dreamyquinn - Tumblr blog

dreamyquinn · 2 years ago

Text

Día de Muertos

Día de Muertos (Day of the Dead)

Eddie Munson x Mexican fem!reader

Summary: It's November 1st and your neighbor and best friend shows up at your house only to find the strangest thing he's ever seen.

Warnings: Nothing really, maybe mentions of death, readers mom has passed away. Vague immigration mentions. Mentions of drugs, Some words in Spanish. Mostly fluff and a sad attempt at comedy. A bit educational on the holiday. English is not my first language so it may have some grammar errors. Sorry! Let me know if I forgot something.

A/N: This is a fragment of a way longer fanfic I'm working on that may or may not be included but because the day that I am posting is actually Day of the Dead I wanted to share this quick fic inspired by the holiday. I am Mexican an I wanted to take charge of the Latinas trope that love Eddie and firmly believe he would totally be into us. I haven't seen any other fic that is focused on that type of character so here's my shot.

------------------------------------------------------------

Your eyes squinted at the soft light of the sun peaking through your blinds. You heard some fuss coming from the kitchen on your way to the bathroom which continued while you were doing your thing.

Your dad was muttering gibberish as if he was looking for something, then you heard the heavy flush of water running from the faucet and your dad swearing. You finished quickly, washed your hands and hurried up to help your struggling father but as you approached the kitchen, a very distinct smell filled up your nostrils. It was a heavily perfumed scent, earthy and energizing, the peculiar memories coming to your head as you saw them.

Several bouquets of fresh yellow and orange marigolds rested on the dining table making your heart jump and a wide smile grew on your face.

“Oh! Good morning, hija” your dad said, still struggling with a vase, his belly soaked in water and holding another bouquet. He smiled at your reaction to the flowers.

“Where did you get them?” you asked, getting closer to the ones on the table burying your face in the blossoms and once more you sniffed deeply to experience that wonderful delight.

“I was sure I wasn’t going to find any around here but your brother told me there was a flower store not far outside town so I went to check. These were all they had, so I had to get them all for her”

Your heart warmed up at his last statement and went to give him a tight hug, not caring if your pajamas got wet too.

“Here, let me help you out” you said animatedly, taking the vase and the bouquet from his hands.

Together you cut the long stems, removed the dead leaves and set little bouquets in the few vases you had. You needed a lot but only had four so you used whatever else you could find in the kitchen like bottles and jars you had around. Soon the entire living room had flowers everywhere and the smell had intensified, filling the entire trailer with the scent.

Your brother came home almost as you were finishing up cleaning and he had brought a large box with other things.

“Took me a while but I found mostly everything” he said, laying his purchases on the table. Colorful tissue paper, candles, oranges, candy, sarape fabric, ingredients for particular dishes and incense. You knew right away what was the plan for that day, you were building an altar.

After your brother showed you everything and explained he had been all around town gathering things he immediately delegated tasks to everyone. He would take over the kitchen duties, your dad would be in charge of moving stuff around the living room to make space to build the altar and as the artistic one you were designing the layout.

While all of you were working like the freaking seven dwarves, singing songs in the background, a loud knock broke the animosity of the family moment.

You got up to open the door where you found Eddie’s fluffy curls framing his usual smile as he walked in without asking as if he also lived there.

Eddie was always welcomed at your house and he felt comfortable there. Your trailer wasn’t as messy as his, you seemed to have your shit together and there was definitely a sense of family and togetherness he never got to experience. A proper caring father and an older brother with whom to share a few things. Your dad at first wasn’t too trusting of him, not because of his looks or for what the rest of the town said about him but because as an immigrant he had learned to trust no one at all.

But Eddie had gained his favor, after showing how much he took care of you. He became your very first friend when you arrived at Hawkins a few months ago, he drove you to and from school a lot of the time, he helped you to get by around town, always brought you home on time if you were out at a party and respected curfew times when you hung out at his trailer.

Of course you both had been careful to not get caught in your little irresponsible adventures like smoking weed, getting wasted at the hideout when your dad and your brother worked the night shifts at the lab, or the occasional sleepovers where nothing beyond the occasional cuddle happened but you were sure that if your father found out he could probably pin Eddie down despite being significantly shorter than the boy.

As soon as you closed the door behind him his smile dropped at the sight of what was going on.

In the middle of the living room your dad had gathered three tables at different levels arranged as a ladder, and had a white tablecloth on them as a base. A lot of the flower vases and jars were placed on the different levels forming a frame, some blossoms were pinned to the wall to form an arch above the highest level of the altar.

“Okay, what is going on here Y/N?” he asked suspiciously with wide eyes looking around. He sniffed and probably the scent of the flowers was too much for him as he had most likely never experienced it.

“You got here just in time” you said with excitement. “Welcome to your very first Dia de Muertos”

“What?”

“Day of the Dead, silly” you translated and he turned like an owl to look at you, visibly unsure of what you were talking about.

“It’s a Mexican tradition, Eds” your brother said as he opened up the oven to check on the bread he was baking, a rich, doughy and orangey smell reaching you.

“What is that?” Eddie asked now curiously with his brown eyes shining at what your brother was pulling out the baking tray, looking like an excited puppy.

“Okay, okay, I think you gotta sit down first while we explain it to you, wanna help?” you offered.

The holiday had some roots since the Aztec empire existed which were later combined with European influences of Spanish tradition during the conquest. You didn’t dive deep into detail on the history but you did cover the essence of the celebration. It was the time of the year in which the souls of your loved ones come back to visit you and the altar or ofrenda is a place where they can come to gather and be remembered, a moment to pay respects and honor them.

You explained to him the meaning of some of the elements included in the altar. The marigolds fill the air with a pure smell, their color represents the sun, a festive symbol which makes this a celebration more than a mourn. Lose petals form a path from the main entrance of the home to the altar as a guide for the souls. Water is placed to give rest and relieve their thirst to the souls after the long journey back home. Salt and the white tablecloth represent purity, so that the loved one’s soul is not corrupted and is able to travel among the living and the dead world. Candles also represent the light that calls them home.

Eddie’s face was fascinated with everything, he thought it was pretty metal of Mexcian culture to celebrate death like that. You had asked him to rip out the marigold petals from a bouquet so you could make the pathway and he had been unexpectedly gentle with them which made you realize that behind that rough exterior of his hands he knew how to be delicate, after all he was a skilled guitarist.

“So, how do you say it again?” Eddie asked as he focused on a blossom.

“What?” you asked as focused as him.

“The flower’s name, in spanish?”

“Oh! It’s Cempasúchil”

“Cempa… cem… cempachills…” he struggled

“Cem-pa-su-chil” you repeated slowly trying to contain a laugh at his furrowed brow.

“Cem-pu-chill…” he tried again clearly frustrated as you let a laugh out loud “Oh Jesus H Christ I give up, I’m butchering the language”

“You’re a musician! Use that musical ear” you said playfully.

“Nah, forget it. I’m now more interested in that good smellin’ thing your bro has over there” he asked, his mouth almost drooling while your brother sprinkled the golden buns with sugar.

“That’s ‘pan de muerto’ or bread of the dead, don’t worry hungry boy you’ll have some” you assured.

“Yeah it’s made with the ashes of your loved one” your brother said in such a convincing voice that Eddie was about to say “Really?” when he saw your snarky smile.

You then gave him the colored tissue paper and showed him how to make papel picado, sheets of tissue with cut out designs that looked like little banners. You first folded the sheet several times to form a small square and then cut out shapes from each side and then showed him the best part came when you unfolded the tissue to reveal the final pattern. Eddie let himself lose with it and shortly he had a bunch already piled next to him.

“Ha! I win” he said, setting the scissors down looking at you with pride.

Once you were done with yours he helped you out to hang them across the ceiling of the trailer with the help of a string.

As time went by the altar was getting filled with all the necessary elements you had been able to come by. Each level had sarape fabric spread across, candles, fruit, the flowers and you added a few cross figures.

Your dad had disappeared a while ago in his room but was now coming back and you noticed that he had his eyes slightly red.

“Now comes the most important element” he said, lifting proudly a beautifully decorated box that he placed on the dining table. He brought out a few framed pictures, clearly from different moments in time but with one protagonist in all of them: Your mother.

He slowly approached the altar and placed them within the lower two levels. They had moments with both you and your brother as newborns, as toddlers, as teens, your parents wedding, family trips and some of her on her own. Then he stepped back and brought the biggest frame which held a picture of your mom on her own holding the flowers she got for her birthday. That picture had her purest smile.

Both you and your dad stood there and were joined by your brother, the three of you had a shared silence, pride and melancholy filling your chests.

Eddie simply observed from the dining table and felt a clench on his throat that he suppressed by coughing but unintentionally broke you and your family’s trance.

“I’m sorry” he said when your brother went back to his chores in the kitchen.

“Don’t worry, Eds, that’s the whole purpose, remember? Honoring your loved ones” your dad said, going back to the box and pulling our other items. Their wedding rings, a little doll he had given her, her favorite record, other accessories, her notebook where she kept her favorite verses, letters and other trinkets she loved. All spread around the altar.

As your brother finished the meals he was making he passed you some other bowls with your mom’s favorite candy and cans with her favorite drink.

“I’m assuming you added those because she liked them?” Eddie asked and you nodded.

“It is said that if the foods lose their flavor by the next morning after the celebration it means they ate it” you said mischievously.

“Have you ever experienced something like that? Have you seen them?”

“Well, we never had an altar before, we hadn’t lost anyone close to us. I only did this at school and generally you’d bring a picture of a loved one or if you didn’t have any you could choose a famous person to honor”

“Who did you pick?” Eddie asked curiously

“Jimmi Hendrix”

“Rock on!” he said, lifting the horns sign with his hand.

“Right?”

“They made her change it because he was a drug addict, so she picked a historical figure” your brother said, making you roll your eyes.

“Against my will, but I left Jimi’s picture on the frame behind the other dude. He was there” you reassured and Eddie laughed.

All four of you stood again in front of your hard work. It was simple but bright and colorful, however something made you drop your shoulders and Eddie noticed.

“What’s wrong?” he asked

“Dad, there’s no sugar skulls”

“They’re not like, super necessary” your brother refuted “I looked but nobody makes them around here” he added in defeat.

“We have her picture and that’s all that matters” your dad assured.

“What are they?” Eddie inquired, still confused.

“Back at home, there’s these human skull figures made of sugar and decorated with colorful sugar patterns and flowers, sometimes they add glitter or other embellishments. They’re fun, hard as hell to eat, but they’re an iconic symbol of the celebration.”

“This thing gets better and better each time”

“And, and it’s tradition that you can give them away as gifts that day, and you can write your name on the forehead of it, it doesn't matter if you’re still alive” you explained.

“But we don’t have them here in boring Hawkins, yeah?”

“Nope” you replied defeated “C’mon, let’s eat before they leave”

The four of you sat together on the table and had a marvelous dinner of mole, a traditional dish of chicken covered in a sauce made with different types of peppers, spices like cumin, cinnamon, nuts and cacao. Rice as a side.

Eddie wasn’t used to these kinds of wholesome meals so he felt like he could devour the entire thing in three single bites but kept control of himself to not embarrass you in front of your dad. He still stuffed his mouth on each bite, charmingly dripping some of the sauce by the corner of his mouth.

Your brother never minded your cooking, he thought you had a decent touch but he made sure to show off how things should be done. You appreciated what he did because he got the closest to how your mom used to do it.

Once they were done, they packed some leftovers to take to work with their respective buns of pan de muerto and wished Eddie a good evening when your father and brother left for work.

You hoped that Eddie would’ve stayed but suddenly said he remembered he had something else to do and would try to come by later if he could. With a little disappointment you still packed him some leftovers as well with another container for Wayne. Eddie ruffled the hair on top of your head playfully before leaving.

You spent the next couple of hours cleaning around the mess in the kitchen and tidying up the living room so everything could be set by midnight. You also decided to dress up nicely, so you hopped in the shower, treated yourself with a facemask and afterwards you did your hair and put on a purple dress that matched perfectly with a black sweater you had buried in your closet.

That sweater still had some hints of the peculiar perfume of your mom, you even noticed a couple of hairs still woven within the fabric, which reminded you of her beautiful curls. You also put on a flower crown you made with some leftover marigold blossoms.

You decided to take a minute to also do an extravagant makeup, traditional for the celebration. You painted your face with some leftover halloween makeup, tracing details and flowers around your eyes, cheeks and also added the distinguished elements of a skull, the nose, the sockets and the teeth. You also had some sticker earrings that looked like jewels so you popped those on.

As you were almost finished it was around ten when someone knocked on the door. You were on your way to check who it was but Eddie had come in as always. He looked at you and stopped suddenly at the sight of you. He was surprised at first but then he felt fascinated at the artwork you had done on your face.

“Wow, what's that?” he said taking it all in, lost in every detail.

“This is a ‘Catrina’ face makeup. It’s another icon like the sugar skulls. The Catrina is a character illustrated by an artist, Jose Guadalupe Posada, but it was originally a satire to the upper class of the time. It is now a symbol of the holiday and mixes the paint patterns on the sugar skulls. Some people do this, they dress up”

“Looks pretty” he said looking at your eyes for a brief second “pretty cool, I mean” he corrected with a chuckle breaking the stare.

You noticed he had brought a big plastic bag and his tin box.

“What’s in there?” you asked as you leaned over the reflection of the window to finish applying some of the sticker earrings on your face.

“Oh, I uh… I brought something that maybe could be up there at the altar” he said coyly and that spiked your curiosity so you approached him when he dropped the contents of the bag on the table, revealing small skulls painted with different colors that you were sure he had just made because the strokes of paint seemed rushed. Some of them had dots, others stripes, one had attempts of hearts, another had flowers.

“I don’t know what sugar skulls look like so I just painted them with the same colors as the little flags we hung up. I know it's not the same but I figured maybe they could work, I had these skulls from that one time Wayne and I decorated the house”

You didn’t say anything as you grabbed one and looked around at the details, your heart feeling warm. A smirk forming on your lips.

“I also did this one, here” he said, getting a big purple one with stars that looked a bit more worked on. “I put your name on it. Also did these for your Dad, your bro and if your don’t mind I have one for me and one for Wayne”

“These are amazing, Eddie. Thank you” you said and closed the gap between you giving him a hug. When you pulled apart you shared a look and went to put them up in place.

Afterwards Eddie didn’t seem to take his eyes off you, mesmerized by the paint on your face so he asked if he could have his face painted because he wanted to match with you. You got excited at his interest and immediately sat him down, bringing your makeup bag and started to paint away. This was quite the moment between you two. You were pretty close to his face, his sharp features relaxed at the touch of your brushes, his soft breathing bringing you some sort of peace. Of course every now and then you would catch him staring at you, directly to your eyes. He found it cute that you lifted your right eyebrow each time you focused on what you were doing. You were done pretty quick and as he looked at himself in the mirror he smiled big and complimented your work.

“We look great” he reassured as you both stared at your own reflections in the bathroom.

“Hold on” you said running to your bedroom to get your camera and taking photos of Eddie then an attempt at taking one shot together. You would have to ask Jonathan for those prints later and he would be so confused.

You then went to the living room where you started to lit up the candles and incense. You brought some bread and hot chocolate so you could sit on the couch and wait for midnight. The time when the spirits actually arrive. Eddie enjoyed his third bun of the day and drinked half of his cup while the two of you curled under a blanket sitting on the couch, talking about random things.

He eventually turned quiet and distracted as you were babbling about something unimportant.

“Y/N?” he finally interrupted you.

“Yeah?”

“So uh… I brought something else” he said as he stood up and went to get his lunchbox.

“Oh Eddie, I don’t think I’ll be smoking now, I don’t want my mom to see me doing it, she’ll drag me around by my feet to scare the habit out of me” you said and he giggled but you noticed that the joke wasn’t appropriate.

“Don’t worry, I’m not smoking either. I just wanted to ask… I know this altar is for your mom and I don’t wanna steal her thunder but, do you think there’s a little space for her?” he said and he pulled a decayed photo of a woman with a baby in her arms. She had big brown eyes, a soft smile, she had very pretty curls tied in a very voluminous updo. On the back there was a scribble “Eddie and Me, Indianapolis 1968” Your heart felt for him and his shy stare.

Eddie had mentioned her mom only once just to say that she was gone. You knew more about his dad, because he had ranted about him about four or five times and you never dared to ask anything about either of them. You didn’t feel you were there yet and it was a matter that only concerned him.

Without wasting any second you carefully grabbed the photo and looked around the bookshelf for a frame that could fit and once you swapped the pictures you set some space right next to your mom on the top level. Eddie didn’t move because while you did all that he was trying to contain the knot that was trying to explode on his chest.

“Here” you said, grabbing one of the skulls he made that had flowers, and you also passed him a marker.

“You do it, you have better handwriting. It’s Amelia” he instructed softly and so you did your best calligraphy to write her name elegantly on the skull’s forehead and then put it next to her picture.

You decided to turn off the lights and let the numerous candles set a soft mood.You went back to the couch and under the blanket again, you were hugging your knees and he had his arms crossed on his chest. You silently admired your hard work of the day and the altar looked prettier than ever, the lights of the candles really giving a spiritual vibe around all the elements and colors. It smelled rich of many things, the flowers, some of the candles, sugar and the spice of the incense. Both of you had remained in a comfortable silence until Eddie broke it.

“I don’t think I’m ready to tell you about her. But I wanted to thank you for letting her be there” he said in the most serious tone he had ever used.

“It’s alright, Eds. Whenever you feel like it” you reassured and another long pause took place.

“Do you really think they come over?” he asked as casually as he could but unable to hide some hopefulness. You looked at him and he looked back at you.

There was a mutual reading between your gazes. You understood a few things from that: he had loved his mom tremendously, he also missed her and he trusted you enough to let you read that from his eyes, a boy trying to have faith.

“I hope so” you responded, picturing in your head both of them coming in together through the door and up to the altar where their children would be waiting. You felt the knot in your throat starting to form, Eddie’s apple going up and down and a glimpse of watery eyes.

None of you had broken eye contact, the longest you had spent like that ever, the soft warm light caressing your faces, both chests breathing a bit faster, you could hear your heart pounding in your ears, his lips parted slightly as you felt a force starting to pull you in and just as he had looked at yours, inches away from you, the flicker of a few candles blew off giving you both a jump scare that interrupted the moment, leaving you in more darkness. You both looked at the altar and only the candles next to your mothers were out. For a brief second you both felt chills down your spine, Eddie had uncrossed his arms and you let down your legs.

It didn’t matter if it could be explained scientifically, in your heart you wanted to believe.

“They’re here” you said looking back at Eddie who was mixed between wanting to let go of his emotions and smile at the same time. He then took your shaky hand and held it but surprised you by intertwining your fingers with his as he squeezed tight, calming you down. You felt peace, you felt comfort, mutual company, mutual grief. But wait, were you about to?...You let out a sigh to shake that thought away, resting your head on his shoulder, staying quiet for the remainder of night. Both of you let some thin tears stream down your face until you fell asleep.

That night you dreamt of your mom and Eddie dreamt of his.

⚛ Feliz Día de Muertos! ⚛

#eddie x y/n #eddie munson x reader #eddie munson #eddie x you #eddie munson fanfic #stranger things #stranger things fanfiction #day of the dead #dia de muertos #eddie munson x you #eddie munson x femreader

51 notes · View notes