#;eddie's emulators

[d0rianw1lde]

Eddie WOULD write love songs for Steve, you guys just aren’t creative enough.

“But he likes metal!” I hear you shout. I shut your lips. He likes metal, yes, but I think a lot of you are confusing the type of metal Eddie listens to with like, hardcore black metal.

Eddie Munson listens to Metallica, Motorhead, Ronnie Dio, all THREE of which have love songs in their discography. Sure, he’s not writing about how much he loves the feeling of Steve’s lips against his and how the sun hits Steve’s eyes at just the right angle or something, but he IS writing about a looming monster, imprisoning him in chains that wrap tightly around his soul like a curse. A fire-breathing demon that pulls him back from his true desires- to capture the forbidden idol from its temple and slay the monster once and for all. He IS writing about running away with precious jewels and destroying all that comes in his path.

Eddie Munson’s writing Wizard-metal love songs about Steve Harrington in a language he’ll never understand. His band loves it because it’s fantastical, it’s intense, it’s metal. Eddie likes it because it’s about the feeling of loving someone that, to his knowledge, he can never have.

You guys gotta start getting wild with it, man. Because the Eddie I know is putting it all on the line tbh.

[morgan-or-whatever]

Lonely Bea sketch

[cryptidwrestling]

...

*Preemptively preparing a safe place for all the sweet/kind/respectful LivDom shippers in case they get their hearts broken because now I REALLY do not trust them to run the Dom cheating storyline back*

[therealgarfield23]

some creepypasta material or idk

[vhvrs]

think im gonna totally redraw these l8r so uhm. first draft fusionfall eddeddy redesigns >_<

[bottombillyapologist]

Cannot verbalize it exactly no matter how hard I try but it is deeply, deeply ironic that Eddie Munson was such a hit character for 2.3 seconds and then became synonymous with ‘cringe’. Like fans in general thought he was hot and then went ‘oh he’s actually a little spastic and mean and impulsive and he doesn’t act Normal and he probably doesn’t shower and-‘ like. Did you miss the big red letters above his head spelling out ‘freak’.

We were this close to a whole new wave of people getting into metal and alternative styles and then people got bullied out of wearing hellfire club t shirts before they even came off back order.

[cloudaintfair]

What if... Eddie was jealous of Buck and Tommy's relationship because Tommy was in a relationship with Buck and he wants Tommy for himself.

They did meet first, they went to vegas on a romantic helicopter.

They kick each other senseless with Muay-Thai.

and then Buck and Tommy got together so he got jealous.

[tillman]

i miss you

[laurasoretta]

Ross Duffer posted this photo from Stranger Things' set 😱

Eddie's haircut 💔 I can't 😭😭😭

[lionofstone]

i wish i’d watched top gun before i watched 911 because i think hearing “you can have my back any day” with the full context and understanding of what they were referencing would’ve completely altered my brain chemistry

[conundrums-and-cupcakes]

Verse Headcanon: MetGoth City

Name: MetGoth City

Location: North-Eastern America

Verse: Eddie’s Emulator’s (Cyberpunk Verse)

Size: c. 2500 sq. miles (and counting)

Population: c. 50 million

Places of Interest: DailyHotPlanetWaveNews Headquarters, Eddie's Emulators Arcade, The Iceberg Lounge, Wayne-Gordon Detective Agency, LexCorp HQ, Arkham Island, The Poison Garden

They tried to market their war as “World War Three”. But despite the best efforts of the people who started it, it ended up being labeled “The Finance Wars”, and among some scholars, “The Acronym Wars”.

It all came about when many factions attempted to seize global power, and no one was willing to back down; the corporations, the secret societies, and even a few of the nations. No one will admit who started it, but we all knew who got rich off of it.

ARGUS. CADMUS. Ferris Aerospace. InterGang. Janus-ACE. Lau SIH. Leviathan. STAGG. Wayne-Powers. All reported record profits during the big money war. Munitions, chemical weapons, intelligence…not to mention the money to be made from the cleanup, and the resulting monopoly on food and medical supplies.

With large areas of the country consumed by firebombing and toxic fog, a decision was made to combine the resources of multiple cities. The area encompassing Gotham, Metropolis, Bludhaven, and some of the lesser known cities was remade into MetroGoth One, a sprawling mega-city designed to combine its resources and protect its inhabitants from the dangers of the wastelands, dubbed “The Wild Zone”.

Some have pointed out that the lower-income areas see none of the promised resources and protection, and seem to serve as little more than a secondary barrier to protect the wealthy if the inhabitants of The Wild Zone decide to make an advance on the city.

So what else is new...?

[carolperkinsexgirlfriend]

The Crash-Bang Incident - Part Two

Part One

PSA!!! Anywhere between 50-90% of this portion of the fic was written by the lovely @queenie-ofthe-void. I honestly can't tell who wrote what at this point, so let's all just clap for Queenie and call it a day!

Or: on the way to the tunnels with a concussed Steve Harrington passed out in the back seat, Max crashes into Eddie's van.

“Okay,” Eddie says, voice quivering, lips invisible behind the bandana. 

Dustin stands to the side, watching as Steve pats his shoulder consolingly, as if he’s not the one whose face looks a bit like the raw meat they’d thrown all over the train tracks to lure the Demodogs in.  

It never would’ve happened if Dustin hadn’t gotten into his car and practically forced him to help find D'Artagnan.

His gut curdles with the thought.

Or maybe he’s just hungry; it’s been hours since lunch, and he’d barely even finished the cafeteria’s gross meatloaf. His mom’s is way better.

“Hey, shithead,” Steve calls, and something smacks into his face. As it falls, Dustin clutches at it on instinct, barely stopping it from hitting the ground. “Put that on.”

It’s a bandana he must’ve found in the recesses of Billy’s trunk. He runs his fingers over it, grimacing when something crusty and brown flakes off onto the ground. He drops it, wiping his hand on his jeans.

“No, thank you,” Dustin replies curtly. “I brought my own.”

As if that was what they were waiting for, everyone starts tying on the face and eye covering’s they’d stolen from the Byers’ house. Dustin’s own is a scarf he’d found in Ms. Byers closet, and it smells nice, like the perfume she sometimes wears. Much better than Billy’s crusty old thing.

“What the fuck is that?” Eddie squeaks.

Dustin shines his light around, pointing at each of the Party members, making sure they’re all covered. He ends on that Eddie guy, who’s eyes look even more frightened behind the ill-fitting swim goggles he’d acquired from somewhere, hair sticking out every which way from beneath the band around his head.

The guy’s looking at Steve’s studded baseball bat like it’s going to grow teeth and bite him. Any relief Dustin had felt at adding another adult to their monster-hunting group has fled by the time he watches Eddie lean away as Steve swings the bat up on his shoulder, barely avoiding impaling himself on one of the protruding nails.

Dustin’s got to admit it, though; he doesn’t care what Mike says, Steve’s cool.

“You need weapons to fight monsters, Munson,” Steve replies, striding away.

Eddie stands there for a second, looking absolutely dumbfounded, before he rushes to catch up, staying so close that Steve almost trips over the guy’s foot.

Steve might be cool, but this new guy? Not so much. He might know something about D&D, but he looks like a strong breeze might tip him over, and when they find the hole into the tunnel, he stays behind Steve, peering over his shoulder like the monsters he doesn’t seem to get him might jump out at any second.

“A little space, dude?” Steve asks.

Eddie skitters back a few steps, and Steve wastes no time jumping into the hole, landing on his feet like some sort of superhero.

“So cool,” Dustin breathes, staring down at the top of Steve’s head.

“We brought rope!” Lucas calls, and when Dustin turns back, Mike’s already winding the rope around the closest stump.

“Do you want to die?” Eddie asks. He kneels down beside Mike, and slaps his hands away, ignoring his huffing as he twists the ropes into configurations Dustin’s never seen before pulling it all taught and yanking on it hard to test its ability to withstand weight. “You’ve gotta use a bowline, or it’s just gonna unravel.”

He stands, dusting the dirt from his knees while the Party stares incredulously at him.

“What?” he demands, hands on his hips in a clear emulation of Steve. “I was a boy scout.”

Dustin can’t help the way he snorts. “Looking like that?” he asks, outright laughing when the guy squawks. 

It’s just, Dustin had been in the boy scout’s before the move. His Mom had thought it’d help him make friends. It hadn’t. The kids were nice, for the most part, but no one had ever come over for sleepovers, or eaten lunch with him at school, or called his house just to talk.

Then they’d moved to Hawkins, and he’d met Will, and Mike, and Lucas, and he’d never looked back. But, he still knew the trademark looks of a boy scout, especially the ones that got into it enough to carry it into adulthood: Dorky haircuts, frumpy t-shirts, boots they can hike in, like they need to be ready to survive the wilderness at any moment. 

Eddie doesn’t have any of that. His boots look way too heavy to hike in, his jeans have too many rips just begging to be caught on low-hanging branches, and his hair’s long and wild. It even looks like he’s wearing makeup, that black stuff Nancy rubs beneath her eyes sometimes. 

No way in hell was he a boy scout. He doesn’t look like he’s been prepared for anything in his entire life. 

“What?” Eddie whines, stomping his foot like he’s just a big kid, worse than Lucas’s younger sister. “My Uncle signed me up!”

Dustin opens his mouth to reply, but then Steve calls from the hole in the ground, “hurry up, shitheads!” and they all jump, having entirely forgotten his presence. 

Mike’s the first one to grab onto the rope and shimmy down, clearly upset at himself for having gotten off task. They all watch him descend, waiting until Steve’s caught him and moved him out of the way, ignoring his grumbling outright. 

Dustin goes next. He sits and lets his feet dangle into the hole. It feels a lot higher off the ground, now, like his legs are dangling over an endless abyss. Still, everyone’s waiting for him, so he grabs onto the rope, and begins his descent. 

He flips and crawls backwards on his elbows until all of him is dangling, hands clutching at the rope hard enough that they sting, legs wrapped tightly around it, but he’s still slipping, too heavy and lacking any real upper body strength to stay afloat.

He slips.

He falls. 

Dustin barely has time to scream, shocked by his freefall before all the wind’s knocked out of him when he hits the bottom. But the bottom’s got arms and fingers, and it staggers when he hits it. 

Dustin opens his eyes and peers right up into Steve’s mostly-covered face. 

“Ow, Henderson,” Steve grumbles, but he’s clutching Dustin so tightly to his chest that Dustin can hear his heartbeat hammering where they’re pressed together. 

Dustin knows he must be heavy, but Steve takes his time setting him down. “Thanks,” he mumbles, stepping back to wait with Mike while Lucas, Max, and Eddie make their own way down, much more gracefully than Dustin had. 

Eddie’s eyes are bugged-out and wide as he looks around the tunnel. Dustin can’t blame him. It’s dark enough down here that the beams of their flashlights are eaten by the darkness long before anything is truly illuminated. 

“What now?” Eddie asks, shuffling close enough to Steve that their shoulders brush. 

But, Mike’s already strode off into the darkness with a call of, “come on!” so they have no choice but to follow. 

“Hang on, Wheeler!” Steve replies, rushing past the rest of them. Eddie tries to follow, but Steve calls, “guard the rear, Munson?” and he falls back, grumbling just loudly enough for Dustin to hear the words, “–you say, captain,” whispered snidely. 

Dustin hangs back with him, just a few steps ahead as Lucas jogs to catch up. In front, Steve finally elbows his way past Mike, and the tunnel’s narrow enough that Mike’s having trouble sliding around him. 

“What am I supposed to be looking out for?” Eddie asks him, voice hushed like he’s afraid he’ll get caught cheating on a test. 

Dustin hums, unsure of how much to say. The guy seems sort of freaked already, but he doesn’t need him to get eaten like Mews, so he replies, “Anything with too many teeth.” Thinking of Dart in pollywog form, he continues, “or no face.”

The sound of Eddie’s stomping footsteps stops for a second. Dustin keeps walking, listening intently until he hears them start back up again, quicker like he’s running to catch back up. 

“No face?” he hisses.

“Uh huh,” Dustin replies. 

“How can it have teeth and no–”

“Look, dude,” Dustin cuts off, ignoring Eddie’s huff. “You’ll know it when you see it.”

The tunnels are dark, wet, and crawling with vines. It’s bigger than he expected, like it’s made to fit something larger than Dart. Dustin wishes they could take their time, collect samples and study what looks like some sort of alien flora lining the ceiling and floor. But Steve’s yelling at them to hustle, so they hustle. 

Steve’s haggard voice eats at his guilty conscience. He wouldn’t have gotten himself wrapped up in this and gotten almost beaten to death if it wasn’t for Dustin. Now the guy looks like he could keel over at any moment. If he dies, it’ll be Dustin’s fault.

His morbid spiraling is abruptly cut short when a high-pitched scream rings through the tunnels from behind him. Dustin turns to find the new guy on the ground, face mask pulled down around his neck.  Everyone rushes over as the guy– Manson? Munston?-- falls to his knees and practically hacks up a lung, screaming between breaths. 

Steve shoves Dustin aside and kneels down next to him. He asks what’s wrong, when– oh, it’s Munson– shouts, “it’s in my mouth! It’s in my mouth! It blew all that shit in my face, and I’m gonna die, fuck Harrington, it’s all over for me, man. I’m not gonna make it!” 

Damn, and Dustin thought he was supposed to be the dramatic one.

But as Steve rubs circles into the guy’s back, Munson’s breathing evens out, and everything goes quiet again. He looks up at the group of kids standing in front of him and has the audacity to sound embarrassed when he says, “oh, actually I think I’m alright.” Dustin can’t help but groan and turn back to the Party who look just as fed up with this guy as he feels. Sure, he knows what D&D is, but he’s not a fighter, doesn’t have cool hair and a kick-ass car.

Steve helps Munson to his feet again, and he leans in close to Munson’s face as he readjusts the black bandana over his nose and mouth. Dustin thinks he hears the guy gasp, probably still struggling to breathe. But they’re wasting time, so Steve gives him a rough pat on the shoulder and ruffles Dustin’s hat on his way back to the front of the line, and they’re off again.

It’s quiet as they enter the large cavern they’ve been searching for. The stench of gasoline burns the hairs in Dustin’s nose and makes his eyes water a bit. But they get everything drenched before making their way back to the entrance they came from. Dustin pushes his way to the front just in time to catch Steve flick his lighter open and toss it. 

For a moment, back on the boarded up bus, Dustin had briefly considered how maybe smoking does make you look cooler. Because nothing had ever been cooler than Steve Harrington flicking his lighter open, and closed, not a care in the world even in the face of certain death.

His mind’s quickly changed at the stench of the Upside-Down burning, black ichor bleeding from the vines as they screech in vain. It’s a smell he’ll never forget, and as he thinks he’s going to vomit, Munson grabs the back of his collar, hauling him after the Party who’ve already taken off behind him. He’ll leave the smoking to Steve, who’s probably the only reason it even looks cool anyways.

So they run and run and run until Dustin’s wheezing for breath. He knows Steve’s an athlete, and Lucas has always been sporty, but Dustin’s never particularly excelled at gym class. 

Actually, after everything that’s happened tonight, he thinks it’s kind of insane that Steve’s still going after hunting down demodogs, walking all the way to the lab, getting the shit kicked out of him, and leading them through the tunnels, he just keeps going. Like the energizer bunny. 

Maybe if Dustin’s not going to take up smoking, he could take up running instead. Seems like it might be useful if they have to do more Upside-Down shit next year, too. But, hopefully this is it. El’s going to close the gate, and the Demogorgon and Mind Flayer can go back to being terms from D&D instead of real-life monsters out to kill them.  

Time moves weirdly in the tunnels – every patch of tunnel looks so much like the rest that time could have not been moving at all, and Dustin wouldn’t have noticed. But he’s pretty sure they’re about halfway back when Mike makes a strangled squawking noise and goes down hard.  

Everyone’s screaming, but with how closely Mike’s been following Steve, he gets to him first. Dustin doesn’t even realize what’s got him until Steve whips his bat out and strikes the ground next to Mike’s foot. The vine wrapped around his ankle whines and writhes as the nail bat hits it again, and again, and again. 

It’s quiet now, every single one of them brought to silence as the nails on Steve’s bat catch the light of all their flashlights pointing straight at him as he absolutely wails on the vine. Even Mike just sits there, staring up at Steve the same way he’d always looked at El when she’d used her powers. Dustin makes a mental note to make fun of him for it later. 

As Steve finally lets the bat thunk into the ground and stay there, propping himself up with it as he catches his breath, Munson makes this weird, high-pitched whining noise. Dustin whirls on him, ready to tear a vine off him with his bare hands, but there’s nothing there. Just Munson, staring at Steve with wide eyes, cheeks pink in the sallow light of Dustin’s flashlight beam. 

“What?” Dustin demands, moving the light up and down Munson’s body, double and triple checking for any wayward vines. “Did one get you?”

Munson shakes his head like a dog, sending his frizzy hair flying into his face. “Nothing!” he says, and then makes to stride past Dustin and continue walking.

It causes a minor traffic jam when Max and Lucas make no move to let him past, so all four of them stand there, bunched up together while they wait for Steve to help Mike up and lead the group once more. Eddie sulks his way into the back, arms crossed like he’s pouting. 

Dustin’s ready to get out of the dark, but his legs still feel wobbly from trying to climb down the rope, so he’s thankful when the group comes to an abrupt halt. Steve’s got his arms out wide, corralling everyone behind him. Dustin sees his gloved hands drift slowly towards the nail bat on his belt when he hears chittering in front of him. Peeking around Lucas’ shoulder, he spots a lone demodog crouched to spring.

“Dart?” Dustin asks, pushing his way through the crowd, eyes glued to the tell-tale yellow markings  on the creature’s back end. He thinks he hears Munson whisper “did he just call that thing Dart?” but the question’s drowned out by a chorus of too-loud shushing.

Dart flinches slightly at the noise. Dustin holds up his hands, removing his goggles and face mask even as he listens to Steve repeatedly tell him not to. The guy worries too much. So what if Dart ate Mews, it’s not like he knew any better. Plus, Mews was his mom’s cat, and Dustin’s never had his own pet before. Sue him, he misses his little buddy.

He was a total asshole, locking Dart in that dingey, disgusting cellar. Dustin can’t imagine how much it must’ve hurt his paws– claws– digging through the cement foundation. So he apologizes, over and over, until Dart relaxes. The adorable creature dips its head when Dustin remembers the candy he’s still got shoved in his pocket.

“You hungry? I’ve got our favorite, see? Nougat” Dart shakes his tail. Well, Dustin thinks he would if Dart had a tail. He wiggles his butt a bit, and that’s good enough for Dustin. So he unwraps the candy bar, slowly placing it between them for Dart to suck into his maw of razor sharp teeth. 

Steve is practically hissing through his own, less impressive, teeth at him to back up, but Dustin knows what this moment really is. He tries not to tear up, as he unwraps another bar. Dart eats it with more excitement and less hesitancy.

“Is he feeding that thing nougat?” Eddie practically screeches before being violently shushed again. “Oh, holy shit. Dart? As in D’Artagnan? As in this kid is feeding this monster a Three Musketeers bar so he named it–”

“Yes, oh my god new guy, we get it,” Mike snaps. “Pull it together.”

Without looking back, Dustin waves them to pass as Dart’s distracted. With Steve in the front again, Munson grabs him by the front of his shirt to get moving.

Dustin fixes his goggles and mask back on before solemnly wishing his little buddy farewell, and they’re headed down the tunnel again.

The trek back to the cavernous opening feels faster than their trek in, so before Dustin realizes, Steve’s already hoisting Max and Lucas up the dangling ropes. When Munson and Steve move to help Mike, a low, rumbling growl echoes from a distance. 

Fear rips through him, high on the edge of adrenaline, when Steve starts shouting. The older boys link their fingers together to boost Mike up while Lucas pulls at his arms. What was at first a low growl has erupted into a roaring stampede, the tunnels quake around them with the force of it. 

And just like in the Byers’ living room, watching Steve take hit, after hit, after hit, Dustin’s frozen in place, eyes locked on the shadows reflecting down the tunnel. As much as he wants to be like Steve, his feet won’t allow him to move, not even to save himself. 

Until he’s forcibly ripped backwards by his jacket to face them. Steve almost throws him into the air, Eddie’s hands boosting him up so fast together that he lands halfway out of the entrance while Mike and Lucas yank him to safety.

But the ground is shaking, the snarling deafening, and Dustin realizes with a gripping vice around his heart that he’ll never get the chance to learn how to style his hair with Farrah Fawcet hairspray– three pumps, damp, not wet– because Steve’s going to die down there. 

He’s going to be ripped to shreds in a hole in the ground, and it’s Dustin’s fault – he wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for him. And now the new guy too, dead, all of it Dustin’s fault.

Part Three

I know I already did a shoutout, but one more round of applause for @queenie-ofthe-void for the writing AND editing! I would be lost without you <3

[cryptidwrestling]

RE; MY SLIGHTLY INEBRIATED POST LAST NIGHT BECAUSE THIS STORYLINE HAS DECIDED TO HAVE A CHOKEHOLD ON ME TWO DECADES AFTER IT HAPPENED FOR SOME DAMN REASON

I think there's something to be said about Eddie openly wanting to tear Dom away from his family just (imo) to hurt Rey and then Dom growing up to fall in love with Liv who openly wanted him at first just to hurt Rhea.

[dreamsteddie]

Nancy knows what people think when they see her and Steve together these days. People mostly include Robin Buckley who, despite what they both say, Nancy doesn't completely believe isn't carrying some kind of torch for the man.

They aren't dating, but it's obvious to anyone who knows them that's what Nancy is angling for. She's not subtle, and she's not trying to be. Doesn't see any reason why she should be. But she knows what it looks like. Nancy Wheeler, fresh off an amicable but heartbreaking end to her relationship with Johnathan Byers has turned tail for a rebound with former boyfriend Steve Harrington. She's using him. She's leading him on. She's going to break his heart, again.

The truth is that Nancy has always liked Steve, was in love with Steve for a fleeting moment when they were both young and stupid and full of mistakes waiting to be made and in the end they had hurt each other, misunderstood each other, too many times to last through their tumultuous teenage years.

The Nancy and Steve of 1984 couldn't have loved each other right, but Nancy knows in her heart that the Nancy and Steve of 1987 could make something beautiful.

Steve is so different from who he used to be. There's a steadiness in him that he always tried to emulate but never fully embodied until the summer of 1985. He always knew how to make her laugh, how to get her to tap into that adventurous spirit within her and live life, but now he also makes her feel safe.

She wants to hold him the way he used to hold her. Wants to whisk him away to New York and build a life perfectly balanced between her ambition and his steadfastness. So she's putting everything she has into rekindling those embers that have always smoldered between them into a steady fire.

She just has to convince Robin that she's in it for the long haul this time.

------

Robin thinks that before she met Steve Harrington her life was never so much like a soap opera.

Her best friend seems to attract danger, betrayal, and romance to him like the world is full of moths and he's the only flame for miles. It would be funnier if it wasn't so god damn annoying sometimes.

Steve doesn't know it, despite how much he insists on being some kind of love expert, but he's got two very eligible bachelors vying for his hand at the moment. She's pretty sure they both see themselves as tragic heroes in this tale of romance, but from her vantage point, it's more like two ornery cats fighting for the prized spot of their owner's lap.

Nancy and Eddie have made themselves both near-permanent fixtures at the Family Video. Ostensibly, they come in because Hawkins is still in the process of rebuilding and there isn't much to do at the moment outside of wandering the woods, loitering at the convenience store, and watching movies at home. In actuality they're both trying to monopolize as much of Steve's time as possible, each trying to lock down his weekend plans before the other.

The first couple of weeks it was funny just to watch, now the only enjoyment she gets out of the whole circus is ruining their plans. She relishes the pissed-off-priss look she gets from Nancy when she asks Steve to go to the drive-in the next town over and Robin turns it into a group outing instead. It's equally funny to watch Eddie's puffed-up shoulders droop when he can't figure out a way to say no to Robin enthusiastically asking if she can join them at the trailer to smoke up on a Saturday night.

In truth, as much as she enjoys messing with them, Robin knows who she wants to win this war. She knows too much about Steve and Nancy's past and all the ways they weren't good for each other to trust her deceptively fragile best friend in Nancy's capable hands.

Eddie, on the other hand...well she's still going to make him work for it before she throws him a bone.

------

Eddie's never been one to fall in love.

He's had crushes, shared a few kisses with girls and boys alike, and lost his virginity in the same fumbling but meaningful way most teens do.

But love? He's never had that before, wasn't sure what it would even feel like.

It turns out that for Eddie, being in love feels a lot like being an overgrown house plant that's finally been moved into suitably a larger pot.

You see, Eddie knows a lot about growing up on his own. Raising himself and finding ways to survive, if not thrive, with a distinct lack of nurturing. He knows how to grow under someone, to grow under the clumsy guidance of his uncle Wayne who never intended to become a parent. And most of all he knows a hell of a lot about growing despite. Growing under the harsh boot forever trying to push him back into the hard dirt he came from.

It's something else entirely to grow with someone in the way he's been growing with Steve.

Steve who was there when he woke up, almost equally as injured as Eddie himself after a second, world saving round with Vecna. Steve who let Eddie lean on him in the difficult month of physical and emotional recovery that came next. Who helped Eddie come to terms with the new reality he was living under the way Steve wished someone had been there for him after his first encounter with the Upsidedown. Steve, who on paper should have been one of the people pushing him down, always gave Eddie the space to be himself and never tried to force either of them into a box they didn't fit.

Eddie knows he's not The Girl. He's not the one who got away, he's not the stalwart princess in one of his campaigns who saves the day herself but still gets the guy. He's not Nancy Wheeler.

But he's also not a quitter, and even if everything about the world and the narrative arc of their lives says that Steve will never end up with him, Eddie knows he would regret it for the rest of his life if he didn't put his hat in the ring for the hand of the fair Sir Steve.

------

Steve's not stupid.

He knows that there's something happening between Nancy, Eddie, and himself. Knows that if he chooses to look a little closer, to examine why exactly all his weekends are suddenly booked up and Robin has taken to stealing the Recese's Pieces off the shelf whenever either one of them comes into the store like she's settling in for a show, he would come to the conclusion that two of his best friends are essentially courting him in competition with each other.

But Steve isn't looking closer.

His mom always said that he was just like his father, too stubborn for his own good.

Robin says he's a control freak, pushing non-life-threatening problems off until he knows how to deal with them on his own terms.

The truth is Steve already knows how this will end, and he knows how this should end.

Because in the eyes of society, in the arc of the narrative, Steve and Nancy should already be making plans to move out to New York and start a life together. Steve should be looking at apartments while Nancy finalizes her class schedule. He should be looking into getting a job at his dad's New York office to support his future wife through her college education where they both know she'll breeze through her classes and move onto the world-changing career she was always meant to have, while Steve stays home with their children like a perfect little modern family.

And the thing is, if the story had gone like it was supposed to, if the world had been saved the fourth time around and Eddie Munson had died on the cold, hard ground of the Upsidown, that's probably exactly the future that would have happened and Steve would have never known to not be content with it. But Eddie did make it, and while Steve mourns the future he could have had, he knows it's not the one he's going to choose in the end.

Even though Steve knows exactly what will happen when he allows himself to face the ever-mounting tension between the three of them, it's scary to take that plunge.

Everything about Steve's world up until Robin has told him that what he's going to choose will damn him forever, and even if he's never put much stock into God and the church, he knows that the future in front of them will never be easy. There's a part of him that wants to take the easy way out. He's never been attracted to a man before Eddie, never had to imagine himself loving someone discreetly, and the thought of it makes his heart hurt prematurely. It would be simpler, he knows, to choose the path most taken.

But Steve has always thought more with his heart than his brain, and he knows that after everything they've been through, after all the time they've spent healing together and growing as one that he could never choose anyone but Eddie.

The time is coming for him to make his final decision, he can feel it, but for now he'll let them sit in this liminal space a little longer.

[fastcardotmp3]

600 words; post 8x17; they're back in the same house as if it's my fault....

Pepa has gone home and the dishes are done and Eddie is in the shower and Buck is alone with Christopher for the first time in a year and all he can think about is Eddie on the verge of cracking as he lamented the fact that his son has lost yet another person he loves when he's barely a teenager and--

"I'm sorry. That I didn't check in on you properly."

"You checked in," Christopher screws up his face, the same old way he always has when Buck says something he can't register as true.

"Not-- enough," Buck clears his throat. This kid takes up more space on the couch than he used to. Is this couch smaller than the blue one shipped off to Texas? Has Chris gotten that much bigger? "I'm sorry. I know you loved Bobby just as much as the rest of us, and there's no excuse I-- I promised I'd always be there for-- you."

Christopher looks at him. Christopher looks at him and there is a painful amount of Eddie in that gaze, the way it studies, the way it surveys a person and logs-- logs, just-- Buck doesn't even know what, but he knows when Eddie does it, he always finds himself devastatingly seen on the other end.

And Christopher is doing it. Looking at him like that. Surveying.

"It's okay, Buck," he says, like a little boy overlooking a drawn-back sea. "I get it."

"You get...?" It's Buck's turn to be confused, trying his damnedest to control the stinging at the backs of his eyes as he meets Christopher's gaze.

"I loved Bobby a lot," Chris explains deftly. "He was-- really important. To Dad and me. And he, um, helped us a lot. I remember he brought so much food to Mom's funeral that we had to give some to--"

"You gave some to me, yeah," Buck laughs wetly and lowly and Chris smiles this melancholy little quirk of the lips.

"Yeah," he agrees. "And the more I, like, look at it all? It's super obvious how much he did for us even though I didn't always get it when I was little. But it's still different."

"Different from what?"

"Different from you and Bobby," Chris shrugs. "He was family to me, but it's like. Like, for you it's different. For you it's like if I lost you, y'know?"

Y'know. Said so casually and so certainly.

Like if I lost you.

Like if I lost you, he says, in comparison to the man Buck took into his heart as a stable and consistent presence. A man to look up to, to emulate, to steal little bits and pieces from until Buck himself felt whole.

Like if I lost you, Christopher says, and Buck doesn't have any words to respond to that, only a swelling of feeling he's been holding so tightly against his chest that he couldn't even move when Eddie got up in his face less than twenty-four hours ago.

Buck couldn't move when Eddie told him about the night he spent grappling with it all alone in the dark, couldn't create follow-through from the desire in his heart to reach out and grab on, because his hands were numb and stagnant and stuck.

Now, something knocks loose.

Buck tips forward.

He drags Christopher into his arms and tucks his head under his chin and holds on tight through Christopher's quiet little laugh of surprise at the expression.

His voice is rough when he knocks that loose too.

"God, I missed you, kid."

And as a door clicks open down the hall, as steam chases damp hair and a curious, bright-eyed man into the archway overlooking the scene on the couch, mouthing okay? to Buck's quiet nod of acknowledgment, Christopher embraces him back.

"Missed you too, Buck."

[hot-patootiee]

Pre-Steddie + Stobin+ origin story of Steve ‘the Hair’ Harrington

Steve didn’t really care about his hair before high school. It was his first day and he saw a guy smoking with a bush of curls brushing his shoulders. Steve stared, looking at how soft and beautiful his hair was. Steve immediately fell in love with this guy’s hair. He was subsequently inspired and started emulating this cool sophomore by putting more time and effort into his hair.

He tried to make it look soft like that guy’s but he didn’t have the curls for it, so he tried his best.

As he gained popularity he expected that sophomore, Eddie, to notice him and maybe they could be friends.

Steve was devastated to realize once he was crowned King Steve, he had no chance of becoming friends with Eddie. Apparently, he was the town pariah and would turn his nose up at Steve if he tried to talk to him.

Enter Dustin, four years too late, dragging the two of them together. Steve still felt that bit of fledgling excitement he felt as a freshman in his chest at the thought of being close to Eddie.

Excitement… no it was a crush, Robin bluntly points out to Steve as he explains his one-sided history with Eddie.

Oh.