Gareth notices first and as soon as Gareth has a thought he has to share it.
They’re at Hellfire (now hosted in Mike Wheeler’s armpit of a basement) having just finished a long combat when Eddie declares it time for a break and without any further preamble dashes up the stairs, taking them two at a time, and calling dibs on the main bathroom.
The others are taking a bit longer to get to their break. They all stand like they’re in some kind of synchronised swimming competition and all reach up in unison to crack the various bones that need to, heaving out groans and mumbles about shitty chairs.
“So,” Gareth says as he rubs his fingers in his eyes. “Eddie has a crush.”
Jeff collapses back in his chair to burry his face in folded arms with a groan. “I can’t do this again, Gare-Bear.”
Gareth wrinkles his nose at the nickname, and mentally curses his mom for using it around his friends. They’ve never been able to let it go.
“Wait, what?” Dustin asks. His head is bouncing between Gareth, Jeff, and Grant, eyes tracking over their faces to see if they’re just trying to fuck with him. As if Eddie’s love life wasn’t already tragic enough without the added fun of trying to bother some kids with it.
Grant nodded sagely. “Unfortunately, it only gets worse from here.”
Mike, who had been half way towards the stairs, now joins in. “What gets worse? He’s being normal Eddie, or like, as normal as Eddie can get.”
Gareth shares a long look with his bandmates, all seemingly coming to the same conclusion. These kids were here to stay, that much had become clear after the Spring Break/Eddie in a coma Saga, so they could be let in on a few Eddie secrets, not the big one, never the big one until Eddie told them. These were more secrets about Eddie that Eddie was completely unknowledgeable about.
“You remember the bartender at The Three Brothers we spoke to to find out about the curse?” Gareth says, somehow becoming the voice for the older members of Hellfire. “Did you notice the way Eddie described him?”
“He talked a lot about his hair?” Will offered quietly. He was new to Hellfire so Gareth didn’t really know him, but just from the way Will played his cleric, he could tell that he was a damn sight more observant than his friends.
“Exactly!” Gareth pointed. “That is Clue 1 in the ‘Eddie Munson Has a Crush’ textbook. He gets so hung up on that one thing that he likes the most about who he’s crushing on, get ready to hear a lot about the NPC’s hair. Clue 2 is that when he comes thundering down those stairs in a minute and realises we haven’t actually done anything with our break, he won’t be shitty about us taking extra time. He just gets nice outta nowehere.”
“Eddie always hates when he has to wait for us though!”
Jeff finally pulled his head up from his arms. “Just watch, and it’s the one good thing that’s going to come from this crush, so make the most of it.”
The four boys all gave each other looks that seemed to be conveying a whole conversation. They seemed to come to the same conclusion just as Eddie, as Jeff predicted, thundered down the stairs, skipping the last one so he could jump to the floor and theatrically clap his hands.
“Who’s ready to get fucked up by what I have planned next?” He asked, not even noticing the way the rest of the boys hadn’t moved from their places stretching next to the table.
“Sorry man. I still gotta go to the bathroom,” Lucas quickly said before Dustin could start grilling Eddie about his crush.
Eddie shrugged with a smile. “No worries, Sinclair. You gotta go when you gotta go, right?”
This was particularly offensive to Mike, who when he first joined Hellfire had been forced to squirm in his seat for over an hour while Eddie threatened to kill his PC off if Mike left the table to use the bathroom. He turned his gobsmacked expression to Gareth who could only raise his eyebrows in a kind of ‘told you so’ gesture.
Lucas, to his credit, didn’t let on that he was also gobsmacked and rushed up the stairs. Will and Mike followed him quickly, stumbling out an excuse about getting more drinks. Eddie being amenable was seemingly still too new to let them make the most of it, the Corroded Coffin boys had at least been through this three notable times before.
“Get me a coke while you’re up there, please?” Eddie called out after them. He kicked up his feet to rest on the edge of the table, crossed at the ankles and rocked back onto the back two legs of his chair. He turned to the Corroded Coffin boys. “I’ve been thinking about arranging this song, not our usual style but I think it could sound totally metal if I did it right.”
“What song?” Jeff asked carefully.
Grant caught Dustin’s eye and mouthed ‘Clue 3′. Dustin nodded as if he were mentally taking notes, which if Gareth knew anything about the kid, he probably was. He took to the puzzles Eddie laid out for them with more gusto than anyone else.
Eddie closed his eyes and brought his hands up in front of him as if he were tenderly cradling his warlock. His fingers worked over imaginary frets. “Dancing in the Dark. Springsteen.”
“That’s Steve’s favourite song,” Dustin blurted out, clamping his hand over his mouth when Eddie’s fingers paused in the air.
A slow smile spread over his face. “Is it?”
Gareth turned to his best friends to see the expression he wore mirrored two times over.
Holy shit.
Eddie was crushing on Steve Harrington.
(part 2)
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Shows I don't watch but vaguely follow via mutuals
Fireman 911 - I think there's two shows? Both very gay? And about 5 times a season someone is v. hurt, oh no!
The Man From Uncle - there's actually two men who are hot for each other but must do spy stuff. Does it count if it's been off the air for 50 years?
Untamed - ...I'm at a complete fucking loss here. It seems like the more gifs I see, the less I understand.
Starsky and Hutch - much like The Man from Uncle you got dark haired and blond partners that wanna shag only in the 70s now.
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