#steve has seizures

[xxbottlecapx]

I saw someone talk about this idea (can’t find them now) so- 

Steve is walking down the street and he hears the jingling of a dog collar so he turns around to ask to pet their dog but it’s just Eddie. 

Steve might have a meltdown. He seriously might. This was the worst day he’s had in a long fucking time. 

The day started with a fucking seizure, of all things, when Steve hasn’t had one in months, so he decided to go to the emergency room to get checked up just in case. 

The doctors said he was fine, the scans and blood tests came back just as normal, but he ended up missing lunch so he didn’t get to have down time with his best friend Robin, and she was the biggest reason he could manage his anxiety and PTSD.

His mom called him when he was at the hospital, even though she disowned him ten years ago when he was forced out of the closet as bisexual. He thought she wanted to talk but apparently her husband (Steve’s father, unfortunately) was dying and wanted Steve to help with the hospital bills considering apparently their business went under, which Steve hadn’t known about because he hasn’t seen them in ten years. It led to a fight over the phone which triggered another seizure, so he’s had two in one day. Because of his history with seizures, the hospital decided to let him go, which he wasn’t entirely sure would be a good idea, but what else were they supposed to do? It’s not like Steve knew. Besides, he’s pretty sure they were understaffed and maybe they just didn’t have a place for him. They just gave him some painkillers, gave him a form so he wouldn’t have to go to work for a week, and let him go after giving him an IV. Steve would have argued about the work thing, but the doctor was able to convince him that having a bad seizure in front of a bunch of toddlers might be a bad idea, even if they’ve dealt with his smaller ones before. 

He decided he would go for a run because that always relaxes him before remembering that he shouldn’t go running after having two seizures, so he decided to go for a walk instead. Of course, this only makes things worse for himself. First, he forgets to take his dog Farrah with him on the walk, and then he realizes that he’s wearing a thick knitted yellow sweater in 86 degree heat, also he lost his glasses somehow? 

He must have still had some postictal confusion left because he very quickly got lost and then he couldn’t find wherever the fuck he put his phone, so he couldn’t call Robin to pick him up, and it’s not like his anxiety would let him walk up to some random person and ask. 

It was getting dark, so he wasn’t going to approach a woman, which was something Robin had to teach, and Steve was kind of scared of men, which might be stupid because he was a man, and also taller than most men, but anxiety is a bitch so it’s not like he could argue with it. 

His heart beating outside his chest, Steve realized he very well could have a third seizure, or a panic attack if he didn’t calm the fuck down, so he went to hide behind a alley which just so happened to be behind a bar. 

That was fine. 

The music was dampened by the concrete wall and sometimes silence made Steve’s existential dread even worse. He missed his dog. Farrah was a white teacup chihuahua and Pomeranian mix that Steve had adopted from a shelter he had been volunteering at. She kept getting bullied for her size even when they put her in with the other babies, and the shelter asked someone to foster her. It was a foster fail but Steve didn’t regret it. 

Steve tried to think of her as he sat down, working on the deep breathing his therapist had told him about. Of course, Steve sat on the floor and got beer and gunk on his jeans, but he was so tired that he was past caring. 

A migraine was coming on, all of his bones hurt, and he had white spots dancing in his vision. His hands were shaking. It’s very possible he had a small seizure when he was getting here and he didn’t remember it, that happened sometimes. He really hoped Robin had done okay at school without him. They taught a kindergarten class together. He really should have called to get her an aid but it had slipped his mind and she was going to be pissed. 

He would just stay on the floor until he felt better. Then he’d call and apologize. 

He did remember to feed Farrah and she had some pads on his living room so she would be okay. When he got home he would give her a lot of treats. Maybe he would make Robin cupcakes. 

Steve’s nerves picked up when he heard someone open a door behind him. Luckily for him, he had a switchblade in his pocket (he got it from Max, and who knows where she got it from) so he could use that in case of an emergency if anyone tried to accost him. Then again, this was a bar, maybe they’d just think he was drunk and leave him alone. 

The jingling of a dog tag gets Steve’s attention, and suddenly he thinks he might actually cry if he doesn’t get to pet this dog right now. 

The person’s heavy footsteps get closer, the dog chain making cute clinking sounds, and Steve readily looks up to ask, even though his face is already red with embarrassment, because what if the person says no?

But then he sees the man’s thick-heeled boots, and then his leather jacket with all the metal spikes on the shoulders, and Steve thinks no, he doesn’t have to ask to pet the guys dog, and then he chokes when he realizes there isn’t any fucking dog. The man is wearing a collar. 

Steve tries to quickly shove his head between his legs, curl into a ball so the man might not notice him, but whatever sound he makes is enough to draw the guy's attention. Fuck. 

“Hey, what were you going to say? I saw you try to ask something.” The guys crouches down in front of Steve. Steve assumes the guy is going to beat him up for looking at him weird or something, but the man’s voice, while deep, is actually very calm. He has a few more chains hanging from his black jeans, which were absolutely shredded, and the clinking noise still reminds Steve of Farrah but now he’s embarrassed about it. Is he wearing fishnets under his jeans? Oh my god, Robin is going to kill Steve in the morning if this guy doesn’t kill him first. 

Steve thinks about answering but his words get clogged in his throat. Sure, he didn’t ask to pet the guy, but he thought about it, and his face burns and Steve wishes he could jump into the dumpster a few feet away. 

He must look weird, because the guy, already crouching down to him, gets closer until their knees are touching. 

“Hey, you okay?” He asks, very gently putting a heavily ringed hand on Steve’s arm. 

“I’m so sorry,” Steve sobbed, finally lifting his head to meet the guy's face. The dude’s hair is long, held up in a ponytail, which shows off the fact that he has an undercut with a pattern shaved on it. This man is absolutely terrifying, oh my God, how is Steve going to get out of this situation without dying? 

The guy's eyes widen at the words, but he keeps his movements slow as he places his hands against both of Steve’s trembling arms. Not constricting him, just pressing, just adding a bit of pressure. 

“You’re okay, I’m not angry.” The guy says soothingly, “You haven’t done anything. Why- why are you crying?” The guy’s voice goes high pitched, cracking a little. If Steve wasn’t so terrified, maybe he’d find it comforting. 

Steve doesn’t know what comes over him. He tells himself he’ll come up with something stupid, but his body hurts and lying takes a mental energy that Steve doesn’t have right now. His head pounds and the sound of his blood rushes past his ears. 

“Uh, I heard your collar and I thought you were a dog.” He whispered, putting his head between his knees again. “I was gonna ask to pet you. I’m so sorry.” He sounds absolutely mortified, which is good because he is. Why was he saying this? Steve was about to die and then Farrah would go back to the shelter and Robin would find another teacher and forget about him and no one would be able to teach Dustin to drive because he’s too annoying to keep a normal driving instructor- 

“You can pet me, if you want.” The guys interrupt Steve’s spiral. He moves so he’s sitting next to Steve, both their backs to the wall, his chains clinking all the while until their thighs are touching. Steve could briefly feel the dull spikes on the guys jacket pressing Steve’s shoulder. 

Steve’s brain completely blanks out. 

“…Uh-“ his hands are close to his chest, in fists, but mostly he’s just confused. Why is this guy being so nice to him? Steve thought he was a dog. He was never going to live this down. 

“I like petting.” The guy says, a small smirk on his face that brings charming wrinkles to his cheeks. Steve blushes. 

“Ca….” He can’t tell if the guy is serious, but the dude quickly pulls his hair out of his ponytail, shaking his head- like a dog. 

Maybe it’s just the seizure talking, but Steve tries to call his bluff. 

“Can I pet you?” Steve whispers, confusion and uncertainty lacing his shaking voice. 

“Yeah.” The dude replies calmly, tilting his head. 

Well, Steve realizes, now he kind of has to, doesn’t he? Shit. The guys hair looks really fucking soft. Steve’s allowed to touch it? 

Without knowing what else to do, Steve stiffly pats the guys on the head, which makes the guy laugh. Still, he doesn’t attempt to make Steve stop. In fact, he gets closer, until Steve’s arm is wrapped around his shoulder, playing with the hair on the crown of his head. Steve doesn’t really know what to do at first, but the dude smells really minty, but also like weed, and Steve doesn’t hate it as much as he thinks he should. He brushes his fingers through the guy's brown hair until there are no knots, letting his heart settle until the spots in his vision go away.

“So, what are you doing out here?” The guy asks quietly, letting Steve mess with his hair, his eyes are closed almost like he’s enjoying it. 

“I got lost.” Steve starts. The guy hums, so Steve continues. “I, uh, I had a few seizures this morning, and I got confused and got lost and I can’t find my phone or my glasses-“ Steve only realizes he’s rambling when the guy gives him a very concerned look. 

“Do I need to get you to a hospital?” He asks, clearly trying not to frighten Steve. 

“Oh? No, no, it’s okay, I’m sorry,” Steve said, almost absently as he braided a small strand of the guy's hair. He tried to focus on that instead of the raging headache he has crawling up his spine. “I went to the emergency room already, this is normal, it happens a lot, it’s just been a bad day. I’m sorry.” 

He can feel the guy nod, his body relaxing slightly. His hand casually moves to touch Steve’s collar with the tips on his fingers, his short nails painted black. 

“Your glasses are on your shirt.” 

Steve looks down where his glasses were hanging off the collar of his sweater. He blanches. 

“Shit, thank you. I’m sorry.” He mumbled, hurriedly putting them on. His face goes hot, and he wants to sink into the floor. He might cry again, he was so embarrassed. 

“Can you call someone?” The guy asks, not bringing up the panic on Steve’s face, which Steve is mighty grateful for because bringing it up will make him cry, he thinks. 

Steve shakes his head, “I lost my phone. Sorry.” He chokes out. 

“Can I call someone?” The guy specifies. 

That’s a really good idea. Sure, it’s getting dark, but Robin always has time for him. She’s probably out of work and blowing up his phone trying to contact him. She might even have broken into Steve’s apartment by now. 

Steve closes his eyes, trying to push past the fog in his brain. The only thing it does is add pressure to the backs of his eyes. 

“I… I can’t remember any numbers right now, I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” He puts his hand over his mouth to stop himself from speaking. 

“Are you sure you’re okay?” The guy delicately pressed his palm to Steve’s shoulder, which draws attention to the fact that Steve’s breathing has sped up again. 

Steve gulps, blinking hard to stop himself from tearing up. He feels so fucking stupid. 

“Uh, with chronic seizures, there’s this thing, called a- uh, postictal state,” he tries to explain, voice way more breathy than he would like. He’s gripping maybe a bit too firmly to the frayed ends of the guy’s hair but he makes no move to stop him. “Which I like to say just means my brain hasn’t, hasn’t caught up to my body, like it’s, um, still processing.“

The guy nods, taking Steve’s rambling with grace. “Do you like champurrado?” He asks, Steve opens his mouth, closing it, opening it again. The guy nods, hurrying to explain himself. 

“We could go to my apartment and I could make you some. You look like you could eat. I made albondigas yesterday. When you can remember, we’ll call someone.” 

Steve really shouldn’t. This guy has already been too nice to him. Steve didn’t want to impose. Also, the guy was very kind, yeah, but Robin would kill him if he got hurt following this dude somewhere. But then Steve takes stock of the aches in his body. If he didn’t go with the guy, what would he do? Sit here all night? It was going to get cold and Steve’s anxiety wouldn’t let him sleep outside in the dark in an alleyway behind a bar playing very loud, aggressive metal music. 

Steve sighs, defeated. “Yeah, okay, I’m sorry.” He felt like he was doing something wrong. 

The guys smile brightly, almost blindingly so. He stands, chains jingling, and holds out a hand for Steve to take it. 

“You gotta stop saying sorry, man, you just had what, two seizures? It’s fi- holy shit.” 

The man’s hands were soft, which Steve wasn’t expecting, save for a few well placed calluses on his fingers. Steve tried not to think about it as he stood and wiped some gunk off his jeans, staring at the messy floor before figuring out something was wrong. He looked up, and the dude was staring up at Steve with his eyes wide, mouth agape. 

“What? What’s wrong?” Steve whispers, folding in on himself a little. What the fuck did he do now? 

The music rages on, but now it’s overwhelming. He feels static in his head. 

The guy’s heavily tattooed arms were held limply at his sides, “You- you’re really fucking tall.” He says unabashedly. 

Steve gulps, trying to shrink a little to make himself smaller, like that may alleviate the problem. Unfortunately, thought he did this often, It did mean he had terrible posture so his neck began to hurt. 

“Oh, I’m really sorry.” Steve wouldn’t look at him. 

“Why are you apologizing? It’s hot.” The guy says, Steve’s head shoots up to look at him as they stare at each other until the dude realizes what he just said. “Wait, I didn’t mean to say that out loud.” The guy puts his hands up, a nervous huff coming out past his lips as he was the one to start panicking now. 

Steve can’t help but let out a small laugh, covering his mouth with his hands. He’s never had someone say he’s hot in such a way, he couldn’t help but be a bit flattered.  Steve nods so the dude knows he isn’t upset by the random comment. Steve’s face was already red, and now he couldn’t even tell why. 

The guy’s eyes brighten, if that were possible. 

“Okay, let’s go. I’m Eddie.” He says, motioning for Steve to follow him. It takes a second for Steve to get the memo, with how slow his brain is working, so Eddie cautiously takes Steve’s arm in the way Steve watches men do in old movies. 

“I’m Steve. Thank you.” Steve, honest to God, giggled. Maybe he should be worrying about his dad and the fight he had with his mother, but he tries not to think about it. They’re not his problem, and he has better things to do. 

He does have to look down to see Eddie’s face when they’re not sitting, but that’s normal for Steve. He’s a few heads taller than most people he knows, and he works with kids so he’s obviously taller than them. He kind of just forgets, most of the time. No one else has mentioned it. His height was why he was so popular in high school before the seizures and anxiety messed it all up, though Steve is grateful he isn’t a bitch anymore. He’s only about a head and a half taller than Eddie, though. 

Eddie laughs, and it’s a cracky, beautiful sound. “You’re welcome, big boy.” 

Steve squints at Eddie as he leads him down the street. “Big boy?” He asks. As they get farther from the bar, there are less and less people out on the streets. No one jostles Steve, though, probably on account of the guy next to him, covered head to toe in spikes with black eye makeup. 

“Really? Do you not see how large you are?” Eddie continued, looking up at Steve like he was insane as he led him to the left, then the right. “It’s honestly kind of scary.”

“Me?” Steve wasn’t scary, this guy had it wrong. Sure, he was big, but nothing about him was frightening. Steve couldn’t remember the last person he met who actually looked afraid of him. None of his students ever were. 

“Yeah, you!” 

“I’m not scared.” Steve protested, though he was also smiling. “If anything, you’re scary.” 

Eddie throws his head back dramatically, covering his face with his curly hair. The bandana in his back pockets whips around.

“Why thank you.” Eddie grins, “Just so you know, flattery works on me.” He continued until they got to what appeared to be Eddie’s apartment building. Steve held on to his arm tighter. Eddie's dramatics calm him a little. 

“I have a dog, so you can pet a real one.” Eddie teases, unlocking the door with his free arm. “Her name is Ozzy, she’s a Doberman Great Dane mix, so I hope big dogs don’t scare you. I promise she’s not violent.” There’s something in his voice that tells Steve there’s something else. 

Steve smiles softly, “She sounds perfect.”

#steve harrington #steddie #eddie munson #steve x eddie #steveddie #eddie x steve #stranger things #stranger things s4 #robin buckley #steve has seizures #meet cute #or meet ugly #depending #depending on how you look at it #modern au

[morganbritton132]

I was thinking about your angst post and how it's a little precursor to the TikTok saga-

What if Eddie's doing a live stream and for whatever reason, Ozzy's not around. Potty break maybe, he's usually no more than 2 minutes. But of course all it takes is 2 minutes for Steve to slip into a seizure, one of his bad ones. And the live catches enough of it before Eddie frantically tosses his phone and ends the stream. How do you think fans would react?

I’ve actually had a similar thought to this!

Eddie has never sat down and been like, ‘this is what’s wrong with my husband.’ Why would he? Steve is not a celebrity. He has no interest in fame, he’s deeply private, and it’s no one’s business. Eddie has occasionally made comments or referenced Steve’s health issues just because it’s apart of their lives.

Dedicated fans who take all these little throw-away comments and create a profile of Eddie’s life will connect the dots between ‘Steve gets migraines’ and why the lights are low in a video or ‘Ozzy is a service dog’ to the thud you can hear on a live-stream that causes Eddie to run out of the room. There have been many times where Eddie has been live and will drop everything, leave the room, and not come back for minutes to hours. He never provides an explanation of where he went or why.

Eddie’s live streaming in his home studio. He’s got his guitar in his lap and a notepad next to him, and he’s playing this little interactive game he does with his fans where they’ll write a song together. Steve’s not a common feature to live-streams like this but he’s slightly in-frame tonight.

Eddie’s writing down a lyric a fan sent in the chat when he’s suddenly hit in the face by a hand. He startles and opens his mouth to complain but when he looks at Steve, all he sees in the jerky motion of Steve’s arm as it spasms.

And he freezes with his mouth still hanging open. He freezes like he always does when it’s a big seizure because his first thought is never seizure, it’s always Chrissy Cunningham. He freezes so he doesn’t think to move his phone away immediately. It’s only a half-second that he’s sitting there with his mouth hung open and terror in his eyes before he springs into action, but it feels like a million years to him and the chat.

Eddie bumps the table with his phone on it, and it falls so all the chat can see is the woodgrain, but they can hear Eddie talk to himself as he moves Steve into a safer position. They can hear him talk to Steve about how it’s okay, “It’s a big one but it’s okay. It’s fine. We’ll shake it out and go to bed, and – and where’s Ozzy? Oz?!”

It is a tense two and a half minutes and then silence until Eddie picks up his phone, ends the live-stream without a word, and calls Dustin. He’ll find out later that Steve had let Ozzy out into the backyard and forgot about it. He’ll make plans to install a doggy door that they’ll probably never do and when Steve wakes up exhausted and not all there, Eddie will repeat every reassuring word that he can think of until Steve falls asleep knowing that he’s safe.

In the morning, he’ll see the outpour of people worried, concerned, sympathetic with their own stories of seizures. He’ll make a short video letting people know that Steve is fine. He’s resting. He’ll let his students know that he won’t be at school, but that he’s already writing pop quizzes if they aren’t good for the substitute. But Eddie will never tell Steve that the twenty thousand people in his live stream that watched him have a seizure are wishing him well because he doesn’t think that it’ll go over well.

<- Last Post | Next Post ->

#I think that Steve would hate to be noticed. #Growing up everybody was always watching him and looking at him and forming opinions about him based on how he looked and who his family #was and he just hates it. Then once Eddie got famous it felt like even more people were staring at them and looking for flaws and making #opinions about him without even knowing him. And now he has these health issues and his body will betray him and people will think that #he's weak or not capable and they'll stare at him and he hates it so the thought that Eddie's fans watched him have a seizure would be #mortifying to him so Eddie is not going to tell him about it #steve harrington #eddie munson #eddie munson tiktok saga #sorry it took so long to respond to this one

[littlemissmeggieseviltwin]

i’ve seen a number of “steve harrington has seizures/epilepsy” fanfics and am wondering if i, an actual person with epilepsy, should write a fic.

#steve harrington has seizures #steve harrington #probably steddie because that’s mah ship #stranger things #stranger things fanfic

[slowandsteddie]

Steve, has a seizure and passes out

Steve, wakes up in the hospital

Steve, immediately clocking the worry on Eddie’s face and unable to look away

Steve, forcing a smile: “sorry for being so dramatic. I was just bored and wanted out of the house.”

Eddie, making a choked sound

Eddie, glancing at Dustin who has very red eyes

Eddie: “you know you could have just asked me to take you on a drive.”

Steve, snorting: “we do that all the time. I wanted something different. This car made a cool noise.”

Dustin: “Seriously, Steve?”

Steve, pouting: “I just wanted to go in the wee-woo wagon.”

#Stranger Things #steddie #steve harrington #eddie munson #steve stranger things #eddie stranger things #steve x eddie #shitpost #seizures #passing out #humor as a coping mechanism #incorrect quotes #based on a real conversation

[flowercrowngods]

based on this post, because at this point i think it's safe to say @unclewaynemunson is actually my muse or something (hi anna i hope this is okay even though it’s, like, way angsty and way too long huh)

🤍 also on ao3

Two days after Starcourt, concussed and beaten, Steve has a seizure.

His ears are still ringing when the doctor gives him a stern glance over the rim of his glasses and pronounces him unfit to drive. No, in fact, he claims Steve poses a real danger to himself and others if he sat behind a wheel again.

Immediately, Dustin and Robin jump to promising that they won't let him do that, and in another life Steve is sure he would be grateful, or at least reasonable about it, but in this one he has a horrible second where the floor falls out from under him and he wishes, for just one second, that his head had been shaken a bit more, just enough to–

It makes him nauseous even thinking that. Everything does, lately. He closes his eyes against the offensive brightness of the hospital room and lets the sound of Dustin's and Robin's voices wash over him as he takes a moment to really take in what the doctor's orders entail.

He can't drive anymore. No more late night drives to watch the street lights pass and lull him into a safer state of mind than his bedroom walls could. No more driving the kids to their DnD sessions, no more taking Robin anywhere at the drop of a hat, no more bickering, no more reign over the music, no more stern glances through the rearview mirror, no more "Shut up, Wheeler, or you're leaving the car."

No more "Thanks, Steve!", no more "I'll bring some of mom's cookies if you drive us to the arcade", no more "You're the best" or "You're a lifesaver" or "I owe you one".

No more place for him in the group, no more use for him, no more...

No more. Nothing. Now he's just Steve, would-be lifesaver, 'has-been babysitter', 'could-have-been somebody until he lost his license to drive because he wasn't quick enough, wasn't good enough, wasn't strong enough'. Just Steve.

He doesn't know how to be that. Who is Steve Harrington without his car, without the one thing he was good for anymore?

The pit in his chest is deep enough, dark enough to pull him in, and for a moment the very thing he is good for is misery.

He waits until a nurse makes everyone leave for the night, and then he cries. It makes his head hurt, pressure building behind his eyes, but he's used to being in more pain than any teenager should be in, so he curls in on himself and hides underneath the blanket.

Here's to hoping the others won't notice just how useless he is now. Not too soon, anyway. He wants another month. A painless month filled with laughter and hugs, and then they're free to leave, to pull back slowly. Calls unanswered, radio channels changed so he won't reach them, sheepish apologies and rain checks, because now Nancy will drive them. Or Jonathan. Hell, maybe Max will take the risk just to avoid him.

---

He gets a week of daily visits in the hospital, the doctors and nurses insisting on keeping him here, a watchful eye on his vitals, scanning his head three times during his stay, insisting he has head trauma of a severely worrying degree.

Nancy picks him up from the hospital and it's awkward, tense, too much left unsaid between them but there's no one else to do it. Steve's hands are shaking, gripping the seatbelt the whole way home – and then his heart falls when he sees his Beemer in the driveway. The glorious, trusty, wonderful, best fucking car anyone could wish for. His baby. His.

He throw up into the brushes when he realises that he won't get to take it on one last ride. Maybe he shouldn't be so attached to a car. Maybe he's being pathetic about it. At least he can explain away the fat tears in his eyes now, and Nancy doesn't press.

The first thing he does when Nancy is gone is calling Robin, and she's excited when she says, "I'll come right over!" and Steve wants to ask, how, but he keeps his mouth shut, biting his lip. It's stupid, but the thought of someone else driving Robin over makes his skin crawl.

"Alright," he says instead, his voice raspy, and he hangs up before she can detect something in his voice.

After that, he goes outside again and runs his hand along his Beemer. It's shining in the sun; he had it cleaned the other week, the full program, every step in the book to celebrate four years since he got her.

"Four years, huh," Steve says, his nail catching on a minor scratch that isn't even visible but might be more familiar to him than even his home. "Damn good four years."

He's talking to his car. God, it's so stupid, it's so stupid, it's so stupid–

Steve's knees give out and he gives in to the desire that's burning under his skin sometimes, the desire to just sit down and ignore the world. Because everything is less real when you're sitting down somewhere you're not meant to be, and the ground is warm, and Steve just wants the world to go. His head is leaning back against the warm metal of the driver's door, and he closes his eyes for a while, his head still spinning, his ears still ringing, everything still awful.

After a while, there’s a shadow followed by a weight settling down between him, a head landing on his shoulder, a hand taking his.

"I'm so sorry, Stevie," Robin says. The lack of dingus makes it more real, somehow. More tragic. More pathetic.

"I'll live." And it feels a bit like a lie.

---

He gets his month. A month filled with barbecues in his backyard, the kids coming by after school to check on him, and Robin has practically moved in. Joyce picks him up on Friday nights for dinner at their house for a change of scenery.

It’s a good month, though Steve feels trapped. Caged. A bird without his wings, a boy without his car. Steve without his one purpose, the one thing he was good for. He has to be picked up because they don’t trust him walking, or they have to come to his place. And soon the worried glances that are thrown his way are too much, caging him further, reminding him of what this is. A pity party — quite literally. No one trusts him anymore, there’s always someone jumping to help him, not caring or listening to his protests.

And he can’t leave, because “What if you have a seizure in your room?”

It makes him want to scream.

Maybe it shows, or maybe everyone’s just fed up with him now that he can’t provide his taxi services anymore, but after summer the Byers dinners stop and the kids pull away.

“Told you that’s all I’m good for,” Steve says with a mean, pained huff as he hangs up the phone. Claudia said Dustin isn’t home, but he could hear the kids in the background. It hurts more than it should.

“What is?” Robin asks from her place on the floor with her back against the wall.

“Nothing.”

She frowns. “Come on, dingus, you can’t start and then—“

“No, I mean it. Nothing. That’s what I’m good for now that I can’t drive them anymore.”

“Bullshit!” she says, and it comes out so harsh that it makes Steve flinch. He swallows. Right. Robin isn’t hear to listen to him whine about how he feels like he has no place in this town, in this group, in this life anymore now that his head is so fucked up he can’t even be trusted to live alone.

That’s why Robin is here, right?

The babysitter becomes the babysitted… or something.

She doesn’t care, not really. She doesn’t listen. She doesn’t ask.

“Steve, they’re kids.”

“Yeah, well. So am I.”

He turns away from her and ignores the tears threatening to fall. The door to his room falls shut and he would love to lock it just to make a point to the world at large, a point that it can’t shut him out if he shuts himself in, but he knows it’s too risky. If he has a seizure, Robin needs to get in.

He can’t even stay in his room alone without supervision anymore. What kind of a fuck-up is he becoming, where does it end? He’s already managed to chase away the kids, even Dustin only checks on him sporadically anymore, and it hurts. He wants to know why, wants to know what he did, how to take it back, how to get them back.

But then he remembers how it all started. Dustin needed a ride and someone to take a beating. Both of which he can’t do anymore without risking life and death of himself and others. He’s a safety hazard. He’s useless. He’s Steve fucking Harrington, which doesn’t mean anything anymore.

---

And then it’s spring, and Chrissy Cunningham is found dead in Eddie Munson’s trailer. The group is back together again, the Party assembled once more. And Steve, for a just one second, hopes that he can get it right this time, that he can do this again. One last time. Because Vecna slash Henry slash One surely is it.

But then they turn on him — even Eddie looks confused, which is a rather adorable look on him — the moment Steve tries to get a word in.

“You’re not coming with us, Steve.” That’s Dustin, and Steve just rolls his eyes, but then Robin joins in.

“Yeah, no, I’m with the gremlin on this, dingus.”

“Hey!”

“Oh shut it, Henderson.” She turns to him, her eyes softer but no less burning another hole inside Steve. “We can’t risk it, Steve.”

“Risk what?” It’s a challenge. His shoulders squared, his jaw clenched, he’s challenging her, and it’s cruel.

She holds his eyes, her expression icy, like he’s stupid. “We can’t risk you dying. We can’t risk you getting a seizure mid-fight or just by being in the Upside Down.”

“Hey, woah,” Eddie tries to get a word in, but Steve won’t hear him as the desperation, the loneliness, the feeling of being caged like a bird and still the only human left on a desolate planet, all that breaks free.

“We all know that dying in a fight is the only thing I’m good for anyway.”

The silence among their war council, as Max dubbed it, is deafening.

“What?” Lucas sounds small when he asks that, and Steve closes his eyes. He hadn’t meant for him to hear that. Any of them, actually. They weren’t supposed to know.

“Steve, that’s not true.” Dustin’s words are filled with disbelief and worry, and Steve hates the worry, it makes his skin crawl, it makes his heart race, it makes his fists clenched and it makes him want to scream again.

“What else then, huh?” he asks weakly. “What else is there? None of you even talk to me anymore since Starcourt. Since summer.”

“Because you were pulling away,” Nancy explains, though her words are weak and her mouth clicks shut when Steve looks at her.

“Because we’re scared.” Max this time, and Steve doesn’t want to look at her, doesn’t want to tell a child that she’s not allowed to be scared for him— not more than he is, anyway. It doesn’t make sense for him to be hurt. They don’t want him to die. That’s a good thing, right? They didn’t want to see him hurt, so they looked away. It makes sense.

But it also hurts.

Steve shakes his head and pinches the bridge of his nose before all but running from the trailer. He doesn’t make it far (“Stay close so we won’t have to worry”), just needs some fresh air and to sit down somewhere the world will become a bit less real again.

The stairs it is. He tries to breathe through the lump in his throat, clenching and unclenching his hands to get rid of the anger and the hurt and all that excess energy.

He doesn’t want to die, is the thing. The very thought makes him nauseous and panicky. He wants his life back. His car. The freedom to just jump in there and get away. He doesn’t want the cage or the worry or the hovering or the loneliness when he isolates himself from all that.

Face buried in his hands, Steve almost misses it when someone comes to sit beside him. The thick smell of leather and cigarettes tells him who it is without looking up.

Eddie doesn’t speak for a while, just sits with him as Steve calms down.

And then, after a while, he lights a cigarette and asks, “You get seizures, Harrington?”

Steve nods. “Sometimes.”

Eddie hums. “That sucks.”

He nods again, and then that’s that. But even though it was a rhetorical question and Eddie didn’t even need an answer, it feels pathetically good to be asked about something. About himself. It only makes the pit inside his chest deeper, cutting into his soul with a sharp edge, this tiny little moment of normalcy. He wants to cling to it. He wants to talk to Eddie. God, he hasn’t really talked to anyone in so long.

“Before Starcourt — remember, the mall? The fire? Yeah that was, uhm. More monster shit. And Russians who thought I was a spy and then… yeah. Anyway. Uh. We used to be friends, I think. The kids and I. They used to care — or I like to think that they did. And then I got one too many head injuries, and the seizures started, and then they… It became too much. For them, for me. And the caring stopped. And, like, it’s fine or whatever, but I still care, and I can’t let them do all that alone. I know that all I was good for was taking them somewhere with my car, but I can’t drive anymore, so now I’m just… I’m just Steve. No titles attached, no use or function or point.”

Eddie just stares at him, puzzled and intrigued and even a little sad, and Steve wants to laugh it off when the silence stretches.

“Sorry, that’s kind of a sob story, you—“

“Wait here,” Eddie says, stubbing out his cigarette before disappearing back into the trailer. Steve watches him with a confused frown but stays put. A minute later, the door flies open and a scandalised looking Max appears, followed by the rest of the crew.

“You what?!”

“Uh,” Steve blinks. “I what?”

“Eddie told us you think you’re useless and that we don’t like you and that all you were ever good for is driving us from A to B with, like, no personal value whatsoever,” Dustin fills in, sounding no less bewildered. “Is that true, Steve?”

And God, the kid is so good at making all his questions sound like dares that Steve instinctively wants to swallow and negate it, tell them that Eddie misheard, that he’s fine, that everything fine.

But then Robin’s whispered little, “Steve” stops him from doing that. In fact, the sadness and confusion on their faces makes the dams break once more, confronted with months of spiralling and no one to drag him out, no one to listen.

Tears spring to his eyes and he gets up from the stairs to properly face them. He shrugs. It’s as much of a confirmation as anything.

And then Dustin sprints forward and tackle-hugs him, burying his face in Steve’s chest with no intention to let go anytime soon.

“I’m sorry,” he mumbles into Steve’s shirt and Steve runs a hand through his hair immediately.

“It’s okay, Dustin.”

“No! It’s fucking not okay, Steve, stop saying that. You’re my big brother, you’re my best friend, you’re my hero! You’re the coolest guy I know and nothing’s gonna change that, okay?”

“Then why’d you leave?” His voice is so small, but Dustin only hugs him tighter.

“Because you were hurting and I was… I feel like all of that is my fault.”

“Why would it be your fault, Dustin?”

He shrugs, and it breaks Steve’s heart. Dustin thinks everything is his fault just like Steve thinks it’s his.

“It’s me who got you into the thing with the Russians. I insisted. And you were tortured for it, Steve! You… You told us to go, and we did, and then we came back and you were— you-“

“Hey,” Steve whispers, curling himself around and over Dustin. “Hey, no, it’s okay. It’s not your fault. None of that.”

“Okay.”

“Okay.”

“I’m sorry I pulled away, Steve,” Dustin sniffles and looks up at him. “I swear it’s not because I think you’re useless. It’s just… I’m so scared.”

And it makes sense, somehow. The anger leaves Steve when he whispers, “Me too. And I don’t like it when you’re all scared and worried. I hate it.”

“I know. Sorry.”

“No, you’re not.”

“Shut up.”

And then they’re both laughing with tears in their eyes. Lucas and Max join them with their own promises that Steve isn’t worthless to them.

“Did you read my letter? You know, the one if…”

“No,” Steve says. “You told me not to.”

“Right. Anyway, read it. Whatever happens, I want you to read it. Because you’re my brother and you mean too much for me to, like, never let you know. But, uh. Billy died. And I hated him, but it fucked me up. And then you almost died, and then you almost died again; and then you just… collapsed. And I thought, I cant do this again, not with someone I actually like. Not with you. And I didn’t wanna watch. I watched Billy. I… I can’t watch you die, Steve.”

She’s crying by the end of it, and Steve pulls her against his chest. Shit, he hadn’t meant to make anyone cry like that.

“It’s okay, Max, I get it.”

“Not okay,” she shakes her head again. “I know it’s not. But—“

“I know.” He’s stroking through her hair. “I know.”

“Uh, guys? I hate to break up the heartfelt confession time,” Eddie chimes in. “But I think our window is closing.”

Right. The end of the world.

With one last squeeze to Max’s shoulders, he lets her go and they gather their things. Discussions about Steve’s joining their mission have been put on hold while their window is still open. They can continue this later.

Nancy drives while Max holds Steve’s hand in the back. They don’t talk and she has her headphones on, letting Kate Bush work her magic, but it’s fine. It feels a bit like healing.

He catches Eddie’s eyes on the other side and holds them for a while. Eddie smiles before looking away, and Steve does the same.

---

In the end, Steve doesn't climb the rope with them. He stays behind in Eddie's trailer even though every fibre of his being screams at him to join. But Nancy has a point when she explains to him that she and Robin got this. It's the first time he stays behind, and he hopes it will be the last.

They hug him before leaving, all of them. Promises are made to talk about this later, after, and he nods.

"Go save the world for me," he tells Robin, holding her tight, unwilling to let go.

"Only for you," she promises, and kisses his cheek before pulling away. "You better be right here when we come back."

He shrugs and gives her an encouraging smile. "I've got nowhere else to be, Buckley. Now go." The last words are whispered and it feels like goodbye. Steve should join them, he should be there! But his head is pulsing and he knows that one wrong move could leave him half blind with a migraine, and they don't need one more handicap.

The one thing he can do, though, is helping them climb the rope, and it makes him feel ridiculously proud, seeing them land safely on the other side, smiling up (or down?) at him. Robin and Nancy wave one last time before heading off.

That leaves him alone with Eddie and Dustin. The latter is already climbing the rope, itching to finally do something, preparing the trailer for their plan.

Only Eddie is left, and Steve looks over at him.

"Will you be okay, Steve?"

"Sure."

Eddie sighs and looks up at the gate, disbelief and resignation and even a hint of fascination in his eyes.

"It should be you," he says, and Steve frowns, confused. "You're the hero here."

"No," Steve huffs, smiling at the metalhead. "No, I'm no hero. The real heroes are already up there, and in California. The real hero died after Starcourt. I'm just the driver who lost his license, the boy with the bat. The protector who needs to be protected."

Eddie looks at him again, that kind of intense stare, the one that shows Steve that Eddie sees something in him. He wonders what it is, but isn't sure he wants to know.

"I think you're wrong, Steve." He says it with such gentle conviction that it takes Steve's breath away for a second, and something passes between them as they hold each other's eyes.

Eddie opens his mouth to say something, but then–

"Eddie!" Dustin is calling for him from the other side, and the boys snap out of their daze.

Steve steps into Eddie's personal space and pulls him to his chest. "Make him pay," he says. "But stay safe. Come back, okay? First sign of danger, you abort mission. Come back, Eddie. I'll be right here."

"Yeah," Eddie rasps, and he squeezes Steve once more. "Catch me when I fall through that gate in two hours?"

Steve laughs, a sad little thing, and he pushes Eddie away from him, hands steady on his shoulders. "Sure, big boy."

"Hey, that's my part."

"Say it when you come back, then."

This thing passes between them again, and then Eddie goes to climb the rope. Steve's hands find their way to his hips, steadying him, but Eddie is strong enough to pull himself up without problem. Huh.

"In the meantime, wrap your head around the fact that you're the one I'm coming back for, pretty boy."

And then Eddie is gone. Steve watches as he falls through the gate, landing on the mattress with more elegance this time, and then he, too, grins down (or up?) at Steve.

He gives a little wave, and then he is alone.

Plenty of room to think when your friends have gone on a suicide mission and you're the one who has to stay behind. The one who will have to do the explaining when things go south. The one who will have to watch and listen, helpless.

It makes him regret the past few months, the self isolation, all the times he pulled back, all the times he didn't push for an explanation or a conversation, all the times he hadn't asked the kids if they're alright because he was too caught up in all the ways that he wasn't.

God, he wants them to be okay. He wants to talk about this, wants them to tell him he's more than the driver without a license, more than the protector who needs protecting. He wants Eddie to come back and explain what he meant, say what he wanted to say. He wants...

He wants his old life back. But more than that, he wants them in his new life just as much. He wants to be brave enough for this new life and find a new purpose. Create one if he can't find it.

But he can't do it alone. He refuses to do it alone even one day more.

"Come back to me," he whispers, looking up at the gate from where he's sitting on the floor, back against the wall. "Come on guys, you've got this. Please work. Please, make the plan work."

And then, miraculously, it does. Eddie falls into his arms with an undignified squeal and the rest of the Party soon follow. They're unscathed, miraculously, and Steve cries as he holds them, all of them, in a group hug that makes the trailer smell like relief and grief and a new life ahead of them. Slowly, with an unnatural sound, the gate above them closes, and then silence reigns.

They cling to him now. Refuse to let go. Good thing he has nowhere to go as Lucas gasps and sobs into his chest, explaining what happened, that Jason almost destroyed the walkman, that Max could have died. And Steve runs shaky hands through his hair, pulling in Max, too, so the three of them can just hold each other for a second.

Dustin and Eddie are hugging beside them, and Nancy and Robin hold hands, a different kind of horror in their eyes, but they smile wetly at Steve as their eyes meet.

It's over. It's done.

They did it. They really did it.

Steve closes his eyes and holds Lucas and Max tighter. They don't complain.

---

Three days later, Steve's house is brimming with life again like it hasn't in months. Turns out, Hopper survived, and he hugged Steve for a whole five minutes, telling him he did good, he did great, he's a hero. Again with that shit that Steve doesn't believe, but he doesn't have the heart to tell Hop, so he just buries deeper into their embrace.

"It's good you're alive," he tells him, and the Chief sobs out a laugh.

"You too, kid. This town would be lost without you."

"Yeah, right," Steve laughs back, and then that is that.

Except, it isn't, because when he returns to the living room with Hop, Joyce and El in tow, everyone's standing, looking at him with timid expressions. Robin and Eddie are holding hands this time, and so are all the kids. They all look like they have something to say, and the only thing missing is a large banner that says INTERVENTION.

"Uh, what's going on?"

Dustin is the first to clear his throat, but only after Erica kicks him. "We wanted to apologise. For leaving you when you needed us the most."

Oh. Steve's shaking his head, placating words already on the tip of his tongue, ready to explain to them how that's not their fault, how that was all him, he could have said something, he could have asked, he could have–

"Steve," Nancy says, effectively cutting off any protest he could have voiced. "Just listen, okay? Don't say anything."

He looks at Joyce, who nods, and Hopper who looks about as lost as he feels.

Dustin continues then. "You deserved better, Steve, you really, really did. We all did, I think, but you... You put yourself in harm's way from the get-go."

"Yeah, you came to protect me when you didn't even like me." Jonathan this time. "No thoughts, just protection. I owe my life to you. Every single one in this room does, y'know."

"And what you got for it is severe head trauma and... us abandoning you." Nancy.

"You're not just the driver, Steve. You never were just a driver to us." Hell, even Mike is in on this? "You're annoying, you suck, and you don't even try not to act like you're everyone's big brother."

"You're family, Steve." Oh, baby Byers. That's what gets his eyes stinging and his lip trembling, so he bites down on it so they won't have to see. It's futile with the way they're smiling.

"Yeah. You're so much more than our babysitter," Lucas explains. "You're the best basketball coach."

"You actually listen to my music and read comics with me," Max continues with a smile. "You suck just a little less than everyone else in this town."

"Hey!"

"No, she has a point."

Steve's not keeping up with the who's who anymore, he's trying too hard to keep it together.

"You teach me new words," El says, smiling. "You give me your clothes, you take me shopping, you teach me how to deal with meanies."

And the list goes on. Everyone has something to say to him, something beyond the ways he can be useful. Something that he is to them, something meaningful, something that sounds a lot like purpose and family.

"And we were so scared, because you were hurt. Because of us. You were protecting us, and look where it got you. You're a hero, Steve. As real as they get, you are one."

"More than Wonder Woman," Max agrees. "More than Superman. You're Steve! And that's... He’s our hero."

"He’s our brother," Dustin says.

"He’s my son," Joyce adds, taking his hand.

"He’s our friend," Erica, Mike and El say in unison.

“He’s the one we stay for.” Robin’s eyes shine as she smiles.

“And the one we come back for.” Eddie’s smile is gentle, confident, and captivating. Steve can’t look away, even through his own tears.

---

In the following months, Robin gets her license and Eddie develops a sixth sense for whenever Steve needs to just sit in a car and ride around town, watching the street lamps pass and letting them lull him to sleep. There’s an upside to being a passenger, he finds, because he falls asleep like this a few times, always waking when Eddie kills the engine. He drives for hours sometimes, admitting with a blush high on his cheeks that he didn’t want to wake Steve.

Somewhere on the highway to Indianapolis, between three and four in the morning, Steve looks at Eddie in the soft glow of the night, and finds that he’s fallen in love.

And in the weeks and months and years that follow, he realises that that’s something new he’s good at.

#stranger things #steve & the party #steddie #steddie fic #but also not really. steddie is just something that happens along the way #this was meant to be short but uh. uh. whoops? #hi anna i am sorry feel free to ignore this i could have made this easier in everyone but they’re teenagers with trauma dammit #dio words #actually i just wanted an excuse to make steve sad. if you know me you know

[corroded-hellfire]

Steve having a little sister (who’s like a first-time) senior who has a crush on Eddie. But she’s a cheerleader, her parents expect her to marry an Ivy League, senator’s son or something. She kept her crush a secret until Jason calls him a freak in front of the whole cafeteria- and she punches him.

I had so much fun writing this request! I hope you enjoy what I've come up with, and if you notice the joke I stole from Glee, no you didn't. Reader’s race is not specified and she could be adopted because adoption is a wonderful, amazing thing. Harrington!reader and Eddie 4ever.

Words: 3.1k

“Mr. Munson, late again, I see.” 

Mrs. O’Donnell heaves a disappointed sigh as Eddie gives her an over the top smile.

“Sorry, had a meeting with the principal. He wanted to know why you gave me detention again.”

Mrs. O’Donnell frowns. “I didn’t give you detention.”

“Oh, phew,” Eddie says as he slides into his seat. “Glad to hear it. I’ll try and be on time next time.” 

The class lets out a titter of laughter as Mrs. O’Donnell rolls her eyes and turns back to the board. The dopey grin is stuck on your face as you lean forward in your seat. Resting your upper body on your desk, you bite your bottom lip as you look Eddie up and down. From your vantage point, you can only see the back left side of him, but you’ll stare at that for the entirety of the class period if you can. 

“Miss Harrington?”

Begrudgingly, you tear your gaze away from Eddie’s glorious hair and see Mrs. O’Donnell watching you impatiently. 

“Um, yes?”

“I was wondering if you’d like to enlighten us about the Stamp Act?” the elderly woman says. 

“Uh…” you trail off, mind suddenly blank of everything that isn’t Eddie Munson. “I would not.”

A few people in the class let out snorts of laughter, but Eddie barks out the most beautiful sound you’ve ever heard. It makes your stomach fizzle, and your head feel all floaty. Even O’Donnell’s disapproving scowl can’t dampen your giddiness. 

The rest of class, you’re riding on a high. You made Eddie laugh. Out of all the accomplishments in your life, you’re not sure if one has ever meant more to you. Making honor roll? Eh. Becoming a cheerleader? So what? Doesn’t compare to making the cutest guy you’ve ever seen laugh.

Okay, you tell yourself. When class is over, you’re going to talk to him. The bell rings, and you’re scrambling to get your things together. Tossing them into your bag, you sling it over your shoulder and follow Eddie out of the classroom. 

“H-Hey, Eddie?” you manage.

He turns his head to look over his shoulder and gives you a smile that has your heart stuttering.

“Hey, Harrington. What’s up?”

“Did you see A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2?” you ask, somehow not stumbling over your words. You’d had Steve bring the VHS tape home for you to watch just so you could ask Eddie about it.

“Freddy’s Revenge?” Eddie asks, wrinkling his nose up. “Such a letdown after the first one.”

“Yeah,” you say with a chuckle. “The first one was pretty good. This one made me want to fall asleep.”

“Ironic,” Eddie says with a smirk. He opens the school door for you, and you give him a grateful smile as you step out into the parking lot. You watch as he digs his keys out of his pocket. “See you tomorrow, Harrington.”

“Bye, Eddie.” You’re staring at him as he walks away, and you know you need to stop. But how can you when his ass looks the way it does in his jeans? Once he hops into his van, the trance is broken, and you make your way to your brother waiting in his car at the other end of the parking lot. 

You groan as you yank open the car door and slip inside. Steve looks less than thrilled himself, but it has nothing to do with you. Your parents are forcing the two of you to join them at a company party tonight, which both of you are vehemently against. But Steve was tasked with picking you up from school, taking you home so both of you can get ready, then to the party. 

“Think I can fake an epileptic seizure and get out of this?” Steve asks on the way home.

“You’re not epileptic,” you say.

“That’s why I said ‘fake’ it,” Steve says with a scoff. 

“They’d find a way to make you come anyway,” you say, crossing your arms over your chest. 

The party is just as horrible as you and your older brother imagined it would be. You’re forced into an itchy blue dress and Steve looks like he’s about two seconds away from ripping his tie off. The stuffy guests walk around with their noses in the air, only deigning to talk to those they deem successful enough. You want to throw yourself out of one of the windows as you see your parents approaching you with an older couple that they’ll probably expect you to remember from somewhere. 

“Well, look at you,” the older man says. “All grown up.” The way he says it makes a shiver go down your spine. 

“You must have all the boys chasing after you,” his wife says with a wink. It’s like they’re competing to see who can make you the most uncomfortable. Before you can open your mouth to speak, your mom jumps in.

“Oh, we have high hopes for her,” she says with a chuckle. “Going to go to Yale or Stanford and find her an Ivy League man to settle down with.”

And when exactly did we decide this? you think to yourself. 

“Someone well-to-do,” your father adds. “A senator’s son, maybe. Who knows? We could be raising a future First Lady here.”

You want to gag. Steve must sense your temper rising, because he rests a hand on your shoulder and gives it a reassuring squeeze. 

“Remember us when you’re famous,” the older man says. 

I don’t even remember you right now. The words are on the tip of your tongue, but your dad changes the subject to something about profit reports. 

Steve drives the two of you home before your parents, the two of them insisting they were going to stick around a little longer. The minute you get into your room, you throw your heels towards your closet. Your brother hears you banging around and comes to stand in your doorway, leaning against the doorframe and crossing his arms over his chest. He’s taken his tie off and undone the first few buttons of his white button up shirt. 

“What’s the matter, First Lady? Didn’t like getting signed up for an arranged marriage?”

You whirl on him, practically shoving a finger in his face. “Do not call me that. I am not some prized pig they can sell at the fair.”

“Technically, I think the pigs are judged at the fair, not sold.”

Groaning, you rub your hands down your face. 

“I’m running away,” you say, throwing your hands in the air. “I’m joining the circus. Or a motorcycle gang. Anything! As long as it’s not here.”

“Oh, relax,” Steve says. “When you go off to college you can date whoever you want. They’ll never know.”

“Why do I have to wait until I go off to college?” you demand. “Why can’t I date whoever I want right now?”

“Do you want to date someone right now?” Steve asks, furrowing his brows.

“That’s not the point,” you say, but you feel the heat rising to your cheeks.

“Holy shit, you do,” Steve says with a huff of laughter. He pushes himself off the doorframe. “Who is it?”

“Goodnight, Steve.” You shove him out of your doorway before slamming and locking your bedroom door. 

“The fuck did you say, Freak?”

Jason Carver’s voice grates on your nerves as you make your way down the hall. Unfortunately, there’s only one person the jock douche would be calling that name and it has you seeing red. You were still steamed from your parents’ comments last night, and this is just going to push you over the top.

“Who, me?” 

You walk into the cafeteria to see Eddie grinning at the basketball playing asshole.

“You’re the only freak here,” Jason says.

Your white cheer sneakers squeak to a stop on the linoleum floor, and you drop your bag down by your feet. The clatter has Jason’s gaze shifting to you. Most of the cafeteria’s attention shifts to you, actually. But you don’t notice as you stalk up to the bully. Normally, you might say something snarky to him, but you’re done with words. All your pent up frustration is taken out on Jason’s chin as you serve him a right hook. He stumbles back a few steps and there are gasps around the cafeteria. Your hand is throbbing, but the pain is nothing compared to the satisfaction you feel at shutting that jerk up. The small smear of blood above his upper lip has you smirking.

“Miss Harrington!”

With a groan, your satisfaction wanes when you see Principal Higgins glaring at you. His glasses are perched low on his nose and his hands are high on his hips.

“My office. Now.”

Thankfully, Principal Higgins’s secretary is kind enough to give you some ice to put on your knuckles. Some staffing emergency took precedence, so you’re stuck sitting on a bench outside his office while he deals. 

“You’ve got some arm.”

The voice that you’d know anywhere sounds from above you and your neck cracks from how quickly you look up. Eddie stands there with his hands in his pockets, a sheepish smile on his lips. 

“Oh. T-Thanks,” you say. 

Eddie takes a seat next to you on the bench. He yanks a black bandana out of his back pocket and smooths it out across his lap before folding it lengthwise. 

“May I?” he asks, gesturing to the ice you’re holding against your hand. 

“Sure.” You extend your injured hand out, and Eddie secures the ice against your knuckles with the bandana, then ties it tight enough to keep everything in place.

“How’s that?” he asks. 

“Better. Thank you.” You find it hard to meet his eyes, so you keep your focus on your hand as you bring it back into your lap. 

“So,” Eddie says, turning himself sideways on the bench and making himself comfortable. “What made you punch ol’ Carver? I mean, I know we all want to do it, but no one’s been quite so brave. Not until you, that is. And from a cheerleader? One of his own?”

“I’m not one of his own,” you say, looking up at him. But Eddie has a playful smirk on his lips.

“Nah, I know you’re not. I’m just teasing you. But what did want to make you do that? Couldn’t have been all on my account.”

“Why not?” you ask with a frown.

Eddie lets out a chuckle and shakes his head. “Listen, Harrington. I don’t see you as someone who goes around punching people for the hell of it. You’re one of the nicest people in this hell hole of a town. The jackass must’ve done something to deserve it.”

“He did,” you say. “He called you a freak.”

“I don’t know if you’ve noticed,” he says, leaning in towards you with a conspiratorial whisper. “But most people do.”

“Well, they shouldn’t,” you say with a frown. “You’re not. And I hate how Jason always does it in front of a crowd. It’s like he needs to put you down in front of others to prove he’s this king or whatever. So, someone needed to knock him off his throne in front of people, too.”

“My knight in shining cheer skirt,” Eddie teases with a wink. He’s shocked when your face goes red and you’re unable to look him in the eye. “You okay?”

“Y-Yeah,” you say, forcing yourself to meet his gaze. The heat in your face is getting worse by the second and you feel it’s only a matter of time before you crack. 

“You sure? I didn’t make you uncomfortable?”

God, that’s the last thing Eddie could ever make you feel. You immediately shake your head, refusing to let him think those thoughts even for a moment. 

“No, no, not at all. I’m sorry, I guess I’m just an…awkward person,” you say with a wince. 

“Maybe I like awkward,” Eddie says, gently kicking his black boot against your white sneaker. Butterflies erupt in your stomach, and they have plenty of room to buzz about, seeing as you hadn’t gotten to eat your lunch.

“Maybe I like awkward, too,” you say softly. 

Eddie smirks. “Oh, then you must adore me, Harrington.”

“Maybe I do,” you say with a shrug, forcing yourself to maintain eye contact with him. 

“Well, maybe I like sweet, pretty cheerleaders who can sucker punch like Bruce Lee and talk to me about horror movies.”

Your mind stopped listening after Eddie called you “pretty” though. Did he really think that? Or was he just saying it to be nice? 

“Hmm,” you muse. “Guess I should send Hailey Hudson from the team your way to talk about Halloween then, huh?”

Eddie chuckles and the same sensation as when you made him laugh before fills your body. 

“Nightmare on Elm Street is more my cup of tea,” Eddie says. “Plus, talking to any other cheerleader bedsides you doesn’t seem very appealing to me.”

“Miss Harrington,” Principal Higgins says, sticking his head out of his office. “You can come in now.” He steps back inside, and you release a sigh. Of course talking to Eddie would have to come to an end eventually, but why now?

“Well,” you say, standing up from the bench. “Guess it’s time to hear my sentence.”

“Maybe if you get released early for good behavior, we could grab pizza sometime?” Eddie looks nervous, and that alone makes you want to laugh. Why on earth would he be nervous asking if you wanted to hang out? 

“That sounds great,” you say, the euphoric smile unable to stay off your face no matter how hard you try. 

“Yeah?” Eddie asks, seeming shocked. 

“Why do you sound surprised?” you ask with a giggle. Taking courage from the fact that he seems to be getting nervous around you as well, you decide to be a little bolder. “I don’t just throw punches for anyone, you know.”

The most endearing smile grows on Eddie’s face, and he places one of his ring-clad hands over his heart. 

“I am very honored to have the most beautiful girl in school defending my honor.” He outstretches his hand out to you as you begin to walk backwards towards the principal’s office. “I’ll wait for you.” 

You can’t help but giggle. “I’ll have my parole officer contact you.”

“Should be easy since I’m in the phone book.”

“I’ll make sure to let her know. Bye, Munson.”

“See you later, Harrington.” He gives you one last smile before you step into the office.

The worst part isn’t the detention you were given or that you have to apologize to Carver. It’s that you’re told to call your parents to come and get you. Apparently, the school nurse is out for the day, and they can’t have you staying in school with a potentially injured hand. It hardly even hurts anymore, but you’re not going to let them know that. Let them think that you’ll be headed to the hospital for all you care. 

When you pick up the phone from the desk, your finger hovers over the numbers. Principal Higgins is sitting right there, making sure you’re going to tell your parents exactly why you need to be picked up. At the last second though, you dial a different number. 

“Thank you for calling Family Video, this is Steve. How can I help you?”

“Uh, hi, Dad,” you say, gripping at the receiver pressed against your ear. 

“Dad?” you hear Steve ask in confusion. “This is—”

“I-I know,” you say. “I’m just calling, Dad, because I need you to pick me up from school. I’m in Principal Higgins’ office. 

You can tell Steve understands now by the sigh that comes across the line. “What did you do?”

“Well, my hand is injured, and the nurse isn’t on duty today, so they don’t want me staying at school while I’m hurt and no one can check it out.”

“Tell him why it’s injured,” Principal Higgins says.

“Yes, tell me,” Steve echoes, obviously being able to hear his former principal’s words.

“I, um, I punched Jason Carver,” you say.

“You did what?!” Steve all but screams.

“He called Eddie Munson a freak in front of the whole cafeteria.” You say this piece looking Higgins dead in the eye. Are you going to do anything about that? you want to ask. “So, I punched Carver to shut him up.”

“Honestly, I’m impressed,” Steve says. 

“Thanks. So, uh, can you come get me?”

“My shift is over in ten minutes,” Steve says. “I’ll head there as soon as I get out of here.”

“Thanks, St—uh, Dad. I’ll see you soon.” You hang up the phone and Principal Higgins stares at you over the rims of his glasses.

“He on his way?” he asks.

“He’ll be here soon.”

“I can’t believe you punched Jason Carver,” Steve says, shaking his head in amusement as he drives you home. 

“He’s an asshole,” you defend with a shrug. 

“Over Munson, though?” Steve asks incredulously. “Seriously? Couldn’t have picked another hill to die on?”

“Nope,” you say through gritted teeth. Crossing your arms over your chest, you stare out the passenger window. 

“Why Munson, though, I—” Steve cuts himself off with a groan and shakes his head. “Oh, no. Please tell me I’m wrong.” 

“I’d love to,” you reply. “But I need to know what you’re wrong about first.”

“Munson isn’t the guy you want to date, is he?” Steve asks nervously.

Your face gets hot for what feels like the millionth time in the past few days. But that’s all the confirmation your brother needs, because he’s letting out a groan that makes it sound like he’s in agony.

“You really have a thing for the Freak?”

“I have one good fist left,” you say. “Want me to use it on you?”

“I’ll tell Mom and Dad about your detention then,” Steve says with a shrug.

“Then I’d tell them about you moving the dirty magazines from beneath your bed into the air vent,” you counter.

“How do you even know about that?” Steve asks, shooting you a glare before looking back at the road. 

“Your room and mine share the same vent and I can hear the pages rustling when the air is on.”

“You’re the worst,” Steve grumbles. 

“You also have no room to complain with some of the trash you’ve dated,” you point out. 

“Are you and Munson…a thing?” Steve asks, sounding like he hates every syllable of the question.

“No,” you tell him. “But he asked me to go get pizza with him. So, maybe soon.”

“And that will make you happy?” your brother asks.

A smile comes to your face just thinking about it. “It would.”

Steve nods his head and lets out a deep breath as if he’s resigning himself to the fact that you have feelings for Eddie. 

“Okay, but you’re telling Mom and Dad.”

#eddie munson #eddie munson x reader #eddie munson x you #eddie munson x y/n #eddie munson x harrington!reader #harrington!reader #eddie munson imagine #eddie munson fic #eddie munson fan fiction #eddie munson fanfic #request

[urhoneycombwitch]

in sickness, to cherish

foreword: so excited to release this lil’ babe into the world. PTSD and trauma healing is of special interest to me, I hope you enjoy 💖 (p.s. from my limited research I don’t think they would have used a heart monitor for low-risk patients but it is literally integral to my plot so I’m breaking my anachronistic purity rule. soz)

wc: 3k

cw: descriptions of seizure, PTSD + hospital/medical trauma for the whole gang, brief mention of non-consensual drugging, R is referred to once as “Mrs” & “girlfriend”, angst w/ comfort

___

The mounted clock on the wall of the dingy Hawkins Memorial waiting room ticks over to nine PM, a brutal reminder that time (for everyone else, at least) has not, in fact, stopped.

Nine o’clock. As you pace from one end of the plastic chair-lined aisle to the other, you run the numbers in your head, fingers spastic at your sides- it’s nine right now, and Steve was admitted just after six, which means they’ve been running tests for three hours, even though the charge nurse said it should only take one…

”You wanna step outside for a smoke?”

Eddie speaks up from his seat at the end of the row, catching your bleary gaze before you’re turning on your heel again to complete your looping track.

His voice cuts smoothly over the buzzing fluorescents, the old television in the corner droning with last week’s news cycle; it’s enough to disrupt Robin from her half-sleep against Eddie’s shoulder, blinking into consciousness and stretching her stiff limbs as you respond.

“No, thanks.” Your hands slip to the inside of your elbows, squeezing through layers of soft cardigan in a near-bruise, feet continuing the rhythmic pacing. “You can go, though- I’ll make sure Robin comes to get you if anything happens.”

Eddie clears his throat, sinking back into the hard plastic, rings clicking at the armrests. “Nah, I’m good without one. Just thought you’d want a change of scenery, maybe some fresh air would calm-”

“I’m staying here.”

There’s a sharpness to your voice, a rarity- Robin winces, fingers in her lap twisting and fidgeting as she tries to change the subject. “God, Steve’s gonna be spitting mad when he wakes up. He’s the most doctor-adverse person I know.”

Eddie latches on to this with a humorless chuckle- “Stubborn bastard. Wouldn’t let those lab goons go near him, even after last year-”

“Fuck.” The swear comes from the bottom of your toes, even as you swivel on the balls of your feet to loop back in front of your friends; their faces snap to you, a blur of motion as you pass them again- “You’re right. Steve fucking hates doctors. I should’ve-”

Your next breath comes stilted, fingers a vice-grip on your own arms as you pace, pace, pace- “I should’ve treated this like taking a dog to a vet. Crushed up some pills in his food, or something- he never listens to me when I nag him about his hearing getting worse- do you know how many meals, how many glasses of water we share, every day?”

From the corner of your hazy vision, Robin’s gone still and pale, her voice tremulous- “I didn’t mean to imply- this isn’t your fault, you know-”

But you’re not ready to hear that, guilt surfacing like a sick wave, tears pooling, moments away from spilling over, voice trembling with anguish- “Could’ve been so easy, tell him we’re going for a ride, load him up into the passenger seat, he goes to sleep and I could’a passed him right off to a doctor, to someone who could have prevented this-”

Eddie rises from his seat to stand in the middle of your path, hands lifting to soothe and appease, but you’re still in flight mode, like a bird beating its wings against the confines of its cage.

You flinch away from his touch, standing with your back turned to them both, staring out the dark window, unseeing. “You know what Steve said to me? Right before he hit the ground? He said, ‘Don’t panic, I’m gonna pass out, try not to let my hair get too messed up.’”

An edge of misplaced humor draws a dry laugh from your throat. The dark window reflects your own face back- tear-streaked, red veins encroaching on the whites of your eyes- as you shake your head in disbelief. “He made a joke. To try and distract me from the fact that he was about to hit the ground and go all… all spastic-”

Unbidden flashes of memory surge to the forefront of your mind: victims of last spring. Twisted forms snapped at the bone, Max’s arms and legs bent at horrifying angles, plaster casts from head-to-toe, freckled face still and sallow against the starch-white hospital sheets-

A leather-jacketed form in the reflection behind you, Eddie’s hand solid on your back against the shuddering breaths wracking all the air from your lungs. You don’t flinch away this time.

Your beautiful boy. Steve. With his eye-crinkling smiles and sharp wit and gentle heart, stiff as a board in the middle of your living room, eyes rolled back in his skull like a downed deer, unreachable, just three hours ago.

“I thought it was Vecna. It’s been so long but I thought he’d come back, somehow, I was this close to running upstairs and grabbing our Walkman-”

”But you didn’t.” The hand at your back is joined by another at your arm as Eddie pulls you to face him, his gaze locking on your own, brown eyes full of grave compassion. “You heard the nurse. She said tipping him on his side was the best call you could’a made, sweetheart- you saved him.”

”But I didn’t know,” you insist, “I didn’t know that’s what would help, I just did it ‘cuz I was worried he was going to choke on his own tongue-”

“Semantics. You intuited it, then.” One of Eddie’s hands leaves your arm briefly to make a dismissive gesture through the air- “Which, in my book, is all the more impressive.”

Unconvinced, your voice small and tightening along with your chest- “What if this happens again, and he’s alone, this time? What if he’s working one of his three closing shifts a week, without Robin- what if he’s driving?”

You can’t help the spiraling of your thoughts, what-if scenarios jumping in line, each one more horrifying than the last.

Robin rises to stand beside Eddie, opens her mouth- to deny, to comfort, it’s unclear- but is interrupted by a new nurse who’s just appeared in the doorway.

“Mrs. Harrington?”

This snaps you back to earth, a bit, another watery laugh as Eddie takes a step back, allowing you to swipe at the mess of tears on your face before turning to the nurse- “Yeah. As good as, I guess. How’s he doing?”

With a last look at your friends, the nurse leads you down sickeningly-bright corridors while reading from a clipboard- most of it’s medical jargon, your foggy brain struggling to keep up as you stay on her heels.

What you gather, as you’re led to his room, is nothing new- Steve’s had a seizure, likely due to the trauma his brain incurred from the ‘earthquake’ of ‘86, and it’s unclear what triggered it, or if it’s likely to happen again.

“We’re going to keep him overnight, just to monitor his condition.” The nurse stops at a door labeled Room 202, hinges squeaking as she pushes it open. “He was really lucky, this time. Must’ve had a good guardian angel looking out for him.”

Heart thrumming thick in your throat, you almost ask the nurse to wait, to give you a second- maybe a quick bathroom break to splash some cold water against the tear-tracks, or even an extra few seconds to pretend at being stoic- but she’s already ushering you in with a kind smile.

The nurse pulls the door shut, and you’re left alone with the boy in the bed.

He looks exhausted, dark circles pulling at the soft skin below his eyes, which are full of relief, trained on you as you approach.

“Hey, there’s my girl.” There’s a scratchy quality to Steve’s voice, on its way to being lost.

You were doing really well, no crying or anything, before he spoke. But hearing him, paired with the awful sight of a medical cord wrapping around the width of his broad chest, has your face crumpling in an instant.

“Oh, shit. Aw, honey. C’mere-” Steve reaches for you, halfway to sitting up off his supporting pillows, and you quickly close the gap, sitting near his hip on the bed.

“No, hey- stay down,” you chide through the tears, pushing at the shoulder of his white hospital tee. “Don’t put any stress on your body.”

“Cut the stress, she says,” Steve grumbles, leaning back against the stack of pillows but compromising by pulling you in closer. “My baby’s crying, and she tells me no stress?”

His left palm slips over your cheek, thumb swiping away tears, while his right hand- IV taped flat over the back of it- slides to rest on your waist.

”Gonna tell me what’s wrong, hm?”

Under different circumstances, you’d laugh at his question- christ, where did he want you to start: but with that amber gaze so full of empathy, desperate to fix what’s making you sad, you’re stripped raw with sincerity.

”I was just- I was so scared, Steve-”

Steve pulls your face towards his, needily, a breath away from begging for a kiss before you lean in for one.

He tastes salty, like sweat and tears, lips plush and softly seeking against the seam of your own. Between the kisses, he’s mumbling apologies, “sorry, so sorry”, broken by the need to be as close to you as all the medical gear will allow.

There’s a soft noise from the back of his throat, and you pull away just enough to bump your nose into his, hands running up to push through the soft strands of his hair.

Steve practically purrs under your touch; you’re careful not to disturb the tubing wrapping around the length of his chest, leaning your weight into his shoulders instead.

A vein of hilarity spikes as you remember Steve’s last words before he went under: and here you were, fingers pulling at his dark roots, breaking his one request. When you start to giggle, Steve’s eyes pop open, baffled, hair sticking up at the ends when your fingers leave his hair. Both hands now squeezing at your hips, he feels left out of the joke- “What?”

“I just- nothing. Never mind. I’m really glad you’re okay.” It’s the truth. You frame his lovely face with your hands, kissing his forehead once before sitting up fully. “I don’t wanna fight about it here, okay? Let’s just focus on you feeling better, and then-”

“See, now, wait a minute-” Steve holds up a finger to interrupt. “You don’t get it. I’ve been hoping and praying for hours now that my pretty girlfriend would come in here just so we could have a good fight.”

He tweaks at the skin of your hips (with the IV-hand, so you can’t just smack it away, dammit), smiling up at you far too dreamily for someone reclining in a hospital bed.

Settling against the length of Steve’s torso, your arms cross over his stomach just under the tubing as you start, carefully- “You know, Max had one of these- when she was in the hospital?”

”Yeah, you’re right.” Steve’s hands worm their way under both your cardigan sleeves, seeking out the comfort of skin like a magnet- “Think it tracks heart rate. Or something.”

“Mm-hm. And… you know how she had to go to physical therapy three times a week? For, like, half the school year?”

Steve’s thumbs swipe absently at your wrists, a line pinched between his brows, trying to piece together your angle. “…yeah?”

“Takes a lot of time, to heal from something like that.” Your eyes drop to his chest, throat swelling with the effort of holding back a sob. “And I’m just- just thinking of all the times you might be alone, and how we could have prevented this, and-”

“Hey, hey, hey- shhh…” Steve soothes, shaking his head. “Honey, it was inevitable, okay? Nothing we could’a done. The doc told me this shit can happen, like, years after a big event. I’m fine. I’ll be fine. I promise.”

Fighting against the wall of emotion that makes speaking harder, you return his head shake, desperate for understanding- “But you can’t promise that, baby. You had a seizure- an actual, medical emergency, and… we don’t know if it’ll happen again.”

With a purposeful straightening of your spine, you state, resolutely: “I want a different promise.”

Steve presses the crown of his head back into the pillows, melodramatic, resurfacing with a tsk. “So stubborn. What promise you want, then, huh?”

”I want you to promise that you’ll see a doctor- a real one. A head guy. Not some… family medicine quack.”

Steve grins, charming even while unusually pale- “I love it when you talk medical, really gets me going-”

He decides to bail on the rest of that sentence when he sees the flare of irritation on its way to real anger in your face, raising both hands in appeasement- “Okay. Hey- I promise to see a real head doc. I don’t intend on putting you through this again.”

WIth a sigh, you surge forward again, mumbling “Thank you” into Steve’s lips, a kiss of relief and gratitude. Best news you’ve heard all day.

His groans vibrate through you, hands running down the length of your side, near the bottom of your cardigan; you squeak at the intrusion of his cold palms on the bare skin of your waist but they warm quickly, and you’re willingly distracted as his tongue presses against the seam of your lips.

Perhaps not exactly hospital-appropriate, but as it’s been an evening full of adrenaline-filled panic and heartache, you figure some making out might be a good cure for the both of you.

“Won’t scare you like that again,” Steve says, lips already pink and spit-slick, intense and breathless as he clings to you between kisses- “Gonna be okay. You saved me, angel. Love you s’much…”

Your hand, previously resting on Steve’s knee, automatically slides up at his words, notching into the soft expanse of his inner thigh over the thin sheets- “Love you too, so much…”

A bright, electronic noise jolts into frantic beeping- the monitor that Steve’s hooked up to is loud enough to startle you into sitting up.

There’s no time to process or even rearrange yourselves before the nurse from earlier bustles into the room to glare at the machine’s screen; best you can do is a swipe across your mouth, hopefully hiding any evidence of moments-ago spit-swappage as you stammer out, “Um, yeah, sorry- h-he was trying to sit up and that set it off, I guess…?”

Steve lies placid and amenable against his pillows, giving the nurse a gold-medal grin, which unfortunately does nothing to allay her suspicions.

“Uh-huh.” The monitor alarm is stopped short with the press of a few buttons, and she gives Steve a sideways look, clipboard tucked under her arm- “You ready for your other visitors, Mr. Harrington, or should I give you a few more minutes?”

“Bring forth the party, Patricia.” Steve folds his hands behind his head, wincing when his IV gets bumped but covering it with a wink.

Nurse Patricia leaves. You cover your heated face, mortified- “Oh my god. She probably thought I was giving you a handjob or something, jesus, Steve-”

He’s outright laughing at you now, unable to help it- “Come on, no she didn’t. And even if she did…”

Steve is momentarily distracted, frowning down at his chest, following the monitor’s line to the machine; you watch through cracked fingers, his face lighting up, triumphant. “See, I bet if we unplug it from the wall same time as disconnecting it from here, we might be able to fit a handy under the radar, after all!”

Robin and Eddie enter the room just as you’re swatting Steve’s shoulder; over your subdued and mildly horrified laughter, he groans in faux-pain: “God, you two got here just in time. She’s beating me up for no reason.”

As Eddie settles into the plastic chair under the opposing wall’s window, you scooch down the mattress, patting the side closest to Steve with an encouraging smile at Robin.

She takes the seat, appreciative, her clammy hand slipping into yours for support as she addresses Steve: “Y’know, if you did this to get out of doing inventory this weekend, you could just say so.”

“You caught me, Robs,” Steve says, thumbing over her knuckles fondly. “Finally gonna join my conspiracy to make Keith’s life hell?”

You’re about to cut in, emphasizing that no one else should be making any hospital visits, when a metallic screech has the three of you on the bed whipping around.

Eddie’s managed to crack the barred window- judging by the sound, it hasn’t been opened since the 70s. He freezes with all the attention, then speaks around the cigarette clenched between his lips, suave again- “Pardon the interruption. Anyone else care for a smoke?”

Everyone in the room blinks at him, in various stages of disbelief; Steve starts laughing, first, which gets Robin going, and eventually you, too, until Eddie’s grinning around the cigarette, lighter halfway to his mouth as he chuckles- “Well, can’t say I didn’t offer…”

Robin makes a comment about nicotine fumes, which quickly devolves into her and Eddie fiercely bickering.

The elevated chatter of your friends fades into the background as Steve takes your hand atop the sheets, head tilted to get you in his line of sight again- love you, he mouths.

Love you, too.

#steve harrington #steve harrington fic #steve harrington x reader

[steviewashere]

Dream Come True

Rating: General CW: Minor internalized ableism on Steve's end Tags: Established Relationship, Married Steve Harrington/Eddie Munson, Future Fic, Adopting a Child, Parenthood, Steve Harrington is a Sweetheart, Eddie Munson is a Sweetheart, Fluff, Domestic Fluff, Let Them Live a Quiet Life God Damn It, Mild Hurt/Comfort

For the @steddielovemonth prompt: "Love is about healing each other's wounds."

💕—————💕

They haven’t discussed children since the second month they were together. Was that probably a little too early in their relationship? Probably—Eddie will be brave enough to admit that right now. But, considering where they’re at now: Steve is forty-seven and Eddie’s forty-eight, their wedding bands are simple and gold (something easily spotted amongst the silver ones that Eddie still wears), the house they took a loan out for is painted yellow with white shutters installed (well, they paid Dustin and Will to do it. They were happy to help), they live in Massachusetts away from public eye, and though they don’t have a dog—not yet, the service dog process has been a long and weary one on Steve’s end—they have their little brown tabby cat. They’ve got a well furnished home. And years of love between them.

Nearly twenty-eight years in total. Nineteen years wedded. Six years of that are legally recognized. But that doesn’t matter. What matters is they stopped talking about the prospect of having kids.

Eddie’s initial answer at the beginning was, “Maybe. I think it would be neat. But, I’m gay, Steve. That isn’t really a possibility.” He chuckled a little bit. “I meant like adopting, but in a technical sense—Considering what’s in my pants, the possibility is still out the window.”

Steve’s was changed from what he told Nancy in that Winnebago. “I still want children. Or, just one. I want a quiet life. Even if you make it as some big rock star, I want a quiet private life.”

It was doable. What Steve had whispered on Eddie’s shoulder, that was doable. The question for years though was, When does he want that? And also, When will he leave to pursue that?

The answer was clear. Steve was never going to pursue that. That, sure, they’d have the quiet life. But never have children. And Eddie saw him wilt a little further and further. When they passed by the playground at the park. The daycare up the street from their home. After the seizure diagnosis, Steve stopped looking and thinking about it all together. It hurt Eddie’s heart.

He may have got the quiet life. And Eddie may have lived out his simple dream. He’d been a rockstar for a little bit in the late nineties and early two-thousands, retiring before they got married. But…Steve hasn’t lived his dream. Eddie hates that he thinks it’s being held back from him. Eddie’s determined to heal that hurt inside him.

——— Steve comes home from his Wednesday teaching shift around four in the evening. Eddie’s already on the couch, combing Poncho’s fur, watching the local news. He’s got a very important print out laid neatly on the coffee table. He hears Steve set down his briefcase on the dining table, his footsteps retreating to their kitchen to rinse out his thermos, coming back to the front door and placing his loafers on the shoe rack, and he hangs up his coat. Then, he enters the living room, hands scrambling to undo his tie, body leaning over the arm of the couch to press a kiss against Eddie’s mouth.

But then he pulls away, turning his whole body to watch the news. And that’s when he spots it. The flyer. He shuffles over on his mismatched socked feet, hands falling away from the collar of his dress shirt. He swipes up the paper. Behind his glasses, he squints.

It’s advertisement for the adoption agency some forty minutes out. Eddie hopes, by everything, that this will heal the pain in his own chest, and the emotional line of thinking in Steve’s brain. Hopes with everything that his body can physically give.

“What’s this about?” Steve asks. His voice is neutral. Almost…dare Eddie say, steely. Okay, maybe he made the wrong move. “We haven’t even—“

“I know,” Eddie immediately says. “I know we haven’t talked about it. But, sweetheart, just listen to me, alright?” At Steve’s confused and hesitant nod, Eddie tries to arrange his words. “This is something you’ve been wanting since forever ago. And I know that I haven’t really voiced my wants on it. But I also thought that it would never happen.

“That it would never be something people like me—“ He raises his eyebrows and points to the keyring attached to Steve’s belt loop. The short rainbow garland that sits discreetly among his keys. “—Would ever get the chance to do. But I—Steve, god, I want it so bad. I want to be able to be a dad and chase around a kiddo of our own while you’re busy at work. I want to see one off for school for their first day and cry like I’ll never see them again. Wanna make them a lunch they can bring to school, the same time that I make your lunch for your school. I want to watch them grow up with your goofy dancing skills and our combined love for music. And I—I want to be a better parent that I could’ve ever imagined.

“I want it with you,” Eddie breathes. “I want all of that with you. And I know that you still want it. Your forlorn looks at couples with babies. Every time you see Lucas and Max and their spitfire teenager, your eyes get this brightness to them that I—I have to be honest, I don’t think I’ve seen you happy like that since we got married.” He swallows at some of the implications there. And it’s not meant to be accusatory, but gosh does Eddie notice. The way his sunflower wilts. “This is just something for you to think about, okay? I know my decision on it. But think about it.”

Steve’s grip on the paper trembles. And his eyes are searing Eddie in a way that melts him. Blazing with adoration and love. “You want that?” He shakily asks. “You want to raise a kid with me?”

Eddie nods. “Yeah, baby. I really, really, really do.”

“Even though…Even though I have seizures that could scare them shitless? And I get so angry some days that all I can do is hide in our bedroom and cry? And I—You want that with somebody like me?” He hesitates to ask again. Eddie doesn’t answer, but his arms open in comfort and his eyes soften with earnest. Steve doesn’t move from his spot, though. He looks back at the paper. “What’s the—Our first step?”

“We apply. And they determine if we’re worthy and that it’ll be safe,” Eddie answers. “If they see us fit, they’ll look at our house and things like that. We’ll come back to that later on. If that’s something you still want.”

“Okay,” Steve states with fervor. “Let’s do this.”

——— After a tedious process, Eddie realizes how correct he was.

It’s a Saturday. The curtains are open. Dinner is simmering on the stovetop. And Eddie stirs the soup while he listens in on Steve’s activity in the living room.

“There you go, sweetheart,” Steve is cooing. “Good job, Carmen. Look at you.” He’s been supervising her tummy time everyday he’s able to. Loves being able to lay on his back on the floor, eyes watching their daughter, his fingers combing through her hair as she uses her wide brown eyes to wonder about the world around her.

Eddie bites back a smile.

“That’s Poncho,” Steve is saying. He’s introducing them like they’re all acquaintances around a water cooler. Eddie, maybe, snickers a little bit behind his hand. “He’s gonna be your buddy. He likes the space between his shoulder blades scratched. Just like you, huh?” And hears the moment that Steve dully traces his fingernails on Carmen’s back. She gurgles a little excited babbling. “That feels good, doesn’t it?” Steve murmurs. “Daddy likes that, too.” He’s talking about himself. Because he practically fought tooth and nail for that title. Eddie wouldn’t have it any other way.

From the kitchen archway, Eddie surveys the display on the living room floor. And Steve’s on his back in his pajamas. Glasses smooshed awkwardly up his face as his cheek is pressed against the carpet, eyes gone soft and glistening while Carmen is on her belly. Her hands are sprawled in front of her, squeezing at the soft toys they had gotten. He’s brushing his fingers through her short, curly wisps of brown hair. Then, his hand travels back down to massage and scratch at her back again. She’s wearing a pink striped onesie and a pair of white socks on her little feet.

He clears his throat to make himself known. Steve looks up at him, softly smiling. “I reckon things are going good in here?” Steve only nods, too enamored with petting at Carmen’s back. Eddie finally smiles at him. “Good,” he whispers. He leans his weight on the doorway. A dish rag thrown over his shoulder, arms crossed low over his belly, hair thrown up in a loose bun on his head. Domestic life has really begun to suit him, if he’s honest. He finds himself at ease about it now.

As he turns back to the kitchen, to serve up their bowls of soup, Steve calls his name. He immediately turns back around. Greeted with his husband’s soft face, his deepened smile lines, his messy hair spread on the carpet. He’s more youthful than ever, fatherhood has changed him for the better, at least Eddie thinks so. He hums to see what Steve needs, because by god, he’ll do anything for him.

“Thank you,” Steve whispers.

“For what?”

“Making my hurt go away,” Steve says. But Eddie’s eyebrows furrow in confusion. And Steve clarifies, “Allowing me to accomplish my final dream. I’m really happy that it’s with you.”

Eddie crosses into the living room, crouching down to kiss Steve’s forehead, pecking Carmen’s soft head, too. He combs his own fingers through Steve’s hair. Smiling at the way he keens. “You made me believe that I could be a good dad,” he admits. “I can’t wait to do this right.”

Steve brings a hand to Eddie’s cheek. His index finger softly tracing down the side of his face. “Love you,” he murmurs.

Turning his face, Eddie kisses the tip of Steve’s finger. “Love you, too,” Eddie easily says in return.

Sure, he got to be a rockstar, but he thinks that this life—Steve soft and middle aged and smiling at him, petting down their daughter’s back, cooing soft as if he’s not almost fifty—is much better than anything he could’ve ever dreamed. Maybe filling the hole in Steve’s soul, the remedy that their daughter brings—Maybe that heals something for Eddie, too.

💕—————💕

#stranger things #steddie #fanfiction #steve harrington #eddie munson #steddielovemonth #day 16 #domestic fluff #domestic steddie #fluff

[steddieas-shegoes]

Headcanon: steve has seizures that it the the headcanon

The first time it happens in front of Eddie, he’s terrified.

He should have known it would happen.

Steve had a migraine most of the day, and he’d been zoning out a lot for the last hour.

It’s still shocking to see him seem relatively fine one moment and convulsing on the couch the next.

He remembers what Steve taught him, and quickly makes sure he’s flat and that his airways are clear. He starts counting the moment it starts, knows it’s important to keep track of how long they last.

It’s a short one, technically, but it feels like a lifetime.

Seeing Steve like that, helpless, completely out of control of his own body, broke his heart.

It took Steve a little while to completely come back from it, even the shorter ones left him exhausted and fuzzy.

But eventually he did, and Eddie felt relief flood through him when he focused his eyes on Eddie’s.

“Hey, sweetheart.”

“Hey.”

“Need anything?”

“Can you hold my hand?”

“‘Course, love.”

He held his hand for nearly 20 minutes before Steve spoke again, voice less shaky.

“Sorry for that.”

“Don’t apologize, Jesus Christ. It’s not like you choose to do that. I’m sorry it happens.”

“Yeah, I just know it’s scary.”

“Scarier for you, I’m sure.”

Steve was silent, which Eddie knew meant he was right.

“You’re so brave,” Eddie whispered, running his hand through Steve’s hair as he rested his head in his lap. “I love you so much.”

“Love you.”

#steddie #steve harrington #eddie munson #headcanon

[luveline]

Hi id love to send u a request but I just can't match your genius mind, id looooveee more zombie!au Steve!!! 🥺🥺🥺🫶🏻🫶🏻 maybe smth about r or Steve almost being bitten by a geek?

hi!! thank you angel!! zombie au steve x fem!reader, 3k

"Sneaking around with your boyfriend would've been considered sort of scandalous a few years ago," you think aloud, eyes skipping over medication labels slowly. "Now it's the norm."

"We are the opposite of scandalous," Steve says. 

You push pill bottles aside to meet his eyes through the gap in the shelves. He narrows his gaze. "You know how you saw me naked, like, a week after we met?" 

Steve's glare turns playfully salacious. "Yeah?" 

"Did that make it less, uh, important? Not important. Was it less intimate for you when I was naked on purpose?" 

Steve returns his eyes to the pill bottles. "No." 

"Is that weird for me to ask you?" 

"No, that's not weird, why would that be weird?" He looks up again. His expression softens. "Don't worry, it's not weird. It's a normal question. You're wondering if I was… desensitised." 

"Yeah, exactly. Were you desensitised?" 

Trust Steve to say something snippy and then feel bad enough afterwards to immediately backtrack. There's no need for him to feel guilty because you'd known he was joking, and if he weren't it wouldn't matter to you —you know being outside of camp makes him nervous, and tightly strung. You aren't expecting him to be all smiles, especially when you're asking peculiar questions. 

"If anything," he says, his voice a murmur that evidences shy affection, "it was way more special. I knew you back to front already, but the first time you showed me you, on purpose, it was different." 

You grin at him. "Like a look don't touch scenario where you finally get to touch?" 

"I'm trying to be sweet on you." 

"What was it like?" you ask. Your smile is audible. 

"Like fucking relief." He reaches through the shelves to squeeze your hand. "You're being slow." 

You take your hand back and return to the task. You're looking for anti-seizure medication for one of the children at camp. It's an important mission and neither of you had hesitated when Joyce asked you to go, but you can't say you enjoy being out here. Talking to Steve makes things better. Easier to cope. Talking to Steve about loving him and being loved by him could make you forget a pike through the chest. 

You move to the next shelf below. 

There aren't many drugs for epilepsy. You aren't sure the child even has epilepsy, but no one has the knowledge to identify anything else. Sarah (Robin's fast friend from camp) read in her field medic journal that a seizure can be caused by lots of things, and she also said that sometimes what looks like a seizure isn't a seizure at all. What is it, then? you'd asked. 

The page was missing. 

You're working through a mental list of four drugs methodically, scanning and rescanning the labels on the bottles in the back of a pharmacy. This is the raw stuff, the kind that sometimes needs to be ground and poured into capsules with filler, so if you do find the right meds you'll also need to find a pestle and some other equipment. It's a hassle, but it's worth it completely if it helps. 

"Clonazepam," you read. You lift your head. "Steve, that's the right one, right? Clonazepam?" 

Steve's head snaps up. "Yeah, that's the last resort one. Where's that?" 

He rounds the shelves to be on the same side as you, seemingly hoping for similar medications to be in the same place. His hand drops casually to your shoulder as he bends, reading each label with a determined brow. 

"Valproate," he says, relieved, hand closing around another bottle. "Okay, two options. Thank god." 

"Do they have the side effects on the bottle?" you ask. 

Steve turns the bottle but there's no second label.

"The side effects are usually worse than the original problem," he says, frowning, "remember those migraine pills we found, the leaflet?" That's how bored you and Steve had become at one point in your isolation, you'd started reading medical pamphlets. "I'd rather have a headache than lose my sense of smell." 

"Depends on how bad the headache is. You keep looking for the, uh, the carba-Tegre one. I'll go scout the equipment." 

"Tegretol," he corrects lightly. "Carbamazepine, brand name Tegretol." 

You're impressed by his memory. He sees that, and he lifts his hand to you. Palm your way, you can see he's written the names of the medication as you'd been advised to find by one of the camp members, a retired carer who worked bedside for a lady who suffered from epilepsy. 

"Your spelling is terrible," you say. 

"Whatever," he says flippantly. You're barely ten paces away when he adds, "I love you." 

"I love you too," you say. There's no need to call. The building, this entire town, is silent. You'll hear a geek a mile away. 

You poke at dusty equipment sceptically. You don't need filler, you don't think, but it affects absorption, maybe? You're not a pharmacist nor a chemist, whoever's watching knows you didn't have time to become much of anything, you're just doing as the retired carer advised. There's a press contraption with what feels like hundreds of caplet sized holes toward the front. You put it in your bag and lament its weight as you search for a pestle. 

"I've found the filler," Steve says. "There's a huge container of it. Lactose. And another of starch."

"Starch, like potatoes? We could put her medicine in mash potato."

"I think we just need a pestle and a weighing scale now. And some hand sanitiser." 

"I'll have the scales and the sanitiser, what about Robin's deodorant?" you ask. 

"At the front. I'll get it. You'll have another one?" 

"Please tell me they have that Carribean Crush one again, it was lovely." 

"You're lovely. I'll find it." 

The weighing scale must get its name from how ridiculously heavy it is. That along with the pestle has your bag feeling like a boulder attached to your neck. Maybe Steve will be willing to share the load with you. Actually, there's no need for maybe. If you tell him, he'll carry it with you happily. 

You scan the room for useful things. Batteries, food, things you've trained your eye to pick out of a bomb site if necessary. You pocket a pen for Steve and leave the rest where it lays, stepping out into the slightly bigger medications room before rounding a plexiglass wall to the pharmacy counter. Steve crouches down the aisleway, rejected roll-on deodorant on the floor beside him. 

You're about ten feet away from him when the geek lunges for him. 

You can't even tell it's a geek at first, it moves quickly, quietly, smooth as a living human. They've become diverse as the infection thrives, and you should've been thinking about that fact. You should've been standing at the front of the room. 

You freeze. You freeze and you waste time. 

"Steve!" you shriek. 

Steve's flat on his side, kicking with the entire force of his body. The geek actually bounces back with the force of each kick, but he's persistent, and stronger than he should be, a mottled hand on Steve's shoulder and decaying teeth snapping with a sound like cracking marble near his face. Steve tries to scramble from under the geek and its face falls down by Steve's ribs and upper arm. He yanks his arm away, and there's an odd ripping sound. 

You run so fast down the aisle to protect him that you can't slow, the entire weight of your body and the heavy bag you carry throttling the geek with a horrid slap against the glass door. It flies open and you topple out onto asphalt, sliding across the geek's body and taking the brunt of your rolling in your hands and the top of your face. Steve shouts a war cry and barrels after you. You go on knees, hands trembling and rushing as you grab for the knife in your belt. Steve lands on top of the geek and drives the blade of his pen knife straight into the crease between its brows, grunting as he goes, his breath coming too fast. 

You've clipped your head on the floor, the warmth of blood trickling down your brow. It doesn't concern you. 

What concerns you is the sizable tear in Steve's coat. 

He almost cuts you with his knife as you run at him, yanking the sleeves of his coat and jacket down. 

"What– what are you doing?" he asks. You tug at his sleeve like you've been possessed, panic a coil that won't loosen in your throat. "What–?" 

If he's been bitten, you'll have to saw his arm off. It's the most horrible thing you can think of, hurting someone you love, hurting the one person you love most. Your breath is half sob as you finally get his outerwear off of his arm. You don't know how to do that to somebody and especially Steve, how could you ever sever a limb? But if it will stop the infection, if it would save him—

You push the long sleeve of his t-shirt up his arm and stare down at his arm. Bruised near the wrist, pale, threaded with dark-green veins, his skin is unbroken. He hasn't been bitten. 

You pull his arm to your chest and almost break down there in the street. Steve stands with his coat hanging off of his one shoulder and doesn't respond to your actions for a long, heavy second. 

"You thought it bit me," he says. 

Your breath catches. 

"It didn't bite you." 

"No," he says, "it didn't bite me." 

"Your coat." 

Steve pulls you back inside of the store. He looks around the room twice, and then leads you to an empty corner to hug you. 

You're frenetic and frantic at once, hands sliding up and down his arm, eyes tracing his light skin like an injury might materialise. 

"It didn't bite me," Steve says, "but you're bleeding." 

You hiss as his fingertip locates your cut forehead. It must be a very small cut considering how little it bled. You've had head injuries that wept for hours, leaving you dizzy and disorientated from the subsequent lack of blood. This one's a wimp. 

You've also seriously hurt your shoulder from the backpack's weight and your small skirmish. You're not going to tell him that, not now, not when you've been dropped face first into the horror of potentially losing him forever. 

Steve eases out of his jacket. He takes your hand from his arm and pushes both sleeves up, bearing both arms in front of you. 

"It didn't get me, honey. Try to calm down." 

He says it softly, with no judgement or condescension. Only concern. 

"I'm fine," you say. 

It's strangled, you'll admit. Steve turns his arms to show you both sides before he tilts your head up and toward the meagre filtering sunlight, analysing your head injury in detail. 

"Did you hurt yourself? When you fell, did it feel like you hit it hard, or was it something sharp?" You don't answer, and he gets snippy. "Y/N, tell me. Did it hurt?" 

"Steve, you're the one who almost got bit." 

"And you're the one who almost died of a fucking concussion not that long ago, in case you forgot. Sit down. I'm not kidding, sit down." 

You blink, mildly startled by his hissing, and sit on the ground. He's being snappy because he's panicking, that's all it is. You hold back an unhelpful comment that your concussion had been months and months ago, so it kind of was long ago. 

He lets his coat and jacket fall to the floor and jogs back up the aisle to the bandages and gauze. He takes a detour for antiseptic, and then he sets himself down in front of you. 

"Did you hit it hard?" he asks. 

You shake your head. 

He doused a piece of gauze in antiseptic. "Sting," he warns, washing the length of your forehead with his makeshift wipe. He quickly swaps the bloodied one for a clean one. "Hold this." 

You hold it. He gets back up, scouring the shelves by the bandages until he plucks out a small box. He crushes it with his hand and the medical tape inside falls into his waiting palm. He sits again, tears two strips, and lines the edges of your gauze with them. It would all be much easier if they had big band-aids. 

"Show me your pupils, baby," he says. 

Steve, for his street smarts and survival skills, used to freak out about injuries. But Steve freaking out freaks you out and he guessed that soon enough, so every cut and bruise these days is met with a silent approach. It's the opposite of your reaction. Embarrassment starts to creep in. 

You widen your eyes and let Steve check your pupils. 

"Same size," he says. 

"It's just a cut." 

Steve shuffles across the floor so his thigh is pressed to yours, rather than having his back to the store. He breathes out slowly, breathes in quick, and then forces the bottom of his palm into his thigh cruelly. 

"How the fuck did that happen?" he asks. If he weren't being hyper vigilant, he'd be scrubbing his eyes in a tell tale nervous tic. "We haven't had something like that in months. We swept this whole place when we came in, where the fuck was he hiding? I feel sick." 

"You do?" you ask, terrified. 

"It didn't bite me," he assures you again. Thankfully without any annoyance. 

"It ripped a chunk out of your coat with its teeth. Forgive me for thinking your skin was less hardy than pressed plastic." 

Your acidity shocks you both. 

Things are awkward for a split second, 'cos it's difficult to feel awkward around someone who you've spent every second of the day with since you met. You feel for a moment that you could just take him by the shoulders and shake him. You love him, you could never hurt him, but he has to see sense: he doesn't understand how much you need him. Not to keep you alive, but to give you a reason to do it yourself. If he got bit, you'd die. Plain and simple. Internally first, but surely the heartbreak would murder you in the end. 

"I didn't know you were so disagreeable," Steve says. 

"I didn't know you knew a word that long."

Steve laughs, startled. You want to be mad, but you're so thankful that he's not dying and so suddenly wiped you can only laugh with him.

"I forgot how quick you are when we fight," Steve says. 

"We don't fight anymore." 

"That could be amended. Especially if you're going to get fresh with me."

"You started it." 

"I always start it." Steve flicks your shoulder."Let me see your head," he says. You turn your neck so he can see the outermost side of your head. "You swelled up like a helium balloon when you fell through that floor. It was right at the back of your head and I could tell something was wrong… This is fine. It bulged out last time." 

"It what?" you demand, pulling another rare laugh from him.

He winds down, clasping your knee. You cover his hand, and only then do you realise it's shaking.

"Steve, you almost died." 

"But I didn't die, I'm fine, and you need to stop freaking out because high blood pressure is definitely bad for a concussion. You could die yourself if you don't relax, seriously." Steve clears his throat. "Sorry, for getting heated. And thanks for knocking that guy clean off of me, what was that? You holding out on me when we wrestle? That was clean." 

"That was like, a mom's adrenaline thing. No, not 'cos I'm your mom, idiot. Loved one's adrenaline. I thought you were gonna die and suddenly I could've run for fucking gold in the Tokyo Olympics." 

"How did I get some of that? Whenever you're hurt I just feel like crying." 

"I think the crying bit comes after. Maybe if you tried getting to me quicker you'd have enough adrenaline to save me." 

He smiles before he talks, so you know it's going to be bad, "If a geek eats me during an adrenaline rush, am I a human Red Bull?"

"Okay, you have to keep an eye on the store because I need to be hugging you," you say, giving him little time to disagree as you climb on top of his lap. 

It's not comfortable nor sexy, but for once you don't care how heavy you are. You wrap your hands around the back of his neck and cradle his head, his face hooked over your shoulder so that he can still see your surroundings. He slides his hands underneath your coat and hugs you in turn. Your heart's still racing, and his hands are still shaking, but you lived. He lived. You've defeated danger for the hundredth time. 

"This really doesn't get any easier, does it?" you ask, petting his hair.  

He pats your back. "No, I don't think so. S'why I need you with me." 

"That's why I need you." 

Steve dots a quick kiss against the column of your throat. When he puts his chin back atop your shoulder, it's with a heaving sigh. 

"I can't believe you almost got bit," you say. 

"Yeah, well. Nobody has any manners anymore." 

#steve zombie!au #steve harrington x reader #steve harrington x you #steve harrington x y/n #steve harrington #steve harrington fic #steve harrington blurb #steve harrington drabble #stranger things x reader #stranger things fic #steve harrington imagine #steve harrington fanfic #steve harrington fanfiction #stranger things #stranger things 4

[angelynmoon]

It starts as a lark, an attempt to get Eddie Munson's attention.

Everybody knows he has a boyfriend, everybody knows that boyfriend wears bright colors and is soft. Everybody knows he doesn't belong at a Metal concert. Most of the time he even wears headphones, which is just rude, if Eddie was theirs they'd show him just how much they appriciated him and his music.

But Eddie never looks at anyone but his pastel clad lover. They don't know his name, never cared to learn it, he's not important, just in the way. They only ever call him Pastel, aftetr the clothes he wears.

So they figure Eddie has a type, even though he's never been seen with anyone romantically but Pastel, he likes preppy jocks and well, they can work with that as long as they can show Eddie he's appriciated. That he deserves more than a man who doesn't listen to his music, even at a concert he's playing.

They ask Pastel about his clothes, he frowns at them and they think he knows what they are going to do, that they are going to steal Eddie from him, but then he's talking, giving them advice and suggestions.

And they realize that Pastel is too stupid to realize what their plan is. If they felt anything about what they were going to do to him, they might feel pity for this stupid boy for not realizing what their plan was, but they know they deserve Eddie more than this boy ever could.

But it's just as well that Pastel didn't catch on.

It's the next big concert when they try their luck. There are dozens of them dressed brightly in the sea of black, most of them get strange looks, some of the older Metalheads outright glare at them and they don't understand why they get scowled at and move away like they are the worst kind of people.

And then Eddie starts to play and they don't care because Eddie is scanning the crowd, landing on one of them, they are so excited that they almost miss the frown, they do miss the stutter in his strumming, but then Eddie is scanning the crowd, pausing and moving on like they are nothing to him.

But they frown, surely their excitement is worth more than Pastel and his headphones.

They know exactly when Eddie finds Pastel because his grin widens and he no longer plays for the crowd, no Eddie plays for Pastel, even though he can't hear the lyrics with his headphones.

And they wonder just what it is that Eddie sees in the preppy jock and his bright colors.

They intend to ask him after the show but find their way blocked by the older Metalheads, the ones that were fans of Eddie Munson all the way back when he was still new, when he was playing in bars and opening for more popular bands. The ones who ignored rumors of murder and cults and supported Eddie in a way the younger generation wouldn't understand.

They wouldn't let them near Pastel and they gently steered Pastel and the child he carried away from them, one of them even brought them drinks that he took too trustingly, another pulled a bell from one of his chains for the child to rattle while Pastel smiled and listened to their stories.

And then they parted like a wave for Eddie to throw himself at Pastel, someone plucking the child from Pastel to lift them high and out of the way of the crash that followed Eddie tackling Pastel.

And they didn't understand the glares they got at following concerts, at the way they were kept from both Pastel and Eddie.

Didn't they understand that Eddie deserved better, someone who appriciated him fully?

And the children wouldn't understand that Eddie had that someone, the someone who had suffered throug migraine after migraine, and a handfull of seizures to hear Eddie play.

Who had planned his wedding around Eddie's first tour and still ended up saying 'I do' on a stage in the middle of a concert because Eddie had messed up the dates and Steve had dragged the official to the concert so he could still get married to his idiot.

The children could never understand what it was like to love someone so deeply that they didn't think to look at another.

--

A/n: something about these tough metalheads adopting Steve as their pastel jock princess is so funny to me, they really don't like these kids trying to hurt their princess.

And in a carrier/abo verse Steve also went into labor during a concert and had the baby in the back room before Eddie had to go back for an encore, he made up a song on the spot for the occasion that was only played in concert once and never released on tape.

#rockstar Eddie munson #pastel #part 2 #steddie

[xxbottlecapx]

Another Steve Has seizures idea,

Steve has a seizure around the party, but the symptoms lead everyone to assume he's getting vecnaed

Vecna is back. 

Eddie didn’t want to believe it. He really didn’t. It’s been six months since they saved the world and everyone (including Eleven,) had promised them that Vecna was dead. The upside down was permanently closed, there were no secret government experimenters trying to reopen it, and there were certainly no evil wizards using telekinesis to kill wayward teens. 

Evidently, Eddie thought, they were wrong. 

Everyone was chilling at Family Video, which rarely got any customers these days, since the earthquake, but still somehow managed to stay open. Robin had been named manager (after Keith packed up and left with his mom) and she let the party go wild in the isles as long as they put everything back. 

Steve had started cosmetology school a month prior and spent his entire shift attempting (and failing) to memorize all the different names of hair textures. He had his sparkly pink Lisa Frank notebook near the cash register, aggressively running his hands through his wilted hair. Steve already had trouble with reading, adding letters and numbers together seemed to be the worst possible thing for him. He had called Robin crying multiple nights just this week about how stressful it had been for him. Eddie only knew this because he got Steve high yesterday and a high Steve is an oversharing Steve. It’s the only reason Eddie knew anything about the aforementioned ex-king of Hawkins high. 

A high Steve was also a really cuddly Steve, which would have been a good thing (because Eddie had been drowning himself in his gay pining since Steve carried him out of the upside down) except Jonathan had been there, and for some reason, high Steve loved cuddling with Jonathan more than anyone else, so Eddie had to seeth in the corner until Jonathan had to leave. 

Eddie was still very jealous about it, much to Robin’s amusement. 

“You feeling better now?” Robin whispered. Eddie was hiding behind one of the racks, watching Erica try to climb up Steve’s legs and onto his shoulders (he pretended not to notice her, continuing to furiously write in his notebook, which she had gifted him for his birthday.)

“Fucking Jonathan.” Eddie spat. 

Jonathan, acting like the innocent asshole he was, didn’t notice Eddie’s glaring. He was sitting in the corner on a beanbag Argyle had made. (Yeah, made, because Argyle knew how to do everything. Half of Eddie’s new furniture was hand-crafted by Argyle.) and Eddie was doing his best to send laser beams in Jonathan’s direction. 

“Yeah, I thought so.” Robin nodded, shelving some tapes to his left as if Eddie wasn’t planning a murder in his head. 

“Steve really likes romcoms,” Robin says after a moment, making Eddie turn his head to her in confusion. She continued shelving. “and I gave him tomorrow off, so…” she pursed her lips. 

It takes Eddie a second to understand what she’s hinting at him. 

“Fuck,” he cursed quickly, arms raised. “I don’t even know what a rom-com is, you couldn’t have given me a warning?” He hissed, waving his hand at her. 

He pushed her to the side and ran down the hall to search the shelves for whatever a romcom might look like. His brain went a mile a minute. Robin had given Eddie the perfect opportunity to seduce Steve, and he couldn’t waste it. 

Eddie went down his mental checklist as he skimmed the tapes. He knew what Steve’s favorite snacks were because he asked all the teens and wrote down every single thing Steve has been eating of his own free will since they started hanging out. He had a chart from perceived most enjoyed to perceived least enjoyed. So he knew he could run to the store and pick some up. Eddie also had to wash all the blankets in his government-assigned house so he and Steve could settle on the floor since Steve preferred watching tv on the floor surrounded by soft things (which Eddie learned from Robin) and Steve also liked painting his nails, (Eddie learned from Nancy) and Eddie could totally go buy nail polish that wasn’t black before tomorrow. Maybe he would be able to hold Steve’s hand. Eddie almost spontaneously combusts at the idea of it. 

They could hang out alone, and Eddie wouldn’t invite Jonathan so maybe Steve would cuddle with Eddie instead of fucking Jonathan. 

“I need- I need to prepare-“ Eddie hissed under his breath, frantically throwing the horror tapes off the shelf as he saw them since he knew they weren’t romcoms, which meant they had no use to him whatsoever. Eddie sent Robin a scathing look. 

“This was your warning.” Robin rolled her eyes, stooping down to pick up the tapes Eddie kept tossing to the floor. “You better not damage these, dingus.”  

“Shit! Shit, shit.” Eddie cursed. 

He almost steps on Dustin, who was laying like a starfish on the dirty carpeted floor, reciting the entire Monsters & Treasure booklet (from the dungeons and dragons box set published in 1974) to Max, who had stopped paying attention and had music blaring on her headphones so loud you could easily hear it from a mile away. She’s gotten into Screamo recently. Eddie knew this because Max’s trailer also went down in the earthquake so their government-assigned houses were right next to each other, and Lucas had bought Max a very high-quality loudspeaker as a moving-in present. Despite Steve acting like Max’s guardian, she still was an emancipated minor and got to live in that house all alone. The noise probably helped with the loneliness. 

++++++

The entire group was spending the day at the abandoned Family Video, making for a cramped and hectic environment. Lucas and Will were yelling at each other as Mike timed them with his stopwatch. They were, Eddie thought, having a contest to see who could keep five tapes stacked on their head the longest. Eleven and Max already lost five minutes ago. Eddie is pretty sure Eleven made Mike lose, but he would never admit to it. 

He gave her a high-five anyways. 

And of course, (evil) Jonathan and Argyle were smoking on the beanbags. Eddie should ask Argyle if he had a particular champurrado recipe. Steve loved anything Argyle made. 

It was driving Eddie insane, actually. He would change his entire personality for Steve to talk to him for even a minute, which Eddie has been advised by both Dustin and Robin not to do, Including begging Argyle to teach him how to make Steve’s favorite beverage. Steve talked to Eddie plenty, Robin always said. Dustin, who was the first to know about Eddie’s crush, kept giving him talks about being himself. 

To Eddie’s right as he hurriedly perused their meager movie selection, Nancy started a very passionate conversation with Eleven about the current downfall of the education system. She started working for a local newspaper after she graduated (every senior from this year graduated without having to actually finish the year since the earthquake had destroyed half the school and killed four teachers.) and Nancy’s current article was about how terrible the education system was becoming. Eleven, who knows very little about what the education system even is, very readily riled Nancy up. 

When Eddie looked back at this moment, Steve’s reaction would make a lot of sense. 

Armed with a load of movies, Eddie approached Robin once more. He had chosen Sixteen Candles, Footloose, Splash, Grease,  Moonstruck, Risky Business, Dirty Dancing, and Pretty in Pink. Some of them looked vaguely familiar.

 “I don’t even know if these are rom-coms, but he can choose the ones he likes the most,” Eddie said, dropping the tapes at Robin’s feet. She tutted at him in disapproval. 

“Are these not romcoms?” Eddie asked after a second, stress in his eyes. 

She crossed her arms, looking up at him. “He’s my best friend.” She stated calmly, “I gotta make you put in the effort. I can't help you.” 

 “What? What?” Eddie yelled, “That’s not how that works-“ 

“Steve?” Erica yelled over the cacophony of noise. “Steve, this isn’t funny.” 

Of course, everyone turns to their resident babysitter. 

Steve stood behind the counter with his notebook where he had been all day, only now he had his hands clenched at his side and his eyes were rolling back in his skull. Erica stood by his side pulling at his knitted sweater. 

The shock of it means that it takes a second for everyone to process what’s happening. To look at him and remember what it means. In Eddie’s head, Chrissy flashes through his mind. 

In less than a second, there is uproar and panic. 

“Steve!” 

Dustin is up, climbing over the counter and hitting Steve’s shoulders before anyone else makes it to him. 

“He’s not waking up!” Dustin shrieks, shaking him harder. 

“I thought Vecna was dead? You said he was dead!” Lucas had his hands on his head, the tapes dropping. He rushed to them and stood a few feet back from where everyone had crowded around Steve in a convoluted circle, all crawling over fallen objects to grab him. 

 “He is dead!” Will yelled back, “I can't feel him.” Will put a hand to his neck. Jonathan clutched at Argyle like the world was about to end, and at the moment, it definitely felt like it was. 

“Then how is Steve getting Vecnaed right now?” Nancy snatched Max’s headphones, the most level-headed of them all, a plan already forming in her head.

 “What’s his favorite song? Max, where's your list?” 

Robin and Eddie ran behind the counter to Steve’s back, Robin grabbing Steve’s shirt and Eddie holding his shoulders in the hopes of keeping him from floating. Eddie wasn’t a religious man, but he did start praying to whatever being out there that might be strong enough to stop it. 

They had finished it. 

The upside down wasn’t supposed to come back. They had done everything that needed to be done. They were supposed to be safe. Safe. And now Eddie was going to lose Steve. Vecna was back, and Eddie was going to lose Steve. 

In the back of the store was a box of tapes with everyone’s favorite songs in them. Max has a list written on her arm in sharpie, constantly updated and improved. It seemed silly to them at first, since the upside down could not hurt them, but they all dutifully helped her keep the list going just in case. Just in case. 

Eddie, with shaking hands, lifts Max’s blue sleeve to find Steve’s name in purple marker. He shouts the name and watches helplessly as Nancy dashes into the back room to grab the tape, somehow running with heels in like they were sneakers. Nancy rushes back within seconds and jams the tape into Max’s Walkman. 

Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight) plays on the loudest volume as Eddie grapples with the headphones and puts them on Steve’s head, mumbling prayers the entire time. 

“You can’t die or I’ll kill you,” Robin cries, holding onto Steve’s arms.

 In moments, the entire group is in tears as they wait for Steve to fight his way out, shouting encouragement. The sinking feeling in Eddie’s gut spread to the rest of his body. If Steve survived, that wasn’t the end of it. They would all be forced once more into fighting whatever nightmare the upside down concocted. What if they didn’t survive this time? Eddie, Steve, and Max almost didn’t make it last time. Max lost her mom and Lucas and Erica lost their dad in the earthquake. Who else would they lose? What if Eddie lost Wayne? What if the entire party died in the process? 

Gimme, gimme, gimme a man after midnight.

Goes the crackling headphones. Eddie could feel the warmth of Steve’s skin from where he held him. What if this was the last time he saw Steve alive? Their last conversation was Eddie making fun of his notebook (because Eddie flirts like a prepubescent teenager, he hates himself for it.) 

Won't somebody help me chase the shadows away?

Finally, Steve opens his eyes. 

The panic gives way to joyous shouting. Robin and Eddie grab at Steve’s arms, leaning on him in relief. Erica wouldn’t admit it later on, but she starts crying.  

“Steve!” Dustin yelled, holding Steve’s collar. He was still standing on the counter. “Why didn’t you tell us? You could have died!” 

Steve squinted at Dustin, eyes furrowing. He didn’t come out of it the way Max had- alert and scared out of her mind, but lucid. Steve’s eyes were blurred over and he moved slowly like he didn’t know where he was. Eddie could see Max crossing her arms, questioning something. 

Steve opens his mouth, but anything he would have said gets hidden under the onslaught of questions the party starts asking. When did you start getting visions? Is Vecna back? Is the upside down still here? What did you see? Why didn’t you tell us? You could have died, Steve. 

Eddie feels Steve’s body stiffen, his breath quickening. 

 With incredible strength, Steve pushes both Robin and Eddie away, stepping back. His eyes frantically switched from face to face, his shoulders rising and falling. 

This definitely looked nothing like when Max got possessed. 

Steve’s quivering hands grab at his own sweater like it was suffocating him, and before anyone can say anything else, his eyes are rolling back in his head again. 

++++++

The frenzy takes about ten minutes to die down. It’s full of so much confused screaming and crying that Eddie thinks he blocked most of it out. In that time, Steve ends up falling on the floor and Max is the one smart enough to tilt him to the side so he won’t choke. When Steve wakes up the second time, he’s so confused that nothing he says makes any sense phonetically. Steve, unable to handle all the yelling around him, backs himself into a corner and hides his face in his knees until Eddie realizes the noise is making it worse. He throws a computer against the wall to get everyone to shut up (since yelling over them didn’t work.)

“Everyone calm down.” Eddie placed himself in front of Steve, forcing everyone to back up. The aggressive computer breaking had very quickly quieted the room. 

“He’s awake. He’s scared. Get him some water, Byers. Wait no- not Byers. Robin.” Eddie didn’t want Jonathan to win any Steve points, “Water.” 

“On it.” She says, wiping her nose with her sleeve. They were all shaken up and teary-eyed in fear. Eddie wouldn’t be surprised if at least three of them had an aneurysm. 

“Red, keep the Walkman close. Let’s wait for him.” Eddie said, ignoring the shaking of his hands. 

They wait with bated breath. After about five minutes, Steve lifts his head, squinting red filmed eyes at them. 

Dustin is, of course, the first one to start talking again. 

“Is Vecna back? What did you see?” Before Eddie can reprimand him with a swift kick to the shins, Steve rubs his hands over his face and sighs. 

“It wasn’t Vecna.” He whispers slowly.”I was… I was having a seizure. That’s it.” 

Visible confusion falls on the crowding group. 

“You were getting possessed!” Dustin corrected, finally jumping off the countertop. “Your eyes were rolling back and you were standing like Max did-“ Dustin waved an arm. 

“Yeah, a seizure.” Steve placed his forehead back on his knees like he usually did when he had a migraine. Eddie walks to the light switches and turns off a few of them. Not dark enough to panic anyone, but so it isn’t going to irritate Steve’s head more with unnecessary brightness. There was plenty of light coming from the floor-to-ceiling windows. 

Eddie blinks, sitting criss-cross on the floor in front of Steve’s wilted form. 

“You've done this before?” Eddie asks as gently as he can. 

“That wasn’t a seizure!” Dustin yells. Eddie doesn't see it, but he hears Dustin’s small oomf as a projectile hits him. 

“It was,” Steve sighs, not looking up at them. Robin comes in with her water, sitting next to Steve’s side but not touching him, the water in her lap. 

“It’s called a complex partial seizure.” He explains, voice still slow and slurred a little. “It’s really subtle, most of the time. I’ve been having them for years. You said my eyes rolled back, that’s another thing that happens, but it also could be just me staring into space, or picking at my clothes, or smacking my lips a lot.” 

“I just thought you stimmed.” Robin inched closer to him. He doesn’t look up at anyone, but he wraps his arm around her shoulders. She hands him the water. His fist doesn’t properly latch on to it so Robin helps him take a sip. 

“No, it’s a seizure. Sometimes I’ll get really confused or scared because I won’t remember where I am or what I’m doing right away,” Steve explained, taking another sip of the water. His voice started coming out faster, more aware of himself. “So you guys suddenly grabbing and shouting about me dying scared me, sometimes that can cause another one.” He looked down like he was embarrassed about it, for some reason. 

The entire group looked properly chastised despite the fact that Steve definitely wasn’t mad at them and was only looking to inform them so they wouldn’t have that kind of scare again. They all start murmuring apologies. Eddie could practically see everyone trying to wrack their memories for other instances where Steve did this sort of thing. He thought about it too and came up blank. 

“I would have told you if I thought they looked like I was getting possessed,” Steve said, which begged the question of why he didn’t tell them before. He’s been having them for years, he said. Surely, he trusted them, right? Why wouldn’t he have said anything? How did no one notice? The party was so close to each other, yet somehow even Eddie had missed this. Part of him felt a bit ashamed at that notion. Looking behind him, he wasn’t the only one. 

“I’m just really tired,” Steve said once he got everyone to stop apologizing to him. He looked a little annoyed about it. 

“Eddie can drive you home,” Robin demanded. She stood up and forced everyone to get out of their crowded circle around Steve. Dustin and Erica help Steve stand up, much to Steve’s displeasure, and Jonathan and Argyle start quietly picking up the broken computer. Woops. 

Handing Eddie his bag of tapes, Robin winked at him. 

Steve still seemed pretty out of it, so it was safe to assume he wouldn’t notice them if Eddie just locked them in his trunk. 

“You have tomorrow off, too. So you can take it easy.” She says to Steve, winking at Eddie. 

Okay, Eddie thinks. There was a slight change of plans, but the Seduce Steve Harrington campaign was officially still on. 

Eddie would drive himself, Erica, and Dustin to the library on Monday so they could do some research. For now, he would get Steve home safely, and ask if they could have a movie night. 

Resources 

https://eyewiki.aao.org/Ophthalmologic_Manifestations_of_Epilepsy

https://www.epilepsy.org.uk/info/seizures/focal-seizures

https://www.epilepsy.com/what-is-epilepsy/syndromes/epilepsy-eyelid-myoclonia-jeavons-syndrome

https://www.epilepsy.com/complications-risks/moods-behavior/stress-mood-and-seizures#:~:text=Emotional%20stress%20also%20can%20lead,seizures%20is%20worry%20or%20fear.

https://www.webmd.com/epilepsy/complex-partial-seizure

If my interpretation of a seizure is inaccurate, i apologize

💚💚💚

#steve harrington #steddie #steve x eddie #eddie munson #steveddie #eddie x steve #stranger things #eddie the freak munson #stranger things s4 #robin buckley #steve has brain damage #steve has seizures

[morganbritton132]

Dustin posts a series of videos on his Tiktok account of his time babysitting Steve and Eddie while they’re sick. He claims it’s evidence because no one would believe that two grown men act like this.

The first video he posts is literally just him asking why they are in the living room and not in bed anymore. Eddie says that he didn’t want to be alone and Steve grumbles something about this being his house, Dustin can’t tell him what to do. Dustin just sighs, “I’m glad we’re going to be mature about this.”

In the second video, Steve is throwing the pillows off the couch in search of his glasses. Eddie’s in a blanket burrito on the floor, throwing out suggestions. None of with are ‘hanging off your shirt’ with is where Steve’s glasses are.

He post one later in the day of Eddie bitching about how he can’t even walk up the stairs without needing to use his inhaler despite the fact that he doesn’t need to walk up the stairs at all. Steve is snoring so goddamn loud in the background of this one.

He post one where he and Eddie are trying to take Steve’s temperature while he’s asleep. They fail. He wakes up and he’s pissed off. He also has a fever.

Dustin post a video of the absolute death glare Steve gives Eddie the entire time Diane is reheating the soup she made for them in the kitchen.

In a different one, Eddie suggests they ‘screw the sickness away.’ Steve with his head in his hands says ‘that has literally never worked.’ Dustin tells them to knock it off or he’ll leave for real this time.

In a different video, Eddie walks into the room and sees Ozzy laying on Steve like he does when Steve’s had a seizure and tries to get up before he should. But that context isn’t known to the wider world so it looks like Eddie walks into the room and says ‘I took a shower,’ frowned, and then said ‘oh no.’

He post one of Eddie and Steve asleep with the caption ‘thank god’ and then another when he’s leaving for the day and they’re both upset that he doesn’t want to hang out with them. He ends it with, “It’s literally been a nightmare, guys.”

<- Last Post | Next Post ->

#Dustin’s a saint but he also drew the short straw so that’s why he’s here #Steve is so fucking grumpy when he’s sick and Eddie complains and gets bored and then complains that he’s bored #I am still working on something sad but workMs a bummer right now so we got some silly stuff so I don’t lose my mind #eddie munson #steve harrington #dustin henderson #eddie munson tiktok saga

[oftenwantedafton]

Personal Space - Steve Raglan/William Afton x Female Reader

Chapter 3

Rating -Explicit

Warnings - none for this chapter

Also available on AO3

taglist @123124133

Back inside the office, it’s as if none of it had ever happened. No insults hurled. No reprimands. No time spent outside, doing…whatever that was. You take charge of the next client. Steve’s pleasantly surprised by how well you handle the meeting. Maybe the harsh words have done you some good.

Maybe it wasn’t the words at all. Maybe it was the other…

There’s a bit of a routine to end the day. Coffee mug rinsed a final time. Blinds closed. Lights turned off. The schedule for the next day printed and left on top of his desk, the job hopefuls’ files pulled. You’re familiar with it now. Moving in sync. The last lamp is switched off, the room much darker now that the cozier lighting has been extinguished and the outdoor light is barred from entering. There’s a little illumination from a night light panel set low on the wall near the door. Enough to see by before closing and locking the office for the night.

“Do you have everything?” At least you aren’t lugging around that foolish oversized backpack anymore. The miniature version that serves as your handbag is much more tolerable. The top strap is hooked in your fingers. Raglan moves forward, thinking you’ll open the door.

You don’t. You remain standing in front of it. He’s only just realized you’re wearing a lavender blouse. Something you’d already had in your wardrobe, or a nod towards his favorite color?

“What are you…” The rest of the sentence is lost. You’ve dropped your bag. You’re leaning against the wooden surface behind you. Meeting his stare. So many shadows in the room now. Your face underlit from the wall’s fixture. There’s so little space between you and your mentor. “Move away from the door.”

“No.”

“Move…” It was happening again. His breathing going ragged. Yours matching his. Your palms resting flat against his chest. Lifting and falling in rapid succession. “Inappropriate…have you reassigned…” He cannot form complete sentences. The threat comes in soft pants.

“Is that what you want?”

He thinks on that. Isn’t that what he wants? To have you gone, to have his solitary routine returned?

“I want…I want…” His hand rests heavily on the side of your throat. Thumb pressing along your jaw. Your fingers clawing at him now. Nails scratching against poplin. What does he want? His mouth on yours. He places it there.

“Steve. Steve.”

It takes him a moment for the false name to register. The daydream dissipates. He’s still seated at his desk. The last client of the day across from him. You’re frantically trying to get his attention when discretion clearly isn’t working.

He clears his throat. Mumbles some excuse, leaning forward. Heat creeping underneath his collar. To indulge in the fantasy of it bad enough; to do it in the middle of a session with a client worse still. He’s always prided himself on his professionalism. Yet here he was, making an absolute fool of himself over some girl he barely knew. All because he’d touched you and…

His grip on his pen tightens. He was doing it again. Losing focus. You seem to realize he’s struggling and you take command of the conversation. A relatively smooth transition, all things considered. Placement found. Applicant dismissed. He releases his death grip on the writing instrument and flops back against the chair with a heavy sigh of relief.

The older man feels your eyes on him. “What?”

“What happened? You just like zoned out. Mid-sentence. I thought you were having a seizure or something.”

“I’m fine.”

“Are you sure?”

Is he? No, not at all. But he’s not about to divulge the reason why. So he tells another lie. What’s one more on the already massive heap piling up?

“Yes. Just tired. Didn’t sleep well last night. Anyway, we’re done for today.”

There’s an eerie sense of deja vu as the office is shuttered for the evening. Except you’re not blocking the door. You’re hanging back, waiting to follow him through it. He tells himself he’s not disappointed.

The ride on the elevator is silent.

You’re parked directly next to him today. Serendipity or perhaps a deliberate move on your part. He struggles opening his door, distracted, watching you settle behind the wheel. You begin pulling down the decorations, removing everything he’d mocked earlier. His fingers cease their fumbling. He walks around his car, lightly tapping the key against the glass of your passenger window. You glance over, then hit the button to unlock the door.

Crammed back inside next to you. Knees hitting the dashboard.

“What do you want?” You pull the last of the clips off the air vents.

“You don’t have to do that. I didn’t mean…”

“Yeah, you did.” The rearview mirror is now unadorned. The cup holders are filled with the former decor. “Let’s see, what’s next on the list of my flaws. Oh yes. What’s wrong with my clothes?”

His head drops back against the headrest. It’s too short and it hits him at an awkward angle. “Nothing. I only meant you should wear things that are better tailored to suit you. It doesn’t really matter.”

“And that was nothing at lunch today too, right?”

“I…apologize for the inappropriate behavior. It won’t happen again, I assure you.”

“That’s what you’re apologizing for? Out of everything that happened today?” You scoff in disbelief.

He tips his head in your direction. Glasses sliding down with the motion so he’s looking over the tops of the frames at you. “Fine. I was unnecessarily harsh about certain things I said earlier.”

“That’s a funny way of saying you’re sorry.”

“I’m not sorry. You do need to toughen up. I’ve been too lenient.”

“I don’t understand. You told me to socialize and get to know my coworkers—”

“—Because they can be assets.”

“Is that all people are to you? Just tools to be used?”

“No one does anything in this life without motivation for personal gain.”

You look away, fidgeting with the last clip you still haven’t placed in the cup holder. “I think that’s a really sad way to view things.”

“I’m simply being realistic. Anyway, that’s all I wanted to say. You don’t have to do all of this for my benefit.” He waves his hands. “Just don’t be so sensitive. People will take advantage and walk all over you.”

He reaches for the door handle.

“You’re the only person I have even resembling a friend. You told me to go back home to be with the ones I’ve left behind. There aren’t any. You’re it.”

“You should make another, then. I’m not what you’re looking for.” He shoves the door open and exits. So uncharacteristic of him, not to just reach out and take what he wants. But that was a trait he’d harbored when he’d had another identity, lived another life.

Now he is just the middle aged career counselor. Focused solely on work. Reclusive.

Alone.

***

You’re talking to someone outside Steve’s office.

A client who’s young, attractive, he’d recognized the man’s appreciative gaze on you. Speaking as if the older man wasn’t even present. Flirtatious smiles. Friendly off topic conversation that is now extending past the allotted visit, continuing in the hallway. Low murmurs and the occasional laughter. The career counselor grits his teeth. Shuts the applicant’s folder and thrusts it back inside the filing cabinet, slamming the drawer with more force than necessary. He gets up to make another cup of coffee, trying to casually view what is happening beyond the open door. You’re finally saying goodbye, striding back into the room. Today, of all days, you’re wearing the suit that compliments your curves, the hem of the pants and sleeves of the blazer just the correct length. A little narrow v of blank skin at the base of your throat he’s haunted by, trying to avoid looking at and failing miserably.

You seem to notice his stern gaze. “What?”

“When I said you should make friends, I didn’t mean the clients. It’s unprofessional,” he says disapprovingly.

“We’re not friends. We just met. We were only talking.”

“That was not ‘only talking’.”

“I have to socialize with someone, don’t I? Since you’re treating me like I have the plague.”

“I’m not. It’s called maintaining professional boundaries. Personal space, like we’ve discussed before.” He takes a sip from his mug. Watching you wilt a little. Quiet when you return to your seat.

He settles back into the leather swivel chair, placing his cup on the worn coaster. The phone rings. A new client coming in the next day. Reaching for the stack of Post Its to jot down the name. Jostling the coffee by mistake, reaching to grab it before it can spill, your own reflexes kicking in, moving at the same time. Fingers colliding. His friendly tone suddenly tight and cool. Controlled. Neither of you has moved. Still touching. Warm fingers, warm beverage heating the ceramic. He hangs up the phone, staring at your joined hands.

The social worker’s fingers slide off the mug, his hand settling on the desk. Yours curl around it. Small over large. Smooth over rough. He lets you turn his hand over, tracing over the creases of his palm, the callouses of his fingertips. Your digits weaving between his. Holding his hand properly. Interwoven. Linked. How long had it been since he’d held someone’s hand? Whose had it been? A child. His own; someone else’s. Led further into the restaurant, into the darkness.

“Steve.”

He blinks. Swallows. He shouldn’t be allowing this. How insufferable you are. Infuriating. You’re simply impossible to work with. He should have you reassigned to someone else. He should push you away.

He holds tighter.

***

You return from morning break the next day and place a small white envelope on the desk blotter.

“What’s that?”

“Wedding invitation. It’s this Saturday. Short notice, but it’s really nice they invited me.”

You withdraw the card inside and check the box announcing you’re attending.

Steve grunts. “Oh, yes. I received one of those awhile back.”

You look at him. “Are you attending?”

He scoffs. “Of course not. Why would I?”

“Because it will be fun. And they’re, you know, our coworkers.”

“Have you ever been to a wedding?” You shake your head. “They’re not fun. The catering is usually terrible. Sappy speeches. The time absolutely drags.”

“It says I can bring one guest.”

“That’s standard.”

“Come with me.”

A look of disbelief. “Why on earth would I accompany you when I declined the invitation myself already? I just finished telling you how much I dislike them.”

“Did you dislike yours?”

Raglan’s features darken. “Overstepping.”

You duck your head. “Okay, sorry. But let’s go together.”

“I’ll consider it.” He’s not sure who’s more surprised when the words leave his mouth. Why the hell would he do that? He has no intention of going. None. You smile for what seems like the first time since your recent confrontation. His weakness.

By the afternoon he’s agreed to accompany you. “Fine, I’ll go. But you’re in charge of the gift. I’ll pick you up. Be ready on time.”

He’s rewarded another smile. “Really? You’ll go with me?”

“I will attend.” As if there’s a distinction. Going but not necessarily as a couple, of course. Merely agreeing to also be present. Almost a coincidence, really. Nothing improper about it.

That’s the mantra that’s running through his mind.

***

It never occurs to Steve to consider what you’ll be wearing to the event.

So when you exit your appartment building in a sleeveless lace affair with a modest neckline and a hem that finally hits you properly he has to suck in his breath a little roughly. High heels. Hair styled. The most put together he’s ever seen you.

You tuck a gift bag behind your seat before you settle inside the car. He has to clear his throat before he can properly greet you. “Hi. You look nice.”

You grin, smoothing your hands over the lower half of the dress even though it doesn’t need it. “Thank you. Not immature, right? Not going to be embarrassed to be seen with me?”

You weren’t letting this go. Well, he can hardly blame you. “No.”

“No, not immature, or no, not embarrassed to be seen with me?”

“Neither. But we’re not…” He doesn’t finish the sentence. Not going as a couple. Just both attending. Surely you understood the distinction. Well. He decides to leave it alone for now, for the sake of the occasion.

***

Once again Raglan finds himself occupying the last row, one in from the aisle while you settle into the folding chair beside his. It’s an outdoor wedding, beginning late afternoon into early evening. The weather is perfect. The career counselor folds his arms, fixing his gaze on nothing in particular while waiting for the ceremony to start.

He can feel the anticipation wafting from you. Sees you fidgeting and can’t resist hissing a reprimand. It’s like holding the collar of a golden retriever puppy, all full of nervous energy. A lost cause.

He doesn’t know the couple getting married that well. They’d met at work, and that was about the extent of what he was aware of. Lets his mind wander while the music cues up and the bride walks down the aisle beside her father. Very pointedly avoiding thinking about his own personal experience with getting married. It was a lifetime ago now. When he’d been someone else.

As predicted, less than ideal catering. Small portions. Bland food. Slice of cake so thin you could practically see through it. His face hurts from plastering a smile on it so often. Murmuring the same noncommittal greetings to everyone he encounters. Issuing obligatory congratulations to the newlyweds. People are starting to break off into groups. Casual music after the couple has their first dance. His attention wavering more and more.

“Do you dance?”

“Not to this contemporary selection, no.” His arms are folded across his chest again. Closed body language indicating he wants to be left alone. By the other wedding guests, anyway. The rest of the table he’s seated at is mercifully devoid of anyone else at the moment. No small talk has to be made.

“But you can dance,” you persist.

“You should go over there. Have fun.” He nods to the space that’s been set up as a dance floor.

“Come walk with me instead.”

He glances over at you. “And go where?”

You shrug. “I don’t know. It’s a country club. Plenty of places to go. I need to stretch my legs. Come on, Steve. Please?”

He considers the well lit area they’re currently seated in. Weighs that against being alone with you, somewhere cloaked in shadows. Surrenders with a sigh. “Alright. For a few minutes.”

You’re struggling in the heels. He recognizes it immediately. Waits while you stop long enough to remove them. Carrying them hooked on index and middle finger. Nylon covered feet now tredding on cropped grass. There’s water near this tee, faintly visible. The sounds of the party fading behind. It really is pleasant out.

“Okay. Now dance with me.” You bend to place your shoes on the ground.

“What? That wasn’t part of the deal.”

“No one can see us over here.”

“There isn’t even any music.”

“I’ll hum for you.”

“Don’t be ridiculous.”

You move to stand in front of him. Reach for one hand. The other curling over his shoulder. His own unoccupied one sitting stiffly on your waist. He doesn’t want to do this. Why does he keep giving in to you?

He doesn’t recognize whatever melody you’re attempting to recreate. The entire thing is foolish. Turning you in a circle. An abrupt dip down that has you giggling like mad. And he’s actually smiling. Enjoying this. Being with you. Pressed this close against you.

You stumble a bit, wincing, your improvised tune abruptly ending. “Sorry, my feet are killing me. I feel like I’m getting a blister.”

“Sit down.” You struggle a bit in the dress. It’s a long way down for him. But you both manage. He taps his thighs. “Let me see your feet.” You shift, stockinged feet now in his lap. Hands gently probing, assessing. “No blisters yet but you should probably keep the shoes off as much as possible. You’re not used to wearing heels, are you?” He hasn’t paid much attention up until now but he thinks you always wear flats to the office.

“No. And they’re brand new. I just got them because they matched the dress. I thought they were pretty.” He hums, maybe in agreement, maybe in disapproval. “That feels nice.” He hasn’t stopped touching you, now massaging your sore extremities without even realizing what he’s doing.

His hands abruptly abandon you. “Anyway, you’ll be fine,” he says dismissively. You sigh, moving until your legs are stretched in front of you. Your bare shoulder close enough to nearly brush against his clothed one.

“Can I ask you something?”

“I can’t promise I’ll answer.”

“Why do you always wear long sleeves?”

“Overstepping again.”

“You told me I needed to be more aggressive with the applicants. Firm. Decisive. Direct. Focused. Getting to the point.”

“True, but I’m not a client. At least you’re retaining something,” he adds. Not mocking. Maybe a little proud.

“It doesn’t bother me if…”

“If what?”

“If you have some, I don’t know, some condition you’re ashamed of.”

“It’s not a condition.” He hesitates. Fumbles with the button of his shirt sleeve, shoving it up. Reaching blindly for your hand and guiding your fingertips to his forearm.

“Scars,” you realize aloud. “What happened?”

“Accident at a previous job. And no, I’m not giving you any more information than that.” Your fingers trace the furrowed skin. At first curious. Now the touch has evolved into more of a caress. It feels good. He doesn’t want it to. Swallows loudly when you lift the appendage. Allowing you to manipulate the limb. Mouth grazing knuckles. Fuck. Immediate heat to his groin. He needs to stop this, right now. “You shouldn’t…I’m not who you think I am.”

“What do you mean? Steve?”

It’s exactly what he needs. Bringing him back to reality. The person that you want doesn’t exist. Not really. It’s the facade you like. Not the man underneath. You don’t know who he really is. Can never know, because discovering that means a return to what he was before.

“We should probably leave.” Dragging his arm free from your warm touch. He hates it. Absolutely despises himself for not pressing you down beneath him and kissing you under the stars. But at least you’re safe. That was more important.

He knows you’re hurt, confused. That happy little bubble you’d recreated popped again. Stiff goodbyes to the bride and groom before leaving. A silent ride back to your apartment.

“Thanks for going with me.”

“I’m…glad I did. Genuinely.” It is the truth. He’d enjoyed himself, in spite of everything. Because of you. He likes being with you.

“I don’t understand you.” You reach for his hand again, and he allows it. Because really, at this point, what does it matter if it happens once or twice or a dozen times? He’s already crossed a line with you he never should have.

“Why do you fight yourself so much?” Your voice is quiet.

Because that hand you’re holding so gently has done terrible things. Because there is so little keeping me from doing what I want, from tearing right through this fragile barrier between us.

Those are the real answers, but he can’t tell you that. So he simply says “Because.” Which is no answer at all. He stares at your still joined fingers. “It’s not a rejection based on your merit as a person. You deserve to know that.”

“Is it because we work together?”

“Well, that’s a definite drawback. Workplace relationships are never a good idea.”

“The age gap?”

“Are you calling me old again?”

“Maybe.” A small smile.

“That’s another concern. But that’s not the main reason.”

You shift in your seat, turning your body more to his. “What is the main reason?”

“I can’t tell you that. Not any differently than I already have.”

“But you do like me.”

“You’re…tolerable, at times.”

“Tolerable.”

“Yes, I like you,” he admits, his voice tight. His gaze shifts to the windshield. It’s too difficult to look at you. To see that hope. That desire he’s certain is mirrored on his own features.

You reach for his glasses, slipping them free before he can stop you. You carefully fold them and tuck your arm behind your back. You know what you’re doing. He knows it, too. Playing along. Leaning. Grasping. Tugging the gold framed lenses free. Your face tips up. That ripe mouth he wants to defile within reach. So close. Just the slightest movement would bring his lips to yours. Touching you. Tasting you. The barest little shift is all that’s required.

He leans back, away from you. “You should go inside and soak your feet and get some rest. I’ll see you Monday.” Staring very hard at nothing. It’s a cold dismissal. Contrasting so starkly from the warmth stoked inside of him. He heaves a shuddering sigh when you finally exit his car. Watching your retreating figure. How much he wants to chase after you. Drag you against him. Surrender.

And you would, too. He knows you’d succumb to him. Do whatever he wanted.

If only he’d ask.

#william afton x reader #william afton x you #steve raglan x you #steve raglan x reader #dividers credit @saradika-graphics

[puppy-steve]

february fic rec

a monthly fic rec series where i try to read every fic on my tbr

▸ january fic rec ▸ more fic recs

steve has nightmares - M, 2.3k, complete @hitlikehammers

tags: established relationship, panic attacks, 54321 grounding method

It’s not like the nightmares are, y’know: something new. What’s new is the way he wakes up from them. It’s still a gasping thing, with his heart shot up past the base of his throat more near his tonsils or some shit, somewhere he can almost taste it like metal and the sour tang of fear as it rattles and shakes and pounds, like his chest’s caving in on itself and that’s all normal, that’s all stuff he knows and— “-ve you,” but now there’s a sound on the periphery of his awareness, sneaking in the almost-nonexistent space between his hammering pulse but he grabs for it, because something in him knows it’s important: the most important. He follows it in between the beating, risks getting crushed if he fails here, too, and— “Love you,” Steve hears more clearly, all of a sudden, and he feels hands on him, running smooth and swift courses up and down his arms; then he also feels lips, he can feel the words as motion against his body almost more than he can pick out the sound: “love you, love you, love you,” and now he knows it, now that his vision clears as it adjusts to the darkness and he sees him: Eddie. - Or: Steve has nightmares. Eddie talks him through.

Stolen - T, 2.7k, complete @penny00dreadful

tags: secret relationship, hospital heist, protective steve harrington

When Steve arrives back at Eddie's hospital room, only to be met by a doctor telling him that Eddie had suddenly died within the last ten minutes, Steve finds that very hard to believe. OR Steve steals Eddie back.

eternity - T, 2k, complete @oh-stars

tags: love confessions, fluff

“I need to come over tonight,” he whispers to Robin. “Eddie wants to talk.”  “Oh,” Robin says, cupping the back of Steve’s head briefly. “I’ll have all your favorites ready for you when you get to my house.”  Steve doesn’t have to say anything or force a smile. She gets it.

Love Is What Makes You Brave - G, 3.1k, complete @penny00dreadful

tags: break-up/make-up, getting back together, exes to lovers, hurt/comfort

Should he be here? No. Was he going to continue to be here for as long as he could take it? Hell yeah. OR Eddie found out Steve is getting married. And now he's idling in the church car park.

Safe Haven - M, 2/2, complete @sidekick-hero

tags: werewolf steve, hurt/comfort, getting together

Eddie finds a hurt wolf in the woods and takes him home. He has no idea that there is more to this particular wolf than it seems.

In Sickness and Health - G, complete @steviewashere

tags: established relationship, older steddie, hurt/comfort, discussions of seizures

Eddie has learned to revel in quiet afternoons, even when he’s alone. The way the sunshine bathes the apartment’s living room carpet—his and Steve’s apartment. Their cat, Poncho, settled heavy and warm in his lap. A chilled glass of southern iced tea and a plate of crackers and sliced cheese. The television volume on low. Book open and set on the arm of the couch. It’s good, the quiet. Yet, it breaks the moment the front door opens. He didn’t hear Steve stick his key in the lock. But he definitely hears his annoyed groans and huffs. The slam of the door, most likely shut with his hip. A muffled, “Damnit”, when he drops his keyring on the floor.

City of Stars (Are You Shining Just For Me?) - T, complete @steviewashere

tags: coming out, love confessions, hurt/comfort

Steve and Eddie’s hang outs tend to land them on their asses at one another’s houses. But tonight, the sky is clear and the moon is out and everything seems to be painted by the soft glow of stars. Because Steve’s parents are home. And Wayne’s got the day off, so he’s asleep early in the living room at the Munson’s. Neither of that will stop them, though. Steve picks Eddie up thirty minutes before the sun has to set, a little Melvald’s bag in the backseat filled with food and a soft throw blanket.

Perfect Timing - G, complete @steviewashere

tags: established relationship, domestic fluff, future fic

It’s funny, Steve thinks, that he knows the way in which Eddie’s emotions express when he comes through the front door of their shared space. They began renting an apartment in Chicago just a year or so after getting together. Tail end of 1986 meant sharing a bed and house by August of 1987. And it’s theirs. Filled with miscellaneous clutter—a bookshelf brimmed with books, coffee table layered with Sports Illustrated and Heavy Metal magazines, dice and keys and Topps baseball cards, and picture frames they dust and drawings from Eddie’s sketchbooks and ‘failed’ art projects of Steve’s that Eddie thought were masterpieces. Point is, they’ve made it their home. And they started their lives with a breath of fresh air. And now it’s 1995, depending on one another’s reactions, this all may just crumble at their feet.

feel the bigger thing - T, complete @hitlikehammers

tags: established relationship, married steddie, domestic fluff, rockstar eddie

“We don’t need a second house,” Steve points out, smooshed against Eddie’s sternum. “We can get the pool,” Eddie added with the audible equivalent of his brow-wiggle and okay, fine, that’s a good point, because Steve may not have really used the one at his parents’ after, well, everything, but he…does kinda miss having one. Now that the memories are distant enough in both time and miles that he doesn’t see standing water deeper than four feet and start fucking hyperventilating anymore. So…yeah. Compelling argument regarding a pool.

fever - E, 3.8k, complete @maxinemaxmayfield

tags: transmasc eddie, first time, virgin eddie, strap-ons, top eddie, bottom steve

“Shit,” Eddie groans, teeth pressing into his bottom lip. His hips buck up, and his imagination runs away with that, thinking about Steve, balancing over Eddie’s hips, riding him as hard and fast as he can manage, delicious thighs shaking while Eddie thrusts up into him.  God, he wants it more than anything. There’s just one problem.  Eddie currently lacks the, uh… Equipment.

so glad i found you - T, 1.4k, complete @steddieas-shegoes

tags: established relationship, steddie dads, modern au

Eddie blinked at Steve, lips parted as he tried to remember how to breathe. He’d been with Steve for just over a year, and while he didn’t technically live with them, he spent more time at their apartment than his own. He was on Sarah’s emergency pick-up list, took her with him to run errands when Steve had to work late, bought her things when the budget allowed just because he wanted to, and would read to her most nights that he stayed over. In many ways, he was her dad.

An Extra Hand - E, 5.2k, complete proprioception

tags: blow jobs, dick piercings, smoke buddies, steve being a slut for eddie's dick

"You have a dick piercing?" Steve finally sputters. "Oh," Eddie says. "Yeah." Steve thinks he recovers pretty quickly from that. (That's the only thing he has going for him in Hawkins: he gets back up.)

take the call - T, complete @hitlikehammers

tags: established relationship, married steddie, rockstar eddie, future fic

“Eddie?” He rolls his eyes kinda automatically, kinda thoughtlessly at the cut of the audio track to let the mic system override from outside the booth. “Okay, so, like, don’t freak out.” “This lady called, and she said she found Lainie’s card inside the case of a phone she picked up,” and okay, okay, that’s…that’s random but maybe it’s about their assistance manger, who just got her contract confirmed and got fancy new business cards for it and has been handing them out to everybody she sees, even gave Eddie extras to pass on to Steve, maybe he can share them at the school as if anyone at even a hoity-toity private 6-through-12 school would have a reason for a card from a record label but she’s excited, and Eddie’s excited for her, and Steve loves the people Eddie works with, and not just because they’re attached to Eddie and he loves the things that come with Eddie as a given—but that’s also true, and always has been, but— “She found the phone at a car crash?” So: the more-to-it. The thing his body already knew. Eddie…Eddie doesn’t even need to know what comes next to know he cannot fucking breathe.

Angel - E, complete @steviewashere

tags: established relationship, hurt/comfort, insecurities, handjobs

His eyes track different spots in the room. The lines on the wall. Bowling pin. Car picture. Dresser with the drawers haphazardly still open. Eddie saunters over and gently closes them, even stops by Steve’s hamper and picks up the other thrown down clothes. And then he notices it out of the corner of his eye, Steve’s full length mirror. It breaks his heart. The sheet covering what would be his reflection. And on the top right corner? A little sticky note, reading: You’ll hate what you see. Everybody does. Don’t remove. 

Dream Come True - G, complete @steviewashere

tags: married steddie, future fic, steddie dads

He may have got the quiet life. And Eddie may have lived out his simple dream. He’d been a rockstar for a little bit in the late nineties and early two-thousands, retiring before they got married. But…Steve hasn’t lived his dream. Eddie hates that he thinks it’s being held back from him. Eddie’s determined to heal that hurt inside him.

Have You Done Your Homework? - E, 7/7, complete SameShipDifferentFont

tags: first time bottoming, daddy kink, bottom steve, virgin steve, sex toys

“I…I want to.” Steve admitted. “You want to?” “I-Yeah, I do, I just…I don’t know how.” he flushed furiously, snatching his hand away to rest at Eddie’s open inner thigh. Eddie caught his ducking head before he could hide against his shoulder, smiling softly as Steve met his eyes in embarrassment, but Eddie looked mischievous. “Just treat it like a pussy, baby, can’t go far wrong.” Or...Famous ladies man, Steve Harrington, is reduced to a blushing virgin when it comes to sex with Eddie. He struggles with the anxiety of trying something new, but Eddie is patient, and gives him...assignments. Steve explores his own body, learns what he likes, ways he can please Eddie, until he can attempt his main goal...giving his virginity to Eddie Munson. If he has the nerve to go through with it.

Honey and Tea. - E, 5.7k, complete daggerandrosie

tags: omegaverse, accidental voyeurism, masturbation, omega steve, alpha eddie

It was all just a innocent silly joke, nothing much, Steve just wanted a good easy laugh. It was late, dark and silent at the trailer park, no one in sight and Eddie's nightstand light was on. Steve would just pop he's head up the window and, hopefully, scare the shit out of his friend. But he's the one that ended up being spooked. Maybe you shouldn't be peeping through people's privacy after dark.

fallen king - T, complete @sp0o0kylights

tags: post s2, pre steddie, eddie munson's tabletop sermons, valentines day

With a startling amount of clarity, Steve realized he was done.  With his so called friends, with  the girls who’d tried corning him all morning, with Hargrove and just--everything.  He was over it.  If Billy wanted the crown so bad he could fucking have it.  (If Tommy wanted to pretend he was tougher than he was by mimicking the dick, then he could have that too.)  “This is stupid.” Steve announced, dropping the masks he so carefully wore. The ones he kept having to fix, because the Upside Down and its related demons (human and non) kept taking chunks out of it. 

soothed - G, complete @steviewashere

tags: injury, hurt/comfort, pre steddie, protective steve

Steve moves to drag Eddie inside, but drops his hands when Eddie flinches away, nearly stumbling down to the concrete. He lets go of his elbows, which are now decorated with fine small crescents, and shields himself. There’s a couple smaller, red bruises decorating his wrists. As if somebody grabbed him. Steve fumes at the sight. “Eddie,” Steve breathes, “why don’t you come inside?” He steps away from the door, letting it sit open and waiting. On shuffled, hesitant feet, Eddie comes in. His eyes dart around the room before they land back on Steve. Immediately, some of the tension and fear in his big brown eyes falls away. Instead, a layer of relief and gratitude seems to fill him. Enough that his eyes brim with tears. “Oh, Eds,” Steve can only coo.

pretty pets once were wild - E, 5k, complete kravioli

tags: werewolf steve, vampire eddie, monsterfucking, sub top steve, dom bottom eddie, puppy play, breeding kink

The annual Munson ball has been a celebration of all monsterkind living in Hawkins for nearly 600 years. When Steve is dragged along to this year’s celebration during the full moon, he gets a lot more than he signed up for. or werewolf!steve and vampire!eddie’s mating

i'm keeping you in sight - T, 2.2k, complete teiresias

tags: fluff, pining, taller eddie, getting together

When there’s no immediate reply, he pauses for a moment, seemingly taking in the situation. “D’you want help with that, Stevie?” -- Eddie has the gall to get taller.

The Boy Who Swallowed a Star - M, 9.9k, complete @hitlikehammers

tags: howl's moving castle au, getting together, hurt/comfort, domestic fluff, platonic stobin, robin as calcifer (bc that deserves its own tag)

The Wizard Munson is supposed to inspire fear and awe. A trickster, a devil, a power unmatched. Blah blah blah; Steve only sees the gangly boy who almost fell off the roof of the Harrington’s tailoring shop, trying and failing to be stealthy and mysterious when Steve was not yet ten—so where whispers follow down alleyways about the dreaded terrors of the Wizard? Steve really just sees the goofball. His Eddie. “Come with me, Stevie,” Eddie doesn’t even pause for pleading, dives right in and begs him as if Steve needs convincing; "if nothing else, come with me so I know you’re safe, so I can do what needs doing without splitting half of me always just worrying. Save me from scrying out endlessly, to make sure you’re okay.” Steve’s heart thumps painful, pathetic: pure and unvarnished in a way he thinks is only possible when Eddie’s nearby. Only possible for Eddie, at all. Which means the answer’s wholly obvious—the war’s getting worse, this is his Eddie—only one response was ever really on the table: “Alright.”

crawl home to you - E, 5.2k, complete @steddieas-shegoes

tags: temporary character death, kas eddie, vampire eddie, soulmates, getting together, blood drinking

Steve should never have kissed him. He knew that now. While Eddie was dying, bleeding out on the ground of their version of Hell, the only thing Steve felt he could do to help him was kiss him. It was quick, just a peck on the lips, lingering only for a moment. Their eyes never even closed. Steve wanted to take in every remaining moment that Eddie had. There was nothing else he could do, just hold him, try to whisper comfort that may not have even been heard.

it's not ever what it looks like - M, 3.2k, complete @steddieas-shegoes

tags: modern au, rockstar eddie, established relationship, angst with a happy ending, hurt/comfort, implied/suspected cheating (nobody is actually cheating on anybody don't worry)

There was a picture of Eddie standing with his arm around some guy who was taller than him, both of them laughing, looking at each other like…well. Steve knew that look because it’d only ever been pointed at him, but now he was seeing it pointed at just some guy. The headline read EDDIE MUNSON GIVING UP HIGH SCHOOL SWEETHEART FOR SUPERMODEL SUPERSTAR?

Feels Good (Oh To Be Alone With You) - E, 1.3k, complete @theheadlessphilosopher | th3d3adboy

tags: transmasc eddie, cock warming, light dom/sub, cunnilingus, handjobs

Steve had never felt the way he did when he and Eddie were together. He'd always considered himself a pretty experienced guy, sexually speaking, but with Eddie things were different.

if devotion is a river, then i'm floating away - E, 6.4k, complete @starryeyedjanai

tags: post-s4, getting together, drummer steve, corroded coffin, semi-public sex

“So when you said someone was paying you to get lessons for the past six months, you weren't talking about some middle schooler interested in doing marching band?” Eddie asks, slamming the fridge door harder than necessary. Sorry, Gareth’s mom. “Nope,” Gareth says, popping the ‘p’ sound. “You’re pure evil,” he says. “Why is Gareth evil and why is Steve Harrington in the garage?” Jeff asks, coming into the kitchen. or, Eddie has feelings about Steve filling in as their drummer

i'm a man (without conviction) - T, 2.1k, complete lateralparallel

tags: hopper pov, established steddie, protective hopper, character study, eddie antagonizes hopper on purpose

Steve Harrington is not his kid. Hopper already has three, and he’s not looking to add any more. He’s sure of this fact about ninety nine percent of the time, the remaining one percent being when he’s faced by Harrington’s big, clear eyes and his perpetually quivering laugh. Hopper is not a great dad. He knows this, and he knows he should remember this, but Steve Harrington has a way of making him think highly of himself in the paternal department.

Drunk Dialing - E, series, WIP FinalMoondragon

tags: drunk bootycall, phone sex, light dom/sub, bratty steve, semi-public masturbation

Steve was drunk. Very drunk. He knew it. Robin definitely knew it. That’s why she was sitting on his back, pinning him to the floor, trying to pry his hands out from under his body. Her pajama pants were bunched up around her knees, her sock clad foot near his face. “Steve! Give-It-To-Me!” she said through gritted teeth. Or: Steve Harrington has a brilliant idea and Robin fails at stopping him.

cassette tapes and ticket stubs. - M, 5.2k, complete @thefreakandthehair | througheden

tags: modern au, mutual pining, fluff, coffee shops, record stores, baseball fan steve, getting together, accidental dates

“Well, you said you’re 90% sure you’re getting stood up. And I’m 100% sure that I’ve already been stood up. I know baseball isn’t really your thing but,” Steve wiggles the tickets between his fingers. “Road-rip?” “One condition,” Eddie says, pursing his lips. “I’m giving you a free ticket and day in Chicago but sure, let’s negotiate,” Steve teases. Grabbing his empty cup, Steve follows his lead as he tosses it in the trash. Eddie spins back around, heart clattering in his chest as he comes almost literally face to face with Steve who’s close enough that Eddie can smell the cologne he’d dabbed on for his date. Warm, spicy, Steve’s signature scent. Eddie hates that he knows that. When he finds his tongue again, he shakes his head and smiles, signing his own fucking death warrant for the day. “If we’re doing your date, we’ve gotta do mine, too.” Or, Eddie and Steve are set up on blind dates by Robin and Chrissy. They both get stood up. Or, do they?

wednesdays - G, complete @steddiealltheway

tags: rockstar eddie, pining, fluff, getting together

Steve stops in his tracks, all thoughts gone from his head as he does a double take at the magazine rack near the checkout. And yeah, he knows that Corroded Coffin is popular. Hell, he’s seen Eddie’s face on the same rack at least five times before. But never like this. The picture on the front page is taken at a lower angle, with Eddie clad in leather pants and a tight mesh black shirt that might be a crop top, but Steve can’t tell with the way Eddie’s guitar is covering his midriff, hands flying over the frets, showing off silver rings glimmering under the stage lights including the one that Steve helped Dustin pick out for him as a celebratory gift. But as Steve’s eyes trace over Eddie’s bare arms and the stark black tattoos, he’s led to wild curls perfectly framing Eddie’s face which stares down at the cords, mouth parted in an ‘o’ shape and eyebrows knitted together in concentration in a way that makes Steve feel weak in the knees. And Steve’s suddenly hit with the question: Why didn’t anyone tell him that Eddie was hot???

to die by your side (is such a heavenly way to die) - T, complete @hitlikehammers

tags: limbo/near death experiences, light angst, they're in el's mind palace, getting together, fluff, happy ending

“Oh fuck, not you, too.” Steve looks up—when did he sit down, he doesn’t remember sitting down, he doesn’t remember how even got here, and hey, actually, where is here— “What?” Steve looks toward the voice; familiar. See the wreath of curls around a pale face. “This is death, right?” Eddie’s crossing over to him, crouching just beside; “I’m dead, like, I am very sure I’m dead, but you’re here, so—“ “I don’t,” Steve breathes in sharp—tries to get his bearings, tries to see but it’s just black in every direction, his lungs feel like they’re halved in size all of sudden, everything feels tight and painful and hard like inhaling isn’t something guaranteed, and his heartbeat feels like it’s dragging the carcass of something with it when it pumps, laborious and— He’s is breathing, though, even if it’s kinda half-assed; he’s got a heartbeat, even if it feels like it’s about to fucking give out. That doesn’t…that doesn’t sound like death.

if devotion is a river, then i'm floating away - E, 6.4k, complete @starryeyedjanai

tags: drummer steve, post-s4, corroded coffin, getting together, handjobs, blowjobs

“So when you said someone was paying you to get lessons for the past six months, you weren't talking about some middle schooler interested in doing marching band?” Eddie asks, slamming the fridge door harder than necessary. Sorry, Gareth’s mom. “Nope,” Gareth says, popping the ‘p’ sound. “You’re pure evil,” he says. “Why is Gareth evil and why is Steve Harrington in the garage?” Jeff asks, coming into the kitchen. or, Eddie has feelings about Steve filling in as their drummer

Tearing the Buttons Right off Your Dress - E, 5k, complete @solarmorrigan

tags: babygirl steve, roleplay, steve in panties and lingerie, established relationship

After spending the day celebrating with friends, Steve has one final birthday gift for Eddie Eddie's pretty sure this just became his favorite birthday ever

#cj talks #steddie #fic rec #steddie fic rec #steddie fic

[tottmnt]

April's article:

This week a group of vigilantes delivered a series of blows to the … associated with the local crime boss known as "Superfly."

While law enforcement has proven ineffective in dismantling Superfly's operation, a mysterious team of daring heroes have brought down multiple … lieutenants … with non-lethal … A … raids on billiard halls, restaurants, and warehouses controlled by Superfly have resulted in multiple arrests and the seizure of hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of ... narcotics.

The identities of the vigilantes are currently … NYPD … earlier this morning … are four individuals that wear masks and … associated martial … A shuriken recovered from … crime scene …

While city officials have condemned acts of … locals … progress … owner Steve … said, “I think what they’re doing is great … this Super guy … getting it done … should be throwing them a parade or something.”

#if you can see a word that i didn’t then you should totally reblog your addition #it would be cool to make this as complete as possible #tmnt #teenage mutant ninja turtles mutant mayhem #teenage mutant ninja turtles #tmnt mutant mayhem #tmntmm #tmnt mm #tales #mutant mayhem #may mumbles #by may