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resident-gay-bitch · 11 months

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Day Seven of @steddie-week - free space / free space / freedom

find the previous day here :)

Fifty years old, and Eddie was doing this.

He didn’t think he’d ever do this. But here he was, doing this.

He took a deep breath and willed away his goddamn tears, and he felt Dustin pat him on the shoulder as the music picked up and everyone stood.

He looked down at himself, fixing the sleeves of his suit and making sure it was buttoned properly, sweeping the long greying hairs out of his face.

He gave Wayne a very excited smile before turning to face everyone.

He took another shaky breath, so fucking nervous.

Down the aisle pranced a little girl, dressed in a pink fluffy princess dress, with her hair done in buns like Princess Laya’s because that’s what she insisted on. She was eight and a half years old, and Eddie couldn’t believe it. She skipped along in her sparkly red shoes - the ones she coaxed Eddie into buying because “they look just like Dorotheys, Daddy!”, and Eddie still didn’t know how to say no to her. She lit up at the sight of Eddie, bright and smiling, she waved at him very excitedly, almost bursting into a run to get to him. Eddie smiled at her and imitated throwing things out of a basket with a wry smile, and she gasped, stopping dead in her tracks. Eddie couldn’t help but laugh. She reached into her little basket and pulled out a handful of confetti and tossed it into the air, and she continued that as she did her fancy aisle walk towards Eddie.

When she got to him, Eddie dropped to his knee and gave her a little kiss on the cheek, “Good job, Princess.”

“Thanks, daddy.” She beamed, plucking out some confetti and tossed it in the air over Eddie, “Do you like the sparkles Auntie Nancy put on me?”

“Hell yeah, kid, you look so cool.”

She giggled and showed off her sparkly skin some more. Oh, Eddie remembered when they first got her, they were there in the delivery room. They got to name the beautiful girl and everything. Her name was Chrissy, and she channels every bit of the dancer Chrissy used to be.

She closed her eyes, “Do you like my eyeshadow too, daddy?” She asked, flashing the bright blue that she’d picked that stood out strong against her dark skin, “I wanted to be like Robin.”

“Looks beautiful, kiddo.” He winked at her, “Now, go stand over there, where we practised, remember?”

She nodded and kissed Eddie on the cheek, leaving a glossy stain in her wake. She skipped over to where she was supposed to stand, and Nancy, who was in the front row, pointed her from where she’d decided to stand into the actual right place. Eddie chuckled softly.

He stood just in time to see his other kid making their way down the aisle. They got Alice ten years ago, when adoption became a possibility for them. She was six when they got her, standing tall at sixteen now. She’d just buzzed their hair off the other week, after coming out to them as Gender Fluid. It took Steve and Eddie a little while to properly understand what it meant, but…. He was a cool kid, and they embraced it. They looked so cool in the suit he’d picked out for herself, green velvet with patterns she embroidered themself all over it.

Eddie winked at him as she went to meet her sister on the other side of the altar.

And then came Steve. He had his arm looped through Robins, who was giving him away in a lovely silk green dress. Steve looked as handsome as ever, if not more, if that was even possible, dressed in a sweet yellow suit. Eddie blushed very bright, he’d told Steve many years ago that it had quickly become his favourite colour after Steve had tossed that goddamned jumper at his face, and then was wearing that same colour when Eddie woke up in the hospital. Steve looked lovely in yellow, and it matched him so perfectly. It was such a happy colour, full of brightness and positivity, and that’s exactly what Steve had bought into his life. Steve’s wardrobe was primarily yellow these days.

He smiled so brightly at Eddie, his hand reaching to find Robins to squeeze when their eyes fixed on eachother. Eddie had to wipe away a tear. They reached the altar, and Robin kissed Steve on the cheek and shot finger guns and a wink at Eddie before going over to stand with Chrissy and Alice. Steve stepped up to the altar and faced Eddie with a wet smile.

They both couldn’t believe they were here, doing this.

This life, the one they had now, seemed impossible all those years ago, but they stuck together anyway. They stuck together, and now Eddie could give Steve his dream. Now they could have normal, in the most unnormal way possible.

They were so happy.

Marriage for them only became legal two days ago, and in that time, Nancy, Steve, Robin, and their girls had worked double time to set up the perfect impromptu wedding. Eddie offered to help, but they all insisted he didn’t because he and Steve would just distract each other with sappy flirtation, and Chrissy insisted her dad had zero taste. Alice promised that if Eddie could find someone to marry them, he’d pull for some metal to play during the reception.

Eddie asked Wayne… immediately.

They both spent five hours sitting behind Steve's computer, trying to figure out how to get ordained online, because Alice said it was easy. It was not easy. Eddie was old, and Wayne was even older. They’d called Scott over to help at one point, because he was super smart and a scientist, but he couldn’t figure out the computer either.

Alice ended up getting it done in ten minutes for them when she got home.

He called them a bunch of “old fucks”, and the three of them went off on a tanget about “this damn younger generation, they think they know everything! I bet you don’t know how to use a VHS tape.”

Alice didn’t give them a bar of it, the sassy kid they were.

Wayne started his speech, and Eddie took his fiance's shaky hands. They had smiles pinned to their faces the whole time, because how could they not.

“Now, do you have vowels?” Wayne asked.

“I gave mine to Steve last night.” Eddie said, and Wayne pulled a very dissatisfied face, “Ew, no!”

There was a laugh from the crowd.

“I wrote him a song and performed it, you oaf.”

Steve laughed, “It was very sweet.”

Eddie smiled bashfully, still feeling like the twenty year old he was when Steve first swept him off his goddamn feet and carried him off into the sunset.

“I’ve got some.” Steve muttered and squeezed Eddie’s hand’s as he cleared his throat, “Twenty five years ago to this day, you and I got ‘pretend’ married, as we called it.”

Eddie sniffled as he laughed.

“I gave a very long vow to you then, so… I’m gonna keep this one super short.” Eddie laughed again, oh how he loved this man. Steve smiled, croaky with wet eyes as he shrugged, “I told you, that night that you proposed, the same thing as I’d told Robin earlier in the day, that you couldn’t give me normal. That I’d gone my whole life with this dream of a wife and six kids- but then I met you, and ‘normal’ seemed like the worst fucking idea on the planet. You were… such a fucking weirdo, and you still are, and I love you so much for it, Ed’s.” Steve smiled and shook his head, “Why would I wan’t ‘normal’ when I can have every bizarre day with you? Every morning I wake up and wonder what weird shit was going to happen today, and everytime I am so delightfully surprised by it. I wanted you, and only you, and that’s all that mattered to me.”

Eddie was ugly crying again, and Steve had to wipe away his goddamned tears that were tinted black from his eyeliner.

“I was happy with it being just us, with our silly little fake marriage, for the rest of our lives- because it was real to us. It was more than enough for us.” He smiled, “But then we got Alice, and Chrissy, and we got more than I could have ever asked for… and now I’m here,” He sobbed a little too, “and were getting married for real. And I love you, from the moment you shoved me up against that boathouse wall with a bottle to my neck, to right now, to forever, I love you.”

“I love you too.” Eddie sobbed, and they kissed, even though they weren’t supposed to yet.

They heard Chrissy shout out, “Ew!” and it made them break away with a laugh, and it gave them a strong sense of deja vu to that time in the hospital, when Dustin woke up to the pair of them having a moment.

It fits very nicely in this moment.

“Getting a bit ahead of yourselves there, boys.” Wayne nodded.

They laughed.

“Hey, kiddo.” Wayne looked over to Chrissy and winked, “You got somethin for ya dads?”

Chrissy gasped and looked up at her big sibling who reached into their pocket to hand something to the little girl. She skipped over with the box and handed it to her grandpa with a bright smile, “Happy wedding, dad and daddy!”

They loved this damn kid.

She skipped back over to her spot, and Alice gave her a big hug and smiled up at their dads.

Wayne held open the ring box, and Steve reached in to take the silver band, and Eddie took the gold one. The same bands Eddie had bought twenty seven years ago, they held too much meaning to switch up. Eddie slid the ring onto Steve's finger for a third time, and Steve slipped one onto Eddie’s, and they were holding hands again.

“You already donnit, but ah… you may kiss the groom.” Wayne grinned, and gave Steve a little wink before stepping over beside Eddie’s groomsmen.

Eddie didn’t hesitate before grabbing Steve and giving him the kiss of his life, dipping him just as he’d done at their non-official wedding all those years ago. Chrissy started gagging at the sight again, and Eddie started laughing into Steve's mouth, and they could both hear Alice trying to shut her up.

And when they stood back up, they were married. For real. They had two beautiful kids, and the house Eddie had bought for Steve (which had rendered Steve in tears and then they had some of the best sex of their goddamned lives whilst breaking the place in) that had a garden, and an open kitchen, and four bedrooms, and a study, and the bed they shared every night.

They still had their bad days; day’s Eddie felt so horrible in his skin that he couldn’t be touched, Steve still got migraines that could render him useless for days, and a lot of the time they fought, though, over little things like the dishes or laundry or what time the kids were supposed to be picked up that afternoon, and some days their fights were a little worse. But they were together, and they were happy, and they had a life and a family and a place of their own. They had a home with each other, and that’s all they needed.

They could drag each other to Hell and back, Eddie didn’t care, just as long as they were together.

thank you for joining me on this years steddie week! it is currently 10.30 in the morning and i have not slept because i've been writing the entirety of my steddie week all night. seriously don't know why i do this to myself, anyway.

if you'd like to read my other steddie week submissions you can find them here :)

\/ here's some dodgey art for you to look at \/

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coniangray · 3 months

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A FOOTNOTE WILL DO - Shiftingfics on ao3

Mike wheeler has to face the facts. Despite Vecna's curse killing victims in Hawkins one by one, he finds himself in California, Lenora, only to find a complex situation with Will. This day is one that will change everything....

A canon compliant fic that starts in season 4 of stranger things and follows both Mike and Will's prospectives from Lenora all the way to a destroyed, apocalyptic Hawkins after the four gates of those victims collided.

The story is split in two parts:

Part one: The best spring break ever

After the terrible shooting, and Will thinking everything was his fault, Mike tries to approach him, even try to get a word from him. But will doesn't talk- he won't talk. He's mad at himself for everything.

All changes when Mike spits out that one lie he never meant. A lie that stigmatized Will for ages.

Part two: This is the end(?)

A year later. There was an attack on Halloween - called the crawl- that forces both mike and will to come closer to each other after drifting away for a long while. The Hawkins crew now has to protect their hometown from demo creatures by completing night shifts out in the wild, specifically by checking areas that are abandoned and in a non-quarantined zone. Little did they know that in one of them affected Will in a way that can't be deceived. Little did they know that this shift would change everything not even four days later.

The finished story contains 29 chapters and about 120k words. Hope you enjoy <3

#byler #no beta we die like my respect for noah schnapp #shiftingfics #a footnote will do #mike wheeler #will byers #byler fanfic #byler angst #byler theory #flickergate #birthdaygate #march 22 #coniangray #this fic took me A YEAR to finish since i started july 2022 right after vol 2 and went all the way to october but then i dumped it since #i was giving exams last year and retouched it on july 2023 (a year later) and actually wrote part 2 and the shifts and everything #cus it actually means so much to me since it legit came full circle and I finished it on byler week like full on st day #i am crying rn its like sending ur kid to college #and in the end i cried since it was legit the first ever scene that i wrote from that fic like #that last chapter is the reason i wrote the fic in the first place also thank these two gay boys in the 80s for it #yes i have made edits for that fic multiple times #one year anniversary 😭😭 i cant #ao3 #ao3 fanfic #explore

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