Elevcnhops·:

stevehharringtcns​:

.

“don’t worry about it… she was old anyway.” steve shrugged it off, he didn’t really care for his family that much. not his real family either way, he liked to think that everyone he knew in hawkins and was close with were his actual family, rather than his blood. but that didn’t matter now, steve was too focused on eddie to think about that right now.

steve stared at eddie for a couple of moments as he talked, nodding his head slowly once the other mentioned that he was tough. “i know you are, but tough guys need some ice sometimes. it’s okay.” he said with a small smile, before shaking his head once he mentioned that he was a hero. “you know, i’m not really a hero if i get beat up every time i try to get into a fight. but thank you. it’s good to know that you think i’m hot, munson.” he said with a smirk, as he looked at eddie with a smile on his face. steve didn’t expect to spend this much time with eddie, especially not alone, but he liked it. the other was good company and it was easy to talk to him. sure, they wouldn’t have been friends in high school, but that was the thing. they weren’t exactly in high school anymore. steve was glad for that.

looking around his room once eddie started commenting on it, he couldn’t help but to blush slightly. he had never really gotten around to change his room to his style, his mom didn’t seem to like it, but why did she care? it wasn’t like she was around to see it anyway. the only thing that made that room steve’s room was the bat with nails under his bed, but he didn’t want to tell eddie that. he didn’t need to know he kept it there. “it’s not me, it’s my… mom. i just never really bothered to change it” he said with a small shrug of his shoulders as he looked at eddie again.

without even having time to process it, eddie was changing right in front of him. he didn’t know why he stopped breathing for some moments there, after all, he was used to seeing guys changing in the locker rooms when he was in the swimming team, but this… it was different. it was eddie. his eyes lingered on the other’s body, checking the tattoos for a few moments until he finally put on steve’s shirt. it was weird how he looked good on it, or maybe steve just liked the sight of eddie wearing his clothes. whatever it was, steve couldn’t help himself to turn red. “that’s a secret i’ll never tell.” he said with a chuckle.

steve stood by the door for a few moments as he looked at eddie, deciding if he should stay or not, but when he heard eddie say that the bed was big enough, steve nodded his head. “sure, i… i can stay with you. that’s fine.” he said, before closing the door behind him. he was about to spend the night with eddie munson on his bed and he wasn’t sure how to feel about that. it wasn’t the first time he had brought someone up to his room, but this was eddie.

steve didn’t waste any time as he climbed onto his own bed, sitting up on it as he looked over at eddie. “come on.” he said with a nod, as he cleared his throat and patted the spot next to him. what was he doing? what if eddie took it the wrong way? he wouldn’t, right? he was the one who had asked him to stay, and steve wanted to stay more than anything. “i’ll even let you choose the side you want to sleep on.” he smiled.

+++

‘it’s good to know that you think i’m hot, munson’. eddie’s lips parted, a nervous chuckle and amused scoff drawn from them.  as good as it felt that steve was so receptive to his teasing, it felt bittersweet all the same. because eddie had spent the better part of, what, two years now flirting with him. in vain, of course, for steve had never picked up on any of his advances. or if he had, he’d certainly given eddie the impression that they weren’t welcome or worth to be acknwoledged.

“but, you know, the fact that you get into fights in the first place - sure, you get your ass kicked but you’re doing it for a righteous cause. that screams hero to me, harrington.” not to mention that steve looked bonkers hot when he got a little roughed up.

he could feel steve’s eyes on him, his stare burning into his back and he squirmed under his gaze. eddie hoped the dim lighting of the room wuld hide the deep, deep blush that had risen to his cheeks. who could blame him, that felt like a perfectly reasonable reaction to having steve harrington watch you change. and before he could stop himself, before he even knew it the words had already fallen from his lips, causing his brain to short-circuit somewhat. “see  something you like, stevie?”

a sigh of relief drawn from his lungs, eddie relaxed slightly when steve agreed to stay and closed the door behind him. still, he wtached in...nervous excitement when as steve made his way to his bed,. sat down and invited him in. no, it was too much - it was more than he’d even dared to imagine in his wildest fantasies.

cautiously, he climbed into the bed, body brushing past steve’s as he settled. a small smile playing on his lips, edie wasted no time scotting under the covers. “i’m more of a wall side guy myself.”, he said, shifting around until he’d made himself comfortable.steve’s bed was so incredibly soft it took all he had for him not to fall asleep right then and there. eddie turned to the side to face steve.

“uh, listen, man, i...i get like, these, night terrors ? i guess?” chewing on his bottom lip nervously, he averted his gaze. “so, uh. don’t get freaked out when i, like, move around. and if i get too close or something feel free top, just, push me away. don’t worry,”, he said, gave him an amused scoff, “you don’t have to cuddle with the freak or anything.”

stevehharringtcns·:

.

“trust me, i would have stayed behind if i knew you that most of you would start fires and get attacked in cemeteries… but i really didn’t have a choice, it was my… great aunt’s funeral.” steve shrugged his shoulders. it was the truth, he shouldn’t have left town for the funeral, after all, he was pretty sure that he only saw his great aunt during christmas and even then it wasn’t for long. also, all of the biscuits she made him were stale, so it’s not like steve had really a connection with her. but his parents insisted that he went, and since he didn’t want to argue with them and risk getting kicked out of the house, he obliged. “you really think i’m a fearless leader, huh?” he asked with a small smirk on his lips, as he looked down at eddie’s bruise carefully.

“you don’t need to act tough with me, trust me, i know how painful it can be. i’m not proud, but after getting beaten up by a ton of people, including russian spies, i know how a painful bruise looks like. i’ll get you some ice.” steve nodded his head slowly. he always seemed to get into fights, whether he put himself in them or if he just got in the way, but the bruises were the worst part of it. he kept his hand on eddie’s hand as they went up the stairs and towards his room. he opened the door and let the other inside with a smile, before turning to look at him. 

“you don’t need to worry, i wasn’t sleeping, but i was almost falling asleep. it’s fine, i’ll be sure to catch some sleep.” he said. “and don’t apologize, you clearly were… disturbed by that whole thing. you can always come over when you want.” he said, remembering everything that had happened in eddie’s place - it was probably hard to sleep after having a portal to the upside down on his room and after seeing chrissy… die like that.

“you’re very lucky… here, i’ll borrow you some of my clothes. but i want them back, so don’t you dare try and run off with them.” he said with a small chuckle, smirking slightly as he turned away from eddie, letting go of his hand, and towards his wardrobe so he could grab some of his clothes. he grabbed some sweatpants and a shirt that he hadn’t worn in a while and placed it on top of his bed, as he looked at him with a smile. he stood there awkwardly for a couple of moments, debating on what to do. should he stay with eddie? or should he just leave him alone? part of him thought that the last thing eddie wanted was to be alone, but then again, he didn’t want to assume anything.

“i’ll…go to the guest room. i’ll leave you alone. if you need the bathroom, it’s just across the hall. and the guest room is right next to it if you… if you need me.” he said as he started making his way towards the door, turning around to look at eddie, as he pondered if he should leave him alone or not. it wasn’t that hard of a decision, but like usually, he seemed to be complicating things.

+++

“oh shit.” eddie frowned, carefully tried to read the expression on steve’s face. though he knew family was a touchy subject for him, with his parents being gone most of the time, he still gave him a sympathetic look, squeezed his hand. “i’m sorry, man.”

steve mentioned russian spies and the like - robin had let him in on all the details of the shit that had gone down in hawkins, starting with will’s disappearance - but eddie’s thoughts were still stuck on the fact that a) steve harrington had very nearly touched his bare skin and b) he was going to sleep in steve harrington’s bed tonight. he felt all consumed with ... just steve. he was all around, eddie caught a whiff of his cologne and his eyes nearly rolled back in his head. “thanks.”, he smiled when steve offered to get him some ice. “it’s really not that bad, y’know. i’m tough.” eddie offered him a charming toothy grin. “and yeah, duh. ‘couse i think you’re a fearless leader, stevie. you got roughed up by literal russian slash alien super spies and made it out alive. that’s, like, so hot. you’re a hero, man.”

‘you can always come over when you want’. it made eddie’s heart skip a beat, he blushed, bit down a grin before he tore his eyes away fro steve, opting to look around his room instead.”jesus fucking christ, harrington. are you, like, freakily into geometrical shapes?”, eddie muttered with an amused huff as he let his gaze wander over the wallpaper, the matching curtains. steve’s room looked oddly like some model room, or a page right out of architectural digest. eerily not...lived in. while eddie’s room, their trailer, was the absolute opposite.

steve let go of his hand and eddie instantly missed the warmth and weight of it, his fingers flexed, he began rubbing his fingertips over his palm, nervous habit. “thanks.”, he repeated with a small nod, immediately went to pull off his own shirt and replace it with steve’s. steve’s. it smelled like him, like his detergent and eddie turned his face to hide his grin. oh, he was definitely keeping it. and the sweatpants, too. “jesus, how is your clothig so fucking....soft, man?”, he muttered with a chuckle, hands rubbing along the fabric.

and suddenly, steve had moved to the door, said goodbye for the night and eddie was left just ... standing there. a little on edge, he chewed on the inside of his lip nervously, opened his mouth to say something, anything, even a simple ‘good night!’ but didnt’ manage a single word. he’d come to steve’s house to not be alone, and while he was fucking jumping at the chance of staying somewhere that was so quintessentially steve’s, it still meant he’d spend the night on his own.

but steve turned back around, a curious, unreadable expression on his face, and eddie flexed his hands again. “i - uh. can you...stay?”, he asked, voice meek, brows drawn together, bracing himself for the impact of steve’s rejection. “i ... your bed’s like, big, and i don’t...want to be, uh, alone? yeah.”

stevehharringtcns·:

even if steve’s parents had just recently gotten home, it wasn’t long until they were out again. his dad seemed to have another business trip, and his mom would always go along with him. he wasn’t sure why, but by now he had been used to being alone. in years before, he would have thrown a party, but as years went by, steve just realized that would imply having to throw a party every other week. and sometimes it was for the best if he was by himself. even if he was alone, steve still liked to confine himself in his room. it was just his safe place.

he had just gotten out of the shower, his hair still wet as he put on some shorts and he was ready to get in bed. there was nothing better to do and he was tired after spending the day standing on his feet at the video store. he was about to sit on his bed when he thought he heard a car on the driveway, but that couldn’t be possible. and that’s when he heard the knocks on the door.

raising an eyebrow as he got out of the room, not even bothering to put a shirt on, steve made his way downstairs as he heard the banging on the door. he was about to make a detour to grab one of his baseball bats, he didn’t want to try his luck with whatever was out there, and that’s when he heard eddie’s voice coming from the outside.

he frowned, rushing towards the door to open it, only to realize that he was standing shirtless in front of eddie. whatever, it didn’t matter. “eddie, what the hell are you doing? it’s late!” he said, but he couldn’t lie and say that he wasn’t a tiny bit relieved that it was eddie and not someone else. he wanted to see him, but he hadn’t gotten the time after he came back and now there he was, standing at his door. “what are you doing here? what’s wrong?” he asked, slightly concerned about the other as he remembered that he was practically begging him to open the door.

+++

there were many strings of thoughts rushing through his head at lightning speed once he opened the door. eddie felt relieved, fucking hell, at least steve was alright, or seemed to be, at first glance. he was safe, from what eddie could tell, and he released a breath he didn’t know he’d been holding. 

relief however mingled with shock, surprise, and a sharp pang of... something very warm in his stomach. slowly, torturously slow, his eyes travelled down from steve’s face to his bare torso. the sight knocked the wind right out of his sails, eddie’s mouth fell open as if he wanted to say something but no sound escaped his lips. he blinked in disbelief, had to force himself to tears his eyes away fro steve chest. gaze quickly dropping to the floor, he suddenly felt extremely hot, wondered if the temperature had somehow risen in the last two minutes. his cheeks were burning, he was certain that he was sporting a nice, brigt blush.

“uh....”, it took him a moment to assemble the scrambled words in his head into a coherent sentence. he thought back to their first trip to the upside down for a moment, back to how he had nearly forgotten to fucking breathe when steve had taken off his sweater to jump into lover’s lake. how he’d tossed him his denim vest some half hour later, simply because he couldn’t stand the sight of shirtless steve anymore, it was making him all dizzy and disoriented. 

and it seemed that it still had the same effect now. eddie swallowed, frowned. think, munson, think, for god’s sake. “ i, uh. eggs. “, he suddenly blurted out, looked back up to meet steve’s eyes. “in benny’s diner. eggs, they , uh, they, like, hatched and...then there was this fucking fire, and it, it burned down and -”

colemontgomeryx·:

XX.

Cole felt bad, but he laughed at Eddie’s inability to accept what he was told. It was a defense mechanism, he assumed, after many years of having to keep this part of him secret. For a moment, Cole was grateful for Adam– grateful he had someone to share it with; in a way, it made this whole ordeal easier. More natural.

“He was my boyfriend-boyfriend,” Cole explained. “As in, we fucked,” he took a drag of his cigarette, granting Eddie time to take in what he said. “Sorry to be so explicit, but wasn’t sure what else to say,” Cole explained, though he wasn’t really sorry. Part of him liked seeing Eddie squirm. He liked the effect his words had on the other.

Cole smirked, letting his eyes linger on Eddie’s lips. He figured it would never happen, but he was open to all possibilities. Especially possibilities that looked like Eddie. “Well, I’m a gentleman. I’d take you out to dinner first,” he winked, taking another drag of his cigarette.

+++

“oh.” eddie just continued to stare, stupidly, until his eyes widened, brain finally catching onto what cole had just admitted here. shit. so hawkins wasn’t as prim, proper and heterosexual as he’d been made to believe all this time. eddie licked his lips, blinked. wracking his brain on what to say next. nearly choking on his own breath when he said ‘we fucked’ and oh, his cheeks immediately lit up, stained a deep red colour. he nodded.

“so you’re....”, he trailed off, browd furrowed, giving cole a meaningful look before he dropped because shit, what else did he need, here? cole had just said he used to have a boyfriend, whom he quote unquote ‘fucked’ - or the other way around? he tried not to think about it, it was getting hard trying to concentrate as is -  what other confirmation could he possibly need to know that cole was into guys?

he didn’t miss how cole’s eyes slipped to his lips and his tongue darted out to swipe over his bottom lip. shit, why was he this flustered? getting hit on in chicago eddie usually wasn’t this squirming and blushing mess of a man. but hawkins? whole ‘nother story. not that he was totally suave in chicago, either, but at least a little more in control. here, he felt powerless. 

however, he straightened his back, took another drag. however, he thought, it didn’t need to be that way. if he pulled himself together. “oh yeah?”, he questioned, brow raised, a grin forming on his lips. “yeah? well, what if i -” and he actually couldn’t believe he was going to use a line this corny but here went nothing - “ well, what if i wanted to skip straight to dessert?”

EDDIE MUNSON + HANDS Stranger Things 4 (2022)

eddie munson in stranger things s04e01 ↳ chapter one: the hellfire club, “’86, baby!”

stevehharringtcns·:

.

steve smiled at eddie’s reaction, calling him wise and slightly shaking his head, as much as he could of course, as he kept his eyes on eddie. “i wouldn’t necessarily say wise, but… i guess i am. i mean, you are dating steve harrington.” he said with a low chuckle, careful enough to not send him through a cough attack yet again, as he looked over at eddie. it definitely was something to get used to, dating eddie munson and saying it out loud. he thought about how the people around them would take it, but he knew that they would take it positively. or at least steve hoped so - but he definitely had better made friends ever since tommy hagan and carol. that was for sure. he looked at eddie, squeezing his hand once again as he enjoyed the few moments of happiness that they seemed to get. he wondered for a few seconds if they would be happier if they left hawkins eventually, but that was another thought.

he closed his eyes when he felt eddie’s lips against his, smiling weakly into the kiss. he only opened them again when eddie pulled away, looking at eddie. the thought of losing eddie seemed to be unthinkable at that very moment, and just thinking about him getting arrested made him want to go down to the police station and tear everything apart. he didn’t know how that had happened, but he told himself not to get worked up at that very moment. he was still recovering, which probably wouldn’t be very healthy to his body. “i won’t let… anyone hurt you, okay? no matter what.” he promised the other. he knew that it wasn’t possible to keep everyone safe at the same time, but he was going to try.

listening to eddie talk about he had gone through that four times now and apparently counting, steve nodded. it was crazy that he had been brought into this mess all the way back in 1983 and now his life had completely changed. he was no longer the same person he had been all those years back and that was a blessing. but part of him did miss the life without the upside down and the monsters. he wondered if he had run off that night at the byers’ house, if he would have met eddie. or if he would have met max, lucas, dustin and everyone else. probably not. so, in a way, it was sort of a blessing in disguise, if he really thought about it. “i’m pretty badass… it’s true. i got plenty of scars to prove it… if you ever want to see them.” he joked, trying to lighten up the mood of that cold hospital. eddie had already done that by walking in the room though, steve thought to himself.

steve was about to protest at being called a dork, smiling into a kiss and letting out a chuckle. once they broke the kiss, steve shook his head. “to make it clear, i am not a dork… i just always really wanted to learn that and i was… to embarrassed to ask nancy.” he said with a smile, letting out a sigh of relief as he looked at eddie. he was sure that he had completely fallen for eddie munson and he wouldn’t change anything about it. 

his smile dropped slightly as eddie started asking about his parents. letting out a sigh, steve just shook his head slightly. “my mom… my mom was here for a couple of moments. i asked if my dad would end come here, but apparently work is more important for him.” steve said, nodding his head. he hated talking about his family and their relationship with them. he was much more of a listener than anything else and he would usually listen to everyone’s problems but not talk about the issues he had back at home. right now the only real connection he had with his family was that they shared a house and nothing else. steve didn’t even want to think about introducing eddie to his parents, because he knew what their reaction would be like. “it’s… fine.” he said with a small shrug.

+++

that startled eddie for a second as he pulled back slightly, looking visibly taken aback. not negatively, though, there was an almost starstruck look in his eyes. “i ... guess i am, huh.” he was dating steve harrington. steve ‘the hair’ harrington was his boyfriend. he was in a relationship with king steve and eddie rather thought that if he could travel back in time and tell that to sixteen year old eddie munson who’d just been shoved into the lockers by tommy hagan and his goons, well, that would’ve made him short-circuit. yeah, sixteen year old eddie would’ve probably erupted into nervous laughter, vehemently insisting that he was hopelessly crushing on, like, chrissy cunningham or someone equally unattainable. 

and twenty-two year old eddie couldn’t blame him, either, seeing as he was still very much short-circuiting at laughing nervously, because steve’s low chuckle might be the most divine sound he’d ever heard and that was his boyfriend right there in front of him and it was all entirely too nice. things this nice didn’t happen to people like eddie munson, and he couldn’t help but wonder when this would all be taken away from him again. 

“you’re such a dork, harrington, i wonder how you managed to walk the halls of hawkins high everyday, at the very top of the food chain, all while harboring this longing inside of you, to unleash the full dork potential you were capable of. forced confimity, it’s a drag, man.”, eddie exclaimed mockingly, nearly cracking up, he nodded to himself. “who knows, maybe if you’d given into that side of you sooner you might’ve even joined hellfire. “ /small>

eddie felt a sharp pang in his chest as steve talked about his family, averted his gaze for a moment. sure, eddie didn’t have much of a family himself, not in the traditional sense, anyway, but he knew that if anything were to happen to him, wayne and max would immediately drop everything and come rushing to his bedside. to hear that steve’d dad hadn’t even shown up - he shook his head softly, cradled steve’s hand, raised it to his lips to press a soft kiss to it. it wasn’t ‘fine’ as steve suggested, not by any means, but eddie didn’t want to press on it further, sensing it was a sensitive topic for steve. “you know, wayne makes, like, a killer casserole. he...heard about what happened” - eddie had basically wept in his arms after he’d been released, telling him all about it - “and he asked - well, he offered to, like, drop some of it off on his way to work later. if you - if you want it.”

stevehharringtcns·:

something about returning to lover’s lake didn’t feel right to steve. the thought of the lake alone made steve almost panic, but he had to keep it up and act like the brave guy he was. he was brave. it was just a lake. the gate was closed. but people had been dragged. like he had been two years before. he wasn’t going in that water ever again, he thought to himself. everyone was just lucky that everyone was okay and not dragged back to the upside down. the gate was closed. he was standing by himself in the cabin, looking at himself in the nearest mirror.

he had been wearing eddie’s vest ever since they had returned from the shore. and it looked good on him. it still did. and it reminded him of eddie. well, of course it did, it was his. but steve thought it looked better on him, but of course eddie looked good on it too. he was lost in his thoughts when he heard eddie’s voice coming from behind, which made him quickly turn around from his reflection and see eddie.

“i’m here.” he said with a smile on his face, his smile only widening as eddie got closer. the last time they had been alone, well… they had ended up kissing in his bed. he wasn’t sure how this one was going to turn out, but there were people out there. and steve wasn’t sure if he wanted everyone to catch them making out inside the cabin.

“i wasn’t hiding from you… but i was definitely hiding. it doesn’t feel right being back here.” he said with a small sigh, shaking his head. “feels weird being back, right?” he asked, raising an eyebrow slightly at eddie’s comment about his vest. “i wouldn’t run off with it, but… you should know that it definitely looks great on me. better than it looks on you.” he chuckled at him. “are… are you okay?” he asked, as he reached out to place a hand on eddie’s arm in a comforting way.

+++

he couldn't help but bite his lip, grinning, hands clasped behind his back as he leaned against the wall next to steve, eyes raking over his frame. nope, definitely couldn't deny that the vest looked good on him - had looked even better when he'd worn nothing under it but that was a thought for another time.

a spark ran through him as steve got closer, remembering the last time they'd hung out. when eddie had shown up on his doorstep, terrified, and it had ended up with them sharing a bed, making out, waking up cuddling. they hadn't talked much since, the events of the day had pretty much prevented eddie from forming a single coherent thought aside from frantic, panicked over thinking.

he nodded, eyes darting down to the floor. "yeah. everytime i look at that like I think of -", he stopped himself, gave steve a sheepish smile, shrugged. steve knew what he thought of, he'd been through it too, after all, and eddie really didn't want to make any hurtful memories resurface.

aside from watergate, lovers lake also strongly reminded eddie of his time spent in hiding. the fear that had gripped him when he'd looked over his shoulder and seen jason carver, eddie thought he'd seen his life flash before his eyes. he shrugged again. "weird doesn't even begin to cover it, man."

steves hand on his arm made eddie shiver and he smiled again, leaned into the touch, his fingers idly toying with the hem of steve's shirt. fidgeting - nervous habit. "yeah, yeah, we all know you're crazy handsome and everything looks good on you, yada yada. you done now?" a teasing chuckle fell from his lips as he looked back up at steve. "doesn't mean you get to keep it. besides, I'm starting to get cold, man."

eddie's mood sobered a little at steves question and he gave another shrug. "i don't know if I've ever been, like, fully okay after... what happened. but being here.... it's weird. and not a good kinda weird. bad weird." a couple of beats passed before eddie broke the silence with a soft "I'm glad your here, steve."

zccming·:

.

if there were any men that max hated nearly as much as billy and his dad, they were named callahan and powell of hawkins p.d. her interrogation with them in the spring of ‘86 never strayed far from her mind. max recalled how they chose her first, probably thinking she was the weakest link. they must have thought it would be so easy to plop her into a chair and that she would tuck herself away into a corner at the first sign of intimidation, that she was merely some stupid, meek, little girl for them to scare and trick into fessing up. well, they were wrong, and frankly, not very intimidating either. from the moment she exited that room, max vowed to herself that if she made it out of this vecna bullshit alive, she’d make them pay. 

she made good on that promise for the years following that, wreaking minor nuisances and unleashing dishonorable displays at any chance she could. and she didn’t do it just for herself, she did it for eddie. while she might have initially bought into the idea that he could’ve been some psycho killer, her opinion of him changed swiftly and drastically. eddie didn’t do it and he didn’t deserve the complications from having it pinned on him either. this rivalry of sorts came to ahead earlier in the summer when callahan pulled one over on her by arresting her at the blue quarry mall. it hadn’t been fun while it was presently happening, but now that hawkins p.d was doing this shit to eddie again, giving them that grief felt worth it. 

max sat across from eddie, shoving the bowl of cereal into his hand and clutching her own close to her chest with no intention of eating. instead, she silently watched him, brows furrowed as she looked him over for any signs that she might actually set hawkins p.d ablaze when the dust settled. at the same time he spoke, max did too, “i’m gonna fucking get them.” she said, voice feeling raw and unfamiliar in the back of her throat. max got mad all the time, she’d learned to deal with it, but rarely did her rage scare her or feel out of control like this. she wondered that as she felt the aftershocks of what had happened at the carnival, she skipped ahead to the anger stage of grief, that this was misplaced. maybe she was upset, sure, that was always a possibility. or maybe, it was the best she knew how to show eddie she cared, how sorry she was that this had happened. she didn’t know and didn’t plan on figuring it out. 

poking at her cereal with her spoon, max mulled over eddie’s question she had spoken in time with. finally, she answered, “i’m alright, steve made me get stitches.” she said his name warmly, flashing it like a lighthouse, a beacon to eddie to indicate that not only was he alright, but so was steve. that was important to her to convey. “i busted it on some mirrors…” max added, then shrugged as if to say no big deal. it was a big deal, but everything was right now. quietly and flatly, max reminded eddie, “you didn’t answer my question….” a pause, “how fucked are you?” to max, it was her way of wanting to know how he was holding up and what was happening on his end. 

+++

eddie stared thoughtlessly into his bowl, tired eyes searching for something, he didn’t know what. something to say, maybe. something to think about other than shock, horror, disaster. life and death. the upside down. vecna. he weakly pushed the bowl a bit further away from him, like a defiant, sulky child. eating was the last thing on his mind. then again, eddie couldn’t even pin point one singular string of thought - it was a mess up there. more so than usual. it felt like the world was spinning. there wasn’t a fibre in his being that wasn’t aching or nauseaous.

he didn’t quite register max’s words, they accompanied the faint beating of his heart and loud rushing and ringing in his ears,  but there was ‘alright’ and ‘steve and that’ snapped him out of his momentary trance, drew a shaky, relieved exhale from his lips. “you’re good? you’re okay. you’re - you’re alright.” eddie whispered, more to himself, nodded. 

a couple of beats passed, the room silent except for their labored breathing and the sound his knee made as it the coffee table every now and then. he wanted to cry, he desperately needed to, to sob his heart out and draw max into a bone crushing hug. staying in the embrace until one of them would start whispering empty, reasuring promises of how ‘everything was going to be okay’. but eddie was exhausted, and ... god, he felt so... resigned to his fate. he barely managed to muster up the strength to meet her eye.

“i can’t do this.” was what eventually broke the silence. voice barely above a whisper, a fatalistic tone to it. “i can’t ... i can’t have everybody thinking i’m a monster again. hunting me down, i - no. “ he gave a weak shake of his head, drew in a ragged breath. “i’m not - i can’t run anymore. i can’t- i can’t do it. not again.”

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.”