lady-pug

[lady-pug]

in the morning (when the day is new)

Chapter II of Wouldn't It Be Nice

Summary: You sustain a head injury while on a mission but Whiskey isn’t fast enough to administer the alpha gel, so your memories of your time at Statesman don’t come back. Instead, you only remember up until the day before you were recruited and your memory ends up being reset every night. Jack makes it his mission to make you fall in love with him everyday (50 First Dates AU)

Pairing: Jack Daniels | Agent Whiskey x Reader

Word count: 3,5k

Warnings: memory loss

Notes: Yay, chapter two is up! And I’m already working on chapter three (I’ll try to have it out as quickly as I can)! I hope you, my dear reader, enjoy this chapter; I had a lot of fun writing it!

Next part | Previous part | Masterlist | Read on AO3

He stuttered, his breath hitching.

“What?”

He couldn’t seem to remember how to breathe, something as simple as inhaling was too complex of a task at that moment.

“Jack…”

He finally acknowledged Ginger, who was looking at him with something akin to pity in her eyes.

“What happened?”

She grabbed his elbow and practically had to drag him away into a corner.

“What happened, Liz?” he started rambling “Ain’t she supposed to remember by now? Haven’t you shown her that picture of her parents? Why ain’t she-”

“Jack, hey, listen” she interrupted “I don’t know what happened. She woke up, with no recollection of me, like usual. But when I showed her the picture… nothing. She only said she missed them, that’s all. She doesn’t remember you nor me!” she was frustrated, Jack could tell. It was understandable, you were her best friend after all.

“Uhm, excuse me?” you called, still sitting confusedly on the bed “Am I clear to go? Or is there anything else you’d like to do? Any other exams?"

They both turned to you, hesitantly.

“It’s just that I have a job interview today.” you explained, a hesitant although excited smile taking over your features.

“A job interview?” Ginger took a step forward “Where?”

“It’s a-” you hesitated, your smile faltering for only a split second before you recovered “a distillery. Statesman.”

Jack and Liz shared a look. 

“It’s the day we met.” Jack mumbled “Her memories were reset to the day we met.”

“What are you talking about, Whiskey?”

“At the bar out front.” he started rambling, explaining his thought process to Ginger “She, uh, she was upset, thought the interview and trials were no good to actually get her the job. I-I offered to buy her a drink ‘for luck’. But I already knew she was in.”

Ginger smiled at the fond, if not a little desperate, way Jack talked about the memory.

“Please, Elizabeth, I’m begging you” he grabbed her hands, fighting the stinging ache in his eyes “help her remember. She has to remember-” he paused for a brief second, not wanting to disclose too much of his feelings, the ones he was still coming to terms with himself “-us. Help her remember us.”

Ginger smiled sadly at him.

“I’ll do my very best to help her remember you, Jack.”

Jack was taken aback for a moment, but he should have known she could read him like an open book. Ginger was a smart woman.

“Thank you.” he smiled back.

She turned back to you.

“Do you remember anything that happened?”

You shook your head.

“I went to sleep last night, and then… I woke up here.” you looked around “Where am I exactly?”

“A hospital. You were in a car accident.” Ginger creatively came up with that as she went.

“Oh god, did anyone get hurt?” Jack couldn’t help but smile, the way you cared for others more than you did for yourself shining through even if you had lost part of your memories.

“You did, dear.” Ginger continued carefully “You hit your head pretty hard. I want to run a few more exams just to make sure you’re okay. It’s best if you stay the night.”

“But my interview-” you started to protest.

“I have a friend who works at Statesman.” not being able to stand the sight of you in distress, Jack intervened “I’ll give him a call, explain the situation and ask ‘em to reschedule.”

Your radiant smile warmed his heart.

“You’d do that for me?”

“Of course, sweetheart.”

Ginger walked back towards Jack.

“She seems to be suffering from a strange case of anterograde amnesia: she can remember things before her time at the agency, but not after. I’ll monitor her and see if she gets any better.”

“Okay.” he nodded, absentmindedly.

Walking out of the lab, Ginger stopped him before he could get too far.

“You should try and get some rest. I don’t know how long it’s going to take for her to regain her memories.”

“Of course.” he nodded, a bit disorientated when thinking about what he should do now “Let me know if anything changes, will you?”

She nodded and he started walking away, his mind clouded and his heart heavy. 

The moonlight was shining down on your skin. He barely registered the uncomfortable feeling of sand seeping in between his sprawled fingers, all he could focus on was the steady rise and fall of your chest laying next to him.

“I can feel you staring, cowboy.”

Jumping in surprise, he looked at how your now open eyes were staring at him from under hooded eyelids, a small smile playing on your lips.

“What are you thinking about?”

He shrugged.

“Just can’t wrap my head ‘round how dazzling you look, sweetheart.”

You snorted, dissolving into a fit of giggles.

“You’re so corny, Jack.”

“What? S’true!”

Your laughter was radiant enough to light up an entire room, he thought. Maybe he was corny afterall.

Still laying on the sand, you squirmed on your back and wormed your way next to him, perpendicular to his legs, and settled with your head on his lap. He admired your face, eyes closed again, a peaceful look taking over your features.

“What would you be doing if you weren’t an agent?”

The question startled him slightly. What would he be doing if he wasn’t an agent? He took a moment to ponder. Remembering the life he could have had if only those addicts hadn’t decided to rob the very same store his wife was at was too painful. You were one of the few people he felt comfortable enough to talk about her and his baby boy nowadays. He wished you two could have met, he had a feeling you’d have been great friends.

“I think I’d like to be a teacher.”

Your eyes snapped open, a mischievous smile.

“Mr. Daniels, huh?” you smirked “What subject would you teach?”

“Math.” you giggled in disbelief “I mean it! I can solve some killer algebra equations.” you laughed even more, some tears visibly gathering in the corner of your eyes “But if I’m being honest, I’d rather it be kindergarten.”

Your face softened. Smiling at him you nodded your chin for him to continue.

“I love kids. Especially that age, when they’re discovering the world. The faces they make when they find something new and exciting. I’d love to be able to help in that process.”

The look on your face, the pure adoration he could see in your eyes, was enough to bring heat to his face.

“What about you?” he changed the subject “Got any ideas?”

You smiled shyly, averting your eyes.

“With the answer you just gave, mine is going to sound very lame.”

“S’not. I promise.”

Looking back at him, you grin turned mischievous once again.

“When I was a kid I wanted to be a vet, or a biologist, just so I could work at an aquarium.”

“An aquarium?” he asked in amusement.

“Yeah. I really wanted to work with walrus and otters. They are really cute!”

Jack laughed, amused with your thought process as a kid.

“Walrus? Cute?”

“Have you ever seen a walrus?”

“I have” he answered “and all they remind me of is Champ.”

You burst out laughing, nodding your head in agreement. He laughed so hard at your own laughter he almost cried. Once you calmed down, you sat up and turned to look at him, a new glint in your eyes.

“Do you ever think about getting back out there?”

“Out there?” he was confused.

“To dating.”

Thinking about it for a moment, he contemplated his answer.

“Maybe. If the right woman comes along.”

The look in your eyes held something mysterious, something he couldn’t quite place his finger on.

Just as he was about to ask you the same thing, something stopped him. A beeping of some kind.

“What’s that?” 

“What’s what?” you replied, but your voice sounded very far away.

“That!” he turned back to you, but you weren’t there “Sweetheart?”

He jolted awake, abruptly pulled from the depths of his consciousness. Sighing, he gripped the bridge of his nose, fighting off the tears that were slowly welling up in his eyes, their stinging a painful reminder of what was going on in his life at the moment. What wouldn’t he give to go back to sleep, back to that dream? It was a nice dream, most of it a fond memory he kept close to his heart. It was late at night after a rough mission in Hawaii a few months back, none of you were in condition to jump on a plane and go back to Kentucky, so Champ extended your stay in the hotel by the beach for one more night. Restless from the adrenaline that was still pumping in your veins, you both decided to take a midnight dive in the ocean, which led to a quiet moment watching the stars and talking about life. He wished he could go back to then, when things were easier.

A beeping noise startled him, almost making him jump out of his skin. It was the same sound he heard at the end of his dream. Stumbling around his room, he finally found his phone, which had a bunch of messages from Ginger. Dialing her number, he suppressed a yawn, jumping into professional mode.

“Whiskey.”

“Jack, you might want to come down here, as soon as possible.” Ginger’s voice sounded slightly strained. 

“What happened?” he was dressed and out the door in the blink of an eye.

“Just… get down here.” and with that she hung up.

Almost bumping into several other agents minding their business, Jack quickly got down to Ginger’s lab. The woman in question was waiting for him outside the door.

“Ginger, what happened?”

“I think it’s better if you see it for yourself.”

She led him inside, where he found you, still sitting on the same bed, now wearing a hospital gown.

“Hey!” you greeted them. You eyed him, a confused look crossing your face before you addressed Ginger “Who is this?”

Jack turned to Ginger, confused, but she was already looking at him with a sad smile.

“We met yesterday, remember?”

Shaking your head, you squinted your eyes as if making an effort to try and remember.

“Hmm, no. I think I’d remember meeting you.” 

“What do you remember from yesterday?” Ginger spoke up.

“I went to bed last night and then… then I woke up here” you looked around and Jack felt like he was having a deja vu “Where am I exactly?”

“She woke up and she didn’t remember me, nor where she was.” Ginger turned to him, speaking under her breath.

“Can I go now? I have a job interview today!” you spoke, excitedly.

“Her memories were reset overnight?” Jack spoke, his stomach churning with worry.

“Seems like it.”

“But how?”

The woman before him sighed, and for a brief moment she looked like she had aged ten years in just a day. Walking out of your earshot, outside of the lab, she started explaining.

“Whatever happened seems to have affected her brain’s ability to turn short term memories into long term ones. Sleep seems to be the trigger for the reseting.”

“Is there anything you can do?”

“I can keep her here for a few more days, run a few more tests.”

“Yeah, more tests sound good.” he nodded, slightly disoriented by all the new information Ginger had just dumped on him.

“But Jack.” he hummed in acknowledgment “I don’t think you should keep coming to see her.”

His head snapped back towards her, eyes wide and furious.

“Why not?!” he asked, probably more harshly than he intended.

“I can see this is taking a toll on you. Seeing her like this I mean.”

“But I can’t not see her! That ain’t right! She- Liz, I-I can’t not know, I-” he stumbled over his words, worry and anger at the whole situation threatening to overflow him “She’s one of my best friends. I need to know she’s okay.”

Ginger sighed heavily, having noticed the redness and the glossy shine that had overtaken the man’s eyes.

“You love her, don’t you?” she spoke softly, almost whispering.

His rambling came to a halt, eyes widening as if she had slapped him in the face. He looked away for a moment and gulped, like even thinking about those words physically hurt him.

“Yeah,” he looked back at Ginger “I do love her.” 

“Then let me do my job.”

“I just-” he choked on a sob he was trying to supress “I can’t lose her. Not like this. Not again.”

“You won’t.”

“How can you know that?!” he snapped, practically shouting at her.

Her eyes hardened.

“Because I’m the one looking after her. And I’m really good at what I do.”

He deflated.

“I-I’m sorry, Liz. I’m sorry.”

She placed a gentle hand on his shoulder, her eyes softening.

“It’s alright, Jack. I know how much she means to you.” she said “That’s why you should stay away for a while. I’ll keep you updated.”

“You can’t just expect me to sit around and do nothing, Ging.”

“I don’t. Can you go to her quarters, bring me anything you think might be useful in bringing her memories back?” she asked. “Trinkets, clothes, pictures, anything.”

“Yeah, I can do that.”

“Do you ever think about getting back out there?”

“Out there?” he was confused.

“To dating.”

Thinking about it for a moment, he contemplated his answer.

“Maybe. If the right woman comes along.”

The look in your eyes held something mysterious, something he couldn’t quite place his finger on.

“And has she?”

“Has who what?”

There was something cheeky, almost bold in your smile.

“The right woman.” your smile only grew, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world “Has she come along?”

His eyes widened, almost the size of dinner plates. You were trying to kill him, he was sure. How could he answer that, without making things awkward for the both of you? He could always lie to save face, but he knew you could read him like an open book and would see right through his lies. Clearing his throat, he thought for a minute or so, before deciding to be honest.

“I guess she might have.”

Your grin turned into a soft smile. Placing a hand on his knee, you turned your body fully in his direction.

“Yeah?”

The glimmer in your eyes cast by the moon did something to him. He couldn’t hold himself back any longer. With a crooked index finger under your chin, he tilted your head up, your faces only millimeters from each other. 

“I think she is closer than I imagine.”

And then he was kissing you. Closing the gap, he placed his chapped lips on your soft ones in a sweet, almost chaste kiss. It felt a lot better than he ever expected, it even felt kinda… magical. As you pulled back he realized you were smiling at him, your hand running down his cheek and cupping his jaw.

“I certainly hope so.” you said with a dreamy expression before climbing into his lap, knees on either side of his hips. You dived in for another kiss, your hands sliding from his jaw to the base of his neck, gripping his hair. The kiss was a lot more passionate this time. His own hands moved accordingly, the one gripping your chin sliding up to cup your jaw and the other resting on your hip.

“I just want to stay here and kiss you.” you whispered against his lips, barely pulling away “Again. And again, and again” between each sentence you pressed a peck to his lips “And again. And again, until you’ve decided you’ve had enough of me.”

“Not gonna happen, sweetheart.” he said, before kissing you again.

There was a soft beam of sunlight streaming through the drapes as his eyes opened against his will. That bit of the dream was new, nowhere near part of his memories. He should have kissed you, like in the dream, he now knows he should have. Instead he had cracked some half-assed joke and walked back to his hotel room. Retreating like a coward, he scolded himself for hours later as he laid awake in his bed. A part of him longed to go back to that night and make things right.

A glance at his phone let him know Champ was requesting an all-agents meeting first thing that morning, which made him sigh. It was going to be a long day.

The past three days had been torture for Jack. Ginger ran all the tests she could think of and yet you didn’t seem to be making any improvement. Everynight your memories were reset back to the day you met. He was getting more frustrated by the hour but there was nothing he could do.

Dragging his feet into the conference room, he noticed all other agents were already there, Champ at the head of the table, Ginger standing silently next to him.

“Good. Now that everyone’s here we can start.” Champagne said “Ginger, if you will.”

Ginger took a step forward.

“As you may know, Agent Cider has been compromised in action.” Jack swallowed harshly, still not totally rid of the guilt “After taking too long to administer the alpha gel, her memories of her time as a Statesman agent haven’t returned. What’s worse, since then her brain has suffered some kind of extensive damage to the point where her memories are reset every night. Meaning she believes she’s always going through the same day.”

A hand quickly shot up in the air.

“Like ‘Groundhog Day’?” asked Lemonade, a junior agent who usually compensated for lack of knowledge and experience with enthusiasm.

“Something like that, yes. Except she isn’t aware she has already gone through that day.” Ginger resumed her explanation “The day her memories are stuck on is the day of her Statesman interview and trials.”

“Why are you telling us all of this?” Vermouth asked in that arrogant tone both you and Jack both detested.

“We are going to send her back home.”

Jack stood up so fast his chair almost scraped against the carpet.

“What? Why?” he almost yelled, barely managing to contain his fury and confusion “You can’t just give up on her!”

“Sit down, Agent Whiskey.” Champ’s stern voice left no room for argument, so Jack complied.

“We aren’t giving up on her. According to her, and to the records we managed to recover, she is supposed to come here in the afternoon to be interviewed. Instead of the physical trials soon-to-be agents are usually put through I’ll run exams to see her daily improvement. I’ll also send word to our sister branch in England and see if they can help us.”

“Where do we come in?” Tequila intervened.

“Whatever agent that is on base is to conduct Cider’s interview, everyday until she gets better.” Champ's booming voice explained “Y’all went through that interview already, you should know which questions to ask. Then you are to take her to Ginger’s lab so she can do her sciency shit. And by whoever’s on base I mean whoever’s here” he emphasized, looking sharply at Vermouth, who was rolling his eyes “except for Whiskey.”

Jack’s eyes widened.

“Why?”

“Because Ginger and I believe you’re already too involved and it’s not good for you. Take a step back and rest for a while, son.”

Whiskey went to protest, but Champ’s hardened yet kind eyes stopped him.

“Cider’s first interview is today.” the boss said after a moment “Y’all are dismissed.”

Sighing, Jack opened the door that led to the bar that was kept in the grounds of the distillery. He sat down at the bar signaling the bartender, an old friend of his.

“Whiskey, neat.”

The bartender narrowed her eyes.

“Are you sure, chief? It’s barely dusk.”

“Just keep ‘em coming.” 

She only shrugged, it wasn’t her problem really, so long as he didn’t start a ruckus or something.

With a long, defeated sigh, Jack laid his head on his arms on top of the counter, hiding his face from the world. His day had been shitty to say the least. First he got the news that Ginger was going to let you go, your memories having yet to return. Then he was notified he wouldn’t be able to see you anymore, that literally every other agent was going to interact with you and help except for your own partner. Except for him. He felt useless. Useless and helpless.

Once the bartender placed his glass in front of him with a soft thud, he raised his head, ready to down the entire drink in one gulp in order to drown his sorrows when something caught his eye across the bar. Nursing a drink and looking just as defeated as he felt, but at the same time just as beautiful as that first time (if not more) was someone he was beginning to lose hope in seeing anytime soon.

You.

#jack daniels x reader #agent whiskey x reader #jack daniels x f!reader #agent whiskey x f!reader #jack daniels x fem!reader #agent whiskey x fem!reader #kingsman fanfiction #kingsman: the golden circle fanfiction #kingsman fanfic #tw: memory loss

[lady-pug]

if we could wake up

Chapter I of Wouldn't It Be Nice

Summary: You sustain a head injury while on a mission but Whiskey isn’t fast enough to administer the alpha gel, so your memories of your time at Statesman don’t come back. Instead, you only remember up until the day before you were recruited and your memory ends up being reset every night. Jack makes it his mission to make you fall in love with him everyday (50 First Dates AU)

Pairing: Jack Daniels | Agent Whiskey x Reader

Word count: 1,1k

Warnings: major head injury (bullet to the head, but it's reversed using Statesman technology), memory loss

Notes: Hello dearest readers, it is I. I bring thee something that has been sitting among my WIPs for over two (I kid you not) whole years. I’ve had chapters one and two of this story completely ready stored in my files alongside all my other WIPs and simply never remembered to publish it FOR OVER TWO YEARS! Shame on me, wtf. Which makes me quite sad because it was one of my favorites to work on when I first came up with this idea. But anyways here it is.

I distinctly remember having come up with the idea for this after watching ‘50 First Dates’ four times in the same week (if it wasn’t clear by now this is my all time favorite rom-com) and thinking it fit right up with this cowboy right here.

I really hope you, dear reader, enjoy this story, and if you spot any mistakes, please feel free to warn me and I'll correct it right away, and feedback is always welcome and appreciated.

Reader is female, but no physical descriptions provided

Next part | Masterlist | Read on AO3

Bullets were flying, coming from everywhere. Whiskey could barely look over the cover he was hiding behind before someone was shooting at him.

“Ginger!” he screamed into the earpiece “Cider’s down!”

“What happened?” he heard the static voice of Agent Ginger Ale, or as her friends liked to call her, Elizabeth or Liz, over the comms.

“Dunno. Some goons are shooting at us. She just went down.” he ducked again after failing to locate his partner “Can’t even find her. Probably shot at.”

“Get to her immediately. If she got hit in the head you need to administer the alpha gel as soon as possible!”

“I’m trying here, Ging! Ain’t as easy with twenty guys aiming at your head.”

“Use one of those stunning bombs I made you.”

“I thought we weren’t supposed to use those prototypes yet.”

“That’s all you got now!” he could tell Ginger was becoming agitated “Just do it, Jack!”

He did just that. Picking up one of the stunning bombs in his pocket he threw it as hard as he could towards the barricade. A loud, piercing sound erupted almost immediately, hurting his ears even from where he was. Poor goons, he thought. With his ears still ringing, he took off using his whip and lasso to take out the men one by one.

Once the place was clear and no other enemies could be detected, he ran towards the place he last saw you. Where you had gone down. He came to a halt, however, his heart dropping to his stomach when his eyes landed on your slumped form, a bullet hole on your temple and blood covering the ground.

“Shit, Ging! They blew her brains out.”

“Administer the gel, quick! It’s been way too long already.”

He fumbled with the equipment, almost dropping the roll of gel, before he quickly placed  it over your face, making sure to cover the wound.

“Don’t worry, sweetheart. I’m here. I’m going to take care of you. Ging is going to fix your pretty little head in no time, yeah?”

The gel inflated and seemed to be doing its job. 

“Ginger, the gel’s been administered. What now?”

“I’m sending a rescue team your way. Try keeping her head slightly elevated.” she said “And Jack? She’s going to be okay.”

Jack nodded, even though she couldn’t see him. He moved around and propped his back against a tree, his legs extended in front of him. As carefully as he could, he dragged your body, laying your head on his lap, running his fingers through your hair.

“You are going to be fine, sweetheart. I promise.”

The following hours were amongst the longest of his life. Jack would even go as far as to say it was almost as long as the hours he went without any news from his wife the day she had died. As soon as the plane landed on the tarmac, a gurney was ready to take you, rolling you to Ginger’s lab.

She wouldn’t allow him to go inside. The machine you were currently hooked onto had nanoparticles working on your brain to regenerate your neurons, astrocytes and neuroglia, or something sciency he couldn’t quite understand. He was in absolute agony not knowing how you were.  

Finally, after what seemed like weeks, Ginger finally walked out of the lab. He scrambled to his feet from where he was sitting slumped against the wall in front of the lab’s doors.

“How is she?” he blurted out.

“Stable. But the damage to her brain was extensive. And the alpha gel wasn’t administered within the correct window of time.”

“Shit, Liz- I- If I had gotten to her quicker…”

“Hey, hey Jack” she laid a hand on his shoulder “It’s not your fault. There were 23 men shooting at the both of you. Our entire elite squad couldn’t take them all out that quick. You did all you could.”

He sighed, only half believing her.

“What does that mean to her?”

It was Ginger’s turn to sigh.

“I don’t know yet. I’ll only be able to assess the real extent of the damage once she wakes up.”

His shoulders slumped in defeat.

“Why don’t you take a shower, maybe try taking a nap? I’ll wake you up if anything changes.”

He nodded, actually wanting desperately to clean up now that Ginger mentioned it, but already knowing he wouldn’t be able to sleep a wink until he knew you were safe. 

Jack walked slowly back towards his quarters, almost dragging his feet into the shower. The water seemed to sooth his aches, but not his worries. He couldn’t get the image of your form, suddenly dropping lifeless, out of his head. Everytime he closed his eyes that scene replayed in the back of his eyelids like some sick, twisted film.

He couldn’t lose you. He couldn’t lose another person he- shit, did he love you? You have been partners for years now, always had each other's backs. You were one of the few people he truly trusted, someone he felt comfortable enough to open up and be vulnerable. To be himself. Recently, he’s started feeling something more than just the friendship you’ve nourished for the past years. He felt the urge to protect you, even though he knew for a fact you could look after yourself. He wanted to kiss you goodnight and wake up next to you the following morning. So did he love you? 

Yeah. Yeah, he did. He knew that now. And he couldn’t lose you.

Laying on his bed, his hair was still wet from the shower when Ginger pinged him. He was out of bed and halfway across the base in the blink of an eye. He couldn’t remember running that fast in years. Bursting through the door of the lab, he found you sitting on one of the pristine white beds, Ginger in front of you holding a clipboard.

“Sweetheart…”

Both you and Ginger looked at him with wide eyes. Ginger walked around your bed in his direction.

“Whiskey, wait-” but he didn’t listen.

“Sweetheart, thank all things sacred, you’re okay!” 

He rushed forward, wrapping his arms around you in the tightest embrace you two had ever shared. He pulled back, hardly noticing the way you stiffened in his embrace, cupping your cheeks so he could look into your eyes.

“Jack-” he faintly registered Ginger’s voice behind him, but he didn’t truly care. All he cared about was that you were safe. That is until you opened your mouth to talk.

“I’m sorry,” you smiled politely at him “but who are you?”

#jack daniels x reader #agent whiskey x reader #jack daniels x f!reader #agent whiskey x f!reader #jack daniels x fem!reader #agent whiskey x fem!reader #kingsman fanfiction #kingsman: the golden circle fanfiction #kingsman fanfic #tw: major head injury #tw: memory loss

[lady-pug]

dream a little dream of me

Chapter IV of Dream a Little Dream of Me

Summary: As you settled in for the night, sleep overcame you almost as soon as your head hit your pillow.

“You called?” you heard a voice call out in the darkness.

Opening your eyes, you noticed with joyous gidiness that you were once again standing on the cobbled street, the moonlight shining softly on your skin. And Morpheus, the man you desperately wished to see, was standing only a few steps in front of you.

“I-” you almost found yourself at a loss for words “I did.”

Pairing: Morpheus | Dream of the Endless x Reader

Word count: 1,4k

Warnings: none

Notes: So… hi. I’m back. I’d like to start off by apologizing. I’m so so sorry for how long I’ve been absent, and especially for how long this story went without an actual ending to it (even though I’d promised to have it out quickly, just goes to show I shouldn’t make promises I might not be able to keep). A lot has happened in my personal and professional life in the past months that have kept me away from writing. I’ve had the first half of this chapter for almost as long as the third one has been out but so much was happening that I didn’t have the time or the motivation (sometimes I lacked both to be honest) to come back and finish it.

But I’ve finally done it. This story is finally complete. I’ve had the idea for this chapter mostly planned out in my head since chapter 1, and now I finally get to share it with you. I’d like to thank anyone who has taken the time to read this story and embark on this small journey with me, whether it be just one chapter (even just one paragraph) or the complete story. Thank you so so much for reading, and a special thank you for anyone who has left any sort of feedback, it means the world to me. And again I’m so very sorry for taking so long to write this, I sincerely hope you can forgive me. And I truly hope you enjoy this, dear reader!

Reader's gender not specified

Previous part | Masterlist | Read on AO3

Things had started to look a little bit brighter after that night. Slowly, very slowly, little by little, things in your life started getting better, getting sorted out. It wasn’t immediate, nor was it without effort, but it was something.

The first thing you did after writing ten whole pages on that fateful Word Document was to start looking for a job. Literally anything would do, just so long as it got the bills paid and added food to the table, just long enough for you to get back on your feet and find a more permanent career. You’d be the first to admit that some of the jobs you took during that time, some of the people you’d met, were simply awful, sometimes bordering on humiliating. But some you actually enjoyed, and some of the people you had met you’d keep in your heart for a long time.

You’d also tried getting in touch with the people you’d grown apart, even if they didn’t want anything to do with you, just as a way to get closure. Some answered and some didn’t. Some didn’t want to talk, others agreed to meet. Some simply told you how things you’d done had hurt them, and you told them of how they had hurt you in return. And some had even agreed to try and work things out, slowly regaining contact and, eventually, their trust.

And finally, after several long months, you managed to save up enough money to travel back to your home town for a couple of days in order to pay your relative’s grave a visit. It wasn’t perfect, nor was it ideal, but it was enough, if only for now. You felt a strange sense of calmness looking at the words engraved in their headstone. The sort of calmness you had only felt when in the Dreaming.

Speaking of, your night visits to the Dreaming and its inhabitants had been a comfortable constant in your life for the past few months, at least in the beginning anyway. At first, you kept coming back every night, cherishing your conversations with the café owner, who you had come to know was named Amanda, or the little quips Matthew threw your way whenever he saw you walking around town. Even Mervyn’s rudeness was something you had grown fond of. But the thing you looked forward to the most was seeing Dream. Sometimes he’d actually stop by and engage in casual conversation with you, other times he'd just send a small grin your way over his shoulder in passing as he strode around town. But every single time you saw him you felt a warm, fuzzy fluttering feeling in your chest.

But eventually, as things in the waking world started to get better, your visits to the Dreaming started to become progressively more scarce. You started having other dreams too, some good, some not so much, your visions of the small town, and consequently your interactions with Morpheus, dwindling by the day. While it saddened you to let this go, to let him go, you cherished it even more so.

Tonight, though, almost an entire year after your first real conversation with him by the riverside, you really wished to visit him, even if it was one last time. It had been weeks since you’d last visited and you were hoping with all your heart to be able to talk to him again. You had good news to share after all.

As you got ready for bed your thoughts kept wandering back to Dream. Why had he become so special to you? Why were you special, like Lucienne had told you, in the first place? Why did you keep going back to the Dreaming? Maybe you’d never know the answer to those questions, and you realized with a quiet start that you were fine not knowing. Those things happened, and you were honestly glad they did, there was no point in dwelling on the past now.

As you settled in for the night, sleep overcame you almost as soon as your head hit your pillow. 

“You called?” you heard a voice call out in the darkness.

Opening your eyes, you noticed with joyous gidiness that you were once again standing on the cobbled street, the moonlight shining softly on your skin. And Morpheus, the man you desperately wished to see, was standing only a few steps in front of you.

“I-” you almost found yourself at a loss for words “I did.”

He smiled softly, head slightly tilted as if to ask what was on your mind.

“It’s just-” you shook your head in order to gather your thoughts “Since… that night, I’ve been coming here less and less.”

“It’s because you don’t need this anymore.”

For a brief moment you panicked, doesn’t he want you to come see him anymore?

“What? No, I-” you stammered “I still- I still need this. I still need you!”

His grin turned soft and he averted his eyes before speaking again.

“You have gotten to a point in your life in which I am no longer needed. There is nothing holding you back anymore, you get to live your life however you see fit.”

A stinging sensation accompanied the tears brimming in your eyes, threatening to fall.

“But I still want to see you. I still want you.”

His smile widened, small lines creasing in the corners of his eyes as he took a step towards you, leaving almost no space between the two of you. 

“I once said you could see me again…”

“If I wished.” your own smile grew as realization dawned on you.

“Always.” he whispered as the back of his hand caressed your own, light like a feather.

As you stood there,breathing each other in, a moment turned into two, which then turned into a few minutes more, so much so that you almost forgot the reason for your visit.

“Why are you here?” Dream asked softly.

“Hm?”

“Why did you summon me?” he took a minuscule step back, only enough to be able to gaze into your eyes “You seemed like you had something important on your mind.”

“Oh!” you shouted, and had he been any mere mortal, Morpheus might have just flinched away from you. But he was no mere mortal and thus didn’t startle so easily, so he simply tilted his head to the side and waited for you to proceed “I finished my book.”

“That’s wonderful.” he smiled, genuinely happy for you.

“And a publisher has agreed to publish it!” you rocked on the balls of your feet, suddenly feeling bashful “I got the confirmation email today. I thought you might like to hear about it, since you were oh so interested in it before, you know.”

He chuckled softly, both of his hands resting on your shoulders to keep you in place.

“I am truly happy for you. And I feel honored you decided to come all this way to share it with me.” he removed one of his hands from your shoulder and raised it in the air “I believe this moment calls for a celebration, don’t you think?”

For the briefest of moments you panicked, believing he was sending you away once more.

“No, no, wait!” you tried to hold onto his hand but it was too late, he had already snapped his fingers.

Nothing happened. You were still there with him, not back in your bed in the morning. His smile turned smug, bordering on a smirk, as if he was already expecting your reaction.

And then you heard it. From seemingly out of nowhere came the soft whisper of a trumpet, followed by a powerful voice.

“Where is that coming from?” you looked around but could not find the source of the music.

Dream simply shrugged. That did not matter now, did it? Slowly, he raised a hand towards you, palm up and inviting. Placing your own hand on top of his, he pulled you closer, your chests practically touching, as his other arm enveloped your waist.

“This is what you call a celebration around these parts?” you teased, earning a chuckle from him.

“Only when both parts are into it.” he responded, slowly swaying you both to the rhythm of the song.

As you and Dream danced together, the soft glow of moonlight caressing your skins, you couldn’t help but sigh, a small smile playing on your lips.

“Thank you.” you whispered.

“Whatever for?” he hummed.

“For this. All of this.”

As you slipped further into his embrace, you felt peaceful. Your whole body tingled and for only a moment you wished you didn’t have to go back to the waking world.

“You’re welcome, darling.” he whispered back to you.

But you now knew you could always return here, to this very moment. All you had to do was wish for it, and Dream would bring you back here. Back to him.

#morpheus x reader #dream x reader #sandman x reader #dream of the endless x reader #morpheus x gn!reader #dream x gn!reader #sandman x gn!reader #dream of the endless x gn!reader #the sandman fanfic #morpheus fanfiction #dream fanfic #dream of the endless fanfic

[lady-pug]

My deaf spiderwoman OC, Marisol 🕷

Miles knows ASL and even tho it's the Insomniac version of him Imma headcanon all versions of Miles know ASL because that cool asf!

Marisol communicates solely in ASL. She's Italian-American and LOVES pastels and hearts.

In deaf culture they use light to alert and get others attention so I wanted to incorporate light into her fighting style. She uses flash bombs and the main part of her suit, which is based off of the Mirror Spider's reflective back, can blind temporarily enemies. The eyes of her suit allow her to see in the intense light and are very expressive (an important part of signing).

She's not fully flushed out yet and this is only the 2nd iteration of her design so she will definitely change in the future. But for now I want to figure out what her face looks like and draw her with clothes over her suit because she does so all the time.

#I’m in love with Marisol already #she’s so cool #I cannot wait to se more of her

[lady-pug]

#I feel personally attacked ngl #my google drive folders filled to the brim with unfinished wips judging me as I start a new one #splitting one-shots into multi-chapters because they’re getting too long is almost a must for me now #or like turning it into a series

[lady-pug]

while I'm alone and blue as can be

Chapter III of Dream a Little Dream of Me

Summary: You’d been feeling tired, even in the Dreaming. You’d wake up even more tired than when you went to bed. Why couldn’t you just stay there? Stay there forever and forget all your problems back home? Maybe if you asked Dream he’d let you stay. That would be nice.

Pairing: Morpheus | Dream of the Endless x Reader

Word count: 1,7k

Warnings: allusions to depression and wanting to give up, descriptions of almost drowning (if that’s something you’re uncomfortable with, or you feel could be potentially triggering to you, please feel free to skip this part)

Notes: I really liked writing this part, even though it's kinda dark and heavy. Again, please please, for your own comfort and safety, heed the warnings above.

I’m finally gonna catch a break, so I intend to have the next part out by the end of next week, at the latest by the end of the month (I’m super motivated to keep this promise).

Anyway, I really really hope you, whoever is reading this, enjoys this part of the story, and thank you so much for the lovely feedback this story has received.

(I also just remembered the existence of the word ‘perhaps’ while writing this at 1 am., so thank you sleep deprived brain).

Reader's gender not specified

Next part | Previous part | Masterlist | Read on AO3

The sky was completely dark when you arrived. Clouds were hiding the soft blue hue you had grown accustomed to, only a sliver of moonlight escaping through them. 

How fitting, you thought. 

It had been an awful day. Actually it had been an awful couple of months as of late. Many terrible things had happened to you, too many to count actually. Your financial situation was awful, your job having let you go under the guise of a budget cut. Some people you cared about had walked away from your life; you could agree you hadn’t handled the situation in the best of ways and now you didn’t know how to fix things. And the straw that finally broke the camel’s back was a sudden loss in the family, a relative you were very close with as a kid, and you couldn’t even mourn them properly as you couldn’t afford to travel all the way to your hometown right now.

Your only respite through all of this was this place. This little quaint town in the Dreaming. The café owner was lovely as always, often offering you a cup of coffee (which you always declined, given the fact that you probably couldn’t taste it). The old man at the bar still winked at you when you walked past him. It was strangely calming being here. 

After your encounter with Lucienne and Dream, you now knew where you were. Knowing made you feel safer, comfortable. You even started seeing Mervyn walking around, although he was usually a little bit rude to you. Being here felt cozy, like a breath of fresh air after an incredibly long day. You often longed for the day to end, so you could finally go to bed, fall asleep and come here, leaving all your responsibilities and problems behind for a few hours.

But in the past few days even that hadn’t been enough.

You’d been feeling tired, even here. You’d wake up even more tired than when you went to bed, to the point your eyes started to look slightly sunk in.

Why couldn’t you just stay here? Stay here forever and forget all your problems back home? 

Home.

It didn’t feel like a home. Not anymore. This place felt more like a home than anything else. Maybe if you asked Dream he’d let you stay here. Perhaps Lucienne could help you get a hold of him so you could ask. That would be nice.

With a heavy sigh you decided to take a walk. Long walks usually helped you calm your mind and left you feeling better afterwards. Giving the lady at the café a small nod in passing, her usual beaming face crumpled in a concerned frown, you set off towards the riverbank. Right as you arrived at the edge of the low stone wall that separated the town from the shore below, an idea struck you.

Toeing off your shoes, you carefully, ever so slowly, sat down on the wall, the hard rocks digging into the skin of your thighs over your clothes, and jumped down the small distance onto the sand. It was still warm from where the sun had probably shone onto it. Strangely, in all the months you had been coming here, you’d never caught this place in the daytime. You could bet it was beautiful, maybe just as beautiful as during nighttime. Maybe an afternoon nap was the solution.

As the sand seeped in between your toes, you set off on your track through the shore, the water a short distance away from you, softly lapping at the damp sand. It was a nice feeling, the cool breeze licking your skin as you walked.

You walked. And walked. And walked. Until you stopped. Abruptly coming to a halt on the sand, you paused your walk, noticing something just on the edge of your vision. Turning your head in search of it, you finally noticed what had caught your attention. An old wooden bench sat facing the river, its backrest almost touching the stone wall. Come to think of it, you were actually quite tired, probably having been worn down by your endless walking (or not, as you were already tired when you got here earlier). You slowly walked over to the bench, running a hand over the damp wood, before sitting down.

As you breathed in deeply, you let your weight sink down on the bench. This is nice, you thought, staring at the water ahead of you as your eyes slowly lost focus. Maybe I can stay here from now on. Maybe I can just… exist.

You had no idea how long you sat there, could have been minutes, could have been hours, you weren’t sure. You simply existed in that moment. 

“Hey!” a voice called from your left, one you recognized belonged to Mervyn, but you didn’t really have it in you to see what he wanted right now “What are you doing here?” he asked as he walked closer to where you were sitting.

You only shrugged, as you didn’t have an answer for that.

“Amanda told Matthew who then told me that you looked a little down in the dumps today. So I came to ensure that you weren’t up to no good and causing trouble.” he chuckled at himself, amusement filling his voice as he joked at your expense.

When you didn’t answer yet again, he stepped closer again.

“Are you oka- woah.” he ran up to you, his voice acquiring a worried tune “When did those get there?”

Your eyes followed where his finger was pointing, all the way down to your feet, and that’s when you noticed. Vines- no, roots were wrapped around your ankles, slowly crawling their way up your leg. Only now were you noticing the small pressure on your skin, but it wasn’t painful. It was barely uncomfortable either. If you had to describe it, you’d say it was almost… welcoming.

“Let’s get this off, shall we?” Mervyn smiled awkwardly at you, his smile crooked in concern as he lowered himself to his knees and started trying to remove the roots from you. His gloved fingers tried to rip the roots away from you, but they only kept growing more.

A rumbling sound caught his attention, making him snap his head to look at the water, which he now noticed was rising, and rising fast.

“Uh-oh.” he gulped, jumping to his feet “That’s not supposed to happen.” he mumbled to himself “I’ll go get help, okay? I’ll come back with someone who can help.” he exclaimed as he walked away.

As you watched the water climbing through the shore, slowly coming towards you, one thought crossed your mind.

No one can help.

The roots were already past your knees by the time the water reached you, soaking your bare feet. As the roots held you in place, the water level started rising, covering first your shins, then your bent knees, then your waist. You didn’t have the energy to fight it, nor to try and escape, so you just let the water engulf you. 

The temperature of the water felt nice against your skin as it kept going up, up, up. By the time it hit your chin you weren’t thinking much of anything really, content on just letting go. Once the water was over your nose, you closed your eyes.

Just as the water was about to submerge you fully, you felt something, akin to a giant hand, grab the back of your shirt. The roots, which had been curled tightly around your legs, finally loosened, breaking as you were pulled out of the water and onto the street over the stone wall.

Coughing, you spit out some of the water that had managed to infiltrate your lungs. As you laid on the cobblestone path, you turned your head to stare at your savior, your eyes making contact with the hem of a black overcoat. 

“Why did-” you wheezed as he helped you sit up, your legs dangling from the wall. The water was back in its original place, as if nothing had ever happened, and the bench was gone. “Why did you do that?”

Dream eyed you with disbelief as he sat down next to you. The way he looked at you, as if you were crazy to ever ask such a question, made you feel truly seen for the first time in a long while.

“You didn’t finish your book.” 

That… was not what you were expecting. 

“To be honest you barely even started it.” he smiled the most discreet of grins, like he was teasing you.

“What?” you asked, dumbfounded.

“You need to finish writing your book.”

You deflated.

“I don’t need to.” you shrugged, your wet clothes clinging uncomfortably to your body “You already have a finished copy in your castle’s library.”

He turned his eyes to stare at the river ahead, avoiding your gaze.

“Perhaps.” it was his turn to shrug “But others don’t.” 

He turned back to look at you, his light eyes so full of warmth as he smiled, actually smiled, at you.

“Go back. Tell your story.” his hand fleetingly brushed against yours “You still have so much ahead of you.”

A warm, tightening feeling started growing in your chest. You had a feeling he wasn’t talking only about the book.

He stood up, dusting himself off, before offering you a hand to pull you up as well, which you promptly accepted. As he was about to snap his fingers, which you knew would send you back, you quickly held onto his opposite wrist.

“Wait!” he paused, his eyes searching your own with barely concealed concern “Will I see you again?”

At your question, he smiled one again, hand sliding up to intertwine his fingers with your yours.

“If you wish.”

He waited until you smiled at him in confirmation, his hand squeezing yours briefly, before he snapped his fingers.

As you sat up in bed, you quickly threw the sheets aside and practically stumbled over to your desk, turning your computer on, inspiration running hot through your veins, and immediately started typing.

#morpheus x reader #dream x reader #sandman x reader #dream of the endless x reader #morpheus x gn!reader #tw: allusions to depression #tw: descriptions of (almost) drowning #dream x gn!reader #sandman x gn!reader #dream of the endless x gn!reader #the sandman fanfic #morpheus fanfiction #dream fanfic #dream of the endless fanfic

[lady-pug]

They meet

Based completely off of this iconic video

#this is honestly incredibly accurate #i love it #i love them so much #i bet peter b parker is the one recording #spiderverse

[lady-pug]

Copikla

Summary: Crosshair hates you, Clone Force 99’s new on-board medic. He doesn’t understand how you can be so sweet, kind and happy all the time. His brothers seem to have taken you in as one of their own quite well, but he can’t seem to let his guard down around you. But maybe, just maybe, you’ll grow on him as well.

Pairing: Crosshair x Reader

Word count: 3,4k

Warnings: none, other than Crosshair being a major asshole sometimes

Notes: Okay, I loved writing this one! I really wanted to write a /Reader dynamic based on Pixie and Brutus (by @pet_foolery) and Crosshair instantly came to mind. I already have ideas for at least 2 more installments for this series, so I really hope you enjoy this (this is pre-Echo btw). Just on quick note, here’s the Mando’a translation for Cross’s nickname for the reader:

Copikla - charming, cute (babies and animals - never women unless you want your head ripped off, but c’mon we all know Crosshair is a bastard)

I really hope you, dear reader, enjoy this and have fun while reading it. If you spot any mistakes, please feel free to warn me and I'll correct it right away, and feedback is always welcome and appreciated. I hope you truly enjoy this story.

Reader is female, but no physical descriptions provided

(Also, thank you so so much for the overwhelming support on all the other fics I posted here, it means the world to me!)

Next part | Masterlist | Read on AO3

Crosshair couldn’t stand it. 

It had been three standard months. Exactly 105 rotations since this nightmare started. He had been against it from the start, they had Tech, why would they need a kriffing medic in the first place?

Wrecker’s boisterous laughter, accompanied by softer, quieter giggles, reminded him exactly why. 

A mission in Mon Gazza had gone terribly wrong (well, GAR high command considered it a success, as they had managed to secure their objective, but in the eyes of the members of Clone Force 99 it had been a total failure). In an attempt to locate and secure a target who had informed the Republic they possessed vital information on the inner command of Separatist forces, things had turned sour very quickly. A run in with the Pykes had thrown a wrench in their plans of making a quick escape, and a precarious explosion too close to Wrecker (not armed nor controlled by him this time around) had almost cost him his life.

Rushing him to the closest Republic medical base, a specialist had to be called in due to the severity of his injuries. The medic, they were later told, was the same one who had operated on Commander Wolffe of the 104th after his face-off against Asajj Ventress on Khorm. Back then, although she had not managed to save his eye, which had to be replaced by a cybernetic one instead, she did manage to recuperate just enough brain tissue around the area of the injury to save him from possible decommission (as if General Koon would ever let that happen). The head surgeon on base assured the Batch that Wrecker was on the best possible hands. 

And, as it turned out, they had been right. Wrecker had woken up a few days after a soak in the bacta tank with no more than extensive scarring on the left side of his face, partial hearing loss and almost total eyesight loss in his left eye (“Nothing some tinkering with his helmet’s visor cannot fix.” Tech had said). All in all, he was as fine as one could be after such an event.

Even if the mission was a success and Wrecker was still alive (although a little uglier than before, according to Crosshair’s lighthearted teasing), their officials had decided they were too reckless (no matter how many times Hunter had emphasized on the mission’s report that the explosion was collateral and not at all Wrecker’s fault in this specific case) and should be accompanied by medical personal at all times, assigning them an on board medic. Commander Cody interceded in their favor, knowing they wouldn’t work well with a clone medic, and requested a natborn. In the end, the very same medic who had treated Wrecker had volunteered for the job.

That had been three months ago. You had adapted well to the life on board the Havoc Marauder. His brothers, the fools, had immediately been hooked on your charms, but not him. Oh, not him.

Crosshair hated you. 

You were sweet, too sweet. Sweet enough to give him cavities. It wasn’t possible for someone to be that happy and cheerful and kind all the time. You were always smiling, you always indulged in Tech’s info-dumping. Always laughed at Wrecker’s awful jokes, always let him have your sweet flavored ration as a second desert. Always took over for Hunter when his senses were overwhelming him, helping him get comfortable in the safety of his bunk and dimming the lights.

And he wasn’t an exception. Even with all his bitter words and snarky comments, you were always nice to him. No matter how rude he was to you, you were always kind in return. You smiled in his direction in the morning. You kept him company while he was on watch duty. You were, he loathed to admit, a nice person overall. 

But Crosshair didn’t believe in free-niceties. There was no way you were that sweet just out of the goodness of your heart. Surely there was something wrong about you, he just had to find out what. 

Crosshair was cleaning his rifle for the umpteenth time that day and desperately trying to ignore the sweet timber of your voice as Tech taught you how to conduct minor repairs around the ship. It had been your idea, selfless as always, as in doing so you could help him around and reduce his workload if Tech was ever tired or injured after a mission. 

Try as he might, Crosshair couldn’t ignore the endless seam of chatter coming from the two of you. Tech would go on long tangents about specific parts and their functions and you’d engage by asking questions and have him explain things further. It was enough for him to roll his eyes and grip the rag in his hand tighter.

As his mind drifted off to the mission they had just finished he almost didn’t realize that the ship had become silent. Thank the maker. He finally relaxed against the cold durasteel wall. That is until he heard footsteps approaching the crate he was currently sitting on.

“Hey Crosshair!” you greeted cheerfully, to which he sighed painfully.

You waited a few beats before addressing him again.

“So…” you smiled softly at him. Ugh. 

“What?” he answered, contempt dripping from his tone.

“Tech and I are making a quick run to the local market. We’re all out of resistors and he doesn’t like to leave the stock empty.”

“I’m busy.”

“Oh.” for a moment you sounded just a tiny bit disappointed, and he thought would finally leave him alone, but no such luck “With what?”

Instead of answering, he simply looked from you to his Firepuncher and back to you, a frown on his face that clearly meant to ask if you were stupid or something.

“But…” you smiled awkwardly “You’ve been doing that for the past hour.”  

“So?” he only kept on scrubbing his rifle, the rag no longer clean and rendered useless.

“Well, we thought you might want to come with us! You know, it’s sunny outside and that is such a rarity for us. I think it might do us all some good.”

“You thought wrong.” he spat.

“As a matter of fact,” Tech piped in from behind you, like he hadn’t been listening in to this whole conversation “it is scientifically proven that sunlight does help to stimulate the production of vitamin D. So this walk would, indeed, be beneficial for all of us, including you.”

“Come on, Cross! It’ll be fun!”

Something about the way you said his name, this little nickname you had given him, made something inside him snap.

“Haven’t you heard when I said I’m busy?!” he snapped, throwing the rag on the ground “I don’t want to go on a kriffing walk!”

You visibly deflated in response to his words, your smile falling from your face.

“I’m sorry, Crosshair.” you said, voice much quieter than before “We won’t bother you anymore.”

As you walked away, Crosshair tried to ignore the glare his brother was sending his way as he picked the rag from the floor and resumed his cleaning, even if the Firepuncher was glimmering and pristine.

Only when Tech was also out of reach did he allow the tension slip from his shoulders with a heavy sigh. 

Great.

His head was killing him. He had a splitting headache from working in the snow all day, the light reflected by the white, glimmering floor of the planet they were currently stationed for a stakeout mission hurting his already sensitive vision. If this was how Hunter felt when his senses started overwhelming him then he actually pitied his brother and sergeant. 

All he wanted was to take a sonic in the fresher and then crash on his bunk. But as he left the cockpit his nose picked up on something… different. As he sniffed the air around him he realized something smelled good around the ship. 

Whatever it was, it had a sweet smell to it. It was sugary and soft and comfortable, almost like- he shuddered as he realized where his mind was taking him. Like you , his brain filled in for him against his wishes. The sweet scent in the ship reminded him of you.

He shook his head to rid himself of those horrendous thoughts and decided to investigate. Whatever was making this smell was something new, nothing like he ever experienced before, and he’d be damned if he didn’t find out what it was. As he walked further into the hull of the ship, he came to a halt as he came face to face with you, Wrecker and Gonky.

“Hey Crosshair!” Wrecker’s booming voice called out for him “Tech modified Gonky to work as an oven and Doc here is making cookies for us!”

He took a moment to notice your appearances. Both of you were wearing matching checkered aprons, albeit Wrecker’s was a lot more covered in flour than your own. Similarly, Gonky had a few specks of brown sugar all over itself. 

“Cinnamon and chocolate chips! An authentic Alderaanian recipe.” you smiled at him, so sweetly he could bet if he were to take a bit out of you you’d taste just like those cookies “We’ve only just managed to fit one batch at a time inside of Gonky, the other one still needs kneading. Would you like to help?”

He sneered, almost offended, and started walking towards his bunk.

“I’d rather try taking an ackley in a fistfight.”

“Oh. Well, the first batch is almost ready, would you like one?” you asked, not at all unsettled by his harsh words.

“I’d rather eat shredded glass.” he answered with the most nonchalant shrug he could muster as he walked past you and into the bunk area.

Right as he was about to punch the controls and close the door, he heard the softest, quietest sniffle, followed by Wrecker’s voice, a lot quieter than it usually was, trying to console you.

“Don’t mind him, baar’ur’ika. He is like that with everyone. He’s just a grumpy, mean di’kut.”

As he finally closed the door, he couldn’t help the twinge of guilt growing in his chest.

“Let me take a look at that, Cross.”

Crosshair huffed, storming inside the Marauder, his blacks soaking underneath his glistening armor. The Batch hated missions in Donovia, its rainy nature often reminiscent of that in Kamino, an annoying reminder of the only thing they had to call home. There wasn’t a single mission there that didn’t leave them soaked to bone. 

“Crosshair!” you stormed in after him.

“What is it, Copikla?” he sneered, turning back towards you. 

Once he realized you weren’t going anywhere, no matter how hard he tried to push you away, he came to terms with the fact that there was no other way than to embrace your presence instead of ignoring it all together. However, he decided to make his displeasure known to anyone who would listen, especially you. As one of his first deeds towards you, since you decided to grant him a nickname, he thought it was only fitting to give you one right back.

“Your shoulder is hurt. Let me take a look.”

Crosshair sighed, annoyed. During the mission, while he kept an eye on the scope to ensure his brothers didn’t get their shebs killed, a surveillance assassin droid managed to get a hit to his shoulder, the blaster bolt grazing his skin beneath his shoulderplates before you, who had been doing the lookout with him, got your own hit in, eliminating the droid. Great, he thought, now he was in your debt .

And since that very moment you’d been nagging his ear off about checking his injury.

“It was just a graze,” he dismissed “nothing to worry about.”

You huffed back at him, chest puffed in indignance.

“I’ll be the judge of that.” you waved the medkit, the one you always carried around, at him “Now take your armor off.”

He smirked, his mean grin full of mirth.

“If you wanted to see me naked, Copikla, all you had to do was ask.”

Your back straightened, stiffer than a board, as you pursed your lips. Gotcha. He could bet your cheeks were flaming, maybe even your neck and ears too. You were way too easy to toy with.

But something he didn’t expect was for you to laugh. Out of all the things he was expecting, hoping, you’d do giggling was not one of them.

“You’re all bark and no bite, right, Cross?” you chuckled, your eyes gleaming at him “Now come on, let me take a look.”

When he didn’t budge, it was your turn to sigh, so softly he almost didn’t hear.

“Please?”

He stood up, stalking towards you one step at a time, before leaning closer to you only slightly, looking you right in the eyes.

“If you want to, come and get me, Copikla.” his voice was dripping venom as he whispered, only loud enough for you to hear.

Or so he thought.

“Crosshair!” came Hunter’s booming, angry voice from the ship’s ramp. He was quickly followed by Tech and Wrecker, all three of them equally soaked as they finally caught up to the two of you.

Hunter stomped towards him, gripping his upper arm and practically ripping him away from you. As he turned to face his sergeant, he was greeted with the scowling faces of all three of his brothers.

“I know you didn’t ask for any of this, her being here, in the first place,” Hunter’s voice was low, his tone one Crosshair only heard when his brother was truly angry “but this has gone too far. She’s as much part of this squad as any of us. And you’ll treat her with the due respect.”

Crosshair’s shoulders tensed. How could his own brothers, his batchmates, disagree with him on this? Could they not see it? He huffed, vexed by this whole situation, and promptly left the ship towards the rainy outside.

After a long while (could have been minutes or hours, he couldn’t bring himself to care) of ruminating the past events, he honestly didn’t feel any better. He didn’t even like you, so why did he feel… bad? Guilty even?

As he fished inside his utility belt for a soggy toothpick to put between his lips, he heard the soft splatting sound of footsteps headed his way. He groaned, not in the mood for yet another one of Hunter’s scoldings, when the rain all of a sudden stopped pouring over his head. Looking up he noticed a rainbow-colored umbrella and, following the durasteel handle, he was surprised to find you holding it over both your heads.

“Hi.” you smiled at him, and he felt undeserving of it.

“What are you doing here?” 

“Thought you might be lonely and in need of some company.”

He averted his eyes, gazing at the rain as your words settled over him.

“Why are you being so nice to me?”

“What?” you asked, genuinely confused.

“How come you are so nice to everyone? How are you so happy all the time?” he inquired.

It was your turn to look away from him, a small hum escaping your parted lips. 

“It’s a conscient choice, you know?” you explained “At least in my case it is.”

He didn’t say anything, but if the slight tilt of his head in your direction was anything to go by, you knew you had his attention.

“I’ve seen what constant bitterness and rage does to a person.” you elaborated “When I was a child, my planet was raided by pirates. My parents, our village’s guides, tried sending a distress call to the Republic. But no answer came.”

He now turned fully towards you, intrigued. The first thing he noticed were your eyes. Your eyes, normally so lively and full of joy, were dull and glazed over, a misty sheen of tears covering them.

“They killed them. My parents and the other members of the village’s ruling council.” you took a deep breath, trying to stabilize yourself before continuing “My brother was almost an adult at the time. With everything that was happening, he became bitter, full of anger and hatred. He gathered a small group of teens, including me, and we managed to overthrow the pirates. But that wasn’t enough to quell the rage simmering inside of him.”

For a moment, Crosshair felt compelled to lay a comforting hand on your shoulder, but refrained from doing so, thinking the gesture wouldn’t be appreciated.

“The bitterness he felt towards the Republic for not helping us was festering in his heart. He was thirsty for vengeance, just waiting for the perfect opportunity. And then the war started.” you sniffled, laughing bitterly “He made a deal with the Separatists, practically sold us over to their nefarious plans. He was blinded by his bitterness, not realizing he was trusting the wrong people.”

Your frown, something so out-of-tune with your entire personality, suddenly turned into a sad smile.

“After his death at the hands of the Seppies, I realized I was following down the same path as him, constantly bitter and angry all the time. So I decided it was time for a change. I was already studying to become a pediatrician, so I thought ‘Maybe if I help in the war effort, this war will end quicker’. Maybe it’s stupid but…” you shrugged “I also promised myself I would let my anger consume me.”

Crosshair’s eyebrows rose to his forehead.

“But how do you never get angry?”

“Who says that I don’t?” you laughed quietly “I do, many times. I just- let myself feel it. All of it, for just one moment. Then I let it all go. And I think of all the things that make me happy. Like Wrecker’s hugs. Or Tech’s love for nature and science. Or Hunter’s calming presence. Or-” you smiled at him, so brightly it was almost infectious “or you.”

He felt like he was doused in cold water.

“I’m sorry,” he looked away again, head hanging in shame “for the way I’ve been treating you.”

“It’s alright, Cross-”

“No, it isn’t!” he snapped, then took a moment to calm down “It’s just-” 

You smiled at him, a hand laying softly over one of his and squeezing his fingers encouragingly.

“As cadets, we never knew kindness.” he explained “The Kaminoans were cold by nature and didn’t really care about us to begin with. And the regs…”

“I know. Hunter told me about that.”

He sighed. He could bet Hunter didn’t tell you everything.

“They were mean to us. Especially Wrecker and Tech. But also to me and, less often, Hunter.” he laughed, somewhat bitterly “But they could be kind when they wanted to. When they wanted something from us. Or when they were up for a good laugh.”

“What do you mean?” you asked, worried.

“They would pretend to be our friends, apologize for the things they had said and done, only to stab us in the back.” he sighed “Let’s just say the regs are known for pulling the best pranks.”

You gasped softly and squeezed his fingers once again.

“Cross, that’s horrible!”

“You’re telling me.” he turned back towards you “And now-”

“You no longer allow yourself to trust anyone who shows you kindness without thinking they have hidden intentions?” you smiled knowingly.

His shoulders dropped as he looked at his feet. No matter how horrible he had been, you seemed to know him so well.

“Cross, look at me.” he glanced at you, he realized your eyes were soft and your smile, reassuring “I promise you, with all my heart, that all I want is for you, the four of you, to be happy.” you shook your head, a mirthful scowl on your face “Well, that and that you’re all healthy and uninjured.”

He grimaced, sheepishly.

“You’re one of a kind, Copikla.” he said, the nickname coming out not as a sneer, like previous times he used it, but more lighthearted, teasingly. 

“Hunter also told me what that means.” you smirked at him.

Crosshair winced. 

“Would you like me to stop?”

You pretended to think for a moment, even going as far as scratching your chin.

“Nah, I think it suits me. Don’t you think, Cross?”

For once since a long time, long before he started cadet training, he smiled, a full soft smile.

“Yeah, Copikla,” he agreed “I think it does.”

#crosshair x reader #tbb crosshair x reader #crosshair x f!reader #tbb crosshair x f!reader #crosshair x fem!reader #the bad batch fanfiction #tbb crosshair #tbb crosshair fanfic

[lady-pug]

What’s your love language?

#i'm in love with this #this whole series is sooooo good #@shyranno tysm your comics give me life ily #cross still loves his siblings no one can tell me otherwise

[lady-pug]

Calendars

Summary: The war was taking a toll on the Republic’s finances, between the amount necessary to cover the war efforts to sending relief supplies to planets affected by battles, it was safe to say credits were running low. In order to get more funds, the line of command of the GAR decided to take matters into their own hands: issuing GAR-themed merch. The most famous item was the ‘Trooper Wall-Calendars’. Which you and Ashoka expertly managed to get your hands on.

Pairing: Ahsoka Tano x Reader

Word count: 1,5k

Warnings: none

Notes: I had sooooo much fun writing this, you have no idea! Honestly I don’t really know where this idea came from but now I would love to see firefighter-style calendars of the TCW characters (specially the Clones)! Both the reader and Ahsoka are teens in this, I wrote this to be set somewhere between seasons 1 e 2 of TCW. The relationship between them is heavily based on the relationship between Ellie and Riley from The Last of Us (I had specifically the HBO show in mind in this case).

I really hope you, dear reader, enjoy this and have fun while reading it. If you spot any mistakes, please feel free to warn me and I'll correct it right away, and feedback is always welcome and appreciated. I hope you truly enjoy this story.

Reader is female, but no physical descriptions provided

Masterlist | Read on AO3

Ahsoka ran as fast as her legs could carry her. She had to get back to your quarters in the temple. It was imperative that she told you about her amazing discovery. The 501st had only just landed on Coruscant when she heard the news and set off to find you immediately. 

After bumping into several other padawans and almost toppling over Master Yoda (“Run in the halls, you must not, young Ahsoka.” he had chastised, but there was no heat to his words, and from the knowing smirk he sent her way, she knew that he knew she was up to something), she finally reached your door. Raising her fist to knock, she almost tumbled forward as you opened the door before she could even touch the durasteel, like you could sense her presence. You were sporting a wide grin, making her chest feel funny. But she could not dwell on it right now, she desperately needed to tell you something.

“You’ll… never believe… what I just… found out.” she panted, trying to regain her breath.

Your smile only grew wider as you pulled her inside your quarters and closed the door behind the two of you. Walking towards the bedside table you grabbed a pile of papers.

“Does it have anything to do with these?” you smirked, mischief gleaming in your eyes as you threw the pile on top of the bed between the two of you.

Ahsoka gasped, reaching down to grab the first item of the pile: a gray-cover wall calendar.

“No way!” she giggled, her smirk matching yours as she opened the first page

The war was taking a toll on the Republic’s finances, between the amount necessary to cover the war efforts to sending relief supplies to planets affected by battles, it was safe to say credits were running low. Not wanting to rely on the Senate to approve a bill that could take several rotations to pass (if it even got to that point, as many senators were not exactly friendly to the clone cause and probably thought the Republic could save up by cutting their already meager rights), the line of command of the GAR decided to take matters into their own hands: issuing GAR-themed merch. Most of the items were just cheap products such as T-shirts, plastoid mugs and fabric handbags. But the most famous item, one that had sold faster than water on a planet like Tatooine since its release a couple of days ago, was the ‘Trooper Wall-Calendars’. One of which currently laid on Ashoka’s eager hands.

“How did you get a hold of these?!” she quickly scanned the pages “I thought they were practically sold out?”

You chuckled, pulling her attention to you.

“Was at Dex’s grabbing lunch with Caleb when the first announcement came through. The two of us practically flew to the nearest convenience store.” 

Ahsoka stared at you in awe. She went through the pile of calendars, her smile growing more and more mirthful.

“104th, 327th, 21st Nova Corps, the Coruscant Guard, Republic Commandos… this is amazing!” she giggled, but her smile soon turned into a frown as she realized something was missing “But what about-?”

A flash of blue and orange was shoved on her face before she could even finish her sentence.

“Had to hit three different stores for these two. We almost got mugged making our way through Uscru District. So you’re welcome.” 

Giddy chuckles escaped her as Ahsoka grabbed the blue calendar and practically ripped it open.

“Oh my maker!” she exclaimed, turning the open calendar to you ��Rex?!”

Representing the very first standard month was Rex, stripped down to only his bottom blacks and the lower part of his armor, staring seductively at the holocamera with his helmet under his arm, propped on his hip.

You laughed, almost choking on air as she passed you the calendar. 

“No way, this is too good!” you laughed harder

“Wait, you haven’t seen this before?” 

You shook your head, peaking at the next page.

“I was saving it so we could look at it together.” you turned to her and beamed, bringing back the funny feeling in her chest “You know, have one of our famous girls night.”

Ignoring the way her heart rate seemed to have increased only slightly, she grabbed your arm and plopped stomach down on your bed, pulling you down with her. She practically ripped the calendar back from your hands and you had to settle for looking over her shoulder.

“So this is what they were up to while Skyguy had me doing inventory for the medbay.” she laughed, exasperated.

“Really? Master Kit had me meditate all day in the swimming tank to learn how to hold my breath for longer.” you explained as you glanced at the pages “Something about keeping up with him if we ever had a mission in Mon Cala? I found it odd at the time but now…”

The two of you giggled as Ahsoka flipped page after page of some of the soldiers in the 501st, Jesse, Hardcase, Kix, Fives. Most of them were showing their nude torsos to some degree, some with the bottom of their blacks pulled between their teeth, the most daring ones completely shirtless.

“People actually pay for this?! To see a bunch of men, who have the same exact face, might I add, naked?” she pretended to gag.

“Well these sold out so fast, it has to mean something.” you shrugged before pointing at the current page “But let’s be honest Echo does look kinda cute in this.”

Ahsoka felt her stomach drop in a strange kind of disappointment as you pointed to a picture of Echo, his hand extended towards the camera and a soft smile on his lips. The top part of his blacks was off, a blue handprint stamping one of his pecs, much like the one on his armor. She gulped nervously, but any uncomfortable feelings quickly vanished at the sight of your teasing smirk.

“No better than Jesse does.” she chuckled, flipping back a few pages and gasping “Is that a happy trail?”

You stared at her for a moment before you both burst out laughing hysterically. She clutched her side while you draped yourself over her back, your entire body shaking with the intensity of your laughter. As your laughter died down, she couldn’t help but stare at you, a huge, beaming smile on her lips. Her giggles soon subsided in a breathy sigh, she couldn’t help as her eyes moved downwards, glancing fleetingly at your lips. 

“Sooooo, which one’s gonna be next?” your voice snapped her out of her reverie.

“Well, we’re not even finished with this one, yet.” she quickly flipped back to where “We haven’t seen who represents the holiday week-” she didn’t even finish her sentence before dropping the calendar like it burned “Ew!”

“Ahsoka, what happened?!” you gently touched her shoulder as she brought her hands up to her face.

“My eyes!” she shouted “This will forever be burned into my mind!”

“What is?” you scooted forward to pick up the discarded calendar from the floor, immediately bursting into uncontrollable laughter as you glanced at the page “Seriously?! They got Master Skywalker in on it too?!”

The page which caused such a ruckus included a picture of Jedi General Anakin Skywalker in all his glory, striking a pose with his lightsaber ignited. He was severely overdressed in comparison to his troopers featured on the other pages, but was still showing a bit more skin than usual, with his undershirt gone and his vest allowing a glimpse of his bare chest.

“Oh, maker… why would they do that?” your laughter was infectious, and soon she was giggling with you.

You picked up the orange issued calendar and opened on the last page, chuckling as you turned the page to face her. The general of the 212th stood, the front of his beige Jedi robes open and showing his skin, much like his former apprentice.

“You tell me.” you laughed “I think Master Kenobi looks great.” 

You both laughed, finding it amusing that the Jedi generals were featured in with their respective battalions. They were dressed more conservatively than their trooper counterparts, but it was still quite seductive. Swapping calendars back and forth you laughed amongst yourselves, pointing out different soldiers and their generals.

“Wow,” you gasped, making Ahsoka turn back towards you “Master Luminara looks good!” 

Ahsoka felt a small, glimmering flicker of hope burn on her chest, but decided to keep it secluded in her heart to unpack later. 

After several hours you had made your way through several calendars, laughing and grinning at each other. Ahsoka smiled, laying her head on your shoulder.

“Thank you.”

You hummed.

“What for?”

She lifted her head to look at you and found you already staring at her.

“For giving me this.”

“What?” you shook your head, chuckling “Troopers in sexy poses?”

She laughed. She was trying to be serious and you were joking around.

“A sense of normalcy.” she shrugged “This war… we never have a chance to just be normal dumb teens, you know? And now-”

When you sensed words were failing her you laid a hand on her shoulder.

“I know.” you smiled at her, and Ahsoka felt her chest fluttering again;

“Just… thank you. For everything.”

You slung an arm over her shoulders.

“That’s what I’m here for.”

As she snuggled into your embrace she felt, if only for a moment, that everything was going to be okay.

#ahsoka tano x reader #ahsoka tano x you #ahsoka tano x female!reader #ahsoka tano x f!reader #ahsoka tano fanfic #the clone wars fanfiction #tcw fanfic

[lady-pug]

How do we move on?

Summary: You and the Batch have decided to head to Eriadu in hopes of tracking down the location of Doctor Hemlock and maybe have a chance at saving Crosshair. But you have a bad feeling about this. After the whole thing goes down, you’ll need the help of your family to face the consequences.

Pairing: Tech x Reader

Word count: 2,2k

Warnings: this one is preatty heavy on the angst: major character death, grief, mourning (this contains spoilers)

Notes: This one is ONE SAD BOI. This honestly was inspired from my own recent experience with grief, including a few quotes that I myself have said. So this is slightly self-indulgent in that sense. I'm already working on part 2 so I hope to have that out soon.

I really hope you, dear reader, enjoy this (I really want to write for the other boys as well). As always if you spot any mistakes, please feel free to warn me and I'll correct it right away, and feedback is always welcome and appreciated.

Reader’s gender not specified.

Next part | Masterlist | Read on AO3

“Tech, come in! Tech, what’s going on?!”

Only static greeted your ears. 

“Hunter?!” you shouted into the commlink yet again “Wrecker? Anyone?”

No one was answering.

“Does anyone copy?!” your chest tightened, a horrible feeling washing over you. 

The Batch had decided that the best course of action if you even hoped to find Crosshair was to fly to Eriadu and sneak into Tarkin's base, planting a tracker onto Hemlock’s ship. You had protested from the beginning, sensing something was off.

“Tech?” as you were preparing to leave Pabu you had wandered outside where he stood, nose glued to his datapad.

“Hmm?” 

You walked up to him until your toes touched, something you always did when you wanted his full attention. This was your way of letting Tech know what you had to say was important, which he always respected.

“What is it?” he asked, lowering his datapad.

You sighed. You didn’t want to be the bearer of bad news, to spoil the only chance you might have to save their brother, your friend, but something was gnawing in your stomach, telling you not to go.

“Should we really be doing this?” 

His face twisted into one of confusion.

“What do you mean?” 

“This… mission.” crossing your arms, you averted your gaze, looking anywhere but at him. “I know this is our only option in order to save Cross, but…”

Trailing off, you shrugged, chewing at your lower lip, a bad habit you had picked up during the war and the goggled clone often scolded you about.

“But…?”

You closed your eyes, leaning only slightly closer to him, and took a deep breath.

“I have a bad feeling about this.”

It was Tech’s turn to sigh.

“I know this mission could be potentially dangerous,” he placed a comforting, yet slightly patronizing hand on your shoulder “but from an objective point of view all of our missions are.”

“Potentially dangerous?” you scoffed, dodging away from him, his arm falling limp by his side “Tech, this isn’t like blowing up some clankers, o-or racing on Safa Toma. T-This is real. We’re infiltrating an Imperial Base holding some of their highest ranking officers, we-” you tried swallowing around the lump in your throat.

“Well, yes, but we have done much-” he adjusted his goggles before preparing to launch into a long explanation that most likely involved statistics of some sort. However, he must have caught something in your expression, some hidden feeling deep in your eyes, that made him pause.

Taking a hold of your elbow, his touch so gentle you almost mistook it for the wind, he seeked your gaze, trying to get you to look at him.

“What is this really about?” he questioned, his voice soft.

Your lower lip quivered. How could he not see it?

“I’m scared, Tech.”

His eyes softened. The smallest of sighs left his lips as he gently held your chin with his forefinger and his thumb, tilting your head to look right into his eyes.

“I know you are concerned. But you do not need to worry.” the corners of his lips lifted into a small smile “I won’t let anything happen to you, dear.”

You chuckled humorlessly, tears brimming in your eyes.

“It’s not me I’m worried about.”

Tech’s grip on your face tightened just a fraction. His eyes, on the other hand, softened even more.

“I know that you care for our safety. But if we want to retrieve Crosshair, it’s a risk that we have to take.”

A lone tear made its way down your face. Then another. Tech moved his other hand to cradle your cheek, his thumb slowly collecting fallen tears as they escaped your eyes.

“At least let me come with you.” you whispered.

As the team’s medic (and the only person Tech minimally trusted not to wreck the Marauder) you often stayed on the ship as the getaway pilot, prepared to take off at a minute’s notice. But this time you had an awful feeling telling you to be there with them. To keep them safe.

He closed his eyes briefly before looking at you again, his eyes the most sincere you had ever seen.

“You can’t. As our medic, it is in our best interest that you stay away from- that you stay on the ship.” he stuttered, like he was stalling “We need you safe. I-” his breath hitched almost imperceptibly “ I need you safe.”

A sob clawed its way up your throat, but you suppressed it. Trying to blink away your tears you stepped back from him, before jumping into his arms. You knew Tech wasn’t one for physical touch, but you couldn’t hold back anymore. If there was a chance you might not see him again, you needed this.

“Then promise me you’ll be careful.”

His arms, first tense and unsure, slowly curled around you, bringing you closer to him. His face nuzzled into the side of your head, so you felt more than you heard when he whispered:

“I promise.”

Now though you wished you had argued harder, that you had gone with them. A massive explosion had just gone off inside the base and you couldn’t get in touch with any of them, and you were starting to panic. Breathing deeply through your nose, you started a counting exercise the head doctor had taught you when you were training to become an issued GAR medic. You couldn’t lose it now, they might need you at any moment. Perhaps the empire had just jammed their communications after the explosive went off.

Just then you heard the sound of blaster fire in the distance. Looking out the Marauder’s windshield, you could see a few figures running in your direction. They were quickly followed by white armored soldiers, firing at them. Grabbing your blaster, you punched the controls to lower the ship’s ramp and quickly fired at the troopers that were trying to hurt your family. 

With your help, the Batch managed to board the ship safely. Wrecker rushed in, carrying an unconscious Omega to the bunks in the back, quickly followed by an injured Hunter and an out of breath Echo.

“Echo, grab the controls.” Hunter ordered.

“What happened? What’s the damage, Sarge?” you asked the same question you always greeted them with when they came back from a mission while already fetching the medpack. Then something occurred to you “Where’s Tech?”

You could see Hunter’s shoulders tense, but he didn’t answer you, still barking orders at Echo, who was busy engaging the engines.

“Get to Ord Mantell. AZI can help her.”

“Hunter!” you shouted, walking up to the sergeant “Where is Tech?!” 

Hunter finally looked at you, his expression solemn. He didn’t need to say anything. You knew.

“We have to go back.” you whispered, voice growing agitated with newfound desperation “We have to go back! Echo, turn this ship around!”

“Wait-” Hunter tried to stop you, but you only walked closer to the cockpit.

“We have to go back!” you shouted, growing more and more desperate as you noticed the ship had already left the planet’s atmosphere and Echo was getting ready to jump into hyperspace “We have to go back for Tech! We have to go get him!”

Hunter enveloped you in his arms, restraining you to prevent you from reaching for the controls. You struggled against him, frantically trying to get to the pilot’s seat.

“We have to get Tech! We have to go back!” your own voice sounded foreign in your ears and your words didn’t make sense to yourself anymore. All you could hear was a loud ringing, accompanied by a pressure in the back of your skull. You couldn’t breathe, your chest felt like it was collapsing into itself and every breath was too arduous to take. You just had to reach the controls. Once you did, you’d turn the ship around and everything would be alright again.

“Wrecker!” you faintly heard Hunter call out, but it was muffled, like you were underwater.

You registered something cold and sharp being pressed against your neck, but when you realized what it was, you were already slipping into unconsciousness.

When you came to, you were laying in a bed. The mattress was on the harder side, stiffness creeping onto your back. You sat up, still groggy, taking in your surroundings. It was a room, small, stuffy, warm. Then you noticed. In the corner, under the desk, was a can of black paint. Something sparked in your memory, you helping a certain goggled man to paint over the red stripe on his helmet. This was the room Tech often bunked in while in Cid’s parlor on Ord Mantell.

“You’re awake!” you heard an excited, albeit only slightly, voice speak from the doorway, turning to see Wrecker sticking his head out into the hallway “Hunter, get in here!”

When he turned back to you, you startled, eyes widening at his appearance. His neck was encased in a cervical collar and, you frowned, his eyes were missing their usual glint. 

Hunter came rushing in, a look of relief settling on his features when he laid his eyes on you. You noticed that he, too, was covered in bandages.

“Good to see you up, doc.” he muttered.

“What happened?” you asked, even though you were certain you wouldn’t like the answer.

“The mission was compromised.” he explained vaguely.

“No, Hunter.” you hissed through gritted teeth. “What happened to Tech?”

Hunter sighed, sharing a glance with Wrecker that made your blood run cold.

“He initiated plan 99.” 

Your heart sank. Plan 99. The one plan the Batch had never, ever considered using, and you genuinely hoped never would. 

Leave one of our own behind. 

Named after the one clone whose sacrifice meant saving the entire base back on Kamino, plan 99 was only supposed to be a contingency plan. A hypothetical, far away idea, not… not this. Not this very real, very tangible, thick, gross feeling.

You felt a gentle, large hand being placed on your shoulder, only now noticing the tears streaming down your face. 

“I’m sorry, doc.” Wrecker whispered, his face reflecting the very same heartbreak that was probably etched onto your own features. 

Your chest ached. Your lungs felt like they were on fire. Your heart, on the other hand, felt both hollow and extremely heavy at the same time. Your heartstrings felt like they were about to snap. 

Sitting down next to you, Hunter pulled you into his arms, hiding your sobs from the galaxy. Wrecker, ever the gentle giant, sat on the other side of you, draping himself over your back in a protective hug. And you cried.

You sobbed, like you never had before. You screamed until your throat felt raw. You cried. That’s all you did for a while. And just for a little while, nothing else mattered, except for your tears, streaming down your face, and the tears of your friends, your brothers, who finally decided to let go and just feel. To truly feel what they hadn’t allowed themselves to feel until now, too preoccupied in getting Omega to safety. To feel the gaping absence of one of theirs.

Once your tears ran dry, you lifted your head from Hunter’s chest, and instantly wished you hadn’t. You caught a quick glimpse of your own reflection on the small mirror over the desk and hated what you saw. Staring back at you was someone ugly. A disfigured non-person, a shade of who you once were, it looked like you, except it was hideous and broken. Disgusted with what you saw, you turned back to Hunter to ask about Echo and Omega as something dawned on you.

“I-I never-” you whimpered, your breath hitching in your throat “I never got to tell him…”

You trailed off, a fresh wave of tears burning in your eyes.

“Trust me,” Hunter interrupted “he knew.”  

“W-what?” you asked.

“You didn’t have to say it. He knew. He always knew.” he sighed, looking far away “And he wasn’t the best with words, you know that, so he never said it either. But he loved you too.”

Your heart clenched painfully in your chest.

“H-how?”

Wrecker let out a tiny laugh.

“He’s Tech.” he smiled down at you “He was the smartest of us all.”

Wrecker paused, before smiling sadly at you.

“He also said he was sorry.” he shrugged “For not keeping his promise.”

You fell silent, a million and one questions flowing through your mind. He loved you too. He was sorry. He was gone.

“How do we move on from this?” you questioned, your voice quiet, almost as small as you felt in that moment.

Hunter shook his head.

“I- I don’t know.” he whispered, defeated. You knew him well enough to know he felt like he failed as a leader, something you knew wasn’t true.

You glanced away from them, closing your eyes and letting out a shaky exhale. Just then you felt your hand being enveloped in another, warm one.

“But whatever happens next,” Hunter continued “whatever we do, we’ll figure it out together.”

As Wrecker also grabbed your other hand, you laid your head on his shoulder, suddenly feeling crushed by the weight of it all. The man you loved most in the whole galaxy was dead, and he didn’t even get to say goodbye. You didn’t know if you could come back from this. 

But you were willing to try. As long as you had your family with you.

#tech x reader #tbb tech x reader #the bad batch tech x reader #tech x you #the bad batch tech x you #tech x gn!reader #tbb tech x gn!reader #the bad batch x gn!reader #tbb x reader #the bad batch x reader #tech fanfiction #the bad batch fanfiction #tbb tech fanfic #the bad batch tech fanfic

[lady-pug]

i'm in love (with an uptown girl) - Part I

Summary: In which Dustin is sure about your feelings for Eddie and Eddie's for Chrissy, but maybe he doesn't know the two of you as well as he thinks he does.

Pairing: Chrissy Cunningham x Reader

Word count: 5k

Warnings: mentions of period typical homophobia

Notes: I may or may not have accidentally fallen in love with Grace Van Dien and, consequently, Chrissy Cunningham. Chrissy was such a good character and she had so much unexplored potential, I wish we could have seen more of her.

This was supposed to be a one-shot turned into a two-shot turned into a three-shot when I realized how long it was getting. The title references Billy Joel’s ‘Uptown Girl’, a song Grace herself has mentioned would probably be Chrissy’s 'Vecna song', so I went with that.

Also also, I know renting ‘Return Of The Jedi’ means absolutely nothing (I myself used to rent Star Wars DVDs in a completely random order when I was younger, would just rent out the one I was in the mood for). I just used that whole interaction in order to help plant the seed about Chrissy, much like the series did with the ‘Fast Times’ scene about Vickie (as a kid I didn’t truly understand the purpose of having Leia wearing that in particular, both in terms of inside the universe and out, but now I do and I don’t like it).

Anyway, that was just me ranting, sorry about that! I really hope you enjoy this story, and if you spot any mistakes, please feel free to warn me and I'll correct it right away, and feedback is always welcome and appreciated.

Reader is female, but no physical descriptions provided

Reader's gender not specified

Next part | Masterlist | Read on AO3

“She’s so pretty, isn’t she?”

“W-what?” your head snapped up so quickly you were scared you might have pulled a muscle, prompting the boys at the table to snicker.

“I said” Gareth emphasized, a smirk hanging from his lips “that she’s so pretty, isn’t she, Eddie?”

Said boy, who had been staring off into space and just so happened to have his head turned towards the jocks and cheerleaders’ table, snapped out of his trance almost as quickly as you had a few minutes prior.

“Who?” he seemed as confused as you felt.

“Chrissy Cunningham?” Jeff asked, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Your heart, the poor bastard, clenched painfully inside your chest at the mention of the blonde’s name. 

“Yeah, I mean… sure.” Eddie waved his hands dismissively.

“Come oooon!” Gareth, who had been sitting to the left of Eddie, whined and poked him in the ribs “We all know you’ve had heart eyes for her since, like, 8th grade man. No need to pretend otherwise.”

“Guys…” Dustin’s eyes darted towards you, a concerned frown on his lips.

“I don’t have a crush on Chrissy Cunningham?” Eddie answered, although it came out more of a question, his eyebrows furrowed.

“Dude, seriously? You think we haven’t noticed the way you stare at her at every chance you get? Especially when she’s wearing that cute cheerleading dress?” Grant spoke up, Gareth, Jeff and Mike snickering with him.

“Guys…” Dustin tried interrupting again, but the other boys seemed to pay him no mind.

“Yeah, man.” Mike piped up, his mean smirk making your blood boil slightly “If you stare any longer she’ll go from calling you ‘The Freak’ to calling you ‘The Creep’.”

Your fists clenched under the table, nails digging painfully on your palm. You were about to speak up but Eddie beat you to it.

“She’s not like that!” he closed his hand around the mini pretzel he was eating, crunching it in his fist from the force of his words “She’s kind and gentle and sweet.” he glanced at you from the corner of his eyes before speaking up again, softer this time “She’d never do that.”

“See?” Gareth pointed out “You’re already defending your girlfriend-”

“She’s not my girlfriend!”

“Keep telling yourself that.” Mike muttered under his breath.

“So you might as well make it official and ask her out already!” Gareth finished, throwing his arms up in exasperation.

You’ve had enough. Pushing your chair back with so much force it scraped loudly against the linoleum floor, you hastily grabbed your bookbag, stomping away from your usual lunch table and out of the cafeteria. 

“Great going dipshits.” Eddie threw a hard, stern glare towards his friends and quickly followed after you.

“What was that?” Jeff asked, bemused, still staring at the doors which you’d left through.

“I dunno.” Grant shrugged “One moment we were joking around, the next-”

“Guys!” Dustin yelled, startling his friends and earning the attention from other students at the nearby tables. Shrinking his shoulders, he smiled sheepishly, embarrassed, before addressing the other boys again “That was really mean. Even downright cruel.”

“What?” Gareth exclaimed “We were just teasing him!”

“Not to him, dumbass.” Dustin hissed sharply. “To her.”

“Your sister?” Mike asked, a frown twisting his features “What does she have to do with all this?”

“Seriously?” Dustin replied incredulously “You mean to tell me you’ve never noticed?”

The boys shook their heads and Dustin sighed, shaking his head in disappointment.

“For people who claim to have it all figured out, you surely are clueless.” he exhaled long and deeply, as if preparing to give a stern scolding to a bunch of four year olds “My sister has the biggest crush on Eddie.”

“What?”

“No she doesn’t.”

“Have you guys never noticed the way she stares at him? How she’s always giddy and happy around him?”

“Yeah, ‘cause they’ve been best friends since they were little?” Grant chimed in.

“No, it’s different.” Dustin tried looking for the right words to explain himself “It’s like… she feels safe with him. Like she knows at the end of the day she’ll always have a safe place right besides him to fall back in.”

“Except Eddie likes Chrissy.” Mike mumbled, the cogs turning in his brain.

“Exactly.”

“Now that you’ve mentioned it,” Gareth stared back at Dustin, wide eyed “she also stares at Chrissy a lot. Always with this wistful, dreamy look on her face.”

“Almost as if she wants to… be Chrissy?” Dustin completed, making a lightbulb go up simultaneously in all four boy’s heads “Yeah. She’s head over heels for him, and you teasing him about his crush only serves to remind her of what she’ll never ever have!”

The guys had the decency to look ashamed at his outburst.

“Now, if you’ll excuse me,” he said, getting up from their table and collecting his, yours and Eddie’s tray “I’m going to go find my sister and lend her my shoulder for her to cry on.”

Gareth, Jeff, Mike and Grant stared at his retreating form, guilt weighing heavily on their stomachs.

Dustin found Eddie in front of his locker, shuffling through the stuff inside, looking for something.

“Hey, Eddie.” Dustin leaned against the door of the locker adjacent to his, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Hey, man.” Eddie answered, without so much as looking over at his friend. He looked annoyed, the boy dared say even slightly pissed.

“Have you seen my sister?”

The younger boy jumped about a foot in the air when the door to the locker was slammed shut, a smal, metallic black lunch box hanging tightly from Eddie’s fist.

“No, Henderson, I haven’t seen her.” he answered, a fed up expression crossing his face as he started walking away.

“Wait up, Eddie.” Dustin held him by the cuff of his jacket, preventing him from leaving “I wanna talk to you.”

The metalhead sighed and turned his attention to the boy, nodding for him to go on.

“I know you like Chrissy-”

“I don’t like-”

“Please, just let me finish.” Dustin held a hand up for him to stop interrupting, to which Eddie rolled his eyes but stayed quiet “I know you like Chrissy. I do, really. Just… don’t break her heart.”

“Chrissy’s?” Eddie seemed confused.

“No.” he said your name hurriedly, desperately trying to get his point across “I really shouldn’t be telling you this, but she really really likes you. Like -likes you.”

“She doesn’t like me.” Eddie answered unphased, his calmness making Dustin’s heartbeat pick up in anger.

“Yes, she does! How come you don’t see that?” he rubbed a palm over his face, the pull on his cheeks stretching his lower eyelids so far Eddie worried his eyes were about to pop out of the socket “I just- I… I just don’t want her to get hurt.”

Eddie’s entire demeanor deflated, a small sigh escaping through his lips. As annoying as the young boy could be sometimes, Dustin had an enormous heart, always worrying about others and putting their needs and feelings before his own, and (Eddie felt a twinge of pride anytime he thought about it) he was loyal to a fault. Those were among the first things he noticed about the boy when he started his freshman year, prompting the metalhead to quickly take him under his wing. That and his Weird Al tee.

He laid a hand over Dustin’s shoulder, squeezing gently.

“I can assure you, with the same certainty that the sky is blue and ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ is by far the best one in the trilogy, I’m not going to break her heart.” seeing a tiny residual layer of distrust fleetingly cross through Dustin’s eyes, he squeezed his shoulder tighter “I promise.”

Dustin nodded thoughtfully, shyly smiling up at his friend.

“Thank you.”

Eddie smiled back at him, giving his shoulder one last squeeze, before he was back to his usual dramatic self.

“Now, I’m going to find your sister and beg for forgiveness. I’ll even drop to my knees and grovel if I have to.”

Dustin laughed at his antics, watching Eddie practically skip down the deserted hallway away from him, clutching the metal lunch box loosely on his hand.

“If you continue to stare at the table like that it’s gonna go up in flames and probably spread all around the woods. And I really don’t want to add crimes against the environment to my ever growing list of felonies, you know?” Eddie’s face morphed into a shit-eating grin as he stared at your slumped form.

You only spared him a half-hearted glare before balling your hands tightly. You slammed your fists against the wooden picnic table in front of you, jumping out of the bench and starting to pace along the leaf covered ground.

“It’s just so annoying, you know?” you huffed angrily “They notice one little thing, one wrong thing might I add, and just believe they’ve got us all figured out!”

“Yep.” he agreed, also mildly annoyed at the situation.

Throwing your arms above your head in frustration, you kicked some of the leaves with the toe of your sneakers.

“Even if you were into Chrissy, how is that any of their business?”

“Mhmm.”

You paused for a moment, wringing your hands together, a nervous habit you couldn’t seem to shake.

“But they are right, you know?”

“How so?” Eddie’s entire face scrunched up in confusion.

“You have been staring at Chrissy a lot recently.” you spoke quietly.

His face softened at the way you seemed to withdraw into yourself, letting your insecurities get the best of you. He stood up from the other bench, the dry leaves on the ground crunching under his white Reebok’s as he closed the distance between the two of you, resting a comforting hand on your shoulder, not unlike how he had done with your brother earlier.

“I’m just looking out for her. She hasn’t been all that well recently and Carver…” he sighed at the mention of his arch-nemesis “They may be dating but the dude still scares me when it comes to her. And she hasn’t been really happy with him for a while now. I don’t want her to get on his bad side.”

Your heart swelled with affection towards your best friend. Eddie had a heart of gold, one he hid behind leather and chains and metal and fantasylands to protect it from being hurt. Only a few selected individuals got to see this side of him, and you were extremely thankful you got to be one of them.

“I do not have a crush on Chrissy Cunningham, okay? You’ve got nothing to worry about.” he squeezed your shoulder playfully as his once soft smile grew mirthful “Besides, from how well we know each other, I’m actually offended you’d even suggest such a thing.”

You giggled at that, eased by both his actions and his words. Sensing you were back to your usual self, Eddie smiled, taking a step back, his eyes never leaving yours.

“You do know that this would all stop if you just told them the truth, right?” he asked seriously “At the very least Dustin?”

You snorted.

“Right, because that is super easy and plausible.” you mocked “What would I even say to him? ‘Hey, little bro! You know how you’re into Suzie, a girl? Yeah, so am I.”

Eddie threw his head back, a loud and full laugh escaping from his wide smile. Tears gathered in the corner of his eyes as he clutched his stomach, almost doubling over at the hilarity of your words.

“Man, oh, man. The way you phrased that-” he hiccuped, trying to regain his breath while wiping away some tears that had escaped down his cheek.

You couldn’t help but giggle as well, his laughter contagious, and a small smile formed on his face at having helped improve your mood.

“Yeah, it sounded pretty weird, didn’t it?” you shrugged your shoulders sheepishly.

He nodded, finally being able to stop chuckling.

“Just tell him you like pussy, can’t be that hard.” he sat back down on the bench, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Edward Cornelius Munson!” you gasped and slapped his shoulder.

“What, so do I!” he threw his hands up in amusement before smirking “That, among other things.”

“I know, it’s just… I’m not about to use such a-” you hesitated as you took in his wolfish grin “foul language with my baby brother.”

“He’s a high schooler!” he almost shouted.

“No matter how old we may be, he’ll always be my baby brother.” you answered, sitting back down on the bench, your smile faltering for just a moment. It was only a moment, but Eddie noticed. He always did when it came to you.

“You should tell him, you know?”

Your face fell completely, smile disappearing as your shoulders slumped.

“You know I can’t.” you said softly, prompting a small sad smile from him “What if-” you swallowed thickly before whispering “What if he doesn’t look at me the same anymore?”

Eddie reached across the table, his hands laying palms up against the old wood. His fingers crooked in his direction, signaling for you to lay your own on top of them.

“He’s your brother.” he squeezed your hands tightly in his own “You said so yourself, he’s your baby brother. That kid worships the very ground you walk on.”

“Eddie-” you shook your head, but his hands closed even more tightly around yours.

“No, listen to me.” he said firmly, his stern voice promptly shutting you up “He’s your brother and he loves you, so very much. Nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing could ever change that.”

Your eyes prickled, brimming with unshed tears. With a sniffle you squeezed his hands in return, willing yourself not to cry.

“Thanks.”

He smiled at you one more time before dropping your hands, his smile turning mischievous. 

“But seriously, Chrissy Cunningham?” he smirked, a mock disgusted look on his face “How basic can you be?”

“We’ve been over this before, Eddie.” you giggled “It’s just- she’s so-”

“So pretty and kind and nice, yeah yeah, I’ve heard it all before.” he waved his hands dismissively at you “Why don’t you talk to her?”

You snapped your head at him, eyes widening minutely.

“What?” you stuttered “Are you insane?”

“What, why? It was just a suggestion!” he raised his hands in mock surrender.

“I couldn’t possibly talk to her! She’s pretty and popular, she’s-”

“The Queen of Hawkins High?” Eddie completed.

“Yes, exactly. And I’m just-”

“A freak?”

You shook your head.

“-me.” you whispered sadly “She’s everything and I’m just… me.”

Eddie’s eyes softened, something akin to pity and concern crossing behind them.

“That’s not true.” he spoke softly, as if you were a cornered animal and any loud noise would spook you. He sighed at the way you shrugged, realizing he couldn't get past the insecurities that had lodged themselves in your brain.

“Besides, she’s with Jason.”

“Fuck that dickhead! He’s not worthy of her time.” Eddie blew a raspberry “She’s really nice. He doesn’t deserve her.”

Ever since she started buying from him, the two of them had become really good friends. Eddie was very fond of her and would do almost anything to keep her safe. Even fighting her own boyfriend if it came to it.

“Yeah, right.”

“You should talk to her. You have a lot more in common than you realize.” he shrugged, trying to appear nonchalant “If nothing else, I think you two would be great friends.”

You smiled at him, a genuine smile this time. You were very grateful for having Eddie in your life. He was always there for you when you needed, always willing to drop everything just to make you smile. For a smile while you were afraid of losing him, having revealed your secret when he confessed to having a crush on you for a while. You were a sophomore, he was just starting his first round as a senior and you had known each other for a long while when he dropped that on you. You were scared, terrified even, that you’d end up losing him completely, but he hadn’t been disgusted nor weirded out, like you’d expected. Quite the opposite, in fact. He had been incredibly supportive and even revealed that he himself wasn’t very conventional when it came to relationships.

“I mean, as long as they love me and treat me AND my friends right… and don’t mind me blasting Black Sabbath on my sweetheart every once in a while, who cares? Guys, girls, people who are neither? Doesn’t matter, man.” 

“Thanks, Eddie.” you smiled at him, giving one of his shoulders a soft punch.

“If you want the teasing to stop, though, you’ll have to tell the boys from Hellfire.”

“And risk Mike Wheeler running his loud mouth around? Then get turned into an even bigger laughing stock for being something even worse than a ‘freak’ in their eyes? Or worse, get beat to a pulp by someone like Jason Carver? No, thank you.”

Eddie agreed. Then, for a moment, he looked up, brows furrowed, deep in thought.

“To be fair, I’m pretty sure Wheeler has a puppy dog kinda crush on me.”

“Oh, no, he does. For sure.” you nodded vehemently “He pretty much stole your style and your mannerisms, there’s no way he doesn’t have at least a small infatuation towards you.”

He chuckled.

“Doesn’t he have a girlfriend, though?”

“Yeah, El. But he also talks about Will Byers almost as much as he talks about her. It’s always ‘Will this, Will that’... you might as well incorporate Will, the Wise into our next campaign.” that made him giggle and shake his head at your antics. No matter how much you teased your brother and his friends, you loved those munchkins very much.

Him, sensing you were finally relaxing, decided to throw in a joke to alleviate the mood even further.

“Soooooo, Henderson… when are you asking her out then?” he said, smirking at your smiling face.

You threw your head back, laughing at his jokester self.

“I dunno, Munson.” you shrugged “When are you going to ask Steve Harrington out?”

“Uh, never?!” his face looked almost offended, a pink tinge dusting his cheeks, but in truth you knew how much he liked the former ‘King’.

“There’s your answer.”

He chuckled, amused.

“See, that’s why I keep myself open to the opportunities. There’s plenty of fish on this sea.” he tsked “Try being more like me, won’t ya?”

“Oh yes” your face turned mockingly serious “I’ll be exactly like you. With at least twice, if not more, as much opportunity and yet you’re still alone.”

With a hand to his chest, he gasped dramatically.

“How dare you?!” he glared at you playfully “Low blow.”

“It’s the truth.”

He chuckled, pulling a laugh out of you, and for a moment, all your worries vanished.

“I swear to you, Max, if he so much as thinks about hurting her I’ll personally break every single one of his fingers so he can never play his precious guitar ever again.” Dustin hissed as he pushed the doors open at Family Video.

“What’s going on?” Steve asked, exchanging a suspicious glance with Robin.

“Dustin here is threatening bodily harm.” the red-head explained as she walked towards the horror section, stopping briefly to stare at a copy of ‘Pretty In Pink’ in the romance section.

“To whom?” Robin asked.

Dustin sighed heavily, like the thought gave him an immense amount of pain.

“Eddie.”

Steve stared at Dustin as if he’d grown a second head. Normally Dustin wouldn’t shut up about his Dungeon Master, he basically worshiped the dude, to Steve’s mild annoyance. So for him to be mad at Eddie, something drastic must have happened.

“What did the dingus do?” Robin pinched the bridge of her nose.

“Oh, don’t ask-” Max shouted from over between the shelves.

“I’m glad you asked!” Dustin cut her off, jumping up and sitting over the counter, ignoring the protests of both Steve and Robin “Okay, it’s kind of a long story.”

“Oh, no.” Steve mumbled under his breath.

“So, you guys know my sister, right?”

“Of course we do, she’s one of our best friends. Also works here all other days of the week?” Robin questioned, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“Yeah, her.” Dustin continued, unbothered “She’s got it bad for Eddie. Like head over heels bad.”

Steve almost choked on air. From the corner of his eye he could see Robin shooting the young boy a funny look, almost in disbelief.

“But the thing is, Eddie has it bad for Chrissy Cunningham.”

Robin and Steve stared at one another, jaws hanging open. 

“Okay, and?” Steve asked.

“And?” Dustin asked incredulously “And she’s bound to get hurt. She’s going to get hurt and-” he let out a shuddering breath “I don’t want to see that happen.”

Both Steve’s and Robin’s gaze softened at the boy’s kind words. 

“If it serves as any consolation, Dustin, your sister does not have a crush on Eddie.”

“Yes, she does!” Dustin practically shouted “She’s my sister and I know her! She is in love with Eddie! It’s so obvious, why can’t none of you see it?”

“Dust-” Robin tried interrupting, but the boy cut her off, offended.

“What kind of brother would I be if I didn’t know my own sister?!”

Robin raised her hands, trying to calm the boy down.

“Okay, okay. Fine.” she sighed defeated.

Steve sensed Dustin was getting upset and tried to placate him into calming down.

“Hey, man. If, by any chance, he ends up breaking her heart, I’ll help you bash that metalhead’s skull in.”

Dustin smiled a toothy grin, reassured by his friend’s words.

“Now!” Steve clapped his hands “I assume the two of you aren’t here just to gossip now, are you?”

Dustin straightened his spine, jumping down from the counter and disappearing behind some shelves. Moments later he came back, dragging a reluctant Max by the wrist.

“Maxine here” he started (to which Max mumbled ‘Call me Maxine again and I’ll break your fucking nose’ under her breath) “has never watched Star Wars.”

Steve gasped dramatically.

“Seriously?! What a crime!”

Robin rolled her eyes.

“You haven’t watched it either, dingus.”

“Yes I have!”

“Sleeping halfway through ‘A New Hope’ doesn’t count as watching!”

“Anyway,” Dustin cleared his throat “Mike and I agreed that it’s about time she watched it and decided on a movie marathon. Lucas is also joining us. So if either of you can get me the tapes for the entire trilogy, we‘ll get out of your hair as soon as possible.”

Robin started typing in Dustin’s file while Steve went out back to retrieve the requested tapes.

“Uh, guys?” Steve came back to the front of the store holding one tape in each hand “Looks like someone already rented one of them.”

“What?!” Dustin’s voice broke as he reached for the tapes “‘Return Of The Jedi’ is missing! Who in their right minds rents only ‘Return Of The Jedi'?!”

Robin looked at Steve, a mischievous smile crossing her features. He knew she could only mean trouble.

“Let me check that out for you.”

“Uh, Rob.” Steve mumbled, concerned “That’s against company policy.”

“Come on, Stev-o, live a little! We do this all the time to find out stuff about people.”

“Oh, and checking the renting log for Star Wars 3 will tell us what exactly?”

Robin smirked. Oh, Steve didn’t like where this was going.

“If we cross reference it with the other two,” Robin started typing on the computer behind the counter “we can check out who rented all three of them together or rented all three of them separately but in the correct order.”

“And those who rented just this one?”

Robin’s smirk only grew. She looked at Steve dead in the eye and mouthed the word ‘boobies’. Steve could practically hear the moment the shoe dropped, his own face morphing into a smirk. 

“Are we missing something here?” Max asked, suspicious.

Robin dismissed her and continued typing. It took about twenty minutes, but she eventually had printed out an extensive list of names after having written down a bunch of names and connecting them on her little white board.

“Okay, munchkins.” she turned to them, swiveling her chair “I have it. After pulling the records of the past six months, I managed to find out all the people who rented ‘Return Of The Jedi’ solo.”

Dustin giggled, and Max rolled her eyes, but a tiny amused smile pulled at her lips. Steve awaited eagerly, hanging from the edge of his seat.

“Let’s see, from oldest to newest.” Robin cleared her throat “Eddie Munson, clearly; me; Vicki; Eddie again; your sister.” 

Steve side-eyed her, his brows furrowing in confusion, but Robin kept going without paying him any mind.

“Vicki again; your sister again; Fred Benson; Eddie; Vickie; Eddie; Jason Carver;” her face scrunched up in disgust (to which Dustin screamed a “Jason Carver likes Star Wars?! ”) before continuing “your sister; Vickie; me; Eddie aaaaaand… oh!”

Everyone froze, startled expressions paralyzing their faces.

“What do you mean ‘oh!’?” Steve asked, incredulous.

Robin’s eyes were wide as saucers, her eyebrows so far up her forehead they disappeared under her short bangs. Her mouth hung wide open and only small stutters came out. Swallowing hard, she exhaled sharply through her nose before turning to her friends, her voice low.

“The last person to rent ‘Return Of The Jedi’ and who currently has the tape is Chrissy Cunningham.”

Multiple things happened at once. Steve’s jaw fell almost to the ground, Dustin let out a loud disbelieving yelp and Max’s eyes widened just a fraction. 

“Seriously?” Dustin asked “Chrissy Cunningham, captain of the cheer squad, queen of Hawkins High, Jason Carver’s girlfriend, rented out a Star Wars movie?”

Steve and Robin glanced at one another. It was clear their incredulity stemmed from a totally different reason then the two kids. 

“Oh, well.” the boy threw his hands up in defeat “I guess our movie marathon is fucked.”

Max looked conflicted, slightly relieved but at the same time kind of bummed. Steve was already pulling the file for ‘Return Of The Jedi’ on the computer again, desperately trying to put a smile back on that kid’s face.

“She’s due to return it tomorrow. Why don’t you come by then? It’s Friday anyway, don’t you have Hellfire today?” 

“Yeah, I guess.” Dustin shrugged “We were going to head straight to Mike’s after the club and Max would meet us there.”

“Tell you what,” Steve nodded his chin conspiratorially “why don’t you take something else for today, have a sleepover, and as soon as Chrissy returns the tape tomorrow I’ll drive by the Wheeler’s and deliver it to you, okay?”

“But what if Chrissy doesn’t return it on time?” Max asked.

The sound of keys being smashed on the keyboard pulled their attention back to Robin, who had taken over the computer.

“It says here she hasn’t missed one due date, and she’s been coming here for quite a while now.” she smiled reassuringly “You guys have nothing to worry about, Steve’s got this covered for you.”

After a few more moments trying to reassure Max’s everlasting distrust and restore Dustin’s goofy mood, the two kids left with a copy of ‘Gremlins’, one of Max’s favorite movies of all times. As they were about to set foot outside the door, Robin called out to Dustin.

“Don’t worry about your sister, okay? She’ll be alright.”

Dustin nodded and they left. With a huff, Robin slumped against the counter.

“So, what was that about our dearest Henderson having a crush on Eddie?” Steve asked.

“Trust me, dude, she does not have a crush on him.”

“Dustin seemed pretty adamant that she does.”

“She doesn’t.” the girl hissed.

“How could you possibly know? She might be one of your best friends since forever, but sometimes people rather keep-”

“Because I know!” Robin practically shouted “Because she’s also into the same stuff we both are!”

“You mean…” Steve’s eyes widened, before his confusion gave way to understanding “She did rent that Star Wars a lot.”

“Yeah, exactly.” Robin leaned closer to him and lowered her voice down to a whisper, even though there was no one else in the store at the time “We dated briefly in middle school. We were both going through a self-discovery journey kind of thing and we helped each other out. It’s good talking about your feelings with someone who actually gets it, who also knows exactly what you’re going through. That, combined with the fact we’d been friends for so long, had us both thinking that dating was the natural progression of things.” she smiled a sad, fond smile before shrugging “Don’t get me wrong, she’s pretty cute, smart and all, but we quickly realized it was more like kissing a cousin than anything.”

“Ew.” Steve shrudded.

“Mhmm. So we broke things off about a month in.”

“Wow. That’s nice actually.” Steve smiled at her “It’s nice to know you didn’t have to go through all of that alone.”

Robin nodded in agreement, turning back towards her friend. She found him already staring at her eagerly. She closed her eyes with a sigh.

“Spit it out.”

“So our resident freak has a crush on the Queen of Hawkins High?”

Robin eyed him funny.

“No he doesn’t.” she scoffed “There’s only one person in this town whom Eddie fancies, and it’s certainly not Chrissy.”

“Who’s it?” he asked, like a kid who’s begging their parents to reveal the contents of their Christmas gift in advance.

Robin felt like she could facepalm. Better yet, bang her head on the counter multiple times.

“Seriously, Harrington?! Are you really that dense?”

Steve stared at her like a clueless puppy.

“What?”

She huffed and grabbed a pile of returned tapes to sort through.

“Anywaaay…” Steve sat next to her again “What do you think?”

“About what?”

“Uh, duh? The fact that Chrissy rented that movie? You said so yourself and that list was pretty self explanatory.”

Robin smirked at him, a small chuckle climbing out of her throat.

“I think, my dear friend,” she topped her act off with a wink “that there’s more to Chrissy Cunningham than meets the eye.”

#chrissy cunningham x reader #chrissy cunningham x you #chrissy cunningham x female!reader #chrissy cunningham x f!reader #chrissy cunningham fanfic #stranger things fanfic

[lady-pug]

just hold me tight and tell me you'll miss me

Chapter II of Dream a Little Dream of Me

Summary: You find yourself once more at the same strange town. This time, however, you end up wandering a bit further than you’ve ever been before, somewhere you shouldn’t be. But maybe you might meet just find the answers to all your questions. If you know who to ask.

Pairing: Morpheus | Dream of the Endless x Reader

Word count: 2,1k

Warnings: none

Notes: Thank you for anyone who’s read the first part! I hope you enjoy this part and the next ones to come! I hope to keep this up, I have ideas for two more chapters, and hope you enjoy them.

Reader's gender not specified

Next part | Previous part | Masterlist | Read on AO3

It kept on happening. Every. Single. Night.

Every night you dreamt about the small town on the riverside, almost always bathed in moonlight. The stone pavement was always the same, the small houses never changing. The lovely lady at the café near the church still waved at you, smiling brightly. The old man at the bar would always wink every time you passed by. If you hadn’t been paying attention you wouldn’t have even noticed anything out of the ordinary. But something had changed.

Every night, when you fell asleep, you’d see him. Somewhere in the town, sometimes inside the church, sometimes rounding a corner, but always there. You tried talking to him, seeking answers to where you were, what you were doing here and what he wanted with you. Whenever he would notice you trying, though, he would turn on his heel, crossing the street or entering a house. Following him proved to be futile, seeing as he would simply disappear into thin air as soon as he left your eyesight. It was getting on your nerves, frustration seeping from your very being every morning when you woke up.

Tonight was just like every other.

As soon as you succumbed to sleep, your eyes fluttered open and you were met with the sight of the same stars you’d been seeing for weeks now. The midnight sky seemed even more blue today, only small hues of darkness surrounding the white-yellowish glow of the stars. It seemed poetic, in your opinion, how the darkness seemed to linger, just waiting for the moment the light would falter for just a second, a fliker, to engulf the entire world in Despair.

A chuckle from behind you pulled you out of your racing thoughts. The very same man who plagued your dreams was staring right at you, a cheeky grin pulling at his lips.

“Hey,” you whispered, almost breathlessly “it’s you.”

Had you not been paying close attention, enthralled by the man who appeared to be haunting your subconscious, you would have missed the smallest of nods he sent your way, his eyes closing as his chin tipped towards his chest. You blinked and he was back to staring intently at you, as if waiting for you to play your next move.

You were scared. Not as much as when you had faced the ominous castle that other night, but scared nonetheless. You weren’t scared of him per se, but this was the first time he had so much as looked you in the eye for longer than two seconds, much less interacted with you. You were afraid of doing the wrong thing, saying the wrong words, and sending him fleeing in the other direction.

From up close, you realized, he was very pretty. It wasn’t his appearance in itself that made him as beautiful as he was, more in the way he carried himself: high and mighty, with a tinge of cockiness that was just a tumble away from arrogance, but all the while never displaying anything less than pure elegance.

Intimidated by his commanding presence, you settled in asking the only thing that crossed your mind.

“Who are you?”

That seemed to be the wrong thing to say, as his entire demeanor deflated. His face fell, his beautiful almost-smile disappearing, as he turned on his heel and started walking away.

“W-wait!” you started walking after him “I’m sorry, please come back!”

He walked quickly, his long trench coat flailing behind him.

No. Not again. You weren’t going to lose him again. Even if you had to run until your lungs were on fire and your legs gave out from under you, you weren’t letting this man out of your sight.

You followed after him. Everytime he turned, swiftly crossing the street, or hid behind a building, you were right behind him, hot on his heels. You couldn't miss him, you couldn't let him get away. You had so many questions, and this mysterious man might possibly be the only one in town able to give you the answers you so desperately seeked.

Sensing you were still close to him he picked up his pace, almost jogging. You followed his lead and started walking faster as well. The faster you went the faster he did, trying to avoid you at all costs. But you weren't giving up so easily. You ran. The stony pavement wasn't the best setting to run, especially since dreamland decided to have you wear sandals tonight, but you didn't give up. You were almost reaching him, almost. If you just stretched your arm out far enough in front of you, you could grab the back of his overcoat.

All of a sudden he turned on his heel, startling you half to death as he turned to walk in your direction. Given how close you had been standing behind him, you had no time to move out of the way, making him collide into you. And then the inevitable happened. The force of his shoulder hitting you square in the chest shoved you to the ground, breath hitching as air escaped from your lungs the moment your back hit the pavement.

You blinked, trying to regain your breath and shake the confusion of such an impact out of you. Sitting up, you scanned your surroundings, looking for the man when realization hit you.

"Son of a..." you mumbled, running a hand over your face. The sneaky bastard purposely tripped you so he could get out of your sight and vanish.

Out of all the reactions you believed that might get out of you, bursting out laughing wasn't one of them. Tears gathered in the corner of your eyes as you tried to regain your composure, your stomach aching from the force of your laughter. As it subsided, you stood up, dusting yourself off as you looked around, attempting to locate yourself in town.

There were some houses lining up on each side of the street. It looked like all of the streets you had wandered through before. What caught your eye, though, was the large building right at the center of the block on one side of the road. It was large, its walls painted a faded white color, chirping at the corners, the windowsills collecting dust. It looked... inviting. It looked oddly familiar, but you couldn't for the life of you pinpoint where you remembered the structure from.

Forgetting all about the man you decided to head inside. What was the danger, anyway? Pushing the large wooden doors, you internally cringed at the loud clanging coming from its hinges. The interior was dimly lit, illuminated mainly by the light streaming in from the windows and a few candles scattered around. There were shelves pilled with books, dozens of rows of them. That's why you thought the building was familiar! It was a library! The first thing that had jumped to mind when you had first laid eyes on the exterior of the building was the front of the old public library back in your hometown.

Walking among the rows of shelves you scanned the spines of countless books. Some looked old and tattered, as if time and their owners hadn't been so kind to them. Others looked impeccable, almost shiny from how new they were. You recognized some of the titles and authors, Tolkien and García Marquez, Steinback and Graciliano Ramos, Ali Hazelwood and Murakami, Machado de Assis and Michael Crichton... one book in particular caught your eyes and you froze. Every muscle in your body locked in place and refused to so much as twitch, your knees almost buckling. It was your name. There was a book with your name in it.

Almost like it was moving on its own, your body seemed to wake up, reaching forward to grasp the book and carefully pull it out of the bookshelf. The cover was simple, not too many details surrounding the title and there, written in shiny letters, was your name.

"What...?" you whispered, running a tentative finger over the writing.

"You shouldn't be here, you know." a voice sounded from behind you. Startled, you let out a yelp. You'd have dropped the book had you not been holding onto it with an iron grip already.

Turning around you were met with a beautiful woman, head shaved and kind eyes behind a pair of round glasses.

"I-I'm sorry..." you said, slightly embarrassed at having been caught snooping around "It's just- this is me."

You opened the book despite the woman's protests and read the first page. It was the same few paragraphs that had been sitting in a Word Document on your laptop for months. Every time you sat down to try and write it you'd come up with nothing to follow up the beautiful words your mind had come up with during a bad case of insomnia, the blankness of the screen almost mocking you.

"I strongly suggest that you do not read the rest." the woman said, extending a hand for you to give the book back to her. With a sigh, you carefully placed it in her palms, turning to her with a confused expression.

"What is- what is that?" you asked, somewhat anxious "Did I write that?"

"Not yet." she replied, a gentle smile gracing her features "This library contains a collection of all the stories ever imagined and that ever will be imagined, having been published or not. If you're ever going to finish writing this depends only on you."

You looked around, mesmerized.

"What is this place?"

"You're in the Dreaming."

"The what?" you stared at her, confusion dripping from your tone.

"The realm of dreams. The domain of Lord Morpheus."

"Morpheus?"

She sighed, not unkindly.

"Dream of The Endless? The Sandman? King of Dreams?"

"The Sandman?" you asked in disbelief "The man who sprinkles sand into people's eyes to get them to sleep?"

"The very same."

"No way, you have to be kidding me." you smiled sarcastically, sure she was just mocking you.

"I'm afraid I'm not." she shook her head "Lord Morpheus has become... quite intrigued by you."

You tilted your head at her.

"Intrigued? What does that even mean?"

Her smile widened only a fraction as she took hold of your elbow and started gently guiding you through the library.

"Not many people can see his palace when they come here while dreaming, much less enter it. It's hidden from the mortal eye, and only dreams and nightmares can come in, apart from a few selected guests. But you... you are an exception."

You listened very carefully to her. This palace, was it the same castle you had seen a few weeks prior? Were you inside the castle right now?

"At first he thought you might be a Dream Vortex." her face turned into a grimace, and something told you that whatever a Dream Vortex was it evoked bad memories "But turns out you're just an ordinary human."

"Ouch." you said, only slightly offended.

"My apologies, that came out wrong.” she smiled “What I'm trying to say is you don't seem to pose any danger to this realm or its inhabitants. So naturally Lord Morpheus has become quite captivated by your presence."

You paused and contemplated her words. The Sandman himself was intrigued by you? What did he find so special about you anyway? And why did you keep on coming to this town?

"What does that mean for me? Why do I keep coming here?"

"That I don't know. Neither does he apparently-"

The sound of the doors opening abruptly cut her off, a new voice joining the room.

"Lucienne?" the voice was low, smooth, but seemed commanding even if you couldn't see the person it belonged to "Have you seen Gault? I thought they might be with Jed but I couldn't find them any-"

A man came to a halt at the end of the row you and the woman, whose name you guessed was Lucienne, were currently standing in. No, not a man. The man. The same man from earlier now stood before you, his light eyes wide at having been caught off guard by your presence.

"It's you." you whispered for the second time that night.

The sound of your voice, as low as you tried to keep it, seemed to spur him into action. His eyes hardened just a tiny bit, jaw set as he turned stared from you to Lucienne, who you noticed from the corner of your eye stepping in his direction like she wanted to prevent his next move, back to you.

"This dream is over."

You opened your eyes slowly, the soft beams of sunlight streaming in from where you'd forgotten to close the blinds the night before. You sat up in your bed, the sheets pooling at your waist, as you attempted to make sense of everything.

Dream. You'd just met the King of Dreams.

#morpheus x reader #dream x reader #sandman x reader #dream of the endless x reader #morpheus x gn!reader #dream x gn!reader #sandman x gn!reader #dream of the endless x gn!reader #the sandman fanfic #morpheus fanfiction #dream fanfic #dream of the endless fanfic

[lady-pug]

say "night-ie night" and kiss me

Chapter I of Dream a Little Dream of Me

Summary: You keep on visiting a strange town, one you’ve never been to before. You wanted to know more, to know more why you were here and why you kept coming back, so you decide to do some exploring. Maybe you could start with the castle on the outskirts of the town.

Pairing: Morpheus | Dream of the Endless x Reader

Word count: 1,3k

Warnings: none

Notes: This is me trying my hand at writing something with very little dialogue, relying on heavy descriptions. I don’t really know if this is a good strategy, but I ended up liking it a lot so decided to keep it like that. The descriptions are heavily based on Vincent Van Gogh’s ‘Starry Night’ and ‘Starry Night Over the Rhône’, and also the song ‘Dream a Little Dream of Me’, performed by Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong.

I really hope you, dear reader, enjoy this story, and if you spot any mistakes, please feel free to warn me and I'll correct it right away, and feedback is always welcome and appreciated.

Reader's gender not specified

Next part | Masterlist | Read on AO3

The breeze was soft on your skin. Warm and cold at the same time, enveloping you like a loving embrace. Above your head, the stars shone brightly against the dark blue profound sky, paired with the chirping of a few birds perched on a tree somewhere nearby. 

You had never been here before. That is before a few weeks back when you started coming here on the regular. The problem is: you had no idea where ‘here’ was. Every night you’d come here, to this small town bathed in starlight, and wander around aimlessly, no actual destination in mind. Small houses littered the cobble stoned streets, a tidy church near a café as your point of reference. Once you even traveled far enough to find yourself at the side of a river, the street lights reflected on the surface along with the stars. A couple wearing hats, holding hands and standing near two sailing boats, smiled and waved at you as if they had known you your entire life.

It honestly felt like someone transported you into one of Van Gogh’s paintings. You once even passed by a vendor selling sunflowers. Most of the people seemed to recognize you, but you had no clue what their names were. Most seemed friendly enough, a few looked like they were a second away from ripping all your possessions from your hands, and some, although less frequently, stared at you with sneers of disdain, as if they were proud to know something you didn’t.

Today was no different.

The lovely lady at the café near the church waved at you, her bright smile putting you at ease. You walked down the street, sending the old man at the bar a quick wave, prompting a friendly wink back your way. You might not truly understand where you were, but you’ve come to appreciate it. A constant in a life full of uncertainty was a nice change for once.

When you reached the school, most kids turning in their seats to eye you curiously through the windows, you decided to take a different route. Walking through a maze of alleyways and larger streets, seeing less and less people each corner you turned, eventually led you to a deserted road, no houses bordering the hillside. 

Strange. 

Glancing upwards to the top of the slope had you feeling something new, a mixture of dread and curiosity. A tall, dark and ominous structure, shaped like a castle, stood high and mighty before you, almost like it was overlooking the city. How come you had never noticed it before in all your visits? You balanced your options, curiosity overcoming the dread, and started the track up the hill, the stars as your sole companions.

You walked, and walked, and walked. Something didn’t seem particularly right. Glancing down at your feet, you noticed the stones under them, differently from what happened around town, were all the same. A sense of nausea had you looking up again, only to notice the castle seemed to be the same distance as before. That was impossible, however, as you had walked for several long minutes. Staring straight ahead you tried walking, running even, but the more effort you made, the further away the castle seemed to get.

Suddenly the wind picked up, a swoosh of air coming from above, like a flutter of wings. No, it wasn’t the wind. A raven was flying over your head, past you and towards the castle that stood tall in the dark.

That feeling of dread returned tenfold, making you turn on your heels and start running down the same way you came. You ran, overexerting your lungs, legs burning as adrenaline pumped in your veins. The sound of your sneakers hitting the stone pavement was the only sound you could hear along with your rapid breathing and the thumping of your heart right in your ears. You didn’t stop until you were back inside the café, in the safety of what was known to you. Well, relatively known.

“Oh, dear.” the friendly lady, who happened to be the owner of the establishment, turned to you when you came to a halt in the middle of the place, hands holding your knees as you tried to regain your breath, a concerned expression crossing her eyes “Are you quite alright?”

When you didn’t answer right away, still shaken from your encounter with the mysterious castle, she led you to one of the tables, sitting you down on a wooden chair.

“I’ll bring you some water to calm your nerves, what do you say?” she smiled, trying to send a wave of calmness your way “Or perhaps you’d like some coffee? I have just brewed some. On the house.”

You smiled at her kindness. 

“A coffee would be nice, please.”

She went out back to retrieve your drink and left you alone with your racing heart, its beating yet to slow down. The hairs on your arms and on the back of your neck stood up, and the looming sense that someone was watching you consumed you whole. Looking around the café you were met with the same people who you always saw when walking by: a couple out on a date, an elderly woman with a small dog on her lap, a man in a hat who looked like he hadn’t slept in days, a man dressed in all black… wait, that was new. 

You looked back towards the man and sure enough, he was staring right at you. Pale complexion and light eyes, the man was dressed in black clothes, a long overcoat completing the look. His sharp jaw and high cheekbones made him look powerful, almost regal in a sense, and dare you say… beautiful. The only thing about him that softened his features was his dark, messy hair. He seemed like someone important, imponent, but for some reason he didn’t scare you. You almost felt… peaceful in his presence. 

Your thoughts about the man were cut short when a large ceramic cup filled to the brim was placed in front of you.

“Here you go, dear. A nice cup of fresh coffee should do you some good.”

“Thank you.” she started walking away when you called her, catching her attention “Hey, uh, excuse me?”

She nodded for you to continue.

“What is that castle at the edge of town?”

“What castle, dear?” she asked, confusion lacing her tone.

“The tall dark one at the top of a hill.”

Her eyes narrowed slightly, as if assessing to see if you weren’t playing tricks on her.

“There is nothing around the city other than mountains on one side and the river on the other.” she smiled again “Why don’t you drink your coffee, dear, before it gets cold. I’m sure you’ll feel better afterwards.”

As she walked away once again you were left to wonder. Had you imagined it? No, you were pretty sure you had seen a castle. And a raven. You couldn’t possibly have imagined that, now… could you?

Taking a sip of your coffee, you almost spat it right back out. It tasted awful, it tasted like… nothing. It was hot, sure, but it had absolutely no taste whatsoever. You took another larger sip, at the risk of burning both your tongue and your throat, and still nothing. You couldn’t taste anything. Bringing the cup under your nose you frowned. It smelled like coffee, strongly so. If it smelled like coffee, looked like coffee and was warm like coffee, why didn’t it taste like coffee?

Raising your head, you were about to call the owner again to ask about the tasteless coffee when you noticed the same man from earlier still looking at you. His eyes were mischievous, his lips only barely tilted up in what seemed like the world's tiniest smirk. 

Narrowing your eyes at him you went to stand up and confront him, ask him why he wouldn’t quit his staring. Your abruptness made his face harden again, a hand raising under his chin. You only managed to take one shaky step in his direction before, with a snap of his fingers and something uttered under his breath, you were sitting up with a startled gasp on your bed.

Dream.

It was all just a dream.

#morpheus x reader #dream x reader #sandman x reader #dream of the endless x reader #morpheus x gn!reader #dream x gn!reader #sandman x gn!reader #dream of the endless x gn!reader #the sandman fanfic #morpheus fanfiction #dream fanfic #dream of the endless fanfic

[lady-pug]

Babysitting Duty

Summary: You and Eddie get assigned with a very hard task: taking the kids to the water park! The day is filled with fun, but it might be up to Eddie to help Eleven face her fears.

Pairing: Eddie Munson x Reader

Word count: 5,3k

Warnings: none

Notes: I had SO MUCH FUN writing this you have no idea! I wanted something sweet and fun for Eddie, because he deserves good things. As always, if you spot any mistakes, please feel free to warn me and I'll correct it right away, and feedback is always welcome and appreciated. I hope you enjoy this!!

Also, the descriptions provided for the slides come from a waterpark I visited a few times as a kid/teenager a few (many) states over from where I live. You can find visual references for all the slides mentioned in the story at the bottom of the post.

Reader is female, but no physical descriptions provided

Next part | Previous part | Masterlist | Read on AO3

An incessant, annoying ringing is what pulled you out of a hazy dream. Soft rays of sunlight were streaming through the closed blinds and past your eyelids, very lightly, which probably meant it was pretty early in the morning still. Who in hell would be calling at an hour like this?

You tried scooting closer to the edge of the bed, but a weight around your middle prevented you from doing so. Opening your eyes, you smiled, seeing as Eddie had an arm slung across your waist, holding you tightly to his chest, one of his legs slotted between yours. 

“Eddie,” you called out, sleepiness seeping in your voice “the phone.”

“Let it ring.” he mumbled, nuzzling the back of your neck.

You sighed in contentment, a sleepy little smile on your lips. Once the ringing stopped, you tapped Eddie’s forearm twice, a sign for him to loosen his grip, and turned around in his arms, nuzzling against his chest and relaxing again. You were on the edge of falling back asleep when the damned phone started ringing. Again.

Eddie whined, making you laugh.

“I’ll pick it up.”

“No!” he whined petulantly, like a small child, pulling you further into him.

“Come on, love. I promise I’ll be back before you notice.” you said, pressing a gentle kiss on his naked sternum.

He grumbled something under his breath before letting you go.

“Fine.” he peaked one eye open “But come back quickly.”

Slipping out of bed and maneuvering your way around his trailer’s living room, you finally reached the phone.

“Hello?”

A beat of silence followed, and you were about to hang up, assuming it was just a prank call, when a raspy, wheezing voice sounded from the other end.

“Munson?”

“No.” you introduced yourself. The voice sounded vaguely familiar, but you couldn’t quite recognize it “I’m sorry, who is this?”

“Oh, hi. It’s-” a loud cough sounded against your ear “Steve.” he paused for a second “Harrington. Steve Harrington.”

“Oh, hello to you too Steve.” you answered excitedly “Not that I’m not happy to hear from you, but why are you calling at…” you looked outside the window, trying to estimate the time based on the sun’s position in the sky “seven in the morning?”

“Just so you know, it’s actually half past six. And I need your help.” he paused “Yours and Eddie’s.”

“What is it?”

“You know that waterpark that opened on the next town over?” he waited for your quiet sound of agreement before continuing “I promised the kids I’d take them over there today.”

One of your eyebrows curled up, even though he couldn’t see you.

“Why do I sense there is a ‘but’?”

“Because there obviously is.”

You sighed, slumping against the wall next to the phone.

“But…?”

You heard an intake of breath, as if he was about to say something, but a coughing fit cut his speech short.

“Let me guess,” you piped up once his coughing subdued “you’re sick.”

“Yeah.”

“And you want us to take your army of children to the waterpark instead?”

"Pretty much.”

You sighed again, not upset, just confused.

“Can’t you ask Robin?”

“She doesn’t drive. And she’s agreed to work a double shift to cover for me. Originally it was so I could take a day off and drive them there, but now…” he answered meekly, and you could just picture him shrugging his shoulders, looking miserable.

“What about Nancy?”

“Out of town visiting her grandmother.”

“Jonathan?”

“With Nancy.”

You stayed quiet, pondering. You already knew it in your heart that you’d end up agreeing, as you loved those kids, you’d just have to find a way to convince Eddie to go along. But Steve seemed to take your silence as reluctance, as he started breathlessly pleading.

“Please” he spoke your name so quietly, panting slightly “These kids… they need me. They’ve already been through so much, I can’t, I… I can’t disappoint them.”

Having already been convinced, the underlying desperation you could hear in his quiet voice had you agreeing in a heartbeat.

“Yeah. Yeah, Steve, of course we’ll take them.”

“Really?” you could hear the relief infiltrating his tone “Thank you so, so much. I owe you two big time.”

“I’ll come after you to cash in. Just you wait.” you heard him trying to chuckle, but it sounded awful “How did you manage to get sick during the summer anyway?”

“Don’t ask.”

After agreeing on the details and him giving you all the information you needed, you hung up.

Eddie was patiently waiting for you to return to the comfort of his arms, teetering between being awake and complete unconsciousness. He didn’t know how much time had passed, being slowly lulled back to sleep by the sound of your muffled voice traveling through his trailer. Suddenly, though, he was being yanked back to consciousness by something hitting him square in the face.

Scrambling to sit up, he moved the offending object (which he now realized was a pair of bright orange swimming shorts he had absolutely no idea where you’d found) out of the way to look at you, leaning in the doorway of his room, as if you hadn’t just thrown an article of clothing at him.

“Get up, love.” you smirked at him “We’ve just been assigned babysitting duty.”

“Alright munchkins, if we’re doing this, there are going to be a few ground rules.” Eddie exclaimed very loudly, making you very thankful that the Byers-Hoppers didn’t have any close neighbors, holding a finger up before resuming his speech “First, no throwing up in my van, I just had her vacuum cleaned and that shit ain’t cheap.”

Raising a second finger, he paused for a moment, seemingly at a loss for words. Looking up, he squinted his eyes as if trying to remember something very important.

“Yeah, there’s no more rules.”

You rolled your eyes, swatting him on the back of the head, prompting an ‘ouch!’ out of him.

“Second,” you stared at the eager face of El, the only one who seemed to be paying attention to you, the rest of the gang looking pretty bored “no running off on your own, you should always have someone with you. Stay at least in pairs.”

“Come on, guys!” Mike whined “We’re not babies anymore.”

You snorted. 

“From the way Steve talks about you lot one might think otherwise.”

They looked around at each other, and you almost burst out laughing at Dustin’s positively offended expression.

“And third, sunscreen is a must. You’re all going to apply it right as we get there and once again after lunch.”

El nodded excitedly while her friends all groaned.

“No exceptions-”

“But-” Max tried protesting but you cut her off.

“or we are not going at all.”

That seemed to shut them all up. Eddie opened the back door of his van and motioned for them all to get in.

“Now come on, you little demons, we’re going to be late.”

While the kids piled up on the van, bickering about who sat where, Hopper and Joyce, who had previously been standing on the doorway to their house, walked over to the two of you.

“Thank you so much for doing this.” Hopper said, softly clamping a hand over Eddie’s shoulder. He had grown quite fond of the boy after having helped create an alibi that exempted him from the blame on all the murders. That, alongside Max’s and Lucas testimony, which pinned the late Jason Carver as the ‘actual’ murderer, managed to prove his innocence.

“Are you sure you don’t need us to go with you?” Joyce asked, fretting over the two of you like a mother hen, something Eddie had told you happened a lot “We can call in sick, take a day off a-and-”

“Mrs. Byers.” you gently interrupted her “Don’t worry. We’ve got this covered, don’t we, love?”

“Absolutely.” Eddie grinned at her, conveying his best responsible-good-boy expression.

“Okay.” she exhaled, before jumping up again and rushing back into the house “Oh! I almost forgot!”

You and Eddie watched her go, confused, and Hopper caught your attention.

“Hey. If I catch wind of you speeding over the limit,” you watched as Eddie’s face turned into a slightly pained grimace, the man’s hand visibly squeezing his shoulder a little tighter “I will personally hunt down your license. Permanently.”

“Don’t worry, Chief.” Eddie huffed “I’ll keep that in mind.”

Joyce came back holding a large container, making Hopper drop his hand.

“I made some sandwiches for lunch.” she smiled, passing the container to you “I’m pretty sure anything in that place will cost an arm and a leg, so I thought it might be best if you already had food with you. Plus, you can save money and buy some ice cream, what do you say?”

“Thank you so much, Mrs. Byers, this is so sweet.”

“Oh, please, Joyce is fine.” she waved a hand at you dismissively “Now go have fun.”

You helped Eddie load up the sandwiches while Joyce and Hopper got back inside. Closing the door, he turned to you, lips turned up on a smirk.

“You know,” he said, circling his arms around your waist “you look very sexy when you get all bossy like that.”

“Oh, yeah?” you smirked back at him “Want me to order you around?”

“Sure, why not?”

He leaned in, nuzzling his nose with yours. You leaned further in, intending on meeting him halfway, when a sudden knock startled you both apart.

“Hurry up, lovebirds!” Dustin had his face pressed against the glass window on the van’s back door “We are losing precious time here!”

“Jesus Christ!” Eddie exclaimed, throwing his hands up, making you laugh, before walking over to the driver's side “Can’t believe I graduated only to become a glorified babysitter.”

Once you were buckled up and ready, you turned back around and started at the gang of teens.

“Alright, kids, who’s ready for a day of fun?” 

El clapped, hopping on her seat out of excitement. The others, however, stared at you as if you were insane.

“What an ungrateful audience.” Eddie muttered, starting the van and peeling away and onto the road.

“Alright guys, now that everyone has applied sunscreen,” you pointedly stared at Max, who had protested as much as she could, claiming she wanted to ‘tan a little bit and get some color in’ “what do you want to do first?”

You looked at El in particular while asking. She had been the most excited one to go to the waterpark, never having been to anything even remotely similar before in her life. While you were arriving, she pressed her entire face against the van’s window.

“Guys!” she had said “It’s so colorful and swirly!” she had grabbed Mike’s hand and practically yanked him over next to her to take a look as well.

“How about we go on that one?” Lucas pointed at the tallest slide in the whole park, one that could be seen from very far down the road and from anywhere in the place. It consisted of a single drop, very tall and aslope “I read about it. The Insane Drop!”

Out of the corner of your eye you saw El swallow nervously, her eyes darting back and forth between the ride and her friends. Then her eyes settled on you. When she caught you staring at her, concerned, she tried to force herself to smile it off.

“Isn’t that a bit… too tall?” she asked her friends.

“Exactly!” Max answered.

“That’s the whole point!” Mike completed.

“I heard that you can reach up to an impressive 65 mph on the way down!” Dustin jumped up and down in excitement.

El stared at the slide again, her gaze intent, eyes narrowed. 

“I-I don’t know, it looks… dangerous.”

Mike, Dustin and Lucas collectively scoffed.

“Come on, El, it’s fine.” Lucas said.

“I read that it’s super safe and has passed all the required safety tests.” Dustin stated matter of factly “It was lawfully approved.”

Mike grabbed his girlfriend’s hand and gave it a light squeeze.

“El, there’s nothing to worry about. That thing is safe. And besides” he smirked at her “you faced a lot worse before and came out on top.”

El tried to brush it off but didn’t seem thoroughly convinced. Her lower lip started trembling only just slightly, you would never have noticed had you not been staring intently at her. You managed to tear your gaze away from her and to your own boyfriend, who was also staring at her like you had been earlier. Feeling your eyes on him, Eddie turned to look at you, his face scrunched up in concern, probably reflecting your own features.

Will also seemed to sense El's discomfort and jumped to her rescue.

“If that’s the best slide in here, shouldn’t we save it for later?”

The rest of the party looked at each other and then shrugged, unbothered. El looked at her brother, a grateful smile pulling her lips up.

“What do you suggest then, Will the Wise?” Eddie asked, tying his hair up in a messy ponytail, little baby hairs framing his ears (something that made him look even more attractive, too attractive for his own good in your opinion).

“How about that one?” Will pointed out a ride that had seven slides, all in different colors, four which required ring tubes and three that didn’t.

“Let’s go!”

The kids (if you could really call them that, they were teenagers, high schoolers even after all) raced ahead of you and Eddie towards the line that was forming. It was the beginning of summer, so you expected the park to be crowded, but as Steve had gotten you out of bed at the break of dawn you’d managed to arrive right as the place had just opened, so it wasn’t too packed just yet. You and Eddie got in line behind them while they bickered to see who would be paired on the double tubes. In the end Dustin and Lucas decided to ride alone on the single tubes, Mike and Will and Max and El respectively paired up. Which left you to ride with Eddie.

El got progressively more excited the closer to the slides you all got. She started hopping up and down in place, Max giggling next to her and trying to get her to calm down, holding her shoulders so she would stop jumping. 

“Wait for us at the bottom, okay?” you addressed them, to which they nodded.

Dustin got on his tube, an excited screech sounding further and further away as he went down. Lucas did the same on a different slide. When El sat on her tube with Max, a look of hesitation crossed her face, but a smile quickly took over and she smiled back at you. You gave her a quick thumbs up as the slide operator pushed their tub down the slide, a fit of giggles and happy squeals following the two girls down.

After Mike and Will also got on their tube, it was time for Eddie and you to go down.

“You ready, sweetheart?” he asked, taking your hand in his as you both sat down on the tube. 

“Yeah!” you gave his hand a small squeeze as the operator pushed the tube down the slide. 

The wind hit your face, little droplets of water splashing your thighs and torso. Eddie’s laughter reached your ears, joyful and jovial, infectious as you couldn’t keep a smile off your face, giggling to yourself. After a few turns you saw the colorful slide suddenly end and a shiver went down your spine once you realized you had reached the main drop. Your heart jumped to your throat, your stomach sinking in an awfully wonderful adrenaline fueled feeling as the tube tipped down and you descended quickly, water splashing everywhere as you hit the pool. 

Eddie was laughing, a full-belly laugh making his whole body wiggle, as he helped you out of the tube. He pushed some wet hair out of your face, tucking it behind your ear, before pecking your lips quickly, grabbing your hand and pulling you towards the exit of the pool where the kids were waiting for you.

“Soooooo…” Eddie draped his arms over Dustin and Mike’s shoulders, leaning heavily on them “Where to next?”

It was closer to midday when you decided it was time for lunch. Until that point you had gone on many rides with varying levels of adrenaline. Your personal favorite was one that looked like a tornado tipped sideways, colors coating the walls of the slide and a small drop in the dark. The tubes were designed for four people, so you went with El, Max and Will, while Eddie, Dustin, Lucas and Mike piled up on the other one.

Many other rides caught your interest: a closed slide shaped like a black mamba; a slide where, instead of tubes, there were mats in which you got on belly down; one that made you feel like a slippery soap on a sink; one shaped like a bowl, in which you swirled around an opening, getting closer and closer, before slipping down a slope (Dustin wittifully compared the sensation to being flushed down the toilet).

“I didn’t know you’d already been flushed down the toilet, Dustin.” Max had jeered. 

“I haven’t but I can imagine what it feels like.” he stated, matter of factly. 

At every ride, you kept a close eye on El. She always hesitated for just a moment before getting a determined look on her face, facing the ride head on. Everytime she got back on solid ground, however, she would stare at The Insane Drop, fear seeping in her eyes, as if it was a gigantic monster looming over her. 

It seemed you weren’t the only one who noticed.

“El, would you mind helping us get the sandwiches from the van?” Eddie called for her.

The girl gave you both a confused look, but nodded nonetheless, eager to help.

“You guys go ahead and meet us near Atlantis, alright?” he addressed the rest of the party.

As you walked towards the entrance, you couldn’t help but notice the girl fidgeting with the blue hair tie around her wrist.

“So, El” Eddie started, having seen the same as you “The Insane Drop.”

Just the mention of the ride’s name was enough to make her pace falter, her eyes widening just slightly, before she resumed her walk.

“What about it?”

Eddie paused, turning towards her and placing a comforting hand on her shoulder.

“You know you don’t have to go down if you don’t want to, right?”

She gulped.

“But everyone is so excited to go. They said it was fun.”

Eddie sighed, glancing at you for a moment.

“Dustin said it is completely safe.” she added.

He nodded.

“Yeah, it is.” he stared at her, a softness in his eyes you didn’t see very often “But that doesn’t mean you can’t be scared.”

Her eyes looked as if they were about to pop out of her skull.

“I-I’m not scared!” her voice grew a pitch higher.

“Yeah, and I was crowned prom king.” you elbowed him softly in the ribs, silently telling him to hold back on the sarcasm “What I mean is… there is no shame in being afraid.”

El stared at him, and her body language let you know she was a little more open to his approach.

“Everyone is scared of something, El.” he explained softly, before his voice acquired a more playful tone “I, for one, am super scared of cockroaches.”

“Cockroaches?” El asked, an amused smile tugging on her lips.

“Don’t laugh at me darling, those disgusting creatures are scary as fu-” you pinned him with what you could only assume was a murderous one, for he cleared his throat  “Their little legs make my skin crawl. I know they are pretty metal but they scare the hell out of me. They are especially scary if they fly.”

She nodded, equal parts amused and amazed. You could only imagine what she was thinking, Eddie being an intimidating figure and admitting to one of his most well kept secrets, that he was scared of a bug. Eddie stared at you, widening his eyes only a bit and tilting his head towards the girl, a cue for you to step in as well.

“I’m afraid of being alone.” you spoke, a small weaver to your voice.

El’s head snapped towards you, surprised. You really didn’t want to breach this topic, but you soldiered on.

“I’m afraid that one day everyone I love will just walk away.” you swallowed harshly “That all the people I care about will just up and leave me, and I’ll be all on my own.”

El’s eyes were so wide like she couldn’t quite believe you.

“But Eddie would never let that happen. He wouldn’t leave you. None of us would.”

You smiled sadly at her.

“I know. But fear is not rational. You can’t really control what scares you and what doesn’t. Being brave does not mean having no fear, but having the strength to admit your fears and, if possible and only if you want to, to face them.”

Eddie placed a second hand on her other shoulder.

“But you don’t have to be brave all the time.”

“I mean, wow, El, it takes a lot of courage to face monsters from another dimension!” you exclaimed, making her eyes widen bigger than saucers “What? You didn’t think Eddie would have kept all of that from me, now, did you, Eleven? I might not have been here at the time, but I’ll still support him in everything he goes through.” you added, having been visiting your grandmother in Ohio during spring break.

“We come as a package deal, the two of us.” Eddie smirked at you. That seemed to quiet her surprise and concern, for she smiled at the little joke.

“So from our perspective” you continued “you have two options: face your fears, or stay down here with me where you’re comfortable.”

“You are not going up?” she asked you.

“Absolutely not! That thing is super scary!” that made her giggle.

“Just remember you don’t have to go just because your friends are going.” Eddie explained a final time “Like I said, there is nothing to be ashamed of.”

Eleven’s eyes sparkled, smile turning soft, before lunging forward into Eddie’s arms. He got startled for only a moment before wrapping his arms around her frame. 

“Thank you.” she mumbled against his chest before turning towards you and pulling you in for a hug as well.

When she let go, she was beaming.

“Now let’s go get those sandwiches, I’m starving!”

The whole day had been a lot of fun. El had gotten a lot more cheerful after her conversation with you and Eddie, not glancing over her shoulder towards The Insane Drop every five minutes. Lunch had been uneventful, except for the deliciously exquisite sandwiches Joyce had sent you.

“My heavens, Will the Wise! This shit is good!” Eddie had moaned around a mouthful of food “Do you think your mom would drop her job to become a chef for a worldly famous metal band?”

“Where will we even find one of those?” Dustin had snickered, earning him a whack on his temple from Eddie.

After that you snatched a bunch of folded bills from your pocket, all the money the kids had saved up and brought along for the day. You had picked it up from the van when you had gone to collect lunch.

“How about some ice cream, huh?”

They had practically toppled you over in an attempt to grab the money from your hands, scrambling for the ice cream cart, all the while Eddie laughed at your disheveled surprise. He extended a hand to help you get up and you two walked hand-in-hand towards the rest of the gang.

“Alright!” you huffed in fake annoyance at their antics, Dustin having requested you take the ice cream from the vendor and pass them over to them one by one ("To reminisce the good ol’ days!” he had argued, mentioning your former part time job) “Chocolate for Dustin… Strawberry for Lucas… Lemon for Max… Cookies ‘n Cream for Will… Mint ‘n Chocolate for Mike… Vanilla for Eddie…” the boys snickered, shutting up when your boyfriend shot them a dirty look “Salted Caramel for El and Mango for me!” 

The vendor looked about ready to strangle you as you walked away from them.

“Honestly, I kinda miss Scoops Ahoy.” Dustin complained “They had much better flavors.”

Once your ice creams had been thoroughly eaten, Lucas had perked up in excitement.

“Now… how about we finally face The Insane Drop?” he asked in the most menacing voice he could muster.

Your eyes instantly shot up to El, quickly exchanging a glance with Eddie. You noticed, surprisingly, that she seemed quite unbothered.

“Hell yeah, let’s go!” Dustin started to practically drag some of his friends.

“Wait up!” you held them back “Don’t you think it’s a bit too soon after lunch for you to go down… that?”

“Yeah, we don’t want you puking your guts out!” Eddie started making weird gagging noises, waving his hands down as if coming out of his mouth, making the other boys chuckle and Max and El exchanged a disgusted look. You weren’t even phased.

“Well, the line is pretty long, I think we’ll have enough time to properly digest those sandwiches.” Max leveled with you.

“Okay, then.” you shrugged, knowing you wouldn’t be able to negotiate with them “Who’s going up?”

Dustin grabbed Lucas and Mike’s hands and hopped in place, excited. Max raised her hand, a little grin of anticipation rolling on her lips. Will shook his head.

“Nah, not really my scene.” he shrugged “Too insane.”

The other kids seemed unbothered.

“What about you El?” Mike asked, looking expectantly at his girlfriend.

She turned her gaze towards you and Eddie, a small smile forming on her face.

“I’m a little scared of heights, guys.” she spoke with confidence “I think that one is a little too much for me.”

You dared spare Eddie a glance, holding back a grin as you noticed his proud smile.

“Alright then.” Mike smiled at her.

“You guys meet us back at the bucket thingy, alright?” Eddie suggested, and the kids ran off.

You whipped your head at him, surprised.

“You’re not going up?” you asked him quietly “I thought you’d enjoy this one.”

He shrugged.

“I have other priorities right now.” he tilted his head towards the girl, who was looking around a little lost, before walking in her direction “So, El, what do you want to do now while we wait for them?”

“I actually, uh, wanted to check out that colorful bucket… thingy, if you don’t mind?”

“Not at all!” he extended his hand to her, wiggling his fingers as she placed her smaller hand in his bigger one, yelling in a poor attempt at a british accent “Let us go, fair maiden!”

She giggled as he pulled her along towards said ‘bucket thingy’ with you and Will following behind. It consisted of a large structure, stairs and slides all over of varying heights, some wheels and buttons that made water shoot out from the sides onto the people who stood outside, with a very large bucket on top, complete with sunglasses and headphones, that was slowly but steadily being filled with water. 

Eddie looked up at the bucket and, after accessing the situation, carefully placed El in a very specific spot in front of the structure.

“What are we doing?”

“Stay there, El. Don’t move.” Eddie smirked, and nudged Will to join her, and you realized what he was doing.

A few moments went by as you waited, in anticipation for the big moment. A rumbling sound pulled your attention to the kids in front of you, who had only a mere second to look at each other in confusion before both of them were being splashed by gallons upon gallons of water. They both laughed in surprise, hugging each other as more water fell on their shoulders.

Eddie was smiling proudly at the pure glee he saw on Will’s and especially El’s faces. You laced your fingers with his and gave his hand a light squeeze, a small smile of your own.

“That was so metal!” El launched herself on Eddie’s arms once the water had finally stopped falling. He laughed, enveloping the girl in his arms and shaking her around.

“Come on, let’s get inside!” he grabbed her hand and your own, you taking Will’s, and pulled the four of you into the structure.

The rest of the day had passed in the same fashion. After exploring every corner of the bucket structure, Eddie and El had decided to go down the colorful slides from the beginning of the day once again, and you had never wished for a camera more. You really wanted to capture the moment they both came out of the slide, Eddie behind El on the tube, both of them laughing with their hands up (something not really recommended by the park’s staff).

The line to The Insane Drop must have been pretty long, because by the time the other’s had come back it was time to head out and back to Hawkins. They were pretty disappointed to go, and honestly you were too, but you had to leave if you wanted to get to Hawkins before dark.

Even though they wanted to stay more, most of them promptly fell asleep the moment you got to the road. Max was tapping along to the beat coming from her new walkman, a gift from Lucas, who slept soundly next to her. Dustin had his head tilted back, mouth open and snores coming out of his throat. Mike had his head on El’s shoulder, while she watched out the window as the park grew smaller and smaller behind you.

After a few miles, you heard a throat being cleared behind you. You turned around in your seat to see El already looking at you, Eddie glancing briefly at her from the rearview mirror and nodding in acknowledgement.

“Thank you.” she smiled shyly “For everything.”

You both smiled at her.

“Don’t mention it, kiddo.” Eddie said softly.

Both girls fell asleep a few miles away from Hawkins.

“You know, you handled all of that pretty well today.” you smiled at your boyfriend, taking his hand in your from where it had been resting on your thigh. 

“Well, I have been spending a lot of time with Harrington, maybe his babysitting skills have rubbed off on me.” he shrugged, although you could see he was definitely pleased at having made the day good for the kids and you.

Glancing at him in silence you pecked his cheek, thankful his hair was still tied up.

“You’d make a great dad one day.”

His breath hitched for just a beat, before he glanced at you for a moment.

“Is that something you’d want?”

You pondered for a moment.

“I’m honestly not sure.” you shrugged, a bashful smile taking over your features “Maybe, maybe not. I don’t really know. I just know that if I did want it eventually, I couldn’t think of anyone else I’d rather have by my side for that than you.” 

He smiled shyly, chuckling under his breath.

“God, you’re so corny!”

“But you love me anyway!”

He gazed at you from the corner of his eyes, a longing sparkle in them.

“Yeah, I truly do.” he smiled “Let’s see what the future holds for us.”

(And if Eddie came back from the next Hellfire meeting, a small maquette of the buket thingy from the waterpark made out of cardboard and colored paper, topped with clear plastic to resemble water falling from it, two small wooden figurines that looked suspiciously like you and Eddie, it’s nobody's business that it now decorates your bedside table.)

If you want visual references for all the slides mentioned in the story, here are some pictures from the irl slides I used as inspiration (I don’t own any of these pictures, credit goes to the respective owners): The Insane Drop (yes, I went down this thing and it is truly insane!!) Seven colorful slides Colorful tornado tipped sideways Black mamba Slippery soap on a sink Toilet bowl Atlantis Bucket thingy

#eddie munson x reader #eddie munson x you #eddie munson x female!reader #eddie munson x f!reader #eddie munson fluff #eddie munson fanfic #stranger things fanfiction #stranger things fanfic #eddie munson graduates

[lady-pug]

All Night Long

Summary: Eddie pays you a visit at night, and he has some news for you, something regarding a bet. Fluffiness ensues (and maybe a little bit more).

Pairing: Eddie Munson x Reader

Word count: 1,9k

Warnings: making out, mentions for sex, implied sexual content, a little bit of spiciness (some over-the-clothes action), so just in case I'm rating this as mature (so you know the drill, minors DNI please)

Notes: Oof, I was aiming for fluff, but when I went to add the sugar I accidentally added too much spice instead. Oh, well. This one is set more or less at the same time as the previous one. Eddie deserves all the good things in the world and whoever disagrees is just wrong. Again, if you spot any mistakes, please feel free to warn me and I'll correct it right away, and feedback is always welcome and appreciated. I truly hope you enjoy this.

Reader is female, but no physical descriptions provided (other than being gorgeous, that is!)

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A knock on your window startled you out of the world your head had currently found refuge in. Fumbling for a bookmark (because you seriously thought dog-earing should be considered a federal crime), you heard a second, softer thump on the glass.

“Alright, alright, Munson, I’m coming.”

Hopping out of your bed and moving closer to the window, you steeled your heart for what you were about to see, having been spooked one too many times to think he would just be waiting normally for you. Sure enough, his face was squished right against the glass, tongue out, piggy nose and cross-eyed.

“Don’t you ever get tired of almost giving me a heart attack everytime?” you said after opening the window “And why are you coming through the window?”

“Can’t let your folks find out you’re mingling with such bad influences now, can we?” he said, folding his arms on the windowsill and laying his chin on them, all the while balancing himself on a tree branch.

“Eddie,” you sighed, lips threatening to curve up into a soft smile “you know my parents adore you.”

“How can you be so certain? For all I know they may be plotting against me for corrupting their precious daughter.” he hissed, trying to appear intimidating (but only managing to sound incredibly cute).

“They invite you and your uncle over for every single holiday. And they never forget to buy you that candy you like for Halloween.” 

“Even after everything?”

You nodded, reaching over to push his bangs away from his eyes. Eyes that looked somewhat… haunted.

“Even after everything.”

He shrugged, as if all you said only now dawned on him.

“That’s true.” he paused, looking between you and the open window “Sooo, are you gonna let me in? I feel like there are already splinters in my ass from this damn branch!”

“You’re wearing jeans!” you giggled, amused about his antics, before stepping back “Come on in.”

He braced his hands on the windowsill and used his legs to push himself away from the tree and into your room. As he stepped one foot on the floor and went to stand up, his other one got caught in the windowsill, making him lose his balance. You tried moving closer to catch him, but suddenly your back was against the ground, him having gracelessly tumbled over you, one of his hands shooting out to hold the back of your head so it wouldn’t bang against the floor.

“Way to make an entrance, Munson.”

“Yeah, yeah, sweetheart. The lunch ladies at the cafeteria would say the same.” he said as he lifted himself on his forearms, his face hovering just a few inches from yours “Hi.”

“Hi.” you cooed back.

He smiled and dipped his head down, aiming for a kiss, but you turned your head away at the last second, making him miss. Instead, his lips came in contact with the corner of your mouth.

“You are not a bad influence, Eddie. You shouldn’t be so hard on yourself.” you smiled softly up at him, before your sweet grin turned into a mischievous smirk “If anything, it is your uncle that should be worried. I’m the one dating a high schooler after all.”

“Oh, hardy har har.” he rolled his eyes “I told you, this is my year, I’m pretty sure I’m off to graduation real soon.”

“I know, I believe you.” and you truly did.

He only smiled down at you and tried kissing you again and this time you let him. His surprisingly soft lips met your own in a sweet, almost chaste kiss, before he was pulling away and nudging your nose with his.

“How was your day?” he asked softly, before suddenly he was jumping off you and onto his feet “Oh! You must be pretty uncomfortable down there. Here, let’s move this to somewhere more comfortable.” 

He extended a hand in order to pull you up (and almost ripped your shoulder out of its socket while doing so) and led you to your bed. He paused, examining your sheets before picking up the book you had been reading.

“One Hundred Years of Solitude.” he read out loud “Is it any good?”

“It is.” you smiled softly as he read the first page “You should give it a try sometime, I think you’ll like it.”

“Can I borrow it after you’re finished? I promise to care for it like it’s my first born.” he raised his eyebrows, clearly finding himself hilarious.

“Sure. You’re one of the few people I trust with my books and you know that.”

He hummed in satisfaction before carefully placing the paperback on your nightstand. With your sheets now cleared, he sat down on your bed, back propped against the headboard, and pulled you down to straddle his hips.

“Now where was I? Right,” Eddie placed a soft, quick peck on your lips “how was your day?”

“It was good.” you answered with a peck of your own, which elicited a smile from him “Mateo was complaining about Mr. Fuzzytail again.”

“That stray cat he found a few years ago?”

“Yeah, the very same. Apparently the little thing is a lot older than he originally thought, has been getting sick a lot. He said he was taking him to the vet as soon as possible to figure out what’s wrong.”

“Hmm.” he pressed his lips to your cheek “Not to be rude to Mr. Fuzzytail or anything, but why are we talking about the feline troubles of one of your coworkers? One, might I add, that doesn’t even work the same shift as you do?”

“He might have mentioned wanting to swap shifts?” you phrased it like a question, but knew by the way Eddie’s head perked up that it had spiked his interest “Depending on what the vet says? He mentioned something about not working at the same time as his girlfriend so one of them is always at home with the old furball.”

“And…?”

“And, if I can convince him to swap shifts with me, that way I can start coming to your campaigns.” you averted your eyes, slightly embarrassed, lowering your voice to an almost whisper before adding “I know how much it means to you.”

After a beat of silence you glanced back at him only to notice him staring at you, eyes unreadable. You swallowed thickly, afraid you might have crossed a line, when he quickly lunged at you, large hands holding you up by the small of your back, and his lips enveloped your own in a feverish, passionate kiss. Your teeth clashed together as he put more force into it, nipping at your bottom lip, pulling it between his teeth as he pulled away.

“You’re perfect, you know that, sweetheart?” he said breathlessly, an almost dreamy expression crossing his features while his hands moved to hold you by your waist.

“Hmmm” you kissed him again, much softer this time, a cheeky grin forming on your lips “I did not know that.”

“Then I’ve not been doing my job properly.” he kissed you once, twice, three times softly before smiling mischievously at you “What a neglectful boyfriend I have been.”

You nodded your head as his feather light kisses shifted onto your cheek, passing your jaw and down the column of your throat. One of your hands tangled on his curls, your nails running over his scalp, which prompted a small whimper from him.

“Let me make it up to you?” he asked, nipping against the skin of your neck.

While you hated to cut his (and your own) fun short, you wanted to hear more of his voice before you took it any further. Cupping his jaw with one hand, the other one never leaving his soft, messy locks, you guided his lips to meet your own once more.

“First, tell me:” you said between kisses “how was your day?”

His entire body froze.

“Oh!” his head shot up, almost bonking against your own, which made him giggle in turn (yes, you prided yourself in being the only person to ever hear Eddie ‘The Freak’ Munson giggle) “I almost forgot. The craziest thing happened today!”

You huffed, only mildly annoyed at having to stop kissing his inviting lips, but you were the one who asked him to talk about his day after all.

“What happened?”

“The boys from Hellfire made a bet.”

You stared at him, puzzled.

“A bet?”

“A bet. And that’s not even the worst part. They made a bet about me.” he tilted his head from one side to another “Well, in fact it was about us.”

“What?” you squealed quizzically “What about us?”

“They didn’t seem to believe I have a girlfriend.” he squeezed your hips playfully “Much less a gorgeous one.”

“What? Come on, that’s ridiculous!”

“It’s the truth.”

“Who came up with that ridiculously stupid idea?!” you shook your head “No, wait, let me guess: Harrington?”

“Worse.” he smirked “It was Dustin.”

“Noooo!” you gasped, bringing a hand to your chest in mock hurt “Even I am offended now.”

“You can only imagine how I felt.” he pretended to wipe an invisible tear from one of his eyes, making you laugh.

Once you calmed down, you cupped his face, running your thumb softly over his cheek, concerned.

“How are you feeling about all of this?”

“Honestly?” he chuckled “I can’t wait for Henderson and Harrington to fall flat on their faces!”

You scoffed, having known he would find a way to make light of this situation. It’s what he always did. 

“Now,” you pulled him in for another kiss “you were saying something about making it up to me?”

Feeling him smirk against the side of your head, you started trailing down, kissing along his neck. One of his hands slid up your torso, sliding under your shirt.

“Sweetheart.” he said, a little out of breath “You should grab a tape. Something fast paced maybe? Don’t want your folks catching us now, do we?”

You giggled, your teeth scraping gently against the skin of his collarbone.

“My parents aren’t home tonight.”

He groaned a loud sigh of relief.

“Ugh, thank god!” he spoke quite loudly “You know I hate doing it with music on. The rhythm is never quite correct.”

“Eddie!” you giggled looking up at him “That’s because you always choose a heavy metal of some sort. And besides, you’re one to complain. You’re not the one who’s left feeling sore afterwards because you tried to match the rhythm of the song.”

“Do I leave you feeling sore, sweetheart?” he asked, a smug look crossing his face as he pecked your lips twice.

“Yes, not that I’m complaining though.” you pouted. “Why don’t we leave for your trailer when my parents are here? I know your uncle works the night shifts.”

“You are a princess and should be treated accordingly.” he nuzzled his nose against yours “That dusty old junk is no place for you.” 

Pulling gently on his hair, you made him look at you.

“You know I don’t care about any of that.”

He nodded, kissing you again.

“I know.”

One of his hands snaked around your waist while the other pushed against the bed to help him gain enough momentum to flip you on your back, his body on top of yours against the mattress, making room for his denim clad hips to grind against your own between your thighs.

“Don’t worry, sweetheart. I’ll be gentle tonight.” he kissed you very softly, so softly you almost couldn’t feel it “Especially because I intend on keeping you here” he started punctuating every word with a kiss against your lips “All. Night. Long.”

#eddie munson x reader #eddie munson x you #eddie munson x female!reader #eddie munson x f!reader #eddie munson fluff #eddie munson fanfic #stranger things fanfiction #stranger things fanfic

[lady-pug]

The Bet

Summary: Dustin cannot believe Eddie “The Freak” Munson has a girlfriend (as pretty as Galadriel, no less), and the boys seem to think the same. Max and Robin disagree, arguing that Eddie is, in fact, a catch. They decide to settle things once and for all through a bet.

Pairing: Eddie Munson x Reader

Word count: 4,9k

Warnings: cursing

Notes: I'm absolutely in love with this one, it's honestly my pride and joy (at least so far). The idea for this one came to me during an Invertebrates class (should I have be paying more attention to the class? probably, but I did end up doing well overall in that subject, so). If you spot any mistakes, please feel free to warn me and I'll correct it right away, and feedback is always welcome and appreciated. I hope you truly enjoy this story.

This is part of a series, but most parts can be read as standalones (so far they are published in cronological order, but this will change).

Reader is female, but no physical descriptions provided (other than being gorgeous, that is!)

Next part | Masterlist | Read on AO3

“I call bullshit.”

“Dustin!” El exclaimed.

“There’s no fucking way you have a girlfriend!”

“Dustin.” El gritted her teeth “Don’t be mean.”

“What? I’m just saying” Dustin explained, completely unphased “that out of all the people sitting on this table, he is the least likely to have a girlfriend.”

“The same has been said about you and yet…” Max smirked in that sardonic way of hers, making the others laugh.

“Do not bring Suzie-poo into this!” the boy rolled his eyes, but his shoulders tensed in embarrassment.

Lunch time at Hawkins High was never a quiet affair. More often than not someone, most likely someone from their usual table (even more often than not that someone was Eddie), would be doing something rambunctious that would attract the attention of every other student in the cafeteria. They had all learned to ignore it and fully embraced their nerd/outcast situation, almost always wearing their Hellfire Club t-shirts. Today, Dustin was the one drawing attention to them, fervorously denying what he had just been told.

“Come on, people.” he opened his arms, gesturing around the table “Let’s face it. Other than Mike, Lucas and I, who already have girlfriends, the most probable person here to get a girl would definitely be Robin.”

“Ouch, Henderson,” Steve punched the boy next to him on the shoulder, with a little more force than necessary “uncalled for. And besides, all she does all day is mope about Vickie, without ever making a move.”

“Uh, actually” Robin piped up “I just asked Vickie out, we’re gonna watch Letter to Brezhnev this weekend.”

Steve groaned, while Dustin’s face conveyed something akin to ‘I told ya’.

“Actually, Eddie, I’ve been meaning to ask, if this whole thing between me and Vickie does work out, can I bring her to one of our sessions?”

“Be my guest.” the man, who was currently being talked about as if he wasn’t even there, answered, his smile never weavering.

“Guys, we’re losing focus here.” Dustin clapped his hands “Let’s get back to the matter at hand: Eddie, your so called girlfriend.”

“What about her?”

“Tell us more about her.”

Eddie’s smile grew impossibly bigger.

“She’s everything my humble heart could ever ask for.”

“Humble, yeah, right.” Steve scoffed, earning him a slap on the back of the head from Robin.

“She is immeasurably intelligent, infinitely kind and would never hesitate to help those in need. Not to mention, she is the most beautiful creature to have ever walked this Earth.”

“How beautiful are we talking?” Lucas asked.

“Galadriel level of beauty.”

A bunch of ‘wow’s and even an impressed whistle, courtesy of Robin herself, sounded from the group.

“What does that even mean?” asked Steve. Dustin narrowed his eyes at the older boy and didn’t even bother with an answer, before addressing his DM again.

"Bullshit! What’s her name?”

Eddie’s once dreamy smile turned mischievous.

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

Dustin scoffed.

“There is our answer. You are making her up.”

“No, I’m not.” Eddie said, a strange calmness in his voice.

“Yes, you are.”

“Why would I make her up?”

“I dunno, you are our DM, you literally come up with the most creative stories as a hobby, which, might I add, might as well be your side job at this point!”

“Why have you never introduced her to us?” Eleven asked, only slightly offended that her new friend hadn’t deemed them worthy of knowing the inner mechanisms of his private life.

Some people shook their heads in agreement.

“She works at the time of our campaigns.”

“How convenient.” Lucas exclaimed.

“If you really want to meet her so badly I’ll bring her around some day.” Eddie shrugged.

"How about this?” Dustin lowered his voice conspiratorially “10 bucks she’s made up and you’re bullshitting all of us.”

“Dustin!” Max hissed.

“I’m in.” Lucas said.

“Lucas!”

“Guys, don’t you think this is a little… cruel? Making a bet at someone’s expense?” El hesitantly pointed out.

Everyone looked in Eddie’s direction at the head of the table, whose face didn’t give anything away.

“Nah.” all the boys, excluding Will and surprisingly including Eddie, said.

“I’m with Dustin.” Mike said, to which El glared at him “What? Easiest money I’ll ever make in my life.”

“Make it 20 that not only she’s real, but she’s also gorgeous.” Robin chimed in. 

“Thank you Buckley.” Eddie bowed his head at her.

“Seriously?” Steve almost shouted.

“What, Eddie is a pretty nice guy. If I wasn’t into…” she trailed off, glaring at Steve next to her as he mouthed the word ‘boobies’ “other things,” she emphasized “I’d definitely date him.”

“You are so on, Rob.” Steve indeed shouted this time “You’re going down.” 

“El?” Mike asked his girlfriend.

“I don’t know. I’m not really comfortable doing this.”

“Me neither.” Will agreed.

“I’m with Robin on this one.” it was Max's turn to say.

“Alright!” Eddie grabbed a pencil and a rumpled sheet of paper (math’s homework, they noted) “It’s two against four: Buckley and Mayfield vs Harrington, Henderson, Sinclair and Wheeler. Should I mark 20 bucks for everyone?”

The boys, who originally opened the bet at $10 each, all agreed.

“So that makes the final prize a total of… $120.” he eyed all the people on the table with a mysterious grin, his voice morphing into the one he used while performing as Dungeon Master during their campaigns “Do you, my mighty Fellowship, accept this challenge?”

Everyone looked at Dustin, the one who had come up with all that mess, to seal their next step. He stood up and extended his hand for Eddie to shake.

“Hell yeah.”

“I’m telling you, there is absolutely no way in this world, and in the Upside Down, that Eddie is telling the truth.”

Dustin was leading the group around downtown Hawkins on their way to the movie theater for a showing of Top Gun. 

“Dustin, man, don’t you think this is going a little too far?” Will asked, a worried look crossing his features.

“I mean, why does he feel the need to lie to us like that?” Lucas interrupted “Not having a girlfriend is not something to be ashamed of.”

“Tell that to Steve.” Dustin smirked, high fiving his buddies, to which El, Will and Max rolled their eyes.

“Maybe because he isn’t lying?” Max said, crossing her arms, annoyed “Has that ever crossed your minds? And that maybe he hasn’t introduced her because you are simply too immature to handle it?”

Mike, Lucas and especially Dustin had the decency to look sheepish for a fraction of a second before diving right back on their shenanigans.

“I mean who in their right minds would date Eddie of all people?” Dustin changed the subject, making Max wave her arms incredulously, giving up.

“Why is it so hard to believe someone might be interested in Eddie?” El asked, half trying to defend her friend and half genuinely curious.

“Well, for one he’s an outcast.” Lucas said.

“So are we all.” Max retorted.

“He’s a freak with a very peculiar set of interests.” Mike gave his input.

“That doesn’t really mean anything, we all enjoy D&D and rock music as well.”

“And he’s on his way to have to do the senior year for the fourth time.” Dustin finished.

“Oh, come on, give the guy a break!” Max snapped “You know what he went through this year, it kinda makes sense that school wasn't his top priority.”

El nodded, agreeing.

“Besides” she said, a tilt to her head indicating she actually meant it “Eddie is a really nice guy and anyone would be lucky to date him.”

“Would you?”

“Would I what?”

“Date Eddie.” Mike told her “Would either of you date Eddie given the chance.”

Eleven and Max shared a look, not even hesitating before they answered.

“Yes.”

“Absolutely.”

“What?!” the boys asked in disbelief.

“He’s a really nice guy!” Max said, linking arms with El.

“He’s really funny.” El complemented, adding a skip to their step.

“And he’s pretty good looking.”

“His hair is cool.”

“And have you seen his tattoos?”

“He’s bitchin’.” El finished, smiling.

Mike and Lucas looked at each other, only slightly worried, while Dustin scoffed, shaking his head in disappointment.

Arriving at the theater, they went to buy the tickets.

“Okay, let’s entertain this crazy idea for a second and say she is real.” Dustin simply couldn’t let the subject go “What do you guys think she’s like?”

“Like him to some degree, otherwise they wouldn’t be together.” Lucas rushed in “They have to have a lot in common.”

After a moment of silence Mike spoke up.

“I could see Eden dating him.”

“Eden?” Dustin asked, perplexed “Suzie’s older sister? When did you- you know what? I don’t even wanna know.”

“But she’s dating Argyle now.” Will pointed out.

“True.”

They finally arrived at the snack booth, a familiar face behind the counter that they knew pretty well.

“Hey, look who it is! My favorite person in the whole world!” Dustin called your name very enthusiastically, a gigantic, very dramatic smile plastered on his face while he leaned his forearm over the counter “Whats up?”

“Flattery will get you nowhere, Henderson.” you rolled your eyes, already used to the boy’s behavior.

“But why?” he whined, head thrown back dramatically “You always give El an extra piece of candy every single time, how come she’s your favorite?”

“Whaaat? I do no such thing.” you retorted, sending a conspiratory wink in El's way “Even suggesting that is an offense to my honor.”

“Ugh, I’m so sorry, miss ‘do-no-wrong.”

You giggled. No matter how much it seemed to annoy you, you absolutely loved those kids and would do everything for them.

“Same as always?”

“You know us too well.” Mike answered.

While you went about preparing the kids’ snacks, they (read Dustin, Mike and Lucas) quickly created a game out of people watching, much to the annoyance of the rest of the group.

“What about her?” Lucas pointed out a girl, plain clothes and nothing truly remarkable about her appearance.

“Nah, they don’t seem like they really match.” Mike countered back before pointing to a stuck up looking girl who seemed annoyed to just exist “How about that one?”

The other boys looked the girl up and down before shaking their heads.

Dustin perked up when his eyes landed on someone coming out of a showing of Poltergeist II.

“What about her?!” he pointed out a woman in darker clothes, excitement lacing his voice “She seems like she would be perfect for him. Look, she even likes horror films!”

Max rolled her eyes so hard they almost popped out of the sockets.

“If he was interested in older women he would be drooling over Mike’s mom.” the corner of her lips lifted in a tiny smirk “How did you describe her? ‘Smoking hot like chicken wings’?”

Mike’s face turned red as he turned to face Dustin.

“What did you say about my mom?!” his next move would have surely resulted in an immeasurable amount of pain for Dustin (and probably a trip to the hospital) had you not intervened at that very moment.

“Alright! Here you go.” you started putting the snacks over the counter “Three large popcorns, one with extra butter, two large sodas, two medium sodas,” you then proceeded to hand the items one by one “Blue Raspberry Airheads for Will, Cry Baby Tears for Max, Gummi Bears for Lucas, Licorice Rockies for Dustin, Watermelon and Cherry Nerds for Mike and last, but not least, a packet of Spree for El.”

As you were sliding the packet towards El, the girl noted that you had given her a Caramello bar, hidden under the other candy. That had been something you had been doing ever since she had first stopped by the theater you work at; she had been mesmerized at the assortment of sweets on display and simply could not choose one. You had overheard her telling her boyfriend that she had never tried any of those, and you had made it your life’s mission to give her as much candy as you could without getting busted by your boss just so she could figure out her favorite kind. So far, nothing had beaten Spree. She smiled at you, grateful for what you’ve been doing for her.

“Hey!” Dustin also seemed to have noticed the interaction “I saw that!”

You and El looked at each other, suppressing a smile.

“Saw what?” Eleven asked, a deadpan look on her face that only made Dustin more exasperated.

After paying and balancing all their food, the kids started heading towards the movie rooms. As they were walking away you called after them.

“Good luck trying to defeat Lareth the Beautiful!” you waved and then added under your breath so they could not hear from the distance “You’re gonna need it.”

“Thanks!” they all responded in unison, not giving it a second though.

After a moment of playful banter, Eleven decided to address something that had been on her mind since they got to the movie theater.

“What about her?”

The others shot her a confused look.

“What about who?” Will asked.

She nodded her head back at the counter where you were wiping out fallen kernels and elaborated, though it ended up sounding more like a question.

“As Eddie’s girlfriend?”

The boys who were in on the bet looked at each other before bursting out in hysterical laughter.

“Her?!” Lucas sputtered out “Dating Eddie ‘The Freak’ Munson?! Seriously El?”

“Little Miss Perfect, Goodie-Two-Shoes over there?” Dustin added “Who works at the nursing home during the week and volunteers at the animal shelter every other weekend?!”

“There is no way!” Mike doubled over.

“Never in a million years!”

“Absolutely not!”

El looked towards Will and Max for support, who only shrugged, as if having given up discussing the subject. But she didn’t miss the quiet look of agreement she saw crossing their faces.

On the other side of town, a similar conversation would take place only a few hours later.

“I’m telling you, Rob” Steve said, placing a recently returned copy of The Empire Strikes Back in its respective place on the shelf “if I can’t keep a girl interested in me for more than a week, there’s no way Munson has a girlfriend!”

Robin hummed, rearranging the collection of Planet of the Apes in the correct order.

“That’s not saying much, you know that, right?” she snickered.

He rolled his eyes at what she was implying.

“Let the guy be, Steve.” she moved on to the next row “If he says he has a girlfriend, then he has a girlfriend. I don’t know why it’s so hard to believe that.”

“We go to the same school as him, right? I don’t know if you noticed but girls aren’t exactly throwing themselves at him.”

“I don’t know if you noticed, dingus, but he’s almost three years older than us. He’s supposed to have graduated by now. I’m pretty sure his girlfriend was in his original class or something.”

“But we were freshmen when he was a junior!” he threw his arms up “I’m pretty sure we would have noticed if he started getting cozy with someone!”

“Steve,” the girl gave him a sad, almost resentful smile “you didn’t even notice me before we started working together last year. You only had eyes for Nancy.”

Steve was quiet, for he knew she was right.

“That and you let those two dickheads Tommy and Carol infiltrate your mind and hypnotize you into becoming a jock!” she tried lighting up the mood, knowing she had hit a sensitive spot for him, which seemed to work as he chuckled.

Their bonding was interrupted by the sound of the little bell over the door, signaling a new client had just come in. Robin started the whole customer service speech while walking slowly towards the counter.

“Hi, welcome to Family Video, how may we help you?” she stopped short once she realized it was you “Hi! Oh my god, I haven’t seen you in a while, how are you?”

“Hey, Robin! I’ve been good, a little busy but what’s new?” both of you giggled, Robin with a bit more flare than necessary.

Steve watched the interaction with a strange kind of fascination.

“What can I get for you today?”

“Let’s see…” you tapped your chin, deep in thought before asking with a hopeful tone “Is Lady and The Tramp available?”

“I got it!” Steve typed it down on the computer “Lucky for you, m’lady, it is.” 

Robin stared at him as if he had grown a second head while he retrieved the tape.

“Can I get a second one? I really wanted to watch The Three Caballeros, but I think it’s kind of mandatory to watch Saludos Amigos first.”

The girl checked in and sure enough, it was available. While she checked you out, Steve was busy putting your tapes in a bag.

“Make sure to drop by more often.” Robin said “It’s been so long, we have to catch up eventually!”

“Yeah, come hang out with us sometime!” Steve added, immediately wincing at his own lack of subtleness.

“Will do.” you waved at them and walked out of the store.

Robin slowly turned towards her friend.

“What was that?”

“I don’t know! I kind of panicked!” he rubbed a hand over his face “Who was that anyway?”

“Duh,” Robin stated your name “only the smartest, sweetest and most beautiful girl in school in forever? Straight A’s, always super nice to everyone, incredibly well dressed, kind of a nerd, but no one gave her too much of a hard time?”

Steve continued to stare blankly at her. She sighed, giving up.

“I had the biggest crush on her in sophomore year while she tutored me in math, but she left the following year and I almost flunked without her help.”

Steve shrugged, not really remembering you at all.

“Now that I come to think of it, she used to hang out with Eddie quite a lot back then.”

“No!” he stared at the door you had recently left through “Do you think…?”

“I don’t know!” she shrugged, a seemingly victorious smile spreading across her face “Maybe?”

They stood in silence for a second.

“There is no way a girl as sweet and as hot as her would be interested in Munson of all people!”

“Come on, Steve, that’s so mean!”

Almost a month had passed since that fateful lunch break. Lucas and Mike eventually settled down and forgot about the whole ordeal, but Steve and, especially, Dustin were relentless. Everyday they would bring up the subject of Eddie’s girl, to the point where the other members of Hellfire Club were starting to get annoyed.

“So, Eddie,” Dustin started accusingly, “where is that imaginary girlfriend of yours today?”

Everyone groaned. 

“How many times do I have to tell you this?” Eddie rolled his eyes and rubbed both hands down his cheeks “She’s working!”

“At night? In the middle of the week?” Steve added, suspicion is his voice.

“She’s fresh off training so she gets the worst shifts.” Eddie explained, getting kind of tired of the matter.

“Hey, Steve?”

“Yeah, Henderson?”

“You know what that sounds to me?”

“What?”

“A bullshit excuse!” Dustin shouted, pointing his finger in Eddie’s face.

“Uhm excuse me.” a voice sounded from the end of the table “If you two old ladies have finished your daily 3 pm gossip over the window, can we go back to the game? How are we supposed to defeat Lareth if all you do is bicker all day long?!” Erica, who occasionally joined the party if she didn’t have too much homework, piped up, annoyed.

Dustin mumbled, clearly not done talking about it, when an idea struck him all of a sudden, making him punch the table, rattling all of the metal figurines.

“What the fuck was that for, Dustin?!” Max asked, startled, a look of angered surprise on her face that matched that of almost everyone there.

“S-sorry.” he answered, only slightly embarrassed “I-I’m just- excited to maybe finally defeat Lareth?”

He winced, not sounding the least bit convincing even to himself, but the others seemed to have bought it for now.

After the game, in which they hadn’t, in fact, managed to defeat Lareth the Beautiful and frankly almost got all killed trying to do so, Dustin pulled Erica aside, out of earshot from the others, especially Eddie.

“What do you want?” she hissed.

“I need a favor.”

“What makes you think I’d help you?” she crossed her arms petulantly. 

“Please?”

She sighed and nodded for him to go on.

“I need you to spy on Eddie for me.”

“Uh, why?”

“We have a bet. He says he has a girlfriend, I think it’s bullshit. Steve, Mike and Lucas agree with me, while Robin and Max, the fools, think this girl is actually real.”

“And what do you need me for?”

“Follow him around, I don’t know. He would never suspect, you’re not part of the bet. Just try and prove that he’s actually lying to all of us”

She thought for a long moment.

“What’s in it for me?”

“What?” he squeaked.

“What’s in it for me?” she repeated with a smug expression “What do I get out of helping you?”

Dustin sighed.

“You can keep my share.”

Erica’s eyes widened and her jaw dropped open.

“Honestly? At this point I just want to prove I’m right. Join in, make the total amount larger and you can keep both yours and my share of it.”

She extended a hand for him to shake.

“It’s a pleasure doing business with you.” and she skipped away to catch up with Lucas.

Dustin hadn’t heard from Erica since their conversation and his faith in her was beginning to waver. A couple more weeks went by before the girl finally joined the Club once more.

“Eddie.” was the first thing she said the minute she sat down in front of the board game “I heard there is a bet of sorts going around.”

“Yes there is, Sinclair the Second.” the man answered and, having a feeling where the conversation was going, grabbed the paper he previously wrote all the names (and it looked somehow even more crumpled than before).

“I’d like to join in.” she said, a large grin on her face.

“It’s $20 per person-” Eddie started explaining before she cut him off.

“Actually I’d like to add 30 bucks.” she said decisively.

Most people around the table looked at each other, impressed and apprehensive at the same time. Dustin on the other hand, nodded victoriously towards his buddies.

“Alright, I have to admit you’re bold, Sinclair the Second.” Eddie did the math “So that increases the final prize to $150. Which side are you joining?”

Erica looked towards Dustin, who discreetly nodded at her.

“I think she’s real.”

Dustin’s jaw dropped.

“Wh-aat?!” his voice cracked from surprise.

“I just don’t see why Eddie would lie, that’s all.” she shrugged nonchalantly.

Dustin shot her a murderous look while Eddie scribbled down her name alongside Max and Robin’s.

“That sure is a good thing. Because she was just talking about requesting to change shifts with a coworker who’s said something about wanting to take more care of his cat during the day.” Eddie finished writing with a flurish “So you might get to meet her pretty soon.”

“Yeah, right.” Lucas snickered, which prompted an elbow to his ribs from Max.

The game proceeded without much hitch after that. After the fiasco that was trying to defeat Lareth the Beautiful the last time everyone was a little apprehensive in trying to take him out again, that was, if they could even find where he lived. But, in a move of sheer luck, Eleven managed to figure out his hideout after scoring 17 while searching an abandoned moathouse. Now all they had to do was attack.

“But I must warn you, my fellow adventurers,” Eddie spoke, his low voice smooth and mysterious while his eyes roamed the face of everyone in the room “every action has consequences. Think through before you strike, for you might not come out of this alive.”

El, who had been feeling brave after a succession of favorably high rolls (which may or may not have had something to do with her powers when she felt she was going to score too low, but you’d never get that out of her as long as she lived), decided to speak up.

“I say we go for it.” everyone stared at her wide eyed “What? We had a lot of time to prepare, everyone has their health full and all their best weapons… we already lost once, what’s the worst that could happen?”

“She’s right.” Lucas agreed, grabbing the dice “Who wants to start?”

“I will.” Steve decided “I’m the weakest of us all, that way if something happens to me you still have a chance to escape and get stronger.”

“No, Steve.” Robin argued.

“No one gets left behind.” Max concluded “I’ll go first.”

“No, I will.” Mike tried ripping the dice out of Max’s hands.

“Come on, let me go first.” El tried to speak, but suddenly the metal doors squaked open, silencing everyone in the room.

Shyly, someone poked their head inside. 

“Hey!” you spoke from your place by the door “I hope I’m not too late?”

Eddie practically jumped out of his throne.

“Sweetheart!” he boomed, opening his arms “You are just in time! They are just about to face Lareth the Beautiful.”

“Again?” you asked, fully stepping inside the room.

“For good this time.” he answered with a mirthful smirk. “What are you doing here?”

“Mrs. Johnson let me off earlier from the nursing home. I managed to swap shifts with Mateo, so now I can come to your campaigns!”

Walking closer to the table, everyone gawked at your sudden appearance. You stopped beside the DM’s throne, but Eddie was quick to pull you sideways into his lap, where you landed giggling like a maniac. Turning your head over your shoulder, you pressed a light peck on his lips.

“No way…” Lucas gaped, shaking his head.

“Yes way.” Max retorted, nodding mesmerized.

“Hah!” Robin slapped both her hands on the table, pointing a finger at Steve in front of her.

Confused, you stared at Eddie, whose smile has never looked more smug.

“What is going on?”

“It is you?!” Dustin stood up so quickly his chair scraped on the floor before tumbling backwards onto the floor.

“Is what me?”

“You’re his girlfriend?” Steve started in awe, feeling a tiny pang of hurt on his chest.

“Uh, yeah.” you nodded, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“How?” Mike all but shouted, Eleven smiling triumphantly at his side.

You and Eddie shared a look.

“You know, Wheeler,” Eddie started, smirking “when two people love each other-”

His speech was interrupted by a chorus of repeated ‘woah’s, Steve rushing to cover Erica’s years, Robin doing the same for El, all the while you chuckled at your boyfriend’s antics .

“There are children here, man.” Steve hissed.

“No, I mean it.” Dustin shook his head in disbelief “Why are you dating him ?”

“I told you would never believe me.” Eddie explained.

Your laughter turned into a dreamy smile.

“Eddie is such a sweetheart. He’s charming, he makes me laugh. And I know I can always count on him no matter what. I know he’ll always be there for me.” you beamed softly at him, before turning back to the party, a playful grin on your face “And it doesn’t hurt that he’s incredibly attractive.”

Dustin made a gagging noise while Eddie playfully flicked his hair over his shoulder.

“I mean, who could resist my witful charms, Henderson?”

Erica turned towards her brother, Dustin, Mike and Steve, a proud look on her face.

“Pay up, losers.” she made a come hither motion with her hand “I believe the four of you owe us $50 for each of us.”

She high-fived Robin and Max.

Dustin stared at her, a look of betrayal taking over his features.

“You agreed you’d help me.” he accused.

“No” she said matter-of-factly “I agreed to spy on Eddie for you. And I did.”

Eddie let out a fake gasp, holding an offended hand over his heart.

“You asked Sinclair the Second to spy on me?!”

Dustin held a hand up.

“That’s besides the point.” he turned back to Erica “What happened?”

“I spied on him, just like you asked. And what I found was the both of them” she nodded her head in your direction, where you were still draped over your boyfriend’s legs “being all lovey-dovey with one another. Y’all are just too dumb to see it.” 

Dustin shook his head as if he still couldn’t believe it. 

“Now that we’ve gotten this out of the way” Eddie’s voice suddenly shifted to the one he used as Dungeon Master “are you ready to take on Lareth the Beautiful once and for all?”

Everyone around the table shouted words of agreement and encouragement, including you. Dustin quickly grabbed the dice, ready to go first. He raised his arms, hands cupped around the dice, and started shaking them. Every member of the club, and now you, stared at him in anticipation, before he hesitated.

“Seriously, though, what do you see in him?”

“Dustin!”

#eddie munson x reader #eddie munson x you #eddie munson x female!reader #eddie munson x f!reader #eddie munson fluff #eddie munson fanfic #dustin handerson being a little shit #stranger things fanfiction #stranger things fanfic