she pushed Hopper away at first.

Hopper has a secret from S1 that was never addressed, and it comes back to haunt him.

Joyce sustains an injury in S5 that is reminiscent of the way someone was injured in S3, but it isn't critical and she'll be okay.

Jopper are the most established couple after the time jump. Lots of bickering still, but Hopper trusts Joyce more than he ever has.

Jonathan, Nancy, Jancy

So far, does not seem like a breakup is happening.

Jonathan's still lying about the college letter and distant because of it, and Nancy thinks he's not as into the relationship and that there might be someone else. She confronts him, which leads to a talk. She's touched by the lengths he would go to try and protect her and any of their future children even from himself.

A moment where we're led to believe Jonathan dies but doesn't, like Hopper in S3.

Hopper-Byers Family

These five characters slowly unraveling their arcs together and have always been closely linked. Their perfect endings are together.

We see the family combining, especially in relation to El.

Joyce gets to witness Hopper being paternal and tender towards the boys.

Scenes with Joyce, Jonathan, and Will

Hopper being back lifts a weight off Jonathan's shoulders.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So, now time to shine.

''(...) sentiment for S5, therefore their wardrobe in the final shot of S4 is similar. Joyce/Jonathan and Nancy/Mike's costuming also similar for the same reason, (...)''

Okay. How did we see Nancy in S4? Confused. Confused with the love triangle between Jonathan, her and Steve. Jonathan is her actual boyfriend. And Steve is her posible love interest again.

So, putting this in byler language: Nancy = Mike Jonathan = Eleven Will = Steve

If Mike's and Nancy's character's clothing is important at this point of the time line and that means they feel similar feelings, this could mean that byler has a chance. BUT then we read this: ''(...) He (Mike) feels stuck in a loop that keeps him from a truth he's scared to face.'' And

''Mike's character motivations are unclear and seem to be kept under wraps.''

THIS LITERALLY MEANS BYLER. FOR REAL. Like byler could be endgame. Also, remember Eleven's injury in S3? Do you remember the leak of a shoe covered in blood?

It's Joyce. ALSO YOU CAN READ THAT WE'LL HAVE SCENES BEFORE THE TIME JUMP. And here it comes. Look at this freaking hair:

Does this look more like this

or this?

The season 4 bowl cut right? So maybe this is right in some part? I dont know. But that could make sense why Will is wearing Mike's pants, because his clothes were in California by that moment. But i really do think that the pic that was leaked a few days ago is before the time jump.

Im so late with this info haha :) but i kinda think some things here make sense. Even if this is too well explained to be a leak.

#stranger things s5 #st5 spoilers #stranger things 5 #st5 #stranger things #st5 speculation #st5 leaks #st5 production #will byers #stranger things season 5 #will byers is gay #byler tumblr #william byers #byler is endgame #byler endgame #byler nation #byler #mike wheeler is gay

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crappymixtape · 3 months

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because of you • part three

PART I • PART II • PART IV • PART V // REQUEST -> @sattlersquarry ❝ an enemies to lovers fic with Steve? 💙 maybe they have to put aside their differences to fight upside down stuff and realize they actually have a lot in common 👀 • 18+ | ( 3.1k – little bit of king!steve, mostly angst with a dash of fluff, enemies to idiots in love, steve x reader )

B E C A U S E O F Y O U • P A R T T H R E E 🎶 thick skull ( re: julien baker ), paramore ft. julien baker

❝ GOOD GIRLS DON’T CRY & GOOD GIRLS DON’T LIE & GOOD GIRLS JUSTIFY BUT I DON’T ❞

“Think she’s okay?”

“Shh!”

“What? No way she can hear us back here.”

“Dustin, ‘back here’ is literally a seat behind her.”

Sat quietly at a table seat in the Winnebago, Eddie looking on worriedly across from you, you were still grappling with the fact that you were alive. That you didn’t die. That you were breathing fresh air and free from the dark and free from Him.

For now.

And as the RV bumped down the road out of Hawkins you said nothing. Felt Steve’s eyes on you constantly as he glanced at you in the rearview. Eddie’s hand still holding tight to yours after he helped you up, afraid to lose you again. Dustin and Lucas and Max all talking in not-so-hushed voices behind you about what it all meant and if El could get back in time and was this all gonna be enough?

Voice thick and choked by the sobs that had felt endless, you’d managed to tell everyone what Vecna had showed you. Told them about Hawkins, about the monsters, about your family, about them. Eddie, Robin, Nancy Steve. And no one had said anything at first. The sounds of your cries filling up the RV. Stark against the silence and heavy with the weight of your words and they knew before you’d even opened your mouth that it was going to be bad.

Of course they knew.

But now that Vecna had revealed his master plan, the efforts you were all making just felt hopeless. The munitions stuffed under the bench seats and closets and cabinets, all puny and worthless against Vecna and his army of nightmares.

A big bump in the road brought you out of your thoughts and when you glanced up your eyes met Steve’s as he snuck another look in the rear view. And instead of glaring, instead of flipping him the bird, you looked right back. Held his gaze for moment longer and he didn’t shy away until he came up on a turn-off.

“Alright, shitheads. We’re here.”

“Here?” Lucas asked, more than confused at the thick forest Steve was now driving you all through.

“Yeah, this is it.”

And as the trees slowly thinned out, thick grass and wildflower blooms took their place. Creeping out ahead of you to reveal a meadow, wide and green and lush. A haven that felt so very far away, felt safe, and as Steve parked and the engine quieted you let out the breath you’d been holding.

❝ MAYBE IF YOU JUST GOT SOME GUTS WE’D KILL ‘EM WITH A THOUSAND CUTS AND SAY WE DID IT OUT OF LOVE ❞

Everyone piled out of the RV and got after their tasks. Pretended like preparing for the end of the world was totally normal and routine. Nancy and Robin sawing off the end of a shotgun. Lucas and Erica attempting to make spears from tactical knives and broom handles. Eddie and Dustin shoving each other around in the grass with their garbage can lids full of nails at their feet and none of it instilled you with confidence, but Dustin screaming No wedgies! did manage to pull a little smile out of you.

And for a split second it felt okay.

Laughter, the sound of birds, the feeling of the wind on your bare skin and all the green around you – so unlike the cracked and bitter feeling in the Upside Down and then your smile fell.

You wished He hadn’t shown you.

Wished Vecna had just left you alone. Wished for just a moment that you hadn’t gone to Max’s trailer and put yourself in the middle of all this, but then Eddie grabbed Dustin in a big bear hug and your chest squeezed.

Your best friend.

The reason why you had gone to Max’s trailer.

The reason why you weren’t going to run.

The reason this was all worth it.

“Ah, shit.”

Sat next to you, Steve sucked in a breath through gritted teeth. The funnel in your hands slipping as you lost focus and liquid trickled down your hands and wrists.

“Hold it still,” Steve quickly tipped back his can of kerosene and set it down to grab a piece of ripped towel.

A string of curses were muttered under your breath, so much for homemade molotov cocktails.

Cheeks burning with embarrassment you went to wipe your hands on your sweater, but when you looked back up at Steve he was looking too. Eyes searching yours, unsure and tentative. Moles dotting along his cheeks and jaw like tiny constellations. Skin gold like it held summer and when you blinked away the haze of him, you realized he was reaching out to you.

“Here, get that off so it doesn’t burn,” he said a little softer. Cloth in one hand, he took yours in the other and wiped at the kerosene.

Oh, fell from your lips. Surprised. Unsure. Your skin buzzing where he touched you and you swallowed thick as you felt your pulse flutter against your neck.

“Uh–here, you can get the rest,” Steve said quickly, like he’d felt it too and hastily passed the cloth off to you, dropping your hand to wipe his on his jeans.

“Thanks,” you mumbled back.

It was quiet for a moment as he cleared his throat and picked up his can of kerosene again. You followed suit and grabbed your empty vodka bottle and funnel. Wordlessly he leaned over to hold your hand in his and once it was steady began pouring again, eyes flicking over to look at you.

“I’m an asshole,” he suddenly admitted, breaking the silence, and you had to focus really hard to not fumble the bottle again.

“I didn’t say it,” you started and he chuckled under his breath. A low, warm thing that made the air around you fizzle and crack like bonfires down at the quarry.

“Didn’t say you did,” he gently pushed back, lips still tugged up into a small, wry smile, but it faded the longer he looked at you. “Listen. I know we aren’t…well, I know I don’t have a great track record,” he said and the change in his tone surprised you. Told you he was serious and you had to look away to try to gather yourself back up again.

"No, really?" you said, all sarcasm, and he huffed another laugh.

“Hah hah,” he joked, weakly at first, and then his expression shifted more serious. “I just wanted to say that…well, that you have every right to be here it’s just–” the boy hummed around his words. Dropped his gaze down to where your hands met on the kerosene filled vodka bottle and put the can on the ground.

Talking to you like this, showing weakness and vulnerability, made him feel so exposed. Uncomfortable. Unable to find the right words and his tongue jammed into his cheek as he tried to decide just how honest he wanted to be.

With you.

“It’s just–everything about the Upside Down wants to kill you and it’s like–” he sighed heavy and carded a hand through his already messy hair. “I dunno. How many more people have to die? You know?” and then he was looking at you again. Really looking, really asking, and for a second it made you doubt everything you felt about him.

Jock. Asshole. King Steve.

No second chances, remember?

“Can I ask you something?” you heard yourself say and you could feel the muddled mixture of nerves and frustration and anticipation buzzing under your skin. Everything you’d been holding onto all this time pent up and pushing against the wall you’d built around it. Waiting waiting waiting for you to set it loose.

“Oh–sure, yeah.”

“Why are you really here?”

Steve’s eyes grew wide and he sat back on his milk crate, hands squeezing at the tops of his thighs.

“Why am I here?”

“Yeah. Do you really care about Eddie?”

Steve’s eyes darted back over to where Eddie and Dustin were hammering more nails into their garbage can lids and maybe you were impatient or maybe Steve was stalling, but you didn’t want to wait.

“Cos you didn’t care about him before.”

“B-before? I don’t–what d'you mean–”

Steve was stumbling over himself now, struggling to own the words you put on him and frustration grew warm in your chest, but you tried hard to swallow it down. Tried hard to let him prove Eddie’s theory of change.

“High school, Harrington,” you started, trying to keep your tone even and calm. “Yelled at us in the quad? Tossed people’s books in the hallway? Threw fries at us in the cafeteria.” You paused, debated whether or not you wanted to tack more on, and then you thought of Tommy and it came out all on its own, “Let your friends say really shitty things to me.”

Steve’s gaze dropped down to his feet and he didn’t say anything at first, not a word, and you kicked yourself for even bothering to think he’d be able to handle it. Of course he couldn’t.

“You know what–nevermind,” you mumbled, capping your bottle and moving to stand, but his hand grabbed yours and pulled you back down onto your milk crate.

“Wait. Please?”

And the way he was looking at you was pained, the pinch between his brows deep, and it made you pause. Was Eddie right? The way Steve cared for these kids, for your best friend, showed clearly something had shifted in him, but was it enough?

“Wait for what, Harrington? So you can show me things are different now?” your voice was softer, but hurt, “Because Eddie swears you’ve changed, but you still sound just like Tommy.”

The mention of his ex-best friend felt like getting the wind knocked out of him. He knew Tommy was wrong now. Hell, he knew it back then too. Knew how fucked up it'd been in the parking lot at the school, but he hadn’t had the guts to say anything. Couldn’t stand up to him or tell him off because he ‘had a reputation to uphold’ and what would everyone else say if he went ‘soft on a freak’?

“I–I know. I fucked up. I get it and I don’t know how I can prove it to you, but–” he started truthfully, hand still holding yours, thumb shifting softly against your palm, “–but I am. Really sorry.”

Really sorry.

Finally. After all those years. After everything he’d said and done, but sorry didn’t fix it. Or take any of it back. Was it too late?

Reluctantly you pulled your hand away from Steve’s, his fingers flexing as they fell away from yours, wanting to hold on just a little bit longer but you weren’t ready.

“You know that doesn’t fix it, right?” you said quietly, glancing up at Steve through the long sweep of your lashes and guilt settled heavy over him.

He knew it didn’t fix it. Knew all too well that words didn’t mean shit, but he would be the first to admit he was a slow learner. Crawl before you walk. Hit your head and maybe something will suddenly make sense and when it came to you? Vecna had been like a sucker punch.

You were strong-willed. Didn’t take shit lying down. Were fiercely loyal to your best friend and just wanted to try to help and it had taken Steve a minute to realize – in your eyes he was still bullshit, but he didn’t want to be. It wasn’t going to be easy, not in the least, but just like you he wanted to try.

“I know it doesn’t fix it.”

His eyes squeezed shut so he didn’t have to look at you. Tried to make it easier on himself as he pushed through the discomfort of taking responsibility for his actions. Tongue running along his bottom lip, just like it always did when his brain was working overtime, he finally looked back up at you.

“I’m not asking you for forgiveness or–or to be my friend or anything. I just want you know I really am sorry. For all of it. Okay?”

Sitting there so close to him, your hands inches away from touching, holding each other’s gaze as you listened to the words falling from his lips in sincerity – it was almost too much. The wall you’d built around yourself cracking and straining against this new feeling that had settled in your chest, but the words wouldn’t come to you as your lips parted and you tried and pull yourself together but–

“Dammit, Eddie, no wedgies!”

Dustin’s voice cut through the silence that had settled and Steve reflexively sat up. Pushed himself away from whatever it was you’d waded into together. Away from sorry and the feeling of your hands pressed together and the look you gave him through the long sweep of your lashes and the way you made his heart race. Turned away from you and played it off.

“Hey! Less dicking around, more putting shit together!” he yelled at Dustin and Eddie flipped him off without looking.

“Like you’re doing anything important, big boy!” Eddie hollered back and the way it made Steve’s cheeks grow pink made your lips twitch with a smile you had to work hard to hold back.

“Shut up,” Steve muttered at Eddie, but mostly to himself, and stood from his milk crate to put your filled vodka bottle into the box with the rest.

You watched quietly as he placed the last bottle in and folded the cardboard shut. Muscles tensing and pulling taut as he worked, moving against the fabric of his shirt and you quickly looked away for fear of being caught.

Then your eye caught his nail covered bat tipped against side of the Winnebago and the threat of the Upside Down and all its nasties wrapped around you tight like a vice.

Oh.

Right.

The end of the world.

Just a few yards away Nancy pulled the trigger on her shotgun, the sound making you flinch, and it hit you like a ton of bricks – you had absolutely no clue how to defend yourself against this. Against Him. Against an army from hell. You knew how to throw a punch and knee someone in the crotch and you’d always had an arm on you from playing volleyball, but none of that had anything to do with monsters. Or guns. Or nail covered bats.

“Uhm–” came out mumbled, more sound than word, and it pulled Steve’s attention up from the box.

“What’s that?”

“Can you–er–would you maybe show me how to swing that?” you asked and it made him turn to face you, giving you his full attention.

“What?”

Your cheeks grew hot.

“That bat,” you said shifting uncomfortably on your crate, “I don’t think–I can't shoot a gun.”

Steve’s expression softened as he remembered what it'd felt like the first time he saw a demogorgon. The first time he swung that very bat into the side of a demodog. The first time this world had been exposed to him and he knew how overwhelming and absolutely crazy it all felt.

Grabbing the bat in his hand he gave you a small smile and took the few steps back over to you.

“Sure. It’s not too hard. You know, just aim and swing.”

“Just aim and swing?” your tone was flat, all skeptics, a defensive move against his kindness and it made him chuckle.

“Well, there’s probably more to it than that, but those stupid bats are thick enough when they swarm it’d be hard for anyone to miss.”

Your eyes grew wide at the thought of swarming bats and it made him laugh again, a half-grimace pulling at his features.

“Shit, sorry. Uh–here,” readjusting his grip he bent his knees a bit and dug his heel into the ground. “Just make sure you get a wide stance, yeah? Like, hip width apart? And don’t be afraid to choke up on your hold. It’ll make your swings hit harder.”

He swung the bat and the sound it made as it cut through the air made your breath catch in your throat.

“Wanna try?” the boy held the crude weapon out to you and you swallowed thick. Stood up from your own milk crate and tentatively took it from him.

It was heavy in your hands, heavier than you thought it’d be, but smooth. You did as he said and slid your hands up a little further on the handle and tried a swing, but threw yourself off balance and stumbled forward.

“Ah, that’s okay. Here, uh–” Steve stepped in behind you and placed his hands over yours on the bat, “–try again, but follow through with your hip. Your grip’s good, just don’t throw your full weight forward.”

The warmth of his chest on your back made your cheeks burn again. Made your heart race. Hammering against your ribcage as he slowly took you through the motion again.

“Then when you get to the end of the swing, follow with your hip," his voice was much quieter over your shoulder, words falling into your ear and making you dizzy as he tried so damn hard to keep his focus. Placed a hand on your waist to guide it and toed your foot forward with his shoe as he took a step. “See?”

“Yeah,” was all you could manage, the feeling of his breath on your neck trailing goosebumps across your skin and you couldn’t help it. Couldn’t help the way the closeness of him pulled your gaze and when you looked up he was looking too.

“Does that–uh–did that make sense?” he asked, voice barely above a whisper and you nodded. A small thing that barely registered and he was so close now. Close enough his nose nearly brushed your cheek, getting closer by the second and–

“Harrington! Where are those bottles? I gotta get ‘em loaded up!” Eddie yelled from the other side of the RV and the space between you shattered. Both of you stepping away as though you’d touched a hot stove and you pressed the bat into Steve’s hands.

“Should probably get ready,” you muttered and he nodded, cleared his throat and took two big steps back to set the bat down.

“Coming!” Steve called back as he scooped up the box of molotov cocktails, bottles clinking against each other as he walked away and disappeared around the corner of the RV.

King Steve turned Steve Harrington.

Steve Harrington turned something else.

Something more.

Something you thought you’d written off.

Something that held you so tightly now it made you want to run, but at the back of your mind, somewhere soft and warm, you couldn’t help wondering what might happen if you didn’t.

[ NOTE: THIS IS PART THREE OF A – POSSIBLY – FIVE PART SERIES, PART FOUR AND FIVE TO COME SOON ]

crappymixtape™ • steve harrington masterlist // stranger things masterlist♥️ reblogs and comments keep me going, friends! ily! ♥️

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formosusiniquis · 1 year

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There's something about the idea that every adult that spends more than ten minutes alone with Steve Harrington is instantly enamored with him

The King Steve era house parties don't get broken up by the cops anymore. Steve is too far from his nearest neighbors for a noise complaint and the cops who would do it like Steve. They know they don't have to worry about any underage drinking and driving incidents after a Steve Harrington party because anyone who doesn't have a DD just crashes at the Harrington place, it's not like they have to worry about getting out of there before his parents get home.

His teachers can't help but let certain things slide. Excusing a middle school Steve's tardiness, the Harrington house is such a long bike ride away from the school and the bus route doesn't reach the grounds of Loch Nora. High School Steve's grades are average at best and his attention drifts, but his questions if poorly worded are insightful at heart and if you catch him away from the friends he tries too hard to keep he's polite and willing to spend time discussing his school work. By senior year they're excusing his tardiness again, they all know he has to swing by the middle school on his way over; and his forgetfulness too, two concussions in as many years it's a wonder he's not worse.

Joyce Byers, who by all accounts should hate this boy who fought her son and belittled her family, already has a snag in her armor thinking about a little boy who used to bike to Melvalds all alone for more milk and the sugar dusted cereal his mother didn't like him to have. Has her walls damaged by Jonathan coming home with a Christmas present they both know Nancy Wheeler even in her middle class glory couldn't afford. Has the adoption papers ready to be notarized when that same little boy, just a little bit bigger, offers to cart her Will around town since he knows she and Jon are busy and he has nothing better to do; really, and Will is the only one that ever says please or thank you.

Hopper, who largely left the everyday police work to the other officers, didn't interact with Steve much until the Upside Down business started. He's ready to add Harrington to the list of kids he'd die to protect the second the bloodstained boy cracks open a bleary eye from the Byers' sofa. Concussed and happy for it since it meant the youngest ones were safe.

Claudia Henderson has decided that the law has little to do with family. She's seen too many young men in the hospital grieving loved ones they can't see while parents who don't care make decisions for the dying. Steve Harrington is hers now has been since he did her Dusty's hair. The Sinclairs only let Erica roam the mall on her own on days they know Steve is working. They know no matter what Erica and Lucas promise the two of them aren't staying together. There's something rotten in Hawkins, and the kids don't whisper as quietly as they think they do. They know there's something they are missing, but they don't need to know everything to know they can trust the boy who put himself bodily in front of their child to protect him. Karen still occasionally mourns the loss of Steve as a son-in-law but the fact that he still drives Mike around even on his surliest days, she couldn't ask for more.

Wayne Munson lasted the longest. A product of night shifts and a powerful wariness around anyone whose tax bracket exceeds his by more than one jump. But he knows the kind of skittish that Steve is, remembers an eight year old boy with eyes he hadn't grown into who used to skitter away from a sharp tongue or raised hand just the same. Even then all it takes is sitting next to Steve on a rare night off, the game fuzzing in and out on the TV, listening to him softly explain the rules of it all to his boy relating it back to the ones of that dragon game Eddie likes so much and he's gone. Steve's a hard worker, a wage slave as much as Wayne these days, seems wrong to begrudge him just cause the house he's kept at is a little bigger than theirs. There are worse boys to have as future in-laws, even if he is a Cubs fan.

The only person who doesn't seem to get the memo is Richard Harrington. So rarely around his own son he isn't swept up in the charm. Richard and Stephanie Harrington make their way back to Hawkins, unannounced on a Tuesday. The sleepy morning hours are still lingering when they make their way into the house, through the foyer, and onto the kitchen; following the sounds of crooning oldies. Richard has long thought his son a disappointment, too lazy to get into college and too spoiled to leave home, catching him dancing around the kitchen like a fairy with some trailer trash punk is really the last straw. He lets the wife he wishes he didn't have make some asinine comment to this freak that's in his kitchen, and turns to the child he never wanted to say, "I want you out, I won't have a queer living under my roof."

Stephanie and that long haired bastard both rear back like they've been slapped. While Richard is forced to watch as the son he's neglected straightens up, every ounce the man every other adult on Hawkins has watched him become, look him in the eye and say, "It's not your house, it never was. Grandpa Otis left it to me. So if you've got a problem with me or my fucking boyfriend, you can get out of my house. Looks like you're already packed."

That empty house gets emptier as Richard, alone, takes the furniture he paid for and the clothes that lingered in the closet; but it's quickly filled with the hand-me-downs of everyone who has ever fallen for that Harrington charm. They're all too happy to help Steve fill what's his.

#steve harrington #stranger things #stranger things fic #steddie #steve harrington hc #wayne munson #joyce byers #chief hopper #jim hopper #steve harrington's parents #i find steves mom to be fascinating and i genuinely think she really loves her son #i think she saw her boy happy in the kitchen with eddie and immediately wanted to meet him #maybe made a comment about eddies hair like mother like son #i think theyre relationship is extremely complicated but i think push come shove her son will always beat her husband #i couldnt think of a good way to work the buckleys in here but they also think steve would be an excellent son in law

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spoodrm4n · 2 years

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And I Would Do It Again

Parings: Steve Harrington x Henderson!Reader

Summary: In season 3, instead of Steve getting beaten by the Russian interrogators, it’s you. Steve and Robin are still drugged so they don’t notice your life threatening injury at first.

Warnings: Angst, mentions of injury, mentions of blood.

Word Count. 3.7K

A/N: I suck at summaries. This fic took me 15 years to write. THANK YOU FOR ALL THE LOVE!!!!!

PART TWO

You weren’t quite sure how you had ended up with your little brother Dustin, your coworker and crush Steve Harrington, and other coworker and best friend Robin Buckley, and Lucas Sinclair’s little sister Erica in a secret underground Russian base beneath Star Court mall– but that’s where you ultimately found yourself. You had been beaten within an inch of your life by some of the Russians trying to get some answers from you. They had gotten nothing out of you, but you had paid the price. The guards had just thrown you into the room they were holding Robin and Steve. Just like that the guards were leaving again, leaving the three of you alone.

You landed on the floor at their feet with a groan, closing your eyes and willing the excruciating headache you had earned away. You opened them slowly as you heard the two giggling above you. You could make out Steve and Robin’s faces even though it seemed like you had lost part of your vision in your left eye from the interrogation.

“You klutz! You’ve always been sooo clumsy!” You furrowed your eyebrows at Robin’s slurred insult and looked up at the two, pushing yourself to sit back on your heels in front of them.

“You have a rainbow… all over your face,” Steve was gasping at you, eyes wide and a goofy, opened mouth smile on his face. You blinked at them.

“What did they give you two?” You were standing up, grimacing at the pain it caused you. You sucked in what little breath you could without jostling your broken ribs and walked over to them, starting on untying them.

“You’re dripping on me, Henderson.” Robin scrunched up her face and you quickly apologized about getting blood on her white socks. You quickly realized after untying them from their chairs and each other that you were missing two other people.

“Where the hell are Erica and Dust-” You were cut off by the door being blown open by your brother and Erica on an industrial cart. You jumped in front of Steve and Robin, shielding them from any debris. “There they are,” you laughed as Dustin and Erica rushed over, concern written all over their faces. Sirens started to sound through the base accompanied by bright, red, flashing lights.

“Shit, Y/N what the hell did they do to you?” Your brother was all over you as you tried to push him away and lead Steve to the cart.

“Plenty, as you can see, but we need to get out of here before they do plenty to someone else!” You urged him as he got the hint to help Robin to the back of the cart with Steve. You hopped in the back with the two as Dustin and Erica got back in the front. “Drive!” You yelled to your brother as you saw guards starting to file into the hall.

“Wooo!” Robin was cheering and you winced at how loud she was. You flinched at the loud sound of gunfire behind you and ducked down, dragging Steve and Robin with you.

“Shit! You two, stay down or so help me god!” You yelled at them both, hands skimming the bed of the back of the cart. You grinned when you felt a small handgun. “It’ll do.” You whispered, checking the ammunition, turning the safety off and cocking the gun. You popped back up from the cover of the cart and aimed at one of the guards running towards you. You fired and hit him in the shoulder, making him collapse and having a couple other guards trip over his body.

“Badass,” you heard Steve whisper in awe behind you. You cocked the gun again and took aim, but before you could pull the trigger again one of the guards had taken a shot and hit you in the side. “Holy shit,” you gasped as you fell back into Steve’s chest on accident and bit the inside of your cheek, swallowing a scream.

“You’re back,” Steve smiled down at you. You shot him an annoyed glare and breathed out, grabbing Steve’s red tie from his Scoops uniform and working to tie it around your wound to slow the bleeding. It had already stained your scoops uniform a bit. “Hey that’s mine!” He whined and you couldn’t find it in yourself to feel bad. You grit your teeth as you finished tying it around your waist to cover your wound and pulled your uniform shirt back down. You breathed out, sagging against Steve but it was short lived as Dustin slammed on the breaks. You flew forward, face first into the back of the cart and groaned. That earned you some giggles from Robin and Steve.

“Come on, Y/N!” Dustin was yelling at you, tugging your arm to get out of the cart and into the elevator.

“Grab Robin, I’ll grab Steve. Erica get in, fast!” You instructed, pulling Steve by his bicep out of the cart and into the elevator, trying your best to ignore the burning pain in your side. Dustin had Robin in front of you. You pushed Steve into the elevator and ducked in yourself, bullets flying over your head. “Woah! Take me to dinner first!” He giggled at you and you rolled your eyes. You flung yourself against the side of the wall as Erica frantically pushed the ‘up’ button and grabbed Steve by the back of his shirt, making him stumble to your side and out of the range of fire. Dustin and Robin were behind Erica. It felt like years before the doors were finally sliding shut and the elevator was shooting up with as much grace as it had falling down.

“Are you okay?” You ran over to Dustin, wrapping him in a hug. You bit back a whimper as he hugged you back. Not only had you just been shot, but you also had been beaten within an inch of your life.

“I’m fine, I’m fine. What about you–” Dustin was cut off by a snort from Robin as Steve hopped onto a pallet dolly and held his arms out as if he were surfing. You ran a hand over your face. What was wrong with these two? Robin jerked the cart and caused Steve to fall over into the corner, Robin cackling like a mad man.

“Wipeout!” She cheered, motioning with her hands to Steve in the corner.

Dustin crouched down to Steve and pried one of Steve’s eyes open, checking his pupils. Steve poked Dustin on the nose with a small ‘boop’.

“His pupils are super dilated.” Dustin spoke, turning to Erica.

“Maybe he’s drugged?” Erica shrugged and you did the same.

“That seems like a fair answer,” you supplied as Dustin turned back to Steve.

“You drugged?” Dustin quirked an eyebrow and Steve almost scoffed.

“How many times dad I don’t do drugs… it’s only marijuana,” Steve booped Dustin’s nose again.

“I’m not sure what answer you were really expecting, Dusty.” You smiled, trying your best to find the humor in the situation. All of you fell on your butts as the elevator came to a screeching halt. Damn Russian elevators. The doors opened to the outside and you got up, helping Steve to his feet and out the doors. You ushered him out of the elevator and he trotted on out, Robin ahead of him and gulping in fresh air. You walked out with Dustin and Erica but froze when you saw more guards at the gate giving your all incredulous looks.

“Shit! Come on! Other way!” You yelled, running and grabbing both Robin and Steve and pulling them back into the mall and slamming the doors closed behind you. You ran in front of the four, guiding them down the back tunnels that connected everything in the mall.

“We’re going to take these two to the theater and me and you,” you motioned to Dustin, “are going to get in touch with Wheeler.” You made your way to the movie theater, remembering all the times you had shown the kids where to go and opened the back door, pushing the four of them through. Dustin led the way into the theater and made Robin and Steve sit down in two empty seats towards the front of the theater.

“You two, stay here. Do not move!” Dustin hissed at the two and it wasn’t long before a man behind the three were shushing Dustin. You walked to the back of the theater to wait for Dustin as he talked to Erica. In the corner of the theater you leaned against the wall, lifting up your shirt to check the state of the gunshot wound on your side. You were met with purple and blue bruises littered all over your torso and the once bright, cherry red of Steve’s tie was now crimson. “Shit,” you muttered, pulling your shirt back down. Dustin finally came bounding up to you, leading the way to a supply closet.

“Mike, this is Dustin. Do you copy?” Dustin kept on trying to get a response from Mike. You were just about to tell him to give up when Mike’s voice crackled through the speaker, static cutting in and out. “Shit! Low battery.” Dustin was fumbling through his bag now and all you could do was lean against the door frame, barely on your feet in the first place. You had your arms wrapped around your torso, trying to find any comfort at all.

“Find anything?” You mumbled as Dustin set his bag down.

“No. I don’t know where my spare batteries went. We’ll just have to go and find them. Let's go grab Steve, Robin, and Erica and get out of here. We have to tell the rest of the party about this.” Dustin shoved everything back into his bag and you opened the door, following him back out into the hallway.

“I’ll wait here. You get them and meet me back out here. I gotta think of how we’re actually going to leave the mall without a car.” Dustin nodded as he went back into the theater and you leaned back against the wall. You squeezed your eyes shut and grit your teeth. You weren’t sure how much longer you could stay standing at this point.

“Not too much longer…” You breathed out, shoulders slumping. You jumped and turned to see Erica and Dustin barging through the doors.

“They’re gone.” Dustin spoke and you felt a bit of your resolve crumble.

“What do you mean they’re gone? You’re kidding me.” Anger rose in your voice but it wasn’t pointed at Erica or Dustin– not even Steve or Robin. Just the shitty situation you all had been put in. “Okay. You and Erica search the bottom level of the mall, I’ll look for them on the second. You find them, you meet me at the front entrance. Be safe,” you patted your little brother on the head and the three of you parted ways, now on a man hunt for your drugged up coworkers.

You exited the theater and climbed the stairs to the upper level of the mall, starting down the left side. “It would be my luck to get trapped in a secret, underground Russian base after a long day of work and get beaten the shit out of, shot, and now on a manhunt for my best friend and crush. Gotta love Henderson luck,” you thought out loud, running a stressed hand through your hair.

You had met Steve one of the first times he had taken your brother over to the Wheeler’s house instead of you. You had questioned him and your brother on your doorstep on why they were suddenly best friends. It was odd to you, but they had made up a solid excuse which you believed for a while. You both started at Scoops and you became closer, sharing late night drives, dinners, movie nights, and taking care of your brother and his friends. You had also developed a crush on Steve in that time and Robin had called you out on your bullshit within the first week of you realizing you were in love with him. It didn’t help when he would always try to flirt with every girl that would come in, leaving you to cringe and seeth in jealousy beside him. He never had any success anyway, Robin’s ‘You Rule / You Suck’ Talley on one of the whiteboards at Scoops had kept track of it.

Little did you know that Steve only did it because he thought he had no chance with you. It’s not like he wanted his attempts to succeed anyway, he only wanted to make you jealous but you were both too thick in the head to say anything to each other. It was driving Robin absolutely insane.

You caught sight of the two a little ways further down, staring up at the glass domed ceiling. You saw them sway on their feet for a second before they were plowing into a nearby bathroom. “That can’t be good,” you muttered before walking as fast as you could towards the two, which wasn’t fast at all considering the state you were in.

You opened the bathroom door and found the two sitting on the floor of the first stall, laughing with each other.

“Oh, Y/N! We were just talking about you,” Robin winked at Steve and you could’ve swore his face turned a bit pink.

“Oh, sorry to interrupt story time, but I’ve been looking for you two everywhere. We gotta go,” you couldn’t help but be a bit annoyed as you wrapped an arm around yourself on instinct. You knew you were about to bite the dust soon and you needed to get out of here.

Steve looked up at you and for the first time it’s like he actually processed the state you were in. “Holy shit, Y/N.” He breathed, standing up and rushing over to you. He held his hands out helplessly, not knowing where to even start as he looked you up and down. “What the hell did they do? Are you okay?” You looked into his eyes and you could see his pupils were no longer dilated and they didn’t have a haze to them anymore.

“I will be okay as long as we get out of here, Steve.” You were being honest now. “Dustin and Erica are downstairs, we’ll meet up with them there and get out of here.” You explained, shoving his hands away so he wouldn’t find the bullet wound. You were almost out of here. You could do this.

“Yeah, okay, sorry. Let’s go.” He shook his head and ran a hand through his hair, worried eyes trained on you as you turned to walk out of the bathroom. They followed you out and you three headed towards the stairs. You started falling behind and you felt yourself get dizzier. You looked down to see that Steve’s tie was no longer holding up and blood was soaking through your shirt. You pressed a hand to it, trying to slow the bleeding.

“Henderson, keep up otherwi– Oh my god,” Robin stuttered out as her eyes trailed down to the crimson seeping through your uniform. You blinked up at her, but she was blurry. In a moment your knees were buckling beneath you and you found yourself on the floor on your back. “Y/N!” Robin’s face appeared above you and you squinted, trying to see her clearly.

“What happened?” Steve was there above you now too. You felt hands pull your shirt up just enough to see the bullet wound. You don’t know when you started crying but you furrowed your eyebrows as you felt hot tears drip down the sides of your face. “Oh god, Henderson.” Steve again.

“Steve,” You breathed, one of your hands reaching out for him. Robin grabbed it instead as Steve undid his tie around your waist and grabbed your own, replacing the soaked through one. “Oh fuck,” you groaned, eyes squeezing shut in pain. All the adrenaline from earlier had dissipated and you were in agony now. You swallowed the bile that threatened to crawl up your throat.

“I’m sorry, sweetheart. I’m so sorry,” Steve apologized, securing the cloth around your waist. You gripped Robin’s hand impossibly hard; you would have to apologize to her later. “When did you even get shot?”

“Who got shot?” Dustin and Erica were there above you now as well. You hated that Dustin was seeing you like this. You were supposed to be the big sister who was always okay. “Y/N! What the hell happened Steve?” Dustin was crouching down next to Steve now, grabbing your other hand.

“She must’ve gotten hit when we were driving away from those guards. I’m pretty sure I remember them shooting at us. That was like an hour and a half ago, though. How was she even still walking? And she got the shit beat out of her before getting shot? How are you even still alive Y/N, I mean you should definitely be–” Robin was rambling now out of nervousness. You cut her off.

“Robin, stop. You’re rambling again and I’m gonna punch you in the face if you keep talking,” you grit out, sitting up on your elbows. “I’m fine, really.”

“Yeah, no. You’re definitely not. You need help.” Steve scolded, hand on your upper arm supporting you. “I can carry you down. There’s no way you can walk,” Steve hooked an arm under your knees and your shoulders.

“Steve, really it’s fine, I can walk, I just needed a minute.” You felt your face grow hot as he stood up with you in his arms. You looked up at him.

“Y/N, you’re literally an idiot. Just let Steve help you,” Dustin chastised at your stubbornness.

“Absolutely not. There’s no way you’re walking. Don’t be ridiculous,” Steve scolded at the same time as Dustin as he made his way down the stairs with you. You just sighed and rested your forehead on his shoulder, trying to hide the blush on your face. This is not happening right now.

You all got downstairs and to the entrance when you were met with Nancy, Jonathan, Will, Max, Mike, Lucas, and Eleven. Steve set you down carefully on a bench by them as they conversed. Each of the new members stealing a concerned glance at the shape you were in. You felt yourself start to drift off as their voices droned on. You shook your head, willing yourself to stay awake and stood up.

No one had noticed you get up, thankfully. You walked towards the bathrooms that were nearby and stepped up to one of the sinks. You white knuckled the ceramic, chest heaving with exhaustion. You turned on the water and splashed some on your face, trying to wake yourself up and clean the cuts as well.

“What the hell are you doing?” You jumped nearly a foot in the air. You gasped for air and placed a hand over your heart as Steve came up to you and turned the water off.

“I just needed to get up. I was gonna fall asleep. I can’t really do that right now,” You gestured to yourself, sarcasm dripping from your tone.

“You need to sit down, you’re going to hurt yourself more.” He argued, hands on his hips.

“What are you? My mom?” You grew frustrated. You felt like absolute shit, you just wanted to go home, and you were stuck potentially bleeding out in the mall bathroom.

“I’m sorry I just give a shit about your well-being!” Steve yelled, throwing his hands in the air.

“Oh, I’m so glad you’re doing the bare minimum!” You shouted back, hands going back to gripping the edge of the sink.

“Are you trying to kill yourself, Y/N? Is that what you want? Just sit down and let me take care of you because I can’t– I can’t lose you.” Your heart shattered as his voice broke. You stared at him mouth agape. “I can’t Y/N.”

“I’m sorry, Steve. I didn’t mean to hurt you.” You whispered, eyes filling with tears. “It’s just, it’s funny– ya know? I’m going to bleed out in the mall bathroom after escaping from a secret, underground, Russian base in my Scoops Ahoy uniform. It seems so funny.” You were laughing now. You didn’t really know if it was due to blood loss or just because the scenario you were stuck playing was actually hilarious.

“Hey, you’re not gonna die here. You’re not going to die anytime soon, if I have anything to do with it.” Steve stood in front of you now, hands gliding up and down your arms. “And as soon as we get out of here– alive and well– I’m taking you on a date like I should’ve done ages ago.” He smiled at you.

“What? Am I dead?” You were definitely dead. Steve Harrington didn’t want to take you on a date. No way.

“Um no? Not unless we’re both dead and we’re simultaneously dreaming the same death. I like you, Y/N. A lot. I have since you answered the door that first time instead of your smartass little brother.” Steve laughed.

“Hey, Dustin’s my smartass, okay?” You chuckled as he stepped closer to you.

“They really beat the shit out of you, huh?” Steve was close to your face now, drinking in every detail of you. “Why couldn’t they have taken me?” He shook his head, eyes sad as they remarked your injuries.

“I wouldn’t let them. If it had to have been anyone, it would have been me. And I’d do it again as long as you’re okay.” You spoke, eyes flicking from his eyes to his lips every now and again. Steve had always been so pretty. He was handsome, really handsome– sure, but he was also pretty.

“And that’s the only thing I wish I could change about you.” A smile tugged at his lips. He leaned in finally and your lips touched. You breathed out through your nose, melting into him. Your hands stayed planted on the sink, your knees becoming even more weak. His hands trailed up your arms, to your shoulders, and finally to your cheeks. He made sure his hands were just gently placed there, being careful of your injuries.

The both of you pulled apart and you smiled at him. “Steve?”

“Henderson?” He grinned back.

“I think I’m gonna pass out.” You said as you felt your head get lighter and your knees once again give out beneath you. Your vision started to go dark and you felt yourself let go.

“Y/N!” He caught you. You knew he would.

#steve harrington #steve harrington x reader #stranger things #stranger things season 3 #scoops ahoy steve #robin buckly #steve harrington x henderson!reader #steve x reader #steve x henderson!reader #angst #steve harrington angst #steve harrington fanfic #steve harrington fanfiction #reader insert #steve harrington x Y/N

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hendersister · 10 months

Text

our house

summary: when you and steve move in together, your house becomes a regular hangout spot for dustin and his friends.

pairing: steve harrington x henderson!sister reader

title 🎵: our house by madness

You and Steve have started living together. You’re renting a house in Hawkins, not far from your mom and Dustin. You and Steve stayed in town because you wanted to clean up the mess that Vecna made after opening the gates. You both want to be here to help defeat Vecna and close off the gate to the Upside Down once and for all.

The house you're renting is pretty nice. It has 3 bedrooms, including a master bedroom with a private bathroom for you and Steve. You were able to rent the house very cheap because so many people had fled Hawkins after Vecna opened the gate.

Since moving in, Dustin and his friends have started coming over almost on a daily basis. Your house, along with the Wheelers’ basement, has become one of the official hangouts for the party. You and Steve don’t mind. Besides stopping Vecna, another reason you remained in Hawkins was so you could stay close to your friends and family - especially your little brother. You and Steve actually kind of like providing a safe space for the kids to hangout.

Sometimes the kids crash for the night in one of the spare rooms or on the couch. Tonight happens to be one of those nights… Dustin, Erica and Lucas are all staying over. The three kids ended up at your place for different reasons.

Dustin came over because your mom is working the overnight shift and you didn’t want your little brother to spend the night home alone. He’s at your house so often that he basically has his own room already.

Erica showed up unannounced. She got into a stupid fight with her mom and needed some space to cool off. Erica told her parents that she was spending the night at her friend Tina’s but she went over to your house because Tina doesn’t have Duck Hunt.

Lucas asked if he could crash at your place because he was staying late at the hospital to visit Max again and he didn’t want his parents to know. Mr. and Mrs. Sinclair are trying to get Lucas to stop visiting Max all the time. They want him to move on from what happened but he can’t. Lucas loves Max and he will visit her in the hospital every day until she wakes up. So to avoid getting into an argument, Lucas lied to his parents. He told them he was spending the night at Dustin’s. Luckily his parents didn’t question it.

Truth be told, Lucas actually prefers spending time with his friends after visiting Max. You guys know what really happened to her and what’s going on in Hawkins. Lucas loves his parents but sometimes they just don’t understand.

It was a pretty lowkey, quiet night in the Henderson/Harrington household. Erica set the table while you got dinner ready. You made a casserole. The recipe was given to you by Mrs. Wheeler. After dinner, Steve and Dustin cleaned the dishes. You read a book on the couch and Erica played Duck Hunt until Lucas arrived from the hospital. Then you all hung out in the living room and watched a movie that Steve brought home from the video store.

Now it’s getting late. Dustin went to sleep in his room, Erica took the other guest room and Lucas is crashing on the couch. You and Steve are in your room, getting ready for bed.

“Good call getting The Goonies for movie night! I think the kids really loved it,” you smile.

“They better have loved it! It was the last copy at the store. I had to lie to like five different customers that asked about it,” Steve tells you.

“Are you serious?!” you laugh.

Steve nods. You look at your boyfriend with heart eyes.

“That’s actually kinda sweet,” you say softly.

Steve smirks, raising an eyebrow.

“Oh yeah?”

You nod your head, about to reply back, when-

BOOM

Suddenly the entire house starts to violently shake. Earthquakes have been more frequent in Hawkins since Vecna opened the gate, but they are still something that you’re not used to. This is one of the bigger earthquakes you’ve experienced. The force is so strong that you fall to the ground.

“Y/N!”

Steve stumbles to get to you. He wraps his arm around your waist and pulls you up to your feet. You stay by his side, clutching onto each other for support.

And then, just as abruptly as it started, the earthquake stops. You and Steve stay silent for a beat, bracing yourselves for any aftershock. The room remains still.

“Is it over?” you ask, uneasy.

“I think so,” Steve cautiously replies under his breath.

You and Steve let go of each other. A million thoughts are racing through your head, but the most important-

“We need to check on the kids,” you say with a quiet urgency in your voice.

“Yeah,” your boyfriend nods in agreement. You both feel like concerned parents right now.

You and Steve leave your room to find Erica standing by her doorway.

“So you all felt that too? I’m not crazy!” Erica exclaims.

Steve sighs, shaking his head. You quickly look Erica up and down to make sure she isn’t injured.

“Are you okay?” you ask.

“I’m fine,” Erica tells you, “But we should probably go check on Lucas downstairs.”

You and your boyfriend exchange eye contact, silently communicating. You already know what the other is thinking. He’ll go downstairs with Erica to make sure Lucas is ok while you check up on your little brother.

“Let’s go,” Steve nods to Erica.

Steve and Erica head towards the stairs and you continue down the hall to Dustin’s room.

KNOCK, KNOCK

“Hey Dusty! Are you alright?”

You wait a beat. No response. You take a deep breath and try again.

KNOCK, KNOCK

“Dustin!”

Still no response. Now you’re worried. You attempt to open the door but it’s stuck.

“Shit!” you curse to yourself.

KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK

“C’mon Dustin! Open the door! Dustin?!”

KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK

You’re frantically knocking at your brother’s door when Steve comes back upstairs. He can tell something is wrong and rushes over to you.

“Y/N! What’s going on?” your boyfriend asks.

“Dustin isn’t responding,” you anxiously reply.

Steve tries opening the door but it won’t budge.

KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK

“Hey Henderson! C’mon man, open up!”

No response. Steve shrugs.

“All right, that’s it! I’m gonna kick the door open,” he tells you.

Steve takes a deep breath, mentally readying himself to kick down the door, when-

CREAK

The door opens a crack and Dustin squeezes his way out.

“Dustin! Are you okay?!”

You pull your little brother into a big hug.

“You scared the shit out of me, dork!”

Steve lets out a sigh of relief. He stands back to let you have a moment with your brother.

“Oh, uh, sorry. I’m okay. I couldn’t get out because the bureau fell over and is blocking the door,” Dustin explains. He was able to move the bureau over enough to get out of the room but it’s too heavy for him to lift by himself.

“Do you need help moving it out of the way?” Steve offers.

Dustin nods.

Your boyfriend and brother squeeze through the door to get back into Dustin’s room. Together, they lift up the bureau and move it back to where it was before the earthquake hit. After they’re done pushing the bureau out of the way, Steve pats Dustin on the head. He’s just relieved that the kid is alright.

#stranger things #steve harrington #stranger things fanfic #steve harrington fanfic #steve harrington imagine #steve harrington x reader #steve harrington x henderson!sister reader

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brbsoulnomming · 3 months

Text

Static

Steve's never certain if he hates walking through the crowds after a match or not. Sometimes, when he walks back to his flat, all bloody and bruised and exhausted, the press of so many other people feels oppressive. Sometimes he wants nothing more than to pretend the rest of the world doesn't exist, that he's in a little bubble of his own space and nothing can touch him. But sometimes, even though there's an edge of pain in every step, the bustle of people reminds him of why he does this, reminds him of everyone he's trying to protect and everything he wants to be able to keep on going exactly as it is.

Today is not a hates day.

Today the crowds feel warm and full of energy, and he basks in it, lets the feel of so much life wash over him.

Today he buys sunflowers at his favorite florist, listening to the soft hum of bees he can hear in the back of their shop. Today he asks if they have any honey, tucks a bottle of it into his pocket and sucks on a piece of the soft, sticky candy that Mrs. Anderson makes from it. The augment he keeps for show chimes softly in his ear, alerting him that funds have been withdrawn from his arena account. He doesn't know how much, but it doesn't matter. He trusts Mrs. Anderson enough not to rip him off, and anyway, he makes more than enough from his fights to get anything he wants.

It'd be enough to get out of this place ten times over, if the credits Creel gave his gladiators were good anywhere else but the citydome he runs.

Mrs. Anderson wraps up his flowers for him, and Steve gives her a warm smile when she gives him an extra one for his girl.

He can't remember if she thinks his girl is Robin, or Nancy, or Max, or Erica, or El, but it doesn't really matter.

They're all his girls, and he'd do absolutely anything at all to give them the world.

He settles the bouquet under his arms, counts the flowers - there's enough to give each of them two, but he knows he won't see them in person any time soon.

It's been quiet enough that he might have suggested a meet up, but there's… something that stops him. Steve doesn't know what it is, can't put words to what he's picked up on, but it settles heavy in the pit of his stomach. He's learned the hard way to listen to it.

They can't risk it.

Static blares in his mind as he opens his communication link, feeling out for who's listening in and smiling to himself when he senses El.

El's favorites are sunflowers, same as him. They're Max's favorites, too, but only because he knows they remind her of El.

‘Sunflowers!’ El says immediately, delighted.

‘Fresh cut,’ he tells her. ‘Want to smell?’

Her presence is suddenly much stronger in his mind, and he dutifully leans in to pull in a deep breath, holds it for a few moments, then lets the honey candy in his mouth settle right over his tongue.

There's a pleased little sigh, a soft touch of gratitude, then she withdraws.

‘When's your next match?’ Lucas asks.

‘In two days,’ Steve replies.

There's no response, not even a wordless one, but Steve knows Lucas well enough to tell that he's disappointed. Two days isn't enough time for him to sneak out, let alone have a Creel sanctioned vacation.

‘It's not the same without you here.’ Dustin's voice is colored with disappointment, too, and Steve can feel the sharpness of what he isn't saying.

‘I know, buddy. I miss you guys, too.’

He wishes he could tell them that it wouldn't be much longer. Steve's got plenty on Henry Creel, more than enough to have made this mission a success already, but they're never going to get an opportunity like this again.

He needs to stay as long as possible.

‘I'll ask for a vacation after my next couple of matches. How did your collaboration with Suzie go?’

Steve listens to the Party over the comm links for a little while longer, just to keep his own longing for home at bay, until he gets out of the busy part of the citydome and has to say goodbye.

His head goes silent as he closes his comm link, and he's alone once more - aside from the ever present trace of Robin, all wrapped up in his neural pathways that are more circuits than synapses these days, but she doesn't count. She's as much a part of him as his own thoughts are.

Tension prickles at the back of his neck when he picks up on footsteps approaching, more purposeful than anyone else passing by. Sure enough, someone falls into step with him, and his head jerks over - then relaxes.

“My liege,” Munson greets, throwing a grin at him.

Steve rolls his eyes. “What do you want?”

He didn't think it was possible, but Munson's smile widens even more.

“To celebrate!” he announces, arms spread as though gesturing to the wide expanse of celebratory pleasures to be had around them.

Which are exactly none, considering Steve'd already passed the pleasure district. He raises one eyebrow to convey just that.

Munson is undeterred.

“Come on, your Majesty,” he cajoles. “Look at you! First time in weeks that a gladiator walked away from a match with barely a scratch on them! Surely such a transcendent performance from the King is worthy of deigning to mingle with the Freak?”

Steve's going to say yes, he already knows he is, but he makes him wait a little longer, making a big show of sighing and crossing his arms and looking him up and down.

It's then that he sees it.

If Steve was everything he was pretending to be and nothing more, he never would have picked up on anything. There's nothing in Munson's demeanor that is any different from the handful of other times they've caught up with each other for a drink after a match.

It's only because his scans pick up so much more that he detects the unsteady beat of Munson's heart, how he holds himself ready the same way he does in the arena.

And the gun tucked in the inside pocket of his leather jacket.

Right.

Looks like he's out of time here, then.

If Steve's honest, he's a little surprised that it's Munson. The rivalry between the Freak and the King is all for show in the arena - not like it is between him and Billy Hargrove or between Munson and Jason “the Prophet” Carver.

If Steve's even more honest, he's disappointed, in more ways than he can spend time sorting through right now.

“Fine,” he says, letting himself sound long suffering. “Where are we going? I'll swing by home to drop these off and meet you there.��

Something tense but otherwise unreadable flickers behind Munson's eyes, and Steve wonders if he's been ordered not to allow him to leave his sight. He doesn't have a choice, though - it's a reasonable request, exactly what Steve would have said if he hadn't caught on, and his only other option is -

“Allow me to accompany you,” Munson says, bowing low in a show of gallantry.

It's a risk.

Steve's never let another gladiator come to his flat before, and there's very little chance that he'd let Munson come now, even if he didn't realize what Munson's true intentions were. He wonders what the back up plan is if he says no, wonders if Munson will do it right here in the open.

“Why?” Steve asks, unable to stop himself from pushing, even though he knows it's a bad idea.

Munson peeks up from his bow, flutters his lashes, all playful exaggeration. “And risk you backing out and abandoning the likes of little ole me?”

“Never backed out before after I've said yes,” Steve points out, digging in. Pushing harder. “Unless you have a reason for inviting yourself over? Maybe a different kind of celebration in mind?”

Munson tips his head back down, but Steve's scanner can pick up the way he swallows, harsh and rough. “Yeah.” It's flat and hollow, and it immediately sounds wrong to Steve's ears. “Yeah, maybe I had something different in mind.”

That's -

Not what Steve was expecting.

Would he, Steve wonders? Would Munson play that card, even though he clearly doesn't want to, even though he kind of sounds like he hates himself a little for it?

“Hey,” Steve says, unbidden. “I'm just messing with you, man. It's fine, you can come with me to drop them off.”

Steve might be well aware that he's going to have to kill Munson, but he doesn't want to be cruel about it.

Munson straightens, his usual smile back on his face, and he checks his shoulder into Steve's hard enough that it stings a little. “Asshole,” he says.

“You're the one who hangs out with me,” Steve replies.

The crowd thins even more as they move into the residential blocks. They're not going in the direction of Steve's flat - but they are going in a direction that he could live in, and it's not like Munson knows where he actually stays. It's not like Munson knows that Steve's already activated his comm link and told the Party his cover's been blown, and that he has to get out of the citydome tonight.

“Hey, Munson?” Steve asks, slowing to a stop.

Munson hums, looking over at him with a brow raised in question.

Steve pulls the extra sunflower that Mrs. Anderson had given him free from the bouquet, tucks it into the front pocket of Munson's jacket.

“I really am sorry about before, I shouldn't have messed with you like that,” he says.

He's sorry about a lot more than that, but this is what he's got.

Munson's lips twist down, and he sighs as he pushes Steve's hands away - though he leaves the sunflower there.

“Steve,” he says, soft and filled with something like regret.

Nothing follows it.

There's a beat where they look at each other, and Steve thinks -

And then there's the sound of harsh laughter, boots dropping onto the ground as someone swings down from one of the platforms overhead.

“King Steve,” Hargrove drawls. “Sweet on the Freak. You're really making it easy to knock you off that throne, aren't you?”

Shit.

Steve's in worse trouble than he thought.

He steps back automatically, shooting a betrayed little look over at Munson - it's one thing for Munson to be planning on killing him, it's another for him to lead Hargrove to him.

But Munson looks surprised, and then furious, and Steve realizes -

Hargrove isn't here for Steve. Or at least, not just for Steve.

“I told Creel you couldn't do it,” Hargrove tells Munson, voice conversational. “You're all bark and no bite, aren't you?”

“Get the fuck out of here, Hargrove,” Munson says tersely, teeth gritted.

“No can do, Junior,” Hargrove replies. “I have to clean up your mess.”

“You set me up,” Munson bites out. “This was never going to be a fair chance, was it?”

Hargrove shrugs, unconcerned. “You want me to drag you back to Creel to explain yourself, or should I just put you out of your misery here?”

The thing is, Steve thinks Munson would have done it before Hargrove showed up. Steve and Munson are friends, maybe, but loyalty to other gladiators only goes so far, and Creel keeps them all under a heavy thumb. It wouldn't have been anything personal - it would have been just what Munson had to do to survive in this place.

The thing is, Steve knows he would have put a bullet in Munson's brain right here. It would have destroyed a piece of him to do it, he can acknowledge that now, but he would have done it without hesitation if it meant keeping the resistance in general - and the Party in specific - safe.

The thing is, even if Hargrove does kill Steve - even if Munson kills Steve, even if he manages to kill Hargrove before he can report back to Creel - Munson is finished, now. Unfair or not, he's failed the test. There's no going back, not if Creel doesn't trust him, and Steve knows Munson's smart enough to have realized that.

The thing is, if Creel suspected Munson enough to have Hargrove follow him to make sure he got the job done, there must be a reason why, and Steve wants to know it.

‘Change of plans,’ he tells Robin, even though he can already feel her at the back of his mind like fingertips ghosting through his hair, downloading his memories until she's caught up. She already knows exactly what he's going to do.

The piece of him that would have died with Eddie Munson finally settles into place, the circuitry that makes up more of him than he usually lets on humming softly in his veins as it adjusts to account for it.

Steve swings around to stand in front of Eddie, and plants his feet.

“If you want him,” he says, and he can hear the echo of it through the static of his communication link, calm and determined.

Steve's never felt more steady than he does when he's standing between a looming threat and one of the people who've become part of the very core of him.

“You'll have to go through me.”

Hargrove sneers at him. “You can barely hold your own against me in the arena.”

“The arena’s all show.” Steve laughs, a little mean. “You think I'm sitting here with prototype Harrington augments and all they've got is what you've seen?”

He's not sure why he's keeping up the pretense that he's nothing more than what he seems. If Creel is sending people to kill him, he has to know Steve's part of the Party. But it's ingrained in him, somehow, to protect them until his last breath, whether it's artificial or not.

The question makes Hargrove scoff, and Steve swings at him.

Hargrove lets it hit, laughs at him again with blood dripping from his mouth, and then -

They've fought in the arena, before. Not often, because they're brutal with each other, and because Creel knows their matches always draw a massive crowd and likes to drag out the tension, keep the audience wanting more.

This is nothing like that.

Despite their brutality, there's an element of safety in arena matches. The punishment for killing one of Creel's gladiators is harsh and swift, and so they're almost never in any real danger.

This is - Steve can see the hatred in Hargrove's eyes, same as he always does, but now there's intent, now Hargrove's own augments have been let loose, and there's more power behind every punch than Steve's ever felt before.

Steve's starting to think the only way he can beat Hargrove is to really let himself go, and it makes his heart quicken, makes the dread in his chest coil tighter and tighter - makes Robin even more present in his mind, makes her whisper ‘you have to, it's okay, I'm here, I won't let you lose yourself,’ -

Until a shot rings out, clipping Hargrove on the shoulder.

It's not that Steve forgot Eddie.

It's just that he kind of assumed that Eddie would run off after Steve took his first swing at Hargrove. It'd been part of the reason that he pulled Hargrove's attention onto himself in the first place.

The expression on Hargrove's face says that he'd assumed the same thing, and he shoots a venomous look over at Eddie.

“Who's cleaning up messes now?” Eddie asks.

Hargrove snarls, drawing his own gun on Eddie, and -

Steve's too close for Eddie to get a clear shot at Hargrove, and by now he's starting to think that Eddie won't take the shot if it means he'll have to shoot through Steve, but he knows damn well Hargrove won't have the same reservations.

‘Robin,’ Steve says, even though she's already there, flooding his mind until she's all he can feel.

He can't lose himself when he does this if he's so much her that they can't separate each other out.

Steve lets go.

Electricity flares under his skin, crackling and humming, and when he grabs Hargrove's hand it immediately shorts out his gun. It flows out - and out and out and out and out, overloading the circuitry of Hargrove’s augment and threatening to burn it through completely if it keeps going, and he needs to -

He needs to -

‘Stop.’

Steve can't tell if it's Robin's voice or his, but it doesn't matter.

It's enough to get him to pull himself back. He lets go of Hargrove, breathing heavily as he shuts himself down. Steve's expecting to have to fight with himself, with the way the power in him wants an outlet, but it simmers back down with little more than a whisper. It's easier than it's ever been before, and he can feel Robin's pride whispering through him.

Steve looks up, just in time to see Eddie pointing his gun at Hargrove.

“Don't,” Steve says, stepping between Eddie and Hargrove.

It isn't the same as when he stood between them last time.

For one, Billy Hargrove isn't exactly conscious. For another - Steve doesn't care about Hargrove himself, not the way every part of his being screamed at him to protect Eddie. The only reason Steve's standing here at all is for Max.

“He'll tell Creel,” Eddie says. “You know if he's still alive, if he gets back to him, we're finished.”

“We're finished here either way,” Steve points out. “And Billy Hargrove isn't our decision to make. It belongs to someone else.”

Eddie looks at him searchingly, for a long moment. “If not you, then who?”

It's a fair demand.

As far as the general public knows, as far as Henry Creel knows - the rivalry between Billy Hargrove and Steve Harrington is as intimate as it is intense. Steve would be lying if he pretended like he didn't know that there was a fan favorite theory that there was something more behind their fights.

But it's never been true. Steve's only ever hated Hargrove for what he did to Lucas and Max.

“Come with me,” Steve says. “And I'll introduce you to her.”

Eddie's eyes are dark, unreadable.

Except -

Except.

Except Steve can read into them, can read hesitancy, longing, hope.

He reaches out, snags Eddie's hand, links their fingers together.

“Come with me,” Steve says again. “And I'll protect you.”

“Okay,” Eddie says, soft and almost surprised. “Okay.”

#steve harrington #steddie #eddie munson #stranger things #steddie fic #robin buckley #stobin #dustin henderson #pre steddie #cyberpunk au #but also kind of a gladiator au and a dystopian resistance au?#yeah i have no idea what this is #meant to be a one-shot but i might do a few more

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loveinhawkins · 1 year

Text

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4

As soon as Robin and Nancy enter the room, the first thing out of Eddie’s mouth is a frantic, “What's Steve’s phone number? I need to—need to check something—”

His heart thuds in anticipation, an impatient buzzing sensation creeping across his skin, and he kind of gets it now, why everyone else was so quick to roll with the punches throughout everything while he was left reeling; having something to solve means that there’s somewhere for all that nervous energy to go. Means he isn’t just sitting around, waiting for...

Robin reels off the number with precision, and when Eddie hesitates in the doorway, glancing back, she adds, “We’ll keep watch.” She catches Nancy’s eye, and they exchange a look, as if they can sense what Eddie is feeling, as if they can feel it, too: a mixture of worry and hope.

Eddie nods, grateful, and runs. He wants the confirmation first before he tells them anything, can’t shake the fear that perhaps, alone and half-asleep, he imagined that flicker of awareness on Steve’s face...

His call is picked up after barely two rings. Max dully parrots the number back to him, along with an uncharacteristically formal, “Who’s speaking, please?”, and if the circumstances were less dire, Eddie would have the time to enjoy that: the idea of Steve teaching the kids how to answer his own phone, simply because they must be over often enough for it to be necessary.

“Hey, Red,” he says as gently as he can, but some urgency must still seep through; he can hear her inhale sharply.

“What is it? Is Steve—?”

“Wait, listen. I just need Dustin to take a look at something for me, okay? Shit, no, his foot—in Steve’s room, there should be a tape in a drawer. It’ll—” He has to stop talking suddenly, recalling the horror all over again of finding that empty cassette case. “It’ll just be loose in there, no case.”

He hears Max half cover the receiver, hears her shout, “Lucas!” She relays the information to him, and Dustin’s voice comes through, calling after them both: “What’s going on?”

“Just wait at the stairs for Lucas, Dustin. Oh my god, use your crutches!” Then she must be speaking properly into the phone again, because her voice is an undertone. “This is for Steve’s song, right?”

“I...” Eddie sighs. “God, I hope so.”

They both fall quiet, and Eddie listens to Dustin’s echoing complaints at Lucas taking too long; the sound of Erica running up the stairs to help in the search.

“I would’ve given him my tape,” Max says, barely above a whisper. “If it would’ve helped.”

Eddie is speechless for a moment, then quietly clicks his tongue in sympathy. “Ah fuck, Max. I know you would’ve.” He laughs a little, tries and fails to ward off another wave of emotion. “He wouldn’t have let you, though. Not a chance in hell.”

She scoffs, sounds a little teary herself. “Yeah, I know.”

There’s a distant shout of triumph. “We’ve found it!” Lucas yells.

The line crackles briefly as the phone is passed over, and then Dustin is speaking, chanting, “Holy shit, holy shit,” over and over again, clearly having made the same connection as Max. “Um, Breakaway by Art Garfunkel?”

Eddie chews on his thumb nervously. It sounds right, but... “Could you read out the track list?” He can't stifle a gasp when Dustin says, “My little town,” and that leads to an explosion of noise on the other end.

“Holy shit,” Dustin repeats. “That's his song, isn’t it?”

Eddie can’t speak. He nods uselessly, before finally managing a shaky, “Yeah.”

Things start to become a blur; it’s only thanks to adrenaline that exhaustion doesn’t bring Eddie to a complete standstill. Still on the phone with Dustin, he realises that it’s almost three in the morning and while he’s itching for that tape, he knows damn well that if he has barely slept, then neither has Dustin.

“Oh, ew,” Dustin says when he brings this up. “Get it together, Eddie, you’re not the babysitter.”

“But Steve gave me a schedule and everything,” Eddie says sweetly.

And that elicits a giggle out of Dustin (a proper giggle! After everything! Jesus Christ, he loves this kid), which makes him laugh, too; but he has to quickly stop himself before it dissolves into something else.

After a reluctant but genuine promise from Dustin to sleep for at least a few hours, Eddie then sprints back to Steve’s room to catch the girls up with everything.

He delivers a quiet snippet of the song to demonstrate, weak with relief when he sees that little crease of concentration return to Steve’s face.

Robin, who is holding Steve’s hand again, gives a breathy, near silent scream. “Oh my god, his finger twitched, oh my god.” Then, deadly serious, she adds, “Eddie, I could kiss you.”

Eddie, feeling like he’s pitching towards hysteria, only just stops himself from saying something like, “Well, that would be hilarious for two reasons.”

Instead he just laughs, tries to keep singing. But it quickly feels like every part of him is trembling uncontrollably, and Nancy clocks it just as his voice fails at the start of a verse.

“Get some rest, Eddie,” she says firmly. “You’re the only one who hasn’t had a break.”

But he hesitates at the hospital entrance. He’d had a vague thought of going to Steve’s house to check up on the kids but, after a week of hiding, he can’t really wrap his head around the idea of just calling a cab out in the open.

But then, as if he’d heard his internal dilemma, Wayne meets him by one of the front doors.

“Let’s go, kid. Got us a hotel a couple blocks away, they’re giving out rooms for free.”

They walk there together, Wayne guiding Eddie with an arm around his elbow, like he can sense his exhaustion. Their door is at the very end of a floor, a little distance away from the other rooms. It’s quiet. Peaceful.

When they get inside, the first thing Eddie notices is that it must be two adjoining rooms, a door embedded into one of the walls left slightly open. Then he looks around and freezes.

Because his guitars are there. There’s somehow hardly any damage, just a faint scratch on the surface of the electric guitar, and some of the paint spelling out ‘This machine slays dragons’ has chipped off on the acoustic—barely anything. Eddie would rather they both have been smashed to pieces, if it meant that Steve would’ve been spared.

“You... you went to the trailer,” he says, stunned.

“Sure did.”

“And...” Eddie tries to avoid Wayne’s gaze, knows that his face is probably cycling through too many emotions to count. “And it was... okay?”

Wayne sighs. “It was pretty banged up, Eddie.”

Oh, Eddie thinks, and this time he does feel more than hysterical. He thinks I've not seen it.

“But, like, that was... it?” He doesn't really know how to ask ‘no portals to another dimension? No gigantic cracks in the earth?’ without, well, asking about it.

He chances a glance at Wayne, watches him raise an eyebrow. “Why the hell you askin’ that? What else would there have been?”

“Oh, no reason,” Eddie says, high-pitched and strained. On the bedspread he can see a little bundle of his clothes has been salvaged, and he already knows in his bones that there’ll be significantly more of his own things rescued compared to Wayne’s.

Wayne gives a small, knowing smile. “It’s just stuff, Eddie.” He nods in the direction of the shower. “Go on, now.”

The shower is an arduous but therapeutic task: just taking off his bloodied shirt feels like he’s shedding just a little bit of the horror of the night behind. Afterwards, Eddie stretches out on the bed; through the wall, he can hear Wayne talking on the phone to one of his colleagues. He makes out something about an earthquake hitting, about the colleague’s daughter in a car wreck, and he holds his breath, listens closer... but it sounds like she’s okay. Jesus H. Christ, he can’t take another fucking tragedy.

He feels his chin dipping down to his chest, and he sniffs sharply, rubs a hand over his face. It’s as if when resting, his body has finally given itself permission to feel every ache: his knee throbs dully from where he had fallen in The Upside Down, and his limbs are as heavy as lead.

Eddie groans, forces himself to sit up. He reaches for the acoustic guitar, mutters a little, “C’mon,” when he catches himself drifting too close to sleep. He has work to do.

He gets the chords down in fits and starts, plays the song on a loop until it feels like it’s a case of muscle memory, ingrained into some deep part of him. Soon even his fingers feel too heavy to lift, and he swears he’s only stopping for a moment, just to rest, just for a minute...

He wakes under the blankets. His guitar has been propped up by the end of the bed, and he can faintly hear the phone ringing in the room next door, Wayne answering it gruffly.

Eddie sits up at the sound of a soft rap on the wall. He rubs at his eyes; he’s slept so deeply that he can feel the mark of a pillow crease on his cheek.

Wayne enters through the adjoining door, says, quietly bemused, “Mornin’. There’s a Dustin Henderson waiting for you at the hospital. That make sense to you?”

“Yeah. Shit.” Eddie stifles a yawn into the crook of his elbow. “What time s’it?”

“’Bout eight.”

Eddie pushes himself off the bed. Wayne watches him with interest, eyebrows raising when he grabs the acoustic guitar.

“You need that for the hospital?”

“Mhm.”

He's put on his jacket, ready to leave, when he catches Wayne still looking at him.

“What?”

“You always lose your words when you’re hiding something,” Wayne says mildly enough, but Eddie can still hear the worry underneath.

“Wayne, I’m not in danger,” Eddie reassures. “I’m not the one who…”

“That Henderson boy mentioned something about Steve Harrington?”

“Yeah. He—” Eddie has to grip onto the door handle for a moment. “He’s the friend who—he died trying to—to save us. All of us. But then, he—his heart started beating again, fuck, I don’t even know how, Wayne, he died in my fucking arms—”

“Shh now, take a breath. This was… in the earthquake?” Wayne asks delicately. He says ‘earthquake’ with the same skepticism he holds when repeating Eddie’s words back to him, whenever Eddie breezily says, “Oh, I just had a thing,” instead of, “I got a detention.”

Eddie nods slowly, makes a vague gesture with his hand meaning sort of. Close enough. “We’ve… we’ve got a plan. To bring him back.”

“Something the doctors can’t do?”

“Damn it, Wayne, I told you, there’s stuff I can’t—”

“All right, all right.” Wayne raises his hands slowly in placation.

“No, I’m sorry. It’s just… I don't know if it’ll work,” Eddie says, voice faltering. “Don’t know if I’ll—if it’ll be enough."

Wayne considers him with a long look. He crosses the room to squeeze Eddie’s shoulder and his hand stays there, a reassuring warmth. “You’re a smart kid, Eddie. Reckon you’d best see it through.”

They reunite in Steve’s room: Eddie, Robin, Nancy, Dustin. Robin has brought a few extra tapes from her parents’ collection, including the Paul Simon album that also features the track. Dustin has Steve’s original tape along with a casette player.

Before Eddie’s arrival, they had tried playing the song a few times over but, by the fourth play-through, Steve’s heart had started beating alarmingly fast.

“Shit,” Eddie says, his own heart plummeting. “What happened?”

“One of the nurses said it was like he was... having a panic attack,” Dustin says quietly. He exhales in frustration. “I don't get it, Max only had to hear a bit of Kate Bush before she came back.”

Through a nerve-wracking amount of experimentation, they work out a routine that doesn't send the heart monitor screeching in warning: every hour on the hour, they play through the song once via a cassette, then Eddie picks up his guitar and sings. Steve’s thoughtful expression gets the tiniest bit more pronounced each time, like an opaque window slowly becoming clear, bit by bit.

When Robin takes Dustin away for a late lunch, Eddie finally asks the question.

“Hey, Wheeler? Why’s it just... us here?”

Nancy is slowly rewinding one of the tapes with a pen, but at Eddie’s words, she stops. He can tell by her face that he doesn’t need to elaborate; she knows what he’s asking.

Because the thought that Eddie cannot get away from is the fact that, if he were in Steve’s position, Wayne would have been here, would have moved heaven and earth to stay by his side.

“I...” She sighs. “I don't think they've ever come, Eddie.”

They’re silent for a moment, as if they both need to take the vastness of that in.

“In ’83, he stayed at mine for Christmas,” Nancy goes on. “And at the time... God, I can't even remember, maybe I thought it was a little weird that he didn't even—like, there wasn’t even a phone call, you know? But he just made it out like it was normal, so I... I didn’t...” She sighs again. “You know how... like, at school, people would be like, ‘Oh, I came in drunk, my parents went crazy,’ but you could tell that they were fine, that they were just... playing it up?”

“Yeah.”

“I think he was the opposite,” Nancy says. She looks at Steve, her lips pressed thin. “I think he said just enough to... hide behind it, does that make sense? I didn't see.” She tuts at herself, raises her eyes to the ceiling. “I remember thinking, sure, he might say ‘my dad is an asshole,’ but no-one who actually says that is serious; look at him, how bad could he have it?”

Eddie thinks of himself saying, Rich parents, popular. He feels sick.

“I didn't see either,” he says.

Nancy smiles sadly. “That's the thing,” she says. “I don't think he wanted anyone to.”

Eddie stays overnight at the hospital. “I can't leave him,” he tells Wayne over the phone, and while he's waiting for Nancy to give Dustin and Robin a ride home, he finds that a bag has been left for him at reception, containing more clothes and his toothbrush, and his breath catches a little at the sight.

The staff have told him not to play any music past eleven at night, and Eddie almost fights them on it, like, oh yeah, well that didn’t stop that radio playing at whatever-the-fuck o’clock. But then he looks at Steve’s face, at the drawn eyebrows, and realises that he looks...

Pained.

Alone in the room, Eddie finally sets his guitar down.

“You tired?” he murmurs.

He tentatively reaches out, brushes a couple of his fingers across Steve’s forehead, as gently as he can. When he draws back, he finds that the lines of tension have dissipated, but the stillness doesn’t look so unnatural; it feels like Steve is still there.

It just looks like he’s sleeping, Eddie thinks, and he blinks hard.

“S’okay,” he says softly. “Just rest, Steve. I’m right here.”

“Mm, damn, I think that was pitchy, dude,” Dustin says, far too brightly for nine in the morning.

Eddie gives the guitar a warning strum and flips Dustin off. “That wasn’t funny the fifth time you said it, dude.”

But his tone is far too fond to even fake annoyance. Dustin is clearly in much better spirits today, largely helped by the fact that he’s brought in his walkie. Every so often, Lucas or Max will call in from Steve’s, crowing about some discovery they’ve made in the house.

“He has a VHS collection that's just musicals,” Lucas intones gravely, as Max cackles in the background.

“Tragic,” Dustin says.

And Eddie can’t resist his own curiosity. “Which ones?”

Lucas recites the titles and Dustin gives a wheezy laugh at, “The Sound of Music.”

“Imagine if The Lonely Goatherd was your song,” he says with pity to Steve—and Eddie counts that as a goddamn victory, because it's the first time Dustin has properly acknowledged Steve’s presence; speaking teasingly, as if Steve can hear him.

“I’d still sing it,” Eddie replies, and he means to sound light-hearted, but Dustin must hear something else, because he looks over at Eddie, and his expression softens.

“Yeah,” he says quietly, smiling. “You would.”

Some time after noon, Dustin leaves to raid the vending machines for the pair of them. Eddie has played through the song twice to mark the hour, feeling calmer than he has in days; something in him has settled through the ritual of it.

He’s doodling on the back of his hand with the biro Nancy left behind when he hears the familiar click of the walkie, but no-one starts speaking.

He picks it up. “Sinclair,” he says, “you’re pressing the—”

That’s when he hears it.

A faint crackle. Someone breathing, gasping and catching their breath at frequent intervals. They’re crying.

“Oh, God,” comes the whisper, and Eddie knows that voice. “I—I don’t know where I am.” Eddie holds the walkie with a white-knuckled grip.

“I don’t know where I am,” Steve Harrington repeats, cracked and desperate. “God, please, I—I don’t—”

“Steve!” Eddie shouts into the walkie. “Can you hear me? Come on, man, I’m right—”

But then Steve’s voice is abruptly cut off, replaced with static.

Eddie swears vehemently, drops the walkie and flies to the bed. There doesn’t seem to be any change—if anything, Steve looks peaceful.

But no. He looks harder, feels a tug of doubt and follows his instinct, swipes his thumb underneath Steve’s eyelashes, feather-light. Feels a dampness there.

And then he sees two tears leak out of the corner of Steve’s closed eyes, trail across to his temples.

“Fuck,” Eddie says. “I don’t—Steve, I don’t know what to do.”

I can’t reach him.

The door opens.

“I got one of everything! But oh my god, Eddie, Nancy called and she says that Mike says they’re—what’s wrong?”

“I heard him,” Eddie says. He gestures to the walkie. “But I couldn’t—I couldn’t help—Dustin.” His voice breaks. “He sounded so scared.”

Dustin runs to the walkie, leaves his crutches behind with a clatter. He tries it multiple times, saying Steve’s name urgently, but there’s no reply.

The tears have dried on Steve’s face. Eddie sits down wordlessly and puts his head in his hands. When he looks up, Dustin is kneeling in front of him.

“El can reach him,” Dustin says, and Eddie doesn’t know what the hell that even means; but Dustin’s eyes are wide, and Eddie clings to the conviction in his voice. “She has to.”

#steddie #steddie fic #the self sacrificial steve agenda #steve x eddie #eddie munson #steve harrington #wayne munson #dustin henderson #nancy wheeler #robin buckley #max mayfield

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dwobbitfromtheshire · 10 months

Text

Summary: Eddie takes care of Steve’s bat bites instead of the other way around. Eddie left unscathed after they defeated Vecna, and Steve could no longer ignore the pain from his wounds. Eddie takes care of him.

Eddie closed his eyes tightly as he lay on the ground, waiting for the bats to bite into his flesh. It never came. He opened his eyes to find Dustin leaning over him and scowling.

"The bats are all dead, dumbass," Dustin said. "And I think my ankle is sprained."

"Shit! Why the hell did you follow me?!" Eddie yelled as he jumped up.

"Because I love you, and I wanted to stop you from doing something stupid!" Dustin yelled.

"By also doing something stupid?!" Eddie asked.

"Well, I may be smart, but I'm also stupid!" Dustin said.

"So, we both agree. . .we're both dumbasses!" Eddie screamed.

"With really big hearts," Dustin said softly.

Eddie rolled his eyes and helped back through the other side of the gate. Eddie set him on the couch and helped wrap his ankle.

"I love you too, man," Eddie said. "You're like the child and pet I never wanted."

"Thanks," Dustin said sarcastically.

When the others got back through the gate, they all watched as it closed behind them, and then Steve turned to them. He put his hands on his hips.

"I thought I told you not to be a hero, Dustin," Steve said.

"It wasn't me. It was Eddie who bought you more time!" Dustin said.

"He wasn't supposed to follow me!" Eddie exclaimed.

"Seriously, Eddie?" Steve asked.

"What?! You can't spank me! You're not my real mom!" Eddie yelled.

"Let's just go get the others and get the fuck out of here," Steve said, sighing and pinching his nose.

"We can't go to Nancy's house. The cops will be waiting for us there," Dustin said.

"Steve’s house it is, then," Robin said.

When they picked up Max and Lucas, they were alarmed to find Lucas's face bruised to hell.

"Jason," he explained as Steve drove away from the Creel House.

"Fuck! Sorry, Lucas," Eddie said.

"It's not your fault. I'm sorry that I ever followed that psycho in the first place," Lucas said.

"And I'm sorry that I wasn't more supportive of you playing basketball," Eddie said.

"And I'm sorry that I have to sit here and listen to this dumbass conversation," Erica said.

They gathered in Steve's living room, where Robin began telling them how she got frustrated when they were killing Vecna. She told them in great detail about how she grabbed the axe from Steve’s bag and split Vecna down the middle. While she was talking, Eddie noticed Steve slip away. He made sure that everyone was watching her before following Steve. He wasn't sure why he did it, but he felt like he needed to. He found Steve leaning over the sink in one of the upstairs bathroom.

"You okay, man?" Eddie asked.

"Yeah, I'm okay, I'm fine," Steve said.

"Well, you said okay and fine right next to each other. You're leaning heavily against the counter there," Eddie said.

"It's nothing that I can't handle," Steve said, wincing.

"Except from what I saw of this group, you guys tend to do things together," Eddie said and then paused, tilting his head. "Oh, it's because you're so used to doing things by yourself. You sit in this big empty house, all alone. How many times have your parents left you all alone here? Left you to do things on your own?"

"Man, for someone who's misread me completely earlier, you knocked it out of the ballpark with that one," Steve replied, sniffling.

"What do you mean?" Eddie asked.

"You misread the situation with Nancy all wrong," Steve said. "She cares about me, but she doesn't. . .not anymore."

"Shit, man, I'm sorry," Eddie winced.

Steve sighed. He took off his jacket and then struggled to take off his shirt. Eddie came by and helped him take off his shirt. Eddie winced at the road rash on Steve’s back and arm.

"You also completely misread me too," Steve said. "I mean, I knew as soon as I told her that it wasn't Nancy I wanted."

"Has anyone seen these?" Eddie asked. "You got a first aid kit or something?"

"Down there," Steve said, pointing to the bottom left cabinet.

Eddie pulled out a big first aid box and whistled at the sight of it. He washed his hands, grabbed a wet rag, and began to clean the wounds. He looked for any signs of infection and pulled out little bits of Upside Down debris as he dragged the rag as gently as he could across his skin. Steve still shuddered and winced, though. He grabbed the antibiotic ointment and began to slather it across Steve’s wounds.

"So, this other girl that you're interested in," Eddie said. "Is it Robin?"

"Ew, no," Steve said.

"Should I be insulted on her behalf?" Eddie chuckled.

"It's not a girl that I'm interested in," Steve said.

"Oh. . .Oh! Well, that's cool, man. I don't judge," Eddie said. "It would be weird if I did, though, considering that I like guys too."

"Uh, Eddie, I'm not wounded there," Steve said.

"Shit, man, sorry," Eddie said when he realized how low on his back his hands had dipped.

"I didn't say stop. You're really good with your hands," Steve said.

Eddie blushed as he continued to massage his backside. Eddie stopped when he saw in the mirror that Steve was closing his eyes and biting his lip. He refocused his brain and remembered what he was doing and washed his hands again. He wrapped up his wounds carefully. His hands drifted to the dirty bandage around his middle.

"I should take a look at these too," Eddie said.

Steve turned around to give him better access. The bites had bitten low, and Eddie winced. Any lower and they would have. . .Eddie did NOT want to think about that. Steve gave him the nod to go ahead and do whatever he needed to do. Eddie unbuttoned his pants and pushed them down slightly. Jason Carver, think about the fact that he's hunting you down, Eddie thought. Anything other than this. He did the same with the bat bites: washed them, looked for any sign of infection, and put on some fresh bandages after putting on more oinment.

"I don't think I would be able to take a shower, but I feel gross so a rag bath would have to do," Steve muttered.

"Can you even bend down?" Eddie asked.

"I have been having some trouble in that department," he said softly.

"Then it looks like I'm going to have to wash you down, big boy," Eddie said. "That is, if you really want to get clean."

"Can you wash my hair first?" Steve asked.

He looked so vulnerable in that moment as if he were asking Eddie to do something sacred. Eddie cupped his jaw, smiling and flashing his dimples in soft, closed smile.

"Sure thing," Eddie said.

"There's a shower chair in the closet," Steve muttered.

Eddie pulled the chair up to the sink and gathered his shampoos and conditioners together. He pushed Steve gently into the chair and tilted his head back to run water over his head with a cup. Eddie tried to focus on what Steve instructed him to do, but it was difficult when Steve’s throat was so exposed and he was gazing at Eddie with his gorgeous hazel eyes of his. Eddie ran his fingers through his hair as he began to massage his scalp. Steve closed his eyes and moaned. Eddie cursed mentally. Focus, Munson. After he finished washing his hair, Steve gave him a look so soft it made Eddie's insides melt. Steve placed a hand on his hip.

"Thank you for doing that," Steve said. "I've never let anyone do that for me before."

"You make me sound special," Eddie said. "A guy could get used to that."

"You are special, Eddie," Steve said and pulled him closer, wrapping his arms around his waist. "Dustin told me that it was a big deal for you to give me your vest. You could have given me your jacket."

"You are a big deal, Steve Harrington," Eddie replied softly.

Steve pulled him down, so now he was straddling his leg. He grasped the back of Eddie's neck and kissed him. Eddie eagerly kissed him back before pulling back as he remembered how injured Steve was. He placed a quick peck on Steve’s lips before standing up.

"If we continue any further, we're going to have a problem," Eddie muttered. "Let's get you clean. I think I'm going to need a shower after this."

"A cold one?" Steve asked teasingly.

"Fuck off," he laughed. "Remove your damn pants."

"You're going to have to remove my shoes," Steve said.

Eddie got on his knees and started to wonder if Steve wanted him in the position, but then he took off his shoes along with this socks. Eddie gasped.

"I didn't think about you walking around down there without any shoes," Eddie said. "Gonna have to clean your feet, too."

Eddie helped him slip off his pants and started with his feet. One of his ankles looked bruised. He was going to have to wrap that. Steve coughed awkwardly and began to pull at his boxers. Eddie raised his eyebrows.

"Don't worry, I'll clean that," Steve said, blushing. "It's just starting to feel uncomfortable."

"Gotchya, it's not a problem," Eddie said. "It feels a lot less sexual than it should be. It feels more. . ."

"Intimate?" Steve asked.

"Yeah, is it weird that I like it?" Eddie asked.

"I like it too," Steve said. "And when I get better, I am so returning the favor."

"You going to wash my hair too, Stevie?" Eddie asked.

"Definitely, and from here on out, you are the only other person who is allowed to wash my hair," Steve replied.

"Right back at ya," Eddie grinned and kissed him.

It really was very intimate, and it was almost scary how much he loved it. He's never had a relationship like this. Well, he's never had a relationship at all because who would want to date the Freak? Turns out, it was Steve Harrington. What the fuck? He smiled in disbelief and looked up at Steve. He leaned his head against Steve’s chest, the only part that wasn't injured. Steve sighed and wrapped his arms around Eddie. Suddenly, it was like all of Eddie's problems faded away. He hadn't been dragged to an alternate dimension. He hadn't been framed for murder and Jason Carver wasn't out for his blood. All was good in Steve Harrington's arms. The door burst open suddenly, and Eddie hugged him tighter to protect Steve’s bits. It was Robin. She stood in the doorway with wide eyes.

"What the fuck? Okay, I just came in here for the first aid kit for Lucas," she said, grabbing the kit. "And when I got back, everyone is going to be fully clothed. I want to talk about your intentions towards my best friend because he's been used for sex before and as his best friend - "

"Robin! He's tending to my wounds," Steve said, blushing.

"I'm sorry, did a bat bite you on your - "

"Robin!"

"Right! Leaving!"

"You're going to need some clothes," Eddie realized, laughing. "I'll get you some."

"Grab yourself some too," Steve said.

Once he helped Steve get dressed and wrapped his foot, he started undressing for his shower. He made it into a show for Steve, making music with his mouth as he dramatically pulled off an article of clothing. Once he was naked, he wiggled his ass at Steve and popped his foot at him before hopping into the shower.

"Don't make me laugh," Steve giggled. "And do you have the letter M tattooed on the bottom of your foot?"

"It's a W, for Wayne," Eddie replied.

Once he was showered, he wrapped an arm around Steve’s waist and walked them to his room. He laid Steve on the bed.

"I am so wired," Eddie said as he hopped around Steve’s room.

"There's a bookshelf in my closet," Steve said.

Eddie opened the door and gasped.

"There are books!" Eddie said.

"Jocks can read, you know," Steve said sarcastically.

"That's not what I meant! I was just pleasantly surprised!" Eddie said quickly, and Steve laughed. "You were just messing with me, weren't you? You dick. Hmm, there are a lot of mysteries here. I prefer science fiction and fantasy myself, but I do enjoy a good mystery every once in a while. Ooh, I see a couple of romance novels here. Steve Harrington, you naughty boy."

"Uh, they're not mine," Steve blushed.

"Yeah, sure, okkkay. Oh! A book about cats solving mysteries! Yes!" Eddie said.

"I actually just picked that up from a thrift store," Steve said. "Haven't read it yet."

"Purrrfect."

He crawled into bed next to Steve and leaned against the headboard as he cracked open the book. He pulled Steve to his chest and began to read. A moment later, Robin came to check on them and popped her head into Steve’s room. She smiled. They were fast asleep in each other's arms. Her best friend was in good hands. Robin turned and started heading back downstairs.

"I guess this means that I'll be looking after the kids," she muttered.

#stranger things #eddie munson #stranger things s4 #joseph quinn #eddie stranger things #eddie munson lives #steve harrington #steddie #steve x eddie #steve harrington x eddie munson #steddie fanfiction #the party #steddie au #rueleigh writes

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rogueddie · 1 year

Text

The entire group hadn't been back to Hawkins, all at once, in nearly 20 years.

The last time they were truly all together was the Christmas before Eddie left for Chicago and Nancy left for college, back in 87, the first to 'escape'. Though, it didn't take many years for everyone else to follow their lead.

Steve is the only one who stayed behind. But he didn't think it was all that bad. Robin had moved back to Indy city once she finished college, so she visited often. He's not truly alone, even if it does feel like it... most of the time.

2007 is a good year though. It's the first year that Eddie comes back to Hawkins. They've been having little reunions with as many of the group as they can, every Christmas. But there's always a few people too busy- Eddie is always one, always on tour or writing or recording.

Not this year though. And Steve is finally excited, looking forward to something so much that it buzzes under his skin.

The others are already there once Eddie arrives, the last to arrive. Steve reluctantly hangs back, trying to downplay his excitement as he watches Dustin and Erica shove their way ahead of the others, trying to greet him first.

He looks great, Steve notes. Healthy.

"And Harrington," Eddie finally greets, already saying his hellos to everyone else. "I see the crows feet only add to your charm, shame on you."

"Yeah, it's good to see you too."

Eddie laughs, eyes scrunching up, dragging Steve into a hug. Steve is happy to note that he lingers, forehead pressing down against his collar for a moment before he steps back.

"Come on, it's Christmas Eve! We're all together, at long last! Put some music on, get the alcohol!" Eddie snaps.

Everyone does as asked and, soon, Steves usually cold, empty house is full of music and laughter. The burn of cheap alcohol warming his stomach and the smell of Eddie and Argyles weed filling the air are an old but familiar comfort that he hadn't realized how much he'd been aching for.

Steve sits in the corner, on his own.

For a moment, he just wants to watch everyone else. To look around his living room, so full of people that Mike, Robin, Argyle and Lucas are sat on the floor. So full of people that Max had grabbed El with shaking hands, pulling her onto her lap, coaxing her into sharing her wheelchair.

As soon as Eddie wiggles out of the corner he'd squeezed himself into, Mike and Lucas are fighting for the space. Mike only wins, sitting down on the sofa with a smug grin, before Will helps him.

Eddie sits down on the little side table, next to Steve.

"How've you been holding up?"

"I've been good. Not as good as you, though. The Rolling Stones, huh?"

"Oh, uh, you saw that?" Eddie smiles a little sheepish. "Yeah, it's... it's been getting crazy. I don't know how it happened. One day we're a small, underground thing and the next, we're almost mainstream."

"Underground," Steve parrots, snorting. "Your first single was played on the radio. You guys have always been big."

"You listen to us, Harrington?"

"Of course. And, you know, I have a first name."

"Really?" Eddie gasps, throwing a hand to his chest. "By the Gods!"

"I know, crazy!"

They fall silent, watching the new little fight breaking out. By the yelling, Steve guesses that Dustin stole one of the pieces of candy that Mike is eating.

"I missed this," Eddie quietly admits. "I'm sorry I didn't come back sooner."

"Nah, you were busy with-"

"I wasn't. I wasn't busy. I lied to just... avoid this. Avoid Hawkins. And it's... it's not good being back, I won't lie. But it's... seeing the kids again, seeing- seeing you... it's..."

Steve waits a moment. "What?"

"It makes it worth it. It makes me wish I never left."

"You had to. Corroded Coffin was your dream and you made it happen."

"I know, I just... sometimes I wonder. You know, maybe I could've been happier here. Maybe I could've... I don't know."

"Maybe. But you're happy now, right? And you're so successful! You're doing everything you said you dreamt of doing."

"Mhm..." Eddie hesitates again, for another long pause. "Robin said that you... you're bi."

"Yeah?" Steve frowns, turning to face him a little, wondering where he's going.

"I keep thinking that, I don't know... maybe if I'd stayed..."

Steve nearly presses a hand to his chest, so sure that his heart must have missed a beat. "Wh-what? We... we could've..."

"Yeah, maybe," Eddie whispers. He tugs a strand of hair in front of his face, eyes peaking out at him. "It's just a thought. Or something. I don't know."

"I mean... you're here now."

"What, you wanna give it a shot?" Eddie laughs, shaking his head. "We're going on tour again, in a couple weeks. There's no point in-"

"There is. I mean... if you want to try, I'm willing to, like, put in the effort. We could make it work."

Eddie laugh turns into more a sigh, an almost dreamy look taking over his face. "You're sure?"

"I am." He reaches over, grabbing his hand. "I really am."

"Steve Harrington... Merry fucking Christmas to me, huh?"

#stranger things #steve harrington #eddie munson #steddie #steddie fic #ficlet #christma22k

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ghosttotheparty · 1 year

Note

Can you do Nr. 51. “If this was a romantic comedy, we would’ve kissed by now.” for Steddie?

almost squealed out loud when i read this prompt it’s so cute cw: mention of drug use

51. If this was a romantic comedy, we would’ve kissed by now. (also changed this slightly to fit) dialogue prompts!!

“When’d my life turn into a fuckin’ horror movie?”

Steve looks up at Eddie’s voice, finding him pulling the laces of his shoes tighter, his hair hiding his face. When his laces are done he falls back in his seat, leaning against the wall, looking outside at where the others are still… Preparing, Steve guesses, is the best word for it.

The kids are figuring out the spears and shields, Nancy is showing Robin how to shoot the sawed-off shotgun. Just in case.

“That’s a good question,” Steve mutters, following his gaze to watch.

“Looks like… some kinda indie movie,” Eddie says, watching as Max makes fun of Lucas and Erica laughs, pointing at him.

“One with a happy ending?” Steve asks softly.

“…Yeah.”

“We’ll go with that, then.”

Steve reaches down to tighten his shoelaces again. Just because.

“If this were a chick flick you’d be back with Wheeler already,” Eddie says snarkily, and Steve suppresses an eye-roll.

“Good thing it’s not a chick flick, then,” he mutters.

“I thought you liked her,” Eddie says, leaning back comfortably, like they’re best buds, just hanging out, instead of preparing to fight to prevent the end of the world.

“Yeah, I did,” Steve says. “Past tense.”

“Uh-huh,” Eddie says doubtfully.

“She’s cool,” Steve says, re-tying his shoes after tangling the laces. “But we’re… we wouldn’t work out. We’re friends.”

“Uh-huh.” He sounds less doubtful.

“And don’t even start telling me to ask Robin out,” Steve says, exasperated. “Dustin will not leave me alone about that.”

He expected a Why not? but Eddie just laughs in a way that makes his nose scrunch up adorably.

“Nah, I wouldn’t do that,” Eddie says. “I gotta feeling you’re not really her type.”

Steve snorts.

“Definitely not.”

He finishes with his laces, sighing and leaning back. They’re quiet for a moment, like neither of them wants to leave.

“If you could pick a movie genre for your life,” Eddie says, “what would you pick?”

“Uhm.” Steve sighs. “Maybe comedy.”

“Eh.” Eddie makes a face. Steve laughs softly.

“What’s wrong with comedy?”

“Nothing,” Eddie says. “But so much of it is based on, like, embarrassing moments. I think if my life was a comedy, I’d wanna kill myself.”

Steve laughs again, shifting in his seat.

“What would you choose, then?”

Eddie looks up at him, staring blankly, quietly, his eyes flicking across Steve’s face for a moment, and curiosity builds in Steve’s chest.

“Maybe one of those weird art films,” Eddie says finally, but Steve feel like he’s lying. “That doesn’t really make any sense. No plot.”

“That’s what you’d want your life to be?”

Eddie shrugs.

“Kinda feels like that’s what my life already is.”

Steve laughs softly, turning back to look out the window. Dustin and Lucas are sword fighting with the spears as Max and Erica watch, shaking their heads, probably calling them nerds. Robin and Nancy are chucking pine cones at a tree, aiming for something Steve can’t see from here.

“Yeah,” he says quietly. “Me too.”

Eddie moves to sit next to him, looking out the window, watching the kids with a soft smile on his face.

“We can make it something else,” he says softly. “Some kinda fantasy, sci-fi… something.”

“One where the good guys win,” Steve adds quietly, tracing Eddie’s profile with his eyes. The bridge of his nose, the curve of his eyelashes, his lips.

Eddie’s smile widens as he watches the kids before he looks at Steve, meeting his eyes.

“Yeah,” he says. “One where the good guys win.”

Steve sighs. He wants to fall against him, to bury his face in his neck and hold him close until everything passes them by. Until it’s all over.

But he can’t do that.

“Well,” he says quietly, clapping Eddie on the back and standing. “Into battle, then.”

—————————

The bandage on Eddie’s cheek itches.

It’s driving him a little crazy, but he doesn’t touch it. He’s sitting on his own hands.

The hallway he’s in is almost silent, except for the ticking of the clock on the wall and the quiet, muffled, distant noises of the hospital. And Steve’s and Robin’s breathing.

Steve’s back and arms are covered in bandages too. He’s wearing a sweatshirt now, one that they got from Eddie’s trailer before they were taken to the hospital by some government people. Eddie doesn’t know what’s happening, but he doesn’t bother asking. He’ll find out if he has to.

Eddie ignores the way he feels about Steve wearing his sweatshirt.

Eddie’s sides are sore from the stitches, and he’s eaten three blueberry muffins so the painkillers he took don’t make him loopy, but he still feels unsteady, shaky. He blinks slowly when the floor starts to swim.

“We won,” he says quietly. His voice still echoes around the hallway. “Right?”

“Yeah, Eddie,” Robin says. “We won.”

Eddie exhales, leaning back in his seat, moving his hands, and he starts to reach for his cheek before he stops himself. Robin notices it too and grabs his hand gently, holding it. It’s quiet for another few moments.

And then a laugh bursts out of Steve.

Eddie snorts, looking around Robin at him.

“The fuck is so funny?”

“I don’t know,” he says, laughing again, shaking his head. “We fucking won. Holy shit.”

“Yeah,” Robin says, staring wide-eyed at the ground, nodding. “Holy shit.”

Steve takes her other hand. Eddie lays his head on her shoulder, sighing.

“Mr Harrington?” a woman’s voice says after a long while, and an old nurse comes through the door to the empty hall, finding the three of them. She gives Steve a friendly smile. “I’ve been asked to give you a hearing and vision test.”

“Oh,” Steve says. “You don’t… need to do that.”

“I’m afraid we don’t have a choice,” she says, making a sympathetic face. “Orders from Dr Owens. Concussions can cause issues with hearing and vision, and we know you’ve had your fair share.”

Steve stares at her, and she stares back. Eddie wonders if she has grandchildren to practice dealing with stubborn patients. Robin pushes at Steve.

“Go, get it over with.”

Steve huffs, getting up to follow her out. Eddie hears him tell her, “I don’t need glasses,” before the door shuts behind them. Robin puts her head on Eddie’s.

After a while, the door opens again and Max appears, her left arm in a cast.

“Hey, Red,” Eddie says softly. “What’s up?”

“Uh.” She takes a breath, looking away anxiously. “My mom’s on her way.”

“Everything okay?” Robin asks.

“Yeah, I just…” She looks away again. “I don’t really wanna be alone.”

“You want me to wait with you?” Robin asks. Eddie sits up straight as Max nods. “Will you wait for Steve?” she asks Eddie.

“Yeah, ‘course.”

Eddie watches them go, watches Robin wrap an arm around Max’s shoulders before the door shuts behind them. The hallway falls silent again. He sticks his hands under his thighs.

And he waits. Listens to the ticking of the clock, to his own breathing, closing his eyes and letting his head rest against the wall. He only opens them when the door opens again, and Steve comes over to sit heavily in the seat Robin sat in before she left.

“I need glasses.”

A laugh bursts out of Eddie.

“Seriously?”

“Yeah.”

Eddie laughs again and looks at the floor as Steve lets his head rest against the wall.

“Where’s Robin?”

“She went with Max— Wait a fucking second.”

“Hm?”

“This whole time, you haven’t been able to see?” Eddie says loudly.

“I can see,” Steve says defensively, lifting his head but still slouching. “Just not well.”

“Oh my god.”

“Or hear very well. My left ear isn’t good, apparently.”

“Holy shit.”

“‘S fine.”

Steve sighs, looking up at the ceiling. Eddie lets it go even though he desperately wants to know why Steve hasn’t done anything about either of these things. There’s no way he just… hasn’t noticed.

“Where’d Max and Robin go?” Steve asks.

“Uh, Max’s mom is on her way here. Might be here already, I don’t know. Max didn’t wanna be alone.”

Steve nods quietly.

“Where are your parents, Harrington?” Eddie asks, copying him, leaning against the wall, still looking at him.

He shrugs.

“God knows,” he says quietly. “They didn’t tell me this time.”

“Jesus,” Eddie breathes. “You know where they’re coming back?”

Steve shakes his head slowly, his eyes trained unblinkingly on the ground.

“Gonna be a bitch when they do, though,” he says softly. “Last time they were here, I…” He takes a breath. “I heard them talking about selling the house.”

“Like… the house?”

Steve nods.

“Which means,” he says, “I’ll need to find a place to live. Hopefully they leave me some money for an apartment or something, because…” He shakes his head.

“Jesus.”

“Yeah.” He pauses. “Sometimes it’s like… like they’ve forgotten I even exist.”

Eddie listens, shifting in his seat to face him.

“They don’t say hi when they come home, they don’t tell me when they’re going when they leave, or where they’re going, or how long they’ll be gone, and sometimes I wonder if they come home and like… wonder whose car is in the driveway. Wonder who’s been using the kitchen or… or doing laundry.”

“Steve,” Eddie starts quietly, but Steve keeps talking.

“Wonder if they’ve just… like, suppressed their memories of me on purpose. If they know I’m just a fuck up so they pretend I don’t exist.”

“Steve,” Eddie snaps. Steve blinks, looking up at home, his cheeks flushing like he’s just realised he’s talking out loud. Eddie softens. “Thought you were done with all that King Steve shit.”

Steve blinks again, this time in confusion.

“Huh?”

Eddie sighs.

“If you’re… turning over a new leaf. Being a better person. You gotta be nicer to yourself too.” He looks into Steve’s eyes. “You’re not a fuck up.”

Steve looks away.

“Habits are hard to beat.”

“You’re telling the Hawkins local druggie habits are hard to beat?” Eddie says, smiling.

“Thought you were the dealer.”

“Yeah, now.” Eddie shifts in his seat. “Everything I’ve sold, I’ve used. Some are hard to kick.” He pauses, his voice quieting. “Why do you think I’m twenty-one, in high school, and living with my uncle in a trailer park?”

Steve is quiet for a moment before,

“This is a depressing movie.”

Eddie laughs, almost giggling, squeezing his eyes shut. His cheek hurts.

“Yeah,” he says. “It is.”

“Why are we still here?” Steve asks, looking around the hallway. “Should we go somewhere?”

“Yeah, I think this hallway is sucking our souls out.”

“C’mon,” Steve says, standing up, and Eddie starts to follow, but he probably should have had more water, or more blueberry muffins, or something, because his vision goes dark after a second as he’s stepping forward, and he hears Steve’s voice say something before he’s falling over and Steve is catching him, stumbling and falling to ground with Eddie in his arms.

“Fuck!” Steve says sharply, and Eddie groans loudly, pain zipping through his whole body as they hit the floor.

“I’m sorry,” he says weakly, trying to sit up as he feels Steve’s chest rise and fall, because fuck, Steve is crying and it’s Eddie’s fault, and shit, Eddie can’t get up, and Steve is…

Laughing.

“Steve?”

“God, that fucking hurt,” Steve says, still laughing, his arms around Eddie as Eddie rests on top of him.

“Why are you laughing?” Eddie questions, but he can’t help but start to giggle too.

“I don’t know,” Steve laughs. “I have no idea.”

Eddie snorts and lets his head fall to Steve’s chest, both of them shaking as they laugh.

“There’s something wrong with us,” Eddie says, wincing as his sides hurt again.

“Definitely,” Steve says, a hand running over Eddie’s back gently.

Gently. So gently that it makes Eddie want to cry even as he giggles.

They hold each other as they laugh, Eddie’s arms finding their way around Steve’s neck after a few moments, their legs twining, and it all suddenly comes crashing down around Eddie.

That they made it. They’re okay. They fucking won.

When they finally stop laughing Eddie lifts his head from where it’s resting on Steve’s chest, and he looks down at him. Steve’s eyes are shining with tears, and his cheeks are rosy, and his hair is fanned out on the white floor under them. And Eddie feels himself fall in love.

“Oh,” Steve breathes, his smile faltering, his eyes widening.

“What?” Eddie whispers.

“Uhm.” Steve’s throat bobs as he swallows. “Remember how I… can’t see super well?”

“Yeah?”

Eddie realises how close they are.

“You’re really pretty,” Steve says softly, a hand finding Eddie’s cheek carefully over the bandage.

Eddie’s cheeks flush with heat and he just… looks at him. At his wet eyelashes and red cheeks and the moles that are scattered across his skin. Eddie wants to count them. He wants to kiss them.

He doesn’t realise how long he’s been staring until Steve speaks.

“If this was a romantic comedy, we’d kiss right now.”

His voice is soft. Eddie melts.

“Only if one of us was a girl.”

Steve gives him an eye roll so powerful Eddie is surprised it doesn’t cause an earthquake.

“Can you shut your cynical heart up?” Steve says quietly. One of his hands moves to push Eddie’s hair back. “Pretend they make movies about people like us.”

Eddie leans his head down, his eyes trained on Steve’s lips. They’re pink. How are they so pink?

“Do we have to be in a movie?” he asks quietly, his eyes fluttering shut when Steve’s hand pushes into his hair. “Wouldn’t real life be better?”

Steve pulls him down a little more by the back of his head.

“Yeah,” he breathes. “It would.”

Eddie kisses him.

Softly. Carefully.

Gently.

Steve’s hand tightens in his hair when Eddie pulls away to take a breath, pulling him back down, and Eddie grins against his lips. Steve lets out a soft noise when Eddie slips his tongue over his lip tentatively, and he shifts then, holding Eddie in his arms as he rolls them over on the floor so Eddie is under him.

Eddie whimpers, his arms wrapping around Steve’s neck, and Steve tilts his head, kissing Eddie like he’s trying to soothe him, like kissing his mouth will heal the wounds on his sides and chest. One of his hands finds Eddie’s neck, lightly dancing over the cut that was too shallow to be bandaged. Eddie’s legs wrap around his hips, a strangled noise escaping him.

“Okay?” Steve gasps breathlessly, looking down at him.

“Mhmm.”

Eddie pulls him back down, kissing him hard, furrowing his brows and squeezing his eyes shut, letting his mouth fall open for Steve’s tongue, but they rip their mouths away from each other when the door opens.

It hurts too much to scramble away, but Steve sits up a little bit, and Eddie tilts his head back to see the door upside down. Robin is standing in the doorway, blocking it from the outside hallway, staring at them.

“Why on the floor?” she asks, clearly judging them, and Steve looks down at Eddie. Their eyes meet, and then they’re laughing again, so hard Eddie’s stomach aches and even Robin starts to laugh.

“Rom-com,” Steve says when their laughing quiets, and it just sends them into another spiral. Robin just shuts the door.

#im having way too much fun with these s #thank you for the request!!! <333 #steddie #steddie ficlet #steve harrington #steve harrinton ficlet #eddie munson #eddie munson ficlet #stranger things #stranger things ficlet

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