#they're basically brothers | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

artiststarme · 1 year

Text

Staying Alive, Staying Alive

I was feeling a little angsty today and now here we are. I hope you guys like this and please leave your thoughts in the comments!

Title brought to you by @lumoschild!

~*~*~*~

Steve’s stomach dropped when he heard Dustin’s screaming from the trailer park. He and the girls were only about halfway back in their trek when they started hearing his cries which caused Steve to sprint in his direction. Why was Dustin screaming and where was Eddie? They were supposed to be out of danger. They were the goddamn decoys and Steve told them not to be heroes!

The sight he stumbled on when he broke through the barrier of the trees would forever haunt him. Just past the rows of trailer homes, Dustin was knelt on bloodied knees, sobbing, with an unmoving Eddie situated half on his lap. The two of them were sitting in a pond of blood that was growing ever larger. Steve had never seen Munson so still, he was always flamboyant and larger than life in everything he did. His face, usually so expressive and full of life, had never been so pale either, only made worse with the sluggishly bleeding wounds still leaking from his neck and torso.

“Dustin!” Steve screamed for him as he ran closer and fell to his knees beside him in a careless slump. “What happened? When’d he stop breathing?”

“I-I don’t know, just before you got here, I guess. He-he saved me. He didn’t run away this time, Steve.” He grabbed onto Eddie’s shoulders even stronger in a desperate hug while tears ran down his cheeks.

“Okay, I know he didn’t. Munson’s a strong guy and he still has fight left. I need you to put him down so I can bring him back, okay?” Steve muttered soothingly. If Eddie had just lost his pulse a few minutes ago, there was still a chance that he could get his heart beating again.

“What? Steve-”

“Put him down, Dustin!” Steve would feel bad for yelling at him later but he had a very limited window for CPR to work and he didn’t have time for any more niceties.

Dustin flinched back as if struck and let go of Eddie abruptly. His face screwed up in a vicious sob when Steve started applying forceful compressions to his friend’s chest. “Steve, you’re hurting him!”

“He can’t feel pain if he’s dead, Dustin! If this works, he can complain about it later.” Steve struck Eddie’s chest over and over again to the beat of Stayin’ Alive by the Bee Gees like he was taught to as a swim instructor. He never could’ve imagined then that this is how he’d be using his skills.

Both Dustin and Steve winced when they heard Eddie’s ribs crack but Steve didn’t stop applying his full body weight into every push. Nancy and Robin showed up at some point between Steve giving compressions and breathing into Eddie’s mouth but he paid them no mind. In fact, he didn’t pay anything any mind until Eddie gasped for air on his own.

“Eddie!” Dustin yelled and tried to scramble away from Nancy’s arms that restrained him.

“Ouch,” Eddie whispered before his eyes slid shut once more.

“No, no, no. Munson, wake up. Keep your eyes open. We have to get out of here, c’mon. Robin, help me pick him up,” Steve ordered. She quickly stepped forward and helped situate Eddie bridal-style in his arms. With a few well-placed cloths to act as bandages, she patted Steve’s shoulder and he bolted towards the gate in the Munson trailer. The entire Upside Down started shaking and the ground started to fracture in a horrific version of ‘the-floor-is-lava’ game.

But Steve could only focus on holding pressure against a particularly deep wound on Eddie’s side and the soft breaths fanning his neck. One step in front of the other, he sprinted as fast as he could without jostling the injured man in his arms too much. His efforts proved fruitless if the muffled moans of pain into his ear indicated anything.

When he got to the trailer, Robin was right behind him. She threw the door open and pushed the small kitchen table underneath the quaking gate and threw herself through first, ungraceful and uncoordinated as it was, in order to catch Eddie when Steve pushed him through the portal. Which she did. By falling with him and kneeing him in the spine. Seeing them mostly safe, Steve carefully guided Dustin onto the table and threw the gate with his injured leg and then offered a hand to Nancy and gave her a gentle push.

As the gate started to close, he hardly had enough time to jump through the portal into the Rightside Up himself. He could feel the sizzling heat on his sides and burning on the outer parts of his leg until his back met a soft surface on the ground. He made it.

They didn’t have time to celebrate though because Dustin was crying in pain about his leg, Robin was rubbing her side in discomfort, and Eddie was still groaning and bleeding out onto his own stained mattress. Steve’s sides were screaming but he didn’t have time to acknowledge his own wounds until he was sure his friends would survive.

“Alright Nancy, where’s your car? We have to get to the hospital.” Steve asked her, easily falling into the position of leader once more.

“Um, it's right outside.” With a peek out the trailer’s window, Steve could definitely see that it was not.

“No it isn’t. Where’d you park it?”

“I swear,” Nancy promised. “I parked it right in front of the door. We’ll just have to call for an ambulance.”

Steve shook his head and ran a stressed hand through his hair. Eddie didn’t have time for an ambulance. With the earthquakes and the preexisting stigma around the people that lived at Forest Hills, an ambulance would take up to thirty minutes and he didn’t have that. Fuck, what were they going to do?!

He sent another glance out the window to see a small sedan parked outside the neighboring trailer. Bullseye.

“Okay, new plan. Eddie and I are going to hotwire that car and drive to the hospital. You guys are going to call an ambulance and meet us there.” He nodded to himself and went to pick up a blurry-eyed Eddie.

“Steve, we should stick together. It’s not smart to go off on our own,” Nancy expressed condescendingly.

“Well, no one’s ever mistaken me for being smart so I guess that’s par for the course. We’ll see you at the hospital.” Then they were off. Steve was once again carrying Eddie as gently as he could but this time Eddie’s eyes were open and searching.

“Who knew that Steve Harrington would be so adamant on keeping me alive?” He muttered.

“There’s a lot you don’t know about me, Munson.”

“I’m bleeding all over you, surely we’re on a first name basis now. Right Steve?” His tone was pretty challenging for a guy that was dead less than five minutes ago.

“You can call me whatever you want, Eddie. Just keep your eyes open.”

“Okay, I’ll try my best. What’re you planning on doing? Lisa always leaves her car locked,” he said as soon as he saw the direction Steve was walking in.

Steve didn’t dignify his question with a response. He just grabbed the ax from its position secured on his back and swung the dull edge towards the driver’s side window, shattering it instantly.

“Holy shit,” Eddie murmured in amazement. Unknowingly to Steve, that was the exact moment that Eddie fell in love with him. He had risked his life to save him in the Upside Down and carried him bridal-style out of hell. Now he was committing crimes to keep him alive and looking hot while doing it. Eddie’s heart didn’t stand a chance.

Steve gently leaned Eddie against the car while he worked to get the driver’s side door open and then picked him up again to gently settle him in across the backseats. His movements caused Eddie to whimper in pain but they were so close, they couldn’t stop now.

“Okay Munson, focus. How do I hotwire this car?” Steve looked back at him and saw the seats quickly staining red. “Shit Eddie! Put pressure right there, we have to slow the bleeding. C’mon, how do I do this?

Eddie tried to press his bandana into his worst wound as he gave Steve directions. “Pull off the steering column and grab the wires. Did you get my pliers? You’ll need those to strip the coating.”

“Yep. Okay, I got the cover off and I see the wires. What next?”

“There-there should be… two wires. One red and one black. You have to s-strip them and tap them together until the ignition starts…”

His voice started to taper off towards the end of his explanation and he could hardly keep his eyes open anymore. Steve pulled the wires from the steering column and stripped them just as Eddie had in the RV. When he looked into the backseat, he did a double take. Eddie’s skin was even paler and clammier than it had been before. Most worryingly though, his eyes were glazed and his breathing was labored. Steve reached an arm back to shake at his shoulder.

“Don’t fucking die, Eddie! I didn’t carry you out of the goddamn Upside Down just for you to die in some stranger’s backseat.” He hissed in angered panic.

“Ooo kinky.” Eddie mumbled through chapped lips.

“Not kinky, dying is not kinky! Wake up, Eddie!”

Just then, the engine turned over and the ignition started. “Yes, yes! Eddie, hold on. I got the car to start. C’mon man, five minutes to the hospital. You’ve got this.”

“Okay…” Eddie whispered. Steve could hardly breathe as he sped down the roads and broke every traffic law. He didn’t care about the consequences of his actions as long as Eddie lived. He didn’t care about speeding tickets or jail time, he just needed his new friend to survive.

“Eddie, you doing okay?”

“I wouldn’t… characterize this as- as being… okay,” he answered between labored breaths.

“You’re doing great, man,” Steve told him. He looked back at him in the rearview and saw Eddie’s eyes looking back at him.

“Thanks for doing this, Stevie. You didn’t have to. You-you could’ve left me there-”

“Shut up, man. I wasn’t going to leave you after you risked your life to help us. You’re one of us now whether you like it or not.” Steve told him. He wasn’t going to stand for any self-deprecating comments after he’d almost died (did die for a few minutes) to save Dustin.

Eddie hummed before the car lapsed into silence for the next minute or so, only broken by the sounds of Eddie wheezing for air and Steve’s fingers shaking against the steering wheel. When they arrived at the hospital, Steve pulled right in front of the emergency room and screamed for help. Nurses, doctors, and assistants came rushing out to help him and they placed Eddie on the gurney.

His lips were red with blood and his face was ashen without it. But when Steve looked at him, he smiled wide. “I’ll see you later, Big Boy.”

Steve couldn’t even threaten the hospital staff to treat him well or tell them to ignore the rumors on TV (although he would find out later that Nancy and Robin did that well enough on their own). As soon as Eddie was wheeled out of sight, Steve collapsed from his own injuries.

Just a few days later, Steve woke up from sedation to find himself in a hospital bed with Eddie as a roommate. And if his heartbeat sped up on the monitor when Eddie smiled at him, well, that wasn’t anyone’s business but theirs.

Permanent tag list:@doubleb11 @nburkhardt @zerokrox-blog @newtstabber @i-less-than-three-you @carlyv @pyrohonk @straight4joekeery @trippypancakes @conversesweetheart @estrellami-1 @suddenlyinlove @yikes-a-bee @swimmingbirdrunningrock @perseus-notjackson @anaibis @merricatty @maya-custodios-dionach @grtwdsmwhr @manda-panda-monium @lumoschild

#Robin walks into their shared hospital room just a few days later to find them kissing in the same bed #They end up clearing Eddie's name by blaming Jason and pointing out that he had connections to all the victims #unlike Eddie #Dustin is really happy that they're friends now until he walks into their hospital room to see them making out #then he's not so happy (they're both his brothers so its basically incest)#Wayne finds out about Steve carrying Eddie to safety and decides that the kid was going to become a Munson one way or another #whether he married Eddie or got adopted by Wayne #stranger things #steddie #fanfic #steve harrington #eddie munson #robin buckley #dustin henderson #nancy wheeler

258 notes · View notes

mwolf0epsilon · 4 months

Text

What Love Looks Like

This is a long one...

Caprichoso, walking around the mess hall with a food tray full of green nutrimush while looking for a place to sit: Uh, I guess Dogma must still be on shift...

Clearcut, sitting with a group of 501st vode before noticing Caprichoso: Over here Capri.

Caprichoso, glancing over and beaming: CC! Hey! -sitting down next to the older trooper- Thanks, this place is packed!

Hardcase, chuckling: That's usually how it is during midmeal! Lots of very hungry troopers lining up to get the best slop!

Clearcut, noticing the enormous pile of food on the other's tray and looking slightly nauseated: Capri, please tell me you're not planning to eat all of that in one sitting...

Caprichoso, grinning: Sure am! But I promise I won't get too excited and choke this time. I'm just not used to being allowed to eat so much of my favorite grub without having to slap someone's hand away.

Clearcut: I am still not quite sure how the green veggie paste is your favorite. It's too sweet for my own taste.

Hardcase: How, for real? The sweetness is what makes it good!

Caprichoso, looking at Hardcase: You. You get me! All of the other options taste so bland! But this one tastes so good...

Hardcase: Hear hear! Green mush is the best mush!

Jesse, laughing: Man... I wish you'd been assigned to the 501st. You would have fit right in immediately!

Caprichoso, surprised: Wow, you really think so?

Fives: We know so. You're what? Around Tup's age group? Pretty sure if you'd been deployed at the same time you would have made the cut.

Jesse: Yeah, maybe then we would have all just fit where we belonged instead of dealing with... Some troopers.

Tup, frowning but staying quiet:

Hardcase, pausing as he glances up at Jesse with a somewhat puzzled look:

Clearcut, also pausing but looking noticeably uncomfortable:

Caprichoso: ... What do you mean?

Jesse: Hm? Oh, you know. Just some conflict you don't really need to worry about.

Caprichoso, noticing Tup's unusually quiet demeanor and the pinched look on Clearcut's face: ...

Caprichoso, crossing his arms: No, carry on. What was that supposed to mean?

Jesse: ... Ok, I'll be real with you. You? You get us. You fit in just right. Better than you do with the 105th.

Caprichoso, frowning due to this being a particularly sore topic for him: Yeah...?

Jesse: Well, there's a trooper who's the exact opposite. And he proved that on Umbara.

Caprichoso, adding 2 and 2 together: I... You're talking about Dogma aren't you?

Tup, focusing on his tray clearly unwilling to participate in this conversation:

Fives: Yeah, it's about Dogma. He doesn't really fit with the rest of us.

Jesse: He doesn't act like a vod, is what Fives means. Which is a huge problem.

Tup, looking up at Jesse with an angry look on his face:

Jesse, raising his hands in defense: I mean, I'm sure he's plenty brotherly with you Tup. But that's you. With everyone else he's a stuck up shabuir that wouldn't hesitate to rat anyone else out for his own benefit, just like he did on Umbara.

Caprichoso, slowly beginning to look angry: Umbara was a stressful situation. You saw what Krell was like, do you really think you were anything but lucky back there?

Fives, offended: Lucky?!

Jesse: We were anything BUT lucky! Krell nearly killed the entire battalion! Made us kill each other for his own sick amusement! Sent Fives, Hardcase and I to be executed via firing squad which Dogma manned! And then when evidence cropped up that he was a bastard, Dogma STILL sided with him! Hells he pointed a blaster at the captain! At Tup! He's no vod!

Caprichoso, furious: You were lucky, because that was ONE campaign with Krell. The 105th on the other hand experienced all that and worse CONSTANTLY! And let me tell you, when your entire deployment is based on survival of the fittest, you have to do some pretty crappy horrid things to live another day...

Jesse, trying to find an argument for this: Vode stick to each other! No matter what!

Caprichoso: Really? So you never met a vod on Kamino that never picked on someone else because they were favored by trainers? You never got angry at your own batchers because you felt like they could do better and were slacking in sims? Never met some other older vode who thought they knew better than you just because they were more experienced?

Jesse: ...

Fives, recalling how it used to be for Domino Squad back on Kamino: ...

Hardcase, trying to figure out how to get everyone to calm down before this gets any worse: Err... Maybe we should...

Caprichoso: I read the reports. I read what happened on Umbara. I read them because I knew from the moment Krell left to lead the 501st, that something bad was gonna happen. And I can tell you from both an inside and outside perspective that all of the things Dogma did he didn't do for himself.

Clearcut, sighing because he knows Capri isn't going to let go:

Caprichoso: He was scared, sure. We all were scared once we realized Krell was a demagolka shabuir who didn't really care for us unless we were useful or entertaining in some way. I watched good vode be reshaped into... Into something unrecognizable under his command. My brothers who I love so much and who I wish loved me just as much as Dogma loves you miserable bastards!

Tup, opens his mouth:

Caprichoso: Keep your mouth shut, you lost the right to say anything the moment you let that piece of osik lieutenant drag your twin's name through the mud! For all that I've heard you moan and bitch about my twin being a jerk, you're no bouquet of roses!

Tup, flinching: Ah...

Fives: Hey don't talk to Tup like that!

Caprichoso: Or what? You'll go off on some suicide mission and jeopardize the lives of your vode like you did on Umbara? Get off your high fathier ARC trooper, you've got no idea how to work in a team and it shows. The stunt you pulled on Umbara only got you a firing squad execution, one which according to records should have fallen to your coward of a captain to lead... Not Dogma.

Jesse: The captain would never--

Clearcut: ... He would.

Jesse, turning to look at Clearcut in surprise: Uh?

Clearcut: ... Sargeant Slick.

Hardcase, wincing: ...

Caprichoso: Also on that note. The firing squad. Curious how Dogma chose the best sharpshooters and a medic to make damn sure you lot didn't feel a thing once you got taken out. Very cruel of him uh? Following orders from someone who wasn't opposed to punish an entire battalion for someone else's disobedience, and yet still making damn sure it was as mercifully a clean shot as possible...

Jesse, at a loss for words: I... You don't...

Caprichoso: I don't get it? Sure I do. Surviving under Krell taught me something valuable. That if you plan to act against an oppressor, you make it your mission to put the only target on your back. Not on your vode's. And yeah sure, I'm louder, I'm angrier, I'm ten times more insufferable than Dogma. But I can recognize something you definitely don't seem to be able to unless it's your brand.

Fives: And what's that?

Caprichoso: What love looks like. And it certainly isn't wishing that your little brother was in a battalion where he would have been abused into submission or into outright hate and hostility towards his own crew.

Caprichoso, getting up: Urgh, I'm not hungry anymore... Your opinions are so disgusting I'd rather starve than eat with you. I don't get what Dogma sees in you poodoo-brained karkers at all, he really would be better off on his own. -storming off furiously-

Jesse, Fives, Tup & Hardcase, watching Capri leave the mess hall: ...

Clearcut, sighing sadly due to this conversation having derailed so quickly: ... I've never met a kih'vod more stubbornly loyal than Capri. He won't be letting go of this newfound grudge anytime soon.

#star wars #the clone wars #arc trooper jesse #arc trooper fives #clone trooper hardcase #clone trooper tup #clone ocs #105th battalion #krell's battalion #clone trooper caprichoso #clone trooper clearcut #when capri told dogma they were gonna be the best of friends he really meant it #he basically imprinted on him and is now furiously loyal towards him #mostly because since he's so used to Dogma's specific brand of love language he understands that the other isn't as stuck up and selfish as #most assume him to be... In fact Capri understands that Dogma's expression of affection is very unique among the 501st because they're all #typically loud and extremely vocal about their affections rather than subtle and quiet like Dogma #so seeing Dogma get slandered and disregarded as 'not vod-like' really grinds his gears because he can SEE how much Dogma loves his brother

32 notes · View notes