(Beauty and the beast steddie au)
No.8 — Curse
"Okay, so you first gotta know that Steve's dad is a bit of a prick. A douchbag, and a cheater — from what we've gathered. No, Steve doesn't mind if we talk shit about him. Robin gave us permission.
"Yeah, uh, we don't know what exactly happened, but we think that Mr. Harrington cheated on his wife. She found out, made Mr. Harrington ditch the lady he was cheating on with. But the problem was that the lady he messed up was not an ordinary woman. I don't think she's even human.
"Oh, how are we involved in this? Well, you know, we were all hanging around this house. Steve's parents were rarely here, so Steve let us play at his house. It was a party, just between us. But then someone knocked and it was her— she seemed real angry, I only heard her voice because Steve was at the door but it was really scary.
"She kept demanding for Mr. Harrington and didn't believe when Steve told her he wasn't here. Steve told her to go away and shut the door, and the next thing we know—
"She was shouting from the lawn that all the Harringtons were cold-hearted loveless jerks that only care about themselves, and they needed to pay for the damage they do to others. She said 'I'll show you what monster you are, Harrington, and no one will be able to go away until a Harrington blood finds an act of true love, for others than themselves.' Yeah, I think those were the words. When we looked out, she was already gone, and we were like this."
It's messed up, Eddie thinks. They had nothing to do with the drama and was just caught in the crossfire. All because some dude couldn't keep his hands to himself.
"Wait, so what about Mr. Harrington? Didn't he do anything about it? It seems like this is his problem," Eddie fumes.
Lucas just shrugs. "We don't know."
"You don't know."
"Yeah, he never came back. Robin and Nancy have a theory for that, actually. They think that everyone just forgot about us, the Harringtons included. After the curse, we stopped seeing people around Loch Nora, not even around their homes. And the vines just started growing. We think they all left. They forgot about us, and they don't know we're here."
When Lucas says the word 'they', it seems wary, almost sad. It makes Eddie realize that Lucas must've had family and friends outside their group of now, and they perhaps forgot about him. Eddie just wants to hug the little guy, tell him everything's gonna be better, do everything he can to make it better, but doesn't know what to do.
So Eddie just groans internally and pulls his hair, stressed. Maybe he can come up with a plan for the curse. He's great at coming up with something. Lucas said that the curse was that no one would—
"What, are we sharing secrets now?"
They quickly turn their heads towards the source of interruption and Max is standing at the door, with the barest hint of curiosity in her eyes. Lucas of course perks up at the sight of her, and goes into explanation.
"Max, Eddie wanted to know about the curse— and since he's staying with us for a while I thought maybe we could... tell him?"
"Why are you asking me? It's everyone's secret, that means it's yours too. Do whatever you want, dork."
And Max just plops down beside Lucas. Max will punch him (with her claws out) for this, but Eddie thinks they're adorable. Young love, it seems.
But Max is no longer interested in her company, now focused on the wall in front of her.
"So you've been out in the world," she comments. It takes Eddie a moment to realize she's talking to him. "What day is it today?"
The question is carried out in a casual way, but it causes Lucas to gawk at her.
"I thought you said it was all pointless," he breathes out. "You told Dustin he was being an idiot for hanging onto something so meaningless."
Max huffs out a reply. "Well, maybe I found out it might not be."
"Why?"
"Maybe something's going to change."
And she's staring at Eddie like she knows something, something that gave her hope after all those years, but Eddie really doesn't get what she knows. It's all confusing, so he decides to answer what he does know.
"June 23rd, 1986."
There's a slight shift in Max's eyes, but she just hums in acknowledgment as she walks towards the wall. She reaches out, and scratches '6/23/1986' on the wall.
***
Eddie is sitting with his back to Steve's door. In the midst of the conversation, he recalls the odd look Max gave him.
"Hey, Steve?"
"Hm?"
"Does Max ever scare you?"
Steve just scoffs at Eddie's words. "Eddie, she's a kid. And I've known her for a long time. Why would she be scary?"
"I don't know, man. Today she just stared at me like she knew something I didn't and I should have, it was kinda really scary. Does she ever give you that look?"
There's a bit of a pause. Steve eventually clears his throat and answers.
"Uh, yeah, actually. Just yesterday, too. That's the face she has for me, to tell me that I'm being idiotic about something. That I'm missing something obvious. I don't know what brought it on this time, though. But I'm sure we'll find out soon enough."
"Shit, is it really a thing? Did we do something wrong? I don't want to make her upset."
"I don't think you're going to be in a trouble yet, Eddie. Well, at least a permanent trouble. So... just-, try to notice things? That's what Robin tells me to do."
Eddie doesn't know what the things are but he hums anyway. Steve, probably having gone through the conversation in his thoughts again, clears his throat again and adds hastily,
"You know, you can never tell her this but that stare kinda does scares me."
"Right?!"
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I NEED MORE LUMAX CONTENT
- them playing games in the arcade together
- max and lucas playing one on one basketball lucas going easy on max to let her win just so he can watch her be a dork and run around gloating saying shit like “maybe i should be the basketball star”
- max and wearing lucas’ letterman jacket
- lucas making a big spectacle and asking max to homecoming after he makes the winning basket of the game
- them getting a milkshake with two straws
- falling asleep watching movies with the crew
- steve taking their homecoming pictures and being a gross gushing mom
- lucas asking steve advice about a skateboard he got for max’s birthday
- matching christmas sweaters that they “hate” but wear all the time
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