#eddie falls first and falls harder | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

strangerstilinski · 5 days ago

Text

𝐞𝐝𝐝𝐢𝐞 𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐬𝐨𝐧 𝐱 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫

𝘀𝘂𝗺𝗺𝗮𝗿𝘆: Person A falls first, Person B falls harder — With a slightly more literal approach. [ 5.7k ]

𝗰𝘄: fluff, hurt/comfort, gender neutral reader (but pls lmk if i missed anything), eddie does call reader "pretty" & "gorgeous", possibly probably incorrect dnd references, minor head injury, i am not a medical professional so don't yell at me, reader is mentioned to have flyaways but no other hair descriptions. don't mess w eddie bcos he can & will prank you <3

𝗮/𝗻: initially based off of this post but, oops! somewhere along the line the og plot ran away from me. still might fuck around and write a version more similar to the original post in the future! :)

divider by @/hellfiremunsonn

Eddie's head throbs with the kind of strength that feels a little bit like he's been hit by a car. Or a semi-truck. Or a fucking train, maybe— Because holy shit, it fucking hurts.

His lips part on a strangled gasp. He manages to pry his eyes open just long enough for the sun to pierce his retinas like a goddamn knitting needle being stabbed straight through his skull and quickly pinches them shut again with a pained groan. He's cursing like a sailor through clenched teeth, dirt and grass rubbing into his clothes when he rolls to one side, feels a stupid dandelion tickling at his nose, and then promptly rolls onto his back again. Jesus, are his ears ringing? He can barely hear the sound of his own expletives over the rush of blood in his veins.

Jesus, he is such an idiot. He'd actually walked straight into a fucking lamppost. Like some bumbling imbesile in the Sunday Funnies. Eddie doesn't know where you are now — in any other situation he'd be desperately hoping that any bystanders somehow missed the painfully (ha) embarrassing blunder — But the only thing he can spare the brainpower to think about is the ache blooming sharply at the front of his skull.

Then he feels the stupid, scaldingly bright sun warm him until the back of his neck prickles with sweat, and for just a moment in his melodramatic heart—Eddie knows.

He knows he's a deadman. He's sure of it, in fact.

No point in driving himself to Hawkins Memorial to wait around in the ER, he was already a goner. As good as dead. His gravestone would read: Here lies Edward Munson, killed by his infatuation with the relative stranger who sits behind him in Economics and his own short attention span. (But in his humble defense, your smile is bright enough to rival the sun itself, and Holy hell you looked gorgeous today. Sue him if he'd wanted to stare at you just a little longer.)

Eddie is still rocking side to side in the grass when the sunlight over his body thins with a shadow. As if to add insult to injury, something knocks him in the ribs only a moment later. Eddie is still grumbling profanities when the fog in his ears clears enough to hear another voice, distantly familiar and so much nicer than the sound of his own.

He dares to open his eyes again, fighting against the pain in his head to squint against the harsh glare of the sun shining out from behind the–

Huh. He really must be dead.

Because Eddie is pretty sure there is an honest-to-god angel kneeling over him. Shit.

Five Minutes Earlier

You're sitting outside during your free period on one of the first few truly warm days of spring in Hawkins, trying to soak up as much fresh air as you can before the cold snap of 40 and 50 degree days the coming week has in store can wring out the final dregs of winter in the midwest.

The past weekend had been a beautiful respite. Friday it had been sunny and seventy-five by lunchtime. It was a tease of what's to come, so close you can practically taste it.

Finals, graduation, summer.

Today is much the same, so by the time the bell rings to signal the start of your free period, you’re already outside basking in the warm weather and attempting to make use of your good mood by finishing the reading for your English assignment, dull as the material may be.

You nearly drop the book cradled in your lap when the doors to the school suddenly burst open just ten feet from your sunshine-y spot in the grass outside the Hawkins High School science wing. The slam of metal hitting brick is jarringly loud. You flinch in surprise, gaze snapping toward the disruption as your heart rate works frantically to re-settle in your chest.

Your eyes find Eddie Munson.

He's standing tall in the doorway, his favorite leather jacket forgone with the warm weather, but he still has his seemingly very well-loved denim vest layered over a tshirt. His eyes are wild, his footing restless. His body seems to be thrumming with unsettled kinetic energy, leaving him wavering in place. He's searching for.. something — that much you can tell. His mouth presses anxiously against his knuckles as he spins in a jerky circle, cursing under his breath while the heavy doors slam shut once again behind him.

You watch as Eddie looks longingly to the edge of the student parking lot, just barely visible around the corner of the building. His face scrunches up in deliberation for a moment before his head jerks to the side, as if listening to some noise beyond the doors that doesn't quite reach you. He turns toward the line of bushes along the side of the building, just a few feet from where he still hovers at the side entrance. It seems as if he's debating something to himself before he gives an unsure shake of his head, and then suddenly Eddie is diving into the greenery headfirst.

The sight has you nearly choking on a gasp-turned-laugh. You watch the scene beginning to play out, feeling a bit like you must've been transported straight onto the set of I Love Lucy— like at any moment all color will fade from the world around you and leave behind only shades of gray. Cue the tinny laughter of a live studio audience.

The doors are slamming open once more before you can so much as blink. The jarring sound of metal colliding with the brick wall again meets your ears just as the last bit of Eddie's denim-clad leg disappears within the thicket of poorly tended branches and leaves. You take in the sudden barrage of green, white, and gold that emerges from the building. Letterman jackets hang loose over the shoulders of the two jocks who have stormed out after Eddie, deep scowls on their faces, expressions pinched and nostrils flared in annoyance.

“Damn it! We lost him-”

“Where the hell did he go?”

“How should I know? Shit, how's the freak so fucking fast?”

You huff a quiet laugh of amusement, shaking your head as you attempt to refocus on the book in your hands. You've barely finished re-reading the start of the paragraph you’d unwillingly abandoned during Eddie's dramatic exit when a voice slices through your focus.

“Hey!” One of the guys calls out.

You catch the way he relaxes his posture into something less intimidating the moment your gaze settles on him. One hand raises above his head in a halfhearted wave, a gentle smile on his face that you're familiar enough with to not fall for — It's dripping with the same faux-charm that you've seen rake in unprecedented extensions for late assignments or subservient smiles in the place of tardy slips. He fixes that same smile on you now, the kind of efficacy that could probably land the guy a leading role in the upcoming Drama Club production.

“–You, uh, you seen Munson around?”

Your own acting skills are put to the test when the bushes rustle just slightly at the mere mention of his name. It's an honest-to-God challenge to swallow down the laughter that threatens to spill from your lips. You do your best to paste on an look of confused nonchalance, taking a moment to school your expression while you slide your bookmark into place and valiantly fight the urge to flick your eyes toward the white, rubber soles poking out from beneath the shrubbery beside them.

“No, sorry.” The lie itself comes easy — The feigned apology etched into your expression, however, proves a little more difficult, “Haven't seen him.”

The guys look to one another with clear frustration. They begin to mutter back and forth, too quietly for you to make out their words, but from the obvious anger between them, you're able to put the pieces together fairly well. You've watched Eddie Munson piss off more than enough people from afar to make an educated guess as to the motive behind their current hunt.

The ever-magnetic Eddie Munson.

A majority of the time it's far more difficult for you to not get sucked into his tirades and rants than it is for you to simply allow your attention to be drawn straight toward him. The captivating boy with wild brown curls, and dimpled cheeks, and expressive eyes, and a laugh brighter than life itself.

You don't know Eddie, per say. You've never actually had a conversation longer than a few mundane interactions. During one of the more memorable ones, Eddie asked to borrow a pencil that he never actually returned — Instead he'd fixed you with an all-too-charming, lopsided grin at the end of the class and asked if he could use it for the rest of the day, seeing as he couldn't find his. Because apparently he owned only one pencil or something-

And Eddie had sauntered into class every day for the next few weeks with that very same pencil tucked behind his ear. His teeth carved little indents into the soft wood when he gently gnawed on it in thought. He'd drummed the eraser softly on his desk during quizzes, fidgeting with it teeter-tottering between his fingers while he pondered over multiple choice. The utensil whittled down more and more each time you saw him, until it was a mere stub shorter in length than Eddie's thumb — but still, he continued to use it even then. His dedication to keeping track of it for so long was endearing enough that you’d never once asked for it back.

Point is, Eddie is kind of a secret sweetheart. And you do think you know enough to be confident in the assessment that even Eddie's craziest stunts are nearly always some sort of retaliation in defense of those he deems in need of his protection. The losers and the freaks and the outcasts. Those who would normally allow the abuse and ridicule from their classmates without putting up any real fight. Because if there is one thing you’re certain of, it's that under all of that bravado — hidden beneath layers of leather, ripped denim, and the illegal ink scratched into his skin — Eddie Munson is quite possibly the most genuine, well-meaning person you've ever encountered.

While you're sure he'd be loath to hear it… Eddie Munson is cute. There's something real that sparkles in that easy charm he turns on the teachers when he wanders into the classroom ten minutes late, or on the lunch ladies when he's angling for an extra scoop of mac and cheese.

And sometime around December Eddie had begun leaving little doodles beside the red pen marking your grade on quizzes and assignments— Adorably disturbing animations of otherwise cute animals, a smiley face adorned with devil horns, a surprisingly detailed hand displaying a thumbs up, a stick figure with the same bald head and frizzy hair around his ears as your teacher. Whatever he could get away with scribbling in thirty seconds or so before continuing to pass the stack of day-old papers back.

There's a sweetly endearing boy threatening to sneak through the cracks in his facade — You'd noticed, and you've been quietly and embarrassingly smitten ever since.

Which is to say, you're well-versed enough in his antics to know that while Eddie has surely gone out of his way and done something- He probably doesn't actually deserve the brutal ass-kicking that these two obviously have in store.

“But-” You call out suddenly when one of the guys teeters a small, unintentional step in the direction of the metalhead's current hiding spot, “I've heard he sometimes hides out from Principal Higgins in the track and field shed,” You fib easily. “Maybe you could check there?”

The guys seem to perk up at the suggestion, shooting you grateful smiles and waving as they bid you goodbye with a quick: “Yeah, we'll go give it a look! Thanks for the tip!”

It only takes approximately five seconds from the moment the heavy door slams shut behind them for Eddie to tumble out onto the grass just beyond the line of shrubbery. He curses up a storm all the while, letting out a little yelp when he has to kick one of his feet free from a tangle of low-hanging branches. You can just make out a few of his grumbled expletives along with the tinkling of the chain wallet clipped to his belt loop, the sound of metal on metal and twigs snapping making their way to you despite sitting at the far end of the grassy knoll.

He scrambles back to his feet in a rush, cheeks pink, wide-eyes flitting about in the distance until his gaze settles on you. Eddie's blush only darkens at the realization that you've seen his fall, but then his cheeks are dimpling with a wide, earnest grin, one hand coming up to shoot you a grateful wave as he takes just a few long strides in your direction.

“Hey, hi, it's you!” He calls out, kicking at the ground below him bashfully as his hands fall to his hips. “I mean. I, uh, thanks for the assist, there.”

“Oh, no problem,” You laugh, “Happy to help.”

“Well, ah… Just, let it be known that your gentle misdirection was greatly appreciated,” He finishes with a gracious little bow, and feels silly for about half a second before he hears you laugh softly at his theatrics and then any and all traces of insecurity immediately fly from his head to make room for the abundance of affection and puppy love that fills his chest.

As your laughter tapers out, a small beat of silence settles in the vast space between you.

“Right.” Eddie nods to himself as he speaks, waving once more when he begins to backpedal toward the parking lot a few yards behind him. “Well, don't tell anyone, but I'm cutting last period, so-”

You mime twisting a key to lock your lips, “Mum's the word.”

“Oh, mum, you say? Shit, here I thought you'd just send anyone else who asks after me on a futile side-quest to the track and field shed.” Eddie jokes, moving another two steps back toward the sidewalk. “My own personal mastermind rogue.”

The reference goes over your head, but the grin Eddie shoots you as he says it is enough of a thrill to have your stomach erupting with a small swarm of butterflies.

“I'm practically aiding and abetting,” You tease, rewarded with a sharp laugh that has Eddie's eyes glittering even from a distance. “Better be careful. Too many people come looking for you and I just might have to start keeping a tally.”

A hand flies up to his own chest, clutching at the fabric of his shirt, “Oh, but of course!” Eddie grins. “Merely name the time and place and I'd be more than happy to repay any and all debts owed.”

“I’ll keep you updated.”

You find yourself smiling back— can't seem to stop smiling, actually. You sort of wish he'd invite you to skip class with him, English assignment be damned. He won't, of course, it's not as if you're friends, but… The longing is there all the same.

“Right. I, uh.. Thanks again. I'll.. see you around?”

Does he look reluctant to leave or is your mind playing tricks?

“Yeah,” You pause for just a beat, “See you.”

Reluctant to look away from you just yet Eddie keeps moving backwards, his sneaker catching on cement for half a second before he steps up onto the curb behind him with only a small stumble.

He laughs good-naturedly at his own clumsiness, hands joined at his lower back as he breaks the lingering eye contact with an embarrassed bow of his head.

You watch with bated breath as Eddie nears a lamppost at the edge of the lot. Your lips part on a warning that proves to be about half a second too late.

Because Eddie has already turned on his heel and suddenly finds himself too close and moving far too fast to avoid walking into it— facefirst, at full-speed. Your entire body jolts just watching the impact from afar, your own yelp in your ears nearly drowning out the awful sound of his head colliding with metal.

You're scrambling to your feet as Eddie staggers back a step on wobbly legs, and you're abandoning your things to rush in his direction as his knees give out and he lands on his backside in the grass with a choked-off gasp of pain and surprise.

By the time you drop to your knees beside him, Eddie's already cursing up a storm. He's rolling side to side in the grass, long legs kicking out as if the constant movement might actually be able to siphon some of the pain from his head. Your knee catches him in the ribs in all of his thrashing, but Eddie seems too caught up in his hurt and his own dramatics to have even noticed.

“Fucking–” Eddie cuts off with a groan, long and drawn out as it rumbles in his throat. “Stupid piece of– What a stupid fucking place to put a god damn pole. Jesus H. Fucking Christ! Ouch–!”

“Oh god! Are.. Are You okay?” You manage to get in over the sound of his breathy expletives.

All of Eddie's writhing and flailing comes to a halt as he casts a look up in your direction, big brown eyes settling just long enough to be blinded by the sun behind you. He squints hard against the sheer brightness, his gaze instantly gone a little hazy. He looks at you for about half a second, empty gaze flitting over your face like he’s never seen you a day in his life.

“Ah.. Oh, damn it, you're pretty.” He manages before his eyes pinch shut against the onslaught of light penetrating his corneas with another curse, “Real pretty. Ah shit, did I fuckin’.. Am I honestly dead right now? Fuck.”

At least, you're mostly sure that's what he says. He's grumbling under his breath more than speaking, really. Regardless, you're going to reassure him, lips already parting to do just that, but Eddie hardly gives a moment of pause before babbling on faintly, words coming out worryingly garbled to your untrained ears.

“I-I mean, don't get me wrong, angel, alright?” Eddie’s words slur together, “I am, uh, pleasantly surprised if it's you welcoming me to eternity.” It sounds as if each word is heavy on his tongue, or perhaps, like each one is being forcibly dragged from the depths of his chest and they've lost some of their clarity by the time they reach his lips. “‘m sure you know I'm not exactly in a place to turn away a free pass into heaven, but, uh, Jesus- Or, sorry- Ow.” He finishes inarticulately.

You reach out cautiously, making for the area of skin hidden away beneath his fluffy bangs. Eddie startles the moment your fingers brush the welt forming on his forehead, despite how deliberately gentle you are with the movement. There's a bump, swollen under your fingertips and warm to the touch already, the injured skin flushed with heat — If the poor guy comes out of this with lasting brain damage, you're going to be seriously riddled with guilt for just existing to distract him in the first place.

“Fuck.” Eddie grumbles again in discomfort, halfheartedly swatting at your hand until it retreats from beneath his bangs.

His warm knuckles are such a stark contrast to your own, his fingers curling around the edge of your palm before you can fully retreat back into your own space. You ignore the way the metal of the ring on his middle finger pinches your skin when he squeezes your hand. You return his grip just as solidly while Eddie's head falls back to the ground with a dull thunk, your thumb swiping anxiously over the jut of his knuckle as he begins another round of disconcerting grumbling.

“Ohh, if I die, my– My uncle is gonna be pissed, man.”

He sure is babbling a lot for someone with a head injury. You wonder if that's normal — If it's a good sign or a horribly bad one.

You pull in a shaky breath, “You're not dy–”

Eddie doesn't seem to hear you over the light ringing in his ears. Rather, he's continuing on before you can finish, “Shit, he's gonna move ’imself back into my room ‘nd.. ‘N he'll see the state of my mattress. God. He's gonna see the shit stuffed under my mattress–”

You bypass the more obvious implications of his second statement (read: porno mags, drugs) despite your piqued interest, but you're far too stumped and curious to bite back a question regarding the prior.

“What's wrong with your mattress?”

It comes out quiet, but still, this time your voice works like magic at pulling Eddie's attention back on you lightning fast, as if he's noticing your presence for the first time all over again.

Like some sort of divine intervention, a thin cloud passes over the sky then. The filtered sunlight allows Eddie's gaze to fully catch yours, wide brown eyes meeting your open, blissfully honest expression of curiosity.

You're momentarily stunned by the way the molten chocolate of his eyes goes honeyed in the light, his irises glowing with an enchanting mosaic of brown and gold.

Eddie, himself, is still squinting against the light, but this time the brightness doesn't hit him with the immediate need to pinch his eyes shut again. Instead, his brain goes blissfully blank, distracted by the way the sky seems to cast a halo around your head. A few of your flyaways sway in the breeze, sparkling so pretty in the sunlight. He murmurs as much, the words nearly incomprehensible aside from the quiet utterance of ‘pretty’ that you catch slip from his lips for a second time.

“Eddie?”

You cut through his tumultuous inner monologue with a soft voice, worry etched into your expression. You can't help the way you scrunch the denim lapel at his neck in your anxious fist. You pull, just a little. His shoulder lifts an inch or so off the ground before you’re releasing him again, smoothing the fabric out over his clavicle with gentle fingers.

He still hasn't responded by the time you’re finished, so you try again.

“Hey, Eddie..”

His eyes drop from where they've been stuck somewhere just above your own, trailing slow down the length of your torso. You watch him finally take in the extent of your proximity bit by bit; your hand in his own, your knees in the grass beside him, the way your folded legs brush his hip, the fingers you have resting where his shoulder meets his neck, the little flap of denim at the collar of his battle vest caught between your fingers.

“What?” Eddie croaks after a few seconds of silence, the sound of your name falling from his lips immediately afterward fills you with a sense of relief the strength of which you've never quite experienced. “You.. Sorry. Uh, what’d you say?”

Still recovering from Eddie saying your name in that low, grumbly tone, your mouth quirks up at the corners of its own accord, a soft smile gracing your lips.

“You said something about the state of your m-” The words trail off, hand not currently trapped in his grip finding their way to the space between his brows. The pads of your fingertips brush featherlight over the microscopic hairs above the bridge of his nose, ever cautious in their ascent upward. “Nevermind. I just- Eddie.. Seriously. Are you okay?”

“I, uh.. Honestly, angel?” He cracks open just one eye, shooting you a playful grin, “Think I might be concussed.”

You laugh but it’s more in relief at his cognizance than genuine amusement.

“Here, let me-” You reach out a hand and Eddie allows you to slowly help him to his feet with minimal resistance. He sways precariously for only a moment in a struggle to regain his balance, but your hands are right there on his chest to help hold him aloft.

You carefully usher him back toward where you'd been reading in solitude earlier. Slowly, lest the metalhead suddenly collapse to the ground. You guide him by the hand, eyes flitting between Eddie's pain etched face and where his calloused palm is pressed firmly to your own.

As the two of you reach your abandoned belongings, you release his hand to drop to the ground and unzip your bookbag. It only takes a moment of rifling through your things, you find what you’d been looking for: a half-frozen ice pack, tattered kitchen towel still wrapped around it to protect your sandwich from going soggy.

You remove the towel now, turning to face Eddie right as he plops down in the grass beside you. He stretches out, long legs extended in front of him, leaning back on his hands with a casual coolness that makes your head spin. He's lounging next to you as if this is a totally normal occurrence. Like he skipped class and actually chose to come spend that time with you, of all people. Like he's not currently pretending there isn't a sharp ache in his head.

“For you.” You hold the ice pack out in offering, the plastic already beading with condensation in the warm air. “It's not frozen-frozen, but it's still pretty cold. I could run to the nurses office real quick, though, if you-”

“Nah. No need, sweetheart. No, this is great-” He takes the proffered item, fingers brushing yours again, “A Mastermind Rogue and a Healer. How lucky I am to have stumbled into your path this morning.”

He flashes you that entirely too charming smile again, cheeks dimpling in a way that sends your heartbeat into overdrive. You can't quite believe that before today you'd never really looked at him this close. Plenty of class periods have been spent staring at the back of his head studying the pattern of his frizzy curls — Far more time than you've ever spent actually looking at the blackboard at the front of the room. But now you've gotten close enough to notice the freckles dotting the bridge of his nose, the long lines of his eyebrows usually hidden away beneath his bangs, the short, clean stubs of his fingernails and the green tint staining the skin underneath the ring on his index finger.

You doubt you'll ever be able to overlook him again after this.

Eddie must take your momentary silence for confusion, because he immediately delves into an explanation into DnD classifications. He uses simple terms, laying it out in a way that would make sense even if you had no prior knowledge of the game. It's no wonder he's in charge of the after school club, because while he’s boisterous and loud and sometimes a little bit wild and scary on purpose — He can also be so gentle and patient when the situation calls for it, especially when he thinks no one of consequence is paying attention.

But you're paying attention. You're watching the way his full lips move. The way his one free hand gesticulates while he talks. You're watching a bead of water from the ice pack drip down the soft line of his nose. You're listening as his rambling explanation bleeds seamlessly into the concept for the summer campaign he's planning. You find yourself caught up in the whirlwind of his attention and his excitement and the sound of his fucking voice.

Eddie's rambling pauses suddenly, and when he begins speaking again, his words come with a deliberate slowness. “Sorry, I- Sometimes I get going and I don't really know when to stop.” He smiles again but this one is more of a bashful grimace as he scratches at his head awkwardly. “You can just tell me to shut up and I won't even be offended. Promise. I, uh-”

A little bit of the light has dimmed from his eyes, and you can't fucking stand it. You don't want to tell him to shut up. Actually, you'd be far more inclined to sit right here listening to him talk about anything and everything until the final bell of the day rings out, hell until the sun dips below the horizon-

There's so much more nuance to Eddie than you'd expected when he mosied into Economics on that first day at the start of the school year and dropped unceremoniously into the desk in front of you. He is so much more than just a seemingly lacksadasal indifference to his education, or the wild storm of the constant chaos that seems to erupt in his wake.

And speaking of that chaos…

“Hey, um. Can I ask…” You hesitate for only half a second before he’s urging you to continue.

“Yeah, ��course, anything. Go on.”

“What did you do? To piss those guys off earlier, I mean.”

Eddie drops the ice pack to his lap and twists his body toward you in a rush of excitement, leaning his shoulder against the trunk of the tree and grinning at you until you turn slightly to match him. His cheeks dimple again, eyes filled with a giddy mischief that tells you whatever tale of hijinks he’s about to bestow upon you is going to be good. Or, maybe, bad?

Eddie makes a show of dropping his voice into a low murmur, “You ever smelled a hard boiled egg after it's been sitting in a hot car?”

Your lips quirk, “Can't say I have.”

“Nah, ‘course not,” Eddie replies easily. “Well, you're not the only one, apparently. Swear to God. I, for one, cannot imagine how bad those idiots’ jock-straps must reek… I don't think they even bothered looking for the source of the damn smell ‘til yesterday afternoon.”

You try to hold back your laughter, but you don't quite manage it, and Eddie's own grin melts into something all-too pleased at the sound.

“So, how long was the egg in his car then?” You ask in a hushed voice.

Eddie matches your tone, leans in like he's revealing some great secret. His cheeks dimple, the freckles on his nose standing out in his proximity.

“Remember that real hot day we had? Cracked 80 or so?”

You nod, eyes wide. “That was Friday… Right?” Three days ago, your mind supplies.

Eddie’s still grinning, “Yep. Stuffed it into the pocket on the back of his driver’s seat Thursday during lunch.” He says it proudly.

“You broke into his car before the weekend-” Another laugh, but you can't help it, not when Eddie's looking at you like that. “And you just… hid a hard boiled egg?”

“Well, see, it wasn’t locked, is the thing-” He divulges, “So… The way I see it, anyone could’ve done it. Could’a been one of the guys on the math team, or drama club, maybe a spurned cheerleader-”

“Oh, yeah, sure,” You laugh at the unlikeliness of such a thing. An angry cheerleader, maybe, but the other two suggestions are outright preposterous. “Hell, maybe Mrs. O'Donnell did it.”

Eddie throws his head back with a cackle, clapping his hands together in excitement.

“Fucking O'Donnell!” He laughs, “Shit, Yes! Absolutely. You are absolutely right! Yep, O'Donnell’s behind it. Nothing more than a mean old woman's revenge.”

You try not to get too caught up in the heady fog of approval that rolls over you with every peel of Eddie’s laughter, the joy in his voice, the sparkle in his eyes.

“Lucky for you, I happened to witness the whole thing, so-”

“Oh, so you've got my back, is what you're saying?” Eddie teases, bumping your shoulder with his own. “I can count on you to plead my innocence?”

“I'll insist on your innocence,” You promise slyly. “Someone comes asking questions and I'll throw O'Donnell right under the bus. And anyone looking for you specifically will be sent straight to the track and field shed with the rest of the Munson manhunt. Obviously.”

Eddie clutches a hand over his heart, “Damn, sweetheart. I'm not sure I can afford the interest rates on a favor like that.”

You take a deep breath to steel yourself. “I guess you'll just have to think of another way to pay me back.”

“Oh yeah?” Eddie leans back a touch, his eyes assessing, unsure.

He looks almost… Nervous?

“Yeah.” You swallow around the lump of anxiety building in your own throat before speaking again. “I, uh, well. I'm not busy Friday night.” You offer over the sound of your heart pounding in your ears.

“No shit?” Eddie laughs quietly, mostly to himself. “You know what? It looks like I do happen to have plans on Friday.”

“Oh?” Oh. You try to smile despite your heart plummeting to your stomach. It’s fine. It’s fine, you’re fine-

“Yeah, uh… Dinner and a movie?”

Your lips part in confusion, and Eddie seems to mentally replay his own words before shaking his head. His curls whip around wildly with the movement, one hand coming up to press the ice pack to his forehead once more.

“Jesus, sorry, I- Shit, I'm fucking this up.” Eddie curses. “What I meant was uh, you wanna to go to dinner and a movie? …With me!” He adds after a moment. The embarrassment on his face looks almost pained. “Fuck. Would you like to-”

“Eddie?” You interrupt.

“I… Yeah?”

“Yes.”

#i don't know if anyone is even online rn but i have a new library book i wanna read soooo #here it is!!! 🤗#eddie munson #eddie munson fluff #eddie munson hurt/comfort #eddie munson fanfic #eddie munson imagine #eddie munson x reader #eddie munson x you #eddie munson x y/n #eddie munson x gn!reader #eddie munson x gender neutral reader #*

421 notes · View notes

hawkinsbnbg · 1 year ago

Text

hit me baby one more time

This was getting out of hand.

Because Eddie Munson never did repeat.

And somehow, he kept coming back to Steve Harrington’s doorstep, promising himself ‘This will be the last time’, then repeating the same dance and song until he just—

Stayed.

What had started as a one-night stand—simple and uncomplicated—had become something more, an undetermined relationship where Eddie was allowed to stay overnight instead of stumbling back to his place alone, where he woke up to stale breathed kisses and lazy morning sex, where he took turns making breakfast and eventually dinner with his fling (“man of your dream, muse of your soul, light of your life—” “Shut up, Gareth!”).

If anyone was to be blamed, Eddie would point at himself, albeit begrudgingly.

As much as Eddie hated to admit it, he was the one approaching the other man that night when he realized the former King Steve was sitting there in a BDSM club, wearing a crop top and snug jeans, lipgloss and eyeliners, so pretty that the bartender would be swept off by that infamous Harrington Charm soon if no one intervened.

So Eddie did. Walked up to his target of the night and cast his spell, wanting to take the guy down a peg or two, an overdue payback for his horrendous high school experience.

What he didn't expect was to be completely enchanted by Steve who turned out to be a sweetheart, who had gone under so beautifully, looked at him with so much trust and vulnerability, made him want to care, to cherish for the first time in his chaotic life.

Then one morning, when he blinked his eyes open and gazed at the pretty thing still snoring softly in his arms, it suddenly occurred to him that he couldn't walk away anymore.

And thus, the rest was history.

Steve seemed nonchalant most of the time, acting like they were just real close buddies whenever Eddie turned up, as if he hadn't been fucked stupid on every surface of his own apartment.

It thrilled Eddie how easily that indifferent façade would break under his command without resistance.

Eddie brought his hand down in another loud smack, eliciting a muffled sob.

“T– Thank you,” Steve mumbled, sounding soft and sweet in a way that made Eddie's heart clench. “Thank you, Daddy.”

For a moment, he took in the vision draped across his lap. Burgundy sweater bunched around the slim waist, white cotton yanked down to mid thighs, an anklet that matched one of Eddie's bracelets, pale skin and red hand shapes, Venus dimples and lean muscles, moles and freckles that dotted the smooth canvas like constellations.

A masterpiece.

He stroked those cheeks like kneading dough, enjoying the goods before giving it three reverberating smacks.

“How many do you need, baby?” He cooed as Steve started trembling minutely.

“Gimme ten,” Steve whined.

Eddie huffed fondly. What a spoiled brat. It was always ‘I want’ or ‘gimme’ and never ‘can I…?’ or ‘please’ , so needy and demanding all the time. But Eddie was at fault for being a pushover.

At least, Steve never forgot to say sorry and thank you. Would do everything to get praised. Always a good boy even when he tried to be a brat.

“Alright, we can do ten,” he tapped Steve's cheeks lightly. “Count for me, sweetheart.”

Then gave them ten swats in succession that were followed by Steve's strangled counting.

Steve was crying in earnest, face blotchy and lips bit red, when Eddie carefully flipped him over. But his eyes, god, his doe eyes were brimmed with tears, big and wet and drooped pitifully.

“Still good, little prince?” Eddie combed his fingers through the silky lock gently.

“Mhm,” Steve sniffled. “Thank you, Daddy.”

Eddie’s erection twitched and dribbled in the confines of his jeans. Cursing himself for being weak, he leaned down to capture those lush lips, swallowing every breathless noise that tried to escape between the tiny cracks of their mouths.

As wanton legs parted to welcome him and shaky arms wrapped around his neck, Eddie grew greedy, hungry, insatiable. He wanted to devour Steve, to ruin him for anyone else, to keep this beguiling creature away from the prying world.

Because Steve Harrington was a sunshine incarnation, apple pies and vanilla ice cream, honey buns and warm milk, maraschino cherries and chocolate cakes, divine and perfect everything.

Was it so surprising that Eddie wanted to hoard such a treasure even when he would be burnt to a crisp?

“Do you trust Daddy, baby?” He whispered, pecking the pretty face that blossomed in flush pink beneath him.

“Always,” Steve smiled, sweet and precious.

Utterly gone, he dropped soft kisses on Steve's eyelids, making those long lashes flutter like the butterflies in his stomach.

Then, he took care of Steve the way they were both familiar with. Drawing out those pretty moans and taking everything that Steve was willing to give him.

“Daddy,” Steve mewled, neck stretching to give hot lips and sharp teeth more access, quivering and drooling as his prostate was nailed precisely.

“My gorgeous baby,” Eddie groaned, tongue heavy and heart stuttering in his chest. “So good for Daddy, aren't you?”

“Yours,” Steve whimpered, hanging on him like a ragdoll as the pace turned brutal. “Make me yours, Daddy.”

And so Eddie tried his best. Worshiped his beautiful angel until he could taste those nectarine droplets, running down the apple of rosy cheeks and soaking pouty petals.

Eddie pumped him full over and over again, possessive and obsessed, unable to resist the temptation of knocking him up however impossible it was.

Once they were done for the night, he carried Steve into the bathroom for their joint shower, put Steve in a threadbare sweater and cute panties then threw on himself an old tee and boxers after they were dried up.

When they returned to the bed, he gathered Steve in his arms and ran his hand on Steve's back soothingly, whispering sweet nothings until Steve let out a quiet yawn.

“Sleep, baby,” he kissed Steve's forehead. “You have a morning shift tomorrow.”

“G’night, Eds,” Steve said drowsily.

“Sweet dream, my darlin’,” he kissed Steve's forehead again just because he could, just because he wanted to see that sweet smile.

Eddie watched the other man fall asleep against his chest, always unguarded and so trusting around him. It made him feel things he never entertained before. Made him want to listen to ABBA. Made him want to do chores and prepare meals with Steve for the rest of his life.

He let out a helpless sigh.

This was getting out of hand.

Because Eddie Munson had fallen in love.

#steddie #eddie munson #steve harrington #whipped eddie munson #babygirl steve harrington #eddie falls first and falls harder #fuckboy eddie who wanted to play with steve's heart but got his own stolen instead #there's a lot of innuendos in here if you squint and spin #steddiemicrofic #sionewritesatmidnight

348 notes · View notes

hairmetal666 · 1 year ago

Text

Nothing Else Matters plays softly from the little cassette player Steve keeps next to the fridge. Eddie walks in and immediately pulls Steve into his arms, slow dances him around the kitchen.

The song ends and they laugh, wrestle around. There's something about the brightness in Eddie's big eyes, the blush across his cheekbones that gives Steve butterflies, has warmth gathering deep in his stomach.

They're not together.

But for the first time Steve realizes maybe there's a reason he hasn't gone on more than a first date since 1989.

#steddie #steve x eddie #steve harrington #eddie munson #ficlet #fluff #oblivious steve harrington #eddie falls first steve falls harder #best friends to lovers #not so unrequited #nothing else matters #it feels so on the nose to make this steddie but also i'm gonna #anyway eddie cries the first time he hears this song cause he's so in love with steve he can't bear it

906 notes · View notes

hbyrde36 · 1 year ago

Text

No Vacancy

Chapter 11: Private Party

WC: 6366 | R: Explicit | CH: 11/12 | AO3 | Now Complete!

Ch 1 Ch 2 Ch 3 Ch4 Ch 5 Ch 6 Ch 7 Ch 8 Ch 9 Ch 10

*EDDIE*

“Huh,” Eddie huffed, flopping down onto Chrissy’s neatly made bed. It jostled the carefully arranged mountain of pillows that were stacked up against the headboard, sending several of them tumbling to the floor. Why did girls always have so many goddamn pillows?

“So that’s why you never let me come in here before. You do live in a two bedroom!”

Chrissy bent to retrieve her fallen children and put them back in their proper place, except for the last, a bright pink fuzzy number with a cross-stitched peace sign on its front that she wacked him in the back of the head with. “I thought we’d moved past this. Haven't I apologized enough for the whole setup thing?”

He stuck out his bottom lip, arms crossed over his chest. “Will the lies never cease, Christine? I feel robbed! You and Robin were never sharing a bed?!”

“We are now and that’s what matters, right?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Eddie waved a hand through the air. “But where’s the pining for the person lying right next to you night after night?! Where’s the lovesick staring at the other person’s face while they sleep and wishing you could just tell them how you feel?! Where’s the drama?!”

“I think we've had more than enough of that around here—for life. Maybe now it’s time for us all to just be happy.”

“Happy…” Eddie repeated with a sigh.

He hadn’t meant for it to come off so melancholy. He was happy—really and truly.

It’d been a month of pure bliss since he and Steve returned from Hawkins together hand-in-hand. Since all four of them had come back together with apologies, and made up.

The weeks had been full of passionate nights, and sometimes mornings when he and Steve were both too tired to do much more than cuddle once he came home from the bar—punctuated by lazy afternoons by the motel pool, and double dinner dates with the girls whenever Eddie’s work schedule would allow for it.

But just there, in the background, in the dark corner of Eddie’s mind was this great big looming thing.

“Uh oh. Is the honeymoon phase over already? Did Steve finally realize all your flaws are actually annoying, and not cute quirks?”

“No! Of course not. And I resent the implication that my many eccentricities are anything less than adorable.”

Chrissy rolled her eyes. “Something’s bothering you. What’s wrong?”

Eddie hesitated. He was pretty sure it wasn’t a secret or anything, but it didn’t escape his notice that Steve hadn’t brought up the subject of his impending new job placement even once since their little talk.

“Nothing is wrong, exactly. It’s just… did you know Steve is staying here—or like, moving here—permanently, when the summer is over?”

“Robin mentioned he was thinking about taking a job at the elementary school, but I didn't know he’d decided.”

“Well, he has, and he wants me to think about staying too.”

Chrissy, who had turned away to rifle through the cosmetics bag sitting open on her dresser, froze, the tip of her mascara wand hovering just above her lashes.

“And are you?” She asked after a beat, resuming her makeup routine. “Uh… thinking about it, I mean?”

“Am I—” Eddie grunted, slapping his hand down on the bed. “It's literally the only thing I've been able to think about for weeks!”

“Weeks!” She screeched. “Wait, when did this happen?”

“The day we drove back.”

She gaped at him through the small mirror of her blush compact. “And you’re just telling me this now?!”

He shrugged. “I’ve been a little busy.”

“Eddie,” She sighed, snapping the compact shut and spinning on her heel to face him.

“So, what are your thoughts?”

While he knew she asked out of curiosity and concern for him and Steve and the implications for their future together, she was asking for herself too.

She’d often made comments over the years, during their all too brief phone calls and in letters, about them living near each other again one day, either in the same town like they did as kids growing up in Hawkins, or better yet, in side-by-side homes or at the end of the same cul-de-sac.

But those kinds of picket fence dreams were never Eddie’s style, or so he’d always told himself.

“I think…” Eddie stared down at his own hands now resting in his lap, nervously spinning his chunky rings around and around.

“Me and Steve, I think we’ve done this whole thing out of order. We’ve been living together essentially, since before we were a couple—before we were even friends really. Then we both said I love you within the first few weeks, and now considering permanent for-real moving? Moving towns, moving in together—on purpose this time? That’s huge! I mean, all that’s left after that is to get married, and grow old together, and die, and—”

Suddenly Eddie felt like he couldn’t get a full breath, what little air he did manage to take into his lungs doing nothing to ease the burning in his chest. His heart raced wildly, and he swallowed hard, tilting wide terrified eyes up to look at Chrissy.

“Oh god, do you think he wants to get married someday? I don’t know if I’m built for—“

“Ooookay, babe. Let’s just calm down for a second here.” Chrissy sank down onto the bed beside him, wrapping an arm around his shoulders and pulling him into her side—resting her cheek on the top of his head.

“For one—honey, gay marriage isn’t even legal.”

Oh right.

Her words should have filled him with relief, and they did, but to his surprise, just as equal was the feeling of disappointment brought on by the reminder.

“And for two—” Chrissy went on. “It doesn’t have to be all that. You can always have your own rooms, if say, you decide you want to stay here but you need to slow things down with Steve, or just want some space.”

“No—” He was shaking his head before she’d even finished. “No, I don't want to go backwards. I–I love having him right there. I love his face being the last thing I see before I go to sleep, and the first I see in the morning even though that means waking up at an ungodly hour. It’s totally worth it for his goodbye kiss. I love his sweetness, his gentleness, and the sound of his voice. The soft little smile he gives me when he’s half asleep and I crawl into bed at the end of the night, like I'm his favorite thing in the whole fucking world.”

Eddie took a big breath, he could wax poetic on everything he loved about Steve for hours if she’d let him, but what it really boiled down to was one simple fact.

“I just love him, Chris.”

Chrissy sniffled, leaning away from him to wipe carefully at her eyes with the edge of her sleeve. “Sorry. I just never thought I'd hear you talk about someone that way.”

Eddie sat up too, shaking his head at himself. “Yeah, me either.”

“So, what's holding you back?”

“Honestly? I wanted to say yes right then and there, the second he told me. The second I recovered from the shock, anyway. But he looked so nervous about it, and scared, and we’d just put things back together again, and—and so I’ve been doing what he asked.”

Eddie leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands.

“I really don’t want to mess this up, and I know I don’t have a lot of experience with this stuff, but I can't help feeling like it’s too soon, like we’re going too fast. What if it fizzles out, and a year from now we can’t stand the sight of each other?”

She snorted. “Highly unlikely.”

“How do you figure?”

“I think at this point you can admit that you’ve had a crush on Steve since high school, maybe even middle school. That’s a long time to carry a torch for someone. If it’s lasted this long, I’d say those feelings are here to stay.”

Eddie pushed himself to his feet, resisting the urge to stomp like a petulant child. “Jesus H. Christ. First Uncle Wayne, and now you?! I’m never gonna live that down.”

“Who’s had a crush on who since high school?” Robin's voice filtered in from the other room, just before she appeared in Chrissy's doorway.

“You didn’t tell me she was here.” Eddie scowled at Chrissy before swinging his gaze back around to settle on Robin.

They may have made nice since he fixed things with Steve, and Eddie did love the shit out of her, but he and Robin’s relationship was akin to that of a slightly antagonistic brother and sister, and he lived for the bit. “Don’t you have a job you should be doing, Buckley?”

Robin cocked her hip, leaning it against the door frame as she crossed her arms, giving him very pointed eye contact. “Don’t you, Munson?”

Frowning, Eddie glanced at his watch. He had a decent amount of time left before he had to be at the bar to start setting up for Chrissy’s surprise party later, but he still needed to go back upstairs to change, and to get a different little surprise ready for the other love of his life.

“So, you’ve had it bad for Steve since high school too?” Robin said when he didn't hit her with a comeback. “Jeez you two really are perfect for each other.”

Eddie began to roll his eyes but stopped mid-motion as he processed all of what she’d just said. “Wait… too?”

“Oh,” Robin’s eyebrows flew up. “He didn’t tell you?”

“No.” Eddie took a slow step towards her with narrowed eyes.

“Right!” Robin straightened abruptly, hooking a thumb over her shoulder as she started slowly backing away. “So, I’d better get back to the desk. I was just stopping in to say hi and, uh, grab my lunch… I left it on the counter.”

“Robin,” Eddie growled after her, “get back here and explain yourself!”

“I'll see you tonight!” She shouted back, followed immediately by the slamming of a door.

Coward.

Eddie sighed, looking back to see Chrissy with both hands covering her mouth, practically in tears with silent laughter.

“I guess I'd better go too, don’t want to be late for work.” Eddie grumbled.

“Sure, Eds,” Chrissy said, eyes still sparkling. “I’ll see you later.”

As far as she knew it was going to be a night like any other. Steve was off the next day, so once the motel office closed for the night, he, Robin, and Chrissy would come to Tide’s to hang out where Eddie could join in from behind the bar whenever he wasn’t busy with customers.

It being a week out from her actual birthday, she didn't suspect a thing.

Eddie had talked to his boss, and Dan agreed to close the bar to the public from ten p.m. on for a private event so they could celebrate his best friend with the fanfare she deserved. The older man also offered to handle the guest list, aware that Eddie and his friends didn’t know many of the locals yet, and promised to keep it to those he knew to be allies or members of the queer community themselves, so everyone could feel comfortable being themselves for the night without fear of judgment.

As the clock ticked down to party time, Eddie couldn’t stop watching the door, his eyes searching for Chrissy’s blonde ponytail, or Steve’s familiar swoop of chestnut hair, any sign that his three best friends had arrived. They’d put up the private party sign an hour ago, and slowly began to clear the bar of any straggling tourists while the weekend bouncer, Manny, sat out front on a stool, ensuring no one uninvited got inside.

At ten o’clock on the dot they finally arrived, and for a moment all Eddie could do was stare.

Weather due to the heat, which had hit another level as July turned to August, or as a personal assault on Eddie’s sanity, Steve had forgone his usual polo shirts and button ups in favor of an old Madonna tour t-shirt that he’d cut into a crop top, showing off even more tanned skin to its best advantage against the crisp white of the fabric.

It was an effort, but Eddie forced himself to look away and jump into action, ducking under the bar to rush over and greet his people.

He pressed a quick kiss hello to Steve’s cheek but didn’t let himself linger, going right for his best girl straight after, scooping her up into a tight hug and spinning her around.

Chrissy threw her head back, squealing with delight as her feet lifted off the ground.

“Happy Birthday, Chris,” Eddie said as he finally set her down, pressing lips to the top of her head.

Her eyes darted all around the bar, taking in the small crowd, the rotating lights, the decorations, balloons, and finally the big hand painted banner strung up above the bar.

“This is all for me?” She asked.

Eddie grinned, throwing an arm over her shoulder as he turned to address their fellow revelers.

“Excuse me everyone!” He shouted, waiting for the music to be turned down before continuing. “I want to thank you all for being here, and Dan especially for helping put this all together. I’d like to introduce you all to the birthday girl!”

Hearty applause broke out across the room, as well as shouts of, “Happy Birthday!” And even a few good natured wolf whistles when Chrissy leaned away from Eddie to steal a kiss from her girlfriend.

“Were you in on this too?” Chrissy shouted to Robin over the cacophony.

Robin nodded, “I take no credit though. I might have known about it, but Eddie did all the work.”

Before Eddie could correct the record and explain again that he really owed it all to Dan, the man himself was striding up to them.

“Evening, girls, Steve.” Dan greeted them warmly.

Steve, and the girls to a lesser extent, had been spending more and more time at the bar lately, and had all quickly become friendly with Eddie’s boss.

“And a very happy birthday to you,” the older man continued, inclining his head at Chrissy. “If you’d like, I thought I could take you and Robin around and introduce you to some of your guests?”

The girls agreed, promising to meet back up with Steve and Eddie a little later, before rushing off to mingle.

With a palm pressed to his lower back, Eddie led Steve over to the bar. Not that he actually needed the guiding hand, but Eddie was gonna go nuts if he didn’t get to touch Steve soon, and it was one of the few ways he could do that while still maintaining some semblance of decorum.

Steve slid into his usual barstool down the end by the corner, furthest from the speakers so they could actually carry on a conversation, pouting when Eddie let him go to sneak back behind the bar.

“I thought you’d be on this side of the bar tonight.”

“Trust me, sweetheart, with you dressed like that?” Eddie drummed his fingers along the bartop. “Keeping this wood between us is the only way I'll be able to keep my hands to myself.”

“Who said you had to keep your hands to yourself?”

“Steven,” Eddie warned.

“I thought this was a safe space tonight.”

“Yes love, but I don’t think Dan would appreciate it if I dropped to my knees for you in the middle of the dance floor.”

Steve sagged in his seat, letting out an over dramatic sigh. “Okay, fine.”

Eddie chuckled. Sometimes he wasn’t sure who was rubbing off on who more.

They chatted a little about Steve’s day on the beach while Eddie put together their drinks. The usual for Steve, Jack and Coke with lime, no ice, and a tequila on the rocks for himself. Apparently, the jellyfish were out in full force and it sounded like Steve had spent half his day treating burns with vinegar.

“So, Robin said something interesting earlier today,” Eddie said after a while, when Steve was finished with his stories, and he was pouring out their second round of drinks for the night.

“Oh yeah?”

Eddie opened his mouth to elaborate but quickly snapped it shut as his boss appeared at Steve’s side—alone.

“Abandoning our girls already, Dan?” Steve asked.

The older man huffed a laugh. “I was just getting in the way anyhow. Introduced them to Tracey and her partner Pat, and the four of them seem to be hitting it off. Figured I’d leave them to make friends. Tracey’s the manager over at Ocean First bank y’know.”

Eddie smiled widely as he met Steve’s eyes, and he knew they had to be thinking the same thing. Not to get ahead of themselves, but if Chrissy and Robin got in good with someone from the bank, it could make all the difference in the motel’s future.

“That’s, uh, a good friend to have,” Steve commented.

“You aint kiddin’!” Dan clapped Steve on the shoulder, his eyes scanning the room.

Suddenly he perked up, saying to himself “Oh, there he is,” and began to wave someone over.

Eddie followed his line of sight to the door and nearly choked on his own spit.

Motherfucker.

He felt all the blood drain from his face as another man approached, a younger man who looked to be about their age—a very attractive man who looked eerily similar to the one Eddie had seen from his hiding spot, kissing Steve goodbye on the fateful night that had changed the course of his life forever.

Eddie reached over, curling a possessive hand over Steve's where it rested on the bar. He held his breath, waiting for Steve’s reaction, but he was oblivious, looking down and taking a sip of his drink.

“Boys, this is my son, Danny.”

Steve's head snapped up at the name, looking horrified as his eyes landed directly on the newcomer.

“This is Eddie,” Dan continued his introductions, completely unaware of the sudden tension in the air. “My best bartender—though if you let slip to Brenda I said that I’ll deny everything. And this is—

Danny smiled, flashing a set of perfectly straight white teeth. “Lifeguard Steve.”

Eddie hated him.

“Oh! I see you two already know each other.” Dan chuckled, giving a little shake of his head. “Well, that’s a small town for ya! Anyway, I gotta go check on a few things so I'll leave you three to chat.”

Eddie watched the man walk away, wondering if it would be weird to ask him to stay, and when he turned back found that Steve wasn’t looking at Danny anymore, his wide worried eyes were now trained squarely on Eddie's face, hand tensing under his hold.

And whatever feelings of jealousy Eddie might have felt were gone in an instant, replaced with the need to prove to Steve, as well as himself, that he could handle this without doing any number of stupid things to ruin what they had.

He squeezed Steve's hand once firmly before letting go, leaning out to offer it to Danny, who took it with a raised eyebrow.

“Good to meet you, your dad tells me nothing but good things,” Eddie said, keeping his voice calm and even as they shook.

Danny tilted his head. “Ditto.”

Eddie cleared his throat, resisting the urge to wipe his hand on his pants when they separated. “Can I get you anything to drink?”

“Sure. Just a coke though, I’m driving tonight.”

As he poured the soda Eddie could feel the man’s heavy gaze lingering on his face, scrutinizing him. He set the full cup down but Danny didn’t take it, instead resting his chin in his hand as he looked thoughtfully between the two of them.

Eddie topped off his tequila, and braced himself.

“So, Steve,” Danny said, addressing Steve directly for the first time. “Is this the guy?”

Steve's face, which had already been flushed and radiating discomfort, burned a bright cherry red at the question, but he didn’t shy away. He shot off a soft shy smile at Eddie as he answered. “Yeah.”

Eddie’s mouth fell open, and he nearly dropped the glass he was holding. “You told him about me?!”

“Good,” Danny said, ignoring Eddie’s outburst, holding back a laugh as he finally took a sip of his coke. “I’m really happy for you, Steve.”

It sounded sincere enough that Eddie might have relaxed, but then the man’s gaze was swinging his way.

“And you—I hope you know how lucky you are.”

Eddie swallowed hard, nodding absently, too stunned and confused to form any kind of verbal response.

“Well,” Danny stood abruptly, leaving his barely touched soda to sweat on the lacquered wood top. “It was nice to finally meet you, Eddie, but I think I'll get out of your hair. I should probably go see if my dad needs help with anything anyway. And it was good to see you again, Steve. I’m glad things worked out.”

There was a beat of tense silence between them as Danny left, but as soon as he was out of earshot, Steve was falling all over himself to apologize.

“Oh my god, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I had no idea he was–”

Eddie couldn’t help cutting him off, saying again, “You told him about me? On your date?”

“I couldn’t stop thinking about you! I… Eddie, you have to know. You have to know the only reason I even agreed to the date with him was to get over you, and he could tell I was distracted.”

“Oh.”

“I know we never really talked about that night, um–”

Eddie reached out, once again covering Steve’s hand with his own. “Listen, baby, I'm not upset at you, okay? I’m not gonna freak out, or run away again, or any of that, I promise you. But I don’t think I need to hear the details.”

“No, Eddie. It’s not—” Steve shook his head. “That's what I'm trying to tell you. Nothing happened. Well, um, very little happened.”

“It’s fine, Steve. I was being an idiot then, and we weren’t—us. Whatever you did before we were together is none of my business.”

“But I couldn’t do it!” Steve blurted out.

“What?”

“We were—” Steve dropped his voice down so low that Eddie had to lean in close. “We were about to, and—”

“No, stop. I don't need to hear–” Eddie pulled back suddenly, waving his hands, only to immediately lean right back in, his chin practically resting on the bar, eyes level with Steve’s. “Okay, no. I mean, yes—no. Fine! Just tell me. It can’t be worse than whatever I'm imagining.”

“Oh my god, '' Steve groaned, burying his head in his hands for a second before looking up again, peeking at Eddie between the gaps of his fingers. “Not to put too fine a point on it, but he was two fingers deep in my ass and all I could think about was how much I wanted it to be you. So I told him I needed to stop.”

“Baby,” Eddie breathed. So many emotions coloring the single word.

It was so—sweet. And yes, admittedly, relieving in a way, though he’d had no claim to Steve at the time.

Okay, so Eddie was a fucking caveman, a jealous animal—so sue him!

But somehow, above all the rest, it was so incredibly fucking hot to learn that his baby, his needy boy had wanted him—and only him—so badly that he’d stopped practically mid-fuck with someone else.

Eddie’s breath picked up, and he knew his eyes had gone dark and heavy lidded, his hands balled into fists so tight his knuckles were turning white.

“Fuck,” Steve cursed, drawn out and breathy, his tongue darting out to lick across his bottom lip, leaving it wet and shining in the party lights. “Eddie, you can’t look at me like that, not when there’s hours till we’ll be home where we can do something about it.”

Eddie’s eyes remained fixed on Steve as he shouted from the corner of his mouth to his coworker. “Hey Dawn, I’m gonna step out for a smoke, you good?”

He wasn’t even technically on the clock right now, they could manage without him for a while.

“Yep!” The girl replied without even turning around.

Eddie untied his apron, only breaking eye contact to duck under the bar. He took Steve’s hand, lacing their fingers together as he pulled him along towards the kitchen.

“Where are we going?” Steve whisper-shouted from behind, barely audible over the music.

Eddie stopped just short of the swinging double doors, pulling Steve in by a belt loop to speak in his ear. “Somewhere we can do something about it.”

This late into the evening the kitchen was closed and empty of staff. The big overhead fluorescents had been shut off and every surface scrubbed to within an inch of its life, clean and gleaming in the soft glow of the emergency lights and the red exit sign on the back door.

Eddie continued to lead the way, past the prep tables and behind the line, all the way to the very back and through a heavy insulated door.

He tried to feel bad about how unhygienic it was to do what he hoped they were about to do in here, but in his defense the food was all wrapped up or in air-tight secure containers. Also bleach existed, and Eddie was more than happy to clean up after himself.

Besides, It wouldn't be the worst thing to ever happen in a restaurant walk-in.

It was a frenzy from the moment the door banged shut behind them. Eddie twisted his hand into the front of Steve’s shirt, pulling him in for a kiss. Their mouths connected, all tongues and teeth and hot steamy breath mingling in the frigid air. Steve’s fingers pushed into Eddie's curls, scratching at his scalp, tugging at the root, while Eddie's hands found their way to that slutty little bare strip of tummy that his boyfriend had insisted on teasing him with tonight, gripping hard on either side of Steve’s waist as he moved them further in towards the rear of the walk-in.

Steve hissed as his back hit the chilled metal of the wall, his skin breaking out in goosebumps under palms hands.

“Sorry, baby,” Eddie cooed in sympathy, grinding his own hardness against Steve’s as he nipped at his lower lip. “It was this or the bathroom, and I didn’t particularly want an audience.”

Steve pushed off the wall, grinning as he grabbed Eddie hard by the shoulders to spin them around, switching their positions and pressing him into the wall instead.

Eddie went willingly, delighted as Steve unknowingly played right into the dynamic he was hoping for tonight, and waited for Steve’s lips to find his again, even reached out to pull the other man in again, but Steve slipped from his grip to drop straight to the floor, a desperate and hungry look in his eyes.

With well practiced fingers Steve quickly undid Eddie's jeans, yanking them down to his thighs so roughly he might have stumbled without the wall to lean against. He had a second to feel the cold air hit his most sensitive bits of bare skin before Steve swallowed him down, taking him right to the back of his throat.

Eddie could do nothing but moan, letting his head fall back against the wall for a breath, waiting for his brain to catch up with the rest of him, so lost in the sensation of Steve's mouth, scorching where it engulfed him, that he almost forgot his surprise.

Winding one hand through Steve's hair in encouragement, Eddie used the other to take Steve’s hand from where it rested on his thigh to guide it around to his ass. Steve only hesitated for a moment before kneading at the soft plump flesh, still bobbing his head up and down the length of Eddie’s cock, but faltered and froze as his fingers bumped up against the base of the silicone plug that had been nestled in Eddie’s hole for the last several hours.

Steve pulled off with a soft gasp, letting the tip of Eddie's cock rest on his tongue as he looked up, watching Eddie’s face with something like awe as he pushed on the plug.

From the tips of his toes to the top of his head Eddie felt his entire body flush with a new heat, it prickled along his neck and chest, and he had to fight to keep his eyes on Steve and not let them fall shut at the sudden intensity of his need.

“Where did you get this?” Steve asked, sounding wrecked in a way that Eddie suspected had less to do with the brief blowjob, and more to do with his little stunt.

Eddie whined as Steve tugged on the toy, pulling it out about an inch before pushing it back in again, punching the air from his lungs.

“Would you believe there’s a little mom and pop sex shop not far from here?” Eddie forced out between panted breaths.

Steve hummed, grazing his lips over the skin of Eddie’s inner thigh as he released the plug, leaving it in place for now. “I guess this town really does have it all.”

Eddie chuckled softly and reached down to pull Steve to his feet, cupping his cheek as he pressed a soft kiss to his mouth.

“Fuck me?” He asked, fluttering his eyelashes.

Steve made a pained noise, tucking his face into Eddie’s neck, peppering kisses along the underside of his jaw. “Are you sure?”

“Yes, fuck—want it.” Eddie tilted his head back to give Steve better access to his throat. “Been thinking about you bending me over—dreaming about it.”

The words were barely out of Eddie’s mouth before Steve was growling, gripping him up again and moving him—manhandling him in a way he never had before as he gave Eddie exactly what he wanted—bending him over a low, blessedly empty shelving unit.

Steve pushed at Eddie’s shirt, dragging it roughly up and over his head before tossing it to the floor somewhere behind them. He leaned over Eddie’s back, pressing kiss after kiss down the entire length of his spine, pausing at the base of it, resting those big hands on Eddie’s ass again, spreading him wide and taking hold of the plug to gently pull it out, placing it on another nearby shelf.

Eddie swallowed back a whimper, his body clenching around nothing, suddenly empty after so many hours of being filled, but he knew what was coming would be even better, and the sound of Steve’s zipper coming undone only made him clench harder.

Eddie flushed again, another rush of warmth as beads of sweat beginning to form on his brow in anticipation. There was a brush of rough denim against the back of his thigh, and then velvet heat as Steve pressed in close, rubbing his hard length between Eddie’s cheeks, teasing over his hole.

“Condom?” Steve asked, sounding like it was a struggle just to get the word out.

They hadn’t been using them at all since both their test results had come back clear. And Eddie could appreciate Steve wanting to make the cleanup easier on him since they were out in public for the night, but it couldn’t have been further from what he wanted.

“No,” Eddie pressed himself back, his body shuddering as the tip of Steve's cock caught on his rim. “No, wanna feel it when you come inside me for the first time.”

“Fuck, okay.” Steve sucked air in harshly through his teeth. “Lube?”

“In my back right pocket.”

Eddie glanced back over his shoulder just in time to see Steve raise the packet to his mouth, tearing it with his teeth before pouring it over himself. Some of the cool wetness dripped down onto Eddie as well, and Steve spread it around with two fingers, pushing just the tip of one inside at first. When he was met with no resistance Steve plunged them both in at once, reaching and curling until he found that sweet spot inside Eddie that sent his eyes rolling back, and had him writhing and bucking his hips against the hard metal of the shelf.

“Please, Steve, I’m ready,” Eddie begged.

Mercifully, Steve didn’t make him ask twice, easing his fingers free before lining himself up, and inch by gentle inch began to push his way inside.

It felt like an eternity before Steve finally bottomed out, and Eddie wanted to cry with how good it felt to be full, really full, for the first time in he didn’t even know how long. It wasn’t something he let himself have very often. He really did prefer to top as a rule, but sometimes—sometimes he just needed it, wanted it, and tonight he also wanted to give Steve the last part of himself that he’d been holding back.

With shallow careful thrusts Steve began to move, draping himself over Eddie’s back, pressing lips to whatever swaths of skin he could reach.

Tears streamed from the corners of Eddie’s eyes, overcome with the feeling of being had in this new way by someone he loved, who loved him back. It felt incredible but he soon needed more. Eddie tried to rock back on instinct, but found Steve hands already on his hips, stilling him before he could move an inch.

“Steve,” Eddie whined.

Steve shushed him, rubbing small soothing circles into Eddie’s lower back with his thumbs. “You always make me feel so good, just let me return the favor.”

“I thought you were cold?” Eddie grunted, trying again to fuck himself back on Steve’s length, but the other man’s grip was like a vice.

“Not anymore,” Steve said, and Eddie could practically hear the smirk in his voice, though he did sink a little deeper, still keeping his pace frustratingly slow and even, like he was trying to drive Eddie insane. “Seeing you fall apart like this? We could be standing in the middle of a snowstorm right now and I'd still be sweating.”

And oh he’d definitely be paying Steve back for this later.

“Baby, please,” Eddie whined again, a high-pitched, desperate sound he could hardly believe had come from his own mouth.

“How soundproof do you think this thing is?” Steve asked.

“How should I fucking know?!” Eddie growled in frustration. “Why?!”

Without warning Steve snapped his hips, slamming into him so hard that for a second Eddie couldn’t even make a sound. He threw his head back, mouth wide open in a silent scream of pleasure—followed by an actual scream. Steve surged forward, slapping a hand over Eddie’s mouth, pulling his head back to hiss into his ear, hot breath ghosting over Eddie’s skin as he rammed into him again and again, hard enough to shake the shelving unit that was bolted to the floor.

“No reason.”

There was nothing slow or gentle about Steve after that.

For a while Eddie lost himself to the pounding rhythm and the loud slapping of flesh as Steve fucked into him impossibly harder and faster.

He’d never last at this rate, it was just too fucking good, and he wasn’t alone. Before long Steve was reaching for him, stroking Eddie’s cock as his own breaths became ragged and he began to lose his rhythm.

With one last powerful thrust Steve came, cock pulsing violently as he buried himself deep inside, and Eddie’s last coherent thought as he followed him over that edge, losing control as he felt himself being filled up with Steve’s release, was that they really ought to switch things up more often.

Steve laid across Eddie’s back for a long minute as they both came down and caught their breath, neither really wanting to move at all, but inevitably Steve grew soft and slipped out, leaving a trickle of cum slowly leaking from Eddie’s hole in his wake.

“Eds, honey, do you have your bandana or anything on you?” Steve asked softly.

Eddie looked back, biting his lip, suddenly shy about what he wanted as the afterglow began to fade. “No, uh, but I was hoping you would plug me back up instead?”

“Jesus, Eddie. Yeah—yeah, okay,” Steve stuttered, his dick giving a valiant twitch against Eddie’s leg.

Eddie was loose enough, and slick enough with the combined mess of cooling fluids that the plug sank home easily, and he was grateful he’d worn black jeans tonight to help mask any residual mess.

When their pants were back in place and he’d retrieved Eddie’s shirt from the floor, Steve took him in his arms and lowered them both to the floor, cradling Eddie in his lap as he kissed his forehead.

Eddie knew the rest of the summer would go by in a flash.

Before long the season would be over, tourism would slow as vacationers traveled home for the year, and the beaches would start to empty.

The new school year would begin.

Though they hadn’t talked about it, Eddie had seen the note on their dresser. He knew Steve’s final interview was in two short days, and he’d be expecting an answer soon.

And for once, the idea of it didn’t fill Eddie with panic.

He'd done his thinking.

He’d weighed the risks and pondered the worries, done the calculations in his head and realized there had only ever been one answer to this equation.

For now he let himself bask in the moment, so safe and comfortable in the circle of Steve’s arms, the brush of soft lips pressed to his brow.

He knew what he wanted—had known it all along.

Now he just had to find the perfect way to tell Steve.

Chapter 12

All my thanks and love to @penny00dreadful for being the best beta, friend, and cheerleader.

Reblogs are always appreciated and if you want to be tagged, just let me know! I'd be more than happy to do so 💜

Permanent taglist(open): @pearynice @hitlikehammers @bookworm0690 @wonderland-girl143-blog

@goodolefashionedloverboi @themagicalari @awkwardgravity1 @rocknrollsalad

Fic taglist(open): @manda-panda-monium @hellion-child @dreamwatch @brbsoulnomming @epiclazershark

@estrellami-1 @lokfae @raisedbylibrarians @impala314 @meganwinchester

@kacatshi @warlordess @eddie-munsons-lunchbox @garden-of-gay @meela86

@gregre369

#steddie fanfic #steve harrington #eddie munson #stranger things #90's beach motel au #no upside down au #steddie #buckingham #chrissy cunningham #robin buckley #no vacancy #steve harrington falls first but eddie munson falls harder #steddie fic #steve harrington/eddie munson #steve x eddie

30 notes · View notes

keeryhours · 1 month ago

Text

such small hands - chapter one

Masterlist Series Masterlist Tag Lists

Eddie Munson x female!Henderson!reader

Summary:

In a whirlwind week, you and Eddie fall in love without anyone noticing. Things are given, things are taken away.

Warnings:

Smut (18+), unprotected p in v, oral (f receiving), fingering, violence, death, canon s4 spoilers, pregnancy, past reader x billy, talk of billy’s death

Word Count: 13.3k

A/N:

I just got started writing this one and went crazy. This first chapter has a lot of elements/dialogue from the show, future chapters won’t be like that. I hope you enjoy ❤️

You had never paid much mind to Eddie Munson before your senior year.

You knew of him, of course. Hawkins High Freak, drug dealer, nerd, yeah yeah. You probably should have seen it coming when your little brother Dustin came to Hawkins High for his freshman year and almost immediately was adopted by Eddie’s group of nerds.

That’s what threw Eddie into your life originally. Your brother was obsessed with him, idolized him, just like he did with Steve. It made sense to you. Your dad wasn’t around - it was just you, Dustin, and your mom. He needed a male role model in his life, and he had found two.

You had nothing in common with Eddie. You were cheerleading captain, dating - dated - Billy Hargrove for almost two years. You didn’t run in the same circles as Eddie Munson.

When Eddie was accused of murder, everything went to shit.

He got sucked into your world of the Upside Down. You were suddenly spending a lot of time with the guy. And - he wasn’t so bad. At all.

The gang had left you to keep Eddie company at Reefer Rick’s while they ran for supplies. The poor guy had been here alone and terrified, hiding from the cops. Nothing to eat or drink. He was covered in a black grime. You felt bad for him. He was shaken up, but still Eddie.

“So,” he said, after you’d been sitting in silence. “You’re Henderson’s sister?”

“That would be me,” you nodded.

“I’ve heard a lot about you.”

Your eyebrows raised. “Yeah? I’ve heard a lot about you.”

Eddie huffed a short laugh. “Henderson likes to talk.”

You chuckled. “He idolizes you.”

“Me?” Eddie seemed a little surprised. “I know he’s crazy about Harrington, but-“

“Literally never shuts up about both of you.”

Eddie laughed. “Well, apparently you’re the coolest big sister ever. So.”

Your cheeks heated in a blush. You knew Dustin loved you - you loved him back even more - but to hear he’d been talking about you like that? It made you feel warm inside. Sitting there with what you had in common - being totally adored by the coolest kid.

“You didn’t have to stay,” Eddie said. He was smiling more than you’d seen him do since yesterday. “I would have been alright.”

“I wanted to stay,” you said. “Seemed like you needed somebody.”

Eddie looked at you like he could see through to your very soul - and he smiled. He knew, in that moment, that he wanted to see you every possible second of his life.

You stayed with him as often as you could after that. You were drawn to him, and he seemed like he liked the company. He was so easy to talk to, made you laugh, made your heart beat harder in your chest. If only you both knew that you felt the same.

Tuesday, Eddie was almost caught and murdered by Jason Carver while you were in the Creel House with the rest of the gang. You decide then that Eddie is probably best not left alone.

Wednesday, the police officially released Eddie’s name as the prime suspect in Chrissy’s death. It made you sick - Eddie. Sweet Eddie, who would never hurt anyone.

Your Eddie.

When you saw him there at Skull Rock, looking even more like he’d been through absolute hell, it was like your heart reached for him through your chest.

He hopped down from the rock and Dustin sighed in relief. “Jesus, we thought you were a goner.” He pulled Eddie into a hug, who awkwardly patted him on the back as he hugged him back.

“Yeah, me too, man. Me too.” He smiled, like he was relieved not to be alone. His eyes met yours over Dustin’s shoulder. As Dustin pulled away, you stepped into his spot, and Eddie wrapped his arms around you, slowly, pulling you in close. He looked at you like you were the first drink of water he’d had in days.

How no one else ever noticed the two of you falling in love, you had no idea.

But it was a sacred thing between you. Something you held onto. You were going to tell people, eventually. It just felt nice to have something for the two of you for a while.

You wished you had told people. You wished you had shouted it from the rooftops.

The gang realized that Dustin’s broken compass wasn’t actually broken - it had been disrupted by an electromagnetic field. A gate. As plans were made to once again take on the Upside Down, Dustin turned to Eddie, who had been quiet the entire time.

“What say you, Eddie the Banished?”

It was the question, posed from your baby brother. Eddie rubbed the back of his neck. “I’d say you’re asking me to walk into Mordor,” he said. “Which, if I’m totally straight with you, I think is a really bad idea. But, uh, the Shire…the Shire is burning.”

Dustin began jumping up and down.

“So Mordor it is.”

You wanted to beg Eddie. You wanted to plead with him to run and never look back. You knew the second he agreed to help you that his life was on the line, and you weren’t sure it was something you were willing to risk.

“What is Mordor?” Steve muttered to himself.

As the rest of the group began walking off, Eddie trailed behind, next to you. He grabbed your hand in his, squeezing it softly, smiling at you.

And you fell, and fell, and fell.

Dustin’s compass took you to Lover’s Lake in search of a gate that night. Robin, Steve, and Nancy climbed onto the little boat, followed by Eddie. He held his hand out for you with a gentle smile and you took it, letting him help you climb on.

Dustin tried to climb on next. “Hey, hey, hey, you trying to sink us?” Eddie asked. “This thing holds three people tops, okay? And there’s five of us in here somehow already.”

“It’s better this way,” Nancy said. “You guys stay with Max.”

“You’re safer here,” you told your brother. “Keep an eye out for trouble.”

“You keep an eye out for trouble!” Dustin said.

You just gave him a look.

“It’s my goddamn theory!”

“You heard your sister,” Robin said.

“Who put her in charge?” Dustin pointed at you.

“I did.”

“Compass,” you said, holding a hand out to your brother. He reluctantly took it from his pocket and placed it in your hand. Steve pushed off the bank and you paddled away, leaving Dustin, Max, and Lucas on the shore. Eddie kept a hand on your back, worried you’d lose your balance. No one else noticed the shy smiles you sent each other.

The compass started going crazy in the center of the lake. Dustin called over the walkie to check in and Robin told him. Everyone looked at each other. Then, Steve started taking his shoes and socks off.

“Steve, what are you doing?” Nancy asked.

“Somebody’s gotta go down and check this out,” Steve said. “Unless one of you four can top being a Hawkins High swim co-captain and a certified lifeguard for three years, then…it’s gotta be me. No complaints, alright?”

“Hey, I’m not complaining,” Eddie said. “I do not wanna go down there.”

Eddie wrapped a flashlight in a bag for Steve as he slipped his shirt off. You and Robin exchanged a look as you caught Nancy staring.

“Hey,” Eddie said, handing the flashlight to Steve and putting a cigarette in his own mouth. “Good luck.”

“Thanks,” Steve said, accepting the flashlight.

Eddie went to light his cigarette. “Gross,” Robin said, swatting it out of his mouth and into the water.

The boat shook as Steve jumped off. You watched from the surface as he dove, unable to see much of anything. You were nervous for your best friend. But Eddie was there, and he was holding your hand again, and somehow everything felt alright.

You all jumped when Steve came bursting back out of the water, gasping. “I found it.”

“You found it?”

“I found it. Yeah, I found it.” He was panting, trying to catch his breath.

“Dustin, you are a goddamn Einstein,” Robin said into the walkie.

Steve was leaning on the side of the boat, trying to catch his bearings and explain what he’d seen, when something yanked him downwards. Everyone began yelling as it happened again - and pulled him under the water. He didn’t come back up this time. As everyone was panicking, Nancy started removing some of her clothes.

“You’re not going in there, are you?” Eddie asked, grabbing onto her arm.

“Just-just wait here,” she said - then she dove in after Steve.

“Goddamn it!” Eddie yelled.

Robin dove in next. When you started taking your shoes off, Eddie grabbed your arm tightly. “S-she said wait.”

“I heard her,” you said. “But my friends are in there. I can’t just sit here and wait to see if they survive. I have to help.”

“Are you serious?” Eddie nearly squeaked. “Please don’t. Seriously, please don’t.”

“Eddie, I have to.”

You placed your hands on either side of his face. His cheeks were scratchy against your palm from being unable to shave. You pulled him in and kissed his lips firmly. You could have stayed there all day with your lips attached to his, but you pulled back after a few seconds. Eddie looked at you, amazed. He was still frozen when you turned and dove into the water.

The gate in the lake brought you straight to the Upside Down - where Steve was being held down and attacked by demobats. You felt a hand on your back, and turned - Eddie had followed you.

You each grabbed an oar and began swatting at the demobats, hitting them away from Steve so he could get up. You watched out for each other, quickly coming to the rescue if someone was being attacked. You pulled at the tail of one attached to Nancy’s back and then slammed it into the ground.

Steve got up, slamming the last one into the ground again and again until he ripped it in half.

“Steve, are you okay?” you asked, walking quickly up to your best friend. He had horrible bruises on his neck and blood dripping from his mouth - he didn’t look okay. You looked him over, trying to see if he had any serious injuries.

“Jesus H. Christ!” Eddie yelled, throwing his oar to the ground.

“Well, they took about a pound of flesh,” Steve said as you and Nancy examined his body. “But other than that, yeah, never better.”

As more bats came, fear struck your group of friends. You huddled together, Eddie’s arms around you protectively.

“The woods. Come on,” Nancy said.

The five of you took off into the woods, Eddie never letting go of your hand.

Again, how did no one ever notice? You supposed it was a crazy week for everyone. You couldn’t blame them. But hey, it was right there.

Your love for Eddie was so close you could reach out and touch it.

You hid under a rock together, Eddie’s arms wrapped tight around you. The demobats were loud as they flew overhead.

“That was close,” Robin said once the bats had dissipated and you all began getting up. Steve stumbled, crashing into the rock of the cave.

“Jesus, Stevie,” you said, moving towards him.

“I’m fine. I’m fine,” Steve said, trying to wave both you and a concerned Nancy off.

“No, no, no, you’re losing blood,” Nancy said. “Come here.”

Steve leaned against the wall and uncovered the wound on his abdomen. It was bad - deep, still bleeding. You ripped off the bottom of your shirt, turning it into a crop as you wrapped the makeshift bandage around Steve’s waist. Eddie’s eyes lingered on your form, the newly exposed skin of your back and stomach.

“Are you okay?” he asked you quietly as you moved away from Steve and Nancy.

“I don’t know,” you admitted honestly. “I’m…this is a lot.”

“I thought you’ve been through this before,” Eddie teased lightly, tilting your chin up so you were looking up at him.

“I have,” you blushed. “Multiple times. It just…it never gets less surreal.” You bit your lip as your gaze dropped, looking back over at Steve, Nancy, and Robin. “I don’t want any of my friends to get hurt. I don’t want my brother to get hurt.” Your eyes met Eddie’s once again, your hand resting on his chest. “I don’t want you to get hurt.”

“I’m not gonna get hurt,” Eddie said, placing his larger hand over yours. “I’m gonna do everything in my power to make sure all of us get out of here in one piece.” He smirked. “How else am I gonna get to kiss you again?”

You blushed deeper. Your eyes darted around, finding your friends still busy with one another and not paying you any mind. You leaned up on your tiptoes and kissed Eddie’s soft lips.

He kissed you back, hand coming to rest in your hair. Your hearts beat hard against each other’s chests like they were dying to reach each other. Like you wanted to get closer to him, as close as two people can possibly be.

He pulled away, eyes lingering on the other three. When he saw them still not looking, he kissed you again. “I…”

You waited for him to continue, but he didn’t. “What?”

“I just-“

“Alright,” Robin said. You and Eddie were pulled into a conversation that had been going on for a while without you. “So, theoretically, we could go to the police station and steal guns and grenades and whatever we need to blow up those bat things that are guarding the gate.”

“I highly doubt the Hawkins PD has grenades, Robin,” Steve said. “But guns, yeah, sure.”

“Well, we don’t have to go all the way downtown for guns,” Nancy said. “I have guns in my bedroom.”

“You, Nancy Wheeler, have guns, plural, in your bedroom?” Eddie asked.

“She’s full of surprises,” you beamed at him.

Eddie took off his denim vest and handed it to Steve. “For your modesty, dude.”

Suddenly, the ground started shaking. Steve grabbed Nancy and Robin and took shelter under the cave as you fell to the ground with Eddie. His arms wrapped around you tightly, shielding your body with his own.

When the rumbling stopped, you were left on the ground with Eddie in a compromising looking position - his hand on your waist, with your body pulled back against his own. No one questioned it, however.

You could hear a creature screaming in the distance. You all just watched and listened, Eddie still holding you with shaking arms.

“Yeah, so guns seem like a pretty good idea to me,” Eddie said.

“Yeah, me too,” Robin quickly agreed.

“So what are we waiting for?”

Steve flicked on his flashlight and led the way, everyone else falling into step behind him. You and Eddie led up the rear, his eyes grazing the exposed skin of your lower back as you walked.

As you walked, you fell into step with Nancy and Robin, having what felt like the first normal conversation in days.

Steve approached Eddie. And, surprisingly - Eddie found that he liked Steve. “That was a real Ozzy move you pulled back there.”

“Ozzy?” Steve asked.

“When you took a bite out of that bat,” Eddie said. “Ozzy Osbourne? Black Sabbath? He bit a bat’s head off onstage.”

“I don’t-“

“You know, doesn’t matter,” Eddie said. “It’s very metal, what you did. That’s all I’m saying.”

“Thanks.”

“Henderson told me you were a badass. Insisted on the matter, in fact.”

“Dustin said that?” Steve asked, looking up at Eddie.

“Oh yeah. Shit. Kid worships you, dude. Like, you have no idea. It’s kinda annoying, to be honest.” Steve laughed. “I don’t even know why I care what that little shrimp thinks, but, uh, guess I got a little jealous, Steve. I guess I couldn’t accept the fact that Steve Harrington was actually a good dude. Rich parents, popular, chicks love him. Not a douche? No way, man. No way. That, like, flies in the face of all the laws in the universe and my own personal Munson doctrine.” Steve didn’t say anything to Eddie’s nervous rambling. “Still super jealous as hell, by the way.”

Steve laughed at that. “I don’t know, man. I think his favorite person in the world is his sister.”

At the mention of you, Eddie’s neck heated. He looked down at his feet as he walked. “How long have you guys been friends?”

Steve said your name like a question. “Oh, we’ve been friends for years. She’s my best friend in the world. We met through basketball and cheerleading, then after my…fall from popularity, she just kept being my best friend. She means the world to me.”

Eddie felt that jealousy creeping in again. He wanted to be blunt with it, ask if there had ever been anything between you, but didn’t want to give himself away so obviously. But, he had to know. “Did you guys ever…?”

“What?” Steve asked. “Date? Hook up?”

Eddie was surprised at how sick he felt at the idea of you hooking up with Steve, or any other guy. “Either.”

Steve laughed. “No, man, Just friends.”

He let out a sigh of relief he hoped Steve didn’t catch. But when he looked up at the other boy, he was giving him a knowing look.

“You like her.”

“It’s not- no, I mean I don’t- it’s not that-“

“Oh,” Steve said, a grin growing across his lips. “You love her.”

Eddie was sure his face was on fire. “No.”

“It’s okay,” Steve said, nudging Eddie’s shoulder. “I won’t tell. Your secret is safe with me.”

It’s not that Eddie didn’t want anyone knowing how he felt about you. He wanted everybody to know. It was just that it was still so new, still so precious and fragile in his clumsy hands. He always fucked everything up. He couldn’t afford to fuck this up.

There was a noise from some kind of creature in the woods, and Eddie flinched. “Outside of D&D, I am no hero,” he admitted sadly. “I see danger and I just turn heel and run. Or at least that’s what I’ve learned about myself this week.”

“Give yourself a break, man,” Steve said, softly slapping Eddie’s chest.

“See?” Eddie pointed ahead at the girls. “The only reason I came in here was ‘cause those ladies came in straight after you. Now, I was too ashamed to be the one who stayed behind.” His eyes lingered on you. And I couldn’t let her go alone. “But those girls didn’t waste a second. They just dove right in.”

Nancy opened the door to the Upside Down version of the Wheeler home. You followed her upstairs to her bedroom, not noticing Steve lingering behind.

Nancy searched through her things - finding no guns. She was confused at first - until she found her stack of notecards. The ones from her test when she had just started dating Steve. Three years ago.

She found more and more things that didn’t add up - items that had been given away or donated, wallpaper that had been long since changed. She picked up her diary and flipped through until the last date - her eyes went wide.

“Nancy, you’re freaking me out,” you said.

“I think the reason my guns aren’t here,” she said, “is because they don’t exist yet.”

“They don’t…exist?” Eddie asked.

“This diary should be full of entries. It’s not. The last entry is November 6, 1983. The day Will went missing. The day the gate opened. We’re in the past.”

You were brought out of your thoughts by the sound of Steve yelling downstairs. “Dustin? Dustin? Hello?”

You went sprinting down the stairs first at the mention of your brother’s name. Was he here? Was he in trouble? The four of you found Steve waving his flashlight around and yelling to the walls.

“Are you sure he doesn’t have rabies?” Robin muttered.

“Steve, what are you doing?” you asked.

“Hello,” Steve whispered, nearly blinding all of you with his flashlight. “He’s here. Henderson. That little

shit, he’s here. He’s like…he’s in the walls or something. Just listen. Dustin?”

You looked at Steve like he was crazy, but you stayed quiet, listening intently. Stranger things had happened. When there was no noise, Steve started yelling again.

“Dustin! Dustin! Dustin! Dustin! Can you hear me?”

Finally, you heard the faintest echo of your brother’s voice.

You all walked around the room, calling Dustin’s name, trying to find or communicate with him.

“Alright, either this kid can’t hear us or he’s being a total douchebag,” Steve said.

“Will found a way,” Nancy said, as if an idea had just come to her.

“What?”

“Will found a way, to speak to Joyce through the lights.” Nancy jumped into action, trying to flip on lamps and light fixtures. None worked.

“Guys…” Steve said. “Are you seeing this?”

The chandelier was sparkling with tiny glittering lights. You reached your hand out and touched them. The others joined you, all raising a hand to touch the lights.

“Does anyone know morse code?” Nancy asked.

“Does SOS count?” Eddie asked.

After Eddie was able to get a message through to the kids, you all huddled together while Dustin, Lucas, and Erica put together Holly’s Lite-Brite. They turned it on and you waved your hand through the area, making the toy light up. Steve, Nancy, Robin and Eddie watched. You could hear the kids cheering when it worked.

“We’re going to unplug it,” Dustin yelled. A second passed, then - “Try it now!”

You traced your hand through the lights again, drawing out the word Hi with your finger.

“That worked!” Came Dustin’s voice.

The others cheered and you smiled in triumph. Eddie’s hand brushed against your lower back.

“Um…” you thought. Then you wrote out “S…T…U…C…K.”

“You can’t get back through Watergate?” Dustin called.

“G…U…A…R…D…E…D,” you wrote out this time.

Dustin called back that they had a plan - Watergate isn’t the only gate. They think there’s a gate at every murder site.

“Does anyone understand what he’s talking about?” Nancy asked.

Everyone shook their heads. You drew out a “?”

“Seriously?” Dustin yelled. “How many times do I have to be right on the money before you trust me?”

“Jesus Christ,” Steve shook his head. “This kid’s gotta get his ego in check.”

“It’s his tone. Right?” Eddie said. You covered your mouth, stifling your giggle.

“Okay, so…how far is your trailer?” Nancy asked Eddie.

“Seven miles,” he answered.

“Nancy?” Robin offered. “I know your house is like, creepily frozen in time and shit, but haven’t you always had bikes?”

The five of you pedaled to Forest Hills - or at least, the upside down version of the trailer park. Eddie led the way to his house. “It’s right here,” he said, pulling off the road and dropping the bikes.

You entered the trailer and all looked up - sure enough, there was a gate on the ceiling. “This is where Chrissy died,” Eddie said.

“I think there’s something up there,” Robin said.

A broom handle burst through the gateway, startling all of you. The handle was waved around until the gate was clear. Steve stepped forward carefully, looking up.

“No way,” Steve whispered in awe.

Dustin, Lucas, Max, and Erica stood there, upside down through the gate, smiling up (or down?) at you. Dustin laughed. “Hi there.”

“Holy shit, this is trippy,” Robin said.

After some discussion on the best way to get you out of there, Dustin began knotting sheets together while Lucas and Max got Eddie’s mattress and dragged it to the living room floor.

“Those stains are, uh…” His eyes darted to you, then Robin and Nancy. “I dunno what those stains are.”

“Mmhmm,” Robin hummed.

Dustin and Erica came over with the knotted together sheets. He tossed them up and they fell through the other side, making a floating rope. Robin pulled on it and it didn’t budge.

“Guess I’m the guinea pig,” Robin said, then climbed up first.

After she was safely on the other side, the four of you looked at one another. “You go,” Eddie said quietly to you, nudging you towards the rope of sheets.

You didn’t argue. He helped you a little and then you channeled all your cheer muscles to help you climb up and through the gate. Once you passed through it was like your stomach flipped along with the rest of your body as you fell down on your back onto Eddie’s mattress.

Eddie came next - “That…was fun!” - then Nancy, then finally Steve. As Nancy was coming through, something happened - Vecna got to her, showing her some sort of vision.

She recounted it with a shaking voice as you all sat around Max’s trailer. A horrible prophecy of death and destruction - everything and everyone gone.

“Okay, but…he’s just trying to scare you, Nance,” Steve said. “Right? I mean…I mean, it’s not real.”

“There was something else,” Nancy said. He showed her gates, more gates all over Hawkins. Spreading, growing. Destroying.

You covered your mouth with your hand. You didn’t even notice you were shaking. But Eddie did, reaching over and placing a hand on your knee to calm you. It worked instantly.

“Four chimes,” Max spoke up. Everyone looked at her. “Vecna’s clock. It always chimes four times. Four exactly.”

You looked down, then back up at Max. “I heard them too.”

Everyone’s attention snapped to you.

“What?” Steve, Eddie, Robin, and Dustin all asked at the same time.

“I just…” You messed with a string on the couch. “I didn’t think it was…I didn’t know…I didn’t think anything of it.”

Steve looked like he was ready to fight someone. Eddie looked like you had told him his favorite dog just died. And Dustin looked horrified. Eddie grasped your hands in his, where no one noticed or saw - he held them tightly, as if he was trying to tell you everything through touch alone.

“He’s been telling us his plan this whole time,” Max said.

“Four kills,” Lucas added. “Four gates. End of the world.”

“If that’s true,” Dustin said. “He’s only one kill away.”

“Oh Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ,” Eddie said, burying his face in his dirty hands.

“Try ‘em again,” Steve told Max, who had been trying to get ahold of the Byers’ all day. But again - busy. The group discussed how something connected had to be happening in Lenora, too.

“Whatever’s happening in Lenora is connected to all of this, I’m sure of it,” Nancy said. “But Vecna can’t hurt them. Not if he’s dead.” She turned around. “We have to go back in there. Back to the Upside Down.”

“Whoa, no, no, no. What?” Steve asked.

“Nope,” Eddie said simply, shaking his head dramatically. “Nope.”

“Let’s think this through,” Steve said.

“What is there to think through?” Nancy asked.

“We barely made it out of there in one piece.”

“Yeah, because we weren’t prepared. But this time, we will be. We’ll get weapons and protection. We’ll go through the gate, we’ll find his lair, and we’ll kill him.”

“Or he’ll kill us!” Steve said. He gestured towards you. “The only reason you survived is because he wanted you to. He’s not scared of us.”

“And for good reason,” Robin said, standing up. She told the group her theory about Vecna - he’s just a guy with powers like Eleven. So why fight fair? You all knew El’s strengths and weaknesses.

“Weaknesses?” Erica asked.

“When El remote-travels,” Dustin said, “she goes into this sort of trance-like state. I bet the same is true of Vecna.”

“That would explain what he was doing in that attic,” Lucas said.

“Exactly,” Dustin pointed at his friend. “When he attacks his next victim, I’ll bet you he’s back in that attic, physical body defenseless.”

“Defenseless? What about the army of bats?” Steve asked, gesturing to the dark red marks on his neck.

“True. We’ll have to find a way past them. Distract them somehow.”

“And, uh, how do we do that, exactly?” Eddie asked.

“No idea. But once they’re gone, he doesn’t stand a chance. It’ll be like slaying sleeping Dracula in his coffin.”

“That’s nice in theory, but we don’t know Vecna’s pattern,” Robin said. “We don’t know when he’s going to attack next, we don’t know who he’s going to attack next-“

“Yeah, we do,” Max said quietly. “I can still feel him. I’m still marked. Cursed. I ditch Kate Bush, I draw his focus back to me.”

“Max,” Lucas muttered. “You can’t. He’ll kill you.”

“I survived before. I can survive again.”

“Check this out. The War Zone,” Eddie said, slapping the phone book down on the kitchen table. “I’ve been there once. It’s huge. They got everything you need for, uh…well, killing things, basically.”

“Is that a grenade?” Robin asked. “I mean, how is any of this legal?”

“Well, lucky for us it is, so…” Eddie smiled sarcastically. “This…This place is just far enough outside of Hawkins. As long as we steer clear of main roads, we oughta be able to avoid cops and, uh, angry hicks.”

You rubbed Eddie’s back as he spoke - you could tell he was nervous. You could feel him physically relaxing under your touch.

“If we’re trying to avoid angry hicks, maybe we shouldn’t go to some store called The War Zone,” Erica suggested.

“Normally, I’d agree, but we need the weapons,” Nancy said. “So I think it’s worth the risk.”

“Me too,” Lucas agreed.

You wanted to say something - because the first thing you could think of was keeping your little brother - and Eddie - safe from harm. But you were clearly outnumbered here, and you knew they were right. You needed the firepower.

“But is it worth the time?” Dustin asked. “It’ll take all day to bike there and back.”

“Who said anything about bikes?” Eddie asked.

“You got some car we don’t know about?” Steve asked.

“It’s not exactly a car, Steve,” Eddie smiled, “and it’s not exactly mine, but, uh…it’ll do.”

Eddie crept through the trailer park with Max’s Michael Myers mask on his head, not at all suspiciously followed by a group of people.

Miraculously you weren’t noticed as you made your way through. Eddie reached an RV and opened the back window, climbing and sliding himself through it. Steve climbed through the window after him, then you, then Nancy and the rest.

Eddie hopped into the front seat and began hot wiring the car.

You had never been into bad boys before, but it was certainly doing something for you now. You watched his expert movements over his shoulder, Steve coming to peak over the other.

“Where’d you learn how to do this?” you asked him gently.

His gaze flashed to your eyes for only a moment before remembering Steve’s presence. “Well, when the other dads were teaching their kids how to fish or play ball, my old man was teaching me how to hot-wire. Now, I swore to myself I wouldn’t wind up like he did, but now I’m wanted for murder, and soon, grand theft auto. So, uh, I’m really living up to that Munson name.”

“Eddie, I’m not sure I love the idea of you driving,” Robin said, peeking from behind you and Steve.

“Oh, I’m just starting this sucker,” he said. “Harrington’s got her. Don’t ya, big boy?”

One more movement and the RV’s engine roared to life, immediately calling the attention of the couple sitting outside who began banging on the windows. Eddie jumped up and Steve jumped into the driver’s seat. “Everybody, hang on to something!”

Eddie fell into one of the seats and Steve started driving, absolutely whipping it out of the trailer park, knocking you over and into Eddie’s lap. His arm wrapped around you, holding you to him in the name of safety, but both of you knew it was more than that.

The bouncing you were doing on Eddie’s lap from the RV’s movements were torturous. He almost groaned multiple times, his fingers digging tightly into your thighs, your exposed skin where you’d cropped that damn shirt. You knew what it was doing to him - you could feel the proof of it right under your ass - but you loved it. You could tell he was fighting for his life.

Once the RV was calmly on the road, you could take an actual seat. Eddie cleared his throat as you stood, nonchalantly covering his lap with a throw pillow. You took the seat next to him, your thighs brushing together sending electricity through both of your bodies.

“So,” Eddie said quietly. He only wanted to talk to you, didn’t want to invite anyone else into your conversation. He felt like he’d gotten so little of your time as it was. “You heard the…?”

“Yeah,” you said, looking away. “But I don’t think it’s- I don’t know. I think he- he’s just fucking with me.”

Eddie looked at you with concern. “What does he show you?”

You swallowed, looking up at the roof of the RV, trying to will the tears back into your eyes before they fell. “Billy.”

Eddie’s jaw clenched. Billy. He’d avoided the subject purposefully, and now here it was. “Oh.”

Eddie knew Billy when he was alive. Of course he did. And he hated the guy. Not only because he was an asshole, although that was the biggest reason. But he also had you. You were Hawkins High’s It Couple. Everyone knew you and Billy were together, and no one dared touch Billy’s girl.

He never knew what someone like you saw in Billy, but he understood that Billy was different with you. It was obvious to anyone with eyes. When you were around, people weren’t scared of him. It was possible to have a decent interaction without getting threatened. If you weren’t around, he was his usual self. People quickly realized to look for you first when it came to Billy.

And Billy always, always put you first.

Eddie had felt bad for you when Billy died. He remembered the day he’d heard it on the news - the Star Court Mall Fire. He couldn’t believe it - Billy Hargrove was dead? Then he thought about you.

He didn’t have to imagine how you were doing. Rumors spread fast - you were a mess. That poor girl, the ladies would say around town. When he finally saw you again at school, it was obvious they were true. You looked like hell. After Jason’s pep rally speech at the beginning of the basketball season, you’d run off the court in your cheer uniform in tears as the insensitive asshole listed off the students Hawkins had lost. Everyone knew you could barely hold it together at the mention of Billy’s name.

You had come so far this year. You had regular meetings with the school counselor, you had told them. But he knew it was all you. That was the thing about you, something he loved - you didn’t let yourself get held down for long.

“What does he say?” Eddie asked. Gently, so you knew you didn’t have to answer if you didn’t want to.

“That…that I-“ your voice cracked, choking on your unshed tears. You whispered when you spoke again. “That I never loved him. That I’m…betraying him now. With…with you.”

Eddie’s heart twisted in his chest. He hated being any part of the pain you were going through. He knew Vecna used your insecurities against you - did you feel that way? Did you feel like you were betraying Billy by falling for him?

“You know those things aren’t true, right?” Eddie said. “You haven’t done anything wrong. You loved Billy. You still love Billy. That’s okay and nothing’s gonna change that.” He brushed your hair back out of your face. He quickly glanced around, seeing everyone else sucked into conversation, paying you no mind. “It’s okay…to move on. Billy wouldn’t want you to be miserable and alone forever. The way you were after he…that wasn’t any way to live. He would have hated seeing you like that. He would love how far you’ve come now.”

Tears had started to fall, but you were smiling as you wiped them away. “He would tell me to get laid.”

Eddie laughed unexpectedly. Max and Lucas looked over, but quickly returned to their conversation. “That sounds like Billy.”

Steve pulled the RV into the parking lot of The War Zone, and Eddie ducked down. Steve parked in the back, as far from the door as possible. “We’re gonna run inside and get supplies,” Steve said. “Eddie, you stay here.”

“Aye, captain,” Eddie saluted him.

“I’ll stay, too,” you said. “Keep him company.”

Steve nodded. “Alright. We won’t be long.”

You watched as everyone shuffled off the RV, closing the door behind Dustin. You watched through the window as they all walked inside - then you turned to Eddie, who was thinking the exact same thing as you.

His arms wrapped around your waist as yours went around his neck, your lips meeting in a hungry kiss. It was hard, feeling like you needed to sneak around. You just wanted to touch him all the time, kiss him all the time.

Eddie sat down on the couch, pulling you down to straddle his lap. His hands grabbed onto your waist as you kissed him, taking his breath away. “Baby,” he groaned.

“I missed you,” you said between kisses. “I know that makes no fucking sense because we’ve been together almost all the time, but it’s not the same. I want to touch you. I want to kiss you in front of everyone.”

“Why don’t you then?” Eddie asked, panting and out of breath as he pulled away from your lips.

You sighed. “I just…think it would be hard on Dustin,” you said, the same thing Eddie had heard a million times this week. “He sees you as like a brother. So I don’t think he’d be too excited by his brother and his sister-“

“Okay, stop, eww,” Eddie said, making you laugh. “You’re not my sister in any way, shape, or form, I’d like to make that clear.”

“You get what I mean though, right?” you asked through giggles. “Why I’m worried?”

“I understand why you’re worried,” Eddie agreed, eyes locked on your plush lips as he played with your hair. “But I also think you don’t have anything to worry about. I think he’d be fine with it. Even if it’s weird at first, he’ll get over it, y’know?”

You thought about it. You kissed Eddie on the tip of his nose. “When all this is over.”

“Yeah?” Eddie’s face lit up. “You wanna do it? Go public?”

“Yeah,” you smiled. “I’m…I’m ready. You’re my boyfriend, and I want everyone to know.”

“Oh, I’m your boyfriend, am I?” Eddie teased with a waggle of his eyebrows.

You giggled. “You never officially asked, but…”

“Can I be your boyfriend?” he asked you seriously, taking your hands in his and kissing your knuckles. “Please?”

“Thought you’d never ask.” You smiled as you leaned in and kissed him again, tongue tracing along the seam of his lips. Eddie was still totally inexperienced- you were his first anything. So he was happy to let you take the lead, to teach him anything you wanted, everything you liked.

He parted his lips and began sliding his hands up your sides as your tongues met and he moaned into the kiss. He felt the skin exposed by your cropped tee, then even further, sliding his hands up your shirt for the first time. He’s almost sure you’re going to slap his hands away, but you don’t - you press into his hold, let out the most delicious moan against his lips, and roll your hips down against his now straining erection.

The door slammed open and you practically leaped off Eddie’s lap, falling onto the seat next to him.

“We’ve got to go,” Steve said, shooting you both a quick funny look before he jumped back into the driver’s seat and the rest of the group piled onto the RV.

“Your old friends are here,” Erica said.

“Shit,” Eddie hissed, ducking back down into the floor.

“Let’s go! Let’s go!”

“I’m going, I’m going! Sit down!” Steve yelled in a panic. He started the engine and drove out of the parking lot, having to pass right by Jason and his friends loading up their car.

An hour later, with the RV parked in a field, the group prepared your weapons.

Eddie hammered nails into a trash can lid to make a shield. You sawed off the end of a shotgun.

“Is this legal?” Max asked you.

“Actually, I think it’s a felony,” you said.

“Right.”

“But it guarantees one thing.” You knocked the end of the barrel to the ground. “I won’t miss.”

Dustin helped Eddie making shields. Eddie proudly held up his finished spiked shield, swinging it around.

“How’s she feeling?” Dustin asked.

“Light. But durable,” Eddie said. “Deadly. But reliable.” Dustin chuckled, and Eddie began speaking dramatically. “Hear me now. There will be no more retreating…from Eddie the Banished.”

“Hey, you’re really ready for bat-tle.” Eddie turned around and gave Dustin an unamused look. Dustin laughed anyway. “You get it? Bat-tle.” His face fell. “B-A-T.” Eddie just kept staring at him. “No?” he groaned. “I thought I had a good one.”

Eddie surprise tackled Dustin right in his middle, knocking the air out of him and pushing him forward. “What are you doing?” Dustin asked, laughing. They play wrestled, Eddie pushing Dustin off to the side. “You son of a bitch!” Dustin came running at full speed into Eddie’s middle this time. Eddie pulled at Dustin’s boxer shorts - “No wedgies! No wedgies!”

“Never change, Dustin Henderson,” Eddie said, hands on either of Dustin’s shoulders. He brushed some of his long curls from his own mouth. “Promise me?”

Dustin was takin aback, looking up at his friend, his role model. “I wasn’t planning on it.”

“Good. Good.”

You watched Eddie and your brother with a smile on your face. Eddie’s words had been true and you knew it. Dustin would take the news well. He would probably like you and Eddie together, as long as there was no messy breakup. But it was hard to imagine Eddie ever breaking your heart. You felt it would be safe in his hands. You’d already given it to him so completely.

Your chest ached with how much you felt for Eddie. And Dustin was the most important person in your life. The fact that he and Dustin loved each other was already a major bonus. Despite the circumstances that brought you together, you had lucked out with Eddie.

Who knew you could fall so unbearably in love in less than a week?

After preparing your weapons for battle - you all needed a rest.

You ended up back at the Wheelers, with the RV parked off the road, hidden in some trees. The gang was going inside to sleep as much as they could, while Eddie remained in the RV.

“I’m fine,” he’d said. “You guys go get some sleep. I’ll be plenty comfortable out here.”

“I’ll stay with you,” you said quickly. “I just…I don’t want you sleeping out here alone.”

Steve gave a look to the both of you, but no one else was paying much attention, too ready to lay down and finally close their eyes. The gang left you, Steve closing the RV door hard behind him.

Properly left alone with Eddie for the first time, neither of you knew what to do right away. This was the first time you’d be alone together for hours. The possibilities stretched out before you, and it felt overwhelming.

It’s not like you’d never had sex before. You’d had a lot of sex. Billy had been your first and only, though. That was hard to get past.

You locked the RV door, then turned back to Eddie, who was sitting on the end of the pullout bed, watching your every move. Slowly, you took a step towards him, lifting your dirty, ripped shirt over your head and tossing it to the floor. Eddie’s eyes widened slightly, his gaze never leaving you for a second.

“Hi,” he whispered as you slowly approached him.

“Hi,” you whispered back with a giggle. He reached for you and you let him pull you to him, holding your body close and pressing his lips into yours. You kissed slowly this time, savoring one another. You had time to enjoy this.

His calloused hands slid all over your bare back, reaching for your bra strap. He fumbled with it for a good minute, cursing under his breath, before he finally got it undone, leaning back to watch as the material fell away from your chest and revealed your tits.

“Oh,” Eddie groaned, reaching for them immediately. You almost laughed at the awe with which he looked at your naked body, but it was really nice. It was endearing. It made you feel beautiful.

Everyone had looked at you with nothing but pity since Billy died.

You had to push painful thoughts of Billy out of your head as Eddie kissed along your neck, sucking gently on the skin, not exactly intending to leave marks but not caring if he did.

You pushed his jacket off his shoulders, then lifted his Hellfire shirt up until it was on the floor with yours. Eddie seemed self conscious with his shirt off, but you loved it. You traced your fingers over his tattoos, making him shudder. Goosebumps appeared across his flesh.

“Do you like that?” you asked him quietly.

“Y-yeah,” he said. “Feels nice. Tickles a little.”

You giggled. running your fingers up his biceps with a featherlight touch. Eddie’s eyes fell closed. He looked relaxed for the first time all week.

“You’re really beautiful,” Eddie mumbled.

You grinned. “You’re just saying that.”

“I’m not,” he said quickly, his eyes flying open. “I- are you serious? You’re the most beautiful girl in Hawkins. Everyone knows that.”

You raised your eyebrows. “Everyone knows that?”

“Seriously, ask anyone,” Eddie shrugged. “Well, they might not tell you to your face, but…”

You had no idea your classmates felt that way about you. “Really?”

“Well, yeah,” he said. “I mean, you were with Billy. No one could even look at you. Then you were grieving, but people still talked, y’know? And now you’re-“ Eddie huffed out a disbelieving laugh. “Now you’re in my lap.”

You smiled down at Eddie, kissing him again. Eddie kissed back happily, his hands sliding down to squeeze at your ass. You rolled your hips down against him, and he groaned.

“Gonna drive me crazy, princess,” he said, his voice lower than you’d ever heard it. It stirred something deep in your belly, a heat that spread. You could feel him hardening through his jeans - hell, he was already pretty fucking hard.

You pressed your chest into Eddie’s as you kissed him, your bare skin pressed together in a way that felt so intimate it had your head spinning. The feeling of your hard nipples against him, the way they’d graze against his skin as you moved, had Eddie twitching in his pants.

Eddie laid back on the bed, pulling you down over him. You tangled your hands in his curls as you kissed him and his hands slid all over your body, feeling every inch he could get his hands on.

You started kissing lower, kissing down his jaw, down his neck, to his chest and lower. Eddie sat up on his elbows. “W-what are you doing?”

You shrugged. “Just taking my time.” You kissed down his stomach, making his muscles clench. When you reached his jeans, you undid his handcuff belt then started working on his button and zipper.

Eddie watched with hitched breath as you undid his pants, finally pulling them down and leaving him in his tented boxers. He was unbelievably hard, had never wanted anything or anyone so bad in his entire life, he was sure of it. He couldn’t believe this was happening. He was finally losing his virginity, and to you.

He reached for your jeans next, needing to see more of you. He undid them and pulled them down your legs, slowly, slowly. His eyes drank in and savored every inch of skin uncovered. You were wearing the cutest little black panties with a bow.

“You look so good,” Eddie groaned, practically nuzzling his face against your clothed core, breathing in your scent. “Smell so good. Bet you taste good, too.”

You whimpered. You hadn’t even had an orgasm since Billy. You never even tried by yourself, and you hadn’t been with anyone else since.

“Can I…try?” Eddie asked, slipping his fingers beneath the waistband of your panties and looking at you expectantly.

“Oh, uh, yeah, sure,” you said, suddenly nervous. It had really been a while.

“I don’t really know what I’m doing,” Eddie admitted as he slowly peeled your panties off your body, eyes trailing down as they went. “But I want to try.” He flashed you a smirk. “I’m an eager learner.”

You drew in a shaky breath. “Okay.”

With your panties gone and your body now fully exposed, Eddie properly drank you in. He got on his knees between your legs, lowering his upper body until he was laying with his face right at your pussy.

He breathed you in again, then he experimentally traced his tongue along your folds.

“Oh!” you gasped, resisting the instinct to draw your legs together. It was unexpected, but it didn’t feel bad.

He spread your lips with his fingers and dove in with his tongue, licking over your clit. You gasped again, hands going down to pull at Eddie’s curls. “Oh, god, Eds.”

“Good?” he asked before immediately going back to what he was doing.

“Y-yeah,” you breathed. “Feels good.”

“Good,” he muttered. He pressed a finger against your entrance, eyes moving up to your face to make sure you didn’t look upset. When you just kept that same pleased look on your face, Eddie slipped the long finger inside.

“Eddie,” you whined, writhing on the bed beneath his mouth and fingers. He began pumping it in and out, curling it deep inside. “How are you so good at this?”

Eddie had no fucking idea. He was going on instinct. Maybe he just…knew you. Like you, your body, was made specifically for him.

He slipped a second finger inside of you, knowing his fingers were no comparison for the size of his cock. His tongue teased your clit for what felt like hours, then he would suck at it, sending you reeling.

“Oh shit Eddie,” you moaned. “I’m gonna cum.”

Eddie had never been so delighted to hear anything in his life. He put his all into eating you out, his own cock so unbearably hard he thought he was gonna lose it. When you squeezed around his fingers, he moaned, sending vibrations through your clit and sending you over the edge immediately.

“Eddie!” you cried. “Eddie, Eddie, oh my god-“

He couldn’t get enough of you saying his name. He wanted to hear it again and again for the rest of his life. He worked you through your orgasm, unsure when to stop. He got the hint when you started pushing his head away.

“Was that good?” he asked, all big brown eyed innocence. He really wanted to know. His lips and chin were still soaked with your release.

“It was amazing,” you told him, kissing him gently. He beamed from the praise.

“I want you so bad,” Eddie said, shaking his head. “You- have no fuckin’ idea-“

“I want you too,” you told him truthfully. “Bad.”

Eddie smirked, kissing you again. He pushed you back down onto the bed, then sat up on his knees and pushed his boxers down. Your eyes widened at the sight of his hard cock bobbing at his lower stomach, so long, thick-

“You like what you see?” he teased, but you could hear the nerves in his voice clear as day.

“I do.” You pulled him close to you, so his body was pressed to yours once again. “Want it inside of me.”

Eddie groaned, his cock twitching against your thigh. He kissed over your neck and chest. “I don’t…” he sighed. “I don’t have a condom, you know that, right?”

“It’s okay,” you said. “Just pull out.”

Eddie raised his eyebrows. “Are you sure?”

“We might die tonight,” you told him, serious although there was a playful tilt to your voice. “So, I don’t know about you, but I’m not gonna let the lack of a condom keep me from you.”

Eddie nearly lost it right there at the proof of how badly you wanted him, too. “Yeah. I don’t…I don’t want to miss out on this.”

Not only were you about to let him fuck you, but you were about to let him fuck you raw. The thought alone sent a shudder through Eddie’s body. He reached between your bodies, running the head of his cock through your folds, up and down.

It felt nice, but he didn’t stop.

“What are you doing?” you giggled.

“I, uh…” He was blushing hard, avoiding eye contact with you. “I can’t really find the, uh…”

“Believe me, I’ll let you know if you’re at the wrong one,” you teased him. But you replaced his hand with yours, Eddie drawing in a gasp of air at the feeling of your hand on his cock. You lined him up where you needed him. “There you go.”

Slowly, carefully, Eddie began to push inside. His jaw immediately went slack, his eyes squeezing shut and his fists tightening in the sheets. A low groan came from his chest as he sunk into your pussy inch by agonizingly slow inch.

“Jeeesus,” he gritted out through clenched teeth. “You are tight. And wet, and warm-“ He cut himself off with another loud moan.

“You’re so big,” you whispered, brushing his curls back from his face. You wanted to see all of him.

“Yeah?” He was out of breath, looking down at you with awe as he thrusted in and out of you. He didn’t exactly know what he was doing, but the sheer energy and enthusiasm he put into it made you feel good, too.

“Such a good cock, baby,” you purred. Eddie preened at your praise, and you knew you had unlocked something about him. “So good with it, too,” you said.

“Am I making you feel good?” he asked.

“Mmhmm,” you nodded. “Feels so good. You’re so deep in me, baby.”

Eddie whimpered - because god, he knew. He was burying himself to the hilt with every thrust, and even with his lack of experience, he knew he wasn’t small. He was surprised you were taking all of him - he’d heard sometimes that could be a problem. He worried it would be a problem for him - but, fuck, you were taking every inch.

You were moving your hips up in time with his frantic thrusts, and he was getting close. “Feels…s-so good,” he stuttered. He was lost in it, lost in the pleasure, lost in you.

“You gonna cum for me?” you whispered, and Eddie whimpered.

“Yeah,” he moaned. “Gonna cum.”

“Cum inside me.”

Eddie’s hips stuttered, almost blowing his load at that second. “Babe- really? Are you sure?”

“Yes, Eddie, do it, please,” you begged him. “I…” You met his eyes. “I’m scared. And for right now, I have you. I want to be close to you. As close as we can be.”

Eddie groaned, his head dropping down to hide against your neck. “You’re fuckin’ killin’ me.”

“Only if you want to,” you added.

“Are you kidding? Ah- I want to do that so fuckin’ bad - oh shit - you have no fuckin’ idea. Hah-“

Eddie’s thrusts were shallow now, keeping himself as deep in you as he could be. His balls were pressed against your ass with every thrust, his fingers were tihtening on your hips, and then-

“Shit!” Eddie cursed, thrusting in hard as he came, filling you with his spend. “Shit, oh god, oh god oh fuck-“ He kept moving his hips, every drop making it deep into you.

You felt so close to him in that moment. Like you had shared something so intimate - and you had. It didn’t feel like just sex. This was something else. You had been changed, both of you - you could feel it.

Eddie pulled out of you, grabbing a cigarette from his pack. He put it between his lips and lit it, taking slow drags as he calmed himself. While Eddie smoked against the head of the bed, still naked, you went to the bathroom to clean yourself up. You slipped back into your panties and Eddie’s t-shirt.

He smiled as you climbed back into bed with him. “Look what I found.”

You watched him curiously as he leaned off the bed, reaching under the table - and pulling out a polaroid camera.

“Cool!” you said, taking it from Eddie’s hands. “Should we take a picture?”

“Right now?” Eddie laughed. “All post-sex, with me still naked?”

“No one will know you’re naked,” you waved him off. “C’mere.”

Eddie snuggled closer to you on the bed. You held the camera out and you both smiled as you clicked the shutter button. You put the camera down as the photo began printing from the bottom. You and Eddie watched as it developed - it wasn’t obvious you two had just had sex in this photo, but it wasn’t exactly innocent either. Your hair was mussed, Eddie’s shirt was off, tattoos exposed. You could see the blanket pulled up to your laps. And you both had the biggest smiles on your satisfied, slightly flushed faces.

“I love you,” Eddie said, kissing you again.

“I love you too,” you told him easily. You wanted to tell him every day for the rest of forever.

“We should get some sleep,” Eddie said. “At least a nap. We have a big night ahead of us.”

Eddie spooned himself around you, holding your body close to him. You felt safe. You felt loved. You felt lucky.

—

That night, the plan went into action.

You were all geared up, weapons in hand. Steve pulled up in front of the Creel house, dropping off Max, Lucas, and Erica. No one said anything during the drive. The atmosphere was tense. Every one of you knew you might die tonight. You knew all too well how things could be ripped from your screaming, crying grasp.

You hoped if anyone had to die, it would be you.

Not because you were suicidal - god, no. But you didn’t think you could handle losing someone else. Every single person involved tonight was important to you. You couldn’t stand to lose anyone. Not again.

With the RV parked, it was time to go.

“Okay. I wanna run through it one more time,” Nancy said. “Phase one.”

“We meet Erica at the playground,” Robin said. “She’ll signal Max and Lucas when we’re ready.”

Nancy nodded. “Phase two.”

“Max baits Vecna,” Steve said. “He’ll go after her, which will put him in his trance.”

“Phase three?”

“Me and Eddie draw the bats away,” Dustin said proudly. Eddie smiled, grabbing the younger boy’s head.

“Four.”

“We head into Vecna’s newly bat-free lair, and…” Robin sloshed the molotov cocktail. “Flambé.”

“Nobody moves on to the next phase until we’ve all copied,” you said, looking around at each and every person in the RV. Your eyes lingered on Eddie and Dustin a little extra long. “Nobody deviates from the plan, no matter what. Got it?”

Everyone nodded. “Got it.”

And off the RV you went. You walked through the woods into Forest Hills, sneaking into the Munson trailer. Eddie squeezed your hand one final time before you entered the trailer with the others.

“Be careful,” Dustin said as Steve examined the rope.

“Here goes nothing,” Steve said. He pulled himself up with ease, then did a perfect flip into the upside down, landing on his feet. He looked back up at the rest of you, shrugging.

“Ooh, what does he want us to do, applaud?” Robin said sarcastically. You just giggled, Nancy hiding her own laugh.

Steve pulled out the mattress in the upside down and set it up. “Alright, let’s go.”

Robin got down on her knee to help Nancy climb up. She fell through successfully, Steve helping her up. “Gotcha.”

Next was your stuff, followed by Eddie. Eddie’s nail shield, Robin, more supplies, Dustin, even more supplies, and then finally, you. Steve and Eddie both offered you their hands. You took them both and they pulled you up with ease.

Once again all geared up, you walked out of the trailer into the upside down.

“Hey, guys, listen,” Steve said, turning and walking back to Eddie and Dustin. “If things here start to go south, I mean, at all, you abort. Okay? Draw the attention of the bats. Keep ‘em busy for a minute or two. We’ll take care of Vecna. Don’t try to be cute or be a hero or something. Okay? You guys are just-“

“Decoys,” Dustin finished with him. “Don’t worry. You can be the hero, Steve.”

“Absolutely,” Eddie said. “I mean, look at us. We are nottt heroes.” He smiled.

Steve looked at them for another second before turning around. You stepped forward then, looking at two of the most important things in your entire life. How had Eddie buried himself so deeply into your heart so quickly?

“Dusty,” you said, placing both hands on his shoulders. “You listen to Steve. Do not deviate from the plan. Do not do anything stupid. I need you home in one piece or mom will kill me.”

You had to joke, because if you didn’t you’d just cry.

Dustin smiled up at you, and you wanted to pull him in for a big hug like you always did. “I won’t. I love you.”

“I love you, too.” You brushed a hair through his curls. Next you went to Eddie, standing close enough that he could hear you but no one else could.

“I love you,” you said, practically choking on the emotion in your voice. You would not cry.

“I love you too,” Eddie said. He longed to brush his fingers along the side of your face, or push your hair behind your ear. More than anything, he longed to kiss you. He knew that after tonight, he’d be able to - you’d be his, everyone would know it, and he could kiss you breathless in front of anyone.

“Please don’t be stupid,” you said. “And take care of my brother.”

“I’d guard him with my life,” Eddie bowed his head to you. “Go. We’ve got this. And tonight we’ll celebrate.”

You smiled at that. You forced yourself to turn and join the others.

“Oh, and guys?” Eddie said, making both of you turn around. “Make him pay.”

That was something you could all agree to promise. With that last note, you, Steve, Nancy and Robin took off in the direction of the Creel house.

—

After a stressful walk in the woods and nearly getting lost, you made it to the house. It only looked even more ominous in the Upside Down.

Phase 3 began, and you could hear the sound of Eddie’s guitar all the way from there. You had never heard him play before. It sent your heart thundering like a schoolgirl crush. You were snapped back to reality when the demobats went swarming in their direction, and you were left with a sinking feeling in your stomach.

“Okay, it’s working. Let’s go,” Nancy said. The four of you made your way into the Creel house.

The floors were covered with vines. You carefully jumped around them, trying hard not to accidentally awaken anything. Steve reached the top of the stairs first and turned back to help you, Nancy, and Robin.

The house began to shake, as if something was crashing into it. Steve held onto you and the others, and you squeezed your eyes shut, taking deep breaths. When it was over, Steve silently looked the three of you over to make sure you were okay.

You thought you were in the clear for all of about 5 seconds before the vines from the floor came alive, wrapping themselves around your ankles and pulling you into the wall, more vines wrapping around your whole body. You screamed. “Steve! Nancy! Robin!”

The others hit the vines with their weapons, but it wasn’t phasing them at all. The vines grabbed Steve and wrapped him against the other wall - Nancy and Robin turned and watched, wide eyed. You knew you were in trouble.

Nancy and Robin were knocked to the floor next, vines wrapping around their necks and holding them to the wall just like you and Steve.

You couldn’t breathe. The vines were slithering, smothering, tightening. Squeezing your neck tighter, tighter. You couldn’t move a muscle, couldn’t even grab at the vines around your neck. All you could do was struggle for breath as you watched the same thing happen to your closest friends.

Was this your punishment? To watch your friends die? What had you done to deserve your loved ones dying brutally again and again?

Then the vines…stopped.

You dropped to the ground as they let go, coughing and sputtering as the vines slid away. You looked around at all your friends, making sure everyone was okay.

“I don’t believe in a higher power, or divine intervention,” Robin said. “But that was a miracle.”

You cocked your gun. “Then we better not waste it.”

“Phase 4,” Steve said.

“Flambé.”

In the attic, Vecna had already been damaged. Someone was fighting with you.

He fell to the ground in flames. The four of you eyed him. Then Robin flicked her lighter, lighting the molotov cocktail - and threw it. It knocked him back and you stepped forward with the sawed off shotgun.

You shot him again and again, each one knocking him back. He screamed and you lifted the gun again - firing a shot that knocked him back and out the window.

The four of you ran outside, seeing nothing but the charred remains where his burning body had landed. Vecna was gone.

Just as you were about to leave, the clock chimed four times.

“Max.”

The gates split open.

—

The four of you were bruised and battered as you made your way back to Forest Hills. You just needed to see Eddie and your brother. Needed to know they were safe. It was the only thing keeping your legs moving.

You thought you might kiss Eddie in front of everybody when you saw him. Fuck waiting for tomorrow. You knew you’d be so relieved when you saw him, there would be no thoughts besides feeling his lips on yours.

It was quiet. The only sounds your shoes scuffing against the pavement. Then, in the distance - a screaming. The sound made you sick. You all exchanged a look and took off running in that direction.

Please no. Please god, no. Please please please.

It was Dustin. You recognized his cries, although you had never heard him sound quite so pained. You were hurrying to where he kneeled surrounded by piles of demobats and-

He was holding a body.

You stopped. You felt bile rising in your throat. You watched on as Steve, Nancy, and Robin reached Dustin, finally making the realization that you already had. Steve covered his mouth with his hand, like he couldn’t believe what he was looking at. Nancy and Robin hugged each other.

Steve wrapped his arms around Dustin, but he looked back at you.

You didn’t need to come any closer to know. Your knees gave out, and you cried. You wailed, you screamed, you cursed god, you cursed Vecna, you cursed the whole fucking universe.

Robin and Nancy didn’t understand. Dustin was too enveloped in his own shock and grief to even notice you. But Steve did. He saw you. He had seen the both of you.

He cared for Eddie, but his heart actively cracked in his chest for you and Dustin. And, god, Eddie’s uncle. They were all each other had.

You made yourself get up. Steve let go of Dustin and stood, holding his hand out. “I really don’t think you should-“

“Let me see him,” you croaked.

Steve wouldn’t tell you no. He couldn’t tell you no. He backed off to the side and let you step forward.

Your legs gave out and you collapsed to the ground next to Dustin. Dustin turned and wrapped his arms around you, burying his face in your shirt and crying harder than he did when he broke his arm in three different places when he was 10. You subconsciously stroked his hair the way that had calmed him since he was a baby. But your eyes were locked on Eddie.

There was no doubt he was gone. His face, his mouth covered in blood. His lips that had told you he loved you for the first time today. His open, staring eyes, once so big and still full of childlike wonder even at his disillusioned, cynical age.

You reached for his hand. He was freezing cold. He needs a blanket, you thought. He’s cold. He shouldn’t be cold.

Steve, Nancy, and Robin discussed what to do while you and Dustin held each other, oblivious to what was going on around you.

“We’ve got to get him out of here,” Steve said. “We can’t just leave his body here.”

“How are we gonna do that?” Robin asked, sadness emanating from everything about her.

“Blanket?” Steve suggested. “I-I think we can do it.”

Nancy and Robin looked back over at you and Dustin. “Do you think she can-“

“Don’t ask her to help,” Steve said quickly.

Robin pursed her lips together, like there was a question she was dying to ask but wouldn’t let escape her lungs. “Were they…?”

“No,” Steve said. “I mean…long story. You just haven’t been paying close enough attention.”

—

It had been two days since the events in the upside down. Two days since Eddie had been taken from you.

They called the gates opening a 7.4 earthquake. It absolutely destroyed Hawkins. So many people died, people totally unrelated to the upside down.

They were still calling Eddie a murderer, a satanist. You couldn’t stand to have the news on - it made you sick. Eddie was a good person.

You hadn’t been able to get his body out of the upside down. The thought haunted you day and night - Eddie, alone in there, cold. So cold.

It was like you’d gone back to square one after you’d lost Billy. You had worked so hard to come out of this hole, and here you were again. Depressed, miserable, alone. Constant panic attacks and nightmares.

Steve, Robin, and Dustin convinced you to come with them to the school for the supplies drive. You didn’t want to go. You didn’t want to do anything but lay in bed and cry. But they insisted it would be good for you.

You helped them carry the boxes into the gym. Dustin was still limping from his injury. The gym was packed with people who’s homes were destroyed. Your heart ached for them, but it ached for Eddie even worse.

You dropped the boxes off at the table. “So organized,” the volunteer said. “Do you want a tax receipt for it?”

“Um, no, that’s okay,” Robin said. “But, uh…is there anything else we can do to help?”

You helped Dustin pass out water. You didn’t like being far from him these days. Dustin froze, nearly making you walk right into him. You followed his line of vision - and your stomach sunk.

Wayne Munson was walking up to the bulletin board. He removed a vandalized missing persons poster of Eddie from the board and replaced it with a clean one.

Your lips parted, tears gathering in your eyes, and you were worried you were about to have another panic attack in front of all of these people. You grabbed Dustin’s hand, who didn’t realize how badly you were freaking out.

“I think I need to go talk to him,” Dustin said. “He deserves to know.”

You didn’t say anything. You couldn’t say anything. You just watched as Dustin limped over to the weary looking man.

“Mr. Munson?”

Wayne turned to look at Dustin, but didn’t say anything.

“I’m Dustin Henderson,” your brother continued. “Can we talk?”

“I can’t imagine we got anything to talk about,” Wayne said. “My nephew is innocent. He’s still missing. I’ll put up as many posters as I need until he’s found.” He grabbed his bag roughly off the floor. “Good day to you.”

“I was with him,” Dustin said. Wayne stopped. He looked over his shoulder at Dustin. “I was with him when the earthquake hit.”

Wayne looked at him again, his gaze darting down to the floor. “And…where is Eddie now?”

You could see Dustin’s face crumpling from across the room. Your own heart clenched in your chest. Dustin reached into his pocket, pulling out Eddie’s guitar pick necklace. Wayne looked at it, then back up to Dustin’s face. “I…I’m so sorry.”

Wayne took the pick with a shaking hand, his face falling as he recognized the necklace as his nephew’s. He let out a shaky breath and sat down. Dustin limped over to sit next to him.

“I wish everyone had gotten to know him. Really know him. Because they would’ve loved him, Mr. Munson. They would’ve loved him.” Wayne was listening. “Even in the end…he never stopped being Eddie. Despite everything. I never even saw him get mad.”

Wayne nodded, trying his best to hold back tears. Dustin continued. “He could’ve run. He could’ve saved himself. But he fought. He fought and died to protect this town. This town that…hated him. He isn’t just innocent…Mr. Munson, he’s…he’s a hero.”

Wayne held the guitar pick close as he cried. Dustin sat with him.

You watched from afar, powerless to say anything or let anyone know what Eddie had meant to you, what you had had together.

After Wayne left, you caught up with Dustin again. He looked just as defeated as you felt. “You ready to go?” you asked him softly. “I think Steve and Robs are ready for us.”

Dustin just nodded. He followed you through the gym and towards the exit doors.

“He said your name.”

You stopped. “What?”

“Eddie,” Dustin said, and the name alone sent a rush of emotion through your body.

“What are you talking about, Dusty?”

“Before he played, to distract the bats in the Upside Down,” Dustin sniffed, shaking his head like he couldn’t make sense of the memory. “Before he played, he said your name. He said this one’s for her.”

You might as well have been shot in the chest. “O-oh,” you croaked, feeling like your legs were about to give out.

He’d said your name. This one’s for her.

For you. For you. For you.

—

You were so wrapped up in your own misery you didn’t even notice you missed your period.

When you started getting sick, you figured it was another side effect of the depression and trauma. Wouldn’t surprise you. Your mom was worried sick, and you kept having to make up excuses for Dustin - oh, I must have come down with something - because here you were, twice as torn up about Eddie, and you were hardly supposed to know the guy.

Having to pee a million times? Maybe you’d just been drinking more water, Nancy had been on you about that and even bought you that new water bottle. Boobs doubling in size? Must be your bras shrinking in the wash.

It was when the symptoms didn’t go away that you got worried.

Alone, they could be explained away easily. Together and unending? Something was going on.

You felt sick as you looked at yourself in the mirror. How had you not noticed? You looked different. Your boobs, your skin, your hair. You even examined your stomach closely, but there was nothing new there.

But, fuck. You definitely had an idea of what was happening.

You were calling Nancy before you even thought better of it. Nancy would know what to do. The phone rang a couple times before her sweet voice picked up.

“Hello, Wheeler residence?”

��Nancy,” you said. “I have an emergency.”

She was at your house with a pregnancy test in minutes. Thank god Dustin and your mom were both out. Nancy slipped into the house like a ninja, handing off the pharmacy bag like a ticking time bomb.

“Are you okay?” she asked you.

You shrugged. You hadn’t had time to process your feelings on the potential situation. Hadn’t allowed yourself to. You just took the test into the bathroom, did your thing, and went back out to wait with Nancy.

It was a tense 30 minutes.

When Nancy’s watch timer went off, you both practically jumped out of your skin. You stood slowly, legs shaking, unsure if they’d even carry you back to the bathroom for the answers you seek. Somehow you make it there, and you lean against the counter for support as you make yourself open your eyes and read the results.

Blue. Pregnant.

You choked out a sob, hand coming to rest on your stomach. Oh, Eddie. What had you two done?

Nancy knocked on the door, calling your name. “Are…are you okay in there?”

You opened the door, and she could tell immediately. “Oh, honey,” she mumbled, pulling you in for a tight hug. You allowed yourself to cry into her shoulder, to feel the pain for a moment. You didn’t open yourself up to it often anymore.

After she got you sitting on your bed, pregnancy test discreetly disposed of, she held your hands as you talked. “The dad…” she began, knowing it would be a touchy subject no matter who it was. “Have you…told him? Who is it?”

The tears burst through like a dam at that question. You were just immediately sobbing - it took Nancy aback. She placed her hands on your upper arms. “Hey, hey, it’s okay. I’m going to help you. Who is it?”

You squeezed your eyes shut, then looked up, like could my life be any more of a cruel joke? What did you do to deserve the shit you’d been put through in the last couple of years?

Nancy repeated your name. “Who is it?”

You choked out another small sob. “Eddie.”

Nancy’s eyes went wide. “It- you and-“ her voice dropped to a whisper. “The baby is Eddie’s?”

You nodded, face just crumbling into more tears. “Oh,” Nancy said, rubbing your arms as if you were cold - and you were, suddenly - all the understanding in the world in that simple word.

“When did you…?” she asked, although she wasn’t sure she wanted the answer.

But getting to talk about Eddie always made you feel better - even though this particular topic made you blush. It also made you smile at the memory. “It was when we went back to your place in the RV.”

“When we slept?” she asked.

“Some sleeping was done,” you smiled sheepishly.

Nancy giggled, smiling at you like she hadn’t seen one from you in over a month and it was a welcome sight. She wiped your tears away.

“Nancy, what the fuck am I gonna do?” you asked with a laugh, but you were totally serious.

Nancy was honest. “I…don’t know.” She brushed your hair back, much like Eddie would. “But we always figure it out.”

tag list

@moon-esque @emxxblog @samslvrgirl @kthomps914 @kellsck

447 notes · View notes

hellfirenacht · 1 year ago

Text

Candygram

Summary: It's Valentine's day and you shoot your shot with Eddie by sending him a Candygram.

Tags: Eddie Munson x Reader, fluff, sfw

4.8k Words Master List

“Just do it.” Robin said, following your line of sight to the booth in the corner of the Hawkins cafeteria. It was a simple table with a red cloth thrown over it and a handmade banner that read ‘CANDYGRAMS $1�� and was decorated with tacky hearts.

Every time you glanced over at the booth, your heart would start pounding and your stomach would twist in knots. You had never considered yourself to be shy before, when you first moved to Hawkins a few years ago, Robin had joked that you didn’t need a welcome wagon because you had thrown yourself into band and had introduced yourself to everyone with ease.

You had masked your anxiety over being the new kid with an overinflated sense of confidence and it had worked out really well for you until you caught feelings for the freak who sat next to you in remedial science.

“I think... I would rather chug formaldehyde.” you said slowly, staring so hard at the offensively pink and red booth that Robin was sure it was going to catch flames.

“Either go up there and buy a candygram or I’m going to do it for you.” Robin said. “If I have to hear you waffle about this for one more day I’m gonna rip my hair out.”

“But if I send him one, then he might actually acknowledge me and realize I might have something resembling a feeling for him, and that’s just not really cool, you know? Goes against my chill and mysterious personality.” you said, leaning back on your chair with a cocky grin.

“Last night I saw you and Steve cry over Bambi.” Robin deadpans.

“Okay, so we were drunk and also shut up.” you snorted, rubbing your face.

“How are you going to know if there’s anything there if you don’t even take the chance?” Robin scolds. “Come one, I’ve seen the way you look at him. I’m surprised the whole school doesn’t know-”

“Again, cool and mysterious personality.” you tried again.

“Plus I know he’s just as weird as you.” Robin continued, ignoring you. “I mean, last week I saw him get Jason Carver to back off one of the freshmen by pretending to exercise a demon out of him!”

You stared at Robin for a beat before thunking your head on the lunch table. “I’m going to marry him. Holy shit, he actually tried to expel the demon lurking in Carver?” You were laughing at the thought.

During your first senior year and his second, Eddie Munson had caught your eye when you had the same lunch period. He was loud and energetic and so fucking weird you couldn’t help but to be drawn to him. Had your parents not forced you to stick with band, you would have considered joining Hellfire. Unfortunately even with this last go-round as a super senior, they still made you stick with it despite your senioritis reaching terminal levels.

You never had a good opportunity to talk to him, and the more time passed the harder it became to justify just randomly approaching him. This semester you finally had your opportunity when you’d been put in the same class and sitting next to each other no less. Still, the most you’d been able to say was “yeah, sure” when he’d asked you for a pencil once.

Four weeks sitting next to Eddie, and you had barely spoken to him while noticing every little thing about him. He read a lot in class when he could get away with it, and doodled in his notebooks constantly, especially dice and dragons seemed to be the biggest theme. His school notebook wasn’t nearly as filled in as his Hellfire notebook, and he was always fidgeting in class. He also didn’t talk much, and at least once a week he’d end up falling asleep in class with his head in his hand.

“There’s not gonna be a wedding if you can’t even talk to the guy.” Robin said. “He’s not even scary! Dustin comes in to talk to Steve all the time about Hellfire. He’s just a dork.”

“I know and that’s the problem.” your voice was a strangled laugh mixed with a groan.

“You showed up the first day of band and introduced yourself to everyone, even if they weren’t in your section. What is the hold up with you talking to Eddie?” Robin pried.

“Because back then, it didn’t matter.” You looked over at Robin, poking at your mystery meat. “When I first got here it didn’t matter if anyone liked me or not. I was only supposed to be in this school for a few months and then graduate. Then I didn’t. I could handle it if someone didn’t like me. None of you were really supposed to matter to me. No offense.”

Thankfully, Robin didn’t seem offended. “You were just making nice with the inmates until parole.” she joked and you nodded.

“Yup, and then when I realized that I was going to have to actually have a full other year of school, that meant that I was going to have to care if I was ever gonna graduate.” You continued. “Luckily you saw through all my bullshit bravado and started dragging me to movie nights with you and Steve.”

“Yeah yeah, we love friendship. So what does any of this have to do with Eddie?” Robin said, not needing you to explain the backstory that she had been present for.

“It means that with Mr. Munson, I unfortunately, care so fucking much what he thinks of me.” you relented. “He’s the biggest freak in school, and the dorkiest loser, and if I try and talk to him and he’s not interested in talking back I won’t be able to take it. Robin, I will simply lay down and be dead for the rest of my life.”

“That’s not how that works, you can’t be dead for the rest of your life.” She shook her head, her brows furrowed. “Because if you’re dead then... you’re not alive”

“Schrodinger's corpse then. Alive and dead at the same time.”

“Look, just send him the stupid candygram. The worst he can do is say no.” She stood up from the table and grabbed your hand. “Let’s go.”

And that’s how you ended up at the booth, jotting down Eddie’s name on a piece of paper and shoving a few quarters in the till with Robin looking smug. “I doubt he’s ever gotten one anyway, if anything he should be thrilled that someone wanted to send him one.”

“If this kills me, Steve’s in charge of the music at my funeral.” you sighed.

---

Candygrams were being handed out and delivered through the week. You weren’t paying attention to what period they were supposed to be handed out, and so when two students in obnoxious heart shirts and fake wings burst into your science class with Eddie right next to you, you were about ready to throw yourself out a window.

No one was surprised when Janet and Charlie were tossed a few candygrams, but everyone’s head whipped around when the red heart shaped lollipop and card was set on Eddie Munson’s desk. Eddie himself seemed more surprised than anyone.

He had the lollipop in his mouth before he even opened the note attached and you were seconds away from bolting out the door. With any luck, maybe he didn’t know your name even after weeks of sitting next to each other.

“Who’s it from, freak?” asked Patrick, the basketball jock who sat a few rows ahead. That earned a few snickers from the class.

“It’s from your mom.” Eddie said without missing a beat and taking out the lollipop. “Tell her I say thanks.”

More laughter from the class as Patrick stood up as if ready to fight, but the teacher quickly told him to sit down.

Shit, this wasn’t supposed to happen. You felt a bit guilty that your candygram had kicked up a fuss, but at least Eddie didn’t out you as the person who sent it to him. In fact he wasn’t looking over at you at all.

You watched him out of the corner of your eye as he flipped the card around, as if looking for something. All that was written was his name and “YOU’RE SWEET!” written in cheesy font and his name scribbled in your handwriting.

And nothing else.

You didn’t know if you should laugh or cry at your stupidity. You’d been so jumbled and nervous that you’d forgotten to sign the damn thing. Robin was gonna have a field day with this one.

Eddie kept fidgeting with the card through the rest of class, twisting it and bending it until it was as crumpled and torn as your heart felt. He shoved it in his pocket and didn’t even glance at you as the bell rang and he stood up and tossed the eaten lollipop stick in the trash.

It’s not personal. You told yourself. He has no idea who sent it to him.

That’s when you had a horrible idea, so stupid it might actually work.

---

“Explain how this is going to work again?” Robin asked. “You’re going to keep sending him lollipops this week until he notices you?”

“Sort of.” you said, buying another candygram. “I’ll just send him a few joke ones as a feeler and if he responds positively I’ll come clean. If not, I keep my dignity. It’s a win-win.”

“Since when do you care about your dignity?” Robin sorted.

“Since I caught feelings for the least dignified guy in school, I guess.” You knew it was stupid, you knew it was ridiculous, but you already messed up once so you might as well lean into it. You scribbled his name down, this time signing it with a satisfied giggle. “This is so dumb.”

Oh, but it was so worth it. You had bought it before school started, guaranteeing that it’d be delivered the same day, handing over a crisp dollar to Nancy Wheeler who had volunteered for the booth. If Eddie had been surprised the first time, he looked almost shocked now.

Eddie, sorry I forgot to sign the first one! This card said, once again not giving away any sign of who it was actually from. You saw his eye sparkle in amusement as he ate his lollipop, and this time the card was read over a few times before being carefully tucked into his dungeon master notebook.

By the third day, the novelty of Eddie Munson getting candygrams had worn off with the rest of your class, but Eddie’s grin only grew wider each time.

“Anything for me, Cupid?” Eddie asked as the student council members walked back in to hand out more lollipops.

He whooped as another one was dropped on his desk and he snatched up the card quickly and you had to cover your face and bite your lip to stop yourself from giggling at his excitement.

Eddie, sorry I’m so bad at remembering to sign these things! I just get way too excited about sending them out that I lose focus. So anyway this card is actually from-

You had carefully spaced out your writing on the small rectangle of paper so that it left absolutely no room for you to sign your name. Eddie looked downright giddy as he read the note over and over. Seeing him so happy made your stomach burst into butterflies and even if he decided after this he wasn’t interested, this was enough. Knowing that he was smiling because of you was enough.

Someone said your name and you looked up, surprised to see one of the student council members standing next to you and handing you a candygram. Your eyebrows shot up as you took it with a thanks and opened up the card.

Who had sent one to you? You’d been so wrapped up in your little scheme you didn’t even consider that someone would try and send you one either.

A smile tugged at your lips as you saw your name and a small drawing of what looked like an egg in a nest as the sender. Robin, of course. Probably making fun of you for sending candygrams to Eddie without signing either.

You tucked the candygram in your own notebook safely and dared a glance over at Eddie again. You hadn’t expected for him to be looking back at you, and your heart jumped in your chest. He unwrapped his lollipop and lifted it slightly as if he was trying to toast. You held yours up as well to him, an off sense of camaraderie between two people who had their day temporarily disturbed for commercialized love.

Thursday came around, Valentine's day proper, but they’d be doing one last day of candygrams on Friday as well. This was a fundraiser after all, and capitalism trumps any semblance of real sincerity. Well, you said that but that wasn’t exactly going to stop you from continuing your little plan.

Today was the day you were going to pull out the big guns. You handed over a full $5 to have a carnation sent to Eddie, as well as a return to sender card to Robin for being a good friend.

“Shouldn’t he be the one sending you a flower?” Nancy asked, handing you the card to write on. You wondered how Nancy had time for all of the extracurricular activities she had going on, working with the student council and the school newspaper.

You just shrugged at the question, not realizing how wide you were smiling or how obviously warm your cheeks were. To anyone with two eyes, you were glowing and to anyone with one eye, you were phosphorescent.

The disinterest that your classmates had from the last two rounds perked back up with a flower was delivered to Eddie that afternoon.

“For little old me?” Eddie said, batting his eyelashes at the delivery boy as he took the carnation. You giggled to yourself as he opened the card again.

Man, I’m bad at this aren’t I? Don’t worry, this time I’m writing very small so I have room to sign this card. Seeing you light up when these get delivered has made my whole week, and totally worth it. Anyway this is from-

To be fair, you had actually signed your name this time. However this time you had made an attempt to erase it with one of those erasers. The horrible stiff ones that only made big smudges and made the mistake worse and nearly tore through the paper. You had carefully looked at your smudged signature for a long time before deciding it was illegible enough to send.

Eddie faked a swoon in his seat, nearly toppling over onto the floor. “Come on!” he laughed, pushing himself back upright, smiling with his whole face. He looked over the note again, something clicking in his brain and you quickly looked down at the book you were currently pretending to read.

“It’s someone in here.” you heard him mutter to himself and your heart started pounding in your chest. You focused on your breathing to try and stop yourself from giggling and giving yourself away.

“Stop sending yourself stuff, Munson. It’s pathetic.” Patrick called out.

“If you wanted me to be your Valentine, sweetheart, all you had to do was ask nicely.” Eddie said, but he sounded distracted as his eyes scanned the room for any hint of who this mysterious person is. “And next time, I’m more than happy with just the lollipop, it’s saving me on smokes.”

You didn’t even notice the lollipop on your desk until class had started back up. Unfolding the card you smiled to yourself, seeing that it was from Robin again. This time the egg in the nest had a crack in it and seemed to be hatching. You’d ask her about it later.

Nothing said during the rest of class even registered with you, every word was in one ear and out the other. This had been a fun week sending Eddie all the lollipops and flowers but tomorrow was the last day to have something sent to him.

Were you going to sign your name? That’s the million dollar question. You had told Robin that you would if Eddie seemed interested, and he had made it clear he was enjoying the attention.

But would he still enjoy the attention if he learned it was from you? You two weren’t exactly friends, but not complete strangers either. He didn’t seem to dislike you, after all he’d raised a toast with you with your lollipops the other day.

Well, if you were gonna put yourself out there, you were gonna do it on your own terms.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” Robin said that Friday morning as you dropped a handful of ones on the table for one last hurrah.

“Nope, I’ve committed.” you said, taking the small stack of cards and getting to work.

“I’m going to have you committed.” Robin shook her head. “I mean, this is actually insane, you know that right? There’s no reason to go through all this trouble, when you could just talk to him.”

“Oh, but where’s the fun in that, Buckley?” you asked, as you added one letter of your name to each of the cards. “Gotta make him work for it.”

“So you’re gonna give him a Valentine's themed word jumble as your big sign off?”

“Yup.” you confirmed, adding his name to each of the cards. He’d get them all in one go and then it’s up to him to unscramble your name and figure it out.

After that... well, the ball is in his court.

Besides, if he liked the lollipops enough that he’d reach for one instead of a cigarette then that’s good enough.

“You’re such a weirdo. You deserve each other.” Robin went on. “The Weirdo and the Freak. It’s like Beauty and the Beast except.. Not.”

“Robin, don’t you know three languages?” you snorted finishing up your stack and handing them over to be sent. “You are so much smarter than me, but this is where you lose words?”

“It’s Friday and I haven’t had coffee.” she pointed out. “Oh, thanks for sending me one by the way.”

“Yeah, of course. I mean you sent me one so I wasn’t gonna leave you hanging.” you nudged her playfully.

“I didn’t send you one.” Robin looked at you, confused.

“What?” You reached into your backpack and pulled out the notebook where you had placed the card and handed it to her. “But that’s a robin’s egg...?”

“It’s an egg, probably.” Robin agreed. “But I’m broke. I didn’t send any out.”

You stared at the card with new eyes. If she didn’t send it, then who did?

---

“Holy shit.” Eddie muttered as a bag of lollipops was dumped on his desk with no rhyme or reason, earning a round of laughter and snickers from the class. The teacher had long since given up on trying to keep the class’s attention when the Cupid’s showed up.

He sorted through the cards, a puzzled expression on his face as he looked at the different letters on the cards until he found one that had real words on it.

Figure it out, Sucker <3 Eddie’s face was a wonderful mixture of amusement, bewilderment, and mild offense.

One of the Cupid’s handed you another two lollipops as well. One was actually signed by one of your friends in band, and the other had another doodle of an egg. This time the egg was completely hatched and there was some sort of weird bird flying off.

Not a robin. You decided, trying to figure out what it was supposed to be.

You barely paid attention in class for the rest of the hour, your attention split between the three egg Valentines you received and the man next to you. Eddie had pulled out his Dungeon Master notebook to try and decode your message. You felt flattered that he was using his favored notebook to try and figure out your puzzle.

Eddie was sucking on one of the lollipops diligently as he scribbled down random letters. Now that you thought about it, you’d never seen him look so studious in class before. You wondered if this is what he looked like when he was working on his campaigns and your brain decided to give you a treat of a daydream where the two of you were sitting around in your room while he explained his campaign and how he’d love to have someone like you join Hellfire-

It was three minutes before the bell, and that meant just a few minutes until your last period and the weekend. With Valentine’s day falling in the middle of the week, most of your friends were going to be off doing things with their partners. Maybe you, Robin, and Steve- no wait, Steve actually got dates. Robin worked on the weekend.

Maybe Eddie- NOPE. Not going there, you were not about to get your hopes up for this.

You glanced over at him again, looking at his notebook to see if he was anywhere close to decoding your name. Eddie had the worst handwriting you’d ever seen and so you would be surprised if he could even figure out his own notes. Between unjumbling your letters, he had started doodling in the margins. You assumed that they were D&D monsters from the look of it, since none of them looked like actual animals except for the bats in the corner.

The only other thing you recognized was a dragon, drawn in a larger scale on the side of the page. It’s wings were expanded and it was flying off, and from this angle it looked like a weird...

It looked like some bird

Some sort of weird bird

Your head snapped back down to the card in front of you. This wasn’t a weird bird. It was a dragon. A dragon hatching from an egg. An egg that hatched a dragon. A dragon that was drawn with the same pose as the one in Eddie’s notebook. Eddie’s notebook had your dragon no wait, your card had his dragon-

Eddie Munson had sent you the cards.

Eddie had-

“Oh.” You said out loud. You were nearly fighting back hysterical laughter at this, and you pressed your hands against your face, with your shoulder shaking with repressed laughter.

Why the hell had Eddie sent you those cards? The two of you had barely spoken to each other!

You did the same damn thing, dipshit. You reminded yourself. In fact you had gone way harder than he had. But what did this MEAN?

The bell rang and everyone scrambled to get out of the classroom, and before you could say anything, Eddie was off and running out of the classroom at the speed of light.

What was that about?

Robin was right. If you were ever going to have a chance with him, you were going to suck it up and talk to him, even if it meant possibly embarrassing yourself. Plus, finding out why he sent you three candygrams was currently trumping any fear of rejection. Curiosity killed the cat, but at least he died satisfied. You’re pretty sure how that saying went at least.

You knew that Eddie had Hellfire today, it was Friday and he and all of his friends had been running around in their club shirts. With a deep breath you...realized you had no idea where the hell they actually met.

This whole thing could have been planned better, actually.

You started walking around the school blindly for any sign of the signature baseball tee that they all wore. If you found one of them, they were sure to lead you to Eddie. God, you felt like a stalker.

There. Long dark curls against a stark white shirt with black sleeves. Your heart leapt in your chest, and you had to make the choice now.

“E... Eddie! Wait up!” you called out, walking quickly towards him.

When he turned around to look at you, you felt the air disappear from your lungs. How was it possible for him to be so beautiful and why the fuck did no one in this school seem to notice?

Eddie pulled the lollipop he’d been sucking on out of his mouth, surprised to see you.

“Hey.” he said. “Uh... you sit next to me in class.”

He was either playing dumb, or you were about to make an ass of yourself. But, like Robin asked, since when do you care about dignity?

You reached into your bag and pulled out the candygrams that had been sent to you and holding them out.

To your relief he gave you a bashful smile. “Guess you caught me, huh?” he asked. “You solved my Valentine’s puzzle.”

“I have a pretty high intelligence when I apply myself.” you said, which only made him grin wide. “But I gotta say, Munson. I’m actually a little disappointed. I mean, sadistic and scary dungeon master of the Hellfire club, and this is the best puzzle you could come up with?”

He crossed his arms and took a step towards you. “Well, I don’t know you as well as I’d like.” he said, and your stomach erupted into butterflies. “Had to start somewhere.”

“I guess I had to be sneaky and pay attention to you to figure it out. You’re hard not to notice, you know.” you admitted, crossing your arms as well to mimic him.

“Being The Freak means I fail most stealth checks.” he shrugged.

“High charisma though.” you threw out there, hoping that line would land and to your delight it did.

“It’s the Munson Magic. I come by it naturally.” Eddie’s smile was so wide it was cheesy but shit, it was working on you.

“Not great intelligence though.” you smirked at him.

“Oh? And how do you figure that?” He looked a little offended now, and you saw his shoulder stiffen as if he was waiting for this to suddenly go south.

“Spell my name, Eddie.”

You could see the lightbulb go off in his mind and his eyes widened.

“You- wait, you were the one who kept sending me the cards?” Eddie looked nothing short of bewildered and ecstatic. You had a feeling that if things went well, you wouldn’t have to worry about ever knowing what he was thinking as he wore every emotion on his sleeve.

“Surprise?” you asked, playing with the strap of your backpack.

Eddie licked his lips, chasing the last of the flavor of the sucker he’d been eating. He looked at you, as if searching for something, and you cut in before he had the chance to find it.

“Do you want to hang out sometime?” you asked, a little louder than you meant to. “Like, just us.”

“Do you think you can handle a date with The Freak?” Eddie asked, standing a little straighter. “I’m sure you’ve heard the rumors, and I promise the worst of them are true.”

“Don’t threaten me with a good time, Eddie, I’ve always wanted to join Hellfire.” you smirked. “I’m sure there are worse things for a first date than sacrificing someone to Satan, or summoning demons, or joining a cult.”

“I’m a gentleman, I would never ask a lady to summon demons on the first date. That’s at least a third date activity.” Eddie held his hand to his heart and raised a hand as if making an oath.

Oh yeah, you were going to marry him. You were already picturing proposing to him and taking him away from this town.

“Then how about dinner at Benny’s?” you suggested. “Burgers and shakes on me and you can tell me more about Hellfire and dragons and I can give you a spelling lesson.”

Eddie ran his ringed fingers through his hair and you giggled as the rings got snagged and he struggled to untangle them.

“It’s.. a date then.” he said, but it came out as more of a question, as if he was asking if this was really happening.

“A date.” You agreed, handing him your number, having come prepared.

As you began to walk away, he called out after you.

“Wait! You said you wanted to check out Hellfire, right?” Eddie said and you turned to look at him. “I’m... I’m actually running a one shot tonight. Kind of beginner friendly enough. I don’t often do this in the middle of the semester but one of our usuals dropped out because he had a date so... we have an open seat at the table. If you think you can handle it.”

Your smile widened as you walked over to him. “I think I’ll take you up on that.”

Eddie offered his arm to you, as if he were a gentleman which you took eagerly.

“So... how do you actually spell your name?”

---

Dear Reader, I hope you have the easiest name to spell because that would make this fic at least 3% funnier. Also, I'm proud I got this done before Valentine's day because I never even finished my Halloween or Christmas fic. Be proud of me.

Please reblog if you enjoyed it <3

Tag List: @gagasbee, @ihaventgotaclue-really @tastefullyferal @anonymouskiwi @hellfiredarling

#nacht fic #eddie munson x reader

3K notes · View notes

andvys · 3 months ago

Text

the edges of your soul (i haven’t seen yet) ⭐︎ chapter nine

⭐︎ Pull the trigger on the gun I gave you when we met

warnings: fluff, post apocalypse au, alcohol consumption, drinking game, mentions of sex, mentions of masturbation, mention of virginity, hurt/no comfort (i guess?), angst, sunshine x grumpy, jealousy jealousy jealousy

pairing: steve harrington x fem!reader

summary: during a game of never have i ever you find out things you weren’t prepared for

word count: 9k+

authors note: i wrote this part in two days, that’s how excited i was to write it hehe. shoutout to @hellfire--cult as always 🤍 we came up with this chapter months ago and now it’s finally here! roe added the last bit aka THE PAINFUL ONE! I am so excited for the upcoming chapters hehe

series masterlist ⭐︎ previous chapter

☀︎

The air is crisp. The wind is cold and harsher now than it was a few weeks ago. The first snow started falling about a week ago, making the journey a lot harder and slower, which isn’t in your favor at all. You want to go home sooner rather than later. You have already lost so much time, when you were alone and even now too. Your sickness slowed you down, slowed them down.

You are much better now. The fever had gone down five days into your antibiotic treatment. Your cough is still there, not as strongly as it was before but it’s there. On top of that, you don’t perform as well as you used to before the sickness. You get tired quickly, your muscles get sore and you struggle to breathe.

Nancy told you that it’s normal, that it might take a longer while for you to recover fully. Her brother Mike suffered for nearly two months after falling sick with pneumonia, carrying an inhaler with him at all times, just like you do too, now.

It frustrates you a little, because now they all watch you like hawks to make sure that you are not moving around too much. You are not allowed to go on runs or scavenge areas, at least not until you’re healthy again. Steve is scavenging with Eddie now mostly, but today Nancy joined him instead, leaving you and Eddie to stand guard on the snowy parking lot.

You don’t mind. You like spending time alone with Eddie, but you want to do something. Not being able to help is driving you crazy.

You play with the hair tie around your wrist, the one that Steve left on you, the one you haven’t taken off yet because he told you to keep it when you tried to give it back. You didn’t question where he got it or whose it was. You have a hunch.

“Fucking Nebraska.” Eddie murmurs as he leans against the side of the RV, looking up into the grey sky.

“What’s wrong with Nebraska?” You ask, chuckling.

Eddie shrugs at you, raising his axe, and he points all around at the snow. “That.”

“Nebraska isn’t the only state that’s covered in snow right now, Eddie.” You smile in amusement. You rub your glove covered hands together as you turn your body towards him.

He narrows his eyes at you, sighing loudly.

“Yeah well, we should have been in uh… Wyoming, Idaho or freaking Utah by now but instead we’re stuck in this godforsaken state. I swear it’s only gonna bring us bad luck.”

You furrow your eyebrows and giggle at him, shaking your head.

“This state is really on your most hated list, huh?”

Eddie scoffs as he turns to face you. His cheeks are red, his nose is too. His bottom lip is trembling from the cold. A few snowflakes adorn his curls.

“Yup.”

“Well… if it makes you feel any better… It took me a year to get to Indiana from New York,” you admit, shrugging. “Something always gets in the way. Just like now, if it isn’t the blocked roads then it’s the time we use for scavenging. If it isn’t that, then it’s the time we spend looking for gas… and if it isn’t that then… It's a sickness.” You sigh, looking down at your feet as you kick the snow on the ground.

Eddie’s eyes soften. Sympathy flashes in them. You felt guilty for falling sick, for slowing them down, for being a ‘burden’ as you had called yourself. He felt a little angry for the way you talked about yourself, for the way you thought you had to apologize for not feeling well.

A soft huff falls from his lips as he bumps his shoulder into yours. He reaches for your hand and gives it a tight squeeze.

“Sweetheart, if you mention that one more time… I swear to Ozzy I will eat all your Kitkat’s.”

Your dimples show when your lips curl into a smile. You shake your head at him, looking back into his eyes with a mean look on your face. You raise your hand up and point your finger at him.

“Not my Kitkat’s.” You threaten, making him chuckle.

Eddie grins at you.

“Stop feeling guilty and I won’t steal your candy, Sweets. It’s simple.” He shrugs.

You roll your eyes at him and he gasps at that, looking at you offended. He throws his hand to his chest and leans back.

“Did you just roll your eyes at me, Sunshine?” He asks shocked, using the nickname Steve calls you by.

You shake your head at his act, giggling at his dramatics. You lean down and sink your hand into the snow, scooping some up into your hand. You move back up, smirking evilly at him before you throw it at his face.

“You’re such a dork, Eddie Munson.”

Another louder gasp falls from his lips when the coldness hits his skin and he stares at you bewildered. He brings his hand up to his face and wipes away the snow that is now stuck to his skin.

You are slowly backing away, eyes glinting with amusement as you giggle loudly.

“You did not just…” He glares at you, taking a step towards you. “You little witch.”

Your eyes widen when he leans down and scoops some snow onto his palm before he charges at you. A squeal falls from your lips as you turn around quickly, trying to run from him.

“Oh, now you’re trying to run?” Eddie chuckles loudly behind you. “Don’t you wanna finish this little snowball fight?”

“Nope!” You giggle loudly, hoping that Steve won’t come out of the store and catch you and Eddie running around like little kids.

“Come here!”

“Nuh uh!”

You make the mistake of looking back at him, not controlling your steps like you should. Your foot catches onto ice under a layer of snow and you suddenly lose your balance, slipping on the ice with both feet. You try to steady yourself but to no avail, you are falling. Though you don’t feel the rough concrete underneath you like you were expecting. Instead you fall on something soft… well, softer than the concrete would have felt.

“Oof…”

Only when you’re on the ground and you feel the arms around your waist and your head protected against a chest, do you realize that you didn’t fall on the ground because Eddie caught you and you landed on top of him instead while he took the fall for you both.

“Ow…” He murmurs underneath you, grunting at the pain in his back.

“Oh my god,” you mumble as the shock wears off and you quickly turn around to face him, not getting up just yet. Your eyes are wide and your face is serious, at least until you look at him and all the snow in his hair.

You stare at each other in silence, breathing heavily. His lip twitches first and then yours follows suit. His eyes flash with amusement and before you know it, you both burst into laughter.

Tension falls off your shoulders. Tension you didn’t realize you even had. But this feels good, you can’t remember the last time you laughed. Especially like this, to the point of tears.

“Goddamn, you’re a klutz,” Eddie laughs as he leans his head back into the snow, not caring anymore at this point.

You shake your head, unable to stop the laughter that keeps falling from your lips.

Eddie lets go of your waist and brings his hand up to your back, patting it softly.

“Are you okay?”

You bring your hand up to your face, wiping away the stray tear that escaped from your eyes. You nod at his question.

“I had a safe fall,” you giggle before it gets cut off by a cough.

Eddie continues to pat your back. He presses his palm against the snowy ground and pushes himself up into a seating position, grunting a bit. You turn away from him and cough into your elbow, clenching your eyes shut.

“Shit, Sweets.” He mumbles. “Do you need your inhaler?”

You shake your head at him. Once you calm down, you press your hand against your chest and turn back to face him. Your eyes are a little glassy from all the coughing.

Eddie’s eyes soften, he gives you a tight lipped smile as he pats your back one last time.

“No laughing for you anymore, young lady.” He gives you a pointed look.

You snort and roll your eyes.

“Hey guys, we–” Steve halts in his tracks suddenly when he finds you on the ground with Eddie. His face falls and his eyes flash with confusion when he takes in the position you’re in – Eddie is sitting up on the ground while you are on top of him, in his lap. By the look on Eddie’s state, he knows you both must have slipped and fallen but how did you get to that point in the first place? And why is Eddie’s arm around your waist?

He clenches his jaw without realizing it. The sourness inside of him spreads quickly, burning in his chest and taking over his whole body. He clenches his fists around the basket he is holding, gripping it so tightly that his knuckles turn white. He stares at Eddie’s hand and how he places it on your hip. Eyes burning with anger.

Steve doesn’t like this and he doesn’t even realize why.

Your head snaps towards Steve and you frown at the look on his face. Before you even begin to question it, your eyes fall on the basket he is holding and curiosity gets the best of you. You carefully get off Eddie and place your feet back on the ground, accepting his hand that he offers to you.

Steve’s eyebrows knit together strongly and the fire in him spreads further and up to his face, causing his cheeks to redden.

You don’t notice but Eddie does, especially when he catches Steve watching how you help him up. How you remove the snow from his jacket and his cheek, making sure that he is clean again before you make your way towards him.

Eddie raises his eyebrows in surprise, seeing the glare that is directed at him, the murderous gaze. If looks could kill, he would drop dead by now. If he didn’t consider Steve to be one of his best friends, he would have feared him right now. But Eddie only feels smugness and amusement.

If jealousy had a name, it would be Steve Harrington.

Eddie’s lip curls into a smirk, and he snickers under his breath.

“This is too good,” he murmurs under his breath. He is gonna tease him. Oh yeah. He is gonna enjoy this one.

“What’d you find?” You ask cheerfully as you make your way towards him, smiling brightly already.

Steve looks away from Eddie and down at you. His eyes instantly soften when they meet yours. The sourness remains in his chest but something else spreads even quicker… warmth.

You grab the edge of the basket with both hands and peek inside. Your smile falls and your eyes widen. A gasp of excitement falls from your lips when you catch sight of the knitted scarf.

You look up at him, mustering up your best puppy eyes.

“Can I have that one?” You plead.

Steve’s heart skips a beat at the look on your face. Those eyes. He feels his knees falling weak every time you look at him like this.

He swallows the growing lump in his throat and he nods.

He almost wants to laugh at your question though. He spent fifteen minutes picking out a scarf for you. He didn’t want just any one. He grabbed the pink one at first before he caught sight of this one. He was unaware of Nancy’s smug face.

“I picked it out for you.” He mumbles, lip curling upwards when your wide eyes meet his again.

“You did!?” You nearly squeal as you grab it from the basket, jumping on your feet slightly as you wrap it around yourself.

Steve’s eyes sparkle as he takes in the pure happiness on your features, all because of a pastel yellow colored scarf.

“How’d you know this was my favorite color?” You ask, feeling the fluttering of your heart so strongly at this moment, especially when you look into his hazel eyes.

Steve feels caught and he sinks into himself a little. Heat creeps up to his cheeks and he grows flustered… embarrassed. He clears his throat, shifting from one foot to another.

He clears his throat, wanting to punch Eddie now more than ever as he catches sight of the smug bastard in the back.

“I honestly didn’t know… I– I just… remembered you said you had a sunflower field behind your house, so I thought…” he trails off and looks back down into your eyes. They are sparkling for him. Your smile is wider than it was in weeks. You’re happy. “Good to know, though…”

Your heart skips a beat, and your stomach flutters wildly. He remembered your sunflower field? You told him that in the very beginning, when he didn’t even talk back much, when you just rambled his ear off. You didn’t even think he listened to you, let alone remember what you talked about to him.

“Thank you so much, Stevie!” You smile widely as you take a step closer to him. You rise to your tippy toes and grab onto his shoulder as you press your lips to his cheek, pecking it softly.

Steve freezes. He tenses up. Not because he didn’t like it but because he did. He liked it. He liked the feeling of your lips on his skin. A little too much.

You pull away and brush past him when you notice Nancy coming out of the store, carrying two bags. You leave him standing with glowing cheeks.

The need to escape takes over and despite feeling like his feet are glued to the ground, he forces himself to make his way towards the RV, ignoring the racing in his chest.

He walks past Eddie but not without sending a glare towards him. He reaches into the basket, and picks out the grey beanie, throwing it at the metalhead without a single word.

Eddie catches it before it hits him in the face. A loud snicker falls from his mouth when he realizes why Steve is so salty and why his cheeks are like the color of a ripe tomato. He follows him. Of course he does. Eddie sees the perfect opportunity.

“Thanks for that, man.” Eddie holds up the beanie.

“Yeah, you’re welcome.” Steve grumbles under his breath. He throws the door open to the RV and steps inside. Dropping the basket on the table, he starts taking out the cans of food he found and starts stacking them up in the cabinets.

Eddie leans against the wall and crosses his arms over his chest.

“What were you two doing out there?” Steve asks after two minutes of silence.

“Had a little snowball fight.” That is an exaggeration, and he knows it, but he wants to see Steve’s reaction. “And then we fell.”

Eddie can’t see his face. Steve’s back is turned to him as he fills up the cabinets. Though he can see how he tenses up and falters a little.

“Right…” Steve scoffs. “She fell on your lap?”

There it is. Eddie is surprised; that was quick.

He doesn’t bother hiding his snickering. He pushes himself off the wall and moves up beside him, tilting his head at the former jock. He smiles smugly when he sees the clenched jaw.

“Is that jealousy, Big Boy?”

Steve narrows his eyes at him. He grips the edges of the counter and slowly turns to face him.

“I’m just…–”

“You’re just what, Steve? Jealous?” Eddie cackles, enjoying this far more than he should. He raises his hand up and places it on Steve’s chest, patting it roughly. “Don’t worry, man. She is all yours, I promise.”

Steve huffs and he shakes his head, opening his mouth to speak.

“Yellow is her favorite color huh? I didn’t know that. You didn’t either, she didn’t even tell you–”

“Stop.” Steve sighs. He brings his hand up to his face and pinches the bridge of his nose. The tension in his shoulders rises when he realizes the weight of Eddie’s words. Deep down he knows he is right, he knows it. He doesn’t want to acknowledge it. He doesn’t want to think about it. He doesn’t want to admit it. He fears it. He can’t have those feelings. He can’t allow himself to care more than he does right now. He knows where this will end – how it almost ended a few weeks ago. If he allows these feelings, if he lets them out only for something to happen… he will never recover.

The smug look on Eddie’s face falls when he realizes the seriousness of this situation as he reads the look on his face.

Steve is holding back. He is holding back out of fear, not realizing that this could potentially make everything so much worse.

“Steve…” Eddie sighs as his hand moves to grip his shoulder. “I know what you’re trying to do here–”

“Don’t.” Steve warns him. Like he doesn’t want to hear it, like he doesn’t want to even consider his words. “Just don’t, Munson.”

He couldn’t even finish the sentence. He couldn’t even utter a single word and it frustrated him a little but he also understands it.

“Fine…” Eddie sighs, and he lets his hand fall back to his side.

Steve takes a deep breath. He runs his fingers through the mess of his head. His hair got so long in the past few months. The past self of him would be mortified at the sight of him now.

Steve glances at Eddie. He can’t stand the sympathetic look in his dark eyes. He doesn’t want to be pitied.

“You know what you need–”

Steve rolls his eyes and he pulls back, crossing his arms over his chest.

“I said don’t–”

“Hear me out, will you?” Eddie mumbles in annoyance. He rolls his eyes back at him and turns around, opening the cabinet where you have put all the special things. He reaches for the bottle. A grin spreads on his face before he turns around. He holds it up with a wiggle of his brows.

Steve shakes his head, “nope.”

“Oh yeah.” Eddie nods and by the look of his determined face, Steve knows he will lose this argument. “You gotta let loose a little. Swallow those feelings down with a little help of my former best friend.” Eddie grins at the whiskey bottle.

Steve sighs.

“We’ll play a little drinking game… and who knows, maybe we’ll find out some dirty truths from your girl's past.” Eddie cackles.

“She’s not my–”

The door bursts open and you come rushing in, carrying one of the bags you grabbed off Nancy’s shoulder. You halt in your tracks and look between them. The frustrated gaze in Steve’s eyes and the excited one in Eddie’s tells you everything you need to know.

Nancy comes stumbling in behind you.

Eddie turns towards you, smirking at the two of you as he holds up the whiskey bottle.

“Wanna play a game?”

The fire keeps you brittle warm, allowing your cheeks to burn a little. The cold doesn’t even touch you right now, you’re so close to the heat. The bowl of soup is warm in your hands. You keep glancing towards Steve as you watch him eat.

Eddie is rambling his ear off about DnD, something Steve couldn’t care less about. He keeps humming and grumbling in response.

Nancy had already finished her dinner. She is rubbing her hands over the fire, warming herself up.

You found a little hidden spot, behind trees and ruins, allowing you to let the flames burn higher than usual. Allowing you to feel a little more comfortable. You did a perimeter check with Steve before dinner, and he demanded to do it slowly for you, and this area seemed pretty safe and clean.

“So… how about some good ‘ol never have I ever?” Eddie smirks as he picks up the bottle of whiskey he carried outside before.

Your eyes light up. The urge to let loose, even if just for one night, for a few hours is so big. You nod at him, putting your now empty bowl on the ground beside your feet.

“Yes, please!”

Nancy chuckles at the enthusiastic smile on your face. Eddie’s eyes lock with hers and she shrugs at him, mumbling “sure.”

Eddie grins at her, knowing she wouldn’t have given in so easily in the past. She sure has changed.

He looks at Steve last to find him staring at you. Eddie knows that he is curious, it’s in his eyes.

“I’m not drinking—“

“Oh come on!” Eddie groans, throwing his head back.

“If I am willing to drink then you gotta do it too, Steve!” Nancy says, shrugging at him.

“Someone’s gotta stay sober.”

“Not like we’re gonna get blackout drunk, man. Besides the area is safe—“

Steve sighs, shaking his head. “You can never know.”

“Steve…” You sigh, pulling the attention on you. You tilt your head to the side, pouting at him. “Please…”

Steve huffs softly.

Your features, your skin, your hair look so soft in this light. The golden flames make you look even more beautiful. Something flutters in his chest when you bat your eyelashes at him.

He breathes in shakily, and by the way Eddie snickered beside him, he knows he heard it.

Steve clears his throat as he shakes his head.

“You’re not drinking either, Sunshine. You’re still coming down from your sickness and you’re still on pain meds.” He says sternly.

Now your frown and your pout deepens. Your stomach sinks a little and the excitement wears off instantly.

“Oh… right.” You whisper.

Steve watches the way your face falls and your shoulders slump. A saddening look flashes in your features. He is surprised to see you giving up so easily, he expected you to put up a bit of a fight.

“Shit,” Eddie murmurs. He didn't think about it either.

You sigh deeply. You look between all of them and straighten your back again.

“You can still play!”

Steve can’t help but feel a twinge of guilt bubbling up inside of him. He saw how excited you were when Eddie suggested the game.

“Hold on,” Steve mumbles as he pushes himself up from his seat. He disappears into the RV, making you all frown in confusion. You hear some rustling, some cans moving around before he comes out again, holding a can of Dr. Pepper in his hand. He makes his way to you, lips curling into a small smile. He holds it out for you. “I know it’s not the same but… you– we can still play.”

You stare at the red soda can in his hand. Your soft eyes light up as you look up at him.

His throat bobs when he swallows nervously. His heart skips yet another beat as he looks down into your eyes.

Steve couldn’t care less about the game. If it wasn’t for you, he would call it a day and go to sleep.

“Yeah,” he whispers softly.

You are both unaware of the eye contact Nancy and Eddie are holding. To the looks on their faces and of the mischief crossing Eddie’s face as he grabs the plastic cups he had already prepared before. He unscrews the lid and pours the whiskey.

“Thank you,” you whisper as you take the soda from Steve’s hands. Blush rises to your cheeks and your hand warms even more when your fingers brush against his own.

Steve only smiles at you before he makes his way back to his seat. He curls his fingers into his hand, clenching it tightly as he still feels the mark of your touch. A sigh leaves his mouth when he sinks back into his camping chair.

Eddie holds the cup out to him, and Steve only accepts it reluctantly.

“Don’t think too much,” Eddie says to him. “It’s gonna be good for you, trust me.”

“If you say so.” Steve snorts as he accepts the cup. He can’t remember the last time he even smelled alcohol.

A pop sounds through the circle as you open the can. You bring your knees up to your chest and tug the blanket tighter around you, getting comfortable as giddiness rushes through your body. This reminds you of high school… only this is even better. You’re around friends.

Eddie puts the bottle back down after handing Nancy her cup. He leans back and looks around the circle, smirking at Steve – the latter already knowing that this means nothing good.

“So…” Eddie starts, wiggling his eyebrows. “Who’s starting?”

Steve sinks deeper into his seat, he looks down at his drink, sloshing it around in the cup.

“Never have I ever played DnD.” Nancy says, making both you and Steve chuckle.

Eddie raises his eyebrows at her, tilting his head as he brings the cup up to his lips.

“You’re doing me a favor here, Wheeler.”

Before he can even down the drink like he had planned to do, Steve leans forward and grabs Eddie’s wrist, “hold on. You ain’t downing that drink. We’re not in high school going home safe after. Doesn’t matter how safe this area seems to you, we’re still in the middle of nowhere… during the goddamn end of the world. We’re taking sips, not shots.”

Steve’s face is stern as he lectures Eddie, who looks like a kid getting scolded by his father.

You can’t help but giggle.

“Okay, dad.” Eddie mumbles with wide eyes. “Sips, not shots, got it.”

Nancy laughs at their interaction.

Eddie takes a sip, keeping his eyes on Steve, who watches him closely, warning him with his eyes.

“See.” Eddie shows him the cup. “I just took a sip.”

“Good.” Steve grumbles before he leans back into his seat.

Eddie turns back to Nancy, grinning evilly. “Alright Wheeler. Never have I ever… gotten straight A’s in high school.”

A groan falls from her lips, she rolls her eyes at his lame attempt at making her drink. She brings the cup up to her lips and takes a sip.

Steve glances at you, expecting you to take a sip as well but you don’t. Your can remains propped up on your knees.

“No A’s?” Eddie raises his brows at you. “I’m surprised.”

You shrug. “The best I got were B’s.”

“Something I could only ever dream of.”

Nancy rolls her eyes at him again, “you were just lazy, Eddie.”

“Are you saying I’m smart, Nancy Wheeler?” He smirks at her.

“I’m saying you could have been better, dumbass.”

Eddie waves her off and looks between you and Steve, “who’s next?”

Steve shrugs and gestures to you, holding his cup.

You blush a little when he flashes you a smile. You tug your blanket tighter to you and look back into the fire.

“Um… never have I ever…” You pause, trying to think of something you have always wanted to do. “Gone on a picnic date…?”

Eddie sits still, not bringing the cup up to his lips. Steve is not drinking either. The three of you glance at each other before you all look towards Nancy, who is the only one to take a sip of the whiskey. She scrunches up her face at the bitter taste.

A sullen look takes over her face and if you didn’t look close enough, you would have missed the way her eyes flashed with sadness before she took that sip. She breathes in sharply and clears her throat before she plasters a smile onto her face as she looks back to you.

“You have never gone on a picnic date?”

Steve glances at you too with curious eyes.

You shake your head. You always wanted to go but no one ever asked you out. Your ex-boyfriend always told you that he wasn’t a fan of date nights – must have been because he was too busy taking other girls out.

Steve’s chest pains a little at the saddened look on your face.

“No, but anyways… It’s your turn, Steve!”

Steve blinks as he stares at you, your eyes now gazing into his. His cheeks flush under the weight of your eyes. He shifts on his chair.

“Uh…” He can’t focus when you look at him, especially with that little tilt in your head and the innocent eyes. He looks down, at the crackling wood and the golden flames. His heart skipping a little harder. This is ridiculous. “Never have I ever uh…”

What stupid thing would Robin say?

What silly line would escape her mouth?

“Been arrested…?”

Eddie chuckles loudly beside him. “See for someone who doesn’t want me to get drunk, you sure are doing a bad job, Harrington.” He laughs before he takes a big sip of his whiskey.

You gasp and lean forward, “how, when, where, why?” You ramble.

Steve’s shoulders shake when laughter escapes him at the look on your face. The wide eyes and the dropped jaw.

“Oh, Sweetheart…” Eddie trails off. “I got arrested several times.”

“For what!?”

“For being an idiot!” Nancy chuckles. She witnessed it herself once, Hopper running after a handcuffed Eddie who somehow managed to escape before he was forced into the cop car.

“Then Jonathan must’ve been an idiot too!” Eddie scoffs. “Didn’t you get arrested with him!?”

She shakes her head at him, “nope. I just went to the station with him.”

You don’t notice the way Steve looks away, awkwardly and tense at the current conversation.

“Why are you all getting arrested!?” You ask, confused.

Nancy shrugs at you.

You glance at Steve and raise your eyebrows at him, “did you get arrested too?”

He purses his lips and shakes his head, “nope. Always managed to get away before the cops were at the crime scene.” He jokes.

You roll your eyes at him but chuckle softly.

“So I’m friends with a bunch of criminals, is that it?” You joke.

“Oh yeah.” Eddie nods his head, making his curls bounce. “Bet you’re the worst of us all though.” He points his finger at you.

You press your palm against your chest, humming. “Cold blooded killer, you said it before.” You joke, looking at him seriously.

“Exactly.”

The game continues and the lines get sillier as Eddie keeps refilling the cups with Whiskey. You notice how the tension in Steve’s shoulders disappears after a few bigger sips of the liquor, how the redness in his cheeks glows stronger beneath the orange hues of the campfire. Your heart flutters every time his eyes flash with amusement, with happiness. Every time his laughter echoes, you feel something in you heating up in a way it never has before.

For a moment, the world out there is gone. It’s just the four of you, being normal people. You aren’t out here trying to survive. You aren’t out here surrounded by death. You aren’t out here barely pushing through this world. Right now, you can be a group of friends having fun… just that. And you enjoy it so much. You have never felt more welcomed than you do with them.

Nancy’s eyes shine with tears of laughter as Eddie continues his story of the girl who threw up on his shoes when he tried flirting with her. His goal was to ask her out on a date, not realizing that she was fully drunk until it was too late.

“God… why do you always have the lamest dating stories, Munson?” Steve laughs, blinking away his own tears.

“That poor girl! She must have been so embarrassed!” You mumble, trying not to giggle as much.

“Sweetheart, I threw up right after. We were both embarrassed.”

You break into laughter again, though your face cringes in disgust at the image of it in your head.

“Did you ever see her again, after?” Steve asks, his lips twitching as he tries to stop laughing.

“Yeah, in the school hallway. It was awkward as hell.” Eddie admits with wide eyes.

“God…” Nancy mumbles, amused. She leans back and tilts her head up, looking up into the sky with a lazy smile on her lips.

“Yeah…” Eddie chuckles to himself as he looks into the fire. His finger traces the rim of his cup.

For a moment, silence takes over. Only the crackling of the wood is heard around you. You watch the flames too, contentment filling you.

You don’t notice his eyes on you or the way they scan your face, the way they look at you. You don’t realize that he is smiling or that his eyes are sparkling. If only you looked up.

“Never have I ever had sex.” Eddie snorts, knowing he will make everyone drink this time.

“Of course,” Nancy snorts and straightens up in her seat again, bringing the cup to her lip, she finishes the remains of her whiskey.

Steve rolls his eyes as he follows suit, finishing the last bit of his drink. He turns to face you and a frown appears on his face.

Eddie notices the look on his face when he has taken the biggest gulp of the night.

You avoid their eyes, blushing furiously as you continue to stare into the fire. Your shoulders, your whole body is tense. Embarrassment is written all over your face. You sit still. The soda can frozen in your lap. You haven’t taken a single sip and you don’t plan on taking one as your fingers play with the loose string on your blanket.

Steve’s eyes widen when the realization hits him.

Oh.

Nancy’s lips part in surprise, her eyes soften when she sees just how flustered you are.

Eddie is the last to realize but when he does, he nearly chokes on the whiskey. He gulps down and coughs a little. Bringing his hand up to his chest as his wide eyes search for yours.

“You… You’re a virgin, Sweetheart?” He gasps, knowing he should be approaching the topic a little more gently but he is too shocked, too intoxicated to let that rational voice in his head tell him what to do.

Eddie is flabbergasted.

And Steve… Steve’s eyes are filled with confusion and disbelief. His heart is pounding in his chest. How?

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry but… how?”

Eddie asks the question that repeats itself in Steve’s mind.

You bite your lip and look at him, avoiding Steve’s eyes. You feel too embarrassed.

“You’re not fucking with us, are you?” Eddie squints his eyes, finding it hard to believe.

“Nope.”

“But… You said you had a boyfriend!” Those words come tumbling out of Steve’s mouth.

Eddie’s and Nancy’s heads snap towards him. This is something they didn’t know about you.

You roll your eyes and huff, “just because I had a boyfriend doesn’t mean that I slept with him. Besides… that was the exact reason why he told me I was immature… the exact reason why he cheated on me.” You mumble, looking down.

Steve’s eyes harden at that. His chest burns with rage over that prick that was given the chance to date you only to fuck you over.

Nancy leans forward, her protectiveness kicking in, shooting off the roof.

“He cheated on you because you weren’t ready to sleep with him?” She scoffs, slurring her words a bit. Her blue eyes burn with anger for someone she doesn’t even know. “What– Men! Men fucking suck!”

You smile a little.

Eddie moves closer and pats Nancy’s back.

“Hey, not all of us are bad,” Eddie chuckles.

Steve looks down at his cup. His heart aches at the thought of how you felt back then. He knows your heart was crushed and you were devastated. You don’t have to tell him that for him to know.

“I hope he died. Gruesomely. Fucked in the ass by an infected–”

You crack up at her words. The tension slips away as amusement takes over and you and Eddie start laughing loudly at her.

Steve leans forward, he puts the empty cup down and presses his palms together, entwining his fingers. He glances at you, his eyes tracing your features while you are distracted.

“So uh… nothing?” Eddie asks after your laughter dies down. His curiosity gets the best of him. His eyes keep glancing towards Steve to catch his reactions.

You shake your head shyly.

Nancy eyes you, wanting to make sure that you are comfortable talking about this.

“No… It’s not like I don’t have the need…” You admit, surprising yourself even. But you feel safe talking about this, comfortable. Like you won’t get judged. “I mean– I had my own you know…”

Eddie raises his eyebrows, playing coy, playing dumb.

Steve straightens up a bit, nerves growing wild inside of him as he stares at you.

Eddie bows his head a little. “No? I know what?”

You avoid Steve’s eyes still. Heat rises to your cheeks, not from the fire but from the embarrassment inside of you. From talking about this in front of the guy you… you like.

You blink. Tapping your fingers against your knee.

“A helper…?”

Eddie almost bursts into laughter. He enjoys seeing you like this. He enjoys the way Steve is cracking his knuckles beside him, shifting on his chair.

Nancy licks her lips, holding back her smile when she realizes what he is doing, when she realizes how red Steve’s cheeks are.

Frustration bubbles up inside of you when you notice the mischief flashing in Eddie’s brown eyes.

“For fucks sake! A vibrator! A fucking vibrator!”

Nancy giggles loudly beside you. She is definitely gonna bring that up later.

Steve nearly falls over. His heart almost beats out of his chest. His eyes are glued on you. Heat spreads across his whole body and before he can even stop it, images start cursing through his mind. Images of you… of you on your bed, of your hands on your body, on your bare body that he had seen already. The realization strikes that he was the first to see you like this, to touch your soft skin, to hold you.

Suddenly his heart does more than just flutter.

Eddie smirks at you. His shoulders shake.

“Yeah, just wanted to make sure it was that.”

You roll your eyes at him.

“You fucking dick!”

Nancy and he chuckle at you, sharing amused glances.

“Now…” You start after a moment of silence. “I don’t know if it’ll ever happen, and I regret not giving my virginity to my ex…” You admit a little shamefully.

The three of them look at you in question.

“Why do you say it won’t?” Steve asks.

You chuckle softly and shrug as you look up at Steve, “look around us, Steve. It’s the end of the world… I could die tomorrow and I think it’s obvious to say that the chances of finding someone in the apocalypse are pretty scarce.”

They all fall silent, looking at you with pity – something that you don’t want, something that you hate.

But they notice that you are actually afflicted by it.

Eddie narrows his eyes, shifting in his seat. He looks at Steve, noticing the way he watches you intently. A sliver of yearning in his hazel eyes.

If he doesn’t take the chance…

Eddie clears his throat. Licking his lips, he looks back at you.

“Listen, if I didn’t have my sweetheart, I’d offer to make your first time the best night of your life,” he says cockily. A smirk tugging at his lips when he feels Steve’s angry eyes on him.

You don’t even pay much attention to his comment. You nearly give yourself a whiplash by how fast you turn towards him.

“You have a sweetheart!? Wait! Are you talking about your guitar? You showed me pictures of it and–”

“Of course not my guitar!” Eddie interrupts you, grinning. “I have my love waiting for me in California!”

Your eyes lighten up and you sit up straighter, curious to hear about his love story.

But Steve and Nancy roll their eyes and groan.

“Don’t listen to him, he never wanted to tell us… so obviously he is bluffing.” Nancy murmurs. “If he had a sweetheart we would have known about her or him!”

Eddie scoffs, though the smile on his face doesn’t disappear, instead it grows even wider.

“Honestly Nancy… If I were really single, I would have tried my luck with this young lady I have in front of me the moment I saw her. She’s funny and sweet and she’s hot as hell. Who wouldn’t try to make a move on that piece of ass?”

Your eyes widen, and you instantly grow flustered, cheeks burning like crazy.

The bitter taste on Steve’s tongue returns and he can’t even hide his frown this time when he looks at the metalhead beside him, only to realize that he fell right into his trap. Eddie is already looking back at him with a smug smirk on his face.

Nancy is watching you, how you flush all over while you sip your soda. She holds back her smile, thinking that it’s cute.

“Don’t worry, Sweetheart. I see you as nothing more than a friend.” He makes the message very clear… to Steve.

Yet, it does little to calm him down. The same sour feeling as he felt before spreads through his chest.

Silence fills the space around you for a moment and the air suddenly shifts. You don’t know what it is yet. You don’t notice the look on Nancy’s face and how the amusement slowly fades as the alcohol kicks in differently, affecting other kinds of emotions now.

“Well.” Eddie looks around, clapping his hands together. “Anyone else got a confession to make?”

Steve shakes his head just like you.

Nancy hesitates. A sullen look suddenly takes over, crossing over her features out of nowhere. She blinks rapidly as she stares into the fire, chewing on her bottom lip.

“I love Robin.”

You slowly look towards her, unlike Eddie who snaps his head into her direction, looking at her in surprise.

But Steve, he already knew, well– he suspected it. He knew about Robin’s feelings. He knew that she fell in love with Nancy. He remembers how guilty she looked when she confessed to him, fearing that he would hate her for falling in love with his ex-girlfriend. He remembers how scared she was, how she looked at him, like she thought that she was about to lose her best friend. He hugged her then and promised that it was okay. His love for Nancy was in the past and it was never real love to begin with, nothing to mourn over. Puppy love. And the thing that happened back in ‘86 was nothing more than a moment of desperation to feel the only real thing he once thought he had.

Eddie’s smile slowly fades, lips curling downwards as he stares at Nancy’s glossy eyes. She is his best friend but it’s something he didn’t know. It’s something she wasn’t ready to confess. To speak into the universe. To let out.

“She… She confessed to me. She told me that she loves me… that she’s in love with me. And then she died…on the same day.” She whispers and bows her head to hide the tears that are about to slip down her cheeks.

Steve breathes in shakily, he looks away and closes his eyes.

“I never said it back.”

Your heart breaks for her. She kept it all to herself for such a long time, it must have been eating away at her. Her sniffles pains you even more. You lean forward and place your hand on her knee.

“Shit…” Eddie whispers, staring at her with sad eyes as the realization slowly sinks in. “I didn’t know, Nance.”

“Yeah…” She whispers, not looking up just yet. “And now… I can never say it back.”

You don’t know what to say. Eddie doesn’t either. You’re both not even sure if words are what she needs or if she just needs to let this all out.

“I-I honestly never made a move on her before that because I thought she hated me…” She confesses, talking without a filter now. Her emotions take control, guided by the alcohol in her system.

You frown at her words, gripping her knee tighter as you try to see her face but it’s covered by her long hair.

“Why would she hate you, Nancy?”

Eddie looks between you both, his eyebrows furrowed.

“Because of what I did to Steve.” She whispers, slowly looking up at you.

Anxiety builds up inside of you and you begin to feel nervous.

“W-What did you do to Steve?”

Steve snaps his head towards the two of you, shaking his head with a panicked look on his face. “Nancy–”

“I cheated on him. Hurt him. I thought Robin would hardly forgive someone like that. That Robin wouldn’t even like someone that did that to her best friend… Even if that happened a long time ago…”

Steve closes his eyes with a sigh, murmuring a quiet ‘fuck’.

Eddie winces under his breath.

You draw back instantly, your hand falling off her knee. You take in a sharp breath. The realization rushing through you coldly. You grip the soda can tighter and look down.

Nancy was the girl he told you about.

She was the one who hurt him, who broke his heart.

All this time you have been traveling with them and you didn’t even know.

You feel like a fool.

And it’s sadness and insecurity that hits you the hardest. She was the girl. And you are nothing like her, not even in the slightest.

Steve looks up at you slowly. He tries to catch a glimpse of your face but it’s tilted so far down.

You don’t know what to feel, what to think.

How can he be around her? You’d never be able to travel with your ex-boyfriend who cheated on you, lied to you, acted like he loved you. You could never be around him, let alone be his friend… unless you still loved him.

Suddenly it’s nausea that bubbles up. Your heart sinks to your stomach. And now you wonder, would you have known sooner if you just put two and two together? If you would have taken a closer look?

“I never knew.” Eddie murmurs, patting her back.

“I didn’t want anyone to know,” Nancy whispers. “A-And that’s all… that’s all I got to confess. What about you…? Do you have anything…?”

You suddenly feel suffocated and you no longer want to sit here in this circle. It’s all become too much and all these questions running through your head begin to drive you crazy. You want to be alone. You need to think.

You clear your throat as you get up, picking up your discarded bowl from before and your empty soda can. You take a quick look around and force a smile on your face when Nancy looks up at you with her big eyes.

“I’m gonna go to sleep. I’m tired and my head is starting to hurt again.” You lie. You avoid both Steve’s and Eddie’s eyes.

“Oh.” Nancy mumbles, her shoulders slumping.

“Good night.” You whisper before you brush past Steve, ignoring the way he looks up at you in concern. You quickly make your way into the RV and shut the door behind you before any of them can question you.

You set everything down on the kitchen counter. Gripping the edges of it, you lean against it and close your eyes, sighing loudly.

You are confused and shocked, not understanding how it all went over your head for months. You could have known sooner. You should have. You wish you did.

A part of you wants to know more, the other part doesn’t.

You clean up your bowl and put everything away before you make your way into the tiny bathroom to brush your teeth. You hurry, wanting to be asleep before anyone comes in to check on you.

Not even the mint flavor of your toothpaste can get rid of the bitter taste on your tongue though.

“Sunshine?”

You almost groan in annoyance. Almost. You would have if it wasn’t him. You spit out the paste and rinse your mouth before you walk out. You plaster a smile on your face when you notice him standing by the kitchen counter.

He offers you a smile, “I uh… are you okay? Do you need anything?”

Your eyes soften. You press your lips together and shake your head, “no, I just… I wanna get some sleep.”

He brings his hand up to the back of his neck as he nods, “alright…”

You don’t move and neither does he.

Steve is so selfless. He’s so kind and sweet when he allows himself to be. He would do anything for his friends, showing you that he would do absolutely everything for the one he loves. There is not a single bad thing about him. So… how could she do this to him?

“I’m–”

“So Nancy…”

Steve can’t read the expression on your face nor can he figure out the emotion in your voice but if he didn’t know any better, he would think it is hurt… sadness. But why?

“Yeah…” Steve whispers.

He doesn’t know why he feels the urge to show you, to tell you that he doesn’t feel anything for Nancy, that he hasn’t felt anything for her in years, that he could never again.

You swallow harshly and nod. You take a seat on the bench and he follows you after a second, sitting down beside you.

“Do you…” You pause, not knowing if you’re actually ready to find out.

“I don’t love her anymore if that’s what you think.” Steve confesses, wanting – needing you to know.

He wishes he could ignore the way your shoulders slump in relief or the way your eyes fill with something that looks like hope.

“No?”

He shakes his head, “no. It was uh… It was puppy love but not real love, if it makes sense?”

“Oh.”

Steve takes a deep breath. He continues to look into your eyes, wanting to catch each and every one of your reactions.

“It was the first time someone else… cared for me. That someone seemed to like me for me and not because I was this popular guy… I only knew loneliness thanks to my parents being complete assholes.”

Your eyebrows furrow as though you’re in pain. The sympathy and the sadness the flashes in your eyes reminds him of Robin.

Steve runs his fingers through his hair, swallowing the lump that grew in his throat.

“I’m so sorry, Steve.” You frown, knowing how that ended for him.

“It’s okay, Sunshine.” He shrugs, his whisper is soft.

How could she look into his hazel eyes and not fall for him harder every day? How could she look at him and think that he wasn’t good enough? That there could be someone better out there? How could she look at him and not think that he was the best thing that’s ever happened to her?

There is little distance between you and your hand finds his before you can even think rationally.

Steve looks down at it. It’s not the first time he feels your touch like this. It’s also not the first time he feels that electric feeling cursing through him.

“But then… Robin came.”

“Wait then… you for Robin–”

“God, no, no…” Steve shakes his head, interrupting you quickly. “She just… She just filled that loneliness, and it made me realize that I was just chasing Nancy… pretending to be in love… Just to noy feel alone again…” He explains, cringing a little. “And then, Robin kind of started dating this girl, and I felt that bit of bitterness inside of me cause she was spending a little less time with me.”

You nod in understanding as he keeps talking.

“I tried dating around as well… But nothing worked out, no one wanted me for anything other than sex.”

You frown at his words, feeling anger and a sliver of jealousy burning in you.

“So I kind of… set my eyes back on Nancy again, not because I still loved her but… She was just the closest thing I had to a ‘real’ relationship. It was dumb to chase her again, to go after someone who hurt me. It took me a moment to realize that there are other versions of love that can be fulfilling.”

“Robin.”

He gives you a small smile, tapping your hand with his finger. He eyes the lilac hair tie around your wrist. It’s yours now. For safekeeping.

“Robin.” He nods.

He stopped seeking her out when he let go of a love he thought was… love. Maybe it should calm you down a little but it doesn’t.

“And now… that Robin is… gone?”

He knows what you’re asking.

You want to know if he will do it again, if he will chase after her again.

Steve shakes his head, humming. “I would never make that mistake again,” he chuckles, cringing at his younger self. “Besides, I don’t feel lonely.”

“Oh… Eddie and Nance?” You ask.

You secretly hope that you are the reason for that he doesn’t feel lonely anymore.

“No, I felt lonely with them too. I was… grumpy, remember?” He asks, cocking his eyebrow as his eyes flash with amusement.

You shake your head, “then what–”

“You came.” He confesses.

And it makes your heart flutter like crazy. Your eyes fill with so much hope. You straighten up and curl your hand around his as you gaze into his hazel eyes.

“You are… as stubborn as Robin was.” He whispers. “You remind me of her.”

Oh…

And then it hits you.

It hits you harder than anything else ever has before.

He never liked you for you.

He gave you a chance because you reminded him of the one person that meant everything to him. He gave you a chance because he saw her in you, because he could pretend.

You were never to him what he is to you.

You are a replacement. A placeholder.

And here you thought you found someone who likes you for you.

But of course not.

How did you never see it? Every time he talked about Robin, every time that he mentioned a memory, and– His eyes, they are looking at your wrist. At the hair tie, and– It was him… he put that on you, and now you knew. This wasn’t just anyone’s hair tie… this was Robin’s.

Your hand slowly slips away from his, looking down at the floor. You caught feelings only to find out that he saw you as a replacement for his soulmate. For someone he thought of as family, as a sister. He sees you that way, he will always see you that way and not as a woman. Not as someone who can try to give the love he wants and needs.

Because you are like Robin… and you are the opposite of Nancy.

You’ll never be like Nancy. She looks like… a woman, a strong woman that knows what she wants, that is experienced, that is mature, that knows how to handle most of the situations with a clear mind and you– You are reckless, a klutz like Eddie had called you, and you also were–

“You want a kitkat before bed, Sunshine?”

Immature.

☀︎

taglist: @prettyboyeddiemunson @pretentious-blonde @thecreelhouse @tvserie-s-world @thesickestqrmydcll @crispystarfishhottub @sophal22 @definitionwanderlust @talkativecarnation @mysticalwoolenfroglegs @ariesandwolves @mortqlprojections @sattlersquarry @sherrylyn0628 @purpleeyeswithgoldensparkles @micheledawn1975 @keepingitlokiii @littleromanoff2005 @sunshine-mrk @xxladymjxx

#steve harrington x reader #stranger things angst #steve harrington x you #steve harrington imagine #steve harrington angst #steve harrington fanfic #grumpy x sunshine

688 notes · View notes