KYUUIQI

“The tower needle and the rifts,” Lucas explained. “They’re not lining up.”

“The Abyss is going to hit the tower,” Will said. “If it hits the needle —“

“Then the tower’s going down,” Mike confirmed.

Dustin was the one to call the mayday to Hopper. El needed to stop the planet from crushing them.

“How soon?” Hopper asked.

Dustin should’ve said ASAP.

He should’ve said now.

Instead he said —

“Thirty seconds?”

So for thirty seconds, they waited. Watching the planet get closer and closer.

“Chief, what’s going on?” Dustin panicked over the radio.

Hopper’s staticky voice returned over the radio. “I don’t know. I gave the signal.”

“Give it again!” Dustin called, but it was too late.

The planet struck the needle, the pressure bending the steel beams like they were nothing. The tower shook with the pressure. Everyone grabbed onto the railing, hoping that El will finally work her magic.

That the planet would stop.

It was too late.

The needle snapped.

Eddie doesn’t remember much after that.

He remembers Steve’s voice. Panicked.

He remembers Dustin being shoved into his arms.

He dreams of Steve midair, bouncing backwards. His arms reached out for Eddie.

Eddie who couldn’t reach back.

Then — his eyes.

Steve’s hazel eyes.

Widened with fear as he held on for dear life. Fingertips dug into the thin crevasse of the platform. The tower still shaking from the pressure of the Abyss. Hanging hundreds of feet above the air.

Just last week, Steve told Eddie how tall the tower was.

That the tower was longer than a football field by more than a hundred feet.

And Eddie couldn’t help but notice how the green in Steve’s hazel eyes.

How he wanted to lean forward and kiss him.

How he held his breath and nodded and just listened.

Then.

He was gone.

Steve was gone.

Eddie pushed Dustin towards Robin as he dove to the edge of the platform.

But he was too late.

Eddie was the last thing Steve saw.

Eddie couldn’t look away. Watching as Steve grew smaller and smaller under he disappeared under the fog of the Upside Down.

A part of Eddie felt thankful for the fog.

Not wanting to watch Steve hit the ground.

Not wanting to watch his last breath being forced out of him.

Eddie felt like he cheated.

He cheated death.

He should’ve been the one to die in the Upside Down, but Steve saved him.

And Eddie couldn’t pay back the favor.

He felt numb. Like his head was underwater.

Everyone felt so far away.

He could hear Robin sobbing. Her cries were the loudest. The strongest.

Sometimes in an empty room, he still hears her crying out for Steve.

Then, there was the radio.

“Talk to me,” Hopper called. “Are you guys okay?”

“The Abyss stopped,” Lucas called back. His voice shaking. “We — we lost —“

“We lost Steve,” Jonathan was the one to speak it into existence. “He fell. Everyone else is —“ he hesitated. They weren’t okay. “Accounted for.”

The radio channel was quiet.

“Need to move forward,” Hopper’s voice came over the radio a few moments later. His voice was tight. Eddie knew Hopper and Steve had this weird relationship. Like a father and son filling voids for their missing familial half. Had for years, even before the Upside Down. “He — Keep moving forward.”

“He’s right,” Joyce said quietly. “We have to keep going. We have to stop Henry.”

They had to push through their emotions. Bottle it up and keep going. Robin was struggling. Dustin was closed off. Eddie felt like he was the one thrown off the tower.

The fight was — well, a little anticlimactic. He wasn’t expecting the Mind Flayer to be a giant vine spider. But after El came to save the day, the party ambushing the Mind Flayer and the hive mind went down.

Joyce beheaded Vecna.

They rescued the kids.

They saved the world.

Except —

They couldn’t save Steve.

The celebration was quick and over like a blown out birthday candle.

The walk back to the riff was quiet. Sometimes, the children would ask questions and the a short answer would be provided.

When they got to the top of the tower, they remembered Steve’s body.

Steve who fell five hundred feet from the tower waiting on the earth below them.

Jonathan and Eddie silently volunteered to go down first.

The climb down was silent.

Long.

Somber.

Eddie wished that he was stronger. Quicker. Braver.

Eddie wished Steve was none of those things.

The long trip down to earth allowed his mind to torture him. Play ‘what if’ scenarios. What if he was quicker. What if he was able to pull Steve up. What if he kissed him last week. Begged him to flee Hawkins. Leave this hell behind.

But he didn’t.

And now Steve’s body waited for him.

At the bottom of the tower, they found him.

His eyes closed peacefully, knowing his death was far from that.

Jonathan retrieved a blanket from the station’s foyer. They carried him to the far side of the station. Far from anyone’s sight. They covered his body with the blanket.

Eddie used the gallon tub of rock salt to cover Steve’s blood on the dirt. The white crystals hardly blending in with the gravel. But it was the best he could do.

“Station’s clear,” Jonathan called. “Start the descend.”

They left his body in the Upside Down.

They couldn’t bring him back, not with the children in the truck’s trailer. Not with Robin halfway to a breakdown.

Not with the Upside Down sitting on a literal time bomb.

They couldn’t wait.

They had to set it off.

Steve couldn’t come home with them.

Eddie expected a bigger funeral.

Steve was Catholic. Well, his parents were Catholic.

Steve told him he didn’t believe in God. Not anymore. Not after all of this.

Eddie didn’t either.

They held the service at the Roane County Cemetery Church.

Hopper paid for the funeral.

He paid for the grave marker.

The Harrington’s didn’t show.

Their house went on the market almost as soon as the news of Steve’s death traveled in Hawkins. Some spin from the military about being too close to the metal sheets. How that everything is fixed now, sorry about your golden boy.

Eddie stops by the grave marker often.

Sometimes when he needs to cry. When he needs to vent. Or he needs to scream.

He goes anytime he wants his best friend.

The one he left behind in the wormhole they destroyed.

The one he couldn’t save.

Robin left as soon as she could.

She couldn’t talk to Vickie. She couldn’t talk to her parents.

She refused to talk to Eddie.

He knows she doesn’t blame him. They both know as soon as she thinks of Steve, she’ll be a broken dam. The reservoir never depleting.

He’d be the same if he spoke to her.

Dustin is angry. He’s angry at Eddie. He’s angry at El. He’s angry at his mom. He’s angry at Mike and Will and Lucas.

He’s angry at Steve.

Mostly, he’s angry at himself.

His temper has been short with Steve for ages. They broke into a fight in the rainbow room, and barely apologized after the first near death occurrence with the exotic matter.

Eddie thinks Dustin blames himself. That he should’ve calculated the tower crashing sooner.

That he should’ve gave the signal quicker. That he should’ve known that the tower wasn’t going to line up with the rifts.

Eddie wants to tell him that Steve would hate to know that Dustin’s blaming himself for his death.

But Eddie can’t find the strength to say Steve’s name.

So here he stood in front of a grave marker for an empty plot with a sunflower and a paper bag.

“Hey, sweetheart.” He laid the flower on the flat grave marker. “We miss you. I miss you.”

Eddie looked up at the blue sky, barely a cloud above him. A day where Steve would’ve forced Eddie outside for some sunlight. Teasing that it was good for Eddie, until Eddie’s red skin reminded them they forgot sunscreen.

“It’s — uh — the anniversary, again,” Eddie said. “Of the day that I didn’t die. Last year we celebrated with burgers. Thought we could do the same again this year.”

Eddie sat down next to the marker, like Steve was actually there.

“You know,” Eddie dug into the paper bag, pulling out a single cheeseburger. “You told me that we’d get out of there once this was all said and done. I just —“

Eddie let out a wet laugh.

“Wondered when you’re gonna keep up your end of the deal.”

Eddie looked over at the marker, as if he expected it to speak for Steve. He wondered when this would start hurting less. He ran his fingertips over the words below Steve’s name.

Beloved son, brother, friend

Over time his internal machinations turn lascivious. If they showered together, would Eddie let him condition it? If he yanked on it, would Eddie moan? If Eddie's face lowered towards his naked lap, would it tickle the insides of his thighs? Could Steve pull on it, guide that smart mouth over his dick, slide his length past those full lips, over that wet tongue..?

Steve snaps back to himself, almost dropping his pencil. Where the hell is this coming from?

As if math wasn't bad enough, Eddie now suffers Phys. Ed. with Steve too. Previously he’d observe from afar, feigning nonchalance during rallies and matches. But now he's up close, certain that Satan is torturing him with this kit. The shorts make Eddie’s spindly legs look like cooked spaghetti, but do the exact opposite for Steve. His are tanned, muscular, strong, and they look so long…

At night Eddie thinks about those lengthy limbs straddling him, trapping him in place on his bed. Is he on his belly? Face up? He'd take anything. Then he imagines he's the one on top, those strong legs wrapping around his waist, pulling him closer, Steve gasping and begging him to go faster, deeper…

Dragged to The Hideout by Tommy for his fake ID, Steve’s unexpectedly present for Corroded Coffin's performance. He's fascinated as Eddie plays, fingers manoeuvring his pick and flying over his fretboard so fast Steve can't keep up. He's rapt by their dexterity, flexibility, and how fucking long they are…

Steve imagines them doing other things, fantasises about them pressing down onto his tongue, wrapping around his cock, maybe slipping into places Steve's never explored before, wondering quite how far they might reach…

Eddie avoids swimclass, feigning a chest infection – easy, given his Camel habit. But now he's forced to watch Steve in fucking Speedos with zero distractions, and observe repeated displays of him holding his breath. Eddie’s salacious mind turns to how advantageous that could be, like how far he could stuff his dick down that glorious neck while Steve splutters and gags around him. Or how he’d push his face into his pillow to muffle his moans as Eddie thrusts into him from behind…

They're both longing for something they think they can't have. But a year later, as reluctant friends and with the world threatening to end, they're trudging through a haunted-ass forest not knowing whether they'll make it out alive. After banter, sly touches and intense eye contact, they decide… fuck it.

Steve crowds Eddie against a decaying tree, helping him drop his jeans. As Steve kneels and swallows him down, Eddie experiences just how long he can go without needing to breathe. Eddie immediately returns the favour. Using his talented fingers, they wrap easily around Steve's length, reach places deep inside of him that he'd previously only read about, and are dexterous enough to coax heavenly sounds from him that he's never made before.

They say no more about it, until everything’s over. Until Eddie's recovered, and Steve's discovered through Robin that it's okay to like both. Until, months later, they open their hearts and confess, which is easily as terrifying as defeating interdimensional monsters, but thankfully has brighter consequences.

Steve moans as his legs wrap around Eddie's hips, and Eddie almost cums when his hair is pulled. After they've enacted various other fantasies, including Steve pinning Eddie and showering together, Eddie’s locks are soft and Steve's thighs become Eddie's pillow.

Much later, they realise they don't want this to be a short fling. Together, they decide that they both want whatever they have to last for a long, long time…

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A/N: Title taken from the Led Zeppelin song, not related to the lyrics at all I just wondered how many more times the doofuses could notice each other before they actually did anything 😄