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frankenstein-ate-my-left-shoe · 1 year ago

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just a little something for the darling @yournowheregirl to wake up to! it sounds kinda dumb and insignificant, but i always appreciate your tags in the fun tag games that come across your dash and for always being one of the first that ask something from those ‘ask me’ posts i reblog! it makes me feel appreciated and i am super grateful every time 🥰🫶🥹

There was meant to be two beds.

Steve specifically got a double king room for the goblins, and another room with two queens for him and Eddie.

So of course as soon as they got into Milwaukee the night before the D&D themed nerd fest, the (actually very nice) woman at the front desk says: “We had to swap around the rooms, but the two will still sleep all you boys, don’t worry!”

Whatever. That’s fine, right? They’ll all have a spot to sleep the next two nights they’re here for the kids’ (and Eddie’s) dragon game convention.

He gets back to their rented minivan and passes the key cards to Eddie in the passenger seat.

The van was just the first point of contention between him and the kids’ beloved Dragon Meister, followed closely by…everything else.

The first thing Eddie said when Steve showed up in the rented van was “King Steve is coming along on our journey?”, to which Steve could only respond with “This ‘super cool’ guy you assholes have been going on about this whole time is Eddie “The Freak” Munson? Really?”

Following closely behind are: the tapes and tapes of loud garbled ‘music’ Eddie insists on playing, his absolutely tragic way of unwrapping Steve’s burgers for him when they stop for lunch, the wariness Steve has in the first place about this being the guy Dustin wouldn’t stop talking so highly about…this nerdy, obnoxious, third-time senior…great.

“204 is the Hellions’ room, 207 is us.”

Eddie bends an arm backwards into the feral beast enclosure the second two rows have become over the last six hours and Steve’s surprised he still has his hand when it returns to the front.

Steve gets the van parked in the hotel’s garage, and they head up to their rooms.

“Alright, assholes,” he says to the somehow still rambunctious masses, “This is you guys, Make sure you’re up by eight so we—“

“Yeah Steve, we got it,” Dustin scoffs, “As if we’d risk being late to this.”

Steve rolls his eyes with a “Fine, goodnight.” and shuffles the few steps across the hall to his and Eddie’s door, leaving the troops to file into theirs.

The only thought in his head is of laying down and getting the fuck to sleep. It wasn’t even that late but—

“Oh you’ve got to be shitting me.”

So that’s what brings them here. To their one barely queen sized bed.

“I guess I’m on the floor then, huh?”

“I’m not about to let you sleep on the floor.”

“Oh, the King has chivalry does he?” Eddie rolls his eyes and throws his duffle onto the armchair in the corner.

“As much as you, asshole; I just want you to have the energy to corral the gremlins tomorrow.” Steve scrubs a hand down his face. “Look, we’ll just deal with it tonight and I’ll get another room tomorrow.” he lies. As if he’s got the cash for that.

Eddie looks him over, and seems to come to whatever conclusion he needs to because he says “Fine, but you better not be a blanket hog.”

Eddie’s the worst blanket hog Steve’s ever had the displeasure of knowing.

He thought Robin was bad, but this is something else.

Eddie’s fully a burrito within an hour of laying down. After a hearty, but silent, game of tug of war over the worn duvet.

Steve falls asleep angry and cold, and wakes up on a cloud.

He’s so warm and so entangled in the comforter, he can’t help but snuggle deeper into the pillow he’s clutched onto.

The pillow hums back at him and scoots itself under his chin with a sigh.

Steve squeezes tighter onto the pillow momentarily, but his curiosity of why his pillow’s making noise gets the better of him.

He cracks his eyes open, looking down at the thing in his arms.

It shifts as well, and Eddie Munson blinks up at him with those (holy shit…beautiful, deep, dark) doe eyes of his.

“Hi.” Steve breathes.

Eddie’s eyes flutter shut, and shuffles himself back into Steve’s neck.

Steve chooses to blame the still sleepy bit of him for curving himself back around Eddie.

“How’d you sleep?” Steve whispers into the now-bared hairline under the other man’s bangs.

“Fucking amazing…” Eddie mumbles, snaking an arm over Steve’s waist and settling a hand in the middle of his back. “How ‘bout you, Stevie?”

“Stevie, huh?” Steve chuckles.

It’s only then that Eddie seems to come to his senses, his head shooting up before he scrambles away, falling straight onto his back between the opposite side of the bed and the wall with an “Oof!” and a “Fuck!”

“Oh shit!” Steve shuffles off the bed and helps Eddie back up, ”You alright, Eds?”

“Yeah..yeah, I’m fine..” Steve gets Eddie back on his own two feet and (reluctantly) lets him go once he’s stable.

‘Reluctantly? Why reluctantly? What the hell??’

“Sorry I was all over you, not the greatest thing to wake up to, huh?” Eddie says, huffing a sardonic laugh under his breath.

Steve hums nonchalantly, “It wasn’t all bad, I slept pretty fucking amazing too.”

Eddie hums an acknowledgment, then: “I wouldn’t—“ Eddie starts at the same time Steve says “I should—“

“You go ahead,”

Eddie’s hands come up between them, spinning the rings on his fingers nervously. “I was going to say that…I.. Iwouldn’tmindifyoustayedtonight..too.”

Steve blinks. “Good thing I was going to say that I really should save my money.”

Eddie’s smile is slightly nervous, but there’s a hopeful tinge to it that Steve can only assume means what he thinks it does (hopes it does).

“Leaves me with more to spend on the Gremlins, right?” he shrugs.

Eddie beams. “Glad to know we’re on the same page, Harrington.”

also, if you haven’t heard it recently: Alice, YOU’RE DOING AMAZING SWEETIE 🤩

#and there was only one bed #oh nooo what ever shall they doooo #be pleasantly surprised by the company of the other in that bed 😏#that’s what #also ps i looked it up so it’s accurate #gencon is the dnd convention and between 1985 and 2003 it was held in milwaukee #about 4 hours from indianapolis #so +2 hours for hypothetical additional time from hawkins #in my head this is a trip just before school starts in 1985 since gen con was aug 22-25 that year #dw about the logistics of the party’s parents letting them go lmao #maybe the party meet eddie at a the local game store and somehow convince steve and their parents to let them go before the year starts #steddie #steve harrington #eddie munson #stranger things #st #st ficlet #steddie ficlet #noelle writes

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alicewritingstories · 2 months ago

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Whumptober 2024 Fills Part 2: Meeting and Memory

AO3

Fandom: Linked Universe

Central Character(s): Legend, Wild, and Sidon

No.2: TRUST ISSUES | Amusement Park | Role Reversal | “You got away with the crime while the knife's in my back.” (Charlotte Sands, Rollercoaster)

No.4: HALLUCINATIONS | Hypnosis | Sensory Deprivation | “You're still alive in my head.” (Billy Lockett, More)

No.15 Alt21: Survivor's Guilt

No.17: NOWHERE ELSE TO GO | Ruined Map | Shipwrecked | "We had a good run."

No.22: BLEEDING THROUGH BANDAGES | Tourniquet | Reopening Wounds | "Oh that's not good."

No.25: SURGERY | Stitches | Being Monitored | "It's for your own good."

No.28: DENIAL | CCTV | Exposure | "They caught me red handed."

No.30: RECOVERY | Hospital Bed | Holding Back Tears | "What have I done?"

Warnings: Blood, injury, near-death, survivor's guilt, brief mention of suicide (confirming a character is not suicidal), past canonical character death.

---

Legend cut down the last of the attacking lizalfos and hurried over to the wounded hylian he'd just rescued, dismissing the magical shield he'd thrown up in front of the young man - boy, really; he barely looked older than Hyrule.

"Easy," he said. "I'll get you down. What's your name?"

The boy looked up from where he was clutching at the spear pinning him to a tree. He opened his mouth to reply, but all that made it out was a nasty wet cough and a gout of blood. His tunic was more purple than blue and a mixture of black and red blood was matted in his long fair hair.

Legend knew that if someone was impaled it was dangerous to remove the thing impaling them, but he couldn't leave the kid like that. He was already clearly slipping into shock, the color gone from his face, his eyes drifting out of focus. If he passed out and sagged against the spear, it would get much worse.

Legend let out a huff of breath and snatched up one of the lizalfos' jagged blades.

"Hold it as steady as you can," he told the kid, then sawed through the shaft of the spear in a few quick strokes. That would make things a little easier, at least.

The boy whimpered softly, another mouthful of blood spilling from his lips.

"OK, I'm going to cut the shaft behind you." Legend caught the boy's chin and looked him in the eye. "This will hurt. Stay with me, OK? You're going to be fine."

"Get it… out?" the boy pleaded.

"I can't. It'll do more damage coming out than it did going in. One of my friends can heal you, but we need to get you to him first and I can't get the spear out completely until then."

The boy whimpered again, turquoise eyes falling closed, but he didn't protest.

Legend took a deep breath, then slipped a hand down the boy's back, giving himself a bit of space between him and the tree. He winced as the boy whimpered, but moved as quickly as he could to cut the spear shaft and catch him as he collapsed, lowering him carefully to the ground.

"Still with me, Kid?" he asked.

"Still… still here." It was little more than a groan, but audible.

Legend snatched some bandages from his bag and started padding around the remains of the spear shaft, wincing as blood started to seep through the bandages almost at once.

"Stay with me," he kept saying. "You're going to be OK. You did great against those monsters; just stay with me."

The boy nodded, coughing up more blood.

How am I going to get him back to camp? I can't carry him, not with that pole in his guts…

"What's your name?"

"Link."

Legend froze for a moment, wondering if he'd heard correctly, his eyes flying back to his companion's face.

His new brother's face.

"Well…" he said with a laugh that sounded a little hysterical in his own ears. "How about that? My friends and I have been looking all over for you."

Link's eyes had focussed and he was frowning, but then he forced a smile. "How come?" he asked, his voice a little high. "Looking for your bananas back?"

Legend went back to bandaging, his heart beating a little faster. If Link was already getting delirious, he must have lost even more blood than Legend had thought. Perhaps he was bleeding internally too.

Link squirmed slightly with a moan and Legend quickly moved to hold him down.

"Keep still!" he said, trying not to snap and not quite succeeding. "Moving around might cause more damage."

Link looked at him, eyes wide and dark with pain and fear.

"You're going to be OK," said Legend, starting to wonder which of them he was trying to reassure. Maybe a good, loud blast on an ocarina would serve as a signal whistle. "You're going to be OK. I'm going to get you to my friend and he'll heal you. Just stay with me."

Link laughed: a shrill, deranged sound. "No chance!" he said.

With another groan of pain, he snatched a small glowing block of carved stone from a holster on his belt, tapped it twice, and dissolved right under Legend's hands into tendrils of blue light.

Legend stared at the bloody grass where he'd lain for a moment, then buried his face in his hands with a stream of curses. All he could hope was that Link had at least teleported to somewhere someone could help him.

~~~

The shrine jump deposited Link gently on his feet, but as soon as he had fully materialized he collapsed to his knees, clutching at the spear shaft still running through his body.

"Help!" he cried as loudly as he could. "Someone, help!"

Here in Zora's Domain, he knew he was as safe as he could be anywhere. They had the best healers and this was the home of one of his closest friends. He was just grateful he'd been able to get his Slate into his hand before the yiga had realized what he was doing; it would have been easy to restrain him. Holding him down had clearly taken no effort at all. It didn't make sense that someone who wanted him dead had defended him from the lizalfos and saved his life, but he didn't want to find out why the assassin might have wanted to bring him in alive.

Suddenly he was lying on the ground, unsure how he got there. Maybe he'd blacked out for a moment. "Help!" he cried again before breaking down into another coughing fit, trying not to panic at the thick, metallic taste of blood on his tongue.

Finally, he heard running footsteps, the splash of someone wading through the pool that surrounded the shrine.

"Link!" cried a familiar voice. "What happened? Someone go and get Prince Sidon!"

"Bazz…" Link reached out vaguely and one of the Zora guard's large hands closed around his.

"It's going to be OK. We'll have you healed in no time."

Link nodded with a sigh. At least here he was safe.

After that, things were a blur for a while. He was aware of being lifted and carried, a vague impression of Sidon frantically calling his name, the bitter taste of a hearty elixir being forced down his throat, the cool touch of healing magic.

"Mipha?" he called softly before he was even aware he was doing it, pulled back for a moment to those mercifully-few times during his quest when he once more died on the battlefield and Mipha's Grace had brought him back to life. "Mipha?"

He knew she was gone. He knew he didn't really remember her as anything but a gentle presence dragging him back from the edge. But the feeling of dying and her magic washing through him was so familiar he couldn't fully believe it. She was still here. Surely, she hadn't abandoned him entirely.

Another blur. Voices, hands turning him this way and that, bandages wound tight around his body.

Finally, it all settled. He was wrapped in blankets, lying on a soft waterbed, and when he opened his eyes he was surrounded by the soft glow of Zora's Domain.

"Link!" Sidon lunged into his field of vision. "Are you awake? What happened?"

"I'm awake." Link sighed and started trying to shove himself upright. Sidon slipped a large hand behind his back to support him.

"Be careful. You're healed, but only just and the healers said you were to rest at least another day. You lost a lot of blood."

Link nodded, settling back as Sidon arranged his pillows to support him. He examined the Zora's face as he sat back. Zora couldn't cry the way hylians did, but Sidon's usual huge grin was nowhere to be seen and the muscles around his eyes and mouth were tense. That was as much an indication of his feelings as tear tracks would have been.

"I'm sorry," said Link, not sure what else to say. "I didn't know where else to go."

Sidon shook his head. "Link, I told you you would always be welcome. I'm honored you came to us for help."

Link smiled, relaxing his head back against the pillows. "I knew I was safe here," he said with a sigh. After a moment, he explained, "I had another close call with the yiga clan."

Sidon let out a little huff of breath. "A close call? You had a spear shaft through your whole body," he said, his voice raw. "The healers said that with the force it must have taken to drive it through like that you must have been pinned to something. I'm… just glad you were able to get free. And I'm glad you managed to do some bandaging. You'd bled right through, but it bought you a little bit of time. Even so… I think they were worried you wouldn't survive the surgery to remove it… What… To impale you like that… I didn't think that's what they did."

Link shook his head a little. "It's even stranger than that. The spear was from a lizalfos. The yiga could have just left me to the monsters or taken my Slate so I couldn't escape and then stood and watched me bleed out. He killed them, then he got me down and he was the one who started bandaging the wounds." He shivered.

Sidon's expression hardened. "Why change now?" he asked. "They've never tried to take you alive before."

"I don't know. That's what worries me." Link sighed. "He never dropped his disguise, either. He took care of me and insisted that he could get me to a healer. I suppose he hoped that would mean I wouldn't put up a fight, but it was so strange… I might have been convinced if he hadn't slipped for a moment when he found out who I am." He didn't like the thought that the yiga clan's acting was improving and he couldn't shake the memory of the concern in his would-be kidnapper's eyes. It had all seemed so genuine. He had wanted to trust him and accept his help. "I… suppose Zelda and I will have to be even more careful." Much more careful and they wouldn't talk to anyone they didn't already know. He bit his lip, feeling trapped. He loved Zora's Domain, but he didn't want to live a life in which there really was nowhere else he could go to truly be safe and comfortable.

The defeat of Calamity Ganon had been supposed to bring him some peace.

"We'll get word to Zelda. In the meantime, don't worry too much," said Sidon, patting Link's shoulder. "You're safe here for as long as you need."

Link smiled. "Thank you," he said fervently.

Sidon squeezed his shoulder, then let go and sat back in his chair with a sigh, looking up at the ceiling. Link couldn't help noticing that he still looked tired and stressed.

"Is anything else wrong?" he asked. "Is there anything I can do?"

Sidon winced, rubbing his eyes. "It's just… You called for Mipha while we were healing you. It… made me think of her, that's all."

Link looked at his hands. "I'm sorry," he mumbled.

"No, no, you have nothing to be sorry for," said Sidon quickly, lunging forward to enfold both of Link's hands in one of his. "I… I'm sure she'd be happy to know… that you got some comfort from thinking of her."

Link sighed. From what he'd been told and the few scraps he had for himself, that was probably true.

"I barely remember her, Sidon," he said sadly. "I want to. And for a while, during my quest… she was there. Her spirit was with me. She saved me… so many times. But now she's at rest and… I'm still here." He looked down at the large red hand wrapped around his. "It… seems so unfair that I'm still here and she's not."

Sidon squeezed his hand. "Link?"

He looked up. His friend's expression was stricken.

"You don't… want to die, do you?"

Link shook his head. "No, no, not at all. No, I just… I'm not even sure what I mean. I just feel it sometimes: that she was there so many times to save me but when it mattered… I wasn't there for her. I lived and she died and even after she died she kept bringing me back to life. It… feels wrong."

Sidon looked down for a moment, then said quietly, "I barely remember her either. I was so young when she died. But I remember her patience and her kindness and… I think she'd have been happy at least one of the other Champions lived. And I think she'd want you to keep living. Really living."

Link sighed. "I know. I know it doesn't make sense. It's just… while she was here as a spirit… she was still alive in some way. Even if just in me. And now she's gone. It's just… that's why I was calling for her, I suppose. I miss her. Even though I hardly know her. And I wish… I wish I did. She seems like someone I… would like to know."

Maybe even someone I would fall in love with.

"Maybe there's some part of you that does remember," said Sidon with a small, sad smile. He squeezed Link's hands, as if to reassure them both.

Link smiled back. "Maybe." He relaxed back against his pillows, looking up at the ceiling. Maybe he did remember the woman he might have been planning to marry. Maybe that's where this feeling of longing and loss came from.

He wasn't sure about that, but the idea was something.

"Thank you, Sidon. For everything."

Sidon chuckled, not quite his usual laugh but close. "No, Link, thank you." He moved to pat Link's shoulder again.

"You want a hug, don't you?" asked Link, glancing at him.

Sidon didn't reply out loud, but the way his smile broadened slightly told Link what he needed to know and, with a smile of his own, he held out his arms. Sidon grabbed him and squeezed him hard enough to make him yelp out a laugh.

"When I heard the alarm and saw them carrying you up from the shrine, I feared the worst," said Sidon in his ear, his voice rough.

Link sighed. "I'm fine, thanks to you all."

"Good. And if I have any say in it, you'll stay that way. Don't worry about the yiga. You have plenty of friends to keep you and Zelda safe."

Link smiled, relaxing his head against his friend's shoulder. "Thank you."