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pearlypairings · 2 years ago

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In the Shade of Aurelias

Summary:

Lady Christine is the only heir to the wealthy Cunningham estate, it is her duty now at the proper age for betrothal to marry and enhance the family's legacy. With birthright omens in mind, her strict parents permit a choice of which suitor she shall marry after a period of courting. Amidst her chaperoned outings, a chance meeting sends her down a path of self-discovery and unravels a devastating life-long secret that makes her question everything she’s ever learned from her family.

What will Lady Cunningham decide to do with the truth? Who will she turn to when her world is turned upside-down and her path unclear?

Chapter 1 ✨

Morning rises, and peace flees from her.

At the first glimpse of light in the highest chamber, Christine stirs under the blanket of warm down feathers. She knows what is coming next, and buries her chin deep into the plump mattress below. Hoping she disappears into soft oblivion.

Within minutes, a cascade of hands waterfall upon Christine’s skin.

A stocky pair pulls the corner of her covers away to bat and re-fluff the outer garnish of her bed. Another leads her through the bedchamber and undresses her behind an elegant divider decorated in shiny gold accents. A bath is already drawn for her and a small wood stove heats a fresh pail of scalding water. Sore, reddened hands scrub the night’s reveries from the memory of her fair skin.

Firm hands, and she’s dry. Slender, sturdy hands, and she is dressed in the finest undergarments, awaiting the final tightening of her corset boned with ivory. Hands, and her face—the last untouched place—is covered in pressed powders to color her cheeks and the delicate skin above her blue eyes.

She takes her routine in stride, keeping her chin poised and her interactions pleasant with her handmaidens. It is a familiar testing ground for years of preparation as the only daughter of nobility. She is careful not to wipe sleep from her eyes, otherwise ruining the perfected canvas of her face.

Christine’s body is hardly her own anymore.

After her 20th birthday, an official announcement of her marriageability had been made which only increased her mother’s scrutiny. Lady Cunningham, having always been relentless in appearances, instructed Christine’s handmaidens under the threat of poverty to pay close attention to grooming details. With the sheltered daughter of Cunningham’s marriage a popular topic of Hawkinnes gossip, the insatiable expectations for perfection are at their highest they’ve ever been.

Thus, the servants fret, and Christine prays for another day without wrath fired upon the souls who doted on her.

Every morning repeats the same tortuous dance for her: wake, surrender, and offer a fleeting smile before the maiden scurry to their next errands of the day. The sweet aroma of baking bread squeezes its way through the double doors to her bedchamber, signaling the time to break for morning meal is nigh.

Christine takes one last glance in the vast mirror beside her wardrobe, dabbing a small amount of rouge to her pout. It is the latest deal she made with her servants, so she can have one glorious moment alone with her own thoughts and reflection. Between the ornate golden frame, the hollow-cheeked face staring at her is hardly recognizable.

Her golden hair is at least a foot longer since the last harvest season, pinned in twisted plaits layered across her scalp like a crown of opulence circling her head. High cheek bones poke against the thinning frame of her face, having lost the rounded shape of childhood. Most significant to her is the strange buzzing that returns to her fingertips the longer she leers at her own reflection, with eyes as blue as bottomless wells of cloudless skies.

She smudges the rouge with a fine cloth to smoothen the borders of her lips. A knock at the door startles her, causing her to flinch in place and nearly smear the deep red above her lip. With a delicate sigh, she tugs on her lower skirt, heavy with layers of white and pale blue, and kicks her feet to make her way safely to the looming wooden doors.

Creaking the doors, her escort of the day takes a bow in the open gap, clasping a closed fist to his chest. Christine nods and returns a well-taught smile back at her chosen guardian.

“It is time to meet with the lord and lady of the manor, my lady.”

The rest of the chapter will be posted to Ao3 tomorrow, stay tuned :)

#hellcheerauweek #hellcheer fanfic #hellcheer #fantasy au #nobility au #eddie x chrissy #eddie is a part of an exiled class of people aka mages #chrissy is a noblewoman under pressure to marry as soon as possible #there are twists and turns let me tell you #hellcheer fanfiction #hellcheer au

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theladycarpathia · 2 years ago

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HELLCHEER AU WEEK BINGO - CRIMINALS a.k.a. the leverage au

This is by far the weirdest crew that Chrissy has ever encountered.

It was supposed to be an easy job. Break into the office building and steal a bunch of papers. It shouldn’t even require much of a crew…and yet somehow their client managed to hire five of the strangest people that she’s ever seen.

And as the world’s best thief, she’s seen a few.

Their mastermind is straight up scary. She has dark hair pulled up into a tight ponytail and it’s hard to miss the bulge of a gun at the back of that expensive leather jacket. Chrissy’s heard of Nancy Wheeler, the terrifying con-artist who organized the Chicago heist, the Pumpernickel job, and who once pulled a Lady Godiva on a British Lord.

The hitter is no better. He might have incredible blue eyes and dirty blonde hair curling around his ears but Chrissy knows him as probably the most lethal hitter available for hire. There’s all sorts of rumors about Billy Hargrove – he worked for the CIA, he was in the army, he was an assassin… The stories keep changing but one thing remains true – you don’t want to take on Billy in a fight.

The other two she doesn’t recognise. There’s a girl in suspenders with a smattering of freckles and wavy shoulder length hair anxiously biting on her fingernails. The guy next to her looks like a cross between a model for the Gap and someone you might see at the local country club. He’s chewing gum with his mouth open and tilting his chair back and forth. Looking at them, Chrissy would probably have to guess hacker and grifter.

She might be wrong. But hackers usually aren’t known for their skills around people and the guy is doing that grifter thing of being so obnoxious that everyone around them doesn’t look close enough until all of their resalable belongings are gone.

“Chrissy?” Someone says suddenly and she jerks her head up, flushing furiously. She’d lost focus during a debriefing.

“Yes?” she squeaks and Nancy fixes her with that intense expression.

“You’re fine with the ropes, right?” she says, jabbing a finger at the blueprints. “There’s at least eleven cameras from the stairs or elevator to the target but only two from the window. And two we can deal with.”

“Less chance of someone realizing we’re messing with their cameras,” the girl pipes up and Chrissy was on the money. Hacker.

“That’s fine,” Chrissy says, because if there’s anything she can do, it’s rappel down a fourteen story building. “How am I getting up there?”

“Service elevator,” Nancy says. “Which isn’t working but the shaft is fine. I presume that’s also not a problem?” she asks, with a raised eyebrow and Chrissy shakes her head. She gets the feeling that she shouldn’t drift off again. She’s had teachers look less disappointed in her.

“So Chrissy is doing the hard part,” Billy says, sounding almost bored. He’s barely contained in the tight black Henley that he’s wearing, a thin leather wristband just peeking out from under his sleeve. “What are the rest of us doing?” Nancy’s jaw tightens almost imperceptibly. Chrissy gets the feeling she’s not wild about the muscle of their team.

“Robin and I will be working from the van,” Nancy says and Robin waves her fingers awkwardly. “I need to keep an eye on the situation and Robin will be taking care of security: the cameras, alarms, all of that. But without being directly on site it does limit her range of what she can do. And unfortunately, we need to limit who we have on site. This is no regular office building. There’s high security given the kind of companies who work out of there.”

“What exactly are we after? Robin asks eagerly, because this is the question they’ve all been wanting to ask. They were individually recruited and promised a ton of cash. They just have to work together and not get caught…something that Chrissy is beginning to think might be harder than she thought.

Details are unnecessary at this stage, her new employer had said, his mouth stiff. The mastermind would be informed of the need to know details.

Clearly, they were all told the same thing and Robin was just the first one to run out of patience.

“Documents,” Nancy says briefly, in a way that suggests she’s not looking for any further questions. “I have the location, and the file name. And for now, that’s all you need to know.”

There’s a clatter at the door and it swings open to admit someone new. There’s a brief moment of tension, every person wondering if they’ve been made this early into the heist. But then Nancy’s face clears and her mouth twists with annoyance.

“Munson!” she snaps, her ponytail swinging back and forth as she turns to face the newcomer. “You’re late for the briefing.”

The new guy shrugs and strolls over, snagging a spare chair from another table. He drops down into it and settles back, allowing Chrissy to look over the thick silver rings on his fingers, the patches on his denim waistcoat, the glimpse of black ink under his t-shirt.

“There was traffic,” he says easily and brushes a dark strand of hair out of his eyes. “Besides, I’m not even a part of this first bit. Continue.” He waves his hand, signaling for her to go on and Nancy bristles. But the guy in the blue sweater is staring at Munson with recognition in his eyes.

“I know you,” he says slowly. Eddie grins, and the dimple in his cheek makes Chrissy’s stomach dip. “You’re Eddie Munson. What do we need a forger for, Nance?”

“That’s need to know, Steve,” Nancy sighs, tapping her fingers impatiently against the blueprints. They’re getting off track and they only have twenty four hours to prepare for the heist. “You and Billy have to go in, because we need eyes on the inside. You’re going to be posing as engineers. There will be a problem with the fire alarm and it’ll get you to the right floor to do what Robin needs you to. Because of the security…”

Chrissy focuses on the black lines of the blueprints, pretending that she doesn’t notice Eddie’s eyes on her.

It’s been a while since she worked with a forger. The last one was probably that reclusive art forger, the one with all the vodka and the bathrobe that kept coming undone.

Eddie Munson looks nothing like that. There’s a flash of bare skin as he tilts his chair back and his t-shirt hitches up. His jeans have rips at the knees. There’s a smear of sharpie scrawled across his trainers. He drums bitten fingernails against the table top and there’s dark circles like bruises under his eyes. And Chrissy has to force herself to stop staring at every inch of bare skin, his dark eyelashes, the bones in his angular wrists.

This is going to cause a problem. Do you know what distraction leads to fourteen stories up? Dead thieves, that’s what.

“I don’t think this even required a grifter,” Steve is complaining, waving his hands emphatically in the air. Nancy has that exasperated look on her face and Chrissy gets the impression that they’ve worked together before. Judging by the ‘Nance’ probably multiple times. “I mean, play some dude in a jumpsuit and con my way to the server room? A monkey could do that.”

“Would a monkey be quieter about it?” Nancy gripes. She probably wasn’t expecting a crew this…unconventional. She can’t be blamed for that - they all seem to be the best in their fields, but they’re also used to working alone. None of them work jobs like this, with so many individual, moving, complex parts, for a very good reason. Chrissy herself hasn’t used a partner since that job in Atlanta.

“Look,” Nancy says, finally, placing both her hands on the table and leaning forward. The seriousness of her tone is enough to make everyone stop. No wonder she was hired as the mastermind, the key piece.

“This isn’t the only part of the job,” Nancy says bluntly. “The office job. That’s why there’s so many of us for what should be a fairly easy lift from some office filing cabinet. Chrissy could probably get in and out by herself, with extra time and planning.” Chrissy half shrugs. It’s probably true. What, a freaking filing cabinet? Chrissy once lifted the crown from some prince while he was still wearing it. A filing cabinet is nothing.

“Let me guess,” Billy sighs. “A need to know basis?” There’s a brief moment where Billy and Nancy stare it out, two sets of sharp blue eyes.

“That’s right,” Nancy insists, that same old party line. “Look, this was all under orders from our employer, okay? He wants the details limited so that if it goes wrong or someone decides to throw everyone else under the bus for a better payday, there’s a better chance of it not happening until too late.”

Steve runs a hand through his hair and Chrissy watches the sleek brown waves fall perfectly back into place.

“Seriously, Nance?” he says, looking irritated. “We’re going to have to be a team on this and you’re not treating us like one. I’ve worked with you before and I can vouch for Robin and Billy…”

“You two having dysfunctional and nasty sex doesn’t really count,” Nancy interrupts, folding her arms across her chest. Steve continues, unbothered, but Billy turns his head away and oh, maybe Chrissy’s not the only one working with distractions.

“I don’t think anyone is going to sell out the team,” Steve finishes, and this time when he tilts his chair back, Chrissy doesn’t miss the way Billy’s eyes are drawn to the lines of Steve’s neck. “So can we please just fucking know what we’re working towards?”

Nancy looks conflicted, her eyes moving around the group, like she can see what kind of people they are just from their faces. But then the tension goes out of her shoulders.

“Okay,” she says simply and reaches down for her handbag and slaps a second lot of papers onto the table. Everyone is silent as they look at them, before understanding and shock dawns on them all.

“We’re stealing a person?” Robin says, looking horrified. She’s wringing her hands now, nervous energy seeping through now that Nancy’s instructions have been revealed. Chrissy chews on her lip, remembering how their client had curled his fingers around the whiskey glass, the exhaustion in his eyes. He was a gruff looking man in a bad shirt and an unkempt beard, but she prides herself on having a good read on people. If she’d thought he wanted her for something like this, she wouldn’t have taken the job. But he hadn’t felt like the type. She didn’t get any uneasiness from him…just the feeling that this was a very desperate man.

“Can we even do that?” Steve says, looking more solemn than he has so far. Nancy shakes her head.

“Officially, it’s a jailbreak,” she says, frankly. “Even if it’s not exactly a jail. This man is paying us to find and break out his daughter. You wanted to know so…” She trails off, but she doesn’t need to finish it. They all wanted to know and this is the monkey’s paw that they weren’t expecting.

“Who took her?” Robin asks.

“The government?” Nancy says, quietly and for a second, nobody so much as breathes. “As far as I can tell. So this is probably bound to bring a load of shit down on us if we get even the tiniest bit on their radar. So if anyone wants out, you’re free to leave now.”

There’s silence. Nancy turns her head, looking at every member of her new crew, looking for someone wavering. Clearly, she sees none because she claps her hands together. They’re locked in now, the six of them, and perhaps all of them feel that they won’t leave as the same people they started as.

“Alright,�� Nancy says, and smoothly retrieves the classified documents from the table. “Eddie. Talk me through fake IDs.” @hellcheer-au-week

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outlandishwhalesharks · 2 years ago

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The whirring and buzzing noises coming from the control room shoot straight to his heart causing him to wake in a panic.

He finds himself on the floor, there are two other bodies next to him, a woman and a man but he has no time to check if they're alive or not. No he's already jumping up in a tangle of limbs as he rushes toward the control panel. If he doesn't get to it soon, no one will be alive.

There's no time to stop and think about why he has no idea why he's here or who those people are.

The sound and feel of a blaster charging behind his head is the only thing that gives him pause, his hands go straight in the air.

Read the rest on ao3.

#hellcheer #eddissy #chrissy x eddie #hellcheerauweek #hellcheer in space #hellcheer au week

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sevenmerrymagpies · 2 years ago

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Fic - The Bat Prince

Once Upon a Time…

There was a boy. Nay, a man, a dungeon master, a guitar legend. Who was currently cursed to live as a bat.

Read on AO3

Once Upon a Time…

There was a boy. Nay, a man, a dungeon master, a guitar legend. Who was currently cursed to live as a bat.

What very few people knew about the town of Hawkins, was that it had more mystery and power than most small towns in America and that power interested specific types of people. People who might, perhaps, curse a poor, nerdy but lovable drug dealer to live as a bat. Solely because he sold some drugs to their nephew! And maybe flirted with him a bit and maybe gave him a blow job because he was damn hot. Sadly, if you were say a witch, drawn to the power in Hawkins and you disapproved of the lifestyle - both lifestyles, drugs and queerness, as far as Eddie could tell - you might end up cursing a poor, unsuspecting nerd.

According to the homophobic witch, Eddie was stuck as a bat until a princess could give him true love’s kiss. Now the witch was probably trying to teach him some sort of lesson on how to be straight what with the girl-shaped proviso in the curse, but the joke was on her because Eddie was bi and didn’t have a problem kissing a girl or a boy. The problem for him was convincing some girl to hang out with him, as a bat, and fall in love. That was way harder for Eddie to accomplish. So he kinda gave up hope and ran/flew into the woods to escape the witch and her nephew, who Eddie had noticed wasn’t being punished for the same transgressions.

Eddie had been stuck as a bat for nearly three months until, one day, Chrissy Cunningham walked into the clearing in the woods near the high school where Eddie spent most of his days. He knew bats were nocturnal but he couldn’t seem to get on the same schedule as the rest of them, keeping instead his preferred human schedule that saw him waking up at noon and staying up until two at night.

It was after school, Eddie had heard the bell and the distant hoards of students leave the campus in their loud cars, when she came out here alone. Pretty much no one did any more. Not since he’d disappeared/been turned into a bat and his customers gave up on him. Now it was more just a peaceful place to hang out since there wasn’t a lot else to do as a bat except hang out.

Get it? Hang out? Because bats liked to hang upside down? Well, Eddie thought it was funny. And as far as he could tell the crickets and the black birds in the clearing thought he was funny too.

She sat down at the decaying picnic table and looked around like she was afraid of someone following her. After a few minutes she settled down and opened a text book. Eddie couldn’t see what it was from his high above and upside down vantage point but it was thick like one of the science textbooks. Maybe bio? He dropped down, gliding on silent wings, until he was a little closer and had a better angle. He looked again and still couldn’t make it out, just four columns of text over the two pages she had open. No illustrations to help him guess the subject.

He waited a few more minutes before curiosity got the better of him again and he swooped down closer. This time maybe a bit too close because she gasped as he flew by and batted at air above her head where he had just been. She started to freak out again, this time not being able to settle down and Eddie felt bad. He’d just wanted to know what she was reading, indulge in a little normal high school bullshit instead of all the weird magic he’d been dealing with for the last few months.

He decided to risk it, if he could apologize he would. He honestly hoped it would calm her down and make up for the way he’d freaked her out. He swooped down again, this time landing on the table with a bit of a skid. If he could grab onto a branch it was pretty easy to stop but a table was a totally different matter. “Hey, hey, hey!” He said, his voice came out in English but higher pitched than when he was human. “Sorry to scare you!”

Chrissy, of course, screamed again. “Oh my god!” She said and raised her hand to take a swipe at him. He screeched in fear and curled up in his wings, worried that one smack from her hand would smash his tiny bat body in one blow. “Oh my god.” She said again but this time with less fear. No hand came down to smack him into the table and after a few more moments he lifted one wing to look out at her.

“Hello?” He said again. “Sorry to scare you.”

“You can talk?” She said, louder than warranted he thought, but with much less fear than before. She looked around. “Am I on Candid Camera?” Her eyes went wide with fear. “Or hallucinating?”

“Uh, I can guarantee that you aren’t on Candid Camera and you're not hallucinating but I’m not sure how to prove that last one.” He swept one wing aside like it was a cape, and bowed as far as his little body allowed. “Eddie Munson, at your service, milady.”

“Eddie Munson? Wasn’t he the guy who went missing at the end of last semester?”

“Oh, people noticed?” Eddie asked. Honestly, he hadn’t thought most people in Hawkins had outside the few people who cared about him. He even figured his customers hadn’t cared so much as found another dealer and stopped thinking about Eddie altogether.

He’d known Wayne missed him. While the cops thought he’d run away, Wayne was worried something worse had happened after they found his abandoned van. Eddie checked in on him before he left for work every evening, hanging out on the underside of the eave over the kitchen window and watching the man as he got ready. If he was lucky, Wayne would call someone and Eddie would find out how his Uncle was doing from whatever he could overhear. It was harder to spy on his friends but he thought they probably didn’t miss him too much. He knew they’d never replace him as a guitarist but they were probably better off without him ruining their reputations with his antics every lunch.

He realized he’d been stuck in his own head feeling sorry for himself again instead of answering her and said, “I mean, yes, I am he! The man turned bat by an evil curse.”

Chrissy leaned over her book on her elbows and rested her head in her hands. “But why a bat?” Then she blushed. “I’m sorry that was rude. I guess what I was trying to ask is curses can happen?”

Eddie waddled a little closer to Chrissy since she seemed to no longer be scared of him. Her eyes were so big and blue. It was a good thing his body was covered in dark brown fur right now because otherwise she’d see his blush. She had been pretty in middle school but in high school she was gorgeous and being this close made his inside turn to mush. At least he never seemed to get tongue tied when he was nervous. “Trust me, I did not think curses were a possible risk until this happened.” He gestured to his body with the little hand-like bits at the end of his wings.

“Why were you cursed?” She asked. How much truth should he tell her? She’s always seemed kind and trustworthy from afar but she also always seemed very sheltered and she ran with some judgemental assholes. In the end, he could probably dodge if she decided a queer, cursed bat man was someone to hurt. At his lengthy pause she fluttered her hands a bit on the table and said, “Oh, was that question too personal? I probably shouldn’t pry.”

“Uh, well did you know my reputation?”

She flushed and looked away from him. “Um, I don’t know a nice way to ask this, but which one? I know that some people said you ran a satanic cult on campus, and that some people said you sold drugs.” She looked down at her fluttering hands and flexed them as if to stop their flutter. “And there’s been some other rumors too.”

“Fair, fair. I guess my reputations precede me.” He backed up a bit, body tensed for a quick retreat if necessary. “Well, the drug dealing is true. I dealt some pretty soft stuff to a new customer of mine, and some other stuff happened which was all very consensual, and bam outta no where, his aunt comes by and catches us. Turns out she’s a bitch and a witch. She cursed me to be a bat ‘until a princess can give me true love’s kiss.’”

“Oh, wow, like a fairy tale.” Chrissy said, totally skipping over the more counter-cultural parts of Eddie’s confession.

“Like a fairy tale,” Eddie agreed.

She kept her gaze on her hands on the table. “Well, next week is prom and I’m up for prom queen. My friends all say I’m a shoe in.” Eddie was confused, why were they talking about prom all the sudden. He tilted his head as if that might make what she was saying make sense. “Do you think prom queen would be good enough to count?”

“To count for what?”

“To break the curse, silly.” Chrissy said and laughed like Eddie was playing a joke.

He'd been so hung up on the idea of royalty being a literal thing he hadn’t thought about the potential possibility of it being a metaphor. “I don't know. Hadn’t thought about it before.” He began because the only time he thought about prom was when he was on one of his rants and he wasn’t going to start his rant against prom and herd conformity to this lovely girl who was asking if she could help break his curse. “But maybe? At least for that part. But it still requires true love’s kiss.”

Now it was her turn to blush, not that she could tell he’d been blushing earlier. “Oh, well.” She laughed awkwardly, a high pitched, nervous twitter that would have hurt his human ears. “Um, I guess I can admit to having a bit of a crush on you.” She squeaked and gripped the table, her knuckles going white with tension. He couldn't stop staring at her expressive hands, wishing he could hold them in his. He took the next best option and waddled over to one of them and leaned up against it, hoping it would sooth her obvious tension. “I kinda have since middle school. The talent show.”

Eddie thought for a moment. “You did the thing, with the-” if he had hands he would have mimed cheering a bit but now he was forced to say, “uh, pom poms and the back flip.”

“You remember?” Her hands had relaxed enough that she started to stroke the top of Eddie’s head, in between his ears, with one of her fingers.

“Yeah, you were really nice to my band.”

“Corroded Coffin!” She blurted out, loud enough to make Eddie jump a bit. “Sorry.”

“No worries, instincts to avoid loud noises, I guess.” They breathed in silence at the table in the clearing for a while while she stroked his head and he nuzzled against her hand. Daring and intimate in a way he’d never been at school with anyone let alone Chrissy Cunningham.

“Eddie, I’d like to try to break your curse if I win prom queen next week.”

“Alright, princess.” He said. “I guess we can meet back up here in a week and a half. You can try then?”

“Oh, I was thinking you could stay in my house until then, that way when I get back from prom we could try right away?”

“Uh, sure.” He said because the idea of being warm and safe from predators for the next week, even if the kiss didn’t work, sounded heavenly.

Turned out she got a ride home from friends or her boyfriend Jason everyday. “I want to break up with him, but he won’t let me. I’m hoping after prom he won’t have a reason any more and I can go.” Was all she’d said about it like not letting someone break up with you was a normal statement. Eddie was pretty sure that wasn’t how relationships worked, but he’d never really dated anyone so he could be wrong. He didn’t think he was though.

Since he couldn’t ride home with her, they had to meet up at her house. She gave him directions but they were not as helpful from a bat’s eye view above the streets as driving in a car and it took him longer than he wanted. However, he found a tree to rest in and waited to see which room was hers as the sun went down.

Soon enough, one of the rooms facing the backyard, lit up and Eddie could see Chrissy walking around in there. He flew over landing on the windowsill and tapped on it with his little claws. It wasn’t a very loud sound but Eddie was afraid of calling out in case someone heard him. Chrissy must have been expecting him, though, because she opened her window and held out her hand for him to climb into.

“Hey, Eddie.” She greeted him.

“Hey, princess.” He said as he hopped from her hand onto her bed. “This is nice, so soft.” He flopped back on it, his wings spread wide. It wasn’t as comfy a position to be in as a bat as when he’d been human, but after months of rough nature, a soft bedspread over a mattress felt blissfully comforting. “You can leave me here to die. I’m good.”

Chrissy smiled and poked him in the belly. He gripped onto her finger with his feet and hung upside down as she pulled him up in front of her face. “Do you need anything? For sleeping or whatever?”

Which was a good point, and they started working out exactly how Eddie was going to eat and sleep for the next week. They decided she’d keep her window cracked during the day so he could squeeze in and out of it as he’d like to go hunting or to spy on his Uncle Wayne. And while a soft pillow next to Chrissy sounded like an amazing way to sleep, in the end, he had to hang upside down from the curtain rod above the window near her bed. It meant that for a week the first and last thing Eddie saw every day was Chrissy in her bed.

The next week, the night of prom, Eddie helped Chrissy get ready. “Eddie, stop trying to help.” She laughed at him as he tried to hand her a make-up brush.

“But you are going to the battlefields of Hawkins High prom to win a favor for me, a lowly and cursed jester, O lady knight. I must repay you somehow.” He squeaked.

“Lady knight? I thought I was a princess?” She said, applying a shimmering blue color to her lid.

“You are indeed a princess already. Royalty of Hawkins High to be crowned queen this evening. You are also a knight ready to do battle for little ole me.”

“If I was a princess already, we could have broken the curse ages ago.”

“We’re already pushing it with the prom queen title, I think.” Eddie said, too afraid to share his fear that as wonderful, kind, and caring Chrissy was it wouldn’t be enough to break his curse.

She looked in the mirror. “Alright, I think I’m done.” She turned to him, still standing on her vanity. “How do I look?”

“Like Hawkins High’s newest prom queen.” He said.

“Thanks, Eddie. You’re the best.” She leaned forward and placed a small peck in between his ears.

The warmth of her lips against his head felt like an explosion as a tornado of heat and fire whipped around Eddie and through him, blotting out all his senses as he tried to withstand it and hold himself together. It went on for what felt like years without anything to anchor him but it must have been only moments because the next thing he knew, Eddie was looking up at Chrissy who was looking back down at him with wide, frightened eyes.

“Oh my god, Eddie.” She said as her Mom called out, “Chrissy, what was that noise.”

Chrissy looked at Eddie then went to the door and poked her head out, “sorry Mom, I tripped over some shoe boxes.”

Meanwhile Eddie realized he was no longer on the vanity. He was on the floor. And he wasn’t small any longer. He looked down and realized he was human. And naked. He grabbed a pillow from Chrissy’s bed (with his human arm and human hand!) and covered his junk. For his modesty.

“You better be ready for Jason, he’s coming to pick you up at seven.”

“Yes, Mom.” She called back before closing the door and turning back to him with a whisper. “Oh, my god. Eddie! You’re back.”

“Holy shit.” Eddie said, looking back at her with wide eyes.

Her eyes darted down to the pillow in his lap then back to his eyes. “Um, let me see if any of my clothes might fit you.”

She darted into her closet and rooted around, finally tossing a pair of sweats and a large t-shirt to him. “These are probably the largest things I own, I hope they fit.”

Three months ago, Eddie wouldn’t have dared be caught dead in Hawkin’s High gym sweats and a church community volunteer day shirt, but today Eddie was human again and got to wear clothes again so it no longer mattered to Eddie. Chrissy turned around to give him some privacy and he pulled the sweats on and the shirt, marveling at the softness of the fabric against his skin and the indefinable Chrissy smell he was enveloped within. “I’m decent, princess.” He paused. “I guess you really are Hawkins High royalty.”

She ran over to Eddie and wrapped him in her arms. “Oh, my god. You’re human, and you’re okay. I was so worried.” She said and squeezed him tight. Slowly, testing the waters so to speak, he wrapped his arms around her. She sighed into his chest before looking up at him.

“Can I kiss you, princess?” Eddie asked, humbled as the implications of breaking his curse started to filter through his mind. She nodded and he bent down to match their lips together. It started very chastely, just a press of lips against lips but she sighed against him and he licked at the seam of her lips opening them up and deepening the kiss. It was warm and hot and wet and Eddie wasn’t sure he’d ever had a better kiss in his life.

She pulled back. “Oh, god. I broke the curse.” She started laughing. “I really have to break up with Jason!”

“Yeah, uh, true love’s kiss and all.” Eddie agreed.

“Oh, wow. True love, huh?” Chrissy teased. She leaned forward again and bit down on his lip before kissing him again.

“Yeah, true love.” He said and smiled down at her.

Later, Chrissy would win prom queen. Later, she could break up with Jason. Later, Eddie would return to Wayne and find out his neighbor Max Mayfield knew about the weirdness in Hawkins and could help him get in contact with people who could help with his three months of displacement. Later, Chrissy and Eddie would start dating, both newly graduated from high school and ready to leave Hawkins behind them, curses and all.

#hellcheer au #hellcheerauweek #hellcheer #eddie x chrissy #bat!eddie #bisexual eddie munson #chrissy cunningham #the frog prince #fairytales #fairy tales #mythology and folklore #my fic #ao3 link

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