#steddie has a child

[perfectlysunny02]

A Modern Steddie AU where their daughter gets diagnosed with Leukemia

Warning: Illness, Cancer, grief, worried parent

Word count: 566

Chapter one: It started with a bruise

It started as a bruise, Steve didn’t think too much of it. Kids at daycare were rough with everything, but especially each other. The only thing strange right in that moment was he couldn’t recall Eddie telling him another child had hit their daughter, or Evianna saying anything about it either. And normally it would cause a big discussion at dinner, Evi telling the story in dramatics and Eddie demanding they pull her out and get a stay at home nanny.

But dinner was a quiet affair, Evi almost falling asleep in her princess shaped mac and cheese.

“Eddie?” Steve called for their daughters bedroom. “Edward Munson.”

“Yeah?” He faintly heard Eddie calling from the bathroom.

“Come here for a sec,” Steve said before turning to his daughter. “Darling?”

“Mhm Daddy?” Evi murmured sleepy. “Pajamas?”

“Not yet baby” Steve whispered gently smoothing her curls behind her ear. “Did a kid hit you at school today?”

Evianna sluggishly shook her head.

“No, I stay in cosy corner all the time.”

“You stayed in Cosy Corner?”

“Yeah Daddy, I sleepy.”

“I’m,” He gently corrected, pressing softly on the bruise. “We say I’m sleepy. Does that hurt?”

Evi shook her head again almost knocking herself over before Steve laughed, and straightened her.

“Hey,” Eddie said, breathlessly, finally gracing the doorway with his presence. “I was washing the dishes, what’s up?”

“Do you know where this is from?” Steve asked, gently motioning to Evi’s bruise.

Eddie swore, ignoring both his husband and daughter’s cry of Dad! Eddie! and kneeled beside Steve

“No, the teacher didn’t say anything. All she said was Evi had laid in this corner all day. Did another kid do this to you baby girl?”

“She said they didn’t,” Steve said. “Maybe she just accidentally hit the wall or something. I’m sure it’s fine. Just talk to her teacher tomorrow.”

“I will,” Eddie promised. Eddie wasn’t sure what exactly was running through his husband’s head, but he knew by the quick glances at him for his peripherals that something was wrong. Steve had his serious face on, the one he always wore when something wasn’t right in their world, or when he was worried about something. Something was wrong, something Steve either didn’t want to say out loud in front of their daughter and freak her out, or maybe Steve just didn’t have the right words for it. So Eddie let it go for now, rather than push for information now in front of their tuckered out Evi Grace, Eddie would wait till they were alone. He didn’t know exactly what yet; but something was probably, definitely, definitely wrong.

But Eddie cleared his throat, forced a smile on his face, and reached out for his daughter. “Now how about me and Daddy put you to bed baby girl? How about that?”

“Can I get three extra kisses?” Evi asked, holding up her fingers. She was learning her numbers in school and was so excited to show off her knowledge to her dads any chance she could.

“You can have any kisses you want baby.” Eddie laughed. “Now come on. We gotta rush to get to bed so Daddy can read us a story.”

Steve followed his little family with a smile and a pit in his stomach. He was probably just overreacting. Everything was probably fine.

Too bad he didn’t know how not fine everything really was.

AN: Chapter one is now out! I’m hoping to update it at least every week. Buckle up folks. it’s gonna be a rough ride! I hope you like it!

@mirkwoodmunson @smellylittlewitch thank you so much for the idea and the quick reading of my fic. appreciate you more than you know❤️

[livwritesstuff]

When Robbie is in the tail end of her elementary school years, she starts going to a sleepaway camp. She’s around nine the first time she goes and she’s nervous at first, obviously, but she ends up loving it so much that by the end of the month-long program, Steve and Eddie practically have to drag her out of the cabin.

The next year, Robbie convinces them to let her attend the entire eight-week program, which means she’s gone practically the entire summer – a goddamn score, in their opinion, because it means they only have two kids to figure out what to do all summer with instead of three.

There is, however, an unexpected opponent of this – Moe.

Moe did not like not having Robbie around for two months, and she moped around the house practically the entire summer (Steve caught her standing in front of the calendar counting the days until her return at least twice). Rather than admit that she actually loves her sister and truly misses her when she’s gone though, she resorts to the only real solution to keep her at home – implicit manipulation tactics.

Which is why Steve overhears this exchange a few months before Robbie’s departure for her third year at camp:

Moe: I would never want to do something like that.

Moe: Like, you’re going into that gross lake every day and you can’t ever shower. You never change your sheets. There’s a million people all in one room.

Moe: It’s so gross.

Robbie, shrugging: I showered basically every day.

Robbie: And I changed my sheets once a week.

Moe: Whatever.

Moe: I don’t know why anybody would want to go to one of those.

Moe: There’s way better things to do here – you don’t even know, Robbie.

Later, Steve has to have this conversation with her:

Steve: I totally get that you really miss Robbie while she’s at camp.

Steve: And I know that two months is a long time for her to be gone.

Steve: But I gotta tell you, hon.

Steve: Manipulating her into thinking she doesn’t want to go…not the best way to go about dealing with that emotion.

[imfinereallyy]

Eddie grew up as a creature of the night. It was to no one’s surprise really. The day was exhausting but the night was always full of this chaotic energy that he loved. The night was mysterious and other, the wonders of it still unexplored.

Eddie felt one with the night. He made friends with the moon and the stars. And although there were times that would pass where he could not see them, where there was nothing but the inky abyss, he knew they were still there. Hidden but never gone.

It started when he was young, his love of night. Eddie thought it had probably started when he was just a boy. Dumped his Uncle Wayne’s doorstep. He had been terrified, whisked away by a father on the run just as dusk brushed against the horizon. They had made it to Wayne’s trailer precisely as the evening settled into its peak. Eddie’s father hadn’t even bothered knocking. Just left Eddie on the porch with one backpack and a buzzed head. And Eddie waited there for a moment, looked up at the sky and thought it wasn’t that lonely with stars out.

His wondering mind was interrupted by Wayne pulling the door open and yanking Eddie inside no questions asked. The night was when Wayne had given Eddie a home.

As the years past, his fascination with night only grew stronger. It helped bring people closer to him. Eddie interpreted the night into campaigns, songs and even advice for the kids (lots of night metaphors for failed dating lives). He got most of his work done at this time. His mind coming alive and bursting with ideas. Wayne’s schedule was at night too. So when he worked, Eddie shared odd meals with his old man. And when Wayne was off, his brain like Eddie’s ran with the schedule of the moon.

The night also helped Eddie learn to be okay with being alone. Late night drives. Walks in the woods. Stargazing from a picnic bench. All things he had learned to enjoy his own company while doing.

It wasn’t that he didn’t like they day per say, or the sun. It’s just that Eddie had found the day boring. There was no wonder, no lust, no mystery. There was no appeal. The world was too bright, too open. There was no exploring and there was no comfort. Just exposure.

Then Eddie met Steve Harrington officially. Well, officially for the first time after everything. After the High School bullshit. After the wild adventures of the (please god never again) Upside down. When Eddie met Steve officially, in his hospital room, he is baffled to find him awake at 6 am, with a smile on his face.

And all Steve said was, “Glad you made it to actually see another sunrise.”

Like it was nothing. Like at of all the things that had blown Eddie’s mind the past week, or even more specifically out of all the things Eddie had learned about Steve Harrington, the thing that absolutely floored Eddie was the fact the Steve Harrington was a morning person.

It shouldn’t had bothered him so much. It wasn’t like he had been planning on become friends with the guy. But then he did, and Eddie couldn’t help but spiral.

Because no one should like the day as much as Steve did. Sure, Eddie was most definitely being a hypocrite. Like he had proclaimed himself as the goblin king of night once (although very drunk on Nancy’s whiskey), and Eddie prided himself on being a freak and accepting of everyone. So it was probably unfair of him to judge but this was excessive.

The day was everywhere when it came to Steve. He woke up early. He laid out in the backyard against the pavement. Steve would ask Eddie to go chase dawn with him on an early morning drive. It was in Steve’s wardrobe for Christ sake. That yellow sweater haunted his dreams, and Steve looked so good in it, and Eddie can’t help but stare—

The day was everywhere when it came to Steve Harrington.

And Eddie was damn fool who fell in love with him.

Eddie had fallen for the unattainable. The straight boy. His best friend. The guy who picked him up from a bad date in Indie no questions asked. The guy who shared a bed with him after plenty of nightmares. The guy who listened. The guy who cared.

The King and the Freak. The day to his night. The absolutely, infuriatingly opposite of what Eddie is allowed to like, allowed to have.

It had gotten so bad, that Eddie, when he couldn’t sleep and Steve wasn’t around, found himself whispering to the night about him. Told it how although Steve and the night didn’t meet very often, Eddie was certain it would love him anyway.

Eddie knew Steve was just as baffled by Eddie’s love of the darkness.He had asked once how he could stand it.

“Don’t the nightmares make you hate it? The lack of sleep alone makes me hate it, and that’s not even when I remember what the upside down looked like. No light, only hazy red darkness? Not for me man. Never again.” Steve had said while they passed a joint.

“I don’t know man, it’s not the nights fault really. Like it doesn’t matter the time of day, I still get nightmares. It’s not the night’s fault the Upside Down exists, and what it looks like. I guess I feel a solidarity with the night now. Even more than I did before. Something being blamed for simply being there. A scapegoat.” Eddie leaned into Steve’s side as he sunk further into the couch. He kinda feared he had said the word night too much in his speech.

Steve stared at Eddie for a moment, something of understanding passed on his face. “Actually, that kind of makes sense. I kinda expected you to talk in weird metaphors to explain it—“

“I still got stars wars analogy up my sleeve.”

Steve pushed on and ignored Eddie, “—but I get it. Like the night, you’re a reminder to people of the bad things that happen even if you’re just there, just existing…It’s complicated, and beautiful and very weird. Just like you”

Eddie didn’t hold back the smile when he said “Steve Harrington, are you calling me beautiful?”

“Yes I am.”

They stared at each other for awhile, no words spoken. It should had unsettled Eddie, or even spark useless hope in him. It didn’t though.

It just made him feel content. Good. Home.

He never felt the need to explain the night to Steve again.

Weeks later, Eddie learned why the day was good too. It was another night spent in Steve’s bed when the nightmares built up for days, with no end in sight. For once Eddie had woken up first. Steve’s head on Eddie’s bare chest. Eddie’s fingers combed through his soft hair, and he hummed softly to nothing but the dawn. The sunrise had started to slowly peak into Steve’s room. Because of course, even the day started towards Steve.

Steve’s eyes had fluttered open unhurriedly. Then he tilted his head up towards Eddie and did something that changed him forever.

Eddie expected him to freak out. For Steve to push him away in horror. To scream, and hit Eddie even. They had shared a bed before but it had never been that intimate. And Eddie knew his face wasn’t hiding any of his feelings either. Eddie, like the night, was only a mystery to those who didn’t know what to look for. And Steve always knew what to look for.

Steve did none of that though. Instead, Steve reached up slowly, brushed his lips across Eddie’s cheek and said, “Good morning, darling.”

Eddie felt his whole body stop and revive back to life in that instant. He died and became a new person. And then Steve, Steve took it even further when he laid back down on Eddie’s chest, without breaking eye contact, and beamed up at him.

Eddie now understands why Steve loved the day. It was because Steve loved the sun. And when Steve smiles at him, Eddie can’t help but think that Steve was the sun. And how Eddie loved the sun too.

Eddie couldn’t be stopped from kissing him in that movement.

Eddie kissed Steve like the morning. Slow, warm, and just as meaningful. There was no rush. It was waking up in comfort. Eddie had always imagined that if he ever got to kiss Steve it would be as chaotic and harsh as the night.

Eddie couldn’t find it in himself to want it in any other way in that moment. It made Eddie ache. It was sincere. It was sweet. It was devout.

Eddie leaned back to take a breath as he said, “Good morning, sunshine.”

———

this is my first stab at writing something eddie centric, so sorry if it’s rough, but it did come straight from the heart. I had fun writing it (as usual at 2 am, which is really in line with this narrative i now realize). It was fun to kinda project my own feelings do the day v night debate. I’m a night owl, and I love all things that come with it. But there is something so comforting about daylight and the warmth of the sun. <3

send me something to write next. :)

[sabbathbloodysabbeth]

Eddie Munson is the type to listen to goofy goober rock on repeat while eating ranch on pizza while his roommate, Steve Harrington is staring at him with heart eyes while also making a appointment to get him checked out for autism.

[afewproblems]

Part Four: Final Part Four Mean!Eddie Misunderstandings Au

Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Read in full on Ao3

Thank you to everyone that cheered me on @samcoxramblings for your kind words on every post! @flowercrowngods and @barbariansteves for your helpful advice and @zerokrox-blog for your original prompt waaaaay back in February, I'm sorry this took so long but I hope you finally get the comfort you wished for!

***

The kids demand two weeks to prepare for their Hellfire session, insisting that they need this time to debrief Eddie and come up with their game plan, which is fine by Steve.

It also gives him two weeks to decompress from his last interaction with the kid's Dungeon Master, and time to try and untangle exactly how he feels about the whole situation. 

It was nice for things to start moving back towards something resembling normal. The kids seemed happier, even going so far as to begin splitting their time between Eddie and Steve once again. Asking for rides to the hobby shop in Indi from their resident metal-head rather than Steve. It was nice to finally have a little bit more time to himself again.

Even Robin, who had previously been steadfast in her Anti-Eddie stance, had suddenly grown rather tight-lipped about the whole thing.

She had even offered to accompany Steve on his errands for the day they scheduled their Hellfire meeting, citing that she was always up for a grocery run and he may need help bringing everything in.

Which, in hindsight, should have been Steve’s first clue that something strange was going on. 

“So, you ready?” Robin hums as they walk up and down the canned food aisle of Marsh Market, “you can still back out you know?”

Steve smiles and grabs a box of onion soup mix, he’s fairly certain he has some sour cream at home to make a dip of some sort, much easier than the last snack he tried to prepare for the group. 

“Yeah, Robs, I know, I think it should be fine,” he crosses off the soup mix on his list and turns the cart around the empty aisle to head towards the produce section, “the kids are already setting up now so the only thing I need to do is be there,” he shrugs and stops in front of the humming displays. 

Steve waits until the misting stops before reaching for a bag of mini carrots and tossing them into the cart. 

“Can’t believe you trust Henderson to have a key, I can’t believe you hold us at the same level of trust!” Robin grumbles under her breath as she picks up a granny smith from one of the bins and rubs it on the rolled up sleeves of her navy blazer; it’s just slightly too big for her, most likely stolen from her dad’s closet. 

Steve rolls his eyes and continues pushing the cart around the produce area, "careful Birdy, you roll those up anymore you're actually going to turn into Don Johnson". 

"I should be so lucky," she snarks back as she catches up to him by the celery.

She tosses the apple back and forth between her hands, nearly dropping it twice before placing the produce into the cart under Steve’s unimpressed gaze. 

She starts snapping her fingers and shuffling her feet as they continue walking up and down the aisles, going through their list bit by bit. Steve finds himself watching his friend’s nervous fidgeting with curious eyes, it was just a grocery trip, there shouldn’t be anything to really make her act like this, right?

He takes a quick glance around at some of the employees stocking the aisles, in case Vickie or some other pretty classmate of Robin’s is wandering around. 

But, they’re alone.

“Are you sure you don’t need anything else?” Robin asks, as Steve folds up the list and turns the cart towards the check out tills.  

She tips the small watch she’s wearing up to her face, her eyes flit back and forth between Steve and the watch as she chews on her bottom lip, which is more than a little odd.

The kids are already at the house and Eddie and the rest of the Hellfire gang won’t be arriving for at least another hour, they have plenty of time?

Robin steps away from the cart and throws her thumb over her shoulder at the chip aisle, “you do realize that you’re going to have like ten teenagers at your house right? You think veggies and dip is enough?”

“I’m ordering pizza later, I think this is fine?” Steve says slowly, gesturing at the cart, confusion and suspicion saturate his words as his eyes narrow at his friend. 

“Robin,” Steve murmurs, walking the cart closer towards her, “what's going on?”

“Nothing, why would you --nothing!” She stutters as her freckled face pales slightly. 

Steve smirks, Robin is probably the worst liar he’s ever met, and it's always endearing whenever she tries. 

The last time she had lied to Steve, it had been about the mascara wand she had dropped onto the passenger seat, staining the leather just slightly, and smearing the black makeup all over the floor covers. 

Robin had panicked and insisted that had been there before she had sat down.

Steve had been sitting in the car with her at the time.

He knew a Robin lie when he saw it, but he also knew it wouldn’t take long for her to crack. 

“Okay!”

There it is.

“Listen,” Robin hisses sharply, she steps closer until she’s nearly whispering in his ear in the empty chip aisle, “I’m stalling you okay?”

“Probably not something you should be telling the person you’re stalling but okay?” Steve snorts as he leans onto the cart handle, “also, this was the worst place to go to stall us, it's two in the afternoon on a Wednesday, no one else is here”.

“I know!” Robin groans, letting her face fall into her open hands, she slowly lifts her face once more and lets her fingers drag across her forehead and cheeks, pulling at the skin, “I should have said no, I wanted to say no, but they used Will--”

Steve nods, “and you can’t say no to Will, yeah I gotcha”.

The words register after a beat.

“Wait, backup, the kids put you up to this? The unsupervised shitheads in my house right now?”

Robin nods, her blue eyes wide and the barest of smirks still covered by her hands.

“Oh christ,” Steve mutters under his breath, “do I even want to know?”

Robin drops her hands away from her face and scowls for a second before sighing, “I would absolutely love to tell you,” she shakes her head and looks up at the ceiling, “better yet, I’d love to just take you to Indi for the day, forget about this completely, but those God Damn kids know exactly what to say,” she looks at him once more in barely concealed exasperation, “how do they always know what to say?”

“How angry do I need to be, on a scale of like one to ten?” 

Robin stares at him consideringly, her eyes scanning his face, “I mean, if I were you, it would be at like, a hundred,” she says eventually, “but since it’s you?”

“Maybe a four”.

Steve nods and drums his hands on the cart handles, blowing out a long slow breath as he makes his decision, “how much more time do they need?”

Robin looks at her watch again and smiles this time, “Well this bought them another five-ish minutes, so maybe another half hour?”

She reaches into her pocket and pulls out a crumpled five dollar bill, “come on, I’ll getcha a coffee or something?”

“Wait, do I even need these snacks? Robin?”

Robin was wrong, this at least warranted a five for the groceries alone. 

***

The drive back is uneventful, Steve did end up going though check out, rationalizing that, no matter what, he needed some veggies for the rest of the week so there were worse things he could have spent the money on. 

Robin had bought him a coffee from the gas station down the road. There wasn't enough creamer in the world to make that palatable so he leaves it in the cup holder while driving back. Even with a hot chocolate Robin hasn't fared much better. 

"Okay, well that's the worst five dollars ever spent," she groans after taking a sip. Robin wrinkles her nose and sets the cup in the other empty holder beside Steve’s before sneaking a quick look at her watch once more, “worth it though,” she says with a small smile.

It slides off her face after a moment when she realizes that they’ve turned down her street, “Steve?”

He looks between her and the road, tilting his head as she touches his elbow gently. 

“You can just come over you know, you don’t have to do anything you don’t want to and that includes letting people force you to--” Robin snaps her mouth shut with an audible click of her teeth. 

She shakes her head and takes her hand back, “sorry, I promised not to say anything”.

Steve pulls over onto the Buckley’s driveway and finally turns to face Robin as much as the driver's seat will allow. 

“Still sure about this whole thing only warranting a four?” he asks softly as a bubble of anxiety begins to expand from his stomach and into his chest, as though he’s absorbed her nervous energy over the course of the afternoon.

Robin shrugs, “I don’t know, but,” her blue eyes bounce back and forth between his own, “just don’t let them make you make a decision you’re not ready for,” she chews her lip again, “no one gets to push you around but me”.

Steve laughs as Robin leans out of her seat to give him a quick, but firm, hug before she opens the door and steps outside. As soon as she’s out of the car, Steve wishes he had asked her to stay, to come with him and hold his hand through the unknown. The bereft, hollow feeling from before returns in full force as she walks up to her front door. 

She turns around and holds up her thumb and pinky as she lifts her hands to her face, mouthing, ‘Call me later,’ as she waves with her other hand. 

She stays outside as Steve slowly reverses, hesitating on the street for just a moment as Robin walks backwards the rest of the way to her door, she moves her hands, motioning for him to get going. 

Steve nods once and takes a deep breath as he shifts into drive and heads down the street.

It’s just the kids, he tells himself, how bad can it be?

***

By the time Steve pulls into his driveway, he’s nearly turned around to retrieve Robin and insist that she come with him at least five times. Even now as he pulls the emergency brake for the slight incline of the Harrington driveway, he considers starting the car again and leaving. 

The last time he felt this anxious to be home was after graduation, after he’d been rejected from every school he’d applied to and knew there was no getting around that conversation with his dad. 

That conversation had ended with the crack in the table, a hastily completed Scoops application, and his parents leaving for three months. 

If it hadn’t happened he wouldn’t have met Robin, so at least there had been a silver lining on that occasion. 

He’s not sure if there will be one this time.

Steve gets out of the car before opening the back door to grab the paper grocery bag from the store, he leaves the full coffee and hot chocolate cups with a grimace and makes a mental note to throw them out later before locking the car door. 

Steve slowly makes his way to the steps, balancing the bag on his hip as he rifles through his pants pocket for his house key. 

He looks around the street and spots Eddie’s van parked a few houses down. Great.

Steve knew that Eddie and the others would be showing up around now, even before Robin went ahead and spilled the beans about whatever it was the kids were secretly doing, but he had still hoped for a moment to just breathe before he had to face the inevitable.

Steve takes a deep breath and grabs the door handle, scoffing as it opens immediately. He makes a second mental note to scold Dustin for leaving the door unlocked for just anyone to come in --especially since the rest of Hellfire was already here apparently.

“Hey assholes, the snacks are here,” Steve calls out as he steps over the threshold, tossing his own keys into the dish on the side table. 

He kicks the door closed and locks the deadbolt with a roll of his eyes, “and I do include myself with that statement,” he adds under his breath with a smirk.

Steve slides off his shoes and pauses, looking around the foyer.

It’s quiet.

Where there is normally an abundance of yelling and laughter, of the kids arguing amongst themselves, or Eddie’s usual dramatic storytelling, there’s nothing. 

Steve walks into the kitchen and puts the bag onto the counter, “guys?” he calls out again, only to be met with silence. 

Steve makes his way into the dining room through the swing door and stops in his tracks.

The table is gone. 

“What the fuck?” he hears himself whisper as he walks into the middle of the space, nearly into the hanging light in the center of the room --he’d never noticed just how low it was, what with the table that was normally there to stop him from walking directly into it.

“What the fuck?” Steve hisses again, his heart starts to race as he steps around the light and spots the open sliding door to the backyard. 

“If you little fuckers decided to move my grandmother’s table when there is a perfectly good patio table out there, I swear to Christ--” 

But the kids aren’t outside either. 

Eddie freezes as Steve walks around the corner of the house, he’s standing next to the dining table with a piece of sandpaper in his hands.

“Steve,” Eddie squawks in surprise, quickly hiding the sandpaper behind his back, “hey!”

Steve’s not entirely sure just what he’s looking at as he takes another step further into the yard. Eddie’s normally black ripped jeans are covered in a fine layer of dust, his wild curls have been pulled back into a messy ponytail away from his face, and an open container of wood filler sits beside him on the concrete patio.

Steve takes another four steps until he’s close enough to touch the wooden surface, his mouth hanging open as he takes it all in. 

The surface of the table has been sanded down in its entirety, removing the beautiful deep cherry varnish, but the crack in the center has been mended, some kind of slightly darker putty has sealed the gaping wound that had marred the surface. 

“Can you,” Eddie’s voice shakes, drawing Steve’s attention once more, “can you please say something, I can’t tell if you’re mad or what?”

“You fixed it,” Steve whispers, his eyes fixed on the table, he reaches to run a shaking hand over the surface.

“Careful,” Eddie says softly, grabbing Steve’s hand before it can touch the center with long sure fingers, “that still needs about an hour or so to cure”.

Steve looks from the table to his hand, still cradled in Eddie’s own, before looking up to see two big brown eyes staring into his own. 

“I don’t understand,” the words come out in a whisper as Steve swallows around the sudden lump in his throat, “why?”

“Well,” Eddie murmurs as he squeezes Steve’s hand once before threading their fingers together and dragging Steve towards one of the pool loungers in the grass.

Eddie sits down and pulls Steve with him to sit, he feels a deep flush begin to wash over his neck and the tips of his ears, it's impossible to hide in the bright sunlight this time --not that he’d even be able to with Eddie’s firm grip on Steve’s hand.

“Those kids of yours are pretty genius,” Eddie says slowly, deliberately, his gaze never wavering from Steve’s face, “and they love you so fucking much man”.

Eddie clears his throat and rubs his thumb over Steve’s knuckles, “and there seems to be some confusion about how I actually feel about you, so allow me to uh, lay it all on the,” he gestures with his free hand towards the dining table and smirks, “well you know”.

Steve feels his heart leaping out of his chest, he can’t sit here, listen to this, he’s heard it before, it isn’t real.

Steve moves to stand up from the lounger but Eddie is faster as he manages to grab Steve’s other hand, holding him in place.

“Eddie--”

“You said no one had ever bothered before,” Eddie barrels on, speaking so quickly that Steve hardly understands at first. He squeezes Steve’s hands lightly again, the skin warmed metal from Eddie’s rings press into the palms of Steve’s hands.

“No one’s ever tried to fix it, have they?” Eddie breathes out as his eyes flit back and forth, searching Steve’s own, “would you let me try?”

For a moment, Steve lets himself just sit with the words. 

Lets himself indulge in the soft, almost reverent way that Eddie asks. He lets the warmth of Eddie’s hands tether him to something resembling hope.

Before he shakes his head.

“You don’t know what you’re saying Eddie,” Steve growls, but the words lack any true bite.

“I know exactly what I’m saying,” Eddie insists, he gets up from beside Steve and kneels in the grass in front of him, “but I don’t think you do, I think we’ve been talking past each recently Steve, and it took speaking to a bunch of people --way smarter than me, to realize it. So here it is--”

“Don’t,” Steve shouts at the same time that Eddie whispers, “I like you,” and for a moment neither moves. 

Steve slowly takes his hands out of Eddie's now slack grip. 

He lowers one hand down to the edge of the pool lounger, gripping it so harshly that his knuckles slowly fade to white, while the other he brings up to cover Eddie’s mouth.

“Don’t say something you can’t take back,” Steve says softly. 

Eddie just stares for a beat, his forehead pinched in a terrible frown, before he reaches up to cup Steve’s cheek and gently removes the hand covering his mouth. He smiles softly and lets his thumb gently run over the crest of Steve’s cheekbone.

“Good thing I don’t want to take it back,” Eddie insists, he slides the hand on Steve’s cheek down to hold his chin firmly between two fingers.

“Steve,” Eddie lifts himself up so he’s balancing on the balls of his feet, just high enough that they are at eye level now, “I spent a very long time holding onto things that weren’t even remotely true, and they made me act like an asshole, I can’t tell you how sorry I am for that sweetheart”.

“What if you change your mind, what if I--”

“Steve, what the fuck could you do at this point that would shock me?" Eddie says with a derisive laugh, he lets go of Steve's face to press his hand briefly to his own chest. 

"I’m a drug dealing, satan worshiping, murderer who almost ate it in another dimension from killer demon bats".

Eddie grins as he peppers his speech with air quotes but the edges of it are jagged, and the good humour doesn't quite reach his eyes.

Steve breathes out sharply through his nose and shakes his head, “I get angry sometimes, I say things I don't mean, I…" 

He sees himself surrounded by ceramic shards again, crying as he sweeps up his own mess, and shudders.

It's enough for Eddie to nod, and shuffle closer still.

"Pot," Eddie says softly as he pokes Steve in the sternum with this pointer finger and then brings it around to point at his own face, "kettle". 

Steve chews his bottom lip as his thoughts swirl together and fly apart, disjointed and frenetic, "I just," he swallows around a harsh lump that begins to form in his throat, "I don't want you to think that I'm something that I'm not”.

Steve closes his eyes, missing the way that Eddie freezes at the words, but he can’t stop now --he has to get this all out or he’ll never be able to.

"That I've changed, that I'm this thing you've built up, for your sake, because let me tell you, it's pretty heartbreaking when everything you hoped was real turns out to be all in your head".

Steve opens his eyes as Eddie makes a sound like he’s been punched in the gut. 

He’s still kneeling in front of Steve, even closer now, almost close enough that Steve can count the light dusting of freckles on his nose, and it feels like his heart will burst at any moment. 

Fuck it.

"I've been halfway in love with you since you woke up from the hospital," Steve blurts out, “only to find out that you didn't feel even remotely the same about me, this whole time,” he breathes in shallowly as Eddie pales.

"I don't think I could take it if that happened again Eds,” Steve continues as he drops his gaze to his knees, “I think it would crush me".

"That's why I don't want you to say something you can't take--"

The words die on his lips as Eddie grabs his face and kisses him.

It’s harsh and clumsy, their teeth clack as Eddie loses his balance, pushing himself into Steve. They fall over the lounger, Steve’s shoulders and lower back hit the metal  frame hard, forcing a muffled groan out as Eddie falls on top of him with his own faint, ‘oof’.

Eddie tries to raise himself up by his hands before falling even further as one of his hands slips through the rubber slats of the chair and he crashes into Steve's stomach.

Eddie babbles a string of incomprehensible apologies as he frees his trapped hand and manages to gently straddle Steve. Eddie hovers over him and lifts his hands to cup Steve's face.

“Shit baby, are you okay? Fuck, that’s not how I wanted that to go at all, I’m so shit at this”. 

“Can we, can you get off and then we can get off the stupid chair?” Steve wheezes as he tries to catch his breath and shift his weight away from the metal still pressed into his back, “lets go inside, we can..talk about this”.

Eddie curses under his breath, his expression nervous, and moves his legs off of Steve and the chair before holding a hand out to help Steve to his feet.

Steve rubs his back as he leads the pair back inside through the sliding glass door, not daring to turn around and face Eddie. 

He feels his own mortified flush spread across his chest and neck and winces; this is probably the most he’s blushed in years all in the span of a single afternoon.

He kissed me, he kissed me, he kissed me, plays on a seemingly endless loop in Steve’s head as he walks into the house, he can’t help the wide smile that blooms over his face --despite the other, darker thought that whispers in his ear, be careful, be careful, be careful.

Steve takes them through the empty dining room and into the living room before dropping onto the couch with another low groan. He looks up as he realizes that Eddie is no longer beside him.

Eddie stands in the entryway to the living room, he’s holding a thick handful of hair over his mouth and watching Steve carefully.

“Can’t talk with you all the way over there,” Steve huffs. 

He tries for a smile but the effect is lost as Eddie continues to stand and stare at him, looking as though he could bolt from the house at any moment.

“Please come here Eds,” Steve tries again, his voice small. He takes a deep breath, if Eddie can be brave so can you, he thinks as he holds out his hand.

Eddie hesitates for just a moment more, his eyes flick beyond Steve to the hallway linked to the foyer and back, it’s so quick Steve nearly misses it. 

Still, he keeps his hand steady, holding it aloft.

Eventually Eddie takes a tentative step, then another, slowly moving forward until his fingers brush Steve’s own. He takes a seat next to Steve on the plush gray couch but doesn’t relax as Steve turns his body to face him. Eddie tenses even further as Steve gives his hand a gentle squeeze.

He opens his mouth to start but Eddie beats him to it.

“I’m so sorry Steve,” Eddie whispers, his voice strained and thin as he takes his hand back, “I just fucking attacked you? Jesus, I," he cuts himself off, whatever he had been about to say trapped behind the teeth that dig into his bottom lip.

"I mean," Steve mumbles, hating the hunched line of Eddie's shoulders, "I tell you I've been in love with you for months and you kiss me, that makes sense to me?"

"Stop doing that," Eddie bites out as he stands up, slapping his hands on his knees to launch himself away from the couch.

He paces the living room, not looking at Steve and getting progressively more agitated as he walks.

"I apologize and then you turn it around on yourself, why do you do that? Just let me apologize!"

Eddie halts suddenly as he straightens and faces Steve, it's as though a lightbulb has blinked on in the ether as Eddie speaks his next words slowly and carefully, "stop letting me off the hook Steve, be honest with me".

"I have been honest with you," Steve tries but Eddie shakes his head.

"Nope, you've told me some of your stuff today, but not why you keep downplaying everything, why you're not just telling me you're upset, it's like you're censoring the stuff you think I don't want to hear, come on”.

"My stuff," Steve mutters under his breath as a hot flicker of irritation licks at his ribcage.

"Yes," Eddie says, throwing his hands into his hair in frustration.

"Everybody censors themselves Eddie, you think I tell the kids everything? That I've told Robin everything?"

At this Eddie blanches, surprise etched over his forehead as his eyebrows climb into his wispy bangs.

"But Robin--"

"Knows enough, but not everything,"Steve scoffs as he crosses his arms over his stomach, "and she doesn't need to".

Robin may know his parents are hardly around, she may have formed her own opinions, assumptions about what she thinks is going on; but Steve has gotten very good at hiding these things -especially over the years. 

Pulling out the King Steve persona, make them laugh, make them mad, watch this hand while the other pulls the wool over their eyes. 

"Then tell me," Eddie says softly, but there is a challenge to his words. 

He shifts his stance slightly, putting more weight on his left leg as he cocks his hip out to the side, "shock me Harrington". 

Steve shifts on the couch, feeling pinned under Eddie's gaze, before swiping a tired hand over his face and dropping it into his lap.

"That crack in the table happened just before I graduated," Steve says softly, his head tipped down so the words tumble into his knees. 

He ignores the sharp intake of breath from Eddie, not daring to look up as he continues,  "my uh, my dad opened the rejection letter from Vincennes, that one had just been delivered that morning I think". 

Steve breathes out slowly and picks at a hangnail on his left thumb, he hasn't ever spoken about this to anyone, he's never really managed to talk about his home life growing up without side stepping things. 

There had been moments where Steve thinks Tommy and Carol might have had their suspicions, but they never asked and Steve wasn't in a position to talk about it.

"I think that was at the beginning of June, so, so his logical conclusion was to uh, go looking for the other letters, the ones I must have received already". 

Steve barks out a laugh, but the sound rings out hollow in the large living room, he startles slightly as the couch dips down next to him as Eddie sits, close enough that his knees are brushing Steve's own.

He doesn't say anything, but it's enough for Steve to breathe out and keep going.

"And he found them, my dad, in the shoebox I kept in the back of my closet". 

"I don't know why I had even kept them," Steve shakes his head, "I should have thrown them away".

Steve absently traces a faint white line across his temple, staring past his knees into the patterns of the ornate area rug, "I got home from school and he had the letters waiting for me". 

"He laid them all out on the dining table," Steve sweeps his hands out, setting the scene in his head, "like you see in those detective movies right? He just needed some string to connect them all to me". 

Steve shivers and closes his eyes, the words still echoing fresh in his mind, the hot spittle that hit his face as his father cornered him against the wall still makes him flinch if he thinks about it too hard.

"He asked when I was planning to tell him about the rejections, and I couldn't give him an answer," he reaches up and pinches his nose, just once, blinking a few times as he wills away the gathering moisture.

"I didn't raise you to be this way Steven, like some fucking ungrateful coward --look at me when I'm God Damn talking to you!" Richard seethes as he slams the flat of his palm into the center of the table, his Harvard class ring splitting the wood as it connects with a loud crack.

Richard doesn't look down, his hand slides to one of the letters, snatching it from the surface as he steps around the table, towards Steve, in three sure strides. He backs his son towards the wall, looming over Steve as he shoves the paper into his face in one hand while the other grips the collar of Steve's T-Shirt.

"What will people think, huh, our only son didn't get into college, Hagan got in for chrissakes," his dad shakes him once, forcing Steve's head to connect with the wall, "what am I supposed to tell people Steven, what are we going to tell your poor mother?" 

"I thought that Wheeler girl was supposed to be smart, tutor you or something," Richard scoffs as he finally lets go of Steve's shirt collar, "or did she finally come to her senses?"

Steve sneers before he can stop himself, "I didn't think you were even around enough to see that dad--"

The blow comes swiftly, catching him across the temple, his father's class ring comes out to play once again as a hot burst of pain blooms across the entire left side of his face from the backhand. 

"Don't you ever speak to me that way again, you want to be a big man Steven? Just see what happens". 

Steve blinks once, coming back to himself, "my dad, um, he has a problem with anger, with uh, expressing it I guess".

"But that isn't what this is about," Steve whispers, and this time he can't keep the wobble from his voice as he speaks.

"I'm afraid, I'm just like him, that I could do what he did if I got upset enough, and you," he breathes out sharply but the sounds more like a sob than anything else, "you want me to be honest?"

Steve finally lifts his eyes up to meet Eddie's own. Eddie, who looks as though he wants to melt into the floor, his shoulders tense and his own eyes seem suspiciously shiny as they stare back at Steve.

"Why couldn't you be honest with me, huh?" Steve whispers, "from the beginning?" 

A tear breaks the surface, tracing down Steve's cheek. He manages to catch it roughly with the back of his hand before reaching up to press the heels of both his hands into his eyes --as though the pressure could stop the building deluge he knows is inevitable.

"I was so angry with you when you told me that you hadn't meant what you said in the Upside Down," Steve manages to speak through the tightening of his throat as he drops his hands back down into his lap, "that I smashed a plate in my kitchen after you left, I don't, I don't know what happened". 

His breath quickens suddenly and every other word comes out as a gasp, "but it's like my worst fucking fears h-have come true and I don't, I don't know what to do, I don't, I--" 

"Oh sweetheart," Eddie says softly as he reaches for Steve, pulling him into his arms with gentle fingers, "oh, I gotcha".

Steve lets himself be moved, for his head to be tipped into the crook of Eddie's neck and his body tucked into Eddie's chest. 

Steve tries to slow down his breathing, to stop the shuddering of his chest as he fights the tears. 

"It's okay," Eddie tries but Steve shakes his head.

"It's not," he bites out, the words taper off into a whine, "it's not--"

"Okay, you're right, it's not," Eddie says so softly Steve nearly misses it.

"I'm so, so, sorry Steve," Eddie murmurs into Steve's hair, holding him tighter as Steve finally gives in and lets himself cry. 

He's not sure how long they sit for, eventually Steve feels a steady hand card through his hair while the other strokes down his arms, he feels the tension in his shoulders begin to melt away and the tears slow to a gentle trickle.

"I'm an idiot," Eddie huffs out, the breath flutters Steve's hair, making him twitch at the sensation.

Steve reaches up and wipes at his face with tired hands. The skin feels warm to the touch and puffy around his eyes and his nose which refuses to stop running, he must look like an absolute sight right now, he thinks to himself with a grimace.

"You're not an idiot," he manages to croak, but Eddie's already shaking his head sharply, turning himself to look at Steve.

"Oh believe me, I've fucked up before, pretty spectacularly, but this takes the goddamn cake sweetheart". 

"And you're right," Eddie says slowly, carefully, "I shouldn't be harping on about you hiding how you feel when I'm the reason why we're in this mess".

Eddie chews his bottom lip, worrying it between his teeth before pulling away from Steve entirely as he reaches up to cup Steve's face between his hands.

"I'm sorry for not being honest with you Stevie, and I will spend every day trying to make it up to you if you let me?"

Steve looks at Eddie, really looks at him.

He takes in the drooped curve of his shoulders, the subtle pink of the tip of his nose and the glassy sheen in his brown eyes. The way his chest has stopped rising and he drops his hands away from Steve the longer he openly stares at the metal-head, the way Eddie anxiously spins and spins and spins the rings on his hands the longer he waits. 

It’s an easy decision to reach out and place his own hand on Eddies own, to halt the frantic movements with a gentle squeeze.

“So,” Steve says, grinning as Eddie finally looks up at him once more, "on a scale of helping to chauffeur the kids to finishing fixing the table, what kind of making it up to me are we talking about?"

The smile Eddie gives him is nearly blinding as he launches himself at Steve, gathering him up in his arms. His hair smells like sawdust and there's the barest hint of some kind of cologne that Steve can't place.

Eddie leans back into the couch cushions, laughingly wetly and taking Steve with him. The sound makes his chest ache as Steve realizes just how much he’s missed Eddie’s laughter. He buries his face in Eddie's neck as they cuddle into one another, letting themselves sit with nothing but the sound of the occasional car driving down the street outside or the humming of grasshoppers through the screen door to the backyard.

"For what it's worth," Eddie huffs, breaking the quiet, a hint of dimples revealing themselves as he smiles, "I've never met the guy, but from the sounds of it, you are the farthest thing from being like 'Ol Dick Harrington".

Steve says nothing but feels something in his chest finally unclench for the first time in weeks.

"Besides, there's nothing like a good plate smash every now and again Stevie," Eddie hums as he runs his thumb over the crest of Steve's cheekbone again.

"That's what Robin said," Steve mumbles, as he leans further into Eddie with a smile, "she came over that night, after". 

"A wise and terrifying woman," Eddie says sagely, "who I hope to never piss off again".

He stops suddenly and looks up at Steve, a nervous pinch to his brow as he plays with a loose curl hanging in front of his face, "I'm glad you guys have each other," Eddie says slowly, letting his thumb stroke Steve's hand absently, "that you have people in your corner and--”

Eddie swallows, his eyes darting back and forth between Steve's eyes as he finally seems to steel himself.

"I hope you'll let me be one of those people".

This nervous, quiet Eddie, is so strange to take in, but then again Steve's also never been on the receiving end of so many apologies all at once, it's just shy of being overwhelming at this point.

"Oh come off it Eddie," Steve huffs with a roll of his eyes, "you had me the moment I saw that fucking table outside and you tried to hide the sandpaper behind your back --real smooth by the way".

The way Eddie stares at him in surprise and that same look of awe from before, tells Steve that was the right thing to say.

Eddie barks out a wet laugh and squeezes him tighter, tipping his face to nuzzle Steve's ear, "I missed you teasing me".

"That was the worst part about all of this," he shudders once and drops his head to Steve's shoulder, "I thought I lost my friend, but I have you back".

"Yeah, you have me Eds," Steve says softly.

Steve rests against Eddie, uncaring that the position is growing more uncomfortable as the arm tucked closest to the metal-head falls asleep. Eddie holds him with such gentle reverence that Steve feels as though he may just burst from happiness at any moment. 

Everything he's wanted for months, has finally fallen into place.

It's quiet for another moment. Steve plays with one of Eddie's hands, running his fingers over the calluses from playing guitar and the eclectic rings decorating his knuckles.

Eddie clears his throat after a beat, swallowing once, “so uh, earlier….that wasn’t exactly how I pictured our first kiss you know?"

Steve feels a small grin slowly bloom, he's not quite facing Eddie the way they're sitting, so he can play coy a little longer.

 “You’ve pictured it huh?” 

Eddie snorts “Oh yeah, you have no idea, there’s usually more tongue involved and less chipped teeth”.

Steve nods, letting them sit for a moment longer, letting himself be chased for once.

Eddie pulls back slightly, leaving his arms loosely wrapped around Steve, “think we could uh, try again?”

“Will you mean it as much as you did the first time?” Steve says with a smile as he rubs his lip with his thumb and flushed cheeks.

“You liked that huh, always knew you were a freak like me Harrington,” Eddie barks out, his eyes shining with mirth as he leans closer to run the tip of his nose down Steve's before nuzzling them together, "wanna make some good memories in this house Stevie?"

“Only if you’re with me Eds,” Steve whispers against Eddie’s lips as he slowly leans in. 

Steve’s heart races, anticipation flooding his veins and filling his chest with a giddy realization that he finally, finally, gets to have this. 

That he knows Eddie finally, finally, feels the same way.

He’ll call Robin later, let her know about Hellfire’s plan, the apology, and maybe even the truth about everything he’d kept hidden away for so long. The old hurts soothed and the lid of the box in his mind permanently open now, the lid wrenched off its hinges so as to never close again. Maybe he could let people in, to let them know him. 

For now, Steve lets himself be lowered onto the couch, lets Eddie's hands roam freely, over Steve's shoulders, his neck --letting his fingers gently brush the long scar from the Demobat tail, before lifting one hand to cup his cheek while the other climbs into Steve hair, threading his fingers through it and giving the locks an experimental tug.

Steve's hands make their way up Eddie's back, under his shirt, tracing over the raised scars on his sides. Eddie shoots Steve a wicked grin, his eyes crinkle at the sides as he lets his weight gently fall over Steve, catching himself with his hands on the couch cushions on either side of Steve's face, effectively caging him in. 

Eddie moves slowly, deliberately, it's not nearly as brutal as the first time but Eddie kisses like a wildman starved, licking into Steve's mouth and grazing his bottom lip with harsh teeth. 

It feels like Steve is being consumed, slowly, carefully.

It's overwhelming in the best way. The feeling of his soft lips against Steve’s own, the harsh stubble that rubs against Steve’s chin. The smell of weed, and sawdust, and cologne invades his nose.

Eddie pulls back briefly before leaning down again to place a soft kiss against Steve’s lips.

“How's that for a second kiss?” he asks with a raised eyebrow and a wide smirk pulling at his slightly puffy lips.

Steve scoffs and tugs at Eddie’s shirt collar, “I dunno, maybe we need to check again?”

Eddie’s laughter rings out loud and long in the Harrington living room, as he leans down again and hugs Steve tightly.

For the first time in a long time, Steve feels himself relax. 

He lets the weight of Eddie press him into the cushions and releases a long contented breath, the Harrington house, finally feeling warmer than it has in a long time.

I hope you all enjoyed this as much as I enjoyed working on it! This was the first fic of this length that I was still actively writing as I was updating that I've actually completed and I'm pretty damn happy about that! I was so worried about abandoning this guy and I'm glad I was able to finish it, hopefully it has come to a satisfying conclusion <3

Taglist: @zerokrox-blog @samcoxramblings @thosemessyvibes @liketheocean @vampireinthesun @themostunoriginalpersonever @merricatty @hyperfixationgoddess @hippieg1rl420 @mysticcrownshipper @estrellami-1 @clumsiluni @messrs-weasley @the-obsessed-nerdist

[artiststarme]

Anytime Eddie wants to voice his intrusive thoughts to someone he phrases it like it’s something any Midwesterner would do. 

He and Steve are on vacation to Chicago to see a concert and as they’re walking behind a mother and small child on the bridge, Eddie says, “Ah, the Midwestern urge to push the mini human off the edge.”

And Steve just looks at him in alarm and says, “um… no.” 

Eddie moves on like nothing happened but for the rest of the day, Steve just keeps sending him confused looks like what the fuck is wrong with this man.

Now a full fic!

Permanent tag list: @doubleb11 @nburkhardt @zerokrox-blog @newtstabber @i-less-than-three-you @carlyv @pyrohonk @straight4joekeery @trippypancakes @conversesweetheart @estrellami-1 @suddenlyinlove @yikes-a-bee @swimmingbirdrunningrock @perseus-notjackson @anaibis @merricatty @maya-custodios-dionach @grtwdsmwhr @manda-panda-monium @lumoschild @goodolefashionedloverboi @mentallyundone

[skepsiss]

I understand people love giving Steve and/or Eddie a dog or a cat and that's super sweet but... Guys. I hate this but Steve and Eddie are Bird and Reptile people.

They would come by owning a bird totally by accident because "they don't have time for pets," "they make the house messy/harder to clean," "we travel too much" etc etc. But then they would just become OBSESSED with rescuing birds.

Eddie loves the exotics and teaches them to sing and say the dirtiest things. While Steve adored finches and little birds like that.

Eddie would also 1000% have an Iguana or a Tengu and walk it around on a leash like a fucking nerd.

You'd come over and they'd each have at least one bird on their shoulder.

They're bird people.

[florallylly]

something something there are two wolves inside of you except one wolf is rabid scratching at the walls insane over son of aphrodite camp halfblood steve harrington BUT the second wolf is like that specific steddie fic where eddie keeps calling steve his "apollo"

[perfectlysunny02]

Chapter Two

(This was supposed to be one chapter but I split it up into two so it wouldn’t be so long. Oops😅 Hope you like chapter three too))

Word Count: 1.5k

Steve met Eddie when he was fifteen years old. It was his freshman year before all of the King Steve bullshit and madness. He was a freshman, invisible, blending into the wall and the lockers behind him, completely ignored by the students around him trampling each other, he went unseen by everyone besides this sophomore. This sophomore with eyes that made Steve’s heart stutter in his chest, who tripped over Steve’s shoes and steadied himself with a laugh and flashed him a smile, a beautiful smile, a blinding beautiful smile that would be in Steve’s dreams for years to come. And then Eddie, Eddie leaned in and with his lips barely brushing Steve’s ear, whispered “Easy there big boy.”

And ever since that moment in the hallway, Eddie consumed his thoughts, all of them, for the better portion of his freshman year, even after he met Tommy, and Tommy told him all about Eddie Munson, son of the murderer, the devil worshiper, the town freak. But Steve, he didn’t care.

Eddie was beautiful, he was beautiful and while he may have had a different style than most of Hawkins, but most of Hawkins was boring anyway. Not Eddie, he was exciting and amazing. He was completely and utterly him, everything Steve wasn’t.

Then King Steve happened, and Tommy and Carol terrorized Eddie and his friends, and Steve just sat there and watched. He watched as Eddie began glaring at him whenever he saw him, his eyes, his beautiful big brown doey eyes, slowly filling up contempt and hatred. Steve could feel his glare from across the lunchroom, and it broke his heart.

And suddenly Eddie failed his senior year, and was repeating it with Steve. Perhaps now was the time Steve could fix everything, make Eddie not hate him, but no. Eddie failed again, and Steve went on to graduate, seemingly solidifying Eddie’s hatred for him.

Until Steve’s parents died, and Eddie Munson showed up on his front porch.

“I heard about your folks,” Eddie had said, as Steve stared dumbly at him. “And I um I’m sorry.”

Steve nodded and then, biting his lip before chickening out, blurts out

“I’m sorry for my friends,” Steve glanced at his shoes. “And I’m sorry for sitting there and letting them be dicks.”

Eddie smiled then, a small smile but a smile all the same.

“Ah it’s all in the past, Stevie. It’s alright big boy.”

About two months later they were dating.

He wasn’t sure who brought up the idea of marriage first, either him or Eddie, although there’s a great possibility of it being Uncle Wayne, but within days of the idea being brought up, Steve had a ring.

And because Steve could never catch a break, the moment he decides to propose, Eddie’s band Corroded Coffin gets discovered and signed. And that’s great, really, because if anyone deserved it, it was Eddie and his guys, they all worked so hard, and were all super talented. But Steve would be lying if he had said the idea hadn’t gave him some anxiety, if he didn’t feel the big lump of dread in the pit of his stomach at the thought of Eddie leaving, and those feelings lead to him almost crying out as he helped Eddie pack.

“Let’s get married,” Steve interrupted Eddie’s ramblings of Seattle.

“I-what-Stevie?”

“Let’s get married,” Steve said, again glancing up from where he was putting Eddie’s folded underwear in the suitcase. “Let’s go to the courthouse and get married. Before you leave.”

Eddie had stared at him, gaping, for so long that Steve was sure he was about to tell him he was crazy, that he was acting irrational, that there was no way in the world that beautiful rockstar Eddie Munson would marry broken horrible Steve Harrington.

“Alright,” Eddie said, with a slight laugh, surprising him. “Alright Stevie let’s go get married.”

And so they did, Wayne as their witness. They got married at Hawkins court house, in humid hot stale air because the air conditioner was broken, Eddie slipping on his finger a ring he hastily made from paper clips. That’s how they became the Munson-Harrington’s and Steve wouldn’t have it any other way.

A year later, Steve and Eddie started the process of having a child. They were using this brand new procedure where you could genetically modify a sperm cell to include both of their DNA. They were unbelievably lucky, their surrogate got pregnant on the first try, and within nine months, they held their little girl in arms, with a hair full of black hair just like Eddie and quite possibly Steve’s nose.

“She’s going to have your eyes,” Steve had murmured, his fingers lightly tracing her face. “And by the looks of it, your untamable mop of hair too.”

“Hey,” Eddie laughed. “Leave my hair alone. You love it.”

“I do, but besides the point.” Steve teases back, before they lapsed into comfortable silence.

“We don’t have a name picked out you know,” Eddie had said after a moment.

“No, you’re right, I suppose we don’t.”

“I was looking at a book of unique names, because it’s our kid and they deserve a pretty metal name.”

“Uh-huh?”

“Yeah and anyway I liked Evianna for the girl.”

“Evianna?”

“Yeah Evianna. We could call her Evi for short, you know? Just thought it was pretty metal.”

“Evianna. Evi. I like it,” Steve smiled. “It suits her.”

“Yeah but we still need a middle name.”

“Grace.”

“Huh? Grace?”

“Yeah, Grace. Because you and little Evi here, you’re my everything, you’re my saving Grace.”

And so that’s how their Evi Grace came into the world.

Steve could honestly say that these past five years with his girl had healed him in ways he didn’t even understand.

Evi was this smart sassy little ball of energy. She had inherited Eddie’s inability to sit down, and his sass, and the little serious nose scrunch Steve had when he was thinking about something super serious, although it was a lot cuter on the five year old.

She was their whole world, Steve and Eddie lived for being her parents. Eddie coming home from tour more often than not because she simply asked him too. Steve getting a work from home job just to be with her at all possible moment.

They hadn’t even wanted her to go to daycare, only reason they did was because she had to start preschool soon and they didn’t want to throw her in the deep end. They didn’t want her to be behind.

Although, that didn’t stop Eddie from looking for every possible reason to take her out.

They tucked their girl in with a princess story, and five kisses from the both of them, and her insisting that Eddie turns on her Tangled Lantern lamp, and Steve her plug in nightlight, and they did. Because their Evi Grace could ask for the moon and they would fine a way to get it for her.

Eddie quietly shut her door and turned to Steve, who still looked deep in thought.

“Hey, Sweetheart, Stevie, you alright?”

Steve let out a breath and shook his head as they walked down the hall to their room.

“She said another kid didn’t do it,” Steve said, sitting down on the edge of their bed. “And I believe her. So where the hell did she get that big ass bruise?”

“Stevie, she’s five,” Eddie said, going into their bathroom to brush his teeth. “She could’ve forgotten. She doesn’t have that big of an attention span, and she was exhausted today.”

“Exactly,” Steve snapped. “She was exhausted. Have you ever seen our girl that tired? Besides when has she ever forgotten that another kid hit her? No. Something’s wrong.”

“Alright,” Eddie says, coming out of the bathroom in his pajama pants to sit down beside him. “You’re right. She was exhausted. She might be coming down with a cold, her teacher did say she laid in that corner all day. So you’ll take her to the doctor in the morning, and I’ll call her teacher.”

“Yeah,” Steve sighed. “Yeah okay. We’ll do that.”

“Good. Now let’s go to bed,” Eddie said, leaning over to kiss him on the forehead. “Everything will be alright Stevie, you’ll see. You’re just worrying for no reason.”

Eddie wasn’t sure who he was trying to convince, himself or Steve, but his words seemed to have the desired effect on Steve, who relaxed and crawled under their comforter.

“You’re right. I’m probably just worrying for no reason.”

“Yeah,” Eddie said, hoping Steve didn’t hear the uncertainty in his voice. “Goodnight Stevie. I love you.”

“Night Eds. Love you.”

[chaosgremlinmunson]

STWG daily prompt 5/10/23

Prompt: quiet

Pairing: Steddie, platonic Stobin, and Eddie/Robin friendship

Subject: unexpected child, Steve has bad parents.

When Eddie came bounding up the driveway he was thinking he'd get to see Steve, cause some chaos while making his boy smile, and snuggle up all night. What he wasn't expecting was to get there, and as she opened the door be cornered by Robin who immediately shushed him, pulling him back outside for a moment.

"What's going on Birdie? Why did you kidnap me back outside?" Eddie was staring at Robin now, who was biting her thumbnail.

"Look, uh, something unexpected happened this morning and well, I don't really know how to say this." Robin was rambling, "Ok, so uh, so there's a baby in the house. And well you know Steve's parents are horrible but we haven't even heard from them since spring break of last year, and then today this girl showed up. Well, anyway Steve apparently now is responsible for his little sister, the girl is two years old and they're just now dumping her on him?! I mean, could they not find his dad, why Steve? Why is it always Steve?"

Eddie just stood next to Robin, his arms wrapped around his torso, rocking back on his heels as he stared up into the cloudy sky, "You, know. He's lucky has you Birdie. But if you bringing me outside was warning because you thought I'd run-"

"I know you're not going to. If you break his heart I'll make you wish those bats finished the job Munson, and you know it."

"Yeah, I know Bucks. I love him. No matter what baggage comes with that I'm not letting him go, I hope I can talk him into leaving this Podunk town, maybe bring you with us, we can move to Indianapolis, or God I don't know, just somewhere far from Hawkins. The kids are all leaving, you know. I heard they Byers are all going back to California and Hopper is of course following his family. The Sinclair's apparently are fostering Max and moving them all to Chicago since Max's mom can't be found, and Dustin and his mom said wherever we go she'll move Dusty close by. The Wheelers are apparently moving down to Texas, something about Ted's father owns a ranch and they need a fresh start anyway. Just, let's go be with our boy, be whatever he needs right now and we can figure out everything else later." Eddie knew he just rambled for too long, but he needed Robin to know this wasn't spur of the moment. This was something he wanted, and if Robin needed to come so Steve was there he was thrilled. He loved them both.

They walked quietly back in being sure to make no noise, and they rounded the corner to Steve singing softly to his sister holding her close as she slept. Eddie knew in that moment, he was going to marry this man and that little girl would know nothing but true unconditional love for all of her life. He quietly sat next to Steve on one side while Robin took the other, and together they just watched the newest angel of their little family as she held on to her big brother even in her sleep.

[corrodedcoughin]

Wayne is out of town on a trip for a few days so eddie is left home alone. Naturally he invites Steve to sleepover and as they are about to go to bed for the evening eddie tells Steve to wait.

He watches his boyfriend flip the light off and stand on the table, reaching up to unscrew the lightbulb and run to the bedroom while screaming

‘HOT BULB STEVE. LADY WITH A BABY. LEMME THROUGH AAHHHH’

It’s not use though, Eddie drops it two feet from the bedroom door and turns to Steve

‘Well my darling, you always wanted to experience life before light bulbs, right?’

‘No Eddie. No I don’t think I’ve ever said that.’

Turns out all the bulbs blew and Eddie couldn’t be bothered to buy more so he’s just be swapping the one bulb around gif a couple of days. Eddie actually doesn’t know how he hasn’t dropped it before now but doesn’t tell Steve that. He commits to the ‘Victorian era aesthetic’ and even puts on an awful cockney accent when he pulls Steve to bed

‘Awright treacle? Fancy a cuddle do ya?’

It’s awful and Steve does not laugh (he does)

[sp0o0kylights]

Con you share a bit of 9. Modern Folklore from the WIP titles post? Thanks!

Absolutely : D

Modern Folklore was Small Town Rumors first name before I decided the latter fit better. It has a LOT of scenes written down and while I had always planned for it to jump between Wayne and Eddie's POV, I accidentally cornered myself with writing Eddie and Wayne's talk from the wrong POV. It's been a fun little struggle to get it back on track.

Fair warning I can't guarantee anything below won't change lol

Snippet:

"This is Steve, I have a code red!" He spoke into the walkie, like a war general, summoning his troops.

After a pause he repeated himself--and got nothing but static back.

"Shit. I knew having an adults only line was stupid."  With a sigh, Steve turned the dials, switching to a different channel and pressing the button to talk. "Hey shitheads! It's me, we have a code red and I need Hopper, now." 

A pause, wherein Steve rolled his eyes before adding, "Over."

An explosion of noise burst out of the speakers. 

"Children, shut up! Dingus, what's the emergency?" An older, female voice finally cut through, silencing the static-ridden racket.

"Is that Robin Buckley?" Eddie hissed, wheeling back in shock. 

"The Russians are back, and they were just at my door. I'm compromised." Steve reported, as Eddie's mouth hung wide open. 

Wayne reached over, tapping his chin up with a single finger. 

"Gonna catch flies, son." He informed him, as Eddie once again turned his wide eyed stare towards Wayne. 

"Wait like, your actual door, or Eddie's place?" Robin asked, and oh.

Oh shit.

[morganski-19]

I Don't Know Which Way's Home

Chapter 10: Neglect

ao3 link, Part 1, Part 9

cw: brief discussions about food/appetites, discussions of child abuse (if it wasn't obvious from the chapter title)

December 1983

“Did you hear?” Mary whispers into Julie’s ear as they walk down the hall. “There’s a rumor going around that a girl is seen walking around the woods over by Denfield.”

“It’s just another ghost story,” Julie dismisses as she gets to her locker, switching out her textbooks.

“Well, duh.” Mary emphasizes. “I was just telling you because you live right by those woods. You might see her.”

Julie turns to her best friend with a blank expression. “I don’t believe in ghost stories. Especially ones that are made up by middle schoolers. You know they’re just messing with people. Probably to get poor kids to a place where no adults could see to throw rocks at them or something.”

Mary sighs and leans against the lockers. “You’re right. But like, let me know if you see any ghosts or something.”

“Yeah sure,” Julie says sarcastically, not believing the latest rumor. Ever since that kid came back from the dead, it’s a constant thing. Apparently, there were a few other unexplained disappearances and deaths during the same week. It all started a giant conspiracy that something was wrong with Hawkins. Something bad.

Obviously, there was something sort of wrong. A kid did go missing, and a few other people died. This is a small town, things like this just don’t happen. At least not often. But when they pulled that kids body out of the lake and then he showed up in person, alive, a few days later. That made this more unique than the run of the mill kidnapping or murder. It made it a ghost story.

Julie felt bad for the kid, she saw him getting picked on just for being alive. Not his fault that he got kidnapped, or that the sick fuck who did it decided to fake his death. He didn’t deserve to be branded just because he lived. But something was off with Hawkins, and everyone knew it. Or they were fine living in their own delusions that this small town is just like every other one in America. Perfect, conservative, and peaceful. Even if it was anything but.

When Julie gets home, she stares at the woods through her bedroom window, rolling her eyes when she thinks for a second that maybe she should go in and see what the rumor was about. It’s stupid really. It’s all just fake. She’s not gullible like that.

But then just as she turns away, there’s a small flash of something moving in the woods. Against her better judgment, she believes in the rumor mill just a little bit. The figure comes back, just a little beyond the tree line. What looks like a girl Julie’s age, wearing a ratty old dress and a coat too big for her.

Eyes catch Julie’s through the window and the girl runs away. Looking all too real to be ghost. Juile grabs her coat from the front door as she runs around the trailer, right to the tree line to see if she can find the girl.

“Hello,” she yells into the woods. “Is someone there?”

She feels stupid, of course there wasn’t anyone there. The echo of her own call being the only response signifying that. But for a second it all seemed so real. She didn’t seem like a ghost.

Something was wrong with Hawkins, and Julie knew that. Maybe one day she’ll figure it all out.

. . .

Present Day, December 1986

Steve pulls himself awake, drenched in a cold sweat and heart pounding. Lungs heaving with quick, short breaths as his body stays in its panic. Eyes darting around the room to find something, anything to show him that it was fake. That it wasn’t real.

The nightmare still wrapped around his chest, right where the scars litter his torso, making his breaths feel constricted. Making his body feel tense. There’s nothing here to loosen it. Nothing to break him free. Nothing to show him that this isn’t real.

Phone. Steve can use the phone. That works wherever he is, here or there. It might not work well, but it will work just enough. He grabs it as the tears still fall down his face. Dialing the only number that he can think of. The only one that might break him out of his spell.

Because he just needs to know their alive. That he did save them in this universe, instead of leaving them to die. That they were still here.

The phone rings for what feels like an eternity. Only echoing the anxiety running through his veins. Each second without someone on the other line only proving to him that they are really dead.

“Hello,” Eddie’s groggy voice comes through the line.

“Eddie,” Steve says with breaks in his voice. Any other words getting stuck in his throat.

There is rustling over the line before Eddie talks again. “I’m coming over. When I hang up, call Robin so you have someone to talk to, ok. You remember her number?”

“Yeah, yeah. I know her number.” It’s a stupid question to ask in any other circumstance. But reality is shifting an uncertain right now, numbers aren’t the most important to think about.

“Good. I’ll be there in ten. I’m here Steve, I’m alive, you’re alive.”

Steve takes a few long, heavy breaths. “You’re alive,” he chokes. “I’m alive.”

“There you go, sweetheart. I’ll see you soon.”

The line goes dead, and Steve’s heart can’t help but pick up again. He stares at the numbers on the phone, typing in each digit of Robin’s number carefully. When the line rings again, he’s stuck in the same loop of waiting. The same damn loop of waiting.

“Buckley house,” Robin’s says half asleep.

“Rob,” is all Steve can get out again.

“Steve.” Her voice awakens with concern. “How bad is it, do I need to come over?”

Steve shakes his head, feeling how tense his muscles still are. “No, no. Eddie’s coming over. Said to call you while I waited for him.”

“Well don’t give him the credit, I made the system. How bad?” she asks again.

“There’s nothing here to tell me this isn’t real.” His eyes shoot around the room again, finding nothing that reminds him of his home.

“Shit,” Robin whispers. “I thought this might happen. But it’s ok. It’s not real, Steve. Your mind is playing tricks on you. You’re in real Hawkins, in your bedroom. Julie’s right across the hall, and Eddie’s on his way. And I’m right here. Not physically, but that doesn’t matter. Do you understand?”

Her words slowly work their way into his head. Not enough to fully calm him down, but something to start slowing down the beating of his heart. “Yes.”

“Ok, good. Do you want me to keep talking?”

“Yes.”

Robin fills the silence of his room, his house, with a bunch of mundane nonsense. Mixed in with affirmations that he’s ok. But anything to get his mind away from where it is. To break the cycle of thoughts that keep replaying in his mind. Slowly his breath starts to calm, but his guard it still up. He doesn’t know what can pop out and get him in the dark. Doesn’t know what dangers are still there.

He hears the front doorknob rattle before it opens and shuts. Hears the soft footsteps up the stairs. The shadow of Eddie as he enters Steve’s room and closes the door behind him. Steve crumbles into him as he sits on the bed, letting Eddie take over.

Eddie carefully takes the phone from Steve’s hands, pulling away his fingers from where they’re holding it in a death grip. “Hey, Rob. I’m here now. Yeah, I got him. I’ll call you when he falls back asleep. Yeah, talk to you soon. Thank you, bye.” He awkwardly reaches over Steve to hang the phone back on the receiver.

Pulling Steve so he’s resting on Eddie’s chest, right over his heartbeat, he starts the routine. Calming words, naming what’s in the room that’s different. Repeating over and over again that he’s alive. That Steve’s alive. How they’re safe in right side up Hawkins, not the upside down. Slowly but surely bringing Steve back from his nightmares, back from his fears. Grounding him in reality.

The tightness in his chest slowly relieves and the beating of his heart slows to match Eddie’s. With every breath Eddie takes, Steve takes one, holding it as Eddie holds it until exhaling. Focusing on the sensations in Eddie running his fingers through Steve’s hair, rubbing a hand in circles on his back. His mind slows, and everything finally relaxes.

“Thank you,” Steve finally says.

Edde presses a kiss to the top of his head. “Anytime. Do you want to talk about it?”

“It wasn’t even that it was bad. It was normal. There was just nothing to bring me out of it.” Normally he could see the plaid on his walls, trace the lines with his eyes around the room to see the differences. To see that there weren’t vines. But they were gone.

The plaid was gone.

Steve sits up again, the panic he was just relieved from finding its way back under his skin. Eyes darting around the room to the plain walls, everything changed. He changed it. Steve changed it. Without permission. Just because he wanted to.

“Steve, what’s wrong?”

What are his parents going to do when they come home to see this? What punishment is he going to face? What can he still face? He’s an adult now, not a child. There’s not much that they can do. But that didn’t matter. It never mattered.

“The walls. I changed the walls.”

Maybe they’ll ship him off to some college that they paid his way into. Maybe they’ll force him to work for his dad’s company.

Maybe they’ll finally kick him out.

“Yeah, we painted them two weeks ago.”

He can’t afford to get kicked out. Not now. Not when Julie depends on him, depends on him for having this house. He can’t lose her too. Not when he’s done so much to keep her in his life. In his home. What is going to happen to her if he no longer has a home for her to live in?

“I wasn’t supposed to change them. Not without permission.”

His heartbeat pounds in his ears again. Mind reversing back into the memories of his childhood. Hearing how the drawings were ripped off the walls. Shame gaping a hole in his chest, remembering his mother’s scolding. Fear bubbling underneath his skin that was long forgotten or learned to ignore.

A warm hand envelopes his, Steve almost flinching away. But it warms his cool hands, slowly bringing him out of his head. Slowly, his eyes blink awake, and his body relaxes. The adrenaline retreats and his ears stop ringing. He can hear again.

“Steve, you’re ok. Nothing’s going to happen to you,” Eddie’s voice registers. The soft tones calming Steve more and more.

The room widens from where it was closing around him. His breath deepens. In and out. In and out. His eyes close, centering himself again.

“Not while I’m here, while Robin’s here. We’re not going to let them hurt you again.”

Steve’s eyes flicker open, looking around and naming what he sees. The curtain. The desk. The picture frame on the desk. The open closet door. The dresser. The shirt hanging out of the dresser. The walls. The walls that he painted. The walls that he now loved.

Squeezing Eddie’s hand, he turns away from where he was looking, finding the comfort in Eddie’s eyes. Feeling so lucky that he can look into them and feel this way. To feel this loved. How sad he was in a time where no one ever looked at him like this. How lonely he was then, and how full he feels now.

Eddie takes his free hand and runs it along the side of Steve’s neck, thumb tracing his jawline. Leaning in to press their foreheads together, taking a deep breath that Steve mirrors. Steve’s hand finds Eddie’s side, fingers playing with the hem of his shirt. They sit there for a long time as the moon light streams in through the open curtain. All that was once wrong feeling right again.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Eddie whispers into the silence.

Steve takes a deep breath, running the hem of Eddie’s shirt between his fingers. “There was a day when I was in elementary school. I don’t remember what grade exactly, but I had brought home an art project that I loved. I wanted to hang it in my bedroom, so I got the tape and did it myself. My parents were actually home then, and my mom came into my room. She saw the picture, and ripped it off the wall, ruining it. Only things she approved were supposed to decorate the house.”

Eddie presses his lips into a thin line, no doubt keeping a million thoughts he really wants to say in his head. Steve would let him though. He was never able to truly say what his parents were like, not really. Typical asshole parent talk was normal for teenagers, but this was a different level that was almost unspoken. It was kept a secret, but Steve didn’t like secrets anymore.

But instead of saying anything, Eddie pulls Steve into a hug, cradling his head against his chest. Holding him in a way that no one ever did, Steve letting himself just melt into it.

“I hate your parents,” Eddie says with a kiss to the top of Steve’s head.

“I hate them too,” he whispers into Eddie’s chest. “I hate them so much.”

. . .

Julie walks over to her lunch table, seeing Max and Jane returned to their spots. They’ve been eating with the boys the last few days, and it was pretty clear the reason was because of her. She yelled at them after all. Well, not physically yelled, but definitely snapped. She was mean,  meant to be mean.

It was out of a place of hurt, she knew. Last week was rough, to say the least, and that day especially. Everything around her felt like an attack, when really it was just her looking for things to fire at. And so, she shot at the only two friends she’s had since the ninth grade.

Now it was her time to apologize.

“Hey,” she said while placing her lunch down on the table. Pulling out food, stomach grumbling at its contents. Actually hungry for once, wanting to eat.

“Hi,” Jane said with a smile, but she always did that.

Max nods in her direction, but says nothing, going back to eating her food. Julie takes a bite of her sandwich, letting the silence ruminate around them. Uncomfortable silence. One that means there’s something that’s been left unsaid.

After a few minutes, she’s done replaying what she wants to say in her head. Can’t help but feel like it’s not enough, but it’s something. Julie’s done a lot of something in the past few months, nothing ever feeling real or right enough. Life feeling just a little less full than it once was, because it was true. But as she finishes a normal sized sandwich for the first time in weeks, and still feels hungry enough to eat a small bag of chips and an apple, something might just be right enough.

Right enough to take a few steps forward before taking a step back again. Progress was progress, but it wasn’t linear. At least according to the pamphlet that she was given in the first few days of her mother’s death. Then, nothing felt like it could have gotten better. That the first big hill of progress could never be reached. And while she still doesn’t think that it has, there are little bumps along her path that shouldn’t go unnoticed. Days where the world feels lighter, and the sun in a little brighter.

But before she can even say anything to make up for the lows of last week, Max starts talking.

“Look, I’m sorry for bringing up your mom a few days ago. You’ve gone through a lot, and it wasn’t really our place to, so I’m sorry. We can forget about it and just go back to normal.”

Julie is taken aback, taking a second to think of a response and scrapping whatever she was preparing before. “I was actually going to apologize for snapping at you.”

“You were going to apologize to us for that,” Max says, appalled.

“I mean, yeah,” Julie shrugs. “You guys were just trying to help, you didn’t deserve me being mean just because I was having a bad day.”

Max sits back in her wheelchair, crossing her arms and looking at Julie with her clouded eyes. She opens her mouth to say something, but Jane cuts her off.

“I do not think you need to apologize to us. When I thought my dad had died, it was a lot. And I was angry. Max was angry when Billy died, too. We understand. We are just sorry that we brought it up at a bad time.” She stares at the cookie in her hands, breaking it apart in small pieces as she talks.

“I didn’t know that your dad died,” Julie says softly, not quite sure what else to say.

Jane presses her lips together. “He didn’t really die, I just thought he did. You know Chief Hopper, how he disappeared for almost a year, and everyone thought he was dead. He is my father.”

“I’m sorry, that must have sucked.”

“When Billy died, it was different,” Max says quietly. “He made my life a living hell. I wasn’t sad that he died, really, I was sad that he died while we still hated each other. I wondered what it would have been like if we had become friend, real siblings. He saved my life that night of the fire, and I couldn’t help but feel guilty that I didn’t try to save him back.”

A tear rolls down her cheek, Max quickly brushing it away. Jane grabs Max’s hand and gives it a squeeze. Two friends who have gone through more loss that Julie realizes. Pain that mirrored hers in a way. Pain that she understood, like they understood hers. And while Max lost a brother that she hated, and Jane got her father back, that didn’t diminish the grief that they felt.

“What I’m trying to say,” Max continues, “is that we know what you’re going through. Like actually know. Even if it is different. So, while we’re not going to force you to, you can talk to us about this.”

Maybe Julie did want to start talking about it. More, at least. With someone other than Steve, even though that helped a lot. Talk with people who knew what it was like to lose family, to lose people they loved. Julie finally felt ready to talk about it.

“My mom died in the beginning of October. Car crash. I was in foster care until three weeks ago when I moved in with Steve.”

While the pain is still there, still pinches at her heart like it always does, a sort of relief is paired with it. Like someone else knows, someone else that Julie trusts. Another person she doesn’t have to fake it around. The weight on her chest lifts just gently, giving her some relief.

“I am sorry,” Jane says.

“Me too.”

“I think the worst part about it is that I don’t even know what caused it. She was sober, and it was October so there wasn’t any ice. The police think there was something in the road that caused her to swerve. And a part of me doesn’t want to know, but the rest of me does.”

Jane reaches across the table and places her hand on top of Julie’s. Comforting her with a gentle look. “I know.”

For the first time, Julie isn’t angry at someone saying that they know. She isn’t angry, and she isn’t crying. She let people in because she wanted to, because they would know.

And it felt good.

. . .

Steve is sitting in the manager’s office making the next round of schedules. Fitting everyone in, scheduling people for more days than he should normally because they still haven’t filled his old position yet. It’s just been sitting idle with no one to take it.

He thought about asking if Julie wanted it, she had said that she wanted to get a part time job sometime in the future. But she’s going through enough right now to get a job on top of it. And she doesn’t need one right now, he still has access to his dad’s card so as long as it’s not something super suspicious, it’s fine. That’s the thing though, eventually he won’t have access to it.

And while he always knew that and has been saving up for that day for a while, it’s still burning a hole in his mind. Especially now. Especially when he has to care for someone other than himself. If it were just himself, he could move into a shitty one-bedroom apartment no problem and be fine. But with Julie, he needs at least two rooms and a nice enough place to keep his custody.

That’s not a bad thing, not for him. He’d do anything to keep custody of Julie, that much he knows. It will just take a little bit more work. And a large chunk of money that he has saved.

Robin knocks on his door, letting herself in. “You’re going to hate me.”

“I can’t change your shifts again just because you’re my friend,” he grumbles without looking up from the desk.

“I prefer the term platonic soul mate, for one,” Robin crosses her arms. “And two, why?”

Steve sighs, turning the chair to look at her. “Because it’s deliberate favoritism and I could get fired for it. I can’t lose this job, Rob, you know that.”

“Fine. Oh, wait hold on.” Robin runs into the employee lounge and comes back with a sheet of paper. “I do actually have to change my availability. I got my class schedule from the community college yesterday.”

Steve takes it and places it in his to do pile. “Thanks.”

The phone on his desk rings.

“Family Video, Steve speaking.”

“Hey, it’s Julie. Nothing bad, I swear. I was just wondering if I could go over to Max’s after school.”

Steve smiles a little to himself. “Yeah, yeah that’s fine. Eddie should have room in his van to take you, I can call him if you want though.”

“Max is on the phone with him now. We’re good.”

“Good, call me when you want me to pick you up, ok.”

“Ok, thanks.”

“It’s no problem, I’m glad you guys are getting along. I’ll see you later then, ok. Bye.” Steve turns to Robin with a proud face.

“Julie, I’m guessing.”

He nods. “She’s going over to Max’s house after school.”

Robin’s face lights up. “Oh my god, that’s great. I knew they were like school friends but not like friend friends.”

“Me either. I’m glad though. It’s good for her to talk to more people her age.”

“You’re one to talk,” Robin picks up a folder and hits him gently on the head with it. “When I met you all of your friends were middle schoolers. But she’s doing better?”

“Better’s a good word for it.”

Truth was, she is doing better. Last week was rough, but she took the weekend to take care of herself. Talked to him more about it, which he liked. He even saw her doing some work on the kitchen table instead in her room. Which isn’t a lot, but she wasn’t closing herself in one place anymore.

It was starting to feel like her home too. Because it was, he knew that. But she was starting to believe it, let it be her home. Her things started to scatter themselves around the house. Her shoes at the front door, hair ties across all the surfaces, her cassettes on the table. Textbooks and regular books, a small pile of VHS tapes in front of the tv. Everything made it her home, their home.

Home finally started to feel like Steve thought it should always supposed to feel like. Like there was a family that lived within the walls, a warm energy pulling you in instead of a cold void. Love actually being there. He started to like going home at the end of the day, because he knew he wouldn’t be alone anymore.

“There’s still going to be days that are hard, next week probably, but she started talking to me about it, so that’s good.”

Robin smiles. “Good.”

She pushes off the desk and heads back out to the store, leaving Steve to get back to his work.

. . .

“Sorry my house is a bit of a mess, we’re still getting used to living here,” Max says as she rolls into her small house. “We can go to my room, it’s down the hall.”

There is a lit lamp right in front of the turn for the hallway, Max stopping right past it before turning and heading down the hall. She turns into her room, another lamp next to the doorway. Julie follows her, Jane next to her.

“I can still see light, that’s why there’s so many lamps. It can sometimes be really annoying, but it helps me move around the house without help.” Max explains.

Jane walks over to Max’s bed, holding out her hand for Max to grab, stabilizing her as she lifts herself out of the chair and onto her bed.

“You can put your stuff down anywhere,” Max says after situating herself on her bed. Jane places her bag at the foot of the bed, Jane placing hers next to it. She sits down next to Jane on the bed, just waiting.

It’s been a while since she’s hung out with friends before. Mary had moved away in the ninth grade, and while they tried to keep in touch, it didn’t work. Different time zones suck when it comes to trying to keep friends, and letters are nice, but not like the real thing. And there was never really anyone after that. So, Julie doesn’t really know what to say.

“So,” Jane starts, shifting herself to lean against the wall. “How is living with Steve?”

“Pretty good. Different then what I’m used to, but not bad.”

“That’s good,” she smiles.

“Which one of the guest rooms did you take,” Max asks.

Julie laughs. “What used to be the pink flower room. But we painted over it a few weeks ago. It was so gross.”

Max widens her eyes and moves her head to look at El, having the same expression, Jane reaches over and squeezes Max’s hand. “Yeah, I remember is being pretty gross when I stayed over there a few times. He let you paint over the wallpaper?”

“Yeah,” Julie nods. “We painted his room too.”

“His room too?” Max questions, taking a second to think to herself. “And he was ok with it?”

Ok wouldn’t be the right word. Grew to like the idea is more of what really happened. Or at least what she thought.

“Not at first, but then he was.”

She knew that it had to do with the way his parents were about the house. How controlling they were over what it was decorated with. But she didn’t think they knew. He didn’t seem to share it with people other than Robin and Eddie, and just now starting to with her. She assumed that he wouldn’t share that with the kids. With how reluctant he was about sharing it with her, it would make sense.

In the time she got to know Steve, she noticed a pattern. Taking care of other people before taking care of himself. Letting her paint her room and only deciding to paint his when Julie said something. Taking Robin’s shift even though he has a headache. Always making her food before his. Having odd hours at work to pick up or drop people off at school.

While there was nothing wrong with some of those things, it made her think how long he would go to make other people happy. Especially with his parents. Their expectations of him were unrealistic, unattainable. At least from she knew. How long has he killed himself to appease someone who didn’t care? How much longer would he have done it if she didn’t come along and block the path he was so used to walking on?

Jane reaches over and grabs Max’s hand, drawing a shape on her hand. Talking to her without speaking, like Steve and Robin sometimes do with their eyes. Max making a facial expression that Julie can’t read, but Jane can. Max takes a deep breath, leaning back on her headboard.

“We’re not supposed to tell you this, because it’s not our place to tell you. And we’re still not going to say a lot, but it feels wrong for you to not know,” Max starts.

Jane nods along, agree with Max. “We want you to know something about Steve that he would not tell you. He does not want you to worry about it.”

“We said we know Steve because he used to look after us sometimes, and that’s true, but it’s a bit more complicated. You know the fire, and the earthquake that happened in the past two years.”

Julie nods her head, not quite sure where this conversation is going. “Yeah.”

Max takes another breath before continuing. “We can’t tell you everything, but the short of it is that we were all there those days. At the mall during the fire, and right where the earthquake started. And because of that, we all get pretty bad nightmares.”

“Especially Steve,” Jane adds. “I remember before I moved to California, I was scared that a new home would affect my nightmares. Make them worse. He told me what helps him when he has a bad nightmare. He said it was the plaid wallpaper, it reminds him that he is at home, and not wherever his brain told him he was.”

Julie’s mouth opens to speak, but the words get caught in her throat. She remembers a few nights ago, she woke up in the middle of the night and heard someone come through the house. Robin and Eddie had keys, she knew that, so she peaked out her door to see who it was, finding Eddie going into Steve’s room. It was weird, but the two of them were acting weird when Julie was around anyway. She thought it was because of that, not because of this.

Was Steve panicking across the hall from her and she didn’t even notice. Did he think this would happen when she suggested he paint his room too? Did he go along with it just because she said to, or did he really want it?

She thought she was helping him. Helping him break the reigns of control his parents trained him into. But she actually just ended up hurting him in the end. And he didn’t even say anything.

“It’s not your fault you didn’t know,” Max says, somehow reading Julie’s mind. “He would never had told you this. There’s so much he doesn’t even tell us. Especially about his parents.”

“Bad people,” Jane whispers.

Max nods. “Yeah, they’re dick heads. But he’ll never say it outright. He’ll say that their shit, and that his dad’s an asshole, but just like any other kid. It’s when he slips up and tells you something bad that you really see how his parents really are.”

“He’s told me,” Julie says quietly. “A few times, never a lot. Just that his parents were never around, and he was never allowed to change his room. That he doesn’t see his parents as family anymore.”

It’s heartbreaking when she says it out loud. Realizing then how similar they really are. Two kids that lost their parents. Her through death, and his by choice. Somehow his feels sadder than hers, because he had to make the choice to not view them as family anymore. Julie didn’t choose to lose her mom, Steve chose to lose his parents. Never really having them in the first place.

“That’s more than he ever told us,” Max says, some unrecognizable feeling lacing her words. “Not even Dustin and they’re the closest out of all of us. The kids anyway.”

“We are glad that he has someone around all the time now. That house was empty. Cold”

Julie knows what she means, feeling the emptiness crowd around her when Steve isn’t home. How something so large can feel claustrophobic when there’s no sign of life there.

“I am too,” Julie says.

When she and Steve were first getting to know each other, she remembers feeling helpless that she needed someone she barely even knew. She had nothing, and he was the only thing that she had left. It started to feel like Steve needed her too, that she was giving him something that he always wanted.

Now she knows that the feeling was true. Steve needed her as much as she needed him. A family because theirs wasn’t around anymore. The sad fact of both of their existences. And it’s heartbreaking.

. . .

“You want to come over for dinner?” Steve asks as his and Robin’s shift ends.

“Sure.”

The drive is silent, Steve’s thoughts mulling about in his mind. He’s been thinking for the past few days, about everything. About his parents, and his childhood. The list of wrongdoings in the folder Sarah gave him sitting on his desk. Resting open, with a pile of paperwork next to them. The question of what he’s going to do pressing down on his chest.

“Steve,” Robin breaks him out of his thoughts. “Are you ok?”

Steve takes a deep breath, feeling anything but ok. “Can you ask me that again in a few minutes?”

Out of the corner of his eye he can see her face fill with concern. She reaches out and grabs his arm, comforting him in a way that so few people can. Filling the void of his childhood where touch was foreign, only making him want to break down right here and now.

“Of course.”

When his house appears past the bend, clouds start to fill him mind. Fill his eyes. As he pulls up the driveway, he can feel the dread weigh down him limbs. The knowledge of what he wants to share already weighing on him.

Robin rushes to his side, lacing her fingers with his and taking on some of the weight. The first person that ever made him feel like family only proving more why he has to do this. Why the dam needs to finally break.

Silently, he leads her up to his room, pointing to the files on his desk before sitting on the ground. Knees propped up and elbows resting on them, back leaning on his bed. Watching as Robin’s eyes bug out as she reads, flipping through lists of evidence, and all the paperwork to prove it. Everything he never had the ability to say all in once place, telling him that he could fight and win.

He could tell the world that he was neglected as a child, he just needs someone to hold his hand during the process.

“Steve,” Robin softly says, breaking the silence of the room. “There was so much more than I knew.”

All he can do is nod his head, drawing his knees closer to his chest and wrapping his arms around them.

No one ever held his hand when he was young except when he was learning to walk. After that, it was too much. The nannies were told to never let it happen, and his parents never did either.

There was a day he went on some errands with his mom. A large dog was walking towards them, and as a kid there’s nothing scarier that a large dog. Especially when they are never around any pets. So, Steve reached up and tried to grab his mom’s hand, but he was swatted away. He was left to face the dog alone.

Left to face the world alone.

Until the kids, and until Robin. Until Nancy and him became better friends, and Eddie came along. Until Hopper started checking in more and Joyce and Claudia invited him over for dinners. Until Julie showed up on his doorstep and gave him a chance to build the family he was deprived of as a kid.

Steve was truly alone until the age of eighteen, when he was what the world considers an adult. But right now, he’s still the child that cried when his parents left the day before his tenth birthday. The kid that cried and no one came to scare away the monsters under his bed. The kid that is still here waiting for them to come home.

Robin sits next to him, pressing her side close to him, letting him know that he’s not alone. He’s not alone anymore. She says nothing, waiting for him to speak. For the words to get dislodged from his throat where they’ve been trapped for years. Waiting to be spoken into reality.

“The last inspection I had with Julie’s social worker, Sarah,” Steve starts, choking on his words. Vision blurry. “She said that with what she knew, I could sue my parents for neglect and probably win.”

“She got all of that from one conversation with you?” Robin’s voice is soft, but heavy. Comforting in a way without taking away from the conversation.

He shakes his head. “The first page is what she had, the rest is what I added.”

“And all of those other papers?”

“Evidence of paying nannies, their trips, hotel stays. Everything to show that they weren’t here.”

Robin leans her head on his shoulder, wrapping one of her arms around his. “Have you decided what you want to do?”

“Can’t you just make it for me,” Steve breaks.

Her eyes fill with tears, blinking them away so she can be the strong one instead of him. But the heartbreak is visible on her face. The same heartbreak that has been living in his chest for years.

How could the people who created him make him feel like this? How could the people who were supposed to love him leave him all alone?

“As much as I want to, I can’t. If it were up to me, your parents would be dead in a ditch, and I’d steal you away and lock you in a room so I could love you like they never could forever. But this, this has to come from you Steve.”

Of course it did. He knew it did. But it shouldn’t even had been a question in the first place. Parents were supposed to love their kids. What did he do to make them not love him?

Before a few months ago, he would have let this go. Just went about his life knowing that he was never going to talk to his parents again and move on. It would hurt, but no more than it did before. Now, it’s like the hurt has so many more layers, and it’s all because of Julie.

Julie showed him, in a way, how easy it was to stay. How easy it was to try. Steve might not be her parent, but he’s taking care of her like one. Providing her a home, with food, with safety. Basic necessities but it’s so much more. A shoulder to lean on when she cries, conversations after school, saying goodnight before going to sleep. Laughs, and smiles. Bad days and good days. He’s here, and so is she. And it’s so fucking goddamn easy.

He couldn’t imagine having a life where he looked her in the face and decided that it would be a good idea to leave for two years. To say any of the things that his parents said to him. Because she’s not a disappointment, or a failure. He’s proud of her for just existing, and it wasn’t hard.

Why was it so hard for his parents to love him? To be proud of him for just existing. It wasn’t easy. Steve’s faced death in the face four times now, and each time left him battered and bruised more than any person should. Scars litter his body and mind, but he’s alive. But just because he didn’t get into college, because he works a retail nine to five, he’s a disappointment. He’s a failure just because he’s Steve.

Not Steven Harrington, Richard Harrington’s son. Just Steve.

Steve was finally enough for himself, so why wasn’t it enough for them?

“It hit me the other day, when I was talking to Julie about her mom. She’s the age I was when my parents officially left for good.” He swallows a lump in his throat, trying to just get these words out. Tears escaping from his eyes and rolling down his cheeks. “I look at her and think that I could never leave her. That I would always want to be a part of her life. How could my parents look at me then and think that they didn’t want to be around me anymore?”

He takes a shaky breath. “I was just a kid,” he cries. “How do you leave a kid like that?”

Robin lets out a shaky exhale, tears forming in her eyes fast than she can blink them away. Crying for Steve in a way that he could never really cry for himself. Having the same questions that he is now, and coming up with the same blank answers. There’s no excuse, and he knows it.

“I’m so sorry,” is all she can say through her tears. “I’m so sorry that you had to go through this.”

When he opens his mouth, all that escapes is a heavy sob. Robin pulls him into a hug, holding him as he breaks. Crying for his childhood that never happened, and for the teenage years that were lost. For the adult that is mourning the time that never was. For the experiences that never happened. The love that was never there.

The family that wasn’t provided and he had to build himself.

The nights where he cried out for someone that never came.

The times where he reached out and was just pushed away.

The bruises he had to nurse himself because he had no one to come home to.

The hospital stays where no one sat at his bedside.

The parties that he threw for attention that was never given, only to make him emptier in the end.

The broken feeling that came to him night after night, questioning why no body wanted him.

Steve cries over everything.

Time moves at a pace that he can’t figure out. He feels stuck in a loop or rushed through an afternoon at the same time. When the pool of his tears finally empties, and his throat and mouth is dry, he just sits there in Robin’s embrace. And she lets him. Comforting him in a way that he always wanted to be, the thought only setting him spiraling again.

But throughout it all, she holds him. Rubs a hand up and down his back while the other arm holds him steady in place. Keeping him upright when all he wants to do is crumble. If he does, she’ll be there to pick back up his pieces and reassemble them. Keep him together as he falls apart.

This is what familial love is supposed to be like. This is what he’s always wanted. And what he wants to give to other people someday. What he hopes he already is.

“I want to do it,” he finally says. “I want them to know how much they hurt me.”

“We’ll bring them hell.”

We’ll, because Steve isn’t alone anymore. He doesn’t have to traverse life by himself anymore. Not even this. It might be his fight, but not one he fights alone. Not anymore, and not ever again.

. . .

Julie enters the house, Jane’s brother dropping her off, so she didn’t have to call Steve to pick her up. She doesn’t know what to do about the conversation she had with Max and Jane earlier, or if there is anything that she should. All she does know is that Steve might be hurting in his own way, and she wanted to be there for him as much as he is for her.

She finds him in the kitchen, putting away some food into the fridge.

“Hey,” he says, a bit shocked. “Wasn’t expecting you. How was Max’s?”

“Yeah sorry, Jane’s brother Jonathan gave me a ride home, I forgot to call to tell you. But good, it was nice.”

Steve smiles. “Good, that’s good. I’m glad you’re getting to know them. They’re good kids.”

“Yeah.” She’s trying think of what to say without bringing it up. Doesn’t want to start a whole thing, but it feels wrong to say nothing. Especially with what she knows.

“Did you eat, there’s some leftovers from what I made for dinner. I can heat them up for you, if you want.”

“Thank you,” Julie says, the words feeling right in her mouth. “Not for the food, but for everything. I know that this hasn’t been easy for you either. So, thank you.”

Steve looks at her with a soft expression on his face. As if those words meant something more to him than just a simple thank you. “You’re welcome,” he says. “I’d do it again if I had to.”

Julie smiles, walking up to give him a hug. Home finally feeling like a home again. Two siblings, that might have just met a few months ago but it didn’t feel like that anymore. They were family. Real family.

Part 11

Tag list(let me know if you want to be added or removed): @homoerotictangerine, @mugloversonly, @thesuninyaface, @imyelenasexual, @anaibis, @ilovecupcakesandtea, @brainsteddielyrotted, @jackiemonroe5512, @eddie-munsons-missing-nipple, @goodolefashionedloverboi, @cinnamon-mushroomabomination, @lolawonsstuff, @writingandmushroomdragons, @stevesbipanic, @sierra-violet, @steddie-as-they-go, @dauntlessdiva, @mousedetective, @the-daydreamer-in-the-corner, @zombiethingy, @connected-dots-st-reblogger, @that-agender-from-pluto, @allyricas, @cheddartreets, @devondespresso, @crypticcorvidinacottage, @queenie-ofthe-void @chronicpainstevetruther, @cheddartreets, @theupsidedownrealestateagent, @acidbubblegummie, @sirsnacksalot, @l0st-strawberry, @helpimstuckposting, @strawberry-starss, @freddykicksasses, @italianwhore1, @i-threw-my-name-out-the-window, @rageagainsttheapathy, @nuggies4life, @ape31, @whimsicalwitchm, @chrissycunninghamfanblog, @michellegilligan, @hippielittlemetalhead, @bridget-malfoy-stilinski-hale, @jaytriesstuff, @confused-stripes, @faeb1tch42069, @marklee-blackmore, @hel-spawn, @genderless-spoon, @mamafaithful, @estrellami-1, @starryeyedpoet17 @i-amthepizzaman, @lilpomelito @melonmochi

[anarmel]

hiya! just wanted to say i ADORE your dnd au for stranger things it is so captivating to see each art piece you've created (⁠≧⁠▽⁠≦⁠)

can i ask if there's any little headcanons or plotlines you'd be willing to share about it? I'd love to hear more but totally understand if not (⁠人⁠*⁠´⁠∀⁠｀⁠) either way i appreciate the work you do!!!

Thank you for your kind words!(i read ALL tags) And sorry it took me so long I’m bad at writing hope you’re still interested)

I have entirely too much in my head for this AU and it’s ever evolving but I’m dog at writing stuff down because my brain gets like scrambled so I always forget what I want or write down and english is not my native language so my writing is blunt and sometimes i don’t have the right words for concepts i want to communicate and I overall suck at communicating but I do want to share something about this AU with someone who appreciates it so I will try)

This is my continent map and planar map for this AU because every official planar map in DnD is too unnecessary complex for my type of worldbuild:

This table is my basic ideas and info on characters (i change it all the time because I’m inconsistent and have new ideas every week) and I fucking love multiclassing it’s more storytelly

And i have a Pinterest board for this AU with visual clues and inspiration for the characters if you want to get a feel for that take a look: Link

Worldbuilding and character ideas(completely too long wall of text but I attached some old sketches for paragraph breaks):

Worldbuilding portion

I usually don’t like to put racism in my fantasy scenarios but The Empire is based on America with all the colonization and racism and all that so its there (reason: ST has too much themes that are purely American and if you take them out it’s kinda unrecognizable and some characters lose some experiences that effect their characteristic and choices they make. And the world needs to feel violently bigoted and secretive with governments that lie and do terrible things) but don’t look for direct correlation to real events. it’s like heavily inspired by America. i don’t want to erase racism and white supremacy and how it effects most if not all characters.

This Empire is under one of god pantheon(most of the faerunian pantheon with some exceptions). As one if the main worshiped gods that effect the story I chose Torm(the god of duty, loyalty, righteousness, obedience and law) and Bahamut(the dragon god of justice and a subservient deity to Torm). Empires are so greatly represented by dragons: massive gold hoarding uncontrollable and unstoppable and really hard to defeat. And because I want Tiamat dragon cults in the story. The list of allowed worship is limited some gods are outlawed some are just weird to worship and looked down upon. Most gods that are law and order based are great to worship

The Empire came as an expansion of an already existing Empire that represents one pantheon of gods that were at war with the Fey pantheon of gods and mortal rulers are continuing this expansion on mortal plane(even if mortal plane is abandoned and neglected by the gods). During war most Gates that connected Feywild with the Mortal plane were destroyed and in their place “Divine” Gates were built. The War of Establishment ended 200 years ago

The way my gods/worshiper interaction works is not as direct as I’ve seen in other campaigns. Paladins/Clerics get their power through tapping into residual celestial power that is left on mortal plane after calamity battles many ages ago and more advanced Paladins/Clerics can tap into celestial plane directly and it’s very rare for a god to communicate with their worshipers.

Empire general attitude towards different races(fantasy racism part… it’s worldbuilding okay):

Aasimar is the most respected race imbued with the divine blood most of the royals are Aasimar. Highest standing in society

Goliath are historically the giants that are the protectors of the divine. They are given opportunities other races are not. High standing in society

Humans are the basics as always. They have their hand in every pot.Mixed standing in society

Halflings were always a part of the empire. Infantilised in larger society. Mixed standing in society

Anything Fey is perceived as weird and inhuman and often fey magic and creatures are blamed for all manner of mischief and ills, ranging from petty vandalism and theft to outright murder and kidnapping.

But there’s a distinct difference between every elf group

High-elven culture is the one of the biggest ones that was crushed by the empire. Empire is built on elven ruins. Elves that didn’t escape to Feywild earned their keep in the empire by being great merchants because they knew to local surroundings and had established goods production and even with inter planar fey gates destroyed some elves had trade connections in Feywild. Being there from the beginning of the empire given some High Elves really high standing in society and more opportunities to build up their capital but at the cost of abandoning or suppressing their culture. Material plane High elves have purple/pink blood and similar skin under tones medium pointy ears(from living in the material plane for a while) Mostly culturally integrated. Mixed standing in society

Wood Elves mostly come from Beast Lands plane that lays between material plane and the Feywild and when empire conquest reached Feywild they stopped their war expansion on woods and wanted to build more of business relationship with the faerie court and the faerie court doesn’t care about the rogue elf tribes of Beast Lands that are being misplaced because they see the benefits of empire as a reluctant alliance instead of an enemy even if fey believe they could win the war if it comes to that . The Empire use the kidnapped elves as the laborers to build new empire cities across the continent. Wood elves have a distinct green skin undertones, green blood and large pointy leaf-like ears that make a Great War trophy and bringing a few souvenirs a soldier can show of is not that looked down upon. And high elves on large don’t associate with wood elves they are both seen as fey but different in “usefulness” in society. So wood elves have a low standing in the society but it’s slowly starting to change in some parts of the empire

Eladrin native to the Feywild and mostly are not present on the material plane and seen as distant trade partners.

Other elves(astral, aquatic, drow)exist but are not seen inside the empire

Gnomes is the other race that was native to the land the Empire took over they are integrated as the high elves and seen for their innovations and trade. But also they’re infantilised in society of larger races and sometimes are not seen as a full person but as cute creatures who are mostly helpful to bigger races. Mixed standing in society

Dwarfs mostly live underground in stone cities. I like Dragon Age lore for dwarfs so I’m incorporating it. True Dwarfs are not permitted to see the sky and those who do are considered sky walkers and still can serve as merchants of dwarven goods to the surface or can just go live as they want on the surface but they will never be considered true dwarfs and are not permitted in places of under mount worship of the Morndinsamman. They are not a part of the empire even if the mountains are on empire territory. Mostly seen as trade partners

Most of genasi populating empire are mixed. Air and earth genasi are the more accepted. Fire and water are not as much. Mixed status

Different Main Genasi tribes set up close to their respective elemental planar gates but those tribes all really different.

Air genasi mainly have a cloud city surrounding their gate populated by other avians but also have travel tribes that travel on cloud settlements.

Fire genasi are mainly nomadic with some preferring to live in a settlement near their gate it is considered their home base and if a fire genasi was outside it’s tradition to make their way to the gate at least once in their life

Earth genasi mainly have a permanent home under the mountain near their gate the city is populated by some dwarfs and rock gnomes

Water genasi live near their gate that is surrounded by mostly underwater country (enter a fantasy name for Soviet Union here)(?TSAR?) populated by aquatic elves, tortles, merfolk, tritons, simic hybrids and vedalken

Firbolgs are mostly nomadic small tribes and lived close to the fey gates so a lot of them were massacred during the war and there’s not much of them left. Perceived as fey and mostly forgotten because they live outside of cities.

Any half breed is looked down upon. A little anti-miscegenation in the mix to this horrible prejudiced bigoted world(just like the real one)

There’s also magic and class(DnD) discrimination

Any Divine and Radiant magic is praised so most of paladins clerics and monks are thought highly of in society

Any nature magic is looked down upon ether it be too fey of holistic and barbaric in the eyes of the divine

Barbarians if not zealots for the right gods or have right ancestors are barbaric and looked down upon

Sorcerers are usually put through governmental evaluations to find out their levels of danger those who deemed too dangerous go into maximum security prisons or are simply executed,those deemed controllable go into an educational program(less strict prison). Any sorcerer magic can only be used under strict control of a sorcerer’s keeper appointed by government.

Wizards studies and education mostly are behind walls of magistrates that operate separately from other government controlled magic institutes but for the greatness of the Empire. Arcane magic is controlled but not as strictly as sorcery

For Wizards to deepen their studies of magic there’s one option walls of magistrate a separate arm of the government specialized in arcane magics. Arcane magic is controlled but not as strictly as sorcery because it’s considered an intellectual and intelligent magic

Artificers are the inventors and move the world forward. Government gives grants to institutions of artificers for development of weapons and transportation for people without magic and such

Necrotic and blood magic is prohibited and outlawed

Character stuff(most of it is just like a starting position in the story that will never be)

Byers family. I wanted to make Joyce a merchant but then I came up with the idea of them being a grave keeper family for an old eleven graveyard, being just poor in fantasy settings is not enough for stigma they get (the monarchy class system is just too different everyone’s poor but the selected few…well not different at all but I wanted something different and more fantastical).

Joyce after escaping her abusive husband stared working for an old elven lady that owned the graveyard and not having any family of her own she let Joyce and her boys live on the property and when she left the mortal plane she left the graveyard to the Byers family. So in this world there’s a lot of stigma around anything fey but high elves are more integrated into society and Byers family looking over a spooky scary creepy and ancient fey graveyard filled with old dying magical remains can make the family ostracized and it brings a somber tone and a death theme to back up Wills story. Because usually grave keepers task is to make sure the dead stay dead and don’t turn undead. And Will is kind of undead after his stint in the upside down and that is his one more secret from his family and friends (I want a more magical and powers related secret for will to struggle with).

And Jonathan’s first iteration was a Chronurgy Wizard because I wanted to play with the theme of him capturing moments in time (like photos) but more I thought about him he is such a rogue and there’s Phantom Rogue that has an interesting trinkets system that you get by capturing souls of your defeated foes still has the same idea of moments being captured in a still object but Assassin suits too so idk. Maybe I should have made Byers Shadar-Kai instead of High elves. Maybe they as a family need a rewrite???

Hopper’s story is similar to canon grew up in Hawkins moved to a big city (W.D.C) for opportunity. Low standing Goliath have an opportunity to earn status through Arena (gladiator fights). Got married. And after losing his child and divorce he transferred back to his old town with status that earned him a position of chief.

El and Henry are both kalashtar (a compound race created from the union of humanity and renegade spirits from the plane of dreams(limbo)– spirits called quori) with the appearance of astral elves to play into the themes of alienness (E.T. glowing fingers and long glowing ears). A big meteor struck near Fort Hawkins and The Empire researchers stumbled upon a lost child named Henry (astral drifter who only looks young) that possessed powers that they wanted to research and use as potential weapons (like they use ordinary sorcerers). After some years of research Henry showed scientists where they can find more power. A research group with a military support was sent into the Astral plane they returned with several adult war prisoners and the experiments jumped a few levels in cruelty. Most “Main Experiment” children were bred and grown in a lab. Events that happen at the lab resemble what happens in the show. Some sketches of El and Henry I didn’t land yet on design that is set in stone (I don’t like how I draw their quori too literal):

Steve’s family is royalty. His dad is a king of the smallest province named Indwarim with the sit of power being in Fort Hawkins which is still not the biggest town it’s small and underdeveloped and was mostly built to separate the gate to Beast Lands from the Capital it doesn’t even have a “Divine” Gate (gate system that connects main cities of The Empire). The King of Indwarim is not known for spending time in his seat of power leaving it in the hands of his council and expects his son to take over his small province while he gets close to the emperor and climbs the social ladder closer to real seat power (Whitheirion Divine Court).

Steve is fond of all attention and admiration his royal blood and divine blessing brings but all his life he felt inadequate, people respect him for the things that were given to him by birth right and nothing he did or deserve. But who is he to complain about the easy life he lives so he enjoys all the positive attention that he can get and lets people bask in his light even if deep down he knows all they want is a crumb of prestige and power befriending a royal can give, Steve has never met a genuine person in his circles so he assumes that all people are like that everyone plays their part of court theater. Steve has his own masks so he understands them. He always had people around him that tailored him to their expectations and that keep him in check. In social circles he paints a picture of a royal you can find at all the parties that are worth attending with new arm candy every time, all masked in charm and light conversation, all surface no depth, not an intellectual but at least he’s martially gifted. He’s not fit for the system but plays it enough for it to benefit him, he’s not going to stand up to it. He doesn’t know who he is without others making him.

And I want Steve to have some kind of insecurity where he thinks he’s useless without his legendary weapon which is a stolen fey artifact that was claimed by empire and now one of Harrington’s family heirlooms (which Steve doesn’t know for a while) and later in the story he will return it where it belongs because it’s a right thing to do even if it strips him of his additional powers. (Some inspiration characters for D&D!Steve are King Arthur, Stella(Winx), Fjord(CR))

Robin is a miracle child to her older parents. They loved their little girl and given her all that they could while running a small but successful tailoring shop. I did make Robins parents fantasy hippies while well-meaning they appropriate the culture of fey creatures but don’t struggle with the stigma around it since they themselves are not fey and even benefit from it in their business because their designs perceived as exotic and “new”.

At 12 Robin come to realization that something is off about her and there’s things that happen to her that don’t happen to people around her and the desire to find out what’s wrong with her took her to the library and there she stayed studying anything that took her scattered interest. Meanwhile her parents put her into a music studies and Robin even gets to play at royal court a few times.

At 14 she come to the conclusion that she is a changeling a myth a child swap of the fey and since then she felt like she truly doesn’t belong in her family and believes that if her parents found out they would stop loving her and disown her. She keeps up her mask around her parents and doesn’t inform them about her discovery but unknowingly she keeps distancing herself from her parents.

At 17 she requests to go into a new Starcourt research center to start studying magic more seriously and spends most of her time as a scribe and even going on expeditions into the sea and forgetting her musical studies. At the Starcourt she meets prince Steve not for the first time who was sent to the magistrate to “learn humility and to appreciate his divine gifts properly and maybe it will make you more intelligent, Steve” and then it kind of follows the shows events. Some Robin sketches and a design of her parents that I’m not sure about they need to look older I think:

Eddie is a child of a warlock pirate and an elven druid. He’s a tiefling because of his father’s infernal contract that affect him physically.

In his early years he mainly lived with his mother on land with his father’s rare visits but one day his mom just didn’t return home (I want it to be ambiguous did she get into a situation and died or got murdered or raising a tiefling child alone without support in a judgment filled town got to her and she decided to run away from it? who knows? not Eddie that’s for sure and sometimes not knowing is worse especially when you have overactive imagination) Eddie is at home alone for several weeks afraid to leave and sleeps for most of the time to repress hunger. That is the state his father finds him in and has to nurse him back to health and they live on land for a month but living a stable life was never in the cards for Eddie’s dad so he decides that Eddie is mature enough to follow him in his adventures and learn what it means to be a true son of a pirate. His father has an ego and sees Eddie as a continuation of himself and his power but he does love him but never more than himself his freedom or his pursuits. Every time Eddie is trying to bring up his mother his father shuts him down like he doesn’t want to think about whatever happen to her, like she’s not here let’s move on kind of attitude. so no closure there.

When Eddie is around 10 his father goes to visit his brother with Eddie in tow for the first time. The relationship is strenuous but a favor his father asks of Wayne is just to look after Eddie when he’s gone on a big job that will change their lives. His father never returns. Eddie lives with Wayne and he feels like a burden to this man who didn’t even knew he existed several weeks ago. Wayne is a matter of fact battle hardened tough guy that was trying to find his stability after years of service (he was in an expedition to the astral sea among other things he did in the military) Wayne after his years as a sailor was recruited into a government sponsored mercenary group and he mainly joined to lift himself and his brother out of poverty while his brother chose a different path to that same goal. While in service his needs were accommodated but after the system has abandoned him with trauma and not as much money as he was promised. But with that money he got himself a small house in the least developed province of Indwarim on the outskirts of Fort Hawkins in an area named Forest Hills and got himself a job as miner the only job available to him. His settled life gets interrupted by his brother and his grand plans for a better life but this time he doesn’t try to bring him into it all he asks is to take care of his child for a while and that Wayne can do. Even if that while turns to years he’s not that bothered the child is endearing and if both of his parents are not there for him his uncle will step in as a parental figure to the best of his ability.

Oh and for his shaved off horn he has thousands of stories about that and he will NEVER admit that it was him at 13 childishly coming to a conclusion that his horns one of the main reasons he is different and rejected by society he wanted them off he wanted to look more like his uncle he wanted to fit in he wants the snide comments and dirty looks toward their family to stop. But not only was it painful as soon as he saw himself in a mirror he knew he made an awful impulsive mistake. He wants to hide it from Wayne for as long as he can so naturally as soon as Wayne gets home from his night shift he finds out. He sits Eddie down and struggles how to fully communicate to his kid that we are dealt a certain hand in life and we got to play it to its fullest potential and that his uniqueness only makes him that unique and people who don't see it through their prejudices they are the ones that are missing out. Uncle of the year. But Eddie being a kid takes it a little differently and just changes up his tactic of shielding himself. He cranks up his "uniqueness" to a 1000% and to be bigger scarier more attention garbing more repulsive than he is so no one would even try to go after him and his out of fear of consequences. He finds other street kids like him and they form a group power in numbers as they say. Hell Fire is formed.

When Eddie is around 14 years of age and alone at home old associate of his father Reefer Rick appears on their doorstep to inquire about money that his father owns to him and how will he get it when that fucker got himself imprisoned which is the first time Eddie hears the reason for his father’s absence. As Rick is mostly a smuggler and not a distributor he recruits Eddie for his plan to get his money without unnecessary harassment of his uncle and for Eddie to make some gold of his own all and all Rick know the kid and he's scrappy. All Eddie needs to do at first is leave some packages in particular places but if he wants to make more he has to get proactive and get new clients. And Eddie does want more in as he thinks the more gold he can make the more he will help to alleviate Wayne’s burden and Wayne doesn’t even need to know (Wayne will know really soon). And to make the most of his new gig he takes his bard troupe Corroded Coffin to the court as jesters and while entertaining the stuck up upper classes he makes a few sales.

Wheeler family is quite a wealthy family with their father working in some governmental transportation bureau and their mother being a stay at home mom.

Nancy became a small time volunteer agent to The Harpers the faction that she believes is good for the world at 14 as soon as she, by the power of her father's station, was allowed at court to find a husband and just live that court gossip live. Even that young she has her believes in order but she’s still a young girl who wants to live out her girlhood and build a good life for herself but that dream crushes when her best friend disappears under some suspicious circumstances and is presumed dead. Nancy's pursuit for truth takes over her life and she starts uncovering something bigger than court gossip something that she cannot take on alone even if she wishes she could. Armed with a gun that Barbara made for her and her strong principles she falls into a world of governments secretive experiments and what they lead to.

Mike…oh Mike he’s such a hard character for me to nail down. I saw a lot of people making him a paladin and I get that he plays a character that’s a paladin in the show but if I were to give Mike as a character D&D stats charisma is will not be his highest but it’s my opinion. He and Will are still childhood friends they met at the graveyard when Mikes curiosity won over and he’s gone exploring we’re adults said not to and fell into a grave where Will found and rescued him and then they became besties. Mike is situated by his father to work for a house that will help him get into a higher society and he gets to be an errand boy some days. He meets Dustin and Lucas when one of those errands goes sour and after their little adventure he introduces his new friends to Will and they form their little adventuring party

Sinclair's are a family of wood elves which is already hard under rule of the Empire but they make do and father of the family even earned himself a respected position in his hunting guild so they have it better than some but still surrounded by a lot of stigma.

Lucas has gone on some scouting expeditions with his father and likes to explore the forest by himself developing his tracking and hunting skills. One time exploring on his own he noticed smoke and what is smoke without a forest fire and went to investigate. He saw a small dwarf and a big mechanical cat on fire. After Lucas helped to extinguish the Steel Defender he met the dwarf properly he found out his name is Dustin and that the fire was caused by a failed experiment he for some reason ran in the forest. They became fast friends both fascinated by each other’s experiences and lacking any other friendships they gravitated towards each other’s weirdness. When he’s older l would expand on his relationship with Patric who is the most integrated into empire society wood elf Lucas ever met and Patric is kind of his mentor and that’s how his cleric powers find him and Lucas joins the greater divine order. He enjoys his new station and it makes him feel more accepted so he doesn’t understand why his friends have to shut his new side down and make him the bad guy for exploring himself and finding his place in this horrible world. Divine power doesn’t make you a bad person but it’s powerful and most bad people seek power and it’s unfair that Lucas’s new found power diminished by his friends by putting him in the “other” box. His people were one of the most oppressed by divine powers that be and by joining the order he wants some of that power back he didn’t create this situation he’s only trying to survive in society as best as he can and find a better life for himself and everyone he loves. It’s not the power that’s bad it’s the application.

Erica is another one of the characters that is hard to nail down for me. At first I wanted for her to be a druid that pretends to be a cleric and maybe it’s an idea that is still alive but making her rogue/ranger/monk makes more sense to me but it has less narrative I think. Because she as a character has this unearned respect for the empire (based on the quote “You can’t spell America without Erica”) She too seeks acceptance but goes around that really differently to her brother. She’s larger than life boisterous bold and even if she is unwanted she will power through it and insert herself in a place that she thinks she does belong. Fake it till you make it as they say. She’s really protective of her family and will not listen for your negative opinion of her but she will hear it and will try really hard not to internalize it. She’s still a child yet doesn’t show weakness as she supposed to through her hard exterior shell. She’s charismatic and smart beyond her years and has a clever jab for every situation. And it’s no surprise that she has a side gig as a mysterious bounty hunter information gatherer she will get you all information you need on your target and you will never know that job was done by a child (imagine puss in boots in Shrek 2 situation) she has a little bit of a reputation for being efficient and anonymous.

Dustin is half mountain dwarf on his mother’s side half rock gnome on his father’s side. His parents met when his father who works for a wealthy jeweler was send with an expedition to discover precious minerals and gemstones for a supply chain but instead of finding new deposits they stumble upon an undrermount dwarven settlement where they established a business relationship with a local gem carver and Dustin’s father established a relationship with a daughter and an apprentice of said carver. They fell in love and Claudia decided follow her love and live her life on the surface leaving the undermount behind. She is really overwhelmed by the sun and the openness of the space but with support of her husband she has a beautiful time living in Fort Hawkins. Her husband recommends her to his employer as she has unique dwarven expertise and style of making jewelry and working with gems. They make decent money and decide to expand their little family. When their boy is three years of age the father of the family passes away in an unfortunate work incident while visiting a work site a rock slide happens and takes the lives of several workers. Claudia is inconsolable but she puts herself together for well-being of her child. But every year that passes it’s tougher for her to leave the house and she slowly becomes agoraphobic the surface becomes too much without support of her husband she already worked from home and her employer doesn’t care if she is the one making the trek to deliver her product to and request raw material be delivered with the same boy she send. She has unique product and it sells.(I don’t know fully why I made her agoraphobic but the idea of juxtaposition of Dustin’s mom always being at home and available but in an unhealthy and kind of smothering way but always loving and supportive to her child despite their struggles and Steve’s parents that are never home and absent in his life is interesting to me story-wise) Dustin himself is a little engineering genius creating his first fully realized Steel Defender at age 11 despite his intelligence he’s not taken seriously in small artificer circles of Hawkins even by children his own age because not only he’s an uncommon half-breed which grants him a weird standing in society by birth but also he’s of a “small” race and that infantilizes him further so he always striving to prove himself by being the smartest person in every room he’s in which sometimes makes him insufferable and more isolated. That’s until he meets Lucas who is interesting to talk to and who is not afraid to give him shit when he steps out of line.

Mayfield's and Hargrove's. Niel Hargrove is a human noble of province Calafia his family secured most of their power through a secret chromatic dragon worshiping society (a cult) and even there he managed to stand out as Tiamat cults are usually matriarchal and Niel is not that fond of women in power. Even his first wife who is of northern aasimar clan is kind of his prisoner. After her death he took in a second wife, widow of his fallen friend Sam Mayfield, because they all together started an experiment with dragon blood and a child that Susan bore and he needs to see that thru.

Billy is half aasimar which already makes him insecure from birth like he's incomplete and unfinished but still he is superior to so many so why do the unworthy get any power at all when they don't know how to use it and some powers should not exist at all. To enhance his martial prowess his father makes him get dragon blood tattoos and to activate them and enhance his rage he needs to consume more dragon blood and he is hooked on high of that power when it streams through his veins he feels on top of the world. He feels like a King. He deserves to be one.

Max is born and its already a train wreck. Some of dragon blood in her gives her a partially scaly skin but apart from that she still looks human. Her step father tells her about her greater purpose and she goes thru brutal training she is told its to make her stronger but it only making her exhausted bleeding and afraid and from a young age she learns not to share her fears or insecurities as they will be used against her. At 13 her power gets out of control when she unexpectedly got injured in a public space and the whole family is forced to move to not get discovered as blood magic users they lose a lot of material possessions but their noble status is intact but they need to start from scratch in Fort Hawkins. After that incident Max is strictly guarded by her step brother a situation that they are both not happy with. Even before losing control like that she struggled with her powers what they mean for her and how dangerous they are if she does purse them so she pivots into developing a more controlled way to channel them which does not make her family that happy.

Basic Story

It all leads to a battle against The Far Realm (a plane of madness situated very far from the planes of the standard cosmology. This maddening realm was feared for its power to twist unfortunate visitors into gruesome monsters, and it was from here that aberrations came). A plane that Henry discovered through his talent as an Astral Drifter (someone that has traveled the Astral Sea for so long that they have lost track of the amount of time they have spent there. Aging stops in Wildspace, and it is not hard for adventurers to get lost in time during their travels. Astral Drifters have traveled to the far-flung corners of Wildspace to satiate their wanderlust. Along the way, they have crossed paths with everything from petrified gods to unspeakable monsters) So Henry got warped and combined with his quori spirit and declared himself an Aberrant God and as a being of Far Realm he seeks to consume it all and be the only power in the multiverse and he will go about it in a way that will make it final. The Celestial plane is the hardest to penetrate so at first he tried to go thru outskirts planes but it didn't lead anywhere so he found a stable connection to a mortal plane the plane that is the most interconnected with others. Limbo is his weapon. Through the plane of dreams he can influence most beings on mortal plane. He is the voice in the dark. He is the premonition. He is inspiration that comes suddenly out of nowhere. He is the Dream of greatness. He is The Voice Of God.

But mostly it's just the events of the show through a very heavy D&D lens but like with more character exploration and preferably with a more cohesive story but that's just in my head its been my night time story to myself for a while now.

Hope you enjoyed reading thru this shitstorm and I hope it makes some sense)

[sabbathbloodysabbeth]

Ok but Eddie knows how to make food stretch out. He knows how to work with what he has because Wayne can't always afford food. Thats how he finds himself constantly making something weird. He has pasta but nothing to go with it, so he just pours ketchup over the pasta and seasons it and calls it good. When he doesn’t have bread most times they’ll have left over tortilla wraps. Bologna wrap it is. It gets weirder and weirder of course but he doesn’t have the luxury to be picky.

Steve on the other hand doesn’t know how to cook but has everything he needs. Follows recipes word for word and most times orders out. He’s to anxious to push boundaries when it comes to food not wanting to mess it up. So when he suddenly finds himself watching Eddie make the strangest shit in his kitchen he’s confused.

Somehow it turns into bickering and a bet that the other couldn’t spend a week with the other at their place. The first week Steve finds himself and the Munson’s and he hates the food. Though he discovered he loves being there with Wayne. He eases back a bit and Eddie’s shocked by how much the other likes the trailer. He thought he would be to snobby to stay there longer then a night.

When Eddie gets to spend a week with Steve at the Harrington’s he hates it more then he thought. It’s lonely, and very empty. He can barely go two days. The food is amazing but other then that it isn’t working. Even though he doesn’t have a lot of luxury he is happy where he is and Steve is more happy being with him.

They both learn to grow past the financial situations they grew up in and focus on other things. Like each other. Even though Eddie has to teach Steve how to cook. Though they can happily meet on a middle ground when they move in their own apartment. More middle class then trailer park trash and a snobby asshole. They both live happily.

[fandoms-in-law]

Stories Chapter 2

chapter 1

Chapter Summary: Robin and Steve get to Steve's house and after dancing around Steve's reaction to his notebooks being found get distracted by something bigger

Warnings: child abuse and neglect, suicidal indeation (all warnings are for things that happened in the past of the story, not the present)

/\/\

That evening came too soon for Steve, but he was at least able to focus on the fact he and Robin were closing meant all the kids should be in their homes before he got to his, so only Eddie and Robin would have any opportunity to ask any questions.

Eddie was waiting on the sofa when Robin and Steve got there, cuddling one of the notebooks Steve had definitely asked to be put in his room and ignored.

"It's the one Lucas borrowed to take notes in. Don't worry, after your call I moved him next to me so neither he nor any of the other brats could keep reading your writing. He stuck to just the pages at the back he was taking notes on before they decided to see what these are hidden for." Eddie explained before anything could be said. "I said it's your choice if the pages are torn out for him to add to his dnd notes or he needs to copy them from one of the others.”

Steve nodded after a moment, holding a hand out to get his notebook back before heading to the kitchen. "I need dinner and a drink if Robs is set on actually talking about this shit. But thanks for that. It's just private stuff though, stupid nonsense."

"Didn't seem stupid to me, but you're right. There's no pressure to talk about anything you don't want to." Eddie countered but got up to follow him through.

"There is. It's something I should work through and this one is set that we're going to help each other through the trauma we've faced whether that's Hawkins hell related or not apparently." Steve sighed, tuning out Robin's reply and the conversation that grew between her and Eddie as he focused on cooking a simple pasta.

"Dinner and are you planning to bring up the elephant in the room now, or after we've eaten?" Steve asked eventually, turning around with the plated food and going to the fridge to grab drinks out.

Eddie hummed, "You okay if we say now? I mean this seems to be making you more tense the longer it's delayed and they are just some stories."

"I'm fine and no. They're what was needed for King Steve to exist! These are pages telling me the monsters can be defeated, that we can be safe in a town sitting atop hell like Hawkins is." Steve shook his head, hand automatically going to his notebook to prevent anyone else taking it even though neither moved.

Robin shrugged after a moment. "Why did king Steve need to exist if you had to write stories to be him? Stories you can't stand us knowing about let alone sharing."

"Want me to list what a Harrington is for you? Cause you won't find stories, read or written or simply dreamt anywhere in there." He huffed, eating before he could say anything more and wondering if he could get out of answering too many questions by keeping his mouth full. It didn't seem likely; if he tried they'd just wait until he finished.

Eddie confused him however by looking around the room, wandering into the living room for a moment. "You know I've wondered before why there are no book here and assumed they're all just kept in cupboards or something. You're telling me that no, you're just not allowed them? Seriously? Fuck money if it means you can't have stories! That's fucked up Stevie!"

"It's what my life has been. Fit the expectations, never give away the times I struggle to reach them and keep our name important to the town." Steve stated.

There must have been something in his voice or expression because Robin shared a look with Eddie before asking, "What happens if you don't meet their expectations?"

"This, at first at least." He gestured broadly to the house around them, empty as always. "Then later things like the pool heating being turned off so I either couldn't practice or risked hypothermia each time, being kept from school trips, and you know money was cut off when I didn't get into college. That wasn't the first time though. They were never here way before then and the amount they left for me to survive on was based on how well I was meeting their expectations. The amount they sent for extended trips just the same."

Neither knew how to respond to it and after a few moments of seeing Robin and Eddie both try to think of what to say Steve continued, "Do you get it now? Everything has to be what they want or that could happen again. It can't - I can't - I've no fucking clue how to let it go because it's still hovering there. Doctor Owens said they'd do something after realising my parents weren't around to confirm the keep quiet payment, but that just got me paperwork."

Robin frowned at that, then clapped her hands. "Show us this paperwork then dingus. Maybe he did do something since we got full bank accounts to keep our mouths shut. Didn't you?"

"Third time, this time, yeah. I guess I did." Steve said after thinking for a moment.

"I'm calling Nancy. You two chat." Robin declared. "Don't give me that look. I'm just asking what she and Mike got for keeping shtum. They've been in this from the start so she'll know if getting paperwork is weird which I'm sure it is."

They watched her disappear into the living room before Steve jumped up to clear their plates away. "I could swear she's waiting as long as she can before asking to look in the notebook."

"Was Dnd what you meant when you said I do things daily you'd prefer to face Russians than do?" Eddie asked instead of responding.

"Just sharing stories." He shrugged. "I just want to feel safe enough for that."

"I hope I'm someone that can happen around, Stevie. The bit I read before realising you probably wouldn't want us reading that was really good. You've been telling yourself stories for a while, haven't you?" Eddie's voice was soft, gentle as he watched Steve decide to clean the dishes.

Steve paused in his movements before glancing back at him almost shyly. "I think you will be. I've thought about showing them to you before, but it's just-"

"Everything drilled into you mind by the genetic excrement you came from." He finished, making Steve laugh when he understood the insult to his parents.

"And Nancy agrees it's weird you got paperwork instead of a full bank account. Where's the paperwork you got?" Robin called, coming back through and looking over the table as if expecting it to be there now.

Both men rolled their eyes. "It's in my room. If you're really set on looking through it then let's go. It's not gonna change anything. My parents still rule the house."

"Legally that might not be so." Robin tutted. "Let's go."

"I'm leading the way and putting my notebooks away before doing anything to get this paperwork out." Steve insisted, catching her shoulder to pull her back when she tried to hurry up the stairs ahead of him.

All his notebooks were out, scattered over his bed, some left open even and Steve didn't give his friends a chance to follow him in, slamming the door behind him to make sure nothing more was read of them. He couldn't bring himself to rush putting them away though.

These books felt like his friends just as much as the pair outside his door and the kids who caused all this were. He wouldn't risk damaging them or the stories that had comforted through pressures and nightmares alike.

Only once the were safely back in his wardrobe did he open the door to Robin's knocking that had been constant from the moment he shut it.

"How long did Dustin take to bring a notebook down for Lucas to take notes in?" he asked to Eddie, already having realised that he'd have been called earlier than he was if all his notebooks had been seen by everyone.

Eddie thought for a moment before admitting, "Long enough that Mike was about to rip pages from his notebook for Lucas and in his words 'drag Dustin to the game by his ears'. Erica volunteered to do the same."

"Which one looked through the notebook that convinced you to call me?" Steve knew how shy he felt over the subject was clear in how quiet his voice had become.

"Dustin again. When I called for a break he told Lucas to look in the front and got all the shitheads involved except for Erica who said she'd murder them if they acted like that over her notes and bet you would too."

Steve snorted at that. "Which was when you called me to prevent any murders?"

"Which was when I confiscated the notebook to check if it was private. I think there was a suicidal character on the page they were looking at then. That's when I called you." Eddie was serious now, searching Steve's face for a reaction and clearly surprised when he relaxed a little more then.

Steve just waved a hand, standing to start finding the paperwork from Doctor Owens. "Best way to story myself calm; project then have characters argue with it."

He froze when arms wrapped tightly around him, first one pair then another, halting his actions.

"You ever feel like that again, call me, call Robin, just fucking promise you'll let us help rather than just storying yourself calm." Eddie's voice was choked, rough and it took a moment of repeating the last things they said in his head for Steve to understand why.

"It wasn't a big thing, just thoughts after a nightmare. You know, middle of the night thoughts that mean fuck all in daylight." he tried to reassure. "I'm not going anywhere back then or now."

"Promise us anyway. We want to be here for you like you're here for everyone else." Robin insisted now, her grip on him tightening.

Steve huffed a laugh, hoping hearing it would help them relax that he's there and happy with them. "Fine, I promise that if ever thoughts of being better off dead are in my head I will try to reach out. Not saying for certain though."

"I guess that's good enough." They both pulled away, still watching him with concern.

"Can we focus on these pages and pages of nonsense that are meant to get me to keep quiet about the first two encounters with the Upside-down?" Steve let go of his wish to comfort them, opting for distraction instead. He quietly thought that since it would still be helping him they'd feel better doing that than the other distractions he was more tempted to use for himself.

Thankfully the pair accepted it, taking the pages, though still shooting concerned glances at him every so often. “So I'll take whatever you got the second time this happened and Robin can look through the first time things?” Eddie suggested, already taking the first pile out of Steve's hands and he pulled it out from his bedside table cabinet.

“I think it's all mixed together...” Steve mused, looking at the rest of the folders he'd put it in as he tugged it out. “You don't want me to go through it with you?” He asked a moment later, realising Eddie hadn't mentioned him.

Eddie chuckled slightly. “Stevie, if you actually cared what all this is, you'd have looked through it or tried to understand it before now. Or asked what it all is whenever Doctor Owens gave it to you. We're not going to force you into trying to understand it when you don't like 'paperwork' and the many things that word could include.”

“You could bake us some cookies or something to snack on while reading.” Robin suggested, recognising the feeling useless pout as he let it form. “I know you've been complaining about never getting to bake anything more interesting than sugar cookies or chocolate chip ones because the kids always ask for them.”

Steve looked between them for a moment. “I'm baking bread, then a Swiss roll. We can have French toast in the morning.” He decided.

…

He was halfway through baking the Swiss roll, doing some of the washing up in the short time it needed when he heard Robin come downstairs to the living room. “Yeah, hey Hopper, need some how to advice, you got a minute?” She said a moment later, piquing his curiosity enough that Steve moved to hover in the doorway between the rooms.

“Yeah, I want to know how Steve can change his landline number and how difficult it is to change the locks on doors?” If he wasn't already curious just because she was calling Hopper, that sentence had him hanging on every word, wishing he could hear Hopper's replies.

“You'll show us how this weekend? Seriously? Perfect and the phone? It's a company or phone line provider thing? Thanks, I'll get on with convincing him it's necessary then.” Steve felt like his eyebrows were about to detach and start climbing his hair with how high they must have gotten in surprise over what seemed to be implied that he'd be doing now. It definitely startled Robin when she turned although that might just have been that she wasn't expecting him to be in the doorway.

For a moment she hovered, waiting for him to speak or trying to think of something to say, Steve wasn't sure, but he needed to make sure the Swiss roll came out at the right time. “If you're already making plans like that for me, you're probably ready to come down here and start explaining what all those pages were. I bet not looking at them would be another way I've failed to meet my parents expectations.”

“Pretty sure if they know what they are, there's no complaints from those assholes that you haven't looked at them.” Robin grinned when he glanced back, heading to the oven. “But sure, Eddie and I will bring the important ones down now. Quick question first, how do you feel about redecorating?”

Steve froze where he'd been opening the oven. “It's not allowed. Mother will throw a fit if I even suggest getting rid of the plaid in my room.”

“Good answer.” Robin agreed cryptically, as if he'd said let's get wallpaper tomorrow instead of refused. She disappeared upstairs before anything else could be said.

Refocusing to ensure the Swiss roll was actually rolled before the cake would crack instead of rolling, Steve absently wondered if that was the point. If he was changing the locks, changing the phone number, then his parents wouldn't be able to access him or the house without knocking so he would be able to change things.

Thankfully that was finished before Eddie appeared in the kitchen, spinning Steve around and into a seat with the loud declaration of “You have a choice of good news, great news, and fucking fantastic but never tell the kids news.”

"I'd say start with the best but dude, do what you want. It's not like third place in your list is a bad thing." He laughed, gesturing for Eddie to continue.

"Well then, third place for awesome things found in your reward paperwork, your dad is a moron who I bet didn't read the papers the government got him to sign. You could claim ownership of almost anything from him as reward for the shit you've gone through and he can't argue because of this little page!" Eddie brandished the piece of paper as if it was a shield. "He gives you shit for not reading documents just point out he probably didn't either."

Steve smirked, taking the page and pretending to read it now. "He'd just fall back on the 'I trust the government' line until realising I could actually do this. Only thing I'd want is like ownership of here and money for bills."

"Perfect time for me to bring up that you already have that then!" Eddie cheered, another document pulled from behind his back. "Deeds to the house, irretractable and permanent unless you decide to sell. If you want the pool heating back on that's your choice to make."

Steve's jaw drops and he sags backwards before startling forwards from not finding the back of the chair when he expected to. "This is mine? Fully mine, not just 'pay the bills yourself since you failed to get into college' mine?" He repeated, staring around the house as if unable to process the news.

"Yeeesssss." Robin drawled out. "Which leads to the best of it all, you can decorate it however you like and I'm already saying the kids are not being told and should be banished from your house until its done because you Know they'll try to take over and correct any choice you make to their tastes."

Steve blinked at he for a moment before nodding in slow motion, clearly still not processing what it meant. "I can have posters and photos up in my room?" He asked.

"Your room, down here, anywhere. Hell you could plaster the fridge with embarrassing photos or artwork by the kids if you wanted to." Eddie gestured widely around the room as he spoke as if just waving would produce the pictures.

Steve carried on his slow nodding. "Right. This is my house and I can make it a home if I want too. Does that mean you two could move in so it isn't completely empty always?" He looked vulnerable, curling into himself as he realised what he'd asked.

Both of them laughed slightly, "We'll have to see about that. Seems like a big adjustment for all of us when you need the support here." Robin tried to gently reject the offer.

Eddie thought for a moment, watching Steve's reaction and letting the reason why he was asking settle into his brain. "If you can convince Wayne he doesn't need to check I'm alive and not on the run again then maybe in a month or two. We can have plenty more sleepovers before then as we help you though." He offered instead.

"That sounds good. I'd - Can we have a sleep over tonight?" Steve requested, looking between them.

The agreement for that comes easily, all three of them moving back to the living room to put a film on and have some of the cake Steve made.

chapter 3