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ladykailitha · 7 months ago

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All the Way Home I'll Be Warm

Hello and welcome to my Christmas AUvent Calendar! Every day from now until the 24th I will be posting a ficlet that is 500-1500 from an AU I've done over the years.

All stories will be marked with the tag #12 aus of christmas so you can follow along as I will only be tagging my permanent list for this (it would get too confusing otherwise).

The next one on our list is: The Harrington Pattern. You can read the story here. All links will be to the first chapter, but the chapter itself will have links to the rest of the story.

Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5

Christmas time in Hawkins was always a treat. They set up a Christmas village on the Fair Grounds, complete with Santa and his reindeer, shops, and food stalls that sold everything from traditional European treats, to hot chocolate and spiced apple cider, to cinnamon covered almonds and pecans, to full on turkey legs.

The air was filled with so many scents of Christmas and Steve couldn’t be happier. Katie had told him that she had a hard time keeping his bags in stock and would call once a month for more. She knew that it would keep him from the bigger things like shirts and tunics, but getting his name out there was important too.

She was the one who convinced him to open his own stall at the Christmas village as she always took December and January off.

So here he was freezing his buns off in the cold to see if anyone would buy the gloves, scarves, and hats he was selling. Some of the scarves and all of the hats were crocheted by Eddie, Karen getting him excited about it so that he could join the sewing circle too.

At first the Corroded Coffin boys protested the lost of some of their practice time on Sundays, but once Eddie started bringing him the fruits of his labor, all complaints turned into requests. Requests Eddie happily took.

The ladies took one look at the two of them Eddie’s first time at the meetup and immediately clocked them as a couple.

They were still pretending they didn’t know.

Just as Steve was sure his balls were going to just drop off from the cold, Eddie came bounding up to their little table with two large styroform cups filled with hot chocolate.

“How goes the sales?” Eddie asked, snuggling up close to Steve. “I traded one of my scarves for the hot chocolate, by the way.”

Steve nodded. It was something the sellers did around here apparently. Instead of taking money they would trade goods for equal value.

“It bought enough warm drinks to last this frozen hell until we close up, anyway,” he huffed, his breath clouding between them. He rubbed his hands together as he tried to get them to warm all the way and not just where they touched the cups.

Steve shook his head. “You ridiculous man.” He pulled up his bag that he used to cart around his supplies and pulled out a pair of mostly finished black leather gloves lined with fleece. “Wear those for now so Jeff doesn’t come after me if you lose your fingers.”

Eddie blushed, pulling on the warm gloves over his hands. He looked at what they had left and it wasn’t much, but while Eddie only had two more crocheted hats and a scarf, Steve had three hats, two pairs of gloves, and six scarves left.

“Why isn’t your stuff selling?” he asked, looking around at the other stalls. Even the hot drink girls preferred Eddie’s scarf to one of Steve’s nicer hats or even a pair of his gloves.

Steve shrugged, picking at the lip of his cup with his thumbnail. “I thought more people would be interested. Katie was for sure that I would sell out of everything the first day, too.”

Eddie looked at his misshapen objects that could barely be called scarves and hats and cocked his head to the side. “Maybe they think yours aren’t homemade like mine obviously are.”

Steve shrugged again. “Maybe I’ll do better tomorrow.” The unspoken ‘because yours won’t be there to be compared to’ lingering in the air.

Which was the last thing Eddie had wanted to do when he joined the sewing circle. He was just looking for a way to share more time with Steve. To give his hands something to do while Steve sewed. Most of his small things were still hand-stitched and every piece was more beautiful that the last. He looked down at the black leather gloves on his hands and suddenly got an idea.

He grabbed one of Steve’s hats and one of the scarves and put them on, Steve watching him with a frown. Then he dug around in his backpack and found a couple of markers. Cackling with glee he kissed Steve on the cheek and told him he’d be right back.

Steve stared blankly at his boyfriend’s retreating form. But before he could grouse about wanting to be coddled by his boyfriend, the menace was back. In his hands was a big sign that “Harrington’s Handcrafted Goods”. Which was strange enough considering that was what the sign above his booth said, but he wasn’t even standing in front of the booth.

But then he realized what was happening.

Eddie was going up and down the area they were in shouting about Steve’s booth. People were stopping by and Eddie was showing them his gloves and the craftsmanship.

Then like a Christmas miracle, Steve’s booth was flooded with buyers. For those that couldn’t find something they wanted, they made orders. And within an hour of Eddie’s antics, Steve was forced to close the booth because everything had sold out.

As Steve packed up their booth and put his stuff away, he murmured, “You didn’t have to do that...” He looked up at Eddie, “But thank you!”

Eddie wrapped him up in his arms. “Of course I did, Stevie. Because today was supposed to be all about you and your talent with a side of fun stuff from me. Only it didn’t turn out that way, so I had to fix it. You deserve the world, baby and I intend on giving it to you.”

Steve sunk further into Eddie’s embrace. “I’m going to need those gloves back so I can finish them.”

“Of course,” Eddie murmured. “They’re beautiful.”

“Good, ‘cause they’re your Christmas present.”

Eddie pulled Steve back enough to look him in the eye. “You are a such a sneak. Because I know you’re making something else, too. You don’t have to go all out for me. Your love is enough.”

Steve kissed him gently on the lips. “If I deserve the world, then you deserve the stars. Merry Christmas, sunshine.”

“Merry Christmas.”

They started walking to Steve’s car. “So you gonna to tell me something you got me?” Steve asked bumping their shoulders together.

“Nope!” Eddie said, popping the P.

“Not even a hint?”

“No!”

As Steve continued to tease Eddie about the present all the way home, he knew he was the luckiest man in the world. Because he had Eddie.

Day 7 Day 8 Day 9 Day 10 Day 11 Day 12

Tag List: CLOSED

1- @itsall-taken @redfreckledwolf @zerokrox-blog @sadisticaltarts @dolphincliffs

2- @gregre369 @a-little-unsteddie @chaosgremlinmunson @cryptid-system @kultiras

3- @maya-custodios-dionach @goodolefashionedloverboi @val-from-lawrence @carlyv @wonderland-girl143-blog

4- @bookbinderbitch @bookworm0690 @forgottenkanji @dreamercec @blondie1006

5- @yikes-a-bee @awkwardgravity1 @genderless-spoon @fearieshadow @thesecondfate

6- @dragonmama76 @ellietheasexylibrarian @thedragonsaunt @useless-nb-bisexual @disrespectedgoatman

7- @counting-dollars-counting-stars @tinyplanet95 @ravenfrog @swimmingbirdrunningrock @lingeringmirth

8- @gutterflower77 @a-lovely-craziness @just-a-tiny-void @w1ll0wtr33 @beelze-the-bubkiss

#my writing #stranger things #steddie #asks #ladykailitha writes #the 12 aus of christmas

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