#sometimes making my blorbo bleed just isn't enough - ya know?

[queenie-ofthe-void]

A Different Ending

written for @steddiemicrofic October

prompt: dress || wc: 350 || rating: E || tags: main character death (steve), hurt/no comfort, blood, gore, body horror, grief, s4 canon-divergence, pre-steddie

story under the cut

~~~

“Someone help me dress these!” Eddie screams over his shoulder. His hands are pressed so far into the wounds on Steve’s chest that his fingers squish against something warm and wet. Steve winces at the pressure, and more blood pours from his mouth.

Eddie turns around to find Nancy still standing behind him. She should be running to grab the gauze and bandages from Steve’s pack, tearing her clothes into strips like the last time the bats ripped him open. She shouldn’t just stand here, motionless, dread and acceptance scrawled across her face.

Robin would kill her if she wasn’t dragging Dustin away into the trailer after Nancy agreed to help Steve. Now Eddie understands– she just didn't want them to watch this.

It wasn’t supposed to go like last time. They were defenseless. Steve didn’t even have a shirt or shoes when they traversed this hellscape. But this time they wore their War Zone gear, Eddie and Robin prepped molotov cocktails, and Steve had hammered nails into a shield ’to match my bat, Robs, how cool is that?’. 

They agreed it’d be more dangerous at the trailer, so of course Steve volunteered. He’s the fighter, sword and shield. He’s the goddamn babysitter and if Dustin’s here, then so is he.

But Steve promised Eddie a date, he promised not to do anything cute. Now–

“Eds,” Steve coughs, dark red blood seeps out from between his teeth, trickling down the corners of his mouth. It soaks his hair. Out of everything, that’s what rips the first sob from Eddie’s chest. “Please, Eds, you have to go. Get them out of here.”

“No, no please, Stevie– you promised me, remember? Enzo’s, a movie at the Hawk, and a goodnight kiss.” Snot drips from Eddie’s nose into Steve’s chest wound, and he swallows the vomit that floods his mouth.

Steve chuckles, the sound so wet it gurgles. His lips are blue, his eyes unfocused. “Don’t remember promising a goodnight kiss, Munson.”

“Let a guy dream, big boy,” Eddie sobs through a fake, comforting smile.

“You’ll be in my dreams, Eddie. For always.”