steddieasitgoes

[steddieasitgoes]

I've explored the idea of Eddie being married to Steve without knowing it before in a story before (you can read it here), but in that one, Eddie and Steve have been together for years and Eddie is just so completely blinded by pining that he doesn't know how serious the relationship is.

So now I'd like to put forth a different take on this trope for the steddie court's approval.

Steve, who is so incensed by homophobia for his best friend, Robin, that he decides to protest against Reagan by getting married to Eddie.

The only issue? Eddie has zero clue.

Steve got certified in the mail to be an officiant. Claudia works at city hall and isn't sure why Steve wanted a marriage license, but figured he'd helped Dustin so many times that she could help out with one little favor. And Steve figures that customers in Family Video, while not totally aware, count as witnesses.

So he picks a morning where the sun is shining in an especially Fuck Reagan sort of way, gets dressed in his best polo shirt and jeans, styles his hair, and goes to work.

To be clear; Steve does not think that this is legally binding.

He's thinking that this will be a fun sort of protest souvenir to show Robin. Like "Hey, bestie, soulmate, light of my life! Tack this on the wall! I'm technically gay married to my other best friend, so fuck the haters!"

And to also be clear; he knows Eddie is gay as well. No one told him. But he sees the way Eddie looks at him. He knows Eddie's got a crush (though he doesn't know that said crush has been around since reign as King Steve). Steve knows Love.

He also knows that Eddie unlocked a whole world of bisexuality for him. In fact, he's been putting the moves on Eddie for weeks now.

Eddie is just... so shy and flustered and nervous.

Thankfully, Steve is great at romance. He can seduce. He can use the Harrington Techniques.

And he thinks that a fake marriage license might be just the ice breaker to show Eddie. Proof that he's not homophobic. So much so that he's into dudes. Maybe even get in a good laugh. Get Eddie to chill out and stop acting so skittish and just let Steve kiss him already.

(And maybe, yunno, let Steve do other things to him that probably involve candles and flowers and maybe some smooth jazz).

So to Steve, this is a two for one solution.

He gets to protest homophobia with a fake marriage license for his best friend Robin, and he gets to show the guy he likes (and who likes him back) that he's totally into him with a cute little down with Reagan ice breaker.

It's a win win for everyone.

So one day, when Eddie comes into Family Video, the poor metalhead very nearly dies on the spot when Steve, smile bright enough to light a room, pushes a paper towards him and asks him to sign.

And Eddie, lovestruck and beside himself, doesn't even register what Steve is saying. Steve is perfect and wonderful and funny and smart, and he's asking Eddie to sign something, and Eddie barely even looks down at the document before he's scribbling his name.

Steve does explain. Of course he does.

Eddie just... isn't really listening.

He does however listen when Steve asks Eddie out at the end of his shift and Steve gets to watch the other boy turn pink as a summer sky when he says yes.

And that's that.

Steve has a first date to look forward to and a fake marriage certificate to turn in. He gives the paper back to Claudia and asks if she can stamp it. Make it look real. He'll frame it when he gets it back.

The issue is, Claudia is really good at her job. And Hawkins is currently experiencing the aftermath of a Diet Apocalypse and doesn't notice the fine details of everything moving through their local government. So the paperwork processes; laws be damned.

It's definitely a fun surprise when Steve opens the mail one day (before he's even gotten to take Eddie out), and finds out that he's somehow, legally, the first gay marriage in Indiana. Or most of the United States, really.

Which is... definitely something.

But Steve loves Love. And so he processes the news pretty quick and then walks into work with the energy of an especially confused but cheerful golden retriever. "Hey, Robin!" he'd say, reading through the letter again. "You remember how I made that marriage license for you?"

She laughs fondly. "Yeah, dingus. It was sweet."

"Anything for you," he says, sincerely. And then; "You remember how I'm going to take Eddie out? And you agree? You think he likes me back?"

She snorts. "He's totally obsessed with you. I'm pretty sure we've skipped a few stages over like and moved right onto love."

Which is great. Because when Steve falls, he falls hard. He's a guy who loves Love. It's great to find someone who loves him back the way he wants!

"Awesome," beams Steve. "So do you think I should tell him we're actually legally married before or after I take him to the movies?"

[steddieasitgoes]

eddie: if you had to choose, who would you save in a burning building? me or robin?

steve: you

eddie: :)

steve: i’d go back in to die with robin

eddie: oh for fuck’s sa—

[steddieasitgoes]

I really love the idea of a supportive Wayne Munson buying books and zines on bisexuality to give to Eddie. And Eddie who mistakenly thinks that Wayne is trying to come out to him when all Wayne was trying to do was show Eddie that it’s okay to like girls and guys and that maybeee Eddie’s friendship with Steve Harrington isn’t as platonic as the two young men think.

So now Wayne’s just accepting a big hug from a supportive Eddie. And listening to Eddie tell him how proud he is for coming out and asking if Wayne has found someone and if maybe that’s why he’s decided to tell Eddie now and Wayne is just flummoxed on what he’s supposed to do now.

“Now wait just a minute,” Wayne is trying to say.

“Dont even worry about it,” Eddie claps him on the shoulders. “We’ll have you a boyfriend in no time.”

Eddie does take the books though because he wants to be “the best ally” for Wayne.

(Eddie Bursts into Wayne’s room like a week later all wide eyed and frantic, holding one of the books and is just like ‘is being gay hereditary?’ Because holy shit Eddie’s pretty sure he’s bisexual too and half in love with Steve Harrington)

[steddieasitgoes]

soulmates. 🌕🌊

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backstage

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Elevator scene:

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Anyway Erica fills Steve in on all the hot gossip at Hawkins Middle School and then Steve buys her lunch.

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I’ve been dragged into the steddie fandom and there is no crawling back out…

[steddieasitgoes]

(Same universe as this, this, and this)

Wayne gets off work at 7:00AM. It takes fifteen minutes to drive home. Twenty if he stops to get breakfast, but he doesn’t today.

At 7:16, he walks through his front door to his nephew and… Steve.

Eddie is perched on the arm of the sofa. Steve is sitting in one of their kitchen chairs that’s been dragged into the middle of the living room. Both look simultaneously like they’ve just woken up and that they’ve been up all night.

Eddie says too casually, “Hey, Wayne.”

Wayne says, “Is that boy tied to a chair?”

“Oh yeah,” Eddie nods and then offers no further explanation. Steve, tied to a chair, also offers nothing more than an awkward smile.

So, very patently because he doesn’t think he even wants to know honestly, “Why?”

Eddie looks at Steve. Steve looks at Eddie. Eddie makes a quick gesture with his hands and Steve looks over at Wayne. He smiles, “Exposure therapy.”

Wayne shouldn’t have asked.

[steddieasitgoes]

Enamored with an Eddie who comes back from the Upside Down completely changes and turns to writing as his only solace, eventually turning it into a successful career.

When Eddie had realized that the grate wasn't closed properly and the bats started swarming, when he saw the fear in Dustin's eyes as they quickly lost control of he situation, he had been well and truly prepared to die. Part of him, privately, was hoping to die.

The town was out for his blood, his friends hadn't even come to the trailer park to check on him, and despite what he said, he knew 86' was not going to be his year. Not even close. At least if he died in the Upside Down, he died as a hero. Not a failed rockstar, or a high school dropout, or as another victim of Hawkin's endless bloodthirsty for anyone outside of their preconceived ideas of "normal". Not a mirror image of Al Munson.

So when he wakes up in the Hospital, bedridden and dehydrated, it doesn't feel like a victory.

When Dustin comes in to see him, positively bursting at the seams with excitement at Eddie's long-awaited return to consciousness, Eddie can't say a word. He has to watch as the light in his too-wise eyes dims as Eddie just stares. He's trying, he's trying so fucking hard, to say anything, but the words have dried up.

All Eddie can think about is the lack of anything worthwhile waiting for him out in the big, scary world. He's missing the pinky on his left hand, and the corresponding elbow has been chewed to bits. Even through the opioids, he's aware of an odd painful tingling that screams nerve damage. He knows that he'll never play again, and if he does it will never be worth anything to anyone. He's not going to graduate, the one thing Wayne always wanted for him. The one thing that has always kept him going despite how much the world has tried to bury his head in the sand has been taken from him, his excitement to get out into the world.

When Eddie looks out the window in his hospital room, all he can think about is how badly it wants to swallow him up and spit him back out.

Dustin has to be dragged out of the room by Steve and Robin as Eddie's silence seems to make him hysterical. He's screaming at Eddie, mad and desperate and sad.

Eddie doesn't see him for a week. When he comes back he's sheepish but determined, carrying a load of books under his arm. Eddie still won't say a word, but Dustin sits by his bedside and reads out loud until his voice is hoarse. Tolkien, Le Guin, Pratchett. He ends every visit by taking his hand, squeezing it tight, and telling him he's glad he's alive. Eddie can't agree with him, but he's grateful that doesn't stop him from saying it.

Wayne is faithfully by his bedside. He doesn't say much, content in Eddie's silence the same way he was in the midst of the endless chatter. He holds his hand, brushes his hair, turns the TV to all his favorite channels, and settles in for the long haul the same way he always has. Eddie doesn't know what he would do without him.

The rest of the monster fighting crew are in and out. Steve is there the most, standing in a corner with his arms crossed near the door during Dustin's visits. He never says much, but Eddie thinks Steve might understand him the best. He thinks back to those moments in the Upside Down.

"Don't be cute"

"Please be safe"

"we are noooot heroes"

"We'll try our best"

"Steve...make him pay"

"I'm scared, please but I'll keep him safe"

When Steve looks his way, it feels like someone is hearing him, hearing how loudly he's screaming in his head.

He's in the hospital for five months and not once during that time does he breathe a single word. He feels hallowed out in a way that's foreign to him, like a great void has taken the place of organs, veins, and muscles and left him cold and stiff.

When he gets home, a new but almost identical trailer sitting in the same plot as the last one, he's far from better. He's weak, and sore, and tired to the bone. Wayne has to go back to work, no two ways about it, so Eddie spends his days wasting away on the couch. Dustin is back at school, leaving long stretches of time where Eddie is alone with his void and the sound of him screaming into it, so he turns to his books.

Only there are only so many books in his possession and even if he wanted to leave his house, a feat that seems insurmountable in his current condition, so he turns to his notebooks.

At first, it's just reems and reems of sloppy-looking screams. He tries to make them as loud and angry looking as the voice in his head. His hand aches, weak from damage and disuse, but when he's done his throat feels just a little looser. Like maybe that void just got a little smaller.

That's how Steve finds him, sitting on the couch huffing like he just ran a marathon, surrounded by pages and pages of frantic writing. He's been coming by once a day, usually for an hour or two after work, to sit with Eddie and hang out. Eddie is pretty sure Wayne asked him to, but he honestly doesn't care. Steve is a little more chatty in the confines of the trailer when it's just the two of them, and Eddie craves the presence of someone who gets it.

Steve takes in the scene, gives a low whistle, and asks if Eddie feels a little better getting that all out. Eddie still can't talk, kind of hoped for a moment there that he would, but when all he does is nod Steve still gives him that annoyingly charming smile and a firm pat on the back with a wide, warm hand.

And, well, Eddie doesn't think he's ok, but for the first time in a long time, he thinks maybe he will be.

After that, it's like something is unlocked. He spends almost all day every day writing away in his notebooks. They used to be for songs and campaigns, but even the thought of music and DnD makes him feel like he's going to be sick, so instead he writes stories.

Eddie has always loved to spin a tale. As a child, his mom would make up stories of knights and princesses, bards and bakers, peasants and children, love and life. When she died, Eddie wrote as many as he could remember in a book that sits proudly on his shelf. He can't bring himself to crack it open, crack himself open, when he's already so vulnerable, but the act of building a narrative makes him feel closer to her.

He writes stories about a young alchemist falling in love in a foreign land. A scribe reluctantly taking up with a rouge knight until she reaches a more accepting kingdom. A princess working to expose the crimes of her kingdom.

A handsome prince abdicating the throne to fight on the side of the rebels.

A disgraced bard finding his way home.

Day by day, page by page, the void gets smaller.

The first person he shares his writing with is Dustin. The younger boy spends all Saturday at the trailer with Eddie, chattering away about Suzey, the Party, school, and all the things a kid his age should be worried about. He never asks what he's writing, which probably means Steve warned him not to, which Eddie can't help but appreciate.

Eddie wordlessly hands him a notebook. The one he's been filling for the better part of the last two weeks. Dustin takes it with eager hands, flipping through pages until his eyes are clouded with tears and he's flinging himself into Eddie's side.

It's about two brothers, separated at birth but brought together by a mutual cause. They adventure across the kingdom, seeking the knowledge that will end the brutal war ravaging their homeland. In the end, the eldest must sacrifice himself for the other, but the youngest defies fate to save him. It ends with the eldest, unable to live the life he once thought he would lead, thanking his brother for fighting for him when he wasn't brave enough to do it himself.

Ultimately, it's Steve that gets him to speak.

He doesn't try, never seems bothered by Eddie's lack of voice, content to pass notes and relish in the silent company.

Eddie hands him their story, the one about a handsome prince and a voiceless bard, and for the first time since he woke up is met with that terrible smile. The one that isn't a smile at all, but an apology. While Eddie and Max may have come out the worst, no one came out of the years of interdimensional terror unscathed, especially not Steve.

He explains that since last summer, his ability to read has deteriorated steadily. The doctors aren't sure exactly what the cause is, but assume the continued damage to his head as damaged the centers of the brain dedicated to reading and writing.

But Edddie needs him to read this, needs him to know this. Because this is the only way Eddie can think to confess. Writing has become so much of who he is since he left that hospital bed, and he wants more than anything to offer it to Steve.

When he speaks, it's rough. Scratchy and almost incomprehensible but when he chances a look up Steve is giving him his undivided attention. It takes him all day, stopping and starting and getting water and fighting off the pull of the void. The only thing that keeps him going is the stars he sees in Steve's eyes.

When he's done, there's no room for the silence to build back up because Steve is cupping his face in his wide, warm palms and telling him how much he loves him, too.

In the end, Eddie never regains his voice entirely. He goes days, sometimes weeks without saying a word. A year in, when they've all accepted that Eddie will never be the same as he was, Robin invests in a handful of ALS books and drills them all in sign language until their fingers cramp.

Two years in, Steve and Eddie watch as the kids walk across the stage, all six of them flipping Principle Higgins the bird as they accept their diplomas. Eddie cheers so loud his throat aches the next day, telling them how proud he is of them even as their parents tell them off.

The year after that, Nancy confiscates one of his books and sends it to her publisher, mailing him a generous publishing offer and a heartfelt letter that makes him cry. Steve holds him tight as they call Nancy to work out the details, his boyfriend talking into the phone for him as Eddie signs frantically.

Five and a half years after Eddie survived, Eddie's first book opens like this:

To the love of my life

Who hears me in my silence

and to myself

For filling the void with words

[steddieasitgoes]

well his boyfriend’s in a band or whatever

[steddieasitgoes]

Steve Harrington obsessing over the time-traveling/time-freezing aspects of the upside down.

Steve Harrington enlisting Dustin to help him understand it all-

Because if he could just go back in time.

And tell Eddie everything he wanted to tell him. Or prevent him from being involved at all- to bring him back from the dead like they brought back Will, to his knowledge.

And maybe they harness that power. Maybe it works.

Maybe it works a bit too well.

Maybe Steve’s thrown back way too far- dropped within a dusty colosseum draped in light armor, the crowd jeering and shouting around him. And when he looks around, his gaze catches a pair of familiar, dark eyes, shooting daggers back at him from the royal box.

And Steve doesn’t understand- he wanted to save Eddie. Wanted to stop him from the doom he was to face on the fateful night- he wanted to go back to the beginning to prevent him from ever being involved…

But perhaps Eddie’s doomed design is built into the fabric of time. Intertwined through past lives. And saving them means saving Eddie.

So Steve falls in love with Eddie, in every little life. Protects him from an assassination attempt when gold laurels crown his head. Pulls him from the ledge of the roof when he’s an elusive, vengeful nobleman. Listens to his ramblings on music and literature when he’s a poor, Edwardian clerk. Captures his playful love when he’s an obsessive little rich kid.

And finally meeting him again in 1986. Having loved him in everything universe, he stops him from dealing to Chrissy.

When he returns to Hawkins, he’s afraid of what he might come across. It’s only been a matter of minutes in their world, but it’s all changed.

But Eddie is back- there’s a light in his eyes, his cheeks are rosy, he’s still playing Dungeons and Dragons with Lucas Mike and Dustin.

And best of all, he retires in Steve’s bed when the day is all over.

[steddieasitgoes]

✨ An experiment with lighting (and a limited color palette)

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STEVE HARRINGTON STRANGER THINGS | 3.05 The Flayed

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Charlie Heaton as Jonathan Byers The Body, Stranger Things

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steve: the key with girls is to act like you don’t care

steve, whenever he’s around someone he’s romantically interested in: PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE

[steddieasitgoes]

Steve and Robin discuss his sexuality because he's pretty sure he's been attracted to at least a couple different guys but because they're in a small town in the 80s and Robin is like you'd know if you were attracted to the same gender they conclude it means nothing

Fast forward to Steve getting pinned against the wall, he pulls Robin aside as soon as he can and is like I am very much into guys or at the very least one specific guy

Robin of course asks what led to this conclusion and upon finding out is more concerned about whatever issues Steve has that made getting a broken bottle held to his neck attractive