#hint of elmax

[lucassinclaer-archive]

max doesn't have a bad dynamic on the show. lucas? believable teenage romance and somehow still smth so profound and tender. cutest & funniest. facilitate growth in each other and look at each other with those big eyes... dustin? better off as friends done right. no duo funnier. mike? two cats hissing at each other. foils due to their similarities. they get the same haircut at least once in their lives. billy? devastating exploration of the vicious cycle of abuse and grief that blooms, still, after everything. el? pov you're like the only female peer around and you have some Opinions and you're immediately ready to support whatever move she makes but also you're a teenager not a therapist so you do the best you can to be a friend, to help her be her own person. the abiding bond you develop along the way is probably just collateral. steve? there is no one easier to steamroll than some only child who's stuck with you. nancy? teaches felonies, won't stop until you're safe but understands more than anyone the need to put yourself in harm's way to say the buck stops with me.

can just put that girl in a room with any other character and there will be something so compelling about it.

[brbsoulnomming]

Tell Me Sweet Little Lies Part 23

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | AO3

-----

They're on the front page for about a week.

They run the stories of Hopper and Henry Creel simultaneously - honestly, Eddie kind of thinks the fact that Hopper was presumed dead and is now back makes it easier for people to believe a previously assumed dead guy is the top suspect for the murders.

Eddie gets barely a mention clearing him of all charges. There's a couple of articles about him and Steve fighting off Henry Creel, but the focus is more on Steve than anything else.

Steve bitches about it, about how they did the same thing after Starcourt, but Eddie's kind of glad his name isn't plastered all over the place anymore.

He and Steve are down in the kitchen scrounging up celebratory snacks and beers - Steve has a clean bill of health, and Eddie's stitches are coming out in a few days - when the phone rings.

"Harrington residence, this is Steve speaking," he greets.

Eddie barely has time to decide he's absolutely going to tease him about that later when the response comes - loud enough for him to hear it.

"Steven, my boy!" the voice booms, spirited and affable.

Steve closes his eyes, the muscles in his jaw tightening. "Hi, Dad."

"We just heard the news!" Steve's father says. "Why didn't you call to tell us? Did the earthquake damage anything?"

Part of Eddie thinks he should leave. Or at least back away, so he can't hear everything that's being said - but the other part of him thinks that Steve'd push him away if he didn't want him here, and with how tense Steve's gone next to him, Eddie can't bring himself to pull away.

"The house is fine," Steve says. "Loch Nora didn't get hit at all."

"Good, good," Mr. Harrington says. "Your mother hears you and Rachel have been volunteering with the relief efforts?"

Eddie didn't think it was possible, but Steve goes even stiffer.

"Robin," he corrects, his tone smooth and entirely void of inflection. "Yes, we've been coordinating donations."

"That's what I want to hear!" There's a sound like a loud clap. "I'm glad to see you're taking this seriously. You had a lot of ground to make up for, but it seems giving you a dose of reality has paid off. We'll be able to have some real talks about your future soon. What? Oh, your mother wants to talk to you."

There's a shuffling noise, then a quieter and much less friendly voice greets, "Steven."

"Hey Mom," Steve's posture relaxes a little. "I told Dad we made it out okay."

There's some kind of response, but Steve's mom is too quiet for Eddie to make it out.

"No, of course I didn't file charges. I knew you'd want to handle it if anything else happened." A pause. "Yes, that Carver. Mom, it's not - yeah. Yeah, okay. No, it's just him. I think he's just mad that people listened to me and not him. Yeah, I - all right. Bye."

He hangs up the phone, leaning in with one arm braced against the wall, a long line of tension.

"Steve?" Eddie says quietly.

Steve turns to face him, giving a little crooked smile. "You can ask if you want. I don't mind you and Robin knowing. It's… easier sometimes, if she expects it, and it's probably the same with you."

Eddie aches a little. "What was your dad talking about? What ground to make up for?"

Steve makes a face. "I did a lot of damage to the Harrington image the last bit of high school, you know. Stopped caring about my reputation, didn't get accepted into any of the colleges they wanted me to go to, kept getting into fights."

"But that wasn't - did they even ask you what actually happened?" Eddie asks.

"They don't care what actually happened," Steve replies. "Just what it looked like. Like I said, it's all about appearances with them. My dad's the main reason I worked at Scoops instead of being a lifeguard again last summer - he says it's because I needed a real life experience, learn what it means to work at the bottom, but he was just pissy and trying to humiliate me. He talks a big game about working hard, but all he really cares about is how I make them look. Now that I've gotten good press twice, he's happy again."

Eddie's mouth opens, then closes, then opens again. "He didn't even ask if you were okay."

Steve shrugs. "I looked fine in the papers."

Right.

Appearances.

"Will you be mad at me if I punch your dad if I ever see him?" Eddie asks.

Steve laughs, a surprised little sound like he's startled by it. "No," he says. "But only if I get to punch yours for leaving you."

Oh.

If Eddie was thinking about it, he'd have moved slowly, making sure to telegraph what he was doing so he didn't startle Steve, but he reacts on instinct and pulls Steve into a hug.

Steve doesn't even flinch at the sudden motion. He just melts into it, letting Eddie wrap him up and hold him tightly. His arms come up to cross over Eddie's shoulder blades, the placement automatically mindful of his injuries in the way only someone who's bandaged them multiple times could be.

"Sometimes I wish they just wouldn't call at all," Steve admits, face buried in Eddie's neck. It comes out in a rush, like he hadn't really thought about it before he said it, but he's getting it out anyway. "That they'd just cut me out of their life, instead of stringing me along."

"Fuck them," Eddie says. "I've got you."

He can hear Steve swallow, and Steve hugs him tighter.

They stay like that for a long while, until Eddie finally pulls back.

"Hey," he says softly. "I'll get the food and stuff. Go upstairs and see Robin."

Steve looks uncertain. "You sure?"

Eddie hugs him one more time. "You've got two soulmates," he murmurs. "Let us take care of you a little, okay?"

Steve squeezes him tight, then lets go with a nod before heading upstairs.

Eddie dithers in the kitchen for a bit, taking an extra long time. Whatever his complicated feelings are, it doesn't bother him at all to give Steve and Robin some space like this.

They're talking when he comes back, which isn't a surprise, and he hears his own name as he gets closer to the bedroom. Eddie pauses, even though he shouldn't, listening through the cracked door. He'll feel worse about it later, probably, but right now the masochistic side of him can't resist the urge to know what they're saying about him.

"I want him so much, Robs," he hears Steve saying, low and soft like he's trying to be quiet.

"I know," Robin replies, her tone somehow managing to be both gentle and snarky at the same time. "It's kind of pathetic."

Steve lets out a muffled groan. "Not helping. I don't exactly have the greatest track record at being able to get over people! I thought, with my soulmate-"

He cuts off, and Eddie can't help the bubbling anger that springs up. Steve thought? Has he stopped for one second to think about how Eddie might feel, only ever having a platonic soulmate? Wanting him just as bad and not being able to have him, not being able to have anyone?

"-someone else?" Robin is saying, like she's reading his thoughts, and Eddie has to hold his breath as he makes sure he hadn't accidentally said that outloud.

"I don't want anyone else," Steve says miserably. "Just him. I think - I think it's always going to be him. Fuck, why does this have to be so complicated?"

There's a heavy, thick silence, and Eddie's anger simmers and crackles under his skin, the way it always does when there's a hefty mixing of guilt in it.

"Do you think-" Robin starts, then stops. "Do you wish-" She stops again, voice thick with emotion. "Would it be easier if we-"

"No," Steve says, cutting her off at the same time that Eddie realizes what she's probably trying to bring herself to ask.

There's the muffled sound of shuffling, quiet hitching breaths - probably the motions of Steve trying to reassure one of his soulmates that he wants her, and he imagines him gathering her close, pressing soft kisses anywhere he can reach, cutting off anything she tries to say with a deeper, fiercer kiss.

Eddie bites the inside of his cheek so hard he tastes copper to keep himself from making some kind of sound to give himself away. He hates that he doesn't know what he's feeling - hates that he thinks he's jealous of Robin just as much as he doesn't feel jealous of her, not really. He's jealous of the images he conjures when he thinks about them together, but he's never actually jealous when he's with them, when he watches them.

That reminder makes him shift, peeking through the cracked door so he can see them. They're sitting facing each other, legs all tangled together. One of Steve's hands is covering Robin's heart, and the other is curled around one of Robin's hands, pinning it to his chest over his own heart, and their foreheads are pressed together.

Something in Eddie settles in a way he can't explain, all thoughts of jealousy gone.

"There's no me without you," Steve is saying. "You're a part of me, Robs, I can't do this without either of you."

She says something too muffled for Eddie to make out.

"I'm happy. I really am, I promise. I love you, I love us, exactly the way we are. And with Eddie-"

Eddie leans forward, too desperate to know what he's going to say to worry about being caught.

"I don't need anything else other than just him. However I can have him. If it's never romantic, if this is us forever - it doesn't matter, not really. I just need you and him, and the kids, and I'm good."

There's silence, the two of them just completely wrapped up in each other, and fuck, Eddie - he thinks you know what, if this is it, if what he has is Steve and Robin and the kids forever, then he's good, too.

"I love you, Robin Buckley," Steve says. "In a way I never realized was possible, until you and that dumb kid showed up in my life and taught me that you don't have to do anything to earn someone's love. That sometimes, it's just unconditional."

Steve was sixteen when he fought his first demogorgon, Eddie remembers that. Which means he couldn't have been any younger than that when he started really spending any time with Dustin or Robin, which means - the same thing that Eddie went through when he first moved in with Uncle Wayne, the thing that was so impossible for him to believe at twelve, Steve wasn't shown until he was probably seventeen.

Fuck, his heart aches.

"Does Henderson know he was your first true love?" Robin asks, her voice a little wet, but obviously trying to make things a little lighter.

Steve laughs, the sound just a bit thick. "No, and he'd be insufferable if I told him."

There's the faint sting of a new lie being written on the back of his calf, and the second he registers it, he hears Robin's startled laughter. Eddie pulls back from the door, sucking in a deep breath and letting it out, trying to get himself back under control.

"Oh my God, Steve, you did tell him! When?"

He can hear Steve sputtering and deflecting, the sound of Robin smacking him and Steve scrambling - probably trying to avoid them - and if there was ever going to be a good time to announce his return after shamelessly listening in for too long, now is probably it.

Eddie pushes open the door, six pack under one arm and bags of popcorn and chips under the other as he shoots a hopefully only slightly manic grin at them. "What's Steve lying about now?"

"Nothing!" Steve says too quickly.

Sloppy, for him, considering Eddie knows how good Steve usually is at using sarcasm or half truths to avoid telling lies, so Eddie tosses the bag of popcorn at him.

He catches it easily, of course, but it means he's now vulnerable to Robin's attacks, and he has to swerve to avoid another slap to his shoulder.

"Steve's trying to pretend like we both didn't get that lie, too," Robin says.

Steve groans. "Fine, Jesus. It was back when we were waiting at the camper, and Dustin was upset. I told him that he was the first person who was ever just - there, in my life because he wanted to be, even after he didn't need me to fight demodogs. No one could ever replace him."

"You're such a sap, Steve," Eddie teases him as he comes to sit next to him and Robin.

"Shut up," Steve grumbles. "That's it, I'm picking the movie."

—

The next day, Lucas and Max swing by. Steve hauls a basketball stand out of the garage and sets it up in the driveway, and Eddie sits at the kitchen table, eating a bologna sandwich while he watches them play.

It's safer inside, where there's no one to see if he gets affected by Steve's tank top and shorts.

Or at least, he thought it was safer inside.

"Do you love Steve?" Max asks, plopping down beside him.

Eddie chokes on his Coke, and she stares at him unsympathetically until he manages to breathe again.

"He's my soulmate, so." Eddie shrugs.

Max gives him an unimpressed look, and yeah, okay, he figures they both know soulmates aren't a guarantee of anything. Eddie's parents were soulmates, after all, loved each other more than anything else in this world, and that still hadn't been enough.

"I wanted him to be my soulmate before I knew it was him," he admits, because that's a more true answer without actually having to say yes or no. "Nothing's happened since to change that."

She gets this look on her face like she's trying to decide if that's an acceptable response. After a moment, she rests her chin on her knees, staring out the window, and Eddie figures he's in the clear.

"Steve has two soulmates," she says after a while. "You don't. Doesn't that make you feel - I don't know, like you aren't enough?"

"Jesus Christ, Red, you're not pulling any punches today, are you?" Eddie swears.

He doesn't actually want to have this conversation. It's not something he's completely sorted out on his own, yet, even though he's done a lot of thinking on it, and he's tempted to tell her to mind her own business.

But she won't look at him, and he knows why she's asking. She's not talking about him and Steve and Robin, not really.

He thinks about telling her something standard about soulmates, or maybe even the advice that his uncle gave him, but it doesn't feel right.

"It's not what I always imagined," Eddie admits slowly.

Max doesn't say anything, but he watches the way she starts to unwind a little, how she doesn't hold herself so stiff, tilts a little to actually listen to what he's saying.

"You know Steve and I talked to each other when we were younger. We thought the same way about a lot of stuff, and I had this idea in my head that he was some little outcast like me, in another small town somewhere out there, that we'd move to a big city and find each other. But then we stopped talking."

"How come?" Max asks, looking caught up despite herself.

Eddie grins at her, wide and self depreciating. "I found out he was probably some rich, popular jerk, and decided I hated him."

And there's that unimpressed look again.

"Yeah, yeah," Eddie grumbles. "Let's just say there might be some truth to not talking with your soulmate before you actually meet them. Point is, for almost five years, I hated my soulmate. Thought the best I could hope for was that we'd meet when we were thirty and ancient, and maybe then he would have changed. Then a little while ago, I met Steve."

Max's brows furrow. "You met Steve way before that."

"Nah," he says. "I knew of Steve. I had a lot of assumptions about him, knew what I thought he was, but I didn't know the real Steve. That Steve I met when he helped explain all of this to me and didn't make me feel stupid for not picking up some of it right away, even after I held a broken bottle to his throat."

She snorts, but looks like she's considering that. "I met him when he was putting himself between me, Lucas, and Dustin and a hoard of demodogs, a couple of hours after calling them dickheads and me some random girl."

Eddie salutes her with his can of Coke, half in understanding and half to cover the way his heart wants to melt again. "That Steve was nothing like I imagined my soulmate to be, when I was daydreaming about him or hating him. But I knew I didn't want anyone else, and Steve having another soulmate doesn't change that. I don't think it makes what he feels for me any less than what I feel for him, and I don't think it means I'm less important to him than he is to me."

Max frowns. "Really, or are you just saying that?"

"Really," Eddie says, though he hadn't actually been sure it was true until he heard himself say it. "I'm not saying it's not hard sometimes. And sometimes I get in my head about it. But I wouldn't change it. Steve wouldn't be the same without Robin, you know? He wouldn't be the Steve that made me want him to be my soulmate so bad."

There's a long moment of silence. Then, "Would you be saying that if both of his soulmates were romantic?"

Eddie's glad he stopped drinking, because he knows he would have choked again. For a split second, she wonders if she's picked up on - but no, that still isn't what this about. "Are both of yours romantic?"

Her jaw juts forward, arms hugging tighter around her knees. "What if they were?"

Fuck, he doesn't know what to say to that. "It's okay to like both guys and girls," he says, because he feels like that's the most important bit. "I do. I mean, mostly guys, but sometimes girls."

Her grip loosens a little, but she still doesn't say anything.

"It sounds like maybe I'm not the one you should be talking to about that," he says carefully.

She scowls. "I talked to Steve already."

Right, of course she did.

"What did Steve say?"

"Steve said he thinks the line between platonic and romantic soulmates isn't as straightforward as people like to pretend it is. That sometimes what you might think should be romantic is actually platonic, and sometimes what you think should be platonic is romantic, and sometimes there's going to be things that blur the lines and you don't really know which one it is. He said it was okay to have two platonic or two romantic or one of each or, like, any combination." She makes a face here, like she's not entirely sure what he meant by any combination - or like she was sure, and didn't need that much detail. "That as long as everyone was communicating, it was okay to do whatever worked for us."

Eddie swallows. "Steve sounds pretty smart."

Max rolls her eyes. "He has his moments."

"So… are you communicating with Lucas and El?" he asks.

She picks at a rip in her jeans. "I talked to Lucas."

He waits, but it seems like that's all he's going to get. He starts to ask what Lucas said, but… he gets the feeling that it's not necessarily about what he said or not.

"But it's Lucas," Eddie says. "And you wanted to hear how someone else in a familiar situation felt."

Eddie gets that familiar, itchy feeling that he does when he wants to run, and he only barely resists the urge to bounce his leg up and down. It's not that he wants to run from Max, or even from this conversation, it's just - it's starting to make him think about things, and he really, really doesn't want an audience for this. He wants to lock himself in a room and pace, listen to some music, maybe scribble out his thoughts, something to get his hands moving and his brain in some kind of order -

"Even if Steve wanted both of us romantically," he says, knowing it's close enough that it's not a lie. "I would still rather be his soulmate than anyone else."

Max looks at him with narrowed eyes for a long moment. "I'm gonna ask Steve if you lied about that."

Eddie fixes her with an unimpressed look right back. "You think I'd do that to him?"

"You better not." There's an edge of menace in her tone, but she lets it go, so Eddie figures she doesn't really think he'd lie about something like that knowing it would be etched on Steve's skin forever.

Silence stretches between them, and Eddie follows her gaze out the window, watching Steve and Lucas playing basketball.

"I've put him through so much already," Max says, so quietly that he can barely hear it.

Fuck, Eddie is so fucking soft for these kids.

"You have not," Eddie says immediately. "You haven't done a goddamn thing, Red. Both of you have already been through so much, and it's not because of something either of you did. It's fucking Hawkins."

She doesn't look convinced, so Eddie pushes his shoulder against hers.

"Lucas is smart. He's more emotionally intelligent than I am-" Max snorts at him, and he's reasonably sure he hears her mutter something along the lines of like that's hard, but he ignores her. "He knows what he can take and what he can't. All you have to do is believe him when he tells you it."

She's quiet for a moment, looking contemplative. Then she asks, "Does that work for you?"

Right, yeah, okay, he deserved that one. He thinks about deflecting, but -

"I'm trying," he admits quietly. "What do you think, huh, you gonna let me beat you there or are we gonna do this together?"

Max glances out the window again, then turns to look back at him, her chin jutting out. "Steve loves too much, and he gets it thrown back at him too often. I don't think he really believes that we love him as much as he loves us, even though we do."

She says it like a threat, like she's saying if you tell him I said that I will kill you or maybe if you hurt him I will kill you. Either way, he'd be dead.

"I'll talk to Lucas and El, and you make sure you don't disappoint him."

Goddamn if that doesn't stab right to the heart of him, lodging itself beneath his ribcage and sticking right into the parts that'd already made him want to run from this conversation.

"Okay," he manages to get out, because he's not sure he'll survive any other answer.

Max nods. "Good talk," she tells him, and then she pushes herself up and she's gone.

Eddie stays there, mulling all of that over. He doesn't think she'd actually tell Steve anything they just talked about, nor does he think she really has any idea that Steve had asked him to make their bond romantic and he'd turned him down. Honestly, Eddie could probably get away with patting himself on the back for actually managing to give some decent advice and be the person she'd needed him to be for just a little while, then go on being a very devoted platonic soulmate for Steve.

Except even if Max doesn't really know, Eddie does. And now Eddie's thinking about things he doesn't want to, and wondering how much of a hypocrite some of the advice that he gave her makes him, and -

"Hey," Lucas says, and Eddie yelps.

Lucas raises his eyebrows at him.

"Jesus Christ, don't do that," Eddie bitches.

There's a little smirk, but fortunately, Lucas doesn't actually comment on it. "You talk to Max?" he asks instead.

"Yeah," Eddie replies, narrowing his eyes at him.

Lucas lights up, though, his whole face practically beaming with his smile. "Good. I figured it'd help her to hear that your soulmate cares about you no matter what from someone who wasn't me."

Eddie raises one eyebrow. "How do you know that's what I said?"

Lucas rolls his eyes. "Because you're Steve's soulmate. If that wasn't the way you felt, Robin would know, and she'd have already murdered you."

Eddie considers that. "Okay, fair."

Lucas makes his way over to the fridge, yanking it open and standing in front of it as he peers in. "So what did you tell her?"

Eddie sits back, waiting until Lucas turns to look back at him so he can shoot him a wide, smug grin. "If she wants you to know, she'll tell you."

He gets a glare in return, but Lucas doesn't protest that, just leans back in to grab a pair of Gatorades from the fridge. He twists the top off of one, taking a long swallow before he shuts the door and starts back out of the kitchen, giving him a little nod as he passes.

"Hey, Lucas?" Eddie calls before he can leave.

Lucas pauses, looking quizzically at him.

"I'm guessing you talk to Steve like Max does, about all this." Eddie makes an exaggerated gesture between them and out the kitchen window, meant to loop all of them in together. "But, uh. You know. If you ever want a different perspective, from someone in kind of your position."

He motions to himself, then splays his hands out all ta-da.

Lucas hesitates, lingering in the middle of the kitchen before he seems to make a decision.

"I was kind of upset about it when I first found out Max's other soulmate was El," he admits. "It was right after Billy died, and their soulmate bond was new, and Max kept letting El in while she was shutting me out. And I was angry, and jealous, and then when El had to leave and Max kept pushing me away, I just kept thinking that if El was here Max wouldn't be by herself so much, that the wrong soulmate got to stay in Hawkins."

Lucas pauses, twisting the Gatorades in his hand, but Eddie gets the feeling it's a gathering his thoughts pause more than a waiting for Eddie to say something pause.

"Eventually I realized that El could help Max in a way that I couldn't, and that maybe that was the point. I started calling El a little, too, when the phone wasn't busy, and just - El was grieving, too. I didn't want to feel jealous over something that helped them both anymore. It's been good with El back, really good. I don't know if I like El like that, but if Max does-" he shrugs. "I guess I kind of already got over the jealousy bit. It doesn't really matter to me if they kiss while they're having sleepovers or not, as long as they don't exclude me."

Now it seems like a waiting for Eddie to say something pause, so he gives a soft little hum. "What do you do if you end up feeling excluded?"

Lucas blinks, like he wasn't expecting that question. "Uh. Well, before, I talked to my parents and sometimes to Steve or Robin or Dustin. It's hard talking to Mike or Will about it because they're not all that objective about El stuff. I don't… really know if I want to tell my parents about Max and El like that yet, so I guess… talk to Steve or Robin or Dustin." He pauses, then, more tentatively, "Or you?"

Fuck, these kids keep getting to him. "Or me," he agrees easily. "But you should probably also add talk to Max and El to that list."

Lucas makes a face, but doesn't disagree. "I don't think a lot of the others know about Max," he says instead. "Just me and Steve and Robin, and now you."

There's an edge to his voice, like he's pretty sure Eddie must be safe if Max told him, but he's ready to fight him about it anyway.

"Max knows about me, now, so we're even," Eddie replies, pleased that the effort he puts into making sure his voice sounds steady pays off.

"Yeah?" Lucas asks. "Who else knows?"

"Steve and Robin. And now Max and you," Eddie replies.

Lucas lights up a little. "Cool."

"Cool," Eddie echoes, even though he feels a little shaky from the fact that he's now said it twice today, which is double the amount of times he's ever said it before at all.

There's a comfortable silence for a moment.

"It's complicated, being in our position," Eddie says after a bit. "I think it's always going to be complicated. But if we let it - I think it could be really great, too. Most people only end up in pairs, but us? We get a whole damn party of interconnected soulmates."

"A party of soulmates," Lucas says thoughtfully, then grins. "Yeah, I like that."

"You're a good kid, Lucas," Eddie tells him, not sure if he really needs to hear it, but he still remembers the way it made him feel when Uncle Wayne said it.

Lucas ducks his head, looking a little pleased, even though he follows it up with a sidelong look. "Even though I'm kind of a jock?"

Eddie shrugs. "My soulmate is a whole jock. I guess that means I've got a little jock in me, too."

Lucas's expression shifts, turning mischievous, and suddenly he looks like the fifteen year old boy he is, and not a world-weary adult. It's nice, it's wonderful, Eddie loves to see it, except it makes him realize what he just said far, far too late to do anything about it.

In his defense, they were having a serious discussion, and -

Yeah, he's got nothing.

Maybe it'll be fine? Lucas is probably the most mature out of all of the boys, maybe -

"I don't know, man," Lucas says, slowly, like he's actually considering that. "We've all heard the rumors about Steve. I don't think it's something little you're gonna be dealing with."

Eddie gapes at him.

"I said you were mature," he bemoans, flinging his upper body over the top of the kitchen table just to make Lucas laugh harder. "I told Max you were emotionally intelligent! Begone from my sight!"

Lucas takes his Gatorades and leaves, still laughing at him.

—

"Max cornered me in the kitchen to threaten me today," Eddie says.

Steve snorts. "Of course she did. What about?"

Eddie shrugs, waiting for Steve to look at him so he can waggle his eyebrows at him. "She also threatened to kill me if I told you."

Steve shoves him, and Eddie falls back dramatically, sprawling out on the couch. He props himself up on his elbows to look at Steve, but he doesn't seem inclined to actually push him to reveal what he and Max talked about. Instead, Steve goes about shutting down for the night, checking to make sure all the windows and the sliding glass door are locked.

"Soulmate stuff," Eddie says. Or more like blurts out, before he can change his mind, to force himself to have to keep going. "She told me what you said about the line between platonic and romantic soulmates. Made me think about some things."

"Yeah?" Steve asks, stopping by the couch to look at him.

"Do you still want me, Steve?" Eddie asks, his heart in his throat.

He isn't prepared for Steve to shut down, for the way his face goes cold and hard and blank.

"Not cool, Eddie," Steve says, turning away and going back to the windows in the living room.

Eddie pushes himself up off the couch, then immediately doubts himself and sits back down. "Steve, what?"

Steve won't look at him, and he can hear the window locks rattling with the force that Steve's using to check them. "You're being a dick, man, come on. You can't ask me stuff like that."

"I-" he starts, then stops, his mind scrambling a little. Is he too late? Did Steve move on already, even though he told Robin that he wasn't going to? Is Eddie so easy to get over that even his fucking soulmate couldn't keep him? "What happened to it's always going to be him, huh?"

"Jesus Christ," Steve says, incredulous, and Eddie kind of wants to cry a little because he knows that Steve has started saying that more because of all the time they've spent together. "You were listening to me and Robin? What the fuck, man, you still think it's fair to throw that at me?"

"Fuck you, Steve, I know it wasn't a lie when you said that. Am I so fucking easy to just stop wanting, or are you that fucking fickle?"

"Eddie, goddamn, is this - were you testing me? Is this you lashing out at me again? Because I can't, okay, not about this, I can't-" he cuts off, one hand scrubbing over his face. "I told you, I can't."

Oh.

Oh fuck.

"Steve, no, I wasn't teasing, I - it was a real question."

Steve stills, pausing right by a window. The light of the moon catches on him, highlighting parts of him in pale silver while the rest of him is warmed from the soft yellow of the living room lamp. "Seriously?"

"Come on, Steve. I just picked a fight with you instead of asking what you meant, and you're surprised I'm not sure you still want me anymore?"

Eddie can hear Steve breathing out, then in, then back out again, watches as he lets some of the tension bleed out of his body. "I think I picked some of that fight right back. I'm sorry, I just - all right, let's go back, and I'll listen without making assumptions, okay?"

Yeah, okay, Eddie can do that.

"Max told me what you said," Eddie starts again. "And it made me think about how smart you are." He wishes Steve were closer, so he could see his face better, at the same time as he wishes he couldn't see it at all. "How brave you are. How when you know what you want, you go for it, how you fight to keep it, how you own up when you make a mistake, how you work so hard to make all this work."

This is Eddie trying to be brave, he thinks. Trying to go for what he wants, to accept that they're going to have to work at this, that he's probably going to get hurt, that he has to trust that Steve will be willing to work past whatever it is that springs up.

It takes him a little too long, though, because after a few moments, Steve gently prompts, "Eddie?"

"Do you still want me?" he asks again. He didn't mean to, but it comes out anyway, all small and tentative.

"Eds," Steve breathes out. "I'm always going to want you."

He loves too much, and he gets it thrown back at him too often, Max had said, and Eddie swallows down the urge to ask him if he means it, if he'll still mean it the next time Eddie picks a fight, or every time he's an ass.

"I'm always going to want you, too," Eddie says.

Steve's hands twitch, and he looks like he's waiting for something - for a lie to show up on his skin, Eddie realizes, and Eddie knows he's going to have to do better than that.

"I want you," he says again. "Steve, I want you. I'll take you any way I can get you, but I just - this is stupid, I'm stupid. I'm making us both miserable because I was scared."

He's not surprised that's what gets Steve moving, and he comes over to sit by him on the couch.

"You're not stupid," Steve replies. "Not for being scared."

Eddie shakes his head. "No, but I am for giving into it. So I might get hurt, so what? I'm already hurting, wanting you so bad and not getting to have you, knowing you'd probably let me kiss you and not letting myself go for it."

Steve's looking at him, eyes all sharp and intense, like he's really listening to Eddie's every word, and hell if it doesn't make him feel just a little bit drunk on it.

"Talking with Max made me realize that I trust you. I trust you, with my life, with - fucking everything. I trust you to work through this with me, to figure out what works for us."

Steve runs a hand over his jaw, going up to pinch the bridge of his nose. "Yeah?" he asks after a moment. "You really - you want to do this?"

"So fucking much," Eddie says.

Steve's whole face lights up in a smile, and he leans in, one hand resting on Eddie's knee. "That mean I can kiss you now?"

Eddie barely manages to get out a please before Steve's other hand is sliding over his jaw, slipping back to push his fingers into his hair and cup the side of his face. Steve holds him there as he kisses him, and it's-

It's not Eddie's first kiss. But it's his first kiss that's ever really meant anything, and the soft brush of Steve's lips against his makes his heart stutter in his chest.

Steve gives a little hum, low in his throat, and then he's tilting his head to get a better angle, and holy shit.

Eddie pushes forward eagerly, deepening the kiss until they're both panting for breath, and even then they don't pull away. Their foreheads press together, lips parted and just barely touching as they share the same air. His eyes have closed at some point, but now he opens them to find Steve looking back at him, and Eddie smiles.

"How long do you think until Robin notices we haven't come up?" he asks.

"I'm okay with figuring that out," Steve replies, closing the tiny bit of distance between them to kiss him again.

I've got a pretty good handle on the outline for the rest of this now, so I'd say we've got about four more parts left!

-----

Part 24

Tag list (always happy to add more): @vampireinthesun @koibug @estrellami-1 @mentalcyborg @allbimyself26 @questionablequeeries @the-s-is-silent @whimsicalwitchm @a-gae-af-racoon @tinyplanet95 @n0-1-important @velocitytimes2 @swimmingbirdrunningrock @newtstabber @jcmadgirl @roblingoblin285 @lexyvey @paperbackribs @goodolefashionedloverboi @evix-syne666 @raisedbylibrarians @stxrcrossed186 @nightmareglitter @greekgeek24 @starman-jpg @crazyhatlady86 @imfinereallyy @manda-panda-monium @deleataecount @prideandsensibility @chaoticvictorianspirit @maydillydally @disrespectedgoatman @scarlet-malfoy @i-less-than-three-you @hbyrde36 @hallucinatedjosten @dragonsandgayships @arepaconchocolate @g4ys0n @novelnovella @bisexualdisastersworld @ghostofyourvampiregf @scarletyeager @pettrichore @nerd-and-nervous @hiimlevi @queenie-ofthe-void @cinnamon-mushroomabomination

[astreinomane]

Okay, I just did a pickerwheel (in a website that I found out exists only now btw), first with Elmax and Lumax, and then with Elmax, Lumax, and Elumax.

And in both cases, Elmax won.

Looks like even this pickerwheel believes in Elmax supremacy.

[bylerfanfics]

FIC DAILY: DAY 3

MAY 10, 2025: 6 NEW BYLER FICS!!

Yesterday's Fic Count: 12,707

Today's Fic Count: 12,713

I apologize if I miss some new fics. If you want your fic to be shared on this blog, please go to my asks: fic shout-out! And send me a link to your byler fanfic on ao3.

Show some LOVE to byler authors by leaving kudos and kind comments on their fics!!💙💛

LOOK AT THE RATING, WARNINGS AND ALL TAGS BEFORE READING!

Fics are not mine. Please support these talented authors. Happy Reading! — bylerfanfics

KEEP READING TO VIEW NEW BYLER FICS!!

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true blue| byler (2972 words) by vessaisinspace Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Stranger Things (TV 2016) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Will Byers/Mike Wheeler Characters: Mike Wheeler, Will Byers, Nancy Wheeler, Holly Wheeler, Jonathan Byers, Eleven | Jane Hopper, Lucas Sinclair, Dustin Henderson, Robin Buckley, Steve Harrington, Maxine "Max" Mayfield, Karen Wheeler, Ted Wheeler (Stranger Things), maybe more idk - Character Additional Tags: Mutual Pining, Summer Vacation, Summer Romance, Unresolved Romantic Tension, kinda slow burn idk, not rlly ready to put this out bc im SCARED, Song: True Blue (boygenius), Mike Wheeler Loves Will Byers, Will Byers Loves Mike Wheeler, Semi-forced Proximity, why is forced proximity not a tag wth, Dirty Thoughts, a lil, The Party are Little Shits (Stranger Things), The Party in High School (Stranger Things), No supernatural after season 3, Post-Episode s4e1 Volume Two: Vecna's Curse

Summary:

"i can't hide from you like i hide from myself" - true blue (boygenius)

OR

"ask me a question, then," will prompts, chuckling at mike's confused expression. "go on, really! any question."

"what's your favorite season?" mike asks with a shrug, 'i tried; you put me on the spot.' even in the dim lighting, their eyes held their silent communication.

'that's okay,' his eyes say. "winter," his response is simple enough, no guessing, but no explanation either.

"what's yours?" there's a look in his eyes that hints he knows the answer. of course, he knew it. mike's eyes shift slightly, and he speaks, "mine, too."

will is caught off guard by this, "no, your favorite season is summer." the part of him that knew mike knew that it was summer, that it'd forever be summer.

"how'd you know that?" he asks, more meaning, 'how can you still know me so well?'

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Phantom Feeling (5135 words) by OccasionalOil Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Stranger Things (TV 2016) Rating: Mature Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Underage Sex Relationships: Will Byers/Mike Wheeler Characters: Will Byers, Mike Wheeler, Karen Wheeler, Joyce Byers Additional Tags: Queer Character, Gay Will Byers, Gay Mike Wheeler, Good Parent Karen Wheeler, Good Parent Joyce Byers, Mike Wheeler Needs a Hug, POV Mike Wheeler, Caught, Making Out, Self-Harm, Implied Sexual Content, Implied/Referenced Underage Sex, Vomiting

Summary:

After being caught kissing in a locked gym closet, Mike Wheeler really hates himself. Having to explain the whole story to his mother is worse. After a week of no contact with Will, he agrees to set up a meeting with him alone.

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All of my pain and all your excuses (1053 words) by Em353 Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Stranger Things (TV 2016) Rating: Not Rated Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence Relationships: Joyce Byers/Jim "Chief" Hopper, Eleven | Jane Hopper/Maxine "Max" Mayfield, Will Byers/Mike Wheeler Characters: Joyce Byers, Billy Hargrove, Eleven | Jane Hopper, Jim "Chief" Hopper, Maxine "Max" Mayfield, Mike Wheeler, Will Byers Additional Tags: Girls Kissing, Abuse, Physical Abuse, Hurt/Comfort, Fluff and Smut, Title from a Conan Gray Song, Song: Family Line (Conan Gray), Homophobia, Homophobic Language, very mild smut Series: Part 1 of Young Elmax

Summary:

Max gets beat by Billy and runs to El's house for comfort.

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like static in the air (7921 words) by jasperis6281937387 Chapters: 15/15 Fandom: Stranger Things (TV 2016) Rating: Not Rated Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Will Byers/Mike Wheeler, Will Byers/Chance, Eleven | Jane Hopper/Mike Wheeler Characters: Will Byers, Mike Wheeler, Eleven | Jane Hopper, Chance (Stranger Things), Lucas Sinclair, Dustin Henderson, Maxine "Max" Mayfield Additional Tags: Slow Burn, Unrequited Love, First Love, Internalized Homophobia, Period-Typical Homophobia, emotional angst, Mutual Pining, Yearning, Post-Season 4, Jealous Mike

Summary:

When Will Byers returns to Hawkins, nothing feels the same—and everything hurts just a little too much. Mike is distant, Chance is dangerous, and the truth Will’s buried for years is closer to the surface than ever. In a town stuck in time, how do you become who you are without losing what you love?

______________________________________________

Do You Have the Guts? (1356 words) by blueberrymuffin233 Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Stranger Things (TV 2016) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Will Byers/Mike Wheeler Characters: Mike Wheeler, Will Byers Additional Tags: First Kiss, One Shot, Light Angst, Boys In Love, Not Actually Unrequited Love, Post-Stranger Things 4 Vol. 2, Gay Will Byers, Protective Will Byers, Mike Wheeler Loves Will Byers, Mike Wheeler is a Mess, Canon Compliant, Will Byers Loves Mike Wheeler, Will Byers Deserves Love, spread the message and scream it in the streets, Unlabelled Mike Wheeler, making out while the world collapses

Summary:

They kiss and I say exactly what I want to happen in season 5 kind of.

Taking another step forward, Mike puts his hand to Will’s cheekbone. Will feels his whole body bristle like a cartoon character as a shiver runs through him before escaping in a small, surprised gasp. "Tell me no. Call me stupid." Mike gently offers, sucking in a shaky breath in anticipation. They both know full and well.

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Nowhere Else I Wanna Be (1697 words) by 90sVenom Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Stranger Things (TV 2016) Rating: Mature Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Will Byers/Mike Wheeler Characters: Will Byers, Mike Wheeler, Jonathan Byers, Eleven | Jane Hopper, Joyce Byers, Jim "Chief" Hopper Additional Tags: Established Relationship, Established Will Byers/Mike Wheeler, Modern Era, Karaoke, Mike Wheeler Loves Will Byers, Arguing, Good Sibling Jonathan Byers, Good Parent Jim "Chief" Hopper, Title from a Dixon Dallas Song

Summary:

“How is any of this my fault?” Mike asked. “You don’t spend any time with me and you go and say I’m breaking your heart!” Will accused.

OR

Mike and Will have a little disagreement.

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6 NEW BYLER FICS!! LET'S GOOO!!! See you tomorrow, byler authors and readers.

[sterlingarcher23]

Remember what the dormouse said...

Feed your head.

The Skittle scenes are like the red pill scene from The Matrix (I already pointed out that the revival scene is a mix of Tangled and Matrix, that El is Matrix-Neo and Max is real world-Neo who is revived by Trinity also because of the heartbeat element which connects both El and Max via sound in the bottle scene.) Sorry, for the crude edit but you get the gist: Lucas offers Skittles like Morpheus offers the pills. And that Max catches a red Skittle in a later scene is Neo taking and swallowing the red pill.

The cure so to speak.

And it isn't me, it's the show telling us into our faces that El is the cure: a pill, a medicine you take.

And she will take it to wake up from a dream and learning the truth about yourself: This is Max. - Again: it's not me saying it. It's the show.

Besides: Strawberries are also the fruit of love and healing, heart shaped.

I pointed this out before: Sara(h)'s tiger plush toy, the "Tiger Beat" magazine and then El becoming that heartbeat by reviving Max and in the bottle scene.

Max is El's heart. And El is Max's heartbeat.

Quote from the script: She places a hand on Max's chest. On her heart.

Take note how the camera starts to focus on Max in the Sarah Bowman scene. Max also looks really riveted by this scene in the movie. Much more than anyone else. Then it cuts back to Sarah. - I noticed this back in the days and remember that it felt odd the first time but obviously I couldn't say why. Nonetheless I wondered back then why they'd do this.

No one on God's earth does something like that just for fun. So, why? - Yeah, my suspicion is that Max's true name is potentially Sara Hopper. (Similar to Lucy in Elfen Lied who has actually a different original name, Kaede, and an alter called Nyu.) And maybe El is stuck in the body of Jane Hopper.

And before you say "but different hair color etc." - there could be a lot of reasons why this is the case including timelines or just simply unreliable narrators. I - don't - know. All I'm saying that it fits as hints and clues you are likely to find after a rewatch once the truth is out.

I wonder in which way Lucas will toss the "Skittle" 🤔 (this is btw paralleled with the Basketball scene in S4) - I doubt it to be literally more metaphorically but who knows.

PS:

Hopper finding the tiger is followed by a flashback and Sara suffers a fit - she also seems disoriented. So, is it possible that this was like the Zoomer episode in the lab? A personality switch? And she actually never died but ended up in the lab? I think so.

Split:

"You are an angel in disguise.."

[ronancecore]

I wonder if wonder woman is bisexual there's a hint of her maybe maybe it can also add on elmax foreshadowing aside from symbolising being strong independent woman when el chose the comic😭😭 I can shut up guys but fr Diana live where there's no men around her

[givehimthemedicine]

wait are there elmax / elumax shippers on here who really actually think it could happen in reality? not "lol it's canon to me" but actually onscreen other-people-can-see-it-too real shit? poll time:

A) I believe elmax WILL be explicitly endgame / confirmed by the writers B) I believe elumax WILL be explicitly endgame / confirmed by the writers C) I think implied-elmax has a real shot. It'd probably just look like a big focus on El and Max's friendship, and will go down in history that way, but the writers mean for some of us to see the truth D) I think implied-elumax has a real shot. It would probably just look like lumax + El being framed as a trio, and it'll go down in history as just lumax, but the writers mean for some of us to see the truth E) I assume lumax will be endgame, but I really think elmax/elumax would work better for the story. the writers just won't do it because they're cowards. F) elmax / elumax is just for fun in my head, it doesn't work in the canon. I know lumax is endgame. G) I think Lucas Max and El will all end the show single, focused on friendship, with the writers not meaning to hint at any romantic combination. H) very specific scenario I'll explain I) I don't ship this I just want to see how insane you people are

and ofc please elaborate in comments or rbs or whatever if you have strong opinions

[parkitaco]

fave Will Byers headcanons 🎤

*accepts the mic and climbs up on a table n stomps my feet until the whole room turns to look at me* ahem.

he and el are a Little Bit Psychic in that they have Literal twin telepathy (i don't use this in all my fics but always in the elmax ones for some reason?? idk it's important to me)

he and lucas jokingly flirt w each other to piss off max and mike (i've said this one before but it bears repeating. pushing byclair until the day i die)

he always always has paint stains all over his arms so mike makes up a game where he tries to guess the general idea of what will's been painting just based on the colors on his hands (his success rate is approximately .001% on his own but will always gives him enough hints that he gets it in the end)

in a modern au he is chronically online and always filming little moments w mike and posting them on his private instagram with dorky little captions abt how much he loves his bf

he joins the track team in lenora and keeps doing it throughout hs and he and lucas like to go on runs together on the weekends

[cloudycleric]

my full thoughts on byler from the stranger things day 2023 posts:

(transcript from https://youtu.be/jTl45Q0lfWw?si=_Abbiv7SMqALUJdU , please check it out if you have time :) )

so the first thing is, we saw in these videos that the stranger things account, and we've seen this in previous posts too, they're not afraid to post about ships; especially fan ships. because we got in an elmax specific reference. there was a lot of jopper there was even jancy, lumax, elmax, but notice how there was never any mileven or byler.

you might be like "oh well if there was no byler mentioned and there was no mileven mentioned, then maybe they're just trying to be normal about it." no. no. let me explain let me fucking explain right now.

there's a theory that mileven is already broken up in case you didn't already know. the scene of them in California ("from Mike from Mike"), that [that scene] was technically their breakup, or that they're not really sure if they are still in a relationship. like it's kind of rocky. especially since Mike said this was the "first real fight that they've ever had". definitely some questions on whether or not they're still together, that kind of stuff, since they don't seem to be too close when they get back to Hawkins.

people theorize that they are broken up, or they've already broke up, that they broke up off screen, on the car ride to Hawkins. there's a bunch of stuff about that.

I think byler not being mentioned and mileven not being mentioned works more in byler's favor than it does for mileven.

byler is obviously something that The Duffer Brothers have tried to subtly build up over time. this is quite literally Four Seasons in the making, or if you don't want to count season 1 this is three seasons in the making. hours and hours worth of runtime for this subtle little buildup. and we know that the duffers don't feel the need, or the writers don't feel the need, to come outright and say whatever they're trying to convey. Will came out to Jonathan but he never went, "I'm gay." we, as the viewer, are supposed to take these little pieces and piece it together in our minds. we're supposed to realize through all these little hints, "oh will is definitely gay and he has a crush on Mike."

now even outside of the show, in media campaigns, in advertisements, in marketing--the show is slowly trying to shift you away from paying attention to mileven and closer to paying attention to byler. there were more byler moments in these videos than there were mileven. they never said it outright but the facts are there.

I don't know if it was always their intention for Mike to end up with Will, but there is evidence in The Stranger Things Bible that from day one they wanted will to have sexual identity issues. if they're trying to subtly build up at something like byler I don't think that they would ever really try to bring [it] light to people who haven't already heard [of] it. the vast majority of stranger things fans, like casual stranger things fans that just watch the show when it comes out, they have they have no fucking clue what byler is, or they might know that will is gay but they're not sure about Mike.

and so I don't think Netflix, or stranger things writers, or marketing teamm would go out of their way to make [sure] that more casual audience try and pay attention more to byler than they do mileven. and then, on the flip side, they're trying to not feature mileven as much, so when they do build up to byler they're like, "look at these subtle hints that we were giving you the whole time."

there was foreshadowing from episode fucking one. they built up will to be gay and people were oblivious (but the real ones knew). and then when it came out everybody was like, "oh I see what they mean now. in the first episode and in the first season and how this was a gradual buildup to will coming out."

now what I'm trying to say is I think that they're trying to do that with byler, even if it's just through media campaigns.

...

they are trying to get you subtly to try to take your mind off of Mike and eleven, off of their relationship--and I'm not trying to say they're pointing you in the direction to look at byler, but the fact that they're trying to take the spotlight off of what most fans consider to be the "main relationship" of the show should definitely be something worth acknowledging.

...

I'm not going to sit here and be like, "if you still ship mileven you're delusional," or like "fuck you, I hate mileven," that kind of shit, because if you do like mileven, that's fine. I personally disagree with you. but don't come out here and say--oh my God I literally saw somebody in the Instagram comments being like, "fuck you for not putting in mileven." girl. these are the creators of the show. how. how are you going to be like "fuck you" to the creators of the show for purposefully not including parts of the show that they don't want you to pay attention to??

...

the way that the cast treats the You're My Superhero speech from Mike, and now the way that the people who fucking make the show treat that monologue--not confession, they never refer to it as a confession--as a monologue...

I don't know. why don't you guys just like sit and think about it.

[end transcript]

[steddie-fanfic-recs]

Tell Me Sweet Little Lies

by brbsoulnomming

Rating: Explicit Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationship: Steve Harrington/Eddie Munson, Robin Buckley & Steve Harrington, Robin Buckley & Eddie Munson, Steve Harrington & The Party, Eddie Munson & The Party, Eddie Munson & Wayne Munson, Maxine "Max" Mayfield/Lucas Sinclair, Robin Buckley & Steve Harrington & Eddie Munson Character: Eddie Munson, Steve Harrington, Wayne Munson, Robin Buckley, Lucas Sinclair, Maxine "Max" Mayfield, Dustin Henderson, Nancy Wheeler, Erica Sinclair, Mike Wheeler, Will Byers, Eleven | Jane Hopper, Jonathan Byers, Argyle (Stranger Things), Jim "Chief" Hopper, Jason Carver, Joyce Byers Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Platonic Soulmates Robin Buckley & Steve Harrington, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Angst with a Happy Ending, Mild Angst, Mutual Pining, Found Family, Slow Burn, reference to canon-typical violence, all ships except steddie are mostly in the background, POV Eddie Munson, Hurt/Comfort, Steve Harrington Takes Care of Eddie Munson, Sharing a Bed, Nightmares, Misunderstandings, The Party Loves Steve Harrington, Eddie Munson Has PTSD, Steve Harrington Has PTSD, Steve Harrington Loves The Party, The Party Loves Eddie Munson, Steve and Robin have no boundaries, Hints of elmax and elumax Words: 99,510 Chapters: 26/26

Summary

The summer of '80, a few weeks before he's due to start high school, Eddie gets I don't think of you all that often anyway, and his heart jumps. He knows it's not directed at him. It can't be - it's one of the hardfast rules. Lies of omission don't count, half truths don't count, joking usually doesn't count, and it only counts if you're saying the lie to someone, not just telling yourself. So whoever his soulmate is talking to - they do think about this person often, even if they feel like they have to pretend they don't. But it gives Eddie an idea. ---- A soulmate AU where the lies you say get inked onto your soulmate's skin, featuring romantic and platonic soulmates - or, Eddie's journey in finding his soulmate and letting himself be worked into the found family that is the Party.

[wakeupthemembersofbylernation]

since lucas was kinda hinted as bi, do you think byclair has a real chance in canon? what'd be your reaction if they went with byclair instead of byler after not developing lucas and will's bond that much for 4 seasons?

I don’t think Byclair has any chance in canon. Like, it has negative chance in canon, if that’s possible. That’s because Byler is clearly the storyline, as is Lumax. And while it won’t happen, I think Elmax has more of a chance in canon (based on the way it’s been written in these last two seasons). And I think Mlvn has more of a chance of staying together than Byclair has of happening, and that’s already near zero. Don’t get me wrong: I think Will and Lucas are great friends and I’d love to see their on-screen bond strengthened, but they aren’t romantically-coded in the slightest. So if, on the impossible chance that Byler somehow didn’t happen after all this set up, Lumax broke up, and Byclair happened instead, my reaction would be bewilderment. And I’d ask what happened to the original plot of the movie! I do like the idea of bi Lucas, and I agree certain things could point in that direction, but the canonical evidence isn’t that strong at all.

[scissorsxluvv]

📌 °❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･ INTRODUCION POST °❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･

❝ she rules her life like a bird in light and who will be her lover? ❞

┊ ┊ ┊ ┊ ┊ ┊

┊ ┊ ┊ ┊ ˚★⋆｡˚ ⋆

┊ ┊ ┊ ⋆

┊ ┊ ★⋆

┊ ◦ ┊ . ˚

★⋆ ˚★

❝ I never really got there, I just pretended that I have. words are blunt instruments, words are sawed off shotguns.❞

𓏲๋࣭࣪˖🪼⋆˚｡ ELLIE / EL. 𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝⭒˚｡⋆

｡𖦹.˚ all pronouns are fine but I prefer they/them in english and she or they in my native (polish)!!

｡𖦹.˚ genderfluid lesbian.

｡𖦹.˚ isfp/infp. sx/so 4w3. choleric-melancholic.

｡𖦹.˚ autistic + adhd.

｡𖦹.˚ I'm a minor!!! so pls don't be weird ://

｡𖦹.˚ polish, but I mostly speak and post in english

𓏲๋࣭࣪˖🪼⋆˚｡ my kins!!! (amanda and misty day are the heaviest, cut me in half and you'll see these two)

↑[misty day (ahs coven), amanda young (saw), misty quigley (yellowjackets), nancy wheeler (stranger things), cassie ainsworth (skins gen 1), jade west (victorious)]

❝ the cure for death itself? the answer is — immortality.❞

𓏲๋࣭࣪˖🪼⋆˚｡ FANDOMS: stranger things. saw franchise. american horror story. yellowjackets. the last of us. dead poets society. agatha all along. agent carter. black widow. marvel. shadowhunters universe. the hunger games. harry potter. marauders era. komisarz alex. star wars. f1. descendants. greek mythology. the conjuring franchise. gravity falls. castle. arcane. heathers. hamilton. carrie the musical. (and many, MANY more...) [the bold ones are my special interest/I'm most active in them]

𓏲๋࣭࣪˖🪼⋆˚｡ MUSIC: lana del rey. lorde. stevie nicks. fleetwood mac. big thief. adrianne lenker. mitski. marina. the dresden dolls. lady gaga. chappell roan. taylor swift. radiohead. mother mother. the nbhd. panic! at the disco. myslovitz. daria zawialow. fiona apple. fydolla ho. mazzy star. musicals' soundtracks. rock. old music.

𓏲๋࣭࣪˖🪼⋆˚｡ MY FAV SHIPS AND HCS FROM STRANGER THINGS (as some might be controversial or rare):

｡𖦹.˚ joyren!!!! I'm the biggest joyren stan in the world. ronance!!!! byler/miwi. elmax. elumax. jancy. mileven. mucas/lumax. steddie. hopclair. nancy x barb. one-sided stommy. platonic elmike. platonic stobin. platonic jopper. platonic stancy. platonic madwheeler. platonic madwise. platonic willel. [bold ones are my favorite/what I'd love as endgame (abt romantic ships), but I wouldn't mind the rest as endgame!!]

｡𖦹.˚ lesbian karen wheeler!!!! bisexual and genderfluid (she/he) nancy wheeler. bisexual mike wheeler. bisexual joyce byers. (these are my main ships, the rest of sexuality hcs are here) audhd robin buckley. autism spectrum nancy wheeler. nancy's favorite song being total eclipse of the heart by bonnie tyler. karen wheeler is alice creel theory!!!!

𓏲๋࣭࣪˖🪼⋆˚｡ MY FAV SHIPS AND HCS FROM SAW :

｡𖦹.˚ lynnmanda/shotgunshipping. pintshipping. chainshipping. john and jill. hoffstrahm/coffinshipping. eric and kerry. platonic daniel and amanda. platonic rockstarshipping. platonic strahm and perez.

｡𖦹.˚ autistic amanda. (not saying she doesn't have bpd, she's just autistic coded too and I relate to her the most) alcoholic brit (pre-trap). mallick's scars being also sh (it's hinted in saw v). brit and mallick living together after saw v. jill being a mother figure for amanda. amanda and adam knowing eachother more before she kidnapped him for the trap. I think the sexuality headcanons from saw are mostly the same for everyone tbh

𓏲๋࣭࣪˖🪼⋆˚｡ SOME FUNFACTS ABOUT ME:

｡𖦹.˚ I want to be a cop (homicide/criminal department)

｡𖦹.˚ I'm a theatre kid lol (as if you couldn't tell)

｡𖦹.˚ my favorite animals are jellyfishes and cats

｡𖦹.˚ I dress in a witchy, hippie, whimsy, vintage style, idek how to name it (my biggest inspirations are stevie nicks and misty day)

｡𖦹.˚ my absolute favorite song is most likely jigsaw falling into place by radiohead

𓏲๋࣭࣪˖🪼⋆˚｡ MY SOCIALS :

｡𖦹.˚ ao3: scissorsxluvv

｡𖦹.˚ wattpad: bird_in_flight

｡𖦹.˚ tt editing acc: scissorsxluvv_

｡𖦹.˚ tt main acc: _bird_in_flight

｡𖦹.˚ side blog: ultrawhimsyviolence

𓏲๋࣭࣪˖🪼⋆˚｡ and here's me!! :33

❝ turn around, bright eyes.❞

(some me core songs :33)

[nommereranger]

I started shipping byler and so obviously I had to tell my best friend (who had actually introduced me to st!)

So, from the beginning of the show we had a running joke like “Mike is such a loser, El should break up with him hahah” but during s3 and s4 I started like trying to subtly hint that Will was in love with Mike (I thought I was being subtle I probably wasn’t lmao). Eventually I asked her like “do you actually ship Mike and El tho?” And she said no (she’s actually an elmax shipper lol) but she didn’t know that there was another ship for Mike. So I told her “omg I ship Mike and Will so much! They’re so down bad” and we rewatched the seasons together. After, she was fully convinced 😊

everyone please keep sharing your stories of convincing people or just knowing people, that are not obsessed and slightly crazy invested like us, that byler will happen. It gives me such insane hope when I hear someone pull up with the my cishet homophobic dad picked up on it or believes in it, like crazy hope

I mean I don’t need it because I’ll believe in it anyways but hearing those stories just gives me like such a nice feeling of validation and relief and it’s great makes me really happy so thanks for sharing and please keep sharing convert everyone you can<3

[sterlingarcher23]

Pac-Man pellets...& chess

The chess-board is the world; the pieces are the phenomena of the universe; the rules of the game are what we call the laws of Nature. The player on the other side is hidden from us. We know that his play is always fair, and patient. But also we know, to our cost, that he never overlooks a mistake, or makes the smallest allowance for ignorance., Thomas Henry Huxley

Pac-Man

Another thing that also points to Max being the "Pac-Man" is that we see her taking pills throughout Season 4. - Brenners words and this subtle but obvious clue through the board game "Can't stop" are connecting "One", "gaming" and Max.

Showing her taking the pills to underline her depression is one thing - however, rarely do things have just a single meaning in Stranger Things.

Lucas putting his hand on her mouth while there's the Pac-Man arcade machine behind her is quite clearly pointing to her too be a power user being able to absorb. If the Pac-Man would be (just) Vecna, why give Max some stupid lines, blabbering about what Lucas just told her in the public, so that Lucas panics and covers her mouth, stopping her from further opening it with each word? With the Pac-Man arcade directly behind her head.

Pac-Man: Paku paku taberu - to gobble something. To consume.

Like Max gobbling a red Skittle mid air in Season 3? Note the use of the Coke vending machine, a repeated pattern and the brand can be seen on Max's shelf too and there's a drawing by Will showing the boys in front of/meeting a Coke vending machine ( besides the "Can't stop" game that connects Brenner’s "If you want to stop One..." dialog with gaming.).

Taking her pills is like eating your way through the stage in Pac-Man: The Player who is Pac-Man has to eat all the pellets or Pac-Dots in order to clear the stage. (and by gaining points he may get an extra life).

Someone made an interesting observation, that in the mind lair, the red mist kind of behaves and I quote: "like in a video game".

That's called a "fog of war", the further you move the more is revealed - once again showing us that Max isn't just a piece on the board but quite clearly the gamer:

The Immortal Game

Bear with me, it may sound complicated, and it may help to watch the scene muted only focusing on the chess moves.

There are two invisible players when El and Henry play chess. Vecna and the Zoomer. The gamer who plays white isn't Henry but obviously a hidden person: Vecna/Edward(?) (so Henry either collaborates or is forced to do his bidding).

Huxley refers to a hidden player but it's logical that this player isn't just on one side but on either side of the board. Two players, hidden from us. And the patent, waiting to make their move. Which means that the hidden player on the other side is not El playing, its someone else. The Zoomer even though no one is aware of him....her.

Note that El is very vocal even though barely able to speak in S1 - as if they share certain abilities or the memories of El and the Zoomer are mixed. Or the Zoomer says something (in mind) and El repeated that like they showed us in several ElMax moments:

The appearance of the zooming effect (alongside other obvious and less obvious clues) leads to the conclusion that there's indeed another person in the room. (If there's darkness, then there's light. Funny enough it's quite clearly hinted at in the show in dialog. ). Remember how Henry says that One moves people like pieces on this board. Well...which One?

There are three Ones. In 00I and in 0II. And since Owens low-key referred to El as One, there's another One in 0II. Everything points to the Zoomer - Max.

And the Zoomer is the hidden player: she uses the hawk like bait, similar to what happened in the Season 4 finale - the Immortal Game was won through high losses. - Max offered herself as bait for Vecna. Same way the player who is playing black sacrificed the hawk/knight. It's heavily implied by connecting this move with the events by the end of S4, the zooming effect, Max calling herself a Zoomer, that she's the player. - She then indirectly called for El by trying to shut out Vecna, the Coke bottle points to El and El appears.

Max = Zoomer personality.

And keep in mind: It's a metaphor. These chess moves are only over simplifying the actual events in Season 4.

But let's take a look at it:

Behind El is a sign saying Pawn in Season 2 right next to a Coke vending machine. So, she's the pawn that takes the owl/bishop.

It's even obvious when you know that Wi-nteko-wa is a proto word for Wendigo, and it means Owl (even though Vecna isn't the only Wendigo): Vecna = Owl/bishop.

Which means Max is the knight/hawk as we see her in the memories from a scene in Season 3 next to the bird prey (falcon or hawk) poster in El's room.

And the "captured" hawk stays on Elevens side, exactly on the dividing line. Brilliantly implying that Max was not absorbed (there are to many elements that debunk that absorption theory) because she stays on her side. Like in a shot of El approaching Vecna, we can see Max in the background on her side of the frame that is split in half, that Max is only taking out of the game. A taken piece can be brought back into the game via a pawn promotion. Eleven then btw removes the owl completely.

Simply put:

Hawk/Knight = Max

Owl/Bishop = Vecna

Wren/Pawn = El

Hawk is moved and sacrificed, Owl takes Hawk, Wren takes Owl.

Max is moved and sacrificed, Vecna takes Max, El takes Vecna.

Max made herself the bait, this way Vecna could be "beaten" by El - but the game isn't over just by taking the Owl/bishop. And even though it doesn't look like it, this move on the board that was shown in the Piggyback was commented through El's dialog "No. You have [lost]." - Then the UD team does the rest by setting Vecna on fire.

By the end we see El walking into the grey part of the field, its the half white, half black field in the DnD game. So, the pawn moves on the other side of the board - "This is Max" would then in chess terminology be a pawn promotion, changing El as the pawn into a piece of her choice (which can be a previously taken pieces): the hawk/knight. Meaning that El becomes Max.

This way you bring back a piece into a chess game. Usually you'd go for a Queen but depending on the strategy a Knight is also good. And knight's usually are shown as horses.

Metaphorically she would then remove the hood of the hawk. As they foreshadow it in this scene. - It looks as if he's blinding El but he didn't. It was Max. Another clue, like the differences in memories scenes, that in connection with the zooming effect point more to different points of view (even though I wouldn't rule out that they want to allude to different timelines too)

The game figures are from Blade Runner and in the film it's a nod to what is called the "Immortal Game" - the black pawns in this version are wrens.

The unicorn may not only refer to One and the horse in Will's painting (as I mentioned earlier) but also be a reference towards Blade Runner too. The meaning of the unicorn in Blade Runner has been talked and speculated about a lot. My guess is that all interpretations are true to a degree. One interpretation is that since Deckard dreams of a Unicorn, it means that he is a Replicant himself and his memories are actually implanted.

And I wouldn't dismiss the idea of that being the case in Stranger Things. Actually, I'm convinced that this is the case. Mkultra as a mind control project was...about that. And this could explain what El's and Max's secret is since the Unicorn is in the scene directly where Max does the Karate-chop hand gesture, like splitting something in half (like what happened in the lab): the memories of their lifes were implanted, altered, don't add up. Why else use the zooming effect? Why does Max calls herself a Zoomer if this isn't exactly that. A personality taking over or at least zoom in to take the wheel. And they might not be the only ones. I suspect Hopper's memories are also faked. About Sara. His ghost.

There's also a spinning top/Inception reference next to a chess board. Remember how ElMax is connected to spinning.

Gamers game:

That's how the show introduced us to Max, something we might have lost our focus on, a gamer:

Besides the fact that she's wearing red (that jacket reappears in one of the Vecna hallucinations in 4),she's in first place... 1st. As in One.

It is not very subtle. Especially in regards to games being played in this show. Like chess. And there's a whole lot of checkerboard patterns near or connected to Max too. (And I'd argue that there are more.)

Above Max in S3 in the ElMax shopping scene (which holds a lot of clues), Lumax holding hands, the shield Lucas is holding, on the magazine cover that El is reading (next to the term "Kaleidoskop" like in "a brilliant kaleidoscope of colors" aka rainbow which Max is wearing in the scene - kinda wearing the whole LGBTQ flag - and there are some sort of fans on it too? Not sure)

And Will? He's also a gamer. - I bet if you dive into his character having games in mind, you'll find what his role in this is too. I mean, I talked about the parallels and mirrors that Will and Max have, including the "crowbar incident" and I have some vague ideas but I leave it up to others. After all: it's these two the plot of 5 will be about. (Although there's something I DO want to talk about in regards to Dr Henry Jekyll and Edward Hyde.)

Werewolves & vampires

This is connected to the rabies, werewolves/vampires and the Wendigo/Ravenous elements in the show. And how cannibalism is many times used as a metaphor for queerness and queer love. And I'll talk over that separately. A bit about "The Quarry" (even though it's not an inspo as it released in '22 but to showcase that writers have similar ideas), Van Helsing and Underworld.

PS: I actually just wanted to point out that Max takes her pills like Pac-Man eats the pellets...😁

[flowers-that-sing]

chapter 17 is up finally!

guys i am SO sorry. this took. so long. and its short. i wanted to continue it but i dont think i can write anymore today and i like. i really just wanna get a chapter out. anyway, this one's max-focused with some small hints of elmax

[ao3feed-byler2]

Byler things

by Vinsmoke69

•Byler { Mike x Will } | | long fic

Where after 2 years separated by distance, Mike and Will meet again. However, Mike begins to feel something different for his best friend, "what makes you crazy". What would Eleven do when he found out about it?

 *After the second season of stranger things.

Cover by: 🌈 @Carlysto

Words: 539, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English

Fandoms: Stranger Things (TV 2016)

Rating: Explicit

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Categories: M/M

Characters: Chief Jim Hopper, Dustin Henderson, Eleven ( Eleven ), Jonathan Byers, Joyce Byers, Kali "Eight" ( Eight ), Lucas Sinclair, Maxine "Max" Mayfield / "Madmax", Mike Wheeler, Nancy Wheeler, Steve Harrington, Will Byers

Relationships: Will Byers/Mike Wheeler

Additional Tags: Boys Love - Freeform, Bromance, Byeler - Freeform, byler, elmax - Freeform, Gay, Jancy, Jopper, mike wheeler - Freeform, stranger things, Adventure, Drama / Tragedy, Fantasy, Teen Fiction, Gay / Yaoi, Lesbian / Yuri, LGBTQIA +, fight, Mystery, police officer, Bisexuality, Homosexuality, Sex hint, Spoilers, alternative universe, will byers - Freeform, Yaoi

from AO3 works tagged 'Will Byers/Mike Wheeler' https://ift.tt/m0kw7Zd