eddie never really hears mike talk about the music he likes. he knows dustin likes weird al, and that will inherited a love of grunge and indie stuff from jonathan. he knows lucas has a wide range of music tastes, a mix of influences from his friends and parents and team, with a particular ear for kate bush. but mike never really talks about music.
he listens, though, when eddie talks about music—and eddie talks about music a lot. rambling about metal vs punk vs rock vs grunge, ranking different bands and their albums. he’s also very loud with his complaints about the “top 40s bullshit” steve and robin play at family video. he’s got a lot to say, which mike usually just smiles at.
but then one week eddies got too much going on to dm, so mike agrees to run a side quest. eddie decides to come early and help mike set up, bringing him some pizza as a thank you for stepping in
but when he gets to the wheelers place, just at the top of the basement stairs, he hears there’s music blasting
and there’s a voice singing along: off key but very passionate, and so incredibly endearing eddie thinks he might actually physically melt
mike is downstairs absolutely belting along to foreigners “I want to know what love is”. eddie watches through a crack in the door as bambi legs mike wheeler does a clumsy little dance across the room to the verses. then mike, in his hellfire t-shirt and his black skinny jeans, all 5’11 of his baby punk self, draped head to toe is eddie’s metal influences, pauses everything he’s doing and holds his hands out to some invisible audience as he sings about his life of heartache and pain.
just as he sings about changing his lonely life, eddie throws the door open as wide as he can while still respecting karen wheeler’s home and bellows the chorus down the stairs
mike jumps, his cheeks redder than the demon on his shirt as he stutters out eddies name and scrambles to turn the music off
eddie laughs and saunters down the stairs. “aw, but i really do wanna know what love is!” he teases, ruffling mikes hair. “aren’t you gonna show me, wheeler? I know you can show me”
mike shoves him away grumbling, but his cheeks are still pink, and eddie doesn’t think he’ll get over how cute that little performance was for a while
he encourages mike to pick the music as they continue setting up. he even sorta likes a few of the songs that come on, even if what he mostly likes is learning something new about mike, seeing him having genuine fun, seeing him nodding his head to madonna as he flips through his notes
he makes a note to maybe stop shitting on pop music so much (around mike at least) and maybe even give some of it a fair listen
