"Stevie," Eddie says, wincing at the stale air in the room. It's almost pitch black, except for the lamp in the corner that colours everything dark blue, and the glow stars on the ceiling that they'd put up together, making pretend constellations in pretend galaxies.
"Go 'way," Steve mutters, head buried beneath two pillows and hands clasped tight around them, as though that will be the thing that fixes him, that keeps the bad away. Eddie sighs, not at Steve, but at the awfulness of it all. He fiddles with the blister pack in his fingers, and allows the condensation from the water bottle in his other hand to soak his palm.
"Please, baby," Eddie says. "You need to take your meds. The doctor said - "
"Fuck the doctor," Steve curses angrily, muffled.
"Maybe later, once you've taken your meds," Eddie says calmly, or aiming for calm. He hates seeing Steve hurting, and Steve hurts a lot. More than he'd like. More than he knows he realises.
Steve emerges from his pillow prison slowly, blinking like it hurts him to do so, and Eddie knows it does, so he just holds out the water bottle, cap off, and Steve drinks greedily, throat working hard, whilst Eddie pops out two pills. Steve makes a pitiful noise as Eddie hands them over, but reluctantly takes them, screwing up his eyes against the taste before swallowing down more water.
"You did so good," Eddie says. Steve shakes his head then moans. "It's okay," Eddie says. "Back under the pillows now. The pills will work soon."
"I hate this," Steve says. "I hate that you have to see this."
"I know you do. I hate seeing it. But only because it's my favourite person in the whole world suffering. Not for any other reason. Please don't think it's for any other reason," Eddie says softly. Steve makes a small noise, already piling the pillows back over his face. Eddie reaches out and strokes the back of his hand.
Steve's hands clench, then unclench, before relaxing.
"I'll be around, if you need me," Eddie says, before standing. He pauses at the door. He looks at Steve's prone form, the invisible war in his head. "It's not rotten work, you know? Never, actually."
He pulls the door to, but doesn't close it entirely, just to make sure he can hear Steve if he needs to. He never, ever wants Steve to think he's a burden. Not when he loves that boy more than breathing. Not if it's you, not if it's me.
not if it’s us
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Something that I’ve been thinking about a lot since Book 3’s release: we all know that TWC is a character-driven series, but I don’t think it gets enough credit for being a character-development-driven series. Each of the LIs grows & changes so much as the series unfolds, in different ways & at different paces, and that’s created this amazing situation where not only do you stay hooked on the route of your favourite LI, you also experience evolving feelings about the other LIs & can even discover new favourites. Like, back in Book 1, I was convinced that N was going to be my favourite because they were so gentle & sweet. But then Book 2 happened, and F was just so earnest that I couldn’t help but love them, and now Book 3 has happened, and M was so unexpectedly & unashamedly soft that I melted into a puddle from which I still have not collected myself. I just think it’s a sign of really good writing when your characters are so dynamic that the reader’s relationship with them actually changes, and Mishka has managed to do that to me twice now. I literally can’t wait to see what she conjures up next.
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Okay I hadn't rewatched The Eye Scene in quite a while but
The absolute Symbolic Powerhouse that is this shot:
2. Jo mockingly switching to a Kansai accent for a sec? I never noticed it before but GOOD GOD. Also very cool for Tsutsumi since he's a Kansai native but never gets the opportunity to speak it, even outside of his roles.
3. This isn't even anything I just have Mine's dialogue embedded into my DNA sequence at this point, but. The similarity in how he and Jo structure the start and end of these sentences.
1.) dawg its the way he carefully cradles his hand after puncturing a bro's eye in it's fuckin with me truly and thoroughly
2.) IT IS REAL GOOD AINT IT THE BIT'S SOOOO...
i actually didnt know tsutsumi was from kansai but that explains why it sounds so good the few times i've heard it
3.) it COULD be Not Anything but it also COULD be SOMETHING... like another addition to my Mine/Sawashiro cork board....
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