#eddie is carrying this whole game on his back man

[oodlyenough]

been slowly playing through aai2, currently working through the flashback case and the funniest thing about it right now is gregworth doing everything in his power to not go home to his son on Christmas Eve. 9:30 at night and he's going for a burger with eddie, his favourite child

by 11am on christmas day he still hasn't gotten the kid a present

[munsonsmixtapes]

Take a Dive

Eddie Munson x fem!reader

you and your best friend Eddie go skinny dipping in Lover's Lake where your friendship will never be the same again

cw: MDNI (18+) smut (p in v) unprotected sex (wrap it before tap it) hurt/comfort

The lake is completely deserted when Eddie’s van pulls up onto the sand. You don’t even know why you’re there or what you’re doing, you just started driving aimlessly when Eddie insisted that you got into the driver’s seat. You’re not going to lie and say that you weren’t surprised when Eddie tossed you his keys when you left his trailer. 

The only reason why you even left was because the two of you are bored and all of your usual places are closed because of how late it was. And now it’s almost midnight and you’re at Lover’s Lake because it was the first thing you could think of that you would have access to. 

Eddie turns to you to ask why you decided to come here, but you’re out of the van before he can speak. He’s quick to follow you, curious to see what you’re up to, but you just plant yourself on the sand, pulling a plastic bag out of your pocket along with the lighter you always carry around. 

He sits next to you as you pull a joint out of the bag before lighting up and taking a drag before passing it off to him. This is how you normally spend your weekends together, but it’s nice to have a change of scenery. The moon reflects off the water in front of you and it looks so pretty, so inviting. It almost makes you want to go for a swim despite how cold it will most likely be. 

You and Eddie pass the joint back and forth until it’s gone and you put it back in the bag that goes back into your pocket before you lie back on the sand, not caring if it gets in your hair or on your clothes. Eddie joins you and the two of you talk nonsense like you usually do, never needing drugs to do. 

You think that’s why you and Eddie are such good friends. You get each other in ways that no one else does, platonic soulmates as Robin once put it and as you turn to Eddie, who’s already looking at you, you begin to think that she’s right. He smiles at you and you mimic it, holding out your hand for him to take and he does, giving it a squeeze before turning back to stare at the sky. 

It’s times like these when you wonder how no one has snatched him up yet. He’s an absolute catch and any man or woman would be lucky to have him. You know a big reason as to why he’s chronically single is because he wants to be. He says he’s better that way, but you think most of his objection to settling down is that he’s still hurt from how he was treated back in Hawkins. It was the reason why the two of you packed up and left because he couldn’t take it anymore.

To them, he was nothing but a freak and that’s something that you still can’t seem to wrap your head around. Eddie always has been and will continue to be the goofy guy you’ve been friends with since you were in diapers. He’s nothing but a sweetheart and you really wished more people could have seen that. That they would have taken just a moment to realize that he was never actually evil and neither was the game he and his friends were playing.

All Eddie’s ever wanted in his entire life is to be loved. And he’d never tell you that all of that stuff about being insecure was just a cover because he’s been in love with you his entire life. He always tells you everything, but this is the one secret he’s taking to his grave. He can’t risk either of you getting hurt so he thinks it’s best to just keep quiet about the whole thing. 

Your mind drifts back to the lake and how nice it would be to swim in it, your need to do so getting even stronger with the weed in your system. Before you can stop yourself, you’re standing to your feet. You pass off the joint as you remove your shoes and socks before going for your pants. You know you only have one chance to do this and you’re going to take it. Eddie doesn’t seem to bat an eye as you take off your jacket, but he thinks he’s missed something as you start unbuttoning your jeans. He doesn’t know why you’re taking off your clothes, but who is he to deny you?

“What are you doing?” He asks as he stands, more curious than anything. 

“I’m going for a swim,” you tell him as you pull your pants down to reveal the thong you’re wearing. You don’t even seem to be phased as you strip in front of your best friend who hasn’t seen you naked since-well ever. Unless you count the baths you took together when you were younger but you both were too young to remember. He’s not complaining, though. He’s enjoying the show. Maybe a little too much since he can feel himself getting harder by the second. 

“You can join me, if you want.” Yeah, there’s no way he’s passing this up so he wordlessly starts to get undressed, trying to make how eager he is so obvious. Now you’re both in your underwear and Eddie thinks you’re fucking with him as you stare at him, slowly taking off your thong as you so. There’s a flirty look in your eye and Eddie’s applauding himself for his self control because he’s so close to taking you right there against his truck. 

You toss your bra into the pile of your now discarded clothes and Eddie thinks he’s going to come right there as he takes in your hard nipples, feeling drool collecting in his mouth as he thinks about taking them into his mouth and giving them a suck. 

He shakes his head and takes off his boxers, the two of you now completely naked and you shamelessly check him out, your gaze stopping at his rock hard cock and you have to step closer so you can see it better. Eddie feels like he should be embarrassed, but he’s not. And you don’t think he should be, especially because you take it as a huge compliment that he’s that sexually attracted to you. 

You turn towards the water and get deep enough before taking a dive. The water is freezing, but you stay under for a little longer, trying to figure why you want to fuck Eddie so badly right now. Sure, you’ve had thoughts about him, but you’ve never actually wanted to act on them until now. Seeing him, all of him awakened something inside you  and now you can’t stop thinking about how badly you want him inside of you. 

You surface and turn around to see Eddie behind you, his face even more pale than usual. He looks worried sick and you have no idea why. He swims closer and you move back, knowing that if he gets too close, you’ll do something you really shouldn’t. 

But before you can get too far, you find yourself grabbing hold of his hands and resting them on your waist before pressing your chest against his. Your arms wrap around his neck, leaning your face close to his, watching his eyes the entire time. A kiss isn’t the same a fucking. You just want a taste to get him out of your system. 

Eddie doesn’t know what you’re doing or why you’re doing it, but he's not going to push you away. He can’t. He wants to know what your lips feel like once and for all. He wants to know if you’re as good of a kisser as he thinks you are. 

Your lips find his gently, a soft little kiss to the corner of his mouth to test the waters. Eddie doesn’t like how teasing you are so he takes matters into his own hands, chasing your lips with a featherlight peck. He doesn’t want to scare you off even though he’s itching to do much more. 

He pecks your lips a few more times until they all melt into one, his own slotting between them as he kisses you softly. His hands dig into your waist which juxtaposes how he’s kissing you and that just tells you how hungry he is for more. 

You move his hands to your ass and wrap your legs around his waist as you nip at his bottom lip, causing Eddie to let out a whine. You feel his cock against you and you need him now more than ever. He seems to think the same because before you can even make the suggestion, he’s sliding inside you, his fingers digging into your ass as he moves slowly, thrusting in and out of you over and over. 

A moan escapes your mouth as you throw your head back giving Eddie the opportunity to take advantage of your exposed neck. He presses soft kisses to the skin before going straight in for a hard bite as his thrusts pick up causing you to mewl. 

“You’re so pretty like this,” he mumbles against your skin. “This is even better than I imagined.” 

“Oh, so you’ve imagined this?” You tease and he bites down on your neck even harder this time causing you to gasp as you scratch your nails down his back in response. 

He’s still moving at a slower pace, but this is actually how you prefer it. A lot of the men you’ve slept with go so fast like it’s a race and it’s over before you’ve even had time to enjoy it. You’ve told this to Eddie a few times and it seemed like he was listening. 

And that’s the thing about Eddie. He always listens to you no matter what you’re saying. Whether it’s nonsense when you’re both high on whatever he’s gotten his hands on or if you’re reading to him from a book you’ve gotten from the library, it doesn’t matter. He loves the sound of your voice. He loves you and seeing you with those losers you always seem to be going out with pisses him off. He’s right there and he hates that you can’t see that. 

He’d never tell you that, though. He loves what the two of you have and doesn’t want to risk losing you. So he just sits there and listens to you talk about your terrible dates, complaining about how there are no nice guys when he’s right there. It’s pathetic, really and he hates thinking about it. How he’s wrapped around your goddamn finger and you don’t even notice just how badly he wants you. 

“Of course I have,” he breathes. “I think about it all the time.” 

He’s said too much but you seem into it. And as you buck your hips against his, he’s really hoping that you feel the same way. It would make the whole thing far less embarrassing for him. But he doesn’t think you will because after all, this is just a fuck for you while it means the world to Eddie. 

“Can you keep a secret?” You ask and Eddie nods furiously, just knowing that he’s about to hear something filthy. You’ve shared dirty secrets with him many times before but he just knows that this one will be different. 

“Of course I can,” he nods and you push some of his wet hair behind his air as you bring your lips right up to it. You’re taking the lead now, riding him as you whisper your secret and Eddie swears that this is the most turned on he’s ever been.

“You know this summer when you wore those really short shorts almost every day?” You ask and Eddie knows exactly what you’re talking about. Robin got them for his birthday as a joke, but he started wearing them around you to hopefully make you see him in the way he wanted you to. 

“Mhm,” he nods and you pull him even closer, your lips so close to his ear that they’re almost pressed up against it.

“Well, I get myself off every night thinking about them.” Eddie thinks he’s going to come right there at your confession and he’s trying so hard not to, but just the vision of you getting yourself off is making him get there even faster. 

And before he can stop it, he’s reaching his orgasm, making sure to pull out of you as he comes, his eyes shut tight, his head thrown back as he lets it happen, still letting you stay attached to him as you watch him. 

“Jesus,” he moans as it reaches its peak and once it’s over, he slumps over you, resting his head on your shoulder. It’s partly because he’s tired and partly because he’s too embarrassed about what just happened to look you in the eye. 

So you hold him for a second, your fingers moving up and down his back lazily as you assure him that it’s okay, that he has no reason to be embarrassed, that you’re actually flattered by it. And you are. You had no idea how attracted he was to you and now feel like an idiot because you were too stupid to see it. 

How long had he felt that way and how long had he been hiding it? You don’t know why he’s so ashamed of it. He’s just attracted to you physically, right? You feel the same way about him so you don’t know he’s hiding from you. 

Just when you’re about to suggest that you head back, he pulls back to look at you and there’s something in his eyes that you’ve never seen in the almost seventeen years that the two of you have been friends. His eyes are the softest they’ve ever been and you’re now scared of what he’s going to say. 

“I love you,” he says, those honey eyes boring into yours and your heart pounds at his confession. You almost want to tell him that you don’t feel the same, but you know that’s not true. He’s been someone who was always there, treating you the way you should have been treated without asking for anything in return. He was doing it just because that was who he was and because it was what you deserved. 

You went to all of those losers because you had been afraid of taking a chance on Eddie. He’s been your best friend your entire life and you were terrified of losing the best thing you’ve ever had. You don’t think you’re afraid of taking a chance on him anymore, though. You think it’s time you claimed what was rightfully yours. 

“I love you too,” you reply and a grin breaks out on Eddie’s face as he pulls you into a kiss, the both of you smiling into the kiss as your legs wrap tighter around him, wanting to keep him there even though you know he’s not going anywhere. 

“How about we celebrate elsewhere?” Eddie asks as he pulls away, a flirty tone taking over his voice. 

“What kind of celebration?” You reply, batting your eyelashes as you remove yourself from him. 

“I think you know what kind of celebration,” he winks, grabbing hold of your hand pulling you along as the two of you swim to the shore, climbing into the back of the van where you spend the rest of the morning until the sun comes up showing how much you love each other when you aren’t saying the three words. And there’s no place that either of you would rather be.

[loveinhawkins]

It’s Dustin who saves Eddie.

He doesn’t try and carry him back to the trailer, nothing like that—if he could manage that on determination alone, then he would, but his throbbing leg has other ideas.

So he stays by Eddie’s side. Throws off his hoodie and starts to rip any piece of his clothing that he can, because he’s come a long way from when he once stuck bandaids on Steve’s beaten up face.

“What… what are you doing?” Eddie says in between gasping breaths.

Dustin would laugh if he wasn’t so scared. “Buying more time,” he echoes. Then he looks Eddie right in the eye and adds, voice wavering, “I’m really fucking sorry in advance.”

He takes a deep breath and presses the material to Eddie’s chest with force.

Eddie screams.

Dustin grits his teeth. Keeps going.

He creates makeshift tourniquets for Eddie’s arms, keeps tearing at his shirt, then takes it off entirely to use as a larger bandage, ignoring the shock of cold against his skin; the only thought in his head is that he has to stop the bleeding.

Eddie’s hand finds his bare shoulder. Squeezes weakly. “Tha’s enough,” he slurs. “D-Dustin, stop.”

And Dustin only does what he says because it doesn’t look like any more blood is soaking through the material. He keeps pressure on the worst of the wounds, tries to keep his elbows locked, as if that will stop his relentless shivering.

And when he looks up, he sees a tear fall from Eddie’s eye, down his temple, into his hair—and Dustin somehow knows that it’s not from pain alone, that Eddie’s crying just because he can see how cold he is.

“M’sorry,” Eddie whispers. “Never meant for… for you to—”

“Shut up,” Dustin says, then hastily amends, “Actually, don’t shut up, just—just stay awake. They’ll be back soon, okay, Steve and Robin and Nancy, and they’ll—”

“Steve,” Eddie agrees. His voice goes up and down, like a little song: “Steve, Steve, Steve.”

“Yeah, he’ll—hey, Eddie, eyes open.”

“Mm-hmm,” Eddie says faintly. “Eyes… oh, forgot to… you were right, H-Henderson, he’s… a badass. S’got pretty eyes, too, like wow. Pretty, pretty…”

And…

Well. That’s a development.

“You can tell me all about Steve’s pretty eyes if you keep yours open.”

And Eddie’s eyes do jolt open at that, like he’s received an electric shock. He groans in mortification.

“Jesus Christ. Didn’t mean to—fuck, feel like I’m drunk, man, I can’t… just kill me.”

Dustin thinks he probably would have found that request funny if Eddie wasn’t saying it through teeth flecked with blood.

Still, he does let out a strangled, hysterical giggle when he says, “I know how to keep you awake now.”

Eddie groans again. “Spare me the—”

“He sings in the shower, like, full blown Elvis impression, all that jazz. And he denies having lucky socks, but he wears the same pair whenever Lucas has a basketball game.”

“Huh?” Eddie says eloquently.

“Pay attention, dude, you need to know what you’re getting into! Oh, he said when he went to see The Fox and the Hound, he cried.”

Eddie chuckles. “That’s… oh, that’s sweet.” He smiles, eyes bright, and Dustin suddenly knows that they’re gonna be okay. “Keep going?”

Dustin does. He talks about how Steve always says, “Two for joy,” even when he sees a singular magpie, because he reasons that the second one is always just hiding. How he eats ice-cream too fast, does a comical hop in place when he inevitably gets brain freeze. That whenever he happens to pick up Dustin from school, he almost always has a Simon and Garfunkel tape playing, sings along to At the Zoo as he turns out of the parking lot.

Dustin doesn’t mention the Farrah Fawcett spray; a promise is a promise.

Eddie seems pretty damn well entertained with what he’s been given, anyway. He keeps smiling, lets out breathy chuckles that give Dustin hope: that he still has enough energy to laugh.

“Okay, okay, I’m awake,” he says, “I’m so awake, jus’… you just relax.”

And it’s only when Dustin stops talking that he realises his teeth have been chattering the whole time.

Eddie gives an unhappy sounding hum, and his hand comes up to clumsily rub at Dustin’s forearm.

“Your lips are blue.”

“I’m f-fine.”

A sudden desperate yell splits through the air; Dustin didn’t know that Steve could sound quite like that.

“Here!” Dustin shouts as much as he can.

He hears three people running; Steve gets there first.

Eddie’s eyes go wide. “Steve,” he says, and Dustin’s seen enough movies to think that this could be it, the big moment, or at the very least that Eddie’s about to give another wandering speech on Steve’s eyes.

But instead—

“Steve, Steve,” Eddie repeats, “Dustin’s cold.”

“Jesus Christ,” Steve says; he’s already taking off his jacket, shoving Dustin into it with this frantic mixture of urgency and care.

Dustin’s shivers get even more pronounced as the jacket’s zipped up, as the warmth from Steve’s body heat hits him.

“Think E-Eddie’s—b-bleeding stopped,” he says, accidentally biting on his tongue thanks to his chattering teeth.

Steve looks over Dustin’s handiwork, eyes shining. “Yeah, you did good,” he says, choked, rubs his hands down Dustin’s forearms more effectually than Eddie had. “You did so good.”

“You must’ve been wearing your socks tonight, Harrington,” Eddie says.

Steve stares at him. It’s only when he starts to laugh that Dustin realises he’s crying at the same time. “What the fuck are you talking about?”

“Shh, s’okay,” Eddie says. “I cried at th’movie, too, don’ tell anyone. S’not fair what… s’posed to be a happy endin’…”

Steve catches Dustin’s eye, says, deadpan, even with a tear-streaked face, “Doc, I think we’re losing him.”

Dustin whacks him on the arm, because it’s so stupid, it’s so Steve, and, God, they're really gonna be okay.

“Dustin’s th’best doctor,” Eddie chants, “best, best, best…”

“Yeah, he’s a goddamn superhero,” Steve says sincerely.

There’s a look Steve has on his face while he lifts Eddie up, a fleeting softness right before he goes back into planning mode, scanning the trailer park in case of any more threats; where Eddie’s fingers curl around Steve’s neck, and Steve smiles down at him, and…

Dustin would put a bet on Steve thinking Eddie has pretty eyes, too.

At least, he would if he could stand up.

When Steve clocks his leg, his jaw works a couple of times before he speaks. “Hey, Robin, Nance?” He raises his voice, looking to some point in the distance. “Could you—help Dustin up, I’ve—uh, kinda got my hands full.”

His tone is light, but his chin trembles just a bit, like he might break down at the thought that he can’t carry Dustin out of here, too.

“Okay, c’mon superhero,” Robin says, suddenly by Dustin’s side; she counts down, and then Dustin’s being carefully lifted up, an arm flung around Nancy, too.

“I’m okay,” Dustin feels the need to say. Robin and Nancy are out of breath, and he can’t help noticing the vivid red marks around their necks.

“Yeah, you will be,” Robin corrects.

“Is—is Eddie—?”

“Look, he’s right in front,” Nancy says. “Steve’s got him.” She lowers her voice and when she says, “You were really brave, you know,” Dustin has to swallow a lump in his throat: for a moment feels thirteen years old, her hand in his at the Snow Ball.

And she’s right; Eddie is right in front. Dustin can see him trailing a hand up and down Steve’s arm, slow and soothing, and he’s talking, just too far away to be heard.

For a few steps, Dustin thinks that Eddie must be spilling more of what he’s learned, regurgitating the anecdotes.

But then Robin and Nancy pull him a little closer. And he can read Eddie’s lips.

He’s okay, Eddie is saying, looking away from Steve’s face to find where Dustin is. He’s right behind us, sweetheart. He’s okay.

[steddielations]

“Evening, sir.”

It’s the Harrington boy. Again.

“I told you, son, it’s Wayne,” he manages a smile, harder to do these days, like chipping it out of cement and dusting it off. But he gets it done.

Steve doesn’t have the Henderson boy with him today, that’s a first.

“Where’s the curly one?” He steps aside, letting Steve into the trailer door, more rickety than before. No money left to fix it after repairing the bulk of the earthquake damage.

“Dustin? He doesn’t wanna watch the game, and trust me, you don’t wanna listen to that kid complaining the whole time,” Steve walks by, sorta chuckling to himself, “I always miss the replay ‘cause he makes me change the channel to those D&D cartoons during the commercials, just like—”

He stops in front of the couch, looking over his shoulder at Wayne like he’s afraid he messed up somehow. Wayne noticed that look often from him, less and less, but still often. All that confidence he carries can drop on a dime, sorta reminded him of—

“Like Ed?”

“Yeah. Sorry.”

“S’alright. I don’t mind talking about him if you want,” Wayne manages another concrete smile, but he means it. Steve always waits for him to bring up Eddie first, like he doesn’t want to remind him if it ain’t on his mind, but Wayne likes to be reminded. It’s nice to feel like he’s not the only one missing him. “But the game was yesterday and y’know the cable’s out.”

“Yep, got it covered. I uh, I taped it,” Steve fishes a VHS tape from his back pocket. Fancy. Wayne would worry about him using that for his sake, but he has a feeling Steve’s folks aren’t around enough to notice.

“The Colts win?”

Steve flips the tape around, “Haven’t watched it, so we can bet on it if you’re feeling lucky.”

It doesn’t feel so dry and heavy when Wayne laughs a bit then, waving Steve to go ahead and start up the TV. He already caught the game on the radio, but he bets on the Colts anyway. Loser’s supposed to do the dishes after they scrounge together some soup, but Steve does them anyway.

Wayne would make a stink about it but he can tell Steve just wants to help, to feel like he’s helping. Same thing when the Henderson boy comes around to see him, wanting to hear all the stories, even the scary ones. So Wayne doesn’t mind letting Eddie’s friends feel like they’re helping him.

His nephew didn’t have many friends. Real, cover-your-six kinda friends. The boys he played his music with, they’ve come by a couple times, Wayne always liked Jeff despite the racket. That older fella that’s doing time now, Wayne wasn’t too fond of. And some of Eddie’s dungeon buddies he talked about were the only few.

Now, casual acquaintances? Anybody who didn’t have anywhere else to sit when he had an empty spot at his table? Sure, Eddie had those in spades.

His boy was good at that, putting on a good old show for his crowd, on a stage to keep his distance. That damn Al did him in good, never could trust easily, having his old man pop up and drag him into his mess before he took off again. And Eddie’s poor momma would’ve done right by him, if she hadn’t gotten sick so young.

Took Wayne a long time to get Eddie to depend on him, to trust this was his place to stay and he didn’t have to earn it, Wayne wasn’t just filling his head to scheme something out of him.

Love ain’t a transaction that way. He wasn’t ever any good at saying it, but he tried to show Eddie the best he could.

His boy though, always carried a debt with him. Like he owed Wayne something for taking him in, had to graduate quick and make it outta here, do something with the better life he gave him. Al dug him in so deep, Eddie stayed roped into whatever his latest scheme was (the cars, the dealing, the gambling, thank God Eddie wasn’t there when the goddamn robbery went wrong, 25 to life) like maybe it’d be enough to keep him from running off again.

The odds have never been in favor of people like them, poor folk in a town that’s stuck in its ways, where everybody’s just like their old man, but Al made his choices and Wayne made his. Rest their mother’s soul, she did her best. Part of Wayne was relieved when Al got locked up, at least Wayne had a better chance of keeping Eddie from going down the same path, try to raise him right.

Being a Munson wasn’t a crime. He didn’t owe a darn thing to anybody. Eddie could graduate at his own pace, play whatever games and music he wanted, dress however, that didn’t mean he was up to no good. And a lot of boys get into dealing for a little easy extra money around here, he was gonna grow out of that just like Wayne did.

It worked until all this mess.

That’s why Eddie ran off after what happened to the poor Cunningham girl. He gets spooked when something goes wrong, like it’ll be the last straw he can’t make up for so he runs off. Like the first time he didn’t make senior year, went and hid out with that Rick fella that Wayne never did like, got Eddie deep into that business he tried to keep a secret.

‘Course Wayne knew. He knows exactly what and where his boy hides. If those damn cops weren’t tailing him, he would’ve gone straight to get him.

That was before he knew it would turn into all of this. Now he wishes he would’ve done it anyway. Gone right to Eddie, told him it wasn’t his fault that everything got all turned upside down. Told him he knew he was innocent right from the get-go, and got him away from this rotten old town.

But he didn’t.

He didn’t go get his boy.

So now he’s just trying to be there for Eddie’s boys, since he can’t.

“You have a night shift tonight right? Gonna put on a pot of coffee,” Steve says once he’s finished up the dishes.

Wayne hums. There’s usually more noise going on during these visits. Steve’s still alright at carrying on, even without the Henderson boy’s chatter to fill any gaps.

It was strange, the first time the two of them showed up. Wayne knew Eddie was close with Dustin, but he didn’t have a clue that he was chumming it up with the Harrington boy. Just don’t seem like the same type of company. He might not believe it if it weren’t so obvious that Steve cared about his boy. He suspected before, but now with Steve showing up here alone, he knows.

Steve misses Eddie in a different sorta way than Dustin.

“No cream or sugar, right?” Steve looks humored by that as he passes the mug of black coffee to him, “How are you related to Eddie again?”

Wayne’s mouth turns upward, remembering his nephew’s god awful sweet tooth. He picked up a box of Honeycombs the other day in the store out of habit. “Just happened to be standin’ there when they beamed him down.”

That gets a good chuckle out of Steve. Nothing wistful weighing it down and Wayne’s glad, watching Steve pour himself a cup of coffee too.

Then bitter-sweetness swirls in his chest, seeing the mug that Steve chose for himself. Must’ve dug it out from one of the boxes Wayne hadn’t hung back on the walls yet. The earthquake did a number on his collection. That Garfield one was the only one he’d gotten around to gluing back together.

“What is it?” Steve asks, cup paused at his mouth.

“Ah nothin’ just,” Wayne waves it off, “That’s the mug Ed always used.”

“Oh, I can use a diff—”

“Nah, nah go ‘head. It’s fine.”

Unconvinced, Steve takes a wary sip.

Mostly these days, Wayne just feels like a watch without a ticker, a chest with nothing beating inside it. He can’t name the feeling he has at seeing Eddie’s old mug being used by someone else, but at least it’s something.

“Y’know, he used to put everything in that sucker. Soda pop, soup, cereal, you name it,” Wayne shakes his head, mouth twitching into a smile, “I’d have to wrestle it away from him just to give it a good washing. It’s well loved, alright. Leaks now.”

As if on cue, Steve has to grab a napkin to sit underneath it.

Wayne lets out an amused hum, “He uh— Didn’t have much stability ‘fore he came to live with me, so he’d get real attached to things like that.”

Carried around a stuffed dragon they picked up at a garage sale ‘til Wayne couldn’t sew the wings back on anymore. Never wanted to throw anything away. Got real anxious about Wayne going to work sometimes, even when he was too old for a sitter. Held onto him saying “Stay home just today, Dad, please.” Which, he didn’t mind Eddie calling him that. It always softened him up, made him give in. Wishes now that he’d told Eddie upfront. Maybe he never would’ve stopped.

“Thought for sure he’d marry that damn guitar one day.”

Steve nearly sputters his coffee, laughing at that, “Yeah, those two are made for each other.”

It’s nice, seeing the way that story lit Steve up. Sorta like his boy can still make someone happy. Hurts like hell that he ain’t here to do it himself, but Wayne was always good at telling stories. That’s where Eddie learned it from.

“I’m uh,” Steve deflates after a minute, looking down at the mug, “God, I’m just really sorry, Wayne.”

“Yeah. I’m sorry too, Steve,” he says, because, well.

Wayne gets the feeling that his boy was Steve’s boy too.

Read the rest on Ao3

[sp0o0kylights]

Still working on the BB fic but have another snippet of that Stobin Timeloop AU. This can be read as stand-alone.

Steve Harrington snaps on a completely random Friday.

Well--not completely random. It's both the day of the Big Sportsball Game as well as Hellfire’s grand finale--but neither of those things should matter to Harrington.

Not that he needs a reason to lose his shit--Eddie’s long used to being threatened, insulted or outright attacked out of the blue. 

It’s the whole reason he built up the persona he had--because the scarier he was, the more people left him alone. 

Unfortunately it would appear that Hawkins fallen king hadn’t gotten the memo, given he seemed hellbent on kicking Eddie’s ass. 

"Come on Harrington, we can talk about this." Eddie says, as he’s shoved back, scrambling for a way out, as the former jock gets up in his face. 

The guy had called out his name the second he pulled into the parking lot (sans Buckley or any of the freshman they shared, which has Eddie's back up instantly) but Eddie had simply ignored him.

It was too early to deal with whatever had Harrington sounding like his ass was on fire.

Pity Steve had charged over instead, a look in his eyes that said whatever happened next was going to hurt.

Eddie carries a switchblade, but hes never had to use it before. 

Had instead made an entire production about having it, including cleaning his nails with the blade or stabbing it into the cheap wood desks when a teacher stepped out of the room. 

Had shouted that he’d pull it even when Harrington had charged him, but the guy didn't even blink.

Thus forcing Eddie to confront the fact that he really doesn’t want to stab someone.

Particularly not someone whose family has the police in their pockets (or did with Chief Hopper, though Eddie doesn’t doubt that the Harrington Hoard won’t immediately grab onto the next pig to get promoted.) 

His panic leaves him flailing but somehow, (and unfairly Eddie may add) Steve seems to expect this. 

Knows how to navigate it.

Eddie's back hits the metal of the van and he winces, expecting the hit, the pain. 

If he can duck, if he can make it so the first punch only grazes him, he can grab his fucking knife and wave it around, see if that gets the asshole off him, except--

Instead of hitting him, Steve reaches past, to yank one of the van’s passenger doors open. 

Herds Eddie inside, slamming the door behind him before snatching a fistful of Eddie's shirt and hauling him forward. 

"What--" Eddie asked, confused, right before Steve smashes their lips together. 

It's a hard kiss, practically a claim. 

Steve kisses him like a drowning man gasps for air and Eddie can only fall into it, stunned. 

(The stunned portion only lasts long enough for Eddie to blink before he's kissing back, hot and heavy.

He's been horny for Harrington since the asshole did a trick shot that showed off his ass and involved flipping Hagan off at the same time, sue him.) 

Thinks as he does, that this is probably a trap.

That even if it isn't, then whatever it is Steve will make him regret it--even if he started it. 

(Not like Eddie can claim he wasn’t enjoying it, either. He’s giving as good as he gets, dick quickly overwhelming any rational thought in his brain. 

He clings to Steve like a lifeline, gasping when the jocks takes his bottom lip between his teeth and lightly drags it out, begging to be let into Eddie's mouth. 

This isn't reality.

 Cannot be reality, must be the start of a wet dream or some…vivid hallucinations because when Eddie grinds himself upwards into Steve, cock chasing friction, Steve presses back.) 

"Fuck." Eddie moans when Steve finally releases him, panting up at the ceiling. 

"Do I have your attention now?" Steve asks, voice raspy and Eddie finds himself able to die happy, because that tone is downright possessive. 

"Yeah big boy, you have me--it." Eddie corrects himself fast, the words practically blending together. 

Steve gives a strangled sort of laugh at that, and instead of getting up, presses his face down onto Munsons shoulder. 

Eddie expects him to spring up at any moment. Declare insanity maybe, or far more likely threaten him about telling anybody.

If past bar hookups were an indicator, he'd  throw a few slurs in for good measure. 

(And those men had been at a gay bar, not Hawkins high school parking lot.) 

It's nothing Eddie can't handle, but Steve…isn't doing any of them.

Instead his breathings gone weird, body trembling--and Eddie can see how Steve is holding himself up.

Like he's worried about Eddie taking his weight.

Slowly, carefully, he raises a hand to the back of Steve's hair.

He presses in slow, waiting to be yelled at, waiting to be rejected but never is. 

"You can lay on me, Harrington, I won't break." Eddie tells him and knows his voice is too sweet when he says it.

Too lovey dovey, too awed. 

Too late, for him to recover into a normal voice but fuck it. Not like Eddie was known for making smart decisions. 

Nothing could have prepared him from the wounded noise Steve makes in return. 

"Hey--hey." Eddie says, in rising panic. "I've got you." 

"I know." Steve raises, and head coming up at last, cheeks red and tear stained but his eyes are clear.

Clear and fucking haunted.

 "I know you do, Eds, but we don't have time. Which is why I need you to listen to me, because I'm not the Steve Harrington you know."  

Utterly reeling from being called "Eds" it takes Eddie a moment to digest what was just said. "What do you mean?"

"I mean," Steve sighs, a blast of frustration, and Eddie finds himself automatically scritching at Steve's head. 

For some reason that seems to help. 

"Your D&D finale’s tonight, right?" 

"Yes." Eddie says slowly, his mind spinning uselessly, every coherent thought derailed by something new. The moles on Steve's neck. The way he shifts, how his leg is tangling with Eddie's, awkwardly because it's cramped as shit back here. 

"I'm way past this. I've lived this. More than once." 

Aha. 

So it's a mental breakdown Steve's having. 

"I'm still waiting for you to make sense, Harrington." Eddie says to buy himself time to think. 

"Steve." The younger man corrects and he's holding Eddie's gaze. "And I'm not making sense because saying it sounds stupid." 

Eddie can't help the little derisive laugh that breaks out of him. "I hear a lot of stupid things, one more won't kill me." 

"I know, you're famous for your rants about them." Steve snarks back, but it's teasing. 

Friendly and familiar, like he's used to bantering. 

Not just that, but bantering with Eddie, specifically.

He doesn't know what to do with that, so he tugs a little on Harrington's too perfect hair. 

Demands an explanation with that little jolt--and somehow, Steve doesn't haul off and punch him for it. Instead a shudder rollers through him, eyes closing just a touch and--Oh.

Oh, Harri-Steve, likes it.

"I'm from the future." Steve says, which does indeed sound stupid. 

Eddie blinks. "What?" 

"Robin and I are stuck in a time loop-- we keep living this week over and over." He continues, only now he's leaning his head against Eddie's arm. 

"Every single time, you take the longest to get on board and buy in, and every single time I fail to get everyone out alive so fuck it. Fuck all of it--I'm speedrunning this part." 

Oh this is beyond breakdown. 

This is 'took something he shouldn't have and then some' and Eddie knows how to trip sit. 

He just…doesn't want to get punched for being the first person Steve released his repressed homosexual urges out on, drugged or not. 

(The fact Steve's still letting Eddie pet him like a cat absolutely does not have anything to do with it, no sir.)

because his mouth bypasses his rational mind most days and today is no exception. 

"Okay." Eddie says. "Let's say you are from the future and not shot up with what I'm assuming you were told was steroids and was very much not."

 Steve rolls his eyes. 

He never bothered to dry his cheeks and Eddie does it now for him, with the hand that's not in Steve's hair.

Steve leans into it, which somehow feels like the craziest part of it all.

"Prove to me that you're from the future." Eddie challenges.

"Oh the kissing wasn't enough? Fine." Steve bitches, before rattling off facts like he's blowing through answers on Jeopardy. 

"You call your guitar sweetheart and apologize for cheating on it anytime you use your other guitar, who is named Arwin. Your favorite mug in Wayne's collection is the Garfield one and you can play Master of Puppets by heart even though the album came out last month."

"And this is coming from the future and not one of the freshmen we somehow share custody over…?"  Eddie says, even while alarm shoots down his spine.

Had he told the kids about his Garfield mug? 

That his acoustic was named Arwin…?

He suddenly couldn't recall but that made the most sense. Had to make sense.

Steve huffs, annoyed.

Its very cute, and Eddie bites his own lip hard to keep himself focused. 

A finger dips under Eddie's collar, wrapping gently around the chain that sits there before he can react.

 "This," Steve emphasizes with a gentle tug, "was your mom's. She gave it to you the morning of the accident." 

Eddie's world stops.

Not the same way it stopped when Steve kissed him, it stopped in a way they felt like ice had been dumped over his head. A flash freeze that squeezed his chest, claws digging into his exposed heart.

The only person who knew about the pick was Wayne. 

No one else, not even his band, his closest friends, knew the origin of it. 

To tell someone that, to say it was not only his mothers but that shed given it to him the morning before some drunk asshole t boned her shitty, shitty car and killed her-- was akin to handing over step by step instructions on how to hurt him. 

Eddie would go to the ends of the earth for that pick, and he had never let anyone know just how important it was to him.

Except Steve Harrington, apparently. 

"Okay." Eddie says, "Okay, you're from the future. You said--" He pauses, swallows. 

Fights down his disbelief even as the dots connect, because why else would he tell anyone about his pick? 

The only reason he can possibly conjure is if he needed someone to give it back to Wayne, because he, for whatever reason, couldn't.

 "You said you're reliving this because you can't get everyone out alive?" Eddie managed to get out, grappling with the knowledge that "everyone" included him. 

"Yeah." 

 "Are you also my boyfriend or something?" 

"If we can make it there, then yes." Steve says, slightly hysterical. "And really? You're finally gonna believe me?" 

"Are you arguing here for me to believe you or not, Steve, you're giving conflicting signals--" 

"No it's--you've fought me on this man. I've tried every method of getting you with us and every time you argue until the bats show up but one kiss and you're all for it?" 

"Give yourself some credit, it was a grand slam of a kiss.” Eddie replies, because it was by far and large the best kiss of his life. 

He’d follow Steve to hell and back if more kisses like that were on the table, mental breakdown or no. 

Steve snorts at him, a half-hysterical sound. “Noted.” He says. 

Then; “You believe me though?”

“Not at all!” Eddie chirps with a wobbly grin that betrays him.  “But on the off chance you’re right the uh…the thing about my pick…” He trails off self consciously. 

“I should have guessed that was what it. You only ever tell me that when you’re dying.” Steve fills in for him, and it’s weird, to know that for two seconds Steve Harrington apparently read his face and correctly guessed what he was thinking about. 

Abruptly decides he doesn’t want to think of his impending doom any longer. 

“So how about we skip the dying part and focus on the boyfriend part?” He says, poking at Steve’s cheek. 

Steve makes a face at him, before grabbing a his hand and pressing a kiss to the back of it. 

“We gotta fix this mess first, Munson.” He tells him gently, looking up at him through his lashes and oh, that is a look Eddie will keep for the rest of his life. 

“Lead on, lassie.” Eddie tells him to hide how dazed he feels. “Let’s go save the world and shit.” 

With one final kiss to the palm of Eddie’s hand, Steve does. 

[diazsdimples]

🤠🤠🤠🤠🤠🤠🤠🤠

❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️

Please ignore that I'm doing this several months late 😬

🤠 - 24 for Ranch AU!

But that did leave him with an awful lot of time on his hands. Bobby and spare time have never been great friends – the last time he was left to his own devices for more than a day, he’d ended up knee deep in planning a lavish wedding that had ultimately been chucked out the door when he and Athena realised, they really didn’t need anything more than themselves and the kids. All that to say that it isn’t really surprising that Bobby downloads the Sims 4 onto his ancient laptop and creates a full-scale version of the ranch. He gets the dimensions off the listing, and with the help of a convenient floorplan and google earth, he manages to make a rather convincing version of the home. He does up the exterior to look just like the ranch house, complete with the large veranda and the ornate trims around the spandrels, and even manages to find a tile that looks exactly like the path leading to the front door. The interior is a different matter. Bobby doesn’t love the colour scheme either, and he can’t see himself coping with an oven as miniscule as the one that comes with the home, so he allows himself a little creative licence. It’s just a video game, after all. He’s not seriously planning it out. Several hours later, Bobby sits back in his chair with a satisfied sigh. Blessedly, Athena still has a job, which means Bobby hasn’t needed to worry about her finding out his momentary lapse in sanity, but it also means he hasn’t got anyone to show off his creation to – a thought that upsets him a little more than it should, were he being normal about the whole thing. He’s fiddling around with some of the furniture in the master bedroom when the front door bursts open and a furious looking Buck stalks over his threshold, followed by a harried Eddie. “What’s going –” “Bobby, you wouldn’t believe what that man made us do!” Buck explodes as he starts pacing the kitchen. Eddie leans against the countertop, running a hand over his face. “I know you said I shouldn’t let him get to me but I can’t, he’s just so –” Buck trails off, looking over at Bobby. His eyes flicker from Bobby’s patient expression to the open laptop, still displaying the Fake Ranch. “Are we… interrupting something?” “No.” Bobby goes to shut the laptop but Buck is quicker. “Is that the Sims?” Buck asks incredulously. “Man, you must be bored, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you play video games.”

❄️ - 24 for Frostpunk AU!

“You did it,” he repeats, praying his voice won’t betray him. “You’re safe.” At his words, Eddie’s eyes shut, and his brings his hands up to his face as he lets out a deep exhale. His fingers shake as he wipes a tear from his cheek. “I didn’t think we’d – I thought -” Eddie swallows thickly. He looks around the tent, eyes wet, and his gaze falls on a familiar mop of brown curls. “Is that – is that my son? Can I see him, please?” Buck squeezes Eddie’s shoulder again, offering him a smile. “Of course.” When Buck reaches Christopher’s bed, the kid looks up at him quizzically. It’s clear that he wasn’t as blissfully unaware of his father’s event as Buck had hoped, despite the small crowd of medics around him, all intent on distracting him. “Is everything okay with Dad?” he asks Buck, without preamble. Buck crouches down to Christopher’s level and brushes a loose curl out of his eyes. “Yeah bud, everything’s okay. Better than, actually – he’s awake.” Buck holds out his hand for Christopher. “Want to come see him? He’d like to see you.” Christopher throws himself into Buck’s arms, taking him by surprise. Buck catches him around the middle and hauls him up, carrying him to Eddie’s cot. The moment Christopher sees his father, sitting upright, awake and breathing, a great sob escapes his lips. Buck lowers him into Eddie’s waiting arms and pauses, not sure what to do as he watches father embrace son. Fat tears roll down Eddie’s cheeks as he holds Christopher as tight as he can, muscles shaking after weeks of no use.

[hxneyfarm]

59.  “I’ve spent the last five minutes trying to figure out what game you’re playing.” requested by @strangersteddierthings from this post thank you for the request!! i hope you like it!

Steve's been flirting with Eddie for weeks. Weeks. Eddie's not an idiot, he sees it for what it is. It's just... it doesn't make any fucking sense. Steve could be bi, sure, but even if he is. Eddie? Of all people?

Eddie, who'd gone and acted cute in that little hell dimension, Upside Down, whatever, even though he'd been under strict instructions to not do exactly that? Eddie, who'd very nearly fucking died and shit his pants all in one go? Eddie, who'd muttered some of the most insane, out of control shit when Steve carried him out of the Upside Down because he genuinely thought he was a goner? That Eddie? That's who Steve's been flirting with for weeks?

Maybe Steve's been conked in the noggin one too many times. He's not thinking clearly.

It's one of those nights where it's just the two of them. It's been happening more often, these past few weeks; Steve'll invite Eddie over under the guise of having a few beers, and he'll turn on a movie and they'll just shoot the shit for hours. And the whole damn time, Steve'll flirt.

Just like he's doing now, one arm slung across the back of the couch behind Eddie, sitting so close Eddie can feel his body heat. Steve's been full of it tonight, the teasing and the innuendos and the compliments. And Eddie's into it, giving back as good as he gets - touching Steve and calling him sweetheart and pushing back.

But Steve still won't make a move, a real one. There's no way Steve can't feel the tension mounting between them. It's been building for weeks. It's been building all night. They've been sharing these looks, lingering things where they capture one another's gazes and hold, until Steve glances down at Eddie's lips and Eddie has to look away.

It's driving Eddie nuts, the will he or won't he of it all. And the fact that he hasn't makes Eddie wonder if he's just fucking with him. It'd be so like the guy Eddie always thought Steve was, to play a joke like this on someone like him.

"Y'know, I've spent the last five minutes - nay, the last five weeks - trying to figure out what game you're playing here."

"Game?" Steve asks, his eyebrows pinched and confused.

"Yeah, like. The flirting? You messin' with me?"

"You think this is a game?"

"Yeah. What else could it be?"

Steve scoffs and scoots away, his arm falling away from the back of the couch to rest at his side.

"You really think I'd do that? Mess with you like that?" Steve sounds offended. A little hurt. "What happened to me being not a douche?"

"Whoa, man, I'm just sayin', alright? It's weird, is all," Eddie says, defensive. "'Cause... y'know... I never thought you could be into someone like me."

"Yeah? Well, it turns out I can. I thought you might be into me, too. It's why I've been inviting you over more."

"Sooo," Eddie says with a smile. "Is this a date, then? You been puttin' the moves on me for real?"

"This is hardly a date, Munson, but yes. The moves are very real."

Eddie's pulse kicks up and he feels warm, a little nervous. He brings a lock of hair in front of his mouth to cover a dopey smile. Steve's still looking at him, scooting closer again and putting his arm back up where it was before. They're sitting right up against each other now, their thighs and knees knocking together. Eddie puts a hand on Steve's leg.

"Alright, then. Carry on."

"A game," Steve mutters, shaking his head and clicking his tongue. "Sometimes I wonder why I like you."

"Too late now, big boy. You already said it. You like me, and I'm never gonna let you forget it."

[darkwitchoferie]

Rosary

As he watched, he noticed that the chain was moving through his fingers like he was praying the rosary. Maybe he was, prayer certainly wouldn’t hurt in this situation. He considered praying himself, but Steve had given up on God the day an otherworldly creature came through the walls of the Byers house.

----

Eddie’s in the hospital after his heroics in the Upside Down. Steve and Wayne sit together, waiting for him to wake up.

Read on AO3 here.

Steve slouched in the uncomfortable hospital chair, glaring at the back of the nurse’s head who was checking Eddie’s vitals. How could the woman check a patient’s vitals when she was practically vibrating out of her own skin with how scared she was? He knew this nurse wasn’t the only one afraid of Eddie, because of his reputation and the cuffs attaching him to the bed, but she was the only one this obvious about it. Why bother sending her in here at all? Steve knew the kids, Robin, and Nancy were working on some sort of alibi or plan to keep Eddie from going to jail when he woke up, but until then, he was keeping an eye on the other man to make sure no one made off with him in the middle of the night.

Nancy’d asked him once, after he explained why he never left the hospital, who exactly he thought was going to kidnap an unconscious man. He wasn’t totally sure – either the cops, maybe the feds, or someone from the defunct government lab that Eleven had been raised in. Nancy had looked skeptical about the first two, after all there were no feds in town and the town cops couldn’t exactly hide a full grown man, but she admitted that the lab was a possibility. So she started making sure she and Robin came in once a day to relieve him so he could go home, shower, change, and eat some real food.

Steve continued to glare at the nurse as she marked Eddie’s chart, then turned on her heel to leave.

“That the nurse I saw leaving?” Wayne asked, pushing open the door with his hip and handing Steve one of the two coffees he carried.

“Mm-hm. Took his vitals.”

“She the one that shakes the whole time?”

“Mm. Like she’s afraid he’s gonna suddenly pop up and rip her heart out of her chest.”

Wayne snorted a laugh. Steve had been pretty damn proud of himself the first time he’d heard that laugh from Wayne. The older man hadn’t handled it well, seeing his nephew torn up and handcuffed to a bed – who would – but after a few days, he’d relaxed around Steve enough that the two of them started having small conversations about nothing consequential. The first snorted laugh had been over some passing comment about the Cardinals during the preseason baseball game they’d had on in the background. Steve had relaxed enough to smile himself. After that, their conversations became more frequent and with more substance to them.

Now, a month later, Steve felt like he’d known Wayne and Eddie his whole life. He learned a bit about the big things in Eddie’s childhood, the things Wayne was willing to share about Allen and Betty, his brother and deceased sister-in-law. Things like what Al Munson had been arrested for after his wife’s accidental suicide. A little about Betty’s drug addiction and how it terrified Wayne when Eddie started dealing. But he also got to hear stories about Wayne teaching Eddie to play guitar in the week after Betty’s funeral, or what it was like for Wayne and then Eddie growing up in a tiny town in Perry county, Kentucky. Introducing Eddie to first Woodie Guthrie and how that had somehow led the boy to heavy metal. How Wayne had left Kentucky after his own wife was killed in a car accident shortly after Betty’s death and how he felt guilty for abandoning Eddie when he knew what kind of a father Al was. And how relieved he was when Eddie joined him in Hawkins after Al’s arrest when he could have ended up with one of Wayne and Al’s sisters.

He heard about other, less heavy, topics too. Like Eddie falling out of a tree when he was eight and breaking his arm; about Eddie’s love for animals and how that translated to not going hunting which was considered incredibly weird for that part of the country, but also how that meant that the raccoons and stray cats of the trailer park gathered around the old Munson trailer because Eddie fed them all; how Eddie had tried to learn to roller skate one time and ended up with a concussion, giving up on any and all sports after that; and about his creative outlets other than DnD, like the fantasy novel he pretended he wasn’t writing but which Wayne had seen the seven different notebooks full of information about.

He figured he learned just as much about Wayne from those conversations as he did about Eddie, but he liked listening to them anyway. He liked that someone wanted to share their life stories with him, even if he was pretty sure that Wayne only talked to remind himself that Eddie was stronger than people gave him credit for. So he shared some of the high school stories he remembered about Eddie, making himself the target so the other kids in Hellfire wouldn’t get picked on as much, or how Dustin, Lucas, and Mike said he went out of his way to help the three of them when he could. Before Lucas had joined basketball at least.

He now, after getting to know him, understood Eddie’s seemingly off-handed comment about his uncle worrying about him. He’d wondered, at the time, if Wayne really would be worried. After all, in his experience, very few adults really worried about their kids. His parents certainly didn’t. He was pretty positive that the Wheelers would only start worrying if they hadn’t seen one of their kids in more than a week. He figured the Sinclairs and Max’s mom were about the same, seeing as they had never noticed anything that was going on with the kids. Claudia Henderson was better, but even then, he figured it’d be an unplanned day or two of not seeing Dustin before she started to worry. None of that applied to Joyce Byers, obviously. She worried about all of them, not just her own kids.

Wayne took his usual seat beside Eddie’s bed and settled into the quiet. Steve watched him out of the corner of his eye, recognizing that this would be a quiet day for Wayne, one where he didn’t have the energy to talk about his nephew, too consumed with worry that he wouldn’t wake up. He noticed that he’d taken Eddie’s necklace off, the one with the red pick that he’d taken to wearing after he came out of surgery, and was fiddling with it. As he watched, he noticed that the chain was moving through his fingers like he was praying the rosary. Maybe he was, prayer certainly wouldn’t hurt in this situation. He considered praying himself, but Steve had given up on God the day an otherworldly creature came through the walls of the Byers house.

He turned his attention more completely to Days of our Lives to give Wayne the illusion of privacy. He knew the older man wouldn’t be there more than a couple of hours, it was long past the ‘family emergency’ time off that the plant had given him and he’d be headed in for his overnight shift. When a commotion arose outside, Steve barely paid attention, too engrossed in the fictional drama on the screen. But then Eddie’s door swung open. He jumped up, only to back away again when he noticed Hopper in front of everyone else.

“Chief! This is –”

“Shitty police work, is what it is, Powell,” Hopper cut him off loudly, too loudly for a hospital, which probably helped explain the doctor and nurses who were behind Powell and Officer Callahan. Steve and Wayne watched as Hopper pulled his keys off his belt, strode to Eddie’s bed, and uncuffed him. “We don’t arrest people with no evidence, you know better. I taught you better. And reputation,” he steam rolled right over the beginning of Officer Powell’s complaint or excuse, “is not evidence. Now, do you have any actual evidence connecting Mr. Munson here to any of the victims? That doesn’t come from a girl’s distraught, and frankly stupid, boyfriend? No, you don’t. Wayne,” Hopper turned to Wayne, voice coming down to a more reasonable volume. “I’m sorry about the trouble here. I know it’s been rough for you.”

“Thanks, Hop,” Wayne shook his hand, more than a bit confused but willing to go along with whatever Hopper said as long as it meant his boy wouldn’t wake up with cuffs on his wrist. Steve wasn’t sure how Wayne and Hopper knew each other, just that the pair of them had apparently become good friends some years ago.

With a glare from Hopper, most of the room cleared out. Powell, who had been Chief last Steve knew, was the last to leave. “You got re-instated?” He asked, as soon as the door closed.

“About an hour ago. Took the time to look over Eddie’s file and the only thing they had on him was that someone said they saw Chrissy leave with him after the basketball game. Obviously they found nothing in the trailer, before it was destroyed, and there’s nothing tying him to Fred or Patrick’s deaths other than Carver’s ‘delusions’,” he explained, putting air quotes around delusions. They all knew Carver had really seen how Patrick died, but the only way the shadowy government types could keep things hidden about the Upside Down was to pretend he’d had some kind of psychotic break. “Probably people will still be suspicious of him, but he’s not going to be arrested. There’s nothing to arrest him for. Except the drugs, so make sure he keeps his nose clean with that. For a while, at least.” The last part was addressed to Wayne only, who grunted his agreement.

“Well, I’m real glad you’re back, Hop.”

“Me too. These idiots forgot how to do their jobs. Not surprised there was a witch hunt for your nephew with these morons manning the station. Anyway, Joyce said she’ll bring you two dinner. She’s making lasagna. El said she’s recovered and is willing to take a look in Eddie’s mind, make sure it is just healing that’s keeping him in a coma for so long, not that something else was done. If you’re okay with that, Wayne.”

Wayne glanced over at Steve, raising an eyebrow as if questioning him on whether he thought it was a good idea or not.

“If Supergirl says she’s up to it, I say go for it.” El had been drained after fighting her brother in Max’s mind. It had taken her almost a week to get any semblance of her powers back and she’d been working since then to get them back to where they should be.

“Alright, Hop. Whenever you’re able to bring her up.” A few hours later, before Wayne went off to work, Joyce brought El when she brought them lasagna. They cleared out of her way, only going into the hallway to let her do her thing. After a fairly short time, she came back out and announced that he was fine, there was no sign of anything from One, so it really was just healing from his injuries that was keeping him unconscious.

Over the next several days, their routine continued. Wayne came straight from work for an hour or two before going back to his buddy’s place, who’d been letting him stay since the destruction of his trailer. Steve still stayed in the room, except when Nancy and Robin came by to more or less force him to head home for a bit. He made polite, but not very interesting, conversation with Eddie’s friends when they came by. They were still, reasonably, wary of ‘King Steve’, so he understood why they didn’t talk to him much. The kids came by after school to share any gossip they’d heard about Eddie, which was much more interesting. Robin brought updates on the repair work that was being done to Family Video and the rest of the town. One/Vecna hadn’t succeeded in fully opening his portals, but it was apparently a near miss, with a lot of places taking a lot of damage. Particularly places in the center of town. They were blaming the damage, and any ‘delusions’ like Jason’s, on a gas main leak and explosion.

Wayne came back a couple hours before work and shared a couple more stories about younger-Eddie. Steve had started to share some stories about himself, but he didn’t really have any interesting things happen in his life before the Upside Down and it’s not like those were fun stories to revisit. Still, Steve told him some of it, just so he had a clearer idea of exactly what kind of mess Eddie’d stumbled into. And maybe because Wayne had shared the painful things about his and Eddie’s pasts.

Doctors and nurses came and went, checking on him to make sure he was healing like he should be. Dr. Roberts assured them that he was healing normally and that the coma was actually helping him to heal faster since his body didn’t need to do much else. They also started him on a form a physical therapy. Obviously he wasn’t moving on his own so it wasn’t normal physical therapy, but since the wounds were more or less healed, a physical therapist came in to do some limb stretches and things with him.

Then, in the middle of the night a little over a week after Hopper’s reinstatement, Eddie started thrashing around on the bed. Steve jumped out of his chair and hurried to the bed, reaching him just as his movements slowed.

“What fresh hell is this?” he croaked, voice scratchy from disuse, eyes narrowed against the light from his bedside table that Steve had been using to read by.

“It’s called a hospital, usually. Suppose it could be hell too.” Steve looked down at him with a smile, relieved to see clear brown eyes looking back up at him.

“Harrington?”

“Morning, Munson. Well, very very early morning.”

“What is happening?”

“You’re in Hawkins Hospital. They had to stitch you up. You lost a lot of blood too, man. Like, they weren’t sure you were gonna make it when we brought you in. Lemme get the nurse or doctor for you, okay?”

“Wait. Dustin?”

“He’s good. Sleeping at home right now. I’ll tell you all about in a few minutes.” Steve ducked out of the room and rushed to the nurse’s station. He probably could’ve used the call button, but figured this was better so they’d know what to expect. “He’s awake,” he told the night charge nurse, Janet.

“Awake?” She jumped up.

“And completely aware.” Janet shouted a few things Steve didn’t understand, something about codes, and she, another nurse, and one of the emergency room doctor’s rushed into Eddie’s room. Steve took that time to reach over Janet’s desk and make a phone call. “Hello sir, this is Steve Harrington. Could I speak with Wayne Munson? Yes, I understand he’s manning a machine right now. No sir, I…. I know bu…. Could you just tell him his nephew’s awake? Yes that’s right. Thank you.” Steve waited for just a minute until Wayne was on the line and he repeated himself. “Eddie’s up. The medical people are in with him now. Okay, I’ll let him know.”

Steve slipped back into Eddie’s room, watching the medical staff fuss over him. Janet turned to him as the others filtered out, gesturing him to come closer. “We’ll have Dr. Roberts check him over in the morning of course, but he’s aware, like you said. Mr. Munson, your cognitive function seems to all be normal, your vitals are as good as always, there’s the stiffness we expected in your reflexes. That’ll just take some time and physical therapy to get back to normal. If you could step back out for a moment, Steve, I’m going to remove his tubes.”

Steve winced in sympathy, knowing exactly what tubes Eddie had in his body. A very short time later, she came back out. “I’ll call his uncle’s work now, let him know.”

“I already did. He should be here soon.”

“Good. I’ll keep an eye out for him.”

Steve turned back into Eddie’s room, to see him sitting propped up on the raised bed and shifting uncomfortably. Rather than address it, since he figured he’d be embarrassed to talk about catheter removal, Steve made his way to the end of the bed and said, “Like I said, Dustin’s doing fine. He’ll be thrilled you’re awake. They all will. Max is also good, broken arm, but it’s healing good. Lucas had some bruises and a broken hand from Carver, who found them and broke into the Creel house. He’s fine, so is Erica. Well, she’s still pissed she can’t, and I quote “give that fucker what he deserves”. One of Carver’s friends tied her to the playground jungle gym while Carver went after her brother. He’s been arrested for assaulting Lucas and Max. Let’s see, Nance and Robin are totally fine. They had some bruising and shit from the vines, but it’s healed up. The Byers and Mike all made it back to town. They apparently had their own things going on and if you want to hear about that, Mike’ll talk your ear off about it, I’m sure. El’s got her powers back, so that’s been interesting. Hopper’s not dead and is police chief again. He’s also the reason you’re not cuffed to the bed any more. Told Powell off for being a bad cop, arresting you with no evidence.

Your stitches were taken out a few weeks ago, same as mine, but they said you had more internal damage than I did, so it’s not surprising you were out. And, uh, I think that’s it. Oh! The town took some pretty heavy damage, they’re still doing a lot of repairs. But, we won. Vecna’s ash, saw it myself. And your uncle knows everything. The kids told him while you were in surgery and I was being stitched up.”

“For how long?”

“Five weeks. Roughly.”

“Five weeks?”

“Mm-hm. We let El double check that you weren’t like, being held hostage in your own head or something.”

Behind Steve, the door was flung open. “Christ Jesus, Eddie! You damn near scared the life outta me.”

“Hey Wayne,” Eddie offered a watery smile, holding his hand out to his uncle. Steve silently excused himself to give the pair of them room when he noticed the tears in Eddie’s eyes.

Silently, Wayne held Eddie as close as he could, both of the silently crying into each others’ shoulders. After a while, when the pain in Wayne’s lower back got to be too much, he leaned back, slowly releasing his nephew. He sat down in his usual spot and just stared at him for a minute, basking in the knowledge that he was awake.

“What’ve I missed?”

“Your aunts have called a couple times.”

“You mean you called them.”

“Well, I had to tell everyone you were in the hospital. ‘Course, I didn’t tell ‘em the details. Your Mamaw’s doin’ what she does. She’ll be thrilled to hear it helped.” Eddie chuckled a little, before coughing. Wayne’s mom, his Mamaw, was a superstitious old woman at the best of times and would probably lose her mind if she knew exactly what had happened to Eddie. She was also known to be a folk healer by their neighbors and had definitely done some sort of healing-from-a-distance for Eddie. He’d decided when he was a kid to never ask her the details about what she did, always a little afraid to find out that she was making him drink something nasty when he was sick. “Steve tell you all the kids, and your friends, have been to visit you pretty much whenever they can?”

“He didn’t get to that part, just updated me on injuries and stuff before you came in.”

“Mm.” Wayne was quiet again, staring at his nephew. “You know you can tell me anything, Ed.”

“I know. Why?” Eddie narrowed his eyes.

“Why didn’t you tell me about your boy? Or, I guess, why didn’t you tell me you’d finally made a move on the boy you been pinin’ after for years?”

“What?! What have you said to him?!” Eddie sat bolt upright and gripped his uncle’s wrist, panic all over his face.

“Calm down,” Wayne reached out to put a hand on his shoulder, gently rubbing his thumb back and forth to try to calm him down. “We’ve been gettin’ to know each other, is all.”

“Wayne, listen to me. We are not together. I have not made any moves. Steve is very, incredibly, straight. Still in love with his ex, even. He’s barely even my friend. And that’s only because of life-endangering circumstances. Oh, I need to lie back down.” Eddie slumped back against his pillows, releasing his hold on Wayne. “That was too much effort. That’s so dumb, all I did was sit up.”

“You’ve been out for over a month, kid. So, you’re not together?”

“Decidedly not.”

“Hm. I figured that’s why he spent every day all day in here with you. ‘Cept when the girls come in for a couple hours so he can go home and eat and stuff.”

“All day?” Eddie asked in disbelief.

“Mm. All day, every single day. He was here before me the first day they let you have visitors. Sits in that chair there and watches soaps all afternoon. Bet he could tell you all about ‘em.”

“God, of course he likes soap operas. Argh!” Eddie pressed his hands over his face, screaming into his palms.

“Well, that was weird. I feel like I’ve missed something,” Steve said, strolling back in with three cups. He passed Wayne’s coffee off to him and held out the third cup to Eddie, keeping ahold of his own. “Doc said you’re not allowed to have caffeine yet, so it’s apple juice. They tried to give you orange, but Wayne said you don’t like that. And they’re gonna bring up some food from the cafeteria soon, see how you tolerate solid food.”

“You talked about me?” Eddie turned an accusing stare on his uncle, not that Steve took much notice of it.

“Yep,” he said, popping the ‘p’ sound. “What were you screaming about when I walked in?”

“Nothing. What do you mean ‘yep’? As if it’s a totally normal thing?” He took a long drink of the apple juice. “God, that’s delicious.”

“Eddie, you were laying here unconscious, after doing something I distinctly remember telling you not to do,” he glared down at him for a second. “Who else were we gonna talk about?”

Eddie didn’t say anything for a minute. “Okay, so, how did I get here? Like, last I remember, I was looking up at Dustin and very much not gon – topside.” he cut himself off, changing what he was going to say when he saw the same upset look on Wayne and Steve’s faces.

“When Nance, Rob, and I got back to the trailer park, you were already unconscious and Dustin was….” Steve trailed off, eyes looking into some middle distance as if remembering exactly what Dustin looked like. “Anyway,” he shook himself out of it. “Nancy tore up some of our clothes and we got those around you as bandages, then I lifted you over my shoulder and hauled you into the trailer. Shit was starting to come apart then, but I was able to push you through the gate to the girls. Then we… borrowed Max’s mom’s car and got you here.”

“You carried me out?” Eddie would deny the blush and the spike in his heart monitor if anyone said anything, but neither of them mentioned it.

“Of course I did. You still had a pulse, Eddie. We were never gonna just leave you there. Even if…. Not gonna happen, we don’t leave people behind.”

“Well, heard the freak’s awake and I guess it’s true.” One of the night orderly’s pushed through the hospital door, pushing a cart with covered food on it in front of him.

“Out!” Steve demanded, jerking the cart away from him then crowding into the man’s space, forcing him back out the door.

This time when Eddie’s heart monitor showed the spike in his heart rate, Wayne turned to him with a knowing grin. Eddie glared and tried to make his heart beat slower.

“You okay, Ed?” Steve turned back toward him, pushing the cart himself. “I know you’re…. Your friends said you’re used to shit like that, but I mean, that doesn’t make it okay. Plus you just woke up.”

“Yeah, I’m good. Just… surprised me, I guess.” Wayne quickly turned his laugh into a fake cough. Steve turned a quizzical look to him, but otherwise said nothing.

“Well, at least we know he didn’t tamper with any of it, it’s all wrapped up.”

“Hospital food, yay.”

“Keep it down and I’ll see if Joyce can bring you some real food in the morning.”

“Joyce?”

“Byers. Will and Jon’s mom.”

“Huh. Dunno why I can never remember that’s her name. She’ll bring me food? Real food?”

“I’ll talk to her in the morning. Like the actual, post-dawn morning.”

“Fair.” With some trepidation, Eddie dug into the hospital-provided lunch meat sandwich, chips, and Jello. Then, a while later, he drifted off to sleep, complaining the whole time that he wasn’t tired and he’d been asleep for long enough.

A few minutes after he was out, Wayne said, “Thanks, Steve. I know I don’t say it ever, but thanks for being around and for looking after my nephew.”

“You never have to thank me for that, Wayne. I…,” he sighed, scrubbing a hand over his face. “I like being useful and taking care of people.”

Steve went back to his borrowed copy of The Return of the King, while Wayne just sort of sat there, watching Eddie sleep and knowing that he was actually just asleep, not in a coma. The two of them eventually drifted off to sleep in their own, less than comfortable hospital chairs for a few hours after that. They were woken up when Dr. Roberts got in for his morning shift and came to see them first thing. Leaving Wayne with the doctor, Steve made his way back to the nurse’s station and asked to borrow the phone from the morning charge nurse, Sarah. He dialed the Byers/Hopper house first, even though it’d probably piss off Dustin if he knew.

“Hello?”

“Hey Jon. Is your mom awake?”

“She is. She’s making waffles. What’s wrong?”

“Nothing at all. Can you ask her if she can bring some of those waffles for Eddie?”

“He’s awake?!”

“He is,” Steve smiled, hearing the cacophony in the background that greeted Jonathon’s question.

“Shut up a minute!” He shouted to the people around him. “Sorry, we had all the boys over last night. I’ll call Nance and Robin, see if we can get in touch with his other friends. We’ll see you soon.”

“Thanks Jon, I appreciate it.”

With a smile on his face and feeling lighter than he had in the past month and a half, Steve strolled back into Eddie’s hospital room in time to hear Roberts say that the physical therapist would be down later in the morning to start Eddie’s full rehab.

“You’re in a good mood,” Eddie commented as Roberts left.

“Joyce is bringing waffles. And children.”

“Excellent,” he grinned.

“They’re also gonna tell your friends.”

Soon, the room was flooded with boisterous teenagers, all trying to catch Eddie up on the minute details and gossip of Hawkins that he’d missed. Steve was pretty sure he didn’t care much about the gossip, but was just glad to have everyone around. Though he could have, Steve didn’t leave the room, choosing instead to find a spot where he was out of the way and could just observe and relax. He ended up leaning against the wall, near the tv.

“Feeling better now that your crush is awake?”

“Sshh!!” Steve shushed Robin who had come over to lean on the wall beside him.

“Of course he is,” Nancy commented quietly from Robin’s other side.

“Will you two shut up?” he whisper-yelled at them. Nancy rolled her eyes, knowing no one could hear them over the children. “I shouldn’t have ever told you guys,” he groaned, dropping his head back against the tile.

“Told us?,” Robin chuckled. “Steve, you didn’t tell us anything. You had a full blown, hysteric crisis. The kind they lock women up in asylums for.”

“They don’t lock women up for hysteria anymore. Besides, you two would’ve been put away long before me.” Since the trip to Pennhurst, Robin had gotten very interested in psychology. She’d devoured the few books available at Hawkins’ library and was trying to learn more. Steve was fairly certain she knew now what she would go to college to study, even though she hadn’t said anything to him yet.

“The point still stands, you can’t be upset that you told us when you really came to us in a hysteric crisis.” Nancy said.

“Yes I can,” Steve insisted, crossing his arms over his chest. Robin laughed again, bumping her shoulder into his. “Besides, it’s not like it matters. You know –”

“Yeah, yeah, we know. Might not be into guys, especially jock guys.”

“On the other hand, he might be into guys who carried him out of hell,” Robin added.

“Fuck off, Rob.” Both girls laughed at him.

A few days later, with physical therapy progressing well and his wounds healed, Dr. Roberts released Eddie. They hadn’t gotten around to repairing the damage to the trailer park yet, and Wayne was still staying on his friend’s couch, who didn’t have room for Eddie too, so Steve did the logical thing and invited him to stay at his otherwise empty house. And if he mentally kicked himself for it, because now he was sure he’d make a fool of himself somehow, well, only he needed to know that.

Which is how he found himself strolling into his own home and hearing Eddie’s voice, with a thicker accent than usual, on what seemed to be the tail end of a phone call. “Yes, Mamaw, I’m healin’ good, thanks to you. Promise I’ll come home to see you, soon as I can. Love you too, Mamaw.”

Steve stepped in the hallway to see Eddie grinning at the phone as he hung up. “Does your accent always get thicker when you talk to your Mamaw?”

“Steve!” Eddie jumped a little. “Hi, didn’t hear you come in. What?”

Steve chuckled. “Your accent was thicker just then, when you were on the phone. Is that a Mamaw specific thing, or does it happen with your aunts and cousins too?”

“How do you…? Wayne.” Eddie’s accent had all but disappeared now.

“Yeah, Wayne. He told me about your family in Kentucky.”

“I’m afraid to ask what else he told you. But, no, it’s not a Mamaw specific thing. It happens with any of my family, even Wayne sometimes. It’s easier to hide with Wayne though, since there are other people with normal accents around.”

“Hide? You mean you do that on purpose, not just that you, I dunno, accidently started to sound like the people around you?”

Eddie snorted. “It’s definitely on purpose. I can handle the barbs about my music, DnD, even my hair. But I hate the looks of ‘oh he’s stupid’ or pity or whatever from the way I sound. It’s the way my Mamaw and my aunties sound. They ain’t stupid, Steve. They’re some of the smartest people I know. So’s Wayne, no matter what anyone says.” Steve listened, a small, fascinated smile on his face as Eddie’s accent got thicker again, the longer he ranted. “What is that look for?”

“Nothing, just, your accent’s back. Got thicker while you ranted. I’m kinda fascinated because that never happened with your table rants at school. I like it,” he shrugged, using the casual gesture to hide that he’d almost slipped and said ‘you’ instead of ‘it’.

“You… like it? Like, my accent?”

“Yeah. I mean, I like listening to you talk in general, but I definitely enjoy the accent. Anyway,” Steve continued on before he could respond to that. “Rob and Nance will be here soon. The brats want to have a movie night, so one of them is gonna stay to help set up, and me and the other one, probably Rob, are gonna head to the grocery store for supplies.”

“Wheeler, do something!” Eddie demanded a short while later, as soon as Steve’s car was down the drive and it was just the two of them.

“About what?”

“About Steve. Either take him back or let him down so he’s distracted.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Listen, I know he’s still got a thing for you. I saw the way he looked at you down there,” he tapped his toes once on the ground. “But I dunno if it’s just because he’s focused on me since I’m living with him for now, or what, but he’s getting weird, Wheeler.”

“Weird how? And stop calling me Wheeler, my name’s Nancy.”

“I was on the phone earlier with family back in Kentucky and Steve said he likes my voice. Likes listening to me and ‘enjoys my accent’.”

“You have an accent? Like your uncle’s?”

“Yes, but that’s not the point.”

“He’s not being weird. And he doesn’t still have a thing for me. We talked about that weeks ago, after Jon got back.”

“Ugh!” Eddie flopped down on the couch she was sitting on, head landing very near her lap. “So, what then?”

“Better question, why’re you making a big deal out of it? Why does it matter to you that he likes the sound of your voice?” Nancy reached out and gently ran her fingers through his curls.

“No reason, just seemed weird is all.”

“Uh huh. Try again.”

Eddie was silent for nearly five minutes. Nancy sat patiently waiting. “Okay, swear you won’t say anything to anyone? Except, you can talk to Wayne because he already knows.”

“I swear.”

“I may, possibly, have had a thing for Steve for… a while.”

“I feel like you could have been more vague with that answer if you tried,” she rolled her eyes, doing her best to hide her joy.

“Yeah, ‘cause it’s not awkward at all to talk about my crush on a guy to that guy’s ex-girlfriend,” Eddie rolled his eyes.

“So it’s a crush, huh?”

“Ugh!” He flopped over onto his stomach, burying his face in the couch.

Nancy chuckled at him, but otherwise said nothing, quietly planning in her head.

­­­---

“Now what’s all this about girls?” Wayne asked, a couple days later when Nancy and Robin met him outside of work when he got off at 5:00 am.

“We need your help with Eddie and Steve,” Robin said, bouncing on the balls of her feet.

“That right?” Nancy was pleased to note the little bit of mischief in his eyes when he asked.

“Mm-hm, and I think you know why.” The three of them sat in the bed of his pickup and made their plans.

---

“Please tell me I’m not the only one who finds this suspicious,” Eddie commented from the passenger seat.

“Why, our friends insisting on meeting us in the middle of nowhere with no explanation? No, not suspicious at all. Although, if they’d gotten Dustin in on it, I’d be more suspicious.”

“That’s fair. He’s obnoxious when he tries to be sneaky.” They both laughed. “Where are we going anyway?”

“The hill just outside town. The kids call it Weathertop, after the place in Lord of the Rings.” Eddie was silent long enough that Steve risked a quick glance over to see him staring in open-mouthed shock. “What?” he laughed.

“You know Lord of the Rings? Since when? I know you didn’t get my Mordor reference before.”

“I had a lot of time while you were in a coma,” Steve shrugged a shoulder. “Dustin let me borrow his copies, even The Hobbit,” he said proudly.

“You read The Hobbit and the whole Lord of the Rings trilogy while I was in a coma?”

“I mean, I only just finished Return of the King like two days ago. But yeah. I dunno, Wayne said it was one of your favorites. And plus, I know the kids like it. So, yeah.”

“No no, don’t add the brats to this. You read it because Wayne said it was one of my favorites?”

Steve sighed, gripping the steering wheel tighter, then relaxed again before answering. “Robin told me that a good way to get to know someone is by learning about their favorite things. Your music is apparently too much for my concussed head, it triggers a migraine. So, I went with books.”

“But you tried it? Listening to my music, I mean.”

“Yeah. I tried… oh hell, who was it? They’re on the front of your vest. Megadeth! Anyway, I was down for like a whole day with a migraine. But Wayne brought in a Woodie Guthrie cassette and that was way easier for me to listen to. I like him.”

“I need…. I need to take a minute and process that you tried to listen to my music, and read one of my favorite book series to try to get to know me while I was unconscious. This is blowing my mind. Seriously though, why would you… I mean, we didn’t even know each other before this whole thing started. Well, started for me anyway. I know you were involved way longer than I was. And I know Wayne was talkin’ to ya about me, so why the extra stuff, I guess is what I’m really wonderin’.” Steve listened with a small smile. Since he’d said something about like Eddie’s accent, he’d started to hear it more frequently. Yeah, Eddie still made an effort to sound ‘normal’, especially when other people were around. But when it was just them, or when he started off on a ramble like that, it got thicker again. “What are you so damn happy about?”

“It’s nothing,” Steve shook his head. “Are you still processing or did you actually want an answer?”

“I dunno. I kinda wanna make up my own thing. But anyway, do you know why they’re bringing us all the way out here?”

“No idea. I know Dustin had his Cerebro set up out here for a while.”

“Cerebro? You’re secretly a huge nerd, aren’t you Harrington?” Eddie chuckled.

“I wouldn’t go that far,” he grinned. “But I know some stuff. Hard to be friends with the kids and not know some of it.” He parked the car at the base of the hill as he spoke. “Alright, let’s see what these weirdos are up to now.”

As he got out of the car, Eddie looked around. “Do you find it as suspicious as I do that there’s no other cars – like Nancy’s or the Byers’ – and there’s no bikes?”

“I didn’t, until you just said something. I kind of assumed we were just here first.”

“Hm, yeah, I guess that’s possible.”

“Should I bring the bat?”

“The bat?” Eddie turned with a raised eyebrow.

“Yeah.” Steve walked around to the back of his car, popped the trunk, and pulled out what at first made Eddie think of a medieval Morningstar, but turned out to be a regular wooden bat with nails hammered through it. “The bat,” Steve repeated, swinging the bat in his hand then bringing it to rest on his shoulder.

“Where… why…? Explain.” Steve laughed a little, but explained the history of the weapon, how Jon had created it way back when all the Upside Down stuff first starting happening to them, but how it had become Steve’s weapon after that first encounter. “I… I kinda wanna see you use that, actually. But yeah, sure, bring it just in case.”

Steve raised an eyebrow at Eddie saying he wanted to see him using it, but otherwise didn’t comment. Together, the pair of them made their way up to the top of the hill, then stopped dead at what greeted them. Steve was the first to understand what exactly was happening, and dropped the bat off his shoulder.

“It’s a date,” he said softly. “They set us up on a date.”

“They did not!”

“They very much did. Well, Nance, Rob, and Wayne did.”

“How… what makes you say that?”

“The blanket is from my downstairs closet, one of the ones that is meant to be used outside, and is the one Robin thinks has the most cushion. So she says. The whole layout, setup, whatever, looks like every time I ever set up a dinner or picnic for Nancy. And I’d bet money Wayne made the food – unless I’m very wrong, that’s a ham and turkey sandwich with mustard and pickles. Which I still maintain is gross, but he says is one of your favorites.” Steve turned to Eddie with a wide grin and held out his hand. “C’mon.”

“But…. But you’re straight.”

“I’m really not though.”

Hidden in the trees not too far away, Robin and Nancy watched as Steve tugged Eddie over to the picnic they’d just finished setting up. Sharing a high five, the two girls turned and headed to Nancy’s car which was parked a short distance away, and drove out to let Wayne know their plan worked.

[schrijverr]

I Didn’t Mean to Say I Do, but I Do. I Do. 14

Chapter 14 out of 50

Secret marriage of convenience buddie slow burn AU, where Buck and Eddie have been married for years so Buck could adopt Chris and no one at the 118 knows.

In this chapter, Buck realizes that their scheme might be harder than expected and, in a moment of panic, he starts a fake rivalry with Eddie. The two of them are forced to play it out and figure out a way to get it over with to cement Eddie’s place at the 118.

On AO3.

Ships: Buddie (slow burn)

Warnings: internalized homophobia, insecurity, injury

~~~

Chapter 14: Second First Meeting

Buck arrives to the station already in uniform, he spots Eddie in the locker room changing into his own uniform and is dying to go over there and check in on him. However, he has already changed, so it’ll be weird to just go over.

Or maybe it wouldn’t be weird, Buck is a social person, he’d want to know the new face. But maybe that’s too familiar, which is what they’re trying to avoid.

Before he can make a decision, the choice is taken from him by Hen and Bobby who greet him as he comes near them. They’re standing in the path towards the locker room and Buck is embarrassed to admit he didn’t notice them until they start speaking.

Suddenly feeling the need to do something in character, he starts rambling about body fat. He wanted to submit to the calender, because it sounded fun and he likes his body, is proud of it. Plus, it’s for charity. Then he got a little carried away into a rabbit hole about it. It hasn’t been effecting the meals he’s cooking at home, but he’s been putting in more time at the gym.

That devolves into a whole other conversation, until Chimney suddenly derails it. “Okay, that, is a beautiful man.”

“Where’s the lie. And I like girls,” Hen agrees, looking over Buck’s shoulder to where he knows Eddie is.

Buck turns around too, because knowing who is there already is suspicious. He spots Eddie puling on a shirt and aches to agree with Chimney and Hen, it wouldn’t be weird, they were already talking about attractive men and even Hen agrees that Eddie is beautiful. However, admitting that feels like admitting he’s in love with Eddie and he doesn’t want anyone to know about that. Ever.

So he looks at Eddie, who is looking very attractive and very much in cahoots with him and he wants them to be even more in cahoots, scheming, whatever. But he can’t. Everyone will know something is up if he agrees Eddie’s attractive. It’s irrational, but his brain doesn’t register that. All he knows is that he needs to do the opposite of that, so he says: “Who the hell is that?”

“That’s Eddie Diaz, new recruit. Graduated top of his class just this week. Guys over at station 6 were dying to have him, but I convinced him to join us,” Bobby tells him, because of course he does, he has no reason to think that is Buck’s husband he’s talking about. Why would he? That was the whole point.

Noting that the deflection worked, Buck decides that this is permanently the best course of action for now. “What do we need him for?”

They all laugh at him and that doesn’t feel great, even if it’s my his own design, because he’s acting stupid on purpose. And when Bobby starts telling him about Eddie’s accomplishments, he wants to bite that he knows that, thank you, he raised his child while he was on said tours and nursed him back to health after the stunt that earned him a Silver Star. But he manages to bite his tongue.

He can just back out now, go follow after everyone and have an amicable interaction with Eddie, before smoothly diving into team work. It’s sensible, but a part of his brain feels like he’ll give the game away, so he follows after the others with a bit of a frown on his face.

When Eddie sees him, he raises his brows slightly, asking what the face is all about. As the others look somewhere else, Buck drops it for a second for something more apologetic.

“Eddie, this is Buck,” Bobby says. “Buck this is Eddie. He’ll be your partner in the field from now on, I expect you to keep him in the loop.”

“Yes, Cap,” Buck nods, before looking at Eddie without saying a thing.

Luckily, Eddie seems to pick up what he’s putting down and in a more polite tone than he had greeted the others with he says: “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“Likewise,” Buck says, a word he has never said before, but felt correct in the moment. Though, right now his correct feels kind of dumb, but he’s in too deep now. They’re both in too deep.

Everyone is just looking between them, picking up on the tension. If Buck is honest, his own tension is not so much Eddie as it is everyone else. He is a horrible liar and he doesn’t know why he ever agreed to this and now he started something and he doesn’t know how to get out of it and he’s sure it’s written all over his face.

However, before he can spiral further, he is saved by the bell, all of them quickly getting into their gear as they go to their first call of the day.

That is good. Being on a call is good. He knows what to do on calls, he likes being on them, talking with people, helping them. It’ll be good to get out of his own head about the whole charade, scheme, cahoots thing they have going on.

There is only one problem with this, usually Eddie isn’t on calls with them and Buck is only now realizing that Eddie looks super hot in that uniform and he’s even more hot when he’s being competent. Which makes getting his mind off Eddie really fucking hard.

Of course his focus is all on the patient when they lift him off the pump and onto the ground, but then Chim. Hen and Eddie are working on him and he can observe them. Mostly Eddie though.

Buck is a little offended that Eddie gets picked over him to help, but then again Eddie was an army medic and he just has EMT training. Plus, he’s a little distracted by Eddie’s Eddie-ness, so maybe it’s best for him to be on the side.

Then Bobby’s voice snaps him into action: “Buck I need you to get a 14-gauge angiocath. We need to start decompressing the pleural cavity.”

“Alright, alright,” Buck says more to himself as he gets everything and starts working on the patient.

“Want me to help?” Eddie offers, which isn’t unusual.

“I got it,” Buck assures him, not wasting more words, but Eddie gets it. They can communicate with minimal words, even if it might sound curt to others. He wants to focus on the patient, Eddie understands. “Hang in there, Hector,” he tells the man.

He goes to insert the gauge when Eddie’s voice stops him. “I’d go lower.”

“What?” Buck is so sure he remembers right, checking his own mental catalog again and finding what he’s doing there. Confused he says: “Uhm, no. Second intercostal space. Midclavicular line.” Eddie should know this.

“The chest wall is thinner at the fifth intercostal at the anterior axillary line. There’s a decreased chance of injuring any vital organs. I’ve treated guys with collapsed lungs in combat,” Eddie explains.

Buck is willing to believe him, but with his qualifications, he’s not sure he just wants to do something outside of the book. If this goes south, it’s his ass on the line. So, he looks at Bobby, letting him make the call.

“Do it,” Bobby confirms.

“Please,” Eddie says, holding out his hand to take the gauge from Buck. And Buck hands it to him, getting a: “Thank you.”

It’s a little cute that Eddie’s being polite in the middle of an emergency like that and not entirely like him, especially not with Buck. However, he must still be a little nervous too, wanting to put his best foot forward. Buck can’t help but be fond, however, he remembers himself on time so the snort he’s already letting out on time sounds a bit harsher than it should be.

“Can you help me out with the shirt?” Eddie asks and Buck knows he could do it by himself, he just knows Buck too well to leave him idle like that on a day like this. So he rolls his eyes as he goes to help, suppressing a smile.

Eddie gets the gauge in and Hector deflates as they’d hoped, coming to and becoming more stable so they can transport him. And like that, Eddie has survived his first call and very successfully Buck might add, the others even take time to point it out.

“Yeah, good call,” Buck also says, much like the others. He does it very seriously, giving Eddie a magnanimous nod as he does so, playing up the approving elder vibes.

As expected, Eddie gives him a deadpan look – though Buck can see the amusement in his eyes – and doesn’t reply beyond that, just getting back in the engine with everyone else.

Buck is happy to have Eddie there and working with him on a call went well, smooth. Having the two of them at the same house was the right call. It’s nice to click that well with somewhere out there instead of having to get used to someone new every shift.

However, being back from the call means having to be in the firehouse without acting weird around Eddie. Buck still isn’t sure how to do that. He took the ‘I need to warm up’-route, which he is starting to regret, but he’s in it now.

So, he flees to the work out section when he can. He can’t be weird with anyone if he’s working out and it will help getting the jitters out.

Eddie joins him soon after, back towards him as he softly asks: “What are you doing?”

“I panicked,” Buck hisses back.

“And that was your solution?”

“Well, I had to do something, what did you want me to do? Be besotted with you?”

“I didn’t expect you to have a problem with me!” Eddie says, a little louder than all the other things they’ve said so far, as he turns to face Buck.

Before Buck can answer or they can lower the conversation again, they spot Chimney, who has come up to work out as well and who totally caught what Eddie just said. Fuck. They both give each other a caught look, before Eddie goes all in, raising his voice more as he says: “So, what’s your problem, man?”

“What’s my problem?” Buck repeats, giving himself time to attempt to come up with something, before blurting out: “You. You’re my problem.” Eddie sends him a ‘what the fuck, dude’-look and Buck flashes a helpless look back, he also doesn’t know why he said that, but it seemed the most logical at the time.

“Why?” Eddie asks, making him realize that Chimney is still watching their argument and he should probably have a reason for saying that Eddie is his problem.

“You’re too familiar,” is what he finds himself saying, before he can think it through. Though once he says it, he can’t regret it. It makes sense. It’s not a lie and it will deflect any weird closeness they have by acknowledging it.

“What?” Eddie chokes and it might sound disbelieving or offended, but Buck can see the amusement twinkling in his eyes. The fucker is enjoying Buck digging himself into a hole.

As the whole day has been; in for a penny, in for a pound. “You heard me. You’re too familiar, there is supposed to be an adjustment period, but you just waltz in here like you know everyone a bit already. It’s weird that you fit in like that.” Now he has to stop himself, but it turns into a love confession about how well Eddie fits everywhere.

“Look, I in no way meant to be too familiar or step on anyone’s toes. I hear you’re a good guy,” he says, his eyes doing a little amused sparkle that makes Buck roll his eyes. “I’m sorry I got too familiar. I’ll give you some space. Be unfamiliar.”

And with that Eddie has successfully ended their fake spat, gathering his things and leaving the gym area. Buck tries not to miss him as he watches him go.

“What the fuck was that?” Chimney asks, snapping Buck’s attention back to him, instead of staring after Eddie.

“I don’t know what you mean,” he huffs as he turns back to his exercise, even though he knows very well what he means.

Chimney sends him a look that tells him Chim also knows he knows. “Come on, Buck, don’t play stupid. You’re like a golden retriever, man’s best friend and all that. It’s usually impossible for you to not get along with people. What the hell did Eddie do to you? Shit in your dinner?”

Buck scowls at that, it’s not like Chimney is wrong and he knows he’s being an asshole to Eddie, even if it’s just a little bit, but Eddie is being an asshole right back, he should get also get interrogated about it.

Not that they know Eddie is being an asshole back, because he has perfected being polite and cutting, so he actually has a poker face and he went all polite and understanding in their fight, while secretly laughing at Buck the whole time. It’s so unfair.

“He just rubs me wrong,” he says in the end, before he adds: “I just need to get used to him. We worked well together out there,” because he doesn’t want Chim to think he’ll never like Eddie when he actually likes Eddie so much. A bit too much, but who’s counting.

“Hm, alright,” Chimney hums after a moment, before letting it go, an unreadable expression on his face.

Eddie and Buck mostly avoid each other for the rest of the afternoon. Eddie honestly doesn’t know what Buck was thinking, but he panicked was a pretty reasonable explanation, he supposes. Still, this is not how he imagined his first day would be like. Though, he should have guessed their plan wouldn’t go as smoothly as they had hoped.

So far Eddie loves working at the 118. He is a pretty private person and has no qualms keeping most of his life to himself, but he can’t deny that he feels comfortable with them. He can definitely see himself become work friends with Chimney and Hen, and Bobby seems like a good Captain that he’ll happily serve under.

And then there’s Buck.

Working together with Buck today has been as fun and easy as Eddie hoped. They communicate seamlessly and have an easy back and forth, Eddie doesn’t have to feel awkward getting to know a partner, having to open up to get that, he can just slide back into the friendship they already have. At least, out in the field.

Because due to Buck’s panic the two of them are now caught in some weird rivalry when they’re off the field and Eddie doesn’t really know how to get out of it or what to do with it.

They’ll need some sort of story if they want to move on and be friends, but that might take time if they have to play it out all the way through. Bobby will probably remove Eddie before then, since he’s been hired to be Buck’s partner. Or they’ll come clean and clear it up that way, but that will still result in Eddie getting moved, just with way more embarrassment.

It isn’t that he is embarrassed of Buck or like homophobic about it. Gay people can do whatever they want, it’s not his business and he knows that he is technically gay married, even though they’re both straight. People have assumed often enough, he doesn’t mind. But the thought of having to explain it all to the 118? To have to lay bare his failures as a parent that led him to depend on Buck and drag him down with him, when it’s clear they all love him? It’s terrifying.

Eddie should request a transfer instead, say he doesn’t mind working with Buck and that he likes the 118 a lot, but that it will be better for him to join the B shift, instead of being Buck’s direct partner. They tried the ruse, it’s not working out, it’ll be for the best.

He has all but made up his mind, ready to bring it up to Buck when they get home for tonight so he can approach Bobby next shift when the alarm rings and they all make a break for the rig.

They all have their spots in the rig. Buck told him all about that first day where he sat in Hen’s spot, shuddering as he relived it. So, Eddie remembered Buck telling him where everyone sat, so he wouldn’t do that himself.

Eddie’s spot is across from Buck.

Neither of them know what to do with that.

Luckily, the call itself is a distraction from the awkward ride, because some dumbass got a grenade stuck in his leg. Yes, a grenade. You don’t see that every day, even when you’re an army medic, Eddie should know.

Buck and Bobby go in while Eddie goes to the ambulance. He wants to go in with them, it feels weird to leave Buck alone like that, especially when there’s an explosive involved. He hates their plan a lot right now, he’s sure Bobby would have send the two of them if they hadn’t been fighting earlier.

The decision he made earlier to quit this shift sits wrongly in his bones as he watches Buck disappear into the house, his shoulders tensed for an explosion as he readies the ambulance.

However, Bobby is already separating them, he’s probably not going to keep Eddie on this shift for long. He curses Buck’s panic and waits for the radio to crackle. Before all this, he didn’t worry about Buck when he was on shift, but now that he knows when Buck can endanger himself, he can’t stop worrying. It’s annoying.

Despite his annoyance at himself, he can’t help, but be incredibly relieved to see Buck exit the house next to the gurney.

He is also a little hopeful about getting to keep his job when Bobby forces Buck into the ambulance with him in an obvious ploy to have them get along. The man must have a lot of faith in his decision making skills and Eddie is grateful for it.

Reluctantly Buck gets in the ambulance, Eddie has to bite his lip to not laugh at the wide eyes his friend has. He is even more stressed out about their little scheme.

The drive starts off in professional silence. Johnson is still driving and neither of them really know how to act now. Buck tries to push a little about the wounds he saw in the service, he always wants Eddie to talk and Eddie wants to do anything but talk. It’s actually a bit of a spat, which sells their bit he supposes, though he glowers at the wound regardless. Only for his heart to drop.

“Pull over!”

Soon they’re all standing outside, Charlie in the ambulance slowly bleeding out while they decide if he’s safe enough to help. It’s infuriating. It shouldn’t matter. They should be helping. Eddie should be helping. He already let Greggs die and for what? Because it was too dangerous? He’s not letting that happen again. Not on his watch.

“He doesn’t have an hour,” Buck realizes as they’re talking, something Eddie is also realizing.

Suddenly he finds himself saying: “I can do it. If he doesn’t go to surgery soon, he’ll die.”

“You’ve done this before?” Bobby asks.

“Well, none of the guys I served with were dumb enough to shoot a live round in themselves, but I'm familiar with the ordnance,” Eddie says.

“I’m in,” Buck immediately pipes up, because of course he’s in. Him and Buck have always faced everything together from the moment they met, dealing with Shannon leaving, raising Chris. Even when Eddie left for war, they still dealt with the battle behind that decision – Eddie’s parents – together.

So, soon they’re in the ambulance together, working on getting the grenade out. It’s tense and both of their attention is entire on Charlie’s leg. Eddie isn’t sure he could have done it with anyone other than Buck by his side.

It’s not until they get the grenade into the box and are working on clamping the arteries so Charlie will make it to surgery that they can talk a little, finally having the privacy. Unless you want to count Charlie, but he’s now unconscious.

“I think I went a little overboard with the whole not knowing each other thing,” Buck says.

“Yeah, no shit.”

“How are we going to get out of this? I mean, we need to come up with something, right?”

“Heard you talking to Bobby before we got in,” Eddie muses. “About how he wanted us to bond and this was a way to get real close.”

“That was a joke about us exploding and becoming indistinguishable from each other as the force turned us into goop, Eddie,” Buck deadpans.

“I know that, you idiot,” Eddie rolls his eyes, placing the last clamps. “I’m just saying, they might buy it. You’re not the type to hold a grudge, they know that. This is bonding enough, right?”

Buck pulls a thoughtful face as they start to move Charlie, before he grins at Eddie: “You know what, I think they will. Good to have you aboard, probie.”

“Still not calling me probie,” Eddie shoots back, but he can’t deny that it sounds incredibly fond.

With that, both of them get out of the ambulance, pushing the gurney with Charlie on it away from the ambulance as fast as they can, before handing it over, so they can get their gear off and the robot can move in on the ambulance.

Bobby is there, so Eddie guesses this is the moment. The mock argument they had was poking fun at Buck, but this feels like a performance and he cringes at himself when he says: “You’re a badass under pressure, brother.” He has never called Buck brother before and he’s unsure why he felt the need to do so now.

“Me?” He sees Buck bite his lip to stop himself from laughing at him, then duck his head to make it bashful. Honestly the guy could be an actor.

“You can have my back any day,” Eddie says and he means it too. He always means it. He never wants anyone else to have his back.

“Yeah,” Buck agrees, then, because he’s Buck, who will be a little shit when he can be, he adds: “Or, you know, you could- you could have mine.”

Eddie laughs. “Deal.”

Their performance is a success, because Bobby looks incredibly pleased with himself as he approaches them. “Nice work, fellas. I’m glad you both made it out of there.”

“The guy’s a professional, Cap. I was never really worried,” Buck grins and Eddie’s heart floods with warmth at the genuine pride he sees in Buck’s eyes.

Luckily, he never has to investigate that feeling. Ever. Because the ambulance they were just in blows up.

It’s a little funny to see Buck and Bobby jump up at the noise and Eddie feels a little smug at their shocked and impressed faces when they turn back to him. Slightly too chipper, he grins: “You guys hungry?”

Bobby declines, but Buck enthusiastically agrees – not that Eddie expected any different when he offered – and he’s glad it’s just them so they can be just them. Though he doesn’t miss Bobby’s proud look before they leave. At least they convinced him they can get along, Eddie is pretty sure he won’t be moved now.

Eddie takes Buck to a burger joint near the station. He’s maybe a little too excited about paying even though he and Buck have shared finances. It just feels good to treat Buck with money he is earning after all he’s done for him.

Once they’re seated, they clink their burgers together in a sort of toast as Buck grins: “To your first successful shift at the 118.”

“And my first paycheck,” Eddie grins back.

“Yeah, and hopefully the end of our rivalry,” Buck laughs.

“I still can’t believe you did that,” Eddie says, way too amused about it now that it’s behind them.

Buck blushes and scowls, though it’s more of a pout on him. “I was put on the spot, you haven’t experienced their nosiness first hand.”

“I did a little,” Eddie scoffs, remembering the interrogation about his Silver Star.

“That was nothing, just wait until they actually want to know something,” Buck snorts and Eddie starts to dread signing up for the 118 just a little.

After their burgers, they both get into their cars and drive by Abuela. Eddie tells her a bit about his first day, feeling like a little kid again, telling her about his first day at school. Meanwhile Buck is getting Chris, appearing moments later with the sleeping form of their kid in his arms as both Eddie and Abuela lower their voices as to not wake him.

Buck kisses Abuela on both cheeks, maneuvering gently so Chris doesn’t bump into anything, before Eddie gets the doors, saying his goodbyes, then coming to help buckle Chris in. He’ll tell him about his shift as promised over breakfast.

When they come in for their next shift – still both in different cars and at different times since Chris has to be dropped off – Hen and Chim look a little apprehensively as they run into each other at the locker room, but Buck just smiles at him and calls out: “Hey, Eddie, did you know that grenade launcher that guy shot himself with yesterday started in production in 1969 and has been in use since the 70s?”

“Oh really?” Eddie asks, as if he didn’t repeat the exact model so Buck could look it up yesterday.

“Yeah, apparently they were designed as an under barrel device,” Buck starts up a ramble about all the information he found as they make their way to the loft.

Above them Hen and Chim relax slightly when Eddie doesn’t get annoyed at Buck’s rambling and when Buck doesn’t start peacocking again. Though they look confused as well.

It’s not until the two of them dive into a pool to save a kid with a microwave cemented on his head that they truly seem to believe it.

And with that Eddie is also officially part of the 118, accepted by all its members

~~

A/N:

I know these are two shifts in the show and Maddie comes to LA in between, but I’m kind of playing with things for everything to make sense, it wouldn’t be an AU if it was a direct copy of canon xp (season 2 is where I start taking serious liberties)

[patchworkgargoyle]

i'll miss you more than anyone

Time for some Steddie yearning hours!

1.9k words, rated T for language. Angsty pining with a happy, fluffy ending. Basically unedited because I'm posing this at 1am. Forgive any wonky tenses. Now on ao3!

Title from Something About Us by Daft Punk.

🌒

It took considerable force, but Eddie managed to wedge open the only window in his tiny, shitty apartment with a grunt and a sigh. No matter how much WD-40 he forced into it, the damn thing's determined to stick and squeal. If he didn't know any better Eddie would swear it did this just to annoy him. Stubborn piece of shit. Takes one to know one, he figured.

He let out another sigh. Leaning his elbows on the kitchen counter, he flicked his zippo open and lit a smoke, relishing that first warm draw of acridness with his eyes closed. Robin would snark at him about the fact that his lease specified no smoking, but fuck the landlord. He needed this. Eddie tilted his head back and exhaled, watching the smoke curl out and away into the darkened alley between the buildings.

The day had been… hard, to put it lightly. It was the last day of Steve's visit. He'd come to see Eddie, to explore Seattle, for a whole week. Just the two of them. It'd been so good, even if Eddie's backstabbing heart wouldn't stop hoping that the visit would end up as something more. It was stupid, a useless hope. Stubborn.

They'd meandered around Capitol Hill so Eddie could show off the first place he'd ever felt safe enough to be queer and loud about it, unable to look too long at Steve's expression of relieved pride in him. He let Eddie drag him to a few bars, introduced him to some new friends who welcomed him with open arms and pointed, knowing stares in Eddie's direction. They'd walked along the pier, doing the touristy shit, ate greasy fish and chips wrapped in newspaper and watched seals play and beg for food in the harbour. 

Hell, Eddie even let Steve drag him up to the Space Needle. It was something Eddie had refused to do when he first moved, not wanting to do something so mundane and cliché when he was trying to become a local. But of course as soon as Steve insisted he folded like wet tissue.

Now Eddie knew he'd be cursed with the image of Steve, his hair windswept, gazing out at the city with wide-eyed wonder at the sparkling sprawl of buildings as the sunset painted him in pink and golden hues.

Eddie didn't even bother looking at the city, the ocean. They couldn't ever compare.

Not for the first time that night, Eddie hung his head and rubbed at his eye with the heel of his palm, wishing the image would stop fucking tormenting him. He was so fucking hopeless.

Raising his head again, he took another drag and stared up at the moon. Light pollution blotted out everything but the moon and Venus. It was the one thing he missed about Hawkins (that was a lie, always a lie), seeing the stars appear in the deep, dark blue above like all the gods took a needle to the fabric of the sky. Here, Eddie's only two stellar companions danced around each other every night. Sometimes closer, nearly touching it seemed, other times further away, locked in an eternal game of will-they-won't-they.

Tonight he only saw the lonely moon through the gap in the buildings. A waning crescent that shone bright enough that it lit up the darkness of Eddie's silent kitchen with a silvery glow. It was silly, but he held a tiny wish that Venus wouldn't be too far behind so at least Eddie would be the only lonely sad sack tonight. At least the thought made him chuckle at himself slightly.

Seeing Steve off at the airport that morning felt like Eddie was about to rip himself in two. If it weren't so public, if it weren't so risky, he might've confessed to Steve right then and there in some desperate attempt to get him to stay just a few days, hours, seconds longer. He'd dig his own heart out of his chest and offer it up on a silver platter; anything for the man that carried him out of hell. But Eddie was nothing if not a coward. They'd hugged each other tightly, just shy of too long, and Steve waved goodbye with a bittersweet smile and something shining in his eyes.

Eddie'd had to wait an hour in the airport parking lot before he was stable enough to drive back home.

Thing was, he was so fucking lonely out here. He'd moved to get away from the pitchfork-wielding, grudge-carrying people that never bought the government's cover story, to stop the vitriolic graffiti that had kept getting sprayed on Wayne's new trailer. The kids would get caught up in it too if they were caught hanging around The Freak. Eddie couldn't fucking go anywhere without keeping his head on a swivel, and it was so exhausting. He'd needed to leave. Even if it meant having to leave his family, the only people who knew the real story behind his scars and nightmares–even if it meant leaving Steve. So, it was hard, having Steve–a piece of his home, maybe even his heart–come visit and then leave after just a handful of days. Great days, but still. 

Choking out a bitter laugh, Eddie scrubbed at the tears starting to trail down his cheeks. Stupid, he was so stupid. His throat closed up around another laugh, turning it into a silent sob, a frustrated growl as he begged his stupid heart to just let it fucking go, to stop hurting, stop tantruming pathetically inside his ribcage about a man he could never have.

Just as another sob threatened to claw its way out of his chest, the phone rang. The shrill sound made him jump, nearly dropping his cigarette out the window. Swearing, he reached and pulled it over, answering.

"H'lo?" he rasped.

"Jesus, Munson, you sound rough," Steve's tinny voice replied, amused, "did I wake you up?"

The tightness in Eddie's chest burst into butterflies and he couldn't help but laugh around a sniffle. "Nah man, I was up. Shouldn't you be asleep, though? Isn't it 3am there or something?"

"Yeah, or something. Just got home though."

"Wait, what? The fuck are you calling me for, then?"

Steve chuckled. Christ, it was a great sound, filtered through endless miles of telephone lines though it was. "You told me to call when I got home safe, remember?"

"After you'd slept or something, dude, jesus christ. You didn't have to call at the ass crack of dawn."

"Well I wanted to."

Eddie mentally started stomping out the fresh butterfly swarm fluttering around in his guts. Unfortunately, he couldn't hold back the smile on his lips, wide enough that he knew Steve could hear it in his voice. So he teased, "Wow, Harrington, it's almost like you miss me or something." There was a pause.

"I do."

Sincerity weighed down Steve's words, two syllables dropping into the well of silence left in their wake. Eddie felt the ripples through his whole body, leaving stillness behind.

"Really?" Eddie whispered. He heard Steve inhale shakily and ached to be beside him again, to have him near, pull him close, feel him again.

"Yeah, Eddie. I miss you so much, it– god, it hurts," Steve said with a tiny, heartbreaking laugh.

"Fuck. I– same, Steve, I've been bawling my eyes out since this morning." His words were thick with even more tears threatening to spill but he blinked them back.

"I'm sorry."

Eddie snorted, though regretted it immediately and swiped at his nose with his sleeve. "Why're you apologising?"

"Hate knowing you're hurting too."

"Can't be helped, I'm afraid," Eddie sighed, then added quietly, nervously, "not like you could stay."

Speaking just as quietly, Steve said, "Maybe… maybe I could."

"Huh?"

"I've just, I've been thinking," Steve started, gathering steam, "for a while now but also on the flights home. It sucks that you're out there by yourself. And the kids are all graduated and leaving, and Robin and Nancy are planning on moving, and-"

Eddie's unable to help it, interrupting Steve's rambling that he definitely picked up from Robin, but he can't hold it back, hope forcing the words out. "Stevie, are you saying–?"

"UW accepted my application," Steve said. "I could move out there, get my teaching degree."

"Why?" 

The question hung in the air, all of Eddie's breathless wishes clinging to it. Steve took a steadying breath on the other end of the line.

"I have feelings for you Eddie. Might be kind of in love with you, and I really don't think it's one-sided. Should've told you at the airport."

"How did you know?" 

Chuckling, Steve said, "You're not subtle, but when I said the view from the Space Needle was beautiful, you agreed even though you never took your eyes off me."

"I wanted to tell you," Eddie said in a rush, heart in his throat, "all fucking week. I'm kind of in love with you too."

Steve laughed, full and warm, and Eddie might've collapsed with relief if he weren't leaning on the counter still. "We're idiots, huh?" Steve asked.

"Massive idiots. Complete morons. Absolute buffoons. You're telling me that we could've been kissing all week if one of us had just gotten the balls to confess?"

"Well, maybe more than just kissing." Steve's voice dropped suggestively and Eddie grinned at the bloom of desire that grew in his chest.

"A gentleman never assumes, big boy, but good to know."

A yawn echoed through the phone and the heat Eddie felt morphed into depthless fondness. "You should go sleep, Stevie."

"Probably. Gonna be wrecked for my shift tomorrow." He sighed softly. "Worth it, though."

"Worth having to pry your eyelids open while Marge berates you for letting her kid watch movies her husband rented?"

Steve snorted. "Yeah. Worth packing my bags and running off to the coast, too."

"Christ." Shaking a little, Eddie asked, "Are you sure?"

"Never been more sure of anything." He yawned again, hard enough Eddie could hear the receiver shudder in his hand. "I wanna keep talking to you but I'm dead on my feet. Can I call you tomorrow? Please?"

"You don't have to ask, sweetheart," Eddie said, pouring his fondness into every word to make up for the fact that he couldn't be there to see Steve's gorgeous, sleepy face, to fall into bed with him and wrap him in his arms. "Hell, call me when you wake up, before you go to work. You gotta tell me how your flights went anyway."

"Uhg, right. Ask me about the lady who scoffed at me reading The Hobbit."

He scoffed. "She dares to look down upon one of the great works of literature? I don't know her but she has made a mortal enemy on this day." The tired giggle Eddie heard made him smile so wide it almost hurt.

"You're so dramatic."

"You love it."

With a contented sigh, Steve said, "Yeah, I do." Another yawn, loud this time, and Steve continued, "Good night, Eddie. I'll call tomorrow. I miss you."

"Can't wait. Miss you too, Stevie."

Eddie hung up, the receiver settling in with a click. It felt like his body was made of bubbles, or fireworks. He almost couldn't believe it, that his hopes actually came true. Steve loves him, wants to move to Seattle for him. What!?

He let out a long, loud whoop that echoed in the alleyway. A distant neighbour yelled at him to shut the fuck up, but Eddie couldn't care less. He loved Steve, who loved him back.

Grinning, he looked up at the sky again. The moon had moved on, but there, creeping over the roof of the apartments next door, Venus finally made an appearance. Laye, but still there, still following. A beautiful, shining pinprick of light, trailing in the moon's wake.

Welcome to my new tag list! @steves-strapcollection, @ghost--enthusiast, @inairbinad, @rhaenyyras, @chocolate-fishy, @lovelyscot, @little-trash-ghost

Feel free to ask to be added/taken off!

[girlstalkmichael]

Some green flag characters in tv shows/movies in no particular order

Part 1

Stiles Stilinski (Teen Wolf)

Loyal till the very end

Funny

Carries the whole show on his back

His bromance with Scott is ICONIC (literally the no. 1 bromance in teen dramas)

Do I need to say more

Jake Peralta (Brooklyn Nine Nine)

Husband material right there like his love for Amy is the healthiest out of this world love

Immaculate sense of humor

Amazing in his job

Peeta Mellark (The Hunger Games)

A literal cinnamon roll

Took a beating from his mum to give Katniss a loaf of bread so she won't die of starvation. Selfless king

Michael Cordero Jr (Jane The Virgin)

Husband material alongside my man Jake Peralta

Supportive af

Loves Matteo like he is his own kid

Literally besties with his wife's dad (aka drama king Rogelio De La Vega)

Loyal and as you know loyalty is super sexy

Manuel Gutiérrez (Bia)

His romance with Bia is the healthiest non toxic romance in DCLA main ships

Supportive

Nice & kind

So sweet

He can sing and play piano (his voice is sooo good)

Símon Álvarez (Soy Luna)

Sees the best in others (aka his whole relationship with Ambar)

Will do anything for his friends (literally traveled from Mexico to Argentina on his own to be with Luna)

Can sing and play guitar AND roller skate (like what can't he do)

Wrote bops like Eres & Valiente

Gaston Perida (Soy Luna)

He's a super nice jock

Always tries to knock some sense into Matteo (just really his bromance with Matteo)

Super supportive of Nina/Felicity and her boundaries (like when she asked him to dance with her blindfolded as she was not ready to reveal herself to him yet and he accepted)

Federico Paccini (Violetta)

Always there for Ludmila and helped her through all her mother's abuse

Really nice and cute

Has the voice of an angel

Sarcastic and funny

My first childhood crush (and better believe I'm not over him yet)

Dustin Henderson (Stranger Things)

The cutest human being to ever exist

The smartest person in the whole of Hawkins

Super funny

His bromance with Steve & Eddie is brilliant, incredible, amazing, show stopping, spectacular, never the same, totally unique, complety never been done before

Has the cutest laugh ever

[winterbuckwild]

New Fic!

Based on this post, part 1 now up! READ ON Ao3 HERE

Title: I Can Be Flexible

Rating Mature (eventually)

Pretty much nothing hurts (except Eddies back) pure fluff. Streamer/Youtuber AU.

Eddie groaned as he switched the camera off, stretching his leg out from where it had been folded on the seat under him. He shook his foot pathetically as the fuzzy pins and needles feeling took over his lower leg.

That was the issue when he really got into the game he was streaming; he crunched himself up on his expensive ergonomic gaming chair, completely nulling any actual orthopaedic benefits that had sounded so good at the time. No more back pain, no more cricked neck, no more knee aches.

Lies.

When the feeling returned to his foot enough for him limp out of the box room he used as an "office" he beelined for the kitchen and narrowly held back the urge just to stick his head under the faucet and let the cold water deal with his dehydration and blood shot eyes from the outside. He grabbed a semi clean glass from the side instead and congratulated himself a little as he downed two glasses in quick succession and refilled a third time, scrubbing at the back of his sore, stiff neck.

He carried his water, a tube of Pringles and the leftover pizza from lunch to the worn, dipped couch pushed to one end of his small living area and lowered himself down with a sigh, propping his legs up on the beanbag he used mostly as a footstool.

He was pretty sure at twenty seven he shouldn't be aching so damned much but here he was, knees cracking and jaw clicking as he shifted to find a semi comfortable position. He'd spent four hours on live, alternating between crunched up in his chair and half hanging out of it and he definitely hadn't been thinking at the time about how much he was going to be paying for it afterwards.

He shook two painkillers out of the bottle by the side of the couch, downing half the glass again before shoving a piece of pizza in his mouth before the pills could make his stomach hurt again.

It took four slices before he felt human again, the water and the food with the painkillers making him sleepy and soft. After the cacophony of the game he'd been playing, the silence of the apartment emphasised the faint ringing in his ears that he only noticed when all the other noise stopped.

He nodded off a few minutes later within head tipped back against the couch cushion.

**

Steve knew that it was the review of the computer game that he should be watching; after all that was the reason that Dustin had shoved his phone in Steve's face to begin with. He'd been on another rant, trying to convince Steve that the game was absolutely suitable for Nancy and Jonathan's young son (it wasn't) “It hardly has any decapitation in it Steve, look!”

Look he did, but Steve was completely distracted from the actual game part of the video by the very pretty man in the thumbnail off to the side who was playing said game and gesturing enthusiastically every time he had a second to take his hands off the controller.

Even more distracting was that he had his foot propped up on the chair, arm hooked lazily around it as he leaned forwards in concentration. His whole upper body looked like it screamed discomfort, and Steve's shoulder blades throbbed in sympathy.

"Does he know how bad for his back that is?" he commented, feeling older and older with every word that left his mouth. "If he's not walking like he shit himself when he gets off that chair, it will be a miracle."

"What about the game, Steve?" Dustin sounded exasperated and just a little bitchy.

"Nancy will hit the roof, and not in a good way." Steve mentally noted the gamers handle and handed Dustin back his phone. "Time for a present rethink."

Henderson tried one final time to get Steve on side and convince him of the games suitability but gave up at the thought of Nancy's displeasure which was clearly much scarier than Steve's. They finished up lunch and left the café hugging tightly before going their separate ways.

It was only a short walk home, the autumn air crisp and clean as it actually got in the city. He really was going to go straight up to his apartment above the little gym that he owned and ran, but he detoured to walk the floor instead.

Robin glared at him from where she was manning the reception desk.

"What are you doing here, Dingus?" She glared harder "you do know the place won't explode if you take an afternoon off? I'm starting to feel like you don't trust me."

Steve held his hands out in a placating gesture and slipped past the reception area.

He made his way around the counter, deliberately avoiding the main floor. Didn't even look at it. He knew what was good for him. "I thought of a thing, I'm not even here, I promise." She gave him a look, clearly nor believing a word until he slipped into the back room.

It was meant to be a small one on one yoga studio, or at least that's what he designed it as when the builders were talking specs but it was rarely used as such. He usually used it for filming so his camera setup was mostly a permanent fixture from where he filmed his videos for his fitness channel.

When his own YouTube channel gained some followers that weren’t friends being supportive, he’d started putting out videos semi-regularly from his apartment while he was waiting for the gym space below it to be finished. He gained followers slowly but surely until he’d had Robin film one of flexibility workouts (where he had ditched his shirt about a quarter of the way in) to track his progress and she had sneakily given it a sound track and posted it. He’d been mad for all of five minutes before the thirst trap had worked and his follower count had skyrocketed.

After the gym had been finished he started just using the smaller room for full body shots and movements (god damn it, Robin, not every video requires abs) since there was more room than in his little apartment. He was a tall guy and he needed the space if he didn't want to smack something important on something immovable.

Since the gym wasn't exactly advertised leaning towards the yoga crowd the room didn't really see a lot of use even though most of his videos centred mainly on stretching and flexibility these days and he plugged the gym fairly regularly.

Steve stretched out a little before he settled down in front of the tripod, phone in place and pointed at the right angle. He didn't feel the need for pricey cameras or super complicated lighting when the overheads at the gym could go brighter than the sun when he wanted them to, but having to not dick around with tripod angles was always welcome when he had something stuck in his brain.

His thoughts had never quite left the beautiful, enthusiastic streamer from Dustin's phone and the pretzel shape that he'd contorted himself into on his gaming chair. Steve clicked the little Bluetooth button and smiled winningly at the camera, getting his usual intro done on auto pilot.

"If you are like this fine gentleman here and get into your game or work a bit too much, I'm going to show you how to mitigate some of the damage and hopefully make your back and neck feel a bit better after a long session." The tracking pod that his phone rested on moved with him as he sat gracefully on the floor, legs held wide to stretch out his hamstrings. He mimed leaning against a chair for the beginners poses and then gradually sunk lower until his chest nearly hit the floor and he could grab at his bare feet, explaining all the while about the stretch and how it released the lower back.

He shot through a twist, grabbing a firm bolster cushion to rest his upper body on while his hips twisted the other way, and then the more advanced version of the pose, and then twisted so that he was laying on his back with the bolster snugged up under his shoulder blades with his neck supported and his arms out to the side. He suppressed a groan of pleasure as he talked, his voice getting a little breathy as his own back stretched, courtesy of the truly horrible café chairs he'd been forced into for the afternoon.

"And to finish off if you have a bit of trouble sleeping, try some legs on the wall from my last video for ten to fifteen minutes, I'll link that in the description below. It'll help lower your cortisol levels and set you up for a good night." Steve smiled again at the camera feeling a little lighter than before now that his brain worm of an idea was fully formed and done. He did his usual outro and added a little extra that he hoped no one would notice was aimed at the pretty gamer. "Hope you feel better, sleep well."

[cal-daisies-and-briars]

CRANBERRY MY LOVE

🦮🦮🦮🦮🦮🦮🦮🦮🦮🦮🦮🦮🦮🦮🦮🦮🦮🦮🦮🦮🦮🦮🦮🦮🦮🦮🦮🦮🦮🦮🦮🦮🦮🦮🦮🦮🦮🦮🦮🦮🦮🦮🦮🦮

126 for Cranberry!!! You're gonna get a lot here haha

---

“We’ll manage for two weeks, right?” Eddie teases. Something about the collective pronoun makes Buck feel very warm.

“Somehow, I suppose.” Buck replies a little theatrically. He turns back to stirring his pasta sauce. 

“With two weeks child-free, uh… I could…” Eddie starts, then trails off. 

Buck feels his heart rate jump a little. He looks back at Eddie. 

“You could what?”

Eddie takes a steeling breath. 

“Sorry,” he mutters. “This is hard.”

Is this actually happening right now?

“Take your time,” Buck insists.

Eddie nods, looking at the floor. 

“I almost died,” he says after a moment.

“You did,” Buck agrees. 

“I think… Well, I think there’s been a lot to remind me that life can be short, in the past year. Short and unpredictable.

Buck nods. Isn’t that the truth? 

“Anyway, I don’t… I don’t want to waste more time.” Eddie sighs. “Because, I could’ve… So… Jesus, I’m not doing this well.”

“You’re doing fine,” Buck insists. 

Because Eddie has to know that Buck knows. They both know. It’s just been a waiting game. 

Eddie takes another deep breath. 

“Maybe when Chris is away at camp we could go on a date.”

Buck smiles. “I’d like that a lot.”

Eddie finally looks at him. “Yeah?”

“I think you’re very aware the answer is yes, Eddie,” Buck tells him.

A small, coy smile plays across Eddie’s lips. 

“It’s not… I know it’s still a bit of a ways away, but I’d just…”

He feels safer about this when his son is away. Like he has the room to explore it, separately. Buck isn’t a parent, but he can empathize with that. Imagine it, at least. 

“Hey, I get it,” Buck reassures him. “And I’m happy to wait. Really.” 

Eddie exhales, relieved. “Thank you.”

It’s hard not to cross the kitchen right then and there and kiss him. He wants to so badly. But he resists, pulling his spoon out of the sauce and making Eddie taste test it for him instead. 

The whole rest of the night, Buck can’t quite keep a grin off his face. Summer can’t come quickly enough. 

iii.

It’s not long after that evening that, during the middle of a work day, Buck’s boss at Emergency Operations pays him a visit. Deputy Chief Carr is a stout, friendly man with a sort of buzzing energy. Buck likes him well enough. He’s good to work for; fair, flexible, encouraging. He’s not Bobby. But Buck doesn’t think anyone ever will be. 

Today, Carr tells Buck that they’re sending him home. Indefinitely. 

“With more and more cases of this virus popping up around the city, the Department has made the decision to transition as many employees as possible to a remote position,” Carr explains. “And that includes you.” 

Buck looks down at his prosthetic foot. It’s strange to think that he’s the kind of worker, now, that can be sent home. Relegated to an internet connection. There’s nothing wrong with it. He knows that. He’s done a lot of therapy to internalize that, to not connect his inherent worth to what his body is able to give. But it’s still an uncomfortable thought. He’s never been a work from home type of guy. Never great at being left alone with himself. 

“Alright,” Buck says. “When does this start?” 

“Tomorrow.” Carr says. “We’re going to get you to take your computer home tonight, and all other necessary equipment. Someone from IT will call tomorrow morning to make sure everything is running properly and securely at home.”

“Wow,” Buck exhales. He looks at Cranberry. He hopes she won’t be terribly bored. He’ll have to think of something else to do with her, if she’s not getting the same amount of work in. “Okay. Thank you, Chief.”

“Someone will be by with boxes,” Carr says. “GIve a shout if you need help carrying everything to your car with the dog.”

“Oh, yeah. Uh, thank you. I might.”

“Thanks for the flexibility, Buckley.”

And then he leaves. With him, once again, goes Buck’s entire sense of routine. 

A few hours later, as he’s pulling out of the parking lot with all the contents of his office in the backseat of the Jeep, Eddie calls him. Thank god. Buck could really use a minute to near-panic about this situation. 

“Hey, man,” Buck answers the call. “You will not believe what just happened at work.”

“Uh, hey. Actually. Do you have a minute to talk?” 

Buck frowns. Eddie sounds upset. 

“What’s up?”

“The LAFD is sending non-essential workers home,” Eddie says. “Did you hear?” 

“Yeah,” Buck answers. “That’s what I was just about to say to you. They sent me home. I’ve got a giant monitor in the car with me.”

“Active duty firefighters have to keep working unless they’re immunocompromised,” Eddie says. His voice is right. Like he’s fighting back some swell of emotion. 

“Right. That makes sense,” Buck says. 

Eddie isn’t immunocompromised. No one on the 118 is, as far as he knows. 

“Buck, I need us to switch.” 

“Switch?” Buck echoes. 

“I need…” Eddie sighs. “Would you switch with me? Stay with Chris?"

[kkpwnall]

driving in your car | chapter three | (mature | 35.6k | wip)

It’s been a week since they defeated Vecna, and things are starting to get back to normal. Or as normal as they’ve ever been in a town built over multiple gates to inter-dimensional hell. They came back from hell and had to go back to school and work and life like nothing happened. Driving around has become a thing for the four of them, and they explore Hawkins in ways few others have. Finding backroads, cruising down country lanes. Seeing just how far they can go. Eventually Steve clocked Eddie’s whole deal as flirting, but it took an embarrassingly long time. And it is flirting, right? It’s got to be flirting, there’s no other word for it. Recent dry spell notwithstanding, Steve Harrington’s got game. If there’s one thing he knows, it’s flirting. So Steve knows it’s flirting, but he doesn’t know if it’s flirting. Because Eddie is straight, right?

chapter teaser below the fold [full chapter on ao3]

would not be here without the effervescent darling @cheatghost for beta reading with so much love and care <33

“Oh hi, Eddie,” Robin says, too loudly. 

Steve looks around for somewhere to dump the mountain of tapes he’s carrying, but the cart's at the opposite end of the aisle. He starts putting them on the shelf randomly instead. He can hear the quiet buzz of their conversation, but can’t quite make it out. 

Then Eddie rounds the corner of the shelves with his hands in his pockets. 

Don’t be weird, don’t make it weird.

“Hey, so uh… things got kinda weird after the party, huh?”

Steve’s spine goes so stiff so fast, he’s surprised his back doesn’t pop with the force of it. The stack of tapes in his arms rattles judgmentally. 

“Did it?” And he’s stupidly proud of the way his voice doesn’t crack, comes out calm and cool. He shoots a wary look at Eddie, who’s studying the tapes in front of him like there’s going to be a quiz later. “I dunno, man. We drove around listening to music. You gave me a guitar lesson. Then I dropped you home. No big deal.”

Eddie laughs, but it sounds forced and he rubs the back of his neck. “Honestly I— barely remember. I was pretty far gone...”

“Lotta that going around,” Steve mutters.

[chronicowboy]

3 and 26 for the spotify wrapped fic game?

you somehow chose a devastating merthur song and a devastating buddie song so absolute mad respect to you my dear

3. unknown nth by hozier. the way merlin is soso lonely for the whole show but only because arthur doesn't know this one fundamental part of him and how deeply deeply he wants to be known by arthur.

do you know, i could break beneath the weight of the goodness, love, i still carry for you? / that i'd walk so far just to take / the injury of finally knowing you 😵‍💫

if we're talking fic, i'd probably write one where merlin tells arthur about his magic and arthur banishes him, then several years later, they reunite by accidentally going on the same quest and there's tension there but they fall back into their rhythms of banter so easily and arthur slowly realises that he knew merlin inside out in the ways that mattered.

26. bite the hand by boygenius. catholic guilt internalised homophobia repressed little boy eddie diaz ily with all my heart. i can't love you how you want me to. ough... but opening verse is so much worse after wannabes

i can't hear you, you're too far away / i can't see you, the light is in my face / i can't touch you, i wouldn't if i could

fic. god okay. eddie withering away in texas missing his best friend and floundering with his son like he's twenty-years-old and a stranger to him again. and he doesn't have anyone over there really. anyone apart from his abuela who encourages him to go out and make friends. so he asks his coworkers at the firehouse for recommendations and their lovely probie, a lesbian <3, says her trivia team is a man down. and eddie's useless at trivia, spends the whole shift telling her this, but then he shows up (to this gay bar 🤭) and knows the most obscure answers and the probie is like "so you're full of shit?" and he's like "oh no idk any of that stuff, that's all buck" and she goes "buck?" and then they end up talking about buck until the bar closes and eddie has made a friend and the probie has found a real fixer-upper of a diy project...

[diazsdimples]

Don’t hate me:

👨‍👧‍👧 👨‍👧‍👧 👨‍👧‍👧 👨‍👧‍👧 👨‍👧‍👧 👨‍👧‍👧 👨‍👧‍👧 👨‍👧‍👧 👨‍👧‍👧 👨‍👧‍👧 👨‍👧‍👧 👨‍👧‍👧 👨‍👧‍👧 👨‍👧‍👧 👨‍👧‍👧 👨‍👧‍👧

Also for some variation:

🩰 🩰 ⚕️⚕️⚕️⚕️

*counts* 48 Single Dads sentences??? As well as 18 others?? Purple I swear to god....

👨‍👧‍👧 👨‍👧‍👧 👨‍👧‍👧 👨‍👧‍👧 👨‍👧‍👧 👨‍👧‍👧 👨‍👧‍👧 👨‍👧‍👧 👨‍👧‍👧 👨‍👧‍👧 👨‍👧‍👧 👨‍👧‍👧 👨‍👧‍👧 👨‍👧‍👧 👨‍👧‍👧 👨‍👧‍👧

Lily trembles like a leaf under Eddie’s hands. She’s cold and frightened, and probably exhausted from hours of kicking and struggling to stay afloat. Honestly it’s a miracle Eddie managed to find her at all.

“W-we were at the pier,��� she begins, her teeth chattering as she shivers. Eddie wraps the blanket tighter around the two of them, pressing a kiss to the top of the little girl’s head. “D-daddy took me and Carrie and Chris there ‘cause Chris wanted to play the fair games, a-and we were looking out at the water w-when we saw a big wave. Daddy picked me and Chris up and ran with us and Carrie followed, and he h-hid us in a store. B-but the wave hit us and I couldn’t find them anymore.”

Lily tilts her head back to look up at Eddie, and his heart clenches painfully when he sees that her eyes are swimming with tears.

“Eddie, is Daddy dead?”

It’s the worst question she could possibly ask, and it drives all the breath from Eddie’s lungs as though he’s been sucker punched. He doesn’t want to think about it, doesn’t want to picture his best friend – the man that he loves – face down in the water. And if Buck’s dead, that means Christopher and Carrie are – no. No he’s not going to think about it. They’re alive. They have to be.

“Hey,” Eddie says as he cups her face again, forcing eye contact with him. “We can’t think like that, okay? We’re going to go back and get nice and dry, and then we’re going to look for him okay? We’re not giving up on them.”

I’m not giving up on him.

Lily remains quiet for the rest of the trip back to dry land. She stays close to Eddie, clinging to him when they disembark, and he has to carry her into the VA hospital, her legs trembling too much to carry her own weight.

Hen insists on checking Lily over, so Eddie sets her down on a cot, taking a step backwards so he can look around for some dry clothes for her.

“No, Eddie, stay,” Lily begs, looking up at him beseechingly with her big blue eyes that are so like Buck’s. Eddie crouches down in front of her and runs a hand through her salt-tangled curls.

“I’m just going to go find you some clothes, okay? I’ll be right back.”

Lily whines and clutches at his hand, her grip strong and unwavering.

“Lily, honey, I promise I’m not leaving you,” Eddie swears. He points over to the nurses station, where he can see a small pile of clothes, mixed sizes but undeniably cleaner than what Lily’s wearing at the moment. “You see that over there? That’s as far as I’m going. You’ll be able to see me the whole time. Can you be brave for me and let Hen look over you while I’m gone?”

Lily looks like she’s about to protest, but Hen lays a hand on her shoulder, pulling her against her thigh in a tight hug.

“Eddie’s not going to leave you, sweet girl,” she reassures, and Lily lets out a shaky breath. She swallows, straightens her shoulders, and nods.

“Okay.”

Hen takes Eddie’s place, kneeling in front of Lily, and Eddie crosses the hospital floor to root through the clothing pile. There’s a warm jumper that looks about her size, along with a shirt and a pair of jeans. He manages to swipe a pair of boxer briefs that are probably miles too big for her, but are certainly better than nothing.

On his way back, Eddie manages to flag down a nurse and asks if there are any showers they could use. Lily is dirty and covered in sea salt, and her skin is bound to start itching soon. Eddie wants to get her into a shower as soon as possible. The nurse points him down a corridor, giving him directions to the staff showers, and he thanks her warmly.

“What’s the verdict?”

Hen stands up, and Lily latches onto Eddie’s arm the moment he’s within reach.

“She’s exhausted and needs food and water, but medically she’s okay,” Hen replies as she packs away her med bag.

🩰 🩰

Buck winces as he presses the icepack to his calf. The muscle feels tight and throbs in time with his heartbeat, pain lancing down to his toes. He’s irritated – one dodgy landing and he’s out for the rest of the day, maybe the rest of the week.

Tommy nudges his shoulder against Buck’s, and Eddie presses a gentle kiss to his shoulder.

“Stop moping,” Eddie teases, his fingers skimming down Buck’s arm and he takes Buck’s hand, tangling their fingers. “We all get injuries, it’s just part of the job.”

⚕️⚕️⚕️⚕️

“Shit, she’s abrupting.” Eddie pulls his hand away, blood covering his glove, and he slams the emergency button above the bed. He can hear the bell ringing, but he’s already pulling out his phone, dialling the number to put him through to the OR.

“I’ve got a 23-week pregnant mother, came in after a car crash with blunt force trauma to her abdomen. She was contracting 3:10 so I did an examination and discovered a significant antepartum haemorrhage. I need the OR prepped and ready for me and my team in 10 minutes.”

No sooner has he hung up than a team of people surge into the room, all of them screeching to a halt in front of Eddie and the mother, who’s looking at all of them with fear clearly written on her face.. Bobby is at the front, followed by Hen and – Eddie’s heart leaps – Buck.

“What’s going on?” Bobby asks Eddie.

“She’s haemorrhaging, I think the placenta has come away from the uterus. We need to deliver this baby right now,” Eddie explains as he begins to unplug all the electronics from the bed, getting read for transport. “Bobby, I want you to give her a general anaesthetic, we can’t afford to wait for a spinal.”