The Bug Stuck in the Syrup

Tal ❀ 25 ❀ she/her ❀ ✡︎ ☮︎

[oiveyzmir]

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♡ Tal, 25, she/her ♡ I write & recommend stuff!

My AO3

･ ｡ﾟ☆: .☽ . :☆ﾟ. ────── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: .☽ . :☆ﾟ.

Stranger things (Steddie)

Ghost Lights (AO3)

Nothing but Bliss (AO3)

A Love Song for Dreams and Dreamers (WIP, AO3)

Eddie's Hyperfixation (Magician!Eddie, ficlet)

Breadcrumb Trail (Rockstar!Eddie, ficlet)

･ ｡ﾟ☆: .☽ . :☆ﾟ. ────── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: .☽ . :☆ﾟ.

American Vandal (Maldonado)

Maldonado Films (AO3)

Heartbreaker (AO3)

Saudade (AO3)

･ ｡ﾟ☆: .☽ . :☆ﾟ. ────── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: .☽ . :☆ﾟ.

[emilyrosecreatives]

the cutest tea party ever 🥹

[youhavebeentraceyd]

visually, the funniest moment in the season so far

[mythtakens]

hey nobody come near me or I'm going to start biting.

[eddiesmedbag]

buck has been borderline obsessed with getting a sign from bobby since bobby's death. in 8x17, he is essentially begging for it when the earthquake happens (the same earthquake that leads to the building collapse which causes eddie to miss his flight to texas and decide to move back to LA). in 9x05, buck thought the snickerdoodles' missing ingredient was a sign from bobby, but it was just the squatter (which was very symbolic of buck feeling out of place after moving out of eddie's house). now in 9x12, buck finally got the sign he has been asking for. he realized bobby was absolutely sure that eddie would fight to come back home. to the 118. and to buck. bobby recruited eddie to be buck's partner in 2x01, and once again, bobby brought buck and eddie back together as partners in 9x12. only this time, it's from the grave. all along, buck has wanted a sign from bobby to show him how he is supposed to do this without bobby. and of course, every sign keeps pointing to eddie

[buckleysbegins]

A rough timeline of the pre-series events from the Begins episodes:

1989:

Athena drops out of law school and joins the LAPD

1991:

Athena’s fiancé Emmett is killed during an attempted robbery

~1993:

Buck and Maddie’s brother Daniel dies of leukemia

2004:

Maddie leaves with Doug for Boston to start nursing school

2005:

Chimney saves the customers from a fire at the karaoke bar and decides to become a firefighter

~2008-2011:

Hen quits her job in pharmaceuticals and becomes a paramedic

2011:

Eddie is on active duty as a field medic in the military

Christopher is born; Eddie is on leave from the army to attend Christopher’s birth

2012:

Buck leaves Hershey

2012-2015:

Buck travels around the US

Buck enlists in the SEALs, later drops out

2014:

Bobby’s family is killed in apartment building fire

~2014-2015:

Bobby moves to LA and becomes captain of the 118

2015:

Eddie reenlists in the army

Eddie’s helicopter is shot down in Afghanistan and he’s discharged

Buck works as a bartender in Peru

~2015:

Shannon leaves Eddie and goes to LA

2017:

Buck completes the LAFD fire academy and starts at the 118

Eddie is living in El Paso with his parents and Christopher, applies to join a number of fire departments

[junkiepunkie]

Dallon Weekes has the patience and goodness of a SAINT because if, in my career, I had been;

-instrumental in the lyrics and the signature sound of a beloved album that towed the line of emo and pop so effortlessly that it converted people to new genres of music only to be barely credited for said album. -written a song for my pansexual wife only for the pansexual lead singer of the band to rewrite it to be about a threesome and then that lead singer took advantage of the chorus’ built in pride message to strengthen his queer fanbase but again leave me and my wife WHO THE SONG WAS FOR pretty much uncredited outside of the baseline. -be responsible for the chorus of one of the most beloved songs of the band I was in’s discography because my old band wrote a demo with the verbatim words and melody and then the lead singer of my new band that took the chorus and only said it “Started from an idea Dallon had.” -been shot with an air gun on stage by the lead singer and had to continue the concert. -been paid a little enough about of money by the successful band I was touring with to need to clean carpets in my spare time. -been bullied by the lead singers friend/band’s security guard who was also a known creep to many including my wife -left that band, started a new one and later seen the new Panic! At the disco aesthetic only for it to be suspicious familiar to my new bands own. -just as my new band finally starts getting a little recognition, realised im not making the correct amount of money because my drummer has been stealing from me, possibly for years. -kicked said drummer out of the band and realised hes the reason I haven’t been able to afford enough musicians on tour. -gone on tour now that I have the money only for my tour bus to catch fire and hence destroy a lot of equipment. -after all that STILL NOT BE A HOUSEHOLD NAME

I’d be in jail.

[youretheworstperson]

Diaz Drinks the Juice - COMPLETE

my first buddie fic is finally finished ! Chapter 5 is here or read the entire thing from the beginning here

snippet below the cut

“I'm not in love with you.” There’s a jolt in Eddie’s stomach at that admission. “I’m not secretly pining for you, or anything like that. I don’t even see you that way.” “Oh,” Eddie says, then forces out a laugh he hopes sounds casual. Buck’s eyes are wide, honest, like he’s desperate for Eddie to be reassured by this admission, to believe him. And how much clearer could he be? He’s not in love with Eddie. That’s fine. Eddie never expected him to be. His now empty beer bottle hits the counter too loudly, “No, of course not.”

Or: Buck reassures Eddie that he's not in love with him. Eddie feels some type of way about that.

[upsidedownmegabang]

Sign Ups Now Open for the Upside Down Mega Bang!

All sign ups for the Mega Bang are now open!! Sign Up before the gate closes on December 31st 2025 for bonus perks! You can find the full schedule here!

Upside Down Mega Bang Sign Ups

[spider-mann]

STRANGER THINGS 5.06 | Escape from Camazotz

[sunsetbuddie]

anyway thinking about increasingly hilarious scenarios in which eddie keeps ending up under the mistletoe with people at the 118 christmas party and buck is silently Seething about it. for no reason. like, eddie and hen end up under it on the way to the kitchen and it's lovely and wholesome and they give each other big cheek smooches and buck is stood there in the corner like 😠 and then not five minutes later, eddie is coming out of the kitchen while chim is going in and they get caught under the mistletoe. and they're both like 🤷🏽‍♂️ and a little tipsy and MWAH on the lips. and buck angrily stabs his cocktail stick into a cube of cheese. it's Not Fair. it should be him! and he's tried. he's TRIED. he keeps trying. practically barrells into eddie at one point to get under the mistletoe with him but they end up stumbling. and ravi. RAVI of all people. catches eddie. and ends up under the mistletoe with him instead. and ravi barks out a laugh and goes to kiss eddie's cheek but eddie goes to do the same and they accidentally end up kissing on the Lips and everyone is laughing. except buck who is googling how to make voodoo dolls. and eventually maddie comes over to him like, are you okay? and buck's like 😠 i'm fine. and maddie's like, buck. and buck's like, What? and maddie's like, evan. and buck's like, i'm Not! because he's not in love with eddie. and maddie's like, i didn't say anything. and buck says, it's never gonna be Me. and he means under the mistletoe. it's never gonna be him under the mistletoe with eddie. that's all. that's all he means, maddie! and maddie's like, this is Ridiculous. so she goes to get eddie but she bumps into him right under the mistletoe. oh No. and eddie laughs and gently kisses her cheek. and buck is going to kill everyone in this room and then himself. and he knows he’s being Stupid! he knows! it doesn't mean anything! but it's everyone but him. so he huffs and he goes outside for some Air. and after a few moments he hears someone join him. and he's like, i'm not in the mood, maddie! and eddie's like, try again. and buck's like, oh. hey. i uh. sorry. you uh. having a good night? and eddie's like, sure. are you? and buck's like, sure. and eddie leans next to him on the porch. shoulders pressing together. and eddie's like, you know, you're the only one it didn't get. and buck's like, what? and eddie's like, the mistletoe. feel like i've kissed everyone except you. and buck's like, you didn't kiss athena. and eddie's like, no i did, think you were in the bathroom. and buck's like 😠 and eddie laughs. he Laughs. and buck's sooooo annoyed, but he knows it's stupid. so he tries to play it lighthearted. says, who was the best kisser? and eddie laughs, bumps their shoulders. then says, can't rank them yet. wouldn't be a fair assessment. i'm missing one. and buck for one truly stupid moment is like, what? who? and eddie rolls his eyes. and buck feels his chest liquefy. says, oh, haha. right. and eddie holds up the mistletoe. was he holding that the whole time? says, gotta make it fair, right? and buck's like, right. ignores the way his entire body feels like it’s trying to escape him. says, right, okay. and kisses him. on the cheek. normal. and eddie says softly, no. and buck's like, no? and eddie just cups his cheek and kisses him. kisses him. eddie is kissing him. on the Mouth. and buck makes a sound that. Well he was aiming for confusion maybe? but it comes out more like a soft sigh. a soft moan, even. and he grips one hand on eddie's hip, reaches the other up to eddie's face. and eddie makes a sound too. not dissimilar to the one buck made. and he opens his mouth against buck's. and then they're Kissing. breathlessly. desperately. and they stumble a bit, and eddie laughs again. into buck's mouth. and buck says, eddie. and eddie says, hmm. a solid number two. and buck says, what? and eddie teases, chim's was better. and buck says, shut up. and eddie says, it's okay. i'll give you another shot. so buck kisses him this time.

[frankenstein-ate-my-left-shoe]

take the leap

buddie | T | 3.8k | Chap 1/6 | on AO3 | eddie pov, inspired by one of the very first destiel fics i remember reading, 5 times the universe screamed at him and the 1 time he did something about it

The locker rooms in the firehouse are obnoxious, to say the least. Glass walls in the main changing area, a weird pseudo wall of cubicles between it and the women’s half of the changing area. At least the two shower areas were private.

Eddie was just inside the switchbacked entrance to the all-tile shower bay on the men's side, sitting heavily on one end of the somehow always damp bench in the middle of the room and staring ahead at the full-length mirror in front of him.

It’s just past midnight and they had just gotten back from a call. It hadn’t been anything too crazy, a fire at an apartment complex that was so new that there were maybe only four or five families living in the building. Luckily, all of them were safe and accounted for before they’d even arrived to douse the flames.

They’d gotten the fire out, got back to the station with only the lingering mustiness of their turnouts clinging to them, and now Eddie’s sitting here in the half-lit shower bay with his pile of spare clothes behind him (undershirt, socks, novelty Tapatio boxer-briefs Buck got him as a gag gift last Christmas) trying to decide if he’s going to take a shower or not.

He pushes himself up with his hands on his thighs, and moves closer to the mirror to examine his appearance.

His uniform shirt is rumpled, having had to throw his turnouts on over it, but he has another hanging in his locker. He’ll just wear his undershirt for now. His pants, too, are a bit wrinkled, but he can feel the lingering steam of the teams’ previous showers sinking into the fabric. They’ll be fine, maybe he’ll do a few squats before heading back to the loft, use his thighs to stretch the wrinkles out.

Yeah. He should be good for the rest of the shift. He didn’t even get all that sweaty or soot-y. He’ll check his face over in the mirror here, strip off his shirts, put on some new deodorant and his spare undershirt, and be just fine.

Now if only this damn shower bay would keep more than half its lights on after 10pm, he could actually see where the soot on his cheek ended and shadow bega—

—n.

Okay.

Eddie’s hands are still up. An aborted attempt at catching himself from falling forward. 

“The hell..?”

He looks around. 

He’s in the locker room.

He’s standing between the bench and bay of lockers in the locker room.

…The room that’s on the other side of the wall he was just on.

Eddie turns on his heel and walks himself around the cinderblock wall into the shower bay and peers in.

There’s no one there.

There’s nothing on the bench.

The bench is novelty Tapatio boxers-free.

He steps in further, looks between the now empty—empty!— bench and the mirror he’d just been about to smash his face into a handful of seconds ago.

“What the..?”

He turns around and goes back to the lockers. Stares at the spot he…fell into? Landed? Was just standing at. Goes back to the shower bay. Stares at the very obvious row of cinderblocks and metal between the two spots.

“What the hell?”

He goes back to the lockers and opens his.

Everything’s the same. Same pile of three-week-old spare shirts and socks, same box of cookie dough flavored protein bars Buck loves so much but Eddie thinks taste like sawdust, same pictures of He and Chris and Buck stuck to the—

Okay.

Not the same pictures. 

Eddie examines them closer. 

He’s the same, Chris is the same, it’s the Buck that’s the problem.

Because that’s not Buck.

“What the hell?!”

In Buck’s place, in a picture Eddie’s certain should be one of the three of them with Chris’s modified skateboard, is a woman.

She’s beautiful, sure, all honeyed curls and blue eyes, but Buck should be there, who in the actual hell is this person with their arm wrapped around his son?

The sound of voices coming his way startles him at first, then all he feels is relief. His team. Of course they’re in on this. It’s gotta be some sort of prank they’re pulling.

Eddie turns to face the glass wall of the lockers just as someone comes into view, head turned over their shoulder still as they swing into view.

“I’m telling you, Ed, I heard the lockers—” The woman turns to look at him. “Oh.”

It’s her. It’s the woman from the picture. 

“You–” they say in unison.

Three whole seconds pass.

“What–” again, in unison.

Eddie spends the next five studying her.

She really is beautiful. She’s tall, maybe only an inch shorter than him, her hair is pulled back into a bun at the back of her head, a few of those curls from the picture poking out of what must’ve been a fully gelled back bun at one point, bright blue eyes under furrowed bows, the reddish-pink of the birthmark over her left e—

The birthmark over her left eye.

“Buck?” Eddie hears himself echo with someone yet again. Echo a little too well this time.

Eddie watches in growing horror as he walks in behind the woman.

He.

Eddie. 

Eddie watches as Eddie comes to a stop behind the woman.

For a moment, the two Eddies stare at each other.

Then the Other Eddie moves, pulling the woman behind him as he pushes forward.

Eddie can hear a surprised, “Ed, what–” from her before Other Eddie starts speaking.

“I don’t know what the hell is going on, but you better start explaining.”

All Eddie can do is stare. He’s dreaming. He must be dreaming. He tripped and smacked his head into the wall like an idiot and now he’s back in the real world bleeding out on the floor of the station showers.

What a way to go.

Eddie can’t help but laugh.

“Buck,” Other Eddie says over his shoulder, eyes never leaving Eddie. “Go call Athena.”

“Like hell I am.” Buck says, trying to bully her way forward. Other Eddie remains still as a statue, somehow unaffected by the other person shoving at him. And she is shoving. Eddie can see the muscles bunching under the soft skin of her arms.

“Buck–”

“Fuck you, Eddie, let me–” she finally pushes Other Eddie out of her way and steps back into the locker room. Other Eddie immediately adjusts to this, stepping forward enough to still be in front of her.

The woman, Buck apparently, steps around him again with a huff and reaches forward with her right hand, “Hi, ignore him, I’m Buck.”

Eddie takes her hand in his and shakes it, his eyes catching disbelievingly at the twin bands of ink around her forearm.

“Eddie.” he breathes in return.

“Oh my god.” She whispers as Other Eddie barks out a harsh “Mentiroso!”

Eddie’s hands snap up into a surrender.

“Eddie! Calm down!” Buck admonishes. “Sorry about him, where’d you come from? Is this like a multiverse thing?” She asks, a comforting smile on her lips and the same bright excitement mixed with curiosity shining in her eyes as his Buck.

The muscles in Eddie’s arms go liquid, his hands dropping back to his sides.

Of course. Of course Buck would be like this. His own Buck would immediately clock that something insane was happening and accept it as some crazy universe shenanigans over anything else just as quick.

Eddie himself is only just considering that something freaky and supernatural is happening to him at the edges of his mind. There’s no way this woman’s hand in his would feel that real if this were just a dream…right?

And yet Buck, this Buck, other universe Buck, is on board and ready to listen and help all the same.

“This is insane.” Eddie says at the same time as Other Eddie. The Other glares at him and Buck snorts out a giggle.

“Oh, this is fun,” She laughs as Other Eddie glares at her. Ignoring him further, she steps to the side and gestures out the door toward the stairs. “Wanna come upstairs to talk?” 

“I don’t–” Eddie starts just as Other Eddie grits out an “Absolutely not.”

Buck ignores both of them, “C’mon, I’m hungry and Cap just made cinnamon rolls.” She turns and marches toward the stairs, the unspoken command to follow lingering in the air.

Neither make any motion to follow her.

Eddie does take a moment to watch Buck as she goes; she has the same loping gait that his Buck has, and a similar build despite being a good three inches shorter than him, her legs longer than her torso.

Other Eddie seems to take his studying as something else entirely, stepping into his line of sight and pointing a finger at him, “Don’t even think about it, Diaz.”

Eddie once again finds his hands in the air, “Wasn’t. Promise.”

He glares at Eddie a moment longer before Buck calls out an irritated, “Ed!”

Eddie can’t help it, he smirks at Other Eddie.

Other Eddie backs out of the locker room and finally turns toward the steps once he’s past the door. Eddie follows after him, thinking how odd it is to see himself from the outside like this. Does his right foot always pitch outward as he walks? Why has no one told him the black pleather of his belt is flaking off where it hits the back center loop of his pants? Has his ass always been this huge?

“Where’ve you two b— whoa!” A voice that’s so obviously Chimney’s sends another dose of relief through Eddie’s veins. At least one more normal one. “Who the hell…?”

“Chim, Hen, Cap, meet Eddie.” Buck says, gesturing to him with an excited smile on her face, “Eddie meet everyone!”

Everyone’s frozen. All three are staring at him in shock, and for a good few long seconds, there’s silence. Then, Chim barks out a laugh.

“Oh! Okay, yeah, sure.” He cackles, “Eddie– sorry– Edmundo, when were you going to tell us you had a twin brother?”

The Eddies look at each other, “A brother?”

“Let me guess,” Chim’s wheezing now, “You’re Edmundo, and you’re Eduardo.” he says, pointing at Other Eddie and Eddie in turn. “Oh this is good. Your parents must’ve hated you guys.”

“He’s not–” Other Eddie starts, Eddie cutting him off. “Yep! You caught us, Chim.”

That’s believable, right? Just a prank. Nothing supernatural or weird happening here.

“Oh don’t even,” Buck says, rolling her eyes, “Obviously he’s an Eddie from an alternate universe.”

Chim laughs again, “You can’t expect me to believe–”

“What’s your son’s name?” Cap asks suddenly.

“Christopher.” Both Eddies answer automatically.

There’s a pause. “You’re twins both named Eddie and you both named your son Christopher.” Hen says disbelievingly.

“Yes.” They answer at the same time as Buck says, “No! They’re the same Eddie! C’mon Chim, normally you’d be eating this up!”

“There’s no way–”

“How many times have you been shot?” Hen asks in the Eddies’ general direction.

“Four.” They say in unison.

“Prove it.” Hen says, crossing her arms and looking at Eddie pointedly.

“I’m not–” Eddie starts to say, then Buck pipes up, “Yeah, Prove it.”

All of the others in the loft look at her.

“What?” she asks defensively, “Can a woman not want to see her boyfriend shirtless? Two boyfriends at that?”

Other Eddie sighs, and Eddie manages to squeak out a “Boyfriend?”

The others turn to look at him like he’s the weird one. 

“Uh.. yeah? Are you not also dating your Buck?” Buck asks, confusion coloring her tone.

“No! Definitely not!”

A chorus of “Why?”s clatter into his ears. Buck’s has the audacity to sound almost heartbroken.

That’s why other him was so protective of this Buck. He’s dating Buck in this universe. She’s a she here, but still just as beau— Eddie shakes off the thought. It makes his head spin more.

…and if he’s being honest with himself, if the situation were reversed, he’d probably react the same way, keeping His Buck far away from the unknown other him in the room.

“Dios mio.” This is just like what Buck described. What he went through after the lightning. Maybe he really did concuss himself bad enough in the locker room earlier and he’s in a fucking coma. 

Eddie reaches across himself and pinches his own arm. Hard. “Ow..”

“Eddie?” Hen asks gently, her hand coming to rest on his shoulder. He can’t help but flinch at the touch.

Why isn’t he waking up? Shit, he should’ve asked Buck more about his own coma dream. Is there something he’s supposed to be doing? How does he get out?

“Hey, whoa, c’mon man, breathe.” He hears someone say. He tries to take a breath. 

God, he’s in a coma. He tripped on his own two feet and concussed himself on the cinderblock wall of the station locker room.

“Put him on the couch.”

He’s bleeding out on the tiles of the station showers. What a way to go indeed.

Landing on the couch punches a breath into his lungs, and he takes the following ones in greedily, coming back to himself after a while, watching the others chat softly around him.

“—and he was just there? How did he get here?”

“No idea.”

“Don’t know if he even knows.”

“You seem to be taking all this in stride, Eddie.” Hen says to Other Eddie. 

“Nothing to take.” He says, sipping on his coffee, “This is all just a very weird dream so I’m just going with it now.”

“Oh it is, is it?” Buck laughs, reaching forward to pinch the back of his arm.

He yelps and his coffee comes dangerously close to sloshing out all over his lap. “Dammit Buckley! Okay, okay! Not a dream!”

Buck snorts, then, “Why do you think he’s not dating Other Me?” Buck wonders aloud.

“Maybe you two aren’t friends in his universe.”

Hen snorts from beside him, “Yeah. Okay.”

“He’s a he.” Eddie manages to say.

“Oh he’s back, you okay?” Chim asks, turning to study him.

“It’s because he’s a he.” Eddie repeats, blinking over at this Buck.

“Because who’s a— oh.” Realization dawns on her face. “Wait, seriously?” 

She speeds over to sit on the coffee table in front of Eddie. “What’s he like? Is he tall? Does he still have my birthmark? What’s his name? I’m Eva, so maybe he’s a—”

“Evan.” Eddie says, “His name is Evan.”

“Evan.” Buck breathes.

“And yes, he’s tall, he’s got the same birthmark, same tattoos,” He makes a point to make eye contact. “Same eyes.”

Buck blushes a faint pink at that, and Other Eddie clocks it immediately, tsking at him sharply. “Watch it, pendejo.”

Eddie chuckles softly and Buck rolls her eyes. “Tell me more about him..” She goads, tapping Eddie’s leg and leaning forward with her elbows on her knees, hands clasped together.

She looks so earnest, so curious. Just as much a golden retriever as his Buck, so he does. Tells his team (and himself, and Girl Buck) all about a man they should know almost as well as themselves. 

Saying it’s bizarre is an understatement, but when This Buck starts telling him about herself, it’s nothing but bizarre. It’s fascinating.

Okay, yes, bizarre too, but mostly fascinating. 

This Buck’s got all the same stories and experiences down to a T. Even the whole Buck 1.0 thing is the same. All the way down to the Abby of it all.

“My Buck didn’t realize he was bi until Tommy.” Eddie says, “So weird to think you’ve known this whole time.”

Buck shrugs, “Sure made for a few fun stories.”

“Ha! Stories.” Chim laughs. 

Buck rolls her eyes. “It was only the once.”

“That you went onto a roof, yeah.” Cap teases. “Stealing the truck though…?”

“So what about you guys?” Eddie asks over a few more teasing giggles directed at Buck, “Did she hate your guts when you first got here too?” He asks, locking eyes with Other Eddie who just laughs and shakes his head fondly.

“Oh she despised me.”

“Did not!”

“Babe, you had steam coming out your ears almost the whole shift.”

Eddie looks over. Buck’s face is bright pink.

“Yeah, then you had to go and be all competent and shit with that grenade.” She grumbles.

They laugh at her expense, but she and Other Eddie continue on. A lot is the same. The tsunami, the lawsuit, the well, the shooting, the lightning… There’s a pause after that one, and Eddie is burning with questions; he got shot, yeah, but did this Buck save him the same way his did? Did he change his will? Did he count the seconds his Buck was dead? When did he decide he was in love with Eva Buckley?

But the lull is long enough that Chim asks, “So what happens now? How do you get back?”

“I don’t know,” Eddie says, rubbing a hand over the back of his head, ”I don’t even know how I got here in the first place. I was in the locker room and suddenly I wasn’t.”

“But did you do anything?” Buck asks, “Wish for something? Did you get struck by lightning, too? Wait.. did Evan– nevermind,” She cuts herself off, “Did you have a call to a weird hokey magic shop right before and the store owner cursed you?”

They all stare at her.

“What?”

“That’s… specific.” Hen says.

There’s a beat, then Buck says, quietly, “I read it in a Hotshots fanfiction.”

Eddie laughs along with the others, “No, no curse. I was just looking in the mirror there in the shower bay and then— well, something must’ve happened, I’m thinking this is a coma situation too, but—”

He’s cut off by the alarm going off above them. 

On instinct, he jumps up as dispatch calls out, “Ladder truck 118, residential kitchen fire reported at…”

Cap calls out, “Eddie, you’re man behind. See if you and… Eddie... can figure out how to get him back home. Buck, let’s go!”

Buck seems caught between the steps and her Eddie still standing by the island.

“Go, Buck.” Other Eddie says, “I’ll be here when you get back.”

Her gaze darts toward Eddie. “Hopefully I won’t be.” He jokes. 

She huffs, then rushes forward to kiss her Eddie goodbye. 

“Be safe.” He tells her. 

“Always,” she says back. She looks back at Eddie as she goes back to the stairs, “Bye Eds! Tell Evan I said hi!” 

Then she’s gone with the truck.

The tones are silent for maybe three seconds when Other Eddie asks aloud, “How long was yours gone?”

“Three minutes and seventeen seconds.” he recites, watching Other Eddie’s expression pinch momentarily.

“The shooting?”

Eddie nods. “My Buck pulled me under the truck then somehow got me into it. Next I knew, I was waking up in the hospital.”

“Eva did too,” Other Eddie says, then snorts, “I was going to say ‘I don’t know how she managed.’ but she and I have almost always been able to go toe-to-toe in the gym.”

Eddie chuckles, but lets his face fall not long after. “Shannon?”

He hears Other Eddie take in a breath. 

“Gone.” He says. “Car accident?”

“Yep.” Eddie says. “Eva?”

“Head over heels for her the first day I met her.” Eddie finally looks up at him. His face is somehow both tortured and smitten. “I thought I was such an ass for it. Married and falling for someone else as soon as she looked at me?” He shakes his head sardonically.

Eddie snorts. “So that was it, huh?”

“Thought it was just because she was a pretty face. Proximity and all that.” He goes on, “But then I needed to call Shan to help get Chris into his new school… I was so apprehensive about it that Buck offered to pretend to be Mrs. Diaz to get him in and…” He laughs, “Everyone thought it was so funny, Chim even said ‘They look similar enough.’ but I couldn’t. What if someone found out I was lying, what if–”

“What if they kicked Christopher out because of it.” Eddie finishes for him.

“Yeah.”

“So Shan came back, you tried to make it work with her, pregnancy scare, divorce, death?” It was so odd to lay it all out like that. So simple, so condensed, but this was him.

Other Eddie nods. “‘Bout covers it.”

A long pause. 

Eddie has to know.

“So which one was it?”

“Which one was what?”

“Which one did it for you? Made you ask her out?”

Other Eddie snorts. “You think I asked her?”

“Did you not?”

He shakes his head, smile playing at his lips. “She got me home to Pepa after the well collapsed, and not twelve hours later she was banging on the door and going through this whole speech about not knowing what’s going to happen tomorrow and that she had to tell me how she felt before something else happens and I kissed her. That was that.”

The well. That was years ago.

“Wow.”

“Yeah. So I guess neither of us actually asked but..” Other Eddie shrugs

“Chris?”

“Loves her. So damn much.”

“You gonna marry her?” 

It’s not really a question. Not even in Eddie’s mind. He barely phrases it as one. Of course he’s going to marry Eva Buckley. Other He is going to marry Eva Buckley.

But.

Eddie knows how not-so-great-a-husband he was the first time around, he wouldn’t blame Other Eddie for being hesitant.

“I’m picking up Abuela’s ring from the jeweler after shift.”

So that answers that.

“The one Abuelo Edmundo gave her.” Eddie lets out a breath, watches Other Eddie’s face turn red (Does his face always get that red?) and decides to let him off the hook. “C’mon, let’s go see a locker room about a mirror.”

The mirror is just as unremarkable as it always is. Smudged to hell, chipped in the bottom right corner, a dick drawn in the upper left. Same as his universe.

“It looks like a mirror.” Other Eddie says, knocking on the glass of it.

“I don’t know what to tell you, man. It’s like I tripped through it last time. This is a dream afterall.” Eddie says, looking down at the tiled floor in front of the mirror. There’s a tile with a slightly thicker line of grout on the edge closest to him. He scuffs his boot against it and sure enough, there’s a lip there. “Huh.”

“So maybe you just need to fall into it again?”

He snorts, “So you can laugh at me when I eventually faceplant into it?”

Other Eddie shrugs. Eddie just shakes his head. “Well… Here goes nothing…”

He takes a breath, glances over at Other Eddie once more, then lifts his hands (just in case) and lets himself fall forward.

thank you to the beloved bestie @strawberryspence for helping me through this one and for beta-ing!!!

probably going to aim for weekly updates, so stay tuned and let me know what you think!!!

divider is from @strangergraphics!

next ->

[insaneaboutweewoo]

Going insane about Chris‘ first appearance on screen. His first lines are literally do you think dogs know they‘re dogs. And do they know we are people. Or do they just think we are taller, less hairier dogs who walk funny? Which Eddie never really answers because, obviously, and they both don’t know it yet but. That is a question for your other dad, Chris! Like, we never really see them get introduced so in my mind after the earthquake when Eddie ushers Chris into Buck‘s car he goes: hey buddy this is Buck. And Chris is like: Hey Buck! Do you think dogs know they‘re dogs? Because it‘s been on his mind all day and nobody at school really had a good answer for him either. And then Buck is like: Oh wow I love this child! 😍 Amazing kid you got there Eddie, he asks the right questions. Here is what I think about this complex problem…

[steddiebbang]

A Borrowing of Bones

Dream sharing and comes back wrong | E | 52k

Author: @neeka-noodle

Artist: @calxeria

Beta Reader: @oiveyzmir

Pairings: Steve Harrington/Eddie Munson

Characters: Steve Harrington, Eddie Munson, Robin Buckley, Dustin Henderson, Wayne Munson, The Party

Tags: Temporary Character Death, Secret Relationship, Body Horror, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Apocalypse, Comes Back Wrong, Dream Sharing, Soul Bond, Exploring the Upside Down, BAMF Steve Harrington, Cannibalism (Mild)

Trigger Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death

[Link to fic]  |  [Link to art]

↳ Keep reading below for a sneak peek!

In the end everyone is aware of this: nobody keeps any of what he has, and life is only a borrowing of bones A story in three acts Or: After Eddie’s death, Steve is lost. He hides his and Eddie’s past on and off relationship as he pours whatever is left of him into keeping his friends safe, and fighting the apocalypse that’s landed at their door. He avoids sleep, too terrified of what he will see, haunted and tormented by dreams of Eddie, dreams that feel all too real. He avoids them until he can’t anymore, wiling to accept anything of Eddie he can have as the world falls apart around him. When nothing is as it seems, Steve will find that the most horrific hells and the most beautiful hopes are two sides of the same coin. A lost boy returns, battle lines are drawn, and each player must fight a world that is older and stranger than they’d ever thought before.

[calxeria]

「 𝕿𝖍𝖊𝖗𝖊 𝖜𝖆𝖘 𝖆 𝖇𝖔𝖞 𝖎𝖓 𝕾𝖙𝖊𝖛𝖊 𝕳𝖆𝖗𝖗𝖎𝖓𝖌𝖙𝖔𝖓’𝖘 𝖜𝖔𝖔𝖉𝖘. 」

My piece for the 2025 @steddiebbang ❤️ A cover for @neeka-noodle's story A Borrowing of Bones.

Closeup under the cut!

[writer-in-theory]

There was a fire at Starcourt Mall, and Maggie Harrington had no idea where her son was.

News from Indiana typically didn't make the morning reel in Chicago, much less news from their quaint hometown of Hawkins. Maggie had grown up there just as her parents before her had, and nothing was ever so noteworthy as to hit the national newsroom. It was all new stoplights and the upcoming games of the Hawkins Tigers. There was nothing in their small town to garner the attention of the rest of the country.

Except for a mall fire that required not just local crews, but apparently was bad enough that the United States government got involved.

A fire at the mall where Steve worked.

A fire. Steve.

The first attempt to call the house phone went unanswered. The same was true for the second and third.

It wasn't until the fifth attempt that Maggie's hands shook so badly that the phone slipped from her grip completely.

Why wasn't Steve answering?

"Honey, we have to get back to Hawkins. Steve isn't answering the phone," Maggie said when her call to Robert's office phone was picked up. Even the secretary had sounded surprised when Maggie rang—everyone was aware that Robert Harrington was not bothered during his very important work days.

But this was no ordinary day. This was a day after a mall fire, and their Steve wasn't picking up the phone. He always picked up the phone when she called.

Even in the face of losing their everything, Robert managed to sound annoyed by Maggie's interruption of his workday. "He's probably passed out drunk with that Hagan boy again. I won't miss another important meeting over a hangover."

"But what if he was in the fi—"

"That ice cream shop of his doesn't stay open that late. Nothing in the mall does. He's fine, Maggie. You're overreacting, and we'll be able to laugh at this later."

Fifty minutes. That's how long Maggie managed to listen to Robert's advice before she threw clothes in the first bag she could find and hailed a taxi to the airport. It was the most disorganized plan she'd ever come up with in her life, but all she could think about was her Steve, trapped somewhere within the rubble remains of the building, unable to let anyone know he was still there.

That was the only explanation, the only reason she wouldn't have heard anything yet.

It's not until that afternoon that Maggie arrived in Hawkins. Though closer in miles, her mind still failed to focus on anything other than her son.

What if the worst had happened?

There was so much time missing. The moment Steve had been old enough to take care of himself for a weekend, Maggie had chosen to follow Robert along on all of his business trips. It was easier that way, to pretend as though he wouldn't be betraying her if she hadn't accompanied him. Besides, Steve had always been a good kid. He was fine on his own, always. He told them he never minded it, that it meant he could have a couple of friends over without worrying about keeping too quiet. It was better this way.

Somehow, along the way, a weekend turned into a long weekend, and then eventually a week. And, as their son approached adulthood, Maggie recalled more nights spent calling him to check on him versus being able to hear it straight from him in person. Even then, those calls slowly got shorter until she barely heard more from him than a quick "I'm fine, promise."

God, what she wouldn't give now for all of those years back. Maggie would throw all of it away for one swim meet, for one junior prom, or even one more family dinner spent without yelling about responsibilities and high expectations of the Harrington name. What the hell did a family legacy mean anymore, if it all lead to their Steve being in the mall when it burned down?

All she needed was for Steve to be anywhere but underneath the ruins of Starcourt Mall.

Except, the more Maggie Harrington looked for answers, the more it seemed to be headed for the worst.

Steve wasn't at the house. Nor did Tommy Hagan or Carol Perkins know where he was. In fact, they were quite clear that they never knew where he was nowadays, considering how he'd cut them out of his life entirely.

And that, well, that didn't sound like the Steve that Maggie knew at all. He'd been friends with the two of them his entire life, ever since Bruce Hagan and Robert had introduced their sons to each other as toddlers.

Maggie knew that Steve had a rough go of it after that poor girl went missing at one of his parties, but did that really warrant cutting off all of his friends?

The police station wasn't any help to Maggie, either, stating that there was too much chaos right now, given the recent loss of their chief, Jim Hopper. He'd been a rather brusque man, but he certainly didn't deserve the fate he'd been given. Maggie couldn't grieve for the man yet, though—not until the weight pressing against her chest was lifted. Not until she knew Steve was okay. Oddly enough, though, they did say there had been a handful of kids and some mall workers at the fire site. They didn't know who, though, just that they'd all said Chief Hopper had saved them.

Maggie spent the rest of the day moving from place to place in town, searching for anyone who might have seen her son. There was no one, though. Nothing could help her except for the one place she'd been trying all afternoon to avoid.

By the end of the day, there was no choice but to face the truth. Maggie approached Hawkins Memorial Hospital cautiously, eyes sweeping the lobby as if she might find her son sitting there waiting for someone else.

"How can I help you, ma'am?" the woman at the front desk asked. It wasn't until the third time she asked that Maggie registered the question and was able to force the words out of her mouth.

"Do you have a patient here by the name Steve Harrington?" The words tasted like ash on her tongue and felt heavy on her lips. Even still, she couldn't tell what she wanted the answer to be. A yes, and it meant her poor boy was hurt badly enough to be admitted. Yet, a no meant she still had no idea what happened to him, or if he actually was anywhere near the mall when the fire occurred.

For all she knew, Robert could have been right, and he was simply off nursing a bad hangover with his new friends that didn't include Tommy Hagan. What Maggie wouldn't give now for that to be true. She'd never yell at him for throwing his life away like this ever again if it meant he had a life. God, they'd been too hard on him, and now that could mean that he was here. Did they put their own son here?

"Yes, ma'am, we do. It looks like he was brought in last night by EMS. Are you family?"

The woman's words were simple, matter-of-fact, but hit Maggie's chest like solid blows.

Steve. EMS. Last night.

"Was he—was he in that mall fire?" Maggie's voice had never sounded so small, so unsure. "Is he alive? I need to see him."

"Are you a family member?"

"I'm his mother." Her voice cracked around the word as the tears she'd held back all day finally slipped from her eyes. Maggie Harrington did not break under any pressure placed on her shoulders, and certainly would never do so in public, and yet now she stood in the middle of the hospital lobby with fresh tears carving tracks down her face. "Why wasn't I informed of this? I am his mother, I should know when he gets hurt. I should know when he needs an ambulance, I should know when he's in a goddamn mall fire because I'm his mother! Why didn't I know?"

"Mrs. Harrington, please," the woman at the desk spoke, stern though revealing a hint of sympathy as she watched Maggie crack. "I understand you're upset, but his medical team followed his wishes. They called his emergency contact as soon as he was stabilized."

Stabilized, implying that at one time, Maggie's son had not been in stable condition. He could have died last night, and she wouldn't have known.

At this rate, Maggie was going to pass out in this hospital lobby.

"I didn't get any calls last night," Maggie insisted.

The front desk woman hesitated before clarifying, "We didn't call you last night, Mrs. Harrington. Steve Harrington's emergency contact is a Mrs. Sue Sinclair."

Sue Sinclair? Maggie ran through the other people in Hawkins, thinking through each of the parents she knew who had kids Steve's age. No one by the name of Sue Sinclair came to mind, so what the hell was this woman doing as Maggie's son's emergency contact?

"No, this must be a mistake. I've always been his emergency contact. I'm his mother."

Steve had gotten hurt, and it hadn't been her that he wanted to call. Maggie's stomach turned over and over in her abdomen, and though she hadn't eaten anything since seeing the news on her TV, she could feel the sick growing. What if something worse had happened? Would they have even thought to call her?

Would she have ever known if the Chicago news station hadn't thought to air the news?

"I'm sorry, Mrs. Harrington, it's all right here on file. But I can take you to see him if you'd like. You just have to promise me to be quiet; visiting hours are technically over already." The front desk woman was a saint. Maggie would never be able to thank her enough for this, didn't really have the words to anyway. So she nodded and followed silently through the halls of the hospital.

The entire walk was spent trying to prepare for the state of her son she was about to see. They hadn't told her much, only that he'd needed an ambulance ride and that he had in fact been in the fire. Maggie was expecting large swaths of painful burns to cover her son, or for him to be hooked up to countless machines doing the work of living for him.

Maggie Harrington's first thought when she saw him was that there had to be a mistake, because it didn't look like Steve was in a fire. It looked more like he'd been beaten, considering all the wrapped-up cuts and swollen bruises covering him. Steve was asleep, it looked like, though only IVs of what looked like fluids were connected to his arm and the monitor that emitted a gentle beep with every beat of his heart.

Steve was okay. He was hurt, but he wasn't burned beyond recognition. He was okay.

He also wasn't alone.

There was a little girl asleep on the little couch in the room, head in the lap of the woman who had to be her mother. Both she and the man next to her looked like they'd been woken up to be here, dressed in rumpled clothes and looking downright exhausted.

Maggie didn't recognize them, but they were here for her Steve, and that was good enough for her.

"Are you Steve's mom?" the woman asked after a few moments of Maggie standing in the hospital room without saying anything.

She longed to hold her boy, to wipe away the pain he must be feeling now, even as he slept. She couldn't move, though, couldn't do anything but stand in the doorway feeling more helpless than she ever had before.

"I'm sorry, yes, I am. Maggie," she introduced to the woman, glancing away from Steve for only a moment, to glance back at the woman. "Pardon me, but how do you know Steve?"

There wasn't anyone his age in sight, though she supposed one of his friends could have been hurt too. Wouldn't this family want to be with their own kid, though, if he were hurt too?

"We don't, not really but..." The woman sighed and picked the little girl's head up so she could stand. She walked closer enough to Maggie to hug her, gentle at first but tighter when Maggie leaned into it.

God, she'd been alone all day. No one had cared enough to hug her, but this woman had. Not even Maggie's husband could be here.

"Steve saved our little girl's life tonight," the woman said after pulling back enough to grip onto Maggie's elbows, as if to keep her standing. Only another mother who'd been here before would know she needed that strength right now. "Erica told us everything, how he'd sacrificed himself to get her out of that building safely."

Sacrificed. The word sent bile into Maggie's throat, but one look at her son safe in his hospital bed was enough to settle her fear.

"We've been wanting to speak to his parents, after last year," the man spoke, standing up and moving over to her too. "To thank you, for raising such a fine boy."

What? Maggie thought back to last year, trying to recall anything that had been out of the ordinary. They'd been traveling more, but Steve hadn't told them about anything happening.

"What happened last year?"

"He didn't tell you?" the woman seemed confused, and as surprised as she was.

"Steve was babysitting our son, Lucas, and all of his friends," the man explained. "Lucas told us about how he defended him against another boy, one who was...," the man paused, clearly too overcome with anger at the situation to say it aloud, "who was the exact sort of person we warn our kids about."

"We brought him here, too, back then," the woman was quick to reassure, but the words did nothing but settle something icy and cold in Maggie's chest. "We made sure he got the attention he needed. Steve told us he would call you to let you know he was okay, I assumed..."

"He didn't. He never told me," Maggie practically gasped, watching these two parents look upon her son so fondly. Steve hadn't even told her that he'd been in the hospital last year. These two people had been there when she wasn't.

She wasn't there.

Where had she and Robert gone so wrong that when their boy was in the hospital, it was this woman that he wanted to call first instead of them?

"You're Mrs. Sinclair, aren't you? The nurse outside told me you were called for him first."

"Please, it's Sue," the woman said. "This is my husband, Charles. Steve told us you have to travel for work a lot. When he asked us if we would be his emergency contact, he said it was because we were in town and could be here quicker. I assumed he was telling you all of this. I never wanted to impose..."

"Thank you," Maggie breathed out quickly, though the sharp pain in her chest never eased. "Thank you for being there for him. I'm glad Steve's had someone looking after him."

Even when she'd disappointed him, Steve had always defended her. Traveling for work, he'd told the Sinclairs, as if he didn't figure out the truth of why she always went on his father's business trips years ago.

A small noise from Steve halted the conversation. It was high-pitched and whining as he began to move about in the bed. He was in pain, Maggie realized with a startled gasp. Her son didn't wake up fully, though the noises only continued every once in a while.

"Aren't they giving him anything to help?" Maggie asked, sure she was looking a little wild-eyed at the Sinclairs when no one on staff came into the room to check on him. "He's in pain."

"I—" Sue began, though she cut herself off and looked to her husband as if for help.

The way the man's expression darkened considerably did nothing to ease Maggie's nerves.

"They won't tell us much about what happened," Charles started, voice low as though sharing a secret. "But we all know injuries like that don't happen from a fire."

Exactly like Maggie had thought when she'd first seen Steve.

"It's all strange. There was a man here, a Dr. Owens. He said he's from the federal government. He said—"

"What? What did he say?" Maggie pressed when Charles paused, looking at her with clear hesitation.

"He said they can't give Steve any pain medications right now. He was, Steve was drugged with something, some kind of experimental drug, and they don't know how anything will interact with it. There's nothing they can do to help him right now."

The only comfort Maggie had was that Charles and Sue Sinclair appeared as livid about the situation as she felt.

"Drugged?" Maggie gasped, looking between Charles and her son's unconscious form as if waiting for the admission that this was all some cruel joke.

It never came.

"So this Dr. Owens's story is that my son was drugged with some unknown drug and somehow ended up looking like he was beaten in a mall fire? That the federal government is interested in a simple mall fire? That's his story?"

Even as she spoke, Maggie could feel the rage building up in her, warming all of her limbs that she'd previously lost feeling to in the wake of seeing her son like this. How dare this man, this Dr. Owens, try to tell them such blatant lies? Did he think that they wouldn't care enough to search for the answers? Did he think that Maggie wouldn't go to the ends of the Earth to protect her son?

Dr. Owens had another thing coming if he did.

"Something strange is going on in this town," Sue agreed, looking back to where her little girl, Erica, slept soundly on the couch. "Erica wouldn't tell us anything, but obviously she knows what happened."

"You said you have a son, Lucas. Does he know what happened?"

"I think so," Sue said. "He and his friends were there. So were Nancy Wheeler and Jonathan Byers. They said the fire killed Chief Hopper too. I tried asking Joyce Byers what happened but she was acting strange too, just kept saying it was a fire. I don't even understand what they were all doing there at the mall after close anyway."

Joyce Byers. Maggie went to school with Joyce, and had felt terribly when she heard that her youngest had gone missing a couple of years ago. But if this woman knew what Maggie's son was involved in and wasn't saying anything?

"We deserve answers," Maggie stated then. "We need to know what happened to our kids."

"How do you suppose we do that?" Sue asked, looking back at first Erica and then Steve.

"We have to find this Dr. Owens, and we won't take no for an answer this time."

Maggie Harrington may not have done right by her son before. There may have been so much done wrong, so much that she missed, but she would not let this slide anymore. Not when the Sinclairs had done so much, and even still, they were given the same lies. Not when Steve had been drugged and beaten, and all he had to show for it was lying in a bed in pain because the only people who knew what happened refused to help.

Something sinister was happening in Hawkins.

The Sinclairs and Maggie Harrington would find out what.

[queer-scots-geordie-dyke]

It's a shocking indictment of how normalised and commonplace extreme antisemitism has become that a very famous and popular music artist, one with twice as many followers on one social media platform as there are Jews on the PLANET, can release a song PRAISING HITLER and using blatant Nazi imagery and it elicits barely more than a ripple of outrage from the mainstream, with shrugs and excuses like "yeah, but it's a banger though." I don't know how we come back from this.