#mungrove week

[mungroveweek]

Mungrove Week 2023: Prompts

You guys voted for your favorite prompts, we regrouped some of them and put them under umbrella themes we hope will inspire you all! Find out more about the themes under the cut!

Day 1: Upside Down

Hell, that's definitely what the Upside Down feels like, whether they're stuck there, trying to escape or dealing with the aftermath.

What if Eddie died and woke up in the Upside Down to a friendly (or not) face? What if Billy was stuck in the Upside Down and weird things started happening at the Munsons' trailer, almost as if someone was trying to tell Eddie something? Or maybe they got out, but the Upside Down changed them, so much that they don’t really feel human anymore...

Day 2: Touch

It's about touch: the touch that brings comfort, the touch that brings pain, the touch that brings pleasure.

It's about not knowing what to do with a gentle touch, being desperate for any kind of touch, feeling too raw and vulnerable to be touched.

Overstimulation, flying fists, finally being touched after craving it for so long, missing someone’s touch, and the touch that never came.

Day 3: Firsts

You know the saying: there’s a first time for everything.

Experiencing something for the first time together, meeting for the first time, sharing a kiss for the first time.

Sharing something with someone for the first time, like a secret or one’s favorite meal, watching the childish wonder in someone’s eye as they see the ocean for the first time.

To be someone’s first friend, first love, first heartbreak, this day is all about being number one.

Day 4: On the road

A car, loud music, a seemingly endless road, is it a road trip or is someone running away from home?

This day is about cheap motels, hitchhiking, shenanigans and misadventures; fighting over the music or the last snack, getting lost because they can’t read a map, huddling for warmth at the back of the Camaro, finding a quiet spot to spend the night after a day spent on the road; Billy accompanying Eddie on tour, or maybe they’re going for a late night drive, just the two of them, it’s kinda like a date, right? 

Day 5: Stuck together

Something is connecting them, they can’t seem to be able to escape each other, they’re forced to work together.

Is it fate? They might just be meant to be together. Is it a spell, a curse, some kind of accident bonding them together? Someone might have just decided to lock them together inside a room, to pair them up for some kind of project.

The question is: are they going to fight it every step of the way or roll with it?

Day 6: H(a)unted

Things are going to get a little freaky, a little bit spooky. Ghosts, monsters, demons and other creatures of the night are on the menu this day. Maybe they’ll go ghost or monster hunting, maybe they’re the creature on the prowl; are they making a new friend or running away for their lives? 

It doesn’t have to be all bad, sometimes love can be found after death, sometimes a ghost isn’t really a ghost, and the monster just needs a little bit of love.

And sometimes the thing that’s haunting them is just the past. 

Day 7: Game Night

We can’t forget that Eddie is a D&D nerd and Billy a jock, and this is what day 7 is about: Dungeons and Dragons and Eddie’s last campaign, has he managed to convince Billy to join yet? That sure would surprise the Hellfire Club, but maybe not as much as if Eddie decided to go see a basketball game. 

This day is also about being young, stubborn, and yeah, a little bit stupid too; what kind of stupid bets do they make? Eddie might not be into parties, but what about drinking games? 

How far are they willing to go to win, and what happens if the answer is “too far”? 

The Spotify Playlist.

ALTERNATE SET: PHOTO PROMPTS You can swap photo prompts for any day you’d like!

1. Starcourt Mall

2. Twink Boutta Pounce Meme

3. Gif from Hannibal (TV Show), by prettyboysinpain

4. Two white masc people; the one in front is kneeling, with their hands behind their back. The one behind is faceless and standing up; they have a hand cupping the jaw of the one in front.

5. Vintage Heavy Metal

6. "Your crush is coming this way, be cool"

7. Oceanside Pier, San Diego

We're excited to see what you come up with, Mungrove Week will start on April 9, 2023, which is when we'll open the AO3 collection. We will post more details about posting and how to let us find your creations at a later date, in the meantime, we hope you have fun with those prompts! 🥰 If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to send us an ask or a DM here on Tumblr, you can also find us on the Mungrove discord server! 😁

[discodeviant]

MUNGROVE WEEK DAY 4: On The Road Old Western AU | Teen | 5.8k | Past Harringrove, Past Munver In collaboration with @thediktatortot based on their artwork, Love on the Midnight Ranges.

Cowboy Billy has been plaguing my mind for so long, this was a JOY to write. Lou's art had my brain bouncing all over the damn place, I had to write for it lol. Happy Mungrove Week!!! 😚🥰💖💖

Read on AO3 Preview below!

Eddie didn’t know how long he’d been running or how many nights he’d slept amidst the foggy Indiana backwoods. It was humid out there; he’d always known and hated the summers for that very reason, but he never did learn his lesson. So he trudged along the wide dirt path just off the railroad that stretched all the way to the border between California and Mexico. Maybe he’d make it there before long, let a couple coffee farmers take him in. Smithing wouldn’t be the same without Uncle Wayne—not that Eddie could keep the house up anyway. Not much longer. Not if he was in prison.

Just how far out of Hawkins he’d gone, he also didn’t know, but there wasn’t a sign of life to be seen unless he counted the buzzards and flies, the cicadas singing right under his feet. Damn, did he wish he had any tobacco left to stave off the hunger for a while longer. But it was just him and his hat and and the bindle slung over his shoulder until the day he found someplace to put it down where he wouldn’t have to pick it back up again. Of which, even if he played his cards right and prayed to the most gracious heavens above, he had little hope.

Billy Hargrove was a working man. Always had been, always would be, or that was what he told himself as he tended the farm singlehandedly. He was a lonesome fellow, though he liked it that way. Nice and quiet on his land and through the house until Stevie started barking up a storm in the mornings to tell him to wake up. He was an old white-and-brown sheepdog, damn near fifteen years old and still running around like a pup with too much energy. He kept the cattle in line and in order. All eight cows and three calves let Steve usher them into the barn at sundown so Billy could go through his evening routine that ended in dinner and counting what blessings he had left. A roof over his head, a close companion, food on the table, and safety. That was all he needed.

In the morning, while Billy was tending to his horse, Shelby, a sandy Appaloosa with white spots all along her back, Steve’s bark had his heart racing faster than she ran—and Shelby-girl ran fast. It was loud and frantic, higher in tone to alert him of danger on the premises. Acres and acres of empty land didn’t need much more security than the house, and his Winchester shotgun was plenty for one man and his dog. He went inside for it before Steve even made it back home. “What’s the matter, boy, huh?” Billy ran a hand down his back and held the scruff of his neck tight to let him know that he had it from there. “Is it those fuckin’ possums again? Swear to God—“ he said, but Steve started running off in the opposite direction from the possum hole.

“Toolshed?”

Woof!

Continue Reading on AO3 @mungroveweek

[midnightmare-fics]

I Promise I'll Save You

Ship: Mungrove (Eddie Munson/Billy Hargrove)

Rating: Explicit

Word Count: 4,767

Warnings: DEAD DOVE, graphic descriptions of violence and blood and injuries and vomit, sword-fucking, Vecna/Billy non-con, Vecna uses Billy as a puppet to gain the Shadow Monster's powers, Eddie will stop at nothing to save Billy, established Mungrove, emaciated Billy, victim Billy, savior Eddie, heavy angst/hurt-comfort, happy ending (I PROMISE)

Summary:

Eddie's laid his life on the line for his friends, accepted his fate, and hoped with this he could be reunited with his lost lover. Nothing goes according to plan... Well, mostly nothing. Wandering the Upside Down lost and injured, Eddie finds a (semi) familiar face: Billy, the love of his life. Except Billy looks nothing like himself, he's wasting away as Vecna's puppet, but Eddie doesn't care. He will do anything to save his love.

Events:

@mungroveweek - Day 1, Upside Down

@harringroveson-bingo - Card Three, Prompt B3 - "It's giving me the heebie-jeebies."

@billyhargrovebingo - Card One, Prompt C1 - Sword Fucking

@eddiemunsonbingo - Card One, Prompt B1 - Numb

Link:

[i-used-to-wear-the-fedora]

Run to the Hills

Possession for Day 6 of @mungroveweek !

It had been four days since Eddie had last seen his boyfriend, and at this point, he was worried. It had been almost three months since they'd become official. Well, as "official" as a gay couple in Hawkins could be. The two carefully sneaking behind the backs of judging eyes with only a handful of people knowing about the couple. If he couple, Eddie would excitedly get on a table and two the world about his love for Billy. He wanted to do that more than anything, but he couldn't. Not here in Bumfuck, Indiana. Not when Billy still lived with the walking shitbag that was Neil Hargrove. The blonde never said it, but Eddie saw the look of fear that crossed his boyfriend's eyes when the topic of his father came up.

"Kid, you okay?" Eddie didn't realize how anxiously he'd been scribbling into his notebook until he was surprised by his uncle's hand on his shoulder. The metalhead looked back to see his uncle holding the ugly Garfield mug Eddie bought him last father's day in his free hand with a concerned look on his face. "You look all worked up about something."

"It's nothing, Wayne." Eddie waved his uncle off. "Just...thinking about something."

"About that boy of yours? Haven't seen him come 'round these past few days."

"No, just...just trying to get ready for my senior year. Again. I'm thinking about getting a tutor." A blatant lie. Wayne didn't need to know that.

"Right." Wayne replied with a raised eyebrow. "Well, I'm leaving for work. Make sure to lock the door behind you when you leave."

"Yeah, sure." Eddie agreed half heartedly as Wayne left the trailer. His attention returned to the notebook page now covered almost completely in black pen scribbles. Damn it, this was really starting to bother him. Eddie glanced to the side at the phone on the wall. He wanted to call Billy. But there was also the chance Neil would pick up. Eddie could only imagine what the man would do if another boy called asking to talk to his son. "Damn it." Eddie cursed quietly, contemplating what to do when there was a knock on the front door.

"The hell?" Eddie asked out loud as he got up. Going over to the door with mild confusion. "Wayne?" He called out experimentally. "You forget something?" The teen pressed his face to the door and looked through the peephole. His eyes widened as he recognized the figure on his porch. Eddie practically yanked the door open where he was greeted by the familiar figure of his boyfriend. "Billy! Holy shit!" Eddie exclaimed, probably a bit too loudly, but he didn't care. "Fuck, I was starting to get worried about you," Eddie led the blonde into the trailer excitedly," I almost called-wait, shit, Billy, are you okay?" It took a solid minute for Eddie to notice the state of his boyfriend. Billy stared at him blankly as his body shook. A sheen of sweat covered his distressed face with a mess of blonde curls matted to the sides. He looked like a hot mess. Even worse, Eddie took note of the bruises that covered his arms and chest.

"Fuck, what happened to you?" Eddie asked as he gently took one of Billy's hands in his. "Did that bastard do that to you? I swear to God, I'll kill him if he did-"

"Already did that." Billy finally spoke, his voice coming out through gritted teeth. "You're next."

"What?" Eddie asked as confusion knit into his face. "Come on, dude, what-?" Eddie was cut off by one of the blonde's hands darting out and grabbing him by the throat. Immediately, the boy began to panic as he tried to struggle against Billy's grip. He watched in horror as Billy's veins began to bulge and his eyes darkened. With a supernatural strength, Billy lifted him off the ground single handedly.

"He became a part of us. So will you and everyone else in this God forsaken town." The voice that spilled out wasn't Billy. Eddie knew his boyfriend, this wasn't him. Something was wearing his skin like a disgusting flesh puppet. Maybe an alien. Eddie was struggling to think as he struggled to stay awake and breathe. His arms fell to the side as things started to grow fuzzy. Barely maintaining consciousness when the grip suddenly relented.

Eddie fell to the floor, gasping for air as his vision swam back into the focus. Looking up, Eddie saw Billy standing above him as his body twitched and jerked side to side.

"You can't have him."

"You can't tell us what we can have."

"No! I'll fucking kill you if you touch him again."

"Why must you continue to fight?"

Eddie watched in confusion as Billy's voice switched back and forth, his arms literally tearing at each other when his head snapped to face Eddie.

"Run!" Billy's voice screamed at him. Eddie couldn't help but obey as his feet carried him out the door and far, far away from his home and his boyfriend. A sinking feeling buried itself in Eddie's gut as he wondered what the hell he was supposed to do now.

[billyharringson]

Day 3 fill for @mungroveweek and I'm using the prompt 'first' as 'first meeting'

Title: Pump it

Rating: Teen and Up

Summary: Chrissy drags Eddie to an 80s themed aerobics class. Eddie complains until he sees who's teaching it.

AO3:

[cicadasketch]

Here’s a bunch of silly messy little sketches for the mungrove peeps

[mispatchedgreens]

prompts: Midsummer and Sharing the shade, for @mungrovebingos

Illustrations for the pseudo-folktale of Sunshine boy and the Unicorn

Recommended listening:

//father sun - villagers of ioannina city

//dúlamán - clannad

// fehu - wardruna

//chassidic dance - warsaw village band

[shieldofiron]

I certainly love to put him with a traumatized Blonde.

[stranger-rants]

Dying to Live

Mungrove Week - Day 1: Out of The Upside Down

A Mini Ficlet About Cheating Death Part 1 of 2 (Also on AO3, here!)

The Death Year Curse strikes few, poor unlucky souls with the year of a their death written on their wrist. No one knows what triggers it, but some say it’s divine punishment for something shameful the parent or parents of the child have done. It almost always strikes the first born sons - how biblical. There must be some truth to it, because Billy’s death year emerges on his wrist the same year his mother leaves.

1985.

Billy was terrified of death as a child. The agony of dying. The unknown. 1985. He would be 18 in 1985. He would die in 1985. The thought of how it would happen plagued him for a while, but in his mother’s absence he grew so used to pain that death almost felt like a reprieve. A dream. He began courting death. Drinking. Driving fast. Smoking excessively. Snapping back at his father to welcome a beating…

After all, he wasn’t going to die yet.

There was still a part of Billy that fought the curse. He was stubborn like that. He tried in school. Worked multiple jobs, you know - just in case? Maybe he survives this stupid thing and what would surviving get him if he had no plans to live? Christ. Both life and death looked bleak for Billy, but he persisted.

Billy could not possibly predict the way in which he was going to go. Who could? He didn’t know why he fought so hard against it, despite knowing deep in his heart that this was the way it was going to end. Perhaps it was his one last attempt to defy fate. To not be controlled. The monster’s sharp tendrils pierced his sides, soaking his clothes in blood. The pain was unreal, but it would be over soon.

.

Eddie got his curse the year his parents got arrested, and his uncle took him in. When Eddie innocently asked what it was, Wayne didn’t know what to say but he figured that honesty was the best policy. After all, people would talk and they did talk. They said his parents must have made a deal with the devil. That Eddie was destined for “hellfire,” but Wayne always assured he did nothing wrong.

1986.

Eddie decided he wasn’t going to let that stop him from living it up while he still could. He was here to have a good time, not here for a long time. He slacked off in school so he could enjoy the finer things in life. B Movies. Comics. Dungeons and Dragons. Metal. Of course, there was the recreational drugs and alcohol, too - what could it hurt?

After all, he wasn’t going to die yet.

Thinking about death… he tried not to do it, but hearing about the mall fire a year before did keep him up at night occasionally. What a terrible way to go. Eddie had always hoped he died easy, but in a cool way. Like getting electrocuted by his electric guitar by accident or something. That seemed rad. Eddie avoided conflict in the meantime, and took it easy. He didn’t care if it made him a coward.

Never could he have imagined inter dimensional bats ripping into him. He chuckled a bit to himself as the blood filled his mouth. Yeah, what a terrible way to go. Ah, well. At least he was able to save his friends some time? Hopefully? It’s not like he would be alive to see it, and that’s perhaps the part that sucked the most about all of this.

.

Everything was dark for a while, like being asleep without dreaming. Then Eddie awoke. Everything looked the same as Hawkins, but wrong. Cursed. Strange. The woods around him were dark with creepy, crawling creatures of the Upside Down all about him but they didn’t do much of anything to him. Didn’t acknowledge him. It was like he was… dead to them.

“Welcome to hell”

Eddie sat up with a jolt upon hearing the voice.

The Billy Hargrove of Starcourt Mall Fire Legend held out his hand to help Eddie up. He looked like a ghost, all pale with dried blood on his clothes. He didn’t seem real until Eddie took his hand. Solid.

“Am I?”

“Dead? Yeah,” Billy replied, without much decorum.

“Shit,” Eddie ran his hands over his own shirt, checking his wounds. Nothing was there. It was if he was never mauled by dozens of demobats. “Holy - this is, what? You-You’ve been dead for almost a year! You been here this entire time?”

“In hell?” A painful look flashed across Billy’s face, “Yeah, I guess.”

Damn. It felt like an eternity had passed. Billy was starting to go crazy with no people around. He hated that. The neediness he felt despite being, well, dead. When he imagined hell, he thought of endless suffering. Fire and brimstone. Devils poking him with spears. This was like that in a way. The endless suffering part, except the suffering was mostly the solitude, and there were the strange creatures…

How could it not be hell?

“Dude,” Eddie huffed, looking around them and patting the dust off his jeans, “this isn’t hell.”

Billy frowned.

“Then what the hell is it?”

[pinkkinoko]

Prompt one is done I’m gonna go jump into a volcano, the amount of crippling self doubt that hit me while working on this, and I don’t even know wHY😭😭😭

Prompt was a mix of “tied up/ribbon” and “Eddie’s van” 🥰💖

[greyghoulclub]

mungrove week 2023 - prompt 1: Upside Down

Written for @mungroveweek

Edit with the Ao3 link: Memories like knives, so I run to you

Billy antis DNI. 2.3k words

——————————————————————————

When Billy died, he expected to see nothing. He didn’t expect to be in a parallel version of Hawkins where monsters with no face roamed and the air was thick with mystery spores. Was this his version of Hell? Maybe. Living in the real Hawkins certainly was.

He didn’t even know what the hell was that thing that killed him was. A twisted mess of amalgamated flesh with teeth and claws. He remembered Max’s screaming as he faced it down to protect the girl who had reached out to him while he was under its control. He remembered the searing pain when its teeth ripped into his forearms and when it plunged more of its arms into his sides and finally into his chest. After that, it was a blur of neon lights and the sounds of fireworks exploding.

Next thing he knew, he had woken up in this bizarro version of Hawkins.

Night or day didn’t exist here, it was always dark with occasional flashes of red lighting in the sky. The monsters with no faces had sniffed at him but eventually left him alone. Maybe he smelled too dead to be their lunch. He aimlessly walked around, maybe this was his punishment for being a dick in his short life, to walk around a town he hated for eternity and to think about what he did. He’d never get the chance to apologise properly, to show Max and the others that he was trying to be better. Maybe she’d never forgive him, but he thought he probably deserved that. He just prayed that Neil didn’t turn to Max after he was gone. He thought about his mom, how she would maybe never know what happened to him, did she know he was buried in Hawkins? Would she visit his grave?

He eventually found the house on Cherry Lane, but it didn’t look like the Hargrove-Mayfield family had ever moved here. No truck or Camaro in the driveway, just an old SUV. When he entered the house, the first thing he saw was a calendar for November 1983 with red crosses up until the 6th. Billy was pretty sure he died on the 4th of July 1985. Wait, wasn’t November 1983 when the Byers kid went missing? He remembered Susan saying that she had heard something about it from her friends at work. Had he gone back in time? But then shouldn’t he be back in San Diego? Too many questions that couldn’t be answered.

He walked through the hallways of his house, it wasn’t his house, but he didn’t know what else to call it. The walls were pristine, with no signs of fists or bodies being driven into them. No signs of Neil Hargrove’s wrath. He reached what would’ve been Max’s room, the door was slightly ajar and he looked inside. There were posters of pop stars, stuffed toys on the bed, a full-length mirror and a vanity with the remnants of a teenage girl getting ready to go out. He could believe this could’ve been Max’s room if she had never crossed paths with the Hargrove family.

Then he reached what would’ve been his room.

It wasn’t as lifeless as his had been. There were no signs that anyone had been thrown into the walls or that anything precious had been broken by angry hands. Whoever had this room before Billy had been happy. A tear rolled down his cheek, and he wiped it away, feeling a little embarrassed. Fucking crying for what he could’ve had if he had been able to go with his mom. He’d never have it now.

He left the house before he could break. He ran from the unhappy memories of the house on Cherry Lane, ran from the thought of who he had left behind, and who he could’ve been. He ran until his lungs burned, remembering the coach’s words about his smoking. He ended up in front of the Palace Arcade. He’d dropped off Max many times here before, usually ending in a screaming match about her needing quarters for the machines.

He leaned against the arcade wall and cried. He felt his chest heave with the sobs that racked his body. He felt the phantom pains from where that flesh monster got him.

“Max, Sinclair, everyone, I’m so goddamn sorry…” he hiccuped between words, “I’m sorry I was the monster you had to run away from. Max, I’m sorry I wasn’t the big brother you needed.”

He cried until he couldn’t anymore, he felt kind of lighter afterwards even if he was stuck in twilight zone Hawkins. But he couldn’t shake the thought that he maybe wasn’t dead. He didn’t know how he couldn’t be dead, that thing had pierced him all the way through. He had lost way too much blood. Hell, the last thing he remembered from the Starcourt Mall was Max crying over his body, and Steve Harrington in a dumb sailor costume. He had come to the realisation that this version of Hawkins didn’t play by the regular rules.

Was this place the reason why Max was always looking over her shoulder? Was this the reason why she never left the house alone? What the hell did Max get involved in? Was the thing that possessed and killed him part of this?

He thought about that night at the Brimborn Steelworks, the thing that pulled him down the stairs by his ankles and shoved something into his mouth. Bile rose in his throat. If he spoke about this with anyone, who would believe him? But he got away right? No, he didn’t. Not really. It made him swallow something and that something controlled him. It made him do stuff he didn’t want to. His chest felt tight, and his breathing shallow. Oh god, he really didn’t want to think about what it made him do. All those people, they- they were melted together to make that flesh monster. He kidnapped Heather and her family to make that monster. Did that mean he was a monster too?

He could hear his heartbeat and his fingers and toes felt tingly. Was he dying for real now? Were the spores in the air killing him? His throat felt like it had closed up when he tried to swallow. He couldn’t breathe. He needed to breathe.

“Ok, Billy,” he forced out a shaky breath, “remember what mom told you when you fell off your board. Stay calm and breathe.” His inhales were still shaky but his mind wasn’t racing anymore. A flash of the red lighting made him jump, but this time it was at a specific place, not just generally over the sky, but at the Forest Hills trailer park. That was weird for this place, right?

“What the hell is going on?” but still Billy started to trudge his way to the trailer park.

When he got closer to the park he could hear some music. Music? What the hell? And it wasn’t like, the creepy music that you hear when Micheal Myers is after you, it was metal. Who the hell is putting on a concert in fucking Mordor?

He heard voices as he got closer, he couldn’t tell who they were from where he was in the bushes. He could see a platform with some amps set up over Eddie’s trailer. Wait was Eddie here? Did he get involved too?

Billy didn’t want to think how Eddie did, Eddie was his sense of normality in the chaos that was his life. If Neil had been particularly angry one night, Eddie was always a 10-minute walk away if he climbed out his window. Eddie would make him laugh and they’d get high and listen to whatever cassettes each other would bring over. Billy would never admit to it, but Eddie’s cafeteria antics made him laugh. Like Eddie was his jester.

Eddie had this way of worming his way through even the most guarded of people’s walls. He hadn’t even flinched when Billy had snapped and snarled at him. It was like Eddie had just decided that he would be Billy’s friend as soon as the blond had pulled into Hawkins blasting Metallica as loud as his car speakers would allow.

Along the way, Billy started developing a crush on Eddie, the was just something about this goofy Tolkien nerd who was also a metalhead that got Billy’s stomach infested with butterflies. The way he scrunched his nose when he laughed, or his dumb tier list of sodas that he drank in his stupid goblet. Billy still thought mountain dew was gross but Eddie seemed to live off the stuff.

The night before Billy got possessed, he had nearly worked up the guts to tell Eddie how he felt. It had taken a lot of cheering himself on and some rapid fire acceptance that he was, in fact, gay. He had the Dio tape that he had saved to get in his back pocket, messily wrapped in some old wrapping paper that Susan insisted on saving. Deep breath, in and out.

Eddie had been happy to see him as always, and invited him into the trailer. Eddie said Wayne would be at work late tonight so they had the couch all to themselves. Billy accepted but he was still wound tightly, ready to run if this went wrong. Even if Eddie was his closest friend, scratch that, Eddie was Billy’s only friend, Billy still couldn’t settle.

“Billy? Are you ok?” Eddie looked at him with eyes full of concern. Billy figured that he looked like he was waiting for a bomb to go off.

Might as well bite the bullet.

“Uh Eddie, I wanna tell you something,” Billy pulled the parcel out of his pocket, “Ireallylikeyouok?” he thrust the tape at Eddie, his face burning. Eddie took the tape and unwrapped it, he was overjoyed at the new Dio tape Billy had given him.

“What did you say Billy? You were talking so fast I didn’t understand you,” Eddie scratched the back of his head, doing that little half grin that made Billy’s heart pound.

Billy stuttered his way through his confession again, he was sure most of the blood in his body was in his cheeks at this point. He didn’t expect Eddie launch himself in a flying kiss at Billy from the other end of the couch. They were a tangle of limbs, both trying to kiss the other as much as possible.

“Wait, do you like me too?” Billy was breathless from the kisses, he couldn’t take his eyes off of Eddie, with the living room light shining off his hair like a halo. Maybe this was as close to heaven as Billy would ever get.

Eddie laughed and answered that of course he did and kissed Billy again. Neither of them wanted this moment to end. They lay there, lazily kissing each other while Nightmare on Elm Street played on the TV. Neither of them heard the trailer door open.

“Oh, uh, sorry if I’m interrupting something boys,” Wayne Munson stood awkwardly in the doorway. Billy’s blood turned to ice in a second. He wiggled himself out from under Eddie.

“Billy where are you going?” Eddie sounded heartbroken from the couch. He looked as if he was about to cry.

“I’m sorry Eddie I have to go,” he squeezed past Wayne, “I’m sorry Mr Munson, I won’t come around here again.”

“Son I don’t mind-” Wayne started to say but Billy was already pulling away in the Camaro.

Now seeing Eddie on that platform playing his absolute heart out to ward off the winged monsters, he was just as beautiful as Billy remembered. His fingers flew over the frets, Billy didn’t know what Eddie was playing but it sounded good. Billy could also see Steve, the curly haired kid- Dustin, Nancy Wheeler, and the band kid Steve worked at scoops with alongside Eddie but Billy was fixated on the guitarist.

Red lightning flashed and the bat-monsters swirled around Eddie, he seemed to be making a distraction for the others to get away. But then how was Eddie getting out? Billy wanted to run over and help but he didn’t think the others would take too kindly to an undead Billy Hargrove, especially Steve. He could hear Dustin and Eddie whooping “Most metal concert ever!” until the bats swarmed again. Dustin managed to get away. Eddie didn’t.

“No!” Billy yelled and ran over to where Eddie lay as fast he could. The bats had taken chunks out of him left and right, he lay in a pool of his own blood. Eddie’s eyes looked glassy but still focused on Billy. A shaky hand reached out to touch Billy’s cheek.

“Eddie, why are you here?” the tears fell before Billy realised. Eddie smiled and leaned up to press his lips to Billy’s.

“Could ask you the same thing sunshine. I never forgot you,” Billy held Eddie’s hand to his cheek.

“I’m sorry for running away Eddie. I was scared.” Billy grabbed Eddie’s hand and kissed the knuckles. He blinked the tears out of his eyes and hoped to any gods or deities out there that Eddie would forgive him.

“It’s ok Billy, I understand now why you ran, Max told us what happened when we visited your grave.” Eddie wiped a tear from Billy’s cheek. “I had a gut feeling that you might not be dead after what Steve and Dustin told me about this place.” Eddie shuffled himself up to a sitting position and pulled Billy close to him. “I don’t know why but I just knew that the fire at the mall wasn’t true. It seemed too convenient.”

“It was the monster, it was me,” Billy held Eddie tightly, not wanting to lose him again.

“It wasn’t you, you got possessed. I know you Billy and I know you’d never do that,” Eddie kissed his forehead, “I love you Billy Hargrove, and I’d like for us to try again.”

“I’d like to try again as well Eddie Munson.”

[mungroveweek]

Are you guys ready for the most metal week of all time? That's right, Mungrove Week 2023 will be running from April 9 to April 15, 2023! 🦇

Prompt submissions will open on January 22, 2023! For more information, you can check out our masterpost and in the meantime, please help us spread the word! =D

[robthegoodfellow]

Chapters: 10/10 Fandom: Stranger Things (TV 2016) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Billy Hargrove/Eddie Munson Characters: Billy Hargrove, Eddie Munson Additional Tags: Looney Tunes References, Billy Hargrove Lives, Eddie Munson Lives, Well Depending on Your Definition of "Lives", Certainly They Are Walking Talking Fighting Crime, In the Upside-Down Tho, On Account of Their Bods Being Toast, Might Find a Way to Reverse That, For Now I Just Want Them to Rig Vecna w/ Dynamite and Smash Him w/ Anvils from the Sky, Eddie Munson in the Upside Down, Billy Hargrove in the Upside Down Summary:

Eddie wakes up in the Upside-Down and is promptly ushered into Billy Hargrove's manhole.

[findafight]

To that anon who sent an ask months ago about how the one-sided harr!ngrove would be funnier if Eddie had been hooking up with billy before he and Steve started dating I hope you know I've finally started writing that and idk what my life is anymore

[i-used-to-wear-the-fedora]

Dough-Si-Do

For Day 5 of @mungroveweek !

"We are not naming her Shannon Dough-erty."

"Why not? It's a clever flour pun!"

"Ugh, why did I have to get stuck with you as a partner?" Billy asked with a roll of his eyes as Eddie stared at him with an exaggerated look of shock. Say between the boys at the lunchroom table was their third period home ec project. A pink flour bag with a smiley face drawn on the front in permanent marker. Mrs. Sharp had paired off the class randomly for a project worth twenty-five percent of their grade. For one week, everyone would have to take care of the bag of flour as if they were a real human baby. Billy should've known it was just his luck to get paired with Eddie Munson.

"Hey, I'm just trying to do this project right! I need an A on it if I want to pass this year!" Eddie exclaimed as he lifted the worksheet they were given. "And we're going to need to give her a name."

"How do we even know she's a her?"

"She's a pink flour bag, duh."

"Last week you gave everyone in the cafeteria a rant about gender norms and how people shouldn't be defined by them." Billy deadpanned. Sadly, he was on the same boat. Despite what some people's would think, he was actually a pretty good student. As and Bs in everything but Home Ec. A class that, for some reason, was a requisite to graduate. It was all stupid shit like how to do laundry or cook. "Woman work," if you asked his dad. Billy didn't try in the class. He was afraid of his father seeing anything higher than a C in this class on his report card. The plan backfired, and with only a month and a half to graduation, Billy was at a hard F. He needed an A to pass the class too. "But whatever Munson, you want her to get picked on in the hypothetical school she'd go to, be my guest."

"Hey, I will kick those other hypothetical kids asses if they even look at her wrong." This made Billy snicker. Maybe being partnered with the class burnout wouldn't be that bad.

[billyharringson]

My first fill for @mungroveweek is a good old fashioned songfic

Prompt: Stuck in the Upside Down (9th April)

Title: Ghost

Rating: Mature

Tags/warnings: Major Character Death

Additional tags: Songfic, Angst, Character Death, Eddie Munson in the Upside Down, Billy Hargrove in the Upside Down, Blood and Injury, Implied Sexual Content, Time Skips, Not sure if this counts as a sad ending or not

Summary: Billy has been trapped in the Upside Down for longer than he can remember. One day he meets another trapped soul that might just make this hell worth it.

Written to the song 'Ghost' by Gunship.

AO3: