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penny00dreadful · 6 months

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Comeuppance - Part 1

Part 2 AO3

It was getting beyond ridiculous now. And if no one else wanted to help, then Dustin would take it upon himself.

Steve had helped him get his first girlfriend. He’d put his body between Dustin and the demodogs in the tunnels, even though he was half conscious and fully concussed. He’d helped them escape from torture and taken the blows in their place. He’d kept silent about his bites while they strategized in Max’s trailer.

He’d been with them through almost everything.

The only thing he’d missed was that first year but even then he was defending Nancy and Jonathan.

Dustin just wanted his brother to be happy.

And if no one else was going to do it, he’d do it himself.

He’d looked at his mother, how much brighter she used to be before his dad had died all those years ago.

He looked at Lucas and Max who always had secret smiles for each other.

He looked at Hopper and Joyce who’d found each other again after years apart, there to support their partner in everything.

He wanted that for Steve.

Steve deserved it.

To be happy with someone.

Maybe Dustin had… breezed through one or two of his mothers romance novels for inspiration, trying to figure out who the perfect candidate for Steve would be. How he could make it happen. What the method might look like.

With that in mind, he pulled in the rest of the Party who seemed to go along with him more begrudgingly than anything. Maybe they’d just gotten tired of arguing with him.

He’d have to examine later if that was something he needed to work on.

How could he become a world renowned scientist or engineer if he didn’t have anyone who would push back against him?

“Eddie!” Dustin called up towards the roof of the trailer, where he could just about make out the small plumes of smoke curling up against the bright blue sky. “Stop sunbathing, we need your help.”

The sounds of Eddie’s chains and jewellery rattled against the roof, telling Dustin he’d just rolled onto his stomach, allowing his arms to dangle down over the edge as he continued to puff away.

Eddie exhaled the smoke in his lungs and took a haughty tone when he said “A man such as myself would never be caught sunbathing, Henderson. That’s jock shit.”

Something caught Eddie’s attention behind him. He glanced back and when he turned towards the Party again he had a self-satisfied smirk on his face.

“Did you hear me?” Dustin crossed his arms over his chest like he’d seen Steve do on numerous occasions before, trying to exude the same authority. “I said we need your help.”

“Alright.” Eddie let out a loud exasperated sigh. Dustin could tell he was playing up his irritation, though. “I’ll bite. What do you need my help with?”

Dustin grinned wide, delighted to be able to expound on his plan. “Steve’s love life.”

Something thudded against the roof of the trailer but Eddie didn’t flinch, didn’t turn to see what it was, just continued staring down at them, blank faced.

“What was that noise?” Mike asked, staring up at him.

Eddie shrugged. “Kicked something. Pray tell, why are you coming to little old me for help with Steve’s love life?”

“You two are friends now, right?”

Eddie snorted into his elbow. “I suppose that’s one word for it.” He muttered, barely audible from all the way up there.

“And you’re a guy his own age.” Dustin had to shield his eyes from the sun as he stepped closer. “He’ll listen to you.”

That got a loud laugh from him. “The hell gives you that idea?”

“He’ll listen to you more than he’ll listen to us.”

“You’d be better off asking Robin.” Eddie propped his chin up on his hand. “They’ve got that weird mind meld thing going on.”

Dustin huffed.

Robin would never hear them out.

“We can’t ask Robin.”

“Well maybe you should stop meddling, you ever think of that?”

Meddling? What was he, a child? Some evil villain? No. He wouldn’t call what he had planned meddling. He was aiding. He was helping.

Meddling implied he didn't know what he was doing, which he did.

He'd researched.

“I’m not meddling. I’m helping. We’re just trying to make the guy happy so what’s the issue? He’s clearly lonely.”

Eddie’s expression hardened. “Clearly lonely, is he? That’s a real charming thing to say about your babysitter, Henderson. Not everyone needs romantic connections in life. He has me, he has Robin. He has Nancy and Jonathan and Argyle. And up until a few seconds ago I would have said he had you all too. But apparently you’re not enough. Because he’s lonely.” He spat out the last word like it had personally offended him.

“He’s been single for so long-”

“Have you considered that maybe he’s happy that way? Or that he already has someone and just hasn’t told you?”

Dustin scoffed, crossing his arms again.

Eddie just wasn’t getting it.

“He’d tell me if he had someone.”

“Oh, you think so, do you?”

“Why wouldn’t he?”

Eddie let his voice drop low. “Because you meddle, Dustin Henderson.”

“Dude, why are you being so defensive right now?” Couldn’t he see that what Dustin was doing was for the best? For everyone? Why did no one seem to want the same things for Steve that he did? “We’re asking for your help to make our friend happy!”

“Why can’t you ask Robin?”

Robin also wouldn’t get it.

“She’s too close to the issue. She won’t be objective. She’ll side with him no matter what.”

“And I won’t?”

“No. Because I know what I’m doing? I’ve researched this? It’s not fucking rocket science. If the idiots in movies and tv can make it happen surely we’ll be able to do it easily.”

The Party was practically a protégé mix of brains. There was no way this could fail.

“Movies and tv.” Eddie muttered to himself like he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “Jesus Christ.” He tilted his head back behind him for a few moments, listening for something before turning to face them again. “Alright, listen. I’m not agreeing to anything yet but tell me who’s the other person wrapped up in this?”

Dustin finally allowed himself to smile, proud of the clincher he was just about to reveal.

“Nancy.” He said, puffing out his chest and cocking his eyebrow.

He’d definitely just won this argument.

Except Eddie didn’t smile back at him and immediately agree, like Dustin had been expecting.

Instead Eddie moved his whole head with an eye roll and groaned. “You can’t be serious. He’s over Nancy. He’s told us all many, many, many times. He doesn’t want a relationship with her.”

Fuck sake. What wasn’t Eddie getting about this?

That’s just what people said when they were trying to save their hearts or there was some kind of contrived misunderstanding.

Dustin had seen the way Steve looked at Nancy from the car at the Snow Ball.

He’d heard the things he said to her in the Winnebago.

“Well, I don’t believe it. There has to be a reason he’s not dating Robin and we all heard the Winnebago talk. They’re meant to be. They’re perfect for each other.”

Eddie pursed his lips but stayed silent for a few seconds, considering. “Okay. And what about Nancy?”

Dustin blinked up at him confused. “What about her?”

“What does she say about this whole thing?”

“We can’t tell her, Eddie. We can’t tell either of them. Obviously.”

“Uh-huh. So Steve’s pining after Nancy, then?”

“Yeah.”

“Is Nancy pining after Steve?”

Dustin opened and closed his mouth, trying to formulate his comeback. He hadn’t really… thought too hard about that. But like… why wouldn’t she want him?

He was handsome, he was strong, he had money, he wanted kids, he wanted marriage, he was respected around town.

He was the perfect package!

And actually, if Dustin remembered correctly, she’d smiled at Steve during the Winnebago talk so she was receptive at the very least.

But he didn’t have a chance to articulate his argument because Eddie was barrelling ahead again.

“Oh right, I get it. Nancy doesn’t have any agency in this because the guy should always get the girl no matter her opinion right?”

“No!” That wasn’t what he meant. “It’s not like that-”

“You’re telling me that Nancy Wheeler,” Eddie interrupted, “gun toting, government fighting Nancy Wheeler. The same Nancy Wheeler who is currently working on her exposé of the sexism she experienced at the Hawkins Post, which is due to publish the second she goes to college at Emerson, where she already has an internship lined up, is going to just go along with this? And also, did I forget to mention, she leaves in six weeks? If you do get the two together what’s Steve supposed to do then?”

That was all semantics.

Once they were together they could work that out between themselves! But Dustin knew Eddie wasn’t going to like that answer so he came up with something else quickly because it wasn’t that hard, because this made sense.

“He could go with her!”

“Oh, so fuck any desires he had, then? He’s just gonna drop everything here and go? Follow her like a lost puppy?”

Dustin rolled his eyes again. “C’mon Eddie, now you’re just being combative for the sake of it.” He placed his hands back on his hips, again trying to exude parental authority. “It’ll be good for him to experience things. What does he even have here to drop? I mean, it’s about time he moved on from this town, right?”

“Henderson.” Eddie snapped in warning.

There was a moment of pause where they both stared at each other before Eddie rolled back around to face the back of the trailer. He muttered something in low tones that Dustin couldn’t hear and the next second was clambering down off the roof.

He landed far more gracefully than Dustin would have thought he was capable of before stomping over. “Do not let him hear you say that. He’ll think you don’t care whether he’s here or not.”

Dustin threw his arms out at either side of him. How could Steve possibly think that? He was just stating plain facts! “Of course I care!”

“Then act like it!” Eddie threw his own arms out in a similar fashion. “You’re making these decisions without him. What you’re trying to pull is peer pressure, all of you, you understand that right? It’s barely a step away from bullying.”

“Eddie, c’mon.” Mike crossed his arms, unable to meet his eye. “You’re looking at this all wrong. That’s not-”

“Yes it is. You’re all trying to get him to conform to what you think he should do, regardless of how he feels about it.”

Dustin shook his head, looking up at Eddie and imploring him to understand. What they were doing wasn’t malicious. “I just want him to be happy.”

But Eddie wasn’t relenting so Dustin would have to compromise somewhere to make this work.

“I understand that.” Eddie started. “But this isn’t-”

“Listen okay, FINE.” Dustin huffed. He did not stomp his foot. “I swear if you help us I’ll… I’ll stop if it doesn’t work. I swear, I promise if this doesn’t work and we don’t get Steve and Nancy back together I’ll never meddle in his affairs again. Please, I swear.”

Eddie loomed over him, dark eyes, dark hair, dark clothes, intense presence and Dustin was suddenly reminded of why he was intimidated by him when they first met at school. “On your mother?”

He nodded eagerly, hope starting to rise in his chest. “On my mother.”

“Okay.” Eddie sighed. “If it doesn’t work you are to never stick your nose in his business again, you understand me?”

“Yeah, I get it.” Dustin agreed, his mind already planning far ahead. “But you don’t need to worry about it, it’ll work.”

“You’re so sure of that are you?”

“I know him best out of all of us, I know him.” He tried not to let his smugness through, he really did try. But he couldn’t help it. “This’ll work.”

“I think you’re looking at this through little kid lenses and can’t see past the end of your own nose.”

Dustin opened his mouth in offence. “I’m smarter than you, you know.”

“I know but that doesn’t mean you’re a grown up. You're sure you have all the relevant information? You know everything there is to know and there's no way this could go wrong?” Eddie was acting like he knew something Dustin didn't, which just couldn’t be true. He’d planned for all the eventualities.

“Of course I do.”

“Alright.” Eddie nodded, turning back to his trailer and pulling himself back up onto the roof. “If you’re sure. Now scram, kiddos. I gotta get back to my sunbathing.”

It was all going terribly.

If Dustin didn’t know any better he’d think that Steve was totally checked out from the romance sphere. And he was acting a little weird. During one of their usual rides to the arcade, he’d told Dustin he was happy, which was great but it had come out of nowhere.

“Okay? I’m glad you’re happy?”

“I mean it though.” Steve drummed his fingers against the wheel. “Where I am in life right now, my friendships, my relationships, I’m happy. I don’t need anything to change. I’m good with how things are.”

Dustin had to think back on what they’d just talked about.

They’d been speaking about Steve’s most recent trip to Indy. He’d been a little cagey on what he, Eddie and Robin had been doing up there, but that was probably because it was some weird grown-up thing they were doing that they didn’t want Dustin to know about. Like he couldn’t handle it, whatever it was.

There was nothing they’d talked about that might have led to this.

“Right… well thanks for letting me know?”

Steve just nodded at him like it was a job well done and the whole thing was just plain weird.

Things got even weirder when he saw Nancy. She was dropping off some of her old study notes to him and she mentioned that it was a good thing that she was single right now. She’d be going away to college soon and she couldn’t stand the idea of dragging someone away from their home just for her sake.

Dustin stared at her a little bewildered but tried to get her to see reason anyway. “Wouldn’t it be nice to have someone there with you, though?”

“No,” she answered lightly, “it would probably add more pressure to be honest.”

Dustin didn’t think there was any way that was true. Surely it would be easier to acclimate with someone from home to keep her company.

But despite his numerous attempts to get Nancy and Steve alone together in situations that could easily turn into dates, with soft touches or glittering eyes or whatever else the fucking books talked about, nothing had happened.

No progress had been made and it was fucking frustrating.

He’d gotten the two of them to sit together, away from the rest of the group at the cinema and they just… watched the movie?

Not once did Steve try to put his arm across the back of Nancy’s seat or take her hand or even whisper to her, getting their faces close together except to nudge her playfully for the popcorn. It was a perfect set up and he was doing nothing with it.

How was Steve so bad at this?

Didn’t he have a reputation in school?

And Eddie was less than helpful.

Every time Dustin leaned forward in anticipation of something happening between the two of them, Eddie would throw a kernel of popcorn at his head with a childish giggle, watching the scene unfold like it was the funniest thing in the world.

Dustin’s next attempt had fallen flat as well.

He’d told Nancy that all the older teens were meeting at the diner for dinner together and had gotten Eddie to pass the message onto Steve. Nancy seemed wary initially but relented surprisingly easily, without much of a fight and Dustin was convinced he was getting better at this.

But the Party watched from the bookshop across the street as the two of them chatted amicably and even laughed together a few times but that was it. They didn’t share any food between them, they didn’t feed each other, they didn’t even get the single milkshake with two straws.

That was a beginner level move!

Dustin was losing his fucking mind, just trying to get those two to do something so he had to go big.

Again he recruited Eddie to help, out of complete necessity this time.

Because there was no way Dustin could sneak into The Hideout to see how this plan was shaping up but he was confident that something would happen this time around.

He told Eddie to do everything within his power to keep the two of them together.

Alcohol is a social lubricant, it shouldn’t be that hard.

Eddie had just scrunched his nose in disgust, mouthing 'social lubricant' to himself.

But even that was a lost cause because when Eddie walkied to update him on their progress a little breathless, probably from playing, he said he’d shredded so hard on stage, Steve spent the whole time watching the performance which was the exact opposite of what they were trying to do.

Dustin was nearly ready to lock the two of them in a closet until they got to it, but he wasn’t there.

Yet.

He had another option up his sleeve.

Which is why he was shocked when Max announced she was pulling out of the whole thing.

“Listen, dipshit. It’s not working.” She’d said, frowning at him.

“It will work! You can’t pull out now!”

“I can and I will. When you come from where I come from you learn pretty quickly to mind your own fucking business if you don’t want a punch in the face and it’s getting there.”

Dustin could do nothing but throw his hands into the air as she stormed off.

It gave him the final push to start ramping things up.

“Eddie, we need you to flirt with Nancy.”

The man in question turned his head slowly and methodically until he was facing Dustin completely, his hand still hovering over the battle map he was prepping.

“Excuse me?”

“If you make Steve jealous, that might be the kick he needs to finally do something.”

“You’re playing with fire here, Henderson. You can’t toy with people’s feelings like that.”

“Who’s toying with feelings? There’ll be no feelings involved.”

“What about Steve’s feelings? What about Nancy’s?”

“You're overthinking this.” These kinds of miscommunications always worked out in the end, come on.

Eddie’s mouth was set in a firm, grim line.

He looked beyond irritated.

“And there’s no way this could possibly blow up in your face, right?”

Dustin looked at him like he had six heads.

Why was he the only one who was seeing sense here? This was how things were done.

He was saved from having to answer by the arrival of Nancy and Mike into the Harrington basement.

Steve barely glanced up at their arrival, just sending a short smile their way, too deep in conversation with Robin about the news or interior design or whatever the fuck grown ups talked about.

Dustin sent a very pointed look Eddie's way who heaved the most put upon sigh, rising from his seat and giving him, the middle finger which he sarcastically reciprocated.

“Hey Nance.” Eddie said, sildling up beside her and oozing charm and charisma. “I'm glad you decided to come today. Don't know what I would've done if I had to go without seeing your pretty face for much longer."

Steve and Robin’s conversation abruptly cut off.

Robin was blinking up at Eddie from her position on the couch with nothing short of bewilderment and Steve just raised an eyebrow looking almost amused.

God damn it, why was he amused?

Nancy herself looked incredibly confused, flitting her eyes in between Steve and Eddie for just a second before Eddie made some kind of hand gesture that Dustin couldn’t see.

Nancy smiled.

“Just a pretty face?” She asked, batting her eyelashes at him which on its own was weird. Dustin didn’t think he’d ever seen Nancy do that before.

“Oh of course not, Lady Wheeler. Everyone knows you’re more than just a pretty face.”

She reached a hand out, grasping his upper arm in a little squeeze. “Dunno if I could say the same thing about you.”

Eddie clutched at his heart, stumbling back a few steps. “Oh! The Lady Wheeler has wounded me most grievously!”

“Oh, stop it, you.” She swatted at his arm. “You’re still pretty.”

Which… this wasn’t how things were supposed to go. Nancy wasn’t supposed to flirt back!

“Would you care to join us?” Eddie asked, sweeping his arm out towards the table where the rest of the Party had finished setting up.

Dustin stared open-mouthed.

Eddie never asked anyone to join unprepared.

“I’ve heard this arena of play isn’t unfamiliar to you.” He continued, lowering his voice and leaning in close to Nancy but he wasn’t quiet enough to stop Dustin hearing him. “I’ve even heard you used to get into costume for the kiddies. You into a bit of roleplay, Nancy?”

Steve widened his eyes at Eddie and twisted his wrist.

Shit.

Steve hadn’t won most human on human fights but he could probably take Eddie to the cleaners pretty easily.

Steve wouldn’t though, right? He wasn’t that kind of guy?

Dustin was, thankfully, proven right when both Steve and Eddie went back to ignoring each other in favour of watching Nancy.

Eddie straightened up and Dustin could see a slight scowl and a glare on Nancy’s face but it was filled with more fond exasperation than outright anger.

Eddie broke away from her with one last wink and took his seat behind the DM screen while Nancy lowered herself down next to Steve and Robin.

“I’m going to pay for that later.” Eddie muttered to himself.

“I think I’m going to be sick.” Mike grumbled, thudding his forehead into the table.

“Chill the fuck out, Romeo.” Dustin hissed. “You’re supposed to be making Steve jealous not getting Nancy to actually like you.”

Eddie just shrugged. “I can’t help it if I’m irresistible.”

Time flew by as they all got sucked into the game and Dustin felt his spirits lifting. Steve kept glancing in Eddie’s direction and it gave him hope that their plan had worked. Maybe he was getting jealous if he couldn’t keep his eyes off him over the top of the magazine he was pretending to read.

Dustin’s suspicions were all but confirmed in the next few days as Steve started to slowly mope around every time Eddie shot a wink in Nancy’s direction or made her giggle.

It was honestly a bit over dramatic the way he’d sigh wistfully towards them or get an honest to god pout on his face.

“This is your chance, dude!” Dustin jumpscared Steve in his kitchen, nearly causing him to spill the popcorn he’d just poured into a large bowl.

“Jesus H. Christ, where the fuck did you come from?” Steve set the bowl down a little louder than he needed to before reaching up to rifle through his cabinets for more snacks.

“Washington.”

“Har har, very funny.”

“I’m serious about this, Steve. Aren’t you jealous seeing Eddie flirting with Nancy all the time? Don’t you want to do something about it?”

"Dunno if I'd call it jealousy." He muttered.

"Come on, you need to like…" Dustin wanted to say 'mark your territory' or something but he was pretty sure if that ever got back to Nancy he'd be six feet deep before he could even blink, so he just mimed a shoving motion.

“You’re not seriously suggesting I punch Eddie for Nancy’s favour are you?”

“No! That’s not what I’m getting at at all, fucking hell. I meant for you to turn on your Harrington Charm I’ve heard so much about! Steal her away from him!”

“I don’t think anyone can ‘steal’ Nancy Wheeler, Henderson.” His tone abruptly shifted from exasperation to something sadder, like he’d flipped a switch. “Besides, what’s the point?" He sighed, like a wistful maiden. "She’s clearly more interested in Eddie than in me.”

“That’s a very defeatist attitude. You haven’t even tried anything yet.”

Steve looked down on him, turning something over in his head before nodding. “Okay. I’ll try. Now help me carry these back inside.”

Dustin happily filled his arms with snacks and followed Steve back out to the living room where the rest of their friends were waiting.

Eddie and Nancy were sitting side by side on the couch, pressed up against each other. Dustin took his seat on the floor along with the rest of the Party, spreading the snacks out in front of him and keeping an eye out as Steve flipped the lights off before making his way over to the two.

“Excuse me there while I just-” Steve lowered himself down, directly in the middle of Eddie and Nancy, practically on their laps until they squirmed away to avoid their legs being crushed under the weight of one muscular jock.

Eddie was biting his lip in the way he usually did when he was trying not to laugh and Nancy had her hand covering her mouth, maybe in shock. Probably in shock.

Robin sat next to all of them in an armchair with her hands covering her face, shaking her head and Dustin had to try very hard not to facepalm into the next century.

God this guy was hopeless.

Steve wiggled a little in place, getting comfortable and placing the popcorn bowl on his lap with a goofy grin. “Are we ready to start?” He asked, plucking the remote from Eddie’s hand and pressing play.

It was only a couple of days later when Dustin’s walkie crackled to life in the dark evening hours.

“Operation White Picket Fence, sound off.” Mike's voice came through.

One by one each member of the Party confirmed they were there, ending with Dustin. “This is Dart the Bard, checking in. Over.”

“This is a Code Orange, I repeat this is a Code Orange. Over.” Mike called.

“Hold on Paladin. We need to wait for Kas. Over.”

“That’s a negative, Dart. We need to talk without him. Over.”

But Eddie was a part of Operation White Picket Fence, even if his participation was working a little too well. Maybe that’s what this was about.

He huffed, endlessly glad they'd decided to stick to codenames, he couldn't deal with his mother overhearing any of this.

“Okay,” Dustin replied, “let’s switch to our backup channel just in case he checks in. Over.”

The Party sounded off their agreement and he turned the dial on his walkie, settling on the right numbers and waiting to find out exactly what was going on.

“The plan is backfiring. It’s going wrong. I overheard Emerson on the phone talking about Kas and Babysitter. She was going on about how she’s really started to like Kas. Like like. She has a full blown crush on him now and apparently it’s helping her move on from Babysitter. Over.”

“Shit. Shit, shit, shitshitshitshit! This is not what was supposed to happen! Over!”

“I know! What the hell are we supposed to do now? Over.”

"We'll tell Kas to stop. Maybe get him to start talking up Babysitter instead. Over."

"I don't want to see my s-Emerson get hurt over this, Bard. Besides, Kas is way better than Babysitter anyway. Over."

"But they're not meant to be! And Kas doesn’t even like her like that! Babysitter and Emerson are meant to be! We'll just have to regroup. Start pushing them harder or something. Over!"

"Yeah, because that's been working out so well so far." Lucas grumbled. "Over."

Dustin nearly jumped at the sound of the phone ringing elsewhere in the house. He sat, waiting for his mom to pick up. At least if she was on the phone he could be sure she wasn’t listening in.

When the ringing stopped and he could hear the muffled sounds of his mother talking to someone, he continued.

“Babysitter hasn’t been on a date in months and the only person he’s been hanging around with other than Red Bird is Kas! He’s not trying anymore so this has to happen before Emerson leaves for-”

“Dusty? Phone for you.” His mother’s voice came through his closed bedroom door, accompanied by her knock.

“Shit. Hold on, guys. Phone. Over.”

Dustin pushed himself to his feet and opened the door, following his mother down the hallway. “Who is it?”

“Eddie.” She replied with a soft smile.

Speak of the devil. He thought. Well, no time like the present to sort this out.

“Hello?”

“Hey Dusty-Buns.” Eddie’s infuriating smile was audible.

“I told you not to call me that.”

“But it’s so fun! Listen, I need to talk to you about this whole Nancy and Steve thing-”

“Good, because I need to talk to you about it too. You gotta dial it back, man.”

Eddie paused. “What do you mean?”

“You’re getting in too deep with her, you’re starting to pull her attention away from Steve and that was not a part of the plan.”

“Yeah.” He sighed. “I’m not sure if I can really do that…”

“Wha- why? Why, Eddie, why?!”

“I dunno, man.” Dustin could hear him shrug. “I kinda like her.”

“No! Nonononono! You can’t like her! You’re not allowed to like her, why do you like her?!”

“What do you mean I’m not allowed? And as for why, have you met her? You used to have a crush on her!”

“Yeah, when I was a child, you can’t be serious about this, Eddie.”

“I’m super serious about this, Dustin. I like her. I want to ask her out.”

“Jesus Christ this was not part of the plan!”

“And I didn’t want to be a part of the plan from the start! You forced me into it! I told you it wouldn’t work.”

“It will work. It still can work! We're still doing this whether you like it or not. I’ll see you at Steve’s tomorrow. Don’t do anything stupid in the meantime!”

“Dust-!”

Dustin slammed the phone back down onto the cradle, stomping back off to his room, ignoring his mother’s calls after him.

“Guys,” he said, snatching his walkie up from the floor. “Things just got so much worse. We need to come up with a new plan before tomorrow.”

Steve didn't seem too suspicious when Dustin called him to let him know the Party didn’t need a ride to his house for the get together, they’d bike. They needed time to get their plan straight anyway.

All of that was thrown out of the window, however when they pulled up to the Harrington home and heard shouting coming from inside. They all shared a nervous glance with each other, easily recognising the voices as coming from Steve and Eddie.

"-can't believe you would do this to me!" Steve yelled, standing on the opposite side of the living room to Eddie who had his arm draped over Nancy's shoulders. Robin was sitting on the couch between them, unusually subdued with a lollipop in her mouth, her eyes ping ponging between them like she was watching a tennis match.

"Steve, please! I thought you'd be happy for me!" Eddie shouted back, waving his free arm around.

"Happy for you? How could I be happy for you when you're stealing Nancy away from me!"

Nancy gave a little frown but didn’t speak.

“I’m sorry Steve but-”

“You’re supposed to be my friend Eddie!” Steve's voice pitched high like a whining dog and he sniffled… loudly.

“I am your friend! But you can’t expect me to ignore the pull of true love!”

Nancy turned her head to look at him. “True love?” She asked, her tone flat.

“That’s right. True love, shnookums, my precious little rainbow cupcake.” Eddie booped her on the nose and she looked like she was fighting hard not to punch him.

Dustin was horrified. How could everything have gone so wrong?

“This is a complete betrayal! I don’t know if I can ever look at you the same way again, either of you! In fact, I don’t think I can look at you anymore at all!” Steve’s voice was wavering as turned his back on them, facing Robin with his arms crossed who stared at him wide eyed, biting into her lollipop.

“I don’t think there’s anything more I can say to you two. I never want to speak to you again! I never want to see you again!” Steve cried, throwing one hand over his eyes and holding the other out as if to push them away. “Go on, run away together and leave me behind! I wash my hands of you two.”

“That’s too bad Steve, I’m sorry this is goodbye forever, never to see each other again, never to interact or even ask the kids about one another in passing. This is truly a terrible, irreparable breaking of the Fellowship, never to be fixed!”

Jesus they were both laying it on thick, rubbing as much salt in the wound as possible, probably hurting each other terribly in the process. How had it come to this? Was their found family really going to be so broken forever? Dustin didn’t know if he could stomach it.

“Eddie.” Dustin breathed as he and Nancy turned to face them, apparently completely unsurprised to find the Party standing in the doorway. “What have you done?”

“What have I done? I did nothing but follow my heart, struck down by Cupid's arrow! What have you done, Dustin? You started this.”

“This wasn’t the plan, Eddie! This wasn’t the plan!”

Steve turned back around, his face suspiciously dry but Dustin was too far gone to notice.

“You were only supposed to make Steve jealous!” His voice was rising into a shout. “Not fall in love! You were never supposed to seriously flirt with Nancy and I told you not to ask her out! This whole thing was to get Steve and Nancy back together!”

“What plan? What whole thing?” Steve had walked over from his far corner of the room, planting himself down right next to Eddie with his hands on his hips and a stern look in his eye.

Dustin floundered, opening and closing his mouth. “The- we- there was a plan…” he took a deep breath. Well it was all completely fucked anyway, what was the point in keeping it quiet? “The plan was to get you and Nancy back together.”

"Behind our backs?" Steve prompted, not moving. He kept his hands on his hips and kept that hard look in his eyes, waiting for Dustin to continue.

“You haven’t gone on a date in ages, Steve! And you and Nancy were so good together-”

“No we weren’t.” Steve and Nancy cut him off in unison.

“But- it’s- you two are meant to be together! Do the whole white picket fence and babies thing! You just needed a push so I said I’d give you that push!”

"You certainly 'pushed' enough, Dustin." Nancy said, unwinding Eddie's arm from around her shoulders. They were barely even touching now as if some kind of act had been dropped. As if-

"Wait."

"Personally, I think I pulled off 'straight' rather well." Eddie grinned, the picture of smug pride.

"Wait. But this… this was all an act?! But you…” He pointed between Steve and Nancy.

“Listen to me very carefully, Henderson.” Steve raised his hands and began using sign language exaggeratedly along with his speech as though to really punctuate his statement. “I. Don’t want to. Be with. Nancy. Nancy. Does not want to. Be with. Me. Your plan would have never worked-”

But Dustin just couldn’t let this go. He’d been so sure.

“It would have! It would have worked! There were just some,” he gestured in Eddie’s direction, “variables we didn’t think to factor in.”

“There were a lot of variables you didn’t think to factor in. Some of the biggest being how I would feel about this whole thing!" Steve said, jabbing himself in the chest. "Or Nancy! Or Eddie! You just ploughed through without any consideration for our own emotional investments. Did you ever once stop to think why? Did you ever think there was a reason why I’ve refused every time you’ve been bugging me about pursuing Nancy again? Or Robin? Or anyone else? No, you didn’t. You just assumed I wouldn’t know what was best for me or that I wasn’t smart enough to be making my own decisions. That I don’t know my own mind as well as you do.”

Dustin winced. He knew it was a sensitive topic for Steve, people always assuming he was stupid because he couldn’t read quickly or had difficulty hearing. But that’s not what he’d done! That’s not how he’d intended it!

“That’s not-”

“Yes it is. That’s exactly what it is. I’m very familiar with it, I’ve been listening to it my whole life. People making decisions for me about school or sports or whatever because I couldn’t possibly be able to figure it out on my own? I used to see it all the time, I know what it looks like. You ignored every sign, every way this thing could have and would have gone wrong. And because you refused to consider any of these factors you could have blown up some of my most cherished friendships forever! No coming back from it. Permanently damaged. Do you have any idea what that would do to me? To us? We are not your fucking playthings to mess around with, Dustin!"

Panic was starting to settle deep in Dustin’s chest now. He needed backup, he needed something, someone, it wasn’t malicious it was just… he was just trying to help!

“Eddie?”

“Don’t look at me, I am not on your side here, Henderson. I told you how this would end when you first approached me and you wouldn’t listen.”

“But you were bluffing! There’s no way you could have known he wouldn’t want this! You don’t know Steve that well.”

“What happened to 'you're a friend his own age', huh? You’re still assuming you know everything without a complete picture. There’s a glaring puzzle piece you’re missing out on because, and I’m sorry I have to say this, you don’t look at things objectively like a scientist should. You let your emotions run you and again refuse to see past the end of your own nose.”

Dustin crossed his arms, unable to look any of them in the eye. If he had missed something it couldn’t have been something that obvious. He just needed to find out what it was.

“What could I possibly be missing?” He grumbled.

“Oh no, you don’t get to bully that information out of us." Eddie said. "If you were meant to know, then you’d know. But you don’t get to decide what secrets people do or don’t tell you. Part of being a grown up is understanding that.”

“But why… why wouldn’t you tell me something like that?”

“This. This is why, Dustin." Steve answered, running a hand through his hair. "Because you meddle. For months we’ve been telling you not to, but you don’t listen. You’ve made us feel like we have to keep things secret from you because what if you decided this secret thing is a bad thing, even though it makes the people involved happy? If you decide it’s bad or not the best course of action, you might have decided again that you know best and try to break it. Don’t even try to deny it, Dustin, you know it’s the truth.”

“But… but if you’d just told me it makes you happy-”

“You mean like how I told you I was happy where I was now and didn’t need Nancy back in my life romantically? That I was happy with how all my relationships are now?" Steve sighed, shaking his head. "You still tried to fuck with it, Dustin. You still tried to fuck with a good thing because you think you know better.”

“The both of us went to you separately and made it crystal clear that we were happy with things the way they were." Nancy said. "We’d agreed that if you backed off, we’d back off too. But you didn’t. You could’ve destroyed our friendships, destroyed our relationships, destroyed each of us mentally and emotionally. You just kept pushing. You want to be treated like a grownup? Well congrats, you got what you wished for. Consequences. No sugar coating. Grown up consequences. Just like you wanted.”

“But what about the others? They were involved too!”

“And they’ll get their punishment. But we all know you were the ringleader.” Eddie crossed his arms over his chest, unmoving.

“So that’s it? You’re happy being single? Really?” Dustin knew he was pushing. He knew he should have really kept that last comment inside, he really should have.

Because Steve had been irritated, pissed off and upset. But now he was angry. Honestly and truly angry and Dustin didn’t think until this moment that it had ever been directed at him before.

It was a soft anger, simmering and cold and disappointed.

“You still don’t get it.”

Steve was looking at him and underneath the anger and disappointment there was also a streak of heartbreak that Dustin didn’t know what the fuck to do with.

Everyone else was looking at him now, Eddie and Robin were like marble pillars, bracketing Steve at either side with a stern look on their face, Nancy was glaring down at him and all of his friends behind him had wilted.

He was the only one left standing proud and a horrible, terrible part of his brain was saying to him that if everyone in a room was telling him he was wrong, maybe… maybe he hadn’t been as right as he was sure he had been.

“But I-” Dustin stuttered. He… he hadn’t set out to hurt Steve. He would never… “It wasn’t supposed to go like this.”

“Dustin.” That was Nancy, circling around him now until she came to a stop in front of him. “I think it’s time for you to go. All of you.”

“But-”

“If you refuse to leave, it will become trespassing.”

Trespassing? What, was Steve going to call the fucking police on him or something? But a glance back at Steve’s face, resigned and hurt and angry told him that maybe he couldn’t exactly hash everything out right now.

He’d just have to wait for everyone to calm down and then they could work this out.

They could work this all out, right?

“I mean, how could it all have gone so wrong?”

They were all sitting in Will's room, the whole Party in a circle on the floor. Dustin was… confused.

He was angry. He was hurt. He was… so upset. And all with himself because… well because he had hurt Steve. Had been hurting Steve for long enough that Steve felt like he had to hide things from him.

He made Steve feel like he couldn’t talk to him, tell him about this good thing in his life because he thought Dustin might fuck with it?

And yeah, Steve hid shit from them all the time.

His rocky recovery after the Upside-Down, both mentally and physically. The amount of times he had to fight off infection from the road-rash on his back and arms. The nightmares. The panic attacks. The concussions. The hearing loss.

But all those things Steve hid from them because he didn’t want them to worry, he didn’t want to burden them with their problems.

He’d never hidden something from them, from Dustin because he was happy.

Whatever this thing was, it apparently made Steve really, really happy and Dustin never knew. Because Steve had been afraid that if he told Dustin and Dustin didn’t like it for whatever reason, he’d try to take it away, try to meddle.

God, he was starting to hate that word.

Meddle.

It felt so fucking childish.

"It was never gonna go right." Max muttered from in between Lucas and El.

And Dustin didn’t know why it was that that did it, that quiet and slightly accusatory comment from Max who rarely pulled her verbal punches that caused the first tear to spill free.

And they just kept coming. His vision was blurring and there was a terrible lump in his throat, forcing its way out.

The first sob that broke through sent a ripple throughout the group, plunging them into silence and Dustin could feel them all staring.

The next second he was set upon, everyone coming close to get their arms around him or hands on him, to comfort him even though he didn’t feel like he deserved any of it.

“What did I do?” He blubbered. He wasn’t even sure who’s shirt he was crying into. “What do I do? Steve didn’t tell me, he won’t tell me b- because he thinks I’ll try to take it away. Wh- what do I do?”

“Dustin.” Oh, that was Lucas. He was destroying Lucas’ shirt. “Do you understand why what you did was so fucked up? I’m not asking to punish you more, but you can’t fix it until you understand what was broken. It’s science.”

Science.

Yeah, okay. He could understand that.

Can’t just smash pieces back together. You gotta examine them.

“I- I ignored all the times they told me to leave it alone?”

Lucas nodded. “Yeah. Anything else?”

Someone was running a hand up and down his back and someone else had both his hands in a firm grip.

“I… I kept pushing. After they told me to stop. Af- after they told me they were happy. Because I thought… I thought, how could they be happy? I wouldn’t be happy in their position, so they must not be happy. And everything with Steve… trying to push Robin or Nancy towards him because… because he’s supposed to be with someone, right? And they’re his friends so why wouldn’t he want one of them?”

“Same reason you wouldn’t want me.” Max said. “Or El.”

“I did want you once.” Dustin mumbled. There was no point trying to deny the past. Not at this stage.

“And Steve wanted Robin once. But they’ve always been just friends.” One of the hands in his squeezed, and that was probably Max. “Could you imagine someone trying to force the two of us together now? After everything we’ve figured out between us?”

“B-but that’s different. You’re with Lucas.”

“So? What if I wasn’t and someone was still trying to push us together? Or what if we had to hide our relationship because of small minded idiots and we couldn’t say why you and I wouldn’t work out, we just had to hope someone would take our word for it. And then what if they didn’t and just kept pushing?”

Dustin hummed, a weak and shaky thing but he could see her point. It would be fucking torture to try to deal with all of that and to not be able to say anything about it.

What a terrible hypothetical.

“I…” He sniffled, trying not to wipe his nose off on Lucas’ shirt. “I need to apologise. I need… I need to talk to him.”

There was a tap on his shoulder and he glanced up to see Will holding out some tissues.

He took it with a watery smile.

“We’ll help you figure it out.”

Part 2 AO3

@augustjustice

Big thanks as always to @hbyrde36 for her magnificent beta work and to the STWG for their motivation and @hairstevington for her help with the ASL section. 😘

#steddie #steve x eddie #stranger things #eddie x steve #steddie fic #stranger things fic #fanfic #penny00dreadful #steddie fanfic #wip #ao3 #dustin henderson #the party #comeuppance #pennys anniversary event

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steviebears · 2 years

Text

Quite The Gentleman

SUMMARY: The day has finally come for Eddie to meet your parents.

GENRE: fluff, Wheeler!Reader

"Mom, she's not a kid anymore. It's not like Eddie is.. terrible." Nancy says with a supportive tone that slightly falters at the last word. Nancy wasn't necessarily approving of your relationship, but it wasn't like she had a say being your younger sister.

Mike was a different story. Part of him was secretly stoked because he worshipped Eddie in a way. The other part, the majority, was absolutely pissed at him. So, mike rolls his eyes while setting the table.

"I know. I'm just-" Karen sighs and puts a hand on her hip.

"I worry about her judgement sometimes. I heard some not-so-great things about this Eddie Munson." Ted clears his throat and pours a glass of wine. Karen eyes him, frustrated with his lack of concern over your dating choices.

"He's not all bad, you'll see." Nancy gives a reassuring smile. You come down the stairs wearing a dress nancy had never seen you in befo- was that hers? Nancy silently groans at you and you stick your tongue out at her.

The doorbell then rings and you run to it, excitedly opening up to see a moderately cleaned up Eddie. His hair was brushed, sort of, and he wore a button down he'd bought at a second hand store with jeans. He smiles wide, cupping your cheek and giving you a quick peck.

Your mom drags everyone to the door to greet poor Eddie. She's taken aback by the metal head's hair but quickly pushes the thought to the side.

"Mr and Mrs, Wheeler! It's a pleasure." Eddie says with excitement, shaking both of their hands. His gaze travels down to a shy Holly, hiding behind Karen. He reaches out his hand with a genuine grin.

"M'lady." She giggles and shakes his hand shyly.

Karen ushers him inside. Nancy gives a polite wave and Eddie ruffles Mike's hair. You hold Eddies hand and guide him next to your spot at the dining table, but he pulls out your chair for you before sitting down.

"You've got a wonderful home." Eddie compliments, his hand settling on your thigh. He was doing great. You knew he would, he was nervous but not enough to throw off his charm. Your mom thanks him, clearly surprised by all of his manners.

"I'll set out dinner now, help yourself to some water or w- how old are you again?" He answers, 20, and she shakes her head.

"No wine then, excuse me." Eddie stands up.

"Should I give you a hand?" Her face lights up, not even Jonathan had been this polite when she'd met him. She nods and smiles, showing him to the kitchen. Mike gives you a tired look, clearly not happy with the show Eddie was putting on. You scrunch your nose at him.

The night could not be going better. Well, maybe he'd be better off without a few of the jokes he made, but other than that, perfect.

"So, Eddie. You're head of the club Mike is in?" She takes a sip of wine.

"Yes ma'am, the Hellfire Club." Karen and Ted pause, looking at Mike who had a guilty look on his face.

"You didn't tell us it was called that, Micheal."

"You would have never let me join if I did!" He defends, looking frustrated with Eddie.

"You're right! It sounds like some kind of cult..." Karen looks questioningly at Eddie. He starts to sweat, so you set your hand on his in attempt to calm him down a bit. Mike's gonna get an earful from you later...

"It's not ma'am. Just a silly name for a D&D club." He calmly states with a lighthearted chuckle. She looks slightly relieved.

"Do you often play children's games?" Your dad says sounding disapproving of this newfound fact. You can see your mom kick him underneath the table.

"Sometimes. I think we all need to nurture out inner child." Karen smiles and nods.

"You know, that is actually very insightful, I like that"

Your parents and you walk Eddie to the door, wishing him a safe drive home while he tries to block the sight of his beat up van.

"Dinner was delicious, thank you. Have a great night!" He says his goodbye and you step outside with him.

"You think they liked me?" He asks. You just pull him in for a long kiss.

"Absolutely." You say, brushing your lips against his.

"You're right. I nailed it!" He replies cockily and kisses you again, promising to meet you at your window tonight.

All in all, your mother still did not fully approve. She had to admit, he was quite the gentleman. However she couldn't get past the fact that he flunked his senior year, twice. Ted seemed indifferent but secretly liked him a lot and cut him some slack in the discussions proceeding the dinner. Mike was not looking forward to seeing him around the house, especially not after getting his mom upset at him.

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morganski-19 · 4 months

Text

Nancy’s not sure what led her to drive over to Steve’s house. All she knows it that it was something she needed to do. She had let her mind wander too far in a place it wasn’t meant to. Something was wrong with her and she needed to fix it, and it had to be with someone she trusted. So now she’s here, standing in front of Steve’s door, skin buzzing off her body, waiting for him to answer it.

Because she can’t be like this, she knows she can’t, and this is the only way to prove to her that she is.

"I need you to sleep with me," She blurts out before he's even fully opened the door.

"I'm sorry, what?” Steve asks shocked, frozen in his doorway.

"I need you to sleep with me,” she repeats, staring at him with wide eyes.

"Are you ok?,” he asks, looking concerned. “You seem a bit frantic."

Nancy almost groans with how fast he saw right through her. "Yes I'm fine, I just need you to sleep with me. Why does there have to be something about it?''

He looks at her for a moment, arms crossed with a disbelieving look. Almost like he’s considering what to do, making her more aware of what she just asked him to do. And how she doesn’t want it at all.

"Come in," Steve shuts the door behind her. He leads her to the kitchen and motions for her to sit down. "I'm not going to sleep with you, I'm just saying that right now."

Nancy can't deny the weight that was relieved off of her shoulders. "Why?"

"For a few different reasons. But right now, because you're obviously upset about something and you're shaking, like a lot. So we're going to go sit down and once you feel better, you can leave if you want. Or, we can talk about it."

Nancy sits down and takes the glass of water he places in front of her. She takes a long sip, seeing what he means by her shaking. "What are the other reasons?"

For some reason, she can’t seem to think about anything else other than how he didn’t just jump at the opportunity she gave him. How he brought her in and said no when he should have just done it anyway. It was what she needed him to do, not whatever this was.

"That I won't sleep with you." He scratches the back of his neck. "Well, I don't really like you like that anymore. I'd still like to be your friend, and sure there were some feelings that I harbored for longer than I should have, but I've gotten to a place where I'm over you. And I'd like to not revisit that if I don't have to."

Nancy swallows, her mind starting to calm down as she fully starts to realize what she just did, what she was about to do. "That's fair. I shouldn't have asked you too."

"I'm honestly glad you did, other guys would have taken advantage of this situation."

Nancy bites at her lip. "I know," she can feel the tears forming in her eyes.

“Hey,” Steve leans on the table, “What’s wrong?”

"When I, when we were together, and we would have sex, did I ever seem off to you?"

The question has been plaguing her ever since her break up with Jonathan, ever since she realized that this isn’t her.

He takes a moment to think, careful to choose his words. "Looking back, a little. I thought it was because you had a lot of things going on, you know with everything. And the fact that I was your first. That's why I never pushed for it, really. Just let you initiate it when you wanted it."

"Did it ever bother you how much we didn't have it?” The questions just keep pouring out of her mouth. “Like we were together for a year and we only had it like once a month, maybe more."

He shrugs. "Maybe, but there's so much more to a relationship than sex. And I liked you, a lot, for other reasons than sex, so I didn't care."

"But when we did, did I seem like I liked it? Did it seem like I was forcing it?" She can’t help the tear that rolls down her cheek, or the way her voice starts to shake.

"Were you forcing it?" He asks, a little in fear.

"No, yes, I don't know. I just, don't feel like-. Whenever we did it, I thought that was what I wanted. I thought I wanted to have sex with you, to have sex with Jonathan. But every time after I felt so wrong and I just-." Her words get stuck in her throat. "I don't know what's wrong with me."

"Hey," he says soothingly, reaching across the table to gently cup her hand. "Nothing is wrong with you, ok. Nothing is wrong."

"But there has to be," she chokes. "How could I feel like this for so long and just think it was normal, and then-. And then I start to really feel it for someone else, and for the first time, I want it. Like the puzzle fits in my mind and I get it, I get what it's supposed to feel like. But feeling it for them is wrong."

"No, no it's not. Not if it makes you feel like this. Well, not like this right now. But like wanting to have sex with someone, that's good. You and me, you and Jonathan, we weren't the right fit for you. So you didn't feel it with us."

Tears stream down her face. "But I can't feel that with-, with her."

"Oh," he says, realization setting in. "Nance, you know it's ok for you to like a girl, right? There's nothing wrong with that."

"But I'm not supposed to."

It’s the whole reason why she’s here, why she has to prove herself wrong. Because she can’t possibly feel the way she does about another girl. She can’t feel more alive than she’s ever had and fantasize about this. This isn’t who she was, it can’t be.

“Why aren’t you?” he asks as if it’s nothing.

Nancy laughs through her tears. “Because I’m perfect little Nancy Wheeler. Gets the grades, gets into schools, dates the guys she wants to, has a promising future. Her family likes who she is, everyone likes who she is. I’m supposed to be normal, not this.”

“You know there was a third reason that I wasn’t going to sleep with you. Actually my number one reason, and he happens to be sleeping upstairs right now.” Steve admits.

“He?” she clarifies.

Steve nods. “Yeah. We’ve been seeing each other for a few months now, kept it to ourselves because of this town. But yeah, it’s good.”

“But you, with me, and other girls. Was that all fake too?”

“No,” he shakes his head. “Not with you, or with most of them. It was the same way it is with him. I like both, guys and girls. Just didn’t know about the first part for a while.” He takes a deep breath. “But, why I brought it up is because I kinda did what you wanted to do. I thought that my feelings for him were wrong, that I wasn’t supposed to be that way. So, I slept with a few girls and thought I was fine, until the feelings never went away. Then I finally bit the bullet and found out that, yeah, I definitely liked guys.”

“And do you think that could be me then? That I like both, too.” Nancy’s heart starts to pick up again.

He shrugs. “It could, but it also couldn’t. What I’m trying to tell you is that sometimes what we want is repressed without us really even noticing it. And when we finally figure it out, it freaks us out. It took me a while to understand that this was ok for me, that I was still the same person that I was before. I just happen to also like guys.”

Nancy leans back in her chair and thinks about what he said, about what it could mean for her. How everything that she’s been feeling is just years of ignoring it building up and finally breaking out. How this realization she’s had is her reality, and she can’t avoid it anymore.

“I’m not really sure I like guys at all,” she says quietly, silently hoping that he doesn’t hear it.

“And that’s ok,” he reassures. “You’re still the same badass Nancy Wheeler I know. That doesn’t change anything.”

“It doesn’t really, I guess,” she says, smiling just a bit. Letting the idea of who she is run through her mind, and finding that she doesn’t actually hate it at all.

#nancy wheeler #steve harrington #stranger things #ronance #steddie #comphet nancy wheeler #stranger things ficlet

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queenimmadolla · 1 year

Text

𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐄𝐄 𝐌𝐄𝐍, 𝐀 𝐋𝐈𝐓𝐓𝐋𝐄 𝐋𝐀𝐃𝐘, 𝐀 𝐁𝐀𝐁𝐘 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐕𝐄

(dad!eddie munson x mom!reader)

more dad!eddie, penny and baby wayne adventures can be found here.

summary: . . . jonathan and argyle return to spend an afternoon helping Eddie babysit your toddler and newborn at everyone’s favorite fast food place. once again, they are of no help. neither is Steve.

a/n: everyone loved Three Men and a Baby so here's a little sequel with everyone's fav babysitter and we couldn't leave baby wayne out. as always, all characters live in Hawkins because i said so. mistakes will be fixed later!

𝐦𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭

“You know, it kinda feels like we’re a family.” Argyle pointed out from his place on the soft mat just outside of the play place. He was yanking off his shoes to stick into the cubby next to Penny’s significantly smaller ones.

“Kind of? We’re at McDonald’s with our toddler and our baby, pretty sure we are a family.” Jonathan chimed in from his spot across the booth from Eddie. He was sunk into the seat, shoeless and waiting for Argyle with Penny on his lap.

The three year old was practically shaking with energy, eager to jump into the playpen but since there were a couple of older kids in there, Argyle and Jonathan would be going in with her to make sure nothing happened to her. Truthfully, she probably would have been fine on her own but Jonathan and Argyle insisted, not amused with the idea of some seven year old touching their precious Penny with gross, sticky barbecue sauce covered fingers.

Not on their watch.

“With my toddler and my baby.” Eddie corrected them with a lazy grin, fingers gently massaging the fuzz on the top of the one month old’s head. He was leaned back on his side of the booth, baby Wayne curled up and fast asleep on his chest despite the noise around him.

He was heavy sleeper, much like his dad had been before Penny and he came into the world. Now, Eddie was lucky if he didn’t wake up when you moved around in your sleep next to him.

“Same thing,” Argyle mumbled with a vague hand gesture, tossing his hat onto the table. “Man, you asked us to help you with the kids for the day, so we’ve got joint custody right now.”

“You asked me if you guys could hang out with us!”

With your family of three having turned into a family of four, it was clear you were outgrowing the trailer Big Wayne had left you and Eddie when he’d moved in with his new ‘lady friend’. So while you were out apartment hunting with Eden, Eddie had stayed home with Penny and Wayne. This time around, he was much more confident in himself being solo, despite the addition of the new baby. Besides, Penny was easy to watch right now.

She was so taken with baby Wayne, whom she affectionally referred to as her ‘potatoes’ because it had been what Grandpa Wayne compared him to when he was born, shockingly pale, small and covered heavily in white biofilm. He’d since developed color, but Penny had latched onto it and wouldn’t be letting the nickname go anytime soon.

Jonathan and Argyle had stopped by—a normal occurrence since the first time they’d hung around Eddie and Penny when she had been the newborn—under the guise of having caught wind from Eden that Eddie would be alone with the kids.

Eddie knew they just missed Penny and were trying to be the cool uncles they thought they were and he hadn’t wanted her to feel like she wasn’t going to be getting attention now that Wayne had finally made his arrival in the world, so he figured a little outing would do her some good.

Apparently it did Argyle and Jonathan some good, too.

“Hurry up, Argyle.” Jonathan hissed, and Penny nodded from her place on his lap.

“Yeah, huwwy!”

“Oh my god—fine, let’s go already!” Argyle threw his hands up in exasperation. He didn’t need to tell her twice. Penny climbed down from Jonathan’s lap faster than he could try to get a hold of her and made a run for the play place, quickly diving in, much to Argyle and Jonathan’s horror.

“Dude, you just let her go alone!”

“You could have grabbed her, why did you tell her to do that?”

They were still arguing as they crawled in after her, Jonathan looking absolutely ridiculous as he called out for her in hopes of finding her quickly.

Eddie laughed, big doe eyes focused on a window of the play place where he could see Penny waving a little hand at him. She already made it to the highest level, Jonathan and Argyle wouldn’t be getting a hold of her anytime soon.

For a good fifteen minutes, Eddie watched as Jonathan and Argyle popped up in spots Penny had previously been occupying just a couple of moments too late, it looked like they were still arguing as they crawled through each section in search of her.

Wayne stirred, his tiny body wiggling on Eddie’s chest.

Eddie sat up a little straighter as his hand cradled the back of his son’s head to lay him across his lap. “Someone’s finally up."

Wayne was staring up at him, face set in a slight scowl. The differences between Penny and Wayne would never cease to amuse Eddie. While Penny had been a happy baby, if not a little judgmental looking with her expressions, Wayne’s main emotion was bothered. He was remarkably unimpressed with just about everyone except his parents, so far. Most babies were figuring out how to use their face and constantly smiling when doing so, but not Wayne.

He only moved his face around to look angry or annoyed. He seemed to be filled with attitude and Eddie honestly couldn’t be more proud, especially when you were cooing over it. Probably wouldn’t appreciate it when Wayne would become a teenager, but for now it was stinking cute. It also helped that you seemed to be a copy machine, while they might differ in personalities so far, Wayne looked almost exactly like Penny had when she was his age, though instead of a fully covered head of curls, his head was mostly fuzz with a main strip of the curls going down the center of his head—when it was Wayne’s bath time, Eddie liked to give him a mohawk—and you were pleased when he came out with a pair of big brown, doe eyes, too. Along with unfairly long eyelashes.

Wayne gave a loud grunt up at him, his barely-there eyebrows furrowing as he seemingly tried to yell at his dad.

“Ooh and on the wrong side of the crib again, huh?” Eddie frowned mockingly down at him, clicking his tongue as he bounced his baby gently.

Wayne still wasn’t amused with his daddy’s teasing and gave another warning yelp without breaking eye contact.

“Yeah, yeah, I know. You’re so intimidating and so tough, no one can mess with you.” Eddie cooed, raising the tiny baby in his hold to his lips as he pressed a kiss to the soft, sweet smelling skin of his son’s forehead.

Regardless of how annoyed he seemed to be, just like every other baby Wayne was a sucker for human contact and preened under Eddie’s affections, when Eddie pulled back to look at him he was more content, fists uncurling to stretch out his little wrinkly fingers as he suckled on his bottom lip.

“What the hell is this?”

The voice surprised Wayne so much his little arms shot up and his body stiffened, back arching. Eddie sighed as he reached for the pacifier on the table top before acknowledging the drama queen.

“That would be my son, Harrington.”

Steve rolled his eyes, foot tapping in irritation as his hands rested on his hips.

“I know that, Munson, I wasn’t referring to the cute little bread loaf. I’m talking about how I was at the stoplight down the street and I just so happened to glance into the parking lot and see both your van and a certain pizza delivery service car. Which would mean you, Jonathan and Argyle are hanging out without me again. And I know you guys wouldn’t do that, especially since the whole friend group knows how I feel about being left out.”

“You hang out with plenty of other people all the time.” Eddie reminded him as he held the pacifier to Wayne’s lips. The glutton accepted it eagerly and relaxed into his dad’s embrace once again.

“I mean being left out with guys! Not the kids!”

“You’ve got Robin.”

“I said not with the kids.”

“I’m telling her you said that.”

“I know you’re probably joking—or at least I hope to god you are, but please don’t do that.” Steve didn’t bother waiting for an invitation to sit down, just sat in the side of the booth Argyle had been occupying. “Where are Cheech and Chong, anyways?”

Before Eddie could answer, a crash came from one of the upper levels of the playpen.

“THERE SHE IS, QUICK GRAB HER!” Argyle yelled, followed by the sound of another bang and some groaning. “Ow! Dude, get your elbow out of my kidneys!”

“Then stop trying to crowd in front of me! You’re gonna get us stuck!”

“Never mind.” Steve chuckled and Eddie smirked when he caught sight of Penny running past another barrier window, still wild and free. While he couldn’t see Argyle or Jonathan, he could make out the figures belonging to the two grown men in the red tubing. “Do I even want to know what they’re doing?”

“It’s pretty funny with the context, but it’s probably even funnier without.” Eddie shifted until Wayne was tucked in the crook of his arm, big brown eyes heavily lidded as he sucked on his pacifier and stared up at his dad.

“Can I hold him?” Steve asked, trying to get Wayne to look at him with mind powers he lacked. It didn’t work, Wayne was still zeroed in on Eddie.

“Yeah, hold on.” Eddie placed one hand under Wayne’s body and the other under his head, before lifting him up like an offering. Steve’s hand carefully replaced Eddie’s and then was pulling Wayne to his body, arms secure around his little body.

“Oh.” Steve was taken aback with the angry glare directed up at him. He’d only seen the one month old a handful of times so far in his existence and he hadn’t really gotten to hold him for long due to the amount of arms he had to be passed through in one go whenever he was brought around. Robin told him Wayne had reminded her of how unfriendly Eddie looked to people who didn’t know him—and people who did—and he was starting to get what she meant.

“That—that’s a face he’s making. Cute, but damn, he’s a little scary.”

Maybe it was mean of him, Eddie was hoping Wayne would cry and knock Steve’s ego down a few notches. He had faith in his little boy.

“He’s just a little delayed when it comes to his facial expressions, I’m sure as soon as he learns how to express emotions, he’ll be all smiley.” Eddie stayed fixated on the baby in Steve’s arms, watching his face for any impending outbursts.

Much to his surprise, he did start smiling. Right up at Steve. The big haired jerk started beaming. “Look! He’s doing it!”

Eddie tried not to frown, Wayne hadn’t smiled like that around him on his own yet, why the hell was he doing it for Harrington?

He got his answer when Wayne’s stomach began to gurgle, followed by the distinct sound of him utterly obliterating his diaper.

Steve looked horrified as he realized Wayne was pooping in his arms, but he looked traumatized when he realized he could feel warmth spreading up Wayne’s little back. Then the smell punched him in the face. “Oh my god.”

Eddie’s head flew back as he laughed hard, tears welling up in his eyes. That explained why Wayne had been in such a sour mood, his poor baby was probably feeling so relieved after dropping that dump.

Steve didn’t look so amused, he stood up and moved over to give Wayne back to Eddie before disappearing into the play place after Penny, Jonathan and Argyle.

“Good job, baby.” Eddie cooed, pressing a kiss into his baby’s fat cheeks. With his tummy no longer an issue, Wayne was cooing right back at him, looking entirely relaxed.

Eddie gathered Wayne and his diaper bag, slipping out to the parking lot. Once he’d made it to the van, he placed Wayne down on the seat and quickly changed his diaper, making sure to clean any blow out he might have gotten on his back. Steve had to be a weenie when it came to smells because it didn’t stink to Eddie, especially considering the only thing Wayne consumed was breast milk.

“How you feeling?” Eddie asked the infant as he swapped out his onesie with a cleaner one. He liked this one better, anyways. It had been Penny’s old Hellfire onesie, something you made her when you’d found out you were pregnant and what she wore when you’d dressed her as him for her first Halloween. Obviously, Wayne didn’t say anything back but Eddie had grown used to talking to Penny when she hadn’t been able to talk yet, so he was more than comfortable doing the same thing with Wayne.

“Yeah, I’d feel better after that, too. But knowing you, you’re starving now that you’re empty, aren’t you?” Eddie gently pulled the pacifier from Wayne’s mouth, lips twitching into a smile when his baby continued to mime the suckling motion. He held his knuckle up to Wayne’s little lips and sure enough his little guy sucked eagerly at it.

Eddie pulled the small bottle containing your breast milk from one of the side pouches of the diaper bag and decided to leave the bag itself in the car. He wasn’t planning on sticking around for too much longer since Penny was probably wearing herself out, no doubt she’d need a nap soon. As would Jonathan and Argyle, probably.

Once he was back inside and back in the booth, Eddie fed Wayne his bottle, gazing down at him with adoration as his sons’ eyes closed in content.

“Hi, daddy.” Penny appeared at the table, the curls on her little head going in every direction as she struggled to pull herself onto the seat. Eddie placed a hand on her bottom, simultaneously feeling her diaper for any droopiness—she wasn’t entirely potty trained yet—and hoisting her up next to him.

“Did you go potty?”

“No.”

“Do you need to?”

“No. Tooce?”

“Juice, baby.” Eddie handed her the apple juice box that had come with her happy meal, watching as she drained it. She’d need to go pee soon, after that.

Now, if Penny was here then . . . where were the the guys who had tasked themselves with watching her?

Both he and Penny glanced up when they heard Steve’s voice coming from the section of the playpen right above them.

“I’m telling you guys, I didn’t see her when I came in!”

“Well, I’ve been blocking this part off and Argyle’s stuck in the green diesel truck side, she hasn’t come by here so she had to have passed you!” Jonathan’s voice shot back.

“Wait—he’s stuck?”

“He got a cramp in his leg and he can’t stretch it out since it’s so cramped in there, so he’s just got to wait it out—hey, did you go through the yellow tunnel yet?”

Both of Steve’s elbows smacked into the plastic walls around him as he changed direction, hissing in pain. “Fuck—no, hold on I’ll go check. Meet me back at the green diesel.”

Eddie could make out the silhouette of their figures crawling away from each other and then it got quiet before both Eddie and Penny started laughing.

Penny giggled into her hand as she rested her head against her daddy’s arm. He stroked a hand over her heated face, the apples of her cheeks dark from the wild chase she’d lead her uncles on.

“You tired yet, baby?”

“Yuh-huh. I had so many funs, daddy! Unca Johnny and Unca Ahgle chaseded me, but I am so fast! Is my little baby potatoes eating, daddy?” Penny got a grip on his jacket and used it to balance herself as she stood up on the seat to peer down at her baby brother who had his eyes closed but was still suckling on the bottle.

His heart warmed at the sight, Eddie loved how much Penny loved Wayne. He’d always been lonely as a kid and longed for companionship, even a sibling. Now, he was just happy Penny wouldn’t have to go through life with that same loneliness. And neither would Wayne, they’d have each other through thick and thin. They’d have both of their parents, too.

Eddie was so thankful for his family, suddenly he longed to have you near him to complete it again.

Fate seemed to be taking it easy on him these last few years, because he got you, he had Penny, he had Wayne, and now he had you again, this time walking into the McDonalds.

Penny spotted you first and began jumping up and down to get your attention. Once you’d spotted her, you hurried over and let her jump into your arms, holding her close to your body as she clung to you.

“Mommy, mommy! Look!” She points over at the play place, you followed her finger, assuming she was trying to get you to admire the build.

“I see! Were you playing in there?”

“Yeah! Yeah! I was play’n wiff Unca Johnny and Unca Ahgle.”

“Let me guess, your uncles are still playing in there without you.”

“Uh-huh!”

“Argyle, you’re blocking the way!” You heard Steve yell out.

“Go around! My leg hurts!”

“We literally can’t, Argyle.” Jonathan’s voiced echoed above you as Eden stepped out from behind you with a heavy sigh.

“Did Argyle get stuck again?” The shorter girl, clad in black directed the question at Eddie who was biting back a grin.

“Green diesel,” he snickered out, nodding to the section of the play place. Eden’s shoulders sagged before she walked over to the cubby and kicked her shoes off.

“The things I do for love,” she grumbled as she climbed through the entrance and up the large purple stairs, not having to wcrawl as much as the guys did since she was smaller in stature.

“How’d it go?” Eddie asked as you slid in next to him, giving him a kiss before you stroked a hand over your now dozing baby’s cheek.

“Really good! I think I found one you’re gonna like, it’s gated and it’s near the garage, though I’m not sure about the gated part now. Can’t imagine the amount of trouble The Brothers Pothead would have with the gate code.”

Right on cue you heard more loud thumps and bangs coming from above you.

“Argyle, you have to stretch your leg out!”

“Baby, I can’t! It hurts like hell!”

“Stop cussing, this is a children’s place!”

“Argyle, I will give you five dollars to just suck it up and drag yourself through so we can get Penny and get out of here.”

“Penny’s already out there,” You heard Eden inform the guys who groaned.

“Thought she didn’t get past you, Steve.” Jonathan’s condescending tone could be heard.

“Yes, because I willingly want to be in a confined space that smells like butt sweat. Obviously, I didn’t see her.”

Eddie watched you laugh with a smile on his face before raising his eyebrows down at Penny as she pried herself out of your arms to tug on the sleeve of his jacket.

“It’s stinky in thew, daddy. It weally is. ‘S why I left.”

“That’s gross, baby."

“Yeah.”

You couldn’t wait any longer, carefully plucking your baby from Eddie’s arms. Baby Wayne let out a couple of little squeaks but didn’t stir too much as he curled into your chest, cheek resting against your breast. You spotted the empty bottle in Eddie’s hold and began to gently pat your son’s back. It took a few moments, then he let out the most adorable of burps and for once didn’t spit up all over you.

“Is he still out?” You asked Eddie, unable to see if the baby still had his eyes closed from the angle you had him cradled to your chest at.

“For the most part,” Wayne’s eyes weren’t entirely closed, they were open just enough for Eddie to tell his eyes were rolled back. Very metal looking. With Eddie’s arms free, Penny decided to climb right into them, securing her own around his neck.

You raised your baby’s body a little higher to nuzzle your face in the trail of soft, sweet smelling hair, getting a good whiff of his baby scent.

Once you’d had your fill, you shuffled further into the booth until Eddie could slip an arm over your shoulders, thumb stroking against the side of your neck and you relaxed into the hard plastic of the booth, shooting your daughter a smile when you caught her staring at you, “Get comfortable, baby. I think we’re gonna be here for a while.”

Eddie laughed and Penny didn’t look like she cared.

“I've got a riddle for you, sweetheart,” Eddie started, shifting Penny around until her back was to his front and she was perched comfortably in his lap. “What’s the difference between the three stooges and three grown men stuck in a children’s play course?”

You pretended to think for a few minutes. “Mmm, you got me. What do you think, Penny?”

Penny grinned, shoulders shrugging.

“I dunno.”

“Nothing.” Eddie finally answered. “There is no difference.”

“Whas the stooges?” Penny asked, little hand scratching the curls on her head.

“You’re ruining daddy’s joke, baby.” Eddie playfully growled down at her, leaning down to rest his forehead against hers as she craned her neck back to look up at him, giggling in delight and oh so pleased to have caused ‘trouble’ for her daddy.

“I should have just kept driving.” A familiar voice passed over you from the tube directly above your head.

“Eddie, is that Steve?”

“Sweetheart, I said three stooges and I wasn’t referring to Eden, does it look like I have a death wish?”

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apomaro-mellow · 1 year

Text

From this post about Eddie controlling the demobats

When Eddie returned, so did the bats. In a great blast of cracking concrete and flapping wings, they emerged like a storm right in the middle of main street. The people of Hawkins, who were still getting over the earthquake, had run inside every nearest building, waiting for the revenge of the man they had hunted down.

Eddie had simply taken one long look at their cowering faces through the windows, and then walked off. The horde of bats followed closely behind him. They were still just as menacing in the daylight but they never strayed to pick off a helpless human.

So Eddie was back. Good news!

The bats were also top side. Bad news?

Eddie had control over them. Definitely good news.

It was an odd arrangement. It was made less odd by the fact that Eddie didn’t bring them absolutely everywhere. They mostly stayed in a dark cave unless called upon.

At least at first.

It started with small things. These were wild, territorial things and they never backed down or deferred to anyone who wasn’t Eddie. Except for Steve. Eddie had been sitting on a park bench, tossing some food to the geese who dared to get near. The demobats were perched next to him and around his feet, at least a dozen. They were immovable. But as Steve walked up and drew near, they parted and cleared a space for him.

He had staunchly refused to be around the bats at first. He never wanted to give them a taste again. It appeared his worries were for nothing. Because they hadn’t touched him once.

“Do you think they think I’m gross?”, Steve asked as he tossed to the birds. “I mean, they chomped us both up but they obviously like you better.”

“Why? Is the king jealous?”, Eddie teased, flashing his fangs in a grin.

“I’m just saying you’d think they’d have better taste. No offense, but I’m basically prime rib and you’re just some beef jerky.”

Eddie scoffed in offense despite Steve saying no offence. “Robin is right, you’re a total meat head sometimes. Tell me Steve, when you’re on an hours long road trip and need somethin’ to keep you going, do you just fork a whole steak while driving? Or do you stop at a 7-Eleven for a Slim Jim?”

“You’re just proving my point at how slender you are compared to me.”

While he and Steve traded barbs it would’ve been clear to anyone who made the connection between Eddie and the bats that he wasn’t offended at all. But no one had made the connection yet.

--------------------------------------

It was one of those days where a bunch of things had simply lined up and everyone was in the same place. Hopper was fixing his car with the help of Jonathan, Mike, and Max. Joyce was merrily cleaning the house and even rearranging the furniture with the assistance of El, Steve, and Eddie. Robin, Dustin, and Erica were posing for a painting outside for Will. Argyle and Lucas were sitting on the porch, talking about California.

As usual, Eddie’s command for the bats was to stay in the cave. Even if the others knew they wouldn’t be attacked, they still didn’t feel totally comfortable with them around. But throughout the day, a few at a time had appeared, making the roof their perch.

“Should we be worried about those?”, Argyle asked, pointing towards the sky.

Hopper looked up from the hood and let out an exasperated sigh. “If they cause trouble we can handle ‘em. Mike, oil.”

Eddie looked out the window and cursed under his breath, making El pause as she moved the couch.

“It’s fine. Nothing. I guess I’d get stir crazy in a cave all day too. Aren’t bats supposed to be nocturnal?”

“They’re not exactly normal bats”, Steve grunted as he pushed the fridge into its new position.

Eddie bit his lip as he watched the way his arm flexed a little and right then a demobat face planted into the kitchen window.

Joyce whipped her head. “What was that?”

“Nothing!”, Eddie rushed to cover his tracks. “There’s always one that’s a little uh, new to their wings, you know?”

Their need to follow Eddie was beginning to be a problem. Because they only seemed to disobey when he was with Steve. When Eddie was by himself, they stayed put. But the moment Harrington was in the picture, these little monster shits had to be there. And if anyone ever realized that, his cover would be blown.

--------------------------

Eddie thought he’d been keeping a good handle on things all considered. That is until one bat decided to have a personal vendetta against him. Eddie had been calm, cool, and collected while he and Steve hung out by the quarry. A couple of bats had joined them as usual. But Eddie kept a straight face about it.

And then their bull session turned to serious talk. About what the future held for them after this. About how they’d never be able to leave this town. About how it felt like no one would need them.

Eddie was quick to shoot down that part for Steve. This man was like the air he breathed and if there was ever a day that Steve wasn’t in the world, that would be it for him. That’s not what he said though.

“People need you more than you think. Just cause we don’t say it, doesn’t mean we’re not thinking it.”

“Dude, we’re about a six pack in, too many negatives.”

“I’m saying we all want you here. Even if we don’t need you to hold our hand, isn’t that enough?”

Steve’s eyes softened. “They need you too. I can’t even describe how they all-how we were while you were gone. We need you just as much Eddie.”

And then one of the bats, those traitorous bats, sidled right up to Steve and nuzzled its ugly little head into Steve’s side like a pitiful dog and Eddie could’ve cried. At least he did internally.

‘Noooooooooooooooooooooooooo what are you doiiiiiiiiiiing????’

Steve was visibily nervous at first because that was the same area he’d been eaten but the bat didn’t put its mouth anywhere near and simply rubbed its cheek to his torso.

“Hey, hehe”, he laughed a little when it was clear he wasn’t being attacked. “I think they like me now.”

“You don’t say”, Eddie breathed out in a strained, punched out voice.

That incident was enough for Eddie to have a heart to heart with his group of followers. He paced around the mouth of the cave while the bats sat on the ground at attention.

“Okay, here’s the deal guys. You can’t keep stalking Steve like this. I get it, trust me. But if people start to catch on to what I’m feeling because you guys keep. Making. It. Obvious. Then we’ve got an angry mob on our hands again.”

Eddie felt like he was talking to a pack of puppies because that’s exactly how they looked right now and didn’t these things kill him before? He couldn’t believe he’d ever been afraid of them.

The talk did nothing though. They still left the cave in the middle of the day to find him and Steve together and were getting more and more affectionate as the days went by.

And somehow Steve just got more comfortable with it. Nancy had them in her garage, teaching the two of them how to clean a gun and a demobat was honest to god (was there a god up there? If there was, he was getting his giggles in) snuggling up in Steve’s hair. In his hair! The crown that Eddie dared not touch. He had never been more jealous or mortified.

“Those things really like you Steve”, Nancy mentioned.

Eddie was mentally begging her to not be a sleuth for once.

“I think they’re just realizing which of us would’ve been the better boss based on flavor.”

“On the flavor?”, Eddie and Nancy deadpanned in unison, also giving him twin looks of judgement.

“Nancy how you’d ever date this guy? It’s like he’s got beef for brains.”

Nancy shrugged. “I guess I’m just a little carnivorous. I think we’ve got that in common”, she said, giving Eddie a meaningful look.

Outwardly, his throat bobbed. Inwardly, he was screaming from the edge of a cliff. Still his feelings for Steve trumped any panic that Nancy Wheeler might know his feelings because the demobat just burrowed deeper in his hair.

Eddie cleared his throat. “Yeah”, he admitted. “I’m pretty carnivorous. Maybe a little too much. That bother you?”

Nancy shook her head quickly. “To tell you the truth...I might be....”, she hesitated on the words. “Going vegetarian.”

Eddie’s eyebrows shot up while Steve was on another page entirely.

“Vegetarian? Nancy you’ll never survive in this town, everyone cooks with bacon grease or lard.”

“Well it’s more like, I’m omnivorous but I might be trying to add more vegetables to my diet”, she amended. “Does that bother you Eddie?”

“I’m in no position to argue Big Wheel. I’ve been circling your steak like a vulture.”

“I haven’t looked at that steak in ages. You can have it. Not that you need my permission.”

“I get the feeling you guys aren’t talking about food anymore”, Steve said.

And Eddie just couldn’t resist that confused face Steve made. But the moment wasn’t right to reveal his and Nancy’s ahem, dietary preferences. So he just patted him on the shoulder.

“We just agree with the bats man. You’re pretty tasty. Even if not all of us are getting bites in anymore.”

“Oh that reminds me”, Steve said. “We weren't able to get you a blood bag. I kinda dropped the ball. So tonight you can just drink of me.”

At least five bats descended and inched their way towards Steve like desperately hungry animals and Eddie had to stop them in their place.

“Looks like steak’s on the menu tonight”, Nancy commented.

Part 2

#apo writes #fanfiction #stranger things #steddie #eddie munson #steve harrington #kas!eddie

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messrsbyler · 1 year

Text

imagine in s5 after mike and nancy have had their confrontation and big fight, things have been said, hugs have been hugged, they have opened the door for a new path to share between them, a way to walk together and see where it leads them.

and then, one night, both siblings are on patrol duty while the rest is asleep as they are camping in the woods or the upside down or whatever. and they have a wholesome moment.

the end of the world is a lot, but someone mike has still managed to have most of his thoughts occupied on something else. on someone, more like. and now that the world has been cracked open and the air is filled with ashes and spores, now that the world has taken a 180 degree spin and thrown them all off their feet, maybe it’s only fitting for mike to start questioning things he never before dared to question before.

and it’s only the two of them there, and for once mike isn’t sure he can be the leader and figure this one on his own. so, before he looses his courage, mike straightens his back, sucks in a breath that leaves a copper taste in his moth, and asks: “nance?”

her sister turns to look at him with a frantic stare in her eyes. mike doesn’t miss the way her hands grip the gun sitting on her lap a bit tighter and how her shoulders clamp a little. “what is it? did you hear something?”

mike is quick to shake his head. “no! no, it’s not that.”

“gosh, mike. you scared the shit out of me.”

“i just…” suddenly he’s not sure what to do with his hands. he tries clasping them on his lap but they feel silly there, a brush away from his own cold and heavy gun. mike already feels petrified trying to get the words out and having that weapon near him isn’t helping his case. he fits his hand under his legs in the end, but there’s no helping the bouncing of his leg. “i wanted to ask you… something.”

nancy looks at him, eyes clocking his leg and then climbing up to his face. something in his sister’s expression shifts. the lines are still hard around her eyes and mouth, edged with her sense of alert. but there’s also a softness in her eyes as she stares at mike, something he’s not used to find in nancy but that now is undoubtedly directed at him and only him.

“sure. what is it?”

this is the moment. no room for hesitation now. mike tells himself he can dance around the words, can control how much he lets nancy see. he can stay in the surface of the deep pit that’s consuming his every thought and sanity. if anything, at least nancy will think mike is talking about el. nancy will think he’s still mopping over their break up. he won’t see right through mike’s schemes.

“you… you are with jonathan, right?”

nancy’s lips pull into a tight line, and mike knows he’s said the wrong thing. he braces himself for the scowl nancy usually throws at him and for the words ‘that’s none of your business, mike!’, but they never come. instead, silence settles between them as nancy ponders on the question.

“i guess i am,” she says in the end, her voice distant. and mike knows his sister is dealing with her own pit and questions. “it’s a bit more complicated than that, but… yeah, i’m with him.”

mike nods, knowing not to push for more than what nancy is offering him. “right. because… because you love him, right?”

the rather bittersweet expression is replaced by a soft smile. “well, that’s not complicated at all. yes, i love him.”

mike fills his lungs again. his insides swell with butterflies and nerves and a buzzing starts right underneath his skin as a pair of hazel eyes flash in the back of his mind.

“how… uhm, how did you know? that you loved jonathan, i mean.”

“know?”

“yes. how were you sure? how did you know it was that type of love?”

nancy scans him for a second, and mike keeps himself from gulping all the spit pooling in his mouth. something like that would surely throw him under the bus in front of nancy who is so good at keeping people’s expressions in check just to extract whatever information can be gathered from them.

“well,” nancy starts, “it’s… okay, this is going to sound so cliché but… you just know.” mike purses his lips and that must send nancy the message that he’s not understanding what she means. “it’s like… like one day you wake up and realise that you love someone, because the feelings are there. but if you try to think back to pin down the moment you started feeling like that, you realise there is not one moment. it’s more that those feelings have been growing inside of you, slowly, until you lose sight of when you first felt them. they just… become a part of you until you can’t remember a time you didn’t feel that way, even if just a little.”

mike doesn’t say anything. he just looks at nancy, barely blinking. his eyes feel hot and his throat is tied in a knot. and his heart, his heart is beating inside his chest, loud and full and so hard it’s almost like it wants to jump out of mike’s mouth just to say ‘yes! that! that’s how we feel!’

the silence stretches between them, but not in a defeating type of way. it’s not comfortable, because mike is losing his breath with every second that passes by, but it’s still… safe, the way nancy is giving him room to process her words, and how she is looking at him, as if she knew how mike was at the brink of a big moment.

“nance?” mike finally says. his voice a little wavy and a little breathless. there’s a coldness that stirs in his stomach, a pinch of fear that makes him push his nails in the underside of his thighs.

“yes, mike?”

mike bits his bottom lip and looks up at his sister. he breathes in one more time and makes the air in his lungs extinguish loose grip fear has on him.

“i think… i think i love will,” mike says.

the words come out and the world pours down mike’s back like cold water. if he was restless before, mike is on the edge of his seat now. his leg bounces faster and his teeth dig into his lip until pain grounds him to this moment and to the words he just allowed out of his mouth.

and nancy… nancy just smiles at him in a way she hasn’t in many years. she smiles at him like when mike was little and would sneak inside her room in the middle of the night because he just had a nightmare, or like when the both of them would hide in the basement while their parents had a fight, or when they would meet after school for mike first year and walk back home together. nancy smiles at mike as if saying ‘you are my little brother. mine. and i love you.’

and the wheelers, they are not good with words, so when mike starts sobbing nancy doesn’t say anything. she just swings her gun on its lace to her back and shelters mike in a hug. and mike… he melts into it, knowing that his big sister is finally there for him.

#it’s 3 am i should be asleep #i need mike and nancy to fight but also to have a bonding moment #i just need it okay?#byler #byler tumblr #mike wheeler #stranger things #will byers #byler endgame #nancy wheeler

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vickyvicarious · 6 months

Note

Quincy has lots of foresight and level headedness as Van Helsing says. He is laconic less in the meaning of "Says little" and more with the actual definition of "Gets straight to the POINT". He sees what the matter is and instantly goes for the solution. I think that getting Mina a Portable Typewriter is part of that.

But it is still fascinating that it was him and not Jonathan who bought it. Jonathan might have been too deep into despair to think of a future in the horizon?

I mean, he also does say little as soon as matters get serious, which I think fits his character as well. It's not just Stoker writing him as more background character and forgetting to give him many lines (though I feel sure that's part of it too) but also, Quincey only hams it up when the situation calls for it. He's talkative with his buddies, and with the girl he hopes to marry, but as soon as we get into survival situations then he gets much more quiet and to the point.

Jack says that "In all our hunting parties and adventures in different parts of the world, Quincey Morris had always been the one to arrange the plan of action, and Arthur and I had been accustomed to obey him implicitly." And I think that does seem clear. He tends to think very simply/practically, and while he doesn't take on the role of leader in this group it's easy to see how he would be able to do so in another situation. He doesn't get as caught up in philosophizing or emotion; like you (and Art and Van Helsing) said, he's level-headed. He is pretty good at recognizing the core of a situation and just zeroing in on it, not being afraid to ask the relevant questions even when they might seem absurd or rude. My favorite moment being of course "Where did the blood go?" but there are others as well. And yeah, every time he tries to find a way to act about it. He notices Lucy might love someone else, asks, gets rejected, and then keeps his distance because he doesn't want to get in their way. He recognizes the blood must be going somewhere, asks about it, and then decides to guard against bats because he knows bats are something that could do that. That sort of thing. He also acts preventatively quite a lot (that foresight you mentioned), with stuff like shooting at bats or spying to see which way Dracula might flee or volunteering to ride up the riverbank in case Dracula got off at some port along the way. These are all just-in-case type actions taken to prevent a possible bad outcome.

Him getting the typewriter for Mina is nice in another way because it goes against his tendency to step back when he thinks something isn't his place. He's shown to be pretty hesitant about being somewhere he thinks he would be intruding, from stuff like not coming back to visit Lucy until Art asked him, to not going to see her on her deathbed since she didn't even know he was there, to stepping out of the room when he saw Art having a moment with Mina, to even being weirdly nervous about bursting into the Harkers' bedroom during a life-or-death situation. He likes to wait for an invitation first (not in a vampire way, haha) when it comes to interactions with people. But here, he doesn't. And I think it comes down to the day they met, when Mina saw how he was feeling and offered him comfort and validated his own grief as just as worthy. He was deeply moved and promised to be her friend from then on. Then he vowed to kill her in the name of that friendship. This is a gentler, perhaps less grand but no less meaningful, way he can express how much he cares about her, and try to in some way return the favor by attempting to lift her spirits when she is suffering.

(Mina and Quincey's friendship gets me emotional every time.)

As for why Jonathan didn't buy it... I think it is partially him not seeing the future right now. He has already said that he and Mina don't talk of the future, and while he of course is fully dedicated to hunting Dracula down and ensuring they will have a happy future together, I'm not sure it is anything he can really visualize right now. He is so very absorbed in caring for Mina in her current condition and planning to take care of Dracula in a distinctly different meaning of the word, that he doesn't have room for anything else right now. He's on the edge of breaking down as it is, and is just trying to push through, sort of like it was for him back in the castle.

But also, in a less angsty way, I think it might not have occurred to him as something he could do. He and Mina have only recently come into any sort of wealth, and a typewriter like this would be pretty expensive (I believe someone looked it up last year and it seems like Quincey dropped a pretty hefty sum on this gift). He's become used to using money much more freely of late, but it has always been for the purpose of a specific goal, not purchases for pleasure. It may not be something that even comes to mind as a reasonable act he could do for her, not yet anyway.

#dracula daily #quincey morris #mina murray #jonathan harker #anonymous #replies

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quixoticall · 6 months

Text

This Could Get Ugly 5. Recording Studio 3B

Summary: It's 1983 and The Downsides need another lead singer and you just happen to need a band--it's a perfect match. The only issue? You have to pretend to be in a relationship with your bandmate, Steve Harrington, but you can't help but be drawn to the band's broody guitar player.

pairing: s.h. x fem!reader, e.m. x fem!reader, j.b. x n.w., r.b x n.w.

warnings: Brief mention of pregnancy, Steve in his King!Steve era briefly, again with the misogyny

A/N: Happy Stranger Things Day! I want to say thank you to everyone who's reading this old and new readers alike! Every notification makes me so excited and I'm just happy to be here, ya know?Listen, I know we're really Steve-centric right now but you got to trust me on this, we are laying a FOUNDATION here right? Remember we're covering six years' worth of drama and we are just getting started, trust me!

wc: 4.8k

MASTERLIST🎸

Previous Chapter 🎹🎺

***

STEVE: Yeah, I know I had fucked up. Like, as soon as the words were out of my mouth, I regretted them. I don’t know why I did it, I think I felt threatened or something. Listen, I think about what happened all the time and there isn’t one singular moment that we can pinpoint where everything went south, really, we all made mistakes, a lot of them. But sometimes, I can’t help thinking to myself that if I had just handled that day at the restaurant better, our whole lives would’ve been different. Or… who knows? Maybe not, maybe we were always meant to end as bad as we did.

***

June 7th, 1983–Los Angeles, California

A few days after your lunch with the Downsides, you see your own face peaking at you from the cover of a Subrosa magazine on a grocery store newsstand.

You glance around before surreptitiously crouching down for a closer look.

It was a grainy picture of you and Steve, sitting across from one another at lunch, clearly in conversation. The picture had been taken from outside the restaurant and framed in such a way that it looked like it was only the two of you dining together. You can tell by the looks on your faces that it was before everything had blown up—the two of you looked like you were enjoying yourselves.

Sultry Songstress Sees Upside with the Downsides’ Flirty Frontman reads across the top of the page, and you gag. They sure do love their alliteration over at the Sub.

You briefly wonder to yourself what Steve and the others will think of this once they see it. Shrugging that thought off, you toss the magazine into your cart.

***

You actually find out pretty quickly what Steve and the others think about the cover later that evening when you receive a call from an unknown number.

“Hi, it’s Robin,” you hear from the other line as soon as you pick up.

“Hi Ro—”

“Robin Buckley, from the Downsides? I don’t know if you remember me, but we met at lunch the other day when my friend made a huge ass of himself and— ow, Steve that hurt, God.”

Sounds of some sort of physical struggle echo through the telephone line until you decide to interrupt.

“Hi Robin, of course I remember you and your ass of a friend, what can I do for the two of you? Also, how did you get my number?”

You’re more curious than bothered when you ask the latter question.

“Four.”

“Pardon?”

“Four. There are four of us. See, you asked what you could do for the two of us but it’s not just me and Steve. Nancy and Argyle are here too—” At this point, you hear a faint ‘hello’ and ‘what’s up’ from the background—"For the sake of full disclosure I felt that I should mention that. Jonathan is visiting his family in Lenora Hills, otherwise, I’m sure he’d be here too. Oh, and to answer your question I got your number from Murray.”

“Uh-huh.”

You glance at your wristwatch; there’s a party in the Hills that you were planning on going to and you were going to have to leave soon if you didn’t want to be stuck in traffic all night.

As if she had read your mind, you hear some shuffling on the line before Nancy decidedly takes over the conversation with a much more serious tone.

“Hi, sorry to bother you this late but we wanted to ask if perhaps you had seen the latest issue of Subrosa? It seems like you and Steve are on the cover.”

Exhaling a laugh, you answer, “Yes, actually, saw it at the grocery store today, sorry you guys didn’t make the front page, I’m sure you’ll get them next time.”

“What? No, I mean, have you read the article? They’re printing lies about you both,” Nancy stutters out, indignantly.

“They’re saying that you and Steve had a private lunch and that he’s been seen sneaking out of the Hotel Mormont for weeks and that you might be pregnant? They’re even alluding to a fight breaking out between him and Jason Carver of all people.”

This causes you to fully chortle.

“I wish, that guy deserves a few punches to the face. I wouldn’t worry too much about it, though, everything they say about me is a lie.”

“What do you mean? Aren’t they supposed to have some journalistic integrity? Don’t they get in trouble for printing lies like this? Have you tried to contact their editors about this?”

The confusion you feel about this conversation is outweighed by how weirdly touched you feel that these girls who had only met you once seem so offended on your behalf.

“No, I mean, it’s a gossip rag, not like The New York Times or anything,” you placate, “and after all the terrible things they’ve said about in the past, I’m kinda just glad they got a half-decent picture of me. I appreciate you all calling about it though.”

And then, after a beat, you address the band’s lead singer, who has been oddly quiet throughout the whole exchange.

“I hope being pictured with me didn’t sully your reputation, Flirty Frontman.”

Really, you didn’t care if Steve was bothered by the whole thing, you just hoped that he wasn’t making his bandmates call you on his behalf. You didn’t know what to make of the guy quite yet. On one hand, he was completely sweet to you most of the lunch, he spent the meal asking you questions about yourself and refilling your drink without you having to ask. But the tantrum he had thrown reminded you a little too much of the dangerously self-absorbed musicians that had grown sick of these last few years.

“Me? No, I’m fine. Did you see how great my hair looked?”

You laugh silently at his answer. His hair did look great in the photo, but you were not about to give him the satisfaction of letting him hear that from you.

He continues, “Plus, they never really said anything terrible about me. They’re like, totally after you which is why Nance and Rob have been so worried, I guess. Are you good?”

His question comes out more hushed than everything else he’s said, and you are once again reminded of the earnest smiles you exchanged across the table a few days ago.

“I’m fine, Harrington, this is a regular Tuesday for me.”

With that, you bid goodbye to the band, citing your lateness, but not before expressing a very sincere thanks for their naïve concern.

The unexpected phone call makes you hit traffic, as you had predicted. You spend nearly an hour and a half in the back of a cab, the whole time, you can’t stop replaying the conversation you just had in your head.

Maybe there was more to the Downsides than met the eye?

***

This theory is proven, in part, after Hopper sends you a demo recording of some of their songs the following week.

The Downsides, you quickly find out, are good, like very good. Their music is like nothing you’d ever heard before: experimental and fun but polished and very technically sound. Steve’s vocals are annoyingly impressive—his growly timbre grounding the lighter sound and keeping it from sounding too saccharine. You can see them dominating the charts and blowing The Letterman’s and every other one-trick band out of the water.

The track they wanted you to jump on was part of the demos Hopper had sent out. It was called “Feel It”, a romantic song, tinged with melancholy but paired with an upbeat synth sound.

You had been sent a copy of the lyrics that included a cue for you to come in.

You practiced your part for days, agonizing over how you wanted to deliver the lyrics, and eventually, you came up with exactly what you wanted to do after making some minor adjustments.

You were actually excited to record the song until you remembered that you would have to come face-to-face with the band’s two asshole guitarists again.

On the day of the recording, you tried your best to be early, but you had been up tossing all night which caused you to oversleep then you lost your keys, and you were moving at the time, so your things were all over the place. You also had to turn around and come back when you realized you had forgotten the gift basket of cookies you were planning on bringing for the band—something left over from a package Charles Riva's team sent you as an apology for him blowing you off. All in all, you were about thirty minutes late.

You pulled into the Starcourt parking lot a harried mess and as you rounded the corner into the studio, you could hear the booming voice of Eddie Munson.

“She’s probably stuck circling the parking lot trying to find some working-class sucker to park her car. Harrington, why don’t you go check out there? Maybe you’ll get papped again and get another 5 minutes of fame.”

You hear Steve respond and while you can’t make out the words, you can tell he’s annoyed, embarrassed, or possibly both.

You can see the faces of every other band member fall like dominos as they each caught sight of you rounding the corner to stand directly behind Eddie.

Eddie though doesn’t seem to pick up on what’s clearly written on all their faces and persists through his tirade, “She’s only coming for the photo opp anyway—she doesn’t care about any of this.”

It’s Argyle who finds his voice first, “Eddie, man, isn’t that her?”

Eddie whips around and with comically wide eyes, looks down at you, grimacing.

You consider telling the guy off but decide against it.

If there is one thing you have learned these years it’s that while the male artists can throw fits, yell, scream, and even damage equipment without anyone as much as blinking an eye, one emotional misstep from you and you would be branded a diva. They would say you were difficult, rude, and find any excuse to toss you aside like they had so many women before you and you refused to let them have that satisfaction.

So, instead, you smile at the band, eyes lingering on Eddie for just a moment longer than on anybody else, to let him know that you had heard him, and then say brightly, “Sorry I’m late everybody. I brought some cookies.”

***

EDDIE: Yeah, it was a dick thing to say, and I regretted it immediately and not just because she brought us cookies.

I wasn’t—that wasn’t me.

I was just so angry about everything that I had lost, and I didn’t know where to put it all and then she shows up: this rich, spoiled girl who just seemed to float through life without a single fucking care or struggle, and suddenly I had an easy target.

I felt bad about it until she changed my fucking lyrics.

***

Unlike their guitarists, most of the band seemed pleased to see you and you spent a few minutes greeting everyone and handing around cookies while Eddie and Steve kept their respective distances—Eddie, sulking in a corner and Steve doing a poor job at pretending to tune his guitar.

“Okay kids let’s give the voices some space to do their thing,” Hopper says waving them through the door sounding more like a disgruntled parent than a manager.

In the end, it’s just you, Steve, Murray, and the sound booth tech. The latter two are busy prepping the sound and mic, leaving you and Steve standing in the back.

“Hey, I wanted to apologize about what I said the other day at lunch,” he leans in close to your ear, his eyes transfixed on his shoes.

“I didn’t mean it—not really. I guess I was just lashing out because, well, they keep changing things about the band without even talking to us. First, they made us go pop, then they made me give up lead guitar to Eddie because his previous band didn’t want him anymore, and then it seemed like they wanted to replace me with you and like, it’s not that I wouldn’t want you it’s just that—well they never even asked what we wanted, you know? I was frustrated about that, and I took it out on you and I’m sorry about that.”

You watch him as he digs the toe of his sneaker into the carpet, eyes downcast, clearly waiting for you to respond. You’re too busy contemplating his words, however, because an apology was the last thing you were expecting from him, much less such a sincere one.

Out of all the difficult men you had dealt with in your life—producers, musicians, lawyers, managers, former flings, hell, even your own father—you had never received an apology from any of them regardless of how poorly they’d treated you.

Steve’s eyes finally trail up to meet yours, searching your face for signs that he didn’t say the wrong thing yet again.

Seeing no trace of dishonesty on Steve’s face, you decide to trust the apology for what it is and nod in acceptance.

“I get it,” you say, and truly, you did, “I’ve had most of my career decisions made for me, and a lot of times, they weren’t really what I wanted. It makes the whole thing feel kind of…empty, doesn’t it?”

His face floods with relief as he nods along in understanding.

“Yeah, like does success matter if we can’t do things our way? Me and Rob, we’ve been best friends since we were little and this has always been our dream and now that it may be coming true, it doesn’t feel like we imagined. I guess that’s kinda stupid though, expecting things to be like you imagined them as a kid,” he laughs at himself nervously.

“No, it’s not,” you counter, “that’s not stupid at all.”

You understand Steve’s disillusionment completely because it mirrors your own.

“Listen, I get how you feel, trust me, but you got to keep going. You guys are good, and I think you could all be big one day and then it’ll be you who’s calling the shots and then you can kick me and Eddie to the curb,” you clearly say the last part in jest but that doesn’t stop the shame that rolls across Steve’s face.

“Hey, don’t say that. You’re really talented and we’re lucky that you’re doing us this favor. We’d be even luckier if we could get you to stick around. Munson I could give or take, though.”

His joke makes you laugh so loud that Murray turns around and glares.

***

Steve was sent into the booth first to record his final vocals for the song, leaving you to observe.

As they set Steve up, your eyes kept bouncing over to the newly appeared Eddie, trying to figure out what exactly he was doing there.

“I wrote the song,” Eddie explains, after catching your eye.

“Oh,” you say, not bothering enough to hide your surprise, “well, congratulations, it’s a good song.”

You catch him eyeing the plate of cookies at your side. You open your mouth to offer him a cookie, but the echo of his words rings fresh in your mind, so instead, you reach for one and make a big show of savoring it.

Steve records his part of the vocals in five takes. He appears a bit nervous at first but eases into his groove rather quickly.

As the audio engineer is setting up the booth for you, you feel your own nerves rise. You wanted this to go well. You wanted to impress Steve and Hopper and even Eddie.

They signal you into the booth and the first two times, you record the song exactly how it’s written. Then, on the third one, you switch up the final chorus.

The original lyrics were: Fear in your heart, can’t conceal it/ But baby, my loves your cure, can’t you feel it? / Lay your hope bare next to mine/ and even if the world caves in, we’ll be fine

You changed the lyrics to: Fear in your heart, can’t conceal it/ But baby, my loves your cure, can’t you feel it? / Lay your flaws bare next to mine/ because when the world caves in, I’ll leave you cryin’

The change was slight, you thought, but meaningful.

The original version—Eddie’s version—was too hopeful. It was a boring portrayal of lovers staying with each other through thick and thin.

Your change added some conflict and dimension to the narrative. You made it better.

“What the hell was that?” Eddie pushed past Murray to yell into the mic that fed into the booth.

You roll your eyes at him dramatically interrupting your take, “I was just trying something out.”

Hopper pulled Eddie back by the shoulder while Murray wrestled the mic from him.

“Woah, sweetheart, pump the breaks. That was good. Better than the original. Can we run that one more time but with your lyrics instead? Harrington, we’ll re-record some of your parts too.”

Hopper has to all but carry Eddie out the door after he hears that.

***

EDDIE: The thing that pissed me off the most was that her version of the song was better. I just didn’t want to admit it because I wrote that song about Chrissy, about how even though I was so scared I was going to fuck up our relationship, she understood that and was willing to work through that with me. Her version was much closer to what actually happened and that hit a little too close to home.

***

“Woah, what did you two do to Eddie?” Robin demands as soon as you and Steve are dismissed into the hallway. “Hopper pretty much had to drag him out in tears!”

You worry at your bottom lip, caught in the wondering eyes of the group. At the time, you felt like you were doing the right thing, but now you wonder if you had forgone the common courtesy of at least letting him know you had changed the song. You didn’t want to come across as unprofessional as he accused you of being.

“I should probably go talk to him,” you say in response.

“Geez, Robin. Was the third degree really necessary there? This is just like last week’s DMV visit all over again,” Steve chastises as they all watch you walk away.

***

You find Eddie in the smoking area, cigarette in hand. “Hey, listen can we talk—"

Eddie turns dangerously to face you, cutting you off.

“You know what your fucking problem is? No one’s ever said no to you so you think you can do whatever the hell you want and that everyone else just rolls over and gives it to you because you’re so pretty and charming and rich.

“Well, you may have the rest of those assholes fooled but I see right through you, okay?”

Your eyes narrowed in response before you snap back.

"First of all, you don't know anything about me, so stop pretending that you do. I have worked hard to be here, just like the rest of you, and as far as this song goes, my name is going to be attached to it too, so I have just as much of a right to give input as you or Steve. It was wrong that I didn't say anything to you beforehand, sure, and I apologize for that, but let's not pretend that you've been the epitome of professionalism here either because you've been an ass to me since we've met, and I don't know why but I won't stand for it again. Fuck you, Eddie Munson,” you spit out before turning on your heel and stomping away.

***

EDDIE: That was hot, not gonna lie.

***

“Are you really going to let some mangy metalhead from Bumfuck, Nowhere keep you from finally doing what you want?” Murray asks exasperatedly when you call him to complain about the exchange later that night.

“Listen, I’ve recorded a lot of songs in that studio, some of them great, most of them mediocre, but today blew all of them out of the water. The band’s never sounded better and neither have you, frankly. If you gave up the chance to finally write your own songs and sound this good while doing it, that would be flat-out idiotic. You know that, right?”

The line goes still.

“Yes,” you finally say.

“Great, now that that’s settled, why don’t you get some rest, huh? Ruining Muson’s day must have tired you right out.”

You exhale a laugh before saying goodbye.

Although you would never say it to his face, you were grateful for Murray. It was nice having someone looking out for you.

***

MURRAY: Brenner loved the track. After that, we had a very short time to make a lot of big things happen. The Downside’s debut album was already 70% recorded, but now that we had a whole other person on vocals, we had to scrap a good portion of the work they had already done and rerecord with our new vocalist. We couldn’t even celebrate our victory because we were just getting started.

Those poor kids had no clue what was coming.

***

When your phone rings a few mornings later, you suspect it’s Murray again with an update on the song, and while you’re right about the message, you’re wrong about the messenger.

“Hi, it’s Steve, uh, Harrington. Obviously,” you hear a familiar voice crackle over the line.

“Oh? And to what do I owe the honor Mr. Obviously?” you respond.

“Oh, very funny. Listen, I wanted to call and let you know that we just heard from Hopper that Brenner and his guys liked our song, and they want us to continue, you know… recording together and stuff. So, yeah, would that be something you’re interested in… being a part of, you know, the band?” his voice wavers a bit as he asks.

“Is that even a choice?” you fire back, “I was under the impression that once Brenner gave the go-ahead, it was pretty much a done deal.”

He clears his throat in response, “I think you deserve to have a choice. I talked to the rest of the band, and they agree and if you don’t want in, we’ll back you… even if that means breaking our Starcourt contract.”

The line goes silent as you contemplate the gravity of what Steve has just said. The Downsides would be willing to put their own career at risk just to assure you the luxury of choice.

The answer was easy after that.

“I’m in,” you say after a few moments of terse silence. “I want to be a part of the band.”

You can all but see Steve pumping his fist on the other side of the line.

“That’s great! That’s great news. I’m glad my asshole tendencies didn’t put you off,” he laughs, relieved.

“I mean, it was a tough sell,” you tease back, “but I think we can be good together. The band, I mean.”

You wonder if you’ve said the wrong thing when his joyous peals of laughter stop suddenly at your words.

“Actually, um, about that,” he begins, once again nervously, “I’m really grateful that you’re giving us—the band—a chance and that you were nice enough to record the single with us in the first place. And, I mean, I know I’m already pushing my luck with the universe and you but maybe—uh, maybe today it’s my turn to be the luckiest guy in the world? Who knows?”

You have absolutely no clue what he’s getting at, and you let him know as much.

“Right, hm, I was wondering if I could take you out, on a date, to celebrate us becoming a band but also like, you know, a date. I know I made a total ass of myself, but I really like you, and I think you're gorgeous and talented and smart. I know I may not deserve another shot, but I would love it if you gave me one.”

You’re at a loss for words. First, you’re not even sure if you want to trust Steve fully, not quite yet. Sure, he apologized, but a part of you wonders if he only did it to get on your good side once he had seen how your pre-established infamy could serve him after that Subrosa article ran. Murray mentioned how radio runtime for the few EP songs The Downsides had in the rotation tripled since the publication. It definitely wouldn’t have been the first time you were being used like this.

Even if you could find it in yourself to look past that (and who knows, maybe you could?) there was still the matter of what Murray and Hopper had so delicately mentioned that day at lunch.

“I’m sorry, Steve, I don’t think that would be very professional. Especially on account of our… front-facing, romantic narrative.”

“Our what?”

***

MURRAY: I thought that Hopper had gotten his team on the same page about the more personal aspects of the band’s arrangement, but apparently, I was wrong. None of them had any clue what was going on and the thing about running a ruse is that people that are in on it kind of have to know that they’re in on it.

A few days before we began re-recording, the girl called me all in a tizzy because she accidentally spilled the beans, not knowing that Harrington had no clue at all about the plan.

I then call Hopper; it turns into this whole thing. We had to arrange an emergency meeting with the two of them and the entire legal team.

A bit slow on the uptake, that Harrington kid, but he got there. Eventually.

He was harder to convince than the girl, though. At least she didn’t have a problem with lying to the public. But Harrington was all about that Midwestern “integrity” and “letting the music speak for itself”. Hop eventually had to spell it out real simple for him: either they do this, or the entire band was cooked.

STEVE: I guess after like 15 years the ruse is finally up, huh? Yeah, the relationship was fake. Or, at least, it started out that way. Listen, it was complicated and we’re getting ahead of ourselves.

But, if you’re asking about what I was thinking when they finally told me their plan, well, I wasn’t happy or on board at all. It felt like we had already given up so much of ourselves for this—like, where do you draw the line, you know?

But then Hopper reminded me that it wasn’t all about me: Nancy had dropped out of college to be in the band, Jonathan…he had his sick little brother to take care of, and even Munson was going to be in trouble if he didn’t fulfill his contract with Starcourt.

It was selfish to say no, in my opinion. And really, what was I losing? I got to make music for a living and parade around, pretending to date a total hottie while doing it. I mean, the only way it could’ve gotten better was if the relationship had been real.

***

After what feels like days—but is most likely hours—with the Starcourt legal team, you and Steve are finally released with a very long grocery list of instructions that include a minimum number of required public appearances; a very specific list of acceptable PDA; and interestingly, enough, a sample NDA in case either of you wanted to ��be involved” with anyone on the side.

“Nothing says romance like NDA, right?” you weakly joke in an attempt to break the ice.

“How are you so okay with this?” Steve shoots back, seemingly stunned.

“Well, it’s not like this is my first rodeo, or my fourth, or my sixth.”

And before he can question further, you tell him everything, starting with Jason fucking Carver.

***

STEVE: I couldn’t believe it. They had been forcing her to pretend to be involved with all these guys for years. It was super fucked up, but she stuck with it. That’s how much she wanted it. How could I possibly let her down after that? Especially with my own selfish, dumb feelings? She was right, we needed to keep it professional, no matter how hard that was going to be for me.

NEXT CHAPTER 🎤

Taglist: @rexorangecouny , @persophonekarter

#steve harrington x reader #eddie munson x reader #nancy wheeler #steve harrington #stranger things x reader #eddie munson #eddie munson x you #robin buckley #stranger things fanfiction #stranger things x you #stranger things imagine #stranger things fanfic #band!au

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cherubkeery · 1 year

Text

Murray’s Matching Service

Steve Harrington x reader

I saw someone on here use a nickname instead of using y/n and I like that a lot better. If you know who did do that, please comment so I can give credit. Or if that was you! Also the name came from a stranger things video about Murray lmaoo.

Robin was trying to sniffle her laughter but she couldn’t help it. Steve glanced at her with an annoyed expression on his face. He really didn’t like where this was going. Murray was rubbing his chin and nodding his head. Hopper had an amused smile on his face.

“You don’t like her.” Steve gave him a questionable look. “You’re in love with her.”

“I-.”

“Let the master work!” Murray scream yelled, Steve rose his eyebrows and stood silent. Robin burst into laughter. “I saw it, the way you look at her. Like she hung the stars on the sky herself. It’s it’s crazy kid, this is kind of a full circle moment for me.”

Steve looked over at Joyce, hoping she’ll find a way to make this stop. But even Joyce had a smile on her face. Steve looked at Murray again, she wasn’t going to save him on this.

“So there’s a way for you to get them together?” Robin asked, her hands on the counter. She was invested in this, surprisingly so.

“If I can get these two together.” Murray said pointing at hopper and Joyce. “And Jonathan and Nancy. Sorry about that kid.” Murray said, patting Steve on the back.

“Uh none taken?”

“Then I can get anyone together. Especially those two, they just need a push in the right direction.” Murray said, Steve was beginning to regret ever saying anything in the first place.

╔═══*.·:·.☽✧ ✦ ✧☾.·:·.*═══╗

You were busy with a uni assignment when you heard the walkie go off. Dustin voice booming from the voice box.

“This is a code red! I repeat a code red! Nyxie! Do you copy!” You instantly grabbed the walkie. Hoping against hope this wasn’t anything to do with the upside down.

“Yes, I copy. What’s wrong?” You said, your heart was beating out of your chest.

“Meet us at the cabin, the cabin okay?!”

You quickly grabbed a few of your upside down kit, which included Steve’s hair spray you stole from him, a lighter, a gun and some first aid kit. For Steve, he was always getting hurt. Then you ran out to your car.

You squinted as you looked out into the cabin. Your gut feeling was telling you something suspicious was happening. You sighed and grabbed the bag you had, rushing to the door. You knocked rapidly against the wooden door. Hopper opened it instantly, a big grin on his face.

“Hey! Nyxie! What brings- I mean we have uh- there’s a red code. I mean a code red.” He said, you raise your eyebrows at him.

“Please don’t tell me it’s a false alarm. I literally brought this.” You said, gesturing towards the bag you had with you. Hopper shook his head.

“It’s definitely a code red. Come in.”

Once inside, you saw everyone sitting around in his cabin. Steve nowhere in sight. You looked around, confused.

“You’re here!” Dustin says, a big grin on his face. It slowly drops seeing the grave look on your face.

“What’s wrong? What happened? Please don’t tell me Steve got hurt.” You said, your anxiety was building block by block. You were scared, he wasn’t present. What if Vecna got him?

“Hey, hey, nothing like that. We just needed you to Uh talk.” Hopper said, trying to cool down your nerves. Your brows furrowed for the thousand time you’ve been there.

“Talk?” You asked.

“Talk. Come on Mike, let’s go.” El said, getting up from her spot from the floor. Everyone around the room began to disburse.

“Hey! Where is everyone going?”

The lights went out for a second, fear filled your heart like a water tank at full blast. Then before you knew it, Steve Harrington was right in front of you. You took a step back and closed your eyes. Letting out a shaky breath. He was fine, he was fine. Everyone was fine.

“Hey, can you look at me please?” He asked, his eyes were looking at you as if you hung every star on every planet. Or maybe that’s what you hoped he was looking at you as.

“Dustin said it was a code red. I didn’t see you with them. I thought you got hurt. What’s going on?”

“I asked them for help. For us to talk.”

“About?”

“You know from the moment I met you. I knew that you were going to change my life as I knew it. You’re probably thinking that’s insane. Steve. We barely knew each other. How could you have possibly known that.”

You noticed he was walking closer and closer to you. You held your breath, your heart was beating out of your chest.

“I knew that because I knew how I felt about you. I knew I was developing a crush on you. But now it’s grown so big, I think- I think-.”

Before he could say anything else, you met him half way. Up on your tippy toes and grabbed his face. A smile was plastered on both your faces. Your lips met and you were kissing him. The bag long forgotten. You were kissing the boy you fell in love with. Who had fallen for you too. It didn’t feel real.

“Yes! See! Never ever doubt my ability to get two people together.” Murray said, coming out of hiding. As did the rest of the party. You laughed and turned to look at Steve.

“Yeah I know, he was my best bet.” He said, his voice annoyed. You laughed again as you wrapped your arms around his waist. His arm wrapped around your waist.

“Finally!” Dustin said. “You finally got a girlfriend!”

#stranger things #stranger things x reader #steve harrington x reader #steve harrington #steve harrington imagine #steve harrington x you

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hbyrde36 · 4 months

Text

The Crawl

Part 4 of 5

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 AO3

WC: 5670

-Eddie-

Eddie thought the weirdest thing that would ever happen to him was Steve Harrington, of all people, trying and eventually succeeding in becoming his friend.

It was unexpected, the way they got along so well and discovered that they actually had more in common than either of them would have thought, but not as unexpected as Eddie realizing that his unrequited crush on the former king of Hawkins High was possibly not as unrequited as he’d initially thought.

That became his new weirdest thing, for a while.

Eddie would have never dreamed that someone like Steve, queer or not, would be interested in someone like him, but after he caught the guy staring at his bare chest for nearly a full minute the first time he answered his door shirtless, and subsequently every time he was shirtless thereafter, it was too obvious to deny.

Not that he ever intended to do anything with that information.

Eddie was, in certain situations at least, a coward after all. The closer that they got, and the more Steve started to mean to him, the more afraid he became to ruin things. Steve never said anything outright, never acknowledged the electricity between them, so Eddie didn't either, happy to live in the liminal space where they danced around it, because it was safer. Steve stopped dating, Eddie continued his streak of not dating, and they never talked about it.

Then Chrissy Cunningham was murdered by an unseen evil wizard right there in the middle of his living room, and he found out just how naive he’d been about how weird shit could get.

Along with that epiphany came another one. Life was too fucking short to keep playing games, and Eddie was so tired of being scared.

Angry hick mob launching a witch hunt?

Scary.

The Upside Down?

Fucking terrifying.

But, Steve?

Steve was safe, he was comfort, he was home.

Eddie wasn’t afraid of Steve anymore, he was afraid for him, terrified that once they parted on the brink of battle they’d never see each other again, that he’d never get to tell Steve that he loved him.

He’d done it, in the end. Eddie was brave. He called out for Steve and they’d gotten their moment, a few feverish kisses at the end of the world, and a promise.

Afterwards he climbed up on top of that trailer with his audience of two to play Master of Puppets with a new fire running through his veins.

This was for Chrissy, who’d died a terrible agonizing death at the hands of a foe she could never have imagined. It was for Max, who'd been targeted because of her suffering, as if the suffering itself wasn’t enough. It was for El, who endured a hellish upbringing that no one should ever have been subjected to. For the boys and Erica, whose childhoods were cut short by simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time and helping their friends. For the older teens, Steve, Robin, Nancy, and Jonathan, who were still kids in their own right, forced to grow up in an instant and become protectors, crushed under the weight of that responsibility. Hopper and Joyce, who despite their efforts had little choice but to let all of these children become soldiers in a war none of them signed up for.

And finally, for himself. Eddie knew his life would never be the same after this. Whether they defeated Vecna or not, whether his name was cleared or not, some people would choose to continue to see the worst, to see him as a murderer.

He did everything Steve asked him to do. Well, almost everything.

As soon as he spotted the bats on the horizon, a rapidly approaching cloud of wings and gnashing teeth, and it was clear that the creatures had taken the bait, he abandoned his concert and took the two boys back down into the house. The entire trailer had been reinforced, doors and windows boarded up with bits of wood and corrugated metal, and, at Steve’s curiously specific request, Eddie made sure the air vents were sufficiently blocked.

It held them off for a while, but eventually a few of the little fuckers managed to squeeze their way inside and Eddie knew he had to act fast. He rushed Dustin and Will up the rope and fully intended to follow after them, really he did, but the demobats seemed to have the same idea.

It wasn’t even a choice.

He couldn't risk letting the bats get through the gate and go after the boys, or be let loose into the Right-Side-Up. Eddie used his spear to dispatch the winged menaces closest to the portal and then took off, screaming and shouting like a lunatic to entice the remaining monsters to follow after him as he ran outside. He kept up a litany of loudly delivered taunts and jabs as he mounted one of the bikes that they’d left behind before and managed to draw the horde away from the trailer, chasing after him alone instead.

He didn't remember hitting the ground. When one of the creatures pulled away from the pack and swooped down to knock him from the bike, he only barely registered the sensation of falling before the world went black.

He swam in and out of consciousness several times before finally waking up for good.

At the time he hadn’t even been sure if any of it was real, thinking maybe he’d died and it was all some kinda weird hallucination on his way to the afterlife.

Eddie’s eyelids fluttered open and he found his face pressed against an unfamiliar chest. He must have moved because the arms around him tightened protectively as the man attached to them spoke, his voice low and rumbling. “Don’t worry, kid. We’re gonna get you out of here.”

It sounded like Hopper, but before Eddie could get a look at him to be sure, he blinked and was suddenly being jostled around in a car, cradled against a body he was a little more familiar with.

Steve.

He tried to say it out loud, all but screaming the name inside his own head but no matter how hard he tried all that would come out of his mouth was a whimper. Steve shushed him and whispered soothing nonsense as he pushed Eddie's hair back to press kisses against his forehead. He tried hard to stay that time, but he was powerless to resist the pull of the darkness.

He blinked again and was surrounded by strangers in a cold room with too much light. He squinted against the brightness, realizing only after he’d started panicking that the beeping he heard was mimicking his own heartbeat. He was in a hospital, and the strangers around him were nurses and a doctor. He relaxed, finally accepting that he wasn’t dead and the beeping slowed to match his pulse. He sank into sleep less reluctantly then, knowing he would wake again eventually and hopefully this time someone he knew would be there to tell him what the hell had happened.

When Eddie finally woke up for real, it was a gradual ascent into consciousness. He took a deep breath before opening his eyes, turning his head slowly and carefully to take in his surroundings. The room was dimly lit now and the night sky was visible through the open blinds on the windows. There was no one in sight save for a lone figure with their arm in a sling slumped over in a chair next to his hospital bed.

“Steve?” Eddie croaked out, dry throat causing him to break out into a coughing fit.

The other boy jumped up from his seat, instantly awake and quickly grabbed a nearby cup of water before returning to his side.

Eddie took a few grateful sips but couldn't take his eyes off of Steve’s arm. When he could speak again it was the first thing he had to know. “Are you hurt? What happened to your arm?”

Steve shook his head, the ghost of a smile coming over his face as he settled back into the chair, taking one of Eddie’s hands with his good one. “You just woke up after being nearly eaten alive by demobats and the first thing you ask is if I’m hurt?”

“I just want to make sure you’re okay.” Eddie grumbled, sinking back into his pillows. “And I didn’t almost get eaten… I don’t think.” He paused trying to think back. “Okay, honestly I'm not sure. I don’t really remember anything after falling off the bike.”

Steve nodded as if he’d been expecting that. “Yeah, you hit your head when you fell. You’ve got a lump on the back of your head, and some bites. There, on your cheek” He said, eyeing up the bandage Eddie could feel taped to his face. ”And a few more on your leg.”

That, Eddie hadn’t known. He wasn’t really feeling any pain at the moment. They were probably pumping him full of pain meds, so between that and the adrenaline from seeing Steve and finally being awake, he was feeling pretty good.

“Oh.” Eddie began, letting it all process slowly. “How long has it been?”

“A little less than a day, it’s only the next night.”

“Did we do it? Is he gone? What about Dustin and Will, are they… Did everybody make it?”

Steve started to laugh but it cut off abruptly on a choked sob. His eyes shimmered with unshed tears and he looked away for the first time since Eddie had woken up.

Eddie’s heart sank, the sudden racing of his pulse given away by the sound of the heart monitor.

Steve squeezed his hand, wiping his eyes on his own shoulder and finally looked back up. “Vecna’s dead. The Upside Down is gone, for real this time. They’re all okay, you were the only one who got hurt. I promise.”

Eddie raised his eyebrows, looking pointedly at the dark blue sling the other boy was currently wearing.

“I’m fine.” Steve insisted.

Eddie frowned. He could accept that maybe Steve’s arm wasn’t bothering him, but it was clear that he wasn’t, in fact, fine.

“If everyone’s okay then why do you look so sad?” He asked softly.

“Sorry. I’m… it’s just… “ Steve stuttered. “I’m just so glad you’re okay, Eds.”

He knew Steve meant it, even if it felt like he was leaving something out, but Eddie didn’t want to push the issue. He gave a little nod. “I’m glad you’re okay too, Stevie.”

He let the silence settle around them for a moment, hoping that Steve would say a little more. When it was obvious that he wasn’t going to do that, he pressed on.

“What else did I miss? Tell me everything. What’s the cover story? Am I going to be arrested when I get out of here? Has anyone gotten in touch with Wayne? He must be worried sick. Are the-”

Steve cut him off mid question, laughing again, only this time without the tears, to Eddie’s immense relief.

“Slow down! Jesus! You’re supposed to be taking it easy.”

“I’m literally laying in bed, Harrington. I couldn't be taking it any easier if I tried.”

“Alright.” Steve said, blowing out a long breath. “You were passed out on the ground when we got back from the Creel house. There were bats laying dead on the ground all over the place. We figure they must have dropped when we killed Vecna. I, um, tried to pick you up but I dislocated my shoulder fighting the vines so Hopper carried you out and we rushed you here, to the hospital. Like I said, no one else was really hurt. Officially you’ve been cleared, but no details have been released to the public yet. Hopper said they’re still working on the story.”

“They?”

“The lab, I guess? Or the government? Both? I don’t know, I was always a little confused about all that.”

“Okay.” Eddie said. Fair enough, it’s not like he had any better idea of what was going on behind the scenes. Who was in league with who, shadowy government conspiracies and all that.

“They do have an officer on your door, Powell and Callahan are taking turns keeping watch, but it's for your protection, not the other way around. Just until word spreads that you’re innocent.”

Eddie didn’t have the heart to argue that it probably wouldn’t be as simple as that. Steve would see in time, or maybe the citizens of Hawkins would surprise him, prove him wrong. Either way that was a problem for another day.

“Innocent is a strong word, baby.” Eddie teased. The term of endearment sliding off his tongue so easily. He nearly winced at his own use of it, but Steve didn't seem to mind.

“We haven't been able to get in touch with Wayne yet, but Hopper is on it. We know he was put up in a motel somewhere so it’s just a matter of finding out which one.

“It’s probably for the best. I don’t know what I'd even tell him, or how to explain where I've been.”

“We’ll figure it out.”

Eddie was overtaken by a huge yawn, his eyelids suddenly felt heavy and drooping. All the talking really had taken a lot out of him.

“You should get some sleep, I'll still be here in the morning. You need rest.” Steve said.

“So do you.”

“Hey, I was sleeping just fine in this chair here until you woke me up.”

Eddie hesitated, he didn’t really want to be alone but he felt guilty. He didn’t want Steve to feel like he had to stay. “You should go home, you need real sleep. In a bed.”

A look of hurt crossed Steve’s face, but was gone again as quick as it had come, as if he was carefully schooling his expressions. It was concerning, and it made Eddie’s throat tight.

“Do you want me to leave?”

“No.” Eddie answered honestly.

“Okay.” Steve said, and that settled that, apparently.

Eddie dropped off to sleep pretty quickly. It was easy with Steve's hand still resting warm in his. It had to be uncomfortable, reaching his arm across from the chair like that. He almost asked Steve to join him in the bed. It would be a tight squeeze for sure, though Eddie wouldn't have minded, but they still hadn’t talked about what happened between them in the Upside Down.

He dreamed.

Or would it be considered a nightmare, he wondered, since the slightly off scene was set in the woods of the Upside Down. He and Steve were walking beside each other, just as they had done in real life. Steve was shirtless again and wearing Eddie’s battle vest, a combined visual that had gone a long way in making Eddie feel better about where they were, and what they were doing at the time. The big difference here was that Steve was hurt. His middle was wrapped in a makeshift bandage of some sort and he was bleeding. A ring-like wound wrapped around his neck, making it look like someone had tried to hang him. Before Eddie could make sense of it the ground beneath his feet in the dream shook, and he jolted awake.

Though to him it felt like hardly any time had passed, he must have been asleep for quite a while because it was morning, and late morning at that judging by the light, confirmed when he finally spotted a clock that hung above his room’s door. He could also see the silhouette of a person standing just outside of it. Whichever cop that had drawn the short straw on being his bodyguard today, he supposed.

To his disappointment, Steve was gone. He wondered if the other boy had just stepped out, or if he had finally taken Eddie’s advice in the night and gone home to his nice warm bed. Part of him hoped so, the other part tried not to be upset by the absence..

He didn’t have long to dwell on it though, because only a few minutes later Uncle Wayne came walking through the door.

Eddie wanted nothing more than to get up from the bed he was stuck in. To stand and hug the man who maybe hadn’t raised him, but had, with absolutely no hesitation, taken in a troubled teenager that showed up on his doorstep unannounced and cared for him like he was his own.

He settled for pushing himself up into a sitting position and accepting the gentle one armed embrace his uncle could manage while hovering over the bed.

“I’m sorry.” Eddie blurted out.

Wayne waved him off like it was ridiculous, but how could he not be sorry for upending his uncle’s life like this. Eddie let it go for now, they could come back to that later.

“Christ, boy. I thought I'd never see you again. How you feelin’? They tell me you’re pretty banged up.”

Shit.

“Yeah, I feel okay, actually. Considering, uh… '' Eddie trailed off, hesitating. He still had no idea what he was supposed to say, allowed to say?

“Don’t worry, son. You don’t gotta tell me nothing. Hop already warned me not to ask if I wanted to be allowed in to see ya.”

Eddie was a little taken aback, it wasn’t like Wayne to accept an ultimatum like that. He must have really been worried. It was a relief. He didn’t enjoy keeping things from Wayne, but this was bigger than just the two of them.

“Sorry,” he said again, for lack of what else to say.

“If you don’t stop apologizing.” Wayne muttered, shaking his head. “I only wish I coulda been here sooner.”

“It’s fine. Steve was here- for a while.” Eddie said, not quite managing to keep the disappointment he’d felt earlier at waking up alone off his face.

“No need to look so glum, he’s only down in the cafeteria getting coffee with that girl who’s always hanging around with you two.”

“Robin?”

Wayne snapped his fingers in recognition. “That’s the one.”

“Oh.”

“He was headed this way when we bumped into each other in the hall. I told him he was welcome to come along a’course but he said he wanted to give us some time to ourselves.”

“That was… thoughtful of him.” Eddie said and began to worry at his lower lip, forgetting about the wound on his cheek. He winced as the movement pulled at the stitches there.

Wayne eyed him curiously. “Something on your mind, Ed?”

“Nah, it’s nothing, compared to everything else going on.”

It was the truth, he was being ridiculous. Not that him being worried about Steve was ridiculous, but the fact that Eddie was starting to wonder if it had something to do with him, with them, as whatever it was they were to each other now. There were more important things.

“Not if it’s bothering you this much.”

Eddie sighed. “It’s Steve.”

“I gathered. What about him?”

Eddie wasn’t dumb. He was sure his uncle knew he had a giant crush on his friend, Steve hung around the trailer so much that he had his own mug and everything, but he didn’t want to out Steve by talking about what happened between them without his permission.

“I think something’s wrong and he won't tell me what it is. He said…” Eddie paused, choosing his words. “He gave me an explanation, but I could tell that wasn’t all there was to it. It feels like he’s keeping something from me.”

“And you feel like this thing, the something that’s wrong, is to do with you?”

“Maybe.”

“Hmm.” Wayne hummed thoughtfully. “He know you're freaking out about it?”

“I’m not freaking out about it.” Eddie huffed.

“Whatever you say, but you should try and talk to him about it again. He wouldn’t like knowing he’s got you this twisted up over it. Whatever it is.”

“I’m not twisted– how do you know?”

“I might be getting older but I'm not blind.”

Wayne wound up sitting with him for over an hour, and it was the most relaxed he’d felt since before this all started. Wayne kept it light, updating Eddie on all the work drama he’d missed and the trailer park gossip, steering clear of anything related to the events of the past week.

He was still there when Eddie’s doctor and a nurse came to check on him, surprising them both with the news that, barring any new complications, he could be released in just a few days. He’d had only a minor concussion and the wounds on his legs weren’t as deep as it was initially thought.

He stood for the first time, with help of course, and found that while it was painful, it was doable. He might have to use a cane for support until everything healed completely but that was a small price to pay.

Eventually Steve and Robin appeared, and at Eddie's insistence, uncle Wayne took his leave. He would have stayed all day, all night if Eddie had asked him to, but he knew Wayne would be more comfortable back at his motel, and selfishly he hoped to get more alone time with Steve.

Steve, who he couldn't help noticing had deep bags under his eyes. It didn’t look like he’d gotten any sleep the previous night.

Eddie didn't say that out loud though, and he never got to bring up what was bothering him either. Robin stuck around for the day and the three of them hung out until well after visiting hours were supposed to be over. He couldn't complain, it was nice to spend time with his friends even in these conditions, and he appreciated the little play-by-play that Robin acted out for him detailing their takedown of Vecna.

By the time her parents showed up to drag her away and drive her back home, Eddie was beyond exhausted, and Steve could tell. With very little effort he coaxed him into laying down, wordlessly assuming the same position they had been in the night before, Steve slouched uncomfortably in the chair with his arm stretched out and propped up on the bed rail so he could hold Eddie’s hand. He was asleep before he could even consider rethinking asking Steve to share the bed.

Another dream plagued Eddie's rest. This one a little more vivid than the last. It was odd, usually once you know you’re dreaming you either wake up or are able to take some control of the events around you, but in this case Eddie could only hold on tight and go along for the ride.

Steve was wearing his vest again- still? And watching over Eddie’s shoulder as he hotwired his neighbor’s RV. They talked while he worked. It was a story he’d told Steve before, albeit under very different circumstances. His father, being the great fucking influence he was, had taught a little bright-eyed bushy-tailed 8 year old Eddie how to hotwire a car. A skill he no doubt thought would be useful for an up and coming Munson, assuming Eddie would grow up to carry on the legacy of the family name. Even then he knew he didn’t want to wind up like his father, it was why he’d run to Wayne when the shit hit the fan. He knew his uncle was a good man and a better parental figure than Al could ever be.

The dream warped and changed. They were headed to The War Zone. In reality they had called Hopper and the chief had been in charge of outfitting them all with weapons. Now, Steve was behind the wheel of their stolen camper and Eddie was sitting in the back with some of the kids and Robin, watching as he flirted awkwardly with Nancy who had taken up the passenger seat.

It was truly a bizarre scene, but that was dream logic, he reasoned. Steve and Nancy had been broken up for years, they were friends now and nothing more. Steve hardly looked at her twice these days. Eddie knew that and still the sight before him, fake or not, made his stomach tense and his chest ache.

He woke abruptly, eyes snapping open though he was unsure at first of what had disturbed him. He registered several things at once.

It was still dark outside and he had the feeling that not much time had passed, a fact that was proven true when he glanced at the clock and found it was only 11pm.

Steve was no longer holding his hand, he was curled into a ball in the chair, arms wrapped around himself as he wept like his heart was breaking. It was completely silent but Eddie could see how the great big sobs shook and wracked his body.

Pain be damned, he began to get out of the bed, sliding his legs over the side to try putting weight onto them. There was a walker next to his bed, the same one he'd used earlier to make an agonizingly slow trip to and from the bathroom. He just needed to get to Steve, to comfort him and–

“Eddie, what are you doing? Get back in bed.” Steve said, clearing his throat to try and hide the fact that he was sniffling, and desperately wiping away his tears as if his red rimmed eyes wouldn’t give him away regardless.

“Fine.” Eddie conceded, lifting his legs careful back onto the mattress and scooting back up against his pillows. “Just… come over here and sit with me then?”

“Eddie.”

“Please?”

He did as Eddie asked and came to sit next to him on the edge of the bed, but refused to look him in the eye. It hurt, and Eddie started to spiral.

Maybe Steve didn’t want to be here at all. Maybe he just felt like he had to, out of some misplaced obligation or something. Did he regret what they said to each other? The kisses? Everything? Had Steve only done those things because there was a chance they were both about to die? Eddie hadn’t thought so at the time but his confusion over Steve’s sadness was making him question everything.

He swallowed it down, not voicing any of those anxieties, at first.

“Are you okay?” Eddie asked.

Steve rubbed his face hard, something he did often when he was tired and frustrated. “I’m fine. Everything is good. I told you. I… I’m just tired.”

“I’m sorry but I don't believe that, and I know I shouldn’t push but I know there’s something you’re not telling me. Please, Steve. Just tell me what’s wrong.“ Eddie laid a tentative hand on Steve's arm, aiming for comfort, but the other boy stiffened under his touch. It was a bad sign, all but confirming his fears, but he pressed on anyway. “I care about you so much and I hate that you're hurting. I just want to help.”

He prayed that Steve would say something, anything, but he remained frustratingly silent.

“Is it me? Did I do something? If you… we can forget about what happened between us If that’s what you need, Steve. I just want you to be okay.”

He was met with only more silence and this time Eddie couldn't bring himself to break it.

Several agonizing minutes passed before Steve finally raised his eyes to look at him and spoke.

“I don’t want to forget about it.”

Eddie froze, almost afraid to even breathe.

“I love you. I’m in love with you, Eddie.”

Eddie gasped. “Oh.”

“You don’t have to say it back. I just needed you to know.”

“I do, though.”

“What?”

“Love you- too.”

The invisible wall that had been building between them finally broke as Steve leaned in to press the gentlest of kisses to Eddie’s lips. As much as he wanted to deepen the kiss, he allowed the act to remain soft and chaste, appreciating that Steve was trying to be careful of disturbing the wound on his cheek, but as far as Eddie was concerned, kissing Steve properly was worth a ripped stitch or two.

All too soon Steve pulled back, though he kept his arm tucked around Eddie’s waist. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make you think any of those things you said.”

Eddie moved over as far as he could in the bed and pulled Steve in close, encouraging him to lay down beside him. He remained quiet, stroking Steve’s hair. He had a feeling the other boy was on the verge of opening up and he wanted to give him the time and space to do it at his own pace.

“There’s some things about all this, about the Upside Down that we haven't told you, that I didn’t tell you. I was trying to protect you, it was already so much… but you deserve to know, if you want. It would be nice to talk about it with someone.”

“With someone other than Robin, you mean?”

“How do you know Robin knows?”

“Is there anything you don’t tell her?

Steve smiled despite himself and rolled his eyes, but the expression quickly fell, replaced with something more worried and serious. “Are you sure you want to know this?”

“It’s about me, isn’t it?” Eddie guessed.

Steve nodded solemnly. “Yes.”

“Tell me.”

Over the next few hours Steve told Eddie all about his other self and what he’d done for the party. How there was an alternate timeline where everything that they’d just been through had happened before, except Vecna had won and Eddie had died, only to rise again and discover that time worked differently in the Upside Down and that maybe all hope wasn’t lost. Steve made him sound like a hero.

He was glassy eyed as he talked about meeting the other Eddie for the first time, when he got pulled through the gate at Lover’s Lake, and wept again when he spoke of their final meeting at the edge of the trailer park as the other dimension and everything residing in it was dying.

Eddie didn’t blame Steve for keeping this from him. He was right, it was too much, a heavy burden when they already had so many other things to carry, but he was happy that he knew the full truth.

He understood Steve’s sorrow now. He was mourning Eddie– even as Eddie was still sitting right here in front of him, alive… It had to be a bit of a mind fuck. He wasn’t sure if he could have handled it had their roles been reversed. To have to say goodbye to Steve like that, alternate version or not, might have broken him.

He knew he should have been more freaked out about the time travel of it all, and the fact that he’d died, or be obsessing over the differences between that reality and this one, but there would be plenty of time for that later. For now he just wanted to comfort Steve and enjoy the fact that he was alive, that they all were.

They fell asleep like that, smashed together in the too-small bed holding on to whichever part of the other person they could manage, too tired and emotionally drained to care if a nurse came in to catch them in such a compromising position.

Eddie dreamed once again, as he had every time he’d closed his eyes for the past 24 hours, but this time it truly was a nightmare.

He was back on the bike in the Upside Down, pedaling as fast and as hard as could, glancing back every now and then to keep an eye on the swarm that flew ever closer. The feeling of deja vu was intense as he was knocked to the ground, but this time he didn’t lose consciousness. He got up, and he stood his ground, and he fought to the very end. He hated himself a little bit for what he put Dustin through, having to watch him die like that, though he was so grateful to have not been alone in the end.

He woke with a big gasping breath feeling a little hysterical. It had all been a bit too real, he’d felt himself die. Steve was startled awake by his outburst, and he held Eddie close while he tried to calm down and relearn how to breathe.

“Bad dream?” Steve asked.

Was it just a dream? Was it a coincidence that he’d dreamt of the exact circumstances of his other self’s death, a way for his subconscious to work through everything he’d learned that night? Or was it something more.

If it was just the one nightmare he might have dismissed it, but knowing what he knew now…

He thought back on the other things he’d seen in his sleep, the walk through the woods, familiar yet different, the adventure in the RV, an alternative way to gather weapons in a world where Hopper was gone. He could feel it in his bones, there was a reason he was seeing these things.

“I don’t think they’re dreams.”

“What do you mean? You’ve had others?”

“Yeah. I think… Steve, I think they might be memories.”

Steve was skeptical at first but once Eddie detailed everything he’d seen and felt, even he had to admit it seemed possible.

Steve stared at him for a long time, studying his face intently as if he might be able to see the other Eddie inside, looking out through his eyes.

“Maybe when he died the two of you sort of… '' Steve trailed off sounding hopeful, weaving his fingers together with Eddie’s to signify what he meant, instead of finishing the thought out loud.

Eddie hummed noncommittally, raising their joined hands to his mouth and kissing the back of Steve’s “I guess we’ll find out one way or another, if it keeps happening.”

Part 5 (final)

Thanks forever to @penny00dreadful for being the best friend, cheerleader, and beta in the whole fucking world 💜 truly could not do it without you. Also special thanks to @hitlikehammers for all the discussion and encouragement on this!

@hissunflowers @sadisticaltarts @gutterflower77 @epiclazershark @yeahhhh-suga @soapyscoobert @thetrueghostqueen @guppynuggets @reh-hateshumans @katdeerly @kolorzapster @useless-nb-bisexual @sammyammi @ellietheasexylibrarian @thesecondfate @eleganttidalwavecloud @localcrustrat @letsmo6 @justaquietnerd @marvelobessed @femmeratale @carriethesaint @novelnovella

#steddie fanfic #steve harrington #eddie munson #stranger things #steddie #time fuckery #steve harrington/eddie munson #steve x eddie #steddie fic #fanfic #ao3 #the crawl

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starry-blue-echoes · 6 months

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Thonking about StarSwap again -

The scene where Jonathan attacks Dio full force after he assaults Erina is probably going to end up going pretty differently - Jolyne is going to fight dirty, and be absolutely vicious in a way Jonathan could never manage.

Dio burned Danny alive in retaliation for Jonathan managing to successfully beat the shit out of him and scare him - what might he do in response to Jolyne's cunning and aggression?

holy fuck wait a minute yeah-

While the nature of the relationship likely wouldn't be the same as it would be in canon (after all, Erina would be like. 12/13 years old and Jolyne is 19), she still would've seen Erina as a very close friend. I don't doubt that Jolyne would still step in when those two other kids were bullying her, albeit unlike Jonathan her reasoning wouldn't be anything chivialry related. Hell, with the help of Stone Free, Jolyne might even be able to win that fight

Erina would still seek her out afterward, and while Jolyne wouldn't reciprocate the romantic feelings the other girl had...... well, Jolyne's pretty lonely. Sure there's Danny, but he is a dog, and Erina's kind and sweet and nice to hang around, and open minded enough that I think she'd be okay with Jolyne asking if they could be just friends

but of course, this is the 1880s in England, and naturally most people assume the pair to be romantically involved, especially given how close they are

Dio being one of them

you're absolutely right in how Jolyne is going to be brutal. Words can not properly express how overwhelmingly pissed she is going to be about all this, and what makes things worse for Dio is how no matter what he does, Jolyne just won't go down. Despite how much he punches and kicks, all his attacks seem either magically miss or just bounce right off (ofc, this is thanks to Stone Free), so Jolyne gets hardly a scratch on her. Hell, she's probably not even going to stop when George arrives, no matter what he says or what punishments he threatens to inflict.

now, do the both of these things make it easier for Dio to spin the story in his favor? Admittedly yes. I'd imagine she tries to tell George about what happened, about what Dio did, only to get brushed off because in his eyes Jolyne was the instigator here who beat poor, poor Dio near to death over some girl

I'd imagine after this incident, the shakey bond Jolyne might've had with George snapped completely

as for Danny........

Dio would probably still kill him. Sort of as a last ditch effort, a final attempt at getting some kind of control over the situation to remind Jojo of his place and what happens if he were to cross Dio

it backfires horribly

because before, Jolyne might've forgiven him. It would have taken YEARS and a lot of growth, but Jolyne is not blind to the environment and time they live in, where women are barely more than pretty objects and Dio has been given almost free reign as a noble's new adopted son. Before, she might've been able to forgive him because Dio was barely 12 and still a child and had likely learned a lot of things that weren't good. It could have been a mistake, one that someday he could look back at and be ashamed of

but then he kills Danny. He kills Danny by locking him in the incinerator and burning him alive

and Jolyne realizes he's doing this on purpose. That this wasn't just plain jealously, this was Dio actively doing everything in his power to make sure Jolyne would hurt

He's still 12. He's still a child.

But Jolyne will not take this lying down and she vows to herself she will never be his friend

(one night when she's alone, Jolyne feels the briefest bit of relief that she's here in this body. Just for a moment, just for a second, if only so the kindhearted 12 year old Jonathan who's messy journals sit on the bookcase didn't have to face Dio by himself)

#OUGH this hit me with so much brainrot all of a sudden #starswap my beloved <3333 #star swap #jjba #jojo’s bizarre adventure #phantom blood #jjba part 1 #jjba jolyne #jolyne kujo #jjba erina #erina pendleton #jjba dio #dio brando #jjba george #george joestar #sb answers #dragoninthelabratory

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charliedawn · 1 year

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Hi! I know you’re busy so please take your time on this!! No rush. I have been thinking of Stranger Things lately and wanted to ask for Stranger Things Teens love confession to their childhood best friend? Like Jonathan and Steve and Nancy? I’d prefer if the reader was a little weird, but no pressure on that either. Write whatever reader you want! Have a lovely day Charlie!! I love your writing !

Steve didn't notice it right away.

He never saw you as more than a friend and since he used to be so attached to popularity, he sometimes acted like a jerk to you, as if you didn't know each other (real jerk moments, but he quickly apologized to you afterwards)

He then started noticing how you always had his back, never judged him when he told you that he used to bully Jonathan and never failed to make him smile when he was down.

He wouldn't admit it to you, but the hardest part was to first acknowledge his feelings for you.

Because Steve always looked for someone to love, but never thought he could find it so close to home.

"Listen...You know when we said we wouldn't fall in love with each other ?", he asked one day and smiled weakly. "Well, I lost. I never lost so badly in my life. And, it feels weird. Because I'm not used to losing to anyone, or anything.."

You were speechless for a moment before you smiled and started laughing.

He would have taken offense with anyone else, but he knew you and only waited patiently for you to calm down before asking.

"What's so funny ?"

You shook your head and his heart skipped a beat when you only shrugged and smiled up at him.

"Nothing. I'm just...happy."

He smiled back after a moment before leaning forward to kiss you, but suddenly stopped dead in his tracks and seemed to think about something.

"...Do you like kids ?", he finally asked and you tilted your head quizzically at him.

"Yeah. Why ?"

He smiled before leaning back towards you.

"Good. Because I got a few to present you to before making anything official.."

You laughed again. It would be an adventure for sure.

Nancy did try to tell you.

You were part of the reason why she had broken up with Steve in the first place.

She posted a love letter to you which got lost in the mail, she baked you heart-shaped cookies that you were happy to eat—but didn't notice the subtle hint, she even tried goddamn letters on the sand...but the waves washed them off.

She wanted it to be special, romantic...not her frustratingly yelling at the top of her lungs outside of your window.

"I LIKE YOU !"

"Really ?"

She almost fell backwards when you suddenly appeared behind her with a shovel, garden gloves and a straw hat.

Turns out, you were tending to your garden when she had decided to bluntly confess her feelings to your window.

"..Since when ?", you asked and she flushed red at the question. Her eyes widened and she seemed shocked that you hadn't noticed, as if the answer was obvious and huffed a laugh of disbelief.

"Well...since my first year of Senior High.", she finally answered while looking away.

"...Wow. That's long.", you commented before sitting down—still taken aback by the news and she nodded.

"Yeah. It is..", she agreed before sitting down next to you.

"I kinda did as well..But, you were with Steve back then, so I didn't say anything and assumed that you would...", you didn't finish, you didn't need to.

"Stay with Steve forever ? Yeah. I did think that too at some point..", she admitted and you looked at each other with matching sad smiles.

"...So, girlfriends/boyfriend ?", you asked and Nancy smiled widely before nodding in agreement.

"Yes. Absolutely. Girlfriends/Boyfriend."

You smiled at the new appellation and realized, there were definitely worse fates than being Nancy Wheeler's girlfriend/boyfriend.

Robin had been acting weird all morning, asking a lot of questions and randomly pointing at people in public.

"Is he your type ?"

"No."

"Is she ?"

"No."

"Are they ?"

You sighed tiredly and frowned a little before glancing back at Robin who looked extremely nervous and kept asking about your type—as if it hadn't been obvious from the start.

"...Say, isn't he cute ?", she asked before pointing to an ice-cream man not far from you and your frown deepened.

"Robin. You're gay."

She deadpanned for a second or two before laughing awkwardly.

"Yes. Yes, I am. But...You're not.", she said that last part with a small sad smile and suddenly, it clicked.

"Hum...Robin. You know I'm gay too/bi, right ?"

"OH ! THANK, GOD !", she exclaimed in relief—drawing a few curious looks towards the both of you and she addressed them an apologetic smile before you started rushing towards a less crowded area.

"Sooo...Tell me I didn't read all the signs wrong and you're actually...ya know...into me too ?"

She looked away embarrassed and you laughed before gently cupping her face in your hands.

"Yes, Robin. I'm into you too. You were actually my gay/bi-wakening.", you confessed and Robin's eyes widened in surprise.

"Wait...Seriously ?"

You laughed again and nodded. And in a thrill of excitement, she kissed you.

But, before you could reply, she took a step back and her face flushed bright red as she realized what she had just done.

"Okay. Good talk. Bye."

She then ran away to find Steve and rant all about her misadventure to him..

Eddie had never actually dared say anything to you because, even though you were both considered as freaks at school, he didn't want you to be associated with the "devil worshipper".

So, he just pushed you away. But, he didn't expect such devotion as you refused to let him go.

You had followed him to the Upside-down and even though you knew how dangerous it was, you had never given up on him..

He was however surprised when one night, you decided to talk to him alone.

You didn't say anything at first, but finally sighed before starting.

"Since we're kinda walking into Mordor tonight and we may never see the sun rise on us again, I shall tell you my truth now, DnD Master."

His eyes widened and he chuckled awkwardly.

"Y/N..You know I find DnD talk very sexy, but you're kinda freaking me out.."

You nodded understandingly before getting straight to the point.

"Eddie...I think I love you."

He froze for a moment and a heavy silence settled all around you. You didn't dare look at him—afraid of what you would see in his eyes if you did.

"...Wait. You think...? You aren't sure ?"

Your eyes widened and you suddenly snapped your head towards him and you then noticed the smug smile on his face.

"Because, I am. 100%. Since forever."

You blushed at his confidence and chuckled too..But then, Eddie's smile faded as he stared at the fireplace instead.

"But...You and I may not survive Mordor. You know that, right ?"

Your smile faltered, but didn't vanish completely as you answered him.

"Then, I will make sure neither of us dies."

A few hours later :

Eddie was fighting the demo-bats when he felt one of them bite into his side. He screamed and his eyes watered.

This was it.

This would be his last moment.

His last thought went to you and he apologized. He had tried to stay alive for you, but seems it was just not meant to be...

But then, he heard a loud screech and found that the creature which had been feasting on his ribs had been slashed in two.

He looked up and here you were.

Your face was covered in dirt and dry blood, but your eyes shone with purpose as you swung your axe mercilessly at the demo bats.

"COME ON, YOU UGLY BASTARDS ! LET ME SEND YOU RIGHT BACK TO YOUR MAMA VECNA !"

Eddie smiled and even though he thought it couldn't be possible for him to love you more than he already did...He found himself proving himself wrong.

He stood back up and you fought back to back.

You said you wouldn't let either of you die, and you were dead set on keeping that promise.

When you texted Jonathan to come and pick you up—you didn't know it would end in a confession.

He had agreed and parked in front of your house—as he always did, and you smiled before jogging to the car.

"Hey."

He greeted you and you greeted him back before he drove away and you put on the music.

You then glanced at him as he moved his head up and down with the music in the car and you caught yourself staring at him, admiring his soft features..

"...You're staring.", he informed you and smiled when you looked away promptly in response. However, his smile vanished at your next words.

"Say...Would it be okay if we broke our oath ? Because I don't think I can remain your friend...", you said and Jonathan suddenly stopped the car before turning toward you with panic written all over his face.

"WHAT ?! WHY ?! DID I...Did I do something wrong ?", he asked—his eyes wide open in shock and heartbreak..But, you quickly shook your head and replied.

"NO ! Not at all ! You did nothing wrong ! Quite the contrary !"

Jonathan didn't understand at first, not until you smiled weakly at him and confessed.

"...I. I actually fell for you so...Would it be alright if I liked you in a not-so-platonic way, Jonathan Byers ?"

Jonathan blinked twice before finally understanding and relaxing. He then smiled back at you.

"Yeah. That's fine. Because I kinda do like you in a not-so-platonic way too..", he agreed and hesitated before reaching for your hand and squeezing it lightly.

"R...Really ?", you asked in disbelief and smiled tenderly at him. "I thought...You would never see me."

You couldn't help the tears of relief from falling down your face as he nodded.

"I see you."

He wiped your tears away with his thumbs and smiled to you.

"I will always see you."

Your heart squeezed as you remembered all the times you thought he would leave, take Nancy and drive away in the sunset..

But, he hadn't. He had stayed with you.

"You won't leave...Right ?", you still asked and Jonathan smiled before shaking his head.

"Not without taking you with me."

You laughed and he chuckled too before leaning forward to kiss your lips.

Now, Jonathan is not the one who usually makes the first step, but he would do everything to make you happy.

Even if you had stayed only friends, even if he had had Nancy by his side, he would have still seen you as irreplaceable.

Because, you saw him first.

#fandoms #imagine #fanfic #stranger things #jonathan byers x reader #steve harrington x reader #eddie munson x reader #nancy wheeler x reader #robin buckley x reader

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