Maybe Buck had gotten used to people leaving. So much so that it didn’t affect him anymore. His life would keep going even if his best friend wasn’t there anymore.
Eventually, he accepted that nothing would feel different.
He signed the moving truck away and sat on the porch stairs, one almost warm beer in hand as he waited for Eddie to get home. When Eddie did, Buck almost felt like something was different about him, but then figured it was just his imagination.
Buck left his half-drank beer on the porch of Eddie’s former house shortly after Eddie had left him the same way.
Half-drunk. Unchanged.
Bad Omens
steddie | rockstar AU | explicit | 100k | 15/15
Read it Here
In the 80s, Eddie Munson and Corroded Coffin rose to fame under H&H Records management. With two successful albums, the band started their second national tour in 1989 and seemed to be on the path to becoming one of the greatest metal bands of all time. But something went wrong somewhere, and the tour was cut short when Corroded Coffin announced an unexpected hiatus.
No one knows exactly what happened, and the members of the band were radio silent. Until now.
After almost 8 years, Corroded Coffin is back and things seem to be good, or so Eddie Munson hopes, because between making music again and hitting the road knowing very well how the tour life was partially responsible for his breakdown in 1989, he needs things to be good.
And as if things weren't complicated enough, Eddie seemed to think it would be a good idea to invite his ex-boyfriend -and the love of his life– to tour with them, now that child star and famous pop singer Steve Harrington wanted to broaden his musical horizons.
It's like Eddie Munson is asking for something to go wrong as he tries to balance his new tour, his rocky relationship with his ex and the fact that all his past secrets don't seem to want to stay hidden.
you're under my skin (burning in my bloodstream)
steddie | rockstar au | explicit | 40k+ | 8/8
Read it Here
Steve's not sure why he keeps betting on things with Robin when he knows he's going to lose. Except this time the bet ends up with him getting his nipple pierced and it seems like the guy who's about to run a needle through his skin is hotter than Steve expected and he's having trouble keeping it together.
But after a charged first encounter, Steve has no way to get in touch with Eddie and thinks he lost his chance until he runs into him in the most unexpected of places and finds out Eddie is a lot more than Steve initially thought.
OR; Eddie gives Steve a piercing and Steve is clueless about his true identity.
Completed fics under the cut
Steve Harrington's (not so) Secret Advent Calendar
Read It Here
What do you mean friends don’t make friends super elaborated Advent Calendars just for the sake of it?
Or; Eddie and Steve had been fooling around for a year when Steve decided it was time to make a move and make things official in the form of 24 presents right before Christmas.
To-Do: Eddie Munson
steddie | Modern AU | explicit | 14k | 4/4
Read it Here
Steve started sending his to-do lists to famous rockstar Eddie Munson as sort of an inside joke. It wasn't like Eddie would ever look at the DMs from a no-one called Steve Harrington. Right?
Or; Steve's been using Eddie Munson's DMs as his personal notes up until the day Eddie actually replies to him.
Read it Here
After the world ended and the undead creatures were everywhere, Steve Harrington survived by isolating himself. Completely alone in a house, he barely knows what to do when someone breaks in.
Injured and alone, Eddie Munson slowly wins Steve’s trust as they navigate surviving together in the middle of the Apocalypse and their relationship grows into something Steve can’t quite understand.
But just as he has his share of secrets, Eddie has some of his own and this might be enough to get in the way of whatever they were building together.
Just a Lost Boy (not ready to be found)
steddie | Stripper AU | Explicit | 90k | 12/12
Read it Here
Steve desperately needed an out. He couldn't handle his own life anymore, he needed to leave everything he'd ever known behind. And yet, he couldn't.
His husband wouldn't let him leave like that. Not when Steve felt like a prize to him, something to be owned. And Steve didn't have the money to leave him because he'd been dumb and trusting and in love.
And then, there's Eddie. Who might be just another client but he makes Steve feels things and Steve doesn't want to fucking feel anything right now.
He just wants to leave.
OR; Stripper Steve meets Eddie at work and Eddie can be precisely what Steve needs. Can offer him the chance of leaving his own life behind, if Steve plays his cards right.
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Eddie knew Steve didn't mean anything by it. He had personally been on the defensive side of an argument with Dustin, and he knew how hellish it could get.
The kid was relentless, and sometimes you just wanted to get it over with.
So when Dustin kept grilling Steve about his relationship with Robin and how there was no way they didn't have sexual tension between them, Eddie already knew it would take a lot to convince the kid otherwise.
And there was no way Steve would spill Robin's secret about her sexuality just to prove a point. He wasn't an asshole.
"Dustin, I'm telling you. Robin and I are basically fraternal twins. There's nothing–"
"Steve Harrington, don't lie to me! You were the biggest womanizer ever, and you're telling me you have sleepovers with a girl and nothing happens? I'm not an idiot!"
Steve muttered under his breath, "sometimes that's exactly what you are," which got a snicker out of Eddie, reminding the two of them that he was still there.
They were supposed to be watching a movie, but then Dustin just couldn't let it go.
"I promise you, there isn't any kind of sexual tension between Robin and me. Never was and never will be."
"I don't believe it!"
"You don't have to," Steve said exasperated, running a hand on his face in that cute way Eddie was secretly so fond of. "I probably have more sexual tension with Eddie than with Robin. Right, man?"
Eddie felt his eyes almost bugging out of his face.
"W-what?"
Now, both Dustin and Steve were looking at him, but Steve had this mischievous expression on his face.
"Yeah, say, if I were to do this," Steve said, moving on the couch. They were at the Harringtons', and their furniture was way too big for a family of three, which meant Eddie was always sprawled out on the couch, enjoying the free space.
But now Steve fucking Harrington was crawling up to him on all fours, and he was basically straddling Eddie's body so he could get really up close and personal with him.
"You're an asshole," Dustin said, and just like that, Steve had won the argument. Because he had done something so ridiculous, Dustin didn't have a choice but to drop the whole thing.
The problem was... Steve didn't look like he was dropping it.
He was currently hovering over Eddie, his face mere inches from Eddie's face.
And maybe Steve was just fucking with him. Doing a bit. Because one minute he was looking Eddie in the eye, and the next he glanced down, right at Eddie's mouth.
The bastard even licked his lips before looking back up, and Eddie felt his whole face warming up.
What the fuck.
"Gross. You've made your point, Steve. Let's just watch the movie," Dustin groaned from his side of the couch.
Steve smiled, clearly pleased with himself, and leaned in to peck Eddie's cheek. Eddie couldn't contain a pathetic little whine, low enough that maybe Dustin hadn't heard, but from the look in Steve's eyes, he had.
And much to Eddie's disappointment, Steve retreated, sitting back on the couch and leaving Eddie and his desperate reminder that he had been pining over Steve Harrington for an entire year by now.
And now, even though Steve meant nothing by it, Eddie couldn't shake the feeling of having Steve on top of him, and how all he wanted to do was to kiss the fuck out of him.
Eddie Munson had gotten used to the unfamiliarity of things.
He's gotten used to never waking up in the same bed and never having the same view out of the window.
At first, there was some sort of excitement when he got to a new city. When he got to be in a completely new place surrounded by people who knew him but didn't know him.
Eddie would entertain the idea that he could be anyone he wanted to be even though he liked who he was. He liked being adored by crowds that chanted back every single lyric of his songs.
As he collected awards and broke records and sold out stadiums, his best friends and former band members were meeting their future wives. Getting married and getting pregnant. Settling for an average job with an average pay and a boring life.
Eddie was chasing the adrenaline.
He was chasing the bottom of a bottle every night. Too high sometimes to even remember which city he was in.
Sometimes he yearned for things he didn't even knew how to explain, but every time he got on stage, everything made sense. The long nights and early mornings and endless rehearsals and soundchecks.
He missed his friends sometimes, too. Missed their kids birthdays and a few weddings. Watched it through pictures on Instagram and videos sent to him so he could feel part of it, even though h was miles and miles away.
But Eddie Munson was never alone.
His bed was always warm, a body pressed against his as the sun rose in the horizon. Mouths and hands and moans that filled his brain with that good static. And then, privacy once he opened his eyes in the late morning.
Whoever they were, they knew who Eddie was and they were happy to be part of his night. They were happy to collect him into their little story box. Something fun they could share with their friends once they were back to their normal, boring lives.
Then, one night, Eddie saw someone he had never seen before. A pretty guy. Too pretty for his own good, with soft brown hair, hazel eyes and plump lips that would look good stretched around his dick.
Eddie approached him with the ease of someone who does that daily. Pressed a hand filled with fingers on his shoulder and asked if he could buy the guy a drink.
He waited for the flicker of his eyes, that spark of recognition as he realized who Eddie was. Maybe he would even get a little excited that a guy like Eddie wanted to get him a drink, even though Eddie didn't think the guy had any trouble with that.
"No, thanks," the guy said barely glancing at Eddie. "I'm good."
Eddie frowned. It had been a while since someone had rejected him.
"Oh? I see, maybe you'd prefer to join me for a night cap back in my room. I'm in the presidential suite."
The guy looked at him with a tired expression, as if he had seen so many guys like Eddie in his life that he couldn't be bothered with his type anymore.
"Like I said, I'm good. I'm sure anyone else here would love to follow you back to your suite, Mr. President."
Eddie didn't miss the bite in his words.
"Oh. No. I mean, I'm not... it's just what it's called."
At that, the guy laughed a little and Eddie felt his cheeks growing hot with embarrassment. He wasn't used to feeling so out of his game like that.
The guy simply watched him, clearly amused.
"I.... uh," Eddie mustered, very eloquently. "I'm Eddie."
He offered his hand in a pathetic attempt to extend their time together. The guy gave him a once over, and maybe it was the loser energy Eddie was giving ever since he got thrown off of his game, but he took pity on him, reaching fot his hand and shaking it politely.
"Name's Steve. Nice to meet you, Eddie."
And with that, Steve turned, clearly ending their conversation for good.
Eddie didn't know it yet, but he would get addicted to everything Steve related. To the way his own heart threatened to beat out of his chest every time Steve looked at him. To the way he would keep hoping to see Steve whenever he was coming through Chicago. To the way his hand would find its way under his pants with just the memory of Steve's hazel eyes on him.
He didn't know it yet, but Steve would haunt him, make him not want anyone else. He would fucking ruin him.
He’s never had so much as a thought of being attracted to a man, when Eddie Munson stares up at him with wet eyes and blood smeared all over his lips.
He’d never once questioned himself or his sexuality. He liked women. Every guy he knew liked women. That was just how the world worked--his world, his inner Robin amends.
The facts of Steve Harrington’s life, simple and undisputed.
He likes chocolate cake, boobs, and free alcohol, not necessarily in that order.
Robin is his platonic soulmate, but he’s learned to specify that Dustin is his male best friend or she’ll be unbelievably pissed.
And Eddie Munson doesn’t deserve to die.
No one does, especially not to Vecna, but Eddie in particular can't leave them now.
Not like this.
He’s too fucking loud to die. With his headlight bright personality and over the top everything, gaining attention wherever he goes like it’s payment he's owed.
Dustin fucking adores the guy, and yeah, it hasn’t been that long, relatively speaking, since Steve really met Eddie, but he gets it now. Understands why so many people either hate Munson or act like he hung the moon.
“Steve.” Eddie's saying, choked out past another gush of blood, and it’s clear no amount of CPR is going to save him. “I don’t want to, I don’t--…I can’t--”
“It's okay.” Steve soothes automatically, as something just. Gentle to say, right then but it's not okay.
It's nowhere close to okay.
Steve had told him not to be a hero. Had looked him dead in the eye while he said it and here they were, Eddie lying on the ground surrounded by dead bats and Henderson, who was sobbing so hard he could barely breath himself.
“Sorry. ‘M sorry but, but--please, Steve.” Eddie's begging, Steve realizes. He knows what for--nothing short of a miracle here can save him but the funny thing is, Steve was already going through the motions before Eddie spoke.
Before he realized Munson’s ringed, shaking hand was trying to tug down his shirt and display his unfulfilled soulmark. Doesn't even get to bare it all the way because Steve's hand is already there, bloody palm pressing down on it.
“This is going to hurt.” Someone that might very well be him says from a million miles away and Steve doesn't actually know how to do this (not like there's an instruction manual floating around for his kind of unthinkable sin) but he sums up every crashing, conflicting feeling he has towards one Edward Munson.
Wraps it up with two bold declarations, made first in the privacy of his own mind before he speaks them into existence, not willing fate to change but commanding it to.
“You're mine, Munson.” He says, sending all that emotion down through his hand, out his palm. “You're not fucking dying today.”
Eddie's head falls back with a hissed word--might have been ‘Yes’ might have been Steve’s name, but it doesn't matter for long because now there's something building between them.
Something physical. Tangible.
Steve leans into it.
Snarls, “You belong to me.” and feels it when their soulmarks connect. When a bond is formed, crashing over the parts of them intended for someone else entirely. Erasing the people who should have been there, who the connection was originally meant for.
It doesn't feel as awful as it should, Steve thinks, but then that might be because it's not a proper hijacked soulbond.
Can't be, because they both want this.
Eddie's breathing goes weird. Harsh and tight, long enough for Steve to think he failed, to worry he just chucked his true soulmate out the window for fucking nothing when Eddie convulses, and suddenly his wounds start to heal.
Immediately--and badly. Like special effects straight out of a cheap B tier horror movie.
Dustin is yelling things next to them and Robin is yelling things behind him and neither matters because Eddie is taking a huge, gasping breath before coming alive under Steve's hands.
The bond clicks fully into place, a heavy thing felt between them, right as the last of the injuries fade.
Doe eyes blink twice, before Eddie manages to press a shaking, loose hand on the side of Steve's face.
“Mine.” He announces, a response to a call Steve hadn't cognitively realized he'd made.
Which makes this an equal hijacking.
Steve nods once, gentle and slow, in acceptance.
He is straight and prior to meeting Robin, queer was just an insult one hurled at someone when you really wanted to rile them up, but he has just bound himself, heart and soul, to one Edward Munson.
A man.
Steve decides to panic about all that later.
~xxXxx~
Steve never actually panics.
Robin does, but then Robin got the half of the brain cell that's good at languages and algebra so Steve feels the anxiety kinda evens things out.
“That was insanely illegal, do you even comprehend how illegal that was!?” She’s saying, pacing back and forth in Steve’s room. He’d made the argument on the way back that his (empty, parentless) house was a way better hideout than the Wheeler’s armpit of a basement and the group at large had agreed.
“I wasn't gonna let him die, Robs.” He says. It’s not the first time he’s said it. Likely won’t be the last, either.
“You understand he has you over a barrel here, right!? If being a lesbian makes me the town pariah, hijacking a soulbond makes you like, Hawkins super villian!”
“Yeah, until Vecna shows up.”
“Steve!”
“He asked!” Steve throws his hands in the air, because that’s what it comes down to, doesn’t it?
Eddie had asked, and then completed the bond himself by hijacking Steve’s own soulmark.
“What was it supposed to do, tell him no!? That his life wasn't more important than some--some random girl I don't even know!?”
That the random girl in question was his future soulmate was something he was doing a great job of Not Thinking About, thanks.
“You don’t know Eddie either!”
Steve rolls his eyes. “It’s Munson. Everyone knows him.”
“Not enough to soulbond to him!” Robin’s shrieks and judging by the way the downstairs goes suddenly silent she’d been loud enough for everyone to hear, but that’s okay. It’s not like they all hadn’t guessed what was happening when she dragged his ass up here.
Steve gets it, too. She and Nancy hadn’t heard Eddie. The Upside Down had been too loud, Dustin’s scream-sobs covering any remaining noise that could have been heard. It was Steve’s word against Eddie’s, and until Eddie clarified things, Steve was slotted firmly into the role here of a person who had done the unthinkable.
It wasn’t like Eddie had left him hanging either. He’d technically, sort of defended Steve to the group at large.
It’s just that he’d collapsed right after, and the only thing he’d gotten out was a loud “Harrington's mine.” right before he did it.
The guy hadn’t woken back up yet, but Nancy and Robin both had assured everyone that was perfectly normal, for someone who’d just been pulled rather dramatically back from death. Healing from those kinds of wounds took a lot of energy.
It would all be fine when Eddie woke up.
(Or it wouldn’t be, and Steve weirdly, was okay with that too. Eddie lived. Vecna hadn’t completely won.
Those were the only two things that really mattered, to him.)
“Did he really ask?” Robin says quietly, after a long, long moment.
“Yeah.” Steve says, softening his voice to match hers. “He did.”
She comes to sit next to him on his bed, tucking herself into his side. Steve leans right back against her, resting his cheek atop her head.
“You’re unbelievable, you know that?” She mutters but it’s fond.
“I might’ve been told that a few times.” He mutters back. “Possibly even by someone in this room.”
“Yeah well.” She sniffs. “That person was right, and you’re a dingus.”
“Your dingus.” He corrects.
They both smile at that.
~xxXxx~
“I’m really confused on whose ass I'm supposed to kick here.” Lucas is saying, as Max perches next to him on Steve’s kitchen counter.
“Neither.” Dustin says right over the top of Erica’s scoffed; “Both.”
Which restarts the argument that’s been happening on and off for the entire day.
“Can we maybe focus on something else other than Eddie and Steve, please?” Nancy interrupts, which would be a lot more effective if Jonathan wasn’t draped over her like some sort of sad, wet looking cape.
The other group had shown up the morning before, acting as a nice little distraction to the ordeal for one entire day. The kids had been all over their missing party members, Jonathan had introduced them all to Argyle, and Eddie remained sleeping for a solid chunk of it; which made it all a lot easier for everyone to ignore the elephant in the room in favor of the demonic asshole that was currently making it rain ash outside.
At least, Steve thought it was ash. Didn’t really care to think of what else it might be.
Of course, now that all reunions had been had, and the adultier adults run off to go--wherever it was Joyce, Hopper and Murray had gone (Steve hadn’t been listening) things naturally circled back to other matters.
Steve, who was somehow both a pariah and martyr in the moment, was two seconds away from purposefully starting a fight to get away from it when Eddie himself finally stumbled through the kitchen doors looking like he'd gotten into a fist fight with the bed.
“No one's kicking anyone's asses.” He announces, voice sounding wrecked, and he looked wrecked, too.
(Steve made a note to go raid his closet. He was pretty sure he had at least one black sweater.)
“Now kindly buzz off, your babysitter and I need to have an important chat.”
The kids of course were going to do no such fucking thing.
Which is how they ended back up in Steve’s room.
(“Hey Robs, could you like, stand at the bottom of the stairs or something just so no one tries to listen through the door or some shit?” Steve asks, over multiple gasps of outrage. Like every single child in this room hadn’t tried to pull him into some sort of life threatening situation or another.
“Yeah, Dingus. I can do that.”
“Thanks.”)
~xxXxx~
“Are you mad at me?”
“What?” Eddie asks, startled. Like he hadn’t even considered that an option, despite not having said a word for the longest five minutes of Steve’s life. “No I’m not fucking mad at you.”
“You're acting like you are.” Which he was. Kept clenching and unclenching his hands so tight his knuckles went white with it.
It was within his right to be mad, ask or no ask--Steve had been the one to initiate the soulbond. An argument could be made that Eddie was out of his mind when he'd requested it.
Mike had made that argument already in fact, and Steve hadn’t said a word back, figuring it wasn’t his place to do so. Dustin had, because Dustin was Dustin, but everything was going to be weird until Eddie himself said something.
Steve just…wasn’t sure if Eddie would.
“Well screw me for needing a minute to process here.” Eddie spit before visibly raining himself in.
Took some measured breaths before saying; “Can I just. Can I ask you one thing?”
Steve owes Munson that much. “Sure.”
“Why’d you do it?”
He doesn’t ask it the same way Nancy had, or Mike had, or honestly anyone else had. There wasn’t an accusation, threading through those words. Munson’s entire demeanor was more confused than anything. Almost like he was waiting for the other shoe to drop, and now that it hadn’t was trying to trigger it to do so.
Unfortunately, Steve can't honestly answer his question without first asking one himself.
“Why did you ask me to do it?”
“I asked you first, Harrington.”
“We're soulmates man.” It’s the first time he’s said it aloud, and Steve’s watching closely for the flinch. Is unsure of how to feel when he doesn’t see one. “You can call me Steve.”
“Okay.” Eddie resumes his pacing, hands tangling and untangling in his hair in a way that makes Steve want to herd him towards the bathroom and his army of hair products. “Okay--I didn't want to die, Steve. I have so much left unfinished, I still haven’t fucking passed highschool and Wayne!? I just, I.” The bond is too new for Steve to feel much, but Eddie’s so loud with his emotions he can sense some of it anyway, rolling like a riptide within him.
“I couldn't die there.” A big intake of breath and then a fast quick admittance of; “And it was you.”
Steve’s eyebrows dipped to a puzzled frown.
“It was me?”
“Yeah.” Eddie looks at him like that means something.
Like it means everything.
Gives a harsh, snorting kind of laugh and adds; “there I was, dying at the end of the fucking world, and of all the people to come find me, it was you.”
Steve wants to ask what it means. Wants to point out Dustin was there long before he was.
(Doesn't though, because he thinks he understands.
Dustin might call him stupid but the kid has the emotional range of a squash. Steve might not be able to do fast math or instantly recall the instruction manual to some stupid gizmo, but people, he got.
Eddie Munson telegraphed his feelings so loud he might as well be carrying a neon sign about, announcing them.
Pity Steve is straight and he's sort of still reconciling that with the fact that he bound himself to a man, and he needs to untangle his own head before untangling anything between him and Eddie.)
“Yeah well.” He redirects. “Someone had to teach you a lesson about listening. Clearly it wasn’t going to be Henderson.”
Eddie doesn’t acknowledge that. Instead points and says; “Fairs fair, Harrington.”
“It's Steve.” He reminds, trying to suss out if Eddie is purposefully creating distance here or is just defaulting to the norm in the face of everything that’s happened.
Can’t blame him if the answer is a bit of both.
Eddie ignores him.
“I gave you my answer, so give me yours. Why did you do it?”
Which is unfortunate because the thing is, Steve doesn't honestly know.
Has some ideas, sure. Refused to lose the man to Vecna, absolutely. Those aren’t the right reasons though. Aren’t things big enough to explain why he changed the course of both their lives and gave the middle finger to fate itself.
He isn’t ready, Steve decides, to answer that question. Not in the way it deserves to be answered.
Thankfully, Eddie Munson is one of those people who will accept the answer to another question in place of the truth--so long as it's distracting enough.
“You always felt like you were right there. Like you saw me.”
It makes absolutely no sense and he gets a nice little frown for it. Steve rushes to talk before he gets interrupted.
“Your soulmate is supposed to be someone you’re drawn to, right? Someone who looks brighter than anyone else in the room. In a perfect match,” Because there were imperfect ones. Steve would know, his parents were the poster definition of one. “You can share emotions. Thoughts, even.”
No one Steve knows ever has shared thoughts, of course. That part is widely considered to be a fairy tale, a children’s story. Sharing emotions though, that was real. Rare. But real.
“I wasn’t your soulmate, Steve.”
“I know that.” He says, because duh. But--
“But you feel it too, don’t you? How easy it was. Hijacking a bond is supposed to be hard to do. Ours was easy.”
It’s not a lie. Steve’s been told his entire life how difficult it would be, to hijack a bond. How hard it is, even for two willing people to pull it off. That it often doesn’t take even if both parties truly want it. It’s a slog, a process, a horrible, awful thing.
There’s had come into place like they had already been each others soulmates. No pain. No pushback.
Like both their prior soulmates had let them go.
Steve’s bond has settled to exist in the back of his mind, a presence that gets “bigger” the more he focuses on it.
He does so now, narrowing in until it feels like a rope in his hand. Grips it tight and ‘tugs.’
This early on, Eddie shouldn’t be able to feel it, but the reaction is immediate.
“Eddie.” He says, moving to stand as the man’s eyes grow wide. “Come here.”
‘Tugs’ again when Eddie doesn’t move, and watches the way he can physically see Eddie feel it in their bond.
His soulmate comes, cautiously slow, like a dog unsure if it’s about to get hit or be given a treat.
(Time will fix that, Steve thinks, but laying down the groundwork is gonna suck. )
He waits until Eddie gets closer before stepping to close the gap between them, opening his arms.
Get’s them mostly around Eddie before the taller man is sinking into him.
“Why are you doing this? You don’t have to do this.” Eddie mutters into his neck, his own hands hovering awkwardly for a moment before he carefully sets them against Steve’s sides, well above his hips. “A soulbond can be platonic, you know.”
As if Steve didn’t already have one of those, mark or not.
“I know.” He says instead of pointing that out. “You don’t want it to be platonic, though.”
“You can tell that?”
Not really--not in the way Eddie’s asking. Their bond is too new and he still has to focus pretty hard to even get into that space between them, but it’s still easier than it should be.
Steve doesn’t really feel like telling the guy he’s insanely obvious about what he wants though, or the fact that both of them will never be truly happy with something platonic.
"Sorta." He answers.
“You’re not gay, Steve.” Eddie says it quietly, like Steve somehow doesn't know. Forgot maybe, during all the crazy shit.
“I’m not.” Steve agrees, playing lazily with the ends of Eddie’s hair. It’s fried to shit, but Steve might be able to save some of it. “And I’m going to need you to give me time, but, “ He tugs on one of the strands.
“I think I might be able to make an exception for you though.”
Eddie lets out a shaky exhale, and doesn’t say anything else--but he doesn’t pull away either.
I'm thinking about Steve all alone at the radio, organizing some things when he hears some static coming in. It's not usual, with the amount of radio the military use around Hawkins, and often they get pieces of conversations that come and go.
It's static at first and then Steve hears it more clearly. A voice.
Eddie's voice.
He's sure he's hallucinating - lord knows how many times he dreamed about Eddie on the past year and half. Bloodied, lifeless Eddie. But also sparkling, full of life Eddie, teasing him incessantly.
This feels different.
At first he's just saying "Hello? Someone copy?" And stuff like that, and by the time Steve makes his way to the radio, Eddie's voice sounds more clear.
With shaky hand, Steve press the button and answers the question and the way Eddie says "Steve? That you big boy?" has his insides twisting like he's going to be sick. Fuck, he missed him.
The problem is: Steve missed him so much he started to hallucinate Eddie's been radioing him. And he doesn't tell anyone because he doesn't want anyone thinking he lost his mind.
But on the Upside Down, Eddie Munson is battered and bruised and happy he finally managed to snag a radio good enough that he was able to contact people on the other side. And imagine his surprise when Steve Harrington was the one who picked it up
Written for the @steddiebbang with art by the lovely @mbeebinds
Summary below
Steve Harrington is a failure.
His parents know it, and his ex-girlfriend, Nancy Wheeler, knows it too. That’s why she helped him get a job at Mindflyer Magazine. But after one too many mistakes, Steve’s job is on the line, and the only way he can save his ass is by participating in an app trial and writing a piece about the experience.
Hellfire Inc. is a tech company that has just developed a new relationship app to help you find your soulmate. After determining the matching percentage, it guides you through 5 weeks of dating to make sure you and your soulmate are ready to start this new relationship.
Founder Eddie Munson hasn’t been seen in public in five years, and now he’s about to be the test subject of his new app to try and maintain his board seat. He just didn’t expect to match with someone so different and yet so incredibly enticing.
They are supposed to be opposites, but Dustin’s calculations project that Steve and Eddie are soulmates. Can they work through their differences and find some common ground for the experiment’s sake, or will they end the whole thing hating each other?
Or worse, will they end the whole thing in love with each other?
CW: Season 5 spoilers (ish), angst, steddie, feelings realization.
The battle ends.
Somehow they come out of it victorious. It was a group effort, after all. Steve had just one near death experience, which felt like a victory on its own.
He'll never take it for granted anymore. How Dustin watches him like a hawk, worried, nervous. He needs Steve to make it and Steve can't lie, it feels good to know he matters that much. It feels good to hear it out loud.
The nightmares still linger long after the battle ends. Steve knows the drill.
A month after, his mind finally starts to clear out of monsters and worlds collapsing. He wakes up with a startle. An epiphany. One that was brewing ever since Will Byers put them all together in a room and said "I don't like girls."
Steve squeezed Robin's shoulder. He knew she had something to do with that and he was proud. He knew how scared she was when she first told him. How heartbroken. How sure she was that Steve was going to turn his back on her.
It felt nice to see Will get all that support and he hoped his best friend could have that one day, too.
But the epiphany is not about Will or Robin. No. The epiphany has something to do with long curly hair and brown Bambi eyes. With shoulders bumping and that manic smile that Steve couldn't help but find endearing.
His epiphany had to do with Eddie Munson and with why Steve still felt so angry at him. Sure, he almost broke Dustin beyond repair because he had to play the fucking hero.
But Dustin wasn't the only one he left behind. No.
Steve was left behind, too. He was left behind after those doe eyes bore holes into Steve, so full of meaning. He was left behind after those lips kept tantalizing Steve with words and with how plump they were. With how fucking kissable Eddie Munson was.
And looking back at it, Steve couldn't help but think Eddie wanted him to kiss him. And Steve couldn't help but want that, too.
He wanted to grab Eddie's head and smash their lips together, if only to shut him up for a moment. If only to know how he would taste like.
Steve had been hiding away from those feelings, but there was no point in hiding anymore. Eddie had awaken something in him that could not be put to sleep again.
And the worst of it all was that Eddie fucking left him before Steve could stop hiding. Eddie left him before he could taste it.
And that was something Steve could never forgive him for.
November 6th, 1987
Hawkins, Indiana
The battle ends.
Somehow, under six feet of dirt, he takes a breath. The first one in a year and a half. The first one since bats from hell shredded him to pieces.
He's not in pieces anymore. His wounds don't hurt anymore. He still has to crawl his way out of that wooden box. He still has to fight.
But he will. If only for the memory of those hazel eyes looking at him one last time. If only for the unfinished business he knows they have.
It shouldn't be possible for him to take this breath and it shouldn't be possible for him to crawl his way out.
But stranger things have happened in Hawkins, and Eddie Munson coming back to life is just one of them.
