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wynnyfryd · 4 months

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Trailer park Steve AU part 45

part 1 | part 44 | ao3

Nancy, Jonathan, and some guy with the longest hair Steve's ever seen are standing in a loose circle with Eddie and his bandmates, talking and sort of dance-nodding along to The Power of Love by Huey Lewis (a fact that Steve absolutely intends to mock his boyfriend for the second he gets the chance), and Steve, like, mentally girds his loins.

He and Jon are cool with each other, and he and Eddie are obviously, uh, plenty warmed up to one another by now, but the rest of them...

One's a stranger, one's an ex who seems drunk as shit and is currently so invested in spinning around to the music that she hasn't opened her eyes to notice him, and the other three are thawing to him at a truly glacial pace. Steve hasn't so much as been invited to watch a rehearsal yet because Eddie's 'still working on them' and needs 'a bit more time, but don't worry, they'll come around.'

They don't openly scowl when he and Robin approach, though, so Steve takes that as a win.

"Harrington!" Eddie calls, bowing deeply to add, "Lady Buckley."

Steve would feel stung by the surname if not for how downright giddy Eddie sounds. God, he loves tipsy Eddie; fucking Disney cartoon boy.

"Munson," he plays along, giving him a sly grin and a shoulder bump as he sidles up next to him. "Didn't know you were allowed to leave the basement at these things."

Jeff interrupts his air-guitaring to glare at Steve, bur Eddie holds out a hand and assures him that Steve's just fucking around. Before Steve can apologize or defend himself, Long Hair Guy leans in across the circle, his eyes wide and intense and bloodshot to hell.

"Dude," he greets. "You have. Such beautiful hair."

Steve barks a laugh. Robin rolls her eyes. Jonathan also rolls his eyes, but it seems more fond and less annoyed. "Can't take you anywhere," he mutters to the guy, then asks them, "You guys met Argyle yet?"

Steve holds out a hand. Confusion washes over him as he processes what Jonathan just said. "Uh." Argyle. "Like the sweater?"

"Yeah, man," Argyle smiles, dopey and slow. Sure. The guy in head-to-toe tie-dye and a neon green fanny pack is named Argyle. Why not? "My parents wanted a sheep, but they got me, instead."

Jonathan laughs like it's the funniest joke he's ever heard. Steve's pretty sure he's too sober for this conversation.

They exchange handshakes, and Robin asks if she can touch the guy's hair, and they all slip into easy, friendly conversation, naturally splintering into smaller groups of twos and threes. Steve's just getting the rundown on all the 'sick new gear' the band got for Christmas when the song changes, and god, this night just could not get better.

"Oh, fuck off!" Eddie groans in the DJ's direction.

Steve has to practically swallow his lips to keep himself from cackling, and then he gives up and does it, anyway, because Eddie looks like he just sucked a lemon while watching a dog die as his bandmates all start sing-shouting along. "We're talking away..."

"No." Eddie wheels around and points a finger at Steve, because Steve's singing, too.

Steve just sings louder. "I don't know what, I'm to say!"

"Oh, my god." He scrubs a hand down his face, dragging the skin down until Steve can see the pale pink of his inner eyelid. "Nobody I know has any goddamn taste!"

"Maybe you don't have any taste!" Robin teases, bouncing around and swinging her arms haphazardly to the music.

Nancy backs her up with a mumbled "Yeah!" but she's still spinning around in such tight circles that Steve doubts she has a single clue what's happening in the argument right now. Which is kind of endearing, actually. He likes how willing she is to stick up for people.

The chorus kicks in; Gareth air-drums the switch to half time just before Frank does an honestly super impressive falsetto of 'in a day or twoooooo', and Eddie despairs while Steve laughs his fucking head off.

—

part 46

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#trailer park steve au #steddie #steddie fic #steve harrington #eddie munson #robin buckley #nancy wheeler #jonathan byers #argyle stranger things #corroded coffin #my writing #my fic

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hbyrde36 · 1 year

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Caught in the Undertow

Chapter 3: All the way Down

Part 1 Part 2 AO3

*TW* suicidal thoughts/ideation etc.

*Steve*

Steve was...nervous, but also excited, and maybe just a little bit nauseous? Although, that part might have something to do with the fact that he hadn't eaten at all today, on account of the nervousness. This is just like any other get together. It's just the usual gang, plus Eddie. Nothing to be so worked up over, he tries to reason with himself.

It's no use, Steve can't convince himself that this isn't a big deal. It is. It'll be the first time, since that horrible night, that any of them will get to set eyes on Eddie. Assuming he shows. He’ll never forget the overwhelming surge of relief he'd felt when Dustin rang and said Eddie had called him, that he'd finally reached out to one of them! It was like Steve had been slowly suffocating and someone had finally come along and pulled the heavy blanket off allowing him to take his first deep breath in far too long.

The phone rings, interrupting Steve from his thoughts and he rushes into the kitchen to answer. He assumes it must be Robin calling to ask for a ride over. She assured him it wouldn’t be a problem to get her mom to drop her off, but it wouldn't be the first time Mrs. Buckley had a last-minute change of plans, so he answered accordingly.

"Hey Rob."

"Steve? It's Wayne"

"Oh, Mr. Munson. I’m sorry I thought..."

"Boy, how many times do I gotta tell you..."

"I know, I know . Wayne . Sorry."

Wayne chuckles softly. "That's better"

"Is everything okay? Is Eddie..."

"He's fine. Well, at least as fine as he's been ya know? Anyways, he's in the shower now getting ready to head over to your place. I can't tell you how happy I am that he's finally gonna see some of his friends."

"Me too. I mean...I know the kids are excited, they’ve missed him."

"I bet... So, I hope this isn't too much to put on you, but I was calling to see if you might keep an eye on Eddie for me while he's there tonight. You know he's been having a real rough time and I worry..."

"No problem, Wayne. I'm happy to do that. I'm sure everything will be fine."

“Thanks boy, you’re a lifesaver. Listen, I’m not sure how Eddie would take it, us talking behind his back like this and all. Maybe it would be best if we just keep that between us, yeah?”

“Understood.”

Steve's...friendship with Eddie's Uncle isn't something he saw coming out of all this. Not in a million years. Wayne was, understandably, skeptical when he first heard that his nephew’s life had been saved by a Harrington. After all, Steve’s father did have a bit of a reputation around town for being a rich pompous asshole. Back when he was around at least.

Wayne had told Steve as much when he'd called, after that long first week, to say Eddie would be waking up soon. Wayne had gone on to explain that while he'd met some of Eddie's band friends, he didn't know their last names to look up their numbers. Of course, he’d remembered Steve's, the whole situation was too weird not to. He had wanted to share the good news about Eddie with someone, anyone who cared about his boy. Luckily, the Harrington's home number was listed in the phone book.

They talked for over an hour that first time. Steve couldn't tell Wayne anything about Vecna, or the Upside-Down and to his surprise Wayne didn't push. He did tell him a little about how he and the others had been with Eddie the whole time, helping to keep him hidden while the town hunted for him. He told Wayne how he hadn't really known Eddie in school except in passing, a fact he is grateful for since Steve would be the first one to say how much of an asshole he was back then. He talked about finding Eddie in the boathouse, and how even after the other boy had held a broken bottle to his throat, he quickly realized Eddie wouldn't hurt a fly unless threatened. He even told Wayne how he really wants to get to know his nephew better; once he recovers and they clear his name, of course. How he hopes he and Eddie can be friends.

Wayne clearly felt bad when he had to tell Steve that Eddie was refusing any visitors. The kids were devastated, Dustin especially, but Steve understood. He told Wayne it was okay. That everyone deals with trauma in their own way and as long as Eddie was alive and safe, they could wait until he was ready.

The interaction seemed to cement something between Steve and Wayne and they spoke quite often after that. Sometimes in person at the hospital, when Steve would turn up on the off chance that Eddie was feeling better and sometimes on the phone, late at night when Wayne would call to update Steve on Eddie’s progress. Even once Eddie was released from the hospital, Wayne would call sometimes when Eddie was asleep, even if the only news he could offer was that his stubborn nephew was still refusing to see anyone.

Steve, in turn, starts telling Wayne all about the kids he and Eddie had come to share. He tells funny stories about his time working at Scoops and the video store. Including How he and Robin had been fired from Family Video for ‘abandoning their post”. Steve assures Wayne it was well worth it and yea he’s looking for a job but he’s in no big hurry.

As they often do when gathering at Steve's house, the party splits off into two groups. The kids, as usual, take over the living room. All of them are well acquainted enough with Steve’s house by now to know where all of the spare pillows and blankets are kept, as well as the good snacks.

The older kids like to congregate in the kitchen. Partially to be close to the fridge where the beer is kept, and partially to guard said beer from the younger kids. The adults opted out this time. Joyce and Hop are having a date night while Murray… Well, Steve isn’t the biggest fan of Murray and maybe neglected to call him.

Everyone else has arrived, at this point they're just waiting on Eddie. Steve takes the opportunity to remind the kids to give Eddie plenty of space and to try not to overwhelm him with questions. In fact, it would be better if they didn’t bring up the hospital, or the time since then unless Eddie expressly brings it up himself. Everyone copes differently and it wouldn't be fair to make him feel bad about it.

Eddie arrives shortly after Steve’s speech. He smiles big and talks happily with the kids. Chats a little with Robin and Nancy whenever he pops back into the kitchen for another beer, but is always quick to rejoin the younger set in the other room. Outwardly he seems to be fine, great even, as long as you don’t look too closely. Steve knows better, thinks Eddie is just doing a masterful job of covering up how not great he’s doing. But Steve can see it, there’s a certain set to his shoulders, a bit of tension is his neck that betrays him.

Steve, true to his word, has kept a close eye on Eddie since his arrival – albeit from a distance. Eddie hasn’t so much as looked in his direction since his arrival, and Steve’s not sure what that’s about but he doesn’t want to push the issue tonight.

An hour in, Eddie strolls into the kitchen for what woud be at least his 6 th beer by Steve's count. He’s drunk enough to stumble over the level floor, his words slurring a bit when he apologizes to Jonathan for bumping into him. Steve thinks unfortunately that it might be time to intervene.

“Hey man, do you think maybe you should slow down?” Steve says, taking a tentative step towards the other boy.

Eddie turns, his smile dropping to a scowl in an instant “Oh, is that what you think King Steve ? How about you just mind your own fucking business for once and leave me alone.”

Eddie’s tone is positively venomous. Steve is so taken aback by it that he literally takes a step back, raising his hands in a surrendering gesture. “Come on Eddie, I’m sorry, okay? I just don’t want to see you get sick or something.”

Eddie makes a show out of rolling his eyes.

“Whatever, I’m outta here.” He says, grabbing his keys off the counter.

Nancy quickly steps into his path, “Oh no you don’t. You’re crazy if you think we’re letting you drive like this.”

“Fine, I’ll walk.” he says, handing her his keys as he tries to step around her.

Robin steps into Nancy’s side, helping to close the gap. “You can’t walk all that way out in the open, there’s too many people still after you!”

Eddie laughs, but not like anything is funny. “Jesus H. Christ. What a pack of meddling fucking do-gooders’ you people are. So what, if people are after me! Who gives a shit?!”

“We do, Eddie. We’re your friends dude, of course we care - Why don’t you?” Steve counters.

Eddie scoffs, shaking his head.

Steve sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Look man, just…sleep it off in the guestroom, okay?”

“You know, I don’t think I want to 'sleep it off' your majesty ” Eddie replies, complete with a mocking bow. He stops trying to get past the girls and instead turns, yanking open the fridge and after finally taking out the beer he’d been wanting, downs it in one go.

“What is your problem, huh?” Steve is losing it a little bit but fights to stay calm. He knows adding his own growing frustration to Eddie's apparent anger isn't going to help the situation.

“You Harrington, you’re my problem.” he says, gesturing in his direction with the now empty beer bottle.

Eddie’s gaze on him is heavy and full of rage. Steve still doesn’t understand it, he fights to not take yet another step back from his friend.

“Why? What did I do?”

“You should have fucking left me there!” Eddie shouts, pushing into Steve’s space.

The room falls silent and when Eddie takes off towards the downstairs bathroom, nobody moves to stop him.

After a long moment Robin says, “Shit, do you think the kids heard any of that?”

Argyle takes a peek into the other room before responding “Nah, the little dudes are like fully engrossed in their movie man. It’s cool”

Well that’s a relief at least, Steve thinks.

“Nance...can you, Jonathan, and Argyle get Robin and the kids home?”

“Yea, we can do that. Are you sure you want to deal with this on your own though?” she asks.

Steve shrugs, “It feels like this is at least in part my fault so, I want to fix it if I can. I’ll be okay”

Robin doesn’t want to go. When he walks her to the door she all but begs him to let her stay but Steve assures her he can handle it. He thinks maybe he can get Eddie to talk more without a crowd around and if it gets any worse, he promises to call Wayne. She nods, finally letting it go. Robin knows about his talks with Wayne.

Before leaving she pulls him into one last tight hug. “He said, you should have left me there, I don’t like the sound of that.”

Steve swallows hard, his throat tight. “Me either”

With the house finally empty, Steve approaches the bathroom. He can hear Eddie sobbing loudly through the door. The sound is heart wrenching and it tears a hole through Steve’s chest. He hadn’t known Eddie was in this much pain. He can admit to himself that he's maybe a little out of his depth here, but there’s nothing for it now. Steve takes a deep breath and knocks on the door, softly.

There’s a choked off sound followed by a muffled whimper, before silence falls on the other side of the door. He can imagine Eddie with a hand thrown over his own mouth, desperately trying to stifle the sound.

Steve closes his eyes tight, breathes deeply again. He can do this; he is intimately familiar with bathroom floor breakdowns and not just the one he and Robin can now look back on with laughter. He himself has spent many a night on that very same cold tile floor. After that first Demogorgon, after the tunnels, and the Russians and the mind flayer, and just a few weeks ago - after Vecna.

Steve sits, knees drawn to his chest and his back resting against the doorframe. “Everyone is gone, we told the kids you weren’t feeling well. Do you…um…want to come out and talk? or I could come in there?”

“Go away, Harrington” Eddie snarls, voice breaking a little on the words.

“I mean, you don’t have to talk if you don’t want to, I could just sit with you.”

“Haven’t you done enough King Steve? Just leave me alone!”

“Come on man, you know I'm not that guy anymore. I thought we had a moment back there, in the woods?”

Eddie scoffs “A moment? What am I, your fucking prom date, Harrington?”

Steve sighs, “You know what I mean Eddie, I thought we came to an understanding; that we agreed we were both different than the other expected.”

“What part of ANY of this has convinced you that I’m not exactly the freak everyone says I am?”

“You’re not…”

Just when Steve starts talking, he hears the clatter of something falling to the tile floor. It sounds like metal, like a blade. It could just be the chains from Eddie’s jeans dragging on the floor, but Steve has a bad feeling.

“Open the door Eddie” Steve pleads, shooting to his feet.

“Fuck off!”

“I’m serious, I’ll break it in.”

“You’re not gonna break your own door down.”

“Try me”

If Steve is right about what he thinks is happening in there, he’d do a hell of a lot more than break down a stupid door to stop it.

Steve backs up, preparing to use his shoulder as a battering ram, when he hears the faint click of the lock.

He takes a moment to collect himself before opening the door. He thinks the best thing he can do in this situation is not react, or at least to react calmly, to whatever he sees. Eddie is drunk and clearly in a very dark place right now and may be well past reasoning with.

He swings the door in carefully, unsure of where Eddie is within the small room and not wanting to hit him with it.

Eddie is huddled on the floor, wedged in the corner between the sink and the wall. He has a rather sharp looking pocket knife gripped in his hand and he’s shaking his head violently, muttering something under his breath over and over again.

Steve kneels on the floor, as far from Eddie as the small room will allow so as not to spook him and cause a panic. Down on this level he can finally make out the words Eddie keeps repeating.

“I’m not supposed to be here, I don’t want to be here anymore.”

Fuck. Steve might be a little slow sometimes but he is absolutely sure that when Eddie says ‘here’ he's not talking about the bathroom, or this house, or even Hawkins. No, Steve the sinking feeling he knows exactly what Eddie means.

“Please give me the knife.”

Eddie’s eyes shoot up to meet his. His eyes are red, and there’s still so much anger in his gaze and yet tears are flowing freely down his face. Eddie grits his teeth hard enough to hurt, as he drops the pocketknife to the floor between them. He looks Eddie up and down, relaxing minutely when he finds no trace of blood anywhere on him.

Steve moves slowly, deliberately, not knowing what might set Eddie off further. He carefully folds the knife up and slips it into his pocket. Eddie’s eyes tracking his movement the whole time.

“Always think you know what’s best. Who put you in charge, why do you get to make that decision?”

Steve shakes his head. “I don’t know anything, Eddie.”

Eddie looks away, staring at a spot on the wall for a long time before he speaks again.

“Why didn’t you just leave me there? I was as good as dead. It would have been easier, safer.” There’s no anger behind the question this time. An eerie calm seems to have come over Eddie.

“I don’t know how to answer that.” Steve says, honestly.

“I did it to save Dustin but I also wanted it to happen. I never planned on making it out.”

Steve nods and slowly rises to his feet. He offers Eddie a hand up, which surprisingly he takes and then – doesn’t let go.

He pulls Eddie up the stairs by the hand and shows him into the guestroom, neither saying a word. Once in the room Eddie finally lets go, laying down on top of the comforter fully clothed and facing the wall.

Steve just stands there, watching the rise and fall of his breath for a long minute.

“I’ll be right across from you, if you need anything and there’s a bathroom down the hall.”

Steve waits but gets no response, he didn’t really expect one.

“I’m not sorry that I saved your life, I could never be sorry for that, but — I am sorry that you’re hurting.”

Steve manages to make it downstairs before the first tear falls. He’s shaking by the time he reaches the phone. He dials Wayne’s number from memory before sliding down the wall to sit hunched on the floor.

“Hello?”

“Wayne…” Steve says wetly, His voice cracking on the word.

“Steve?! What’s wrong, where’s Eddie?”

“He’s here. He’s laying down in the guestroom.”

“What happened?”

“It’s bad…he…God…Wayne, I can’t even say it.” Steve can't catch his breath, thinks he's hyperventilating.

“It’s gonna be alright son, take a deep breath, in and out. Go on”

Steve knows this, it's not his first panic attack. He tries to hold the breath for a moment before letting it go but he can't. It feels like he's drowning.

“That’s real good Steve but you’re still breathing a little too fast, try again and drop your head between your knees.”

He does, listening to wayne soft encouragement the whole time. Within minutes he’s feeling a little better.

“I’m sorry”

“Nothing to be sorry for boy, now do you think you can tell me what’s going on?”

“Eddie got a little drunk and I tried to get him to slow down but…it just started an argument. He said some…things. He locked himself in the bathroom after so I had everyone go home. He was in there with a knife.”

Steve can hear Wayne sniffling now on the other end.

“Shit” Wayne says

“I’m sorry”

“It’s not your fault. I knew he was having a hard time but I didn’t think…”

“I know”

“I don’t know what to do, now I’m even more terrified to let him out of my sight. I’m supposed to go back to work tomorrow night, I can’t afford any more time off. We might not owe on the trailer but I still got bills to pay. I can’t lose him, Steve.”

“What if he stayed here with me for a while?”

“I can’t ask you to do that…”

“You didn’t, I’m offering. You know I’m not working right now, so I can be home with him all the time.”

When Wayne doesn't respond for a while, Steve softly adds, "I really wanna help him through this, if he'll let me"

“Well alright then, let's give it a try. I’m gonna pack a bag with some of his things and bring it on over, might be best if I come and talk to him about it too. I’ll see you soon.”

Part 4

#eddie munson #steve harrington #steddie #steddie fanfic #stranger things #ao3 #ao3 link #steve harrington/eddie munson #eddie munson pov #alternating pov #CITU

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