Now people use the term Divine Counterpart meaning this is a soulmate who you have a soul contract with prior to coming into this life time where you both agree you will meet one day and potentially have more of a romantic relationship.
------------------------------
I will add to this that, at least from my understanding, it’s not simply someone you have a romantic relationship with. You can have a soulmate that you date in one lifetime and are related to in another and that is not a divine counterpart. Your divine counterpart is only ever potentially romantic. And you don’t exist together in every lifetime (meaning one of you may be alive and the other is not). The divine counterpart is the one you meet after you have learned a lot of lessons and done a lot of healing. To simplify things, it’s your ideal person and ideal relationship. That doesn’t mean everything falls into place and you don’t have to do work. Youi have to work to be ready to have a healthy relationship with that person and you have to put in the effort to maintain the relationship. But there is some reason the universe ultimately wants the two people together and, over your lifetimes, you try and get there.
There are probably others who know more than I do about this so maybe they can add to it.
Beyond the Battle - Chapter 7 - Stranger Things - Steddie
Beyond the Battle: Action & Consequence
Click here for All Posted Chapters
Summary: Steve hits things with a bat or gets hit depending on who you ask. He definitely does not have anything to do with the psychic stuff. That is El’s domain. However, as Vecna is defeated, the rules change.
Pairing: steddie (Steve Harrington/Eddie Munson)
Other Relationships: Steve & Robin, Steve & Dustin, Eddie & Dustin
Rating: Teen
A/N: Multi-chapter story, updated regularly. Honestly not sure how many chapters it will have yet because it's still a bit hand wavy in the middle, but definitely more than 12. Thank you to my beta for find my mistakes and to all those who read/like/reblog.💖 Follow #st:beyond-the-battle for updates.
Also on AO3
Chapter 7. Home Truths
By the time the doorbell went, Steve had some clean dry clothes and Eddie actually had some clothes, but they were both still wrapped in their blankets and Robin had made sandwiches. When both of them had inhaled what was put in front of them, she had made some more. Everyone had also migrated to the living room where it was warmer and there were more seats.
Steve did his best not to start at the sound of the bell because, after being stuffed with food and hot chocolate, Eddie had decided to doze on his shoulder. It was either an A+ avoidance technique or Eddie was still that tried, but Steve didn’t want to disturb him either way.
He was quite surprised when Will came straight in and sat down next to him on the couch.
“You too, huh,” Will said.
“Me too, you mean..?” Steve asked.
Will looked at the coffee table, held out his hand and narrowed his eyes. The ugly ashtray in the centre of the table slid towards him.
“Will,” Joyce chided gently as the kid wiped his nose with a Kleenex he pulled from his pocket.
“El’s been giving me some pointers. Didn’t think of raising the dead though,” Will told Steve with a smile, as if he wasn’t stressed about any of the situation at all.
“He wasn’t dead,” Steve protested in his own defence.
“Just kind of on the undead side,” Eddie muttered around a yawn. “Hey, Will the Wise, long time no see.”
“I didn’t know you two had met,” Steve said, because it was easier than anything else in his head.
“We met at the beginning of the school year, and Henderson and Wheeler have regaled me with many tales of their campaigns,” Eddie said. “Will would have been great for Hellfire if he hadn’t been called to adventures in California.”
“Oh yeah, forgot Starcourt was in July, but everyone was still here until October,” Steve realised.
“I feel it should be worrying that you can’t keep the dates of all your brushes with death straight in your head,” Eddie commented, sitting up and away from Steve.
He did his best not to feel bereft.
“Excuse me for being distracted by the end of the world,” Steve bitched back.
“Hi,” El said, coming to stand in front of him and dragging his thoughts back to the present.
She was looking at him with the wide-eyed stare she sometimes got when trying to puzzle things out. He used every trick he knew not to fidget.
“Hi, El,” Steve replied. “El this is Eddie, Eddie this is El, or do you prefer Jane now, sorry I keep forgetting.”
“I do not mind either from my friends,” El replied and gave him a smile. “Nice to meet you, Eddie.”
“Hi, Supergirl,” Eddie replied, “Steve filled me in on how you saved the world again. Nice to meet you too and I would like to offer my personal thanks for ending that bastard for good. I did not like being a minion.”
“You are welcome,” El said, “I do not think I would like being a minion either.”
Steve found himself smiling at the little exchange even though it was utterly bizarre. He caught Joyce and Hopper giving them all a look which he suspected reflected something of a similar reaction. Robin was rolling her eyes and he refused to look at the other three because he really didn’t want to know what Nancy was thinking.
“Steve,” El said with a serious little brow furrow, “could you tell me what happened with Eddie please?”
“Yeah, okay,” he said and did his best to put it all in order in his head. “It began right after they let us go home,” he started and proceeded to explain everything he could, as well as he could.
He wasn’t well versed in the whole psychic area, but he did his best to describe what had happened, at least mostly. At the mention of Eddie biting him there was a short pause for Eddie to demonstrate he no longer had fangs, but that was the only interruption. After that he also did his best to answer any questions El had. Robin also mentioned how suspiciously fast her cuts and bruises from the final battle had disappeared, at which point Steve had to admit that his bat bites and the road-rash on his back had also almost completely stopped hurting where they had been giving him trouble up to the final battle. Robin gave him yet another disapproving look for that. He may have failed to mention it before.
“Biokinesis,” El decided once he had finished speaking.
“Bio what now?” Steve asked.
“Biokinesis,” El repeated. “It is the ability to affect other living things. Like when I restarted Max’s heart.”
“And you think I did that to Eddie and Robin?” he asked.
“And yourself, but less so,” El replied with a nod.
“Trust you to forget to fix yourself, Dingus,” Robin commented.
“You used your own energy to boost and enhance Eddie and Robin’s healing abilities and undid what Henry had done to Eddie as well,” El said with perfect confidence.
“But I don’t have powers like you,” Steve said, because it didn’t make any sense.
“You did not use to,” El said, her thinking face firmly in place again, “but neither did Will. We think Henry chose Will in the beginning because he had latent abilities Henry could use, but they stayed mostly dormant when he was no longer possessed. Maybe you had them too, you just never realised.”
“You have taken enough punishment in the past to kill a lot of people,” Nancy added her two cents. “You always bounced back remarkably fast.”
Steve couldn’t help thinking of the comedowns he had experienced after every major event and how it always seemed to make him feel much better afterwards. He’d never healed himself completely, but he had to wonder if he’d been doing something on a less grand scale completely unconsciously.
“And what, the psychic blast at the end of the battle brought them out?” he asked, because he still wasn’t sure how to take it all.
“We think it connected us to El’s power, which blasted open whatever was dormant in us,” Will said from beside him.
“Well fuck,” Steve said, because he didn’t know what else to say.
He did manage to make El giggle at the naughty word, which was at least one plus.
~*~
Eddie didn’t seem to be able to keep his eyes open for more than about ten minutes at a time. Then again, what with the whole rebirth thing, Steve couldn’t exactly blame him. He was feeling a bit fuzzy on the edges himself, but since he had a house full of people he refused to just check out. The longer he was awake, the less shaky he was feeling, however, so that was one good thing.
Will, it turned out, was just as nonchalant about having powers as he had seemed over their first interaction. Of all things, it seemed to have boosted his confidence rather than anything else. In their preparations for the final confrontation with Vecna, Will had been quiet although resolute. He seemed calmer now. Steve couldn’t really fathom it because he was decidedly still freaking out. He could only speculate that Will’s past experiences with the psychic side of things gave the kid a very different outlook to him.
He had listened attentively as Will had explained how he had kind of suspected something after the whole El needing help incident and so, once he was no longer on a government base, had spent the better part of a day seeing if he could do anything to no luck. Then El had scared the hell out of him accidentally when he’d been concentrating and one of his paint pots had shot across the room.
“We were going to come and talk to you,” El assured him after Will’s story, “but we wanted to make sure Will was getting on okay first.”
“I probably wouldn’t have believed you,” he admitted, glancing over at where Eddie was curled up like a hibernating squirrel in the corner of the couch.
The sight made his heart beat a little faster for reasons he refused to dwell on, at least not yet. Denial was a wonderful thing and too many shocks in one day would not be good for him.
“So do you have all the same powers as El?” he asked, looking back to Will.
“We’re not sure,” Will admitted.
“All of us in the project had different strengths and weaknesses even though Papa wanted us all to be strong in some things,” El explained in a sagely tone. “Will will get stronger over time, like I have, but he might be better at some things than me, and not as good at others. I think the only one who was as good at biokenisis as you seem to be, Steve, was Henry.”
Steve’s mind flashed back to Max floating in the air, eyes misty and rolled back. It filled him with horror. A hand firmly taking hold of his own dragged him back to the present.
“You are nothing like him,” El said, looking him straight in the eye. “You heal, he destroyed.”
That did, however, spark one idea in his brain.
“Do you think I could help Max?” he asked as he made the mental connections.
Max might have been awake, but she was almost completely blind, and the doctors were still worried about the way her limbs were healing. They hadn’t been able to get all the details, but they knew that much.
“Definitely not yet,” Hopper said from where the man had been pretending not to be listening. “We need to have a long talk about your self-sacrificial tendencies.”
Steve hadn’t actually been thinking about right then, well at least not much.
“What Hop said,” Robin agreed and pinned him down with a glare.
Clearly, he was still in so much trouble with his best friend. It wasn’t even like he had done this one deliberately, well not until the last part anyway. Will had the audacity to give him a look, as if Will wouldn’t have been thinking exactly the same thing he was if the kid had been in his place. He wasn’t the only one with occasionally problematic instincts.
“Maybe,” was El’s informed opinion on the subject, “but Dad is right, not until you are stronger. You could hurt yourself and Max.”
“I didn’t mean right now,” he protested, but nobody seemed to believe him.
“When you are stronger, we should also see if you can do other things too,” El told him, and patted him on the leg.
Alright, so over the last couple of weeks I have been doing quite a few readings and it has been an amazing experience. I am eternally grateful to those of you who reached out! You made me feel more confident and I got to practice a lot.
I am no longer giving out free readings because I start school next week and you know between working a full time job and going to school I won’t be having too much time. But, I will say that I am still going to be doing readings and I promise that my prices will be reasonable and I will be able to look deeper and give you answers to all the specific questions you may have. Just message me if you have any more questions of if you want a reading!
On the side note: a lot of you asked me how do I do my readings or how does it work. I receive messages from your guides and I connect with you through a chord and that is when I see images and even feel things.There is something I really want you to understand about readings. They are used to give you insight and healing. I cannot stress that enough!!!!! It’s not about predicting the future at all! I may see an event coming up and I will obviously make you aware of it, but always keep in mind that the future is subjective to change. Things change and you can even make the future change. It is up to you to decide what to do with the information you receive. You are always allowed to ask questions about yourself or a situation you encounter yourself in, but please do not take your psychic for granted. Psychics give a very special service because we are connecting to you and we are trying to heal others through the messages we receive.
I am very happy with all the readings I did and all the people I met, If you ever just want to talk about anything just message me :) I enjoy getting to know all you!
Beyond the Battle - Chapter 8 - Stranger Things - Steddie
Beyond the Battle: Action & Consequence
Click here for All Posted Chapters
Summary: Steve hits things with a bat or gets hit depending on who you ask. He definitely does not have anything to do with the psychic stuff. That is El’s domain. However, as Vecna is defeated, the rules change.
Pairing: steddie (Steve Harrington/Eddie Munson)
Other Relationships: Steve & Robin, Steve & Dustin, Eddie & Dustin
Rating: Teen
A/N: Multi-chapter story, updated regularly. Honestly not sure how many chapters it will have yet because it's still a bit hand wavy in the middle, but definitely more than 12. Thank you to my beta for find my mistakes and to all those who read/like/reblog.💖 Follow #st:beyond-the-battle for updates.
Also on AO3
Chapter 8. What is Real?
Steve kept finding himself seeking out Eddie with his eyes. It felt like part of him was sure Eddie was going to disappear if he couldn’t see him. The whole morning was surreal. He still didn’t quite believe it. Any minute he was going to wake up and it was all going to turn out to be a crazy dream.
He had powers, well at least one power. He wasn’t supposed to have powers. He was the tank as he’d heard Dustin refer to him on more than one occasion. As he had told numerous people since the final battle, he hit things, he did not do the psychic stuff. The more he thought about it, the more totally insane it seemed.
If the evidence wasn’t napping on his couch, he would be positive it was a post-Vecna delusion.
Robin was being supportive by not chewing him out for failing to mention anything that had been going on while he slept for the past three days, but he could tell she was exasperated with him. It wasn’t his fault he found the whole situation inconceivable so had assumed it was all a dream.
“You okay, Steve?” Joyce asked, perching on the coffee table and giving him a small supportive smile. “You look a little spacey.”
“Trying to make myself believe this is actually happening,” he admitted.
“Oh, honey,” Joyce said, reaching out and patting his arm beneath his blanket, “is it one step too far?”
He nodded.
“Seems like the Upside Down has to go bigger every time, doesn’t it,” she added. “Never thought I’d have a superpowered kid, let alone two. If you can think of any pointers for dealing with superpowered teenage tantrums, I’d be really grateful.”
He found himself smiling, despite his deeper thoughts.
“Hate to admit it, but I’m considering some teenage tantrums myself,” he told her.
“Maybe you should all head down to the quarry, see who can throw around the biggest rocks,” Joyce suggested with only a smile.
“Don’t even know if I can do that part,” he said. “Sounds like fun though. Damn, if only I’d been able to do things like that while I was still playing basketball.”
“That’s the spirit,” Joyce said, patting his arm again. “And in the same vein, have you noticed your stomach’s been growling for the last five minutes?”
To prove the point something of a loud protest came from his midriff.
“Now I do,” he replied.
He’d been so focused on everything in his head, he hadn’t even noticed he was hungry again.
“Mind if I take over your kitchen?” Joyce asked. “I think there are going to be more hungry people too very shortly.”
“Oh, sorry, I didn’t think,” Steve said, going to stand up, “I can put something together.”
Joyce stood before he could and put a hand on each of his shoulders so he couldn’t even shuck off his blanket.
“Steve, you’re still pale as a ghost,” she told him gently. “Let me handle lunch, okay?”
“Don’t worry, Mrs Byers,” Robin said, plopping herself down on the couch, “I’ll sit on him if I have to.”
“We’ve fought the apocalypse together, Robin, are you ever going to call me Joyce?” Joyce replied with a smile.
“Sorry, Joyce,” Robin said with a grin, “force of habit.”
“I can carry you, you know,” Steve said, giving Robin a look.
“Then I will just ask El to help,” Robin replied and when El gave him a beaming smile from across the room where she and Will were talking about something, he knew he was defeated.
“Okay,” he gave in. “Thank you, Joyce. If you need any help finding anything, just let me know.”
Joyce gave him a much bigger smile for that, before she headed off to investigate his kitchen.
He was pretty sure Robin was going to remind him about looking after himself first, when the doorbell rang three times in quick succession and then a banging on the door interrupted them. Steve shared a look with Robin.
“Dustin,” they concluded at the same time.
“Make sure he’s out of sight,” Hopper said apparently having not heard them and indicating Eddie, before heading towards the front door.
Steve carefully threw his blanket over Eddie’s sleeping form so that only a shock of his dark brown hair was visible.
“Is everything okay?” Dustin’s voice carried into the room as soon as Hopper opened the door. “Did you find Steve? Why is no one answering their walkies? Why are there so many people here? Is something wrong?”
Dustin hobbled into the room still talking.
“Everything’s fine,” Robin said, standing up. “As you can see, we found Steve.”
“Wait, how did you get here?” Steve asked as Dustin limped towards him.
“I rode my bike,” Dustin replied. “Where were you?”
“Your ankle is still healing,” Steve said, “you were told not to use your bike for another two weeks. Sit down.”
He stood and shepherded Dustin onto the opposite end of the couch to Eddie.
“It only hurts a bit,” Dustin said, “and if certain people kept their walkies in easy reach, I wouldn’t have had to cycle all the way here.”
“Dustin, we’ve been busy,” Robin told him in no uncertain terms.
“Henderson, you are excessively loud,” Eddie said at almost the exact same time, pushing down the extra blanket.
The look on Dustin’s face might have been comical had it not been for the way he whispered, “Eddie.”
Dustin looked at Steve with wide, dazed eyes. Steve nodded.
“It’s really him,” he said, because he knew just what kind of unreality Dustin was feeling.
“You can check if you like,” Eddie said, pushing off his own blanket and vaguely opening his arms.
That was all the encouragement Dustin needed, throwing himself into the offered hug.
“You bastard, you died,” Dustin cried into Eddie shoulder.
“Sorry, didn’t mean to,” Eddie replied, clinging onto Dustin just as hard as Dustin was clinging to him as far as Steve could tell.
He was never going to admit it, but Steve felt tears prickling the back of his eyes. Holding it together through everything else had been second nature, but the way Dustin was reacting made it very hard.
“Wait,” Dustin said pulling back. “But how? Did we leave you and you were alive?”
There was panic in Dustin’s tone.
“No, no, Dustin,” Eddie said very quickly, “you weren’t wrong, I died. Vecna brought me back to do his dirty work, but then you guys ended him, so I got my mind back.”
“But the gates are closed,” Dustin said, frowning. “How did you get through.”
Eddie looked up.
“Steve pulled me through a gate in his pool,” Eddie said, giving him a smile, “right after he used his level twenty cleric powers to put me back together.”
Steve wasn’t sure of the terminology, but he could guess, and Dustin definitely got it. The kid turned confused, red rimmed eyes towards him.
“Huh?” was an unusually ineloquent question from Dustin.
“Will and Steve have powers now,” El said, coming to stand beside him. “Steve seems to be very good at biokinesis. We have not yet had a chance to see what else he can do.”
“I can do this,” Will said in his incredibly cheerful tone, holding out his hand and moving the ashtray again.
“That is so cool,” Dustin said and then looked excited. “So the Void stuff with El, that was both of you, not her?”
“Kind of,” Will answered. “We think El called and we answered.”
Steve just shrugged because he claimed no understanding of any of it.
“We have not had a chance to find out what else both of them can do,” El said. “It should be fun to find out.”
Doing his very best not to show just how much that idea did not sound like fun to him, Steve gave a tight smile.
“How did you know Eddie was alive?” Dustin asked turning all his attention to Steve.
“I didn’t,” he admitted.
“He thought it was a dream,” Robin put in, her tone just a little snarky.
“I didn’t know I had powers,” Steve protested. “How was I supposed to know it wasn’t just my subconscious?”
“It was the Void,” Nancy said unhelpfully.
“Which I had been to once and thought it was all El’s doing,” he defended himself. “How many times do I have to say it, I hit things with a bat, I do not do the psychic stuff. Am I the only one who thinks just about anyone else would be better at this than me?”
“Seemed pretty good at it to me,” Eddie said with a small smirk.
“Ugh,” he said, throwing his hands into the air, “I’m going to go and help Joyce with lunch.”
“She’s going to send you back,” Robin called after him, but he chose not to listen.
Joyce almost bodily ejected him, in a very polite way, five minutes later. At least Robin didn’t say ‘I told you so’.
He walked over and sat on the end of the couch he had vacated previously where Dustin was talking animatedly to Eddie, even though Steve was pretty sure Eddie was not really following. The way Eddie was blinking slowly and nodded at not quite the right times was kind of obvious. Keeping his eyes open seemed to be something of a struggle.
“Hey, Dustin,” Steve said, “how about we let Eddie go back to his nap. Rebirth is kind of hard on the body.”
“Oh shit, I’m sorry,” Dustin apologised, so miracles did sometimes happen.
“No worries, Dusty-Bun,” Eddie replied, “just having a little trouble staying awake at the moment.”
“Want a proper bed?” Steve offered. “My Mom and Dad’s room is just through that door.”
He pointed down the hallway.
“Kind of like being with everyone,” Eddie said after a moment, a spark of vulnerability in his eyes.
“Just thinking of your back,” Steve replied, playing it off as a joke, “but whatever you want.”
“Your couch is spectacularly comfortable,” Eddie replied, “so my back is deliriously happy.”
The way Eddie was already curling back up and closing his eyes was kind of adorable, but Steve wasn’t dwelling on that.
“So how does this healing work?” Dustin asked with his scientific investigation face firmly in place.
“I don’t know,” he replied, because he really didn’t. “With Eddie I wanted to, so I did. I was using dream logic at the time.”
“Then how did you heal me?” Robin asked. “I know when Dustin woke us up for lunch that first morning, I felt better than I had since the last time I got a good night’s sleep.”
“Um,” was as far as he got, but he did think about it, even as Dustin swung his legs into his lap.
“Sorry, it’s aching,” Dustin apologised, “you don’t mind, do you? Elevating it is the only thing that works.”
“Fine,” he said in his best bitchy tone, not that he was really bothered.
At some point Dustin had taken his shoes off and his ankle did look swollen.
“Back to my question,” Robin distracted him.
“Well, I remember just drifting and I had this whole mental image of a fire that I was feeding,” he said as he thought about it. “I didn’t know I was doing anything.”
“I think you healed me as well,” El piped up.
“What?” was the best he could do to that.
“I have been thinking about it,” El explained, “and I believe when we were in the Void, you healed me before Will led us out. I sensed something at the time, but I did not realise what it was. Now I think it was you.”
“Really?” he asked as he brought up the memory.
El nodded.
“When Papa started to train us, he would teach us to trust our instincts first, before bringing everything to a conscious level,” El revealed. “It seems your instincts lead you to heal above all else.”
“Mom mode activated,” Dustin said.
“Thank you, Henderson,” Steve said, giving the kid the best glare he could manage considering how his thoughts were spinning.
“You have been protecting all the kids since at least 84, Harrington,” Hopper put in from where he seemed to have taken up sentry duty in an armchair.
“Maybe it’s inbuilt, my dude,” Argyle suggested with a bright smile.
The guy looked stoned again, but when he had time to smoke Steve couldn’t have guessed. Steve kind of wished he had the soft cushion of a good joint right about then too.
“If it is, I wish someone would explain it to my higher brain,” he said, “because it makes no sense to me.”
“You will learn, and it will,” El promised him with a smile. “I will teach you.”
Steve couldn’t quite decide if that was comforting or terrifying. The things El could do were kind of scary. She had taken out an interdimensional madman with the power of her mind after all.
“The three musketeers,” Will said with a grin.
“I am not taking up fencing again for anyone,” Steve said. “My mom thought that would be really cool when I was eight, and I sucked.”
“You did fencing?” Robin asked with glee in her voice, and he realised his mistake instantly.
“My mom saw the movie, the one with Michael York and Richard Chamberlain, and thought it would be a great idea,” he said in a tone he hoped would put an end to the matter. “I proved her wrong very quickly.”
“Sword fighting might have been really useful in the Upside Down,” Dustin mused.
“I don’t think a Demogorgon stops when the buzzer goes off,” Steve countered.
“Bet you looked adorable in your little white outfit,” Robin teased him.
“I destroyed all photographic evidence,” he said, giving her a cool stare.
“Ooh,” Robin said, “another thing to add to the list for when I finally meet your mother.”
Steve knew he shouldn’t rise to the bait, but this was Robin, so of course he had to. The conversation devolved into swapping jibes back and forth as everyone else in the room who was awake, watched them like a tennis match. El seemed to find it especially fascinating.
“Are you sure you two aren’t married?” Hopper asked eventually.
“Perfectly,” Robin said with a grin. “Platonic with a capital P.”
Steve actually felt a lot calmer after their little exchange. Not exactly calm, calm, but better than before. This was why he loved Robin. She knew what he needed, even when he didn’t and she was a little mad at him.
“Platonic love is so cool, brochachos,” Argyle said.
“I still think they should be dating,” Dustin said with his usual stubbornness.
“Do you want to suddenly be sitting on the floor?” Steve asked with a cold smile.
“I’m just saying…” Dustin said.
“Then stop,” he countered.
“How’s Suzie?” Nancy asked and Steve sent her a look of thanks. “Did you manage to get through to her when you got home?”
That gained Dustin’s attention like a hawk on prey. Steve took the opportunity to sit back, rest his head on the couch cushion and just relax now that the conversation was not about him. He might have tuned out for a while.
“Lunch is ready, come and get it,” Joyce’s voice dragged him out of his mindless listening.
“Did I hear there’s food?” Eddie asked, sounding vaguely awake.
“Yep,” Dustin said, dragging his legs off Steve’s and standing up. “Well that’s one theory proved,” Dustin said as he shifted from one foot to the other.
“What?” Steve asked as he stood up as well.
“Healing is definitely instinctive for you,” Dustin said, patting him on the arm. “You fixed my ankle right up. Thanks, dude.”
Steve was left standing there with his mouth open as Dustin strode towards the kitchen. It only then occurred to him he had been sitting there with his hand on Dustin’s leg the entire time.
“Dustin,” Nancy said in a chiding tone, “running experiments on people without their express permission is unethical.”
“It wouldn’t have had the right parameters if Steve had known,” Dustin defended himself.
“He’s supposed to be resting, Doofus,” Robin all but growled. Honestly, Steve had no idea how to react, especially when Will handed him a Kleenex.
Beyond the Battle - Chapter 6 - Stranger Things - Steddie
Beyond the Battle: Action & Consequence
Click here for All Posted Chapters
Summary: Steve hits things with a bat or gets hit depending on who you ask. He definitely does not have anything to do with the psychic stuff. That is El’s domain. However, as Vecna is defeated, the rules change.
Pairing: steddie (Steve Harrington/Eddie Munson)
Other Relationships: Steve & Robin, Steve & Dustin, Eddie & Dustin
Rating: Teen
A/N: Multi-chapter story, updated regularly. Honestly not sure how many chapters it will have yet because it's still a bit hand wavy in the middle, but definitely more than 12. Thank you to my beta for find my mistakes and to all those who read/like/reblog.💖 Follow #st:beyond-the-battle for updates.
Also on AO3
Chapter 6. Waking World
Steve stood staring into his pool, unable to look away from the red glint at the bottom. He knew he should be picking up the phone or the walkie, letting someone know a gate was opening up again, but it was calling to him. His mind whispered impossible things. He could hear the voice asking for his help, Eddie’s voice.
It was so easy to step up to the edge and dive in, right down into the dark depths. Cold prickled across his skin, but it was like an afterthought. He could barely see without all the pool lights on, but the red glow drew him. There were no vines on this one, no remnants of Vecna, and he acted before he could change his mind. His arm disappeared into it right up to the shoulder until his flailing hand found something alive.
Acting on instinct rather than thought, he gripped it and pulled.
It was hard, ridiculously so, as if the gate did not want to give up what he was trying to pull through it, but he persisted. When a pale, limp hand finally appeared on his side, illuminated by the glow from the gate, he pulled even harder.
It didn’t feel like just a physical thing, either. The pull on his mind he had felt in his dreams with Eddie was replicated, only worse, and he could sense the energy being leeched from him far faster.
All he could compare it to was a birth, as he pulled and pulled, until finally, Eddie’s head and shoulders popped through the gate and the rest of him slid out like a baby from a birth canal, naked as the day he was born. Refusing to waste a second, Steve powered to the surface, treading water with Eddie’s limp form in his arms as he gasped in precious air.
The water around him began to froth, but he couldn’t look down to see what was happening. He also couldn’t climb the ladder with Eddie, he just didn’t have the strength left, so he swam to the side, using everything he had to push Eddie up and over it. He managed to get half of his burden up the first time and then boosted Eddie a second time, rolling him away from the edge.
All he could manage after that was clinging on to the side himself, eyes closed, panting with the exertion as the once still pool rippled and spluttered around him. It shouldn’t have exhausted him like it had, but there was nothing he could do about it. He didn’t even have enough strength to pull himself out of the water. He barely had enough to hang on, and that was fading. It was as if whatever was going on wasn’t quite finished and it was taking everything he had left.
He began to slip, and he couldn’t stop. There was blood in the water, he could just make it out under the lights from the house, and he was pretty sure it was his. To go through everything with the Upside Down and then drown in a pool would be a really shitty way to go.
Then, just when he thought he was going in, a hand came over the edge of the pool, snagging his wrist. It was his turn to be pulled as Eddie dragged him over the lip. He did his best to help, but it was more by luck than judgement that he ended up in a heap next to the other man.
“Thanks,” he slurred, only to be answered by a slightly hysterical laugh, but he was passing out, so he didn’t really care.
~*~
“Steve! Steve! Oh God, Steve, can you hear me?”
The frantic words and someone patting his face quite hard, dragged him back to consciousness. When he opened his eyes, it was way too bright, so he shut them again very quickly.
“Get him up,” he heard Nancy’s familiar voice instruct.
He didn’t have much say in the matter as he was sat up and someone wrapped him in something nice and warm. That’s when he realised, he was cold.
“Eddie?” he asked, opening his eyes again and squinting.
“Jon and Argyle are looking after Eddie,” Robin said from just in front of his face. “What have you been up to this time, Steve?”
“He was in my pool,” he said rather stupidly, but he couldn’t really be blamed since his brain was not firing on all cylinders.
“Eddie was dead, Steve, remember?” Robin asked him.
“Not dead anymore,” he replied.
“We noticed,” Nancy commented. “Let’s get them inside.”
With Robin on one side and, as it turned out, now Argyle on the other, Steve found himself hauled to his feet. He discovered he could just about hold himself up with help and the pair slowly walked him back to the house, one under each arm. They sat him on one of the chairs in the pool room and wrapped him back up in what was a nice fluffy blanket.
“Thanks,” he said, feeling a little more with it even though it was hard to keep his eyes open.
He watched as Nancy and Johnathan put Eddie on the other chair, also wrapped in a blanket and apparently mostly still out of it.
“Steve,” Robin said, crouching down so they were at eye level, “what happened?”
“I’ve been dreaming,” he said quietly, “of the Void. That’s where I saw Eddie.”
“Steve,” Nancy said, joining Robin and blocking his view of Eddie, which he didn’t really like, “you’ve been going to the Void, by yourself?”
“They were dreams,” he protested.
“The Void isn’t a dream,” Nancy said, studying him with one of her pinched little frowns, “it’s something else.”
“Felt like a dream,” he replied.
“What did you do when you found Eddie there?” Robin asked in a much gentler tone than Nancy.
“Vecna brought him back, but he was dying again,” Steve told her, “so I healed him.”
“You healed him?” Robin asked.
He nodded.
“How?”
“It was a dream. I wanted to so I did,” he replied. “I don’t know how. But then …” he trailed off for a moment, “then he was in my pool, and it wasn’t a dream anymore.”
“Holy fuck,” Nancy said, and he couldn’t help agreeing.
A dream was one thing, finding out that it was reality was completely another.
“How did I do that?” he asked, suddenly afraid of what it might mean.
“I’m calling Hopper and getting El over here,” Nancy decided while Steve had a mini-meltdown. “She’s the closest thing to an expert we have.”
“I think this situation is screaming for delicious chocolaty goodness,” Argyle decided. “Lovely and warm deliciousness in a mug.”
“Good idea,” Jonathan agreed.
“Everything you’ll need is in the first cupboard on the left and in the refrigerator,” Robin told their pot loving friend.
Steve was very glad when she didn’t offer to show him, because right at the moment, Robin was his anchor.
“How long were you out there?” she asked, perching on the chair next to him.
“Went out there about three, I think,” he replied vaguely forcing his brain to recall the numbers on the clock as he burrowed down into his blanket a bit more.
“Jesus, Steve, we’re not even in May yet. Now is not the weather to be lying outside half naked and drenched for seven hours,” Robin scolded him, even as she threw an arm around him and began rubbing his back. “If I hadn’t panicked and called Nancy when you didn’t answer the walkie, you’d still be out there.”
“Not like I planned that part,” he complained.
“Did you plan any part at all, Dingus?” Robin said, giving him one of her looks.
“Thought it was a dream, remember,” he said somewhat petulantly.
He was much happier now he could see Eddie again.
“Yeah, well all this is making me think all my cuts and bruises going away so quickly was more than a coincidence now,” she said, leaning into his side.
He didn’t know what to say to that, so he kept his mouth shut. The warmth from the blanket was helping him to wake up more, but it didn’t help with explanations. Some of the ideas floating around in the back of his brain scared him. When Eddie made a noise and finally lifted his head, Steve was very glad to have something else to focus on.
“Jesus Christ, Harrington Manor,” Eddie whispered, staring around in wonder.
“Hey, Eddie,” Johnathan said, putting a steadying hand on Eddie’s shoulder, “remember me from school? It’s Jon.”
“Byers,” Eddie said, “course I remember you. Did I really die, or have I been having an incredibly bad trip for what feels like weeks?”
“You really died,” Johnathan said in a sympathetic tone.
“And that means, Steve really put me back together and pulled me from there to here through a hole in reality in his pool and then nearly drowned,” Eddie said. “Holy fuck.”
Steve could see Robin glaring at him from the corner of his eye. He shrunk down a bit more into his blanket and hoped she wasn’t about to scold him again. Luckily for him, Argyle chose that moment to reappear with steaming mugs.
“Eddie, my dude,” Argyle said, “it’s nice to finally meet you. The gang told me so much about you after the pre-apocalypse apocalypse. You missed an awesome end of days.”
“Yeah, no, I was kind of on the other side for that,” Eddie said. “Don’t really remember much of it though, so I have that to be thankful for.”
“Yeah, I imagine that would have been a real bummer,” Argyle agreed and simply handed him a mug of hot chocolate.
Steve accepted his a few moments later and tried not to think too hard for a while.
“Hopper is bringing El, Joyce and Will,” Nancy said when she came back a few minutes after that.
