steve: eddie?
steve: it's me, steve!
steve: are we alone... here?
eddie: oh. hi.
eddie: what do you want, harrington?
eddie: i see, even on the walkie line he's afraid someone might hear ...
cassieconrads·:
WHO: cassie conrad & @eddiemcnson· WHERE: near town hall
Ever since Cassie had seen her, the cheerleader, in her mind, it was all she could think about. She hadn’t even seen the girl’s face, really–Cassie had become her, and the thought of who it could have been had been racking her brain every waking moment (which there were many of, since she hadn’t slept). She finally had the chance to sneak out of the Wheeler household and head to the library, where she could maybe find some more information. Asking Nancy seemed too risky–she didn’t want to worry her about some weird vision that she had at the cemetery just yet, not until it seemed important enough. With Thad in town, she had enough to worry about.
Looking like a lost tourist with her folded map again outstretched, Cassie sat on a bench outside the Town Hall, looking for her bearings. It seemed like the library had to be close enough to where she was, but it was too hard to tell on the dated map. “Hey! Would you mind, um, giving me some help with this map?” she asked the guy passing her, thankful that she finally found someone to help. “Sorry, I know this one is from a few years ago, and I’m trying to find the library, but every street … looks the same.”
+++
eddie was a little disgruntled, seeing as he found himself on the second walk through town this week. walkman clasped to his belt, headphones tight and secure over his ears, he just needed a little fresh air to clear his head. after the disaster at benny’s. the fact that hopper had been there at least meant he didn’t need to worry about the cops busting down the trailer door to arrest him for arson - if it was going to be pinned on anyone, eddie was sure it’d be him - but the other aspects of their investigation just didn’t seem to leave him.
well, granted, how could he hope to get some peace of mind when they had stumbled across those freakishly large eggs - hatched eggs, he thought to himself and grimaced - and had set the freaking diner on fire, too. it was hopeless. coming back to hawkins, that cloud of threat and doom always lingered above them. some people went as far as saying that hawkins was cursed. eddie thought that they were absolutely spot on right on the money.
“huh?” eddie jumped a little, pulled down his headphones so they hung around his neck. he glanced down at the map, frowned, looked back up. “uh...you know what, i’m like, headed in a similar-ish direction. wanna tag along? i mean, i gotta warn you i’ve got a bit of a reputation as the town ‘freak’ ‘round here, so you might get some, uh, dirty looks.”
mmuscles·:
.
“the fuck is your deal?” thad responded in turn. there were some people he could feel were up to no good, and there were some he could just tell. well whoever this random was fit the bill to a t. he let go of the stranger’s shoulder, shoving him back slightly on release, then folded his arms across one another, laying them flatly over his puffed out chest to prove that he was not one to mess with. from the other guy’s hair, to his clothes, and even the look in his eyes, thad wasn’t going to let him detect any sort of weakness.
it didn’t help that almost immediately after, thad was all but laughed at. which really pushed at his buttons. “what’s funny about that?” he asked flatly, nose twitching. “i’m trying to buy my girlfriend flowers, sure you know all about that, pal.” he breathed out. unsure of why he was even listening to this guy’s suggestions, thad still looked around. where was melvald’s? what was melvald’s? uncomfortable with the whole situation, but wanting to walk away with something suitable for nancy. reluctantly, thad asked, “what the fuck is a melvald’s? where is it?”
+++
eddie’s brows shot up, looking the other up and down with a bemused and bewildered expression on his face. everything about him screamed ‘preppy’ and eddie scrunched up his nose. a scoff drawn out of him as he was shoved back. not that he was too surprised, of course, still plenty enough people in town who’d love for him to meet a gruesome end, he was sure. but he’d never seen this... perfect carbon copy of a ken doll around town before. eddie thought he even saw the other puff out his chest and he snorted.
“well...no, i don’t know ‘all about that’ but i don’t see how that’s, like, relevant here ? “, he asked cautiously, pressing ‘stop’ on his walkman. “i mean, you’re the one who approchaed me, in need of my services. but whatever.” as much as he liked to press people’s buttons, rile them up, he wasn’t looking for a fight, either.
“melvald’s. it’s a store, mike brady.”, eddie said and frowned. “down the main street, turn left when you see the church. think you can manage that?”
loverboymontgomery·:
who: Cole & @eddiemcnson·
where: the shores of Lover’s Lake
What a weird fucking night it had been. It was already weird enough for Cole to come to an open-invitation camping trip. Add onto that that Adam, his resurrected boyfriend, was helping to plan it. And then everything that had actually happened in the lake. Ninety percent of Cole was internally screaming at him to go home– but he wanted to be a good sport and a supportive boyfriend, and besides, whatever ‘injury’ he had earlier was now gone.
Still, Cole needed a reprieve from the crowd; apparently shit had gone down in the cabin, too, and Adam was being the usual Good Samaritan and helping some stragglers put their tents together. So, Cole slipped away back towards the lake. He was certainly going to keep his distance from the water, but something about the scene and the sun setting on the lake’s horizon was enough to calm his fears from before.
As he rounded the corner and heard the chatter behind him die down, Cole spotted a figure closer to the shore. That hair was unmistakeable, and a grin broke out onto Cole’s face. “Hey, Munson!” he called to announce his presence. Though they hadn’t spoken much since that day in the mall (and they hardly spoke that day either, to be fair), Cole felt incredibly comfortable with Eddie. Like they’d been friends for years. “You hoping to find the Lochness monster down here or something?”
+++
god, it had been an eventful six-ish hours at the lake,and eddie was more than ready to just fuck it and go home again. he'd even debated sleeping in the van but after what had went down he wasn't sure if he'd be brave enough to be on his own tonight.
a nice, simple, fun, relaxing camping trip had sounded like a hell of an idea, once he'd found out about it he'd been all game. not to say that the fact that they were camping at lover's lake didn't make him uneasy, oh god it did. everytime his gaze fell on the open water he gulped, a ghastly shiver running down his spine as he remembered the events of spring break '86. watergate. the upside down.
still he'd come along, because what else was there to do? soon enough the fun had turned sour, when adam and cole had been dragged down in the water, when dustin had started acting weird, apparently some shit had gone down over at the cabin, too, but he could barely even wrap his head around what had happened at the shore. in true hawkins fashion, the paranormal apparently couldn't take a day off.
he needed a break. he needed some time to clear his head, so eddie had split from the group. to breathe, have a smoke, be alone with his racing thoughts for a moment. though the solitary didn't last long.
a lopsided grin, eddie awkwardly waved at cole, cigarette between his fingers. a faint blush rising to his cheeks as memories of the day of the mall protest flooded his mind. "nah, not here for nessie. just.... needed a break. from all this." he shrugged, took a drag. "how's your ankle, montgomery?"
backtowheeler·:
— ✎ —
“Thad,” Nancy confirmed, glancing over at Eddie. “Laugh all you want, but he’s a good guy,” meaning he’s really not, but it’s not like they had to get into that tonight, and for the most part? Nancy did like her boyfriend, he could just be a bit… much at times. “He’s into cars, so he doesn’t understand what it means to drive something just because it gets you from one place to another.”
Matching scars are metal as hell, though. “Are you saying I’m metal?” She asked, her face turning up into a grin. Nancy Wheeler was not metal, she wouldn’t even consider herself a badass, but hey maybe scars were metal. “No, no, this is my first rodeo with committing arson against the best diner in town,” she glanced down at her hands. “Jonathan. First time we ever dealt with… anything like this and Demogorgons? They like blood,” then she looked back at Eddie, and said, “remember that,” just in case this was what they were dealing with. “So we had the bright idea to cut our hands to lure it to his house. God, that feels like forever ago.” Probably because it was five years ago.
It wasn’t often that she was able to tell people about her memories of dealing with the Upside Down. Either they were there or she just couldn’t say anything. “And Steve. Oh my god, he was such an asshole back then,” then a laugh. “Get this, I held a gun at him. Like, ready to shoot him and all. I would have never shot him but…” realizing she was rambling, she settled back in the seat. “Anyways, that’s how I got the scar.”
+++
eddie nodded to himself, steered the car onto through hawkins residential area onto the main roads leading up to the trailer park. "think i mightve run into him a couple days ago.",he mused with a shrug. deciding it was better not to go into much detail about that particular encounter. "he seemed alright." meaning he really did not but who was eddie to judge, at the end of the day.
he broke into a grin at her question, nodded eagerly. "yeah, man. wheeler, you're like, one of the most metal people alive. ozzy's gnawing at another bat as we speak, just so he can keep up with you.", eddie laughed, fingers drumming against the steering wheel to the melody of black sabbath's 'paranoid'.
remember that. he shifted uncomfortably in his shit, oh, yeah, he definitely would. there was that queasy feeling spreading in the pit of his stomach again as the night's events started replaying in his head. "noted.", he muttered, more to himself.
the mention of steve, however, had a grin tugging at eddie's his lips, he glanced at her from the corner of his eye, a low chuckle bubbling up in his chest. "king steve? an asshole? why, that is shocking news to me!"
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."
steve: we... weren't alone back then
steve: i'm not mocking you and i'm not embarrassed, it's just... hard for me, okay?
steve: please don't go
eddie: i don't know, harrington, sounds a whole lot like you were embarrassed to me
eddie: you think this isn't hard for me? jesus.
eddie: if you really wanna talk, for whatever reason, then come over. i'm not doing this with you over walkie.
eddie: think i've been humiliated enough already.
stevehharringtcns·:
.
steve gave eddie a small and weak smile when he saw him take off his vest and placing him over him. that was a sweet gesture, he thought to himself, and steve loved it. he loved the vest, a vest that he had worn before, more than once now and he loved it. he loved the smell of it and it made him feel closer to eddie, especially now that they couldn’t be in the same bed because of steve’s injuries. he had to keep telling himself that the pain was only temporary or he might have gone crazy by the thought of not being able to hold eddie close to him ever again. he hated thinking about that, thinking about that one day he could lose eddie or that eddie could lose him, but he was trying not to think about that right now. he wanted to focus on the man in front of him right now, a weak smile on his lips.
steve hardly cried, so this was new to him. he had cried when nancy broke up with him the first time, but now that seemed something stupid to cry about. he wasn’t sure if he was crying because he was happy that eddie was there and alive, and he could feel him. or if he was crying because he was scared of something happening to him, to them. he let out a small sigh as he felt eddie caressing his cheek, his eyes locked on the other as he watched him close. “it’s okay… crying is okay sometimes… i’m just happy that you’re okay, eddie.” he said, taking a deep breath as he looked at him again. there was nothing more than he wanted other than to kiss him right now. “kiss me?” he asked, looking over at him, hoping that he would just lean forward and kiss him.
when eddie agreed to doing the lift with him, steve let out a weak laugh as he thought about the two of them doing it. eddie was clumsy and knowing them, they would end up on the floor. but they would get up again and they would laugh. steve smiled at the thought, of making memories with him and dustin, max, lucas and everyone. he couldn’t wait until he got out of the hospital. he was glad all of them were okay, even if it would take them all a while to recover from what they had gone through. but steve was trying to focus on the good things for now, looking at eddie with a smile. “i’m pretty sure… i can lift you easily.” he finished off, nodding his head.
he watched eddie closely as he tried to assimilate what steve had asked. steve didn’t regret asking it, in fact, he would ask it again in a heartbeat. they were young and they were clearly into each other. and after this whole thing, steve thought it was for the best if he just admitted his feelings for eddie. he had done that, but he didn’t want to hide anymore. he wanted everyone else to know, he wanted them to share their happiness too. he wanted to tell max and see her reaction. he wanted to tell dustin so he could be happy for them, because he knew he would. he was just waiting for the other’s confirmation, smiling at him. “you heard me correctly.” he said at eddie’s first hesitation, nodding his head slowly.
and then he felt his heart filling up with happiness once eddie said yes, pulling him into a soft kiss and blushing as he did. he was so happy in that moment that he almost forgot the pain he was in, wanting to wrap his arms around eddie and pull him closer to him. but he couldn’t do that without wincing, so he thought it would be for the best if he stayed still. “of course… i’m sure. i’ve never been so sure of anything, ed. i… want you to be my boyfriend. and trust me, i could be put through… russian spies super drugs or whatever, and i would still ask it. i don’t care about anything else, i just want… you. to be my boyfriend.” he said with a nod.
+++
eddie choked on a laugh, mingled with a sob he tried to cover up with said laugh, and he nodded, over-exggeratedly. “you’re....so wise, stevie, i’m... thoroughly impressed.” a weak attempt at a joke to lighten the somber mood, though eddie feared neither of them would be in high spirits anytime soon. as glad as eddie was that they had both gotten out of it ... somewhat okay, he couldn’t ignore the nagging thought at the back of his head. they’d made it out this time.they’d made it out and yet he was visiting steve in the hospital, pulling down his sleeves so he wouldn’t see the marks callahan’s handcuffs had left on his wrisst. eddie couldn’t imagine what it would be like the next time around - if there was a next time. if they survived said next time. this, whatever it was, was far from over.
“i’m happy you’re okay, too.” so happy. and eddie readily complied, leaning in to press a soft kiss to steve’s lips. don’t cry again, don’t cry, don’t cry, don’t cry. eddie did his best to try and ignore the constant rhythmic beeping of the monitors and machines around them, the acidic smell of cleaning agent that lingered in the air. it was all .. .well, for lack of a better word, incredibly and horribly depressing. and it simply wasn’t... fair. they deserved their sliver of happiness. they’d been through plenty - they deserved a break. a clean cut, even. a moment of peace, no matter how fleeting.
eddie decided that, despite the stale and creepy atmosphere of a hospital, this must be his moment of peace. a soft chuckle fell from his lips, so low it was barely audbile, yet a sound of genuine happiness, however brief. he shook his head softly, smiling. “you know, sometimes i forget you’ve been through this, like, what ? four times already ? you’re such a ... i hate to say it, you’re kind of a ... badass.” eddie had to give him that. though, the first time steve had told him about their past run-ins with hawkins’ resident supernatural creatures, eddie had had a hard time believing him. well, he’d thought that the starcourt mall incident of ‘84 and steve’s subsequent fighting with russian spy soldiers in their secret underground miliatiry base had been total bogus. but here they were and eddie had come to know that well, stranger things had happened.
“and then, in the next minute you turn around and ask me to learn the dirty dancing lift with you. you’re - “ eddie had to stop, interrupted by genuine giggles. a couple of beats passed before he’d calmed down enough to continue, grinning down at steve with a fond look in his eyes. and god, his heart felt like it might burst. “you’re a dork, steve harrington.” shutting up any and all protest steve could’ve thrown in with another kiss. followed by a quick peck on the tip of his nose, his cheek, his forehead. yeah. eddie munson was officially whipped. fuck.
he leaned back reluctantly, eyed steve with a curious expression on his face. wondering if the topic better stay avoided but - no, he had to ask. for his own sake, too. he shifted in his seat, cleared his throat. “so, uh. where -have your parents been in yet? “