Belle

“Hey, hey,” he whispered. “I know this isn’t your fault, but you are absolutely in charge here, so what is that you’re trying to do? I mean besides completely empty a bank on a Tuesday morning. Which if that was your goal, congrats! You succeeded.”

“Everything is so loud,” Steve whined, putting his hands, yes including the one with the gun, over Eddie’s to further block out the noise.

“What noise are you hearing, sweetheart?” Eddie asked soothingly. “Because it’s all background noise to me. I don’t hear shit.”

“There is a loud whirring, whistling noise, that clunks every once in a while.”

Eddie blinked at him for a moment. “Oh, do you mean the cooler? Is that what’s hurting your head?”

Steve nodded, squeezing his eyes against the pain.

“Right, hold on, okay?” he murmured and then slowly removed his hands from Steve’s ears.

He picked up the phone and dialed O for operator. “Hello, yes, could I be connected to the last person who called this line, we accidentally got disconnected. Thank you.” He hummed a little as it rang through. “Hey, Hop!”

“Munson?” Hopper asked, clearly confused. “How–never mind. How can I help you or rather how can I help Steve?”

“I need you to turn off the A/C and cut about a third of the lights,” Eddie said simply. “Stevie here has released roughly 83% of the hostages, but so far you have only turned off the alarms. So a little bit more good faith is required.”

There was silence on the line for a beat, maybe two before Hopper came back. “Consider it done. It might take a few minutes to figure out how to cut the lights without turning off all the power, but be rest assured it will be taken care of.”

“Thanks,” Eddie breathed. “And maybe some food and water, too? I don’t know how long we’re gonna be here.”

“Sure thing,” Hopper agreed readily. “I’ll have a couple of cheese pizzas sent in with a case of water bottles. Any luck on finding out what’s got Steve so upset?”

“‘Fraid not, Chief,” Eddie muttered. “I’ll let you know as soon as I do.” Then he hung up.

He turned back to Steve. “All right, food is on the way as are the lights and cooler being turned off. That should help.”

Steve was still standing there with his hands covering his ears, his finger still on the goddamn trigger.

He dropped to his knees crying out.

"Dude," Eddie said, pained. "Can you not wave the gun around like that, I'm terrified it's going to go off."

Steve looked up at him in confusion. "It's not loaded."

Eddie crossed his arms and leaned back on his left leg. "You know that for a fact?"

Steve engaged the clip release and dropped both the clip and the gun to the ground, scooting away from in terror.

“Why would they give me a loaded gun?!” he shrieked. He put his hands over his mouth, his knees drawn up to chest.

Just then the lights dimmed and the A/C unit cut off. But there in the light of one of the sunroofs, was the gun. A little off to the right was the very full clip.

Well not very full. There were a couple bullets missing, but Eddie couldn’t tell at that distance how many. But there was no doubt that it was loaded. Steve could have accidentally killed himself or someone else with that thing.

“Hey, hey,” Eddie said gently, holding out his hand to placate Steve. “Why don’t you tell me about the gun? How did you get it, sweetheart?”

Steve lifted his head and Eddie could see from the puffy red cheeks, the bloodshot eyes, and runny nose that the other man had been crying.

“It was with my stuff,” he whimpered. “All my intake personal items. It had these clothes, my wallet, my keys, this security box key, and the gun.”

“Anything else?” Eddie said softly. “Was there anything else in with your belongings that shouldn’t have been there?”

Steve snorted. “Like all of it? All the stuff in there were things that should have still be in an evidence locker at the police station. Even my wallet still had blood on it from the...” he waved his hands wildly trying to indicate what he meant.

Eddie nodded. The murders.

“Right,” he said with a grimace. “I think the gun is also from that night, sweetheart.”

Steve stared down at the gun in even more shock. “No, no, no! I’ve ruined it! I’ve ruined it!”

Eddie stared at him in confusion until Steve started banging his head with his hands. He scrambled over to him and pulled his hands away before Steve could do real harm to himself.

“My prints! My prints are the only ones on the gun now!” Steve shrieked in his face.

Eddie was not proud on how long it took to finally put the pieces together. “Are you telling me, you didn’t kill your best friends?”

“No!” Steve cried, tears starting to fall again. “They were dead when I got there. It was horrible. Blood everywhere. I didn’t know what to do, so I tried giving CPR. Then the next thing I knew I was in police custody and I had blood all over me too.”

“Oh shit, sweetheart,” Eddie murmured. “That’s bad. No doubt. But not everything is lost. You didn’t touch the bullets. The gun might have your fingerprints all over it now, but the bullets won’t. They’ll still have whoever loaded the gun’s prints.”

Steve blinked at him for a moment. “I think what’s in the security box is the key to my innocence.”

“Okay,” he said calmly. “I can work with that.”

~

Hopper rubbed his face in frustration. “I don’t believe that I have ever had to work with an accidental robber before let alone one fresh out of a mental hospital.”

“Yes,” Dr. Owens said dryly. “I can understand her panic, but it was quite the overreaction and now poor Steve is suffering for it.”

“What the hell is in that safety deposit box that would make Steve so dead set on seeing it today?”

Dr. Owens blinked at him for a moment. “My guess? Evidence in the murders of Thomas Hagan and Carol Perkins.”

Hopper turned to him, horror movie slow. “Kid confessed.”

“He didn’t actually,” Dr. Owens said stiffly. “He maintained that he didn’t remember what happened only that they were definitely dead when he got there.”

Hopper rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “This is a real shit show, Doc. What the fuck I’m supposed to do? Like being agitated and carrying a gun should have not have spooked Karen Wheeler like our boy did. There is more to this then we’re being told.”

He spoke into the walkie talkie on his shoulder. “I want the security footage for that bank! And I want it fucking yesterday!”

“Roger that!” the officer replied back.

“What’s on your mind, Chief Hopper,?” Dr. Owens asked, cocking his head to the side.

“You don’t hit a panic button because a costumer is twitchy,” Hopper growled. “Gun in his waistband or no. You call security. Who was also surprisingly absent today. So what the hell is really going on here?”

“Death by cop,” Dr. Owens said ominously. “Someone set Steve up so that he dies today. Let’s do everything in our power to not let that happen, shall we?”

Just then the brick mobile phone in Hopper’s hand rang, startling them both.

Hopper reluctantly answered it with a, “Hello?”

“Chief!” Eddie said cheerfully. “Thank god that worked! I promised to let you know what’s going on and I am a man of my word.”

“Munson?!” Hopper asked in shock. “How the hell did you get this number? Again! Actually scratch that, tell me what’s going on first.”

“Well the first time was calling the operator and this time was hitting redial,” Eddie said in faux innocence.

“Munson...” Hopper growled. “Get to the fucking point.”

“Steve was given his clothes et al from the night of the murder as his release clothes at the hospital,” he said brightly. “Stuff that should have been in the evidence room at the police station. And that includes the gun he currently is waving about.”

“One moment,” Hopper replied deadpan. Then he put his hand over the speaking part of the receiver and started cussing up a blue streak.

“Oh it gets worse,” Eddie said, still as chipper as if he was talking about what nice weather they were having. “They’ve been cleaned. Not well mind you, but enough that you would have a hard time realizing what the stains are at first.”

“Jesus fucking Christ!” Hopper swore, this time not bothering to hide his irritation. “Steve has given us a lot of good will and I’m willing to go the extra mile on this one. What does he need?”

Dr. Owens held his breath. He was hoping for good news.

“He needs a change of clothes and you to do your fucking job.” Then Eddie hung up.

Hopper looked over at the doctor and then around him. “Fuck, Doc. I don’t know who to trust.”

Dr. Owens removed his glasses and cleaned them with his pocket square as he thought. “Are there any officers who weren’t here when the murders happened?”

Hopper nodded, only a very small handful, but enough.

“I think those would be your best bet.”

Hopper looked around and spotted a kid who was fresh out of the academy. That was a good start. He whistled to get the officer’s attention.

The young man turned and pointed at himself. Hopped nodded and waved him over. The tag read Bishop.

“Officer Bishop,” he said solemnly. “We’ve got a problem. According to our last hostage, Steve Harrington is wearing clothes should be in evidence. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

Monty Bishop’s eyes went wide. “Shit, how did he get ahold of those?”

“Harrington is claiming that it was in with belongings when he was released,” Hopper hedged, testing the officer.

Officer Bishop’s eyes narrowed. “What’s in the case file?” he asked, chin jutting toward the folder on the top of the police car.

“A whole boatload of nothing,” Hopper said, shaking his head.

Bishop frowned, scratching the back of his neck. “You thinking this is coverup?”

“I don’t want to accuse my fellow police brethren,” Hopper replied, holding up his hands. “But there is way too much left out for something above board.”

“I hear you, Chief,” Bishop said with a nod. “You want me to gather up all the boys who hadn’t been here at the time to uncover what’s going on?”

Hopper shook his head, much to the surprise of both Dr. Owens and Officer Bishop.

“I’m gonna need a list no doubt,” he explained. “But if I replace every cop who was here at the time with those that weren’t, that’s going to signal to those with something to hide to run underground. And that’s the last thing we need right now.” He shook his head. “No, we’ve got to play this smart.”

“First up, get Harrington some clothes.”

~

Tag List: ELEVEN SLOTS REMAINING

1- @after-the-end-times @lost-andstill-lost @zerokrox-blog @carlyv @maya-custodios-dionach

2- @yikes-a-bee @swimmingbirdrunningrock @sadisticaltarts @gloomysoup @gregre369

3- @wonderland-girl143-blog @kultiras @val-from-lawrence @dolphincliffs @dust-in-the-internet

4- @bookworm0690 @emeraldzephyr @dreamercec @awkwardgravity1 @micheledawn1975

5- @stedestielfrattficlover @useless-nb-bisexual @rina777 @mentallyundone @kroymu09

6- @counting-dollars-counting-stars @ravenfrog @steddieislife @stripey82 @beelze-the-bubkiss

7- @samsoble @mensch-anthropos-human @ollieolive @blackpanzy @disrespectedgoatman

Only none of the journalists believe that and are constantly asking Steve what he thinks of people assuming it's a PR stunt.

First interviewer: What do you say to people who think you're only with Eddie tonight as a PR stunt?

Steve: Oh fans of my music will absolutely know that's not true! My love for Eddie goes all the way back to my first album. First song I wrote about him is on there. I think it's track seven or eight

Interviewer: You don't remember which one?

Steve: Oh no, I do. But I'm not going to just give it to you.

Next Interviewer, same question.

Second Interviewer: People have been talking about you only being here with Eddie as a PR stunt, what do you say to that?

Steve: I featured on the albums of three other bands my third year as an artist and I wrote all of them, but only one of them was about Eddie.

Interviewer: Which one?

Steve winking: You figure it out.

By the time that Steve and Eddie gets to the last interviewer, it's becoming pretty clear, Steve has been shutting down these questions with little clues.

Last interviewer: You two really can't expect us to believe that hard rocker Eddie Munson and the king of pop/rock are dating. It's like oil and water.

Steve: is there a question in that?

Interviewer: When are you going to admit this is a PR stunt?

Steve: My fourth album had a lot of people featured on that one, including Eddie. One of the songs was about Eddie.

Interviewer now visibly pissed: Come off of it. Just admit that Eddie's label put you two together to help clean up his very tattered image.

Steve rolls his eyes: I've written seventeen songs about Eddie Munson, including one of the songs I'm nominated for tonight. And that's the last clue I'm giving you people.

Poor Eddie in the background going:

As he knows all of Steve's discography having played it on repeat all the time. But also because he knows the answer to the second clue. The song Eddie featured on was Steve's coming out as bisexual song about being in love with a boy for the first time. But that can't be able him, right? Because they only became friends after that (they had gone to high school together, though)

They are led to their seats and Steve leans over.

Steve: Have been trying to figure it out, too?

Eddie blushes and nods

Steve: Good. Let me know when you've figured it out, rockstar.

Steve has two songs nominated in the best rock song category: "Starlight" and "You're My Everything". But what people don't know is that the latter song isn't a romantic song: it's about Robin who helped him weather through the backlash after coming out as bi. But the only people who do know that are Steve, Robin, and Eddie.

So Eddie knows it's not that one. But he's not as familiar with "Starlight" as it's not Eddie's favorite song off the album.

Then Steve preforms "Starlight" in a white button up, with most of the buttons not buttoned, a pair of blue jeans, and some beat up sneakers.

And suddenly it all clicks into place. The song is about being love with someone you think deserves better than you.

Eddie is crying, and his bandmates are putting their arms around him, because they just got it too.

Then when Steve wins for "Starlight" Eddie kisses him on the mouth.

Eddie: I love you too. And if you want to know for how long. You'll need to go back to our first album too.

Steve laughs and kisses him back harder. Then he goes up to accept his award and he thanks Eddie, his boyfriend and inspiration for the song.

That causes an uproar among journalists, but the other musicians there and even the fans later are happy about it.

“I will be on my best behavior as per the bet,” Eddie intoned. “My dad might have been an ass, but he was also a man of his word and Munsons don’t renege on bets or promises.”

The car sent up a cheer. Eddie, Jeff, and Brian were all graduating in June. Just like she said they would.

“Is Dr. Hughes going to be joining us?” Jeff asked. Gareth’s dad had been splitting time between California and Hawkins with Gethin, Gareth’s twin brother.

“Both Gethin and Rhys will be joining us,” she said brightly.

Gareth started bouncing up and down even more. “Geth is coming? Oh my god, Mom! I can’t believe it!” He leaned over and gave he a huge hug.

“School has already gotten out for Geth,” Ray explained, “so Rhys took the week off and they’ll be spending out here with us.”

“It’s going to be great,” Jeff said. “Even me and Bri’s parents are coming out for the graduation.”

“Wayne can’t make it until the day before graduation,” Eddie said with a grimace, “but he did promise he’d be there.”

“My mom said that Wayne had to threaten to out the shift supervisor’s affair if he didn’t give Wayne at least the weekend off,” Brian said with a sneer. “I told Wayne he should fucking sue the whole plant for trying to pull that bullshit.”

Ray pursed her lips and pulled out a large mobile phone. She dialed a number while the boys talked among themselves.

“Rhys, sweetie,” she murmured. “Would you call your lawyer friend, apparently the plant is refusing to let Wayne Munson have enough time off to see his nephew graduate.”

“Hey, Ray...” Eddie whined, “you don’t have to do that. I’m sure it’ll be fine. I don’t want Wayne in trouble at work.”

Ray smiled back at him and mouthed ‘Don’t worry.’ Then she turned her attention back to the phone in her hand.

“That’s what I was thinking as well,” she said. “Sounds to me like the union is slacking off, too.”

Everyone had stopped talking now. They sat in rapt attention as Gareth’s mom talked on the phone.

“Thank you, darling,” Ray concluded. “I would have called but you know I have a hard enough time remembering our home phone number let alone a dozen others. Love you too. Bye.”

Brian turned to Gareth. “Your mom is scary cool.”

Gareth grinned back. “I know, right?”

They arrived at the restaurant to see Rhys on the phone with ‘Chaz’ and he blew Ray a kiss when he saw her, before turning back to the conversation he was having. They walked inside and Gethin was waiting at the table for them.

Gareth and Gethin greeted it each with big hugs.

“Man,” Geth muttered. “No one believes me that you’re on your way to becoming a rockstar. They all think you dropped out of school or some dumb shit.”

Jeff shook his head as he sat down at the table. “Haters gonna hate, man. It’s bullshit. I bet they’re saying even worst shit about me and Ed.”

Geth winced. “I don’t think I can say what they’re saying about you two in public and not get arrested.”

Eddie stuck out his tongue. “They can talk shit all they want, I’m gonna be laughing all the way to the bank. And ten years down the line when they’re paying for cheap seats at our sold out stadium concerts, I will have beat them at their own fucking game.”

Brian let out a pained sigh. “Like how do words just trip off your tongue like that? I feel like I have to follow him around writing this shit down so we can make songs out of them!”

“That is why they pay him the big bucks,” Jeff said, patting Eddie the back. “He absolutely is the backbone of this band.”

“I’ll drink to that,” Rhys said, coming in from outside. “Let’s get everyone settled in and ordered, shall we?”

~

To say Steve was nervous would be an understatement. He was graduating from high school. He was standing there with all his friends as they laughed and celebrated this achievement. He wanted to celebrate with them, but he was staring down his last summer in Indiana.

His dad was selling the house and the two of them were packing up and moving to California. He hadn’t told anyone that yet. He just wanted to slip quietly away.

Away from his mom’s legacy. Her shadow that hung over him where ever he went. The whispers in the hall about having been left out of her will. How obviously jealous he was of the people who weren’t.

Charles clapped his hand on Steve’s shoulder. “You ready for this?”

Steve let out a shuddering breath. “Yeah. This is just one step on the journey of life, right?”

“That’s right,” he murmured, giving Steve’s shoulder a squeeze. “I’m proud of your achievements, Steve. You’ll do great things, I’m sure of it. No matter the path you take.”

Steve took a deep breath and then looked around before blurting out. “I’m gay!”

Charles looked at him for a moment before bursting out laughing. He stopped when he saw the stricken expression on Steve’s face. He gave him a hug and then pulled back at arms length. “Son, I’ve known for years you liked boys.”

Steve blinked at him in confusion. “I don’t understand. I was a ladies’ man in high school. How could you have known?”

“Look,” Charles said gently. “We’ll talk after the ceremony, but if it will help ease your mind before you go and get your diploma...” He let out a long breath. “You spent more time talking about certain boys then you ever did about your girlfriends. And that included Nancy Wheeler who was your longest girlfriend at about a year.”

Steve’s jaw dropped. “Oops.”

Charles shook his head. “And no, Steven your mother didn’t know. She didn’t cut you off because of your sexuality.”

“How can you be so sure?” Steve whined.

“I found a stash of her diaries after her death,” he explained. “If she knew, she never wrote it down. And considering the amount of other salacious gossip in there, I’m sure you’re safe.” He winked and the turned Steve around, pushing him toward the football field. “Now go.”

Steve nodded and did as he was told.

He graduated with honors. He didn’t have the highest GPA but he did pretty well for himself. Graduating in the top ten percent of his class.

When he shook hands with Prin. Higgins, there was a moment of tension. As if the man debated telling everyone what Steve had done. But the moment slipped away and Steve stepped away to walk off the stage.

He sat there through the rest of his class waiting on pins and needles, just fearing the worst. That the principal or Mr. Miller would out Steve as the criminal he was. But then everyone was filing out of the football field and back to their families.

Steve met up with friends and made promises to hang out over the summer before they all moved on with their lives. The people who’s bridging he thought he had burned in the last year returned in force to support him. Nancy, Carol, Tommy, and even Jonathan Byers reached out afterwards with his condolences.

The promises he had no intention of keeping. He wanted a clean break. He didn’t want the pitying glances, the serious tones as they asked him how he was. He wanted to laugh with them, joke around, but these days all they did was treat him with kid gloves and tiptoe around his feelings.

He took off his cap and gown, shoving the tassel into the front pocket of his dress slacks and returned them to the school.

He got a few last signatures in his year book that he had wanted and then slipped away. He walked out to his dad’s silver Jaguar.

Charles was waiting for him, leaning against the driver side down. “Are you sure you want to do it this way? We can wait until August to move. You could go to Tommy H.’s graduation party tonight, have your birthday party, celebrate the 4th.”

Steve shook his head. “I’ve already mailed the letters this morning.”

Charles nodded. “All right then. The movers arrive tomorrow at 8am and then our flight is at 3:17pm. Our cars will be shipped out with the rest of our things.”

“Got it,” Steve said with a shuddering breath. He looked behind him and then at his dad. He pulled the tassel out of his pocket. “Hey, before we go, can we stop by the cemetery?”

Charles’s breath caught and then with a heavy gulp, he nodded. “Whatever you want, Steve. I’m hear for you.”

“Thanks, Dad.”

~

After Steve and Charles had lunch on paper plates, sitting on the floor of the kitchen, reminiscing about all the times they had in that house, the good and the bad, they took a taxi to the cemetery.

“I’ll wait here in the taxi,” Charles muttered.

Steve nodded. He wanted to do this alone anyway.

He made his way through the tombstones to where his mother lay. He could tell which one was hers before he could even read the name on the slab.

It was the one covered in flowers and other memorobilia.

Perfect.

Steve knelt down on one knee and pulled the tassel of his pocket.

“Hey, Mom,” he began. “Or maybe I should call you Sophia now. Dad let me read some of your diaries. I think he left out the worst ones so that I would have to bare the brunt of your disdain and disinterest in your only child. I’m sorry I wasn’t what you wanted me to be. I’m sorry I didn’t live up to your expectations of me.”

He paused for a moment and then let out a shuddering breath. “I read about my fall down the stairs when I was a baby. I remember it being a scary moment at the time, but that I started crawling forwards instead of back so it was made kinda funny. But now...”

He closed his eyes. “Now I know the truth. I don’t know if Dad picked up on or if it’s in the parts he won’t let me read....”

“Karma is a bitch, Sophia,” Steve said bitterly. “That I lived, that will outshine you in every way I can. Maybe I’ll have kids, maybe I won’t, but I will tell you one thing, as a teacher I will treat those kids better than you ever treated me.”

He tucked his graduation tassel among the other gifts left around the tombstone. He knew something that these idiots didn’t. That in one week, the groundskeepers would come by and throw all of it away.

Which was exactly what he wanted. He want that stupid tassel thrown away with the rest of the garbage, because he was never coming back to Hawkins.

Steve stood up and dusted the dirt off of his knees. He walked back over to the taxi.

He jutted his thumb over his shoulder. “Did you want to say goodbye?”

Charles shook his head. “No, I said my peace with her at the funeral. I hope I can move on once we’ve settled in California.”

Steve nodded and then looked over his shoulder at the grave. He couldn’t see it, but he could feel its presence like a weight on his heart.

“Let’s go.”

Charles nodded back and they got into the taxi. As they got on the plane, Steve felt the weight lift off his chest.

He settled back against the seat in first class and slept well for the first time since his mom died.

~

Tag List: NINE SLOTS AVAILABLE

1- @after-the-end-times @lost-andstill-lost @zerokrox-blog @carlyv @maya-custodios-dionach

2- @yikes-a-bee @swimmingbirdrunningrock @sadisticaltarts @gloomysoup @gregre369

3- @wonderland-girl143-blog @kultiras @val-from-lawrence @dolphincliffs @dust-in-the-internet

4- @bookworm0690 @emeraldzephyr @dreamercec @awkwardgravity1 @micheledawn1975

5- @stedestielfrattficlover @useless-nb-bisexual @rina777 @mentallyundone @kroymu09

6- @counting-dollars-counting-stars @ravenfrog @steddieislife @stripey82 @beelze-the-bubkiss

7- @samsoble @mensch-anthropos-human @ollieolive @blackpanzy @disrespectedgoatman

8- @blisschaoss @ellietheasexylibrarian @saint-of-roses @dragon-on-main @a-drop-of-magic