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talaok · 1 year

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A special arrangement

Pairing: Steve Harrington x Eddie Munson x innocent!reader

summary: You, Eddie and Steve make a very special arrangement

warnings: (boy get ready) smut | 4.7 k of porn without plot, innocent!reader, threesome, oral sex (men-yes plural- receiving), spanking, anal fingering (f receiving), double penetration, unprotected p in v sex, anal, choking, praising, a bit of degrading and objectifying and... a tad of daddy-kink.

a/n: This fic was inspired by this post by @mypoisonedvine (congratulations for 30 k, you're really one of the best out here)

it started off as a game, a silly way of having fun.

You were all drunk at one of Steve's parties and Eddie had gotten an idea.

One Steve was more than eager to agree on.

"so Stevie and I were thinking..." Eddie had murmured, closing the door to Steve's bedroom as the party continued downstairs "You look real good tonight sweetheart" he had whispered sultry, towering over you as one of his hands traced the cleavage of your dress "Doesn't she Harrington?"

"she sure does" He had nodded without missing a beat.

"thank you" you had mumbled shily, feeling like a defenseless bunny in front of two hungry wolves.

"And you know how much I like to have you all to myself, princess, I would have loved to get you up here all alone and fuck you dumb until you couldn't take it anymore..." he had said, quickly glancing at Steve by the door, as you cheeks flushed with blood.

Why was your boyfriend saying all of this in front of Steve? I mean he wasn't one to be shy about this sort of thing... but he had never been so blunt in front of other people.

"but Stevie and I had a better idea for tonight" he had murmured "It would be incredibly selfish of me to keep such a beauty all to myself, now, wouldn't it?" he had asked, a hungry smirk playing on his lips, "I think it's only right if I share once in a while, no?"

Your mouth had gaped open in surprise, "you mean..." you couldn't even find the words to finish the sentence.

"I mean you could take care of both of us like a good girl"

You had swallowed nervously, your mouth suddenly dry.

"only if you want to y/n" Steve had spoken up, wanting you to be comfortable.

"of course she does," Eddie had interrupted, his hazel eyes suddenly darker than pitch "Ain't that right, sweetheart?"

And as you had looked between them, you couldn't help but feel excited about the prospect they were offering, so, of course, you had said:

"I do"

That had been a month ago now, and what happened that night happened many times again.

Eddie would call Steve over to his trailer when you hung out, and you'd always end up on your knees taking them one at a time as the air filled with their groans and growls.

It was always just blowjobs except for that time they had taken turns going down on you and had made you come so many times that you had to beg them to stop.

And of course, there were the kisses, you'd spend hours making out, the two of them passing you back and forth like a doll until you couldn't distinguish which one your lips were on anymore.

It was fun and more than a little hot. Your body felt on fire during each of your "sessions", and you could tell they both really enjoyed it too, especially Harrington. he had started to want to hang out way more often after you had made your special arrangement.

As for Eddie... hell Eddie loved it, you didn't expect something like this from him. He was always jealous and protective, but you could see it in the way he urged you to take care of Steve as he watched from the other side of the couch, that he was just as happy as his friend to be doing this.

However, the sharing only got to a point. Steve had never fucked you, or better, you suspected Eddie had never given him his approval.

He would wait for Steve to leave before taking care of you how he knew you desperately needed, or at times, when he couldn't wait, he'd tell Steve to keep watching tv as he took you to his room to fuck you into the mattress without even bothering to close the door.

And that was how it had been, but today... today something was different.

Your parents were out of town so you had invited them to your house. You had cleaned and baked some brownies and waited patiently for them to arrive.

You were hesitant to admit it, but you spent most of your days fantasizing about the next time you were gonna see them. And it was hard not to touch yourself just before bed when your mind inevitably went back to one of your rendezvous.

It was your dirty secret, and god if you didn't love it.

A knock on the door brought you back to reality.

You quickly stood up from the couch and made your way to the entrance.

You stopped a moment to make sure you looked good in the mirror on your right and smoothed down your summer dress before finally opening the door.

"Hi sweetheart" Eddie greeted you, leaning on the door frame.

"Hi y/n" Steve smiled

"Hi," you shyly smiled too, feeling your knees weaken already "Come in, please" you gestured, closing the door behind them.

"smells good," Steve noticed.

"I made brownies"

They briefly glanced at each other, something you didn't catch traveling between them, before their eyes came back to you.

"You did? That's sweet" Eddie cooed, getting in front of you.

You gulped, glimpsing between them "You wanna try them?"

"I'd love to, but I'm not really hungry for food now princess, and I don't think Stevie is either" he spoke "Are you?" he said, turning to Harrington.

"No, not really, "

"oh, ok" you murmured, trying to hide a faint disappointment.

"but I'll be happy to eat them later" Steve spoke again, noticing your reaction.

That made you feel better, and you responded with a big smile.

Eddie's fingers gently traced your cheek, and you melted right into his touch "I've missed you" he whispered, briefly kissing your lips.

"I've missed you too" you pouted

"no hey, don't look so sad, I'm here now... we're here" he reassured you.

You nodded, kissing him again, and after a few moments felt Steve's presence behind you.

"I-I missed you too Steve" you murmured shyly.

Eddie softly chuckled, as he turned you so you could face his friend "Did you now?" he mocked, moving some of your hair to kiss your neck.

"I-i did"

Steve smiled sincerely "I've missed you too sweetheart" he promised, before he brought his lips to yours, slowly tasting you.

You whimpered softly, kissing him back as Eddie worked on your neck and let his hands travel to your ass.

"Should we go up to your room?" Eddie said, after some time

"y-yeah" you spoke, flustered.

"lead the way baby" he motioned, and you obeyed, starting up the stairs fully aware of where their eyes were glued to as they followed.

Steve closed the door behind him and you wasted no time kneeling in front of the bed.

"how eager, princess" Eddie teased, walking next to you with Steve.

"I'm sorry I just- I missed you" you spoke frantically

"no hey it's ok" he soothed "Don't worry," he said, sitting on the edge of the bed.

Steve sat next to him, a soft bulge already visible in his pants.

You immediately reached for Eddie's zipper and made quick work of his pants, before granting Steve the same treatment.

You were about to take both of them in each hand when Eddie stopped you.

"Let us see those tits princess," he said, and you looked up at him hesitantly before slowly sliding your straps off your shoulders and rolling your dress down until your bra was fully in view.

"Don't be shy now, take it off" he said, his cock getting harder.

You followed his instruction and were rewarded with a satisfied sigh from both of them.

"You've got perfect tits sweetheart, touch them a little for me," he said.

"touch them?"

"yeah give us a little show baby"

You had to bite down a whine and let your hands reach your breasts, unhurriedly touching and groping them.

They were looking at you as if you were candy.

"fuck" Steve muttered,

"You like that?" Eddie asked

"Yeah man" he groaned, palming his manhood "fuckin-wanna cum on them"

You couldn't stop the moan fleeing your lips.

"Yeah, I think she'd like that too" Eddie said smugly "But not today princess" he explained "We've got other plans"

You stopped your movements "What?" you asked curiously

"I'll explain later baby, don't worry, how 'bout you get us nice and ready now?" he eyed his dick

"yes please" You eagerly nodded, causing a smile to their lips.

You wasted no time grabbing Steve's cock into your hand and starting to gently stroke it as you kitty-licked Eddie's tip, making both men's breathing quicken.

You then let your tongue slowly taste his whole length, until finally, you took him into your mouth.

He groaned loudly as his hand fisted your hair, pulling it slightly.

"fuck baby" he growled "Yeah just like that- keep going" he moaned, as you took him deeper and deeper with each bob.

"stay down" he instructed, forcing your head down "Like that- yeah- choke on it, baby" he commanded, throwing his head back in pleasure as you gagged on his tip.

"fuck" he groaned, letting you go "You did good" he nodded as you gasped for air "Take care of Stevie now"

You immediately obliged, moving to your right to get in front of his spread legs.

You stroked him a bit before you took him in.

"shit" he gripped the sheets, as he observed the way you took him so fucking well, your eyes never leaving his.

"use-" he groaned "use your tits for me sweetheart" he urged, his voice strained.

You let his cock out of your mouth and stood up a bit more to get his dick in between the valley of your breasts.

Steve could have come right there and then if it wasn't for what he knew was waiting for him.

"like this?" you asked innocently, tentatively stroking him with your tits.

He groaned "Yeah, just like that- god you're so good" he muttered, his hips thrusting a bit upwards.

You let your tongue out of your mouth so that you could lick his tip with each stroke, and Steve was fucking done for.

"shit" he swallowed "That's- that's perfect sweetheart," he said "fuck-please stop or I'm gonna cum"

You frowned, confused, and let him go "Don't you want to do that?"

"I do" he chuckled "but not like this"

Once again, you were perplexed.

"c'mere" Eddie ordered, sliding to his left and patting the space between him and Steve.

You sat down, suddenly very aware of your naked chest. It was probably because Steve couldn't take his eyes off of it.

"You don't want me to make you come?" you asked naively.

"Of course I do baby," your boyfriend said softly, placing his hand on your thigh "But I was thinking something different for today" he kissed your cheek, putting a lock of your hair behind your ear "You know how I always make you feel good when Stevie's gone?"

"mh-mh" you nodded, your face getting red

"well I was thinking maybe this time he could help out too"

"y-you mean...he's gonna make me feel good instead of you?" you asked, a bit sad at the prospect.

I mean you wanted Steve, but you wanted Eddie too.

He grinned amusedly "No baby, don't worry" he spoke softly "Not instead... we're gonna do that together"

Now you were confused

"h-how?"

His fingers traced your jaw, admiring your pretty face "You remember what we tried that one time? When I made you feel good in a new way?"

You searched your memory, Eddie had made you feel good in so many different ways that it was tough remembering all of them.

"Uhm- I don't- which time?" you asked, shooting Steve an embarrassed glance.

He bent down to kiss your cheek before bringing his mouth to your ear "When I used your other pretty hole, princess" he murmured.

You squeezed your thighs in response, heat pooling between them. The reaction was noticed by both men with delight.

"You remember that?"

Of course you did.

You nodded.

"and would you like to try it again?" he asked "So that Stevie and I can take care of you at the same time... make you feel twice as good"

Your mouth gaped open as the realization hit.

"Is...How?-I" You had no idea what to say or how to say it.

"We're gonna be gentle baby, don't worry. We're gonna take care of you real good, right Steve?"

"Yeah sweetheart we'll go slow"

"at first at least" Eddie murmured, a malicious grin on him.

You glanced between them "It's-It's not gonna hurt is it?"

"Maybe just a little bit, but it's gonna feel great after, princess, don't you trust us?"

You swallowed thickly, feeling your panties drench at the images flashing before your eyes.

"I do," you promised

"That's our good girl" Eddie praised you, kissing you briefly before Steve's fingers urged you to turn towards him.

He hungrily crashed his lips with yours and wasted no time before sliding his tongue in your mouth, his hands desperately gripping your hair to keep you close.

Needless to say, Steve was ecstatic you had agreed.

Eddie's soft chuckle brought him back to reality, and he half-heartedly leaned away, letting you go.

"get up on the bed baby" Eddie spoke, getting up from it as Steve followed his lead.

you did as told, and looked at them expectantly as they watched you like starving predators.

"take off your dress"

You did, remaining only in your little white panties.

Steve muttered something below his breath you didn't catch, and Eddie just licked his lips as he stared shamelessly.

Your boyfriend took his shirt off, and after snapping out of his trance, Steve did too.

"Open your legs for us princess"

Your cheeks flushed as you obeyed, bending your legs and spreading your thighs.

"fuck" You could now hear Steve murmur.

Eddie gripped your thighs and forced you closer to the edge of the bed and a little squeak fled your mouth.

His digits slowly trailed to the fabric right against your center, and he hissed as he did "She's soaked"

"yeah?"

"yeah touch her"

Steve didn't need to be told twice.

He immediately brought a finger to the wet spot on your panties.

"shit man" he murmured, his eyes focused on where he was meeting your heat.

"I know, right?"

You wined, feeling frustrated.

"you're right sweet girl" Eddie cooed "We're gonna make you feel good now, don't worry," he said, "get on your hands and knees for us princess"

You complied immidately, feeling every nerve in your body going crazy.

"she's got a nice ass doesn't she?" Your boyfriend asked, as he stroked your cheeks

"nice is an understatement" Steve chuckled, groping your ass "you're lucky you get to fuck it"

"I know I am" Eddie said, not giving you any warnings before spanking you.

A moan escaped your throat

"You like that?" Steve asked, mesmerized. His cock painfully hard.

You nodded, softly pushing your ass back in search of anything to give you a bit of relief.

Eddie's hand came down on your ass again "Use your words princess"

"I do! I love it"

again, another strike.

"what do you love?"

"fuck- I love it when you spank me, Eddie, I love it so much" you mumbled, already out of it.

"Can I try?" Steve couldn't help but ask.

Eddie nodded and Steve's hand immediately struck your ass.

"fuck" you whimpered "Please do it again" you begged and Steve was more than happy to comply.

Another bolt of pain mixed with pleasure spread through you, and you cried out as your head fell to the bed.

Your ass was already red and Steve was about to go again when Eddie spoke "Stop, or she'll come"

"she can come like this?" Steve's awe for you just kept growing

"she can come in lots of ways Stevie" He didn't elaborate "And you can try that one out another time, we've gotta get her ready now," he said, suddenly pulling your panties down.

The room's cold air contrasted with the warmness of your cunt.

"look at that" Eddie groaned "Such a pretty little hole," he said, his thumb gently playing with the entrance.

He passed his middle finger between your folds, collecting some of your juices, and then brought it up to your hole again.

You moaned softly as he slowly circled it, and had to gasp when he spit on it.

You closed your eyes, soaking in the feeling, when he abruptly pushed his finger in.

"ohgodohgodohgod" you whimpered, your heart starting to beat a mile per minute.

"That's good, baby, that's good, relax for me" he murmured, starting to slowly move it in and out of you. "wanna help me out here?" he asked Steve, who promptly brought his own finger to your hole.

"use her juices as lube" he instructed, and Steve obeyed before coming back up.

"Ok princess take a deep breath for me now" he said, and as you slowly inhaled, Harrington forced his own digit in.

You forgot what you were doing as a choked moan climbed up your throat.

"That's it, princess, doing so good" he murmured, gently caressing your ass as they both started to move their fingers.

"fuck" you whimpered, arching your back

"feels good?"

"ye-yeah- god," you whined at the feeling. You could feel both of them inside of you and fuck if it didn't feel good.

"You ready for another one?" Eddie asked

"A-another one?"

"Yeah, baby remember? if you gotta take the real thing you need to be ready, I don't want it to hurt"

You gulped "O-ok"

Steve kept moving as Eddie pushed his ring finger in too.

"Fuck!" you cried, gripping the sheets. This one hurt a little.

"good girl" he praised "Always so good for me," he said, moving his fingers in sync with Steve.

You bit your lower lip so forcefully you could taste blood.

"Isn't she, Harrington?"

"Y-yeah" Steve spoke, his voice hoarse and his eyes fixed on your abused hole "So so good, sweetheart"

Eddie chuckled a bit at Steve's blatant amazement but said nothing.

"I think she's ready," your cruel boyfriend said, cruelly removing his fingers from inside of you.

You wined loudly "No- please" You were feeling so good... you knew you were close.

"c'mon man, she wants to cum" Steve protested, still inside of you.

Eddie smirked, his eyes finding yours as you turned to him with a pleading pout "You really did a trick on him, princess, didn't you?" he winked, giving your ass a quick spank "But no, " he said, turning to Steve "she comes when I say so"

"Fine," Steve said, pulling his finger out of you.

You looked at your boyfriend desperately and he shook his head, a smug smile on his lips "Don't give me that look, princess, you get to ride Stevie here now" he said, patting his shoulder.

"Really?" your eyes sparked up

"Sure do," he said, giving Steve a nod.

"You like to ride?" Steve asked, getting on the bed

You bit your lip, a bit embarrassed "I do" you said, straddling his lap once he laid on the bed "but Eddie never lets me"

You heard him chuckle somewhere behind you.

"that's a shame, a girl like you...he should let you do whatever you want"

You softly giggled "Hear that baby?" you asked playfully, turning your head to look at him.

"what can I say? I'm a man who likes to be in control" he grinned, bending down to give you a quick kiss "Now go on, show me how good you are" he urged, leaning away.

You turned to Steve again, an excited smile tugging at your lips.

His hands found your waist, and you bent down to give him a quick kiss that didn't satisfy him, as he grabbed your face and forced it to his again, kissing you deeply.

You whimpered softly, and your hips started moving on their own, immidately finding his hard cock.

"go on, sugar, show your boyfriend what he's missing," he said, and you wasted no time complying.

You took his manhood in your hand and slowly guided it to your entrance, squeezing your eyes shut as you sank onto it.

You moaned loudly, and he groaned as his grip on your waist tightened.

"fuck sweetheart" he muttered

"she's tight, isn't she?"

"fuck" Steve had to laugh a little "tight? She's got the tightest pussy I've ever felt, man"

You were still lost in the pleasure of having him inside of you so completely, especially with all the teasing, that you didn't hear any of that, not until Steve spoke again, his thumb softly stroking the part of your belly he could reach.

"go on y/n, bounce on it for me"

You opened up your eyes, placing one of your hands on his chest for leverage before raising your hips until only the tip was inside just to sink back down.

Steve groaned even louder, while your moan got an octave higher.

"It's so big" you whimpered, replicating your movement.

"yeah? You're not used to it?" Steve joked, one of his hands traveling upwards to grope your tits.

"oh she's used to it alright" Eddie intervened, making Steve chuckle.

"you can't take it?" Harrington mocked " 's too big for you?" he cooed, as you kept bouncing on him.

"n-no I can" you immediately moaned "It just- feels so good" you cried, picking up your pace

"yeah? Who feels so good?"

"you Steve, you feel so so good- god!" you groaned as he raised his hips to meet your bounce, hitting you deeper than before.

"That's right sweetheart- that's right" he murmured, both his hands now playing with your nipples.

You didn't hear the bed creak as Eddie climbed on it, but when you felt his hands on you, you could only whine.

He immediately went for your neck, sucking a quick hickey underneath your ear just to make you all the more desperate, before one of his hands urged you to bend down a little and you obliged.

"you're gonna take it all like a good girl aren't you?" he asked, positioning his cock at your other entrance.

"yes- I am Eddie I promise" you whimpered, still moving on Steve's dick.

"good 'cause I'm not stopping princess,"

you could only moan at those words, just to be interrupted by his tip entering you.

"oh god" you whimpered

"I know angel. just take it, I know you can" he murmured, going deeper, and finding it hard not to groan at how tight you were.

"it's-it's too big" you cried, tears pricking your eyes.

"no it's not, c'mon, be a good girl, relax a little" he whispered, pushing inside again.

"Eddie" you moaned, starting to get used to the feeling.

"that's it, baby, that's a good girl, you're almost there" he praised, before fully thrusting into you with a loud groan.

You moaned so loud the whole neighborhood probably heard.

You could feel both of them, both their big cocks stretching you.

"good girl" Eddie spanked you "I knew you could take it"

You gasped but had no time to say anything before they both started thrusting into you, leaving you completely speechless.

You could only grip Steve's shoulder as you ascended to another universe.

This was nothing like anything you'd ever felt. This was everything and more all at once, and if you weren't an atheist you probably would have guessed this is what heaven fucking felt like.

"fuck you're so tight princess" Eddie groaned "I'm not gonna last long" he spoke, his breathing ragged.

Your hearing was muffled from the pleasure like you were underwater.

Eddie chuckled, seeing your state "You like this too much princess?" he mocked "You like being our little slut too much? You can't even speak?"

Your mouth was open but nothing came out of it except for desperate little whines.

"is that it?" he asked, one of his hands coming down on your asscheek and making you yelp "Answer me, angel"

"y-yeah," you cried "I like it too much Eddie- it feels so good"

He grinned smugly "I'm glad baby" he growled "c'mere," he said, putting his arm around your chest and forcing your back against his chest as he fucked you even harder.

Steve in the meantime was mesmerized by the view, trying really hard to last.

Eddie hungrily sucked and kissed your neck as one of his hands traveled to your clit.

"Daddy!" you moaned, when he circled it, heightening your pleasure even more

"fuck dude" Steve could only react by groaning lowly.

"I know right?" Eddie raised his brows cockily at him before focusing on you again "Who's your daddy princess, tell me" he spoke, not slowing his pace in the least and continuing to massage your clit.

"you- Eds you're my daddy" you cried "Only you"

"that's right" he suddenly bit your earlobe before letting you go "That's fucking right"

You fell onto Steve again, and he immediately brought your mouth to his. Leaving a hot, messy kiss on it.

Your orgasm was growing in your belly like a volcano ready to go off at any moment, and you were in complete bliss, just a doll at the mercy of the two men inside of you.

"fuck-I'm gonna come soon sweetheart" Steve murmured, "where do you want it?"

You didn't answer, you couldn't, you were right there yourself, and your brain had stopped functioning a while ago.

"where sweetheart?" he asked again

Eddie let out a small laugh "You're too fucked out baby?"

And when you didn't answer that, Eddie's amusement only grew "I guess that's as good as an answer" he said "Try choking her, that always seems to wake her up"

"choking?" Steve asked, deserving a fucking prize for not having busted his load right there and then at the proposal.

"yeah Steve"

"you sure?"

"What, you think she doesn't like that?" Eddie chuckled "She fucking loves it, 'gets real tight when you do it too"

Steve complied, one of his hands slowly sneaking up to grip your neck, choking you.

You let out an animalistic moan, and Steve immediately understood what Eddie was saying about you getting tight.

"c'mon baby tell Stevie where you want his load" Eddie commanded.

You opened your eyes, biting your lip to keep yourself grounded in reality.

"tell me sugar"

"I-inside Steve-fuck, I want to feel both of you come deep inside of me please" You wined loudly, making Steve mutter something under his breath.

The hand around your throat was the last straw and the bubble in your belly was ready to burst.

You couldn't do it anymore, you needed to come.

"Can I come?" you begged "Please daddy can I come?"

"You think you deserve to?"

"I do-I do please, please!"

"I think you do too, come for us baby, come all over our cocks"

And just like that, the volcano in your belly erupted completely, a hot wave of pure bliss washing over you as you moaned so loud you doubted you would have any voice left.

The feeling of your pretty walls squeezing around them caused a domino reaction, and they both came groaning loudly just after you, filling you up to the fucking brim.

"fuck" Steve could only whisper once you had all come down your high.

"you did real good sweetheart" Eddie kissed your cheek, pulling out of you and helping you lie down on the bed.

The air filled with your heavy breaths and a delighted silence as you nestled between them, their arms keeping you close.

"So did you like that princess?" Eddie asked, and when you didn't answer their eyes fell down to you.

They both chuckled, watching your eyes peacefully closed.

"I think we wore her out," Steve said

"We'll wake her in a while for round two" Eddie smiled, gently stoking some hair out of your face "how 'bout those brownies now?"

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eddiemania · 2 years

Text

Babysitter

Part two of "Babysitter"

Description: Babysitting Eddie the Freak Munson's little brother was something you genuinely did not expect to be doing this summer (and him watching you while wandering around shirtless was surely not in your plans)

Warnings: smut, babysitter!reader, grinding, fingering, drugs, skirt kink

"Seriously?! The damn newspaper?" you groaned, throwing the document down on the table where both your parents sat. They observed your furious movements with confusion and annoyance before your mother spoke up.

"I don't get why you're so upset. Where did you think you got all the other jobs from?" she questioned as your dad remained silent, "Well, certainly not from here!" your mouth dropped.

You couldn't believe your eyes.

This summer your parents your mom, decided it would be a brilliant idea if you stopped simply "suffocating yourself on that damn bed" as she specifically called it, and started doing something more productive, like the other teens your age did.

So instead of just washing cars or walking some neighbors' dogs, she thought babysitting random children around Hawkins would be so much fun that she was almost offended when you did not start jumping around with sparks of excitement at her vision.

Of course, despite the multiple arguments you two had, the final decision was made and the moment July approached, you already had your first appointment with the Whitlock family.

You didn't particularly dislike children, but the responsibility of a random goblin was terrifying enough. However, it did not seem half as bad when you got to negotiate the money you would get out of it.

And just like that, up until the 19th of July, you had gained over 280 dollars by babysitting twelve children in total. Honestly, it did seem quite odd that the words "y/n y/l/n is babysitting" spread around Hawkings so quickly, but now it all made sense.

Your mother had actually paid Hawkins Post to place your name and phone number under the services section, and you were furious.

You didn't know whether it was the fact that your name was just traveling around the town or that it did so without your consent, but the look on your face as you watched your mother was definitely out of a horror movie.

"Is it a bad time to tell you, you have another appointment?" she apologetically said before smiling, causing you to throw your hands up in the air, "Are you joking right now?!" you scoffed, pacing around the living room.

"Come on y/n it's money," your father finally spoke, making you roll your eyes. Your mother began approaching you, reaching inside the back pocket of her jeans before pulling out a small piece of paper, with a few words written on it, "Don't bail for no reason," she said and handed the note before leaving the room.

Once the paper was in your hands, you quickly glanced down at it, the words making your eyebrows connect with confusion.

"Wayne Munson, 34234 Forest Hills Trailer Park"

Wayne Munson? As in Eddie Munson?

Eddie The Freak Munson from your school?

Your eyes were wide and the only thing that kept you from letting out a tremendous groan was your father's presence inside the room. It couldn't possibly be true. It was probably a coincidence.

What were the chances for two different Munson families living in the same trailer park? Well... zero.

You rushed upstairs to your room, spinning around as you let the information sink in. You knew well what the entire school thought about Eddie and his interests and even if you weren't part of the "Mocking Eddie the freak" club, you certainly had no desire to go anywhere near his place.

You never got the chance to have a normal conversation with the guy, -well, except that one time your teacher made you pair up with him so that he wouldn't fail the chemistry project- but from what was going around, he wasn't anything other than a wasted, creepy, drug dealer who finally got some attention after the infamous 'Reefer Rick' himself went M.I.A.

But considering the situation, that man, Wayne, would not ask you to babysit Eddie, which meant he had another kid living with him in that trailer, something you were confident no one else knew about.

"The appointment is from 7:00pm to 12:00am. Five hours or fifty dollars, depending on what makes you want to go," your mother interrupted your thoughts by knocking on the door.

"Ten an hour? I've gotten fifteen once," you rolled your eyes, trying to sound logical, "You've also once got seven an hour, yet you did not complain," she fired back at you, to which you groaned, "Mom-"

"y/n ten an hour is more than enough for someone that lives in one of Forest Hill's trailers." she glanced down at you with a disapproving look towards your behavior before you sighed in defeat.

"So?"

"This is the last job I'm taking, deal?" you smiled, "y/n-"

"Deal?" you cut her off.

"Fine,"

☾

Three hours had approximately passed since then. You looked down at your watch, which pointed at 6:45pm. Forest Hills was about ten minutes from your house, so quickly, you grabbed a skirt and a t-shirt from your chair, took your bike's locker keys, and rushed downstairs.

The way to the Trailer Park was easier than you expected, with all the streets surrounding it being almost empty, with no sign of actual residents.

You glanced down at the information again the moment you got off your bike.

"34231... 32... 33..." you mumbled under your breath as you looked around.

34234.

You took a good look at it. It wasn't anything too odd, just a simple trailer with some junk laying outside of it. The van he always came to school with was parked outside. The railings towards his door were old and rusty.

Random deflated balls and toys together with squeezed cans of beer were thrown under and in front of the stairs and a few empty glasses sat alone on the picnic table shelter.

You took a deep breath before slowly approaching the railings, making sure no one you could possibly know was around by any chance.

Once you were certain, you placed your fist on the door, cautiously knocking three times, but there was no response. You knocked, again and again, frowning at the lack of reaction.

The moment you were about to step away, though, a loud groan caught your attention. "Come here, you little shit!" a familiar voice yelled whilst you heard two loud pairs of footsteps running around in your direction.

"Ricky!"

The door was opened, and your gaze was immediately drawn down. There stood a little boy with curly hair and big brown eyes staring at you as he bit the hem of his 'Snorks' themed t-shirt.

"Hello little guy," you beamed, quickly bending down to play with his fluffy hair. You could obviously tell the Eddie Munson was the one standing behind the boy, but you simply didn't have the courage to peek up just yet.

"Hi," the little boy smiled widely, his two front teeth missing. Your heart melted as you observed his puffy cheeks, "What's your name mister?" you asked in a childish tone when he began jumping around, "Ricky," he said, immediately running back inside the house, losing him off your sight.

You swallowed, getting off your feet and feeling tense the moment your eyes caught his. "Hey," Eddie smiled awkwardly, gesturing for you to get inside, "Hi," you forced a gentle smile, finally getting in the trailer.

You inspected the place. It was genuinely not bad. A few band posters and an impressive amount of caps on the wall caught your attention immediately. A few toy cars were thrown around together with random bags and boxes of delivered food.

"Thanks for coming here, I really don't know how to handle him on my own," he said, as you looked at his eyes seemingly traveling across your body, examining you, or rather your skirt.

"Yeah, no problem," you only said, picking up a toy from the ground. "Do you live here alone?" you proceeded to question, being unable to tell if anyone else was there.

He sat down on the couch before shaking his head, "I live with my uncle Wayne, but he's away for a couple of days, and looking after Ricky hasn't been much of a success." he rubbed his temples.

"Oh, I thought your uncle called me," you replied which made him avoid your eyes, "Well that was me. I know we never -like- interact at school since you know," he rubbed the back of his neck, "You're you and-" he finally glanced at you, "I am me,"

As he was about to continue, you cut him off, "It's okay Eddie," you managed to let out, catching him off guard, "I get it,"

"What's your name?" Your eye contact with him broke the moment Ricky appeared from behind his leg as he still gripped it, "I'm y/n, it's nice to meet you, Ricky!" you smiled when his little hands were wrapped around your torso, hugging you.

"Hey, Ricky!" Eddie tried to stop him, but you laughed it off, making him understand it was okay.

The boy sat next to you, taking the toy you were holding off your hands. "This is Mr. bubbles," he spoke and started rumbling about it for approximately five minutes.

You and Eddie awkwardly sat and listened to him, except your mind thinking about other things. He was definitely not as bad as you expected from the little seconds of interaction you had with him but you still didn't want to rush your expectations.

After about half an hour of you looking after the little boy playing around and Eddie doing something that you couldn't really see in the kitchen, he finally spoke up.

"Is it okay if I go take a shower?" he questioned. He obviously hadn't hired a babysitter before and you could tell, "Yeah, no problem,"

Ricky then immediately dragged you down on the floor with him as he lied on his belly, making you beam, "I want big curly hair like Diddie" he spoke when the bathroom door closed.

"Like who?" you frowned with confusion, unable to understand some of his words, "My brother, Diddie" he replied, pointing towards the door, "Oh!" you messed his hair a little.

You then took a good look at him once again. His hair had curls, just like Eddies but they were significantly shorter, almost like an outgrown buzz-cut.

"Are you growing them out?" you smiled and asked, but he shook his head, "Dad doesn't like long hair," he responded as his hand drove a toy car across the floor, "But Eddie has long hair," you connected your eyebrows, "Dad doesn't like Eddie a lot," the boy finally glanced at you helping you understand what the situation was.

You immediately felt like it was your responsibility to change the subject, so you grabbed a toy and played with him for a couple of minutes.

The entire time you could hear the water running down the shower, so when it stopped, Ricky immediately ran towards the door, "Diddie!" he yelled with excitement, barely opening the door before Eddie shut it again, "Hey dude! Wait a second!" he laughed which strangely caught you off guard.

You had certainly never heard Eddie Munson laugh before. It was genuine and loud. You had been at his Trailer with him for about two out of the five hours you had to stay and although you did not interact much except for times to talk about his little brother, you could not understand why people despised him so much.

"Diddie!"

"Okay, okay! I'm done," you looked outside the window, only listening to his voice leaving the bathroom, "What's all the eagerness? Is y/n torturing you?" he looked at you as he tried to get your attention.

You turned your head with a smile, "Hey!" you laughed but your brain stopped working when you realized he only wore a towel low on his waist.

His chest and arms had various kinds of tattoos. Tattoos you couldn't see before. One of them began at the top of his inner hip, barely visible as the rest of it continued under the piece of fabric he covered himself with.

"y/n I'll have to contact Hawkins Post for child abuse," he teased, something he hadn't done before during your time together, "No, y/n is good," Ricky smacked his leg, making you let a small laugh out.

"That's Diddie abuse," he frowned at his brother before the little boy ran towards you, climbing and hiding behind your back. "Don't involve me in your vendetta," you smiled at Eddie, something he returned.

God, did he look oddly good? His pick necklace was the only thing on his torso and his back was perfectly defined. You couldn't help but keep on staring at that tattoo on his hip, but when he called your name, blood rushed through your cheeks, the thought of him catching your stare frightening you.

"Yes?" you cleared your throat, "I think we should put that big ol' guy to sleep," he softly laughed, his gaze falling on the little boy behind you having his eyes shut. You immediately glanced at your watch, was it already 9:00pm?

You nodded before gently taking Ricky's hand, having Eddie lead you to the child's bedroom which appeared to be pretty simple. He had a little bed with barriers on the side. Once you saw them, your head turned to Eddie.

"He is a pretty energized sleeper," he chuckled, watching you from the door. You smiled, nodding in response, "You can wait outside, I'll be okay," you then spoke, watching him leave and close the door behind him.

"y/n are you gonna stay here?" Ricky asked, opening his eyes slightly, "Yeah for a little while," you nodded, realizing you had to be alone with Eddie for the hours you had left.

Usually, the parents were away leaving you alone inside their house, which meant you could either relax or maybe play some music, but this time, you clearly weren't alone...

By the time you finished thinking, you noticed the boy had shut his eyes entirely. Your gaze fell on the planet at the end of his bed, which you took in your grip before tucking him in and making sure the barriers were attached properly.

You left the room and made your way through the tiny hall right into the living room where the lights had been turned off, only the TV playing in the background.

Eddie sat on the couch, apparently clothed, a cigarette between his lips as he observed the device with boredom. "He's asleep," you spoke, making him turn his attention to you, "I'm so thankful y/n," he said as he approached you, his presence inches away from yours.

Eddie suddenly smiled and raised his index finger at you, motioning you to wait for a second as he passed by you, making his way towards the small spaced kitchen.

You slowly walked over to the couch where he was sitting, shortly listening to his footsteps approach you.

"Since your shift ends in like two hours I figured you might be a little hungry," he awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck, placing a homemade pizza on the wooden table in front of you right before squishing the cigarette he was holding between his fingers into the ashtray.

"You made this?" you smiled, watching him nod in response before sitting down right next to you, with quite a cautious space of about one and a half people.

"Do you um..." he swallowed, pointing at the old, half-damaged TV, "Do you want to watch something? Hammer House of Horror starts at 9:30," he questioned, "Oh my God! I love this series!" you smiled widely, which he immediately returned.

"To be honest I didn't expect you to babysit," he said, your head turning to him, "Me neither. My mother pressured me to do it so that I wasn't inside the house 24/7," you responded, rolling your eyes as you slightly slid on the end of the couch, reaching to grab a piece of pizza as you felt your skirt slightly hovering higher on your thigs.

Of course, he looked. Every slight movement caught his attention even though it shouldn't. "24/7? Don't you hang out with your friends?" he tried to not be stiff, but you could tell how much he despised your friend group by even mentioning it.

"Well everyone's kinda busy, I guess," you responded while looking at your white converse, "You guess?" the boy frowned, making you sigh, "When it's not for alcohol and popularity, they have no good intention," you took a bite, surprised at how good it was.

"And I'm the loud freak," he rolled his eyes as he got up, moving towards a cabinet. You didn't respond. Even if you never told anything bad about him, you would always listen to your friends' conversations regarding him and his tendencies, maybe even chuckle at some of the comments.

"Is it okay if I smoke?"

You glanced down at him waiting for a response. Considering he was already smoking, you knew it wasn't about nicotine this time, but you didn't mind, it was his place anyway.

He approached you, rolling his blunt the moment he sat down and you quietly observed him.

He was wearing a black, sleeveless Iron Maiden shirt and a pair of sweat shorts. You were used to him wearing his jeans and his leather jackets, so that comfortable look was new to you.

"Do you want the first?" he asked, stealing your attention away from his clothes. You had never done drugs before so you kindly declined, watching him inhale slowly before letting out a heavy amount of smoke, his head falling back.

"You are an excellent chef," you beamed as he turned his eyes to you, "Oh yeah? Are you sure the blunt didn't get to you?" you both laughed, noticing him move closer towards you.

You sat there quietly for about two minutes watching the ads on the TV before you finally spoke up, "I didn't know you had a brother," you said and he smiled, "Yeah... Ricky's my soft spot, but he lives with my father, so I don't get to see him often," he responded, making you question whether you should continue this conversation or not.

"How come? If you don't mind me asking of course!" you move your hands quickly, making him smile, "It's okay," he chuckled, inhaling once again, "Well Ricky's young and I am not. I came here to live with Wayne since I couldn't take his shit anymore," Eddie shrugged, making you nod.

"Could I... Could I give it a try?" you suddenly questioned before he gave you a confused look, "Are you sure?" the curyhead asked, making you nod.

He approached you, his face inches away from yours as his hand was brought up to your lips, his big fingers holding the blunt right between them. You have him a quick look before lowering your face and placing the rolled paper between your pink lips.

"Now inhale," he instructed you, his voice so low, it was almost like a whisper. As you did so, his eyes didn't leave yours for a second. You didn't know where you found the courage to maintain the contact, but you did, and it felt... different.

"Good," he pulled his hand away, letting you exhale, a few coughs escaping your mouth, "Who would have thought," he smiled, "Eddie Munson smoking weed with y/n y/l/n on his couch," he grinned.

"You're right, I'm supposed to be working here," you rub your forehead with guilt before pulling away, about to stand up, "Hey," his hand gently grabs yours, making you sit back down, "Ricky's sleeping, just talk with me, here," his eyes were heavy and his lips slightly curved.

His lips were full and vibrant.

"My mom will slaughter me," you slightly giggle, grabbing his hand before inhaling once again, which was the first time you ever had physical contact with each other.

He liked it. He carefully observed your face with his fingers in front of it. Your hands both grasped his bigger one, and your expression numbed when the smoke escaped your lips. He really liked it.

"Not bad, hm?" Eddie smiled, noticing you relaxing more, "Not bad at all," you whispered back. "Is your mom going to pick you up?" the boy then questioned before you shook your head, "Then you can stay a little longer so I have company,"

You nod with a slight blush on your cheeks that was thankfully invisible due to the low lighting of the room.

"You're really nice. Sweeter than all of my friends," you admit, making him touch his chest dramatically, "y/n! You're showing kindness towards a small, little peasant, like me!" Eddie spoke, making you gasp, "Oh, shut up," you laugh with him.

"For real though. I wish we knew each other earlier than this stupid mess of High School,"

He lets your words sink in before his eyes turn to you, "We can learn each other now," he speaks quietly, making you turn your head, "But I get why you might hold back," he adds.

"Weird, satanic, freak Eddie Munson and a cheerleader from Carver's circle," he laughs, exhaling smoke. You roll your eyes, almost breaking the distance between your bodies, "You're way cooler than Jason, for the record," you smile.

"Yeah, that's enough blunt for you," he chuckles making you groan, "I'm serious,"

"A little determined, aren't we now, y/n?" his face turns to you, inches away from yours and your breath hitches, "Is it pity, or is it something else?" he asks.

"Huh? It's nothing, I'm just being honest," you quickly respond, "You know what I think?" Eddie smiled, his face even closer this time, your lips barely away from touching, "I think it's the older guy that mommy and daddy don't approve of situation," he whispers, "What? No, I-"

"Are you sure?" his eyes examine yours from that close-up distance you two were in. You breathe heavy, smelling his freshly shampooed hair, his perfume, and weed all in one. You rethink his words. You were a senior too with just two years of difference from him. He was always mocked by every other person your age and yet there you were, smoking with him, only knowing him for barely a day.

Without thinking of it, you slightly move your head, your lips brushing over his, when his hands grab the back of your head, slightly pushing you closer to him.

It felt different. It wasn't just a plain kiss. You were kissing Eddie Munson and maybe he was right, It did turn you on that it was him.

"Come here," he whispers, sitting back on the couch before placing your legs on each side of him, placing you on top of him. He softly licks your upper lip, waiting for permission to enter your mouth, and you immediately give it to him.

As your tongues explore each other's mouths, his hands study your body cautiously, not wanting to make you feel uncomfortable. He carefully caresses your back, only over the elastic of your skirt.

His lips gently abandon yours as he begins to trace a path on your soft jaw, slowly moving toward the beginning of your neck, "Eddie," you breathe out, your hands around his neck, and your eyes shut closed.

His name sounds good when you say it, it makes him feel things he didn't even know were possible, "Sweetheart, can I touch you?" he speaks against your neck, not breaking contact once.

"Yes, please," you say with satisfaction and he grins, "So polite all the time," Eddie says. All you can hear is the sloppy kisses on your skin and the low-volume TV when you feel his large hands sliding down your body, grabbing your ass with lust.

Your skirt dances as he caresses you, and you instantly feel his erection. The more he touches you, the more it grows. You softly moan, taking his hands into yours as you guide them on your touch-starved thighs.

"I've been craving those pretty thighs ever since I first saw you in that little cheer skirt," he sighs, squeezing your legs as he pulls away from your neck, looking at you right in the eyes, "You never noticed me y/n, no matter what I did," his hands travel higher from where you placed them, under the hem of your white skirt.

"No matter how many times I had to get on top of tables and shout like a maniac, you never noticed me," he begins kissing your lips softly again, his index finger wandering around the sides of your little panties.

"I always noticed you, Eddie," you reply against him, your voice shattering the more his fingers played with your underwear, "Yeah, just not the way I wanted you to,"

Eddie immediately grabs your hips under your skirt, pushing you down to put pressure on his aching erection, making himself let out a soft moan as your clothed cunt hovers above his tight sweats.

"Oh God," you whine, holding tighter onto him, "Is it okay if-" as he's about to finish the sentence, his house phone interrupts him, making him groan in frustration, "Sorry about that," he rolls his eyes as he keeps on kissing your collar bones, "Eddie, wait,"

The curlyhead immediately stops, looking at you concerned, "It could be my mother," you bite your lower lip nervously, "Do you want to pick it up?" he hums but you shake your head as you begin to peck his neck carefully, "Oh beautiful, that's it," he keeps grinding you against him when the phone finally stops ringing.

His hands keep exploring, suddenly stopping above your shirt to look at you for permission. You give it to him, about to help take it off but he stops you, "Come here," he picks you up off the couch when you place your palm over your mouth to avoid making any sound as you pass the hall.

He places you on his bed and instantly locks the door behind him. The moment Eddie turned around your shirt was off, and his lips slightly parted, eyes fixated on your breasts.

He sits on the bed, crawling towards you the moment he begins placing small kisses on your chest, cupping you over your bra, "Sit on top of me pretty," he groans as he places his back against some of his pillows, watching you climb on him.

"Eddie," you say as he kisses and sucks on your breasts, "Yes beautiful?" the boy responds, his eyes looking up at you, "I-" you grind faster, "Please I need you," your hands lift up your own skirt and he breaths heavily at the view.

"Are you sure baby?" he questions one last time before you nod. His hands make you turn around, your ass against his clothed hips as you still remain on top of him. You're confused at the sudden turn, but you trust him.

"How many times I've thought about you..." his hand is under your skirt again, playing with the hem of your panties as your back remains against his chest, "Did things thinking about you," he pushed his hand in your underwear, his middle finger gently rubbing your clit as his mouth remains against your ear.

"I once skipped class because of my filthy thoughts about your pretty little body," you moan when he begins to rub you faster, your back arching in pleasure as he leaves a couple of kisses on your earlobe.

"My pretty little cheerleader, aren't you now?" he moves further down your cunt, caressing in and gently playing with it before circling your entrance, "Why didn't you approach me?" you struggle to let out between your quiet whimpers, "I'm a little shy sometimes y/n,"

His middle finger enters you fully, causing you to let out a loud moan. He begins taking a pace, which keeps getting quicker and quicker. "So shy," he keeps finger fucking you while his other hand holds yours over your waist just so that you stay in place.

"Oh God, Eddie," you nag, your free hand grabbing the one fucking you, just to make him understand you needed one more digit. He grins, adding his ring finger only to watch you fall apart more.

"I can't wait for my dick to be in there," he whispers, the hand that held you still letting go off your waist and instead, finding its way to your clit, where it kept on rubbing.

You moan faster and faster, pushing your ass against him just so you can hear his groans and curses coming out of his lips, "Can I come?" you question and he moans, "What a well-behaved girl," Eddie praises, keeping on with his movements, "Help yourself, beautiful," he smiles, allowing you to come all over his thick, ring-filled fingers.

You become a moaning mess, falling onto his bed as you try to catch your breath, your stomach rising up and down from the heaviness of your breaths.

Eddie smiles with satisfaction as he carefully places himself on top of you, slowly licking and kissing your bare belly. You quickly reach behind your back, unclasping your bra before throwing it on the floor next to you.

He almost chokes before kissing higher, finally able to place your nipple between his lips and suck, causing your back to tingle from the sensation.

Your fingers get lost in the maze of his hair as you gently push him closer to you. He moans. He loves it. Every single second of his face is buried inside your breasts is like heaven to him.

His hands carefully climb up your skirt, slowly pulling your panties off before placing them inside his pocket, "I might need those, you know," you giggle, feeling his smile grow against your breast, "I'm sure you have plenty of other ones that I can also steal," he chuckles, releasing you off his mouth to let you observe all the hickeys he had painted your body with.

"I'll hang that on my wall," he gives you a boyish grin that makes you laugh, "You are so stupid, Munson,"

#eddie munson smut #eddie munson x reader #eddie munson #stranger things smut #eddie munson x fem!reader #eddie munson imagine #eddie munson x y/n #stranger things x reader #stranger things fic #eddie munson fic #eddie munson fanfic #stranger things fanfic #babysitter au

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solarmorrigan · 5 months

Text

Hands Where I Can See Them, part 8

Pt 1 | Pt 2 | Pt 3 | Pt 4 | Pt 5 | Pt 6 | Pt 7 | Ao3

My unending gratitude to @azure7539arts for talking through this chapter and the next one with me, and helping to untangle all my thoughts!

Eddie spends the next week walking on air. He thinks that if his younger self could see him now, just smiling at random throughout the day, practically mooning over a boy—over Steve Harrington—he’d be horrified, but Eddie absolutely does not give a shit.��

He’s happy. He’s hopeful.

He has no idea what the etiquette is for calling someone after a date, if there’s a certain amount of time that you’re supposed to wait so that you don’t seem like a desperate loser, but he figures he wouldn’t adhere to it even if he did know the rule. He calls Steve the very next day and they talk for an hour.

He calls the next day, pushing his luck just a little, but Steve is on his way out the door to work and only has a few minutes of time to spare for Eddie.

A couple of days later, Steve reaches out to him, calling the trailer and this time catching Eddie on the wrong side of a shift. Eddie is tempted to say “fuck it” and just be late to work, but, employing a strength of will he hadn’t even realized he possessed, he recognizes that getting fired wouldn’t help anything. He promises to call Steve back, and he’s at the phone almost as soon as he’s gotten through the door after work that evening.

“So,” Eddie drawls into the phone between hasty bites of a peanut butter sandwich he’d slapped together before calling, trying not to chew in Steve’s ear, “not that playing phone tag with you isn’t fun, but do you think I could see you again?”

“You mean like a date?” Steve teases.

“Exactly like a date,” Eddie replies, not even bothering to quash his smile.

He thinks he can hear Steve’s own smile when he answers, “I’d like that. And I’m actually free this Friday, if you wanted to take advantage of that.”

“Perfect. Why don’t we meet here, at my place?” Eddie offers, and Steve gives a little laugh.

“What happened to waiting until the third date?” he asks. “Trying to seduce me into your bed already?”

“While you are very much worthy of seducing, I’m afraid I have different plans for the evening,” Eddie says. “So, meet me here? About six?”

“Sure, Eddie,” Steve agrees, voice still warm with mirth. “I’ll be there.”

And so, Friday evening finds Eddie on the front steps of his trailer, eagerly bouncing on the balls of his feet and watching as Steve pulls up in front. He doesn’t even wait for Steve to fully exit his car before he’s crossing the distance with a few long strides; the moment Steve has straightened up and shut the door, Eddie is right there, leaning into his space the way he hasn’t been able to in what feels like too long.

He’d like to drape himself over Steve’s back, wrap his arms around his waist, casual and easy like it had been before, but, apart from being in public, Eddie doesn’t want to push Steve too far. He keeps a small cushion of air between them instead, and leans up to murmur in Steve’s ear, “Goooood evening, sweetheart.”

Steve laughs, nudging Eddie back with his elbow, but the fond look on his face says it’s not because he wants Eddie away from him so much as he just wants a little room to move. “You’re excited tonight,” he says, still smiling as he turns around.

“Any night I get to see you is a very exciting night, indeed,” Eddie declares, just a little theatrical about it, grinning as Steve cocks an eyebrow at him.

“Laying it on a little thick, don’t you think?” He’s trying to sound unimpressed, but Eddie clocks the pleased, pink flush starting to gather at the tops of his cheeks.

“Nope.” Eddie shakes his head. “It’s true and I’ll say it. Now c’mon.”

Eddie waves for Steve to follow as he sets off walking towards the entrance to Forest Hills, and Steve glances, confused, between Eddie and the trailer.

“We’re not staying here?”

“Nope,” Eddie says again. He keeps walking and, as expected, Steve heaves a sigh and jogs to catch up.

“Then why did you tell me to meet you here?” he asks, falling in step with Eddie.

“Because, I wanted it to be a–”

“–surprise,” Steve finishes in tandem with him, rolling his eyes.

“Hey, you liked the last one, didn’t you?” Eddie asks, leaning in to bump his shoulder against Steve’s.

Biting his lip around a smile, Steve glances over at Eddie. “Yeah,” he admits, bumping Eddie’s shoulder back. “Yeah, I did.”

“Then hold onto a little of that faith,” Eddie says.

“I’d have a little more faith if you’d told me we’d be outside again,” Steve grumbles, mostly for show. “I would’ve brought a heavier jacket, it’s almost November.”

“Steve, you run like a furnace,” Eddie deadpans. “Besides, it’s actually nice out. We should enjoy the last of it before winter descends and we spend the next four months freezing our asses off.”

“That’s easy for you to say, you’ve got on two jackets,” Steve says, nodding towards the battle jacket Eddie has pulled on over his leather one.

“Are you actually cold, or do you just feel like complaining?” Eddie asks.

Steve shoots him a look. “You’ll know when I’m cold.”

Smirking, Eddie shakes his head. “I’m sure I will,” he says. “But we’re not going to be out here long enough for you to freeze your precious bits off, anyway – we’re just about there.”

“We are?” Steve glances around, confused, and Eddie doesn’t blame him; there really isn’t much in this direction until you hit town, which is a longer walk than just ten minutes.

In fact, the only thing around is just coming into view as the trees fall away and a stretch of cleared land begins at the roadside.

“Here we are!” Eddie declares, taking a turn and ambling into the cracked and pitted parking lot of the diner.

“You… brought us here,” Steve doesn’t quite ask. “To the diner?”

“Yeah, c’mon.” Eddie reaches out and takes Steve by the hand, tugging him along until they get close enough to the building that he has to drop it again.

Truthfully, Eddie hasn’t been able to stop thinking about the diner since Steve brought it up last weekend – specifically, that night at the diner.

The more he dwells on it, the more he feels cheated, in a way; like he’d robbed himself of the opportunity to experience his time with Steve the way Steve himself had seen it. And the way Steve had described that night, so full of warmth and potential – Eddie wants that. He wants to see it that way, too.

“I figured we haven’t been here since– well, we haven’t been here in a while. At least, I haven’t. I don’t know if you…?” Eddie glances at Steve for confirmation as they walk through the door, and Steve just shakes his head, brows furrowed. “And I also thought, y’know, it might be nice. If we could both look at a time here as special.”

The frown on Steve’s face doesn’t clear up at that, much to Eddie’s disappointment. He doesn’t look displeased, exactly, but he also sure as hell isn’t giving Eddie that same smile he’d given him last weekend.

Steve’s just opened his mouth to say something when a voice cuts across the noise of the diner, sharp and pleased.

“Boys!” Both Eddie and Steve look up to see Dottie heading towards them with a smile.

If they have anything like a regular waitress at the diner, it’s Dottie – a woman at least in her late fifties with curly hair dyed a violent ginger-red, bejeweled cat’s eye glasses, and heavy, colorful eyeshadow that never seems to dare smudge past her lids. She loves nothing more than trying to feed the both of them until they pop, as far as Eddie can tell, and she always snaps them up when they visit on her shift.

“I thought you’d forgotten all about me. Maybe found some fancier establishment to take your business to,” she says as she reaches the front.

“Are you kidding, Dottie?” Steve asks, suddenly all charm and earnest smiles, his previous mood apparently forgotten. “We wouldn’t go anywhere else. You can’t beat the service here.”

Dottie rolls her eyes, but gives Steve a pleased smile and a pat on the cheek. She grabs two menus and leads them back to a corner booth, past handfuls of regulars, families out for dinner with their kids, and groups of teenagers milking a single order of fries for as long as it will get them a table.

“So where did you two go?” She drops the menus on the table and moves to the side as Eddie and Steve settle in. “Seems like you dropped off the face of the Earth for weeks.”

“Uh… we were just taking a bit of a break,” Eddie says, at the same time Steve tells her, “We were busy.”

Glancing between the two of them, Dottie gives a slow nod. “Uh huh. Well, it’s nice to see you back from your busy break. Two Cokes?”

“You know us so well, Dottie,” Eddie sighs, batting his eyelashes up at her, which earns him an eyeroll and a pat on the cheek, too, before Dottie walks off the get their drinks.

When Eddie looks back over, Steve is looking down, studying the menu even though they both have their favorites memorized by now.

“Is… everything okay?” Eddie asks, sliding his own menu over just for something to do with his hands.

“Yeah. Everything’s fine,” Steve says, and he almost sounds convincing – Eddie might really have believed him if he’d actually looked up at Eddie when he said it.

Eddie sighs, glancing over the laminated plastic pictures of burgers and pancakes, trying to decide what he’s in the mood for.

“Look, I just thought since we haven’t been here in a while, it’d be nice,” he says finally, voice pitched low, so it doesn’t carry past their table. “I know it’s not a candlelit dinner in the park, or whatever–”

“That’s not it,” Steve cuts in. “It’s nothing, Eddie, just– it’s fine.”

Anything Eddie might have come up with to say to that is cut off by Dottie’s reappearance with their drinks.

“You boys ready to order?” she asks, pulling her order pad out and holding her pen at the ready.

“Yeah?” Steve half-asks, glancing up and meeting Eddie’s eyes, and Eddie can’t see anything there but the question of whether or not he’s ready, so he nods, and Steve looks back to Dottie. “Yeah. Can I get a patty melt, please? And fries.”

“You got it,” Dottie scribbles his order down and looks to Eddie, who teeters on the edge of getting a waffle before deciding on the club sandwich and his own order of fries (he’s not entirely sure how well Steve will tolerate his being stolen tonight). “Alright, I’ll get those in for you. Wave me down if you need anything, alright?”

They thank her and she sashays off again, leaving Steve and Eddie to themselves.

The quiet that falls over them isn’t comfortable. It isn’t like the contentment of simply sitting in one another’s company that they used to have, nor even a natural pause in conversation like they’d had at dinner last week; it’s simply an awkward lack of knowing what to say, how to keep things rolling.

Something is off with Steve, but he refuses to say what, and Eddie is desperate to distract from it. He reaches for the first thing he can think of.

“So I didn’t know you and Jeff were, like… friends,” he ventures, thinking back to the way they’d acted familiarly around one another on Eddie’s last visit to the video store.

Steve looks up at him, face scrunched a bit in confusion, and Eddie rushes to clarify.

“I mean, not that I thought you disliked each other, I just didn’t know you were hanging out.”

Wait, no, now it sounds like Eddie is jealous, like he’s trying to keep tabs on Steve, who is still staring at him like he’s not sure what Eddie’s talking about.

“Not that you can’t hang out! That’s fine, I just – thought maybe that was a recent development.” Eddie bites down on the inside of his cheek, trying very hard to shut up.

“Uh, yeah,” Steve finally says. “I ran into him at Melvald’s one night a couple of weeks ago and he invited me to come over to watch a game sometime, since we weren’t really seeing each other at… the usual places anymore.”

“Ah. Right. Right.” Eddie nods. “You know, you… could come to the usual places, if you wanted to. You’re always welcome. In fact, I think your presence as a spectator at Hellfire meetings has been sorely missed.”

“Yeah, maybe.” Steve nods, but he sounds distant about it at best.

“Did you wanna know what you’ve missed so far? I know we were kind of in the middle of the adventure when we, uh–” Eddie shrugs. “You always say you like hearing the story.”

“Henderson’s been telling me,” Steve says shortly. He grabs his soda to take a sip, but now he actively seems irritated.

Eddie does his best to tamp down his frustration. He doesn’t understand what he’s doing wrong; he has no idea where the night went south, but he’s hopeful he can salvage it.

They sit for a little while longer in mostly awkward silence. Steve folds his paper straw wrapper over and over on itself until it’s a tight little square, then drops it on the table and watches it expand in a little puddle of condensation from his glass. He asks how Wayne is doing. Eddie tries to return the favor, before realizing that the only people in Steve’s life that he doesn’t regularly see are his parents (off-limits if he wants Steve in a better mood) and Robin (who may or may not still want to kill Eddie). He glances around the diner instead, and perks up when his attention lights on the back wall.

“Hey, you got any dimes?” he asks Steve, who sits up a little at the unexpected question.

“Maybe?” he says, shifting in his seat so he can reach into his pocket. “Why?”

Eddie jams his own hand down into his pocket and emerges victorious with a small handful of change. “Never mind, I’ve got some. Be right back.”

He hops out of the booth and heads towards the back, where the behemoth of a jukebox squats, waiting to be fed coins and spit out songs that no one even remembers.

Steve had been right when he’d said most of the music sucks; there isn’t anything more recent than mid-70s, and almost nothing in there had ever been what you would call a chart-topper. Sometimes Eddie and Steve waste their spare change having a contest over who can find the worst song to play, until the waitresses start glaring at them and they slink guiltily back to their table.

This time, though, Eddie flips through for one of the few good songs he knows is in there. He clicks to make his selection and grins as the quick-paced strum of a guitar pours out of the speakers, followed by the crooning of none other than Elvis Presley.

You can always count on The King to pick things up.

“There we go,” Eddie says as he returns to the booth. “Had to set the mood.”

Or maybe you can’t always count on The King, because Steve actually looks kind of pissed.

“What is it?” Eddie asks, any confidence the music had given him draining away.

Steve stares at him for a moment longer, unnervingly intense, before he blinks and looks away. “Nothing. It’s– never mind.”

“No, what’s–”

“Here we are,” Dottie announces, appearing at the side of their table with plates in hand. “Patty melt for Steve, club for Eddie, ketchup for your fries. How’s that look?”

“It looks great, thanks,” Steve says, smiling up at Dottie as though he hadn’t just been glaring offended daggers at Eddie; he’s always been good at that in a way Eddie hates – putting on that shallow, easy-going mask at the drop of a hat.

“Anything else I can bring for you?” Dottie asks.

Eddie is about to say no when he scans the table and realizes the one thing he’d forgotten. “Oh, actually – could I order a vanilla shake, too?”

And that is apparently the wrong thing to say.

Steve’s smile falls away, and he’s giving Eddie a look that sits somewhere between angry and hurt that Eddie doesn’t fucking understand.

“Actually,” Steve says sharply, “I just realized that I have to go. I’m – there’s somewhere else I’m supposed to be, sorry.”

He slides out of the booth around a shocked Dottie and pulls enough money from his wallet to cover his meal and a tip, pressing it into her hand before turning to leave.

“Honey, did you want a box for all this?” Dottie asks, helplessly gesturing towards his untouched meal.

“No, I – sorry, I just have to go,” Steve says, already halfway to the door.

“Shit,” Eddie swears lowly, shimmying out of the booth to give chase.

“Eddie!” Dottie calls out sharply, gesturing to his untouched meal when he turns back to look at her.

“I’m not – I’m not leaving, I swear, I’ll be right back, I just have to–” He glances up frantically when he hears the bell over the door jingle, signifying that Steve is slipping away. “I just have to– Steve. I need to– I will be right back.”

Dottie sighs and nods, and Eddie is off like a shot. He catches up to Steve at the end of the parking lot, reaching out and grabbing Steve’s shoulder when he doesn’t respond to Eddie’s calls.

“Let me go,” Steve snaps, jerking out from under Eddie’s touch, but Eddie isn’t deterred this time, grabbing Steve around the arm and halting him in his tracks.

“No. Not until you tell me what the fuck I did to piss you off!” Eddie says.

Steve wheels around, shooting an incredulous look at him. “Seriously? I have to tell you?” he demands. “How could you think that any of that was okay?”

“I don’t– You like the diner! Or you did!” Eddie exclaims. “How was I supposed to know you suddenly hate it there?”

“It’s not the diner,” Steve huffs, and Eddie finally lets him go, if only to throw his hands up in the air, trying to toss some of his frustration off.

“Then what? I’m not psychic, Steve! How am I supposed to fix my mistakes if you won’t even tell me when I’m upsetting you?”

“You can’t just rewrite the past, Eddie!” The look on Steve’s face is thunderous, until it slides away like he’s too tired to keep it up, exhaustion following in its wake. “You can’t just – you can’t.”

The chill Eddie feels has absolutely nothing to do with crisp October night that had descended while they were inside. “What? No, Steve, that’s not what I was trying to do. Why would I–”

“So what, then? I tell you about the night I thought of as our first date and you decide to just throw it back in my face? Show me what it could have been if you’d just fucking looked at me?” Steve asks.

And suddenly it clicks – everything Eddie had done tonight, almost beat for beat, entirely unintentionally, had damned him.

Maybe if he’d waited a while between Steve’s confession and his decision to take them to the diner, it might have been okay, but for a musician, Eddie’s timing had sucked.

“No, that’s not what this was,” Eddie insists. “I wouldn’t do that.”

“Then we’re back to you just trying to– to fucking recreate something we already did, so you can try to make it better!” Steve says.

In his floundering, a little of Eddie’s frustration boils over. “Well you’re the one who said you wanted to just go back to doing what we were doing!”

“I also said I wanted to go forward with more awareness! Not go back and do the same shit over again!” Steve snaps. “I’ve spent the last few weeks just– going over and over everything we did together, looking at everywhere I fucked up, everywhere I misinterpreted you, realizing that everything I was looking at as us wasn’t– it wasn’t the same for you. And I was getting used to that, I was… making my peace, or whatever, thinking we’d just move on, and then you go and– and do this.”

“I–” Any of Eddie’s frustration, any anger, it all dries up, leaving behind a cold, rasping desperation. “Steve, I’m sorry.”

Steve opens his mouth, but the sound of the bell over the diner’s door sounds off again, and another man’s stern voice cuts into the silence.

“Young man, you need to come pay your bill.”

“Oh, Herb, he’s a regular, he’s not going to just run out!” Dottie’s voice comes on the heels of the man’s, equally stern. “Just give them a minute.”

“I gave them a minute, Dorothy,” the man—Herb, Eddie guesses—snaps. “I won’t have delinquents doing any kind of dine and dash nonsense.”

“Well, he didn’t even dine, so get back inside. And he isn’t a delinquent. Honestly,” Dottie is practically scolding, but Herb won’t be deterred.

“You’d better go take care of that.” Steve nods back towards the diner, before shoving his hands into his jacket pockets and turning to walk off.

“Wait,” Eddie calls out. “Just wait a minute, please don’t–”

“Young man,” Herb barks out again, and Eddie hisses out a string of swears.

He jerks back around towards the diner, yanking out his wallet and trying to count bills as he walks.

“I’m sorry, Eddie, I tried to tell him,” Dottie says, genuinely apologetic.

“It’s fine, it’s– fine.” He offers her a weak smile. “I wouldn’t want to get you in trouble.”

Herb—the manager, if Eddie had to guess by his ugly, front-creased slacks and lack of apron—is unmoved.

“Come with me to the register,” he says, opening the door and gesturing for Eddie to go in.

“Dude, I know how much I owe you, can’t I just give you the money here?” Eddie asks, trying not to squirm with the antsy need to go running after Steve.

“And how much do you owe me?” Herb asks, raising his eyebrows.

“It’s, like, ten dollars for the meal, and then tip. Here.” Eddie holds out a handful of bills, but Herb refuses to take them.

“Like ten dollars isn’t an exact amount. Inside,” Herb demands.

Eddie is half tempted to just throw the bills at him and run, but even as Dottie squawks at the man that he’s being unreasonable, Eddie knows she won’t be enough to sway the guy from trying to ban him—or worse—so he follows Herb in and begrudgingly pays his bill at the register. He makes sure to hand the tip directly to Dottie, making spiteful eye contact with Herb as he does, and then he’s back out the door.

He doesn’t see Steve out on the road. He doesn’t see Steve at the entrance to the trailer park. He doesn’t see Steve’s car in front of his place when he finally gets back, winded from running at least halfway there.

Bastard probably took a shortcut through the woods.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck!” Eddie hauls off and kicks one of the tires on his van, the nearest available object, which does nothing but hurt his foot and make him a little more miserable.

When the jittering swell of anger and disappointment has receded a bit, no longer clogging his throat and giving him room to think a little more clearly, he considers his options.

Like last time, he could give Steve room to cool off. To lick his wounds in peace and then maybe come back to Eddie, ready to talk again.

Or.

Or he could get in his van, go find Steve, and show him that he’s willing to face his mistakes and make them better, whatever that takes. That he wants Steve to tell him what’s really wrong, so they can address it and move forward. That he’s willing to fight for Steve.

He’s already pulling out of his parking space before he even realizes he’s made his decision.

Part 9

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#steddie #eddie munson #steve harrington #stranger things #eddiesteve #OKAY BEFORE YOU SAY ANYTHING JUST REMEMBER #I have promised you a happy ending #solar wrote

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canmom · 5 months

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How do you live?

I (finally!) saw Miyazaki's new film 君たちはどう生きるか (How Do You Live?/The Boy and the Heron)! It's been out in the States for a while, and in Japan considerably longer, but it took a while to make its way over here.

I remember at the time it came out, people were having fun riffing on the incredibly cryptic marketing campaign, which consisted only of this rather abstract poster...

In the spirit of this, I resolutely avoided watching any trailers or knowing anything at all about the plot of the film. I picked up a thing or two here and there - I knew to expect some amazing Shinya Ohira animation for example, and you couldn't really avoid seeing the bird with teeth! - but overall, I had no idea.

There's plenty of great writing about this film in English already, such as kvin's fantastic sakugablog piece which discusses the physicality of Ghibli's animation, its weight and springiness, as a throughline. The stuff that kvin talks about really stood out to me as I watched this film. You can likewise read detailed interviews with Toshiyuki Inoue (fantastic interview for sakubutas) and Akihiko Yamashita on fufuro.

First up, the credits of this film are pretty much a who's who of the greatest jp animators of the last 30 years, and they've had some 7 years to cook it, so naturally this film looks fucking amazing. This is absolutely the kind of film that only Miyazaki could direct - its design language feels so familiar and yet it's iterating in all kinds of visually imaginative directions that show that yeah, the old bastard's still got it.

And like, god, man. This film's animation is really something special. Its real-world scenes in particular are full of shots that require an unbelievably strong sense of space, of both subtle and broad acting, the classic Ghibli attention to detail on mechanical objects and everyday tasks. It's full of bouncing and squishing and squeezing and oozing things. It loves to draw crowds and swarms of people and animals. It's the kind of film where any given shot would be the absolute star-of-the-show sakuga moment in just about any other anime film. If you wanted a complete statement of the Ghibli school of animation, it would be hard to do better.

And yet, for all that Miyazaki's known for his tight control over animation and heavy corrections to animators, in this film he had to step back from that kind of role and hand over the sousakkan reins to Takeshi Honda, who steps up admirably - as kvin writes above, bringing in more realist elements to the bouncy Miyazaki style to create a really effective unity that grounds all the big fantastical elements of the film and fills the first act with tension.

Alongside all that excellent key animation, the film's colour and photography departments evidently understand that well-chosen colours and good highlight shapes beat all the digital gradients and overlays you can imagine - the drawings get plenty of form from the strength of the animation, and the flat shading really pops. The backgrounds are as delicious as ever, skyscapes and vegetation and opulent interiors with the just-slightly desaturated and harmonious colours that just kind of remind you that oh yeah, it is still possible to do it this way.

Basically it's a Ghibli film lol. You know how it is.

But what of the story...? What's all this technical magic in service of?

The film's story has something of the feel of a serial story, perhaps reflecting Miyazaki's (in)famous process of working out the film gradually as he draws the storyboards. Certain ideas, like the parakeet empire, arrive in the film rather suddenly and then become fairly central to the plot. There's a clear emotional throughline, but this is not a film that is in a hurry to explain itself more than it absolutely has to. It wants to keep its magical elements numinous and mysterious. I would say, though, it's generally more satisfying in this approach than some of Miyazaki's other later films like Howl's Moving Castle, and resolves a lot more clearly.

So what is it like, About? Well, Miyazaki has been pretty open about channeling a lot of his personal relationships into the film, and a lot of it seems to reflect more or less obliquely on him. It's what they call a 'personal film'. The protagonist's position as the son of an aeroplane factory owner during WWII is straight-up from life. What about the old sorcerer, haphazardly stacking blocks to keep a world alive, and looking for someone to succeed him? The reading's kinda obvious, even if Miya himself says this guy is based on his memory of Takahata. Well, he can be both...

To say more I'm gonna have to delve into the spoiler zone. See you below the cut.

OK so! Let's try and get some thoughts in order.

first, a plot summary type of thing

Our first act introduces us to Mahito at roughly the moment his mother Hisako dies in a hospital fire. This is midway through the war, which is present mostly in the background - now and then we see soldiers marching around, and of course Mahito's dad runs a factory producing warplane parts, not entirely unlike Miyazaki's own father although seemingly a bit higher up the ladder.

We jump forward a little and Mahito's father remarries - to his deceased wife's sister, no less, and she's already pregnant. This is Natsuko, who does her best to play the role of mother, but Mahito still has big traumas and he is understandably not entirely on board with the idea of welcoming a mum 2 who looks almost exactly like mum 1. He moves with Natsuko into a huge old house complex, a mix of older Japanese architecture with a more recent Western wing where the family currently sleeps - and staffed by a small army of colourful old ladies who are eager for any canned meat or cigarettes they can get their hands on.

Also there's this freaky heron that keeps bothering Mahito. It seems to have something to do with a mysterious tower which turns out to have been built by his great-uncle. Mahito visits the tower, but can't make his way inside. Natsuko tells him not to go into the tower.

Mahito goes to school, but naturally they don't much take to the new rich kid on the block, and so after being attacked by his classmates on his way home he injures himself with a rock. (His dumbass dad is like, who did this to you son, I'll fuck 'em up.) For the rest of the movie, he has half his head shaved to accomodate a bandage, which is the sort of attention to detail this movie loves.

The heron has started growing teeth and talking to Mahito, telling him to come to the tower. Mahito is convinced it's a trap, and after a maybe-dream sequence in which Natsuko shoots an arrow to drive off the heron, he steals cigarettes from Natsuko in order to get one of the servants to sharpen his knife, and then constructs a bow and arrow out of bamboo - using a couple of the heron's feathers. Constructing the bow and arrow is shown in immense, loving detail.

In the process, he witnesses Natsuko walk into the forest, and also stumbles on a book: How Do You Live? by Genzaburō Yoshino, which contains a handwritten message from his mother. He looks at this book briefly... and this is about the extent of the connection of the film to the book, beyond thematic parallels.

The maids notice that Natsuko is missing. Mahito tells one of the maids, Kiriko, that he saw her go into the forest, and they follow, finding an old road that gives another approach to the tower. They're greated by the heron man, who is increasingly emerging from the heron's beak to reveal a big warty nose. He's some kind of like... heron selkie or something, a gnome in a heron skin. There's some wonderfully grotesque animation around this guy.

Heron dude taunts Mahito with an illusion of his mother Hisako. Mahito threatens him with the bow - the heron guy is like, do your worst, not realising it's a maaagic arrow. The arrow chases him around the room and pierces his beak, fucking up his magic. At this point, the tower master shows up and orders the heron to guide Mahito. Heron guy sends everyone through the floor into a fantastical world...

Mahito arrives in front of a huge, sinister tomb. He approaches the gate, and a swarm of pelicans walk up behind, crawling all over him and pressing him through the gate. This causes a storm to start brewing, since opening the gate seems to piss off the stones or something...

A fisher woman resembling a much younger Kiriko runs up and chases the pelicans away. She takes Mahito under her wing, explaining that this world is inhabited mostly by dead people, but there are also these little round guys called the wareware, who gain the ability to fly when they eat a fish's guts.

Kiriko, uniquely in this world, has the ability to kill, so she catches fish to sell to the other inhabitants and feed to the wareware; she and Mahito butcher a huge fish. Mahito fairly quickly figures out that she is somehow the same Kiriko that entered with him. She has tiny charms representing the other maids, which serve an apotropaic function.

That night, staying on Kiriko's huge derelict ship of a home, they watch the wareware rise into the sky to be born as humans in Mahito's world. They're attacked by the pelicans, but a fire-wielding magic user called Hisa (hmmmmmmmmmm) drives the pelicans away. Mahito shouts at her not to harm the wareware, but Kiriko assures him that more of the wareware will survive thanks to Hisa's intervention.

Later, a singed and dying pelican explains the pelicans' predicament to Mahito in a scene that calls to mind the animals in Mononoke-hime. The pelicans are foreigners in this world, they don't have anything to eat, so they take it as their role to eat the wareware. The heron man arrives on the scene too, offering to help Mahito find Natsuko as Mahito - coming in to his own as a protagonist more - buries the pelican. Mahito distrusts him but eventually Kiriko persuades them to give working together a try.

Mahito and the heron set out. As they pass through a forest, the heron reveals that thanks to Mahito's arrow, he can't fly and do heron shit anymore - and by magic law, only Mahito can fix the hole. Mahito applies his new woodworking skills to fashion a bung for the hole. The heron tries to stage a top 10 anime betrayal, but then the bung needs more work, so Mahito fixes it, and from that point on, the heron joins the party and he and Mahito are fast friends.

(You might wonder why I just call him 'the heron' and not by a name. He never gets named! He's just the heron man.)

Mahito and the heron arrive at the house of a blacksmith who's supposed to help them find Natsuko, only to find it guarded by big buff parakeet men. The parakeets are splendidly goofy round guys - they remind me of the heedra in Nausicaa. The heron draws the parakeets away, and Mahito enters the house, only to find, uh oh! More parakeets. The parakeets prepare to eat Mahito, who is not carrying a child and therefore fair game unlike Natsuko, but Hisa shows up and burns them with fire magic. She looks just like a young version of Mahito's mum! Funny that. Hisa helps Mahito escape into her house through the fire, and then takes him to infiltrate the parakeets' empire.

In the human world, the maids explain the backstory of the tower to Mahito's dad. It's a weird meteorite that came from space, it turns out, and Mahito's great-uncle built the tower on top of it before eventually disappearing inside. Mahito's dad overprepares in an elaborate getup complete with katana, and goes to try to rescue everyone.

Hisa leads Mahito to a corridor full of doors which open into all the different worlds, including his own world. Mahito briefly glimpses his dad coming to try and rescue him - the two see each other briefly, but the parakeets catch wind of the whole thing and attack, and so Mahito and Hisa have to flee back into the magical world. We see that the parakeet guys turn into regular parakeets when they come into the human world. Mahito's dad becomes convinced he turned into a parakeet.

Mahito and Hisa make their way to the delivery room where Natsuko is resting, waiting to give birth. On their way, lightning starts emerging from the stone - Hisa explains that the stone is sentient and pissed with them. Mahito insists on approaching Natsuko despite this being a huge taboo. They have a heart to heart - Natsuko's mask breaks and she tells Mahito she hates him, while he finally starts calling her mother, as he's assaulted by paper charms that tear at him violently. They part, with Hisa burning the charms to free Mahito, but it's too much and they both pass out.

Mahito dreams of meeting the sorcerer, who stacks irregularly shaped wooden blocks, and explains that stacking the blocks is necessary to maintain the world, buying a few days at a time. The sorcerer reveals the huge flying rock that is the source of his power; he also shows Mahito some blocks, but Mahito somehow divines that these blocks are 'stone for building tombs' and stained with malice. The sorcerer approvingly says this is a good sign for Mahito's ability to succeed him.

While they were asleep, the parakeets have captured Hisa and Mahito. One of them is preparing to eat Mahito, but the heron arrives just in time to save him. They Metal Gear Solid their way through the kingdom while the Parakeet King - a big swaggering guy very like the colonel in Castle in the Sky - goes to press a claim on the wizard, using Hisa and Mahitos' taboo act of entering the delivery room as a bargaining chip. There's some very funny scenes where the parakeets cheer for their king.

Mahito pursues the parakeet king, but the king destroys the staircase behind him, and talks to the sorcerer. The sorcerer is inclined to wave away the transgression, because he wants to let Mahito succeed him, but the parakeet king seems to be bringing him around. I kind of forget how this part went, but the parakeet king goes away from the sorcerer for a bit while Hisa is freed from her prison thing.

Mahito climbs back up with the heron man's help, arriving in the sorcerer's little subplane. The parakeet king quietly follows him, after telling his aides to inform his subjects he was a good king. Mahito approaches the sorcerer, who reveals he has found a new set of blocks, unstained by malice, and again invites Mahito to succeed him. Mahito says that his self-injury is proof of his malice, making him unfit for the job.

At this point, the parakeet king intervenes. Angry at all this sorcerous malarky, he desperately attempts to stack the stones himself, but when they don't stack, he flies into a rage and slices them with his sword. This naturally causes the world to start collapsing, and everyone runs to the doors to escape into the human world.

Mahito has by this point figured out that Hisa is his mum, and he asks if she really wants to go back to their world, knowing that she will very definitely die in a fire not much later. But she is naturally on board with this. Young!Kiriko goes with her, suggesting that she and Hisako entered the magical world at the same time. Meanwhile, Mahito returns to his own time, with Natsuko and the heron. All the various parakeets and pelicans come out through this door too. Old!Kiriko is restored from her apatropaic charm.

As everyone celebrates their safe return (and the appearance of a fuckton of birds), the heron tells Mahito that he ought to forget what happened in the magic world. We skip forward again, with Mahito - now with a baby sibling - setting off to Tokyo. Roll credits!

now let's comment on it

This is not a film that necessarily prioritises an internal logic playing out - new elements enter unexpectedly even quite late in the film. The sorcerer's motivation is murky until late on; the parakeets become major antagonists despite entering only halfway through the film.

There is a certain temptation, knowing how autobiographical this film is, to take it is a roman à clef. Mahito is of course a young Miyazaki; the old sorcerer's concern about finding a successor might be about Miyazaki wondering who should take over Ghibli or if it should just be allowed to die. Under this schema, the parakeets might be Ghibli's legion of fans, or the merchandising empire that prints their designs on every possible product. kvin's article develops this kind of reading, finding some angles I wouldn't have even considered, such as how the idea of weight communicated by the animation factors in to such an allegaroy. It's also something suggested in Miyazaki's own comments about the film, where the sorcerer is Takahata, the heron man is producer Toshio Suzuki...

It definitely helps to know a bit about Miyazaki's background when approaching this film. However, I think it would be reductive to go too far with this kind of reading, and take everything as an allegory for something in Miyazaki's life. The film still has to stand on its own feet!

'Coming of age' is the spin put on it by some outlets, like the BBC. And this is accurate to an extent. The arc of this film is similar to Spirited Away: Mahito starts out sullen and traumatised, but like Chihiro he transitions over the course of his journey in the magical world into the kind of determined Miyazaki protagonist we're used to. On this coming of age angle... well, also like with Chihiro, I don't find the Mahito of the first part of the film especially unsympathetic, his alienation is extremely natural given his situation. Mahito's dad kinda sucks! Living in wartime Japan also really kinda sucks, even if you're the son of a rich dude. But definitely over the course of the film Mahito has a change of heart towards Natsuko, and forms friendships that motivate him to try to protect them. His character arc definitely sees him become 'more prosocial'.

However, there's another angle that's pretty important - the idea of the weight of 'malice', the cursed existences of the pelicans and the like, and the fantasy of building a utopian world that is free of these things. This returns to a theme of Nausicaa, the manga in particular, where Nausicaa discovers that the world she knows - the toxic forest in particular - is actually an elaborate artificial system for cleansing the world of pollutants, that the clean world on the other side will be uninhabitable to her and her people, and that the architects of this system wait in stasis to replace them in this utopian future world. Nausicaa destroys them, commiting instead to an uncertain future.

In Mononoke-hime likewise, we encounter the lepers and former sex workers of Irontown clinging on to the 'cursed' world. Their extractivist project proves incredibly destructive, but the film still regards them sympathetically, and the resolution sees them perhaps finding a new way to live - and San, the feral girl, reconciling herself to the idea of humans.

Here, although the parakeet king forces the decision, Mahito has already declared that he doesn't believe he's fit to oversee a utopia, but instead that his place is in the awful, violent human world.

The film, and the book it's vaguely based on, are titled How do you live? In Japanese, that's a plural 'you' (君たち). There's a lot of ways you could read it, depending on who you take as 'you' - a child asking an adult how to live, or equally a future question of how will you live. This is a lot more explicit in the novel - which I have not read, but here is a summary courtesy of wiki:

Junichi Honda is a fifteen-year-old junior high school student, known by his nickname Koperu, after the astronomer Nicholas Copernicus. He is athletic and academically gifted, and popular at school. Koperu's father, a bank executive, passed away when he was young and he lives with his mother. His uncle (on his mother's side) lives nearby and visits frequently. Koperu and his uncle are very close. Koperu shares about his life and his uncle gives him support and advice. His uncle also documents and comments on these interactions in a diary, with the intent to eventually give the diary to Koperu. The diary writing, which is interspersed with the narrative, provides insight into the ethical and emotional trials that Koperu shared with his uncle. The diary entries, which cover themes such as "view of things", "structure of society", "relation", etc. are in the style of a note written to Koperu.[8]

Thinking like Copernicus that our Earth is a celestial body moving within the vastness of space, or thinking that our Earth is fixed at the center of the universe, are two ways of thinking that, in reality, are not only related to astronomy. Even when we think about things like the world around us or our own lives, the truth is that we are still revolving around them after all.

In the end, Koperu writes a decision on his future way of living as a reply to his uncle, and the novel ends with the narrator asking the question "how do you live?" to the reader.

The author of the novel was a socialist, who had been imprisoned by the nationalist government, and wrote the book intending to impart lessons on ethics. The version of his book published after the war was heavily edited to strip the book of political content. But it's also, perhaps paradoxically, a book that centres on very wealthy characters, aimed narrowly at educated boys, though it became a widely read classic.

Studio Ghibli's films, from both Miyazaki and Takahata, have a habit of being framed as imparting something to the younger generation - something the pair seem to have seen as a mission all the way back in the days of Panda Kopanda. For example, while Grave of the Fireflies is seen as the classic tragic war movie, for Takahata it was also aimed at criticising what he saw as the careless, consumerist generation of the 80s; the stubborn arrogance of the protagonist supposed to reflect on this. It's an attitude that also emerges in their comments about Chihiro. And, indeed, one of the first things we heard about How Do You Live? was that it was aimed towards Miyazaki's grandson - and more broadly towards that generation.

So what does this film have to say to the younger generations? Let's have a look at it from Mahito's POV.

For Mahito, the adults in his life are all pretty complicated. His father is enthusiastic and well-meaning but incredibly oblivious to what his son is going through (we might recall some of what Miyazaki wrote about his father in Starting Point, describing him as basically a grifter). Natsuko is masking pretty hard, trying to play the role of Good New Mum and connect to her newly acquired son, but there's an intrinsic distance. It is understandable that Mahito would want to reject them.

Mahito is... not entirely a passive character, he goes to some efforts to for example fashion the bow and arrow and repair the heron man's beak, but mostly he is pulled around by the plot into a strange world he doesn't understand. At first, his instinct is to retreat, even to the point of self-injury. Once he arrives in the magical world, he has acquired something of a purpose (finding Natsuko), but he gets pushed into near-disaster situations (the pelicans piling up to push him through the gate at the tomb) or stumbles into circumstances where something is expected of him (hey kid, gut this fish!). Gradually though his exposure to this world pulls him out of his shell. He runs into conflicts and injustices that seem intractable - the wareware and the pelicans - and has little power to intervene except to bury the bodies.

Eventually, he gets to carry out his main objective - finding Natsuko - but despite finally deciding to accept Natsuko as his new mother, he finds himself rejected, not just by her but also by the earth. Perhaps feeling responsible for getting her into trouble, his new objective becomes rescuing freshly-damsel'd Hisa. But now new adults want things of him - his great-uncle has decided he'd make a fine successor. Mahito has to make a decision here about what relationships he wants to commit to, what sort of life he wants to build - and he chooses the world he found so alienating at the outset of the film, the one which hurt him by taking his mother, not to the secondary-world fantasy.

It could be a 'this world is all we have' sort of statement, perhaps. But also the last act of the film feels like it gets a bit caught up in Castle in the Sky-style adventure-story beats.

I do feel like some aspects of the film ended up a little underbaked - which is an odd thing to say because it's not a short film and there is so much in it already. But Hisa for example - she's got badass powers and all, but I feel we barely get a chance to get a sense of what motivates her. Why did she enter the fantasy world? She acts at first like she doesn't know Mahito is her future son, but rapidly becomes incredibly devoted to him (in a way that reads a little romancey lmao). So much of her screen time is dedicated to having her convey the secrets of the world that it's hard to get a bead on her as a person.

Likewise, Natsuko - why did she enter this world to have her baby in this special ritual delivery chamber? She clearly knows more than most of the characters, but she gets kind of sidelined after Mahito confronts her, with wizard shit becoming more central. The animation does such a fantastic job of selling her feelings in the first part of the film that it feels like a shame that she drifts away at the end.

The progression of the film feels rather like a dream, where everything is arranged by symbolic significance to Mahito. It makes sense... on a magical level, where the secondary world is shaped primarily by parallels in the real one. So the tiny apatropaic statues of the old ladies protect him because they represent the role the real old ladies have in his life. Hisa has fire magic because Hisako died in a fire. Once Mahito has come to his personal resolutions about returning to the world, the magical one is no longer needed, and it collapses.

This is not such an uncommon role for magic in a story. In Miyazaki's own works, we have Totoro and Spirited Away, where a magical world provides direction or relief to a child's real struggles. Or take for example Okiura's film A Letter To Momo, in which the three yōkai recognise taking care of the grieving Momo as their explicit purpose as spirits. This magical world comes to Mahito to help him come to terms with losing his mother, and reorient himself towards living in a painful world.

Meanwhile, the sorcerer, whether he be Miyazaki or Takahata, is quite a distant figure. He may maintain the magical world by stacking his blocks, may be the authority which factions within it must plead to, but he also rules from afar in a vast empty palace full of long halls and open air spaces. His main company seems to be a big fucking rock, with which he made a 'contract'. He's generally handling it a bit better than, say, Ushiromiya Kinzo - he receives the parakeet king with good humour - but he's a pretty flawed god of his little world. So much of this world seems to pre-exist him, it's not something he constructed. Still, when he shows up, you pretty much have to do what he says.

If this is about Miyazaki's relation to Takahata, it seems like quite a sad portrayal. But 'unapproachable patriarch' does sorta describe their role in the studio from what I understand (c.f. Oshii's infamous article comparing them to the Kremlin).

When it comes to the question of who should succeed Miyazaki, we should probably consider the matter of Yoshifumi Kondō, who was being set up as the next big Ghibli director until his untimely death - which allegedly Takahata was willing to accept the blame for. The mythology built up around Miyazaki and Takahata is double-edged.

Here are some rather startling comments from Toshiyuki Inoue's interview. Inoue is one of the most impressive animators who ever lived in my book, the other star of the realist line besides Okiura. Just have a look at his booru page: iconic scenes from GitS, Akira, Millenium Actress; even in more recent films, he pretty much carried Maquia, and steals the show with his scenes in Miss Hokusai.

And yet even he was intimidated to be working alongside Miyazaki when he first came on board for Kiki's Delivery Service, fresh off Akira:

I believe you’ve always been a fan of Miyazaki’s, why were you scared to work with him? Toshiyuki Inoue: I had heard quite a few scary stories. A lot of acquaintances had worked on Nausicaä, Laputa and Totoro before that, so I knew how scary he could be when he got angry – I had heard stories of people being fired mid-production, things like that. How was it actually? Toshiyuki Inoue: Not as scary as I had imagined. He’d only rarely scream in the studio. But he did get angry. I’d sometimes be called to some separate room and lectured alongside Kōji Morimoto and Masaaki Endō. It felt like being in school all over again.

'Only rarely'. Honestly. Inoue describes how difficult it was for him to adapt his logical, analytical style to Ghibli's stretchy, bouncy characters - and how Miyazaki would disparage him if he, for example, drew a ship inaccurately.

For Inoue, coming back to How Do You Live was something like a 'return match'. He talks about how an older Miyazaki was no longer able to strictly correct the animation, and in general age was limiting him, but he still feels that Miyazaki is fundamentally superior:

Toshiyuki Inoue: I’ve always wished for a return match or a way to redeem myself. But even if I say that, I know I can’t even pretend to rival Miyazaki. I just can’t win. He’s extremely smart and learned, and on top of that, as an animator he always transcends common sense: he’s so talented that I know very well there’s nothing I can do against it. The more I learn about him, the more I realize I’ll never be on that level.

Miyazaki's genius is undeniable, but man... it's not a good mindset to cultivate if you want to find a successor lmao. If even Inoue doesn't feel he can measure up, who the hell could?

Mind you, it does rather seem that Miyazaki had mellowed out by the point of How Do You Live?. Here's Yamashita:

Akihiko Yamashita: As I said, the core of an animator’s job is to follow what the director asks, so whenever I had trouble with that, I’d go see Miyazaki to show him my roughs. He’d advise me on the things that were missing and reassure me about those that were good. He really helped me to gain more confidence in myself.

Reading these interviews underlines pretty hard that we shouldn't get too caught up in the mythology of Miyazaki the mighty auteur. While the story may be all on Miyazaki, and most of the character designs (with the notable exception of Natsuko)... so much of the details of the animation, the stuff that really makes this film land, is primarily shaped by everyone else - Honda in particular, but also the individual key animators who interpreted his scenes. I really need to get my hands on a copy of that Industrial History of Studio Ghibli book to get a less Miyazaki-centric perspective on the studio's history.

I do not feel, having come out of this film, any closer to knowing the answer to that eternally pressing question of how do you live - I guess I'm still working out my answer to that one, and I will be until I die. And maybe that's rather the point. I think this film still carries some of the flaws of Miyazaki's later films - despite having so many iconic scenes, it doesn't quite seem to know where it's going. But I am so glad to have seen this in the theatre (I saw it at the Prince Charles theatre in Soho with friends, the theatre was completely packed!), and glad Miyazaki managed to get this one out before he goes. Whatever happens to Ghibli without its sorcerer, it's been a hell of a thing to witness.

#anime #the boy and the heron #how do you live #studio ghibli #hayao miyazaki #film

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hoe-for-hopper · 3 months

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Forget About Eddie

Bestfriend!SteveHarrington x Fem!Reader

WARNINGS: mentions of Eddie being a fuckboy, a lil fluff and a lil smut.

Word Count: 2247

Summary: You and Eddie have just broken up, but you're still hung up on him. Steve hates seeing you so down and just wants to make you feel better (better than Eddie could).

A/N: idk i'm on a smut writing spree, expect some more fics tomorrow (maybe some eddie, maybe some slashers, who really knows). i hardly edited this and i feel like the ending might be a lil rushed, but hey, smut is smut.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~SMUT BELOW THE CUT~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“I just don’t really know what to do, you know?” You and your best friend, Steve Harrington are walking to his car after your shift at Scoops. You’ve been upset all night over a fight you had with your ex-boyfriend, Eddie.

You and Eddie had been broken up for a couple of months now, but you were still sneaking over to his trailer in the middle of the night. You couldn’t help it, you were young, horny, and Eddie was pretty good in bed. It was easy enough, until you had to get dressed and do the walk of shame across the trailer park. You know keeping this up wasn’t a smart idea, but a part of you also still loved Eddie. Even if you knew that he was just using you to get what he wanted.

“I don’t know why you’re still so hung up on that loser. You’ve always been too good for him and he didn’t deserve you.” Steve says as he unlocks the car doors and slides into the driver’s seat. He looks over at you and seeing your sad face says, “Alright, we’re going back to my place and having a movie night. I’ll call Robin and see if she’ll come over. You need to have some fun.”

You almost protest, but that does sound like it’ll get your mind off things. And if you’re at Steve’s you won’t be as tempted to go to Eddie’s.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Well Robin can’t come over. She’s got a date or something. So I guess it’s just you and me.” He says as he places a bowl of popcorn on the coffee table in front of you. “What do you wanna watch first? I just got a tape of The Outsiders. Remember that movie?”

“Yeah that sounds good. Thanks for the popcorn.” You reach for the bowl as Steve sits down next to you.

Throughout the movie you can feel Steve looking over at you until he finally reaches over to slide his arm around your shoulders. “Hey, I know you’re upset, but just try to forget about Eddie and whatever stupid fight you guys have had.”

“I know, Steve, It’s just really hard. I miss him and I can’t seem to stay away. I keep going over whenever he calls like I’m just some booty call and not his ex-girlfriend of TWO YEARS! It’s like that’s all he wanted me for in the first place!” You put your hands over your face and shake your head.

“Wait. You’re still going over there and sleeping with him? Why would you do that? You’re way too good to be waiting around for his phone calls just so he can get off and leave you upset.” Steve pauses the movie and turns toward you. You didn’t mean to tell him all of that, you’d been telling Steve and Robin that you hadn’t seen Eddie since the breakup. You never told them that you two had been secretly fucking every other night.

“Uh… I mean it’s hard, Steve! We were together for a long time, I can’t just stop seeing him!” You reach for the remote to play the movie again, but Steve grabs your wrist to stop you.

As you look up at him he says, “I know. I’m sure it is hard. But he can’t be that great that you’re still doing…that with him.” Steve’s arm tightens around your shoulders. He’s staring down at you with a look you’ve never seen from him before. His right hand moves from your wrist to your cheek as he brushes his thumb down to your chin.

“I mean…I don’t know.” It’s hard for you to get words out. Steve has been your best friend since you guys were kids. But all of a sudden something feels a little bit more with him. The way he’s looking at you and lightly gripping your chin is making you dizzy. You’ve never thought about him in any other way, but now your heart is beginning to flutter.

Steve notices it too, his eyes go to where his hand rests on your chin before looking back into your eyes. He slowly tilts your chin up and leans down to plant a gentle kiss on your lips.

You kiss him back before he pulls away and says “I’m sorry. I don’t know why I did that. I think I just got carried away.” He drops his hands, grabs the remote and flips the movie back on.

“It’s… it’s okay.” You can’t think of anything else to say so you sink back into the couch and continue to watch the movie like nothing happened.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ When you get home later that night, you can’t stop replaying that kiss in your head. You’ve never even thought about doing anything like that with Steve. He’s your best friend. You two have practically known each other since you two were in diapers. And besides, he isn’t your type at all. Apparently your type is self obsessed bad boys who break your heart yet still call you up at 1 in the morning. Look where that’s gotten me, you think. Steve is sweet, nice, caring. Everything that Eddie turned out not to be.

You fall asleep thinking about what would have happened had Steve not come to his senses.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Steve has been thinking about the kiss since he dropped you off at your apartment. He’s not sure what came over him at that moment. But he does know that he enjoyed it. He knows that he definitely wanted more. But he also knows that you’re his best friend and you’re still getting over that asshole, Eddie Munson. He doesn’t want to force you into anything else.

But he still can’t see what you see in that guy. He didn’t know Eddie that well. They ran in different circles when they were in high school, but he still didn’t notice anything particularly great about the guy.

And he was so tired of seeing you heartbroken over it. Steve thought you deserved so much more than Eddie.

Steve knew he could make you feel better than Eddie ever could.

Steve continued to think about that kiss as his hand slipped beneath the fabric of his boxers.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Two days go by before you see Steve again. He’s giving you a ride home from Robin’s house after a girls night.

“You know, you really didn’t have to come pick me up. I would’ve been fine walking home.” You say as you meet him outside.

“I know, but Robin’s is on my way home from work.”

Not much is said on the drive to your house. You’re still thinking about the kiss from the other night and you’re not sure if Steve is thinking about it as well. And if he is, you’re not sure what he’s thinking about it. Does he think it was a mistake? Does he want to do it again? You’re so lost in your thoughts that you don’t realize you’ve pulled up in front of your house until you hear Steve saying “Hellooooo. Did you hear me? I asked if you were okay with me coming in and hanging out for a while?”

“Oh. Um. Absolutely, that’s totally fine.” Both of you got out of the car and walked into your small apartment. “So uh, what did you want to do?” You weren’t sure why you were this nervous. You felt like the dynamic between you and your best friend had completely changed since the other night, yet Steve seemed perfectly normal.

“I was actually just wanting to talk to you. You know, make sure you’re doing okay? After that fight with Eddie?” Steve sat down on your small sofa and kicked his shoes off.

You sat down next to Steve, taking your shoes off as well. “Yeah, actually I’m doing a lot better. He hasn’t called since the fight which helps too. I’ve still thought about calling him though.”

Steve just stares at you. You recognize the look on his face as the same one from the other night. The look right before you kissed you. You’re trying not to get your hopes up that it’ll happen again, but your heart is beating a thousand beats per minute. Finally, he says “Look, I hate seeing you like this. I know you two were together for a long time, but he doesn’t deserve you. He never has. He took you completely for granted.”

You weren’t sure what to say. Steve continued, inching closer to you, “I guess I just don’t see what’s so great about Eddie.” He placed his hand on top of your thigh and slowly inched his other hand along the tops of your shoulder. He said what he’d been thinking about the other night. “I bet I could make you feel better than he ever did.” Steve tilted your head up once again and kissed your lips. Rougher than the first time, but still tender. He didn’t pull away this time.

You reached up to grab his face in your hands, kissing him with more force. Steve took hold of your hips, pulling you onto his lap before running his hands through your hair. The two of you were holding so tightly onto each other it was almost painful.

You were the first to pull away, gasping for breath. “Are we… is this…” the words died on your lips as you noticed the way Steve was looking at you with lust filled eyes.

“It’s okay. Let me make you feel good. Let me make you forget about him.” Steve lifted you up and sat you down on the couch, pushing your legs open so he could kneel between them. He peppered kisses from your neck to the top of your jeans. He began unbuttoning your pants and slipping them off of you as he looked up at you through his long lashes. He pulled down your panties and tossed them to the side before trailing his fingers around your swollen clit.

You almost couldn’t believe what was happening. Steve Harrington, your best friend, was on his knees with his face dangerously close to your core. Steve Harrington was rubbing circles on your sensitive bud. You threw your head back and let your moans escape.

“That’s it, baby.” Steve continued rubbing circles as he leaned forward and inserted his tongue inside your soaking hole. Your hands flew down to grab and pull at his hair and he hummed in response sending vibrations throughout your body.

You almost couldn’t take it anymore, you had to have him now. You were too impatient, too needy, for something you didn’t even know you wanted until right now. “Steve.” you breathed as you pulled him back up to you, foreheads touching.

“Shh.” Steve unbuttoned his jeans and pulled them down just enough to release his hard cock. He kissed you one last time, letting his lips linger on yours as he lined himself up with your entrance.

He pushed himself into you slowly, gently, taking his time and relishing the feeling of your walls clenching around him. You wrapped your arms around his shoulders, moaning into his ear. “God, you feel amazing. I bet I feel better than him.” He said it with a sneer as he pumped in and out of you. You couldn’t respond, you just continued to moan. “Mhm, that’s what I thought.”

Steve leaned back and started rubbing circles around your clit. You almost couldn’t hold yourself together any longer. The tension that had been building in your stomach was about to explode. “Steve, I- I’m gonna come.” You managed to breathe out in between your moans.

“Come for me, baby, come on.” Steve’s thrusts grow faster as you reach your climax. He puts his hands on your face, the pads of his thumbs gently caressing your cheeks as you come down from your high. “That’s it, sweetheart.”

He bends forward to kiss your forehead before moving his hands to your hips, gripping them a little too hard. His thrusts grow more erratic as his own climax nears. Steve’s mouth grazes your ear as he continues to pump in and out of you. “Fuck, baby. You feel so good.” He almost can’t hold himself together any longer. He pumps one last time before pulling out and shooting thick white ropes onto your stomach. He slumps forward laying next to your side and runs his hands through his hair.

Steve stands up and pulls his jeans back up. He takes his shirt off and wipes your stomach clean before sitting on the couch next to you and pulling you towards him. With your head resting on his chest, you say, “Wow. I…wow.”

You can feel his eyes looking down on you as he brushes his hand through your hair. “I know. I’ve been thinking about you since the other night.”

You nuzzled tighter into his chest, “Do you want to stay the night?”

He chuckles as he picks you up and begins carrying you to your room. “Of course, babe.” He lays you down on your bed and slips under the blankets with you, pulling you to his chest once more. You feel so at home cuddled into Steve’s chest.

“So tired, Steve.” You mumble as your eyes begin to close.

“That’s alright baby, get some rest. We can talk in the morning.”

As you start to drift to sleep you can hear Steve say, “So, did you forget about Eddie?”

#steve harrington x reader #bestfriend!steveharrington #bestfriend!steve #steve harrington #steve harrington fanfic #steve harrington smut #steve harrington x fem reader #steve harrington x fem #fuckboy!eddie #oneshot #myfics #stranger things fic #steve harrington fic

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gunsatthaphan · 2 months

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the asks are piling up already lol so here are some initial thoughts on the trailers from today (in order of release, BL/GLs are marked with a 🏳️‍🌈, favorites with a 🌟):

Ossan's Love Thailand 🏳️‍🌈🌟: HELP this looks so chaotic lmao. I forgot about the show for a second and thought we were in for another EarthMix office romance kjdhgd. But yeah I have a very soft spot for Earth in chaotic slapstick roles and Mix fits in there just perfect as well. I have not seen the original and was concerned as a lot of people said it's not very good but I had a very good time with this trailer and I'm excited!!! .

Leap Day 🌟: I've been curious about this project ever since that casting call for younger versions of Dew and Pond lol and the trailer did not disappoint! The story seems interesting and I know Gun will eat in this role lol. It's going on my watchlist. .

The Heart Killers 🏳️‍🌈: **edit: not gonna lie, initially I was very disappointed by this. I was excited for the Jojo show but this seemed very random to me. I couldn't follow the story and the trailer just seemed like FK and JD were given a few guns and thrown into a dark setting which just seems like a clash of NLMG and OF. If JD weren't there, I would think this is a SandRay spinoff lol. I now know about the Shakespeare adaption which does change the way I view it a little bit but I still have concerns because I still have no idea what's going on lmao. I was hoping for something simpler and calmer for FK's new project so I really hope the show will be better than the trailer. .

Friendshit Forever: Legit thought this was a GL for the first 30 seconds of the trailer lmao but turns out it's another Beauty Newbie type of toxic friendship lol. I love the vibe though!!! the cast is amazing, Pat never fails to deliver and my girl Mook is back as well!! 🥺 I'm very much into the energy and the chemistries are on point as well. Sign me up!! .

Perfect10 Liners 🏳️‍🌈: If I took my glasses off I would think this is We Are season 2 lmao like do we really need another gay ensemble. And there's SO many others as well??? There were like 30 people on that stage lmao. New really said who doesn't have a job this year? done. I don't know what else to say, it looks very generic. I didn't expect PerthChimon to be part of an ensemble for their second bl and I sure did not expect ForceBook to get their 5th gig lmao. Good for them though. I'm still gonna take a look. .

Us 🏳️‍🌈🌟: YES I LOVE THIS 😩😭 I was hoping we would get another GL and I loooove the energy of this. It's giving all the COA vibes and I'm SO glad it's not another highschool romcom. 23.5 is nice but I'm so happy this is taking it one step further. I'm here for it. Emi was born for sapphic roles you can't change my mind lmao and her chemistry with Bonnie is on point. Simple story, big emotions and a strong cast - This is right up my alley. It's going on my list for sure. .

Hide & Sis: The title still cracks me up lmao but YES this is everything lol. The PLL/PSIHY vibes are STRONG and I love it. Snap25 never fails to deliver us badass girl gangs and I'm here for it. The toxic family trope is generic for these types of shows but if it's done right it works. And I think this will. Sign me up! .

Heart That Skips a Beat 🏳️‍🌈🌟: god don't even touch me this looks so lovely 🥹 I'm always down for a good idol x mundane romance lol and EstWilliam are a good pair for sure. It was kind of obvious that they would get something together but I'm still very excited. I didn't expect the whole LYKN group to be in it but I feel like this plot fits them very well. Plus the trailer is absolutely beautiful. Thumbs up!! .

Break Up Service: This looks meh to me, I'm surprised to see Jorin lol I didn't know she was acting. The story seems fun but the trailer did not catch my attention. It's a maybe for now. .

Revamp 🏳️‍🌈: Honestly I did not expect them to give us another trailer for this lol I was set on a different project for BounPrem. But yes this looks very expensive lmao and I'm hyped we're getting another vampire show this year. I also approve of the other cast members, especially Kay since I haven't seen him in forever lol and also Santa!! I will be tuning in! .

Sweet Tooth, Good Dentist 🏳️‍🌈🌟: *starts vibrating violently* YES I FEEL NORMAL ABOUT THIS kjshdf call me crazy but this is my highlight of this lineup lmao. I got deeply attached to MarkOhm over the last few months and this is all I could ever ask for lmao. Ohm is my little squish and my boy Mark finally got his main role 😩 I'm so proud. The plot is not the most sophisticated lol but I am SEATED. GIMME. .

Dark Dice: This did not intrigue me whatsoever. Pass. .

The Ex-Morning 🏳️‍🌈: Anyone who spent any time on the internet in the last few months knew this was bound to happen lmao. I feel torn about it, K. is not off the hook but KS were my very first bl on-screen couple and I'm feeling very nostalgic about this comeback lol. I'm fond of the trend to bring back OG couples and I'm not gonna lie, yes, it looks good. The story is interesting and the fact that they play exes,,,, art imitates life lol. I think this genre suits them and hey, maybe this will become the second Cherry Magic. Let's see how it goes. .

Scarlet Heart Thailand: The trailer gave us next to no information, I'm guessing that if you saw the original you might have a better idea of what's going on but other than pretty costumes, this didn't give me much ground to make a judgement on lol. Let's see.

conclusion: All in all this lineup seems a lot more colorful than part 1 which is very exciting!! It had the typical light-to-dark structure that the first part (and all the previous ones) had as well but it's still more diverse than I was expecting. There are some disappointments and concerns but compared to part 1, this has a lot more promising projects that I will be tuning in for - Even the lakorns. I spent a lot of time on Twitter leading up to the event, so almost everything I put on my bingo card became reality lol. I noticed some changes in the production of the trailers where it seems that they are more carefully made and edited and I found myself connecting emotionally with them a lot more than in part 1. Overall I'm very happy with this lineup and I will be putting all of these shows on my watchlist with the exception of 1 or 2, which is something I couldn't say about part 1. Thumbs up!! 🧡

Let me know your thoughts!

#gmmtv #gmmtv2024 #gmmtv 2024 #gmmtv2024 part 2 #opinions

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alleycatchitchat · 3 months

Text

Kung Fu Panda 4 Initial Reactions

Just got back from the theater! Here are my thoughts. I'll try to be vague about the plot, but be warned: spoilers below.

---

So I went into the theater with rock-bottom spirits. I had seen the cringeworthy previews, read the disheartening reviews, connected the unsatisfactory dots and concluded that the movie I was about to see would be a nasty dumpster fire of a train wreck. And yet kfp played such a big role in my childhood that I couldn't just stay away. Filled with dread and morbid curiosity, I braced myself for the worst.

And it wasn't that bad.

Don't get me wrong; this movie made some decisions that I HUGELY disagree with. And compared to the other kfp movies, it's undeniably lousy. But it didn't ruin the franchise for me and I actually enjoyed myself in the theater.

Listing off my thoughts in no particular order:

Zhen. She is, to my surprise, a lot less irritating that I expected. The trailers don't do her justice and Awkwafina's voice was a whole lot less jarring than I expected. In terms of actual personality and even backstory, I liked her! However. Let's be honest, her design is shit. She looks like someone's Zootopia self-insert. She feels totally out of place in this movie -- particularly, during the end credits when she's side-by-side with the five (who all have the most beautiful stylized designs). Also, plotwise, WHAT is she doing in this film? Spoiler alert: she becomes the new dragon warrior. Spoiler alert again: yes, this is every bit as random and undeserved as you can imagine.

Furious Five: Were not in the movie. First of all, fuck you dreamworks, how dare you withold my children? My darlings? The loves of my life? Their absence is keenly felt and the plot is emptier without them, and I mean that with complete sincerity. I’m also going to point out the obvious; if there has to be a new Dragon Warrior, and I’m not saying that’s a good plot idea, but if there has to be, it should be Tigress. It makes the most sense thematically and the possibilities are just so good – developing her relationship with Po as he provides guidance, facing her feelings of inadequacy, exploring her connections with Shifu and the rest of the five — I could go on and on. The wasted potential is breathtaking. To be honest, it kinda feels like Zhen was written to replace her(using a hug to de-escalate a fight with Po, anyone?). Fanfic writers, I need a rewrite of this movie with Tigress, stat.

TAI LUNG! He was obviously played for nostalgia and there was no concrete point to his lines or presence. He was also written, if you ask me, pretty out of character. I’m still fuming over the fact that they brought him back and we don’t get to see Shifu’s reaction at all. Again, the wasted potential is breathtaking. When compared with Kai and Shen, who have NO speaking lines, it’s obvious that dreamworks just didn’t want to pay for extra actors. I thought that his acceptance of Po as the Dragon Warrior at the end was super cool, but there was NO lead up, NO meaningful character development to make this feel sincere, and again, it would have hit much harder if Tigress or Shifu were also there or if Po was NOT giving up the title. That being said, I never thought he would appear in a movie again, and I’m happy to have any crumbs I can get. They did a bad job, yes, but they BROUGHT HIM BACK.

Po’s dads! Their side story was goofy and unnecessary but fun, and I enjoyed it. Also maybe it’s just me but the romantic tension between them is AMPED UP – does Li, like, live at the restaurant now? And they spend the movie acting like the most married couple ever. And when Li bursts into the tavern to rescue Mr. Ping, who looks at him with those starstruck eyes – well. I’m just saying. I think there’s something going on there.

I liked the Chameleon! Yeah, her whole gimmick is a little bit ripped off from Kai, but she’s sinister and greedy and badass, so she’s the real deal. I actually thought she was scarier than previous villains – there was less comic relief, maybe? I can only think of one instance where she’s presented in a comedic light, and even then, the tension just picked right up from where it left off. Which is strange, because the rest of the movie is a lot more lighthearted than previous films.

The pacing was weird. Too fast.

Shifu was cute in this movie. More Shifu please!

The reaction to Tai Lung’s return was WEIRD. It’s obvious Dreamworks didn’t want to dedicate time or effort to what was, essentially, a red herring. But. Plot-wise, it’s SO WEIRD that Po would try to face him with no backup. And the fact that we didn’t get to see Shifu’s reaction AT ALL, ugh. Realistically speaking I think Shifu would try to go face Tai Lung, no matter how “inner peace”-y he is now. Like come on, Tai Lung was his son, for crying out loud!

The goats at the start? Also weird designs. Feel out of place.

Mantis got married! What the heck? (neutral about this, but it was definitely unexpected.)

In general, the plot was weird. It didn’t feel meaningful and it didn’t quite fit in with the rest of the kfp universe. Storytelling decisions were just plain bad. But as a standalone movie, it was not… terrible. Not irredeemable. I think, if Tigress had taken Zhen’s place, this could have actually worked. But she didn’t, and it didn’t.

So I’m going to headcanon it as fake and just stick to loving the first 3 movies. I don’t regret watching it, but there were huge problems that prevented me from enjoying it to its full potential.

#I am seriously considering rewriting this movie with Tigress as the new dragon warrior. my babygirl deserves justice.#kung fu panda #kung fu panda 4 #kfp #kfp 4 #kung fu panda spoilers #kung fu panda 4 spoilers #kfp 4 spoilers #kfp tai lung #kfp po #kfp zhen #kfp chameleon #the furious five

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starfxkr · 21 days

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in regards to your post about disgust between jj nd kitten & tp!jj nd tp!reader… oh moony youve bewitched me again!!!!! i love nd could go on about how far jj’s depravedness is nd how much it gives kitten the ick foreverr… (as im someone who isnt necessarily germaphobic, i just need to be clean nd hate gross people) yet theres still a raw nd unbridled attraction to his vulgarity, nd trust he’ll make you tap into whatever unsavory ideas youve kept secret due to embarrassment which i think is so appealing :3 sure, he definitely does give off “bad boy” vibes, but thats so surface level to his character nd its so much more than that (this is where that bully conversation comes in) hes just your mutt of a boyfriend nd its so hot!

as for tp!jj… you make him into such a hard pill to swallow (which he is!) i wouldnt call it the sense of impending doom, but you really have to know what youre getting yourself into with him (which is already known around the park). like you said, different lines are being crossed constantly nd unbeknownst to you (until a certain point) theres been so much damage done to you emotionally, mentally, nd most importantly your psyche! his hot & cold nd push & pull attitude nd the random switch to the paternal like instinct he has over you is whats really jarring! you tell yourself its all in the name of love when tbf, youre not sure if youre looking for a father who loves his daughter or a lover who loves their partner. but whatever to fill that void, shes such a mess </3 nd its all his fault

— 🦢

see see u get it. with jj and kitten they've seen such nasty, depraved, mean parts of each other and he truly sickens her. like even beyond him being gross physically she also finds his personality to be kinda horrid! he's petty, and selfish, and reckless, and greedy and he's so so so angry. but for the most part he keeps a lid on it, all the girls who've hooked up with him or also had a situationship with him just view him as this generic bad boy from deep in the cut but like. kitten knows better. so she pokes and prods at him like a festering wound because she hates the facade, she hates how he lies to himself and other people. this is a girl who sure she seems mysterious but she's not, she lays it all out but it makes people uncomfortable so they ignore it. she tells gross stories of being a compulsive masturbator as a child to make people uncomfortable and the only person who laughs is jj. truly deep down she's kind of his ID which says a lot because he's already pure ID. he's gross, he smears cum on your face, he's mean, and he's a literal anal fiend. jj can only be his true self around her because she won't lie to his face and tell him it's okay or tell him it doesn't bother her, she's upfront with how much he makes her sick and yet she loves him because of it, not in spite of.

tp!jj...i fear i can not solely give yall the sexy forbidden age gap that most people would expect because that's just not fun. there's nothing to chew on. because everyone knows jj's no good, but he normally relegates that to women his age or just a few years younger not a whole 21, not one he used to buy water guns for when she was a kid. he remembers when your mom got knocked up (because she was 15 when he was a whole 21 like. come on there's layers here), he knows your dad fucked off because he was also a 15 yr old, he's seen you wandering around the trailer park as young as 13 looking for someone to let you stay the night because your mom locked you out. it's as clear as day how neglected you are and how you're starving for any kind of love and affection, and the thing is jj feels no real qualms about the age gap. that he doesn't care about. but there's this internal battle of whether to be your father or your lover so he kinda says fuck it and does both. but he's never quite had a good example of what a father is so even then he's emotionally distant and does the bare minimum of a roof over your head and food in your belly, but all the older men you've been with never even gave you that. you think he's in love with you (he will be, just not yet). you're constantly crying and telling him you love him and you only get a "mhm" as a reply if you get one at all which leads you to constantly craving his affection. he thinks he's doing you a favor by remaining emotionally distant while feeding and fucking you and not caring that it's blurring too many lines. he doesnt care that you call him dad on accident, it doesn't rattle him the way it rattles you because as long as he gets to fuck you later what's the harm in playing at being your daddy for a bit?

#✨.txt #jj maybank prompt #trailer park!jj #kitten!reader #🦢 anon

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avactors · 7 days

Text

Interview transcript 1: AvA 6 trailer - Victim

Interviewer: "Animator vs Animation 6 finally released its trailer and it sent shock waves throughout the internet as no one was expecting to see a return of the star of the first movie."

Interviewer: "So today, i am extremely honoured to welcome in the studio the star himself - [Victim], starring as Victim in AvA series!"

Victim: "Well, a star might be an overstatement, but it is nice to see the franchise in such a good state even after so many years." [Chuckle]

Interviewer: "Also, before we start, i would like to thank you for accepting our invitation. You are known to be quite secritive, so it's an extreme honour to be among the first ones to get to interview you."

Victim: "Oh, the pleasure is mine. But, i will have to admit, it's less of me being oh so secritive and more of just inability to partake in any interviews. Now that i am back in the franchise, i am looking forward to building a connection with the audience on the same level as my colleagues."

Interviewer: "Well, i believe it might be a bit hard, considering that trailer portayed you as the villain, rather than a hero."

Victim: [laugh] "Well, Victim did change a lot since his last appearance on screen, i can say that much."

Victim: "What i mean is that there will be quite a few unexpected turns in the movie and i am really looking forward to sharing it with everyone!"

Interviewer: "And we can't wait to see what the crew have brought us this time."

Interviewer: "But the most interesting question, that had been puzzling everyone for many years is why did you disappear from the franchise in the first place? Many fans waited for Victim's return in the second movie, but had to wait until 4 have passed."

Victim: "I can't share all the details, obviously, but what i can say is that, there was no falling out between me and the producers, as many like to suggest. Me and Alan were always great friends and are still such. I wasn't forced to leave, i simply had... My own reasons. And for the longest time i had no way of coming back on screen."

Interviewer: "Well, it seems that know the stars had finally alligned for your comeback. Which beggs the question: are you happy to be back in the spotlight?"

Victim: "Oh you have no idea! In that sense me and Victim share our anticipation to finally make an appearance after so long! Working with the AvA crew is always a pleasure."

Interviewer: [laugh] "And fans certainly share this feeling. AvA 6 so far is believed to be the most anticipated movie of the year, with hundreds of thousands pre-ordering tickets already."

Interviewer: "But what about everyone else? In the trailer we also saw The Chosen One, Victim's successor as the series lead as well as The Second Coming, who is the current face of the franchise. Having all three generations in one place sure is an extremely interesting concept, but how was your experience on the set? Other interviews suggest that [Second] might be a handful to deal with."

Victim: "Oh, please, [Second] may be a teen, but he is in no way a handful, especially when [Chosen] is around. He seems to posess this weird power to just calm him down almost instantly." [Laugh]

Victim: "But, answering your question, i very much enjoyed the time we spent on set. They both are very fun as people and are extremely competent as actors. But, i guess i'm not really the one to judge, given both of them have more experience than me. If anything, i was a bother to them." [Chuckle]

Interviewer: "Well we certainly hope not, because i'm pretty sure that all the fans would want to see more of Victim in future installments as well."

Victim: "And i certainly hope to appear more as well. I'm sorry i'm repeating myself, but i was just so excited to start working with Alan and his crew again, and get to meet all the other actors as well."

Interviewer: "But how did they react to see you come to the set? I believe that at least two of the so called "Colour Gang" have mentioned that they have been fans of the franchise ever since it's first installment."

Victim: [laugh] "Well, the first meeting was perhaps the hardest part of working on AvA again. Nothing could've prepared me to the amount of attention i got from [Second] and his friends. It almost felt like i was at a fan meet-up."

Victim: "But, i will admit, seeing how excited they were to see me on set, really warmed my heart. All the harder it was to act cruel towards them during the shooting. And it wasn't made any easier by their burning eyes just staring at me during some of the scenes."

Victim: "At some i kept breaking the character after noticing their gaze on me so much, that Alan had to intervene and get them off set. Poor kids, but at least then i managed to focus on the acting." [Laugh]

Interviewer: "You mentioned having to act cruel during the shooting and we also noticed a glimpse of it in the trailer. Will that really be such a prevalent part of the upcoming movie?"

Victim: "Oh, actually, you might've already noticed it, but AvA is slowly shifting towards more mature themes and deeper stories. Alan said that it's because the audience had grown up and they wouldn't be satisfied with old style anymore."

Victim: "Personally, i share his sentiment. I do prefer more mature take on the franchise, but still being able to keep what makes it so appealing in the first place."

Interviewer: "Well that sounds promising. Can't wait for when the movie comes out and sure hope you and others will be willing to visit our studio in the future as well."

Victim: "And i can't wait to discuss events of the movie more freely. Although, right now actual events are carefully hidden even from me. So we will have to wait for the premiere."

Victim: "It's been a pleasure talking to you and sharing my thoughts with all of the viewers. I will see you all in theatres!"

#animation vs animator #ava #alan becker #ava au #au #writing #ava6 #avas3 #ava season 3 #avactors #actor au

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talaok · 2 years

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Hey! Can you do one of Joe where he and the reader are shooting a movie together and they have to shoot a sex scene and they both end up horny? thankss

Pairing: Joseph Quinn x fem!reader

summary: Today's the day you have to shoot the infamous sex scene with your least favorite co-star, Joseph Quinn. And, even if you certainly didn't expect it, you find yourself confusingly turned on by it.

warnings: SMUT: unprotected sex

a/n: Sooo... I tried something here and it's probably not what you had in mind when you requested this, but I was tired of making the reader a simp, so.. here we are. I hope you'll still like it

THE PROPOSAL

You were so bored you thought you were gonna die. Today was the day. The set was closed. The unnecessary staff was sent home and you were in your trailer, wearing a rope with just underwear underneath, waiting for someone to call you and tell you it was time. You had to film the sex scene today. The director had been talking about it for weeks and so had your co-starts. You hated all the fuss around it. It was just pretend-sex, most of the time it was even fun. That was, of course, when the other actor wasn't a total creep, like the time you worked with James Franco and he kept touching you even when the cameras weren't rolling, or, when you didn't despise your colleague, just like this time, unfortunately for you. It's not that you hated Joseph Quinn entirely, it was just that he was so.... much. Like, he always had something to say or do and he was constantly joking or fidgeting and just being so annoyingly exuberant that you sometimes dreamed about taking his head in your hands and screaming at him to calm the fuck down. Ok, maybe you did hate him, but you sure as hell had your reasons, and it's not as if he liked you lots either. It was a miracle you two still hadn't torn the skin off of each other. from the moment you met at the table read, it was clear you couldn't stand each other, so you started avoiding him, as he did the same. You thought of yourself as a professional, and being one, you always treated him with respect when you shot together, smiling politely and pretending to not wanna roll your eyes at everything he said. A dream colleague, as to say. him, on the other hand, obviously wasn't a professional as much as you, since he definitely didn't hold back on eye rolls or snarky comments. but it was fine, you could look past that, you were an actor after all, and acting like you didn't want to punch him was a fairly easy job. The problem now was that today, you had to do a lot more than say a few lines to each other, Oh no. you had to pretend to have passionate and loving sex with him. Wich was a tiny bit diffrent. You had no idea how you were gonna do it. Being a good actress was something, but this... you needed to be Maryl Streep kinda good to do this. But there was nothing to do. you had tried talking to the director, telling him that perhaps the scene wasn't necessary, or that maybe it could have been done in a different way, without you in it, for example, but it hadn't worked, and so now, there you were. "Y/N, it's time" your assistant stated, as she opened your trailer's door. You took a deep breath "let's do this".

"there she is" Joseph said as you stepped on set "late as always" he whispered to you as you got next to him. You exhaled through your nose, already annoyed "Hi to you too" you said, giving him the fakest of smiles. You looked around. It was a nice set, It was supposed to be His character's (Adrian) bedroom. It looked like the inside of one of those little houses you find in villages in the mountains. The walls and roof were all wood, or at least, made to look like it. In the middle of the room was a huge bed with two wooden bedside tables on each side and there were about 10 candles lit all over the place, giving it a really romantic atmosphere "Ok guys, you know how this works" The director, Mark, said, stepping closer to the two of you. "There isn't a script for this scene because I want it to be as raw and real as possible. the only thing you have to remember is that you both love each other immensely" he explained enthusiastically. "Adrian just saved your life Maya!" he exclaimed, using your character's name. "And now, finally, you get to be with the man you love, and you, Adrian" he turned to Joseph " finally get to be with the woman you have longed and fought for so long" he said, obviously very into the narrative. "So I wanna see the passion, ok guys?" Mark asked. You and joseph turned to each other and raised your eyebrows "Of course" you answered in sync.

You took off your robe and placed it on your chair while also taking off your slippers. You took a deep breath and turned around, starting to walk towards the bed, but just as you did, you heard a stroked sound coming from your left. You frowned and turned around, just in time to catch Joseph's eyes scanning your whole body while his mouth opened slightly as he swallowed thickly, clearly hypnotized by your figure. You smiled to yourself, proud of the reaction you had caused, and pretended not to have noticed him, continuing to the bed. You got underneath the covers and set up against the headboard, waiting for him. He was talking to someone, probably his assistant and as she walked away he took off his robe and placed it on his chair, just like you had. You held your breath and bit your lower lip as your eyes took him in. How had you never noticed how fit he is? His arms were strong and his chest was big and muscular. He looked...hot. Wow, you would have never imagined finding someone you hated so much that attractive. But there you were, in complete awe of him. Your eyes traveled up his body once again, this time finding his. Oh no, you thought as you felt your cheeks redden. He smirked smugly and raised an eyebrow, walking towards you. "See something you like?" "Oh please, you wish" you lied, as he got in the bed. You were side by side, looking at each other, trying to get in character when Mark yelled action. You didn't have time to even process that before Joseph crashed his lips with yours in a passionate and rough kiss. It took you a second, but you started to reciprocate, granting his tongue access to your mouth, and pulling him closer by the back of his head. You moaned softly into his mouth and he put his hand behind your back and let it roam free. You whimpered at his touch, and as much as you would have liked to pretend you were reacting in character, that was all you. His hand traveled up to the back of your head and he took a fist of your hair, pushing your face against his. God, who knew he had it in him? Without warning and without breaking the kiss he got on top of you. "You're so beautiful" he murmured against your lips. You felt butterflies in your stomach and you swallowed thickly. God, get it together Y/N! You smiled at the compliment and intertwined your arms behind his neck, pulling him in for another kiss. He broke the kiss, his breathing ragged, and pretended to position himself at your entrance. He moved some hair away from your face with a gentle caress and smiled genuinely. "I love you" he whispered. You looked up at him with heart eyes(You deserved an oscar after this) and whispered "God, I love you too Adrian", right before he pretended to push into you delicately. You moaned and started to move with him, simulating the act, making your tits bounce with each movement. You opened your eyes to look at him and saw how, just for a moment he broke the character, remaining amazed by the beautiful sound you'd just made. You internally grinned proudly, as you produced another moan, this time louder. "Oh, Adrian" you cried out, throwing your head back against the pillow and digging your nails into his back. You could see in his eyes how hard he was trying to concentrate, and you couldn't be happier about how hard you were making it for him. His eyes kept shifting from your breasts to your filthy mouth and he felt like if it weren't for the cameras pointed at him, he would have cummed there and then, and he hated himself for it. What was he, 13? But you were just too hot, there, moaning underneath him, biting your lip in ecstasy and shutting your eyes close from the pleasure. If this is what you looked like when you pretended to have sex, he couldn't imagine what you were like when you did it for real. You moaned again, this time even louder and he snapped out of his thoughts. Right, there was a scene to shoot. "God,Maya" he growled, sending a shiver down your spine. He sounded so sexy. he took your hands in his, pushing them against the mattress, and you couldn't help but wish for a moment that this was really happening, and that you weren't just shooting a corny sex scene. "cut!" Joseph didn't move. He looked at you and bit his lip, he opened his mouth to say something but closed it immediately again. You could see confusion across his eyes. You looked at him with the same stupor and swallowed nervously. "he said cut" "oh yeah, sorry" he said, clearing his trough and getting off of you. What just happened?

"hi" joseph said as he entered your trailer. Oh no, not again. You had just finished shooting the scene and it had been confusingly both the worst and the best thing ever. You needed to get away from him to get a clear head. I mean, it was impossible that you actually fancied him, right? you hated him. You hated him, you really did, but that, unfortunately, didn't exclude the fact that you still wanted to fuck him. Oh god, this was terrible. "Joe, listen I need to go home, so whether this is, can it wait till tomorrow morning?" you asked, getting up from your chair and taking your bag to show him you were being serious. " I just wanted to talk" "about what?" you asked annoyed "about before" You swallowed thickly "there's nothing to talk about" you stated, feigning confidence. "Oh, come on, don't pull that bullshit with me Y/N, I know you felt it too" he said, irritated. "What are you talking about Quinn?" you lied "Listen," he said, coming to stand in front of you" I'm not here to declare my love or any of that bullshit, all right?" You rolled your eyes, there was no point in faking naivete, he obviously had figured you out. "I have a proposal" he bit down a smirk. God, he was so hot and so punchable at the same time. "You let me fuck you this one time, so we can get it out of our systems, and then we can forget about it and go back to hating each other" You chuckled "You're kidding right?" "C'mon, I know you want it Y/N, don't play dumb now" he said irritated, as he brought his right hand up behind your neck. "just once" he placed his other hand on your waist " and then we'll pretend it never happened" he whispered against your neck. His hot breath sent tingles all over your body. You never had much willpower anyway. "Whatever Quinn" you mumbled as you let your bag fall to the ground and grabbed his face, kissing him roughly, your hands grabbing his hair and without doubt messing them up as he gripped your neck and forced his tongue into your mouth, all while stumbling towards the make-up table. You stopped once the back of your legs hit it and without breaking the kiss he leaned down and pushed everything that was on it onto the ground. You gasped, most of that stuff was really expensive. "get on there" he growled, and you did as told. He smirked and opened his mouth but you cut him off before he could say something stupid "Don't even start, I'm just horny" you breathed out."He laughed softly "Well, then that makes two of us sweetheart" he whispered before going back to kissing you. He was in between your legs and you could already feel his erection through trough his pants, so you started grinding against it, desperate for any kind of friction. The bastard grinned at your impatience and abruptly pushed your dress up, starting to caress and squeeze your ass, making you whimper into his mouth. You desperately started to tug at his belt, trying to get it off him. "I knew I was right" he smirked proudly and you rolled your eyes, taking the opportunity to catch your breath. "Shut up and fuck me" you exhaled as you put your hand behind his neck and pulled him down for a desperate kiss. "gladly" he purred as he undid his belt swiftly and pulled down his boxers and pants. He kissed you again, briefly before he moved your panties to the side and pushed into you completely, earning a clamorous moan from you. He smirked and, without even giving you the time to adjust started pounding into you aggressively, making the whole table shake. Everything he hadn't thrown off of it before was now falling on the ground, and probably you would have hated yourself for it tomorrow, but that was a future you problem, present you, was getting fucked out of her mind and had other things to think about. "Lemme see your tits" he said as he grabbed the top of your dress and pushed it downwards, revealing your breasts. He groaned "Fuck yeah", as he continued thrusting into you. "Oh my fucking god Joe!" you shouted as he leaned down to take your right tit into his mouth, and started sucking on it. He took your nipple into his mouth and softly bit it, as his left hand made its way to your clit and started massaging it. You were moaning so loud you were certain people outside could hear, but who cared. "Oh god, please Joe" you cried out as he kept sucking, thrusting, and massaging. This man obviously knew what he was doing. "I-I-I'm gonna cum" you moaned as he let your breast go from his mouth, spread your legs more, and pounded into you even harder, smugly looking straight at you, making your eyes roll in the back of your head. "That's right, cum on my cock Y/N, make me feel how good you can squeeze me" he groaned. "Oh fu-fuck" you stuttered as he sped up his hand's movements. You felt a familiar pressure form your lower belly. He groaned at the feeling "Oh fuck you feel so f-ucking good" he hissed, clearly close too. You were getting closer and closer. "Cum for me baby" he grunted. and you did, a wave of pleasure overwhelmed you as you threw your head back and your eyes fluttered shut while you shouted his name. Joseph groaned loudly at the feeling of your walls tightening around him. "Shit Y/N" he whispered, as he continued pushing into you, making you ride out your high. Just as you came down from it his thrust became sloppy, he was about to come. "O-Oh,f-fuck" he groaned as he pulled out of you at the last second and his cum shot onto your belly and dress. That was gonna be hard to clean. He exhaled deeply and put his head on your shoulder. You stayed there for a few moments. Just silently catching your breath and taking in all that had just happened. He chuckled "that was fun" "it was" you agreed He pushed himself off of you and pulled his pants and boxers up. "I still don't like you" you reminded him. "Oh, don't worry. The feeling's mutual" he grinned.

#joseph quinn #joseph quinn x reader #joseph quinn smut #joseph quinn stranger things #joseph quinn x fem!reader #joseph quinn x y/n #stranger things #stranger things x reader #starnger things #Smut #joseph quinn fic #request

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ure-a-sunflower · 1 year

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Truth, Dare, and Jealousy

Written by ure-a-sunflower

Eddie Munson x reader!all genders (Stranger Things fanfiction)

This is my first time publishing any of my work since I really wanted to gatekeep this stuff to myself. I’ll be honest, I wrote a lot of Eddie fan fics so I’ll see how this one turns out. Please be nice, I beg of you. I just did this for fun back in August of 2022.

CONTENT WARNING: alcohol consumption, mentions of smoking, some swearing, NO SPOILERS

Word Count: 3k

Eddie knew well that you hardly expressed crushes on real life boys aside from your beloved fictional characters. He was fine with that, honestly, because competition with some actually-not-real man that was good as paper and had as much depth as a kids blow up pool was nothing too personal for him. It was probably the dark brooding charm female authors would win you over with or the romantic promises these guys had that were downright unrealistic.

Regardless of that, you and Eddie connect really well and while he didn’t want to admit it, he was starting to develop feelings for you.

(Rest of the fic is below the cut)

This was kinda bad. You had only joined Hellfire a year ago and you got to Eddie real good. The other boys didn’t see it as much, but the way you both would squeal and jump for joy when you would come up with campaign ideas and talk about the most recent news of D&D… he never thought anyone else was like him. That was probably the first time he actually noticed you way past being a member of his club. Sure, you weren’t the biggest metalhead like the others, but when he saw you singing along to Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden in his van, he thought he was hallucinating.

But he was the group’s dungeon master and you weren’t held on the same freak level as him. You still hung out with your other best friends and your choice of aesthetic only dabbled in a bit of punk when given the chance. He thought you looked gorgeous when you would mix both. And considering how good you both got on already, Eddie was afraid he’d ruin what was between you. He couldn’t bear making it awkward.

At the end of a long week before a big school break, Eddie invited you to his trailer to hang out. The other Hellfire members had plans, which left the both of you alone.

“Truth or dare?” Eddie asked, while offering you another shot of the brandy. You downed it after swiping it from his hands and wiped your lips with your shirt. “Um, truth. Got nothing to hide.”

“Uhhh, alright.” Eddie leaned back to think. What useful information can he get out of you? He practically knew everything about you since you act like an open book around him. “Okay, I got one.”

“Shoot, Munson.” You didn’t like the clever smirk on his face.

“Who do you think is the most attractive member in Hellfire?”

Damn, you didn’t expect him to enter that territory. Eddie only took up your offer for a drinking game because you were getting sick of him being short of a human smoke machine. You weren’t planning to confess your stupid little crush on him that you’ve had for months now. What would he think of you?

“Wow, uh, you really wanna know?” you laughed it off awkwardly. Eddie noticed your uncomfortableness and chuckled. “I mean, you can answer my question or pick a worse dare, honey.”

God, his stupid nicknames. He wasn’t tipsy like you at the moment because unlike you, Eddie wasn’t a lightweight. “Let me hear the punishment then. I’ll consider my options.”

“That’s so against the rules but since you’re my favorite, I’ll tell you… I dare you to run around the trailer park, naked, and singing.”

“Eddie!” you yelled. “Are you trying to have fun or have me admitted to the nearest psychiatric ward?!” Soon, he was rollling on the floor, laughing. You couldn’t even bring yourself to imagine what you’d look like. Sure, you’d do anything for Eddie Munson, but that? You’d have to pass.

“So, ‘most attractive member’ then? Come on, sweets, we don’t have all night.”

“But won’t that sound like I’m attracted to them?”

“I mean, maybe. Be as objective as you want.”

You gulped. You really didn’t want Eddie to assume you had a crush on him but you also didn’t want him to think you had one on another Hellfire member. The least thing you’d want him to do is tease you with someone else. On top of things, inflating his already big sarcastic ego would end you.

“Um… huh, that’s tough…” You put your chin in your finger and thought hard. None of the freshmen were on the table. Jeff is sweet but he wasn’t your type— he was more like a brother to you, anyways. Last person left…

Everyone in Hellfire wasn’t afraid to admit that Gareth was handsome. Sure, he still had the baby cheeks and freckles from middle school, but you think his hair is really cute and fluffy even way back then. You always went out of your way to point that out and he’d blush super hard. He also gives you the best hugs, rivalring Eddie’s. Gareth is sweet and nice to you in and out of school, opposite of Grant and Eddie who are total pranksters. You have a soft spot for the guy. If only you weren’t so close with Eddie, you’d probably be fully head over heels with Gareth already.

You took a deep breath and shook your head in between a chuckle. “I guess I’m gonna go with Gareth.”

Eddie’s heart kinda stopped. Gareth? Gareth Emerson? He was already planning in his head how he would react when you’d say it was him. Ready to thank you and graciously shower you with praises while you roll your eyes and tell him not to take it too personally. That’s kind of why he asked the question, if he was being honest. He wanted to hear it from you.

You always loved teasing and calling Eddie your “pretty boy”, playing with his hair and braiding it whenever you both hung out. Once, you complimented his doe eyes while you were both out and about, and Eddie never forgot that moment since. It was the first time anyone has really noticed his features like that. The first time you met him, you even said his style was cool because he looked like a certified rockstar. But you thought Gareth was the most attractive when you were both alone right now? Seriously?

Eddie figured he’ll need to down a whole bottle and smoke himself to death once you go home. Then he just got more worried.

Why did he react that way?

“Eds, you good?” You waved a hand in front of his face as Eddie snapped out of his thoughts. You waited for his response after he kind of just blanked out.

He regretted asking you for the truth now. Should’ve just gone with like ‘what’s your go-to ice cream flavor’ or ‘who’s your favorite dungeon master and rockstar whose name starts with an E and rhymes with teddy’. Now, he just felt like some pathetic loser pouting because he didn’t like your answer. God, he felt like a stupid middle schooler all over again.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m alright.” He looked like he snapped out of his trance but his eyes look everywhere but yours. His hands seize the bottle and he downs some. “So, uh, Gareth huh?”

Completely oblivious, you giggle and shove his shoulder. “Don’t tell him I told you that. Besides, I only see him as a close friend.” You better, Eddie thought. You noticed the tension in Eddie’s jaw and put a hand on his thigh to calm him down. It only had the opposite effect. “Hey. Something’s bothering you, I can tell.”

“It’s nothing. Why did you choose Gareth?”

The way he so quickly changed the subject didn’t slip past you. But you figured it wasn’t worth pressing on more. “I mean,” you scratch your neck, “he’s really sweet and it’s no secret that he’s got good genes.”

Eddie’s eyebrows only furrowed. The grin of disbelief on his face looked less amused and more annoyed.

“Really? I mean, am I not sweet? It’s gotta be the hair, isn’t it?”

You tilted your head in confusion.

“Eddie… are you… jealous?”

You thought he was gonna have a whiplash with the way he snapped his head towards you. “What did you just say?” Despite the utter confusion in his face, you knew he heard you. You smirked and continued.

“Are you jealous of me saying Gareth’s attractive?” His poor best friend Gareth, having no idea that Eddie’s currently dunking his head in a barrel of water in his mind. How dare he look attractive to the person he’s had the biggest crush ever on. Now, they’re onto him.

Playing dumb was his only option. “No, I’m not. Why would I be jealous? Don’t be ridiculous. I’m teasing you about this!” Air quotes and all, you saw through his façade. The defenses were raised and you could tell Eddie was lying. His ears were a brighter pink than before and though you were tipsy, you still had a strong intuition that you just made your best friend envious. The alcohol in your system seemed to not only fuel your courage but also your audacity. You leaned in to mess with him further. “I just figured, y’know, since you reacted when I said that.”

“I did not react.” Such a child. You wiggled your eyebrows.

“Sure…” An idea popped in your head. “Then, you wouldn’t mind if I asked Gareth out after break?”

Eddie thought he was going to faint. Or combust. Whichever was faster.

“Are— Are you fucking serious?!” Eddie jumped in his seat, accidentally banging his knees on the table and staring at you like you’ve grown another head. You were laughing at this point, clutching your stomach and throwing your head back. If only Eddie didn’t hear your previous words, he would’ve thought you looked like a pure angel. But he was genuinely shocked.

“Munson, what has gotten into you?! I’m only joking!” Eddie’s been having heart attack after heart attack with each sentence you uttered. He didn’t know if he should be relieved or pissed off at you. “You really don’t like me going out with him, don’t you? Well, I know how much Gareth means to Jeff. Can’t get in the way of the most legendary bromance in Hawkins.”

Eddie slapped a hand over his face and groaned. He opened his mouth to say something when you beat him to it. “Or does it feel incestuous to date someone from Hellfire? I see why you’re so protective of them. I kinda see the boys as like my brothers—“

“Just shut up!” Playing cards, napkins, plastic forks— they scattered from the table to the floor as Eddie frantically attempts to quiet you. You stopped and stared at him. Usually, you would shrink away and tear up when someone raised their voice like that at you, but you knew Eddie would never mean you any harm. But then again, this was a first. And he sounded so serious.

After no one still said a word, you coughed and decided to change the topic. “… A-Alright, um, that’s enough truth or dare for one night.”

When you were about to leave and walk yourself home, because you were too tipsy as hell to even bike, Eddie insisted you stay. You gave up arguing with him when nothing could convince him to leave you there in the streets all by yourself. He couldn’t drive you either because he was slightly high, never wanting to lose his van because of a DUI arrest, and casually admitted that he won’t be able to sleep knowing you weren’t safe.

You were quite basically trapped in his arms as he cuddled you on his couch.

It was a compromising position, really. You never figured Eddie to be the cuddlebear, but the way he clung onto you was like you were going to disappear from his hands. To make yourself comfortable, you cuddled into him, placing your head on his chest, and Eddie’s heart melted at your gesture.

Your head in his chest, his legs over yours— he was going to be so pissed at himself in the morning.

He knew what he was doing but also not. So did you. This was how lovers would hold each other. It just felt right to be in the other’s arms and not care about the world, a crazy and cruel world. Yes, you were both good friends, but this was just you guys testing the waters of your friendship. No romantic shit. It was just two tipsy best friends cuddling closely on the couch, a thriller movie in the background as soft rain pattered outside. Super platonic. Yep.

You were drifting off to sleep time and time again because of how good of a white noise the TV and rain were, and Eddie couldn’t help but notice. However, he had something bothering him that he had to bring up to you before you start dozing off and become knocked off cold. He couldn’t wait until the morning to tell you since he knew well he’d chicken out again. Perhaps he invited you to drink some alcohol so he could finally confess using liquid courage, and in the case if you’d reject him, he’d just blame it on being drunk. Perfect foolproof plan.

“Hey,” Eddie whispered your name by the shell of your ear. You stirred from your sleepiness and turned up to him. “Hey, um… I’m sorry if I, uh, made an outburst earlier.”

It wasn’t easy to decipher what this was all about, especially when you were half-asleep and in the midst of sobering at this point. “For what? About Gareth? Don’t worry, I know we were being stupid.” You still didn’t understand why he made such a fuss, but you were just trying to move on from the situation. Nevermind figuring out his reasons. Your heart was pounding miles a minute. You were holding your crush like you were partners, and you wanted to be out of there and in between his arms more than ever at the same time. It was worth cherishing this position before you two part in the morning and just pretend nothing happened.

Eddie hated that you said his name again. “Yeah… I just…you know… I guess I was jealous.”

You took a pause to digest what he said. “You were? Oh, Eddie, I know I said Gareth but you’re still the pretty boy! I mean, you know I love your hair and your eyes—“

“No, it’s not that I’m jealous of Gareth’s looks.” Eddie took a deep breath. Yours hitched, waiting for his next words. He tried to look into your eyes but you could see them shaking and he kept averting your gaze. “I… well… shit. H-How am I gonna say this….?”

“… Yeah?”

“I-I got… I got jealous… that you like him.”

At this point you were grasping at sticks. What did that even mean? Was he jealous of the attention? Of your feelings? That another guy was held in a position higher than Eddie Munson, Hellfire’s Beloved Leader? It was starting to get annoying.

“Eddie, we’re so close and we’ve been great friends since I’ve known you. Fucking hell, you’re our Dungeon Master. I know you and Gareth are like brothers and I get it if you don’t want anyone dating in the club. You’ve got nothing to worry about just because I think he’s got looks—“

“No,” he shook his head, finally demanding your attention, “like, I like like you. I have feelings for you and I want to be with you. As your… boyfriend.”

You were certainly stunned.

Maybe you just waited and pushed for him to say it, but you still couldn’t believe it. Did Eddie just confess he liked you? First? You wanted to soar and you felt like you could touch stars. Holy shit. You wanted to pinch yourself to make sure you weren’t dreaming. Was it the alcohol that made you like this?

“…And I know I sound stupid or selfish but I guess I have to make my moves now since you want to ask Gareth out.”

Your mouth was still gaped wide open as Eddie continued rambling about how much he liked you. “—like we were alone in the drama room one night while cleaning and we danced to that stupid jazzy song you put on like my parents used to when I was a kid and I didn’t know it at that time but I think that’s when I realized I was falling really badly for you—“

You had scooted your way towards him the entire time he was going on and on, fully facing his direction, and took his hands that were wildly gesturing the entire time. “Eddie.”

“—because you’re just so nice and understanding and patient with me a-and— huh?” He was staring at you like a baby deer in headlights as you cupped his cheek. You could feel the warmth as his eyes widened. “I really like you too. I’ve fallen in love with you for months now.”

There was just silence. Silence on your end because you can’t believe you’ve finally said that, and Eddie was shortcircuiting with the words you’ve said to him. He had to repeat them in his head to make sure they really meant what he was thinking they meant. “You… You really—? But Gareth—“

“I only said Gareth because I didn’t know if I should confess I like you. I’ve had a crush on you since sophomore year.”

“You liked me for that long?! Wha— Wait, I, oh gosh so you actually like me?”

“Eddie, I want to be yours. I love you. I really do.”

That was the happiest he’s been in forever. If he had to put it in words, it felt like someone lit a firework and his heart was fizzing around the room.

Pulling you to him, he mumbled a “may I kiss you?” and you nodded eagerly. Eddie placed a hand below your chin and locked his lips with yours passionately, absolutely savoring this moment because he’s been waiting for it for sleepless nights and hopeless daydreams. It was finally happening.

He whispered in between kisses, “I love you so so much” which made you giggle. “I can’t believe I have the best, kindest, and hottest partner in all of the world.” When you rolled your eyes, Eddie shook his head disapprovingly and kissed you once again until you were literally gasping for air and telling him “okay! Okay! I believe you! Gosh, I love you so much, Eddie!”

At the next campaign, it was no doubt a surprise to Hellfire when Eddie suddenly announced you were his partner the moment you walked in the door.

#eddie munson #joseph quinn #stranger things #eddie munson x reader #stranger things 4 #gareth emerson #eddie x reader #eddie munson fluff #eddie fluff #stranger things fanfiction #eddie #hellfire club

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tafeekafee · 1 month

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⌛🐿️ Wash it away, oh, make it rain now

Title from MATZ (ATEEZ/MATZ)

Summary: Translation issues cause Hongjoong to eat something he has an intolerance to at Coachella and he needs Seonghwa to help him out of the public eye.

CW: emeto, kind of public emeto, medics, IVs

Sickie: Hongjoong Caretaker: Seonghwa

"We should get some food", Wooyoung mused, looking around at the other members.

He, Yunho, San, Hongjoong and Seonghwa were exploring the Coachella grounds together while Yeosang, Mingi and Jongho had decided to rest up a bit at their trailer in the backstage area of the festival. Their show yesterday, while fun, had been very tiring and nobody was surprised that the three of them wanted some peace and quiet.

"I'm hungry", San agreed, "no, hyung, don't you dare."

"Hi hungry, I'm Hongjoong", the captain quipped, though he was the only one finding it remotely funny.

"And you wonder why ATINY keep referring to you as the dad of the group", Wooyoung groaned, rolling his eyes and, just for funsies, decided that pushing Hongjoong hat into his face would be a great idea.

"I'm just living up to what they already expect", Hongjoong countered, not even bothered by the action, just adjusting his hat. He was used to much worse. "What do you want to eat?"

"I'm not hungry, it’s too hot", Yunho mumbled, trailing behind the three of them with Seonghwa.

The eldest sighed and turned to look at him from where he had been busy waving at a group of fans. "Yunho-yah, I know you don't like the heat. But unless you think you are going to puke if you eat, you should get some nutrition into your body especially if you want to come to the concerts tonight. If you do think so, we should get you laying down in the shade."

"I'll be fine", Yunho groaned, fanning himself, "it's just so warm."

“It’s California”, San said, his voice a mix of teasing and concern, “what did you expect?”

“Less heat?”, Yunho said weakly, “fine, I guess something small can’t hurt.”

“Good, I was worried”, Seonghwa said.

“Also, this is why ATINY calls you mother”, San added onto the previous joke. Seonghwa just laughed and halfheartedly swatted at him.

It was Hongjoong’s turn to roll his eyes. The kids - uh, the younger members - really were a handful. So he decided to change the topic: “What do you feel like eating, Yunho-yah?”

“Something cold?”, Yunho suggested, “I don’t think I want hot food now.”

“Ice cream?”, Wooyoung suggested sneakily.

“Despite what ATINY thinks, you are not actually a child, so I am not going to stop you from eating ice cream for lunch. I am just going to say it’s a stupid idea”, Hongjoong remarked.

“Well, who is in?”, San asked, raising his hand in time with Wooyoung. Hongjoong, Seonghwa and Yunho sighed.

“What about these Açaí Bowls or whatever they are called?”, Hongjoong suggested, “I think they are cold. I never had them but always meant to try them.”

“As long as they are cold, I am in”, Yunho agreed and Seonghwa nodded.

After a quick talk with their managers and security team they split up to get their respective foods. Since all their English had significantly improved Hongjoong wasn’t worried at all about letting Wooyoung and San go off alone with some staff.

Luckily for Yunho, Seonghwa and Hongjoong the line for the food wasn’t so long so they managed to order pretty quickly. Not that Hongjoong was really sure what was in the bowls itself - the problem of short lines: no time to really translate food names which was still one of the harder things he struggled with - but they looked great and so the three of them decided to order three different versions to share.

As expected the food was pretty good and to their relief Yunho seemed to feel better after eating a good portion of the cold food. Maybe he really had only needed a cold drink, some sugar and most importantly the shade of the picnic table they were at. Wooyoung and San both had gotten huge orders of ice cream and Hongjoong couldn’t even fault them for it. All the food was so good.

⌛

Two hours later Hongjoong found himself at the VIP area of one of the stages, watching some artist he had forgotten the name of. Well, he had forgotten how the name was spelled and the pronunciation he had in mind didn’t make sense.

It didn’t matter, Seonghwa had wanted to go and so naturally Hongjoong had agreed to come. They had been joined by Mingi, Yunho and Jongho a few minutes ago, while WooSanSang were off somewhere else.

They were vibing to the music and Hongjoong could tell that the other members really enjoyed the set, as well as the staff that had joined them. While the staff, especially the managers and security, obviously had to stay with the members for the most part, they had managed to work out a schedule where the different staff members were able to see the sets they wanted to see. Hongjoong had only thought it fair when they had started to plan everything - for many of them it was their only chance to enjoy Coachella too.

However, it was maybe only twenty minutes into the set when Hongjoong started to think something was going wrong. While just a few minutes ago he had been enthusiastically jumping around to the music, enjoying the different styles of music they got in contact with at the festival - now he was starting to feel … off. He couldn’t describe it any other way.

There was tiredness in his muscles he hadn’t noticed before and he wasn’t able to motivate himself into jumping and enjoying the show anymore. Everything was slightly tilting, the effect barely even there. Still he was questioning if it really was dizziness he was experiencing or if he was just affected by the stage lights. All his enthusiasm was gone - replaced by exhaustion and a weird, heavy feeling in his stomach.

Maybe he was just a bit dehydrated and exhausted by the past week. Hongjoong slipped away from Seonghwa’s side for a moment to approach a manager.

“Hyung, do we have something to drink?”, he asked, trying to be as quiet as possible while the music was blasting in the background.

“Uh, I think we have some beer? And coke?”, the manager said.

Hongjoong grimaced. He didn’t feel like having a sweet, sugary drink and, even less so, alcohol. “I was actually hoping for water?”, he said reluctantly.

“Let me check”, the manager said and went to check in with one of the other managers. A minute later he re-appeared with a half-full bottle of water, holding it out in a sympathetic way. “That's all that’s left. It’s luke-warm but don’t worry, the others had distributed it into cups before.”

“Thanks, hyung”, Hongjoong said and took a sip. He nearly spat it out again - as the manager had said, it was lukewarm and very unappealing. But better than nothing, he supposed, and swallowed. Water was water after all.

Hongjoong returned to his spot between Jongho and Seonghwa, deciding to just watch the show, not dance as hard as Seonghwa, Mingi and Yunho did and turn in early tonight.

The water sat heavily in his stomach, making everything uncomfortable. The captain was sweating hard, even despite the sun setting quickly, and his last reserves of energy were quickly fading into nothingness. There was a dull ache in his stomach, not unlike when he drank too much before doing a heavy workout or dance practice. For a moment he considered crouching down for a moment, just to rest, but he was still an idol in a public space. He had of course noticed the few cameras on the group, especially with how much the other members were enjoying the music. No, he could hold on.

⌛

Hongjoong could most definitely not hold on. He had finished the sips of water but he was starting to think that that might have been a mistake. The stomach pain had turned into painful cramps, he was hot and cold at the same time and he was starting to feel really nauseous and weak. While he did not want to admit to feeling unwell, he knew he could not endure. If anything went wrong, there were so many eyes on them…

So all that was left for him to do was to decide who he asked for help. He would have just gone back to the manager but he didn’t want to worry the members with just disappearing. Yunho and Mingi weren’t next to him and they were having too much fun for Hongjoong to disturb them. Jongho, too, was deeply enamored with the performance and Hongjoong didn’t want to bother the youngest. They all knew how much the maknae was stressing out about being the “K-Pop boy with the cool high notes” in the eyes of the public at the moment, how Jongho was so worried about each performance he had thrown up before their set the day before. No, he could not take these moments of happiness and relaxation from him.

The only option left was Seonghwa. Seonghwa who had looked forward to this artist but would drop everything for any of his dongsaengs if the need arose. Hongjoong was too selfish and, frankly, too unwell to really care at the moment. He just wanted to lie down away from the public eye. Preferably with some medication for the nausea but he would take being away for now.

So, dropping all his reservations, he tugged at the sleeve of Seonghwa’s jacket, leaning a bit closer to his friend. Seonghwa smiled at him and leaned down a bit, so that he could face Hongjoong. “What’s up?”, he asked, happiness painted on his face.

For a moment Hongjoong faltered. He wanted Seonghwa to keep looking this happy but he also didn’t feel like falling flat on his face from exhaustion and nausea in front of ATINY, so he mumbled into Seonghwa’s ear, the older having turned a bit so he could hear Hongjoong better. “I don’t feel good.”

Seonghwa frowned and turned to look at him. “You need to speak up, it’s so noisy”, he half-yelled. Right, concert. With a sigh, Hongjoong nodded. He didn’t think he could speak much louder, his throat feeling weird, but he had to. So when Seonghwa turned his head again so he could speak, Hongjoong called as loudly as he could but careful that nobody else could hear: “Hyung, I don’t feel good. I want to go back to the trailer.”

Seonghwa whipped around to look at him, worry shining in his eyes as he mustered Hongjoong. Hongjoong, who was still clutching his sleeve and hopefully didn’t look as bad as he felt. “What’s wrong?”, Seonghwa asked, placing a hopefully unobtrusive arm around Hongjoong’s waist.

“I don’t know, I just started feeling nauseous and not good”, Hongjoong admitted, resisting the urge to rest his head on his hyung’s shoulder.

“Alright, come on”, Seonghwa said, but before they could leave he leaned across Hongjoong to speak with Jongho. Hongjoong couldn’t hear what Seonghwa said but Jongho’s eyes widened in alarm before he nodded.

Hongjoong let Seonghwa pull him to the managers standing behind them, one hand still on Hongjoong’s back. “Hyung”, Seonghwa said to the same manager Hongjoong had spoken to earlier, “Joong-ah is not feeling well. We need to go back to the trailers.”

The manager instantly had a worried frown on his face and nodded, waving two security guards over. “Let’s go”, he said.

Honestly, Hongjoong was a bit overwhelmed by how quickly everything progressed but he was glad that it did. He really was starting to feel awful, his stomach cramping badly and the nausea getting worse with every step. In the sight of ATINY in the enclosed VIP space Hongjoong had resisted the urge to wrap his arms around his bloated stomach, but now he couldn’t bring himself to care. His stomach was killing him.

It was awful really, how fast everything was going downhill. His legs were shaking with each step, causing Hongjoong to be afraid they would give out under him any second. His stomach felt unsettled in a way he wasn’t sure which direction his food wanted out, he only knew it would leave at some point. He just hoped he could make it to some private area.

Now further away from the music, in the crisp night air, Seonghwa was walking closely beside Hongjoong. They were blindly following the manager, the security guards taking up the rear.

“How are you feeling? Why didn’t you say anything sooner?”, Seonghwa asked quietly, aware that Hongjoong would not want everybody to know how badly he was feeling. Hongjoong sighed, wincing as his stomach cramped again. He stumbled a bit, only Seonghwa’s quick reflexes helping him keep his footing. At least they were mostly alone with most people at one of the shows.

“Hyung?”, Seonghwa called before Hongjoong could say anything, “can we stop for a second?”

The manager turned around, a sorry smile on his face. “It’s only a few hundred meters till we arrive at the VIP area, we can take a break there. Unless, Joong-ah, you really can’t go on.”

Hongjoong shook his head. While he really was not doing good and he had to keep swallowing a few times until he could speak, he did want to be in private. “I can hold out.” Satisfied, the manager nodded and obediently they followed.

⌛

Once they reached the VIP area, Hongjoong couldn’t help but collapse against Seonghwa, energy spent. He just wanted to lie down. Why did Coachella have to be so big? It took ages to get around. Hongjoong truly thought he couldn’t walk to the trailer anymore. It would still be another ten-fifteen minutes walk after all.

Seonghwa supported him to a set of lounging chairs and Hongjoong could have cried in relief when he was able to sit. Standing was exhausting. Immediately he doubled over and pressed his hands against his stomach.

“I’ll call for a golf cart to take us back”, the manager said, squeezing Hongjoong shoulder in silent support before moving away a bit to talk on his phone.

In the meantime, Soenghwa had knelt down in front of Hongjoong, pushing back sweaty hair from his face and taking Hongjoong’s small hand in one of his. “Joong-ah?”, he asked quietly, his voice comforting, “help me figure out what’s wrong. I’m so worried right now.”

“I just started feeling off, so I thought I was dehydrated and drank some water. But now my stomach is killing me, it hurts really badly, and I’m nauseous and bloated and I don’t feel good”, Hongjoong whispered, close to tears. He just wanted to sleep, not feel anything for a moment. He curled over further as his stomach cramped again and he had to swallow harshly.

Seonghwa recoiled a bit, moving to the side, though not letting go of Hongjoong’s hand. “Are you going to be sick?”, he asked, an edge of panic in his voice.

“Maybe”, Hongjoong admitted, pressing his wrist to his mouth in hopes it would help. They sat like this for a few minutes, Seonghwa patiently holding Hongjoong’s hand and at times rubbing his back, whispering comforting nonsense all while Hongjoong desperately tried to stop himself from throwing up.

Suddenly his stomach lurched again, at the same time as it cramped and Hongjoong groaned in pain. That seemed to be the last straw. “Hyung”, he gasped, panicked, “hyung, I …”

Seonghwa, bless him, seemed to have understood and he was already pulling Hongjoong to his feet, leading him over to an area of palm trees. Hongjoong didn’t even have time to pull his hand away from his mouth before he was sick for the first time. He heaved again nearly immediately, his stomach contents splattering against the bark of a poor tree.

Hongjoong just hoped nobody recognized them, just thinking he was some visitor who had had a bit too much to drink. Seonghwa seemed to sense his fear and whispered: “Don’t worry, it’s okay. Nobody is watching, the security guards are blocking the view and looking away themselves. You’re okay, focus on yourself.”

It took a few minutes until Hongjoong felt like he could breathe again, his stomach slowly stopping its assault. Wiping his mouth with his wrist, he let himself fall back against his hyung, knowing Seonghwa would always catch him.

“Feel better?”, the older man asked quietly and Hongjoong nodded weakly, closing his eyes. He was so exhausted he could barely muster the energy to be embarrassed. Seonghwa gently led him back to the lounging chairs and Hongjoong dropped down hard.

The manager held a bottle of water and asked Hongjoong to hold out his hand, pouring some water over it to clean off the puke. It would have to be enough for now. Then the manager handed him the bottle of water and gratefully Hongjoong took a few sips. He wasn’t sure they would stay down, honestly he doubted it, but if he was to throw up again he wanted a bit of time without the terrible taste of puke on his tongue.

“Hyung, when will the golf cart be here?”, Seonghwa asked the manager.

“It should be here soon, I hope, they couldn’t say”, the manager replied.

“Okay. What are you thinking? Heat exhaustion? Stomach virus? Bad food?” Seonghwa turned his attention to Hongjoong, sitting down on the chair next to him.

Hongjoong shrugged. “We had the same food all day and you and Yunho seem to feel good, so I doubt it’s that. Honestly, I don’t know. If it’s the heat shouldn’t that have happened earlier?”

“Excuse me?”, a female voice called out in English and all three of them whipped their heads up. Three girls stood with the security guards, looking at Seonghwa and Hongjoong with wide eyes. “We’re really sorry to disturb you but we’re ATINY and we wanted to ask if it’s possible to take a picture?”

Hongjoong sighed internally. He didn’t want to interact with them, no matter how nice the girls seemed. He loved fan interactions but … no, he couldn’t deal with that today. The manager was already shaking his head but Hongjoong could see the sadness and embarrassment in the three girls’s faces.

“One picture we can do”, he replied, brain taking a bit longer to switch to English than normally. The look on their faces was worth it though. Seonghwa painted a smile on his face, knowing he could not give away his worry.

They got up from the chairs and Hongjoong congratulated himself that he only stumbled slightly. His stomach didn’t hurt as badly as it had before and standing up for a few minutes for ATINY was doable.

The girl who had spoken at first handed the manager her phone and the two idols posed with the girls. Hongjoong hoped he looked presentable enough - he had never feared that he would at one point need to take pictures when he had puked just a few minutes ago. He just took great care in not touching them - not sure his hands were completely clean and not wanting them to get sick if he was infectious. Hopefully, they didn't notice anything off, maybe write off his hesitation as respect.

“You’re my bias”, one girl said shyly to Hongjoong and he thanked her quietly. One of the other girls complimented Seonghwa’s looks and his Wonderland performance of the day before.

Luckily, the three of them were very kind and respectful, so after thanking them profusely they left rather quickly. The moment they were out of sight, Hongjoong stumbled, his knees going weak. One of the security guards and Seonghwa managed to grab his arms before he could fall and then, finally, the golf cart arrived.

The manager took the front seat, Seonghwa helped Hongjoong settle in the middle row so he could face forwards and the security guards hopped into the back row, facing backwards.

“Do you think it was the Acai bowls? Maybe one of the ingre…?”, Seonghwa asked but was interrupted by Hongjoong, who moaned. “Don’t talk about anything food-related.”

“Okay, okay”, Seonghwa muttered comfortingly. “Rest, you can lie down soon. Just a few minutes.”

The few minutes were terrible. The ride was anything but smooth, it was as if they could feel every small blade of grass. Hongjoong could do nothing but clutch Soenghwa’s hand in the hidden space between them and pray.

⌛

The moment they arrived at their trailer, Hongjoong couldn’t hold it in anymore. He jumped down from his seat, knees nearly giving out under him, and stumbled a few steps to place his hands on his knees. He gagged and gagged until a tiny splatter of sick came up. With just how nauseous he was he thought more would come up but apparently it wasn’t to be so.

“Let’s lay you down inside”, Seonghwa said, a hand on the small of his back. “Manager-hyung is trying to organize the car to the hotel but there seems to be some problem. You can rest here now, though. A medic is on the way, just in case.”

Completely exhausted, Hongjoong just let Seonghwa help him inside. His legs were so tired and shaking he nearly stumbled on the steps to the trailer but again Seonghwa saved him. Yet, with the couch in sight, Hongjoong’s knees completely gave out and he sank against the wall - vertigo too much to overcome.

“No, no, come on. We’re practically there”, Seonghwa said and Hongjoong was dragged to the couch, immediately laid onto his side. He curled into a small ball, knees pulled to his chest in hopes to alleviate the cramps in his middle. Seonghwa crouched down beside him, brushing back his hair.

The manager arrived beside them, holding out a trash can and placing it in easy reach. “Just in case”, he said, “anything else we can do for you?”

“I just want to sleep”, Hongjoong mumbled, his eyes closing on their own accord. He opened his eyes at a cold touch at his fingers - Seonghwa was rubbing hand disinfectant on his still dirty-feeling hand. It barely made Hongjoong feel better or cleaner. He closed his eyes again.

“Alright, I’ll be in the sitting area over there. Try to stay awake until the medic is here. Call if you need me, I’ll let you know when the car to the hotel is close. Feel better soon, Joong-ah”, the manager said, leaving them alone. As one of their long-time managers he knew how much Hongjoong valued privacy in moments of vulnerability.

Staying awake, like the manager had suggested, didn’t prove to be a problem. Barely a few minutes had passed when Hongjoong started to feel the unpleasant, burning sensation in his chest and his mouth started to taste sour. He scrambled to sit up, startling Seonghwa who quickly handed him the trash can.

Hongjoong groaned, pulling it into his lap and spat out a mouthful of disgusting bile. Seonghwa took a seat next to him, rubbing his back and whispering comfort. Sitting up hardly helped against the acid reflux - Hongjoong had to keep spitting out wads of sour saliva, strands dangling from his mouth. He pressed a hand against his aching chest, choking slightly as he tried to swallow against the accumulating saliva. It hurt.

Hongjoong didn’t even notice he was crying until Seonghwa used the sleeve of his long-armed shirt to wipe his face. “It’s okay, you’re okay, breathe, Joong-ah”, the elder whispered gently, “you’re okay.”

“It hurts, Hwa”, Hongjoong whispered, fighting to stay composed. He hated being sick. He hated being sick in public. And he especially hated being sick when he and Seonghwa and their manager and the security guards could have been enjoying the concert. He hadn’t wanted to ruin the fun with his own stupidity.

After Seonghwa had mentioned their lunch, he had come to the realization he must have either mistranslated or overlooked an ingredient in one of the bowls. It was so stupid, he knew he had a lot of intolerances and still, here he was, throwing up.

“I’m sorry I am ruining your evening”, Hongjoong apologized, adding onto his last statement before Seonghwa could reply.

“I know it hurts, Joong-ah”, Seonghwa said, running his hand through Hongjoong’s hair, “and I know you feel guilty. Please don’t. We don’t know if it was the food or what else. Just focus on feeling better, okay?”

All Hongjoong could do was spit up another mouthful of bile, which finally - as he had feared it would - caused vomiting again. He harshly gagged, breathing taking on a faster pace in anticipation and anxiety. Purplish sick, a reflection of all his bad choices of the day, splattered against the plastic bag, mixing with the previous yellowish bile. Hongjoong had to close his eyes at the sight of chunks - some kind of berries he would never be able to look at or eat again.

Then panic set in. A chunk of something was starting to block his airways and he coughed, trying to dislodge it. He couldn’t help but let out a low whine, scared as the oxygen was kept from him. Fresh tears ran down his cheeks as he fought for breath.

Seonghwa switched from rubbing his back to first gently then a bit rougher patting it until Hongjoong was able to bring up whatever was blocking his airways. He heaved in a deep breath, eyes burning badly from the tears.

⌛

And amidst everything - there was a knock on the trailer door before it opened and two paramedics entered. Both were carrying the typical huge backpacks and smiled at the two members. The manager came to greet them and soon Hongjoong was crowded by the two while the manager took the bucket to wash it out in the trailer’s bathroom.

“Hello Hongjoong”, the woman greeted with a smile, managing to not completely mispronounce his name, “my name is Laura and this is Will. Can you tell us how you are feeling?”

Hongjoong nodded but needed a moment to gather himself. While he spoke English well enough he most certainly didn’t have much knowledge in the area of medical jargon. Maybe he should have watched more of Wooyoung’s medical dramas with him. “I started feeling sick at the concert, uh, I threw up a few times? My tummy hurts. I think I ate something that … wasn’t good for my body?” He really didn’t know how to explain food intolerances in English.

“Okay, I’m sorry to hear that. Let us take your pulse and temperature and all that, okay?”, she said. “Food poisoning can be bad.”

Oh, so he had said it wrong. Or there was some miscommunication.

“No, I … uh … I have like … lactose intolerance? But with, uh, fruit and vegetables”, he tried and received a nod from her.

“Do you have any trouble breathing?”, the other paramedic asked. Hongjoong shook his head, leaning back against Seonghwa while they did their tests. Neither him nor Seonghwa, nor the manager who had joined them again, understood much of what they were doing but they didn’t look too worried.

“You’re really dehydrated”, the female medic said, “we’d like to do …”

That was about all Hongjoong could translate and so the man pulled out a needle and a bag of fluids. Great. Really great. Defeated, Hongjoong nodded his agreement and let the woman poke at his elbow. Luckily he normally had good veins and she didn’t have much trouble putting the line in. It was uncomfortable, yes, but Hongjoong could deal with it if it helped.

Then the woman showed them her phone screen, displaying google translate: “Eat crackers and drink plain water and sports drinks for a day or two. Nothing too sweet or spicy. If you continue throwing up after tonight or show other symptoms go to a hospital.”

“Yes, I can do that”, Hongjoong said, his strength vanishing and getting replaced by exhaustion and a heaviness in his limbs.

“Try to sleep. We will be back to take out the IV in about half an hour.” The woman’s phone read.

Sleepily, Hongjoong nodded. The paramedics backed up and left, but before Hongjoong could doze off, the manager knelt down by his side: “Stay awake for a second, Joong-ah. The car will be here in about half an hour too. The concert will be over by that time, so the rest of the members will come with us. Is that alright with you?”

“Yeah”, Hongjoong mumbled. He didn’t necessarily fancy having the younger members see him like this but it would be unfair to make them wait.

“Alright, nap time”, Seonghwa said, brushing back Hongjoong’s hair. He helped the captain lie back down on the couch without disturbing the I.V. line. At least the acid reflux seemed to have gotten better, making it possible to lie flat again, but the stomach cramps had not gone away. The movement of laying down triggered another wave of pain and Hongjoong gasped, instinctively curling into himself and pulling his knees to his stomach.

“Let’s try to stretch out your legs”, Seonghwa suggested, a comforting hand on Hongjoong’s hip. “It might help the pain.” Carefully and slowly the eldest moved Hongjoong’s legs, giving Hongjoong the chance to tell him to stop if the pain got worse. It didn’t - in fact it was much better once Hongjoong’s legs were fully stretched out across the couch.

“Better?”, Seonghwa asked and Hongjoong mumbled an affirmation. He was already half-asleep when Seonghwa lifted his upper body to rest Hongjoong’s head on his lap.

“Tell me if I should stop”, Seonghwa whispered and for a moment Hongjoong was confused. Then his shirt was lifted and a warm hand came to rest on his aching stomach. Hongjoong sighed in comfort. It helped a lot. Then Seonghwa started to rub soothing circles against taunt muscles and Hongjoong was definitely in some sort of heaven.

⌛

That sentiment held for about twenty minutes until the captain woke up suddenly and immediately had to lunge for the bucket just in time to get sick again. It most certainly was not a nice sensation to wake up to and Seonghwa seemed startled too. The pressure of his hand was too much and Hongjoong grasped Seonghwa’s fingers, pulling his hand away from his upset stomach to interlace their fingers. It was a lifeline that Hongjoong clung to, next to Seonghwa stroking his hair. Hongjoong wasn’t even sure he was hitting the bucket but slowly the heaving stopped. He stayed leaning over the receptacle just in case.

“What the…?”, San asked loudly.

When Hongjoong looked up he saw Yeosang, who had entered behind San, turn around on the spot and push Wooyoung back out the door, much to the loud confusion of the younger. Better for Wooyoung not to see, there was no need for an emetophobia-fueled panic attack. Hongjoong sank back down into Seonghwa’s lap, feeling much worse than he had before his nap.

“Hyungs?”, San questioned, worriedly, and came closer, “Seonghwa-hyung? What’s wrong with Hongjoong-hyung?”

“Probably ate something he shouldn’t have”, Seonghwa explained, “I got this. Go check on Wooyoung, if you stay here he won’t be able to share with you and I’m not going to help you figure out roommate arrangements today. I got this under control.”

San agreed and turned to leave, when he was stopped by the manager. “The cars are here. San-ah, did you guys see Yunho, Mingi and Jongho?”

“No, but Jongho-yah texted they are on their way back, that’s why we came back”, San replied and left.

He was nearly immediately replaced by one of the paramedics who unhooked Hongjoong’s I.V. and deemed him ready to go. Hongjoong was so tired that the conversation passed in a blur and he was only pulled back to really when the uneasy looking manager asked: “Okay, Hongjoong-ah, think you can make it back to the parking lot?”

Of course Hongjoong could. Especially with six worried dongsaengs outside.

But when Seonghwa helped him to his feet, Hongjoong’s knees buckled under him and he was only saved by the elder wrapping his arms around Hongjoong’s back. The cramps in his gut had not let up and the captain wasn’t able to stand up straight, muscles too out of sorts to let him uncoil his body.

“Are you sure you can walk?”, the manager wondered.

“Yes”, Hongjoong said through gritted teeth. He would not show vulnerability to the outside world, not more than he already had. “Just let me take it slow.”

They stepped out into the cold night air and Hongjoong shivered. Immediately a warm jacket was wrapped around his back. Jongho was already looking like he was freezing but he had a determined look on his face.

“Don’t protest, hyung. I will ride with WooSanSang and we’ll be at the car faster than you. Besides, I’m not the one throwing up”, the maknae pointed out. Hongjoong sighed and thanked him.

Wooyoung, Yeosang, San and Jongho hurried in front of them while Seonghwa, Yunho and Mingi walked slowly to accommodate Hongjoong’s small steps. Each meter they walked seemed like an ocean and a mountain range at the same time and by the time the cars were in sight, Hongjoong would have cried if he had any fluids left.

⌛

The rather long ride to the hotel - apparently there had been an accident which was why the cars had taken especially long to get them - passed in a tired and nauseous blur. While Hongjoong normally loved looking out the window, especially as it helped his motion sickness, but now he was just grateful for any second he wasn’t staring at the bottom of a plastic bag or at his stomach contents in said plastic bags.

Not to be overdramatic but Hongjoong might have actually dryly cried in relief when the hotel came into sight. They were quick to get to their rooms and once they had bid Yunho and Mingi good-night, the two disappearing into the rooms they respectively shared with Jongho and Yeosang, Hongjoong collapsed onto his bed, fully-clothed.

He was sweaty, coarse sand stuck to every part of him and make-up nearly cried off but he couldn’t care less.

Seonghwa, however, cared. But he was as gentle as he could be, taking off Hongjoong’s outer clothes and wiping the dirt away with a wet towel, then cleaning off his face with a make-up remover.

“Think you can eat some crackers?”, he asked, sitting down next to Hongjoong onto the bed. Hongjoong shook his head. He was just glad for any moment he was not being sick, he was not going to risk setting anything off.

“Drink some gatorade at least”, Seonghwa said and lifted Hongjoong’s head. Too tired to fight him, Hongjoong complied and but groaned at the disgusting taste. Sports drinks had never been his favorite and combined with the taste of bile it was rather disgusting.

“Water?”, he asked, wanting to wash the taste away and nearly immediately Seonghwa tipped a bottle of the clear fluid against his lips.

“I put the trash bin beside you. Wake me if you need anything, and I mean anything, Joong-ah. You can rest now”, Seonghwa said and placed a feather-light kiss against Hongjoong’s temple.

The captain was asleep before Seonghwa even had the chance to get up from his side.

Masterlist links: Tafee - Full Masterlist Tafee's Masterlist - ATEEZ

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ymaohoh · 3 months

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Max's relationship with Eddie and Chrissy headcanons?

This is a GREAT prompt. Thank you!

One of my favourite Hellcheer fic/prompts to read are the ones coming from other character perspectives (POV's). I've seen a few from Max's viewpoint and they are KILLER.

(I want to quickly link two fics in particular which stole my heart: 'still awake, playing chase with the sunrise' a oneshot by @cyraclove and 'she said to me forget what you thought' multi-chapter by @majicmarker)

So my thoughts (and this follows the 'Chrissy Lives AU idea')

Max initially minds her own business about Eddie and Chrissy's flirting because why should she give a rat's ass about the way he clearly goes all gooey and soft for her, and the way she gets all silly and pink and giggly? Dustin and the others LOVE it and drag Eddie to filth for his antics but Max is more reserved. She's got her own stuff going on, you know?

But she's good at observing. She's the first one who twigs Eddie's made up excuses to walk past Chrissy's locker a hundred times a day (which is NOT on his route) and the way his eyes are glued to a certain table in the lunchroom. She notices Chrissy peering at Eddie over Carver's shoulder and the way she giggles into her hand when he says something weird and wacky. She doesn't share these observations with the group because it's not her business but she rolls her eyes when they finally piece it together - 'idiots', she thinks, looking at Lucas fondly.

Max knows Chrissy speaks to Ms Kelley too but she never brings it up, nor does Chrissy. Following Chrissy's first encounter with Vecna, the party try and figure out connections between the victims but Max stays totally silent when they ask. That's Chrissy's business and she's sure as hell not ratting her out. Chrissy appreciates this and they share a knowing look before they both spill the beans that yeah, their lives suck.

When they realise how important music is to keeping them grounded (literally) and how it helps against Vecna's visions, they sit down together and create 'happy playlists'. Their music tastes are way different but it's an oddly fun way to spend an afternoon. She's kinda' glad someone else is going crazy too - makes her feel less alone.

Chrissy is right off the bat keen to be nice to everyone and show she wants to help (they don't expect much initially but she proves them wrong after demonstrating a killer dropkick and she's a crack shot - her dad's a member of the NRA). Max is reluctant at first - she doesn't trust easy - but Chrissy is persistent and Max finds herself opening up. It's nice to have another girl around and Chrissy is kind and honest and sweet. If she ever had a big sister - she'd want her to be like Chrissy, you know? She listens when Max talks.

(Chrissy wins El round too which helps. Max learns she can enjoy the odd girly moment and not have it diminish her 'tough girl' exterior - Chrissy paints El's nails bright purple and shows Max how to bluff at poker. Sometimes they team up with Nancy and Robin too).

Max gravitates towards Eddie more than Steve or Nancy (or the other 'adults'). Maybe because he's from the same crappy background or because he doesn't care about shitty family drama and require a million answers. She likes his Uncle Wayne too and his accent when he calls her 'Red'.

Max is (unfortunately in her view) the one who witnesses Eddie and Chrissy taking their...whatever it is...to the next step. She's hanging outside her trailer when she sees them hurrying out of Eddie's van. Eddie's hands are ALL over Chrissy as he practically carries her inside. Eddie spots her though, and later asks (with the cockiest smile ever seen) if she can keep it hush hush until Eddie and Chrissy figure out what this means exactly, but Max responds flatly, "cat's out of the bag, dipshit. Everyone knows already." Eddie flushes bright red but she doesn't think it's from embarrassment at being caught - he looks so crazy fucking happy.

But she thinks they're good together. She watches as they progress (quickly) from friends with feelings, to sucking face, to becoming honest-to-god soulmates. They work well together. Eddie brings Chrissy out of her shell and installs some of his notorious confidence in her, and Chrissy cares for Eddie and makes him stand taller. Max thinks that's what relationships should be like.

(she finds Chrissy upset at school when the cheerleaders ditch her after finding out about Eddie and Hellfire, and she tells Chrissy bluntly they suck and helps her dab at her spoiled make up. Those phonies don't matter - she's got real friends now. It's the first time she calls Chrissy a friend).

She's never seen Eddie look so serious as when it comes to Chrissy and her safety - which is different from his usual goofy dramatic self. When Steve suggests using Chrissy as bait (a Daphne, if you will) Eddie gets a real hard look in his eyes and tells him to think of something else before Chrissy says bravely yes "if it'll help". Eddie watches her, makes sure her ammo vest (which is way too big) is strapped on tight, and Max see's him fucking lose it when Chrissy comes this close to danger. When she gets back, safe, Eddie holds onto her hand like it's a lifeline. ('synchronized denial' by empress of snark inspired this one).

(Chrissy screams like a banshee when she sees Eddie being attacked by demobats. Max spots real fire in her eyes as she swings at it with her baseball bat).

She's never believed in soulmates (thought it was a gimmick for movies and love-sick tweens) but when she looks at Chrissy and Eddie embracing after Vecna is finally defeated? (the soft look on Eddie's face, the way Chrissy nuzzles into the crook of his neck), she understands Eddie and Chrissy are just meant to be together and would be in any alternative universe or dimension. Fucking Star-Crossed Lovers. She doesn't know if she and Lucas will ever be like that (she's still a kid, okay?) but maybe one day.

(Chrissy doesn't live)

Max doesn't know Chrissy personally but she knows she speaks - spoke (goddamn it) - to Ms Kelley too. Knew she was vulnerable and she was hurting. When the party are talking about connections between victims, Max remains silent (again). Fuck that. She's not giving up Chrissy's secrets even if she's no longer here. Chrissy deserves better than to be discussed like a throw-away character in some dumb horror movie.

As she grows closer to Eddie and the others, she notices the weight around Eddie's shoulders and the haunted look he gets when he mentions Chrissy and what happened in his trailer. He flinches every time her name is uttered. She wonders if there was more to their relationship then just a brief moment in the woods?

Thanks 'nonny

#chrissy x eddie #edssy #hellcheer #eddie munson #eddie x chrissy #eddissy #hellcheer headcanons #hellcheer fanfic #ymaohoh #chrissy cunningham x eddie munson #chrissy cunningham #chrissy and eddie #max mayfield #chrissy and max friendship #stranger things #eddissy headcannons

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twig-tea · 10 months

Text

PHEW, ok, now that I've compiled and read all the meta (everyone is amazing, I love all of you, thanks for the love back!) and slept on it, I feel like I have processed enough to gather some thoughts and make a prediction on ep12 [clown checkpoint at the end of this long post].

Pre-Prediction Groundwork i.e. what the heck are you thinking and why did this take you two days

First, I want to say, I still think the montage over the years was not off. The depiction of a happy couple that annoys one another, accommodates one another, is sometimes just happy to be in one another's presence and sometimes happy because of one another's presence, is a perfect summary of a long-term relationship to me. Some folks mentioned that it seemed like they were unfulfilled but as an introvert and a homebody I can tell you when I look back on time spent in relationships these are the moments I think about. Yes, I've gone and done fun things with significant others, but those moments aren't the ones that necessarily feel like they're about us. It's the moments doing nothing that feel like they really capture a relationship, to me. And @rebel0777 hinted at this in a post: sharing food has been the love language for this couple all along, so for it to have mostly focused on them sharing meals doesn't feel strange at all. Anyway I'm fully ready for the show to have a different message but reading everyone's thoughts didn't change my mind on this.

That being said, the thing that other people have said that has swayed me most is the idea that Pisaeng does have some things he left unsaid, and going back in time gives him a chance to say them (whether or not Kawi is fine in future). As mentioned in the roundup, @bengiyo and @incandescentflower get credit for their thoughts on this theory.

In a conversation with @pandasmagorica the potential for a time loop was raised; I laid out why I don't think the show will go that route here--writing this also helped me frame my thoughts around what the show is trying to say and where I expect it to go as a result.

One thing that I think Pisaeng hasn't really been called out for in this series yet is how dedicated he is to Kawi--maybe that's just romance tropes doing their thing, but this man really has been through it in the various timelines. He fought hard for that plushie, celebrated his confession-aversary for at least 8 years, continued to follow and support Kawi's career even when he removed himself from his presence to save him from gay rumours...Pisaeng may need to learn to not sacrifice for Kawi's sake.

The other thing that I've been thinking a lot about is why Kawi seems to have a sense that the amusement park date has already happened [based on the ep12 trailer], when in the other timelines nobody had that same feeling of deja vu, and the reason I came up with is: in all of the previous timelines, Kawi made significant changes to his behavior that rewrote the timeline so profoundly nothing in it was the same. He spent time with his dad; he befriended Pisaeng; he went on the departmental trip and confessed to Pear; he tried out for student council and joined a band; he convinced his dad to get surgery; he confessed to Pisaeng. Because of these major changes every time he goes back, we don't see Kawi relive any days from his original timeline (or any of the other timelines) except kind of the first one (and even that one has major differences).

However, to my mind Pisaeng must be terrified of doing anything differently, other than maybe put some things into words (as mentioned above) and/or staying away from Kawi entirely [and I highly doubt that could work since Kawi knows Pisaeng's tricks from the other timeline as per @zzh3], so if he tries to relive their date from the latest timeline, the events would be similar enough that there could be multi-verse/timeline bleed-over. [There are other potential explanations, and of course this is fully blown out of the water if I'm wrong and Pisaeng does decide to make major changes to the timeline, but this is the one that my brain kept chewing on].

This also made me realize that if I'm right and only Pisaeng's consciousness travels to the past, and if Pisaeng does not decide to make any major changes to the timeline, if Pisaeng stays in the past, it will not make Pisaeng and Kawi equal, but will instead give Pisaeng a huge knowledge advantage, because Pisaeng will have lived all of this once before; in the last timeline, in contrast, Kawi did not jump ahead to peek at his future before sticking with the timeline after making significant changes, so he didn't know what was going to happen (he just had the imbalance of knowing what could happen, which he did share with Pisaeng though it's not the same to live it as to hear about it). The only real way in which they would be equals is if Pisaeng jumps back to the future [so they will be equal in their time travel experience and opportunities to make change], or makes a significant enough change in the past that their lives will be completely different [so that both of them will be equal in their uncertainty]. This is not quite counter to, but is a wrinkle to the points made by @bengiyo, @grapejuicegay and @he-is-lightning-in-a-bottle about relationship equality being achieved with Pisaeng time travelling, which at first really resonated with me and I think still hold true if they go one of the two routes I mentioned above. [And yes, I do think leaving things as they are would still put them on equal footing because choosing not to make a change is still a choice, and is still exerting power over their future that the other doesn't have.]

Speaking of this, thanks to a great conversation with @pandasmagorica and @thegalwhorants I went back and dug into the timeline of the series here, but TL;DR I think we could in theory have reached a few months before Kawi time travelled in the first timeline. That doesn't massively affect my prediction but I wanted to capture it because I do think it's relevant re: the balance between Kawi and Pisaeng; if Pisaeng goes to the future and I'm correct that this lines up closely to the point at which Kawi first travelled backwards in the original timeline, then in the current timeline both Kawi and Pisaeng will be at a truly equal point where neither has seen anything past where they are.

Shifting focus slightly, @grapejuicegay's thoughts about consciousness and the mechanism of time travel also made me wonder, if Pisaeng jumps back to the future [going to keep saying this because it continues to be funny to me], does the consciousness of the version of him who he took over from in the past go back to being the one in control? Is that why the Kawi of the past always seemed to stagnate whenever he jumped into the future, because the person left in Kawi's body had not had the character growth and life experiences that allowed him to make the changes in his life, so he was his former self living a slightly better life but without the personal growth to really take advantage of it? Essentially what I'm getting at here is, if Pisaeng doesn't make a change and does go back to the future, maybe the version of their relationship captured in the montage isn't lost after all, because they would make the same choices? [shout-out to the mourning of the montage by @ellaspore that got me thinking about whether it could be salvaged]

One last point I want to make: As much as it would be deeply satisfying to see Pisaeng and Kawi fight for their rights like @rocketturtle4 theorized, or going abroad so that they could get married like @marbles290 posited, or even working out a lavender wedding arrangement like @grapejuicegay suggested, I think the show already made points on these possibilities with Max and the changes to his choices, and so it would be repetitive to make it with Pisaeng and Kawi [I would not mind if the show did this, I just think this show has so much to say that it will take the opportunity to make a new point]. I think instead it's going to help Pisaeng learn the same lesson Kawi had to about time travel not being able to solve everything [hat tip @waitmyturtles], and needing to be brave and resilient enough to face the future without knowing what the future will bring, and reinforcing appreciating the time you have by being present in the present and not sacrificing your own happiness.

This show has set up so much that could happen, and this isn't the only ending I would be satisfied with by any stretch, but what I think would be most satisfying (at least for me, as I write this) would be if Pisaeng learns to accept that he can't fix everything and goes back to his future to live in the present, not knowing what the outcome will be. Also can I just say, it is really exciting to have multiple endings that I could be satisifed with?! I feel like that doesn't happen that often, at least for me.

Theory time!

So, all that being laid out, here's my Official Clown Theory about what happens in ep12 (adding lots of details so that there are a lots of opportunities to be wrong):

Pisaeng goes to the past and tries to play it cool; they re-live their first date and when Kawi notices something off, Pisaeng tells Kawi that he time travelled [this is based on the trailer so I'm not numbering it as a guess, though this show has done such a good job recontextualizing what we saw in the preview before so this could still be clowned]

Pisaeng is able to put into words what Kawi means to him

Kawi helps him come to terms with not being able to change everything the way Kawi had to come to terms with it too

[More because I want it than because I think it will happen but I'm writing it to manifest it] Pisaeng also talks to his mom while in the past to say hey, if you care about my future, help change the politics in Thailand rather than sending me abroad--giving his mom a chance to change with her kid like how Pear's dad said she should

Pisaeng jumps back to the future

We get the montage again and it looks almost exactly the same maybe just sped up, also maybe [because I've been good and deserve a treat] added bits about marriage equality moving forward?

Kawi recovers, and Kawi and Pisaeng are the ones married May 2027, at the beach [because almost all BL weddings are beach weddings, I don't make the rules]

Kawi tries to give Pisaeng the same speech Pisaeng gave him about if how he does die in future, Pisaeng should try to move on [credit to @tinycowboybro for thinking about the importance of this speech]

Pisaeng responds by reprising Unable [Gawin's OST which I have become recently obsessed with] or one of them performs a new OST we haven't heard yet? [GMMTV seems determined to milk having two protagonists who can sing]

Kawi and Pisaeng confirm neither knows what will happen from here but they'll face it together in the present [YAY]

Post-credit cut scene is Not being given the chance to go back in time by Time Travel Guy [this is still the funniest possible ending to me and I'm not going to stop speaking it into being until it's proven wrong]

Alright we'll see how many of these 10 guesses I get right on Friday. [You may have noticed I ditched the his-death-was-inevitable theorizing I did initially, even though my timeline deep dive does potentially support it, and it could still work with a lot of the above, but I just decided to go with what would make me happiest. I would still be satisfied if they do go that route or leave it ambiguous, as long as they lead up to it well.]

No matter how this goes, it has been an honour and a privilege digging into this show with all of you!

[That being said I realized I will be travelling on Friday and Saturday so depending on the train wi-fi, I may end up being late to the final episode].

cc. the other folks whose writing I was thinking about and have linked in the round-up post but didn't reference directly here: @telomeke; @benkaaoi; @jjsanguine; @stuffnonsenseandotherthings; @shortpplfedup; @williamrikers; @heretherebedork; @visualtaehyun; @knighthacker; @minorista; @neonsbian; @nemesis-21; @snidgetwrites no pressure to interact I just want to give you all credit becuase reading what everyone wrote has informed my thinking [though of course if you disagree with my conclusions, I am the only one to blame (and also I'd love to hear about it)!]

#be my favorite #be my favorite meta #be my favorite ep 11 #twig theories #typed so i can stop thinking it #clown checkpoint #long post

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