#pre season 4
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Steve’s party trick was appearing sober long past the point of inebriation.
It was an act he’d perfected through observation. He’d watched his mother down wine like water and waltz into a garden party looking sober as a saint. So when everything went down at the Starcourt Mall, with the drugs and the appearance of another burgeoning concussion-induced migraine fogging the edges of his vision, he’d pushed through with professional tact.
Steve couldn’t explain how it happened. One moment he was sitting on the kitchen counter, cradling a bag of frozen peas to his bare face, freezer burn nipping at the edges of his consciousness, and the next he was sprawled out on the carpet of a stranger’s house.
What happened in between, he’d never know.
Maybe it was for the best. Ignorance was bliss, in Steve’s opinion. His life was so much easier before the Upside Down. He would’ve been a worse person and lived a worse life. Yet his life would’ve been close to normal, not the mercurial mess it’d become. He wouldn’t have spent the night locked in a secret underground soviet bunker, his face doubling as a punching bag for a man he didn’t know, while monsters roamed about the town.
The mall had burned down, Steve remembered. After all was said and done, Mrs Byers dropped him and Robin off at their respective homes. Steve insisted he didn’t need to go to the hospital, that he was fine and, more importantly, that his parents were home. When Robin sobered up, she’d realise Steve had lied.
He’d told Robin a lot of things, and after the night in the mall, so had she. She knew Steve’s parents had been out of town for months, but she’d been flying too high to use any of her admittedly brilliant brain to put two and two together. Steve loved Robin. He loved her differently after that night, but he still loved her. He was human. He needed time to lick his wounds and some space. The quiet of the Harrington house had seemed like a blessing, so where the hell was he now?
“Hey, what did you take?” A vaguely familiar voice shook Steve from his stupor.
He rolled away from the sound, burying his face in the carpet. He cringed as a spark of pain shot through the veiled numbness that’d inhabited his body since the Russian drugs had hijacked his system.
“Ouch,” Steve grumbled miserably.
His head throbbed. One eye was entirely swollen shut. Even if Steve was sober, he wasn’t sure he’d be able to place the boy through his hazy vision. All he could make out were colours, pale skin, dark hair, and darker clothes.
“I know. I know. You’ve got a real shiner, Harrington. Come on, up,” the boy instructed.
Steve felt cool skin graze against the nape of his neck, pulling him up into a sitting position. Steve remained boneless, not making the task easy.
He felt separate from his body, not sure where he ended and the rest of the world began. Once pulled up, he kept falling forward, his face making contact with the dark fabric of the boy’s shirt. The boy was more comfortable than the floor, with less carpet burn and more smooth leather. He smelled of smoke, sweat and an earthy kind of cologne that hadn’t been refreshed in hours.
“Elevator up,” Steve chuckled, laughing too hard for his own good.
His ribs ached. He felt a laugh shudder through the boy’s body as he pulled Steve back, trying to get a better look at him. He held a finger in front of Steve’s face.
“Not sure what this is meant to do but I’ve seen it in movies,” the boy commented as he moved his finger right to left, inspecting Steve’s face for something, neither boy was quite sure of.
“Alright. You’ve gotta know I’m the least likely person to narc on you, Harrington. What did you take? Special K? Some Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds? Were you Chasing the Dragon? Gotta be something stronger than weed, man,” the boy insisted.
Steve screwed up his nose and moved away from the man.
“I don’t know what you’re saying,” Steve complained, trying to untangle the string of words the guy had thrown his way.
Steve staggered to his feet, swaying before propping himself up, leaning against the wall, and feeling the whole thing tilt under his weight.
“Dude, your walls are broken,” Steve muttered, as his legs gave out and he slid down to the floor.
“We’re in a trailer, Steve,” the boy pointed out. Steve looked around the place, trying to make shapes from the blurs of colour and light.
“Oh yeah,” He noted before resting his chin on his knee.
The boy sat down in front of him, mirroring Steve’s posture, his chin resting on the bare knees of his ripped jeans.
“Do you know what you took?” He pushed on, this time taking a different approach.
“No,” Steve admitted, at last, sliding forward.
The boy’s rings had caught his attention. They were little halos of light. He curiously tugged at his hand, pulling him close to examine the shine. He ran his fingers over the rise and fall of the rings.
“Okay,” the dark-haired boy breathed, seemingly to himself.
“I think you need to go to the hospital, dude.”
“No hospitals,” Steve remarked eloquently as he returned to his previous position, face down on the carpet, taking the boy's hand with him.
“Yeah well, I’m not so sure I like the idea of you sleeping either, Stevie,” He reasoned, his voice sounding strangled.
“I’m tired,” Steve rebutted, his eyes sliding shut.
There the boy was again, taking Steve’s face into his palm and pulling him up. For a moment, the vision in his good eye cleared enough to make out brown eyes painted with concern.
“Look, I know we hated each other’s guts in high school but I don’t want you to O.D. on my carpet. It’s not good for the ambience,” the boy continued.
Steve squinted, trying to place the face. Sure, he’d been a jerk in high school, particularly before his senior year, but he didn’t remember hating anyone. Not really. Maybe Jonathan, for a time, but that had passed.
Munson. Steve’s brain supplied at last. The boy was Eddie Munson. He sold drugs and hung out on the fringes of Steve’s bigger parties back in the peak of his ‘King Steve’ era.
“You hated me?” Steve asked, hearing the hurt in his voice before he realised what he was feeling. Eddie’s eyes widened in alarm, Steve’s face still in his palm.
“What? No. I thought you hated me. I mean, you were a jock and I’ve got my whole ‘fuck the man shtick’, so it wasn’t like we ran in the same circles,” Eddie elaborated.
“Jocks are ‘the man’?” Steve questioned. He’d like to blame the drugs, but he’d probably ask the question sober.
“No. Yes. Kind of. Jocks are like... the grease for a cog in the wheel of the machine. All mass compliance to societal norms... or whatever.”
Steve blinked owlishly at Eddie, trying to make a lick of sense out of what he’d said before resigning himself to the fact that he was completely lost.
“I like Grease. It’s a cool movie,” he settled on, startling another laugh out of Eddie. He gently lowered Steve’s face onto the carpet and sighed.
“Yeah, it’s a cool movie,” he muttered, leaving Steve for a moment, tossing sheets and a pillow from the sofa to the floor beside him.
“Look, I’m going to stay up and make sure you don’t choke on your own tongue. You can stay here for the night, but I’m not letting you crash until my uncle gives you the thumbs up, weirdo.”
Eddie slid a cushion beneath Steve’s head and draped the sheet over him. Steve was bone tired. He wanted nothing more than to sleep, but the pain in his body was growing by the moment and less favourable memories were leaking back into the forefront of his mind. He watched as Eddie placed a tape into the VCR and sat down beside Steve. It took him too long to realise the film was Grease.
“Who’d you get into a fight with this time?” Eddie asked, seemingly aware of Steve’s sudden restlessness.
Steve didn’t answer. He didn’t know how to.
“Were the drugs before or after?” He pushed, searching for something Steve couldn’t work out.
Again, Steve didn’t know how to answer. Once more, Eddie let it slide.
“You want me to call anyone? A girlfriend... or?” He doesn’t mention Steve’s parents.
Maybe he was at more parties than Steve remembered, enough to know that the Harringtons being in Hawkins was rarer than a blue moon, less frequent than even Steve would admit to.
“No,” Steve grumbled, starting to feel the swelling in his lip.
Eddie nodded and let Steve have his silence. He half paid attention to the flashing lights on the screen, fading in and out of consciousness. Eddie would gently elbow his side each time Steve almost reached sleep. It was a long night, broken only by the opening of a door come sunrise.
The light was too bright, too sudden. Steve shrunk from it curling into the closest point of dark comfort. Steve realised too late he’d curled himself into a small ball, tucking his face into the familiar darkness provided by Eddie’s crossed legs.
“What in the Sam Hill have you gotten into, kid?” Steve heard a gruff voice ask in the doorway. Despite his words, the man didn’t sound angry, more amused.
Steve felt Eddie pull the sheets up to hide his broken face from the light.
“You know when I was fourteen, and I brought home that stray cat?” Eddie asked.
Steve heard a door shutting and the scrape of a dining chair sliding against the linoleum.
“The one that was sick as a dog?” The gruff voice replied. Probably Eddie’s uncle.
“Same situation,” Eddie spoke.
“You’re telling me you found a kid wanderin’ round the trailer park at night and thought you’d bring him home? You remember what happened to that cat, right?” His uncle asked.
“He went missing after a week. Then we found him half-kickin’ curled up in the back seat of the Johnsons’ cinder-blocked Austin,” Eddie muttered, stating the words as though it were a conversation Eddie and his uncle had before.
“And you didn’t leave your room for a week.”
“Your point, old man?” Eddie remarked.
“My point is, I love you, kid. But sometimes your bleeding heart is more trouble than it’s worth.”
To Steve’s surprise, the sheet was pulled off his head. The next thing he knew he was face to face with Eddie’s uncle. The man shone a torch in Steve’s eyes, echoing Eddie’s movements, placing a finger in front of his eyes. Eddie watched in silence at Steve’s side.
“He’s got a pretty bad concussion,” Eddie’s uncle supplied after a beat.
“He was on something when I found him,” Eddie said.
Steve was getting sick of people talking about him like he wasn’t there but in the same vein, he wanted to convalesce in peace. Eddie’s uncle shot him a sceptical look.
“Nothing I gave him, promise. He’s not letting me take him to the hospital.”
“He’s right here,” Steve interjected.
He watched as Eddie’s uncle levelled him under his intense gaze. For the first time since he’d entered the room, he wasn’t seeing symptoms, or a problem Eddie had dropped in his lap but a boy. A kid, in Wayne’s eyes, one that looked worse for wear. It was the goddamn cat all over again.
“I’m going to get you water and some aspirin. Eds, get some rest. No buts, kid you look like you haven’t slept a wink. Should also be safe enough for you to try to get some shut-eye, boy. I’m not Eddie, you can’t bat your eyes at me and get your way. I’m taking you to the hospital if anything happens, right?”
Steve looked at the man with narrowly masked surprise before giving him a weak nod. He couldn’t imagine his parents doing the same, not even for one of Steve’s friends, let alone a stranger.
“Come on, you can sleep in my room,” Eddie uttered, springing to his feet with a joviality that someone who’d gone twenty-four hours without sleep shouldn’t be able to muster.
Steve blinked, slowly standing and gathering the sheets around himself, acutely aware of how ridiculous he looked.
“Keep the door open,” Wayne called at their retreating backs.
That was how Steve spent the summer of ‘85 hauled up and healing at the Munsons’ trailer. A few months later, he’d return the favour. When Eddie went missing, Wayne knew where to look.
#steddie#steddie ficlet#Pre season 4#because I'm on my pre season 4#steddie bullishit#again#stranger things#fictlet#post starcourt#st 4#steve harrington#eddie munson#steve and eddie#my unused psych degree#wants you to know that#what Steve experienced is called a#dissociative fugue#steddie drabble#drabble#Metalhoops writes
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I am a big ‘Steve and Eddie crossed paths in high school’ believer for one main reason.
Season 3, episode 7. Steve has just been drugged by the Russians, and tells Dustin this:
“How many times, Dad? I don’t do drugs. It’s only marijuana.”
By that statement alone, we canonically know that Steve smokes weed. And I can’t imagine that Hawkins is rolling (pun intended) in an array of high school-aged drug dealers. So Steve has probably purchased weed from Eddie.
Another important note, is that he says ‘how many times.’ Plural. Multiple. Steve has probably purchased weed from Eddie multiple times. And knowing that Eddie has a hidden spot where he likes to make his deals, it’s safe to assume that Steve has probably been there. Sitting where Chrissy sat. Having awkward small talk with Eddie. Having Eddie do something ridiculous to break the tension, equalize the social hierarchy with humor.
And they probably developed some sort of customer/dealer dynamic. Which means there’s a level of trust there, right? Keeping secrets (not ratting Eddie out), and remaining loyal (only purchasing from Eddie). So Eddie trusts Steve on a basic level. Which adds to the reason why he doesn’t cut Steve’s throat in the boathouse in s4. Dustin swearing on his mother helped sway his decision too, no doubt.
And sure, Steve could’ve bought weed from someone else. Fine. Whatever. But isn’t it more fun to think that they’ve interacted quite a bit before season 4?
Even if it’s just strictly business? ;)
#steddie#steve harrington#eddie munson#pre season 4#canon theories#look all I’m saying is… it’s possible okay?#and highly intriguing to think about#okay thank you for indulging my brain worms
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Steve injures his ankle in ninth grade and is forced to sit on the bleachers at P.E for 6 weeks. Here he meets Eddie "Sick Note for Life" Munson and the two of them become little gossipers about everyone in their grades.
#their grades share pe#idc i make the rules#they are both bitchy and gossipy#and steve has noone else to talk to and hes a little social butterfly#eddie doesnt start the conversation#steve just goes did you know frank samson is trying to date two girls right now#eddie cant help but reply yeah but cindy lance is dating him AND peter crame#and steve is like noooo what!#little gossip birds#stranger things#steve harrington#eddie munson#pre season 4#steddie#stranger things s4#st4#stranger things season 4#steve is not someone i see hating eddie im high school especially when he was younger
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pre season 4 eddie munson and steve harrington!
eddie got one weakness actually two when you count strawberry ice cream (he's allergic to strawberries)
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For the lightning round, how about....
"What are you doing here?"
"I could ask you the same thing."
There's no reason for Steve to be standing outside of Family Video today.
He wasn't scheduled, the kids were all at Max's skateboarding competition that she insisted she didn't want Steve to go to, and Robin was at her aunt's house over an hour away.
But here he is, bored, lonely, and wondering how the hell he was supposed to fill his time.
"What are you doing here?"
Steve whipped his head around and squinted at Eddie, who was walking around the front of his van. When had he even pulled up?
"I could ask you the same thing."
"Well, you could. But I always come here to rent a movie on Wednesdays, so it makes sense for me to be here, since it's Wednesday," Eddie stood in front of Steve with his hands in his pockets.
"I work here."
Eddie snorted.
"But not on Wednesdays."
"How do you know my schedule?"
Steve watched Eddie's face turn red before he looked away and bounced on his feet.
"I just know you've never been here on a Wednesday, okay?"
"Uh huh. Well, don't let me stop you," Steve gestured to the door.
"You weren't, I just." Eddie sighed. "You wanna help me pick one?"
Steve blinked back at him.
"What?"
"Never mind. Stupid question."
Eddie started to walk towards the door, reaching a hand out to pull it open when Steve stopped him.
He grabbed Eddie's wrist, and they both froze, looking at each other with wide eyes.
"I'll help. Anything in particular you're looking for?"
"Maybe something you haven't seen before?" Eddie tugged the door open, watching as Steve's hand fell from his wrist.
"What if it's terrible?" Steve's brows furrowed in confusion.
"Then we can suffer together. You're gonna watch it with me."
Whatever confidence Eddie had lost momentarily was back in full force, and he winked at Steve before holding the door open for him to walk through.
"I am?"
"If you're free? You seemed like you might be."
"Yeah. Yeah, I'm free."
"Great. Lead the way, Stevie."
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A Kiss Kiss
Ship: Eddie x bestfriend!reader
Summary: The Hellfire Club is one member short, but Eddie refuses to let the campaign slow down. That's where you come in, Eddie's "tutor" turned into his muse.
Word Count: 4,728 words
Warnings: mention of sickness, fluffy, pining Eddie, oblivious reader, brief/slightly bad description of a D&D session, sugar as a pet name for reader, excessive mention of how pretty Eddie's eyes are
Note: This fic is set several weeks before the events of season 4. The campaign is leading up to the session we see in the show! Reader has graduated, but stayed in Hawkins to help Eddie graduate.
☟ Continue below the fold ☟
"Lights...perfect. Got everything here... Where are my— There are my character sheets. Do I have...? Yes."
Eddie paced around the room one more time, checking everything for the fifth time. He needed to be certain that everything was ready. The session had to go perfectly. He'd planned for every possible curveball the party could throw at him, every stupid request and every bad roll and every plot twist he could use without straying too far from the course of the game. He'd been building up this campaign for too long to let it go awry just a few sessions away from his grand finale.
He twisted his rings around his fingers, giving the table one last look before sitting on his throne.
"It's gonna be fine," Eddie mumbled to himself, adjusting his stack of character sheets. "Everything's gonna be ooohhh-kaaaay."
The door opened. He looked up, expecting his players, and found you standing in the doorway instead, your eyebrow raised.
"Do I want to know why you're psyching yourself up for this like you do before your exams?"
Eddie groaned. "Let's not talk about my exams."
You made your way over to your own chair, which was sat just a few feet away from Eddie's. (He'd been inching it closer to him every time, but he wasn't going to tell you that, and he didn't think you'd noticed yet.) "You mean the exams you should be studying for?"
"They're weeks away! I have to finish the campaign, too."
Your eyebrows knitted as you leaned forward, trying to catch his eye. "You have to graduate, Eds."
For a moment, his heart dropped into his stomach. He hated that. He hated the way you sounded both hopeful and hopeless. He hated knowing where that sound came from, that you were really hoping the two of you would finally leave Hawkins together, like you'd planned to do two years ago, before he got told he wasn't graduating.
He still remembered the way your face had dropped when he'd told you. That looked crossed your face in his nightmares.
"If I don't—"
"Eddie..."
"If I don't," he repeated, a bit more forceful, "you don't have to stay with me. You should go to college and start your life."
You reached over, putting your hand on top of his. "You're going to graduate this time. You're so close, Eddie. You just need to pass your finals, and then you're out of here."
He looked over at you, expecting anger or annoyance, but he just found kindness. He always found kindness. "You can tutor me later, okay?"
"Good—because I brought all my physics notes, and there's no way in hell I'm lugging those things around for no reason."
Eddie grinned. You returned it, seeming to stare into his soul. Eddie felt a familiar flutter, one that he'd been ignoring for the past four, almost five, years. He buried it quickly, before he could get distracted enough to lose track of his campaign.
Not today, Munson, he told himself, tearing his eyes away. He could see how your gaze lingered on him for a moment, soft enough that he almost wanted to admit he was feeling those flutters—and possibly ruin eight years of friendship in the process.
"Not today," he mumbled to himself.
You raised your eyebrows. "What was that?"
"Nothing important." He glanced over and found your eyes pinned on him, gaze narrowed. "I'll tell you later." You nodded, satisfied, and he neglected to tell you that later meant on my deathbed.
The door opened again, and this time it was Gareth and Jeff. Eddie grinned the instant he realized their excitement matched—maybe even surpassed—his.
He left his throne to clap Gareth on the back. "Ready for this?"
Gareth grinned. "You have no idea. I've planned for everything you could throw at us."
Jeff snorted. "No, you didn't. Look at his notebook—he's got plans within plans over there."
"Ah, ah, ah! No you don't!" Eddie swooped back to his spot, dramatically clutching his notebook to his chest. "Avert your eyes."
You giggled from the corner. Eddie glanced over and the flutters came back; you were doing that beautiful thing you did, where you tried to cover your smile with your hand but it still peeked through. God, Eddie loved that smile—and he knew the rest of Hellfire did, too. He glanced back over and found Gareth practically swooning, very red in the face. He rolled his eyes.
"Where are the little sheep?" he asked, glancing at the empty spots where the three freshman he'd adopted usually sat. "And Grant? Jesus, where is everybody?"
"Grant is on his way, saw him in the hall," Jeff said. "Don't know anything about the freshies."
Eddie's jaw clenched. "If Sinclair's skipping out on us for basketball, I swear to God—"
You put a hand on Eddie's shoulder, stopping him in his tracks. He turned to you immediately, missing the look that passed between Gareth and Jeff. "Easy there, Eds. Maybe they got held for a few minutes after class. You know there are plenty of teachers here that will hold back a class they think has been too rowdy after the bell. Or..." You fixed him with a stern look he would never admit made his stomach swoop. "Certain rowdy students."
He looked away from you, awkwardly rubbing the burning blush climbing his neck. "It was one time!"
"Twice," you insisted. "And that's only that I know of! For all I know, it could have happened on nights we weren't going out, and you just never told me!"
Gareth peered around Eddie to see you. "Going out?"
You nodded. "For milkshakes and things—"
Eddie pushed his finger against your lips. "Shhhh, let's not talk about that, okay?"
You met Eddie's gaze. Mutual understanding passed between you, accompanied by an intense heat and a deep sense that you had misspoke. Eddie felt embarrassment curling in his stomach; it was clear that while you didn't understand you were about to describe the failed attempts at dating you Eddie had made throughout the years, the other two absolutely did. He was never going to hear the end of this.
Once again, the door opened, this time slamming directly into the wall next to it. Eddie's eyes flicked away from you and toward the two freshman in the doorway, Dustin ahead of Lucas, who still had his arm pushing the door open. Both were frozen, eyes wide as if they'd interrupted something they weren't supposed to attend.
But then Eddie realized what the situation looked like to them. He had, unknowingly, wrapped an arm around your waist and tugged you close to him to press his finger against your lips.
And with the way you were looking at him...
Eddie cleared his throat and let go of you, stepping away as if nothing had ever happened. "Where's the third one?" he snapped.
"Um...that's what we came to tell you," Dustin said, glancing at Lucas for support. "He. Um. Mike is..."
"Not feeling well," Lucas put in. "So he won't be here today."
Eddie knew his expression wasn't pleasant. He didn't try to change it. "Not...feeling...well," he repeated, words staccato and mocking.
The two boys nodded.
"Is he alright?" you asked.
"Uh...not really?" Dustin squeaked. "He, um." Lucas kicked him in the shins.
"He what?" Eddie snapped.
You put your hand on Eddie's back, shooting him an admonishing glare. His stomach swooped again, a pleasant mix of fear and arousal. He sat in his throne, placing his elbows on the armrests and leaning forward, hoping it would hide the tent in his pants he was sure would make an appearance if you kept up with those gentle touches.
"What's wrong with little Wheeler?" Eddie sighed, trying to soften his voice. You didn't glare at him again, so he guessed he did a good enough job.
Grant appeared behind the two freshman. "Does anybody know that Mike just threw up in the hallway?"
Lucas groaned as Dustin tried to hide the words with a belated, hissing shush.
"Oh, Jesus," Eddie sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. With his hair creating a curtain to hide his face, he wiped his hand over his face, willing himself to pull it together.
He felt a hand on the back of his chair. When you spoke, he knew it was you. "Does Nancy know?"
Lucas nodded. "We went to tell her. That's why we were late."
"Shut up!" Dustin hissed. "Mike didn't want us to..." He glanced over. "Oh, what the hell? Cat's already out the bag."
"Nancy?" Gareth frowned. "What's she got to with it?"
You fixed him with a dry look that spat his question back in his face. Eddie had seen that look before, hated every time it was directed at him but loved when the other boys pining over you got it. "To take him home, Gareth."
"But what about the campaign?"
"What, you'd rather him throw up on the table? I'm sure Eddie would love that, wouldn't you?"
Eddie folded his hands together. "No, but it does create a problem—we are now one player short."
Silence fell. Eddie felt the question building up, felt everyone come to same realization and "solution" at the same time. He rapped his fingers against the armrest, waiting to see who would be brave enough to suggest it first.
It was Gareth. "Should we...postpone? Wait for him to get better?"
Eddie's attention snapped toward him. "Oh? Wait for him to get better, you say? And how long's that gonna take? A week, two? No—waiting would throw off the entire campaign. We need a sub for him."
"No one would play with such short notice, Eddie," Jeff said, shaking his head. "If this happened yesterday, maybe we could find someone, but everyone's left. Unless you want to go ask the basketball team if they'll spare another player—"
"Don't be stupid," Eddie growled.
"There's no sub, Eddie, you have to be reasonable about this," Gareth began. Eddie bristled.
"I'll sub."
Every head in the room turned toward you. Surprise flooded Eddie's brain. You wanted to play? The last time you'd played, it had been the same situation. You'd stood in for someone else, halfway through a campaign, and had been so confused you'd sworn off D&D for good.
"What?" Dustin said.
"I'll play in Mike's stead," you said. "I've done it before. Long time ago, and it wasn't exactly...great, but I'll do it." You glanced at Eddie. "If you want me to, that is. I know last time was kind of a disaster, but—"
Eddie worldlessly shuffled through his stacks. He sifted through every page and then flipped open a very worn down folder. There, at the back, was the page he was searching for. He handed it to you.
"Is this...?"
"The same character sheet as last time? Yep."
You stared at him. "You kept it?"
He shrugged. "'Course I did. I keep everything."
"No wonder your room is so messy," you teased.
He rolled his eyes. He saw Dustin's eyes go huge and knew the kid had taken it the wrong way. He had no desire to correct him. "Alright, that's enough of that. Everybody sit." He caught your arm before you could move away from him. "You stay close in case you need help. You need a refresher?"
You glanced down at the sheet he'd given you. "Um...maybe a little? Sorry."
"No problem, sugar. C'mere a second."
You did as you were told, the pet name going through you like lightning. Only Gareth seemed to notice, his gaze losing a little bit of light as he did.
~❊~
The ticking of a clock filled the room, coming not from the one on the wall but from Eddie himself, who was surprisingly good at mimicking the sound with his mouth. An eerie, whispering, scraping sound filled the room. If you hadn't been next to Eddie, where you could see his hand scraping the underside of the table, it would have freaked you out. On your other side, Lucas tensed.
"You hear it from a distance at first," Eddie said, his voice low. "But it's getting closer with every second." He mimicked the clock again. "The sound of magic and of chains."
Gareth shuddered.
"There's chanting around you. Too late, you realized you've stepped into a trap."
Half of the table groaned. Eddie's face lit up with a maniacal grin.
"He enters the clearing, cloaked and whistling." Eddie whistled. Unsteady and menacing, he swept his gaze across the table, making brief eye contact with every single player. "Try as you might, you have not the wits to escape me." His voice was deep and gravelly. Goosebumps broke out on your skin. You'd heard Eddie change his voice time and time again, but it never failed to shock you. "There is no stopping power as great as this."
Eddie locked eyes with you. A thrill went down your spine. "Yet there is always room for improvement. Magic is never satisfied."
"Here we go," Dustin whispered, his hands in white-knuckled fists.
Eddie leaned back. "From his cloak, Vecna draws a dagger. He lifts it into the air. Ritual must be satisfied." He turned to you. "What do you do, dear traveller?"
Your heart stopped. This was different from the lighthearted flirting you'd been doing with the other characters Eddie had pit you and the others against. You knew enough from his summary to know Vecna was not one of his regular, smaller villains, and you knew from the fear from the others around the table there was only one way this was going to go.
"I...try to stall Vecna, try to attack to give the others time to get away," you said after a moment. Eddie paused briefly, something flashing in his eyes. Slowly, he grinned.
"Roll," he said, nodding to the dice he'd set in front of you at the beginning of the game.
Heart in your throat for no apparent reason, you did. You didn't have to look at it to know how it went; you heard the groan of the others around you, heard the soft sound Eddie made, and knew your roll had not been high enough.
"You run at Vecna but are easily caught," Eddie said, and you reopened your eyes. "He puts the dagger at your throat. The others are terrified and trying to decide if they should help or run." He looked at the others. "Well? What do you do?"
You heard them each say that they would try to help, voices trembling. But roll after roll was far too low, so, one by one, they fled.
Eddie turned back to you. "So much for your friends, little one. Perhaps you shall meet them again, when I have killed them, too. He shoves the dagger through you and your world goes black, but not before you..." He made eye contact with you. There was a plea in his gaze. You studied him, saw the exhaustion in him. You glanced at the clock on the wall; the session had been going for nearly three hours. You could tell he was hoping it would be done very soon—and that you had a chance to end it now.
But what did you have to do?
Curse Vecna? Spit in his face? Cleverly not die?
Eddie licked his lips, hiding a mouthed word in the action. Summon.
You sucked in a breath. "I cast a summoning spell."
There's triumph in Eddie's face. "For what?"
You let instinct guide you this time. "Anyone who can help. Anyone who can defeat Vecna."
Eddie's grin was nearly villainous. "Roll, sugar."
You closed your eyes again and let the dice fly from your hands. You waited, not breathing, until you heard it stop roll. Eddie gave a shout of victory.
"Your spell is successful! With your last breath, you summon help from all four corners of the world, and lo and behold, a figure appears in the woods before you. As the world goes black, you see a cloaked man step out from the shadows. He throws back his hood and Vecna sneers. You catch a glimpse of his face as your vision fades to black, and standing above you is your savior—Kas the Bloodyhanded."
Eddie snapped his book shut. The reaction was immediate, his party leaping to their feet, yelling and shouting. You flinched against the wall of noise. Eddie grinned at you.
"Not bad for your second go," he said, voice still low and husky underneath the noise.
You smiled at him. "I hope you're aware I'm not letting you get away with not studying tonight."
He rolled his eyes, but his smile remained. "Of course not."
Dustin finally succeeded in trying to get Eddie's attention by leaning over Lucas and peering around your arm. "What?! Kas? That's insane!"
You leaned out of the conversation, leaving your chair and gathering up the notebooks and pencils you'd left on the floor. You might not have understood everything that was going on in the game, but you enjoyed it nonetheless; the party clearly loved what Eddie had put together just as much as he did. You knew that appreciation was not something Eddie saw often, and you were glad he got it here, at least.
The party stayed longer than they normally did after games, until Steve poked his head through the door and scolded Dustin to get a move-on. The others dispersed quickly after that, until it was just you and Eddie left.
He turned to you with a huge grin. "That was amazing, huh?"
You giggled. "I'll admit I was a little confused, but I'll chalk that up to joining in on a session halfway through your campaign and not your DM'ing skills."
Eddie started his cleanup process, reorganizing the table and putting away everything that wouldn't be needed until the next session. He eyed you. "I'm surprised you got my hints—happy, of course, but surprised, too."
You left your stuff on your chair and helped him clean the table. You shrugged. "I knew you were tired. And you'd explained the campaign up to now well enough, I knew what you meant when you said to summon." You shivered. "But I see now why the boys are always so terrified during games. It's so high-stakes!"
Eddie grinned, and it looked slightly malevolent. "Helps that I'm so intimidating."
"You're joking, but you're absolutely intimidating," you said. "I've never seen you so intense before." You gave him a sly, teasing smile. "Maybe if you applied that to your studying, we'd be in a different state by now."
The smile slid off Eddie's face. Guilt clouded his eyes, and you knew immediately you hadn't come off as joking as you'd like to have.
"Oh, Eddie, I didn't mean... That's not what I wanted it to sound like."
He sighed heavily. "No, but you're right. You could be out of here, at least. I mean, like I was saying earlier—"
You dropped the papers you were holding and cut him off by cupping his face in your hands. His breathing stopped along with his words. You were shaking your heard fiercely.
"That's enough of that, Eddie. I told you I was going to help you graduate, and I am. I'm not leaving you here, Eds. I can't imagine life without you. You have been here for me through everything, and I'm going to to the same for you. Alright?" You ran your thumb across his cheekbone. "You mean the world to me."
He curled his arms around you, tugging you flat to his chest and squeezing tight. "Thank you for believing in me," he whispered, just as he had when you'd first told him you were going to help him graduate. You were just glad this time the words came without tears.
"I've always believed in you," you whispered. "Always."
You pulled back away from him, idly playing with one of his curls. For a moment, it was just the two of you staring at each other, Eddie's big eyes more than a little wet. For a moment, the air between you changed.
Eddie's heart began to pound. He watched your gaze drop briefly from his eyes to his mouth and wondered if it was about to happen. If he'd be brave enough to let it happen.
If he did, his deathbed was a lot closer than he'd thought it was, because he knew kissing you was going to prevent him from breathing for a good hour at least.
But you just smiled at him. "Come on—let's finish up here and go through my old physics notes. You're passing that test tomorrow."
He groaned. "I forgot there was a test tomorrow."
You laughed. "What did you think I was here for?"
"Me."
"Aside from you," you said, poking him in the side. He squirmed away from you.
"Finals, I guess. Something a few weeks away—not tomorrow."
You shrugged. "If you pass your test, you can pass the exam. Hurry it up, Munson."
He wrinkled his nose. "You sound like Harrington and Henderson."
"Well, it is almost nine."
Eddie yawned. "No wonder I'm tired. Alright, come on. Let's go home."
~❊~
Stifling your third yawn of the past ten minutes, you cuddled closer into Eddie's side. The night had turned out to be one of the lazier study sessions, which took place in Eddie's bed. Judging by how tired the two of you had become the moment you sat down amongst his blankets, that had been a mistake.
Sitting up had become laying down. Laying down had become cuddling.
This wasn't new to either of you. For as long as you'd known each other, you had been touchy and physical, growing up mostly touch-starved and finding comfort with each other.
But today, it felt different. Eddie couldn't quite put his finger on why today was different from normal, but even just looking at each other when you were checking to see if he was still paying attention resulted in outbursts of giggles.
And for some reason, he was paying even more attention to the smell of your shampoo than normal as he buried his face in your hair. He sighed softly, mumbled your name, and slid his arm over your stomach, his fingers splaying across your side.
You glanced over at him, putting your notebook back down on your lap. "Hey, you okay? We can stop if you're too tired."
"No," Eddie whined into your hair, pressing closer to you. "'m gonna fail if we stop."
You glanced at your notebook. "What's the equation for kinetic energy, Eds?"
He was quiet for a minute, and then he mumbled, "One half of mass times velocity squared."
"What about gravitational potential energy?"
"Mass times gravity times height."
You closed the notebook and threw it off the bed. "I think you're going to do just fine, Eds." You rolled over and wrapped him in a tight hug. "As long as you remember the equations, you can get through the test."
Though it seemed impossible with how at ease he already was, Eddie relaxed in your arms. He hummed softly and threw his leg over yours, clinging to you.
"You can do it, Eds. I believe in you." Without really knowing what you were doing, you leaned back and bent your neck to kiss his forehead. Your voice dropped to a low whisper. "I believe in you, baby."
He hummed. After a moment, he asked, "Did you just kiss me?"
You thought about it. "Not really," you said. "It wasn't a...a kiss kiss."
Eddie looked up at you, his face so buried in your hair and your shirt that you could only see those pretty eyes of his. "Do you wanna kiss kiss?"
You stared at him. You didn't know why you said it, or what courage possessed you to do so, but you smiled, almost bittersweet, as you said, "I've wanted to kiss kiss you for three years at least, baby."
Eddie whimpered in your arms, eyes growing wide. He wriggled in your arms until you were face to face. He stared at you a moment, lifting his hand to cup your cheek.
"Hi," you whispered, feeling slightly embarrassed now that the words were out.
"Hi." His voice was just as quiet. He brushed his fingers across your face, the touch gentle and loving.
"If you don't feel the same—"
"Of course I feel the same," Eddie said. "Of course I do. How couldn't I?"
You smiled. "Well, you did a bang-up job of hiding it."
"So did you," he murmured. "I've always thought I knew everything about you, but I didn't know that."
You laughed. "I don't know how you didn't know that—I wasn't exactly subtle. Why do you think I wanted to run away with you all these years? You thought I just wanted to go start a whole new life with you just because?"
Eddie huffed. "Well, we can chalk up me not noticing to me being a bit oblivious."
You giggled. "Let's face it, we were both a bit oblivious about our feelings to each other."
"Oh, God, yeah, if I had known you liked me, I would've asked you out back in high school." Eddie brushed your hair out of your face. "So, uh... Can we kiss kiss? Please? Please?"
You giggled. "I like the enthusiasm, Eds."
He whined. "Please?"
"Yes, baby," you whispered. "Kiss me. Kiss me."
Your eyes fluttered closed the instant Eddie's lips touched yours. You held each other's faces as you kissed, a clash of lips and teeth and tongues. You enjoyed the feeling—Eddie's lips were supple and soft, only slightly chapped.
When you broke apart, you smiled. "Your lips are soft."
"Yours are like heaven," Eddie said, pecking them again. "My own personal heaven." He wound his arms around you, tucking himself back into your embrace. "I'm never letting you go now, okay?"
"Oh, believe me, I never want you to." You brushed your hand through his hair, earning a soft, content sigh from him. "Let's get some sleep. And tomorrow morning—you're going to pass your physics test."
"You have such faith in me," he whispered, eyes already closing.
"Of course I do, baby," you whispered, watching him lull himself to sleep in your arms. "Of course I do."
You kissed his nose and let him fall asleep in your arms.
~❊~
You were at Eddie's trailer before he was the next day, when he got out of school. He opened the door with a huge grin on his face, that only got bigger when he saw you waiting for him on his couch.
Before you could even greet him, he flung himself down next to you and whipped out a paper. He gave it to you, practically bouncing with excitement.
It was the physics test—with a big A+ circled at the top of it, the comment of, Wonderful job, Mr. Munson! written underneath.
You squealed. You put the paper down and threw your arms around him, kissing his cheek. "Oh, baby! I knew you could do it! I knew it!" You kissed all over his face. "I'm so proud of you, Eds!"
He pulled you closer to him, meeting for a deep kiss. "All because of you, angel. My sweet angel."
You curled up on the couch together, kissing like your lives depended on it, completely unbothered by the rest of the world or the show that you had put on before Eddie came home. You looped one of your arms around Eddie's neck, bringing a smile to his face.
Neither of you heard the door open. Neither of you saw Wayne walk in and stop the moment he saw the two of you, or the grin that appeared on his face at the sight of his nephew finally kissing the girl he'd been telling Wayne about for years, always with a bittersweet, love-stricken sigh.
The smile was a contained shadow of what it was by the time he said, "Took you two long enough."
You sprang apart, grinning sheepishly, but you both could still see the pride and happiness in Wayne's face, however much he tried to hide it.
You looked back at Eddie, kissing his nose and drawing a giggle from him. "Yeah." You kissed his soft lips. "I've been thinking the same thing."
~❊~
Stranger Things // Eddie Munson
Taglist: {comment and let me know if you'd like to be added to the E.M. taglist!} @ohatropa @lilylilyyyyyy@spencestyles@r-royce@theshiresposts@kaitebugg03@the-chocoholic-writer@noiralei@kennedyraye@yourdailymemedelivery@squidscottjeans@cannonize@sebastianstvn@corrodedcoffn
#stranger things#stranger things au#pre season 4#hellfire club#stranger things d&d#eddie munson#dungeon master eddie#eddie x reader#eddie x bestfriend!reader#welcome to hellfire
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What if Steve revenge-befriends the rest of hellfire out of resentment for Eddie Munson. It happens on accident but it’s a happy accident. That bitch stole his kids.
Jeff trying to pick a movie at family video to impress his girlfriend? No problem man, let me tell you which movies girls usually get. Grant and Gareth stranded at the side of the road one morning when Grants car breaks down? Hop on, I’ll drop you guys off at school with Robbie.
By the time Hellfire day rolls around, he’s got all of them wrapped around his finger. Steve goes to pick the kids up, and the guys are there and obviously happy to see him.
He watches Eddie having a little fit in the rear view mirror as he pulls out of the school carpark. “See you around, Steve!?” Steve quietly chuckles to himself.
#steddie#steve harrington#eddie munson#stranger things#mine#pre season 4#Steve using the Harrington charm for evil#Gareth: he’s actually pretty cool#Grant: yeah he gave us a ride to school the other day and—#Eddie: and one thing led to another??!!?!#Steve having meet cutes with literally everyone but Eddie
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Eddie Munson has this shirt and you can't tell me otherwise...
Steve and Eddie have been dating since spring of '85. They keep their relationship quiet with only Robin and Jeff knowing. Robin only knows because Eddie kept coming in to bug Steve during his shifts at Scoops Ahoy and they weren't exactly the best at being subtle. and Jeff is Eddie's best friend so he had to tell him.
Anyway Friday 14th February '86 is their first Valentines day together and for the first time ever Eddie cancels Hellfire that night. When he announces it the week before, it causes ruckus. All the boys start shouting, except for once, Dustin - the only one who can talk to his Girlfriend on Valentines day. But Eddie's word is final. No Hellfire Next Friday.
It comes to Valentines Night they have their date a candlelight dinner at Eddie's trailer, Steve cooked, they watched a movie and exchanged gifts.
"I know we said only get one present but I saw this and it was too funny to leave behind, so consider it a jokeish present and this other one as the serious present" Steve nervously rambled as he hands over the neatly wrapped square.
Eddie rips into the paper confused yet intrigued. He holds up the t-shirt to read it.
He giggles at it, an excited grin spreads across his face as he looks back at Steve.
"I love it" he already moving to kiss his awesome pretty boyfriend.
Steve's other present for him is a beautiful leather bound notebook since his other note book was running out of pages and falling apart. He wrote on the inside the front cover "Never stop writing, ~ S xxx 14/02/86"
Eddie gets Steve a keyring with a red and black D20 with only the number 20 visible. Steve's confused at first but Eddie explains that the D20 in DND is the decider dice, there's only a 5% chance to get the number you want, and the 20 is guaranteed success. The message clear: What are the chances we found each other in this cruel world? Inevitable.
To say the following weeks the t-shirt became a staple of Eddies wardrobe is an underestimate.
And if anyone notices the blush that Steve gets every time he sees Eddie in that shirt, no one says anything...
_______________________
TLDR: Steve got this for Eddie one year for Valentines day as a funny/joke present and Eddie wore it all the time after...
BTW the D20 gift idea isn't mine. I got it from a fic on A03 called "The Man I Could be" by Ohstars. it reimagines season 4 through the lens that Steve and Eddie date the Winter before Season 4 began but broke up at Christmas and then the aftermath of the battle with Vecna. Its cute, beautiful 100% worth every brain meltingly adorable moment...
#steve x eddie#steddie#pre season 4#stranger things#stranger things headcanons#valentines day#cute#dungeon master#eddie stranger things#eddie munson#steve harrington#bisexual steve harrington#gay eddie munson#crimson68writes
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❛ if you take care of everyone, who takes care of you? ❜
[Sunset: Outskirts of Sunfire Camp]
"If you take care of everyone, who takes care of you?" Councilor Nadia asked Janai, who looked confused by the question. Normally if one of her advisors asked such a question, she'd tell them to stay in their area of expertise. Nadia was an exception, being an old friend of her mother's. The woman wasn't quite an honorary aunt, but she was allowed to be a little personal than most.
"I take care of myself?" Janai had no idea where this question was coming from. She was the queen, it was literally her job to take care of everyone. Sure, she was more hands on than her sister was, running around between meetings and helping with any physical labor, but their people hadn't been displaced under Khessa's reign.
"She is the queen," Karim didn't understand the question either. What kind of queen needed someone to take care of them. The monarch was the cornerstone of their mighty empire. What need did they have of other's care, "though she shouldn't be doing all this manual labor."
"If not me, who will?" Someone had to oversee this project, and they were stretched so thin...Janai had to pick up the slack. If Karim had wanted to talk about the upcoming holiday, he could help mend and set up the tents; they could talk and work at the same time. He preferred to tell Janai to go sit on her throne and grumble when she didn't. Karim and his traditional mind. She supposed he served a purpose to their people, but he could be an annoying little brat.
"Of course. It was a foolish question from me." Councilor Nadia barely contained a sigh. The girl would work herself to death, and the boy would not take the hint to either try to stop her or lighten her load. Stubborn, foolish royals.
[Nightfall: Outside Queen's tent]
After an incredibly long, incredibly relaxing bath, Karim went to speak his sister, a list of requirements for the upcoming Summer Solstice. It was the single most important day of the Sunfire Calendar and as much as he loved his sister, he didn't trust her. She had habit of putting function over ceremony, a military tactic he didn't not support. What good was living if they lost themselves?
He crossed the threshold of the tent without announcing his presence, it was late, but Janai always worked well into the night. He paused for a moment, a split second of shock at not seeing the queen where she should be. Not bent over work at the table. Looking right and left, he found her on her bed...with that human friend of hers.
The human in question was sitting propped up on the pillows, looking straight at him like he was intruding. Janai would probably agree, if she hadn't fallen asleep during a head massage. The human didn't stop the massage, but used her free hand to first shush him with a finger against her lips, then to wave him away.
His first impulse was to defend his honor, to berate her for daring to give him orders, but he just couldn't bring himself to do it. Janai looked content, far more than he'd ever seen her. If the human wanted to spend her night making his sister comfortable, well maybe he could let the transgression slide. Just this once. And so he left. He was back in his own tent before he realized that he had an answer to Councilor Nadia's question. Janai would take care of their people, General Amaya would take care of Janai.
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Spots in Clear Skys (Eddie Munson X Male!reader)
Reader male coded (as I am male and there is not enough male stories for anyone really) mainly fluff, a tiny bit of angst if you squint.
Prompt: the reader has vitiligo/discoloration in their skin and stretch marks and is insecure about it. During the summer Eddie insists on going swimming and the reader doesn't want to go but goes to appease them but ends up hiding the whole time and Eddie notices. (cannon divergence obviously)
Request: no
word count: 4.9K
Pairing: Eddie Munson X male plus size! Reader, dustin henderson X reader (platonic)
Warnings: insecurities, mentions of bullying, negative talk of self, mentions of sex, no detail just a passing mention.
Note: this is a co-write with @sweetweedstevie and we didn’t do final revisions as it is almost 7am and we spent all night writing this :) if anyone wants to be put on a tag list hit my asks or let me know in the notes
The air felt nice and cool as you were changing into the swim trunks you haven’t worn since last summer. The shorts went down just slightly past your knees, the pattern seemed to swirl on the rough polyester. you felt as if wearing a shirt may help to cover the patches of discolored skin that line your chest. If you don’t it would be like wearing a kick me sign on your back. you reach forward and grab the white cotton t-shirt, which rested on the wood of the dresser, and as you pulled it over your head, you heard a pounding on my door. With a sigh and looking back into the mirror, you adjusted the waistband of your shorts and gave yourself a quick once over. Still the same old skin you would stare and pick at, and it seemed like maybe the blotches of lighter skin may never leave your arms, chest, and legs.
you take a couple steps forward and open the door of my room, walking downstairs to meet the pounding on the front door. you grab your car keys from the bowl near the front door and slip on a pair of cheap foam sandals you had bought yesterday. your chest expands as you take a second to mentally prepare yourself for this afternoon, breathing in deep and trying to exhale the worry from your body. Three more beats on the wood travel throughout the front entryway.
“Open up (y/n) or else we’re gonna be late!” comes from behind the door. With an agitated sigh, you tug open the red door. Brown eyes peer at me, mouth wrenched open about to yell again. “Henderson, I’m here. We aren’t late so no need to stress.” you give him a quick once over. His brown curly hair is tucked away under a blue and white hat, he has on white swim trunks, a memphis design pattern button up shirt which was unbuttoned, under that was a navy blue shirt and it looked like he was wearing some type of black sandals.
“You like the look?” He asks, a toothy grin spreads across his tan skin. You swallowed quickly, trying to contain your laughter as Dustin did a quick spin. “Did your mom dress you..or?” You say to him. His expression drops into a deadpan as he looks you up and down. “I happen to have expensive taste, (y/n).” Dustin says.
“Yeah.. expensive taste, I’m pretty sure I saw that ugly shirt at the thrift store. Maybe even in my mom's closet!” You tease, and walk past him. Dustin can’t help but smile at your antics.
You hadn’t even seen his handmade Hellfire tote bag, he thanked whoever above for it. Dustin would never hear the end of it. He carried a lot in his bag, sunscreen, shirts, a sketchbook, some pencils, drink mix and water bottles.
“Henderson, you know for being so urgent about wanting to get to the beach, you sure are just doing nothing. You want passenger?” You say, unlocking the door to your car and sitting down in the warm leather seat. Dustin jogs over to the right side of the car, taking the silver handle in his hand and entering the janky car you owned.
You put the key into the ignition and Dustin grins as he hears the engine roar to life. “How fast do you wanna go? 70, 80?” He says, turning to you with an excited spark in his eyes. “Everyday I learn something new about you, and I’ve been babysitting you for years now. Adrenaline junkie is a new trait.” You say, pulling out of the driveway and into the circle drive behind you.
“Well, fighting monsters gives you a new perspective on things..” Dustin laughs, hands settling down as he adjusts into the plush seat below him. His hand reaches for the dial, turning up the radio. It was loud enough that the notes and melody could rattle your brain. You sigh, rolling your eyes as the both of you start the cruise to Hawkins Beach.
As you whip around the corner by some gas station you pull the shades from your center console and put them on as you enjoy “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go” by Wham! You hear Dustin shout in excitement at the speed. Rolling your eyes then focusing on the road again. You start to think a bit about how the day might go and pray Dustin won’t force you to swim or get near the water. As time passes you slow down on the dirt roads to avoid skidding and crashing the car (As not only would you get an ear full of “You almost killed us!” from Dustin but also a lecture from his mom). When you arrive at the lake and shut off the car you can already feel the beads of sweat forming on your neck from the heat, and the idea of watching over Dustin's friends to make sure no one would kill each other in the water.
Hopping out of the car, Dustin speeds over to where his friends already set up spots. Hawkins didn’t really have beaches, just the lake that many teens and young adults snuck off to to make out and generally “make sweet love”, appropriately named “Lovers Lake”. You made your way over to Dustin and his friends and sat down next to Will giving him a short nod and a wave. Will smiles and waves back before taking note that everyone else but the two of you had already sped off towards the lake. “I am putting my keys in your bag. Also, put on sunscreen! Your mom would kill me if you got sunburnt!” You shout at Dustin as you put your keys away in his Hellfire tote bag. In the distance you hear him shout as he complains about being fine without it. You made a mental note to buy sunburn supplies on the way home.
After a while you gave up trying to get sunscreen onto the younger kids, and you settled in for the afternoon. You think for a moment, and take a glance at Will, who was mindlessly sketching on a pad of paper. You ask if he wants a snack and a bottle of water from the trunk of your car that you had packed yesterday evening. “Sure, that’d be nice.” he says and offers a smile, You stand up and stretch, offering a hand for him to get up with.
Will grabs your hand gingerly, and you pull the younger teenager off the rough towel you’ve both been sitting on. After a short walk the two of you arrive at your beat up car, and you slip your hand under the lip of the trunk and open it up in a one swift movement.
“Get what you want Will, there’s a lot for a reason.” You say. He nods quickly and leans over the back of the car, scanning the selection of drinks and snacks that you’d packed yesterday. Coca-Cola, Hi-C, Sprite. You open the backdoor of the car and start to look for the scrunchie you’d thrown into the seats after a long shift at Salvation Army. After a while you find the green scrunchie and with a relieved exhale you tie your hair back.
“Got what you want, Byers?” You ask as you get out of the backseat, closing the door behind you. You peek back out to see Will holding a Hi-C, a Coca-Cola and a Sprite. He smiles at you, and nods. It causes the red bucket hat placed atop his head to slightly falter, but he didn’t seem to mind. “Yeah, thank you again (y/n).”
You nod at him. “Hey grab two waters for me, will you?” You ask him. He nods and grabs two water bottles, carefully stacking them against his chest so they wouldn’t fall. You close the trunk, motioning for Will to follow you back to the lake. The walk back was short and was shared in a comfortable silence between you and the younger teen you’d learned a lot about over the years.
Will was an anomaly of the friend group, much as you felt. Once the two of you sat down, Will took a note of the lighter patch of skin on your hand. “If you don’t mind me asking, is your hand okay?” He asks with a light tone. “Just an accident from when I was a kid, Byers.” You say. You silently hope that he won’t catch your lie. He nods, accepting the answer. Will cracks open the Sprite, then he goes back to mindlessly sketching the landscape in front of him.
As you two were sitting there enjoying the sun, you brought up ideas for his campaign. You'd sat in on a couple of his sessions, as you’d enjoyed fantasy as much as he did. Will bounced ideas off you, and the two of you worked out kinks in his story. He said he wanted to work with the undead for his new campaign and how it was out of his comfort zone. After a while you’d helped him build up the start to a story and some strong enemies. Will had smiled so wide you thought it may stay there forever, it was good to see him happy.
Around 30 minutes later you heard 2 engines roar through the woods, as if they were racing to the lake. The two loud cars pulled into the makeshift parking lot of the lake, and then the engines cut. A rusty grey van with white accent stripe wrapping around the bottom and a sleek maroon BMW.
You watch as Eddie pops out of the driver's seat of his van, wild hair being pushed around with the breeze. He was wearing a denim vest adorned with patches and pins. Following his grand entrance of him swinging his arms about and shouting in the direction of a BMW, you see Steve and Robin emerge from the maroon car. Eddie bounds over to them, hands flailing wildly as he chats with the two respectively.
You had gone to school with Steve and Robin and graduated in the same class. You were familiar with them as you had been the chauffeur and babysitter for Dustin and his friends at times. When Starcourt opened, the trips to the mall became much more frequent. Dustin had dragged you into Scoops Ahoy to annoy a friend you didn’t know about, and was surprised to see Steve Harrington exit the backroom with a grin on his face to greet Dustin back from camp. You and Dustin had spent a lot of time inside of the small ice cream parlor, making fun of the uniforms and trying free samples. Steve often would sneak the younger teens into r-rated movies through the backroom that led to the back of every store in Starcourt.
You’d never been friends with Steve, as he wasn’t in your circle of friends. He was labeled “The King of Hawkins High”, which wasn’t really a thing you would’ve enjoyed. He was one for parties and sports, and you really didn’t have much interest in either of those activities. But sometimes you and Robin would sit at lunch together, talking about books and magazines you’d both read. Throughout your highschool career, you’d seen Eddie lurk through the halls, you’d never spoken to him though. You didn’t have an issue with him, he was interesting but also really intimidating. You had seen his kindness in secret moments that you’d catch, him picking up someone's wallet or pencil, giving someone some money for lunch, and more. You’d also interacted with him when Dustin would beg for you to fill in when someone couldn’t make it to Hellfire.
The group of makeshift outcasts made their way over to the lake, and you took in their outfits. You saw as Eddie laughed at Steve when he tripped over a rock, because he was arguing with Robin over The Goonies. Robin tore her attention away from Steve with an eyeroll, her hazel eyes landing on your face. She waves and shouts your name, sending a wide smile your way. Robin jogs away to the group, and closer to your spot. When she eventually arrives, she launches into a ramble about how bad Steve’s sense of direction is and how they got lost 1/3rd way into the drive.
Eventually the two others made their way to your small group. Steve smiles at you, Eddie gives a wave. “Hey, it’s been a minute!” Eddie says, grinning down at you. Your eyebrows furrow. “Huh, it really has been, hasn't it?.” You say to him.
Eddie shrugs off his vest and drops it by Dustin's tote bag, taking note of the iconic Hellfire logo that was carefully painted onto the creamy white canvas fabric. Eddie looks up from the bag, cupping his hands around his mouth as he shouts “Henderson! Nice bag, where’d you get it!” He teases. Dustin looks up from the water, looking around the shore of the lake until his eyes have landed on your small group. In a frantic effort, Dustin starts desperately swimming through the murky water. You see him fighting against the slight current. Once he eventually reaches the shore, he breaks into a sprint towards the group, b-lining for the dungeon master of his group. The two launch into a wild conversation.
You bite your tongue and sigh. Your eyes linger on his tan skin, now having a pink blush added onto his arms and chest. You rute around his bag and take ahold of the 70 SPF sunscreen, and toss it at him. “Put that on kid, you’re already getting burnt.” You say. Dustin purses his lips and he unwillingly applies it to his skin.
“Get outta the water! Get something to eat!” You shout at Mike and Lucas who had been having a splash war in the lake. The two boys swim through the water and make their way towards the group. You face Robin and Steve and watch as Steve pulls his shirt over his head and applies some sunscreen. “See, you should be more like him. Steve wears his sunscreen and avoids sunburn, Dustin. Your mom is gonna kill me.” You say as you bring the rim of the water bottle to your lips to take a sip. “Yeah, Henderson.” Steve mocks. Dustin glares at him.
“Yeah? And you look like a vampire! You’re pasty. Plus, You never even came to swim. You said you’d swim with us!” Dustin shouts, hands thrashing through the air. You grit your teeth and scowl at him.
“Never said I’d swim, kid, I said I would watch over you little monsters. And besides, Will need some company too!” You snap back. Then you stick a hand in Will's hair, ruffling it up. “Hey, why’d you have to drag me into this?” Will whines as he looks up from his sketch he was working on.
“Don’t make him do anything he doesn’t want to, Henderson. Besides, it's 98 degrees out. He’ll be in the lake within the hour. ” Eddie says casually, lips curling into a smile. He reaches back and grasps the back of his shirt and pulls it off in one swift motion. He had tattoos of spiders running along his ribcage and side. Eddie unbuttons his jeans and pulls them down quickly, revealing red swim trunks under. On his calf there was a tattoo of a red dragon, and bats.
For a moment, it looked like Steve’s eyes had popped out of his skull. “Did you seriously wear jeans over your swim trunks? What is your issue?” He says, jaw wrenched open. “Gotta keep my freak reputation Harrington, close your mouth by the way. Don’t want flies in there.”
Eddie swings an arm roughly around Steve and Dustin's neck, charging to the lake. “So much for eating.” You mumble as you watch Eddie lunge into the water, keeping both of the boys close to him. Steve emerges from the water, stuttering. “Nobody said it would be this goddamn cold!” You hear him yell. You shake your head and laugh then turn back to your conversation with Robin.
After a while of chatting with Robin and Will about random topics of conversation, which included the new magazine Robin got in the mail today, how Will’s drawing was going and how hungry you were, and yelling at the boys for almost drowning each other. Succeeding your lengthy conversation with the two, the boys in the distance started playing chicken. Steve had Lucas carefully balanced on his shoulders, and Eddie had Dustin on his. Dustin was yelling about how it was an unfair match because Lucas was “so much stronger than I am, he does sports for christ sake!” and Robin suddenly looked more interested in that than the conversation.
Robin places her hands on the ground next to her as she pushes up roughly, regaining balance and standing up. “We should go play chicken with them!” Robin says with a beaming smile. Will's expression falters into a happy glower. “Yeah..I think that’d be really nice. It’s hot and stuff, I’m gonna go with Robin.” Will says in your direction. His skin seemed to be glowing in the light, like he was made for this.
“Go and have fun you two.” You say. Will takes off his overshirt, leaving him in a blue tank top and white shorts. He takes off his bucket hat and hands it to you, which you put on the ground. Will rushes to the water, excited to be able to play with his friends again.
Forever chasing his inner child, once lost and now slowly being rediscovered.
Robin turned back to you. “You wanna come with? It would make an even amount of players.” She says. You decline saying that someone needs to stay and watch the stuff. Robin lets out a defeated sigh. “Invitation is still up, (y/n).” She says, then trudges to the water.
After she enters the lake, you sigh and lean back against the rock you had posted up on. You carefully examine the discoloration on your arms and the stretch marks on the lower part of your abdomen where your shirt rode up when you adjusted so your back would be flush against the rock.
You frown at the light splotches of skin, and pick at the scab you got. It happened when trying to squeeze in between a table and a coworker, you misjudged the size of the gap. You gave up eventually, and you pulled the shirt back down in frustration and let out a distressed whine from the heat.
You continue to look at your arm thinking about how horrific you thought they looked, and how it looked like someone had pressed a sponge filled with bleach onto your rough skin. You murmur again in frustration and get up. “I’ll be right back!” You shout at the group as you grab your keys.
You got a couple of shouts back in acknowledgement and made a straight shot for your car. When you reached the car, you went to the back and slid your hand under the lip of the trunk. You jiggle a little bit to unlock it, and then you lift the trunk for the second time today.Your hands grasp a plastic water bottle. You slam the trunk again in a fluid motion. Eventually, after leaning on the side of the car, you walk to the front and pull the driver's side door open. You sat down in the plush seat, after rolling the key in the ignition just enough to start the AC, but not to start the car.
You let the hot air vent out of the car window then cranked them up. You lean back in the seat, reclining it to lay down. Nothing is better than AC on a hot day. You take a sip of water, living simply in your car. You shut your eyes, and allow yourself just to think.
Around 10 minutes later, there comes a thump on the window of the passenger side.
You jump and gasp, looking frantically in the direction of the noise. And there he was, Eddie waving and grinning at you. You reach over and crank down the window, looking at him.
Eddie disregards the window and opens the door, climbing inside of your cool car. You grit your teeth as you watch him roll the window back up. He looked you up and down. “Are you so opposed to the water you will sacrifice your battery to cool down? Are you scared you will melt when you get in, you a witch?” He teased and leaned back against the cool leather seat.
“What do you want, Munson? You look like a drowned dog” you grumble back, your cheery mood dissipated. You were once relaxed, now forced to be alert and on edge. “Says the one who won’t even get in the water. Dustin has been trying to get you to swim all afternoon. He’s really upset (y/n), he really wants you to be there.” He says. It seemed genuine enough.
“I have a perfectly good reason for not wanting to swim.” You say, looking away from his face and to the wheel.
“You got some embarrassing tattoos you don't want people seeing? Some surgery scar that’s gnarly?” He says, giggling at his own simple jokes and words. You glare at him, burning holes into his head. You then look away, thoughts racing and head hurting. Your voice shakes as you tell him off with a quiet “Fuck off.”. You swallow and shift away from him, knees knocking against the wheel as you try to face the driver's side door. Officially closed off.
“Woah, hey, I didn’t mean to step on any toes. You okay? I mean, I don’t think you are. What’s going on man?” He said just a tad quieter, just soft enough for it to work. He turns himself towards you just a bit, not enough to threaten you, but enough to let his presence be known. You shake your head slightly, and to your dismay a tear slips out. You bring up your hand and flick it away off your face. You choke on your breath as you throw your head back onto the leather headrest.
You swallow your words and meet his eyes. Filled with adoration and concern.
“I have grown up with this… thing. I don’t really know what it is but it looks like a disease.” You say, voice breaking with every word. You hold out your arm to him, the discolouration sitting in small pockets on your arms. Your hands pick at the edges of your shirt as you lift it off your body. All across your arms and chest are the blemishes and marks you’d grown to hate.
“When I was little the kids called me sick and disgusting for having this on my body. That I was a freak of nature when I was in middle school. I thought it would change when I got to highschool, but it only got worse. Everyone was ruthless. Changing in locker rooms quickly became my worst fear, until my body became my worst fear. Mirrors are my worst enemy, I can’t stand having it. Most days were a nightmare. Even when stretching, my shirt would reveal my stomach and the patches, I was always a topic of conversation, even in a town where conversation only lasts a week.” You say through gritted teeth, voice cracking.
It was a deep ache that wrenched on your heart, that squeezed the air from your lungs. It felt like time had stood still in the car as you tried to catch your breath and wipe away your tears. You put up a tough act for your friends and Dustin but relaxing didn’t come easy when you were one in a million.
You wipe off your face with your shirt and put it back onto your body, huffing as it gets caught between the seat and your back. You roughly squeeze your arm, leaving crescent moon shapes on your skin. You shift your eyes apprehensively back towards Eddie who was looking at you in shock.
You brace yourself for teasing or bullying that may come with a bomb-drop of information like that. You look out of the windshield and look at the group you’d grown to know, and smiled sadly as they play in the water without care.
Eddie doesn’t say anything. He let out a low, almost inaudible sigh. He shifts towards you more, hands reaching to your shirt which hadn’t been pulled down yet. His fingers grasp the fabric, and you feel his cold fingers against the warm skin of your back as he adjudges your shirt. Eddie backs away back into the passengers, adjusting. He opened his mouth to speak then closed it, almost as if he was searching for what to say. Eddie's fingers drum against his knee as he looks up to the clothed roof of the car.
“If it makes you feel any better, when I was in middle school I was made fun of for living in the trailer park and having my head shaved. Then highschool I was a target because I just wanted to play a fantasy game. The whole “satanic panic” thing. I know my situation wasn’t as bad as yours. But if I do say so myself, your ‘disease’ as you call it, looks actually kinda cool. Metal. You shouldn’t be embarrassed about it.” he said and paused to collect himself and looked at me in contemplation.
“Give me your arm.” He said and held his hand toward you.
“Eddie what?” you question. “Just give me your arm” He interrupts, raising his voice an octave. You swallow roughly, and swing your arm towards him. He takes your wrist in one hand and eyes you carefully. His lip twitches as his eyes meet yours, silently asking for your permission. You hum faintly towards him.
His lips press against your arm, warm against the skin of your wrist. Placed directly onto a patch of discolored skin. Eddie pulls back, taking your forearm into both hands. He flicks his eyes towards you, and you feel your face grow red as you see the colors in his eyes swirl rhythmically. You feel his breath tickle the skin of your arm as he kisses the next spot. Eyes locked with Eddie’s the entire time. His hair brushes against your arm, you brush it out of his face. The rings are cold against your skin. Anything to try to ignore his plush lips that presses onto the skin of your arm. Eddie continues moving up your arm until he reaches the sleeve of your shirt. He pulls away, face flushed. Eddie falls back against the door of the passenger side, legs spread as he smiles at you.
You laugh a little, swallowing the spit that had collected in your mouth.
He grins at you. “Kissing it better always works.” He says, releasing your arm from his grasp. “Better?”
“Yeah, thank you. Let's get back to the group before they get suspicious.” you said, nodding your head listlessly as you shut off your car.
Eddie followed you out after grabbing your water bottle and chucking to you. Fumbling to catch it you let out a hearty laugh and made your way over to the items the group brought.
Eddie sprints towards the water, trying to dive into the water but ultimately pulling off a half somersault cannonball. You shed your white cotton shirt, feeling happier with yourself. You quickly take out the scrunchie. You ran towards the water, clotheslining Eddie and Dustin on the way in, knocking them down with you.
You feel slender hands snake around your ribcage as you’re enveloped into the cold water of Lovers Lake, and you feel familiar fingers rest on your hips as you come back up for air. Once fully emerged from the water, you push your wet hair from your face. “Why is it so cold!?” You yell, arms hugging yourself. You feel a slight squeeze on your hips, Eddie staying behind you.
“That’s what I said!” Steve yells back. Dustin grins at you, lightly slapping your chest. In all of your friendship, he’d never seen you without a shirt on, even when you went swimming previously. You saw his grin curl into a mischievous smile as he thought of a plan. He tried to tackle you back under in revenge for clotheslining him, only to be tackled into the murky water by Robin and Steve.
Eddie broke away from you, hand grasping yours under the water as he guided you to Will, Lucas and Mike. You felt like you didn’t need cotton body armor anymore, the rest of the evening was wonderful with friends. When it reached nightfall, Steve helped Dustin out of the water, Dustin now sunburnt. You sighed, grabbing his things.
The two of you said your goodbyes, and packed up the car. And when you got into the driver's seat after helping Dustin into the passengers, you saw a little piece of paper taped to the wheel.
“Call me if you need a pick me up, or if you need me to kiss it better.”
@hellfirebee
#eddie x reader#eddie munson#x male reader#stranger things x reader#fluff#eddie munson fluff#eddie munson fanfic#eddie munson x yn#eddie munson x y/n#eddie munson x male reader#stranger things 4#dustin stranger things#dustin henderson#mike wheeler#lucus sinclair#robin buckley#please read#pre season 4#post season 3#fanfic#eddie#stranger things imagine#stranger things
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Hi sorry to bother you but do you happen to know any fics where steddie are dating before or during season 4?
this doesn’t bother me at all! I love making recommendations. I don’t have too many for this because i’m actually trying to find more like it myself but I do know of a couple:
in the man that I could be by oh stars that I recommended on the last one their relationship starts pre-season 4 and goes through it, but also well after it so idk if that’s exactly what you’re looking for. if you want more of a one shot though, there is pre-season 4 one shot from eddie’s pov that’s set in the same “universe” but can be read alone: double feature disaster
roll for seduction by spikeisthebigbad is kind of similar structurally; it starts pre-season 4 when the kids convince steve to join their hellfire sessions and goes through season 4. this one’s pretty fun, especially the d&d stuff, and there’s lots of good robin/platonic stobin content
both of those are pretty long so I was checking the pre-season/series 4 tag on ao3 and surprisingly there’s not that many? there were only 89 steddie fics under that tag, and a lot of those were either steddie as a background pairing or pwp one-shots.
I DID however find this one-shot fic that delighted me: Harrington’s Upside Down Training by prettyracing. I don’t know if it exactly meets the brief but it’s hilarious and it put the idea of erica as corroded coffin’s band manager in my head, which i’m going to be thinking about all day.
sorry I don’t have more! please let me know if anyone has more recs of this kind because i’ve been craving pre-season 4 content too
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Steve was used to climbing out windows. Before his junior year, he’d made a habit of entering through and escaping from girls' houses unnoticed. He was stealthy. He’d learned how to scale trees and tread lightly across roof shingles with the deftness of a nocturnal animal. Yet, for the first time, he found himself escaping his own home. There was a first time for everything, right?
Steve’s parents were home. The second Steve saw the familiar BMW pull into the Harrington’s driveway, he knew he wanted to be anywhere but home. His parents were only palatable when he had good news, but all he had to tell them was that after their last visit, The Mall had burnt down and he’d gotten a new job at a video store. He really was doing the family proud. He didn’t want to deal with it, not today.
That’s how he found himself crawling out his bedroom window, shimmying across the guttering and trying not to sprain his ankles as he dropped onto the lawn. He headed out back, past his pool and into the woods. Usually, it was the last place you’d find Steve. He kept expecting to run into a Demogorgon or something equally as nasty.
He walked for a while without direction, trudging through the underbrush until the rustling of leaves behind him set his teeth on edge. His body moved before his mind had time to keep up. He spun on his heels, hand scrabbling to the forest floor in search of a weapon. It supplied him with a fallen tree branch, almost too large to heft comfortably, but he did it, running on adrenaline. He came face to face with a familiar, wide-eyed boy.
“Holy shit, Harrington. Take it down like ten notches,” the boy grumbled, showing his upturned hands as though trying to calm a startled animal.
Hawkins was a small town, the kind of place where everybody knew everybody. Steve knew the boy with deep brown eyes and dark hair, halloed by fallen leaves, was none other than Eddie Munson, or as he was colloquially known, ‘The Freak’. They’d gone to high school together. He thought the guy was due to repeat his senior year, again. He didn’t know what he was doing alone in the woods.
“What are you doing?” Steve asked.
You couldn’t blame him for being on high alert. Even if Eddie was someone he’d grown up with, that didn’t make him safe. Steve was still riled up after running down Billy Hargrove with his car. He was paranoid. He’d had a rough couple of years.
“Collecting sticks,” Eddie breathed, indicating the large bundle in his hand.
“Collecting sticks?” Steve echoed. It wasn’t that he didn’t believe him. He couldn’t fathom why the guy was doing it.
“Yeah, I’m making a miniature log cabin for my D&D campaign, and you know, miniature logs are just... sticks—you don’t care, anyway. Sorry for startling you, my liege.” Steve tilted his head, thinking the acronym was familiar.
“Is that the dragon game, with the Demogorgon and junk?” Eddie looked at Steve like he’d sprouted a third head.
“How the hell do you, Steve ‘the hair’ Harrington, know what D&D is?”
Steve wished people would stop calling him that. Every time he heard the stupid nickname it felt like someone was rubbing chunks of asphalt into his gravel rash. He wondered if Eddie felt the same about his title.
The old Steve would’ve used it just to spite the guy, to see what buttons he could push, not because he wanted to but because it was expected of him. It wasn’t an excuse. He knew that. Instead, Steve shrugged his shoulders and told the truth, something the old Steve never would’ve done.
“I babysit some nerds who play it,” he confessed.
Eddie looked at Steve in wonder. He was puzzled, amazed and, for once, a little intrigued. He’d never looked at Steve like that back in high school. The two rarely crossed paths and when they did, they never spoke. Sure, Eddie ranted about ‘jocks’ as a whole, but Steve had always just been one piece of a puzzle. It would seem redundant to yell at a patch of blue and grey for being a picture of the sky.
“Why did you need to take up a babysitting gig?”
To answer that, Steve had to embellish a little. Maybe he no longer liked lying about who he was, but he couldn’t exactly dump the cosmic mind fuck that was The Upside Down on some unsuspecting guy.
“I needed money.”
“You needed money? What, did you get cut off?” Steve shrugged in response.
“Christ, what did you do? Piss in a family urn? Trash the house? Get a girl pregnant?” Eddie questioned.
“I think generally existing was enough to do it,” Steve mumbled, kicking at the dirt beneath his shoes.
Eddie let out a low whistle.
“Hey Harrington, think fast,” Eddie called, throwing the bundle of twigs in his direction. Steve dropped the branch and grabbed the bundle with wide eyes.
“What was that for?” Steve choked.
“What are you doing in this neck of the woods, anyway?” Eddie asked instead of responding. Steve shrugged, still cradling the bundle to his chest.
“Avoiding my parents.”
“You got any plans for the rest of the day?” Eddie spoke. Steve responded with a shake of his head.
“Well, you know, this really is a two-person job, so if you wanted to come back to my place, it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world.”
For some reason, Steve agreed.
Eddie had a habit of collecting strays.
There was the cat he’d kept under the bed when he was six and the gathering of stray dogs that hung around the back of the trailer park that he’d been feeding for as long as he could remember. The same theory applied to people. He made friends with the loners, the weird kids, the ones with wide eyes and nowhere to go. He was a bleeding heart, so sue him. However, he’d never expected Steve Harrington to trigger his urge to protect and befriend. That really hit Eddie out of left field.
Never in Eddie’s wildest dreams did he imagine he and Steve would be sitting across from each other at his small dining table, Steve’s knee pressed on the inside of Eddie’s thigh. The jock’s still hands held small bits of twigs in place as Eddie worked around him with his hot glue gun. The guy had seemed so lost, back in the woods, so unlike how Eddie remembered him. He knew about D&D for Christ’s sake. Eddie wondered if he’d woken up in an alternate universe because it seemed like Steve Harrington was actually a good dude.
He asked Eddie about his goddamn log cabin, tavern. Then he’d pushed deeper. ‘Why do you need a bar in a game about dragons’? To which Eddie explained, of course, you do more than just fight dragons, which appeared to be news to Steve. Besides his friends, no one showed interest in Eddie’s ‘stupid little fantasy game’. With Steve, questions came thick and fast. Eddie loved every second of it. When he’d asked why Steve cared so much, the guy had shrugged his shoulders and muttered,
“I might be able to impress the kids.”
Eddie decided to ask about ‘the kids’. He and Steve didn’t have much in common. Sure, the two could commiserate about high school together, but neither man was in the mood to do that. And god, Steve could talk about ‘the kids’.
“I run a D&D club called Hellfire. If they’re starting high school this year, send ‘em my way. I’ll tuck your little ducklings under my wing. Keep the big scary jocks away from ‘em,” Eddie noted, feeling comfortable enough with Steve to take a jab at him. Steve surprised him again by snorting out a laugh.
“Make sure you do. That Jason kid’s a senior, right? Total psychopath. The kid would peg basketballs at pigeons.”
By the time the sun set, the boys were in stitches and had a fairly decent log cabin to show for a day’s work. Eddie was surprised that the idea of Steve leaving set a pit in his stomach.
“Hey, Steve? We should do this again,” Eddie proposed, and Steve was too quick to agree.
“I have work tomorrow morning, but how about the afternoon?”
Eddie hadn’t expected the guy to be as keen as he felt.
“It’s a date,” Eddie agreed, before promptly wanting to shove his head through a miniature log cabin. A date? Really, Munson?
A flicker of amusement crossed Steve’s face as he shoved his hands into the pockets of his too-tight jeans. Mind out of the gutter, Munson. You were doing so well.
“You’re weird, you know that?” Steve remarked, running his hand through his trademark hair, and yeah, Eddie should’ve expected that.
Now Steve was going to call him a Freak, the ‘King Steve’, he’d heard about would make an appearance and Eddie would be glad he dodged a bullet by cutting his crush off at the knees before it had the chance to grow legs.
“Weird is good,” Steve corrected, seeming aware of Eddie’s inner turmoil.
“One thing I’ve learnt about myself since high school is that I like weird.”
Oh, no. Eddie was so gone for Steve ‘The Hair’ Harrington.
Read Part 2
#steddie#steddie fic#steddie drabble#steddie ficlet#drabble#ficlet#steve harrington#eddie munson#stranger things#alternative 'first' meeting#pre season 4#long post#I always forget to tag that#just assume all my drabbles#are long posts tbh#thing I had to google to write this#'when were hot glue guns invented'?#apparently the 50s#Metalhoops writes
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Keep Your Head Up by Pizzabones
Steve and Eddie flirt with each other through games of Heads Up Seven Up in high school. This is so cute and gave me butterflies. GO READ!
"Steve’s eyes are shut tight, head buried in his arms, breathing his own warm breath back into his lungs as he waits. He can hear the seven chosen students shuffling around the classroom, the occasional squeak of a sneaker against the linoleum alerting everyone to their whereabouts. Just as the scuffling is dying down, the room becoming quiet again, Steve feels fingers and the smooth metal of a ring brush the edge of his polo sleeve and a sliver of skin right beneath the cotton. The fingers are warm and the rings they’re wearing are slightly cooler than body temperature. Steve pulls his hand out from underneath his other arm and places it on the desk in a thumbs up position, signaling that he’s been chosen by one of the seven."
#steddie fic#steddie ficlet#steddie fic rec#pizzabones#steddie#pre season 4#eddie munson#steve harrington#ao3
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Byler Fic Recs
I’m late, but Day 3: Pre-season 4 fics
there’s a Starman waiting in the sky. - by the_angry_pixie
Strictly worth reading for Will dressing up as Bowie for Halloween! But that aside, considering this was written sometime after season 2, the characterization is so on point. Will gets a boyfriend after Mike is giving him mixed signals. It’s Mike-centric, and he’s a moody, jealous mess who is having a complete sexuality crisis. Lots of pining and angst and miscommunication, but also I was laughing out loud at some parts. (looking at you chapter 5!) Some great party dynamics too! I remember loving El in this one a lot. All around a fun ride and well written!
Was glad I found it.
#bylerficrecweek2023#byler#byler fic rec#bylerficrecweek#theangrypixie#byler fanfiction#pre season 4
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Forever and always into anything and everything pre season 4 Steddie. I saw a post you made a couple weeks back and I just wanted to assure you I would jump all over it. <3
Ahhh thank you sm that really means a lot
I have ideas and concepts buuuutttt
I cant write for the life of me or figure out stuff
I wanna make a comic so bad :,)
#sentient trash art#steddie#eddie munson#stranger things art#steve harrington#stranger things#eddie#steve x eddie#stranger things fanart#fanart#pre season 4#steddie au
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corroded coffin setlist
also known as songs that give me 'corroded coffin wrote this for you' vibes
Mentions of: sex, smoking
Rebel Yell (Billy Idol)
Eddie wrote this one for you literally the night after you had sex for the very first time, you know exactly what it's about when you hear him play it for the first time. Coincidentally, the first time he plays it is on stage at The Hideout, so you literally choke on your drink in front of the whole group, and now the kids now exactly what you and Eddie get up to in the wee hours of night. (His suggestive dance moves make that even worse.)
Sex on Fire (Kings of Leon)
Another one Eddie wrote for you, he actually got up and started writing it somewhere between five seconds to five minutes after the two of you were done horsing around in bed one night, one that he will forever call the greatest night of his life. This time, he asked your permission to bring the song to the rest of the band and play it live, but everyone who knows you still knows it's about you. It's one of the band's greatest hits, even years after its release.
Killer Queen (Queen)
The entire band co-wrote this one for your birthday once, then surprised you with it by playing it on your birthday in a "private show" as Eddie called it, which was really just them practicing in Gareth's garage with you listening with your eyes closed, which made it that much easier to surprise you. Since then, every time they're touring on your birthday, they make it a point to play the song for you, both to honor you and apologize for stealing Eddie away from you on your birthday, if you haven't joined them for that particular show/tour.
(You Make Me) Rock Hard (KISS)
Like Rebel Yell, this one is so on the nose it hurts. Eddie wrote this one after a particular night where you'd been teasing him at a publicity event for Corroded Coffin, then put it on the next album they released. It's one of those songs he does not want to explain to his children and grandchildren. (And he doesn't, because the lyrics are obvious, so he's just gonna not talk about it instead, as if that will make it go away.)
You Give Love A Bad Name (Bon Jovi)
This was released on the first ever Corroded Coffin album, written secretly about you before you and Eddie started dating. You were still dating Steve at the time, but Eddie was absolutely obsessed with you. He wrote this song as a result, an ode to his jealousy and his obsession. You have your suspicions about its meaning, but Eddie's always very vague when you ask him about it, years later.
When You Were Young (The Killers)
Gareth wrote this one and kept it secret for a long ass time. He started to write it back when he had a crush on you on high school, shortly after you met all the guys in the band. It became more of a jealous song when you started dating Eddie and Gareth had gotten a it petulant, absolutely convinced he wasn't the right guy for you. He only finished it after he grew out of his crush on you, but he refused to tell Eddie what it was about. He's the lead vocalist on this one.
Smokin' in the Boys Room (Mötley Crüe)
This one came out of a running joke from high school, when you would always tease him for taking too long in the bathroom—noticeably—because he was going for a smoke with the rest of the band. While that wasn't always true (he always teased you that he had other 'man's business' to attend to), it was 90% of the time. So he wrote you a teasing song about it that accidentally became a fan favorite.
Any Way You Want It (Journey)
You actually helped Gareth, Jeff, and Grant write this one for Eddie. It describes a little bit of your relationship with Eddie. He likes to surprise the fans with it, because he only ever sings it with you, so you make a guest appearance with the band. In the recorded song itself, it's you playing Eddie's guitar, because he taught you for this specific song. You'll also sing it to Eddie when it's just the two of you to cheer him up.
Mr. Brightside (The Killers)
Another pre-relationship song! Eddie wrote this one after supplying a party with weed, and you and Steve were there. He saw the two of you dancing and kissing and having fun, the resentment started to build, and by the time he left, Steve was sneaking you into a bedroom. He caught a glimpse of what was happening through the curtains as he left, so he went home, had a breakdown, and called Gareth. They co-wrote this one pretty quickly. You know exactly what it's about, and so does Steve, and embarrasses the hell out of both of you, so this gets played very rarely. It literally takes upwards of ten minutes of the fans screaming for it to Eddie to agree to play it. (He's still very proud of it, just overly sensitive to your emotions.)
Use Somebody (Kings of Leon)
Eddie wrote this when the two of you were going through a really rough patch. You were both feeling a little unsteady in your relationship, and Eddie was terrified of losing you, so he sat down and wrote everything down. Everything he was feeling, everything he was thinking, the best moments of his life with you, the worst moments. He put it in a letter originally, and then took some of his lines from that letter (which he thinks, to this day, saved your relationship) to write this song. He didn't release it for a very long time, not until you were both out of that rough patch and solid in yourselves and each other.
Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap (AC/DC)
The band wrote this one as a group in Gareth's garage about their high school experience. For years afterward, you poke fun at them and how they took pride in causing mischief, no matter how much trouble it causes them. Every time it comes on, Hopper will tell you another embarrassing story about them (especially Eddie) getting caught doing something totally illegal. He's never told you the same story once.
Bijou (Queen)
This one is mostly a guitar solo. Eddie could hear the guitar in his head but never think of words to go along with the whole thing, so it remained 90% guitar and 10% lyrics that he came up with and actually liked. It took him years to figure out that he'd rather keep it as it was than try to perfect it with lyrics, so you heard it almost nightly for a very long time, usually post-sex before you could convince Eddie to actually sleep, before he finally released it.
I WANNA BE YOUR SLAVE (Måneskin)
When the "Satanic cult" accusations first started getting thrown around, the boys were pretty young, and the songs they wrote were a mix of anger and rebellion over those accusations. Add in the fact that Eddie and Gareth were both crushing on you, and the result was songs like this, which were a mix of everything the media was claiming, their own acceptance of themselves, and raging teenage horniness. You like to quote some of these lines back at Eddie all the time, and the fans loving catching Eddie's reaction to it.
Hysteria (Def Leppard)
More pre-relationship pining! Gareth and Eddie co-wrote this one as well, Gareth claimed it was to help Eddie get a feel for the song, but this is when Eddie suspected he liked you as well. However, this one was written shortly after it became common knowledge that you and Steve broke up, but nobody knew why. If they wouldn't have gotten murdered by your parents and everyone in your neighborhood, they would have played this one outside your window. You found that hilarious when Eddie first told you, but the idea grew on you the longer the two of you were together.
Another Brick in the Wall, Pt. 1 (Pink Floyd)
This one Eddie wrote by himself, mostly as a form of therapy, when he was new to playing the guitar. He wrote it on acoustic and Jeff helped him add the electric guitar years later, after he'd finally gotten comfortable enough to open up and show it to the band. He doesn't play it often, as it's based on a part of his childhood that still feels like an open wound, and you know when you hear him playing the chords of the guitar solo he's stuck in his head and needs some affection.
Another Brick in the Wall, Pt. 2 (Pink Floyd)
The band wrote this one together about their high school experience. They got in trouble for playing it at the talent show, but they didn't care, because the extended guitar solo got a lot of praise from people who they never would have expected it from (including you and Steve). The crowd goes wild whenever this one is played, and the band are incredibly proud of it. You always say that your initial reaction to it was just a sign of what was to come for the boys.
Another Brick in the Wall, Pt. 3 (Pink Floyd)
Yet another therapy-ish one, except this one is more about how Eddie retook control of his life. It's short, so Eddie usually adds more of a guitar solo during live performances, and the crowd is always excited when he does, because he never does the same thing twice. He has pages and pages of sheet music for what he could do for this song, and sometimes he just makes it up as he goes. On the album he initially recorded this song for, the song is dedicated to the band, to you, and to Dustin.
Bad Reputation (Joan Jett & the Blackhearts)
This one went through multiple rewrites. It started out as a song for the band to sing, but it ended up being one that you took the lead on. They rewrote it a couple times to fit your voice as the lead vocalist and to have the boys be your backup. You have a lot of fun with this one, both just in singing it and playing around with Eddie on stage, because the two of you are always goofing off together when you're up there with him. You kiss him on stage, make him sing with you, dance around with him—and he does it all, because he's obsessed with you, and the fans go absolutely wild for your interactions on stage. (They even started petitioning for Corroded Coffin to include you in more music. Eddie has no problem with this.)
The Final Countdown (Europe)
This started as a joke, when they were goofing off and singing 'it's the final countdown' in a weird tune before their first tour performance after being signed with a record label. After the show, just about to pass out on the tour bus, Grant sang it again and said, "Guys, I think we can make a song out of that," so, naturally, they did. Grant wrote the guitar solo on this one first, then Gareth added the drums, and Eddie started coming up with lyrics. Some of it was nonsense, some of it wasn't, and the end result was a smash hit they brought to you for a second ear before they gave it to the record. You helped them polish it a little and were very proud when they released it as a single.
here they all are in a {spotify playlist}
☞ runtime: 1 hr 9 min
This list will be updated regularly!
Some of these might get full fics about them, let me know if you're interested in specific ones!
Taglist: {comment and let me know if you'd like to be added to the E.M. taglist!} @ohatropa @lilylilyyyyyy@spencestyles@r-royce@theshiresposts@kaitebugg03@the-chocoholic-writer@noiralei@kennedyraye@yourdailymemedelivery@squidscottjeans@cannonize@sebastianstvn@corrodedcoffn
#eddie munson#corroded coffin#gareth emerson#stranger things#rockstar!eddie munson#rockstar!eddie#eddie x reader#gareth x reader#stranger things au#corroded coffin setlist#band#eddie#eddie fanfic#corroded coffin fic#corroded coffin x reader#eddie x y/n#pre season 4#spotify#playlist#my playlist
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