well, this ended up being the prompt i used for a 20 minute writing sprint, so heeereee you go, friend 🥰 (yes i know this is from AGES ago but better late than never)
A bruise on the inner thigh. That’s all it is. But Eddie can’t stop staring at it, for some reason. They're in gym class and Steve is sitting, legs crossed, on the gym floor, stretching his legs and his shorts have ridden up enough that Eddie can see the light purple mark peeking through.
He’s so curious about it he feels like he’s going a little crazy.
Did Steve walk into something? Did some girl press her thumb into the spot a little too hard, make him flinch from the pain? Or did Steve somehow give it to himself, press a finger to the spot until the bruise formed.
Eddie can’t stop looking at it. Feels like the bruise is imprinted on his eyes. He finally tears his eyes away and sees Steve looking at him, saw where his eyes were. Eddie knows his ears are turning red and he slowly turns away, tries not to move too quick because that shows guilt, and he doesn’t have anything to be guilty about. It’s a bruise. It’s Steve’s leg. That's it.
Why can’t he look?
Months later, he sees another bruise on the side of Steve’s neck. This one is a little more obvious to pinpoint the origin of - it’s a hickey, so that means the girl had her lips pressed to the soft skin, nose brushing the cute little hairs at the back of his neck. Pink tongue pressed to the skin, biting down. Eddie wonders if Steve swears under his breath when that happens, or if he grunts low like it doesn’t really bother him. Or maybe he doesn’t make a sound at all. Maybe he just grabs her thighs and pulls her against him, ignores her sucking on his neck.
Usually, people seem to be a little self conscious of hickeys. Eddie doesn’t know, he’s never had one, but he’s seen people wearing light scarves in the middle of summer, he’s seen makeup carefully applied overtop. He’s seen popped collars. But Steve wears his shirt like normal, doesn’t seem to be aware of the evidence sitting on his neck. Or if he is, he doesn't care. Eddie sits behind him in class, can’t stop staring.
He wonders what it would be like to suck on Steve Harrington’s skin. If his cologne would smell better at that distance, or if it would be cloying and bitter on his tongue.
Steve turns, catches Eddie looking. Like he knew Eddie’s eyes were digging into the back of his neck, pressing their own mark into his soft skin.
Eddie looks away, looks at the paper on his desk, pretends he doesn’t see Steve at all.
In the Upside Down, Steve is covered in bruises. All over. Eddie has some matching ones as well, but it’s nothing like Steve’s. Knees bruised from being pulled along the ground, arms covered. Elbows, shoulders. Mottled and dark. Eddie wonders if he's always bruised so easily. Can't stop staring at the one on his chin.
In the hospital, Eddie looks down at his arms. He has bruises but they don’t match Steve's anymore. They’re small rings of purple and green skin, bruising around needles that are inserted into his veins. Needles with painkillers, and more. More things that Eddie can never remember the name of, just knows that it's the good stuff.
The bruising around his mouth is finally disappearing, the bruising from the tube that was down his throat when he wasn’t awake enough to feed himself, couldn’t quite breathe on his own.
Steve is sitting beside his hospital bed, hand draped over the side. His bruises have mostly faded, and that’s how Eddie knows just how much time has passed. Steve smiles, small, when he sees Eddie is awake and Eddie feels the betrayal of the heart monitor machine as it picks up, the telltale beeps getting closer and closer together.
“Someone’s finally awake.”
“I’ve been awake for a while.” Eddie mutters, tries to sit up. Steve half-stands like he’s going to help but Eddie just gets up on his own, breathes heavy when he leans back.
“Ow.”
“Yeah, ow.” Steve laughs, and his fingers brush against Eddie’s wrist that’s trapped against the bed. His arm doesn’t want to work anymore, the nerves apparently too damaged to do much else other than rest right now.
Maybe it’s Eddie’s heart that’s a little bruised. That’s the only explanation he has for the pain he feels when Steve leaves after a few minutes, says he’s sorry that he has to go so soon. Eddie smiles, feels weak as he does it, says Bye softly to Steve’s back as he leaves the room. Then he closes his eyes and feels the familiar dripdripdrip back into his veins, falls into a weird sleep where Steve is covered head to toe in bruises and Eddie has a cloth, washes his skin, washes all the bruises away.
Months later, Eddie falls in physical therapy. He’s trying to train his legs to do the things they were so good at before - walking, running. He can manage several shaky steps before he has to cling onto the railing, but on this one day, he misses and his therapist barely catches him in time, arm bumping painfully against the railing.
“Shit.” Eddie wants to cry, wants to feel like he’s getting better but he doesn’t know how to do that here, has never had to do this before. Feels so frustrated with himself that he may as well be one giant bruise.
The bruise by his elbow forms quickly. His skin is pale, he never goes outside anymore, and the purple is harsh against it.
Steve who visits, brings Eddie lunch, points it out. “You okay?”
“I fell the other day.” Eddie says, pulls his sandwich toward himself with his other hand. “It’s not a big deal, just a little mishap during therapy.”
“Jeez.” Steve chews, swallows. “That sounds painful.”
“Little bit.”
He’s used to it, Eddie thinks. He’s used to not getting things quite right.
When he’s back home, Steve visits. Eddie is glad, was a little worried he’d never see Steve again once he was out of the hospital. Wasn’t quite sure if Steve was visiting out of a sense of obligation or if he wanted to see Eddie, see him for real.
Steve shows up and immediately picks up Eddie’s hand, sees the small oval bruise on his wrist. “What happened?”
Eddie knows Steve is worried about Eddie doing something stupid, about Eddie picking up a needle. He wants to explain to Steve that that’s not what the hell track marks look like, that those would be up on the soft part of his arm.
“From my guitar. The neck.” Eddie gestures with his hands, how he holds his guitar. “It’s been a while, I forgot that it hurts like hell.”
“Oh.” Steve doesn’t drop his hand, just holds his wrist up closer to his face like he’s inspecting it. “Good. I thought - never mind.”
“I’m fine, Steve.” Eddie says, tries not to let the frustration seep through. And Steve knows it because Steve sort of knows him best now. And maybe he sees the Eddie is feeling uncomfortable in his own skin, tender and unsure. Because Steve slowly raises his hand up to his mouth, presses his lips to the bruise on the inside of his wrist. Makes Eddie’s breath catch as he watches, feels Steve’s breath float across the sensitive skin.
“What’re you doing?” Eddie whispers, but Steve’s eyes are closed and he’s just holding Eddie’s wrist to his mouth. Pulls it away, just to press it to the skin again, slightly higher up. Kisses, so softly, makes Eddie wonder how his heart can still possibly be so bruised when the rest of him has managed to heal. For the most part.
“I’m just glad you’re okay.” Steve says, and Eddie can feel the words against his skin. “Every day, I think about it. I’m so glad you’re here.”
“Me too.” Eddie says quietly, and when he pulls his wrist back toward himself, Steve doesn’t let go. Lets it be the link between them, uses it to pull himself close. Eddie’s on the couch and Steve puts all his weight on his arm, braces himself against the cushions. Slowly presses his lips to Eddie’s cheek, and then his lips.
“I’m so glad you’re here.” Steve says again, like he can’t quite believe it, and then his hand is cradling Eddie’s head and he’s leaning in, kissing him again. Doesn’t bruise him at all, holds him so gently that Eddie thinks he could heal a little faster, heal bit by bit, just like this.
I haven't finished METALHEAD yet (you'll know when I get back to reading cause I gotta leave a million reviews) but I think a part of why I was drawn to it was the title of the fic and series. What inspired them?
First I gotta say your comments make my whole day I am such a wreck and I read them over and over again. And this is such a great question that I wish I had a better answer for lol
The first installment of the series was originally just METALHEAD since I had hoped to touch on the music and the culture of music when I started out writing. Which sort of morphed into kind of a “thick skull nothing gets in there/refuses entry to better oneself” play on words when it became more about Eddie’s inner life and thought processes within that culture which is more background noise to the story itself. It was just going to be a one and done thing.
So when I ended up writing the second installment and the format of the piece itself changed dramatically, with some journalistic segments that I was MLA citing in the notes it started to make sense that I delineate the periods of time in each installment in a similar way - in relationship to the music the band makes during that time. The chapter names were always meant to be song titles even before the rename, so the pieces kind of came together serendipitously. I figured if Corroded Coffin recorded anything in the Hawkins years it’d be a demo tape to just get out there into the world and wouldn’t have named it - thus UNTITLED! The later installments kind of explain their own titles, or at least justify them.
Which are your fave steamy/explicit steddie fics or authors?
for fics, i just read the space between by p1013 (@p1013) earlier today and it was great. bed sharing, thigh fucking. horny steve, nervous eddie (one of my favourite dynamics that i don't see enough of!!).
seems to satisfy by peevee is fun. steve can't get hard, eddie helps out. i love shit like that lol.
for authors, Kostas (@kostaskostaskostashas) writes some really fun steddie fics (such as thickfreakness- steve gets facefucked in a grimy bathroom)
i need more though! feel free to throw any E-rated goodies into the replies.
intrigued about somewhere along the California coast 👀
OOH okay, so i just want to write steve teaching eddie how to swim!! i meant to work on this while it was still summer here so i could go to the ocean and do some on-the-ground research lol. but i got distracted and so now it sits in a half-finished state 😞 but. one day!
snippet:
Eddie nods, seems to be taking his advice and wades in further until he's up to his waist. "Fuck, fuck, fuck. It's cold. How are those demons over there swimming in this?"
"Those are children." Steve floats on his stomach, paddles over to Eddie. "Just float on your back."
"Easier said than done." But Eddie seems to be trying, is kneeling down and leaning back like he's folding. Steve holds out one hand as Eddie slips back, sending up a splash.
"Here - just, take my hand and-" Eddie is clinging to Steve more than expected, and Steve helps ease him onto his back. Keeps one hand on the low part of his back and steadies him as he floats.
"Jesus. People do this for fun? This is terrifying." Eddie has his eyes squeezed shut. "And it's salty."
Would you ever write... break up, no getting back together.
ooooh. i've been wanting to write a proper hate sex fic, so in that context, yes. but i think that's the only context because i like happy endings too much 💙
oh I really need to know more about the Halloween WIP after that snippet.
!!! lol this WIP has changed direction about 3 times now so I'm probably gonna struggle to describe it while hesitating to give too much away about it because it feels more plot heavy than my usual work and part of me wants to play some of the plot points close because of it. Lord knows if any of that will actually pay off if I finish this one but...
It exists as Volume 2 occurred in canon formatted like a pseudo-wildlife observation record/field guide of the changes Right Side Hawkins experiences mashed together with a character study focused on what does and doesn't change about someone at the end of the world - because I am, despite my best efforts, still me as a writer.
I am once again making myself suffer trying to write Steve POV (our conversation actually helping a lot in that regard) and some Come Back Wrong. I've been referring to it as Kas in my head, but I wouldn't say its necessarily a take on Kas that's typically found when searching the Kas!Eddie tag I just don't know what else to refer to it as.
And in the spirit of WIP Wednesday: wrote some new stuff
Thanks for the prompt! I got the WIP Game going while I have T-Rex arms for the week.
Gates aren’t, obviously, hard to find anymore. Not like nearly a year ago where it required a malfunctioning compass and enough strength to swim to the bottom of a lake. Gates are now an open wound through Hawkins, impossible to ignore and yet still difficult to access.
The government presence in Hawkins, which had been discreet at best over the last several years, has become overwhelming.
Department of Energy, EPA, Defense Department, Bureau of Environmental Enforcement, FBI, CIA, NIH. And that’s to say nothing of the local and state presence making a barricade of human bodies and scientific interest that present a brand new set of challenges in their interdimensional access - if they were still so inclined to access a single damn thing. Not when everything is oozing out to find them on their side.
okay my fave fic for the one scene thing: 'let it roll into the night'
OKAY WAIT i'm going to answer this one as well because i was just looking through my original notes and found the line that i knew was going to happen when they eventually got together.
and like. i swear, this line kept me going through all the pain of writing that fic (happy pain but still pain).
Eddie pushes Steve's hand into the mattress, holds him tight. Kisses below his ear, makes him forget his name.
💙💙 the RELIEF when i finally got to that point was tremendous.
(ask me about a fic and i'll tell you what scene/line inspired it)
