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steddieas-shegoes · 2 months

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this place is such great motivation for anyone trying to move the fuck away from hibernation

chapter 8: i'm homesick also on ao3 all chapters masterpost rated e

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Eddie woke up to drool.

Which should probably be more concerning, but considering he had a teething baby, he was used to a little drool.

The part that was confusing was that his baby was asleep in her crib in the bedroom next to him.

The drool on his chest was Steve’s.

Oh, he would never live this down.

Eddie let his fingers ghost through the strands of Steve’s hair, glancing at the clock to see that it was nearly seven in the morning. They were supposed to call the realtor at eight.

Eddie needed to be on the road by lunch so that Mia would nap for most of the ride back to Hawkins.

The urge to ignore all of that was strong, but they couldn’t ignore their future. Not now that it seemed like they might have a chance.

“Stevie, it appears there’s a leak in the apartment,” Eddie said softly, not wanting to startle him.

Steve’s head shifted, his nose rubbing against the drool on Eddie’s chest followed by a groan.

“Disgusting,” Steve said. “Sorry about that.”

“It’s fine. You sleep okay?” Eddie tightened his arms around Steve, not wanting to lose this moment quite yet.

“Yeah. Loved this,” Steve poked his side and kissed his chest. “Could definitely get used to this.”

“Well, if we don’t get to the showing, we may not have it anytime soon.” Eddie nudged Steve off of him so he could get up. “Mia must still be asleep so I’m gonna take a quick shower before she decides to bless us with her presence.”

“No rush, baby. I got her if she wakes up.”

Eddie kissed Steve’s forehead. “Thanks, sweetheart.”

When Eddie walked into the kitchen, fully dressed and halfway packed already, Robin was sitting at the table holding Mia while Steve cut up fruit at the counter.

“My goodness, Mia, it looks like you’ve made a new best friend,” Eddie said as he kissed the top of her head.

“Dada!”

Steve dropped the knife in his hand and turned to them. Robin’s eyes nearly bugged out of her head as she looked between Mia and Eddie.

Eddie was pretty sure his heart was on the floor.

“Did she just-“ Robin started to ask, only to be interrupted by Mia kicking and yelling it again.

“Dadadadadada!” Mia squealed out.

“Yeah, I’m dada,” Eddie said, scooping her into his arms and spinning her around.

“Mama! Dada!” She exclaimed. He could feel Steve come up behind him and watched his hand go to her back, covering his own.

“Someone’s so talkative this morning,” Steve said. “You were so excited to see your dada, weren’t you?”

“Dada! Dada!”

Eddie was crying, Steve was crying, even Robin was trying to hide a tear that slipped out as Mia kept repeating her new word.

Steve kissed his cheek, then Mia’s, before going back to what he was doing.

"So what time are you going to the house?” Robin asked them.

Eddie looked away from Mia to look at the clock. “Hopefully within the next hour. We gotta try to get on the road.”

Robin nodded once. “I’m off to work. I’m glad you came to visit, Eddie. And I’m glad I got to get to know Mia. She’s probably my favorite future roommate.”

“Yeah, right. Until she cries all night from a fever,” Eddie rolled his eyes. “Or until she takes up all of Steve’s attention.”

“Oh, I’ve been begging for someone to take up some of his attention. He’s very needy, ya know.” She gave Eddie a quick side hug and touched Mia’s shoulder. “You guys be safe going back and make sure you call when you get home so I don’t have to watch Steve pace a hole into the carpet.”

“I wouldn’t do that!” Steve said as he moved fruit he’d been cutting up onto the high chair tray.

“Uh huh.” Robin grabbed her small purse from the hook by the doorway out of the kitchen. “See you guys!”

“See ya!” Steve and Eddie called at the same time.

“Buh!” Mia yelled out.

“I cannot believe you finally said it,” Eddie said to Mia in awe as he set her in the high chair. “I’ve been waiting for you to finally say Dada for two months and you decide to do it here.”

Steve set a plate of toast in front of Eddie and kissed the top of his head. “I’m gonna go shower so we can head out. Eat.”

“Sir, yes, sir.” Eddie saluted. Mia let out a laugh as Steve rolled his eyes and walked out of the kitchen. “Alright, princess. We’ve gotta eat up so we can be big and strong and walk around this house that we might move into.”

“Mama?” Mia turned her head to look for Steve, then looked back at Eddie with a frown. “Mama.”

“Mama’s in the bath. He’ll be right back. You eat your bananas and grapes.”

When Steve was done, Eddie went to finish packing up the last of their things, looking around at the place he’d hoped would be their new home. He couldn’t help feeling a sense of loss still, even knowing that they were working on finding a new home for all of them. He’d wanted this to work so badly.

“You ready, baby?” Steve asked from the door, holding Mia in one arm, diaper bag slung over the other shoulder.

“Yeah. Are you?”

“Sure am.”

******

The house was perfect.

Eddie felt like crying the moment he stepped onto the front porch. Even with the broken parts, even with the chipped paint along one side of the house, even with the slightly overgrown front yard, it was perfect.

The inside was even better, already mostly done in the ways he’d always imagined a house with Mia to be. The bathroom that needed work was still better than the one he currently had in the trailer.

The backyard needed to be fenced in, but he knew they could work on that over the next year before Mia was big enough to outrun them.

He kept sharing looks with Steve, going room to room as the realtor spoke about the natural lighting in the bedrooms and double sink in the master bathroom. They hadn’t made it obvious they were together— they weren’t stupid —but it was pretty clear the realtor caught on to them being together.

“You mentioned another person moving in?” she asked when they got to the last bedroom.

“Yes, my best friend would be moving in for a bit to help with the bills,” Steve offered. “Is that a problem?”

“Not at all. Quite a few homes surrounding the city are mixed family homes just due to the cost of living. My only suggestion is to keep all utilities in your name so that if they move out, it doesn’t become a hassle of removing them from everything.” She opened the door to the final bedroom. “I assume this would probably be their room. It looks out at the backyard and the street behind you, which is still a part of this neighborhood and isn’t a very busy road.”

“Yeah, she’ll like this room.” Steve smiled. “And you mentioned the current owners are already moving out next week?”

“Yes, they’ve already bought another home in the city. As you can imagine, that’s quite a financial strain and they’re very willing to get a deal done as soon as possible, even if it means a lower offer.”

“Could we have a minute?” Steve asked. The realtor nodded and left the room, closing the door behind her. Steve turned to Eddie, who was setting Mia down on the floor to explore. “So?”

“It’s perfect, Stevie.”

Steve closed the distance between them, wrapped his arms around Eddie’s waist, and kissed him softly. “It is, isn’t it?”

Eddie nodded, brushing the hair away from Steve’s face. “I can picture everything here. I see you setting up a sprinkler in the backyard and running through it with Mia. I see us having family game night at the kitchen table. I see us sitting on the porch while Mia draws on the driveway with chalk. I see it all.”

“Me too. I want all that with you. Here. Can we?”

“We should. Do you think we can make an offer today?” Eddie turned to see Mia trying to pull herself up by the window ledge. “Maybe by the time I get back to Hawkins, we’ll have an answer.”

“Yeah, Eds. I’ll go tell her.”

“We’re really doing this?” Eddie was hesitant to truly believe this was happening, especially after how quickly the weekend had turned into an unknown future. “We’re buying a house?”

“We’re buying this house.”

“Wayne’s gonna be insufferable. I’m gonna have to listen to him talk about the foundation’s integrity for the next three months.”

“It’s already been inspected. I promise, it passed.”

“It may have passed with a professional. It has not passed with Wayne.”

Steve snorted. “Well, he can come inspect anytime. He can have a copy of the key, even.”

“Don’t offer that. He has the worst timing in the world.” Eddie glanced over to Mia, who was now standing at the window, banging the ledge as she used it to hold her weight. “Mia seems to like it here.”

Steve looked over and smiled. “Yeah, she looks happy. Do you think you’d be happy here? With me?”

“I know I would be, sweetheart.”

“We’re buying this house?”

“We’re buying this house.”

“Mia, you like your new castle?” Eddie asked Mia, who looked over at them and quickly lost her balance, falling on her butt with a grunt.

“Dada! Mama!” She started to crawl back to them with a big smile.

They both sat down on the carpet and waited for her to get to them. Mia climbed into Steve’s lap, tugging his shirt until she was situated comfortably on his thigh.

“You like this place, little one?” Steve asked her, kissing the top of her forehead.

Eddie watched as Mia clapped her hands together and smiled up at Steve.

“I think that’s a yes,” he said quietly.

“I think so too,” Steve stole a quick kiss from Eddie before lifting Mia into his arms and standing up. “Let’s go buy this house.”

It seemed kind of crazy to Eddie how simple this turned out to be. He half expected them to find flaws in the house, or disagree on the cost, or the realtor deciding she didn’t want to work with queers.

But maybe he finally deserved something simple. Maybe they all did.

******

The goodbyes weren’t as difficult now, the certainty of this being temporary enough to keep the tears from falling, at least until Mia was in her carseat in the van and Eddie was backing out of the driveway of their future home.

Steve was sticking around to discuss the boring part of it all with the realtor, and hopefully, by the time Eddie and Mia made it back to Hawkins, they’d have an accepted offer and paperwork to sign.

Eddie would have to come back to sign everything once it was drafted up at the bank and with the insurance company, but he would make it work.

Mia babbled a bit in the backseat while Eddie sang along quietly to his Iron Maiden tape. She eventually got quiet, and Eddie glanced at the mirror he had facing her to see that she was asleep.

He let his mind wander to the future, to everything he and Steve would be able to do in their own place. He thought about Mia having her own room, a backyard that she could run around in, easy access to a city that she could be herself in, whatever that may be. He wondered if Robin would live with them for a while or just while they figured everything out.

He even pictured a day where they could have more kids, give Mia a brother or sister or both, and take family pictures to hang up in frames on the walls of their house.

It wasn’t easy for him to picture his life like this before; He’d never had any reason to believe he’d have the picket fence version of life that so many people seemed to have. He’d always been okay with it, at least until Mia came into his life. Even then, he figured as long as she was fed, clothed, and had a roof over her head, he’d be happy.

But now that he had a taste of this kind of life, now that he saw the house he’d get to raise Mia in, he knew this was what he’d always wanted.

“Can’t believe Steve Harrington got to me like this,” he shook his head fondly.

*******

Wayne greeted him at the door, immediately taking Mia’s carseat from his hands and going inside.

“Nice to see you, too,” Eddie grumbled, walking back to the van to grab their bags.

“Oh, hush. You know I’m happy to see ya, too,” Wayne said over his shoulder.

Eddie smiled. “Steve call?”

“He may have.” The screen door closed before he could get more information.

“Dammit,” Eddie rushed to grab the bags and get inside.

“What did he say?” Eddie dropped the bags on the floor unceremoniously, going to the kitchen to call him back.

Mia was babbling in Wayne’s arms as he joined Eddie in the kitchen.

“Dada!”

Wayne’s jaw dropped.

“Oh! She learned a new word. Said it this morning and I cried and decided to give her anything she wants for the rest of my life.” Eddie smiled at Mia. “What did Steve say?”

“Well, first of all, he said to call him when you get back.” Wayne reached out for the rice snacks on the counter to hand one to Mia. “And then he said your offer was accepted by the owners.”

Eddie felt tears welling up in his eyes. “Really? Already?”

Wayne walked over to him, tears already gathering up in his eyes, too. “Yeah, son. Looks like you’re gonna be a homeowner.”

“Holy shit.”

“Sh! Sh!” Mia couldn’t quite make the right ‘sh’ noise, but it was close enough for Wayne and Eddie’s eyes to widen.

“Looks like ya might have to start watchin’ your mouth around the princess. Seems she’s reached her mimic stage a bit early,” Wayne laughed. “Your dada’s been sayin’ bad words since he was eight. Don’t let him fool ya.”

“Alright, alright. I’m gonna call Steve back and then it’s time for Mia to have some dinner and a bath and a bedtime story.”

“Mama!” Mia turned her head around at Steve’s name, clearly searching for him.

“Mama’s not here, baby. Sorry. But I’m gonna call him and you can say hi, okay?” Eddie picked up the phone and dialed Steve’s number from memory. He took Mia in his arms and sat down at the table as he waited for Steve to answer.

“Hello?”

“Mama! Mama! Dada!” Mia started clapping the moment she heard Steve’s voice through the phone.

Steve laughed. “Hi there princess. I miss you already. Are you being good?”

“Mama. Ma. Mamamamama!”

“I’ll take that as a yes,” Steve snorted. “Did Wayne tell you the good news?”

“He did.” Eddie smiled into the phone even though Steve couldn’t see it. “What do we do now?”

“The next part is kinda out of our hands. The realtor has to work with the bank to get the papers done properly and then when they’ve gotten that done, we’ll both have to sign everything.”

“When do they think that’ll be?” Eddie let Mia sit in front of him on the table, one hand holding her side so she wouldn’t fall. “I don’t know if I could get back there before next weekend.”

“Yeah, I mentioned that to them. They said it would probably take at least 14 days to have the closing paperwork done. And they also said we didn’t have to go together, so I could go sign when it’s ready and then you can go sign the first chance you get.”

“I wanna do it with you, though. It’s a big deal. Our first house.” Eddie’s eyes widened. “Holy shit, our first house. We’re buying a house.”

“Sh!” Mia copied, grinning up at her dad.

“No, Mia, not that. God, Mia’s trying to say bad words before she even says Papa or anything. Okay.” He sighed. “So I can just make sure my boss knows in about two weeks I’ll probably have to take a day off to drive there and sign.”

“He won’t fire you or anything, right?” It sounded like Steve was in his kitchen, cooking dinner for him and Robin. “If he finds out you’re moving?”

“No. I already mentioned to him it was a possibility and that I’d be grateful for any recommendation he could give me on a job search.”

“Good. Just don’t want you to be without a job.”

Mia started playing with a strand of Eddie’s hair, tugging on it lightly. He knew it would get rougher if he didn’t distract her, though. He held up the cord of the phone in front of her and showed her how it coiled.

“I won’t be.” Eddie sighed. “I miss you already.”

“Oh for heaven’s sake,” Wayne grumbled before leaving the room.

“I miss you too. You okay?” Steve sounded genuinely concerned, almost like he’d be willing to drive to Hawkins if Eddie’s answer was no.

“I’m alright. I’m actually-“ Eddie laughed. “I think this is maybe the best I’ve ever been. Other than the missing you part, but that’s just for now. Like, within the next month or two, I’ll be with you all the time. And Mia can have us both all the time.”

“Yeah,” he could hear the grin in Steve’s voice. “I can’t wait to share a home with you. Did you tell Wayne about it yet?”

“No, called you almost as soon as I got in the door. He can hear all about it later.” Mia tapped Eddie’s cheek. “Mia’s gonna love having her own kingdom to rule over.”

“I’m sure she will. I already stopped by the store to look at paint samples for her room,” Steve admitted. “I didn’t think pink fit her, but there was a nice lavender that might look nice on one wall.”

“I’ll let you handle that stuff. Maybe she can pick from a few options. Would you like that, Mia?” Eddie poked her nose and smiled when she giggled. “I bet you’d pick something so colorful it hurts our eyes.”

“Dada.” Eddie waited to see if she did anything, but she didn’t.

“Okay, I’m gonna go get some dinner into Mia’s system. You want me to call you when she goes to bed?” Eddie asked.

“How about I call you after I talk to Robin?” Steve offered.

“Sure, just not too late. Wayne’ll be going to bed soon, too.”

“Should be by nine, baby,” Steve’s voice changed to something softer. “You know I love you more than anything, right? I’m so fuckin’ happy I get to do this with you.”

“I know, sweetheart. I love you so much. This is more than I could’ve ever dreamed of for us,” Eddie said quietly, watching as Mia grabbed his hair again. “I’ll talk to you later.”

“Later.”

Eddie hung up the phone and started to get Mia’s dinner ready. Wayne had already been making something for them before they got home, some chicken and green beans that could easily be cut up for Mia. He set her in the high chair and started passing some of the cooled off and cut up green beans.

“Are they yummy, Mia?” He asked as she shoved a piece into her mouth.

“Me.”

“Yummy!” Eddie nodded. “We love when Wayne makes green beans, don’t we?”

“Suckin’ up to your old man, now?” Wayne asked he walked in. He stood next to Eddie and started shredding a piece of chicken for Mia. “I already gave my blessing to move. Not sure why ya feel like bein’ so nice.”

Eddie nudged his shoulder. “Maybe I’m just appreciating you before I don’t have you helpin’ me out all the time.”

Wayne froze for a moment, just enough to make Eddie pause in his movements, too.

“Steve’s gonna make sure you have a key to the house. You’re welcome anytime,” Eddie continued. “And we could definitely use some help fixing up some things if you’re willing to.”

“Always here to help ya, son. You know movin’ away won’t get rid of me.”

Eddie bit back a complicated set of emotions, most of which would result in tears, possibly for both of them.

“We’ll visit you here, too.”

“Well…’bout that.” Wayne walked over to the high chair and put a few of the pieces of chicken down. “I been talkin’ to my buddy in Ohio. You remember Benny?”

“Uh-huh.”

“He’s been thinkin’ about movin’ to Illinois to be closer to his sister’s family. Her husband died last year and she could use the help with her kids, but he didn’t wanna move in with them. He’s lookin’ for someone to share rent with and I kinda offered to go.” Wayne rubbed the back of his head. “Be closer to ya at your new place, too. Figured I can probably get a job anywhere with my mechanic skills.”

“Wayne, that’s great. Seriously, can’t believe you’re gonna leave this place!” Eddie got more excited the more he realized this was all working out perfectly.

“Yeah, well. Don’t think this town’s got much more for me in it if you two ain’t here.”

“I’ll drink to that. We are the best parts of this place.”

*******

Two weeks flew by, but the paperwork wasn’t quite finished when they’d hoped.

“It’s normal for delays to happen,” Steve reminded Eddie over the phone when he was starting to worry that something would fall through.

“I just don’t want there to be any problems. Like, what if the bank decides they don’t wanna provide a loan to us? What if they figure out we’re romantically involved and decide they don’t wanna do business with us?”

“Baby, that’s not gonna happen at this point. It’s our house, okay? We just have to be patient.”

*******

Another week passed, and Eddie was starting to worry that the house would never be theirs.

Steve reassured him it was fine, that he’d been in contact with everyone nearly every day and everyone remained positive that this would be closed soon.

Eddie was on edge at work, on edge at home, on edge when he visited with the Hendersons.

He knew it, wanted to be able to brush it off, but couldn’t. The stress was eating away at him until he was barely sleeping.

But finally, on day 26, Steve called him at work.

“Baby.” He could hear the tears in Steve’s voice, instantly making him choke up. “It’s done. You just have to come sign everything.”

“It’s done?” Eddie turned away from the secretary at the desk for even the smallest amount of privacy. “It’s ours?”

“It is.”

Eddie turned and yelled to the entire lobby: “I’m a homeowner!”

He could hear Steve laughing on the other end, giddy with the news.

“Shit, we’re homeowners. Please tell me you know how to clean gutters,” Eddie said into the phone.

“I can figure it out,” Steve snorted. “You think you can come up tomorrow to sign everything?”

“Wayne works tomorrow so he wouldn’t be able to watch Mia,” Eddie groaned.

“Bring Mia. We can do this as a family,” Steve said.

“She might get fussy if she gets bored,” Eddie said. She’d been itching to try to walk for the last week or so, and any time anyone held her for longer than a couple minutes, she would whine and push away from them. “And I don’t think they’d be cool with her crawling around their office and getting into things.”

“We can take turns handling it. That’s why we have each other, baby. I’m here for both of you now.”

“I-“ Eddie was doing his best not to cry in the lobby of his workplace. “I know, Stevie. I can be there tomorrow. We can be there tomorrow.”

“If you can get here before lunch, maybe I can take you both over to see Maryann and Charlie. They’d love to see you again.”

“Oh, I know. They call once a week asking for updates from me because they don’t trust you to tell him if anything bad happens.” Eddie looked over his shoulder at the shop, sighing. “I gotta get back to work. Two cars just pulled in and we’re already running on one less employee this week. I’ll call you tonight to let you know when to expect us tomorrow.”

“Sounds good, love. Love you.”

“Love you.”

He hung up the phone and went back to work.

Tomorrow, he’d officially own a home with Steve.

Tomorrow, he’d get to start living a future he’d only ever dreamed of having.

Tomorrow, he’d make another step in making sure Mia had a family to love her and care for her.

Tomorrow, he’d get to leave the home he never thought he would.

Tomorrow was a fresh start and tomorrow couldn’t come fast enough.

#steddie #steve harrington #eddie munson #stranger things #ao3 fic #chaptered fic #mechanic eddie munson #single parent eddie munson #robin buckley #wayne munson #such a sappy ending #the epilogue will probably be a whole lot of fuckin #if im being realistic

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