#but that would've been even stronger with steve

[downthe-f4ndom-rabbith0le]

Always Been You (Dick Grayson x Reader) - Chapter 2

Always Been You (Dick Grayson x Reader) Reader Insert: she/her pronouns Word Count: 5030 Warnings: death, violence, fighting, bloody wounds, angst, infuriatingly oblivious love interest, slowburn Spoilers: Young Justice Seasons 1-3 plot partially, but it ended in 2022 so catch up.

Y/N Prince - miracle daughter of Wonder Woman and Steve Trevor - and Dick Grayson - first adoptive son of the Batman himself - have been best friends since day one. They went to school together, trained together, kept each other's alter ego secret from everyone else, and they founded the Young Justice alongside their friends together. 

But as time progressed, Y/N and Dick grew up and Y/N found herself wanting more than friendship with Dick. But he never seemed to indicate that he reciprocated her feelings. And when Wally died and Dick abandoned the team, Y/N realised he never would. So she heads to the one place she knows will help her become a stronger warrior so that one day she can take her mother's place: Themyscira.

Two years after his leave, Dick reaches out to his old friends to help him with a mission. But when he finds out Y/N left too, he chases after her in the hopes to bring her back.

However, when the two finally reunite, it isn't as warm as he hopes. Not to mention Themyscira becomes under siege as they go to war against Echidna, the Mother of Monsters in Greek Mythology, and her army of monstrous children.

Will Dick and Y/N be able to put their past behind them and save the Amazonians' homeland? Or will they fall, unable to tell one another their true feelings?

~~~

(6 Months Later)

Dick Grayson looked up at the Carr family home from his car, apprehensive to open the door just yet. It was a nice home, and from the research Dick did, a nice family lived there too.

His eyes trailed to the apartment situated above the garage, imagining the people who were inside. How were they going to react when he told them what he was there for? Scratch that, how were they going to react when they saw him?

'Should I go take a nap or are you going to man up and go inside at some point?' Oracle's sarcastic voice came through the car's bluetooth.

Dick clenched his hands around the steering wheel. Barbara - newly named Oracle - was right. It didn't matter what his friends were going to say. He needed their help, and he needed to man up.

Dick finally unbuckled his seatbelt and opened the door. 'I'll call you when I'm done,' he said, then ended the call before Barbara could sneak in another witty remark.

He made haste running up the Carr's driveway, then up the stairs to the apartment above the garage. As he raised his hand to knock on the door, he heard laughter and lively chatter that made him pause. An overwhelming sense of guilt and shame and longing surged through him. Was he really going to break up the joy beyond the door? Once upon a time he would've been glad for a party, for a break from work and his vigilante duties.

His mind flashed back to that first party him and his friends had in Mount Justice. It was Wally's birthday and he had been lapping up all the attention, especially from M'gann, who had made him a cake and had in fact organised the whole party. This was before Wally realised him and Artemis were meant to be, same with Connor and M'gann.

But Y/N had known, had even pointed it out to Dick as they sat in the corner just the two of them, watching everything play out.

'They're all so thick,' Y/N said, taking a sip of her lemonade, trying to hide her knowing smile.

'How so?' Dick asked.

Y/N rolled her eyes. 'Can you not see?' She grabbed Dick's chin and guided him to look at Connor and M'gann interacting awkwardly but in a cute way, then Wally and Artemis "fighting", matching wit for wit with every snarky comment they threw at each other. 'Connor and M'gann are so into each other, and you could cut the emotional tension between Wally and Artemis it's so thick. They are all crushing hard.'

Dick watched the two couples interact a little longer and realised Y/N was right. 'Well would you look at that,' he said, turning back to Y/N. 'You're quite the observer, aren't you?'

Y/N chuckled. 'Dick, we've been best friends for three years now. If you're just figuring that out now, then you're just as thick as the rest of our friends.'

'Hey! I am not!'

'Are to.'

'Am. Not!'

'Are. To!'

The two fell into hysterical laughter, gripping onto one another so they didn't fall to the ground.

Y/N's smile came to him then, and the longing in his chest ached even more. She was more than likely beyond the door too, laughing and smiling without a care in the world. He suddenly had the thought that he couldn't go through with it. He couldn't possibly ask them - couldn't ask her - to help him. Not after what he'd done...

Before he could chicken out completely, he forced himself to knock lightly on the door.

'I'll get it,' M'gann's sweet voice called out to whoever she was with, and Dick prepared himself as he heard her walk to the door.

M'gann opened the door, and she was smiling, the remnants of laughter twinkling in her eyes. She was in her human form, but it had changed since the last time Dick saw her. Her ginger hair was now cropped just under her ears, and her features were sharper, more refined than that of a young adolescent. She wore a flattering white blouse and casual jeans, not bothering for shoes in her own home.

She was grown up. In just two years?

Her brown eyes locked with Dick's blue ones, and immediately her smile dropped as shock froze her face.

Dick offered her a small smile 'Hi, M'gann,' he said softly.

'Dick...' was all she could manage as she continued to look at him, eyes raking over him as if she were imagining things. 'What are you doing here?'

'Honey, who is it?'

Dick's guilt deepened at the sound of Connor's voice. The Superboy himself came to the door when M'gann didn't answer, and stopped in his tracks as soon as he laid eyes on Dick. But he didn't stay shocked for long.

Connor furrowed his eyebrows and stepped up behind M'gann, placing a protective hand on her shoulder. 'What are you doing here?' he asked icily, eyes solely focussed on Dick.

It hurt to see such distrust in his old friend's eyes, but Dick somewhat expected that. 'Nice to see you too, Connor,' he said, slipping into his casual, carefree persona easily. If there was one thing Dick was really good at, it was putting on a mask. 'I was in the neighbourhood and thought I'd swing by. It's been a while.'

'Why don't you answer my question first before you start acting like nothing is wrong,' Connor suggested, his voice taking a deep threatening tone.

'Connor, please,' M'gann said, seemingly getting over her initial shock. She placed her left hand over Connor's on her shoulder, and that's when Dick saw the shiny diamond ring on her finger. 'He's our friend.'

Dick didn't think his guilt could worsen at those three words.

M'gann opened the door wider and offered him a small smile. 'Come in, Dick. We'd love for you to join us.'

Dick flashed her a grateful smile. 'Thanks,' he said as he ducked through the doorway. He then looked from M'gann to Connor and back again. 'Congratulations, by the way.'

M'gann looked confused for a moment, then a joyful twinkle flashed in her eyes as she looked to her ring, a soft smile gracing her features. 'Thank you, Dick,' she said. 'That's what we're actually celebrating. Come on, there is food and drinks this way.'

M'gann walked back towards the party, but Connor and Dick remained in the entrance, staring at one another.

Dick took Connor in. Because of his clone genetics, Connor never actually aged. Not physically anyways. He'd changed ever so slightly from when Dick first broke him out of Cadmus, only growing a centimetre or two every year or so. His muscles had toned more having entered his theoretical twenties, and but his face still held onto those baby features he'd had since being replicated as a teenaged Superman.

Dick sized himself up against Connor and shockingly found that, for the first time, they were looking at each other eye to eye.

Connor seemed to scan Dick, too, coming to the same conclusion that Dick had changed too since they last saw each other. Dick waited for Connor to say something, but when Connor was done he gave Dick a stone cold grimace then turned to follow M'gann.

'What a warm reunion,' Dick mumbled under breath as he followed Connor down the hallway.

The hallway opened into an open-floor plan that held the kitchen, the dinning room and the lounge. Dick expected a few more people to be waiting for them, but he only spotted Kaldur lounging on the couch, drink in hand. Being the vigilant person he was, Kaldur immediately recognised Dick and placed his drink on the coffee table as he stood up.

'Dick,' he said, teal eyes wide with surprise.

'Hey, Kaldur,' Dick greeted awkwardly, ready for the same cold treatment as Connor.

Instead, Kaldur's face broke into a warm smile as he manoeuvred around the furniture to make his way to Dick. 'Old friend,' he said as he embraced Dick. 'It has been too long.'

'It sure has, buddy,' Dick responded, returning his friend's embrace.

Kaldur released him, but kept his hand on Dick's shoulder as he scanned over him. 'Look at you! You seem to be healthy and strong.'

It was true. Dick had noticed he'd muscled up a little more since leaving the team, though still keeping towards the leaner side of muscular. He certainly wasn't has bulk as Connor, or Kaldur for that fact, who Dick noted also had more muscles and toned features. Kaldur certainly filled out the black button-up he wore. But, as it was with Connor, Dick was happy to see him looking directly in Kaldur's eyes as they spoke, not from slightly below as it had been since they were children.

'Thanks man,' Dick said. 'Been working out. I see you've been doing the same, Aquaman.'

'My King left some large shoes to fill,' Kladur admitted humbly. 'But thank you.'

'So you know of Kaldur's promotion, but couldn't contact him to say congrats when it happened?' Connor interjected from his place in the kitchen.

M'gann scolded him as she placed some plates on the dining table, but the mood had already changed to tense and quiet.

'Connor's right,' Dick admitted, addressing his three friends. 'I'm sorry. These past two years... I should've stayed in contact. I wanted to. But every time I went to, I convinced myself that you didn't want to hear from me. That it would be better to leave you all be while I try to figure out myself again.'

'Oh Dick,' M'gann started, walking around the table to pull him into a hug. 'Of course we wanted to hear from you. You're our friend and we missed you. But we understand that after Wally died, you had to take a break from everything.'

M'gann pulled away and then pointed an accusatory finger at him, looking extremely cross with him. 'But if you ever do anything like that again, I swear I will hunt you down and kick your sorry ass into another universe. Understood?'

Dick nodded vigorously. 'U-Understood.'

M'gann's sweet demeanour returned and she walked back to the table to continue setting it. The three men looked at her quietly as she went about her work, until Dick turned to Connor and said, 'Your fiancée is scary.'

Dick expected another glare from the Superboy, but he was gladly surprised when the dark-haired boy nodded in agreement, face slightly pale. 'You got that right.' He then shook himself out of his frozen state of fear to help his fiancée dish out their meal.

'Give him time,' Kaldur said quietly to Dick. 'You know how Connor can be with expressing his emotions.'

'Well, he's not as emotionally constipated as he once was, I'll give him that,' Dick said. 'Unfortunately, I don't think I have time.'

'What do you mean?' Kaldur asked.

Dick went to explain but quickly decided against it. Kaldur was in the Justice League now. Dick couldn't really explain what he was planning to do. Not yet, anyway.

'Forget I said anything,' Dick said instead, flashing his charming smile and wrapping an arm around his old friend's shoulders. 'For now, why don't you tell me everything I've missed. How is it being Atlantis' new champion, first starters...'

For the next hour, it was like old times. The four of them ate and laughed and swapped stories about what Dick had missed in the last two years. They recalled some of the good times they all shared when they were on the team, and Dick convinced himself for a brief moment that they could all stay like this. Happy, carefree, young.

But Dick had come to Connor and M'gann for a reason.

Once they'd had enough of dessert, Connor offered to wash up and Dick saw his chance.

'I'll help wipe up,' Dick offered, taking his and Kaldur's plates to the sink while Connor filled the sink with soap and water. Dick waited until M'gann and Kaldur were in deep conversation over on the couch that Dick decided to broach his intended subject. 'So, how is the team going?'

'The team is doing okay,' Connor answered flatly, never lifting his eyes from his work with the plates in the sink. 'I just try to help M'gann as best as I can. We're down a few numbers since your old man decided to take half of the Justice League and our team with him in his little stunt.'

Dick winced. He recalled getting the call from Tim about it about five months ago. It had been an orchestrated walk out from over half the Justice League and their protégés, all of them wanting to go back to their vigilante ways as the League and the team had become somewhat irrelevant. Those that remained never saw it coming.

'I'm sorry about that,' he apologised, though he wasn't entirely sure why. Just felt appropriate.

Connor looked at him briefly, hands pausing in the sink as he did, and then released a sigh of defeat. 'Don't be sorry, Dick. It's not like you had anything to do with it.'

'No,' Dick agreed, 'but I should've been there at least. I should've reached out to see if you were okay. We started this team together, I shouldn't have just left it all to you.'

'Well, I know the rest of the team would really appreciate it if you came back now,' Connor said, his tone hopeful. 'That is, if you're ready to come back.'

Dick's heart lurched at the thought of going back to the team, both with want and terror. He liked Barbara, he really did. But, if he were being honest, he'd missed being a part of something bigger than himself and his own agendas.

'Connor,' Dick started softly, looking to see M'gann and Kaldur still locked in deep conversation before continuing, 'I would love to come back. Please know that. But you should know I haven't just been idly moving about the place the last two years. I've been conducting undercover missions of my own with Barbara in relation to the meta-human trafficking crisis.'

Connor's eyes widened and Dick saw he was about to raise his voice so leaned in close and hurriedly whispered, 'Keep your voice down, please.'

Connor took a second to register what Dick had said before whispering harshly, 'What do you mean you've been working on your own? You should've come to us if you were getting involved.'

'First of all, I just said I had Barbara helping me, and secondly because the team and the Justice League are full of public figures now. The missions wouldn't work if they got involved. But I've actually come here to ask you for your help on a mission, Connor.'

'Me?! Why would I-'

'Let me explain. First of all, it'll be you, me, Artemis-'

'You've pulled Artemis into this too?! Where the hell has she been, anyway?'

'Would you stop interrupting me for one second?' Dick hissed, wiping up a plate or two before returning to the conversation. 'As I was saying, from our intel, Markovia's Princess Tara has been found dead. Killed by a meta human supposedly, and I have a sneaky suspicion someone has been testing on people with the meta gene, turning them into extreme versions of their meta abilities. I need your help to find out who. As I said before, I've convinced Artemis to help already, and I was looking to you, Jefferson, and Y/N to make up the rest of the team.'

Dick looked around the room, looking at how empty the couches were around M'gann and Kaldur and sudden thought struck him. 'Speaking of which, where is Y/N?' he asked. 'I would've thought she'd be here celebrating the good news.'

He'd forgotten to keep quiet that time, and so Kaldur and M'gann looked at him alongside Connor, all looking as if Dick had sprouted three heads.

'What?' Dick asked, patting around his face. 'Do I have sauce on my face?'

'You don't know?' M'gann asked, sounding almost on the brink of tears.

That's when Dick realised something was majorly wrong, and his gut twisted with fear. 'Know what? Where's Y/N?'

'Y/N, she...' Kaldur started, then took a deep breath before continuing, 'Y/N left the team, Dick.'

'What?' Dick said, almost dropping the plate he held. 'What do you mean she left?'

'She left about six months ago,' Connor answered, washing up the last plate and emptying the sink. 'Before everyone else left. She felt like she wasn't doing enough with us anymore, so she just... left.'

'I've sent her plenty of messages,' M'gann said, 'but she hasn't answered any of them. And I can't sense her at all in the country. Even the Watchtower couldn't find her.'

Dick couldn't believe this. Y/N was gone? 'So Wonder Woman doesn't even know where she is?'

'Wonder Woman has been busy running the Justice League since Batman resigned,' Kaldur answered. 'Even if she did know where her daughter was, I don't think she'd like us to know, and I would have to agree.'

'Why?' Dick asked, suddenly very angry at Kaldur for not being as concerned as he was about Y/N. 'Do you know where she is?'

Kaldur shook his head. 'Regrettably, no. But when we last spoke, she sounded like she didn't want to be found. That she would come back to us when she was ready. I think we should respect that.'

Dick shook his head in disbelief. 'No, that's not like Y/N. She wouldn't just leave anywhere without telling anyone.'

'What, you mean like you?' Connor asked, and that cold stare was back.

'I mean she is loyal and empathetic. Surely she would know how her absence would affect the team,' Dick continued, ignoring the personal dig.

'She was loyal, Dick,' Connor countered. 'She was loyal, and stuck around with M'gann, Kaldur and I until the team got back on its feet. She held the team together when we were on the brink of falling apart. But you wouldn't know that because you weren't here.'

Dick wanted to argue but found that he couldn't. What he had thought was the best for the team turned out to be the complete opposite. He could sense it now; his relationships with his oldest friends were no longer as they were.

'You were gone for two years,' Connor continued. 'You'd be surprised as to how much a person can change in that time.'

The day Dick left flashed in his mind, and he recalled the pain in Y/N's eyes when he left her behind. He remembered how she'd held it together, but he knew she would probably cry about it later because she'd done it some many times before, always going to him to cry on his shoulder.

But he wasn't there that time. He'd left her all alone to dry her tears.

You're my best friend. Always have been. Always will be...

Dick looked to his friends again, but they could barely meet his eyes. Kaldur was disappointed, Connor was angry, and M'gann was just sad. An apology bubbled up in Dick's throat, but he didn't think it was sufficient enough for what he had done to them.

'I have to find her, then,' Dick said into the quiet room, and finally they all looked to him.

'Did you not just hear Kaldur?' Connor asked. 'We should leave her alone like she wants.'

'We don't necessarily know that,' Dick countered. 'Besides, this isn't about bringing her back. This is about me making things right with her.'

'But what if Kaldur is right?' M'gann argued. 'What if she doesn't want to be found. Maybe the right thing to do is leave her alone?'

Dick shook his head. 'She's my best friend, M'gann. I can't accept that she wouldn't want to see us ever again.'

'Maybe she doesn't want to see you, have you considered that?' Kaldur asked, his voice taking on a protective demeanour. 'The bottom line is, Dick, that you left her behind without a second thought. And she respected that, even if it killed her inside knowing that you would rather abandon her - abandon us - than face the pain of losing Wally together. She missed you every single day, and yet she still fought and trained and guided the team without faltering. And now, when she finally finds the courage to do what's best for her for once, you want to shame her for it?'

Anger surged through Dick, fiery and hot. 'I am not shaming her for anything. Do you not think I didn't think of you all every single day?'

'If you did, you didn't do anything about it, did you?' Connor mumbled, but Dick heard him just fine.

'Look, if you guys don't want to help me find her, fine,' Dick said, looking at all three friends pointedly. 'But I will find her. Because she needs to know that she was right. That I was wrong to leave and I am a terrible best friend.'

His expression softened as he looked down at his hands, imagining how long ago him and Y/N would link their pinkies. How simple friendships were back then.

'If she never comes back,' he continued, quieter this time, 'then I won't blame her. But best friends don't give up on each other.'

It was quiet for what felt like an eternity. Until Kaldur walked up to Dick and grabbed his shoulder comfortingly.

'You may be a terrible best friend,' Kaldur said, a small smile warming his face. 'But that doesn't mean your heart isn't in the right place.'

'Thanks, Kaldur,' Dick said, patting Kaldur's hand upon his shoulder.

Kaldur dropped his hand and the four of them sat down on the couches. 'Y/N didn't tell me where she was going,' Kaldur started, 'just that she needed to find out who she was again.'

'I don't follow,' Dick said.

Kaldur chuckled. 'Don't worry, I said the same thing to her when she told me. But she also said something along the lines of, "I need to find out where I've come from to find out where I will go.".'

'What the hell does that mean?' Connor asked.

'Again, not sure. But when I asked her the same question, she said she had to go back to her roots,' Kaldur elaborated. 'Something to do with where it all started. And her mother...'

Dick contemplated all of Kaldur's recollections, juggling each statement over one another to try and make sense. It was so vague, but Dick could sense there was a blatant truth staring right at them if they just looked hard enough.

Where it all began... Where she's been... Her mother...

The answer hit Dick like a brick wall.

'Themyscira,' he said softly, then more confidently. 'She's gone to Themyscira.'

'The Island of the Amazons?' M'gann asked. 'Are you sure?'

Dick nodded. 'It has to be. That's where Wonder Woman is from, and Y/N mentioned all the time when we were kids how much she wanted to go visit it one day.'

'But isn't it hidden?' Connor interjected. 'I mean, that's why they haven't gone back right? Anyone who leaves the island can never find it again.'

'Wonder Woman must've had something to help her remember,' Kaldur offered. 'Or at least guide her back home. I would suggest we go ask her, but again, I doubt she would tell us anything.'

It was like nothing had changed. The four of them had slipped back into theorising and planning and bantering as if no time had passed, as if no one had left or been promoted. It warmed Dick's heart at the thought that they all wanted to help find Y/N, even bring her home.

But Dick shook his head in dismissal. 'You guys don't have to worry yourselves over this. It sounds like I'm part of the reason she left in the first place, so it's my responsibility to find her and make this right on my own.'

'While I agree that this is partially your fault,' Connor said, earning a slight slap from M'gann beside him that he barely flinched at, 'Y/N's our friend too. The least we can do is help you find her.'

Dick smiled gratefully at his friend, who gave him a nod in return which was a start. 'Okay then...' Dick brought his watch up in front of his chest, clicked a few buttons before bringing up a large holographic screen with Barbara on it. 'Can you see us, Babs?'

'In quality HD, as well,' Barbara replied with a witty smile. 'Now, what can Oracle do for you?'

'We're trying to find Themyscira,' Dick explained. 'But it's not on any maps that we know of. Anything in any history records? Sailor sightings while out at sea?'

'You're asking me to find a mythical island from greek mythology that is meant to be hidden from Man's World and is forgotten by any who leave it?' Barbara asked incredulously, but then began typing ferociously on her end. 'Yeah, sure. No problem.'

Dick and the others waited in silence as Barbara worked her magic, files and maps and illustrations of the island popping up all over the screen around her face. After a minute or two, she spoke again.

'Okay,' she began, 'according to maps, you're right, the place doesn't exist. Even old sailors from Ancient Greece don't have any records of the place. However, I did find some similar tales being published in short stories of greek mythology and sailing journals. And all of them mention a couple of times sailing near what has now become the mouth of the modern Terme River in what we now know as Turkey, and having a strange sensation wash over them about danger. Each and every one of them have been convinced there is danger ahead and have turned away.'

'But they're just stories,' Kaldur argued. 'How can you be sure that what they speak of is the Island of the Amazons?'

'Ease up, Aquaman. I'm getting there.' A few more clicks and taps and Barbara brought up a picture of a very odd looking fish. 'Do you recognise that at all?'

Kaldur stared at the fish for a moment, contemplating its odd structure. 'I don't recognise it as a species,' Kaldur said. 'But I do recognise parts of it. It is like... different fish species have been spliced up and put back together to form this.'

'Exactly,' Barbara said, tap and clicking fervently again. 'This is a fish that has been found not near Turkey but close enough, and on multiple occasions. Now, if we isolate all these fish types... and then map out where each species usually resides... then find the crossover point for all of them...'

Dick watched diligently as Barbara isolated the fishes, highlight on the world map which species resided where, then drew lines horizontally and vertically, then zoomed in on the section the two lines crossed over.

'And there you have it,' Barbara offered proudly. 'The mouth to the Terme River in Turkey. You're welcome.'

'That makes sense,' M'gann said, looking up at the map, intrigued. 'If Themyscira is supposedly this pocket of space no human can find, then it makes sense that sea creatures of different genetic combinations would be able to breed there in peace, more than likely living there except for the stray pod or two that wander off into the open ocean.'

'I would have to agree,' Kaldur said, fascinated by it all as well. 'Who knows how many sea creatures live in harmony there.'

'Well, I'll be sure to find out when I get there,' Dick said as he stood up. 'Thanks Babs.'

'Any time,' she said, then the call ended.

'Wait, you're leaving now?' M'gann asked as Dick made his way to the front door.

'This cannot wait, M'gann,' Dick insisted, opening the front door. 'I have to speak with her as soon as possible.'

'Hey.' Dick was forced to stop when Connor grabbed him by his bicep, bringing the two of them close enough Dick could feel Connor's breath on his cheek.

'Are you really doing this for Y/N's sake, or for yours?' Connor asked in a hushed voice. 'Because whatever mission you think you need her for, I can assure you it cannot be more important than your friendship. Do you understand?'

Dick didn't quite understood what he meant, but he nodded anyways, and Connor let him go.

M'gann and Kaldur stepped up beside Connor as Dick made his way down the apartment stairs and back to the car. M'gann wrapped her arms around Connor's waist as he embraced her with one arm over her shoulder.

'Good luck, old friend,' Kaldur called out. 'May your journey be safe and successful.'

Dick chuckled as he waved farewell. 'I know you've always been well-spoken, but is it now a job requirement as Aquaman to sound like Gandalf?'

Kaldur pulled a face that Dick and M'gann laughed at, and Connor cracked a smile at the slight burn. Before he could psyche himself out of it, Dick hopped in the car and took off towards Wayne Manor.

'Call Alfred Pennyworth,' Dick spoke loud and clear, and the car immediately began ringing.

After a few rings, Alfred promptly answered the phone. 'Master Dick, what a pleasant surprise.'

'Hey, Alfred. Is the Batwing free at the moment?'

'I've just given it a deep clean now. Why?'

'Excellent. Could you please prepare it for take off by the time I reach the Manor? I have a little excursion I have to go on.'

'Will that excursion bring the Batwing back in one piece, Master Dick?'

'...I'll be there in twenty.'

Dick promptly ended the call, not waiting to hear a scolding from Alfred. Those were never fun.

Truth be told, he wasn't sure what to expect when he went to Themyscira. But Steve Trevor did it once, surely it could be done again.

Either way, it was a risk Dick was willing to take to get his best friend back.

---------------

Tag list:

@valiantbouquetcloud | @epicy0n | @tyrannosaurexrex1300 | @lunaizhere

[apomaro-mellow]

Mafia AU Part 2

After the party, life went on as usual. Eddie really thought nothing of it until he and Wayne had to go back to the Marini estate a few days later. It was Eddie's second time ever being there, so he assumed he would be included in some sort of important conversation. But instead, his uncle went through a door and left him behind. Before the door was shut, he got a glimpse of the Don himself. Wayne told him to sit outside and behave himself. Which Eddie did. For about a minute.

If they were in a completely different room anyway. It's not like they're going to see where he goes or what he does. He could pull his pants down and moon the door for all they'd know about it. Eddie kept his pants on though. He stood from the chair and started to explore. Since today was supposed to be important gathering, he was dressed for it again today. Button down shirt, gray slacks and suspenders. No jacket though and Wayne had said that was fine.

He almost wished he did though. The Marinis (or was it the Harringtons?) had plenty of little trinkets around their mansion that would've been fun to smuggle out. He could probably still fit something in his pocket though. Like the tiny but beautiful crystal dolphin that was sitting amongst other things in a hallway alcove. Eddie snatched it right up and put both hands in his pocket, whistling away. Get this to the right pawn shop and he and Wayne could be sitting pretty for a while. And these rich fucks wouldn't even notice it missing.

Eddie passed by a window and saw that there was quite the garden outside. A nice stroll in nature was just what he needed. He and Wayne lived in a tiny ass apartment in the city. Not a lot of chances to see green outside the florist. Once he got out there, he put his hat back on to shade his eyes. Eddie took a deep breath, taking in the scent of the leaves, of the flowers, and of...something else. He sniffed some more as he walked, the faint smell getting stronger and then he heard voices.

Steve was here.

With someone.

Ahead of Eddie was a tall hedge, covered in roses. It looked like someone could get lost in there. And when Eddie entered, he quickly realized it was a maze. He grinned. Now this was entertainment. He wondered what they had in the middle? Probably some kind of centerpiece? Eddie was still following that scent of Steve. It was soft and sweet and he knew he was getting close. Eddie peeked around a corner and saw Steve sitting on a bench, talking to a girl, a beta. Obviously this was the center. It had a fountain, which was a little disappointing.

He didn't know what either of them were saying as they were both speaking Italian. All Eddie knew were a few curse words. The girl got up and left Steve, exiting the other way. Eddie was about to announce his presence when Tommy of all people swooped in.

"That took me forever. Guess you're just better at this maze, than me."

"Well, I've been through it a few times", Steve said.

Tommy sat down next to Steve, just a little too close for Eddie's comfort, knowing that Tommy had Steve in his sights. He had no idea how Steve felt. Maybe Tommy was the alpha of his dreams. But he was doubtful, seeing as the omega turned his head away.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here?", Eddie announced himself, walking over.

Tommy clearly didn't want him here. He was straight up glaring at Eddie while putting an arm across the bench, like he was already claiming Steve. Steve didn't seem mad at being interrupted. If anything, he looked intrigued.

"What are you doing here, Munson?"

"I can't stop and smell the roses?", Eddie asked, leaning over to sniff at one of the blossoms that were nose height on the hedge.

"It's rude to walk around someone else's place. And imagine if I weren't here", Tommy looked to Steve as he said this. "It's not proper for an omega to be alone with an alpha, both of them unmated."

Steve opened his mouth but Eddie beat him to it. "And what're you? Chopped liver?"

"The boss trusts me. Comes with the territory of being a family friend."

"You must get sooo many perks."

"Tommy, you mind going to check on lunch for me?", Steve asked.

Tommy's head swiveled. "What? Am I your errand boy now?"

Steve leveled him a look that said 'you always have been'. "My father trusts you so much, after all."

"...But...I can't...", his eyes glanced to Eddie.

"I'm not getting less hungry the longer you sit here." Steve put his chin in his hand. "I wonder if there's anyone else here who's better at listening and following orders?"

Tommy got up, straightened his jacket, and walked off, purposely bumping shoulders with Eddie on the way out. Eddie felt the slightest urge to knock heads with him for that, but he was more curious about why Steve would get them alone like this. Tommy was right, being alone with an alpha like him wouldn't be good for Steve's reputation. Especially a lowborn one like Eddie, who technically wasn't even part of the family.

"What kind of lunch do they serve in this joint? I bet you guys get veal here", Eddie said, just trying to fill the silence as Steve inspected him from the bench.

"Your uncle is in a meeting right now. Do you know why?"

Eddie shrugged. "They kept me outside, so I haven't the slightest." Then he grinned. "Maybe they're discussing your dowry to the Hagans."

"Not funny", Steve said, even though he was smiling. "You're still standing."

"Munsons get beat down but we always get back up."

"No, I mean, there's room for you to sit. Why aren't you sitting?"

"And take Hagan's spot? Isn't this the job where you try NOT to make enemies?"

"Are you afraid of Tommy?", Steve asked, eyebrow raised.

Eddie scoffed. "Of him? I called the guy chopped liver but at least that tastes good on bread. I wouldn't spread Tommy on the stalest of crackers."

"I'm going to assume that's an insult because I've never had chopped liver."

Eddie tapped his chin and then snapped his fingers. "It's the poor man's foie gras."

"Ah, so meat mush", Steve nodded in understanding.

"Delicious meat mush. If that fancy pate isn't your thing, you gotta try the deli I got to. Ms. Byers is a small woman but she can butcher the hell out of anything and make it good."

"Maybe she should join the family." Steve smiled at Eddie and then patted the empty space next to him.

Eddie eyed it, feeling tempted, yet not entirely trusting himself. He didn't know Steve that well, but he knew the kinds of games that omegas like to play sometimes. Especially the bored, rich ones. Eddie had never met a bored and rich omega before Steve but he'd heard stories. They got their kicks with alphas, playing around with them until they got caught. And it was always the alpha who paid the price for deflowering an omega that didn't belong to them, ruining them for marriage. Eddie thought maybe they could be afforded more progressive thinking in the year 1986, but for some folks their memory and values didn't go past 1945. Well really, some of them 1870.

In fact, it already felt like playing with fire being alone with Steve for this long. It didn't matter that they were outside, anyone could use this against them.

"I think I should be getting back to my uncle. He still thinks I'm a kid and if I'm not where he left me, he'll put on a search party."

"Sounds like he cares."

"Oh no, he just wants to curb any potential property damage. He lost me at the fair once and by the time he found me, I had already set fire to a kiddy coaster."

Steve laughed, a real laugh, and it was like a bell. He stood up and Eddie noticed that they were practically wearing the same outfit, right down to the suspenders. The only difference, which Eddie could see as he got closer, was the quality. Everything looked perfectly tailored to him. Steve grabbed his jacket off the bench and slid it back on.

"Well then, you'd best get back to your uncle. I wouldn't want you to set off any fires."

"And you? How does a mobster spend a lovely afternoon like this?"

"Steve?! Hey Steve! Where are you!?", Tommy's voice rang somewhere in the distance.

"Helping his friend find his way out of a maze that he's been doing since he was ten", Steve sighed.

Eddie shrugged. "Eh, so mazes aren't his forte. Everyone's got their strengths."

"And what would you say are yours?", Steve asked, tilting his head.

Eddie heard footsteps approaching and decided to be just the smallest bit bold. He took a few steps closer to Steve, so that they were almost toe to toe. He wondered if it spoke to Steve's confidence in holding his own in a fight or if he just knew he could have Eddie killed no problem that he didn't flinch or take a step back.

"I'm good with my hands", Eddie said, patting Steve on the chest just as someone shouted "Hey!"

Eddie took a step back and there was that girl from before. She looked ready to beat Eddie with a stick but also scared if she'd have to do it. Eddie kept her from having to make the choice and stepped away from Steve, hands up and clear.

"I'll be taking my leave now, Mr. Harrington", he said with a slight bow.

"I'll be seeing you, Mr. Munson."

Eddie turned and left, finding his way out of the maze with ease but not before running into Tommy and pointing him in the direction of a dead end. He'd figure it out eventually. And if not, well the Marini staff had to be pretty good at disposing of bodies.

Back in the center, Steve was still staring at the spot Eddie had vacated.

"Hello? Earth to Steve? That was Eddie Munson? Seemed pretty handsy."

Steve patted the pocket on his jacket and took something out. One of the crystal figurines that were around the house. This one, a dolphin. Steve's lips curled up in a smile. "Yeah. That was Munson. Come on, Robin. I need to talk with my father."

------------------

Eddie and Wayne didn't talk the whole way home, except for Eddie asking if they could stop by the deli first. Talking with Steve had gotten him hungry for it. And Wayne looked like he had something on his mind. Almost as soon as they got home, the phone rang and Wayne got on, talking for at least a half an hour. It seemed important, so Eddie stayed put in the apartment, giving him privacy but keeping himself available.

Wayne hung up with a sigh and rubbed his face. Eddie was in the middle of ironing clothes for both of them.

"What's up?", he asked.

"You're being sponsored", Wayne said.

"....What?"

"Sponsored. You. To be in the family."

Eddie nearly dropped the iron in his shock. He cursed and turned to unplug it and get away from the hot metal. "I'm being sponsored? When?! By who?!"

"Now don't get all excited. Initiation is going to be some of the hardest work you'll ever do. And even then, it's not a guarantee you'll get in."

"But this is good, right?! If I get in, we'll both be part of the family! We can get out of this crummy apartment and afford more than one suit and-and pay off our debts and our lives won't suck! We can break the Munson curse!"

"Ain't no curse, how many times I gotta tell you that?"

Eddie frowned at him. "Is that why my mom's life was all daisies and butter when she met my dad?"

"'Daisies and butter'?"

"People say that."

"Who? The ladies down at the bingo parlor?"

"You're doing that thing. You're making jokes", Eddie pointed out.

"Well who do you think you get it from?"

"Wayne...I want to do this. I can do this. And if we're both bringing in the big bucks, we can make our lives better. Even without the curse, that's a fact."

Wayne sighed and sat down on the couch heavily. Even he was thinking a new one would be nice. But at the cost of his nephew? He looked up at him, eyes sad.

"I never wanted this life for you."

Eddie sat down next to him. "A little late for that. So who's my sponsor? Is it Swirly?"

"Well that's the strangest thing. For whatever reason, the boss' son himself said he wanted to sponsor you."

"Steve?", Eddie squeaked.

"Oh he's 'Steve' now, is he?"

"He's always been-okay don't give me that look I haven't-we haven't... I talked to him once, well, technically twice, but you were there the first time! And nothing happened the second time. I have witnesses! Uh, they only saw part of it, but I-you-you're messing with me, aren't you?"

"About Steve Harrington being your sponsor? No. But I'm enjoying watching my nephew get in a tizzy over a handsome omega. Just make sure you don't ever forget who he is", Wayne reminded him.

"Oh trust me, I won't. He looks like everything touches turns to gold. Too rich for my blood."

"It's not even really about him. It's about his father. And what he could do to us if he thinks we've stepped out of line. And I know how you like to toe the line."

"With the trained expertise of a ballerina~"

"You get that from your father. And he tripped up and landed himself behind bars. He got off lucky. Cross the Marinis and they won't be so generous", Wayne warned.

"Got it, putting the pointe shoes away." Eddie knew this was no small gesture. Being sponsored meant everything. Something he said or did must've resonated with Steve. Or maybe this was still a bored, rich omega game. Either way, he wasn't going to waste this chance.

Part 4

[whore-for-chris-evans]

I don't know what you expected but I am still not done talking about the infamous fifth episode of the What If...? show.

Spoiler warnings ahead.

Throughout the episode, while trying to pull Steve out of the mind control, Peggy keeps repeating "Steve, this isn't you, wake up" an abnormal amount of times. It's actually sickening how lacking the scriptwriting is, at least for her character.

Bucky interacts with Steve for barely a minute and even then, his efforts to get Steve back display a wider vocabulary than Peggy's throughout the whole episode.

Furthermore, I'd like to break down and compare Steve's words to Bucky and CATWS, and Peggy's words to Steve in What If...?

Steve: "I'm not gonna fight you," and here he drops the shield into the river below, "you're my friend."

Moments later, as Bucky nearly punches him to death, saying "YOU'RE! MY! MISSION!", Steve's calm, collected response is "then finish it, cause I'm with you till the end of the line."

Yes, tear-jerking, we know. Let's move on.

Peggy, having gone up against Steve in a huge (around the same size as the armour Tony built in the cave) metal suit, made of plutonium or something, and still standing straight up, says:

"I don't want to fight you, I can't fight you anymore. I'm done fighting, I've been fighting for so long, to end the war, to forget what I lost...I'm tired. Steve, I want to be with you. I want you, even if this is the end."

Keeping aside the frustrating repetition of the word "fight" in just a few lines of Peggy's speech, let's look at the motivation behind both the dialogues.

Peggy talks about herself. About how she is tired of the war and of losing people, how she tries to forget how Steve isn't in her life anymore, about how she wants to be with him. Her entire purpose is not to save him, but to save him for herself. Her actions come from a selfish point of view, and by the time she says this, she is far from being as battered and bruised as MCU Steve. In fact, she gets away with just a couple of bruises at the most.

On the other hand, Steve's intention was to free Bucky from Hydra's torture, to protect his childhood best friend and lover. He had been shot multiple times, stabbed at least once, had his skin split open in several areas when he dropped the final bombshell. Steve was nearly dying while he was saying all that; yes he would've loved a second chance at life with Bucky by his side, but it was never his primary focus.

His primary focus was making sure Bucky had a second chance at life, even if he himself died trying. It was as if to say "I may die right here right now, but I love you too much to hurt you any further than I already have. You've always been more dear to me than life itself, so if your mission is truly to kill me, you know I'll support you in it even as you're taking my last breath out of me. All I ask for is your safety and well-being."

And it shows in the consequences too - in CATWS, Bucky not only regains just enough of his memories to stop, but also pulls Steve out of the Potomac before he can drown to death and places him somewhere he knows Sam and Nat and the others will easily spot him.

On the contrary, Hydra Stomper Steve barely shows any affection, shock or remorse towards the woman in front of him, but instead, he flies up to the Red Room and destroys it. It is unclear whether he survives the crash himself.

Like I said before, despite Marvel trying their absolute hardest to push StevePeggy as the superior pairing, they still end up portraying Steve and Bucky's (I say romantic, because Steggy mirroring Stucky proves the latter to be a romance) bond to be far stronger than that of Steve with a woman he only knew for a couple of years at most during a world war.

They dug their own grave and cannot crawl their way out of it. Stucky prevails.

@buckymilf @mainly-marvel @oneofstarkskids @jjmaybanksgun @averageambivert

[the-lark-ascending69]

I didnt love S3 but Steve peaked there. Robin became the final puzzle piece he needed to complete his development - thanks to the actors because the duffers clearly didn't know what to do with him. Steve spent the last three seasons chasing after a girl who would never be his soulmate, and when he accepted that, he tried to find someone else to love instead. He tried flirting with any girl whose attention he could hold for over 60 seconds, except for Robin - setting her apart already, though for the wrong reasons initially. She was originally meant to be Nancy's replacement as Steve's arm candy, it seems, but making her a lesbian at the last moment is really what saves S3 for me, not only because she's my baby, my favorite character and I adore her with my whole heart, but also because... the improvised straightbait turned out to work incredibly well at the time to cement the conclusion of Steve's arc - he was a piece of shit and lost Nancy to someone who was better for her (say what you want about Jonathan, but that's clearly the idea the writers had with him, regardless of the effectiveness of the execution). Steve couldn't get Nancy back, and really, he shouldn't be focusing on romance at all because that's just not what he needs to grow as a person. The people who truly challenge him, push him to be better and motivate him to grow are his platonic bonds - Dustin and Robin. He couldn't "fix" everything with Nancy (meaning that he couldn't go back to before everything changed, as if he hadn't messed up). Nancy may appreciate the change but she won't go back to him. Steve doesn't need to change for love - he needs to change for himself, in order to be a better person, period. And Nancy has no reason to stay and watch him grow, she has her own matters to attend to, and she doesn't have enough space in her life for Steve. So Steve finds new people, somewhere else, away from Nancy, and he grows thanks to them.

Robin being not only just his friend but also being completely and eternally unavailable to him works perfectly here. The audience believed, alongside Steve (and the Duffers lmfao) that what Steve needed was romantic love, but Robin proves him wrong. He gets over his ex-girlfriend and finds a sister instead.

And then Season 4 ruins that, for no reason and to no one's benefit. Steve regresses. The growth is undone, for the purpose of keeping Nancy in that eternal love triangle loop that seemed to have been solved two seasons ago. It's sad and disappointing and I'm hoping they don't revisit that in S5.

What I would've done instead would've been to let Steve finish his arc in S3. S4 Steve has a flat arc now. He learned all he had to learn. He's fine. Now, he's here to teach others what he's learned, and I think it would be very interesting if the person who learned from him the most turned out to be Nancy. Steve basically just discovered the power of friendship, and deep emotional connections and trust and how closeness to others makes you stronger. Gives you a purpose. He learned to love and care for others and now that's his strength. Have him tell her about how much he cares about Robin and Dustin. Show him bonding more with Lucas and Max. Contrast him with Nancy, who is isolated, who just lost another friend after leaving him alone, and is desperately trying to protect Max from Vecna. Maybe she's hesitant to become friends with Robin, or to rely on her and Steve to share the burden, or trust the kids to take care of themselves on some capacity. Nancy has become more and more isolated as Steve grows closee to other people.

Then Steve sacrifices himself in S5 to save either Robin or Dustin or both of them idk I think that would be the best conclusion to his arc. Passing on the torch to one of them. Maybe Robin becomes the new babysitter and protector. Maybe Dustin becomes the new hot boy at Hawkins High idk but I think an ending of this sort would fit. He doesn't even need to actually die, if he somehow survives it still works, just having a sacrifice scene (not played for laughs) would be a perfect way to conclude his growth and move on to inspire others to grow like others have done for him.

[amarriageoftrueminds]

Recently, I’ve seen a spike in Peggy Stan’s and I decided to reread your thread and I just wanted to like add some more things you might appreciate so the thing about Peggy that a lot of people bring up is thatoh she Sharon’s Aunt so what she is technically doing with Steve is Incest. But it’s not the thing about Peggy she wasn’t originally that important to cap mythos until now when there had been a retcon around 2005 or 2011 that had made Peggy and Sharon aunt and niece when originally Peggy only knew Steve for a few weeks in the comics and I didn’t really date.in comics was Peggy and her were sisters and he had a history with her was largely ignored but instead the mcu made it stronger because a lot of people have acknowledged that retcon around 2005 or 2011 wasn’t the best especially because of Steve’s and Sharon Romantic relationship.

in my own opinion I feel like the MCU should’ve ignored a lot of romance and allowed him to grow in other ways but the thing about Steve is that he has other important relationships that the MCU didn’t allow him to build on due to Peggy his relationship with bucky the avengers and other people who are important to his life due to them, making her such an important character, they erased, love, interest, friendships, and all these other things, and forced him to go back to the past when a large part of his character is learning to move on and appreciate the life that he already has now in the future and a lot people will continue to debate a lot of these things about you shouldn’t ship there are about a few continuities where Bucky is a child and Bucky is not a child when he meets Steve, they’re the same age so I don’t think there’s anything wrong with shipping Stucky as long as Steve hasn’t interacted with Bucky was a child when he was an adult but basically to wrap everything up. I think Peggy should have been included into the MCU because now she’s having a larger part in the comics which is altering a lot of Steve’s relationships and his continuity.

Anon I think you mean 'should not' have been included in the MCU. She's a parasite that's been allowed to take over the whole host and now the host is dying.

They included a Nazi character (Cynthia Glass) in Cap's story... for no better reason than to give him a pussy to aim for, as if that matters... and now not only have they made that character the MC but they've stolen every other Cap's story and given it to her! (Bucky's everything, then Steve's story, made him revolve around her, and her multiverse stuff in What If was originally Samantha Wilson's from the *ed* Spider-Gwen comics, I believe.)

A Nazi is literally now the main character in the Jewish creator's anti-Nazi story. It beggars belief! Jack Kirby must be spinning in his grave!

It's very unfortunate that MCU Steve has always been in the hands of people who think his story would only be tragic if he didn't have pussy at the end of it; that that is the only relationship that should be allowed to matter, even at the expense of, eg. acknowledging his mother's huge impact on his life.

Even worse that that same corporation, which Jack Kirby would've hated on principal as a Jewish man, which doesn't give a shit about artistic integrity, then bought the comics too, and started changing them to match the shoddy film versions (not just with Cap but with other character's franchises too). In adapting a medium they neither know nor cared about they've simultaneously set out to destroy it. 😕

[lovebillyhargrove]

Billy's camaro Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4

***

Steve is fucked.

That's it, this is the end. He's going to die now.

The smell of gasoline is getting stronger, and the heat is beyond unbearable. Steve understands what's going to happen next, how he will die.

Because the car is fire. Just like Billy Hargrove was.

And Steve .. stops fighting it. Stops tugging at the seatbelt, stops trying to unbuckle it. Stops squirming in the seat and trying to open the door.

Remembers how it went at the Byers'. When Billy was mounting him and beating him unconscious. Hit after hit after hit. When Steve gave up fighting because he could not possibly fight that all-consuming wave of rage.

He knows now that if maybe he had said "sorry" at that time, it's possible things would've gone differently. "Sorry I lied about your sister." That's all Steve had to say that night.

And then maybe Billy would've stopped.

Steve puts his hands on the steering wheel again, and although it burns like a motherfucker, he doesn't take them away.

He knows what he has to say. It comes out as a sob.

"I'M SORRY! .. I fucked up!! Listen, I was on drugs. Not that I took them voluntarily, I'd been injected with them against my will. I didn't know what I was doing. I would never. It was a mistake. It was all just a huge fucking mistake. And I'm sorry I did this to you! .. And .. I'm sorry about your owner .. he didn't deserve any of that."

He blurts it all out in one breath and feels tears coming to his eyes. He remembers the moment he had crashed into the camaro so vividly. The bang, the metallic, scraping sound, the triumph - he's played this scene in his mind over and over again. Steve thought he was doing something heroic then.

What a fucking joke.

The true hero? .. There's a tombstone on the real hero's grave. No-one, except their little team, knows what this boy had done, what he had been through.

But Steve knows. He knows now, after months of thinking, and reminiscing, and replaying everything in his mind again and again, months of sleepless nights, of could've should've would've..

They say you can't see big things when you're close to them. You see big things from a distance. From afar.

Steve has had enough distance to see everything.

He's had enough time to think.

It was all wrong.

It was all wrong, he was fucking wrong, and, honestly, all of them were horribly unforgivably wrong.

Even if they had killed Billy, how would it have helped them to fight the mindflayer? Hargrove was just a pawn.

Steve remembers how Billy got out of the burning car, how he didn't even look at Steve, who had just rammed his precious camaro, he didn't look at anyone. He just continued on his death march, through pain, through torture, through loss.

Steve's probably crying now, he can't really tell anymore. His head is floating.

"I'm so sorry.. I know I was so wrong. Let me make up for it, please. Let me make at least something right."

Steve is almost fainting from all the heat and the suffocating gasoline smell.

"I am a friend. I know I wasn't, but now I am. Let me make up for my mistake."

The car is fire.

"I'm not saying that just to save my ass right now. Why would I come here if I didn't want to find you? I'm so fucking sorry.."

Steve can't think straight any more. His mouth is dry, and he's losing his trail of thought. He's slipping, for real, he's falling, he is so full of regret, he's going to burn, he is ...

***

When Steve opens his eyes, he's still sitting on the driver's seat of the camaro. The sun is shining above them, and it's not .. it isn't hot anymore. The petrol smell is gone too. Steve checks the seatbelt, it's unbuckled and hanging on the side. He touches the wheel, it isn't hot. Steve opens the door, and it does open.

He's free to go.

The first urge is to get out of the car as soon as possible, right this second, and run. It had almost killed him. It had almost fucking burnt him alive.

Steve hurriedly puts one leg out but stops mid-movement. There's no need to be afraid. It's letting him go. He is free to go because it lets him.

So fuck it.

Instead, Steve opens the glove compartment one more time and takes out the Marlboro Reds. Fishes out a cigarette, looks for a lighter. Yeah, it's there, under the map of Hawkins.

Lights up. Inhales. Exhales.

"Listen. I meant every word I said. Let me take you away from here. I can't fix you myself, but I'll find a good place where it can be done."

His mouth is still dry, and the cigarette is awfully bitter, burning his tongue.

He'd kill for a drink of water. Gets out of the car, goes to the beamer, finds a bottle of "Aqua fresh." Drinks half of it and returns back to the camaro, still holding the cigarette.

"I'm gonna go now, but I'll come back tomorrow with a tow truck. We'll take you to a repair shop. I promise everything will turn out fine. Okay?"

Steve's completely nuts, he's talking to the wreck of a car. Still, he feels as if he's saying the sanest shit ever.

He takes out another Marlboro, lights it and fucking misses Billy. The guy he'd never had a decent conversation with.

"Just .. don't go anywhere, please. Wait for me."

***

Steve does some research. Calls his dad in his office and asks what repair shop is the best one.

"Steven, did you crash the beamer?"

"No, dad. No, I swear, it's for a friend."

Turns out, there is a place here. Old Joe's garage. If it doesn't work out here, dad gives him a couple of addresses in Indianapolis.

Next, Steve calls Family Video.

"Keith, I'm sick. Like, really sick. Passed out in the bathroom in the morning, that's why I didn't come in today. .. Yeah, I need tomorrow off too. .. Yeah, I know. .. I know I'm on thin ice. I'll work double shifts as soon as I'm feeling better. Thanks. .. Okay."

Next is the tow service.

Steve's got a plan.

Next day the camaro is waiting for him right where he left it, at the old junkyard.

***

"Sweet mother of Jesus! You want us to work with this??" Old Joe is not impressed.

"Look, I understand. But this car is very important to me, so I'm willing to pay .. a lot. Just name the price."

The old man is looking very doubtful.

"If you are really, absolutely sure there's nothing that can be done, I'll just find another place. I need this car up and running."

The mechanic is still looking at the camaro.

"Let me talk to my son.. The kid is better than me. Maybe we can figure something out. The spare parts though.. We'll have to order them from Indianapolis, so it'll definitely take a lot of time. And like you said, money."

"There's no rush. And money is not a problem. Just uh.. be gentle with her."

"Don't need to tell me that. She's a beauty. You know a good car when you see it, son."

***

It takes three months.

When Steve gets the call that he can finally come pick up the camaro, he's delirious with excitement. He's visited the garage often, wanted to see how certain things were done.

That day he might be imagining stuff, but he gets a feeling that the car is glad to see him too. All fixed and shiny with new paint, it's dazzling.

Steve thanks Old Joe and his son, pays the rest of the money and gets behind the wheel.

The car is .. really something. Sensitive to the touch, wild and very, very fast.

Steve needs to get used to it. Needs to learn all its nuances, its moods.

He does though. Leaves his beamer in the garage at home and starts driving the camaro instead. Has to explain to Max why he is suddenly the new owner of her dead brother's car. She calls him practically every day to take her places. Steve tries to always say yes, he knows that Max loves being in that car. She misses Billy too.

Steve drives it, parks it in his driveway. Takes good care of it. Listens to the engine's rumble as if it's talking to him.

He even kinda ..

Loves it.

Probably, not like Billy did. But Steve can't know. He can't know how Billy loved.

He fucking wishes he did. Did know that.

***

One November evening Steve's in the kitchen downstairs. He hears some sounds outside. Grabs the bat and carefully opens the door. Takes a peek. No-one. The camaro is standing in the driveway, covered in dew.

He comes out of the house and looks around. Everything is quiet.

Steve has an eerie feeling someone's been here. Or still is here, lurking in the shadows.

He comes closer to the camaro.

Steve's breath catches in his throat.

Is written on the dewy windshield.

Holy fuck.

Holy fucking hell.

Billy Hargrove is alive.

"Billy ..?"

***

To be continued

[lunarspiral1127]

X-men 97 episode 7 *SPOILERS*

Gambit's funeral

UGH, WHY?!?!? GAMBIT, NOOOOO!!!! 😭

I didn't recognize everyone at the funeral, but are they his friends from his past or his family? Cause I have no idea.

Nightcrawler with the eulogy. He sure has a way with words. Plus, him being there as a priest makes sense. Also, he looks so adorable with the robes.

Logan comforting Jubilee was sweet, bit it got me thinking that her screentime has been spent most with Roberto than the other X-Men.

Rogue going solo

Honestly, I don't blame her for hunting down Gyrich and Trask. Especially when it was later on revealed that they were involved but not the mastermind.

Cameos of Thunderbolt Ross and Captain America. Now, last time I saw 90s Steve Rogers was in the Spider-Man animated series during that show's own version of Secret Wars. Before that, he was trapped in a vortex with Red Skull. So, I guess he got out which is why he was there?

I was bummed that he didn't go help Rogue get Gyrich, but I get that he has to do things by the books. Cause that's who he is. Although, Rogue did him dirty by throwing his shield far into the mountains. It was funny and I don’t blame her for doing that. But I do kinda feel bad for him.

Her fighting Ross's army was cool. Also, if the base was durable against the Hulk, does that mean she's stronger than the Hulk?

Nightcrawler best brother! The way he talked to Rogue, hugged her when she was finally mourning over Gambit and Magneto (still don't like the Rogueneto ship), and even called her "sister"! God, I love this blue devil man! 😭 And if anything bad happens to him in the next three episode, Imma be pissed!

Roberto "coming out" of the Mutant closet to her mom

Well, it went better than when Iceman told his family in the X-2 movie. It was a relief to see his mom accepting of him and not hating him.

However, it's unfortunate that she told him to keep it a secret because of their business reputation l. It would've made more sense if it was to protect her son due to the humans' stances on mutants and what happened in Genosha. At least, that way, it would've been more of a good reason than about their business.

Jubilee being supportive and being there for him was sweet.

Yeah, that's pretty much it. Jubilee isn't really part of the main plot, though, so I don't know if we'll see her in action, nor if we'll see Roberto use more of his powers.

Genosha aftermath

More of Jean and Scott talking, so that's good. They're communicating and are still working as a team despite what happened. So, there may be hope that their relationship will survive, but we won't know for sure. So much crap has happened, and I blame Sinister for all of it.

Emma Frost survived, and she got her diamond form! She must've been stuck in all that debris for days. Also, how is she gonna react when she finds out Sebastian Shaw is dead?

Beast and the reporter. Considering how all these relationships have been going in this show so far, I was very, VERY worried about Beast. But, because of what Trish (I think that's her name) said, it ended before it even started.

Trask

Y'know when he said he didn't want to be made a monster more than what Sinister did, I thought he was talking about Genosha, but I think he was talking about him turning him into a human sentinel.

Also, yes, we're getting Prime Sentinels, which is very very bad. They ain't no joke cause Trask as one took out the X-Men one by one. Rogue was knocked out with a single hit!

Speaking of Trask, I have no sympathy for that sunuvabeech. But, it was messed up how his body was twisted.

And, all because Rogue dropped him off the building! Like, DAMN ROGUE! Again, I have no sympathy for Trask, and I get why she did it but it was still a holy crap moment. Also, everyone else could've tried to save him, but they just stood there. I think only Wolverine was cool with it.

Thank god, Cable was there to save them. Doesn't seem like he likes Scott despite him being his dad, even though he cared for his mom back in episode 5. Then again, daddy issues have been a thing in the Summers' family. But, I hope that's not the case cause animated Scott is cool.

Bastion

This whole time, Bastion was the true mastermind?! God dammit, how did I not see this coming! OZT was Operation Zero Tolerance, I should've seen this coming, but I thought it was Apocalypse or Nimrod!

This is his first animated debut, btw. And, I'm surprised he was working with Mr. Sinister cause he's a mutant, and Bastion is a human looking sentinel thing. That explains the Genosha massacre cause, of course, he'd wanna exterminate them.

Magneto's alive! But, he's held captive by Bastion. Okay, I don't know how the hell he survived or how he got captured when he was in Genosha. I hope that'll be explained. But, if he's there then where's Leech? Where are the Morlocks? Cause they were there with Magneto.

I'm really really worried for Magneto. He must've been captured for days or weeks, and I think Bastion is gonna turn him into a Prime Sentinel like Trask. That would be so so terrible if that happened. He'll become the thing he fought against. The thing he despises. God, what's taking Xavier so long?! He gotta go save him!

So, a good episode again. But next week begins the three-parter finale which I'm really nervous how it'll turn out. I hope the show will stick the landing, but I can't handle it more of my favorite characters get killed or worse.

[finley-theal1en]

i don't know what compelled me to do this but here's a list of how mcsm incorporated and expanded on elements from the game and mc community!!!

along with aspects of how mcsm was written that i really like!!!!

allot of the following will be taken either from things i noticed in the game itself and things the head writer @/stirpicus's blog from like. years ago

so first of all, i love the direction they went with in mcsm. for the time it was made, you'd think they'd make something relating to Alex and Steve and even herobrine, or even the popular overworld vs nether trope that was around, BUT NO!! they introduce a new set of characters in an original setting with its own story

and having the ender dragon already be beaten and a finished arc is a breath of fresh air in my opinion

so instead they took the second(?) strongest boss, mixed it with the command block which they made stronger/more powerful than it already is and made the wither crazier than before, thats just fucking cool

the (old) order of the stone are awesome too, they took different types of mc players and made them into a group of heroes!!!! and it isnt the usual group from nowadays, like sure a warrior and an alchemist are typical but they threw in a builder, an alchemist, and griefer!!! thats fucking awesome!!!! and ivor as the alchemist isnt even the biggest fighter (because he's fucking old) which i love, they use his other characteristics as an advantage. before the ninja arc obviously

AND THE ORDER'S TEMPLE AND THE TRACKING MAAAPP!!! i love how they used and expanded on that feature

SAME WITH THE RAILWAY SYSTEM!!! TO TRAVEL LONG DISTANCES IN THE NETHER!! i wish we got more of that x(

now this might be biased cause i don't like ep2 thaaatt muchhh, though it deserved so much more when it comes to redstonia and boomtown, tho the concepts alone are really creative

only thing i can point out from ep3 is the grinder from soren's fortress, and how its just the actual mechanism to get loot and xp in game but on a larger scale. and the fact that the amulet doesnt work in the nether/end like any other tool of that sort!! small details!!!!

and this is just my opinion but soren's studies on the enderman feel like a jab at those enderman related theories from years ago xd

the far lands. i just really love that they added the farlands in ep4 was it?? and i love how they utilized the aspect of enchanting weapons, which they kept it as epic as in ep4 x(

the portal arc.. I LOVE THE PORTAL ARC. SO MUCH. it uses allot of aspects outside of mc survival like mini games and the community itself!!

like. episode 5 is literally just sky block, obviously. and it's got spawn eggs, which without the world build in the network would've been hard to implement BUT THEY STILL MANAGED TO ADD IT IN!!!

ep6 is murder mystery with some iconic mcyt. literally what more do you want!!!

ep7, pama's inspired by players who make redstone computers in the game like said here!!! thats so fucking cool!!!!

EP8 COULD'VE AND SHOULD'VE HAD SO MUCH MOREEE!!! and its inspiration is obvious too; the different mini games in mc and respawning!! i love that they added respawning in at least one episode

like the way they took elements from and outside of mc survival is so creative, especially with how they were implemented (even if sometimes they weren't accurate) and all the world build!!!!

season 2's more focused on the idea and limits of creative mode or the idea of a "god" in mc, and definitely has its fair share of world build, which is still really cool

i actually like how they went about revealing the admins and their connection to the overworld without it messing up the lore in s1 or having it come out of nowhere in a bad way!! like old OLD myth turned real trope worked out well here

also it felt like the sea temple scene was foreshadowing the aquatic update that was to come in mc at the time!!

and one thing about the sea temple, when the origins of the world and the admin were being explained, i'm pretty sure they mention how "the world was flat until the admin gave it hills and trees" and stuff, referencing both super-flat worlds and foreshadowing the bedrocking event!!!

and idk how many people actually know this but the structure block is an actual thing in mc?? i did NOT know about that till recently it's embarrassing

might just be me but i like to think that the original mobs romeo makes are also a subtle reference at mods and how people can mess around with that kinda stufff.... idk tho

from this point on i can't think of anything else in s2 that i could put in this ramble, but overall, mcsm writers and develops were fucking geniuses and i love how they put everything together ^_^ ty for any1 who read this far, and feel free to leave your own insights!!!!!

[fandomfluffandfuck]

hello mr s, i come into your humble inbox filled with horny thoughts 🥴 imagine with me: what tells do you think (pre/post-serum) steve n bucky might have when they're close to orgasm?

(just some bonus thoughts to ponder) who would be more vocal between the two of them? chanting the other's name, or quietly gasping and groaning? do they lose control of their limbs or are they fucking solely on instinct? who is likelier to grab the other's face, desperately wanting to devour their mouth, and be devoured in turn as they careen towards their climax? 😩

whew! as always, thanks for aiding and abetting all these horny anons parading around your blog, i appreciate each and every one of y'all 💖

Hey, sweets!

I feel like you'll enjoy this ask that similarly talks about the different canon Steve's, but instead of tells for orgasm it's about lingerie!

I'm gonna twist this prompt a little bit and talk specifically about how they react at the moment of orgasm because... 😏 why not?

1. Pre-serum & pre-war Steve:

When I was considering what to write for this ask--it's a lot of detail because of the different versions I see of Steve and Bucky and how I think they grow and evolve--I immediately had this thought:

I bet pre-serum Steve holds his breath when he cums.

I have no idea why I think that. But. Brain just said so, so it must be so. That's why they call it a head canon.

Pre-serum Steve has heart trouble, and his body doesn't always want to stay with the program (re: he doesn't always stay hard), so Bucky and him have perfected the art of keeping his heart rate between high enough to keep his erection but not too high to trigger his arrhythmia. Additionally, Bucky and Steve have had plenty of practice stabilizing Steve's breathing to make sure that he doesn't have an asthma attack during sex. And somewhere along the lines of that...

Steve's evolved this response of lying limp and not breathing, going silent as he cums.

Bucky thinks it's hot as fuck.

Steve will be digging his nails into him--his artist hands are stronger and bonier than they have any right to be--groaning softly, tension all over in his body, trying not to make too much noise even though it feels so good, and then he'll tip over the edge--

And he'll have this moment.

His dark eyes roll back into his head, eyelashes fluttering, and his mouth falls open, but no sound comes out of him. He's entirely quiet. His chest doesn't stutter or heave. He's simply... suspended in the pleasure.

Frozen in the moment. Except, at the same time that he's frozen, he's consumed by flames.

Hot.

When Steve comes out of it, falling from his peak, his lungs rasp, desperate, like he might have an asthma attack right then, but he never does; Steve never says it hurts or feels bad. He shivers sometimes, gasping. Instead, he says it leaves him feeling spacy and good, just a little dizzy. It's good. Really good.

1. Pre-serum & prewar Bucky

Steve is the quiet one between the two of them. He's also the one who has more control over himself. So, while Steve goes silent and lies limp, reveling in the pleasure, just trying to take in the pleasure as it fries his nerves, Bucky is the one that more often than not needs a hand slapped over his mouth--his own or Steve's.

Bucky has a special weakness for Steve's hand over his mouth, or Steve's fingers in his mouth gagging him, giving him something to suck on. It's a double-edged sword, though. Muffled as he might be, if it's Steve's fingers in his mouth, he's absolutely going cross-eyed and moaning louder than he would've anyway. Little shit.

Still, Bucky just can't help but moan and groan and swear as he cums. He also tends to shake. Vibrate. It just feels really good. There's something about pleasure and Steve that brings the really, really raw edge out of Bucky.

Bucky's been with dames, when he cums with a dame, because of a dame, its different. It's still fucking good. It can be fucking great. But, no matter what he does with Steve it's always fucking great. When he's with a dame at least when he moans in her ear as he cums, she doesn't mind it and he's not totally afraid to be caught. Sure, nobody wouldn't sneer at them, they ain't married, but... it's not illegal.

Bucky moans in Steve's ear and Steve's thin chest heaves with desire, but Steve also shushes him, drawing his fingers through Bucky's hair where it hangs over his forehead, his sweat wearing out his pomade and curling the damp strands. He can't do that. Shut up.

So, instead of moaning into Steve's ear, because he can't be trusted to control his volume, Bucky moans into the hot skin of his palm. Hand over mouth.

Steve's flattered that he can't control it, that his jaw drops open and stays there. Lungs heaving. Throat contracting around those pretty sounds. Steve likes it. He desperately wants to hear more of it. He regularly has... particularly stimulating fantasies about taking Bucky away, somewhere else--the woods, great plains, or anywhere remote--and doing everything he can to be able to hear those moans loud and fucking clear. Sometimes, he wonders, his sadistic side peaking through, what he could do to get Bucky to scream.

2. WWii & freshly post-serum Steve

Throw everything out the window that you think you know about how Steve cums from the above drabble 👀

It all changes when Steve gets the serum. Suddenly, no matter what he does, he can't seem to get his body to get rid of his erection. He can't get his heart to stop racing. Booming in his suddenly large chest. But it never comes with any pain or dizziness. It's just... doing what it's supposed to?

And those two symptoms, a constant fucking boner and a pounding heart, are not even to mention how overwhelming everything feels now.

It's a riot under his skin whenever he gets aroused. Which. Is often.

He feels like he's become Bucky. He can't cum without biting his fist so hard that he tastes blood or stuffing fucking... any clothing item into his mouth to muffle himself. Why does he suddenly have to be so loud when he's in the worst fucking place to be loud? 😫 He's surrounded all the time. First, the USO girls, then soldiers, and, God, he can't catch a break.

He can't help the sounds. Whimpers and whines and moans. His voice goes all high and thin. He can't. It feels like he's on the edge of sobs right before he cums, then when he does cum, if he doesn't sob outright, he ends up squeezing his eyes so tight that they spill over anyway. And his orgasm always feels like it lasts and lasts and lasts--

The peak of his orgasm stretching out into this, this minute? This hour? This agonizing length of time that means he makes a huge fucking mess with cum. The serum made everything bigger, including his cock and balls, but it also made the volume of semen inside his larger balls increase. Steve's ashamed. It's so much.

It's so much.

He feels so much.

He moans, he cries, he cums and cums, and he breaks fucking everything. He rips his sheets, fisting them, going through them like paper; he breaks his cot, grabbing it too hard; he bends his dogtags, aching for something, anything to hold onto and scrambling, finding his tags and squeezing.

If he cums with a forcefully muffled sound and not the sound of something being ripped or snapping it's a fucking miracle.

He doesn't go limp anymore. He squeezes. Tension all through his body. Even in his feet, which curl until his soles cramp. Every orgasm feels like it's ripped up from the base of his soul. He's so easy to make cum and yet... every orgasm is devastating.

2. WWii Bucky

Bucky during the war is much the same as he was before the war except... infected with Steve's desperate, fucking urgent desires and polluted with his own brand of life-or-death urgency after being brought back from across enemy lines. So, now, he's just more reckless and desperate. His sounds get more guttural. Deeper. Drastic. He shakes harder and clings harder, too.

Silver lining, though, those louder, more deep, desperate sounds are pretty easy to muffle these days; all Bucky has to do is bury his face into Steve's tits. It's all he wants to do anyway. Motorboat Steve. Jesus Christ. He could suffocate between his fucking knockers. And when he's there, he's not as loud.

Perfect.

Although, however strong the urge to faceplant into Steve's pecs is, more often then not, after being separated and threatened with death, they now end up cumming face to face. Mouths open and panting together, sharing the same hot, humid air. Trying their damn best to choke back their sounds and... not being very successful. Bucky's gutted, rasping groans and moans. Steve's high-pitched, overwhelmed whimpers and gasps and moans. They're so fucking lucky the Howlies put up with their shit.

But, face to face as they are--grasping urgently at each other, distance having only made them more firmly attached to each other--just means Bucky gets a close-up on seeing how Steve's orgasm face has changed...

It hasn't.

Not really.

His eyes still roll back into his head, and his mouth hangs open, red, as his entire face flushes. It's all just turned up to eleven. It's just more desperate and needy and, God, is it pretty.

He's so pretty. He always was. (Not that Bucky would've said it back then.) A walkin' angel, but now he's here, and he's really Bucky's angel, saving his life and bringing him to his knees. Bucky is devoted to him, moreso than any holy diety. So, Steve can't get rid of Bucky. All Bucky can do is hang off of them whenever they're in private. Desperate to feel him.

3. Modern Steve before Bucky returns

The first few orgasms Steve has before Bucky returns are lined thickly with guilt and sadness and pain especially. Emotional pain mostly. He doesn't really... want to.

He needs to, but he doesn't want to. He takes to referring, internally, to these physical needs as "maintenance" orgasms. Maintenance because apparently, freezing a fella for seventy fucking years backs him up--his balls are swollen and achy and for the first year-ish he cums so much that he can't masturbate anywhere but in the shower.

It's even more embarrassing without a partner to go dark-eyed over it, biting his lip hard in an effort not to swear seven ways to Sunday, and get him through it until he's got nothing left to give because he's simply curious to see how much he has in the tank. How far can he push him?

Yeah. It's different without someone else there.

Just. He doesn't think...

It wasn't--

It wasn't this much when he came after he got the serum a lifetime ago. So, he doesn't really get why now, after his time in the Arctic, he's got even more cum but... he does.

And it's so much.

It's, like, a comical amount. Enough to drown himself.

It eases off, eventually, but Steve is still pretty sure it's even more cum now than it used to be. Passively, he wonders why, but he's not about to tell anyone (or, God forbid, ask a doctor about) how his jizz fluctuated upon waking up.

3. [I'm not going to talk about Bucky during HYDRA or when he's breaking his brainwashing for this]

4. Modern Steve after Bucky returns

When Bucky is back to himself, he's absolutely back to his old games...

He fucking loves what the serum did to Steve. He seems downright obsessed with making him get as many erections as possible and takes almost sick pleasure in getting him off every time he gets it up. Even after they're both sore and raw and exhausted.

Bucky fucking cheers, like a goddamn dork, the first time he gets Steve to cum so much that he cums dry.

Nothing left to give.

And when Steve cums dry, it's like he's hard reset--rather than moaning high and feminine and jesusfuckingchrist making these sounds that're so whiny and fuck-me that it's not even fair, as he shakes and clenches and breaks shit, he just breaks.

He falls entirely limp. Mouth open wide, gaped, drool shiny on his candy red lips and chin. He can't seem to make a sound. While Bucky's been at this, Steve's voice has gone in waves, getting hoarse, then the serum will knit him back together, good as new, then he'll moan himself raw again, and--

He can't make a sound, though.

He cums dry, and he cums silently, lying in a puddle of his own sweat, boneless. Surrendering to the current of overwhelming, forest-fire level pleasure.

It throws Bucky all the way back to the 30s/40s Brooklyn.

That's exactly what his lil Stevie looked like cumming. Strings cut. Desperately holding it all in, needing to maintain secrecy, their own little world. Pink head to toe. Blushing all the way to his ears and down his chest. Swollen lips. Hard, pointed nipples. Drooling, twitching cock.

God.

It makes Bucky want to make him cum like this all the time, stripping him of every inhibition until he can't even react to the pleasure anymore and falls entirely weak. As good as his over-the-top, entirely overwhelmed reactions to pleasure are... there's something special about finding something old and realizing it anew.

4. Modern Bucky after deprogramming

Bucky has his own entire journey with his body, obviously, and he learns a whole shit ton about how he works with the serum in his veins. How sensitive he suddenly is, not only on par with Steve in strength but also in nerves. His nerves feel raw, so much closer to the surface than they were before, and even that--even his skin feels more alive now. Just Steve's palm hot on the small of his back goes right to his dick. And his dick. Christ. He can go and go and go. Maybe not as rapidly, back-to-back-to-back as Steve, but he's also never been as into pain and discomfort as Steve so... that tracks. He also doesn't cum as much as Steve does, but that's an impossible measure. Steve floods like he busted a pipe when he orgasms.

[Insert that clip of Sebastian talking about the "game" Bucky played in Romania with his metal arm here 😏]

Sometimes, Bucky finds himself looking back, realizing that it wasn't just the repeated near-death experiences that made sex with Steve after Steve had the serum running through his veins feel different. More urgent. Primal. Now, now, now. It was his first doses of serum. Burning through him like alcohol. Raising his libido to a fever pitch.

There are still similarities from the past, though. Bucky's ability to control his volume hasn't gotten any better. It's gotten worse. His moans remain at the pitch they were during the war, ragged and desperate and raw because of how fucking good it feels.

It feels so goddamn good that Bucky starts this habit of curling into a ball when he cums. He wants to curl around his core, throbbing with want--white-hot, sticky, and too much to bear. He can't help it! It just happens. Every orgasm feels ripped out of him. Suddenly, he understands why Steve bent his dogtags so many times during the war. He understands why they broke so many cots. Why so many branches broke under Steve's hands. Why he had to sew his uniform so often, or get patches, lest he have to explain to command how he ruined his fatigues again.

Christ.

It feels good.

5. Nomad Steve

Steve's moans and whines and gasps disappear or fade into these rough, deep sounds. He starts fucking growling and Bucky doesn't know where the hell that part of him comes from but he pulls it out of Steve at every opportunity. He flaunts his body--softened by his time in hiding in a place with incredible tech and medicine and even more incredible food--until Steve folds.

Steve gives him that new fucking growl and stalks up to him and takes--

Bucky is going to figure out how to make a list of every person who has pissed Steve off over the years, every system that's told him to go fuck himself, and he's gonna write them a goddamn thank you letter. Whatever, whoever pulled the bastard out of his fucking boyfriend.

A bastard that makes Bucky scream, and then he laughs about it.

He laughs now, it's not that he didn't before, but he'll chuckle. Dirty and mean and then groan or growl and Christ.

It's hot.

It makes those little, softer, higher sounds so much sweeter, though.

Steve will be growling and giving it to him, bruising his softer, more plush body, getting mean on him, and Bucky will touch him just right--he'll scratch him behind the ear, where his long, dirty-blond hair is beginning to curl, he'll put his lips to work on his cock, pressed all the way down the hair at the base, lips and tongue working at Steve's hole between his round cheeks--and Steve will crumble.

His chest will heave, and he'll whine.

The sweetest little sound coming out of this huge, hulking man.

God.

That's when he's cumming. Right then. He cracks, crying out, and his head drops onto any part of Bucky that he can reach, forehead to his shoulder, face tucked into his neck, pressed against his tummy, anything. He shakes, clinging extra hard. Totally falling apart.

5. Wakanda Bucky

It'd probably the reason Steve and Bucky are Steve and Bucky--they balance each other out. There's something about the way Steve hardens that leaves Bucky melting.

Steve growls and groans until he doesn't, and Bucky takes to gasping, making all these sweet, breathy noises that he didn't realize he could still make. He thought he lost it somewhere along the lines of growing up and going to war. He thought the unending hunger now inside him since receiving the serum had him losing those noises. Apparently not, they just needed to be pulled out of him.

Pulled out of him, more like ripped out of him.

Ripped out like his screams. Raw and visceral. He's screamed because of Steve before, but now, if he doesn't entirely lose it and let it go (at least) every other time... it's strange.

Also, Steve's new, extra-intense propensity for being touched, needing to press into Bucky and be close reminds Bucky of a cat. A lion, maybe. No matter, Bucky responds in kind, he suddenly feels like he can only breathe when Steve is touching him. Some part of him has always felt that, but he clings. He clings. He trembles and makes sweet sounds and has to be so close as he cums. He can't. He can't. He still curls up around Steve, but he needs him. He needs to be as close as he physically can. And it still doesn't feel like enough.

It's the desperation of the serum all over again. They can't keep their hands away from each other. They never can, but, y’know... Bucky's never been more glad he doesn't have neighbors.

6. Retired Steve + Retired Bucky

Retirement leaves both Steve and Bucky reckless. Sweet reckless. Nothing matters. They can do whatever the fuck they want to do. Anything. Any discernable pattern of what it'll be like when they give into their urges goes out the window.

Sometimes Steve feels it boil up inside him, thick and lava-hot, and it comes out with a growl that he can't possibly control. Other times, it's an equally uncontrollable and needy whine or cry that's 100% pathetic. It comes from the same primal instinct.

The same need.

Steve just doesn't know what it is until it is.

And somehow Bucky's on the same page. Every time. Right there with him, feeling like being sweet when Steve is feeling like roughing him up, needing to be demanding and mean when Steve needs him to be, being what he feels and just fucking being exactly what Steve needs. Steve needs him so badly.

Bucky needs Steve so badly.

They oscillate rapidly. Nothing they do isn't good. Why wouldn't it be? There's no point in doing anything they don't want to. They deserve it. So they explore. They take the time to tear each other apart in every way they can imagine.

The other Avengers like to tease them for being scandalized by modern life, but only if they knew what retirement is for them. They know for a fact they would be the scandalized ones

I hope you enjoyed that. It was pretty rambling and not very structured, but 🤷🏻‍♂️ sometimes that's how it is

Also, yes! I love all the horny anons around these parts, lmao.

[eleanorroseaxoxo]

Hungry Like The Wolf

So the poll is in, and no surprise that Steve triggering his curse was the top pick, tied with Will and Eleven practicing magic. I'll upload the Will and Eleven fic soon, but for now, enjoy some werewolf Steve.

It began four nights ago, the night Barb died.

Steve was in bed and Nancy, Tommy and Carol had gone home. Steve was sound asleep until he felt this painful sensation in his stomach.

Steve groaned and sat up in his bed, after a moment, the pain subsided. Unbeknown to Steve, his eyes flashes golden-yellow in the moments before he fell back asleep.

In the coming day up until November 12th, Steve had been feeling... different. He felt more confident in himself, more stronger and faster than he had ever been in his life. But he was also angry, all the time, often for no reason too.

But boy was he angry when he saw Jonathan Byers in his girlfriend's bedroom.

Steve acted alone when he vandalised the movie theatre, and he was alone when Nancy and Jonathan confronted him, and Steve just let it all out as Nancy tried to stop him.

" You know what, Byers? I’m actually kind of impressed." Steve angrily states. "I always took you for a queer, but I guess you’re just a little screw-up like your father. Oh, yeah, yeah, that house is full of screw-ups." As Steve continues to speak, he can see Jonathan getting angrier and angrier. "You know, I guess I shouldn’t really be surprised. A bunch of screw-ups in your family. I mean, your mom...I’m not even surprised what happened to your brother. I’m sorry I have to be the one to tell you, but the Byers, their family, it’s a disgrace to the entire-"

Before Steve could get another insult out of his mouth, Jonathan pinned Steve against the wall and hissed, he actually hissed. Steve would've laughed if it weren't for the fangs poking out of Byers' mouth, and those veins coming from his eyes, Steve had never been more shit scared in his life.

"What the f-"

"Jonathan! We have to go, now! Come on!"

Just like that, Jonathan's eyes went back to normal and his fangs retracted. "Fine."

In a blink of an eye, Nancy and Jonathan were gone, leaving Steve in that alley, utterly confused, scared, and questioning his life choices.

That night, when the full moon was high and Steve did a lot of consideration, he went to the Byers House to apologise to Jonathan, and maybe to ask him about those fangs that grew out of nowhere.

As Steve stood in the Byers' living room, Nancy pointing a gun at him, he felt... off.

"Steve, get out!"

"Woah, whoah, What-"

Steve his cut off when his ankle literally snaps. He yells in pain as he falls to the floor.

"What just happened?" Jonathan asks him.

"I-I think m-my ankle just broke. What the-" Steve is cut off yet again as he feels his shoulder pop out of place. "My shoulder! Ahh!"

Nancy's face pales in realisation, she had read about his in her grandfather's journal. "He's a werewolf."

"He's a what?" Jonathan asks Nancy as Steve continues to howl in pain as his bones snap.

"When a person carrying the werewolf gene is responsible for taking a life, they trigger their curse and are forced to turn into a wolf every full moon." Nancy looks at Steve. "Barb dying must've triggered it, somehow."

"AH!" Steve screams as his spine snaps. "W-What do I do?"

"Get him outside, go!" Nancy and Jonathan grab Steve and drag him to the front yard. "Okay, Steve, i'm not gonna lie to you, this is gonna hurt like hell." Nancy explains as Steve's bones reshape. "If you fight it, it's gonna hurt more, so the best thing is to just let it happen."

Steve, scared out of his wits, nods. "O-Okay, yeah, I- AH... I can do it."

This went on for a few moments, Steve screaming in pain as Nancy and Jonathan watch on, helpless. Steve looks up at the pair, golden-yellow eyes replacing his usual brown eyes.

And within the next five minuets, where Steve once stood, was now a large, brown wolf.

By sunrise, Will had be found, the demogorgon was gone, and Steve stood in the forest of Hawkins, human, scared, and seriously questioning if last night was just a really bad dream.

[ronearoundblindly]

I hate how everyone forgets about the trauma of being in the ice and what dying by drowning and that havin fought a war would've been hell for Steve. So maybe the reader comforts him after a nightmare, I've heard sometimes you can see the sign when you're having a bad day and it ends up in a traumatizing nightmare so maybe she spots the signs but he doesn't have to explain cause it's usually a recurring thing not regular always but sometimes somes back kinda stronger and feels too real? Was that too detailed for a drabble, you can change to whatever fits you. Dignity of his choice is my favorite one out of The series, it makes me cry on the daily.

I'm so glad to hear you're liking Dignity, and I hope it's still living up to expectations. This piece went a whole bunch of different ways before it molded into something I'm even mildly proud of, so whoops, took me over two weeks but here you go!

(Water freezing, or losing energy/heat, is an exothermic process, so that's what the title is for.)

Warnings for zero editing and mentions of trauma. WC 706

Exothermic

You know it’s coming when Steve’s arm is too stiff to let you roll over. The bed is toasty but his skin is covered in a cold sweat. Sometimes when this happens, Steve wakes with no memory of it. He doesn’t always wake up right away. You hope this is one of those times.

But it’s not.

Just as you manage to turn around to face him, he jerks. The flailing hand would have hit you (albeit softly, not enough to hurt) if you weren’t prepared to grab his wrist.

“Breathe, Stevie. Breathe,” you say firmly, scrambling to get to your knees when he launches forward, gasping for air. “There’s plenty of air, sweetheart—“ you cup his face with your hands before gently stroking up and down his throat to encourage the muscles to relax “—come on. Look, deep breaths.”

You show him what to do. You stroke down his chest next, setting an inhale and exhale rhythm so he doesn’t have to think. His heart is thundering beneath your palm, slowing only a fraction with each pass overtop.

“So much air,” you whisper between his sharp attempts through his nose.

He doesn’t ask what’s happened; Steve knows this one all too well, but he never gets better at processing the first minutes after waking. He’s always disoriented. He’s fallen clear off of the bed before, stumbled straight into the dresser, and once, he nearly crashed right through the bedroom door. The crack in the wood was still there in your old apartment when you two moved in together. He didn’t admit what it was from until the first time he knocked you out of bed. He said he couldn’t remember which nightmare that was, but you know now. When Steve isn’t calling out someone’s name just before the jolt, it’s always the ice.

It’s too soon to get up and get a cloth for the sweat. You can’t leave him yet.

“You with me, Rogers,” you ask, smiling calmly as his body stills under your hands.

It took a long time to figure out how to proceed with this one. It’s a cold dream and he wakes in a cold sweat, but Steve can’t stand to be enclosed right after a nightmare. You can’t wrap him in the covers, and you can’t hug him right away. Not until he settles some. Not until he knows he’s with you.

“Keeps,” he sighs after the smallest gasp yet. That’s a good sign. It’s only been about a minute and a half, not the shortest recovery but not on the longer side.

It’s counter-intuitive—all you want to do is clutch Steve to you to comfort him—but you can’t be the one to do it, so you’ve come to use the opposite method.

“Honey,” you offer, “would you like to hold me?”

You’ll never get over it, the look of guilt that washes over his features when you have to see him like this, when you have to handle him like this, when you have to tell him how to return to himself. Steve, as you know, hates to lose control without choosing to.

He can’t help it. He knows that and he hates it.

He scoots himself backward to sit all the way up, taking his time to balance and set up in a stable pose, bowing his knees out to give you space. He opens his arms, almost reluctantly but with an intensity saying he’ll be lost without you, and you crawl over, tucking your feet over one of his thighs and your head under his chin. He envelops you completely, gripping more and more as the seconds tick by. His damp skin suctions to your cheek and shoulder, but you can hear his heart rate slow.

When most of the tension in his muscles finally leaves, you start humming and shimmy closer into his hold. It takes a few of these gestures, but he responds soon, arching to angle his head to kiss your hair.

“Wiggleworm,” he teases.

He’s back. You’ve made it through the worst for tonight.

“You’re sticky,” you mutter against him, and Steve snorts a laugh.

You shift enough to wrap your arms and legs around him, too. He doesn’t let go, not yet, not ever.

[byler-alarmist]

henderhopp (?)

I think it"s cute and actually has some hints in canon that they could work!

Like I said in the other ask, I personally headcanon El as a lesbian, but if she isn't and if Elumax is not a thing, I will definitely ship Henderhop.

In S1, Dustin is the only one that is really, truly kind to El right off the bat, without question. And he treats her like a fun friend! He doesn't talk about her being a weapon as much as the other boys. The closes he comes is telling the bullies "she's our friend and she's CRAZY!!" (which is a great line, luv u dustybun!), which still sets it apart because he calls her their friend.

In S2, El is the one who gives Dustin the validation he needs! The whole season he's been wanting someone to make him feel good about himself and the new teeth that he's proud of. It's the first thing she notices!! She comments on it, and you can tell he's pleased.

In another, better timeline, she could have danced with Dustin at the Snow Ball. Maybe she would thought his Steve hair was bitchin'! I think their outfits would have been kind of matching, too? Meanwhile Mike and Will would've been happily sharing some punch and shared looks in the bleachers ❤️ Will would've said no to the girl and give the reason as Mike being the only one not dancing with a girl, so he would find a way to get them out of there to be alone.

Then in S3 you have the Weird.Al t-shirt Dustin wears, whereupon the design is Weird Al wearing a black and yellow shirt eerily similar to the one El wears in the Battle of Starcourt. Then she and Dustin have a shared look from the balcony.

In S4, Argyle makes sure to say "see this Weird Girl behind me?'

Weird Al/Weird El???

It's totally possible. The Duffers have laid even crazier Easter eggs and bad puns than this.

Conclusion: Henderhop could be really cute! Dustin treats El like a normal girl, which is exactly what she wants, and she accepts him for who he is and shares his enthusiasm for bright and eccentric things. She seems to be more emotionally intelligent and artsy and he is more STEM-oriented (though not quite fair to say, since she has been held back for a long time). I could see them getting into a relationship after being friends for a while, which is much healthier and lends itself to a stronger foundation than Melvin.

[bmodiwrites]

Oh boy, your writing is great! Would you please do this best friend to lovers prompt? “i’ll kiss you right now to prove i don’t feel anything for you” but the kiss proves the exact opposite

Thanks! I appreciate the compliment & your request. I can absolutely see this & have a really great idea. Here goes nothing -

To put it lightly, Steve thought he was mere steps away from going insane.

The only way to explain why was to start at the cause - Eddie Munson. And that - that still surprised Steve to this very day. Not because Eddie wasn't awesome or worth all of the mental and physical hardship, but because Steve had never, not once in his life, thought about a boy the way he couldn't help thinking about Eddie. He'd been in enough situations that would've cued him in to that certain proclivity, yet nothing sparked a reaction the way that Eddie did.

Not even any of the girls Steve tried to drown himself in over the years came close. Not even Nancy. Steve was almost completely certain he loved her - if Eddie elicited a stronger reaction than Nancy, what did that really mean for Steve?

Despite already knowing that answer, Steve spent days toiling over it. In the spare moments between restocking the shelves and answering one of Robin's inane questions. When he sat next to Eddie on the couch in Wayne's trailer, sharing a joint or beer or whatever self-soother they decided on for the night. Mostly, Steve thought about it every second of every day. In a world without the imminent doom of the Upside Down, Steve had so much time to think about it that it was slowly driving him up the wall and back down it again, over and over.

And the worst part about it was, Steve didn't really think Eddie was all that interested. Sure, they spent an inordinate amount of time with each other outside of their shared time with the kids or entire crew as a whole. The only person Steve saw more of was Robin, merely because he drove her everywhere, even when they weren't working together.

There were other things, too, things that made it hard for Steve to just brush everything under the rug. Eddie looked at him, sometimes, so serenely, that Steve always needed to catch his breath whenever he caught him out. Though the older boy was a touchy person, Steve had never seen him casually brush up against anyone the way Eddie did with Steve. None of it had been overt, of course, which contributed to Steve's continued confusion, but it was enough.

Enough that, in one of his nights of no sleep, Steve came up with a plan. If he could just kiss Eddie, touch their lips together in that intimate way, Steve was certain he'd get his answer. He'd find out, after months of pining and worrying and trying to understand this new part of himself, that it was all a fluke - a byproduct of walking through fire together bringing them close in a way that felt like love, but wasn't really. Only then would he be able to put the worst fucking desire he'd ever dealt with to bed.

Except, the universe had much different plans.

Steve thought long and hard about how he wanted to execute Operation: Kiss Eddie, worrying over the when and how and what next. It was tiring and all together not even necessary, because he saw Eddie all the time, making a move couldn't be all that hard. Steve simply needed to invite Eddie into his space, which didn't take much, and lean forward. He'd done it more than enough with girls in the past - so much that it should've been common place. And yet - Steve was riddled with nerves. Why, when he was trying to prove that this wasn't a big deal, did it suddenly feel like the biggest one to ever exist?

Fretting, despite the overwhelming desire to do so, was getting him nowhere. Mostly because Robin didn't want to even listen to him when he tried to bring it up. Her short "I'm not talking about Eddie with you again, Steve," was more than enough to shut him up. Steve hadn't realized just how much he brought the older boy up until that very moment.

"Shit, I'm sorry, Rob. I'm all fucked up - please don't mind the bleed out of my insanity." Steve bumped his shoulder against her's, turning his attention to what he knew would get her talking again. "How's Nancy?"

By the end of their shift, Robin was animatedly conversing with him again, which Steve took as a good sign. He dropped her off with a swift kiss to her cheek before making a last minute decision to head to Eddie's. They didn't have plans for the night but nine times out of ten, Eddie expected him to come by, anyway. And wasn't that something, the ease in which they could fit into each other's lives.

Shrugging yet another solid piece of evidence away, Steve reached over to the radio dial, turning it up loud to drown out his thoughts while he drove. He mindlessly took all the necessary turns to get to Eddie's - the drive was like second nature after making it so many times. When he pulled up, Steve felt a lot more relaxed. A part of him wondered how much that had to do with Eddie's proximity - it'd been an automatic thing, like the sigh of relief walking through the door at home always brought about.

That thought had him climbing out of the car without bothering to pull his keys from the ignition. He strode to Eddie's door, knocking twice with the meat of his palm. Eddie must've been waiting for him because Steve didn't have to wait long. Eddie's eyebrow was quirked when he opened the door, his curiosity alive and forthcoming. Steve thought there might've been words Eddie wanted to say, but they were interrupted by Steve stepping into Eddie's space and pressing their lips together.

What Steve thought was going to be the cure to all of his incessant lusting for Eddie turned out to be a perfect feeling, like a key sliding into a locked door, the tumblers to open it finally lining up. Steve let out a breath in surprise that Eddie took as an opportunity to deepen their kiss. It was then that Steve realized he'd been doomed from the beginning. Everything he'd been ignoring was pointing in this direction - stubbornly, Steve didn't want to accept that things were changing, that he'd changed, that what he wanted changed. There was no other choice, now - Steve loved Eddie so much it was hard to control just how happy he was about finally getting his shit together - finally seeing.

There were very few words exchanged in the following minutes in which Eddie pulled Steve inside and bypassed all of their usual hang out spots until they were in the bedroom, sealed behind a locked door. Steve expected Eddie to push him onto the bed, but he pressed Steve up against the door, instead, saying "it's about time, pretty boy" like this moment was inevitable.

Maybe it was.

He then proceeded to kiss Steve within an inch of his life. They stayed there like that, tangling tongues and exploring each other over their clothes, for what felt like hours. Things eventually slowed down enough for Eddie to finally invite Steve into his bed. They curled up together and simply fell asleep because Steve knew there'd be plenty more where their earlier passion came from. The need to rush receded withe every passing moment Eddie spent in his arms.

It still took work, truly coming to terms with the fact that Steve loved Eddie and in turn, Eddie loved him right back. He got past the dick thing pretty quickly - Eddie gladly saw to that. Instead, it became about being vulnerable again. Nancy, despite his realization that she obviously wasn't the one, took a lot out of him. Trusting that Eddie was going to be there, continuing to love him was a lot harder than Steve expected. But that was okay, because Eddie was well worth the effort. Their friendship that easily blossomed into love - Steve wanted something so pure like that for longer than he cared to admit.

Who better to fall in love with than his very best friend? Trust issues, uncertainty, those were all things Steve knew they could take on together. And that was the best part, the knowledge that Eddie understood his fucked up nature and still wanted him, well and truly wanted him.

Best Friends to Lovers Prompts

[merpiplier]

baby if i'm half the man i say i am | steve harrington x eddie munson

Eddie must've been dying.

There was no other explanation. He could feel the blood slicking his skin, pooling in the back of his throat, coating his tongue as he sagged into the earth under the horde of bats. He was ready for it; he'd come to terms with it in the short amount of time between chopping the rope down and now.

So, the vision swimming into view must've been his brain's last hurrah before clicking off once and for all. Because seeing Harrington, skin a golden glow in the gloom of the Upside Down, ax raised like a great sword against the swarm of monsters around him, giant brownish wings spread out like a shield around him... There was no other explanation for that, other than a pre-death hallucination. 

“Fucking told you not to be a hero.” Vision Steve hissed, smashing a handful of bats out of the sky before the glow got so much stronger, Eddie having to close his eyes against it.

He didn't bother to reopen them after that, everything too hard to do after that.

Waking up in the hospital after that was... unexpected.

Eddie grimaced, body aching all over as he squirmed. He could feel the stitches all over his stomach and in his neck and thighs, the bruising and the general bone deep ache from recovering from his blood loss.

He really should be dead, so... what the hell?

“Good, you're awake.”

Eddie startled, letting out a pained whine as he did. The voice tutted, and Eddie rolled his head over to find Steve, looking grumpy and tired. “Harrington?”

Steve huffed, his arms crossed, dressed in a fluffy blue sweater that didn't look as good as his yellow one currently lost at the bottom of Lovers Lake, sweats, his hair fluffy and free of product. He looked incredibly comfy. “About damn time, Munson. Was beginning to think I dragged you out of there for nothing.”

Eddie blinked, breath catching in his throat. Why did the thought of Steve carrying him out of that hell hole twist his guts so much? Fuck, he wanted to cry a little bit now, thinking of it. He cleared his throat, tilting his head back as it started aching at the angle he needed to look over to Steve. “I mean... I appreciate it, but you didn't have to.” Silence, Steve's breathing even stopped for a second, and Eddie let out his own trapped breath. “I kinda came to terms with it, dude. Shit was gonna suck when I got back here. How the hell was I gonna come out of this okay, you know? There was no way I wasn't gonna be framed and dying to try to help you guys out seemed infinitely better than taking the fall for that creep.”

Another couple beats of silence, before Steve stood up, and for a split-second Eddie thought he could see that golden light again, just for a bit before he blinked and it was gone. “You're an idiot.” Steve muttered, before he left.

Eddie immediately blacked out, as the door closed, pain swallowing him up with the sweet blackness of unconsciousness.

The next time Eddie woke up, he hadn't felt nearly as bad. There was also a warm, soft hand wrapped around his, a rough thumb brushing over his knuckles. Eddie allowed his head to loll over, frowning slightly when he saw Steve there again, seeming a little guilty as he drew circles into the back of Eddie's hand. “Steve?”

“Sorry.” Steve muttered; his gaze was soft as he watched the patterns he traced into Eddie's skin. “That was a little mean, last time. But...” He looked up then, and Eddie thought for a second Steve's eyes seemed brighter, almost unnaturally so, but when his own eyes focused, they were the usual hazel Eddie had admittedly spent too much time staring into. “Eddie, you should've stuck to the plan, man. We would've figured something out. We did.” He gestured to the room; his lips drawn into a tight line. “Do you think they'd let me be alone with a triple murder suspect? There'd be guards, Eddie.” He leaned forward, frown deepening, and Eddie's eyes must've been going wonky again from all the drugs undoubtedly pumping through him, since Steve's skin seemed to be glowing again, his eyes almost seeming golden in the little bit of light. “As soon as you heal up, you're a free man, Eddie. You just needed to trust us.”

And... wow, okay, that hurt a bit. “Really, Harrington?” Eddie let out a rough chuckle, grimacing as he snatched his hand out of Steve's, pain seeping through his bones with the loss of contact. “I'm really expected to trust a gaggle of kids and the reformed resident jackass to fix the shit show that was my life for the last week. Yeah, okay.”

Steve huffed, hand falling onto his thigh, pain slipping back under a muted blanket with the touch. That was... weird. “Go back to sleep, Eddie.” Steve's voice was tight when he spoke.

Eddie went to sleep.

The next time Eddie woke up, he was alone, and in pain again. His wounds were slowly healing, but according to the nurse that came in to check on his vitals and swap out his IV, they were healing a lot faster than they should've, given the apparently horrific state he came in.

“Honestly, it seems like something of a miracle. It's only been a couple days, and you just about seem ready for the stitches to be taken out.” The nurse smiled at him, comforting and sweet. It wasn't anywhere near as comforting as Steve's grumpy ass. Eddie should probably unpack that a bit later, in private.

“Where's Steve?” Eddie asked, instead, his voice rough to his own ears.

She hummed softly. “He's visiting the young lady that came in about the same time as you. She seems to be recovering fairly well, too.” She let out a soft chuckle, scribbling onto his chart. “It's almost like he's some sort of visiting angel, or something.”

Angel?

The word stuck in Eddie's mind, and he frowned as she left. He faded back to sleep not long after, but he dreamed, this time.

Golden glowing skin, large wings, and a sword raised through a horde of evil. Wings sturdy enough to shield the weak behind them.

Maybe his... blood-loss addled brain wasn't making something up... but... that'd be crazy. Steve Harrington, former asshole of Hawkins High, some sort of weird angel thing?

Yeah, sure.

“What?” Steve groused, when Eddie was awake the next time, finally snapping after Eddie had spent the last several minutes staring him down.

“You're glowing.” Eddie muttered, his eyes catching at the gleam of Steve's skin. It was hard to keep track of, as it seemed to shift if he stared at it for too long. But it was there, Eddie could see it, just at the edge of his vision at all times.

Steve frowned, then looked away, his hand squeezing for a second on his thigh where it'd been resting. “I got a new moisturizer.”

It's said too quickly, all in a rush, like an excuse he'd had loaded and ready. Eddie sucked on his teeth, looking the man up and down. “There's something off about you, Harrington.”

Steve simply shrugged, patting his thigh. “Not my fault you don't pay attention.”

Wow, if that wasn't fucking cryptic and damning. Eddie had no idea how. He knew, somehow, that this vision, or hallucination, or whatever... it was real, somehow. Maybe it was his drug addled brain, but there was just something odd, something just the left of human about Steve now. Or maybe it had been there all the time, and Eddie just never paid attention. Did everyone else know?

“You're really going to save my life and keep me in the dark like this, Stevie?”

Steve's lips quirked at the name, and he tilted his head. “You're not in the dark.”

“But I am.” Eddie blinked, because yes, he was. He had no fucking clue what Steve was, what the hell was going on, he just knew there was something. “Why are you acting like I know what's going on?”

“You're the only one who knows anything.” Steve supplied, then tilted his head in the opposite direction, this time like he was listening to something. He hummed. “I'll be back. Get some rest.”

Just like last time, Eddie's eyes felt heavier, and he could feel the siren call of sleep starting to drag him in. “Steve-”

He was met with a soft smile, softer than he'd ever seen on the man, and that hand squeezing into his leg one last time, before the touch left, taking his consciousness with it.

Not fair, that's cheating... Eddie's sleepy brain supplied, before it plunged into the soft, gentle golden glow of dreams.

“Why did you come back for me?” Eddie asked, the next time he was awake with Steve. The other man was curled up in the bedside chair as much as he could be, legs tucked up, tilted partially to one side, hand stretched out to rest on Eddie's arm as the other flipped through a magazine.

Hazel eyes looked up at him, and Steve gave a crooked smile. “You're one of us, of course I'd come back for you.”

Eddie hummed. “Yeah, okay, then how?” Steve tilted his head and Eddie continued. “You had a job to do all the way across that place, several miles away. How did you get there just in time? Even if you were a track star in high school instead of swim captain, there's no way you'd get there in time.”

Steve nodded, tilting his head the other way. It was... okay, admittedly, it was a little cute. Like watching a puppy try to puzzle out something new. “I flew there.”

There it was again, that tone. Like it explained everything, and maybe it did, but the words made absolutely no sense.

Expect, they did.

But yet, here Steve sat, looking human as ever, no sign of any wings or glowing or anything.

“Good joke.” Eddie said carefully.

Steve's eyes gleamed. “Thanks.”

There were a couple of beats of silence, and Eddie stared at Steve, unashamed, as he focused back on the magazine. “Are you... ever going to come out and tell me what actually happened, instead of letting me think I know?”

Steve nodded, then, that same soft smile on his face, still reading over the magazine page, over a recipe of all things. “When you're home, and we can have some privacy. I'll show you.”

Show.

Eddie swallowed, thinking of the wings he keeps seeing in his dreams, that he saw just before blood loss drug him under. Soft grays and browns, molting in places, pink and red from scarring in others. Fucking beautiful, all the same.

“I'd... I think I'd like that...” Eddie's voice came out more choked off than he expected.

Steve hummed, then tilted the magazine up. “Looks good, huh?”

Eddie didn't even glance at it, just looked into Steve's eyes, told the truth, raw and vulnerable for the first time since the boathouse. “Yeah, yeah looks good.”

Hazel eyes crinkled, all too knowing, and Eddie glanced away finally, feeling a bit too much like Icarus chasing the sun.

He could catch fire in Steve Harrington's gaze, all too easily. And Eddie would be glad to, would welcome it, after surviving the end of the world.

Eddie settled on the bed in the bedroom of Steve's apartment, feeling awkward. He'd half expected to be dragged into the Harrington mansion when Steve offered his place to take care of Eddie post hospital stay, so seeing the dingy apartment complex at the edge of town come into view instead Eddie couldn't help the way his eyebrows raised, surprised.

“Disappointed?” Steve had asked, not a drop of malice in his tone, teasing. “I had to find someplace after dad cut me off last year.”

“I'm sorry.” Eddie had offered, because what else do you say to that?

Steve had simply shrugged, a private little smile on his face. He seemed relaxed, happy. “I don't mind it.”

That lead to Eddie where he is now, his hands locked together in his lap, in Steve's borrowed clothes after his trailer had been ripped in half in the 'earthquake', surrounded by a surprisingly bright and cluttered room. Polaroids decorated just about every wall, sneaky little pictures taken of the kids, Steve and Robin together at Scoops Ahoy and then later Family Video, a handful of pictures of Nancy and Jonathan, smiling and laughing. A mess of tapes by an obviously used stereo, a handful of little trinkets and items gathered around. Nothing at all like Eddie had expected, not a single piece of the old King Steve visible, no trophies or anything of the like. The final nail in the coffin for Eddie's crush.

“You okay?” A soft voice knocked him out of his head, and Eddie looked up, finding Steve smiling at him, bright as sunlight after rain. “Is it okay?”

Eddie swallowed, nodding. “Yeah, yeah it's fine.” He cleared his throat, looking away for a moment. “I don't know what I expected.” He lied.

Steve hummed, striding into the room and plopping onto the bed beside him. His skin seemed to have that odd almost glow to it again, shifting as if it was avoiding his eye. He felt warmed like a blanket over him as Steve settled by him. “Did you still want to talk about what you think you saw?”

I think you know what I saw. Eddie nodded slowly, sucking in breath to set his gaze firm on to Steve. “I'm pretty sure you swooped in like some sort of... I dunno, but you had wings, Steve, you were glowing.” He swallowed as Steve's expression didn't change, the only movement in him his eyes shifting down to stare at Eddie's mouth as he spoke. “I-I thought I had imagined it, because I was dying. But then I didn't die, and I'm pretty sure you did something, but I don't know what, because I don't know what you are.” He finally took a breath, then reached a tentative hand out to Steve, settling on his leg, hazel eyes meeting his once again. “Steve, you're not human, are you?”

A beat, then Steve smiled, soft and sweet. “I was.” He hummed, his own hand covering over Eddie's, making his heart do traitorous little skips in his chest. “Back before all this started, I was. You remembered me like that, I was horrible. Then this happened, and something about having to protect everyone, wanting to protect the kids, then Robin, and Nancy... And you.” He trailed off, finally breaking eye contact. “I knew something had changed, and I kept it a secret for such a long time. Because I was scared, at first, I had no idea what was happening to me. I just rushed in to protect everyone, without thinking, it was instinctual. And every time afterward something would change. No one else seemed to notice so I thought... it was just me.” He looked to Eddie again then, his hand squeezing Eddie's. “Then you saw, somehow. No one else knew how I made it across the Upside Down like that, like you said. There should've been no way for me to do that, for me to even know something had happened to you.”

Eddie swallowed, feeling more now than ever like he was burning in the presence of Steve. “How did you?”

Steve hummed. “You've been like a little knotted thread attached to my brain since the boathouse. I can feel you, wherever you are. It's how I knew where you were at Skull Rock... how I knew you were in trouble.” His expression shifted, and Eddie felt scolded for the moment. “I had told you not to be a hero, Eddie.”

Eddie flushed then, looking away. “You said that before, too...” He swallowed, looking back sheepishly. “So... what are you, then?”

Steve didn't seem to appreciate the change in subject, but he simply sighed, standing to put a couple inches of space between them, hand still holding Eddie's. “I'm not entirely sure, but I have a guess, just based on everything. Some sort of... guardian angel, I suppose.” He wrinkled his nose then, letting out a short, choppy laugh. “I don't like thinking of myself like that, though. I feel... like it's my way to make up for everything I did before this, so I... don't think I really deserve to be called that.”

It made sense, with everything Eddie saw. He really did seem like a guardian at that point, using his own body to protect Eddie, beating away the bats like a warrior out of one of Eddie's campaigns. He swallowed, turning his hand in Steve's hold to squeeze his hand back. “I think you're doing good, Steve. You saved me, after all, you didn't have to.”

“I did.” Steve immediately answered, using his free hand to tilt Eddie's head up by the chin, sending a thrill down Eddie's spine. “I wanted to. I think you wanted me to, despite whatever reasoning you had for doing that, you wanted to live.” He smiled softly. “I wanted you to live.”

Eddie's heart gave a yearning tug at his heart strings, and Eddie sighed as Steve's fingers skimmed along his jaw. “Maybe.” He answered, not wanting to give Steve the satisfaction of being right. He paused a couple moments, his eyes skimming over Steve's frame. “Is there... can you make them come out at will? Or just when one of us need rescuing?”

Steve gave a light chuckle, before he leaned forward, pressing a kiss to Eddie's forehead, making his heart soar into space, dance among the stars, crush speeding at a dangerous rate to something close to love. “I'll show you when you're better.” Steve smiled then, gently settling Eddie down to the bed. “I'll bring you some medicine and food once I've gotten your things settled in place. Just lay back and let me take care of everything, Eds.”

It was too late for Eddie. He let out a soft punched out breath, following Steve's softly given orders. He settled against the too firm mattress, sunk into the blankets that smelled like sandalwood and lavender, letting his eyes drift close as he watched Steve putter around the cramped room, adding bits of Eddie into the mess of the reformed Steve Harrington.

His heart ached, watching the scene, watching Steve smile privately to himself as he settled Eddie's minis onto his tiny desk, right beside the chewed-on pencils of Steve's, notebooks full of song lyrics right beside the kept movie ticket stubs. He drifted off to the sound of Steve humming softly, some pop song Eddie had heard playing in Steve's car on the way over, Steve making happy sounds to himself as he integrated Eddie into his space.

He tried not to think of it too much, not to let the thought of Steve being happy with coiling Eddie into him get under his skin. If he dreamed of Steve wrapped around him in the bed, of soft pink lips tracing over his still healing scars...

Eddie could keep it to himself, bury it deep in his chest and never let it see the light of day.

“I like this...” Steve muttered, his chest rumbling against Eddie's arm. They were too close, squished together on Steve's tiny couch, a handful of weeks after Eddie had been taken in to heal. Steve had gotten into the habit of bringing movies back home to help Eddie spend time at home – at Steve's home, not...not his.

Eddie couldn't have focused on the movie if he wanted, Steve's warmth invading every inch of his body, welcomed into Eddie's core with greedy hands. He hummed, his eyes blinking sleepily as he nuzzled back, brain moving slow. “'m glad. Me too.”

Steve chuckled, then, nuzzling into Eddie's skin. “I like you.”

Eddie would've choked, panicked, if not for the lazy happiness coursing through him. He tilted his head back, looking into brighter hazel. They always seemed so bright now, every day, bordering on that gold Eddie had seen him with nearly four months ago. “I... Do you mean that?” Eddie asked, his heart waiting, caged up, ready for disappointment.

Steve simply answered with action, tilting Eddie's head back just an inch more, fingers gentle on his jaw, and lips infinitely softer on his.

Eddie's heart burst from its cage, screaming the highest energy song into the cool fall air, singing Steve Harrington's name to the clouds. No turning back, Eddie would either fly on, soar higher and higher with Steve's warmth encompassing, or he would eventually burn up in the face of Steve's daylight. He would take the chance, anything to feel the plush touch of lips against his again, to be handled soft and sweet like something to be cherished.

The movie was forgotten, Eddie freeing up space on the couch by turning to climb into Steve's lap, hands coiling into Steve's hair, pushing back against Steve's softness with all the need he'd been holding onto since he'd pushed Steve back into the wall, glass bottle in hand, fragile as the bars that held his too strong feelings at bay.

“Can I see them?” Eddie had asked, again, more direct than the last time he had, nearly a year ago.

He'd kept to his end of the bargain; he'd healed up aside from scars several months ago. He was under Steve now, the other man shirtless above him, skimming hands over the silvery skin of Eddie's stomach, lovingly tracing the pattern of his scars. With anyone else, Eddie might've been self-conscious, but here, under Steve, with the all-encompassing love in his eyes as his golden gaze fell over Eddie's body, he couldn't be anything but proud of them. He'd survived, with Steve's help, he'd crawled out of hell, beaten and bloody, and made it through, gaining so much from it, gaining everything.

“They're a lot.” Steve had muttered, before he pulled back, letting out a soft breath. “They're not pretty.”

Eddie grinned, his thumbs drawing circles into Steve's thighs. “Everything is pretty on you, Stevie.”

Steve rolled his eyes, his smile giving him away for how pleased his words made him. “You're cleaning up the mess of them, then.”

With that, Steve's shoulders rolled back, every muscle relaxing, and Eddie realized just how tense he always seemed to be then, just before the soft sound of feather against skin. They were giant, taking up nearly all the space in their tiny bedroom, brown and gray with speckles of green, feathers bent in places, scars in others, rash like redness under where feathers molted out, raining down onto Eddie like individual kisses. Air punched out of him, and Eddie reached a hand from Steve's thigh to trace along the edge of one, feeling too soft feather and pebbly skin below. “Beautiful...” Eddie breathed.

Steve flushed, golden glow lighting up the room, becoming so bright Eddie had to squint against it, but he kept looking, almost greedy for it as he traced the scars, pleased as Steve shuddered.

“They're pretty.” Eddie commented, then, giggling as Steve pressed their lips together, muttering praise and compliments into Steve's plush mouth, his touch never leaving the wings.

“You don't have to say that.” Steve whispered, pulling back just enough to say the words between them, his bright eyes looking over Eddie's face. For the first time, Eddie saw the scared look on Steve's face, uncertain and worried. Eddie dragged his hands down to cup Steve's face, rubbing his thumbs along Steve's jaw, dragging him into a kiss he hoped to convey everything he felt, everything he knew he could never hope to word right.

“I mean it.” Eddie muttered, once they parted. “You're amazing, Steve Harrington. My angel.” He kissed him again, hoping to kiss away the unsure expression. “My hero.”

Steve let out a breath, relaxing, wings spreading out like a blanket, soft and warm, like all of Steve. Completely different from the last time he saw them, how last time they stayed firm, wrapping tight around him to guard him. They were like a old band shirt now, like the old Metallica shirt Wayne gave him to sleep in when Eddie showed up on his doorstep, the one he still had after all this time, worn and tattered, tucked away in the salvaged things from his trailer.

“Love you.” Eddie whispered, sealing the words with another kiss, another skirt of fingers along the soft outline of wings, downy feathers warmed from Steve's skin.

Steve's breath caught, and he let out a soft, shocked little laugh, before diving in, kissing Eddie with urgency, stealing away his breath. He was burning, exactly like Icarus, wishing for the sun to melt away his armor and send him falling. “Love you, too.” The sun answered, catching him from his free fall, wrapping him up in it's searing embrace.

[eskawrites]

Flayed!Robin & Feral Nancy...there's not a day that goes by that I don't think about them.

Anyways, I'm rewatching ST S2 and at the point where Will starts to forget everyone.

Was that an idea you considered for Robin in your Flayed!Robin fic? And were there some other ideas you liked but didn't quite make the final cut? And if so, what were they?

i love this question anon, you're my new favorite

it is an idea i considered! but i scrapped it early on for a couple different reasons. i kind of made flayed robin more of a mix between the actual flayed and vecna's victims in s4. there are actual narrative reasons for it--vecna was stronger/more prominent than he was in s2, robin is older and her brain is slightly more developed than will's would've been, etc. and so on--but mostly i changed things to make it easier to write from nancy's pov. also, while a scene where robin doesn't recognize nancy would've been juicy, it didn't fit with all the other ways vecna used robin to hurt her

as for other stuff, there actually is a fair amount that i changed or cut! the original outline had a scene where El looked for vecna but ended up seeing robin instead. i ended up scrapping it because at that point it felt too obvious, and think both nancy and el would've figured out robin was flayed (or at least in danger) because of that. there's still a version of that scene chilling somewhere in my notes doc though

also, the epilogue was going to be so much longer. i even sketched out ideas for how they eventually defeat vecna. but it all started to feel like a tangent, and i really wanted the focus to be on nancy and robin (i even cut some steve scenes to keep the spotlight on them lol), so i changed the epilogue to really zero in on that first day after they get robin back and the dynamic between her and nancy throughout it

[numericalbridge]

Luz, Darius, Skara for the character bingo chart

Thank you for the ask!

Luz:

I really like Luz, she is my favourite out of the main characters, although i feel like the writing, especially pacing, of her arc was sometimes uneven (which is one of my biggest problems with toh writing in general, and i don't think it's all because of the shortening) and compared to others protagonists of similar cartoons her connections to other characters could've been stronger and richer.

Scara:

I like her, wish there was more content of her, both canon and fanon. It would've been cool to see her wish during the palisman adoption ceremony.

Darius:

Yeah, he is my favourite of the toh characters. Actually his role was the thing that made me continue watching s2. For a secondary/supporting character the story that was hinted on and his connections to other characters seemed actually interesting and, for the show, complex, and the voice actor and the artists and animators did such a great job.

Obviously i wouldn't have expected any deep focus on him even if the show wasn't shortened (even just one short dialogue or scene would be enough to complete his mini-arc) but i am so bitter that other supporting characters like Alador or Eda's mother or Kikimora or Steve got to actually clearly explain their motives and thoughts, even if just in 1 episode (and not always well written), while Darius got only hints. And because of all the connections he has, before s3 it seemed like the pay-off - emotional or plot-wise - would be slighter bigger. And then the fandom is like that about him.

I don't really ship in the way fandom ships, especially with cartoons, but i can appreciate the writing potential, and dariraine is the ship i find the most interesting (tbh if the show had more seasons and was aimed at a slighter older audience so adults would be explored more, i maybe would've prefered it to be canon endgame). But i think camila-perry-darius (v-shaped or not, depending on darius's sexuality) is nice for the canon tone.