Where: Blue Quarry Mall Who: Eddie + Cole ! @colemontgomeryx​​

loverboymontgomery·:

xx.

As he walked closer to Eddie, he tried flexing his ankle. It was sore, but the soreness was dull enough that it left Cole wondering if it was all in his head. The last few weeks had Cole questioning his sanity more times than he was comfortable with. Pulling Adam’s flannel around his torso, Cole nodded in agreement with Eddie’s statement. “Yeah… it’s a lot. Kind of too much to try and figure out right now, after that keg stand,” Cole admitted with a grimace. Not his brightest idea.

“Can I bum a smoke?” Cole asked when Eddie brought the cigarette to his lips.  Cole glanced down to his ankle and laughed humorlessly. “I don’t know. I can’t tell if it’s all in my head or if that really happened. You’d tell me if you thought I was going crazy, right?” he asked, half-joking. Cole straightened his back and met Eddie’s eyes. 

“So, not to be awkward, but… we’re cool, right?” Cole asked, sincerity written on his face. “I just mean… like, to me, we’re good.” They never had a chance to talk about what had happened, and since then, there was Thad and then Adam coming back. He didn’t think it was that deep, really, but wanted to make sure.

With Steve, it had been an unspoken agreement: Steve will bring it up if he wants to. But with Eddie, he wasn’t sure. With the frantic way things ended at the mall, it was impossible to know what Eddie had been thinking, what he could be thinking now. Cole felt drawn to him as a friend, and he hoped what had happened hadn’t ruined that from the start.  

Besides, Cole was very curious about what he’d seen between Eddie and Steve. It was glaringly obvious to him at the shore that something had happened, and when it clicked in Cole’s mind, he’d wanted nothing more than to congratulate them. Obviously, that was out of the question, but now that he’d found Eddie alone, he hoped it would come up. 

+++

"sure, here ya go.", eddie nodded, fumbled to pull a cigarette from his pack and handed it to cole, along with the lighter. his eyes followed cole's, dropping down to his ankle, brows drawn together in worried concern.

he shook his head. "no, you're not going insane, man. i saw it, too. i mean, like, not what... what exactly dragged you down or anything but, uh, i was there." eddie shrugged, pulled his lips into a polite smile - certainly not his best bid at reassuring someone that they weren't losing their mind but hey, he'd tried.

the question, albeit expected, caught eddie somewhat off-guard. fingers flexing, he nearly dropped the cigarette, straightened his back, searched cole's eyes. "uh, yeah. totally, totally, man. we're, uh, we're cool. yeah." accompanied by eager nods,brows still drawn together.

they hadn't had a chance to talk since the mall disaster, really, eddie had been preoccupied with committing arson, coming to terms with the fact that the supernatural was making a reappearance in town and kissing steve harrington, his schedule was quite busy these days. eddie had stopped by the music centre a couple of times, though he'd either been too nervous to talk to cole or had been roped into long, winding conversations about jazz and being a metalhead. so, yeah, they hadn't talked. and now, apparently, it was time to do just that.

not that eddie hadn't picked up on the fact that cole and adam were seemingly going strong again - the looks the two of them exchanged reminded him of one's that he shared with steve, too, and the thought of it made a faint blush rise to his cheek.

he nodded again. "yeah, we're cool. no worries. i.... saw that adam's back in town. im happy for you, man. really." said with a genuine smile, he patted cole's shoulder. "and also he's like smoking hot, so go you."

stevehharringtcns·:

.

steve wouldn’t have been able to forgive himself if something had happened to eddie at the carnival. he had been arrested and steve felt his heart sink when he had been told that. the worst part was that he was unable to help, but he was glad to see that the other was okay. he had been unharmed in the explosion. he wouldn’t have been able to handle it if eddie had been in the bed right next to him, in a different room or worse, if he had died. steve didn’t like thinking about that. not after everything that had happened two years prior, where steve had been the one to visit at the hospital after he had been attacked by the demo-bats and almost died. of course, at that point he hadn’t been this close to eddie, but he was still concerned of course. especially since dustin had become so close to eddie and he didn’t know how the kid would handle that loss. now the roles had switched.

he let his eyes be closed for a little longer, opening them to look at eddie. he hadn’t noticed he had been cold this entire time until eddie pointed it out. “a blanket… would be nice.” he said as he tried to adjust himself on the bed, but he was far too weak and far too bruised to even attempt to move. he would have to try again later, he thought. “but… just stay here for now.” he said, squeezing eddie’s hand so that he wouldn’t get up just now. he wanted for the other to stay beside him. it’s all he asked for at that moment. he looked over at him, a small and weak smile forming on his lips as he felt eddie’s hand on his. he was glad he was there with him. they both had survived and they both would be okay. they had to be. steve couldn’t imagine a future where the two of them wouldn’t be okay anymore. he had pushed away the thought of everything going wrong between them.

he enjoyed the silence for a couple of moments, heavy breathing as he did. he looked over at eddie when the other started sobbing, but he didn’t say anything. he couldn’t stop the other from feeling that way. he lied there, as he started feeling his own tears streaming from his eyes down his cheeks. he didn’t sob, he knew that it would hurt if he did, but he was crying. he hated seeing eddie like this, breaking down in front of him and he just couldn’t wrap his arms around him and bring him close. he squeezed his hand once again. “eddie…” he said, his voice weak as he sniffed, hoping that the tears would stop eventually. for both of them. the two were alive, yet they found themselves crying like one of them had died. it didn’t make any sense, but the two had been through enough for this to be allowed. “i’m not going anywhere. i promise…” he said weakly, nodding his head slowly. he wanted to keep that promise. he couldn’t leave eddie, he didn’t want to leave him. he couldn’t hurt him again. and seeing him like this made him feel stupid that he hadn’t seen the signs sooner, when they were fighting vecna and eddie was flirting with him. steve was too busy chasing something that he didn’t want. he wanted to be with eddie, and he was sure of it. “and when… when i leave the hospital, we’re going to…” he said, stopping to cough a little more, wincing as he felt the pain of his broken ribs spreading through, stopping to take a breath. once he recovered, he continued. “we’re going to watch… dirty dancing. and we’ll learn that… lift move. i promise.” he said with a nod.

he let the two of them calm down for a bit before he asked what he wanted to ask. he had been thinking about it for quite some time now. he just didn’t know that he needed a near death experience to actually say it. “life’s too short.” he started by saying, taking a deep breath after that. “i could have died… and-and…” he said as he started rambling, trying to find the right words. “i want you… to be… my boyfriend, eddie.” he said. it felt weird to say that out loud, he wasn’t used to it, but he knew that it was right. he knew that eddie was right for him. “no more… pretending that we’re just seeing each other and going out. i want… to be your boyfriend.” he said, giving the other a small nod. “okay?” he asked. 

+++

eddie nodded so fast and eagerly that he nearly strained his neck. “yeah, of course, blanket, blanket....”, he trailed off, anxious, strained eyes darting around, briefly landing on the bed cole montgomery currently occupied. but - no, eddie frowned, shook his head to himself softly, no, he couldn’t steal cole’s blanket. the man needed it to himself, probably. despite steve’s wishes to simply stay put, eddie reluctantly let go of his hand for a moment to shrug off his signature leather jacket and denim vest, carefully draping it over steve’s chest. “to tide you over ‘till you’re letting me leave to get you that blanket, hot shot.”

words followed by a weak, disingenuous smile, he squeezed steve hand again, tight, until the tears came spilling out on their own accord, body rocked by heavy sobs. eddie hated it, how easy he began to cry. in front of others, too. ever since he’d been a little kid, once the tears came there was no stopping them, which had obviously made eddie the subject of ridicule. over the years he had learned to ‘suck it up’, develop thicker skin, bottle up his feelings. not let people in on what was truly going on inside him. but steve was ...  different. 

and steve was crying, too. eddie’s head snapped up as he heard him sniffle, his own sobs ceasing instantly. his chest heavy with the guilt that his display of emotion had caused the tears he was now softly wiping away with his thumb, caressing steve’s cheek as he did so. “hey, shh. i’m sorry, sorry, sweetheart. i didn’t mean - sorry.” he shook his head, shaking the last couple of tears out of the corners of his eyes as he did so. they’d have plenty of time to cry once steve got out of there. besides, crying was exhausting, and steve was here to get better, to rest and relax. and eddie could get up and finally get him that blanket once they had both calmed down. steve’s hands really were cold.

the cough made steve wince and eddie tear up again. he bit down on his lip, hard, winced and mirrored steve’s grimace, wishing he could mirror the pain, too. if he couldn’t take it from him then they could at least be together in their suffering . teeth moving over his bottom lip, he waited patiently as steve recovered enough to continue talking. an incredulous chuckle drawn from his lips, brows raised, eddie softly shook his head in disbelief, raised their joined hands to his lips again. “yeah. yeah, alright, we’ll learn the lift. whatever you want.”

life’s too short, i could’ve died. feeling the lump in his throat grow bigger, eddie blinked and averted his gaze to their hands, thumb softly tracing over his knuckles. his whispers of “no” and “don’t say that”, quickly ceased as steve finally popped the dreaded question. come to think of it - not dreaded at all, actually. eddie lifted his head very slowly until he met steve’s eyes, a puzzled look on his face as steve’s words kept repeating in his head. boyfriend, boyfriend, boyfriend. i want to be your boyfriend. he blinked, confused, squeezed steve’s hand - yeah, no, this was real. this was definitely real.

“i - i’m sorry?” a couple of beats passed before the meaning of steve’s words had apparently sunk in, eddie’s bemused expression suddenly fading, making way for a wide, toothy grin. he nodded slowly, his grin spreading wider and wider before eddie surged forward, to connect their lips in a short and soft kiss, careful not to hurt steve in any way. “yeah. yeah, of course, dumbass. duh. “ and eddie laughed, genuinely and loudly, quickly pressed his lips together, giving steve a sheepish smile. “i mean - you’re, like, a hundred percent sure about this?  because .. cause i’d hate for you to wake up, like, tomorrow or whenever the painkillers have worn off and regret the whole thing.”

cassieconrads·:

Cassie gave a nod at Eddie’s question, noticing his demeanor shift as she mentioned the Wheelers. As he described how he was friends with Mike, things started to make sense: maybe her new companion wasn’t that much of a stranger, after all. “Yeah, I came back with Nancy from the summer from college,” she explained, “we’re in the same sorority there, and they kind of all suck, so we bonded over it. Mike, though? I’m trying to get him to like me better than Nancy’s boyfriend, who somehow managed to follow us across the country to try and win her back, or some shit.” Cassie shrugged.

She let out a laugh, supposing he was right: Eddie certainly wasn’t the kind of guy she saw on the streets of Boston or San Francisco. “Shit, I’m sorry. I mean, I’m from California, and we had nothing like that going on there. Honestly, more has happened in the past few weeks that I’ve been here than my whole life there.” Including, but not limited to, a weird night at the graveyard and an entire diner burning down. “I’m Cassie. I appreciate the personal escort.”

+++

see, any friend of nancy’s that nancy trusted and liked enough to invite to stay with her over break surely wouldn’t mean no harm and eddie immediately relaxed. the...unfortunate encounter with ‘unnamed asshole slash jason carver carbon copy’ still had him somewhat shaken, looking over his shoulder more often than usual. and, at the mention of a dubious boyfriend that had followed them across the country, he slowly began to connect the dots. hoped to god that he had connected them all wrong. “that, uh, that boyfriend of hers - does he, like, have a little temper problem? and, like...does he sort of look like a ken doll right out of the box? “

he chuckled at her statement, shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans. “yeah, hawkins sort of does that to a person. lived here all my life before i moved to chicago, twenty years of, like, constant mayhem. and not, like, the good kind of mayhem, either.” 

but he spared her the gory details, the story of how, two years ago, he had nearly died while being attacked by vampire demon bats in the literal hell version of hawkins underneath the town. “well, pleased to make your acquaintance, cassie.”, he said with a grin and gave an over-exaggerated bow. “may i inquire what brings you to the library on such a fine day?”

where: the harrington residence

what: panik ! ( u ok ? )

who: @stevehharringtcns​ + eddie. 

see, eddie had tried really really hard to just... go home, go to bed, fall asleep after whatever the fuck had happened at benny’s diner. the night it happened had been relatively easy to sleep through, seeing as he was absolutely knackered and bruised from bumping into random objects all night. but the night afterwards... eddie was laying awake, staring holes into his bedroom ceiling. shifting in his bed, trying to find a comfortable position to sleep but well, how could he when he himself was uncomfortable all over, after what they’d seen the day before. he looked to the sight, the digits of his radio alarm clock telling him that it was nearly 12. he should just shut his eyes, think of some nice little scenario and get some fucking sleep.

but he couldn’t. so, with a whine and a groan, eddie got up. got dressed and, without thinking, really, he climbed into his van, turned the keys in the ignition and started driving. without a set destination, really. or so he’d thought - for, about a quarter of an hour later, he found himself in steve harrington’s driveway.

god fucking damn it. why had his brain subconciously lead him here? perhaps it had something to do with the fact that, in every little scenario eddie thought of to help drift off into dreamland, steve was there, occupying some sort of role.

well. he was pretty much always part of the main cast but eddie pushed the thought away, that was something to figure out another day. again, without thinking, eddie hopped out of his van and sprinted towards the front door, furiously ringing the door bell, knocking, pressing his face against the little opal glass plane. praying to god that harrington’s parents were yet again on one of their infamous work trips.

“steve? steve, are you up?” eddie started knocking, pounding rather, on the door, too. “harrington! please!”

thequeenofhawkins·:

— ♔ —  

What. The. Fuck. 

It was a thought, one that Chrissy would never speak out loud, fear that Laura Cunningham would hear her all the way from the Cunningham two story house to the trailer park. She watched as Eddie backed away from her, grabbing the remote and using it as some sort of defense. Chrissy shook her head, trying to listen to his frantic voice. He was scared.

Scared of her. 

She couldn’t understand why. Sure, Chrissy was presumed dead or at the very least missing. Her parents buried an empty casket. People had mourned her. For all intensive purposes, she had come back from the dead. Chrissy just wasn’t thinking this would be her homecoming from Eddie. The same guy that had made her laugh. Like, genuinely laugh in years. After that, there was just darkness. Haziness. A cloud she couldn’t walk through. 

“What…” She couldn’t even get a sentence out from his yelling and then subsequently, his passing out. Chrissy could have ran, leave in the opposite direction. He’d wake up eventually and then it would be like she was never there, but she stepped into the trailer.

In an instant, heaviness hit her. Every step she took felt like there was someone pressing on her chest, it was nauseating. Something she didn’t feel prior to walking inside. Chrissy didn’t feel like she belonged inside and something told her it wasn’t because of a class difference. “Eddie?” She walked further, hoping he would pop back up, but he was still out cold. She bent down to his level, tapping him on the face. Again, hoping that would jolt him awake. “Eddie, wake up.”

+++

slowly, grimacing and groaning, eddie came to, from one if the most vivid nightmares he'd had in a long time. jesusxit had all felt so real. opening his door to see chrissy cunningham, queen of hawkins high, standing there - alive, breathing and fucking furious. standing in the doorway of the very trailer where she'd died some two years prior.

it had all felt so scarily real. just as real as the persistent tapping on his face that pulled him back to the realm of the living, the voice insisting that he 'wake up!'. and if he hadn't been quite so frightened and confused, eddie would've chuckled at that - the wax the voice echoed what he'd said to chrissy shortly before she'd started floating to the ceiling.

speak of the devil - another groan, eddie cracked one eye open. and met with the gave of chrissy cunningham once more, he instinctively backed into the wall behind him, hitting his head. eyes darted to the side for a moment - he'd dropped the tv remote when he'd fainted, it had slithered underneath the coffee table, out of reach. eddie gulped, backed himself as far as he could into the wall.

"this is not real - no, you are not real. this - am I dreaming? am i, like -", eyes widening even further, his breath hitched. "oh fuck, shit, am i dead? did I die? Is this, like, hell and you're coming back to haunt me?"

cassieconrads·:

WHO: cassie conrrad & @eddiemcnson· WHERE: skull rock

In the weekend of the Fourth of July, Cassie had learned a lot. Hawkins was under attack by some supernatural creature, no one could leave, the government may or may not have been covering the whole thing up, and the girl Cassie thought she’d seen in her head the night at the graveyard actually hadn’t been dead. Which meant that she had some sort of apology to give to the nice guy with the rockstar head of hair she’d seen on her way to the library when she’d been looking for more information: Eddie Munson. After describing the cheerleader in her head, Eddie had proceeded to practically run in the other direction, and Cassie couldn’t help but dig into why. 

As it turned out, Eddie had been some sort of town-declared freak, after all. They’d thought that he was responsible for the cult in the woods or something like that, all because of playing Dungeons and Dragons. But, after talking to Lucas and finding out that there was no way some teenager could have done this singlehandedly back then, Cassie had come to realize just how horrible Hawkins had been to the guy. 

Which was why, upon seeing him at the rock where another one of Mike’s friends had apparently gotten possessed, according to Nancy, Cassie didn’t turn in the other direction. She also didn’t want to scare him into thinking she was there to pick a fight, so she approached with her hands in the air, notebook full of DnD notes she’d taken in one, as this was supposed to be a research trip.  “Please don’t run away this time, I come in peace,” she pleaded, taking cautious steps forward. “I promise. I have a whole lot of explaining to do and a pack of cigarettes in my pocket, half of which could be yours,” Cassie offered, lowering her hands slowly with a grin. 

+++

this was stupid. stupid, stupid, stupid. eddie truly didn’t know what had posessed him when he’d stormed out the trailer, headphones clasped tightly on his head, blasting the sisters of mercy’s 1987 ‘floodland’. coincidentally the same album he’d listened to over and over again following the months of spring break ‘86. the tape was worn out, sounding mangled at times, he didn’t care. it still provided him an odd sort of comfort. 

perhaps it had been wayne’s concerned nagging, or the way eddie still felt the bruises callahan’s handcuffs had left on his wrist. or it had been the fact that, once again, he couldn’t show his face in town without being subjected to scrutiny. maybe it had been eddie’s own doing, in the end, his constant overthinking that had caused him to snap at his uncle - who only meant well, of course, and eddie knew this - and leave the trailer to go on a walk. clear his head. not that he could take any of his usual routes, not if he planned on coming back home unharmed, anyway. still, he wondered why his feet had carried him to skull rock. muscle memory, maybe. just like it had been muscle memory in ‘86 when he’d fled to the same place after a run in with jason carver that had very nearly cost him his life, hadn’t vecna claimed his next victim at a particularly convenient moment.

being back at that spot did nothing in terms of calming his jangled nerves, made him feel worse, if anything. the feeling of worse-ness heightened by the fact that he’d forgot his cigarettes at home. bullshit. a voice cut through his incessant thoughts and eddie jumped, ripped his headphones off his head, ready to make a run for it. wasn’t that - oh. right.

a frown settled on his features, he eyed her with suspicion, a couple of beats passed. finally, he nodded apprehensively. “hand ‘em over.” and he nodded for her to go on.

zccming·:

WHO: max mayfield & @eddiemcnson· WHAT: max checks in with eddie. WHERE: forest hills trailer park.

if max had to guess, she’d say she got a solid half hour of sleep in her twenty-four hours at the hospital. and that had been when she was waiting to get her hands stitched up per steve’s request. eventually, she checked on everyone one last time for the night, then peeled out of the hospital and straight for the trailer park. she was banking on eddie having been released and if he hadn’t yet? she was fully prepared to burn hawkins p.d to the fucking ground. it was like as soon as max ticked one concern off her post-disaster checklist, five more got added to the bottom. she didn’t have enough sleep on her side to keep up with it all, but she was trying. and in all fairness? it got infinitely easier to do when she ran out of tears to cry at around five o’clock in the evening that same day. 

skating from the hospital to the trailer park was a fucking trip and a half. max had learned that the hard way back in ‘86 when she stubbornly insisted she could still skateboard home with a broken arm. luckily for her, a car full of her friends who knew she was being stupid about the whole thing followed close behind to pick her up when she gave up less than halfway into the journey. max’s hands might have been bandaged, and her mind might’ve been a little broken following the warped record of what happened in the past twenty-four hours, but this time, she made it the whole way. it was the one place it made sense to go to first, share the news about steve.

carelessly, she chucked her board somewhere in the yard on her arrival, and willed her tired body to sprint up the steps and bang on the door. when eddie opened it, relief washed over her as she hugged him and refused to let go for a long minute, a minute where she didn’t think about how bad it was out there, and live in the space where she was happy she hadn’t lost another brother. when max stepped back she croaked up at him, “how fucked are you?” then she nodded a little, “don’t sugar coat it, munson.” she demanded. standing still, max suddenly felt jittery and couldn’t wait for his answer before interrupting him again, “wait, first, sit down.” she started barking orders the moment she got out of the house of mirrors, and hadn’t stopped since. figuring eddie hadn’t had the sense to eat, because she hadn’t, she beelined for the kitchen and got to fixing them…bowls of cereal. while she was digging in the fridge for milk, she called out to him, “you can answer now.” it took her about five minutes after that to sit down with their bowls that were most likely going to remain untouched. 

+++

despite his various run ins with the law over the years, eddie had only ever been arrested once before, when some nosy nelly had caught him with a joint in gareth's garage freshman year, and had promptly reported them. moving to chicago had made him clean up his act, or rather hide his act more proficiently. he wasn't dealing anymore, hadn't been since graduation, and when the cops once again raided one of the bars he frequented he was the first to pluck that bandana from his back pocket and book it.

returning to hawkins for the summer, eddie had been prepared for lots of things. dirty looks burning into his back, sneers, maybe even a couple pushes and shoves here and there. but he'd expected to be relatively safe, seeing as he'd planned to lay low, anyway. and now? now it was like '86 all over again. the upside down had undeniably snuck its way back into their lives, eddie felt the effects weigh heavy on his mind as he absentmindedly rubbed the burns that officer callahan's handcuffs had left on his wrists.

just like 86, when he'd woken up chained to a hospital bed until hopper and some dubious government agents had come through with a cover story, clearing him of all charges. just like 86, when he'd looked up from where he'd been pushed to the ground by callahan, he'd caught the curious bystander's looks. accusatory glances as he was manhandled to the back of the police car. 'that's him', they seemed to whisper among themselves, 'that's that deadbeat satan worshipper that killed all those kids' 86. no wonder he's responsible for this, too. '

he'd been home for approximately an hour or two when max had come knocking at his door. eddie hadn't slept a wink and it showed, lids threatening to flutter shut at any given moment, palms nearly bloody from how he'd nervously scratched at them for hours. when max had come knocking he'd simply opened the door, no 'hello', no 'thank fuck you're okay', not even a nod, he'd stepped aside to let her in. closed the door, then followed her order to sit down, the sofa felt weird underneath him, a sharp contrast to the rough, hard bench in the prison cell.

his eyes focused on nothing in particular, eddie coughed, mouth feeling awfully dry. when was the last time he'd had a sip of water? max's hands carrying the bowls came into view, he frowned. "what happened to your hand? are you hurt?"

backtowheeler​:

— ✎ —

Nancy had definitively decided she despised being in the hospital. Every time a nurse came in to check on her, she’d just ask when she’d be able to go home with not much of an answer. In her mind, she wasn’t even that badly injured! Her casted wrist didn’t even hurt, allegedly, and the pain in her ribs was bearable at best. Not to mention the scrapes and bruises she had sustained, but she was fine! She was sure of it. In fact, she was so confident that she was planning on proving it. She had to play it out carefully, though. Nancy waited until her parents were gone and that no one was on duty with her to make her great escape. It took her a few minutes, but she managed to slide out of the hospital bed, finally feeling free from the chains of such an uncomfortable mattress.

Nancy eventually found a bag that has spare clothes in it, assumingly for her once she was released but she was going to put them on now. Reaching down to put on her pair of socks, she heard the door open. Shit. Her head popped up, just as stunned as Eddie, thinking she had just gotten caught. “My liege?” That was a new one. She nodded. “Right,” she finished putting on her other sock best she could with her good hand. “I had no idea you and Steve were boyfriends or whatever,” a joke, and a poor one at that. 

At his question, Nancy stood up from the bed, wincing slightly but attempting to cover it up with a laugh. “How do I look? Great, right?” Great was an overstatement. She hadn’t even bothered to tuck her shirt into her pants and her hair was matted in the back from how long she had laid on the pillow. “Wanna help me with something? I’m trying to escape this shithole.”

+++

his confused and sleep-deprived gaze travelled down her form to where she was currently in the process of putting her socks on. getting dressed. in something other than a hospital gown. something was off here. but before eddie had time to quite put his finger on it, he suddenly jumped at the word ‘boyfriend’. crap. had she heard them? their rooms were right next to each other, after all. nervous eyes flicked to the washed out teal colored walls. they did seem quite sturdy ... however, if he concentrated hard enough, eddie was almost sure he could hear the constant beeping noise of one of the monitors steve and cole were hooked up to. shit.

“hey now, where did you pick that one up?” was what he settled on eventually, paired with a nervous chuckle meant to sound aloof and like this was totally not a big deal. it wasn’t. besides, nancy was dating someone else, and her and steve hadn’t been a thing in ages. and - nancy was a great person. she wouldn’t ... eddie sniffled, scrunched up his nose, discarded that train of thought right away.

now wholly focused on the barely unnoticeable wince nancy had tried to cover up. a sound he knew all too well, after all, he’d been in her position not two years ago.the desperate need to get out, convincing yourself that you were all better now, actually, thanks so much for asking. eddie gave a little amused scoff, shrugged. “you look fine, nancy. considering.” 

considering that the universe wouldn’t let them catch a break, apparently. that a lifetime of trauma experienced in the span of, what, three years, wasn’t enough. eddie wondered if they’d ever be free of this. the hospital visits, the constant worrying, the fighting, the loss. the nights spent laying awake with the lights on. “woah, where do you think you’re going? listen, i’d help you with anything, man, but, like, i think a couple more days of r&r wouldn’t do you any harm. trust me.”

colemontgomeryx·:

xx.

Cole usually didn’t get nervous; he had an unearned air of confidence supported by the belief that he could get with any guy. The flirting was no problem, but after that? When the feeling was returned? It had been so long since he’d felt this. Finally, Eddie was reciprocating and moving closer to him, confirming that Eddie felt it too.

Cole breathed in deeply, catching a whiff of Eddie’s cologne mingling with cigarette smoke. A smell that made Cole want to bury his face into Eddie’s chest, so he could smell it on himself the rest of the night. Cole couldn’t drag his eyes away from Eddie’s lips, watching the other run his tongue along his bottom lip.

“We’re in a mall,” Cole repeated, his voice breathy. “There are plenty of places to hide. And I doubt the vandals will notice we’re gone,” he grinned, tugging on Eddie’s shirt as if to say let’s go now. 

+++

his thoughts were spiralling, dizzy with how close they suddenly were to one another. a contact high, if you will, eddie thought and nearly chuckled at his own joke that he had cracked, to himself, in his own head. decided against it because he had a strong feeling that that might ruin the mood. and after his love life had been a big heap of, well, nothing, these past few months, eddie was definitely not trying to do anything that could potentially ruin the mood.

eddie watched, enraptured, as cole’s eyes stuck to his lips and is own darted down to cole’s. and man, while he hadn’t taken much notice of him in hgih school, he now wondered why - cole was pretty. like, very pretty. the relevation hit eddie hard, made his breath hitch. shit.

his heart skipped a beat, stopped for a second, he thought, as he felt cole tug on his shirt. he bit his lip as his eyes flicked down to cole’s lips, god, they really had to get out of there, stat. so eddie nodded, hummed in agreement. grabbed hold of his wrist and looked around for a moment before he dragged him off around the corner, pressing him up against a marble pillar.

nervous eyes searching is. “uh...you, uh, sure about this?”