Pairing: Steve Harrington x reader (technically... but yeah.... Eddie)
Summary: When your trek to Mordor Lover's Lake quickly turns into alone time with the one man who isn't afraid to show you how much he likes you, playing with fire right under your boyfriend Steve's nose quickly becomes a dangerously addictive game.
Warnings: Angst, angst and more angst, implied infidelity in established relationship, self-doubt, insecurity, scenes from Stranger Things Season 4, no use of y/n (however this part doesn't actually exist in the show, fully freestyled by me!)
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5
The moment the words leave Eddie's lips, Dustin's excitedly bounding down the.... path, if you could even call it that, compass held out in front of him as he looks for this supposed snack-size gate in the middle of the woods.
Lucas and Max share a brief look, something along the lines of right we're doing this then before jogging after Dustin, quickly followed by an enthusiastic Robin, and then Nancy, her face set in that high browed pretentious look you were beginning to seriously detest with a burning passion.
But at this moment, your irritation towards Nancy Wheeler seems like the last thing on your mind. You're about to follow the others, when Eddie suddenly turns around, his hand dropping from around your shoulders.
You look back surprised, lips parting in question, before you see what he went back for.
Laughter, sudden and genuine, bubbles out of you in a snort before you can stop it, and you bring a hand up to pinch the bridge of your nose, marvelling at the ridiculousness of the whole thing.
"Yeah, yeah, get your stuff," you mutter, shaking your head in amusement as Eddie catches up to you, grinning sheepishly.
"Priorities, beautiful," he says seriously, as the two of you finally begin heading after the others. "You can't expect me to trek to Mount Doom without my reinforcements here."
"Yes, yes, Mordor, I get it," you chuckle. "Although... does that make Vecna Sauron? As if the creep needed any more cool names."
Eddie's head flips towards you, his large, expressive eyes widening even more in surprise... or awe.
"Hey now, hold on. You've read-"
"Of course I have," you shrug, although the tiniest sense of satisfaction races through you at how amazed he seems. He hadn't expected that, had he?
The crisp sounds of dried leaves crunching under your shoes overwhelm the air around you as Eddie's quiet for a seconds, as if ruminating on this new information about you. Up ahead, the others seem to be arguing about something, Dustin gesturing animatedly with his hands, waving the compass around, as Max responds to him, rolling her eyes.
"Well I...." Eddie starts, before letting out a sigh. "I'll be damned. I'm ashamed to admit I didn't see it myself."
"Totally. I mean..." he trails off, before tilting his head over to you, eyes slowly raking down your body as a half smile spreads over his lips. "Clearly, I was lead astray by an unfairly deceptive exterior that made me unable to think past that which pleases the eye."
It takes a second for his words to register in your head. For the full meaning of what Eddie just said to settle in your chest. And the first thought that pops into your head is....
"So you play D&D?" Eddie asks, as if he didn't just say what he did to another man's girlfriend.
"Uh, not exactly, no," you say slowly. "But I am a total sucker for video games, I play electric guitar, and of course, I love reading fantasy. The thicker and denser and more complicated the book, the better."
Eddie shakes his head. "Where have you been all my life..." he murmurs into the air, and you can't help but let out a humourless chuckle.
Wasting my time with a guy who can't stop pining after his ex girlfriend and clearly doesn't love me anymore. But I can't seem to stop, so here we are.
But you can't exactly say that, no matter how true it is. You won't share your relationship issues with another guy, no matter how charming and amazing and attentive he is. You're not like Steve.
"I used to work at Waldenbooks, you know?" You say instead. "At Starcourt Mall. It was almost a dream part-time job to save some money for college. But then the place went.... yeah."
"Oh yeah, the fire," Eddie enunciates, kicking a stray stone with his shoe. "Really fucked this town up."
You frown for a second, confusion flickering across your face, before you remember. He doesn't know the truth.
"You know, Eddie," you say, chewing on the inside of your cheek as you move a stray hanging branch out of your way. "The fire at Starcourt Mall..."
"It wasn't a really a fire."
For the second time in the span of a few minutes, Eddie's head flips toward you. "Wasn't a- oh come on!" He groans when he sees the amused look on your face. "More of this- what, Upside Down shit?"
"Yep," you answer, popping the p.
Every bit of the hazy warmth that had been spreading through your chest after just that little conversation with Eddie evaporates in precisely half a second as his voice falls on your ears.
You close your eyes for a second.
Very briefly, you consider just grabbing Eddie's arm and jogging ahead to where the kids and Nancy and Robin were walking. Surely Steve wouldn't say start anything in front of them? In front of his precious Nancy?
But before you can actually go through with it, he's already beside you, falling into step with you and Eddie.
You sigh, and you don't bother hiding it. You'd been having a wonderful time ignoring Steve's existence for the past few minutes, pretending he wasn't walking barely ten steps behind you. He hadn't said anything either, nor had he gone ahead with the others, so you had somewhat assumed he was thinking over what was wrong with you. But you'd hoped it'd be a while before he actually approached you about it.
"What do you want?" You ask, keeping your voice deliberately flat and drained of all interest, your gaze fixed ahead on anything but him. Maybe your tone would be enough to deter him.
But by now, he probably expected you to respond like that, because he continues as if your words weren't a slap in the face, despite how hard you'd intended for them to be.
You roll your eyes. "No."
"Because I don't want to," you say impassively.
"But why don't you want to?" He asks again, his voice rising an octave in frustration.
"Because I just don't!" You snap, finally turning your head up to glare at him. Your eyes meet his, and it's like the air around you actually gains charge by the contact. Your gaze is sharp, and your try your best to pour every ounce of resentment and frustration you feel into it, hoping it cuts into him like tiny, jagged shards of glass. Like he did to you every time he looked at Nancy with that pathetic look in his eyes he'd never once given you.
His eyes don't have that pathetic look in them now. Or atleast, not pathetic in a pining, love-sick sense.
Right now, all you can notice is how large they look. Like two shining pools of a dark, muddy brown, confusion and a sharp sense of hurt swirling in their depths. A stray lock of his hair runs down his forehead, cutting across his upturned brow and almost falling into his left eye. He doesn't brush it away.
He doesn't get it. He doesn't get why you're suddenly behaving like this. Why you're icing him out. Why, after a perfectly normal conversation where he literally asked you out to a movie, you seem so closed of all of a sudden, speaking to him in a way you never have before.
But you don't want to explain it to him.
Maybe you want him to come to the realization himself.
Maybe you want him to go back through the days, run every moment between the two of you through his head and realize why you were suddenly so cold towards him.
Maybe you want him to actually make the effort of caring.
Of actually paying attention to you.
Of.... of thinking about you...
Was getting angry at him really the only way your own boyfriend would even think about you?
The realization of what you're really trying to do here, makes your throat close up. Is this really what you were doing now? Picking fights with your boyfriend just to get him to give you attention?
You'd never, in your wildest dreams, thought you'd ever be that girl. That desperate.
Maybe you were the pathetic one here.
"I....." you clear your throat. "I'm in no way obligated to talk to you, Steve. In fact, I was already talking to Eddie before you rudely interrupted us."
You remember then, with a dull pang in your chest that Eddie's still walking on your other side. Quietly. He hasn't said a word the whole time you have been speaking to Steve.
"Yeah well... Eddie can walk with Henderson," Steve challenges, vaguely gesturing to the group ahead with a hand.
"And you can walk with Robin and Nancy. I don't think you of all people would pass on such an easy opportunity."
Steve stares at you for a second. "What are you even-" He sighs and runs a frustrated hand through his hair, ruffling them from a perfectly tousled style to another perfectly tousled style. "I... what is the matter with you, babe?" He finally gets out, his tone breathier now, hands hovering uselessly in the air as frustration and confusion and desperation practically roll off him in waves. "Why are you being like this? What did I do?"
"What did you do?" You ask incredulously, a bitter laugh rising in your throat. "What did you do? Son of a..." you shake you head, running a hand through you hair. "You really are that clueless aren't you?"
"Hey, here's a thought, maybe you tell me what I did? Instead of snapping at me every two seconds and saying cryptic shit?"
"How about you think of it yourself? I'm not gonna spoon feed everything to you--"
"You spoon feed nothing to me! All you do is get angry at me, and then just-- what, expect me to figure it all out in my head?"
"Yes, yes I expect you to fucking think about in on your own! Like a normal person would, Steve, I-" you break off, realizing this is futile. Steve isn't going to empathize with you, he's never going to understand how you feel, how his actions affect you, and there's nothing you can do about it.
"Look, Steve," you start, tone much softer now, but no way gentler. "I said it before, I'll say it again. I. Don't. Want. To. Talk. To. You. And there's no reason why I should."
Before you can grab Eddie's arm and jog ahead towards the rest of the group, Steve grabs your arm.
"I'm your boyfriend! Does that not mean anything?"
You roll your eyes. "Oh you remembered that tiny thing, did you? Congratulations."
Without sparing him another glance, you shake off his hand, grab Eddie by the arm, and jog up ahead to the others.
Yes, I know Iām untrustworthy, and no, I have no excuse why I took so long except for my own laziness. I'm reallly happy with how this turned out, considering this scene was skipped in the show and I made this up on my own.
We all know what scene comes next though š¦
As always, likes, comments and reblogs make me reallllly reallllly happy
Taglist 1: @beeewee @4ria790 @fakeblondsworld @ucallm3sunshine @userrosie @jihoonsbbygirl @raajali3 @pinkiepieshepardspie @hipsternerd9 @outpostsworld @stoneyggirl2 @gaylittleboi69 @fantasyreader130 @leclercdream @libelunae @shinyvapor @buckystwilight @slngarza @casey1-2007 @dreamerjj @noturmochi @preeyas-world @loriepov @muffinbrown @itmekelpy @mhayes777 @beezusvreeland @sunflower-tia @daggersandbuttercups @kiki17483 @nchhuhi @isabellaxlilah @3xclusivemariii @loriepov @babyastrid714 @anastasbaby @smthgsmthgidk @alwaysreenie @watercolorskyy @jorkingtodjo @lexiecampos @they-ignoreme @frey-williams @mhayes777 @sillylittlejellyfish @bbgheyyyy @troublemaker02 @underoospeterparker
