#Eddie will tell people he met Steve when he kidnapped him

[morganbritton132]

Fic where the Corroded Coffin boys need money for The Battle of the Bands in Chicago.

They’re getting high and thinking of ways to come up with the money - selling their shit, donating blood, ect - when one of them suggest they do a ransom.

Dick Harrington is the richest guy in town. Surely, he’d pay big bucks for his only son, right? They could get enough cash to get to the Battle of the Bands and also buy new amps. They should do this, right?

It’ll be easy.

Turns out, it’s not easy to kidnap someone because Steve fights back surprisingly hard. Gareth is limping. Jeff has a broken nose. Grant has an asthma attack chasing Steve when he runs.

The only reason they get him is because Eddie hit him with his van and now they’re all panicking about how he’s probably slowly dying from a head bleed. This what they’re doing when Steve slowly regains consciousness, tied up in Gareth’s mom’s basement.

They don’t stop panicking until he’s like, “Um, can I get a cigarette?”

Steve is both the best and worst hostage they’ve ever had (also the only hostage they’ve ever had). He doesn’t scream or cry like they thought he would, but he’s really bitchy and kinda mean, and he does try to escape when Eddie unties him so he can use the bathroom.

It’s like three hours later when Steve tells them that his dad is not going to pay a ransom because like, “He doesn’t even like me.”

“He’ll pay,” Eddie says, breaking his hour long streak of ignoring Steve. “Anybody would pay to get their kid back.”

“He didn’t last time.”

Freeze. Record scratch. “What?”

“What do you need the money for anyways?” Steve asks. Grant tells him and a Steve nods like, “Oh. Yeah, I can get you the money. Easy peasy.”

Cut to a genre change. This is a heist now and the Corroded Coffin boys quickly learn that Steve is fucking insane and also, maybe their manager now?

[apomaro-mellow]

I'm finally starting it, the full-fledge version of my king eldritch abomination!eddie and prince steve ficlet series. Eddie is in the middle of a feud with an opposing kingdom. Running out of options, he decides to kidnap their prince. Part 1/?

Dark clouds descended over the castle. It had been raining for days. A fact that the king was certain had everything to do with the monster that made their home in the neighboring kingdom. Alric prided himself on being a successful monarch. His lineage was the stuff of legends. But there was one blemish on the Harrington name. And it was that none so far had been able to best the beast that lived on the horizon.

It was an unfortunate state that his land shared a border with that of a King Edward. He wasn’t a man, he was a…a creature. A thing with many voices and many faces that masqueraded as a mortal human.

If there was one thing Alric could do to seal his name in the annals of history, it was wiping that entire place and all its inhabitants off the face of the map.

Such a thing was easier said than done. As much steel and iron as his armory possessed, the monsters were numerous. 

“Increase the patrols. I want eyes on every inch of the border”, he ordered.

“Do we have enough men for that? Recruitment has been low”, the prince said.

An amendment to a previous statement. There was a second blemish on the Harrington family. And his name was Steven. His son, who did nothing but sleep with whatever girl looked his way. Complacent and unambitious. The rare day he was allowing the disappointment to join in on the session with his war council and he was speaking out of turn.

“You would do best to watch your tongue”, Alric said.

Steve turned his head down, deferring to his father. He was good at one thing at least. Obedience. He looked down to the map again, pacing about it, trying to think of where best to send his men to quell what was surely a slow uprising.

“He is right, my liege. We can’t afford to send more men to the borders. This year’s crop of squires hasn’t met expectations.”

Alric glared at anyone who dared to disagree with him, even if they were right. But the reasoning of the lack of bodies would give him an excuse to do what he’s been wanting to for a while. It wasn’t enough to kill the monsters that inched along the border. It was time to officially go on the offensive.

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

The rain coming down wasn’t by anyone’s hand but nature’s. You couldn’t tell a Harrington that though. They were stubborn as mules. He knew this quite well. King Edward had been ruling his realm for long enough that he had been dealing with Alric and his father and his father’s father. All who saw him and his people as only pests to be exterminated. 

He could look past the odd villager slaying one of the demogorgans when they came into a town looking for an easy meal. That was simply self defense. But as of recently King Alric had begun sending soldiers into his forests to start seeking out any beasts and ending them on their own ground.

In response, Eddie used his powers to erect a thorny barrier. Anyone who wanted to enter his kingdom from that side would have to struggle through a dense bramble. It would be difficult for soldiers on horseback to get through. This sort of back and forth continued for months. Alric would sent more people, despite the harsh terrain, never caring for the champions he lost. The border would be strengthened to try and keep him out and he would just find another way in.

Eddie was losing his patience with the man and the straw that broke the camel’s back was when a messenger arrived with news of what happened to one of the towns close to the border.

“My lord! It’s terrible!”, the messenger bellowed as he crashed into the throne room.

“What is it?”, Eddie asked, concern showing through his voice and face.

“King Alric’s men! They’ve-! They’ve-!”

They had trespassed the line once again but this time they didn’t go attack a nest of demodogs. No, it seemed for this visit they saw fit to lay waste to a township of innocent civilians. They hadn’t slain a single monster. Only people.

It was practically a declaration of war. 

“This can’t go on”, Jeff, one of his most trusted knights said when he heard the news.

“And it won’t”, Eddie promised. He was going to have some words with this tyrant. If he could avoid war, he would. But Eddie had a feeling if they ever got into the same room, he would kill him.

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

Alric barely gave the sealed envelope a glance before tossing it into the fire. Steve shot up from the chair he’d been sitting in. 

“What are you doing?! King Edward has finally sent a correspondence. Don’t you want to talk with him?”

“Steven! Don’t raise your voice at your father”, his mother, Juliana, scolded. “He knows what he’s doing.”

At the queen’s stern look, Steve sat back down. After speaking his mind in the war room, Steve hadn’t been allowed back. The privileges normally afforded to a crown prince, coming to the meetings, providing his own insight were taken from him. He didn’t want to think about what else would be taken if he kept speaking his mind. But this couldn’t be the right way of doing things. After shedding blood, the opposing monarch was trying to talk.

And his father was just ignoring it.

“That letter was most certainly just the incomprehensible scratch of an illiterate”, his father spat. “He wears the face of a man but that is not what he is.”

Steve ventured a question. “Then what is he?”, he asked quietly.

Alric stared intensely at the fire. “He is an abomination. Borne of the dark void which sucks all light and warmth from this world.”

“He can change his shape. That is why he is so dangerous”, Juliana added. “It is why he must be stopped.”

Steve understood that. He had heard the stories, which at this point were legends. One day, something had risen from a black pool and no one knew what it was. But it was powerful. Powerful enough to conjure up more from the black pool. More that were like it. Able to use the muck to make walls rise from the ground.

King Edward and fought with his great grandfather, which was how the border existed in the first place. He had fought his grandfather, which was why beasts like the demogorgan kept sentry at his borders. And now it was happening again.

Alric ignored every single letter that came, determined not to speak or negotiate. In the mean time, he continued to send squads to attack at towns and villages, stoking the other king’s ire. -----------------------------

Eddie was once again, meeting with his council, squatting in his chair while their voices rose in volume. Each one angry and hurt and wanting to finally bite back. Eddie thought that this time he could choose peace. That this time he could get away without fighting. But it appeared wise old Alric was ready for a war.

“SILENCE!”, Eddie shouted while slamming his hands on the table. All conversation ceased. He rubbed at his face. “We have one last step before waging a war that could kill more than it saves.”

“And what’s that?”, Gareth asked.

Eddie rose to stand on his chair, then stepped onto the table that held a map of both of their lands. “If Harrington won’t sit down with us well then”, he stalked over to the pieces on the table that represented the royal family. He plucked up the one that was meant for the prince. “We���ll make him sit down.”

Part 2

[xoxo-sarah]

I Wanna be Yours || Part 2

Part 1 | Part 3

↝a/n: enjoy.

↝pairing:Robin Buckley x fem!Wheeler!reader

↝ Warning: slightly proof read. Possible spoilers if you still haven't watched season 4, everything that happens in stranger things, slow burn, death, Vicky doesn't exist here, not because I don't like her, but because it's easier to write for Robin when she's not madly in love with another chick.

↝⎙ 6.26.23

Hey, watch it!” You glared at the man-baby, totally done with his childish yelling and walking on tables. “You nearly knocked my tray over.”

He turned, a sorrowful-fake-grin on his face. “Oh, Ms. Wheeler. I'm so, so-” He grabbed the fruit cup off your tray, looking at what was in it. “— so, so sorry. If I knew Mike's feisty sister was going to lecture me, I would've stayed sitting down. Maybe offer you a seat on my lap.”

You rolled your eyes as Mike told his friends to 'lay off'. There wasn't any bite to Eddie's words, only playful banter, you suppose.

“I'd rather sit on the floor.”

He tsked, plopping the cup back where it was and letting you walk to your group of friends.

You heard Eddie going back to his speech. Sure, you were a little hesitant to let your brother and his friends hang out with a man who failed 3 times and played D & D as if his life depended on it. But the few times you met him, he seemed not to be a total weirdo.

“Y/n!” You swirled around, seeing Mike running through the halls towards you. “Y/n.” The poor thing was winded by the time he got in front of you.

“What is it?”

“Would,” He heaved, “you wanna," Another heave, “Join Hellfire,” heave, “Tonight?”

“I'd love to,” Mike began to smile. “But I have plans.” The smile was short-lived. “I'm sorry, Micheal.”

“What kind of plans? Can that wait for one night?” He followed you as you began walking down the hall to your next class.

“I'm hanging out with Chrissy after the game. And no. We're in need of girl time. Plus, I don't know a thing about that game.”

“We can teach you. You can hang out with her straight after, promise.”

“I thought you had enough people?”

Mike sighed before telling you about the dilemma with Lucas' basketball game. “— And Eddie will not postpone.”

“Mike, I don't know.”

“Please. We've already asked everyone else.”

“Oh, so I was the last resort?” You faked a hurt expression, stopping in front of your class.

“What? No! I-”

“Relax.” You began patting his shoulder. “You guys should really be there for Lucas tonight. He'd be there for you.”

“I'll be just a minute, promise.” You nodded, leaning against the brick walls of the school.

“You sure you don't want me to come with you?” Chrissy shook her head before walking off. You mentally gave her the maximum of 5 minutes to talk to whoever she had to talk to in secret before you were following her. You stared at the trees she walked into, waiting for any sign something could go wrong.

Around 4 and a half minutes later, you began walking towards the woods. When you got deep enough in the woods, you heard faint talking. You followed it, coming to a table. Chrissy was just standing up, as Eddie closed the tin lunch box.

Chrissy gasped, Eddie just looked between you two.

“I asked you to wait!” Her cheeks were an embarrassed pink.

“I did. You said a minute, it's been 5. You could've been kidnapped or killed for all I know.” You turned to Eddie. “No offense.” He just shrugged, not looking at all scared that they had been caught.

She nearly jogged past you, practically fuming. You've never seen her that mad before. “Plans have changed, I'm busy tonight.”

Steve's date stood by you, nearly stepping on your feet every time she moved. “Wow.” She turned to Steve, “She sounds amazing, doesn't she?” You had to cover your mouth to not bust out laughing, You caught Steve's eye over her shoulder. He opted not to respond, going back to focusing on his ears nearly bleeding from the terrible voice of Tammy Thompson.

“Damn, the mic is going to explode.” You mumbled, one hand moving to plug an ear on instinct. The girl with Steve turned, glaring at you, her sweet facade dropping for a split second.

“Lucas, Lucas, Lucas!” You chanted, walking over to who made his team win, nothing else on your mind but how proud you were of him. A huge grin was on his face as he told you about it and how it was like his brain shut off, moving as if in instinct.

As he came to an end, you saw a strawberry-blonde head of hair walking away. “Lucas, I'm so proud of you.” You bid him a goodbye before catching up with Chrissy.

“Hey.”

“I told you I have other plans. We can't hang out tonight-” She didn't sound as mad as before.

“I know. Hey, I get you're mad at me. But something is going on with you. Talk to me. If you need someone, I'm here, Chrissy.”

She relaxed her arms that were folded across her chest. “I know. I just…I need some ‘me’ time, okay.”

“Okay. Yeah, sounds fun. Just call me when you feel up to hang out.”

She smiled before wrapping her arms around you. “I will.”

“Like, seriously, the most beautiful creature-”

“Y/n!” Steve interrupted Robin, causing her head to snap towards where you had just walked in, the bell chiming right as he said your name. You waved, walking over to where she had turned the big t.v on.

The news was the first thing to pop up. “We're in the Forest Hills trailer park in east Roane County.” The reporter's voice was almost robotic, the lady had obviously been doing this for a while. “We don't have many details right now, but we can confirm that the body of a Hawkins High School student was discovered early this morning. Police have not yet released the victim's name.”

“Holy shit.”

“-although we are told they're currently in the process of notifying the family.”

“Can I use your phone real quick?” Robin turned, nodded and pointed to where the phone was. You called Chrissy's house, having a hunch she had been with him with how weird she had acted. But you ended up not getting an answer. Your next call was Max, knowing she lived there, maybe she'd know if Chrissy went there last night and if she's safe. No answer. “Why do people have phones if they're not going to answer?” You had to stop yourself from slamming the phone back down.

You looked up from where you were staring lasers into the countertop, watching as Dustin and Max rushed in. “Max, why didn't you or your mom answer. I was worried sick.”

“You guys see this?” Steve pointed at the t.v.

“How many phones do you have?” Dustin ignored Steve.

“Someone was murdered.”

“How many phones do you have?!”

“Two. Why?”

“Technically three is you count Keith's in the back.” Robin spoke up.

Max nodded as Dustin took his backpack off. “Yeah, three works.”

“What is going on?” You asked at the same time Steve asked “What are you doing?” Right before Dustin slid his backpack across the counter, before sliding his body.

Steve protested, “No, no, no! My tapes! Dude.” You glanced over at Robin, both confused and a little worried for the boy. “What are you doing, man?”

He moved to sit In Front of the computer, typing away. “Setting up base of operations here.”

“Base of operations?” This time, you were in sync with Robin's words.

This kid had lost his mind.

The kid punched in more keys. “Stop, get off of there.” Steve tried to push Dustin away.

“I need it.”

“Need it for what?”

“Eddie's friends' phone numbers.”

“What? Why?” You tugged Max's arm, making her turn to you. She didn't answer you, going back to looking at the log Dustin pulled up on the screen.

“Oh, Eddie. Your new best friend you think is cooler than me because he plays your nerdy game?”

“ Yes-I never said that.”

“Max, what happened?”

“Seriously, you guys, maybe on a Monday you can play around like toddlers, but it's a Saturday.” Robin picked up the tapes that Dustin knocked over, annoyed with the whole thing. “It's our busiest day.”

“Okay, Robin,” Dustin suddenly had a clipboard, writing something down. “I empathize, but this cannot wait.”

Steve ran his hands down his face, also annoyed. “Oh my god.”

“What, cause calling all of Eddie's friends is an emergency?” Robin slammed some papers onto the counter.

“Correct!”

"Steve moved to stand beside her. “Want me to strangle him, or you want to do it?”

She grinned at him, “We can take turns.”

Dustin turned to Max in the chair, “Can you fill them in while I do this?”

“Fill us in on what?”

Max stood there, sighing, as if she didn't know how to tell whatever it was she needed to fill you guys in on. Your hand fell from where it was gripping her arm, “Max, speak, c'mon.”

“Oh my god.” Your hand was over your mouth, your stomach feeling as if it were all going to come up any second. You watched as Dustin, Max, and Robin were all on the phones, calling around for Eddie's whereabouts. She was there. Chrissy went over there and now she's dead. You shouldn't have let her go, at least not alone. Oh my god.

“Hey, guys, I might have a lead.”

“Seriously?” Dustin asked Max as he and Robin put their phones down.

Robin walked over to you, rubbing your back. “Don't blame yourself.”

After Max told you everything, you had told her about what you saw before the game and how she'd been acting funny about it. You blame yourself for letting her go, for making her so mad where she canceled your plans. And now she's dead.

“Rick! Reefer Rick!” There's nothing like being out at night, searching a drug dealer's place for someone who could've killed your best friend. Dustin continued to bang on the door of the small house. “Rick!”

“He's not there.” Steve about had enough of Dustin yelling in his ear.

The boy stopped yelling, “He could just be really high.”

“Is that a foot?” Steve turned to you, seeing you leaning against the window, looking in with your flashlight.

“No, that's just a shoe.”

“Hey, guys!” Max called from away from the porch, her flashlight pointing near a shed type thing. You couldn't really see, even with your flashlight.

The tin door creaked open, each of your guys' flashlights pointing in different directions as you walked into the dark abyss.

“Hello? Is anyone home?”

“What a dump.” Steve walked over to the walls, where all kinds of things were hung up. He grabbed a boat paddle, poking at a tarp.

Dustin jumped, before turning around. “What are you doing?” Steve continued to poke around, so Dustin asked again, “What are you doing?”

“He might be in here.”

“I Think he would've already gotten up from getting hit with an oar, Steve.” Steve looked back at you before continuing to poke.

“Take the tarp off.” Dusting advised.

“If you're so brave, you take the tarp off.”

“Hey look at this.” Max held up random wrappers. “Someone was here.”

“Maybe he heard us. Got spooked and ran.”

“Don't worry. Steve will get him with his oar.” Dustin pointed to the man who looked really concentrated on hitting every part of the tarp with the stupid oar.

“I know you think you're being funny, Henderson, but considering everyone in this room has died about a hundred times, personally, I don't find it in the sligh--”

A scream cut through your throat as something popped up, making you reach for Steve, hiding behind him before you could help yourself. That was short-lived as he got dragged away.

“Wait! Wait! Wait! Wait! WAIT!” He tried to fight again, getting dragged backwards towards the siding of the shed.

You leapt forward, grabbing at anything, Dustin still screaming.

“WOAH WOAH WOAH! Eddie! Stop!” Eddie held a beer bottle to Steve's neck, with the most pissed off look you've ever seen.

“EDDIE! Eddie!” Dustin stared, hopeless. “It's me. It's Dustin.” He pointed at Steve, “This is Steve. He's not going to hurt you, right, Steve?”

“Right. Yeah.” Steve whispered. He looked like he's already shit himself from fear. Rightfully so.

“Steve, why don't you drop the oar.”

As Steve went to drop the oar, you yanked it, throwing it to the ground. Stupid oar.

Eddie tightened his grip, bringing the glass closer.

“He's cool. He's cool.”

“I'm cool, man. I'm cool.” You heard Steve whisper.

“What are you doing here?”

“We're looking for you.”

“We're here to help.” Robin spoke up, making Eddie's neck snap towards her, disbelief evident on his frown.

“Eddie, these are my friends.” Dustin pointed behind him, “You know Robin, from band.” Robin imitated her instrument, before Dustin continued. “This is my friend Max. The one who never wants to play D&D.” Dustin pointed to you, who was the closest to Eddie. “You know Y/n, 'Ms. Wheeler'. Eddie, c'mon. We're on your side. I swear on my mother."

Eddie turned back, looking at Steve as if he were still unsure. Dustin continued pleading. “Right, guys?”

“Yeah, yeah.”

“Yes. Yes, we swear.”

“On Dustin's mother.”

“Yeah, Dustin's…Dustin's mother.”

Everyone sighed as Eddie let go, turning away.

“Oh my god.” You moved, checking on Steve.

Eddie slid to the floor as Dustin walked in front of him. His scary front was gone. It looked like a little boy who didn't know what to do, a lost boy.

“Eddie…" Dustin squatted, being eye level, even if Eddie didn't meet his eye. “We just want to talk. Okay?” Eddie flinched away.

Robin squatted next, her voice soft enough to not scare him away. “We want to know what happened.”

He sniffed, looking around. “You won't believe me.”

“Try us.”

“I didn't kill her.” His eyes stared into yours, almost begging you out of everyone to believe him.

•2021-2024 by xoxo-sarah on Tumblr•

•My work is not to be translated, copied, modified, and/or reposted on any other site without my permission. [!I don't give permission!]

[cchapsticck]

The words "mundane bad end" have caught my attention. Tell me about Rapture Chaser, please.

The parts of this AU (otherwise known as Dick & Jane AU - which I have posted a little of already) I've kind of fixated on were pretty small potatoes when @saintmarywinchester and I started spitballing the whole thing.

The Steddie part is, admittedly, a very small part of a much wider epistolic work that's kind of like, a collection of urban legend hunter accounts/conspiratorially minded think pieces/accounts of the vague pop culture impact of the various tellings of what really happened in Hawkins 20-30 years later. There's parts of it that are declassified internal government documents and commentary on forums on the redacted nature of them. Blog posts of urban explorers digging through the sewers under the old Department of Energy building. Tabloid articles and interviews with people who say their children were kidnapped and changed by government programs. Reviews of better and worse movies that claim to be "based on a true story" that are more and less accurate to missing persons and murder cases in the area and their intersection with satanic panic of the time. Stuff like that.

But an element of it that we were digging into was how and how-not present the main cast of ST might be involved in this ongoing narrative surrounding their hometown. In those discussions we ultimately made some choices about Steve; who, for the epistolic iteration of the AU was mostly a resource that some of these posters could seek out to ask questions about The Truth of Hawkins - he is available for confirmation of beliefs held by the interviewers but he never really provides new information. He is uninterested in any consequences of his transparency, perhaps because his health is in decline due to the multiple TBIs suffered at a young age.

In our discussions of Steve it did circle back around to Steddie, because it is a flavor we enjoy, which introduced the witness protection program and further layers of deception to the whole story that kind of shot off into its own deeper narrative that actually doesn't play at all into the original AU in a serious way beyond being interested in exploring Eddie being forced to endure whatever legacy he's retained in the whole Hawkins narrative by proximity to Steve. So it is a bad end in that there's really no closure to the main ST narrative, and Steve's life is largely divorced from those events beyond what he actively invites in with these Truth seekers. His life is in a downward spiral partially of his own making that Eddie does not soothe or dissuade him from. I posted a loose kind of overview of that relationship in the context of this AU because I just wanted to write it and get out of my head, as that kind of elaboration wasn't actually necessary to the main collection of texts we were putting together - but then it turned out I was having fun in that mundanely crappy space.

So this is all to say Rapture Chaser is a more direct examination of character details and interpersonal drama implied by that original sort-of primer in a more specific context while also not referencing the original AU this all spun off from. So, here's a little blurb I suppose!

It’d be an easier pill to swallow if like, Steve’s been rough the last few days or something, she needs the assist or something, just an extra set of eyes or something, but he’s been fine. Great, even. Better than he’s been. Had a couple weird weeks last month where he wasn’t sleeping, kept getting these visual disruptions that they haven’t been able to see the neurologist about, but he’s evened out. So he’s just here just because Steve’s wife likes him enough and he’s enough of a fixture in her and Steve’s life to ask him.  It makes his skin crawl a little. He’s met Jess’ family before, couple times; mom, dad, brother, sister, other sister, couple of the cousins they’ve been around for thanksgivings or christmases at the Jeffries-Harrington homestead. Those instances, at least, he’s got a reason to be there that’s plausibly deniable - even, if the truth is Steve asked him to stick around because Steve just wants him around and Jess wasn’t going to be mad if he did. But if he’s gotta dip he can use the shift’s over excuse and go be an alone for the holidays sack of shit in his basement apartment like 30 minutes out from their place, but this is the first time he’s gone to them. Like the first time he’ll be in their space and it’s not like.  Circumstantial. 

ask me 'bout my wips i'll probably work on them

[medusapelagia]

The demon dog 2

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4

Rating: Teen and up Relationship: Billy Hargrove/Steve Harrington/Eddie Munson Characters: Billy Hargrove, Steve Harrington, Eddie Munson, Tommy Hagan, Wayne Munson, Jim Hopper WT: Billy's POV, animal death, AU no Upside Down, mention of drugs, mention of alcohol

They get a couple of other rescues, and, at the end of the week, Hopper comes back to bring Billy back to his home. “Could I… could I stay here a little longer?” he asks “The school has not started yet and the animals need all the help they can get.” Hopper looks at him, seriously “Are you telling me that you feel safer here in the middle of nowhere than at your home?” He is, but he will never admit it “There are too many things to do and another pair of hands could be helpful.” Hopper nods and then goes to talk to Wayne who immediately agrees. “So it seems that we are going to see more of you, uh boy?” the silent man says, before getting back to his job. For their good job, Wayne gives them a free night and Eddie drives them to a bar in Indianapolis. “None knows us here! Go and be wild!”

They sit at a table, drinking some beers, while Steve orders a soda. “Oh my god! Can you please stop trying to be the best fucking guy in the world? Your father will still beat you black and blue when he finds out that you did drugs! So live a little Stevie!” Tommy mocks him and Steve shrugs. “Always the fucking hero! Do you know about Barbara Holland? She almost drowned in Steve’s swimming pool!” Tommy continues, his tongue loosened by the alcohol “Thank god our old king is not much of a lover, uh? Instead of fucking his girlfriend he got out to smoke and found Barbara unconscious in his pool. Or so he said. Who knows. Maybe he pushed her into the pool and she hit her head. None will ever know, Barbara doesn’t remember anything. Isn’t that right Stevie? What are you? A savior or a fucking killer?” he asks laughing. Steve gets up and leaves the pub, while Eddie follows him and Billy stays with Tommy. “Why the fuck did you say that? We were having a good time.” Billy complains. “Oh no, you were not. I see how you and Munson look at him like he was fucking Prince Charming. Flash news. He is not. He is just a fucked up boy who lives alone in a big house and has to pay people to be his friends.” Tommy orders another beer “Do you think we were real friends? We weren’t, but he is loaded and there was a party every fucking night at his place. He is terrified of sleeping alone. It has something to do with an attempted kidnapping when he was a kid or something like that.” he sips more beer “He asked me to sleep in the bed with him for years. Years Billy! And when I attempted something more he threw me away like a fucking rag.” “What did you do?” he growls, low. “Nothing! I just kissed him, ok? Listen, if you sleep in the same bed with a guy for years it’s only normal that he gets some ideas, ok? But then he met Wheeler, and the stupid kids, and next thing I know we are in the middle of nowhere cleaning animals’ shit.” Eddie comes back alone “Steve wants to go home. I can drive him and come back for you if you want to stay.” “Yes. I want to…” “We are coming with you.” Billy interrupts Tommy, gets his jacket, and goes toward the door “Are you coming back by foot?” he asks Tommy without even looking at him. Steve is outside, leaning against the car. “You always have to ruin the fun.” Tommy complains while getting in the car. He sits behind Steve and keeps kicking his seat. Steve doesn’t complain, but Billy takes Tommy’s arm in a tight grip and hisses at him “If you don’t stop right now I’ll make you sleep with Shadow.” “Oh, come on! Do it! He is just a fucking dog! I don’t even know what you are all terrified about.” “Told you. He is a demon.” Eddie replies, looking at him through the rear window. If Wayne is surprised to see them back so soon he said nothing about it. He just reminds them of their jobs for the next year and then he goes to bed.

The next day, when he wakes up, Steve is not cooking or taking a shower, but there is a soft WHINING that fills the air. He follows it and finds Steve crying, holding the old dog that died during the night. “Dying is a part of living.” Wayne is saying “He had some good days with you. You cared about him and he knew it.” “What… what now?” “We should call the clinic and they will dispose of…” “No! We can’t! He deserves a place to rest.” “Steve, the law says…” “Fuck the law! Ok? I’ll take responsibility!” “You are just a boy. You can’t take responsibility for nothing.” “I’ll help him.” Billy declares, getting closer “None knows how bad he was. We could say that it got adopted or something like that.” “That’s not how this works kids. I understand that you are hurting, Steve, but we still have to do the things as they must be done. Ok?” Steve is not there when the local veterinarian comes to collect the body. Billy finds him under a tree, looking at Shadow’s cage. “When I was a kid I had a dog, you know? He was black, like Shadow, but he was just a puppy. I asked my parents to buy me a dog so many times… and when they finally did… he didn’t last.” Steve is looking in front of him but his eyes are lost in some foggy memory. “My father is rich. Like really rich. And I was playing with Milo in the garden. I had a babysitter at the time, a teenager called Andrea who spent all her time watching TV instead of me.” he sighs “I didn’t hear them, but Milo did. He ran toward one of the men growling and barking as a puppy could.” a pause “He shot him. And Milo lay on the ground, bleeding, while the man put a bag on my head and told me to keep silent if I didn’t want to meet the same fate.” he turns toward Billy “I still hear my puppy whimpering, asking for help from me, his master. And I didn’t do anything. I left him bleeding in the fucking garden.” “You were only a kid.” Billy tries to comfort him “You couldn’t have done anything.” “I shouldn’t have asked for a dog. I shouldn’t have played in the garden. I should have stayed inside with Andrea watching TV.” “Steve, are you listening to yourself? It makes no sense! None of these things had anything to do with how you acted.” He shakes his head, his eyes still fixed on Shadow’s cage. “Come back in. I’ll make you some tea.”

Wayne decided to give Steve a free afternoon to mourn the loss of the old dog. “Such a princess. He was old and sick. And he died. He is making all this up just to make us work for him.” Tommy complains and Billy snaps “Do you ever keep quiet Hagan?” “Come on! You know him! He is a fucking rich boy who does what the hell he wants to!” Billy finishes cleaning the cage he was working on and then leaves “You do the rest.” he orders without even looking at him, going back and looking for Steve. He is still lying on his bed, Munson at his side playing with the pregnant cat. “Would you like to touch her belly? You can feel the little cats moving around.” Steve doesn’t answer, his sight fixed on the bunk above his. He lets the cat go and she jumps on Steve’s bed, looking for something, and then runs away with a piece of cloth, maybe a t-shirt, in her mouth. “I think that your t-shirt is going to be sacrificed. She has been gathering stuff for a few days. I think she is close.” he explains and when he lifts his eyes he sees Hargrove looking at them from the ajar door. “Come on in. The party has already started but there is still room for one more.” “How are you doing?” Steve keeps silent and Eddie answers for him “Stevie here is still feeling sad about the recent departure. They were really close and it left a scar on his soul, but I’m sure that knowing that he helped that dog when he needed it will make him feel better.” It’s absurd how pompous his discourse sounds, but how honest it feels. “Come on pretty boy. You are the only one that can cook. You don’t want to risk eating coal, right?” Billy asks, touching his leg gently. Steve shivers at the contact but nods, getting on his feet and toward the kitchen. “He really felt that, didn’t he?” Eddie asks and Billy nods. “I think he feels guilty for not being there when he died.” Eddie agrees, still looking at the boy “He is different from how I thought he was.” he states, then gets up and gives Billy a little kiss on the cheek “And you are different too. Thank you for taking care of Stevie.” Stevie. When the hell did he start to call him like that? Stevie. It definitely sounds better than pretty boy. Or princess.

[an-au-blog]

The next year, Eddie and the boys go to the talent show which was just at the same time as basketball practice, so going out into the hall way he sees Steve in all his "King Steve" glory and he know he's fucked. It also didn't help that Steve was a so called ladies man acting all charming with the ladies. Eddie had heard him flirting a couple of times and he hated himself for wishing he was a girl if only to be looked at like that.

After yet another year he gets pushed around more to be as a stepping stone for climbing up the social later. "If you make fun of the dumb rock band geeks, you're probably cooler then them" until Eddie has had enough and slams one of the bullies in the head with his guitar. The bully went to the hospital and Eddie was labeled "The Freak". He was still selling drugs on the side so at least some of them tried to keep on his good side. Not a lot of people deal in a small town like Hawkins. He befriended Johnathan (kind of), after all, freaks have to stick together.

The next year Johnathan's brother went missing. It sucked but it didn't really concern him, plus if he gor involved everyone would've thought it was him who kidnapped the kid or something. He's staying away from that one. It was also the year Steve started dating Nancy. It disgusted Eddie more than it should have, but he couldn't help it. She had brown curly hair, just like him, she was a major nerd, just like him (though he's technically a geek but shhh let this one slide), she was even the same hight as him. He'd see them being all touchy in the hallways or making out in the bathroom, or in the parking lot or behind the school... Everything felt unfair. One time Steve mistook Eddie for Nancy and hugged him from behind, lifting him in the air playfully. Steve was giggling and smiling until he saw it was Eddie. He told him he mistook him for his girlfriend and told him not to tell anyone what happened. Eddie could only nod, because 1. he was still in shock, 2. he couldn't trust himself to speak, 3. at that moment if Steve had told him to do anything, he would. That moment never left his head, he kept thinking about it before falling asleep, about what it would feel like to be Nancy. About what he wouldn't do to be her.

Another year went by and Steve had become something like a babysitter. Eddie hated hoe it was the cutest thing he had ever seen. Then there was more weird things happening and he tried staying out of sight as much as possible. Instead he focused on the band. They started playing at a bar, which was a big step for them.

The year after Steve had already graduated. Eddie couldn't. He had a massive breakdown about ot but it would be fine. There was a mall so he decided to give in and see if there was a vinyl shop or anything. He was met with something WAY better. Steve Harrington in the scoops ahoy uniform would haunt his dreams for months. He never actually go into the shop but he went a couple of more times to throw a lingering eye. And then the mall burned down. He didn't know what had happened actually but he had started thinking something was up with everything the past few years. He remembered once waiting for Scoops to open after a lunch break and accidentally waiting until sundown. When he went to take a leak he was met with Steve's angel face bloody and bruised. He looked like someone tortured him. He was also very obviously high and washing blood off his face. Steve seemed too out of it but managed to say "store's closed man, sorry" through half-lided eyes and swollen lips and Eddie could have sworn that was the moment it unlocked a new kink in him.

The year after Eddie welcomed a few kids in his dnd party. When Dustin started mentioned "Steve" Eddie realized those were Steve's babysitting gig. It didn't help that they mentioned him so often but then the thing with Chrissy happened and the kids found him and then there he was again. Pressed against a wall with a bottle to the throat.

Eddie had bigger things to worry about, but to Steve that was the moment he started thinking of broadening his dating pool.

Long-time pine Seddie

I was going to write this as an actual fanfic but now I feel like I'm never gonna finish it, so here you go the concept:

Eddie knows about King Steve and as much as he hates it, he also understands why all the girls like him.

Steve doesn't know who Eddie is... at least at first.

Here's all I had written till now:

Notes:

I'm literally at the water park right now and i felt OBLIGATED to write this istf if i had to ride the ride that my frs wanted i would have DIED

Eddie Munson wasn't the type of guy who would go to the water park at a quarter to ten. But there was a 5 dollar discount if you go before ten o'clock on a Monday, so here he was. Freshman year; in the longest swim trunks he could find, a tee-shirt and putting his sweat glands to work. If it sounded dreadful, it was probably because it was.

"Dude, why are we even here?" Eddie whined.

"Why are you complaining so much. You agreed to come after all!" Gareth said annoyed.

Jeff nodded "Just take off your shirt and maybe you'll stop complaining about the heat. Swim a little, try some of the rides. It'll be fun!"

"There's like... people around and stuff."

"And?" Gareth asked pointedly.

"No one is wearing a shirt Eddie, relax. What's the big deal anyway?"

Gareth shoved Jeff's shoulder "Maybe the girl he's been crushing on is here and he's embarrassed!"

Eddie blushed. "Dude, gross!" There was no girl. Him and a Jeff traded glances. This was the worst, change the subject! "Plus it's totally normal to wear a shirt!" Eddie tried to look for a way out. He started looking in the growing number of people someone with a shirt that wasn't in the act of taking it off. His eyes land on the lifeguard - some brunet guy who had his back turned to them. "See?" He pointed. "It's common."

Gareth only rolled his eyes as Jeff let out an exasperated sigh. "He's the fucking lifeguard." Gareth said "You know- you know what dude, whatever. Do what you want, we're gonna go hit the water slides."

Eddie would have felt a little bad for missing out on the time with his friends, but he was too busy feeling relieved that he didn't have to do anything. It was embarrassing enough that he had started school one year later than everyone and he'd been older since first grade. Now had to show said old and weird-looking body to all these people? No way in hell would that happen. He wasn't normal in too many aspects, he wasn't ready to be abnormal to his friends as well. How did this place fill up so fast anyway? There were way too many people.

He looked back at the lifeguard to give his mental thanks but when he did, he felt himself freeze. He recognized him. In fact, he had been spending the past few years avoiding him. (Granted - it wasn't that hard, considering they weren't in the same class, same year perhaps, but not same class.)

Captain of the swim team, the school's "star athlete" and girls' all time favorite boy: King Steve "the hair" Harrington. Tommy H. and Carol's lapdog. Disgusting.

Steve was the type of guy that would bully him for living with his uncle at the trailer park. The type to shove him in the lockers because of what he liked, whether it be music, or people, or other things. He was definitely one of the people who started calling him "the freak"... Well... Eddie had never met Steve personally, or seen Steve doing any of the things listed, but he was sure Steve matched that description perfectly. After all, that was his type of clique.

Eddie must have glared in his detection for a moment too much because Steve turned his head to meet his gaze. Before Eddie could turn his head and pretend not to be looking Steve save him a polite tight-lipped smile and an upward nod. The one u would give to the old grumpy man down the street that you've never met before. Or a kid that you've only seen twice in the school halls, which was the case for them. But none of that mattered. What did matter was that Eddie didn't want to be in "the King"s rance of sight.

He moved.

Eddie had almost fallen asleep on one of those beach lounge chairs, when this agitating voice woke him up.

"Hey man." Eddie opened his eyes to see Steve fucking Harington throwing shade his way. Was he going to bully him? Or kick him out? "Don't wanna wake you up but you're gonna burn."

What?

"What?"

Steve ignored the question. "The park store's open, go get some sun screens if you don't have any." He popped the unopened can in his hand and took a sip.

Eddie was too puzzled by what had happened to notice Steve had already walked over to his chair - looking bored as ever, scanning the area as if he didn't just talk to the one everyone treated like the plague.

Eddie couldn't fall asleep after that. Maybe it was because his mind was rushing with questions. Maybe it was because there was something in the way Steve slumped over his chair and occasionally blew his whistle to tell some kids not to throw the inflatable donuts or whatever they were called. Maybe it was the fact that he looked so... normal? down to earth? human. But the thought of the school's King made Eddie something uneasy settle in the pit of his stomach.

Three days later he went to the pool again.

What was he thinking? He wasn't even with his friends, he had no intentions of getting in the water and to top it off there was no discount so he wasted money he didn't have. That's right, he wasn't thinking. Unlike Steve who was a lifeguard just for fun, Eddie didn't come from money so he had to save up from birthdays or unspent lunch cash.

Still, he had to come again. Because, if not knowing why he couldn't get an annoying rich brat off his mind kept him up at night, his eye bags would keep on growing.

Eddie couldn't help but shift and look around for a certain employee there. With his Munson misfortune, he couldn't see Steve anywhere. He really wasn't thinking coming here like some weirdo to look for someone who didn't even recognize him. It was a bad thing that Steve didn't recognize him, in fact it was property for the better. He got up to leave.

It was hot, he was sweating and he didn't want to be here.

He absentmindedly bumped into someone turning his head quickly to see who it was. Brown styled hair- could it be?

"Sorry dude." the stranger said.

It wasn't Steve. What the hell was wrong with Eddie why was he so hell-bent on this asshole? That was it. He wasn't going to think about him anymore. No more idiocy.

This was the last time he was going to think about Steve.

That was not the last time he thought about Steve.

(I'll post summarized how I would have continued it later)

[schrijverr]

Flirting at the Mall 3

Chapter 3 out of 8

Steve and Eddie both work at Starcourt Mall, dancing around each other and flirting. When Steve finally manages to ask Eddie out, he gets kidnapped by Russians and misses their date. He shows up at Eddie’s house, drugged and beaten after Startcourt burned down to apologize and Eddie makes sure he’s okay, before they retry their date.

On AO3.

Ships: Steve x Eddie

Warnings: none

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Regular (Eddie POV)

It takes Eddie a week to built up the courage to go back to Scoops Ahoy. In that week, he is relentlessly bullied by his friends, who all tell him they want details and therefor he should put his heart on the line. The gossip hungry assholes.

They come bother him at work every day, trying to entice him to visit the ice cream shop again with them, but Eddie refuses every time. He has spend enough nights staring at his ceiling to come up with reasons why they’re all wrong and Steve hates him. And he knows that if he goes with them, they’ll embarrass him and Steve will think he’s weird.

Still, as much as Eddie adores king Steve, sweaty on the basketball court or with a smug smirk on his face and hair perfect, polo stretched over his muscles. Eddie is obsessed with dorky sailor Steve that he met in Scoops Ahoy.

There is something magnetizing about him. The way he’s nothing like the asshole Eddie would never make a move on no matter how hot he was. How he blushes and takes in stride the things Eddie said that would get him punched by every other jock.

So, despite what his brain has been trying to sell him, Eddie finds himself going back over to Scoops Ahoy, unable to stay away. He remembers Chris’ words as he justifies it to himself why he is being stupid.

However, when he gets to Scoops Ahoy, he sees Robin spot him, yell something, before Steve opens the window to the break room. Eddie isn’t sure, what he sees, but Steve slides over the counter in a smooth way that has Eddie swallowing as Steve smiles at Eddie as he enters the shop, Robin disappearing to the back.

The interaction they have is good. Eddie gets bolder and Steve flirts back. Actually flirts back, he gives a cute little smile when Eddie checks him out. He calls him a sweet guy! Eddie is so upset that he has to rush back to his own job, but Steve’s dorky ‘see you later alligator’ when he leaves is totally worth it.

It tides him over until the others come into Melody Records to try and bother him into going to Scoops Ahoy, only to find him licking out the cup.

Gareth spots it first, gasping in betrayal as he points to the cup and exclaims: “You went to get ice cream without us, you traitor.”

“Steve called me a sweet guy,” Eddie smiles, not replying to what Gareth said in any way, shape or form.

Luckily, he knows his friends and the at the mention of how it went, they all forget his betrayal to pester him about how it went. Sometimes he thinks he is friends with the knitting club instead of a metal band, but he loves them for it.

So, he regales his second interaction with Steve in great detail, ending with: “He was really nice, I think he might be serious in flirting, but I don’t want to assume and, like, get beat up or something, you know.”

“Become a regular,” Chris suggest. “Just make getting ice cream a thing you do on your break. Wait until he makes a proper move.”

“Yeah, if he likes you, I’m sure he will,” Gareth says. “He’s known for thinking with his dick.”

“Shut up,” Eddie tells Gareth, giving him a shove, while mentally filing away what Chris said. He has good suggestions. He should listen to Chris more often. “It might just be fun to him.”

“Better go along with that then,” Jeff shrugs. “I mean, it definitely sucks, but I don’t want to see you get hurt over Steve Harrington of all people. Let him make a move.”

Eddie nods, touched by the concern, but also a bit bummed out that this is the way this has to be. He is shaken out of his thoughts, by Gareth dramatically going: “I still can’t believe that our plan to laugh at Harrington over his sailor outfit turned into trying to set Eddie up with him.”

“Don’t you dare do anything,” Eddie quickly hisses, already envisioning the stupid plans his friends will undoubtedly come up with. He has seen their problem solving skills in DnD and he won’t trust them with something like this. Nu-uh, no thanks.

“Rude,” Gareth says, as Jeff assures him they won’t try anything.

They hang around for the rest of the day, Eddie is pretty sure his manager hates them, but he is rarely there and Eddie doesn’t care.

After his shift they get some food, before going to band practice together. They got a spot to play at the Hide Out on Tuesday and while they know only about 5 drunks will show up, they want to put on a great show. So, they’ve been putting in extra practice time.

However, the day after, he’s alone in the store again. No friends. He decides to take Chris’ words to heart. Eddie can become a regular at Scoops Ahoy. It’s summer. It’s hot… like Steve.

Whatever, he’s allowed to think that and he’s allowed to be a little pathetic, he thinks as he walks back over to Scoops Ahoy. Steve seemed to like his pathetic-ness anyway. He flirted back and Eddie is going to see how long they can keep it going.

When he arrives at Scoops Ahoy, he’s a little nervous, but Steve gives him a big smile as he does the spiel: “Welcome to Scoops Ahoy, I’m Steve and I’ll be your captain today. Are you ready to set sail on this ocean of flavor with me.”

“Howdy, sailor,” Eddie greets. “Can I request another of your recommendations?”

“Of course, Eddie,” Steve replies, eyes crinkling. “What are you in the mood for?”

Deciding to be a little daring, Eddie says: “I was thinking of being a sweet guy today.”

“Sure, I can give you something sweet,” Steve winks, giving Eddie half a heart attack with the words as he feels the blush explode on his cheeks.

And so, Eddie becomes a regular at Scoops Ahoy. On his breaks, he’ll wander over to the ice cream shop where Steve will be waiting for him with his dorky greeting. He stopped doing it once more, but Eddie questioned why, demanding to be treated like a good customer.

The fact that Steve picked it back up without question does something to Eddie. The stupid dorky greeting of captain Steve inviting him on an ocean of flavor does something to him. The combination off all of that with Steve in that sailor uniform does something to him. Everything about Steve does something to him.

Steve does so much for Eddie that he indeed comes in every day just to flirt with him. He asks Steve for recommendations and Steve will patiently let him taste all sorts of samples, smiling the whole way through, until Eddie finds something he likes enough to get a scoop off.

With a flavor chosen, Steve will bend over, letting Eddie ogle his ass in those shorts or his arm muscles as he scoops. Then Eddie gets his ice cream along with a Steve smile, employee discount and a flirty goodbye, before Eddie rushes back to his job with a teasing lick of his spoon.

At this point, Steve doesn’t even have to ask if he wants a cup or a cone.

His friends whine that they never get ice cream together and that Eddie is mean for not using his charms to get them all the employee discount. However, he knows it’s only teasing. His job stopped being interesting, so they’ve stopped coming by as often and the one time they did catch him before he could go alone, they teased him relentlessly after, claiming they couldn’t watch something so corny ever again in their lives.

God, his friends are dramatic assholes. But Eddie loves them. Loves how they took this in stride and never made him feel bad about having a big fat gay crush on Steve Harrington.

If anything, his friends are obsessed with getting him a date, thinking it’s the best thing ever. Every time he shows up for band practice, they first interrogate how his ice cream runs have been going so far, descending on him like a group of gossip hungry housewives.

It has happened only once that he came in when Steve was on break. Robin is behind the counter, smirking as she sees his face turn uncertain with her there. Vaguely he’s aware she must have noticed something and he thinks he has her pinned from when he was in band, but one could never be sure.

Still, not wanting to be too obvious about his disappointment that it isn’t Steve behind the counter, he ambles in, greeting her with: “Hi, Buckley.”

She gives him a one over, stifling her laugh, before calling to the back: “Dingus, your regular is here.”

They both hear a chair scraping and Robin winks at Eddie: “Be nice to my schmuck, Mr. Handkerchief,” both letting him know that she knows and that she’s cool and giving Eddie a weird semi-shovel talk.

Today is the second time he comes in to find Robin greeting him. It’s Eddie’s day off, yet he’s still here at the mall to get his ice cream. Which is a little pathetic. Especially, because Steve isn’t working today it seems.

Robin must notice something of that on his face, because she smiles: “Don’t worry, loverboy. He’s in. He’s taking his break right now, because his monsters are about to come in.”

“His monsters?” Eddie repeats, a pit forming in his stomach as he imagines a posse of jocks, who like pushing him around filling up the store.

“Ah, there they are!” Robin says, oblivious to his inner turmoil as she notices Steve’s monsters – whoever they are – over his shoulder.

With apprehension he turns around, but instead of the dreaded jock extravaganza there is a group of four middle schoolers. One girl with red hair and three nerdy looking boys. That- That is unexpected, Eddie isn’t going to lie, especially when Robin calls: “Hey, dingus, your children are here,” like she’d done when Eddie came in that other time.

“Again?” Steve asks exasperated, throwing open the window as the children reach the counter.

Curious to see where this goes, Eddie steps to the side to let the lanky brunet ding the bell loudly, looking into Steve’s eyes with a defiant look on his face. Then, he dings the bell again, making Steve glare at him.

Steve doesn’t scramble over the counter, like he’d done for Eddie, just pushes through the door with a resigned tiredness. He stands in front of the group and places his hands on his hips, making him look like a scolding mother, especially with the dishrag thrown over his shoulder. Eddie shouldn’t find it hot, but he does.

“What movie are you watching?” Steve asks, blocking there path and looking like he has no intention of moving if he doesn’t get an answer.

“Back to the Future,” the brown haired boy, who hadn’t been ringing the bell, answers.

Steve softens at the boy and asks him: “What rating does it have? You know Joyce doesn’t want you sneaking into any of the horror movies.”

Eddie now recognizes the boy as Will Byers, the kid that had gone missing in ‘83. He vaguely wonders how Steve knows the kid, but he’s mostly busy melting at how gentle Steve is being with him. How caring. Like every other thing about Steve, it does something to Eddie, seeing him all paternal.

“It’s PG,” the redhead rolls her eyes, obviously over Steve’s mothering.

“Yeah, we’re not idiots,” the other brunet says. “We’re not going to sneak into a dumb horror movie. Most of those are idiotic slashers anyway.”

“This one has fun science,” the black boy adds with a grin, the only thing that makes Steve relax his pose again after the other two riled it up.

“Alright, have fun,” Steve gives in, the guard to the kingdom stepping aside.

The kids don’t waste a second, bounding by him into the backroom. Eddie watches as Steve follows, vaguely hearing him call out: “If you tell anyone about this-”

“We’re dead,” four voices reply, like they’ve said it a hundred times before. Probably have, Eddie realizes. Because Steve has been sneaking snippy, nerdy middle schoolers into the movies for some reason. Middle schoolers he cares about.

He comes back to the counter, shaking his head at Robin as he sighs something about kids these days, before he spots Eddie. His eyes grow wide, before he breaks out into a big smile: “Hey, Eddie, welcome to Scoops Ahoy, I’m Steve and I’ll be your captain today. Are you ready to set sail on this ocean of flavor with me.”

Even in his surprise, he does the dorky greeting that Eddie loves so much. Eddie gives him a smile back and says: “Ahoy, fought off the hoard?” in reference to the kids.

Steve’s face is confused for a second, before he figures it out, then he huffs a laugh as he rolls his eyes. “More like lost to the hoard,” he tells Eddie. “Just can’t tell ‘em no, you know. I like the shitheads too much. But don’t tell them I said that.”

Eddie makes a sealing my lips motion as he winks: “Your secret is safe with me, sailor.” Then curiosity gets the better of them and he asks: “How do you even know those kids?”

“Oh, that,” Steve says, a combination of surprise and embarrassment at the question. He shrugs awkwardly and answers: “They’re Nancy’s younger brother and his friends. I started babysitting them when we were together, somehow I’m the one that got them in the divorce, you know.”

He laughs uncomfortably at the mention of his ex, a bit of hurt still in his voice. Eddie doesn’t know much about how that ended, but from the outside both had seemed to move on okay with Wheeler in Jonathan’s arms soon after and Steve befriending both like it was no issue. But looks can’t be everything and Eddie had seen the starts of a fight back at Tina’s party.

Still, Eddie isn’t about to dive into potential hurts of a break up with an ex from the boy he wants to seduce, so he gives a small chuckle and asks: “So, what flavors do they hate most? Can’t let them win all the time.”

Success, Steve laughs, less awkward this time and replies: “I think they have a collective dislike for pecan.”

“Well, can I try some pecan then, please,” Eddie grins, trying not to think how adorable it is that Steve knows that about the kids. He must really love them, even if he calls them shitheads and acts like he doesn’t. It’s cute.

“Course,” Steve replies easily, scooping a sample for him, knowing their game and that Eddie would try at least three flavors before settling on something.

“Thanks,” Eddie says, taking the small plastic spoon and licking the ice cream off it in a practically obscene manner for the establishment they’re in. However, it isn’t like anyone is watching them that closely and the way Steve’s eyes track the motion is definitely worth it every time.

Because he is free that day, he spends a little longer at the counter than usual, trying a few more flavors, but getting pecan in the end when a rush starts up.

He eats his ice cream in the store, pretty content to watch Steve sling ice cream and talk to customers. Steve is naturally charming, though not laying it on as thick as when he’s talking to Eddie, something that pleases him greatly.

When a few little kids come in, it’s adorable how Steve will lean over the counter and smile at them, being more enthusiastic about silly flavors and being patient as they try to decide on a flavor. He’ll even cheer a little if they’re allowed to get sprinkles from their parents, who will always smile gratefully at him for it.

Sadly, Eddie can’t keep watching Steve forever. He has a drug deal in the parking lot and then band practice. So, he has to leave before the rush ends, unable to speak more with Steve. He’s both saddened and glad by that. He loves talking to Steve, but he always has to remind himself that he is going to let Steve make the first move, a part of him still scared this is just a joke to Steve.

Maybe next time Steve will ask, he thinks, meeting Steve’s eyes as he goes and watching him do a dorky finger wave. How anyone ever thought Steve was cool, he doesn’t know.

~~

A/N:

I love supportive Hellfire friends. They seem the type and Eddie deserves it

[five-wow]

here are some thoughts from my (first, somewhat late) watch of 10.15!

we start off with adam intimidating a minion and threatening his life while they’re reburying three bodies. cool. this is totally something he can come back from.

joanna! danny’s mystery woman has a name! i very vaguely caught some annoyance/confusion about her name here on tumblr because apparently somewhere else (outside of the episodes, i assume?) she’d been called something else, if i understood correctly? but seeing as i missed most of that, i’m honestly just glad she has a name now.

also! joanna texting her sister/friend (i don’t really know who she is for sure?) that she met a guy at a bar - thank god, tbh, because last episode it looked like she just randomly had sex with a stranger (which is fine) and then got into his car to let him drive her home (which is not fine, because we may know danny is an okay guy, but she had no earthly way of knowing that).

“it wasn’t your fault. you did everything you could. it means a lot to me that you’re here.” kudos to sister/friend for not falling into the trap of blaming danny and piling onto his guilt subplot!

STEVE is WAITING OUTSIDE when danny leaves the morgue, oh god. that makes total sense and i’m glad for it, but i somehow didn’t expect them to show that.

steve: “you wanna talk about it?” nothing super clever to say here, but it just make me really, really happy every single time steve asks danny if he wants to talk about something (or just pushes him into it, ocassionally) because!! that’s good!! that’s healthy!! that’s a really good friendship, and i’m proud of steve. (on a slightly related note, i’ve been watching a lot of 9-1-1 and reading some fic and while a lot of that fic is really fun, i kind of feel like many of the writers in that fandom give eddie at least double the capability to deal with emotional turmoil in himself or others that he is shown to have in canon. eddie diaz is basically what danny sometimes accuses steve of being, only eddie is actually closed off and struggling with repressing everything he ever feels that much, and steve has by this point had years to learn healthier ways of coping and he is not that person anymore, at all. he knows how to talk about emotions and he does it, too, and the funny thing is that i’m pretty sure he learned a lot of that by making danny talk to him about danny’s emotions, which steve did all the time right from the very start because he cares about danny and wants him to be mentally happy and healthy, and tl;dr, steve and danny’s friendship makes them both happier, more emotionally stable people and that makes me emotional.)

tani teaching a class at the police academy and bonnie (grover’s niece) absolutely acing all her classes and tani and bonnie hanging out and getting lunch together and tani subtly mentoring bonnie IS ALL VERY GOOD.

fdjfkdjkfd oh god. i was so happy with this scene and then suddenly bonnie has a boyfriend and it’s the dude who buried bodies with adam a moment ago. so... is he a bad guy (i hope not, because i’m already a little tired at the idea of another cool female character getting in trouble all the time because she’s dating yakuza and that’s for some reason the most interesting thing the writers could think to do with her), or is he undercover? is adam undercover? are they BOTH undercover but they don’t know it about the other guy so they just keep committing crimes to look like badass criminals when really they’re just both trying to catch the other in a seriously bad crime?

oh god, there’s this whole scene with the academy recruits on the shooting range and tani keeps drilling them on shooting faster (which i have... thoughts about, too, but let’s not get into that) and they make it really explicit that bonnie is the fastest and definitely faster than her boyfriend and this, uh, really looks like foreshadowing for bonnie ending up having to draw her weapon on the boyfriend at some point.

adam to lou: “thanks for the coffee date.” i must say, very unexpected ship they’re pushing now. :p

adam: [starts saying things, possibly making up excuses] lou: “no, no, come on, you don’t have to explain anything to me.” let the man talk, lou!!! if you don’t want to hear it, i do.

ahhhh, lou is keeping adam occupied while steve searches adam’s apartment. things are making more sense now. (though lou does call steve to tell him to wrap things up like a minute after his coffee date with adam started, and also at most a dozen feet away from adam where chances are definitely above zero of adam being able to hear him, fjdkdf.)

steve had “a feeling” about adam. no need to be so jealous, danny.

wait, wait, adam is back on five-0? i... they probably showed or mentioned that in a recent episode, i think, but apparently i’ve really just been turning my brain off during this subplot because i do not remember that at all. (this is why i like bingewatching things, because at least then i have a clearer picture of what happened in the episodes right before, gosh.)

danny: “... but the point is that if i was a human being...” love it. love the subtle implication that danny is not a human being, but in fact an alien from new jersey, which as we all know is in outer space.

bonnie’s boyfriend is not officially bonnie’s boyfriend yet and she thinks he might be seeing someone on the side, and this is sad because as viewers we all know that that someone IS ADAM (and three dead guys). just not like that, though. probably.

bonnie: [tells tani her potential bf has two phones] tani: “hm, okay. this one’s easy: run.” YES. PLEASE DO.

quinn!!! i was starting to wonder if this was one of those mysteriously quinn-less episodes.

oh nooo, bonnie sneaks around potential bf’s house and then STEPS ON A TWIG. c’mon, girl.

fdjkfd the guys catch her and now i remember that this episode description said she was going to get kidnapped and adam would help get her back. this will be... interesting.

quinn’s awkward face while lou is yelling in surprise about bonnie having a boyfriend is absolute gold.

lou yells at tani for not telling him anything about the boyfriend yesterday but honestly, she does not deserve that.

also: all those dramatic shots on adam’s face, oh dear. is the rest of the team seeing that expression he has? are they seeing all these close-ups?

adam threatens his yakuza rival in an effort to help get bonnie back. is this supposed to be redemption for adam? i’m confused.

lou says it’s not tani’s fault and he apologizes! this is an episode of people realizing they shouldn’t put the blame on innocent bystanders (instead of one that attempts to heighten the drama by milking misplaced anger for all that it’s worth) and i like it.

siobhan has been tied up in some shed in the woods and endo (the potential boyfriend) is feeling bad about it but is unwilling to untie her, god. (quick detour, though: i’ve been wondering this since the beginning of the episode, but how is siobhan even at the hpd academy now? i was under the impression during her first appearance this season that she was in her last year of high school, so when did she even graduate?)

i do feel for endo (which i like! it’s cool to see a Bad Guy be not pure evil but believably conflicted), but leaving your almost-girlfriend in a cabin in the woods for your godfather to “take care of it” with a sad look and “i’m really sorry” is not the best of moves, my dude.

tani and quinn: we have good news! hpd intercepted endo and steve and lou are about to question him! adam: [sweats]

endo lies his ass off in interrogation which makes him interesting but also costs him a lot of sympathy points from my end.

lou pretty much assaults endo while he’s cuffed to a chair in the interrogation room. i get why these emotions make for good tv, but uh, hm, maybe five-0 should at some point consider a policy of not letting people who are personally involved in cases near suspects, because this does kind of seem to keep happening.

jfdkfd, adam confronts endo in lock-up, endo taunts him and says adam can’t tell anyone in five-0 what he knows because he’d have to tell them how he knows endo, the team finds out that endo has yakuza ties and go to confront endo about it and he’s gone. omfg, adam, how are you managing to fuck your own life up this effectively in such a short amount of time, after you fought all those years to get away from everything you’re doing now?

siobhan gets herself free!!! and then runs right into guys with guns outside the cabin, of course, because this is tv timing, but still, WELL DONE.

fdjkfdkjfd, adam’s brilliant plan to solve the situation is to call up the rival yakuza boss and threaten to kill his godson out of revenge. this is. this is maybe not a great idea.

adam: “in case you haven’t been paying attention, kenji, i’m not afraid of much these days.” oh adam, buddy, don’t brag about misplacing the entirety of your common sense.

the team is watching adam load endo into the back of a car on tape and it’s honestly kind of hilarious. steve asks danny how he would explain this and that’s hilarious, too, because they’re seeing their (ex-?)friend load a stolen suspect into a car to run off with him, thereby betraying all of them and everything they stand for, and steve is taking this opportunity to turn to danny and go “see, i was right”. fjdkfd.

steve’s gut says adam will come through for them in delivering siobhan, and we all know steve’s gut is secretly psychic, so that’s a spoiler. :p

and it does happen!!! i’m glad to see bonnie back in a safe place.

oh god. adam randomly appears from between the foilage to look serious and share a meaningful nod with steve. is he... is he officially on the other side now? they’re not still going to let him be part of five-0, are they?

domestic steve and danny in the(ir) kitchen!!! steve is giving eddie danny’s breakfast!!! and then there’s something about endo having hacked into hpd’s database, because of course they need to attach some ongoing threat to this, but honestly, who cares about plot when there’s “don’t shame my dog. i’m cooking you eggs, alright?” and danny saying steve doesn’t have to cook him eggs but steve already doing it anyway while danny is once again randomly sitting on the kitchen counter and steve cuts danny off before danny can request his eggs a little burned because steve already knows how danny likes his eggs, obviously, because steve is a stalker when it comes to danny. yes!! this is stuff i like a lot.

danny is saying he could probably get out of steve’s space soon and steve has the excuse of very intently (and yet somehow also very badly, it looks like) scrambling those eggs, but he’s also definitely, 100% avoiding looking at danny in that moment, and then he starts saying how there’s no paint yet and that’s bad and danny should stay. just. just move in together officially, you guys. just do it. nobody would be surprised. you know it would make both of you very happy. this is not even a ship thing, but just, oh my god, these two humans so clearly want to be in each other’s space and they keep coming up with excuses and getting this close to admitting that maybe neither of them wants danny to leave and then yelling at each other about eggs and how it’s not bacon day. it can be bacon day, steve. it could even be pancake day. it could be pancake day every day for the rest of your natural lives if you just told danny you wanted that.

overall, this was a very fun episode! i’m honestly just really happy with this season in general - quinn being added to the team does maybe not look like much progress on the subject of female characters, because she’s just one person, but there have been SO MANY scenes of her and tani together by now and genuinely, their friendship is healing my soul and watering my crops. i’m still not sure what to make of the adam subplot, but if they’re doing what it kind of looks like they’re doing - permanently putting him on the other side of the fence, back with the yakuza - that could actually be somewhat interesting. i’m just really, really scared that even after all of this they’re going to try to give him some kind of redemption arc that just has no chance of making sense anymore after everything that’s happened.

[flowerfan2]

Affinity - Ch. 13 (10.13)

McDanno, A03, 10.13.  22k so far; 1500 words this chapter.

A continuous story of season 10 episode codas.  Steve may describe their relationship as a dysfunctional marriage, but at some point, will he and Danny take a closer look at what it really could be?   (The answer is yes).

Chapter 13

After the barbeque with Blake and his dad, Charlie is full of energy and reluctant to go to sleep.  Eventually Danny and Steve make him a blanket fort in Steve’s dining room, draping blankets over the table and piling pillows inside.  Steve crawls in there with him, looking more excited than Charlie.  

Danny retreats to the kitchen to clean up.  The day had gone far better than he had expected, even given all the crazy.  And it’s been so full of love from Steve, it’s almost overwhelming.

Spending the whole day with Steve, and then ending it with a family barbeque (because they are family, him and Steve and Charlie, just like he told the principal) makes Danny feel like maybe he hasn’t screwed up his life completely.  He was being honest when he told Blake’s dad that going through a divorce was horrible, but that was a long time ago, and he thinks he’s got the hang of it now.  

Of how to be a parent in a non-traditional family, how to be a steady source of care and comfort for your kids even when other things in your child’s life are uncertain.  Of how not to hate your ex, and even to love her a little.  Of how not to give up on yourself.  

He’s not afraid to admit to himself how much it has helped to have Steve at his side.  Steve is a wonderful uncle to Grace and Charlie, far more interested and involved than most uncles by blood, not to mention an unwavering support to Danny.  From the very moment they met, Steve understood how much Grace meant to Danny, offering tickets for a weekend away, making sure Danny always had time off to spend with her.  For as long as he lives, Danny will never forget Steve showing up at that custody hearing his first year on the island, Steve standing tall and imposing in his dress uniform, telling the judge so sincerely that Grace deserved to have Danny in her life.

And today at the principal’s office, Steve was as much of a co-parent as anyone could be.  Danny doesn’t know how he got so lucky.

Danny thinks back to their conversation last night, after he got the call from the school asking him to come in to talk about Charlie.  Steve had immediately said that he would go with Danny, even before they realized that Rachel couldn’t make it.  They even talked about what they’d say when the principal asked why Steve was there.

Conversations like that don’t come easy to either of them.  Despite Danny’s tendency to babble about anything that pops into his mind, it’s still hard to ask your best friend/boss/up-until-now-everyone-thought-he-was-straight whether he’s ready to come out, and to an elementary school principal at that.  Plus they still haven’t told anyone, really, about their relationship.  

They’ve talked about coming out to Junior, but then the poor kid got kidnapped and beaten up, and then called up for reserve duty.  Somehow the time never seemed right.

But as Danny told Steve last night, the principal was gonna want to know what Steve was doing there.  This isn’t Danny’s first school conference, and he doesn’t think it’s even the first one Steve has been to with him (in fact he’s sure it isn’t, and that doesn’t even count the time Steve went to pick up Grace when Danny was arrested), but it’s the first one where he and Steve are together, whatever difference that might make.

 Steve might have looked innocent when the time came, but they had prepared for the principal’s question. There’s one thing that’s bothering Danny, though, as much as he has tried to put it out of his mind during their search for Blake’s dad and the reconciliations that followed.  But now, idly wiping down the counters in the kitchen, it’s impossible to let it go.

 For whatever reason, Steve had gone off script during their conversation with the principal. “Emotional support friend” might be true, but it wasn’t what they had agreed on, at least as far as Danny remembered the conversation.  It was supposed to be “partner” – not “work partner” but just “partner,” which they had decided was just vague enough to give them an out if the principal reacted badly, but truthful, and more in line with being open about their relationship.

 Danny knows it doesn’t mean Steve isn’t as committed to Charlie as he’s always been.  The animated sounds coming from the dining room tent fort as Steve acts out the parts to one of Charlie’s favorite stories are evidence enough of how all-in Steve is.  Danny’s just afraid it means something about how certain Steve is about their own relationship.

 All day, Steve was there for Danny, closer than any “work partner” would be.  But he never crossed the line into <i>more.</i>  Steve stood in the place where Danny’s co-parent would stand, right by Danny’s side, but he never put an arm on Danny’s shoulder, never took his hand.  He never said anything that would reveal the truth. He certainly didn’t introduce himself as Danny’s boyfriend.

 Of course, they’ve never used that term.  They’ve even kind of made fun of it, laughing at the idea, as if they were high school kids. He’s not sure why the word makes them so uncomfortable.  It’s not as if they still don’t call girls they date “girlfriends.”  It shouldn’t be so scary.

 Danny’s never had a boyfriend, never had to think this through before.  He thought he and Steve were on the same page – but if they were, why is Danny feeling so worried?

 “I think he’s asleep.”  Steve comes into the kitchen, startling Danny out of his thoughts.  “Wanna go outside?”

 They grab a few beers and head down to the beach.  Danny wonders how many times they’ve stood here, watching the evening turn to night, listening to the water lap gently against the sand.  “Time to trim that tree again,” Steve says, looking over to the left, where the foliage has once again begun to eat up the narrow stretch of waterfront space.

 “Yeah,” Danny agrees mindlessly. Yard work really isn’t what he’s most concerned about right now.  Is Steve that content, or is he covering?  Usually Danny thinks he can tell, but at the moment, he’s feeling topsy-turvy.

 Danny should be content himself too, he thinks.  After a day like today Danny should be over the moon with contentedness, sated with the security of his little family unit.  Instead, he’s picking apart Steve’s words like a loser.

 “You still worried about Charlie?” Steve asks.

 Danny wants to kick himself.  While he’s caught up in navel-gazing, Steve is still focused on his son.

 “No.  I mean, there will probably be a few more bumps in the road, but I think he and Blake worked it out pretty well.”

 “With a little help from Eddie.”

 “Sure, he definitely helped.” Danny leans his shoulder against Steve. “You did, too.”

 “Nah, I didn’t do anything.”

 “I heard you talking to Charlie, Steve. Telling him what you told me, about being bullied when you were in school, how it felt.  You’re crazy if you think that didn’t help.”

 Steve gets a little smile on his face. “Yeah?”

 “Yeah.  You were a really good dad today.”  The word slips out – dad, not uncle – and Danny lets it.  And Steve, miracle of miracle, accepts it.

 “Thanks, Danno.”

 Remembering how good Steve was with Charlie reminds Danny of their own talk earlier in the day, how Steve had helped Danny understand what Charlie was going through.  “You, uh, you never told me about being bullied yourself, when you were a kid.”

 Steve shrugs.  “Never came up.”

 Danny watches as Steve shifts, just a little, poking the wet sand with his bare toes.  “Probably it’s not something people expect you to have dealt with, right?  Big, tough, former Navy seal that you are now.”  

 Steve looks at him, his eyes glowing in the moonlight.  “Yeah, Danny. That’s right.”  

 It’s a moment Danny recognizes, then. When it feels as if they see right into each other, splayed open and connected in a way that Danny’s never felt with anyone else.  Steve is supposed to be invulnerable, but he’s not, and Danny knows it, accepts it, loves Steve for all of himself, strong and weak and everything inbetween.  Danny gets Steve, and Steve is grateful for it, and it goes the other way too, all the time.  All the time.

 He reaches out, and Steve is there, wrapping a hand around the back of Danny’s neck, pulling him close as they kiss and kiss until they are both breathless, each with a beer bottle still dangling from their free hands.

 “Let’s go inside,” Steve says, and Danny can feel his heart racing as he nods in agreement.  Steve cares for him, Danny and his kids and his past and his divorce and his grumpy love language and all of it.  And Steve wants him.

 Steve loves him, and Danny loves him back.  They may not have said the words, but Danny knows it’s true, knows it deep down, in the very marrow of his bones.  

 Danny may have screwed things up before, he may have failed at keeping his anxiety from interfering with the good things in his life too many times to count.   But this time around, Danny’s not going to let his negative thoughts and second-guessing ruin his chance at happiness.  This time, it’s going to be different.

[aion-rsa]

Spider-Man, Venom & the Sad, Sad Story of Eddie Brock

Marvel Comics recently announced that Eddie Brock, the original man beneath the evil symbiote, will be returning in this April’s “Venom” #6. With such a momentous occasion, we felt it only appropriate to take a look at the history of Eddie Brock, which is sadly a pretty bleak history when all is said and done.

RELATED: Eddie Brock Returns in Venom #6

Eddie Brock debuted in the classic “Amazing Spider-Man” #300 by David Michelinie and Todd McFarlane, where he confronted Spider-Man and revealed just who he was and why he had bonded with the alien symbiote that Spider-Man had brought to Earth from “Secret Wars” but had then had broken away from with help from the Fantastic Four and the symbiotes weakness to flames and sonic weapons.

Eddie, you see, was a successful columnist for the Daily Globe, a rival newspaper to the Daily Bugle. He wrote a series of very popular columns about the serial killer known as the Sin-Eater. The series gained so much attention that he was contacted by the Sin-Eater himself! Or at least, a man named Emil Gregg, who claimed to be the Sin-Eater. He gave Eddie a series of interviews. They became a media sensation, but Eddie was hounded by the authorities to turn over the identity of the Sin-Eater. He refused, until finally, in one sensational story that was on the front page of the Globe, he revealed to the world the identity of the Sin-Eater!

The problem, though, was that Emil Gregg was not the Sin-Eater! Police detective Stan Carter was. When Spider-Man defeated the real Sin-Eater and unmasked him, Brock’s career was ruined. He was fired from the Globe. Brock’s mother died in childbirth, and his father blamed him for it the rest of Eddie’s life. Eddie did everything he could to impress his father, but it never worked. So when he became an actual disgrace? It was too much for Eddie. He got work for some tabloids, but his life was in a spiral. His new obsessive hatred for Spider-Man also led to his wife divorcing him. Eddie began working out heavily at this time, transforming his body into basically a bodybuilder, but further separating him from his past. The pain was so much that he went from church to church trying to figure out a way to kill himself that wouldn’t violate his Roman Catholic beliefs. While at one church, the symbiote was hiding there (following a confrontation with Spider-Man in “Web of Spider-Man” #1 after it escaped from the Fantastic Four) and when it learned that Brock hated Spider-Man, as well, it bonded with Brock and they formed Venom! Since the symbiote had bonded with Spider-Man, it knew his secret identity, so now Venom did, as well. Spider-Man barely defeated him by forcing him to use up too much of his webbing.

RELATED: Marvel Releases Over 20 Venom-ized Variant Covers

Venom only appeared in two stories during McFarlane’s “Amazing Spider-Man” run, with him escaping from custody in “Amazing Spider-Man” #315 (by Michelinie and McFarlane) in a story that showed a disturbing aspect of Brock. He believed in protecting innocents, but he still had to kill sometimes, so he would really mourn the people he killed. He was truly broken as a person, as he believed he was doing good.

Brock’s desire to protect innocents (which Spider-Man, of course, was not), led to a bold gambit by Marvel. You see, after McFarlane’s run, Venom appeared in a very popular arc in the Erik Larsen stint as artist that followed. This was during the early 1990s when comics were selling millions. Venom was extremely popular, so Marvel wanted to cash in on that popularity. However, he was still a villain, so they felt kind of weird making him a feature character. But in “Amazing Spider-Man” #361 (by David Michelinie, Mark Bagley and Randy Emberlin), they introduced the spawn of the Venom symbiote, who merged with a serial killer named Cletus Kasady. The merged being called itself Carnage, and unlike Venom, it killed indiscriminately.

This was very important for Marvel as now they a villain to replace Venom, while Venom could become, in effect, an anti-hero, or, if you prefer, a “lethal protector.” This came to a head in “Amazing Spider-Man” #375 (by Michelinie, Bagley and Emberlin), where we first met Eddie’s ex-wife, Anne Weying. Brock had kidnapped Peter Parker’s parents (although he did not tell them that Peter was Spider-Man, as he wanted to protect their innocence) and Spider-Man, in turn, tracked down Anne so that she could try to reason with Eddie. When Silver Sable’s Wild Pack (who had been hired by J. Jonah Jameson) showed up to take Venom down, the battle knocked a tower over, which was going to crush Anne. Venom couldn’t stop it by himself, but then Spider-Man stepped in to aid him. This led to the famous Spider-Man/Venom truce of 1993. Venom would stop hunting Spider-Man, using his information about Spider-Man’s secret identity, and Spider-Man would not actively try to stop Venom (so long as Venom wasn’t going around killing people, of course).

Venom headed off for San Francisco, where he became a champion, of sorts, for the homeless population in that city. During his time there, he also spawned a few more symbiotes. Interestingly enough, almost immediately after finally leaving New York, Venom returned to fight alongside Spider-Man against Carnage in the crossover event, “Maximum Carnage,” where Spider-Man debated whether he had to adopt a more aggressive, Venom-like, approach to stop the evil Carnage and Carnage’s cronies. At a time when he was back in New York, Anne Weying ended up shot by a new Sin-Eater, so Brock makes the symbiote bond with Weying to heal her. After temporarily becoming She-Venom, Anne decided she wanted nothing to do with Brock or Venom ever again.

Likely spurred on by things like that, Brock began to question his relationship with the symbiote, but during the “Planet of the Symbiotes” crossover, he ended up having to fully commit to the symbiote, bonding permanently (well, as permanent as these things go) in “Web of Spider-Man Super Special #1 (by David Michelinie and Steve Lightle).

However, as the 1990s came to an end, Venom’s popularity had fallen a bit, enough so that Marvel decided that they could stop doing Venom series (neither of Marvel’s Editors-in-Chief of the decade, Tom DeFalco and Bob Harras, were fans of giving Venom his own series, which is why he only had a series of miniseries. They did not like the idea of giving a villain such a high profile). So there was a “Venom: Finale” book that ended with Eddie separated from the symbiote and with amnesia, and the character took a bit of a break.

When he returned in 2000 in the two relaunched “Spider-Man” titles, he fought Spider-Man a few times, but wasn’t really into it, not until “Amazing Spider-Man” #19 (by Howard Mackie, Erik Larsen and John Beatty), where Eddie tried to win Anne back, but Anne had locked herself up as she was afraid of the world and, most of all, the symbiote. Eddie forced her to open up her shades, and wouldn’t you know it, Spider-Man happened to swing by wearing the black costume (he was running low on costumes at the time). She freaked out and Eddie turned into Venom, which freaked her out even more. He didn’t notice that, of course, he just saw that Spider-Man upset her. When he returned, Anne had killed herself. Eddie blamed Spider-Man and the rivalry began again! It was cut short, though, when a villainous senator stole the symbiote.

RELATED: Is Venom’s New Host a Lethal Protector, or Just Lethal?

It returned to Eddie later on. The next big change in Eddie’s life occurred in “Spectacular Spider-Man” #4 (by Paul Jenkins, Humberto Ramos and Wayne Faucher), when the symbiote was trying desperately to re-attach itself to Spider-Man. This was because, as Eddie revealed to Spider-Man, Eddie was dying of cancer!

The symbiote kept Eddie alive for a while, but finally, in “Marvel Knights: Spider-Man” #6 (by Mark Millar, Terry Dodson and Rachel Dodson), he decides to auction off the symbiote so that he just get on with the end of his life.

He made $100 million, which he gave to charity (the symbiote was purchased by a mobster, but it quickly dropped the son of the mobster and bonded with another Spider-Man villain, Mac Gargan, the Scorpion). Without the symbiote, Brock’s cancer got progressively worse, but since Brock was such a popular character in his heyday, writers seemed like they were hesitant to be the be the one who finally killed him off. So he would keep making guest appearances as he got sicker and sicker and sicker. He began to hallucinate that the Venom symbiote was still talking to him and at one point the hallucinations almost got him to kill Aunt May. At the end of that story, he does try to kill himself, but he fails.

He later went to work for a soup kitchen owned by Martin Li, who was secretly the criminal known as Mister Negative. Li’s magical powers cured Eddie of his cancer. What Eddie didn’t know is that Li cured him by sort of super-charging the white blood cells in his body. When Eddie got involved in a fight between Spider-Man and the then-current Venom, Mac Gargan, touching the venom symbiote kickstarted residual traces of the symbiote within himself and, combined with the almost magical effect Li had on him, Eddie created a white symbiote that was deadly for the original symbiote. He called himself, appropriately enough, Anti-Venom!

When Anti-Venom figured out that Li was a bad guy, it messed him up pretty good, since Li was his savior, after all. Plus, if Li was his savior and hewas evil, then did that make Anti-Venom evil? He ultimately figured out that it did not, and he teamed up with Spider-Man to take Mister Negative down (well, at least expose Martin Li as a villain).

However, soon afterwards, Eddie had to give up the Anti-Venom symbiote for it to be transformed into a serum that would cure everyone during “Spider-Island.”

As we have seen a lot of times over the years, Eddie is pretty easily rattled and very easy to use faith as an excuse for him to do some awful things. So now that he was sans-symbiote, he decided that it was his duty to kill all other symbiotes, as he determined that symbiotes were inherently evil. He showed up in the pages of Flash Thompson’s “Venom” series. While working his way up to Flash Thompson’s symbiote, he killed a few other symbiotes along the way.

Back in the last year or so of Eddie’s original time as Venom, a new symbiote shown up, that was spawned from Carnage. This symbiote was called Toxin and it bonded with a police officer. In the pages of “Venom,” Eddie was captured by the evil Crime Buster and forcibly bonded with the Toxin symbiote, which had been removed from its original host (tragically, the heroic host was killed in the process). This was not a pleasant experience for a man who had just devoted himself to destroying all symbiotes.

As Toxin, Eddie has most recently become part of a team of people hunting down Carnage in the pages of “Carnage.” Eddie has a little bit more control over the symbiote, and he appears a bit like how Flash Thompson did when Thompson was Agent: Venom.

In the history of comic books, characters tend to eventually revert to the most famous version of those characters. Eddie Brock is clearly the most famous version of Venom that there has been, but he has now been separated from the symbiote for over a decade. That’s a long time to keep from reverting to the original status quo, but it appears as though that time has come to an end. We don’t know if Eddie will be permanently bonding with Venom, though, so we still have to find out come April. If he does, though, we will see if it ends up with Eddie Brock being any happier than he has been in the past. It doesn’t seem particularly likely.

The post Spider-Man, Venom & the Sad, Sad Story of Eddie Brock appeared first on CBR.com.

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