#I’m just about to go into st4 finale | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

xoxoavenger · 9 months

Text

Make It Out

pairing: Steve Harrington x Fem!Reader, bestfriend!Eddie Munson x Fem!Reader

summary: They’re gonna take down Vecna this time. But before they do, Y/N has to chose between going with her best friend Eddie or her boyfriend Steve, and she has to live with the fact that not all of them will make it out alive.

word count: 7956

warnings: follows the events of ST4 finale so major character death and canon typical injuries, gun shot wound, lotsa blood, lotsa angst with some fluff

masterlist

"I'll understand if you want to go with Eddie." Steve said, keeping his gaze on the road in a way that meant he 100% wanted her to stay with him.

"How're your bites?" Y/N asked, casually deflecting the conversation. He had finally been able to put on a shirt and get some shoes, but Y/N knew that there was still a lot of blood underneath. Blood she had wanted to clean, to take care of his wounds, but there just hadn't been time.

Also, Steve hadn't allowed her to even look at them.

"Oh, just great. Ya know, I wanted to lose weight anyway." Steve joked, but Y/N didn't think it was funny that the demobats had literally ate at his flesh.

"We should go to the hospital." She said for the billionth time. She'd been trying to get Steve to go to the hospital ever since they got back.

"Y/N," Steve sighed and didn't finish his sentence, lifting one of his hands off the wheel to rub his forehead. He didn't have time to go to the hospital. Max was going to die, and if Max died then a lot of other people were also going to die and Steve wasn't going to waste precious time sitting in the ER for a couple stitches.

"I'm serious, Steve!" She lowered her voice as Eddie and Dustin looked up, realizing the couple was fighting. "I know you want to be the hero, but for once, can you please look after yourself?" She begged, sadness lacing her words as her throat constricted at all the memories of Steve being beat up. The newest one, the image of Steve being feasted on by bats, made her heart hurt every time she closed her eyes - it was as if the scene were painted onto her eyelids.

"Is that why you won't go with Eddie?" Steve asked, and Y/N let the silence draw out as her answer.

She would never admit that she wanted to go with Steve to stop him from sacrificing himself, but in that moment he knew that's exactly what she was thinking. Robin and Nancy were good friends, but Y/N was the only one who could stop him from giving his life on a whim - which scared him, because Steve, if he was honest, was the hero type. He took the beatings to keep his friends safe. From the moment that he was thrown into this mess, he knew that he would do anything to protect his friends from these creatures that just would not stop.

Unless, of course, Y/N was there with him. That may make him hesitate - or it may make him more reckless. It would throw off his game, make him second guess moves just to keep her extra safe, because if she died and he didn't he would never forgive himself.

However, he knew of one other person who felt the same way about Y/N - just without the romantic part. Steve knew that her idiot best friend, Eddie Munson, would protect her and Dustin, no matter what the 'freak' claimed. And when it came to Y/N, Steve was selfish. He needed her safe.

"You're going with Eddie." Steve repeated, but this time, it wasn't a suggestion or a question. It was final. And although just a minute ago he wanted her to go with him, they had both realized that she would see right through him if he was going to sacrifice himself.

"Uh, no." Y/N scoffed, not realizing she was getting louder. "I will go with whoever I chose." She crossed her arms, fire filling her head. How dare Steve think he could make that choice for her.

"You're going with Eddie or you're babysitting Erica. Those are your two options." Steve said as he pulled over in a field.

"Hey!" Erica yelled from the back, only hearing the last part of their conversation. At this point, everyone was shamelessly listening.

"You are not my keeper, Steve." Y/N was practically seething at this point. She was angry that Steve didn't want her to tag along, especially if it was the end of the world. She stood up, knowing that if she stayed in the van any longer she would probably begin to cry tears of frustration, and that was the last thing she wanted.

"Y/N!" Steve called as she opened the door and walked out, glad that she was able to make it a couple steps before the tears started really falling. They weren't all the way up the hill, so she trudged the rest of the way to sit at the top with her back facing the van. They could leave and she would only be able to turn and watch.

She sat there for awhile, letting her tears flow. Part of her liked this, being alone, but part of her wanted to be with Steve. Chances were, someone is gonna die, and even in the unlikely event no one does, they could still fail and the world could end. She heard footsteps, and she wiped her tears, not knowing who was coming up on her.

"Y/N," At Max's voice, Y/N instantly felt regret creep up her spine. Here she was, crying on a hill, when Max had one foot in the grave. "Can I sit here?" Max stood next to her, and she nodded, watching the younger girl take a seat.

"How're you holding up?" Y/N asked, trying to keep her voice from cracking.

"As good as you can expect when an evil demon is trying to take over your brain and kill you." Max shrugged with a light smile, and Y/N's heart tugged. Max was so young, she didn't deserve this.

"So, great, I'd imagine." Y/N joked, smiling when Max let out a small chuckle.

"Listen, I-I didn't want to say anything in the van, but," Max began picking the grass, not looking at Y/N. "I want you to come with Lucas and I to the house." Max finally looked up, and Y/N's heart completely broke. She looked scared out of her mind, and Y/N swore that if she somehow ever found Vecna herself, he wouldn't be making it much longer than a couple minutes.

"Max," Y/N wanted to reach out, but with Max's arms around her knees it was hard to figure out a good place.

"Steve didn't send me to ask, if that's what you're thinking." Max quickly rushed out, and Y/N gave a sad smile. Steve wouldn't send anyone to talk to her for him, he'd do it himself. "I just, I want someone there, who knows what they're doing." Max looked up at Y/N, who had furrowed brows. Why did Max think Y/N knew what she was doing?

"I'm not sure I follow," Y/N led off, voicing her thoughts.

"Well, you can drive us to the house, which will help. And Lucas is great, and I want him there still. But I need someone else there, someone to comfort me when I come out, someone who will stay calm." Max looked away before taking a deep breath. "And if I don't make it, I want someone there to comfort Lucas - not just his sister."

"Max," This time, Y/N felt dread as well as sadness flood through her. She remembered what it was like to be Max's age - she had a huge crush on Steve, but she obviously couldn't tell her best friend Eddie, who would have never approved at the time. Eddie wouldn't find out about her crush until three years later, when she let it slip that she had made out with Steve at Melissa's party. And even though Eddie didn't approve and he wasn't pleased, he let Y/N and Steve have their fun, ready to pick up the pieces if it ever failed.

There were some nights when Eddie was sure they were over, some nights when he thought about going to Steve's house and smashing a glass over his head to try and make him understand that Y/N wasn't the kind of girl you played with. But nevertheless, Y/N and Steve were still together, her and Eddie were still best friends, and Eddie had never hurt Steve (even if he had thought about it multiple times).

But that was the biggest thing she had to deal with. And now - now the biggest thing should have been college. She should be across the country right now at a nice university. But she couldn't leave Steve and Eddie, especially after they found out what was going on in Hawkins.

"Of course I will be there for you." Y/N scooted closer and put a comforting hand on Max's shoulder. "I will be there for you every time you ask me, whether it's something like this or if it's because you can't find a tampon and you don't want to bike to the store." She smiled when Max grinned, looking up and leaning closer. "Hell, after all this, you can move in with Steve and I." Y/N felt her hurt burst at Max's face.

"Really?" Max asked, half joking and half being serious.

"Yeah, totally." Y/N turned, finally looking at the group. Most of them were behind the van, obscured from view, but Steve was on the edge of everything, arms crossed and body faced so that he could keep an eye on Y/N and Max as well as the rest of the group. Y/N felt her heart float as she looked at the man, letting her hand drop as Max turned.

"What do you think Steve will say?" Max asked, a small smile on her face as she thought about living with the people who had filled in for her in the way her family never had.

"Oh, he'll agree." Y/N nodded, watching Steve turn and look at them even if he couldn't hear them. "We just need to convince him."

"I'm a little mad you're not coming with me." Eddie said, all geared up. They were about to leave, just saying their final goodbyes.

"If I went into the Upside Down, how could Steve be the hero?" Y/N joked, trying to take the edge off of their somber goodbye.

"Yeah," Eddie chuckled, looking around as Lucas and Max said their goodbyes. "I guess I'll just have to play the hero. For Dustin, of course." He smiled, and Y/N tried to smile too. It was watery, and tears were quickly spilling out of her eyes, even though she wasn't blinking.

"Please don't try and be a hero, Eddie." Y/N whispered, looking up at her best friend. He sighed as he met her gaze, tears in his eyes that he would never shed. She knew she was being selfish, but she didn't care in that moment. If Eddie or Steve died while she was sitting around, she would never be able to forgive herself.

"Come on, Y/N. I've been running from things since 1966. Do you really think I'm gonna stop now?" He put his arm around her and pulled her into a hug, where she cried into his shoulder. "Besides, someone's gotta keep your boyfriend safe while he's doing the heroic shit." Y/N let out a little laugh, mostly just to make Eddie feel better. Her stomach was torn with sadness and dread, and she wanted to go back to a couple days ago when her, Eddie, and Steve had all gotten high. They weren't worrying about crazy demons then, and she didn't want to worry about crazy demons now. She wanted to go home.

"Promise me you'll come back." Y/N whispered, pulling away from the hug to look at him.

"Of course," Eddie squeezed her once more before looking over at Steve, who was staring at Y/N. "I think you should probably say goodbye to your boyfriend now." Y/N let go of Eddie and turned to see Steve, who gave her a small smile. Just the thought of losing Steve, of having to say goodbye to him, made Y/N cry even harder.

Steve must've seen when she thought about it, about the fact that they were really saying goodbye, and instantly rushed over to her, pulling her into his arms. He held her tightly, squeezing his own eyes shut in an attempt to stop the tears.

"It's not really a goodbye," He whispered to her, pressing a kiss to the side of her head so that he didn't have to remove her from his arms at all. "I'll see you in a couple hours." He sounded so sure, so calm, that it made Y/N breathe better.

"You better." She muttered out, pulling back only enough to be able to look at him.

"I'll even be able to hear you, in the Upside Down. I'll be keeping an eye out for you." He moved one hand to cup her face, the other staying put around her waist. She moved both of her hands to the sides of his neck, eyes welling with tears once more.

"But who's going to look out for you?" She whispered this part, speaking softly so that Nancy and Robin didn't hear. It's not like she didn't trust them to take care of Steve, but she knew that Steve would sneak himself to be in harms way before either of them even knew he was in danger. And by the time they figured it out, Steve could already be dead.

"I'm going to be fine, sweetheart." Steve was starting to choke up, so his voice was soft and high pitched as he moved the hand on her face to push her hair back. "Do you hear me? I'm going to come back to you." He didn't let her respond, instead kissing her like he would never see her again.

Because maybe it was the last kiss he would have, the last one he would share with her.

"I'm coming back." He whispered as he pulled apart. He knew his face was wet from her tears, because his tears were trapped. He wouldn't let her see him cry.

So, he gave her one more kiss, one last squeeze, one last 'I love you,' and then watched her turn around. She was taking his car to drive Lucas, Erica and Max to the mansion, and as she pulled out Steve wanted to tell her to stop, to go home so that she was safe.

She would never listen anyway.

Out of all the bad ideas they'd ever had, this was probably the worst. But, it was the only way to stop Vecna, the only way to save Hawkins - because apparently that fell on them now.

Y/N had heard the car pull up, and she immediately looked out the window. Erica was no longer at the lookout, and she realized quickly that it was Jason Carver's car.

Fuck.

"Lucas, you stay here, okay?" Y/N said, rushing to the door. It was too late, however, because Jason was walking in anyway.

"Jason?" Lucas asked, obviously confused as to why his teammate was stalking him.

"Leave. Right now." Y/N stood in front of Lucas, making it so that if Jason wanted to get past her he would have to physically harm her.

"Well, if it isn't King Steve's little pet." Jason spat out, trying to get into Y/N's head. She simply crossed her arms, still staring at the blonde man. "Or has the freak possessed you now?" That made Y/N pissed. The fact that Eddie was risking his life for a town that would never respect him made her blood boil.

"Jason, I would rather be actually possessed than spend another second in your presence." Y/N tilted her head, taking a deep breath and knowing this wouldn't end well. "So, you can either leave, or you can feel what it's like to be punched by a girl." Her smile was deadly, but as Jason glanced over her shoulder at Max, he had made up his mind.

"I'm not letting you freaks kill someone else." Jason began to move past her, so Y/N swung the best she could at his face, catching him off guard.

Not too off guard, however, because it only took a second for him to recover and pull out a gun.

"Hey!" Lucas yelled as Y/N lifted her hands, backing up. She looked over at Max, who was still in a trance, and then back at Jason, who was unwavering.

"Jason," Y/N muttered, her legs feeling numb from shock. Her heart was pounding.

"Wait, wait, wait," Lucas whispered under his breath before getting louder. "You don't have to do this. You don't have to do this, man." They were now side by side, hands up and keeping an eye on the gun.

"Yeah, I hope you're right." Jason told them.

"Wait," Y/N spoke out of breath, heart racing. She thought about if Steve could hear what was going on, if he was in the house. She hoped he wasn't, that he wouldn't hear if she was shot.

"Is there anyone else in the house?" Jason asked, stepping forward.

"No, no." Lucas shook his head in tandem with Y/N, who was afraid she was going to pass out from stress at this point.

"Turn around." Jason motioned with the gun, and Y/N shut her eyes tightly.

"What?" Lucas muttered, setting Jason off.

"Turn around!" He yelled, and Y/N quickly did as he said, eyes still closed.

"Okay, okay. Relax, relax." It was obvious that Lucas was just as stressed as Y/N was, and he turned around slowly.

"And put down your flashlight." Jason ordered loudly. Y/N did as she was told, tears beginning to fall out of her eyes.

"Steve, I don't know if you can hear me, or if you're here," Y/N started off. She had never been this afraid for her life - of all the things going on in Hawkins, all the messed up supernatural shit, she was going to be killed by a teenager with a gun. "But, if you are, I want you to know I love you." She was whispering, hoping Jason couldn't hear her.

"Stop muttering and empty your pockets!" Jason yelled, and Y/N reached into her empty ones, turning them inside out to show they weren't full. Random shit fell out of Lucas', and when Y/N spared a glance at him she saw he was shaking. "Now, here's what's gonna happen. I'm gonna back away to the top of the stairs there. Then I'll watch as you wake her up from whatever the hell this is." Jason ordered, and Y/N just shook her head.

"We can't." She said, trying to keep her voice from shaking or breaking. Lucas turned around to face Jason, and Y/N risked the same.

"Jason, if we wake her too soon, we all die." Lucas was speaking as if Jason was a child, but the blonde still wasn't understanding. The gun was still pointed toward them, and they were still without a plan.

"No. If you don't wake her up right now, you die, Sinclair." Jason threatened, his gun solely on Lucas now. Jason pulled the safety off, and Y/N felt her heart leap to her throat.

That's when the stupid idea popped into her head. And boy, was it stupid.

"I'm sorry, Steve." She whispered, just in case he was there. Because if she made it through this, if Steve heard what she was about to do, she would be waking up with his nightmares for awhile.

And then she dove at Jason.

She had crouched down a bit, so his first shot went over her head. However, she wasn't as close as she needed to be, and his second shot skimmed the far side of her left leg. She groaned, but still went to hit him, able to knock the gun out of his hand. Jason took the time to hit her, not holding back. His punch hit right on her cheekbone and temple, and she felt herself already begin to be dizzy. One hit wasn't enough, however, because he hit her again, in the same spot, and that knocked her out cold.

When she woke up, there was extreme pain in her leg and Lucas was screaming. She was still pretty out of it, but in a couple seconds she could also see Erica in front of her face.

"Y/N?" Her voice was swimming around her head, as if they were all emerged under water. "Steve is coming, he knows you're hurt." Erica was holding Y/N's head gently, since the left side was a giant bruise. She could feel her eye almost swollen shut, and her skull ached immediately.

"Steve?" Y/N asked, hearing an ambulance in the background. If Steve was on his way, and Erica was in here with them, that meant that it was over. "Did we win?" She asked hopefully. She couldn't see Erica's face very well, but she knew the silence and the small sniffles weren't a good sign.

Suddenly, it made sense that Lucas was crying.

"Shit," Y/N tried to sit up, but it felt like her body was light and her head was heavy. Her wrist was aching, but not as much as her leg. She had to look down to remember that she had been shot, and she couldn't get up. All she could see was the fuzzy outline of Lucas holding Max's body.

"Do you hear that?" Erica muttered, looking around. Y/N tried to focus on staying alert, listening as best she could. She heard the ambulance outside, but nothing else. It didn't take long before she heard the ground split, however - well , felt it at least. She turned to see Lucas moving Max away and watched the ground fall beneath them. She watched as it split Jason in half, and it made her heart race. They had officially lost.

She felt her heart fall all the way to the Upside Down when she realized that Steve and Eddie weren't back.

"We have to go," Y/N grunted as she looked out the opening the wall, watching the crack continue to grow and destroy everything in it's path. She looked down to see the ambulance, broken apart, so it would be of no help to them.

"We can't go!" Lucas yelled, voice breaking. "Max, she's alive!" He begged, and Y/N felt tears come to her eyes.

"Lucas," She started quietly, pausing to wince as pain throbbed once more through her leg. She needed to get pressure on it now, or she wasn't going to make it. "If Max was alive, there wouldn't be a giant tear in the ground." Y/N wanted to curl up in Steve's arms and get high with Eddie and never ever thing about this again.

"She's not! You can feel her pulse!" Lucas argued, and Y/N sighed, eyes closing tightly. It hurt slightly due to the fact that her left eye was already swelling, but it took away from the pain in her leg just a little.

"We need to go, Lucas!" Erica said, and Y/N could hear the pain Erica was trying to hide.

"Erica, you have to help me." Y/N muttered, shedding her long sleeve shirt and leaving her in a camisole. She felt her wet skin, sweat, but she was cold - she knew this was a bad sign. "I need you to tie this as tight as you can around my leg." She fastened the shirt so that the thick part was around her wound. The pain of the fabric bruising against the open wound made her almost pass out, and she fell backwards slightly.

"Why?" Erica asked with a shaky breath, hands going to grab the sleeves of the discarded shirt.

"I can't do it," Y/N whispered as if that would explain everything, leaning back and taking a deep breath. "We don't have anything to gag me with, so I'm gonna scream. But you have to keep going, alright? We have to stop the bleeding." Erica looked scared out of her mind, and Y/N would have felt bad if she wasn't bleeding out.

God, she hoped she wasn't going to bleed out.

Meanwhile, Steve was biking as quickly as he could to Eddie's trailer, tears in his eyes. Erica had told him that Max was dead and Y/N had been shot before Jason knocked her out. Their plan didn't work, and now the only thing left to do was hold Y/N while the world ended.

"Steve!" Dustin's voice made Steve's heart drop, because why wasn't the kid in the trailer? What the hell was wrong with him and why didn't he listen? The group pulled off to where Dustin was yelling from, realizing too late why Dustin was on the ground.

"Oh God." Robin said softly behind him. For a moment, Steve wasn't sure what to do. It was obvious that Eddie was dead, that they couldn't help him. Eddie, the guy he thought was a freak in high school but had since become close friends with. His girlfriend's best friend. Dead.

Steve didn't think before he began biking again, feeling tears sting his eyes and his lungs practically collapsing. If he stopped, he was going to throw up, and he needed to get to Y/N, make sure she was okay.

"Steve, what are you doing?" Nancy asked, voice cracking as she dropped her bike. Steve dropped his bike, running up stairs, opening the gate and going into the trailer.

"Steve, we have to go back and help Dustin." Robin said as the girls followed him into trailer. Steve looked at the spot where the sheets used to be; their ticket out of there, gone.

"Where the hell are the sheets?" He asked, looking around. He found half of the sheets thrown on the ground and grabbed them, hoping they'd be long enough.

"Are you listening? We have to go help Dustin." Nancy went to grab his arm, and he just pushed her away.

"Help him what, Nance? We can't do anything for Eddie. My girlfriend is dying on the other side, and I need to help her." Steve's voice was cracking, his throat hurting on the inside and out. He quickly threw the short rope up, and realized it would only stick out a bit on the other side. He would have to jump down and somehow avoid the chair that was also sitting in the landing area.

"Help him bring back Eddie's body." Robin argued as Steve jumped up, beginning to climb.

"How?" Steve grunted as he pulled himself up, trying to ignore the aching throughout his whole body. His shoulders still stung every time he moved his arms, but his adrenaline was high. He had one mission. "How are we gonna get his body out of the Upside Down and then explain to everyone how he died?" Steve flipped over to the other side, trying to avoid the chair. He let out a grunt as he hit it against his knee before moving it out of the way and replacing it with a mattress for the girls.

"Steve! Seriously?" They yelled up to him. Part of Steve knew that they were right, that they shouldn't leave Eddie and Dustin and they had already lost, so there was no need to return to the real world any time soon. However, his rational thought was being taken over by the fact that his girlfriend was dying and if she survived, he would have to tell her that her best friend is dead.

"I have to check on Y/N." He said before taking off.

"Why did he leave?" Dustin cried out as he ran into the trailer.

"Y/N was shot. Erica said she was knocked out, that she got into a fight with Jason and he clocked her after he shot her leg." Robin said, her voice high and tight as she filled Dustin in.

"Shit," Dustin put his hands over his eyes, and the older girls could tell he was crying.

"I know you want to bring Eddie back, but Y/N really needs our help." Nancy said, also feeling torn. She knew that Eddie deserved to be taken out of the Upside Down, but Y/N was alone with Lucas and Erica and neither of them could take her to the hospital.

"We can't let her die too," The way Robin said it made Dustin let out a sob, and the girls felt their hearts break for him.

Nancy and Robin helped Dustin up the rope, then followed him so that they were all together.

"What is he doing?" Nancy asked as they walked out of the trailer, watching Steve run around.

"Steve!" Robin yelled out, going to help her best friend. Steve acted like he didn't hear Robin - maybe he didn't - and continued to look around. "Steve, what are you doing?" Their escape plan had been the bikes leaning against Eddie's trailer, but Steve seemed to be looking around.

"We need a car," His voice was so low that Robin could barely hear him, and she just shook her head.

"We don't have a car." She reminded him gently, but he sighed and finally stopped, looking at her. She realized in the dim light that he was crying, his face red and eyes puffy. "We have the bikes. We need to go try and meet them at the mansion. Then we'll have your car." Robin was trying not to cry, because she had to be strong for her best friend. She was sure as he stared at her that he was going to have a meltdown.

"Yes. The bikes." Steve nodded, going to the bikes where Dustin and Nancy were already picking up theirs.

"We're gonna get there. She's gonna make it." Nancy tried to soothe Steve, but he wasn't listening. He just grabbed his bike and began to go quickly, leaving the rest of them to catch up.

"Okay," Erica grabbed the sleeves of Y/N's thing sweater she had taken off, pulling tight as she crossed them to tie it around the older girl's thigh. Y/N let out a whimper, gritting her teeth in pain. Tears were falling down her cheeks as Erica tied the sleeves as tight as she could, and Y/N finally let out a scream, fingers scratching the wood floor as she tried to grab onto something.

"Fuck!" Y/N yelled out, head tossed back and eyes closed in pain.

"I'm so sorry," Erica was crying now too, trying not to pay attention to the fact that Y/N was screaming in pain and Lucas holding Max's body, still crying.

"It's okay," Y/N whimpered as Erica had finally finished. Her leg felt like it was on fire, her thigh under the wound was practically numb. She could feel the blood everywhere, and even if she couldn't the black spots and floaty feeling gave her an idea of how much blood she had lost and how much pain she was in. "We need to go," She finally said, opening her eyes and looking at everyone.

"How? Where are you gonna go?" Lucas asked, and when Y/N turned she realized he was right, Max was breathing even if her eyes were bleeding and her limbs were broken. Holy shit.

"You and Erica are going to carry Max down to Steve's car. Then we'll drive to the hospital." She said it as simply as if she were going to take them to the movies. The only difference was the breaking in her voice from the pain and screams.

"Who's gonna drive us?" Erica asked, confused about how this plan was going to work.

"Luckily," Y/N took a deep breath before getting up on her own, letting out a few whimpers as she did so. She made sure to keep her weight off her leg as she stood, but now that she was up the pain seemed to be radiating all the way up her leg. She grimaced and squeezed her eyes shut, fingers clenching so hard that her nails were causing divots. "You don't need two feet to drive," She tried to smile at the kids, because this was traumatizing and she was not going to pass out and potentially die in front of these kids.

And thus, her adrenaline kicked in.

There was no other way to describe it, the way she was able to walk down the stairs and make it all the way to Steve's car, only using the railing and a couple walls for help. She limped heavily, tears falling down her cheeks because even though she was hopped up on her adrenaline, the pain was still almost too much to bear. She was surprised to make it to the car, unlocking the doors quickly to let Lucas and Erica into the back with Max. She lowered herself into the drivers seat as quickly as possible, which was slow. Once she was sitting down, her leg seemed to kick up in pain, and she hit her head against the the seat header, biting her lip to try and keep from screaming. The pain in her face was minuscule compared to the way her entire leg was practically on fire now. The only reason she hadn't given up was that she had to get the kids to safety, and then she would see Eddie and Steve. Hopefully.

"Okay," She muttered to herself, trying to keep her eyes open as wide as she could. She put the car in drive and quickly pulled out and onto the road, trying not to move her affected leg much. She was glad it was her left leg, the one she didn't drive with, because then she wasn't sure what would happen.

"Y/N," Erica was right next to her, and when Y/N jolted she realized that she was falling out of consciousness while driving. Shit.

"I'm not gonna make it to the hospital," She muttered, braking and putting the car back into park. Her head felt so heavy, heavier than it had ever been, and she realized she was swaying as the pain was seeping out. She wasn't sure if her eyelids were closing or if black dots were enveloping her, but she knew she wasn't gonna last long. She had started shivering at some point, even though the heater was on in Steve's car.

Oh God, she was going to die in Steve's car.

"No, please, Y/N, just stay with us." Erica grabbed Y/N's shoulder, shaking when Y/N's eyes slipped close. They opened slowly, her head rolling against the seat and facing Erica.

"I'm sorry," She whispered, because she was. She just wanted to get the kids to safety. She hadn't been able to protect Max like she promised, but she wanted to at least get the younger girl to a hospital, give her a chance. She was just so exhausted, and her body was so heavy, and she had been trying to be alright for too long. She was fading fast, and unless somehow Erica and Lucas could get her to the hospital soon she knew she was a goner.

"They'll be here soon, Y/N, I promise, just, please don't go to sleep." Erica was begging, something she never did, which was how Y/N knew it was bad. She looked down to see her makeshift bandage almost soaked completely with blood, a terrible sign.

"You have to tell Steve I love him," Y/N's voice was weak, and it scared Lucas and Erica.

"Y/N, you have to get us to hospital!" Lucas pleaded, tears still in his eyes. He felt like he had been crying for years at this point, his throat hurting and his chest feeling tight.

"I'm sorry," Y/N whispered, eyes closing again. She was sure she was never going to open them again when Erica yelled out.

"They're here!" And then she put her hand on the horn, letting out a loud honk. Y/N didn't startle as much as open her eyes slightly once more. She was able to make out her friends across the street, running toward her and ditching the bikes they had stolen.

"Steve," Y/N muttered out, a smile on her face. At least she would see Steve before she died.

"Oh, fuck," Steve said as soon as he opened the driver door to see his girlfriend, sweat coating her body and bleeding out in his front seat. She was pale and shivering, and Steve wasn't even sure what to do. She had a large bruise on her face, and he could tell that her left eye would be almost swollen shut even if she was able to open it all the way now.

"Shit," Robin said from behind him, seeing the blood soaked shirt and the state Y/N was in.

"We have to get to the hospital!" Lucas yelled from the backseat, everyone turning to him.

"Okay, princess," Steve said softly as he assessed her. Her wound was on his side, and picking her up was going to cause her pain. He didn't know how else to get her to the very back however. "Robin, open the back. Nance, you'll drive." The girls both nodded, Robin rushing back to open the trunk.

"I got blood on your seat." Y/N muttered as Steve pushed her hair back, sweat making it stick to her forehead.

"I could not give less of a fuck," Steve told her, kissing her burning forehead before taking a deep breath. "This is gonna hurt, babe, alright? But we have to get you into the back." Y/N nodded at his words, not really hearing them anyway. He carefully put his arms around her before picking her up, and she let out a scream as he put more pressure on her wound. Steve felt more tears leave his eyes at the scream, and he quickly got her into the back of his car, letting Nancy take the drivers seat. Dustin sat in the front seat, having not said a word the whole time, and Robin got in the back after Steve. Robin closed the back as Nancy stepped on the gas, clearly sensing the urgency. Steve maneuvered him and Y/N so that she was laying on him, her back to his chest, and he was able to hold her close.

"Steve," Robin muttered, eyes wide even though they were swollen with tears from the whole of the last hour. "She's not awake." She motioned her head toward Y/N, and when Steve leaned around her, he noticed her eyes were completely closed. His heart dropped and he felt sick to his stomach as he tried to shake her awake, watching her chest rise and fall slowly.

"Y/N, please," He whispered to her, a couple tears falling and landing on her skin, dampening it even more. The relief he felt when Y/N grumbled and moved slightly was immeasurable, and he brought her even closer. "Please stay awake. I just need you to keep your eyes open," He begged, heart seizing as she moved a little bit more.

"Steve," She whispered, her head leaning back so she could look at him. "I don't wanna die," She begged, tears falling down her cheeks. Steve felt violently ill at her confession. His eyes were burning with unshed tears and his throat, where he had been choked twice in the past day, was also burning with the weight of keeping himself together.

"You're not going to die," He didn't know how far away they were from the hospital, but he knew they had to be getting close. "I won't let you die." He moved one hand to push her hair back on the side where she wasn't all beat up, kissing her damp skin.

"Where's Eddie?" She muttered, and Steve felt his body go cold.

He couldn't tell her that her best friend was dead, not while she as dying herself. He was afraid that telling her would make her give up, that he wasn't good enough on his own. Eddie and her had been friends for longer than Steve can remember, and if he had a friend like that he wouldn't feel great either. She was barely conscious, and Steve could only hope she wouldn't remember asking.

"We're here!" Nancy yelled as she stopped the car abruptly. Steve thanked every God he knew of that they had made it just in time, and hoped that Max and Y/N would be okay.

"Eddie," Y/N muttered, and that's when Steve knew that she had figured out.

Erica ran around the car to open the back, and Robin jumped out quickly to help Steve with Y/N, who was whimpering and crying out even though she hadn't moved yet.

"Come on, Princess," Steve grabbed her, helping her out of the car. When he pulled her close she screamed out, and that's when the sobbing started. Her cries were loud, so loud that Robin had to run to the bushes and throw up. She couldn't handle the cries and the pain and the fact that it seemed like everyone was falling apart.

Steve held himself together, his sole mission getting Y/N into the building. He held her close, trying to ignore her sobs. She was grabbing his shirt in her hands, and he was struggling to bring her in since she was withering in his grip. He held on tightly, however, trying to ignore the scream she let out as he pressed her wound closer to his body, putting more pressure on it.

"I'm so sorry," He told her, taking deep breaths until he finally got to the front door, where Erica and Dustin were already holding the doors open.

"Help us!" Lucas screamed, and that's when Steve realized he had been holding Max the whole time as well. Steve's arms were aching, but there was no way he was letting go of Y/N until she was in a bed. He looked around, seeing a couple people already coming in from what Vecna had done. Steve wasn't sure what the full extent was, but he knew that the Earth had cracked apart and people were hurt. He just hoped they would be open enough to help her.

"She was shot. She's lost a lot of blood." Steve said as evenly as he could, watching a couple people running around. It wasn't long before two stretchers were being rolled out, one for Max and one for Y/N.

"She doesn't have any allergies that I know of," Steve set Y/N down on the bed, but she was still holding onto his shirt lightly with a shaking hand.

"Do you know what type of blood she has?" A doctor asked, Steve following as the whole crew started moving.

"No, I-I don't know, I can call her house but I-" Steve was rambling and he knew he wasn't helping but he didn't know what to do. He was walking with Y/N, watching her eyes closing as she shook. Her hand was loosening on his shirt, and he felt his heart break as he grabbed her hand instead, shattering as he realized it was cold.

"It's okay. We'll take care of her." With a smile the doctor walked behind doors, doors Steve knew he couldn't go behind. In a daze and without thinking, he squeezed Y/N's hand and kissed her forehead.

"I love you," He finally said, and then she was taken away, and he watched until the doors closed. He watched as her head fell to the side, and he wished she could have said it back.

And then everything went black in his mind.

In reality, Robin was there, leading him to the waiting room. She was talking to him, saying his name, but he was staring straight forward eyes glassy.

Y/N. Max. Eddie.

He was supposed to be the babysitter. He was supposed to keep everyone safe. He wanted to be the hero this time. He didn't want to stay with everyone again, the way he had almost every time something like this has happened. And the one time he didn't stay with the kids, the time he left everyone, people died.

If he had been there, he would have been able to take out Jason. Max would still be alive. Y/N wouldn't have been shot and knocked out.

"Steve," It felt like the world came back all at once, and he turned to see Robin looking at him, eyes wide and tear tracks running down her face. She was gripping his arm, looking at him worriedly. He stood up, and she followed. "Where are you going?" She followed quickly as he began walking away. He couldn't just sit while his girlfriend was fighting for her life.

"Steve!" Dustin yelled, but Steve just walked over to Nancy who was sitting next to Lucas.

"Keys," He held his hand out. He felt empty, as if he were walking in a daze, and he didn't even register why Nancy looked up at him weirdly.

"Why don't you stay here? Wait for news on Max and Y/N." Nancy suggested, concerned. Steve wasn't crying anymore, and his face showed no emotions.

"Give me the keys." He would wrestle them from Nancy if he had to, determination filling his body.

"Where are you gonna go?" Dustin asked. The kid hadn't stopped crying all night, and if Steve were thinking clearly he would have told him to drink some water.

"To kill Jason," Clearly he wasn't thinking in any capacity. The gasps that everyone let out didn't deter him at all. Maybe he wouldn't kill Jason, but he was going to beat the kid to a pulp.

"Jason is dead," Lucas muttered, and for some reason that broke Steve.

"I need to get out of here." He said, walking toward the door, but then he was on the floor and everyone was screaming and he realized that maybe he should have been checked into the hospital awhile ago because the blood on his jacket was not all Y/N's.

"Steve!" He heard Robin scream, but he couldn't move. The pain was consuming him, both mental and physical, and he wanted to yell, to get up and find Y/N but he was glued to the floor.

Steve was sure he was not waking up.

He doesn't know how he got up. He doesn't know how he got to where he is now, sitting in a hospital bed. He doesn't remember anything, even as the doctor is telling him that he had a severe panic attack, that the wounds on his torso weren't infected and would heal fine but what animal was it again? Steve just blinked as Robin lied, said it wasn't an animal but a couple of bear traps, that they were being dumbasses and they knew better now and did they have any updates on Y/N?

"She'll be okay. She should be able to walk very soon-" The doctor cut herself off when there was a commotion down the hall. People were yelling, and there was screaming. Familiar screaming.

"Shit," Steve muttered as he sat up, watching Y/N come through the door, teeth gritted. She was favoring her right leg, but she was quick to get in the room. By the time the nurses got to the room, Y/N had already made it to his bed.

"They told me your room number." Y/N smirked as she climbed over Steve, wincing to be able to lay on her right leg on the other side of him. He smirked as he put an arm around her, looking at the outraged faces of the nurses and doctor.

"How did a GSW outsmart and outrun you?" The doctor asked the two nurses.

"She's very sneaky." One of the nurses said, and the three simply walked out, the doctor rolling his eyes and looking like he was seriously considering leaving and never coming back to this hospital.

"We're gonna make it out of here." Steve told her, kissing her forehead. She smiled as she moved slightly to look up at him.

"We already have."

tags: @avada-kedavra-bitch-187 @roxaya @sadbitchfangirl @gloryekaterina @oblivion-void @alexshaff2002 @m-rae23 @mads-weasley

#steve harrington #steve stranger things #steve harrington x reader #steve harrington angst #steve harrington x reader angst #stranger things

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urfavstargirl1 · 2 years

Text

the darkest night - part 3 of 3

part 1 - part 2

summary: best friends-to-lovers!Y/N waits by his side for Post-Vecna Eddie to wake up from a coma. After months, her beloved metal head is back to earth with a serious proposition for the girl he loves most

cw: st4 post-Vecna but Eddie lives, hospitals, Eddie is in a coma, best friends to lovers, hurt/comfort, angst, kissing, trauma, cursing, etc.,

word count: 5k

April 7th, 1986

“Where is he,” you mutter under your breath, pacing rapidly beneath the fluorescent lights of the hospital hallway.

You read out the hospital room numbers as you pass them.

303, 305, 307, 309.

As you approach room 315, you see a group of people waiting outside. There’s a guy around your age you don’t recognize with two boys that you do recognize as some of the freshman Eddie took under his wing this year.

“Dustin,” You croak. The boy Eddie talked about the most.

As soon as he sees you, he comes rushing toward you. You engulf him in a hug and he squeezes you tightly.

You silently hold each other like that for a while before you pull away and forcibly smile at him.

“I came as soon as I could,” you said.

Dustin nodded.

“All flights to Hawkins have been canceled. It cost an arm and a leg to travel back here, but as soon as I heard the news, I…”

“I know,” Dustin said as he put a hand on your shoulder and squeezed.

“How’s he holding up? How’re you all holding up,” you ask as you look between the boys.

Dustin took in a deep breath, “He’s not doing too well. We’re - not that much better.”

You nod and bring Dustin in for another hug, “I’m so sorry.”

Dustin hugs you back and you stroke the curls on his head.

When you pull away, Dustin gives you a look. “You should see him.”

You look at him warily. Of course you want to see your best friend after an interdimensional monster attack, but at this moment, you realize that you might not be ready to see the horrors that have truly happened.

“I think if he heard your voice, he might finally wake up.”

You press your lips together. You have to be strong. If not for you then for Eddie and his friends. You nod and let Dustin guide you into the room.

You see Wayne sitting in a chair next to the hospital bed with his head hanging down. When he hears your footsteps he looks up at you and a tired smile forms on his features.

“Y/N,” he says with a slight cough. He rises from his chair. “Long time no see darlin’.”

You wave him off as you walk towards him, “Oh, it’s just me, no need to get up.”

“It’ll help to stretch the legs,” he smiles.

As you approach him, he opens his arms and you greet him with a hug. He holds onto you more tightly than you expected and you know it must be bad.

When he pulls away, you smile weakly. “How’s he doing?”

Wayne sighs and runs a hand over his head, “Oh well, you know the boy, never not doing anything that won’t give me a heart attack.”

You manage to let out a laugh, “Yeah, that’s Eddie for you.”

“He missed you something fierce. Was counting down the days till you’d come back from your spring break trip.”

Your lip quivers and you press them together to keep from shaking even more. “I never should have left.”

“No, don’t say that darlin’. You couldn’t have known what would happen.”

And how could you? How could you have known that an innocent trip to visit a high school friend in Boston planned months in advance would happen at the same time that your best friend would become wanted for a crime he didn’t commit and get sent into a coma from some weird monster bats in an alternate dimension that apparently exists right underneath your hometown of Hawkins, IN?

You take a moment to catch up with Wayne before he excuses himself to go take a walk and give you some space to be with Eddie.

When he leaves, you sit in the chair next to the bed and look at the boy lying before you.

He’s unrecognizable.

He lies there, skin a ghost white. His curly brown hair is the only things standing out from the drab white walls and white hospital bed linens.

His eyes are closed and there’s an oxygen tube draped across the middle of his face. An IV is inserted in the veins of his wrist. A heart monitor beeps incessantly from the other side of the bed.

You sniffle and lean forward to grab his hand. You look at his face now covered in red splotches you can only identify as what are probably bat bites.

“Hey Eddie,” you whisper, smiling despite his condition. You can’t help smiling whenever you’re around Eddie. Even if he’s not conscious.

You bring a hand forward and push the bangs hanging over his forehead back. You caress the skin and let your fingers trail to the side of his face.

“I leave you for one week and look at all the trouble you got into,” you scold him. “I don’t think I can ever leave Hawkins in good conscience after this. There goes the trip to Europe I’ve always dreamed of.”

Eddie’s body lies still and his eyes remain shut. The only sign of life is the heart monitor still beeping.

You run your fingers along his arm and it isn’t cold, just still. You lean forward and place a soft kiss to his skin.

“I miss you Eds,” you whisper. “Please wake up soon.”

You almost want to say something else, anything else, but you can’t. You can’t say anything without wanting to cry.

Eddie would hate to see you like this. He wouldn’t ever want you to shed a tear, least of all not like that.

The thought alone makes you miss him even more. You’re never leaving his side again.

You sit with Eddie like that for a while. If there’s ever anything that comes to mind that you want to say, you tell him. You hold his hand and talk to him as if he’s awake to hear it, hoping the sound of your voice really could wake him up.

After some time has passed, Wayne comes back to the room. You thank him for letting you see Eddie and promise to be back the next day.

Before you leave, you see Dustin and the other boys are still there. And it looks like they went and got some food. Dustin hands you two bags, asking if you could give one to Wayne.

“Why don’t you go and give it to him,” you say with the affection of a big sister.

Dustin shakes his head, “I don’t think I can.”

You jerk your head back slightly, “Oh, why not?”

“I don’t think I’m ready - to see him.”

“You mean you haven’t seen Eddie?”

Dustin meekly shakes his head.

You look at him, wanting to know why, but can tell he probably won’t be up for explaining why.

The look on your face must convey your thoughts because Dustin looks at you and whispers, “I was there when it happened. I saw him. I saw it all. To this day, I still see it. I can’t stop seeing it.”

You look at Dustin and frown feeling an ache deep inside your chest. You engulf him in what has to be the fifth hug since you got here. But what else can you do?

There’s nothing you can say that will make the situation better. It’s bad enough you were gone when it all went down. You hope as much conveys in the warm embrace as you gently stroke the curls atop his head.

“I’m sorry Dustin,” you say as you pull apart. You cup his cheek and add, “For what it’s worth, I think Eddie would like to hear your voice too, whenever you’re ready.”

Dustin meekly smiles and nods. A moment of comfortable silence passes between you and the rest of the boys. When it passes, Dustin reintroduces you to Mike and introduces you to Steve.

You recognize him from school. Even though he was in the grade below you, you vaguely remember seeing him and his infamous head of hair roaming the halls.

You converse with the boys and soon, the events of the evening turn into a daily ritual.

Every day for almost a month, you come to the hospital to visit Eddie and spend time with his friends and Uncle Wayne. Some days it’s your turn to bring food or card games for the group. Other days it’s someone else's turn.

You’ve also fallen into the habit of bringing Eddie things. One day, you brought the cassette to Judas Priest's new album Turbo. You knew it came out just before you had left but you didn’t know if Eddie had gotten to listen to it, so you bought the tape and your portable radio and listened to it for the first time with him.

For a moment, you could swear you saw a twitch in his lip, but just as soon as it happened, it went away and nothing like that happened again, but it felt promising enough.

You told Dustin about it and felt triumphant when you saw his eyes light up about it. For a moment, he thought he wanted to, and you encouraged him to, but as soon as he put his hand on the doorknob and looked through the little window on the door and saw the lower half of Eddie’s still body covered in a thin white blanket he froze.

“I-I can’t,” he muttered.

You placed a hand on his shoulder, “It’s okay. Don’t force yourself. If you’re not ready, you’re not ready. Eddie would understand.”

As each day passed on, you thought it would be harder to see Eddie like this, but it wasn’t. After a while, you almost got sort of used to it. The hardest part about it all was seeing the toll it was taking on his loved ones.

You tell Uncle Wayne was trying to keep a brave face, but you noticed the look on his face whenever the nurses spoke in hushed whispers about the wanted boy.

And you definitely noticed the weariness and fatigue take over the faces of his friends who came by to see him every day.

You wanted to be strong for them all. For him. But deep down, you were scared. You feared he might never wake up.

Your fear ran so deep, it even had you turning to church, a place you hadn’t been in years, but by god you needed a miracle. Eddie deserved a miracle.

Every day as you trekked to the hospital, you would stop by the hospital chapel and pray for Eddie’s recovery before making it up to his room.

The days all seemed to blend into one another and before you knew it, it had been two months since the tragic accident.

Deep down, you were growing frustrated and helpless.

“Goddamnit Eddie if you don’t wake up soon, I’m gonna kick your ass,” you had muttered next to his bed one night when no one was around. You could almost hear his laugh and that’s when you knew this whole thing had been going on so long your mind was beginning to play tricks on you, but what else could you do?

This is just how things between you and Eddie are. You’d stick by his side every day for a hundred years.

By the time June rolled around, the hospital became a sweet relief from the sweltering heat outside.

Midnight snacks with the gang turned to ice cream runs and milkshake pickups. And now that most tv shows have ended their seasons and the tv program was taking a break for the summer, you were running out of things to update Eddie on.

To fill the silence, you decided to read him the Lord of the Rings books he loved so much. Despite being his best friend, you’d never really taken a liking to them and didn’t get around to reading them, but you supposed now was as good a time as any.

And pretty soon, you had someone to help you.

“Hey Eddie, guess who’s here,” you said cheerfully as you walked Dustin into the room cautiously, making sure to keep your arm comfortingly wrapped around the young boy.

“It’s your favorite little prodigy, Dustin,” you cooed as you smiled at Dustin. Dustin looked blankly at Eddie’s body lying on the hospital bed.

“Hey,” Mike whined. Steve nudged him and shook his head. The boys followed you and Dustin as you neared Eddie’s bed.

“H-Hey man, it’s me. Your little shrimp? Henderson?” Dustin weakly said.

You gently squeeze his arm, encouraging him a bit.

“You’re doing great,” Steve said as he clapped a hand to Dustin’s back. Dustin nodded and sat down in the chair next to Eddie.

He stared at him for a moment. Much of the scar tissue in his skin had healed compared to the state you found him in months ago. But the evidence remained. Eddie was hurt bad.

“We can’t wait till the next campaign,” Dustin said in a much more normal tone than you had expected.

Dustin looked over to you, Mike, and Steve who all gave him a reassuring look or thumbs up.

Dustin began to read. At first, his voice would shake and a few tears had even slipped out, but the more he read, the more confident and comfortable he became.

And for the rest of the week, it became second nature for Dustin to join you in spending time with Eddie.

Back in May, the doctors said his vitals looked good and that it was just a matter of time before he would wake up. But the Fourth of July was in two weeks and your birthday the week after that.

If somehow Eddie could wake up on your birthday, you would never ask for another birthday present ever again.

But when your birthday passed and Eddie still hadn’t woken up, you’d started losing hope again.

It was almost August and time for the kids to go back to school but they weren’t ready. They weren’t ready to say goodbye.

Even though they would still visit Eddie, it would be harder to go every single day with homework and sports.

Hellfire club wouldn’t be the same. But it had to go on. Someone had to carry out Eddie’s legacy.

By the time September rolled around, the temperatures started getting lower and the leaves on the trees were starting to change colors.

Part of you didn’t know how much longer you could take, but a bigger part of you knew you had to be there for Eddie. You loved him too much not to.

When Iron Maiden and Megadeth’s new albums came out, you bought the tapes and listened to it with Eddie along with a few other mixtapes you had made.

You could have sworn you’d seen his finger ever so slightly tap, but you knew it was probably just all in your head.

You didn’t understand, but you knew something had to be going on for Eddie to keep kicking as long as he has and that started to recover any hope you had lost.

You kept praying and visiting Eddie and doing it all over the next day.

By now, all the nurses knew you as the very sweet and dedicated girlfriend to the boy in the coma. It wasn’t your favorite label for Eddie but better than freak or any other crude thing some of the people in this town would call him.

It somehow always sort of broke your heart to hear them call you his girlfriend. You barely had the chance to be before this all happened. What you wouldn’t give to be his proper girlfriend when he does wake up.

On a cold and rainy October day, after begging the hospital staff to put a TV in his room and them finally granting your request, you brought a few VHS tapes of his favorite horror movies. Halloween, Eddie’s favorite holiday, was only two weeks away and he deserved to celebrate.

It was your day off from work, and there was no better way to spend it than with a movie marathon with your favorite boy.

It was a Thursday night and you had just finished Nightmare on Elm Street 2. The rain relentlessly pelted against the hospital room windows. You walked over to close the blinds when a clap of thunder and flash of lightning bright enough to light the room through the window struck. The unexpected sight and sound made you jump, letting out a small shriek.

You clutched the fabric of your shirt over your chest and let out a shaky breath. You were glad no one else was in the room or else you probably would have startled them.

You close the blinds shut and turn around to take your seat when you see Eddie’s eyelids flutter before slowly opening.

You were frozen in place, not sure if your eyes were deceiving you.

“Eddie,” you called out in a voice barely above a whisper.

Eddie’s eyes were now fully opened as he stared at the television in front of him.

“Eddie,” you called out a bit louder this time as you took a cautious step forward.

The rest of Eddie’s body remained still, but his head slowly turned to your direction. He slowly looked up at you and a weak smile formed across his lips.

“Hey,” he croaked.

“Eddie,” you exclaimed as you rushed by his side.

You gazed into his eyes lovingly. His beautiful big brown eyes. Ones you feared you would never get to look into again.

You could just kiss him and hug him and tell him everything, but all you can do is grab his face in your hands and inspect his wide open eyes, tired but full of life.

“Nurse,” you cry out. When no one arrives, you run to the hall and find Eddie’s nurse on her way over.

A few of the other nurses come in and start attending to Eddie. They swarm around him like diligent worker bees.

One of them asks you to wait in the hall while they take his vitals and perform a few other tasks to assess his health, so you take the opportunity to call everyone and tell them that after months of waiting in agony, Eddie has finally woken up.

You don’t expect many people to show up, given that it’s past midnight on a weekday, but sure enough, Wayne, Dustin, Steve, Mike, and a few of Eddie’s other friends all show up.

The nurses instruct them all to enter two at a time or else all the excitement will tire Eddie out.

Wayne was the first to show up. He got off his shift as soon as he could. But as the other kids arrived, he let them have their time.

He spent the rest of the evening with you in the hall crying tears of joy and rejoicing at the fact that Eddie was alive and awake again.

After all these months, your prayer has finally been answered.

After the chaos of the night unfolded, Steve took the kids home so they could get ready for school in the morning leaving you and Wayne in Eddie’s hospital room.

Once the boys had left, it seems the excitement did tire Eddie out as he was on the verge of sleep.

“Why don’t you go on home and get some shut eye,” Wayne offered.

As much as you wanted to stay with Eddie, you had to admit, you were exhausted, and you knew it’d be best to let Wayne have some time alone with his nephew.

So you went home and slept for hours. You didn’t even know what day or time it was when you woke up, but all you knew was that you had to see Eddie.

For the next couple of days, you continued your daily hospital visit routine. Despite finally having reached the point of consciousness, Eddie’s recovery continued to prove rather slow. He was still very weak and often barely able to speak at all. But you could tell he was listening. The ghost of a smile on his lips or gentle tap of a finger on your hand let you know he was almost there.

Each day had its own little victory. And over the course of a few weeks, Eddie had started improving significantly. He could eat solid food, reach out for his own cup of water, hold up his worn copy of Lord of the Rings, and even carry a conversation.

You knew he was recovering well when he finally had the energy to pester Dustin and his other friends whenever they came around. Laughing so hard it hurt him.

“You okay,” Dustin asked.

“Yeah man, just hurts so good,” he’d joked.

The boy stuck around for a bit longer before Eddie sent them off on a journey to McDonald’s. You all had started getting hungry, but Eddie insisted they sneak him some fries because if the demo-bats didn’t kill him then the terrible hospital food probably would.

When you two were finally alone, you snuck a quick kiss to his cheek. If laughter was enough to have him aching, you were sure anything more than a chaste kiss would be lethal. And yet, you couldn’t help yourself.

“I think you missed a spot,” Eddie said, pointing to his lips.

“Did I now?” You teased as you held his hand.

“Yup, doctor's orders. I need 10 cc’s of kisses from you right this very second,” Eddie said as he moved over to the side closest to you and leaned forward with pouty lips and puppy dog eyes.

“Is that so? I don’t think that’s the right prescription,” you teased as you leaned ever so slightly closer, challenging his pleading look.

“Leave that to the professionals, sweetheart. Don’t you want me to get better?” Eddie dramatically pleaded.

You leaned forward and quickly kissed his lips. You pulled away and rolled your eyes, “There, that better?”

“Nuh uh,” Eddie whined. In a husky seductive voice, he added, “Don’t you know baby? You’re my cure.”

“Oh god,” you cringed and laughed, “Okay, James Dean, does that line work on all the girls?”

“You tell me,” he challenged as he leaned forward, practically off the edge of his bed.

You rose from your seat and grinned at him. You pushed him back on his bed and said, “Alright Cassanova, don’t hurt yourself.”

Eddie made an incoherent noise that could only be described as a whine followed by a pout on his lips.

You leaned down, close enough to his face and locked eyes with him. They asked a question and you answered by leaning down and pressing your lips to his.

He reached his arm up to cup your cheek and hold you by the back of your head as he deepened the kiss. You allowed him to take what he needed, knowing he deserved it after all the trouble he’d been through. And selfishly, you wanted him to.

But when you heard the heart rate monitor beeping increasing in volume and speed you pulled away and laughed, gently patting him on the left side of his chest.

“Okay, that’s enough for now. Don’t think the 10 cc’s will account for your heart exploding as a side effect,” you smiled.

Eddie laughed and put his hand over yours as you sat back down in your chair.

You smiled at him and could only thank god or the universe or whatever higher power brought the love of your life back to this earth to be with you.

“What are you thinking about,” Eddie asked.

“Nothing,” you shrugged despite feeling a warmth in your chest at the sight of the light in his eyes. “It’s good to see you like this.”

He grabbed your hand in his and squeezed tightly. “I missed you.”

“I missed you too,” you said as you brought your intertwined fingers and kissed the knuckles of his hand.

“Wayne tells me you came here every day.”

“Yeah,” you chuckled, “We were both here. Usually he came during the day while I was at work and then I would come at night while he was at work so there was at least someone here with you.”

“I can’t believe you did that,” Eddie replied as he rubbed circles into the skin of your hand.

“What are you talking about?”

“I was out for months, baby. And you still came. I don’t know who else would do that.”

“Someone with no life,” you joked and Eddie rolled his eyes.

You sighed, “Some days were harder than others, but… but you can’t get rid of me that fast!”

Eddie chuckles and it felt good to hear him like that. You could spend the rest of your life trying to make that boy smile.

“Remember what I told you that night, back at the trailer?” Eddie asked after a moment of comfortable silence.

“Oh gee, yeah, that night. Out of the hundreds of nights we’ve spent together, yeah I remember that one,” you sarcastically respond, poking fun at his vague words.

“Shut up,” Eddie smirked and shook his head. “I’m talking about that night after Gareth’s party. With the truth or dare and you blowing chunks and–”

“Okay, okay, yes I remember now,” you squeezed Eddie’s hand bone crushingly tight.

Eddie laughs, “Do you remember what I said?”

“Kind of, that night was a bit of a blur.”

“Oh, my little lightweight,” Eddie coos as he rubs circles into your skin.

He breathes in and exhales.

“You’re my northern star, you know that?” Eddie said offhandedly as he gazed down at your joined hands.

“What?” You ask in confusion.

“There’s been a lot of darkness in my life. Never seems to stop following me. But as long as you’re by my side, I can see the light. I can find my way back home.”

You looked at Eddie and squeezed his hand reassuringly. You looked at him, and saw a boy, who was much weaker and broken down than the boy you knew before this all happened. But compared to that dreaded April day, there was a light in his eyes and color in his skin and softness to his features.

The boy you always loved and was always full of life never went away.

You leaned forward and gave Eddie a kiss. A dramatic, take your breath away kind of kiss to show him just how much you loved him and how much he meant to you.

When you pulled away, Eddie’s eyes had become glossy.

“You know, for a long time, I think I just tried to run away from it all, but I always ended up running back to you and I don’t know if I ever want to stop.”

A soft tear rolled down his cheek and you kissed it away. “Shh, Eddie, it’s okay,” you softly said.

You cupped his cheek as more tears began to fall. “I love you and believe me, and I never want you to stop either.”

And without fail, tears started falling down your own cheeks.

You were grateful it was just you and Eddie in the room. You two could finally let go of all the stress and anxiety that had been building up over the past several months.

“Don’t you ever leave me like that again Munson,” you tried to joke as yours and Eddie’s faces were growing splotchy.

Eddie weakly laughed and leaned forward to give you a kiss.

“You know, I’ve been giving it a lot of thought, and it doesn’t have to happen now, or anytime soon really, but I think I’d like to have you by my side like this for a long time,” Eddie said as he pressed a kiss to your knuckles.

“How long are we talking about Munson?”

“Long enough to not be the only Munson between us two,” he said quietly before peering up into your eyes.

Your eyes widened at the implication of his words. “You mean that?”

Eddie nodded and smiled giddily. “Figured after everything you’ve done for me, the least I could do is give you a ring and my last name, maybe a little Munson or two to run around our future place with.”

You returned his smile and leaned forward to kiss him again, warmly and passionately. Eddie deepened the kiss and it took everything in you not to jump on the hospital bed with him and get a jump start on that plan.

“Oh Eddie, you don’t know the things I have planned for you when you get out of this hospital,” you sighed as you pulled away from him.

Before Eddie could reply, the boys returned from their McDonald’s adventure and Eddie practically jumped out of his hospital bed at the sight of his beloved french fries.

You two spent the rest of the night like that till the boys left to go home. The night nurse came in one last time to check on Eddie before going on her break. And once she left it was just you and Eddie alone again.

You smiled at him and let out a yawn.

“You tired, baby?”

“Little bit,” you nodded sleepily.

Eddie began scooting to the side of his hospital bed, “C’mere.”

You looked at him skeptically, unsure you would fit, but realized you didn’t even care. You wanted to be pressed to Eddie as closely as possible anyway.

You shuffled next to him and climbed under the blanket.

Eddie wrapped his arm around you and pressed a kiss to your forehead. “Get some sleep, sweetheart.”

You sighed as you pressed your head to his chest and draped an arm over his stomach, “Goodnight Eddie.”

“G’night baby,” Eddie whispered as he caressed your hair and wrapped his other arm around you.

In the morning, Wayne walked into the room to find you and Eddie sound asleep, lying peacefully in each other's arms.

You and Eddie, against the world.

#eddie munson x reader #eddie munson x you #eddie munson oneshot #eddie munson imagine #eddie munson fanfic #eddie munson #eddie munson blurb #eddie munson headcanon #eddie munson fluff #eddie munson angst ##stranger things fanfic #stranger things s4 #stranger things season 4 #stranger things x reader #stranger things fanfiction #urfavstargirl1

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queenimmadolla · 10 months

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I’ve asked this question before but I am, once again, curious, I know I asked why you loved heather but now I’m curious as to why you pair heather with Eddie? I love it of course but I must understand the nexus lmao

Let me start this off by stating Cruel Summer was written to be a Hellguard (Eddie x Heather, Heddie) fic and I have an unfinished WIP I titled Missing You for them which I’ll include under the cut, but the explanation:

When it comes down to it, it was just my love for both characters. After ST4 dropped, I rewatched ST3 (my favorite season) and it just reignited my love for Heather. I can go on and on about how it breaks my heart that her death didn’t leave a major impact on the town because she was just a normal girl, not super popular, and it kind of made her the easiest character to self insert with. (It infuriates me that she was paid dust by the fandom because she had a surprisingly large role in ST3 compared to other characters in seasons, like for some reason Carol gets more claim than Heather).

But I remember watching the scene of her telling that kid off and thinking “This girl is mouthy to punks.” Which led to me thinking about Eddie who hands shit out left and right (the famous cafeteria scene) and I started thinking about possible interactions they could have had. Then I started wondering if they ever interacted at all. Did they get along? Did they annoy each other? Ever have a class together? Then I thought, what if feelings were involved?

The thought quickly snowballed, and coupled with my belief that Heather deserved better and deserved to be saved, I came up with Cruel Summer, in which Eddie was going to save Heather. This was of course when most of the fandom was looney about who to pair Eddie with and I didn’t want people to hate Heather strictly because she’d be paired with Eddie, as she has a lot of potential and deserves to be loved, so I changed it into a Reader insert instead but one can tell who Reader was kind of meant to be.

I have an unfinished WIP, one of the first things I wrote when I started writing for Eddie in July of last year, about Eddie reflecting on his unsaid feelings for a now deceased Heather right before his final—and fatal—senior year. A lot of Angst, pretty much him being depressed, grieving in his ways and thinking about The Girl he thought he was going to get. It would have been a slow burn that never got to ignite and Eddie was bitter that people could move on so easily, like she hadn’t mattered. And here is that unfinished WIP:

“Fuck,” Eddie croaked out, eyes watering as he shuddered with violent coughs, his lungs trying desperately to rid themselves of the smoke he’d inhaled. He hadn’t waited long enough between pulls from the joint, hadn't cared to. Not when he was desperate to feel good. To feel anything other than the stupid fucking anguish that was following him around.

It hadn’t always been, though. Sure, his life wasn’t perfect. His mom was dead, his dad was in prison, and his uncle took up more shifts than he could handle just to make sure Eddie had a tin roof over his head. When he’d seen how worn down Wayne was getting, he’d taken up his own little side business; dealing drugs for a dude who looked like he jumped straight out of a bad porno with that mustache.

Truth be told, Eddie was pretty sure he wouldn’t amount to much. His only concern was not turning into his father, which would be easy enough. All he had to do was stay out of jail. Of course, with a mindset like that, he hadn’t developed motivation for much else.

He had his interests. Dungeons and Dragons, Corroded Coffin, weed, metal and the works but academics was not one of them. Hence why he’d be starting his third senior year in just a couple of days. Ironically, that wasn’t the reason why he was currently cooped up in his van, parked near the lake and hotboxing his sorrows away. No, that honor belonged to the permed curly headed, annoying, know-it-all, big mouth commonly known as Heather Holloway. Eddie winced, eyes squeezing shut to stop the rush of moisture from escaping. Formerly known. He shook his head, mouth curling into a bitter grin as he rubbed his fingers into his eyelids in an attempt to physically force the tears away, force the memories down, but it didn’t work. Hawkins was small. Everyone knew everyone, so of course he knew of Heather Holloway’s existence. It would’ve been difficult not to because she was constantly reminding everyone. Eddie didn’t know exactly when they had become enemies, he kind of grouped her in with everyone else who had a problem with him. Unfair of him, but given his social track record, he usually assumed the worst from certain people and she happened to hang around the worst people.

It didn’t help that she was really annoying. Super fucking nosey, always trying to tell him what to do—okay, yeah, sure it was because they’d been partnered up various amounts of times for assignments and projects but she made him feel stupid every single time so why would he have listened to her?—and she had this air about her, held herself like she was better than everyone else. It really irked Eddie because she wasn’t even popular. Hell, she was all but a social pariah because of how annoying she was, normally sat at a table with Jonathan Byers, Samantha Stone (who definitely scared Eddie), Stacy Soto, Fred Benson and the other social rejects, excluding Nancy Wheeler who sat there to be with her boyfriend. He was pretty sure everyone at the table weren’t even really friends, just acquaintances and that was pretty pathetic. Eddie knew he’d be there, too, had it not been for the Hellfire table. He’d been snapping at Tommy Hagan one day, and that ended up in a hallway brawl. And that ended up in a nice Saturday morning of detention with a handful of other random unfortunate souls and Tommy.

Contrary to his reputation, Eddie didn’t actually get detention often. He valued his time, meaning the only extra time he wanted to spend in those soul sucking walls of high school was for Hellfire.

He’d been amused when Heather walked in, looking thoroughly ashamed to be there in the first place as she sunk into a desk, trying not to draw attention to herself.

Naturally, Eddie had to make a spectacle of her arrival. It’d cost him another Saturday of detention, but jumping out of his desk and knocking a couple more over as he overacted his shock at seeing her had been worth it.

Seeing her face turn that unflattering shade of red and the sheen of sweat that coated her skin brought him great joy.

Her telling him to suck her chode had not.

That’s how they found themselves in detention again the following Saturday. Only, it had been just them. And when Mrs. Click disappeared with some bogus excuse about making copies in the main office which was code for having sex with Principle Higgins in his office, Eddie knew the only source of entertainment was the girl sat all the way in the front of the classroom, doodling in a sketchbook.

“What are you drawing?” He asked as he slipped into the seat behind her, arms folding over the top of the desk.

She’d glanced over her sweater covered shoulder to glare at him before turning her attention back to her sketchbook without answering him. “Oh, c’mon. It’s just you and me, Holloway. You can drop the act. I know you love me.” He crooned, biting his lip as he grinned when she twisted around to face him, lips pursed in annoyance. “Is there a reason you’re such a jerk? Or is it just your personality?”

Eddie’s eyebrows had shot up, he was expecting to have to goad her a little more before he got a response. “More so a matter of circumstance,” he mused, fluttering his lashes for her. Her own dark eyes narrowed even more. It was clear her guard was up and while Eddie very much enjoyed grinding her gears, it was more fun when it was mutual banter.

“Okay. Go on,” She shrugged her shoulders but her posture didn’t relax and Eddie suddenly felt vulnerable as she called his bluff. “Uh,” he licked his lips as he scrambled for something to follow up with. “The circumstances are—uh—we. . . you know what, we don’t like each other. That’s the circumstance. It’s our thing, don’t deviate from our thing.” Her pursed lips morphed into a frown as her eyebrows pinched together. “Well, why don’t you like me?” Eddie had been taken aback by the question. It had to be rhetorical, right? “Are you fucking with me?” She didn’t say anything, just shook her head as she waited for him to answer her. Eddie stared at her for a long time, but she hadn’t been unnerved enough to look away. In fact, she held his eye contact with the same intensity. “You’re a bitch, Heather.” “So are you, Eddie.” It wasn’t anything monumental, but that interaction caused a shift in whatever they were.

She turned back around, picked up her pencil and continued drawing, leaving Eddie kind of dumbfounded. Only because she wasn’t acting like herself. He didn’t know a whole lot about her, but he knew Heather was desperate for approval, figured that’s why she acted like she was better than everyone else. A fake it till you make it type of situation only he knew she was never gonna make it.

Something told Eddie she knew it, too.

#always love getting an ask from junie b #$ replies #hellguard #eddie munson #eddie munson angst #eddie munson x heather holloway #heather holloway #stranger things 3 #stranger things 4 #eddie munson/heather holloway #eddie munson blurb #eddie munson fic

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chirpsythismorning · 1 year

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Hey ! How are you ? I just saw a Video on Instagram and I wondered if what they say is true ?

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CvWDN3iMEQs/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

I really hope it’s not true … ( and I hope that the link works lol )

This is 100% false so don’t worry about it!

I do sort of pity these influencer/podcast types, who give their audience the impression they are valuable sources for information, when it’s clear they’re just using speculation from fans, as opposed to actual verified sources. Them throwing out stuff like this should make people question consuming their content at all honestly. Because the whole 2027 date was thrown out on Twitter by a fan account that was merely exaggerating to get people talking, and has literally not come from anywhere else. Literally nowhere. Predictably the exaggeration spread to people who don’t know much about what’s going on and they treated it like verified information.

I do know that sometimes depending on the subject, it can be difficult to navigate information and know what is true and what isn’t.

But to say Stranger Things 5 isn’t going to start filming until 2027, is so ill-informed it’s hilarious. A claim like this implies the strike won’t end for another two years, which literally nobody is anticipating it to last that long, let alone even a year.

When it comes to Stranger Things specifically, the writer’s strike started in May, right before filming for ST5 was set to begin officially in June. And even despite the strike(s), for the last 3 months, set designers and the like have been working on preparing for filming with pre-production duties. So they have literally been ready to film for roughly two months now and are just using this time on hiatus to their advantage if anything, since they don’t have to worry about rushing bc filming is happening simultaneously like they usually do.

This means that whenever the strike ends officially, like for real, production for Stranger Things 5 is very likely going to be ready to start soon after that. Not the day of or even days after, but likely within weeks at most.

What it will really come down to is working out availability for the cast members since they have to organize a new schedule that aligns with the timetable they’re dealing with post strike, in contrast to what the original plan was.

The original timetable for ST5 filming was June 2023-June 2024. Let’s just say hypothetically the strike ends officially in mid September. In that case, filming for ST5 would likely start within weeks after that, some time in October. If that were to happen, filming would likely go from October 2023-October 2024, still giving them a year of filming like they originally planned before the strike(s).

For reference ST4 finished filming in September 2021 and premiered in May & July 2022. In the case filming would start in September/October, we’d likely be looking at another Summer release for the final season in 2025.

So, if you’re hoping for a 2024 release, don’t hold your breath. In fact just let that go because it’s not happening.

Once the strike is over it’ll be a matter of making sure everyone’s available and schedules align in areas that are necessary. Making sure actors that have scenes together are on set at the same time is going to be a top priority, as well as just the main cast in general aligning their availability with their other potential projects outside of ST (like David who was also going to be filming Thunderbolts simultaneously with ST in Atlanta), so that it works for everyone and can be done in a timely manner. Then making sure supporting actors fit into that as well despite them having less screen time, aligning with each other is important.

I’m optimistic things could end sooner than we were anticipating, like I know some people were saying the strikes could go until January next year. Even now though I still don’t really want to fully get my hopes up because negotiations could continue for weeks upon months if the guilds and studios are still far apart.

Let’s just continue to keep a close eye on what’s going on before getting ahead of ourselves one way or another.

But for some good news, the AMPTP (the studios) have reached out to the WGA to meet on Friday officially for negotiations again. They have not met since before the strike began in May so this is very good news. That alone should be a good sign that the strike is very very unlikely to last another 2 years, so you can just ignore that 2027 rumor, it is baseless!

#byler #stranger things #st writers #PAY YOUR WRITERS #PAY YOUR ACTORS #tbh I’m chilling until October #if filming can start by then I’m all good #tbh I think at this point we’re dealing with a summer 2025 release regardless of if the strike ends tomorrow or in October #bc Netflix loves their summer releases #I just can’t see them doing a spring 2025 release #who knows tho.#but if the strike goes past october #and even further #there’s a possibility that could push st5 to fall 2025 and i really don’t think Netflix wants that either #so a deal sooner than later benefits everyone whether the studios want to fully accept that or not yet #progress has been made though at least

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munsons-maiden · 2 years

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I’m wondering why no one has straight up just asked the Duffers if since El has resurrection abilities, would it be safe to assume that Vecna is capable of the same thing? No specific characters or theories need to be mentioned. But it would certainly push them into a corner. The most they’d be able to say is yes, no, or wait and see, and that would honestly speak volumes more than anything else 👀👀

Someone did!

It was back in July, right after Vol2 aired, and an interviewer asked Joe whether it would be wishful thinking to ask about El's resurrection abilities and if they might be a hope for Eddie, to which Joe replied "Seems pretty convenient, doesn't it? But I know as much as you do."

May own theory is that it's not only convenient but VITAL because it told us already that Vecna has the same powers, and him resurrecting Eddie the way El did with Max - those two sides of a coin with El using her powers for good, and to save the ones she loves, whereas Vecna uses the same powers for his own evil deeds and to flay Eddie and use him against those who love him - would be poetic, matching the dark reflections theme the Duffers got going on in ST, adding a symbolic Christ-vs-Antichrist component to the dynamic between Henry and El while building Eddie as his next victim who will be saved by the party (-> Dustin!) to join them in their final battle - and it would further reinforce the parallels between Eddie, Will and Max. It would give Eddie an important role on the same level as the one he had in ST4, not making him THE hero of the final season but one of the heroes, with El as their protagonist and the og party still getting their moments to shine, and it wouldn't feel shoehorned-in or cheap because a) Eddie's story feels not done yet, and his death was cheap while his resurrection would send a very beautiful message to all the outcasts this series was created for and b) his return was foreshadowed and prepared in ST4. Sorry, I got carried away with my reply. To get back to your original question: Joe answered the question very vaguely. I think I have a screenshot of that exchange saved somewhere on my phone, I'll try to find it and add it here 🖤

#kiki answers #eddie munson #stranger things #stranger things 4 #stranger things 5 #joe quinn #joseph quinn

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pterawaters · 2 years

Text

I posted 10,851 times in 2022

118 posts created (1%)

10,733 posts reblogged (99%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@sunshine-tattoo

@sarenraegalpaladin

@ivycross

@mrs-steve-harrington

@magdalyna

I tagged 6,321 of my posts in 2022

Only 42% of my posts had no tags

#stranger things - 2,053 posts

#st4 - 971 posts

#steve harrington - 754 posts

#ofmd - 733 posts

#stranger things spoilers - 652 posts

#gentlebeard - 319 posts

#nancy wheeler - 318 posts

#lololol - 275 posts

#vol 2 spoilers - 274 posts

#our flag means death - 248 posts

Longest Tag: 136 characters

#you're gay you're a nerd you have low self esteem and you have a deep well of love and loyalty that you ceaselessly give to your friends

My Top Posts in 2022:

10 years!

I first posted on this blog 10 years ago today. It’s been quite a decade.

18 notes - Posted July 2, 2022

Ptera’s Abortion Fund Donation Gifts

Hi, everyone! I’m offering a fic gift to anyone willing to donate to an abortion fund. To encourage as many people to donate as possible, I’m offering gift fics to anyone interested who gives any amount to an abortion fund. To be clear this is not a commission, it’s a thank you gift for donating.I will write 500 words based on a prompt of your choosing (G through E rated, though I reserve the right to veto any squicks I may have) for any donation amount, increasing to 1000 words if you donate over $20, or 1500 words if you donate $50 or more. I’m setting a 10k total word limit and will have the fics done by the end of August. If you want to wait longer, I can go over that 10k limit somewhat. If you’re interested, send me an ask or an email ([email protected]) and we’ll work something out!

Current workload: 0/10k words

Fandoms I’m willing to write for:

Stranger Things: No Billy ships, and no E-rated fics involving the younger kids (El, Mike, Will, Dustin, Lucas, Max, Erica). E-rated fics about the older teens (Nancy, Jonathan, Steve, Robin, Chrissy, etc) are fine!

Our Flag Means Death: No Izzy ships

Free Guy: Keys/Antwan or Keys/Millie

Hawaii Five-0: just McDanno

Anything not on this list, contact me and we’ll see if we can work something out!

19 notes - Posted June 25, 2022

Silver Nightshade

Chapters: 2/5 (8k/21k) Fandom: Free Guy (2021) Rating: Explicit Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Antwan/Walter "Keys" McKey Characters: Walter "Keys" McKey, Antwan (Free Guy), Mouser (Free Guy), Millie Rusk Additional Tags: Pre-Canon, Keys POV, Workplace Relationship, Power Imbalance, Dubious Consent, Non-Consensual Drug Use, Love Potion/Spell, Magic, Soul Bond, Non-Consensual Soul Bonding, Ambiguously Happy Ending, Anal Sex, Switching, Antwan is still an asshole, Moral Ambiguity Summary:

When Keys is given the opportunity to continue development of Life Itself under the Soonami umbrella, he's beyond excited. Finally, he gets to work on a game he actually likes. Except his boss, Antwan, might have ulterior motives behind promoting Keys to project leader. Keys will have to decide whether getting his game to market will be worth everything that comes with it.

19 notes - Posted April 22, 2022

Hi!!

How do you think stoncy + robin poly dynamic would look like? ♥

Oh, what a good question!

I could see it starting a lot of different ways, but let's start off with stoncy established. Steve becomes platonic soulmates with Robin, so she starts hanging out with him, Nancy, and Jonathan all the time.

Jonathan and Robin would become close friends. I feel like Jonathan could be the person Robin would hang out with when she wants her brain to just slow down and mellow out for a little while. They would bond over movies, in particular. Both of them are prone to anxiety and catastrophizing, but Jonathan is good at heading it off in other people (his mom, Will), so I think he'd be a stabilizing force for Robin. Robin, on the other hand, would be good at joking in a kind way and using hyperbole to help Jonathan realize that he's blowing things out of proportion.

And then there's Nancy. I feel like her observation of Jonathan and Steve's relationship with each other could give her a framework for understanding how her feelings for Robin are growing less platonic over time. I think it would also take Nancy a long time to admit these feelings to anyone other than herself. Like, she already has Jonathan and Steve. Shouldn't they be enough for her? But she's crushing hard on Robin and dying inside every time Robin talks about another girl.

Steve would've figured out pretty early on that Robin has a crush on Nancy, but Jonathan would have been the one to notice Nancy's crush on Robin. They would tell each other about their respective observations, and then do whatever shenanigans they could to get Nancy and Robin out on a date together.

Eventually they would all live together, Robin and Nancy in one bedroom, Steve and Jonathan in the other, but Nancy ends up sleeping in whichever bed she ends up in for the night. Pretty often Steve ends up sleeping (platonically) in Robin's bed, because he snores and Robin's the only one who can sleep through it and doesn't end up kicking him half the night to get him to stop.

30 notes - Posted September 7, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

See the full post

280 notes - Posted May 31, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#tumblr2022 #year in review #my 2022 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review

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mad-dawg451 · 2 years

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Proving that Stranger Things 4 (2022) is simply a retelling of Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules (2011)

aka the greatest film of our generation

You better hold on to your butts, brochachos because you’re in for a wild ride here.

Exhibit A: The roller rink incident

It’s no secret that these scenes are similar but I don’t think I’ve seen anyone talk about just how similar they actually are. These scenes are practically identical and you cannot convince me otherwise.

To start: A couple of nefarious DJs put on fast/loud music with the intention of intimidating the target in the middle of the rink (on the top we have ST and on the bottom we’ve got RR)

Then the target is skated around and humiliated while the music plays:

Ok, seems like pretty standard bullying at a roller rink. Not enough to make this much fuss over. But wait, there’s more. A third party intervenes to stop the music (in ST it’s Mike and in RR it’s Greg’s mom):

But the humiliation continues after the music stops and the lights come on. El gets milkshaked and Greg has to be bridal carried off the rink by his father:

Excuse me Duffer bros, what is this? But just you wait, there's more

Exhibit B: Peeping tomfoolery

While we’re on the roller rink I might as well address the other similarity that happens here (at least in ST, it’s at a completely different place in RR). Both Mike and Greg enter a woman’s restroom for innocent reasons, Mike to find El and Greg to hide from everyone at the nursing home, but are then forced out of it by the women already in there

Ok maybe not the exact same situation, but similar enough that it feels right to include it.

Exhibit C: The failed presentation

Now for what I consider one of my strongest pieces of evidence alongside the roller rink incident. I honestly don’t know how this hasn’t been talked about before because it’s almost completely identical. Let me set the scene for you: the characters are presenting history projects in class. The presentation before our main character is called up is an extremely well done powerpoint-esque project that is praised by the teacher

Then our main character is called up and encouraged by their friend who is sitting next to them

Our main character starts with their project and it’s immediately obvious that they didn’t do the assignment correctly, much to the amusement of their peers

Especially the “mean girl” (I fully believe that everything Patty did to Greg was well deserved because he’s annoying but she’s presented as the antagonist so my point still stands)

That is the exact same shot. Duffer brothers I know what you did, these scenes are the same

Exhibit D: The van

What’s the main mode of transportation in RR and ST4? Oh yeah that’s right it’s an iconic and recognizable van driven by the older brother of one of the main characters and their friend

With the older characters riding in the front while the younger sibling and their friend are in the back:

Mike and Will are having a moment while Rowley’s catching some real airtime there. Iconic

Exhibit E: The concert

Now maybe this one is a bit of a reach but I’m going for it. The grand finale of both ST4 and RR includes a concert. ST features Master of Puppets by Metallica which sounds suspiciously similar to...

Explöded Diper by Löded Diper. Obviously Master of Puppets came first and Explöded Diper is based off of it, but why did the Duffer bros choose that song to be their grand finale instead of countless other 80s metal songs? Was it because it happened to be a popular song when the show takes place or was it because it has ties to Rodrick Rules? I know which one I believe

Exhibit F: Men with bangs

Stranger Things has a male character who has bangs, is a guitarist in a rock band, and hangs out with people much younger than him?

So does Rodrick Rules (Bill):

Not much else to say here only that at their core they are the same (sorry Eddie but it’s true)

Exhibit G: “Deny, deny, deny”

The theme of lying/denying the truth is a central motif in RR. In fact, the phrase “deny, deny, deny” is used frequently throughout the movie.

Who’s out there doing a lot of denying in ST? Oh yeah, it’s Will:

Conclusion:

Does this mean anything? I don’t know, man. All I know is that the Duffer bros have absolutely seen the American cinematic masterpiece Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules and have some explaining to do because not only one, but several moments in their own show are a little too similar here and I would like an explanation

And with that I will leave you with this:

#this is only half a joke #stranger things #diary of a wimpy kid #rodrick rules #byler #not actually byler but you guys will get it

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readingfanficismyhobby · 2 years

Text

I posted 32 times in 2022

That's 23 more posts than 2021!

25 posts created (78%)

7 posts reblogged (22%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@readingfanficismyhobby

@sasukelluar

@greenistheboy

@babysitterpng

@henderdads

I tagged 31 of my posts in 2022

Only 3% of my posts had no tags

#stranger things 4 - 22 posts

#stranger things - 20 posts

#st4 spoilers - 15 posts

#st4 vol2 - 13 posts

#steve harrington - 9 posts

#eddie munson - 8 posts

#dustin henderson - 6 posts

#st4 theory - 6 posts

#she hulk - 4 posts

#nancy wheeler - 4 posts

Longest Tag: 91 characters

#it’s just the most random fic ever and it somehow saved me from the abyss of steddie fanfic

My Top Posts in 2022:

Anyone ever think about how in season 1 of stranger things Joyce was the only one to “sense” Will in the Upside Down, and then her and Jonathan could sense each other in the final episode?

Well I do, because in season 4 Steve was the one to sense Dustin. Which means they’re as close as a mother and child. Excuse me while I go sob in the corner.

I’m sure there’s a good mom Steve wordplay in here somewhere but I’m not articulate enough for that.

17 notes - Posted July 31, 2022

I just had this awesome stranger things 4 volume two theory!!! Credit goes to @.dizay on tiktok for pointing this out.

So in the tiktok the user points out that in the D&D game in the first episode Dustin couldn’t beat Vecna when he rolled an ELEVEN. This foreshadows El being unable to beat Vecna alone, just like Brenner said. But at the same time as the D&D game is being played, Lucas wins the basketball game at the last second by scoring the winning shot. Guess what number he is? EIGHT!!! THIS could foreshadow Eight, aka Kali, coming to El’s rescue near the end.

Imagine this: El has just lost against Vecna, and a majority of not all of the cast have been captured and/or killed by Vecna. Vecna is making his victory speech that we hear in the trailer, and as he’s about to finish El off, the striking blow goes THROUGH her! He, along with the audience, realizes this was an illusion and that everyone is getting away!

Having Kali come back would be EPIC! I’ve always wondered what else the Duffer brothers were going to do with her, especially because she appeared only in season two and was never mentioned again. They’ve proven with clock noises throughout the series that there has been a plan this whole time, so I don’t think they’d introduce Kali just to further El’s arc in season two. I think they WANTED us to forget about her, so when she comes in and saves the day it’s even more amazing! This theory is supported by the fact that Kali was referred to briefly by Vecna during El’s time at the lab, and I don’t think she’s ever been mentioned before this outside of season 2.

Even if this theory is totally wrong, I still believe Kali will be back! Lucas getting the winning shot could be foreshadowing Kali’s triumphant return next season instead of this season. Who knows honestly, this show is so good at getting you thinking you know what’s up and then it turns out you actually don’t. Can’t wait for volume 2!!!

19 notes - Posted June 22, 2022

I don’t think I’ve heard anyone talk about this, but has anyone seen that one clip of Eddie and Dustin together back to back?

I was rewatching the vol 2 sneak peak and I realized that Eddie is holding Steve’s nail bat!! This is so cute, I bet there was this whole scene where Steve is telling Eddie to protect Dustin for him, since he’ll be doing something else. And Steve gives Eddie the bat like a good luck charm.

Ugh I’m just so excited to see them again.

23 notes - Posted June 13, 2022

Major spoilers for st4 vol 2!!!!

Okay, so I know it’s a little early for this but I have some predictions about season 5:

- In the last Dustin has always been very insistent about solving mysteries related to the upside down. However Dustin’s face when he saw the upside down particles leads me to believe the trauma from Eddie’s death will affect his confidence. He looked absolutely terrified when he noticed the particles. This is foreshadowed by Steve and Eddie’s comments about “getting his ego in check”, which will happen but not in the way anyone would want it to. So in season 5 Dustin will have an arc that revolves around Eddie’s death and regaining his confidence.

- Max’s almost-death in vol 2 felt absolutely BRUTAL. But I don’t think the Duffers would have left her alive if they didn’t intend on bringing her back somehow. We heard from Brenner that when Vecna kills, he takes everything that a person is and absorbs it. This makes me believe that the reason Max isn’t waking up and El couldn’t find her is because her soul and memories are will Vecna. I think there will be an arc next season about rescuing Max, but I don’t know how.

- at the end of season 5 there was a very dramatic scene where you can see a HUGE gate to the upside down. It’s kind of hard to ignore, so I think maybe the rest of the world will find out about the alternate dimension.

- The supposed timeskip is the most confusing part of season 5. The Duffer brothers confirmed that there will be a timeskip of 2-3 years between seasons 4 and 5, but I’m not entirely sure how that will work. I think that maybe Hawkins will be ground zero for a war between humans and Vecna with his monsters. Nancy described him having an army, so this would line up.

I’m ready to be completely proven wrong when season 5 info starts releasing, but I just had to get these thoughts out.

24 notes - Posted July 3, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Honestly I think episode 8 of she hulk was just amazing, even without daredevils appearance. The suspense building from the moment Matt left Jen’s house was palpable. There was a drastic tonal shift from that point to the end of the episode that I think was amazingly executed especially considering the genre of the show is comedy.

I wasn’t expecting for the video to be released as revenge porn, but honestly I’m so here for it. It’s an issue that many women unfortunately have to face. The idea of having a video like that recorded without your knowledge or consent is jarring enough, let alone it being released in front of your colleagues, family, and friends at an event you were supposed to get an award for. And then of course Jen is viewed as the “bad guy” for reacting strongly at the release of this video. But its nice to see that this very real issue is being directly confronted. I’m excited to see how the show ends, and I look forward to Jen being even more badass.

(And while I’m on the subject, the talks about getting Jen’s blood for something was a brilliant misdirect. The blood will probably still play a factor in the finale but it successfully distracted me from a plot twist.)

This show has been amazing to watch as a whole, not just this episode, because it’s explicitly stated and shown the issues women face every day from episode 1 in the very first scene (where Jen had to deal with that asshole who thought he knew better). In fact, it even called out the types of misogynistic men who exist today during the brief social media scene in episode 2 I think. Here’s to hoping future marvel projects show similar traits!

33 notes - Posted October 7, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#tumblr2022 #year in review #my 2022 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review

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flamedork · 2 years

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i can’t have miraculous and stranger thing 4 bells going off at the same time I CANT

#i am not okay #I’m just about to go into st4 finale #and then the mls5 trailer #?????#who the fuck approved that #trash talk #ml #ml spoilers

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luveline · 2 years

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Jade!!! I’m so in awe of how you write Steve, like you capture his character so well! I was thinking about if the reader had also been dragged into the mess that is saving Hawkins and, as a result, has also unofficially been anointed a baby sitter - Steve would be all heart eyes seeing how well you get on with the kids and just how much you care for them (and how much they care for you)

thank you! Steve and you having a quiet moment between all the hubbub and just loving each other and being proud of each other for how you take care of the kids (word count: 1k) fluff and softie steve 🥺 ST4 EP 4 SPOILERS AHEAD

You try not to be too obvious about what you're doing as you stare across the room at Steve. He's sitting with his back pressed against the chair Dustin's currently slumped in, eyes blinking slowly as he attempts to stay awake.

You're opposite on the sofa between Max and Lucas, Max finally asleep. Her face is pressed into your arm. She might be drooling. You decide that this is more than allowed considering what she's just been though.

Lucas is still awake. Still worried.

"I don't know…" he confesses quietly, almost too quiet to hear despite the room's silence, "what I would have done. If something happened."

If Vecna got her, he doesn't say.

You brush your knuckles against the back of Max's hand as you twist, giving him what you hope is a soft, reassuring smile.

"Nothing happened, and nothing is gonna happen. We're gonna work this out. She's safe, Lucas. I promise," you whisper, putting on an exasperated tone. You're not sure how truthful you're being but you believe vehemently that everyone's gonna be okay. You have to.

You don't know him very well, any of them, only through Steve. They love Steve and seem to like you, and despite a big risk of going too far and overstepping, you really want to reassure Lucas.

These kids are so young, they don't realise how young they are. Growing up is traumatic enough without the constant threat of an evil power, and it shows on all their tired faces that they're stressed beyond words.

Lucas sighs and crosses his arms over his chest, reminding you of Steve. You look to him, find your brown eyed boy watching you with an earnest, fond smile stretched over his lips.

"Steve and I," you say, a little firmer, "we won't let anything happen to Max… or to you."

"I'm a great fucking babysitter," Steve agrees, voice rough with fatigue. "And so is Y/N. That's double the protection, Sinclair."

"Exactly. We've got a basement full of dorks who, including yourself, are smart and brave enough to get through this."

Lucas starts to get that look on his face despite his overall maturity that you recognise as embarrassment; too much heart to heart for a teenage boy right now. You dial it down.

"And to do that you need to sleep. Get some rest, gather your strength. The campaign isn't over," you say. Both Steve and Lucas snort at your cheesy joke.

Lucas settles down and eventually falls asleep after you make a big show of not feeling tired. "I got it," you whisper. "I'll be on Max watch."

Now, with all the babies asleep including the academics who basically saved the day, it's only you and Steve.

"Are you okay?" you whisper.

"Baby, I should be asking you that. I've been through this whole shtick three times already."

"Don't you think that's worse?" You can't imagine how scared he is.

Steve straightens up with an awful groan and sets a dead stare at you that withers your bravery almost too fast. "I'm fine. I am," you say, words riddled with a scratching weakness, like your voice might break. "I'm okay."

Steve gets up. You lift your head as he walks towards you, careful not to make too much noise. His hands are soft and very, very careful as he bends at the waist and takes your face into them, like he's assessing you.

His thumbs aligned at your jaw and his fingers cupping the underside, Steve dips his head towards his chin. "It's okay if you're scared. This is ridiculously terrifying," he says seriously. Then, less so. "Not that I'm scared. Shit's getting kind of old for me, if you know what I mean," he says, rolling his eyes.

You laugh and shake your head, eyes closing. "Don't make me laugh, I don't want to wake up the kids," you whisper.

His bravado softens. "You're good with them," he says, hands smoothing down the column of your throat, over your shoulders and up again, massaging you with a light pressure. "Really good."

"I'm just following your lead," you murmur.

He smirks. "Yeah," he says, leaning in, the heat of his lips fanning over your own, "I must set a good example, 'cos you're amazing."

He kisses you, a soft, chaste peck that eases some of the tension you're holding, his smile pressed to yours.

His fingers flex around your neck.

"Are you really okay?" he asks as he pulls away.

You don't have to think about it.

"I'm good, Steve."

"Yeah, you are."

He leans down to give you a hug, an awkward struggle because of your position and the bodies you're acting as a pillow for. You can only use one arm when you hug him back, the other sandwiched under Max's shoulders, but it's a pretty good hug, all things considered.

"You wanna sleep in my lap?" you joke into his neck.

"Don't tempt me. I miss you," he says. Your arm tightens where you're wrapped behind his neck, crushing his perfect hair.

"I miss you too."

And you do. Taking care of the kids, trying to stop whatever it is that's happening from happening, you'd never not try your hardest but you can't wait for this to be over. To fall asleep next to Steve, and to not worry that it'll be the last time you see him when you close your eyes.

You're on Max watch, but you're on Steve watch too.

Steve pats your face gently, just once, and goes back to play guard dog at Dustin's side, though he lies on his back.

Max mumbles something in her sleep. You turn to her, your heart racing at the idea that she's having a Vecna related nightmare. You're tentative as you rub her jacketed arm, hoping to soothe her through it.

"Poor kids," you murmur.

"They have you and me," Steve says quietly. "They're gonna be fine."

"Go to sleep, Harrington," you say, not bothering to turn to him.

"They're gonna be fine," he repeats, sounding both amused and affectionate at your worrying.

"I know. Now go to sleep, idiot."

"Wake me up when you're tired."

"Yeah, whatever you want."

"Wake me up when you're-" he starts again, in a tone usually reserved for the kids when they aren't listening.

"Alright, Steve. I will," you say, laughing under your breath. "Control freak."

"What did you say?"

"Nothing."

"Yeah. S'what I thought." His scathing tone is dampened by the sleepiness. Your chest fills with warm affection.

#stranger things 4 spoilers #stranger things spoilers #stranger things fic #stranger things x reader #stranger things 4 #stranger things #spoilers stranger things #steve harrington x y/n #steve harrington imagine #steve harrington x reader #steve harrington #steve and max my beloveds #steve x reader #steve harrington x you #steve harrington x gn!reader #steve harrington x reader fluff #steve harrington x reader fanfic #steve harrington blurb #steve harrington drabble

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slashersteve · 2 years

Text

Next Best Thing to An Angel

requested by anonymous

pairing: Steve Harrington/Henderson!Female Reader

summary: Reader has been cursed by Vecna, and the group has to work fast in order to find a way to rid her of it. There's too many close calls, and just when they thought they had it figured out...it just might be too late.

warnings/extra tags: cursing, mentions of blood, violence due to fucked up visions brought to you by Vecna, near death experiences, >>>ST4 V1 SPOILERS<<<, this is beta read by the bestie @dearneverlander so it should be ~crisp~

note: There's references to the 1984 movie Streets of Fire aka one of my fave 80s Rock and Roll Fables. You don't need to know the exact plot, but just know it's an important movie and soundtrack to the reader <3 This took me a bit to write because I wanted it to be hella good. Thank you for the request and I hope you enjoy!

✧ ✧ ✧

It started just a day after your cheer teammate and one of your closest friends, Chrissy Cunningham, told you she was having problems. You were perhaps one of the only people who was aware of what she was going through, not even her boyfriend knew about her horrible headaches or the growing nightmares.

When she told you, she seemed so scared. It was so unlike her that it scared you to see her act in such a way, so much that you thought you scared yourself into experiencing the same things or that maybe she caught an illness and gave it to you.

The first thing that happened was a nosebleed. You were at the Hawkins Family Video Store, waiting for your boyfriend Steve to finish renting out a video to a customer so you can help him pick out a movie to put on.

You were reading the back of a tape that Robin had handed you prior, since she was trying to broaden yours and Steve's movie horizons because according to her you both were ‘hopeless’ when it came to your movie knowledge.

"I don't know about this one Robin," You called to her.

"What? God, you're so lame, you and Steve are probably just going to put on Streets of Fire again,” she replied from somewhere behind you.

You chuckled to yourself, "Not exactly a bad idea."

"Did you say Streets of Fire?" Steve questioned after the customer had left, leaving just you three and a handful of patrons who were still trying to find movies to watch, "I love that movie. It's pretty damn romantic."

You laughed and agreed while Robin scoffed and pushed the video cart aside.

"Excuse me? Did you say romantic? He punches her in the face," Robin reminded you both. You cringed.

"Okay, not that part, but even then it's taken out of context- just- whatever, it's a good movie," you tried to defend it, "Plus, the soundtrack is pretty killer."

"I’m still not over you both thinking it’s romantic. Context considered and all, but they don't even end up together in the end," Robin replied, you sighed.

"It's about the closure, Robin, he just left her without a word, and after he saves her from Raven, they finally get it, it is romantic in it's own way," you set the other tape down, ready to put it on the video store's TV out of spite.

"Right. Well, at least Diane Lane is hot in it...and yeah, I'll give you the soundtrack, it is pretty good."

Steve laughed to himself, enjoying how much you loved and defended the movie because he knew why you liked it so much. It was the movie you and him watched on your very first date two years ago at a drive-in. Since then, it has been your favorite movie of all time.

"I think you secretly like the movie, Robin, and since it's my turn to pick a movie," Steve had grabbed it from where it sat conveniently under the counter and handed it to you, "Go ahead and put it on." You hopped off of the counter with a satisfied grin while Robin sighed dramatically and crossed her arms.

You removed the tape from its case, and leaned up, ready to insert it into the player when your mind suddenly became foggy. It felt odd, like an invisible force had violently washed over you and caused a pulsing pain in your head that almost mirrored a migraine.

The tape slipped from your grasp, crashing onto the ground as you brought your hand to your forehead. The clatter of the tape hitting the ground was what had brought you back to reality after a few seconds, and Steve was beside you.

"Woah, are you okay-” he stopped when his brown eyes fell to the bottom part of your face. You blinked, still a little disoriented from the random headache.

“Oh shit, Henderson, your nose,” Robin said what Steve didn’t, her eyes on the same place Steve’s were. You lifted your hand to below your nose, instantly feeling something wet and sticky.

When you looked at your fingers, you saw it was blood.

It didn't scare you more than it had confused you. You hadn't gotten one in so long, and the last time your nose did bleed was when a sophomore girl trying out for the cheer team kicked you in the nose by accident.

After this incident, the days following felt almost like hell. You'd wake up in a cold sweat from nightmares, all of them about either losing Steve or your little brother Dustin, and you were taking Tylenol more frequently for these massive headaches that never seemed to go away.

You could only think of Chrissy, and what she had told you, and wonder if she passed you some kind of illness. You tried talking to her again during practice or in the halls, but she seemed keen on continuing to pretend that she was alright, and maybe she was because she still cheered and ruled the school with a smile on her face.

You thought if she could do it, then so could you. Unlike her though, you had a boyfriend who could see right through the facade and had a brother who could relay to him how weird you've been acting when Steve asked. He had told Steve the nights you’ve canceled on dates or meet-ups with him and Robin in the past few days you were actually locked away in your room. It was very uncharacteristic of you, considering you were out almost every other day, either with your friends or with Steve.

When Steve insisted you let him drop you off at Hawkins High and asked you what had been going on when Robin left first, you didn’t really understand why your first instinct was to withhold the truth.

"I just haven't been feeling well," you told him, while pretending you were fixing your lipstick, "I think I...caught something.”

"Something how?" Steve asked, concern etched all over his features, “It must be bad because you look like you haven’t been sleeping either.”

You pressed your lips together because you were positive you packed on enough make-up to hide those dark circles that had started form.

You didn't want to tell him about your nightmares, not wanting to worry him for what you thought were just dreams. It made you feel bad because you've never shied away from telling Steve anything, but you were scared if you said anything whatever it was would get him too. Your dreams were too...vivid and real.

It was always about the day you both were interrogated by the Russian Guards, and every time you didn't answer they hurt him and not you. They made you believe they had killed him, that you were the reason he was dead. And there was that…room.

"Just headaches, mostly," you said quietly, shutting the mirror and resting your hands above your Hawkins cheer skirt.

Steve had looked suspicious, and he said, “Should you do the pep rally then? Or the game tonight? I know it’s the championship but…” You had forced a sweet smile his way and leaned toward him.

"I'll be okay, I promise," you tried to assure him with a peck on his cheek, leaving the pink residue of your lipstick there, “I love it when you care so much.” You were gone and out of the car before Steve could say anything more.

Steve had noticed since that day you were different, it almost felt like you were pulling away from him emotionally in a way. For almost two years you've been in this relationship, and when you've gotten sick in the past, you never had done this.

Something else was wrong, but neither of you would find out until after Chrissy Cunningham's death.

✧ ✧ ✧

"The curse of Vecna," Dustin Henderson and Eddie Munson had both said at the same time.

"The curse of who?" Steve asked. You had scrunched your face up with confusion.

"Are you two talking about that wizard from Dungeons and Dragons?" you asked, knowing this information because Dustin always bothered you by explaining all of the campaigns he did to you during dinner mostly.

"Not just a wizard, a dark wizard," Dustin told you, "He uses a magic spell on the players called Vecna's curse."

"Do you really think that's what it is?" Max had asked from beside Robin, "I mean…”

"Only one way to find out. What else have you experienced?" Dustin's question was toward you now, and you uncomfortably crossed your arms over your chest, not sure what to say.

Eddie blinked a few times as he looked between Dustin and you before he asked, "Wait, why are you asking her?"

Steve's hand rested on the small of your back, and you exhaled shakenly, "Because about a week ago, Chrissy confided in me about these...nightmares and headaches she'd been getting. And about a day after that...I started to get the same kind of symptoms and now Chrissy is dead and I-" you closed your lips and shook your head.

Eddie stared at you, "Oh shit."

Steve rubbed your back affectionately, "Okay, so now that we think we know what it is, how it works...is there any way to stop it?"

"Okay, okay, first up, didn't you say something about a nosebleed?" Dustin's question was directed at you again. You looked at your little brother and nodded.

"Yeah, about 6 days ago at the video store...Steve and Robin were there."

Nobody noticed how Max shifted uncomfortably in her spot upon hearing your words.

Robin nodded, "Yeah I remember that...god this is insane. I mean, last time it was insane too, but this is just...yikes."

As they continued to discuss possible ways to stop this curse they believe you had, you started to feel very uneasy. Chills had crawled their way up your back, making you tense up and bite your lip to stop it from quivering.

Eddie had said what happened to Chrissy, how she was in this sort of trance before her body was lifted into the air and...how her bones cracked and how her eyes...how her fucking eyes were sucked back into her skull.

You thought about how it was after Chrissy told you about her problems, you instantly got them too. And you looked at everyone around you, your little brother, Robin, Max, even Eddie, and especially Steve. You didn't know how this thing spread, if this Vecna character had chosen you simply because you interacted with Chrissy, like she passed some curse onto you.

And if any of them were next it would be because you were an idiot and told them too.

The thought made you physically ill and you were leaving before anyone could stop you, ignoring Steve calling after you. You left the boat house with a hand over your mouth to try and keep the rising bile in your throat down.

When you were finally near the trees, you doubled over and threw up all over the grass. You fell to your hands and knees after you emptied out your already empty stomach, panting and spitting onto the floor to get the horrid taste of the stomach bile and acid out of your mouth.

Running out into the darkness was not a smart idea, you knew that, especially now you learned you were probably cursed, but you just needed to run. You needed to get out, you needed to just get away from them.

Then, you heard Steve calling your name. You were shaking and shouted, "I’m okay- just leave me alone right now- please-"

Your name was called again, but this time...it wasn't Steve. In fact, it wasn't any of them inside that boat house.

This voice caused a violent wave of fear to crash through you, making your body go still. Whatever had called your name was right behind you. You turned your head slowly, and saw that your surroundings were different now.

Different, but very familiar too. Blood stained the floor tiled floor and walls, torture weapons scattered among them. The stench of blood was strong, just as it was the day you remember being locked in there when you were captured in the Russian Facility.

It was the room they said they had killed Steve in.

Your hands moved to cover your nose and mouth, panic rising in you that you were somehow here again reliving the worst day of your life.

The loud chime of what sounded like a large clock echoed from behind you, causing you to yelp out a short scream and twist your body around to see the source of the sound.

Engraved in the wall, your eyes fell upon an ominous grandfather clock. It chimed, echoing in your ears and mind, and it ticked almost like a threat.

And it certainly was.Your name was called again, but this time it felt like it was all around you.

“The time to end your suffering is coming soon,” the voice told you, “Join me and I will spare your friends. If you refuse, I will take them all.”

The clock chimed again and ticked, louder than the thumping of your chest and louder than the voice itself. The lights of the torture room you were in flickered, and you caught a glimpse of…something or somebody.

It was enough to make you scream.

You were gasping suddenly. And then, you heard Steve’s voice shouting your name.

Steve’s hands were grasped tightly over your shoulders, as he was shaking you in an attempt to get you to wake up.

Your eyes shot around your surroundings, not looking at Steve at first as you took in that you were where you found yourself before. By the trees just outside of Reefer Rick’s boathouse, and in the grass you’d just vomited in.

“Hey! Hey!” Steve called to you, “Look at me, I’m right here, what happened? Are you okay? Talk to me!” You finally looked at Steve, and in an instant you remembered what that being had told you.

“If you refuse, I will take them all.”

You shook your head frantically, and said in a broken voice, “No, no I won’t let him.”

Steve furrowed his eyebrows at you, and tilted his head and he asked you what you were talking about. That was when you moved away from him, from all of them, even your own little brother who was knelt beside you.

Like Steve, his eyebrows were drawn together, and he said, “Wait- wait what are you talking about?”

You kept your eyes down, being sure not to look at any of them who you realized were surrounding you too. Eddie had his hands in his hair, Robin had a hand over her mouth and Max’s expression was simply unreadable. Nobody spoke for a few seconds, probably because they were waiting for you to speak.

Steve reached out to you, gently grabbing your trembling hand when you didn’t, “Hey, it’s us, okay? What happened?”

To Steve’s surprise, you pulled away from him the moment his hand touched yours and started to shake your head again, muttering a quiet I can’t underneath your breath.

His heart dropped when you had done so and he only felt more of this fearful feeling since he came out here and found you. After you had left the boat house, Steve was the first to run after you, then it was Dustin and the rest. He found you on your hands and knees, just staring forward with your eyes clear and blinking.

You were unresponsive, no matter how much he called your name, not even when all of them called your name. It was like you weren’t even there.

It was when Eddie came out and saw the state you were in, things became much more real.

“That’s exactly what happened to fucking Chrissy!” Eddie had said, his hands moving to his ears as he stared with a terrified expression, as if he expected you to start levitating like she did at any second.

It was one thing to hear about it, but another to see what Eddie was talking about in person, especially to someone you care and desperately love. It felt like someone had thrown ice cold water on Steve, and he felt completely helpless as nothing he did brought you back from wherever you were.

And now, you were awake and you were…terrified.

“I…I have to get out of here,” you suddenly said in a shaking voice as you moved to stand, “Because of me he’s going to get you- he’s going to get all of you.”

The words hit them like a freight train, but you were already walking away. Steve tried to catch you, but you were already out of his reach.

“Who? Vecna? You saw Vecna? Did he tell you that? ” Dustin was standing and following after you, “Shit! Tell us what you saw! Then maybe-”

“No!” you shouted at your brother, “No! I can’t- I-I have to go-”

Steve remained still for a moment, wondering why you would say such a thing. Because of me he’s going to get all of you.

What the hell does that mean?

✧ ✧ ✧

“Here’s what we know, my sister said because of me he’s going to get all of you,” Dustin stated as they sat in the trailer park benches, “And she said she interacted with Chrissy before that. So maybe, just maybe there’s some kind of a connection there, right? Like it’s a curse that spreads like some kind of…virus?”

Everyone was there, and so were you, but you were sitting at the playground. They were sure to always look over at you.

You hadn’t talked much since your experience last night, and it was a choice on your part. If they weren’t going to leave you alone, then you wouldn’t tell them anything, hoping that perhaps that would keep this Vecna away from them too.

“I mean…maybe?” Nancy had spoken, having joined them after the death of her co-editor Fred. He was killed the exact same way Chrissy had been, and when you heard that, you were shaking with terror because you knew you were next.

“What do you mean maybe?” Dustin asked Nancy.

“It’s just…Fred’s never had any interaction with Chrissy or your sister, he’s been at my side for at least…89% of the school year,” Nancy said then glanced over at you, “Has she said anything yet?”

All eyes moved to you and then to Steve, and his eyes dropped down.

“She’s…fucking terrified guys,” Steve said, lifting his gaze on you now. You were digging your feet into the dirt beneath you, “And I am too. She hasn’t said a word since last night.”

He was still haunted by that image of you, your eyes nearly rolled to the back of your skull and nonreactive to anything he or the others had tried. He couldn’t get even a wink of sleep last night because he couldn’t get the image out of his mind.

“Well, we should try again,” Nancy urged, then started to stand, “I’ll go talk to her-”

“No, no I’ll talk to her,” Steve said as he stood up faster than her. They all looked at him again, and he raised his hand slightly, “I got this, she’s my girlfriend, did everyone forget that or something?”

He didn’t wait for any response from them, especially Dustin, and jogged toward where you sat. You heard someone coming, something you were actually anticipating. When you looked up, you saw Steve, and as your heart always did when you saw him, it leaped, making you for a moment feel…normal and safe again.

“Hey,” Steve said, and you would’ve smiled had your heart not felt cold again after being warm for the first few seconds you saw him. He leaned on the spot next to you. You stood up and moved away from him, making him frown deeper.

You never did this, shut yourself off from him and your friends before. Even with your little brother. And it broke Steve to see you like this, broke him that you didn’t want to tell him anything even if it could help them help you.

Right now, it just seemed like you’d given up and Steve didn’t like that because you never gave up.

Steve walked after you, and captured your wrist before you could get away. Your face hardened, and tried to pull away, but Steve kept his grasp firm.

“Stop doing that,” Steve told you, “Please. We want to help, I want to help, don’t let this creep Vecna guy just…torment you and take you away so easily.”

You shook your head, “Steve, it’s too dangerous, I’m next I know it, I know it.”

Steve exhaled sharply, hating that you’ve already actively accepted your fate rather than fighting and trying to find out with the rest of them on how to stop him.

“Don’t talk like that,” he said, “We’re going to figure this out, okay? We’ve figured everything out in the past and this time is going to be no different.”

“What’s different is that I’m a target this time, and it’s already been a day since Chrissy, and now Fred- I’m next and then it’ll be one of you and it’ll be because of me.”

“You don’t know that!” Steve said, his voice getting a little harder, “We don’t even know why or how this wizard guy targets his victims-”

“I was around Chrissy, Steve! She told me about her nightmares and her- her headaches, and now she’s dead and now someone else is dead and-”

“Hey!” Steve was pulling you toward him now, making you face him completely, “This isn’t helping anybody, especially yourself. You know more than us, probably something that we are missing. You have to trust us, trust me- because I am not going to let some…creepy weird dark wizard fucker take the girl that I love away from me.”

You stared at Steve in silence, his words striking you right in the chest.

“And they won’t either,” he gestured back to them, “No fucking way. No fucking way.”

Steve was mad, not at you, but at Vecna, and you felt almost a wave of calm coming over you for the first time since that nosebleed of yours. You’d forgotten in your mute state that they were your friends, that they cared about you, Steve cared about you. They only wanted to help. You were going to speak, going to tell Steve that you were sorry, that you would help…

But then, a cold air hit you, and the sky above you was covered in gray clouds, submerging you in a gloomy, stormy kind of atmosphere. You didn’t understand at first, eyes flickering upward until you suddenly heard the familiar chime of the clock.

Your heart dropped, and you looked back at Steve. Except it wasn’t Steve anymore, but this…monster.

You shrieked at the sight of this thing, this unimaginable horror that looked like it was covered with burnmarks and the vines of the Upside Down you remembered seeing in the underground tunnels you helped the kids set fire to.

“You’re going to get them killed,” the monster of your waking nightmares told you, “They’re going to die because of you.”

You stumbled backward and away from him, dry heaves coming out of your lips as you tried to form any kind of words. Instead, you placed your hand over your ears and closed your eyes again, a new habit of yours you didn’t know you had in the face of true terror.

He was chuckling, clearly entertained by the torment he was causing you.

As fast as it came, it had passed and the world around you was bright and warm again, Vecna’s laughter fading away from you, and your face was being held by Steve’s hands. He was panting, eyes flickering all over your features.

He looked distraught, his lips lightly quivering as he had to watch you go into yet another trance. The others were already running toward you, calling your name as well and asking what happened.

“What is he doing to you? Please tell me, so I can help you-” Steve practically begged you, but you were pulling away from him then and started to run. You didn’t know where you were running, or how far you’d get before them catching you, but it was all you could think of to do again. Just run, you thought, run as far away from them as possible. You run away and you keep them safe. You keep Dustin safe, you keep Steve safe, you keep them all safe.

They were all calling after you, their voices desperate and scared.

You thought you could still hear the chimes and the ticking, echoing all around you as you ran as fast as you could.

✧ ✧ ✧

Steve was trying to hold himself together, but the truth was he didn’t know what the hell to do. None of you really did. They of course had caught up to you after you ran, finding you sitting at the edge of the road.

When they found you, you had said it would be any moment now, any second, and that if they didn’t want to see what happened to Chrissy and Fred happen to you, they should leave now.

None of them did, and after many attempts, they finally got you to get into the car.

You were under a strict watch now, whether you had liked it or not. Both Steve and Dustin had to be firm with you.

You were lucky to have a genius for a little brother, sure he got on both yours and Steve’s nerves on occasion, but his mind was working quickly, and he was somehow able to keep moving forward in finding out more about Vecna and a possible cure for this curse of his.

He was doing more than Steve, and he felt useless because you were the love of his life and felt that he should be able to do more than just helplessly watch you suffer.

It was nighttime, and Steve had taken both you and Dustin to his place for the night. His parents were gone, per usual, and Dustin was sure to keep his radio on in case they needed the others for an emergency.

Neither of them wanted to say what this code red could be, deciding to keep that to themselves.

Steve didn’t want to think about what this emergency could be. They were in his bedroom, you were in the bathroom, unlocked of course and being timed, and Dustin was going over the new information they had learned.

“Think about it, they all went through the same thing, right? Nosebleeds, headaches, nightmares, everything, and everyone has had these…problems,” Dustin re-explained everything they had discovered together when they broke into Ms. Kelley’s office to Steve as he paced back and forth, eyes moving to the bathroom door every once in a while, “Chrissy, Fred…and…”

Steve said your name, and Dustin nodded.

“Yeah…there’s got to be something she’s not telling us, before all of this, maybe if she just told someone, anyone then we could at least weaken the curse, and then if this works than we can help Max too,” Dustin theorized as he made his way to the other side of the room again, and was sure to say her name a little quieter so you wouldn’t hear.

They had opted to not tell you about Max’s vision because you seemed dead bent on it being your fault somehow, and the last thing you needed was more on your conscience.

“So, is there anything she’s been weird about?” Dustin asked Steve now. He looked away in thought for a moment, but nothing fast was coming to mind.

“I…I don’t know,” Steve admitted, and Dustin scowled at him.

“Jesus Christ Steve, she’s your girlfriend,” Dustin sneered, Steve’s face scrunched up and he replied, “You’re her brother. And how am I supposed to know something that she didn’t tell me? I can’t read minds, man. That’s…Vecma’s job apparently.”

“Vecna,” Dustin corrected and Steve rolled his eyes because he’d been doing it all day, “I think it’s worth a try. I don’t think we have a lot of time here…” he closed his mouth, not wanting to think about how his sister could have the same fate as Chrissy and Fred.

Steve sympathized with him greatly, because if he was scared then so was Dustin. He was just ironically very collected about it, nevermind the pacing of the room or how he was speaking all in one breath.

“Okay, so…we talk to her then,” Steve repeated and Dustin nodded.

“If we can get her to, which is why I’m asking you to get her to talk,” Dustin pointed at Steve after stopping in the middle of the room, “You said she almost talked to you right? Before she went under his spell.”

Steve nodded, “Yeah, there was something different in her eyes, and she was about to speak, but then…she was just gone.”

Dustin snapped his fingers, “I think that proves my theory then! She was going to talk to you, open up to you, probably, and Vecna can’t have that…he can’t have her running back to us or letting us help her or else his spell gets weaker!”

Steve crossed one arm and rested the other under his chin as he thought. It sounded incredibly plausible, and he met Dustin’s gaze once again, “I…I think it’s definitely worth a shot.”

The door to the bathroom had opened then, and you emerged in one of Steve’s long sleeves, looking at both of them with suspicious eyes, especially when they both went quiet.

“Okay well, Steve is going to be on the first watch, I’m going to go downstairs and find some food,” Dustin stated quickly to you. You didn’t say anything, and Dustin gave you and Steve a thumbs up before leaving.

It was all up to Steve now, and he wasn’t going to let you keep quiet until Vecna got you. It wasn’t going to happen.

✧ ✧ ✧

You were sitting on his bed, your back resting against the bedrest when Steve finally sat down in front of you. You didn’t look at him when he did, keeping your eyes to the wall opposite of you. It looked like you were probably admiring his trophies, but Steve knew better. You were a million miles away, but not in Vecna’s spell at least.

He didn’t know how to start it, how to even ask you, but he knew he had to. Something had happened, and he needed to make you tell him.

“Did something happen…before all this that you never told me about?” Steve was asking you, you still didn’t look at him. Steve reached over and grabbed your hand gently, “I was talking to Dustin, and he thinks that it’s possible that Vecna targets those with some kind of…trauma, I guess?”

You shifted only slightly, and Steve rubbed his thumb on your knuckles, “Don’t tell him this because it’ll just rub his already big ego,” he rolled his eyes jokingly, for his new attempt to get you to talk was to be humorous, it always worked on you, but you didn’t smile or react at all, “…but he’s usually right about most things.”

Steve honestly didn’t doubt it. The girl you became since you were first cursed was somebody completely different, somebody who was broken and afraid, so whatever this Vecna was using to manipulate and change you into this person must’ve been pretty horrific.

But you wouldn’t talk to him, and he now knew Vecna wasn’t letting you because of what happened in the trailer park. Like he relayed to Dustin, you were going to talk to him, going to tell him at least something, and immediately you were put into that trance.

It pissed him off because he was keeping you away from him, and everyone else. He was isolating you, and it was working. You refused to speak, hell you even physically ran away.

“Whatever he is telling you, it isn’t true,” Steve had tried to say these words as firmly as he could, but his voice had cracked instantly when he continued, “There’s a reason this sadistic asshole is convincing you to run away from us, to keep quiet- and I’m sick of it. Talk to me, please, tell me what it is, just please try.”

Tears slipped from his eyes then, ones that he didn’t notice at first.

You finally looked at him again, realizing then that Steve was crying. He hardly ever cried, but when he did, it always made you instantly upset too. The last time you’d seen him shed such tears like this was when he learned he didn’t get into any colleges and his dad practically called him stupid and almost disowned him.

Knowing that it was you Steve was crying over, that it was you causing such emotions made you feel shameful. You reached out suddenly, resting your hand over his. Steve was right, you knew he was, and it was time to stop letting Vecna scare you. You had to say something.

“It…it happened when we were taken by the Russian guards under Starcourt,” you suddenly said, making Steve’s eyes lift up at you. They were wet with tears, “Remember how you were marked up but me and Robin weren’t?”

He nodded once at you, and sucked in a shaky breath before saying, “It was because they were using you against us, specifically me. If I didn’t speak, they’d beat you more, torture you…and I…I didn’t say anything even though I wanted to so bad just to stop hearing them hurt you.”

Your own eyes were welling up with tears now too at the horrid memory, “I wasn’t going to give away Dustin or Erica, or anyone, and they knew that, so they had taken it a step forward and-”

Your voice was quivering again, but you knew you had to tell him.

“They made it seem like they killed you,” you eyes flashed with the memory of the room they forced you into, claiming it was the room Steve had been kept in, the room that Vecna forced you to step into again in your first vision, “I don’t know whose blood it was, it probably wasn’t even human, but I…I thought you were dead because of me.”

Tears slipped from your eyes as you finally told him what he wanted to know, “I know they lied, but in the hour they left me in there, it wasn’t a lie. It was real, and I-”

Steve was pulling you into his arms before you knew it.

You started to cry too, letting apologies slip from your lips for not telling him and letting Vecna use it against you. You felt weak and pitiful, and he knew how to make that feeling worse until you were too scared to be around everyone.

“I’m okay,” he reassured you, “And I’m going to be okay, nobody can take me away from you so easily- I would fight till the ends of the earth to get back to you…I love you way too much.”

You were nodding, understanding that now because the past week Vecna had taken that understanding from you. You sniffled and told him that you loved him too.

You and Steve stayed in each other’s arms for a while until he moved away from you and said, “Can I give you something?”

You looked up at him, blinking away a few years and asked, “What…what is it?”

“It’s an early anniversary gift,” Steve said as he dug through his drawer. You found yourself smiling at the idea of him hiding it, especially when it was about 2 months before your actual anniversary of being together for two years, “I think…I don’t know maybe it will help…show you how much I love you…”

“Steve, I don’t go into your drawers, you didn’t have to hide it like that,” you said, but still peaked over as far as you could to see what it was as you wiped away your tears. Honestly, you thought maybe it was some piece of jewelry because a sock drawer is usually where those are hidden.

“It’s exactly why I put it here,” he said following a sniffle before he snapped his fingers and said, “Here it is!” He held up a mixtape, and you tilted your head curiously at it.

“You made a mixtape?” you asked, a smile growing on your lips once again. Steve nodded, then cringed.

“Honestly, Dustin had to help out…you can imagine how that went,” he said as he shook his head at the memory.

“Oh god, the story of my life. You ask him one simple question and he does everything but call you stupid to your face. Sometimes he does.”

“Oh my god, yeah, your brother’s a good kid, but wow,” Steve agreed. This time, you laughed, and at the sound of your laughter Steve’s features grew soft and warm. Your laugh was definitely something you both needed to hear, “Want to listen?”

“Yes,” you said, “Put it on!”

Steve practically pranced to his stereo as he said, “They’re all your favorite songs, some songs that make me think about you, and some I think you’ll just like.” You hugged your knees to your chest, smiling warmly at Steve.

At the moment, it felt like Vecna was far behind you and after having talked to Steve and shed tears with him, it felt like this massive weight had come off your shoulders. It was possible that talking was the key to ridding yourself of his curse, or at least making Vecna’s hold on you and his other victims weaker like Dustin thought.

For the first time in a long time, you felt calm, you felt more alive. And it was very obvious, especially to Steve.

It was why you both had let your guard down, even if just for tonight. He inserted the tape, and adjusted the volume.

Music began to blast through the speakers, and Steve nodded with content. He had listened to it over and over again, knowing the exact order each song was in. He stood up straight now, and turned to look at you.

You were staring right at him, your lips in that wide smile despite the tears that stained both of your faces. He was going to walk over to you, but you were already moving to stand. You walked over to him, and wrapped your arms around him in a warm and tender embrace.

Steve pulled you toward him tightly, resting his chin on the top of your head.

“We’re going to figure this out.”

He seemed to be saying this more and more often, but after talking to him and seeing how life seemed to return to you, he was sure he was right now and that you had a chance of surviving Vecna. If they can save you, then they can also save Max and find Vecna and destroy him like they’ve defeated so many things in the past.

“I love you,” he said again breathlessly, “And I won’t let anything happen to you.”

It was everything he needed you to hear and more, but…you were gone before he even uttered those words to you.

The music that played had suddenly begun to cut out, going in and out of silence in short cracks of electricity. Steve turned from you to look at it, eyes narrowing curiously for his stereo hardly did that.

Then, the lights began to flicker as well. He looked up at the flickering light, eyes squinting as it disoriented him for a second.

Realization dawned on him a few seconds too late, and he noticed you were no longer hugging him and instead had gone rigid in his arms. His eyes snapped back to you, and he let out a panicked breath as he saw your expression for the third time in only a day. His heart sank.

His hands moved to your shoulders, shouting your name even though he knew it was futile. You were in Vecna’s trance again, talking didn’t work.

“Steve! Steve, where did you go!”

Your words were echoing in your own ears. You were in the room alone now, Steve nowhere in sight. You ran toward the door, grasping the doorknob and trying to pull it open. It wouldn’t budge, as if someone was holding it on the other side, keeping you from leaving the room.

“Steve!” you shouted again, now grasping the doorknob with both hands and beginning to shake and pull at it. Panic rose in your chest and bubbled up your throat the longer it didn’t budge, “Help! Steve! Help!”

You were shouting at the top of your lungs, now letting go of it and banging aggressively on the wooden door, and throwing your body against it in an attempt to break it down.

Back in reality, Steve was desperately shaking you, the tears he had shed coming back full force. Dustin was bursting through the door a few seconds later.

“Shit, shit, shit, shit-” Dustin was saying over and over again when he saw your rigid body in Steve’s arms, “It didn’t work?! It didn’t fucking work!? Steve!?”

Steve was shaking his head, “I thought- fuck! She was better, she was-” His voice cracked from the tight knot in his throat. Dustin put his hands on his head, entering a full panic as he thought about anything else, literally anything else to save his older sister.

“Help! Please! Somebody!” you slammed your body against the door one again, and this time it had opened. You fell through it, and fell to the cold, tiled ground. There was also something wet staining your hands and your knees. You couldn’t see though in the darkness, but you could smell.

It was a strong metallic, coppery smell…a scent you could never forget.

“No…” you stated as you realized what was happening and made yourself stand. Vecna had put you in that god forsaken room again.

The clock chimed, sending you into nothing but defeat and dread once you heard it. Like Dustin and Steve had thought…it didn’t work. You were here still, you were still in Vecna’s grasp. Fresh tears spilled from your eyes, and mewls slipped past your lips.

“Did you think it would be that easy?” Vecna’s deep tremble of his voice shook through you, “I wouldn’t let you escape so easily, not when your time was so near.”

The lights flickered on joining with a dramatic buzzing noise, and your worst fears were proven and more. Your hands were covered in blood that was not yours and when you looked down and past your hands, you saw something that wasn’t in the room before.

It was Steve. His head was turned to the side and his eyes were open and unblinking. You couldn’t even scream, only releasing panicked, dry breaths as you were sent into a full blown panic attack. Your bloody hands shook, and your skin suddenly became below freezing.

You reached out to touch Steve, beginning to shake your head. It wasn’t possible, this never happened. You escaped Starcourt with him, with Robin, Dustin, and Erica. This never happened. Steve was alive, dammit, he was alive.

“This-this isn’t real! This didn’t happen!” You shouted into the lights above you, “This isn’t real-”

“Oh, but it will happen.”

“What do you want!” you screamed at him into the darkness, angry and afraid. The lights flickered again, and you now found yourself in a long hallway, similar to the one you and the Scoops Troop had to walk down in the Russian Facility. Blood still stained the walls, and Steve’s body was gone. In the distance the lights were flickering off as Vecna was stalking toward you with darkness following behind him. The claws of his left hand twitching and moving with every step.

“I want you to join me.”

You shot up and stepped backwards until your back pressed against a hard wall as you let out quiet whimpers.

“What do we do!” Steve called to Dustin, his hands now touching your face.

“I’m thinking!” Dustin shouted back, trying not to cry himself. His eyes moved around the room frantically until his eyes fell upon the stereo that was still cutting in and out of music. His eyes widened as he got an idea, “Will! Will! Do you remember when he was possessed by the Mind Flayer and they- shit nevermind- do you have a battery operated stereo or something?”

Steve yelled at him that it was in his closet. Dustin ran over to it while he yelled, “We have to talk to her, maybe it can get her out- that’s how they communicated with Will and playing that song he likes-”

Dustin was in Steve’s closet now, eyes searching for the boombox. Steve heard Dustin and remembered exactly what he was talking about. His eyes flashed to his stereo, knowing that they’d need the mixtape that was still in it.

“The tape we made Dustin, the tape! It’s in there!” Steve said, looking back at you, “Track 3, track 3 !”

Dustin had found it on one the top shelves, tossing boxes of shoes out of the way and grabbing it. He shouted at Steve that he needed to start talking to you, that he needed to tell you fond memories or something like that because it just might get through to you.

And Steve did, his voice breathless and panicked as he started to tell you about the first time he saw you at Hawkins High. He didn’t know how he never noticed you before because he knew all of the cheerleaders of Hawkins pretty well, but you- you were new. He told you about how he asked everyone about you, learning your name, anything that could get him closer to you.

Seemingly unstoppable tears flowed from your eyes as Vecna got closer and closer to you. You pressed yourself further into the wall, and wanted to turn your head but found that you couldn’t.

“Don’t cry for them,” Vecna told you, now only a few feet from reaching you, “They will be joining you and the others very soon, starting with the boy you love.”

You were trembling in your spot, Vecna now standing before you. You were trying to speak, but no words were coming out, especially when he lifted his left hand up, those sharp, long claws bigger than your own face.

You stared up at Vecna, and whimpered slowly when he began to move his hand closer to you, “It is time.”

It was like he was grasping your mind, an intense wave of pain and fear washing over you like the waves of the ocean during a storm. You couldn’t move. There was no escape, this time Vecna wasn’t going to let you go. It was time for you to join him.

“Dustin! Hurry up-” Steve's words were cut off when he felt you move in arms. His eyes flashed back toward you, and he watched as your body began to levitate into the air.

“SHIT,” Dustin shouted as he finally inserted the mixtape into the boombox and began to move it to track 3 like Steve said. The song that began to play made Dustin pause momentarily, and even he knew how much you liked this song.

‘I’ve got a dream about an angel on the beach…and the perfect waves are starting to come…

…his hair is flying out in ribbons of gold and his touch has got the power to stun…’

The tips of Vecna’s claws were almost touching your face, but he had suddenly stopped when the lyrics of the song echoed behind him.

The grip Vecna had on your mind faltered as you recognized the Fire Inc. song Ellen Aim performs at the end of Streets of Fire. Your eyes moved past Vecna toward the source of the song, and fell onto what looked like a tear in this world Vecna had created in your head.

You saw yourself in Steve’s room, your body levitating into the air, and Steve and Dustin. Steve was saying something to you. Your eyes narrowed slightly, trying to listen to what he was saying over the music.

‘But I don’t see any Angels in the city, I don’t hear any holy choirs sing… And if I can't get an Angel. I can still get a boy. And the boy will be the next best thing, the next best thing to an Angel.’

Steve’s voice began to break through as well. It was faint, but you could still hear and understand what he was saying. He was talking to you about your first date, and how you went to the drive-in to watch a whole other movie, but ended up watching this one. You didn’t even remember what the first movie was.

Memories flooded through you, flashing through your mind quickly. You saw Steve on this first date, felt his hand take yours, and felt his lips meet yours for the first time. You never kissed on the first date, and he was the first and only exception.

You saw Steve’s flushed face when he had climbed out of the pool following a swim race, and his eyes had lit up when he saw you there in your cheer uniform and pom poms cheering his name. You were the only cheerleader there. He had laughed and winked at you while you had blown a kiss.

“They can’t help you,” Vecna told you, making your eyes shift back to him, “You belong here, with me, with Chrissy…”

His hands began to inch closer, the tips of his claws barely touching your skin.

Steve helplessly watched as your body slammed flat against the ceiling, and his first move was to grab Dustin and pull him against him, making him face away from the sight. Because of what Eddie had said about what happened to Chrissy, they knew what was going to happen next.

“Her bones- they just snapped, and her eyes…it was like something was inside and-” Eddie had said in that boathouse the day before when you got your first vision.

He didn’t want Dustin to see that, especially not when it was his older sister. If he couldn’t protect you, he could at least shield Dustin and protect him.

‘I’ve got a dream when the darkness is over….We’ll be lying in the rays of the sun.’

Ellen aim’s lyrics got to you again and you heard Dustin’s sobbing, your eyes moved past Vecna’s again to see your little brother in Steve’s arms, Steve shielding him from your body that was now pressed against the ceiling.

More memories flashed in your mind. You saw the kids throwing popcorn at you and Steve at the movie theater during a matinee reshowing of Jaws, and heard Dustin say, “Are you seriously sucking face when someone is getting killed by a shark?”

You could hear their giggling from behind you, and a couple of gags that made you throw the popcorn back at them, but missing.

‘But it’s only a dream and tonight is for real, you’ll never know what it means, but you'll know how it feels.’

You saw Robin forcing you to watch movies you never thought of watching before, you saw her laughing, and saw both her and Stevea arguing in their ridiculous Scoops Ahoy uniforms.

You saw Steve running toward you after Starcourt, his face bruised up, yet he was still smiling and kissing you, happy that you were okay and you were alive.

‘It’s gonna be over before you know it’s begun, it’s all we really got tonight…’

“N-No,” you said to Vecna suddenly, he stopped before he could sink his claws into the skin of your face, “No!” You found the strength to reach up with both hands and grasp the wet, sticky vines that collected around his collarbone and neck. You grasped and pulled, the tendrils squishing between your nails and fingers before you screamed and pulled it off with incredible strength.

Vecna released you with a groan of pain, and you ducked underneath him, and raced toward them. You were a long way from running away from them at the trailer park, now running as fast as you could toward the end of this hall, back to your reality, back to your life, back to Dustin and back to Steve.

You didn’t look back, Ellen Aim’s singing and Steve and Dustin’s calls to you blasting your ears, drowning out Vecna calling your name.

‘Say a prayer in the darkness for the magic to come’

Ellen Aim sang as you inched closer and closer to your world.

‘No matter what it seems tonight is what it means to be young…’

Your feet echoed with every step you took, your heart beating out of your chest as you ran and you ran and you ran, toward the music, toward your home.

“We have to help her, Steve, we can’t let him take her,” Dustin was crying, his words muffled against Steve’s shirt. Steve was shaking, and didn’t know what to say, and even if he did he couldn’t speak anyways.

He was too distraught, shedding more tears than he’s ever shed before. He was going to lose you, he failed you, Vecna got to you before any of them could figure out how to stop him. He held Dustin against him tighter, and shut his eyes.

“Just don’t look, Dustin, don’t look,” Steve even tried to cover his ears with his arms, hellbent on making sure Dustin doesn’t see or hear anything, “I’m sorry, I’m so fucking sorry we couldn’t save you…”

He clenched his teeth, the thought of Vecna being responsible sending a rage throughout him. His eyes were forced open, and profanities were falling from his lips all targeted toward Vecna. He didn’t know if he could hear him, but he wanted him to know that they were going to fuck him up for what he’s done, for who he’s done it to.

That was when you came back.

Your eyes were suddenly back to normal, and Steve caught it the exact moment because a loud gasp for air escaped from you. Steve moved Dustin aside, practically throwing him on his bed, and stepping under you just as you became unstuck from the ceiling and fell.

Steve fell on the floor with you right on top of him, hyperventilating and gasping for air as you felt like you ran miles and miles to get back here. Your eyes frantically looked around you, becoming hyper aware of everything around you, but knowing that you were back here, you escaped.

It didn’t seem real at first, Steve’s soft calling of your name that wasn’t echoing and rather in real time.

Your fists closed around Steve’s shirt as you met his gaze, they were puffy and red and full of the greatest relief in the world. You pressed your forehead against his, and whispered to him that you were okay.

“I heard you, I heard you both and the song,” you said between your fast breaths, your voice trembling and still cracking, “I saw-” Your words were becoming less coherent as you broke down in Steve’s arms.

Steve sat you up then, keeping you in his lap and holding you against him.

“It’s okay, you’re back, you don’t have to talk, not right now,” he told you quietly, his own voice matching yours.

Dustin had watched in disbelief that you were okay, thinking that maybe it wasn’t even real, but when he heard you speak and Steve respond, he was off of the bed and on the floor next to you Steve. Tears of relief spilled from his eyes, and he wrapped his arms around you as well.

Steve would ask you how you exactly got out, about what you had seen, about everything, but right now, he was beyond relieved that you were back, that you didn’t end up like Chrissy or Fred, that you finally fought back.

#this is a long one #over 9k words!#please enjoy <3 #it took me a while to write but I'm actually quite happy with it #steve harrington x reader #steve harrington x you #steve harrington imagine #steve harrington #stranger things #stranger things imagines #stranger things 4 #stranger things 4 spoilers #lys writes again #Spotify #requests #fic request

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rocknrollbabe14 · 2 years

Text

Lap of Luxury (Joseph x Reader) (Request)

Warnings: Mentions of stress, self-doubt, implied sexual situations, I think that’s all.

Request: Can you make a Joe Quinn one where him and the reader have been together a little before ST4 and now they are busy with interviews and stuff but Joe more the reader sees how tired and stressed he is and decides to surprise him with a small vacation for the 2 of them and she arranges dinner and pampers him with love and gives him relaxing massages and he feels so grateful for her and he also surprises her with something (you can decide) :) Or maybe he already also had a surprise planned before he knew his surprise? Something like that. @kellysimagines

Author’s Note: “Luxurious” by Gwen Stefani may or may not have inspired me during this. Lol.

Joseph had been very busy since his role as Eddie Munson on Stranger Things sky-rocketed him to fame. He had other acting roles, but this one had made him well known. His interview on Jimmy Fallon had been his biggest to date and it was only up from there. Between his interviews, his appearance at conventions, and appearances he was making otherwise, he was becoming a little worn down. He loved his fans and loved what he did, but it was tiring. On top of all that, he was also trying to maintain his relationship with you.

You were his top priority, always. But you understood his fans were important to him. They were the reason he was here. You were very patient and understanding with him when he had to cancel dates and move the dates around. He felt bad when he had to do this but you reassured him you understood. He would always promise to make it up to you. You were supposed to see him today for the first time in a couple of weeks. You were excited, you couldn’t hide it.

You had opted to make dinner instead of going out to dinner. It was hard for Joseph to avoid the public eye now and you felt like it would give him a break from all that. You had the television on, just background noise as you cut up vegetables and prepared dinner. You eyed the clock to see exactly how long you had before he arrived. You must have gotten carried away because when your eyes met the clock again, you realized Joseph was late.

You began to worry and your mind began pondering so many possible scenarios. Had he got into an accident? Did something come up and he didn’t get to call you? You quickly dialed his phone number, waiting for an answer. He didn’t answer. It went to his voicemail, causing you to worry even worse. You felt sick to your stomach thinking about what could be wrong. You tried to refocus and finish dinner but your concentration was off, almost nicking your finger with the knife.

Your phone rang and you prayed it was Joseph. You picked it up quickly and saw his name and picture on the screen.

“Hey, babe. I was worried.”, you sighed.

“Hey, love. I’m sorry. I fell asleep and overslept. I’m on my way. I promise.”

It was unlike Joseph to be late for anything. He was very punctual. You knew this new lifestyle he was adapting to was getting the best of him. He’d eventually adjust and be fine, but he was not used to balancing everything.

“It’s fine. The door’s unlocked. Just come in.”

“I will, love. I’ll text you when I pull in.”

You smiled easily, excited to finally get to see your boyfriend. One of his favorite qualities about you was how supportive you were of him and his career.

“I love you. Be careful.”, you breathed.

“I will, love. I love you. See you soon.”

With that you hung up and quickly went and finished dinner, going ahead and plating it. Your phone dinged and you easily glanced at it. It was Joseph. You grabbed silverware as you admired your work quickly. The door opened and he came through. His eyes were still tired but his adorable smile still came through. You met him in the living room, hugging him deeply before sharing a kiss.

“I’m so sorry I overslept love.”

“It’s fine Joe. I’m just glad you’re okay.”, you smiled at him.

He followed you into the kitchen after slipping his tennis shoes off and sat down at his usual spot. He rested his head in his hand and you eyed him. He was not as chipper and energetic as usual. You sat down easily beside him, beginning to make small talk. He talked about how many days he had at his latest convention. He talked about the fans that stood out to him but reiterated how happy they all had made him and how welcome he felt. He was thankful for them, there was no doubt.

You were all ears. He eventually finished dinner and asked if he could retire to the living room. Of course, he could. You had the living room warmly lit, a relaxing room in your house. It was where you could unwind after a hard day and watch some television, read a book, or whatever you decided. You had a candle burning, one of your favorite scents from Bath and Body Works, making it all the more inviting. You didn’t mind picking up the dishes and putting them in the sink. You could do them tomorrow. You wiped down the table and Joseph had turned on the television, but had grown awful quiet.

You looked in the living room easily. “Joe?”

No answer. You walked into the living room quietly, the white carpet under your feet making no sound. You leaned over the couch and noticed he had laid over and fallen asleep on the couch. He snored lightly causing you to chuckle. You decided to not wake him up. You grabbed the blanket from your accent chair and easily draped it over him, making sure he was completely covered up. You bent down and kissed him easily, causing him to stretch a little before settling right back into the couch, cuddling one of your accent pillows. He was so damn cute.

You blew your candle out and turned the television volume down before cutting the lamps off and locking the door. You eyed him as you went upstairs to your bedroom. You wished he was in bed with you, but you understood he was exhausted and didn’t want to wake him up. He was sleeping so soundly. Flipping your bedroom light on, you prepared to take a quick relaxing bath. You sat in your robe on the edge of the bathtub as you waited for the water to fill up the tub.

You poured a little bubble bath in and lit another candle. You felt satisfied with the water level and dipped yourself down into the bathtub. Part of you was beginning to worry about Joseph. He was not one to fall asleep in your company except when he stayed over or you stayed over with him and you all were ready for bed. You were sure Joseph had no intentions of sitting down on the couch and falling asleep.

You grabbed your towel and wrapped it around yourself as you drained the tub. An idea popped into your head. A little solution to your concern about Joe. You needed to find out his work schedule and what he had planned without giving away your idea. You threw your nightgown on and slid under your comforter, fantasizing about your idea. This was the best idea you had thought of in a long time.

_______________________________________________________________________________

Your eyes fluttered open and saw the sun shining through your window. You eyed your alarm clock. Eight forty-five. You looked around the room, no sign of Joseph. You imagined he was still asleep on the couch. You grabbed your silk robe off the back of the door and tip-toed down your stairs. There he was, still asleep on the couch. You smirked and decided you could at least start breakfast. You wanted to let him sleep as long as he could.

You saw his phone on the coffee table and grabbed it, noticing the battery was low. You plugged it up to your spare charger on the island in your kitchen and began digging ingredients out of your refrigerator. Bacon, eggs, and toast sounded pretty good. You hummed lightly as you began cooking breakfast. You had finished the bacon, remembering exactly how Joe liked his. Crispy with very minimal to no fat. You were beginning to crack eggs when you felt a strong pair of arms wrap around your waist, causing you to squeal.

You felt his head lean on your shoulder and his breath tickled your ear. “Good morning, love. I see I didn’t make it to the bed last night.”

You turned your head to the side to meet his lips, sharing a kiss with him. “Nope. But it was pretty cute.”

He chuckled before coming to stand beside you. “I didn’t last very long after dinner, did I?”

You shook your head. “No, but it’s really okay.”

He sighed and you could tell it bothered him that he had fallen asleep on you so soon. “I feel like such a shit boyfriend here lately.”

He rubbed his face and you could tell he was really bothered by this. You stopped worrying about breakfast before turning to face him, a serious look on your face.

“Joe, you’re not a shit boyfriend. Don’t say that.”

He sighed. “I mean I have barely seen you since we premiered season four of the show. Between interviews and appearances at the conventions. Then, when I finally see you, I am late to dinner and fall asleep on your couch while you’re cleaning up the kitchen.”

You rolled your eyes at him, a small smile crossing your lips. “You’re tired, Joe. You’ve had a lot going on since the show premiered. You’ve been really busy.”

He scoffed as he grabbed a coffee cup out of your cabinet. He had stayed here and memorized where everything was in your house. “Doesn’t make it okay, love.”

“Fine, since you’re so guilty when are you off from work? How long of a break do you have?”, you asked him playfully as you cooked the eggs and he began to brew a pot of coffee.

“I’m off for the next two weeks. Nothing on the itinerary.”, he leaned against your kitchen counter.

Scooping the eggs out of the skillet and onto your all’s plates, you nodded. “Okay, well, I have a proposition.”

He eyed you, his eyebrows cocked in question. You smirked at him as you opened your bread box and placed a few pieces of toast in your toaster. He was waiting for you to continue.

“I say we need a vacation.”

His eyebrows were still raised. “If that’s what will make you happy babe, you name the place and we’ll go.”

He was really wanting to make it up to you but that wasn’t what this was about.

“You’re not planning this vacation for me.”, you eyed him.

His face crinkled in confusion. “What do you mean, love?”

You smirked as the toast popped up in the toaster. You grabbed it on the edge, placing it in each of your all’s plates with no issue. You carried the plates to the table, feeling his eyes still on you, watching you.

“This isn’t about making anything up to me, Joe. You have been off lately. I don’t mean it in a bad way, but all of this isn’t exactly like you. You seem exhausted and stressed.”, you looked back up at him.

He watched you walk to the refrigerator, grabbing the orange juice before grabbing a cup from your cabinet. You barely could reach, having to stand on your tip-toes. His brain was trying to process where you were going with all of this.

“I’ve just had a lot going on, love.”, he admitted, worried.

You nodded. “That’s why I think this vacation would benefit you more than me but I want some of you to myself,”, you began as you sat your cup on the counter before placing a hand on his chest. “And I was hoping you were free because, well, I kinda booked our flight and our destination already.”, you shrugged.

His face turned from worry and confusion to surprise. “Love!”

You shrugged again, smiling. “Sorry.”

He began laughing, surprised by the impulsiveness of your decision. You had saved some money in your savings account and dipped into it for this trip. You didn’t feel guilty. Joseph had done so much for you since he had risen to fame and you wanted to show appreciation for him and what he had done for you. He was very hard on himself, always feeling like he fell short when it came to you. But he didn’t. He treated you better than any man had in the past. He restored your faith in relationships.

You both shared a kiss as he grabbed his coffee cup. “So can I at least know where we’re going?”

“Yeah, I’m gonna detail all that over breakfast.”, you smirked, grabbing your orange juice and you both moved to the table.

You revealed to him you had already purchased round-trip tickets for a flight to Seychelles. Seychelles was an archipelago off of East Africa. You all would be staying for a week you revealed to him. He was in shock, surprised. No one had ever done anything like this for him. You whipped pictures of the Hilton Seychelles Labriz Resort and Spa out to show him off your phone, the place you all would be staying. He commented on how beautiful and romantic it looked. You informed him you had never stayed somewhere tropical with a spa. Little did he know, you had already planned out your itinerary, including dinner, couple massages with a little twist, and a spa day.

He asked when you all were leaving and you revealed tomorrow morning—early. It would be an eighteen-hour flight. He laughed at this, stating he’d better run to his place and get his suitcase and clothes. You agreed and stated you hadn’t packed the first thing either. After breakfast, you cleaned the kitchen up and washed the dishes left over from the night before. You wasted no time running upstairs asking Joseph to help you pick out outfits and bathing suits. He sat on the bed patiently, helping you narrow down your selections, stating how beautiful and sexy you’d look in each one. You smirked, coming over to the bed, fitting yourself between his legs and wrapping your hands around his neck, sharing a warm, passionate kiss with him, his hands just on the small of your back.

If that was any indication of how romantic your trip would be, you both were in for it. It wasn’t exactly the definition of a small vacation, but it was a private location that seemed very appealing to both of you and the chances of him being recognized were slim to none. You had to sit on your suitcase to get it to zip, causing Joe to laugh. You all then ran to his place and you helped him pack his outfits and swimming trunks. Before you all knew it, the evening was coming upon you all quickly and you all decided to swing by one of your favorite local restaurants to grab dinner to take back to your place.

This really seemed to be the pick-me-up Joe needed. Dinner was pleasant as always. He seemed to have a pep in his step this evening. You all cleaned up quickly before moving up to your bedroom this time. Before you all knew it, your alarm clock was going off. You all jumped up quickly getting dressed and grabbing the suitcases before rushing out the door, making sure you all made it to the airport in time.

_________________________________________________________________________________________

The flight was exhausting, the majority of the time you were laid over on Joe, sleeping. He didn’t mind though. He kissed your head, you were oblivious to this. You all landed and went through customs, which took a little while. You all took a taxi to the hotel and you both were in awe when it came to view. It was more than you could have hoped for when you booked it online, strictly going by pictures and reviews. You all were shown to your room which had direct pool front access and was just steps away from the beach.

It had a California king-size bed, a private bathroom with robes, and the whole nine yards, a lot fancier than you all had expected. The first day you all spent walking on the beach, coming to the bar and grabbing drinks throughout the day, Joe opting for his Martini, and you opted for something more fruity switching between Sex on the Beach and a Piña Colada. You all stayed out on the beach until the sun had set and nighttime fell. You all laughed as you were slightly intoxicated and hitting on each other all evening. You drew the curtains before beginning your romantic evening.

Over the next few days, you all partook in all the small resort had to offer from playing tennis, morning beach yoga, kayaking, snorkeling, going on a boat trip and picnic at Anse Mondon overlooking the beach and turquoise oceans, and lastly today choosing a massage and spa day. Tomorrow night was your all’s last night in Seychelles and Joseph insisted on picking the last activity of the trip. You allowed him this. You all were trying a different restaurant almost every night.

You came out of the bathroom in your robe, Joseph was already sitting on the bed with his on. He stood up meeting you halfway before kissing you. You all held hands as you walked to the spa, the employees leading you to a room by yourselves.

“I hope some big man doesn’t come to massage me.”, Joseph laughed, trying to make you smile.

“He won’t.”, you assured easily, a smile spreading across your lips, making your way over to Joe, sliding behind him.

He eyed you curiously. “How do you know?

“Because this is just for you and me only.”, you smirked, lowering your robe.

Joseph’s eyes widened, this obviously catching him off guard.

“Just lay down babe and let me take care of you. Relax.”, you soothed easily.

Joseph slid his robe off easily and laid down, laying his head on his arms.

“Shouldn’t I be doing this for you?”, he asked as he let out a sigh, your fingers beginning to pinch his shoulders up and release them, doing this several times.

“You’ll get your chance.”, you smirked cheekily.

He hummed in agreement as you worked on his shoulders, pinching his shoulders up releasing them, and kneading them a few times until you felt that the tension was finally released from his shoulders. Joseph was finally becoming his old self again, letting loose and relaxing. He just needed a change of scenery and a break. Next, you moved to his neck, Joseph sinking into the massage table. You moved your way down his back, kneading his skin causing him to close his eyes and let out sighs as you worked your way around him.

“You know what?”, he hummed all of a sudden.

“What?”, you smirked.

“I just want to say how grateful I am for you. You didn’t have to do all of this.”, he breathed, his face semi-smushed against the table.

“I know but I wanted to show you how much I love you Joe.”, you leaned down, placing a kiss on his neck.

“Mhm I love you too. When do I get my chance to show you?”, he smirked.

“Soon.”

______________________________________________________________________________________

Before you all could turn around, it was your last night in Seychelles. You all spent the entire day on the beach before going back to your all’s room, taking a bath, and getting dressed for dinner. Joseph opted for a brown suit, minus the jacket as the island was pretty warm this time of year. He left the top few buttons of his shirt undone, a chain around his neck, causing you to bite your lip. He sprayed his cologne before sitting down on the bed, waiting for you.

You came out of the bathroom in a black backless jumpsuit with your heels and a clutch for your phone. His attention was immediately on you and you smiled at him before spraying your perfume. “Ready?”

“Yes, love.”, he smiled as he stood up, encouraging you to twirl in front of him so he could admire you in your outfit.

You giggled as you both walked out of your all’s room. First was dinner at the Sakura restaurant, the only one at the resort you hadn’t tried yet. You had no idea what Joseph had planned for you all this evening. From the restaurant, you could see the ocean and the wind was not rough this evening. You all admired the view while finishing dinner, opting for dessert. You all shared one as there was no way you could eat one by yourself. You all reminisced on your trip.

Joseph eyed his watch, realizing it was time to go. He didn’t want to be late.

“We better get going, love. Don’t want to miss our final surprise.”

“Okay, Joe. I’m ready.”

You both got up from the table, walking down the beach to the pier hand in hand. You were confused as you eyed Joseph. He was just smirking. A boat came into view, waiting for you all.

“Joe?”

“Surprise! We’re going on a sunset cruise. A perfect way to end our trip, yes?”

Your mouth came open and you hugged him instantly. “Joe, you didn’t have to do this.”

“I know. I wanted to. You’ve done so much for me. You didn’t have to organize this trip at all, but you did. You’ve been so patient with me and understanding. I love you, darling.”

You felt tears coming into your eyes and you blinked them away before he led you on the boat. “I love you Joe but this is too much.”

“Nothing is too much for you, love.”

The boat began its journey around the island, the sky becoming a mix of gold and pink. You all sipped on the champagne provided to you all. The wind whipped through your all’s hair, you both smiling ear to ear, enjoying the sights of your last boat excursion. The boat slowed speed, practically coming to a complete stop as it bobbed in the water, the sunset near. Joseph held you close to him, you both watching the sky.

“So beautiful, isn’t it?”, you asked him, taking another sip of your champagne.

“It is.”, he agreed, slightly pulling away from you.

You barely noticed him pull away and didn’t pay attention to what he was doing next. You saw him in your peripheral vision, but it took him clearing his throat to catch your attention. You looked down, he was down on one knee. His brown eyes were looking up at you, his full attention on you. Your eyes widened quickly. What was he doing? He wasn’t doing what you thought he was, was he?

“Joe.”, you choked out, keeping your eyes on him.

He smiled as he pulled out a box from his pocket. You were lucky you remembered you had a drink in your hand, a wonder you didn’t drop it and break it in shock.

“I know this may seem sudden, but you are an amazing woman. You have always been patient with me and my schedule. You’re understanding. You’re beautiful. You’re loving. You’re everything I’ve ever dreamed of in a woman and I want to marry you. Y/F/N Y/M/N Y/LN, will you marry me and make me the happiest man in the entire world?”, he asked, opening the box with tears in his brown puppy dog eyes.

Your free hand covered your mouth and the tears that welled up in your eyes earlier came back. Words. You needed to form words. “Yes, Joe! Of course!”

He smiled as he got off his knee, taking your left hand, and sliding your engagement ring on it. He pulled you into him and you both shared a deep kiss, sniffling as you broke the kiss, staring into each other’s tear-filled eyes.

“Joe, I love you so much.”, you laughed before tears fell from your eyes.

He took his hand and wiped your tears away, smiling at you, his tears threatening to fall. “I love you more, Y/N. I can’t wait to marry you.”

You laughed again before you both embraced each other, taking one last look at the beautiful sunset in front of you all. At that moment, you all knew you would be able to get through anything and everything together

#joseph quinn x reader #joseph x reader #joseph quinn #eddie munson #eddie munson imagine #eddie x reader #eddie imagines #eddie stranger things #eddie munson hc #stranger things

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