#erica-writes-things

[stevie-petey]

episode four: the sauna test

Steve pushes at Dustin’s feet to help him move further, but he’s quickly berated. “Not my feet, dumbass. Push my ass!” “What?” You and Steve exclaim at the same time.  “Touch my butt, I don’t care!” Dustin’s screeching voice is muffled from the walls of the vent. Looking at you one last time, Steve sighs heavily and places his hands on your brother’s butt and starts to shove him deeper into the air duct. He can’t believe he’s doing this right now, shoving the butt of the brother of the girl he’s in love with. You stand next to Robin, mortified of what you’re currently witnessing, endlessly ashamed of the two boys. 

Summary: dustin has some brotherly concern for you (dont tell anyone though), steve is offended you dont think he can fight, nancy gets upset during therapy hour, robin encourages child endangerment, erica becomes your hero, and you lose your lunch on hawkins makeshift tower of terror (aka sketchy russian elevators)

Rating: general, swearing

Warnings: swearing, use of y/n, fem!reader

Words: 7.5k

Before you swing in: hello my loves ! had a busy may wrapping up finals, move out, and adjusting back to life at home. i finally had the time to write this, and while im still iffy with some parts, im just excited to finally be at the elevator scene tbh. ive been DYING to write her. enjoy !!

-

Dustin stands outside your room the next morning, fist hovering over the door, unsure if he should knock. It’s early and he can’t get the panic he saw in your eyes last night out of his head. He hasn’t seen you that consumed with anxiety since you guys were kids and your parents began to fight. 

He feels horrible for putting you in that position last night, at odds with him, Robin, and Steve. 

Especially Steve. 

Dustin hadn’t meant to start a fight between you and the teen. Contrary to popular belief, he actually does want the two of you together, but now he’s worried he’s somehow caused a rift in your relationship.

Sighing, your brother allows his knuckles to rap against your door. When he doesn’t hear anything, he slowly opens it and pokes his head in. You’re asleep in your bed, blankets strewn everywhere, and Dustin knows he’s fucked up because you almost never sleep in this late. 

Now he’s worried he’s going to have to force you into a code blue.

Dustin lets himself into your room and stands before your bed. Then, because he’s your brother and finds it hard to express his worries for you in a normal way, he pokes your cheek with his finger. “Wake up.”

You stir at the touch but remain asleep. Dustin groans and starts repeatedly poking you. “Dude, get up.” He now starts poking your nose, your forehead and eyebrows, anywhere his finger can reach.

Finally the onslaught of pokes to your face is enough to wake you up. You raise your hand and slap Dustin away as you scrunch your face in displeasure. “Why do you always insist on waking me up this way?”

“It’s fun for me.”

You slap at your brother again and take a moment to stretch. Your body is exhausted, you got home late last night after your drive with Jonathan. Once the two of you had been done discussing your relationship problems, you both decided to just drive around Hawkins and simmer in your limited time together. For those few hours, only the two of you existed.

Yawning, you blink your eyes open at Dustin. “Is there a reason you’re waking me up before my alarm is supposed to go off?”

Dustin’s smug smile falls. He coughs and starts to fidget with his fingers. “Oh, I was just–well. Last night… Do you wanna talk about it?”

The implications of your brother’s words cause you to fully wake up. “Is this your poor attempt at commencing a code blue?”

“Well, do we need a code blue?”

You roll over and throw your blankets over your head, blocking out the world. “I already talked about my feelings last night with Jonathan, please give me at least twenty-four hours to recover.”

Dustin flicks your ear that pokes out from under the blankets at the mention of Jonathan. “Why were you with that guy last night?”

“Stop touching my face!” You yell at the kid, annoyed. “And because he’s my best friend. We both had shitty nights so we drove around and cried together.”

Your brother pauses. “Did you actually cry together?”

“No,” you now uncover your face and sigh. “Only I cried, but it was therapeutic nonetheless.”

Dustin drops his head, remembering how upset you’d been standing in the hallway last night with the others. “I’m sorry about last night, Y/N.”

“Hey, no.” You sit up now and force him to look at you. “No apologizing. I understand.”

Your friends have all gone their separate ways this summer and I know you’re so fixated on the Russians because you’re lonely. I understand, and I’m here for you.

It goes unsaid, but Dustin knows that you have him all figured out, though it doesn’t ease the guilt he feels for dragging you into all of this in the first place. “You don’t have to join me at Scoops today, Y/N.”

“I know, but I will anyway after my shift.” I have to keep you safe.

“We both know you’re only going to make sure I don’t burn the place down.” You worry too much.

“Oh, don’t think I won’t call Steve once this conversation is done to make sure he keeps an eye on you.” I know, but it’s my job and I love you.

“You’re the worst.” I love you, too.

You ruffle Dustin’s hair with a fond smile. It’s an intricate thing, the hidden language that can only be found between siblings. All that goes unsaid becomes masked behind teasing and taunts, but you both hear what’s underneath. 

When Dustin leaves your room to go to the mall, you roll over in bed and reach for the phone that rests on top of your desk. Your fingers press the numbers that have become ingrained within your brain from countless nights of dialing. The line rings only one time before Steve’s tired voice answers. 

“Hello?”

You smile hearing his voice, despite the distance that seems to have now formed between you. “Hi, honey.”

There’s rustling on the other end of the line and you know Steve still lays in his own bed only ten minutes from your own. “Is everything okay?”

“Everything is fine,” you quickly reassure him, wincing when you realize you don’t normally call him so early. “Sorry, I was just calling to ask if you’d keep an eye on Dustin today? With the Russians and everything, I have work today and can’t be there–”

“Of course I’ll keep an eye on your brother, Y/N.” Steve gently interrupts your anxious rambling. 

“Thank you,” you say softly with a laugh, embarrassed. 

“Are we…” Steve hesitates, unsure how to find the right words. “Are we okay? I know things were–uh, weird. Last night. And that I was a dick and I just, I’m really sorry, Y/N. For everything.”

You close your eyes and exhale slowly, knowing that there’s more that Steve wants to say but is too afraid to tell you. Too ashamed to say that he’s embarrassed as well for allowing his pride to cloud his judgment, and you’re too exhausted to try and remind him again that you love him despite it all. “We’re okay, Steve. I promise.”

He takes a moment to respond, he doesn’t know what else to say. He’s never been good at this. Finally, he settles on what he’s able to give you. It seems that’s all he’s been able to do lately. “I’ll miss you today, angel.”

“I’ll miss you too, honey.” The name slips from your tongue in a languid manner, the warmth that accompanies the word still wraps itself around your body and reminds you of the love you feel for the boy. You hope he can feel the warmth too, you hope it descends down the landline and wraps around him as well. “I’ll see you after work.”

– 

Your day only gets worse from there.

After only an hour or so of sadly sorting through books at work without a customer in sight, you hear a frail scream come from Mrs. Waters’ office. You run towards the woman in a heartbeat, panic stricken and afraid of what you’ll find. 

Mrs. Waters is sitting tiredly in her office with her head in her hands when you run in. The usually upbeat woman is hunched over with despair and you’re quick to rush over to her with worry. “Mrs. Waters, is everything okay?”

She rubs at her temples and it’s then that you realize her telephone is in her hand. Without bothering to look, she clumsily places it back on the wall and looks up at you with sad, tired eyes. “I’m fine, dear. I–I just had a fright, that’s all.”

“What happened?” You pull a chair to sit next to the woman and grab her wrinkled, yet soft, hands. 

“Oh, I’m old.” Mrs. Waters smiles at you sadly. There are tears in her eyes as she takes a deep breath to try and steady her nerves. “My, you would think I’d be used to phone calls from the hospital.”

“The hospital?” 

Hearing the panic in your voice, your boss grabs the hands you have placed on top of her’s and squeezes with reassurance. “It wasn’t for me, dear.”

You’re still anxious for the woman in front of you. “Who then?”

“They called me for an old friend,” Mrs. Waters clutches at her chest with a certain fear that you’ve never seen within the woman. “She’s in the hospital because some young journalist found her eating fertilizer in her home last night. She’s always been… troubled.”

You gasp and pull away from your boss and your mind reels with this new information. Jonathan’s voice echoes within the walls of your mind, of his story of the woman he and Nancy had found last night after investigating the rats. 

Mrs. Waters frowns at your unexpected reaction and notices the fear on your face. “Dear, I’m sure my friend will be alright–”

“What…” your voice shakes, and you clear your throat. “What’s your friend’s name, Mrs. Waters?”

The old woman sighs, sensing there’s something more to your worry, but her heart hurts for her friend and she’s seen more in her almost seventy years than she’s ever wanted to. “Her name is Doris Driscoll.”

–

You’re sent home early after your conversation with Mrs. Waters. She had been too worried for her friend and saw how shaken up by it you seemed to be as well, so she patted your arm and dismissed you. 

“There’s no point keeping the store open today, Y/N. Go home to that cute boy of yours while I go visit an old friend.”

You had tried arguing with her, but even you knew it was no use. 

Biking to Starcourt, now more than ever worried about your job, you feel your birthday looming over you and the worries of Nancy’s involvement with rats and old women eating fertilizer mixed with Jonathan’s fears. 

This was supposed to be a good summer. 

Your head spins as you walk into the backdoor of Scoops Ahoy, finding Robin, Steve, and Dustin all circled around the table as they discuss how to enter the Russian storage room. 

“What? I sneak up behind, knock him out, and I take his keycard.” Steve is explaining when you walk in. He has his leg propped against the seat next to him as he twirls his sailor’s hat in his hand. “It’s easy.”

“Did you not hear the part about the massive gun?” Dustin blinks at the teen, having little faith in his confidence.

You make your way towards the group and lift Steve’s propped leg up so that you can sit before placing the leg across your lap. Feeling your touch, he looks up with surprise to see you, having expected your shift to end later in the day. “Y/N?”

“You’re not going near any Russian men with guns, Steve.” You say to him in lieu of a greeting.

Steve deflates in his seat. “That’s why I’d be sneaking.”

Dustin shares a look with you, the two of you remembering all the times Steve has tried, and failed, to win a fight. Clearing his throat, your brother crosses his arms and winks at you before turning to the teen. “Alright, please tell us this, and be honest. Have you ever actually… won a fight?”

Steve rolls his eyes. “Okay, that was one time–”

“Twice, honey.” You interrupt him with a smile, enjoying this conversation maybe a little too much. “Jonathan, remember him?”

“Listen, that doesn’t count.”

“Oh, but it does.” You pinch Steve’s shin. “He kicked your ass, I was there.”

He winces and moves his legs off of you. “He didn’t kick my ass–”

“You got a fat lip, crooked nose, swollen eye.” Dustin adds on, leaning against your chair now as the two of you gang up on Steve. 

“He even pinned you at one point. I distinctly remember thinking he was going to kill you.” You say, smirking.

Steve scoffs. “Oh, you did not have any concern for me then–”

You hit his shoulder. “Yes I did! I’ve always been worried about you–”

“Can you guys not make everything about your weird relationship for like, three seconds, please?” Dustin whines as you and Steve start to bicker about something else entirely.

As the three of you argue, Robin seems to get an idea and runs out of the room. Noticing her sudden absence, you turn to Steve and frown. “What’s Robin up to?”

He stands up and sees her snatching money from the tip jar before running off. Steve calls after her, but she doesn’t slow down as she runs out of the shop. “What are you doing?”

“I need cash!” She says, as if that explains everything.

“Isn’t half of the tip money Steve’s?” You ask, now standing next to him by the register alongside Dustin.

“I’ll pay your boyfriend back later, Y/N.” Robin continues to walk towards the shop’s exit. “I’m going to find us a way into that room, a safe way, just like I promised you.”

You’re oddly touched that she remembered your insistence on keeping everyone safe. With a smile, you call across to her, “thank you!”

Robin blushes and forces herself to look away from you so that she can direct her attention to Steve. “In the meantime, sling ice cream, behave, and don’t get beat up. I’ll be back in a jiff!” 

As you and Steve watch Robin leave, the two of you turn and catch Dustin licking at one of the ice cream scoops. You whack him with the back of your hand and cringe at him. “Dude, what the hell?”

Dustin flinches away from you as Steve snatches the scoop from the boy with his own disgusted look. “Not my scooper, man.”

“Why are you like this?” You ask your brother with disappointment in your voice, to which he huffs at. 

“I’m a curious person.” You scoff at Dustin and he rolls his eyes at you before making his way out from behind the ice cream counter. “If I’m going to be judged, then I’m going to the arcade while we wait for whatever Robin has planned.”

He’s gone without another word, leaving you alone with Steve.

It’s still early in the day and there’s only a few customers in Scoops Ahoy, so it’s just you and Steve. It’s the first time you’ve been alone together since last night, when you’d been standing in front of him, begging him to listen to you, and all he could do was watch you silently with pain in his own eyes. 

As if coming to this realization himself, Steve coughs and rocks back and forth awkwardly. He knows you told him this morning that everything was okay between you two, but things still feel off. Despite your best efforts, he can tell that you’re still struggling to seem okay with the whole Russian debacle. You’re still frail looking, unsure and anxious, and Steve hates that he’s the reason why. 

Hesitantly, he reaches for your hand. “Care to, uh. Join me in the backroom?”

You raise your eyebrows at his question. “Are you propositioning me, Harrington?”

“No!” His eyes widen in fear and his voice squeaks, which only embarasses him more. He clears his throat and tries to swallow down his dread. “I mean, not like that. I figured we could, you know… talk.”

Now it’s your turn to fill with dread. He’s seen through you, despite your best efforts to try and appease everyone. Squeezing his hand, you nod at Steve and allow him to guide you into the backroom. 

Steve pulls a chair out from the table and sits down, and before you can process what’s happening, he pulls you down and into his lap. You throw your arms around his neck to steady yourself at the sudden movement, which only makes Steve’s proud smile widen. “You planned that, didn’t you?”

“Sure did, angel.”

You laugh and shake your head at him, tightening your arms around his neck and settling into his lap. He rests his hands on your thighs and stares at you with such warmth, such patience, content to simply have you here with him. Despite the uncertainty that seems to now loom over the two of you, there’s still a certainty within it. There’s still a trust that accompanies the hesitancy, and it’s this trust that caresses your cheek and coaxes you to speak. 

“I don’t like what we’re doing, Steve.” You confess to him, making your words as plain as possible so that nothing gets misconstrued; too often your words have gotten lost in translation.

Steve nods slightly, his eyes never leave yours, and he listens. “I get that, I do, and I’m sorry if I ever made you feel bad about standing your ground. It’s just… I wanted to go along with Dustin, pretend for a few days that I’m not some moron who couldn’t get into college, you know?”

“You’re not an idiot,” you fix a piece of Steve’s hair that has fallen out of his sailor’s hat and sigh. “But there’s more to this than just my stupid need to protect everyone.”

“Did something else happen?” 

You hesitate, unsure if what’s been on your mind holds any real weight, or if you’re just being paranoid now after everything you’ve been through these last few years. Biting your lip, you decide that it’s Steve you’re telling this to. Paranoid or not, he’ll listen and try to help you piece it all together as well. He always does. “A few days ago I saw Billy stumbling on the side of the road. He was… bleeding.”

Steve’s eyes harden at the teen’s name and instinctively his grip on you tightens. “Did he do anything to you?”

“No,” you breathe out sharply, remembering how disoriented Billy had been. He was in no condition to cause you any harm, which in itself frightened you. “There was something off about him, Steve. I–I can’t explain it, but a day before I saw Billy, I had been with Will and he was almost similar to Billy, I guess? He just–he was frozen, staring off into space, until I got his attention again.”

“Why do I feel like there’s something else you’re not telling me?”

You sigh. “Because there is. There’s always something else in the fucking town.” Anger begins to rise within you and you force yourself to swallow it down. Now isn’t the time for the anger that always simmers just below the surface, waiting. “I talked to Jonathan last night. He’s been with Nancy investigating rabid rats and an old woman who was caught eating her fertilizer.”

“Christ,” Steve exhales with bewilderment.

“And now Russians in Hawkins? What are the odds of this all happening within the same week?”

“Do you…” Looking around, Steve lowers his voice. “Do you think it’s happening again?”

“I don’t think so, El told us she closed the gate, but… I can’t explain any of this, either.” You feel helpless, and you hate it. There’s something you’re missing, there’s something connecting it all, and yet you’re going in circles. 

It all can’t just be a coincidence, and it’s a horrible, maddening feeling. 

And Steve tries to absolve you from it. “We’ll figure it out, together. You and me, even if you want to kill me by the time we’re done, I promise you that I’ll help you–” The phone starts to ring, cutting Steve off, and he sighs. Patting your thighs, he silently asks you to get up so that he can answer it.

Lazily walking over to the ringing phone, Steve picks it up with slight annoyance. “Scoops Ahoy, this is Steve.” There’s a feminine voice on the other line, which he frowns at, before handing the phone to you. “It’s for you?”

Surprised, you stand up and take the phone, unsure who would be calling for you at the ice cream shop. “Hello?”

“Y/N, it’s me. Um, hi.” 

“Nancy?”

“I–uh, I called your job and this older lady told me you’d be at Scoops Ahoy? I needed someone to talk to, and I–I just,” She clears her throat, and it’s only now that you notice the exhaustion in her voice and how thick it sounds from dried up tears. “You know what? This is weird, I shouldn’t have called. I’m sorry–”

“Hey, no.” You fumble with the telephone cord and desperately wish you were with Nancy right now. After what Jonathan told you last night, you feel horrible for the girl, and from the sound of it, she needs someone there for her right now. “Talk to me, Nance. What happened?”

You hear her inhale a shaky breath, always the first to try and disguise any upset and hurt she may be feeling for the sake of others. She takes another deep breath, exhales slowly, and then begins to talk. “Jonathan and I had a fight.”

She tells you everything, from Mrs. Driscoll and the rats to Tom firing them for falsely identifying as reporters. It’s everything Jonathan told you last night, all his worst fears come true, except Nancy also tells you what he told her this morning. How condescending he had been, how he had reminded her of how poor he is, how he belittled her need to figure everything out herself. 

“He kept defending all those assholes, Y/N.” More tears lace within Nancy’s voice. “He wouldn’t listen to me. He just kept repeating over and over again about how he needed the job, as if it wasn’t the single more humiliating thing I’ve ever had to endure.”

There’s so much you want to say, but you’re afraid it will only come out wrong. “I can’t imagine what you had to go through, Nance. I know those men were horrible to you, but you understand where Jonathan is coming from, right?”

“I mean, I thought I did, but,” she sniffs, her voice is soft and defeated. “I’m not so sure anymore. It feels like we can’t understand each other, like we’re physically incapable of seeing eye to eye. I know he has to provide for his family, I–I love that he takes care of them, that he always does what’s right, and yet it infuriates me sometimes.”

You can’t help but chuckle at what Nancy has said. She sounds so much like Jonathan in this moment, reminiscent of him telling you that her ambition is what he loves about her, and here she is saying his integrity is what she loves about him. “God, you two and your pride; you sound just like Jonathan. He said practically the same thing about you last night–”

“Jonathan talked to you about this?” Nancy’s voice becomes cold, defensive, and you know you’ve just said the wrong thing.

“Well, I mean,” you frantically try to alleviate the situation. “He only wanted advice, that’s all.”

Nancy scoffs, and you feel your heart drop. “So he can tell you all about how he feels, but bottles it up when it comes to his girlfriend?”

Well, fuck. 

“He was scared and overwhelmed.” You try to keep your voice neutral, not wanting the girl to assume you’re on anyone’s side. “It’s a difficult situation, and he came to me for help just like you are right now.”

Jealousy claws at Nancy suddenly, it clashes against the hurt within her. Jonathan went to you, as he’s always done, he sought solace in you for the emotions within him that he still has yet to share with her. It reminds her, then, just how little she knows about him still. How many years stretch between you and Nancy when it comes to Jonathan. 

“I’m sure you know all about how he feels,” she says bitterly, unable to stop herself. “The two of you understand one another.”

You sense that there’s something important with what she’s just said. The words were said with a history behind them, an insecurity that you cannot compensate for, and you feel defenseless against Nancy. “He was hurt, and so are you–”

“God, I should’ve known you’d take his side! I mean, you two always do this. I’m such an idiot.”

Panic begins to surround you. “Nancy, I’m not taking anyone’s side, just please listen to me–”

The line goes dead as Nancy hangs up. 

Numb, you place the phone back on the wall and stare blankly at it. The pressure of tears presses against your eyes and you try to steady your breathing. You’ve hurt Nancy, you’ve caused a rift between you that threatens to collapse into a chasm, and you don’t know what to do.

Steve sees that you’re fighting back tears and he tugs you against his chest. His embrace soothes you, but when he asks what happened, all you can do is shake your head, too overwhelmed to speak. There’s too much to explain, a history between you and Jonathan that you know Steve accepts, and yet now you’re terrified you’ll somehow hurt him like you’ve hurt Nancy. 

“I’m sorry, angel.”

Neither of you are sure what Steve is apologizing for, but it’s enough for now. 

So much for an easy summer.

– 

“It is fascinating what twenty bucks will get you at the County Recorder’s Office.” Robin places a giant sheet of paper onto the table. On it are lines and shapes all drawn in blue with an intricate layout. You lean in close to inspect it as Robin continues explaining. “Starcourt Mall, the complete blueprints.” 

Dustin praises her idea and you hesitantly agree; you would’ve never thought of asking for the mall’s blueprints. “You’ve got my attention.”

She smiles and starts to explain her plan. “This is us, Scoops,” her fingers trace over the paper as she guides you and the boys through the blueprint. “And this is where we want to get.”

“I don’t really see a way in.” Steve points out, now sitting at the table with an arm wrapped around you. 

“There’s not,” Robin casts the top blueprint aside and reveals another one underneath. It’s similar in design, although this one lacks more shapes and is mostly lines. “If you’re talking exclusively about doors.”

You squint at the drawings, trying to figure out what they remind you of. “Are those…”

“Air ducts!” Dustin finishes for you, impressed with Robin’s idea.

“Safe, practical, and wouldn’t involve guns.” Turning to the girl, you nod at her and wink. “Buckley, you really keep your promises.”

Robin bows playfully. “Turns out, this secret room needs air just like any old room, and these air ducts,” she grabs a marker from the whiteboard and circles Scoops on the blueprints before drawing a winding line down to the hidden vault and circling it as well. “Lead all the way here.”

The four of you all look up at the vent above you, and while the idea seems like the safest option, you can’t help but wonder how horribly wrong it could go as well. You’ve never had the best luck, not when it comes to Hawkins, and the air ducts seem almost too easy of a solution to trust. 

Steve finds a screwdriver in one of the shop’s drawers and takes apart the air vent with Dustin’s help. You stand next to Robin and watch with slight weariness, unsure where to go from here. Once Steve has removed the vent, he shines a flashlight inside and winces. 

“I don’t know, guys. It’s a tight fit.”

“I can do it,” you step forward. “Can’t be that bad, right?”

Steve looks down at you from the ladder. “This feels like a trap.”

“Move, Harrington.” Once he’s off the ladder, you climb up yourself. When you look into the vent, your heart drops. It is a tight fit, there’s no way you’ll be able to crawl through it. Defeated, you climb down the ladder. “Well, shit.”

“I’ll fit.” Dustin now speaks up.

“No you will not.”

He rolls his eyes at you. “No collar bones, remember?” 

“Excuse me?” Robin has never been more confused in her life.

Steve begins to explain Dustin’s medical condition while you continue arguing with your brother. “I’m not letting you do this!”

“You got the healthy genes while I got the rare genetic condition, Y/N.” Dustin starts to climb up the ladder as you tug at his shirt to try and stop him. “Let me abuse it!”

“But–”

Steve places a hand on your shoulder. “I’ll handle this, Y/N.”

You step back, hoping that he’ll talk some sense into your brother, but to your horror he only makes things worse. Dustin starts to climb into the vent with Steve below him, but he gets stuck about halfway in. “Steve, push me!”

The teen looks at you, unsure what the right call here is. “Do I…?”

“Yeah, just push the kid.” You rub your eyes, tired. “He’s already almost in the damn air duct anyways.” 

Steve pushes at Dustin’s feet to help him move further, but he’s quickly berated. “Not my feet, dumbass. Push my ass!”

“What?” You and Steve exclaim at the same time. 

“Touch my butt, I don’t care!” Dustin’s screeching voice is muffled from the walls of the vent.

Looking at you one last time, Steve sighs heavily and places his hands on your brother’s butt and starts to shove him deeper into the air duct. He can’t believe he’s doing this right now, shoving the butt of the brother of the girl he’s in love with. You stand next to Robin, mortified of what you’re currently witnessing, endlessly ashamed of the two boys. 

The two boys argue, Dustin commanding Steve to push him harder as the teen tries his best to shove the kid, and Robin leans over to you. “Remind me, why are you into Harrington again?”

All you can do is sigh at her question, having no good answer as you watch Steve now manhandle Dustin and scream back insults at him. 

They look ridiculous. 

“Ahoy, sailors!” Someone rings the register’s bell impatiently. “All hands on deck!”

You and Robin turn to find Erica standing at the register as she repeatedly rings the bell and demands her daily free samples. You’re about to respond to her when you see Robin raise her eyebrows; it’s clear she’s thought of something. 

“Would… Erica fit in the vent?”

Your hand snatches at Robin’s arm as you pull her away from the shop’s window. “Absolutely not. We’re not getting Erica involved!”

“C’mon, Y/N. She’s small, she could easily fit–”

“She’s ten.” She’s too young. You’ve always regretted that Dustin and the party were twelve when everything began. 

You’ll be damned if you ruin another child’s life. 

But Robin doesn’t know any of this, and she ignores you as she runs to the register and recruits Erica before you can stop her. Within a minute you have a very curious Erica Sinclair climbing the ladder up to the vent as she shines a flashlight through it. 

You stand below her, helpless. 

“Yeah, I don’t know.” She climbs down after a few minutes of studying the vent’s dimensions. 

“You don’t know if you can fit?” Dustin asks. 

Erica leans against the table and studies the four of you with distaste. “Oh, I can fit. I just don’t know if I want to.”

“Are you claustrophobic?” Robin teases her, but you only feel sympathy for the girl. 

You step towards Erica, trying one last time to reason with her. “You don’t have to do this, you know. You can back down now, no one will blame you. In fact, I will give you all my allowance if you say no.”

Dustin elbows you roughly to get you to shut up, he knows what you’re trying to do. You glare at him and rub your now tender shoulder. When you look towards Steve and Robin for backup, both teens send you pleading glances similar to the ones from last night.

Once again, you’re the odd man out. 

None of this is what you want.

“I don’t have phobias,” Erica informs Robin. Then, she turns to you, “and no one tells me what to do.”

Steve crosses his arms. “Okay, well. What’s the problem?”

“The problem is, I still haven’t heard what’s in this for Erica.”

Ten minutes later, you’re sitting in a booth with the others as Steve slides Erica a freshly made sundae. 

“More fudge, please.” She requests, pleased she’s won.

Steve looks at you, already fed up with the kid, and you feel no sympathy for him. “Go on, get the girl her bribery fudge. This is what you wanted.”

He cringes at the sarcasm in your voice and knows you’re once again pissed at him. Defeated, he hangs his head low and leaves to get Erica more fudge without another word. Once he’s gone, Robin opens up her blueprints and shows the girl the air ducts. “You see this? This is the route you’re going to take.”

You sit there quietly as Dustin and Robin talk to Erica. After they’ve explained the entire plan, she mentions that this all sounds like child endangerment. You let out an exhausted chuckle. “It does, doesn’t it? Isn’t that just hilarious to think about?”

Robin tries to reassure both you and Erica. “We’ll be in radio contact with you the whole time–” 

“Ah, ah, ah!” Erica waves a finger in Robin’s face, unamused. “Child. Endangerment.”

“It’s a shame only you can see that.” You drop your head onto the table, entirely over the situation. “I mean, how can only the ten year old see how insane this is, huh?”

Dustin throws a straw at you and shushes you, annoyed with your theatrics. Clearing his throat, he turns to Erica. “We think these Russians want to do harm to our country.”

“Unconfirmed, actually.” You retort. With every passing minute, it becomes more and more evident that this really is happening, and there’s no way you can back out now; someone sane has to be there to protect everyone. Dustin and the others all seem deluded by the idea of fame and adventure, but all you want to do is keep your loved ones safe. 

“Shut up,” Dustin shoves you further away from him as he tries to win over Erica’s agreement. “Great harm. Don’t you love your country?”

“You can’t spell ‘America’ without ‘Erica’.” She takes a sip from her drink, now listening.

You lift your head up from the table and share a baffled look with Dustin, both of you going through how to spell America in your heads. Amazingly, Erica is right. You really can’t spell the word without her name. 

“Incredible,” you whisper, in complete disbelief. 

Dustin shakes his head. “Uh, yeah. Oddly, that’s–uh, totally true… So, don’t do this for us. Do it for your country. Do it for your fellow man, for America – Erica.”

After your brother’s speech, Erica puts down her drink and mocks him, still not entirely sold on the whole child endangerment idea. Instead, she goes on a whole spiel about how she loves capitalism and paying people for their services while you sit there, head pounding with a headache. 

“And it seems to me,” Erica concludes with a smile, “my ability to fit into that little vent is very, very valuable to you all. So, you want my help? This USS Butterscotch better be the first of many. I’m talking free ice cream for life.”

Robin and Dustin mirror exasperated expressions on their faces, but honestly? You get a kick out of Erica recognizing her worth; she’s brilliant. Without saying anything, you lift your hand up for Erica to high five, which she happily accepts. 

“To child endangerment!” You cheer, your voice oozing sarcasm, and Erica follows suit as Robin and Dustin both slump in their seats. 

– 

It’s your idea to prep Erica for whatever she may find after crawling through the ducts. You shoved a helmet on her head and forced knee pads onto the girl, which she adamantly protested against. 

“This is excessive, even for you.”

You held up money, which promptly shut her up. “Wear the protection and do exactly as I say, or lose $5.”

After she took the money, you then held out your switchblade for her to take as well. “And use this if anything happens, alright?”

Erica had stared at you, slightly surprised. “Why do you carry knives on you?”

“Ask questions later.”

Now you’re anxiously waiting on the mall’s rooftop once more with Dustin, Steve, and Robin as you radio Erica for updates.

“You nerds in position or what?” Her voice drones through the walkie’s speaker.

“Yeah, we’re in position.” Robin confirms. The three of you have been scouting the shipment deck for the last thirty minutes, making sure all the possible Russian guards were gone. “It’s all quiet up here, so you’ve got the green light.”

You take the walkie from Robin. “But be careful, okay?”

“Yeah, yeah. Be careful and green light, roger that. Commence Operation Child Endangerment.”

Robin snatches the walkie back and cringes at what Erica has said. “Can we maybe not call it that?” 

“That's exactly what’s happening here.” You say with a snort. 

“Thanks for the help, Y/N.”

You give Robin a thumbs up. “Anytime.”

Erica announces that she’s in the air ducts and you feel the familiar burden of fear creep through you as she now goes quiet. Steve’s hand finds yours and he attempts to ease your discomfort as you all wait. “Erica will be fine, Y/N.”

“Yeah, totally!” Robin tries to reassure you as well, though she looks nervous too.

The minutes drag by at an agonizingly slow pace. The three of you hold your breath, waiting for Erica’s assurance that she’s safe and okay, and you pray to whatever god that’s up there to listen and keep her safe. 

If anything happens to her, it would only be your fault for not having learned your lesson sooner. 

“Alright, nerds.” You let out a breath of relief when Erica radios again, and you can feel Steve exhale as well. He’d been worried, too. “I’m there.”

“Do you see anything?” Robin asks, voice alight with excitement now. 

“Yeah, I see those boring boxes you’re so excited about.” 

“Any guards?”

Erica pauses a moment, presumably scanning for any signs of danger, before responding. “Negative.”

You breathe out again with relief. At the very least, Erica is in a safe enough location. 

However, Robin isn’t done asking questions yet. “Booby traps?”

“If I could see them, they’d be pretty shit traps, wouldn’t they?”

You grab the radio again from Robin. “Erica, have I told you that you’re my favorite child?”

“You haven’t, but I know I am,” there’s a bang over the other end of the walkie, then a loud thud followed by a grunt, before her voice comes through again. “I’m in.” Then, not even a minute later, the door to the vault begins to lift up, revealing a smug looking Erica on the other side. 

You all stare at her in awe, and she snaps her fingers at you. “Free ice cream for life.”

Steve lets out a surprised laugh and a smile crosses your face as well. Even though you’re still entirely against what’s happening, you can’t believe that the plan worked. You guys successfully broke into a Russian vault. 

That beats Demodogs any day. 

You, Steve, Robin, and Dustin climb down from the roof to get to Erica as fast as you can. When you finally join her, you risk her fury and pull her into your arms for a hug. “You’re so much braver than I was at ten.”

Erica shoves you off of her. “That doesn’t at all surprise me.” 

While you make sure she’s okay, Dustin and the others investigate the room. There’s boxes everywhere with tape all over them. Lifting one up onto a table, Steve turns to you. “Can I borrow that switchblade, Y/N?”

“She’s got it,” you point to Erica. “Talk to the kid.”

Steve frowns, having unexpected this, and, being scared of the girl, he laughs nervously. “Uh, Erica? Can I have that switchblade now?”

She rolls his eyes at him and digs through her pockets to retrieve it. “Aren’t you the man in the relationship? Why don’t you have your own pair of knives?”

You cover your mouth to try and stifle the laugh that escapes you, but it’s no use. Steve hears it and sticks his middle finger up at you before finally opening the box. Cutting through the tape, he opens the box’s flaps to find a metal storage container within them.

When Steve reaches his hand inside the box, you stop him. “Please, be careful.”

“I got this, angel.” However, he slows his movements and carefully grabs at the container’s handle. Slowly, he turns it, and it lets out a terrifying hiss as air escapes it. Removing the lid, more air comes crawling out and reveals four individual cylinders.

“Definitely not delicious noodles and sensible shoes.” You breathe out, and Steve hums in agreement.

“That’s a weird way of saying ‘you were right, Dustin’.” Your brother snarks, and you hit his shoulder to shut him up.

Meanwhile, Steve waves his hand at the four of you, motioning you to back up. “Uh, maybe you guys should, you know, stand back.”

Robin and Erica don’t hesitate to listen, but you and Dustin remain where you are. There’s a silent agreement between the two of you to not abandon Steve, he needs you. When he sees that you both haven’t listened, Steve pleads with you. “Just step back, please? I’m doing this for you guys, this could be dangerous.”

“No.” You and Dustin say at the same time. 

Steve tries to argue again, but you remain firm in your stance. “I’m not leaving you. Ever.”

His words falter at the sincerity in your voice, and he wishes it was just the two of you alone right now so that he could stroke your cheek and kiss away your concerns. He’s filled with warmth by your care for him, but just like you would never put him in danger, Steve would never put you in any danger either. 

He loves you with everything within him, he just wishes he could tell you this. 

“If you die, I die.” Dustin proudly declares, breaking Steve out of his thoughts. 

You stare at your brother, as does Steve, and together the two of you awkwardly pat the kid’s shoulder to acknowledge his sentiment. With a cough, you add, “Hendersons with Harrington.”

Steve clears his throat, overwhelmed and slightly off put by the bizarre support. “Okay, I guess.” He grabs at one of the cylinders and twists slowly, and when it unlocks, he lifts and reveals a bubbling green liquid. “What the hell?”

Robin asks what the substance is and you feel like you’ve lost your mind. You have no idea what the fuck is happening anymore. “God I hope it’s scary Kool-Aid”

As soon as the words have left your mouth, you feel rumbling beneath your feet. 

Immediately, you know you’ve fucked up.

Dustin looks up at you in alarm. “Was that just me, or did the room move?”

“Booby traps,” Erica whispers, looking scared as well.

A mechanical whirring sound infiltrates your ears as the room starts to shake again, and every part of your body screams at you to run. Something is very, very wrong. Grabbing Dustin’s hand, you start to head towards the door. “We need to leave. Now.”

“Let’s go!” Robin follows you, not needing to be told twice, and grabs one of the vials of liquid as she does so. 

“Which one is the button, Erica?” Dustin asks, fingers hovering over the control panel’s buttons after pressing one failed.

“Just press the damn button, nerd.”

You turn to her, panic rising. “He is, but nothing’s happening.”

“Press ‘open door’.”

Dustin presses the button again but still, nothing happens. Frantic to escape the room now, you shove him aside and try yourself. Your fingers press roughly against it, but still the doors won’t budge. 

Steve joins, sliding next to you as he starts to try pressing the buttons. “Here, press the other button.”

You slap his hand. You’re overwhelmed and scared and anxious and he’s five seconds away from losing an eye. “I already did that!”

Dustin starts to argue with Steve now and they push you back, repeatedly hitting whatever they can touch, as Robin and Erica shout their own useless and unneeded advice that is helping absolutely no one. You stand behind the boys, hands pressed against your head as you start to hyperventilate with panic.

Then, walls come slamming down on all sides of the room, effectively kick starting your panic attack. The lights begin to flicker as the room suddenly drops. Your stomach lurches into your throat as you’re thrown downward, and instinctively you grab for Dustin in your panic as Steve grabs for you. 

Everyone screams as you plunge into the darkness.

-

⌑ series masterlist

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[dwobbitfromtheshire]

Erica to Dustin: You know if you really want to get Steve and Eddie to do what you want, you have to soften them up. Sometimes, I can soften up my parents by calling them Mommy and Daddy.

Later at Steve's house. . .

Dustin: Mommy, Daddy. . .

Steve: What the hell did you just call us?

Eddie: *sarcastically* Sorry, son, Mommy's Aunt Flo came to visit, and she's feeling a little -

Steve: Excuse me, why the hell am I the Mommy?

Eddie: Well, it looks like Daddy's sleeping on the couch tonight.

Steve: You bet your ass Daddy's sleeping on the couch.

Eddie: Hah! So, you admit that you are the Mommy!

Later. . .

Dustin to Erica: It didn't work.

Erica: Dumbass, did I say to call them Mommy and Daddy?

Dustin: Ye -

Erica: NO!

[lesbiancolumbo]

As Indigenous woman filmmakers, we knew that our path through the industry would be narrow and that our film, Fancy Dance, would have a small window for success based on the abysmal record of representation for Indigenous folx in Hollywood. As such, we channeled our collective wills as granddaughters of Dust Bowl survivors, descendants of genocide and avowed followers of the indomitable Merata Mita to give this film the best shot possible. If there existed a “how to make a successful movie in Hollywood” checklist, we followed it to a tee. Step one: Create a compelling script (after her sister’s disappearance, a hustler kidnaps her niece from the child’s white grandparents and takes her to the state powwow in hopes of keeping what’s left of her family intact) – check. Step two: Find top-tier producing partners (Nina Yang Bongiovi, Tommy Oliver) – check. Step three: Cast amazing actors at the top of their field (soon-to-be Oscar nominee Lily Gladstone) – check. Step four: Premiere and screen at world-renowned festivals (Sundance, SXSW, BFI London) – check. Step five: Receive excellent reviews (THR called it “exceptional”) and festival prizes (Hamptons, L.A. Outfest, Mill Valley, NewFest, Sun Valley, Tacoma) – check. Step six: Get a distribution deal – …crickets.

[littlechivalry]

Are You For Real?

Established Steddie, post season 4, everybody lives, Halloween

*

It has been ten years since they closed off the Upside Down and all of the Party are full adults. Steve gets to have his independence, he doesn't have half a dozen kids relying on him for rides to the arcade and/or survival.

So why does he feel pinned in place by Erica Sinclairs flat, implacable stare.

"I don't have to do this," Steve sputters. "Starcourt was a long time ago and anyway I promised you that ice cream under duress."

She doesn't say anything but her eyes narrow and her spine stiffens in a way Steve knows he can't fight.

"Come on," he begs. He hasn't worn a coordinating Halloween costume in years and he has no intention of starting now.

El's beseeching eyes and the devilish grin coming from Max on either side of the other girl only help to chip away at his resolve.

"Scoops Troop is forever, Steve," Erica said and she wasn't wrong, they had been through too much to deny it so he gave in.

"Fine. But I want to be Sporty Spice."

"Oh no," El said. "Robin is Sporty Spice. She said you would be Posh."

Two weeks later found Steve tottering into the Hideout in a black mini dress and four inch tall wedges.

"Cannot believe you get to be Sporty Spice," he hissed to Robin. "You are the least sporty person I have ever met in my life. And I know Henderson."

"Counterpoint," she muttered back. "You think I can walk in those shoes? I would die, Steven. Do you want me dead?"

"Oh, grow up," Erica said. "You two are ruining the whole effect."

"Easy for you to say," Steve said, gesturing to Erica's outfit.

Her green tank top and blousey satin pajama pants weren't much different fron Robin's outfit.

He turned to El. "You get it, right?"

El looked down at her outfit, a baby pink dress and chunky white sneakers. She looked at Steve, concerned. "I do not understand. I think I look very nice. You look nice too, Steve."

He shook his head as El and Erica took Robin's hands and hauled her further into the crowd.

"I'll wait for the others," he called out after them, a wave from Erica the only acknowledgement.

Steve felt a hand slap his skirt covered ass and startled, heels wobbling underneath him. He turned sharply to see Max grinning fiercely at him. "Looking good, Harrington."

Before Steve could return the compliment for her Ginger Spice costume and matching decorated arm crutches he heard a low whistle and saw Eddie Munson walking up behind the redhead.

"I'll say so," he said, his voice low and growling.

Steve could feel the heat rush in his cheeks and it deepened as he saw his boyfriend's gaze tracing the flush down to where it covered Steve's mostly bare chest.

Steve clears his throat roughly, pulling his focus away from Eddie and back onto Max. He ran his fingers over the new bleached blonde streak in her hair, laughing as she pulls away. "You couldn't come to me for this? What's the point of knowing a hairdresser if you don't let them do your hair?"

"Aw," Eddie said, pulling Steve's hand away from Max and threading their fingers together. "She can't help it if she wanted someone cool to bleach her hair."

"Cool," Steve repeated, laughing, using their joined grasp to pull Eddie along as they walked through the crowd. "If she wanted someone cool to do her hair then she definitely would have come to me."

Together the three of them made their way to the bar where the others were waiting.

Steve disengaged from Eddie and took the cocktail Robin offered. He watched as tequila shots were distributed to the other girls and winced, both because of their impending hangovers and also because it was weird to seem them drinking. They were still kids. They were his kids.

Eddie stepped closer, resting his chin on Steve's shoulder. "They're all grown up, aren't they? Where have the years gone?"

Steve tipped his head to the side and leaned against Eddie. "Landslide, right? Children get older, I'm getting older too."

Eddie hummed and leaned back, pressing a kiss to Steve's cheek. "My Stevie knows Stevie. You know, your music taste is my favorite thing about you."

Steve laughed at that, a sharp bark that set Eddie grinning, sharp teeth on display.

The laughter drew the girls attention back to them and Steve leaned into Eddie as Erica approached.

"It's time, Steve."

Steve looked to Eddie before turning back. "Its not... I never actually agreed to this."

"Scoops. Troop."

"Time for what, Stevie," Eddie asked, laughter in his voice.

Steve sighed before tossing back the rest of his drink. He handed his glass to his boyfriend before pressing a hard kiss to his mouth.

He dropped Eddie a wink before whispering, "You'll see," into his ear and steeping away as a heavy electronic beat started pumping over the sound system.

Steve found his spot standing behind Erica as she began to sing.

Yo, I'll tell you what I want, what I really, really want

[frankenstein-ate-my-left-shoe]

it's steddiemas!! i am so excited for these prompts!!! i'm sure i'm not going to make something for each day, but there are a good few that i'm excited about; my plan is to make all the ones i do write be one story, but we'll see how that goes 😅

@steddiemas Day 1 - Deck the Halls

pairing: steddie | word count: 1,793 | rated: G

Eddie wakes up too early on November 1st. But hey, when nature calls, you answer.

He takes care of business and is turning back to the guest room he’d crashed in last night when a movement catches his eye.

Someone is awake already, and is weaving a string of artificial greenery along the bottom of the rail where the second floor is open into the living room.

Eddie takes another step forward and sees Steve's face peeking up over the floor, perfectly and completely content. The seemingly always furrowed brow he has is gone, his eyes are soft, and his lips set into a just barely there smile as he hums quietly to himself.

“Steve?” He immediately regrets interrupting Steve’s peace, as he startles at the sound of Eddie’s voice.

He looks up at Eddie briefly, then immediately relaxes back into his task. “Oh, you’re awake! Listen, I love you man,” Eddie’s stomach swoops at the words. “But I'm kinda in a groove right now, so once a couple of the others are up I’ll start making breakfast, ‘kay?”

Eddie nods in agreement despite Steve already looking away back to the garland in his hands. He really wants to ask why in the actual hell he’s hanging Christmas decorations the literal day after Halloween, but what comes out is “How are you not dying right now?”

Steve’s hands pause, and he blinks up at Eddie in confusion so he continues, “You had just as much to drink as I did last night…?”

Understanding floods the other man’s face. “Oh! I have a splitting headache right now.” Steve says, getting back to the task at hand and weaving the end of a string of lights through a gap between the banisters.

“Yet you’re awake. And putting up Christmas decorations.”

“Yes.”

The crease re-appears between Steve's brows, though not nearly as deep as usual. 

“Cool. Cool. Follow up question: why are you putting up Christmas decorations?? It’s only the day after Halloween!”

Steve stiffens at that, his brow furrowed fully now.

‘Shit, take it back asshole!’ Eddie chides himself.

“Exactly. It’s time for Christmas.” Steve sniffs, pausing before he continues in a soft voice, “I like Christmas..”

He doesn’t look back up at Eddie, and is now shoving the garland and lights through each gap in the railing, rather than slowly guiding them through.

Eddie watches him for a couple moments then says, “Alright big guy, what can I do to help?”

Steve is immediately relieved, looking back up at Eddie with a big smile (and no crease between his brows, thank you very much), “Wanna put the decorations on the mantle?”

“Sure thing Stevie,” Eddie smiles back at him, turning on his heel to trot down the steps and hang a left into the living room.

He freezes, taking in everything around him he couldn’t see from his spot in the hall upstairs.

There’s red and green tubs, boxes stacked upon boxes, loose strings of cranberries and shedded artificial pine needles absolutely everywhere.

There’s also a complete lack of any Halloween decorations left in the giant room. 

So, in the last however long Steve's been awake, he has: cleaned up from their party the night before, put away all the spooky decorations, pulled out a department store’s worth of Christmas decor, and is currently hanging garlands from atop a—holy shit!

“Steve! Why the fuck are you up so high??”

Steve twists back at Eddie's outburst, looking confused as all hell. “What do you mean, ‘Why?’? You just saw me upstairs, how else am I supposed to hang this?” he says, shaking his arm full of un-placed pine and the ladder in the process.

“You could’ve put them in from upstairs! On stable ground!” Eddie stresses, scrambling between and over boxes of holiday cheer to get to the other end of the room.

“I’m fine Eddie, I’ve been on a ladder before.” Steve snorts, going back to his lights. 

“Steve, sweetheart, you cannot be up that high on a ladder without someone holding onto the bottom!” Eddie says, finally getting over to him and grabbing onto it with both hands, leaning his weight onto it. “What if you fell? No one was awake! What if no one heard you!”

“Please.” Eddie could hear the eye roll in Steve’s voice, “I was perfectly fine.”

“Yeah, well, Wayne would kill me if I let you commit an OSHA violation.”

“What’s an OSHA?”

“Nevermind, keep working Stevie.”

He continues to work steadily, weaving and pruning the fake greenery to his liking and bunching up the end to stuff between two posts when he decides to come down.

He comes down the ladder and makes to move it when Eddie stops him.

“Oh no you don’t, you’re not going back up there.” he states, quickly letting the ladder fall together back from its extended length.

“I’m not done!”

“Didn’t say you were.” he says, leaning the ladder against the wall instead, out of the way, “You’re just going to do this from up there instead.”

For a moment, it looks like Steve is going to argue, but he gives up before he even starts, huffing petulantly and grumbling up the stairs. “And they call me ‘Mom’.”

“Thanks, Stevie!” Eddie calls after him.

“Yeah, yeah.."

Eddie snorts a quiet laugh, but goes back to his original task. He starts examining the boxes strewn out in front of him, the one labeled ‘GARLAND’ is already open, another boasts the title ‘LIGHTS’, another just says ‘KITCHEN’; after three huge tubs labeled ‘TREE’, he finds a smaller cardboard box with ‘MANTLE’ scrawled onto the side with marker.

You can’t say Steve isn’t organized.

He pulls open the top and starts to pull out the decorations. Everything in this box is colored in the few same shades of red, muted green, a handful more in bright silver. From the bottom, he pulls out a much shorter string of garland than the one Steve’s still fluffing to perfection upstairs, this one wound with a thick red, white, and green plaid ribbon.

“What?” Steve calls down after Eddie starts to laugh.

“More plaid, Steven?” Eddie grins, turning to show the garland in his hands.

This time, Steve snorts out a laugh, “Shut up, man.”

Eddie digs a little farther and comes back out with a small plastic box of thumbtacks and gets to work on the mantle. Using the ribbon to pin the length to the wood above the fireplace, he sets it in place along the edge, glancing up to fluff the fake branches out how Steve’s got the ones upstairs.

He gets into his own groove in no time, going back and forth from box to fireplace and placing the various baubles and tchotchkes how he thinks they should be. The clunky and gaudy seeming holiday themed frames at the bottom of the box throw him off for a moment, but soon there are years of awkward pictures of the shitheads leaning along the mantle.

A little red frame holds one of Max and El laughing brightly in just as brightly colored make-up and clothes, a framed polaroid of Robin and Steve in their Scoops uniforms, one of Will dressed up for Halloween; The pictures all must only be a few years old, Steve didn’t really get to know the kids until ‘84, but this little Dustin in the frame with the 3D train on it, and this one with a very disgruntled-looking Mike with his hair slicked flat in an over-the-top tree frame go right in the front.

“Nancy gave me that one of Mike, if you can believe it. He’s gonna hate that it’s up here.” Steve says from behind him now, a smile in his voice “Claudia gave me this one of Henderson. It’s actually from before their Snow Ball back in Middle school, I did his hair.”

Oh fuck, that’s adorable. Eddie’s heart squeezes in his chest. “You never told me that,” he says, accepting the last frame from Steve. A bright blue one with a Teddy Bear in each of the bottom two corners. This one has a JC Penney professional-looking shot of Erica and Lucas in matching holiday sweaters. Definitely a Mrs. Sinclair specialty.

“Erica gave me that one last Christmas, after everything happened at Starcourt.” he smiles, “They’re gonna hate that they’re all up like this.”

“Good.” Eddie grins, turning to face the other man, “What’s next, Stevie?”

They spend the next couple hours decorating; Steve tackles the tree next, working on it while he directs Eddie what to put up next, and making sure to call him back for any more ladder use at Eddie’s insistence.

At one point, Robin shuffles out from the first floor guest room she shared with Nancy, but she takes one look around and shuffles back down the hall.

Sooner than he thought, Eddie finds himself standing in the middle of a Sears catalog. The tree is huge, a fake one to fit the Harringtons’ high ceilings, covered in multicolored lights, red, green, and silver baubles, stringy silver tinsel, a sparkling star on top. 

The stair railings are lit up along both the top and bottom, the kitchen towels and utensils swapped out for holiday themed ones, even the front doormat is switched out for a Christmas themed one.

Steve is wandering around the place, vacuuming up stray glitter and pine needles, poking and prodding things until he’s satisfied, and Eddie is packing up anything unused and carting the tubs and boxes back to the garage.

After his last trip, Eddie swings back through the door to the living room under the steps at the same time Steve is coming back through the other way, both his arms filled with the last of the unused lights.

They collide, of course, and Eddie bends forward on instinct to catch any falling strings

“OOf–shit sorry, Stevie, I–” he glances up at Steve’s face for just a moment, but looks back up immediately, standing straight and keeping his eyes trained on something past Steve’s face, taped haphazardly to the underside of the doorframe.

“It’s okay, Eds, you oka–what’s wrong—?” Steve looks up as well.

Mistletoe.

“Mistletoe? How’d that–? Eddie, I didn’t– You–we don’t have to—”

Eddie’s lips find themselves brushing against the warm, soft skin of Steve’s cheek before the younger man can collect his thoughts.

He lingers there for a moment, pulling back with the lights in his arms instead. “I’ve got these, sweetheart, wanna get started on breakfast?”

Steve looks completely floored, his face flushed red and mouth agape; Eddie gives him a quick wink, then turns back toward the garage just before his own face starts to burn hot. “Holy shit,” he whispers to himself, smiling wide, “Jesus H. Christ.”

it was 100% robin that taped up the mistletoe in case you were wondering lmao

i looked up to make sure OSHA was around in '86 and it was established in 1970, enacted in 1971. if you assume wayne is a union man like i do, he would've definitely known all about proper OSHA compliance

also, i looked up old pictures of 80s era christmas trees and when abouts fake trees came into popularity (which was in the 80s :o) ) to get the descriptions right, and you just know the harringtons would've been on top of all the trends (though i think steve would prefer stringy strips of tinsel over long garlands of the stuff).

other parts! Pt. 1 (Day 1) [YOU ARE HERE] | Pt. 2 (Day 2) | Pt. 3 (Day 5) | Pt. 4 (Day 6) | Pt. 5 (Day 7) | Pt. 6 (Day 11) | Pt. 7 (Day 13) | Pt. 8 (Day 18) | Pt. 9 (Day 21) | Pt. 10 (Day 25) also on AO3! this year

[findafight]

Ohhh fic where Steve and Robin and Dustin and Erica all casually make funny little haha jokes with each other about getting tortured/almost caught by the Russians under Starcourt because they all have that shared trauma and had many a long late night calls reassuring each other they're alive and playing dnd together and fulfilling lifetime supply of icecream obligations.

They do this because sure the rest of the party knew there were Russians under Starcourt but everything they went through in that basement was sorta...forgotten in the aftermath of literal flesh monster. And with Hopper dead and the Byers moving, there's so much happening that whatever happened to Steve's face (lost another fight...) and why he and Robin went from mildly antagonistic co-workers to codependent goobers who couldn't go literally a day without seeing the other or what made Dustin always ask if Erica was going to come for party hang outs are all sort of brushed under the rug. Not a big deal, really. Bigger things happening after everything.

And they cope together and scoops troop is a weird little section of the party no one but them really understands. Robin and Steve are attached at the hip and to a lesser extent so are Erica and Dustin (but they'll never admit it), and they all have mini gatherings together.

So, the casual mentioning of starcourt and specifically what went down with the Russians is commonplace for them. (Erica is quick to remind them she saved their asses, and are they so lame they need her help again? but she smiles and Steve and Robin just laugh and give her a big hug.) And somehow, they forget that not everyone really knows what went down before July 4th 1985.

And I want them to do it in front of everyone. I want them to have their stupid "this was so fucked up but we're alive and we got through it so now we have to laugh or we may never stop crying about it" banter at a big "we saved the world again!" Barbecue. I want the rest of the folks there to go silent and them not to notice.

I want someone to mention Steve not getting a black eye this time, congrats! and Robin going "the only reason why I didn't get one last time was because the Russians said-"

And Steve, who is lying with his head in her lap, reaches up to gently cup her cheek and says in a terrible Russian accent "don't worry, we will not ruin your pretty face!" (everyone is quiet around them, they do not notice)

She laughs. "And punched me in the gut a few more times. I peed blood for like, three days."

Steve goes "ewwww" only to be pinched by robin.

"you peed blood too, dingus. You got it worse than me and my pretty face."

He giggles and opens his hand up for a high five "pissing blood buddies, hell yeah!" And shifts in her lap. "But they bruised my pretty face. Rude."

"aww. It's okay, Stevie, your face is still so pretty. Prettiest boy in Hawkins."

"thanks Robin."

"at least Dustin and Erica got us out before they started ripping out fingernails." She shudders.

"or used the bonesaw"

"mmm. Unfortunately not before we got funky truth serum drugs though."

He leans up, looking at the two "y'all couldn't have been a bit faster?" But he's smiling, teasing. A well worn joke.

Dustin and Erica respond simultaneously with "I'm missing bones, Steve, what do you want from me?" And "I was ten and my legs were short as shit. Beggars can't be choosers." Respectively.

It is at this point an Actual Grown Up butts in.

"what. What do you mean ripping out fingernails?"

Robin and Steve look towards Joyce, who asked.

"like. To interrogate us? Because we just kept saying we worked for scoops even with the truth serum."

"because they thought we had to be superspies to get into their creepy lair and not a bunch of kids."

"mmhmm"

Hopper jumps in "wait. You were tortured by them?"

Robin and Steve give him eerily similar looks that express how obvious the answer to that is.

"yeah, duh."

"I don't go looking to get brain damage every year, you know."

Hoppers eye twitches. "Why didn't you say anything?"

[withacapitalp]

The kids love to tease Steve and call him an old man. 

Well they call him lots of things. Mom, Goober, Steeeeeeeve, Party Pooper, Uptight, even Mother on occasions where Steve is being particularly annoying to them. 

But old man is new. 

It starts when they find him asleep on the new couch in the Byers's home. Steve doesn't even remember falling asleep, he just remembers waking up and having seven sets of eyes peering down at him and scaring the bejeezus out of him. The Party poked fun like normal, but moved on quickly to the next thing to snark about. 

Then it kept happening. 

Over and over. In Eddie's trailer when they play DnD and he's waiting to drive them home. During movie nights in the Wheeler's basement. Even at his job when they come over after school finishes. But, no matter how hard they push, Steve won't tell them why he's so tired all of a sudden. 

He's just sure they would never let him live it down if he admitted that the reason he kept falling asleep was because he only felt safe enough to relax if all of his kid were close. He really can only sleep these days if knows that he would hear if they were in trouble and needed him. 

[artiststarme]

Steve humors Erica’s “free ice cream for life” deal the first few times. But eventually, he gets sick of it and refuses to waste any more of his hard earned money on her sugar cravings. 

When she tries to call him out for breaking his word, he tells her that a contract made by a minor is void since children lack the legal capacity to enter a legal agreement by themselves and he was protected by the law. 

The entire Party turned to stare at him in shock at his words and his easy dismissal of perhaps the scariest child they’d ever met. That’s how they found out that Steve’s dad was a lawyer and he’d spent the summers as a kid ‘interning’ at his firm. 

Steve has never been prouder of himself at remembering something he always thought would be useless. Eddie is concerned that he finds Steve defending himself from a literal child hot and has a minor crisis. From then on, Erica has a grudge against Steve and makes sure to get her deals in writing.

[kennahjune]

Been having this idea so bare with me while I attempt to explain:

(Note: this isn’t exactly my “usual” content)

No Upside Down AU where like 37% of the human population are some kind of “mythologic” as they call them.

Hawkins is kind of infested with them, despite being— well— Hawkins.

The majority of the Party are mythologics.

Now, Billy and Max move to Hawkins from Cali as per usual in 1984. And they’ve heard of Hawkins. Of how it’s mostly mythologics despite the small human population not being very accepting of them.

So they move to Hawkins and all is well until they start hearing rumors.

Rumors about a werewolf pack that isn’t a werewolf pack. Apparently there’s a werewolf in Hawkins collecting misfits and others and simply— accepting them into his pack.

Billy doesn’t buy it for shit. Werewolves tend to be hella territorial and unwelcoming.

Or that’s what he’s been told by his dad. He’s never actually met a werewolf, being a vampire. Vamps and Wolves don’t really get along.

And so Billy and Max start school and it’s fine. Billy likes fucking with this one guy, Steve. It’s really easy to rile him up and funny to watch him try and rein himself in.

Max is in the middle school, always talking about this one vampire kid and how he’s an asshole but his friends are sweet enough. Billy doesn’t listen too much.

Until he collides into Steve in the high school parking lot. Steve’s in a rush, barely getting an apology out before running (inhumanly fast— Billy notes) down the road where the middle school is.

Billy, thinking “well what the fuck”, follows after him. They arrive at the middle school and there’s a fight going on in the parking lot.

He says “fight” but it’s really a bunch of kids ganging up on one scrawny pale kid and holding back his friends. Steve is rushing in immediately, yelling at the assholes to leave them alone and to scram.

That’s when Billy realizes one of the kids being held back was Max, with a minor busted lip.

He’s immediately at her side, trying to seem angry but not being able to hide the actual concern in his tone.

Billy turns to leave but watches Max run up to the other kids to check on them. That’s when Steve turns to Billy and seems to recognize his presence.

Steve’s pulling the 4 boys behind him immediately, his eyes flashing a bright yellow and he growls and—

Oh.

Steve’s that odd werewolf collecting strays.

.

And idk Billy and Steve go through this whole thing where Billy refuses to be accepted into the pack even tho he basically already is cause no one else in the pack really has a problem with him.

But Max is in the pack (the Party, they call themselves), so Billy sees them all constantly against his will.

And there’s the bit where vampire Eddie also joins the pack eventually, after the kids kind of adopt him in Hellfire and Steve is weak for those kids.

And obviously Billy ends up joining the pack at some point but I haven’t thought that far ahead lmao.

Idk if I want it to be platonic harringrove or romantic harringrove but I’m lowkey leaning towards harringroveson to be honest.

But if you have opinions I’d love to know them!!

I kinda wanna write more for Billy, idk lol I’ve just been in a middle lately

[little-bumblebeeee]

hey! would you mind doing dustin x fem!reader...? about anything really, i just need more fics of him because i love him and i barely ever see any

phew, sorry, life got my ass before I could start this lmao. I got sick again but luckily my new house doesn't have nasty shit in the walls so let's hope this gets better 👍

Anyways, have some awkward teenage flirting and confessions with 641 words ♡

You only said yes when you were asked by a teacher if you wanted to sign up for camp Know-Where because you thought she said camp Nowhere, but next thing you knew you were on a bus full of nerds. Like, textbook nerds. The kids behind you just kept going on and on about science stuff and it gave you a headache. And when you turned around to tell them to shut up, you met Dustin.

Now you can't seem to shake him away from you, even a year later.

"C'mon, just sit in on this session to see if you like it!" Dustin says, trying to convince you to get into d&d for what seems like the millionth time in the span of this short year in which you've known each other.

"For the last time, I have better things to do, Dustin. Speaking of, you have a book report that you can't afford to get an F on if you wanna keep a good grade." You remind him, sticking a finger into his shoulder, watching red bloom in his cheeks as he rolls his eyes and walks past you into the drama room where Hellfire is held. Unfortunately, even though you prefer being alone, you don't like going places by yourself, so you have to jog to catch up with him.

You've never seen him like this before, his eyes wide and lips parted just barely as he listens so intently to Eddie's theatrical speech, you think not even a tornado passing through would shake him. You sit away from the table, watching as he yells and cheers, going through the most colorful range of emotions you've ever seen.

And when they win, who does he go to? Straight to you, taking you in his arms and squeezing tight. "So!?" He says over the yelling of his fellow Hellfire Club members, a big smile on his face. You just shake your head, letting the boy drag you outside along with Mike and Erica, the promise of his mom paying for pizza being what lures the other two, but it's Dustin that seems to capture your focus. He always seems to do that for you, doesn't he? Even in summer camp.

You've been to Dustin's house countless times, but none where him and Mike are arguing over a pizza and character sheets. The phone has rung about 4 times, his mom calling because Mike has to pack for California to see Will and El for spring break, but the boy just refused to pack on time. When he finally does leave, it's just you and Dustin.

Just you and Dustin.

You'd be lying if you said you weren't scared. Not of him, but of yourself. You get this terrible horrible feeling in your chest that you might say something stupid and mess this all up, but it seems like Dustin is one step ahead of you.

"Hey. Hypothetically, what would you say if I.. asked you to the movies this weekend. As a date." He asks you with a slight tilt of his head and a nervous smile. You can't believe your own ears. It's not like you're some science nerd or d&d fanatic like he is, so why you? You don't bother to ask, just grateful this is happening in the first place.

"Hypothetically.. I'd say yes." You reply, your shaky hand finding his own. You hate all this awkward eye contact but you can't seem to look away, not when his eyes seem bluer than normal– god, when did they get so blue?

"Cool.. cool. So.." He starts, trailing off as you nod.

"Yeah. Uh– sure." You say a little too quickly. You're both just laughing a little now, this is just too awkward to take seriously.

But now you've got a date this weekend. And you feel pretty damn good about it.

[dwobbitfromtheshire]

Jonathan, Nancy, Steve, and Robin left Argyle and Eddie with the kids after they survived the apocalypse. Eddie and Argyle really wanted the kids to be kids. It was the thought that counts. . . Really. . .and the kids did have fun at first. It was hide and seek, of course. When the others came back, the kids were crying and freaking out while Eddie and Argyle panicked while turning over Steve’s couch. Turns out Will is a really good hider, and he might have fallen asleep in the closet as he waited for people to find him. On his knees, Eddie was holding the couch cushions as he stared at them.

"We were playing hide and seek, Will is exceptional at playing," Eddie paled.

"You lost my brother?!" Jonathan asked. "Jane, why didn't you use your powers?"

"I am not allowed."

"Oh, sweetheart, you're very much allowed now!" Eddie shrieked.

They found Will and they swore to never play the game ever again.

"I told YOU it was a bad idea," Erica told Eddie.

"You didn't say WHY?!"

"You didn't ask."

[strangertheories]

Being a fan of Stranger Things means knowing that there are way too many characters now but also not wanting to get rid of any of them because you love them all dearly.

[moonchildreads]

small town

Chapter 25 - Part-Time Lover

IN THIS CHAPTER: New routines, chilling at Lover's Lake, and Eddie and Dottie take a Big Step [17.4k]

WARNINGS: self-esteem issues (body shapes and stretch marks, both positive and negative), eddie being a simp for his girl (also maybe the author aka me being a lil gay over women's bodies), suggestive themes, jokes about male masturbation, discussions about past not so great sexual experiences (not explicit, focused on feelings and consent), allusions to sex (fluffy and poetic), NO EXPLICIT SMUT

A/N: dottie's experiences with her ex boyfriend in this chapter are heavily based on my own, please be kind. i'm not trying to infantilise her, i'm just being honest about what being unexperienced was like for some of us when we were teenagers. hope you enjoy it even if you can't relate (and let me know if you want to be added to the taglist!)

masterlist - prev - next | playlist

We are undercover passion on the run Chasing love up against the sun

Friday, June 20th - 1986

“There! I see them, park here!”

“I have eyes, man, stop hitting me while I’m driving!”

The week following their graduation, the Hellfire Class of ‘86 had been presented with a daunting task: syncing their schedules to make time for each other while officially entering the workforce. After leaving high school, each of them knew that new routines had to be established, and so they quickly discovered that familiarity was key in navigating the strange grown-up world they had been thrown into so nonchalantly. When Eddie’s van parked outside of Giulia’s that first Monday and Jeff and Gareth spilled out from the inside with snacks and vending machine sandwiches like they were spoils of war, Dottie and Donny immediately clocked out and wordlessly agreed to this new tradition that was, in fact, a continuation of everything they held dear while in school - love and companionship in the form of sharing a meal.

A plan guided by convenience had been quickly laid out: Eddie finished his apprenticeship shift at 1 pm, and upon leaving he’d pick Jeff up at the last house in his route as a very in-demand dog walker over in the upper-middle class side of Hawkins. Together, they’d head to Big Buy where they’d wait in the parking lot for Gareth to clock out at 2, and finally, they’d meet up with Donny and Dottie at a small park nearby Giulia’s, always sitting under the very same tree Gareth had frantically been pointing at through the van’s dashboard.

“Alright, nerds, what’s on the menu?” Donny said on that particularly hot Friday as he saw their friends climb out of the van, ready to get out of the heat trapped inside its metallic body.

“We snagged two pizzas today! Donny’s been learning to throw the dough and we got to keep the ones that didn’t fall to the floor,” Dottie said, proudly presenting the boxes resting on their picnic blanket to the boys.

“I’ve got Mountain Dew, Dr. Pepper, and a huge bag of chips,” said Gareth, letting the plastic bag fall from his hand onto the middle of their circle.

“What kind?” asked Jeff, gathering the plastic cups and napkins he’d shoved in his backpack that morning before leaving home.

“Sour cream and onion.”

“Nice.”

“I’ve got grapes, pretzels, and two egg sandwiches from the vending machine,” said Eddie, opening his lunchbox and throwing the bag of green grapes towards Dottie who cooed happily.

“I’ve got apple slices, M&Ms, two PB&Js, and Mrs. Kendall gave me a bunch of jerky as a snack, not really sure why,” Jeff finished the roll call, getting a handful of gas station jerky out of his backpack’s front pocket.

“Do you think I’ll die if I put jerky on top of my pizza?” asked Gareth at large.

“Dunno, but go for it,” Donny encouraged him, filling cups with soda and distributing them around.

Dottie loved having lunch with her friends at the park. On Tuesday, it had rained all morning so they’d instead sought out refuge at one of the booths within Giulia’s, Donny’s family more than happy to play host to the teens while they prepped for the dinner shift. They’d had a pleasant lunch that day, but there was nothing that could compare to the sense of freedom she felt while sitting on their blanket, pooling all their lunches and snacks together and complaining about their new jobs.

After only a few days, it became clear to everyone that Donny was the privileged one within their friend group - his post was inside the kitchen learning all about his Dad’s craft, and he was taking to it with gusto and innate skills he had never known he’d had but seemed to have begun developing in his Home Ec classes. Gareth, on the other end of the scale, was seriously considering asking to be switched to the graveyard shift if he had to play nice to yet another presumptuous customer demanding to see a manager because he wasn’t allowed to accept their expired coupons.

Eddie felt like he was somewhere between the two. He loved getting his hands greasy and figuring out what was wrong with a car, the satisfaction of fixing something and seeing Thatcher’s proud smile was easily the best part of the job. However, he did not enjoy the fact that all the rich idiots in town came in with their expensive cars asking for repairs to be done quicker than it was humanly possible.

Carson Humphrey, Andy Humphrey’s father, had come into the shop on Wednesday for a simple oil change. Thatcher was more than happy to let Eddie take over, confident in his apprentice’s budding skills, but it soon became clear that wasn’t happening - Carson loudly proclaimed he didn’t want “that good for nothing Munson boy” touching his car and breaking something that would certainly cost more than Eddie’s salary to replace. Thatcher had sent a red faced Eddie to the break room, told him to get himself a soda from the vending machine, and did the oil change as fast as he could to get Humphrey Sr. out of his shop and onto his merry way.

“Don’t let that asshole get to you,” Thatcher had said when he found Eddie smoking behind the shop after Carson left. “Thinks he’s all high and mighty ‘cause he has money, well… that ain’t stopping his wife from askin’ for Dougie’s number when she was here last month.”

“No fuckin’ way,” Eddie scoffed, cigarette in his mouth while leaning over to see Doug’s shiny bald head through the window.

“You ain’t heard it from me, boy,” the older man laughed. “But women love a man willing to get his hands dirty. Ask that girl of yours, she’ll tell you.”

Eddie had simply nodded and kept his hair down to hide his ears that were surely becoming more red by the second, quickly dismissing any salacious thoughts as his wristwatch beeped loudly to announce the end of his shift. He distracted himself with yet another smoke and loud headbanging music as he drove down the street - he did not need to hear shit from either Jeff or Gareth as he picked them up, his jeans feeling uncomfortably tight under the Indiana sun.

“You guys will never guess who I saw today,” Gareth said back in the present, a slice of pizza in one hand and a handful of chips in the other.

“Wheeler?” Eddie ventured a guess.

“...You’re an asshole, you knew that?”

“I never said which Wheeler! It could have been Nancy,” he defended himself.

“Why would anyone care if I saw Nancy Wheeler?”

“Can’t believe we’ve got more updates on Henderson than we do on Mike,” Jeff commented, ignoring their bickering.

“I know, right? Did you talk to him?” Dottie asked, splitting an egg sandwich in two and giving the other half to her waiting boyfriend.

“Well, not exactly…,” Gareth grimaced.

The day after graduation, the Hellfire Club got together at the Henderson house to send Dustin on his merry way to Camp Know Where, even if it was at the expense of putting their D&D sessions on hold until he made his triumphant return a couple of weeks later. Still, his friends took it upon themselves to help him pack with no complaints, all while excitedly chattering about the kinds of activities he’d be participating in once he arrived at camp. They also, of course, teased him endlessly about the fact that he was about to be reunited with his “hotter-than-Phoebe-Cates-but-still-a-genius” girlfriend, pestering him to bring back pictures as proof of her existence.

In the midst of good-natured ribbing, the older boys helped him shove his heavy bags into Claudia Henderson’s trunk; the kind woman watched them with a gentle smile on her face, grateful for the little community his son had found himself a part of upon entering high school. While they were hugging Dustin goodbye and wishing him a fun time at camp, Dottie couldn’t help but notice that after interacting with both Mike and Erica, the previously relaxed boy grew strangely serious before pressing slips of paper into their hands.

“Radio in if you need me, okay?” he said, looking at Mike with intense eyes. “I’ll check in at this frequency every morning.”

“Dustin-” Mike began to protest, but he was cut short before he could say more.

“I’m serious,” Dustin turned to Erica. “You can use Cerebro, my Mom will let you in. I can be back in a day tops.”

“You worry too much,” Erica dismissed him, but there was something in her expression that said she was taking his words to heart. “Go to your nerd camp with your nerd girlfriend and we’ll see you in a few weeks. We’ll be fine.”

“Okay, okay, just… y’know.”

“I know. We’ll keep you updated, dumbass.”

“Thanks,” he smiled at her genuinely before moving on like nothing had happened.

If the rest of the boys noticed the weird exchange, no one said anything, and thus Dustin left Hawkins in high spirits, grinning at the sight of his friends waving at him from his front lawn as his Mom’s car got smaller and smaller as it headed down the road.

It was a shame, however, that with Dustin away for a few weeks, Mike chose to essentially become a recluse in his own home instead of hanging out with everyone else. Unlike Erica who was spending all her free time roaming around town with her gang of middle school girl friends trailing behind her, the middle Wheeler sibling hadn’t poked his head out of his basement all week after seeing Dustin off. If, in fact, what Gareth was saying was true, this was the first Mike sighting they’d had since Saturday, and they knew from Dustin’s midweek phone call to Eddie that he hadn’t heard from him either.

Gareth had been counting the coins in his register for the third time that morning when he saw Karen Wheeler, baby Holly, and Mike approach, cart full of groceries. He’d exchanged pleasantries with his friend’s mother as he scanned their items but the younger boy seemed overall uninterested in joining the conversation, quickly pushing the cart (along with his baby sister) away towards their car while leaving behind his mom to pay.

Seeing the older boy weirded out by her son’s behavior, Karen took it upon herself to apologize on his behalf. Apparently Mike had been in a foul mood all week because his friends in California couldn’t make the big trip to Indiana like they had anticipated, and that meant that he wouldn’t see his best friend Will or his girlfriend Jane until further notice. It’s okay, I understand, Gareth had said in a dramatic tone. Young love will do that to you, and Karen had laughed earnestly before bidding him goodbye and following her son to the parking lot.

“You can’t be serious,” Donny deadpanned when Gareth finished retelling the encounter to his friends.

“100% true. He’s pissy because his girlfriend isn’t coming over anymore.”

“That’s bullshit,” Jeff laughed. “He saw her in March, he can’t be that whipped.”

“Right? That’s what I said!”

“I dunno, guys,” Eddie said, pensive. “I’d be pretty upset if I couldn’t see my girl for months.”

“Well, Ed, lucky for you no one is planning to cut your right hand off,” Gareth said sarcastically, and Eddie pushed him over with his foot.

“I’m being serious, jackass. Can’t a guy be a romantic and travel to see his girlfriend often?”

“Any guy? Yes, sure. You, King of the Cynics? Give us a break,” Jeff scoffed.

“You’d really go all the way to Cali every few months just for a girl?” Dottie asked, eyes stuck to her sandwich. Will you actually come visit me in Michigan when I’m gone like you said you would? was what she really wanted to ask. Will you still love me even if we don’t see each other every day? Will I still be your girl when I live in a different state than you?

“Darling, I’d travel to another dimension for my girl,” he replied, voice a little bit too earnest for the casual conversation they were having.

“Oh my god, you’re so fucking corny,” Gareth threw his head back as he laid dramatically on the blanket. “You used to be cool, man, what happened to you?”

“I turned 20. Careful, it’ll happen to you too if you don’t watch out.”

The conversation quickly switched to different topics, like new music someone had recently discovered, a cool video game coming out soon, and most importantly, making plans for the upcoming weekend. Jeff was trying to convince everyone to go see a movie on Saturday, cleverly mentioning the air conditioning as a big selling point while they packed up the remnants of their lunch and headed to Eddie’s van.

“Is there even anything good playing right now?” Gareth asked, wishing the inflatable pool gathering dust in his garage didn’t have a hole in it.

“Don’t think so, Aliens isn’t coming out until next month,” Donny said. “Dot wanted to watch Labyrinth but that was next week, I think.”

“Hey, Dot!” Gareth yelled at her; she had stayed behind to fold their huge picnic blanket with Eddie. “When’s Labyrinth coming out?”

“Next Friday! Why?” she yelled back.

“Jeff wants to go to the movies tomorrow!”

“Unless it’s horror, I’m in. They have air conditioning!”

“See? What did I tell you?” Jeff said to Gareth and Donny, grinning. “We should go see Never Too Young to Die.”

“No! Nope, no, nuh-uh, I’m not watching any John Stamos willingly, my Nonna’s obsession with him is enough for me,” Donny groaned.

“She a General Hospital fan?” Gareth snickered.

“Yeah but they sent his character to jail a few years ago so he left the show and she followed him to his new sitcom. It’s shit, don’t watch it.”

“Don’t worry, we won’t,” Jeff affirmed. “But. Gene Simmons is in the movie so I think we should go watch it anyway.”

“Okay, now hold up-”

As soon as the boys disappeared behind the van, Eddie deliberately slowed down his actions so he could steal away a few seconds to talk to Dottie in private without their friends eavesdropping. While pretending like he was still trying to fit the blanket into her backpack, he looked up at Dottie with one eye closed to keep the sun from blinding him, his dimples on display as he beamed at her. She smiled, savoring their first moment alone of the day.

“So I was thinking,” he began, as he casually threw her bag over his shoulder and began slowly walking towards his van.

“Go on.”

“D’you wanna do something different today?”

“Different like what?”

“We could go to the lake,” he said, like he hadn’t been planning on inviting her all day. “We have a blanket already, and it’s a nice day, we could swim a little. Dunno, it’s too hot to be inside. And I think your Dad might be getting suspicious that I’m always around when he comes home.”

“Oh,” Dottie exclaimed, turning shy. “I- I’d love that but I’m not… I didn’t bring my swimsuit so-”

“Whatchu need a swimsuit for?”

Three sets of eyes were staring at them from the rear of the van, having been hidden from their sight in search of a bit of shadow to stand in while they waited for their friends. Jeff looked curious but innocent enough; it was Gareth and Donny that Eddie was suddenly afraid of. They were both looking at them with equally intrigued expressions, but where Donny was encouraging, Gareth was dangerously mischievous.

“Are you guys going to the pool without us?” the curly haired boy asked, staring pointedly at his best friends; Dottie looked like they’d been caught with their hands inside the proverbial cookie jar.

“No, no, definitely not,” Eddie stuttered. “I mean, who wants to go to the pool, right? It’s full of fuckin’ toddlers and their mommies, that’s so lame-”

“We were just talking about going to the lake but we don’t have swimsuits on us so we can’t go,” Dottie said, hoping to put an end to the topic.

“We can go anyways and swim in our undies,” Donny proposed, raising his eyebrows in Eddie’s direction. “It’s not like we haven’t done it before.”

“Uh, guys, I don’t think Dot’s comfortable with that,” Jeff looked at his friends.

“Yeah, yeah, totally, that’s why we said we weren’t going,” Eddie added, pushing everyone towards the van doors. “Why were you out here?”

“You didn’t give us your keys,” Gareth said, grinning at him.

“We can go.”

“Huh?” Eddie turned around to look at Dottie who was staring at the gravel.

“I, uh… It’s really hot today and we should- I mean, we don’t have to get in but we can- if you guys want to, we could still go. To the lake.”

“Yeah? You wanna go?” he asked, hopeful.

“Yeah, sure,” she smiled at him, cheeks red from the sun. “Why not?”

“Okay. Okay!” he said. “Everyone get in the van, we’re going to the lake!”

“Oooh, can we stop to buy beer on the way?”

“And more chips!”

Dottie and Eddie looked at each other sheepishly and shrugged before following their friends. Time alone for the lovebirds would have to wait until later, but who could say no to a new adventure presented in such an impromptu but lovely way? Summer had only just begun after all, and no one could see the storm brewing on the horizon yet. Might as well make the most out of their day if the sun was still shining, right?

Eddie had had it all planned out. As he tossed and turned in his bed the previous night, he decided that on Friday he was going to take his girlfriend to their spot at the lake, lay down on their blanket under the trees and kick their shoes off for a while. He had made sure his acoustic guitar was tuned to perfection, and had shoved it into the back of his van to serenade her until the sun went down, the Snoopy thermos bottle Wayne had gotten him for his birthday hidden away in his backpack and full of apple flavored Kool-Aid - her favorite. He was going to romance the shit out of his girl and kiss her until he felt they’d had enough without having to worry for a single second about her Dad coming home from work early and catching them sprawled out on the couch. Or her bed. Or worse, the kitchen counter.

The Hellfire Class of ‘86 was touchy, there was no denying it. None of them really knew what personal space meant, everyone was always on top of each other, and they’d shared enough meals together to still be disgusted about the notion of having to drink from the same cup. Eddie and Dottie were actually not the worst offenders of the group, at least not in public, but by the sheer nature of their secret relationship, the pair were on their toes about just how much physical familiarity they displayed in front of others. This was exactly the reason why during the past week, they’d reserved their soft touches and gentle caresses to when they were tucked away inside Dottie’s home, shielded from any straying eyes and the relentless gossip mill that haunted Hawkins at every step.

On Thursday, however, things had taken a turn. Maybe it had been the climbing heat of the summer, or the natural excitement that having a shared secret filled them with. Maybe it had been the fact that the cute domesticity they had enjoyed while they were still in high school had intensified by virtue of now having the house alone for entire afternoons while James was still at work. Maybe it was Eddie’s work coveralls like Thatcher had implied, lightly stained with grease and tied at his waist, or maybe it was Dottie’s flowy red sundress, his favorite color. The truth was that the waters between them had reached a boiling point, and Eddie had finally snapped and crowded his girlfriend against the counter while she was putting together a snack tray for them to enjoy, uncaring to the clock that ticked on above the kitchen door.

In an uncharacteristic move, Dottie had let herself take what she needed from her boyfriend, and in turn, he had let her explore this new side of their relationship in earnest. He’d helped her climb onto the counter where she sat prettily, lips attached to lips and hands roaming with the eagerness of an explorer. She’d kissed him before, but never like this. Never with this much urgency, like she couldn’t bear the thought of not kissing him. Mouths roamed to necks, fronts pressed against fronts, and Eddie ventured a burning hand under her skirt, tracing up, up, up on the outside of her left thigh when the sound of a car door being closed with force made them jump apart.

They’d looked at the entrance door with apprehension for a few seconds before they heard the neighbor’s dog barking loudly, clearly welcoming his owner who was unlatching his noisy sidegate and trying to control his furry friend before anyone in the neighborhood complained. Eddie and Dottie stared at each other for a few seconds, hearts racing and breathing ragged before he broke into a fit of nervous giggles. She’d tucked her head down and smiled shyly, getting off the counter and going back to the task she’d been working on before she’d let her innermost thoughts guide her actions.

Eddie had fooled around with people before, but this, he felt, was different. This wasn’t a one-and-done deal, some fun in the back of his van that he could feel good about while ignoring the fact that no one had really asked him for his name or his number before he saw them leave. No, this was different because Dottie was different. She was his girlfriend, not a random stranger at The Hideout, and yet Eddie couldn’t help but feel uneasy about the way she pretended nothing had happened for the rest of the day. There was no more flirty banter, no cheeky hands on knees, no sneaky kisses after her Dad walked into the house 15 minutes later. Eddie didn’t claim to be an expert in relationships, but he figured then he had to follow her lead.

If Dottie wanted to wait, he’d wait for as long as she wanted, and so he was going to take her to the lake and sing for her until his throat hurt. Nothing more, nothing less. For her, Eddie Munson could and would be the perfect boyfriend. That is, if their friends could stop getting in his way.

“Sweet, the dock is still here!” Gareth exclaimed, looking out of the window.

“Park over there, man,” Donny instructed from the co-pilot seat. “Sun’s gonna move soon, we’ll get more shadow under that tree.”

Quickly, all five teens jumped off the van before it came to a halt, desperate to feel the breeze on their skin. The afternoon heat had given way to an oppressive humidity that could be felt under every piece of clothing they were wearing, and no one wanted to sit on Eddie’s itchy fabric and leather seats for any longer than they absolutely had to. They spread their blanket near the van, sneakers piled up on every corner so the wind couldn’t steal it away while they were cooling off in the lake, a plastic milk crate in the middle serving as an impromptu table.

“Who the fuck bought Bud Light?” Jeff asked, hauling the cold case of beer cans out of the back of the van.

“It was the cheapest one they had,” Eddie said.

“No way PBR isn’t cheaper,” Gareth said.

“Yeah, but PBR tastes like corn,” Donny laughed, dropping two new bags of chips onto the blanket.

“Ed, what’s in here?” Dottie’s soft voice rang through the clearing.

She was holding his backpack on one hand, the heavy Snoopy thermos on the other. Eddie opened and closed his mouth a couple of times before he hoisted his guitar higher on his shoulder, desperately trying to act nonchalant so the rest of the boys wouldn’t pick up on his now ruined plan.

“That’d be apple Kool-Aid,” he admitted, a shy smile gracing his face. “Forgot to tell you I had some earlier, sorry.”

“Ew,” Gareth scrunched his face. “That’s, like, the worst kind of Kool-Aid.”

“Hey, watch it,” Eddie said, pushing him off balance lightly. “That’s her favorite.”

“Your favorite Kool-Aid flavor is apple?” the younger boy turned to her. “That’s so gross, it tastes like piss.”

“Damn, G, whose piss have you been drinking to know that?” she retorted, making their friends snort.

“Okay, enough chit-chat! I’m overheating here, let’s get in the water,” Donny said, bending down to take his socks off.

“Last in buys the popcorn tomorrow!” Gareth yelled, pulling his shirt off and letting his shorts fall to the ground before running towards the wooden dock in his briefs.

Donny and Eddie looked at each other, shrugged once, and hurried to get their clothes off as well, both of them immediately cannonballing into the cold water. Dottie watched them shove each other under the surface, loud screaming and laughter echoing within the confines of their little hidden place in the woods. She hadn’t missed the meaning of the bottle in her hand - Eddie had thought of her that morning before he left for work. He’d packed it for her, along with the guitar resting on the checkered fabric on the grass. Her eyes searched for her boyfriend, his wild hair flattened with the weight of the droplets clinging to his curls. To her side, blue and white fabric rustled, startling her out of her thoughts.

“Are you getting in?” Jeff asked when she turned to look at him.

“Uh, I- I’m not sure,” Dottie admitted. “You?”

“Y-yeah. Same.”

She examined him with gentle eyes, noticing the beads of sweat gathering at his hairline. It was clear he was feeling hot, his thick jeans sticking to the skin of his legs, the fabric around his collar getting darker with perspiration. She felt the heat too, but she had had the foresight of wearing shorts and a cotton tank top that day; his three-quarter sleeved Black Sabbath shirt didn’t look like it allowed much air to reach his feverish skin under it.

Donny and Gareth have older sisters, she realized all of a sudden as Jeff looked forlornly at their friends. It was probably normal for siblings to see each other in various states of undress as they grew up, especially if they shared bedrooms or bathrooms. Donny had been Vittoria and Isabella’s baby doll before little Giulietta had been born, and while the age difference between Gareth and Gretchen was smaller than Donny’s and his older sisters’, the fact that their bedrooms were connected through a Jack-and-Jill meant that they’d seen each other in their underwear more often than either of them could count by the time they’d both entered elementary school.

Jeff only had an older brother, and he probably felt a bit shy taking his clothes in front of Dottie. If she was being honest with herself, had she not been worried about being semi-naked in front of Eddie for the first time ever, she would most likely have had the same concerns as him.

“You can go in with them if you want to,” she said, motioning towards the lake with her head and trying to be encouraging. “I don’t mind you guys being in your undies around me if that’s what’s stopping you.”

“No, it’s- it’s fine, I’m not hot,” he said, crossing his arms.

“Jeff, you’re sweating buckets. I can turn around until you’re in the water if that makes you feel better.”

“No, it’s- it’s not you,” he sighed, apprehension on his face. “It’s everyone, I guess? I- I’m not used to, like, showing my legs to people. It makes me feel weird.”

“Oh,” Dottie said, not really understanding the issue but still aiming to be supportive. “Are you like super hairy or something? Because Donny could knit a blanket with his leg hair and no one cares, I promise no one’s gonna make fun of you.”

“No, no, I’m not hairy,” he snorted. “I mean I have some hair, I’m a guy, but no, he’s definitely the hairiest out of all of us.”

“Dunno, man, you haven’t seen me in winter when I don’t shave,” she joked, and he smiled at her gratefully for making their conversation feel lighter.

“It’s not hair I’m worried about,” Jeff said, turning towards her and lowering his voice. “Swear you won’t laugh?”

“It’s just me, Jeff,” she put her hands in her back pockets and shrugged. “When have I ever laughed at you about anything?”

Jeff hadn’t known what to expect when Dottie first joined Hellfire. They’d had a couple of female members in the club as the years had gone by, but none of them were quite like her and he didn’t know what to make of it at that time. Dottie, for starters, did not look like she was into heavy metal or nerdy stuff, dressing like any other girl he could have seen on the street, complete with trendy pastels and dainty florals. She had, however, been incredibly kind and not judgemental, eager to learn how to play D&D and taking it way more seriously than he’d thought she would on their first session, and that - along with the snacks she’d brought with her that day - had helped make him less wary of her intentions.

It certainly surprised him when all three of his best friends immediately struck a friendship with her, particularly Gareth who had a reputation of not knowing how to talk to girls in the first place. Still, in just a few short weeks, Dottie’d become a permanent fixture within their friend group and Jeff had no reasons to contradict them when the girl who sat next to him during World History lessons often smiled at him like a timid puppy asking for her new owner to play with her. If she was willing to put in the work to call him a friend, he would oblige and do the same, and that was exactly what he had done all those months ago.

“Okay, yeah,” he said, nodding a couple of times while he gathered courage. “It’s just- I, uh, I have a lot of marks on my legs. And I don’t like when people stare at them. It feels like they’re judging me.”

“Marks like scars or…?”

“Like stretch marks. I have them on the backs of my knees and on my hips. They’re… they’re kinda a lot. My Mom used to rub this oil on me to make them smaller but I don’t think it did anything to be honest.”

“I get it,” Dottie smiled. “I have them too, y’know.”

“You do?”

“Yeah,” she said, shifting her weight from foot to foot. “I have them on my butt and my hips. Here, look-” she moved her leg to the side and pulled the cuff of her jean shorts higher, letting him see the web of silvery scars climbing on the side of her leg.

“Wow.”

“I used to hate undressing in the locker room because none of my friends had them and I thought they were ugly, and then my Auntie Rachel said I should think of them like a badge of honor. Like you survived puberty and now you have all these battle scars to show for it, right?” she said, and Jeff snorted. “I know. It sounds so stupid, but it did make me feel better about them so… Dunno. It hurt like hell to get them so maybe she’s got a point.”

“God, yes. Some nights it felt like someone was trying to shatter my fucking kneecaps from the inside,” he laughed, happy to commiserate with a friend.

“Dude, I was terrified! No one told me growth spurts felt like being tied to those goddamn medieval beds that stretch your limbs until they snap, I thought I was dying,” she said. “It was the worst, honestly. I’m happy I stayed kinda short because that shit was painful.”

“Do all of yours look white?” Jeff asked, curious.

“Now they do but they used to look pink and a bit swollen, like when a cat scratches you on the leg, y’know? But they turned white after a while, so I guess that means they’ve healed. Yours don’t look like that?”

“Not really, no. I could show you if you want.”

Dottie was aware that Jeff was trusting her with something very important with his offering. Not wanting to spook him off while he was being so vulnerable with her, she nodded eagerly and waited for him to push his jeans down until they touched the soft grass under his feet. He bent down to grab them and fold them carefully while she looked at his legs with an interested expression, but not a malicious one.

“I actually didn’t know stretch marks could look like that,” she said, embarrassed.

“I didn’t know either until I got them,” he said, hands twitching nervously at his sides. “It’s probably because my skin is darker than yours.”

Jeff stood in that clearing in the blue checkered boxers his Mom had bought for him, and felt the breeze calm his heated skin. The backs of his knees were damp with sweat, and Dottie could see them painted with both cream and very dark brown scars at the point where his calf joined the back of his thigh. The intricate webbing stopped after a few inches, and then resumed at his hips, hidden by the breathable fabric, but traces of it could be seen near the elastic at the top. Jeff’s lower body had stretched and stretched, making him as tall as his brother and as slender as his mother, and the signs were displayed for the world to see for what was probably the first time since he’d gotten them.

Wordlessly, Dottie’s hands went to the top of her shorts and undid her belt, zipper falling open afterwards as her legs kicked the jean fabric aside. Jeff’s eyes roamed the patches of skin she’d mentioned before, observing silvery threads in similar patterns to his own as they climbed the sides of her upper thighs, her high-cut cotton panties not helping to conceal them unlike his choice of underwear. They smiled at each other and it was suddenly very clear to both of them that there was nothing to fear here; there was not an ounce of shame or embarrassment to behold in that clearing.

“So… do you wanna get in now?” Jeff asked, pulling bravery out of thin air.

“I… Yeah. Yeah, I’ll do it if you do it,” she grinned at him, conspiratorially.

“Okay, let’s- let’s just go for it!”

With the sort of giddiness that comes from overcoming a personal hurdle, the two teens finished undressing and walked side by side to the little dock where they sat down until they both felt comfortable enough in their own skin to jump into the water together. Jeff hadn’t known what to expect when he’d first met Dottie, but he was infinitely glad he took the chance to get to know her, thankful that his friends had had much better foresight about her than he did upon their first encounter.

Eddie wanted to drown himself. Was that a dramatic reaction to the situation at hand? Most likely, yes, but he’d never been known to be a level-headed guy in the first place so he couldn’t really be blamed for it. Not only had his plans to share a romantic afternoon with his girl been thwarted by their friends poking their noses where they didn’t belong, but also the first time Eddie was seeing Dottie in her underwear was at the same time everyone was seeing her in her underwear, and quite frankly, he didn’t care for it one bit.

It wasn’t that Eddie was jealous - that ship had sailed a long time ago and sunk to the bottom of the ocean more and more every time she told him she loved him - but he did feel like he had been cheated out of a very important First in their relationship. He’d imagined the moment very differently, and he was very much upset that he could only allow himself glimpses of her so as not to seem like a creep while she sat on the dock with Jeff, their calves shoved into the water as they chatted amicably. Still, while his friends were distracted, he felt like he could allow himself a few moments to take in the little things that he could observe about her and catalog them in his own brain under the Think About Later, Preferably While I’m Alone And In The Shower label.

If the magazines hidden underneath his bed were supposed to capture the hottest people on Earth, then Dottie was, in his eyes, a goddess living amongst common folk. Upon seeing her lounging by the water, he was reminded of that one time in Art class when their teacher had given them a presentation about statues in Ancient Greece - something about why so many of them didn’t have arms, and how beauty standards had changed throughout the years. Eddie hadn’t really cared for it at the time, but staring at the soft pudge protruding from her stomach and the thick thighs that molded themselves to the wood under them, he felt like if he were to carve Aphrodite herself in stone, she would have looked like one Dorothy Burke.

Every single detail about her was overwhelming to him. The myriad of moles that littered her body, the way the hairs on her arms stood to attention when she pulled her legs out of the cold water and the breeze hit them just right, the liquid silver that marred the skin on her hips. Her toes painted bright pink, her cute chuckles at whatever Jeff was saying, her hair moving in the wind as she stood at the dock gathering courage to jump in, the unassuming set of matching bra and panties she’d chosen to wear that day: cotton, little soft pink flowers dotting the fabric and two tiny non-functional baby pink bows, one sewn between her breasts and one underneath her belly button. He felt like a pervert ogling her and a worshiper at her altar at the same time, and he had to stop looking at her and chill the fuck out before anyone noticed that he would have gone to war, written poetry, and gladly died for her if she asked him to do so right that second.

“Eddie!” Gareth called, startling him out of his thoughts. Jeff and Dottie had already jumped into the lake and joined the fun. “You in for chicken? Dot’s gonna be the referee.”

“Hell yeah, man! Same teams as usual?” Eddie replied, doing what he did best when caught daydreaming: pretend he hadn’t been daydreaming.

“You’re going down, bitch!” Donny yelled before lowering himself underwater so Gareth could climb on his shoulders.

“Hey Ed, do you mind if I go on top this time?” Jeff asked, surprising Eddie.

A long time ago, the eldest Vitale sister, Isabella, had heard the boys gossip about Jeff and didn’t like what she’d eavesdropped on one bit. They’d been sitting in the living room at Donny’s house, putting away the pieces of the board game they had been playing on a rainy afternoon when the topic of Jeff and his pants had come up. The boy hadn’t been present for the conversation; his Mom had picked him up a few minutes earlier, and so his friends had felt like it was safe to speculate on why he was so hellbent on not wearing the mandatory shorts everyone else wore during gym class. Isabella heard them mention his newly acquired stretch marks and dismiss it as the issue at hand rather quickly, moving on to juicier theories like secret tattoos or acne in weird places. She’d shut them down in an instant.

From that day on and thanks to a long stream of yelling coming from Isabella, the boys understood that Jeff was sensitive about showing his bare legs to the world, and that if they really considered him a friend, they’d stop making a note of it every time he chose joggers over shorts and covered himself with a big towel after getting out of the pool. So in that moment, while Jeff seemed to not care that his scars were on display for everyone to scrutinize, Eddie resolved to immediately shove his head underwater and help him onto his shoulders, happy to prove to him that he’d been wrong all along when hiding himself around their friend group.

The little corner of Lover’s Lake that the Hellfire teens had chosen as their spot for the afternoon had never seen a battle the likes of The Great Chicken Fight of ‘86. Both teams fought fiercely, sometimes winning, sometimes choking on a bit of lake water, but after several rounds Donny and Eddie asked for a break to let their shoulders rest, and Team Donny and Gareth was officially crowned as the champion for the day.

At around five, every cloud in the sky was officially gone and the temperature had started to drop so everyone agreed it was time to get out of the lake and enjoy the sun before it went down behind the trees. Eddie offered Donny and Gareth to share a joint as their prize, and they gladly accepted it, all three of them grabbing a couple of beers each and sitting on the dock to smoke and get pleasantly buzzed. Not interested in partaking, Jeff and Dottie chose to go back to the blanket near the van where they sat down and drank their beers while he plucked some tunes out of his friend’s acoustic guitar.

“That sounds gorgeous,” Dottie told him sincerely, lying on her front on the blanket, head resting on her crossed arms and legs swinging behind her.

“My Mom loves this song,” Jeff said, playing the intro of Ain’t No Sunshine by Bill Withers once more.

“I’ve never heard of it before,” she admitted. “Can you sing it for me?”

“Yeah, for sure,” he smiled, always happy to spread his love of music around.

Ain’t no sunshine when she’s gone, Jeff crooned, his tone raspier than usual and carrying over to where the guys were sitting at the dock. It’s not warm when she’s away, ain’t no sunshine when she’s gone, and she’s always gone too long, anytime she goes away. Dottie stared at her friend in awe of his raw gift. All the Corroded Coffin members were talented, she knew that very well, but Jeff had always been the most shy in demonstrating it outside of Gareth’s garage and the relative anonymity of The Hideout, perhaps due to his father’s silent disapproval of his son’s artistic inclination.

And I know, I know, I know, I know… After observing countless practices and a couple of their weekly gigs, Dottie was fairly confident that while Eddie was the most talented guitar player out of the two, Jeff had the best voice in the band by far. As he sang about longing for someone who leaves often, she couldn’t help but think of themselves, about how summer was ticking by fast and one day, they’d all have to say goodbye to each other for a while like they had done with Dustin the previous weekend. And this house just ain’t no home, anytime she goes away.

“That was… wow,” she shook her head in disbelief once he had finished his rendition. “Bill Withers you said?”

“Mhm. He’s from West Virginia, you know? My Granddad is always talking about him,” Jeff said, going back to playing basic chord progressions while he explained.

“Maybe you’ll get to meet him while you’re there.”

“I doubt it, he’s probably like a gazillionaire by now. He totally lives in LA.”

“Never too late to ask for a transfer,” she joked, and he scoffed like he was offended at the suggestion.

“This sucks, man,” he sighed, putting the guitar aside and dropping onto the blanket next to her, elbows bumping. “All this time I’ve been looking for any excuses to leave this shithole and now that I have them, I don’t wanna go.”

“It’s just four years. We’ll blink and be back here before we know it. And there’s the holidays too, we have to come see family and stuff.”

“Yeah, I guess. Unless we get real jobs and then we won’t be able to come back.”

“Yeah, maybe. Can I tell you a secret?” she whispered.

“Of course.”

“I’m super scared that when we leave you guys will forget about me,” she said, turning around to lay on her back. “Like I’m gonna come back to Hawkins for Christmas break and it’ll be like I never existed.”

“You’re insane,” Jeff shook his head. “There’s no way we’d forget about you. Especially Eddie.”

“W-what do you mean?” Dottie said, hand draped over her eyes to hide her expression.

“Okay, so I know I’m not like an expert on this,” he began. “-but I think Eddie really likes you. As in, more than friends.”

“Oh,” she replied, trying very hard not to laugh. “That’s… I don’t know what to say. You really think so?”

“I’ve never seen him act like this before. It’s like someone brainwashed him, but in a good way? Dunno. He seems happier when you’re around. I think we all are, actually.”

“Aw, Jeffie,” she cooed, sitting up and pulling him into a one-armed hug, ignoring the fact that none of them had bothered to put their clothes back on after getting out of the water. “I’m really happy with you guys too, senior year would have completely sucked if I hadn’t met you. I think that’s what scares me the most, because I told you about my friends in New York and how they used to forget about me during summer and I just- I don’t want things to change, y’know? I’m happy like this!”

“Nothing’s going to change, Dot,” he said, sitting up too. “Well, I mean, everything is going to change when we go off to college, but that doesn’t mean we have to change. We’ll all still be friends… and maybe you and Eddie can be more than friends,” she shoved him and he laughed. “But we’ll keep in touch. We’ll send postcards, and letters, and we can call each other, you’ll see.”

“Promise me,” Dottie said, lifting her pinky finger. “Promise me we’ll still be best friends even when I’m in Michigan and you’re in West Virginia.”

“The better Virginia,” he said dramatically, linking his pinky with hers.

“The best Virginia, but only when you’re in it.”

“Why are you buttering me up so much? What terrible song do you want me to play next?” he narrowed his eyes, but they both knew he would always gladly play anything his friends asked for.

“Well, now that you mention it…”

Jeff picked up the guitar again before she could finish her sentence and launched into a sped up version of Back in the U.S.S.R by The Beatles, making Dottie dissolve into giggles as he faked a terrible British accent. Eddie watched from the dock, his bare back resting on old wood while Gareth and Donny talked next to him. He couldn’t even be mad at the fact that Jeff was fulfilling his fantasy; he was enjoying the tunes too and the view of his girlfriend lounging on the grass in her undies was enough to keep him content for the moment.

“Might wanna be less obvious with the staring, bud,” Donny said, bringing him back to the present instead of fixating on how she pushed her bra strap back onto her shoulder when it moved out of place.

“Fuck off,” Eddie scoffed. “I wasn’t staring. I was zoning out.”

“Sure you were,” Gareth said, sharing a conspiratorial glance with Donny. “That why you planned this cute little date? So you could zone out?”

“Cute little date? You mean the chill hangout you were both invited to?” Eddie said.

“You brought the dragon slayer guitar, man. This was not a casual hangout and you know it.”

“It was already in my van, I didn’t do shit.”

“Yeah, right. What about the Kool-Aid then? Her favorite flavor? Come on, Ed, we know you’re into her,” Donny said plainly. “Why are you so scared of asking her out?”

“I’m not!”

“Then why haven’t you already?!”

“I have!” he said, exasperation making him slip up.

“You have?!” Both Gareth and Donny stared at him, confused.

“I- I mean… No, I- I was gonna ask her today. And then you assholes ruined it,” Eddie deflected, making them feel bad about it to cover up his mistake. “I love you both, but you’re nosy as hell. I’m not telling you shit about anything anymore.”

“Okay, that’s so fuckin’ rude,” Gareth said, exaggerating being upset for drama. “We’re rooting for you two, jackass, you don’t gotta treat us like the enemy. We can help you if you want!”

“Nope, I don’t need any help, thank you. I’m doing pretty okay without you.”

“Really? Because from where we’re sitting, Jeff is the one having the date you planned with your girl. You might wanna hurry up and make your move before he swoops in.”

“First, don’t use Jeff of all people to try and make me jealous. That’s lame and you know that, we’re all friends here,” Eddie scolded Gareth, making him raise his hands to concede. “Second, I have nothing to worry about.”

“How can you be so sure of that?”

Eddie was about to answer when a damp haired Dottie approached them, Eddie’s black sleeveless shirt that he had cut himself hanging from her fingers. She stopped right in front of them, beaming down at her boyfriend with cheeks tainted red from the sun.

“What’s up, princess?” he smirked, knowing that his friends were watching the interaction curiously.

“Can I pretty-please borrow your shirt for a bit? I’m cold but I don’t wanna put my shorts on, I don’t wanna get them wet,” she pouted at him, as if she thought he’d ever say no to her.

“Yeah, of course. There’s a flannel somewhere in the back of the van if you want that one.”

“No, this one’s okay!” Dottie said, lifting the shirt and putting her head through it. “Thank you!”

She hopped away and back towards Jeff while she pulled her arms through the big holes at the sides, the black fabric falling down her back until it covered the delicate flower pattern on her panties. Eddie took a sip of his beer can and turned to look at the boys; Donny was holding in a chuckle and Gareth was staring at him in disbelief.

“You were asking?” Eddie said, smug.

“I… Shut the fuck up,” Gareth shook his head.

“You two are gonna be so gross when you actually start dating,” Donny said, thoroughly entertained.

“Maybe. Or maybe we’re already dating and we just haven’t told you,” Eddie said, mysteriously.

“Yeah, right. You’re like the most transparent person on Earth, Ed,” Gareth said.

“And she’s the worst liar ever,” Donny added, making Eddie snort.

What they don’t know can’t hurt them, Eddie thought as they switched topics and he took another glance at his girlfriend in the distance. She was looking right back at him with a smitten smile on her face, so he winked at her once, watching how she turned bashful and looked away from him. He wasn’t trying to be mean to their friends but when he had said sneaking around could be fun, he didn’t know how absolutely right he would be, and Eddie was determined to make the most of it before they had to come clean when summer drew to a close.

“What are you doing tonight?”

“Are you asking me out? Should I be worried about the guys tagging along again?”

“Ha, ha, you’re so funny. Answer the question.”

Eddie and Dottie were waiting for a red light to change back to green on the way to her home after having dropped everyone else off. When the sun started to disappear behind the treeline, the Hellfire Class of ‘86 very reluctantly decided it was time to return to society where wearing clothes was expected of them. Eddie had mourned in silence the fact that Dottie wasn’t wearing his shirt anymore, but considering it had been warm when she gave it back to him, he felt like a small mercy had been afforded to him in his time of suffering. The temperature was falling fast as the daylight said goodbye to Hawkins for the night, making Dottie burrow further into the co-pilot seat as she turned to the side to look at the metalhead.

“Well, I was thinking I really need a shower before I do anything else because I am covered in lake water and I feel sticky and gross. And- I don’t know, maybe watch a movie before bed? You? Got any plans?”

“Not yet,” Eddie said, changing gears before he let his hand find hers, interlacing their fingers. “Was kinda hoping you could help me out with that.”

“Oh, so you are asking me out,” Dottie smiled.

“Well, since our super romantic date turned into you having to see all our hairy asses, I thought it’d be nice to make it up to you,” he shot her a quick smile before turning his eyes back onto the road. “Wanna pick up a pizza and have dinner with me and Wayne? We can get a movie too, and you can stay over if you want. He won’t mind.”

“I don’t know, Ed,” she sighed, her thumb drawing patterns on the back of his hand. “I want to, I really do, but staying the night is… Don’t know if I can get away with that.”

“Don’t wanna keep lying to your Dad, huh?”

“No, well… I don’t actually mind the lying. He’d kinda freak out if he knew, I think. And he’d sit me down to have the most awkward talk in the world and like, I’m sorry, I know he’d mean well but he’s late on that by like four years. Mrs. Maybelle beat him to it and she did a damn good job.”

“Health teacher?”

“Mhm. She was so cool. I think she single-handedly lowered the teen pregnancy statistics in my school.”

“Wow. Go Mrs. Maybelle,” he chuckled. “It’s okay though, we’ll see each other tomorrow. Or you can still come over only for dinner, I know Wayne misses you.”

“He does?” she bit her lip as she smiled, warmth spreading inside her chest.

“Pfft, are you kidding? He likes you more than he likes me. Asks me about you all the time,” Eddie said, a tinge of pride in his voice, like he loved the fact that his Uncle and his girlfriend got along so well.

Dottie stared at their intertwined hands as she mulled over his words, only snapping out of it when he moved to switch gears again without letting her fingers go. The van slowly came to a stop on her driveway, the soft murmur of the engine filling the quiet of the summer night. He turned to look at her with curiosity when she made no moves to get out; she was burning a hole on her front door with nervous eyes, thumb on her free hand lodged between her lips as she bit down on her nail gently.

“I’m gonna take a shower first,” she muttered. “Then we can go. And we have to tell my Dad everyone is staying over at yours too.”

“Okay,” he said, the side of his mouth coming up in an amused smile. “Anything else?”

“For dinner, can we get something that isn’t pizza? I’ve been having Italian all week, Donny’s family keeps feeding me everything on the menu so I can recommend it to the customers. I think I’ll die if I eat any more dough this week.”

“Of course,” he chuckled at her dramatics. “KFC okay? Wayne loves a drumstick.”

“KFC sounds great actually.”

Finally turning off the van and heading inside, the pair put some distance between them to seem casual in front of James, who sat on the couch half asleep with a crossword puzzle in his hand and the TV tuned in to some random game show he wasn’t really watching. He took his glasses off and brushed a hand over his face tiredly, opening his arms so Dottie could beeline in his direction and give him a big hug.

“Hey honey, where have you been?” James said, voice gruff after a very long week.

“We went to the lake,” she said, perching on the armrest next to him, Eddie taking a seat in the armchair near them. “It was too hot to do anything else today. How was work?”

“Tiring. S’that why you smell like a swamp? Because you got in the lake?”

“Dad! You’re so mean, I do not smell like a swamp.”

“You kinda do,” Eddie said, giving her a toothy smile.

“You’re not supposed to gang up on me, you got into the lake too,” she stuck her tongue out at him and he laughed in response. “If it’s so bad I’m gonna go take a shower and you two can finally be free from my ogre smell.”

“Are you two hanging out here tonight?” James asked, hand holding onto his daughter’s wrist for a second before she could leave. “What do you want for dinner?”

“We’re going back to Eddie’s for movie night. Everyone went home to shower first,” Dottie lied.

“Oh, okay. You’re staying over or you need me to pick you up later?”

“I think we’re staying but if not, Donny can drive me back, don’t worry about it. We’re supposed to go to the theater tomorrow anyway, Jeff was saying something about Gene Simmons being in a movie? Dunno. I’m pretty excited about the aircon though.”

“Of course you are,” her Dad laughed, finally letting her arm go. “Go back to the Black Lagoon now, shoo.”

“Dad, stop it!”

Dottie had long ago stopped worrying about the kinds of conversation her Dad and Eddie got up to while she wasn’t around as they often revolved around three distinct subjects: nerd stuff, cars, and whatever interesting thing had happened recently. That day’s talk seemed to be about a high end car that had come into Thatcher’s shop in the morning, and as both men marveled at its engineering like they were kids at Christmas, Dottie headed upstairs to the bathroom to rid herself of her dirty clothes and the sticky lake residue on her skin.

The water coming out of the showerhead pinged off the tiles softly, the echoey nature of the room lulling her into a sense of peace and comfort as she slowly undressed and stepped into the empty tub. Dottie took her time relaxing after a long week of intense training at her new job, gentle fingertips working her ginger and mint scented shampoo on her scalp. Her sun-kissed skin felt like it was sizzling under the warm water, more cold than hot to ease the tightness under the red patches. She turned off the water after rinsing all the soap off, wrapped herself in a fluffy white towel and padded her way to her bedroom to finish getting ready for the night.

While she dried herself and applied moisturizer to her shoulders, cheeks and bridge of her nose to avoid her skin peeling off, Dottie stared at her wardrobe with a million questions on her tongue. It was easy enough to put together an outfit for the casual date night - any t-shirt and pair of shorts would suffice for dinner with Eddie and Wayne. It was, however, the rest of her clothes that worried her, from which set of pjs would be appropriate for the eldest Munson to see her in when they inevitably shared breakfast together the following morning yet still cute enough to wear while cuddling up under a blanket with Eddie while they watched a movie, down to, most importantly, her undergarments.

Dottie, while having very limited experience, was no stranger to what sort of things couples would get up to when they had an empty house to themselves. Standing next to her dresser with her underwear drawer open, she weighed all options in her mind. Would Eddie mind that she didn’t own anything like she’d seen on the girls in the magazines under his bed? Would he care about what she wore at all? Was he even interested in taking the next big step with her? It had certainly seemed so on Thursday, but he had backed off completely afterwards leaving Dottie to overthink their interactions until she had finally fallen asleep.

Truth be told, if she really had to consider it, was she ready? She felt comfortable with him, yes, she definitely felt safe, but did that mean anything had to happen that specific night? Eddie had seen her in a completely normal set of underwear all day and hadn’t said a thing. He hadn’t even kissed her. He’d held her hand in the van after everyone left, and he’d been as affectionate and friendly as ever, but aside from that… was he put off now that he knew what she looked like under her clothes?

No. Stop it, Dottie told herself before she could go down a dangerous spiral. He didn’t say anything good but also he didn’t say anything bad. He was probably just embarrassed to say something with everyone around, that’s all. He’ll totally mention it tonight, that’s why he wants you to come over. With a confidence that was more performative than real, she chose a simple white cotton set that felt cute but was also comfortable enough to sleep in, grabbed her favorite pajamas and quickly put an overnight bag together before climbing down the stairs before she could regret her choices. In the living room, Eddie and James were still talking about the fancy car.

“You ready?” Eddie got up when she approached them. “I’ll drop you off at Family Video while I pick up the chicken.”

“Okay. Any suggestions?”

“You pick,” he smiled at her. “But get the two movie deal with the popcorn, I’ll get you gummy bears at the station.”

“Got it,” Dottie turned to her Dad. “I’ll be back tomorrow afternoon, is that okay?”

“Go have fun,” James enveloped her in a hug. “Call me if you need anything.”

“I will. Love you.”

“Love you too, honey,” he kissed her forehead and let her go to shake Eddie’s hand goodbye. “You two be safe, alright? Say hi to Wayne from me.”

“Will do, sir. Have a good night,” Eddie said, wondering not for the first time if James knew more than he let on.

Dottie walked into Family Video with a simple mission: she had to find two movies that both her and Eddie could enjoy together. They both liked fantasy and sci-fi, but a lore-heavy or emotionally compelling movie didn’t feel like the right choice for a night where everything was meant to change between them, and certainly horror was out of the picture if she wanted to get a wink of sleep for the following week. Something lighthearted and fun like Ghostbusters or Beverly Hills Cop seemed like the perfect choice in her mind, and she knew just the person to ask for help in her quest.

The smell of plastic and air freshener filled the air as she surveyed the store for that familiar head of hair she’d come to be really fond of, but when she finally found it, her plans were immediately thrown off the table. Robin Buckley stood in the children’s movie aisle looking very overwhelmed while being surrounded by three little kids and their sweet grandma, who was trying to pick a movie for them. The kids kept showing different tapes to her, and the old lady insisted Robin explain the gist of each of them so she could decide which one was more appropriate for her grandchildren to watch. By the looks of it, this had been going on for several minutes before Dottie’s arrival judging by how disheveled Robin’s vest was getting as the kids tugged on it trying to catch her attention and offer yet another tape as a new contender.

“Hi, welcome to Family Video! How can I help you?” a man’s voice beckoned Dottie further into the store, only to find herself face to face with one Steve Harrington.

“Oh hey, nice to see you again!” she said honestly, watching how the friendly looking boy lit up at her acknowledgement of him.

“Yeah, nice to see you too! Congrats on graduation, by the way,” Steve said, leaning onto the counter.

“Thank you!”

“So, what can I help you with? Unless you’re here for Robin.”

“Oh, no, it’s- well, actually I did want her help but I guess if you two are friends that means you must have good taste too, right?”

“That was kinda a backhanded compliment but I’ll take it anyway,” Steve joked. “What were you looking for? I’m not an expert like Rob, but I’ve seen some cool stuff since I got this job.”

“I was looking for something light? Like… I don’t know, something like Back to the Future maybe?” Dottie mused, following him to one of the aisles at the front of the store.

“You’re in luck because I did see that one. Instant classic. I don’t get why Alex P. Keaton was trying to bang his Mom though, what was up with that?” he lowered his voice conspiratorially, making her chuckle.

“He wasn’t, she was trying to bang him,” she said, and Steve’s eyebrows shot up. “She didn’t know he was her son. Are you sure you’ve seen it?”

“Of course I did,” he scoffed. “I saw it with Robin - hey, Rob!”

“Steve, I’m a little busy here,” Robin raised her voice from her side of the store, throwing daggers at him with her eyes.

“Just answer this for me please: did I see Back to the Future with you or not?”

“Yeah, why-”

“Thank you!” Steve triumphantly turned back to Dottie who was watching the entire interaction with an amused expression on her face. “What did I tell you? I saw it!”

“Okay, I believe you,” she laughed. “Can you help me find something similar to that since you’re Michael J. Fox’s biggest fan?”

“Who’s that?” he asked, back turned as he browsed the shelves in search of a VHS he knew he had stocked earlier in the week. “Aha! Here it is, Teen Wolf. I saw it on a date like a month ago, I think you’d like it.”

“Yeah? How did that date turn out for you?”

“Really bad, but the movie was great,” he tapped on the plastic cover. “Big recommend.”

“You’ve convinced me, I’ll take it. Oh, and this one too, please,” Dottie said, walking to the next aisle and picking up another VHS she’d had her eyes on for a while.

“Clue? Like the board game?”

“Exactly! I haven’t seen it yet, but Tim Curry is in it so it must be good.”

“Who’s Tim Curry again?”

“Did you ever end up seeing Rocky Horror?” he nodded so she continued. “He plays Dr. Frank-N-Furter, you know, the guy in the corset?”

“Ah, yes! Yeah, I remember him. It was, uhm, it was a really interesting movie! The music was very catchy,” Steve said, walking over to the counter to ring her up while he scratched his neck nervously. “You know, I’ve been talking with Robin about going to see some shows in Indy, she knows some cool spots and- and they might be showing stuff like Rocky Horror too! I mean, they seem like the kinda places that would show movies like that. You could come with us if you’d like, I know Rob would love that.”

Steve Harrington’s new self-appointed life purpose after striking out on so many dates for the past year, was to be Robin Buckley’s wingman. He was no longer interested in pursuing flings that always led to him on his own couch with his head on Robin’s lap and her hands on his hair while they watched some weird avant-garde movie she’d picked for the day. He was, quite frankly, tired of trying so hard for nothing, and he’d told her as much when he took her out for dinner on her graduation day.

In a so-sad-it’s-almost-comical turn of events, Steve’s big declaration had been forgotten rather quickly when Robin turned her head to call the waitress over and spotted Vickie, fellow band geek and current crush, making out with her college boyfriend, both of them tucked into one of the booths at the back of the restaurant. Steve tried to pick up the pieces of his best friend’s broken heart that night, her head on his lap on the floor of his bathroom for a change, but he simply hadn’t known how to make everything better at the time.

And so, it was during the next morning as he watched Robin snoozing in what was quickly becoming her side on his bed, her reddish-brown hair spilling over his fluffiest pillow, that he decided the only solution was to find Robin a new object of desire, one that would be emotionally available to reciprocate her feelings without fear of becoming the town pariah. In that scenario, who could be better than the short curly haired girl that already looked to be fond of his best friend, was seemingly unafraid of judgment since she already was friends with the freaks, and was about to move to a bigger city where small town sensibilities couldn’t reach either of them?

It was a flawless plan if you asked him. There was only one little problem in it, but Steve couldn’t be blamed for that - he didn’t have all relevant information yet.

“I’d love to go with you guys too!” Dottie said, excited at the prospect of new friends and fun adventures. “I’ve only been to Indy once so I don’t really know any cool places there or anything.”

“Yeah, me neither,” Steve laughed. “Rob’s been a few times with the school’s band though. They get around, did you know that?”

“I’ll take your word for it,” she chuckled, grabbing a few bills from her front pocket. “I have two questions. One, can I get the two movies and popcorn deal? And two, would it be okay if I invited a friend to join us on our big city adventures?”

“One, sweet or salty? Two, that depends,” he said mysteriously, moving over to the snacks display next to the cash register.

“Sweet, please,” she instructed. “Depends on what?”

“I don’t know, is your friend cute?”

“I think so, but I don’t really know your type,” Dottie said, glancing to the side as the front door opened and Eddie walked in, a big grin on his face. “Speak of the devil.”

“Harrington,” Eddie said, sliding next to her and bumping her shoulder like he wasn’t dying to throw an arm around his girlfriend.

“Munson,” Steve greeted him. “Wait, did you- is he the friend you were talking about?”

“You were talking about me with King Steve, princess?” Eddie raised his eyebrows, amused.

“Steve was inviting me to join some cool plans he has with Robin and I thought you might want to come too,” Dottie explained. “I think Dustin would be really happy if you two hung out. He looks up to you both so much.”

“He, uh… Henderson talks about me?” Steve said, surprised.

“Yeah, man, kid worships you,” Eddie scoffed.

“I asked him about you when I saw you at our graduation,” Dottie said, making both boys turn towards her. “He said you were his babysitter, but he thought of you as his older brother.”

“He did? That little shit,” Steve muttered, biting back a self-satisfied smile.

“Gotta talk Claudia into giving him a sibling, that kid’s lonely as hell,” Eddie joked, but his girlfriend didn’t seem to like it very much.

“You’re an only child, if anyone understands what that’s like, it should be you.”

“You’re an only child too,” he noted.

“We should make a club,” Steve said, bringing Dottie’s attention back to him while he put the bag of microwave popcorn and the movies she’d picked in a bag. “I’m also an only child.”

“Hey, sorry I couldn’t say hi earlier!” Robin interrupted their talk, dumping a bunch of VHS cases onto the counter. “Ring all of these up before she changes her mind,” she whispered to Steve, making all three teens snort.

“No worries, you looked pretty busy,” Dottie said, pulling her into a hug. “It’s so nice to see you, we’re kinda neighbors now!”

“Yeah- wait, what?”

“I got a summer job over at Giulia’s! Wanted to come say hi earlier in the week but they keep me on a leash while I’m getting trained.”

“No way!” Robin smiled. “Steve and I love their meatball sandwich!”

“No, you love their meatball sandwich.”

“You always eat the other half, why don’t you get something else if you don’t like it?”

“Because you hate the mortadella sandwich I like so I always let you get the one you want,” he deadpanned, while he finished scanning the stack of movies in front of him.

“Isn’t mortadella horse meat?” Eddie asked.

“No, it’s pork,” Dottie replied, well acquainted with the sandwich menu by then.

“Whatever it is, it’s disgusting,” Robin said, grabbing the bag Steve was offering to her and heading to where the older lady waited while she read the back cover for Cocoon. “Duty calls, have a good night you two.”

“Thanks, Buckley!” Eddie called, but she had already slipped her customer service smile back on to answer more of the old grandma’s questions.

“Well, you guys are done,” Steve said, bracing himself on the counter. “Unless you need anything else?”

“Nope, we’re good, Harrington, thanks,” the metalhead said, arm finally curling around his girlfriend’s waist and pulling her towards the front doors.

“Bye, Steve, see you around!” she said, waving at him over her boyfriend’s shoulder.

“I’ll drop by next week so we can make plans!” he replied, not letting her forget about his invite.

“Please do! Bye, Robin!” was the last thing Dottie could say before the door closed behind her.

Steve rested his head on his hand as he watched Robin wrap up with the older lady and her rambunctious grandchildren, herding all of them towards the exit lest they asked any more questions or shoved a new tape into her hands. As soon as they were gone, she walked back where he was standing and dropped her entire body weight onto the counter; Steve patted her hair as if to say “there, there”.

“So…,” he began.

“So?” Robin replied, voice muffled by her own arms.

“Am I a great wingman or what?”

“What are you talking about?”

“I asked Dorothy to come with us to Indianapolis. Thought she’d be into it. She said yes, by the way, you’re welcome.”

“You did what?! Steve, I’m not- if people knew-,” she began panicking.

No one in Hawkins could know about her best kept secret, which was exactly why Steve had offered to go with her to queer friendly spots in the big city of Indianapolis and act as her alibi should anyone ask. If anyone knew, if anyone found out, if Dottie wasn’t as cool with things like Robin was 99.9% sure she was… Well, it was safe to assume that Robin would be grabbing the bag hidden at the bottom of Steve’s closet and disappearing into the night, probably taking said boy with her.

“You said she was, y’know, like you! She likes Rocky Horror as much as you do, that has to mean something! And this is a perfect chance for you to get over stupid Vickie and her ugly boyfriend, come on, Rob.”

“You can’t just- ugh! You’re such a dingus!” Robin covered her face with her ringed fingers.

“What, what did I do? She seemed really excited about it when I asked!” Steve defended himself, hands on his hips. “She wanted to know if Munson could come too but he’s a freak, he’s probably into it anyway. I’ll distract him, you don’t have to worry about it.”

“Oh my god, you’re just- she’s dating Munson, you idiot!” she said, exasperated.

“What? No, no way! She totally likes girls, you said so yourself.”

“People can like two things at the same time, Steve,” Robin explained in a deadpan tone.

“...They can?” Steve frowned, looking extremely confused as his friend loudly groaned and let her head drop back onto the counter, bracing herself for a long end of shift at Family Video.

Summer nights at the Munson trailer had never really been Eddie’s favorite (mainly due to the lack of air conditioning), but chilling on the couch after dinner with his pedestal fan turned on to its max speed, a funny movie playing on the TV, and his girlfriend tucked into his side, he had to admit he had reached a level of relaxation he didn’t entirely know was possible before that moment.

Wayne was sitting at the kitchen table while he laced his boots - the last step in his routine to get ready for work - and Eddie thought that the only thing that could make the night better was for his Uncle to not have to leave at all. Reluctantly, he contented himself with the knowledge that Wayne had decided to not attend his usual Friday-before-work union meeting to have dinner with them, the KFC bucket they’d all shared now crushed at the bottom of their trash can. The dishes were washed, Eddie had already showered, and Dottie had changed into her pajamas by the time Wayne finally said goodbye to the teens, warning them to behave and not piss off any neighbors with loud music like his nephew was known to do, especially on weekend nights.

Everything felt peaceful, perfectly cozy and comforting after a long week filled with new jobs and snappy customers. The sounds of Teen Wolf filled the air, the constant whirring of the fan and the cool breeze on his skin were lulling him into a dreamlike state. As the movie progressed and Dottie sank more and more into the couch cushions, his heavy arm draped around her shoulders, Eddie pulled her legs onto his lap where he drew patterns on her skin with his fingertips, brain completely turned off as he watched Michael J. Fox prance around a basketball court with fake fur all over his body. Had he been less comatose from the amount of fried chicken and mashed potatoes he’d consumed at dinnertime, maybe he’d have noticed sooner that his girlfriend was not enjoying the quiet moment as much as he was.

Dottie simply could not focus on the movie playing in front of them, head busy nervously anticipating the moment when Eddie would finally make a move on her. And yet, as the minutes ticked on and he looked exponentially engrossed in the story unfolding on his TV, it was looking very unlikely that he would try to do anything about the fact that they were going to be completely alone for the next ten hours. What’s happening? Did I scare him off? She felt like prey waiting for her predator to pounce, except he didn’t seem too concerned in chasing her in the first place. Eddie’s perfectly innocent behavior set all her alarms off - there was danger in the unknown, and Dottie didn’t like not knowing what to expect.

“You want another one?” Eddie’s voice startled her.

“Huh?”

“I’m gonna get another Coke, you want one too?” he shook the empty can in his hand to illustrate his point.

“Oh, no, thank you. Mine’s still pretty full,” she replied, pointing to her barely touched can on his coffee table next to her yet unopened bag of gummy bears.

“Be right back,” he muttered, pressing a noisy kiss to her hairline as he moved her legs from his lap back onto the couch and jogged towards his fridge.

They were more than half an hour into the movie and Dottie painfully realized that by this time, Tyler would have already had her topless on his bed. Back then, there had been many times where she had wanted to continue watching their chosen film instead of doing, well, that, but she had never mentioned it to him for fear of pissing him off. That’s what girlfriends and boyfriends did when they were alone after all, wasn’t it? Jeannie and Tracey had said it was normal when she asked them about it after the first time it had happened. Would Nancy agree with them? Would Chrissy, or Robin?

Eddie padded his way back to the couch, finally noticing that something was off. Dottie wasn’t watching the TV like he thought she had been all along - no, her head was turned towards the screen’s general area but her eyes weren’t focused on anything in particular, right hand restlessly playing with her Mom’s ring on her left middle finger. She jumped when he grabbed her ankle, sitting back down next to her and pulling her legs back onto his lap.

“Hey,” he whispered, lowering his head to look into her eyes. “You okay?”

“Yeah, of course,” she whispered back, settling against his side like she hadn’t recoiled when he’d touched her.

“You sure? I can see your brain working overtime.”

“Yeah, I’m okay. I’m just… thinking about next week, don’t worry about it. You’re missing the movie,” she lied quickly, hoping to throw his attention off her and back onto the screen.

“Fuck the movie. What’s next week?”

“Uh, your gig?” she chuckled. “We’re going to Indy on Friday, remember? You’re supposed to be driving us there.”

“Oh,” he said, surprised. “Yeah, no, of course I remember that but you… I mean, you looked like you wanted to throw up for a sec there. What’s wrong? You don’t wanna come?”

“What?! I got you that gig, of course I wanna go!” Dottie said, like he was insane for even suggesting she didn’t wanna be there.

“I’m just asking, darling, that’s all,” he squeezed her close. “You’re like, super tense right now, what’s going on?”

“I… I have nothing to wear,” she rolled her eyes, doubling down on her lie. “It’s silly, you don’t wanna hear about it.”

“Nope, no, none of that,” he shook his head. “If I’m asking, it’s because I wanna know. Hey, why don’t you ask Nancy to go shopping with you, huh?”

“I was kinda hoping I could borrow something from you, actually.”

“Yeah? You wanna raid my closet?” he smiled, smitten.

“Can I?”

“What’s mine is yours, princess,” Eddie said, nosing her hair. “You know I love it when you wear my clothes. How about I bring some stuff over for you on Friday when I pick you up and you can do my makeup like we talked about? Sound good?”

“Sounds perfect, Ed,” she smiled back, burrowing into his chest and pressing a kiss to the soft cotton. “Thank you.”

Even after she settled back next to him like nothing was wrong, Eddie knew that she had been lying. He could tell instantly, not only because he prided himself in knowing her like the back of his hand, but because he’d always found Dorothy Burke pretty easy to read. With her sitting so close next to him, he could pick up on all the little things he knew by now were signs of nervousness: the racing heart, the shallow breaths, the twitching fingers. Enough was enough, and Eddie decided that he’d confront her and get it over with, or else he’d never forgive himself for pretending everything was fine when it clearly wasn’t.

“Okay, Dot, come on, this-,” he sat up, pulling her up with him. “I can feel your fucking heartbeat. I know something’s up. Just tell me what it is so we can fix it, mhm?”

Dottie had never been one to ever shy away from Eddie’s affections; if anything, she had always given as good as she got. Hugs always lasted a little bit longer than they should, kisses were pressed to places that weren’t the apples of their cheeks, and wandering hands had never been stopped before, even before they’d begun dating. It was for that same reason that her reaction to him simply asking if anything was wrong scared him half to death, because he wasn’t used to her pulling away whenever he initiated physical contact. Eddie hadn’t even finished settling into his new sitting position when she moved further away from him, knees up in front of her like she was trying to put up a wall between them.

Eddie looked at her, really, truly looked at her for the first time all evening and immediately didn’t like what he saw. Her eyes were shifty and shiny, the lips he adored so much were turned into a sad looking pout, and her arms were wrapped around her legs like she was shielding herself from him. Had he read this entire situation wrong? She’d agreed to stay the night with him, even lied to her Dad about it. Had he come across as too eager? Too needy? Had he scared her off somehow?

“Baby, what- what happened? Did I do something wrong?” Eddie asked, searching her eyes with his as she moved her head down to avoid having to look at him. “D’you wanna go home? I- I can take you, you don’t have to stay-”

“Aren’t you gonna make a move on me?” she asked, voice timid but dejected.

“Huh?”

He swore she was fucking with him. She had to be. There was just no other way, because out of any combination of words that could have come out of her mouth at that moment, that exact sentence had never once crossed his mind. Dottie finally lifted her eyes to look at him upon hearing his confused reaction; he had never seen her so nervous and unsure of anything since the day met her. Suddenly, he was reminded of that shy girl that had padded her way into the props room all those months ago, terrified and vulnerable, yet brave in ways he hadn’t considered she could be at the time. Desperate for human connection, for someone to look at her and say hey, welcome, take a seat and don’t you dare leave. He had been trying so hard to go at her pace, to not rush her or make her feel pressured. Where had he failed?

“I’m sorry, could you- shit, say that again for me, please,” he said, dumbfounded.

“Are you going to make a move on me or not, Ed? It’s a simple question,” Dottie repeated, visibly upset.

“I- I wasn’t- Did you want me to or…?”

“No! I mean, yes, I- I don’t know,” she said, hunching over her knees, shoulders coming up in self-defense. “Isn’t that why I’m here? Because you wanna have sex?”

“Fuck, I’m-”, Eddie scrunched his face and moved closer, hands finding hers and tangling their fingers together. The tightness in his chest eased when she didn’t pull them back. “Baby, no. I invited you over because I wanted to spend time with you. Do you really think I would only ask you to come over so I can get laid?”

“Well, isn’t that what couples are supposed to do when they’re alone? Have sex?”

“When they want to, yeah, of course,” he moved his hand to her chin and lifted her face gently. “But that’s not why I asked you to spend the night, babe. Look, I know I’m selfish, okay? We had fun today with the guys, but I just wanted you all to myself for a while. Wanted to watch a movie and hold you like this, that’s all. No sex involved, I swear.”

“Oh,” she said with furrowed brows, and fell quiet for a moment. The movie kept playing in the background as she spoke up again. “I’ve never really done that before.”

“You’ve never watched a movie with your boyfriend before?” he pushed a curl behind her ear.

“No, I- I’ve done that, kinda. I’ve just never been to my boyfriend’s house when he’s alone and not had sex.”

“Oh,” it was Eddie’s turn to be surprised.

“It’s just that Tyler and I - we never hung out like that after we started dating. We always went out with other friends, and if I went to his house we’d, y’know, do it. I thought you wanted us to do that too.”

“Okay, wait, hold on,” he shook his head as if that could help him clear his mind. “You only went to his house to have sex? You never, like, chilled out with him? Watched a movie, played a board game, I don’t know, anything that wasn’t sex?”

“Jeannie said that’s, like, the only reason why guys invite you over-”

“Fuck Jeannie, she’s an idiot,” he argued. “Answer my question, darling. Did you ever go to his house and not have sex?”

“I… I don’t think so? It wasn’t a big deal, we just… he said we should take advantage of the empty house since we didn’t get to spend a lot of time alone.”

“Did you even want to take advantage of the empty house?”

“I dunno. Sometimes.”

“Dot.”

“It’s not like that!” she crossed her arms and looked away, feeling judged and embarrassed. “I didn’t enjoy it very much, okay? It was just a thing we did sometimes. He wasn’t, like, forcing me! I could always leave or not go if I didn’t want to.”

“Jesus Christ,” Eddie said in disbelief.

“I don’t want to talk about this anymore,” Dottie declared, getting up from the couch and collecting their discarded snacks from the coffee table.

“No, I really think we should,” he followed her into the kitchen.

“Why? So you can keep mocking me because I thought you wanted to have sex with me? It’s fine, Eddie, I made a mistake, I get it.”

“I’m not mocking you! I’m just trying to understand- can you please- fuckin’ hell, Dot, stop fucking cleaning my kitchen!”

Teen Wolf was still playing in the background as they stared at each other, knowing full well neither of them was going to back down. The wet rag on Dottie’s hand dripped water onto the linoleum, silence stretching between them. Eddie waited, and waited, his expression worried and desperate at the same time. Her lower lip quivered the more she looked into his earnest eyes. She felt so dumb and small. All day she’d been stressing herself out at the possibility of Eddie wanting to take their relationship to the next level and he hadn’t even thought about it. Wanted to watch a movie and hold you, he’d said.

Dottie had never really known what it was to desire intimacy until Eddie had waltzed right into her life, and the more she pondered on it, the more ashamed she felt. Wasn’t he supposed to want it more than she did? He was the man after all, that’s what guys did, right? What did it mean then, if she was ready for more and he wasn’t? Did he not want her at all? Wasn’t he as attracted to her as she was to him?

“Can we please forget I said anything?” she mumbled, more droplets of water hitting the floor as she unconsciously squeezed the rag in her fist.

“No, baby, we can’t,” he said softly, reaching to remove the wet cloth from her hands and guiding her towards the couch again one step at a time. “We really have to talk about this.”

“It’s so humiliating, Eddie, please,” Dottie pleaded. “You don’t want to do it, I get it. It’s okay, I shouldn’t have assumed-”

“Darling Dottie, baby, my love,” he put his hands on her shoulders dramatically. “You don’t want to know how much I actually want to have sex with you because I promise you it’s a lot, but we need to talk about this because I can’t have you thinking that the only reason I want to spend time with you is because there might be fucking involved.”

“I know that’s not the only thing, but-,” she began with burning cheeks, but he stopped her by pushing her onto the cushions again.

“No, no, no. No buts. We can finish the movie and go to sleep on opposite sides of the bed and I wouldn’t give a shit. Am I gonna jerk off in the bathroom when you’re out of here? Fuck yeah, you’re hot as shit, babe,” he said, pleased that even though she groaned and covered her face with her hands, she giggled at his crass words. “But I need you to understand that we don’t have to do anything we don’t feel like doing. Ever. I’m happy with this. I’m happy with you.”

“You really mean that?”

“Do you even know how much it means to me that you want to sleep in my bed with me?” Eddie said, his voice sounding constricted. “That no matter what happens, if we have sex or not, that you’re still gonna be there when I wake up?”

“Why wouldn’t I be there?” Dottie looked confused.

“Darling, come on,” he said, like it was obvious. “I’ve never been dating material. No one has ever been interested in doing that shit with me, at least not until you showed up. Look, if you want to do it, I’m all for it. I promise you, seeing you today at the lake in those cute little panties had me almost drowning myself. I’d be happy to do literally anything with you, but if you think we have to do it because I want it, then get that idea out of your head, okay? This is… this is new to me. No one has ever wanted me just for me and you say you do, so I’m going slow with you because I honestly don’t know what the fuck I’m doing and I don’t want to fuck this up,” he pulled her hands away from where they were tucked against her chest and kneaded her skin with his thumbs. “You mean too much to me to rush into things because I’m thinking with the wrong head.”

“Eddie,” she groaned, letting her head fall forward until it hit his collarbone.

“What?” he chuckled.

Dottie felt like shit. She couldn’t even pretend not to feel like shit, because that’s truly how she felt. Here was Eddie, sweet, loving, perfect Eddie battling his own demons and still putting her first, and all she could think about was how she’d basically cornered him and accused him of not making a move on her because he didn’t like her enough to have sex with her. He did like her, more than enough if he was to believed, and he yet he was still willing to wait because he didn’t want to fuck anything up.

Her heart broke for him as they sat on the couch, his head coming to rest on top of hers and his nails lightly scratching her back on top of her pjs. She put her arms around his waist and held him, horribly cognizant of how much love was stored in him, and how little he’d received from others throughout his entire life. The idea that anyone had taken Eddie to bed (or, most accurately, to the back of his van) and had made him feel disposable and unwanted was almost unthinkable to her. How could anyone leave him after seeing him at his most vulnerable? No, that was simply unacceptable, and Dottie knew she couldn’t let that notion fester in his brain anymore.

“I’m sorry,” she said, nuzzling his jaw. “I don’t really have a lot of experience on this and I thought you were just waiting until we were alone, and then when you didn’t even kiss me, I thought I’d done something wrong.”

“Wait, I haven’t kissed you since Wayne left?”

“You gave me a kiss on the cheek at lunch.”

“I haven’t kissed you all day?!” Eddie was appalled.

“It’s okay, we haven’t really been alone-”

“It’s not okay, we need to fix this,” he said, squishing her cheeks and planting a peck on her lips. “Can’t fucking believe-” he smooched her again. “-I haven’t-” Smooch. “-kissed this pretty face-”

“Eddie, stop!” she laughed, mirth in her face and in her voice.

“Prettiest- fucking- girl-,” he kept pressing wet kisses to every part of her face he could reach while she giggled and tried to squirm out of his reach. “Why are you running away from me, huh? Let me love you, come on!”

Time stopped when Dottie’s back hit the cushion she’d been sitting on, Eddie falling on top of her and barely managing to hold himself up in time so he wouldn’t hit her face with his big head. He let out a silly laugh, grateful for his quick reflexes or else they’d be dealing with a bloody nose, but he cut it short when he felt Dottie’s hand come up to push his unruly hair behind his ear. She was smiling, yes, but she was looking up at him with the kind of loving eyes he’d only ever seen in movies before he’d met her. Eyes he never thought one day could be looking at him.

The tension in the air was thick as she made herself comfortable between his arms, legs opening so he could hover over her like he’d done a few times by now whenever they kissed on her bed. Eddie was about to lean in to do just that when she moved her hand from his hair and brought it to the buttons at the front of her pajama set. As if transfixed, he saw her undo the first button, and then the second one, the dainty blue floral pattern giving way to skin covered by a pure white cotton bra with a thin lace trim. Her fingers were onto the third button when Eddie’s right hand covered hers, stopping her movements at once.

“W-what are you doing?” he said, searching her face for any signs of discomfort or unease. He found none.

“Can you help me take this off?” she said, with that characteristic tender determination he loved so much.

“We don’t have to. That’s not what I meant-”

“Just love me, Eddie. Please.”

“Darling, I-,” he was terrified. Completely and utterly terrified, his big doe eyes shining as he tried to find the words for what he was feeling.

“I’m gonna be here when you fall asleep, and I’ll still be here when you wake up. I promise,” she whispered, knees rising until they bracketed his hips, her hands moving to cup his face again.

“I love you,” Eddie said, letting his weight pull him down and into her embrace as he burrowed his head into her neck. “Fuck, I’m so in love with you.”

“I love you too, Ed.”

“Yeah? You do?”

“Mhm. So so much.”

“Okay,” he mumbled wetly.

He gave himself a few seconds to breathe in the moment and she let him, understanding that as much as this meant to her, it meant a whole lot to him too. After mentally patting himself on the back a couple of times, he rose back again onto his forearms and nodded once, like he was convincing himself that he wouldn’t ruin anything by charging forward. After all, it looked like she had been waiting for him at the next pit stop once more.

“Okay, we’re gonna do this, yeah? You ready?” he asked, mouth pulling into half a smile.

“Yeah. You might have to, like, have some patience with me. Because I want this, I swear I do, but I’m really nervous.”

“I’m nervous too,” he said, filled with easy excitement. “Let’s, uh, let’s get ready for bed first, okay? And we can see where it goes from there?”

“Yeah, okay,” she agreed.

There was palpable electricity around them as they collected themselves for the night. While Dottie was in the bathroom, Eddie took his time straightening the living room for when Wayne came home, not wanting a repeat from the awkward talk they’d had with him a few weeks back. He didn’t want to disappoint his old man; he really had taught him better than that. When she was done and it was his turn to brush his teeth, she waited for him right next to the light switch, and once he returned to her, they moved together hand in hand from the darkened area to his cozy bedroom, self-contained mess on every corner welcoming them further in.

“Do, uh,” Eddie said as he clicked his door closed. “Do you want the lights on or off?”

“Off, I think,” Dottie replied, chewing anxiously on her nail again. “But maybe we could open the curtain a little bit? I think that’d be good.”

Once the room was sufficiently shrouded in darkness and their eyes had adjusted to the pouring moonlight, Eddie suddenly remembered something of vital importance he had tucked away in one of his drawers. Dottie watched him from where she was sitting on the corner of his bed; he moved around old shirts and socks until he found what he had been looking for. Sheepishly, he turned to her and held a little blue box, almost identical to the one they’d thrown out when they’d cleaned his room all those months earlier.

“Figured this would come in handy one day,” he scratched his neck with a sorry grin on his face. “I promise I checked the expiry date on these before I got them.”

“Yeah, that’s, that’s kinda very important,” she laughed at how ridiculously bashful they were being. “Y-you wanna get in now?”

“Sure!”

Eddie threw the newly purchased box of condoms onto his bedside table to find later if he happened to need them and got under the covers, lifting them up for her to get in as well. They lay there for a few seconds, turned onto their sides so they could see each other but neither moved. Feeling very goofy because of how much they were tiptoeing around the whole thing, he reached out across the bed until his fingertips found her arm, gently pulling her closer.

“Come ‘ere,” he whispered, tucking her into his side like he’d done so many times before and was sure he’d do many more times in the future.

“I love you,” she said, between soft kisses.

“I love you,” he replied.

Summer nights at the Munson trailer had never been Eddie’s favorite, at least not until now. He didn’t care anymore about the climbing temperatures and the fact that they didn’t have a functioning aircon, he couldn’t find it in himself to give two shits about the way the neighbor’s dog barked all fucking night, and how the cicadas never stopped singing their song until the sun was out in the sky again. How could he, when there was a literal miracle happening right inside his own bedroom?

As the two lost teens found themselves in each other, a dream grew underneath their shared bed: flowers fed with love blossomed in the humble garden of an imaginary fixer-upper in a quiet, yet pleasantly quirky neighborhood. There was a dog basking in the sun in the backyard, and a swing in the front porch with hand-sewn cushions on it. And in the imaginary foyer of the imaginary house, on the imaginary entrance table right below the imaginary frames that held pictures of moments that hadn’t happened yet, sat a shared bowl of rusty keys from long forgotten padlocks that neither owner knew where they were anymore, the keys not belonging to one or other, but to both of them at the same time.

taglist: @munsonology @kurdtbean @every1lovesanunderdog @eg-dr3amer3 @oneforthemunny @munsons-queen

[frankenstein-ate-my-left-shoe]

@steddiemas Day 6 - Baking & Cookie Decorating

pairing: pre-steddie | word count: 1,911 | rated: G

A couple days later finds Eddie on his way to Steve’s house at the early as fuck hour of 8:30am

“AARrugh–fuuck!” he curses again, trying to stifle down another cracking yawn, “It should be illegal to be up this early.”

“You mean the normal time people get up?”

“No, normal is lunchtime. Realistic is two.”

“God, you’re such a loser.”

“And yet you still hang out with me.”

“Uh, no. I hang out with Steve and El and Lucas and sometimes Dustin. You’re just there by association.”

“Ouch Red, that hurts my soul.” He winces dramatically 

“What soul?”

Eddie grins at her, “Touché, Maxine”

Her tiny, pointy knuckles meet his bicep as he pulls Bessie into the Harringtons’ driveway.

They’re having a pre-thanksgiving dinner with the party before they all have actual Thanksgiving with each of their families, and Max insisted on coming over early to help Steve with preparations.

“If we don’t go help, he’s going to do it all by himself you know.”

“Robin will be there, I’m sure.”

“Yeah, he’s gonna do everything by himself. You know Robin is moral support at best.”

“And what are we gonna be, huh? You think I’m any better?”

She had huffed at that. “We’re going, Munson.”

So, here they are. Like Eddie suspected, as soon as they breach the front door, Robin is visible on one of the stools at the island, sleep rumpled and a mug in hand, and Steve is standing at the stove already.

“Good ‘morrow to you, Lord and Lady Buckley,” Eddie bellows, startling them both, “Myself and the young Miss Mayfield have traveled far to be with you on this momentous day, and to offer to you our services.” he gives them a dramatic bow, glancing up through his lashes.

Steve is grinning, Robin has collapsed forward onto the counter in front of her, Max is groaning. 

He stands straight again, “We may only be a couple of lowly peasants in your Kingdom, but the call to help was unavoidable.”

“Eddie did not want to come help, lemme make that clear.”

“Shut up, Max”

“You shut up, liar–”

“Okay, okay!” Steve laughs, interrupting them, “Many thanks to you both for making the trip; your help will be greatly appreciated.”

Eddie’s stomach goes soupy, he loves when Steve plays along.

“So, what can we do?” he asks, clapping his hands once and rubbing his palms together like he’s itching to get started.

“Well, it is still pretty early (“I told  you.”, “Shut up, Eddie.”), so right now you can help by telling me how you like your eggs.”

The turkey goes into the oven halfway through breakfast, Steve having prepped it last night, so Steve starts to cipher out what else he needs to make.

“Dustin said that Claudia was making a pumpkin pie for us, so we’re set there, I’m making the sweet potato casserole, Lucas said that his mom is sending over a pan of greens with him and Erica, Robin has the stuffing covered–”

“I make a mean can of Stovetop.” Robin cuts in from the sink where she’s washing the few dishes from breakfast.

“Pretty much everyone else is bringing something…” Steve looks lost for a moment, then his expression turns tense, that crease between his brows cuts deep into his skin.

Max must see this too because she says, “What about cookies?”

“Cookies?”

“Yeah, like the sugar cookies you made everyone a tin of last year?” “You made everyone sugar cookies?? Why wasn’t I given any?” Steve rolls his eyes, “‘Cause last year you were just Eddie “The Freak” Munson,”

“Hey–I resent that,” Eddie pokes Steve in the chest, “I’m still Eddie “The Freak” Munson, thank you very much.” “Many apologies, Your Freak-ness, how ever shall I make it up to you.” His tone is sarcastic, but the words make a whole matter of unsavory retorts gather on Eddie’s tongue.

“C’mon Steve, I want those damn cookies!” Max demands, smacking a palm onto the counter to really sell it.

“Hey! Language.” 

“I also want some of those damn cookies.” Robin agrees.

“Yeah c’mon Stevie, I didn’t get to have any last year and now I’m curious.” “Dude, they’re the best cookies ever. I hate that he only makes them once a year.”

“Okay, okay, fine! Lemme make sure I have everything I need.”

He does, so he gets to work as requested demanded, though he does send Max and Robin (with her newly acquired license) to the store for powdered sugar. “For the frosting..I’m sure you want frosting on these, right?”

Eddie sticks close after they leave, watching Steve work and passing him ingredients.

At one point, Eddie scoops up a cup of flour for him, only to have Steve wrap his hand over his on the handle of the cup and start to stir the flour in it with a fork.

“Uh, do you always need to stir your flour before putting it in?” Is that a thing? Eddie has never done that, even within the few times he’s ever actually baked something before.

“You do if the person scooping packs it into the cup like this.” Steve teases, spinning the fork around in his hand to scrape the now-overflowing heap of flour off the top of the measuring cup and back into the bag with the handle. “Flour doesn’t get packed down to measure, fluffy and loose measurements only.” Steve pulls Eddie’s hand forward and upends the cup over the mixing bowl. 

Eddie’s mouth feels like it’s coated in flour.

“There! Perfect. I’ll need another cup just like that one.” Steve smiles and passes the fork to him.

He lets Eddie's hand go and turns back to the bowl, mixing the flour in with one of those rubber scraping spatulas instead of using the electric beater he’d used for the eggs and sugar.

“So,” Eddie re-wets the inside of his mouth so he can talk correctly, “Why do you only make these once a year?” He carefully scoops up another helping of flour.

“They’re usually Christmas cookies and I– aw shit.”

“What?”

“I don’t have any non-Christmas themed cookie cutters.”

Eddie immediately thinks back to one of the last Christmases he had with his mom. Ouch…damn it. 

He gulps down the lump in his throat. “Do you have any empties?”

Eddie can feel Steve watching him as he works, carefully cutting the tops and bottoms off a good sized bag of empty soda and beer cans over the sink. He cuts the new aluminum rectangles in half lengthwise and sets the strips aside.

“You’ve made these before?”

“Yep! Easier to make your own than buy them, y’know?”

Steve chuckles, “Yeah, that makes sense.”

“My mom liked to make new ones every year, so I have a lot of practice doing this,” Eddie pushes on, picking up a strip of metal and folds it in half lengthwise. “We’ll need some tape for the open side, but basically you fold it like this, shape it however you want, and fold the ends over each other to keep them closed.”

He demonstrates, making a messy heart shape pretty quickly. “You can link more than one together if you want, too. Make bigger ones…Ta da!” He shows off the ‘finished’ shape.

“Sweet!”

By the time Robin and Max return, Eddie’s got a pile of aluminum strips ready to go, and Steve’s done with the dough.

“Perfect timing, ladies, come help us make cookie cutters.”

Max pulls up a stool immediately, grabbing a couple of the metal strips, but Robin huffs. “Aw, what? We have to make the cookie cutters first? I thought I’d come home to a house full of cookies, Steve.”

“The dough has to chill in the fridge for an hour, and we don’t have any Thanksgiving themed ones.” Steve says, rolling his eyes at her. “Also, you weren’t even gone that long!”

Robin pulls up a stool, “Excuses, Steven.”

Turns out, there’s not that many shapes associated with turkey day, so after the obligatory pumpkin shape, and a surprisingly well-shaped turkey-looking blob, they make whatever else they feel like.

Robin uses a ruler she found in a drawer to fold some ridges into a circle shape, “It’s a pie, obviously.”, Steve uses a few strips to make what he says is an elephant, “Yeah, an elephant. These are the two ears and this is the trunk.”, Max uses two of the strips to make some sort of flower shape with five pointy petals, “A…poinsettia?” Eddie asks; “A demogorgon.” Steve and Max say at the same time. Ah., and Eddie spends his time linking a good few together to make the Hellfire demon. 

“I hope this doesn’t get all blob-y.”

Steve looks over at his creation, “It shouldn’t, the dough holds up pretty well when it’s baked; that’s why you let it chill for a bit.”

He stands then, retrieving the saran-wrapped hunk of dough from the fridge and gets to work rolling it out.

Eddie watches the muscles in his arms bunch and pull, and, like a sap, thinks about how they’d feel wrapped around him. He likes hugs, okay? Sue him.

The four of them cut batch after batch after batch of cookies (each of them sneaking bites of the dough as they do), and by time they are baked and fully cooled, the sweet potatoes are in the oven, the stuffing is sitting done on the stove, there’s a sheet of rolls waiting to go in after the casserole, the others start to show up.

“Oh sweet, cookies!” Dustin’s finger immediately dunks into the bowl of frosting Steve just finished whipping up.

“Hey! Hands off, asshole, I still need to color some of that.

Steve passes Eddie a bowl of the stuff, a couple of drops of food coloring sitting on top. “Mix that up, will you?” I’m making the orange, that’s yellow.”

Eddie gives him a mock salute, “You got it boss.”

“Henderson, grab the sprinkles, you’re helping with these.”

The island is a disaster by the time they are done frosting the cookies. There’s colored sugar everywhere, loose M&Ms, broken pretzels, and there’s even a glob of red frosting hanging precariously from the underside of one of the far cabinet doors (somehow).

Each of the new arrivals grab up a couple of the cookies to decorate once they get in, adding their own goofy-looking additions to the heap.

Mike and Nancy are the last to arrive, toting a huge bowl of fluffy mashed potatoes, and they dig into the turkey soon after. 

They eat and eat and eat, laughing and eating some more, that by the time anyone gets around to the cookies, the very outside of their frosting has hardened to a crust and the inside is still soft and sugary.

“Oh my god, Steve.” Eddie moans, “This is the best cookie I’ve ever tasted.”

Steve’s face flushes pink, but he smiles wide. “I’m glad you like them, Eds.”

“I need to take some home to Wayne.”

Steve passes him a tupperware container of their creations as he’s leaving, along with an index card with Steve’s distinct handwriting is scrawled across it; the recipe for the cookies.

Eddie gets home that night just before Wayne heads in for his shift. “Y’have a good day, son?” he asks, plucking out one of the cookies from the container Eddie holds open for him as they pass each other in the doorway.

He smiles wide, “Very..”

other parts! Pt. 1 (Day 1) | Pt. 2 (Day 2) | Pt. 3 (Day 5) | Pt. 4 (Day 6) [YOU ARE HERE] | Pt. 5 (Day 7) | Pt. 6 (Day 11) | Pt. 7 (Day 13) | Pt. 8 (Day 18) | Pt. 9 (Day 21) | Pt. 10 (Day 25) also on AO3! this year

[miraculousmultifan]

middle names

“C’mon man, just a taste!” Dustin pleaded, trying to reach around Steve and swipe his finger into the bowl of brownie batter.

Steve hip-checked Dustin out of the way with a roll of his eyes. “Get your grubby little fingers away, dude. You’re going to get salmonella.”

“Worth it!” Dustin crowed, grinning at the realization that they had started drawing a crowd of their friends.

“Steve!” Mike whined petulantly. “You said I could lick the spatula when you were done.”

Huffing, Steve waved the spatula he was holding like a weapon, one hand on his hip. “Well, if you shitheads keep bothering me, I’ll never be done.”

While he was distracted, Dustin leaned forward as quickly as he could and licked a long strip of the brownie batter off of the rubber. Cackling, he bounced away when Steve tried to chase after him.

“Dustin Cla-” Steve started, and Dustin immediately knew what was about to come out of his mouth.

“Wait, wait, wait! Steve, let’s talk about this. You don’t need to full name me.”

With a terrifying smirk, Erica sidled up next to Dustin. “No, no. Let’s hear it. I think I heard a middle name in there…”

“Middle name?” El asked, tilting her head to the side. “What is that?”

“It’s just like an extra name your parents give you that goes in between your first and last name,” Lucas explained gently. “Like yours could be Eleven Jane Hopper!”

Creeping behind everyone, Dustin grabbed a spoon and dipped it into the bowl. Unfortunately, his back was turned, so he didn’t see Steve twisting his hand towel to whip Dustin’s back.

“Dustin Clarence Henderson, you get away from that bowl or so help me!”

The room erupted into laughter as Dustin’s cheeks turned bright red. “Steve! That was private information!

Eddie snorted. “Your middle name is Clarence? Man, did your parents want you to be bullied?”

Affronted, Dustin stammered, “Oh, yeah? Well, uh… Mike’s middle name is Francis!”

“Dude!” Mike groaned. “Nancy’s middle name is Grace.”

“Jonathan’s middle name is Leonard,” Nancy added, trying to hide a tiny smirk.

Jonathan looked around the room. “Will’s middle name is Peter.”

“Um…” Will furrowed his eyebrows. “Lucas’s is Charles?”

“Erica’s is Joy!”

Crossing her arms in front of her chest, Erica snarked sassily, “Don’t play that game with me, Lucas. I have more dirt on you than you could ever imagine.” Then she smirked. “And Max’s middle name is Julia.”

“Hang on, hang on…” Max waved her hands with a frown, effectively silencing everyone. Then she smirked. “I think we’re skipping over the fact that Mike’s middle name is Francis! Are you kidding me? That’s almost as bad as Clarence.”

“Shut it, Mayfield.”

--

inspired by gaten saying in an interview that he gave dustin the middle name clarence, so i decided to take that and run with it. thank you gaten.