#not really dead!eddie

[formosusiniquis]

steddie relationship reveal coming not from the kids walking in on them or accidental pda but because Eddie's combat balance suddenly gets better and they realize it's cause Steve (the better strategist) is helping him with the combat prep. They know it's love cause Eddie threatened to shave Tews and blame it on Dustin the one time he picked up the wrong notebook/no one gets to see Eddie's DnD planning

[alexjcrowley]

I like how, despite the edgy apperance, Eddie is this kind ray of sunshine who listens to metal all the time while Steve, despite the preppy appearance, has a master in Death Glare while listening to, i don't know, Madonna I think.

[afewproblems]

Season Two Halloween AU Part Five

Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four

Synopsis: What if Eddie had been at Tina's Halloween Party in Season Two? Featuring Steve!Whump, Stancy Breakup, and Eddie just trying to keep up with all these new revelations about who King-Steve actually is...

Huge huge HUGE shout-out to Jess @strangersteddierthings for being my sounding board and letting me send such long messages full of spoilers!! I can't thank you enough!

***

“Dustin, what the hell are you doing here?” Steve says as he hurries towards the kid, he looks around as though expecting another person to follow behind him. 

“I can’t find Nancy or Jonathan, you’re the only other one who knows about--”

The kid, Dustin, tilts himself to look past Steve at Eddie with suspicious eyes, “you know”.

Steve freezes, his shoulders a rigid line of tension as Dustin steps around him to head for the screen door.

Eddie had to give it to the kid, he certainly had guts just waltzing in here like this. 

“You still have your bat?” 

Steve looks from Dustin to Eddie and lowers his voice to mutter something that has Dustin shaking his head rapidly.

"The one with nails, Steve".

"Your what?" Eddie blurts out, forcing the other two to turn towards him. Dustin full on glares. His eyes narrow in irritation while Steve's face pales before smoothing out in that same guarded expression from earlier.

Dustin steps closer to Eddie and crosses his arms over his chest, "who are you?"

"Dustin--"

"That was a rule," Dustin cuts across Steve, smacking the back of one hand into the palm of the other, "no one else gets to know, and I can't tell Max, so you can't just tell him--"

Steve jerks his head as if slapped, a flush building on his cheeks and ears, "I haven't--Eddie's not, I don't--"

Dustin waves his hand dismissively and turns towards Eddie once again. 

"Look, it's cool that Steve is expanding his social circle but you should leave".

The attitude on this kid.

Eddie holds out a hand at Dustin and laughs but it tumbles out with a tinge of hysteria, "I'm sorry, I'm still stuck on the whole Nail Bat thing?" 

Steve groans, his head swings back and forth from Eddie to Dustin as though he's not sure who to answer first.

He sighs and runs one hand over his face, roughly from the slight wince he makes as he brushes the black eye, "look," Steve barks out, "he's a friend".

Something in Eddie's chest warms at the words despite the incredulous scoff that threatens to tumble out. Steve Harrington, friends with Eddie Munson? 

Dustin snorts, "you don't have friends? I only ever see you with Nancy and Jonathan".

Steve flinches slightly at the words, but Dustin carries on talking, brushing past Steve to the house.

"We don't have time for this, I've been looking for you guys all day and now it's dark and there are lives at stake--"

"Je-sus, okay, okay," Steve takes three long strides to catch up to Dustin and steps in front of him, he reaches out for the kids shoulder but seems to think better of it and instead runs the hand through his hair.

"You said lives are at stake?" 

It's like a switch is flipped in the kid, he whirls around on Steve, a stream of near gibberish falling out of his mouth at a mile a minute, Eddie can hardly follow it.

"And now he's this big," Dustin hisses, throwing his hands nearly two feet apart from one another.

Steve holds up his hands, "okay, Christ, how do you know it's not just a lizard, Dustin?" 

"Because its face opened up and ate my cat, Steve".

Steve looks up at Eddie, meeting his gaze with a nervous laugh, "listen, Dustin, uh, he watches too many B-Monster movies, I'm just gonna take him back to his house".

Now Eddie wouldn't say he's necessarily a, 'go-with-the-flow' kind of guy, but he can roll with the punches --any Dungeon Master worth their salt needed to be able to think on their feet when the time came. 

Which is probably why he opens his big fucking mouth. 

"I mean, life and death situations with cat-eating Kobolds sounds exactly like my kind of night fellas". 

Steve frowns and tilts his head, staring at Eddie while Dustin perks up, his eyes widen in surprise.

"Kobolds? You play D&D?" Dustin says skeptically, pushing past Steve to make his way up to Eddie now.

Eddie laughs at the question, "kid, I run the D&D club at Hawkins High". 

Suddenly it's like there's a different kid standing in front of him, his face lights up in wonder and he opens his mouth to continue when Steve makes a sputtering noise behind him.

"Henderson," Steve bites out, hands on his hips, "I swear to God, if you interrupted us for some Halloween prank, you're dead".

He stands there for a moment scowling at the pair of them before turning on his heel and walking towards the house.

"It's not a prank," Dustin huffs defensively, his arms cross over his chest and his face scrunches into a frown. 

He looks up at Eddie briefly, all good will from the D&D revelation earlier now forgotten as Dustin follows Steve's path towards the door.

Eddie sighs, he could just leave at this point. Either this is the most elaborate way someone has ended a smoke session with him, or the weirdest role playing game Eddie has ever found himself in the middle of. 

But something about the fear in Dustin's voice has Eddie lingering beside the abandoned loungers. He bends down to pick up the forgotten joints and puts them back in his lunchbox before putting the lunchbox back in the backpack. No sense in letting some perfectly good jays go to waste. 

The screen door slides open again revealing Steve, who blinks in surprise, "you stayed?" 

Eddie shrugs, "I said I would, didn't I?" 

Steve nods, and ducks his face, but he can't quite hide the smile that blooms, his eyes crinkle at the corners for the briefest moment before it falls.

"Listen, I know that it sounds like a load of shit--"

"Understatement," Eddie cuts in with a shake of his head.

"Yeah, but you need to know, if you come with us, you're in it. I'm not joking, this is your chance to just walk away". 

It's almost as if Steve is pleading with him, and it's then that Eddie notices what Steve has gripped between his hands. 

A fucking baseball ball bat, studded with nails that have been haphazardly hammered into the end of it.

Eddie looks from the bat, to Steve's face as Dustin steps out of the house now with two walkie talkies in his hand. He reaches for Steve's backpack and unzips it to place them inside before zipping it up again. There's a grim determination on both of their faces that Eddie has never seen on another person in real life and suddenly he's speaking without thinking again.

"Well, what are we waiting for?"

***

Eddie swipes a shaking hand through his sweat matted hair as he watches Steve and the rest of the party move about the Byers living room. 

As though mere hours ago they didn’t just fend off a group of flower faced creatures hellbent on entering their fortified school bus to tear them apart.

It was crazy. 

It was absolutely batshit that all this time there were creatures from another dimension running around their sleepy little backwoods town. 

Eddie shudders at the memory of the sounds they made, the horrible grating wails like metal on metal, echoes in his mind. 

And now…a person was dead. Mr. Newby.

Eddie had met him once while buying a used amp at the Radio Shack just a few months ago. He was nice, asked about the band and what instrument Eddie played. He had even offered to help Eddie get the amp out to his van.

And now, he was dead. 

Mr. Newby would never take Joyce out for another date, he would never walk into his job and help take inventory, he would never offer a helping hand or piece of advice ever again.

Eddie can't help but think about how close they had all come to ending up like Bob, how one of these things had almost crawled into the bus.

What if they hadn't been called away? Bob had a gun and that hadn't been enough to stop the pack of creatures from…

Eddie looks to Steve.

Steve who hasn't stopped pacing the Byers living room since Hopper herded all of them into the house. 

He takes five steps to the window at the front of the room, and five steps back to the door of the kitchen, again and again.

And suddenly, things make so much more sense. 

The strange haunted expression on Steve's face Eddie would see between classes whenever he thought no one was looking.

The way the three of them, Jonathan, Nancy, and Steve never let the kids go anywhere without a ride. 

The way Steve had looked at his empty pool yesterday.

Things happen in the dark, in the woods.

On the fifth pass, Eddie reaches out to Steve and catches the hand closest to him. 

Whatever trance Steve was in dissipates, leaving him to blink once and look down at Eddie's hand before slowly curling his fingers more firmly around Eddie's and squeezing gently. 

"How're you holding up?" Steve asks quietly as he drops Eddie's hand to pull a dining chair up to where Eddie is seated on a beaten up recliner. 

Eddie scoffs at the question and shrugs, "when I figure that out, you'll be the first to know".

Steve nods, a small half smile climbs up his face. 

It drops as he looks across the room at Will.

Jonathan kneels beside the couch, talking quietly to his brother, who stares blankly at the ceiling while Nancy watches on beside them. 

Eddie's eyes follow Nancy's hands, the way she hesitates to touch Jonathan before eventually giving in and draping her hands over his shoulders. 

He looks back at Steve who also seems to be watching Nancy. He breathes out a long sigh and shakes his head, before turning back to Eddie.

"If it makes you feel better, you're taking it better than I did the first time".

Eddie raises one skeptical eyebrow and smirks, "I highly doubt that--"

"I ran away," Steve cuts across him with wide eyes, "I almost left Nance and Jon with a monster, one of those things that took Will," he holds Eddie's gaze for another beat before dropping it to the floor.

"So, don't sell yourself short". 

Eddie opens his mouth to tell Steve he should take his own advice but Hopper suddenly makes his presence known once more as he closes the door to Joyce's room behind him and walks back into the living room. 

"Okay, we may not have backup on route for a few more hours--"

"If they're even coming," Mike scoffs from the corner, "who says they believed you anyway?"

"Listen, until we are told otherwise, we need to sit tight," Hopper barks, sending a glare Mike's way. 

Hopper deflates slightly, as though realizing who he's talking to, and takes a deep steddying breath which he releases slowly through his nose, “we can't just charge in without backup--"

"If we sit here on our asses those things will eventually make it to town, you saw the tunnels Hop," Dustin bites out this time, shooting his own fierce glare at the chief as he stands beside Mike.

"They'll tear everything apart," Max says softly from the floor. She's settled against the back wall of the living room against the collage of drawings that Will had completed in his frenzied state, Lucas sits closer and takes her hand in his own.

"Oh no," Steve mutters under his breath, he spares Eddie a glance before standing up from the chair, "no, no, we can't fight these things by ourselves, we're outmatched here Henderson". 

"Not if we know how they work," Mike insists. He walks towards where Max and Lucas are sitting, nearly stepping on the pair of them in his haste.

"Jesus Mike," Lucas hisses under his breath while Max settles for stomping her foot against Mike's own. He jumps at the sudden pain and the three of them dissolve into vicious bickering and name calling until Steve and Nancy pull the kids away from each other. 

"Okay, just, keep going Mike," Nancy tells him, once everyone has settled down once more. She gestures to the drawings taped up around the room. 

"As I was trying to say," Mike sneers at Max who scoffs and crosses her arms, "what if it's all connected, the tunnels, the dogs, Will?" 

No one speaks, the words seem to hang in the air as all eyes move to the couch where Will lays  wrapped in blankets and staring unseeing at the ceiling.

Mike continues, "this all started after that day in the field--" 

"And if he was infected," Dustin interrupts with a gasp as Mike nods rapidly, pointing at him and then the drawings again.

"It's like a virus, connecting him to this, this--"

"Hivemind," Lucas supplies, his voice hollow as he stands up to join the rest of the kids, "like what Mr. Clarke told us".

"Okay, okay, slow down God Dammit," Hopper huffs as he lifts his hand to pinch his fingers into his eyes.

"Hivemind?" Steve says slowly, as though rolling the word around on his tongue, "like bees?" 

Dustin blinks once, his face morphing in surprise, "kind of, it's like a superorganism made up of several others all working together, one collective consciousness". 

"A Mindflayer," Eddie whispers, just loud enough for the kids to turn their heads towards him.

He's been quiet for so long, sitting on the sidelines of this group that had clearly worked together in a crisis before. It was almost like listening to Jeff, Gareth, and Grant in a Hellfire session, watching them work out a trap in real time before executing their plan. 

It would be endearing if there weren't actual monsters running about.

"Holy shit," Mike breathes out while Dustin darts off towards the bookshelf in the corner.

He flips up some of the drawings until he finds what he's looking for and loudly crows, "yes!"

Dustin marches back to the kitchen table and slams the book down on the surface before flipping several pages. He slaps the back of his hand on the page in triumph as he sends Eddie a confident grin. 

"This isn't a game kid," Hopper sighs but steps closer to look at the book nonetheless.

"But it's the closest metaphor we have," Dustin argues back.

"Analogy," Lucas says as he steps towards the table, a shit eating grin pulls at his mouth as he catches Dustin's eye.

"Fine, analogy, whatever!" Dustin mutters, a red flush climbs up his neck until it settles on his ears, he slaps his hand on the books again, "can I get on with it or do you have more vocab for me?"

"Dustin," Nancy sighs, reaching out for his shoulder with one hand, she gives it a slight shake, "what would this even tell us?" 

"Well," Dustin turns to Nancy now and points at a section below a horrifying drawing of a humanoid man with a squid for a head. Four tentacles point in all directions while its hands wield a terrifying glowing orb. 

It's not something that Eddie has thrown at his players in years now that he's managed to figure out how to balance his encounters properly. 

Because Mindflayers…were horrific.

"They're basically from another dimension, and they travel to different worlds to conquer other species that they see as inferior to themselves". 

"Conquer," Steve breathes out beside Eddie who can't help but shuffle closer to brush his shoulder against Steve's own.

Steve gives Eddie a brief smile before looking back to where Dustin and Hopper are arguing once again. 

Eddie lets his gaze drift only to find Nancy staring at him curiously, her sharp blue eyes flit from Steve and back to himself, the weight of her gaze makes Eddie want to pull away from Steve but he holds his ground and stares right back. 

Nancy offers him a tentative smile, which does nothing to ease the sudden tension in Eddie's chest, feeling as though he's been caught. 

He could easily explain this away, despite the rumors running rampant at school about Eddie, there is no way anyone would believe the same would be true of Steve Harrington.

Eddie ignores the unhappy weight that settles in his stomach at the thought, he let himself get way too close, way too quickly. 

Besides, there wasn’t a chance in hell that Steve was, that he could be…

Eddie shakes himself and moves away, lamenting the loss of Steve’s warm shoulder as he lets Hopper's voice pull him back to the matter at hand.

"Okay then," Hopper nods, looking around the room. 

"How do we kill it?" 

***

They have a plan.

Or at least, half of them do.

Going based off a thirteen year olds hypothesis that their friend is basically a spy for a creature from another dimension -which in hindsight is definitely not the craziest thing they’ve experienced today.

Is it something that Eddie would have never come up with in his wildest dreams? Undoubtedly.

But that was before a girl with literal mind-powers showed up and tossed a dead demodog through the Byers window.

Jesus Christ. 

So, with El and Hopper on their way to the lab, the rest of the party busies themselves by packing the Byers Station Wagon for the drive to Hopper's cabin.

They have to flush this thing possessing Will out of him before it's too late and the cabin is far enough out of town that whatever happens hopefully won’t affect anyone else.

Eddie tries not to think too deeply about what that might mean.

He manages to find another portable heater in the Byers basement and hauls it into his arms before turning around to walk back up the stairs.

When Eddie reaches the landing his heart stops for just a moment when he realizes he can't see the kids. He takes another step into the kitchen and breathes out a sigh of relief when he sees the four of them huddled around the kitchen table with the still open Monster Manual. 

Eddie pauses for just a moment when he spots a Hawkins County map beside the book. 

It's covered in red marker.

An intricate design of lines ending with two circles…both around areas outside of the city center. 

Eddie shakes his head and keeps moving, much to the visible relief of the kids as he makes his way to the back door. 

One problem at a time.

He knows that Steve is around here somewhere, he was helping Jonathan carry Will to the car while Joyce and Nancy gathered as much rope from the shed as they could carry.

God, it's so dark now. 

Eddie understands what Steve meant before, the way the trees rustle in the wind and the moonlight catches on animal eyes that shine in the dark. It's enough to put him on edge as he makes his way around the Byers property. 

Every snap of a branch was a demodog prowling in the brush, every distant howl was a monster coming to drag him into the Underdark.

He shivers and keeps moving, fighting the urge to look over his shoulder every few steps.

Eddie finally makes his way to the shed, peering inside only to startle as Nancy's voice floats through the cool November air. 

"Thank you, for staying with the kids," she says quietly.

Eddie freezes where he stands with the heater in hand. He knows he shouldn't be here for whatever this is, listening in on yet another private conversation between Nancy and Steve but his feet remain planted in the earth. 

"Yeah well, I might be a shitty boyfriend, but it turns out I'm a pretty damn good babysitter," Steve hums so casually that Eddie wonders if it's really him speaking. They’re on the other side of the Byers shed, Eddie can almost make out their shapes between the uneven slates of the wood.

"Steve--"

"It's okay, really," Steve takes a deep breath, "you should go with Jonathan". 

"Steve," Nancy's voice is wet this time as she speaks but Steve hushes her with a sigh.

"It's okay Nance,” he pauses for a beat, “all I want is for you to be happy, and I don’t think you’ve been happy for a long time”.

“What about you,” Nancy whispers, so softly that Eddie almost misses it this time.

Eddie hears the sounds of footsteps and the rustle of fabric, a muffled sniffle and several whispered words that he can't make out from this distance. 

The whispering goes on for another minute or two before they fall silent, only the sound of cicadas and frogs echo in the midnight air around them.

Eddie takes this as his cue to begin to loudly walk over, purposefully grinding his steps into the gravel and walking more heavily than he normally would.

He comes around the corner of the shed to find Steve holding Nancy, his head on top of her own as she presses her face into his chest. 

Eddie clears his throat and watches as Nancy steps away from Steve. He lets her go, both of their movements lighter than they have been in days.

"If you guys checked the shed, Joyce said it's now or never".

Nancy nods and walks over to take the heater from Eddie, giving him a warm smile as her gentle hands brush his own, and huh --he kinda gets it now. How Steve could have fallen head over heels for this secret badass girl, Nancy Wheeler. 

"Thank you," Nancy smiles and Eddie sputters, running his now free hands through his hair.

"For what, I didn't--"

She raises a single eyebrow, and looks from Steve, before bringing her gaze back to Eddie.

"For being there, for all of them". 

With that, Nancy walks back towards the house leaving Eddie to feel as though he missed a lot more of that conversation than he should have. 

***

They finish refortifying the Byers house, boarding up the broken window that El had tossed the dead demodog through. Eddie adds one last nail and hammers it in before stepping back to admire their handiwork.

Steve lowers his hand from where he held the board in place and shoots Eddie a grin before he collects the box of nails from the floor and turns to put it on the coffee table.

"Steve?" Eddie says quietly. He doesn’t need to really, the kids aren't paying attention to the pair of them, but this is just for Steve. Eddie doesn't need four pairs of eyes staring at him as he tries to say this.

"I just, I'm sorry about Nancy".

Steve tilts his head in confusion, but Eddie keeps going.

"If we do make it out of this, I don't want you to think you were a 'shitty' anything". 

Eddie winces as Steve's eyes narrow slightly.

"I'm guessing you were standing by the shed a lot longer than we thought," Steve says slowly as he looks back at the kids and takes another step even closer. 

Eddie winces at being caught and nods, “I was looking for you originally to see if you guys needed any more help, and then I heard voices and just,” he shrugs, “I wasn’t sure if you’d be okay or not, after that”.

“And for what is worth, you definitely have changed,” Eddie offers with a sly grin, “I don’t think anyone would have expected Steve-the Hair-Harrington to use Faberge, let alone let us plebs in on his secret”.

Steve’s mouth opens and closes before breaking into a wide grin, a startled laugh falling from his mouth, growing in volume until Eddie can’t help but join him.

Steve raises his hands to run over his face and into his hair as he looks at Eddie, the grin on his face softens slightly the longer he looks.

Suddenly, his eyes harden and the look of determination from yesterday takes over. Steve squares his shoulders and breathes out a strangely broken sigh before he reaches out for Eddie's hands. He takes the hammer from him and sets it down on the coffee table beside them.

"My Nonna told me once," Steve whispers, using his hand to point into the middle distance, "Steven, people will come in and out of your life all the time, and the ones that are meant to be there will stay, and if they go, then it wasn't meant to be". 

Steve breathes out a sudden nervous laugh, "she was so straightforward and I loved that about her".

Eddie doesn’t dare to breathe as Steve shakes his head.

"And you, you stayed," Steve continues softly, "and I just…" 

Eddie's own breathing picks up as Steve leans closer, enough that Eddie can count the freckles on the bridge of his nose.

"Fuck what Dustin said, I think I need more people in my life like that". 

Eddie's eyes widen slightly as the words begin to register. No, no way, this can’t be happening.

He lets out a strangled laugh and leans away from Steve’s space, “more friends in your life right?”

It all happens so quickly after that.

Steve freezes where he stands. His face moves through several expressions, some so brief that Eddie can’t quite tell what is going on before it smoothes out once again into something blank; Steve lifts his hand to pinch the bridge of his nose before dropping it to his side and nodding.

“Yes, right, friends, duh,” Steve laughs but it's not at all like the bright wild one he let out just a few seconds ago.

This one was dull, hollow.

Eddie opens his mouth to say something, anything to wipe away the horrible emptiness in Steve's eyes but Dustin suddenly pushes past Eddie to grab the sleeve of Steve’s jacket.

"Steve!" Dustin says frantically, "Steve, we have a problem!" 

The sound of a car door slamming outside catches their attention and a sinking feeling begins to form in the pit of Eddie's stomach. There's no way Hopper and El would be back from the lab yet, and Jonathan said they would radio if there were any changes. 

So who the hell was outside?

Part Six

Tag List:

@eriquin @luvinthefreaks @cinnamon-mushroomabomination @goodolefashionedloverboi @ellietheasexylibrarian @bambibiest @sadboislovebeans @howincrediblysapphicofyou @coleys-a-nerd @whycantiuseunderscore @airconditioning123 @xxfiction-is-my-realityxx @corrodedbisexual @starman-jpg @ilovecupcakesandtea @yoriposts @clumsiluni @pelinelin @phantomcat94 @lololol-1234 @anaibis @airconditioning123 @steveshairspray @hellfireone @sunswathe @eddielives1986 @tentativeghost @robin-not-batman @estrellami-1 @manda-panda-monium @tinyplanet95 @perseus-notjackson @queenie-ofthe-void @rainbowsaw @sp0o0kylights @littlebluejane @hi-im-eff @phantypurple @just-ladyme @thoroughlycollected @justrandomfandomstm @swimmingbirdrunningrock @finntheehumaneater @dynamic-powerm@nightmareglitter

and for some peeps that I think may be interested! @steddierthings @steddie-there @steves-strapcollection @henderdads @stevesbipanic @spooky-brakers

[stevesbipanic]

Isn't it funny how the man the town called a satanist and a demon, made everyone who knew him smile.

His friends at school always had a place to sit and eat and laugh.

The kids had a place to feel protected and play.

Robin had someone who matched her on a level of weird the others couldn't understand.

Nancy had an equal in a planner and a helper.

Steve had someone who had his back, who would pass him a flashlight, a vest, a shield, who made him laugh when he was in such pain.

The town wanted dead a man who's only crime was trying to make a young girl's night not suck just once. Who was punished for being different, a person who would've thrived if he'd just been given a chance, or had been born in another place or another time.

Steve visited Eddie's grave only once.

"Sometimes I'm glad you're dead, Eds, this town didn't deserve you anyway."

[livelovecaliforniadreams]

[catlover4536]

Some sketchy Frankly Dear stuff to get anyone through the day! <3

[buddiebuckley-diaz]

When Eddie said “3 minutes and 17 seconds” you could hear the possessiveness in his voice. Like these people were making the situation not serious enough. They were taking the fact that his Buck died too lightly. It was possessive, it was “you weren’t there when the lightning struck. You didn’t have to live without him, for 3 minutes and 17 seconds, in agony. You didn’t have to know he was dead and possibly not waking back up for 3 minutes and 17 seconds.” It was “the love of my life was dead for 3 minutes and 17 seconds. And I died with him for those 3 minutes and 17 seconds. And I don’t know if I ever came back. I won’t ever get those 3 minutes and 17 seconds back.”

3 minutes and 17 seconds too long.

[strangegutz]

real life au. they’re an esports team

[libraryofgage]

Scream AU

I've been possessed recently by a Steddie and Buckingham Scream AU, which means I haven't written much for my Tumblr fics hfjkds

Anyway, to make up for it, here's a little snippet of the Scream AU ;)

This snippet is clean, but the fic itself is, uh, very Dead Dove hfjsdk

Still, this snippet does include discussion of murder with vague descriptions and cursing

-------

“Have you heard about Tommy and Carol?”

Chrissy presses her lips together in a thin line, focusing more on the breeze passing over her than Jason’s friend, David, sitting a foot away from her. Jason’s arm is around her waist, encouraging her to lean against his shoulder for the twenty minute free period. 

On Jason’s right side, Steve Harrington is sitting with one leg on the bench and the other on the ground. It creates a space perfect for Robin Buckley to fit in. And she does. She slid into the spot like she owned it, and she’s now leaning back against Steve’s chest, a book in her hands that Steve reads over her shoulder. He never stops her when she turns the page, and Chrissy wonders if he’s actually even reading along.

Robin and Steve look good together. They fit as naturally as the sun that shines down on them, making Robin’s hair glint in a way Chrissy finds difficult to look away from.

“Yeah,” Jason says, shaking his head as he rubs circles on Chrissy’s waist with his thumb. “Fucking brutal, huh?”

“Dingus used to know them,” Robin says, her voice distracted as she turns the page. 

“Used to,” Steve stresses, frowning slightly as he looks away from the book. “Haven’t talked to them much lately. Jason’s the one who's been hanging out with them recently.”

“What happened?” Chrissy asks, getting the feeling she doesn’t actually want to know. Still, she hates the idea of being left out even more.

David grins at her and leans closer, ignoring the way Jason tugs Chrissy closer and glares. “They were both found dead this morning,” he says, his eyes wide and gleeful. “Tommy was floating in the pool, Carol hung from a tree, and both of them were gutted.”

“Gutted?” Chrissy asks.

“Ugh, spare us the details,” Robin says, putting the book down and looking at David with a bored expression. 

David doesn’t listen to her. “Yeah, gutted. Intestines and organs all falling out. Tommy’s were floating in the pool, though, made the water red and everything.”

A sick feeling stirs in Chrissy’s stomach, making her grimace as she looks away from David. She can’t help imagining the sight, nausea sweeping over her uncontrollably. “Dude!” Jason says, his loud voice making her wince. “Have some fucking class, yeah?”

“Sorry,” David says, raising his hands up and keeping his mouth shut for all of two seconds before saying, “I bet they were fucking.”

“What?” Steve asks, looking up at David like he’s stupid.

“You know,” David replies, “fucking. Everyone knows you shouldn’t fuck in a horror movie if you wanna live.”

“This isn’t a movie, dumbass,” Jason says, leaning even further into Chrissy���s space to flick David’s forehead.

“I’m just saying!” David says, rubbing at his forehead. “Everyone knows you shouldn’t have sex unless you wanna die. Look at Friday the 13th! Those counselors getting it on started the whole massacre.”

“So, what, some guy passed by Carol’s place, saw them fucking in the living room, and decided to get stab-happy?” Steve asks, his tone heavily implying David is, in fact, stupid beyond reason.

“Maybe he’s a horror movie aficionado.”

“Do you even know how to spell that word?” Steve asks.

“Do you?”

“How’d they even gut them?” Robin asks, her head falling back on Steve’s shoulder as she moves the subject along. Her neck stretches, and Chrissy focuses on following the line of it down to Robin’s shoulders to ride out the nausea. “Seems like overkill.”

“You cut them from the navel,” Steve says, his finger tapping against Robin’s knee as he looks across the courtyard. When Chrissy follows his gaze, she finds Eddie Munson sitting on a table, grinning at something one of his friends has said. “And I guess you’d go, like, side to side or something.”

Before he can say more, he grunts in pain, and Chrissy looks back to see Robin has roughly elbowed him in the ribs. “I said spare us the details, dingus,” she says, looking at him over her shoulder with a frown. Steve grins and raises his hands in surrender, shrugging once. Robin rolls her eyes and looks away. 

Her gaze lands on Chrissy and she gets up, brushing non-existent dust from her clothes before standing in front of Chrissy. “C’mon, let’s leave the boys to their gross talk,” she says, holding her hand out.

Without thinking, Chrissy accepts it, allowing herself to be pulled off the bench. Robin grins as she drops her hand, unaware that Chrissy is inexplicably missing the gentle warmth of her palm. “I’ll see you in class, Jason,” she says, waving before following Robin.

They’re half-way to the building when Robin says, “You should just tell them to shut up next time.”

Chrissy shrugs. “I don’t know. It was gross but easy to ignore,” she says. A few beats of silence pass before she adds, “You shouldn’t be so rough with Steve. He might think you don’t like him anymore.”

Robin falters, whipping her head around to look at Chrissy. “What?” she asks, her voice high and slightly strained.

It makes Chrissy think she’s stuck her nose where it doesn’t belong. She bites her bottom lip, watching as Robin’s eyes drop to the action before quickly rising again. “I just mean, well, he’s your boyfriend, right? You shouldn’t hurt him.”

Another beat of silence passes before Robin starts laughing so hard that she doubles over. She wheezes, holding her stomach and nearly losing strength in her legs before she calms down enough to stand up straight again. “We aren’t dating,” she says breathlessly, her cheeks flushed as she looks at Chrissy. “First of all, he’s way too high maintenance. Second of all, he’s only my platonic soulmate. We’re destined to be best friends. Nothing more. Third of all, I’m a gold star lesbian, Chrissy. I’m not exactly looking for dick.”

Oh. 

That’s…a lot to process. Chrissy blinks, letting everything run through her brain before she slowly nods. “Oh,” she says, her voice soft as she ducks through the door that Robin holds open for her. She waits just inside the school hall as Robin follows her in. “Sorry, I guess.”

“You’re okay with me being a lesbian?” Robin asks.

“Well, uh, are you gonna hit on me?” Chrissy asks back, making sure her tone is light and playful enough that Robin knows she’s joking.

Robin stares at her for a few seconds. “Only if you wanted me to,” she finally says, her tone surprisingly serious. Before Chrissy can respond, Robin smiles at her and easily changes the subject by saying, “Anyway, I’m kinda nervous after hearing the guys talk about Tommy and Carol.”

“Oh, yeah. It’s a little scary,” Chrissy says, her brain barely able to keep up with the change. “I’m not looking forward to being home alone tonight.”

“Want me to come over? I can bring a pizza and we can watch a movie,” Robin offers, her genuine smile telling Chrissy this isn’t a joke or some play on her comment about flirting.

It’s reassuring, actually. She wouldn’t want to invite Jason, since he’d look for reasons to have sex, and Robin is plenty nice. They’ve been hanging out more since she and Jason started dating. It was inevitable, really. Jason and Steve hang out because they’re on the basketball team together, so Robin and Chrissy would naturally cross paths.

“Yeah,” Chrissy says, her shoulders relaxing some as she smiles. “I’d appreciate that.”

“Totally,” Robin says, nodding once as her grin widens. “I’ll come over after work. I should be there around eight.”

Before Chrissy can say anything else, the bell rings, and she parts ways with Robin so she isn’t late to class.

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

Was thinking about your au and realized that whichever neighbour wakes up last is in for a very awkward reunion

Imagine waking up to your entire neighbourhood being in an apocalyptic scenario, and you’re the last to find out about it-

technically the last neighbor is Sally BUT Julie is the last "normal-sleeping" neighbor to wake and yeah! she sure has a hell of a time! i mean tbh it's kinda her And Barnaby? they wake up within a week of each other (the neighbors wake via Pacific Rim kaiju rules) so their breakdowns overlap <3

[weewoo911]

Rewatching Eddie Begins I’m always hit by how shitty and manipulative the whole “don’t drag him down with you” scene is.

Imagine being an overworked exhausted single parent and then having your parents sit you down and instead of saying “you’re clearly doing everything you can and we’ll do everything we can to support you” they say “actually yeah you’re fucking this up and you should do the right thing and give your kid to us instead”.

Bucks parents get a rightful amount of bashing but imo Eddies are lucky he ever spoke to them again after that.

[skeletorswaifu]

im having a steve and eddie moment. My apologies

[blue-cheeseinmyoffwhites]

Buck is helping Eddie fix his walls.

Buck is helping Eddie fix his mess.

Buck is helping Eddie fix THEIR mess.

Not only did he BREAK IN the room but he’s helping him put it back together

No no I’m fine I’m so normal about this nah it’s cool I’m normal asf like I’m so normal shaped—

[lover-of-mine]

I was thinking about Eddie's 'I love being married to her' comment. But I hope the show address how much Eddie is romanticizing their whole relationship, preferably with an Eddie and family member scene. Cause what part of Marriage did he love... All the time he was away in the army, or the single parenting he had to do when she left (because he was letting her do all the single parenting and she couldn't deal with anymore)... He kind of needs a reality check from one of his family members cause they were around, even Christopher could give it to him. But it would be a good moment to bring in perhaps one of his sisters. Cause where I don't doubt that he loved her, that was not a good marriage at all.

Okay, I wasn't gonna answer this but I can't stop thinking about it and I'm not gonna be able to do anything else unless I say this and I'm pretty sure this answer is gonna sound mean is fuck, but the point there is that he still loved the concept of being married to Shannon even though their marriage had issues because love is not this mystical, magical force that's gonna fix everything. He loved Shannon but they were married under terrible circumstances. And that got in their way. He even admitted the relationship got worse with time but he still loved the very concept of being with her because he loved her. And just because we didn't see the happy parts of their marriage before she left it doesn't mean they didn't exist? They were married for what? 6 years before she left? And there's no way Eddie was deployed for literally every single day of those 6 years? Someone coming up to him and saying "your relationship was terrible you didn't love anything about it" after she's been dead for 5 years is just mean? It is not a reality check it's just mean. Eddie loved her and she's dead. She's dead. He's not romanticizing a situation he needs to get out of. She's dead. He needs to stop chasing what he had with her, yes. But to say he's not allowed to look back and romanticize his WIFE, someone he loved and literally watched die is so fucked. He's allowed to focus on the good days and the good memories. He's allowed to look back at her as something good and that he remembers fondly and not something that makes him feel broken the way we saw him about it in s3. The fact that he can look back at her now and think about the love not the pain is beautiful. Because Eddie will never know if they would've been able to work things out if she was still around, but he wanted to. So he doesn't need a reality check. That's not a reality check. No one needs to tell him his relationship was awful. He knows they had problems. He's choosing not to focus on that when remembering her because thinking about her fondly is the only closure he's ever gonna get. She's dead. You do realize that, right? What good would pointing out the bad in their relationship now would do? Like, literally, what good would pointing out that he shouldn't think about loving Shannon because their relationship was terrible gonna do now? He can't fix it. He can't talk to her about it. He can't change what happened and he will never get a chance to figure out if they could've worked out under better circumstances. So what would this conversation lead to exactly? It's beautiful that he found a way to be okay with that while still keeping the love he felt for her as something positive. Feeling the love he felt for her as something negative nearly destroyed him. Or are we forgetting how he was after she died? He loved her, she died, he can admit they had problems, but he also knows that doesn't negate the love they existed between them. What else do you want from him exactly? What good do you think forcing him to only think about the bad would do? That's not a reality check. That's looking at all the work that man has put into being okay with the bad things that happened to him and saying nah you're not allowed to do that.

[little-annie]

Ghostly

Steddie | Little_Annie | Ao3

---

It started with whispers so faint he could have sworn they were nothing but the wind. Cool and quiet, ghosting over his ear with a light breeze.

It started with the subtle run of invisible fingers down his arm, tracing over muscle and flesh, setting nerves on fire for something that was just out of touch.

It started in the nights where he'd awake from the horrors of his nightmares to a sudden chill that'd linger at his side. An eerie but oddly comforting feeling that'd press against his body with intent. Pressure at his back and wrapping around his waist, a touch he'd longed for but never had the chance to experience. A touch he'd been desperate for since spring break of 86'. A touch he'd wish to experience in the aftermath of hell but never once had the opportunity before it was taken away and left to rot in the barren wasteland of the Upside Down.

A touch of a man he knows he could have grown to love.

In reality it started with glances in the halls and a twist in his gut that at the time he was yet to recognize as desire. It wasn't until years down the road with a jagged bottle pressed millimetres from spilling the source of his life at his feet that Steve Harrington recognized that need. It came in the form of piercing dark eyes, a mess of curls and skin so pale it resembled the beauty of porcelain. 

But it came too late. It came in a time of distress and fear and the sheer unknowingness of survival. It came only mere hours before he watched the life drain from those very dark eyes, screams dulling around him and blood pooling in his hands.

It came and so suddenly it went. It went but it never truly faded away and when those gentle touches and brushes of what felt like fingers on his skin returned, well so did that desire.

—---

It was mid June when he was sitting at home alone, blissfully enjoying the rarity that was peace and quiet, when suddenly the lights flickered and the TV switched on only to flash through channels of heavy metal music videos and what only appeared to be very sudden flashes of what looked like the Upside Down. 

His heart was racing in a matter of seconds. Was Vecna back? Was it something else? Was the form of sinew and stardust known to the universe as Steve Harrington about to finally perish to some unholy demonic god from another dimension?

But then the radio in the kitchen buzzed on in a surge of static. A name, one so familiar to the screams that haunted his dreams poured from its speakers in a frantic rush of words. 

'Eddie,' 'Eddie,' 'Eddie.'

As if it was on repeat the man's name was chanted through the radio, its stations skipping in a fury between songs and voices, each one scratchy and hardly audible except for the definite 'Eddie,' that came through crystal clear.

Only when Steve's heart was threatening to beat out of his chest did the screaming of sound halt, the Radio buzzing stop and the TV shutting off with a flash. 

"What the fuck?" He huffed to himself, trying to ease his breath when he felt pressure on the couch next to him, the scent of pine and menthols bleeding into the air around him.

He pinched his eyes shut and for a moment he could have sworn he felt Eddie's hand on his own, the unmistakable feeling of calluses and chunky metal rings against his skin.

It was a wild thought, fucking insane even, but it felt right, like whatever the hell just happened was nothing bad, nothing scary, just a ways of communication and he couldn't help but ask into the empty room around him, "Munson?"

The hand he felt on his own squeezed and he could've sworn he heard the faintest whisper of, "You betcha Big Boy." 

He couldn't help the shuddered sob that racked his body as he collapsed further into the couch. This couldn't be happening, there's no way this could be real. Maybe the head injuries had finally gotten to him and he'd finally lost it.

"It's not real," he gasped to himself, only to feel the pressure on his hand tighten and a force press against his side like he was being held.

He laid like that for quite some time, trying to wrap his mind around the insanity of the situation but in reality, he'd seen so much in the last years that the idea of Eddie Munson's ghost sitting by his side wasn't such a far out thought.

It was only when he felt the gentle scratch of fingers against his scalp that his heartbeat eased and he leaned further into the touch asking a desperate, "Is it really you? How do I know it's you?"

The movement on his scalp stilled for a moment as if the being attached to it were in thought and then like it was nothing there was a gentle pressure against his cheek and a nudge against his ear, words whispered like a breeze in the air, "It's me Big Boy, don't worry your pretty little head."

But as those words were whispered and the pressure on his cheek crept to his lips, the phone rang and the tether that'd been keeping him grounded faded into nothing.

He'd gone to sleep that night thinking he was insane, the phantom touch of what he could only wish was Eddie Munson lingering on the entire left side of his body. 

A week later it started again, though this time albeit much more subtle. Gentle touches and whispers of words in the breeze. He found himself confessing to the darkness of his room only to fall asleep later that night with the feeling of a hand clasped in his own.

He'd awake from the horrors of his dreams to a comforting sensation pressed into his side and eventually wrapped around his body.

The gentle touches and hardly audible voices continued for a month and it was when Steve had come to the conclusion that this couldn't be anything else but Eddie, he took his chance, whispering the words he'd longed to say into the emptiness of the world around him, "Kiss me."

The sensation of fingers dancing over his shoulder ceased, but only for a moment, the touch he'd experienced only that single day in June returned and he felt the warmth of lips on his cheek, slow, nervous as if they were unsure of Steve's conviction. But it was when Steve shuddered a breath and leaned blindly into the touch that the sensation deepened.

Still hesitant, nervous, a gentle but wanting thing.

With a slow releasing breath Steve felt what could only be a hand on his thigh and breath against his cheek, he couldn't help the whisper of a whine that escaped him, "Eddie Please."

The pressure on his cheek faded, leaving him gutted and wanting for only a moment, but a second later there was a weight settling in his lap, firm, heavy, warm. The sensation of hands resting on either side of his neck followed. Then a brush of his nose and then finally, finally a press to his lips.

Gentle and slow and so goddamn sweet. It was a kiss like none other, in the truest sense of it feeling other worldly. He swears he could taste the lingering burn of menthols on tongue, the slide of the other man's smooth with intent. 

It was a heartbreaking feeling, but if this was all he could get from the Eddie Munson he once knew, he'd take it. He'd take it and hold it close to his heart and never let it go.

He sighed with the feeling of warmth in his chest, pressing his palms in the mattress below until he was fully upright, leaning with his back pressed to the headboard and a still invisible force weighing down his lap.

He couldn't imagine how ridiculous he looked, making out with a ghost, but everything about it felt so right. The heat that surrounded him, warm and wanting. The hands in his hair, unbelievably able to grasp and give a spine tingling gentle pull. 

They remained that way for what could have been minutes or hours, only pulling apart when the pink hue of the sky hinted to the sun rising for the land of the living. It was then that Eddie pulled away, pressing a single lingering kiss to Steve's forehead before settling like a weight on his chest until the late hours of the morning.

It continued like that, Eddie's spirit lingering like an invisible force, stealing kisses in the emptiness of the Harrington house, ghosting fingerings through Steve's hair or stealing a peck in passing. Many times did Steve find himself standing with a firm line of pressure against his back and breath trickling over his ear, the occasional whisper of laughter breaching the barriers of the universe making their conversations seem not so one sided.

There'd be times when Eddie could talk, but they were quick, subtle things, the burst of words through the television or the radio, the man saving his greatest amounts of energy to tell Steve he's beautiful through a staticy hum.

It's the most they'd ever feel like they were together, the closest they'd get to something that could have been.

The kisses continued and the touches were ever present, but eventually Steve needed more. He wanted to feel all of Eddie, every part of him he was robbed of when he was taken from their world too soon.

It's an evening like any other, music playing quietly in the background, a tattered copy of the Hobbit in Steve's hand and gentle kisses begging to trail their way down his neck. The bed dips next to him with the weight of the man Steve knows he loves and when Eddie stops where he always does, lips halting at the collar of Steve's shirt, it's hardly even a thought when he drops the book off to the side and pulls his shirt over his head, encouraging Eddie to continue further.

It's a slow thing, beautiful and bleeding intention.

They'd learnt long ago that they can feel every ounce of the other under their fingertips, every hill, every valley, every new and old scar and raised tattoo. All it took was for Eddie to grab Steve's hand and place it on his cheek. He'd gasped at the sensation of stubble beneath his palm and couldn't help but let a few tears slip as he mapped out every feature of the man's invisible being. 

Since that night he'd fall asleep with fingerings tracing the raised lines of Eddie's tattoos or combing through the softness of his curls.

But tonight he feels himself needing to feel more and when the sensation of Eddie's tongue over his nipple forces his back to arch and a gasp to break past his lips, he can't help but to say, "More. Eddie. I wanna feel more."

He might be hysterical or even absolutely insane, maybe this isn't even happening at all and he totally lost it, but logistics and sanity be damned, he wants every part of Eddie Munson that he can have.

The movement of lips and tongue and teeth on his abdomen still long enough for him to clarify, "Ed's I want you to fuck me." 

There's a pause, the room's still but there's the pressure of hands on his waist and the indented of a body kneeling on the bed, it's not more than a few seconds later that the grip on his waist tightens and there's a brushing kiss being laid to his hip.

Steve watches in awe as a purple swells beneath his skin, painting him like a piece of art work as Eddie claims him as his own. Minutes later there's a watercolour of bruises littering his body, between and over each one a kiss was laid and a few even the faintest of bite marks that still indent his skin.

He'd lost his sleep shorts long ago, Eddie's artwork spread all the way from his hip to thigh to where he's now and Steve swears the man's trying to suck a hickey into the tip of his dick which only makes him wither in a delicious sort of pain. 

There's gasps and moans and when he feels himself hit the back of Eddie's throat Steve knows he's already so embarrassingly close. When his back is arching off the bed and he's chanting Eddie's name like it's a prayer, the man only sends him further into orbit when there's pressure against his ass. Slow and circling and ever so slowly pressing in.

Steve knows he would've come by now, feels like he has a million times already, but he can feel Eddie's iron grip at the base of his cock stopping him from reaching release, leaving him to toe the waters of insanity as he babbles and whines for more, pressing his hips down and welcoming Eddie into his last knuckle.

The sheets are clenched in his hands, his knuckles flushing white and his throat sore from every gasp that's left his lips. He whines and withers and feels his toes curl when he assumes Eddie presses a second finger in, bobbing his head down and taking Steve to the root in the process, forcing a choked out moan to rattle through the air.

With a press of his finger to just the right spot, Eddie sends an absolutely spine tingling sensation through Steve's body. He feels himself jump and his legs shake and what he can only assume is a laugh vibrate around his length as Eddie continues.

"Are you laughing? Don't fucking lau-" Steve tries to scold through the euphoria only to be cut off with another press of Eddies fingers at turns his complaining into a breathless, "-oh fuck."

They don't continue like that for long, soon enough Steve can feel lips on his own once again as a heat and pressure settle against his ass. Moving in sync, licking lovingly into each other's mouth, he breathes out a helpless, "Please Eddie."

And it's with a gentle shuffle that there's a hand in his hair and lips locked onto his own that that pressure builds and he feels the stretch of Eddie finally pushing into him.

Down to the hilt Steve can feel the rise and fall of his own chest against Eddie's, the way the man is entirely wrapped around him with every speck of his celestial being. And then there's a push, a gentle rock of hips that forces a moan to be caught between lips.

Slowly and intentionally Eddie rocks into him, his already sensitive cock leaking against his stomach, waiting impatiently for the release it's been denied for far too long.

Eventually Eddie picks up the pace, though not much. The bed shakes around them and Steve can feel the flex of muscle beneath his finger tips, every rock of the man's hips accompanied by the twist of corded muscle under his grasp.

Lost in the moment and the feel of Eddie around him, Steve's release sneaks up on him. It's a sudden thing and when there's the pressure of ringed fingers wrapping around his dick, a single twist of a wrist is all it takes and there's heat pooling on his abdomen while comes with a choked out moan against Eddie's lips.

Not long after does the man follow behind, lips searing against his own, a grip on his waist that's sure to leave a bruise and Steve's sure he hears a shuddered breath as Eddie's body tenses above him. 

They remain still for a few moments and as their chest heave together, Steve refuses to open his eyes, knowing he'll find nothing truly above him. He'd pinched them shut at some point, trying to imagine the man above him in his entirety. 

He can still feel Eddie under his hands, the plains of his back, the ridges of his scars and he can't help but let a tear fall with the image of dark eyes above his own that he knows will never truly be present. In that moment he can't help but whisper, "I wish I had the chance to love you."

—

It'd been months. Weeks and hours and days and seconds spent with Eddie, or at least the closest thing Steve could get to the man himself.

They'd kissed, they'd cuddled and they'd made love countless times. It was still such a wild thing, but Eddie did what he could to prove to Steve that he was real. That he was there. Real and there and loving. Leaving picked flowers on the table in the kitchen, switching the radio on for songs they'd dance to for hours.

Always leaving Steve littered in the beautiful bruising evidence of their love. Bites and fingertips pressed into flesh. A wash of purple and blues and beauty, sucked into his skin by the mouth he kissed every morning and evening. And every minute in between.

They'd visit, mostly one-sided conversations but when Eddie found the energy there'd be words whispered into Steve's ear or crackled through the static of the radio.

They were attached at the hip, or so Steve imagined he supposed. But he could always feel Eddie's presence at his side, warm and caring, a pressure leaning into his being, grounding and tethering him to the very earth.

He hadn't thought much of it when he eventually invited the whole crew of monster hunters over for a pool party.

Robin and Nancy were sitting poolside giggling about god knows what. Dustin, Mike, Lucas and Max, flailing in the pool screaming and laughing over nonsense. 

Steve and his ever present loving force sat curled up on a daybed. He could feel Eddie's legs over his own, the press of lips against his cheek, but no one was the wiser and he was growing to get used to that. Something for just the two of them, though he'd never stop wishing for more.

It wasn't until the Hopper-Byers clan arrived for the first time since the whole Upside Down shit show that Steve realised that dream could be a very possible reality.

El had stopped stone cold in the doorway, looking an inch or two to Steve's right and pondering something for a moment before she turned to see Will grabbing the back of his neck and staring in the same direction.

Dark, tortured eyes now locked onto Steve, so casually did El say, "He is still there."

The entire party stilled, laughter ceasing, conversations stilling and the press of lips against Steve's cheek retreating. 

He was breathless for a moment, his heart pounding, his mind racing, and maybe his face gave away something akin to confusion, because El simply continued with, "That young man, he was a hero."

Steve, among the rest of the group that were there that day, remained shell shocked but all nodded, confirming El's statement to be true.

"Do you not want to save him?"

Steve's brows furrowed and suddenly reality dawned on him, he could have Eddie. The real Eddie. With a phantom kiss to his temple and squeeze of his hand, there was a whisper of a voice in his ear, low and raspy and so completely perfect, "Come find me baby."

—

With El's and surprisingly Will's help, they'd managed to open a single gate into the Upside Down, the stench of death and decay leaking into the atmosphere as they tore a hole between the two dimensions.

Upon stepping into the nearly collapsed wasteland, Steve took in his surroundings, it was eerily quiet, but there was a call of his name, gentle and loving, like a tether pulling him in the right direction.

It seemed after they killed Vecna, the grotesque flora and fauna of the Upside Down had died along with him, leaving the rotting corpses of Demogorgan's and Demobat's littered around the once deadly hellscape. 

They'd managed to open a gate deep into the woods, hoping to find shelter there if anything had come to find them, but it was a rather laughable turn of events when the voice calling Steve's name led him right back to his own home. Well the Upside Down version of it at least. He'd entered the house alone, asking everyone to wait for his call of 'all clear' before they entered but upon stepping through his bedroom door he came face to face with the last man he thought he'd ever see again.

Lying there, makeshift bandages wrapped around his torso, Steve's clothes concealing his now thinner figure was Eddie Munson. A beautiful smile across his face, a stark contrast to the world of decay around him. His eyes shone the moment they met Steve's and he moved with a wince, hand flying to clutch his side but failing to give up as he flung his body into Steve's.

Steve held him as tight as he could manage without inflicting any more pain, burying his face in Eddie's shoulder as they held each other and let the tears fall and stain their skin with salt and the words they've managed to let go unsaid.

It wasn't much longer though that Steve felt lips on his own, skin soft and stained with tears, finally pressed together. He shuddered a breath, tears streaming down his cheeks as he choked out an unbelieving laugh, their embrace more teeth than anything as they leaned into one another, smiling, bodies held so close for the first time 

Steve had so many questions. How was this all possible, being the main one. None of this made sense, but as Eddie's lips pressed to his again and the warmth of the man in his arms flooded his heart, Steve's need to know faded.

And it was with a soft kiss to his nose, and dark brown eyes looking into his own, that Steve knew he'd finally get his chance to love Eddie Munson.

---

[livelovecaliforniadreams]

Favorite Buddie Moments Per Episode: 7x5 You Don't Know Me (Part 1)