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rosiesramblings · 2 years

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If It Kills You

Fandom: Stranger Things, Steddie (implied romantic but it could be read as just friends)

WC: ~900

A/N: So I finally got a minute to myself and wrote this little thing. It's not my fav but I figure something is better then radio silence lol. I haven't forgotten about the plant prompt from anon, it's coming! But I hope you enjoy this in the meantime.

“I swear to God, Steve, I’m going to raise your self-esteem even if it kills you,” Eddie had said, hands thrown up in the air at Steve’s latest self-deprecating comment.

At this rate, Steve thought, it just might.

Since his dramatic declaration, Eddie had made it his mission to correct Steve’s negative comments about himself in the most Eddie way Steve could imagine: tickling him to death until Steve managed to shout out three nice things about himself instead.

“And they can’t be the same,” Eddie called out over Steve’s laughter as he dug into his underarms the first time. “If I’ve heard them before they don’t count and you keep getting tickled. Got it?”

Somehow, hearing Eddie casually discuss the rules surrounding his demise was even more flustering for Steve.

The first few times it happened, it was easy enough to come up with things he liked about himself. Steve would yelp and giggle his way through a few general comments about his hair, his smile, etc. As time went on, though, it got harder and harder to think of new things. He started getting more creative, snickering that he was a good friend to Robin or that he enjoyed helping Joyce do the dishes, hands not quite enough to hide his red face.

To Eddie’s credit, Steve did find himself making those types of self-deprecating comments less and less. However, there were still days where he slipped up.

The entire Party was gathered in the Wheeler’s basement, squeezed in together and making use of every available bit of floor space. The members of Hellfire were taking a snack break from their campaign, Robin was learning how to braid Max’s hair under Nancy’s watchful eye, and Jonathan and Argyle were in the midst of a heated discussion of whether water would be poisonous to Martians.

Dustin stepped over various legs and arms to get to where Steve was sitting on the couch. “You know, Eddie’s planning a new campaign for when school starts,” he batted his eyes innocently. “It would be the perfect time to introduce some new players to the game.”

Steve groaned, rubbing a hand over his face. “Dust, you know that Dangers and Doorknobs stuff goes straight over my head. I’m just too dumb for any of it to ever stick.”

From across the room, Eddie’s head shot up.

Steve froze.

Eddie slowly stood up from his chair and stalked toward Steve with a smirk on his face that unfroze Steve and made him start babbling.

“Wait, no, wait wait Eddie I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it, please, I promise it was just a force of habit I swear - nononononohohohohohohoho,” Steve immediately started giggling when Eddie wiggled his fingers at him, curling into himself where he sat on the couch. He couldn’t stand up, El was on the floor leaning on his legs, so he resigned himself to his fate, knowing the rest of the Party would never let him live this down.

“You know the rules, Stevie,” Eddie sang as he came to a stop in front of him, towering over Steve as he wrapped his arms around his middle. “Three nice things. Go!”

Eddie’s fingers met both sides of Steve’s neck and he scrunched his shoulders up to his ears, immediately bursting into breathy chuckles. Steve tried to keep as still as possible, he didn’t want to accidentally give anybody a bloody nose, but he couldn’t stop his body from trying to escape the relentless sensation.

“Fuhuhuck! Okahay, Ihihi’m a good drihihiver?” Steve said through his giggles.

Eddie clicked his tongue. “No good, Stevie, you used that one last week. Still owe me three nice things about yourself, sweetheart.”

“Uhuhuhuhum, shit, Ihihihi always mahahake the kids puhuhuhut their seatbelts oN!” Steve started belly laughing as Eddie darted his hands down to his tummy, spidering his fingers rapidly.

“Hm, I’ll allow it. Two more, princess, and you’d better hurry before I go for your thighs.”

“Okayokayokay, shihihihit, I guess I’m, like, gehehehenerous with my tihihime?”

“You guess or you are? You don’t sound so sure, Stevie-boy,” Eddie taunted as he squeezed Steve’s sides.

“FUCK, I ahahahm, Ihihi ahahahaham!”

“Okay, one more, baby. You can do it,” Eddie said, teasing.

Ihihihi’m good at tahahaking cahahare of - EDDIE PLEHEHEASE,” Steve cackled as Eddie suddenly switched tactics and started mercilessly kneading at his thighs.

“What was that, sweetheart? I didn’t quite catch that,” Eddie grinned.

“BAHAHAHASTARD,” Steve threw his head back in mirth, tear tracks on his cheeks.

“So rude,” Eddie said, moving his hands to the muscle right above Steve’s kneecaps.

Steve screeched, folding forward, only succeeding in headbutting Eddie’s shoulder. “Ihihihi’m good ahahat tahahaking CARE OF PEOPLE, SHIHIHIT EDDIE THAHAHAT’S THREE,” Steve shouted.

Eddie stopped his tickling, moving to rub a firm hand up and down Steve’s back soothingly. “Good job, Stevie. I’m sure one of these days the lesson is gonna stick,” he grinned evilly, scuffing up Steve’s hair.

Steve kept hiding his red face in Eddie’s shoulder, willing his blush to go down. The room was quiet.

“Honestly, though, psychologically Eddie’s got the right idea,” Robin broke the silence. Then she tilted her head. “Although, instead of training Steve to be nice to himself, he might just be training him to laugh every time he says something self-deprecating.”

“I am not a dog, Robin,” Steve said into Eddie’s shirt. “Eddie isn’t training me.”

“Oh, aren't I?”

“Shut up, Munson.”

“Careful, Stevie. Next I might start tickling you every time you say something mean to me.”

#tickle fic #tickling #steddie tickling #stranger things #steddie #tfb community #ler!eddie munson #eddie munson #lee!steve #if you say something often enough you start to believe it #so be nice to yourself!#or I will hunt you down

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pettyprocrastination · 1 year

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whoever this beloved anon was I am so touched by your kindness! You definitely didn’t have to do this but I am so happy you enjoy this idea and I will happily expand upon it for you!

this is just a collection of word vomit bullet points for the time being but I will happily answer any and all questions about this pair!!

warnings: violence, angst, child death (Sarah Miller), foul language, the same warnings that apply to tlou, reader is Sarah's mom and described as having similar features to her.

So the general Idea is that you and Joel are happily married before the outbreak.

You had been Sarah's mother, his high school sweetheart he got pregnant when neither of you were old enough to have any reaction to the pregnancy test other than a fucking panic attack in one another’s arms. but you made it work

you both worked but made time for one another and your sweet girl, going to museums every other weekend and joel insisting on swooping you off for a date every now and then

nothing special. He knows you’re more of a diner gal than anything too fancy that makes you both feel out of place.

On his birthday in 2003, you had planned to tell him that you were pregnant again. But the memories of your own fears of motherhood from all those years ago begin to swirl through your head again and you get cold feel. deciding to tell him the morning after

it is his birthday afterall, you want to focus on him.

but when you’re woken up in the middle of the night because tommy needs to get bailed out, Joel kisses you sweetly one last time before promising he’ll be back and you can’t shake the feeling that something bad is happening.

its you that shakes sarah awake that night. shouting at her to put on her shoes when she’s still rubbing the sleep from her eyes because you’ve been listening to the radio for the past two hours, calling joel again and again and again praying for him to fucking pick up but to no avail.

Sarah, bless your little girl’s bleeding heart is the one who insists you check on the adler’s against your better suspicions and when you find the eldest looming over her daughter, blood and sinew dripping from her mouth, you grab your daughter hand and burst into a full sprint until something slams into your back and sends you tumbling onto their front lawn

its how joel finds you, struggling to keep the once sweet old woman, whose now nothing more than dead eyes and gnashing teeth straining to snap at your pulse point as you push against her while sarah shrieks before your husband runs forward and cracks her skull with a wrench.

there’s hardly a moment of pause, just enough for him to pull you up and into his arms before he’s ushering you both into the car with an urgency.

when the truck crashes, you get separated from them. Perhaps at Tommy’s side when the flames rise and create a wall, separating you from your husband, or maybe pulled into the mob of chaos when trying to escape from those already infected-

all joel knows is that you promise you’ll find him: just get sarah to safety and you’ll meet him at the river

Poor thing is already so frightened, held in her father’s arms with tears streaming down her face insisting they can’t leave you they just can’t but her father kisses her forehead and reassures her its going to be okay

“we just need to be brave, okay babygirl? Your mama’s real tough, she’s gonna be alright.”

he isn’t sure if he’s saying it to his daughter or himself.

but when he comes to the river you aren’t there. Only a soldier who points a gun at the scared little girl in his arms and then he loses everything

its when the light is gone from his daughter’s eyes that he realizes. His voice cracked and raw from sobbing that he looks around to see his brother with drawn in shoulders and tears in his eyes but his wife is nowhere to be found.

Tommy says you got lost in the chaos. Everything was so loud, so sudden that he turned around and suddenly you weren’t there.

Joel wants to go back but its Tommy that stops him, that dulls the red in his vision to a sad faded pink because his brother points at the orange horizon not too far from them, so much of the city is already in flames.

“We’re gonna find her, but not there.”

So Joel searches. for the first year spent in the world post-outbreak its all he did.

He became a smuggler because of it.

Information came at a price and he needed to be able to fucking pay it, whether it be in blood or ration cards. He was willing to do anything to find you or any thin thread that lead your way.

But it’s Tommy that asks him to give up. Not in those words of course.

The youngest Miller knows better than to say something so cruel that would make his brother, the only person he has in this world turn on him.

But his voice is worried when he asks him one night in Boston when he hasn’t even had the chance to wash the blood from his knuckles

“You think she would have wanted this for you?”

the fight that followed his words was brutal. Vicious insults and scarred fists slamming against each brother until they're both too tired and bloody to continue. Each leaning against a wall for support and Tommy’s wavering voice breaking the silence.

“I don’t know where she is, Joel. But I do know you're gonna get yourself killed if you keep lookin’ for her.”

All he can do is nod.

It’s a few days later when he meets Tess. Who has heard plenty of stories about the elder miller’s brutality and wants him to put that muscle to good use for some extra profit.

It begins his new life. One that empty and cold but one he can live.

Until of course, Ellie comes along. The sweet and incredibly opinionated girl that makes him become something akin to the man he thought died twenty years ago.

its when he’s traveling with Ellie, that it happens. When a warm familiarity has settled between the two because so much blood and pain has been shared he can’t help but see her as something close, something bright even though all he can force himself to utter in her reference is “cargo”

when theyre traveling through the woods as Ellie chatters away, probing his memory about a movie that may or may not have existed thirty years ago because her descriptions of the plot are incredibly odd he hears a voice shout for them to stop and finds himself staring at a man- no, a boy- pointing a gun at them.

Ellie stills, but Joel can see enough to know that from the lanky figure and dimpled face that he’s young. Maybe twenty, twenty-two at the oldest, but his eyes dart from Joel to Ellie with a pinprick of fear that allows Joel the time to charge forward and slam him to the ground before wrestling the gun from his hands.

He has enough to time to tuck it under the stranger’s chin before he hears the sound of the safety being turned off and finds himself looking up and seeing a gun just inches from his face.

Joel’s head whips around when Ellie’s voice calls out his name in fear, he turns to see another stranger holding her a gun point, shoulders drawn back and a shadow cast over their face by the had obstructing their identity.

“You hurt one of mine, I hurt one of yours. That a fair deal?”

Its takes him a moment to recognize you. It’s been so long since he’s heard your voice, the sweet tease when you would poke at him each time he woke up late despite the fact that you reminded him to set his alarm the night before, the times you’d chide him with a harsh “Joel Miller!” whispered in public anytime he was able to grab you a bit too passionately to be appropriate in public but the laughter in your voice let him know you were never truly mad at him. You didn’t know how to be.

But that sweetness is buried under a cold rasp that cuts through the air as you point a rifle at the scared little girl in front of you.

“You think I won’t?” You’re older now, skin covered in scars from a life he didn’t know you got the chance to live and your eyes are cold as they regard your husband. “Put the gun down and get the fuck off of him, I won’t repeat myself.”

Joel mumbles your name in awe. The woman he loved, the woman he mourned the one he fought so hard to find stands before him like some sort of hallucination and suddenly the world feels like its spinning until you bark orders at him again.

“You’ve got five seconds Joel, make a fucking choice before I make it for you.”

He looks down and realizes the boy under him, the one with the bleeding nose and snarling face has your eyes and his dimples.

“One.”

The one above him has Sarah’s hair. Soft brown curls that shine under the sun.

“Two”

Wait. No, they both do.

“Three.”

Twins. Jesus fucking Christ you had twins.

“Four.”

Joel holds the rifle up above his head and the one boy standing snatches it from his grasp, tossing it to the ground and kicking it far from his reach. He slowly stands, allowing your son- dear god your son- to scramble to his feet.

Your voice softens just for a moment. “You okay, Duke?”

Blood stains the bottom half of his face from where Joel slammed his fist into the boy’s nose just moments before, but he nods nonetheless.

Now, they both stand on one side of you and he can see the resemblance clear as day the same way he would whenever Sarah was by your side.

When you order him to hand over his bag, he does so without question before telling Ellie to do the same.

She watches him with wide eyes, her hands still up in the air but gaping at her companion as if he had grown a second head.

“Joel!” “Just do it, alright?”

He doesn’t miss the way you watch their interaction with narrowed eyes until she tosses her bag to you and you slowly lower your gun.

“Now, you want to tell me what the fuck you think you’re doin’ at my home?”

#joel miller x reader #joel miller x you #i had an idea of something similar for tommy but on outbreak night he uh. abandons you instead of getting separated from you #because. angst :D #people say nice things #this was incredibly generous of you anon thank you so so much!#i may get myself a little starbucks drink this week now because I havent had starbucks since like january 1st lol #joel reeling from taking in all this information and also realizing he suckerpunched HIS OWN KID #id like to apologize for all the grammatical issues with this. this is just a bulletpoint word vomit to get my thoughts on the page before-#-beginning the actual fic. also I have to do a midterm tonight and this is my treat to myself hehe #but yes. joel getting separated from his wife on outbreak night and having to accept that shes probably dead #meanwhile youve lived this entire life without him because you think HES dead ad raising your boys all on your own #which just- further digs into his insecurities about failing in his role as a protector #he couldn't save sarah. he can't save ellie and he couldn't even save you #he thinks about you pregnant and alone. fending for yourself in a world full of infected and raiders and his chest grows tight again #this is all followed by Ellie going >:O 'you KNOW THIS PSYCHO?'and then joel immediately snapping at her to WATCH HER MOUTH #because that kid has no filter and he has to explain that youre his wife #anyways joels wife is a badass mfer who also maybe has a little garden and some chickens that you and your boys take care of <3 yeah .#reunion tag #ill be using that for this specific couple because I dont have a fic title yet but if anybody has suggestions!

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