I've been saying that the relationship between Will and Mike began to feel strange or crack after the Snowball dance. This was because they seemed to adopt the notion that relationships should be strictly between a boy and a girl, not between two boys. Like society rules.
đđźđđĄđšđ«đŹ đ§đšđđ -> thank you all for being so patient with me while i pulled this out of my ass. love you guys for real <3 be sure to check out the concept board and playlist linked at the top too !! i think theyre cool and i have decent opinions
saturday
by the time you arrived, the group had already debriefed, and they looked at you with the same mixture of concern and confusion that ted and karen did when you knocked on their door.
the stairs creaked with every careful step you took. it was difficult to make a subtle entrance when you were possibly several hours late to a meeting that was, evidently, very urgent. the fear that pulsed through your body when your mother relayed a message to you from your brother, one that was A) not particularly kind and B) possibly dooming.
"you look like shit," dustin noted when he saw the smudges of dirt on your jeans, paired with the dried blood on your hands and the bits of twigs in your hair, "and way to be on time. does 'code red' mean nothing to you?"
"i dont carry a walkie with me everywhere, dustin," you narrowed your eyes at him, an action to which he responded with a middle finger, "i actually have a life."
"is that why you look like you slept in a cave?" dustin smiled proudly at his taunt, but he made a fair point. suddenly, you became extra aware of just how disheveled your hair was, and you tried to dust some of the mud from your pants.
if it were just dustin, youd have left him thinking that, yeah, you did sleep in a cave, but everyone was there: lucas, max, nancy, robin, and even steve, whom you hadnt really spoken to all that much since things went south between the two of you. in all fairness, he didn't look too pleased to be there, either, nor did he look like he was going to put up with your bullshit. his arms were permanently crossed as he loomed in the corner, leaning on the arm of the couch and as far from you as he could get.
"im sorry that im late, guys, really, but-"
"but nothing," steve interjected, "no offense, y/n, but we have bigger problems than your midnight scavenger hunt or whatever the hell you were doing."
"i dont think thats true, but okay," you breathed a laugh before realizing that everyone was staring you down, and not in a haha-y/n-is-making-a-joke way- they were burning holes in you. your laugh got caught in your throat, "wait, bigger how?"
nancy scooted her chair at the small table over to make room for you, and, as you stepped down off the stairs, the items on the table became clearer: a bear trap, a torch, a shotgun, and a new can of farah fawcett spray.
"the demogorgon is back," max sighed, not breaking eye contact with you, no matter how many times your eyes flickered from hers to the weapons on the table, "i heard it last night near my place, and mike and nancy said they heard it here, as well."
"it was loud," nancy piped up after you looked to her for confirmation, "scratching around, but it was different somehow."
"we think, maybe, one got left behind when joyce closed the gate and, i dont know, adapted to hawkins," robin lifted and dropped her palms onto the tabletop in confusion.
you were confused, too. you watched all the creatures from the upside down shrivel up and turn to dust as soon as the gate began to close, so it didnt make sense for one to somehow adapt. slowly, you began to put the pieces together, weaving flashes from the previous night together to realize what was actually going on. it frightened you to your core.
before you could open your mouth to speak, steve reached for the can of hairspray, shaking it vigorously back and forth, just how it says to in the directions printed on the back, "maybe the son of a bitch hibernated. now its hungry, and im not gonna wait around for it to eat."
talk erupted of plans to set up a trap in both locations, stakeouts, buying ammunition, getting gasoline for the fire trails- you tried to interject, but kept getting talked over.
"i say we go to max's tonight, since she heard it first," lucas added.
"guys-"
"yeah, this demogorgon is going down," dustin chimed in, handing lucas his trusty slingshot from the table, "for real this time."
"hold on, guys-"
"were gonna need bait," robin said, more like asked, cocking her head towards steve who replied with a series of small nods and a snap in her direction, "oh, yep! were gonna need a shit ton of raw meat."
"that wasnt a demogorgon," you finally croaked, loud enough to shut everyone up. it helped that you also moved from your place at the table and back to the stairs, blocking steve from his impromptu grocery run. the step gave you the height advantage over him, "that was something else, someone."
silence is hard to read. did they believe you? did they think you were messing with them? you liked to have fun, but not during a code red. that meant nothing to them. being late erased any form of reliability you had left, and everyone was too serious to give you the benefit of the doubt. especially steve.
"thats very funny, y/n," he gave you a fake smile, gentle eyes squinted and determined. you knew if you didnt move, hed move you, pick you up by your shoulders and slide right by you.
"im not joking, steve," you said, squaring , "i usually am, but not this time."
it was never easy keeping secrets, let alone secrets about secrets.
"what do you mean, 'someone?'" asked nancy, her brows furrowed, and rightfully so with all the nonsense you just spilled in front of her, in front of everyone.
"the sound you guys heard last night wasnt a demogorgon," you restated, taking a deep breath before finishing, "it was eddie."
voices in unison exclaimed, confused, "munson?"
it was important to note the way steves jaw tensed at the mere mention of his name. he had always been the jealous type, and its exactly why you broke up with him. sweet little steve turned into a major pain in your ass. maybe it was because he liked you, or maybe it was because he just hated everyone else. you liked him better as a friend anyhow.
and it was good, too, since you two had a common factor: dustin. your little brother was also one of his closest friends, in the least weird way. it was how you met steve, through dustin, but it was also how you met eddie.
steve breathed a laugh, almost a scoff, and turned his back to you, a reaction you would have never predicted. he threw his hands up in defeat, landing them on his hips, "alright."
your face contorted with confusion, "really?"
"no, y/n," steve turned back around to you, briefly startling you and, clearly, everyone else in the room. the air became a little thicker, like fog as you held your breath. he laughed again, "hell no."
"you honestly want me to believe that eddie 'the freak' munson is running around on all fours in the goddamn woods growling and shit like a demogorgon?" steve asked, nearly choking on a laugh in the middle of his sentence. his hands waved when he talked, motioning towards the window before they found themselves back on his waist.
every eye in the room was either widened as far as it could stretch or covered with a disappointed palm. they thought you were lying, your friends. you were never one to lie, ever. a fib here or there for comedic effect, maybe, but a bold faced lie was not on your list of tricks. all you could do was dig.
"more like a, uh," you gulped, "demo-dog."
"jesus christ," steve mumbled and rubbed his temples.
the room filled with sighs and similar muttered exclamations of irritation as it typically did when you suggested a theory. in all fairness, you werent always right on the money, but this was different. you didnt blame them for not believing you, though.
"y/n, im going to need you to be a little bit clearer," robin sat up straight in her chair, giving you her best comforting and patient smile, "about the dog part, i mean."
"yeah, a lot clearer," steve added, "because i dont think i like what im thinking."
you crossed your arms over your chest under all the scrutiny, "steve, i know it sounds crazy, but-"
"crazy?," steve laughed, running a hand through his hair, one of his more admirable habits, "no, crazy doesnt cut it. honestly, the image of him doing that for fun is not that outlandish, but if youre trying to tell me eddie munson is a werewolf, y/n, youre out of your mind."
it was a tense moment, then and there, with steve teetering even closer to hating your guts and everyone else terrified of possibly feeling the same. all you could do was shrug, uncrossing your arms, wiping your sweaty palms on your pants, and striping the dried mud with new moisture. you sighed,
"then i guess im out of my mind, harrington."
friday
youd never been to the hideout before. social gatherings of any kind werent really your scene unless they had to be. in fact, the smell of the hideout alone was enough to keep you away, a thick fog of sweat, booze, and smoke. it crawled under the door as you pulled it open and stepped inside.
it was small, intimate, despite the weekend drinkers that packed in like sardines. there was quite a bigger crowd than the usual five that hung around on tuesdays, or so youd been told. the soft hum of conversations floated over of the sound of microphone feedback as you wove your way closer to the front of the room.
showing up was a last minute decision. your friday nights are best spent in your bed, alone, and in something much more comfortable than the clothes you were wearing. you pinched yourself every time you picked up an item of clothing and thought about whether or not eddie would like it, as if he didnt drool over you regardless. still, you dressed to impress, and it worked.
"holy shit," eddie deadpanned as he stepped off the shallow drop from the stage onto the main floor, his hair bouncing off his sweat soaked shoulders as he trotted to you, "look who finally decided to show. you missed, like, most of the set by the way."
"wait, actually," his eyes lit up as he raised a finger into the air in faux contemplation, dismissing the thoughts just as fast as they arrived, "you know what- i dont even care. just glad youre here."
that was a bit of an exaggeration- you were only twenty minutes late. when you made it to the front, eddie was lost in his own version of reality, fingers dancing on wires. thats how you knew he didnt notice the exact time you arrived. when he played, he ditched the old picture-everyone-in-their-underwear stagefright trick and opt for something a little bit stranger, as expected. he told you about it once, and you tried to forget. but, alas, something that absurd was permanently seared into your mind.
it made it kind of difficult to support him from the front row when you knew he was picturing you as a centaur.
"i didnt want you to mentally horse-ify my bottom half," you protested. eddie gasped, clutching his chest dramatically.
"ill have you know, y/n, i dont do that anymore," he said, "ive matured. grown, as a person."
he leaned a little closer to you, his stray curls tickling your skin at such proximity, sending goosebumps down your arms. "i've moved onto minotaurs."
you smacked his arm, and he stuck his tongue out at you before rustling the top of your hair with his hand. he quickly flipped his wrists towards you, flashing you two middle fingers as he backed toward the stage again. you shot him one of your own in return.
he was truly in his element up there, no denying it. his passion was so evident in the way he moved that you could hardly pull your eyes from him, no one could. it was entirely possible you were eyeing him a little more intently than the old drunk guys next to you. maybe just a little, though.
you waited outside after the show. it rained while you were inside, so there was hardly any relief when you exited one humid space to another. the parking lot was riddled with pothole puddles and oil slick rainbows under the street lamps. the clouds were thick in the sky, so much that it almost scared you. the moon was lost, the only indicator of her a shallow ring of white seeping through the slate of grey. you busied yourself kicking rocks in the parking space next to eddies van until the moment he was within view.
as he got closer, you could see his forehead was damp with sweat, his curls sticking to the sides of his face. with his guitar case draped over his shoulder, he waved his arm in your direction despite being only a couple feet from you.
"you guys were amazing," you beamed, closing the distance between the two of you and following him the rest of the way to the van.
"you think so?" eddie smirked. he opened the sliding door of the van and placed his guitar gently in the back, clearing the empty cups, papers, and ashes on the floor to make room.
you hummed in response, "mhm."
"well," he said in harmony with the clicking of the door back into place and grabbed you by your hips, gently backing you against the side of the vehicle, "you looked amazing. look... look amazing."
you could feel the mix of rain droplets and dew that remained on the side of the van through the back of your shirt, but the heat beneath eddies fingers distracted you from the chill that managed to cling to everything in the humid, post-rain air. your arms snaked up and around the back of his neck, your fingers threading into the mess of his hair. you struggled to maintain eye contact with him for several reasons, but mainly because his lips were so inviting. plump, dark pink, and a little swollen from being tucked between his teeth all evening.
his eyes never left yours, though, even when they abandoned his face entirely to scan the activity in the parking lot. he knew what you were doing, and he sighed, shaking the hair from his view before softly clearing his throat.
"y/n," he brought a hand to your cheek, his rings soothing against your flushed skin, "you know what im going to say."
this thumb dragged gently across your cheek, ghosting your lip.
"im just checking," you said, your voice higher in defense, "can never be too careful."
"you can and you are," he mimicked your defensive tone and brought his other hand from your waist to the other side of your face, now cupping your cheeks, "just once, i want to kiss you in semi-public, preferably in daylight but im not picky, without you thinking about steve. youre going to summon him."
"i just worry," you placed your hands over eddies wrists, "about you. about him. about everything, really."
his lips turned up, ever so slightly, at your sentiment, his eyes glossed over and shining like syrup in the orange hued lights. eddie took a step closer to you, pressing your body against his, and he craned his neck, hovering his lips above yours. he let your lips brush over his, smirking when he pulled back and brought you with him, chasing them.
"i love that you care about my wellbeing, y/n," eddie muttered, his breath a phantom on your tongue with how close he was to your mouth, "but i am going to kiss you, right here, right now... and i dont even care if harrington kicks my ass."
youd never imagined that you would be making out with eddie munson, pressed up against his shitty van, let alone writhing under his touch, enjoying it. he let his hands fall from your face, one of them resting on the side of your neck and the other providing him with some leverage against the metal siding of his van.
he told you once about how you make him weak in the knees, but you didnt realize how literal he was being until you grazed his bottom lip with your teeth and felt him tremble against you.
"you," eddie breathed, pressing a heavy and needy kiss to your lips, one you thought would bruise if it had been any longer, "you drive me fucking crazy."
hastily, he placed another kiss on your lips, nearly missing them. you couldnt help but smile into it, smile at how he was kissing you like youd melt away in his hands. maybe youd evaporate and turn into a cloud, or hed kiss you so hard youd seep into the side of his van and hed have no choice but to wash it more than once a year to keep you sparkling.
"how about you," you wrapped your arms around eddies neck, pulling yourself up to his ear and whispering, "drive us to your place."
letting eddie drive you anywhere under normal circumstances was a death wish in itself since he was notorious for basically breaking all traffic laws at least once a week, sometimes for fun. youd never seen him drive so fast. never before had you felt the need to use the little handle above the window, but your knuckles were white around both the handle and eddies hand as he turned too wide around curves and crossed solid lines and whipped it into his driveway with such an abrupt stop that the screech of his tires woke the neighbors dog.
"ah, shut up," he shouted over his shoulder and across the road, pushing the door open and stepping out of the way, "after you."
you stepped through his doorway for what felt like the hundredth time. youd only grown close to eddie within the last few months, and youd been romantic with him for even less. dustin was the one to introduce you after eddie had bugged him about you one too many times. youd noticed him before that, though, sneaking glances at you when youd pick dustin up from hellfire and hiding his blush under a strand of hair hed pull across his face.
the last thing you expected eddie munson to be was shy, but he was putty in your hands.
he was nothing like everyone made him out to be, including steve who had deemed him "the freak." steve wasnt a bad guy by any means. he rebounded onto you after things went south between him and nancy, and you knew it wouldnt last. it was possible that his only flaw was his jealousy. you couldnt talk to anyone without him feeling a little insecure. thats all he did, though, was feel insecure and make you miserable for it, and you didnt want eddie to face the consequences of your actions, no matter how out of character those consequences would be for steve harrington.
eddies uncles mug collection rattled against the wooden shelf when he pulled the door to behind him, rubbing his hands together mischievously as he scooted his feet towards you. an evil smile tugged at his lips when he moved swiftly past you, ignoring your outstretched arms and continuing his scoot to the fridge.
"check this out, babe," his voice was muffled from inside the appliance, buried under the rustling of items and the clinking of glass bottles, "actually, no. close your eyes first."
it could have been anything. youd have been lying if youd said you weren't mildly terrified of what he was pulling from his fridge. your arms fell limp at your sides, fists clenched to conceal the sweat that was glistening on your palms. with your eyes squeezed shut, you could only hear the door rattle as it fell closed closed.
anytime eddie had you close your eyes to build suspense, he would check to see if you were peeking, catching glimpses through your lashes.
"how many fingers am i holding up?" eddie asked after waving an open hand over your closed eyes, the air dusting over your cheeks.
"one."
"fuck you," eddie spat, "are you cheating right now?"
you laughed at how genuinely offended he was that you guessed it right. although, it was impossible to get wrong. "its always one, eddie. literally always."
if you knew that if you had opened your eyes, you would have seen him standing, mystery object tucked under his arm with all his weight on one leg and a grand gesture on display in front of your face: his middle finger.
"yeah, okay," he sighed in defeat, "just open your eyes, cheater."
this might have been the first time youd opened your eyes and been actually surprised. usually it was a freshly rolled blunt or something you left behind that you asked him to return to you-- things you expected. this time, it was different, and a smile found itself on every corner of your face.
eddie held a glass bottle by the cap with one hand, the other gesturing beneath it like a shelf, metal clad fingers wiggling in sync with his eyebrows. his smile was tucked between his teeth.
"picked it up just for you, sweetheart," he said before ceasing all animation, deadpanning when you didnt immediately say something, "it is your favorite, right? i didnt... make that up or something?"
"no, it is," you smiled, gently taking the bottle of soda from his hands and flashing him softened eyes, "thanks."
"i couldnt finish mine," eddie confessed, rocking on his heels as you twisted the metal cap away, letting an exaggerated shiver rack his shoulders.
"didnt like it?" you wiped your lips on the back of your hand.
"shits disgusting, y/n," he held back a fake gag, "tastes like fizzy piss."
you raised your eyebrows at him, "and youd know?"
"id know."
the liquid in the bottom half of your bottle sloshed around as you followed eddie down the hallway, watching the bounce of his hair dwindle to nothing when he reached the door. everything seemed to make noise over there, the floors squeaked, the lights buzzed. it didnt help that eddie mimicked every sound he heard, a high pitched voice ringing with the creak of his bedroom door as he pushed it open.
you werent sure that he even had a lightbuld in the ceiling light. his room was always dark, always still. the blinds in his window were broken, though, so the yellow glow from the street lamps bled through.
"oh, wow, munson," you smirked at him, picking up a pair of dirty underwear from the foot of his bed, "did you clean up for me?"
he was quick to snatch it from between your pinched fingers and stuff it in his closet, kicking the pile of laundry he scrambled to hide from you before you noticed it back into the small space.
"for sure, babe," he breathed a laugh, shrugging, "yeah, i cleaned... mopped and shit."
you raised your eyebrows, glancing down at his carpeted floors, "mhm."
eddies room was usually messy, but you could hardly tell unless you took careful notice of the clothes in the floor. his walls were cluttered with posters and random paper clippings, like a collage of his personality: movie tickets, parking tickets, and every test he got an F on, which, honestly, was most of them. honorable mentions include his guitar hanging from the mirror and a paper desk calendar duct taped to the wall beside his headboard, detailing the global holidays and farmers almanac harvesting and planting times.
"could you be anymore obvious, eds?" you breathed a laugh, tracing the scribbles on the calendar with the tip of your finger.
"what," eddie said rather quickly, like you startled him. he looked up from the floor where he was still trying to force clothes into the closet.
"phases of the moon," you smirked, feeling the ridges of the sketches before whispering, "real subtle."
eddie pulled the accordian style closet doors closed as you continued behind him, standing up and turning to face you with his hands strategically placed on his hips, "should i write a reminder for your grooming appointment next week? behavioral training?"
"honestly, y/n," he motioned towards himself, from his head to his toes, "do i look like i need either of those?"
you closed the gap between the two of you, stepping over the bits of laundry he missed in his last minute cleaning frenzy, and raked your fingers through the sides of his hair, smoothing out the curls that were sticking out. you whispered, "i dont think i should answer that."
"youre mean," eddies lips were turned downward in a slight pout before his gentle expression dissolved entirely, "wipe that shit-eating grin off your face."
your eyes held onto his, "why dont you?"
you pulled that confidence directly out of your ass. shaking hands became steadied by his shoulders as his lips melted onto yours. you would have never admitted how badly you wanted eddie munson, but here you were, settled on his lap, pulling his tshirt over his head and bursting at the seams to feel his lips on your skin. you smoothed your fingers over the black lines on his chest and arms, even one you discovered on his hip. he hissed through his teeth as you pressed your lips to the ink on his forearm, up his bicep, his shoulder, and trailed up his neck. lips parted, breath growing heavier.
his fingertips dug into your thighs on either side of him, pulling you closer to him. as if it were even possible, as if your chests werent adhered with sweat. he looked so beautiful like this, a mess. his hair was plastered to his forehead and his chest heaved, shining even in the dull overhead of his room. he seemed to glow when he would sweat, something that you strived to see every time you ended up like this. it was the only benefit of his room having zero air flow.
one thing about eddie munson: he was a biter. oral fixation for days. hed bite your neck, licking stripes over the red trails his teeth left, bite your wrists to taste the bitter sting of your perfume. hed bite your lips. that was your guilty pleasure with him, going so slow when youd kiss him that hed take control. he couldnt stand it.
you decided, this time, to try it on him instead. you wrapped the hair at the base of his neck around your fingers and tilted his head back, exposing his pretty neck.
"h-holy fucking shit," eddie managed to breathe out when he felt your teeth scrape down the side of his neck. his grip on you tightened, hips bucking up for any friction he could get, "please, do that again."
you dragged your tongue up the length of his neck, placing tiny kisses along his jaw and up to his lips, where he was eager to taste you, resisting the hold you had on his hair to chase your lips. you caved; you had to. eddie moaned softly into your mouth when he felt your teeth sting at his lip, soothing the area with your tongue.
what happened next was unexpected, but not the strangest thing that could have happened. especially given what youd witnessed the past couple of years. in fact, you should have been more concerned when you felt a sharp pain in your legs, like knives were pricking your flesh. you gasped against eddies mouth and pulled back, breaking a kiss that left a trail of bright red spit from his lips to yours. blood. your blood, and it was pooling in your gums, gushing from two minor gashes in your bottom lip.
you covered your mouth with your free hand, releasing eddies hair when you glanced down at how much blood had actually been drawn. no big deal, you thought, this is fine.
and it was. until you looked down even further and saw the curved, thick nails that adorned the tips of eddies fingers, the nails that were partially sunken into your flesh. having your lips bitten off was a risk you took every time you kissed eddie, but the sight of his claws in your thighs set you off just a teensy bit.
slowly, you raised your head, breath trembling to match your shaking hands, and met his gaze where he was staring at you with unadulterated horror. his usual dark eyes were glowing a dim amber, and they were glossed over with tears.
"i...," eddies voice was soft and wavering as he gulped, "im sorry."
saturday
"no way you did the devils tango with eddie," dustin deadpanned, his hands clasped over his mouth in disgust. similar reactions plagued the table of people surrounding you, with lucas pretending to retch behind him and mike plugging his ears with his fingers. they all sat and listened contently to a certain point. apparently, you were a pacer, so you moved over every available inch of the wheelers basement while you recounted the previous nights events.
everyone was more shocked by the fact that you were hooking up with eddie munson and less shocked that he was a fucking werewolf.
"im gonna be sick," max buried her head in the bend of her arm.
"when i said to tell us everything," robins hands were scrunched in her hair while her elbows rested on the table, "i didnt mean... everything."
you shrugged, "im thorough."
"thats a word for it," steve rolled his eyes, "what happened next?"
"of course youd want to know," dustin snickered, and steve smacked the bill of his hat. steve looked to you for clarity.
"i just mean," he ran a hand through his hair, "somehow eddie ended up in the woods and y/n looks like shit."
"wow thanks," you snarled your nose at him, but he was right. youd never tell him, though, "it gets a little blurry here."
you explained it to them, and it sounded even more absurd the second time around. eddie was just as freaked out about the whole thing as you, maybe even more.
"he cleaned me up," you said, "you know, gave me bandaids and shit for my legs. ive known about it for a while, but he said that his lycanthropy had been dormant way past the time it should have activated. he just assumed it skipped him, which made sense to me. you know, like, how diseases skip a generation, but this disease has no cure and it makes you, like, a dog."
"oh yeah, y/n," max laughed, throwing her hands in the air in defeat, "total sense."
"he thinks it only got activated because he was... excited," everyone gagged, covering their faces to sheild you from their obvious disgust, "can you guys be mature, please?"
"the adrenaline," nancy chimed in over top of the younger kids snickering, "it could have triggered his fight or flight or something."
lucas leaned into the huddle of boys, "more like fight or bite," and max smacked the back of his head.
"i think its the drugs," steve rested his weight on the stair railing beside of you, "dudes always stoned. or drunk. could have altered the way his brain received the triggers or whatever."
it wasnt a bad idea, and there werent exactly scientific studies on the adverse effects of substances on lycanthropy. steve harringtons shot in the dark was the best you had to go on.
"wait, so, where is eddie right now?" dustin asked, smacking lucas's arm after he said something else. you couldnt hear it, but it was probably stupid.
youd wondered the same thing as you were trekking through the flora and fauna of hawkins in the wee hours of the night. you knew all of eddies favorite spots, but none of them were necessarily great hiding spots. you werent even sure if thats what he was doing, hiding.
"i was hoping maybe you all could help me find out."
"did you check his place?" dustin immediately followed your proposition with the most obvious solution.
"did i check his place," you restated the question, blinking at dustin dumfoundedly. he threw his hands up, mumbling sarcastic apologies as you spat, "yeah, dustin, i checked his place."
actually, you wished it had been that simple. after the... incident, you were both shaken up. it was a risk you had known about, the werewolf thing, but you knew he wouldnt hurt you on purpose. mainly because he was too gentle. youd assumed that any increase in intensity would just make him an average amount of dangerous. did that make you naive? maybe.
eddies shaking hands smoothed the final bandaid over your thigh, lining it up next to the other four. his brows were drawn close in a combination of guilt and concentration, making sure you were alright and that the bandages would stick. you were sitting on his bathroom counter, back pressed against the barren drywall where a mirror once was.
you lowered your head, tilting it to meet his eyes. eddies gaze flickered to yours and back to your lap, a deep sigh forcing itself out of his lungs and through his nose. "hey," you whispered, raking your fingers up his forearms, "we're okay."
you knew as soon as he looked up that all he could see was the two gashes on your lip, barely scabbing and glistening, and the hickies bruising at the bottom of your neck beginning to look more and more like injuries than a mark of passion. he was afraid to touch you, but you needed him to feel that you were still there.
"can you say something, eddie," you pushed the hair from his face, gently, his eyes still fixed anywhere but on you, "anything?"
"please leave."
he mumbled the words, almost like he was hoping you wouldnt hear them, that youd ask him to repeat them and he could say something else. you squeezed from between his body and the counter and gave him one final glance before doing what he asked.
of course, you forgot in the midst of your grand exit that your car was still at the hideout. thanks, munson, for the ride.
"there was a half hour period last night where i was doing the walk of shame home. not my proudest moment," you shrugged that bit off, "but i went back for him..."
"and he was gone," nancy finished your sentence for you, nodding to herself and sorting out the details.
"we have to find him," dustin added, "at least before someone else does."
steve, taking initiative, took large strides towards the table full of demogorgon repellent. "lets go, then," he announced, grabbed the shotgun, and held it up to the light before everyone shouted in confusion, layered insults and exclamations dissolving the tense air.
"what the hell, steve?"
"hang on, harrington-"
"what, are you gonna shoot him?"
youd never seen steve look so taken aback, surprisingly. he was either one step ahead or ten steps behind. he looked at you, mouth agape, "is this guy not a giant, burly, flesh eating dog right now?"
"no, steve," you dragged, "have you never seen teen wolf?"
the previous evenings rain was still lingering in damp patches on the sidewalks and in the air, thick as smog as you walked down the sidewalk in a cluster. you had all piled in karens car and went to every place you figured eddie would go, starting with the hellfire room at the high school and, consequently, some minor breaking and entering. you dragged them to the hideout, reefer ricks, and even the factory his uncle worked at.
"i didnt think he would be in there, but theres no harm in checking," you sighed into the brisk atmosphere, a cloud forming on the cusp of your lips as you shoved your hands into your pockets. you just snooped around a little bit at the factory, afraid of getting into too much trouble. how would you look for eddie if you got arrested for trespassing?
dustin placed a hand on your shoulder as everyone made their way back into the car, "is there anywhere else hed have gone? somewhere unexpected?"
you hated to admit that youd never thought to check somewhere he wouldn't typically go. why would he go somewhere youd be able to find him if he was hiding?
you hoped he was hiding, at least, and not mounted on someones wall or laying in the road like a stray cat.
"not to be that guy again, but," steve poked his head out of the passenger side window, "munson has to be the biggest virgin ive ever seen. dudes probably never even seen skull rock."
nancy smacked his arm, and he mumbled a hurried, "im just sayin'!" but he was right. you werent even sure if eddie knew how to get there, but there were no downsides to checking. steve made sure to add that, if eddie were to be a giant, burly, flesh-eating dog, skull rock would be an all-you-can-eat buffet on a friday night.
steve graduated the year prior, which made him essentially ancient on the hip spots to hang out in hawkins. no one went to skull rock anymore, especially since a group of people got busted there a few months ago, so you didnt have to worry about eddie possibly eating a horny teenager or two. you didnt tell steve, though. you couldnt break the news to him like that. robin could, though.
"no one hooks up at that stupid rock anymore, dingus," she slapped the side of his head from the backseat as nancy pulled onto the main road. they bickered the entire drive to the edge of town, and dustin, lucas, and mike snickered in the back about steves virgin comment. but you tuned them all out, watching the trees bleed into one another through the fogged window as the pop songs from the radio crackled between shards of broken static.
the sun had set by the time nancy pulled onto the shoulder of the road, nothing suspicious about that. nothing suspicious about the bag of bear traps that steve slung over his shoulder, either. "can never be too safe," he said. there was especially nothing suspicious about the trail of raw meat chunks that lucas and mike dropped behind them as the seven of you navigated your way through the woods. in front of them was nancy and max monitoring police radio interference, in front of them was steve and robin with a compass, and in front of them was you, shoulder to shoulder with your little brother.
dustin flickered his flashlight on either side of the uneven pathway as the two of you walked. it was silent aside from the crunching of leaves and twigs against the soles of your shoes, thick silence that was only broken by dustin quietly murmuring to you. he said, "steve was jealous when i started hanging out with eddie, too."
"i feel like its a little bit different for me," you breathed a laugh.
"meh," he shrugged, and the shallow beam of light moved with him, "kind of, but not really. cant help it that we hendersons are harrington magnets."
"what are you saying about me, henderson?" steve questioned from behind the two of you, kicking a rock into your path.
both you and dustin answered, "nothing," and exchanged knowing grins. yours was small and sly, but dustins was full and bright.
moments like this with dustin were rare for you, and it ached a little to say that the only thing that brought the two of you together was steve. it helped having a mutual friend and, even more so, friend group. youd always felt a little distant from dustin, so any time he willingly hung out with you felt paper thin, like if you stepped too hard youd fall right back to where you started.
so you looked at every gap in the stones before you stepped along the beaten path. the chatter of the group bounced from tree to tree behind you, dissipating into a muffled mess under the sounds of everyones shoes crushing dried leaves. behind you, every sound ceased except for robins voice calling, "i think we need to go right!"
of course, steve chimed in to correct her, "no, robin, i told you we need to go left."
"which means we should go right!" she retorted, and bickering ensued. you rolled your eyes, turning on your heels to face everyone.
"left or right," you asked, planting your arms at your side in defeat, "cut the shit, guys. we have to find eddie."
"find me for what?"
dustin screamed, causing you to scream, overlapping the staggering shouts from steve, robin, and nancy who were climbing into each others arms and covering the frightened curses the kids were spewing, clutching their chests at the back of the line. the voice came from the greenery, from steve and robins right for the record, and was comfortingly familiar once you came down from the initial scare.
"holy shit, eddie," you sighed, scrambling over the fallen tree along the side of the path to get to him. your hands basically melted onto his shoulders when they touched his skin, his warmth as present as ever as you fell into him. you couldnt care about the leaves in your eyes or the sticks prodding your hair, "youre okay, yeah?"
"well, im in a bush," eddie laughed, his hand cupping the back of your head as he stepped out into the pathway with you still wrapped tightly around him, "but, uh, yeah... yeah, im okay."
when you finally looked at him, you could tell he was tired. there was a weight beneath his eyes, sunken and dark, and he had bruises along his arms and cuts on his fingers and dirt streaked everywhere you could see. he gave you a smile, anyway. "hi," he whispered, just to you, tracing the slope of your jaw with the backs of his calloused fingers. you returned his kind eyes, muttering, "hi," through your smile.
"uh, hi," steve greeted, waving his hand a mere three feet from the two of you, "remember us?"
"oh, harrington, hey," eddie straightened up. you could tell he was immediately intimidated, his demeanor hardening as he cleared his throat, "nice to see you."
you snicked to yourself remembering not 24 hours ago, when eddie said with utmost confidence that he "didnt care if harrington kicked his ass," now weak in the knees at the sight of steve carrying around a sack of dangerous items.
eddie took a step back, "is that a gun?"
steve looked over his shoulder and spun around, grabbing it from behind him, "oh, yeah. sorry, i was prepared to shoot you, man."
"what the hell," eddie clasped his hands over the top of his head, visibly at a loss for words, "dude, have you never seen teen wolf?"
under different circumstances, you would have loved to see steve and eddie laughing together, getting along, but not in the woods in the middle of the night after youd spent the entire day searching for him. he didnt seem too shaken up about anything, so you were confused as to why he was out here.
nancy spoke for you, "eddie, is there a reason youre creeping around out here?"
he pressed his lips into a line, rocking on his heels and smacking the sides of his legs as he began to speak, "well, wheeler, if youre so curious, i was looking for y/n. im gonna assume youve been filled in on everything up to this point, and hendersons very thorough, so im also gonna assume it was unnecessarily detailed and vivid," everyone hummed in agreement, "great- so, imagine me, but cleaner and a little more upset than i currently am, wandering the streets of hawkins, a little tipsy because apparently alcohol is the only thing that keeps me from fucking biting people. im walking, trying to find the henderson residence, but ive only been there once so its hard, and my senses are off the walls heightened. its insane how much i can smell- cant lie, that shit's kind of awesome-"
dustin interrupted him, "eddie, did you kill someone or not?"
"kill someone?" eddies mouth hung open at the question, his eyes glancing around to gauge everyones reaction to the question, which was a unanimous answer-the-kid-or-steves-gonna-shoot-you, "uh, no, dustin, i didnt kill someone. im not a monster."
"well, then, why are you hiding away in the woods like a serial killer on the run?" lucas leaned up against a tree with his chin raised high, "seems kind of suspicious to me."
eddie sighed, swallowing audibly before answering, his voice lowered, hushed, "i wasnt hiding from you."
as if on command, an eerily familiar growl filled the distant silence like static, gutteral, and close. eddie flinched, almost habitually jumping back into the shrub you found him in, but reaching for your hand instead. steve immediately handed the shotgun to his left, planting it in nancys grip.
she raised her eyebrows, drilling holes into the side of your head with her glare. "told you," she muttered, holding out a fist towards max, who quickly reciprocated the gesture. a celebratory fist-bump for being stuck in the woods with a werewolf and a demogorgon.
"does, uh," steve started, his voice hushed and his grip tightened around his trusty baseball bat that he had shoved in the bag. he motioned between you and eddie, specifically, and asked,
"does teen wolf say anything about fighting demogorgons?"
đđźđđĄđšđ«đŹ đ§đšđđ -> thank you all for being so patient with me while i pulled this out of my ass. love you guys for real <3 be sure to check out the concept board and playlist linked at the top too !! i think theyre cool and i have decent opinions
saturday
by the time you arrived, the group had already debriefed, and they looked at you with the same mixture of concern and confusion that ted and karen did when you knocked on their door.
the stairs creaked with every careful step you took. it was difficult to make a subtle entrance when you were possibly several hours late to a meeting that was, evidently, very urgent. the fear that pulsed through your body when your mother relayed a message to you from your brother, one that was A) not particularly kind and B) possibly dooming.
"you look like shit," dustin noted when he saw the smudges of dirt on your jeans, paired with the dried blood on your hands and the bits of twigs in your hair, "and way to be on time. does 'code red' mean nothing to you?"
"i dont carry a walkie with me everywhere, dustin," you narrowed your eyes at him, an action to which he responded with a middle finger, "i actually have a life."
"is that why you look like you slept in a cave?" dustin smiled proudly at his taunt, but he made a fair point. suddenly, you became extra aware of just how disheveled your hair was, and you tried to dust some of the mud from your pants.
if it were just dustin, youd have left him thinking that, yeah, you did sleep in a cave, but everyone was there: lucas, max, nancy, robin, and even steve, whom you hadnt really spoken to all that much since things went south between the two of you. in all fairness, he didn't look too pleased to be there, either, nor did he look like he was going to put up with your bullshit. his arms were permanently crossed as he loomed in the corner, leaning on the arm of the couch and as far from you as he could get.
"im sorry that im late, guys, really, but-"
"but nothing," steve interjected, "no offense, y/n, but we have bigger problems than your midnight scavenger hunt or whatever the hell you were doing."
"i dont think thats true, but okay," you breathed a laugh before realizing that everyone was staring you down, and not in a haha-y/n-is-making-a-joke way- they were burning holes in you. your laugh got caught in your throat, "wait, bigger how?"
nancy scooted her chair at the small table over to make room for you, and, as you stepped down off the stairs, the items on the table became clearer: a bear trap, a torch, a shotgun, and a new can of farah fawcett spray.
"the demogorgon is back," max sighed, not breaking eye contact with you, no matter how many times your eyes flickered from hers to the weapons on the table, "i heard it last night near my place, and mike and nancy said they heard it here, as well."
"it was loud," nancy piped up after you looked to her for confirmation, "scratching around, but it was different somehow."
"we think, maybe, one got left behind when joyce closed the gate and, i dont know, adapted to hawkins," robin lifted and dropped her palms onto the tabletop in confusion.
you were confused, too. you watched all the creatures from the upside down shrivel up and turn to dust as soon as the gate began to close, so it didnt make sense for one to somehow adapt. slowly, you began to put the pieces together, weaving flashes from the previous night together to realize what was actually going on. it frightened you to your core.
before you could open your mouth to speak, steve reached for the can of hairspray, shaking it vigorously back and forth, just how it says to in the directions printed on the back, "maybe the son of a bitch hibernated. now its hungry, and im not gonna wait around for it to eat."
talk erupted of plans to set up a trap in both locations, stakeouts, buying ammunition, getting gasoline for the fire trails- you tried to interject, but kept getting talked over.
"i say we go to max's tonight, since she heard it first," lucas added.
"guys-"
"yeah, this demogorgon is going down," dustin chimed in, handing lucas his trusty slingshot from the table, "for real this time."
"hold on, guys-"
"were gonna need bait," robin said, more like asked, cocking her head towards steve who replied with a series of small nods and a snap in her direction, "oh, yep! were gonna need a shit ton of raw meat."
"that wasnt a demogorgon," you finally croaked, loud enough to shut everyone up. it helped that you also moved from your place at the table and back to the stairs, blocking steve from his impromptu grocery run. the step gave you the height advantage over him, "that was something else, someone."
silence is hard to read. did they believe you? did they think you were messing with them? you liked to have fun, but not during a code red. that meant nothing to them. being late erased any form of reliability you had left, and everyone was too serious to give you the benefit of the doubt. especially steve.
"thats very funny, y/n," he gave you a fake smile, gentle eyes squinted and determined. you knew if you didnt move, hed move you, pick you up by your shoulders and slide right by you.
"im not joking, steve," you said, squaring , "i usually am, but not this time."
it was never easy keeping secrets, let alone secrets about secrets.
"what do you mean, 'someone?'" asked nancy, her brows furrowed, and rightfully so with all the nonsense you just spilled in front of her, in front of everyone.
"the sound you guys heard last night wasnt a demogorgon," you restated, taking a deep breath before finishing, "it was eddie."
voices in unison exclaimed, confused, "munson?"
it was important to note the way steves jaw tensed at the mere mention of his name. he had always been the jealous type, and its exactly why you broke up with him. sweet little steve turned into a major pain in your ass. maybe it was because he liked you, or maybe it was because he just hated everyone else. you liked him better as a friend anyhow.
and it was good, too, since you two had a common factor: dustin. your little brother was also one of his closest friends, in the least weird way. it was how you met steve, through dustin, but it was also how you met eddie.
steve breathed a laugh, almost a scoff, and turned his back to you, a reaction you would have never predicted. he threw his hands up in defeat, landing them on his hips, "alright."
your face contorted with confusion, "really?"
"no, y/n," steve turned back around to you, briefly startling you and, clearly, everyone else in the room. the air became a little thicker, like fog as you held your breath. he laughed again, "hell no."
"you honestly want me to believe that eddie 'the freak' munson is running around on all fours in the goddamn woods growling and shit like a demogorgon?" steve asked, nearly choking on a laugh in the middle of his sentence. his hands waved when he talked, motioning towards the window before they found themselves back on his waist.
every eye in the room was either widened as far as it could stretch or covered with a disappointed palm. they thought you were lying, your friends. you were never one to lie, ever. a fib here or there for comedic effect, maybe, but a bold faced lie was not on your list of tricks. all you could do was dig.
"more like a, uh," you gulped, "demo-dog."
"jesus christ," steve mumbled and rubbed his temples.
the room filled with sighs and similar muttered exclamations of irritation as it typically did when you suggested a theory. in all fairness, you werent always right on the money, but this was different. you didnt blame them for not believing you, though.
"y/n, im going to need you to be a little bit clearer," robin sat up straight in her chair, giving you her best comforting and patient smile, "about the dog part, i mean."
"yeah, a lot clearer," steve added, "because i dont think i like what im thinking."
you crossed your arms over your chest under all the scrutiny, "steve, i know it sounds crazy, but-"
"crazy?," steve laughed, running a hand through his hair, one of his more admirable habits, "no, crazy doesnt cut it. honestly, the image of him doing that for fun is not that outlandish, but if youre trying to tell me eddie munson is a werewolf, y/n, youre out of your mind."
it was a tense moment, then and there, with steve teetering even closer to hating your guts and everyone else terrified of possibly feeling the same. all you could do was shrug, uncrossing your arms, wiping your sweaty palms on your pants, and striping the dried mud with new moisture. you sighed,
"then i guess im out of my mind, harrington."
friday
youd never been to the hideout before. social gatherings of any kind werent really your scene unless they had to be. in fact, the smell of the hideout alone was enough to keep you away, a thick fog of sweat, booze, and smoke. it crawled under the door as you pulled it open and stepped inside.
it was small, intimate, despite the weekend drinkers that packed in like sardines. there was quite a bigger crowd than the usual five that hung around on tuesdays, or so youd been told. the soft hum of conversations floated over of the sound of microphone feedback as you wove your way closer to the front of the room.
showing up was a last minute decision. your friday nights are best spent in your bed, alone, and in something much more comfortable than the clothes you were wearing. you pinched yourself every time you picked up an item of clothing and thought about whether or not eddie would like it, as if he didnt drool over you regardless. still, you dressed to impress, and it worked.
"holy shit," eddie deadpanned as he stepped off the shallow drop from the stage onto the main floor, his hair bouncing off his sweat soaked shoulders as he trotted to you, "look who finally decided to show. you missed, like, most of the set by the way."
"wait, actually," his eyes lit up as he raised a finger into the air in faux contemplation, dismissing the thoughts just as fast as they arrived, "you know what- i dont even care. just glad youre here."
that was a bit of an exaggeration- you were only twenty minutes late. when you made it to the front, eddie was lost in his own version of reality, fingers dancing on wires. thats how you knew he didnt notice the exact time you arrived. when he played, he ditched the old picture-everyone-in-their-underwear stagefright trick and opt for something a little bit stranger, as expected. he told you about it once, and you tried to forget. but, alas, something that absurd was permanently seared into your mind.
it made it kind of difficult to support him from the front row when you knew he was picturing you as a centaur.
"i didnt want you to mentally horse-ify my bottom half," you protested. eddie gasped, clutching his chest dramatically.
"ill have you know, y/n, i dont do that anymore," he said, "ive matured. grown, as a person."
he leaned a little closer to you, his stray curls tickling your skin at such proximity, sending goosebumps down your arms. "i've moved onto minotaurs."
you smacked his arm, and he stuck his tongue out at you before rustling the top of your hair with his hand. he quickly flipped his wrists towards you, flashing you two middle fingers as he backed toward the stage again. you shot him one of your own in return.
he was truly in his element up there, no denying it. his passion was so evident in the way he moved that you could hardly pull your eyes from him, no one could. it was entirely possible you were eyeing him a little more intently than the old drunk guys next to you. maybe just a little, though.
you waited outside after the show. it rained while you were inside, so there was hardly any relief when you exited one humid space to another. the parking lot was riddled with pothole puddles and oil slick rainbows under the street lamps. the clouds were thick in the sky, so much that it almost scared you. the moon was lost, the only indicator of her a shallow ring of white seeping through the slate of grey. you busied yourself kicking rocks in the parking space next to eddies van until the moment he was within view.
as he got closer, you could see his forehead was damp with sweat, his curls sticking to the sides of his face. with his guitar case draped over his shoulder, he waved his arm in your direction despite being only a couple feet from you.
"you guys were amazing," you beamed, closing the distance between the two of you and following him the rest of the way to the van.
"you think so?" eddie smirked. he opened the sliding door of the van and placed his guitar gently in the back, clearing the empty cups, papers, and ashes on the floor to make room.
you hummed in response, "mhm."
"well," he said in harmony with the clicking of the door back into place and grabbed you by your hips, gently backing you against the side of the vehicle, "you looked amazing. look... look amazing."
you could feel the mix of rain droplets and dew that remained on the side of the van through the back of your shirt, but the heat beneath eddies fingers distracted you from the chill that managed to cling to everything in the humid, post-rain air. your arms snaked up and around the back of his neck, your fingers threading into the mess of his hair. you struggled to maintain eye contact with him for several reasons, but mainly because his lips were so inviting. plump, dark pink, and a little swollen from being tucked between his teeth all evening.
his eyes never left yours, though, even when they abandoned his face entirely to scan the activity in the parking lot. he knew what you were doing, and he sighed, shaking the hair from his view before softly clearing his throat.
"y/n," he brought a hand to your cheek, his rings soothing against your flushed skin, "you know what im going to say."
this thumb dragged gently across your cheek, ghosting your lip.
"im just checking," you said, your voice higher in defense, "can never be too careful."
"you can and you are," he mimicked your defensive tone and brought his other hand from your waist to the other side of your face, now cupping your cheeks, "just once, i want to kiss you in semi-public, preferably in daylight but im not picky, without you thinking about steve. youre going to summon him."
"i just worry," you placed your hands over eddies wrists, "about you. about him. about everything, really."
his lips turned up, ever so slightly, at your sentiment, his eyes glossed over and shining like syrup in the orange hued lights. eddie took a step closer to you, pressing your body against his, and he craned his neck, hovering his lips above yours. he let your lips brush over his, smirking when he pulled back and brought you with him, chasing them.
"i love that you care about my wellbeing, y/n," eddie muttered, his breath a phantom on your tongue with how close he was to your mouth, "but i am going to kiss you, right here, right now... and i dont even care if harrington kicks my ass."
youd never imagined that you would be making out with eddie munson, pressed up against his shitty van, let alone writhing under his touch, enjoying it. he let his hands fall from your face, one of them resting on the side of your neck and the other providing him with some leverage against the metal siding of his van.
he told you once about how you make him weak in the knees, but you didnt realize how literal he was being until you grazed his bottom lip with your teeth and felt him tremble against you.
"you," eddie breathed, pressing a heavy and needy kiss to your lips, one you thought would bruise if it had been any longer, "you drive me fucking crazy."
hastily, he placed another kiss on your lips, nearly missing them. you couldnt help but smile into it, smile at how he was kissing you like youd melt away in his hands. maybe youd evaporate and turn into a cloud, or hed kiss you so hard youd seep into the side of his van and hed have no choice but to wash it more than once a year to keep you sparkling.
"how about you," you wrapped your arms around eddies neck, pulling yourself up to his ear and whispering, "drive us to your place."
letting eddie drive you anywhere under normal circumstances was a death wish in itself since he was notorious for basically breaking all traffic laws at least once a week, sometimes for fun. youd never seen him drive so fast. never before had you felt the need to use the little handle above the window, but your knuckles were white around both the handle and eddies hand as he turned too wide around curves and crossed solid lines and whipped it into his driveway with such an abrupt stop that the screech of his tires woke the neighbors dog.
"ah, shut up," he shouted over his shoulder and across the road, pushing the door open and stepping out of the way, "after you."
you stepped through his doorway for what felt like the hundredth time. youd only grown close to eddie within the last few months, and youd been romantic with him for even less. dustin was the one to introduce you after eddie had bugged him about you one too many times. youd noticed him before that, though, sneaking glances at you when youd pick dustin up from hellfire and hiding his blush under a strand of hair hed pull across his face.
the last thing you expected eddie munson to be was shy, but he was putty in your hands.
he was nothing like everyone made him out to be, including steve who had deemed him "the freak." steve wasnt a bad guy by any means. he rebounded onto you after things went south between him and nancy, and you knew it wouldnt last. it was possible that his only flaw was his jealousy. you couldnt talk to anyone without him feeling a little insecure. thats all he did, though, was feel insecure and make you miserable for it, and you didnt want eddie to face the consequences of your actions, no matter how out of character those consequences would be for steve harrington.
eddies uncles mug collection rattled against the wooden shelf when he pulled the door to behind him, rubbing his hands together mischievously as he scooted his feet towards you. an evil smile tugged at his lips when he moved swiftly past you, ignoring your outstretched arms and continuing his scoot to the fridge.
"check this out, babe," his voice was muffled from inside the appliance, buried under the rustling of items and the clinking of glass bottles, "actually, no. close your eyes first."
it could have been anything. youd have been lying if youd said you weren't mildly terrified of what he was pulling from his fridge. your arms fell limp at your sides, fists clenched to conceal the sweat that was glistening on your palms. with your eyes squeezed shut, you could only hear the door rattle as it fell closed closed.
anytime eddie had you close your eyes to build suspense, he would check to see if you were peeking, catching glimpses through your lashes.
"how many fingers am i holding up?" eddie asked after waving an open hand over your closed eyes, the air dusting over your cheeks.
"one."
"fuck you," eddie spat, "are you cheating right now?"
you laughed at how genuinely offended he was that you guessed it right. although, it was impossible to get wrong. "its always one, eddie. literally always."
if you knew that if you had opened your eyes, you would have seen him standing, mystery object tucked under his arm with all his weight on one leg and a grand gesture on display in front of your face: his middle finger.
"yeah, okay," he sighed in defeat, "just open your eyes, cheater."
this might have been the first time youd opened your eyes and been actually surprised. usually it was a freshly rolled blunt or something you left behind that you asked him to return to you-- things you expected. this time, it was different, and a smile found itself on every corner of your face.
eddie held a glass bottle by the cap with one hand, the other gesturing beneath it like a shelf, metal clad fingers wiggling in sync with his eyebrows. his smile was tucked between his teeth.
"picked it up just for you, sweetheart," he said before ceasing all animation, deadpanning when you didnt immediately say something, "it is your favorite, right? i didnt... make that up or something?"
"no, it is," you smiled, gently taking the bottle of soda from his hands and flashing him softened eyes, "thanks."
"i couldnt finish mine," eddie confessed, rocking on his heels as you twisted the metal cap away, letting an exaggerated shiver rack his shoulders.
"didnt like it?" you wiped your lips on the back of your hand.
"shits disgusting, y/n," he held back a fake gag, "tastes like fizzy piss."
you raised your eyebrows at him, "and youd know?"
"id know."
the liquid in the bottom half of your bottle sloshed around as you followed eddie down the hallway, watching the bounce of his hair dwindle to nothing when he reached the door. everything seemed to make noise over there, the floors squeaked, the lights buzzed. it didnt help that eddie mimicked every sound he heard, a high pitched voice ringing with the creak of his bedroom door as he pushed it open.
you werent sure that he even had a lightbuld in the ceiling light. his room was always dark, always still. the blinds in his window were broken, though, so the yellow glow from the street lamps bled through.
"oh, wow, munson," you smirked at him, picking up a pair of dirty underwear from the foot of his bed, "did you clean up for me?"
he was quick to snatch it from between your pinched fingers and stuff it in his closet, kicking the pile of laundry he scrambled to hide from you before you noticed it back into the small space.
"for sure, babe," he breathed a laugh, shrugging, "yeah, i cleaned... mopped and shit."
you raised your eyebrows, glancing down at his carpeted floors, "mhm."
eddies room was usually messy, but you could hardly tell unless you took careful notice of the clothes in the floor. his walls were cluttered with posters and random paper clippings, like a collage of his personality: movie tickets, parking tickets, and every test he got an F on, which, honestly, was most of them. honorable mentions include his guitar hanging from the mirror and a paper desk calendar duct taped to the wall beside his headboard, detailing the global holidays and farmers almanac harvesting and planting times.
"could you be anymore obvious, eds?" you breathed a laugh, tracing the scribbles on the calendar with the tip of your finger.
"what," eddie said rather quickly, like you startled him. he looked up from the floor where he was still trying to force clothes into the closet.
"phases of the moon," you smirked, feeling the ridges of the sketches before whispering, "real subtle."
eddie pulled the accordian style closet doors closed as you continued behind him, standing up and turning to face you with his hands strategically placed on his hips, "should i write a reminder for your grooming appointment next week? behavioral training?"
"honestly, y/n," he motioned towards himself, from his head to his toes, "do i look like i need either of those?"
you closed the gap between the two of you, stepping over the bits of laundry he missed in his last minute cleaning frenzy, and raked your fingers through the sides of his hair, smoothing out the curls that were sticking out. you whispered, "i dont think i should answer that."
"youre mean," eddies lips were turned downward in a slight pout before his gentle expression dissolved entirely, "wipe that shit-eating grin off your face."
your eyes held onto his, "why dont you?"
you pulled that confidence directly out of your ass. shaking hands became steadied by his shoulders as his lips melted onto yours. you would have never admitted how badly you wanted eddie munson, but here you were, settled on his lap, pulling his tshirt over his head and bursting at the seams to feel his lips on your skin. you smoothed your fingers over the black lines on his chest and arms, even one you discovered on his hip. he hissed through his teeth as you pressed your lips to the ink on his forearm, up his bicep, his shoulder, and trailed up his neck. lips parted, breath growing heavier.
his fingertips dug into your thighs on either side of him, pulling you closer to him. as if it were even possible, as if your chests werent adhered with sweat. he looked so beautiful like this, a mess. his hair was plastered to his forehead and his chest heaved, shining even in the dull overhead of his room. he seemed to glow when he would sweat, something that you strived to see every time you ended up like this. it was the only benefit of his room having zero air flow.
one thing about eddie munson: he was a biter. oral fixation for days. hed bite your neck, licking stripes over the red trails his teeth left, bite your wrists to taste the bitter sting of your perfume. hed bite your lips. that was your guilty pleasure with him, going so slow when youd kiss him that hed take control. he couldnt stand it.
you decided, this time, to try it on him instead. you wrapped the hair at the base of his neck around your fingers and tilted his head back, exposing his pretty neck.
"h-holy fucking shit," eddie managed to breathe out when he felt your teeth scrape down the side of his neck. his grip on you tightened, hips bucking up for any friction he could get, "please, do that again."
you dragged your tongue up the length of his neck, placing tiny kisses along his jaw and up to his lips, where he was eager to taste you, resisting the hold you had on his hair to chase your lips. you caved; you had to. eddie moaned softly into your mouth when he felt your teeth sting at his lip, soothing the area with your tongue.
what happened next was unexpected, but not the strangest thing that could have happened. especially given what youd witnessed the past couple of years. in fact, you should have been more concerned when you felt a sharp pain in your legs, like knives were pricking your flesh. you gasped against eddies mouth and pulled back, breaking a kiss that left a trail of bright red spit from his lips to yours. blood. your blood, and it was pooling in your gums, gushing from two minor gashes in your bottom lip.
you covered your mouth with your free hand, releasing eddies hair when you glanced down at how much blood had actually been drawn. no big deal, you thought, this is fine.
and it was. until you looked down even further and saw the curved, thick nails that adorned the tips of eddies fingers, the nails that were partially sunken into your flesh. having your lips bitten off was a risk you took every time you kissed eddie, but the sight of his claws in your thighs set you off just a teensy bit.
slowly, you raised your head, breath trembling to match your shaking hands, and met his gaze where he was staring at you with unadulterated horror. his usual dark eyes were glowing a dim amber, and they were glossed over with tears.
"i...," eddies voice was soft and wavering as he gulped, "im sorry."
saturday
"no way you did the devils tango with eddie," dustin deadpanned, his hands clasped over his mouth in disgust. similar reactions plagued the table of people surrounding you, with lucas pretending to retch behind him and mike plugging his ears with his fingers. they all sat and listened contently to a certain point. apparently, you were a pacer, so you moved over every available inch of the wheelers basement while you recounted the previous nights events.
everyone was more shocked by the fact that you were hooking up with eddie munson and less shocked that he was a fucking werewolf.
"im gonna be sick," max buried her head in the bend of her arm.
"when i said to tell us everything," robins hands were scrunched in her hair while her elbows rested on the table, "i didnt mean... everything."
you shrugged, "im thorough."
"thats a word for it," steve rolled his eyes, "what happened next?"
"of course youd want to know," dustin snickered, and steve smacked the bill of his hat. steve looked to you for clarity.
"i just mean," he ran a hand through his hair, "somehow eddie ended up in the woods and y/n looks like shit."
"wow thanks," you snarled your nose at him, but he was right. youd never tell him, though, "it gets a little blurry here."
you explained it to them, and it sounded even more absurd the second time around. eddie was just as freaked out about the whole thing as you, maybe even more.
"he cleaned me up," you said, "you know, gave me bandaids and shit for my legs. ive known about it for a while, but he said that his lycanthropy had been dormant way past the time it should have activated. he just assumed it skipped him, which made sense to me. you know, like, how diseases skip a generation, but this disease has no cure and it makes you, like, a dog."
"oh yeah, y/n," max laughed, throwing her hands in the air in defeat, "total sense."
"he thinks it only got activated because he was... excited," everyone gagged, covering their faces to sheild you from their obvious disgust, "can you guys be mature, please?"
"the adrenaline," nancy chimed in over top of the younger kids snickering, "it could have triggered his fight or flight or something."
lucas leaned into the huddle of boys, "more like fight or bite," and max smacked the back of his head.
"i think its the drugs," steve rested his weight on the stair railing beside of you, "dudes always stoned. or drunk. could have altered the way his brain received the triggers or whatever."
it wasnt a bad idea, and there werent exactly scientific studies on the adverse effects of substances on lycanthropy. steve harringtons shot in the dark was the best you had to go on.
"wait, so, where is eddie right now?" dustin asked, smacking lucas's arm after he said something else. you couldnt hear it, but it was probably stupid.
youd wondered the same thing as you were trekking through the flora and fauna of hawkins in the wee hours of the night. you knew all of eddies favorite spots, but none of them were necessarily great hiding spots. you werent even sure if thats what he was doing, hiding.
"i was hoping maybe you all could help me find out."
"did you check his place?" dustin immediately followed your proposition with the most obvious solution.
"did i check his place," you restated the question, blinking at dustin dumfoundedly. he threw his hands up, mumbling sarcastic apologies as you spat, "yeah, dustin, i checked his place."
actually, you wished it had been that simple. after the... incident, you were both shaken up. it was a risk you had known about, the werewolf thing, but you knew he wouldnt hurt you on purpose. mainly because he was too gentle. youd assumed that any increase in intensity would just make him an average amount of dangerous. did that make you naive? maybe.
eddies shaking hands smoothed the final bandaid over your thigh, lining it up next to the other four. his brows were drawn close in a combination of guilt and concentration, making sure you were alright and that the bandages would stick. you were sitting on his bathroom counter, back pressed against the barren drywall where a mirror once was.
you lowered your head, tilting it to meet his eyes. eddies gaze flickered to yours and back to your lap, a deep sigh forcing itself out of his lungs and through his nose. "hey," you whispered, raking your fingers up his forearms, "we're okay."
you knew as soon as he looked up that all he could see was the two gashes on your lip, barely scabbing and glistening, and the hickies bruising at the bottom of your neck beginning to look more and more like injuries than a mark of passion. he was afraid to touch you, but you needed him to feel that you were still there.
"can you say something, eddie," you pushed the hair from his face, gently, his eyes still fixed anywhere but on you, "anything?"
"please leave."
he mumbled the words, almost like he was hoping you wouldnt hear them, that youd ask him to repeat them and he could say something else. you squeezed from between his body and the counter and gave him one final glance before doing what he asked.
of course, you forgot in the midst of your grand exit that your car was still at the hideout. thanks, munson, for the ride.
"there was a half hour period last night where i was doing the walk of shame home. not my proudest moment," you shrugged that bit off, "but i went back for him..."
"and he was gone," nancy finished your sentence for you, nodding to herself and sorting out the details.
"we have to find him," dustin added, "at least before someone else does."
steve, taking initiative, took large strides towards the table full of demogorgon repellent. "lets go, then," he announced, grabbed the shotgun, and held it up to the light before everyone shouted in confusion, layered insults and exclamations dissolving the tense air.
"what the hell, steve?"
"hang on, harrington-"
"what, are you gonna shoot him?"
youd never seen steve look so taken aback, surprisingly. he was either one step ahead or ten steps behind. he looked at you, mouth agape, "is this guy not a giant, burly, flesh eating dog right now?"
"no, steve," you dragged, "have you never seen teen wolf?"
the previous evenings rain was still lingering in damp patches on the sidewalks and in the air, thick as smog as you walked down the sidewalk in a cluster. you had all piled in karens car and went to every place you figured eddie would go, starting with the hellfire room at the high school and, consequently, some minor breaking and entering. you dragged them to the hideout, reefer ricks, and even the factory his uncle worked at.
"i didnt think he would be in there, but theres no harm in checking," you sighed into the brisk atmosphere, a cloud forming on the cusp of your lips as you shoved your hands into your pockets. you just snooped around a little bit at the factory, afraid of getting into too much trouble. how would you look for eddie if you got arrested for trespassing?
dustin placed a hand on your shoulder as everyone made their way back into the car, "is there anywhere else hed have gone? somewhere unexpected?"
you hated to admit that youd never thought to check somewhere he wouldn't typically go. why would he go somewhere youd be able to find him if he was hiding?
you hoped he was hiding, at least, and not mounted on someones wall or laying in the road like a stray cat.
"not to be that guy again, but," steve poked his head out of the passenger side window, "munson has to be the biggest virgin ive ever seen. dudes probably never even seen skull rock."
nancy smacked his arm, and he mumbled a hurried, "im just sayin'!" but he was right. you werent even sure if eddie knew how to get there, but there were no downsides to checking. steve made sure to add that, if eddie were to be a giant, burly, flesh-eating dog, skull rock would be an all-you-can-eat buffet on a friday night.
steve graduated the year prior, which made him essentially ancient on the hip spots to hang out in hawkins. no one went to skull rock anymore, especially since a group of people got busted there a few months ago, so you didnt have to worry about eddie possibly eating a horny teenager or two. you didnt tell steve, though. you couldnt break the news to him like that. robin could, though.
"no one hooks up at that stupid rock anymore, dingus," she slapped the side of his head from the backseat as nancy pulled onto the main road. they bickered the entire drive to the edge of town, and dustin, lucas, and mike snickered in the back about steves virgin comment. but you tuned them all out, watching the trees bleed into one another through the fogged window as the pop songs from the radio crackled between shards of broken static.
the sun had set by the time nancy pulled onto the shoulder of the road, nothing suspicious about that. nothing suspicious about the bag of bear traps that steve slung over his shoulder, either. "can never be too safe," he said. there was especially nothing suspicious about the trail of raw meat chunks that lucas and mike dropped behind them as the seven of you navigated your way through the woods. in front of them was nancy and max monitoring police radio interference, in front of them was steve and robin with a compass, and in front of them was you, shoulder to shoulder with your little brother.
dustin flickered his flashlight on either side of the uneven pathway as the two of you walked. it was silent aside from the crunching of leaves and twigs against the soles of your shoes, thick silence that was only broken by dustin quietly murmuring to you. he said, "steve was jealous when i started hanging out with eddie, too."
"i feel like its a little bit different for me," you breathed a laugh.
"meh," he shrugged, and the shallow beam of light moved with him, "kind of, but not really. cant help it that we hendersons are harrington magnets."
"what are you saying about me, henderson?" steve questioned from behind the two of you, kicking a rock into your path.
both you and dustin answered, "nothing," and exchanged knowing grins. yours was small and sly, but dustins was full and bright.
moments like this with dustin were rare for you, and it ached a little to say that the only thing that brought the two of you together was steve. it helped having a mutual friend and, even more so, friend group. youd always felt a little distant from dustin, so any time he willingly hung out with you felt paper thin, like if you stepped too hard youd fall right back to where you started.
so you looked at every gap in the stones before you stepped along the beaten path. the chatter of the group bounced from tree to tree behind you, dissipating into a muffled mess under the sounds of everyones shoes crushing dried leaves. behind you, every sound ceased except for robins voice calling, "i think we need to go right!"
of course, steve chimed in to correct her, "no, robin, i told you we need to go left."
"which means we should go right!" she retorted, and bickering ensued. you rolled your eyes, turning on your heels to face everyone.
"left or right," you asked, planting your arms at your side in defeat, "cut the shit, guys. we have to find eddie."
"find me for what?"
dustin screamed, causing you to scream, overlapping the staggering shouts from steve, robin, and nancy who were climbing into each others arms and covering the frightened curses the kids were spewing, clutching their chests at the back of the line. the voice came from the greenery, from steve and robins right for the record, and was comfortingly familiar once you came down from the initial scare.
"holy shit, eddie," you sighed, scrambling over the fallen tree along the side of the path to get to him. your hands basically melted onto his shoulders when they touched his skin, his warmth as present as ever as you fell into him. you couldnt care about the leaves in your eyes or the sticks prodding your hair, "youre okay, yeah?"
"well, im in a bush," eddie laughed, his hand cupping the back of your head as he stepped out into the pathway with you still wrapped tightly around him, "but, uh, yeah... yeah, im okay."
when you finally looked at him, you could tell he was tired. there was a weight beneath his eyes, sunken and dark, and he had bruises along his arms and cuts on his fingers and dirt streaked everywhere you could see. he gave you a smile, anyway. "hi," he whispered, just to you, tracing the slope of your jaw with the backs of his calloused fingers. you returned his kind eyes, muttering, "hi," through your smile.
"uh, hi," steve greeted, waving his hand a mere three feet from the two of you, "remember us?"
"oh, harrington, hey," eddie straightened up. you could tell he was immediately intimidated, his demeanor hardening as he cleared his throat, "nice to see you."
you snicked to yourself remembering not 24 hours ago, when eddie said with utmost confidence that he "didnt care if harrington kicked his ass," now weak in the knees at the sight of steve carrying around a sack of dangerous items.
eddie took a step back, "is that a gun?"
steve looked over his shoulder and spun around, grabbing it from behind him, "oh, yeah. sorry, i was prepared to shoot you, man."
"what the hell," eddie clasped his hands over the top of his head, visibly at a loss for words, "dude, have you never seen teen wolf?"
under different circumstances, you would have loved to see steve and eddie laughing together, getting along, but not in the woods in the middle of the night after youd spent the entire day searching for him. he didnt seem too shaken up about anything, so you were confused as to why he was out here.
nancy spoke for you, "eddie, is there a reason youre creeping around out here?"
he pressed his lips into a line, rocking on his heels and smacking the sides of his legs as he began to speak, "well, wheeler, if youre so curious, i was looking for y/n. im gonna assume youve been filled in on everything up to this point, and hendersons very thorough, so im also gonna assume it was unnecessarily detailed and vivid," everyone hummed in agreement, "great- so, imagine me, but cleaner and a little more upset than i currently am, wandering the streets of hawkins, a little tipsy because apparently alcohol is the only thing that keeps me from fucking biting people. im walking, trying to find the henderson residence, but ive only been there once so its hard, and my senses are off the walls heightened. its insane how much i can smell- cant lie, that shit's kind of awesome-"
dustin interrupted him, "eddie, did you kill someone or not?"
"kill someone?" eddies mouth hung open at the question, his eyes glancing around to gauge everyones reaction to the question, which was a unanimous answer-the-kid-or-steves-gonna-shoot-you, "uh, no, dustin, i didnt kill someone. im not a monster."
"well, then, why are you hiding away in the woods like a serial killer on the run?" lucas leaned up against a tree with his chin raised high, "seems kind of suspicious to me."
eddie sighed, swallowing audibly before answering, his voice lowered, hushed, "i wasnt hiding from you."
as if on command, an eerily familiar growl filled the distant silence like static, gutteral, and close. eddie flinched, almost habitually jumping back into the shrub you found him in, but reaching for your hand instead. steve immediately handed the shotgun to his left, planting it in nancys grip.
she raised her eyebrows, drilling holes into the side of your head with her glare. "told you," she muttered, holding out a fist towards max, who quickly reciprocated the gesture. a celebratory fist-bump for being stuck in the woods with a werewolf and a demogorgon.
"does, uh," steve started, his voice hushed and his grip tightened around his trusty baseball bat that he had shoved in the bag. he motioned between you and eddie, specifically, and asked,
"does teen wolf say anything about fighting demogorgons?"
8 | do you change into specific clothes for the house when you get home?
yes đ«¶ i can NOT be comfortable until i have taken off my jeans. sometimes ill leave the shirt alone if its comfy enough, but pj pants are a necessity. my fav pjs rn are shorts i bought a couple weeks ago with fish on them. so cute
16 | thoughts on mint chocolate chip?
LOVE LOVE LOVE mint chocolate chip. but i cant eat it bc my teeth are too sensitive to eat ice cream with chunks of any kind in it. i can do like cookie dough bc its soft and i can like. smush it on the roof of my mouth LMAO
mint chocolate chip with just chocolate shavings and not like. chunks of choc is bearable tho
28 | last meal on earth?
yall ever had chilis... the honey-chipotle chicken crispers... yeah