Murray-baumans·:

xihopper·:

-

Eleven beamed happily when he complimented her roll, although she really hadn’t had much to do with it. It was all luck. But still, it was definitely exciting to think about it, and to hear again how great it was from someone who knew what he was talking about. “Thank you!” she said brightly. She thought about it for a second. “My friends like to play,” she said. “I would play with them. I think they would like it if you played, too.” She paused, looking up at him. “If you wanted to play,” she added. Just to be polite. 

El understood what it was like to be judged by something far less than your actual self. When she had first started school, everyone had treated her like she was…well, a freak. And she could understand that, in part. It wasn’t like she was normal. But she was more than what she had gone through, more than the vestiges of trauma – of living like a rat in a cage, with no autonomy, no future, no love – that it had left her with. Underneath all of that, like Eddie, she was a good person. She was soft. And all she wanted was the opportunity to be soft, to find others to cushion the blows from the world, people she could offer the same protection. 

She couldn’t help but giggle at his reaction. “Yes,” she said, clearly pleased. He thought she was a superhero – only superheroes had superpowers, after all. “I can show you?” She sounded eager to do so, especially since he was clearly so excited. El gave another little giggle. “It’s lovely to meet you, Eddie,” she said, with the good manner that Joyce and Hopper had taught her.

+++

and this was why he played, why he’d dedicated every lunch period to scanning the cafeteria for lost soulds. that smile, that happy beam. the excitement so clearly audible in her voice. god, yeah, he fucking missed it. “well, i’ll have you know that i would like it if played too. i used to run hellfire, you know. and  - don’t tell anyone this - “, he wiggled his brows suggestively, put one finger over his mouth in a ‘shh’ motion - “but i may or may not have been planning another one of my notoriously and epically sadistic campaigns these past few months.”

though even the thought of playing dnd or proposing another campaign of his own had been pushed far, far into the background by the continuous tragic events befalling the town. and it was refreshing, talking about something so normal for a change, admist all the crazy that was going on.

not that eddie would necessarily deem the topic of ‘superpowers’ normal but hey, this was hawkins, after all, and superpowers seemed somehow more ordinary than half the stuff that was going on. he eagerly nodded at her suggestion, an excited glint in his eyes. “would you? i mean, you don’t - like, you totally don’t have to. i mean, i bet there’s loads of people asking you to show them your tricks or something, right? so, totally up to you, kid.” throwing her a look that both said ‘i respect whatever choice you make’ and ‘ please, please, please show me your superpowers’.

rcbinbvckleys·:

⚢

all robin seemed to be able to do when eddie spoke even louder was laugh. “you are so annoying.” she shook her head fondly, paying no real mind to the loud music coming from the bedroom. this was eddie they were talking about, and if there was one thing besides hellfire that he was known for, it was his love of music. which is why robin wasn’t fazed, and she was pretty used to it by now. it was just something that came with their friendship.

 “i will never forget that mattress in my life. the image is still carved into my eyelids.” robin hoped that somewhere along the line, eddie or at least his uncle had replaced the old thing. but until she received explicit confirmation, it was pretty likely that she would purposely stay well away from sitting on eddie’s bed. 

 taking the joint from eddie’s hand, robin took a long drag from it. “where do i even start?” another drag, just for good measure before passing it back to him. “do you ever feel like, something’s going on but you just can’t be too sure about it?”

+++

the second the joint was taken from his fingers eddie buried his face in his palms, partly to hide the embarrassed flush that rose to his cheeks, a long groan falling from his lips. "buckley, please, i'm begging you - I know it was gross, okay? i have a new mattress now and i - i don't know what those stains were, okay?"

eddie knew absolutely what those stains were but the nature of said stains was a secret he'd take to his grave. he flung his hands about, gestured for robin to move on to a different topic of conversation.

he sat up a little straighter as she spoke, took the joint from her hands, a long inhale. "uh..." brows pulled together, he followed the smoke as it traveled up from his mouth to the ceiling. "just.... like, on a daily basis." a lopsided grin, he huffed. "what's this about, rob?"

dvstybuns·:

WHO: Henderson & @eddiemcnson·

WHAT: Screaming Crying Throwing Up Post Event

WHERE: Eddie’s Trailer 

Everything at the carnival after they’d exited the Tunnel of Love had seemed to happen so fast. One minute, Dustin was trying to study some black goo, and the next he was watching people die. People get knocked out. Eddie get arrested. If Steve hadn’t been hurt, Dustin would have tried to intervene, convince Callahan that he couldn’t arrest Eddie just because. Because… because what proof did they have that he was even connected? Why was Eddie always the scapegoat? Why couldn’t he catch a fucking break for once?

He’d gotten out of jail sometime later, before Steve was out of the hospital. Dustin had already gone home by then, collapsing after explaining everything about the Upside Down to his extremely understanding and wonderful girlfriend. When he’d woken up and convinced his mother that he was fine and didn’t need to be watched so closely every fucking minute, Dustin had set out for Eddie’s trailer. 

Dustin didn’t know if Eddie’s uncle, Wayne, would have had time for grocery shopping or anything like that since everything that had happened. He couldn’t imagine that he did. So, on his way over, Dustin had picked up a pizza for the Munson’s. They all needed to eat something, no matter how poor their appetites were right now. 

“Eddie?” Dustin called, knocking on the door. “Dude, are you here?” He hoped that Eddie was okay; Dustin couldn’t imagine being in jail. He knew he wouldn’t make it. But thankfully, Eddie was a lot tougher than him. He was a hero, after all. “I thought you could use some dinner.” 

+++

eddie blamed his lack of sleep and judgement but somehow, steve had managed to convince him to leave his bedside for a while. leave the hospital altogether, and despite swearing high and holy that he’d not leave steve out of his sight again, now or ever, he’d eventually complied, after not even fifteen minutes of protest. he’d grabbed his stuff, pressed a kiss to steve’s lips, promising to come back in two hours tops. the rest was hazy. wayne had waited for him at home, pulled him into a bone crushing hug, he remembered that much. one of them had cried, maybe both. it seemed to be all eddie was capable of doing since the carnival. then his uncle had steered him into his room and lights out, the world had gone dark the second eddie’s body had hit his disgusting, worn out mattress. 

he’d woken up with that icky feeling you got from napping too long, mouth dry and sticky, eyes seemingly glued shut, a faint buzz all over his body. no sense of time at all. it was darker outside, he noted as he blinked, eyes narrowed, but not by much. rubbing sleep out of his eyes, he’d dragged himself out of bed to open the door, a faint smile playing at his lips as dusting came into view.

“hey, henderson, hey, man. how’s it going.” it wasn’t a question and eddie didn’t wait for an answer as he pulled dustin into the trailer and into a tight hug, not as strong as wayne’s hug had been earlier but nearly. eddie pressed his lips into a thin lip, exhaled sharply through his nose. he’d only just woken up but he was ready to cry again. god, if he could he’d jump straight into his van and drive back to chicago. taking dustin with him, of course, and max, and steve, and everyone who was near and dear to him. in time he released dustin from his grip, reached up to ruffle through hair. “thanks, man.” you didn’t have to. but dustin never had to and he always did, anyway. eddie gave him a sleepy smile. “how are you holding up? are you okay? you’re not hurt or anything?”

rcbinbvckleys·:

⚢

slipping in the front door of eddie’s trailer, robin almost had the scare of her life when eddie called her name from such a short distance. “do you ever speak at a normal volume?” a rhetorical question, for she already knew the answer. eddie always had a lot of energy, it was almost admirable and very infectious. perhaps one of the reasons robin enjoyed his company so much. besides the fact that she didn’t ever feel the need to hide with eddie, which in itself was extremely freeing.

“i’ve been here before, dingus. i remember that mattress of yours, for example.” and how gross it was. flashing a mischievous grin in eddie’s direction, robin joined him on the couch, eyes fixed on watching his hands work at rolling the joint. he was much better at rolling than she was, probably because he’d had a lot more practice. sure she’d been to eddie’s trailer a number of times but nothing could really compare to the first few where they’d literally all been on the verge of death.

“it’s good. no, great!” a barefaced lie and they both knew it. maybe getting high with eddie munson was the release that robin needed right now, but would that really make everything just… go away? sure, for a little while but not completely. “actually, i’ve been kind of distracted recently.”

+++

“huh? what was that?”, he called out, even louder, a wide, toothy, teasing grin on his face. he’d turned up his stereo real loud, not loud enough to cause any of the neigbours to call the cops on him but loud enough so that the muffled sounds of the latest ‘ratt’ record were audible in the living room.

eddie grimaced as she mentioned the mattress, resisted the urge to pull his hair over his face to hide behind it, seeing as he wasn’t particularly keen on having it go up in flames. “oh my god, robin, just let it go. please. i give you plenty enough material for your mediocre jokes as is, let the fucking mattress go.”, he muttered around puffs, brows drawn together. 

but he loved it, their dynamic. hanging out with robin was always easy and comfortable, didn’t feel forced at all. their vibes just .. matched, it was hard to explain. after vecna, after everything had happened and they’d gotten closer, started to hang out more, eddie had often wondered why they hadn’t been friends in high school.

kicking his feet up on the coffee table, he passed the joint to her, eyed her with a frown. “bullshit.”, he said, crossed his arms over his chest. “what’s the matter, what’s going on?”

stevehharringtcns·:

steve felt like this was right, like he always meant to be like this with eddie. when the other had invited him to go to his place, steve didn’t hesitate when he said yes, knowing that they needed to spend time together after being apart. sure, they weren’t apart for that long, but steve felt like he needed to spend more time with eddie. so there they were, sitting on eddie’s couch. they were lucky that his uncle was out or this would have been awkward, but with eddie’s legs on his lap and with them kissing occasionally, steve felt like he was in heaving, his hand resting on eddie’s leg as he pulled him down for a kiss again, blushing slightly at the contact.

when they broke the kiss, steve felt his hair tangle on one of eddie’s rings and he whined lowly. “ow, ow, ow…” he hissed as he finally rid himself of the ring, smiling at eddie right after and letting out a chuckle. the way he called him princess made him blush, but that was another talk that steve wasn’t ready to have. he didn’t know why he liked it so much. “it’s okay, plus the rings look hot on you, you don’t need to take them off.” he said as he pulled him for yet another kiss and smirked into it. this felt nice.

steve smiled when eddie grabbed his hand, steve almost immediately pulling it to press a kiss on eddie’s hand and nodding his head. “you look so cute.” he said with a smile, before squeezing the other’s cheek. it was almost as an instinct as he did so, and steve was glad that the two could share this moment without having any kids barging in. steve only hoped that dustin wouldn’t come in the house or even worse, that he would yell code red through the walkie. but it wasn’t the time to think about that.

“sure, we can watch a movie…” he said, knowing that the two probably wouldn’t pay that much attention to the movie. “oh, do you have dirty dancing? i…” he said, before blushing and lowering his tone. “love that movie…” he said, letting out a small chuckle as he leaned down to kiss eddie’s forehead lovingly.

+++

lovingly. everything steve did was so caring, loving, that eddie felt his heart might just burst. this was uncharted territory for him, hell, eddie had never even dated anyone, or not properly. not like steve harrington was dating him. the forehead kisses, swinging your intertwined hands between each other as you walk - and love letters and sharing as milshake in a fifties diner kind of dating. proper, nice. nobody had ever treated eddie ‘the freak’ munson as nice as steve ‘the hair’ harrington, and he gazed up at him in awe, a grin on his lips, all wide and toothy.

the amount of attention steve payed him was unfamiliar, too. eddie didn’t have to ask or beg for kisses, no, steve kissed him on his own accord, grabbed his hand, pressed light pecks to his cheek. he was there, ever present, and eddie thought that this might be what his heaven would look like after he died.

he giggled, downright giggled, and pulled his hair in front of his face to hide his blush. “oh my god, steve harrington called me cute, i might just, like, die, he’s so fly and, like a total hottie.”, he said in his best valley girl impression, chuckling all the way through it, wiggling his eyebrows. eddie bat his lashes at steve, then leaned in to press a gross, wet kiss to his cheek. “you’re hella cute, too.”

he shivered, shook his head and limbs, as if shaking off the valley girl character for good. another forehead kiss had eddie biting his lip, brushing furiously. lips twitching, on the verge of bursting into a loud cackle. “dirty dancing, man?”, he echoed, eyes widening. he purse dhis lip to stop the smile from spreading. “i mean, like .... okay, if you tell anyone this then your ass is grass, steve, yeah? i’m going to kill you, like, satanic ritualistic dnd murder your ass for real, but ... “  eddie held up a finger as if to say ‘don’t move’ before he jumped up towards the tv, digging through the few vhs tapes stored in the small cupboard underneath.victorious smile on his face, he quickly popped the tape in and rejoined steve on the couch. rubbing his hands together as the title sequence to ‘dirty dancing’ started playing.

“i’m .. .yeah, i watched that movie religiously when it came out. i’ve got the biggest crush on patrick swayze. you know, you two kinda look alike.”

Black Sabbath - Paranoid  ♰

colemontgomeryx·:

xx.

As redness overtook Eddie’s cheeks, Cole took another drag of his cigarette. “Yes, I’m gay. You can say it,” he confirmed, his voice remaining low. Cole was sure Eddie would never out him, partially because that wasn’t Eddie’s character, and partially because of mutually assured destruction.

It was exhausting to have to keep such a large part of him a secret, and Cole was frustrated by it. Maybe that’s why he told Eddie (other than, obviously, trying to hook up with him). When Cole went to college, he was able to be himself more freely; he wasn’t out, per se, but he was much more comfortable discussing his sexuality. He wondered if Eddie had a similar experience in Chicago, and was now, like Cole, struggling to reconcile all the different parts of himself.

Cole grinned, noting the change in Eddie’s demeanor. Cole finished his cigarette and reached behind Eddie to throw it away. He brushed his arm against Eddie’s and took advantage of proximity this move afforded him. Glancing up into Eddie’s eyes, Cole’s own twinkled mischievously. “Well, that’s too easy. What about foreplay?” his voice was barely above a whisper. 

+++

final confirmation, eddie swallowed, blinked nervously as the words fell from cole’s lips. he nodded, a nod that said ‘me too’. as if eithr of them needed to state the face that they were both interested in men again. getting old at this point, eddie finsighed his own cigarette, felt his lips twitch, hands shaking a little.

you got this, munson, you got this. he wasn’t like this, usually, when flirting with guys. antsy and nervous and downright freaking out. he just needed to pull himself together, pretend like this was just any old other encounter in a bar or somewhere back in chicago. 

his lips twisted into a smile as he thought about the fact that the last time he’d been this nervous about flirting with someone, he’d gone and called steve harrington ‘big boy’ as they’d hijacked a goddamn rv. 

suddenly cole was much, much closer than before and eddie gulped, his eyes flicked down to meet cole’s, momentarily lingering on his lips. for maybe just a tad too long. he swiped his tongue across hi bottom lip, feeling it had suddenly gone extremely dry. eddie discarded his own cigarette, burshing up against cole, bringing them even closer. 

“well...”, he breathed, raised a brow. “we’re in the middle of a mall, in the middle of, like, vandalising said mall...what do you have in mind that won’t get our asses kicked?”

stevehharringtcns·:

.

steve couldn’t believe his eyes when he spotted that the person in front of his car (and that he had almost ran over with his car) was no other than eddie. he was pretty convinced that he had walked in front of his car on purpose, but then again, he couldn’t really be surprised by that - it was eddie after all. he couldn’t help but to chuckle at the other’s reaction to seeing him. only eddie would react like that, but at least someone was glad to see him. he couldn’t imagine nancy’s reaction when she spotted him, but he didn’t want to think about that right now. “what the hell are you doing, munson? you can’t just jump in front of my car like that, i could have killed you!” he continued his protests, but this time he had a smile on his face, shaking his head slowly as he laughed.

before he knew it, eddie was making his way inside of his car and before he could say anything about it, he was being pulled into a hug by the other, which made him chuckle awkwardly as he patted his back. “alright, alright, munson, don’t get too emotional just by my presence. it’s not like i went anywhere, you’re the one that has been missing from hawkins.” he said, shaking his head slightly as he kept patting the other’s back until he finally was pulled way from the hug.

staring at eddie as he invited himself over to the barbecue, steve thought to himself: it would be better if he showed with someone else, right? it would be less awkward than just showing up on his own and having to deal with the wheeler family all by himself. right? “i don’t think she’ll mind… but it’s not like i can ask her either way, so… the wheeler barbecue it is then.” he said as he started driving again, not thinking twice as he started making his way towards the wheeler house. “what have you been up to, munson? don’t tell me you came back to hawkins, after all this time?” he asked, a smirk showing up in his features as he drove.

+++

he shrugged. “had to get your attention somehow, didn’t i?” wide beaming smile fixed on his lips, eddie settled into the seat with a sigh, lifting his hips to pull the bandana from his back pocket. perhaps the hug had been a bit much, he thought to himself as he patted away a sheen of sweat on his forehead. he gave steve a sheepish smile. “sorry, man, didn’t mean to get all...”, he gestured between them with his hands, then dropped them in his lap. “it’s just you’re, like, the first friendly face i’ve come across here, ‘cept for my uncle, of course. and that means a lot, at least in hawkins, you know.”<7small>

although steve and eddie were... well, friends - bound together by that fucking whacky shit they’d gone through two years ago - eddie’s brow still twitched in anticipation as he awaited steve’s reply. he was still afraid of rejection, even after two years of keeping in contact. platonic rejection, though - yeah, no, eddie was pretty damn sure steve was as straight as they come. he’d put the moves on him during their time fighting vecna, really, come to think of it he’d never flirted as shamelessly with anyone else. dropping hints left, right and center, to no avail. until he’d moved to chicago and, well, had been forced to give up pursuing steve, for his own good.

but whatever. eddie noticed the sudden shift in tone as steve talked about nancy and cocked an eyebrow, buckling th seatbelt as he spoke. “huh? trouble in paradise, harrington? are you and wheeler, like, doing okay, or...?” a sort of open ended question, leaving it to steve to fill him in on the details he wanted to share.

he stretched his arms above his head, slipped his bandana back into his pocket. “oh, i’ve been up to all sorts of things. y’know. wreakig general havoc here and there, same old, in true munson fashion.”, he said and gave him a grin. “god, no, i’m only back for the summer, stevie. why? did you miss me?”

“you been up to anything fun, harrington?”

JOSEPH QUINN as TOM | MAKE UP (2019) Snuggly sleepy boi

zccming​:

max narrowed her eyes while eddie showcased his outfit for her. she nodded, hand thoughtfully on her chin. “i don’t know, eddie.” she sighed as if she had bad news, then reached out and smacked her hand onto his shoulder, “you’re looking like the spitting image of callahan these days.” max grinned, then stepped back, crossed her arms, and resumed examining the storefront. max knew it wasn’t going to open if all she did was stand there and before she got the chance to sit on it some more, eddie was running through the inciting events with her. she didn’t deny the way he framed it. in fact, max nodded along, until she just had to interject, “okay? have you ever had karen wheeler look at you funny? it gets brutal after like…” she muttered a couple numbers under her breath, “five times.” 

there was an easiness that came in interacting with eddie. most of the time, max had to force herself to listen to and engage with other people. when it came to eddie though, she just did it, like it was built in. if she was inching anywhere near an edge of truly snapping in the face of this inconvenience, eddie’s laugh pushed her about fifty steps back. she gratefully accepted his hair pin, “yeah yeah. so beneath me.” max started for the back of the building. an exit without insult or profanity could be chalked up to a thank you from max. with eddie’s help and the guarantee of a few beers now on her side, she’d consider this outing a score. 

max took a grand total of fifteen minutes to round up all she needed to avoid mrs. wheeler’s stare of death before crossing the street back over to eddie’s van. she tossed her bag and then her skateboard inside without much care, then followed in suit. “we got like an hour before we should show up.” max announced, “we could go now but…” she sucked in on her teeth, “i don’t think we want be in the first wave of guests.” it was an annoying truth, but if max arrived to the wheeler household with eddie munson before the droves of people piled in, well, about a quarter of that target audience wouldn’t bother coming at all if they caught word. not needing to explain that, she flatly posed the next step, “so, how are we going to kill an hour?”

+++

he scrunched his nose, grimaced. “callahan?” listen, he’d heard a lot of insults in his life but this? and coming from max? “wow, that’s, - that’s the worst name i’ve ever been called. and isn’t that, like, before your time? aren’t you, like, twelve or something?” at her comment about wheeler he just shrugged with his palms held out. he’d never met the woman, didn’t usually hang about that part of town, but the way max described her - well, eddie wasn’t sure if inviting himself to that cookout was such a good idea after all. but fuck it. “the hell did you do that made mrs wheeler stare at you funny five times, max? that sounds more like a you problem if you ask me.”

and off she went, eddie looked around, made sure that no one around had seen her sneak off before he went back to his van. resisted the urge to turn up the music because they really didn’t need to draw any attention to themselves. he left the doors to the van wide open, sat side-ways in the driver’s seat, legs dangling out the door. then max returned with her secured goods, he lazily turned his head and watched as she climbed into the passenger seat. “sweet haul”, he said and nodded his head towards the stolen yield. “what did you get?”

he blew a raspberry. “an hour.”, he mused, fingers drumming on the dashboard. he’d been ready to slam his keys into the ignition and speed off but now, here they were, in the middle of downtown hawkins, after robbing a store on memorial day, with an hour to kill. eddie shifted so he sat properly in his seat, pulled the door shut and rolled the window down. “i don’t know, man. we could, like, chill in the sun somewhere? or hey, maybe the arcade’s open today?” he shrugged. “anywhere but here, dude. your choice. your wish is my command.”