#the scene with mom in ch11......... man

[hydn-jpg]

this is a sketch i did for children's day! (5th may in korea so this is from quite a while ago haha) i never had any plans to post this (which is why it's kinda jank lol) but i'm working on something Big™ rn so i thought i'd post this in the meantime!

translation here bc i'm too lazy to edit the image:

jiwon kim (age 1)

cas: you were so chubby lol

gabe: so cute!

mc's mom: isn't my jiwon just the cutest?

jiwon (my mc): moooooooomm!!

[berenwrites]

Whole New Us Ch20 - Stranger Things - Steddie

Whole New Us: Trauma Bonded and Beyond

Also on AO3 | Or here CH1 | CH2 | CH3 | CH4 | CH5 | CH6 | CH7 | CH8 | CH9 | CH10 | CH11 | CH12 | CH13 | CH14 | CH15 | CH16 | CH17 | CH18 | CH19 | CH20 | CH21 | CH22 | CH23 | CH24 | CH25 (Mature) | CH25 (Fade to black) COMPLETE

Summary: Steve has been ignoring his own problems, he’s been busy. They’ve all been busy, preoccupied with fixing everything that was broken. Vecna has been defeated, but the Upside Down is still there, and the gates are not completely closed even though Hawkins has almost returned to normal. It’s been a couple of months and the aftereffects of Steve’s encounter with the demobats is about to come back to bite him. However, it also brings some unexpected hope.

Pairing: steddie (Steve Harrington/Eddie Munson)

Rating: Teen (with mature content in later chapters)

Chapter 20.    Unexpected Truth

Steve sighed as Mike threw popcorn at Dustin, but he was so content that he didn’t have the heart to yell at him. He was going to have to take out all the couch cushions to clean, again, but they looked so happy. It had been a week and a half since graduation and Dustin had begged for a movie night as summer boredom set in. It was him, Robin, Eddie and all the kids except Erica, who was having a sleepover with Tina because she did not trust anyone else’s taste in movies.

Eddie was almost sitting on top of Steve, but Eddie was a touchy-feely kind of guy, so no one had even blinked, and Robin was on his other side using him as a sentient space heater even though it was late June. She always complained the AC was on too high.

The movie was just about over and, for once, Steve had made it all the way through. He still wasn’t quite back to one hundred percent and had an unfortunate habit of falling asleep when there wasn’t anything actively taking his attention. Robin was constantly ribbing him for it, especially at work, although, suspiciously, she always left him to it if they didn’t have any customers to deal with.

There was a big fight scene going on when he suddenly had the strangest feeling. His hackles went up and he was instantly alert, then the front door slammed. Nearly everyone in the room was ready to leap out of their seat at that, but Steve was the only one who stood as shock made him move.

“Mom, Dad,” he said, staring at his parents, “you didn’t tell me you were coming home.”

“Clearly,” his mom said, looking at all the kids in their movie night PJs.

“Well, this is inconvenient,” was what his dad chose to say, annoyance dripping from his tone.

Steve had no idea how to respond.

“No, nope, definitely not, just no,” it was Eddie’s voice that cut through the uncomfortable atmosphere as he stepped past Steve, putting himself right in the firing line. “You do not have the right to call the family Steve found because you couldn’t be bothered to be here, inconvenient.”

“How dare you,” Steve’s mother said.

“Who the hell are you?” his father said at the same time.

“Probably your worst nightmare,” Eddie replied.

Steve reached out to put his fingers on Eddie’s shoulder, but Eddie gave him a look. It said so many things.

“Wait, I’ve seen you before,” his father said.

Eddie put a hand up to his face, covering the scars on his cheek.

“Better?” he asked, his tone scathing. “I didn’t have the pretty additions when they took my picture.”

Steve saw his father’s eyes open in shock.

“You’re the man who killed the Cunningham girl,” his father accused, because of course he did.

“No, he didn’t,” Steve said very loudly and very firmly.

Eddie momentarily shrank a little at the accusation, the guilt at not being able to save Chrissy clearly obvious, and Steve was not having that.

“Eddie was a victim, just as much as Chrissy,” he said, refusing to back down from his father’s angry stare. “He was completely exonerated, and he nearly died saving Dustin, so don’t accuse him of what you don’t understand.”

“Which you would have known if you had been here,” Eddie added, totally not helping.

“That’s enough,” his father shouted, “I want everyone who does not live here out of my house now.”

Steve’s heart thudded in his chest as the thought of being alone crashed into him.

“No.”

Eddie’s voice cut like a knife. Steve’s father opened his mouth to say something scathing back.

“No,” Eddie said again, “you don’t get to say that. This might be your house, but it’s Steve’s home. If you had told him you were coming back, I have no doubt he would have made sure your big empty house was perfect for you, but you didn’t even give him that courtesy, so, no, you don’t get to say that. He needs this more than you need your spotless house.”

“Steven, do something about your friends,” his father demanded, but Steve didn’t know what to say. “You’re a disgrace, lounging around in bedclothes with children.”

“Stop right there,” Eddie said in a tone that added or-I’ll-make-you without it being said. “Your son is the farthest thing from a disgrace you can get. He is one of the bravest men I have ever met, and he’ll look after anyone who needs it. At the moment I can’t for the life of me figure out where he picked up either of those traits.”

“How dare…” was as far as his father got.

“How dare I, I’ll tell you how I dare,” Eddie went on, and all Steve could do was stare. “While you weren’t looking, your son helped save the world five times…”

“Eddie,” Robin hissed.

“No,” Eddie said turning to give her a look, “they need to know, or they will never get it. And I mean that absolutely literally, by the way,” Eddie went on staring down Steve’s parents, “there has been shit going down here you would not believe. I’m late to the party, I was only in on one of those, but Steve, and those kids over there, they’ve done it all five fucking times. And let’s not forget the fact that your darling boy has been kidnapped and tortured by the Russians twice, and you don’t have the remotest clue it happened even once.”

His mom was staring at him flicking between horror and disbelief.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” his father started to say.

Steve just couldn’t take the tirade that he knew was about to come, so he did the only thing he could think of, he pulled his t-shirt off. The scars that littered his skin were clear for all to see. His mother gasped, dropping her clutch purse and immediately coming towards him.

“Oh my god,” she said, almost, but not quite reaching out to touch him, “my poor baby. Why didn’t you tell us?”

The cruel words that jumped into his head were ‘you wouldn’t have listened anyway’, but what he said was, “I wasn’t allowed to.”

“What do you mean weren’t allowed,” his father demanded, “we’re you parents? Tell me everything right now!”

It was exactly the wrong tone at exactly the wrong moment. Steve’s mind filled with memories. There was Starcourt and there was the brute with the cattle prod, overlayed on each other as the present vanished in pain and fear.

“Fuck,” he heard, but it sounded so distant.

He wanted to run, to struggle, but he was frozen, unable to do anything.

“Steve, Steve, sweetheart look at me.”

The voice called to him, but he couldn’t remember who it belonged to.

Someone grabbed his chin, yanking his head around and he couldn’t fight back. He felt Eddie, but he couldn’t see him. Did they have Eddie too? He couldn’t bear it if they had caught Eddie.

“Steve, it’s Eddie, I need you to come back,” the voice said, out of his captor’s distorted face. “You’re safe, Stevie, no one is going to hurt you.”

“Eddie,” he muttered, but Eddie hadn’t been at Starcourt.

Then it was like a revelation: but Eddie had come for him this time. Eddie had been there.

“Yes, Steve,” Eddie’s voice told him out of the chimera face his mind was conjuring, “that’s right, Eddie. You’re safe, everyone’s safe, it’s all good.”

“Safe?” he asked, even more confused.

“Safe,” Eddie confirmed.

Ever so slowly the hard grip on his chin morphed until he could feel a hand on each of his cheeks, a gentle touch unlike the one his mind had conjured. And like the sun coming out from behind clouds, the twisted face in front of him melted away to leave Eddie’s worried visage. He blinked a couple of times just to make sure.

“Are you back, Stevie?” Eddie asked in an incredibly gentle tone.

He still felt a bit spacy, but Steve nodded. He wasn’t sure he could manage words right at that moment. When he realised his dad’s voice had sent him into a full-blown flashback he began to shake.

“Okay, Dingus,” Robin’s warm voice told him as she gently placed her hands on his shoulders, “we’ve got you. Time to sit down before you fall down.”

As Eddie and Robin guided him to the kid’s couch, he didn’t have any will to object. He found himself pushed down onto the soft cushions as the others made room for him before he was wrapped in a blanket and surrounded on all sides by careful teenagers.

“Look after him,” Eddie told Dustin, “we’ll deal with this.”

When Eddie looked over at Steve’s parents he tried to reach out, to protest or something, he wasn’t quite sure, but his arms were pinned in the blanket, and he had zero coordination to get out.

“Eddie,” he said, but any other words failed him.

“Steve,” Eddie said, no playfulness in his features at all, “let Robin and me handle this, you’re in no state. Let the kids keep you grounded, and Rob and I will be back soon.”

He really, really didn’t want Eddie to go anywhere, but after a moment he nodded.

Eddie shared a look with Robin which Steve couldn’t follow because his brain was too fuzzy before they stood back from the pile of people and walked where he couldn’t see. He almost panicked again, but El patted his shoulder and curled closer to his side and distracted him. Flashbacks were hard and his brain felt all out of sync, but he accepted the comfort as well as he could.

His eyes flicked to the TV screen where the credits of the movie were playing on mute.

“Don’t forget to rewind,” was possibly the stupidest thing he could say, but it was the only thing in his brain that made sense.

End of Chapter 20

Chapter 21