“It’s like they were destined for an alternate dimension.”
@emeraldzephyr
Em | 33 | They/Them | Lover of Stranger Things, Baseball, Hockey, Bioware, D&D, Fantasy media, and general nerdy chicanery. Find me on AO3 as emeraldzephyr https://archiveofourown.org/users/emeraldzephyr/works @emeraldzephyr on TikTok!
I primarily post about Stranger Things (specifically Steddie), but there may also be some Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Cosmere, Baseball (Texas Rangers/Chicago Cubs), Hockey (Dallas Stars), or other fandoms that make guest appearances!
📖 All my fics are uploaded to AO3!
📽️ All my edits are uploaded to my TikTok!
#emeraldzephyr is my Tumblr tag for my writing and edits.
Steddie Big Bang: Slaying Dragons in the Dark
Rated E | Hurt/Comfort
Steddie Bingo: Round 4 Bingo Card - Coming Soon!
Beta Projects:
On the Dust of Running Dogs, written by @nophwrites
Lost Tapes of the Upside Down, written by @felixir-of-moths
☀️ Burnin' For You (18+)
Rated E | 6,436 words
♾️ Senza Fine (18+)
Rated E | 3,873 words
🎞️ Late Night Double Feature (18+)
Rated E | 7,078 words
That's Baseball, Baby! Series
⚾ Glory Days (They'll Pass You By)
Rated T | 19,254 words
🎸 Put Me In, Coach! - Sequel to Glory Days
Rated T | 9,958 words
Hop Into Spring Mini Bingo - Complete!
⚔️ Ye Olde Meetcute - Prompt: Mud
Rated T | 3,544 words
🍰 Sweet as Sugar - Prompt: Sugar
Rated G | 1,416 words
⚾ Let's Play Two! - Prompt: "You Really Love Me!"
Rated T | 2,061 words
🗺️ Navigating to Niagara - Prompt: "It's His Tone, Right?"
Rated T | 2,628 words
👾 Unconventional - Prompt: Normal Guy Steve
Rated G | 3,090 words
Mixtape Madness Mini Bingo
🛻Drive - The Cars
Rated G | 1,033 words
🍿Chosen Ones - Megadeth
Rated G | 3,591 words
Stranger Things Edits
Hot for Teacher - Van Halen | Steve Harrington
Die Young - Black Sabbath | Eddie Munson
War Pigs - Black Sabbath | Stranger Things Heroes and Villains
Anxiously announcing my Project for the 2026 @steddiebbang
I wrote a microfic in January that has lingered like a shadow in my peripherals ever since, and soon it will be a full fic!
What started as a minor dabble into the Peculiar has become a liminal romance with an ominous air, where even your own perception can't quite be trusted.
I'm so excited to be working with such wonderfully fun and talented people to bring this to life.
Artist: @junk-and-disorderly
Beta: @emeraldzephyr
Header/Banner by me, I futzed around with very basic animating for this because I didn't know how to moodboard-banner it, I love this gif tho and will post it separate at some point with different tags for anyone who just wants to share that
Excerpt below the cut, but first, The Summary.
~◼️▪️◼️▪️◼️▪️◼️~
Eddie has never believed in Fate or Predestination—with a life like his there's no way any of it was scripted by some higher power, least of all one that's looking out for him—and his fascination with omens and superstition has always been fictitious, something new to finagle into his campaigns.
After making a choice he doesn't fully understand with a hitchhiker he can't quite remember, he starts to notice things that aren't quite coincidences—peculiar signs that seem to forewarn stranger things—and to top it all off, odd, fuzzy edged encounters with the bizarrely cryptic Steve Harrington that send anxious anticipation rolling through him as he waits for something bad to happen…
And it always does.
Something strange is happening in Hawkins, but what? And what does Steve Harrington know about it?
~◼️▪️◼️▪️◼️▪️◼️~
June ██, 1983.
"Listen, listen," Steve held both hands up to quiet him, "It's not carved in stone, it's not predestination, it's choices, weaves," he balled his hands into fists in a sign of mild frustration, "Look—" he unwrapped the scarf from his neck, holding the tasselled end up at Eddie, but… it was June… and Eddie could've sworn Steve didn't have a scarf, he'd have noticed, right? Especially one like that, thick and knitted, made of a soft looking, vibrant yellow wool. "—Fate is a tapestry, it's huge and all encompassing, and unlike this—" he pulled at the frayed edge of the scarf, unravelling a handful of threads, "—that tapestry has an almost infinite amount of threads."
"Steve?" Eddie whispered, pointing at the scarf in confusion as Steve carefully draped the ends of the threads across the side of his left hand, gripping the bulk and presenting them to Eddie as an offering,
"Which gives you choices." Steve either didn't hear him or was ignoring him, too wrapped up in his explanation. Sluggishly, Eddie started to accept that maybe the scarf had been there the whole time—of course it had, a bright yellow scarf was hard to miss—he looked instead to the offered threads, uncurling his hand into a reaching grab before he hesitated and narrowed his eyes.
"What are they?" he asked, "my choices."
"Hmm…" there was a strange intensity in Steve's eyes as he leant forward, the iridescent hazel was lost to the swell of his pupils and all Eddie saw there was darkness, inky and infinite, even the reflection from the dome light had slipped away from them, unable to find purchase on once-glossy lenses. The thick fog of Eddie's high seemed to settle in his throat as Steve regarded him, a nervous swallow doing nothing to shift it as he was stripped bare under that peculiar gaze, raw and exposed, seen.
"Uegk—" it was an odd noise, but it was the one he made, shrinking back until he was slumped against the side of the van, breaths coming out short and uneasy until Steve lifted his hand and disrupted Eddie's line of sight with the dangling threads. His head fell back against the panelling and he sucked down a few deep breaths of weed laced air, closing his eyes against the too-bright dome light as he recuperated from high-induced paranoia—it wasn't the first time his high had veered off course, but it rarely did so with company. "Jesus…" he sighed, shaking his head to clear it before peeling himself from the panelling, feeling sticky and damp with sweat as he honed in on Steve, watching as he drew a few of the threads back over his hand, "shit's strong…"
"Sorry," Steve hummed distantly, lifting golden eyes from the red yarn dangling across his fingers and meeting Eddie's wide-eyed stare, smiling at him with soft reassurance, "Your choices?" he gestured with the yarn and Eddie nodded,
"Ready."
"Great," Steve's voice was barely above a whisper, but then he cleared his throat and spoke crisp words into the air between them. "There are six threads," he stated and Eddie dragged his eyes across them, counting each one with a deep nod of his head, "six paths you can take, six choices you could make,"—he wondered absently if Steve knew he was rhyming—"Freedom, Aspiration—"
"Freedom from what?" he asked, interrupting, Steve looked thoughtful for a moment before shrugging,
"I dunno," his voice pitched up as he spoke, curiosity piquing him briefly, "You're the one who knows," he offered helpfully, twisting his mouth to the side as Eddie gave him a bemused look. He shrugged again, then continued, "Duty, Conformity—" As if, Eddie would sooner die than conform, and his thoughts must've been written all over his face, because Steve hesitated, giving him a curious look before touching his thumb to the second thread along, pulling it back over his hand with a subtle caress. "—Stability, and, of course, Nothing."
'Nothing' was a curious one, "What do they mean?" he asked, rephrasing in the hopes of a real answer as he gestured at the five remaining threads, Conformity was gone at least, but the options he was given were abstract and confusing,
"I couldn't tell you." Steve answered, which was part of the game, Eddie supposed, it was his job to figure them out and pick the right one.
"Do I just go with my gut and guess?" he scratched his eyebrow, closing one eye and keeping the other on the strands, as if their meanings would become clear, Steve didn't answer, "they're not in order." he knew that much when Conformity got removed, they were shuffled,
"I suppose not." Steve was still watching him when he looked up, soft eyed and airy as he kept his arm outstretched.
"Is there a right choice?" his voice felt too quiet, child-like as the weight of this bizarre game sat heavy across his shoulders, like it might somehow affect the rest of his life,
"What do you mean?" Steve cocked his head to the side, "whatever choice you make is your decision, so it's the right one for you." that wasn't exactly the answer he was looking for,
"Do any of these choices—" he hesitated, he felt stupid and small, like his question was too simple, too naive, "—Will any of these choices make me happy?" the look on Steve's face was oddly reassuring, that weighty seriousness lifted with the slight raise of his brows, a sweet smile tugging at one corner of his mouth, baring teeth that glinted sharp in the dome light,
"Two of the six offer… fulfilment, what you do on the path you choose is where happiness is found." it was a strange way to phrase it, two of the six, had Eddie already discarded one of his chances? That didn't seem right, he'd discarded Conformity, there wasn't a single timeline in which conforming could end in Eddie being fulfilled, conformity would be a wife, a litter of kids, a house with a picket fence, a cushy job, that sounded like Hell, not the recipe for a fulfilled life.
"I take it you know which two." he huffed, regretting it when he chased that smile away and painted a frown across that painfully pretty face,
"No…" Steve looked curiously at the threads, "But I do know which ones offer Death."
So excited to get to beta this awesome fic! I've already started digging into it and it has me hooked. Poor Eddie is probably a bit like this after that last bit of explanation from Steve:
Also, I'm a little obsessed with that gif. Has a very trail cam vibe to it with the fuzziness. Nothing like a three-eyed wolf to really add the supernatural vibe.
Very excited to be able to reveal what I'm working on for @steddiebbang.
Firstly I have been paired with the lovely and talented @kat-wick for this year's bang. Can't wait!
So this year's project is called:
Linked: When Superpowers Have Consequences
more details under the cut...
Relationships: Steve Harrington/Eddie Munson, Steve Harrington & Robin Buckley, Steve Harrington & Dustin Henderson, Eddie Munson & Dustin Henderson, Robin Buckley/Vicky
Characters: Steve Harrington, Eddie Munson, Robin Buckley, Dustin Henderson, Eleven
Tags: romance, alternative ending for final episode, no epilogue, Eddie lives, time travel, canon compliant until final episode, superpowers, plot-hole patching, El lives, Kali lives, Billy lives (but he’s only incidental), fix-it
Rating: teen (I think)
Summary: Eleven couldn’t face the combined might of Henry and the Mindflayer alone.
So, everyone who entered the Abyss made a choice: they stepped forward together, forming a gestalt to amplify her power, just as Henry had used the kids to strengthen his own. For one impossible moment, they became more than separate people. They became a weapon.
But power like that always has a cost.
Their decision will change El’s future, and possibly their own, in ways none of them fully understood. It also caused fractures in the fabric of the Upside Down itself, side effects no one saw coming. In the rush to back up El and save the world, no one stopped to ask what linking themselves together might do to the group, or whether the surge of power could put them back on the government’s radar.
They won the moment. Now they must survive the consequences.
I am having such fun writing this one and I finally figured out the crux of the story (I wasn't sure where to take it for a while, but now I have it). Can't wait to get it all written down. I enjoyed s5, but I think there was so much more they could have done and there were plot holes big enough to take a train! This is where my brain went to fix that, well that and the oversight of not bringing Eddie back of course 😉🥰.
It's that time of year again! I am once again participating in @steddiebbang and we're allowed to announce our projects!
This year, I'm doing a movie fusion/crossover based on Crossroads, the 1986 Ralph Macchio movie in which he breaks an aging musician out of a nursing home, hitchhikes down to the deep south and duels the devil’s personal guitar player. Featuring Eddie as the music student looking for a little more in life, Wayne as his uncle with a mysterious past, and Steve as one of the nurses working in Wayne's assisted living facility.
Very excited to be working with @arelliann and @ilyre-p to bring this one to life. More information on the fic below!
Rating: Mature
Estimated Word Count: 50,000-55,000 words
Relationships: Steve Harrington/Eddie Munson Eddie Munson & Wayne Munson
Characters: Eddie Munson, Steve Harrington, Wayne Munson, Vecna/Henry Creel, Minor or Background Character(s)
Content Warnings: Health Issues Typical of an Aging Character, Period-Typical Homophobia, Minor Instances of Police Corruption and Attempted Sexual Assault, Mentions of Gun Violence
Tags: Alternate Universe - No Upside Down, Movie Crossover, Crossroads Deals & Demons, Supernatural Elements, Music, Hitchhiking, Road Trip, Forced Proximity, Developing Relationship, College Student Eddie Munson, Nurse Steve Harrington, Hopeful Ending
@steddiebbang 2026 project announcement - team #004
Artist: @wolvesbane-butstranger
Beta: @sidekick-hero
🌊🌊🌊
With his musician dreams on the rocks, a penniless Eddie finds himself taking on work in the most unlikely of places - on board a superyacht.
He expects the captain to be a stuck up, arrogant asshole. Steve Harrington turns out to be many things - haunted, withdrawn, but perhaps the kindest man Eddie has ever met.
What he doesn't expect is for that captain to change the course of his entire life.
🌊🌊🌊
Snippet:
He's shirtless. Dozing in the morning light, eyes closed. Skin gold and radiant in the sun, spattered with moles. His waist lean, his shoulders broad, his chest covered in a layer of hair.
Against the railing, Eddie's hand squeezes. Hard.
There's only one person on board that he hasn't met yet.
Which means this man, the most attractive man Eddie has ever seen, the man that's got him frozen and sweating and listening to his own heartbeat thud in his ears, is his captain.
Steve.
Dumbly, he takes a few steps towards him.
And promptly kicks over the tray of dishes he'd deposited by his feet.
Glass clunks and something shatters, and Eddie curses, dropping to his knees and trying to brush it up. What a fucking great first impression, he curses in his head. That glass was probably worth more than a month's salary, you fucking idiot.
There's footsteps. Eddie feels a bead of sweat roll down the back of his neck. Great, he's probably coming over here to yell, to tell me I'm fired on day fucking two of this job, to tell me I'm a useless -
"Hey, careful, don't cut yourself on that."
Oh, his voice is soft.
Eddie pauses in his efforts to sweep up the glass in his hands. Swallows thickly, then looks up.
Fuck.
Close up, Steve is even hotter than Eddie had first thought.
Honey-brown eyes, thick tousled hair, jaw square and strong and - and he's squatting down in front of him, gently batting Eddie's hands away from the glass with his much larger ones. "This shit is sharp, we should get some gloves or something."
"Sorry," Eddie splutters. "I kicked it, sort of…forgot I put it there, I was looking at - at the view, at…" He flaps a hand towards the sea. "You can take it out of my wages to replace it, or whatever -"
Steve shakes his head. "No, that's ok. Don't worry, it was just an accident. You're Eddie, right? I'm sorry, I should've come and found you and introduced myself, I figured I'd let you settle in a little first. I'm Steve. Steve Harrington."
A little shakily, Eddie takes the hand offered to him.
It's warm, grip firm but gentle.
"Um….hi," Eddie croaks, kicks himself internally, remembers to snap his mouth closed again.
"Hi," Steve says with a soft chuckle.
Unbidden, Eddie's eyes flick to his.
Steve's eyes are kind, but despite the small smile tugging on his lips, Eddie can see the sadness there.
The captain lets go of his hand and pushes himself to his feet again. "There, think that's most of it. I'll get Lucas to bring the broom up here and make sure there's nothing left. I'll see you around, Eddie." With that, he turns back to the net at the bow, walking away from Eddie.
Eddie's only a man, and apparently a very weak one when it comes to Steve. He can't help but stare at the captain's ass as he walks away - it's not his fault it's hugged so well by his little blue shorts.
Steve's gait is slightly uneven, he notices. A little hitch in his step, like his right leg doesn't quite want to cooperate.
Finally, he drags his attention away. Grabs the rest of the dishes and makes a swift, ungraceful exit from the deck back into the stairwell.
Hello there! I'm super jazzed to reveal my project for this year's @steddiebbang
I'm so excited to be paired with @rebelwithoutabroom as my artist and @sereinpetrichor as my beta! 🎉🎉🎉
Here's the summary:
Eddie has no idea how he got himself into this situation.
One minute, some super hot rich guy is flirting with him in his uncle's failing auto shop. The next minute, the same super hot rich guy is asking Eddie to be his fake date to his cousin Chrissy's wedding. In France. Steve promises him it'll be a good time, and that he'll make it worth Eddie's while. It'll keep Steve's parents off his back (and piss off some of his more conservative relatives as an added bonus).
One long weekend.
One destination wedding.
One bed.
What could go wrong?
See under the cut for a snippet!
"Oh, sweet," Steve said, picking up a piece of cardstock propped against the mantle above the fireplace. "Chrissy's got the itinary for the weekend." He scanned the contents, smiling. "Looks like it's gonna be a good time." He glanced up at Eddie, frowning when he saw Eddie still staring at the bed. "What's wrong?"
"There's uh… there's only one… bed," Eddie replied weakly.
Steve raised an eyebrow at him. "Yeah," he said slowly. "Is that… a problem?"
"No," Eddie said. "It's not a problem—"
"Everyone thinks we're boyfriends," Steve said. "Of course they're gonna assume we share a bed."
"I know," Eddie said, regretting that he'd pointed it out. It shouldn't be a problem. It wouldn't be.
"Look, if it's really that important to you, I can ask if there's a spare cot or something around," Steve said with a shrug. "It's really not a big deal, though. You never shared a bed before?"
Eddie snorted. "Of course I have," he said. He thought about getting a cot like Steve said, then worried what Steve's family might think if they found out his 'boyfriend' was sleeping on a cot in the room they were sharing. He took a breath, mentally shaking his anxiety off. "It's fine," he said, meeting Steve's eyes, decisive. "It's totally fine."
Steve's features relaxed into a smile. "Great," he said. "Promise not to hog the covers."
@steddiebbang project announcement, #022 Lullabies and Birdsong
Artist: @kaspurrcat | Beta: @shelleyminx
A post Season 4 story based in my Soul Book AU, where the kids of the Party are guided back to their ancestry, and the return of this living legend slowly pulls Steve and Eddie closer together.
There's tenuous friendships, a little bit of fighting and magic (not.. quite at the same time 👀), exposition out the wazoo, and the biggest question of all: is it worth it to place your life into the hands of another - risk it Breaking right before your eyes - all in the name of trust, care, and love?
Summary:
The essence of the universe and humanity’s home rests in our blood. Their influence guides our creation, but we’re Lost from them upon birth. It takes a Teller to guide us back to them, though being Found doesn't save you from everything.
Eddie begged to the skies on the night he was meant to die, to the Sun and the Stars and his beloved Moon. Begged for the kids to one day be Found, and his Soul Parent answered by helping him survive so he may Tell them himself. He reunited them with their soul heritage, the entire Party bearing witness to the age-old tradition, and the teens guiding them through it.
Yet when it all dies down, they can't just return to the lives they once had. The eyes of the kids are opened now, and the taboo topic is back in Steve's circle. It's all anyone can talk about, and with it under light again, a once ignored past is forced to the present, looming over Steve and Eddie like high noon.
The Sun and Moon are thousands of miles apart, where only their light can travel the distance. But when their descendants are forced closer and closer together, how long until they eclipse?
And below, you'll find a fresh excerpt just for this announcement :] Happy SBB Season to everyone!!
Excerpt:
"Alright, that's it, time's up," he snaps, getting out of his car. Startling Jeff, who pushes off the wall to, surprisingly, try and discourage him with hands outstretched.
"Whoa there, hang on, Steve-"
"No, no, I'm done waiting," Steve just walks around Jeff, speaking over his shoulder as he walks up the steps to the side doors of the school. "Eddie's rules can go shove it, alright? I have a responsibility here, and I'd rather get my ass kicked by him than hear one word from another parent." He barges into the school, walking down the halls to Hellfire's base.
He's so determined that Jeff has to jog to keep up, still hesitantly trying to hold Steve back and definitely failing at trying to talk him down. "You-You know he's just gonna tell you off right?" He chuckles nervously. "I-I mean, can't beat a Munson in a debate and it would just kill the scene," he says through gritted teeth before trying to laugh it off again, "s-so what's even the point there-"
"Well maybe," Steve spins to look Jeff in the eye, freezing the poor guy in place, "Eddie should've thought of that before taking another half hour to nerd out."
He really doesn't mean to make Jeff the subject of his annoyance, but there's this weird energy in the air now. Makes his skin all buzzy, and a warmth suddenly radiates through him. It almost feels familiar, like the faint burn of a sun tan residing in every move you make after coming inside. Something about it acts as fuel, as Steve turns to trudge the last few feet and bust open one of the doors to Hellfire.
Of course, he's immediately met with a chorus of ("totally-not-girly, gosh Steve, grow up") yelps from every single person in the almost pitch black backroom. All the kids are seated around the center table, each of them going bug-eyed at Steve's entrance and freezing on the spot. Eddie, standing with his back to Steve at the furthest end of the table, flinches so hard it almost makes Steve want to apologize.
Almost.
"Eddie, I do not care how long this thing takes, I'm not waiting another second to- to…"
And Steve just stops. Because something catches his eye from the darkest corner of the room.
It's Gareth, the youngest of Eddie's crew. He's sitting on their poor excuse of a couch next to the last original Hellfire member (Freak or Frank or Harold or something like that), both just as wide-eyed as the rest of the room. The only difference is, in the darkness, Gareth's eyes have a glowing spark at the center, and Steve swears a magenta hue streaked behind his head when it swiveled to see him.
That makes Steve look back at Eddie and finally notice that, beyond the brilliance of the moon in front of him, Eddie is glowing.
Eddie is still in a braced position from his fright, and begins to slowly turn to face his friend, right side first. But by the time Steve catches his nervous/scared/guilty expression, Eddie can see him too, and he immediately forgets hesitation to turn the rest of the way and gape at Steve the same as the others.
And in his left eye, as though stolen straight from the night sky itself, is the moon.
The suffocating silence finally catches up to Steve. He slowly brings his free hand up, not wanting to believe what was so clearly right in front of him.
But there it is. His hand, his arm, his entire body, engulfed in a golden glow as bright as the sun.
art by @digrupert
betaing by @ghostintheclawmachine
coming this fall! date to come
I'm so excited to finally announce my project for @steddiebbang 2026, and reveal the incredible team I'm going to get to work with!
DEMOLITION
Rated E
est. 30-40k
contemporary AU, demolition derbies, rivals to lovers, one-sided rivalry, plot with porn, a hint of Appalachian Eddie
warnings for minor-moderate racism, misogyny, and homophobia; some blood and threat of serious injuries
Eddie's been driving demolition derbies since he was sixteen, and has built himself up a reputation: not just the guy with the gimmick of wrecking and rebuilding and wrecking old hearses, but a damn good driver and a great show. The Roane County Fair Hawkins Crash is his new white whale: the past two years he's won the title of Mad Dog—audience favorite, best show, craziest driver—but he's just missed first. But he just knows this is his year.
He's prepared for most everything except for the sponsor's rich, spoiled asshole of a son to be participating. (He's even less prepared for Steve Harrington to be a good driver, a great fuck, and maybe even a genuinely likeable person.)
Rivals to lovers and dirt and rust and car crashes, and not every car crash is a sex allegory, but a lot of the car crashes are a sex allegory. The sex is definitely a car crash allegory.
Excerpt:
The sun's going down and the floodlights have been turned on, turning the soft golden hour light into something harsh and stark. Despite his helmet and mouth guard, Eddie can still taste dirt and iron between his teeth from the constant clods of mud kicked up by the tires. The arena is filled with the stench of exhaust and oil and gas, burnt rubber and the ozone sharpness of metal grinding against metal.
Beneath Eddie, Corroded Coffin wheezes and gutters, the hearse on its last legs. She can't take many more hits. She struggles to turn right, and the brakes grind, and the body is dented in enough that his left elbow constantly rubs against the quilt strapped to the driver's side door as makeshift padding.
Across the arena, Harrington's Chrysler Imperial has lost all of it's polish and shine, paint ground off, scraped through, coated in mud, though the light still catches on the sheen of lingering glitter. Eddie can't see his face at this distance, cast in shadow, even staring straight down the barrel. But he can hear the engine roar.
A head-on collision is stupid. It's a good way to trash your car and knock yourself out of the running. But.
Eddie's heart pounds and his blood sings and every fiber of his body screams at him to drive his car directly into, against, through, Harrington's, until mangled metal twists together and you can't tell where one body starts and another ends.
They're the last men standing. And a head-on hit always makes for a good show.
Eddie Munson's Guide to Demons, Hellhounds, and Other Minions of Satan
@steddiebbang project #013
Time to reveal my project for the 2026 Steddie Big Bang! Excited to work with tombfiends and @drwhoisginnyholmes this year, it's gonna be a blast.
Rating: M
Estimated Word Count: 10-15k
Relationships: Steve/Eddie, Steve & his parents, Eddie & Steve's parents, Eddie & the CC Boys, Steve & Dustin
Characters: Dan [Mr.] Harrington, Olivia [Mrs.] Harrington, the CC Boys, Dustin Henderson, Robin Buckley
Tags: Humor, Misunderstandings, Steve Harrington Has Good Parents, Catholic Wayne, D'art Lives, 'Demon' Steve Harrington, Strangers to Friends to Lovers, Eddie Munson is Oblivious and Bisexual, Bisexual Steve, Steve is Eddie's Bisexual Awakening, Aftermath of Starcourt, S5 Doesn't Happen Don't Worry About It, Minor Canon Divergence from S2 Onwards
Summary:
After El closes the inter-dimensional gate to the Upside Down in November 1984, D'art doesn't perish thanks to the protective powers of sugar. He goes on to form a bond with his new 'pack' of humans and continues to evolve in unexpected ways. The demodog eventually comes under the primary ownership of Steve Harrington. Steve, recovering from his severe concussion and without sports to keep him occupied, is still in search of a friend who isn't thirteen years old.
Enter Eddie Munson. Eddie's second senior year is supposed to be devoted to important things like figuring out how to break the spirits of the newest members of Hellfire with a diabolical 50-foot tall goose-dragon, or passing Kaminsky's next test for once. But that's before he comes across the fallen king of Hawkins High and his pet hellhound. And what is Eddie supposed to do with the information that Steve Harrington is apparently a demon in disguise besides figure out what the guy's diabolical intentions in the middle of nowhere Indiana are? He clearly has no choice but to undergo an undercover mission and befriend Steve, all while resisting his hellish charms as the two of them grow closer.
or:
Four times Eddie Munson is convinced Steve Harrington has to be a demon, and one time he finds out the much weirder truth
Enjoy a snippet below the cut!
February 1985
Two albums (filled with music that Eddie would never admit to finding catchy) later, Steve finally got up to use the bathroom.
Eddie sprung up and put his totally not all that ill-conceived plan into action, pulling out his canteen filled with the finest and holiest of waters Our Lady of Perpetual Mercy had to offer. Or more accurately, the finest water Eddie could pilfer while Wayne was busy talking to the priest outside, but that was fine. This was in service to ensuring the devil couldn't walk among them at full power!
Steve had left his glass of water sitting there completely defenseless and half-full on his desk, so Eddie gulped it down as fast as he could and replaced it with his contraband H₂O. Surely this would prove his theories correct at last. Worst case Steve's human shell would melt off and he'd head back to hell for a little unexpected leave time.
When he returned, Steve took a sip and…nothing happened. He smacked his lips a couple times, scratched his stomach, then went right back to his spot at the top of the bed without a care in the world.
Goddammit!
You know, now that Eddie thought about it, maybe the anti-evil properties of holy water were lost when one committed a sin to obtain it. Perhaps it had to be freely distributed to the masses during Mass. Plus, Wayne had been thrilled he'd wanted to go on Sunday for once. The power of a disappointed father figure could really mess with the aura given off by the…water. And Jesus. Or something.
Regardless of any higher authority's opinion on the subject, Eddie was back to square one once again.
