#quartermaster munson 🫧

[spideyanakin]

10 things i hate about you - chapter 6

eddie munson x harrington!reader

summary - a new rule strikes the Harrington household: if Steve wishes to date ever again, his sister needs to find a boyfriend first. As Steve becomes desperate and thinks of everything in his power to set her up, only one guy comes to mind that will take up a challenge such as that: Eddie Munson.

warnings - the moment you have all been dreading (I'm half sorry), mentions of death, eddie and his questionable dares, joyce buying christmas lights in april, some fluffy fluff, and ofc; a sprinkle of angst

word count - 8.8k

thank you to the amazing @inknopewetrust for proof reading most of this series <3

series masterlist

eddie munson masterlist

"Eds!" Gareth clapped his hands in front of his friend's face. 

“What?”

"You're sulking"

"I'm not sulking."

"Why are you sulking?" 

There was a pause, a short, challenging silence slithering between the trays of food and drinks before Eddie spoke again with solemn words;  "I think I'm in love with her." 

And just as the words left Eddie's lips; Gareth huffed loudly alongside two other Hellfire boys. Gareth sent a piercing glare towards his dungeon master–ripping a piece of white bread from his tray and throwing said piece towards Eddie’s face, making it land in his curls.

“Hey! What was that for?” Eddie swatted the bread away, watching with raised eyebrows as his three closest friends fished for something in their pockets; simultaneously pulling out twenty dollar bills. Eddie watched, eyebrows creasing to a frown as the three twenty dollar bills traveled across the table; right into Oliver’s hand.

"Did you have to say love?" Jeff whined.

"Yeah, the bet was lower at like, or really liked," Gareth gruffed, Oliver simply shrugged while Eddie stared—too dumbfounded to speak. The blonde guitarist counted his money before neatly folding it and placing it in his back pocket.

"I'm going to pretend like you guys haven't betted on me," Eddie said before poking his fork around his plate, attention focused on the carotte he was making dance across the paper. “Anyways, it’s not that bad, you guys should be happy for me!”

"Yes it's bad, terrible even!" Oliver dropped his can of mountain dew, drops spilling out from the harsh clatter of it against the table–and Eddie gulped when he made eye contact with the daggers in Oliver’s eyes.

Unfortunately, all his lost heart could do was look back at him like a lost puppy–big eyes pleading for help rather than judgment, and just for a moment–Oliver caved. 

A short sigh escaped the blonde’s lips, and he leaned back on his chair in thought. That action caused a new silence, one filled with short huffs and glances from the boys; right until Eddie broke it again.

"I know," he pushed his tray away before leaning back, imitating his guitarist, "I don't know what to do."

"Call the deal off?" Gareth suggested.

"Yeah, that's the most obvious thing, Gareth!" Eddie almost screamed. "One problem; Steve keeps handing me bills like he’s a fucking ATM machine. I have three hundred fucking dollars from him that I refuse to use!"

"I thought that's what you wanted, extra cash," Oliver’s voice was dry, and it almost made Eddie flinch.

"I don’t think I ever took the deal for the money…” He closed his eyes, sighing through his nose, “I think she kind of always fascinated me.”

“So, let me get this straight. Instead of just asking the girl out, you made a deal with her brother that he’d pay you to go out with her?”

“Kind of?” He winced at his own words. “I didn’t realise how fucked up this whole situation was!”

“As if we hadn’t warned you!” Olivier exclaimed, tone almost condescending which sent a new pang across Eddie’s chest. 

He didn’t want this. He didn’t need judgment from his best friends, his own internal turmoil was enough.

He was asking for help and Oliver was throwing hard cold judgment across his face like the iced daggers he’d write about for his campaigns.

He felt like Boromir. Tempted by the worst of forces–hypnotized by his mistakes, too enticed to step back–and now he was paying the consequences, as invisible arrows were shot right through his heart.

“Hey calm down Ol’,” Gareth defended, humming in the best soothing tone he could muster; “screaming at Eddie won’t make this any better for him.”

“Right, because he so understood when we told him this was a bad idea three weeks ago,” and with his words, the table fell silent.

Everyone looked at each, carefully assessing the situation and how to proceed. Would anyone dare to break the silence? Even Jeff wondered if he could chew his food and finish his lunch without all eyes turning to him.

Eddie crossed his arms over his chest in subconscious defense—gaze to the side and fixed on the back of a random blue cafeteria chair.

He truly didn’t know what to do. Everything in him wanted to cancel this stupid deal, tell you the truth and just hope that you wouldn’t hate him forever. 

Or maybe he could call the deal off and never say a thing—but he’d have to live with that secret for the rest of your relationship.

But thinking about the possibility that you could discover the deal on your own made him shiver. He knew that would hurt you the most, that you’d most, probably, definitely hate him for the rest of your days, and he could say goodbye to ever even being close to you again.  

“Hey boys,” your sweet voice broke the undeniable tension, and like a bee pulled towards honey; Eddie turned his full attention to you.

He didn’t know if you noticed the energy, but if you did you didn’t say anything. He did notice your shoulder tense as every eye around the table turned to you, an oldy intimidating silence slithering up your spine–but the second Eddie’s hand reached your waist, it dissolved into a content smile.

“What were you talking about, I didn’t interrupt anything, did I?”

“Spring Fling.” 

“Our next performance.”

“A campaign.”

Eddie flinched, internally cringing at the multitude of answers that rang across the table at the same time.

“O-ok?” You raised an eyebrow, hand resting against Eddie’s shoulder–silently asking for clarification.

“Mainly, Spring Fling, babe,”

“Ah,” you squeezed his shoulder, already pouting before the next words came out of you, “will you be mad if I say no to going?”

“I get you for not wanting to go,” Oliver chimed before chugging the end of his mountain dew.

“Yeah, staying home too?” You asked.

“Oh no, I’m going, don’t know why though,” and as the words left his mouth, he eyed knowingly at Gareth. 

“See, Eddie! Olivier is going! Gareth is saved! We don’t have to go!” You squeezed his shoulder and Eddie gulped. This was not going to be easy.

“Y-yeah,” he could barely reply and Gareth shot him a quizzical look. 

Eddie was digging his grave right then and there. 

He really needed to break that damn deal.

~

“Hey Y/n,” Nancy caught up with you, ponytail bouncing as she ran the short distance between the cafeteria door and the lockers.

“What’s up?” You smiled once she was at your level, closing your locker and tightening the notebooks you were holding as you continued your way through the mass of students.

“Have you seen Barb?”

“No,” you frowned. “I haven’t seen her all day, actually, I was going to ask you. She didn’t have lunch with you?”

You watched her frown deepen, “no, she wasn’t there, I sat with Steve and his friends. I–um I haven’t seen her since yesterday at your place.”

“Oh, well I’m sure she’s fine, probably called in sick or something,” but your words didn’t soothe Nancy’s worries.

“I called her mom,” she averted her stare from yours.

“And?”

“She didn’t come home yesterday, or this morning.”

“Oh,” your heart sank down to your stomach, the uneasy feeling threatening to swallow you whole.

“Are you sure she left your place last night?”

“Yeah,” you matched her frown. “You don’t think-?”

“That she disappeared like Will?” 

“I don’t know… This whole situation just seems odd…” You looked around, maybe in search of something, just to be met with the mass of students that walked through the maze of hallways that was Hawkins High. No one seemed bothered; no one looked worried or stirred by what was silently unfolding in the city.

“Yeah…”

You brought your gaze back to Nancy, trying to hunt for a topic to change the subject–anything that could hook both your attentions elsewhere.

Then you saw it: the bright pink and yellow poster for Spring Fling. You huffed, ripping the poster from the wall and crumbling the paper, just to throw it in the nearest trash. An attempt at rebellion, maybe.

“Who the heck would go to that antiquated mating ritual.”

“I would!”

“Do you seriously want to get all dressed up so some rando with a boner dressed up in the first suit he found at Gap can feel you up while you’re forced to listen to a band that by definition ‘blows’?”

She scoffed, “the rando in question is your brother, may I add.”

“My brother?” You raised your eyebrows, “but I’m not going, he won’t be allowed to go.”

“You’re not?” She squeaked, eyes darting to your hands as you unfolded the wires of your walkman. “Steve told me you would. I think he assumed Eddie asked you.”

“Steve has no business assuming what I will or will not do, and Eddie has asked me, I told him no.”

“Why? I thought you liked Eddie.”

“Going with someone I like, still doesn’t change the fact that I find these gatherings dumb,” you accentuated your words by harshly placing your headphones around your neck, and locking your walkman onto your backpocket.

“Are you sure you won’t go? Just for me? Just so Steve will go, and by extension I will?” Her big blue eyes pleaded, lips forming into a pout, and for a split second you faltered, wondering if you could do this for your friend.

“I’ll see.”

“You are incorrigible,” she rolled her eyes, already knowing this meant no.

“Indeed I am,” you looked around, gaze flickering from the lockers to Nancy, “so do tell me, you and Steve last night, hm?” 

“Oh, shut up!” Her shriek made you giggle, and you would have continued teasing her if not for the hands that latched onto your waist, you jumped, shrieking before feeling yourself getting picked up into the air.

You immediately recognized the laugh that echoed in your ear, and Nancy’s smile gave the owner of those hands even more away.

“Eddie, let me down!” You giggled in echo with him, hands wrapping around his own before he dropped you back on your feet.

“Don’t you have a class to get to?” You mumbled as he pressed a kiss to your cheek.

“Mrs. Day called in sick, I have a free period.”

“Oh lucky,” you hummed, shoulders slumping at the anticipation of your next hour.

“Eddie?” Nancy spoke, making Eddie’s curls brush your cheek as he turned to face your friend. “Have you seen Barb by any chance?”

“Not since yesterday,” he shook his head and he sensed the way you tense up in his arms. “Everything ok?”

“We think she’s missing.”

“Missing? Like the Byers kid?”

“According to her mom, she didn’t come home last night, and skipping school isn’t like her,” Nancy bit her lip as she looked to the side.

“I mean, maybe she did. I’m not one to say that skipping school isn’t fun,” Eddie concluded, smirking slightly. He knew that this subject was reaching a dead end, and he sighed before turning his attention back to you. “What are you doing after school?”

“Nothing, why?”

“I found this new card game at the comics shop, and maybe if the game gets boring I can teach you D and D.”

“Are you asking me out on a game date?”

“Are you saying yes?” Instead of answering directly with words, you pressed a soft kiss to his lips, muttering your answer as you pulled away. 

“If you two will stop face fucking in the hallway, we’ve got class,” maybe it was jealousy that your brother wasn’t as sweet as Eddie picking at her stomach, or the stress from Barb stacking up, but she ripped her stare away from the two of you to stare at bright blue lockers on the other side.

“Sorry,” you giggled, slipping out of Eddie’s arms after stealing one last kiss. 

“I’ll see you after class, Eds.”

~

“What do you think they’re up to?” Your hand gripped Eddie’s a little tighter as you watched your brother and his friends laugh towards Johnathan. The poor Byers brother was being thrown around by the greedy hands of your idiot brother, the grim look on his face turned to disgust and anguish. You watched your brother, a loud chuckle ripping from his mouth. Your frown deepened as Tommy gave him one last push, Steve snatching pieces of paper from his grip.

Jonathan watched as Steve and Carol ripped to shreds the papers, they all laughed one last time; Tommy giving him a last cruel shove that almost made him trip before walking away. 

You took closer steps towards the parking–maybe in a quick attempt to help, but unfortunately, the group was walking right for the two of you, waltzing away from the mess they created towards god knows where.

“What did you do?” You grumbled as your path crossed your brothers, glancing behind his shoulder to spot Nancy jogging the distance between Johnathan and her group of new so-called friends. 

“You’ll never guess, the perv took pictures of us yesterday!” 

“What?”

“He was in the woods by our place, snapping pictures of us in the pool, even snapped shots of Nancy while she was changing.”

“Why?” You raised your eyebrows, squeezing Eddie’s hand.

“Caus’ he’s a perv?” Carol snickered, “and that’s all he’s found to do with his miserable life?” Tommy chuckled at his girlfriend’s words, and they disappeared behind you again, snickering as they left towards the field behind the High School building.

“Weird,” you muttered, watching Johnathan getting back into his car and leaving.

“You think he took my good profile?” Eddie, like always, pulled you out of your thoughts with a dumb joke, making you snort and playfully shove his shoulder. “What?” He offered a new laugh and you rolled your eyes.

“C’mon, let’s go try this new card game, I’ve had enough of this place for the day,” you tugged at his arm, dragging him further towards your car.

“Understandable,” he muttered, watching as you toyed with your car keys. “Hey, how about we pass by Melvald’s first? Grab some snacks and stuff.”

“Yeah, I’d like that,” your hand brushed his as you parted ways to climb in the driver’s seat.

Apart from the Metallica blasting from the speakers; the ride was quiet, peaceful almost, as you bathed in each other’s presence. It was nice, seeing the streets of Hawkins with someone you liked by your side–it almost all seemed less… daunting. It was soothing, knowing you’d get to have careless laughter over junk food and a pack of cards, letting the week’s worries and Steve’s torment slip away for just a few hours. 

You almost smiled when the red writing of Melvald’s came to view, stomach already growling not with hunger, but envy for cookies and candies–anything that could be considered a bad excuse for a dinner. 

You parked next to a mattered brown truck, mud stains on its wheels and rusty doors. Eddie placed a hand in his hair as he exited your car, a poor excuse at trying to tame his curls, but you smiled when his hair stayed as wild–it suited him better.

Your hand found his as you walked into Melvald’s. The shop seemed pretty empty apart from a few stray heads bopping out of aisles. 

“Afternoon,” you smiled at the owner behind the counter, he nodded before you both headed for the cookie aisle, grabbing one of those cheap red plastic baskets on the way.

“What are your favorites?” You hummed playfully as you scanned the shelves.

“I’d say Oreos are good, or um,” he thought, fingers going over his lips in thought. “Chips Ahoy! I love Chips Ahoy” 

“The white chocolate fudge ones are the best,” you turned to Eddie and watched his face turn in pure horror. 

“What did you just say?”

“That the white chocolate fudge cookies are the best?”

“I think you hit your head too hard as a kid, sweetheart. The normal milk chocolate ones taste so much better.”

“Hey! That is so not true,” you pressed on.

“They’re so sweet,” he scrunched his nose, “makes you sick if you eat too much.”

“Whatever,” you rolled your eyes, jokingly vexed at his hatred for your favorite.

“Oh my god, I used to love these as a kid,” Eddie’s face lit up as his eyes crossed paths with the a small white cardboard box, big smiles drawn over it. 

“Says the guy who called White Fudge Chips Ahoy too sweet,” you narrowed your eyes as he picked up the pack of Giggles from a shelf.

“You don’t want to get them?” He raised an eyebrow.

“No, no. I still love these, put them in,” you grinned, raising the basket so he could dump them in next to the pack of Oreos.

“What else should we take?”

“Drinks?”

“Yeah,” 

In twenty minutes spent in the store, your basket was already full with enough food and drinks for the entire of Hellfire. Cans of coke laying against bright blue cookie packaging and other junk food that had caught your attention. Eddie had ended up carrying the basket when it got too heavy, and now it rested by his feet as you waited in line. 

A middle aged woman was in front of you–a toddler in her arms as she fumbled with the coins in her wallet. The baby’s small hands were fumbling with strands of her red hair–babbling something as he watched his mother pay for her groceries.

You were so enthralled in the scene–trying to see how much strength the toddler could tug on the women’s red locks with, that you hadn’t noticed the familiar face settling in the cue behind Eddie. She was almost hidden behind a pile of boxes that laid upon one of her hands, the other gripping the bar of a shopping cart, and you only recognised her by her anxious sigh as she tried to balance the boxes in her grip.

“Oh, hey Joyce,” you smiled, a gentle smile that bled with your compassion and she suddenly turned her attention to you. 

Eddie also turned his attention to her–immediately realizing who this was. He’d seen her behind the counter more times than he could count, and he was also eighty percent sure that Wayne briefly knew her from High School, remembering their short conversations from the hundreds of times he helped his uncle shop here.

“Oh! Y/n, I didn’t see you there!” She spoke, almost startled by your simple greeting. 

She looked tired, like she hadn’t properly slept in days. Her hair poking all over the place, and she was anxiously tapping her foot against the white floor of Melvalds. You assumed she was off work with everything going on, since she wasn’t standing behind the counter like usual.

But what really caught your attention was the amount of Christmas lights she had gathered. At least twelve boxes had been stuffed in the kart, leaving no room for the five others that she held in her free hand. You couldn’t begin to wonder why she had bought everything out of the clearance section, but your heart ached as you watched her gaze falter to the window for a split second before going back to you. She shifted her grip on the boxes, and a new huff left her lips before she handed you a tight smile.

“Is Johnathan with you?” You wondered, eyes briefly going across the aisle visible from your spot in the line.

She shook her head, “he’s probably home right now,” you nodded at her words and watched as her gaze flickered around again–as if she was suddenly comfortable. Maybe it was the mention of her son; maybe a conversation or two about Will that caused tension to seep between them, when in fact they should be sticking together.

Her gaze faltered, becoming softer as she took new acknowledgment of you again. She sent a smile to you and turned to Eddie who was yet to talk.

“This is Eddie, my boyfriend,” you watched the expression on her face change–impressed, slightly surprised maybe.

“Wayne’s nephew right?”

“In the flesh,” Eddie smiled, politely nodding.

“Also I wanted to tell you,” you spoke again, Joyce’s gaze dancing back to yours. “If you need anything from us, you have my number, Joyce.” Her whole face softened, gratitude seeping in through her eyes.

“Thank you, honey,”

~

Eddie’s trailer felt just as you left it the day before. A cozy haven for the loneliest of souls to find refuge on cold nights. But to your surprise, Eddie didn’t remove his shoes once he crossed the threshold–he even told you to wait for him by the entrance with the multitude of bags filled with the sweets you’d bought. 

You watched as the metalhead bounced across his living space, shedding his leather jacket on the living room chair after he had complained that the spring sun was suffocating him, before he disappeared to his room, and came back with a small blue and orange metal box. His card game.

“Follow me,” Eddie swept past you, grabbing the two shopping bags and jumping the small steps out of his trailer. You raised an eyebrow before following him through the grass patch around his trailer, passing through a laundry line that hosted a few band t-shirts that could only be Eddie’s, and tattered work jeans that you assumed were Wayne’s. 

You intently watched as you both faced a small, thin ladder that climbed up to the trailer’s roof. “Can you take one?” you nodded as he handed you one of the plastic bags.

Eddie stuffed the small card game in his back pocket–you silently questioned him, he could have simply just put it in the bag he was holding. But that didn’t stop him from anything, and you carefully observed as Eddie hummed a ‘follow me’, before starting to climb the rusty ladder. 

You landed on the roof with a huff, and noticed that Eddie had already settled himself on a far off corner, the plastic bag neatly placed next to his feet. 

“Nice view,” you noticed. Smiling as you gazed across the sea of trailers, each painted in their own uniqueness. it was far off from the white picket fence houses–a sea of odd shapes and colors, but it was all the most comforting, lively even. Smoke coming out of barbecue grills, laughter spilling out of small backyards and the light breeze making the bright colored laundry dance. 

“You like it?” He grinned as he admired you trot towards him. 

“I love it,” you settled beside him on the floor, dropping your bag next to the other one and started fishing inside of it for your well earned snacks.

Your hands settled for a pack of oreos, settling it in your lap as you wiggled yourself to be more comfortable. 

"This feels like that one Elton John song."

"Which one?" He raised a playful eyebrow.

"We sat on the roof," your soft voice hummed, slithering into the soft breeze and to Eddie’s ears.

“Kicked off the moss,” he hummed along with you, making a giggle escape your lips.

“You listen to Elton John?”

“On occasions,” he murmured, busying himself with the bag next to him to fish for a can of soda. 

“Wow, didn’t take you for the Elton John type.”

“I’m a man of many mysteries,” he dramatically sighed.

“Shut up,” you giggled, rolling your eyes before grabbing your own can of coke–popping it open before finally speaking again, “so, that game of yours?” 

“Yes!” 

Eddie grabbed the small box from his pocket, eyes sparkling as he opened it and placed the lid at his side. He took the cards in his hands and started mixing them. 

“So, rules are simple, I think.”

“You think?”

“I didn’t read the rules.”

“Eddie, you can’t play a game if you don’t know the rules,” you giggled, grabbing the box at his side and taking the paper out.

“The guy at the shop told me how to play it, I thought I’d remember.”

“You’re impossible,” you huffed, unfolding the little paper and scanning through the words. You raised an eyebrow, reading through the instructions, “ok, so,” you licked your lips in thought before looking at the cards in Eddie’s hands. “We have to start with the card that looks like the cross path thingy.”

“Ok,” Eddie listened before flipping through the cards and placing said card in between the two of you; right next to the oreo pack. 

“Wait, Eddie.”

“What?”

“It’s from three to eight players,” you giggled. “Eddie, we can’t play.”

“What?” His eyes widen, ripping the rule book from your hands. “Oh,” he hummed, realization hitting. “Well, this sucks.”

“Yeah, dumbass,” you giggled, grabbing a new oreo.

He sighed, placing the cards back in their box before dropping them at his side, sharing a gaze with you. 

“What should we do?”

“Dunno,”

~

The sun had started to set across the trailer park, and a tumble of giggles seemed to be the main theme of your afternoon. One lone cookie was left in the Chips Ahoy pack, and the stacks of plastic wrappers and cans were starting to pile up; a show of the evening slowly dying out into night. 

“Ok, ok,” you giggled, leaning closer to Eddie. “Truth or dare?”

“Dare,” you raised an eyebrow at his reply, a smirk dancing across your lips.

“I dare you to compliment your neighbor’s dinner,” your gaze traveled to the elderly couple eating in the garden beside Eddie’s trailer. They looked happy–a couple who danced through time together. You could faintly hear their conversation in the distance, but barely making out words, and if Eddie shouted just enough he could easily spring a conversation.

“That’s so stupid,” he grinned.

“I know,” you giggled back and Eddie rolled his eyes before turning around to face his neighbor’s garden. 

He took a second to observe. The barbecue grill on the opposite side was still smoking from its use, and he spotted the home made burgers on their plates. That would be easy to compliment. Plus, Eddie didn’t mind, Wayne was on good terms with them, maybe less so Eddie as he often bothered them when playing guitar. But if the odd comment could bring a good laugh out of the two of you, then Eddie would gladly plunge into your dare. 

“Hey! Mr. Carol!” The elder man turned from his grill as the call reached his ear. “Good job on the burgers! They smell amazing!” You had to place a hand over your mouth to stop the giggles from tumbling like a waterfall as you watched the poor man’s face twist in an awkward smile, both of his eyebrows raised to the sky as he watched his teenage neighbor send him a compliment from his trailer’s roof. 

“Thanks Eddie.” The man awkwardly replied and Eddie saluted him before turning back around to you.

“Happy?”

“He looked so confused.”

“He did, didn’t he?” Eddie smiled with you, grabbing another oreo, before mumbling with a mouthful, “truth or dare?”

“Dare,” you smiled, keeping your gaze on Eddie as you grabbed the last Chip’s Ahoy, crumpling the wrapper in your hands and throwing it to the side to join the pile. 

“I dare you to take off your top,” your eyes went wide at his request.

“And flash the whole trailer park?” You shrieked and a loud laugh tumbled from Eddie.

“Well, already you did it for me once,” he dramatically sighed, poking at your ribs, creating another laugh to leave you. 

“I did it to save your ass.” 

“I know, I'm only kidding,” he smirked. “I’ll keep that dare for another time,” he smiled, knocking at you before looking down at the oreo’s in between you, “I dare you to fill your mouth with as many oreos as you can.”

“and?”

“If you manage to put seven in without almost choking, you get a prize.”

“Why seven?”

“Because that’s my record.”

“That’s so stupid,” you noticed.

“C’mon, do your dare.”

You rolled your eyes, keeping eye contact as your hand traveled to the cookies. You grabbed one-easy. The next one slipping nicely against the second one. You couldn’t look at Eddie anymore, the look in his eyes was enough to make you laugh and want to spit out the whole thing. The next two managed to fit, somehow, and you could hear Eddie chuckling, your gaze focused on the blue wrapper in concentration. 

But when you reached for the fifth one, about to place it in your mouth–you caved. Making eye-contact with Eddie. He was laughing like an idiot; watching your chipmunk cheeks with a devilish spark in his eyes. But that look was fatal, and a laugh climbed right through you, causing you to spit everything out to the side. 

Eddie roared even more with laughter and you had to playfully slap his shoulder in order to keep yourself from laughing too.

“You lost, I’m so sorry,” he patted your shoulder, using his grip to bring you further towards him, kissing the side of your mouth.

“What was the prize?” You questioned, chewing the last bit of crumbs that were left in your mouth as you leaned against him. 

“A private concert,”

“As if you don’t willingly do them, all the time.” he shrugged at your comment, making you smile and remember your game, “Eddie.”

“Yes?”

“Truth or dare?”

“Truth,” 

“Tell me a secret,”

“Ok, I hate peas.”

“No,” you giggled, “tell me something real, something no one else knows,” you grabbed a twizzler, pointing to him with it once you had taken a good bite out of it.

“Ok,” he smirked, a mischievous glint passing by his gaze. The grip on your waist became tighter and he leaned even closer to you, tucking a strand of your hair behind your ear with his free hand before kissing your cheek. “You’re sweet,” he pressed a new kiss to your other cheek “and sexy,” a new kiss to your lips, “and completely hot for me,” you gasped a laugh.

“You are amazingly self assured, as anyone else told you that?”

“I tell myself that every day, actually,” he chuckled before locking your lips into a new kiss, and suddenly an invisible sting pulled him back to the reality of the pact he had made with your brother. “Come to the dance with me tomorrow.”

“Is that a request or a command?” You attempted to joke, but he continued.

“Come on, go with me.”

“No.”

“Why not?” He breathed out a sigh, toying with your fingers.

“I told you already, it’s a stupid tradition.”

“C’mon, people won’t expect you to go.”

“Eddie, why are you pushing this? What’s in it for you?” Maybe you wouldn’t have asked, but Barb’s words suddenly came bouncing into your mind, like an unstoppable bouncy ball hitting the walls of your brain and shuddering through your spine. 

“Nothing, just the pleasure of your company.”

You paused at his words. Mind twirling in the multitude of possibilities. Eddie had been pushing this, but maybe that was just his attempt at trying to be a normal high school couple. 

Would Eddie really want this? Would Eddie really enjoy a gathering full of sweaty hormonal teenagers, with no alcohol, weed or anything else you could think of that he’d use for a good time, all that mixed with awful music? You couldn’t be sure, and you were getting anxious about an ulterior motive.

Barb had made it clear she didn’t trust Eddie, and your heart pinched at the thought. 

You sighed, eyes dancing across the setting sun as it reached further down the sky, casting yet a new glow of colors across the trailer park. 

Your grip on Eddie’s shoulder tightened; “It’s getting late,” you hummed, turning your gaze back to Eddie, “I should go.”

“Y/n-”

“No, it’s fine Eddie, don’t worry about it,” you gave him a tight smile. “Thanks for the evening,” you stood from his grip, dusting the crumbs from your jeans before nodding back to him, “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

~

The next morning, you opened your locker, just for a bright neon pink paper to slip out of it, flying down just to land on your feet. 

You huffed, gladly stepping on it. It hadn’t even happened yet, and you already had enough of this stupid dance. 

You wanted to throw up, first Will, and now no one seemed to even blink twice about Barbara. Maybe if she had been some popular cheerleader, a Tammy Thompson, or a rising star like Chrissy Cunningham she would have the whole town at her feet trying to find her, caring for her. And a part of you wondered if anyone would even care if you would ever go missing yourself..

"Are they really still throwing Spring Fling when two students are missing?" You gazed at Eddie who was leaning against your neighboring locker, fumbling with his walkman. 

“Is Barb officially missing now?”

“Police thinks she ran away,” you angrily stuffed some books in your locker, Eddie noticing the stress lines forming on your forehead.

“Hey, I’m sorry about yesterday, I should have gotten the hint the first time you told me you didn’t want to go.”

“S’okay,” you hummed, keeping your hands fumbling with the contents of your locker as your gaze stayed focused on its insides. “I’m not mad at you, I’m just- I don’t understand why everyone is acting so calm. Nancy was balling her eyes out on the phone to me last night, assuring me that Barb was gone missing. She went on, telling me her car was still parked not far from mine and saying that she felt a creepy presence in my backyard,” you finally managed to neatly place the books like you wanted, and closed your locker door in a loud, angered thud. 

“Oh,”

“Yeah,” you chewed on your nails and Eddie didn’t know what to say, or what to even do with his own hands. “What if something bad has happened to them? And I mean bad, bad,” you rested your back against your locker. “I can’t imagine what it would do to Dustin, imagine Barb’s parents? I-, I feel desperate in this situation and I feel like I’m one of the only ones to actually care.” 

“We could try and play detective, if you want? I mean, D and D does make you pretty good at piecing things together,” he offered you a short smile and your heart warmed a bit at his words.

“Maybe.”

~

You didn’t understand Nancy. 

As much as you loved her, you couldn’t begin to piece her out. Last night, she was calling you crying about your missing friend, and now she was begging you for a distraction you weren’t willing to give out. 

“Please, please come,” she whined over the phone, and you eyed Steve as he walked across from the kitchen to the living room, giving you his biggest death glare as he did. 

“Nancy, you know my answer,” you groaned–wanting to slam your head onto the wall next to you. “Do you realize that two people are missing, and you’re ready to just forget all of that to go dancing with idiots?”

“Y/n, I think we both need this, we can continue searching tomorrow.”

Was this really the same Nancy you had chatted with the day before?

“You’re in a relationship now, you should understand this!” 

“Understand what exactly?”

“That I want to spend time with my boyfriend. The world is falling apart and I’m stuck home with my thoughts. Wouldn’t you ask the same thing if the roles were reversed? Wouldn’t you beg Steve and I to go to a Ren Fair or I don’t know a Metallica concert if you couldn’t?”

“Spring Fling is far from being a Metallica concert, Nancy,” you chuckled at the idiocy of her comparison.

“But what if Spring Fling is my Metallica concert?”

You fell silent over the line. Were you that selfish? Not letting your friend get that date with your brother and miss out on an event everyone wanted to go to. You sighed, rethinking your life one last time before sighing out; “Okay,” head falling against the wall by the telephone. “I’ll tell Steve to come pick you up.”

“Oh my god I love you!”

“Yeah, yeah, love you too, I’ll see you there,” and with those words you hung up, dread seeping into your bones once again. “Steve! Get fucking ready, you’re taking Nancy to that stupid dance!”

“I’m what now?” 

“You’re taking Nancy to Spring Fling,” his eyes widened, mouth agape.

“Oh my god, I love you,”

“Oh, shut up,” you rolled your eyes, watching Steve scurry away to the upstairs bathroom. You sighed before crossing the kitchen, eyeing for any one of your parents. 

“Hey darling,” as if she knew you had been searching for her, your mom’s soft voice echoed from the laundry room, through the corridor and right to you.

“Right here,” you hummed back, trotting to meet her there.

“Oh perfect,” she smiled, “could you bring this up? Half of this is Steve’s and then the other half is yours.”

“Are you obliging me to walk through the pits of tartarus?”

“If this means, entering your brother’s room to drop off his laundry, yes I am asking you.”

“Fine,” you hummed, grabbing the basket of folded laundry from your mother’s arms. “Also, Steve and I are getting ready to leave, we’re um- going to the spring fling thing.”

“Oh,” her eyes widened. “You’re going?”

“Yeah. Nancy convinced me.”

“Alright,” she let the shock seep through her. “I’ll let your father know.”

“Thanks,” you smiled before scurrying away, jumping up the steps–the quicker you got this done, the quicker you could get ready, and the quicker you were out of the house, the quicker you would be back. 

You dropped everything that was yours on top your bed–not bothering with putting it in your cupboard before waltzing towards Steve’s room. You could hear the stream of the shower, and if you were really careful, you could hear Steve faintly humming a Kate Bush song. You rolled your eyes before opening his door, ready to be met with the utter mess that you remembered his room to be–but to your surprise, it was neat and even smelt nice. 

You blinked in shock, taking in the well done bed, the freshly vacuum carpet and the organized shelves. Even the desk was neat, two pots of pencils stood proudly in the corner, while only a stray eraser felt out of place–sitting next to an opened agenda. His desk lamp illuminating his scruffy writing, creating a halo over the white lined page. 

Once the surprise was seeping in, you blinked; remembering your original mission. You dropped the basket on his bed, sighing before turning back around.

And that’s when you caught the writing across the white paper of Steve’s used notebook.

MONEY SPENT

March 30 - family video $6

April 2 - Maldev’s $2, lunch $5

April 5 - lunch $2

April 11 - Lunch $7, family video $3.

April 12 - Eddie $50

April 14 - Scoops Ahoy $6

April 15 - Eddie $100

The list went on–Eddie becoming a recurrence since ‘April 12’, the money only adding as the days went by. Your heart thumped in your chest–why in the world was Eddie’s name on Steve’s wannabe accountant list, and secondly, where in the world did Steve find this kind of money?

You wondered for a brief instant if Eddie had been dealing to your brother, but then you had only seen Steve high once, and it had been two days ago, at that wretched gathering.

Barb’s warning echoed in your head, and for a mere second you allowed yourself to feel the worst. Was this why Eddie had been bugging you to come to the dance with him?

You refused to make it make sense, but then April 12 had been the day Eddie had first tried to ask you out. 

Your breath suddenly caught in your throat, and you could feel your heart thumping in your ears. No. This couldn’t be happening. You couldn’t be sure of anything yet. 

Nonetheless, you didn’t have time to think about it. You were on the clock with a promise made to your best friend, and strolling out of Steve’s room, you noticed a frown on your face you hadn’t even realized was there.

You let out a shaky sigh as you entered your room, being met with your reflection in the mirror.

You had made Nancy a promise,

You’d have to confront either of the two after the dance.

~

“Eddie, there’s a girl outfront for you.”

“Huh?” He lifted the book from his eyes, dropping it on the coffee table before lazily sitting up, limbs cracking as he did. He looked at Wayne in question, not bothering to fix his pyjama shirt as he walked to the kitchen area and looked through the window.

His eyes weren’t failing him–indeed there you were, the window of your car rolled down and Eddie could see you all dolled up in a pretty dress he’d never bet he would ever see you wear. You looked straight at him through the window and honked, a signal for him to come over.

“What the fuck,” he muttered under his breath as his socked feet walked him to the front door. “Hey, what are you doing here?” Even though shock was seeping through him, he smiled at your sight.

“Get in loser, we’re going to the spring fling,” his mouth was wide, agape like a fish as he registered what was happening. He blinked, and stood there a second too long because you honked your car horn again. “C’mon! We don’t have all night!”

You watched as Eddie blinked again before shaking his head and scurrying back inside. You heard faint mumbling from the trailer and his running around. You even thought you heard a loud noise that was most probably Eddie falling as he tried to get the suit of his pants up. 

His hair was wild once he opened the door of the trailer again, but he was brushing it back with his fingers as he walked down the metallic steps and walked to you.

“Where did you get a tux last minute?” You grinned as he opened the passenger door, his slime had made all anxiety wash away from your body and you felt yourself melt a little further into your car seat, butterflies brushing the side of your stomach at the sight of him in a suit.

“Oh, you know, just something I had, laying around,” he shrugged, pretending to be brushing something off of his shoulder “Where’d you get the dress?”

“Oh you know just something I had, laying around,” that made him laugh, eyes intently scanning your figure as you started driving away.

“What made you change your mind?”

“Nancy wouldn’t stop bugging me about it, thought I’d take a break from being a heinous bitch, for a change,” you smiled, and your mind brought you back to the writing in Steve’s notebook an unsettling feeling tugging at your heartstrings as your gaze went back to the boy next to you. 

“Respectable,” he grinned, already opening your glove box for a cassette–fishing out a Black Sabbath mixtape he had made for you.

And for a golden second, as you watched him grin like an idiot over the cassette he had so carefully designed–your worries washed away.

Eddie had been so caring. He had come into your life, bulldozing everything you had trapped yourself in. He brought a new breath to your lungs and you felt yourself again, you felt whole again.

And maybe, just maybe you could let yourself believe that Eddie’s name on Steve’s notebook was something entirely different.

~

Spring fling was everything you had expected it to be. 

Bright colored balloons floating across the air, handwritten banners hanging from every corner, large tables with various beverages and food laying across it. Music was bursting out of large speakers lodged at every corner of the room–and not to mention almost the entirety of Hawkins High. 

Toto’s Hold The Line was ringing in your ears, and you felt your hand grip Eddie’s a little tighter as you walked past a group of cheerleaders, all giggling at something Cameron Ness had said. The star jock was wearing his best suit, a blue ruffled jacket that made all the girls cling to him like moths to a flame. Each of them were in close competition with your brother at the amount of hairspray they had, hairstyles more and more elaborate the more you stared. 

You did not feel in your place at all. 

It all felt intoxicating.

You spotted your brother, long gone into a conversation with some brunette jock named Jeremy. You looked at Nancy–she seemed so happy for once; a bright smile plastered on her face as she leaned against Steve’s navy vest. 

And maybe, just maybe the thought of your best friend getting to have a good time made it less hard to stand the suffocating gym.

“Wanna dance?” Eddie turned to you, a smile on the corner of lips, “while the music is still somewhat tolerable.” Eddie lifted his hand, silently asking for yours.

“Yes,” you slotted your hand in his–butterflies brushing the sides of your stomach as you marched towards the dance floor.

Maybe the evening wouldn’t be so bad.

~

“Eddie?”

“Yeah?” 

“Can you hold my drink, I need to go to the bathroom,” you smiled as Eddie was already offering his hand.

“Of course.” 

Eddie’s gaze traveled around the room, and an unsettling feeling crossed his stomach when his gaze met your brother’s. He was at a different spot this time, chatting with Nancy over a cup of punch.

This was it. 

This had to be his chance. 

He didn’t think twice before crossing the room, fingers brushing through his hair before speaking; “Hey, Harrington.”

“My man!” Steve cheered, and wrapped an arm around him. Eddie awkwardly nodded towards Nancy who had handed him a tight smile upon his arrival.

“Can we talk?”

“Sure,” Steve nodded and asked Nancy if she could hold his drink–to which she accepted and nodded them away.

Eddie noticed Steve was maybe more than a little tipsy as he walked beside Eddie, mumbling jokes and saying hi to everyone who crossed their way. He thought this would be a never ending nightmare, and it would probably be hours before he reached a quiet spot. And after torechous minutes of Steve greeting everyone who met his eyes as he was dragged through the mass of students, they finally reached the quiet corner next to the bleachers.

“So-”

"The deal is off."

“What?” Steve suddenly felt himself sober up. “Why?”

“Because I can’t continue like this.”

“But why? I thought you needed the money-”

“This isn’t about the money, Steve,” the name felt bitter in his mouth–maybe because he blamed him for his suffering, or maybe Eddie blamed himself–but right this minute the lines blurred in his mind and he felt his stomach bubble with a new kind of anger. “This is about your sister, it’s killing me to be doing this to her.”

“Why would you care?” Steve snorted, and Eddie almost took a step back at the cruelty he was witnessing first hand.

Did Steve really care so little about you? 

“Because I’m falling in love with her,” the words tumbled out of Eddie’s mouth faster than he could think, and he had to bite his lip once he realized his confession.

Steve’s mouth fell open wide, the room starting to spin—and this time it wasn’t the snuck in vodka that made him feel this way; but the way his plan was biting him back. 

“No, no, no. You can't be in love with her,” he felt the words leave faster than intended, his own interests getting the best of him. 

“Who are you to tell me what to feel or not feel, Harrington.” 

Steve blinked–stunned, “no, you’re right. But you can’t be falling for her! I never said you could actually date her, you’re going to be a bad influence!” 

“Excuse me? Says the guy who hand picked me.”

“Because you were the only one good for the job!”

“Exactly, and that’s why I’m putting an end to the whole thing.”

“She’s smarter than you give her credit for, you know? She’s going to figure it out soon enough, and it’s going to go all to shits. She might hate us both in all cases, but I’d rather her learn about this fiasco the right way.”  

“No-no, you can’t tell her anything! What about me? What about Nancy?” 

“Are you fucking serious right now?” 

“Look, I’ll pay you double, we continue the deal like it was, you continue to date her, and we can just forget this whole conversation happened, okay?”

“Did you not hear a word I just said?”

~

You sighed, fixing a strand of your hair as you looked at yourself in the mirror—smacking your lips together to spread the gloss you had just reapplied. 

You pushed the heavy bathroom door, sighing once it closed behind you–the school hallway staring back at you. You could faintly hear music playing from behind the closed doors, but murmurs from a nearby corridor caught your attention. 

“Did you hear?” Mr. Arnold fiddled with his hat, twisting the material between his fingers. 

“Hear what?” You recognised Mrs. Gilbert–the drama teacher, she was fixing the sleeve of her sparkling dress before a content smile appeared on her lips.

“They found him,” now they had your full attention. Head spiking up like a cat, and breath catching in your throat.

“The Byers boy?” She whispered, the smile getting whipped off her features. 

“Yes,” Mr. Arnold had a grim look in his eyes as he stared down at his shoes. “They found his body at Sattler Quarry about an hour ago… Poor kid drowned himself.” 

Your shoulders tensed and you felt your ears ring

No.

No, no, no, no, this couldn’t be happening.

Will, the shy boy you babysitted a few times. 

Will, the quiet one with a mind of gold and an ever growing imagination. The one who came up with creatures, monsters and wizards D and D magazines and Eddie’s campaigns could only be envious about.

Your body hit the back of the lockers, and you could only hope that Mrs. Gilbert and Mr. Arnold didn’t hear the thud that accompanied the movement. Head spinning and heart unstoppably racing as you tried to tame the buzz in your head. You couldn’t hear anything, an uncontrollable numbness hitting you as your fist clenched the material of your dress. 

Why?

Why had a boy full of life like Will had to meet his end in such a way?

What about Dustin? Did he already know? 

Your heart only shattered into more pieces as you thought of him. 

You had to tell Eddie.

You walked back into the gym, the air feeling stuffy again and the music barely hitting your numbbed ears. Seeing everyone so full of life made you sick to your stomach. All these people who didn’t even care that he had gone missing, and now they would wake up tomorrow morning with the news of his death, and move on with the rest of their lives as if nothing happened.

It didn’t take you long to find Eddie in the crowd. He was a few meters away from the door, in a corner talking to—your brother? 

He had a large frown on his features, and your brother was waving his hands around frantically like he did when he got frustrated. You watched as Eddie groaned, a hand flying up to his hair as he tried to reason whatever argument your brother had thrown. 

You moved faster than your mind registered, feet gliding over the polished ground of the gymnasium. Something in you wanted to save Eddie from presumingly a horrid conversation with the gremlin that you were cruelly related to. 

You were about to go through the last small group of people, you could clearly see them from your spot in between the dancing bodies—and Steve’s voice became clearer over the fading music.

“No-no you can’t tell her anything! What about me? What about Nancy?”  

What the fuck was that suppose to mean? 

“Are you fucking serious right now?”

“Look, I’ll pay you double, we continue the deal like it was, you continue to date her, and we can just forget this whole conversation happened, okay?”

You stopped in your tracks.

Steve’s writing suddenly became clear,

your worst assumptions were true.

Eddie was paid to date you,

And had been since the start. 

[spideyanakin]

always remember us this way (e.m)

summary - corroded coffin member!reader, what if you wrote 'always remember us this way' for Eddie Munson?

warnings - sad ending, star is born vibes im sry :(, mention of sex

word count: 7.3k

thank you @inknopewetrust for proof reading some bits <3

back to main masterlist

eddie munson masterlist

That passion in your heart, burnin' in your eyes.

You fiddled with your pen as you watched Eddie from the other corner of the classroom. He was somewhere else; eyes distant and removed from the room you both occupied with 25 other bored souls. Mrs. Click was a drag. Her red manicured hands gripped the white chalk as it scratched the green stone.

The sound pulled him out of his stupor. He mumbled something incoherently and drew his pencil onto his paper. 

On the other side of the room, you couldn’t focus at all. 

A tune was haunting you. It was singing in the back of your mind as the melody began to swim around you. The notes of a song begging to be put onto a page and heard around the world. It was all you could think about; refrains coming to you two days ago when the boy across the room was six-feet-deep in a game of Dig Dug on your last date at the arcade.

A rhythm that you couldn't get out of your skin.

The mix of game chants and arcade music melted into one beat that you ended up humming all night. Fingers mindlessly drumming on the side of machines every time Eddie played his turn. 

You knew that when night fell, Eddie could sense you had music dancing in your mind. It was what brought you two together, after all. The melodies of songs that shaped a life; how stories could express feeling without ever feeling too vulnerable. Eddie knew the sensation all too well. For many a night he had been the victim of that vacant expression and mindless humming of the same few lines over and over.

You were so lost in the tune that when Eddie’s turn was over and he had been defeated for the ten millionth time that evening, his eyes burning a hole into your head hadn’t even fazed you. There you were, half leaning against the machine with eyes glazed over on the odd shapes and colors that danced on the carpet your polished shoes touched. Perhaps you could see the lyrics on the floor. The shapes and colors filled with blues and yellows jumped from their home and painted a score above. 

He called your name once. He called it twice. 

"What are you thinking about?" 

Eddie leaned on the machine’s panel that separated him from you, whispering the words in your ear. The light from Dig Dug illuminated his profile. He belonged in a place like this. A place where he could be free and seen and heard. No bands needth play when the song of Eddie Munson’s eyes filled your soul with warmth. Goosebumps passed through you. You blinked away the music from your mind and caught his gaze. 

He was looking at you with so much love you thought you were about to burst. Leaning so close you could see the tiny sparks of gold in his eyes.

One of his hands came to hold yours, reaching up with his ring-clad fingers to play with the bracelet he had gifted you two weeks before–a dark blue band with mini skulls braided in. It screamed Eddie and that's probably why you loved it so much. He had never seen you take it off since he had gifted it, and it made a small smile appear on his lips each time he saw it where it was meant to be.

And that's when the first piece of lyrics came into mind.

'You look at me and, babe, I wanna catch on fire'

When the words started fitting together in your mind, you could feel the way it made you flustered—heat creeping up your neck and traveling up to your cheeks.

You really did feel like you were about to catch on fire that evening.

Two days later, in the desks of Mrs. Click’s class, you tapped your pen on the back of your hand as it rested over a loose-leaf sheet of paper that had scribbled lyrics that kept popping up. It was like catching butterflies with the words. They came and went, difficult to grasp and hold onto if you didn’t have a pen handy. 

That passion in your heart, burnin' in your eyes

You look at me and, babe, I wanna catch on fire

It's buried in my soul, like California gold

You found the light in me that I couldn't find

The words “CHORUS” were written in sloppy big letters in the middle of the page. You scratched your head with the back of your pen, pouting as you tried to reach unknown corners of your brain for any kind of inspiration.

You had been on literal fire writing the first stanza. The words flowed freely and quickly and without remorse that perhaps it was cheesy that a boy in high school who you envisioned a life with had inspired those lyrics. 

When you look at me and I can't find the words

When the sun goes down,

And the clouds all fade

You looked back to Eddie in hopes something would appear. He was the reason for the song, the whole why as to why those words had made their way to the page in the first place. You watched as he scribbled something of his own, dropping his pencil onto his own desk before suddenly turning his head around and meeting your eyes.

It would be a lie to say that you weren’t caught off guard. Seized in the midst of your contemplation, in mid quest to squeeze any more inspiration out of the being that was Eddie Munson.

He smirked, mouthing something but you couldn’t do anything back. You could barely make out his words. He made you all choked up. Your cheeks started to burn again at the simple thought of him. His smirk, his pretty face… it all disappeared as he turned his head back around.

 He really had to choose now to be a good student?

You munched on the tip of your pencil before eying your page again. And as a light went off, you felt like scribbling something new. 

So when I'm all choked up

When you look at me and I can't find the words.

~

"You keep staring lately." 

Eddie took you by surprise, making you jump as he appeared behind you and laid his  chin on your shoulder.

"I always stare… you’re my boyfriend, Eds," you pointed out, tightening your grip on your piece of paper where your lyrics had been written—hoping he wouldn’t see it.

"Then there’s something different to your stare," he offered, leaving his place at your shoulder to step in front of you.

You grinned, shaking your head and smiling before leaning in for a kiss.

There was something so cheesy about being one of those couples you had once snickered about in the halls. Love had not reached you then. It hadn’t filled every part of your being with the pure adrenaline and immense pleasure it could provide by looking at the one you loved. It had never been obvious to you before that what those people had, you now did too and it was something you would never trade for the world. 

"Maybe it’s just because you’ve finally realized how desperately in love I am," you whispered against his lips and Eddie thought he could melt right there. He too had felt that love. He knew the Earth could swallow him whole and he would fly up to a heaven knowing that the girl of his dreams had loved him back. 

Instead of answering with words, he brushed a strand of hair that had fallen onto your forehead, gently pressing a new kiss to your lips.

"I love you so much" he breathed out, leaning against you as your foreheads touched. The bell sounded–the passing period was over. Eddie backed away, raised his arm to lay over your shoulders and the two of you bounded off to class for the fifth hour of the day.

~

Eddie's bed was filled with random papers, scattered pencils, and mini figurines—your two bodies mingled in the middle of it all. Your chin rested on his bare chest while your legs were tangled up together.

You watched him frown as he dropped the paper he was holding and blindly tried to find another one. He wiggled under you in an attempt to fetch a half-crumpled piece of paper from the other corner of the bed, succeeding after a minute of struggle.

You chuckled at his theatrics. He was never one for subtlety. He moved the paper away from his face to meet your eyes and grin back at you.

"How's that campaign going?" You murmured, almost too scared to break the silence.

For the past thirty minutes, the only noise that could be heard were the rustling of the trees and the uneven buzzing of the fridge coming from the living room mixed with yours and Eddie's pencils scribbling on paper.

It all started an hour and a half ago, when you both couldn't sleep. You thought that maybe tearing each other's clothes off and moaning the other’s names would have been enough to put you to sleep—but there you were at 2 am, after having cooked a box of cheap mac and cheese that had been bought so long ago it expired in a week. You were wearing the shirt he had been wearing that day while he was just in his boxers.

You still felt guilty for laughing at him when hot cheese splashed onto his chest, slightly burning him. You had been a laughing mess when you scolded him for not wearing a shirt while cooking. It was dangerous, you had to chuckle at the act as it was so abundantly Eddie. 

But now the bowls rested empty in the sink and Eddie was focusing on his campaign while you continued to think of the song that haunted your very being. The melody wasn’t catching. The lyrics weren’t forming and the ones that had stuck, from earlier that morning, loomed over your head like a big raincloud. 

Sleep was still far from both your eyes.

"It’s going well," he beamed, lifting his head while you perched yourself off him to steal a kiss.

You leaned back into the position you were in and watched as he began to work again. He grabbed a D&D figurine from the box he had almost fully emptied on the bed minutes prior. He inspected it, trying to find any specific detail that could be scoured for ideas before diving back into his paper and scribbling something new.

You couldn’t keep your eyes away from his face. To the way his tongue slipped between his lips in focus, or how he drew in his eyebrows, and tapped the tip of his pencil to his temple.

He scrunched up his nose before using the little space left on his chest next to your head to erase his scribbling.

You sighed in content. Tracing circles on his skin with your free hand, you had to force your eyes away from his face to look back at your page of writing.

The lyrics slowly began to take shape. The melody wished to fly from your mind and out from your lips, the tune familiar to him. Eddie had heard it for two days straight and couldn’t place it. He knew it was new. He knew it was original.

Your hums broke Eddie's train of thought and he brought his attention back to you, a figurine still in his hand as the pencil wavered in the other. 

"You keep humming this tune lately. I don’t recognize it," he spoke. 

You felt the joy of songwriting leap from you. There was a grin on your face that threatened to hurt your face. You were certain that you were smiling so hard that the strain in your cheeks was unnatural. 

"That's because I made it up,” you admitted. “It came to me that night at the arcade." 

Eddie's face lit up. He dropped the paper he was holding to give you his full attention. Everything in his hands disappeared and found refuge on the floor. 

"I've started writing lyrics to it as well," before you could even try and say something else, anything else to sell him your song, he was already wiggling himself away from the bed and walking to his guitars scattered around the room. 

He didn’t have much, but what he had was certainly enough. 

"Electric or Acoustic?" He asked, hand on his hips as he pointed to his most precious possessions.

"Acoustic… It’s 2 am, Eds, you don’t want to wake the whole trailer park," you chuckled.

"Who said I was plugging in an amp?" He turned to you, eyebrow quirked high in judgment before you gave him a flat face. He was joking. 

"I'm still going to pick Acoustic," he rolled his eyes before grabbing his black guitar and settling with it on the carpet.

He waited until you followed him. Eddie patted the floor in front of him as if to say, ‘hurry up, we haven’t got all night.’ So, you sat right in front of him with your paper delicately placed between the two of you. Lyrics now exposed to the world, the melody was beginning to be strummed without rhyme nor reason, just talent and the sheer excitement of producing something new. 

"What’s it about?" He questioned aloud as he started fiddling with the strings and pegs.

"You.” 

Eddie’s fingers froze in place. Head raising to meet your eyes, his face brightened and he gave you his best grin before muttering:

"Will you sing it for me?"

Butterflies fluttered in your stomach as they caught the lyrics. 

"Ok," you cleared your throat before reaching for the paper on the floor. You already knew the lyrics. They had been burned into your soul by this point because it’s the only thing you’ve been able to think about for 48 hours. But, you needed something to distract you from his burning gaze. "You ready?" 

“To hear you sing? Always,” you blushed. His hands were already clasping his guitar, impatient to hear you.

"Also, it's far from being finished–"

“Sweetheart,” Eddie let out a breath,  “just sing,”

“Alright,” you shifted on your spot "Ok,"

"Ok," Eddie repeated with a smile. Nodding, as if to tell you everything was going to be just fine.

"That passion in your heart,” you sang in the way you imagined you could hear it on the guitar. The rhythm and the pacing; all of it was to be done without the chords but the silence of the room and the tonal shifts in your voice. 

“Burnin' in your eyes. You look at me and, babe, I wanna catch on fire,” your head was low, eyes fixed on your lyrics as Eddie's jaw almost dropped to the floor, his heart beating in his ears.

"It's buried in my soul, like California gold, you found the light in me that I couldn't find," he thought he was going to melt right there on the carpet of his bedroom floor as the words sunk in.

"So when I'm all choked up, but I can't find the words," you raised your melody, knowing you hadn't any lyrics to this part yet. You weren’t sure what would fill the space when your mind stopped working and all that was left was the loud, thumping of your heart and a mind that raced to find the words that Eddie Munson made you feel. 

"When the sun goes down and the clouds all fade," you let out a bit more, until you stopped and finally gathered the courage to stare up at him as the words disappeared from mind. 

"I think I've found lyrics for the next verse, but I'm not sure yet," you commented, dropping the paper on the ground again, meeting Eddie’s starstruck eyes with clarity. 

You waited for him to say something, anything, that would make your anxiety about sharing this piece of work with him go away. But when he didn’t reply, his eyes just stared wide at you, mouth agape, heat climbed up to your cheeks and you suddenly felt shy. 

"So… what do you think?" you barely mumbled under your breath. 

"Are you sure this is really about me?" He asked, jolted that someone would write a passionate song about him.

"Yes, silly!" you took the lyrics on that loose-leaf sheet of paper and slapped at his chest lightly. "You've been judging me for staring at you too much lately! I'm sorry to say, but you inspire me and if staring at you is going to get me to write, then I’ll do it forever." 

A bright smile appeared on his lips and before you knew it, his guitar was on the floor and he was kissing you.

"What's the next verse?" He muttered in between kisses, hovering over you as you reached to get the paper back. 

"Tonight's scenery," your eyes scanned over the page and back to his eyes. You never wanted to look away from them, pools of honey that melted with his love for you. They were softened by his smile, you had to steal another kiss before you could read the rest to him.

"Lovers in the night, poets tryin' to write, we don't know how to rhyme, but damn we try"

"How are you so damn good at writing?"

"Because you inspired me," you tucked a rogue curl behind his ear.

"We’ve got to show this to the rest of the band!"

"It's not finished though!" you shrieked at the possibility of those boys witnessing this song in its incomplete nature. "It's far from being finished!"

"That's alright!” Eddie brushed it aside. “We can at least work on the melody with them if you'd like? We don't have to show them the words just yet."

He was so sincere. So honest and considerate. It made those words jittery on your fingertips; an itch to write again and put down more of what Eddie meant to you. 

“Ok,” you nodded at him, a smile of your own creeping its way onto your face. “That would work.” 

~

“This is useless,” Gareth pointed out, throwing his drumsticks to the floor and tugging at his hair. “Without Eddie were never going to get the proper rhythm, no offence Y/n.”

“Non-taken,” you shrugged, biting your lip as you looked down to your instrument. 

It was a cheap blue and pink electric guitar you had gotten two christmas’s ago. It suddenly felt heavy, hanging by the strap wrapped around one shoulder. It wasn’t as near powerful or clean sounding as Eddie’s ‘second sweetheart’. The notes didn’t sound as graceful and as Rock’N’Roll as his warlock did. Your fingers tapped on the side of it, you occasionally played it as a backup for Eddie’s, never even attempted to lead using it. 

It didn’t make the situation any better that you didn’t know how to play like Eddie, and that factor seem to aggravate the mood even more.

You knew that if Eddie had been absent with a reason, it wouldn’t have affected this rehearsal one bit. You had practiced multiple times without him before: like when he got caught up in detention or what ever odd side quests Eddie Munson was up to that week.

But this time, something was wrong and it was buzzing in the dusty Hawkins air, slithering through the streets and making people double lock their doors at night and barely leaving their homes. The paranoia was becoming unsettling, and it was starting to bubble in the stuffy air of Gareth’s garage.

Eddie had gone missing for two days now, he had left you soon after your last campaign, and you hadn’t seen him since. It didn’t help that Wayne Munson wouldn’t answer your calls and that Dustin Henderson refused to answer any of your questions. He’d told you a vague ‘He’s alright, don’t worry’, before scurrying off and getting into Steve Harrigton’s car, leaving with unanswered questions and mixed feelings.

No one wanted to tell you the truth and you had gotten answers from no one. 

The rest of the band knew as little as you did. 

There had been a murder at the trailer park, and Eddie had gone missing.

You also knew it wouldn’t be long before the police came at your doorstep to ask you about Eddie. You were just grateful Wayne hadn’t let your name slip.

Great.

Just great. 

“You know what,” you spoke up, breaking the heavy silence. “Let’s just cancel band practice today,” you removed the guitar strap from your shoulders, heading to put it back in your case. “I don’t think any of us can focus.”

“Yeah,” the boys muttered, watching you leave without another word. 

They all knew this was taking a toll on you, and all felt like they could use a good rest anyways. 

You missed Jason, his gang and Lucas by luck that day.

~

“Hey, do you hear that?” Eddie jumped, a faint whisper of a voice making the hair on his arm spike, goosebumps tumbling down his spine. 

The upsidedown was already a creepy place, and the last thing Eddie needed was whispers to start haunting him–he seriously didn’t know how much longer he could last in this place.

“Hear what?” Nancy turned, her torchlight lighting up Eddie’s face.

“I thought I heard a whisper,” Eddie muttered, eyes squinting from the light aggression. 

“Didn’t hear anything,” Robin concluded and continued her walk through the dodgy forest.

Eddie recognised this place, they were already far from lover’s lake and were almost by the main road, not far from where you lived. 

He bit his lip as he thought of you. He hated not telling you anything, but he knew it was to protect you. He couldn’t risk that the the evil he was wittnissing first hand to get to you, or hurt you in any way. He knew he wouldn’t be able to forgive himself if anything were to happen.

“Eddie,”

He jumped like a startled cat, the whisper had been clear, sharper. 

“This time you guys must have heard it too!” He whined, gulping when everyone turned around with annoyed looks on their faces.

“Litsen, we’re not going to make it far if you keep stopping because you think you heard something!” Steve grumbled towards the metalhead, the aggravated look on his face becoming more serious. Steve’s hand was impatiently resting on his hip, now covered by Eddie’s battle jacket.

“I don’t think! I heard it loud and clear!” Eddie spoke up, matching Steve’s tone. “It called my name.”

“Great, now were loosing Eddie!” Robin whined before taking a step towards him and snapping her fingers in front of his face. “Get it together, Munson! We have to find a way out of here!”

“Right, sorry,” Eddie shook his head and continued his walk, pushing away what ever was happening to him–and ignoring the unknown whispers that nagged at his ear.

“Eddie please, answer me,” your fingers gripped the side of your talkie, in hopes that maybe, just maybe he would answer you. 

But by the fourth time you called, the talkie unwinglingly dropped from your hand, tumbling from your bed to find a new home on the carpet of your bedroom floor. 

Eddie had been missing for four days.  

Four days of escaping Jason, four days of trying to squeeze an answer out of anyone. 

“Eds, where are you?” You whispered to yourself, closing your eyes as your head fell straight into your pillow, clutching it at your side as you tried not to cry.

You hadn’t left your room today, only muttering a thank you to your mom for lying to Jason when he came at your door, again.

Things were leading to nowhere and the rumours were doing nothing good for your spiralling thoughts.

You lifted your head up from your pillow, sighing as your eyes caught a polaroid of you and Eddie. It had been taken by Gareth right after one of your gigs at The Hideout. You remembered Eddie asking you to do his eyeliner a few hours prior. You had neatly applied it all around his eyes as if he had been Billy Idol prepping for a concert, but after shredding his guitar like freaking Jimmy Hendrix on that small crooked stage, he looked more like a slanky raccoon than a rockstar.

His arm was wrapped around your shoulders, your hair was as wild as Eddie’s, going all over the place from the hour of performing. Both your eyes sparkled with some kind of after show high, but yours held something else entierly as you looked at Eddie. You looked so in love it only reminded you how much you cared about him.

About how much he means to you.

Stop. You decided it was enough sulking for one day. Swinging your legs on the side of your bed, socked feet touching your soft carpet before you snatched your notebook and pen from your nightstand, throwing it on the floor before taking your acoustic guitar from it’s spot on your wall. Your eyes barely caught the ‘This machine slays dragons’, spray painted in pink–done by Eddie himself on a rainy afternoon.

You sighed as you crossed your legs, resting the guitar on the edges of your thighs before starting to tune it, mindlessly twisting the pegs as you tride to push the ache from your heart away–maybe even channel it into words and music. 

You opened your notebook, hoping to find something to save you, but it was just a reminder. The song still rested on the white pages, words mending together in pretty loops of letters. You had almost finished it before he vanished, and even if writing music had been the last thing on Corroded Coffin’s mind, it was the only thing that could keep you from spirialing. The only thing that kept you sane in this mess of a situation. 

The page you were staring at had been wrinkled by your aggressive erasing during the past few days. The pencil writing of your most recent words were already smudged from the tears and constant doubting on the way it sounded with your melody.

But all I really know, you're where I wanna go, 

And maybe, just maybe if you had told him these words before you would know where he is. Maybe you’d be with him and help him sort through this mess.

 ~

A week.

A week of silence.

And Hawkins had crumbled under your feet.

Your grip tightened on the cardboard box filled with clothes to donate. You had gone alone–sent by your mother who had been too busy to go herself. You tried to calm down your nerves as you walked in through the large double doors of the gymnasium. You didn’t know why anxiety was munching at your stomach, threatening to swallow you whole–but the bad feeling was rising in your chest and you couldn’t push the intuition away.

You caught a glimpse of Dustin talking to Wayne, frowning when the conversation didn’t look very joyous. Dustin had his fist closed, handing something you couldn’t see from that far to the older man sitting in front of him.

“You should give it to her yourself,” Wayne mumbled, pushing away the boy’s hand away. 

Dustin blinked, shock seeping through him at the suggestion. God he didn’t know how he would even tell you.

And just like that Dustin found your eyes. You were already looking at him from the distance–eyes wide in silent question–maybe also fear; he couldn’t be sure, he couldn’t know until he actually talked to you. 

He gulped.

Dustin’s face held nothing but anguish and the closer he was to you the better you could see the tear stains on his cheeks and the slight glaze in his eyes.

He didn’t have to even speak. He didn’t even need to voice it–the look in his eyes said everything that needed to be said.

Tears prickled at your eyes and you felt the sudden erge to throw up. The feeling rose and your heart physically started to ache–was that what grief felt like? Was that the feeling that came crashing onto your body like waves onto cliffs.

You didn’t even know what Dustin had said. It was all a distant echo, a distant voice in a parallel reality–muffled by the way your body’s reaction.

You caught some words. Sentences that didn’t ease the feeling.

‘He talked about you t’il the end.’

‘He didn’t want to put you in danger.’

‘He really, really loved you.’

‘He left this for you’

You didn’t know how long ago he had left. How long you had been standing there–Eddie’s pick necklace resting against your palm. 

But it was long enough for you to register the sudden feeling of loneliness, washed up from the storm on the shores of your mind. 

Your other half was gone.

~

"This is um- the song" You zipped up your bag, slipping out the tear-stained paper you had spent the last few days blankly staring at. Maybe hoping it would bring him back.

Jeff grabbed it without a word, giving you a tight smile. You could see he had been crying too.

You looked away as his eyes started shifting across the paper. You looked at the small window of Gareth's garage, the sunset bringing the rays of golden hour across the musty room.

If he had been here, everyone would have taken a break and you would all be watching the sunset. You'd be wrapped in his arms giggling to some dumb joke he made about whatever was on his mind.

But that wasn't the case.

And everything felt so dull now.

You looked around. You were slouched onto an old green bean bag chair, the one you and Eddie would fight over every single band practice, but now he wasn’t there to fight you for it–you had the dirty, half empty and wrapped up in duck tape poor exuse for a sagbag all to yourself. The used up thing didn’t even look appealing anymore, and you hoped Gareth would throw it away for your sake. 

The garage’s owner was blankly staring at his cymbals, drum sticks barely hanging from his hand and threatening to drop on the carpet. He looked like hell, not much of a difference from his band mates if you were honest.

Jeff's bass was hanging low around his shoulders as he read, tears nudging at his eyes.

"You- you wrote this?" The strain in his voice was evident. "For Eddie?"

"I wrote it with Eddie, but I want to change a lyric, before we um, do anything with it."

"Yeah go ahead," he blinked the shock out of his eyes.

The lyrics felt so beautiful, so magical. To him, you and Eddie had been nothing but one of those high school couples that would either go on to get married, just to have that classic white picket fence life or end up breaking up before graduation. Nothing more, nothing less.

But as he looked at you wiping tears off your cheeks he realized it was so much more, and it had always been so much more.

The both of you were never going to fall into either of these two options. The two of you had always been the odds one out of the pack, the whole of Hawkins had been a witness to they way your crazy minds worked–but your relationship didn’t just hold on your similarities. The two of you had been in love, truly in love. Like the type of love Aragorn and Arwen shared, or the one in the stupid movies channel six passed on friday nights. The ones poets wrote about and people died for. 

You were meant to be rock stars together as you crossed the world. The two of you were supposed to be the pillars of this band, the glue that would hold everything and see members come and go. He didn’t know why it took him all this mess to realise. 

"You want to read it?" You looked at Gareth who looked up from his drum set with a blank expression.

"I'd rather hear you sing," he muttered.

"Alright,” you cleared your throat. "Can you-" You were about to ask if he could play the guitar for you but remembered that was Eddie's job. Jeff played bass, and Gareth was on the drums. "Nevermind," you took the decision on your own–you’d do it accapella.

You weren’t bad at guitar, you knew how too strum a few simple chords, but you weren’t Eddie.

"When the sun goes down" your voice cracked and you had to close your eyes to keep focus "and the band won't play," your words felt heavy in the room, and a sad smile adorned Jeff's lips. "I'll always remember us this way," you continued, and suddenly Gareth started playing the rhythm that you had rehearsed two weeks prior. Jeff started on the bass, and as they started duetting–your eyes fell upon Eddie's guitar.

You picked it up.

You grabbed the guitar from the corner of the room, hanging it on your shoulders and attempting to keep singing as you plugged it in the brand new Marshall amp–a gift from Gareth’s mom to the band. 

You thought that maybe Eddie would be proud–proud of all of you for continuing music even if he wasn’t there.

"Lovers in the night," Gareth picked up the pace on the drums, and you desperately tried to follow the rhythm, hanging on to what Eddie had taught you. "Poets tryin' to write, we don't know how to rhyme, but damn we try," it took everything for you not to cry. “But all I really know, you're where I wanna go," You closed your eyes in anticipation of the next line, the one you had written just yesterday, "the part of me that's you will never die"

"So when I'm all choked up, and I can't find the words" Eddie was peering up at you with the brightest smile you had ever seen. "Every time we say goodbye, baby, it hurts" Your fingers glided over the guitar strings, Eddie knew you were fully into the song but he just had to stop you.

"What?" You smiled as his hand reached the guitar and his other your cheek.

"I cannot believe you wrote that about me"

You giggled, "is that so bad about?"

"I love you," you could have stared at the giddy smile across his face for ever.

"I love you too,"

"And I love the new lyrics, please continue, I'm sorry I've cut you off" He sealed the moment with a kiss, before leaning away and sitting patiently in front of you again.

"When the sun goes down, and the band won't play," the memory was cut by you opening your eyes again.

The sun might have been setting a beautiful color upon the walls, but the garage felt so much darker without him. Without his voice.

"I'll always remember us this way"

~

"So what inspired you to write this song?" The interviewer pursed her lips before settling her papers back onto her lap, fixing her glasses before staring back to you.

You looked down at your skull bracelet, sad smile forming upon your lips.

"Isn't it obvious?" You quirked an eyebrow, hiding behind humor to stop the bubbling feelings.

"Love?" She smiled back and you nodded your head. You wanted this conversation to end like it usually did. You always gave the same answer; Love.

The same music with cheeky gazes and smiles always followed;

‘Is it anyone we know?’ 

‘Is he in the band?’

‘Are they famous?’

‘Are you in a relationship?’

You never answered. Gareth, Jeff or the latest addition to the band would change the subject–but as the crowds grew, so did their curiosity. You knew you couldn't hide from the eyes of the public much longer.

"Yes, but we all want to know more,” she urged on, her tone staying sweet and comprehending. “You once said it was one of Corroded Coffin's most personal songs if I’m not mistaken." 

There it was. You were alone–no boys to help you change the subject with a joke or random statement about the song. You looked at your shoes for a brief instant; maybe trying to sum up the courage and push away the feeling of dread. Attempt to mend the hole in your heart, just for a few minutes. After this you could leave back to your hotel room and find a way to drown your sorrows.

When you didn’t reply, she continued.

"I can't help but notice that there's a certain sadness to the lyrics?"

She hit the bull's eye.

"Well," You looked up, meeting her gaze. Maybe it was the unspoken comprehension of a woman towards another–the subconscious bond that created itself just by your similar place in the world that made you more comfortable to share. Maybe it was what caused her to spot the hidden meaning–or maybe it was just her journalist mind that picked the song apart, ready to latch onto any information you were ready to hand over.

"What people don't usually realize is that the song takes a turn,” you shifted uncomfortable in your seat–you had never gotten this personal in an interview before. "It starts out as this love song. Two soulmates who can't believe they've found each other," Eddie's pick necklace felt burning hot against your chest, the ring you had slid on the chain too–a diamond ring that belonged to Eddie’s grandmother. 

You remembered the moment you had discovered it. You were going through Eddie’s room accompanied by Wayne, trying to naviagte around the ruins of the trailer and scavenge for anything that was left plausible to use or donate. Boxes of random objects and clothes laid in between all the mess and you had already managed to find his guitar–releif when it was in perfect condition, left untouch by the damages of the earthquake. Which now hung on your living room wall, preciously behind a glass frame.

Your attention had been caught on the broken closet while Wayne was going through the drawers of the small desk. The earthquake had broken one of its feet; making half of the drawers hang open with clothes tumbling out of it. You had organized his shirts and jeans already–piling up the ones you could keep and the ones you could give away or give to the corroded coffin boys to share upon themselves.

Your fingers gripped the handle of the third drawer–and you'd only realize this after but it was probably the last time you’d have any a glimpse of sanity in your bones; if you had even any sanity left since he passed away.

If you were honest with yourself you didn’t even really know what this drawer contained. He had never really opened it in front of you and you couldn’t say that you had much curiosity towards it before. You half expected it to be his sock drawer–but your breath caught in your throat when you slid it open.

A collection of souvenirs–mainly of you, laid at the bottom of the hard wood. Photos, souvenirs, concert tickets, boxes with what you assumed even more trinkets and things he collected since the start of your relationship.

You gulped in a pour attempt to push the tears away. 

You started sorting through the collection papers and polaroids–everything bringing memories that were dug deep into your brain’s memory, hidden behind other memories of Eddie. You already knew you’d keep everything, probably throw everything in a box and sort it out in the comfort of your own room–when Wayne wasn’t there to see you crumble even more as you gazed upon Eddie’s collection.

There was a mediumish wooden black box nestled in the far corner of the drawer, and it immediately caught your attention–like something pulling you towards it, screaming for your acknowledgment.

The box wasn’t heavy in your hand, it almost looked like the boxes Eddie used to store his extra special drugs and you expected that to be the content. Eddie hid drugs everywhere in the trailer in a poor attempt at covering up the fact that he wasn’t a drug dealer in his spare time. That if the Hopper or some other dumb officer ever came around they couldn’t possibly find everything he hid. 

But even if there was, most probably a zip-lock bag with some kind of funky psychedelic powder or pills hidden inside–you still wanted to be sure. You fiddled with the unlocked buckle, and pushed the lid open; but you were met with no drugs. 

Instead there was another black box. A small squared box draped in black velvet. You frowned, it… couldnt be? No. You refused to even think about the idea–this was again probably one of Eddie’s weird drug hiding spots.

This must have been something even more special than the special K.

With trembling hands you grabbed it, fingers wrapping around the top of the box and popping it open.

You blinked, all words dying in the back of your throat. You didn’t trust your voice, but your mind had talked at loud on it’s own.

“Um, Wayne?” Your voice was definitely shaking, and he immediately turned to face you. “Do- um- what- huh-” You couldn’t formulate a proper sentence, and you watched Wayne’s expression soften when his eyes caught what was in your hands. 

His mother’s engagement ring.

“So that’s where the little devil’s kept it,” Wayne almost laughed, almost chuckled at the absurdity of the unworldly situation. Your frown deepened and your heart raced to your ears, you couldn’t formulate one single thought and Wayne seemed to take notice because he continued, “we found it in a box a few months ago, Eddie was adamant of keeping it,” Wayne weighed out his words, wondering if he should continue. He knew well enough this was going to break you even more, but now that Eddie was gone, he couldn’t keep the subject of his conversations with his nephew to himself, “to give it to you someday.”

Wayne had insisted that you kept it. That it was meant for you and that he’d have no use of it–that it would be collecting dust in a drawer when Eddie wanted you to have it, when Eddie had kept it stored in the back of his closet for you.

You had worn it on your ring finger for months–as if he had actually given it to you himself. As if he had made it past graduation and got down on one knee, locking your lives together forever.

Gareth had caught you speaking of him one too many times at bars. You would have one drink too many, some guy had probably made a move and you shoved your hand towards his face, drunkenly rambling a life you wished had been real.

But your drunken and fuzzy mind always caught up with the fact that you were lying. That your fiance wasn’t really on a trip and you weren't just at a bar with your best friends to celebrate being engaged and soon to be married- and that's when the tears became uncontrollable.

Gareth-the usually sober one often found himself attempting to dry your tears, trying to sober you up on the floor of the dodgy tour bus or in some hidden corner of the bar if the bus had already been taken hostage by Jeff and his latest conquest.

But when fame rolled down at your doorstep you had to remove the ring from your finger to keep any unwanted rumors away.

And right now you couldn’t just open your room’s mini fridge to scavenge for anything that could take the pain away from your chest, you had to continue that interview.

"But then the song becomes a requiem," you continued, trying to keep your voice from wavering. You watched the interviewer face almost fall, her mouth opening into an 'o' as she pieced up the lyrics together.

You thanked the stars she was being respectful, maybe even understood.

Soon enough the interview was finished, and neither Jeff nor Gareth or the world was ready for what you did the next time you stood on stage. 

Because for the first time in years you spoke his name.

For the first time, you told the world who this song was about.

[spideyanakin]

let me be your harley (e.m)

requested by - @chloefrl // cheerleader!popular!reader and eddie are friends, he always makes her laugh and smile 24/7 , and Eddie is in love with her (let’s say since first year of high school) when he was about to confess his feelings for her, he saw her talking to a jock and that made him realize he wasn’t enough for her so he backed off. Reader noticed this, and confronted him. And he confessed his feelings about her and with something along the lines “your a queen, and I’m just your joker.” Then obv reader says she also likes him and they date :D

warnings - smoking, angst but ends fluff <3, friends to lovers

back to main masterlist

eddie munson masterlist

the playlist

Eddie Munson never thought he could have a friend like you.

Never in his wildest dreams would he have imagined being best friends with the prettiest girl in school, let alone someone who also happens to be a cheerleader and crowned princess of Hawkins.

But there he was, on a random Tuesday evening, sitting on his bed with a joint dancing back and forth between his fingers and your own, babbling about your favorite lord of the Rings characters.

"What do you mean Legolas is an asshole?" You chuckled as you took a new puff, Eddie watching as your cheeks hallowed and half of your exhale passed through your nose before the rest of the smoke came out of your mouth. You stole a new drag before handing it to Eddie.

"You don't remember that moment in the two towers where he let Aragorn bend down to listen to the earth and struggle and shit and waited for him to come to the conclusion that indeed a whole ass army was headed towards them, and Legolas was just 'oh yeah I spotted them like an hour ago."

"Oh yeah, I remember," you giggled, "but he's not an asshole for this. Legolas is one of my favorite characters," you frowned, turning your head to face Eddie.

You smiled, finding his big brown eyes already staring at you. He smiled back, blowing smoke in your face to make you laugh--and it worked, because you swatted the smoke with a giggle, playfully slapping his chest before leaning on his shoulder.

Eddie wrapped his arm around you, letting you melt at his side.

You hummed in comfort, feeling safe in the warmth of Eddie's arms. Your eyes closing by themselves as you felt your high seep through you.

Eddie broke the silence, cheek leaning against the crown of your head, "he's a good character, but elves can be assholes in general in lord of the Rings."

"Don't shit on the elves, Munson," you hit his chest with the back of your hand, leaning away from his shoulder to meet his eyes again.

A new fit of laughter escaped you both the second your eyes met.

At this moment Eddie couldn't help but stare at you. You had this giddy high smile on your lips and shiny eyes. Hair poking all over the place, your cheer uniform wrinkled from laying down, sleeve falling off one shoulder. You made eye contact again and Eddie thought he was going to pass out.

His heart leaped in his chest and somehow he knew, he knew that he couldn't keep his feelings to himself for much longer.

He had already been head over heels for you since the first time he saw you in that high school cafeteria, and he knew he was ready to lay his life for you the second you exchanged words for the first time.

He had struggled to let the words 'thanks' and 'bye' in the same sentence, causing him to mumble something in between, you had given him the sweetest smile in return and waved your perfectly manicured hand goodbye.

He had to pinch himself every day since the moment Mrs. Smith had paired the two of you for a school project and you had, since then, somehow decided Eddie was a worthy friend: because you stuck around ever since.

He didn't even know how in the world you had anything in common in the first place.

But from the first time you had worked together outside of school, you took him by surprise.

He didn't even think it was possible for someone like you to feel so comfortable in his room, but he thought his eyes were going to pop out of his skill as he watched you graze your fingers excitedly over his Metallica poster, commenting about how much you loved them.

Eddie thought he was going to die right there.

But then, he ascended to heaven when you excitedly pointed to his music tapes your voice feeling like an angel's as you asked him the most obvious question: 'oh my god you listen to that too?'. He blinked, the question taking him by surprise. Wasn't it obvious? With the way he dressed and his reputation.

He barely nodded, too dumbfounded to form a proper sentence.

His eyes scanned you as you wrapped your fingers around another tape you hadn't noticed before, cheering as you showed it to Eddie. 'Oh my god, this is one of my favorites!' his breath caught in his throat as you asked permission to put said tape in his player. You turned up the volume and Eddie knew he was a goner when you started singing over Ozzy Osbourn's voice.

Needless to say, Eddie knew you had been a gift sent from heaven right this moment.

Or maybe you were sent from hell, destined to torment him. For him to fall helplessly in love with you just to never get a chance.

But you liked him back, right?

right.

"God, I wish I could join hellfire." You blinked and turned to him. "I wish I could play an elf too. I have so many ideas for my character..."

"I wish you could too, princess."

And that marked the end of a perfect evening with you.

You would go back to your house, take a shower and wash your uniform in a poor attempt to hide that you had been smoking. You would make yourself something to eat and finish up your homework, reminiscing about how off being in the cheer squad started to feel.

Your friends felt faker and faker by the second, and dancing in a green skirt accompanied with fluffy pom poms didn't feel right anymore, it didn't feel like you.

~

That morning, Eddie came to school with his intention set. A poorly written speech of what he wanted to tell you crumpled in the pocket of his leather jacket, keywords written in blue on his wrist, but the ink was already smudged by second period.

He felt nervous and jittery since he opened his eyes this morning, sunlight creeping in his poorly closed curtains. The light filtered in and lit up the space where he stuck all his best polaroid photos on his wall.

His eye caught his favorite one, and then it was all a reminder of what he promised himself today was going to be.

This was it.

He was going to muster all the courage he could and ask you ask on a date, jump into the potential abyss of ruining your picture-perfect friendship, with the potential of being able to call you his by the end of the day.

It took him some serious pep talk in the mirror and maybe even half of an old joint he found, hidden in the corner of his room by his guitar.

He was determined to meet with you in the woods, at your usual meeting spot. To sit at the mossy table, share a blunt and a pack of cookies as you gossiped on the latest Hawkins High news. He'd offer if you wanted to share his pack Twix bar, 'how romantic' he thought, and maybe once a comfortable silence had fallen, he would slide in the idea.

If his mouth would let him let the words out.

He knew it wasn't perfect, he knew it was far from the grand romantic gestures you deserved--but it was the best he could offer you in these conditions.

Knowing the fact that your time together always ran short, that you had to hide in between the trees or the comfort of your own homes to just be together--romantic of platonic.

And also knowing that if he didn't let his heart out today, he would probably burst into flames.

So he let out a deep breath, rearranging his bangs in the rearview mirror, fixing his jacket one last time, and making sure there wasn't anything stuck in between his teeth.

He looked around, spying on the crowd through the safe haven of his windshield. He spotted your car, but you were nowhere near it. You were probably already inside, fishing books from your locker or chatting with which ever of your cheerleader bimbo ‘friends’ had caught your attention.

He focused on not making his hand shake as he opened the door of his van, hands immediately finding shelter in his pockets as he made his way inside the school building.

It felt like everyone was staring at him as he made his way through the crowded hallway to reach his own locker. The random eyes that he would normally pay no attention too seemed to be staring right into his soul, judging him and telling him ‘you don’t stand a chance’

But he knew that was far from the truth. No one was reading into his mind, and no one had a laser vision that could see through leather and into his pocket, where they’re be able to read the rehearsed words Eddie had thrown together as if he was writing a new song for his band.

He felt like he was going crazy. Every little noise, every squeaking of a shoe, every locker closing: he could hear. A hyper awareness that made the hair of his arms spike despite his fight to keep himself calm and collected.

He reached his own locker. Easily doing the combination before opening it.

Crumpled papers over crumpled papers. Two stray markers and one ball pen sat in the middle of it all. A stash of weed hidden beneath the pile of scribbled pages, and a stray D and D dice, to which Eddie didn’t even know which set it belonged to. He thinks maybe it use to be Jeff’s old set, he vaguely remembered him using brownish dice for a while.

But he didn’t bother much longer with the question, because it had been weeks since it found itself on the bottom of Eddie’s locker and it would probably stay there until he graduated.

Out of the pile he picked out a virgin page, ripping it in half. He grabbed the first marker that his hands fell upon. An orange color with a thick tip to write, making his letters big and bulky as he scribbled

'meet me in the woods at lunch -E’

He folded the paper as neatly as he could, stuffing it in the back pocket of his jeans.

He waited until the hallway of your locker was a minimal emptied out, students filtering out and heading to their classrooms. He fumbled with his favorite ring, eyes scanning for any potential sneaky glances,

Your locker was almost there, he was halfway to victory, hand already reaching for his back pocket.

But then he saw you.

His face fell.

Your hair was tied up with its usual green ribbon, a bright smile plastered on your face as you spoke with one of the popular jocks; Chad.

He closed his eyes and breathed out through his nose, realization hitting him. He felt the floor crumble under him, ready for the world to swallow him whole.

Chad was the real-life version of a Ken doll. Perfect, shiny blonde hair that would make Steve jealous if he was still in school, a pearly white grin that made Eddie's stomach twist, and crystal blue eyes accompanied with the most charming aura.

He was a jock, with perfect grades, a fuck load of money, and everything else Eddie lacked. Popularity dripped from him. Everything Chad possessed that Eddie missed. You deserved someone who could grant you the moon if you wished--and Eddie could barely afford a diner date.

He watched as you slightly leaned against him: Chad flashing you his best smile as he spoke. He ran his hand through his perfect short curls, watching as they bounced back perfectly on his forehead.

He was bluntly flirting with you and Eddie saw his hopes fly out the window quicker than he found the courage to gather them.

The way you smiled as your conversation went on was enough for him to back away. Fist closing upon itself. He grabbed the piece of paper in his pocket, his 'poorly' written speech, and dumped it in the first trash that caught his eye.

He blinked, head falling down as he tried to burn the image of you with another guy out of his mind. He walked in the opposite direction, the realization that he didn't deserve you burning down his throat.

You were far too high in the Hawkins High food chain to even consider dating a guy like him. How could he have been so stupid?

You made him high on love. High on the hope that you could be an item. The way you were so comfortable around him, and how you made his head spin by doing the simplest of action.

But deep down he always knew this was a dream that he was going to have to snap out of. You needed someone like Chad. Someone with a good reputation and who doesn't take rides in the back of the sheriff's cars on a regular basis.

You might have similar tastes in music and common interests, but that was about it. Your social circles weren't compatible and he felt like a fool to even think he could have a chance.

~

He felt enough like a fool after that morning, he didn't need the pain in his heart to become worse by having you around.

Three weeks into his poor cover-ups and attempts to push you away, he only felt himself sink deep into his misery. No amount of Ozzy or Dio was enough to help him crawl out of this pit of pain he out himself into.

And as if things couldn't get worse, the pained look on your face every time you tried to comfort Eddie and he'd lay out yet again a poor excuse for his distance was now engraved in his mind--a reminder that not only was he destroying himself but he was bringing you down with him in the process.

But you'd heal, and faster than he ever could.

He knew you would.

He watched from the far end of the hellfire table, head hung in mystery as he looked down at the pretzels he didn't have an appetite for.

Gareth and Jeff were sharing a look, wondering if they should just go into a conversation of their own and pretend like Eddie wasn't moping right in front of their eyes. Lately, ignoring him seemed to be the only way to keep the party safe from his mood.

Eddie looked up once he had enough of staring at the dry food on his plate. He scanned the cafeteria and it didn't take him long to find you--looking perfect as always.

But in his staring, he was oblivious to the way your eyes didn't hold the same brightness as they usually did, and that the excited tone when you spoke to your friends was gone--blown with the harsh storm that had been Eddie's ignorance.

Of course, Eddie couldn't see the sleepless nights and the way your diner plates had remained full for the past few days. He couldn't truly see the inner turmoil that was rumbling inside your bones and keeping you from sanity.

But how could he? It was all hidden behind your perfect practiced cheerleader smile.

And when Eddie spotted that perfect smile from a distance, he didn't think twice before jumping to conclusions: you had finally moved on.

As Eddie looked back down to his poor lunch, he knew one thing to be clear: he was simply a useless passing villager in your game of life. He thought of himself to be like one of those useless NPCs he invented for his campaigns.

Boy if only he knew how wrong he was.

~

On the second day of the third week, you had enough.

If Eddie was going to ignore you, you at least needed a reason, something to justify the pang in your heart each time your eyes landed on him from a distance.

So you held your books a little tighter in your hand, your pink nails gripping your sticker-filled yellow spiral notebook tighter as you made your way out of the cafeteria. You watched like a hawk, keeping a certain distance so as to not raise suspicion. Eddie was speaking with one of his fellow Hellfire members; Jeff. The boy was nodding at whatever his dungeon master was telling him, and Eddie was fiddling with his rings: something you knew he did when he was nervous.

What did he have to be nervous about?

Eddie was soaked to the bone with confidence, that was the whole armor he wore so your so-called friends wouldn't eat him alive.

Did this have something to do with you?--There was no way of knowing, but you were growing suspicious of Eddie's change of behavior; towards both yourself and his faltering confidence.

The bell rang and as per usual, Eddie didn't budge from his spot. His friend had already scurried off to class but despite the rush happening around him, he took his time, stuffing his drug-filled lunch box into his locker and attempting to sort out the mess of misused books and stray notes he might need for the afternoon.

You closed your own locker, mumbling something to your friend, shooting her a smile as she left you alone.

The corridor fell empty, apart from you and Eddie; but didn't have seem to notice your presence, or at least if he did he did not make a move to talk to you or run away like he had usually done these past few weeks.

If he hadn't been ignoring you, maybe you would have smiled at the way he was figuring out what his own handwriting meant. Smiled at the way he was placing the paper in every angle possible to try and decipher if this was a useful piece of information for the hours to come. But when he finally cracked it, like an ancient code meant to keep safe the best of treasures, he mumbled something you didn't catch from the distance and stuffed it back in between the unorganized line of notebooks.

This wasn't the paper he was searching for.

"You need help finding something?" Your voice made him jump, making you crack a smile at the startled look on his face.

"Jesus, don't scare me like that," he mumbled before fishing for a bright blue notebook. He opened it to make sure it was the right one, and when he read Math, sloppily written in big letters across the front page, he tucked the book under his arm. He didn't share another word with you, probably waiting for you to make your purpose by his side known.

He tucked a 4 colored pen behind his ear and closed his locker, not bothering to close the lock.

"Can we talk?"

"Not, now I have to get to class, and so do you," he pointed to the clock behind you and you crossed your arms.

But your stance didn't seem to bother him much, because he turned on his heel and started walking away.

It took you a second to remember why you were here, you had enough of whatever was going on with him--and you wouldn't let him run away on you again.

So you caught up with him and stood your grown in front of him, trying to take as much space as possible--but probably failing to look an ounce more intimidating than nature allowed you to be.

But nonetheless, you still spoke, words slashing the air; "You're ignoring me." It was a statement--a firm one that almost made him flinch.

You saw his expression falter from shock to something else. A color you didn't recognize in Eddie, maybe pain, hurt? Your heart sunk down to your feet as réalisation hit you.

Did you really do something that bad?

He was staring right at you, big brown eyes intently staring your face, maybe trying to decipher your emotions, trying to read your mind so he could make a decision on his next move.

"No I haven't," but instead of doing anything remotely productive to help the conversation like you’d hope; he lied.

"Yes, you have," he watched as your face fell, more pieces of his heart shattering in the process. "Have I done something wrong?" The way you frowned was overwhelming. "I promise I didn't mean to, Eddie we can talk this out."

Eddie felt like he was about to burst, all of the predicaments he tried to convince himself were true falling to the ground and breaking with the last of his heart.

He had to close his eyes to stop himself from wanting to rip his hair out or cry.

You were blaming yourself, for something that was all him.

His fears came true, he had dragged you down into misery with him.

"Y/n, of course not-" you watched him stumble with his words.

"Then why are you ignoring me," Your tone might have seemed firm but he could tell the way your voice wavered.

You were hurt.

And it was all his fault.

He sighed, barely managing to meet your eyes again.

"Because I'm not good enough for you."

You blinked, trying to make sense of his words.

"What?"

"I'm not good enough for you!" He lifted his voice a bit, but not enough to make you flinch. "You're- you're perfect. It's as if god had taken everything that's perfect and made you—and then there's me, who is everything but perfect. A freak who was apparently meant to fall for someone he cannot have," he went on, too busy going on a rampage to notice the way your breath caught in your throat.

"Because," he looked into your eyes, a look so intense it almost gave you chills. "You're a queen, and I’m just your joker. And The Joker cannot fall in love with the queen of Gotham, she deserves Batman, the handsome Bruce Wayne. Not the madman."

You swallowed as you realized this was a love confession. Eddie’s eyes were wide, almost hectic, and the more you stared at him the more you realised this was him rambling on about how, he reciprocated your feelings but thought you could never.

Your ached when you registered the way he had just talked about himself, but quickly it was replaced by anger bubbling in the pit of your stomach for anyone in this damn town that made him feel this way.

Because your Eddie deserved the world, and he most definitely deserved someone like you. He even deserved the entire of Gotham to be at his feet.

You took a step closer, mustering bits of courage you still held, "Harley Quinn and the Joker made a pretty good pair the last time I checked."

Eddie felt the air pull out of his lungs as you spoke, his brain working overtime as it attempted to comprehend the coded message.

"What do you mean?" He breathed out, watching you get even closer to him.

"Let me be your Harley," you brushed his hand, making goosebumps travel up his arm. His fingers slowly interlacing with yours, eyes getting glossy. "I might be the Queen of Gotham, but I'm far from wanting Batman," you giggled, continuing to close the distance between you.

Before he could blink again, you were already on your tip toes leaning in for a kiss. You were already lowering yourself back to your normal height before Eddie registered what happened.

But when he did, his lips were on yours again—chasing for the feeling he had dreamed about for months now.

Eddie thought his brain was going to overheat.

Not even ten minutes ago, he thought every chance he had with you had been long gone, sunk deep into lovers lake with the other broken romances and unrequited loves.

But there he was, kissing the girl of his dreams in the middle of a school hallway.

And it was everything he had ever dreamt it would be.

"So, I'm really perfect?" You smirked as you pulled away from the kiss just for Eddie to chase your lips again, muttering 'Yes' in between kisses.

Eddie finally pulled away when the information had fully registered.

"How in the world do you like me back?" He blinked in disbelief.

"Because you're perfect?" He shook his head no, but you persisted, "you’re perfect for me, Eddie."

find the archived version here

[spideyanakin]

SPILL THE TEA ON WHY EDDIE IS DAEMON-CODED I WANNA SEEEEE

OK OK YOUVE OPENED PANDORAS BOX GIRLY I-

First of all Eddie is Targaryen coded, like prove me wrong but that man would 100% be the blood of the dragon.

Anyways I’m also going on the principle that if you’d put daemon in the same setting as Eddie (in the 80’s, living in a trailer park with his uncle) he would be Eddie Munson. Like he would deal drugs, he would be called the freak bc Targaryens r all freaks, and they have this like free will to just be themselves bc that’s the power the crown have given them for years, and even tho deamon was born with it, Eddie just has it. That recklessness burning in their veins. And maybe living Eddie’s life would give Deamon a tiny bit more of the compassion Eddie has, but I doubt it.

And although Eddie would be more loyal and sweeter than deamon. You can’t tell me Eddie wouldn’t act like Daemon does in a game of thrones setting!!! Like Eddie born and raised with the blood of the dragon? Eddie having an actual dragon? DUNGEON MASTER, CONTROL FREAK EDDIE being second heir to the throne his entire life? Nah that man would so be Deamon coded, but he would have more remorse I think. In the sense that Eddie would do chaotic things, but he would genuinely have more compassion and feel bad. But he’d be so so so stubborn like Daemon 😭 like what he pulled in Harrenhall would so happen to him

And then I mean, the smirk, the nonchalant, the long hair, the mischievous spark in their eyes!!!! I need to see Eddie own a dragon. I need to see a fan art of him as a Targaryen Prince 😫

[spideyanakin]

10 things is my favorite movie of all time, and i’m loving your series! It’s all I can think about right now 🫶🏻

Omg girly thank you so much 🥹🩷💞 and yeah this movie is just way too iconic haha

working hard on the next part 😫💞🤭

read 10 things I hate about you

[spideyanakin]

I know you’ve only recently posted chapter 6 of your 10 things series with Eddie but do you know when you’ll be posting chapter 7/ are you currently writing this? (No pressure just curious)

It’s a really great series!

hi babes 💞

no clue, but shouldn’t be in too long! It’s almost half way through, I am taking my time with it tho because it’s going to be the last chapter!! 🫣🫣 (what am I going to do with my life after this I don’t know haha)

And I rly want this series to finish in an iconic way, I have sooooo many things planned for this chapter you do not even know🤪

Thank you so much for reading and leaving an ask means a lot 💗

read 10 things I hate about you

[spideyanakin]

She Wants Revenge is such an eddie girlies coded band fight me

[spideyanakin]

am I the only one who thinks that Eddie Munson is Daemon Targaryen coded !!!

[spideyanakin]

Omg I can't wait to read the new chapter of 10 things !!!!!

It’s coming soon 👀

read 10 things I hate about you

[spideyanakin]

hiii! i just read chapter 1 of your eddie series and ive gotta say, it’s amazing!!! you’re a very talented writer :)

aweee thank you so much darling this means the world 🥹💞 you’re in for a wild ride with this series 🫣

[spideyanakin]

hello! do you take tags? if so i’d love to be tagged in your 10 things i hate about you series

hi darling! 🩵 I unfortunately stopped my tag list <3

But thank you so much for being so invested 💗

you can follow my account to keep in touch with the series :)

[spideyanakin]

10 Things I Hate about you - Chapter 3

Eddie Munson x Harrington! reader

Synopsis - A new rule strikes the Harrington household: if Steve wishes to date ever again, his sister needs to find a boyfriend first. As Steve becomes desperate and thinks of everything in his power to set her up, only one guy comes to mind that will take up a challenge such as that: Eddie Munson.

warnings - still season 1 Steve sry and he’s getting worst, underage drinking, angst at it's finnest

word count - 16k

proof read by the amazing @inknopewetrust

series masterlist 🌻

Monday arrived at the pace of a sloth. 

In addition to the “no dating” rule, your parents had put Steve under house arrest for the next three weekends––which quickly backfired on everyone in the house that wasn't him. You never thought you would be grateful that Steve had spent every weekend with his friends. Since middle school, his absence always meant the house was quiet, peaceful, for a short period of time. 

The entire weekend, your family endured Steve's constant complaining over his homework and the fact he was home instead of at Tommy’s or with any other of the popular douchebag boys. It only became intolerable when your mother ordered you to tutor him in order to 'make him shut up.’

It only resulted in you giving him all the answers or him copying your work, and no quiet reprieve was gifted in return. 

You had fought Steve over the TV like the two of you were toddlers. You battled for the last of the leftover cupcakes you had baked with Dustin, and then Steve threw the Monopoly board in your face when you won. He always became too competitive when it came to games. When you suggested a “truce” game of Clue,  he ripped the Mrs. Scarelt card when she had been the murderer you were searching for and not Professor Plum whom he had accused. It got to the point where you were debating drowning yourself in the pool that had just been cleaned from the debris winter had left behind.

"What did you say for the question on scene three?" Barb wondered as she reread through the text in question. Her eyebrows knitted together as she skimmed through the words carefully in an attempt to decipher the man’s prose. 

"About the nurse?" You questioned and placed some of your textbooks into your locker. "I talked about how her role in the play is explicitly for Juliet's happiness, and I tied it in with what Mr. Arnold said about older women in Shakespeare being shown in a different light than the younger ones."

"Oh yeah…” She thought on the analysis,  “that's good," Barb nodded and closed the book and looked blankly at the white cover and red writing. 

"Barb," you spoke her name with a desperate tone as your locker door closed with an echoing bang and your palm met the metal. 

"What?"

"Kill me now…” You groaned dramatically, perhaps with more emotion than she had ever seen you emit before. “I have to walk into class and sit next to Steve." Your words made her chuckle. "It's not funny!" You whined, hitting your forehead against the locker door. "This weekend was hell with him not leaving the house. I did half of his homework for him. Half!" 

"Hey,” Barb stood straighter as she leaned on the locker beside your own. Her books held tightly against her chest, the red-headed girl gave a kind smile and hopeful eyes. “Look on the bright side! You only have a few hours and then the day’s over, you can go home and lock yourself away in your room."

"That long? I might pick up some ideas from the end of the book by then." As if on cue, the bell rang. You wanted to melt in your spot; become a puddle like the glob of spilled soda that threatened student’s pristine shoes right outside the lunchroom. 

But your luck wouldn't have it. You had to sit in your usual seat, in the same boring English classroom, with Steve at your side. 

However, who you hadn’t expected to see, was Eddie sitting next to Gareth as they chatted their spare minutes away. Your eyes went a little wide as you looked at him; your gaze fixed on his head of waves as you passed by his seat and sat a few rows behind and to the side from him. 

Eddie turned around to look at you once he had finished speaking to Gareth, your gaze still fixed on him.

And then he winked. 

You couldn’t fight the way a grin plastered itself onto your face.  

You felt like a madman. As though the events of the last week had changed you completely from the stone-cold bitch everyone was afraid of to a gooey, romantic lead in some cheesy B-film. Eddie Munson winked at you. It shouldn’t have felt like the world had chosen you to be the main character of a romantic subplot of life but it did. He winked, smiling himself as he turned his attention back to Gareth and laughed about something his younger friend said. 

Thinking about that wink, you didn’t realize the look that had stilled on your face as Steve took his spot beside you.

"Did Munson just wink at you?" Steve blinked in disbelief as he put a folder down on his desktop.  

Steve did not know you could smile like that. Steve did not know that you could get flustered like that. Steve did not know that Eddie, the “freak” who had a work ethic so unlike your own yet shared the same interests, could make you feel that way.

"Yes and…?"

"I’ve never seen you speak to him before?" He had to stop the smile that was threatening to spread across his lips. Was his plan working?

"So? Now you watch who I talk to and what I do in your spare time?" You raised an eyebrow.

"No,” He huffed. “I just have never seen you talk with Munson. That’s all."

You shrugged at him to play it off. A part of you wanted Steve to suffer from the “no dating” rule. He was an asshole. Self-centered and mean; a boy who would peak in high school and be stuck selling cars until the end of his days because at some point, Steve decided being the popular kid was his only mission. But you had to stop lying to yourself about what you may want out of life too. 

Maybe it isn’t a date or relationship with Eddie Munson—maybe it is. But if you were going to keep Eddie as a friend if it doesn’t plan out like a fantasy novel, then Steve had to know that if he saw Eddie talk to you, wink at you, or give you a smile, that there was a reason for it. 

You unzipped your pencil case and retrieved a black pen from the bag. 

"We went to The Hideout together last Friday."

"WHAT?" His shriek was a mix of everything Steve was feeling at once. 

Shock that his plan was working and you had actually accepted to go out with Eddie; jealousy that you had gone out and he wasn't able to; surprise that you had sneaked out of the house without him noticing; mad that you hadn't actually been in the house and therefore hadn't fulfilled your duty as his emotional support for house arrest; and seriously pissed off at the fact that if your parents had known you were out, then maybe, just maybe they would have let Steve meet his friends too.

"You're telling me you were on a date while I was on house arrest?"

“Can you please,” you hissed at him, “scream it a little louder so the rest of Hawkins High can hear this conversation?” Your gritted teeth and harsh whisper told him it was indeed a type of date. “It wasn't a date," your whispers were calmer as you eyed the teacher standing up to close the door. "I just went with him to see his band play."

"So, it was a date."

"No––"

"You're dating!" He smiled, jumping up and down in his seat like a kid who had too much sugar. Steve was in high school, not an elementary student. 

"I'm not!” You defended. “Stop… insinuating things! It wasn't just him, his band was there too."

"Hmm," he said as if he wasn't listening. "I totally believe you."

"You should."

"Morning class," Mr. Arnold greeted with the same two words he had been using for years on end. "I hope you all had a good weekend," his eyes lifted to scan the room, stopping when his gaze landed upon the one student he never expected to be here. He raised his eyebrows in surprise. "Good to see you, Mr. Munson."

"Same here Mr. Arnold," Eddie gave him his best angelic smile.

"Well, I have this for you," Mr. Arnold turned around to take the white book from his desk, placing it in front of Eddie. "We are at Act one, scene four." Eddie took a second to comprehend the system as he flipped through the pages. Plays weren't his thing.

But when Act 1, Scene 4 was written in bold on top of the page, he gave a thumbs up to the older man.

"I will collect your homework, and then we can read together."

"Steve, where's your book?" You whispered as you examined his desk. The homework you had done for him was in the middle, his pencil case resting on the top corner––but no Romeo and Juliet.

"I don't know where I put it," he lied.

"Are you serious?" You already knew how this was going to end. You'd have to share the book for the rest of the semester, and worse, you knew this would lead to Steve happily copying all your homework and ideas for the assessment later on. 

He just shrugged it off as though it were not moot. Those were the facts, you’d just have to accept it as it was because he was the “King of Hawkins High” afterall… Steve Harrington just didn’t fail because he was stupid, he played the long game and that always meant one thing:

Stealing your work. 

~

"Hey! Party at my place on Friday!" Tina cheered as she handed Nancy and Barb a neon orange piece of paper each. ‘Tina's Spring party’ was written in big, black bubble letters with her address at the bottom.

"Y/n didn't get one," Nancy told Tina with an innocent smile with her hand extended to receive another. Tina looked from Nancy to you and back to Nancy as her eyes went blank.

"Oh! I'm sorry!” Tina was not sorry. “That's right," she played dumb as she reluctantly licked the tip of her finger to whisk another paper from the pile she was holding, handing it to Nancy who passed it to you. Taking it with a fake smile, you thanked her before continuing on with the only two girls you’d consider to be friends.

"You didn't have to do that,” you mumbled to Nancy as the paper between the tips of your fingers began to feel like a brick rather than a feather. 

"Are you kidding?" Nancy's eyes went wide. "I wasn't going to let her get away with that."

What? Blatant disregard for your existence? Pure dislike for your perfectly penurious outlook on this thing called life? 

"It's fine, seriously. I won’t go anyways," you looked down at the page, your nose scrunching up at the idea.

"You won't?" Nancy was almost pouting while Barb had already stressed with her eyes that it was nothing but a burden. 

"No… Don't count me in to go to this dumb… mating ritual," you crumpled the paper and threw it in the first trash that crossed your way.

"I don't think I'll go either," Barb shrugged her shoulders. The only way that Barbara Holland would go to a party was with the assurance that Nancy wouldn’t let her pout away in the corner for being a third wheel––but she knew it was going to be her sitting in a corner all evening, making sure Nancy was alright before she would disappear somewhere, or be drunk enough for Barb to leave without her noticing.

"But you have to come with me!" Nancy protested.

"No! You know I don't like parties!"

"But it will be fun!" You scoffed at her, shaking your head at her insistence. 

“Stop bothering, Nance!” You smiled as Barb backed you up. “If she doesn't want to go, then let her stay at home.” 

“I’m sure the new episode of Little house on the Prairie will be much more interesting than this,” you flicked the invitation still sitting between Barb’s hand. 

“Whatever,” Nancy rolled her eyes. “I guess I’ll just have to go alone.”

“I’m afraid so,” you pouted, the look on her face making you chuckle.

Eddie watched with a smile on his face as you passed right beside his locker, almost melting at the little smile and wave you gave him when you passed his way. 

Oh, fuck him. His sanity was burning to a crisp along the very path you walked. A simple smile, a tiny, little wave that looked like something out of a stranger danger VHS and he was jittery. The money in his pocket––even if not physically there––weighed it all back to reality. The reminder that the smile was based on a lie bled just as quickly as it skimmed.

“Did you just smile at Munson?” He could hear Nancy squeak as your head turned back around.

“Yeah, and?” Your voice snapped back, but unfortunately, you had disappeared down a different hall before he could snoop on the rest.  

“I heard you went out with my sister last Friday,” Steve’s voice broke Eddie’s day dreaming.

“I did,” Eddie nodded, straightening his back in pride.

“I can’t believe you’ve actually convinced her to go out with you,” Steve chuckled in disbelief before placing a hand in one of the pockets of his jacket. “Here,” Steve stuffed a new fifty dollar bill in Eddie’s hand before he even had the time to protest, “as promised.”

 Steve was still laughing to himself. “Just make sure that I actually know about it this time.”

“Alright,” Eddie stuffed the bill in his pocket without taking a second glance at it.

“Like take her to the movies or something.”

“Noted.”

“Good,” Steve nodded before walking away.

As Eddie watched Steve disappear down the hall you had moments before, the money in his pocket was no longer imaginary. The weight was heavy, it was physically there and jesting him like a foe. Here it was, it cried to him as Shakespearan as an enemy could. A prize.  

And it made him sick thinking that he ever agreed to such a deal. 

But then he remembered your smile, that little wave. In his mind, Eddie could recall the innocence of it. How he felt, and how you felt––but the money kept rolling in. 

~

“Y/n,” Steve jumped on the couch next to you. Your eyes lifted up from the episode of Dallas playing to see his big smile creeping only inches away from you. “You’re coming to the party on Friday, right?”

“No, I’m not.”

“What do you mean you’re not?” His smile fell. “You have to go!”

“No, I don’t,” you rolled your eyes before looking back at the TV to see a close up of Larry Hagman’s face. 

“But you have to go! You’re the only way I can convince mom and dad to let me go! Pretend I’ll be your… protector or something.”

The fact that had spewed from his lips made you want to chuck him out of a window. 

“My protector?” 

“Yes! Make sure drunk boys don’t cling to you or laugh at you or try anything with you.”

You narrowed your eyes at him. “You mean half of the guy you are when you get drunk? I’m sorry, Steve,” you drawled his name out like he was a child being scolded by a parent, “but I specifically remember the halloween party freshman year where you got so drunk you—” 

“We don’t need to talk about that!” He pointed a finger, cutting you off with the slap of the back of his hand to your shoulder. 

“You are literally those guys! You wouldn’t be protecting me from anything!” 

“Other guys! Not me, just… other guys! And they don’t need to know about me… just how their precious little daughter is going to be looked after by her precious brother.” 

“I’m not going,” you stated definitively. “Convince them yourself.”

“Y/n!” 

“Steeeeve!” you mimicked his whining. 

“Is your brother bothering you again?” Your mother walked into the room when she heard the commotion. It was like a dog answering a silent whistle��she heard it, she came. A motherly instinct, if you will. 

“He is!”

“I’m not!”

She shook her head, pushing the reply as unimportant, not bothering to care about your sibling banter before grabbing a book from the shelves next to the TV.

“Diner’s in five,” she gave both of you pointed looks and you scrambled up off the couch, leaving Steve behind.

As you disappeared behind the doorway, your mothers gaze was kept on your brother. She raised an eyebrow when he simply grabbed the remote and flicked through the channels with a soured expression painted on his face. 

“Steve?”

“Hmm?” He barely looked up.

“Go help your sister set up the table,” Steve’s face fell even further when the words registered.

Chores. Expectations. The rules of the house for every evening since he was old enough to remember them. 

“Oh, right.”

And after ten minutes of fighting Steve over which side of the plate the forks were placed on and which glasses were the ones for water rather than all else, the family sat around the diner table with a meal whisking up into the air and filling each nose with a delicious scent. 

The food was comforting. The stress that you accumulated throughout the day shedding away as you enjoyed the meal. For a second, you pretended you were transported to a time where you and Steve still got along. A time where the two of you had the same interests and he didn’t make every second of your life miserable.

One where he wasn’t the ‘King of Hawkins High’ and you weren’t the sibling who was a little too far on the side of strange. 

“Mom, dad,” Steve lifted his eyes from the potatoes in his plate, “I wanted to ask you something.” Of course he had to quickly ruin the moment. 

Your dream shattered with the sound of his sweet voice.

“What is it?” Your mother brought her glass of sparkling water towards her lips.

“Well… there’s this party on Friday—”

“Don’t even think about it.” Your father’s voice cut him off before he could really begin. 

“But—”

“Steve,” he lamented, “you need to focus on your work! When you show us that your grades are improving, only then will we trust you enough to go out again. It’s simple.”

“But that’s unfair!”

“How is this unfair?” He asked, letting the question hang in the air. When your father didn’t receive a reply, he continued; “Is your sister going?” His eyes landed on you like a target being breached. 

Mayday, mayday! Abandon ship before Steve sinks you with his conniving pea-brained ideas.

“No.” 

For once, Steve had told the truth. 

“Then you won’t go. Take an example from her,” your father pointed at you with his fork. “She has nearly perfect grades and still has a social life––”

“That's a lie,” Steve snorted to himself.

“Your sister is doing fine. She’s proof that you can get good grades too and have a life while doing so.”

“That’s not fair! I want to enjoy my life as a teenager, and she doesn’t!” Your father sighed as he listened to Steve. “You can’t keep me on house arrest forever!”

“No, but––” he stopped mid sentence, the same look that had lit up his features last Monday coming back. This was bad for Steve, you thought to yourself as you watched your father search for the right words. “Not forever.”

“Ok! Then when!?”

“When your sister goes out.”

“WHAT?”

“Yes,” he nodded. “You can take this as a new addition to the dating rule. Forget the house arrest stopping in three weeks, from now on, you follow your sister’s footsteps.” You almost spat your drink onto the ornate tablecloth your mother had set for spring. Oh my god. The three weekend house arrest had turned into this? Steve was just digging himself a bigger hole and it made your evening all the more entertaining.

But that also meant that Steve would make your life a living hell.

“BUT THAT’S SO UNFAIR!”

“It’s not. You’re being too careless with your work, she isn’t. When she goes out, you can too. End of story.”

“DAD! I–– YOU’RE RUINING MY LIFE!” The plates flew as Steve’s fist collided with the table. “UGH!” He stood up, frustration taking the best of him. “I can’t stand another minute of this,” he mumbled, his face red in anger. You could almost see the smoke coming out of his ears as he walked around the table, his feet stomping up the stairs before his bedroom door slammed shut and he made the house rumble with it. 

“Do you plan on going out any time soon?” Your father turned to you.

“Nope,” you spoke, your face half hidden by your glass of water.

“Too bad for your brother then.”

~

“I can’t believe you’re also on house arrest,” Tommy snickered as he watched the soccer scrimmage with Steve. He opened his water bottle, bringing it to his lips as he was still thirsty and sore from ten minutes of light exercise that morning. 

“Shut up, please,” Steve groaned and lifted his head to the sky. “I need to go to this party.”

“Have you thought about trying to have Eddie convince her to go? Maybe he can do it if you can’t. Hell, he’s managed to get this far without being found dead in a ditch.” 

“It’s impossible… even for Eddie Munson,” Steve shook his head as he grabbed his Peanut Butter Kudos bar from his bag––elated Carol had called in sick that morning so he could have it all to himself. “Nothing in this world will get her to that party.”

“Even if you raise him? Pay him double?” Tommy shrugged.

“I could try,” Steve placed the wrapper of the bar between his teeth, taking the other end of it with his fingers to rip it open. “I’m going to have to take from my savings from now on.”

“You mean the savings you promised yourself you wouldn’t touch til you were out of high school?” Tommy’s eyes went wide. “What do you have in there? Like six hundred?” He knew how much the savings he’d been collecting since he was twelve meant to him.

It was a way out. It was an opportunity to take the girl of his dreams on an ice cream date. The money sat idle waiting to be clinched and spent on Steve’s dreams and unrealistic plans of his future––maybe a cute house and six little munchkins that he loved yet despised at the same time. But it was his. He had saved it, he had scoured hot summer days mowing neighbors lawns and shoveling their driveways during freezing winter mornings for something he could call his. 

“Mhm,” Steve hummed an answer.

"I can’t believe you’ve already spent a hundred on this."

“You’re the one telling me to spend more!”

“Yeah! Because you look like a lost puppy and can’t stop complaining.”

"You don't understand! This party is my shot to ask Nancy out. We chat a bit, make out, and boom! She's my girlfriend! So, you’re right… I will pay him double," Steve explained his plan as he scribbled down the amount of money he already spent on Eddie yesterday, right next to the $1 Kit-Kat he swiped. 

"Do you really have to write down everything you spend?" He raised an eyebrow and Steve sighed as he continued his writing.

"Yeah. You'll see when you're broke and I'm not."

"Well I don't spend my money for a stupid cause. Plus, isn’t that just proof that Eddie’s faking it? The fucking world will go up in flames if your sister ever gets her hands on that."

"She won’t and this isn't stupid," Steve dropped his pencil. "It's me trying to get the girl of my dreams.”

"The girl of your dreams?" Tommy gagged. "What kind of drug are you on? Did you let Munson finally convince you into buying from him or something?" 

"You’re hopeless, Tommy." he shook his head as he closed his planner and placed it back into his bag.

"Says the one who gave away a hundred dollars and is about to spend more on a guy just so you can start dating again. Are you sure Munson is even invited to this party?”

Valid question. 

But Steve knew one thing about the parties in Hawkins: they all needed a supplier of something… booze, weed, a little pick-me-up… and he’d be damned if Eddie Munson wasn’t the first person everyone thought of when they needed something that would make Jim Hopper turn red. 

“Doesn't’ hurt to ask…”

~

Eddie was pulling a chaotic stunt in the halls of Hawkins High when Steve noticed him for the first time that day.

Your brother had been losing himself in the maze of hallways that he should have recalled like the back of his hand in an attempt to find Eddie when he didn’t find him at his usual spot in the drama room. After what felt like hours of searching, Steve hadn’t expected to find Eddie sprinting across the empty hallway with one of the big, black clocks from the cafeteria gripped between his hands.

“For your game?” Steve wondered as a breathless Eddie sprinted past him. 

“You bet!” He nodded before disappearing into another hallway, heading straight for the drama room.

“Did Munson just pass by here?” Mrs. Jinkles arrived in front of Steve barely a few seconds later. The older woman was on the verge of sixty, huffing as though she had smoked three packs of cigarettes in a row. 

“He went that way,” Steve pointed in the opposite direction to where Eddie had gone. 

It hadn’t registered in his mind that if it were any other day, under any other circumstance, he would have sold Eddie out just to gain the favor of the teachers––to skip out on assignments, of course.

Steve watched as Mrs. Jinkles rolled her shoulders back and marched in the direction of his finger. He sighed in his own right before making his way toward the drama room. The familiar posters greeted him before he opened the door. 

Eddie was hunched over the clock he had stolen. He had already opened it, its contents spilling onto the already messy table. 

“Harrington,” Eddie did not look up at him, “ if you’re here to tell me to hurry up and get your sister on that date, know that you only asked me yesterday–”

“I’m not here for that,” Steve shook his head before walking towards Eddie, dropping a crisp, new fifty dollar bill beside the clock. 

“That’s to get her to Tina’s party,” he paused. “You’re invited, right?”

“Believe it or not, Harrington, but I do get invited to parties,” he looked from the bill to Steve with a look the latter was all too familiar with. It was the kind where someone more intelligent challenged Steve to see the stupidity of his question.. “I thought you already paid me?”

“Not for the party,” Steve explained. “I need her to go or else I won’t be able to. You’ll need that extra cash for luck because she has a thing against parties that I don’t really understand… somethin’ about ‘radical feminism’ or was it ‘toxic social spheres’?” 

“What?” Eddie snickered.” You’re also on house arrest?” Steve Harrington, the King of Hawkins High, not allowed to date and under house arrest, was paying him to take his sister out so he could magically remove all of these new rules. It felt so much like a popular kid tantrum that he had to laugh.

Eddie felt like a goldfish out of the bowl on many occasions but Steve treating him as though he was a main character in a film he wouldn’t be caught dead watching, a proverbial fish inside of the bowl, was jarring. 

“Kind of,” Steve muttered embarrassed. “You get why I need her to be there?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Eddie shook his head, tuning out Steve’s words as he tried to remove a screw from the clock.

“Get her to that party,” Steve pointed a finger at him. 

“I will.”

But Eddie knew he had a challenge. He liked it, the game of it all, yet Eddie enjoyed the chase so much that the money unraveling beside his hand next to the clock felt like a fire ready to set him ablaze.

~

Since the second Steve Harrington had approached Eddie Munson on that fateful day, the boys of Hellfire had seen a change. He watched, perhaps unintentionally, everything you did. The way you sat with friends and scoffed at their perspectives and laughed at their jokes; the headphones you wore were falling apart on the top but you pulled them out every day to listen to a tape he surely would have enjoyed too. 

It was consuming him—you. A jewel in a sea of so much… bland, grainy sand and Oliver had uncovered Eddie’s mission with spite. He hated watching his friend peek over the edge of his locker just to glimpse at you, he sneered at the way Eddie pocketed that change only to act like a fool in love when you passed by without a glance. 

A Pertruchio to a Katherina; the taming of Hawkins very own shrew.

“I think I found a new beat for a song,” Gareth shook Eddie out of his thoughts as his focus broke. The younger man watched from the corner of his eye as Oliver’s expression changed as his gaze lifted off of Eddie and to the discussion.

“Oh, that’s good,” Eddie nodded, taking another pretzel from the plastic bag tucked in his lunch box before letting his gaze fly back to you like a magnet being called home.

“I think it could go well with the lyrics you came up with the other day!” Gareth tried to catch him back, but Eddie was as good as a fish who didn’t like the bait Gareth was throwing.

“Eddie?” Jeff attempted to grab his attention to support Gareth.

“Hm?” The boy in question turned his head to face his friend as if Gareth’s comment had flown over his head and the conversation was no longer important. 

“Are you going to Tina’s party?”

“Yeah,” Eddie nodded as he chewed on the remnants of the pretzel.

“I don’t get how easily it is for you to get invited,” another boy from the table chimed in. That kid was a freshman and wasn’t ever going to be invited to a party if he continued to hang out with Hellfire but if he sold drugs, that would give incentive to those looking for a fix. 

“It’s a house party, everyone is invited. Just if you haven’t personally received the paper for it, Tina probably doesn’t want you there.” Jeff stated, licking his lips from the previous sip of coke he had just taken. “And Eddie is invited because he deals and that’s cool at parties.”

“Indeed,” Eddie confirmed, his finger tapping a random beat on the table. His reply still felt as though he was far off into space which drew the entire table’s focus to him.

“Is your girlfriend going?” Oliver asked before opening his box of strawberry Nerds only to  pretend like he hadn’t just said something triggering or hadn’t been thinking about it the entire period.

“She’s not my girlfriend.”

There. They had Eddie’s full attention.

“Not yet,” Oliver clarified. “But you’re getting paid to become her boyfriend.” The small candies made a big sound similar to a rainstick as Oliver shook the box and a few dropped into his palm.

“Well, I’m also paid to get her to the party so… yeah,” Eddie looked down at his mini pretzels resting at the bottom of his lunchbox. 

They didn’t look as appetizing as they did last week and even the sandwich he’d made in a rush that morning made his stomach turn. The peanut butter oozing from the sides, its slices could have been paper and its contents pencil shavings and Eddie would dislike it all the same. He thought that maybe he could use some of Steve’s money or leftover cash from dealing to buy something from the cafeteria tomorrow to fight the feeling that had sunk in his stomach every lunch period since Steve’s proposal. Maybe Eddie would find whatever was on the lunch menu good enough that he could finally get something in his stomach. 

However, deep down, he knew it wasn’t the food. He knew very well it was the weight he was feeling in the pit of his stomach growing bigger every time his eyes landed on you and he caught himself thinking all the things he shouldn’t have been. 

You looked good that afternoon. Well, you did every afternoon. You were listening to Barb as though she was telling the most intriguing story—which he fathomed could not have been the case yet he was amazed by your enthusiasm. The hard shell you wore wasn’t so hard when people truly looked. 

It was as though he was seeing you for the first time, every time. A new, funny feeling rising within him that made him nervous as the money sat lumped in his jeans. 

“Are you guys going?” Eddie flipped the question around, wishing to give his mind a break from his sulking. 

“Your brother is acting suspicious.” 

On the other side of the cafeteria, where Eddie’s gaze had previously been fixed, Barb couldn’t help voice her worries. It was not a story that Barb had eclipsed your attention with, but a comment. One singular comment that made things feel as though the ground you walked on was ice. 

“What do you mean?” You frowned before bringing your fork full of food up to your lips.

“He asked me stuff about you… like to be a better brother… which Steve has never, ever, put the effort into being.’”

"Steve? Wanting to be a better brother?" The idea made you laugh. “What did he ask?”

“Stuff about you. What you like, what you do on weekends…” You stopped your fork mid flight towards your mouth, both eyebrows raised.

“Why?” You dropped your fork back on your plate and the food splattered like a painting.

“I told you! He said it was to ‘be a better brother.’” 

“Maybe he actually wants to be a better brother,” Nancy chimed in, making your gaze turn to her. A sympathetic smile tugged on your lips.

“Nance, I know you like him but he definitely does not want to put any effort in making my life easier,” you snorted and Nancy suddenly became all flustered when you talked openly about her feelings. “Do you have an idea why he would ask you that?” You turned your attention back towards Barb.

“No,” she shook her head. “But just look out for anything suspicious.”

“That will be hard. Anything Steve does is suspicious.”

“Did you really need to crush on him out of all the boys in Hawkins?” Barb turned her head towards Nancy. The poor girl was hunched over her lunch in embarrassment, focusing all her attention on getting her blush to stomp out as she poked the peas around on her plastic tray..

“I guess my brother is his own kind of special…” You sighed as you moved your own food. “I’ll just have to sleep with both eyes open now… you know, it was getting real hard trying to keep one from closing.”

Barb laughed, Nancy’s blush diminished. Neither of them knew you were able to make a joke out of something that had you on the edge on the inside. 

—

When Tuesday came to an end, the joy that bubbled from your stomach made the day feel less aggravating than it had been. The warm spring air made everyone’s spirits brighter; students laughed as they slid into their cars and people shed their coats and sweaters to celebrate as much sunlight as they possibly could after winter deprived them of it for so long.

You opened your car’s back door, swinging your bag in the backseat before closing it again and checking your watch. Dustin should be there any minute now. 

“Hey.” 

You could have picked that voice out from a crowd––a week ago you wouldn’t have said the same. 

“Hey,” you matched Eddie’s tone and gave a small smile as he approached your car, sliding up to lean against the door you had just shut. “Didn’t expect to see you in class today. I think Mr. Arnold nearly shit his pants..”

“He’d never live it down if he did,” he laughed. “But I said I’d show up, didn’t I?” 

“You did,” you picked at your bracelet in an attempt to distract yourself from the way your heart fluttered at Eddie. Perhaps it was the way he stood confidently against a crowd, or maybe it was the way his eyes made you feel as though you were the only person he could ever focus on––but the feeling made you uneasy because it was new. 

At the same time, you were searching for a distraction to quell the feeling. A group of cheerleaders passed by; all holding the neon orange papers for Tina’s party and grinning like they were the happiest people to ever exist. 

"Are you going?" You leaned opposite him, crossing your arms as you waited for his reply. “To Tina’s party, I mean.” 

"Yeah,” Eddie nodded, “she asked me to deal. Parties are usually where I make the most profit so… can’t pass that up when I’ve got you to impress.” 

You tipped your head to look at your shoes. White, slightly grimey sneakers staring back at you as you fought the heat. All consuming, Eddie Munson was. And he made you feel like jelly when he said stupid, ridiculous things like that. 

“How about you?" You needn’t look at him to see the smile on his face. You could hear the difference in tone. 

You shook your head. Rising to see him again, he was hopeful when your answer was the furthest from it. “No,” you admitted. “Not a party person.” 

“No?” He had a flirtatious inflection to it. “Got a reason?” 

“I find them dumb and pointless. An excuse for all the girls who take sips of church wine to act like complete airheads and get plastered off one can of PBR.”

If he was being honest he couldn’t agree more. He never had the conventional “blast” teens were supposed to have at parties. Eddie only liked them because it made his sales blow. But he remembered he had to convince you to go. You had to go. He wouldn’t step foot on Tina’s lawn without you. 

Neither of you heard the bell that signaled the end of the middle school day. 

Dustin, who had been waddling his way over on the sidewalk that connected the two schools, hadn’t noticed Eddie when he suddenly decided to run his way over and tackle you into a hug.

“Y/n!” The second he and his screaming of your name appeared out of nowhere, Eddie took a step back. A light shock in his eyes when he spotted a pre-teen being so affectionate around you when the girl he knew was far from a “caretaking” type. You didn’t have a little brother? For as long as he could recall, there had only ever been two Harrington siblings: you, and the idiot with the good hair.

A big “oof” escaped your lips before you wrapped your arms around him, tightening the hug as much as he’d allow before letting go.

“How was your weekend?”

“AMAZING! You will never guess what happened! Mike’s campaign is INSANE! There were golden dragons and evil fairies that wanted to steal Will’s wizard staff and the only way we could fight them was with this unknown crystal––” Dustin rambled so fast that you caught none of it but Eddie had. He’d always recognize when someone spoke the language he loved. 

“Campaign?” Eddie’s voice broke off Dustin’s jittery talk. “You play D and D?” He questioned you first as though you had been the one admitting it; grinning from ear to ear at the possibility.

“Sadly, no,” you breathed, your words a bit desperate. “But he does! And he promised to teach me but he’s always busy.”

“Who is this?” Dustin snapped his head from you to Eddie. 

A wave washed over the young boy at that moment. Eddie wasn’t Steve. He wasn’t a guy who tried to ask Nancy out nor was he a cookie-cutter mold of the jocks everyone loved. He was edgy; he was cool with an immediate draw because like Dustin, Eddie didn’t fit a mold. He smelt of cigarette smoke and a cheap cologne––a scent Dustin knew he had to copy because if he could be cool like this guy, maybe others would find him just as intriguing in his grade.  

 “Y/n,” his voice was flat, serious, “why were you hiding your awesome friend from me?”

“I’m not hiding anything,” you giggled at Dustin’s dramatic words, Eddie loved the sound of it. “Dustin, this is Eddie. Eddie, this is Dustin, the boy I babysit.” 

Awesome. The kid Eddie had never once seen in his life had called him awesome without speaking a word to him. No one had ever said that about him before. 

Eddie extended his hand like a real adult toward the kid. Dustin took it and with soft, baby-like hands, tried to return a handshake that would impress his awesome new acquaintance. 

“What grade are you in?” Eddie asked. 

“Seventh/”

“Ah,” he nodded in reflection. “Well, hopefully I’ll be out of high school by the time you’re a freshman, but when you do get here, tell whichever awesome Dungeon Master is running hellfire that you know me and they’ll take you without question.”

“Hellfire?” His eyes lit up like spotlights on a stage. It sounded dangerous, cool. Dungeon Master had slipped under his radar because the name was so sick. 

“It’s the name of our party.”

“Wait, Hellfire is a D and D party?” Your own eyes grew wide because truthfully, you hadn’t any idea what in the world it was. You had seen the recruiting posters that the football team defaced but how were you supposed to know what a devil mascot was supposed to represent? 

“Yeah,” Eddie looked as though it were obvious. “What did you think it was?” Eddie crossed his own arms, his expression questioning.

“I don’t know, actually. People say so many different things about it, I really didn’t know.”

“Well, I’ll invite you to a campaign if you want to learn. We play every Friday and sometimes Tuesdays in the drama room when it’s free.” 

“I would love to.” 

Dustin was not sure what he was watching as he looked up at the one person he loved like a sister giving heart eyes to a boy he found to be his new idol. 

“I just have to finish my character sheet.”

“Oh, that’s no problem, I’ll help you.” 

Dustin lifted his gaze from you to Eddie like he would at a tennis match. The interaction brought sparks to his eyes. The two of you liked each other. The heart eyes were mutual; they were nervous and giddy and he had seen Lucas give them to Shelley Windsor from across the lunchroom six weeks ago only to be spurred by her accidentally spilling milk on his favorite t-shirt three days later. 

“Sounds perfect.” 

“Not this Friday because of Tina’s party, but how about the one after? We can go to The Hideout right after, we have a gig then.” The mention of The Hideout made Dustin’s smile even wider.

A date. A real date. 

“Sounds like a date.” 

The word echoed in Eddie’s mind like a beautiful melody. The keys drawing the most beautiful sound that even Motzart was envious but the second a finger slipped and the keys turned sour, the weight of the money sitting in his pocket squandered the joy. 

“Yeah,” he wished he could have replied to it with a full smile and without the lump in his throat or the pit in the bottom of his stomach.

“I’ll see you tomorrow?” You asked, titling your head with a hope he had begun the conversation with but ended without. 

“Yeah.”

Eddie nodded as you both said goodbye before walking away to his van on the other end of the parking lot. 

“You all set?” You turned to Dustin, a dumb smile still plastered on his features as he adjusted the straps of his backpack. 

“Mhm,” He hummed yes, walking around the car to access the passenger seat.

“You listened to me,” he spoke again when the door was closed and both seat belts were on.

“What?”

“About meeting people at The Hideout.”

“How––”

“He literally said he played at The Hideout.” You closed your mouth instead of replying, narrowing your eyes. 

“I’m glad you finally found someone,” Dustin grinned, a toothless, adorable grin that could always make you feel happy.

“I didn’t––Eddie isn’t––”

“Oh it’s a date then!” He mimicked your voice, but not in a mocking way. 

“Alright, I did say that,” you rolled your eyes. “But it doesn’t mean he’s my boyfriend or anything.”

“Not yet!”

“Dustin––”

“Y/n, what more can you ask for! He plays D and D which probably makes him a nerd like us! He plays guitar and is in a band, he looks like a rock star and like he’s the coolest person on earth… plus he definitely likes you.”

“I am not having this conversation with you,” you chuckled, turning your eyes back to your steering wheel and finally starting the car. “Eddie is… just… Eddie.” You hadn’t noticed, but even saying his name made you smile. 

“Fine, then I hope you enjoy your date with just Eddie.”

“I will, thank you.”

~

“Boo!”

 Your soul nearly left your body as the quiet solitude of browsing the store’s tape selection was interrupted. Led Zeppelin's cover art shaking as your hand clutched it tightly, the plastic nearly cracking under your grip.

Turning around, you met those big brown eyes and familiar curls that had filled your thoughts every second of every day. 

“You followin’ me, Munson?” You raised an eyebrow, questioning him with a teasing tone. “I swear you’ve been popping up everywhere I have been lately.” 

“Just a coincidence, I guess…” Eddie grinned as he looked at the tape in his own hand. A flustered, small blush painting his cheeks. “I came to get Bark at the Moon,” he showed you the familiar tape. “I accidentally ruined it while cleaning my room. Stepped on it and it cracked into a million little pieces.”

“Eddie Munson cleans his bedroom?” You laughed as he rolled his eyes. “I never would have thought.” 

“Well,” he tapped the tape with his fingers, “I guess I’m just full of surprises then.” 

A small lull passed over the two of you as conversation settled. He looked, like he always did, at you with so much curiosity and fondness that you weren’t sure it could have evolved as quickly as it did. A crush that swallowed him whole, all he wanted to do was be in your presence––for a second, for an hour, for an entire lifetime, Eddie Munson was chasing a high that was brought on by all the wrong reasons. 

“What are you doin’ here?” He questioned, gazing around the store when looking at you reminded him too much of the funds supplying his purchase. “I thought you were babysitting?”

“Just finished actually. This store is on my way home and I can’t keep money in my pockets long when I know there is something I want,” you scanned the shelf again, grabbing the Fleetwood Mac tape that had been on your wishlist forever.

“He seems like a nice kid.”

“Yeah,” you nodded. “Dustin is the best,” smiling as your eyes fell back to Eddie. “I think the two of you would get along.”

“I’m sure we would. The kid plays D and D for Christ’s sake!” He laughed, walking with you towards the counter to check out. 

Before you could set the tapes down, Eddie put out his hand. 

“Let me see them?” 

You furrowed your brows but let him take them. Eddie may have loved music, but Fleetwood Mac wasn’t a cup of tea he sipped from often, if ever. He’d admit “I’m So Afraid” was sick but only in the comfort of someone who wouldn’t expose him for enjoying something that wasn’t hard metal. 

“Why?” You asked as he piled the ones you had collected on top of his own. He set them on the counter and the man behind it began ringing them up. 

“Eddie––” The protests left your mouth quickly but he shook his head. 

“I wanna get them for you.” 

“What? No!” In an attempt to grab one back, he pushed your hand away from the counter. “I have the money for them. I literally just got paid!” 

“Didn’t say you had no money, sweetheart.” 

The Fleetwood Mac tape rang up to six-fifty. Far too much for him to pay for something like that. 

“You can’t pay for those,” you huffed. “They’re not your tapes.” 

“You ever heard of something called a gift? Or better yet, maybe chivalry? You take a lot of English classes, I think that word has popped up a time or two.”

You looked at him with a flat face but he challenged it as he pulled bills from his pocket. As you gave him a glare, he slid the money across the counter and the guy took it without you tearing your eyes away from Eddie. 

“I can’t let you do that.” 

“Little late for that, sweetheart,” that goddamn name again. He tipped his head to the side, scrunching his nose as your annoyance was built from an unearthed appreciation of his motivations. 

“Let me pay you back,” you breathed out. 

“No.” 

“Eddie, come on.” 

“No!” He laughed as the man handed him the change and pushed the tapes back out toward the two of you. Eddie split the tapes, one for him, two for you, and made for the door. 

“Why did you do that?” You trailed behind him like a puppy. 

“You know, a ‘thank you’ would suffice.”

“Th-thank you,” you stumbled on your words as you looked from the tapes that had come back to your hand to Eddie. “But––”

“I just wanted to be nice, give you a gift. Is that so bad?”

“No…. Thank you,” you smiled as the door’s bell had silence, the cars on the road beside the shop filled the air and Eddie halted beside his van that was parked beside your car. 

“I was wondering,” he squinted as the spring sun caught his eye, “would you come to Tina’s party with me?” You really didn’t mean to laugh, but you couldn’t help yourself. You had been adamant that you weren’t going. Parties were not your “thing.” Only when you turned your head to side to watch the almost heartbreaking look in his eyes did you stop.

“I’m sorry,” you sucked in a breath. “I’m not laughing at you. I just… I don’t go to parties,” you shook your head. “The thought of me going makes me laugh.”

“Even if I’ll be at the party?”

“Eddie, Axl Rose could be at that stupid party and I still wouldn’t go.”

“You wouldn’t even do it for Axl!?” Eddie put a hand to his heart as if that had offended him.

“Not even for Axl.”

“Well,” he countered, “how about Kirk?”

“Still no,” you giggled. “All of Metallica could be there and I would be at home watching reruns of that Ewok show or the new episode of Little House on the Prairie instead.”

“That bad, huh?”

“You really think I want to attend a party where everyone just gets drunk and makes out and then people throw up everywhere because they get even more drunk––”

“And high,” he added.

“And high! Plus the music is fucking… awful.”

“Ok, I agree with you,” Eddie nodded in agreement. “Nevermind then. You’re right.” 

“Thank you, I know I’m right,” He liked the confidence he saw. The way you tipped your chin to the sky and your head bobbled. Eddie was disappointed he couldn’t get you to go but he wouldn’t trade seconds with you for anything. 

You walked past his van and opened the door to the front seat of yours.

 “I’ll see you tomorrow?” You didn’t know why it came out as more of a question.

“Yeah,” his car keys jingled in his hand. “See you tomorrow.”

The second you settled into your car, you slipped in the tape and putting the Metallica one that had filled its spot in the empty case. 

You sighed as your hands fell on the wheel; the leather of the material familiar and growing warm under the sun. You watched as Eddie entered his van, giving you a small wave before firing up his engine and driving opposite the direction you were headed. 

Two lives separated by a town yet brought together by simple interests.  

“Pull yourself together,” you sighed, melting in your seat as the first few notes of Rhiannon started playing.

You never felt like this. The ache in your heart, the butterflies fluttering in the pit of your stomach… These unfamiliar feelings were almost painful as you tried to fight them, trying to run far away from them. You felt like one of those toys you and Steve would fight over as toddlers and ended up splitting in two by pulling too hard. Instead of the forces being two chaotic children, it was your head and your heart.

~

“Are you sure you don’t want to come with me?” Eddie beamed beside you.

He had caught you in the hall as you made your way toward the gym the next day. Persistent is what he was, when you thought of how he pestered in a respectful, yet interested manner. You never had a guy chase after you before––want to spend time with you or treat you like you were the apple of his eye. 

“I told you already,” you fixed your discolored sports bag on your shoulder. “I’m not going, Eddie. No one could convince me to go.”

“But I’ll feel lonely without you.” He gave you sad eyes and fuck, it made you waver for a milisecond. 

“You’ll be fine,” you rolled your eyes instead. “There are plenty of others to talk to or make fun of, I am sure of it.” 

“No, there won’t be. I need you for moral support.”

“Moral support?”

“Yes,” he furiously nodded with conviction. 

“I’m not going.” 

“Please?”

“No,” you shook your head, a smile dancing over your lips as you saw his brown eyes peering at you with want. 

“Fine,” he scoffed. “If I die, it’s your fault.”

“Die? Dramatic much?” You giggled. “You mean to guilt trip me into doing something I don’t want to do? Sounds like a you problem, Eddie.” 

“No. I’m extremely realistic. I will fucking die if you aren’t there to save me.” 

“Hmm,” you hummed, nodding as if you were believing his fallacies. “Totally believe you right now.”

“I can’t believe you’re doing this to me, Y/n,” he shook his head in disbelief. 

“You’ll be fine,” He was making a disparate face, pouting and looking at you like a sad, stray animal. “You never give up, do you?”

“Was that a yes?”

“I’m not going, Eddie,” you said one last time, rolling your eyes before going on your way, heading towards the inside gym that was fitted for volleyball every afternoon. Eddie sighed as he watched you disappear, his shoulders slumping in defeat. 

At least he tried.

But then, he went to Steve.

"I tried, she said she won't go."

“Well, will you convince her for another fifty!?” Steve pulled out his wallet and started sifting through the money. Eddie held out his hands and forced Steve’s hands closed, the wallet slamming shut with a force.

“Steve, you’re not an ATM machine! Put your goddamn money away.”

“I know!” Steve frustratingly screeched. “ButI need her to be there!”

“I can try again,” Eddie faltered because he felt deep down, you’d never agree to go. “She really doesn’t want to fucking go to this thing so if I can’t get to her to, that’s not on me.” 

~

Friday ended with no progress for either Steve or Eddie. Convincing you to attend Tina’s party had been a failure––for both of them and truthfully, neither could blame the other for not being successful in their mission. Your mind was fixed. Parties were dumb and stupid and absolutely useless. You had better things to do with your time. 

Like putting on pajamas and watching the new episodes of the last season of Little House or finish reading act 1 of Romeo and Juliet for Monday.

“I don’t understand you,” Steve narrowed his eyes as he watched you from across the room. You were snuggled up on the far end of the couch, eating yogurt while mindlessly watching commercials as you waited for your show to begin.

“What do you mean?” You licked the end of your spoon before dipping it into the carton again.

“Why do you not want to go to this party?” 

“I just don’t want to,” you looked back at the TV. “Why does everyone want me to go?” You muttered to yourself as you took another spoonful of yogurt.

“Why can’t you be normal?”

“Define ‘normal’?”

“Tina’s party is normal. Wanting to go to the party is normal. Having friends who want you to be at the party is normal.”

“Tina’s party is just a pathetic excuse for all the idiots in our school to drink beer and rub up against each other in hopes of distracting themselves from the pathetic emptiness of their meaningless––”

“––Consumer–driven lives. I KNOW!” Steve groaned, tugging at his hair in frustration. “Can you, just for one night, forget that you’re totally wretched and act like we're actually siblings with the same interests?”

“No. I told you parties are–”

“Dumb? Stupid? I got that! Y/n, why can’t you just do this for me?”

“I already do everything for you!” You made frantic movements, pointing at him with your empty spoon. “This time, deal with the consequences of your actions yourself!” You huffed, fully turning your stare back to the TV, silently telling him you were done with the conversation.

“You’re being a bitch!”

“Excuse me?” You snapped your head back to only be met by a serious expression.

“You heard me! You’re being a heinous bitch and ruining my life right now!” He leaned away from the doorframe he had been watching you from. “And then you wonder why you barely can get any friends! Maybe you just say you don’t want to be in a relationship because you know you can’t keep a guy. You’re too mean and selfish!” Your mouth remained wide open as the words escaped him. “You’re just a loser! A freak who knows no one will want her at that stupid party! That’s why you’d rather stay home and watch that dumb ‘house in the fields show.’” 

As if on cue the commercials stopped and the familiar theme song that was normally comforting was ringing through the living room. 

“You just want to make my life miserable because yours is!” Your ears were buzzing, and the pang in your chest that he had started just the week before came back full force.

"FINE!" You screamed over his voice and the noise of the TV. Maybe louder than you expected, but you couldn’t even hear your own thoughts. Your hands were trembling as you grabbed the remote and turned the TV off, bringing quiet to the room. The tension bubbled up like froth on a hot drink once the welcoming melody had gone quiet. 

“I’ll go to your stupid fucking party,” you mumbled the words out as you walked passed him and headed straight up to your room. You struck his shoulder with yours, hard, when you passed him. 

You wiped the stray tear you hadn’t noticed had fallen before changing. Fumbling with your shirts and pants as if you didn’t even know your own closet; shell shocked from the perceptions Steve had expressed. You grabbed your shoes and spotted Eddie’s sweatshirt spread out on your chair. 

You took it without a second thought before flying down the stairs. 

"Where are you going?" Your father appeared in the doorway of the entry hall with a cup of coffee in his hands. It was far too late for one and he’d be up all night working because of it.  

"To a party,” you bit back, your father taking a step back in surprise.

"A party?"

"Yeah, Tina's spring party," you grumbled, not making eye contact with him as he continued asking questions. You loudly dropped your shoes on the floor before sitting down next to them to slip them on.

Steve came not long after with a beaming smile plastered on his face. His hair was even more perfect than before, he was dressed in his version of perfect. The polished rich kid coming out in his baby blue polo tucked into his light brown pants. Steve grabbed his navy jacket from the coat rack by the door. 

“Steve–” your father wanted to deny Steve from leaving the home. 

“That’s the rule right?” Steve turned to the mirror over the shoe rack. “She goes, I go!” He looked at himself one last time before clapping his hands together. "We'll be back by two!" Steve turned back to you just as you were standing back up.

"Is that a new sweater?" He wondered, a grin still plastered on his face as he eyed the black hoodie you were wearing. It looked worn out and smelled funny, suspicion rising in the back of his mind that Eddie Munson had been doing his job after all. 

"It's none of your business," you walked past him and out through the front door to get to your car.

~

The party was everything you expected it to be. 

People making out in every corner, beer keg competitions that your brother jumped on the second you arrived, and awful flirting skills as boys finally got the courage to make their move with a little liquid courage. 

The whole house became a mess of sweaty bodies and spilled drinks topped off with loud, annoying music. Stuffy air from the weed and cigarette smoke mixed with the intoxicating chemical smell of different flavored Teen Spirit deodorants paired with cheap perfume and hairspray.

 It was everything you hated.

You spotted Nancy out of the corner of your eye not ten minutes after you slammed the car door closed. She was wearing a flashy shirt, her hair done differently than how she always wore it. She was admiring Steve the ‘King of the Party’ as he won yet again another round of whatever drinking game currently had his attention.

“Sweet,” you barely stepped into the crowded living room when Tommy’s voice made your entire body tense up. “Looking fresh tonight, Harrington,” he smirked, Carol giggling at his side.

Tommy Hagen never failed in making your skin crawl––no––making it want to completely shed itself from your body and run as far away as it could from Hawkins. He was a creep. A pimpled, doughboy creep that thought he was the shit for being friends with Steve and bagged a girl he thought was hot, Carol. 

“Did Y/n finally decide to make an appearance?” She snickered. 

“Jesus Christ,” you narrowed your eyes as they gathered around you. A pack of wolves on the hunt, a lamb too stubborn to quit centered in their gaze. 

You took a step closer to her, “is that lipstick on your teeth?” 

Her eyes went wide as her hand reached up to her lips. You took this as an opportunity to walk the other way, quickly getting lost in the sea of bodies again.

The hallway was more crowded. A guy with a tray of shots he was desperate not to spill made his way from the kitchen to the living room, lifting the tray towards you.

“You want one?” The range of shots, from blue to bright pink, looked as unappetizing as dirt. You grabbed the one closest to you without even hesitating. A strange green color that made you more motivated to use it as a way to forget you were at the stupid, fucking party.

To forget the whole fiasco Steve had ruined your weekend with.

That you were a bitch. 

That people didn’t want to be your friend. 

That no boy would ever want to date you because you were awful. 

As the sour liquid slid down your throat, you knew it would help you pretend like Steve hadn’t thrown all of your insecurities at your face. Pretend like you hadn’t gone with him just to prove a point. To prove to him that you were welcomed at this party or that you did have friends. 

But maybe it was to prove all of this to yourself.

However, that meant you also needed to forget the pain and the burning feeling in the back of your mind that maybe he was right.

“Hey!” His voice was jovial that he had found you first. 

Eddie saw the shot glass in your hand, the blank, nearly heartless look on your face as the scene around you changed from happy to glum. 

“What are you doing here? I had to hear from dipshit Tommy Hagen that you actually showed up.” He appeared next to you, concern written all over his face.

If Steve was right, you wished Eddie didn’t give you those looks. You wished he didn’t make you feel like you had a friend in him. You wished he didn’t make your heart thump out of its chest like if he were to disappear tomorrow, you’d have to go too. 

“I’m getting trashed, isn’t that what you’re supposed to do at parties?” You bit back, your anger from Steve’s scorching rumble mixed with your words. “And Tommy Hagen? He lies… a lot. You’re just on the lucky end that finally a truth came tumbling out of his lips.” 

“Your brother likes to make his presence known too,” Eddie put a hand on your shoulder, smiling to himself when he noticed you were wearing his hoodie.

“Ah,” another guy with a tray of random alcohol filled glasses walked right by you, you snatched one away before turning back to Eddie. “Later.”

And his hand slipped from your shoulder as you walked away from him. 

He felt scorned. 

“Hey!” Eddie called after you. “Where are you going?” 

“I’m off to be ‘normal!’” You made air quotes as you said the word.

Eddie didn’t know why he stood there like an idiot as he watched you disappear into the crowd again. The word normal rang through his mind like poison. You hated normal, he hates normal––and you were both too far into your own worlds to ever be normal. 

He quickly regretted his decision to stand there like a tree when it forced him to spend a half an hour running through the maze of Tina’s house trying to find you again. Eddie felt like he was in a haunted corn maze held outside of Hawkins every Halloween. Instead of having zombies or jump scares at every corner, it was drunk students making the way around the house impossibly hard.

The breath that was stuck in his throat only released when he spotted you at the crossroad between the living room and the dinning room; a glass half full of rum in your hand. You were stumbling your way around. A half an hour later and his hoodie was missing the strings around the neck, your hair was a mess, and the nailpolish was chipping quickly. 

Your expression was a mix between a smile and a frown which Eddie thought to be impossible until he witnessed it on you.

“Hey,” Eddie called out when the music allowed. He attempted to reach for the glass as a way to help you because just looking at you made him realize no one was looking out for you. Drunk, a bit angry, and alone. 

“Y/n, maybe you should give me that––” he reached for the glass again. Eddie’s only thought was to get you away from here and make sure you didn’t swallow one more drop of alcohol. 

“No!” You whined like a toddler. “It’s mine! MINE!” You rattled out of his grip before scrambling out to the other room. Eddie blinked as he watched you run away. For a second, he felt like he was back in his trailer, reading The Lord of the Rings as his mind created the image of Bilbo holding the one ring and calling it his just like you did with the drink. 

“MY MAN!” Steve appeared out of thin air, beaming at him with his brightest smile, pupils blown wide as the drinks had gotten to him as well. Eddie knew Steve wasn’t a smoker but he definitely had a second-hand high. “How did you get her to do it?”

“Do what?”

“Act like a human!” He laughed to himself.

Eddie wanted to protest. To say something about how this wasn’t normal behavior coming from you, and he had a right to be worried. Instead, Steve’s attention was captured by a girl calling his name. Eddie thought he recognised Nancy’s voice over the music but everything was blurred out.

When his gaze turned back around to land on what was going inside the dining room,  his eyes went wide.You were dancing on top of the table, if it wasn’t clear that you were drunk out of your mind, it certainly was now. 

Tommy and the rest of the crowd that had formed around the table were all cheering for you to continue. You threw the empty beer can into the crowd as you continued to dance; Eddie questioned for a second how you had changed drinks so fast before quickly pushing past students to reach you.

“What are you doing!? Get down!” He tried to grab your leg but you swatted his hands away.

“NO!” You screamed, giggling to yourself as you swung your body from side to side.

You wanted to twirl to the beat of the music. Sober you was already not very good at twirls, meaning that drunk you’s sense of balance was completely nonexistent. You tripped on your own feet, making you fall right off the table and luckily for you, right into Eddie’s arms.

If you were sober, you would have felt as though it was straight of a fairytale.

“Are you ok?”

“I’m fine!” You scoffed, scrambling away from him to stand up. The second you were standing on your own and Eddie removed his hand from your back, you stumbled backwards again. 

“You’re not fine,” his tone became serious, a frown painted his features as he fully took in your state. He could see the way your limbs fell limp and lazy, how your alcohol filled eyes looked around the room. “C’mon,” he grabbed your shoulders to help you move through the crowd.

You made movements to get away from him, making you turn around in his arms and face him. “I don’t need your help,” you whined as you lightly hit his chest, the impact doing absolutely nothing to stop him.

“Yeah, you do,” he looked down at you, trying not to get lost in the galaxy of your eyes as you peered up at him with your drunken glare. “Let’s get you out of here, ok?” He almost whispered, his tone soft and soothing as his thumb rubbed circles on your shoulder.

The air outside was cold; a stark contrast to the oppressing and sauna-like temperature inside the house. The quiet, cool nature felt nice as the music muffled into barely recognizable lyrics when the door closed behind the two of you. 

A few people had taken the party outside. Some smoking on the grass or chatting as they sat on the hood of their cars, enjoying the quieter parts of the evening.

Eddie’s hand secured on your hip as he helped you walk in a straight line towards the other side of the garden to a small patio far off from the noise and commotion the night had to offer.

“This is so patronizing,” you complained as he continued to hold you.

“Leave it to you to use big words when you’re blitzed,” he laughed.

You made a sudden move to walk faster, making you tumble out of his hand and onto the grass, giggling to yourself as you did. 

Eddie grabbed your waist, lifting you back up to sit you down on one of the dark green iron garden chairs, and only when he was sat down next to you that he realized how romantic the scene was.

The table was placed at the center of a wooden pergola, wisteria twisting with its pillars and in between the planks of the ceiling. Everything was so quiet. The party barely a whisper in the vast, beautiful garden. The outdoor lights lit your features just enough for him to see and defined the color of your eyes.

Eddie sighed to himself. In any other circumstance, he would have died to stand there with a girl like you.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” You giggled as you fully rested your head against the palm of your hand.

“Like what?” Eddie tweaked his head to the side. Maybe he was staring at you for a bit too long.

“Like that!” You pointed out again, smiling to yourself.

“Because you’re pretty,” he knew you wouldn’t remember this, but at that moment, he didn’t care.

You laughed, a sweet sound that dripped from your lips like honey and made Eddie’s heart melt.

“Well, you’re not so bad yourself,” he watched the look in your eyes change as you scanned his features. Drunken you remembering the curve of his nose, to the way his lips hooked into a smile. "You have very pretty eyes, you know? They look a bit like doe,” you blurted out, smiling at him with a gooey grin.

Suddenly you felt all the alcohol begin to surge. The rapid onslaught of nausea confused you, furrowing your brows and causing immediate concern. Before you knew it, you were leaning down, throwing up onto his black converse.

"Jesus!" Eddie abruptly stood up, sighing when he realized no words he could say would change the state you were in. His hand found a way to your hair, gently rubbing your scalp in poor attempts to hold it away from your face as you continued throwing up. 

"Hmm," You groaned once you lifted yourself back up, resting your head against your palm. 

It hadn’t even phased you––what you had just done. 

"I think it's time to take you home," Eddie stood up, chuckling when another protesting groan left your lips. "C'mon, party girl," he hooked his arm around your torso, wrapping your arm over his shoulders. 

“I don’t want to go home,” you said sadly, taking Eddie by surprise when he felt you melt into his embrace; your arms fully wrapping themselves around him.

“I don’t want to go home,” you pleaded again, your tone more desperate as you looked up at him, your chin resting on his torso. “Please, don’t bring me back there.” 

Going home would make your fight with Steve too real and you couldn’t handle that right now. 

Eddie managed to walk you back to his van, patting your knee once he had buckled your seat belt.

“Wait!” You called out when he was about to close the passenger door. “Don’t leave me alone!”

“I’m not leaving you, sweetheart,” the nickname rolling off his lips would have made your heart leap in your chest if your mind wasn’t so fuzzy. “I’m going to get in the car from the other side, ok?”

“Mhm,” your voice fell quiet, your gaze falling down to your hands where you toyed with the sleeves of his hoodie.

When Eddie was in his seat, he felt your eyes on him. With every movement he made, you watched. The way he  lifted his arm to buckle his seatbelt, his hand turning the key to start the van… he saw from the corner of his eye as you viewed him with all your focus. 

“Who’s watching who now?” He smirked as he started the engine, carefully driving through the maze of sloppily parked cars before he was back on the main road.

“I wasn’t,” you turned your gaze away like a cat pretending they hadn’t just pushed a glass off a table, letting your focus be busy with something else from the decor in an old maid’s kitchen.

Eddie chuckled at your reaction. 

“How about we go pick somethin’ up to eat? Get some food in your system so you sober up?”

“Works with me,” you molded in the seat, toying with the hoodie strings that had gone uneven. You closed your eyes as you let yourself get swayed by the vehicle, humming a familiar tune when the silence became too much. 

His breath caught in his throat the second he recognized it.

Eddie knew that song.

In fact he knew it very well––he was the one who wrote it.

He smiled as your angel voice filled the car. Eddie thought he was going to collapse at the thought of someone other than Corroded Coffin members knowing this song. Even better, the thought of you knowing it sent him to paradise.

The bright colors of the fast food restaurant lit up the whole car. The neon 24/7 sign standing tall on top of the square building, Eddie scanned the menu as he broke the van beside the machine.

“What do you want?”

“Fries please,” you murmured, blinking softly at the bright lights.

“Alright,” you closed your eyes at the sound of his voice. Your foggy mind barely understood what else he had ordered beside a fry and a coke.

You were coming in and out of sleep by the time Eddie had parked in a quiet street on the heights of Hawkins. It wasn’t much of a view but it was the prettiest one you had around here. 

“You alright?” He chuckled as he watched you open your eyes again, struggling to blink sleep away.

“Yeah,” you nodded, and before you could fall back asleep Eddie was handing you a coke and your fries. You struggled to remove your seat belt before shifting in your seat and grabbing the food.

“Thank you,” you sighed before taking a sip, the sweet fizzing drink waking you up instantly.

“No problem,” he smiled as he watched you. You seemed like you were in your own little bubble; still very drunk but better than minutes prior.

“I really didn’t take you for a ‘getting absolutely trashed’ type of girl.”

“I’m not,” you mumbled as you chewed on a fry.

“Then why did you do it?” He crossed his arms.

“Because it’s normal,” you spat the word out like venom. “It’s what people expect of me apparently.”

“Since when do you do anything that people expect you to do?” Eddie turned his body to fully face you.

You shrugged before looking down at your food, “since my own brother thinks I'm a terrible person…" 

Ah.

There. 

He had hit the bullseye. Steve had gotten to you. And it seemed like he hadn’t been kind because Eddie saw the way your eyes dimmed at the mention of Steve.

"I don’t think you are,” he shook his head. “But I thought you liked being perceived as mean and scary?"

"I do," you hiccuped, placing the coke in the cupholder of the van’s door. "At least I did until Steve was an ass and called me a bitch and well… he made it known how he feels about me. I’m just a thorn in his side." Eddie could see your eyes starting to water as you stared down at your fries. All the filters that being sober you may have put up came tumbling down with your tears.

It was hard to be vulnerable when you spent years perfecting invulnerability. 

You sniffed and a small sob escaped your lips. Eddie's heart shattered with it. 

"Wh–what I said in the car last time, about feeling confident," you wiped your cheek with the sleeve of the sweatshirt. "I think he took it and crushed the last of it these past few weeks. This tonight… it was just the icing on the goddamn cake."

"Is that why you were so surprised I asked you out?" He didn't know why he said it, but he felt his heart ache as he did. 

You nodded.

And you took his heart in your hands as you did. Smothering it, crushing it with the knowledge he held and nourished that could only harm you more.

"Yeah," your voice came out hoarse. "Most guys are scared of me or just want to be friends with Steve… He’s just so… great. Steve is so perfect. I'm just the loser who scares people off," Eddie frowned at what you said. Watching you close your eyes, biting your bottom lip to stop it from wobbling. "It's so stupid," you whispered.

"What do you mean?" He asked, careful with his words.

"Tommy Hagan…" Eddie's frown deepened at the name. "Freshman year," you sniffed as you crossed your arms, "we dated for a month until I realized he only did it to get close to Steve. He was cheating on me with Carol." Eddie's eyes widened. "No one really knows though," you frowned too. "He wanted to keep it a secret and just hang out as friends. Should have known." You sighed, blinking a few times before placing your fries on the side and wiping both your eyes with your sleeves.

"Is that why you started that shell?"

"Yeah," you nodded, your head still feeling dizzy from the alcohol and the tension from the tears.

"Well, he and your brother are assholes."

"Tell me about it," you smiled, turning around so the side of your head rested against the headrest. Your glossy eyes met his as the shallow light from Hawkins eked into the van.

High above the town, in a beat up, poorly kept van that smelt of weed, nothing felt vulnerable in that moment. 

You didn't know if it was the feeling of the alcohol still coursing through your veins, or the way Eddie was looking at you––his doe eyes holding in so much softness and compassion––much more than you had ever felt in years. 

Before you knew it, words left your lips, mumbling into the short silence:

"You're pretty,” the way his features changed as he smiled made you smile too. It's as if his eyes sparkled every time he did, the way he slowly registered the meaning of it when a short laugh tumbled out. Eddie was happy the car was barely lit because a blush had spread its way across his nose.

"And you're drunk."

"Not that drunk" you stated, a tear filled giggle echoing through the space.

“I said it earlier, but you’re pretty too.”

“Thank you,” you smiled, and Eddie liked it ten times better than the frown you had seconds prior.

You sighed before grabbing your coke and taking a new sip, the drink washing the bare minimum of your pain and sadness away. 

You spent the next hour talking about nothing and everything as you finished the rest of your order. The more you spoke the more he could see the tension washing away from you, and the alcohol slowly dissipating from your system.

He could see that by the end, you were trying not to fall asleep on him. The night had already been long and emotional enough that your eyes were closing without your consent.

"C'mon, let's get you home, Harrington."

“Hmm,” you barely had the strength to nod, Eddie smiling when a yawn escaped you, making him yawn just seconds after.

The engine starting broke the quiet of the empty streets, like a familiar melody that was stuck replay until the van would come to a halt. The green dragon proudly standing on the dash nodding his head up and down as the van moved along the road.

The stars were bright, with not a cloud to hide them, and Eddie could see the moon in the distance of the road. It was the perfect setting, and for a fleeting moment he actually imagined what it would be like to be with you. 

Actually be in a relationship with you. With no stupid deals made over a popular rich kid’s tantrum. 

He imagined what it would feel like to hold your hand without the burning reminder that this was never meant to be real; or Imagined what it would feel like to cup your cheek and run his thumb across it before locking your lips into a kiss.

He wondered what it would feel like to have you in his arms, laying across his chest as he read you The Fellowship of the Ring––his favorite of the trilogy.. Reading the pages that were so dear to him until your eyes closed and your breath became shallow. Until you fell into the dream world and escaped the chaotic mess that life could be in this little town.

All the sudden he wanted to dance with you to his favorite ballads, take you on roadtrips that lead to festivals and golden moments where you got to see your favorite artists live. He wanted to see the sparks in your eyes when Axl Rose started singing and Slash took over with his guitar solo; or how you would scream with him when Angus Young and the rest of AC/DC entered the stage and would take you to another planet for the evening. 

But at the end of the day, the money was still buried at the bottom of his jean pocket.

The green bills he swore had morphed into poisonous objects worthy of the worst fantasy villain. Money was Sauron. Money was plaguing the land that wished to be enriched by kindness and goodness and love. Steve’s never-ending funds had become a curse to that sacred land––himself––and now broiled in its controversy, Eddie knew not how to return to normal or understand how good could ever come from something so ridiculous. 

The faces of the founding fathers turned into monsters like the ones he wrote about for his campaigns. 

The familiar forest road that led to your house was more of a reminder that this wasn’t supposed to be real and never would be; that this was just a stupid deal made over a greedy whim.

Eddie was greeted by the same trees that stood tall along the edges and the same fences to define property lines. The van came to a halt at the same spot he had parked in exactly one week prior. Before the headlights turned off with the engine and darkness washed over the scene, he caught a glimpse of the neighbor's cat perched high up at the exact spot he saw him last. His large yellow eyes mocking Eddie before the faint light source coming from your neighbors driveway made him become only but a shadow.

He could barely see your closed eyes and even breaths when he turned to you, yet his heart twisted in his chest again.

Eddie was falling in love and he knew that was bad. Terrible even.

Eddie had taken the deal for money. 

Extra cash to afford things he hadn’t had the privilege to buy in the past. Eddie jumped into the deal with no other thoughts or possible outcomes. He just knew you as that one hot girl who fought anyone who tried to drag her into the neat boxes people created for themselves due to the fear of being different, and never in the entire time that he had passed you in Hawkin’s middle or high school had he labeled you anything more.

Eddie did not take the deal to meet the girl he never even knew could exist. He never knew it actually existed right there in front of him the entire time. He didn’t take the deal to suddenly feel empty at the thought of you not being by his side, or feel doomed at the thought of you knowing the reasons why he came to talk to you on that random Tuesday afternoon. Eddie never expected that the girl the Hellfire club had labeled as ‘hot but aggressive’ would steal his heart.

A heart that was never on the market in the first place. 

A deep sigh escaped Eddie’s lips as he scanned your figure. Trying to remember the most he could in the dim light peering from outside the car’s windows.

You looked like an angel. 

And the butterflies lodged in his stomach went crazy the more he stared. Eddie never wanted to forget the way your hair fell, any attempts to groom it gone with the night’s adventures. You looked so peaceful, with his hoodie comfortably wrapped around you, he had never known someone could look so comfortable in the seat of his shitty van.

What he was feeling was overwhelming. It made him want to throw the money out of the window and scream the ache away. Curse the skies as to why he had never noticed you before.

But he didn’t do any of that. Instead, he took a breath and leaned in. He didn’t want to wake you but he didn’t have a choice. The peaceful bubble had to be popped. Sleeping beauty had to be awakened from her curse.

But instead of her prince, it was a messy metalhead teenager who was only sitting beside her because of a deal. A deal Eddie had made with your brother––who hurt you with cutting words he knew not to be true. 

With the  pads of his fingers, calloused from years of playing guitar, Eddie delicately reached to move a strand of hair away from your face. 

Maybe the touch was too gentle because it didn’t do anything to wake you. 

“Hey,” his voice was careful, his hand reaching your shoulder and gently rubbing circles on it. 

“Hmm,” you hummed, slightly moving as his hand jostled you carefully. 

“Y/n, we're here,” Eddie gently squeezed your shoulder and this time you made a bigger movement. Your eyes squeezing tightly before you opened them to be met with Eddie’s eyes peering out to you in the darkness. 

“Hmmm,” it was a hum that accompanied a stretch. “ Where are we?” You blinked, rubbing your eyes with the knuckles of your index fingers. 

“At your house.”

“Already?”

“Yeah,” he smiled. “Already.”

“Okay,” you said it quietly. A world of emotions swept back under the carpet as you stretched your arms and yawned, Eddie admiring each of your movements. 

“I’ll walk you home.”

“What a gentleman,” you smirked tiredly before pulling the sleeves of his sweatshirt, already bracing yourself from the cold that would meet you once you opened the door. 

Eddie strutted around the front of the car to get to you. The second he was close you leaned in, stuffing your head in the crook of his neck and groaned in an attempt to voice your frustration. 

“I’m dreading going back,” you mumbled against his shirt. It didn’t take Eddie long to wrap his arms around your shoulders. 

“It will be alright.”

“I hope so…” the thought of seeing Steve at breakfast tomorrow haunted you. 

You didn’t know how long you stayed like this. Leaning into Eddie, your hands around his torso as you tried to ease your pain away. 

You were tired. Really tired, and already felt the hints of the hangover you’d have the next morning. 

That’s probably why you needed his comfort. These odd emotions that came fluttering back started to become comforting. Being in Eddie’s arms made you forget that it was the middle of the night and you were standing in front of his beat up van parked at the crossroad between your home and your neighbor’s. All you could think of was that a sense of comfort you had never gotten the chance to feel before was filling every bit of you. As if just the feeling of his arms around you was enough to make your pain disappear. 

“We should get you home,” of course he had to break the silence. 

You nodded and felt his hands gently rub your back before they fell back at his side. You instantly missed his warmth, the hoodie becoming all you had left of him on you. 

The gravel passage was still the same as Eddie remembered from a week before. Nothing but maybe a few new flowers and leaves scattered on the earth’s floor. He dodged the same branches, passed by the same rose bush he had stolen from until the fence of your house changed from tall, strong wood to soft wires that could bend with barely any force. 

“Thank you,” you turned around to face him. Only the moon lighting up his features through the trees. “For everything,” you looked away, almost ashamed. “I was an idiot tonight.”

“Don’t worry about it… Every teenager has at least one stupid night under their belt,” he smiled.

Time stood still. You didn’t want to go back to the walls that still held Steve’s words. You didn’t want to leave the comfort of the boy standing in front of you. 

You took a step closer, a hand making its way to his cheek. Your thumb gliding through it the same way Eddie had imagined doing to you. 

The touch of your soft hand was almost too much to take in;  the fire that accompanied it burning Eddie like the fires of Mount Doom. 

You were leaning in and he was too despite what his head was telling him; his whole body caving in without his mind’s knowledge––his heart taking over now. 

"Can I kiss you?" There. The dagger had been planted right to his heart. 

His mind jolted to your state of mind. 

His mind jolted to the chill of the early morning. 

His mind jolted to the money that burned a hole through his body. 

"Not tonight, princess," he whispered, hoping you wouldn't catch the strain in his voice as he said it. Hoping that in these three words you wouldn't cause a tumble of emotions to lead you down a worse path in self-love. Eddie did not want you to figure out how conflicted he was feeling, nor did he want you to think Steve was somehow right. 

He watched as your face changed. Confusion written in your eyes before it changed to something he didn’t know how to decipher. 

Your hand fell from his cheek, Eddie instantly felt lost again. 

“Well… I’ll see you later, I guess,” your words were as cold as ice and hard as stone. 

Eddie’s entire being screamed to reach out for you. To climb the fence with you and chase you through the maze of trees until he could fix what he had done and kiss you. 

Kiss you like he had dreamed of only minutes prior.

But life wasn’t as simple. 

And Eddie knew he couldn’t let his heart decide this time because the green paper monsters were still screaming in his pocket.

[spideyanakin]

eddie the banished - masterlist

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the playlist

SERIES

10 Things I Hate about you | on going

➾ (Harrington!reader) When a new rule strikes the Harrington household: that if Steve wishes to date again, his sister will need to be dating first. Steve becomes desperate and does everything in his power to set her up with the only guy he thinks will want to date her; the one and only Eddie Munson.

ONE SHOTS

let me be your harley ➾ cheerleader!reader, eddie thinks he isn't good enough for you

always remember us this way ➾ corroded coffin member!reader, what if you wrote always remember us this way for eddie munson?

[spideyanakin]

eddie munson - fic recs

Other Fic Recs

Masterlist

works by @iliaclwrites

everybody’s talking up a storm ➾ the one where the boys don’t know that eddie munson is dating the pretty assistant librarian that always helps them out.  

If you’d taken an arrow and run it through me ➾ five times you and Eddie pretended not to know each other + one time you didn’t

works by @inknopewetrust

the hideout ➾ eddie munson made it big. now, when he returns to Hawkins for a hometown concert with his band, he is reminded of the girl he’s been in love with for the past 6 years when steve harrington calls.(my ultimate favorite fic ever)

oh baby  | part 2 | part 3 ➾ you and eddie raise a baby… however, you’re not a couple and the baby isn’t real. 

works by @luveline

steve’s little sister going on a date w eddie 

(series) june baby ➾ single mom!reader

love bites ➾ vampire! eddie

works by @littlexdeaths

(series) eras of us ➾ multiple lives, over multiple years— but only one destined love (AAAAAAAAH)

pushing up daises ➾ kas! eddie (so hot and sad and ansgty aaaah)

it’s a recipe for disaster ➾ older brother’s best friend! eddie

works by @rebelfell

(mini series) this summer is the apocalypse ➾ older harrington!reader

unforgiven, I'm a villain ➾ outlaw!eddie (hot, way way way too hot)

other works by amazing writers 

(series, pirate au) not wholly evil by @uglypastels ➾ 'Do not worry; we shall release you straight back into your father's arms– for a reasonable price, that is,' he looked around at his men, who all once again erupted in a jolly sea of laughter, matching his much softer depiction of humour. 'But for now….' He bend in a bow, dramatically removed his hat as his unbrushed locks grazed the floor. When he rose back up, his grin had spread to the widest corners of his mouth, and his dark eyes were filled with menacing mischief, freezing your core at the thought of what he could possibly be holding back in his mind. 'Welcome aboard the Hellfire.'  (its so hot with angst, fluff, smut and everything else that makes this one of the best things I've ever read, ever)

(series) celebrity skin by @cacoetheswriting ➾ rockstar!eddie munson x popstar!fem!reader, as corroded coffin frontman, eddie munson regards himself as perhaps the most important person in the 90s music scene. that is until he meets you — america's favourite starlet. things evolve pretty quickly from there.

(series) freaky friday by @jo-harrington ➾ Eddie thinks that Steve has everything in life handed to him on a silver platter (including his new girlfriend who Eddie has a crush on). And Steve just can't believe that the kids look up to Eddie the Freak, or that he lives his life without giving a single fuck. (ABSOLUTELY AMAZING)

(series) too much in common by @munsonhoneybaby ➾ henderson!reader

(series of blurbs) hopper's daughter! reader by @reysdriver

(series) rockstar eddie by @enam3l

(series, knight au) not very noble by @allthingsjoeq ➾ your kingdom is placed under threat of liquidation, the villagers crying out for help as each day they enter greater poverty. As their princess you have been chosen to amend the broken monarchy, creating a truce between the neighbouring royals, and fulfilling a marriage decided by the King. a certain knight is asked to bring deliver you.

eat me by @rip-quizilla ➾ older rockstar! eddie x pop star!reader, two years after your hiatus from the music industry, you're back and all grown up now. After collaborating with early 2000's metal sensation Corroded Coffin for several songs off your new album, you debut the new tracks live in a surprise performance with the band during their tour- and the tension between you and frontman Eddie Munson is so thick, you're barely able to keep your pants on throughout the set. (i could read this fic over and over and over and over again, it's so fucking hot im crying)

nothing else matters by @munsons-maiden ➾ It’s been two weeks since you and Eddie decided to stop sneaking around and start behaving like every other couple at Hawkins High. Only that you’re not. And after overhearing a group of cheerleaders’ especially cruel gossip about your relationship, Eddie’s insecurities, nourished by all those years of bullying, hit home despite all of his attempts not to let people’s vile words get to him. This time though…he feels like they might be right. Because why would a girl like you ever fall for a guy like him? And when Eddie realizes he made a mistake…he can only hope it’s not too late to fix what he broke. Based on this request: Maybe one where reader is a cheerleader and popular but only wants to be  with eddie but he is insecure because he’s the school freak and  overhears mean gossip? (absolutely gorgeous)

you calling me a liar? by @sailortongue ➾ eddie tells the boys that he has a girlfriend, but they don't believe him. eddie vows to make them eat their words

eddie x henderson!reader by @eddie-munsons-girlfriend

The end of a nightmare by @scarlet-star-witch ➾ eddie wakes up in the hospital after fighting in the upside down

cherry wine by @unsolved-duvall ➾ eddie giving you your first time (honestly this is so sweet and just I thought I my heart was going to burst I’m still crying)

prom queen by @eddie-van-munson ➾ eddie and the reader have been secretly together since Jason forced them into "Seven Minutes in Heaven" as a prank, but now, as Eddie watches Jason and his goons flirt with you, he finds himself not caring who knows you're his.

m’y two favorite girls by @djarintreble ➾ dad!eddie

damn prejudice by @itsoutrageouss ➾ reader accidentally sits at the hellfire table, chaos ensues

domestic bliss by @ddejavvu ➾ eddie keeps you company during your nightly skincare routine, and it leads to the most domestically intimate moment that you've ever shared with him.

clingy by @h4rring1on ➾ you love being around eddie 24/7 but things start to stop being like that once eddie’s friends started being annoyed because of it

parallels by @thefreakymunson ➾ eddie transfers to a different school and meets his soulmate

go your own way by @seidenbros ➾ bauman!reader

steve’s ex by @sunflowergirl522

inked by @corroded-hellfire ➾ dad!eddie, he loves the doodles from his favorite girls so much that he gets them permanently etched on his skin.

teach me by @urfavstargirl1 ➾ best friend!eddie teaches inexperienced!reader how to kiss… among other things

wildflowers @m0llygunn ➾ doing it in the back of his van while it's raining

Gareth’s sister!reader part 2 by @lovebugism

[spideyanakin]

captain’s treasure chest

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self recs

stranger things

eddie munson

robert pattinson characters

bruce wayne ⊹ cedric diggory

formula one

pierre gasly ⊹ charles leclerc

orlando bloom characters

legolas ⊹ will turner ⊹ paris of troy

the originals / tvd

elijah mikealson

zelda

link

avatar the last air bender

zuko

marvel

peter parker

miscellaneous

including: anthony bridgerton, jj maybank, neil perry, killian jones, joseph quinn, sirius black, prince caspian, coriolanus snow and anakin skywalker

[spideyanakin]

captain's masterlist

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requests are open

stranger things

eddie munson

robert pattinson characters

bruce wayne ⊹ cedric diggory

formula one

charles leclerc ⊹ pierre gasly

orlando bloom characters

legolas ⊹ will turner ⊹ paris of troy

star wars

anakin skywalker ⊹ cal kestis

legend of zelda

link

avatar the last air bender

zuko

dune

paul atreides

once upon a time

killian jones

miscellaneous

draco malfoy

loki laufeyson

leo valdez