Stuck on Steddie and Stranger Things. Obsessed here and on AO3; my author name on AO3 is https://archiveofourown.org/users/Under_the_Starlight1 if anyone is interested. I love writing and reading about love, relationships, mysteries, intrigue, and yes…smut! 😂😊
first you gotta do the build up and then the actual fucking and the fucking is pretty easy but you never know how long the fucking should last, and eventually you're like "okay I'm tired of this" so the characters cum, but you're not done yet because you can't just end it at "he fucking nutted everywhere" you gotta keep going, and the characters have to chat a little or cry or think about how horrible they are or something and then you kinda don't know when to end that either so now you're 2k words in and you might have put too much self hatred and not enough sucking dick. so you wrap it up, and think well it's done now.
or sometimes you have it all perfect in your mind and you knock the whole thing out in 2 to 3 hours.
Discord is supposedly saying this is going to affect "only 10% of users", but I really don't believe them at all. It's always going to be way worse and affect more people than what they claim.
So in case anyone needs it:
After Discord announced plans to require age verification for all users, a free, HTML-based tool emerged that aims to bypass facial scans on
Content warning: Serial killers, spiked drink, sexual threat (she gets away I prommy), lots of death-by-werewolf hehe :3c
Anyways if I was in charge of Hollywood there would be a movie that starts off with a sexy chubby woman (the chubbiness is IMPORTANT) living her best life out to the bar with her gal pals, and while there she is hit on by an unreasonably hot man* (*conVENTIONALLY hot. it's IMPORTANT). They start chatting about a huge current news story: dismembered women keep getting found in the WOODS holy shit and always the night after the full moon so the press are calling it "the werewolf murders" BECAUSE it looks like there's claw marks on the bodies I scream I cry I move on with the story-
So Hot Guy is charming he's witty he's respectful. He asks to buy her a drink and she's kinda into it BUT she tells him she doesn't accept any drink that's handed to her by a stranger and he's like "Say less babe, what if we went up to the bartender together, you order your drink, I pay for it, my hands are never on the drink :)" and she's like hmm okay I can trust like that so they spend the night having flirty banter and eventually she looks around and realises her gal pals have left with their own little romances and she's like oh shit I better go, and he's like awh okay if you insist, at least let me buy you a shot for the road.
So he buys her a shot, and same deal again she gets it straight from the bartender bc our girl is SAVVY even though she is having fun with this guy. Anyway she goes to leave and within a few mins of stepping out into the cold wet air the world begins to spin, her legs give out, she's like wtf, no no no how the fuck is this happening, this can't be happening. And of course Hot Guy appears and he's like awh no babe you don't look so good here let me help you into a CAR GIRL HELP DO NOT GET IN THE CAR but she's confused and disoriented and there's a degree of trust built up between them and it's only when the car door closes that she realises it's already too late and passes out SCREAM
anyway she comes to in the middle of the woods and relax she hasn't been touched YET because there's suddenly 4 men around her (henceforth known as: The Pack) and they're all laughing about how big girls are SO desperate they're so easy to trick BLARGH they're spouting a bunch of general misogynist BULLSHIT about "high value males" and "the female brain" and they call themselves "the Pack" because YOU KNOW these fuckers live their whole life by that fallacious Alpha Male ideology ANYWAY obviously they are led by Hot Guy AND the Bartender is ONE OF THEM that's how her drink got spiked, she was watching the wrong man's hands!!
And they're like "haha don't worry we didn't do anything to you while you were out because it's only worth doing when you KNOW what we're doing to you >:)" PUKE they are basically a bunch of sick fuck serial killers who abduct women every full moon and then hunt them down in the woods THEY ARE THE WEREWOLF MURDERERS AAAAH anyway they're like "haha babe we'll give you a 10 minute headstart. You'll know we're coming after you when you hear us HOWL" 🤢 but these sad wimp shit heads are using high end hunting equipment including an infrared camera and night vision goggles they have NO respect for the art of the hunt I DIGRESS-
obviously our sexy chubby heroine runs for it but oh no she can't see in the dark, she's still wearing her cute but impractical heeled boots, she's still dizzy from the drugs and more importantly feeling like a worthless, pathetic FOOL for falling for Hot Guy and now she's going to get killed for it. Her heart is breaking with every step and then she hears them howling behind her and oh god, she's not gonna make it is she-
WHUMBLE TUMBLE she trips and tumbles down a ridge!! Our angel just can't catch a break and to make everything worse she lands in what is clearly some predator's den, full of old deer carcasses - and one FRESH carcass oh god something is growling at her from the darkness. With only the light of the full moon to see, she watches in horror as a dark shape advances on her. It must be a bear, she thinks, but then it rises on it's hind legs, and rises, and rises, and holy shit, what the fuck is that thing it's not a bear it's a FUCKING WEREWOLF
and then one member of The Pack catches up to her, and he's giddy with anticipation for what he wants to do to her, and he's the one with the night vision goggles and he stops laughing when he sees that... That THING next to her in the gorge, and he's like. What the fuck that can't be real. And in my movie we'd be cutting this between dark moonlit scenes and his night vision goggles of course, through which we'd get to see the werewolf's huge sexy teeth and eerie (sexy) glowing eyes and that the wolf is looking at HIM and this guy freaks the fuck out and tries to run but GUESS WHAT YOU SHOULDN'T DO BITCH. YOU SHOULDN'T RUN FROM A WEREWOLF because it launches at him and rips his fucking head off!!
And our heroine is like FUCK as if this night could get any worse now werewolves exist?!?! So she flees while the Wolf is busy with Pack Guy #1. Cut to: the other men in The Pack are regrouping, irate that Guy#1 got so far ahead of them because "He never shares 🙄" but ahead the guy with the infrared sensor is like "I see a big splatter of heat on the ground, he's finished her off without us that bastard!!" But lo and behold they get there and IT IS HE WHO IS SPLATTERED ACROSS THE GROUND!! The Pack are at first like wtf did this but they're all pieces of shit so they don't mourn their dead friend so much as lament the inconvenience of his death and assume a bear did it. Hot Guy is actually a little excited because he's never hunted a bear before and they have guns so, in his word, "we can mount a bitch and a bear in our trophy room tonight" and they leave Guy#1's body BUT they do take his night vision goggles.
Meanwhile the sexy beautiful apple of our eyes (Protagonist) has made it to a RIVER and she's like fuck it's cold but maybe I can follow the river downstream, there will be a town eventually right??? BUT who is right on her tail?? The werewolf of course! He's snarling and advancing in a mixture of animal curiosity and hostile territoriality and our darling beloved Protag is like FUCK I can't run I can only back away slowly oh god I'm going to die but JUST as the Wolf reaches her-
Howling! Those stupid shitfuck Alpha Bros are howling as a way to terrorize her so she knows they're closing in. But you know what that does to werewolf?? Immediately tells him who the REAL territorial threat is. The Pack burst through the trees to the river and Wolf wastes no time latching his teeth into one of them and ripping his throat open ( 🥵 ) and the Pack are like WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT THING and bang bang they SHOOT werewolf in the torso AAAH! He's not dead because the bullets aren't silver teehee but it HURTS and he's knocked into the river. Protag tries to run but they shoot at her too so with nowhere else to go she also jumps into the river SWIM BITCH SWIM
She and the Wolf are swept downriver in the rapid current, both gasping for breath between being dunked underwater. Protag manages to grab a hold of some logs to save herself. The Wolf tries to grab them too but oh NO he's too big and heavy and the water-rotted wood SNAPS and he continues swirling down the rapids. He manages to cling to a boulder in the center of the river and claw his way up for air, fast water frothing white around him, filling his mouth, trying to drag him under again.
Protag drags herself to the shore and breathlessly looks back, ready to run again as she hears the Pack howling in the distance. She sees the Wolf clawing desperately to life, and turns to leave him - but stops. She can't help herself. She looks back at him. The whites of his eyes are showing with their wide, confused panic. One hand is held tight to the boulder, the other flails desperately for some purchase. A high pitched, frightened whine pierces the air. He looks as afraid as she feels. He looks so HUMAN, so honest, so earnestly in need of someone's kindness. God, she HATES herself for being weak (*cough cough* NOT WEAK SHE'S FUCKING KIND!! but anyway *cough cough*)
She DRAGS a thick, sturdy branch to the riverside and feeds it into the water. She has to anchor herself in the deep, squelching mud to keep the branch (and herself!) from being yanked back into the current. The Wolf reaches with that helpless, human desperation. Monstrous hands close around the branch. She heaves, roaring with the effort to support his weight as he claws his way to shore. The howling is getting real close, now.
Once the werewolf can sink his paws into the mud, she abandons the branch and runs for the treeline. The two remaining Pack members are upon them now - but trapped on the wrong side of the river. They fire their gun at her. The Wolf launches a huge rock in their direction, which misses, but forces them to back off.
Protag runs for her life in the woods. She can hear the weight of the huge, loping animal behind her. She feels the shift in the air the moment before it makes impact. The Wolf tackles her from behind, bundling her into his arms while she kicks and shrieks in raw, animal defense. The Wolf, unable to contain the flurry of protesting limbs, throws her into the wet, sloppy mud and slams one of his heavy hand-paws down on her chest, pinning her down forcefully. He roars directly into her face, sharp teeth inches from soft skin, breath hot and rancid with the stench of dead deer. His message is very easy, even with the animal-language barrier: "SHUT THE FUCK UP."
Defeated, exhausted, and resigned to her fate, Protag goes limp. The Wolf half drags, half carries her across the forest floor. She accepts that she's just a slab of meat now - to both the Wolf, and the Pack. The drugs and the despair and the post-adrenaline crash all surge upon her in a wave of sudden sleepiness. She closes her bloodshot eyes.
She opens them to the muted daylight of an overcast morning, seeping through the mouth of a cave. Soft sounds alert her to the fact she is not alone: a nude man is hunched over in a corner beside her. Blood drips down his side. She shrieks and he jumps in surprise. She scrambles for the entrance to the cave - he grabs her and pulls her back. Shut up! He tells her, They're still out there! They're still looking for us!
She stops. Brain starts working. Realises where she is, what's happening, who THIS is. She shoves him away and accuses him of being the werewolf. He's like "uh. Ya. Who else were you expecting."
He's not thrilled about how he spent his full moon, either. He was shot several times in the arm and abdomen, and his accelerated healing means he's healed with one bullet still inside him. He's trying to dig it out. Horrified, but feeling obligated, Protag forces herself to help him. (It's an "EWW" moment, but also... A lil bit of an "awwh" moment ;3c )
In the quiet cave, reluctantly working together, they start to talk. She tells him who she is, who those guys are, what happened. He tells her he's a software engineer from the city. But yeah, also a werewolf. He's been using these woods for his full moons for his entire adult life. Recently, the so-called "werewolf murders" made him worry another wolf had moved into his territory - but now he realises it was these shithead men all along.
He tells her he'll help her get to the road, where she can flag down a car and get help, but she has to swear not to tell the world about his kind. She's like "Say less my guy, 1. I don't want a werewolf coming after me in vengeance, 2. who the fuck would believe me, they're probably not gonna believe me about these evil men either". He's like Well, don't freak out or anything, but I am 100% going to kill those guys. They've defiled my woods. They've perverted the air they breathe. And if I don't kill them, they're just gonna keep coming back here with more victims. She's like (*the following dialogue is expressed through facial expressions ONLY, no words) "Okay why is it so unbelievably sexy to hear this weird naked wolfman say he's going to kill those guys. I think he's actually quite fuckable suddenly."
Oh how they bond over extracting that bullet and the dire circumstances they find themselves in! His clothes are safely stashed on the other side of the woods, oh bother. The audience will just have to enjoy hairy burly naked man as Wolf and Protag trek to the road 😇
They walk, they talk, they have real romantic chemistry - but they are principally focused on the task at hand (not dying). They almost make it to the road, when they hear men's voices nearby. They duck into the hollow made by a fallen tree's roots.
It's Hot Guy and Pack Guy#3, the two surviving bad guys. They are using the infrared camera to track our heroes!! Those shitheads!! There's latent heat on the leaf litter and a few trees that were touched. Fuck!
By a small miracle, Wolf notices a doe grazing about two hundred meters away. He throws a pebble to startle her, and she takes off into the brush. The infrared camera only sees a flash of heat sprinting into the trees and the Pack take off after it. Wolf and Protag run the opposite direction, forced to abandon their way to the road as they would be too exposed in the thinning trees.
Instead, they make it to a disused ranger station that Wolf knows about. He manages to change into some shorts there (tragic) and they use the rain water tanks to wash the blood and mud off themselves. Forced to wait inside until nightfall, the pair finally begin to open up to one another (they both have trust issues for OBVIOUS reasons).
Protag asks if Wolf will recognise her when he transforms that night. He's like "Um, ya. The hollywood stereotypes that we're all these deranged, rapacious monsters is really hurtful actually. It's true I don't have my human decorum when I change, but I'm no more a monster than any real wolf. I hunt to eat, I kill if threatened. I'm not some unstoppable bloodlust predator, I'm just a fucking wolf."
She jokes that she could teach him some commands. Sit, stay, roll over, Good Boy. He BLUSHES (teehee). Their conversation turns a little flirtatious, in a "we both might die tonight" kind of way. He jests that he'd kill anyone who tried to put a collar on him, but... He MIGHT just make an exception, for a beautiful, resilient, ferocious woman. You know where this is going. THEY FUCK NASTY. Use your imagination and make it whatever you want :) In my mind she rides him hard until he's brainless and begging, and then animal instinct takes over and he rolls them over and fucks her into the bed until it breaks. But you can make it whatever you want :)
ANYWAY. In the quiet, cuddling aftermath, they both agree that it's Us or Them. There's one way out of these woods, and that's killing the Pack.
Night comes. The moon rises. Painful Wolf transformation. Awh he's a big scawy pubby :) Dressed in Wolf's improvised shorts and her dress from the night before, Protag leaves the cabin with Werewolf by her side.
They start a firepit to lure the Pack in, hoping to use the infrared camera against them. It works. While Wolf is monitoring their make-shift perimeter, Guy#3 sneaks up and manages to get to Protag. A bloody, violent fight ensues. She's armed only with a burning torch she made out of a branch, tree sap and leaf litter. He's got a gun - but he's too arrogant to use it. He wants to have FUN with her, first. He describes what he's done to all the other women they brought the woods. He laughs at how gullible she was, how desperate for a "high value man" to want her that she didn't see the OBVIOUS trap. Despite a commendable struggle, Protag is overpowered. Guy#3 gets her on the ground and takes out a large knife, taunting her over just HOW he plans to use it on her, when-
CRUNCH. Wolf arrives and rips his fucking head off, babay!! In a literal way. His clawed hands sink into Guy#3's throat, and with a violent jerk upwards, he tears the head from its shoulders. Poor Protag is showered with blood (but in a sexy movie way).
But alas!! T'was an OBVIOUS trap all along! The King Shithead, Hot Guy, knowingly sent his friend in first to lure Wolf out into the open. He shoots Wolf in the back, again and again and again and again, until poor Wolf collapses in a wheezing lump on the floor. Protag screams in horror, but there's nothing she can do.
She lunges at Hot Guy, and the final scrap for survival begins. He's out of bullets, but he has physical strength on his side; he's bigger and stronger than she is. He beats her to the ground, but - Protag grabs Guy#3's knife and stabs Hot Guy through the knee!! A total wuss for pain, he backs off immediately - but Protag isn't done, she isn't about to let this snake slink away into the shadows. She charges him, stabbing him in the groin, the stomach, the chest. She's more wolf than woman, now. She looks him in the eyes, and tells him "It's only worth doing when you KNOW what I'm doing to you," and stabs him straight in the heart. He is dead.
Exhausted and wounded, she crawls to where Wolf lies motionless by the fire. She strokes his fur and tells him everything is going to be okay. Over the trees, she watches the sky turning orange with dawn.
ONE MONTH LATER. Protag, still sporting some bandages from her ordeal, gets ready in her apartment for another night out, just as she did at the beginning. She texts her gal pals to say she'll meet them at the bar. All appears to be as it was before.
She leaves her bathroom, freshly made up, and stops in at her kitchen, asking "Are you all ready for the night, love?"
Wolf is in the kitchen, packing himself water, snacks, and a change of shorts. He wraps her in a huge hug, lifting her off the ground and peppering her face with kisses. He'll miss her for the full moon, he says, but he's glad she's going out with her girls. When he gets back in the morning, they'll have a lazy day together. She kisses him back fondly and calls him a good boy ;3 As they part ways, the news broadcast on the TV mentions the discovery of some remains - four men who were reported missing last month, now suspect to be the victims of a freak animal attack. The Reporter jokes about how maybe, they should take the "werewolf killer" a little more seriously. Protag turns the tv OFF.
Hello Steddie community… desperately trying to find the fic where everyone reunites years after S4 (I believe because Hopper is sick) and Eddie is a rockstar and he and Steve get together. If yall know of anything PLEASE drop a comment.
The neon hum of the interstate faded into the thick, humid dark of the Louisiana delta, leaving the frozen ashes of Indiana behind. To mortal authorities, Steve Harrington was a grieving runaway, and Dr. Eddie Munson was a name etched onto a cold coroner’s file. But inside the sanctuary of the Mach 1, reality was bleeding through the cracks. Steve’s transformation fever was climbing, his system caught in a grueling stasis between the human world and the predatory, golden-tinted instinct waking up in his veins.
New Orleans was supposed to be a safe haven—the ancient, decadent nest of Julian, a French aristocrat ruling the city’s underground blood trade since Spanish rule, and Wayne Munson’s old brother-in-arms from the brutal Southern Vampire Wars. Instead, the Crescent City is a powder keg.
A ruthless warlord from the disbanded Vampire Council days has risen, breeding an army of feral nomadic covens to execute a bloody coup for control of the entire American South, breaking ancient laws to slaughter at will. Together with Julian and Wayne’s help, Eddie and a transitioning Steve are pulled straight into the trenches of a vicious supernatural turf war to protect the humans.
Words: 5132, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English
Series: Part 2 of Bound to the Dark Chronicles
Fandoms: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Categories: M/M
Characters: Eddie Munson, Steve Harrington, Wayne Munson, Robin Buckley, Original Female Character(s), Original Male Character(s)
Relationships: Steve Harrington/Eddie Munson
Additional Tags: New Orleans, Vampires, War, Blood Drinking, Blood and Gore, Mating Bond, Mating Bites, Blood and Violence, Long-Distance Friendship
It's so wild being in online spaces, where by and large generative AI/ChatGPT are generally held in fairly low opinion, then interacting with people IRL and hearing casual statements like
"I use it every day." (Don't??)
"Kids are behind if they aren't using it." (UM.)
"I had a conversation with ChatGPT about..." (NO YOU DIDN'T-)
One of my high school kids’ teachers admitted they ONLY use Chat GPT to respond to emails. Including emails from concerned parents. I was livid when I found that out. No wonder her emails “sounded” weird and sometimes didn’t make sense.
I was thinkin about lifeguard Steve and the way the pool was on Jason's list of places Eddie might be and then this happened. Not sure when it takes place. Eddie's hair is around his shoulders so maybe s2-ish? Pop it into canon wherever you'd like my dears!
Steve's been a lifeguard at the pool for a few years now. Maybe trained for it when he was a freshman. And he.... idley knows that Eddie Munson deals in the small patch of woods behind the pool. Everyone knows that. Or at least, anyone who buys drugs.
Steve had gotten pot from him once. But not behind the pool. Didn't wanna risk getting caught and losing his job. Because yeah, the kids can get a bit roudy, but he genuinely likes being there to help people if, and when, they need it.
The thing is. He sees Eddie pop in sometimes. He wanders in. Looking skiddish when it's overly crowed. Steve watches him, every time he comes in. Not because he's suspicious, or thinks Eddie's gonna do anything. But because sometime he feels the way Eddie looks in crowds. And it makes him feel better to watch him. To look out for him. Even if Eddie doesn't know he's doing it.
And he sees Eddie look at him sometimes. Squinting through the sun and his bangs, his feet dangling in the water as he tries to cool off without getting all the way in the water. His hair is just above his shoulders. Getting longer every year.
Steve tries not to think about how much he wants to tuck it behind Eddie's ears for him, wonders if Eddie would follow him into the janitors closet at school if he asked. If he left a note in his locker. Wonders if he'd just think Steve wants weed from him. Like last time. And not that Steve wants him.
Because Steve can't want that. That's what everyone says. But he watches Eddie smile at a little girl in a bright pink floaty. Her mother smiling too when the little girl leans forward, makes bubbles with her mouth at Eddie. And Eddie wiggles his fingers back at her, nudges her floaty with his toe genlty, sends her spinning and giggling. And Eddie throws his head back and laughs and Steve wants.
Steve can see he's a good guy. But he sees how people look at him. How the other jocks talk about him. Call him names. Things they'd call Steve too if they knew what he was. So Steve keeps his mouth shut. And his eyes on Eddie Munson.
And then one day, the pool is crowded. Packed. All the kids and teens and parents shoved in like sardines and Steve watches Eddie hesitate at the gate. His eyes roaming over the crowd, teeth worrying into his lip, his hand falls away twice.
But he wipes at the sweat on his face and sets his shoulders. Shuffles into to the pool area and heads for his normal spot. The corner of the pool at the shallow end. He just likes to dip his feet in. That's all. Steve has never seen him actually in the water. Crowd or not.
There's a yell, Eddie's head snaps in that direction. Some asshole from the basketball team, Steve knows him, but not well. He yells at Eddie and Steve's hackles rise, he sits forward on his chair more. Watching as the boy and a few of his friends start moving towards Eddie. He sees Eddie bump into someone as he tries to move away from them.
A scream from the other end of the pool draws Steve's attention. For just a moment. It was just some kids. Splashing each other.
Steve moves his eyes back to where Eddie was. He's gone. Replaced with the group of laughing boys.
But Steve's observant. His eyes land on the mom and little girl Eddie had played with last time he was here. She's holding her daughter on her hip, her eyes worried, staring at the shallow end. Her eyes move up, like they're in slow motion, they meet Steve's, and she points, wordlessly, into the water. Her little girl is crying now. Maybe sensing the dread her mother is clearly feeling.
Steve moves fast after that. Blows his whistle and jumps down. Shouts for everyone to get out of the pool and dives in, slipping easily past the bodies climbing out.
Eddie's laying at the bottom of the pool. There's a small cloud of blood blooming through his hair, a red halo floating around his head. Steve groans, bubbles flowing from his nose, his stomach sinking as his fingers curl into Eddie's vest. He pulls the boy to his chest and hauls him up. Hefts him over his shoulder and lays him on his back on the concrete as gently as he can.
"Move back. Everyone get back." He says, automatically. The crowd does as they're told as Steve leans down, presses his head against Eddie's chest, he's not breathing.
"Shit." He whispers it, starts chest compressions and breaths air into Eddie's lungs.
It takes 6 breathes. 4 curses. And one,
"C'mon Eddie. Come back to me."
And Eddie coughs. Water spewing out of his mouth as his back arches off the ground. Steve holds his head, doesn't want him to fall back and hit it again.
"There we go. Hey you're okay. It's okay." Steve soothes, Eddie gabbing at his arms, still struggling, sucking in air harshly. Steve pulls him to his chest protectively. Eddie clings to him, his wet hair matted to his face as Steve's hand rests over it, he can feel blood on his fingers. Not a lot. But enough.
He looks up, into the crowd, finds the group of guys, they're smirking, don't even have the decency to look upset that they nearly killed someone.
"What the hell happened?" Steve asks, voice calm, and to those who know him best, that's not a good sign. Steve's eyes find the mom, the one who had laughed with Eddie instead of giving him a sideways wary look and pulling her kid away like the others.
"They threw him in." She said, her face pale, her daughter tucked up under her chin now. Steve feels Eddie shaking in his arms, his clothes still dripping water onto the hot concrete, and looks back to the boys.
"You're banned."
"Oh what? Seriously Harrington?"
"For life. Get out." They try to protest, stupid excuses dripping from their lips.
"Now! Go! Before I call the fucking cops!" Steve shouts, points over their heads at the gate.
"In fact. Everyone out! Pools closed!" No one else argues. Only the mother and her daughter linger as Steve moves his attention back to Eddie. He lets Eddie uncurl from his chest, finds big brown eyes looking at him.
"Thanks man." He breaths, his hand moving to his throat as he coughs again.
"Sure. Lemme get a look at your head too." Steve moves to his side, presses Eddie forward a bit, moves his fingers through his hair. Sucks in air through his teeth when he sees the small gash on his head.
"That bad?" Eddie asks, his hands trembling as they rest on his thighs.
"You might need a couple stitches." Steve says, moving a bit more of Eddie's hair, to see better, he tells himself, not so he can keep touching him.
"I can do it." The voice startles Steve. He looks up, the mother is looking down at them. A soft smile.
"If you have a first aid kit that is. Two stiches should do you fine. If you can hold her while I work?" She bounces the little girl on her hip a few times. She reaches out for Eddie and he laughs. Steve laughs too, but goes to grab the first aid kit.
He holds the little girl, Daisy, as her mom, Lilly, cleans the cut in Eddie's hair and gets the needle threaded.
"How do you know how to do that?" Steve asks, making a face at Daisy, sending her giggling again before looking back to her mom. Eddie has his fingers wrapped around Steve's ankle, his fingers tapping nervously.
"Oh my mama taught me. I helped patch up my brother and my daddy lots of times." She smiles at the memories, moves her hand to Eddie's shoulder.
"You ready hon? It's not gonna feel very nice." Eddie sniffles. Steve lowers himself and Daisy to the ground, presses his thigh into Eddie's and grabs his hand with his free one. Eddie looks at him, eyes wide. Steve nods. Eddie nods back.
"Ready."
She works fast. Gives him three instead of two just to be safe. Eddie had squeezed Steve's hand so hard he thought he might break it. But he hadn't made a sound. And when he let go, Steve missed his hand, clinging to him.
Lilly offers to give Eddie a ride home. Apparently they're neighbors. She lives a few trailers down from him and his uncle. He accepts, gratefully. "Thank you's" dripping freely from his mouth as he follows her out to her car. Steve a few paces behind them. Eddie stops before he gets in, looks at Steve, his face doing something funny.
And then he's jogging the few paces back to Steve and pulling him in for a hug.
"Seriously man. Thank you. Thought I was a gonner there for a minute." He breaths the words into Steve's shoulder, squeezes him tight. Lingers too long. Eddie pulls back and he's pink to the tips of his ears. He glances at Steve as he pulls away, grimaces, and mutters,
"Sorry." And ducks hurriedly into the car. They're gone before Steve can correct him. That he doesn't need to be sorry. That Steve understands. He's like that too.
~°~
They don't mention it again. Not at school. Not at the boathouse. Not in the upside down. Neither one of them says a thing about it.
Until Eddie wakes up in the hospital. He's covered in bandages and Steve Harrington is sitting in the chair next to his uncle looking concerned. The same look he'd had at the pool that day after he'd breathed life back into Eddie. His scars look healed. Ish. Lot of time must have passed.
After Wayne stops hugging him and Steve is settled close, his hand in Eddie's, squeezing tight. Eddie sighs around a smile and says,
"Saved me again didn't you?"
And Steve laughs, can't help it. But he cries too, and nods, and bites his lip as he leans closer to Eddie, like he needs to be closer, to be next to Eddie. And that's... something. Eddie tilts his head against his pillow, looks at Steve.
"Let's not make it a habit okay? I kind of hate doing it." Steve says, his head falling to rest against Eddie's hand.
"Sorry. Had to keep those bats away from Dusty. And hey,"
He wiggles his wrist so Steve's head jostles and lifts, his eyes on Eddie's face now, cheeks wet.
"I figured you'd come save me. Worked the last time." Eddie shrugs, grimaces at the pain in his body. Steve shakes his head, but his eyes are fond.
"Yeah well, I didn't have Lilly this time, so the stiches look like shit." He sniffles, and Eddie laughs, deep in his chest, immediately regrets it and grimaces. And that's apparently all Steve can take, he takes a watery breath and climbs up into the bed next to Eddie. It's a tight squeeze but neither of them care. Wayne laughs, pats Eddie's ankle and tells him he's gonna go get some food.
Steve nuzzles into his neck best he can without hitting any bandages, wraps his arms genlty across Eddie's stomach and holds him.
"Seriously man. Don't make me do it again. Please." Steve begs, rubs his wet cheek against Eddie's shoulder.
"But Steven," Eddie sighs, not able to keep from joking, the seriousness of it all about to choke him. Steve tilts his head, listening.
"How else am I supposed to get you to kiss me?" He whispers it, knows it's okay now, to say it to Steve, to feel that for Steve. Steve laughs into his shoulder, shakes his head.
"Just fucking ask me man." He sniffles, presses his forehead to Eddie's shoulder, hard, his fingers moving to tangle with Eddies.
"Hey Steve?" Eddie asks, his voice still a whisper.
"Yeah Eddie?" Steve whispers back. Eddie smiles, waits for Steve to get impatient. It doesn't take long. He pushes himself up onto his hand to look down at Eddie.
"What?" He asks, brow furrowed.
"Kiss me?" Eddie's own brow furrows even as Steve smiles down at him, closes the distance quickly, brushes his nose against Eddie's.
"Anytime you want." Steve breathes into his mouth. Eddie hums, moves his lips gently against Steve's and feels him sigh into it when he feels Eddie kissing him back.
They fall alseep next to each other. Wayne only waking them when the doctor is on his way in. Steve rolls out of the bed and sits in his chair. Keeping his eyes on Eddie.
And when Eddie glances at Steve, gives him a silly little smile, Steve thinks back to the pool, and the way Eddie would glance at him then, trying not to get caught while everyone else would leer openly at him. His heart flutters in his chest when Eddie crosses his eyes and sticks out his tongue, so grateful to his past self for becoming a lifeguard.
He'd saved a few people over the years. But he's pretty sure he was sent there to save Eddie Munson. To keep him alive. Because as he sat there, watching Eddie joke with the nurses about how metal his scars would be, Steve was pretty sure Eddie Munson may have saved him too.
Or might save him later.
Or was saving him now.
Either way, the way Eddie's fingers find his on the hospital bed, twitching into his and making them both smile. Steve knows it was worth it, all of it, just to see that smile.
And… it’s happened again. Someone commented on one of my fics just to insult me. (Two times. Just in case I didn’t get the memo the first time.)
I’d genuinely like to have a conversation about it, but how do you explain how writing works to someone who can’t even understand what they’re reading?
I don’t get this. If I read a story I don’t like, I simply back out of it and move on. If it’s not my cup of tea, it might someone else’s. We should live by the adage, “don’t yuck my yum”. This works for subjective things like entertainment, beauty (in the eye of the beholder), and food.
Hey, guys! I think I successfully plugged a plot hole in here, but I'm not 100% on that. So um... good luck!
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 |
~
“Holy Diver,” Robin said into the walkie talkie. “Come in, Holy Diver, this is Babel Tower, over.”
Immediately the walkie crackled to life. “Babel Tower, this is Holy Diver, I read, over.”
“It appears that the Upside Down is trying to merge with Hawkins, over.”
There was silence for a moment before it cackled to life again. “Shit.”
“Where are you guys headed, over?” he huffed into the walkie talkie.
Robin looked over at Joyce who shrugged. “One moment, over.” She turned around and stuck her head into the cab of the truck. “Where are we going?”
“I was gonna go to the Hammond place as that’s the last safe house we had,” Hopper growled.
Robin shook her head. “That’s no good, both Creel and Kay know about it.”
“Well where do you suggest?!” Hopper shouted.
“Head to the radio station,” Will said, eyes wide. “We need to get up to pierce the Upside Down and place to hide out until we can formulate a plan to do just that. So it’s a win/win.”
Titus and Kali just shrugged. They had no idea where that was.
“Are you sure?” Joyce asked. “Because one wrong move and the whole world is toast.”
Will nodded.
“We’re headed for Shangri-la, do you read?” Robin said into the walkie walkie.
“Shangri-La,” Steve repeated. “Roger that. Over and Out.”
Kali tilted her head to the side. “Why did you call the radio station Shangri-La?”
Robin just smiled. “Where else would paradise be but a place where I could be me?”
~
Robin and Will were up on the radio tower trying to make it as secure as they could before everyone joined them because the last thing they needed was one of their last avenues of communication to go down.
“What did you mean about this place being the only place you could be yourself?” Will asked as he and Robin were putting up more railings.
“I think I’m more Babel Tower these days then I am Robin Buckley,” she explained. “Robin Buckley is a loud mouth band geek with few friends and no love life. But here, as Babel Tower?” She indicated around her. “I can be the badass monster hunter with a girlfriend and some of the tightest bonds a friendship could have.”
Will’s head shot up. “Holy shit. You have a girlfriend?”
She stopped for a moment as her brain caught up to her mouth. “Oh oops!”
“Am I the first person you’ve told?” Will asked excitedly. “I mean other than your girlfriend?”
Robin shook her head. “Other people know.”
“Like you don’t have to worry about people hearing it from me,” he assured her. “I’m... well. Similar but different.”
She blinked for a moment. “Oh! That makes a lot of sense actually.”
“Who was the first person you told?” he asked shyly, looking away and twisting his hands together.
Robin started going down the ladder to get more supplies. “Oh that’s easy. Steve.”
Will came to a stop for a moment and tilted his head to the side. “What like our Steve? Steve Harrington?”
“Yep!” she said still continuing to go down the ladder. “It felt really good after telling him. He was actually kind of sweet about.” She paused for a moment before half shrugging. “But like after he made fun of my for crushing on Tammy Thompson.”
Will rushed to the ladder and looked down at her. “But like the one thing Jonathan is always griping about is how Steve called me a fag when I was missing and that Jonathan beat the shit out of him for it.”
Robin paused on the ladder and then looked up at him. “People change, Will. They can change. We have to believe that otherwise what’s the point?”
Will thought about Vecna and then he thought about his friends. They had changed so much from when they were kids. Mostly because of the trauma. But also deeper than that. The way Lucas wouldn’t put up with the shit about his race anymore. The way Mike grew beyond being “the leader” and started letting the others help out. The way Dustin became darker in the wake of Eddie’s death.
Not all the changes were good or better. But they had changed.
“Yeah okay,” he muttered. “Is Steve–” he cut himself off and then shook his head. “I don’t need to know that actually.”
Robin grinned at him and then continued down the ladder, Will following suit.
Once they were both on solid ground, Robin put both her hands on his shoulders.
“For what it’s worth,” she told him gently, “telling the people you love who are is the most freeing thing in the world. No matter what they think, because even if they react badly it means that they never loved you and that’s worth knowing too.”
Will let out a deep sigh and then nodded. He would try it out with his family first. After all they were all here. All but El, anyway.
He opened his mouth to say that, but closed it again. Then he started to move past her when he got the urge to hug her.
Robin huffed out a laugh as he put his arms around her and murmured ‘thank you.’
“You deserve to be happy, no matter what that looks like to you,” she murmured back.
Will nodded and ran off.
She shook her head and got to work again. The world was ending and she didn’t have time for pleasantries.
But she did look up once and saw how Will’s family was was hugging him and crying. Happy tears from Will’s big smile on his face. Good. That was how it was supposed to be.
A few minutes later, Kali and Titus were out there, helping her.
“Are they always that mushy?” Titus asked after a few moments.
Robin straightened up and looked at the happy scene the Byers and Hopper were having and then back at the two numbered experiments.
“Some people can stay soft no matter how hard life gets for them,” she muttered as she started packing up the tools.
Kali and Titus shared a glance and then they both shook their heads.
“Look, I can’t say I understand what you guys went through,” Robin huffed. “The experiments, the escape, the living on the streets not know who to trust, but shit was hard here too. So many more people have died since you guys left. Good and the bad. But you don’t get to look down on us for finding a way to survive that didn’t take our softness with it.”
She jutted her thumb back at the radio station. “Especially not that boy. He’s been experimented on too. Because Creel or One or Vecna, whatever you call his scaly ass, kidnapped him and has been chasing him for three years.”
Kali and Titus shared another look. They had been told all this on the way over. It was all just so hard to believe.
“What would One want with him anyway?” Titus huffed, rolling his eyes. “Other than the powers that, I’m assuming One gave him in the first place, I don’t see what’s so special about him.”
Robin raised an eyebrow and the guy had the decency to blush.
“Because he’s like me, isn’t he?” Kali said tilting her head to the side. “He had powers outside of the blood experiments like the others; like Ollie, and Titus, and El. He’s not like them, he’s an outlier.”
“That’s the theory,” Robin confirmed. “He sees the rest of the numbered experiments as inferior because they only have powers because of his blood. But Will? Will lasted in the Upside Down for a week. There is some speculation Will wasn’t the first, only the only successful.”
“He lured other children into the Upside Down and then when they didn’t survive he moved on to the next candidate?” Titus said with a shiver. “That sick bastard.”
Robin nodded. “Agreed. Which is why we appreciate you coming to town to help his kick his scaly ass to hell where it belongs.”
There was the rumbling of cars and a very ragtag group of people stumbled out of the assembled vehicles.
“That bastard!” Nancy spit the second her feet touched the ground. “He sent demogorgons after the parents who were at the house trying to get rid of them!”
Robin, Kali and Titus ran up to them.
“Is everyone okay?” Robin asked, turning to Steve.
Steve shook his head. “Ted and Karen were beat up pretty bad, and one of the other parents died.” He looked over at Nancy. “We don’t know who she was.”
“I think she was the mom of one Holly’s friends,” Nancy muttered. “Lanester, Lancaster, something like that.”
“That’s awful,” Joyce said coming up to the assembled group. “That poor family.”
“Both my mom and dad are in the hospital and Mike promised Dad that he would get Holly back,” she continued. “One I fully backed. So what’s the plan?”
“That’s what we’re all here for,” Dustin huffed. “We need to get to the Upside Down and stop Vecna before the two worlds merge.”
“Only we can’t get to the Upside Down,” Lucas growled, “because somehow he’s figured out how to stop El from creating a gate.”
“What?!” Kali shouted. “Then what the hell is she even good for?!”
“Hey!” Mike snapped. “I’m getting really sick of you acting so high and mighty for having escaped and left her behind! You know god damn well if it wasn’t for El banishing One to the Upside Down you wouldn’t have been able to do that! So either get your head out of your ass and realize that’s she is STILL only a kid and fucking help us or get the fuck out OUR town!”
Kali was so shocked her head rocked back as if she had been slapped. She staggered backward and then turned on her heel and stormed off.
Ollie and Titus shared a glance. Then Ollie nodded.
“Even we think that Kali is being unreasonable about all this,” she murmured. “We want to help, even if she doesn’t come back.”
Steve tilted his head to the side. “Let me go talk to her.” Every head turned to him in a snap. He just held up his hands. “I think know what’s bothering her.”
Titus shrugged. “I say he try. If he fucks it further, she was already going to leave. Kali wouldn’t do anything to harm people here.”
“We don’t have time for this!” Hopper growled.
“You’ve got someone else who can banish Vecna’s illusions?” Dustin barked back. “Because without that we can’t tell what is real and what’s not!”
Hopper’s head jerked back in shock. He hadn’t thought about that. “Shit.”
“We need her help,” El said with a sigh. She had woken up with the attack on the parents. She still wasn’t fully recovered and that’s why the one mom died. But she could feel her energy sources slowly coming back up.
Max looked around. “Wait, where did Steve go?”
Erica burst out laughing. “While you asshole were fighting about whether or not he should go talk to her, he just went and did it.”
People just shuffled uncomfortably as they waited, but they didn’t have to wait long. About a few minutes later Steve came back with Kali in tow. But both of them refused to say what they talked about.
They gathered in the basement of the radio station and discussed plans. To everyone’s surprise it was Steve’s plan that made the most sense, even Steve’s. Albeit with some crude comments from the peanut gallery about the size of his dick.
Then they all ate and took turns resting.
Dustin pulled Steve aside in the middle of all this and asked, “Hey can I talk to you for a minute?”
Steve nodded and followed him into the hall.
“It’s about Eddie...” Dustin began, folding his arms and looking down at his feet. “Do you think it’s really him? The one you saw in the Void?”
Yeah, Steve really should have seen that one coming. “I don’t know, bud. I want to believe he is, but it’s far more likely he’s not.”
Dustin nodded. “I don’t want to believe it either, but I can’t keep the hope down. It crops up again just when I think I’ve convinced myself it can’t be him. It can’t be Eddie.”
Steve pulled him to him and gave him a big hug. “I want to believe so bad that he’s real and that we can save him, but I know that if I dare to hope and it’s not real, I won’t survive that.”
Dustin wrapped his arms around Steve’s waist and held on tight.
“I blame him sometimes,” Steve murmured into Dustin’s hair. “That he should have run. That both of you should have run. Ran for Max’s trailer instead of Eddie trying to buy us more time.”
“But he saved me!” Dustin wailed. “He saved me!”
“I know,” Steve whispered, “I know. But I told you two not to be heroes. Hell, getting up to the real world trailer and throwing a Molotov cocktail into the open gate would have give you two enough time to run for cover.”
Dustin looked up at him in stunned silence. “Well shit.”
They really should have thought about that, shouldn’t they?
“I’m sorry, Steve,” he whispered. “We knew the bats were going to be focused on us. That was the plan. But we didn’t come up with proper exit strategy for when it went sideways and that’s on us. But I think he wanted to be a hero. To sacrifice himself because he thought he should have died instead of Chrissy. And you were the only one who noticed.”
Steve just held him tight, tears running down his face.
“You’re the only one whoever notices,” Dustin continued. “You noticed Max back in the cemetery. You noticed Lucas pulling away before that. You’re the big brother we all need, but we treat you so badly and I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, Steve!”
“We’ll make it through,” Steve muttered. “We have to.”
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Chapters: 8/?
Fandom: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Steve Harrington/Eddie Munson, Robin Buckley/Nancy Wheeler, Chrissy Cunningham/Gareth, Pack/ Party pairings
Characters: Steve Harrington, Eddie Munson, Steve Harrington's Parents, Wayne Munson, The Party (Stranger Things), Corroded Coffin (Stranger Things), Band Manager (OC), Steve's Italian family, Steve's American family
Additional Tags: Marriage, Corroded Coffin Concert (Stranger Things), Florence - Freeform, Italy, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, A/B/O, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Mating Bond, Male Omega/ Male Alpha, Possible Mpreg, Rockstar Eddie Munson, EMT Steve Harrington, Gay Eddie Munson, Confident Bisexual Steve Harrington, Alpha Eddie Munson, Omega Steve Harrington, Fire Fighter Steve Harrington
Series: Part 2 of In the Strangest Places
Summary:
Steve and Eddie are Mated, happy, and in love and don't want to be separated, so Steve is joining him and the rest of Corroded Coffin on tour in Europe! And if there is a surprise wedding at the end of it all, they won't spill the beans!
Steve is the on-call EMT for the tour and little does he know his skills will come in very handy.
***
Last tour stop...Roma! Next stop...Florence for the wedding!
andulkaphoto
areudirty
gracieabrams
amandla
2087
yousharknotpass
turnnoffyourmind
gummygunk
