"Eddie!"
Eddie hears the call coming from the kitchen all the way up in Steve's room, Steve's voice echoing in the eerily empty walls of the house.
A house Eddie knows that Steve hates.
The thought always squeezes Eddie's heart, but he reminds himself: this time next week they'll be settled into their new apartment where no walls will be empty if Eddie has any say in it, which he does, at least a third of a say.
And even if Steve and Robin don’t let him paper the walls with photographs, Eddie will do his damnedest so that Steve never hates their home.
"Yeah?" Eddie calls back to answer Steve, the word a little garbled around the screwdriver he's holding in his mouth.
"C'mere!" Steve replies. Eddie sighs.
He looks down at the very heavy wooden desk top in his hands then looks at the open door.
He balances the top of Steve's desk on his knee so he can hold it with just one hand, using the other to take the screwdriver out of his mouth.
"What is it, sweetheart? D’you need my help?" he asks, once his mouth is free, his eyes drifting towards the hallway as he waits for Steve’s reply.
"Come. here!" Steve demands. Eddie sighs again but Steve’s annoyed tone makes him hold back a smirk.
"I'm kind of in the middle of something, babe!" Eddie calls, he'd rather finish taking the desk apart first, if it's not too urgent.
"EDDIE!"
Eddie gets so startled, he drops the heavy slab of wood right at his feet. He's glad the floor is carpet up here and not the dumb precious hardwood floors of downstairs.
"Jesus Chris-" he mutters, dropping the screwdriver too, before running down the stairs, sliding in his socks down the hallway and grabbing onto the door's frame to haul himself into the kitchen.
He enters the kitchen a little winded to find Steve standing in front of the stove with a worried frown.
"WHAT is it, Stevie?? you scared the shit outta me!" Eddie accuses, heart hammering in his chest.
Steve at least has the decency to look sheepish while he just stares at Eddie for a second.
"I think I over seasoned the chicken" Steve says quietly after a bit.
Eddie rolls his eyes at him. His heart wants to give out and he kinda wants to strangle Steve. Not in a fun way.
He looks so worried though... it's kinda cute.
He gets kinda serious about cooking for them, whereas when it is Eddie’s turn, he takes it as an opportunity for chaos.
Robbie is more of a toss up, Eddie has noticed. She notoriously contributed to the legendary popcorn s'mores but then she also pinches Eddie really hard whenever he tries to intercede with soup night so it'll be interesting to see how they all work out once they split all meals among them.
Eddie sighs for the third time in five minutes. This time, though, the tension in his shoulders bleeds out with his exhale and he feels a fond smile appear in his face.
"I'm sure it's fine, baby" Eddie tells Steve, both a reassurance about the food and about Eddie not really being mad at Steve for scaring him.
Steve switches the sheepish look for a pout.
"No it's not!" he whines, dragging the words out, Eddie has to contain his grin, he’s so endeared "It doesn't taste right, come taste it" Steve demands, his hand reaching out and flexing his fingers like he wants to grab Eddie and pull him close. Eddie wouldn't be opposed.
"You know I eat anything, right?" Eddie comments, walking over to Steve, "I literally eat your sp-" he gets cut off by Steve's hand coming up to cover his mouth.
"No!! !" Steve declares, his eyes wide, "You are not finishing that sentence, Eddie, ohmygOD!"
Eddie snickers behind Steve's hand. Steve's clearly trying to chastise him but Eddie can't take his boyfriend seriously when he's red in the face.
Steve eyes him warily, but presents him with a small piece of chicken speared through with a fork. "Here," he says, and drops his hand from Eddie's mouth.
Eddie takes the offer and slowly chews on it, making a show of figuring out what it tastes like. He gets a light smack on his arm for his troubles.
He shrugs.
"It tastes fine." he tells Steve with his mouth still half full. Steve scrunches his face a bit.
"It's not too salty?" Steve insists. Eddie chuckles and circles his arms around Steve's waist to hold him lightly.
"No, baby, it's fine. It's good!" he assures Steve, and presses a kiss to his jaw for good measure.
"I feel like it tastes different than usual" Steve grumbles, pouting again, making Eddie want to kiss his face all over.
Instead, Eddie presses the back of his palm to Steve's forehead.
"You coming down with something?" he half-jokes. Steve chuckles and bats his hand away.
"M' fine." Steve protests, leaning his head to the side in an attempt to get away from Eddie's chasing hand.
He fails, and Eddie pinches both his cheeks in his hand, forcing him to pucker up.
"I've probably tasted it too many times" Steve explains, his words distorted by Eddie's hold and Eddie laughs, delighted with what he achieved.
He presses a kiss to Steve's mouth and Steve smiles against it.
"Sorry I interrupted your woodworking" Steve says when Eddie releases him. Eddie snorts.
"I'm just taking it apart" Eddie tells him, walking right into Steve's setup.
"Oh! Well," Steve starts, in a tone that lets Eddie realize what he's done, way too late. "To hear you tell it, baby, you had to go chop the wood and sand it down and build the desk so you can then start taking it apart-" Steve trails off with a satisfied grin when he sees Eddie's scandalized look.
He's helping disassemble the desk because Steve had given up on it in the first place, had even said he'd pay for the one moving truck they'd have to hire just because of it, since the damn thing didn't fit in Eddie's van.
So, Eddie had volunteered to do it himself, take it apart that is, and after the first try he had developed a thirst for vengeance against the thing and now here they are.
And Steve has the nerve to tease him about it.
"Stevie, they put that thing together in hell!" Eddie exclaims, pointing an accusatory finger out the kitchen door "and you didn't keep the manual-" Eddie turns his finger on Steve now. Steve chuckles and interrupts him to point out:
"It didn't come with a manual, my father had it built"
Eddie doesn't miss a beat.
"Well, whoever built it is a moron!!!" Eddie says. Steve loves hearing Eddie rant against every decision David Harrington has ever made, so Eddie appoints whoever took his money for that desk as his mortal enemy (one of many, needless to say), before he continues his rant,
"There are screws all over that thing! and I had to spend two hours just figuring out how to take it apart without doing irreparable damage to it- I can show you my notes!" Eddie makes to take the folded notebook out his back pocket but Steve extends a placating hand to remind him:
"You have,"
Eddie remembers now, and if that didn't tell Steve how big a deal this is, Eddie can tell him just fine,
"I'm telling you," Eddie continues, wildly gesticulating, and feeling like he's about to hop on the kitchen table, or at least a chair "I'm keeping a journal of how I'm taking that monster apart so I can trace back my steps when I have to put it together again,"
Steve is now covering his mouth to keep from laughing out loud, so Eddie turns it against him, "because you are certainly not gonna help me with it! Stop laughing! I'm so serious!!"
Eddie is not serious, at all. But Steve is full on laughing now and Eddie thinks if he didn't need to work for a living he'd choose to do this instead, spend days on end just making Steve laugh so hard he briefly loses his breath.
Eddie dons a put upon look that he knows is just absolutely ruined by the grin he's trying to contain.
Steve wipes at the corner of his eyes trying to take a deep breath.
"I'm sorry, baby," he tells Eddie, wrapping his arms around Eddie's neck, "I won't tease you about it anymore, I promise" he can't seem to stop smiling and Eddie loves it, wants it to last as long as it can.
"Empty promises!" Eddie answers dramatically, "you men are all the same" he earns a snort and another bout of laughter from Steve. Eddie shakes his head vehemently as Steve rides it out.
When he manages to breathe normally again, Steve places a kiss to Eddie's shoulder.
"No, but appreciate it, Eds. You know." Steve tells him honestly, pressing a sweet kiss against the corner of Eddie's mouth.
"Hmm" Eddie hums disapprovingly, making Steve huff.
"I love you" Steve tries, tracing the sides of Eddie's face lightly, playing with the ends of his hair a bit.
"Yeah, yeah" Eddie says dismissive, while his heart tries to beat out his chest.
Steve sees right through him and nuzzles against his cheek.
"Lunch will be ready in 20" Steve murmurs, and Eddie's always been helpless against the casual affection that Steve can inject into the most mundane things, he can't really contain himself any longer.
"I love you too." he tells Steve, before burying his face in Steve's neck. Steve chuckles a little and hums against Eddie's temple, clutches him tighter and runs his hands through Eddie's hair gently, making Eddie sigh contentedly.
"Should I set the table?" Eddie offers after a bit, coming back to eye level. Steve caresses his cheeks adoringly.
“No, no," Steve says, "you go fight that desk, honey."
Eddie snorts and crumbles into laughter, everything he had to hold back before, coming out in giggles as he bats Steve's arms away from him.
"I hate you!" he exclaims between laughs. He playfully flips Steve the bird and turns on his heel to march back up the stairs.
"Give it your all!" Steve calls after him, barely coherent in the middle of his laughing.
Eddie rolls his eyes but has the biggest smile on his face.
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fir 5, mistletoe 5, pine 2, birch 1 + cori? 🖤
ty dani!! 💗 i put it under a cut bc i got a little long abdjsk
fir 5: How many setbacks can (or will) your OC endure before they give up on a course of action? Or alternatively, how many times can they be let down or betrayed before they turn their back upon another person?
Hmm Cori is very much an optimist of the “I will make this work” kind (rather than “everything will work out fine” kind). So they may give up on a course of action if it doesn’t work, but it’s just so they can find a different course of action that will achieve the same or similar goals. They’re really not one to give up! And they’re also very forgiving. I honestly don’t know that they would turn their back completely on a friend or someone they trusted, but they’re far more likely to do it if their betrayal hurts someone they care about than if it’s just to them. They always see the best in people, and they might trust someone less after they find out they’re lying or they betrayed them, they might even distance themself, but I don’t think they would completely turn their back on a friend who let them down.
mistletoe 5: Who is your OCs most unlikely friend? What made their friendship so unexpected?
answered here!
pine 2: What is the worst emotional or spiritual wound that your OC has ever suffered? What was the long-term impact of this experience? What helped them to move on from it (if they ever have)?
Poor Cori has suffered a lot of emotional wounds lol but I think the worst has been losing the ability to cast since In From the Cold (well not quite losing completely, but it’s very hard to even summon carbuncle because the whole thing messed up their ability to channel aether). Summoning and magic use in general is such a big part of Cori, for like their whole life! And to be cut off from this thing that’s so fundamental to them is really difficult.
They have not yet moved on from it—between the end of ENW and the patches Cori hides on her island to recuperate and avoid her feelings on this and some other things. They get coaxed off their island by Shtola for the patches, but they still can’t cast. I’m not sure how long it would take to move on if they had to accept they could never cast again, but fortunately they will at some point have the idea of consulting Stephanivien about using aetherotransformer tech to help them channel aether. But I haven’t moved on to happy Cori yet so she’s stuck in low key misery in my mind ahdjkssk
birch 1: Has your OC ever experienced something that changed them irrevocably? If so, then how do they view the person they were before?
I think there are a lot of things I could choose from but I’ll do something positive after the last answer lol. Prior to joining the Scions Cori was a really lonely person who worried a lot about letting down anyone who did care about them by not being perfect, by not living up to what they should be, and who tried very hard to do things by themself/without bothering anyone. This didn’t go away overnight but by the end of Shadowbringers I think it’s really cemented that they are not alone, they have friends and family who love and care about them, who will fight by their side and pick them back up. They still have a tendency to fall back into their bad habits and run away a little bit (see above answer lol), and of course there’s a loneliness inherent in being the WoL (at least to Cori) but. it has definitely made a difference in them to feel so loved. to be loved is to be changed and all that.
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