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withacapitalp · 2 years

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So I wrote a first draft chapter idea for the no upside down au fic idea I had ages ago. Fair warning this is kinda long.....sorry. Also here's the link to the ao3 instead of reading here

Eddie was no stranger to tall tales.

He practically built his entire school career on tall tales. He was a legend- The ‘Freak’ of Hawkins High, a psycho who was on his third round of senior year with no signs of ever leaving. He was the scary satanic metalhead who sold drugs in the woods behind the school and would happily indoctrinate any lost souls into his cult of the supernatural.

Eddie was an enigma, and he liked it that way. He liked the stories people told, rumors that were beyond crazy, things he wouldn’t even dream of doing. It was funny.

But the story that the Freshman kept telling was just ridiculous.

Eddie liked all four of the boys, he really did. Dustin was a smartass, but the emphasis was on the smart. He had never met someone who thought as quickly as Dustin did, and that made him a great player. Lucas was so open and expressive that he was awesome to have as a part of a Party. He could always be counted on to react in the best ways to any twists or turns Eddie threw into a campaign. Mike was a little brat sometimes, but his strategic expertise was through the roof, and Will was just all around one of the nicest people Eddie had ever met.

All in all, they were great. Sweet, fiercely loyal, and way too good for a shitty little town like Hawkins. They were definitely going to get out of here and make it big if they managed to live through high school.

There was just one big fat problem- the boys kept lying about knowing Steve Harrington.

And not even just knowing him. According to Dustin, Steve was their babysitter.

Their goddamn Babysitter.

Well, not really our babysitter anymore. We’re fourteen, we don’t need a sitter. We’re just friends now. Best friends!

Best friends with Steve Harrington. King Steve, the apex predator of the Hawkins High food chain back in his hayday. According to the boys, Steve let them hang out at his house whenever they wanted, gave them rides everywhere, and apparently lived his entire life just to take care of six weird teenagers. The four nerds, Maxine ‘Mad Max’ Mayfield, and some unknown other girl that they were incredibly tight lipped about.

It would be quite the story if the kids were telling the truth. A legend that rivaled Eddie’s own mythos.

But they were 100% lying.

Barring the fact that Max barely even looked at any of them when they passed her in the hallway, and ignoring that Eddie had never even so much as seen a picture of this other girl Elle they kept hinting at, Eddie knew Steve Harrington. They often got lumped in the same stupid kid classes, and he had spent many a class watching the infamous King Steve.

Never once had Eddie ever seen him so much as look at anyone below his social class.

His friends would terrorize Eddie and the other losers of the school, but Steve wouldn’t even look at him in the hallway. He was above it all, too good to even deign sparing anyone like Eddie a passing glance. Even when Steve had ditched his jerk friends a year or so back, he had still kept his King status, still stayed on a pedestal.

He still hadn’t looked at Eddie.

He didn’t know which one was objectively worse, being beaten on or being ignored, but Eddie did know that Steve refusing to even acknowledge his existence had always pissed him off more than the bruises did.

There was no way an uppity asshole like that was friends with kids like Dustin Henderson and Will Byers. He knew Steve had stayed in town after graduating for some unknown reason, but there was no way he had stayed to babysit.

Still, if this lie made the boys feel like they had some sort of cool factor, then it was mostly harmless. Being a freshman was hard, being a weird freshman was even harder. Better to let them have their fantasy and hope with enough time they would get comfortable with who they were and drop it.

Except that didn’t happen.

Eddie had bravely put up with the constant Steve talk for over three months. Steve said this, or we did that with Steve this weekend. We should do this on our next turn, Steve would do it (That one always pissed Eddie off the most, because usually they would manage to evade death every time by using that tactic). On and on, like he was their freaking imaginary friend.

But now Imaginary Steve was making them leave early from Hellfire, and that was a slight Eddie could not put up with.

“I’m sorry, Eddie, but we told you we could only stay until eight this time,” Will apologized for the fourth time as he started to pack up his bag, pointing at the clock and giving the other boys a look to get them up and moving, “Steve has the late shift today, and he’s taking his break to pick us up, so we can’t make him late,”

Eddie pursed his lips and stared down at the carefully crafted board he had painstakingly put together. Here they were. Right at the edge of defeating Kyuss, the Worm that Walks. It was a campaign they had been working on for weeks, a campaign Eddie had been planning for months. They were right at the point of no return, and half of the club was leaving because fake Steve Harrington didn’t want to be patient.

Enough was enough.

“Guys, I don’t know why you feel like pretending to know Steve Harrington is earning you points, but it really isn’t. He doesn’t even go here anymore, his name has zero clout,” Eddie growled, completely fed up with having to hear about a boy he had finally gotten rid of. Gareth and Jeff immediately nodded along, also done with having to hear the made up stories.

“Pretending?” Lucas questioned, sharing a confused look with Will.

“Dude, we already told you this. Steve’s been watching us for years now. He dated my sister for a bit, but when they broke up he kept babysitting us and the girls. Hopper needed someone to watch El when he was at work, and we were always over anyway, so it just became a thing,” Mike explained in a matter of fact tone, rolling his eyes.

Oh, Eddie had been told. Eddie had been told plenty. He was just finally calling bullshit.

Yeah, Steve and Nancy Wheeler had dated, but the entire school knew that relationship had exploded and shattered into a thousand pieces. She had cheated with Jonathan Byers, a fellow freak of the school. It was impressive to watch, and Eddie had taken great satisfaction in finally seeing Steve get knocked down a peg.

Why on Earth would a guy like Steve Harrington keep watching the kid brothers of both her ex and the guy who helped her cheat?

“Richie Rich King Steve needs babysitting money?” Gareth asked sarcastically, derision dripping from every word.

“He never took any money,” Dustin protested, growing frustrated when he realized that the older boys were serious about not believing them, “He didn’t like being paid for hanging out with us, he said it felt weird.”

The rest of Hellfire shared haughty looks, unable to help themselves. Now it was getting ridiculous. It was already impossible to believe that Steve Harrington was babysitting, but babysitting for free?

“Okay, jokes over. Let’s finish the campaign,” Eddie said, giving the boys an out. He knew what it was like to double down when you were afraid of being called out. He put on his best DM voice and perched on his throne, dropping his head low between his shoulders, “Kyuss is waiting to demolish you all,”

“Regardless of whether you believe us or not, we have to go,” Lucas grumbled, crossing his arms.

Fine, if they wanted to play this game, then Eddie would play. He hated humiliating the kids, but at some point they needed to learn.

“If you’re telling the truth, then let’s see if Steve shows up. You said he hates waiting, so if he actually is here to drive you, then he’ll come in, right?” Eddie challenged, throwing down the gauntlet. The boys exchanged annoyed eye rolls, but sat back down, letting the silence stand tense and awkward between them all.

The clock continued to tick along the wall of the drama room.

8:04.

8:05.

8:06.

8:07.

“Look guys,” Eddie finally sighed at 8:08, intending to take mercy on his stupid little sheep, “I know it can be hard coming into high school, but-“

“Hey! Dipshits!”

The whole club turned towards the source of the shouting, and, to Eddie’s complete and utter shock, Steve Harrington came barging in through the door, eyes flashing in anger.

His hair was longer, and he was wearing a dorky green vest that totally clashed with his preppy clothes, but there was no denying those big brown eyes that Eddie had never managed to capture in his gaze.

He looked completely ticked off, and the boys scrambled out of their seats, surrounding him and all starting to talk at once, trying to explain what had happened. It was like looking at a pack of puppies with a single lonely wolf surveying them. Steve let them talk over each other for a second more, but the moment he held a hand up, all four immediately went silent.

Part of Eddie was desperate to learn whatever dark magic Harrington was using to hold the boys still and silent. The rest of him was blanking out.

“Guys, I might be deaf, but I’m almost 99% sure I was beeping the horn. And I know for a fact I told you that you were supposed to be out by 8:00 sharp,” Steve said with an impatient sigh, his fingers flying as he spoke.

Eddie watched dumbly as the boys began to respond in kind, their hands moving alongside their fingers. Unlike their usual talking over each other and finishing one another’s sentences, they did a quick back and forth, choosing one person to speak at a time.

“We were coming out on time, but Eddie and the others didn’t believe us when we said you were giving us a ride home!” Dustin explained with a shout, moving his hands nearly as fast as Steve had. Steve looked around his horde of fourteen year olds, and for the very first time in their lives, he made eye contact with Eddie.

There they were. Big and brown. Eyes that Eddie had always secretly longed to see, even if it was just so he could properly flip Steve off and make sure he saw it. He had always expected Steve to glare at him, or roll his eyes, but he was just looking at Eddie. Just looking.

Like Eddie was nothing especially interesting or grotesque. Not a legend, not a monster. Just another person Steve had no attachment to.

It was infuriating.

“You know, you all might be the smartest people I know, but you can be really fricken stupid sometimes,” Steve said with a shake of his head. Eddie wanted to laugh, because Harrington was a hundred percent right, but he refused to even chuckle on principle.

“It’s not our fault we had to…to….how do you say prove?” Mike interrupted himself with an angry sigh, throwing his hands up as he did. His movements were a lot slower than Dustin’s, and a bit more clumsy, but he was still trying.

“Prove,” Steve stated, holding his left palm out and smacking the back of his right hand sharply enough that it bounced back just a bit. All of the boys copied the motion, like the most deranged group of ducklings Eddie had ever seen, “You don’t have to sign, Mike. I’m right next to you,”

Oh. That’s what they were. Signs.

They were using sign language.

Which meant Steve wasn’t joking around when he used the word ‘deaf’.

Eddie’s brain was exploding.

“I just messed up one word,” Mike muttered under his breath, throwing his hair over one shoulder and picking his hands back up, once again making movements as he spoke, “We had to prove that we knew you.”

“Well, here’s the proof. I’m already late, so let’s go,” Steve turned to go, and the boys shared a quick glance behind his back. Will caught the arm of Steve’s jacket and waited until the other teen was fully facing him before speaking with stilted slow signs.

“If you’re already late, then maybe we can have five more minutes?”

They had chosen well. Will was easily the softest of the four, and Eddie knew firsthand just how dangerous those puppy eyes could be.

“You’re pushing your luck, Byers,” Steve sighed with a soft grin. It was bizarre. Steve was obviously inordinately fond of Eddie’s little sheep, and all of their stories that he had previously disregarded were now at the forefront of his mind. Steve was acting sweet, gentle, completely not like Eddie had ever seen him.

He was acting like, well, like their babysitter.

Or someone who had once been their babysitter, if Dustin was to be believed.

But it still couldn’t be true. It just couldn’t. Steve Harrington wasn’t that kind of guy, and Eddie needed to be right on that. If he wasn’t, then he didn’t know what he would do.

“Wouldn’t want to waste the royalty’s time with a freak game, would we?” Eddie called out, purposefully pitching his voice low. The simplest thing to call out here was the weird pretending Steve was deaf. Before tonight he had never even heard a whisper of a rumor that Steve Harrington had any kind of flaw, so if he pulled on that lie, then the rest would fall like a house of cards.

The boys all startled like they had forgotten he was there, but Steve didn’t react until they turned around to look at Eddie. His eyes were back on Eddie, but not meeting his gaze. Not exactly.

“Too eager to get back to whatever girl you’re keeping waiting, King Steve?” Eddie continued to keep his voice quieter than normal, everyone but Steve seeming to catch exactly what he was doing. The boys were shooting him warning looks, but he ignored them all in favor of staring Steve down.

The other boy’s eyes were narrow now, but not in a glare. He looked almost confused, like he was trying to parse out exactly what was going on.

Because he couldn’t fucking understand Eddie if he actually was deaf.

Because Eddie was being a supreme giant asshole if this was true.

But Steve Harrington wasn’t deaf, and the act was annoying as shit. If anyone was insulting deaf people right now, it was Steve, not Eddie. There was a tiny smart voice in the back of Eddie’s mind telling him that no one would take a joke this far, but the nasty needling voice right up at the front was overshadowing it, and there was no stopping him now.

“What? Didn’t catch what I said? I think that this might be the first time you’ve ever bothered to care about what I have to say. Kind of ironic that now the King wants to hear me, and he can’t.”

The rest of the club exploded into laughter, and Steve’s jaw set in a tight line. Now he was glaring, but there was an underlying hurt there that Eddie hadn’t been expecting.

All this time acting completely above it all, and he was showing his soft underbelly now? Over a fakeout joke? Eddie scoffed and ignored the way his heart was starting to race at an uncomfortable clip.

Steve jerked his head towards Dustin, and without any hesitation the boy’s fingers started rapidly moving, clearly translating what Eddie had just said. While they did that, the rest of the boys looked at Eddie with varying amounts of horror.

“What is the matter with you?!” Lucas demanded, looking like he would love nothing more than to walk over and punch Eddie’s lights out. Will’s eyes were wet and shiny, and Mike looked positively murderous. Steve brought their attention back to him with a soft click of his tongue.

“No girls today, just not too eager to not lose my job, Munson,” Steve shot back, voice impossibly cold and hands staying loose and limp by his sides. The soft set of his shoulders was gone, replaced by a harsh straight back and guarded expression. He completely ignored the second part of what Eddie said, turning around and striding towards the door, “I’m leaving now, with or without you guys. I only have three minutes left of my break, and Robin is going to be pissy if I’m late.”

The four teens hurried after him, pausing only briefly to shoot Eddie betrayed hurt-filled glares that took all of the fun out of the joke. The rest of Hellfire continued to chuckling, making snide remarks back and forth between each other, and a pit started to form in Eddie’s gut. A pit he knew well enough.

Guilt. Shame. The knowledge that he had done something cruel when he didn’t really have to.

It was an awful feeling and it was completely unfair. Steve and his cronies had spent years making Eddie’s life hell. These were just desserts. It wasn’t even like he had said anything that bad. Even if Steve actually was deaf, which was still up for debate, then this was a fair turnabout for over a decade of mistreatment from Steve and people like Steve.

Never mind that Steve had never done a thing to Eddie himself. Harrington wasn’t an actual person, just an idea of one. A symbol of the small town jock.

So why did Eddie feel so fucking bad right now?

“What the hell just happened,” Eddie muttered, hating the way the guilt was gnawing a deep black hole into his chest.

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