Steddie Upside-Down AU Part 87
Part 1 Part 86
Mom’s hovering in front of the door, a knife in her hand, trying to get the rest of them to get away from the window. It’s not working. If anything, Max’s nose only presses more firmly to the glass with every request she makes.
Will’s hovering just behind her, desperate to keep Steve and Eddie in his line of sight. He can just barely see the wisp of a curl through the side window of the van, bouncing as Eddie moves around inside.
He squints, trying to keep the hair in sight as the movement becomes more erratic.
Will hears glass breaking just as he loses sight of Eddie entirely, wisps and all.
He rushes past his Mom, using the weight of his body to open the door, even as she stands in the way. It’s almost involuntary, a compulsion to follow the thread that Eddie’d pulled him by.
“Will, don’t!” she cries, but it’s too late. He’s out, and through.
Mike calls after him, too, and there’s the sound of tennis shoes stampeding out of the house behind him. Will only hopes he’s not leading them all to their impending doom.
Bodies slump into the driveway, none of them human. They’re like if the Demogorgon had followed a different evolutionary chain. Dustin would find it fascinating. Will just wants Eddie and Steve back.
Wayne’s still standing sentry, looking out across the street, waiting for more monsters to creep in from the darkness, Barbara by his side.
Shielding the entrance to the van, is El.
“El!” It’s Mike, because it always is. He sounds so genuinely elated that something curdles and dies in his throat. He swallows it down, hopes it decomposes in his stomach, so he never has to look directly at it. “You came!”
El smiles, happily at Mike, then around to all of them. “Of course.” She looks over at Max, and she’s frowning now, that way she does when she doesn’t understand something. It used to happen all the time. Now, it’s rare.
Will doesn’t care, can’t when Eddie’s too quiet in the van somewhere Will can’t see. He pushes past her, too.
There’s a misshapen, monstrous foot sticking out of the broken window. He stares at it for a second before swinging the door open. It wrenches the foot strangely, makes it crack and tear with the resistance of the door before it breaks free, black blood flowing like the thing’s still alive.
It stays still.
Will looks past it, and finds Eddie’s pale face.
There’s glass in his hair, and his palms are bleeding where they’re held in front of him, but he’s breathing. Alive. And he’s looking up at El like she’s answered all his prayers. Will and Eddie have been sharing the same prayers from the same broken pews for so long that for a second, Will thinks Steve is back.
He scrambles over the dead thing blocking his entrance. It’s cold against his palms, flesh barely giving as he crawls hand over feet atop it. But, Steve’s still just sitting there, blinking, Carol huddled into his side like he can protect her, even like this.
“Steve needs your help,” Eddie says, plaintive. Begging with both voice and unblinking eyes, gaze locked on El’s own until she breaks it to look at where Steve still sits, unbothered.
Her brow furrows, eyes squinting like she’s peeling off layers of skin and meat to get to whatever’s underneath. “He’s lost?” she asks.
Carol is squinting at El like the words aren’t clicking for her. She looks back to Steve, then back to El, brow furrowing with anger.
Eddie nods. Will clears his throat. “Not like last time,” he clarifies. “He’s here, but his mind isn’t.”
El nods, decisive. “I will help.”
“What the hell are you all talking about!” Carol demands, even as people scatter around her, setting up for El’s latest rescue mission. “He’s right there!”
She’s not looking at Will, though. She’s looking at Eddie like it’s all his fault. Still, when Steve doesn’t say anything, her lip wobbles as she turns and asks, “right Steve?”
He doesn’t answer, even as she calls again. Will looks away when she bites her lips, eyes wide.
It’s easier this time. They don’t have to break into the school, don’t have to find a pool. El just sits cross-legged in front of Steve on the carpet, careful to stay away from the broken glass and the dead thing. Mike covers her eyes with Wayne’s flannel while the man himself switches the radio dial until he finds one with enough white noise to satisfy.
He can’t quite tune out the murmured conversation between Eddie and Carol, though, no matter how hard he tries. Eddie explains, in clipped, emotionless words, that something, one of the monsters from the other place she’d just gotten a taste of, has taken over Steve.
“But we’re getting him back?” she asks, voice shrill and breaking, contrasting with Eddie’s own even tone. A veteran to the newbie in the warzone.
Will, suddenly, feels terribly old.
“Quiet now,” El demands.
Eddie looks away from Carol without answering. There is no answer to that question when they’re all subsisting off hope, and not much else.
“Tell him we’re coming, okay?” Eddie asks. He’s looking down at his own bloody palms now, like he can’t bear to look at their last bastion of hope and wait for it to flame and go out.
“Ask ‘im how to stop the thing taking ‘im over,” Wayne interjects.
Eddie’s lip wobbles. Will knows how he feels. He doesn’t want Steve to know, if he’s in there at all, that they don’t know what to do. Neither does Will. He wants to save Steve. He always wants to save Steve.
But, Eddie finally looks up, meeting Will’s eyes before nodding. The movement knocks a tear free, but his voice sounds clear when he says, “Ask him how we kill the fucker.”
El nods, shoulders settling as she reaches out to take Steve’s hand. The white noise blankets them all. Will settles down to wait.
That’s what they always do, when Steve is dying: they wait. This time is no different.
Part 88
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I have now read two (2) fics where Kakashi marries Zabuza through old clan traditions involving fighting as a proposal, and now I'm just thinking about kisaita again.
Non massacre au, to start with.
Itachi is so stressed out with his clan. Under no circumstances does he want to marry any of the women the elders are trying to set him up with. He's taking constant missions to avoid being home but as more time passes he gets more and more pressure trying to keep him in the village.
Kisame meanwhile, after a wHile of missingnining it up, is having a very not good time. With the unstable political situation in kiri the hunter nin have been going hard trying to get the legendary swords back, and he's tired. He misses village life. He doesn't want to do this anymore.
Enter itachi. They cross paths while he's on a mission, end up fighting together, and then itachi and kisame get drunk together (as one does). They commiserate about their personal struggles of the moment and then itachi's like wait—
I see two birds between us. I have one stone. 1+1-1x=0, the solution equals you should marry me, right here right now.
And kisame like the fuck do you mean?
And itachi is like yada yada yada, ancient clan traditions still valid in the leaf due to respect for historic clans, blah blah blah: simple set of seals, spar, bang, become legally married. You get citizenship and I don't have to marry a woman.
And kisame's like fuck it, ok.
And so itachi pulls up with a new giant blue husband and his clan elders are pissed.
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Angstpril 2023 Day 1 Prompt: Liar
tw: character having trouble breathing, open ending
Obi-Wan knew, from the moment that he agreed to take on this mission, that it would be difficult.
Faking his death, having to pretend to be someone he wasn't for the sake of his own survival, having to interact with the likes of Cad Bane and Count Dooku himself without getting his cover blown…
Well, he knew from the beginning that it would not be easy.
But none of that was as difficult as it was to return.
The transformation from Rako Hardeen back to his own body was uncomfortable — painful, leaving him shaky and somewhat feverish. The vocal emulator wreaked damage to his vocal chords, and Master Che had confirmed that there was likely some infection in his throat that she'd like to monitor over the coming days.
Which obviously meant that he was stuck in the Halls for now. It wasn't ideal, but considering the fact that he couldn't keep down most foods because of his throat and his entire body ached any time he tried to move at all, he supposed it made sense.
Obi-Wan didn't exactly like it, but even that wasn't the worst part.
Anakin wouldn't speak to him. On the ship when they were returning from Naboo, he'd maintained his distance, and once Obi-Wan had gotten his commlink back, he'd sent Anakin messages frequently, only to receive nothing.
Obi-Wan knew that the deception had upset Anakin. He understood why — more than most, he understood.
But he had hoped that Anakin would also understand why he did it.
"You lied to us," Anakin had said, when Obi-Wan had approached him on the ship. "What else have you lied to me about? Do you even care about any of us?"
Obi-Wan had no response to that — how could he, when he knew that Anakin was right? He did lie to them, after all.
And now he was here, alone, because he did what he knew to be right. Anakin wouldn't speak to him, Ahsoka wouldn't speak to him, Cody wouldn't speak to him, the Council wouldn't speak to him.
He'd succeeded on his mission, and yet —
He'd failed them all.
Letting out a sigh, Obi-Wan placed his commlink back on the table next to the bed. He winced as his throat spasmed at the rush of air, and then he coughed, bending forward slightly to gasp for air.
That seemed to trigger a chain reaction of sorts. The more he gasped for air, the more it irritated his throat, causing him to gasp even more. And the air wasn't even traveling down his throat properly, which meant that —
He couldn't breathe.
He couldn't breathe.
The room seemed to tilt on its axis around him as he shuddered and gasped and placed his forehead on his knees. There was a ringing noise, muffled by the blood rushing in his ears, followed by the sound of footsteps. Voices surrounded him, but he couldn't make them out, not until —
"Obi-Wan?" A hand on his shoulder, pushing him back until he was lying back again, head arching backward in a desperate reach for air. He couldn't speak, couldn't breathe, couldn't —
"Okay, okay, just hold on." The voice was gentle, soothing. "Your throat has swollen up too much. You're not getting enough air."
There were hands holding him down, the hiss of a hypospray, followed by the feeling of everything getting floaty and blurry, until…
His eyes snapped shut, and the memory of his lies that constantly plagued him faded away.
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