# Eddie Is Fed Up With Their Lack Of Music Culture

zccming·:

.

max was comfortable with silence, silence was safe most of the time. she could live there for a while if needed. she knew full well that she wasn’t the best with words, and usually, if ever, people didn’t come to her for her motivational speeches. more often than not, it looked like this, max going to someone and offering herself up as a shoulder, someone to share the load of a burden with if only for a little while. at least, lately, that’s what it looked like. 

she watched eddie not speaking, setting her bowl down when he did, quietly indicated, nah, me either. it was the thought that counted or whatever, right? when eddie frantically verified that she was alright, max kept an expression of stone as she nodded. she was more or less in one piece, so was he, so was steve, so was everyone. now she wasn’t happy all of this had happened, but the relief that came with doing her rounds and seeing her friends alive and breathing was enough to propel her through a sleepless twenty four hours at the hospital, and a long ride on her board back home. 

their wordless processing ended though as eddie confessed, his voice uneasy. max hadn’t really seen him like this. not for a long time, not since they’d gotten closer. instantly, she jumped to all of the ways she could fix this, which started with calming eddie down and ended with something along the lines of throwing callahan in a deep deep pit he couldn’t crawl out of. “you’re not a monster.” she said swiftly and with such conviction she hoped it knocked into him like a punch, like he’d have no choice but to believe it. “you were innocent then and you’re innocent now.” max wouldn’t tell him it was okay because she knew he didn’t feel like it was. “they haven’t released names yet, i don’t think anyone other than…us saw it happen.” she used reason to talk him down.  

when none of that seemed to work and he shook his head and began a spiral, max yelled, hopping to snap him out of it “eddie!” she took his hands and offered the following words like a get out of jail free card, “steve will not let anything happen to you. i will not let anything happen to you.” she laughed a wryly, hoping to make everything feel less heavy, “you think robin, and nancy, and literally anyone else would let that slide? fuck no.” she shook her head, then offered her final comfort, “we’ve figured it out like four times before, we’ll do it again. you’re a vet this time, munson. you just gotta screw your head back onto your shoulders.” 

+++

eddie scoffed, slumping further back into the couch, wishing it would swallow him whole. “yeah, and just like ‘86 nobody’s gonna believe me. real fucking nice.” he didn’t mean to snap at her, neither of them had anything to do with the utter chaos that was currently playing out in hawkins. but the rational part of his brain had long since bid its farewell and he simply hoped that max knew this. what did it matter if he was innocent or not? when people already stared at him , mistrusted him without a solid reason. now they had one and eddie didn’t want to imagine what the scalding looks burning into the back of his head could soon turn into. because he knew it, he’d lived it, and he couldn’t again, never again.

he gave her hands a short, tight squeeze before he relased them, carding his fingers through his tangled hair. taking deep breaths, he squeezed his eyes shut for a moment. this was just max, just max. meaning only good. trying to calm him. there was no reaosn to get upset, not with her. his mouth felt awfully dry. when he opened his eyes again they were fixed to the ceiling, looking at nothing in particular. “yeah, yeah, well, you remember what happened last time, right? i’m a vet, sure, but ... i almost wasn’t. almost wasn’t anything anymore.” and his lip quivered slightly at the memory, it was still fresh as day. a swarm of demobats circling around him, knocking him to the ground. a sharp sting in his side soon followed by agony and a fade to black, a teary goodbye, a faint white light. a faint white light that, for some reason, perhaps divine intervention, had faded into a shrill green-ish one, the distinct hue of hospital fluorescents. 

but what good had it ever done, dwelling on the past? dwelling on what almost had been, eddie munson, only good for running, it seemed. ‘don’t try to be cute, don’t try to be a hero’. he should’ve just listened to steve, stayed a decoy. heroism clearly didn’t suit him. thinking of... he sat up a little straighter. “how’s - how’s steve? have you seen him?”

where: blue quarry mall

who: eddie + max !

@zccming​​

despite popular belief, eddie wasn’t completely clueless. he was in a lot of matters, mostly concerning normal social interactions, but he wasn’t completely oblivious to what had happened those years ago on the very spot they were now standing, partying. after venturing through the upside down he’d been filled in on most of the gory details on what whack shit had taken place in hawkins and it had all started to make a little more sense.

presently, eddie knew, they were very much dancing on graves. of people who had died posessed by the mindflayer, people who had been ‘collateral damage’ and people who had heroically sacrificed themselves. people like billy hargrove.

he’d never been that close to billy, hadn’t come to known the guy that well, except for a few hushed drug deals here and there. their connection hadn’t gone past a somewhat acknowledging nod to one another at a metal gig. but eddie knew that, in a twisted way, he’d filled the position that billy had left -

- in max mayfield’s life. so he’d kept close watch of her througout the evening from his position next to the stereo. when he’d spotted her a little further away from the crowd, he’d quickly made his way over.

“hey kid. you good? having fun?”

walkie talks || steddie

steve: that's not what i meant, eddie! i just want a private talk, that's all...

steve: i wanted to come over but i wasn't sure if you wanted to see me...

steve: i've been trying for days to get on the... right fucking channel, or whatever

steve: i just... i wanna know what happened back in the cabin

eddie: a private talk on a walkie line any of the shitbirds could intercept at, like, any moment, huh?

eddie: gotta say i probably wouldn't have fist bumped the air if i'd seen you pull up in my driveway

eddie:... i say drive way like it isn't a trailer park

eddie: anyway

eddie: thought it was quite obvious what happened at the cabin. *you* made it quite obvious, chief.

walkie talks || steddie

steve: okay, let's try this shit again...

steve: eddie, are you there?

steve: uh...over?

eddie: wh - hello?

eddie: uh ...

eddie: who is this.

stevehharringtcns·:

just thinking about that night sent shivers down his spine. he was sure that he was never going to forget that, how could he? he would be lying if he occasionally didn’t have nightmares about it, but he tried to shut them out. he was also sure that he wasn’t the only one who dreamt about getting attacked by demobats or about vecna. everyone down there had to share the same trauma they both did. “you definitely got the worst of it all, eddie… from what dustin told me, you could have…” he said, stopping himself from saying anything else, fearing to put that out in the universe. “you were the hero that time around.” he said with a small nod of his head.

being this close to eddie felt right to steve and it made him forget about the world outside of that room. it seemed like nothing was going to ruin this moment as long as they stayed in bed. “no need to thank me, i just want to help.” he said, nodding his head. it was true anyway, eddie had showed up at his door, clearly panicked about everything going on and steve just wanted to help in the best way he could. he couldn’t control the giant eggs or whatever was running around the woods at that very moment, but he could help eddie.

“people should be nicer to you… i mean, i probably wasn’t… you know, during high school.” steve thought back to the person he used to be in high school. it only took a demogorgon and a nancy wheeler for him to actually become a better person, but that was past the point. he remembered making fun of everyone who wasn’t popular, meaning that he probably hadn’t been the nicest to eddie when he was in high school, throwing snarky comments his way when he knew he shouldn’t.

and now there he was, kissing eddie munson on his bed. it felt like it was something that should have happened two years before, but better late then never, right? he only deepened the kiss, propping  himself up on his elbow as dove down for another kiss until they finally pulled away once steve realized that he could have been hurting the other’s bruise.

listening to eddie say that everything was okay, steve nodded his head slowly as he stared into his eyes for a couple of moments. suddenly, everything that eddie had told him before, the flirting and all of it, it made sense in steve’s head. why hadn’t he realized that before? it wasn’t that hard to notice, but yet, steve had gone through all of the signs that eddie gave him and now he just felt stupid.

before he knew it, steve was grabbing him by his shoulder and pulling him down for another kiss. steve didn’t hesitate as his arm slithered around the other’s waist and pulled him even closer, if it was even possible, deepening the kiss, hungry for more. after all, this had been a long time coming, steve had been the one who hadn’t realized it. he pulled away again, as he looked down at eddie and at his lips. “uh… um… do-do you want to get some sleep?” he asked, biting down on his lower lip. the other had gone to his place to rest and now they were making out. steve thought the other would be tired. “we don’t… need to, i’m not tired.” he said with a nod.

+++

"gotta say, you definitely didn't give me the impression that you were too fond of my existence back in high school.", eddie said with a chuckle, absent-mindely shuffling closer to steve. lost in thought for a moment, how school now seemed like such a distant time, a different land, different life lived by a different person. back when they'd been eddie 'the freak' and king steve. when everyone's biggest worries had been who they were taking to homecoming and what their position in the social hierarchy of hawkins high was. it was funny thinking about that now, after all they'd been through. left a bittersweet taste in eddie's mouth. "but you sorta made up for it when you, like, heroically slayed the dragon and saved the world from doom. all good now, harrington. don't worry 'bout it."

steve's arm around his waist made him shiver and he gasped into the kiss, arms wrapped around steve neck, pulling him further down. all his worries, the nightmares that kept him awake usually, seemingly forgotten the instant their lips had connected. god, Eddie was sure he could do this for hours. really, eddie could die right then and there and be happy and content with his life, simply because he'd spent his last moments kissing steve harrington.

the mere thought of it made him dizzy with glee. he hummed, a pleased sound, and experimentally liked across steve's bottom lip just as the other pulled away.

eddie knew he looked a mess - lips swollen, cheeks flushed, eyes impossibly wide. he was panting, the mere sight of steve took his breath away, and eddie swallowed. "i... uh, i don't know. i'm.... i mean if you don't wanna, like, continue or something...." all the while his eyes darted between steve's, fingers toying with the hair at the nape of steves neck. "you know what i am pretty tired."

eddie exhaled shakily, his eyes dropped to steve's lips, fingertips tracing across his cheek, in awe. "but i also kinda want to keep kissing you."

cassieconrads·:

Cassie looked up from concentrating on her map to take stock of the guy in front of her, who claimed to be Hawkins’ biggest outcast with a disclaimer. She couldn’t imagine why, if Hawkins itself was already an anomaly, that the town decided to pick on one particular resident. Thankfully, Cassie’s temporary residence lent itself to not giving a shit about who she hung out with this summer; she’d be leaving Indiana soon enough. She folded up the map, sticking it in the back pocket of her jeans as she stood to join the stranger on their walk in the direction of the library.

“I don’t mind,” she assured him, “I’m just here for the summer, crashing at the Wheeler residence.” It was getting old, having to introduce herself as the new girl, but she supposed that it was better than a ‘freak’, as her companion had so described himself. “May I ask how you acquired that title, or is that too intrusive for a singular block into our walk?”

+++

he pressed his lips together into an awkward smile, shoved his hands into the pockets of his denim vest, nodding for her to come along as they set off towards the library. he felt himself visibly relax once she mentioned the wheeler’s - if she was staying nancy and mike then he was definitely safe with her, or rather from her, even if a stray angry hick decided to expose just why he was deemed the town freak. 

“the wheeler’s.”, he said and hummed, nodded in acknowledgement. “they got a pretty nice pad. are you one of nancy’s college friends? or...” eddie looked at her, eyes narrowed. “ .. or in some dubious connection to mike?”

at her question eddie gave a shrug, steered them to the right to turn onto the main street. “well, for starters i don’t really look like your average small town prom king.”, he said, blew a lock off her from out of his eyes. “and i was, uh, head of the dnd club at school. mike was in it, too, actually. then the ‘satanic panic’ spread over ‘murica.” eddie wiggled his fingers, raised his brows before he dropped the theatrics, chuckled.

“i don’t know, people are werid, started saying we’re not actually playing dnd but worshipping satan.”, he shrugged.  “i’m eddie, by the way.”

backtowheeler·:

— ✎ —

“I thought you would enjoy it, okay?” Nancy defended herself, even though she knew Eddie wasn’t being serious with any of his theatrics. A laugh emitted from her lips, somehow being able to find the humor in what they had just discovered and ultimately, destroyed. That was a crap shoot though, wasn’t it? The evil in Hawkins would never be defeated, no matter how many monsters or people they got rid of. It would come back like a plague until Hawkins burned to the ground, taking its hell with it.

Nancy chortled. “That’s not saying much,” she teased, opening the passenger door. “Mike wouldn’t know good driving if it hit him in the face and…” she clicked her tongue. “It’s probably best if Max never gets behind a wheel. I’ve been trying to teach her how to drive and, Jesus Christ, I don’t think she knows where the brakes are,” it was unfortunate, considering Nancy was attempting to teach her so she’d be able to leave Hawkins one day, but that didn’t seem to be anytime soon. 

She buckled herself in and turned to Eddie. “Yeah? She gets me around and that’s good enough to me. Thad always tells me that I need to get something better than the station wagon,” she explained. It was a car, a vehicle to drive, and that’s all she cared about. “He calls it an abomination to vehicles everywhere,” she held her fingers up in quotation marks and lowered her voice. 

“Oh, this?” She glanced down at her hand, inspecting the damage somewhat. It was nasty. “I’ll be fine. Nothing some Neosporin and a bandage won’t fix. I’ll even have a cool matching scar,” she pointed out, holding up her left hand, a faded mark still etched in her skin from when her and Jonathan had lured the Demogorgon to his house years ago.

+++

"fucking hell, you've got some balls, wheeler, taking it upon yourself to teach that heathen how to drive. I'd fear for my fucking life.", he muttered with a frown, one that turned into a bit of a grimace as he remembered the time he'd allowed max to drive the van. out of the driveway, that was, eddie had very nearly seen his life flash in front of his eyes.

he started the car, carefully and skillfully maneuvering them out from her parking spot onto the road. eddie frowned again. "well it's sure as hell not a limousine but i wouldn't go as far as calling it an abomination.", he said, then, with a quirked brow, added: "thad?"

chewing on his bottom lip, eddie glanced down at nancy's hands before focusing his attention back on the road. "well, if you say so. matching scars are metal as hell, though.", he says with a little grin, an attempt to lighten the mood. "where'd you get the other one? this ain't your first time burning down a beloved family owned diner?"

where: the roof of the munson trailer

what: some quality sibling time

who: @zccming​​ + eddie

it had been approximately twenty-two hours since steve and eddie had been subject to an unlikely relationship counseling session, deep in the woods surrounding skull rock, orchestrated by one murray baumann. approximately twenty hours since steve had left his trailer - not that eddie was counting. he was. and eddie munson was for all intents and purposes ecstatic. he couldn’t remember the last time he’d felt this happy, this light-hearted. his thoughts had not wandered off to the upside down once in the last twenty-two hours, the ever-present threat lingering in the air all but forgotten, replaced entirely by steve, steve, steve.

really, eddie munson felt wonderful. fantastic. about himself, the world. god, he couldn’t give a rat’s ass about what the upside down would throw their way next. with steve by his side, he was sure he could conquer anything. eddie was happy, extremely happy, but most importantly, he was fucking itching to tell someone, anyone.

well, not anyone. one person in particular came to mind with whom he wanted to share the happy news first. max mayfield - sister from another mister. and.... mother, too, but eddie couldn’t think of an adequate rhyme for that one. sib from another crib. anyway.

eddie had bolted out the door, knocked on max’s trailer and all but abducted her, the two of them now comfortably laying on a blanket on the roof of eddie’s trailer. eddie toyed with the joint between his fingers as he leaned back on his elbows, a dumb smile on his face. a stupid little lovesick grin. eddie felt like he could burst.

“max, what’s been goin’ on with you lately? what’ve you been up to?”, he asked, tilted his head to the side to face her. “ok, no, wait. i need to tell you something first. something.... major.”

scribblcs·:

WHO: gabe diaz & @eddiemcnson· WHAT: gabe spots a familiar face WHERE: downtown hawkins

gabe was settling into hawkins nicely. sure, it was vastly different from chicago, but this small town quiet was something he might be able to get used to. he’d seen a few patients already, but he still had a lot of downtime. on an ideal day, he walked to downtown in the morning, tried some coffee, read the paper, then went to work. following sessions, he liked to walk the town again, try some more coffee, then return home. gabe was really making an effort to immerse himself with the civilians. he’d gotten tangled up in a deep conversation with an elderly gentleman inside of melvald’s late in the afternoon, and they strolled about town together for a while before they parted ways, leaving gabe to finish out his walk alone at dusk. 

at least, he’d thought it would be alone. a couple feet ahead of him, an unmistakable mound of hair veered around the corner and gabe curiously squinted. that bandana certainly looked familiar…tailing the other for a while, he remained inconspicuous until he stole a glimpse of the other and got confirmation that he was in fact, eddie munson, a client from back in chicago. laughing in disbelief, gabe cupped his hands together and warmly called, “eddie!” last he’d heard from eddie, he was taking another trip back to his hometown, how was he to know that it was hawkins? despite how in depth they had gone about how horrible it was for him there, they’d never gotten on a first name basis with the place. gabe knew he made frequent visits, but typically, they weren’t this long, and when gabe left town to take up this new job, he worried about how eddie might react upon his return to find out his therapist had up and left him. luckily, those worries were quickly erased as soon as gabe saw how well eddie seemed to be faring. approaching him, beaming, gabe went in for a hug. oftentimes his heart seemed to get in the way from successfully preventing professional bleeding into personal and such was the case with eddie. he was one of many clients that gabe took a personal liking too, worried a little more about, and hoped extra harder they’d have an emotionally rich future. pulling back from the hug, gabe laughed in disbelief, “i have to admit, i’m quite surprised to see you here. i’m sure you could say the same.” 

while this was all well and good, it gave gabe second thoughts about hawkins. if this was the town that was such a source of hurt for one eddie munson, maybe it wasn’t as nice as he was starting to believe. 

+++

today was ... weird, to say the least. having previously ridden the high of managing to make steve all flustered and blushed when he’d stopped by family video, eddie’s modd had been dampened significantly by his run in with mayor spencer, leaving with a weird feeling in the pit of his stomach as he turned the corner, made his way back to his car. maybe he should park closer to family video next. re-route his evening walks to go through the woods instead of downtown hawkins. lost in thought, he’d barely even taken notice of the figure that had started to follow him, jumping slightly, hand on his heart as he ehard someone call his name.

turning around, prepared to lock eyes with someone who was definitely not fond of seeing him around town, eddie found he was pleasantly surprised as his former therapist came into view. slowly, he lowered his hand, squinted. “.... dr. diaz ? what - what are you- “ doing here, he thought as he was interrupted by gabe’s arms puilling him into a tight hug. one that eddie eagerly returned, wide smile on his face. “yeah... well, my boss is travelling the states for the summer, gave everyone an advance and closed up shop. thought i’d stop by here, pay my uncle a visit, you know.” he shrugged, non-chalantly, as if he hadn’t described hawkins as ‘hell on earth’ to gabe during therapy sessions for the last, like, three years. “and you? what brings you to hicksville, indiana?”