#and steve sacrifices himself in the upside down to save dustin

[rogueddie]

What if Dustin told Eddie all about the Upside Down but said that it was a D&D campaign? He used it as an excuse to go on about Steve and all he's done to help out. And at first, Eddie doesn't believe him because no way would Steve Harrington play D&D with his sheep. But Dustin insists. He goes off about Steves bat and how he tried to sacrifice himself to save him and Erica...

and can you imagine the horror Eddie would feel when he realizes that it wasn't a campaign, that stuff actually happened. Can you imagine his horror when he realizes just how much shit Steve went through to keep the kids safe?

[artiststarme]

What if Vecna cursed Steve instead of Max?

Steve has ignored his own problems for as long as he could remember. He would leave his unfinished homework at home when he knew it was due that day. He’d purposely avoid going to the doctor in order to live a little longer in ignorant bliss, to hell with the threat of further damage. He’d even leave his gas tank at a quarter full when he knew he had a long drive just so he wouldn’t have to look at an empty wallet. 

So, when his nightmares got worse and his nose started bleeding at random times and he started seeing things that weren’t actually there, well that was just another thing to ignore completely. He put a bandaid on the issue with a bottle of Tylenol and started wearing sunglasses indoors. But as the week wore on, the bags beneath his eyes began to bruise and his hair lost its pizazz. 

Robin was worried about him, that he could tell. She would hand him a homemade lunch any time he drove her to school. On their shifts together at Family Video, she would stick him in the back to rewind tapes, sort through new shipments, or even take a nap. Every day, her eyes would get more concerned until her face developed a look of perpetual worry. But, Steve ignored it. So, he had a few bad nightmares that caused him to wake up in a fit of panic. Who cares that he’d taken to carrying an extra shirt in his car because he was having so many nosebleeds? Not him. 

When the kids coerced him into finding Eddie, he was hesitant but woefully inept in arguing with them. He didn’t expect his old dealer from high school to hold a broken bottle to his throat. Certainly didn’t expect to be turned on by it either but that was something to contemplate at a much later time, preferably never. 

They found out that the Upside Down was back at it again and later found out that Chrissy and Fred had been having nightmares, nosebleeds, and depression. That they were having strong feelings of worthlessness and guilt. And if that didn’t summarize Steve to a T, he didn’t know what did. 

And Robin knew too. She called him out on it, at first in secret but when he brushed it off, she told the group. Steve would never forget the horror on Dustin’s face when he found out that he was cursed. It gave them a new sense of determination. They had to save their babysitter, nay- their friend, no matter what the cost. 

But Steve? He wasn’t sure he was worth the effort. His life certainly wasn’t even slightly as important as the lives of any of his friends. He wasn’t willing to sacrifice any of them so he was immediately against any and all of their plans. 

He almost died too. When they were lounging at his house, strategizing and such, Vecna got him. He started to lift into the air and could feel his bones creaking under an invisible force. Robin and Nance called Dustin right then to tell him about the effect music had on the victim. Eddie, poor, poor Eddie, started singing Tears for Fears right away and Steve was so enamored with his deep, dulcet voice that he managed to escape. When they asked his favorite song later that day, Steve lied and said it was the Head Over Heels that Eddie had sung. 

He didn’t want to out himself by saying it was Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy by Queen. Steve was nothing if not an enigma. A man of layers upon layers hiding from his friends and everyone else behind a facade. 

They believed him, why wouldn’t they? Dustin forced a walkman into his hands and headphones over his ears. Then Robin and Eddie forced him to keep them on. The blaring music and grating voices helped him tune out of reality and focus on his thoughts. 

He was going to die and he was fine with that. As long as everyone else was safe, he’d take the L. He felt like his entire life led to this moment. Nothing he ever did was ever meaningful, ever important. But his death would be because he would save the lives that mattered. Robin, Dustin, Nancy, Eddie, Max, and Lucas would be safe. And they had each other so they would be fine. Dustin, the kid he saw as the little brother he’d always wanted, he would have Eddie. Steve knew that Eddie was his new favorite anyway. Robin? She had been mooning over Nancy since they had met up at the trailer park. She could be her best friend with Steve out of the way. Everyone else there just put up with Steve for the others so they wouldn’t miss him either. 

While he was zoned out, they decided that Steve would be the bait for Vecna in the Creel house. He could lure him there while Nancy and Robin killed his physical body from the Upside Down. They told him he just needed to focus on good memories because Vecna couldn’t find him there. 

But when push came to shove, Steve didn’t have any good memories. Even in the fun times, the times that were supposed to be fully happy, there was always a background tinge of sadness. From the earliest times he could remember to the times of late, he couldn’t think of a time he’d been truly, completely happy. 

His childhood birthday parties, he was supposed to be having fun and being a kid. Instead, he had to play the part of happy families in front of all of his dad’s work friends. He got presents but he also got abandoned by his parents any time they wanted to go on a trip. 

His first win at little league? His dad gave him his first concussion when they got home because he tagged Joshua Evans out. Joshua’s dad worked with his dad and Steve had embarrassed him by costing his team the point. 

His first A on a history test? His teacher pulled him back after class and accused him of cheating because there was no way Steve Harrington could ever study hard enough to get an A. He was much too dumb for that, right?

Even the more recent times with his found family, he couldn’t think of any times he’d truly been happy. He’s always content at work around Robin. But there’s always a fear that she’s going to leave and he’ll lose everything. She was his only true friend and when she went to school, he knew he’d be all alone. 

The times when Dustin or Max or Lucas asked him for rides? Even when they’re happy singing along in the car or laughing with each other, Steve feels a sharp sense of jealousy because he knows he’ll never have friends that care about him like that or want him around. He never had and he never would. 

And so, when Vecna finds him, Steve is all too easy for him to catch. As the Party scrambles to figure out his favorite song and settles for the wrong one. As El tries to traipse through Steve’s happy memories but finds none. And as Robin, Eddie, Dustin, and Nancy scream at him to fight. Steve gives up. And Vecna has his final victim.

@doubleb11 @nburkhardt @zerokrox-blog

[hbyrde36]

Caught in the Undertow

Hi, 👋 Welcome to another old fic made new again! I promise this is my last re-write, but in similar fashion to Times Like These I found myself fixated recently on giving this fic the more practiced hand it deserves. I hadn't planned on posting much about it until the full re-write was done, but with the Steddie big bang deadline rapidly approaching, it's going to take a little longer than I thought. (And being a slut for encouragement, I figured why not start sharing the first 5 redone chapters now while I work on the rest, in hopes someone will enjoy it.)

Summary:

Against all odds, Steve Harrington saved Eddie Munson from certain death. And Eddie doesn’t think he’ll ever be able to forgive him for it.

Chapter One

WC: 1980 | R: Explicit | TW: Suicidal ideation/depression | Ch 1/10 | AO3

~Eddie~

On some level, Eddie had always sort-of wanted to die. 

He never planned it out, and he wouldn’t actually do anything about it—probably—but he fantasized about it a lot. 

Which was maybe something he should unpack with a therapist at some point, but that type of thing wasn’t really in the budget for a kid who lived in a trailer park and sold a little weed on the side for extra cash.

Sometimes, on the really bad nights just before falling asleep, he found himself wishing, praying even, not that he really believed in such things, to just not wake up again. And deep down he knew that if he were ever faced with the opportunity to bow out, so to speak, especially in a way that wouldn’t burden anyone—bonus points for a blaze of glory—he’d take it.

The idea came to him as he was helping Dustin to climb up the sheet rope and into the safety of the right-side-up, the thumping sound of the bats throwing themselves into the sides of the trailer, trying so desperately to get in, grating on his already frayed nerves.

It had truly been the week from hell. 

He was cold, dirty, and scared. Overwhelmed with the new reality he’d been forced to accept with exactly zero time to process, and having to come to terms with the fact that there’d been a whole other world existing right under his feet for fucking years, all while on the run from the cops, as well as a community calling for his head on a pike. 

It left him with that all too familiar feeling—weary down to his bones in a way that no nap or good night’s sleep could ever cure.

It wasn’t even a debate in his mind.

Eddie pulled his switchblade out from one of the many pockets on the snazzy green vest Harrington had picked up for him from The Warzone, and slashed the rope, ensuring that Dustin couldn’t follow him—ensuring the kid’s safety before rushing out into the dark to lead the bats away.

Life sure was funny, he thought wryly as he mounted one of the bikes they’d left behind during their last jaunt into the Upside Down, it can take you to places you never even dreamed of, and yet you’ll still wind up exactly where you’re meant to be. 

He peddled as fast as he could, trying to get the bats as far away from the gate as possible.

This was it, the chance he’d always longed for, and at least this way he could leave knowing his life meant something. His sacrifice would keep Dustin safe, keep the demobats out of their world, and buy more time for Harrington and the girls to kill Vecna.

It was a win-win.

And really, what sort of life would he be going back to anyway?

Devil worshiper, cult leader, freak, murderer. It was too many labels, too many things to overcome, just too much, the way he’d always been too much. Too loud, too different, too broken for anyone to want to get too close. 

Worse—when he wasn’t busy being too much, he wasn't enough. Not smart enough, clearly. Who takes this many tries to graduate high school? Not a good enough son, if his parents dumping him on Wayne’s doorstep and never looking back was any indication.

Wayne.

Thinking of the older man caused a brief stab of guilt. Uncle Wayne would be sad when he was gone, no question. The old man wasn’t shy about his love for his only nephew, but honestly this was for the best for him too. One less thing to worry about, and one less mouth to feed. It couldn’t have been easy on his uncle all these years. Raising a kid was never easy, surely, let alone raising someone else’s, but Eddie had no doubt that he’d posed an especially unique challenge.

It wasn’t long before Eddie’s legs failed him, exhaustion making them feel like lead, slowing his pace to the point that the bats were right on his tail, the bulk of the swarm a swirling black cloud above him. One of the little fuckers peeled away from the group, swooping down to knock him from the bike. He flew over the handlebars, hitting the dirt hard, rolling several times before coming to a stop and scrambling back to his feet. 

Eddie screamed his pain at the advancing hoard, banging his shield and raising it against the onslaught of gnashing teeth and beating wings. 

He stood his ground. 

He didn’t give up.

He fought to the very end, until he was overtaken and brought to the ground, laid out like a feast for his unsightly foe.

Later—minutes or hours he had no sense of time anymore, as he lay there dying, soaking the ground beneath him as he bled out, Eddie wondered at his own actions. It must have been a reflex, some long dormant base instinct to survive popping up at the last second, because why else would he fight so hard when it would have made more sense to not? When the writing was on the wall, when this was what he wanted?

Eddie had wanted this.

Hadn’t he?

~Steve~

Steve was soaring. 

He was fucking ecstatic. 

They did it, they’d killed Vecna. 

They fucking won for once, their years-long nightmare finally over for good. 

He, Nancy, and Robin smiled at each other, laughing in hysterical relief as they bounded down the crumbling old steps of the Creel house, the criss-crossing vines that decorated nearly every surface laying dead and dormant. 

The walk back to Forest Hills was spent recounting every detail of their battle. Each one of Nancy’s expert shots, and every molotov cocktail that Steve and Robin had thrown. So sure he was that their little group had had the most dangerous job, save for maybe Max, it didn’t even cross Steve’s mind to worry about the others just yet. He couldn't wait to see Dustin's face, to celebrate this victory with him and the rest of the twerps. 

It wasn’t until they were nearly back to the trailer that he realized something had gone terribly, horribly wrong.

He heard Dustin’s cries long before he saw him, and Steve didn’t hesitate to take off running as fast as his legs would carry him in the direction of the sound, trusting that the girls would follow. 

Steve’s heart dropped when the scene finally came into view—Dustin with his head bowed, sobbing as he knelt over the lifeless body of Eddie Munson.

“What happened?” Steve asked, skidding to a stop at their side, dropping to his knees next to the younger boy.

“H-he said he was gonna buy more time. The bats started getting into the trailer and he made me go through the gate first—he made me—and then he cut the rope and then he—” Dustin's voice shook, his eyes shining and red rimmed as he raised his head to meet Steve’s gaze. “He’s gone.”

Those two words broke something inside Steve. 

He couldn't allow this, wouldn’t accept it. They fucking won goddamn it. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. If any one of them wasn’t going to make it out of this place alive, it should have been him, not Eddie.

“Not if I have anything to say about it.”

Steve bent over the prone figure, listening closely for any signs of breathing while pressing his fingers to Eddie’s neck to check for a pulse. He found neither at first but didn’t let that deter him. Eddie’s skin was still warm and Steve's hands were shaking, his own heartbeat pounding so loudly in his head that it could feasibly be drowning out signs of life.

He gently nudged a still silently weeping Dustin aside and began CPR. 

“What can I do?” Robin asked from his left. She and Nancy must have finally caught up, he hadn’t even heard their approach. 

Steve kept an even rhythm, concentrating all his effort on his compressions as he replied. “Find something to wrap his side, I think that’s where most of the blood is coming from. Then take Dustin back through the gate and call an ambulance. I want them waiting on the other side before I try to move him.”

Robin quickly jumped into action, slipping her jacket off to remove her button down, and with Dustin’s help began working it around Eddie’s middle.

“Steve," Nancy whispered his name, carefully, gently. She was kneeling down on Eddie’s other side, her ear practically pressed to his mouth. "He’s not breathing and he’s lost a lot of blood. I’m sorry, but did he even have a pulse when you got here?”

“It doesn’t matter,” he said immediately.

“Steve–”

“Just go! Please, Nance.”

Steve wasn’t sure how much time had passed when Robin finally came back, and if Dustin had put up a fuss at being made to leave, he hadn’t heard any of it. His entire focus narrowed down to his hands on Eddie’s chest, pumping, his eyes locked on Eddie’s face as he counted to thirty, the taste of blood on his lips as he administered rescue breaths. 

Lather, rinse, repeat… 

“The ambulance is five minutes out, how do you want to do this?”

He could have kissed her in that moment—in the most sisterly way of course. 

She didn’t waste any time questioning if they should be doing this, or if Eddie’s condition had improved. Accepting that Steve had made up his mind and she was going to do everything in her power to help him make it happen. 

The thing was, Steve had felt a faint tap against his fingers the last time he’d checked, and he was 99% sure Eddie did have a pulse now, even if he hadn’t before, and it could have been his imagination but he could have sworn he heard the other boy take a few shallow breaths on his own too.

Together, he and Robin hauled over a piece of discarded corrugated metal, moving Eddie onto it as gently as possible, using it like a stretcher to carry him back to the trailer. 

Getting him through the gate was a bit trickier. Even more-so with the rope being cut, but Robin and Nancy had shoved a bunch of furniture under the hole in the ceiling, and Steve somehow managed to climb up the precarious tower one-handed while balancing their unconscious friend on his back.

When they made it to the other side, Steve carried Eddie in his arms all the way to the ambulance doors, insisting on riding along with them to the hospital. He must have been a sight, sweaty and out of breath, covered head to toe in muck and the other boy’s blood. The EMTs didn't even argue, except to insist Dustin come along too once they noticed his limp. 

Robin and Nancy followed behind in the RV, promising to pick up the others on their way so everyone could regroup at the hospital.

Things changed drastically once they arrived at Hawkins General, and the staff realized just who their patient was. Thankfully the paramedic in the ambulance had managed to stabilize Eddie before he was recognized. Steve shuddered to think about what might have happened otherwise.

Though unconscious and in critical condition, Eddie was treated like the dangerous criminal the whole town thought he was—handcuffed to his hospital bed, and an officer posted up at his door. 

No visitors allowed. 

Once Dustin was released, ankle wrapped and with orders to take it easy for a few weeks, their group was asked in no uncertain terms to leave. Told that no updates would be given on the suspect's condition.

Suspect. 

Steve wanted to throw up, but at least Eddie was alive. 

Chapter 2

Thanks and love to @penny00dreadful and @pearynice for all your help and encouragement with this.

Permanent taglist(open): @penny00dreadful @pearynice @hitlikehammers @bookworm0690 @wonderland-girl143-blog 

@goodolefashionedloverboi @themagicalari @awkwardgravity1 @rocknrollsalad

P.S. Taglist friends, I know this one might not be for everyone, if you'd prefer I not tag you in this fic pls let me know, I totally understand 💜

[steviewashere]

There's something so beautiful, so appealing, yet so sad about vampire Eddie Munson and normal dude Steve Harrington as a pairing. Cause like—

Just walk with me. Imagine Eddie turning into a vampire spawn, not Kas, just a normal fucking vampire spawn. A vampire spawn who exists by the normal rules of vampirism.

He can't go in the sun. He isn't invited into places unless otherwise told. He must stay in the dark, hidden away. And, the worst part of his new form—

Eddie Munson, the man who was supposed to die saving the people that mattered, is immortal.

He's immortal. He makes friends. He works alongside annoying coworkers. He lives with his wonderful uncle. He falls in love.

And slowly, over time, he watches as everybody around him ages. The finer wrinkles, the grey hairs, the knobby joints, and collapsing postures. Their fragile voices and softer bellies, as they grow accustomed and comfortable with life. Life after violence.

But Eddie gets older, sure. He turns twenty-five. And thirty. Fifty-five. Seventy. His hair remains a dark brown. Face forever twenty. Body as lithe and malleable as it was before the Upside Down. And yet, for all that he's sacrificed—

The biggest sacrifice is the people he eventually loses.

Uncle Wayne dies peacefully in his sleep. And Eddie's forty-four, Wayne would've been eighty-three. That's normal. That's a normal death. A normal age. Except that Eddie is still...twenty.

Dustin Henderson and the rest of his friends, Robin Buckley and Nancy Wheeler, Jonathan Byers, Argyle. They all die, too. They go grey and they gain soft bellies. They have crows feet. Grandchildren that look the exact same age as Eddie. They think that Eddie is a really young cousin, they think he's some lucrative relative.

The one that hurts the most, in the end, is the loss of one Steve Harrington. Who stole Eddie's heart. Red and raw between his hands. Kissed the tender outside with his beautiful, charismatic mouth. He was what sustained Eddie's dire cravings, blood and skin and tender moments. Steve shared many nights with Eddie in the dark, under the stars, in the glow of the moon. He shared interests, poked fun at Eddie, loved Eddie. He loved Eddie. And Eddie...God, he loved Steve.

Loved him so bad, that when Steve died, Eddie knew he lost himself, too. Because nobody will be as lovely and as young and as...and as lovely, as Steve Harrington. You don't grow to love a boy with golden skin, somebody who can go under the sun and bring home sunflowers. You don't grow to love the boy who knows your worst trauma and all your messy secrets. You don't just grow to love a boy. You come to love the man, the spirit, the hole that he leaves.

And Eddie Munson is immortal, cursed by his vampirism. He may have helped them defeat Vecna, he may have been able to aid his friends and his lover to their beautiful life-long end—seen them age and grow comfortable and happy. But, he assumes that the true sacrifice wasn't his death, it was his liveliness.

How is he supposed to continue on without the ones who know him best? So Eddie Munson is immortal.

You know what they say kills vampires. Does Eddie do it? Or does he reign himself to a million lifetimes of friendships and warm dinners, yet the loneliness at the mere fact that nothing can ever be replicated? Does he reign himself to a million lovers, hoping that in one instance, Steve will be the reincarnated body next to him in bed?

Or does he join the tender souls of his loved ones? Stake through the heart and a thousand new stories to tell.

[paperbackribs]

The Gift (2) (Witch Steve AU)

previous: Chapter 1 The Sacrifice next: Chapter 3a Witches Are Boys Too Ao3 Link - Chapters will be updated ahead of Tumblr Content: steddie fic, 1.5K words I'm not sure if the tagging was right on the last post, so if you didn't see it make sure to click on Chapter 1 which is a far more expanded post than the original hc drabble.

Chapter 2 The Aftermath

Steve lets his body drop heavily into the uncomfortable plastic chair across from the hospital bed. The smell of bleach stings his nostrils, but at least it’s no longer the coppery smell of blood, he reflects looking on at Eddie’s sleeping but mostly clean form. The rise of his chest reassuringly rhythmic.

Steve refuses to move his nose closer to his own sweat-stained and injured body sure that his skin and hair must be completely infused with the stale stink of Lover’s Lake and the distinct scent of rotten eggs particular to the Upside Down.

However, Steve also doesn’t want to take the time to move away from the vulnerable Eddie while he lies handcuffed to the bed rails in Hawkins Hospital. Full of, at best, indifferent and, at worse, malicious hospital staff and police officers.

Max is getting her broken arm checked in another room with Nancy, Lucas and Erica, but the group had all made it clear to Chief Powell and the doctors that at least two of them would be present in the room with Eddie until he had a lawyer to represent him.

He needs protection, Steve thinks worriedly, his gaze drawn to the crimson hue of the blood bag hanging on the IV stand beside Eddie. Wondering how they are going to convince the police of the impossible; maybe his mother can help.

Sitting in the seat opposite is Dustin, still dressed in his dirty camo clothes and holding an almost death grip on one of the older boy’s pale hands. Once the kid had his leg examined in the Emergency Department—a simple ankle fracture now wrapped in compression wraps—he had settled beside Eddie and hadn’t looked up since. Steve keeps a concerned eye on him, he’s never seen Dustin this subdued.

He’ll perk up, Steve thinks. Once Dustin can see for certain that Eddie is going to survive past the night.

And Eddie will survive, Steve Knows. He had saved Eddie’s life, had feely given his sacrifice with the grim determination to rescue Eddie for himself as well as for the people who love him. For Dustin’s future, and maybe for the rest of the rugrats too; Steve hadn’t looked too deeply past the tapestry once he had understood what he needed to do.

It was an old ritual, one amongst many other lessons he had learnt at his Nana's knee. At turns excited or sombre as he learned about his people and customs; their unfolding story revealing discreet resilience and an abundance of gifts they guardedly conceal. Abilities where even some of them can endure past death to bring back life. Although, his mother had warned him with a wagging finger, that he’d never even think about attempting The Sacrifice if he didn’t want to feel the back of her wooden spoon.

But every piece of knowledge must be passed on, lest any of it be forgotten.

Now though he can feel a hum of connection between him and Eddie. Steve supposes he shouldn’t be surprised, he had tapped into a deep reservoir of power and bound the other boy to life through an essential part of his own body, perhaps even his soul. Steve thinks he could turn that humming into a song though if he just reached out to touch the ringless hands limp against cream sheets.

Even asleep, Eddie still looks drawn and tired. But tired means alive, Steve reminds himself, tracing the dark bags on Eddie's face with his eye. The lines bracketing his mouth seem sunken deeper and, without those charming dimples popping out, Eddie looks older than his twenty years.

The soft beeping of the heart monitor fills the room, creating a rhythmic backdrop to Steve's thoughts. The steady sound like a metronome that lulls him to close his eyes, wisps of sleep taking over his exhausted body and mind.

He hears a song faintly in the background, a sweet melody as he steps left to right, right foot back, left foot back; he’s dancing, Steve realises, looking up into his dear Nana’s face.

She’s much taller than him, despite her short stature, and silhouetted by a soft pearlescent glow. The familiar plumpness of her body guides him into the simple dance steps and a powdery scent envelops him as they move. The lines of her round face crinkle, “That is it, Stevie. See, not so hard, yes?”

He remembers this day, warm sunlight streaming through the solarium and the scent of fresh herbs in the air. The crispness in the air pure as it was familiar. That day, she had taught him the concept of pushing energy through a conduit by having him memorise the story of an elder’s legacy to their student and the value of persistence.

But she hadn’t allowed him to practise directing power through his young body yet; instead, to make it up to him, she had turned up her music and taught him to properly dance for the first time.

“It’s okay,” he pouts, “but it’s boring just walking in a square.”

“All right,” she challenges with a sly grin before letting go of one hand to spin him in place.

“Again!” Steve cries and Nana spins him three times in a row. The verdant pots of plants and flowers blend seamlessly with the warm wood of the countertops, creating a captivating kaleidoscope. To maintain his focus, Steve centers his gaze on Nana's pristine white dress. Breathlessly and a bit dizzy he directs a gap-toothed grin up her, she always knows how to have the best fun.

“See Stevie, you can make your own steps. You do not have to wait for someone to take the lead.”

She turns to the wireless, turning the knob to quieten the strings of the violin and a woman’s soft, romantic voice. Her face is more serious as he looks down at her now, her body bowed slightly in the hunch that would define her later years while the ethereal light around her becomes dim.

However, he gaze is direct, “Listen and learn, Steve.”

“What?” He asks, confused.

She repeats herself silently, the strains of the melody the only sound to pierce the thickening atmosphere.

Steve steps forward, reaching a hand out to her; she’s so far away that it’s no wonder he can’t hear her.

Nana says it again, mouth not moving in the dark except to curve into a mysterious smile.

It’s the sound of Robin slipping back into the room that jostles him out of his dozing state, the door clacking sharply shut behind her. Waking more fully he blearily turns his head, and she directs a half-smile at him, gesturing weakly to a bit of drool on his chin. He knows she’s tired when Robin doesn’t take the opportunity to mock him.

She slumps against the beige wall since the two seats in the small, secluded room are filled. He reaches out a hand at the same moment that she does, squeezing each other's palm in a silent gesture of support.

He drops it when Nancy's voice cuts through the peace of the room, the sharp sound preceding her upright figure as she strides into the room.

“What did you do?” Nancy demands, frowning with suspicion and concern. The fluorescent lights overhead cast a harsh, cold glow that freezes Steve in place as effectively as her glare.

Steve's mouth goes dry, his one hazel eye meeting her intense gaze. He knows that his intervention is beyond reason for someone as practical and grounded as Nancy. He had interfered in the unspeakable, rescuing Eddie from the grim hands of death like no normal human could. Something that only someone like Vecna might do.

A tendril of fear winds through his body as he warily responds, "What I could."

Robin leans around Steve, her hand curling protectively over his chair's backrest before calling out Nancy’s name reprovingly. “Now’s not the time.”

“When then,” Nancy purses her lips. There was a period of his life where Nancy’s impatience had been endearing to Steve. When it had helped fuel his desire to be a better man for her. But Steve is tired and thinks that he can only have this discussion once in his current state.

“When Eddie wakes up. I’ll tell you all then, okay?”

She sighs, clenched hands falling from her hips to her sides. “Okay, Steve, but…”

He waits, anticipating a familiar disapproval. So, he’s surprised when she adds, “You’re okay, right?”

A spreading warmth fills his chest and Steve smiles and nods to her. They’ll never be what they were. And God knows, she’ll never want the future that he does, that was made clear back in the RV. Nancy Wheeler is going places and a camper van full of kids is the last thing she wants. But they’ve all been through too much to throw away their friendship because of a mystical act here or there.

“But,” Dustin interrupts, voice small. “Is there something I should have done? Something more.”

His shoulders are hunched again, one hand on Eddie but the other wrapped around his stomach as if he can hold in his doubts and fears by sheer will. Steve’s heart sinks and he quickens to rise and rest a solid hand on Dustin's shoulder, offering a reassuring clasp. The boy keeps his head bowed down, expression hidden from the room.

Resolved, righteous, brilliant Dustin should never have to doubt his part in having saved their world or Eddie, even if he hadn’t had the power to make a miracle happen like Steve did.

"You did everything earthly possible," Steve replies, earnest in his conviction. "You fought right there with him, Dustin, and you never once gave up on him. I saw that, we all saw that. If you could have, you would have reached through worlds to bring him back too.”

He pauses, thinking of the inevitability he had Seen. “But this was a path that Eddie had to decide on. It’s not on you."

Robin, who had been quietly observing the exchange, steps over to Steve and Dustin. He hears her approach before she reaches out to add the weight of her hand next to Steve’s, offering her support to the silent boy as well.

"You did good, Dustin. Eddie knows how much you love him," her expression is a blend of heartbreak and concern, carrying through to her softly spoken words.

Something finally breaks for Dustin who turns and buries his head into Steve’s torso.

He can’t feel the wetness of Dustin’s tears through the combination of Eddie’s denim vest and Steve’s new combat jacket, but he knows that the shuddering of his young shoulders is the cry of catharsis, letting out the poison of the day, draining his body of the fears and uncertainties and grief of a time filled with terror.

Steve rubs his back in soothing circles, letting Dustin get it all out. Robin leans her head against Steve’s shoulder, taking comfort in his closeness too.

Despite the emotion swirling, the room is still but for the steady beat of Eddie’s heart. Each person gives in to their exhaustion and just takes that moment to breathe. To feel the closing of a chapter and the tentative hope for a brighter future.

That is, until a gaunt Chief Hopper limps into the room, escorted by a freshly shorn El. Then life gets loud again.

If you liked anything, please consider leaving a comment over on Ao3 :-) It would make my day!

Taglist

My taglist is always open so let me know if you want to be added. Likewise, if you want to be removed let me know too. :) If I've missed you, definitely let me know because it's an accident!

@a-gae-af-racoon

@a-lovely-craziness

@aly-reads-alot

@bookworm0690

@cinnamon-mushroomabomination

@everyrandomthing

@finntheehumaneater

@goodolefashionedloverboi

@hallucinatedjosten

@ilikeititspretty

@just-a-tiny-void

@ledleaf

@littlewildflowerkitten

@lostonceandneverfound

@manda-panda-monium

@matchingbatbites

@nburkhardt

@newtstabber

@obliosworld

@oliver-sykes

@platonicbesties4life

@probablyscreamingintothevoid

@rajumat

@scoops-stevie-archive

@spectrum-spectre

@tartarusknight

@whackyrach

[alcalystrasz]

Here's the list of all my theories about Stranger Things 5 (not in order):

-Robin dies -> either to sacrifice herself (for Vickie or Steve) or she gets killed by Vecna.

-Max dies -> she doesn't wake up of her coma (episode 6 or 7, preferably after Robin's death).

=> After everyone starts to lose hope, they all get the courage to read her letters and they get determined to avenge her and the other deaths (even from previous seasons, such as Barbara for Nancy).

-Jonathan dies -> by saving Nancy or Will.

=> causes an emotional damage to Will, losing his big brother, the only one who knew about who he was.

-Mike and Eleven break up because Mike wants them to be just friends.

-Mike finally tells Will he's in love with him (episode 6 or 7, preferably after Max's death).

-Mike and Will go in the Upside Down (no reason in my mind right now, except it could be to find something).

=> They find Eddie alive (not dead because or the following reason: it's impossible to get killed in the Upside Down if you're not killed by Vecna himself -> Barb was killed by Vecna in the Upside Down since we see her in the pool she died, trapped like Chrissy, Vecna's mother etc. This could explain why Vecna didn't die when Nancy, Steve and Robin tried in S4). ((This theory is the least possible one in my mind, just so you know)) => he really dies though in the end.

Then, mostly everyone becomes a target of Vecna. Here's the list and the causes (why are they a target) and the characters that saves them (in order):

-Dustin is a target -> cause: Eddie's death, as he feels guilt for letting him go back in the Upside Down without him -> Steve or Lucas saves him because of their strong friendship.

-Lucas is a target -> cause: He feels guilt for not saving Max before Vecna takes her -> Max (if she doesn't die) or Erica saves him.

*Robin dies at this moment before the others gets targeted*

-Steve is a target -> cause: He feels guilt because he couldn't save Robin from the hands of Vecna -> Nancy saves him.

-Nancy is a target -> cause: She feels guilt because of Barbara and Steve being a target, but mostly of Barb -> Jonathan saves her by dying = she feels a second guilt and Steve feels guilt too.

*Jonathan dies at this moment*

-Will is a target -> cause: Vecna shows him his old memories (with his mom, Jonathan, Mike and the Party), but mostly bad memories to show him how his life is miserable. He asks Will to join him but refuses -> The music "Should I Stay or Should I Go" gets a door to open (just like Max when "Running up That Hill" started), and Mike's voice gets Will to escape Vecna's lair. He crushes his left eye before escaping (foreshadowing from Eddie during the DnD campaign in S4).

-Mike is a target (endgame, mostly end of episode 7 or beginning of episode 8) -> El saves him by fighting with Vecna but she still doesn't kill him. She gets hurt because he got stronger.

Now, the most crazy theory:

-Everyone finds a plan: Time travel.

=> They think, if the time in the Upside Down stopped the day Will got into the U.D, maybe he's the key of the U.D. Why? Maybe Vecna gave him this "power" because they're alike (sensitive, lonely, and good drawer). So they think if Will goes back inside, they can come back to the day he got kidnapped by Vecna and kill him when he was less strong.

And the Endgame theories (so episode 8 or end of episode 7):

-The Party finally gets back together and are going to be the leaders of the last episode.

-Eleven saves Hawkins by killing Vecna.

=> Parallel with the first season: Eleven gets Vecna on the wall, being ready to kill him but before that, she turns her head to Mike or the Party and says "Goodbye" one last time just like in the final of season 1. She then kills Vecna inside of the U.D creating a sort of supernova (because she erases him like the Demogorgon in s1, but since she did that outside of the U.D and she teleported them in it, and this time she's inside, this world can't support it and it makes a sort of supernova). This causes the U.D to get closed forever and Eleven dies, closing the possibility of interacting with the U.D from the real world.

That's it!! Tell me what you guys think about this, it's the main theories in big lines, some things a more precise obviously.

[nancywheeeler]

‘Eddie Munson should have died at the hands of the government instead of the Upside Down’ please expound on this your ideas are intriguing to me and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.

okay, i am finally gonna release from the vault a text post i had drafted months ago about how reductive and bland i find eddie munson's "heroism" arc.

from a characterization standpoint, i totally understand why eddie declares himself a coward for running after witnessing chrissy (and later, patrick) die. his image of himself as a proud outcast willing to brandish a middle finger at societal norms, bolstered by playing a "satanic" game about misfits coming together to bravely face great evils, is completely shattered. however, from our viewpoint as an audience, eddie does what just about any of us would have done after watching someone die in a horrific, unexplainable manner and not knowing if what happened to them is about to happen to us.

...except the show then does this weird thing where it agrees with eddie's warped, guilty view of his actions. eddie is a coward for running. he should have...what? stayed, again not knowing if he would be killed next, tried to explain everything to hawkins pd, and gotten arrested? (which would have derailed the rest of the hawkins plot because, unless dustin & company staged a jailbreak, eddie then would have been in custody during fred and patrick's murders.) the plot demands he run, but to wring any sort of emotional catharsis out of his death, the writers want us to think "look! he's redeemed himself! this time he ran into the danger!" it equates self-preservation with selfishness and cowardice, which certainly isn't a new thing in media but it's boring and doesn't reflect reality.

and when you parallel eddie's death with billy's (and what i imagine steve's death would have been had they gone through with killing him in season one), it paints this uncomfortable picture that redemption can only be found through extreme self-sacrifice and ultimately death. boring! very boring! and again, why are we redeeming a character who doesn't need redemption?

i appreciate (and really like actually!) that the narrative dooms eddie from the beginning. there wouldn't have been a satisfying way to write him out of a triple homicide rap had he lived. that being said, i would have loved to see eddie survive the upside down, get arrested for the murders, and, while our intrepid heroes are expecting owens and his shadowy government contacts to swoop in, be killed by those same shadowy government contacts as a cover-up.

because that is all owens has been doing for the past three seasons: covering things up to save a fringe organization's ass. it's just been convenient for our gang that the cover-ups align with their interests, too, to the point they are over-reliant on owens stepping in with forged birth certificates and mall fires. only, in season four's case, eddie is the most convenient cover story. with owens left for dead in a bunker in the middle of the desert, what loyalty does the rest of this strange government operation have to the gang and to eddie that they would exert any additional effort concocting a more outlandish story than the easy one the town of hawkins has already bought into?

it would have been a great way to add additional stakes going into season five because the gang would have had absolutely no one to rely on or trust but themselves. no more clean-up crew to plant fake stories and file the paperwork. the government has never actually been on their side. it's hawkins against the upside down and the world, baby.

wow, this is so long and i am so sorry. i still have a lot of feelings about this apparently, even after all this time.

[lingeringmirth]

don't talk me out of this

Stranger Things | Platonic Stobin | Rating: T | Words: 674 | Angst, Omegaverse, Self-sacrifice, Emotional hurt.

Written for @whumpril day 5. reckless | Also here on AO3.

Steve’s movements were jerky, his voice clipped as he spoke. ‘You can’t talk me out of it, Robbie, so don’t even bother trying.’ He flung his backpack over his back, his trusty nail bat sticking out of it, visible over his back.

Robin hated seeing him like this, shut off and determined to just push on because he thought no-one else couldn’t possibly achieve what he was setting out to do. He often acted almost like he was expendable, taking the beating (and worse) from the Russians so she didn’t need to, always protecting everyone at his own expense.

Why he wasn’t doing it now frightened her, because it meant that he was lost to his instincts, that his need to go back and find Eddie was clouding his judgment. Because right now Steve’s instincts should have been screaming at him to keep himself safe, to keep them safe.

She’d heard what he’d said loud and clear, but she couldn’t not say something, she wouldn’t be able to live with herself afterwards if something did happen, and something likely would, because she had lost her belief in happy endings. Nothing good could come from going back to the Upside Down, they should leave well enough alone unless something came out of there. But she had to try and make Steve see sense first, no matter what he’d said. So she faced him, hands crossed and face serious.

‘Would Eddie want you to risk yourself like this?’

Steve snarled at her, more than half feral, his scent so mixed her nose couldn’t make heads nor tails out of it, it had been like that ever since...

‘He’s my mate and he’s alive down there!’ Steve’s scent spiked acrid with distress, through everything else. ‘We--- I left him there. He was alive and I left him there, Robs.’ His hand settled on his midsection, rubbing over the roundness there restlessly.

Robin didn’t think he’d ever heard him sound so broken. She knew that what he was saying was the absolute truth, Eddie’s mating mark was still clearly visible on Steve’s neck as the day he’d put it there and she knew he’d sense if he was gone. But he was also pregnant and more than a little bit hormonal, with the anxiety of Eddie being lost somewhere in the Upside Down it wasn’t a good combination.

‘But you can’t, you’re…’ she gestured her hand over all of him. She didn’t say that it was because of it all that Eddie had gotten left behind, because they’d needed to get Steve away, injured as he’d been, that Eddie had screamed at them to go, that he’d hold the demobats off. Steve had screamed harder as they’d dragged him away from his alpha, had snarled and raved and fought to get back to him… had needed to be sedated for his stay at the hospital just so they didn’t need to physically restrain him.

‘I know I am and it doesn’t…’ Steve looked away from her face and down, rubbed at his pregnant stomach, the contrast of it and the nailbat at his back was stark. He looked back up and at her, his face set, she knew there was no convincing him otherwise. ‘I’d rather we all die in the attempt than having to live without him knowing that I might have been able to save him.’

She swallowed, hoping her face didn’t give anything away. It was last resort time. ‘Alright. I don’t agree with you, but I guess I can’t stop you.’ She was pressing down the talk-button on the walkie in her hands, hoping that this worked. ‘I’m coming with you and we can try and get him.’

Steve didn’t notice her deception, just fussed with the rest of his preparations as she hoped it worked and that Steve would forgive her, eventually.

His eyes as he turned to look at her when Dustin jabbed the sedative into his neck once they were walking out the door would haunt Robin for years to come.

[tboybuck]

broken

cw: canon compliant, brief mention of suicidal ideation, discussions of death and grief, and steve's weird relationship with both

something in steve might be broken.

in the years since this whole thing started, he's watched people die. he watched a boy his age be impaled by a monster, heard eddie munson's death rattle with his own two ears. he can easily picture will byers' body being dragged out of the quarry, and he wasn't even there for it. it's easy to imagine barb's final moments too, being dragged into the upside down through the pool in his backyard.

but when he thinks of these things, there's no feeling behind them.

for months, nancy grieved barb, and just when steve thought she was starting to get better, get over that grief, halloween happened and she was back to square one.

max, for months, grieved billy. she grieved to the point of self sacrifice, to the point of writing everybody a letter in the event of her own death.

and now, dustin. he's a shell of the kid he used to be.

and something in steve must be broken. because he doesn't get it.

it's not that he's never lost anybody before. steve's earliest memory is his grandfather's funeral. he was maybe four or five. his mother had an arm around him as they sat side by side in the church pew, and something wet landed on his head. when he looked up, his mother was crying.

and steve couldn't figure out why.

when steve was thirteen, his favorite aunt died. he went to the funeral that time too. everyone was crying. everyone but steve. they'd all asked him 'are you okay?' and steve didn't know what to say. he was fine.

people die. it's a fact of life. people are born, they live, and then they die. it happens to everybody. sure, sometimes it's tragic, but it happens to everybody eventually.

what's the point of carrying something as debilitating as grief when death is inevitable?

maybe it makes him a selfish, uncaring asshole. maybe he's exactly what everybody's always said he is.

steve's always figured that when it's someone really important to him, he'll finally get it. but the goalpost of important enough keeps on getting pushed back. because eddie's dead, and max isn't out of the woods yet, and steve himself is still being monitored for the bat bites because, like owens said, no one knows the long term effects of the demobat venom.

steve could die, this time around.

and still. nothin'.

well, not nothing.

there's just discomfort where grief should be. all around him, people are crying. because they couldn't save eddie, they might not be able to save max, something may still happen to steve himself.

he's swimming in this sea of mourning, and steve is so uncomfortable. he doesn't know how to comfort anyone. he doesn't have the words for dustin, who's already lost one older brother figure just to find out he could lose another. he doesn't have the right words for robin, who fell into this whole thing at steve's side, who's had to watch him throw himself into deadly situations over and over again.

she's in a kind of pre-grieving state, because she knows that even if steve does make it through this and the upside down comes calling again, he's going to continue to throw himself in harm's way. and steve has no idea how to comfort her.

it's not that he's suicidal or anything. it's just... death comes for everybody eventually. and he knows that not dying matters more to the others than it does to him.

he's all kinds of doped up on good pain meds, and maybe that's what's numbing this whole situation, but... steve doesn't think so.

he thinks something in him must be broken.

[livwritesstuff]

i wanted to post this moment that i had ended up cutting out of this for the sake of brevity, because it’s just so soft and sweet and i didn’t want it to sit around collecting dust 

“Steve,” Eddie says, his voice rough from sleep finally breaking the calm quiet of early morning, “Would it weird you out if I got a tattoo for you?”

Steve furrows his eyebrows, still half-asleep himself and perfectly content to stay that way, wrapped in Eddie’s arms and relishing in the way he’s dragging his fingertips along the bare skin of Steve’s waist.

“Dude, we haven’t even been dating for two months.”

“Okay, but you also saved my entire fuckin’ life — and not even in a metaphor way. Like, you are actually the reason I didn’t bleed out in the Upside Down. I’d wanna get a tattoo for you whether we were together or not.”

“Oh.”

Every once in a while, like in this very moment, Steve remembers that he saved Eddie’s life. He knows it should probably resonate with him as a bigger deal than it actually does, but there was just so much life-saving during those three weeks in March of 1986 that it doesn’t ring as significant as maybe it should.

Like how he knows Eddie deciding to sacrifice himself to those bats actually ended up saving both Eddie and Dustin from getting caught in the fissure that obliterated Eddie’s trailer as it started it’s calamitous path across Hawkins. Like how Murray, of all people, and some flamethrower had saved a whole handful of them — in Russia and Vecna’s trance and the Upside Down — and like how Steve, Robin, and Nancy and their Molotov cocktails and sawed-off shotgun (and some pretty impeccable timing) had saved Max’s life in the end.

(And all of that is from just ten minutes out of four years’ worth of weird connections and freaky coincidences they still stumble onto to this day).

But, technically speaking, Steve did save Eddie when he chose to haul him out of the Upside Down, when he'd ripped his own shirt in two and demanded Nancy help him bind all the spots where Eddie's insides were dangerously close to spilling out, when he’d hammered on the doors of Eddie's terrified neighbors until he got himself a set of car keys, when he'd sped all the way to Hawkins Memorial and proclaimed Hippocratic oath before any staff could even determine who was bleeding out in their lobby.

Life is weird.

Steve’s is, anyways.

“Well…” he continues, “I mean, what would you get? Because if it’s something stupid like my face or my name in that dumb tattoo font — no way.”

“Have you no faith in my creative vision, dude?” Eddie replies, propping himself up enough for Steve to see the incredulous look on his face, “Obviously I would not get your face. A masterpiece like that can’t ever truly be done justice by—”

Steve smacks his bare shoulder.

“Honestly, I don't really know yet. I just know that I wanna do it at some point if it’s cool with you.”

It is cool with Steve, is the thing. Everything about Eddie is cool with Steve, cool in a way that feels like something he wants to spend forever with, but they haven’t even hit the two-month mark on their relationship yet, and his tendency to fall too hard too fast has messed things up before, so for now there are some things he keeps to himself.

(Although Eddie is asking about getting a goddamn tattoo for him, a permanent piece of ink etched into his skin forever, so maybe Steve doesn’t need to be quite so worried. Still, he isn’t sure and he really doesn’t want this to get messed up).

“Well,” he settles on saying, “Keep me updated, I guess.”

part 2, part 3

[atimeofyourlife]

Whumptober day 28

rated: t | wc: 533 | prompt: Bloody Knife | Sacrifice | “You'll have to go through me.” Steve sacrificing himself for the cause of defeating Vecna for good.

The decision was somehow both a spur of the moment and well thought out. It was a spur of the moment thing, because Steve hadn't started the day thinking it would be the time to sacrifice himself to save the others. But it was well thought out, because since the first round of the Upside Down, he'd been willing to use his body to protect everyone else, even if it came to injury, or even the risk of death.

The first time, putting himself between the Demogorgon and Jonathan and Nancy after he ran back in. The second time, putting himself between the kids and the Demo-dogs, and between the kids and Billy. The third time, using his body to hold the door so Erica and Dustin had a chance to get away. Then making himself the bigger target for the Russians, hoping that they would leave Robin alone. The fourth time, being the one to go to check out the gate, putting himself at more risk knowing what could be on the other side.

But Steve had come to accept that sacrificing himself was inevitable. Everyone else was just so much more valuable to the team. They had the brains, the ability to make and execute the plans. Whereas he was just the muscle, the human shield. He was there to hit things and to defend the others with his body. Or to drive them where they needed to be to execute the plan.

So the final showdown was the final time. He'd written a note, leaving it in the glove box in his car for if he didn't make it out alive. Knowing that he would willing to throw himself in the line of danger to make sure everything worked. That he would sacrifice himself to make sure that no one else had to. Standing together ready for their final fight. Steve ready to do anything to make sure that it wouldn't the last time the entire group was together, or if anyone would be missing, it would only be him.

His role was fighting off any of the creatures the Upside Down threw their way. Keeping them away from El and Will as they fought off Vecna, making sure they didn't get hurt or distracted. The waves of attack were starting to slow down, they'd been given confirmation that Vecna was nearly defeated. Then he saw the  Demogorgon that was heading straight for El and Will. He was the closest, the fastest, and he still didn't feel close enough. Even at a full sprint, he could tell it was unlikely that he would have time to do anything other than throw himself in the way.

He locked eyes with Robin, a few feet away from him, and mouthed 'I'm sorry,' before he ran as fast as he could, his legs and lungs burning. He was aware of Robin screaming his name as he threw himself between the Demogorgon and the kids with barely a second to spare. Not even enough time to raise his bat in an attempt to defend himself. He braced himself for the strike, knowing that this time he had given absolutely everything that he possibly could.

[broke-art-girl]

Ngl Might write an Older Brother AU with Timothèe Chalamet, Natalia Dyer, and Finn Wolfhard. I never felt that "Holly Wheeler" was very crucial to the Stranger Things storyline so I'ma ditch her and replace her with "Robertt "Rob" Wheeler" (find it on AO3 Here)

"Robertt "Rob" Wheeler" Headcanons:

× How old is he? ×

• He's the eldest in the group. He's older than Steve and Nancy anyway. Eddie's age. Robert was born in January of '65, with Nancy being born in November of '67, and Mike in April of '71,

× What kind of screen time does he have? ×

•Season One: He wouldn't show up much because he would be off studying for finals. But he would warn Nancy about hanging out with Steve after telling her he saw Steve sneaking out while he was out smoking.

•Season Two: he would have minimal screen time because he's in college.

•Season Three: He would have a bit of screen time, this would be the season he learns about the upside down. He would be helping with the Russians and would comfort El about Hopper.

•Season Four: He would have a lot of screen time.

He would totally be there to stand up for Hellfire Club. (Plot twist + flash back) He was once a member. After all, that's how Mike got into D&D.

He and Eddie used to be good friends. Eddie missed Robbie after he got held back the first time, then he got held back again and Robertt moved on to high school, leaving him in junior high.

Once he learns Eddie's in trouble he rushed to help. When Eddie dies, he takes it HARD. Maybe just as hard as Dustin. When he show comes to a close in the field of flowers, you can barely see will hugging him as he cries in the background. From the conversation Will had with Jonathan you can assume Robertt had a thing for Eddie, because why would Will be hugging Robertt and not Nancy or Mike??

•Season Five: He would have the screen time of a main character, he's helping fight, he's in the upside down, he's protecting his siblings, avenging Eddie. He might even sacrifice himself to save them if it comes down to it in the bitter end. It would be worth it. And he finally understands why Eddie did it, and he's happy to finally see in again.

× What are his personality traits? ×

• Shy to a fault but will sit next to someone just to let them know he cares. Loves to give gifts and make things. Mike often gets him to make the party Christmas gifts.

• Likes to cook and read. His favorite food is vegetarian soup (yes he's vegetarian and yes he gets picked on for it) and his favorite book/play is Romeo and Juliet.

• Will help his siblings with homework, or just do it for them if they ask nicely.

• He's kind of like Steve in the way that you can talk to him about anything, and he's sort of a babysitter/ cab driver, he was more trusted with Mike when he was younger but now Mrs. Wheeler just doesn't care.

× How did he become friends with everyone? ×

• Became friends with Mike and Nancy because their siblings.

• Became friends with Dustin, Lucus, and Will after he showed Mike what D&D was. After he went off for college, Mike took over the dungeon master position, using his big brothers old books.

• Became friends with Jonathan through him waiting for Will to quit playing D&D at their house.

• Became friends with Robin and Steve after Steve yelled "Rob?!" And both Robin and Robertt said "Yeah?!"

• Became friends with Max through a love for skateboarding.

• Became friends with Eleven back when she was hiding out in the basement. He knew Eleven was down there the whole time. He would go down there after work and see her sitting there... He would talk to her through the day to pass the time, distract his parents from seeing her, and tell mike he was an idiot. Of course he wouldn't elaborate on why Mike was an idiot, but he figured he knew why.

• Became friends with Eddie when they were kids through D&D. Back when his hair was buzzed and he didn't have those sweet old tatties yet.

Image source: here

[hbyrde36]

Shower Thoughts?

I don't know what this is, enjoy.

‘The Party’ gets the chance to go back in time and the solution to saving Eddie’s life and/or keeping him out of prison is to let him get arrested after Chrissy’s death. They are too late to save her and if Eddie is in jail when the next attack happens, it will clear him. Now armed with some advanced knowledge, they manage to defeat Vecna with no additional casualties. Eddie is alive and Max doesn’t wind up in a coma.

Unfortunately, this means Eddie never gets let in on the reality of the upside down. He doesn’t have the chance to bond with Steve, Nancy, and Robin.

The call was made anonymously, so Eddie has no idea who to blame for selling him out to the Hawkins P.D., but he knows someone ratted him out and he’s determined to find out who. 

Somehow, someway, he finds out it was Dustin and Steve who called his hiding spot into the cops and he hates them now. 

Dustin would be devastated to lose his other best friend. Even more so because he remembers what they went through and what Eddie did for him, even if Eddie himself doesn’t.

Steve would be devastated because at some point he would realize why he was so drawn to Eddie while they were fighting Vecna. He would start to look back on memories of watching Eddie ‘the freak’ Munson strut across cafeteria tables and generally not take shit from anyone and he would suddenly see it in a whole new light. Sure, everyone looked at Eddie when he was making a spectacle of himself but Steve had been LOOKING. He just didn’t realize it. 

Dustin and Steve agree that it was a worthwhile sacrifice as long as it meant Eddie was happy and healthy and alive. They talk to each other about it when they get sad and Steve finds himself slowly falling in love with the Eddie he learns about through Dustin's stories. 

He tries to let it go, but finds that he can’t. He talks to Robin about it first, lets her walk him through what it means to be queer in small town America, just to make sure this is what he really wants before it’s too late. He’s sure.

He talks to Dustin about it and together they come up with a plan because Dustin is SO on board with his two best friends becoming a couple on top of the fact that it could bring Eddie back into their lives. 

Steve calls a group meeting. The plan involves telling Eddie the truth and Steve will only do that if everyone agrees. He will also need their help to tell the full story, and ultimately to prove it. All the gates are closed now, and even if they weren’t he wouldn't risk taking Eddie there just to convince him he was telling the truth, but if Eleven agrees to use her powers in front of him, it might just work.

[paperbackribs]

The Gift (3a) (Witch Steve AU)

previous: Chapter 2: The Aftermath next: Chapter 3 Boys Are Witches Too (Part B) Ao3 Link - Chapters will be updated ahead of Tumblr Content: steddie fic, 1K words

Last chapter, Steve had a haunting vision of his Nana before comforting Dustin about Eddie's near death. This chapter, family weighs in on Steve's decision to save Eddie and it's time to explain himself to his friends.

Chapter 3 Boys Are Witches Too (Part A)

“Steven, as soon as you get this message, call me,” Mary Harrington’s strident voice carries through the answering machine to Steve’s reluctant ears. He sighs, fiddling with the button that will rewind the cassette, ready to be written over later.

After leaving the hospital, he’s managed to get a few hours of uninterrupted sleep, in his own bed and without feeling the need to clutch at a weapon.

He had finally washed off the grit, blood, and ash of the Upside Down that had felt permanently embedded in his skin and hair. And the soft material of the sleep shirt and shorts he now wears feels like a sort of balm after the roughness of Eddie’s vest rubbing against his wounds the past few days.

But exhaustion still drags at Steve, and he’s irritated with having just walked into the staircase banister.

The vacant space to the left of his field of vision isn’t debilitating; he can see mostly fine, it’s just that his peripheral vision is off. But getting a hang of it on top of the physical and spiritual exhaustion of fighting Vecna and Eddie’s revival was just another pip on top of the shitty Cherries Jubilee of the past week.

Better than the alternative, he reminds himself. Eddie had woken up, which had broken open a reservoir of relief that Steve thought he’d already dealt with.

But seeing Eddie open his eyes and speak clearly and coherently had released an anxiety that Steve hadn’t even realised he had been worrying at, like unconsciously scratching at a scab.

That he brought Eddie back to life was all well and good, but what if Steve had damaged him in some way? Messed with the threads of destiny to the extent that he brought the other boy back wrong.

He hadn’t though. Other than a brief panic attack that his Uncle Wayne had talked him down from, holding Eddie’s face in his hands, breathing deep and calming breaths together, Eddie was alive and well.

Between the bustle of Hop coming back alive, the intrusion of Doc Owens, and starting to manage the charges against Eddie, Steve hadn’t been able to do much more than nod at the other guy from the back of the room.

Eddie had looked overwhelmed and pale, but he had stared at Steve with an unnerving intensity. Steve wonders whether he looks so ugly now with the one white eye that Eddie hadn’t been able to look away. Like a terrible car wreck on the side of the road.

And now his mother wants to talk to him. It’s been 48 hours since he reached across worlds and pulled Eddie through, and his mother Knows and wants to talk to him.

It wasn’t that long ago that Coleman had brought him into the principal’s office to discuss the ‘dangerous road’ he was taking as his grades tanked and he quit the swimming team. This feels unpleasantly similar.

He punches in the Chicago office number through to her direct line and greets her before she says anything.

A pregnant pause hangs in the air before she quietly asks, “What the hell did you do?”

Steve rubs at his forehead tiredly, “Time to break out the wooden spoon, Mom.”

“I can’t believe you did something so reckless. Was it The Sacrifice? Is that it? What did you give up? Not your life obviously, since you’re still able to call your mother two days later.”

She sounds so much like Nana sometimes, he thinks nostalgically. Wishing that she was alive and here to guide him right now.

“My eye. Only the one.”

“Was it Robin?” His mother had gotten to know Robin after the destruction of Starcourt Mall, even if it was only after the disastrous event that she’d been able to return to Hawkins. During their weekly phone calls, she had come to understand how deeply he cares for his friend.

“No, it’s a guy. Eddie. He got mixed up with the Upside Down too and I Saw it, Mom. It was going to be awful.”

“Still, you risked your life, baby.” Steve shifts on his feet as his mother’s voice thickens. Like him, she would rather pinch the tears away than let anyone see her cry so to hear it in her voice makes guilt settle heavily in his chest.

“It was worth it,” he insists.

She audibly sucks in a breath, “He means that much to you?”

“It’s not like that,” he says. “I mean, he’s a good guy,” he adds hastily. “But it was going to affect everyone, it was going to change Dustin.” She knows how much Dustin means to him.

“And,” he continues without much thought, “he really is a good guy. Like the best with the kids, he’s funny, and there’s just so much life to him, you know. I never could have lived with myself if I had done nothing.”

“Okay,” she hums, but Steve can’t tell whether he’s convinced her.

“You’re okay?”

“I’m okay,” he assures her.

Steve doesn’t bother to ask whether she’d told his father about what he had done; he’s pretty sure their secretaries have conveyed all communications for the last eighteen months.

During their Sunday phone calls, Mary talks about her work as an environmental lawyer and Steve talks about Robin and the kids; neither likes to delve deeper into their family dynamics.

He gives her a brief outline of the past week, leaving out the more violent events including the final battle, but gives her enough so that she understands that it’s over too.

Her gifts have always leaned more towards the earthy than the ethereal, like Steve’s and his Nana’s. So, when he tells her that he Knows this is done, a deep sigh of relief comes down the line. She hadn’t been able to convince him to leave Hawkins in ‘83 and now she won’t need to keep trying.

He hopes, a week later, standing in his kitchen this time, that his friends likewise accept his story...

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[randomblog444]

Survivors guilt

Eddie Munson x reader

Tw: Eddie’s death, mentions of injuries, pure angst, not proofread

„It’s my year, it’s finally my year“

„No Eddie please, it’ll be fine, stay with me“

„I love you baby“

She woke up with a scream, tears already streaming down her cheeks. This was the first sleep she has gotten since he died. The pictures of his bleeding body, burned into her mind. It has been two weeks, she hasn’t talked to anybody, barely eaten. Everything she does reminding her of the long haired boy she failed to save.

He did it to save her, he knew, in order to let her live, he must sacrifice himself. „For you, I would do anything, even die“ he told her many times before. Guilt filling up her stomach, remembering those words, she heard so often.

Her friends came over many times, trying to help her with her grief, but she wouldn’t move or say anything. Yesterday Steve came over, cooked her a meal, cleaned her room, just talked to her. Meanwhile she was fixated on that small hole, the boys she lost accidentally put in her wall just weeks ago.

„Babe I am so sorry“ he said looking with puppy eyes at her. „What happened“ she said, just coming back from the bathroom. Following his eyes she saw the thing that made him feel so bad. A hole he punched in the wall after trying to dance to the music the both of them were listening to. „Don’t worry, I will cover it up with a poster, my parents won’t even notice“ she said and after that they both laughed over the incident.

The memory of the boy, punching a hole into her heart. Her hand finding the plug on the necklace. She wanted to rip the last gift he gave her off of her neck, throw it in the trash and with it all of the memories she had with him.

„It should have been me“ she started chanting under her breath, into the dark of her room. Repeating those words just as she did so often the past few days. Rocking back and forth on her bed, tears falling down her face as her small voice grew into screams.

The weight on her chest starting to feel as heavy as she remembered the lifeless body of her boyfriend in her arms. Her body started to shake as she suddenly felt thrown back into the scenery of the upside down.

Running into the direction of the demobat swarm. „Don’t be a hero, not today“ he said to his boys so often, why was he not living like this in a live or death situation, she asked herself. Hearing his screams in the distance, she already expected the worst. Suddenly the bats disappeared into the red sky and out of her sight.

Seeing him laying there, his body full with blood, deep down she already knew, that there was no way of saving him. Dropping down next to his body, breathless from the running, but also because she couldn’t catch her breath looking at him. She stayed there, next to him, clutching at his side, not bothering to pay attention to her surroundings.

Dustin was there as well, his poor heart breaking at the sight of two of the most important people in his life on the floor. He didn’t know what to do, he stood there as he cried in silence and listened to the screams the poor girl let out every few moments.

She fought as Steve picked her up and carried her away from Eddie’s lifeless body. „Let me stay, he can take me too, I don’t care“ she screamed as she hammered against his chest. And it was true, she didn’t care. Deep down still hoping that Vecna would curse her, and take her soul to meet her lover again.

After her breathing calmed down, she laid down on her bed again, still crying into her pillow. Falling asleep from exhaustion again a few minutes later, her body wanting to give her the rest she needed.

And there he was again, but this time he wasn’t covered in blood, or laying lifeless on the floor. He was just standing there, her boy. Stretching her hands out into the direction of him as she couldn’t believe her eyes. Both of them crashing into each other, him holding her tight in her arms. „I am sorry Baby, but you need to move on“ he whispered into her ear. „I know, you think you can’t do it, but you’re so strong“. She tried to tell herself it was just a dream, even though, it felt like reality. „You need to live your life“, he said as he pulled away, „do it for me, please“

His words drifting away as his body disappeared in the distance of her dream. She woke up again, this time without screaming or crying. Still feeling like shit, she decided to stand up and get some water. He was right, she needs to live for him, she thought as she made her way downstairs.

5:10 am the clock in her kitchen said, she poured herself a big glass of water and chugged it immediately. Today when her friends would come over, she would try to talk, knowing that the words her lost lover said to her in her dreams, wouldn’t cure the feeling of guilt and anger. But she wanted to at least try and not give up without a fight. She decided that now it was the time to be a hero, be Eddie’s hero.

And somewhere far away, but somehow still close, there was Eddie, looking out for her with a smile. She was a hero, his little hero.

Someday, sooner or later, they would be reunited in a life after death, but until then, she lived her life as best as she could. She only did it for him, feeling like she at least owed him that.

[aclockmaker]

just some quick raven cycle au thoughts Under the Cut

Nancy is hunting Welsh kings, pouring over maps of Indiana sketching ley lines. When she talks, people listen.

Steve sacrifices himself to the Upside Down (agrees to be its hands and eyes) to save Dustin and Erica. Let’s say Henry Creel is hunting ley lines too and he tries to perform some really dangerous ritual and that’s when Steve made his sacrifice. It’s not as sinister as the UD on the show, it’s more like a mirror-verse of their town but with the addition of a magic forest everywhere. But still—Steve is possessed by it, sometimes.

Robin comes from a family of psychics but she’s not one, she’s a mirror, she reflects back and increases the power of any psychic—or any magician, so she’ll sit with her back touching Steve’s while he reads tarot cards, or hold his hand while he looks into the depths of a cup of coffee and tries to see what the Upside Down is asking of him today.

Eddie who pulled his electric guitar out of a dream. A thief, just like his dad. He takes things for Steve: a new deck of cards, a pair of tennis shoes, salve for the scars Steve has around his neck, the perfect hair product.

There’s all this magical stuff happening in town, like cars turning up flipped over with no one in them and undamaged, and it’s clear that the ley line is troubled—eventually they learn that Tommy H is taking things from the Upside Down just like Eddie, except he’s draining its energy. Tommy has like a field full of tricked out cars that he’s stolen. He basically does all of it to get Steve’s attention, and he has this rivalry with Eddie because of it.