#joyce going to his house everyone going to murrays you get it | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

estrellami-1 · 1 year

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Writer prompt: Steve finding out about Murray getting Joncy together & rips into him for helping their relationship to end the way it did. Nancy & Jonathan realizing that their behavior was not only not acceptable but also cruel (esp Jon for taking the photos)

Hello my friend! I actually had part of this already written and I was trying to see if I was ever actually going to post it… and then you sent this prompt which actually (mostly) works! This focuses more on Steve ripping Murray a new one so I hope this is close enough to what you want! ❤️

They’re having dinner. It’s a once-a-week thing Joyce had decided on, back when everyone was still healing, when they all needed the reminder that they made it out. Maybe not unscathed, but they’re out.

It’s during one such dinner she invited Murray to. She’d leaned over to everyone else, whispering, “I asked him to be on his best behavior.”

Steve doesn’t know how they end up here. How they end up with Murray essentially patting himself on the back for getting Nancy and Jonathan together, then just as suddenly turning to Steve and Eddie with a wicked glint in his eye.

He’s talking, and Steve’s getting mad. He doesn’t care what wild theories Murray comes up with for him. But he’s targeting someone who’s clearly uncomfortable with the attention.

Eddie’s withdrawing. His hands are in his lap, his head’s bowed, his shoulders are hunched.

Steve is livid.

“That’s enough,” Steve says suddenly.

Murray pretends he doesn’t hear. “Of course, it’s not like any of you’d care about that,” he says, gaze lingering first on Robin, then Will.

Steve stands and slams his hands on the table. “That’s enough,” he says again, louder. He’s shaking. Eddie won’t look at him. He can’t feel his face, doesn’t know what expression he’s making, but he’s so, so angry. “Did it ever occur to you that the couple you were oh-so-happy to finally get together meant she cheated on me? Did it ever occur to you that you only knew one side of the story? That I was fucking sixteen years old and a girl died in my pool. I was sixteen and trying to contend with the fact that I was living in a goddamn haunted house. And I’m sorry I wasn’t enough,” he tells Nancy. “I tried, though. If you don’t believe a single thing I say, believe that. I tried.” He sighs, shakes his head, looks down at the table for a second before settling his gaze back on Murray. “Did it ever occur to you that people should get to make their own goddamned decisions? Regardless of someone’s sexuality, pushing people together is never okay. Regarding their sexuality, you don’t get to take that choice away from them. Regardless of who’d be okay with it. That is their choice and you stripped a basic human right away from them.” He leans over, looks Murray right in his eye. “I used to be like you. I used to think I had to be perfect, had to know everything, everyone. Had to have all the answers. But what happens when you don’t? What happens when you don’t know, Murray? What does that make you?” He pauses for a second; just enough time for Murray to open his mouth. “Human,” he continues. Murray’s mouth closes again. “It makes you fucking human. So let us be human, too. Just shut your goddamned mouth for once in your life before I do it for you. Permanently.” He narrows his eyes at Murray. “I took on a Demogorgon with a bat. I took on a Russian soldier with nothing. I’ve been to the Upside Down and back. Don’t fucking test me.”

The silence is palpable.

“Well,” Murray says finally. “Lovely meal as always, Joyce-”

“Just leave,” she says, quietly, but no less severely. He pauses, then nods and leaves.

The silence is unbearable.

Steve’s chair is loud as he scoots it back. “Excuse me,” he murmurs, making his way around the table to get to the stairs. “I’m not hungry.”

He doesn’t look up at anyone. He doesn’t see Robin, teary-eyed and proud. He doesn’t see Eddie, shell-shocked. He doesn’t see Nancy, crying.

He doesn’t see Will, terrified and grateful.

He sees his shoes as he walks up the stairs, making his way into one of the first rooms he finds. Thinks it’s Will’s, based on the decorations.

He numbly makes his way to the bed and slides down to sit on the floor, back against the comforter. He buries his head in his hands and tries to remember how to breathe.

He doesn’t know how much time passes before he hears careful footsteps. He knows he’s visible from the hallway. He can’t bring himself to care.

The footsteps enter the room he’s in. “Stevie?” Eddie asks cautiously. “Are you okay?”

Steve sniffs, even though his eyes are dry as ever. “Ask me again when I stop shaking,” he murmurs, giving an absent smile at Eddie’s huff of laughter.

“Mind if I sit?”

Steve lifts his head, looks at Eddie. He’s got his head cocked hopefully, glancing at the ground by Steve. Steve pats it, and Eddie’s smile grows. “Joyce is officially my favorite of the moms. And the scariest. She laid into Jonathan and Nancy. But, uh. I think everyone else is okay.”

There’s enough emphasis there to make Steve pause. He knows about Will, then.

He’s brought back to the present when Eddie sighs. “Y’know, that guy’s a real dick. Like, an absolute, grade-A douchebag. But, uh. He’s not wrong. About me.”

Steve glances at him. Watches him playing with his fingers. “Yeah?” Steve asks, almost not recognizing the hopeful tone in his voice. Eddie looks over, and Steve smiles. “Me too.”

Eddie moves a hand, tentatively intertwines it with one of Steve’s. Steve squeezes back. “I can’t- my brain, it’s too-” he waves a hand around his head- “to do anything else. But. This is good.”

“Yeah,” Eddie agrees, squeezes back.

A few minutes later Will pokes his head in. “Steve? Eddie?”

Steve turns a tired smile on Will. “Hey.”

Will blinks. “Um. Hey. Can I come in?” Steve pointedly looks around. Will snorts and walks in, settles criss-cross on the floor in front of them. “I, uh. Wanted to thank you, Steve. For. Um.” His breath hitches. “Just. I know nobody would care? But it’s. I feel like it would be a big deal. But anyways I care, and I’m just. Really grateful.” His breath hitches again, and a teardrop hits his hands where they’re clasped in his lap.

“Oh, Will,” Steve murmurs, squeezing Eddie’s hand once before dropping it and holding both arms out to Will.

Will crawls forward and collapses into Steve. “That was really scary,” he murmurs. Steve hums in agreement.

Suddenly Will looks up. “Are you okay? He- he just told everyone, and we don’t even know if it’s true or not, and then you- you completely shut him down, which was awesome, and you’re kinda my hero, but- are you okay?”

“I’ll be alright,” Steve promises, looking over at Eddie, asking wordlessly. Eddie nods. “He was right. About both of us. And all of that. Honestly, my comfort was the last thing on my mind downstairs. I know the words people use. Hell, I know the words I used, before your brother knocked some sense into me.” He widens his eyes exaggeratedly at Will, who giggles. “And I just thought… it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter if it’s true or not. Words can hurt, and I’m done with people I love being hurt. Especially when I can stop it. So… I did.”

“You did,” Eddie agrees, beginning to giggle. “You threatened him, Stevie. That was fucking metal.”

Steve laughs then, squeezes Will tighter to him and leans over to rest against Eddie, content. “Yeah?”

“Yeah,” Will agrees. “You’re okay, though?”

“I’m alright,” Steve promises him.

Will turns to Eddie. “Are you okay?”

Eddie smiles, ruffles Will’s hair. “I’m alright, Baby Byers. How’re you holding up?”

Will thinks, then nods. “I’m okay,” he says. “Um. Jon and Nancy are at the Wheelers’. Everyone else is still downstairs. Are you-”

“In a minute,” Steve answers wryly. “I’m still shaking.”

Will snorts, tucking his head into Steve’s chest. “I think I’ve been shaking ever since he looked at me.”

“It’s the eyes, right?” Eddie asks. “Like they’re looking into your very soul.”

“Yeah,” Will laughs. “They’re unsettling.”

Steve sighs, lets go of Will with one hand, lets it fall onto Eddie’s. He squeezes briefly, smiling when Eddie twines their fingers together.

Will watches silently. “Were you together before he said anything?”

“No,” Eddie admits. “But I don’t think it would’ve taken much longer. We were already most of the way there.”

Will nods. “And I guess I don’t have to ask if you know about me.”

“Why don’t you tell us?” Eddie gently suggests. “He hasn’t taken that choice away from you yet.”

Will nods, takes a breath. Whispers. “I’m gay.”

“Same,” Eddie grins, offering a high-five. Will looks at him, surprised, before clapping their hands together.

They both turn to Steve, who chuckles. “I’m bisexual. I like both.”

Eddie’s grin widens. “Like Bowie.”

Steve snorts. “That’s exactly what Robin said.”

Eddie waggles his brows. “Great minds, and all that jazz.”

Will and Steve both chuckle at that. Will leans back, and Steve lets him go. “Thank you,” he murmurs. “For what you said, earlier. And for just now. Um. I’m okay. And Mom bought ice cream and that sounds really good right now.”

Eddie snorts. “Go on,” he says. “We’ll be right down.”

Will smiles and walks out, and Eddie turns back to Steve. “Okay?”

“How many times are people gonna ask me that,” Steve faux-grumbles, leaning further into Eddie. He sighs. “I really think the best answer I can give is I’ll be okay. I really wasn’t thinking about myself at all.”

Eddie hums. “What were you thinking about?”

Steve huffs out a semblance of a laugh. “Honestly? You. You’d shut down, you were staring at the table, your shoulders were curled in, you wouldn’t look at me… and then he looked at Robin, and Will, and I just saw red. Like I said, I’m done with the ones I love being hurt. It’s- it was never about me. Not this.”

Eddie tilts his head. “It kinda is, though? It was about us, and you’re a part of us, Stevie.”

“Well,” Steve says, then sighs and gives up, tucking his head onto Eddie’s shoulder. “You said Joyce laid into Nance and Jon?”

“Mhm. Terrifying, I tell you. Like that mom look, y’know? But even worse because she’s been through all this shit and knows all your secrets.”

Steve snorts. “How’d they take it?”

“Nancy was crying before Joyce started. I don’t think Jonathan did at all, but who knows what happened once they left.”

“Crying?”

“Mhm. I wouldn’t be surprised if she comes around the next few days, looking to apologize.”

Steve snorts. “That’ll be the day.”

“I might hang around the next few days. I’d like to see it.”

“I want you to hang around.”

Eddie smiles down at him. “Yeah?”

“Yeah. Anything more than this, tonight, I think wouldn’t be a good idea. But you could come over? We could sleep? Talk in the morning?”

“Sounds perfect,” Eddie says warmly. “But first, ice cream?”

Steve chuckles. “But first, ice cream,” he agrees, and together they walk downstairs.

So as I said I had (part of) this done before (the last hundred words or so I just added to help tie it all together), so it doesn’t end as nicely as I’d like. I think Nancy and Jonathan absolutely need to apologize, yes, but I also felt it was important for Steve to say that, to stick up for his friends, and to apologize to Nancy, even if he didn’t need to; it just felt very in-character, like he thinks everything’s his fault, so he’d apologize; but he’s also very loyal and protective, so Mama Bear Steve came out the second Murray looked at Eddie, Robin and Will. Eddie and Steve and Will for the win, I LOVE the dynamic we’ve cooked up for them (because the producers are too chickenshit to let them bond the way they absolutely would), and off-screen Robin and Steve have another bathroom moment with her ripping him a new one in the way of “you need to take care of yourself, dingus, we’re fine, thank you for protecting us but Jesus Christ protect yourself for once-” and then absolutely proceeding to smother him in a hug.

Anyway. I hope you liked it!! I may do a part 2 with Nancy and Jon’s apologies but it depends on if writers’ block keeps kicking my ass the way it has been.

(Edit: sort-of part 2 has been written!)

#stranger things #steve harrington #eddie munson #steddie #murray bauman #robin buckley #will byers #joyce byers #nancy wheeler #jonathan byers #the other kids are there too but they’re supporting characters in this one #(they support Steve. El messes with Murray just enough to make him think he’s losing it)#y’all don’t understand I’ve written the entire fic IN MY HEAD so ik how it ends but getting it on paper???#nahhhh that don’t happen #anyways I hope you enjoy!#asks #requests #prompts #starambles

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dreamofbecoming · 1 year

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here we are at last! there have been a bunch of posts lately about how neither eddie nor robin have any gaydar to speak of, but steve canonically does, and also vickie definitely left fast times paused on purpose as a flag, and frankly all of you are just so objectively True and Correct that i had no choice but to write about it. parts 1 and 2 not strictly necessary for context but definitely set in the same universe

part 1 part 2 ao3

platonic stobin, rockie, steddie

rating: t

wc: 8.4k (holy fuck it got away from me)

---

Robbie isn't drunk yet, but she's getting there.

Honestly, Steve should probably slow her down, but what the hell. They're celebrating, after all. He'll cut her off in a bit, but she deserves to have some fun. They all do.

It's been three weeks since Eddie got out of the hospital, one since he was finally let off bedrest. Or, not exactly bedrest, but enough restrictions that he was basically confined to the trailer (brand new, courtesy of Owens and his goons), and from the way he complained the whole time you'd think they had him chained to the bedposts.

Hm. Maybe thinking of Eddie chained to bedposts isn't the best use of Steve's time. Not here, anyway. That's a Later activity.

It's the first house party any of them have been invited to since Spring Break, thrown by one of Robin's band friends. None of them planned on going, except that two days ago a frantic call came over the All Hands channel on the walkie that El had finally broken through, Max was awake, and the doctors thought her arms and legs would eventually, almost, make a full recovery, granted with lots of physical therapy.

Apparently the only useful thing Vecna ever did was break her bones at right angles so they could set them cleanly. Her vision will probably never fully return, but she's alive. She's alive, and she's awake, and she's apparently being a complete menace to the nurses, which is more comforting to Steve than any of the rest of it, so how could they ask for anything else?

Steve still feels like he's taking his first real breath after drowning every time he inhales. He's not sure he'll ever stop feeling this relief. It's so sharp it's almost painful.

So they're at this party, and they're celebrating. There's a real celebration planned, of course, with the whole Party and assorted extras, Murray (ugh) and Jonathan's California friend (who seems nice), Joyce and Hopper (and isn't that a trip) and Eddie and Wayne (Eddie read him in immediately, to no one's surprise) and everyone else. They've got plans to descend on Steve's house as soon as Max is allowed out of the hospital, where they'll presumably trash his mother's nice white carpets and eat through his snacks like locusts and enrage his neighbors with their shrieking in the pool. Hopper and Wayne will fight over who gets to work the grill until Joyce gets fed up and takes over and Eddie will commandeer the sound system and Robin will laugh at Steve for frantically switching between Host Mode and Lifeguard Mode until she finds someone big enough to sit on him and make him eat something. He can't wait.

But for now, they're at this party, and they're celebrating. With someone else's alcohol, which is a nice treat for Steve.

He's leaning against the wall by the kitchen doorway, sipping something Robin made him that tastes like paint thinner and looks like undiluted red food dye. He's surprised it hasn't eaten through the bottom of the cup like that green gunk from the elevator. He doesn't quite feel like joining the crush of people in the living room. He's felt a little off since Spring Break, a little lost inside his head. He knows Robin can tell, but she hasn't pushed him, other than dragging him here tonight. He's so grateful for her he thinks he could cry.

He doesn't, though, he just watches her from the kitchen doorway, squished on a couch between Vickie and who he thinks might be one of Eddie's bandmates. He recognizes him from those nights he would pick the kids up from Hellfire at the school, and also from Eddie's hospital room. He's got fluffy hair and a flannel shirt around his waist. Gary, maybe? Garth? Steve's not sure. He'd introduce himself and find out for sure, but apparently, carrying Eddie's bleeding not-quite-corpse on his back into the hospital and throwing around his father's name until someone agreed to treat him before collapsing in the lobby from his own injuries wasn't quite enough to erase the contempt for King Steve, so Steve's been mostly avoiding those guys. Eddie swears he's working on it. Steve...should maybe care more than it feels like he does. He thinks maybe a lot of things should feel more...more, than they do. But that's a problem for Later Steve. It's fine. He's fine. He's handling it.

He watches Robin, and she's laughing, and she's not quite drunk yet, and he's glad for her. This is what he wanted. This is what he wished for, on that flipped over bucket, in that field. That they'd all get through it. That they'd all get to keep smiling and doing stupid teenager shit. He maybe wishes he felt a little more like someone who wanted to do stupid teenager shit and a little less like someone watching his friends have fun from behind a plate-glass window, but he'll take it. Whatever he can get, he'll take it.

He looks back at Robin, and, huh. She's still laughing, but now she's between Eddie and Maybe-Gary-Maybe-Garth. He follows Robin's less-than-subtle (crimeny, this girl, he's gotta teach her a goddamn poker face) longing gaze and sees a flash of red heading for the back door.

This feels like a chance to do something useful. Robin will be ok, Eddie will keep an eye on her.

He follows Vickie out the back door. He finds her leaned against the back of the house, her eyes closed, her head tilted back. She's smiling. She really is pretty, Steve can see why Robin likes her. God, he hopes he's right about her. Either way, he's determined to find out. It's what Robin deserves.

"Hey, Vickie. Come out for some fresh air?"

Her smile gets bigger when she turns to him. He really hopes he's right about her, she's a fucking sweetheart. He hopes he isn't about to do something hugely stupid. Knowing him, he probably is, but also knowing him, he's gonna do it anyway.

"Hey Steve! Yeah, I was just getting a little warm in there. How about you? Smoke break?"

"Nah, I'm trying to quit. Robin hates them, she keeps stealing them out of my mouth, so it's somehow more expensive and I don't even get to smoke them. Easier to just stop. Which is probably her goal," he laughs.

"You and Robin are pretty close, huh?"

"Oh yeah, platonic soulmates. With a capital P!" He makes an incredibly dorky gesture with his hands, and has to stop himself from facepalming. Great going, dingus.

Still, Vickie's smile gets a little wider, which he thinks is probably a win.

"That's why I came out here, actually. I wanted a chance to talk to you." Her eyebrows go up. Always with the goddamn eyebrows around here. "Not, like, in a creepy way! Or, well, I guess that's what a creep would say, but I swear I'm not! I just meant, because Robin really likes you," shit, too much, "I mean, she likes hanging out with you, and she's my best friend and all, so I wanted to. Um. Get to know you better. You know. For Robin."

"...For Robin."

He groans. "I swear I didn't used to be like this. I used to be able to talk like a normal person. I didn't know that was a skill you could lose! I would have worked harder at it!" She's laughing at him now, but at least she's polite enough to hide her giggles behind her hand. That's something.

He sighs, and throws his head back to take a deep breath and try and come back to his body, like Robin showed him. Having therapist parents sounds like a nightmare to Steve, but it has its uses, he guesses.

He looks back at Vickie, who is watching him with what seems like more amusement than concern, so he's taking that as a win. If she's laughing, she's not running away. He sticks his hand out.

"Hi, I'm Steve. You're really important to the most important person in my life, so I'd really like to be your friend." He tries to give her his most winning smile, but honestly he's a little worried his teeth are still red from that godawful drink.

She grins at him, still definitely laughing at him a little but more genuine than before, and shakes his hand. "I'm Vickie, and you're really important to someone I hope will become really important to me, so I'd love to be your friend."

He doesn't breathe a sigh of relief, but it's a close thing. King Steve decided to stay in tonight, apparently, so he's on his own, and boy oh boy is he worse than he remembered.

"So, new friend, what do you want to get to know about me?"

Thank fuck Vickie's carrying so much of the weight here, honestly.

"We could, uh, talk about movies?" Jesus Christ, where did all the goddamn Harrington Charm go, anyway? Did Vecna eat it?!

There go the eyebrows again. He's cursed, he really is. "Movies?"

"Yeah, you know, I work at a movie store. Or I did, anyway. With Robbie. Pretty sure it went under in the quake though. That or Keith just fired us and didn't bother calling to let us know." He laughs awkwardly. He's doing fucking everything awkwardly, honestly. He hasn't even asked the question yet and he's already sweating bullets. No wonder Bobbie was so scared to confront this head-on. "Anyway, it can tell you a lot about a person, you know. Their favorite movie."

Come on, take the bait. Take it.

She nods seriously at him. "Oh I get that for sure, you can learn a lot about someone by their favorite book. I used to volunteer at the library and there was always gossip about who checked out what romance novel and whether that meant their marriage was on the rocks, you know?" She giggles, hiding behind her hand for a second. "I guess it was kind of mean, but we never said anything to anyone outside the library, and never to their face, you know? It was just something to keep us entertained on slow days."

Fantastic, he can work with this.

"Oh totally, I completely get it. Robs and I did the same thing at Family Video, making up stories about what we imagined people's lives were like that they were renting Casablanca and Gremlins on the same night, you know? Like, what does that evening look like? Which one do they watch first?"

She laughs. Perfect. She took the bait, now he's just gotta reel her in. Or something. He's never been fishing.

"You know, I usually rent my movies from Family Video. Did you guys ever look up my rental history?"

Aaaand, got her!

"You know, I think we did, actually, not that I'm helping the creep allegations," he winks at her. She slaps him on the shoulder. There we go, there's the Harrington Charm. Jesus fuck, where has it been all night? Sleeping?

Moment of truth, here we go.

"Fast Times At Ridgemont High, right?" He keeps his eyes on her face while he says it. He needs to see how she reacts.

She's been watching a raccoon rummaging through the neighbor's trash, but as soon as he mentions the movie, she whips her head around and looks at him sharply.

She studies his face intently in the glow from the floodlights above the garage. Whatever she finds, the fear in her eyes fades just slightly to caution. All good signs.

Fuck, this is harder than he remembers. Talking in code and reading all the subtle little shifts in body language involved in this conversation is stretching muscles in his brain he's forgotten he had. His friends these days all just sort of...say whatever they mean, straight out. He thought it was weird and off-putting at first, but now that he's doing this dance again, he's realizing he hasn't missed it.

The things he does for Robin, honestly.

He can see the moment she decides to trust him, even though she's still tense. She takes a deep breath, like she's gearing up for something. "That's a good one, for sure. You know, I think I maybe forgot to rewind it the last time I returned it? I paused it at my favorite part, but I think I got distracted and never finished it. I hope that doesn't cause too much trouble for you guys at your job. I'd hate to be one of those customers."

Jesus, this chick is brave. She's basically just coming right out and saying it! Holy shit, he's about to get Robbie a girlfriend! Ok, ok be cool. Bring it home, nice and easy.

"Nah, not a problem at all. Besides, I think I remember that tape, and we have the same favorite part, I think. All three of us." Fuck he hopes this isn't a mistake. If he just fucked up and outed Robin for no reason he'll- fuck, he doesn't know what he'll do. Ask El to open the gate back up so he can throw himself into it, probably.

Vickie's eyes go wide. "Robin too?" There's something like hope in her voice. He thinks. He hopes, anyway. Maybe he's just projecting, but he really thinks he's been right on the money from the start. He just needs to prove it to Rob and give them both a push.

"Yeah, Robin too. Now me, I like Fast Times a lot, but I also really like The Outsiders, you know?" A truth for a truth. Nothing is free, he remembers this dance. Trust is always earned.

He didn't realize her eyes could get any bigger, but somehow they do. Slowly, a grin spreads across her face. "Really? Uh, me too! Those are...both...really good movies, you know?"

"Totally!" He's grinning now too, he can't help it. He's so excited for Robbie he might explode. This is the most alive he's felt in weeks!

"Not Rob, though, she loves Fast Times, but not so much The Outsiders. She can be, uh. Pretty nervous, you know? To talk about her taste in movies. I think she might be worried you don't like Fast Times as much as she does, but I know she really wants to, uh, watch it with you. So you might have to be the one to, you know, tell her how much you like it, and maybe ask her to watch it together?"

He's getting lost in the metaphor here. That's clear enough, right? Robbie isn't going to believe him about Vickie liking boobies unless she walks up to her and tells her "I like women, go out with me," in very small words, so he really hopes he got the message across. He needs Vickie to take the wheel on this.

Luckily Vickie is nodding enthusiastically. "For sure! I can do that!" She's halfway back to the house, almost tripping over her feet, before she looks back at him sheepishly.

"Oh no, I'm sorry, that was so rude of me, I just got so excited and I wanted to-"

"Hey, no worries, that was the goal, right? This is what I was hoping for when I came out here to talk to you. She, uh..." He shouldn't. He should stick to the code, just in case, he should be careful, it's Robbie's life on the line here.

But it's also her happiness.

"She didn't believe me. About the Fast Times thing. And then we ran into you at The War Zone, and she was totally convinced I was wrong, but I knew I had to ask. Just in case. I just really want her to be happy, you know?" There. He hasn't actually said the words. If it goes sideways, they still have plausible deniability.

And then, well. There's always Plan B. He doesn't exactly want to burn Vickie's house down, but he will. For Robin, he'll do anything.

Vickie is smiling softly at him. She really is sweet, she and Bobbie are gonna be so cute together. He can't wait to tease them into oblivion.

"I'm glad she has a friend like you, Steve."

He scrubs a hand across the back of his neck, feeling weirdly self-conscious. "Yeah, well, you know. You've got a friend like me, now, too, right?"

There's that bright smile again. "Right!"

"Alright, go on. Go get your girl."

Good lord, redheads sure can blush, huh?

He waits a couple of minutes before heading back in himself, enjoying the night air. It's not quite the height of summer yet, so the evenings aren't as muggy as they'll be in a month or so. For the first time since he crawled out of that gate with Eddie lashed to his back with the remains of the rope ladder he cut to protect Dustin, he's feeling the breeze on his skin without feeling like he's wrapped in plastic, like there's a wall around him, keeping from being part of the world. He wants to savor it, in case it goes away again.

When he does make his way back in, he almost trips over Robin, who's grabbing what should probably be her last drink. At least it's just a beer this time, if it was more of that awful concoction from earlier he'd probably take it away from her, pouting be damned. They could have flambéed Vecna with that shit, nobody should be putting it in their bodies.

Her face lights up when she notices him, and she flings herself into his arms.

"Oof, shit, Buckley, doing ok there? You having fun?"

"Sooooo much fun, Stevie!" She nuzzles her face into the crook of his shoulder. Yeah, if she's this cuddly in public, this should definitely be her last drink, especially if Vickie wants to make any kind of move tonight. She's not usually this touchy outside of the really bad nightmare nights. "Missed you though. Where'd you go? My bubba disappeared."

"Aw, Bobs, I was just outside getting some air, I promise. I didn't go anywhere."

She shakes her head stubbornly, her nose dragging along his collarbone. "Noooo, you left. Not now, before. After. In the hospital. We all came back but you left. You went inside your big stupid fluffy head and you don't come out anymore. I miss you."

It's a good thing Robin's face is still hidden in his shoulder, because he can't quite keep his expression from crumpling. He hasn't meant to hurt her, he hasn't meant to hurt anyone, he swears. He's trying, he wants to come back, wants to be normal again, he just...he feels like part of him is still stuck at the bottom of Lover's Lake, watching everyone above him on the surface moving on and living life, but not able to reach them.

He holds her tighter to his chest, petting her hair. It's a mess, like when she first wakes up in the morning. Maybe she fell off the couch or something while he was outside.

"I'm sorry, Bobbin-bird. I didn't mean to go away. I'm working on it, ok? I promise," he murmurs reassurances into her hair, trying to erase the sadness he can hear in her slurred words. He's shit at talking about feelings, especially his own, but not with Robin. Never with Robin. Saying true things to Robin isn't any harder than thinking them to himself, and honestly that's basically the same thing. They pretty much only have the one brain between them.

She pulls back, studying his face closely with bleary eyes, squeezing his cheeks between her hands. "Promise?"

"I promise, Bobbie." He tries to project as much sincerity as he can muster. She's edging past tipsy, but not actually drunk yet, so she should remember this moment just fine tomorrow, and he won't have to do it again.

Who he is kidding? They're definitely having this conversation again tomorrow. Maybe he can distract her with teasing about Vickie. Where did she go, anyway?

Robin grins, apparently satisfied for now. "Good!" She smacks a kiss to his forehead and finally lets go of his face. Thank god. He loves her, more than anything in the world, but she's a goddamned sweaty drunk.

Before she can say anything else, a redheaded streak comes stumbling into the kitchen.

"There you are! I've been looking everywhere for you!" Vickie leans on the kitchen counter, trying to catch her breath.

Steve looks to Robin to see how she'll respond, and, oh. Well, shit. Robin is...frozen, apparently. She's very obviously focused on Vickie, which is good, because otherwise Steve would be having trouble with flashing back to Nancy's thousand-yard stare in the Upside Down, or the whites of Max's eyes, but the part of her brain that lets her, you know, say and do things, appears to have shut down.

Looks like it's Steve's turn with the communal brain, lucky him. Time to step in and save this, if he can.

"Vickie! Hi, you know, I was just wondering where you ran off to? I was about to tell Robin to track you down, to talk about that movie we talked about earlier, but it looks like you found us instead!" He jams an elbow into Robin's side as subtly as he can, but she still doesn't move.

Vickie is looking between them, still breathing a little heavy. "Yeah, I went looking for you as soon as I came back in, but Gareth said-" Gareth! That was it! "-you went to the bathroom, and did you know there are six bathrooms in this house? Who needs that many bathrooms? I think Angela only has one sibling, why would anyone need six bathrooms for four people? That's so crazy! Anyway, I'm glad I found you, Robin. I'm, uh, getting a little overwhelmed with all the people out here, so I was hoping you might want to find a room that's maybe a little quieter, so we can talk a bit? Just the two of us?" Damn, this girl's got guts. Steve likes her.

Robin continues to stand in front of the fridge like the world's prettiest scarecrow. Come on, babygirl, you can do this! He elbows her again.

"Vickie! Hi! Steve, Vickie's here! Hi!" Steve and Vickie both startle a little because, wow, ok, volume, Buckley, damn. Still. Progress.

"Sure is, babe. Tell you what, why don't I take this-" he plucks the unopened beer out of her slack hand, "-and you and Vickie can go sit down somewhere quiet and talk about movies, huh?"

Robin blinks at him owlishly. "Movies?"

He's about to make another veiled reference to the boobies conversation when Vickie blows all of her air out of her nose and stomps one foot like that one girl in the Chocolate Factory movie who reminds him of his cousin Shauna.

"I'm sorry, I can't take it! I just spent ten minutes outside talking to Steve in ridiculous codes and another ten minutes running up and down the stairs in this insane house and I'm exhausted. I can't take the metaphors anymore. Sorry, Steve, no offense."

"Hey, none taken. It's pretty exhausting, you're not wrong. I just had to be safe."

She shakes her head. "No, totally, I completely understand. I appreciate it. I'm just secret coded-out tonight, you know? Robin, do you want to go upstairs with me and talk? I have something to ask you and I'd really rather do it in private, I don't really want any of these people listening, you know?" She waves her hand at the open doorway to the living room, which is still packed with people.

Robbie's head has been bouncing back and forth between them like she's watching a tennis match, eyes wide.

"Huh? Me? What?"

Oh geez. She's shorting out.

"Bobbie, look at me." She meets his eye, and he can see the nerves threatening to overwhelm her. "Trust me?"

She nods. "Uh huh. 'Course, bubba."

Well that warms him right up, but it's not about him right now. "Good. Go with Vickie, babe. It'll be good, I promise." He hopes he can promise that, at least. He's pretty sure he can. And if it goes bad, they always have Plan B.

Vickie holds out a hand, and Robin stares at her like it might bite her, before taking it gingerly. Both girls immediately burst into bright red blushes, and under any other circumstance he would laugh at them, but this is a delicate moment. They need him to be cool. He can be cool. He can be so goddamn cool.

Vickie leads Robin out of the room and towards the stairs, both of them still blushing like crazy and refusing to meet each other's eyes, and Steve can finally let out the breath he's been holding in a whoosh and slump back against the counter. He snags a bottle opener off the fridge- neat, it's got a magnet on it!- and pops the top on the beer he stole off Robbie.

“Well I hate to break this to you, King Steve, but she’s definitely about to steal your girl.”

Steve freezes with the bottle at his lips.

He sets the beer down on the counter and very carefully turns around. Munson is alone, thank fuck. This is fixable. He can deal with a single person. If it had been a crowd, or fuck, god forbid, someone like Gareth, who hates him, and might try and use this? Hurt Robbie to hurt him? Well, he's got his nailbat in the trunk, and he isn't afraid to use it, but he doesn't think Hopper would be thrilled to have to bail him out of jail.

"Whatever you think you heard, Munson, if Robbie gets hurt, it won't matter that you're one of us now. I'll finish what those bats started. I won't be happy about it, because you're a pretty cool dude and I like hanging out with you, but I'll do it for her if you make me." He makes sure his voice is low and even, and he meets Eddie's eyes head on. He wants to be very clear, this is not a joke. He will defend her if he has to.

He doesn't think he'll have to, not from Munson, but he isn't 100% sure, and he's taken enough risks with Robbie's safety tonight. He doesn't trust his luck enough to count on it working out a second time in less than an hour.

Munson's eyes go wide with shock- he clearly wasn't expecting Steve to meet him with quite that much aggression. He puts his hands up in surrender and leans back away from Steve.

Steve fights not to be distracted by the way his torso curves, graceful in a way he has no right to be with his wounds still scabbing over. Not the moment, Steve. Get it together, for fuck's sake.

"Hey, whoa, easy big guy. We're cool, man. Stand down."

There's a tense moment where they just...stand there, sizing each other up, unsure where to go from here.

Eddie tugs a lock of hair in front of his face, nibbling on it nervously. It's cuter than it has any right to be, honestly.

"I didn't- uh. Fuck, man. Please tell me I didn't just tip you off to flirting you didn't notice. It would suck so, so bad if I exposed Birdie without her knowing."

Steve takes a moment to consider this, frankly absurd, situation. He holds up a finger for Eddie to wait a minute, and checks both ways down the hallway outside before closing the kitchen door and leaning back against it to keep it shut. At least now it'll definitely just be the two of them, which is one more than should be having this conversation, but he doesn't see a way out of it, so this will have to do.

When he turns back to Eddie, he looks even more nervous than before.

"I'm perfectly aware of the flirting, considering I'm the one who went out of my way to set them up tonight. You didn't out anyone, and I should have been the one to make sure the door was closed before I got them in a room together, so it's not your fault for finding out. You understand you can't say anything to anyone, ever, though, right?"

Because he's apparently doomed to be accosted with eyebrow raises from everyone around him anytime he says anything at all until he dies, Eddie's are lost somewhere under his bangs. He looks...impressed. Huh, that's kind of nice. Steve resists the urge to preen.

"'Course, man, I'm well-versed in the code of silence." Something in his face softens, and Steve can feel the sincerity in his next words. "Birdie's a friend, and Finnegan seems like a real sweetie, I wouldn't ever want to hurt them like that. Cross my heart." He does, in fact, draw a cross on his chest with one long, ringed finger. What a dork, holy shit. Steve wants to put that finger in his mouth.

"I have to admit, I didn't expect you to be so cool with something like that. In general, but also especially since you and Buckley are, y'know." He waves his hand expansively around his head, the kitchen lights glinting off his rings, and Steve has to fight the urge to bat at it like a cat with a laser pointer. Jesus Christ, Harrington, focus. The man just called you a homophobe, get your shit together.

He decides, very magnanimously, he thinks, to ignore the homophobe bit, honing in on the rest. "Me and her are...what, exactly?"

"I mean, aren't you guys like, a thing?" Oh Jesus fuck. Not again.

"Ugh, no, where the hell do people keep getting that? Robin and I are just friends, ok? Platonic soulmates. Capital P!" He throws his hands in the air in frustration.

"-capital P," Eddie choruses with him, "I know, I know, I just, shit, man, I dunno, I figured you were..."

"Were what?"

"...Lying? Shit, that sounds worse out loud, sorry! I just mean, because, you know, Henderson keeps saying-"

"Oh, well if Henderson says it, it must be true," Steve rolls his eyes.

"Well fuck me for trusting the kid who calls you his best friend, I guess!"

They glare at each other across the room for a minute, before the ridiculousness of this moment catches up to Steve and he drops his chin to his chest, huffing a laugh.

Eddie looks confused, and still nervous, and a little incredulous. Also a lot adorable, but that doesn't feel relevant. "Ok, I'm so lost, man. I just came in here for a beer, and this has been an emotional rollercoaster I was unprepared for."

Yeah, that about sums it up.

He hasn't spent much time with Eddie since he woke up, spending those weeks juggling babysitting duties and his own injuries and helping with the relief effort and sitting vigil at Max's side. He popped in on Eddie when he was in the building for Max, but the Munson room always had someone in it- Wayne, or Dustin, or Mike, or one of the Corroded Coffin guys- and Steve always felt a bit like an intruder. So he hasn't had a chance to feel out the suspicions he formed during that surreal week when everything was still in the process of exploding, and honestly he's been feeling a little too distant to work up the energy to bother. Robin's bugged him about it once or twice since March, but he shrugged her off each time and she hasn't brought it up in a while.

Ah, what the hell. It's already been such a weird night, and Steve is honestly feeling better than he has in weeks, and he wants to ride this high wherever it'll take him.

Emotional rollercoaster, huh? Well, Steve can make that worse.

At least Eddie hasn't seemed homophobic, kind of the opposite, actually. That's a good sign if Steve's ever seen one.

He pushes off the door, stalking toward Eddie with intent and digging deep inside himself for whatever remains of the person he used to be, who could drop panties with a single look. Eddie's eyes go very round, and he stumbles back a little into the counter.

"You know, Munson, I've had a question I've been meaning to ask you for a while now. Haven't found a good moment."

"Oh yeah?" Eddie's voice comes out in what can only be called a squeak, and Steve feels powerful. That rush of confidence he hasn't felt since BN (Before Nancy) fills his chest, and he can feel his grin turn sharp. "Ho- uh." Eddie clears his throat. "How long's a while?"

Steve purses his lips, relishing the way Eddie's eyes drop down like he can't help it and his cheeks flush, and pretends to consider the question. "Oh, since Skull Rock, probably."

"O-oh? That's. Um. That is a long time." He's still staring at Steve's lips. Good. "Well, shoot, Stevie-boy. Ask away."

Steve lets his smile spread across his face slowly, keeping Eddie's eyes where he wants them. Yeah, he's still got it. Like riding a bike.

"Do you wear this bandana on purpose, or is it just a fashion statement?"

Eddie's eyes snap up to meet his own, shocked.

"Wh-what? Bandana? I. Um. What?"

"Are you flagging, Eddie?" Steve doesn't back up, toe to toe with Eddie as he reaches out and tugs lightly on the hanky trailing out of his back pocket, as always.

He may not have had the energy to talk to Eddie about it yet, but his curiosity did get the better of him after the "earthquakes," and he did dig out that zine where he originally learned about the code. He knows what a black hanky in the back left pocket means now. It's...a little daunting, but not a turn-off. Not at all. Kind of the other thing.

God he hopes Eddie knows what it means.

Eddie seems floored by this line of questioning. He's bright red and sputtering, his mouth opening and closing without saying anything. Steve lets himself stare. This'll go however it goes, but he's not ashamed. He's no more embarrassed to want Eddie than he would be to want a girl, which is to say, not at all.

"I- you- what? What? You- you know what flagging is?" He hisses the end of the sentence in a harsh whisper, so much like Robin did when he first told her about his crush that he can't stop himself from giggling.

Wrong move, since Eddie clearly takes this personally, and his expression shutters closed. Whoops.

"Hey, hey, no no no, none of that, hey. I'm sorry, I wasn't laughing at you, I swear."

"Right, sure, I believe that, considering there's nothing goddamn else to laugh at in this kitchen, Harrington." Eddie is glaring at the floor, arms crossed defensively across his chest.

Alright, maybe he gets what Vickie was saying earlier. Fuck the codes, fuck the metaphors. He can take Eddie in a fight if he has to. He's a simple guy, ok? He just wants to use his goddamn words.

Robin would be so proud.

He goes slowly, telegraphing every move so Eddie can stop him if he wants. He reaches for his hands where they're tucked into his elbows, gently easing them out until they're clasped between them.

He takes the opportunity to finally feel those rings he's fantasized about, seeing if they're as cool as they look. They aren't, they're warm from Eddie's skin. He spins one of them around Eddie's finger with his thumb, transfixed.

Eddie still looks tense, but now instead of hurt and distrust on his face, he looks like Steve hit in him in the head with something heavy. His pretty eyes are so big, blown completely black as he stares at their joined hands.

"I'm sorry I laughed. I was remembering the first time I told Robin I had a crush on you," Eddie's head snaps up again, "and she sounded exactly like you did just now, with that angry whisper voice. It made me laugh, that you guys are so alike. It makes sense, I guess. She's my favorite person, so of course I'd like you, when you're like. Not the same, I guess, but kinda a similar flavor of weird. She says I have a thing for nerds, y'know?"

Eddie blinks at him for a minute, apparently speechless. Some nerves start to creep back in, since the brief miscommunication scare burned out most of that white hot King Steve confidence in his chest. They must show on his face, because Eddie visibly shakes himself and finally opens his mouth.

"You have a crush on me?"

"Yeah, man, since the Upside Down, pretty much. The first time."

"Don't call me man when you're telling me you have a crush on me!"

Steve has to laugh at the comically offended look on Eddie's face. "Sorry. Do you prefer Eds? Baby? Big Boy?"

Eddie is so red Steve is surprised his face isn't steaming. He yanks one hand out of Steve's grip to smack him in the chest. Steve laughs and lets him, dropping their still-joined hands down between them and tangling their fingers.

"You're a fucking dick, Stevie. Can't believe I like you."

Steve grins at him, big and hopeful. "Yeah? You like me, Munson?"

Eddie shoves at him with a groan, but doesn't let go of his hand. "Pretty sure everyone in this town likes you, King Steve. It's like a rite of passage, or something."

Steve feels like he could walk on air, he isn't even going to get fussy about the King Steve thing. They can talk about that later. Eddie likes him! Eddie has a crush on him! He could fight a demogorgon with his bare hands right now, that's how powerful he feels.

Eddie gets quiet after a second, tugging a curl in front of his mouth again. Seems like a nervous tick, maybe. Steve notes that for later. He may not be much of a reader, but he's going to learn to read Eddie Munson like a book if it's the last thing he does.

"I thought, um. I kinda...hn. Ugh."

"Gonna need more than that, baby, I'm not fluent in Munson yet." That glow in his chest picks up a little again at the way Eddie flushes so pink and pretty at the petname.

"I thought you were straight." It comes out all in a rush, the words mumbled and slurred together through his hair.

Finally, it's Steve's turn to raise an eyebrow. Take that, universe! "You meet a lot of straight guys who know what the Hanky Code is?"

Eddie shakes his head in wonderment. "Still can't believe The Steve Harrington knows what flagging is."

He's about to reply when the kitchen door flies open with a bang that sends the boys leaping backwards away from each other. Steve finds himself braced between Eddie and the door, brandishing the bottle opener from the fridge in front of him like a knife. He doesn't even remember grabbing it.

Robin is standing in the doorway, eyes wild and hair frizzing out around her head in a way she would despise if she was sober and not obviously preoccupied with something else.

"Jesus, Robs, you about gave me a heart attack, what the hell?"

"Sorry bubba, not important right now!"

He rolls his eyes. Of course not. Just his trauma that could have made him stab her if he hadn't caught himself, nothing major. This girl, he swears.

"Dingus! Focus!"

"Focus on what, Bobs?"

"She wants to kiss me, Steve!"

His eyes go wide. Thank fuck the door bounced off the wall and swung back shut behind her. That's not something to shout to a party full of gossipy strangers.

Still. This is a big moment! "Bobbie! What'd I tell you, huh?" He picks her up around the middle, swinging her around while she cackles wildly and bats at his shoulders.

"Put me down, you lunatic! Steven Elizabeth, you put me down right now, or I swear I'll never speak to you again!" She's laughing too hard for him to take her seriously, though.

He does take pity on her and set her back on her feet, stealing one more tight hug. He's so happy for her he could scream. This night has turned out better than he could have imagined.

"Tell me everything! What happened! What did she say? What did you say? How was the kiss?"

"Well we didn't actually kiss yet, exactly."

"Wait, then how do you know she wants to kiss you?"

"She told me! She said she thinks I'm really pretty and funny and smart and she's like you! She likes both, and she says her and Dan are done, like for real for real all the way done, and she held my hand, Steve! And she wants to go on a date! And she said she wanted to kiss me!"

"That's awesome! I'm so happy for you, Bobs. What did you say when she said she wanted to kiss you?"

"I came down to tell you about it, obviously."

Oh, Bobbie, what the fuck. "Robin James Buckley. Do not tell me that a pretty girl tried to kiss you and you ran away and left her upstairs!"

The situation finally seems to register, and Robbie's hands go flailing around her face the way they do when she's overwhelmed.

"Oh no! Steve! Oh no!"

"Go, you insane person! Go back upstairs right now and kiss her this minute! Go!"

He physically herds her to the door, at which point she finally notices Eddie, who has been standing in the corner where Steve shoved him behind him when the door crashed open, watching them like he's wishing he had popcorn.

Fuck. Steve was so excited for Robbie he totally forgot he was here.

Robin's body goes rigid and all the color drains out of her face all at once.

Steve grabs her by the shoulders. "Hey, Bobbin, eyes on me, ok? Eyes on me." She finally drags her eyes away from where she's been staring at Eddie in horror, and Steve's heart breaks at the fear on her face. "It's ok, Bobbie, I swear to god it's ok. I was right, alright? I was right about him, we were talking before you came in. He's safe, I swear. We're safe, Bobbie, I promise I'll keep you safe."

"I promise I won't say a word, Birdie. Friends of Dorothy gotta stick together, right?" Eddie pipes up from the corner, stepping forward slowly and carefully, hands out front like he's approaching a skittish animal.

"You're- you're like u- me?" Oh, he loves her so much. Still protecting him, just in case.

"It's ok Bobs, I told him about me. I was about to get a kiss of my own before you came in, I think, actually."

Eddie jumps on the opportunity to cut the tension, ever the showman. Steve likes him so goddamn much. He grins impishly at Steve, that wide pretty mouth stretching out until those dimples Steve can't wait to kiss appear on his cheeks.

"Oh, you were, were you? Pretty presumptuous, Stevie-boy. Who says I kiss on the first date? Maybe I'm not that kind of boy."

"Oh, wow, ok, this is gonna be a lot to deal with, huh? Alright, I'm glad I'm not getting hate-crimed, and I'm glad you're finally doing something about your big gay crush, Dingus, but if you'll excuse me, I have a girl to kiss, and also I want to be far away from," she waves a hand between them, "whatever this is. Good luck boys, don't kiss in unlocked rooms! Vickie says she can give me a ride home, so I'll call you in the morning, bubba. Love you bye!"

She's out of the room like a shot, hopefully back up to Vickie, who he hopes is prepared to get used to this kind of thing. There are so many things to love about Robin Buckley, and honestly, this is one of them, but he can see why she might be an acquired taste. He thinks anyone who doesn't acquire that taste is a moron and not worth knowing, but he can see how those people might exist.

"Love you too, Robs!" he calls down the hallway, closing the door behind her and leaning back against it. It's not a lock, but as long as he doesn't move, it'll do. And given that Eddie appears to have found his confidence and is leaning over him, bracing his arms on either side of Steve's head, he doesn't think he'll have to move any time soon.

Unless someone needs the kitchen, but they've been doing just fine so far, so they can burn that bridge when they come to it, or whatever people say.

He reaches down to toy with Eddie's belt loops, tugging him close and grinning up at him through his eyelashes, privately thrilled at the novelty of being shorter than his partner for once. Granted, he's slumped down the door a little, but still. It's nice. He can see why girls like it.

Eddie comes closer easily, resting their foreheads together. He reaches down to fiddle with a lock of Steve's hair and Steve feels like leaning into it like a cat getting its ears rubbed.

Lot of cat feelings tonight. He's not sure what to do with that.

"So.”

“So.”

“Steven Elizabeth, huh?"

Steve can't help but laugh, the tension broken once more. "Yeah, Rob's idea. We switched. Steven Elizabeth and Robin James. So we always have a piece of each other."

"Jesus H Christ, you guys are fucking adorable. This shit is why everyone thinks you're dating, though, you know that, right?"

"Ugh, yeah, I know. I don't actually mind, I mean, I should be so lucky, you know? And she's like. My person. My most important person. And we're probably gonna get married someday just so we can be each other's next of kin, and because it's not like she could marry whoever she ends up with anyway, or me if I end up with a guy, so it's like, why not, you know? I'd be building my life around her anyway, might as well make it legal.

"It's mostly just annoying when our friends don't believe us, because like, we're honest with you guys. Maybe not all of it, like Robbie isn't ready to be out and that's fine and she shouldn't have to be, but it kinda sucks that, like, Dustin thinks I would lie to him, you know? Because I wouldn't. Not about something real. Not when it matters. But he doesn't believe me, and that just. I dunno, man."

"It hurts."

"Yeah."

"I get that. You've been through a lot for these kids, you've put yourself on the line for them, you've given up a lot for them, and when they don't believe you about something like this, it feels like they're saying they don't trust you. Of course that hurts."

Steve swallows down the tears that want to fall. Now isn't the time for vulnerability like that, not in a stranger's crowded house. Still.

"How'd you do that?"

"Do what, sweetheart?" Oh, sweetheart does something to him. If this is how Eddie felt when he called him baby earlier, the blush makes more sense.

"Figure out exactly what I'm trying to say, and make it make sense. Usually only Robbie can do that."

"I dunno, maybe Birdie and me share a brain. Or maybe you and I just make sense to each other."

Steve flattens a palm against Eddie's chest, feeling the soothing thump beneath his hand. He did that. He put his hands on Eddie's chest and his mouth on Eddie's mouth and broke Eddie's ribs and didn't stop until that rhythm started up again. And now Eddie's here, and Eddie's heart is still beating, and Eddie hears him when he talks, and Eddie is looking at his lips again, and Steve suddenly can't go another second without kissing him.

He trails his hand up Eddie's chest, over his neck, savoring the way his breath hitches and the pulse under his palm speeds up. He keeps going, pushing his fingers into that thick riot of curls, already making mental notes of the products he's going to buy for Eddie because Jesus Christ, they're dry.

He tugs, and again, Eddie comes easy. It's not an earth-shattering kiss. There's no tongue, and their noses are a little smushed, and the angle is a little off, and he's kissed enough people that he can tell Eddie probably hasn't, but none of that matters.

He told Robin, back in that field, that he was holding off feelings he knew he would have for Eddie when all was said and done. He knows now he was right, and he's done holding them off. Has been done for a while, maybe.

He doesn't know where this is going, or what Eddie wants, or how they'll manage being two guys in a town like Hawkins, or what their friends will think. If they'll even tell their friends. What he does know is that he wants to find out the answers to all of those, and he wants to find them out with Eddie, and he wants to keep kissing Eddie, and also that he can't keep kissing Eddie here.

He pulls back, pecking that dimple finally, partly to reassure Eddie that he isn't running away and partly because he's wanted to for weeks, and pulls the kitchen door open, checking that the coast is clear before grabbing Eddie's hand and dragging him towards the front door.

"Where we going, Stevie?"

"You drove here, right?"

"Sure did. You want a ride somewhere? I thought you drove Birdie."

"I did, but you've got your van, don't you? Your van with doors that lock and a big open back seat?"

Eddie's eyes go wide, and he flails a little, just like Robin. It makes Steve smile.

"Yep! Yes, yeah, hell yeah, I do have my van, my van with those things, let's go! Chop chop, time's a-wasting! Your chariot awaits!" And he's off, doing that dorky little run for the driveway.

Steve grins, and puts his hands in his pockets, and follows his boy out into the night.

#stranger things #platonic stobin #steve harrington & robin buckley #rockie #rovickie #robin x vickie #robin buckley x vickie #idk what their ship tag is sorry lol #steddie #steve harrington #robin buckley #vickie stranger things #eddie munson #bisexual steve harrington #(eddie is bi too fyi but it doesn’t come up)#my writing #i believe with all my heart that steve’s strategy for nicknaming robin is just a handful of b’s and whatever vowels he finds in his heart #gareth absolutely interrupts them in the van when he wants to go home #and he’s so goddamn annoyed that now he’s going to HAVE to learn to like king steve #because it was one thing when he saved eddie’s life and they were friends now #that could be a one off #but if he likes eddie enough to make out with him in the driveway of a crowded party #he’s in this for the long haul #and that means gareth has to get used to him and learn to get a long #godDAMMIT eddie!#did i make steve go through a depressive episode because i took a break between this part and the last one and lost his voice?#how dare you insinuate such a thing (yeah lol)

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chaosgremlinmunson · 3 months

Text

~Reunited~

For @steddie-week July 5: reunion

The years had been rough for the party, everyone had felt some semblance of unease over the years, constantly waiting for the upside down to return and cause chaos again in their lives and Steve was no exception. When Joyce Byers had reached out with invitations to her and Hopper's wedding Steve had hesitated for a moment, he wasn't sure he was ready to head back to Hawkins after all these years, he'd said his goodbyes and Robin and he had made a life for themselves in Indianapolis. He'd found a small slice of peace, but still life felt empty sometimes. Still, the invitation came and he and Robin decided they should go.

Pulling up to the new house the Hopper/Byers family had purchased was an experience, they sat in awe for a moment looking up at the three story home before them. Murray and Joyce were sitting on the porch and Steve smiled and waved back to an ecstatic Joyce who beamed at them from her perch. Slowly they got out of the car and made their way up to the front door being engulfed in the motherly embrace they'd missed all these years.

Steve let out a shuddering breath and pulled back smiling down at Joyce. They made their way into the house and immediately Steve could hear the chatter of the group of teens from the next room, he made his way in with Robin close behind and took in how much older these kids had all gotten, in the corner sat Eddie Munson, his braces beside him as he and Will went over something from one of the d&d manuals. When Eddie looked up his eyes sparkled upon seeing Steve who came and sat beside him. Eddie had chosen to move a few towns over from Hawkins with Wayne, and Steve had missed him more than he realized until those big brown eyes were gazing at him, those dimples on full display.

Steve reached over and took Eddie's hand who squeezed back in his embrace. They'd discussed their lives over the phone now and again, but Steve had never allowed himself to feel the true absence of Eddie in his life, now that he was seated beside him he didn't know if could return to the city to not see this man again for years to come.

“Hey Stevie.” Eddie said quietly leaning into his space. Steve stared at him, his heart hammering in his chest. How could someone be so beautiful? “Can you help me out to the porch, I'd like to have a cigarette.”

“Of course Eddie.” He smiled back, helping him to stand, his right leg buckling as he tried before placing the braces under his arms. They made their way carefully outside and Steve helped him sit on the porch swing before setting the braces to the side and sitting next to him.

“Wayne is seeing someone new.” Eddie started exhaling the smoke from his freshly lit cigarette, “He's a great man, his name is Frank, they met through his new job. I know Wayne likes having me home, but I can't stop thinking that maybe it's time I get out of his hair. Stay close enough to see him, but have my own space again.”

“I understand that.” Steve began taking the cigarette to take his own pull, “have you considered where you want to go?”

“Well, I was thinking actually, would you and Robin want to move back this way, not to Hawkins, but to Lawrence where we live? I've seen a few houses out there for sale and one of my cousin's owns a bakery. I know they'd be willing to hire.”

Steve sat for a moment thinking about it, “I would, I'm not sure about Robin. She just got an internship as a translator for the local hospital in Indy and has a girlfriend, but maybe.”

Eddie nodded looking off into the trees ahead across the street. Steve reached over and took Eddie's hand again and turned towards him, “I do want to ask you something though. I hope it doesn't make this weird with us, but uh, would you be interested in dating? Me, I mean. Would you be interested in being in a relationship with me?”

Eddie blinked at Steve for a moment, his cheeks a light pink before nodding his head and swallowing.

“Good, that's, uh, that's good.” Steve smiled and leaned into Eddie's space, “can I kiss you?” He'd barely finished the sentence before Eddie pulled him in tightly, licking into his mouth as though he was trying to climb into Steve's very soul. The impromptu reunion for Joyce and Hopper's wedding led him to a life with Eddie, he couldn't be happier he decided to come. There would be adjustments, conversations, a long entirely too drawn out goodbye from his best friend who'd follow only a year later to buy her and her fiance their own home, long nights, doctor's appointments and many home improvements to make their home comfortable and easy for Eddie to navigate, but there would be love. Endlessly devoted love, time wrapped in each other, growing old, and refusing to ever give up on the gift they had found with each other.

(((the braces mentioned were inspired by this artwork of Eddie Munson by @arelliann )))

#steddie week 2024 #steddie week #reunion #steddie #disabled eddie munson #stranger things #steve harrington #eddie munson #steve harrington x eddie munson #steddie fic #steve x eddie #steddie ficlet #fanfiction #robin buckley #joyce byers #jim hopper

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dwobbitfromtheshire · 5 months

Text

Strawberries & Demogorgons

A Stoncy one-shot

"Is now the right time to be putting on lipgloss?" Jonathan asked Steve.

Steve, Nancy, and Jonathan were on patrol, protecting Steve’s house from demogorgons as well as demobats. After the gates opened up, Steve’s house quickly became the base of operations, and where everyone decided to stay. It was their turn to be on guard duty, and Hopper had assigned them to work together. Joyce had been weary about the match-up at first, and Steve wondered if it was because of their history or because Jonathan told her that Steve had told Nancy that he was still in love with her. Maybe it was both. Jonathan reassured her that it was fine and went outside with them.

"Well, I want to look good for the demogorgons, Byers," Steve said. "First impressions are important."

"I don't think they're going to care if your lips look kissable," Jonathan said, his eyes flickering to Steve’s lips.

"Well, clearly you do," Steve smirked. "And if I'm going to receive the kiss of death from those assholes then I'm going to make sure they know I'm prettier than them."

"Did you smoke with Argyle?" Jonathan asked, and Nancy giggled.

"No," Steve scoffed. "It just tastes like strawberries. I like strawberries."

"Yeah, I like strawberries too," Jonathan said. "Does it really?"

"You want to try some?" Steve asked.

"Sure."

Jonathan reached for the tube of lip gloss that his was in Steve's hand. Steve, however, decided without thinking to do something else. He pressed his lips to Jonathan's, causing the other man to freeze for a moment. He started to kiss Steve back. He moved his lips and swiped his tongue over Steve’s bottom lip, letting himself taste the strawberry lipgloss. It was intoxicating, not just the way the lipgloss tasted but the way Steve tasted as well. He cupped the back of the taller man's head, letting his hands finally get a fistful of Steve Harrington's hair, and he tugged on it gently. A moan escaped the other man, and he gripped Jonathan's hips tightly, pulling him close. Jonathan enjoyed the feeling of Steve’s large hands on his hips, and he felt so much smaller in his hands. Nancy had always made him feel that way, too, despite the fact that she was shorter than he was, and he always loved it.

They broke the kiss with a gasp, but John didn't pull himself away from Steve’s arms. He savored the feeling, playing with his hair as he stared into Steve’s surprised eyes. Hm, he always thought that Steve’s eyes were brown, but then again, he always thought he hated Steve. No, Steve’s eyes had brown in them, but they also had green in them. They were hazel, and they were beautiful. It reminded Jonathan of a forest, a forest he wouldn't mind getting lost in. Jonathan cupped Steve’s cheek, smiling as he leaned into his touch.

"It does taste like strawberries," Jonathan said as he moved his thumb to brush against Steve’s lip. "You taste good."

"Yeah?" Steve asked, smirking.

Jonathan stared at him. Steve looked flushed, his cheeks pink, his mouth, and his pupils blown.

"You're definitely prettier than a demogorgon," Jonathan said.

"Does he really taste like strawberries?" Nancy asked, her face flushed as well.

"See for yourself," Jonathan said and pulled her into their arms.

Jonathan and Steve supported her as she stood on her tiptoes to kiss Steve. Jonathan watched them kiss, utterly enamored by the way they fit together. He always thought that, and maybe it's wasn't just jealousy for Nancy but Steve as well. He always wanted to be a part of that, and now he was, the two of them holding on for dear life. Suddenly, someone cleared their throat loudly, and they pulled apart pretty quickly. Hopper was standing there with Murray and Dimitri.

"That doesn't look like you're watching out for demogorgons to me," Hopper said.

"Well, clearly, they were looking for them in Steve's mouth," Murray cackled.

"Uh, well, we, uh - " Jonathan stuttered.

"I think your mom is going to be happy that this didn't turn into a fight. Quite frankly, me too. I'm glad you guys worked this out, but we need people actually watching out for us. I'm relieving you guys early," Hopper said and they moved to leave. "For God's sake, keep the door open three inches!"

Nancy and Jonathan took Steve’s hands as they moved past Murray.

"As it turns out, we do love Steve," Nancy said.

"We do?" Steve asked.

"Yes!" Nancy and Jonathan exclaimed.

"Uh, turns out the thin line between love and hate is, uh, very thin," Jonathan said.

"Uh, yeah, me too," Steve said with a goofy grin as they pulled him inside.

"Oh, that's smart," Dustin said when he spotted them.

Of course, he was the first one to see them as soon as they walked through the door.

"What?" Steve asked.

"Holding hands so you won't get separated," Dustin said.

"I don't think that's why they're holding hands, Dustin," Max said as she wheeled herself into the foyer.

"You can't even see them!" Dustin exclaimed.

"Nice thing to say to a nearly blind girl. I can still see some things and better than you, apparently," Max smirked. "Hey, Nancy, Steve, and Jonathan."

"Oh! Oh, I get it!" Dustin exclaimed.

"You do?" The three of them asked.

"Steve, were you scratching your bat bites again?" Dustin asked, putting his hands on his hips.

"Yeah, that's it. You got it, buddy," Steve sarcastically.

"He's been a very bad boy, so we're going to take him upstairs," Nancy said.

"Give him a stern talking to," Jonathan said.

"A real tongue lashing," Nancy smirked, and Max laughed.

They dragged Steve away again, the three of them giggling.

"He deserves it!" Dustin yelled.

"I definitely do!" Steve yelled back.

"Oh my God, how can someone so smart be so dumb?" Max asked.

"You think I'm smart?" Dustin asked.

"Not anymore."

Keeping their new relationship a secret from the others had lasted about a day. Steve, Nancy, and Jonathan were sitting in the kitchen pantry partaking in a box of strawberries. Jonathan's head was in Steve's lap while Steve fed him a strawberry. Nancy had ripped the stem off one strawberry, popped it into her mouth, and fed the strawberry to Steve. He gasped as he took the strawberry, his tongue slipping into Nancy's as he searched for more. The door burst open.

"There's the straw - oh my god!" Dustin's voice exclaimed.

Nancy pulled away from Steve. Dustin, Will, Robin, Mike, Argyle, Eddie, and Chrissy stood in the door. Steve, his mouth full of the strawberry, froze before slowly beginning to chew. He swallowed. There wasn't a way to explain this. . .especially since Steve’s hand was down the front of Jonathan's shirt.

"Hey," Steve said casually.

They continued to stare mostly because Steve’s hand was still down Jonathan's shirt. Will shook his head and cleared his throat.

"Uh, we were just surprised, but we're very happy for you," Will grinned. "Right, guys?"

"Right!" They exclaimed.

"Frankly, I'm relieved, I've been feeling guilty for pushing Steve towards Nancy when you two were still together," Dustin said to Jonathan.

"I'm glad you did," Jonathan said, smiling as he grabbed Steve’s hand and kissed the palm.

"So you're all three together?" Chrissy asked.

"Yeah," Nancy smiled.

"You deserve this," Dustin said to Steve, a big smile on his face.

"He does," Nancy and Jonathan said.

"You all do," Will said.

"Congratulations, my dudes!" Argyle exclaimed.

"As your best friend, I am expecting so many details!" Robin exclaimed.

"Let's give them some privacy!" Mike exclaimed.

"But the strawberries!" Dustin exclaimed.

Robin sighed and started pushing everyone out of the kitchen. Argyle was still in the doorway, smiling proudly. Robin came back with Eddie, and they both dragged Argyle away, closing the door as they did so. Jonathan sat up and straddled Steve’s lap, kissing him deeply as he tasted the strawberry that Nancy gave him on his tongue. Off in the distance, a demogorgon growled. Whatever happens next, they're going going to get through them together. . .the three of them.

#stranger things #steve harrington #jonathan byers #nancy wheeler #nancy wheeler x steve harrington #nancy wheeler x jonathan byers #jancy #steve harrington x jonathan byers #stonathan #nancy wheeler x steve harrington x jonathan byers #stoncy #bisexual steve harrington #bisexual jonathan byers #pansexual nancy wheeler #the party #stranger things fanfiction #rueleigh writes

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eskawrites · 9 months

Note

4 (for the drabble asks)

4. "I'm sorry I'm not who you thought I was."

Hopper's cabin makes a surprisingly secure prison. Nancy walks the perimeter just for something to do, just to put off going inside. The windows are boarded up. Trip wires cover every path. She can't even tell where the cameras are hidden, even though she knows vaguely where they are.

It's nothing compared to the inside, where Hopper and Murray and Jonathan and El have been taking watch in turns. Where El's old bedroom has been reinforced and stripped bare save for a chair and zip ties and a set of handcuffs.

"They're hurting her," Steve had said on that first day, when Robin's pained cry had echoed through the house as Hopper bound her to the chair and started demanding answers.

"She hurt us," was all Nancy had said.

It's been a week. The routine set in painfully fast. Joyce makes a plate for Robin with every meal, but only Hopper is in there when she eats with one unbound hand. Two bathroom breaks a day. Robin barely drinks the water they give her anyway.

They've all tried asking questions. Hopper with his gruff anger and paper thin patience. Joyce with her soft touch, her pleas, her gentle reminders about how much they've all cared for Robin over the past year. Steve with his quiet words, his silent language only he and Robin know.

Dustin with his relentless, tearful optimism. Erica and Max with their betrayal, their bitter hurt. Even El, probing into her mind until both she and Robin have nosebleeds. But the only thing they've learned is what they already knew. What Hopper told them the second he was back in Hawkins, returned from the dead.

"The girl," he'd said the second he pulled away from El's tearful hug. "Buckley. She's working for them."

And just like that, eight months of Nancy's life had come crumbling down around her. All those movie nights where Robin would save a spot on the couch for her, all those nightmares she woke up from only to find herself in Robin's arms. All the quiet moments, the soft, lingering looks, the gentle touches. The time Nancy had been brave enough to push up on her toes and press her lips to Robin's, and all the times she's been able to do it again and again since then. All of it meant nothing. A lie. An act. A means to an end. As fake and empty as the Robin Buckley she knew and loved.

"Wheeler," comes Hopper's heavy voice from behind her. Nancy closes her eyes, but she turns around. "We need you."

Everyone has tried asking questions. Everyone but her.

"What do you expect me to do?" It's harsh and defensive from the start. "I fell for her lies for a year. You think I can get the truth from her now?"

He sighs. His eyes are surprisingly gentle as he turns and gestures toward the front of the house.

"Just try."

She doesn't want to try. She doesn't want to go in there. She doesn't want to see Robin like this. She doesn't want to see Robin ever again.

But though Hopper's gaze is understanding, it's still stern. Nancy sets her jaw and starts trudging toward the door, Hopper falling into step beside her.

She starts to doubt herself again once they're inside. She ignores everyone's eyes as she passes through the living room. She keeps her head up as she and Hopper head down the hall. But once she's outside the door, she falters. She just stands there, staring at it. Robin has been so quiet since that first day. If Nancy didn't know any better, she'd think she wasn't even in there anymore.

"She's been asking for you," Hopper says beside her. Nancy sucks in a breath, reeling from the words.

"Why?"

He doesn't say anything, just pats her shoulder and pushes her slightly toward the door.

Nancy takes a breath and steps inside.

The room is cold. Bare. Not as harsh and sterile as Steve has described the Russian bunker to be, but as close as they can get in a little cabin in the woods.

But the worst part is Robin sitting in the center. Her head is tilted back, hanging off the back of the chair, but she pulls herself up as she hears the door close behind Nancy.

Her eyes widen. She mouths Nancy's name, but she doesn't actually say anything.

There's a bruise on her jaw. Her hair is messy, but it isn't dirty. Nancy wonders vaguely if Joyce has been washing it.

Nancy leans back against the door. She watches Robin swallow.

"You came," she whispers. Her voice is soft, barely even there, the same beautiful, rough sound Nancy has reveled in for months.

Nancy glares just so she doesn't cry. "What do you want?"

"Nothing." Robin tries to shrug, but she can't really move her shoulders. It's a clumsy, silly move. Nancy hates it.

"Bullshit. Hopper said you asked for me. Why?"

"I wanted to see you. That's all."

"Why?"

She frowns. "Because I miss you."

"Please," Nancy spits. "What do you actually want?"

"I'm telling the truth, Nance."

"When have you ever told the truth?"

Robin winces. She drops her gaze. "I'm sorry."

"Don't bother. I don't care."

"I do, though." Robin looks up at her again, a plea in her eyes, and Nancy hates that, too. "I care. I never wanted to--but I couldn't--Nance--"

"Don't fucking call me that."

"I'm sorry," Robin says again. "I'm sorry I lied. I'm sorry I hurt you. I--I'm sorry I'm not who you thought I was."

Nancy closes her eyes, unable to see her earnest gaze. She wants to cover her ears, too, to shut out Robin's awful, honest voice.

Because that's just the problem. She is who Nancy thought she was. She can see it in the regret in Robin's eyes, hear it in the love hanging heavy in her voice, even now.

"Why?" she whispers.

"Because I just am. I never wanted to hurt you, not for anything."

"No," says Nancy. "Why did you do it?"

Robin looks away. "Because they told me to."

"That's it?"

"It's all I've ever known," she says, her voice sharper now. But her eyes are soft when she meets Nancy's gaze again. "But I never thought--I didn't know--it all changed, Nancy. I didn't want to keep helping them."

"But you did."

"I had no choice." She leans forward, straining toward Nancy, her voice rough and desperate. "They would've hurt me--and then they would've hurt you, all of you, because they'd know I care about you."

"Stop lying!" Nancy surges forward. She can't push Robin far, not without tipping the whole chair, but she hits her shoulders anyway, shoving her back in her chair.

"I'm not," Robin breathes. She's still beneath her, pliant and waiting for whatever Nancy will do to her. "I promise I'm not."

"You lied. You let us all believe you were someone else. You made Steve think you were his best friend. You made the kids trust you. You--you made me believe you loved me--"

"You made me love you," Robin whispers. "I tried not to. I told myself it was too dangerous. But I couldn't help it."

"I hate you."

"You should."

"Stop. Just stop. I fucking hate you."

"I know."

"I hate that I still love you."

Robin just watches her helplessly, tears in her eyes. Nancy wishes she could hate her. She takes a breath and turns away, crossing her arms tightly over her chest.

After a moment, she says, "Who hit you?"

She looks over her shoulder in time to see Robin working her jaw.

"Hopper. But in his defense, I was putting up a fight."

"Why?"

"I thought if I could get away, you wouldn't have to deal with this."

"You should've thought of that sooner."

"I did. Every day. But I could never bring myself to run."

"Coward."

"Selfish," Robin corrects her. "For not letting you go. Any of you."

Nancy grits her teeth. "So what now?"

"I think that's up to you, Nance."

She shakes her head. It can't be up to her. She can't do this. She looks at Robin again, but she turns away quickly before she can really see her. She opens her mouth to say something, but anything she can think of is far too dangerous.

So she turns on her heel and walks toward the door instead. She knocks on it, and a moment later Hopper opens it. He looks at her questioningly, but Nancy brushes past him and just keeps walking.

#asks #chaotic-king-arthur #ronance #russian robin my beloved where have you been #russian robin #this was written in a rush and is very unedited do not judge #or do. i can't stop you

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greatunironic · 1 year

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very important question do you think 2023 eddie is dragging steve to see the dnd movie in theaters

yes, in any universe but if you’d like a snapshot of remarkable ‘verse:

they make a day of it. hell, it becomes a whole week of it. it’s not the usual time for the annual reunion (which they’ve taken to doing in earlier july), but it’s a time of year that’s tough on a lot of them so they say fuck it and all decamp to el + mike’s and the bnb at the end of the world in upstate new york.

everyone comes: the kids and their kids, joyce, murray and his current situationship (there are a ton of bets riding on this new one, because half of them think they might actually be common law married from way back, but mainly steve’s glad not to be the focus of will’s frankly alarming excel spreadsheet addiction), dmitri and his family, eddie even gets wanjeri and alejandro and their boys to come to town. steve + eddie bring their current foster kid (the one steve pretends he’s not way too attached to, perhaps).

there are costumes — joyce produces the old purple robe, will threatens to drown himself in real life, but his partner demands to wear it instead, insisting he thinks it’s sweet; and mike and el’s youngest rock-paper-scissor him for the hat — and eddie and will joint host a two day one-shot leading up to the premier. (robin + steve still share a character, a barbarian bard called stabbin that has been killed off several times over the years only to reappear with a new last name each time that they pick using scrabble letters from their own last names. yes, they refuse to acknowledge that it’s the same character, always pointing to the last name. no, no one has been able to stop them. yes, they think they’re hilarious.)

they descend on the movie theater like a very small, very efficient army, and the people of the town are used to them all popping up now and again so they tend to leave them to their privacy. they buy snacks by the bucket load, and there’s an actual, pulling fight between mike and dustin about the best seats in the house and who gets to sit where that ends when steve just picks dustin up and puts him in a seat and eddie does the same to mike while everyone laughs.

i haven’t seen the movie but i imagine someone cries at something, and also they almost get kicked out — again — when dustin takes issue with a plot point or maybe he just is way too aggressively into it.

afterwords, they get ice cream at a place nearby; and, as steve and eddie walk hand in hand with their foster kid, the in middle of the group, eddie leans down to the kid and says, hey, i don’t think the old man here has ever been in cahoots before.

the kid grins, turns to look up at steve, who is staring down at them, and they say, you wanna be in cahoots with us?

cahoots? asks steve.

eddie and the kid exchange their own look, and the kid let’s go of steve’s hand to grab the thick manila folder of legal docs that eddie’s been hiding under his jacket all night.

yeah, says the kid, handing steve the folder. cahoots.

#asks or whatever #stranger things #most remarkable thing #cahoots

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ihatepeanutss · 9 months

Text

tw: mention of the death of a cute bunny and basically based on the second season of stranger things

can you imagine steve accidentally involving his cheerleader girlfriend in this whole topic/situation upside down? bcs i do imagine him panicking when he seems her standing in front of the byers house while everyone tries to make a plan to be able to save will.

being steve and opening the door and seeing you had seen on the basketball court in the afternoon, wearing your most casual clothes making steve take his bat as soon as you enter the house.

“god! y/n they could have killed you” steve screamed watching you raise your eyebrow as if he were having a shoe in his hand “what are you doing here?”

“the girls of the team pass by here with Luke’s car, brigdet’s boyfriend” you raised your shoulders watching nancy and raising your hand to say hello

steve looked at you, he knew where you would be, with whom and probably what you will do but he never thought that he would be looking at you as if nancy wheeler was not aiming at you with a gun and him with a bat full of nails, looking totally normal.

“then what they say is real, eh, Jonathan?” you looked at hopper while you closed the door of the house and you saw the girl with short and brown hair smiling at you “i like to see you again, little one”

Jonathan looked at you one more time and under the gun “how not...?” he dared to ask “how can you not get scared?, steve almost peed when he saw us like this”

you raised your shoulders seeing the group of children behind Joyce “when i saw murray bauman around here i didn’t miss the opportunity to ask, i dream of being a journalist someday jhon, robin and i spent hours investigating when i found the girl in the backyard of the school” you answered calmly

steve tried not to panic by leaving the bat on the byers’ couch, approaching nancy gently to lower the gun, what was his sweet girlfriend weighing on entering without warning?

“once robin and i needed my training bag and as you put it in the trunk we found....uhm, the blood bat” you replied to steve looking at him “Rñrobin suggested that you were a serial killer”

“steve wouldn’t kill a fly” mike wheeler screamed as he approached eleven, behind him was dustin, dustin henderson, you had seen him near your yard more than once when his friends went to visit

“i saw you in the car drain” scratch your neck “don’t ask what we do there, it was tommy who took them to the forest and i saw you with that...thing” everything you said was true, you weren’t nervous, you weren’t thinking about what steve could do that either. your boyfriend was clumsy, soft but mostly clumsy and very sweet “what’s her name?, sweet girl”

“eleven” she replied, her eyes were painted with black pencil and her cheeks were naturally pink

“eleven, nice name then... what’s going on here?” you looked at the byers, the children, two alleged responsible adults with three teenagers who used weapons, you didn’t have the slightest idea what it was but you remembered that morning having seen the body of one of your lifeless rabbits in your backyard “this morning bugs died”

“did bugs die?” steve raised his eyebrow, of course he knew your rabbits, each of them and had slept more than once in your bed with pink sheets next to four rabbits jumping all over his arm, back and hairy chest

“yesterday i saw something in my yard, regularly for the tricks i let my rabbits go out to the yard while i get ready for school and... uhm, bugs never came back, when i went out it was open in the middle and dog, do you think?” you answered as you looked up when you saw dustin almost choke on his own saliva and steve looking at him as if he wanted to kill him

“wasn’t it just your cat?” harrington looked at henderson making you look at the whole house of the byers, you knew will and jonathan, you and him were childhood friends and you could attest that this was not the work of the madness that this town had put in joyce

this time it was dustin, nancy, lucas and jonathan who explained to you everything they knew, from demogorgones to the telekinesis powers of eleven, surprisingly your head didn’t hurt, being a girlfriend with steve and being friends with robin buckley and eddie munson had helped with retaining the information.

“bart is a demogogue, little one who ate your cat and my rabbit?” you answered looking at steve worried with his hands on his hips or dragging his face, you knew how to read, you knew that this town was not only quiet or had a damn laboratory on the outskirts

“you killed my rabbit” you looked at dustin while you raised your eyebrows “and i thought eddie munson was crazy because he thought the easter bunny was creepy. Tell me something worse than that”

“you go out with steve harrington, there’s nothing worse than that” mike released making you raise your eyebrow

“the cool girl goes out with you and for her in a few years there will be nothing worse than that, square pants” you smiled looking at steve laughing before winking at him, watched max and smiled, you had been colliding with her more than once when you went to the supermarket or to buy something

once all the attention was devoted to hopper and his plan steve pulled you to one of the corridors of the byers house, he looked at you, analyzed you and let out a sigh before kissing your forehead.

“so when you gave me that knife, wasn’t it really to protect me from billy?” you answered by looking at steve denying “is it for...? that?”

steve nodded “yes, i basically panicked the first time and i told myself that i wouldn’t let anything happen to you, not after seeing that standing there, next to me you look small, you’re small, for god’s sake i don’t know what i would do if something happened to my sweet cupcake” he murmured on your forehead hugging you making you roll your arms around his waist

“i think i’ll be here for a while for you, my gentleman and superhero” you smiled kissing his lips gently with one hand over his neck “thank you for taking care of me, i love you more than anything, bae”

⋆ ˚｡⋆ ୨୧ ˚

ENOUGH, I LOVE THEM SO MUCH!!! i need to do a series about my girly girl and her cutie sweet pie boyfriend named steve <3 he’s such a sweetie so as his girl bcs in my head she’s a sweet princess obsessed with priscilla presley and sharon tate style, obsessed with pink and skirts the 60s and non judging anyone or anything with just a dream ♡

#steve harrington #steve harrington x f!reader #steve harrington x fem!reader #steve harrington imagines #steve harrington fluff #steve harrington x fem #joe keery #stranger things #steve harrington x reader #bambi’s thoughts 💭#⋆ ˚｡⋆୨୧˚ bambi’s fics

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penny00dreadful · 1 year

Text

Return of The King - Part 4

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 AO3

Eddie closed the back door quietly behind him and sat down in one of the lawn chairs, tipping his head up and staring at the scattered passing clouds as he smoked.

He could hear muffled conversation and an awful lot of tears from the house behind him and it nearly made him want to cry himself. There was so much relief filling him up both from Steve being back and finally getting to do what he’d been planning to do to him since he first got to know him but also that the healing within the Fellowship could begin. He just hoped it didn’t damage anyone further.

He had no idea how he was going to do it. How the both of them were going to do it. How on earth were they going to tell all these extremely broken people that the reason they were broken wasn't a reason anymore. That he was back? And how were they going to explain that he was back different but not bad?

It could go so very wrong.

But maybe it would be enough comfort to them to know that Robin was talking again. Hell, not even just that she was talking again but that she was even… conscious again. That she was existing in the world again rather than around it.

He must have been ruminating in his own head for at least a half an hour vacillating in between smoking and worrying about the fallout of all this and watching the clouds and feeling that giggly excitement that comes with a new relationship and all the things they had left to do to each other and experience together when the door creaked open behind him and a pair of thin arms wound their way around his shoulders.

“You’ve been hoarding him.” Robin’s voice came soft and thick from the floods of tears she’d no doubt shared with Steve inside.

“Hoarding, Buckley?” He reached up to grasp her wrist. His heart was soaring. It was so good to hear her voice again. “I wouldn’t call it that. Though I suspect my Stevie exclusivity is coming to an end now that he has you back in his life.”

She hummed into his hair and tightened her arms around him, gently rocking the two of them back and forth as much as she could without toppling them over. “If I was gonna share him with anyone, I’m happy for it to be you.”

Eddie smiled to himself and tipped his head back onto her shoulder. “Awh, you’re gonna make me all misty eyed.”

“Join the club,” she let out a wet laugh, rubbing her eyes against his shirt, “it’s what the rest of us are doing.”

“Where is the man of the hour anyway?”

“He’s giving us space to say my ‘thank yous’ for taking care of me and everyone else for the last month or whatever.”

“Ah.”

“So like, thanks or whatever.” She whispered, her levity coming through clearly despite her humour.

“Not a problem, Buckaroo.”

She gave him one last squeeze and placed a kiss against the side of his head before disappearing back inside.

Eddie followed not long after, desperate for a shower and to finally get back into his own jeans. The pair he was wearing last night hadn’t been his favourite but they were a worthy sacrifice especially considering just how they were destroyed. How Steve's supernaturally strong hands had effortlessly gripped onto the tough denim and ripped them clean in two right below him, all the little noises he'd managed to work out of him with his tongue and his hips as he'd slowly, torturously slowly, sunk in-

He turned the shower water icy cold, he needed to keep his head clear for the next few hours ahead and he definitely wouldn’t be able to do that if the only think that was knocking around his brain was the continued idea of fucking around with Steve.

When he came back downstairs, he and Robin sat Steve down and tried to summarise everything that had happened in the last month. The complete and utter fuckery that the California crew went through, Joyce and Murray’s little vacation to the Soviet Union where, oh yeah, Hopper was alive but imprisoned, the cracks in the earth that had split the second Steve died, inadvertently saving Max from mutilation, the wide open gates that creatures would crawl through every so often, the fact that Hawkins was half abandoned, his parents…

It was a lot to take in and Steve took it all surprisingly well, almost like he’d been waiting for some catastrophic events to hit Hawkins for a few years now.

The next challenge that was presented to him was just how they were going to tell everyone. If they just sprung Steve on them out of nowhere it would be disastrous. They could all collapse into grief, they could run scared, they could attack him, believing him to be some fucked up trick of Vecna’s, there was so many things that could go wrong.

At the very least Wayne was going to be out of the house for the rest of the day so he couldn’t accidentally get caught in the crossfire.

Eddie sat at his kitchen table bouncing his leg so quickly his whole body was jiggling. Robin and Steve had helped him write out what to tell the others over the walkie to get them to arrive.

It wasn’t easy.

He needed them to know that it wasn’t a world ending Code Red but at the same time wasn’t it? Steve was back and that was a huge thing on its own but definitely didn’t warrant sending them all into a blind panic and putting them on edge, especially when the thing that was waiting for them was enough to implode everyone in the worst ways possible if handled incorrectly.

So he had to tell them it was urgent without skyrocketing everyone’s collective stress levels.

“Eds, it’ll be fine.” Steve tried to soothe him as the three of them sat waiting. He had a gentle grip on the back of Eddie’s neck, rubbing his thumb in small circles. It wasn’t working. “What’s the worst that could happen?”

Eddie and Robin shared a look for a long moment while Steve glanced between them.

“Okay, I don’t love this,” he said, pointing to each of them in turn, “whatever this is.”

“D’you think you’d be able to dodge a bullet if it came down to that, Stevie?” Eddie asked from behind his hair with his head hung low.

“Nance wouldn’t shoot me.”

“Yes she would.” They answered at the same time.

“She’s gonna think you’re some Vecna trick like I did.”

Robin nodded, agreeing. “Yeah, and you can’t fuck the doubt out of her like you did with Eddie.”

Eddie lifted his head just a fraction to glare at her but she didn’t back down, just raised her eyebrow.

“That’s not what happened.”

“No?”

“No, I wouldn’t have let him fuck me if I still thought he was the spawn of Satan.”

Robin scoffed with a cheeky smirk on her face. “That’s a lie. But maybe it’ll be Hopper who’ll try to shoot you, Steve.” She blinked innocently over to him. “You could try to fuck some sense into him?”

“Robin.” Steve hissed, his whole face turning red.

“You had a thing for Hopper?” Eddie couldn’t help the shit eating grin that started to pull at his mouth, quickly joined by Robin as Steve tried to glare at the two of them with as much venom as possible.

“You never heard those words come out of my mouth.”

“No, but Robbie insinuated which is as good as a confession.”

“I hate the both of you.”

Eddie and Robin shot to their feet, cooing and crowding around Steve, squeezing him tight in between the two of them with a downight dramatic level of sarcastic comfort and affection. Steve just scowled harder but wormed his arms around the two of them squeezing back, unable to hide the upward curl at the corner of his mouth.

They only broke away from their mocking ‘you love us’ ‘you looooove uuusss’ when they both felt Steve tense under their arms.

“They’re here.”

Eddie shot to his feet, his adrenaline and anxiety coursing through his whole body. He needed to move, he needed to get it all out somehow. Fuck this was it. Everything was about to change. Again.

God, it could all go so wrong.

But it could be so good too.

It could fix everything.

“Are you hidden?”

Steve nodded. “Yeah. Only you and Robin can see me.”

“Okay good, you know them, they'll just burst in-”

No sooner had the words left his mouth than the front door was thrown open and a gaggle of teenagers spilled into his hallway. Eddie felt a short kiss be pressed to the back of his head, just a silent reminder I’m here before he took a deep breath in and tried to steady himself as best he could.

There wasn’t the usual noise and chaos that used to be so normal with the kids, there were no childish arguments or rapid fire discussions. They filed into his house quietly and without bluster, each finding a spot to sit around the dining table or lean against a kitchen cabinet looking at him expectantly, barely sending a glance in Robin’s direction who had marginally retreated back into herself. Whether it was the pressure of the situation or so many people around he didn’t know. He couldn’t really blame her or the group for their reactions.

Steve was staring around at all of them with wide eyes, like he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. But instead of any kind of delight or smugness or smart remark about finally getting them to quieten down, he looked heartbroken. Like he hadn’t realised just how changed everyone was.

“Well?” Nancy snapped. Short and eager to get to the point as she always was these days and Eddie could never hold it against her.

He realised he’d been watching Steve’s reaction too closely. It probably looked like he was staring off into space while they all filled in around him.

So he took a deep breath in and began.

“Okay, uh,” he started to thread his fingers through his hair, picking out individual curls and twisting them, anything to keep his hands occupied, “it’s not bad news. It’s actually good news, or it might not be good news depending on how you view it and how we had to get here, but it’s news! I’m gonna be honest, I’m having a bit of trouble trying to figure out how to tell you all because it’s gonna be really hard to swallow at first-“

“Eddie.” Dustin interrupted, his voice lacking its youthful energy and his face as grim as it had been for the last month. “Does Robin really need to be here for this?”

Robin startled at the mention of her name and seemed confused for a second. Eddie supposed it was a fair question, Robin hadn’t exactly been present in the last month and the rest had mostly gotten used to talking like she wasn’t in the room. Most of the time she wasn’t, really.

Eddie looked over at her along with Dustin who’s eyes widened at the sight of any emotion on her face apart from blank despair.

She looked up to meet Eddie’s eyes and gave a small nod. The whole room seemed to have caught the tiny movement, automatically straightening up and becoming much more engaged. Because if it was something that had the power to pull Robin out of the pit of her mind, it must be something extreme.

“Get on with it.”

“I’m trying, Nance, but this is actually very nerve wracking-”

Nancy glared at him, hard and cold. None of the warmth he’d seen in her before was present now and it hadn’t been for a while. She crossed her arms before speaking in a very stern tone of voice.

“Eddie, I don’t have time to waste with this bull-” she stopped herself short, swallowing harshly before continuing, “with this nonsense. So just-”

“It’s Steve.” He blurted out before he could stop himself, sudden and loud and impossibly catastrophic.

Silence crashed in around all of them in the wake of his statement, filled with so much tension he could feel it tingling against his skin. They were all staring at him, some with anger, some with devastation and some with just blank expressions that hurt more than anything.

The sound of a chair scraping against his tiled floor screeched loudly through the kitchen, almost too loud to bear. Dustin stood and without a backwards glance, began to walk away.

Eddie opened his mouth to call after him, his heart breaking in two but before he could say anything a voice made itself known from behind him.

“Dustin!” Steve called out to him, cracking through the air in the kitchen like a hammer against stone.

The air was sucked out of the room like they’d all entered a vacuum chamber. Dustin stopped dead and the silence that permeated around all of them felt both fragile and immovable at the same time.

The delicate click of a gun being cocked echoed around them and there was a heartbeat where nothing happened before the room erupted into chaos.

Eddie whipped around but it wasn’t Nancy that had drawn her weapon, it was Hopper. He couldn't even make the appropriate salacious jokes at Steve's expense about that because such a panic had gripped him at the room's collective response, he found himself frozen solid.

This wasn't going well.

Shit.

Shit!

Robin threw herself in between Steve and Hopper with her hands out, screaming at him to wait!

Everyone else looked a mix in between terrified and shocked. Like Vecna himself had just manifested in front of them, Max and Lucas were shouting, their heads ping ponging between Steve and Hopper, Mike and Will were shouting questions at Eddie. Joyce had pulled Will back, trying to push him behind her, Jonathan and Argyle were trying to stand defensively in front of Joyce but Jonathan also had a hand fisted in the back of Nancy’s shirt, who was pulling a pistol out of her bag, El was staring up at Steve, silent and considering, Erica oh god Erica was crying, she was just a child, Hopper was barking at the kids and Robin to stand down and Dustin…

Dustin hadn’t moved. He still had his back turned to everyone, both fists clenched so tight the colour had left his knuckles.

“Shut up!” He screamed, high pitched and cracking, somehow making himself heard over the cacophony of noise that swiftly came to a halt at the sound of his voice.

Steve had an arm around Robin’s waist, having pulled her out of the line of fire while she scrambled against his immeasurable strength to try and get back in front of the barrel of the gun but he too froze at the sound.

Dustin took a deep breath in. “Eddie. What makes you so sure?”

Eddie looked in between Steve and Dustin. What could he say? He couldn’t exactly tell everyone what had transpired in the last twelve hours, he definitely wasn’t going to mention the sex. What had originally convinced him? Would it be enough?

“He…” Eddie swallowed. Somehow he’d never felt more vulnerable than right now, every single eye in the room was on him and he had the power to make or break everything. “He laughed at me? I insulted Vecna to his face and he… he thought it was funny.”

It sounded stupid, it sounded so stupid when he said it out loud. He couldn’t even bear to look up at them all to see how that explanation landed.

After a few seconds of heavy silence, El spoke up.

“What was your insult?”

Eddie glanced at her, she had her head tilted slightly to the side and her face was calm but curious. “I, uh, I called him a lump of unseasoned bolognese.”

“A dickless lump.” Steve interjected, a small smile on his face despite the tension in the room. Like a spell had been cast through the group at the sight of that smile, the strain on them seemed to lessen. Steve probably didn’t even realise he was doing it, there was just something about him now, something about his smile brought calm to them all. Maybe he’d always been that way. Eddie couldn’t really be sure.

Dustin whirled around and stomped his way over to Steve, the rest of the group parting like the Red Sea for him.

He stared up at Steve, an angry tilt to his brow and his jaw set, like he was ready to punch him in the face if he moved wrong.

“How many puffs?”

Eddie supposed the question must have been some kind of test, he certainly didn’t know the answer to whatever the fuck had just been asked, and no one else around him seemed to know either. No one else except for Steve.

“Four.”

Dustin’s lip quivered for just a second before he gathered himself, slamming his eyes shut again and turned his face away.

“El.” He called over his shoulder.

“Dust-” Steve started, reaching out, but was cut off.

“No!” Dustin yanked his shoulder away, his voice sharp and cutting. “I can’t- St-” swallowing harshly he continued a little quieter. “I need to be sure before I can- I need to be sure.”

Steve retracted his hand slowly, letting it fall to his side where it was quickly snatched up by Robin.

“Okay.”

El took a step forward but was halted by Hopper’s hand on her shoulder.

“We don’t know if this is safe.”

“I’ve been inside Vecna’s head.” El took her fathers hand and gently lifted it away. “If Steve is an agent of Vecna he will not be as strong. This is not the most dangerous thing I have ever done.”

“And that makes this okay, does it?”

“What else would you rather do?”

Hopper scowled at her, the downward tilt of his mouth making it clear he didn’t have an answer.

“I still don’t like it.”

“You don’t have to like it.”

El stepped out of Hopper’s space and towards Steve, holding her hands out and waiting.

Steve nodded down at her before leaning forwards, effectively slotting his head carefully in between her hands and they both closed their eyes.

For two and half long, long minutes the room collectively held its breath, waiting in anticipation for her to draw down her verdict.

Eddie was sure as shit that he hadn’t had sex with Vecna in Steve’s body but god damn if the thought still didn’t make his skin crawl.

El’s brow furrowed and her grip tightened around Steve’s head as though she was trying to burrow her fingers into his skull. Steve grimaced as she dug in hard but held himself steady, his hand still clutched in Robin’s.

Dustin had moved to stand beside Eddie, staring wide eyed at the scene before him. Eddie had never seen him look so young, so small, so lost. He slung an arm around his shoulder and pulled him back towards his chest, holding him firm, trying to impart comfort in any way he could. Dustin sagged into him, barely holding on by a thread.

A small hand slipped into his. Erica refused to look at him but the shake of her hand and her silent tongue told him all he needed to know. For all her bravado and all her snark she was still the baby of the group and by a long shot too. While she protected herself and made herself seen with her attitude, it often made them forget that she was barely out of elementary school.

In some ways she was the biggest victim of all of this, no one else had been thrust into this apocalypse as young as Erica Sinclair.

And based on the little he had heard about how she had gotten introduced to all this, Steve was there. Steve, Robin and Dustin were the ones around trying to keep her safe against some kind of underground Russian spy operation or something. No wonder she was affected by all this.

Eddie pulled her back towards him too, his other arm around her shoulders, all three of them huddled in close together, watching and waiting.

“There’s something else there.” El muttered as her fingers relaxed, gently combing through the parts of Steve’s hair she’d messed up. “This is Steve. You are Steve. You are here. But there is something else here too.”

Steve’s face paled just a fraction. “Vecna’s not in my head.”

“No, it’s not Vecna, it’s something else. A cloud.”

“A good cloud?”

“No.”

The tension in the room ramped straight back up.

“A b- a bad cloud then?”

“No. It’s just a cloud, but pushed and tugged. Made into long legs-”

“The Mind Flayer?!” Will shrieked out in a burst of panic.

“El, is he Flayed?” Joyce asked, somehow calm but straight to the point.

“No. No it’s not like-” not like Billy. “The Flayed were Vecna. Vecna puppeteering The Mind Flayer. This little bit in his head… it’s free.”

“So he’s…” Dustin huffed, his voice cracking again. “El, please, in plain English? Is he safe? Is he Steve? Is he- is he back?”

El nodded. “He is safe, he is Steve, he is back.”

She barely had the words out of her mouth before Dustin had ripped himself away from Eddie to throw himself at Steve. Steve unwound himself from around Robin quicker than should have been possible to be able to catch Dustin in time but catch him he did.

“You- you died. You died! You told me you loved me then you just went and died on me like an asshole. How could you- please, please don’t ever do that again. Swear to me, I can’t… I can’t-” Dustin was screaming, wailing into Steve’s neck, the sound echoing loudly around the room while everyone simultaneously tried not to intrude on their moment while not being able to bear the thought of leaving Steve.

“I know, I’m so sorry, Dusty. I’m so sorry. Never again, I swear on your mother.” Steve tried for humour but even he couldn’t push past all the emotion in his voice. “Never again.” He had his own face buried into Dustin’s hair, his arms wound tight around him, unable to keep his voice from wobbling.

Once Dustin had stopped screaming and cursing and was able to take a few deep breaths, he loosened his arms slightly, allowing Steve to glance up towards the other kids.

It was all the invitation Max needed.

She threw herself against Steve and Dustin, clutching on to them for dear life. She had barely made contact before the rest of the kids were rushing forward, grabbing onto any piece of Steve or each other they could reach.

Dustin unwound an arm from around Steve’s neck, opening his body up, looking back towards Eddie and Erica.

She shot forward, being pulled right into the centre of the group hug, right up against Dustin, Steve and Robin.

Robin still had herself pressed in close, her arms around Erica and Dustin while the kids all muttered and cried and punched and breathed. They told Steve they couldn’t lose him again, they practically fell all over themselves to tell him how much they appreciated him, how important he was, the guilt at thinking him dead and having never told him how much he meant had been eating away at all of them for a solid month. They even turned to Robin and told her how happy it made them to have her back too. They’d missed their Aunt Buckley.

That started a fresh round of tears from everyone.

Movement to his side caught Eddie’s eye. Nancy was standing a little bit away, pale faced and swallowing repeatedly, trying to keep her emotions in check. She looked like she was desperate to throw herself into the fray but didn’t know if she’d be welcome, didn’t know if she was allowed.

Her eyes were shining and her mouth was tight as Eddie approached her. He took her hand in his and pulled her forward. She turned her wide gaze on him as he led her closer, scared and apprehensive but Steve raised his head and held his own hand out to her. Will and Mike almost immediately shifted to the side, pulling her into the group with them.

Steve sent a short thankful glance Eddie’s way before turning his watery attention back to that wild eclectic group of people that loved him so incredibly.

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 AO3

@romanticdestruction, @darkwitchoferie, @justforthedead89, @didntwant2come, @estrellami-1, @warlordess, @goodolefashionedloverboi, @weeennussy, @studentlife-with-sassyaf-friends

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strangerthingslover69 · 2 years

Text

Why do you hate me?

Dmitri + female reader

18+ minors do no read!

Warnings ~ Swearing, angst and cuteness and hint of smut at very end~

Your dads new friend is staying with you, him and the Byers for the foreseeable future. All was fine at first but one day things changed. You didn’t know why he started acting differently around you. You didn’t know why he hated you. How close is hate to love though?

Six months. Six months since your dad (Hopper) returned from the dead. After everything that happened with Sara, Hopper decided his life was empty. Lost. Until he adopted you when you were a child. You filled the hole. El, Joyce and the Byer boys came along and you were a proper family. Not for long as your dad ‘died’. But low and behold. He wasn’t. Now back where he belongs at home with his family. You were just as surprised to find out your dad had managed to persuade a Russian prison guard to help him escape. That’s why now Dmitri Antonov now is a house guest. He had no where else to go. Six months. Six months of getting to know him. The first five were lovely. He was opening up to you all about his life, you were telling him about yours. You two got close. You developed a crush on him as you got to know him more. Okay so maybe more than a crush. You’d fallen for him. Hard. It wasn’t difficult. He was beautiful. You could tell he had a kind heart. He made you feel good. Happy. Like no one else had in a while. But a month ago things changed. You didn’t know why. Or how. But they definitely did. Only with you.

At first you didn’t realise he was acting differently. You slowly put the pieces together when you noticed he wouldn’t smile at you entering a room. He wouldn’t engage in conversation anymore. Not ask you how you are or how you day was. When you asked him anything it was just one word answers. He didn’t sit next to you on the sofa anymore when you’d all watch a movie. He didn’t pick you up anything when he went food shopping, he always brought you a pack of twirlers and a coke. Nothing now. You tried asking him what was wrong. He’d say nothing or grunt. He wouldn’t even hug you anymore when he came back home from working with Hopper, it was a routine you two had started but now had stopped. You missed hugging him. He gave the best hug’s especially on your bad days

One weekend everyone gathers to go to the beach. This is when you snapped. There were three cars of transport. Hopper, Joyce, Murray, El, Mike, Will in one. Another Johnathan, Nancy, Argyle, Lucas, Max and Erica. The last one you, Dmitri, Dustin, Steve, Eddie and Robin. Everyone needed a day of normality. Everyone needed a day together. Hopper drove his car, Nancy drove hers and Steve drove his. You all hopped into the cars ready to go after packing up. Steve and Robin in the front. Eddie and Dustin sat together in to squeeze in the back with the some of the bags. Dmitri in the middle with the other bags to his left, there was an empty seat next to Dmitri. You were later down than everyone else as you wear just finishing getting ready. It’s a hot day, bikini on, shorts to cover up but you just put your top in your bag. When you get in and he rolls his eyes at you. ‘Something wrong Dmitri?’ You ask putting on your seatbelt. ‘No’ all he responded as turned away from you. ‘Everyone got seatbelts on?’ Steve asks. Everyone said yes and off you went. It was about two hours from Hawkins to the beach. You looked out the window as Robin giving Steve directions. You felt a tap on your shoulder. ‘You looking forward to the beach Y/N?’ Eddie said leaning forward. You turn your body around to talk to him accidentally knocking Dmitri with your knee. Before you even have chance to apologise he snaps. ‘Y/N, will you get you off me!’ ‘It was an accident man, it was my bad’ Eddie says trying to help you. ‘I don’t care if it was an ‘accident’ she should be more carful’ Dmitri snarls again. ‘What’s your fucking problem!’ You find yourself saying out loud. ‘Excuse me?’ Dmitri says turning to you, his face very close to yours. ‘I said, what’s your fucking problem?! It was a god damn accident. It you weren’t man spreading I wouldn’t of knocked your stupid knee!’ You have had enough. You couldn’t stop ranting once you’d started. ‘I don’t get you Dmitri. I don’t know what the hell I’ve done to offend you so much! I’m sorry for whatever the hell I’ve done. All I’ve tried to do it be kind and nice just like everyone else. Whatever’s going on with you just give me a fucking break!’ You say with your eyes filling with tears. Everyone in the car is silent. Dmitri doesn’t not respond to you. Eddie sits back down. You look at Dmitri for something. But he gives you nothing. You turn away before your tears start. The rest of the car ride is tense and uncomfortable and you just want to get out of there. Steve’s voice breaks the silence after about 15 minutes, ‘Guys, maybe stuck here for a while. ‘Why?’ Eddie asks from the back. ‘Looks like there’s been some kind of accident up ahead. Some of the roads blocked.’ Robin says pointing to the cars in lines of traffic. ‘Well just great’ you hear Dmitri mutter under his breath. You hear Eddies walkie go off. ‘Guys, we’re here, where are you over?’ Mikes voice echos through. ‘You there, already? Man lucky you missed it. There’s been an accident. We are stuck in traffic. Maybe a while. Over’ Eddie replies. ‘One sec’ Mike says cutting off. ‘Guys you okay? Try cutting out of Scooter Street Steve. You know it? That should be quicker’ you hear your dads voice come through. ‘Yup I know it, thanks’ he shouts back. ‘See you soon guys’ Hopper ends the call. ‘Well since we’re I going to be a while, if you all don’t mind I’m going for a nap since we’re gonna be here for a while. Can you manage to keep quiet Y/N?’ Dmitri says did eyeing you before closing his eyes. You just glare at the man you love. You decided to try have a nap too, you were tired from the arguing it’s draining. You close your eyes and quickly fall asleep.

Robin turns to see you and Dmitri are asleep. She whispers across to Steve. ‘What the hells up with those two?’ She nods her back to you and Dmitri. ‘I don’t know. Y/N said he’s been different with her lately. I said she was just overthinking it but I think now she’s right.’ Steve replies. ‘I think I can tell you what’s going on’ Dustin pipes up. ‘How do you know what’s going on?’ Eddie says to Dustin. ‘One second. Dmitri? Y/N?’ Dustin says. No reply. ‘Okay they’re asleep. You see I may of overheard a conversation not meant for me. Dmitri here has got himself into a situation he doesn’t quite know how to deal with.’ Dustin starts. ‘What kind of situation?’ Steve asks confused. ‘Well a couple of weeks ago I went round to see if Y/N had The Shining since she mentioned she was going to get it. After getting it and on my way out I saw Murray and Dmitri in the kitchen talking. I couldn’t help but overhear. They weren’t exactly quiet. Anyway long story short. Dmitri loves Y/N. Has from the start. Murray warned him about Hopper cause of how he’d react. Dmitri can’t help the way he feels. He said he’d not try as interact as much. with Y/N. Keep his distance. I guess he found it difficult and lashed out’ ‘Seriously? Dmitri loves Y/N?’ Eddie asks feeling surprised. ‘Yup.’ Dustin says looking at you and Dmitri with a sad expression. ‘Well that’s great!’ Robin says excitedly and a little loud causing you to shift in your sleep. No one talks as you turn from the window to Dmitri. You lean on his shoulder making him snuggle into your head, once you’d both settled the others continue. ‘Great? How is it great?’ Steve asks still confused. ‘Don’t you remember the conversation with Y/N Dingus?’ Robin asks. Steve shakes his head. ‘Please share with the group’ Eddie says leaning forward. ‘Well Y/N me and Steve went to see you play at the Hideout a couple of months ago. She drank quite a lot. She started talking. I don’t think she realised what she’s told us. She told us that she had fallen for Dmitri pretty damn hard too. She loves him. Still does. Last week when me and her were at work Dmitri came in looking for a movie. He looked at her, Y/N smiled and waved. He just turned away, coming straight to me. Y/N was clearly upset. I never got chance to talk to her. She finished before me.’ Robin explains to the group. ‘We’ve got to do something’ Eddie says. ‘Yeah but what?’ Steve asks as he turns off to Scooter Street. ‘I think I may have an idea. They won’t be happy about it. And we’d have to explain it to everyone else. But it may just work?’ Dustin says. He explains the plan as Steve makes the drive to the beach.

You wake to the sound of rain hitting the window. You open your eyes slowly and adjust to your surroundings. You’re still in the car, pulled up into a spot hidden away. You don’t even realise you’re leaning on Dmitri till you hear his snores. You don’t move for a minute, you just enjoy this quiet moment. You enjoy Dmitri not being so horrible and rude to you. You smile. It feels nice. It feels familiar. You can smell him through your nose. This is the closest you’ve been in a long time you miss it so much. Just a moment of bliss. A moment with just you and Dmitri. Wait. It’s literally just you and Dmitri. Robin and Steve seats empty. The car was still. No engine running. You move you head causing Dmitri to wake up. You turn and see no Dustin and Eddie. ‘What the hell Y/N?’ Dmitri snaps, always in a good mood as ever. ‘Dmitri. Where is everyone?’ You ask turning to him confused. Dmitri looks around and sees the others missing too. ‘Maybe they’ve gone to the beach?’ He suggests. ‘I don’t think so. It’s chucking it down out there’ you say pointing to the outside. ‘Well let’s go find them so I do not have to be stuck here with you’ Dmitri says undoing his seatbelt and reaching for the car door. He tried to open it but no luck. ‘It’s locked.’ Dmitri says. ‘What? It can’t be!’ You say reaching for your door. Locked too. You move forward reaching for the doors at the front. Both locked. You slump back into your seat. ‘Why would they lock us in?’ Dmitri asks feeling confused. You shrug your shoulders. ‘Helpful as always Y/N’ Dmitri says rolling his eyes. ‘I don’t get you. I don’t get you at all.’ You say to Dmitri with sadness in your voice. Before he can respond you hear the walkie talkie go off. You and Dmitri look at one another. You turn and see it sticking out from Dustin’s bag. You press the button and talk into the walkie. ‘Hello?’ You hear hushed voices and someone saying to be quiet. ‘Guys this isn’t funny. Why the hell are we locked in here!’ You shout into the walkie. ‘I’m sorry Y/N. This was the only way we could think.’ You hear Robins voice answer. ‘What do you mean Robin, your making no sense?’ You answer back to her. ‘Y/N. Dmitri. We are all fed up if the bickering and awkwardness. We knew you’d never talk it over, especially you Dmitri. So we gave you the opportunity to get things off your chest.‘ she continues to explain. ‘Look. The beach is a no go so everyone went to the arcades instead. If you want to join us call when your done talking.’ Steve says with a sigh. Your about to reply when Dmitri snatches the walkie from you. ‘Very funny children. Now come and unlock the doors.’ He says angrily. ‘No man, this is your fault. Your mess to clean up. So clean it up! Over and out’ Eddie voice says ending the call. Dmitri throws the walkie down.

‘Your friends are annoying’ he says bluntly. ‘They are yeah. But there aren’t wrong’ you say turning a little voice. Dmitri turns more towards you. ‘Excuse me? How exactly are they right. Please enlighten me Y/N!’ Dmitri snarls at you throwing his arms up in the air. ‘This is why they are right!’ You say gesturing to Dmitri. ‘You. I don’t know why you are being so cold to me. After everything I’ve done for you?’ You with a biter tone. Dmitri scoffs, ‘You did nothing for me. You only did it for your father. I’m not stupid. I know having some random Russian living with you was never a part of your plan or anyone’s. So please spare me. You did nothing.’ You can’t help but feel hurt by his words. The hurt quickly turned into anger. ‘You are having a fucking laugh! I’ve done nothing? Okay let’s do this shit. At first I yeah I was wary of you. Course I would be after everything that happened with my dad, wouldn’t you?! But once I got to know you. I mean really get to know you, on a personal level. You shared your thoughts with me. Your feelings. You told me about your old life in Russia. Your regrets. You past self. What you could of done better. I was there when the nightmares occurred. I stayed up with you. I waited for you to fall asleep so you felt safe. Did anyone else do that?’ You look at him. He says nothing. ‘I was there when those pricks at the supermarket were mocking your accent. Who stood up for you? Who was there when you’d had a bad day. Who made you your favourite foods? Who held you when you cried for your son? Who hugged you so tightly to keep you from falling. Who? ME! NO ELSE. You know why it was me? The others care of course they do but, but they don’t care for you as much as I do.’ You’ve finally snapped. You couldn’t take it anymore. ‘I miss you Dmitri. For fuck sake. I love you!’ You shout to him, tears rolling down your face unable to stop them pouring.

‘You what?’ Dmitri asks leaning closer to you. ‘I love-‘ you are cut off by Dmitri lips on yours. You pull back. ‘What are you doing?!’ You say pushing him away. Dmitri leans back a little and sighs. ‘I am sorry Y/N. I, I. I should not of done that. I should not of done anything to upset you. Ever. You were right. Of course you were. You always are. Since coming here everything is not what I expected.’ Dmitri says with a sad tone. ‘What do you mean?’ You ask moving closer next to him. Dmitri sighs. ‘These last months have been the best months for a long time. Your family welcoming me as apart of their home. Your friends sharing their kindness. Your father giving me a job. Everyone has been so amazing and supportive for me.’ Dmitri takes your hands into his to hold them, you let him. ‘But no one has been quite as kind and lovely as you. I am sorry. You did not deserve me to be so unpleasant to you this last month. I thought it would be easier for me. I was wrong’ he says stroking the back of your hands with his thumbs. ‘What do you mean easier for you? How is this easy for anyone?’ You ask. ‘Y/N, do you not see it?’ Dmitri says. ‘See what?’ You reply shaking your head. Dmitri smiles at you. For the first time in a while. You can’t help but return it. ‘I love you’ he says with happiness. ‘You, you love me?’ You ask. He nods. ‘But why treat me so awful if you love me?’ You ask tears filling your eyes again, your not sure if they are happy ones or sad ones. ‘I thought it would be easier for us if I changed. I don’t think your father would be particularly happy with me loving you’ Dmitri says his smile dropping. You bring his hands closer. ‘Dmitri… my father knows how I feel about you. I’m not going to lie. I told him one night I’d been drinking with Robin and Steve. I don’t remember how I said it or what I truly said. But they next morning he sat me down and told me he knew. I was waiting for him to be mortified. I was ready for him to say no you shouldn’t love an older man. No you shouldn’t love my friend. No it wouldn’t work out. All that stuff. But he never did. He just wants me to be happy and he said he could tell I had feeling for you by the way I looked at you and how I was around you. So I guess I wasn’t as secretive as I thought I’d been.’ you say with a breathe of relief. After a minute of silence Dmitri finally speaks. ‘Your, your father was okay with it? Are you sure?’ Instead of answering you let go of Dmitri’s hands and pull him by his top, your bring him in for a kiss. You both melt into one another as it’s been a long time coming. His lips are as soft as you thought they would be, his moustache tickled you a little but you don’t mind. The kiss grows more passionate as Dmitri’s tongue enters your mouth causing you to moan. ‘I’ve been waiting for this Y/N’ Dmitri says in between breathes.

Dustin and Eddie make their way back to the car as Eddie left his wallet in the back. ‘I wonder if they talked’ Eddie says. ‘I hope so’ Dustin replies. As they reach where the car is parked Eddie stop in there tracks, he puts his arm out to stop Dustin walking. ‘Why we stopping?’ Dustin asks confused. ‘Well erm, I think they finally worked things out’ Eddie says pointing to the car. They couldn’t see in properly but the windows were fogged up and the car was moving, a fair amount. ‘Oh shit. I guess they did. Let’s not mention this to Steve?’ Dustin says as they slowly back away. ‘Let’s not mention it to anyone’ Eddie says

#Stranger things #dmitri stranger things #dmitri antonov x reader #dmitri antonov fanfic #dmitri x reader #dmitri antonov #enzo x reader #enzo stranger things #eddie munson #dustin henderson #jim hopper #steve harrington #robin buckley

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steviesbicrisis · 2 years

Text

I think we're sleeping on the possibility of making everything apocalyptic/dystopian.

Imagine that things go way worse after the gates were almost opened: monsters come out of the cracks, a lot of people get killed, some of them get possessed, and Hawkins is just the first town to be hit. Soon, the whole State is considered to be a risk for the country and, while the government wants to protect the citizens, there are too many upside-down creatures. Indiana gets quarantined, no one can get in and few can manage to get out. People get mad, greedy, tired, desperate.

The peaceful spirit of collaboration days after the "earthquake" soon turns into everyone for themselves.

The party sticks together, for obvious reasons. But then the government wants to use El to stop the Upside Down monsters from coming out of the cracks. She refuses (she wants to help, but she knows to not trust them) so she has to run away. The party decides to split: some of them stay in Hawkins and some decide to go with El to find a new place to stay.

Without her powers, things get ten times harder but they manage. Steve's house is everyone's house now. The whole neighborhood is abandoned, rich people already bought their way out of Indiana, somewhere safe, Steve's parents included. They had offered a ticket for him too, but quickly took back their offer as soon as Steve asked for the whole Party as well.

Not many people stayed in town, and none of them are trustworthy. Steve isn't the only adult (Joyce and Murray are there with him, Hopper went with El) but he feels a heavy burden on his shoulders.

He needs to protect the kids, protect his friends, protect everyone. He does most of the night patrols, he's always on grocery shopping duty (they still call it that as a joke, they actually go to the supermarket at night and hope to not encounter anybody as they stock some food and supplies), and he's tired.

It's been five months since the earthquake, one since Hopper and El left. They haven't heard from them yet, they're running out of supplies and they're tired. So tired.

But the kids heard something in the woods next to his house, they can't fall asleep. Murray and Jonathan are out, so it's up to him to go check the woods. He's prepared, his beloved nailed bat in one hand, torch in the other.

Steve is tired. Steve has, once again, found himself in an impossible-to-believe situation, he still manages it.

But Steve should've learned, a long time ago, that once you think you've figured everything out, something from the Upside Down comes to kick you in the ass.

This time, that something is none comes in the form of Eddie Munson, looking the same as he did five months ago, when he had died.

«Harrington, fucking finally! care to tell me what the fuck is going on around here?»

#I'm stressed so I wrote this to decompress #sorry to leave it open #feel free to write more if it inspires you #steddie #steve harrington #bi steve harrington #gay eddie munson #steve and eddie #eddie munson #stranger things #steddie headcanon #steve x eddie #post s4 #stranger things post s4 #prompts #sbc writes

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shipskicksandgiggles · 2 years

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32 with uh. yhose little gay bitches from stranger things. steddie.

the second I saw this I knew exactly what I was going to write. this is so them, thank you

32. “I don’t like the way you just implied you couldn’t legally drive in the state of Illinois.” (from this list)

also on ao3

The fact that they had a protocol for the world ending probably should have been more of a concern to Eddie than it was.

Well, it wasn’t so much of a protocol as it was a process. It started with everyone landing at a home base.

Chief Hopper’s absolutely destroyed cabin seemed to be that home base. They spent their days there, clearing away debris and coming up with a plan.

The kids always seemed to get their first, followed by him, Robin, Steve, and Nancy.

Eddie was a more recent addition, the hospital having released him sooner than they probably should have, but not soon enough for Eddie’s liking.

Then more people showed up.

Johnathan Byers, his younger brother, Little Wheeler, a long haired guy Eddie assumed was from California, and a small girl whose head looked like it had been shaved recently appeared the day after he did.

Joyce Byers, a not-dead Hopper, and some guy named Murray showed up about a week after them.

Given the month he’d had, Eddie gave up on asking questions.

Without any adults present, they seemed to get on fine. Nancy was a powerhouse when it came to planning, and the kids were always ready to workshop ideas.

Things only seemed to get easier after the girl with the shaved head arrived.

He learned her name was Eleven. El for short.

Johnathan gave him the footnotes of her story one night, under a haze of weed. She really was a superhero.

Steve was also a powerhouse, but in a different way. Work horse might have been a more apt description. He was the one who made sure everyone was eating and sleeping. He drove everyone everywhere they needed to go. His house became the unofficial crash pad for party members whose houses were destroyed or families had left.

He kept watch constantly, making sure no Upside Down creatures could hurt them.

Eddie didn’t think he slept, or if he did, he slept sitting up, never not on guard. He saw him one night when he couldn’t sleep himself, watching out the back window with a baseball bat with nails driven into it propped up against the chair, perfectly in reach.

These people had seen things more horrific than probably anyone else on earth, and yet they endured.

It made sense that there was a process.

By the time the adults made it to Hawkins, they were running themselves ragged. Eddie was exhausted, physically and mentally. He’d almost popped one of his stitches that morning, but Steve had come to his rescue, somehow still alert despite probably being the worst off of all of them. It was a relief to finally have more people who knew what to do.

After the joyous reunions of mothers and fathers with sons and daughters, everyone sat down, introductions were made, and a plan was developed.

The Upside Down coming to them was an unforeseen complication. El, Will, Joyce, Nancy, and Murrary would be the ones to problem solve and maybe find a solution.

The rest of the kids plus Robin, Johnathan, Argyle, and Hopper would take whatever they found and help make it actionable in whatever capacity they could.

As for Steve and Eddie?

“There’s some equipment and paperwork we’ll need to avoid unnecessary government involvement,” Murray told them. “I’ve got everything stored in a bunker in Illinois. I need you two to go get it.”

“You might need to take my truck,” Hopper told them. “There’s a map in the glove box for all the traps he set out.”

“Of course you made a map,” Murray muttered. “Before you leave, I’m going to proofread that map to make sure he didn’t miss anything.”

His tone was dead serious. Who the fuck were these people?

“You want us to go?” Steve asked. “Are you sure you don’t still need my help here?”

Murray gave Steve the same look he gave him when they were introduced.

(“Steve,” he’d said, sticking out his hand for Murray to shake. “Steve Harrington.”

“Harrington,” Murray had said, shooting a look at Nancy. “Really?” He looked him up and down incredulously before conceding. “If you say so.”)

“We can hold down the fort here, Steve,” Joyce reminded gently.

“What about me?” Eddie asked. “Are you sure you want me and Harrington to go on a road trip together?”

“I could go with Steve,” Robin piped up. “Eddie can switch roles with me.”

Murray ignored her. “It’ll be good for you two to take a step back from all of this,” he told them. “My guest room should still be made up, you can stay the night there.”

“But if it’s just in Illinois-”

Murray gave him a different look, one that probably had more meaning than just a glare. “Look, I’m not usually one to beat around the bush, so I won’t. Steve, you need a break. For the love of god, get out of Hawkins and sleep for a night, please. Munson, you also need to get out of here. This town makes you jittery, and you both deserve a night where nothing is trying to kill you. We also just happen to need paperwork and equipment. I’ll give you a list and check over Hop’s map. I expect you to have your bags packed and be on your way to Illinois by sunset.”

Neither of them wanted to argue with him, so they agreed quietly and the group disbanded.

“I’m going to head back to my place to pack my bag if you need anything,” Steve said. “You can come if you want.”

Eddie dropped into the passenger seat of his car. “I need to pack a few things too, and I think most of my stuff is at your place anyways.”

“Very convenient. Certainly saves us some time,” he said, starting the car and immediately turning down the stereo that started blaring Springsteen. “Shut up.”

“I didn’t say anything!”

“And you’re not going to either.” He pulled out onto the road. “I will let you pick some of the music for this trip. I’m not listening to you bitch a fit about my music for six hours, so you can bring some tapes of your own.”

“Did I pop a stitch and bleed out? Harrington, doth mine ears deceive me?”

“Cut it out,” Steve chastised. “Don’t make me regret it before we even start.”

“Alright, geez, I’ll be quiet. I need to start planning which tapes to bring anyway.”

Steve sighed again, but he didn’t say anything, so Eddie took that as a win. This road trip might not be so bad after all.

~~~

It didn’t take either of them long to pack for the night, so they were back at Hopper’s cabin a couple hours later.

They had barely stepped out of the car when Murray was handing them three maps; one for the drive, one of the traps Hop had mentioned, and one of Murray’s bunker (seriously, who was this guy?) complete with a list of everything they needed and where the items would be located. Short of getting on the highway, they were all set.

Then Hopper handed Eddie his keys.

“Why-”

“No offense kids, but Harrington’s car probably isn’t the most equipped for my property,” Murray said. “It’s best if you take Hop’s truck.”

“Don’t worry, Munson, there’s a tape deck, it doesn’t have to be a quiet drive,” Hopper told him.

“Why did you hand me the keys though?”

“You think I’m about to let Harrington drive when he hasn’t slept in over a week? Absolutely not, I would hardly trust him to navigate.”

“I’m fine, Hop,” Steve insisted.

Eddie knew he was lying. “I promise I’ll take care of your truck, Chief.”

“I know. Drive safe, follow the rules of the road, don’t get caught by anyone who wants you dead, got it?”

“Got it,” the boys chorused.

They said their goodbyes to everyone, loaded everything into Hop’s truck, and got on the road. It wasn’t long before they crossed over the Illinois border, and Eddie let out a soft snort.

“Something funny?” Steve asked.

“It’s nothing. Just that I’m glad it’s been enough time that I can drive in Illinois again.”

Despite the music, Eddie could still hear the gears turning in Steve’s head.

“I don’t like the way you just implied you couldn’t legally drive in the state of Illinois.”

“Don’t worry about it, it was when my dad was still in my life. The state couldn’t do much other than tell me to not drive until I was an adult with a license and kicked me off to Indiana to live with Wayne. Anyways, I turned out fine and I can legally drive here now, so no harm done.”

“Hopper will have your skin if he finds out.”

“Oh, I know. There’s a reason I was confused when he handed me the keys.”

He glanced over to see Steve smiling. It wasn’t a laugh quite yet, but he seemed to relax the longer they drove, so he counted it as a win.

After that, it was a pretty quiet drive, the silence only being broken by changes in the music or Steve telling him where to turn. A few hours later, Eddie pulled the car off the road onto what seemed to be a hidden driveway, and stopped.

“Switch to map number two,” he instructed.

Steve folded the first map up and grabbed the next one in the pile. “You can drive for another hundred feet or so before you need to make a left. There should be an old tree, that’s your marker.”

“Great,” Eddie muttered. “Of course the man who has everything we need is paranoid as shit.”

“Murray means well, he’s just been through a lot,” Steve said lightly. “I don’t really blame him sometimes. That’s the tree, make a left.”

Eddie did, and saw a rock that would have dropped onto the truck in the rear view mirror. “Right.”

Another 15 minutes went by in much the same fashion. The only indication they were getting close was the gradual increase in traps to the point where Steve was constantly listing turns when they could see the building.

Finally, Steve said “Park,” and Eddie did just that.

Both of them sat in silence for a moment, breathing heavily, and then Eddie started laughing.

Once he started, he couldn’t stop, and eventually Steve joined in. This entire situation was too ridiculous to not laugh about it.

It took a while to calm down, mostly before once one got themself under control, the other would start up again, but they got there eventually.

Steve grabbed both of their bags out of the back while Eddie went to figure out the door. Once they got in, Eddie was surprised to see that Murray’s bunker looked a lot like a normal apartment on the inside.

“Is it weird that I expected more, I don’t know, blank metal walls and plastic chairs?”

“Or at least some sort of indication of doomsday preparation?” Steve joked, dropping their bags next to the couch.

“Check the bookshelf, I think I saw at least one survivalist manual.”

He did. “What do you know?”

“See? Even Murray can live like a normal guy while still having this side of him. Did you grab the list of things we needed?”

Steve pulled it out of his pocket. “I’d say let’s split up so we can tackle more ground, but it might be better if we stick together this time.”

“For sure.” Eddie looked over his shoulder. “Pull that copy of Julius Caesar out of the shelf.”

“How did you even see that?”

“Better question is, why does Murray have Shakespeare on his doomsday shelf-”

The shelf swung open as Steve pulled it out.

“-if not to hide something?”

“Holy shit.”

“I’m starting to love this guy.”

“You would.”

Eddie grinned and winked, ducking back into the space. “Let’s see what we’re working with, shall we?”

Murray’s list and accompanying map were organized well enough that they were able to locate what they needed easily.

“Looks like we’ve got two things in this room. One form is in a box labeled ‘1985’ with a star and a down arrow next to it, and the other is in ‘1985 Battery Protocol’.”

“I don’t want to know how his brain works.” Eddie started searching the room for either of the boxes.

“Is it bad that I think I get it?”

“Maybe it’s just because you’ve been around this longer. You start to all think alike.”

Steve snorted. “Right, sure.”

He finally found one of the boxes and started rifling through it while Steve kept looking for the other one.

“Did Murray ever, like, talk to you about anything?”

Eddie paused. “Not really. We had a weird conversation the other day where he told me it was cool that I was still unapologetically myself even after everything, but I got the feeling we weren’t having the same conversation. Why?”

“I had something similar happen, where he said something and I didn’t think we were on the same page. Wanted to make sure I wasn’t the only one who couldn’t figure him out.”

“Hopper and Joyce can.”

“Yeah, that’s not a can of worms I’m willing to open.” Steve dropped down to the floor next to him with his own box. “Find the ‘Guide to Reporting Russian Activity’ yet?”

“Just start looking for the battery sheet. Should have the equations to figure out how many batteries we need to appropriately stock however many walkies for the apocalypse.”

Steve made a face. “Switch boxes?”

Eddie slid his over. “Hand it over, big boy.”

~~~

They found a spare box to store their materials in, which they set on the kitchen counter once they emerged from the storage part of the bunker.

“Is it weird I forgot it was normal out here?”

“After the 20 minute mark, I convinced myself I imagined it,” Eddie admitted. “Shall we see what he keeps in his kitchen? Make some dinner and then we can sleep?”

“Do you honestly think he has anything worth cooking in this kitchen?”

“He might keep a drawer of take out menus?” Eddie opened a random drawer, and sure enough, he found them on the first try. “Jackpot. How do you feel about pizza?”

“That sounds amazing. I’m going to see if Murray has cable. Or at least a VHS player with some halfway decent movies.”

“Good luck!”

Ten minutes into negotiating with the pizza place, it turned out Eddie needed luck too. The pizza place was familiar with the address and refused to deliver to them. Thankfully, he was able to talk them into meeting him at the road so he didn’t have to drive all the way into town, but the delivery driver didn’t have to deal with the traps.

By the time he made it back to the bunker, pizza in hand, Steve was loading a tape into the TV.

“What’d you find?”

Steve held up the case.

“Star Wars? Really?”

“I was shocked too. He’s got all three too, so we’re set.”

“Wow.”

“I know! I’m beginning to think there’s no end to how weird this guy is.”

“Keeps you guessing, that’s for sure.” Eddie propped the box up on the coffee table and sank into the couch. “Well what are you waiting for? Let’s get this show on the road!”

Halfway through the first movie, Steve started nodding off next to him. Eddie went to turn it off, but Steve stopped him.

“It’s fine,” he insisted. “Keep it on.”

Eddie gave in, but he wasn’t at all surprised when Steve was lightly snoring by the end of the movie. He smiled, and quietly went about cleaning up. The leftover pizza went in the fridge, and he rewound the VHS and put it back in the case, leaving it next to the TV because he wasn’t sure where Steve had found it.

Finally, he shook Steve awake. “Steve.”

“Hmm?”

“C’mon big boy, I need you to wake up enough to walk to an actual bed.”

Steve opened his eyes slowly. “Is the movie over?”

“Yeah,” Eddie smiled. “Which means it’s time for bed. I’ll grab your bag so you can change into pajamas, okay?”

“Okay.”

He waited until he was sure Steve was up and moving before he made his way into the entryway where they dropped their bags. He grabbed his bag and Steve’s before heading for the guestroom where Steve was standing in the doorway.

“Uh, Steve?”

“There’s only one bed.”

Eddie looked over Steve’s shoulder, and sure enough, there was only one bed. “I can see that.”

“I can take the couch, I fell asleep fine there before.”

“Absolutely not,” Eddie shut him down as soon as the sentence was out of his mouth. “If you think I’m letting you sleep on the couch, the concussions must be getting to you because you’ve lost it, buddy.”

“I’m not letting you sleep on the couch either, Eds,” Steve argued.

He knew arguing with Steve would get him nowhere, but he sure as hell wasn’t letting him sleep on the couch, so a compromise it was. “You know, I think both of us could fit on that bed.”

Steve blinked. “What?”

“That’s got to be a queen sized mattress, so unless you sleep like a starfish or kick a lot in your sleep, I think we could make it work.”

“Eddie-”

“Steve, the whole point of us coming out here was so you could get a decent night’s sleep. In an actual bed, because I know you keep sleeping in the living room, and I’m sick and tired of you not taking care of yourself. Emphasis on the tired because this whole situation is exhausting, and I don’t know about you, but I want to go to bed.”

He pushed past Steve into the room and dropped their bags by the foot of the bed. “Which side do you want?”

“Either is fine.”

Eddie raised his eyebrows, but didn’t say anything. He took the right side, knowing despite Steve’s insistence that he didn’t care, he’d want to be closer to the door.

“I’m going to shower and change into pajamas unless you want first dibs at the bathroom.”

“If you don’t mind?”

“Not at all, your highness. I can wait.”

Actually, given that Steve looked like he was still on the verge of passing out, he was happy to wait. He didn’t take that long, and Eddie ducked into the bathroom right after him, making sure to squeeze as much water out of his hair as possible before swapping into softer clothes, leaving his rings and chains on the counter.

When he emerged, Steve was lying on top of the covers.

“Steve, what are you doing?”

“Sleeping,” he muttered. “Shhh.”

“Get under the covers, Steve.”

“‘M fine.”

“Steven Michael Harrington.”

He propped himself up on his elbows and squinted at Eddie. “How do you know my middle name?”

“Unimportant. Get under the covers, or so help me god.”

“Fine, Jesus.” He stood up and pulled the comforter back before crawling back in. “Happy?”

“Yes.” Eddie finished putting his clothes away before climbing into bed next to him. “See, I don’t bite.”

“Sure, that’s what I was afraid of.”

Eddie ignored him. “Are you okay with me turning the light off?”

“Yeah.”

“You sure? Don’t need me to make a pillow barrier or anything between us?”

“It’s fine, Munson, just turn off the damn light.”

“Alrighty then.” He hit the light switch before making his way to his side of the bed. “Goodnight, Harrington.”

“Night, Eddie.”

Despite what Eddie said about being fine sleeping next to Steve, it was hard to not be aware of him. He laid down on his back, as still as could be. It was kind of freaky, which coming from Eddie was kind of impressive.

“Steve?”

“Yeah?”

“Please tell me you don’t actually sleep like that.”

“Like what?”

“Like you’re made of wood, dude. You know you can relax, right?”

“Sorry, it’s hard. I’m not used to it, I guess.”

Eddie sighed. “Alright, sit up.” He felt for a switch on the lamp sitting in the bedside table, and the room was bathed in a soft, yellow light.

“I thought you wanted me to sleep.”

“Steve, I swear to god.”

Steve pushed himself up, and Eddie shifted closer to him. “Turn around.”

“What?”

“Put your back towards me.”

“Why?”

“Do you trust me?”

He stared at him for a second, and Eddie couldn’t help but feel bad. His pillow rumpled hair and tired eyes made it so much more obvious how exhausted he was.

“Of course I trust you,” Steve said finally.

“Then turn around. Let me help you.”

Once his back was to Eddie, he sat up on his knees. “Do you mind if I touch your hair? I know it’s like your thing, but I’ve got an idea, and I think it’ll help you relax.”

“You’re gonna play with my hair?”

“Not quite, but if you think that would work, I’ll give it a shot.”

“I don’t care if you touch it, I’ll fix it in the morning. Just get it over with.”

“Bossy. Now hush, and do your best to relax.”

He pressed his fingertips to Steve’s scalp and started rubbing small circles just behind his temple. The effect was almost immediate as Steve slumped in on himself.

“Feel good, sugar?”

“Mm.”

“Good.”

“Magic,” Steve murmured.

“What’s that?”

“Your fingers. They’re magic.”

“Oh darling, you think this is magic, I have excellent news for you.”

Steve tipped his head back to look Eddie in the eye. “I believe you. Just don’t stop doing that.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it.”

“Might fall asleep sitting up though,” Steve hummed.

“I’ll lay you down if you do.”

He smiled softly. “Thank you.”

“You don’t have to thank me.”

“Not just for this.” Steve caught his hand and turned to face him. “For everything. For driving, for watching the kids when I can’t, for saving my life. I’m glad you’re here, Eddie Munson.”

Eddie hadn’t noticed before how Steve had faint laugh lines by his eyes. It struck him how deep his eyes were, tired, sure, filled with fear and resignation, but also how alive they were. How they seemed to spark when he smiled.

“I’m glad you’re here too, Steve Harrington.”

His hands had shifted with Steve’s movement, so he was holding the sides of his face. It felt so natural to pull him into a kiss, that he didn’t realize he had until Steve was dragging him in by his waist, causing him to practically fall into Steve’s lap.

“Woah.”

“You okay?”

“I don’t think ‘okay’ even begins to cover it,” Eddie laughed.

Steve’s smile only grew. “So?”

“So what?”

“You like me?”

“Do I have to say it? Can’t I just-” he leaned into Steve again, but he was stopped by a hand pressed against his mouth.

“Eddie…” Steve sighed. “I want to make sure we’re on the same page.”

He moved the hand away from his face. “Yes, I like you Steve. Had a stupid crush when I thought you were just hot, then I had to go and find out you’re the sweetest man alive who cares too damn much and would probably fight the armies of heaven and hell combined if one of the kids asked you too and that did me in. So ‘like’ might actually be underselling it.”

“Oh,” Steve said. “Well then, I guess that settles it.”

“What?”

“That I’d fight the combined armies of heaven and hell for you too, darling.”

Eddie covered his own face this time. “Fuck off, dude.”

“Don’t call me dude after you just kissed me.”

“I will call you whatever I damn well please, Steve. And don’t think this is getting you out of sleeping, by the way. You’re not going to distract me.”

“Call it delaying the inevitable,” Steve said, leaning back in. “I’ve been told cuddling can help people sleep.”

“Is that so?”

“I’d be willing to give it a shot. You know, in the name of science.”

“Science, of course.”

“One thing though.”

Eddie frowned and leaned back. “What?”

“I actually do sleep on my back, so I’m sorry if that bothers you.”

“You little shit.” Eddie smacked him with a pillow. “Just lay back down so we can turn off the lights and actually go to sleep. I’m sure we can figure our placements out without much trouble.”

Sure enough, a few minutes later found Eddie tucked into Steve’s side. “How should we tell everyone?”

“They’ll probably just figure it out on their own,” Steve said. “The kids are nosy like that, and they’ll just tell everyone else.”

“Why do I get the feeling Murray is going to be happy about this?”

Steve didn’t answer him, and for a second Eddie thought he dropped off. Then- “I was thinking the same thing. There’s no way he could have planned this, right?”

“I don’t think so. Unless he knew something we didn’t.” Then Eddie’s eyes widened. “Just out of curiosity, what was the conversation where you didn’t think you were on the same page?”

“It was about how I’d moved on from Nancy, and how we’d never really fit, and that I’d done a good job growing up into the person I was meant to be surrounded by the people meant to be my family.”

He tapped on Steve’s chest. “He knew. He totally knew. That’s what he was getting at, but he couldn’t just outright say it.”

“This was planned,” Steve said slowly. “Son of a bitch.”

“What do you buy a survivalist as a thank you gift?”

“We’ll figure it out in the car tomorrow.”

Eddie hummed in agreement. “Goodnight, Steve.”

“‘Night Eds.”

And for the first time in almost a month, Steve slept, and Eddie did too.

#steddie #steve harrington #steve harrington x eddie munson #eddie munson #fluff #fluff and hurt/comfort #murray bauman gets them together #what else do you need #steve needs sleep #that's all #nate tag #ellis writes

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complicatedchelsea · 1 year

Text

Fallen Through Time For You

Chapter Eleven: Is It Illegal If She Deserved It?

Masterlist:

(gif not mine)

(Sydney's POV)

It was three weeks later that Murray called.

In those three weeks we had all fallen into some sort of routine. When Eddie was at school, I either spent the day with Steve or Hopper or even Joyce if she wasn’t working. Wayne was appreciative that I valued his sleep and didn’t want to bother him during the day, but when he was off, we spent time together too. The days at the station, Steve’s house, or even with Joyce weren’t as nerve wracking as they first were. They truly cared and asked for little in return. Joyce was like the mother I never had, accepting me with open arms and always making sure I had something to eat. Hopper was a little more rough around the edges, but he was another parental figure in my life. He provided stability and after reiterating what occurred at the store, he was quick to promise that nothing like that would ever happen again under his watch. Steve? Steve was quick to become one of my closest friends here. The bond we shared was different, just like he had mentioned. ‘Siblings that only saw of each other through cracks in the foundation’, and I felt like that matched us. Maybe that’s what we were in a different lifetime.

I was more comfortable around everyone now. It was like we all had collectively decided that while I was a mess, no one was treating me differently. The kids were very entertaining to be around, but God did they have questions. Some that I couldn’t even answer. Dustin was the most curious, and I swear he spent most of his time with me trying to get useful information. He was a very curious person, and it was an added bonus to see the way he interacted with Eddie and Steve. The bond that they shared with him was nothing I had ever witnessed. One minute Steve could be bitching at Dustin’s tone, and the next making sure he wasn’t hurt from a fight with Mike.

Max was another one I was surprised about getting close to. The rides to school and back with her let me into some more insight about what happened to her over spring break, and why she never seemed to go anywhere without her walkman. She was a firecracker, but had a heart of gold and knew exactly what to say when she saw me getting overwhelmed. We were all over at Steve’s for a movie night when Mike broke a plate. I had flinched and with just one look at me she knew what I was thinking and pulled me to the side. She fell asleep on my lap that night during a movie, and when I smiled up at Eddie, I don’t think my heart ever felt so full.

Eddie, well Eddie was everything. He was serious, after his talk that day he went beyond any effort he had made previously. It was like all stipulations had disappeared on his side; he was touchier than ever and way more vocal in his praises. It was getting easier for me too, and every time I reached out first for affection, he’d give me his million-dollar smile. It was so easy to let myself be loved by him. And any time I would worry about how much effort he was putting in and how I wasn’t worth it, he’d shut me up with a look and promise that he would do this everyday for the rest of our lives if needed. Even though I think he hadn’t said the words yet for my sake, I could feel them with everything he did.

It was Sunday night, which meant no Wayne and no interruptions. With everyone constantly checking in, it was hard to get some alone time with Eddie. Especially with him trying to graduate this year, he’d come home and do homework or work on the campaign and then crash. Not that I was complaining, a sleepy Eddie was very affectionate and it always made up for missing him during the day. He’d pull me close, thumb brushing against our soulmarks in the darkness of his room. It was so easy to melt into him, letting him protect me from everything outside those four walls.

The fabric of the couch was itchy beneath my arms as Eddie laid on top of me. His weight was something I had gotten used to over the weeks, always wanting to be in contact with me in any way possible. I was the one that pulled him on top of me one night, wanting to feel the comfort of his weight on top of me and he must have liked it because he took every opportunity to lean up against me. He was using one arm to prop himself up and his fingers tracing patterns on my bare arm, while his other hand was being used to trace light lines on my face. With every movement of his fingers, it left behind a static feeling that had my face flushing. Eddie’s face was flushed, a dazed smile on his face with his hair falling out of the lazy bun he had put it in when he got on top of me. My hands were splayed against his chest, my eyes closing at the intimacy of his actions. When his touch left my face, I opened my eyes to see that he had leaned closer, his eyes flickering down to my lips.

This was finally it. This is when he was going to actually kiss me. I closed my eyes as he leaned down and just as I could feel his breath against my face…

The phone rang.

“Jesus H. Christ,” Eddie muttered as I opened my eyes. His face had flushed darker and he pushed himself up so he was sitting on his heels. The force of his eye roll had me giggling as his eyes softened. “Do I really need to get that?”

I sat up on my elbows, giving him a nudge with my knee. “It could be important?”

He groaned again and sent me a look as he tumbled off the couch towards the phone. “Munson residence. You better have a damn good reason for calling.”

“Eddie!” I laughed as I sat all the way up and he waved a hand at me.

Eddie’s facial expression changed from annoyance to curiosity. “Let me get her.” He rested the phone against his chest. “It’s Murray. He wants to speak to you.”

I crossed the room quickly to take the phone from Eddie. He stood next to me, arm wrapped around me as he lowered his head next to mine to try and hear our conversation. “Murray?”

“Sydney!” Murray’s excited phone came from across the line. “It’s been so long since I’ve seen you, child!”

I sent a questioning glance to Eddie, his expression mirroring mine. After our initial meeting, Hopper explained to me that Murray is overly cautious. Claiming that the government is listening in on our phone calls after everything with the Upside Down. That if Murray had anything to say to me, it would be in riddles and half-truths until we met back up in person.

“Indeed it has,” I let out a soft laugh. “You miss me already?”

“I have those family photos you asked me to find,” Murray said in response. “The ones that your Mom didn’t let you leave with? Do you think I can drop by tomorrow and deliver them in person? We could get lunch and catch up?”

“Sure,” I said as Eddie moved a hand to rub down my back. “You want to invite Uncle Hop and make it a family affair?”

“Always, kid.” Murray replied. “You’ll tell him when you see him?”

“Of course.”

“See you tomorrow, kiddo.”

The line disconnected in true Murray fashion, leaving me slightly confused as Eddie hung the phone back up. “What was that about?”

“Murray wants to bring me some family photos?” I questioned. “Which is ridiculous because I wasn’t in an-”

I stopped. “The documents. The ones that he faked, they must be ready.”

“Already?” Eddie asked as he pulled me to his chest.

I shrugged under his arms. “I guess. That’s why he’s gotta be back in town. I’ll tell Hopper in the morning when you drop me at the station.”

“Do you want me to skip so I can be with you?” Eddie asked, starting to sway us to a tune that he could only hear.

I shook my head. Since that last altercation, I really hadn’t been in public that much, less with Eddie. We kept our appearances to a minimum for my sake, not ready for someone else to approach us. “You need to be in class.”

Eddie groaned. “Sweetheart, one day isn’t going to matter.”

“Shh,” I said as I leaned up to pat his check. “I’ll be fine. When we get home you can see my new family tree.”

Eddie sighed and looked over my head to the clock hanging on the opposite wall. “It’s getting late, do you want to head to bed?”

I snorted. “You mean hide under the covers and whisper to each other until we fall asleep?”

He sent me my favorite smile. “I knew you were made for me.”

Monday’s were always spent at the station with Hopper. His excuse was that I made his day more tolerable, but I also knew that it was his slowest day and if I wasn’t there he would be snoozing at his desk. Eddie dropped me off with a kiss to the cheek and drum solo blaring out his speakers. I waited until he drove away with El to broach the subject with Hopper.

“So Murray called last night.”

Hopper raised his eyebrows from where he was trying to light his cigarette. “He called you? About the documents?”

I raised my eyebrows. “You know the documents are ready?”

Hopper shrugged and exhaled a cloud of smoke. “He called Joyce to invite her out to the lunch you were supposed to tell me about.”

I smirked. “How do you know he called Joyce last night?”

Hopper glared down at me. “I’m not allowed to spend time at the Byers house?”

“It sounds like you had an ulterior motive, Uncle Hop.” I said with a laugh and moved out of the way as he swatted at me. “You making night house calls now?”

“Shut your mouth.” He pointed a finger at me. “You’re just as bad as El.”

I shrugged and tried to conceal a smile.

We left for the diner a lot earlier than we needed to, Hopper saying that if he heard Callahan’s annoying voice one more time he was going to lock him in a cell. Joyce was waiting for us outside the diner, sitting on one of the wooden benches with a magazine in hand.

“Hey!” Joyce leaned forward to hug me as we got closer, her hugs always making me feel more grounded. “You’re early.”

“Well, so are you.” Hopper said as he leaned down to kiss her cheek. He sent me a warning look when he stood back up, and I just smiled and pretended to look elsewhere.

“Murray claims he’s going to be on time but he never is,” Joyce teased as she guided me to sit back beside her on the bench. “That man only runs on his time.”

“But he told you why he was coming?” I asked.

She squeezed my shoulders. “After today you will officially have a paper-trail following you to Hawkins. That way no one can raise any questions about where you come from.” Her eyebrows furrowed for a second. “Is anyone else giving you trouble?”

I sent Hopper a look and he raised his hands. “Don’t look at me. Blame the kids. How do you think Eddie reacted about that day at the grocery store? Of course the kids were gonna be worried.”

“No,” I said and twisted my fingers in my lap. Maybe I should have had Eddie come with me today. “I really haven't given anyone the chance to either.”

“Sweetie,” Joyce said as she pulled me into a side hug. “You can’t just shut yourself up like that.”

Before I could answer her, Murray made his presence known by dropping his bag in Hopper’s lap and reached down to hug Joyce. “Ah, my favorite adults. How are we doing on this cloudy day?”

“Murray,” Hopper said in amusement with an eye roll. “Looks like you actually made it in time.”

“Hey,” Murray drew back like he was offended. “Since I saved your ass in Russia I have been nothing but on time.”

Joyce laughed and tugged me off the bench to follow her inside. We tried to be discreet by choosing a booth in the back, but there weren’t very many people dining in the first place. Murray waited until the waitress took our orders before sliding a folder my way.

“You are officially Sydney Thompson from a small town no one has heard about in Montana. Your “mother” is the only one listed on your birth certificate but I have an official document here putting you in Jim’s care.”

He wasn’t wrong. There were many documents in that folder, including information on a bank account in my name. I picked it up and let Joyce look over it as I glanced back at Murray. “What is this?”

Murray smiled. “It’s a welcome to the party gift. Don’t go crazy, I didn’t put very much in it, but at least you have something to your name now. It’s completely ours, but now you have roots here.”

“You mean we didn’t put much in there.” Joyce laughed as she moved the folder out the way when the waitress came with our food. “Stop trying to take credit for what we all did.”

I felt my throat get tight and looked around the adults at the table. “Thank you.”

Murray cleared his throat. “I don’t do well with tears, maybe just get me a good bottle of vodka and we’ll call it even?”

When lunch ended, Murray followed Joyce and I followed Hopper. We didn’t make it very far from the diner before Hopper stopped me. He glanced down at the folder in my hands and beckoned it over and I gave it without a fight. It was a few good minutes of him looking over some of the paperwork before he shut it with a snap and handed it back to me. Before I could take it, his grip tightened on the corner in his hand.

“Are you okay with this?” Hopper asked me. “I know that we talked about this being a temporary solution, but now it’s official. Are you still okay with being tied to me?”

I cocked my head. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

Hopper looked around us to point out the obvious, the stares that he was getting from the nosy people of Hawkins. The stares that I knew he was getting every time he went out in public, how they ranged from sympathy when he was with El, to the anger some people had of him back in the police uniform.

“Hop,” I let out a sigh and refocused on him. “My father was never around much and when he was, he was a drunk asshole who wanted to tell everyone what a mistake it was to have a daughter. In my time here you’ve been more of a father to me than that man has been in my twenty years of life. And if you don’t want me thinking of you that way, then th-”

Hopper didn’t let me finish as he pulled me into a tight hug. The folder was awkwardly squashed between us and I had to stand on my toes to properly hug him back, but it was one of the best hugs I had ever got.

When he stepped back, a heavy hand squeezed my shoulder. “I’d be honored if you thought of me like that. I meant what I said that day, I always take in strays.”

I laughed and that was that. No more hesitation on my side. The found family that I discovered was amazing and I wouldn’t trade them for anything. And when Eddie and I got home that night and showed Wayne the documents, I got another fatherly hug from Wayne that leveled right up there with Hopper’s. Why would I ever want to go back?

_______________________________________________

“I just don’t get why you have to buy the Eggo brand, Steve.” Robin said as she shut the freezer door behind Steve. “It’s not like she’s going to taste the difference.”

“Robin,” Steve glared at her from across the shopping cart. “Please don’t start this again. I’m always gonna give El what she wants. If she wants Eggos, I can buy her some Eggos.”

“Yeah, Buckley.” Eddie chimed in from where he was swinging our joined hands, us watching them argue over what each other was putting in the cart. “Just like the difference between Red Vines and Twizzlers. They are both licorice, are you saying they taste the same?”

“Fuck off, Munson” Robin said, not unkindly as she pushed the cart forward. “Why are we friends with you again?”

Currently Robin, Steve, Eddie, and I were making a snack run to Bradleys. We were having a movie night tomorrow and Steve couldn’t not have the right snacks in his house. After hangry kids and an ‘accidental’ breaking of a picture in Steve’s hallway, we weren’t going to risk it. This was also the first time being out with Eddie since the incident, and having both Robin and Steve there really helped my anxiety.

It also helped that Eddie didn’t let go of my hand. But Robin had something to say about that too.

She watched as Eddie twirled me the middle of the frozen isle, the music playing throughout the story was too low to hear, but Eddie was a man that always moved to his own beat. I laughed as he spun me back to him, tripping slightly as I landed against his chest.

“Bleh,” Robin said with a smile as she looked over at Steve who was studying the list he had compiled. “Is this what we have to look forward to?”

I heard Steve snort. “Just be lucky that this is all they are doing.”

“Hey!” Eddie said, not offended as he shifted his hold from around me back to my hand. “We are not that bad.”

“She is not that bad,” Steve pointed at me and rolled his eyes. “Eddie, have you met you?”

Before Eddie could retaliate, I heard loud voices from the other end of the aisle. I turned in Eddie’s hold to investigate, but was met with the sight of three women pointing at our group.

“-let him back in public?” I heard one say.

“-pper should really be doing his job. Letting an accused murder walk the streets?” Another gawked out.

When I looked back at Eddie, I could see all amusement was wiped from his face and his eyes tightened in a way that I knew meant he was upset. Steve and Robin were quiet behind us, and with one glance, I could see that they were staring down the women too.

“Hey,” I whispered to get Eddie’s attention. His eyes snapped to me from where he was watching them, him trying to school his expression for me. “They don’t exist, remember? It’s just us.”

Eddie let out a sigh. “Just us.”

“C’mon guys,” Steve said. Robin had moved to stand in front of us, her back to the gossiping women. She reached a hand out the rub at one of my arms. “Let’s just finish this.”

Without another glance at them, I let Eddie turn me around to follow Steve, Robin stayed on my other side like she was going to try and protect me from anyone that approached us. I thought we had gotten away with it, that they were going to leave us alone and we could get out without any other altercations. But Eddie was adamant that he could go get his cereal and be right back.

“Gonna miss me, sweetheart? It’s just one aisle.” Eddie laughed and leaned down to kiss my head. “I’ll be quick, you won’t even notice I’m gone.”

I frowned, still on edge. What if those women were gonna follow us around the store?

“I’ll get you some pop tarts,” Eddie bargained with me. “Just stay here with Robin and Steve. If we split up, the less time we can be in here and the sooner we can be getting something to eat.”

“Yeah,” Robin as her arm wrapped around my shoulders. “Go get your nasty cereal, Munson. No one else is gonna eat it.”

Eddie flipped her off with a smile as he turned the corner. Anxiety bubbled in my chest as he left my sight. “They are going to follow him.”

“You don’t know that,” Steve said as the cart came to a stop next to me. “Most of them just like to gossip from a distance. I’m sure Hopper scared the rest of them off.”

“C’mon,” Robin pulled me along with her as we followed Steve. “All we got left is Max and Will’s chips and we can leave,”

A few minutes passed as Steve and Robin debated on chips and Eddie wasn’t back yet. The bubble of anxiety just kept growing in my chest. Something in my chest told me I should have followed Eddie.

And then I felt it, what Eddie was talking about all this time. I felt the feeling of fear settle into the back of my spine. I could tell it wasn’t my emotion, it was Eddie’s.

“Guys,” I said to get their attention. “We need to find Eddie, now.”

I didn’t give them a chance to argue as I took off to find him. I tried to remember the layout from the last time I was here, but it wasn’t needed as I heard loud voices coming from two aisles down. I didn’t wait to see if Steve and Robin were behind me to help me stop this, I just knew I had to get to Eddie. The voices got louder the closer I got.

“Really think you should be able to walk around here?”

“Devil Worshipper!”

“How can you even show your face around here?”

“Lying to that poor girl, how hasn’t Hopper thrown you in jail?”

“Killer!”

“Hey!” I shouted as I heard that last remark. I was just rounding the end of the aisle and saw that they had Eddie backed into the shelf, cereal box clutched in his hand. It would be a funnier sight on another day, four older ladies in their bright pinks crowding Eddie in his black clothes. But this wasn’t another day, this was today when they were harassing Eddie in a stupid grocery store. “Get away from him!”

I didn’t stop moving as I approached the group, shouldering who got in my way to stand in front of Eddie. Eddie’s face was pale and his gaze was pointed downward at his shoes when I got in front of him. He wouldn’t meet my gaze, but did take my hand when I offered it to him.

I turned back to the group of women, furious. “You have two seconds to leave before I’m calling my Uncle. You have no right to say those things here!”

“Honey,” One woman said condescendingly as she tried to reach out to me. “You don’t know what’s going on. He murd-”

I could feel Eddie flinch harshly behind me. He fought to get his hand out of mine, but I refused and tightened my grip.

“Shut the hell up!” I yelled. I could hear that the store had gotten too quiet and the sound of Robin’s boots as she and Steve made their way to us. “You don’t know anything about what happened. Eddie is not a goddamn murderer. He didn’t kill Chrissy, he didn’t kill Patrick, he’s never hurt anyone!”

“I’m calling Hopper,” I heard Steve say as Robin made her way to my side, both of us working as a barrier between the women and Eddie. I could barely see Steve behind them, but nodded in the direction his voice came from.

“How could you stand behind him in good conscience?” One of the women said, targeted at me. “How can you stand there knowing what he’s done? That makes you just as bad!”

“He shouldn’t even have a soulmark!” The other cried out. “Not after he split apart Jason and Chrissy! An eye for an eye, a mark for a mark!”

“Stop!” I said as I took a threatening step forward. I stood as tall as I could, wanting to seem as intimidating to these women. “You don’t know jack shit. Eddie didn’t do it! Out of everyone in this store, Eddie deserves his soulmark the most! You have no idea what happened in that Creel House. And I promise you if you lay one hand on him, you won’t ever see anything else but a goddamn jail cell.”

“Is that a threat?” The third asked with huff.

I smiled as crazily as I could at the three. “You don’t know where I came from and you don’t even know why I’m here. You really want to test that theory now? I dare you to see what happens.”

Suddenly Eddie ripped his hand out of my grip and dropped the box of cereal. He wouldn’t meet my eyes as I turned to face him in confusion, instead choosing to bolt towards the direction of the exit of the store. I watched as he stumbled around people and made a quick exit to the right as the automatic doors opened. When I turned back to the group of women, they all had smug faces.

“I think we took care of that, didn’t we Margret?” The ringleader of the group said. “He shouldn’t be back anytime soon.”

“You have no idea what you’ve just done,” I said with an angry laugh. “I can make what happened over spring break look like child’s play. You think you should be afraid of Eddie?” I took another step closer to the women, ignoring Robin’s attempt to draw me back. I was all in now. “Just go back to your boring life with your loveless marriage and repressed feelings where you see your husband for two hours at night and your kids when they want something from you. Where the only joy you get is gossiping about the people of this small town or making fun of your new neighbors. But I promise you, if you ever mess with any of the Munson’s again and I find out, I’ll make sure all that goes away. I’ll have Hopper arrest you before you can shed a single tear. Do you understand me?”

She took a step back from me as Steve reapproached us. Steve looked at my angry expression and the worried one from Robin that I could just feel with the stress rolling off of her. Steve stepped between us, his back to the women with himself facing me.

“Hopper’s not at the station but he’s sending Powell and Callahan to take care of it.” Steve said. “But he is making a trip to the store and he’s very angry that this interrupted his only night off.”

“Well, good.” One of them piped up from behind Steve causing him to turn around. “He can finally arrest Munson and get him out of here.”

Steve raised an eyebrow, a shocked expression filtering his face. “He’s not here for Eddie or Sydney. He’s here for you three. He’s put out several warnings about messing with the Munson’s, and now you’ve threatened his niece?”

One sputtered. “We didn’t threaten her!”

“I heard it!” Robin piped up from beside me, her arm coming around my shoulders. “And I’m sure no one else is gonna want to get involved to deny it!”

Noise started to pick up around us again, everyone that was viewing the spectacle started to go their own ways. Seemingly not wanting to have to deal with Hopper and whatever he was going to do to these three.

Steve crossed his arms and turned his body in my direction. “Sydney? Robin and I will stay here. Why don’t you go find Eddie?”

I nodded, sending another glare at the women as I stepped away from them. I didn’t bother with any of the crowd that lingered, just pushed my way through the people and met each disgusted gaze with one of my own. No one else said a word to me as I made it to the automatic doors and it felt like forever getting the doors to open. I peered out into the parking lot, heading first to the van that set a little aways from the door.

“Eddie?!” I banged on the back of the van as I moved around to circle the front. There was no one in the front seats and when I pulled open the side door, there was no Eddie hiding in the back of the van.

“Eddie?” I asked again into the dying light of the parking lot. “Eddie?”

I scoped the parking lot, but there was no one else there. There was a lone phone booth sitting at the edge of the parking lot, but no metalhead was holed up in there either. I let out a deep sigh as I leaned back against the van, desperate to find him. Eddie never mentioned how much these remarks bothered him, but it didn’t take a second glance to see the way he would get lost in himself. Eddie wasn’t dangerous to anyone but himself, and God forbid he does something stupid in his moment of disassociation.

Bang!

The sound of metal ricocheting drew my attention back towards the store, specifically to the area beside it. I took quick steps in the direction, almost knowing that Eddie had to be the cause of the noise. It was a little more difficult to see around the side of the store, the sun going down enough but not far enough for the streetlights to come up.

“Eddie?” I asked into the air as I took quiet steps past a dumpster and boxes of cardboard stacked upon each other. “Baby? Are you back here?”

I was met with no reply as I turned the corner to the back of the building. It was much darker back here, the only light coming from a bulb above what looked like a back entrance.

“Baby?” I asked again as I squinted to make out any shapes. “I just want to know that you are okay. Please just let me know that you are back here.”

A humorless chuckle drew my attention to the right and at that moment with a rescinding click, the lights at the back of the building turned on. There was Eddie, sitting on an overturned milk crate, leaning back against the store wall with a cigarette in his mouth. He looked so angry, his hair a mess from where he was probably pulling at the roots which I knew he did when he got stressed. His expression was pinched, but even from a few feet away I could see how sad his beautiful eyes were. One hand clutched his cigarette while the other was flipping the lid open and shut on his lighter.

“Am I okay?” He asked me, another humorless chuckle leaving him as he took a puff from his cigarette. “Why wouldn’t I be okay?”

“Oh, Eddie.” I said, my heart breaking as I saw the mask slip and sadness replaced the anger. “It’s okay to be upset about this. I’m upset about this!”

“Are you now?” Eddie asked rhetorically, as he put the lighter away and leaned forward in his position.

“Why wouldn’t I be?” I asked, now upset that he wasn’t fired up as I was. “That was an ambush Eddie! Those women had no right to say those things about you!”

It was quiet for a moment as Eddie threw his cigarette down and stomped it into the ground. “They sounded right, didn’t they?”

It drew me up short. “I’m sorry, what?”

Eddie’s hands made their way into his hair, pulling at the roots like I thought he was doing before. “Those women, hell the whole store probably thinks that all of that is true. So if they do, it must be right? I’m a murder that doesn’t deserve a soulmark?”

“Eddie!” I said, astounded. “None of that is true. You can’t possibly think that.”

He chuckled again, and this one sounded more wet like he was holding something back. “Were you there when Chrissy’s bones snapped and her eyes got sucked out of her head? When Patrick floated into the air in front of me on that lake? Or when the ground threatened to rip apart under our feet when we thought Vecna had won?”

I stayed silent, not moving as Eddie continued. He made eye contact with me then.

“You weren’t. You weren’t here when I started going out in public alone and had to deal with this. How I would come out of a store and my tires would be slashed or the van would be spray painted with cruel words that took days to scrub off.”

He rubbed at his face and stood up to pace, moving in a small circle around the crate.

“I’m going to have to deal with this for the rest of my life in Hawkins, sweetheart. If I were you, I’d run for the fucking hills. That’s all I’m ever going to be in this town is a murderer that just wanted to help the nice cheerleader get some goddamn sleep. And see where it got me?”

He paused, the anger seeming to drain out of him. “I had to stop doing drug deals at night because I would be followed and beaten. Do you really want to stick around for that? What if you are with me one night and they get to you?”

“I-” I started but I couldn’t seem to get a breath in as I started to cry. “What happened to all that stuff you talked about weeks ago? What you promised me?”

“This is my life, Sydney.” Eddie said as he swept his arms out, his voice kept getting louder and louder. “Being harassed in a goddamn supermarket, being followed after school, having to hide how I feel when parents push their kids behind them in public. Do you really want to have to deal with that the rest of the time we are here?”

Eddie sunk to his knees, tears finally escaping his eyes as a heartbreaking sound left him. Even when he showed me his scars and the breakdown that followed, he never sounded this sad. This resigned to the life he had. He pressed his hands to his eyes like he could force the sadness back into the darkest parts of him.

“I’m so sorry, Sydney.” Eddie cried and I finally moved forward, falling to my knees in front of him. “This is what you chose, this is the life we are going to have here. Us getting harassed in supermarkets and being denied service at some places. You think I want this for you? I can’t give you much in this life, and until we can leave here this is what our lives are going to be.”

I didn’t answer him at first, just reaching forward to pull him into me and he just collapsed. His sobs got heavier and his arms circled me to clutch me closer to his chest. I held him tightly, not realizing that things had gotten this bad. How long had this been going on before I arrived? Twice a week, three times, everyday?

“Eddie, baby look at me.” I said as I rubbed a hand down his back and tried to pull back. His grip tightened, pushing his face into my neck. “Okay, you don’t have to look at me but you have to listen.”

I sighed as he continued to shake in my arms. “Eddie, it doesn’t matter what they say to me about you. I’m never going to believe them. I chose this life, I chose to live it with you here in a small town that I had never heard of and far away from my time. Do you really think a few old ladies are going to have me running for the hills?”

“But,” Eddie hiccuped and sat back on his heels, his arms still locked around me and forced me to fall back with him. The gravel was rubbing the material of my jeans into my knees, but I wasn’t going to move. Not when he needed me. “The bruises that-”

“Baby,” I said as softly as I could. “Dustin hit me with his textbook last week and I still have a bruise on my arm. Do you really think that bothers me?”

Eddie looked up at me then. “Sweetheart, someone grabbed you three weeks ago. I can live with the shoves and assault, but the fact they think they can do it to you? That’s a line I’m not willing to cross. I can’t let you put up with that.”

“So what?” I scoffed, trying to get him to see how ridiculous he was being over this. I chose him all those weeks ago, and I’m choosing him now. “You want me to leave you here alone in all this? Go back to a time where I’m unloved and trapped in a house that’s going to break me worse than what you found me?”

“No!” Eddie yelled at me. He moved so his hands were clutching my face. “Please don’t leave me. I don’t think I’d survive it.”

“Baby,” I whimpered out as my heart broke more for him. “You can’t tell me to go and stay in one sentence. I’m telling you like I told you all those weeks ago that I’m with you. We are in this together. So what if the people of Hawkins are narrow minded? We weren’t going to stay here forever. I’d follow you anywhere; wherever you go, I will go.”

Eddie was sniffiling loudly, his brown eyes tracking across my face like he was waiting for my expression to change. “I don’t think I’d forgive myself if they hurt you.”

“No one is going to hurt me.” I said with all the conviction that I had. “Eddie, don’t turn this around on us. Nothing that happened there is your fault and it never will be. I’m angry at them, not you. I’m never going to be mad at you. I’m never going to leave you. I can’t change what happened back in March, but I can tell you that the trauma of Chrissy’s death needs to be lightened. You didn’t kill her baby, you did nothing wrong. She was with you in her final moments, can you imagine how much more scared she would have been if she had been alone? She trusted you. None of those women in that store can take that from you.”

I moved a hand up to push his hair away from his face, wiping his tears away in vain as more continued to fall. “You have never not been deserving of a soulmark Eddie. You are one of the kindest, craziest, self sacrificing people I have ever met. The universe took one look at you and decided I was worthy of all of this. I’m going to make sure you know that everyday.”

Eddie leaned into my touch, his eyes slipping closed as some of the tension left his frame. “Isn’t that my line?”

I let out a tiny laugh and moved to pull him back into my embrace. “I’m serious Eddie. It’s okay to be frustrated and upset about what they say, but you can’t ever believe them. They weren’t there Eddie. They didn’t see what you did to save this town, the sacrifices you made and probably will continue to make if Vecna comes back. You can’t let them win.”

Eddie hummed, his chest vibrating against mine. “It’s just so hard when you hear it all the time. Everywhere I go I hear the whispers of what they think of me. After a while of hearing something, you start to believe it. You know?”

I nodded and moved my hands to cup his face and pull it to where I could see him. “Baby, I promise you every day I’m going to remind you that whatever you hear isn’t true. We are in this together, remember?”

“Together,” Eddie echoed back at me like I had done to him all those weeks ago. “I don’t know what I would do without you.”

I smiled then, glad to see that his tears had stopped. “You won’t ever have to find out.”

“Yeah?” Eddie asked, leaning forward to tuck some hair behind my ear. My thumbs moved to wipe the tears from his face, some color returning to his pale features.

“Oh, yeah.” I teased. “You’re stuck with me.”

“What a shame,” Eddie said dramatically as he swayed under my hands. “I have to deal with you for the rest of our lives?”

Eddie let out a laugh and made a move to get to his feet. He reached a hand down to me, helping me off the dirty ground and leaning down to brush at my knees when I stood up. He fussed over me for another moment, pushing my hair over my shoulders and wiping at my face for any leftover tears. “Thank you for coming to find me.”

“Hey,” I said as I reached for him. “Don’t thank me. I’d do anything for you, even beating up a few old women.”

“Would you now?” Eddie said as we pulled each other closer. “You’d take all of Hawkins' gossip for me?”

“In a heartbeat.” I said back without any hesitation. “I don’t know if you noticed, but I’m kind of obsessed with you.”

Eddie raised his eyebrows, my favorite smile of his pulling at his lips. “I’ve got you beat, sweetheart.”

Eddie leaned his face forward, completely in my space as we shared the air between us. “I crave you, Sydney. When you are not with me, it pains me to be away from you. I won’t ever need anything else when I’m with you.”

With that, Eddie leaned forward and hesitantly pressed his lips to mine. I let out a small noise of surprise and after a second of catching up, I pressed forward to wrap my arms around his neck and pull him as close as possible. Eddie responded with the same enthusiasm, his kisses getting deeper and more confident as his hands clutched harder at my face. My heart was going crazy in my chest, my body filling with static at the emotions running through me. It was like every emotion was being amplified, like touching a wire of electricity. One of my hands moved to grasp at the hair at the back of his neck while the other moved to grab at his wrist; and when I brushed over his soulmark, it felt like I was in the sun.

Eddie must have felt the same because he pulled back taking a sharp breath, his forehead leaning against mine. “Sydney?”

Instead of verbally responding, I pushed myself up to kiss him again, already knowing that I was addicted to this now. The closeness between us, the feeling of Eddie inside and out as he kissed me. I kissed him deeper, more emotional like I wouldn’t survive without him. Like he was my life-source and every minute I spent not with his lips on mine was a second of not living.

I pulled back after it felt like my lungs were on fire, Eddie moving my face to look at him. He had this dreamy look on his face and I felt pride swell within me. I did that, I made him feel that way.

“Sydney,” Eddie chuckled. “If you don’t stop, I’m not going to be able to stop.”

“Oh?” I asked him, feeling in my chest like that day at the arcade. Him pushing me against the van, the trailing of hands. “What if I don’t want you to stop kissing me?”

Eddie groaned and moved his forehead to rest back against mine. “Sweetheart, don’t ask those questions. I am a weak man for you.”

“Yeah?” I asked back with a smile. Eddie dropped his hands from my face to my waist, his grip tightening as I leaned forward to kiss at the corner of his mouth. “I want you to be weak for me Eddie.”

A series of emotions filtered across his face before what I could only describe as hunger settled on his features. He chuckled, his hands forcing my waist to connect with his. His head bent down to my neck and I felt him start to mouth at my neck. I felt my knees shake, my heart beating incredibly loud in my ears. My face was hot and flushed as I grasped onto him, wanting to stay present and not drift away in his clutches.

“This isn’t the place to be weak for you, sweetheart.” Eddie said as he pressed another kiss to my neck and then leaned back. I let out a low whine and the smile that painted his face promised me he would just eat me up. “The sounds that I want to pull out of you? Those should be reserved for my ears only.”

My face flushed darker if possible and before I could come up with something to say, I heard the sound of Robin and Steve.

Eddie must have heard them too before because he groaned and the step he took back from me seemed like it pained him. He moved to grab my hand, keeping me close to his side as they rounded the corner.

“Everything okay?” Steve asked as they came closer. He looked us both over and after a moment, I saw a look cross his face. “Wait, did we interrupt something?”

Robin eyed both of us before she busted out laughing. “We leave you alone for two seconds and you can’t keep your hands to yourself?”

Eddie grumbled beside me and moved so he had an arm wrapped around my shoulders. “What did you two come out here for?”

“Hopper’s here,” Steve shared. “He wants to talk to both of you.”

I frowned. “Are we in trouble?”

Robin shook her head. “No. I think he wants to know if you are going to press charges against those women.”

I watched Eddie’s eyes widen in surprise. “He wants to press charges?”

Steve frowned. “Eddie, he’s given several warnings and people are still bothering you. He takes this very seriously.”

Eddie shook his head. “I just didn’t expect it.”

Steve regarded him for a moment before turning to look at me. “Do you and Robin want to go ahead? I need to say something to Eddie.”

I looked up at Eddie and sent me a nod saying that he’d be okay. I leaned up to kiss his cheek before taking Robin’s outstretched hand and heading back the way we came. When we rounded the corner I could see Hopper dressed in his normal clothes, arms crossed and glaring down at the three women that harassed us earlier. They looked upset, the ring leader looking like she was going to cry at the thought of Eddie pressing charges. Good.

“Uncle Hop,” I greeted as we got closer to the group and moved in for the hug when he reached out for me. “I’m sorry you had to come out on your night off.”

Hopper ruffled my hair when I stepped back. “Don’t worry about it, kiddo. I told you to call me if anyone bothered you or Munson.”

Hopper’s expression melted back into the one I’ve only seen a handful of times, the one he gets when he goes into “Cop Mode”. “Are these the women that harassed you in the store?”

I nodded. “Yes.”

“And they caused a scene? Robin said when you got to him they had pressed against a shelf?”

“Yes,” I sent a glare towards the group. “They were accusing him of being a murder and a devil worshiper.”

“But she threatened us!” One of them cried and tried to reach out to Hopper. He moved out of their range with a look of disgust on his face. “We didn’t do anything wrong!”

“Witnesses say that you three are the ones that have done the threatening.” Hopper stated. “Now do you know if Munson wants to press charges?”

“No,” Eddie’s voice came from behind me. I turned and offered him my hand when he got close enough, but he opted to wrap an arm around my waist. “I don’t want to press charges.”

I sent Steve a look from over my shoulder as he came up behind Eddie, and he nodded back at me. Whatever they talked about must have worked itself out. Eddie looked a little better, still upset about what happened but more like he had let some of the sadness go.

“You three are still coming to the station with me to fill out some paperwork.” Hopper said as he pointed towards the group of women. The two other officers came forward and started to direct them towards the flashing police cars. “You’re going to have to call your husbands to get your vehicles later. You are very lucky Munson’s not pressing charges but if I hear about any of you harassing him again, I won’t hesitate. You understand?”

The women nodded and didn’t saything as they followed the officers. Hopper let out a deep sigh and rubbed his forehead. “Are you guys okay?”

“We will be,” Eddie said as he pulled me closer to him, like he couldn’t stand for me to not be touching every part of him. “I just wasn’t expecting that to happen tonight. Thanks for coming.”

Hopper shrugged. “Despite our past Munson, you’re a part of this group now and that makes you family.” He sent me a look. “You too. I mean it, if anyone bothers you like this again I am pressing charges regardless.”

Eddie shrugged. “Maybe this will finally scare them into leaving me alone.”

Hopper stared at him for a moment. “If I found out that you didn't tell Wayne about this, I am calling the man myself. Do I make myself clear?”

“Yes, Chief.” Eddie said back with a small smile. “Thanks.”

Hopper reached out to grasp Eddie’s shoulder before stepping back and heading towards his vehicle. We watched him pull out of the parking lot, the other cop cars following after him. It was a moment or two before any of us moved, the night turning out completely different than we thought it was going to be.

Steve tossed Eddie the van keys. “I had Robin check us out as I met with Hopper. So you don’t have to worry about going back in there.”

Eddie sighed and it seemed some weight came off his shoulders. “Thanks, I really didn’t want to go back into that store. Can we just drop the two of you off? I’m not up for doing anything else tonight.”

“Sure,” Robin said. She glanced around for a second before spotting a lone cart. “Can I do one thing first?”

Eddie nodded, confusion painting his face. Robin looked around for a moment before rushing towards the cart and walking it down the parking lot. We watched her peak around before narrowing in on a car. With a big push, she sent the cart flying and watched it crash into the driver side door.

“Robin!” Steve hissed as he took off after her. Eddie and I shared a glance, our mischievous smiles mimicking each other. “Destroying someone else’s property is illegal!”

“Is it illegal if she deserved it?” Robin said as Steve caught up to her, Eddie and I took our time walking towards them. “I saw her put her stuff in this car! No one is going to say anything.”

Steve rubbed at his face before his hands dropped at his side. “Is that it?”

Robin pouted. “Will you let me slash one of their tires?”

Eddie snickered and leaned forward to give Robin a high-five. “That’s my best friend! But in the event of the police leaving, we should keep our crime rate low.”

“Next time then,” Robin said with a laugh. She jumped at Steve. “C’mon Steve, aren’t you angry?”

“Of course I’m angry!” Steve said. “I just don’t want to commit crimes in a public place!”

Robin laughed and let Steve lead her towards Eddie’s van. I watched them bicker over who should get the front seat before they both gave up and got in the back. I turned towards Eddie to see him watching them with a fond look on his face.

“How did I get so lucky?” He asked no one in particular. “Being around all of you.”

“You deserve everything, Eddie.” I said as I leaned up to kiss his cheek. “Now the sooner we get them home, the sooner you can make out with me in the comfort of your bedroom.”

Eddie sent me a mischievous look and started moving us towards the van. “I’ve created a monster, haven’t I?”

I just sent him another smile as he opened the passenger door and helped me into the van. He snuck in another kiss before he closed the door, Robin hackling him from the backseat.

Eddie looked lighter when he pulled out the parking lot and started in the direction of Steve’s house. Sure I couldn’t stop anyone from saying anything to him, but I could be there to kiss the worries away when it happens. And Eddie seemed to agree

Hello! I am sorry for the lack of updates, this new jobs is kicking my ass! This is the last normal chapter before the time skips! I have a lot planned and I'm excited for you all the read it! I wanted to go into more depth about how Eddie might feel about being harassed by the town, and our babies finally kissed! Leave your comments of what you think, I'd love to know!

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#eddie munson #eddie munson series #eddie munson x reader #eddie munson x oc #stranger things series #eddie munson x fem!reader #time travel au #eddie munson fic #eddie munson fix it fic #steve harrington #robin buckley

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eskawrites · 9 months

Note

What about 18 “You look like hell.” “I feel like it.” Would there be anyway to tie that into the Russian Robin spy bits you’ve been doing because I love them sm

how did you know this perfectly aligns with what i was thinking for the Russian Robin au?

russian robin drabble part one | part two

Nancy isn't surprised that Hopper is furious with her. She's not surprised when Murray goes on a two hour rant about how reckless she is, and how they're all certainly going to die now that she's let Robin run back to her handlers. She's not surprised by the sad, torn look Joyce gives her, or the way Steve shuts himself in his house and stops talking to all of them.

She is, however, completely taken aback when Dustin shows up at the Wheeler house in the middle of the night, banging on the door and demanding to talk to her and only her.

"What's going on? What's wrong?" she asks, trying to pull him inside so he doesn't wake the neighbors as well as everyone in her house. But Dustin tugs his arm from her grasp and stays stubbornly on the front step.

"You need to come with me. This is top secret--you're the only one we can trust."

"We?"

"Just come on, Nancy!"

She barely has enough time to grab her backpack that's sitting by the front door before he's grabbing her and pulling her along. She's in pajama pants and a sweatshirt that once belonged to Robin, running barefoot against the pavement, and then the grass, and then through the woods.

Dustin leads her further and further away from the center of town, deeper into the trees. They're heading vaguely toward the Byers' old house, she realizes.

Mirkwood, she thinks, her heart sinking.

"Dustin," she says, "what's going on?"

He slows to a walk, but there's still something frantic to his movement as he pulls her along.

"Don't get mad, okay?" he says. "You're the one who helped her escape."

"What are you--"

"Finally!" says another voice from the trees--young, impatient, and unexpected enough to completely confuse Nancy. Erica steps into view with her arms crossed. "You've been gone for ages!"

"I went as fast as I could," Dustin protests. "Have you seen anything?"

"Nothing. You told me to stay put, remember?"

"Yeah, I'm surprised you listened for once."

"What's going on?" Nancy says again, cutting off Erica's protest. "What the hell are you two doing out here?"

Erica gives Dustin a look. "You didn't tell her?"

"I was working on it!" He turns toward Nancy. "We found her, okay? But we need your help."

Nancy stares. "You--what are you talking about?"

"What do you think I'm talking about? Robin!"

"She left a week ago, she can't be--"

"Look, I've been monitoring Cerebro listening for Russian transmissions, just in case I pick up something. I figure..." He shifts his weight. "If she went back to them, I thought we should know about it."

"Bullshit, Dustin," Erica says. He throws his hands up.

"Fine! I was worried about her. Just like you, Erica. And you, Nance, 'cause you're the one who let her go. So I wanted to keep an ear out just in case she needed us. And it's a good thing I did, because we overheard them talking about her earlier tonight."

Nancy closes her eyes. The world is spinning. She kind of thinks she might be sick. She shakes her head a little.

"Cut to the chase, Dustin," she says, eyes still closed. "What did you hear, and why do you need me?"

"They found her." His voice is tight. Nancy clenches her jaw. "But apparently they underestimated her, because they reported casualties and said she got away."

"And now?"

"As far as I can tell, they have no idea where she went. But based on where they saw her last--and, okay, this is fully just an educated guess, I admit, but--"

"She's close by," Erica says impatiently. "And we need to find her. We need to help her."

Nancy opens her eyes again, glancing around. "You know, the last time you picked up confidential Russian messages, it didn't end well for anyone."

"Robin is our friend," Dustin says, his voice surprisingly sharp. "She's a lot of other things, too, but that part hasn't changed. If she needs us, I'm going to be there for her. So are you going to help us or not?"

She bites back a sigh. "How long ago were they talking about Robin?"

"It's been a couple hours."

"She could be long gone by now."

"She could've been long gone days ago, but she wasn't," he argues. "So?"

"Fine." She slides her backpack off her shoulder and digs through it until she finds the revolver. She pulls it out, checks it over, and pulls the backpack back on. "But you both do as I say, when I say it. Got it?"

They both nod. Nancy moves in front of both of them and starts walking deeper into the forest.

For a long time, they don't see anything. Nancy bites her tongue to keep from pointing out that Robin is a trained soldier, and the odds of them finding her in the middle of the woods, in the dark, with no real trail to follow are low, even if she is injured. But she thinks about the fact that Robin is very likely injured--if not freezing or starving or any other manner of nearly dead--and she keeps her mouth shut and keeps walking.

She's just about to suggest Dustin and Erica head home--her nerves are getting the better of her in the dark, in the woods, with the thought of Russians and demogorgons and whatever else might be lurking in the shadows--when she sees a tree with a patch of bark scraped cleanly off.

"There," she says, nodding toward it. "She's close."

"Because of the tree?" Erica asks.

"Look at the marks. It's too clean to be an animal. She must have done it with a knife, to make kindling probably."

Robin had taught her how to make a fire last summer, pointing out which twigs and branches were dry and which were too green still, showing her how she could figure it out for herself. But if it's rained recently, Robin had said, you might need to dig a little to get dry wood. Shaving pieces from your firewood works, but you can scrape into a standing tree too if you need to.

Nancy had asked how Robin knew all this. I went camping a lot as a kid had been her answer.

She shakes her head. "She's close," she says again.

The click of a gun cocking sounds nearby. Really close, maybe. Still, Nancy raises the revolver and reaches back to push Erica and Dustin behind her. She looks through the trees, trying to spot any sign of Robin or whoever else might be out here.

She doesn't see her, but she does hear her--a faint, disbelieving voice calling out softly, "Nancy?"

"Robin!" Dustin cries, too loud. He runs ahead of Nancy before she can grab him.

"Dustin!" She follows, heart in her throat, but he doesn't go far. He skids to a halt about twenty feet ahead, staring at--

Robin, slumped against an old, rotten stump, arm wrapped tightly around her own waist, a weak, wry smile filling her face as she sees them.

She's covered in mud, clothes torn and filthy, hair messy around her face. The hand holding her gun drops suddenly, as if giving out. She winces a little as she tries to sit up.

"You're barefoot," she says, looking at Nancy.

Nancy stares back. She's sitting awkwardly against the stump, painfully. There are bloodstains on her shirt where she's holding herself. There's a split in her lip and a bruise blooming around her eye, too. She is, though, wearing shoes. Her tattered Converse she'd been wearing when Hopper came back into town with the news that she was a traitor.

"You look like hell."

Robin gives a dry laugh. "I feel like it."

Something breaks in Nancy, tension withering away in the air between them. She stumbles forward and falls to her knees beside Robin.

"I told you to stay safe," she says, reaching out carefully to peel Robin's arm away from her waist.

"If I remember right, you told me not to fail. And I didn't. Bastards'll be running home with their tails between their legs now."

Nancy manages to move her enough to get a clear look at the wound, but the only thing she can really tell is that it's bad. Robin's skin is freezing to the touch.

"What did you do, Robs?" she whispers.

"What I said I would." Robin tries to sit up again, voice and body straining. "I--I want to protect you, Nance. I need to protect you. All of you. I--"

Nancy reaches out and stills her. Robin is breathing hard, beads of sweat gathering at her hairline, but she relaxes slightly under Nancy's touch.

"We need to get her out of here," Dustin says. Robin's eyes flick toward him.

"You shouldn't be here. Either of you," she adds, looking at Erica, too.

Erica crosses her arms over her chest. "Try and stop us."

"You--"

"Dustin's right," Nancy says before an argument can break out. "You need help, Robin."

"M'fine." Her arm falls against her waist again, trying and failing to cover the blood soaking her shirt.

Nancy leans closer and lowers her voice. "You're hurt. Badly. You didn't even try to bandage it?"

"I--" Robin stares at her, eyes wide and searching. "I don't have anything--"

"Then let us help you."

"No. There's nothing you can do, anyway."

"We can make sure you don't bleed to death," Erica snaps.

"By what? Taking the Russian spy to the hospital?" Robin laughs again, weak and hollow, and Nancy feels it scrape through her own chest. "Unless one of you is a field surgeon, there's nothing to be done. You should just go before someone finds you here."

"No way," says Dustin. Beside him, Erica crosses her arms over her chest and nods in agreement.

Robin scowls at them, then turns to Nancy, her gaze suddenly pleading.

Nancy sets her jaw. "You're coming with us, Robs."

"Nancy. Don't."

"Shut up. Dustin, come help me get her on her feet."

He does as he's told, and Robin can't do much but let them take her by the arms and help her up. Nancy lets Dustin support Robin's weight for a moment while she quickly sheds her sweatshirt and wads it up. Then she takes her place back under Robin's arm and presses the sweatshirt to her waist. Robin bites her lip, but she doesn't make a sound as Nancy applies pressure.

"Is there anyone around?" Nancy asks her quietly. Robin shakes her head.

"No one followed me. We should be fine."

"Good. Now come on. Erica keep an eye out."

"Got it."

"Nance," Robin breathes.

Nancy looks up at her and sees tears in her eyes. But whatever Robin was going to say doesn't make it out. She just shakes her head and closes her eyes, letting Dustin and Nancy help her back through the trees.

#and then they get back to hopper who is about to have an ulcer from all their shenanigans #russian robin #asks #anon #ronance

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alcottsangel · 1 month

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Stranger Things Library

when the party’s over

everyone in high school knows him as the guy with a big house and parents who are rarely around. but what happens when he can’t leave that role behind?

Sweet Caroline

Billy Hargrove is a California bad boy with a tough exterior and rough history. He is frustrated, angry, and feels the need to bring back some sense of control in his life. If he is going to be his dad's punching bag, then he needs a punching-bag of his own. His stepsisters, Caroline and Maxine, are weaker than him. When Caroline starts to get a backbone and stand up to him, all hell breaks lose.

took a hard left (but we’re alright)

the two lines are unexpected, but you and steve have a village of support

unless it's you

The thing is, Mike wasn't planning on not telling his friends about the whole- having a baby thing. He really wasn't. How was he going to hide it in the long run anyways? He just...wasn't going to ever tell them who the father was.

oh you kissed me, just to kiss me (not to make me cry)

Billy and Steve had… something. Steve’s not quite sure what it was, doesn’t know if he ever really agreed to it. And then the Mind Flayer happened and Billy died and Steve got beat up by Russians and the mall burned down. And Eddie showed up, all flashing smiles and sure hands, and Steve can’t take his eyes off of him. There’s just that pesky, niggling possibility that maybe everything with Billy fucked him up more than he’s ever willing to admit.

The Joke

"Steve Harrington never says no to anyone." When he first heard someone say it, he thought maybe it was just a weird way for people to say that Steve was too nice, which made sense to Lucas. Despite the fact he used to be a huge public facing douchebag, Steve was nice. Almost painfully so. Sure he called them shitheads sometimes and argued with them like he was their mom, but he was always there when they needed him and always saving them from the end of the world at the expense of his own physical safety. Steve Harrington was nice, and Lucas thought it was cool that other people were realizing that. But the more he heard that sentence, the more it felt like that wasn’t what anyone was implying. The more he heard it, the more it kind of made Lucas’ skin itch.

Baby on Board

It took less than a day after the news that Steve Harrington had gotten Tammy Thompson pregnant for his friends to all but abandon him. It took less than a ten minutes after finding Eddie Munson under the bleachers for Eddie to adopt Steve into his merry band of outcasts.

Nothing About The Way That You Were Treated Ever Seemed Especially Alarming 'til Now

Hopper Lives, he doesn't go to russia but he is held by the russians for a bit before he's rescued by Murray and Joyce but he isn't moved to RUSSIA, that plot was kind boring and I didn't love it so we aren't keeping it lol. Steve Harrington knows Vecna is going to get him soon, with the headaches and nose bleeds and visions he's been having. But has he said anything? No? Will he say anything? Probably not. So what happens when everything he's tried so hard to hide comes out. His parents, the russians, his insecurities.

Sweet Child O Mine

The worst part is it was supposed to be a quick run. (Ruby Munson is 16 when she sneaks out of her house in the year 2005 and somehow ends up in the 1980s looking at a young version of her Dad and all his friends.)

I Can('t) Live With This

Unsure how to deal after the Upside-Down, Steve starts a bad habit of taking out his depression on his body. With each battle that passes, it gets harder and harder for Steve to cope. Coming to terms with his feelings for his straight friend Eddie does not make things better. Steve begins to play a dangerous game with death. How many times can he pass out in his own blood before he doesn't wake up? How long can he live with this? When Eddie finds him one night things take a drastic turn. Steve doesn't think Eddie should try and save him. Eddie doesn't think Steve gets to make that decision.

#stranger things

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fandoms-in-law · 1 year

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Stories Chapter 9 - final chaper

chapter 1 chapter 2 chapter 3 chapter 4 chapter 5 chapter 6 chapter 7 chapter 8

Summary: The redecorating is done, and all that's left is getting used to it. So Steve arranges a movie night for everyone

Authors comment: I had so much fun writing this and cannot thank everyone enough for all the support you've given me.

/\/\

According to Eddie all the kids were thinking about now was how Steve had decorated other bits of the house and if he'd let them see it all at some point. That, at least, was the reason Steve gave for arranging a family movie night with everyone invited, from all the members of Hellfire, to Joyce, Hopper and Murray and even Argyle if he managed to get back to Hawkins for it.

It wasn't a lie, just not the full reason because the bigger motivation was that Steve had finally got the carpet changed, and the furniture switched out with the old things put in storage. He was hoping not to store all of it for long, and was going to offer to the adults and young adults of the group that they should have a look through and decide if any of them want some of it. As long as the kids didn't steam-roll the evening he'd make the suggestion while everyone is together.

"There's no mural?" Dustin asked, staring around the living room as if one would appear on the walls. "I was sure that you'd have asked for one in here since you got one in the dining room along with that painting."

Steve huffed a laugh, "Good observation Dustin. Thanks for a quieter reaction though. Did any of you actually think of films you want to watch or was everyone focused on how I've changed the living room?"

"We can watch films whenever. You'll surprise us with redecorating only this once. Of course that's what we want to judge." Mike stated as if expecting anything else was stupid. "But at least you kept the TV. That would have been a waste to get rid of."

Max scoffed form where she'd pulled El and Lucas down onto one of the massive cushions slightly shaped to be sofa like. "And you're not even judging it right. Like the mix up of these cushions and proper sofas is so weird. Couldn't just pick one type, could you?"

"So you want us to throw these out, right?" Steve countered, not even needing to glance at Robin for them both to grab an end of the cushion the trip were on and start pulling it towards the door.

He got squeals of laughter before Lucas and El were taking Max's words back for her. "Guess I'll have to keep it then."

...

Steve smirked when he saw Hopper quietly stepping away from the noise of his living room when they were between films and Robin was corralling the kids into actually making a decision on the next one.

"You finding parenting them all a bit hard." He asked, following and a teasing tone in his voice.

"Not sure how you manage it, even with all the energy of youth to help you." Hop grumbled, grabbing one of the beers he'd brought over.

Steve shrugged, "It's a gift."

"By the way, you had any luck getting hold of Owens?" The chief asked, keeping an eye on the door in a clear desire to not be interrupted asking about it.

"I think the number is either disconnected or he's got a way to block our numbers cause I can't get through." He answered, disgruntled. "But I'm still ready to put it right using that page to claim the money off Mr Harrington if you and Joyce will let me."

"Just call him the asshole. People round town are already calling you 'that young Mr Harrington' sometimes like this is some Austin nonsense. And no, we're not letting you risk him trying to fight back if he's not realised what he signed. You just got your place safe and made it a home." Hopper insisted.

"Then at least go through the furniture I'm getting rid of and take some of it, even if it's just to sell on. I bet a fancy bed could do wonders for your back." Steve segued easily. He'd hoped he could do something like that just to make Hopper more likely to accept.

There was still a moment where he was stared at as if Hopper knew what he'd tried to do and was trying to decide if he should reject the offer just in principle. "I'm paying you something for anything I decide to take. Don't care if you don't think you need it or shouldn't ask for it, and God knows I'm not going to get close to however much the asshole paid for the stuff, but you're taking something." Hopper sighed after a moment.

"I'm offering to just give it to you though." Steve protested, but stopped at the flat look he was given.

"And I'm saying you shouldn't just give this stuff away. At least tell me you're going to properly sell the rest of it."

He was nodding before the sentence was finished. "I've gone to the auction house in Indie to get them to resell it. Plus Robin is scheming to get Hawkins High kids informed of this to see if some of the furniture gets brought back."

It was clear Hopper was going to say something more but both men picked up some call saying they couldn't explore. "Guess there's still some curiosity among the brats for all they hated not getting lifts from you."

…

Robin and Eddie were laughing on each others shoulders when they re-entered the living room, near the other door to the room.

From the look of Dustin and Lucas it was clear they were the ones to stop the laughing pair, which honestly made Steve start laughing too.

"It wouldn't be exploring when they were my main help in getting everything done,but how about I give everyone a tour, settle your curiosity before we eat and the next film is put on?" Steve decided.

"Two rules: Judgement is okay, telling Steve what he should have done when it's really just your preference is not. Go through the shelves or cupboards and be sent back here. If that's not enough to stop snooping we can take tips from 'Charlie and the Chocolate factory'. Consequences are exaggerated and plausibly deadly." Robin cut in, grinning at the noises of complaints nobody actually voiced.

"No deadly or plausibly so consequences, including no throwing my kids in the pool." Steve countered, snapping his fingers back at her before leading the way upstairs. "I will let you see my room. Will's mural deserves to be shown off, but no brats are allowed in without supervision."

"Come on Steve. It fits with how they're acting." Robin goaded, still laughing as they all followed behind him.

…

“Hang on a second. That's freaking metal!” Gareth stated, one of the last of the group to enter Steve's room and now frozen staring at the mural Will had painted covering the wall behind the door. “How do you dress all prep and pretentious, when you want something so – so metal on your walls? I thought Eddie convinced you to do it for the dining room, but here? What?”

The other elder Hellfire guys had pushed forwards while Gareth spoke to see and were nodding along with his words. The kids instead just stared at them for a moment, before Dustin scoffed. “I told you, Steve is metal. He's like awesome. Why does no-one believe me when I'm always right?”

“Ego check.” The groan came from Steve, leaning in the door frame before he shrugged at the other teens. “And this is what I'm used to wearing. That's what I keep ending up doing and we all protect each other. It's just life, with a twist Will gave it to make it look cooler.”

Eddie snickered, nodding at his friends, “And I am trying to convince him to have a makeover, try out a better style. It's slow work though.”

“One group of big changes at a time, Eds. Let's get used to the house being redecorated before redecorating me.” Steve countered, nudging him.

Gareth was still looking from Steve to the mural, before finally deciding, “You had better include trying out DnD at some point. If even half of what the shitheads say, and that mural shows, is in you then you'd be a great player.”

“Don't encourage them trying to make me join.” Steve groaned over a chorus of agreement from the kids to the words.

...

Since they'd actually changed the furniture of Steve's room, he'd spent a month sleeping in the guest bedroom. He liked it in his room during the day but adjusting to having all his things around him openly felt terrifying, even more so after he decided the shelves were a good place for his notebooks of stories.

The thought remained in his head that his parents would see and destroy everything was too ingrained in Steve to simply be shaken off. If he wasn't staring at it while trying to sleep it was easier to believe he was as safe from his parents as everyone was finally beginning to believe they were safe from the Upside down and government torture.

Robin and Eddie still haven't been allowed to look in the notebooks since the kids found them. They hadn't asked, nor really pished him to share his storytelling. The most that had been done was Eddie asking him for ideas on where he could take campaigns next and that Steve was happy to offer suggestions for. He'd never gotten in trouble for helping someone else share a story so it was safe to do.

Eddie begged for a sleepover after everyone had headed home from the movie night. He dragged Steve into his room as soon as he agreed, insisting they go to sleep cuddling on the bed, atop the covers since Steve didn't let go long enough after being pulled in for them to be pulled over after getting permission to cuddle.

It's that night that he finally starts to relax. He had spent the evening here with his family and their friends all around him, and even people he was still getting to know felt safe enough to comment and invite him into things, most people wouldn't imagine he'd enjoy.

With Eddie there now, his room must seem alive and welcoming to his friends, that meant it could be his now. He had his own space that he could decide when to share it and other people actually wanted to help him.

That meant some of his stories happy endings were real and as much as he denied it, wanting to believe in happily ever after but struggling to was the precise reason why he never shared them or tried to join in with others.

This felt a lot like a happy ever until the next change and Steve was happy with that. His friends would be with him through whatever came next regardless.

"Can you read me a story?" He asks, not trying to escape Eddie's arms until he pulled back to look for a book.

Eddie wouldn't find any, but that was fine cause Steve was already reaching for the notebook he wanted.

"Sure Stevie, anything particu-" It was clear when Eddie recognised what he was doing. "Are you sure?"

"We've got a happy ending so I want to hear about my friends getting one too." He shrugged, silently asking that there isn't a big deal made out of this.

Nothing is as the notebook is taken from his hand, Eddie flipping through the pages to a bookmark he'd watched Steve replace while moving his things onto the shelves.

#stranger things #steve harrington #eddie munson #robin buckley #jim hopper #dustin henderson #hellfire club #steddie #fluff

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