#eddie wakes up post vecna and steddie have a moment

[resident-gay-bitch]

“you’re here…” eddie said, his voice still quite weak and full of rasp from just waking up. he blinked a few times and looked at the three people standing around him, “wh- why are you here?”

“because we’re friends, dingus.” robin snorted, punching him (super dooper lightly) on the arm.

“and we went through hell together.” nancy said with a nod of her head, her grip loosening and tightening on the end of his hospital bed where she was standing.

“and you kept dustin safe, even though i specifically told you not to play hero.” steve said with a scowl, sitting on the edge of eddie’s bed, down by his knees with his arms crossed.

eddie blushed a little.

“and not to mention steve was literally the one who carried you outta that hell!” robin added, and the was immediately scolded by steve, “what?”

“you didn’t have to tell him that!” steve bickered.

“well, he deserves to know!”

“you didn’t have to remind him so soon!”

“you carried me out of there?” eddie asked.

steve turned a pretty shade of red, and before he could answer, robin was talking again, “yeah! he was all like… big man carrying you on his shoulders, covered in blood and looking all stoic.”

“robin!” steve swatted her shoulder.

“it’s true…” robin mused.

“it is. i was there.” nancy shrugged.

eddie looked at steve, trying to picture it. very much trying to picture it. steve carried him out of there? steve literally lifted his dead weight onto his shoulders and carried him out of hell?

well if that wasn’t the most romantic thing eddie’s ever encountered, then romance had to be dead.

“well, i couldn’t just leave you.” steve shrugged, hiding away a bit.

“he didn’t even stop to smell the flowers.” robin kept going, “just… one minute we heard dustin’s screaming and then we saw you dead on the floor, and then…”

“steve was in action.” nancy continued for her, “dropped to his knees, grabbed you, threw you over his shoulder and then started shouting at everyone to kick them into action.”

“and the whole time he was talking to you, trying to keep you alive!” robin said, “like, sure, you may have had your hero moment, eddie- but as dustin said, steve saved the day.”

eddie looked at steve with wide eyes, full of awe. steve didn’t hesitate to save his ass? gosh darn, this man was full of surprises!

okay, yeah, sure, saving someones life who is on the brink of death isn’t that romantic… but think about the circumstances; end of the world happening, eddie litteraly not breathing and bleeding uncontrollably, dustin having a meltdown, their own damn lives to protect, and eddie and steve barely even knew eachother and… and he just saved him. without a second thought.

plus, not many people wanted to save eddie these days.

so eddie was taking this as romance because why the fuck wouldn’t he? he’d take what he could fucking get with this glorious man.

“yeah, well…” steve huffed, folding his arms tighter over his chest with a shrug, “i had other things to worry about. i couldn’t just sit around and cry.”

oh right. max.

“red…” eddie swallowed, “is she okay?”

the room fell silent for a minute.

nancy was the first to speak, over a swallow, “she’s alive.”

eddie let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding in.

“he got her though.” she said again, the only one brave enough to speak about it right now, “all her bones are broken… she’s not waking up anytime soon.”

“oh.” is all eddie could say.

“lucas is with her every day.” steve said, as if he was more so trying to convince himself it was okay, rather than eddie, “she’s going to wake up, and everything will be okay.”

eddie nodded.

he wasn’t ready to ask about the fate of the world yet.

“don’t you folks have better things to do today?” eddie asked, forcing a little laugh, “i don’t even know what day it is.”

robin laughed a little with him, “it’s tuesday. and… well, steve an i lost our jobs to a second supernatural occurrence, so…”

“and schools canceled.” nancy offered, “semester won’t start back up for another month, and they’re going to cram all the final exams into the start of summer.”

eddie didn’t want to ask why school wasn’t in session.

“you still have a chance to graduate.” steve said with a smile, and eddie blinked at him, “dustin told us.”

“oh.” eddie swallowed, graduating was the last thing he was thinking about right now, “okay.”

“that’s not important now, anyway.” robin pet his shoulder sweetly, “what is important is that you’re alive and on the mend.”

eddie smiled.

“dustin’s gonna freak.” steve said, “it’s just… eddie this, eddie that- more than usual, man! it’s insufferable. i feel like i know more about you than i know about myself now. he more than worships you.”

eddie turned a little pink at that. one; dustin admired him? so much? like, enough to never fucking shut up about him? and two; steve knows all about eddie? does… does he care? does he like to listen? could they be friends? could they be more?

“where is he? is he okay?”

steve nodded, “yeah, he’s doing the best he can… he’s with max right now, he’s going to be here in about… twenty minuets.”

eddie smiled and settled down into his bed, excited for dustin’s visit, “cool.”

“metal?” steve asked with a scrunched up face.

eddie looked at him and laughed, shook his head, “that’s for totally awesome things, steve. like you biting that bats head off, and me shredding the most epic guitar solo in all the lands.” he grinned, “but i admire you’re effort, so i’m giving you an A plus.”

steve laughed, “thank you. that’s the highest grade i’ve gotten since i was fourteen.”

eddie laughed some more, “i’m glad i could be the one to bestow it upon you, oh white knight.”

“oh, white knight!” steve grinned, “that’s a pretty high honour.”

eddie raised his eyebrows slightly, “yes… it is.”

steve smiled and it was kind of smuggish, “well i thank you for knighting me as such. i’ll wear the badge with pride and serve you well.”

eddie looked at him for a moment and then fucking burst out laughing. he laughed so hard he had tears and strained his stitches. oh, steve. steve was indulging his weird, nerdy humour. no doubt dustin’s doing, but still… oh, eddie thought he might love him.

steve laughed too, and somehow they ended up laughing with their fingers intertwined.

“from king to knight…” eddie said and flicked away a tear, “some would say that’s a downgrade.”

“well, if i’m here to protect you then i call it an upgrade.” steve countered.

eddie’s lips parted at that, his eyes blown a little wide. he felt steve squeeze his hand.

“well…” eddie hummed, fighting off the flutter in his heart, “i’ll have you know, i have no regard for my own personal saftey… ever- you’ve seen me jump off of cafeteria tables at lunch, so protecting me is a pretty heart feat.”

“all the more reason to do it, ed’s.” steve said with a sweet smile and- fuck it, eddie was embracing the heart flutters.

only then did he noticed that they were sitting in this room alone- the door clicking shut from where the girls had snuck away.

“you shouldn’t promise that.” eddie said quietly, “you might regret it.”

“i won’t.” steve shrugged and squeezed eddie’s hand again, “i’ve already made the promise to dustin, and to wayne, and to gareth, most importantly to myself… and now im making it to you.”

“steve…” eddie whispered.

“don’t.” steve said, shuffling a little closer, “i know… i know, eddie.”

eddie swallowed, “you do?”

steve nodded, “let me promise it to you?”

eddie looked at him for a moment, searching his eyes. eyes that he’d been longing to search through for years, and now he finally could.

now they were finally something.

“okay.” eddie said simply, his voice barely a whisper, “okay, but you have to let me promise it too.”

steve shook his head with a smile, “only after you’re up and walking again.”

“physically… deal.” eddie nodded, pressed his free hand onto steve’s heart, “in here? right now.”

steve sighed and sunk a little bit, “okay.” he nodded, “i’ll let you promise that.”

“good.” eddie smiled, “because you didn’t really have a say in the matter.”

steve laughed and ducked his head to lean it on eddie’s shoulder, and eddie pressed his cheek to steve’s hair. they stayed like that for a moment. eddie worked up the courage to drag his fingers up steve’s back and curl them into the soft hair at the back of his neck. steve sighed into it, folding himself into eddie further.

steve lifted his head after a while, now much closer to eddie than he was before, and he smiled with a warm flush in his cheeks that eddie was sure matched his own. steve still held his hand, and it was warm and a little clammy, both of them riddled at nerves with this something.

but both of them happy with it too.

steve blinked and then lowered his eyes to eddie’s lips and… oh, eddie’s heart was beating so hard in his chest right now he thought it might break a rib. but, well, if there was any place for that to happen, it would be right here, so bring on the rapid heart rate!

steve leant in a little.

eddie did too.

they were awfully close, almost touching when dustin slammed open the door with a loud bang, “eddie!”

they quickly pulled away with a laugh and steve quickly jumped into action of grabbing dustin around the waist and tugging him back before he could body slam eddie and open all of his stitches.

once dustin’s original over the top excitement dropped a notch, steve let him go and he sunk into eddie’s arms.

the kid was warm and soft and felt just the same as eddie remembered. they both cried a little. eddie looked up at steve with wet eyes over dustin’s shoulder as they cuddled, half listening to dustin’s excited rambles about how he knew eddie would wake up soon, and they laughed quietly together.

they had something, and that was okay, but it could wait a little longer before it became everything. right now, dustin needed his eddie, and eddie needed his dustin, and steve wanted nothing more than to give them all they needed with a smile.

[runninriot]

no reason to hide

written for @steddie-week day 1 | prompt: secret relationship

rated: t | wc: 4.5k | tags: Max POV, Max & Eddie friendship, Max & Steve Friendship, Steve and Eddie are keeping secrets, coming out, post Vecna, everybody lives | complete fic on ao3

The first time she notices something strange is going on between Eddie and Steve, is when Max wakes up in the middle of the night from one of those ghastly dreams that have been haunting her since the whole Vecna fiasco went down.

She does what she always does when she can’t fall back asleep - goes to sit on the steps outside of her home to listen to the familiar sounds of the trailer park, looking at the sky, the stars and the moon, reminding herself that she’s back in the real world. That the Upside Down and all its monsters are a memory of the past.

It’s been almost a year and things have finally gone back to how they were. Well, mostly.

Sure, those nights where the monsters come crawling back into her subconscious are draining sometimes, but after everything that happened to her, nightmares, a walking stick, and glasses are a small price to pay. She could’ve paid a much higher one, could’ve lost it all. She’s fine. And at least the nightmares are a burden they all share.

Her friends have them too, those restless nights. And even if that doesn’t make it better, the fact that they are in this together makes it easier, at least.

Max knows she can always count on them – her now-again-boyfriend Lucas and the stupid but lovable dorks Dustin and Mike. Even El and Will, who went back to California, are always just one phone call away.

She has Steve, who – while Nancy and Robin went off to college – didn’t leave.

He’s still here, still taking care of them in his annoyingly loving way, even though they don’t need him to be their protector anymore, technically.

She’d never say it out loud, would rather eat her own tongue than to admit it, but to know that he’s part of her life is kind of... comforting. Because he’s graduated from babysitter to friend long ago, has proven time and again that he’s a good guy with a big heart. Max likes him a lot, can understand why Dustin was always so drawn to him.

And then, there’s Eddie.

Before being caught in a war against evil and nearly walking into the light at the end of the tunnel together, she never really cared much for him at all. (And no, she did not have a very stupid, very tiny crush on him when she learned about him playing guitar in this awesome band. Anyone who suggests otherwise can talk it out with her fist, okay?!)

She had often wondered how much truth was behind all the rumours, the Satanic Freak allegations. Because while he obviously liked to cause trouble every now and then, he always seemed... nice. A little boisterous, maybe, but never violent or evil.

And then she got to know him when they were trying to prove his innocence while being caught in their final battle against evil, and realised how much they had in common.

How Eddie, like her, wears a mask to protect his vulnerable pieces inside. Carrying the burden of a broken home and too much pent-up anger on his shoulders.

Max sees a version of herself in Eddie, and seeing how far he’s come – even if he himself doesn’t think he has – is encouraging, in a way.

She never told anyone, but out of everyone, Eddie might have played the biggest part in her recovery.

When she opened her eyes for the first time after being in a coma, the first blurry face she saw wasn’t Lucas or Steve or even her own mother.

No. It was Eddie.

Half his body in bandages, leaning heavy on his crutches holding him upright where he was standing beside her hospital bed, smiling down at her, which looked painful because of the stitches on his left cheek, but it was warm and friendly and honest.

And in that moment, when the memories came back and the world came crushing down, Max was glad it was him that watched her fall apart. Because with Eddie, she didn’t feel the need to pretend that she was fine. He let her cry and wince in pain without commenting on it, just took her hand – no words of pity, no promises of false hopes, just a tight squeeze of her hand in silent support.

Their friendship evolved from there, got even stronger when they were both fighting their way through physical therapy, from frustrating setbacks to miraculous accomplishments.

He’s annoying sometimes, like a brother, but he’s the kind of friend that you love to fight with because you know they’ll never hold a grudge; Eddie's friendship is unconditional and Max cherishes that more than she'd ever tell him.

Eddie, like her, finds it hard to sleep sometimes. So, more times than not, when she goes to sit on the steps in the middle of the night, she finds him outside his own trailer – smoking in silence or listening to music with his headphones on.

They don’t usually talk, just share a few moments together in peace until their minds have calmed enough for them to get ready to conquer another day.

This is why Max doesn’t startle when she hears the familiar squeak of the Munson’s trailer door. Only when a car door gets slammed close, does she look up.

Weirdly enough, it isn’t Eddie who’s going for a ride. It isn’t his van that slowly turns and rolls out of the driveway.

It’s Steve’s car; there’s no doubt about it. She knows that car better than Steve likes to be reminded of.

    What the hell is he doing at Eddie’s place at 2 in the morning?, Max wonders, worries that maybe something is wrong.

But moments later, the trailer door opens again and Eddie steps out, dressed in his pajama pants, lighting a cigarette like he always does. He seems calm, happy. Not at all like something bad has happened.

Until he notices her and his eyes widen in shock, mouth hanging open with the cigarette stuck to his bottom lip.

   “Max! How- how long have you been out here?”

She doesn’t exactly know why she doesn’t tell the truth but something about the way Eddie looks at her tells Max, he might not want her to know about his nightly visitor.

   “Just came out like, maybe a second before you did,” she lies, watching his shoulders drop as the tension in his body eases.

   “Oh, uh, okay. Nightmare?”

   “Yeah.”

   “You wanna talk?”

   “Nah, just needed some fresh air. You?”

   “I- I’m good. Just, uh, just couldn’t sleep.”

They sit there for a while, both awkwardly looking anywhere but at each other, before Max can’t take it anymore, says her goodnight and goes back inside.

There is probably a good explanation for it all. Maybe Steve couldn’t sleep, too. Maybe he went to Eddie for some weed? (Don’t act so surprised. She might just be a teen but she’s not stupid, okay?)

Whatever it is, Max will never know because going by the way Eddie reacted when he saw her, she’s sure he doesn’t want to be questioned about it.

It’s fine. It’s none of her business anyway.

And Max forgets about it entirely until something strange happens again a few weeks later...

keep reading

[ataliagold]

and the moonlight baby shows you what's real

Title from Love Like Ghosts by Lord Huron. This is based off my own experiences with sleep paralysis, so yet again I'm projecting onto Steve :)

Pairing: Steve Harrington/Eddie Munson

Rating: T

W/C: 1099

C/W: Sleep paralysis

Tags: post-vecna, established steddie, steve has sleep paralysis, eddie looks after him, steve needs a hug - he gets one

Summary: In the aftermath of Vecna, Steve's left with a variety of issues, including frequent episodes of sleep paralysis. Luckily, he doesn't have to suffer through them alone.

___

Steve’s eyes snap open. They lock on the figure at the end of his bed looming over it, shadowy and shapeless and huge.

His heart slams in his chest. Trying to suck in a lungful of air he finds he can’t, can barely force his chest to expand, his breath coming in tiny, rapid pants instead. There’s ringing in his ears, strange whispers competing for his attention around the room, and the figure is leaning over the mattress now, getting closer and he’s completely fucking stuck.

Frozen in place, Steve’s eyes dart left to where Eddie should be. He can make him out in the light of the moon pouring through the window, sleeping peacefully, unaware of the state Steve is trapped in.

Eddie knows about this. About the sleep paralysis. It had been plaguing Steve for a while now, but he’d been too embarrassed to say anything until Eddie had witnessed it firsthand one night and been convinced Vecna was somehow back, that he was coming for Steve just as he’d come for Chrissy…and Steve had been forced to explain. That this wasn’t anything supernatural, this was just…another of his many issues.

It was added to the list alongside his head trauma, his insomnia, his deteriorated hearing.

Steve had learnt to recognize it now, to realize when it was happening to him instead of thinking it was some strange nightmare every time, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t still terrifying as hell in the moment.

And Eddie had helped him through several episodes of this by now, but he can’t help if Steve’s unable to wake him up and he can’t move…

His heart rate climbs rapidly. The shadow figure still looms, growing taller and taller and soon it’ll be touching him.

Suddenly, Steve feels himself being tugged towards the foot of the bed.

Logically, he knows he’s not moving - knows he’s still lying flat on his bed beside Eddie but it fucking feels like he’s being dragged toward that thing and fuck he needs Eddie to wake up…

He tries to make a sound. Tries to say Eddie’s name, tries to yell, anything.

A small whimper manages to claw its way from his throat.

It’s enough.

The mattress dips as Eddie rolls over, as he sits up and blinks down at Steve.

And Steve’s stuck in some dark place between asleep and awake, but he’s sure Eddie’s real, would know his boyfriend even if he were blind and deaf.

Realization crosses Eddie’s face, and he flicks on the bedside lamp.

“Stevie, sweetheart, you’re ok,” Eddie murmurs, shuffling closer to him but not touching yet. “This is sleep paralysis, whatever you’re seeing isn’t real. There’s nothing here but you and me, ok?”

But the shadow’s still there.

Steve’s told Eddie about the dark figure that haunts these episodes before, so Eddie knows what Steve’s scared of, but he still wants to tell him, tries to, only succeeding in making a small gurgling noise in the back of his throat.

“I’m here, Stevie. It’s…three twenty-three am. You’re in our bedroom, and this will pass in a few minutes, ok? Can you try move a finger?”

This was a tactic Dustin had suggested, once word of Steve’s…nighttime issues had spread. The kid had taken all sorts of books about sleep disorders out from the library, had researched until he’d found something actually useful. If Steve could force even a finger to move, then he’d eventually manage to move his hand, his arm, and at that point he could rip himself out of paralysis.

Steve focuses all his energy on the pinky of his left hand. His eyes shoot to the end of the bed again, where the shadow figure is bending down, where it’s about to fucking crawl onto the mattress…

“Hey, no, focus on me sweetheart,” Eddie slowly reaches for his hand, doesn’t squeeze it or move it, just lays it over Steve’s. Moonlight glows across his pale skin, and even in distress Steve thinks he’s fucking beautiful. “I promise it’s not real. Try and move your hand, yeah?”

Steve tries again. Manages a tiny twitch in his pinky.

Eddie grins. “There you go, try again.”

He does, curling the pinky towards his palm and back again.

“Now try and squeeze my hand,” Eddie encourages.

With his heart still pounding, Steve forces his frozen fingers to cooperate, clenching down on Eddie’s hand clumsily.

The shadow figure retreats across the bedroom, out the door. The ringing in his ears fades, and Steve manages to swallow, to take a gasping breath.

“You’re ok, I’ve got you, I’m here,” Eddie soothes him, reaching for him as Steve starts to move, as he curls inwards towards him, still trembling.

“Sorry,” Steve whines into his chest, as Eddie cradles him close.

“Shhhh, just breathe,” Eddie whispers, running a hand slowly up and down Steve’s back.

And Steve’s shaking even as his heart rate starts to slow, as he slumps into Eddie’s hold, as the adrenaline floods out of his system and leaves him strung-out and exhausted.

“Sorry I woke you,” Steve repeats, his voice hitching and stuttering, “I couldn’t…I didn’t know what to -”

“Hey,” Eddie interrupts, kissing the top of his head, “I’ve told you before, I want you to wake me up. Every time. I don’t want you going through that alone, ok?”

Steve nods slightly, hair brushing across Eddie’s collarbone with the movement.

“Did you see it again? The…shadow guy?” Eddie asks.

Steve nods again. “He was about to climb onto the bed.”

Eddie snorts, pulls Steve somehow closer to him. “Bit rude of him, fucker should probably ask before joining us in bed.”

Steve manages a tiny chuckle despite himself, rests his hand at Eddie’s waist, feels himself slowly settling against the comforting warmth of his boyfriend.

“Want me to read a bit while you go back to sleep?”

Steve nods, avoiding Eddie’s eye, still shy, still a stranger to accepting the help Eddie so readily offers him.

But Eddie only kisses him briefly, reaches for his book on the bedside table, and scans the page for where he’d left off.

Steve has no idea what the book is even about, but it doesn’t matter. It’s Eddie’s voice, calm and soothing and familiar washing over him that helps his breathing slow, that relaxes him back into a state where he can even consider going back to sleep again.

He lets his eyes droop. Feels the vibration of Eddie’s chest against his cheek, sinks further into the blankets, and allows sleep to take him again.

Eddie’s got him, after all.

___

[hbyrde36]

I try to clear my mind but the memory of you lingers like an old perfume.

Written for the @steddiemicrofic prompt - pool - wc 442 - G

Pre-Steddie, Post season 4

Just because Steve couldn’t stand to go in his own pool anymore, didn’t mean he had to give up swimming altogether. Lover’s Lake had been his safe haven for a while. He could go there anytime of day, or night, and swim in its cool waters until his mind went blissfully blank. 

That is, until the Upside Down came for them again, stealing away the last thing Steve could take solace in. It wasn’t just the body of water this time. The act of swimming itself was forever ruined by the memory of being dragged through its depths, not knowing if he’d ever get to come up for air. 

In an effort to not go crazy, he took up long-distance running. As a former basketball player, he’d run before, but had always despised it. He still didn’t love it, but it served its purpose, clearing his mind and exhausting his body. 

It was on one particularly rough day, about two months post-Vecna, that Steve decided to take a new route, one he had been avoiding. He hadn’t slept in days, the image of Eddie lying dead on the ground haunting him whenever he closed his eyes. 

The trailer park loomed on the horizon. Steve picked up his pace, feeling a sudden urgency to reach the old Munson trailer as soon as possible. The park was all but abandoned, so he didn’t worry that anyone would see him sneaking past the crime scene tape and into the ruined home of his dead friend. 

It was exactly as they’d left it, mattress in the middle of the floor, cut rope thrown off to the side. The closed gate in the ceiling, courtesy of El, was the only change. His run had done nothing to dull the ache in his chest, but it had thoroughly tired him out. He laid down on Eddie’s old mattress and was asleep in seconds.

Waking up to the wind being knocked out of you is a terrifying experience. One Steve can now add to his ever growing portfolio. For a long confusing moment, he doesn’t know what hit him, can’t even remember where he is or why he’d fallen asleep here. 

A low growl has him scrambling to the corner of the room. With his back to the wall he feels safe enough to finally look at his attacker and the source of that fearful noise. 

“Eddie?!” Steve gasped.

“Steve? Man, I'm sorry. If I'd known it was you I would have tried harder to avoid hitting you when I fell.”

“But, you’re dead!”

“So is Vecna.” Eddie said, with a wide grin, blood dripping from his elongated fangs.

Part 2

[berenwrites]

Beyond the Battle - Chapter Listing - Stranger Things - Steddie - COMPLETE

Beyond the Battle­: Action & Consequence

All other fanfic in pinned post (mostly steddie)

Summary: Steve hits things with a bat or gets hit depending on who you ask. He definitely does not have anything to do with the psychic stuff. That is El’s domain. However, as Vecna is defeated, the rules change.

Pairing: steddie (Steve Harrington/Eddie Munson)

Other Relationships: Steve & Robin, Steve & Dustin, Eddie & Dustin

Rating: Teen

A/N: Multi-chapter story, updated regularly. Honestly not sure how many chapters it will have yet because it's still a bit hand wavy in the middle, but definitely more than 12. Thank you to my beta for find my mistakes and to all those who read/like/reblog.💖 Follow #st:beyond-the-battle for updates.

Fic on AO3

Chapters on Tumblr

(will be updated as they are posted)

The Battle

The Aftermath

Regrouping

Home

Dreams

Waking World

Home Truths

What is Real?

Verdict

A Couple of Things

Conversations

Child Geniuses

Moving Forward

Reunion

Next Phase

Come Down?

From Outside

Making Plans

Details

Plans into Practice

Rise and Shine

An Ordinary Morning?

Good Day!

Momentous

Meetings

Dangerous Times

What Now?

Backs Against the Wall

Deadlines

Defences

Confrontation!

Is it Finally Over?

Resting

Stranger

Had to stop using the list at this point because it caused an error...

35. Getting Up 36. Good Talk 37. Hiccups 38. Paternal 39. Gathering 40. The Realities of Hawkins 41. Back Down to Earth 42. Very Distracting 43. Coping & Moving Forward 44. Panic Over? 45. Happy Talk 46. Epilogue

[dangerous-disposition]

🔀 steddie obviously <33

i wish i was joking babe

Most days you reach for safety Remain calm, forget that you know me And when we met I could see dark signs Alarm bells in your eyes And I miss the man I was the moment we left off (I might break and bend to my basic need to be loved and close to somebody) And I hate who I have become (I might break and bend to my basic need to be loved and close to somebody) Every time I wake up (I might break and bend to my basic need to be loved and close to somebody)

Hmmmmmm see this is one of my Steve Songs, but specifically re: Stancy.... to make it Steddie....

90's AU, post-Vecna, Steve and Eddie got together during the aftermath and spent the rest of '86 trying to cope with everything. Things do not work out because A Lot of Trauma and things end explosively, things are said that both regret and they go their separate ways and I even see Steve being the one to leave Hawkins first in this au. Where this song comes in, I see it as being from Eddie's POV when returning to Hawkins (maybe for a wedding, or a funeral, idk) and seeing Steve again for the first time in a decade.

I need to stop describing this idea now bc it's already taking root. shit fuck goddammit [throws it on the wip pile]

send me a 🔀 and a pairing, and i’ll shuffle my playlist and make an au based on the first song that comes up

[bit-odd-innit]

r No One Could Love You More & Some Forever written in the same universe? i just happened to read em back to back & realized how well they slot together, haha. either way – LOVE your writing, i’m completely enamored, thank u for it !!!!! steve & eddie truly are the guys ever <3

Oh wow what a fun ask! So funny enough, those two fics are not actually in the same universe. BUT my second ST fic, Literally and Figuratively, was meant to be the first in a series of fics all set in the same universe, the main one being a multi-chapter "fake dating" Steddie fic that took place between August and December 1986. (I say fake dating in quotes because one of them thinks they're dating and the other doesn't, lol.) There was also going to be another one-shot focusing on Robin and Nancy's friendship but uhhhhhh obviously I haven't. Written those, yet. I'm gonna get there!!! If you'll indulge me anon, I do have some thoughts about how Steve and Eddie got together in No One Could Love You More:

It takes a few days after being taken off the ventilator for Eddie to come back into himself and become lucid again. To him, everything during that time felt watery and dreamy and half-fake, and he couldn't differentiate between what was real and what wasn't. (He was also hopped up on, like, so many drugs.) So he has no memory of calling Steve baby. And he doesn't find out about it until way later, like after he's released from the hospital. (Sidebar I have a couple rotating ideas about where Eddie and Wayne live post-Vecna. The government always sets them up somewhere but depending on what I'm working on it changes. Sometimes it's a new trailer, like in Some Forever. Sometimes it's a cute little ranch house like in the linked fic series I mentioned above. I think in this universe they're temporarily put up in a shitty motel and Eddie gets so claustrophobic he spends every waking moment at Steve's.) So they're hanging out at Steve's, talking about whatever, and Eddie says something kind of teasing and unthinkingly tacks "baby" onto the end of it out of habit. And it kinda, well, comes out. That this is not the first time Eddie called him that. And Eddie is mortified. Putting aside his growing and unwieldy crush on Steve he's pretty sure he just tanked any chance of a friendship with this guy. So he tries to gather his stuff and get the hell out of dodge except he can't leave because he hasn't been cleared to drive yet and Steve picked him up so he's just going to have to walk the nine miles back to the shitty motel on the edge of town and wow his physical therapist is not going to like that— But Steve stops him. "I liked it," he says, so softly Eddie almost doesn't hear him. "When you called me that." "Yeah?" "Yeah. I want you to do it again." He takes both of Eddie's hands in his own, his eyes soft and honey-warm and sincere. "I want you to do it forever."

[team-heichou]

Steddie Time Travel AU Part 1 i guess

The credit for the Idea goes to: @enough-is-a-fools-dream

People who wanted to be tagged: @thefandomchaos @cloud-fizz @sharpbutsoft

CW: Mentions of Death, a little Sadness, swearing

I read that and thought the whole day about it, little disclaimer English is not my first language and i rarely post anything i write but this idea is really good and i really wanna write it so here is my take on that wonderful Idea. Spelling Mistakes and Grammar are maybe not the best (Sorry!) I don’t have a beta reader ><. I hope all of you still have fun with it!

Steve Harrington jolted awake in his bed screaming his soul out. But he screamed to a empty house like always. And if his parents were around nobody bothered to come looking. Confusion settled in his bones, his head was foggy. Why was he at his parents house? He already moved out with the shitty wage he made at Family Video. “What the hell, am i still dreaming?” he looked around and nearly tripped when he got out of bed. What day was it, did he drunk so much that he just crashed at his parents house? He looked around taking in his room, that couldn’t be right. This wasn’t real. On his desk laid the Homework he never did in December of 1984. “What the fuck” he looked at his clock it was nearly time for school. One look out of the window showed him snow. “Okey Harrington stay cool, you fought Demodogs and Russians and Vecna. So waking up in the past is not so strange is it? Just...go to school and figure out what the hell is going on” he mumbled to himself and tried to calm his fast beating heart. He tried to push down his panic, he nearly hyperventilated. So when this was 84 the last year of school. Robin wouldn’t know that they are best friends, Dustin already was his friend and Eddie Munson was still alive. His breathing calmed down and he shoved his school stuff in his backpack heading down to his car. Wait what day exactly is today? On his schoolwork was December.  What if he was here for a reason? This was crazy, like really crazy. His thoughts spiralled on and on while he drove to school. His panic faded into nothingness, time travel sounded like a piece of cake compared to the last 2 weeks of his life. He tried not to care so much shoving and pressing down all his feelings painfully hard, since Eddie’s Death and Max’s coma. The truth was he cared way to much. So he barely made it through most of the days.

The last time he had a Senior Year he fell apart, practically loosing his Girlfriend and the title of King of Hawking’s High in a day. No friends, no one who cared and than he helped the kids and got his face smashed in from Billy. This stupid title meant nothing and he felt pretty stupid that he ever cared about that at all or how popular he was.

The parking lot was full of people and Steve’s heart nearly jumped out of his chest when he saw Eddie Munson’s Van. So he really was alive. At this moment Steve Harrington abandoned all logic. He was here. He had no idea how or how to get back, and he didn’t even care that much about it. This was better, that the time he came from. When he thought about it in 84 he still was a douche kind of. But maybe, he could get to know Eddie Munson sooner. Would have time with him. The hair on his arms prickled with Goosebumps, when he thought about Eddie’s dead body to heavy to lift out of the Upside down. He knew Eddie just for some days, and it still had hurt to lose him. Time, he had thought when he cried himself to sleep every night after the fight with Vecna. All i need is Time. And now he had Time. Who cared about the how and why.

Steve Harrington slammed his Car Door shut and got back into school again. His eyes glued to Eddie. Steve tracked every movement the Metal Head made, and felt like a Stalker doing so. He thought about all the ways he could do this just crashing one of his Hellfire meetings? Or asking him to hang out some time? When the break came he decided to fuck this and just to do it. He knew exactly where to find Eddie. In the Woods, by the table.

“Munson! Hi!” Eddie nearly jumped out of his skin when Steve approached him.

“For gods sake Harrington! The fuck are you doing out here!” Eddie Munson looked at him like he was a pink elephant or something.

“Can i spent the break here? I wanted to ask you something” Steve was strangely nervous. Come on Harrington you know how to make friends with someone your not that lost and awkward.

“I don’t know if you can, King Steve. But sit down, ask” Eddie mocked the other boy. He was always so theatrical. Steve sat down. “Do you have a joint?”

Eddie shook his head breaking out in a smile. Leaning forward, a whole table was between them but he was oh so close. “Oh does the King need something to distract himself?”

“I need to calm down actually. So do you have a Joint Munson?” Steve cringed at his own tone and closed his eyes for a second. It was freezing cold out here. And it was lightly snowing.

“Yeah, you look like shit” Eddie points out with a confused smile.

“Thanks for pointing that out Munson...” here he wasn’t Steve from the Movie Store here he was King Steve, an Idiot and everything the people secretly gossiped about.

The new found attention of Steve Harrington made Eddie fidgety. He didn’t knew how to act. Was this all, Harrington just needed Weed no big Deal. But the Way he looked at Eddie, almost desperate gave him the creeps.

“Is this a prank or something?” he looked over his shoulder, nearly joking.

“What? No, stop looking i don’t have friends who could jump you Munson. And i am no longer King Steve. Billy is King now. Listen, you hang out with the loners aren’t you?” Steve drummed his fingers on the table.

“That i do, i mean i am Eddie the Freak Munson” Eddie laid a joint in Steve’s Hand slightly brushing his palm with his fingertips. Steve almost blushed. Eddie always had this effect on him. Just baffling him and making him nervous and questioning his sexual orientation with just a look or a soft touch. “But you are no loner Harrington, your popular and cool and every girl in Hawking wants you!” his voice was soft almost soothing, but also had a very mocking undertone that made Steve’s skin crawl. Almost as if he was testing Steve’s reaction. Eddie looked at him so intensely that Steve was tempted to look away. So he didn’t imagined things before the battle with Vecna. There where an irritating sexual attraction between them. This maybe sexual attraction was cause of a lot of sleepless nights in the last Two Weeks.

Steve’s Voice was almost unsteady when he answered “I am cool, but i am not popular anymore, the people i thought were my friends are douchebags and girls don't get me started on them...” he almost groaned rubbing his face with one hand.

Eddie really had no clue what the hell was going on. He was sitting in the snowy woods, with Steve the Hair Harrington talking about how the King of Hawking’s High has fell from grace or something. He fumbled with his fingers. He thought about it for a second, Steve never even looked at him or spoke a word to him before today. At one point he believed Steve Harrington didn’t even knew Eddie existed

“I want to be your friend Eddie Munson. I want to know what goes on in that head of yours. I am practically a looser now so will you hang out with me? Be my friend?” Steve looked at him Eddie’s dark eyes were fixt on him he looked so confused and weary. Eddie stood up abruptly almost as if he needed to force himself to get up and get away. “My place tonight...” He said way to short for Eddie it was unusual. Munson spoke quiet when he said his next words. “One chance Harrington” then he was gone. And Steve was watching him go. It seemed like Eddie Munson really expected the worst of him.

(I am a little short on time so this is all i got for now. Should I continue the story? I would appreciate feedback 💕✨ Likes and Reblogs would made my day )

[wrennefer]

Waking up (to you)

I have an idea for a vol 2 rewrite but make it steddie. (I really wanna write it but I already have 3 WIPs ;0; )

so the basic idea is that eddie and steve are in charge of killing vecna, like i haven't made the actual plan so skip to the important part of when they land the killing blow on vecna there is like this aftershock or blast of kinetic and psychic energy. so eddie and steve wake up in the upside down with no memory of much of anything. 

they think they're in a post apocalyptic world. so the story follows them traveling, trying to get their memories back, etc. along the way they start to think maybe they are in a relationship, they feel drawn to each other. so they are fighting creatures of the upside down and traversing this place,  every night is dangerous, and soon there is also intimacy and kissing and sex etc. 

until they stumble upon something that gets them back to the real world and El helps them get their memories back.

then they feel this weird. like we shouldn't be together because we weren't before. but we fell in love. but it wasn't us, it was these other versions of us

fuck it. I want to be with you anyway.

.

them holed up in a house, there's creatures outside, Eddie is having a moment of like, I feel as if we are looking for something and I don't know what, but if we don't find it soon, it's just going to be really really bad."

"whatever it is, good or bad, we'll do it together."

"Don't say that, man. you don't know if we're going to live or die tomorrow."

Steve, who has been working on digging through cabinets, looking for weapons and other tools or useful items, stops and looks at him for a minute and then says "We're gonna get through this, all right? We'll do it together."

Eddie is slowly looking into drawers for knives and stuff. "I'll hold you to that. you better not leave me behind one of these days." it's supposed to be joking but the unease and fear in his voice is obvious.

steve is suddenly fully paying attention to eddie and he says "I'd never do that."

Eddie doesn't look up or even respond. it's clear he's still worried and steve crosses the room. "Hey, look at me. I said I'd never do that. I'm not going to leave you."

Eddie looks up at him, because Steve has kind of crowded him against the counter. Even in the dim lighting of the upside down, the intense look in his eyes is clear as day.

"Promise?" Eddie's voice is soft, too soft. he clears his throat and tries to say it with more force, "cuz if you mean that, I mean like, you're for real stuck with me, man--"

and then steve is kissing him, and Eddie has been wanting it for so long and he immediately is throwing his arms over Steve's shoulders, leaning into him and kissing back.

I was thinking they stumble upon a gate and like. they have a moment before they go through and they have this passionate, I love you confession and kiss because it looks like another world but it could be unsafe

and then steve goes through first because that's who he is

they get through the gate and it's daytime and the light is blinding and everything is so colorful and it feels so bright and... right.

If they kill vecna I don't think that would seal the gates, I Think el would need to manually seal them

 I am thinking they don't remember at all until el gets into their minds and helps them

so they are attached to each other when they are found. and the others are freaking out and like. they are super confused but they don't want to be separated, even when they are at the hospital. I'm thinking that upside-down creatures have taken a few bites out of them somewhat recently when this happens.

 I want steve's pov when they get separated at the hospital. the look eddie gives him when they are forced to be apart for the first time since they've met. and steve has never felt more helpless, even against monsters from the upside down

it's this wide eyed, uncertain look of like 'I don't want to leave you.' but they are being told everything is going to be okay so there's no REAL reason to fight it. but steve still feels  somewhat... off.. about just letting them cart eddie away.

because even though this other world feels right, they still only actually know the upside down. and this world is a lot brighter, louder and faster moving

overwhelming

steve waking up in the hospital bed to eddie climbing into his bed. he snuck out of his room because the beeping machines kept him up

he wishes he could forget again and go back to just him and steve

el doesn't fix their memories until they get out of the hospital.

maybe steve's pov when they discuss it but like. eddie seems to not want his memories back. he's convinced it's not necessary and dustin and the others are super distraught. it's clearly eddie's subconscious protecting him. steve is on the fence. he feels unease. something tells him things won't be the same. but eddie, he's begging steve to agree, that they don't need their memories. but the kids are all looking at them so sad and he's like 'we're not going to forget anything, we're just.. remembering more stuff. we'll be fine. we're in this together, right?"

but the look on eddie's face, it doesn't make steve feel better. it makes him feel like he's bullying eddie into agreeing to this.

. I can see steve being stunned into silence when they get their memories back and eddie has tears on his face, even though he's not audibly crying. he looks heartbroken

ldkfajdsf they are holding hands when they start the memory trip. when they finish, steve looks over to see eddie just, he doesn't look good ok. and he feels... like he's losing him very very quickly. there's this hollowness in Eddie's eyes. he's pulling his hand away from steve and steve is standing as Eddie moves to leave the room

"Eddie-"

"Don't," Eddie says and it's so, raw and pained that Steve feels frozen in place. and then suddenly Eddie is leaving, and Steve feels the first real crack starting to form in this little world of his that he'd started to build with eddie. 

.

god and when they find steve and eddie. they're acting like they know them but steve and eddie don't know these people. and then eddie is holding steve's hand because it's super intense and then one of the boys is like WOAH why are you holding steve's hand? 

the way he says it, both steve and eddie are so startled and taken aback that they jerk their hands apart because now they are worried that something is wrong about their relationship

esp because they don't know or remember these guys

robin probably reprimands and then is like 'it's just new, that's all. you guys are good. hand holding is cool'

.

eddie getting his memories back and being just so blindsided by this depressive bout. and he doesn't have steve as support. he has his uncle it feels like he hasn't seen his uncle in so long that they're almost strangers. he doesn't like the others, he resents them for giving his memories back. he wants to go back to the upside down and pretend they never found the gates. he hates having to remember to eat and he's withdrawing and losing weight because of it. 

he won't see steve. he turned him away and he broke steve's heart in the process because he was too self-loathing and pushed steve away so steve could go back to his perfect hetero life in hawkins and his reputation wouldn't have a black tar mark on it known as eddie munson.

.

I feel like it would come to a head with steve drunkenly banging on the door yelling for eddie. and eddie is horrified because steve definitely drove himself and when the door opens, Steve's eyes are red and bloodshot and his face is streaked with tears and when he sees eddie, it's like eddie's heart forgets how to work, like something is squeezing it into stillness. steve wobbles a little and he's just... he's heartbroken because eddie broke up with him ok. his boyfriend just, left him. and yeah they weren't official by the rightside up standards but they were together for months and he told eddie he loved him and he was so sure eddie loved him too but then eddie remembered everything and eddie left him and Steve doesn't know what he did wrong but he's sorry, Eddie. he's so fucking sorry.

and eddie feels like absolute shit. like he's the worst person in the world because he made Steve Harrington cry. he feels like he's burning up from the inside with shame and guilt and he just rasps out, "I don't want to," and then he's clutching the door and Steve is staring at him bleary eyed and in confusion and he has to keep talking and he says "I don't want to do any of that shit. I'm.. I'm a freak here, remember? This isn't that apocalyptic hellscape anymore, there's other people here, people who think that I'm this... evil thing or something. I can't drag you down with me, I can-"

"Do you think I give a shit?" Steve cries, Eddie can't tell if he's mad or if he's about to burst into tears again and then he says "drag me anywhere, I don't give a shit, Eddie. I just want it to be with you"

"Don't say that," Eddie begs, "Please don't say that-- I can't.. I --"

"Can't what? Be with me?” steve drunkenly crying out, "you won’t talk to me!" and the way he says it, it's clear that he literally just craved that connection with eddie, like he missed one of his best friends, and it's not even about anything other than that steve can't stand his world without eddie in it and eddie has been withering away because steve has somehow become his whole world and he's terrified.

“Tell me Eddie."

"I can't say no when you talk to me like that," Eddie blurts and then Steve is advancing and they're kissing. It's wet from the tears still trapped in the corners of Steve's lips, and it's a little bit sloppy from Steve's drunk desperation, but Eddie is pulling him inside, shutting the door and he's pinned up against it in second, kissing twice as frantic because he missed this so much, he missed Steve like a part of his own body and he no longer feels like he's wasting away, waiting for life to be over.

.

When they do have sex again, it's Steve clinging to eddie as he's inside him whispering "I missed you so much," into the skin of his neck. 

eddie is shaking and he just says "I'm sorry," and then he says it again and it's this half broken word because he almost lost this. steve kisses him into silence because it doesn't matter anymore, they're together now and they're not going to fuck it up again

[berenwrites]

Beyond the Battle - Chapter 24 - Stranger Things - Steddie

Beyond the Battle­: Action & Consequence

This was supposed to be posted last night, but I got distracted with helping to put together a new exercise bike, sorry 💜.

Click here for All Posted Chapters

Summary: Steve hits things with a bat or gets hit depending on who you ask. He definitely does not have anything to do with the psychic stuff. That is El’s domain. However, as Vecna is defeated, the rules change.

Pairing: steddie (Steve Harrington/Eddie Munson)

Other Relationships: Steve & Robin, Steve & Dustin, Eddie & Dustin

Rating: Teen

A/N: Multi-chapter story, updated regularly. Honestly not sure how many chapters it will have yet because it's still a bit hand wavy in the middle, but definitely more than 12. Thank you to my beta for find my mistakes and to all those who read/like/reblog.💖 Follow #st:beyond-the-battle for updates.

Also on AO3

Chapter 24.    Momentous

Hopper had looked kind of constipated when Steve mentioned inviting Eddie’s bandmates and fellow Hellfire members over for a DnD campaign. He could understand the reaction, after all, it was a risk, but once he’d explained how close the three were to Eddie, and that they still thought he was most likely dead, Hopper had started to come around. The fact Will and El were also on board definitely helped.

Also, that they had a plan was clearly a plus in the right column too.

Eddie had declared that he needed another full day to finalise the one-shot, so it was decided the afternoon of the day after that was as good a date as any. The way Eddie was bouncing up and down like an over excited puppy, might also had swayed Hopper in signing off on the whole idea.

After some discussions via the walkies, Dustin, Lucas and Mike readily agreed it was a great idea, while Erica thought it had a little merit. The boys all agreed to take one of Eddie’s friends each to invite them to the session in Eddie’s honour. They were pretending Will was going to DM.

For his part, Steve began to plan what snacks he needed to stock up on. Luckily, dealing with the kids had him well versed in how much teenagers could eat. He created a list accordingly and spent a good percentage of the spare day grocery shopping and making sure his house was ready with help from Robin. The rest of the day he spent with El and Will.

Hence the morning of the big day dawned bright and clear, and Steve woke up alone in his bed. If he was honest, he was disappointed, he enjoyed waking up cuddled to Eddie. Although he often pretended differently, Steve was never quite sure about cuddling in bed when it came to sleeping. He liked cuddling, loved it actually, but he was hideously aware lots of people liked their space when trying to sleep. So, he never liked to push.

With Eddie it was impossible not to realise that given the chance, Eddie was an octopus. It was becoming almost routine for them to start off the night spooned together. Eddie liked to be the little spoon. Once they were asleep, all bets were off. Steve was getting frighteningly used to waking up with Eddie sprawled across him in some way. He revelled in it, if he was honest. That Eddie was not there this morning made him pout. Not that he was ever admitting that.

Falling out of bed, he used the bathroom as quickly as possible. He had to shower because any thought of doing so the previous evening had been quashed by falling asleep on the couch while Eddie finished his campaign planning. It had been two in the morning when Eddie had woken him to drag him to bed.

As soon as he was dressed, he headed downstairs and was very much not surprised to find Eddie pouring over his notes. He walked over and took a quick look over his boyfriend’s shoulder.

“Morning,” he said, bending down to place a quick peck on Eddie’s cheek.

Eddie turned and gave him a smile before almost immediately getting sucked back by his notebook.

“You’re lucky you’re pretty,” Steve said, smiling to himself and almost certain Eddie didn’t hear a word. “I’m going to make breakfast.”

He knew Eddie was overcompensating because he was nervous about the afternoon, and he could totally understand that. If it helped Eddie deal with what had to be a lot of emotions, Steve would support it all the way. He simply took it upon himself to make sure Eddie was fed and hydrated.

Walking into the kitchen, he found Wayne, again. It was becoming a thing.

“Morning,” he greeted.

“Morning,” Wayne replied. “You get more than a grunt out of my nephew?”

“Nope,” he said with a smile, “I was hoping to lure him with French Toast.”

“That could work,” Wayne replied, looking at his paper while sipping coffee. “Always was his favourite.”

“I noticed,” Steve said as he started on the breakfast. “I’ve never seen anyone eat so many slices. Can I interest you in some fried goodness?”

“Thanks, but I already ate,” Wayne replied. “Just finishing my coffee and then I’m for bed.”

They’d explained the whole plan to Wayne the previous day before Eddie’s uncle headed off to work, so he was aware the house was going to be invaded. Wayne had even mentioned getting up earlier than usual so he could see Eddie in his element. Apparently, it wasn’t something Wayne got to witness very often, and he seemed to be looking forward to it.

“Do you need anything? Fresh towels? An extra pillow?” Steve asked as he broke eggs into a bowl.

“Don’t think another pillow would fit on the bed to be honest,” Wayne replied and there was a small smile playing at the man’s lips when Steve glanced over.

“Yeah,” he agreed with a smile of his own. “My mom does have a thing for pillows. The only person I’ve ever seen use them all is Robin. Not sure how she didn’t suffocate, actually.”

He scored himself a point in his mental tally when Wayne gave a short bark of a laugh. It may only have been a few days, but he hoped Wayne was warming to him. The man was gruff and said very little a lot of the time, but Eddie had assured him that Wayne liked him. Steve still wasn’t quite sure how to read Wayne, so needed some convincing.

“Good way to go,” Wayne commented. “Can’t say as I ever slept on something my back liked more.”

“Glad you’re comfortable,” he replied, not sure what else to say without coming off as a rich kid who had no clue about people in a different tax bracket. “Just let me know if you need anything.”

“Steve,” Wayne said after a moment, and he turned to find the man had stood up from the table and was just behind him, “you already done more than I could have asked. If I’m honest, I was wary when you showed up at my hotel with the Henderson kid. Eddie has had a few choice things to say about you in the past.”

“Probably deserved at least half of them,” he said with a slight smile, hoping to lighten the mood.

Wayne’s lips did twitch a little again.

“Maybe, maybe not, we both know how my kid can be dramatic,” Wayne replied. “But that’s neither here nor there, because he did nothing but gush about you that first afternoon, and ain’t done much more since. An’ I have eyes. Can’t thank you enough for what you done for him and for me. Thought you should know that.”

When Wayne lifted a hand and clapped him on the shoulder, Steve thought his heart might beat out of his chest. As Eddie told it, Wayne was most often a man of few words and fewer actions. A shoulder clap was the pinnacle of demonstrability for Wayne outside direct family.

“Keep doing whatever it is you do to the coffee, and we’ll call it even,” Steve replied, doing his very best not to embarrass himself or Wayne with his response.

“Get my nephew to eat while he’s on one of his creating binges and I might even teach you the secret,” Wayne replied with a nod of his head.

Steve just stood there with the milk in his hand as he watched Wayne walk away.

“Sleep well,” he remembered to say just as the man disappeared through the door.

He got a wave in return.

~*~

Everything was ready for the invasion of nerds, Eddie still had his head in his notes, which left Steve with about half an hour to kill. The previous day, he, Will and El had done some more practicing with their communication abilities, extending their range further with solo tries. Steve was finding it all amazing, frankly, but there was one thing still bothering him.

He was a healer. It seemed to be a fundamental aspect of his nature, which he found ironic given the fact he had always been the muscle. Somehow when he used his abilities, it overloaded his system in a way that made his nosebleed, just as it did with El and Will. Logic dictated, not that he was always so good with logic, that he should be able to fix it.

The thing was, he had been to the library when he’d had the bad nosebleeds after Billy had hit him with a plate. He’d done a bit of research (and he was never admitting that to his family of nerds), so he knew that nosebleeds were sometimes the body’s way of preventing something worse. He’d also talked to El about her experiences and what Dr Brenner had had to say about her post Starcourt breakdown. Hence, he was pretty sure just stopping them would be a bad plan.

With that in mind, he found himself a quiet spot in the backyard, sat down and listened to the breeze through the trees for a bit. It helped him put everything else out of his mind, something El had taught him was very important. Once his mind was quiet, he did his best to turn his healing instincts on himself. He wasn’t trying to do anything, he simply wanted to be aware of his own body in the same way he had managed to be aware of Max’s and Hopper’s.

When he’d healed himself, it had mostly been pure instinct. He’d never been as aware as he had with the others, so it was something of a step change. There also wasn’t anything wrong with him, so his powers had nothing to latch onto. It was kind of weird.

However, eventually he thought he could feel the underlying currents of his body. The moment he had it, he slipped into the Void, and slipped straight back out again as his awareness tried to split and blew his concentration.

“Fuck,” he said to no one in particular, and set about trying again.

It took him another four tries, and a significant number of Kleenex before he finally managed to maintain the dual awareness of the Void and his physical body. He had no doubt it was tenuous, but his instincts were firing the whole time. His brain translated it into something visual for him, as it had when healing others, and the mental image of a pressure cooker flitted through his mind. What was really bizarre was the way a ghostly version of it appeared in front of him in the Void as well.

He couldn’t work out if he was really seeing it, or if it was just the way his mind was dealing with the strange situation. Every now and then, the pressure release valve fired, letting off some steam to prevent the cooker being damaged. It made perfect sense in this odd new reality he was living in, and he slipped out of the Void with a new understanding.

The nosebleeds were a release of pressure to prevent damage to the brain, something El had been unable to stop when she had pushed so hard at Starcourt because there was only so much pressure that could be released at one time. It wasn’t the nosebleeds that he needed to heal, it was the damage being done by the concentration of pressure that was built up when using their abilities. That in turn would prevent the nosebleeds being necessary.

It felt like something of a breakthrough.

Steve wanted to go back in and make sure, but he glanced at his watch and realised he had been five minutes longer than he had wanted to be. Robin would be arriving any minute. Making a mental note to talk to El about his ideas, he wiped his nose on the tissues, climbed to his feet and jogged back towards the house. He grabbed a candy bar from the refrigerator before heading into the living room to make sure Eddie knew what the time was.

~*~

Eddie looked as if he was about to vibrate out of his skin. So far Steve had watched him try to sit down and all but bounce off the chair, pace every hallway in the house, and almost wreck his carefully put together gaming table. It was half past ten, everyone was due at eleven.

Robin had arrived about twenty minutes before, and Will had already been dropped off by Hopper. Originally El had been supposed to be coming as well, but there had been some good news that morning. Max was due to be released from hospital some time that afternoon, hence, El, who wanted to be there to support her best friend, was waiting at home for the phone call so she could help Max and Max’s mom move in to their new, government provided home.

It seemed that the fact a good percentage of the town had up and left town for good meant there were plenty of houses left vacant for Owens to snap up for his own purposes. Not that Steve was going to argue if that meant his surrogate family were well taken care of.

The plan was that El would help Max settle in, then Hopper would bring both of them to Steve’s house so everyone could welcome Max back properly. Steve wasn’t clear yet on what story Owens had sold Max’s mom, or if Susan Hargrove had suddenly found herself signing many NDAs while being brought up to speed. As for everyone else, the story was Max had sustained a head injury during the quake, been in an induced coma for a couple of days, and bounced right back as soon as she had been allowed to wake up.

“Okay,” Steve said, gently grabbing Eddie by the wrist, “we’re going into the backyard before you start chewing the furniture. Robs, you can hold down the fort with Will, right?”

“No problem-o,” Robin replied with a grin.

“Steve,” Eddie protested, but did not resist in the slightest.

“Eddie,” he replied in kind without pausing.

“Where are we going?” Eddie asked when Steve led him down past the side of the pool shed.

“Here,” he replied when they made it to the shady, secluded spot he had had in mind.

“What? Why?” Eddie asked, looking around at the empty area.

“Because you need distracting,” Steve replied with a grin, “and I have the perfect way.”

He crowded into Eddie’s personal space, urging him backwards until Eddie’s back hit the shed wall.

“Would have done this inside, but Robin would have heckled and wasn’t sure if you wanted to come out to Will yet,” he said, before leaning in and catching Eddie’s lips in a kiss.

Eddie mumbled something but began kissing back rather too enthusiastically for it to make any sense to Steve.

Making out with Eddie was always so easy. Steve never felt like there was anything he had to be doing, or numbers he had to hit like he had done with some girls. All he had to do was make Eddie feel good, and Eddie was very responsive about letting him know when he was doing well, so it was like a dream. Every little noise Eddie made was music to his ears, and it wasn’t as if Eddie didn’t give as good as he got.

“Not the hair,” he had to say, pulling back as the kiss turned passionate and Eddie’s fingers began working up his neck.

Eddie pouted. It amused Steve no end quite how obsessed Eddie could be with his hair at times.

“We have to be able to go back in there not looking like we’ve been making out,” he pointed out with a grin. “So anywhere else, but not the hair.”

“Damn, I hate when you’re logical,” Eddie replied. “But, just so you know, once the group know, I will not be so circumspect.”

“I wouldn’t expect you to be,” he said and leaned back in.

It turned out to be the perfect distraction technique, because even Steve lost track of time until he heard a vehicle and voices coming from the front of the house. He broke away and listened and Dustin��s voice carried over all the others.

“Jeeze that kid’s loud,” he commented before looking back at Eddie.

He took in the pale skin and wide terrified eyes and immediately reached out to cup Eddie’s cheek.

“They’re your friends,” he said, looking Eddie directly in the eyes. “They are going to be overjoyed to see you.”

“I wasn’t accused of murder last time we were together,” Eddie said in a quiet, nervous tone.

“And they knew that was as bullshit as the rest of us,” he did his best to be reassuring, “even before the police announced how innocent you actually are.”

“I know,” Eddie replied, “really I know, I just can’t shut up the little voice in my head.”

“I get that,” Steve told him, stoking his thumb over Eddie’s cheek, “I totally do, and nothing I say is going to silence it completely, because I’ve got one too, and it’s not rational. So how about we silently sing wheels on the bus until we get in there and it’ll be drowned out by all the love your friends are going to shower on you?”

“Wheels on the bus?” Eddie raised his eyebrows at him. “Oh, you bastard, that’s going to be going round and round in my head now.”

Steve grinned.

“Works though, doesn’t it,” he said.

“If I start humming it in the middle of my campaign, I may have to kill you,” Eddie replied, but did push himself off the wall.

“Just think of it as sharing the pain,” Steve told him, straightening Eddie’s shirt so it didn’t look as if he’d just had his hand up it.

“Lead on, Sir Knight,” Eddie said with a dramatic wave of his hand. “I shall follow thee to my doom.”

Steve slipped his hand into Eddie’s and headed towards the door to the pool room. He gave Eddie’s fingers a quick squeeze before letting go and walking back into the house. The moment he opened the door into the hallway he could clearly hear voices.

“Buckley, didn’t expect to see you here,” one male voice said.

Steve didn’t know Eddie’s friends well enough to be able to tell them apart just by sound. He’d spoken to them at Family Video on various occasions and must have heard them in school as some point, but he would be the first to admit he probably hadn’t been paying attention at that point.

“I am Steve’s translator for nerd speak,” Robin replied, which made Steve smile.

“Are you and he..?” another voice asked.

“Oh god no,” Robin replied with vehemence, “we are purely platonic.”

“With a capital P,” who Steve was pretty sure were Mike and Lucas, chorused at the same time.

“Where is the king himself?” the first voice asked.

“Oh, he’s in the yard with the special guest,” Robin replied. “Will, could you go grab them?”

Steve looked at Eddie.

“You ready?” he asked quietly.

Eddie just nodded, lips a taut line. It was time to face the music.

End of Chapter 24

Chapter 25

[berenwrites]

Beyond the Battle - Chapter 35 - Stranger Things - Steddie

Beyond the Battle­: Action & Consequence

Click here for All Posted Chapters

Summary: Steve hits things with a bat or gets hit depending on who you ask. He definitely does not have anything to do with the psychic stuff. That is El’s domain. However, as Vecna is defeated, the rules change.

Pairing: steddie (Steve Harrington/Eddie Munson)

Other Relationships: Steve & Robin, Steve & Dustin, Eddie & Dustin

Rating: Teen

A/N: Multi-chapter story, updated regularly. Honestly not sure how many chapters it will have yet because it's still a bit hand wavy in the middle, but definitely more than 12. Thank you to my beta for find my mistakes and to all those who read/like/reblog.💖 Follow #st:beyond-the-battle for updates.

Also on AO3

Chapter 35. Getting Up

“Fuck.”

The word was said very quietly, but Steve was alert in a heartbeat, nevertheless. He opened his eyes to find Eddie had turned in his embrace at some point during the night and he was looking at the top of Eddie’s delightfully messy curls. There was tension radiating from his boyfriend, so he knew Eddie was awake.

“You okay?” Steve asked quietly.

Eddie’s head came up slowly and dark eyes met his own. Even in the low light, Steve knew it was not a natural darkening of Eddie’s chocolate brown irises, and even as he looked there was the tiniest red glow.

“Ah,” he said, “I was wondering when that would happen.”

“How do you always take this so calmly?” Eddie asked.

Steve gave his boyfriend a small, but genuine smile, bringing his hand up to cup Eddie’s face.

“I understand why this scares you,” he whispered, making sure he conveyed his sincerity with his eyes since he couldn’t so it with his voice. “This is all new, what I can do scares me sometimes too. But nothing about you scares me. The opposite. God, if I hadn’t been so focused on the kids yesterday, when you took that guy out, I probably would have done something incredibly embarrassing.”

“You really have a thing for vampires, don’t you?” Eddie whispered back.

“Mostly I have a thing for you and that includes you being a vampire,” he replied honestly, because he was pretty sure he’d never thought about vampires twice until Eddie, “and I think we should take this to the bathroom before Robin wakes up and tries to stake both of us through the heart.”

“Steve, you’re supposed to be recovering,” Eddie pointed out.

“So are you,” he countered. “You seem to have about a two-day cycle, and you used your vampire abilities today for the first time for anything but feeding. You need blood and it won’t hurt me to give it. I’m still tired, yes, but I ate enough for a small army so my tanks are topped up, and we can sleep in.”

“You had that argument planned,” Eddie said.

“Yep,” Steve replied and gave his boyfriend another smile.

There was no point in denying it. It had occurred to him while they were eating earlier.

“Don’t expect to get the upper hand in this relationship all the time,” Eddie said and rolled out of bed.

“I wouldn’t dream of it,” Steve assured him, following along and slipping past Eddie into the bathroom.

As Eddie closed the door with a quiet click, Steve pulled the little chord on the light above the sink. The room brightened with the orange glow, picking out the details of the bath and shower behind him with deep shadows. It felt kind of ethereal. Perfect for the moment as he stared into the mirror.

“I can’t believe how pretty you are either,” Eddie said in a teasing tone, meeting his eyes in the reflection over his shoulder.

He replied with a small smile, but his mind was rushing too far ahead to really react to the joke.

“I want to watch as you bite me,” he said, holding Eddie’s dark eyed gaze.

A flicker of anxiety flew across Eddie’s face, crinkling his forehead for a moment.

“Why?” was the quiet question.

“Because you’re beautiful and I want to see it all,” Steve replied without hesitation.

The atmosphere in the room was charged. Eddie’s confession of a few hours previously was still so fresh in both their minds, it was obvious. Steve wanted him to understand how much he had meant it when he had said Eddie was not a monster. He did not find any part of this monstrous. He had been perfectly sincere when he said It did the opposite of frighten him. He needed Eddie to see it too.

“Like this?” Eddie asked, moving in close behind him.

One of Eddie’s arms came around his waist, pulling him flush to Eddie’s body. The other curled around his shoulder as Eddie’s right hand stroked over his chest, fingers splaying out as they traced a path up his neck. He could feel the strength in Eddie’s touch, remembering very clearly how he had seen it in action the previous day.

At times Eddie was just a human being. At other times, he was not.

The knowledge filled Steve with excitement.

“Yes,” he said when Eddie waited for his reply.

Those fingers on his throat gently urged his head to the side and he obeyed, even as he kept his eyes fixed on Eddie in the mirror. His cock twitched in his sleep pants at the controlling touch.

“All for me?” Eddie whispered into his ear.

“All for you,” he agreed, watching Eddie’s eye glow red in the low light.

Eddie made a show of opening his mouth so Steve could clearly see his pearly white fangs. They were long and pointed and gave Eddie a dangerous air that made Steve shiver inside. It wasn’t fear. Nothing could make him afraid of Eddie. It was pure excitement.

He bit his lip as the tip of those fangs touched his skin. Just the tiniest touch, like two pins, as Eddie showed just how much control he had.

Steve’s cock throbbed and he breathed noisily through his nose, trapped in the delicious moment. The whimper that escaped him as Eddie finally bit was completely involuntary. About all he could do was keep it small, so it didn’t wake Robin in the other room. The points of pain lit up his nerves like static electricity and he surrendered to it.

Eddie’s eyes fluttered closed as his lips fastened to Steve’s neck, but Steve couldn’t look away. As that beautiful mouth attached to his neck, pleasure flooded through his system, and he stared. Such wanton noises stacked up in his throat, only held back by his own teeth digging into his bottom lip. One day, one day soon he wanted more than Eddie’s fangs sinking into him. He was hungry for it, his cock throbbing to the beat of his heart at the very thought.

His legs felt weak, Eddie’s strong arms keeping him in place and helping him stand. After only moments, he had to release his lower lip so he could pant out the overwhelming pleasure and need flooding through him. Every sensation seemed heightened. The touch of Eddie’s tongue on his skin as Eddie drank. The seal of Eddie’s lips against his neck. It made his heartbeat thud in his ears and his cock throb mercilessly.

Then Eddie looked up at him.

His breath caught in his throat. Eddie’s whole iris was red and glowing from within. All the black was gone, and Steve felt like he had been caught. If the initial bite had been like static, now it was like being connected to the mains. His whole world narrowed to Eddie.

A tiny, still functioning part of his mind likened it to connecting with El or Will, but this had nothing to do with healing, or even simply communicating. This was much more primal. Raw need met raw pleasure and blew his mind. For seconds or hours, he had no way of telling which, nothing except Eddie existed. Eddie and overwhelming bliss.

He came back to himself breathing hard and shaking, on the tail end of an earth-shattering orgasm. He felt kind of floaty.

“Holy fuck,” was about the only response that seemed adequate as he clung to the sink and Eddie clung to him.

Eddie’s face was buried in his neck, and he could feel his boyfriend shaking as well.

“What the hell was that?” Eddie asked quietly, without lifting his head.

“Amazing,” Steve said as his brain completely failed to provide anything useful.

“You … me …” Eddie said, apparently trying to articulate something.

“I know,” Steve replied, because he couldn’t explain it either.

“Fuck, I came in my pants,” Eddie confessed, finally meeting his eyes in the mirror.

“You think I didn’t?” Steve said, and he couldn’t help it as a smile burst across his face.

He also couldn’t help the small laugh that went with it. This was going to take some thinking about, some analysing between them, because it wasn’t exactly something he felt comfortable talking to El about, but he felt so good it was hard to focus on that part. He’d just come without anything remotely touching his cock and it had been possibly the most mind-blowing orgasm of his life. It was both amazing and utterly ridiculous. Laughing seemed like a reasonable reaction.

When he noticed that his neck was also completely healed and realised he hadn’t remotely been aware of doing it, that tipped him over the edge. He sniggered quietly, slowly sliding down against the sink because his legs felt like jelly.

“Are you okay?” Eddie asked, sounding slightly worried, but sitting down next to him.

“God yes,” he replied, “I’m great. Are we both high?”

“Yeah, think so,” Eddie said.

Steve sniggered again, doing his very best not to be too loud. If they woke Robin, she would probably kill them. If they woke anyone else, they would have a hell of a lot of explaining to do.

~*~

Steve wandered into the kitchen at what was nearly lunchtime, only mostly awake. He and Eddie had made it back to bed eventually, and they were going to have to talk about what happened, but he hadn’t woken up enough for thinking about that yet. He was halfway through a yawn when another, smaller body slammed into his own.

“Steve,” El greeted, enveloping him in a hug.

“Morning, El,” he replied, hugging her back.

She beamed at him as she drew back.

“Sleep well?” he asked.

“Very well,” she replied. “Will and I have only just woken up also, and your mom is making waffles.”

Steve looked over at his mother and blinked in surprise. Buying in breakfast and taking people out to breakfast were things his mom did, making breakfast not so much, at least not since he was small.

“Thought I would dust off my waffles supreme,” his mom said, giving him a smile over her shoulder.

He grinned back. Now those he remembered. They had been reserved for birthdays when he was under ten, before the tradition had changed to going out to eat as he was deemed old enough.

“Can I help?” he asked.

“No thank you, darling, you just go and sit down,” his mom said, turning back to what she was doing. “The first batch should be ready in a minute. Will Eddie and Robin be joining us as well?”

“If they ever stop arguing over who gets to use the bathroom next, then yep,” he replied, letting El lead him towards the table. “I mentioned the main bathroom, but I think it’s the principle of the thing by this point.”

“Well, we all need principles,” his mom replied with a laugh.

“Hey,” Will said, as Steve sat down on one of the kitchen chairs.

Steve gave him a little wave as another yawn deprived him of his voice.

“Sorry,” he apologised, “it’s really hard to wake up today.”

“It is often like that for me when I have pushed my powers too hard,” El said. “It was much easier to wake up today though, Steve, thank you.”

“My pleasure,” he replied with a smile. “Now if I can just figure out how to do the same for me.”

“More practice?” Will suggested.

“Yeah,” he agreed.

“But not today,” his mom said, placing a plate full of waffles down on the table, along with a plate of fruit and other delicious things.

“Oh, definitely not today,” he said around another yawn.

He was not mentioning his and Eddie’s early-morning escapade to anyone, especially his mother.

“I spoke to Max on the phone,” El said with a delighted smile. “She is home and very annoyed to have missed all the adventures.”

“I for one am very glad she did,” Steve replied, “but don’t tell her I said that.”

El grinned at him.

“I am too,” she said, “but I will not mention that either.”

“Eat up before they get cold,” his mom said as she produced a can of cream as well. “There’s plenty more where that came from.”

“Dad says we can go and see Max this afternoon,” El continued to talk as she loaded her plate. “Did you want to come?”

“Not really sure I’ll be awake enough,” Steve replied, “but give her my love and tell her I can’t wait to see her now she’s free.”

“She’ll probably head over here the moment her mom lets her out of her sight,” Will commented.

“I’m gonna need to go shopping again,” Steve decided as he set about filling all the divots in his waffle with syrup before eyeing up the cream.

It was probably going to be way too sweet for his adult palate, but he hadn’t had this since he was ten and he was going for nostalgia.

“What are you doing?” Will asked as he carefully added sliced strawberries to his creation in a very specific pattern.

“You do not get to criticize, Mr I-just-loaded-my-waffle-with-chocolate-chips,” he replied, giving Will a pointed look.

“Is that a face?” El asked.

“It will be,” he said, grabbing a couple of blueberries.

“King Waffle lives again,” his mom said.

“May his reign be bountiful,” he filled in for what his dad always used to say.

“But short,” his mom finished, and Steve dived in with his fork, laughing as he did.

El giggled as Steve shovelled a large piece of King Waffle into his mouth, getting cream all over his chin. She appeared to take great pleasure in following suit. It was great to feel like a kid again, just for a while.

End of Chapter 35

Chapter 36