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hbyrde36 · 6 months

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Chapter 17! (FINAL!)

Steve Harrington: Vampire Hunter

ao3 link

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4

Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8

Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12

Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16

CW: Smut

-Eddie-

The moment Steve was cut off from him would forever rank high on the list of the most painful moments of Eddie's life.

Not physically, that distinction would likely always go to the day he’d been killed and turned. Honestly, what Henry had been doing to him from afar on that stage had been no picnic either, but losing Steve shattered his heart.

For months Eddie had been able to feel him like a comfortable weight in the back of his mind. For a precious hour or so they had been fully open to each other, their love passing between them like a current. Strong and vibrant and sure, even in the midst of the fear and uncertainty of battle.

Then it was just… gone. Ripped away in the blink of an eye.

For a truly horrifying second he thought Steve had been killed. Angela was on top of him and Eddie couldn't see what was happening. He screamed Steve’s name and dropped to his knees, too hurt and weak from losing his human servant to put up any sort of a fight when someone came to drag him down off his platform. He was almost glad that death would be coming for him too.

Only, it didn’t.

He realized what must have happened when Angela finally rolled off of Steve and helped him to his feet.

Eddie was hanging on to consciousness by a thread, but still he was terrified of what kind of future Steve would have tied to a creature like Angela. The only bright side was that at least now he wouldn't take Steve down with him when he died.

Because Eddie would die.

It was over, they had lost.

He’d failed to save the city.

Deep down he had always known the way this fight was going to play out.

Halloween night would be a bloodbath and it was all his fault for thinking he was powerful enough to take this position in the first place. At least the man he loved would live to fight another day, he only wished he could be there to see it.

Try as he might, Eddie couldn't really follow the conversation that was happening around him, but when he saw Steve weidling the ornately carved wooden stake it was all too easy to figure out what Henry intended.

There was something sadly poetic about the fact that it would be Steve who ended his life. It was another thing he felt like he’d always known. Either Steve would fall in love with him, or he’d kill him. Eddie never imagined that fate would bring both of those possibilities to pass but sometimes the universe has a sick sense of humor.

He smiled at Steve, trying to let him know that it was okay to do what needed to be done. There was no saving Eddie, but he could make it through this if he played his cards right.

The blow never came.

Eddie always knew that Steve was extraordinary, it’s what had attracted him to the other man from the beginning, but he was also full of surprises, never quite doing what people expected.

From one breath to the next Steve had taken down Owens and Henry both, like it was nothing. For a split second Eddie felt a surge of relief, the greatest threat in the room had been taken down, but a moment later he felt only sheer panic as he watched Steve shove a blade right through Angela's chest. Ensuring his own death as well as hers.

Because no human servant in history had ever survived their master’s death.

Steve was dying and Eddie knew nothing except that he had to get to him. Somehow he found the strength to move, rolling himself off the edge of the altar to land hard at the other man’s side. They looked into each other's eyes until Steve could no longer keep his open. Eddie continued to gaze at his face anyway, holding his hand tightly as he faded away.

The young witch, who had been standing at Henry’s side right up until she’d inexplicably switched teams to help take him down, approached. She laid her hands on Steve carefully, one on his head and the other on his chest. Eddie didn’t protest or even bother to question it, Steve was already dying, it’s not like she could make it any worse.

Dustin and the other hunter called Nancy both appeared suddenly, falling to their knees next to where he and Steve lay.

“Get your hands off of him!” She shouted at the girl, who completely ignored her.

“What's happening?” Dustin asked, voice trembling.

Eddie was still so weak that it was difficult to talk but he forced the words out anyway. “Angela, she took him from me. She gave him all four marks and made him her full servant right in the middle of the fight, cut us off from each other.”

Dustin's eyes went wide. “But, he killed her. Does that mean he? Oh my god… ”

Eddie could only nod as Dustin broke down in tears. He knew how much Steve meant to the kid and watching him realize he was about to lose him, only made his own heartbreak that much more unbearable.

“I still don’t understand! Why are you letting her touch him!” Nancy shouted again. This time all her anger was aimed at Eddie instead of the girl, as if this were all his fault. Maybe it was.

Before he could attempt to respond to her, the older man who'd come in with her and Steve got between them. He spoke softly as he pulled Nancy to her feet and tried to coax her away.

“What if you give him the first mark again?” Dustin asked, recapturing Eddie’s attention. “Would that work? Would it save him?”

In all honesty he wasn’t sure. Angela was dead, in theory her marks would be gone, fading at least.

Fading with Steve.

It was possible, maybe, but as much as it pained him Eddie wouldn't even consider trying.

“I won’t do that to him again. I ignored his wishes before and he hated me for it.”

“But mad is better than dead, Eddie!” Dustin insisted.

Eddie almost laughed. If the kid only knew.

He shook his head. “You don’t understand. You don’t know what you're asking me to do. If he manages to survive this somehow, he’ll be free. No marks. Not from me or anyone else. It’s all he wanted and I won't take that away from him, not even to save his life. Never again unless he asked me to do it himself.”

Dustin would have probably kept pushing but the fight between the older man and Nancy reached a fever pitch behind them. She pushed past him looking as if she would knock the girl out herself if that’s what it took to get her away from Steve, but the man stopped her again with a firm grip on her wrist.

“For the last time, she’s helping him! Can't you feel it?” The man hissed.

Nancy glowered at him.

He studied her face curiously. “You can't. You can’t feel anything can you? Huh, never known a null to be a hunter before. It’s impressive, if dangerous.”

Eddie couldn’t help but watch their exchange. There was something strangely familiar about the man. He wondered who he was to Steve.

“What did you call me?” She said, eyes narrowing.

The man pinched the bridge of his nose and Eddie got the distinct impression that he was barely holding back from screaming at her.

“A null, someone without any magic, not even the ability to sense it happening right in front of you.” He explained with a shake of his head.

“Oh.” She said, deflating slightly.

“She’s anchoring him here, trying to keep him in his body.” The older man said.

“Steve is strong. He wants to stay so badly but his spirit keeps trying to go. I am helping.” The girl added, speaking for the first time though she kept her eyes trained on her work.

Nancy looked between all of them then turned and stalked off with a huff.

“I’ll talk to her.” Dustin said, sniffling as he got up to follow.

Eddie glanced up at the older man, struck again by how familiar he looked, something about his eyes. “Thank you, uh… “ He trailed off.

“Wayne.”

“Wayne.” Eddie nodded in greeting as best he could. “Are you like Steve, an animator? Is that how you knew what she was doing?”

“Yes, I suppose it’s similar enough to what we do that I could feel her intention.” Wayne began, smiling down at Steve fondly. “And while I do raise zombies, even trained your boy there once upon a time, there’s no one like Steve.”

Eddie smiled too and had to choke back a sob. Wayne was right, there was no one like his sweetheart.

Wayne crouched down and placed a comforting hand on Eddie’s back. “Don’t give up on him just yet, He’s got power like nothing I ever felt, just doesn’t like to use it. If anyone can beat the odds, it’s him.”

The gentleness was almost too much for him to bear and Eddie started to shrink away from the touch out of pure self preservation, but suddenly he remembered where he’d seen the older man’s eyes before. It was a very long time ago.

“What did you say your last name was again?” he asked, blinking up at Wayne, dumbfounded.

“I didn't,” Wayne chuckled. “I was adopted as an infant but my birth name was Munson.”

Eddie sucked in a sharp breath. “So you’re my… ” He trailed off, too tired to try and count back the generations.

“You can just call me uncle Wayne if you like, everyone else does.”

It surprised a huff of laughter out of Eddie, a true miracle considering the current circumstances. “Technically wouldn't I be the uncle in this situation? I am far older than you.” He pointed out.

Wayne shrugged as if that was irrelevant.

Eddie looked back at Steve, heartened to see that his chest was still rising and falling, and that the lines of his face had smoothed out into something more relaxed. He now looked more like he was sleeping and less like he was fighting for his life.

“You love him?” Wayne asked.

“More than anything.”

“Good.”

-Steve-

The first thing Steve noticed as his consciousness gradually returned to him was that he was somehow still alive. A shocking revelation, considering. The second thing he noticed was that for the first time in a long time he was completely alone in his own mind and body.

There was no trace of Angela in his head.

He’d done it. She was dead, had to be. He was sure, it was the only way he was free of her. God only knew how he had survived her death but he’d worry about that later.

The last thing he remembered was looking into Eddie’s eyes as they both lay broken and bleeding on the floor. He tried to sit up before he’d even opened his eyes but his limbs felt like lead.

“Eddie?! Eddie!” He attempted to shout but the words came out breathy and weak.

“Steve?” A faraway voice said, and then someone was shaking him. “Steve, are you awake?” They said again much closer this time.

Wait, that was Robin’s voice. What was she doing here? No, no it was too dangerous for her.

“Rob?” He croaked out, still unable to really move. “What are you… no… not safe.”

“It’s alright, you’re alright. Can you open your eyes?”

When he did finally manage to open his eyes, he got a glimpse of Robin's face for about 0.2 seconds before squeezing them shut again. The light streaming in through the windows hurt.

“Bright.” He said, wincing.

Windows?

Not the theater then, or the underground even. He wasn’t sure if that was good or bad.

He tried to remain calm and began to notice other little things around him. Like the softness of the bed underneath him. The familiar smell of his laundry detergent, and the pinch of an IV in his arm.

“Shit, sorry. Hang on.” She said. A moment later the light behind his eyelids dimmed and he cracked them open once again.

Robin's face swam into view and she broke out into a watery smile.

He tried to return it but he was in enough pain that he was pretty sure it came off as more of a grimace. He was still so confused, but at least now he knew where he was, lying in his own bed at home, even if he didn’t know how that was possible.

Robin disappeared briefly and returned with a cup of water and a straw, allowing him to take a few small sips.

Much better.

Steve cleared his throat. “Eddie, is he? Robin, did he?” He couldn't bring himself to finish the question or even the thought. He had to know, but he wasn’t sure he could handle it if he had somehow survived and Eddie hadn't.

“He’s fine, Steve. I'm a little more worried about you right now. How do you feel?”

“He’s alive then? Are you sure? Are you sure he’s fine?” He couldn't get his last image of Eddie out of his mind. It was all he could see when he closed his eyes.

“Yes, I'm sure.” She said, exasperated.

He tried to sit up again and found that this time he could. He unceremoniously yanked the I.V. out of his arm and tried to stand. He had to go, he had to get up out of this bed and find Eddie, wouldn’t rest until he could see for himself that he was okay.

“Steve! Stop! what are you doing?!”

His legs buckled and he would have fallen if not for Robin catching him around the middle. She lowered him gently back to the bed.

“I have to find him, you don’t understand. I… “ Tears welled up in his eyes, spilling over to roll down his cheeks as Robin knelt, throwing her arms around him. He buried his face in her shoulder and gave himself over to it. She held him tight as sobs shook his body. She rocked them slowly, petting his hair and whispering comforting nonsense to him until he calmed.

She pulled back and held his face between her hands. “I get it, okay? Eddie told me everything, but you need to rest. You don’t have to go anywhere to find him, he’s here. He’s been at your bedside as much as he could. The only reason he isn’t sitting here right now is because the sun is still up. He and Dustin are holed up in your basement.”

Steve gulped. “How long has it been?”

“You’ve been out for quite a while. That’s why Joyce had you hooked up to that I.V. I wanted to take you to the hospital but Wayne was adamant that you’d be happier at home so she volunteered to keep an eye on you.”

He was touched that the wererats cared enough to do that for him. He’d have to find some way to thank them.

“I do hate hospitals.” He said eventually.

She rolled her eyes. “So I heard.”

They sat in comfortable silence for a while but hard as he tried Steve still couldn't stop worrying about Eddie.

“What time is it?” He asked.

She checked her watch. “4:00 in the afternoon, why?”

It would be dark soon. Eddie might already be awake for the day.

He looked at her, eyes pleading.

“Oh no you don’t. Those puppy dog eyes don’t work on me. You need to stay. In. bed. Your vampire will be up here as soon as the sun goes down.”

“Please?” He begged. “I have to see him.”

“Fine.” She sighed heavily and stood, pulling one of his arms up and over her shoulder to help him stand.

“How do I look?” He asked through gritted teeth and they made their way slowly, one step at a time through the room.

“Like you’ve been half dead for 3 days.” She muttered.

“Rob,” he groaned.

Steve was too busy watching his own feet to see, but he just knew she was rolling her eyes at him again. “He's been worried sick. He’s not going to care what you look like.”

Logically he knew she was right and not even the promise of a shower would have stopped him from seeing Eddie as soon as possible, but he still felt self conscious as they made it out of his bedroom and rounded the corner.

The door to the basement was down a short hallway, there were no windows in the direct area, but even so Steve made sure to open it slowly and carefully. Before he knew what was happening he was being transferred from one set of arms to another and found himself enveloped in Eddie’s cool embrace.

The vampire buried his face in Steve's neck, and he in turn buried his in Eddie’s curls, inhaling his familiar and comforting scent deeply as the painful tightening in his chest began to ease.

“What are you doing here? You should be resting.” Eddie said, the words muffled where his mouth was pressed to Steve's skin.

“Had to see you.” Steve replied, unable to keep his voice from shaking.

They stood at the top of the landing just holding each other for a long time, neither saying a word until finally Eddie lowered them to the floor, cradling Steve in his lap.

Eddie kept stroking his hair and Steve's hands kept wandering under Eddie’s t-shirt, fingertips gliding over bare skin, both unwilling to stop touching for a second.

“I’m sorry I wasn't there when you woke up.” Eddie whispered, pressing a kiss to the side of his head.

Steve leaned into him and sighed. “The sun.”

“Yeah.”

“I love you.” Steve said, turning so he could rest his forehead against the vampire’s. “I know you felt it, but I never said it, and– “ his breath hitched, throat tightening at the thought of how close he came to never getting to say it. “Now that we can’t… I need you to know, to hear it.”

“I love you too.”

A little while later, once the sun had finally set for the day, Eddie carried him back to his room and drew a bath. He wasn’t sure where Robin had gone.

Eddie stripped him of his clothes and then made quick work of his own before getting them both into the tub. He carefully washed Steve's hair and body, making him feel more precious and cared for than he had since he was a small child.

“What happens now?” Steve asked as Eddie pulled him in the settle against his chest.

“Well, we should probably get out soon and dry off before you fall asleep and drown.”

“You say that as if you’re not already holding me up.”

Eddie let out a breathy puff of laughter against the back of his neck before pressing a kiss there. Steve squirmed, heat rising in his blood from more than just the warm water, but he wouldn’t let himself get distracted.

“You know what I mean, us.”

“What happens between us is up to you. I want to be with you, in whatever capacity you’ll have me. Hell, I'd ask if we could move in together right now, but I have a feeling that might be a bit too much too fast.”

Steve made a little hum of agreement, though it sounded wonderful actually, never having Eddie out of his sight again, within reason anyway, but there was a lot they probably needed to figure out before jumping in with both feet.

“And the other thing?”

“I don’t know what to say.” Eddie shrugged. “You no longer bear any of my marks.”

“Does it bother you?”

“No.” Eddie answered quickly. “I… this is all you wanted, to be free, so no, I can't regret that they’re gone.”

“But do you miss it?” Steve asked. He wasn’t even sure why he was pushing except that, hypocritical as it would be, maybe a small part of him missed it, and he wondered if their new lack of connection would change things.

Eddie hesitated, groaning “Steve– ”

He turned in the water to sit more sideways in Eddie’s lap so they could see each other better, thankful that the tub was big enough to allow for it. “It’s okay, if you do.”

“Of course I do. Having that connection to you, it was amazing. Even when you hated me I had this little piece of you riding around in my head.” Eddie smiled to himself. “Our shared dreams were pretty incredible too.”

Steve's cheeks were set ablaze with the reminder of their earliest encounters, and he had to stop himself from daydreaming about reenacting one of two of those scenarios in real life. He promised himself he’d revisit those thoughts again when he was a little more healed.

“So it wasn’t all about the power you could gain?” Steve asked.

He was teasing, mostly. Although he believed that he meant more than that to Eddie now, he still felt like it was as good a time as any to get his worries and fears out in the open. It was nothing they hadn’t discussed before, but he hadn’t been ready to listen then, hadn’t been willing to believe Eddie could have anything but dark motives. Now he was ready to hear the truth.

Eddie smoothed the damp hair back from Steve’s face. “I marked you the first time to save your life. Not just because you were hurt, but because I knew what you were walking into and even back then I couldn't bear the thought of anything happening to you. I knew it would give you a better chance at surviving Billy. The second mark I'll admit I did to save myself. I didn't even think about what it would mean for you, and I'm so sorry for that. I was grasping at straws and the connection to you was right there and… I’m not proud of it.”

“It’s okay.”

“Is it?” Eddie asked softly. He sounded so small and fragile. He stared down at the water, refusing to meet Steve’s eyes anymore. “Because I mean, fuck, I even did it to you a third time after you told me you’d have rather died than been marked at all.”

Steve’s heart sank. He had said that, and at the time he’d meant it, but after nearly having to watch the man he loved die, after coming so close to having to stake Eddie himself, his perspective had changed.

“Robin begged you, you were saving my life– ” Steve tried to interject, to defend Eddie’s actions, but the vampire kept beating himself up.

“But I didn’t even consider other options! I could have… I should have tried harder, called a doctor or something, anything.” Eddie finally looked back up, meeting Steve's gaze once again, eyes shimmering with unshed tears. “Will you ever be able to forgive me?”

“Eddie,” Steve breathed, sliding around the rest of the way until he was straddling the other man’s hips. “I already have.”

Eddie surged up to capture his lips in a sweet and lingering kiss. He was being so gentle, so careful with Steve in his current condition. He knew he was weak and still healing but what he wanted from the vampire now was anything but gentle.

Steve clung to Eddie’s shoulders, as much to pull the other man closer as it was to keep himself upright. He deepened the kiss, grinding down into Eddie's lap as best he could and was rewarded with the vampire’s half hard cock sliding between his cheeks.

“Want you.” Steve said, breaking the kiss and panting into Eddie’s mouth.

“Baby, we can't,” Eddie argued, even as he thrust his hips upwards, pulling a desperate whine out of Steve's throat.

Suddenly Eddie’s arms locked around him. One wound around his waist, the other tucked under the swell of his ass. The vampire stood with ease holding all of Steve’s weight. He tried to wrap his legs around Eddie but the muscles just wouldn’t cooperate, not that it mattered. One second they were stepping out of the tub, water dripping off both of them to splatter all over the bathroom floor, the next they were beside Steve's bed and he was being gently laid down on top of fresh sheets.

He felt a chill as the air hit his soaking wet skin, but he had a feeling that he wouldn’t be cold for much longer.

Eddie stared down at him, eyes wild with hunger that had nothing to do with blood as he climbed up onto the bed to settle between his legs. He kissed and licked and sucked the water from Steve’s skin until he reached the place where he was achingly hard and equally dripping.

The vampire flattened his tongue, licking a wide stripe up the underside of his cock and Steve was reminded of that very first dream all those months ago, where Eddie had dropped to his knees in the alley. He’d also bitten Steve’s inner thigh, which, though it hadn’t actually happened, had terrified him then. The idea of it now though was anything but scary. He wanted Eddie inside of him in every way possible, fangs, fingers, cock, all at once preferably.

Sadly he knew he wasn’t up for it tonight, but that was fine. They were alive and in love and there would be many more nights in their future to explore all the ways in which he wanted Eddie to ruin him.

Eddie began to work him by hand, holding only the head of him between his lips, swirling his tongue and being oh so careful to keep his fangs out of the way. Steve writhed under his touch, his orgasm building already though it’d only been a few minutes. He tried to hold still but couldn’t stop from bucking his hips a little, greedy for the feel of Eddie’s mouth on him. There was a brush of teeth and small pinprick of pain that only added to Steve's growing pleasure. Eddie moaned around him and that was all it took to push him over the edge. He came hard, remembering too late to try and muffle his shouts of ecstasy. He could only hope Robin had taken a walk or something. Eddie worked him through it, catching his release on his tongue and swallowing it all.

Eddie moved up to lay next to him, pulling Steve into his side. He made a valiant attempt at reaching for Eddie to return the favor, but he was too tired to move his arms.

“Don’t worry about me sweetheart.” Eddie said, kissing his way up the side of Steve’s jaw. “This was just for you, rest now.”

“You’ll stay?”

“Until the sun drives me away.”

“Could move the bedroom into the basement.” Steve said through a yawn.

Eddie brushed his fingers up and down Steve's body, caressing every inch of bare skin he could reach. “You don’t want that.”

“I do if it means you can stay with me.”

“That sounds an awful like moving in talk, I thought we agreed too much too soon?”

Steve let out a contented sigh. “Taking it slow is overrated.” He said finally, right on the verge of falling asleep.

Over the next few days Steve received a lot of visitors.

Joyce came by the morning after he woke up to see how he was doing physically, and apart from insisting that he needed a lot more rest, said he looked like he was well on his way to a full recovery.

Jane was with her too. The wererats had apparently taken her in following the battle, and Will and Gareth had promised to help find her sister in Steve’s place since he would be out of commission for a while.

She laid her hands on him, much the same way Eddie had described her doing the night he almost died, and gave him a more mystical checkup. She looked mildly concerned, it seemed his power wasn’t returning to him as quickly as his body was healing but she was confident it would come with time. She promised that when it did, she would work with him to harness his magic and learn to wield it more effectively. He could honestly say he was looking forward to that.

After that first night Steve had doubled down, asking Eddie to stay and also to move the contents of his room into the basement. Dustin saw the writing on the wall, and had graciously agreed to move out of Steve’s place and go back to the theater underground to spend his days and give them some privacy. He still came by often, usually driven by Wayne who had taken quite a shine to him.

His father even deigned to visit one afternoon, mostly to see if Steve was lying about being ill, which was the story Robin had come up with to explain his absence from work. Things started out uncomfortable and only got worse when Eddie rose for the day and came up from the basement. Bert took one look at the vampire and lost his mind. Steve had already been ready to hand in his resignation upon his return to work, so it was no big loss to quit on the spot, and even less of a loss to tell his father that he had no interest in being his son any longer.

That had felt good, and it was a long time coming.

Nancy never showed. Steve wasn’t really surprised, and he wasn't upset by it either. He had no doubt she was aware of his connection to Eddie now, their relationship. She might have fought on their side in this particular battle but he knew she would struggle with him being so close to another vampire. Dustin was one thing, she’d known him since he was a kid, but Eddie was nothing but a bloodsucker to her, a stranger whom she’d been hired to kill on more than one occasion. He wasn’t afraid she would come after them, not really, but he knew she’d need some time to process things at the very least. She did text to check up on him once she heard he was awake, and that was enough for now.

The last visitor, and the one he was looking least forward to, was Hopper. Not that he didn’t want to see the man, he just hated lying to him.

The chief had heard, of course, about the show at the theater on Halloween eve and Steve’s starring role in it.

Steve had worried briefly about being brought up on charges for killing not one but three people, well, two vampires and one human servant, but it seemed Eddie’s vampires had done well in getting rid of the bodies.

Everyone who had been in the audience that night had believed that it was all an act. Eddie was being heralded in the press for his state of the art special effects.

Hopper had seen a few videos online and was skeptical, a feeling that only got worse as he was blown off time and again, first by Robin and then Wayne, when he had tried to get in touch with Steve during his coma.

In the end, after he’d convinced Hopper he was recovering from a nasty flu, he’d assured him that the whole thing was indeed all a show, and the older man had no choice but to accept it. He did wonder why Steve was involved, and he took that as an opportunity to open up to the chief about his relationship with the Master of the City. He kept it brief, no details of their past since he didn’t owe the man that, and it was all too incriminating for words. He simply said his boyfriend owned the theater and had asked him to be in the production.

It took a moment for the information to sink in, and Hopper gave several long blinks before responding.

“You’re a grown man so I'm not going to sit here and tell you what you should and shouldn’t do with your life, but I hope you know what you’re doing there.”

“I do, Hop. I promise.”

The older man nodded. “I know you better than to worry if this will interfere with your work, I know it won’t, and as long as he makes you happy, then I guess I’m happy for you.”

“He does. He really does.”

Steve knew that the future he and Eddie faced would be difficult and uncertain at times. When their relationship went public, and it was only a matter of time until it would, they would be thrust into the spotlight. Not everyone would be happy for them.

He was still a vampire hunter and Eddie was not only a vampire but the most well known one in the country.

Steve would still hunt down the bad guys and bring any vampires to justice who deserved it, but he would also stand up to support his friends, family, and all law abiding monsters.

Some would view them as an abomination but many more would see them as proof that love is love, and humans and vampires as well as other creatures could exist side by side in harmony.

And If their mere existence together could make others in unconventional relationships feel more confident and comfortable being seen? Then it was absolutely worth it.

Thanks forever to @penny00dreadful for being the best friend, cheerleader, and beta in the whole fucking world💜

#steddie fanfic #steve harrington #eddie munson #stranger things #steve harrington/eddie munson #enemies to lovers #vampire eddie munson #vampire hunter steve harrington #vampire dustin henderson #good uncle wayne #happy ending #steddie fic #ao3 #steddie #steve x eddie #complete #steve harrington: vampire hunter

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steddieas-shegoes · 3 months

Text

Country singer Steve Harrington, who has always leaned more into the pop country side of things (think Wanted by Hunter Hayes), but wants his third album to be more true to old school country roots.

His label agrees but only if he works with Eddie Munson, a rock star who had to leave the spotlight when he got kicked out of his band for, well, rockstar behavior gone too far.

Steve isn't amused, especially because he doesn't care for metal music or rock star shenanigans. He was "raised better" and doesn't think Eddie could sit down and write songs with actual emotion and feeling.

Cue long songwriting sessions where Eddie is trying his hardest to be on his best behavior because he knows this is his last shot at being taken seriously, and Steve being surprised every time Eddie proves that he's talented as a songwriter and musician, well outside the scope of just metal and rock.

They write a song that they're both so proud of, Steve asks if he'll record it with him just for fun. The released version would just be Steve.

Eddie agrees.

It's an incredible duet, something country music has needed forever, but Eddie doesn't want that version out there.

The label genuinely accidentally releases their version instead of the Steve only version. As soon as they realize, they remove it from official places, but it's too late.

Fans have already heard it and have gone crazy over it, begging them to let the radio play this version, begging for this version to be available for streaming. The Steve version is great, but it doesn't have the emotion that's laced in the tone of them singing together.

Eddie finally gives in when he sees how happy Steve is about the reaction to it.

But the label decides they want them to tour together, have Eddie work as his opening act, perform his acoustic songs that haven't been officially released anywhere. Eddie can't do it.

He can't go back into that lifestyle. He couldn't do it to his band, who made him promise that he'd come back to them when he got his shit straight. He can't do it to his fans, who stuck by him through some rough shit, but probably wouldn't support a fucking country music career. He definitely can't do it to Steve, who deserves to have someone with him who can be trusted not to go off the deep end.

So he runs. He hides. His uncle welcomes him home, congratulates him on finally embracing his country roots.

It doesn't take long for Steve to find him.

Because he'd been more honest with Steve than he'd ever been with anyone. He told him about his childhood, his Uncle Wayne, his struggle to make it. He told him about his worse struggle when he did make it, how he got in with the wrong people, the wrong things. Prioritized the lifestyle more than his own life.

Of course Steve knew where he'd run to.

Of course Steve came to remind him what his life could be if he allowed himself to find new priorities.

Steve's lips were pretty persuasive, but not nearly as persuasive as his promises to remind him what he could have if he kept his life his priority.

"But what if I let you down?"

"You won't."

"But-"

"No. You won't. You're gonna do amazing things for yourself. And I'm gonna be there to see it happen. That's all."

And he was.

They co-wrote Steve's entire album while Eddie worked on recording his own original songs. He liked that it was an old school rock and roll feel, some blues, some country, some hints of metal sneaking in on a couple songs.

He called his band to come help him with a song, hesitant to even ask, but they came. Of course they came.

He called his Uncle Wayne to play banjo on a song, worried that he wouldn't like the heavier electric guitar notes over it. Of course he loved being involved.

When their tour started, he let himself actually feel nervous.

But instead of running, he looked at the man who supported him through it, even when his own career was on the line.

Of course Steve was there.

#steddie #steve harrington #eddie munson #stranger things #headcanon #drabble #rock star eddie munson #country singer steve harrington #what a wild tag that is to type #if yall were in my brain you'd be begging to get the hell out of it #i swear to god #i had this idea forever ago and was like YES YEARNING PINING ENEMIES TO LOVERS #and then just got bogged down so here #someone else do that

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sunflowergirl522 · 7 months

Text

Fairy Circles

Pairing: Eddie Munson x Fairy!Reader

Summary: Eddie accidentally traps you in his lunchbox and takes you home with him.

Word Count: 2545

Fairy!Reader Masterlist

Eddie eyes up the wooded area next to the trailer park from his van before sighing and grabbing his stash from the passenger's seat. He’s been trying to smoke less for the last couple months knowing Wayne’s been getting sick of the smell, but it had been a long day. It seemed like everyone in Hawkins car had an issue and they were down a man at the garage and on top of that he’s been having phantom pains on and off all day in his scars. And the weed always helps, so he turns the van off and crosses the park.

He’s not paying attention to where he’s walking, too busy searching for the blunt he knows he rolled yesterday. Which is what leads him to almost stepping in the fairy circle that definitely wasn’t there a couple of days ago. It’s only when the slight tinkling sound reaches his ears that he looks around.

“Shit!” Eddie moves his foot that was about to be set down on the other side of the mushrooms sprouting from the ground back to safety before taking a giant step backwards. The tinkling stops as soon as he does, causing him to look around for what could have been causing it. When he doesn’t see a cause for it he glances back at the decently sized circle of mushrooms that seem to have sprung up overnight.

He’s never seen a fairy ring in real life before and he has to admit he’s intrigued. Just not enough to risk stepping into it. He knows all about the different outcomes that could come from it, and the last thing he wants is to get trapped there or dance until he dies. So instead of investigating it, which he wants to do oh so badly, he turns to go around it.

The light shining off of his rings is what had initially drawn your attention to him. And when he was about to step into your circle you couldn’t contain your excited laughter from your lounging spot on the moss growing on a branch of the oak tree above the circle. You feel like you’ve been waiting ages for someone to come across it and dance with you. You even got up and moved to get a better look at this, as you came to realize quickly, pretty human man. And when his foot stops just as it was going to cross the boundary and he takes a step back you grow the most aggravated you’ve been in a long time.

You cross your arms and stomp your feet as you pace in an angry circle, cheeks puffing out. You let out a tiny yell that gets absorbed in the wind and kick the part of the branch pointing up that you were leaning on to get a better look. Your eyes catch on the acorns on one of the thinner branches under you. You have to pull with all your might, and you go somersaulting backwards once you rip it off, but you get it with a proud smile on your face.

The rustling of the leaves only catches Eddie’s attention for a brief moment before he shrugs it off and keeps walking to his designated smoking spot, a hunters' platform he found his freshman year of high school and has yet to see anyone actually hunt on.

“What the-” It’s when an acorn hits and bounces off of the top of his head that he spins around and looks up at the tree, brown eyes becoming slits as if that’ll help him spot the culprit. When he doesn’t see anything he chalks it up to just nature running its course instead of a fairy throwing something at him and scoops up said acorn before continuing on his way.

You follow him, becoming intrigued even more by him once you watch him put the acorn in the thing he’s carrying and wanting to know what else is inside immediately. Once he’s situated on the platform in a tree you hover for a while watching in awe as he brings his weird stick to his lips and inhales before exhaling and leaning his head back against the trunk of the tree. You enjoy how the dying sunlight glints off of his rings and the ink on his newly exposed arms.

Once he throws his fire starter back into his box you fly over to it landing just next to it, staying crouched so as not to be spotted. Once you see his eyes are closed again you stand and grab onto the top to peek inside. The pretty blue crystals scattered on the opposite side immediately draw your attention. After seeing the man preoccupied you dart inside to get a better look. They’re all different shapes and bigger than your head and you can’t help but think you’ve found treasure.

Eddie puts his roach out against the platform before putting it back in his lunchbox to throw out later and shutting it. He slings his jacket over his shoulder and grabs the box’s handle before climbing down to head back home.

You don’t notice the stub of the stick he had fall in behind you, too distracted with turning one of the more ball-like gems around in your hand, until you get overwhelmed with an odd earthy smell and notice the lid shutting. It’s immediately being moved and knocking you onto your ass. You huff before standing, finding purchase on a smaller less solid red and white box, and flying up to try to push on the lid to try to open it. After several failed attempts you land back on the constantly slightly tilting ground and let out a scream. One that stays hidden from Eddie’s ears due to the metal blocking it and the distance from his lunchbox to his ears.

You should have never gotten into this trap! Because of course that’s what this was, the intriguing pretty human and the gems were all a ploy to capture you. You feel so stupid and your anger boils up as one of said gems slides to your feet. You kick it into the wall enjoying the echoing noise it makes. You enjoy it so much that you continue to kick and throw the things in your prison, stomping all over the green clumps and snapping the arm of the little statue off. As soon as your prison stops moving and finds solid ground you rush to start banging on walls.

Eddie hears the constant dinging coming from his lunchbox just as he’s pulling his pajama pants on. He sits at the chair in front of his desk before sliding it in front of him, successfully knocking you on your ass again, and opening the lid up. He’s immediately met with the sweet smell of strawberries, which is definitely not what it should smell like. His eyes go wide when he sees you sitting there arms crossed and slightly glowing in the midst of the chaos that is his lunchbox.

“Woah.” You look up at the sound of his voice catching the shocked look on his face briefly before you’re shooting up and out of the box you were stuck in. You hover there for a second before seeing your way back outside next to him and flying straight into a wall of some sort.

“I gotcha!” Eddie catches and cradles you in his hands as you bounce off of the window. You can’t be taller than three inches and your wings, which tickle the slightest bit as they brush against Eddie’s palm, remind him of a butterfly. Your dress looks delicately made out of the petals of some purple flower and he wants to admire the craftsmanship. And he would if you hadn’t flown out of his hand to hide behind his lunchbox as soon as the shock of flying into the window wore off.

He’s still in so much shock that there’s a real living fairy in his room that it doesn’t register how scared you might be after being shut in his lunchbox until you’re scurrying away from him.

“Oh god, I’m such an idiot. You must be so scared, hold on.” He gets up and you peer around the corner to watch him as he digs around in a drawer, the softness in his voice gaining your interest. When he sits back down you go back to hiding only hearing the beads he drops in between your hiding spot and himself. “Here, I don’t want to hurt you, I swear.” He pushes his chair back and crosses his arms so you know he’ll keep them to himself and waits for you to come out.

You think about it for a couple minutes before poking your head around the corner again looking at his new position before at the small offering in front of you. The pretty beads make you smile and you clock the human in front of you again before making your way to them. Eddie’s transfixed as you walk out from your hiding spot and kneel to pick up and admire the beads.

“Sorry for shutting you in my lunchbox. Right hand up to god I didn’t even know you were in there.” Your attention goes up to him and Eddie catches himself holding his breath for your reaction. You can tell he’s telling the truth, you’ve always been good at that, so you just shrug and go back to your beads. You don’t even flinch when his hand goes up with his choice of wording. He notices and decides to test his luck and move his chair back to where it originally was. All you do is look at him and tilt your head to take him in. He has very pretty eyes, if you were a more violent fairy you’d want to pluck them out of his head. The thought makes you giggle and Eddie recognizes it as the tinkling sound from earlier.

“That was you earlier, I was about to step into your circle.” He’s beaming at you and getting excited. It’s admittedly contagious as you nod and smile at him before remembering how he ruined your fun by not stepping into it. Your smile drops and you cross your arms as you look at him. He notices and goes to reach into the box pulling out the acorn from earlier.

“Did you throw this at me?” You nod once pouting. “Well I’m sorry for not stepping in. I’ve just heard and read stories about what could have happened and didn’t want to risk it. But you seem very nice and I’m sure you wouldn’t have kept me trapped there forever.” You shake your head rigorously. You really just wanted to dance with someone for a bit, you’ve felt so lonely recently. And you had forgotten completely about how some fairies will do things like that.

“What were you doing in my lunch box that got you shut in anyway?”

“Oh!” Eddie doesn’t hear your exclamation, just sees your mouth form it before you’re standing and climbing into his lunchbox. He only has to wait a couple seconds until you’re throwing out his D20 dice and rolling a nat twenty without meaning to. When you fly out you have his D4, D8, and D10 balanced in your arms. You drop them where the D20 rolled and beam while gesturing with open arms at them.

“My dice?” You nod even though that’s an odd name for gems.

“They’re pretty.” To Eddie your words are a little like small bells but the way you stare at them has him agreeing with you anyway.

“You’re a pretty little thing aren’t you?” Once again you look up at him but this time you really take him in, from his long hair to his pretty brown eyes to the scars on his neck, chest and torso. Under your studious gaze he suddenly remembers that he never put a new shirt on and starts to fidget with self consciousness.

“I should finish getting dressed.”

“What are those from? Somebody hurt you?”

“I don’t know what you’re saying darlin’ but if it’s about the scars you don’t have to worry about it. I got them a while ago.” He winces as the phantom pains decide to pick the worst moment of his life to return. And suddenly he’s feeling the bites all over again just slightly less painful. You fly over to hover in front of him as he rubs the ones on his chest and grimaces. You start to panic not liking watching the human who gifted you such beautiful beads and showed you kindness and called you pretty go through whatever this is.

“Let me help.” You fly closer to his ear hoping it’ll help him hear you. After you fly back to see his reaction you find his eyes wide at hearing your voice before he nods an okay. With his permission you fly closer to where he’s rubbing and trying to get it to go away, placing your tiny hands on the scars and starting the healing process you normally just do for animals or plants. After so long of it not working how you want it to because you can’t cover enough surface area you aggravatedly sigh and back away for your next move hoping it’ll work better.

One minute you’re this small fairy in front of him and the next you’re human sized, glitter falling to the floor where you stand from your use of magic. He barely has time to take you in before your hands are on his chest again, a sort of glow emitting from your connected skin as you try to heal him. It works, the pains fade but Eddie’s not sure if that’s because of you or well you.

Your hands are cooler than he would have expected them to be. And now he can really see the curves that make up your form and the gorgeous eyes that he could only barely make out the color of before. You’re pretty as a pixie but as a human you’re like nothing he’s ever seen, you’re plain ethereal.

“Better?” Your voice sounds different than in your smaller form and Eddie immediately falls in love with it. All he can do is nod as you look up at him, because even in your bigger form you’re shorter than him, and you take your hands off of him. You giggle as you see the glittery dust in the shape of your hands on his skin where you were using your magic. It’s Eddie’s new favorite sound because on top of it being an actual laugh there’s still the slight tinkle in it from when you’re fairy size. “Good.”

Before Eddie can say anything else you’re poofing back into fairy size, leaving more glitter behind, and flying over to the desk to pick up all the beads you can carry. After that you fly over to the window touching the glass with your foot wondering how to get out.

“Let me get that.” Eddie comes over and opens the window watching you while he does so. “Will I see you again?” You just shrug before flying out and heading back home.

Eddie Taglist (27/40): @sadbitchfangirl @notbeforelong @navs-bhat @emotionaldreamer @gaysludge @eddiethesexy @mazerunnerrose @midnightsgetawaycar @mushroomelephant @saramelaniemoon @nojamsonmytoast @vintagehellfire @esoltis280 @spikedhe4rt @siriuslysmoking @toobsessedsstuff @alana4610 @gretavanfleas @sparkletash @aactuaaltraash @spookyemorockbabe @jesssssmaybankk @tlclick73 @eddiemunsonslittlemetalhead @bl4ckt00thgr1n @eli-flower @canyonmooncreations

Everything Taglist: @matchamunson @bubsonnobx @practicalghost @katsukis1wife @crustyowos @yourfavdummy @protecteddiemunson4vr @kennedy-brooke @m00nkn1ghts @rory-cakes

#eddie munson x reader #eddie munson x you #eddie munson x y/n #eddie munson #eddie munson x fairy!reader #eddie munson fanfic #eddie munson fanfiction #eddie munson imagine #eddie munson x female reader #eddie munson stranger things #stranger things #stranger things 4 #stranger things imagine

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rainylana · 11 months

Text

“Kiss me.”

Eddie Munson x female reader

summary: eddie is having a bad day, so he looks to you for comfort.

warnings: bully!eddie, mean!eddie, slight perv!eddie mentions of smut and masturbation, mentions of eddie’s home life.

Eddie was tired, mentally and physically. Tired of his life, his friends and his fucked up family, apart from Wayne of course. He was tired of school, his band. Just tired. He was tired of living everyday pretending to be happy when he was only miserable. The trauma from his childhood was haunting him, the scars from his dad a big, nasty reminder of growing up.

The only thing that was keeping him going was you. Ironic, when it reality, you hated him. He treated you terribly. He knew it, he loved it. It was the only way he knew how to express himself. He fantasized about you, thought about how your cunt would feel with his cock penetrating inside of you, how it would feel to kiss your lips and pull your hair.

He got off treating you the way he did, being mean. He stole your things, pulled at your hair and tripped you in the halls, made fun of you in class in front of everyone. He loved to make you cry. He never once thought about having a civil conversation, asking you out on a date or just being openly friendly. He didn’t want that with you. Growing up was difficult. He learned how to express himself in different ways unlike everyone else. Wayne tried his best to raise him honorably, to respect people, especially women, and treat them right, but Eddie was complicated.

Deep, deep down, he was a good person with a good heart, he just didn’t know how to share it with anyone.

He wasn’t having a good day whatsoever. Everything was pissing him off. You were pissing him off. Your smile, your laughter. The fact you were obviously having an enjoyable day. He wanted you to be miserable like him, so he needed the chance to get you alone.

He sat in a seat in the auditorium, not participating in choir practice for the third time that week. His feet were propped up on the seat in front of him, arms crossed with tatted flesh and bracelets, clad in dark clothing. He watched you sing with your peers, chin high and that ugly pink bow that sat on the back of your head. He wanted to ruin you, and he hated that he was growing hard while watching you.

He loved your little stockings, your knee high socks and white shoes. The little bows you wore and the gold, cross necklace around your neck. You portrayed innocence, but Eddie knew better. He could practically smell the way you dripped for him.

When the bell rang and class was dismissed, Eddie stood, stalking over to you slowly and predatorily, like a hunter and it’s prey. You were left behind by your friends while you gathered your things, turning on your heel to wave goodbye to the teacher. He internally scoffed. Always such a goody-two shoes.

You gasped when you came face to face with him, left alone in the empty auditorium. Your face melted into fear, the look that he loved.

“What is it, Eddie?” You tried not to let your voice tremble. “I already gave you the homework for english.”

He shamelessly looked you over. “You seem like you’re having a good day.”

You gulped, knowing he was about to ruin it. “I am.”

He smirked. “Couldn’t help but notice you were watching me over there.”

“I was not.” You defended, adjusting the hold on your books. “I was singing.”

“Sure,” He stared at the open exposure of your chest.

“My eyes are up here.” You tapped your head, spinning on your heal to walk away.

He let you get a few feet away before stopping you again. “Don’t you have something for me?”

You stopped, shoulders dropping as your hand went to your hair. You turned to glare at him, pulling out your pink ribbon and tossing it to him. “You are so weird. What the hell do you do with those anyway?”

He watched the way your hair cascaded down your shoulders, and he looked down to the new silk ribbon he could add to his collection. He always made you give them to him.

“I like annoying you.” He smelled it before putting it in his pocket, making your face flush.

He smirked. “If it bothers you so much than stop wearing them? Ever think of that?”

You could, but that would mean you wouldn’t be getting as much attention.

“Whatever.” You brushed off. “Can I go?”

“I don’t know, can you?”

You groaned, which turned into a gasp when he grabbed your arm, yanking you toward him. “Eddie!”

He stared at you long and hard, holding you against his body firmly. Your breath was heavy, eyes fluttering rapidly as your eyes were locked.

“If I told you I wrap your sweet little ribbons around my cock, what would you say?” He whispered.

Your eyes widened, lips parting in shock.

“If I told you,” His other arm wrapped around your back, trapping you in his grip. “That I think of you scuffing your knees for me? That I get off to making you hate me? What would you say?”

Your eyes filled with tears, your heart racing and face flushing. You hated that heat rushed to your thighs.

He searched your face, looking for something, you didn’t know what. Answers, maybe? An explanation to why he felt the way he did? Why he had to grow up the way he did, experience such a horrific home life and father. Why was he falling in love with you? And why, damnit, couldn’t he tell you.

“Kiss me.” He said softer, not letting go of you.

It wasn’t an order or a demand, for once, Eddie was soft with you. It made you throb. Your eyes fluttered closed and you stood on your tip toes. You shakily placed your lips on his, giving him a delicate kiss. He imagined kissing you many times, but it was never like this. It was soft, gentle. You moved your lips with his like soft ocean currents.

When you pulled apart, he let you go slowly, releasing your arms from his tight grip. He was at a loss for words, looking down and avoiding your eyes. He felt so much. For once, he just wished he could tell you how he felt, why he did the things he did. Maybe kissing you was his way.

“Eddie-” You began to say before he cut you off.

“Don’t.” He shut his eyes, overwhelming.

But Eddie was Eddie. He was complicated, an over thinker. He made things much more difficult than they needed to be.

He looked at you, a mixture of sadness and anger taking over his features as he turned to walk away. ��Just don’t.”

#lana’s shit post #eddie munson #eddie munson x reader #eddie munson x female reader #stranger things #stranger things season four #joseph quinn #eddie munson imagines #eddie munson fluff #eddie munson one shot #eddie munson headcanons #bully!eddie

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ladykailitha · 9 months

Text

Well Met By Moonlight Part 5

Hi guys, I want to thank everyone who commented on the most recent Royal Pain and all the people that commented on the Midsummer's AU. I saw some that I hadn't seen comment in awhile and it made me so happy to see them back. I missed you all.

Here we have more of Wayne being badass. I know it feels like he's the main character right now, but trust me it will shift to the younger members soon enough.

And I got the chapter two to work finally, so I will be linking to the original from now on.

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4

***

Sun down on the following Saturday saw Wayne Munson in front of the whole town. Businesses closed. Only the hospital, fire and police station remained opened and they only had the most basic of crews.

Behind him on his left were Steve and Nancy and on his right were Billy and his bride, Heather. In front of him were the five boys that had attacked Steve.

Mayor Roberts stood between the two sets holding a microphone, he too was flanked. Sheriff Danny Powell stood on his right and Jim Hopper stood on his left.

“Welcome everyone. It is a sad day in Hawkins when we have to meet like this. I know it is hard on the lives and livelihoods of the people of this fair town. But a sickness has come to this town. The mindset of those not like being othered, seen as monsters and demons.”

The crowd murmured and hummed.

“But this town was not founded on those ideals. It was founded on peace and brotherhood between all its people. The humans, the vampires, and the werewolves. For nearly one hundred and fifty years this town has stood as testament to kinship that it has fostered. Which is why it is with much trepidation I have made the decision to let Sheriff Daniel Powell go as police chief of our fair town.”

The murmurs became more angry and sharp.

“He was told by several members of this community that these five boys before me were up to no good. That they would cause harm. Vampires and werewolves alike came to your sheriff with concerns and he waved them away. Regular people such as yourselves came to him that these boys meant serious harm to the supernatural members–nay to your neighbors and still he waved them away. Is that the type of man you want to protect and defend your town?”

Sheriff Powell looked down in shame as the crowd let out small cries of distress. Because no, that wasn’t what the town wanted. Most of them had thought him a good man. But this cast doubt on that very image. If he would turn a blind eye to a threat to a supernatural person, would he do the same to a black man or woman of ill repute, just because he didn’t care for their kind?

“Jim Hopper has graciously offered his assistance in stepping back into his old position of police chief. He will hold it until it is time to elect a new sheriff and with hope he will run then, as well.”

Hopper smiled and shook his head. “We’ll see,” he growled.

Mayor Roberts smiled back. “I will now turn the time over to Wayne Munson.”

Powell moved off to the one side and Mayor Roberts and Chief Hopper moved to the other. Wayne stepped up and an eerie silence descended on the crowd.

“It appears I’ve been too soft on this town,” Wayne growled, his voice reaching every corner of the town hall without the aid of the microphone. “Hunters think they can just come into my town, my territory and hunt people like a pack of feral dogs.”

The boys were forced to kneel in front of the crowd. Their hands were tied behind their backs and they bowed their heads.

“These are the children you raised,” Wayne told the crowd. He picked up something from the table next to him and held it up. “A foot trap made of silver. Considered inhumane to animals used to trap a nineteen year old boy, not much older than themselves. Yes, Steven Harrington is no average boy, but he is young nonetheless.”

He threw a few feet in front of the crowd, it clanging noisily to ground, the people in the front leaping back. He picked up the shattered pieces of the cross they had nailed Steve to.

“They bound him in silver to a wooden cross!” Wayne snarled. He threw the pieces after the trap.

The whole crowd gasped in horror as the pieces clattered to the floor. He picked up the final object off the table and held it above his head.

It was a metal bat. Not silver, but deadly all the same. The tip was rust red. Wayne threw to the ground as he had done the others. “They were beating him with this.”

“These are your children!” he growled. “Have I not been good to you? Have I not been kind?”

There were murmurs among the crowd.

“You have forgotten you are are under my protection!” Wayne roared. “Without me the pack and coven would have free rein of the town, like the roving gangs of old. You are fortunate that the current alpha and Dominus are generous. Do you not recall the terror that ruled under alpha Jack Sullivan before I tore his pack to pieces? Do you not remember the children that were be experimented on under the Dominus Dr Martin Brenner? Before Billy Hargrove came and cleaned out the lab and the coven that reeked of death?”

The crowd was stock still. Pin dropping would sound like thunder in that hall.

“Five years for Brenner,” he continued. “Ten years for Sullivan. Mere drops in the bucket of time for someone as old as myself, but to you? Far too long. That they were able to hide from me their ills for as long as they did, was an abomination. But they were summarily dispatched when I did find out.”

The crowd became restless.

“So I have passed judgment upon these youths,” Wayne said. “The two younger boys, Joshua Bentley and Chance Nelson will learn the ways of the pack and of the coven. Spending six weeks with each sect to unlearn the hate you taught them.”

The crowd let out a sigh of relief. That was good punishment for the two boys.

“Andy Duncan will be tried as a child,” he continued. “For criminal mischief and conspiracy to commit assault. It is likely that he will be forced to spend his time at a youth facility where he will remain until he turns eighteen. Then it will be up to the courts to move him to an adult facility or release him.”

The crowd took up the murmuring again as this was a little more harsh then the other boys, but still lenient.

Wayne grabbed Jason and Patrick by their collars and hauled them bodily to their feet.

“As for these two boys,” he snarled, “the mayor wants to try them as adults for use of an illegal trap,” the boys rolled their eyes, “assault with a deadly weapon,” Patrick gulped, but Jason was still smug, “conspiracy to commit murder,” Jason was mentally counting the number of years he would get and tilted his head like it was acceptable while Patrick turned white, “and for attempted murder.”

Jason looked shocked for the first time, he didn’t think they would go for the attempted murder charge, he had been told by his lawyer that it was unlikely because of how young they were. “And because of the laws of this town are unique, they will also be tried for supernatural hunting. A crime punishable by death.”

Patrick fainted and Jason threw up. Josh who had been sitting nearby, leapt out of the way of the vomit.

“But I am merciful,” Wayne continued, slowly lowering the unconscious Patrick to the ground. “They will spend time with me for six months and then I will make my own recommendations to the judge on the charges to proceed with.”

That was when Jason fainted, right into the pile of his own sick.

The crowd’s relief was palpable. Everyone was murmuring with agreement and elation.

“Let this be a lesson to you all,” Wayne concluded. “I am merciful, but test me one more time and you too will face my wrath.”

“Go!” he barked and everyone in the hall turned and fled.

All that was remaining was the mayor, Sheriff Powell and the six supernatural beings.

“Will you being staying in our town?” Wayne asked Powell.

Powell shook his head. “No. I got a job lined up in Chicago. I wasn’t meant for small town politics. I put my own prejudices ahead of the lives of the citizens of this town.”

“You still gonna be a copper?” Hopper asked.

Again he shook his head. “No, I can’t risk making the same mistake in a bigger town. I’m going to teach self-defense.”

They all nodded.

Mayor Roberts patted Powell’s arm. “You’re a good man who made a bad decision, don’t let this moment define the rest of your life.”

Powell nodded. He gave the mayor’s shoulder a squeeze and walked away.

“There goes a deeply troubled man,” Nancy said. “Do you think he’ll be all right?” She hugged her sides.

“Chicago is the best place for him to find that out,” Billy said. “It will either consume you or learn enough about yourself to survive.”

Steve put his arm around her and she leaned into his comfort.

“I hope the town can heal from this,” Mayor Roberts said. “There has been so much pain and hurt in this town in the last decade. I’m not sure how much more it can take.”

Wayne shook his head. “This town survived two world wars and a Great Depression, it will survive this.”

Mayor Roberts smiled sadly. “It is good to have such a long perspective, my friend.” He squeezed Wayne’s shoulder and slipped away, leaving behind the three vampires and three werewolves.

Hopper scratched the back of his head, sheepishly. It was strange look on the werewolf. “I’ve never been police chief and not the alpha before.”

“I prefer it,” Billy said with a low growl. “It means the werewolves are a little more even in terms of power in this town.”

Steve nodded. “I agree. It’s better this way. The sheriff needs to be supernatural in the way that the mayor must be human. A vampire sheriff would be weak during the day and even having a thrall as deputy would divide the power in a way that would make them weak. But a werewolf being sheriff ensures that everyone has a say.”

Wayne nodded back.

“Thank you for coming out, Steve,” he said, “I know this wasn’t easy for you, reliving your trauma.”

Steve scoffed. “If I didn’t, I would look weak and open myself and the pack to further attacks. Not just from the anti-supernatural quarter either. Other packs would think us easy prey. Vampires would attack us to feed on.” He glanced over at Billy and Heather and sneered. “I don’t have the favor of the current Dominus, not like our previous one did.”

Hopper looked down at his feet.

Billy smirked. “Come on, Heather,” he drawled. “Let’s go, babe.”

Heather simpered. “Anything you want.”

Billy licked his lips slowly. “Promise?”

She giggled and they walked out, with his arm around her waist as he whispered dirty things to each other.

Wayne watched them with a shake of his head. There were some disadvantages to having such a young Dominus. With a sigh he turned back to the werewolves.

“Thanks for doing this, Jim,” Wayne said, patting his back. “I know it’s not easy to come back this job, especially since you were hoping to spend more time with Jane.”

Hopper sighed. “I just hate that I have to step up in this way.”

Steve kissed the top of Nancy’s head. “Let Hop take you home, I still have some things to go over with Wayne.”

Nancy nodded and slipped out from under his arm.

Steve and Wayne watched them go.

“I was always surprised you made her alpha female,” Wayne said thoughtfully. “Not after what happened between you.”

Steve hummed. “I didn’t have a lot of options. It was either Joyce or her and I didn’t trust Joyce.”

Wayne nodded. “Who would have you picked if you had your choice?”

Steve smiled fondly. “Robin hands down, but right now she more valuable to me as a keeper then alpha female.”

“You really do have a good head on your shoulders, Steve,” he said, his smile crinkling his eyes. “Now, go reassure my boy that kiss on Nancy’s head was friendly, eh?”

Steve frowned. Wayne pointed to the back of the hall where a solitary figure waited.

Steve shook his head. “Has he always been the jealous type?”

Wayne laughed. “No, just when it comes to you.”

Steve hopped down from the stage and strolled over to Eddie. He wrapped his arms around the other boy and kissed him deeply.

“Oh,” Eddie said with a blush.

“Yeah,” Steve murmured. “Only you, okay?”

Eddie nodded.

“Come on, sunshine,” Steve said, his voice low and gravely, “I’m going to spend all night showing you how much I’m only yours.”

“Point me in the right direction, big boy.”

The two went off, not as giggly and overt as Billy and Heather, but just as heated, and definitely more in love.

Wayne looked up at the ceiling. “If there is a god, watch over those two, please. They are going to need it.”

***

Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10 Part 11 Part 12 Part 13 Part 14

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#my writing #stranger things #steddie #werewolf steve harrington #vampire eddie munson #ladykailtiha writes

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neonghostlights · 1 year

Text

Chapter Two: Spilled Wine, a Mosquito, and an Almost Reunion

A/N: Next chapter will be longer because that’s when we get some answers.

Eddie Munson x Fem!Reader

Summary: Eddie Munson left you behind to chase his dreams before suddenly disappearing. When he shows up 5 years later, will he be able to work his way back into your heart?

Warnings: Alcohol, Food/Eating, Flirty Annoying Coworker, Unwanted Touching, Mention of death (No one dies just mentioned), Cussing, Reader is mentioned to be wearing a dress and heels, 18+ only, minors DNI

Word count: 4.4k

Series Masterlist

Over the years, there had been times when you thought you had seen Eddie Munson.

Whether it was the bagger at the grocery store who’s brown hair looked too familiar for a second. Or a stranger in a crowd who at a passing glance looked similar enough to get your heart pumping in surprise, just for it to plummet in disappointment when you got a better look.

Each incident left you freshly wounded and questioning your sanity.

There had been a point, probably a year after Eddie left, when it really set in that he probably wasn’t ever coming back.

You felt like you had become a ghost hunter. Chasing any shadow or disembodied voice. Looking for any clue that Eddie was still out there somewhere.

You never voiced your theory to Wayne that Eddie wasn’t out there anymore. You were too afraid to crush him anymore than Eddie already had.

It’s funny how when you love someone, they can hurt you so much even when they aren’t around.

You were convinced that Eddie had died out here in California, under the heat and glamor. He had become just another person lured out here with the promise of bright lights and fame just to end up lost and forgotten. He was like those lost sailors you would read about in fantasy books, led to their death by a beautiful siren.

It wasn’t an unbelievable theory, it was the one that most made sense. The thought of Eddie’s demise was an elephant in the room. Something so obvious to you like a flashing neon sign in the darkness of night. The thought danced over your heads during you and Wayne’s monthly dinners like rain clouds. Both of you were aware of the potential storm that those words would bring, but neither of you moved to take cover.

Your hands moved forward to blindly set the menu down as you stared at him in shock. The world was spinning. Had it always spun this fast?

Vance’s eyes pierced into the side of your face, you could feel the burning intensity but he didn’t matter right now.

Things like this didn’t just happen.

Eddie stared at you in shocked silence, his pen and notebook still posed to take your order. His wide brown eyes, that you had looked into so many times before, frozen on you as his breathing picked up.

“Eddie?” You repeated when he didn’t answer you.

Your eyes caught on the golden name tag glistening on his chest that said ‘Edward’.

“Shoot!” Vance exclaimed as you knocked over the glass full of red wine, staining the white marble floor like a crime scene in a cheap movie with poor special effects.

The shatter of the glass broke Eddie out of his trance as he tore his eyes away from yours and zoned in on the spill instead. He made no move to protect himself from the broken glass when it fell. A nearby server rushed over with a cloth and broom to clean it up apologizing profusely to you even though you had been the one to knock it over.

Eddie’s eyes flicked back to yours, as if he was checking to see if you were still there.

Over the dim intimate lighting of the restaurant he looked so beautiful. His hair was pulled back into a low bun on the back of his head with all of the fly aways smoothed away in a professional manner. He wore a white long sleeve button down shirt that was tucked into a pair of black slacks. The weirdest part of this, was not only seeing Eddie, but seeing him dressed like this.

His face was mostly the same as you remembered. There were only slightly more lines around his eyes than the last time you had seen him. His jaw was a touch more defined and sharper.

Eddie had aged, just like you. A possibility that you thought he would never get to have.

Something shifted in his gaze. You watched as the steel shutters came down, effectively blocking his emotions.

“Are you ready to order?” He asked again, you couldn’t tell if your ears were failing you but his bored and distant tone sounded forced. Like those words were painful to come out of a mouth that once spun you fantastic stories. He stepped slightly to the side as the other servers finished cleaning your mess and brought you a fresh glass.

You gaped at him with your mouth open still. You could feel Vance nudge your shoulder but you ignored him. Both of your eyes locked on Eddie with no possibility of words being formed any time soon.

“She would like Bruschetta as a starter and a Ceasar Salad for her main,” Vance spoke up beside you.

You didn’t even process the fact that Vance had ordered for you as you watched Eddie go around the table taking orders and politely answering questions. Your eyes followed and tracked his every movement.

“What is going on with you?” Vance asked as you watched Eddie walk away without looking back at you.

You pushed up from the table, your chair rocking slightly with how quickly you stood.

Vance reached out to grab your arm in question but you waved him off as you stomped across the restaurant and followed Eddie into the hallway he disappeared down.

You caught him as he was about to enter a door that read ‘Employees Only’.

“Hey!” You yelled to stop him as you stomped towards him as fast as your heels would allow. Your dress swished around your thighs, making your movement look more dramatic.

You watched as his shoulders raised and fell as he took a deep breath before he turned to face you.

“Please tell me it’s really you,” you said in an almost whisper, too afraid that if you yelled again he would turn to dust and blow away in the wind, leaving you questioning if this was still real life.

His chin lifted in a slight wordless nod. His body still turned slightly towards the door with his hand pressed against it like he was going to walk away any second. He was wound up prepared to run away from you.

He didn’t leave though as the seconds ticked by. You watched as his eyes took in your face. His gaze bounced around between each feature before trailing down your body and then back up, like he was taking you in too. You suddenly felt self conscious under his stare.

“Eddie. I don’t understand. I can’t believe you’re here,” you started softly before the anger came in, making your next words come out harder. “Where the hell have you been?”

He flinched at your tone, but you didn’t care. You wanted to grab him and shake his shoulders to try to put some sense into him. You wanted to scream at him and tell him how stupid he was. You wanted to tell him everything that he’s missed in the past five years. You wanted to tell him about Wayne and the hurt that Eddie had caused by being so selfish.

You wanted to tell him how much you missed him and how you haven’t been the same since he left. You wanted to tell him how he ripped your heart out and made it so you could never trust anyone else.

You wanted to tell him that he had ruined you for everyone else.

Instead of saying all of that, you just took another stumbling step towards him.

“Can I help you?” A server asked from behind you, most likely thinking you were a disgruntled customer cornering Eddie. If only they knew.

Before you could answer, Eddie spoke up, “Restrooms are that way, Ma’am.” He pointed towards the opposite side of the restaurant before turning away from you again and walking through the door.

You stared at the door for a moment, not believing what just happened before the employee behind you cleared their throat. You scurried past them and walked to the table in a numb daze. Your ass landed in the cloth covered chair ungracefully, your mind racing too much to control your descent.

Did you step off that airplane earlier and land in an alternate dimension or were you just dreaming? You pinched yourself on your thigh under the table, the sharp pain confirming that, unfortunately, you were awake. Jury was still out on the alternate dimension theory, though.

“I was just about to come looking for you. Did you know that guy or something?” Vance asked. You knew he was beside you, but he sounded like could have been miles away. Vance tapped impatiently at your arm when you didn’t immediately answer.

“I-No. He just looked familiar,” you spoke, finally.

Feeling brave, you glanced down the table to see your boss enraptured in a conversation with one of your coworkers. Hopefully, she didn’t notice your little freak out.

The red wine burned slightly as you chugged the whole glass in one swallow. Your coworker, Jenny, raised an eyebrow across from you and lifted her glass in solidarity before taking a sip.

“Work trips are the best, right?” She said with a wink.

“They really are,” Vance nodded along, not picking up on her sarcasm.

Suddenly, a hand was beside you refilling your glass of wine. Your eyes met Eddie’s as he looked down at you. All too quickly, he backed away from the table and disappeared again.

Seems like he has a habit of that now.

“He’s cute,” Jenny announced to you. “You should totally go for it.”

“Go for what?” You asked as somehow the second glass of wine found its way down your throat.

“The server. Someone might as well have fun while we’re here,” she fake whispered, shielding her mouth with her hand so your boss wouldn’t be able to see.

Vance tensed and scoffed beside you.

“I mean did you see the way he looked at you? Damn,” she sighed dreamily.

“Didn’t take that as your type,” Vance commented.

Little did he know.

You whipped your head around, ready to defend Eddie and your type when a dish was set in front of you. Eddie and another server were making their way around the table with hot plates of food.

“Would you like some more wine?” The server that was not Eddie asked you.

“No. We have that conference at ten in the morning, remember?” Vance answered for you before slinging an arm around your shoulder.

“Oh, give her a break. The conference is literally here at the hotel. It’s not like she’ll have to drive to get there,” Jenny said loudly.

As annoying as it was that Vance answered for you, he was right. One more glass and you might not be able to peel yourself out of bed tomorrow.

You declined the wine politely. Vance didn’t move his arm away, instead he squeezed you a little tighter. Looking up, you could see Eddie’s eyes on where Vance’s arm was wrapped around you while he worked.

By the tense look in his eye and the tick in his jaw, you thought that maybe Eddie looked pissed for some reason. Something that he had no right to be. If anyone was going to be pissed here, it was you.

The rest of dinner was awkward to say the least.

Between Vance buzzing in your ear like a mosquito, Jenny drinking entirely too much wine to the point that another coworker had to lift her out of her chair and Eddie just treating you like you were a regular customer, you were ready to get to your room and crawl under the sheets.

There was no point in denying the spark of joy it would bring when you saw Eddie noticing how close you and Vance were sitting or how Vance would lean in too close to whisper in your ear. You didn’t necessarily want to give Vance the wrong impression, but you had told him many times before you weren’t interested. If he didn’t want to listen then that was his own fault.

You found yourself at the end of the table after the bill had been paid, waiting for Eddie to say something, anything to you.

At this point you wondered if he remembered you. Really remembered who you were to him. But in the end were you really anything if he could take off so easily?

Disappointment cracked at your ribs when you realized he wasn’t going to say anything to you. You lingerd, even as the rest of your group wandered out of the restaurant with promises to see eachother bright and early for the conference.

“Are you doing okay tonight? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.” Your boss commented from behind you. You hadn’t even realized she had stayed back waiting for you.

You decided to admit defeat when Eddie didn’t return to the restaurant dining room after he had disappeared down the hallway where the kitchen was located. You just wished this time you’d be able to really say goodbye.

“No ghosts here,” you replied in your best attempt to sound lighthearted.

“Come on. Lets get some sleep before tomorrow,” your boss said with a wave of her hand.

After one last check around the dining room left you disappointed again, you gathered your pride and left the restaurant without Eddie.

It was getting later into the night and you couldn’t bring yourself to sleep.

The hotel bed, which was almost too comfortable, did nothing to lull you into a slumber. Instead, you tossed and turned back and forth.

Your brain had finally caught up with the situation and wouldn’t allow you an ounce of peace.

You wished you wouldn’t have left the restaurant. You wished you would have stayed until he had no choice but to face you. You wished that five years ago you wouldn’t have let Eddie leave.

You sat up on the side of the bed, pushing the silky sheets and blankets to the side.

What would be the right thing to do here? Should you call Wayne and let him know that you saw Eddie tonight? Should you tell him that his nephew that he had been heartbroken over was alive and well? He had the right to know, of course. But you had to think of the repercussions of what this news would do to him. Wayne wasn’t fragile but you had to be careful not to stress him out too much.

You could always call Lissa, she had always been the one to talk you down when you got too in your head about Eddie. She had been with you for it all, and even had been the one to recommend therapy to you when things got really bad.

Knowing Lissa though, if you called her tonight and told her what happened then she would pack your cat up and grab a flight tonight just to show up here, chase Eddie down, and give him a piece of her mind. Although you appreciated her dedication to being your best friend, that probably wouldn’t be the best thing in this situation.

You would just have to talk her out of it. Right now you just needed your best friend.

Your hand reached for the phone on the side table and dialed the familiar numbers. You cursed yourself for a moment when you realized the time in Indiana. You were about to hang up and go back to tossing and turning but she answered anyway.

“Hello?” She sounded chipper. You sent a moment to thank whoever that you hadn’t woken her up.

“Hey. It’s me.”

“You okay? How’s California? Been to the beach yet? Any cute surfer girls there that you can pass along my way?” She spat out her questions in rapid succession.

“I’m fine. California's fine. No I haven’t been to the beach,” you answered.

“You’re lying,” she said with a gasp.

“No, I really haven’t been to the beach. I-”

“No. Everything’s not fine. I know when something’s up and you wouldn’t be calling right now if everything was fine. So spill.” This is why you loved and hated Lissa sometimes. She always knew when to call you out on your bullshit.

“I know I’m going to sound crazy. I feel crazy. But Eddie’s here. In California.” Your voice wobbled slightly. It was the first time you had said it out loud since you saw him and it felt surreal.

You heard Lissa’s deep breath through the phone before she went silent for a bit. You waited, letting her process the information you had given her. She didn’t know Eddie like you did. She had only been gifted the stories you had given her through the years. But she did know how much he meant to you and how much he affected your life.

“Listen,” she said softly. “I know you were worried about going to California because of what happened and I know that thinking about him probably worked up some unresolved issues. If it’s getting to be too much then you should come home. Maybe we can even call your thera-”

“No. Lissa, listen to me. He was our waiter at dinner. I talked to him. It was actually him,” you said defensively, realizing how crazy you sounded.

You went into the story, telling Lissa how he showed up at the table and looked at you like he had seen a ghost. How you had followed him down the hallway and that he told you it was him and then he talked to you like you were just a customer. How he didn’t acknowledge you for the rest of the night but had no problem giving Vance dirty looks for touching you.

“Holy shit,” Lissa said finally after you finished telling her your story.

“I know,” you agreed.

“I’m coming down there,” she announced and then you could hear her shuffling around on her side of the phone.

“No! Don’t do that. I’m just going to make it through the conference tomorrow and then come home. He didn’t want to talk to me. It was like I was a stranger.” You felt the first sign of tears as your eyes started to burn and it got harder to speak. You had fought so hard to hold off the tears that had been threatening to break since dinner because you knew once you started you wouldn’t be able to stop them. “Just stay there with the cat. I’ll be home in a couple of days and then…I don’t know.”

You could hear Lissa set something down on the other end, most likely her suitcase and then the squeaking of bed springs as she sat down. “Can I give you some advice?” She asked.

When you didn’t answer she took that as confirmation to keep going. “I know this might sound a little cliche but if someone is continuously walking away from you then let them. You can’t force a person to want to be a part of your world. If he wanted to fix the mess he made in either you or Wayne’s lives then he would seek you out himself.You can look at this one of two ways, you can throw yourself into hunting him down and pouring salt into the wound or…”

“Or what?” You whispered.

“Or this might be the final thing you needed to let him go. If seeing him at that restaurant was all of the closure you were going to get then that’s going to have to be okay.”

“Shit,” you said with a humorless laugh as you wiped at your face. “Can I call you tomorrow?”

“Any time.”

After hanging up with Lissa you threw yourself back down on the bed and stared at the ceiling.

She was right. There was no way that you could force Eddie to be a part of your life again. If he wanted to forget everything and everyone back at home in Hawkins then that was his choice. He was an adult, even though his decisions sucked sometimes. You knew it was the right thing, and you knew it was what was best for you, but that didn’t mean it was easy.

You would have to respect his choice though. It was his life to live. As long as he was happy.

The conference the next morning came too soon.

Not only were you exhausted, but you also had a headache and an empty stomach from not eating the salad that Vance had ordered for you. If you hadn’t been distracted by Eddie then you would have been more pissed about that.

Vance was entirely too excited to see you when you waited. Part of you wanted to snap at him for his enthusiastic greeting, but he did come bearing a hot cup of coffee as a gift so you decided to go easy on him.

Jenny was trying and failing to hide her hangover from your boss, but her not so pleasant shade of green and the sunglasses that she was wearing indoors was giving her away.

You could feel how swollen your eyes were everytime you blinked. The crying hadn’t stopped after you got off the phone with Lissa. After her words of wisdom, you could feel yourself come to terms with the situation, or at least try to.

The multiple hours long conference was mind numbingly painful. You think around the two hour mark you started losing information instead of retaining. At around the three hour mark you considered pulling the fire alarm and using it as a distraction to flee.

The coffee you had drank was long gone by the end of the event, only a few cold and bitter drops remained at the bottom of the soggy paper cups.

Your boss pulled you all together, dismissing you for the rest of the day with a reminder to meet in the lobby the next morning to catch your flight home. With that, you all dispersed to leave the conference room before your boss could change her mind.

Vance caught up to you, of course. No amount of speed walking on your account would have been fast enough. You kept your head down while you maneuvered through clusters of people, chairs, and tables. You were on a mission to get out of this room so you could crawl into your hotel bed and order room service with no plans of getting out until you had to leave for your flight in the morning.

“I was thinking, how about we go get lunch and maybe walk down by the beach for a bit? We can check out some of those shops and get some souvenirs? How about-” His talking ceased the second you made it out of the conference room.

The abrupt silence was enough for you to stop walking and look up from the floor and to see Vance staring at something with intensity. Following his line of sight you realized that he wasn’t staring at something but instead someone.

A certain someone with curly brown hair and big brown eyes that was awkwardly leaned up against the wall where the conference room hallway led into the hotel lobby. He had both hands in the pockets of his dark colored jeans in an image of perfect nonchalance, but you could tell by the way his shoulders tensed when he looked at you that he wasn’t as relaxed as he was trying to portray.

You both stared at each other for a bit, you with shock and Eddie with intensity. Vance cleared his throat and motioned at you to keep walking with him as he picked the conversation back up again like there had been no disruption. “Or maybe I can take you out to dinner tonight. Just me and you? I saw this nice place down the street that looked promising.”

You only took a few steps before Eddie pushed off the wall and walked towards you, stepping in front of you and Vance to stop you from leaving.

“Hey, can we talk for a second?” He asked with a hint of begging in his voice.

You chewed the inside of your lip. This shouldn’t be an internal debate after you had spent all yesterday evening chasing Eddie throughout a restaurant with your eyes practically begging him to talk to you.

“We really need to go,” Vance spoke up beside you.

“I wasn’t asking you,” Eddie snapped at him.

“It’s fine,” you said to Vance who at the moment looked the complete opposite of Eddie with his crisp iron shirt and loafers. “We can talk for a second.”

Eddie led you to the wall he was originally leaned against when you had walked out of the conference room. You were only a few steps away from Vance, who was waiting for you and not doing a very good job at pretending he wasn’t listening in to your conversation.

“I should make this quick before your boyfriend has a breakdown,” Eddie said with a smirk.

You didn’t bother correcting him. “You said you wanted to talk?”

“Right,” he said as he straightened his spine and cracked his knuckles. “Can we meet up tonight? Just me and you,” he asked as he cut Vance a sideways glare. “I think there’s a lot we need to talk about and I don’t want to do it here.”

“Where then?” You asked.

“Meet me in the hotel lobby tonight around nine? That way you have enough time for your date.”

You rolled your eyes at him. Five years without seeing each other and this is what he chose to focus on.

“Fine. Are you actually going to show up or are you just going to pull another disappearing act?” You questioned with a humorless laugh. It was a little immature to throw that at him but based on the wince on his face when you said it, he knew he wasn’t getting into your good graces easily.

“I promise I’ll meet you at the hotel lobby tonight at nine,” he pledged, holding a ringed hand up for extra effect.

“Fine. I’ll see you then,” you said with a sigh. Your mind was torn, part of you dancing with joy at the opportunity you thought you’d never have. The other part of you was quickly putting up a brick wall around your mind and heart, warning you of the impending doom that was approaching.

With your confirmation he backed away and left as quickly as he had appeared. You stood there, staring at his retreating form for a bit until he disappeared around the corner. By the way he was acting, you wondered if you were ready to hear what he had to say tonight or if he would just destroy you more than he already had.

#eddie munson au #eddie munson x reader #eddie munson x y/n #eddie munson #eddie munson fanfic #eddie munson series #eddie munson imagine #eddie stranger things #eddie munson angst #eddie munson x you #waiter!eddie munson

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munson-blurbs · 2 years

Note

That blurb about Eddie hating his scars just gave me the biggest feels…. Could you maybe write about taking care of Eddie after he’s back from the upside down? Fluff-ganza and a little bit of angst helping with his wounds and nightmares … ah 🥹 love your blooooog ❤️

Warnings: language, blood, mentions of surgical procedures

WC: 2.6k

A/N: This was more fluff than angst, but I hope you like it! Please leave feedback <3

@princesseddie86 here is the fluff piece I promised you!

“Stay with me, Eddie, please,” you beg as you follow the gurney down the hospital corridor. You watch him take shallow breaths, hair matted to his face with blood.

He groans softly, unintelligible sounds leaving his lips. He’s shivering from the blood loss. You’re not even sure if he’s aware that you’re here, but you keep talking to him.

“You’re gonna be okay. You’re at the hospital; the doctors will take good care of you,” you promise, though you’re unsure what can be done.

The nurses surrounding him are listing different codes. It’s like a foreign language to you, but it might be better if you can’t understand it. They might be saying things you don’t want to hear.

The whole situation was so bizarre. You’d been friends with Robin Buckley since grade school; you were one of the few people she’d come out to. You thought it was crazy enough when she told you she was now friends with Steve Harrington, but what really sealed the deal was when she’d told you about an otherworldly realm dubbed the Upside Down. Oh, and now a demon-type entity named Vecna was brutally mutilating and killing random Hawkins teenagers, and maybe, pretty please, could you help them fight him?

Before joining their brigade of monster hunters, you hadn’t had much contact with Eddie Munson. For starters, you took honors classes, while he struggled to pass his introductory courses. You’d been privy to his many cafeteria table speeches, but never paid too much attention to them. You didn’t think he was a freak or running some satanic cult like many of your classmates assumed, but you didn’t really have anything to do with a slacker metalhead like Eddie.

Of course, that was before you actually got to know him. Before you saw the way he took care of the freshmen who idolized him, his passion for anything related to music, how he read dog-eared fantasy paperbacks until he had them memorized. Before you realized how much you cared for him.

You watch the doctors whisk him to the ICU, and it dawns on you that you might not ever get the chance to tell him.

Eddie’s uncle Wayne meets you at the hospital after Steve and Robin find him at the trailer park and fill him in on what happened. Well, sort of--it was too much to get into the whole “Upside Down” business, especially when his nephew’s life hung in limbo--so that would have to be a conversation for another day.

You’re waiting in the waiting room, chewing on your fingernails, when he walks in solemnly. His hands are shoved in his pockets, and though he’s stoic now, his tear-stained cheeks reveal that he’s been crying. Your gaze meets his, and he comes over to sit with you.

“You Y/N?” he asks, and you nod numbly. “I’m, uh, Wayne, Eddie’s uncle.”

You try to offer a smile, though the effort makes it feel more like a grimace. “Eddie’s told me a lot about you.”

“Good things, I hope.”

“Of course. He told me all about how you raised him after his dad went to prison and his mom...” you trail off. Even the thought of death--anyone’s death--is too hard to think about right now.

Wayne nods. “Was the least I could do. My brother--Eddie’s old man--he and I were raised by our drunk of a dad. And that really messed with my brother. Messed with me, too, but maybe I missed some of it because I was younger.

“He started drinking, too; starting drinking too much, too fast, too young. Makin’ bad decisions, just like our dad. And after he got taken away, I couldn’t let Eddie fall into that same trap.” He pulls out a cigarette and looks at you. “Mind if I smoke?”

“No, that’s fine,” you reply softly, and he lights it. “Actually, could I bum one?”

Wayne gives you a knowing look. “’S not a good habit, y’know?”

“I don’t normally...only when I’m stressed.” You take a cigarette from him and lean in so he can light it.

“Don’t tell Eddie,” he whispers. “He won’t like me poisoning his girlfriend’s lungs.”

You choke, and it’s not from smoke inhalation. “We’re, um...I’m not his girlfriend,” you mumble. But I wish I was, you want to say.

Wayne lets out a small chuckle, then takes another drag from his cigarette. “Well, if you say so.”

You want to ask him to elaborate when a nurse enters the waiting room. “Wayne Munson?” Wayne stands up quickly, motioning for you to join him. “Your nephew is out of surgery. You can see him now.”

“Okay,” he replies, “his girlfriend’s gonna come with me, if that’s all right?”

The nurse nods. “Of course.”

You don’t even bother to correct him this time.

The hospital doesn’t have any of Eddie’s favorite books; no copies of Lord of the Rings anywhere in the place. You settle for an old tattered copy of The Catcher in the Rye and read aloud to the sleeping boy next to you.

He still hasn’t woken up from the anesthesia, but you’re still relieved to see how calm he looks, his breaths even instead of ragged. They cleaned him up a bit so there’s no traces of dried blood on his face. He looks more like himself.

You’re still reading when you notice him stir ever so slightly, making your heart leap.

“E-Eddie?” you whisper, placing a hand over his, careful of his IV. “Eddie, can you hear me?”

He groans softly and promptly falls back to sleep. The nurses warned you that he might go in and out, that it was normal, but you just wanted him awake.

Wayne comes back in the room, holding a paper cup of water. He hands it to you and you accept it gratefully.

“Any news?” he asks.

“He just kinda...moved a little bit? And made a tiny noise. But that was it,” you report, disappointment written all over your face.

Wayne puts a hand on your shoulder. “I know it’s useless tellin’ y’this, but you don’t have to stay. I can call you from the payphone when he’s up.”

“I want to be here when he wakes up. Unless I’m in your way, and I can leave.” It hadn’t dawned on you that Wayne might want to be alone with Eddie, but the man just shakes his head.

“No, no. The company helps,” he reassures you. “Jus’ figured you need some rest.”

“I’m okay for now.” Okay is too strong a word; really, you’re barely surviving, but you can’t manage to go home. You turn your attention back to the book, clear your throat, and continue reading.

“Hello?”

The voice is quiet and gravelly, barely audible over the sounds of machines beeping and Wayne’s light snoring, but you hear it. You hear Eddie.

“Hi, sleepyhead.” You get up from the chair where you were half-sleeping and crouch by his bedside. “How do you feel?”

“Like shit,” he mutters. “What happened?”

You knit your brows, unable to hide your concern. “Do you...do you remember what happened? With the bats?”

He tries a laugh but ends up coughing, holding his torso in pain. “Fuck. Yeah, I remember those motherfuckers. Just not...after.”

“Well,” you start, “after you decided to be a hero, Dustin and I grabbed you and brought you back to Hawkins. You were so pale and shaky and...” Tears threaten to spill from your eyes. “I’m sorry. I’m trying to be brave for you.”

But Eddie’s not even listening to that part. “You and Henderson came back for me?” he asks incredulously.

You nod. “Of course. You know he worships the ground you walk on.”

“And you?”

Because I care about you. Because even though we’ve only been friends for a few days, I feel complete with you. Because now that I know you, really know you, I can’t live in a world without Eddie Munson.

“Because you’re my friend, Eddie,” you manage, swallowing down all of the other things you actually wanted to say. You look over at Wayne, who is still sleeping. “C’mon, let’s tell your uncle that you’re awake.”

Eddie is discharged from the hospital after three days. He has to use a cane to get around until he’s fully healed, which he complains makes him look elderly, but you reassure him that it looks totally metal.

You help Wayne get him into the trailer and onto the sofa, where he sits back with a grunt.

“Okay, I think my work here is done!” you announce and turn to Wayne. “Could I use your phone? Steve can pick me up.” You’d driven to and from the hospital in Wayne’s car, which meant either calling Steve for a ride or walking home.

“You’re leaving?” Eddie asks from his spot on the couch. Maybe you’re imagining it, but does he look...disappointed at the prospect of you going?

You laugh. “Taking care of you for three days straight wasn’t enough for you?”

“No, I think I need you here full-time,” he says, pushing out his lower lip into a pout. “Y’know, bring me my meds, change my dressings, give me a sponge bath...”

That last comment earns him a thwap on the back of the head from his uncle. “Behave,” Wayne warns.

You roll your eyes, heading for the phone. “I have to go home and rest. Maybe see my parents, let them know I’m alive.” There’s more truth than sarcasm in that statement now with Hawkins seemingly crumbling around you. And you are exhausted.

“Okay,” he concedes, looking at you with his brown doe eyes, “can you come back tomorrow? Wayne can’t take any more days off from work.”

“I think I can manage that.” You call Steve, who was on his way back from volunteering at the school-turned-crisis-shelter, so it only took him five minutes to get to the trailer park. As you walk to his car, closing the door behind you, you hear Wayne’s gruff voice.

“Boy, if you don’t take that girl on a date once you’re healed up...”

Two weeks later, your phone rings just before 8 AM on a Sunday.

“Hello?” you croak groggily, stifling a yawn.

“Y/N!” Eddie’s voice booms through the receiver, jolting you awake.

“Eddie? Is everything okay?” You sit up so fast that dots form in front of your eyes, and you put a hand on the bed to steady yourself. You’ve been going to his trailer nearly every day, bringing him his homework and often staying to help him with it. The boy was determined to graduate this year, come hell or high water.

“Yeah, yeah, sorry,” he says, like he’s just realized how early it is, “but can you come over now? I wanna show you something.”

You stretch and feel your back crack. “Sure. Let me just get dressed and I can be there in, like, half an hour?”

“Perfect.” You can sense his delight over the phone. “I’ll leave the door unlocked. Just come in when you get here.”

“Sounds good.” You run a comb through your hair and throw it up in a loose bun. Pulling on some light wash jeans, you rummage through your dresser to find a shirt. You weigh your options carefully and laugh at yourself. This isn’t a fashion show, you’re just going to see Eddie. Why do you care about what you look like?

You know why, you think, but push it away as you throw on an oversized navy blue shirt and finish the rest of your morning routine.

You gently push open the trailer door and see Eddie laying on the couch, reading The Catcher in the Rye.

“Hi,” he breathes, then holds up the book. “Someone never got to finish reading this to me, so I had Henderson check it out from the library.”

“You never read it in your ten years of high school?” you tease gently, placing your jacket on the chair near the door.

“Hey, it’s only six!” he protests. “And no. Probably was s’posed to, though.”

“Is that what you wanted to show me?”

“Nah,” he grins. “Watch this.”

Your eyes stay locked on him as he pushes himself up slowly, grimacing as he uses the arm of the sofa for balance. His cane is leaned up against it, but he doesn’t reach for it; instead, he takes careful, methodical steps without any mobility aid.

You feel a smile spreading across your face, though it’s a bit dampened with concern. Should he be walking by himself? you wonder, but allow him his moment. He’s so proud, so determined.

He gets to you and takes your hand gingerly. “Ta-da!”

You want to fling your arms around his neck and pull him in for the tightest hug of his life, but you’re not about to re-injure him, so you squeeze his hand instead.

“Look at you! You’ll be back to torturing the rest of Hellfire in no time!” You go to drop his hand, but he doesn’t let go. You think maybe he just needs to hold on for stability, but then he takes his other hand and wraps you in a hug.

“It’s all thanks to you,” he murmurs.

“I think the doctors and nurses who stitched you back together deserve some credit,” you remind him, but you feel your cheeks burning.

You feel him shake his head. “I’m not talking about the medical stuff. I’m talking about the...trying again stuff.”

“Trying again?” you look up at him quizzically.

Eddie sighs and leads you back to the couch. “Yeah,” he says softly. “I kept trying to walk a little more each day so I could meet you at the door to hug you.”

Your heart surges. “That’s the sweetest thing I’ve ever heard.”

It’s his turn to blush. “That’s me, y’know, the murderous satanic cult leader with a heart of gold.”

“What a coincidence,” you laugh, “that’s just my type.”

He lets out a small chuckle and takes your hand again. “Wanna know what my next goal is?” He waits for you to nod before continuing. “I’m gonna work up the strength to take you out on a date. If, uh, if that’s okay with you.”

“If that’s okay with...Eddie, of course that’s okay with me. It’s more than okay!” You rest your free hand on his knee. “But there’s no rush. We can hang out here and watch movies until you’re ready. I’m not going anywhere.”

And then something comes over him, a feeling that he ordinarily would’ve dismissed, but now he leans into it. He cups your chin and brings your lips to his, kissing you softly. Your body is tingling as you move your hand from his knee to his bicep, mindful of his healing wounds.

A fleeting thought crosses your mind, leading you to break the kiss earlier than you wanted. He misinterprets this and apologizes quickly.

“Sorry, should’ve waited until we actually went on a date...” he sputters, playing with his rings.

“No, Eddie. I just...” you sigh deeply. “I’m worried that you only think you like me because I’ve been taking care of you. And then once you’re better, you’ll realize that...”

His jaw drops slightly in disbelief. “Y/N, I’ve been thinkin’ about you since Robin introduced us. And then when I realized that you’re cute and caring...” he trails off. “kinda fell for ya.”

“Oh,” you’re taken aback by his honest confession and allow yourself to fall back into his warm embrace. “Well, in that case...” you smile as you kiss him.

His shoulders relax and he holds you as close as he can.

“I’m never letting you go,” he promises, and you vow that you’ll never let him go, either.

#eddie munson #eddie stranger things #stranger things #eddie munson x reader #fanfic #eddie munson x female reader #eddie munson x you #eddie munson x f!reader #stranger things fanfic #eddie munson fluff #requests

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sidekick-hero · 1 year

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Hunter and Prey

Part 2 (Part 1) and more to come!

Eddie never thought he would end up here.

Sure, he always knew he'd stay with Wayne, even through the occasional dreams of getting out of this shithole of a town. Staying here, with Wayne and Chrissy, was something he had imagined when he thought about the future, but he never thought his life would become this. Growing up, vampires and werewolves and swamp monsters were figments of people's imaginations. Stories to be told around the campfire. The right stuff for movies and books, but too scary (or campy) to be real. The Munson Doctrine was pretty clear on this.

That is, until Eddie walks in on an actual vampire sucking the life out of his best friend his senior year. He's not proud that his first reaction was to freeze in absolute horror, his mind rejecting what was happening right in front of him. Chrissy was lying motionless, a tall guy with dirty blond hair leaning over her, his teeth prolonged into fangs and dark blood dripping from his mouth. Eddie's body felt numb, but he stumbled over to Chrissy as fast as his shaky legs could carry him and tried to help her, but nothing he did would dislodge the vampire. It actually seemed like the bastard thought it was funny.

Just as Eddie was about to go into full panic mode, ready to do something probably very stupid, the doors to the gym slammed loudly open. Both the vampire's and Eddie's heads whipped around in perfect harmony at the sound, something he would have found hilarious under any other circumstances. Before Eddie knew what was happening, the vampire gasped, a choked sound of utter surprise, and clutched at his chest, where a stake protruded from where Eddie thought his heart must be.

Right in front of Eddie's eyes, the vampire made one last garbled sound before simply turning to ash. Eddie slowly looked up from where a monster of the night had just been feasting on his best friend to a tall, broad man holding a crossbow at eye level.

"What the —" Before Eddie could finish the thought, Chrissy started coughing and his attention was drawn back to helping his friend. The man walked over to them, watching as Eddie pulled off his shirt and pressed it to the wound at Chrissy's throat. After a long moment, he said, "She'll be all right, son. Probably saved her life."

And that was the moment that changed his life forever. The man who introduced himself as Hopper helped him bandage and clean Chrissy, and in the process opened his eyes to a world he never dreamed existed.

His earlier run-in with the strangely helpful vampire made him think about that day. He had to remind himself that this was the true nature of vampires. They don't help humans out of the goodness of their unbeating hearts. They are soulless predators. He'd do well to remember that.

"You got everything, son?" Wayne asks, filling a large pitcher of water from the sink.

"Yeah, I think so." Eddie watches as Wayne finishes filling the pitcher, then picks up a worn book, muttering under his breath over the water. Meanwhile, Eddie checks to make sure he has everything he needs, patting himself down to do a quick inventory. Wayne fills the assortment of water pistols on the table with the holy water he just consecrated and hands them to Eddie. Eddie holsters the guns. Wayne's eyes roam over him, double-checking that he's got everything he needs.

"Hey," Eddie says, drawing Wayne's attention to his face and putting a hand on his shoulder. "I'll be fine, Uncle Wayne. These leeches won't know what hit them." He punctuates the statement with a broad grin.

Wayne huffs with a small smile, but Eddie sees the twitch in his eyebrows. "You better, son. Remember, if you get even an inklin’ that things might head into something unsavory, you call —”

"You and Hop, I know, I know," Eddie interrupts. Wayne smiles at him, but it doesn't reach his eyes. Eddie knows how much it stresses Wayne out to see Eddie put his life on the line like this, but Wayne also knows how important it is for Eddie to go out night after night. "Batten down the hatches and I'll be back soon."

"Just come back in one piece and with all the blood still in your veins, 'kay?"

Eddie gives Wayne a two-finger salute, backs up to the door, and pushes it open. Wayne follows him as Eddie steps through it and into the night, watching as he gets farther and farther away, the darkness quickly consuming him.

Part of an ongoing series @legitcookie and I will be doing! We’ll be going back and forth posting parts, so keep that in mind.

This is dedicated to our Elle Woods-coded, big brained, fabulous friend @yournowheregirl We’re taking your twilight loving heart, corrupting it with a show you’ve never seen (btvs), and making our blorbos smash together like barbies. We adore you immensely and we would be nothing without you 💜

#steve harrington #eddie munson #stranger things #stranger things fanfic #steddie #steddie ficlet #steddie au #vampire hunter!eddie munson #vampire!steve harrington #reposting because tumblr acts weird #trying to find out if it's a bug #My writing #hunter and prey fic #sidekickcookie

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calyxthenerd · 1 month

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Cataloging how many characters in the fandoms I’m in have the same names and what those names are:

5 Alexs (Fierro, Walter, Gutierrez, Mercer and Claremont-Diaz)

3 Amys (Fleming, Farrah-Fowler and Santiago)

3 Antonios (Madrigal, the principal from Violetta (may he rest in peace) and Gutierrez from Bia)

2 Barbaras (Gordon and Handler(?))

2 Bens (Hanscom and the prince)

2 Bruces (Banner and Wayne)

2 Brunos (Madrigal and that one guy from SL)

2 Cerises (Hood and the one from miraculous (or did she change her name again?))

3 Charlies (Spring from Heartstopper, from the perks of being wallflower and Beckendorf from pjo)

2 Coles (Mackenzie and Walter)

2 Connors (Kent and Stoll)

2 Dianas (Prince and Barry)

2 Eddies (Munson and Kaspbrak)

2 Felixs (Madrigal and Fathom)

2 Glorias (Pritchett and the one from the Barbie movie)

2 Harleys (Keener and Quinn)

4 Heathers (the three from heathers and the lifeguard in stranger things)

2 Hunters (Huntsman and Deamonne-Noceda)

2 Jackies (Howard and the dance teacher from Violetta)

3 Jasons (Farley-Shaw, Grace and Todd)

2 Lukes (Castellan and Patterson)

2 Magnus (Chase and Nielsen)

Mallory (Keen and the one from bsc)

2 Marthas (Nielsen and Wayne)

2 Maxs (Kante and Mayfield)

3 Michaels (Hanlon, Holden and Wheeler)

2 Nanas (Noodleman and Shimura)

2 Nicks (Nelson and Wilde)

3 Peters (Parker (if you count all the Peter Parkers as one), Pan and Quill)

2 Rachels (Dare and Roth)

2 Rileys (Matthews from girl meets world and the girl from inside out)

2 Robins (Buckley and Scherbatsky)

3 Sams (Wilson, Al-Abbas and from perks of being wallflower)

2 Simons (Alvarez and Eriksson, the kings who inspired this post)

4 Stans (the two from gravity falls, Barber and Uris)

Tori (Spring and Vega)

2 Wills (Solace and Walter)

#I made a notebook for all the fictional characters I knew during senior year #not tagging this so I don’t have 15 different fandoms on my ass

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straightbaittournament · 8 months

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straightbait tournament F.A.Q.

where can i find the current polls?

all polls will be tagged as #straightbait tournament round (numeral), so you should be able to find them there.

however, if the tags are fucked, here:

kurosaki ichigo and kuchiki rukia VS gregory house and lisa cuddy

himmel and frieren VS abbie mills and ichabod crane

jeff winger and britta perry VS ochako uraraka and izuku midoriya

asuka tenjoin and yuki judai VS mako mori and raleigh becket

bow and glimmer VS galo and aina

keiichi maebara and rena ryugu VS hardwon surefoot and moonshine cybin

edward elric and winry rockbell but SPECIFCIALLY from fma 2003 VS maka albarn and soul evans

cali and flynn VS akko kagari and andrew hanbridge

steve harrington and robin buckley VS roy mustang and riza hawkeye

fox mulder and dana scully VS clara oswald and the twelfth doctor

tatiana slohzno and curt mega VS mako, korra, and asami

eva garvey and gabriel VS tyler rake and nik khan

alec hardy and ellie miller VS oscar francois de jarjayes and andre grenadier

ash ketchum and misty VS hikaru hitachiin and haruhi fujioka

matthew and mary crawley VS willow park and hunter

ava silva and michael salvius VS nina zenik and matthias helvar

kipo oak and benson mekler VS chrissie cunningham and eddie munson

ted lasso and rebecca welton VS luke skywalker and leia organa

the twelfth doctor and missy VS roman roy and gerri kellman

sam winchester and rowena macleod VS bruce wayne and selina kyle

bellamy blake and clarke griffin VS kathryn janeway and chakotay

livvy blackthorn and kit herondale VS tim drake and stephanie brown

brienne of tarth and jaime lannister VS merlin and morgana

jason grace and piper mclean VS peggy carter and daniel sousa

you can find the round one bracket here.

what tags do you use?

#straightbait tournament round (numeral) - for polls from a specific round of the straightbait tournament.

#straightbait tournament - any post generally about the straightbait tournament.

#singles tournament round (numeral) - for polls from a specific round of the singles tournament.

#singles tournament - any post generally about the singles tournament.

#honor the fallen - posts announcing the eliminated baits from completed rounds.

#announcements - important announcements such as start and end dates for each round and other information directly related to the tournaments.

#mod talks - casual posts and most asks. if you only want to see info that is prescient to the tournament, you can block this tag.

#(ship or character names) propaganda - propaganda for individual straightbaits.

#basics - posts concerning "vital" information, like rules and faqs, although i'm pretty sure that tag is busted atm, so this faq is kind of taking the place of those posts. you can find the original rules post here.

#other tournaments - posts promoting other tournaments, in which this blog has been tagged. there are some pretty cool ones in there!

what's your policy on ties?

only a perfect 50/50 counts as a tie. if one bait is even .1% higher than another, they win. i did this because i thought it would be funny and i also want to avoid tiebreaker rounds as much as possible

do you reblog propaganda?

yes! you are free to tag me in propaganda or to send it as an ask, although i will probably not reblog/respond to anti-propaganda. (you're free to make it or tag me though, it'll probably make me laugh)

what are you counting as straightbait?

the definition of straightbait in this tournament is intentionally very loose, and the poll question is also vague on purpose (is it celebratory or derogatory? who knows). i've accepted submissions with more obvious examples of "straightbait", such as cases where m/f couples are teased but never get together or are revealed to be queer. however, i've also accepted couples where they have some kind of weird fucking thing going on that could be interpreted a number of ways but isn't straightforward canonical m/f romance, "buried straights" who die after romance is confirmed, and a number of other things. i go more into this tournament's definition of straightbait here and here.

why is this couple in the tournament if they get together canonically?

see above. in most cases where this question comes up, we're talking about buried straights. if the characters in question are queer, it is straightbait at least partially by virtue of those characters not being straight. and if neither of the above, the answer you are looking for will be in the propaganda.

you're free to argue about the validity of a straightbait in the tags, amongst yourselves, or in propaganda, but please don't come to me about whether a bait should or shouldn't be in the tournament. their inclusion on this blog + submitted propaganda speaks for itself

for more on queer characters being submitted to this tournament see this post and the tags of this post

what is The Policy?

sometimes i rb propaganda posts that i tag with #as per The Policy. the policy says that any time i encounter a post on my dash that is related to one of the pairs in this tournament such that it could be used as propaganda, i have to reblog it.

how were the matchups decided?

i sorted all my submissions into popularity tiers, then randomized matchups within each tier, so characters were matched up with others with equal or similar popularity to the best of my ability. tiers were based on how many submissions a pair received and how well they did in the singles tournament. there were five or six tiers in total, although it's been long enough since i made the bracket that i do not remember the exact number

what is the singles tournament?

the singles tournament was a preliminary tournament that i ran for every pairing or character that was only submitted once, hence "singles". i only automatically qualified straightbaits with more than one submission, so i did this to allow more submissions to enter the main tournament. also a chance to see your blorbo in a poll at least once, even if they didn't qualify

what should i do if you've gotten something wrong?

send me an ask or a message, or leave me a comment! if you send an ask, please specify if you want me to answer it privately, as i will answer publicly by default. although be advised if i've made a typo in a poll option or poll title, i cannot edit it

what should i call you?

i've been referring to myself as straightmod/mod, but you can also call me karinyo! i use they/them, he/him, and ze/hir

have fun and enjoy your time here <3

#basics #straightbait tournament #the current polls section will be updated as each round goes live. so if any links are missing they probably just haven't been posted yet #mod's got a fancy new faq post in time for the official tournament

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medusapelagia · 8 months

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8 Au-gust: Robots and Androids - Part 3

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 [...]

Rating: Mature Relationship: Steve Harrington/Eddie Munson WT: Android Steve Harrington, Wanted Criminal Eddie Munson Words: 2004

Eddie Munson always knew that his life was going to end tragically.

He lost his parents as a kid and was raised by his uncle, Wayne, a kind man who owned a farm that gave them enough to survive.

But that was before the androids.

Before the government expropriated the lands and, instead of letting the humans cultivate it, they gave it to androids and robots. That was the moment in which, suddenly, Wayne and Eddie lost everything.

Their land, their house, their freedom.

Because, and that's something that Eddie learned soon enough, money is what gives you freedom.

Wayne’s money was just enough to put Eddie on a ship to send him to a boarding school that took in poor people like him.

After that day, he never saw his uncle again.

That was one of his biggest regrets. Not having said to the man who raised him how much he loved him. How much he still does. Because somehow, deep in his heart, he is still convinced that one day they will find each other again.

Being an orphan in a school where he was accepted just for kindness was hard. His schoolmates made fun of him, making cruel pranks and he survived high school thanks to his friends, Garreth and Jeff, and his sweetheart, an old guitar that was in his family for generations.

Wayne used to say that one of their ancestors saved the world with that guitar.

It made no sense, but the guitar was like a relic to them.

The first time he actually tried to play he broke a string and cried for an entire week, but somehow Wayne managed to get him new strings, encouraging him to play.

It was hard trying to learn without a teacher, but Eddie always loved to study the mechanics of things and how things worked, so he learned how to play guitar on his own.

He knew no song, so he simply started to compose his own.

That's how he met Owens.

He was the headmaster of the school and he quickly noticed how gifted he was. The boy didn't want to study, that was clear enough, but his mind was quick and he was able to understand the mechanism behind every thing that got into his hands.

As soon as he graduated he asked him to join his organization.

Owens was the head of an organization that helped the poorer planets and gave the opportunity to study to guys who would have never had the opportunity, just like Eddie, and maybe something more.

***

When Eddie opens his eyes he is not expecting to see a little woman with a big smile at his side.

"You are up. Good. How do you feel?"

"Am I dead?" maybe he died and that was paradise, or he didn't die and they were just waiting to nurse him back to health before killing him.

"No, you are not dead. Your android did his best to keep you safe."

"He is not my android. He is a hunter and I'm his captive."

"In any case, he did his best to keep you alive. Dustin told me that he was almost going to burn out into flames when you got here."

Eddie scoffs "We did have a... hard landing.” That was an understatement. He did his best to fuck up the stupid ship and he is quite proud of the job he did “But trying to save my life is in his your stupid code or something like that. It wasn't out of the kindness of his heart. I can assure you that."

She hums, not wanting to address the matter.

"Where am I?" Eddie asks, looking around him searching for any information who could tell him where the fuck he is.

The woman smiles again, god, her smile is so similar to his mother's one "You are on a little planet called Hawkins. It's desert for the majority but there are a few human outposts. We live in peace. We have nothing worth stealing or fighting for. You and your android are the most exciting things that have happened in a long time."

The android. Where the fuck is he? Did he already call the Central station for help? He surely would have if he was in his place, so he asks "Where is the android?"

"Are you worried for him?"

He is not worried. He is a fucking android and he wants to bring him back to the central station where they will likely put him to death without a trial so he is not really looking forward to it.

"I just want to know where he is and if I can escape from him."

"You are a criminal. A murderer, he said."

That's not totally true.

He is a criminal, but he is not a murderer.

He knows what the android was referring to when he found him on the casino planet.

Not the greatest idea he has ever had, but when he managed to find a lead on Vecna Eddie left, without telling anybody, and now here he is, on a little planet unknown to most, captive of a fucking hunter.

God, Owens and the guys will be so pissed. And his sweetheart will be heartbroken. He should have taught Jeff or Garreth how to play, but now it's too late.

"Not a murderer." he replies.

"Are you saying that the android is lying?"

No, androids can't lie. He surely has some information about him on his database, but that doesn't mean that they are correct.

There is a long moment of silence between them, then the woman pulls her sleeve up "When I was dressing your wounds I saw that we have something in common." she says, showing a faded tattoo of a dice on the inside of her arm.

Eddie has one behind his right ear.

"You?"

"Yes. But I'm formally retired. I have a family to take care of." she replies to the unsaid question, hiding her tattoo.

"Family?"

"Yeah. Two boys and a girl." she replies, still smiling.

"They are all here?"

"Yes, they are. We moved here a few years ago after we made sure none could follow us."

So this woman used to be part of the same secret society he is a member of, and she left them. Eddie tries to think about the names that were written in the big book that Owen guarded with care.

“Gone, but not forgotten.” he used to say, caressing the pages. Paper pages. Something really unusual in a society that relies on technology to do almost anything.

"Data can be erased, or lost. The paper will last forever if we treat it well enough. When we used to live on planet Earth there were papyrus that were older than the world itself."

Probably an exaggeration, but it made the point clear.

"What's your name?" he asks, still thinking about the thick book he has seen so many times.

"Are you going to rat me out, boy?"

No. He isn't. So it doesn't matter.

"My name is Joyce and I'm a doctor. Your android will not take you away until I say that you are good enough to travel, and I know that I can find a way to help you escape from him but I really don't want the army to get to our planet and if you are as dangerous as he said you are, they will come for you. I want to be clear with you: my family is the most important thing in the world and I'll do whatever it takes to keep them safe."

Ok. Great. She could help him hide but he has to get out of her hair as soon as he can.

He can do that. He just has to find a ship and try to outrun the stupid android.

"Where is he?" Eddie asks again.

"Stevie?"

"Uh?"

"He said you call him that."

He did. In the middle of the fucking desert he named a stupid android.

It means nothing.

It means everything.

"We are not friends if that is what you are implying. He is an android and I am a human. I named it as I name a lot of things. I could name this fucking sheets. And maybe I will... I'll call them Lonnie. Ok?"

The woman laughs and then goes back to the old computer system behind her.

"You were injured during the landing but they were only superficial wounds. You are still dehydrated, even if your blood is getting more liquid. The drip you are connected to is giving you enough substance to help your body heal faster as well as hydrating you and I reckon that in a couple of days, you'll be good as new." she closes the screen "On the other side, Stevie was badly injured and he refused to be repaired. He dragged my husband to his ship. They told me it's not a wreck but it's not in good condition either. The thing that they are trying to repair quickly is the radio and you know what that means."

If the android gets in contact with the central station he is definitely fucked. They already know that the android got him, what they do not know is what happened after. He made sure to break the radio first.

"You did a good job on the radio. Not a good one on the rest but I suppose that being handcuffed didn't help."

Hell no. It didn't.

It was fucking hard trying to get free of that stupid android and even if crashing them on this stupid planet wasn’t exactly what he was looking for, it’s ok. Still better than getting back to the Central.

Fuck the android and the stupid price on his head!

“Fuck. You are going to help him adjust his stupid ship?”

“My husband is with him but I don’t think it will be a quick repair. He will probably call for help and then someone will get here.”

“Which is exactly what you don’t want. Am I wrong?”

The woman sits next to him “No you are not. So what are you going to do Eddie? Is that your real name?”

“Not everyone changes identities like clothes, milady. I was born with this name and I want to die with it.”

The woman nods but doesn’t agree with him.

“I have kids, Eddie, and I will protect them. Fiercely. Are you going to be a treat to my family?”

He doesn’t know. He never meant to be a threat to anyone to be honest, but he knows that some of their military actions had collateral damages.

Like Chrissy.

God.

He loved that girl.

He loved her so much. Too much! Why the fuck did he let her get so close to him? That was fucking stupid on his part.

That’s how Vecna found her.

She was sweet, kind, and fluffy like a stupid bunny, even if Eddie had never seen one for real.

And now she is dead and he is going to die soon without taking his vengeance on the android who killed her.

Vecna it’s the best android that the Brennan corporation has unleashed against them.

He is like a fucking shark. Like the sharks can detect a small drop of blood in the water from a mile away, he can detect the members of the secret society.

And poor Chrissy got involved somehow.

Maybe Vecna saw them together in some video from the video surveillance cameras, maybe it was just a coincidence. It doesn’t matter. What matters is that he must break that fucking piece of junk into pieces so small that none will ever be able to put him back together again.

Eddie knows that he has damaged him enough during their encounter on the casino planet, but not enough to break him.

Can it even be broken?

Maybe he should try to practice on the stupid hunter android that got him.

I have never done a tag list before, but if someone would like to be tagged feel free to ask and I'll gladly do it! Tag list: @shunna, @yourmom-isgay I hope you enjoy it!

#tumblr fic #myfanfic #steddie #au gust 2023 #stranger things #eddie munson #steve harrington #stranger things fanfic #writing challenge #android AU #Android Steve Harrington #Wanted Criminal Eddie Munson #medusapelagia fanfic #medusapelagia #my fanfic

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panicatthediaz · 5 months

Text

Tar on a mound of snow

Sequel to day 1, Runaway, aka more werewolf Munsons. Or what's left of them :') Written for @eddiemonth, because I said I would so I will, don't mind me. It's Day 07 - Wayne + Warm (for once, I got another part of the prompt included. Small victories.)

Warnings: The death of Eddie's mom caused changes Eddie's overwhelmed by. Talk of parent death. (But this is mostly... comfort? An attempt at comfort? I dunno, it still feels pretty sad.)

Wordcount: 1859

Things had changed far too quickly. A group of hunters had invaded their pack home, and Eddie had to see his mom die — or, technically, get shot, but he wasn't stupid.

He was already a shifter and knew what silver did to their kind, and Eddie had no doubt that that bullet had been silver; things wouldn't have been this chaotic in the aftermath if it hadn't.

“You ready, kid?” Wayne asked, appearing at the door of his room in the pack house. His uncle had a saddened expression, his mouth pulling into a frown as he stood there, patiently waiting for Eddie to take one last look around.

It felt like his entire life had been packed away and put into the back of a moving truck, no trace of him remaining to ever tell anyone that a ten year old boy had lived here. The walls were bare and repainted, back to the white they had been when Eddie was first allowed to decorate his own room.

Eddie shrugged in response to his uncle's question; he wasn't ready, they were going to be in a car for hours, moving two states over, because his dad had sent them away.

Al Munson had explained it many times at this point, but all Eddie got from it was that he'd lost his mom and his dad was leaving.

At least, he was pretty sure Wayne had tried convincing his dad not to go anywhere.

“Come on, then,” Wayne urged him, not unkindly; the room probably looked depressing for everyone that was still around. With a warm hand on his shoulder and the other ruffling his hair, he led Eddie back to the room they were going to share on this last night before they left Tennessee altogether. “We gotta wake early tomorrow.”

—

Hawkins was… weird. There was something about the town that unsettled Wayne as well, so his uncle got in touch with a couple of local witches, to try and figure out what was so different about the town they moved into.

One of them lived in the trailer park, in the trailer closest to the woods; they were pretty much next door. Granny Ecker insisted on feeding them both, but at least Eddie made his first friend in town, Granny’s granddaughter Ronnie.

(Eddie didn't get to meet the Buckleys for a few years, but Wayne had said they were the ones to go to if he ever needed anything for silver wounds, so Eddie had made sure to know where he could find Melissa Buckley.)

—

Hawkins had a considerable amount of nature surrounding its borders, and Eddie assumed that had been why Wayne chose this tiny little town as their destination.

No one else from the pack had followed, though, so the runs he sometimes spent among cousins, and uncles, and aunts, and even his grandparents? It would become a run of two. Not a pack, not even close, but it was enough to settle the part of the young wolf that demanded family.

Wayne wasn't unaffected either. Wolves and werewolves, they were all social creatures. They lived with families, by blood and by choice, they led loud and happy lives, provided they could stick to their own and let their wolves loose for a bit.

But they'd lost that when the Beaumont-Flynn pack disbanded and everyone scattered. Eddie sometimes wondered what happened to the big house they all lived in on the edge of the Appalachian mountains, but most of the time, he tried not to think about everything they left behind.

Sometimes, trying to ignore it all worked. Other times, not so much. People would ask him about his parents, and Eddie would freeze, leaving Wayne to answer their questions and deal with the resulting awkwardness. It was a small town, though, and it didn't take long until no one else needed to ask them about Lauren and Alan Munson.

—

Eddie knew this would have counted as abnormal behavior for him. He didn’t really sulk or stomp around, no matter what his uncle said, but it was like every little thing was pressing in all around him. Too loud, too bright, with scents too strong. His skin felt too tight on his body, but somehow he felt stretched thin at the same time.

He was overwhelmed.

Eddie hadn't noticed September passing by, hadn't felt the need to shift, not with all he and Wayne'd had to do before they could move. But, well, he was feeling it now, after school on October 26. The day of the full moon, and three days before his birthday. The Harvest Moon passed by unnoticed, and his body was letting him know just how much skipping a full moon sucked.

And with that itch had come the realization that a month had already passed since their old house was attacked mid September.

He spotted Wayne's truck on the school parking lot almost as soon as he walked out, waving at Ronnie as she moved to the bike rack; she'd have gotten a ride with him and Wayne, but she had some club or another before going home.

"You okay, kid?" Wayne asked, frowning at the way Eddie was frowning at everything. "Something happen today?"

Eddie shook his head. "Jus' loud," he mumbled, throwing his head back against the cushion and closing his eyes. "Full moon."

Wayne hummed. He probably felt just as shitty as Eddie did, but he'd managed to call off work today, getting everything sorted for tonight. Eddie distantly wondered what went into "getting everything sorted out", since he usually just had to show up. Food, maybe, but Wayne had never been much of a cook, so he probably got their blankets out. Or whatever they managed to bring from the old house.

He ended up dozing on their way back to the trailer, and Wayne gently shook him by the shoulder to rouse him. The routine of it all helped a little; get home, have a snack, change out of school clothes, homework — or the portion of it the two could figure out and was more urgent tonight — help his uncle set up their bags for being outside until late at night.

But the electric whirring was still buzzing in the back of his head, seeming louder now that night was falling, and even Wayne's breathing was getting on his nerves today. Eddie hated it.

"At least you ain't a vampire," Wayne joked. "They get to hear people's heartbeats all the time."

That, Eddie thought, would drive him crazy really fast.

—

The run had been a short one. They didn't know Hawkins enough to really let go yet, to really run all they could, so they kept to the area they were sure surrounded the trailer park. Branching out and adventuring could come later, once the town didn't feel so unsettling and different to them.

On their way to the trailer, Eddie looked back into those woods, cataloging the ways it differed from the one back home; the plains in place of the old mountains, the animals... Hawkins wasn't that much smaller than his old town, but being the new kid sucked anyway.

It wasn't home. Not yet, and Eddie wasn't sure it would ever feel like home, but it was where he would be for the foreseeable future. He had Wayne, and he loved his uncle, but the joy of running with a full pack was incomparable, and two wolves didn't make a pack. But that was where they were, and they could only have each other, and the only thing Eddie could do was map these woods to the best of his ability. He could learn trails, how to keep away from people.

So he turned back around, ignoring his uncle’s calls as he circled the trailer park and its section of woods once more. It would take a long time to actually memorize how far the woods stretched, where the woods thinned to make way to roads and to the houses in the fancier part of town.

On the other hand, he knew he could learn scents, wouldn't have trouble memorizing those, or the shape of the trees they would run among for most of the time. He would be able to tell when something was wrong this time.

Eddie didn't know how long he took on this second lap of their corner of the woods, but Wayne was waiting for him just where they had separated. His uncle stood out against the trees, his coat of fur a lot lighter than his dad's — a mix of gray and white, aged when compared to his dad only beginning to gray last month.

Wayne made a questioning noise, poking at Eddie with his nose to ensure he was okay, unhurt, only stopping with the whine Eddie let out at his fussing. His uncle watched him carefully for a moment, time Eddie spent with his eyes closed, breathing fast because of more than just another lap of a run.

Eddie felt himself being lifted off of the ground and hugged. Wayne was warm, shielding him against the cold breeze as he ran a hand up and down his fur to try and calm his breathing down, but there was more in Eddie's mind than his breathing.

Wayne started walking, though Eddie wasn't sure where to. His uncle didn't demand Eddie shift back to human nor did he shift back himself, so he was comfortable simply resting against him and trying to mimic his much calmer breathing.

His uncle's meaningless grumbles, low in his throat, were the same Wayne would hum and sing while human; soothing. It was familiar. And Eddie thought they needed familiar right now, in some small town two states over from home.

He wanted to go back but he knew he couldn't. Even if they were to return, who would be there?

The whine escaped unbidden from Eddie's throat, one he knew he'd used to call for this mom however many moons ago it was that he'd fallen down a ravine.

He hadn't been hurt then, not really; scrapes healed overnight, for the most part.

But it did hurt now, with yet another realization that she was gone, dead, that his dad hadn't come with them, that he and his uncle were two strangers in a small town that seemed closely knit in everything.

Eddie only realized he'd been put down on the ground when Wayne, back on all fours, circled him before lying down, effectively blocking him in and forcing him to lie on top of his body.

It was like a drop of tar on top of a mound of snow, the way Eddie's own fur contrasted against Wayne's.

Time passed, uncounted, before Eddie eventually shifted back and started crying. For his mom, his dad. For Uncle Wayne. For changes he didn't know how to handle. For knowing that, most likely, he wouldn't see anyone from home in a long time, if ever again; when werewolves scattered, they spread far.

But Wayne was wrapping himself around him, keeping him warn. They had each other.

For now, that had to do.

#Stranger Things #Eddie Munson #Wayne Munson #werewolf Eddie Munson #werewolf Wayne Munson #eddiemonth #day 7 #WeresWriting #parent death tw #parent death #we WILL NOT talk about how long these are taking me.#At this point I know Eddie's mom is called Elizabeth but I'm too attached to Lauren now #Now onto part 3 of that fluff fest

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