A snippet from a future fic I'll probably never write, where Steve is a widower with two teenage kids, and he and Eddie randomly meet up, rekindling their old flame. This is when they've been together a while:
“Thank you,” Steve says, coming up behind Eddie at the bathroom sink.
Eddie pauses, catching Steve's eye in the mirror. “What for?” he asks, mouth foamy with toothpaste.
Steve slips his hands along Eddie's hips, hooks his chin over Eddie's shoulder. “For loving my kids.”
“You don't—” Toothpaste dribbles down Eddie's chin and he stoops to spit what's left in his mouth into the sink, gathering his hair to one side. He rinses his mouth out, wipes his face with a towel, then turns to Steve. “You don't have to thank me for that. Of course I love them.”
“Not everyone I've dated has.”
“They're idiots.” Eddie grabs the hem of Steve's shirt, pulling him close. “I mean, first of all, they're part of you, and I don't think I could love you and not love them. But...” He trails off, a small smile tilting his lips. “They're amazing kids.”
Pride swells in Steve's chest; he slides his arms around Eddie's waist and says, “They are.”
“And I'm pretty damn honored I get to be part of their lives,” Eddie says, “so thank you,” and he butts his head gently against Steve's.
Steve huffs and slides his hands up Eddie's back, pulling him into a tight embrace. “I love you.” He presses a kiss to Eddie's neck.
“I love you too.”
“And they both love you as well.”
Eddie lets out a shuddering breath. Steve knows how nervous Eddie was, when they started dating, that he wouldn't be welcomed, but it's almost like he's always been part of their family now. “Good to know,"”Eddie says.
Steve holds Eddie a little tighter. All those years ago, back in Hawkins, when they ended things, Steve thought he'd never see Eddie again. But here they are, together—a family—and Steve's never letting him go this time.
Thinking about a Steddie and Buckingham fic, where they're older and have kids* and everything has been normal for a really long time and then they take the kids somewhere on vacation and weird shit happens. Not Upside Down weird, but still not-of-this-world weird. And that's when their kids finally find out that their parents were once badass monster fighters
Started writing a fic where Eddie mentions he’s never got the big deal about kissing (spoiler: it’s because he’s only kissed girls) and Steve is like “idk maybe you’re a bad kisser ¯\_(ツ)_/¯” and Eddie can’t let that go and decides he needs an unbiased opinion (spoiler: it’s Steve and he’s not in the least unbiased, he just doesn’t know it yet) and then there is smooching and a little panicking
But now that I’ve written it out like that I’m not sure if I should finish it? XD
ETA: it’s finished!
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the
Organization for Transformative Works
Queenie!! Steve sees dead people for the WIP games please 💛
Yay, thank you! Here’s a silly little scene 👻
“Hey, Eddie.”
“Yeah?”
Steve pokes at the eggs on his plate, then shoves a forkful in his mouth. “Have you ever thought about showering with your shorts on?” He tries to ignore the indignant protest from Frankie, who has suddenly appeared through the wall.
Across the table, Eddie’s brows raise, and his lips tilt into an amused smile. “Not since high school.” He gulps some coffee. “Why?”
“No reason.” Steve moves the eggs around his plate. “Just… You might want to think about it.”
There are a few moments of silence before Eddie’s eyes light up and he says, “Oh… Do they watch?”
Steve squares his jaw. “One of them.” He drops his fork and looks at Eddie. “I only found out yesterday… Why do you look so pleased?”
“Dude!” Eddie grins. “We live with pervert ghosts!”
This has probably been done or thought of before and apologies if it has! But my brain gave me another idea and I had to share. Basically, this is kind of a Pushing Daisies fusion where Steve has Ned’s powers, but where everything else more or less happens as it does in canon. This is kind of a summary/outline, mostly of the backstory, that somehow ended up over 800 words lmao
Steve spent most of his life thinking of himself as an ordinary guy, in an ordinary town, where only ordinary things happen. If you pressed him for the weirdest thing that ever happened to him, he might have told you about the time he found a dead bird when he was a kid that came back to life when he touched it. As a kid, it seemed like a miracle. When he got older, he knew his mom was right—the bird was just stunned.
So, yeah, ordinary guy, ordinary town. And then it turns out the town is not so ordinary. Steve’s life gets really fucking un-ordinary when he fights a monster from a shadow dimension with Nancy Wheeler and Jonathan Byers. But he’s still ordinary. Yeah, he fought a monster, but that was a blip in an otherwise ordinary life.
And then the monsters come back. That’s when Steve finds out he’s not as ordinary as he thought. When he’s putting the dead demo dog in the Byers’ fridge (sorry, Mrs. Byers) he touches part of it and the thing comes back to life in his arms.
It must have been stunned, like that bird when he was a kid, or just maybe got a second wind because, in the confusion and chaos that ensues, he makes a grab for it, and the thing just falls to the floor. Stone cold dead.
If it wasn’t for Dustin Henderson, that’s exactly what Steve would have thought for the rest of his life. But Dustin saw the whole thing and he decides that Steve is some kind of miracle worker and he wants to experiment.
It takes a lot of convincing, but Steve gives in. He wishes he hadn’t. Because he finds out that, yeah, he can bring things back from the dead, but if they stay alive for more than a minute, something else dies. Something nearby and more or less equal. (So, a bird for a squirrel, a butterfly for a bee.)
And if he touches it a second time? Dead. Again. Forever.
So, Steve swears Dustin to secrecy and vows he’s never ever going to touch a person. If he can bring a bird back to life, but sacrifice a squirrel for it, what happens if it’s a person?
And he keeps the vow, though, thankfully, it’s not a hard vow to keep.
And then Eddie Munson dies.
Steve and Nancy and Robin find Dustin cradling Eddie in his arms and the bottom falls out of Steve’s stomach. The Upside Down starts going crazy and Vecna is still out there and they have to get out. But Dustin has a busted ankle and he won’t leave without Eddie and Nancy and Robin are trying to figure out how to get them all out and Dustin is saying, “Steve, please,” over and over and over.
And Steve tells them all to shut up and they do, surprisingly, staring at him. There’s no time so he tells Nancy and Robin to get Dustin out and they try to protest but he tells them again. Tells them to get as far away from the gate as possible. And, it’s a miracle, but they listen to him.
When they’re gone, Steve waits, and waits a little longer, and then he falls to his knees beside Eddie. There’s no one else in the Upside Down, no one else to be taken by the gift he’s going to give to Eddie, except maybe himself. But it wouldn’t work like that, would it?
He reaches out and he hesitates. What if it does take him? No. No, it wouldn’t.
And he reaches out again, saying “Sorry”, and he touches Eddie. There’s a little spark and Eddie gasps and he reaches for Steve and Steve jerks back. He tells Eddie he’ll explain later but he can’t touch Steve—not even the tiniest touch—and they have to get out. Eddie nods, goes along with it, stumbling to his feet.
They race back to the gate at Eddie’s with everything going crazy around them.
Steve sends Eddie through first and then it’s his turn. He makes it through the gate just in time to see it close up, which is weird, and then the earth shakes and there’s this booming and crashing and then…everything goes quiet. Also weird. But weird is par for the course these days.
Eventually, they make it to the others (who have a lot of questions Steve doesn’t know how to answer yet) and regroup and get cleaned up, preparing for the next fight. But they don’t know, yet, they don’t have to. There won’t be another fight.
Because Steve and Eddie weren’t alone in the Upside Down. Vecna was down there. And Eddie’s been alive again for more than a minute.
(Of course, that’s just the beginning. Eddie may be alive again but he’s a wanted man. As much as it sucks, it might be better for an alive again wanted man to play dead still for a while. So, he hides out at Steve’s grandparents’ cabin, which they conveniently never visit, and tries to figure out how to be alive again when he was barely dead. And he has to figure out how to deal with falling in love with Steve Harrington when he can never touch him.)
“I actually got you something,” Steve says, “but I left it in the car. Thought you might hate it.”
“What? No way! You could get me a Tiffany record and I’d love it because it’s from you.” Eddie flushes a little, but it’s worth it for the way Steve looks at him across the table.
“Well, that’s a relief,” Steve says, eyes twinkling in the candlelight. “Because I got you a Tiffany record.”
There’s a brief moment of confusion because Steve is so sincere and then Eddie barks out a laugh. “I ever tell you I love sarcastic men?”
23 was Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Peace by Cheap Trick
I feel like I’m cheating a little, here, because this is a snippet from a WIP (called Ain’t Even Done With the Night where Steve and Eddie go to a concert somewhere and then Steve wants to pick up a couple of girls when they go to a bar after and Eddie goes along with it because he just does—nothing really happens between them and the girls btw!!) that just happens to have this song on the ‘soundtrack’.
But I do think it fits the song? And I did write it just for this, so hopefully that counts!!!
“So…” Steve shifts, making the ancient mattress dip as he moves; the springs creak, echoed moments later through the wall from the bed in the adjoining room. Those springs are probably squeaking for a different reason though. “Are you going to see that chick again?”
Eddie glances over at Steve. There’s something guarded in the tone of his voice, and his face doesn’t give anything away either. “Maybe.”
“Cool.” Steve nods, pressing his lips together. “I mean, she gave you her address, and we’re not that far away, so it would be easy.”
“Yeah, she said we could be penpals.”
Steve huffs. “Is that what they’re calling it these days?”
“It would just be as friends,” Eddie says, cautiously, wondering at the bitterness in Steve’s voice. Or maybe he’s imagining it.
“Sure.”
“No, really.” Eddie’s brow furrows. “I’m not interested in her. She wasn’t interested in me.” He pauses, then adds, “Except as a friend.”
“Then why…” Steve shakes his head. “Why did you agree to go back to their place?”
“Because you wanted to.”
Steve blinks. “You’re saying you just went along with it because I wanted to?”
“Yeah. I didn’t want to ruin your night.” Eddie lets his head tip back, thunking against the wall. “Which I guess I did, anyway.”
“Dude. I told you—” A muscle in Steve’s jaw ticks. “Look, if I cared more about getting laid than I cared about you, I wouldn’t be here. I’d be back there with her.”
“Aww, shucks.” The beat of Eddie’s heart belies his teasing tone, and he’s glad Steve can’t hear it.
“I mean it. You don’t know…” Steve toys with the comforter. “You don’t know how much you…” He sighs, shaking his head.
“Steve?”
“Nothing, man.” Steve runs a hand over his face. Silence stretches out, punctuated by the continued creaks from the other room, now accompanied by grunts and moans, and the buzzing of the bare bulb, the traffic outside. “Look, I’m glad you’re feeling better and…” He sighs again. “We should probably get some sleep if we want to get back early.”
Eddie doesn’t say anything, just watches as Steve slips down, rolling over so his back is toward Eddie. There’s a churning in his stomach and, before he knows what he’s doing, he’s saying, “I wasn’t sick.”
“What?” Steve glances over his shoulder.
“I didn’t feel sick, back at the apartment.”
More creaks as Steve pushes himself up, sitting beside Eddie again. “Then what…”
“I just…” This is it, Munson. Now or never. Eddie draws in a deep breath and says, “I couldn’t be there, knowing you were with her.” He looks at Steve. “You know?”
“Did you like her?”
Eddie sighs. “Steve.”
Steve gives a little shakes of his head.
“C’mon, man,” Eddie says, hating the pleading tone in his voice, “don’t make me say it.”
There’s a sharp inhale of breath and then a soft, “Oh,” and Eddie’s chest goes tight and his stomach drops.
“Yeah…” The noise from the next room over stops; a door opens and closes down the hall. “Do you want me to get another room?” Eddie tries to keep his tone light, but he’s pretty sure he fails. Spectacularly.
“No.” Steve’s voice is certain, brooks no arguments, and when Eddie looks at him, he doesn’t see disgust or pity or anything except… Oh. Oh shit. “No,” Steve repeats, hand darting across the worn comforter, stopping short of grabbing Eddie’s, “I want you to stay,” and it’s all Eddie needs to hear.
Oh and I started writing the ace!Eddie fic I mentioned the other week. I have the first part drafted and it could stand on its own but it would be very bittersweet and that’s not entirely my jam, so I’ve planned a second part and need at least a third.
I’m just trying to reconcile how I usually write Steve with the Steve I want in this fic (sexual compatibility is very important to me so he’s not how I usually see Steve for that to work) and I’m not 100% I can make it feel right to me but fingers crossed!
