#billy: no. wait. eddie; he's right. maybe it Should be him.

[biillys]

billy joining the party in s4 btw

[cranberrymoons]

i'll be home for christmas

prompt: no upside down au (@steddieholidaydrabbles) rated: t word count: 909 words tags: flirting, bartender eddie, college student steve

welcome to Day 9 of the fic advent calendar – bite-sized fics posting every day during the month of december. enjoy!

Nancy dumps him a few months after he moves away for school, and so he doesn’t come home that summer or the one after that, until a couple years have gone by and he ends up stuck back at his parents’ house during Christmas break. 

He hasn’t seen them in a while, but truth be told, he’d kind of rather just be back in South Bend hiding out in his dorm or maybe at the bar with Robin, the only other person from Hawkins who’d ended up at Notre Dame. He hadn’t even known her before they were there, and she’s a year below him, but – whatever. When you leave a small town, you sort of tend to find each other after a while.

She’s not there right now, though, so it’s not like it really even makes a difference. She’s off on some trip with her own parents, one that they take every other year, back to visit her mom’s old hippie friends in Berkeley, because Robin has the sort of parents who have old hippie friends back in Berkeley. Maybe Steve could just get adopted by them, and then he'd never have to come back here at all.

Anyway.

He’s here now. That’s the problem.

And of course he got into a fight with his dad on the first night back. Of course he did. I wasn't even over anything worthwhile, just – Whatever. It doesn’t even matter. He doesn’t even care, just. He really does hate his dad sometimes.

He clenches his jaw in rhythm to the song that’s playing from the tape deck in his room, turns his head on the pillow to squint at the glowing red alarm clock in the corner. 

8:50 PM

It’s barely even nighttime. He can’t just sit here like this, like he’s waiting for his parents to leave, because they’re not going to fucking leave, so maybe – maybe he should –

He catapults himself off the bed and reaches for his keys on the dresser, shoving them in his back pocket before he can overthink it. Down the stairs, slipping into his shoes by the door, shrugging into his coat. Calling over his shoulder that he’s going out, don’t wait up, and –

He doesn’t actually know where he’s going, but he gets in his car and starts driving. Just drives until he ends up parked in front of the Hideout, the run-down little dive bar on the complete opposite side of town. 

It’s open, and there are a few people hanging around out front, so he turns off the car and goes inside.

It’s dark in here, the ceiling low and the music kind of weird and more guitar-y than he’s used to, but it’s medium-crowded in a way that makes him feel like he can probably just grab a seat at the bar and blend in and not have to worry about anyone trying to talk to him about –

“Harrington?”

Fuck. 

He turns with a big fake smile on his face, prepared to deal with Tommy, who he hasn’t seen in at least a year, or maybe even Billy, who he hasn’t seen in about as long. Worst of all would be the Byers kid, the one he got dumped for, but Jonathan’s probably not bold enough to actually say anything to his face, but still. The last person he expects to find is –

“Munson?” 

Eddie gives a little jerk of his head and drops a dish towel over his shoulder. He braces his hands on the opposite side of the bar, arms spread wide, and Steve’s eyes flicker down, just for a beat, to the way the thin cords of muscle flex under his skin where it’s lined with a twisting pattern of black tattoos.

Eddie clears his throat, and Steve sucks in a breath, blinking back up to his face. Eddie raises his eyebrows. 

“What’ll it be?”

“Um. Just a – beer, whatever,” Steve says as he tugs his coat off and slides onto a stool. “You work here?”

“No, I’m just a really creative burglar,” Eddie says. He reaches for a glass and pulls the tap as he eyes Steve up and down. “Playing the long game. If I stand back here long enough, they’ll stop noticing me, and that’s when I strike.”

He sets down the drink and slides it across the bar, and Steve grins as he accepts it, letting out a surprised laugh. 

“Well now you’ve given it away,” he says, raising his eyebrows as he takes a sip. “Your plan is ruined.”

“You’re going to turn me in?” Eddie asks. He folds his arms over his chest and leans back against the countertop behind him, and Steve’s eyes drop down again like he can’t help it. “What if I cut you in? Ten percent?”

Steve feels a pleased little flush wash over him as he looks back up to Eddie’s face, shoulders relaxing as he takes another sip of his beer. Eddie’s smile is slow and a little sweet, and it makes something in Steve’s stomach do a weird little flip. He tears the corner off a bar napkin to distract his hands from fidgeting too much, and leans forward across the bar. He narrows his eyes.

“Twenty.”

Eddie’s smile grows. He lifts his chin. “Fifteen, and your next beer’s on me.”

Steve laughs, feeling a warm glow settle in his chest. “Sounds like a deal.”

[also on ao3]

[fuctacles]

*puts mouth on microphone* I would like to ask about single dad steve for WIP title game please

hahah, can you believe i wrote this over a year ago, then promptly went 5k deep into the continuation and immediately forgot about it? bonkers. hahah. Here's a part of it. And here's the next part.

Just as Steve expected, his neighbors started giving him the stink eye as soon as they got wind of what was happening in his garage. Eddie even offered to close it up not to make a scene but Steve protested the idea. Said he’s not going to let himself be terrorized in his own home and more so won’t let his guests suffocate in a closed garage.

Every Tuesday Steve was preparing dinner to the sound of metal vibrating through the walls. When he got a free moment, waiting for the water to boil or the oven to heat up, he would step into the little rehearsal space.

Corroded Coffin was just an arm’s reach away whenever he felt like listening in. He just had to open the door and could sit on one of the steps leading into the garage. The guys played many original songs but just as many covers, some of which Steve recognized. He has always been a pop guy himself, but both Billy and Max liked some harsher music. It grew on him regardless if he liked it or not.

And watching them play felt amazing. Sometimes, between being a single parent and owning a hair salon, he felt older than he actually was. But right outside his door, in his space, there were four guys his age, jumping around the garage with contagious energy and playing songs from simpler times. He found himself tapping his foot to a cover of Queen. To think that at first, he was hesitant to let them practice here. Now it was a highlight of his week.

Max’s teacher, Eddie, was jumping around like it was a real stage, not a cramped square of stone flooring. He was the lead guitarist, which Steve knew thanks to his kid’s lengthy ramblings about her teacher. The guy also did most of the singing, but all of them joined in, depending on the song. It was clear though who was the frontman of their band.

They were playing an especially energetic song tonight, one that left Steve bopping his head happily. The members of Corroded Coffin shared the sentiment, jumping around and swooshing their fairly impressive manes of hair.

Eddie noticed him halfway through the song and grinned like he always did. Steve grinned back, genuinely happy for being able to have his own little show in the cookie-cutter cul-de-sac in the middle of the day.

But the music teacher didn’t stop there. He approached the steps Steve was sitting on and motioned him to join them. Steve looked at him with confusion and Eddie used the seconds-long break in his part of the song to pull him up. He fumbled for a second but the overall energy and Munson’s feral grin loosened him enough that he let himself be crash-coursed into headbanging.

He hasn’t felt more alive in years.

Eddie played his guitar, jumping around Steve and throwing his hair around. Most of the singing in this song was done by Jeff so besides playing the guitar he could do as much of a show as he wanted. When the track came to an end, they were both panting, leaning into each other and grinning. Steve couldn’t stop the breathy laugh that escaped him.

“Have I told you guys how great you are yet?”

“Only every Tuesday!” Gareth piped up from behind his drums, grinning. Eddie laughed as well.

“Didn’t know it was your scene, Harrington,” Eddie teased with a glint in his eye. Steve shrugged.

“Picked up some stuff from my ex,” he explained shortly.

Eddie quirked up his eyebrow with interest, strumming his guitar softly.

“Was she a metalhead or something?”

Steve observed him for a second, considering if he should correct him. It’s been already a month since they first met and the initial interest he had in the musician was only growing. Maybe it was a good idea to come out and test the waters. Worst case scenario he would have enough of a reason to drop this feeling before it turned into something more.

“He had a thing for classic rock.”

A look of surprise passed through the man’s face. He quickly schooled it into something friendly, but Steve could tell there were a million questions buzzing beneath.

“I see. Well, great to see some of the Hawkins folks educated,” he grinned, and it was genuine enough that Steve knew he didn’t have to worry about any kind of prejudice. He did a cursory glance around the other band members but they either weren’t listening or didn’t care about his impromptu coming out. Some of the tension seeped out of his bones. He motioned to the steps he just abandoned.

“I have some coke if you’re interested.”

Eddie’s features softened.

“Dude, you’re letting us use the garage, we should be treating you.”

Steve scoffed.

“Either you drink it or Max and you don’t want to see her on this amount of caffeine.”

Eddie barked out a laugh, and it warmed Steve all over knowing he caused it.

“Okay, fair. Thank you, then,” he smiled genuinely, disarming Steve.

They had the sodas while Steve came back to the kitchen to cook the pasta. He was still waiting for Max to come back from school too. She had basketball practice that day, which she picked up in honor of her brother, after bullying the teachers long enough to put together a small team of girls to play. The dead brother spiel worked in her favor of course. 

When the dinner was mostly ready, he stepped back into the garage, expecting another song he didn’t recognize, but instead, Eddie looked up at him, barely breaking out of their idle jamming.

“Do you know the words to Should I Stay or Should I Go?”

Steve frowned, taken aback by the abrupt question.

“I think so?” he answered hesitantly.

“Sweet,” Eddie grinned back at him. “Wanna sing for us?”

“Uh,” he hesitated, taken aback.

“C’mon, we’ll sing together,” Eddie offered and Steve hesitantly nodded. Eddie didn’t waste time and pulled him to the mic standing in the middle. It was the only one they had, rotating between Eddie and Jeff.

The familiar notes played around him and nudged with the metalhead's arm right against his, he joined him in singing.

Eddie’s voice was breathy from exertion, from playing for the past hour and jumping around. But here was a gleam in his eye, a delight from playing and maybe, maybe, from Steve agreeing to join them.

When the chorus came on, Steve felt confident enough to hip-check him out of the way and hoard the microphone for himself, He could hear Eddie cackling next to him, but he was now focused on singing and enjoying himself.

The song ended with cheers and a distant clapping. Someone whistled and Steve noticed Max applauding from the top of the stairs.

“Hey, if you’d want to sing for us sometimes, hit us up,” Jeff threw his arm around him. “You’re good,” he praised and Steve grinned his thanks.

Before he could say anything else though, someone was punching him in the ribs. He winced, knowing full well who it might be.

“You’re supposed to be my father, not a cool dude.”

Steve frowned.

“I don’t see how I can’t be both.”

“It’s a well-known natural order,” Eddie chimed in unprompted. “Parents can’t be cool.”

“Huh. Then I guess I should give you up,” he said, mock-seriously, making Max roll her eyes.

“Suuure, after all the legal shit we’ve been through,” she scoffed, looking at him in that way only teenagers could.

“Well, I think all the natural rules of a normal family are above us anyway, don’t you think?’ he raised his eyebrows, making Max smirk devilishly.

“Hell yeah. Fuck the rules.”

Steve pressed his lips not to scold her for language, but he looked to the side where, as he expected, Eddie was donning his proud teacher look. It warmed him up inside.

“Fuck the rules indeed, Red,” he grinned, holding his hand out for a high five,

Steve shook his head before gathering Max towards the kitchen.

“You guys keep it up, Max and I are gonna have dinner. Yell if you need anything.”

“Actually,” Eddie started, making both Harringtons turn in interest. “We have a show on Saturday if you guys wanna come.”

“Can I?” Max asked immediately, eyes darting between her teacher and Steve.

“We don’t usually have an audience this young, but with a guardian, it’s not gonna be a problem,” said Eddie, turning his gaze to Steve. He worried his bottom lip between his teeth.

“I usually work on the weekends, but I guess we could drop by.”

Max whooped happily and Steve couldn’t help but smile himself. He actually really wanted to see Eddie on stage, if he was anything like he saw today it would be a treat to witness.

“See you at the Hideout at 8 PM then,” Eddie grinned at them before they retreated to the kitchen.

At the table, Max eyed Steve with curiosity, pushing the broccoli on her plate out of the way. He was chewing with a distant look on his face, a foot tapping to the beat coming faintly from the closed door.

“The Hideout is a kinda shady place, don’t you think?”

Steve made a noncommittal grunt and shrugged before finally focusing his gaze on her. He frowned, cocking his head.

“Do you not wanna go?”

She scoffed, getting angry for something Steve couldn’t grasp.

“Do you want me to go?”

His frown deepened as he straightened up.

“Okay, wait. Do I want you to go to a concert with me? A concert we were invited to by your music teacher?” He raised his eyebrows, trying to find a hole in the idea.

“A metal concert. In a bar,” she pointed out, squinting at him. He squinted right back.

“So? You’ll be with me. I can get a leash if you’re insinuating you’re gonna cause problems.”

She puffed her cheeks, raising her hands.

“No insinuating here,” she assured. “Just, it’s not very,” she waved her hand. “Responsible parent of you.”

“No, but a very cool parent, I hope.”

“In your dreams”, she scoffed.

He smiled at her. She didn’t question his decision anymore, but Steve could feel her gaze on him later when they waved the band goodbye.

[frankenstein-ate-my-left-shoe]

@steddieangstyaugust Day 16 - Freaky Friday: Halloween

i’m challenging myself to keep all these at either 127 or 1,270 words each, see day one for more of an explanation!

Eddie winces sympathetically when the punch spills all over Nancy Wheeler’s blouse.

That’ll be a bitch to get out. He thinks, grabbing a can of something and following her and Steve Harrington back out the open door.

He pauses at the bottom of the staircase, debating if he should follow them up the stairs to give her Wayne’s fool-proof way to get stains out, when Nancy’s already storming back out of the bathroom at the top of the stairs.

Eddie presses himself against the wall as she passes, noticing the lack of a certain King behind her.

He looks up the stairs to see Steve retreat from the bathroom himself, flipping off the lights and leaving the door open a crack. He pinches the bridge of his nose, then, seeming to collect himself, starts down the steps.

Eddie stays rooted to his spot, wondering to himself why the fuck he’s so caught up in what’s happening between the two (who’s he kidding, he knows damn well why he’s paying so much attention to him), when Steve trips on the last step. 

Eddie catches him easily, “Whoa, you okay, your majesty?”

Steve scoffs, his voice tight, “Fuck off, Munson.”

“Sure, sure, just gotta,” he rights Steve, making sure he’s actually on flat ground before letting go. “There; I can fuck off now.”

Eddie turns, heading back through the living room to the corner he’d been haunting previously. 

He’s barely got comfortable again when Billy Fucking Hargrove saunters into the room.

Aaaannd that’s enough of this place for tonight. Eddie thinks to himself, dropping his unopened can of Schlitt’s on the couch as he heads to the door.

Shoving through the crowd, he manages to escape and crosses the yard diagonally to the sidewalk, then to the other side of the street where he’d parked only an hour and a half ago.

He walks behind his van heading for the driver’s side door, when he trips over something.

“Shit! What the–?” he may be clumsy at times, but he knows how to step over a curb, thank you very much.

“Y’lright, Munson?”

“Steve?” Eddie focuses back on the curb and sure enough, there he sits, legs stretched out in front of him into the road.

“Yeah.”

“What’re you doing on the curb, dude?”

He can see Steve’s shoulders move slightly, “Figured I should wait to see if Nanc–, should wait for my buzz to wear off.”

Eddie nods, then against his better judgment asks, “D’ya want me to wait with you?”

Steve shrugs again, then adds a nod for good measure, “Sure man, why not.”

“Cool.” Eddie hops down off the curb and squeezes between his back bumper and Steve’s shoulder.

They sit in silence for a little while, just listening to the low drone of music still coming from Tina’s house. 

Eddie’s trying really hard not to think about the solid warmth of Steve beside him when suddenly, Steve’s palm is burning a hole through his knee.

“Can you stop? Your jingling is driving me up the wall.”

“My jingling?”

“Yeah, that chain you always wear?” Steve says, as if it should be obvious that he’s paid enough attention to Eddie’s pelvic area to know he’s got a chain dangling around his hip. “You’re always jingling, don’t you notice?”

Ah.

“Guess I’ve gotten used to it.”

Steve harrumphs and takes his hand back. Eddie starts bouncing his other leg instead.

Again, against his better judgment but completely onboard with his insane amount of curiosity, Eddie asks, “Can I ask what happened?”

Steve sighs, so Edide tacks on, “You don’t have to, obviously, but I saw the punch thing and then you went upstairs, and she stormed out…? Just thought you’d wanna talk about it.” he shrugs.

And maybe it was the alcohol letting him, or maybe he really did want to talk about it, but Steve says, “She said she didn’t love me.”

Ah, fuck.

“Shit, Steve, I’m sorry– you don’t have to–”

“No, it’s okay.” He waves off Eddie’s concern, “Well, I mean, it’s not okay… but…” he sighs again, letting his head drop. His sunglasses clatter to the concrete.

It takes another minute before he picks his head back up, and when he does, there’s a bit more of the streetlights reflecting in his eyes.

“She said that our relationship was bullshit.”

Eddie winces, “Damn dude, that blows.”

Steve huffs something that sounded like the possibility of a laugh. “Yeah it does.”

“You gonna be alright, Harrington?”

He nods a couple times, then his face scrunches up and it starts to shake instead. “I just want to go home.”

“Well, I may not be able to help with much else in this situation,” Eddie starts, standing up. “But I can help with that. Lemme give you a ride home.”

Steve ignores his stretched out hand, “I can get up on my own, thanks.” He pitches forward suddenly, unbalanced as he gets to his feet.

For the second time that night, Steve’s in Eddie’s arms. “Sure you can,” he teases, righting his majesty again. “C’mon, dude.”

He leads Steve to the passenger door, one hand held tight to his upper arm while Steve death grips his shoulder in return.

With him loaded up into the seat, Eddie mumbles out “Seatbelt.” then rounds the hood to his side.

The ride to Loch Nora is quiet; Eddie’s definitely been in Steve’s shoes before, drinking way too much all at once, so he keeps his radio down low and winces each time Steve’s forehead knocks against his window with eavery bump in the pavement.

“That can’t be comfortable, man, Why don’tcha sit up?” Eddie reaches for Steve’s shoulder, but is shaken off.

“Cold. Feels good.”

“Whatever floats your goat,”

Steve snorts, “Boat.”

“Sorry?”

“Floats your boat.”

“Nah, can’t say that my head knocking against the window floats mine, Stevie.”

Eddie glances at Steve. He’s facing him now, head still against the glass and a smirk on his lips.

His stomach flips, and he has to look away.

“You’re weird, you know that?”

The butterflies in his gut disappear in an instant. “So they tell me.”

“S’not a bad thing,” Steve knocks an arm into Eddie’s, drawing his gaze again. He leans back onto the door, looking out the window, “God knows I’d rather be weird than whatever I am now.”

“Huh??”

Steve’s shoulder moves slightly, “Doesn’t matter. I’m drunk.”

“You want to be called a weirdo? A freak?”

“I want to be real.” he says, dejected still.

“I dunno Harrington, this house of yours seems pretty real.” Eddie gripes, pulling into one half of the horseshoe driveway.

He shifts into park as Steve mumbles something that sounds like “Real fuckin’ empty.”, unlatching his seatbelt and tugging at the door handle.

“Shit, hang on, it gets stuck.” Eddie hops out and jogs around the hood. “My liege,” he bows once he gets the door open.

“You’re such a dor–” Right. Still drunk.

For the third and final time that night, Steve’s in Eddie’s arms, dipped low to the concrete from how he caught him.

Steve stares up at him, eyes flitting over his face and, Eddie’d swear by it later, down to his lips. Only if momentarily.

“Careful, your majesty,” Eddie murmurs, glancing down at Steve’s himself, “I’m not too keen on seeing your driveway turned blue.”

Steve brings his eyes back to Eddie’s, brow furrowed, “Blue?”

“Yeah,” he chuckles, standing Steve up on his own two feet, “Y’know, like royalty? Blue blood?”

Steve scowls again, “Whatever, dumbass. Thanks for the ride or whatever.”

Eddie watches as Steve tromps to the door. “Yeah. Whatever.”

a classic s2 halloween party ficlet, who'd've guessed lmao

see the collection on ao3!

[hairmetal666]

Steddie She's All That au????

Steve pulls up to the Munson's trailer, a secondhand acoustic across the backseat. Can't believe he's here; that he's actually doing this. He shouldn't. Absolutely should not; knows he let his still-simmering animosity with Billy Hargrove push him to this, to trying to date Eddie Munson, to proving that he's still popular enough to win prom king with the Freak on his arm.

Munson doesn't deserve it, is the thing. For all his weirdness, his off-putting behavior, Steve thinks he might be nice. Or kind, maybe? Steve's noticed how he gathers the freshman who have no one else, gives them understanding, a place to belong. And those kids, they remind him of Dustin, Will, Mike, Lucas, and he can't help but feel something warm towards the Freak, some kind of kinship.

He puts the car in reverse, can't go through with pretending to like this guy who did nothing wrong but be too much himself.

Before he gets his foot on the gas a head pokes out the front door.

"You came," Eddie shouts.

"Said I was." Steve surrenders to his fate and puts the car in park. Eddie watches him as he grabs the guitar case, hauls it up the stairs, only moving to step out of the way.

Steve's eyes scan the living room and kitchen, something in his chest loosening as he does. There are mugs and hats covering the walls, a worn sofa, clutter on every surface. It's home in a way Steve has never experienced. He loves it.

"Alright, let it out, Harrington. I'm poor, etc."

"No!" Steve startles; hadn't realized he'd been staring so obviously. "I like it."

Eddie makes a face, but offers him a beer and guides him to sit on the couch.

"How much do you know?" Eddie asks without preamble.

He strums a couple of notes, things he picked up at summer camp ages ago. Munson nods. "Better than I expected."

Eddie runs through notes and chords, helps Steve get his fingering right. He's patient, almost kind, and he laughs softly as he gently corrects Steve's mistakes.

And Steve's fingers, they won't behave, keep slipping off the strings. Eddie arranges himself to drape around his shoulders, fits their hands together. He's warm, fingers long and callused, his rings slightly colder than Steve's skin.

"Like this, Harrington." And he and Steve strum in tandem, and Steve is caught by the light glinting in his curls, the softness of his dark brown eyes, the fullness of his pink lips. He wonders how soft they are, what they taste like, if Eddie would cling to him or take control.

"You with me, Steve?" Eddie asks, shocking him back to the present.

"Yeah, yes, right here. Sorry." He throws himself into learning, but can't stop stealing little looks at the man teaching him.

And Steve, he knows it's not a bet anymore. He'll tell Hagan and Hargrove he's out, take whatever shit they give him, and Eddie never has to know.

---

A month in, Steve walks into the trailer and sees those little figurines, like the kids have for their game, scattered on the coffee table; sheets of paper with scrawled writing and doodles lining the floor; one of those weird manual things that Dustin always lugs around sitting open on the couch.

"Fuck, Stevie, I'm sorry. Lost track of time." Eddie's face turns pink as he gathers the looseleaf and slams the book closed.

"You play that dragon game?" He asks. He picks up one of the figures, studies the meticulous paint. It does something weird to his heart.

"What did you think Hellfire--Wait." Eddie pauses. "Why do you--Steve Harrington--know about dnd?"

"The kids I babysit play."

Eddie stares at him openmouthed. "Shit, sweetheart. You've been holding out on me. You ever join them?"

"Nah. To tell you the truth, they're pretty intimidating about it."

Eddie laughs, drawing Steve's eyes to his slender neck. "You scared of children, Stevie?"

"You haven't met them, man. They're terrifying."

"You know," Eddie's eyelashes flicker. "I run a campaign with Hellfire after school every Friday. You could--if you wanted--you could come. You're probably busy, I know, but if you find some free time and you wan--

"Eddie!" Steve laughs. "I wouldn't miss it."

"Really?"

"Promise."

---

He shows up that first Friday to some mixed reactions from most of the Hellfire members, and Eddie's shy, pleased smile. They make eye contact and Steve's stomach swoops.

"You came," Eddie says when they get a second alone.

"I told you I would." Steve laughs.

"C'mon, you're going to tell me this isn't a hopelessly lame way for King Steve to spend a Friday night?"

"Maybe." Steve nudges Eddie's chest. "And maybe I wouldn't want to be anywhere else."

Steve watches them play and is transfixed. He's never seen Eddie totally in his element. His voice goes deep and rumbly, doing accents, shouting, jumping around, banging on the table. Steve can't pull his eyes away, doesn't want to, can't stop smiling.

"What'd you think?" Eddie asks when the session is over and they're alone. His hands shuffle through his notebook, eyes fixed firmly on the table.

Steve grabs his wrists, soft, careful. "Amazing, Eddie," he says. "You were amazing."

"Really?" Eddie's throat bobs. He finally looks up, meets Steve's eyes.

"Never seen anything like you." His eyes drift to Eddie's mouth. The space between them shrinks.

"Eddie?"

"Yeah?" his voice waivers.

"Can I kiss you?"

He thinks Eddie might pull away, freeze up, but instead his eyelashes flutter, his lips shaping into a gentle smile. "I'd be disappointed if you didn't."

Steve laughs, slips his fingers through Eddie's hair, closes the distance between them. It starts sweet and soft, until Eddie's tongue brushes his bottom lip and Steve opens for him, lets him take control, as easy as anything. For the first time, he lets someone else lead, sinks into it, into Eddie. It's perfect.

---

Prom court nominations come out with Steve number one on the ballot for king. The other nominees are Billy, Tommy, and some weirdo religious zealot junior Steve barely knows, Jason Carver.

He doesn't think much of it, having slipped so easily into a version of himself that sits at the Hellfire table at lunch, spends evenings at the Munson trailer and nights in Eddie's bed. Sure, he catches Hargrove glaring at him throughout the day, but pays it no mind. Billy Hargrove's always pissed about something, anyway.

So, he's unprepared when Hargrove and Hagan corner him that afternoon as he's waiting for Eddie to finish up a deal. There's a kick in his stomach, a swirl of nausea, at their presence. He didn't ever tell Eddie about the bet, figured it didn't matter since they were together, since they both started falling.

"Think you're hot shit, Harrington?" Hargrove asks. Hagan laughs like he's never heard a real joke before.

"I'm out," he says in way of answer. "Bet's over."

"Stevie-Boy, I don't think you understand," Hagan says.

"Nah, I'm not doing it." Worry prickles at his scalp. Eddie will be done soon, and he needs Billy and Tommy gone.

Hargrove pinches Steve's chin in his grip. "We made a bet, and you're seeing it through."

"Hey, hey, hey," the last voice Steve wants to hear right now shouts. "What the fuck is going on here? Get the fuck off him, Hargrove."

Billy's wrenched away, but he's laughing, and Steve is frozen at the train wreck unfolding in front of him.

"Harrington tell you about the bet?" Billy asks.

"Bet?" Eddie's nose wrinkles in the cute way Steve loves and he's terrified of what comes next.

"Uh-huh. Hagan and I bet Harrington here that he couldn't date the biggest dud in school and still wind up prom king. Little did we know, I guess."

Steve watches as the words hit Eddie, as he processes them, as his face falls. His gut twists as he watches his boyfriend go tense.

"What?" Eddie's eyes widen with panic.

Tommy's face contorts into a cruel smile."You didn't think Harrington was actually into you, did you?"

Eddie doesn't respond, won't look at any of them, draws into himself.

Hargrove snickers. "That's what I thought. Have a good night." He gives them a pageant queen wave as he walks away.

Steve's crosses to Eddie as soon as the other two are gone, but Eddie flinches, stopping him in his tracks.

"Was I bet, Steve?" He asks. His voice cracks.

"It wasn't like that, Ed, I swear. I swear." He grabs Eddie's shoulders, and again, he's pushed away.

"You didn't answer the question."

"It was real for me," Steve babbles. "It was all real for me. I promise."

"Answer me!" Tears limn his eyes. "Was I a bet?"

"It wasn't like--"

"Was I a fucking bet?" He yells and Steve can't take it. Can't take the hurt all over Eddie's face, the betrayal. Wants to erase it, to make everything okay, to get back to where they were last night, wrapped in Eddie's bedsheets, giggling.

"It started as a bet, okay? It did. I messed up by not telling you. I know I did. But I like you so much. I--I--" Steve loves him. He knows without any doubt, but he can't say it not now, not for this.

"Fuck you, Harrington," Eddie says. His voice is even but his face is a wreck.

"Please, Eddie." Steve begs. "Please. Give me a chance to explain. You're everything."

Eddie doesn't respond. He climbs into his van, drives away without a second glance.

---

He tries to apologize.

He tries to apologize, but Eddie isn't at school, not at first, and the death glare he gets from the Hellfire guys lets him know he's no longer welcome. When Eddie does come back he won't so much as look at Steve.

He goes to the trailer park where Wayne--Wayne who he watched sports with, Wayne who liked him--stands on the steps and says, "I don't think you have any business here anymore, kid. Not if you know what's good for you." And Steve nods and goes home and cries.

---

Steve stands on the stairs of the Munson trailer in his tux with a bouquet of flowers that are so purple they're almost black and a self-recorded tape in his hands. Prom is tonight but he has no interest in going to the dance that started all this bullshit.

Music pounds from inside; Judas Priest, he thinks. Eddie's van is in the driveway and Wayne's car is not.

The music quiets at his knock, and his heart pounds in the silence. Eddie frowns when he opens the door, but it morphs into something infinitely sadder when he sees Steve.

"Aren't you supposed to be at a dance?" Eddie asks.

"No, I--I didn't want to go. I wanted to say--Eddie, I'm sorry. I should've told you the truth from the beginning. I was afraid of losing you, and you learned the truth in the worst possible way."

Eddie doesn't speak or move, so Steve barrels on.

"I--uh--I ordered these for you. Before we broke up. And I just thought--you should still have them. That you would like them."

Eddie takes the flowers like he's in a daze.

"And uh, this too," Steve places the cassette in Eddie's hand. "It's um, stupid, probably? But I miss you and I'm sorry and just--take it."

---

Steve's been at the quarry for two hours, staring up at the stars from the hood of his car. He should go, probably. Eddie clearly isn't going to show. But he can't make himself. If he stays here, looking at the sky, losing Eddie won't be real.

He's dozing off, almost asleep, when the shine of headlights has him blinking alert. A familiar van trundles to a stop next to him, and Eddie climbs out. He's wearing a snug black button-down with a deep purple rose pinned to his chest, tight black jeans, and shining black boots.

"You came." Steve scrambles off his car, graceless in his relief, his gratitude.

Eddie nods. "Wasn't sure if I should but--" he shrugs.

"I'm glad you did. Thank you. I--" he swallows. "Eddie, I'm so sorry. I'll do anything, anything if it means you'll forgive me."

"Anything?" Eddie's mouth turns up at the corner.

Steve nods, firm. "I promise."

"You learned 'Rainbow in the Dark' for me."

"I did."

"That's a really hard song." Eddie smiles but tears track down his cheeks.

Steve laughs. "It's so hard."

Somehow, without Steve noticing, their fingers are entwined. Eddie lifts their joined hands, studying them. "Oh, baby, your calluses."

"Yeah." Steve blushes. "It was important I got it right."

Eddie's mouth drops as he stares, studying Steve's eyes.

"I know it took you a lot to trust me," Steve says. "And I know I broke that, but please, please try to believe me when I say that it was real for me. From the beginning. It was all real."

Eddie clears his throat. "When did you know?"

Steve's smile is soft. "That first guitar lesson. You arranged my fingers and you just--you were so beautiful."

"Oh," Eddie breathes.

"I was an idiot, Ed. I fell in love with you, and thought I could back out of the bet, that you never had to know. I never meant to hurt you."

"Wait...love me?"

Steve freezes. He hadn't meant to say that, not yet, not when things are so tenuous. "Yeah. I--yeah, I love you, Eddie."

"That's funny, sweetheart. Cause I love you too, and four hours ago I thought falling for you was the worst mistake I've ever made."

Steve's smile matches Eddie's now. "Dance with me?" he asks.

There's no music; just the whirr of early spring insects, the rustle of leaves, but Eddie still smirks, and pulls Steve close. They sway against each other, beaming, glowing, brighter than the stars.

"You're missing your prom, Stevie," Eddie says.

"Nah. I'm not missing anything. I have you."

[carolperkinsexgirlfriend]

Steddie Upside-Down AU Part 86

Part 1 Part 85

Eddie’s going to come out of this whole thing with a bald patch. He can’t stop pulling at the ends of his hair, feeling the sharp tug on his roots, the snap of the few hairs that can’t withstand the onslaught.

They’re all just sitting here, resting on their laurels like Steve isn’t slipping further away with every wasted second.  

There’s enough frenetic energy running through Eddie to make him want to get out of the van, pace the length of the Byers driveway like a tiger in a cage. But Steve’s bound and blindfolded in the van, and the thought of taking his eyes off what little he can see of Steve’s face makes bile rise in his throat.

There’s not much else for his stomach to dredge up. He can’t remember the last time any of them ate.

So, he sits on his heels. And he waits, feet going numb beneath the weight of his thighs.

This is all becoming horribly familiar. They’re even at the Byers house again, Eddie losing his mind by inches, Steve gone.

It’s not fair. Even through all of this, no one’s priority is ever Steve, first. Steve, only. Even when it should be. No one except Eddie. 

Will’s still curled into his side, looking up at Steve with that same desperate need, though. So maybe it’s not just him. They’re an island of three, always.

Eddie can live with that, will gladly subsist only to give these two his devout devotions. If Steve will just come back to them.

Eddie’s ready to scoop up Baby Byers in one arm, Steve in the other, and flee state lines if it means he gets to keep them.

Mama Byers likes him too much to let the kidnapping charges stick.

But Steve’s still gone, even as he sits placidly in front of them. So, he waits like a good boy. 

For Carol fucking Perkins of all people. It’s like the Upside-Down is determined to scoop up all his sworn enemies and drag them into the clusterfuck right alongside him. First Nancy, now Carol. What’s next? Billy fucking Hargrove? Where does it all end?

Eddie yanks his hair again, feels a few more hairs snap. He drops them on the floor of the van, mind spinning off into DNA, and fingerprints, and all the things the shady government spooks could pin on him with those few loose hairs.

He pulls out a few more.

Barb’s usually an annoyingly safe and slow driver, but she must have hauled ass because her tires are skidding into the driveway well before he would have expected her to be. She stops abruptly enough that gravel kicks up around her car, tires digging grooves into the dirt beneath it.

The kids tumble out of the backseat, dirty but intact. Eddie can’t help the way his eyes stray from Mike, to Lucas, to Max, to Dustin, cataloging each of the rips and smudges along their bodies, looking for scrapes and injuries underneath.

The knee of Mike’s jeans is suspiciously ripped and bloody, like he’d taken a tumble on cement, but everyone else looks fine.

When Carol slides out, she looks decidedly less fine. Her preppy outfit’s streaked with dirt and grim, her usual blow-out hair-do caked with something suspiciously dark and viscus. Most damningly, she’s got a baseball bat clutched in her manicured hand, ready to take a swing, and are those nails? Is that blood on them?

Whatever it is, it’s not human. It’s so dark, it’s almost black, even in the overcast light of the afternoon.

Barb’s less disheveled, but there’s a smudge of the black liquid on her glasses, like it’d splattered across her face, and she’d only partially cleaned it up.

It’s seeing it there, that makes it click. It’s the same color as the Demogorgon’s blood had been when it had been painted across Steve’s face that time they’d thought it was a good idea to trap one.  

Will jumps out, running up to Mike, and Dustin, and Lucus. It’s another reenactment of last year, the reunion just as fierce and life-affirming. Even if this time it’s only been a couple days since they last saw each other. Near death experiences will do that to a kid. Even Max gets pulled into the mess, arms around backs, heads tucked into shoulders.

Eddie barely sees it, too focused on Barb’s glasses, brain making connections between black blood, and Demogorgon’s and Demo-dogs, and the way the soldiers had screamed beneath the earth as they’d left them to die.

Eddie follows Will out of the van. He’s pulled into his own hug, Barb’s arms warm and shaking as they wrap around him. His hands hang down awkwardly, trapped by his sides by her hold. She drops him but stays huddled close.

“I’m never going to get used to this,” she sighs, eyes trained on the kids all surrounded together, all talking at the same time, clearly trying to fill in Will whose bemusement only grows on his face.

Eddie laughs, sharp and unhinged before he clamps his lips together to cut it off. “You don’t know the half of it,” he says. He can feel Steve in the van, still, wants to turn back and get him in his sights again.

Perkins steps in his path before he can. “Monsters, Munson?” she demands. Up close, Eddie can see the way her fingers are white around the baseball bat, the way the blood’s congealing around the rusted nails. Even at five foot nothing, she paints an imposing figure with that clutched in her hand. “You were all hiding fucking monsters?”

Eddie grimaces. “You told her?” he murmurs out of the corner of his mouth to Barb. 

Perkins rolls her eyes, clearly having heard him. “She kind of had to when those fucking things cornered us!” 

He’s getting really tired of so many of the things in his life having to be classified as ‘things.’ Still, he can picture their gaping maws, the way they’d open up like flowers in bloom just from the horror peeking out behind the indignation in Perkins face. This is going to upset Steve when he gets back.

“Why the hell were you even there?” Eddie demands, pointing a finger in her face. He drops it when the hand holding the bat shakes, bringing it closer to his hand.

“Blame that one!” she snarls, pointing at Dustin like he’s gum on the bottom of her shoe. “I could’ve gone my whole life without seeing one of those fucking whatever-dogs!” 

“Same,” Barb murmurs, shriveling up with disgust. 

Perkins doesn’t even look her way, but she still stands shoulder to shoulder, somehow made into a united front within a day. Eddie shouldn’t be surprised: the Upside-Down makes for surprising bedfellows. 

He’d done the same thing, trapped in a hell dimension with Steve Harrington of all people. Steve Harrington who’d made him laugh, and shared his bed, and saved his life. Steve Harrington who’s bleeding out of himself to make room for something else.

“Where is Steve anyway?” Perkins asks, like she could hear his train of thought. “He’s got a lot of explaining to do.”

Eddie can’t help the way his gaze darts toward Steve. It’s like asking someone not to look at a shooting star darting across the sky, or a lighthouse in a storm, or a compass pointing your way home. He can’t help it, and maybe Perkins can’t help the way she storms over to the van, either. 

“What the fuck?” she says, less a question than an exclamation of shock as she takes in Steve’s state.

Eddie knows what she’s seeing – her friend’s washed-out face, obscured by Wayne’s flannel, and Will’s headphones, tied tightly by every seatbelt Wayne could reach without moving Steve. He knows what conclusions she’s drawing in her twisted little head as she rushes into the van and knee walks over to her reported best friend.

Eddie’s “wait, no!” is drowned out by similar sentiments from Will and Wayne and Mama Byers. None of it makes a difference. It’s too late.

“Steve?” Perkins says, and there’s the sound of her bat thunking into the ground, and then an ominous rustling. Eddie doesn’t wait to see what happens next. He bolts to the van, Wayne right behind him. “Are you okay? What’s going on?”

She sounds desperate enough that Eddie can’t even blame her for what she’s done. But that doesn’t change the fact that Steve’s dull eyes are uncovered, and he’s looking past all of them, through the open door and out onto the street. The flannel and headphones are both discarded on the floor as Perkins clutches on Steve’s shoulders, shaking him like that will get him to meet her eyes. 

Steve’s been here dozens of times, sitting passenger side in Eddie’s van and drumming his fingers on the dashboard 

“Code fucking red!” Eddie calls, head shaking at the force of his yell. “They know where we are!”

Wayne sighs, long and heavy the way he does when he’s sinking into his armchair after a long shift. All the kids are shouting over each other, demanding answers to questions Eddie can’t even hear. Perkins is staring at him like he’s insane, but Barb’s drooping where she stands. She’s been in this long enough to know what a code red means, even if she’s lacking all the necessary context.

Wayne straightens, back cracking as he claps once to get everyone to shut up. “Kids in the house!” he calls, talking louder when the inevitable protests come from that corner of the driveway. “Now!”

Wayne doesn’t yell, ever. Hearing his voice raise, angry and loud, makes Eddie flinch back, shoulder hitting Perkins where she’s kneeling. It does the job, though. The kids scurry into the house while Wayne surveys the remaining group of four, eyes skipping over Steve’s blinking eyes. 

“You any good with that bat?” Wayne asks.

Perkins eyebrow is furrowed, but she opens her mouth to answer. Barb beats her to it. “I’m better.”

Wayne picks it up from the ground and hands it over to her. They all know by now that she knows better than to mislead them at a time like this. Barb clutches it between her hands, straight-backed and feet planted, like she’s ready to swing. 

“Joyce, go stay with the kids.” 

Mama Byers shuffles her feet, looking back at her house, but doesn’t leave. “Shouldn’t we stay together?”

“We can’t untie Harrington here,” Wayne replies. “And there’s no time to go somewhere else.”

As if to punctuate his point, there’s a familiar hungry growl, pettering off into a howl. The howl echoes off the walls of the sky, cutting in and out. Static. Reverb. The Upside-Down is calling and Eddie doesn’t want to pick up the phone.

Mama Byers runs, full tilt toward the house. Eddie hopes she makes it, can’t see her past the lip of the open door of the van. He hopes she’s got a gun in there, hopes she hands out butcher knives to too-small fingers and they all stand back-to-back-to-back. He hopes None of those things make it past Barb’s bat.

Wayne rushes to the glove compartment, limping on his bad hip with his haste as he digs around. He comes out with a gun, polished and sleek, and clearly one of the dead soldiers. Eddie hopes it’s loaded. 

He stands behind Barb, blocking the open door with his body, gun raised and pointing toward the staticky sound of dogs growling. 

“Close the door, Ed.” He doesn’t turn away from the threat, even as he says, “Love you.”

Eddie hiccups, something wretched and sharp boiling out of him. He wants to stand at his Uncle’s side, but his hands are fleshy and empty. Perkins is hyperventilating behind him and Steve’s not saying anything at all.

He closes the door.

He crouches in front of them both, blocking the closed door, ready to play a fleshy, second door should the first one fail. 

There’s the sound of a gunshot, the wet thwack of a nail-covered bat meeting malleable flesh, then glass shattering all around him.

He raises his hand and closes his eyes reflexively as it rains down onto his face, into his hair. Something cold and meaty lands on his lap. 

He opens his eyes.

It’s just like he imagined: paws and tail and hairless body. A petaled mouth that droops open, razor-sharp teeth glinting threateningly even in death. 

He pushes it off, scrambling back and away from the dead thing that still somehow looks like it wants to kill him, heedless of the broken glass making mincemeat of his palms.  

Eddie backs into Perkins, tries to keep crawling away until she grabs his shoulder, squeezes hard as she peers over his shoulder into the silence of the day. 

He can see Wayne, still standing, Barb at his side, gorey bat raised. Had they won? A bat and a gun, and they’d won?

But, then there’s a new face, peering up through the broken window. Her eyes are solemn, but she smiles when she meets his eyes, short curls atop her head bobbing as she waves at him.

“Supergirl?”

Part 87

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[estrellami-1]

If I Should Stay

Part 1 | . . . | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53

“You wish,” Steve teases, then looks wide-eyed at Robin. “What about all the pictures we have?”

“We’ll take new ones,” she assures him, then grins. “And hey, maybe Starcourt will be built, without the Russian base underneath.”

Steve hums. “Maybe then I could avoid one of the concussions from Billy.”

Robin freezes suddenly. “Steve,” she says, “is it a good idea for the party to meet Max? Because of the first concussion from Billy? That wasn’t Upside Down related, was it?”

Steve grimaces. “He’d been Flayed at that point, yeah. Even if he is a racist asshole, I can’t imagine him coming after us like that again.”

Robin hums. “But if he does-”

“Tell me,” Eddie says suddenly, “does he like Mary Jane? Because I can make sure he never sees her again if he goes after Steve.”

Robin blinks at him, then begins to grin. “Sorry, Stevie, Eddie’s my new favorite.”

Eddie laughs and fist-bumps her. “Likewise, Birdie.”

“Hey!” Steve says, faux-affronted. It’s ruined by the grin he can’t hide.

El pokes gently at Steve’s arm, then the waffle iron when he looks at her. “It’s done.”

“Ah,” he says, opening it. “Thank you, Ellie. Mind getting me a plate?” He grins at her. “Without grabbing it?”

El grins. Without moving, she opens a cabinet, floats a plate out to Steve, then shuts the cabinet again. She wipes underneath her nose, then grins at Steve. “No blood!”

“That’s great!” He celebrates with her, offering her a high-five. “You think you’re ready?”

“I’m still scared,” she tells him. “But yes. I do.”

“Y’know something else?” Steve asks. “Vecna needed four more years to be strong enough to do what he did. You needed two more days. I think you’re much stronger than he is right now.”

“Speaking of the big bad,” Eddie interjects, nibbling on a corner of his waffle, “shouldn’t we go over the plan?”

Steve sighs. “Probably,” he agrees.

“I think we should wait for everyone,” Alli says. “Let’s just have as normal a morning as we can for right now.”

Steve smiles at his sister. “Sure, Al,” he says, then rolls his eyes when she pulls him into a hug and ruffles his hair.

“Love you, Bubba,” she murmurs into his ear, and he can’t help but to melt into her hug.

“Love you too, Al,” he murmurs back, then grins at her. “How about grilled cheese when we all make it outta this intact?”

“I think that sounds like an excellent idea,” she nods, then steps away. “I’m gonna call Cass. Come and get me when everyone’s here?”

“Will do,” he nods, and she smiles in response as she walks off.

Eddie pulls his feet up onto the counter he’s sitting on, looping his arms around his knees. “So, Cassidy is Alli’s-?”

“Girlfriend,” Steve nods. He takes another waffle out of the iron and scrapes the last of the batter into it. “It makes me wonder how I would’ve ended up, if I had her the entire time, y’know? Cause I know I was an asshole. And I’m trying not to be anymore.”

“You’re succeeding,” both Robin and Eddie say at the same time, then excitedly point at each other.

Steve laughs and shakes his head. “Thanks. But I wonder, if I’d had her the entire time, would I have ever gotten as bad as I did? Would I have ever worked at Scoops or Family Video and met you, Robin? Would any of his have ever happened in the first place?”

He only notices his hand is shaking when Robin gently takes his fork and puts it down, then grabs both his hands in hers. “Squeeze,” she requests, and he does, letting out a harsh breath and resting their foreheads together.

“Sorry,” he mutters.

“Shuddup,” Robin says. He laughs.

After a few seconds, he pulls away to look at her. “Am I being crazy?”

“I think you’re being exactly as sane as taking this mission in the first place makes either of us, Dingus, I don’t think either of us were all there in the first place.”

Steve giggles. “I think you may be right.”

“Maybe you would’ve been different,” Eddie says. He’s taking the last waffle out of the iron. “Maybe you wouldn’t have. Maybe all of this would’ve happened, and maybe it wouldn’t have. Maybes aren’t gonna change anything that’s currently happening. All we can do is our best to get through it.”

El slips between Steve and Robin and wraps her arms around Steve’s waist. “I can do things you can’t,” she says quietly. “But I can’t see the future. I don’t know what could’ve happened. But I know I’m glad that you’re here now.”

Steve sighs contentedly and wraps her in his arms. “Me too.”

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[tartarusknight]

The King of the Freaks | Pt 4

(Yes I am too lazy to keep writing that long title so it’s been changed from now on...)

Ao3 Link | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15

Eddie was kinda pissed as he stabbed at the food on his tray. "You sure they said we can't?" Gareth question, and he sounded just as Eddie felt.

"They said that we couldn't do this week," Eddie said again, and he glanced up as Steve moved to sit down next to Jeff. He was pulling something out of his backpack and it was the first time since that first time that Steve actually sat with them.

"What can't you guys do?" Steve questioned as he pulled out a container of cookies and slid them over to Jeff.

Jeff lit up even as the others looked confused. "We can't do Hellfire this week. Apparently, the drama club needs the drama room this week." Jeff explains, and Steve pauses.

His face makes a hundred micro expressions before he shrugs, "You could do it at my house. I don't really care." Steve states and moves to stand back up hit Jeff pulls him back down. "Uh, what?"

He looks confused, and it's unfair because it seems like the moment they should be confused. "Three questions. First I thought you had swimming? Second, why would you let us do it at your house? Most parents think we are a cult, and I doubt your parents would think differently. And lastly, what's up with the cookies?"

Steve looks a little embarrassed as he's forced to stay there. But he meets Eddie's gaze. "First, I do have swimming, but I don't care. Come over that night or another if you really care. Second, my parents are in either Beijing or Belgium right now, so they don't get an opinion. And the cookies are for Jeff because he helped me last weekend. He can share, or he doesn't have to, I don't care."

Eddie blinks, "you'd let us be at your house without you there?"

"Sure, why not. I doubt you'll trash the entire place. And even if you do, there's not much you could do I haven't seen before. I've had enough parties to get good at cleaning up." Steve states, and Eddie looks at the others, trying to see if they're just as confused.

"That's amazing, dude! How about we get pizza, since you'll host?" Jeff offers, and Steve gives them a tight smile. Eddie's not sure if it's because of the topic of food or the idea that they're going to take him up on the offer. 

Steve nods and it’s a little sharp, “Right. Yeah just let me know date and time.” He pauses and goes back to his bag. He pauses before he can pull whatever he’s grabbed before steeling himself. “Here, just in case I’m busy.” He drops a key onto the table and practically bolts from the table. 

Eddie waits for him to come back and take the key with a sike. But he doesn’t, instead Eddie sees him dodge Billy’s foot and escape out of the lunch room. “Here I thought we were adopting him.” Gareth mused and picked up the key. Jeff smacked him and took the key. “Hey!” Gareth complains. 

“Yeah, I’ve actually been to his house so...” Jeff points out.

That gets Eddie back up and moving, “yeah. About that, what the hell?”

Jeff laughs, “I helped him cook. He’s been struggling with meet lately and you know my sister.” Eddie nods because it does make sense but at the same time it makes zero sense. “I bumped into him at the store...” Jeff trails off, “I think we need to try harder.”

“Harder?” Eddie squeaked and his friends gave him a look that he really wished he didn’t know. 

Jeff doesn’t let that stop him though. “Well, I thought it was bad enough going from top dog to the new top dog’s chew toy but the guy is struggling. He only had condiments in his fridge even though he told me he was a good cook, which he is. Apparently he has no clue where his parents are at the moment. He had a guess but that was it. And! He has no clue when they’re coming back. I asked and he laughed it off saying maybe for Christmas. Christmas.”

“It’s not even Thanksgiving yet!” Grant states and Jeff nods. 

Gareth sighs, “I’ve been bothering him during my free period. Normally just working on shit next to him... but the dude is not okay. He squints when he reads like he can’t see it well. I’m pretty sure he’s been getting migraines since he fought with Billy. And I’m 80% sure he’s partially deaf in his left ear. Cause if I whisper on that side he never responds. But he will when I sit on his right.”

“He never eats lunch,” Eddie sighs. “He always tears his food apart to make it look like he’s eating. If his fridge is empty than he might not be eating that often.”

“Well shit,” Grant sighs. “But how do we help him without it being weird.”

Eddie presses his hands together under his chin to think. “Okay, so we stop with the subtle friendship and go for it. If we’re his best friends then maybe he’ll let us help him.”

“So operation make Steve Harrington friendship bracelets is ago.” Gareth grins and Jeff throws a grape at him. 

They already had access to the boy’s house. How hard could it be?

@zerokrox-bloglog @cyranyxx @adaed5 @the-redthreadd @lifeisnotsobadonceyoustopcaringceyoustopcaring @idontgetpaidenoughforthisshitorthisshit @failedstarsandgoldencloudsds @bisexualdisastersworldd @deadlydodoss @anythingyouwanttobee @nburkhardtt @bestwifehaverr @thehumblefigtreee @megzdoodlee @swimmingbirdrunningrockk @mightbeasleepp @bxlthazarar @autumnal-dawnn @chillichatss @nonbinary-eddie-munsonon @the-daydreamer-in-the-cornerner @eddie-munson-is-my-wifewife @a-little-unsteddiedie @sharingisntkaren @a-huge-nerdy-nerd @0o-queendean-o0 @beckkthewreck @vi-an-te @vampireinthesun @newtstabber @dinosareawesome2137  @spicemallow @hellomynameismoo  @luthienstormblessed @briceslayed @angeldreamsoffanfic @dbquills

[brbsoulnomming]

Tell Me Sweet Little Lies Part 8

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | AO3

-----

The next time he's got something of a breather, they're all building weapons in a field gathered around a stolen camper. He breaks from wrestling around with Dustin, comes to plop down next to Robin in the spot Steve recently vacated.

"Hey, uh. So how often does this happen?"

Robin shoots him a look, one eyebrow raised as if to say there's a whole lot of 'this' happening right now, dumbass, what part of it do you mean?

Eddie jerks his chin up, head swinging in the direction towards Steve and Dustin. "He just got munched on by a swarm of goddamn demon bats, and now he's out there prancing around and no one's looking at him like he should maybe sit down a minute? Like no one cares, this is just business as usual."

Her face crumbles, and Eddie feels like an asshole. He didn't mean to imply that she didn't care about her best friend being bat food.

"Every time," she says softly, before he can try to backtrack.

"Oh." What the fuck is he supposed to say to that? "Right, Jesus. Well. Harrington's a big boy, I'm sure he-"

"No," Robin cuts him off. "You don't understand. He does this every time, it's - you remember last year, when Steve and Billy Hargrove showed up to school looking like shit? Hargrove tried to go after Lucas, and Steve pulled him off. They beat the crap out of each other. Hargrove hit him over the head with a plate, so hard that Steve blacked out. And the little shits - they put him in a car and took him with them to go to these tunnels to the Upside Down, because we couldn't just leave him in the house, Robin, what if he choked on his own blood or Billy woke up first?"

She does a decent impression of Henderson, there, higher pitched and shrieking, but Eddie is too busy being more and more horrified to comment on it.

"Steve woke up, and what does that dipshit do? Grabs his fucking nailbat, makes sure he's the first one down there and the last one out. They see Steve, and they see-"

"A hero," Eddie says quietly.

"They see someone invincible," she replies, even quieter. "So it's not real when he gets hurt, you know, because they see him take hit after hit after hit for us, and he just comes back up swinging, just keeps going to make sure every one of us is safe."

Eddie thumbs over the spot on his hip, where the first I don't need to go to the hospital had appeared, and feels - he doesn't know. "For us?"

Robin pushes the heel of her hand into her eyes, rubbing away what he's going to pretend aren't tears. "Fourth of July, Starcourt Mall. We got captured. He made sure their attention was on him. They tortured him, barely touched me."

She wraps her arms around her stomach, hugging herself with her palms pressed against her sides, fingers splayed wide like she's holding something close. There's more there, it's obvious, but, well. It's just as obvious that she doesn't want to talk about it.

"Then he crashed a stolen car into Billy Hargrove's Camaro with me riding shotgun."

Eddie gapes at her. "What the fuck?"

She raises and lowers one shoulder. "Billy was going to hit Nancy and Jonathan and the kids. I mean, it might have been the drugs, but I was on board with the plan."

His mouth opens, then closes again. "This is so fucked. You know this, right? Tell me you know this."

Robin makes a face. "I wish I could say that and know for sure that it wouldn't be a lie. I mean, I've only been in on this for like nine months, but it kind of sucks you in."

"Jesus fucking Christ."

Her expression turns a little wry, a little wait and see, you're one of us now. "Yeah."

Eddie doesn't know what the fuck to do with that, so he settles for watching Steve. Steve, who was captured at Starcourt mall, who told Eddie that he'd been captured by Russians who didn't like his attitude and apparently wasn't lying, whose experience fits the words that are still etched on Eddie's skin. "….he got tortured?"

Robin doesn't say anything, so after a few moments, he turns to look at her again.

"What's that face you're doing?" she asks, which is rich when she's the one looking at him like he's a puzzle she's trying to figure out.

"It's just-" He gestures at Steve in a motion he hopes conveys the sheer fucked up everything. "He was tortured!"

Steve Harrington was tortured, and then he lied and said the others were hurt more, and Eddie didn't want him to be his soulmate because he was one of the popular crowd.

Robin's still staring at him, her brow furrowed, when Dustin's shriek echoes across the clearing.

"This is a stupid idea, Steve!"

Everyone turns to look at them, and Steve throws up his hands. "I would have thought you of all people would agree with me!"

"What, agree with you going to get yourself killed, and all of us with you?" Dustin demands.

Steve rolls his eyes. "A little credit, please? I survived demogorgons and demodogs and Russians and the Mind Flayer and, uh." He pauses. "What're we calling the creepy bats?"

"Demobats," Dustin says with authority, like Steve Harrington talking about demogorgons and the Mind Flayer is nothing out of the ordinary, even though it's definitely messing with Eddie's head.

"Right, demobats," Steve agrees, as though they weren't in the middle of a screaming argument, then promptly picks it back up. "I think I can manage an angry jock!"

Dustin snorts. "Right, like you managed Billy Hargrove?"

The silence that follows that is deafening.

"Dude," Steve says softly. "Too far."

Dustin's expression drops, looking somewhere between chastised and extremely guilty. "You're right, I know, I'm sorry."

Steve jerks his head towards Max and Lucas, an almost imperceptible movement, if Eddie wasn't watching him so closely.

Dustin looks over to them, clearing his throat. "I'm sorry," he calls. "Anger over Steve's stupidity blinded me and made me just as stupid."

There's a pause, then Lucas calls, "Even stupider!"

"Even stupider!" Dustin agrees.

Max rolls her eyes at them, but she doesn't look as stricken anymore. "You're both dumbasses."

Steve's watching her when Eddie turns back to look at him, but he must think that's as good as it's gonna get, because he focuses his attention back on Dustin.

"Anyway, Nancy agrees with me, so we're doing it. This was just a courtesy heads-up."

Eddie glances over at Robin, relieved when he sees her looking over at him in the same way. They share a look that he's pretty sure is mutual exasperation over whatever Steve's thought of that is apparently going to get him killed.

"Hey Dingus!" she calls. "You want to share that with the rest of the class?"

"We're going to talk to Carver and the team," Steve replies. "We can't fight Vecna and avoid them at the same time, not with how hard they're gunning for Eddie."

"What?" Eddie demands, scrambling to push himself to his feet. "No no no no, come on, Wheeler, I thought you agreed that was a terrible idea!"

"That was before we ran into them at War Zone," Nancy says. "Steve's right - Jason isn't going to stop. We have to get him and the others off our backs, or they could ruin the whole thing."

Reluctantly, they all gather in the camper again.

"All right," Steve says, clapping his hands like they're all in kindergarten and ignoring the unimpressed looks everyone gives him. "Game plan."

"We divide into two teams," Nancy picks up, just as serious business as she was when they were plotting to take down Vecna. "Team one stays with the RV and keeps making weapons. Team two heads into town to run surveillance-"

Erica gives an unimpressed huff. "Run surveillance, who needs to run surveillance when you've got me? I was at his last little inspirational production, and I know there's supposed to be another town hall meeting tonight. Two guesses who's going to be there to try to run it again?"

Steve and Nancy exchange a glance.

"All right, team two heads into town to make sure we're at the meeting before Jason gets there," Nancy says.

"So who's on team two?" Dustin asks.

"Me and Nance," Steve replies immediately.

"And me," Erica chimes in.

"And Erica," Steve agrees without hesitation, which makes Nancy give him a funny look.

"Steve is my bitch after our last 'operation' together, and he knows it," Erica says, complete with air quotes around operation.

Steve just shrugs, looking resigned, and - yeah, okay, with what Eddie knows of Erica Sinclair, he'd probably do the same thing.

"No one listened to me last time," Erica adds. "I'm gonna make damn sure they regret that."

Nancy raises her eyebrows, but doesn't protest.

"That's it," Steve finishes. "Maybe Robin or Lucas, if you one of you wants to, but no one else. Sorry guys, but it has to be people that no one would believe would be friends with Eddie."

Which - ouch, but yeah, Steve has a point. Still-

"Buckley?" he asks. Lucas he gets, because Jason and the others must have trusted him to let him in on the initial freak hunt, but Robin?

Robin shoots him a withering glare. "I've played soccer, and I'm in the marching band, did you forget? The band that goes to every one of the basketball team's games and plays for them, the band that you usually disparage in the same breath as the jocks when you do your little table speeches? You think I haven't commiserated with some of the soccer players and cheerleaders about perfectly good lunches crunched under your heels?"

Eddie - doesn't actually know what to say to that. A week ago, he would have jumped all over her for conforming to the school's expectations, pumping up the jocks and riding the coattails of popularity, but - but this isn't a week ago. Monsters are real, people are dying, Eddie's probably going to die, and these people are the only ones who know anything about how to stop it.

This is the party, and he's just been an NPC this whole time.

"Oh," is what he settles on, hating how stupid it makes him sound.

"Hey, those table speeches were cool!" Dustin protests.

"They were obnoxious," Robin says with a sniff.

"They're Eddie," Steve says, and Eddie turns sharply to look at him.

He's rolling his eyes, and he sounds just as fond as he does exasperated, the same tone he's heard him use on the kids when they're being little assholes, and it twists something in his gut at the same time as he makes him want to hide behind his hair.

"It's not a bad thing to rail against primitive social constructs such as popularity," Steve adds.

Eddie - stares at him, his brain screeching to a halt as he attempts to process what Steve Harrington just said to him.

He manages to catch Nancy looking at Steve in a way that's a little bit impressed before Dustin is shouting again.

"Hey!" he yells, slapping Steve on the arm. "I said that to you last summer, you can't just take credit for that!"

Steve slaps at Dustin's hand. "You said I needed to move on from them, you didn't say anything about railing against them!"

"It's the same thing!" Dustin protests.

"Can't you just be happy I listened to you?" Steve asks.

"Oh, for once." Dustin rolls his eyes. "When are you going to realize all of my advice is genius?"

"Again with the ego, man, come on-"

"Boys!" Robin shouts.

The two of them startle, looking over at her with twin expressions somewhere between sheepish and irritated.

Eddie valiantly rallies his brain back into working order. "I still say this plan is stupid. What do you really think's going to happen when you publicly align yourselves with the freak?"

"Oh, we're not going to publicly align ourselves with you," Nancy says.

"We're going to publicly tear Jason down," Steve adds, and there's a gleam in his eye that Eddie hasn't seen since he stalked the halls of Hawkins High with Hagan and Perkins at his side.

So the party splits again.

Nancy, Steve, and Erica head out on their side quest. Robin does end up going with them, though she makes it very clear that she's just there to sit in the back with her hand on the walkie in case things go to shit. Eddie stays with Dustin and Lucas and Max, and tries not to feel -

Well. There's a whole lot he wants to feel. Anger and bitter resentment and fear and self-hatred and outwardly directed hatred and a sick hope and confusing fondness, all tangled up into a messy ball that seem to cancel each other out.

So mostly he tries not to feel exhausted, and tries not to let it bounce too hard the other way into mania. It mostly ends up in him alternating between goofing around with Dustin and obsessively checking over his handy work on his shield.

Eventually, after far too long, the wandering half of the party returns - and even without saying anything, it's clear it was a success. The four of them are so damn pleased at something going right that it seems to be catching, both Dustin and Lucas crowding in and demanding details.

"Jason's a suspect now!" Robin says gleefully.

"He's a person of interest," Nancy corrects. "But it's enough that I don't think he's going to be rallying many people to his cause."

Eddie stares at them, aware his mouth is open and he probably looks flabbergasted, but he can't seem to make himself do anything about that.

"How did you guys manage that?" Dustin asks.

"I told you they were going to regret not listening to me," Erica says, tone just as smug as her face.

"Excuse me," Steve chimes in, in what's clearly supposed to be an imitation of Erica's voice. "But is anyone else going to get to speak at this one, or are the police and the mayor going to let a seventeen year old boy lead a town hall meeting again?"

"Again?" Robin straightens up, jumping on that with all of Nancy's fierce tenacity. "Can you clarify that for the press, Chief Powell? Is Jason Carver involved with the investigation into these murders?"

Nancy bats her eyelashes, lowering her voice and looking as dumb and concerned as possible. "Wait, wasn't Jason dating Chrissy? Now, I may have missed the last meeting, but I've watched every episode of Magnum PI and Miami Vice. Why is the victim's boyfriend leading the investigation? Isn't that, uh, a confliction of interests?"

"Watch what you're implying, Harrington," Erica growls out.

Steve raises both eyebrows. "You about busted in my door looking for my brother and his dumb friends. I just think we all have a right to be concerned about someone who shows violent tendencies to a child being involved like this."

"I saw what that freak did to Patrick!" Erica says, making her voice high and whiny.

"You were at the scene of the third crime?" Robin jumps in, still clearly Nancy. "Was anyone else there who can confirm your version of the events? No? So we only have your report of who was there?"

"Patrick McKinney?" Nancy asks, wrinkling her nose. "Bummer, man, the way people close to you keep dying. Glad I graduated already."

"I remember him when you came to my house," Steve as Erica says. "Wasn't he the one who said you guys were taking things too far? What a coincidence!"

Robin tilts her head, looking like she's trying to remember something. "Didn't Fred write that article about the basketball team and hazing rituals? If I remember right, Jason Carver was the only one he mentioned by name."

Nancy smiles, and it looks - strange, on her face. All haughty and smug, with too many teeth. "Hazing rituals, is that what's going on here? Couldn't hack it with the legacy Billy and I left for you, huh, Carver? Who's next? You're looking for Lucas Sinclair, right, you pissed that he's the one that scored the winning shot when you missed it?"

"And then Tiffany Callahan shouts Chrissy wasn't happy!, and half of the cheerleaders are talking about how she was upset and kept saying she didn't want to talk to Jason about it," Robin says. "Jason looked like he was a second away from lunging over and strangling her, and Tiffany's soulmate got up in his face."

They keep going, tossing pleased little comments back and forth, roping Lucas and Dustin and even Max in, crowing about how Eddie's out of the limelight and -

Part of him wants to stay, well aware that he's literally watching a campaign unfold in real life in front of him, that he could let himself be folded into this strange little party and bask in their jubilance at a quest completed. But the other part of him is just going too much, it's too much.

He steps back, quiet and unseen, until he can duck around the other side of the camper and crouch down. His forearms brace against his knees, head hanging down between them, as he tries to just - to just breathe, not let himself vibrate out of his own skin.

This is turning into the slowest of slowburns omg, but they will get there eventually!

----

Part 9

Taglist (hopefully I got everyone, and always happy to add more!): @vampireinthesun @koibug @estrellami-1 @mentalcyborg @allbimyself26 @questionablequeeries @the-s-is-silent @whimsicalwitchm @a-gae-af-racoon @tinyplanet95 @n0-1-important @velocitytimes2 @swimmingbirdrunningrock @newtstabber @jcmadgirl @roblingoblin285 @lexyvey @paperbackribs @goodolefashionedloverboi @evix-syne666 @raisedbylibrarians @stxrcrossed186 @nightmareglitter @greekgeek24 @starman-jpg @crazyhatlady86 @affablevixen @imfinereallyy @manda-panda-monium @deleataecount @prideandsensibility @chaoticvictorianspirit @maydillydally @disrespectedgoatman @scarlet-malfoy @i-less-than-three-you @hbyrde36 @hallucinatedjosten @dragonsandgayships @arepaconchocolate @g4ys0n @novelnovella @bisexualdisastersworld @ghostofyourvampiregf @scarletyeager @pettrichore @nerd-and-nervous @hiimlevi @queenie-ofthe-void @cinnamon-mushroomabomination

[fragilecapric0rnn]

the most i'll ever write b*lly into one of my fics. this was written over the summer (or maybe spring?) and i just found it and cleaned it up. pre-s3. summer of 1985 shenanigans. ft slurpees, steve being annoyed, and a fist fight at 7-11.

Excuse Me, This is a 7-11 in 1985

“No way!” Steve scolds, the top half of his body turned and facing the backseat. “Shoes off the seats, Mayfield!” 

“Don’t be such a buzzkill,” Robin says, swinging her own drink around too much for Steve's liking as she flings herself into the passenger seat.

He’s too nice. He’s way too fucking nice. He was too nice when Max and Lucas showed up in front of Scoops Ahoy, stranded because they missed the last bus. Which meant Robin also missed the last bus, which meant he had no choice but to offer them all rides home. 

Too nice to say no when they were about to pass the 7-11 and they all perked up. They didn’t even have to ask, he just pulled into the parking lot. 

He’s too nice. 

“Thanks for the treat, Dingus.” Robin says, spraying crumbs of her ho-ho all over the front seat. He pretends not to notice. If he thinks about it for too long, he’ll end up plowing the front of his car right into the convenience store in front of him. 

Well, not in front of them. Off to the left, giving them all a view of the entire lot. Watching cars pull in, the four of them watching the other patrons, being nosy. 

It wasn’t unusual for cars to come and go from the parking lot at this hour. There was not much else to do at this hour in a shit hole town once the mall closed. 

What was unusual was the sight of a familiar blue Camero, following close behind a familiar van. 

Steve furrows his brow at the sight, shakes his head. Probably a drug deal or something. He takes a loud slurp of his cherry slurpee as he shuts his car off, makes sure the lights are all  off, just to ease the anxiety he can feel emanating from the two kids hanging out in his backseat. 

Robin, who doesn’t know exactly what happened, but knows the gist of Steve coming to school with his face bashed just last fall, looks at him. 

“Maybe we should get going?” She suggests. Steve looks at her and then back at Max, waiting for her to make the call. 

“I don’t…” Max starts, but fades out, her face scrunching up in curiosity. Steve follows her eyeline back to the cars, which are now parked so that the Camero is blocking in the van. Steve immediately turns the car on. Lucas starts hitting him in the arm repeatedly. 

“What the hell are you doing?! What if he sees us!?” Lucas’ voice going up about sixteen octaves. 

As they pull up, they see two figures talking, or arguing more like, in front of the Camero. The headlights highlight the silhouettes of both Billy and the owner of the van, Eddie Munson. Neither of them paying any attention to the fact that Steve’s car is approaching them for a better view of their argument. Which is all it looks like, raised voices at each other. 

Then, Billy shoves Eddie. Hard. 

“Let’s just go, Steve. We don’t wanna get —” 

“Oh shit!” Max yells from the backseat. 

Steve barely catches the sight of Eddie decking Billy in the face, sending him on his ass almost instantaneously. 

“Oh my god!” Lucas yells, as Eddie scrambles on top of him, punching him repeatedly . 

“Get his ass!” Max shouts, as Billy starts to hit back. 

“Should we do something? Should we help him?” Robin sounds panicked. 

As soon as the words leave her mouth, they see police lights in the distance. 

Fuck it, Steve thinks. He whips his car up to the side of the fight, rolls his window down as he does. 

“Munson!” He yells as he brings the car to harsh stop.

Eddie stops, eyes look glazed over and out of breath. Steve ignores the twinge in his stomach. 

“Get  in!” Max yells, flinging her door open. Eddie, without hesitation, dives into the back seat. The door slams shut as Steve peels out of the lot, over the curb, and jams out of there. Robin’s yelling, Lucas is screaming like a little girl, Max is laughing, and Eddie is stunned silent, wringing out his scratched up hands. 

“Nice uniform, Harrington.” 

Yeah. Steve is definitely too nice. 

[skarkkk]

First;

It's not even about this episode because the premise of the next one got me too much. A well, a kid trapped in a well and 118 being called. I need this to focus on Eddie's trauma and bring back memories for Buck about trying to dig through yards of mud to find his best friend. And I need something to happen to Eddie in this episode and for Chris to find out. Then I need someone to talk to Chris about the other time Eddie almost died but came back for him, the difference this time is that for Eddie Chris isn't waiting for him at home this time, so why should he fight to get back? I don't think Buck or anyone else has gone into depth with Chris about what happened to Eddie in season 3 during the well accident, so I need something to escalate. And maybe that will help more for Buddie, this trauma and thinking about losing Eddie again. All that accumulation of years of almost seeing Eddie die, you know.

Second;

Denny's actor (I don't know his name, unfortunately) is such a good actor that I really thought he would die, which doesn't make much sense considering it's the last season and they wouldn't do it right away when they would lose the chance to have a new one with the mourning, you know, but oh my god, the stress. Also in that, it wasn't what I expected when I said I wanted to see more of Eddie and Karen being besties, but hey, at least they appeared in a fair scene.

Third;

I loved how ridiculous it was that Buck thought he was cursed by Billy Bubbles. Tommy and Eddie getting together as friends and laughing at Buck? I thought it was so cute, he's literally Buck's first partner that Eddie doesn't totally hate, but during that graveyard scene (ignoring how hot they both were, Buck less because of, um, his face, you know, but anyway) and that moment when he looked at Tommy I could only think that it should be Eddie, and now I can only think about that graveyard scene from season 6 (I think she sees me).

Fourth;

Chim is such a cute dad, man, he's going to be Jee's biggest doormat and that's so cute.

Fifth;

this Halloween episode they killed it, my god, the music, the decorations, the setting, Dracula Bobby (and that kind of British accent? He learned it from Brad, duh).

Sixth;

the comparison of the first Halloween we had with Josh all dressed up as a pirate captain and now with a mustache, disappointing, but on the other hand we had Maddie with tiger ears as a reference.

Seventh; I'm not prepared for my reaction if Buddie isn't canon by the end of this season.

Eighth;

about the next episode, I need to see trauma (like I said) and I need it to focus on Eddie, because seriously? Confessions? Who else could it be besides the guilt-ridden Catholic character who has been suffering silently throughout the season and since forever?

Ninth;

oh my god, it's so cute that Tommy calls Buck baby and Buck calls him boyfriend. I love them.

[suspiciouslackofclowns]

Of all the things his partners could have chosen to fawn over, it had to be one of Billy’s biggest insecurities.

It had to be his stomach.

He’s learned to relax a little. To eat full meals and let himself have snacks without feeling guilty for consuming them. It’s still hard, but he’s trying to fight that little voice in the back of his head with common sense.

If he’s hungry, he should eat. A packet of crackers between meals isn’t going to kill him.

Steve said once that if he’s eating as much as he’s supposed to and he gains a little weight, that it was weight he was supposed to gain.

Now, he’s not chubby by any means, but he’s… getting there. The cut of his jawline isn’t as pronounced and his abs are gone. His ass has never looked better, he supposes, but that doesn’t seem to faze either of it partners.

Because they’re into weird shit, apparently.

That much could always be assumed of Eddie, but Steve? Steve was the surprise.

He’s the one who’s always checking to see whether or not Billy has eaten, always touching and kissing and never using the word stomach because apparently tummy sounds better to him.

It’s all very endearing. Makes Billy feel a little less shitty about himself.

Until Steve says some choice words during sex.

He has Billy pinned to the mattress, rolling his hips steadily, and spreading Billy’s legs as wide as they’ll get.

Eddie’s off somewhere, probably watching He-Man in the next room with his stiffy tucked into the waistband of his boxers because he can hear everything. Waiting patiently until he’s ready to come claim his sloppy seconds.

The blond’s skin is flushed from head to toe, and his breaths have been reduced to little pants and sighs that leave him in time with Steve’s thrusts.

He’s anticipating Eddie coming in any minute. Shuffling in beside Steve and filling Billy up even more — they’ve done it before, and he hasn’t been able to get it out of his head ever since.

Just thinking about watching his partners make out hot and heavy while they rail him has an ache settling into his core. Like he needs it.

Steve snaps his hips harder, eyes focused down at Billy through his lashes.

It’s perfect. Billy’s eyes well with tears, and just as his back begins to come away from the bed, Steve reaches out. Splays a hand against Billy’s stomach and presses, and his eyes may as well roll back into his skull.

“Taking such good care of yourself,” he sighs.

And Billy, nearly at his peak, furrows his brows. Confused. His body is still overcome with tremors not a second later. He groans and arches his back, painfully aware of how Steve’s hand stays put.

Steve buries himself deep after another few thrusts and comes hard. Has to stabilize himself with his hands on the mattress at Billy’s sides while he comes down from the high. For a moment, they breathe the same breath. Bask in the heat radiating from one another.

Then, Steve leans down. Kisses just below Billy’s ribs, and smooths his thumb back and forth over his skin right under his navel where he’s softest.

Now, he’s not really one for I love you’s but Billy’s pretty sure he’s damn close to saying it right now.

“Dirty talk took a weird turn,” he breathes.

Allows his body to relax against the mattress once again as he sweeps a hand through his sweat-slick hair. Steve hums amusedly against his skin, and Billy can feel the outline of his smile.

“Sorry,” Steve says. “Couldn’t help myself.”

He continues to lavish Billy’s stomach with attention. Wordless praise stamped into his flesh in the form of gentle, loving kisses and rubs.

It feels especially nice in the afterglow.

Maybe Billy’s into weird shit too.

Maybe this shit was never that weird in the first place.

“Aw, is Billy getting some tummy lovin’?” Eddie lilts.

He appears suddenly, jumping on the bed and causing the blond’s muscles to tense up from the surprise of it.

“Mhmm,” Steve hums.

A warm, damp washcloth smooths over his abdomen, courtesy of Eddie. He wipes up the evidence of Billy’s pleasure and leans down to press his lips to his forehead after.

“Good.” Eddie tosses the cloth aside, landing softly in the nest of dirty laundry that he’s conveniently left on the floor, and smooths his hands down Billy’s ribs from above. “Soft tummies need extra love.”

Billy’s face heats up. Especially when he feels Steve’s cock give a kick where it’s still buried inside him.

“You guys are so weird,” he huffs.

“We just love you, sweetheart,” Steve coos. Interlocks his fingers with Eddie’s over Billy’s sides. “And we love your tum—“

“If you say that word one more time, I’m gonna lose it.”

Steve snickers. Begins kissing around Billy’s navel softly, and it’s glaringly obvious that he’s starting to fill out again. Billy can fucking feel it.

Above him, Eddie sits up. Slides off the mattress gingerly and begins unfastening his belt as he rounds the bed.

“He’s right, you know,” he lilts.

Takes hold of one of Billy’s legs, just below his knee, and spreads him wider. The stretch has a groan leaving the blond’s lips.

Steve stands up straight, chewing his lip eagerly as he watches Eddie pull his cock out.

The two make eye contact briefly. Then they’re tilting into a kiss. The sight has Billy feeling a warm pool of electricity in his belly, especially when Eddie peaks at him out of the corner of his eye.

Like he can’t go a few seconds without looking at him.

A thumb gently swipes back and forth over Billy’s thigh, where he’s still being held, and he can’t help that his skin suddenly feels like it’s blistering with heat.

Maybe it’s not so bad that they picked a strange part of him to fawn over. It can’t be if it gets him in situations like this.

He just has to get used to his tummy being appreciated first.

[babygirl-diaz]

I Waited Ages

Hmmm... I don't know if I should make this a long fic and do more of Alex and Eddie and a slow burn of BuddieTommy... Lemme know your thoughts!

Summary: Eddie goes to a gay bar and meets someone

***

Eddie didn't know what he was doing here on his own. He always considered himself an ally but none of his LGBT friends ever asked him to accompany them to a gay bar. But he was recently exploring more of himself, discovering new things, and that's how he ended up here.

"Hey handsome, what can I get you?" The bartender, a big burly guy with a 10000-watt smile asked him. "Digging your pornstache, by the way."

Eddie blushed at the compliment and ran his pointer finger and thumb across his mustache to groom it. "Thanks," he said. "And can I get a whiskey? Neat."

"Coming right up," the bartender replied and walked away to presumably get his drink.

Eddie looked around nervously. Part of him was regretting coming here because he felt like all eyes were on him.

"Relax, no one is looking at you..."

Eddie turned around in his stool and almost punched the guy who had said that in his ear. But the guy had good reflexes and ducked, dodging his blow. "Shit!" Eddie hissed. "I am so sorry! You just scared me!"

The man chuckled and shook his head. "It's all good. I shouldn't have whispered in your ear like a creep."

There were definitely people looking at him now and probably thinking he was some kind of gay basher. Great.

"Oh god, just go back to your flirting, gentlemen! There is nothing to see here!" The man said loudly before taking a seat next to Eddie.

"You have good reflexes," Eddie commented.

"Thanks, learned it in the Army," the man replied with an exasperated tone. Eddie could tell he wasn't proud of that, but he didn't push.

"Alex, you good?" The bartender returned and gave Eddie a glare. "Listen, man, if you're gonna do that then I'll have to kick you out."

"Chill, Billy. I'm good," Alex replied. "It was just a misunderstanding. Can I get my usual?"

"Your disgusting Sapphire Martini?" Billy scrunched up his nose. "Coming right up."

"Why do you have to make it so good if you don't want me drinking it?" Alex laughed and shook his head. "Well, I'm Alex. As you can probably tell," he said coming back to Eddie.

"I'm Edmundo... Eddie," Eddie introduced himself and gave the man a smile.

"I kinda like Edmundo..." Alex replied and gave him a smile. He picked up Eddie's drink, took a sip without asking, and coughed. "Jesus Christ! Are you trying to kill me?"

"I didn't ask you to drink it," Eddie reminded him.

"Fair," Alex said with a roll of his eyes.

Eddie chuckled and took in his neighbor. Alex was tall but about an inch or two shorter than Eddie, he was on the skinnier side but had a broad chest and thick biceps, and warm beige skin with the brightest blue eyes. Okay, maybe not as bright as Buck's, but they were beautiful. Wait... Holy shit... Did he just admit that a guy, who wasn't Buck or Tommy, had beautiful eyes? That was new.

"You're staring," Alex told him in that rich voice of his as he took a sip of the blue martini that Eddie hadn't even noticed the bartender bringing to him.

Eddie blushed and looked down.

"Not that I mind," Alex added. "Kinda like being the center of someone's attention."

Eddie cleared his throat and changed the subject. "So what are you drinking?"

"You wanna try?" Alex offered the glass to him.

Eddie took it and took a sip, doing a double take. "That is... Surprisingly good."

"Right?" Alex asked. "Everyone always just brushes it off because of its color. Do you want one? Much better than that... poison you're drinking."

"It's just whiskey!" Eddie said defensively.

"Potato, potaato." Alex laughed once again and Eddie found himself drawn to that laugh. "Hey, Billy! Can you get my friend over here a Blue Sapphire? Put it on my tab!"

"You don't have a tab!" Billy replied. "And god, are you trying to scare away my patrons with that shitty drink?"

"Edmundo likes it!" Alex replied.

Eddie found that he didn't mind Alex calling him Edmundo.

Billy brought over the drink and gave it to Eddie, “It’s your funeral, my friend.” 

Eddie smiled and shook his head. "It's not that bad."

"Just because Alex is objectively hot doesn't mean you have to agree with him," Billy told Eddie, leaning in close to him. He patted his hand before walking away.

"He's just jealous," Alex replied and childishly blew Billy a kiss when the man flipped him off.

"So... Edmundo... what brings you here?" Alex asked.

"You've been itching to ask that, haven't you?" Eddie asked him.

"No, I've been itching to ask about that pornstache actually," Alex replied and winked at him. "The 70s called, they want their stache back, but I say don't give it to them because it really suits you."

Eddie laughed and shook his head. He hadn't laughed this much since Christopher left for Texas. "Thank you," he said appreciatively. "My friends just tease me about it, but I'm glad someone appreciates it."

"Well, they don't know how to appreciate beauty then." Alex was clearly flirting and Eddie found that he didn't really mind it.

After a couple more of Sapphire Martini, Eddie had let loose and was leaning closer to Alex as Alex talked about random things. There was something about him that reminded Eddie of Buck.

"So what do you do?" Alex finally asked. "I think now is a good point to ask that."

"I'm a firefighter," Eddie replied.

"Could you be any more stereotypical?" Alex teased as he finished off his third or maybe his fourth martini.

"Why? What do you do? Actually, lemme guess... You're a model slash actor."

"Close enough... I'm a Human Rights Lawyer, so I'm starving either way," Alex joked, smirking at him.

"I like your sense of humor. Reminds me of someone..."

"Oh no... You're not one of those, are you?" Alex asked scrunching his nose.

"One of who?" Eddie asked furrowing his eyebrows.

"Those guys who realize they are gay after falling in love with their straight best friend?"

"My best friend is anything but straight," Eddie huffed.

"But he's in a relationship?" Alex asked.

"Are you a mind reader?" Eddie asked surprised. "But yeah, he is."

"So how long have you known that you've been in love with him?"

"I'm not," Eddie replied, but when Alex raised an eyebrow, he added, "Like a month ago, maybe. My son left to go live with his grandparents and I've been lonely so Buck and his boyfriend have been coming over every day to keep me company."

"Both of them? That's nice," Alex commented. "That must be hard for you, though."

"That's the thing... It's not. I am genuinely happy for them. If anything I am just jealous of their relationship. I look at it and I'm thinking I want that!" Eddie tried to explain.

"Hmmmm...." Alex hummed like he was thinking something. "Do you wish it was you with Buck instead of this other guy?"

"Not really. Tommy is a great guy. He makes Buck really happy and I could never imagine breaking them up... I just-" Eddie sighed defeated. "It's hard to explain."

"Okay... Edmundo... Lemme ask you this... Do you wish you were a part of that relationship?" Alex asked.

"What?" Eddie let out a surprised sound. "No! How would that be even possible?"

"Polyamory relationships are a thing you know," Alex pointed out.

"Like Sister Wives?" Eddie asked confused and tilted his head to the side.

Alex looked like he was holding back a laugh. "Yes, Edmundo, exactly like that. You and Tommy can be sister wives."

Eddie frowned. "I feel like you are making fun of me."

"I would never!" Alex let out a fake gasp. "No, but I think you should tell them how you feel."

"Are you crazy? They're gonna think I've lost my mind! They already think I'm being weird. That's why I came here today. To take my mind off them," Eddie explained.

"And you found me! Trust me, I am great at making people forget about the love or loves of their life," Alex said, winking at him. "You wanna come back to mine?"

"No, he wouldn't," a familiar stern voice said from behind them.

Eddie turned around and saw Buck and Tommy standing there with identical frowns on their faces.

"How did you find me?" Eddie asked confused. "Are you two tracking me or something?"

"No, we just came by to have a drink... and found you," Buck said confused. "What are you doing here, Eddie?"

"Having a drink?" Eddie lamely supplied.

"Out of all the bars in L.A. A gay bar is the one you decided to come to?" Tommy asked.

Eddie shrugged. "It's close to my place and I heard good things about it."

Buck sighed and rubbed his forehead like he had a headache coming on. "You-"

"Come on, let's go, we can talk about this back at your place," Tommy quickly chimed in.

"NO!" Eddie said adamantly. "I wanna go back to Alex's place."

"You what?!" Buck exclaimed. "How drunk are you?"

"I am perfectly sober, thank you very much," Eddie huffed.

"Well, you're obviously not if you wanna go home with some random guy!" Buck replied.

"Evan, calm down," Tommy said grabbing his boyfriend's arm.

"I don't get why you're so mad?" Eddie asked. "I was so supportive of you when you came out!"

Alex leaned in close to Eddie and whispered, "He's jealous," in his ear. He then took Eddie's earlobe between his teeth and started kissing behind his ear.

"Hey! Get away from him!" Buck yelled and tried to lunge at Alex, only to have Tommy pull him back.

"Whoa... Easy there, tiger," Tommy said. "Eddie, do you really wanna go home with Alex?"

"He said he does, didn't he?" Alex chimed in.

Tommy glared at him in return. "I wasn't asking you."

"Okay, you know what? I don't have to stand here and listen to this guy." Buck made his way over to Eddie with a dark look in his usually bright eyes that kind of turned Eddie on.

Before Eddie knew it, Buck scooped him up and threw him over his shoulder. Eddie yelped and kicked his feet. "Hey! Let me down!"

"No, you're coming home," Buck replied.

Tommy looked at them amused and he looked like he was proud of Buck.

When Buck started walking, Eddie looked at Alex over his shoulder and found the other man smirking.

"You're welcome!" Alex called out.

"I'll see you around!" Eddie replied. "Find me on Instagram... It's EddieDiazLAFD"

[steddie-there]

I see all the "Steve needs glasses because of all the beatings he's gotten" takes and I raise you "Steve has always low-key needed glasses but no one ever noticed until his vision got worse from the beatings."

-----

Steve: Wait, so you're telling me that tree leaves don't blend together when you're farther away than standing right next to the tree?

Robin: No? Like, you know leaves are separate, right, dingus?

Steve: Well, yeah! Up close! But I thought it was some sort of... camouflage, or something! Like zebra stripes! That when you got far enough away the leaves just all looked like one big blob!

Robin: ...

Robin: Camouflage?!?!

-----

Eddie: So how'd you pass all those eye exams they gave us if the letters were blurry?

Steve: Well, I was always after Maggie Harmon in line and she was super smart, I mean, she even had glasses, so I just...

Eddie: You just what, Steve?

Steve: *hands over his face* I copied her answers.

Eddie: Steve, light of my life, are you telling me... you cheated on an eye exam?

Steve: I thought people would think I was stupid if I got the answers wrong!

Eddie: *processing* So you thought... it was a test... of how smart you were?

Steve: I was six!

Eddie: *trying not to laugh* Oh, Stevie, I love you.

Steve: *grumbly* Love you, too.

-----

Steve becoming a voracious reader now that reading doesn't give him a blinding headache. He didn't know books could be that awesome! They were always just painful!

Eddie loves it because the first thing Steve decides to read is "that nerd shit" (aka LOTR) and he gets really into it.

-----

The first time Steve puts on his glasses

Steve: *staring at Eddie kinda awestruck*

Eddie: What?

Steve: It's just - your eyes are even prettier than I thought.

Eddie: *utterly in love*

-----

Eddie: So, yeah, apparently Steve has needed glasses for a while now.

Dustin: Hold on. What? Steve, how long has your vision been shit?

Steve: Ummmm, I mean, it's been getting worse for years.

Dustin: So when you fought Billy - could you actually see him?

Steve: *starting to get annoyed* Yes, I could see him. He was just sort of. Blurry.

Dustin: *as if he's just made a fascinating discovery* Maybe that's why you lost so many fights! Maybe you're not actually terrible at fighting, you just couldn't see!

Steve and Eddie in tandem exasperation: Dustin!

-----

Of course, it's also sad because even if no one else figured it out, Steve's parents should have. But they didn't. And he thinks about that sometimes when he sees himself in the mirror with his glasses on. And it's just one more way he knows he wasn't wanted. They didn't even care enough to notice he couldn't see. When that happens, he gets reallh quiet and Robin and Eddie know exactly what he's thinking. Eddie pulls him down onto the couch next to him and Robin curls up on top of him with her arms wrapped around him in a hug and Eddie kisses his cheeks and they remind him that they want him.

-----

Also, Eddie thinks Steve is insanely hot with the glasses. Every morning, the first thing Steve does when he wakes up is put on his glasses. The first thing Eddie does is kiss him until those glasses are fogged up.

Eddie: If you'd been wearing these that time in the boathouse, I think I'd have had a hard time deciding if I wanted to hold a bottle to your neck or jump your bones.

Steve: *blushing*

[cal-daisies-and-briars]

Hi my darling Cal! I hope you’re doing well! You continue to be one of the most impressive authors I’ve ever come across. I’ve been absolutely loving we won’t look back and I’m really excited to read the last two chapters (although I’m sad to see Summer go because I absolutely adore her! You write such loveable kid characters it’s very impressive). I’m also so excited about these new stories! It’s so cool how many interesting story ideas you have how do you come up with them?

First theme this week is the whump!

⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️ (BTHB! Billy boils! Curses! Sinester! Absolutely love these buzzwords and am excited to see how it goes!)

🤕🤕🤕🤕🤕🤕🤕🤕🤕🤕🤕🤕🤕🤕🤕🤕🤕🤕🤕🤕 (ooooooh established buddie with buck&bobby AND eddie&chim! Love those dynamics and love the injuries and the angst and I’m already so pumped!)

- PCA <3

HI PCA!!!!! You are always so fucking kind Thank you!!!! I will miss Summer too. And that's such a nice compliment, thank you. I'm not a big kid person so good to know I can write them well.

Idk how I come up with them necessarily. Oftentimes music gives me ideas. Or something I felt was a thread I wanted an episode to tug at but maybe didn't.

Let's go whump!

63 for ⚖️:

---

Gets institutionalized, maybe. Sent for brain scans, certainly. So he can ignore it. Maybe, like math powers, it’ll just start to fade.

“I’m so glad you’re okay,” Maddie says to him. 

“Yeah, no…” Buck replies. “I’m totally fine.”

⚖️

The car ride home is a relief. Buck keeps his eyes closed as Maddie drives, feigning fatigue, but still managing to chat with her. Apparently everyone is super freaked out. 

“Chim says Eddie is taking it particularly hard,” Maddie says. “You should probably talk to him as soon as you’re up for it.”

“Oh shit,” Buck replies. “The last thing he needs this year is for me to die.”

Maddie scoffs. “Yeah, that’s the only reason you should avoid it.”

“I’ll call everyone once I’m settled in,” Buck says. “I’m sure they’ll all pop in with excuses to make sure I’m still breathing.”

“As will I,” Maddie adds.

Yeah. He was worried about that. 

“Look, this isn’t like the lightning strike,” Buck tells her. He avoids looking too closely at her brilliant golden glow. “There aren’t any concerns now, right? So, I’m okay.”

“I know,” she exhales. “Just… How do we know it won’t happen again? If we don’t know what caused it?”

That is… A good point. Buck can’t argue with it. 

“Any weird skin rashes, I go right to the hospital,” Buck promises. 

“You’d better,” she warns. 

“Hey, uh…” Buck says. “Did you keep Mom and Dad updated?” 

Maddie’s face tenses. “Yeah. I did.”

“And?” Buck asks. “I mean, if they were planning to come down, I guess… I mean, they don’t have to now.”

“Uh…” Maddie inhales. “They were waiting for more news. They… Dad had this charity golf thing, so… They wanted to wait.”

“Oh,” Buck replies. “Right.”

“Sorry, Evan.”

“Don’t be,” he shrugs. “Not your fault. I guess it’s just a good thing last time they were already here.”

The conversation is a bit stale after that.

⚖️

On their way into Buck’s loft, they run into his neighbor from the unit next to his. Lawrence. Or, as Buck likes to think of him Lawrence-Don’t-Call-Me-Larry. Buck had tried once. Not a good plan. 

---

60 for🤕:

---

“You feeling alright?” Bobby asks as Buck turns to crawl away. 

“Me?” Buck asks. “Yep. Fine.”

“Okay…”

Buck pulls himself through the dark rubble back to where he woke up. He pats around, flashes the light. But there’s no sign of his radio. 

“Can’t find it?” Bobby calls. 

“No,” Buck says back. “Maybe if you call it?” 

“Call it?” Bobby asks.

“So it rings?” Buck clarifies. 

“Buck… It’s not a phone…” Bobby says, strange edge in his voice. “And mine is broken, remember?”

Broken. Right. Right, yes. It was crushed. 

“Buck, did you hit your head?” Bobby asks.

“Did I? Uh… I don’t know.”

“I’m concerned you have a concussion,” Bobby says. “You’re not thinking clearly.”

“No…” Buck trails off. “No, I’m… Okay, maybe I’m a little… Loopy.”

“Shit,” Bobby hisses. 

Buck feels a wash of guilt.

“I’m sorry,” Buck replies. “Sorry, Cap.”

“Don’t be sorry,” Bobby says. “You’re hurt. I’m worried.”

Right. Duh. Jesus, he’s right. He really isn’t thinking clearly. That’s not good. That’s not good because he needs to free Bobby and get them out of here, and he has no idea how he’s going to do that if he’s concussed and less than a hundred percent. 

Abandoning hope of finding his radio, Buck crawls back over to Bobby. 

“Did either of us bring our phones?” He asks. 

Bobby shakes his head. “Left it on the engine.”

“I think I did, too,” Buck sighs. 

“Alright,” Bobby says. “It’s okay. Eddie and Chim aren’t going to give up looking for us.”

[metalmonki]

The Dating Odyssey: Billy

Eddie Munson/Billy Hargrove/Steve Harrington/Jim Hopper/Jonathan Byers x fem!reader

1.7k word count

fluff, idiot reader, reader who can't say no, choose your own adventure-ish

Part 1 / Steve's Ending / Eddie's Ending / Jim's Ending / Jonathan's Ending

Underneath the sapphire sky, you hesitated at the entrance to Hawkins Pool. You hadn't seen Billy since your first pool date a week ago. After a whirlwind of emotions, you decided to take a breather, avoiding him and the others to clear your thoughts. You had felt sure of your decision to pick Billy 4 days ago. You felt sure of your decision every day since. Now, standing there, you wondered if you had made the right decision to meet him again. Would it just stir up more confusion?

You had originally gone to Billys trailer hoping to run into him somewhere a bit more private. You’d stood knocking for almost 15 minutes when Eddie Munsons stepped out of the trailer across the road. He was dressed in nothing but a pair of boxers clearly not long out of bed. He pulled a cigarette from behind his ear, lighting it and smiling across at you.

“If your looking for Hargrove his at work” Eddie called across the road.

“Oh thanks Eddie I guess I’ll head there then” You smiled and tried to make a quick exit.

“Wow, hay there, what’s the rush? What do you want with Billy anyway?” Eddies smile never fell from his face.

“Well honestly Eddie I went on a date with Billy last weekend” You choose to tell him the truth. Eddie deserved that much.

“Oh wow well uh I guess it’s not like we were exclusive or anything” Eddie scratched the back of his neck.

“Sorry Eds, your super sweet and any girl would be lucky to have you but I love Billy” You were honest with him and yourself.

“If you were saying that to high school Eddie I would have told you to run that Billy is bad news but he has changed since high school so if you think he is the one for you then go for it” You could hear the sadness in Eddies voice

“Thank you Eddie, um, maybe you should go for some clothes” You motioned to his boxers.

“Oh this is nothing you should ask Billy about the day he saw my pale naked ass run past his bedroom window” Eddie chuckled.

You shook your laughing at Eddie as he waved and ran back to his trailer. You climbed back into your car and headed towards the Hawkins Community Pool. This brings you to your current predicament. You stood in the parking lot looking at the entrance. Your nerves had hit you all at once. Your thoughts were interrupted by a voice behind you.

"Hey, y/n”

You turned to see Billy, his grin as bright as the sun reflecting off the water. His presence sent a flurry of butterflies into your stomach.

"Hey, Billy," you replied, forcing a smile.

He approached you, his steps confident. "I've been trying to catch you all week. I was starting to think you were avoiding me."

Your cheeks flushed with guilt. "I...I needed some time to think."

Billy nodded understandingly. "I get it. But hey, I'm glad you're here now. Ready for round two?"

“Uh yeah actually  I thought you might like to go for another date this weekend? Maybe make us something a little more official?”

“I would love that” Billy had the brightest smile on his face making your heart skip a beat. “I actually have somewhere I would love to take you but you’d need to be ready early Saturday morning, say around 5am”

“I’ll be ready” You smiled

“Great I need to get back to work, make sure to wear something light that you don’t mind getting wet” Billy gave you a quick kiss on the cheek and jogged back into the pool.

Your stomach was doing leaps and a smile plastered it’s self on your face and you didn’t know if you would ever get it to leave. Billy, you were confident, was the only guy you believed could do that to you. Saturday, just two days to wait and you would have your next date with Billy.

Thursday and Friday flew by. You smiled through the days and Friday night you couldn’t sleep. The nervous energy kept you awake. You planned your outfit out and laid everything out ready for you to grab and put on the next morning. You went to bed at 7pm exactly knowing you need to be up at 4am to be ready on time. You tossed and turned constantly looking at the bedside clock. At some point you had fallen asleep though and you were woken by the alarm clock at 4am. You thought last night that if you didn’t get enough sleep, you would be too tired when you woke up to do anything. Instead, you were full of endless nervous energy. You jumped out of bed and raced into your bathroom. You took a quick shower and got dressed into a simple pair on denim shorts and a white tank top with a bikini underneath. You then rushed into the kitchen fearing you were going to be late, grabbed the pop tarts you had left out the night before quick access and tossed them into the toaster while also flipping on the kettle. You already had your coffee mug out with instant coffee and sugar in it ready for hot water because you were so anxious about being ready on time the night before. As you munched on your pop tarts and waited for the kettle to boil you looked at the clock on the wall. 4:25. Your eyes almost bulged out of your head. How had so little time passed? It just left you more time to panic. The kettle clicked off bringing you back to your breakfast. You poured the hot water into your mug and stirred it before getting the milk from the fridge to add to the cup. You sat at the kitchen bench and sipped at your coffee while waiting for time to pass willing it to move faster. By the time the clock struck 4:55 the coffee mug was empty and had been washed up. You bag was packed for the day ahead. You took a deep breath and made your way to the street below your apartment. You hadn’t even been on the side walk for 5 minutes when the familiar roar of a Camaro engine graced your ears. A smile broke out on your face and you bounced excitedly on your heels. Billy’s blue Camaro came to a stop in front of you and Billy was quick to jumped out and open up the passenger side for you. Once you were seated in the Camaros Billy closed the door and ran back around to the drivers side. He put the Camaro back in gears and began driving out of Hawkins.

“We have about a 3 hour trip ahead of us just so you know” Billy smiled across at you.

“I’m sure we’ll find ways to keep ourselves entertained” You laughed

Billy blasted the music and placed a hand on your knee as he drove. It was as if he had driven this same road many, many times. You took a chance to take in Eddies outfit. He was wearing a pair of black shorts and a white singlet. He had his normal necklace on and sunglasses. He had a cigarette hanging out of his mouth. He seemed at peace on the road compared to how you had seen him around town. You laid back and closed your eyes allowing the sun coming in to heat your skin. You must have dozed off at some point because you were woken by Billy shaking you.

“We’re here sleepy head” He chuckled.

“The beach?” You sat up and looked around.

“Yep welcome to Chicago, it’s no California but hay it’s a beach” Billy smiled.

He laced his fingers with yours and guided you down towards the ocean. It was perfect beach weather, warm and sunny. You looked out at the water as Billy pulled you onto the beach and began to walk along the waters edge.

“So California huh? Born there or holiday spot?” You asked.

“I was born there, use to go surfing with my Mom, basically lived on the beach” Billy smiled looking out at the water.

“Then why the move to Hawkins?” You asked confused.

“My mom, she…well she left us and my Dad remarried Max’s Mom and he thought after Max tried to run away a few times that it would be best for us to move away. I don’t blame Max at all….well maybe in the beginning but not now” Billy had a look of regret on his face.

“I’m sorry that’s clearly a sore topic for you” You regretted asking.

“No, it’s fine you deserve to know, my dads dead now anyway so it’s not like it matters” Billy shrugged. “Anyway what about you, I know your not local to Hawkins either”

“New York City born and raised. Couldn’t stand city life and needed to go somewhere quite” You smiled up at him.

“Well I for one am glad you made that choice” Billy chuckled

“Me too” You nodded.

Billy quickly swept you up in his arms before running off into the water. You screamed begging him to place you down only to be met with him saying no over and over again. At just the right depth Billy tossed you in. You got to your feet and began splashing at him. Soon you were both surrounded by laughter and love. Everyone else on the beach cease to exist to the two of you. You got so wrapped up in each other to failed to see time getting away from you. Before you knew it the crowds had begun to go home for the day. You and Billy had become quiet as he swum up behind you wrapping his arms around your waist.

"I'm glad you came back," Billy said quietly, breaking the silence.

You turned to him, your heart somersaulting in your chest. "Me too."

Your eyes locked, and in that moment, you knew you had made the right decision. Sometimes, all it took was a leap of faith to find something worth holding onto.

As you emerged from the ocean, the sun sinking below the horizon painted the sky in hues of pink and gold. Hand in hand, You and Billy walked away from the beach, your hearts lighter than they had been in days, ready to face whatever the future held, together.