‘87 was my year,baby! To be born, not graduate, I’m not THAT old. AuDHD. Very Tired™️ millennial and full of brain squirrels I’m not your mom. 🔞 MINORS DNI 🔞 seriously. I’m on the internet to get away from my kids.
Lets get the nitty gritty details out of the way, ok?
AAA threat (Ace, Autistic, ADHD). I am a salty salty bitch. Pretty sure it’s the ‘tism, but I will hold a grudge forever. I am a millennial. Yeah, I’m worried about me too.
I have, for some reason made the decision to start writing fanfiction. Results TBD.
writing tag: #cici writes
Stranger Things / Steddie
A Door, Closed - Complete, G
They'd done it. All of them had survived Vecna and closed the door on the terrible Spring Break of '86.
Yet, not all of them had made it through unscathed, and you know what they say about life closing doors...
P1 / P2 / P3 / P4 / P5 / P6 / P7-End / A03
Of Monsters & Men - WIP, T (currently)
There have always been monsters; some have just been more suited to handling them than others.
Steve was a Witcher. He'd suffered and bled for a world that spat upon him. Walking the Path he'd chosen, he soon finds himself with new company and challenges never before seen.
Ch1 / Ch2 / Ch3 / Ch4 / Ch5 / Ch6 / Ch7 / Ch8 /Ch9 / Ch10 / Ch11 / Ao3
In the Morning - Complete, T
Steve “serves” Kas!Eddie in lieu of being eaten/killed upon capture.
based off the Westly/Dread Pirate Roberts story in Princess Bride.
Prologue / P1 / P2 / P3 / P4 / P5 / P6 / P7 / P8 / P9/ P10 / P11 / Epilogue / Ao3
Life After You - Complete, T
Songfic. Or inspired by a songfic?
Eddie needs to get home and tell the man he left behind that there would never be anything better; fame would never match the joy he experienced at his side. He learned the hard way that there was no life without Steve.
P1 / P2 / P3 / P4 / Ao3
The Nanny AU
Successful. Handsome. Widowed. Steve Harrington has it all, except a nanny who lasts more than three days.
Enter Eddie Munson: recently dumped, extremely unemployed, and definitely not here for a childcare interview.
Look, he's got questionable style, a strange flair, and he's there.
That's how he becomes..
"Pilot Episode" - G, Complete P1 / P2 / AO3
"Episode Two" - G, Complete Here / AO3
"Episode Three" - G, Complete Here / AO3
The Bloom Cycle
Growth is never clean.
Before the greenhouse, there were matches. Before the roots, there was fire.
A collection of interwoven stories tracing the fractured paths of Eddie Munson, Steve Harrington, Robin Buckley, and how they came to intersect.
Some things survived, and others grew anyway.
This series includes:
Bloom & Break - Complete, T
Hard to believe that when Eddie set a couch on fire (allegedly) and got dumped on the doorstep of the hottest antisocial plant man he's ever seen, it would grow into something he'd rather die without.
Steve never wanted a roommate (one that breathed, anyway), especially one who insists on giving him increasingly annoying nicknames and leaves a trail of glitter everywhere, like a snail at a rave.
He excelled with all kinds of things that grew, but love turned out to be a new kind of invasive species.
P1 / P2 / P3 / P3.5 / P4/ P5 / P6 / P7 / P8 / P9/ P10 / P11 / P12 / P13 / Epilogue / Ao3
The Couch Knew What It Did, T, Complete Here / AO3
Eddie wasn't trying to get evicted, he swears.
After The Fire, During The Burn - T, Complete --P1 / P2 / AO3
Steve didn’t ask her to stay.
Robin didn’t wait for permission.
In the aftermath of fire and silence, something began to grow.
There Goes the Neighborhood- G, Complete Here / A03
The greenhouse has rules. Boundaries. Bite reflexes.
Then the boy arrived, loud, chaotic, snack-laden, and completely unaware that every living thing in the greenhouse wanted him gone.
So naturally, he stayed.
And now the plants are having a crisis about it.
The Charmer and the Fool, T, Complete Here / AO3
Before the greenhouse. Before Steve. Before any of it.
Eddie meets Honey when he’s young, half-wild, and already burning too hot. What starts as praise curdles into control, and he's not the only one who likes to start fires.
Root Rot, T, Complete Here / AO3
Before the greenhouse, before the wild boy with too many opinions and nowhere else to be, there was a lab. A name. A man who said he was hollow and tried to fill him.
This is the part of the story no one talks about—the root system beneath the bloom.
The rot he had to burn through to survive it.
Background Noise, G, Complete Here / AO3
Before the vines and the headlines, there’s Robin: little-genius ears, a hardware-store oracle, a bench that gossips in silence, and a microwave that taps out. She doesn’t chase rumors—she hunts weird sounds
Brainworms
De-aged Party, Tunnels, Injured Steve
The Nanny AU- P1 /P2 / P3 No style, no class, a certain flair. How the heck did Eddie become the nanny?!
Poison Ivy / Harley Quinn Steddie - It just works too well,y’know?
headers, dividers, all by the amazing @saradika-graphics
tumblr header by /@eddywoww, isn’t it just soooo pretty?
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Hello! We are back for another fun filled adventure in this lovely story! Here we have the plan!
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 | Part 15 |
~
Will was back in the Void and he wasn’t sure how he got there. He looked around but there was nothing. Literally nothing to see or hear or smell. Just darkness.
‘William Byers,’ the voice said echoing throughout the blackness. ‘The coddled son of a drunk and a whore. You brother is a creep and your friends barely tolerate you. You wanted so much for them to play that game with you but they had girlfriends and that was more important than you. Then the moment you were gone, they turned around and joined a club that played that game every week, proving it wasn’t the game or the girls it was you. They’ll never accept the real you. The one you whisper in your sleep about.’
Will looked around frantically but still the darkness persisted. ‘My mom isn’t a whore and my brother isn’t a creep!’
Laughter echoed around him. ‘Your own mother who had been dogging your step every day since you were brought to me abandons you the moment she found out that that drunkard policeman might still be alive. My, my she certainly has a type. Has he started hitting her yet? Or is he waiting until he puts a ring on it to start smacking her around? And as for your brother, caught taking pictures of a girl getting undressed. But at least she was into that.’
‘Stop it!’ Will yelled. ‘Show yourself you coward!’
‘Am I the coward?’ Henry asked finally appearing to Will. ‘Or is it you? You’re so afraid that once you tell your little friends about your little crush on your best friend, they’ll be disgusted. Revolted. You’d be reviled. Shunned.’
‘They accepted Robin,’ Will defended hotly.
‘Did they?’ Henry said tilting his head to the side. ‘They don’t respect her like they used to and they won’t respect you either.’
‘I’m not afraid of you,’ Will shouted. He rushed to attack Henry but was stopped, dead in his tracks.
‘No,’ Henry said with a smile. ‘You’re afraid you’re just like me. That you crave destruction, you want to see the world burn. After all what has the world given you that didn’t hurt? An abusive father, a mother who couldn’t hold it together, a brother that cares more about getting high or getting laid then he does you, a best friend who will never return your feelings, bullies left and right, but I gave you strength and purpose.’
‘No!’ Will cried, trying to get to him but he found he couldn’t move at all.
Henry walked up to him and caressed Will’s cheek. ‘Look at you, so fragile and pale. The sickly child. But you can destroy worlds and I gave you that.’
Will struggled, but he couldn’t move and there was nothing around them for him to grab to throw at Henry.
‘I don’t want the world to end,’ he insisted. ‘Even if I’m sad and lonely that doesn’t mean that everyone should be punished for that.’
‘Why not?’ Henry sneered. ‘Don’t you want to see your bullies’ bodies littered at your feet, your friends bowing down to you, and you king of them all?’
‘That’s your dream, Henry,’ Will growled. ‘Not mine!’
‘Submit to me, Will,’ Henry purred. ‘Together we could remake world into our perfect image.’
Will stopped struggling and looking into the pale blue eyes of this monster and realized that Henry was afraid.
‘Why do you need me?’ he asked for the first time. It wasn’t the first time he thought about it, but it was the first time he voiced it out loud.
‘Everything requires a balance,’ Henry explained. ‘And I need light to balance the dark. You are perfect.’
The earth shook under their feet–
Will woke up with a gasp, he looked up to see Jonathan bending over him in concern.
“Hey,” he murmured. “It sounded like you were having a nightmare.”
Will sat up and then scooted back so he was flush against the arm of the chair. “Something like that yeah. But I think I got a better idea about what Vecna wants and why.”
~
Will called the group together and explained what had happened in his dream.
“So you think Henry has to have a second person controlling the Upside Down and that’s what he was doing with the kids?” Hopper asked, his brow furrowing in confusion.
Will nodded. “Something about balance. I think that whatever the Mind Flayer is, it needs order and chaos to thrive.”
“So why not one of us?” Titus asked. “We have the same abilities as he does, why not just take one of the Numbers?”
“Because you guys are made,” Lucas said bitterly. “He wants someone like him. I think he would have chosen Kali if she hadn’t ran away. But once she did she was dead to him.”
“Hence why the kidnapping of kids,” Murray said darkly. “He started with the two hunters but they were too dangerous, so he moved on to kids. But none of them worked. None of them until Will.”
“So the Upside Down didn’t give Will powers?” Joyce asked, her arms crossed over her chest.
Will shook his head. “I think I’ve always had powers but they didn’t manifest until a couple of days ago.” He started counting off on his fingers. “I can read minds, use telekinesis, but I think that unlike Ollie, Henry’s ability is to control ice. That’s why fire hurts them.”
Dustin nodded. “Makes sense. And I’m betting that because he picked you, that your element is similar if not exactly the same.”
Will nodded. “Yeah. I’ve always liked it cold. Even before the Upside Down but especially after.” He paused and looked down at feet. “There’s one more thing.”
“What’s up, Will?” Mike asked, tilting his head.
“It’s not guilt he feeds off of,” he muttered chewing on his lip. “Or rather, not just guilt. But fear too. Anything you’re afraid of he can latch onto because it gives him strength in the Upside Down.”
That sat ill among the Party. Everyone was afraid of something and to learn that Henry could control them that way.
“So in the spirit of that,” Will said, taking a deep breath, “I think if we shared our darkest fears, then they’ll be shared and he’ll less ammunition to control us.”
They all kind of looked around at each other, uneasily.
“And I’ll go first to make it easier on everyone,” he continued. “I’m gay. I’ve always been. I think even as a child there was always so much about me that was different from everyone else. But it took moving out to California and seeing myself in new light. It also made me realize I was in love with my best friend.”
Mike looked up at him and gave him a smile. “Terrible taste really.”
El smacked his chest, but she smiled up at Will too. “I’m sorry you didn’t feel like you could tell me about liking boys and liking Mike specifically.” Then she wagged her finger. “You can’t have him.”
Will gave a watery little chuckle. “It’s okay, I’ve made my peace with that. It’s still fresh, still raw. But I think he’ll always be my Tammy Thompson.”
Robin’s lip quivered and she gave him a thumbs up. “To all the first gay crushes who are terrible, may they live in infamy.”
Steve choked and looked away, folding his arms over his chest. “So, yeah. I’m pretty sure I like both at this point.”
“Ooh...” Lucas crowed. “Now you have to tell us your terrible first crush was!”
Steve’s eyes went wide and he shook his head. But it was no use, they wouldn’t move on until Steve told them.
“Jonathan,” he coughed, turning a bright shade of red.
Almost the entire group roar in disbelief, just the numbers and the adults either didn’t care or weren’t surprised respectively.
“What the fuck, man?” Jonathan asked pained.
“I don’t want to talk about it, okay?” Steve insisted. “But for the record it wasn’t in high school. It was after.”
“I’m not sure that makes it better,” Nancy said, shaking her head.
“Oooh!” Dustin said with a grin. “You realized you were attracted to guys because of the yoga guy in the mall, and then after the mall burned down you got a crush on Jonathan because he was the closest in age to you in the Party!”
Steve buried his head in hands.
“Oh my god!” Max crowed. “He’s right, isn’t he!”
“Can we move on to everyone talking about their fears please...” Steve muttered. “I think that would be less embarrassing then this.”
That caused everyone to burst out laughing even the Numbers. Then they went around and talked about what they feared most.
Finally everyone had gone around and discussed their fears and wants for the future and while some of the awkwardness of Steve’s statement lingered in the air, it seemed everyone else had moved on.
Jonathan came up to him after, and Steve let out a pained sigh.
“Can we please forget this ever happened?” he pleaded.
Jonathan laughed. “No. Because I get it. I’m not like that, but Will is and I can see why you had a crush on me. But I have a feeling that the crush only lasted until...oh, I don’t know...March of last year perhaps?”
Steve turned an even brighter shade of red. “Don’t tell anyone. God. He–”
Jonathan put his hand on his shoulder. “Oh, I absolutely wasn’t gonna. I’m not sure who would attempt your murder first, Mike or Dustin.”
Steve let out a shuddering breath. “Oh Mike all the way. Dustin would think it was cute for all of five minutes and then he’d murder me.”
Jonathan laughed. “Yeah, that sounds about right. But if you need to talk about it, I’m willing to listen, okay?”
Steve let out a shuddering breath, but nodded. It was why he had a crush on the guy in the first place. He was lot nicer to him after Nancy had broken up with Steve than Nancy had been. And had stayed that way over the years.
They walked back together and when they arrived at the main group they saw Will talking to Derek.
“Are you sure she can send me to the other kids?” he asked about El.
“Yep,” Will said, handing him Nancy’s necklace. “You’ll be able to convince Holly you’re one of us.”
“But this is tangible,” he said, rearing his head back. “The Nothing is all in the mind.”
Will huffed a laugh at the kid’s name for the Void, but he nodded. “That’s true, but like your map as long as you hold onto it you’ll have it there, too.”
Derek nodded. “Okay, I’m ready.”
Erica, Vickie and Titus were going to be the ones to standby and watch him and then get the kids to safety.
Titus wasn’t needed for the final battle because they had El, but he would be useful in getting the kids to safety.
Robin and Vickie had already said their goodbyes.
“Let’s put this bastard in his grave,” Hopper growled, “like he should have been all those years ago.”
Woohoo!! We are back with the indomitable Wayne Munson and the answer to a lot of Steve's problems.
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 |
~
Turned out that Wayne Munson was in town to more than just visit his nephew. He was preparing to move back to Hawkins after ten years away. He had moved back to take care of his family farm when his mother passed away and had been there ever since.
“I hope you’re not moving back here because of me,” Eddie said as they had lunch in the canteen.
“No,” Wayne said bluntly. “I can’t say it’s not a perk, but being out on the farm and working from sun up to sun down for ten hard years I realized it was a prison that I had built for myself, so I’m selling it. A third will go to Al and third will go to you as per your Grammy’s will.”
Eddie scoffed. “It’s not like it’s gonna be that much anyway. But good on you.”
“Ed,” Wayne said gravely, “that property was estimated at $1.7 million just two years ago. And with the improvements I’ve made since, I’m getting offers for at least twice that.”
Eddie’s jaw dropped. “Holy shit. I wouldn’t know what I would do with that much money.”
Wayne shrugged his shoulders. “Buy a nice house wherever you wanna go, kid. It’s real life changing money.”
He thought back to his band first, about getting them into a studio somewhere, chase fame and fortune.
Then there was a burst of laughter from the front of the house. Steve laughing at some ridiculous thing that Robin had said and he knew exactly what he wanted to spend the money on.
“What if I wanted to create a work program for just out ex-cons so that they could learn new skills and be able to rejoin the work force?”
Wayne smiled. “I think that’s a great idea, Ed. You got lucky landing here where they’ll help you with that stuff. But how many other ex-cons have that luxury?”
“Not many,” Eddie said. Then he explained to Wayne the problems the Hope House was having because they couldn’t people in power to give a shit.
Wayne rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “Well I do need a job, and I’m more than a dab hand in the kitchen. I could help out here and see you every day.”
Eddie’s eyes widen and started to well up. “Oh god, that would be amazing! I just don’t know the linguistics of even getting the ball rolling on that.”
“Well, let’s go talk to your boy, and see what he says,” Wayne said, wiping his mouth on a napkin and standing up.
“Uncle Wayne!” Eddie protested hotly. “He’s not my anything except landlord!”
He paused and then held up one finger. “Maybe friends, but definitely not anything more than that!”
Wayne laughed. “You keep telling yourself that, but I’ve seen the way you look at him.”
“God, I hope no else has noticed,” Eddie grumbled.
They walked out to the reception area where Joyce was standing there with a little girl who didn’t look more than eight or nine, but that could just have been how emaciated she was. It was clear that they had tried to scrub the dirt off of her but she was still filthy. Her head had been freshly shaved and wore an over-sized t-shirt that read ‘Benny’s Diner’. On her feet were unlaced combat boots that were too small for her feet.
“We don’t know what her name is or where she came from,” Joyce was explaining to Steve. “She doesn’t remember her name and what’s even more frightening is the number eleven tattoo on the inside of her wrist. We can’t even make an accurate guess on her age because of her severe malnutrition.”
Steve knelt in front of the little girl. “Is it all right if I call you Ellie?”
The girl looked at her wrist and then nodded. Steve rubbed the top of her head fondly. Chrissy came out of the supply closet with a bright red bag with an elephant shooting a rainbow from its truck on the front.
Ellie’s eyes went wide. “Is that for me?”
“Sure is, sweetie,” Chrissy murmured as she knelt down next to Steve. “I made my best guess for your sizes, but if anything doesn’t fit, just come knock on my door or Robin’s.” She pointed to Robin who had been at the reception desk this whole time and Eddie had just missed it.
Wayne and him shared a glance.
This is exactly what Eddie had looked like when he showed up at Wayne’s door, garbage bag in hand, tears in his eyes.
“Do you want to come with me to get a bath?” Robin asked Ellie, holding out her hand. “You can pick the shampoo and conditioner you want, bubble bath too!”
“What’s a bubble bath?” Ellie asked as she took Robin’s hand, allowing herself to be lead away.
“What’s a bubble bath?” Robin parroted back. “Why only the best thing to happen to baths since the Romans!”
Ellie giggled. “What’s a Roman?”
Everyone sputtered and gasped at that nugget of information. Just how long had she been out of the school system if she didn’t know who the Romans were?
“That’s gonna be a fun one,” Steve said with a grimace straightening up. “I’ll make sure she starts on simple foods with very little spices or seasoning to make sure we don’t upset her stomach.”
Joyce nodded. “It’s going to be a long road to be sure. I think what bothers me the most is how trusting she is. Judging from the state of literally anything else about her, I would have expected her to be more leery of everyone.”
“You’ll also wanna make sure you jot down everything she eats in case she’s allergic to something,” Wayne said.
Steve smacked his head. “Oh gosh! Yes! Absolutely! Especially since allergies can crop up at anytime. Thanks!”
Joyce blinked at him for a moment. “I’m sorry, who are you?”
“Oh, I’m sorry,” Wayne said rushing forward to put out his hand for her shake. “I’m Wayne Munson, Eddie’s uncle. I know a little bit about that sort of thing, when I had to take him in.”
“Oh!” she said, taking his hand and shaking it. “It’s nice to meet you. I’m Joyce Byers, I’m the primary case worker for the kids here.”
“Now there’s a thankless job if ever there was one,” he remarked.
Joyce melted. “Well, I appreciate you saying that.” She turned to Steve. “Just call me if you need anything.”
Steve nodded.
Then he turned back to Eddie and Wayne. “You enjoying being back in Hawkins, Wayne? However briefly?”
Wayne looked at Eddie and then back at Steve. “Well, that’s actually the thing. I’m moving back to Hawkins to be closer to Ed. I’m getting too old to run a farm by myself and the only people who show up are so-called ‘cowboys’ who wear the uniform but have never met a cow in their life.”
Chrissy snorted. “I’ve met those people, yeah. I’m sorry you’re giving all that up. What’s going to happen to your farm?”
Wayne explained the plans he had just gotten through talking to Eddie about. “So, I’ll have a little money to keep me comfortable while I find a stable job and a place to stay.”
“That must be so nice,” Joyce said wistfully. “I’m just sorry that comfort comes at such a high cost.”
Wayne waved away her concerns. “Appreciate it, ma’am. But to be honest my mom was pretty sure the farm was going to be sold in my life time anyway. That’s why he gave it to me so that it would be given to the one brother how gave damn about legacy and not sell to the highest bidder.”
Joyce smiled and then turned to Steve. “I’ll be back in a couple of days to check on the girl.” She bid everyone goodbye and then left.
Chrissy just shook her head. “I really don’t know how she does it, but I’m grateful for her every day.”
“I’ll drink to that,” Steve said, picking up Robin’s coffee mug and taking a sip.
She wrinkled her nose. “I still don’t understand how you two can drink that stuff. It’s basically coffee flavored creamer at this point.”
Steve just grinned at her. Then he turned back to Wayne. “Benny, Eddie’s boss has a spare room if you want, until you can find some place of your own.”
“I’d be mighty grateful,” Wayne agreed. “I could stay in a hotel, but I won’t have much money until the sale goes through.”
Steve nodded. “Yep. I feel that. I’ll grab you his number and get it to you before you leave.”
Wayne chuckled. “‘bout that... I hear you’re looking for a cook to help around here.”
Steve and Chrissy shared a look of amazement.
“I’m sorry, come again?” Chrissy asked, cocking her head to the side.
“You need the help,” Eddie said with a grin, “and he needs a job. Might as well kill two birds with one stone.”
Steve blinked at him for a moment. “Uhh... yeah. Okay. Chrissy can you get him the paper work so he could fill it out.” He turned to Wayne. “I can’t make promises that you’ll get the job as it’s little more complicated as it does get government funding. But I’d be more than happy to have another hand around here. Especially with us just getting Ellie. This is the start of what we call around here, the sad season. When teachers and doctors who are mandatory reporters start seeing kids on a regular basis...”
“And reporting the abused and neglected kids?” Eddie finished with a grimace. “I didn’t even realize. But yeah, October-November was when I was put in Wayne’s care.”
“That’s also when we get the most people on wait lists for rehab,” Chrissy said as she walked around to the reception desk and opened a drawer.
“What’s the max you’ve had here at a time?” Wayne asked, crossing his arms in front of his chest.
“Four adults and seven kids,” Steve said mirroring his pose. “But that’s us at half capacity. Mainly because there is only three of us doing everything.”
Wayne cocked his head to side. “What would be the dream staff situation?”
Steve starting counting off on his fingers. “A full time cook, a cleaner, two to three more people in charge of the guests. And barring that, at least one person to help me on the adult side. It can get pretty scary when it’s just me and four dudes that if they banded together would absolutely kick my ass and there would be no one felt to be able to stop them from harming Chris or Robin or any kids we had here at the time.”
Chrissy shook her head. “I’d tack on a trained on site psychologist and physician, too. Because there are times we just aren’t trained to handle the night terrors and other medical issues that crop up for the types of people who need emergency housing.”
“That makes sense,” Eddie said with a sigh. “But this place isn’t big enough to house all that.”
Chrissy and Steve shared a glance and Steve echoed his sigh. “That would be the thing. We would convert a third of the rooms for staff, limit the amount of adults to five and the amount of kids to eight, then we’d be fully staffed for everything that could come at us.”
“So why haven’t ya?” Wayne asked. “I know about the Harrington Trust so why not use it to remodel this place and get the staff you need?”
Steve leaned heavily on the counter. “Because I feel like I’m abusing my mom’s money.”
Eddie and Wayne’s jaws dropped to the floor.
“Holy shit...” Eddie whispered as he finally pieced together all the things that everyone had said about this place the handful of months he had been here. “You never directly said that the Harrington Trust was setup by your mom. I mean I should have made the connection. But, dude you have to spend that money. That’s what she wants it used for... unless...”
Steve frowned for a moment before he got Eddie’s implication. “No, she’s still around.”
“So talk to her,” he urged. “Find out what she wanted the money spent on and then talk about you want the money spent on and see if you can’t find a middle ground.”
Steve straightened up a little. “Yeah. Okay.”
Chrissy cheered and even Eddie and Wayne celebrated.
It was time to turn the Hawkins Hope House into the Harrington Hope House. Because it was needed.
Needed to help everyone it can. Not just the people the system threw at them.
Hey, all! We are rushing to the end of this lovely story and in this one we have a whole chapter dedicated to the Oscars!
Enjoy!
Chapters: 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 |
~
Eddie was preparing his speech to the media about what an honor it was just to be nominated for the Best Actor award, because he sure as hell wasn’t going to win and he knew Steve was doing the same. There were three genres shunned by the Oscars: fantasy, comedy, and horror.
They might get cinematographer or even editing, but they sure as hell wasn’t going to win any of the top awards. They were nominated for all but Best Actress. In addition to Steve’s Best Supporting Actor; Brenda Roberts was nominated for Best Supporting Actress, Dustin was nominated for Best Adaption of a Screenplay, Robin for Best Director, and of course Best Feature Film.
But hell, winning one of the eight awards “Dancing in the Dark” was nominated for was asking for a miracle at this point. A lot, and Eddie did mean a lot of industry pundits were betting against them from winning anything.
So because he was absolutely going to lose, he decided to go avant-garde for his outfit tonight. A shimmering silver mesh peasant shirt unlaced, under a black motorcycle jacket and tucked into silk tuxedo pants. He wore matching silver shoes and lots and lots of bangles and baubles around his neck and wrists.
Eddie stepped out on to the red carpet and smiled prettily for the cameras. This really was his least favorite part of being an actor. Just looking pretty for the people. Most days he felt like a performing monkey made to do whatever.
He waved at the fans, squinting to avoid the hot Los Angeles sun and was grateful when he was finally inside and shown his seat. Their group was seated roughly together, with Robin, Steve, and their editor on one row, and Eddie, Brenda, and Dustin on another. And of course seated right behind Robin and Steve was Jonathan and his plus one: Nancy Wheeler.
Because they were able to get ahead of her story, her own editor killed before she even submitted the first draft. So she was currently trying to suck up to Jonathan to see where the leak came from. So Jonathan, who knew full well who it was, decided to bring her to the Oscars to show her that you didn’t have to be gay to play gay.
Eddie personally thought he was stupid and thinking with his dick instead of his brain, but he wisely said nothing as the comedian got up to do their spiel about gold statues and poor people.
The lesser awards were first. Best Editing and Best Cinematographer.
“Jonathan Byers, ‘Dancing in the Dark’!” cried the two middling, male actors into the microphone.
Everyone clapped him on the back as he squeezed past them, Robin standing to give him a hug.
He got up to the stage and let out a breath. “Oh god. This is an honor. I want to thank my mom, the ever indomitable Joyce Byers for believing in me. My brother Will for cheering me on, and of course Robin Buckley for giving me a chance to film this amazing movie and thanks to all the cast and crew who made this possible!” He raised the award and then shambled off the stage to waiting wings.
Then it happened again for Best Editing. Their editor went up there and gave a really sweet and impassioned speech about how privileged she was to have been apart of something so amazing, so great.
But then they had an hour wait until it was Steve’s turn for Best Supporting Actor. They listened to the pretty speeches, the bad jokes, and the music starting far too soon for a lot of people.
“...Billy Hargrove ‘Light of an Alaskan Dawn’ and Steve Harrington ‘Dancing in the Dark’,” the female presenter said into the microphone. She opened the envelope and grinned into the camera. “And the award goes to, Steve Harrington, ‘Dancing in the Dark’!”
Steve sat there in complete shock. There was no way. Robin had to push him to his feet and toward the stage. Their whole section was on their feet, clapping and cheering him on.
He stumbled up the stairs and took the statue from the pretty presenter on the side. He walked up to the microphone and the actress excitedly congratulated him on his win.
“When my best friend in the whole world told it was time to get back into acting in front of a camera I told her she was crazy,” Steve began. “But if you know Robin Buckley, crazy is her mantra for life. She handed me a script and said that I was the only one she had in mind for Sean. Her faith in me was absolute even if I had to prove myself over and over to everyone else. But I made it. This is for all the child actors that got chewed up and spat out by their parents, their agents, and the industry. This is for you!”
He held up the statue and was quietly lead away to the press corp for questions.
“Steve!” the first person yelled. “First congrats on winning for Sean! How does it feel right now?”
“I’m feeling like on the top of the world right now,” he replied a little breathless.
“And what do you say to all the haters who said you’d never make it here after being outed as gay as a teenager?” the second person asked.
Steve looked over and smirked. It was Veronica Stiles. “Absolutely nothing to say. They don’t deserve the breath it would take to say something that would probably be above their intelligence level.”
“Follow up question if I may,” she said sweetly. “Do you think your movie will sweep the Oscars tonight?”
“Only if there is any justice in this world,” he said solemnly and then he was being asked other questions about his next movies and what he thought about the streaming verse theater debate before he was finally allowed to go back to his seat.
Just in time to see Eddie win Best Actor. Eddie sat there for a moment in absolute shock, tears streaming down his face.
Steve pulled him to his feet and gave him a hug, whispering, “You deserve this.”
Eddie nodded and made his way up to the stage. He took the award and then stole the envelope from Barb Holland who had won Best Actress last year. He looked at it for a moment and then handed it back.
“Sorry, I just had to check,” Eddie huffed into the microphone. “People have read out the wrong name before and I wanted to make sure it was mine on there.”
The audience laughed.
“So the first thing I want to do is say,” he continued, “Christine Cunningham I am absolutely coming for you, you told me not to prepare an acceptance speech and now I have to BLEEP wing it.” He giggled. “Oops, sorry! I hope you were able to bleep that out in time. But I want to thank Robin Buckley for giving me this chance, Steve for putting up with my shit behavior. Sorry, darlin’! To my uncle Wayne who believed in me, I thank you from the bottom of my heart.”
He paused and the music started to play. “And I’m gay.”
The music cut off abruptly and the audience went dead silent.
“I know that had I been out prior to winning this award,” he said holding up the trophy, “it would have gone to Billy Hargrove. Not because he was the better actor, but because he was the straight one. So I told myself that if I won tonight, I would make history. So this is for all those gay actors who never won because who they love and for all the gay actors still in the closet so they can continue to work and get accolades. I’m here, I’m queer and I am not going away.”
He nodded and then walked off the stage, brushing past everyone on stage.
Steve and Robin looked at each other stunned. Neither of them had known he was going to do that. Steve just hoped that at least Chrissy did, because otherwise she was going to kill Eddie and that would be a waste of a man, honestly.
~
Chrissy was waiting for him in the wings with a huge hug. “You did so well, darling!” She kissed his cheeks. “Now, I’ve already told the press that they would be getting your formal statement and you’ll do a proper press junket tomorrow, so no questions about your sexuality.”
Eddie nodded and went to the Variety couch and sat down.
He looked around but he found that they were all too stunned to speak. Then he caught the eye of one of the interviewers.
“Veronica,” he said with a grin. “I know you’ve got a question or two for little ole me.” He winked at her and suddenly the tension in the room vanished as the room burst out in laughter.
“Hell yeah I do,” she replied with an even bigger grin. “You are two awards away from taking the night for ‘Dancing in the Dark’, you didn’t think you winning was possible, so what do you think your movie’s chances are to sweep the rest of the awards?”
Eddie cackled in delight. “I’ve never been a betting man as my daddy always was a gambler, but to hell with it, I’ll take those odds. I say we’re going all the way. We’re nabbing Director and Picture tonight, so you doubters can suck it!”
“What’s next for you?” another reporter asked.
“I am taking some well deserved time off,” he murmured. “And then I’ve got a vampire romance coming up with the absolutely divine Samantha Stone. She’ll be the vampire and I’ll be her thrall. It’s a nice twist on the classic tale.”
They moved onto other topics, but even Eddie could see they were all chomping at the bit to ask about him coming out as gay like he did.
Because it wasn’t just about coming out, though that was a pretty big deal. It was how and when he came out that shocked everyone.
And whoo boy did he mean everyone. He saw the looks on Steve and Robin’s faces. They were happy for him, but they never expected that. And if he was being honest with himself, he liked that. The fact that no one knew.
As he was walking off the media couch he heard, “And the winner goes to...” it was announced over the comms in the back, “Robin Buckley, ‘Dancing in the Dark’!!”
Steve and everyone else was literally jumping out of their chairs. That was seven out of the eight. Never has a horror movie won Best Picture since ‘Silence of the Lambs’ in 1991. There had only been a half dozen horror movies even nominated for the award.
Robin walked up the stairs and nearly fell on her face but was rescued by heartthrob and genuine nice guy, Nick Stone, twin and long time collaborator to actress Samantha Stone, who caught her before she could face plant on live television.
She giggled when she finally made it to the microphone to give her speech. “Wow. First I want to thank Nick for not letting me bleed all over this dress. It’s rented.”
The audience chuckled.
“Of course, I want to thank my father, Rick Buckley, without whom this movie wouldn’t have been possible,” she breathed, trying not cry. “My best friend, Steve Harrington who brought Sean to life with such richness. Eddie Munson whose selfless act in giving up his salary to help get my film over that last hurdle and finally to my tireless crew, this is for you!”
She raised the award and saw Eddie waiting in the wings for her. She paused as she waited through the torture of them listing off TEN movies nominated for Best Picture.
The two of them held hands as the final film was listed.
“And the Oscar goes to...”
“Whatever happens,” Eddie said, “seven out eight is damn impressive.”
“Oh my god,” the presenter cried in the microphone. “‘Dancing in the Dark’ Robin Buckley, Dustin Henderson, and Rick Buckley!”
Robin’s head snapped up. “There’s no way!”
Eddie just cackled and pushed her out on the stage, following her close behind. They were met on stage by Rick, Steve, Dustin, Jonathan, Brenda, and their editor, Miranda Fonda all went up on stage.
“Well, damn it,” Robin huffed. “I only wrote the one speech!”
That earned a laugh from all those in attendance. “So I’ll just say thank you to the Academy for allowing our little love letter to the genre to sweep the awards tonight. I know that comedy and horror are tough movies to judge and to have it feature to gay men, made it even harder. So thank you.”
She stepped back and her dad stepped forward. “Thank you to all those who worked tirelessly on this film the ones that would never get nominated. All the crew, PAs, and craft services that help keep a production running. You are heroes in your own right.”
He then let a couple others give speeches before they were led off stage.
They all did the press circuit and the final question was again from Veronica. “Who gets to take home the statue for Best Picture?”
Rick leaned forward and said into Robin’s mic, “Me. They all got one of their own, and I don’t!”
The ‘Dancing in the Dark’ crew laughed and so did Veronica. “I think that’s fair trade.”
Robin rolled her eyes and pushed her dad out of the way. “Yeah, yeah, I guess.”
They all went out to celebrate their once in a life time achievement at the Variety after party. Everyone coming up to them and congratulating them about their wins.
Steve sidled up to Eddie sometime in the middle party. “I think it was brave, what you did tonight.”
Eddie blushed and ducked his head. “I wanted to come out on my terms and I hated that I had to hide who I was to keep getting roles because I was having tea with Mr. Tumnus.”
Steve burst out laughing. “Yeah, I just wish I had gotten the same opportunity.”
“Yeah,” Eddie huffed, turning around and leaning against the bar. “But look at all the roles you’ve gotten since you’ve come back, though? Yeah, you’ve had two gay films, but the rest?”
Steve let out a shuddering breath. “I’ve been really lucky, haven’t I?”
“Hell yeah you have,” Eddie murmured. “I hope I’m as lucky as you are, honestly.”
Steve bumped their shoulders together. “You’re super talented, Eds. They’ll be knocking down your door.”
“That is if I don’t get the Best Actor Oscar curse,” Eddie replied with a snort.
“That’s not a thing, Eds!” Steve laughed, shoving Eddie’s shoulder playfully. “Just trust me, you’ll do fine.”
“All righty, Stevie boy,” Eddie huffed. “I’m putting all my trust in you. Don’t let me down.”
Here we are at the penultimate chapter. Just one more chapter to go.
Now I'm not saying this is how it should have gone in the show regarding the championship game and the D&D finale, but this how it would go sans Upside Down bullshit.
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 |
~
Steve woke up the next morning to a warm, sleepy boyfriend wrapped around his middle and couldn’t have been happier. He ran his fingers through Eddie’s hair until he woke up.
“Morning, sweetheart,” Eddie murmured, his voice rough with sleep and not misuse. “What are you doing awake so early on a Saturday morning?”
Steve laughed. “Eds, it’s almost eleven!”
Eddie snuggled closer. “It’s a sin to be up before noon on a Sunday, I’ll have you know.”
“According to whose religion?” Steve scoffed, but snuggled into Eddie.
“The Munson Doctrine,” Eddie replied sleepily, already back to half to sleep. “Best religion there ever was.”
Steve kissed the top of Eddie’s forehead. “Whatever you say, rockstar.”
Eddie lifted his chin and kissed Steve on the lips. “Shush, now. It’s sleepy time.”
Steve wanted to get up but Eddie was so warm and soft, he fell asleep too.
When they woke up again it was after noon and this time Eddie willingly let Steve get up to pee and brush his teeth. Eddie following after to do the same.
They practically joined at the hip when they wandered sleepy-eyed into the kitchen.
Which was probably why it took Steve a minute or two to recognize his best friend sitting on the counter with a cup of hot chocolate in her hand and smirking at them.
“Did someone forget they were going to take me to work today?” she asked innocently, batting her eyelashes over the rim of the mug.
Steve scoffed. “No, you don’t work until one, and it’s barely after noon. And before you get all smug or whatever, nothing happened between us other than getting together. We were both tired after last night and so he stayed over.”
“Mhmm,” she murmured. “Hello, Eddie. You break his heart, I break your knees.”
“‘Ello, Robin,” Eddie muttered back, finally dislodging himself from Steve side to start the coffee. “I can’t promise never, as I am but a mere mortal, but I will endeavor to minimalize such agony.”
Robin blinked at him for a moment. “You’re such a dork. I like you.”
Steve huffed out a laugh. “Thank you, your majesty.”
Robin attempted to bow but nearly fell off the counter. He just shook his head. After all he had known she was a dork from the beginning and she was still his best friend.
“I aim to please,” Eddie huffed rolling his eyes. “I am trying to teach Stevie here the ways of the perpetually lazy and sleeping in on Sundays.”
Robin snorted. “Good luck, he’s had years and years of having to get up at the ass crack of dawn to stay in shape for his numerous sports he was in.”
“Don’t worry, baby,” Eddie cooed. “I’ve got time.”
And Steve went bright red as Robin cackled.
After they had their ‘brunch’, as in lunch that was more like breakfast, Eddie kissed Steve on the lips and said goodbye.
Robin waited until she heard the front door click shut. “So Eddie Munson... is cute?”
“Fine,” Steve said with a pained sigh. “Yes, Eddie Munson is cute. And hot. And sexy. And most importantly, my boyfriend.”
Robin let out a squeal of sheer joy and set her mug down to give Steve a flying tackle of a hug. Steve caught her deftly and swung them around.
Once he finally put her down, she kissed his nose. “I’m happy for you dingus, but I really do need to get to work now.”
Steve laughed and went to go grab his keys and put on his shoes. He locked the door behind them and drove her to work.
“So...” she said, wagging her eyebrows. “How did you two get together?”
Steve told her about the campaign the night before and how he basically got to DM with a little bit of help from Eddie and how they talked afterwards, leading up to the kiss.
“Pair of dorks the both of you!” she cackled. “That is the sweetest, most romantic thing ever. I’m insanely jealous you got a boyfriend only months after figuring out like guys and I’m still girlfriend-less after literal years.”
“I kept telling you you were on borrowed time,” Steve said, sing-song. “That I was going to bag me that man.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Robin said pained. “At least I’ll get sit next to the pretty redhead for marching band.”
“Ask her out!” he crowed. “I’ve told you my ‘Fast Times’ theory and I’m saying I’m still right!”
“I’ll tell you what,” she said, turning in her seat to face him. “If the basketball team wins the championship game, I’ll ask her out.”
Steve stuck out his hand and said, “Deal.”
Robin eyed his warily but shook his hand. She thought it had been a good bet, but Steve was too wildly chipper to think that anymore.
She sat there and brooded in silence until they got to Family Video.
Steve waved at her with a shit-eating grin as she walked into the store. What information did he have that she didn’t?
~
Lucas came running up to Dustin and Mike in a panic.
“The best most awful thing has happened!” he whined.
“Uh...” Mike said, sharing a glance with Dustin. “I don’t think I understood a word of that. Say it again.”
Max turned around from where she was at her locker. “What the idiot is trying to say is that the basketball team won last night so they get to play in the championship tonight. Which is at the same time as your nerd game.”
Mike and Dustin stared at Lucas in shock.
“Come on, man,” Dustin whined back, “you can’t possibly be thinking about going to the basketball game instead of the actual finale of the Cult of Vecna? What are the chances of you being allowed to play?”
“Oh next to none,” Max snarked.
“But not zero,” Lucas insisted. “Come on, it’s a once in a life time opportunity!”
“That you’ll get three more times,” Mike countered. “Yeah, you can’t control the team or what everyone else does but you’ll have three more years of being on the team. This is the last session for Hellfire this year. Steve only gets one more day to host before the club is forced to stop for the year. Plus with Eddie, Jeff, Brian, and Danny all graduating this is the last time we’ll be able to play with them as a club.”
Lucas looked at them, pained. “But Spring Break starts this weekend we can do it all tomorrow or even later in the week, this is one night only.”
Dustin and Mike shared another glance.
“And you’ve got to ask Eddie to move it for me, please!” Lucas asked, clutching his hands together.
“Oh hell no,” Dustin growled. “We aren’t doing your dirty work for you. If you want him to move the session last minute, you ask him yourself.”
“I know!” Lucas said, waving him off. “I’ll ask Will to do it for me!”
Will who was walking up to their lockers with Gareth, paused and blinked at them. “Ask me what?”
Mike looked over at how the two other boys were standing and frowned. He opened his mouth to interrogate his best friend about the interloper when Lucas blurted out, “I’M IN THE CHAMPIONSHIP GAME TONIGHT AND I NEED EDDIE TO MOVE IT!!”
Gareth and Will shared a glance and burst out laughing.
“Ah hell nah,” Gareth said, shaking his head. “You want something from Eddie. You do the asking. Stop trying to pawn the responsibility off on your friends.”
Lucas looked down at his shoes and scuff the floor with his heel. “It’s just that back in September that first session he said he would only accept emergencies and this isn’t that...”
“That’s true,” Will said sagely. “But you won’t know until you ask.”
Lucas nodded. “It’s just I didn’t want to see the disappointment on his face because I know him and Steve have been working so hard on this finale, but I also never thought we would make it to the championship game. Like when I joined the basketball team back at the start of the year, they were pretty much trash. But then Jason Carver came along and really turned the team around and now we’re here and I don’t want to miss it.”
“You might have to,” Mike warned him. “It’s pretty short notice and there are nine other people to take in consideration. And that includes your sister. She was really looking forward to playing with us tonight.”
“Oh,” he breathed. “Well shit.”
He had forgotten literally everything else in the rush of winning the game last night that there was more riding on the Cult of Vecna finale then just beating Vecna once and for all. There was the resolutions of all their character arcs, Mike’s in particular.
All year he had been working on getting Kas on to their side to betray Vecna and turn the tide of battle, defeating him once and for all, and to see that finally come to fruition was going to be monumental.
“Okay...” Lucas said and then the five minute bell rang scattering everyone to their first class.
~
At lunch Lucas sat at the table with the rest of Hellfire barely picking at the lunch his mom gave him. He didn’t even look up when Eddie went on his tirade about conformity killing the kids and how being forced to choose a sport or get good grades to fit in was a losing proposition for everyone.
When he sat back down and began munching happily on his pretzels he looked over at the kid and kicked the leg of Lucas’s chair and leaned down to look him in the eye. “Hey, who pissed in your Cheerio’s this morning?”
Mike and Dustin shared a glance and grimaced.
“The basketball team is playing the champion game tonight...” Will said solemnly. “He really wants to go and support the team, but with the finale at the same time...”
The older Hellfire Club members let out a roar of outrage saying that Lucas should want to do D&D and not basketball.
Eddie licked his lips slowly. If this had been before the freshmen and their babysitter arrived on the scene, he would have absolutely sided with the guys.
But this was after and he could see that it was utterly tearing Lucas apart.
The freshmen started arguing back, protecting their friend from the onslaught of the older teens.
“SHUT UP!” he yelled. “Everyone just shut up!”
The entire table went dead silent.
“Who is going out of town for Spring Break?” he asked coolly.
Everyone looked at each other as no one raised their hands.
“Does anyone have plans for tomorrow?” he pressed. “At anytime during the day?”
Again he was met with a lack of a show of hands.
“Then that settles it,” he declared hitting his hand on the table. “We will all go cheer Lucas on at the basketball game, then tomorrow we will have all day to play the finale and not worry about having to cut it short for the kiddies having to go home to bed.”
Lucas looked up from his sandwich, eyes wide and mouth open. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing.
“All in favor?” Eddie asked, raising his hand.
All the hands went up.
“The motion has been carried unanimously,” he said solemnly. “When does the game start, Lucas?”
“Oh!” Lucas cried in shock. “At 7pm here at the high school.”
“Then we’ll meet here at 6:30 to make sure we can all get seats together,” Eddie said.
Everyone agreed and then Gareth asked Will a question about his wizard and the table moved on.
Lucas caught Eddie’s eye and mouthed, ‘Thank you.’
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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.”
Phew! I almost forgot to schedule this! It's been a hell of a week! But welcome back! This story is also complete so here we go!
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 |
~
Steve sat in the courtroom just behind Max. They had gotten lucky that they had gotten a different judge, one that might listen to her about what she wanted.
And the judge had sneakily postponed the hearing until after Max’s twelfth birthday, as well. to make sure she had the best outcome for the hearing.
Steve had already liked the guy, but after this he hoped that everyone of his charges got Judge Bob Newby going forward.
“Let me understand, Miss Fraser,” Judge Newby said dryly, “your client wants her violent and abusive ex to take custody of her twelve year old daughter, is that correct?”
“That is an over-exaggeration, your honor!” Miss Fraser huffed. She was Sue Hargrove’s lawyer. She was public defender, but she was good at what she did.
“This man has a rap sheet that is longer than my arm,” Judge Newby barked back. “His own son was removed from his custody three times for abuse. It’s an accurate depiction, counselor.”
“The law is for reunification,” she pointed out primly.
“At my discretion,” he said firmly. “And frankly sending Max Mayfield back to her former stepfather’s care is a death sentence I refuse to give a twelve year old.”
“Your honor!” Miss Fraser protested.
“I am awarding temporary custody to the state of Indiana,” Judge Newby said, ignoring her protests. “And I am requesting that Mrs. Hargrove take a good hard look at the future she wants to give her daughter and give up parental right all together. This in and out of prison is not good for the welfare of the child and as I understand it your client won’t be able for even parole until the child is eighteen, is that correct?”
“Yes, your honor.” Miss Fraser sat down hard. She knew she had lost.
Sue looked back at Max in the gallery and then back at the judge. “I’ll sign away my rights right now if you have a pen and paper.”
There was some quiet muttering from the gallery.
“Are you certain, Susan?” Miss Fraser asked. “You don’t have to do this. We can continue to push of reunification.”
Sue shook her head. “No. I need to do this. The judge is right. Max deserves every chance to excel and she can’t do that with me as her mother.”
Miss Fraser nodded and took out the appropriate document. She handed it to Sue, who promptly signed at the bottom after a quick scan to make sure it was the right one. She handed it to the bailiff who then brought it to Judge Newby.
“The court thanks you, Mrs. Hargrove for your sacrifice,” he said solemnly. “The custody of Maxine Mayfield will be released into the hands of the Hawkins Hope House until further notice. The next hearing will be in two months to decide where she is to be placed. Court dismissed.”
Steve and Robin leapt to their feet cheering while Max just sat there in stunned silence. She couldn’t believe it. She wasn’t going to Neil’s. She was going to stay with Steve for at least two months.
As her mom was being lead away to be taken back to prison, Max ran to her and hugged her tight. “Thank you!”
Sue kissed the top of her head. “Come see me once in a while, yeah?”
“I’ll try,” Max murmured and then allowed Steve to pull her away.
“Take care of my baby,” Sue told Steve.
Steve nodded and then led Max away, back to where Robin was waiting for them.
“Let’s get some ice cream to celebrate!” Robin said, tussling her hair. “I’ll call the Hope House and see if Chrissy could bring Dustin for a little cheering up too.”
“Do we have to bring him?” Max whined. “He’s either super mopey about his dad dying or he’s talking about D&D, there is no in between.”
“Be nice,” Steve admonished. “He’s just trying to get you interested in what he likes.”
“It’s boring,” Max said bluntly, crossing her arms in front of her chest. “The only good thing about that stupid game is that it means Lucas comes over all the time.”
Robin and Steve shared a surprised glance over her head. That was certainly a new development.
“How about a compromise?” Steve suggested. “We go out for ice cream and bring Dustin, Chrissy and Eddie some after we’ve had ours?”
Max tapped her lips for a moment, cocking her head to the side. “That is acceptable. We get the treat first and they don’t get mad at us.”
“Great!” Robin said, clapping her hands. “I’ll give the House a call and find out what they want and I’ll meet you guys at the car!”
“Sounds great!” Steve said and steered Max toward the car, both of them happily chatting about the outcome of the hearing.
They didn’t have long to wait before Robin came bursting out of the courthouse. She ran over to Steve’s car and yanked open the passenger seat, sliding in.
“Move it, dingus!” she huffed. “Max’s mom’s lawyer is on a war path and she gunning for you and me.”
Steve let out a pained sigh and shifted into gear, pulling out of the parking lot. “What did she want?”
“She tried to say that the cessation of parental rights was invalid because it was obviously done under duress and she was going to sue us and Judge Newby,” Robin explained.
Max scoffed in the backseat. “That’s just bullshit! It was the right thing to do! She just wants to try to squeeze more money from Mom and Neil.”
Robin whipped around to look her in the eye. “Wait I thought Regina Fraser was a public defender.”
Max shook her head. “Maybe she started out that way, but nope! Neil’s been paying her for awhile now.”
“Well that explains why she was pushing so hard to have Neil take custody of you!” Steve crowed. “That bitch!”
Robin mumbled her agreement. “She can’t win of course, especially since Sue wouldn’t pursue it. Neil might but it would be tied up for months even years and hopefully by then you would have been placed with a family all your own.”
“I wish Steve could adopt me...” Max muttered under breath.
Robin and Steve looked at each and shook their heads. They wished that too. But they doubted that the state would allow her to stay at Hope House not with all the coming and goings of people of every stripe.
“Me too, Maxie,” he murmured back. “Me too.”
~
They arrived back at the Hawkins Hope house just before dinner, bringing ice cream for the people at the House and burgers for all.
“I’m not sure I can eat burgers from elsewhere,” Eddie said as Steve handed him his, “it might be a conflict of interest or some shit.”
Robin snorted. “As if we would get shakes and burgers from anywhere but Benny’s? That would be a sacrilege.”
Eddie opened up his burger and then nodded. “Rightly so.”
Steve handed out everyone’s burgers, handing Max hers last. “Here you go, Miss Californian Girl. One Cali burger just for you.”
Dustin peered over Max’s shoulder to see what the fuss was about.
“I just like it this way,” she huffed, taking a bite and smiling happily.
Dustin looked at her burger and then over at Eddie. “So what’s in it?”
“It’s one patty with Colby Jack cheese, sliced avocado and Chipotle ranch,” Eddie said with a shrug. “It’s pretty popular, so Benny keeps it around.”
“But that doesn’t sound like a burger at all,” Dustin protested. “Where’s the ketchup and the American cheese? The tomato and mustard? You can’t go wrong with a classic!”
Steve looked over at Robin and lifted his eyebrow at her. “You want to tell him your burger order, Missy.”
Robin stuck out her tongue at him. “It’s just cheese, ketchup, and mayo. No veggies at all.”
“That’s horrible!” Dustin complained. “At least Max has a vegetable. What is wrong with you people?”
“I like mine with caramelized onions, lettuce, pepperjack cheese, and ranch,” Chrissy said with a shrug. “I think everyone has different preferences and that’s okay.”
But Dustin didn’t want to let it go. “What about you and Eddie?” he asked rounding on Steve. “What are you burgers like?”
“Oh, mine’s an everything burger,” Eddie said with a grin. “Lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles, three different cheeses, two patties, and drenched in all the sauces, ketchup, mayo, mustard, relish. Oh and for an extra punch I throw on three slices of bacon just to get that extra crunch.”
“That is the most unhinged thing I’ve every heard,” Max said with her eyes wide. “That’s wicked!”
“I have ketchup, mayo, mustard, cheddar cheese, and bacon,” Steve said with a shrug. “I don’t like warm veggies that should be cold.”
Dustin threw his hands up in the air. “I give up with you lot. None of you are normal!”
“Sounds great to me,” Eddie said around a bit of burger. “I never wanted to be like anyone else. Like sure, finding people who like the same things I do is good, because everyone needs a tribe, but pass me on that conformity bullshit.”
Dustin blinked up at him for a moment. “So you’re saying it’s good everyone likes something different?”
“Right in one, kid!” Eddie said ruffling his hair.
Dustin turned a bright pink and it took every ounce of will power Steve had not to giggle.
~
Steve was running out of time for Max. He needed find someone who would be willing to foster her so that he could start the process of being made her official guardian. And he only had two weeks to do it.
But the people he trusted to not traumatize her further couldn’t take her in at this time and he just couldn’t leave her to the system.
Far too many foster parents were only in it for the pay check they got for taking the kid in and that meant abuses that would make the Geneva Convention gasp in shock and horror.
The one good thing that had come out of the whole mess so far was that no judge would hear Regina Fraser’s lawsuit against the Hawkins Hope House for manipulating Sue Hargrove into giving up her rights to Max.
“And you’re sure Joyce can’t take her?” Chrissy asked for the billionth time.
Steve shook his head. “For the same reason I can’t. Conflict of interest. And if I don’t find someone willing to take her before school starts, Judge Newby will have no choice but to put her in the system.”
“That’s just bullshit,” Robin cursed. “You should be able to keep her here! This is where all her friends are! Which is amazing, she’s making any to begin with!”
He let out a pained sigh. He knew all this. He had been letting it rotate in his head like a washer stuck in the spin cycle. But he didn’t have anymore answers today then he did almost five months ago since Max had been brought to the House.
Just then the door opened, the bell above heralding the man’s arrival.
He was in his mid to late forties with weathered appearance of a man who had worked hard his whole life and loved every minute of it.
“Hi!” Steve greeted cheerfully. “I’m Steve and welcome to Hawkins Hope House. How can I help you today?”
The man chuckled. “Oh good, I have the right place. Hi Steve, I’m here to see my nephew.”
Steve frowned, he didn’t remember Dustin having an uncle. Because then he would have been placed in the man’s care instead of here.
“That’s sweet,” he said instead. “Can I get your name please?”
The man burst out laughing. “He said you lot were tight lipped, but I guess I never really put much stock in it.”
Steve’s frown deepened. He was even less sure about this whole thing with each passing moment.
“I’m afraid we have to be,” he explained. “We get some battered spouses and abused kids we don’t want to give any information to the wrong person and get them hurt or worse.”
The man cocked his head to the side. “That is very wise. And no doubt a lesson learned the hard way.”
“Sad but true,” he acknowledged solemnly.
Just then Eddie came tearing down the stairs. “I thought that was your truck!” he cried, running straight into the arms of the old man.
It was slowly dawning on Steve who this was.
“What are you doing here, you old rascal?!” Eddie said pulling back from the hug to look the man in the eyes.
“I’m here to see your scaly white ass,” the man huffed.
“Uncle Wayne!” Eddie crowed, confirming it for him. “There are civilized people present!”
We are back! And this story is complete and will be 17 chapters.
In this we have a batch of award shows, but not the Oscars yet. And we met the incredible Joyce Byers.
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 |
~
“Take the glasses off!” “Take the glasses off!” “Take the glasses off!”
The press was relentless as Steve walked down the red carpet at the SAG Awards. He was in a simple black tux with an off-white vest and priest collar shirt.
He was still sporting his cut from ‘Black, No Sugar (Unless it’s You)’. It was a faux-hawk with frosted tips and he could tell from the reactions that people were not liking it.
He just smiled and waved at the fans who had shown up to see him, glasses firmly on his face. It was only once he got past the media and to the fan line up did the glasses come off.
A fan ducked her head and blushingly said, “I like your glasses.”
Steve grinned at her and tapped her pink tortoiseshell glasses. “Me too.” He signed her photograph and moved on to the next fan.
He finally got into the venue feeling a little stretched thin. He looked around and let out a pained sigh. He didn’t see Eddie or Elise anywhere. They were all seated together, but he couldn’t see them in the densely packed crowd.
The crowd parted and Steve let out a little gasp. There was Joyce Byers. She recently done a sequel to a Tim Burton movie and she was nominated tonight. She spotted him and made a beeline straight for him.
Steve frozen where he was. Someone as famous as Joyce Byers knew who he was. This was more terrifying than any audition ever.
“Steve Harrington,” she asked, cocking her head to the side. “Right?”
“Yes, ma’am,” he managed to croak out. “I don’t think there is a person in this room who doesn’t know who you are.”
She blushed and waved her hand at him. “Flatterer!”
Steve raised an eyebrow. “Yeah, that’s not hyperbole or an exaggeration and you know it.”
Joyce’s smile went from shy to sly. “So all the rumors that you’re just a dumb bunny aren’t true, noted.”
“My parents have tried a lot of things to sully my name,” Steve said with a shrug. “That one was the one that stuck.”
Her face and shoulders fell. “I did hear about that, honey. I’m so sorry about how you were treated. I’m glad you were able to overcome all that and still act. I’m not sure I would have had that been me.”
He smiled at her. “All thanks to Robin Buckley and her parents. Owe them so much.”
“Richard was such a charmer back in the day,” Joyce said wistfully. “And Robin definitely gets that from him.”
“And she knows it,” Steve said with a grin.
“I just want to congratulate on that absolutely sublime of a film you did with her,” she said with bright smile, putting her hand on his forearm. “If they have any sense in their head, all three of you will win tonight.”
“Thank you for that,” Steve said, positively beaming. “We all know that there is very little sense in Hollywood. It’s practically embedded in its DNA.”
Joyce laughed. “That certainly true. But there was another reason I came over. Are you familiar with the film critic, Nancy Wheeler?”
He frowned. “A bit. She was the one who broke the story of my being caught in the back of a limo with a producer back in the day. I don’t have very fond feelings toward her for that. Even if she thought she was doing her job.”
She nodded grimly. “She’s friends with my Jonathan and I happened to overhear an argument they were having over her next article for Variety.”
“Uh oh,” Steve said darkly. “That can’t be good.”
“No,” Joyce said with a grimace. “She’s writing a piece about how only people of LBGTQ+ people should play those roles and that in this day and age actors don’t have the ‘problems’ getting non-gay roles these days, therefore they should just come out.”
Steve let out a pained sigh. “Going after Eddie for not being gay and going after me for playing to ‘type’ in the same breath. That is some extra kind of fuckery.”
“Agreed,” she murmured. “I was looking for Eddie to tell him, but I spotted you first. Jon was really upset about it, especially since I’m currently dating Jim.”
“So he was looking out for his mom’s boyfriend,” Steve surmised. “Because that kind of backlash would absolutely blow back on the movie itself.” She nodded. “Thanks for the heads up. I’ll pass it along and let my agent know we’ll need to get out ahead of this.”
“Of course,” Joyce murmured. “I’ve told Jim and if you tell Eddie then we can all avoid this unpleasantness.”
Steve thanked her and then set off for where his seat was supposed to be, and thankfully Robin and Eddie were already there.
He gave each of them a hug as a greeting but when he hugged Eddie, he whispered, “There’s something I need to talk to you about of the ceremony.”
Eddie just nodded and they all sat down for the award show, Steve sitting between the two of them.
The lights dimmed and the comedian hired to host immediately started in on the jokes. Making everyone they could vaguely uncomfortable and being asinine.
Steve grimaced through the butt jokes about a couple of queer movies including their own. He really hated those kind of jokes because there were plenty of people on both sides of the aisle that enjoyed it and making it a joke only served to further stigmatize it from someone who might actually enjoy it from trying it.
First up was Steve for Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture.
“And the winner is...” said the rail thin blonde who looked only vaguely familiar. “Steve Harrington- ‘Dancing in the Dark’!”
Eddie and Robin were pounding on his back and congratulating him. He went up to stage and took the award from her.
“Wow,” he breathed. “There are a lot of awards worth having, but I think the greatest one you can get is when your own peers see the work you do as worthy. So thank you. Also thank you to my best friend and best director an actor could ever dream of, Robin Buckley, my co-star Eddie Munson, you make my work better just being who you are, Richard Buckley for giving me the chance, and to all the cast and crew who all came out of this movie with a hatred of Karo syrup and red dye.” He raised the award and then repeated, “Thank you!”
There was thunderous applause and he was carefully lead away as someone slipped into his empty seat.
He was brought back stage and the award was whisked away and he was given a heavier actual award that he was told to get engraved later. Then he was shoved in front of cameras and interviewers as they shouted questions at him.
“What do you say to rumors that you are dating your co-star, Eddie Munson?” was the first shouted question.
Steve burst out laughing. “God, if you believed every rumor about Eddie’s dating life, he’ll have had seventeen boyfriends and forty-two girlfriends in the last three years alone. Give it up, guys. He’s never going to come out and tell you who he’s dating and frankly, you won’t hear it from me either.”
“That’s not a no,” the interviewer said wagging their eyebrows.
“It’s a ‘none of your business’,” Steve insisted.
“Steve!” another interview called. “What’s next for you?”
Steve looked over and smiled. It was Veronica Stiles. The interviewer who had threatened to eviscerate anyone who asked him the hair question again.
“I’ve got a busy and packed schedule coming up,” he said with a smile. “I just wrapped up ‘Black, No Sugar’ with Jim Hopper and I’m on my way to play video game heartthrob and swashbuckler Billy the Blackheart. Then if all goes well you might be seeing me in tight spandex soon.”
“Oooh...” Veronica cooed. “Any hints on who it might be? Like DC or Marvel?”
Steve just smiled and shook his head. “My lips are sealed.”
There were a few more questions and then he was allowed to finally go back to his seat, award in hand.
Eddie shook his shoulder in excitement and grinned back at him.
There were a few more awards and then it was time for Best Leading Actor in Motion Picture. Steve reached out and took Eddie’s hand. Win or lose, Steve would still be proud of Eddie’s work on the film.
“And the winner goes to...” the presenter said, tugging at the envelope. “Gosh, they sure do seal these things tight.”
Eddie’s knee started jumping up and down from the sheer amount of suspense.
“And the winner goes to, Billy Hargrove- ‘Light of an Alaskan Dawn’!” she screamed.
There was a bunch of clapping and Eddie looked up at the camera as it passed over him, his disappointment evident on his face. Billy’s movie was pure awards bait and everyone knew it. It was an one-man epic about a man struggling with depression during the six months of no light in Alaska and how like the sun, he eventually came back around.
Steve leaned over and whispered something in Eddie’s ear that made him burst out laughing just as Billy passed them.
Billy shot the two of them a dirty look, but wisely said nothing as he got up to give his acceptance speech. He spoke about how meaningful the movie was and how grateful he was for the opportunity.
Steve wanted to gag, it was all too much. And likely too fake, too.
The music began as Billy waffled through his speech, so he raised his award and then was led off stage.
Robin gave them a strange look, but continued the rest of the show ignoring them.
She cornered them both and demanded to know what Steve said to Eddie that made him burst out laughing.
Steve shook his head. “I’ll tell you after I tell you what Joyce Byers told me before the show, because wooboy are we going to need something light to brighten the mood.” And then he explained her warnings.
“Did you hurt Nancy Wheeler in a former life or something?” Eddie asked with a scoff. “Dated her brother? Something, anything.”
Steve actually grimaced. “Not her brother, no. But our parents were friends and they set us up, I think her parents thought that dating a movie star would get her into places she wouldn’t have otherwise. Then when she cheated on me with...” he let out a pained sigh.
“Jonathan Byers,” Robin finished for him. “Though in Jon’s defense, she told him they had broken up when they had sex. They even dated for awhile before Jon found out about the cheating.”
“Holy shit,” Eddie hissed. “I would have dumped her too. My uncle always said never date a cheater because how they got you is how they’ll get the next one.”
Steve nodded. “Yeah, that what he said his mom said, too. Then of course Jon leaving her was my fault so she stalked me for awhile to try prove that it wasn’t her fault she cheated.”
“Oof,” Eddie muttered shaking his head. “So what, is she anti-LQBTQ now?”
Robin snorted. “That would hypocritical of her considering she’s got her own girlfriend, but it’s more that she’s gone down the leftist rabbit hole of only disabled people should play disabled people, trans people should play trans, gay should play gay... etc.”
Eddie’s eyes went wide. “It’s dickheads like her that made that one British actor come out as bi after playing a bi teenager. Like the kid was barely seventeen at the time but he was forced to come out just to stop the harassment.”
“Yeah,” Steve said with a nod, “and I think she’s smelling blood in the water.”
“Fuck!” Eddie said softly. “She’s not after you, she after me.”
Robin pursed her lips. “I’ll lunch with Bob, Chrissy, and Jim and see if we can’t form a unified statement.”
Eddie and Steve nodded.
“So what was it that you told Eddie that made such a scene?” she asked pulling her phone out of her purse.
Eddie and Steve shared a glance and then Steve said, “That he must have slept his way through the SAG-AFTRA voters.”
Robin blinked at them for a moment before nodding solemnly. “That tracks. The media likes to portray Stevie here as a slut, but I don’t think Billy’s gone to an event with the same woman twice.”
Steve grinned, feral. “They only do that because I’m gay and Billy’s straight. Trust me if the shoe was on the other foot, they would absolutely be painting Billy with the same brush.”
“True,” Eddie said. “At least a made a disappointing moment more fun.”
“Don’t worry, darlings,” Robin said, putting her phone away and then draping her arms over each of them. “There is always the Oscars!”
Hello, darlings! I am back and read to rock! I had a great hiatus, maybe not as peaceful as I would have liked due to family drama but productive nonetheless.
The purge went as well as could be expected. Rough. As it always is. If Tumblr would let me have more than 50 tags per post, I would keep you all. But alas.
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
~
Will knew he was the Void. That space between the real world and the Upside Down. Its appearance was based on the person in control of the memory.
And judging from the torn up version of the Upside Down, Vecna was absolutely master here.
‘Hello, William,’ the smooth voice of Vecna echoed all around him. ‘I knew it was only a matter of time before I got you where I wanted you.’
Will whirled around, but he couldn’t see anyone. ‘Show yourself!’
‘Now why would I want to do that?’ the voice purred. ‘You don’t need to see me to know that I am in control.’
‘You won’t win!’
Laughter filled the air. ‘But I already have. Eight is already out of the game and Seven refuses to leave her side. Nine is nearing empty as is your dear Eleven. And now that I have you, my victory is all but assured.’
‘Even if I die,’ Will spat, ‘they will still come for you.’
‘I don’t want you to die!’ the voice crowed. ‘What a horrible waste that would be?! You think you survived seven days down here because you were clever? Don’t make me laugh again! We had a deal, the Beast and I. It would help me take over the world above and he would have a successor in you.’
‘The Beast?’ Will questioned. ‘You mean the Mind Flayer?’
‘Is that what your primitive mind came up with? How droll.’
Will could see the edges of the Void shaking. It was starting to open up. He just had to keep Vecna talking to keep him distracted.
‘It’s from a game,’ he huffed. ‘Something I doubt you would understand. Did you ever have fun that wasn’t torturing your sister or kicking puppies?’
‘You think you’re going to guilt me about my sister?’ the voice said wryly. ‘Think again. She deserved to die. Just like my parents.’
‘Your dad is still alive.’
Suddenly Henry was in front of him, squeezing Will’s throat. ‘You lie!’
‘The music that has been keeping us from you?’ Will strangled out. ‘We learned from your dad, Victor. He’s at Pennhurst. He’s the one who told us that the record player saved his life by not allowing you to get inside his head.’
The veneer of Henry’s illusion was beginning to crack. His skin was nearly translucent and covered in red lightning, his blue eyes were glowing, and Will could feel the claws dig into his skin.
“What is it about music, Henry?’ Will taunted. ‘What is it about music that prevents your powers from working? Does it stop the incessant ticking of the clock? Does it truly soothe the savage beast?’
Henry roared and threw Will to the ground. He clutched his head as the music began to filter through to the Void.
Will scrambled back and pushed away from the now flesh monster that Henry had become. He just needed to find the exit.
Like Max had done twice now.
He looked around frantically. And then spotted it. He used his new found powers to push Henry back to give himself more time.
And then dove for it.
~
Will woke up with a gasp in the back of Hopper’s truck, surrounded by way too many people to be safe.
“Will!” Joyce called. “You’re awake!” She gave him a big hug and kiss on his forehead. “We’re heading to one of the four gates to try and take Vecna out from the Upside Down.”
He sat up and took a proper look of the people who where in here with him. It was two of the Hawkins Lab kids, Jonathan and Hopper in the front seat. Leaning against the glass of the back window of the truck’s cab, was Robin Buckley.
“Don’t you usually go where Steve goes?” he asked her in confusion.
She snorted. “We’ve been having to split up more and more as people figure out we’re kick ass as a pair.”
“Robin,” Joyce asked, pained, “you’ll pardon me for asking this, but why didn’t you go when you had the chance? I know your parents got permission to leave Hawkins, you could have gone with them.”
She shook her head. “I go where Steve goes, and if he stays I stay. Plus I was given permission by Harvard to take a year and not have it affect my scholarship.”
“But you don’t have to,” Joyce insisted. “The Buckleys are transplants to Hawkins. You have no ties to the town. You could have left.”
Robin snorted. “I’m Steve’s family. His parents are such dog shit that mine pretty much adopted him, so if he stays we all stay. We aren’t going to let him fight this alone.”
Joyce blushed and looked away. She knew of Steve’s circumstances, because pretty much everyone in town knew that the Harringtons had left Hawkins when the first evacuation alarm sounded.
Anyone of the adults could have taken him in. Claudia Henderson was the first that sprang to mind. The Sinclairs came next. But all of them assumed that because Steve was an adult he didn’t need their help.
Well all but the Buckleys it seemed.
Kali woke up just then, before Joyce could further discuss Robin’s reluctance to leave Hawkins even for her own safety.
“Guys...” she said a little panicked, “I know I haven’t been in town for literal fucking years, but um... does the sky seem like it’s closer than it’s supposed to be?”
They all looked up.
The sky in front of them absolutely was closer than it was before.
Well, fuck.
“It looks like the Upside Down is colliding with real world,” Nancy muttered darkly. “This isn’t good.”
“This is what Henry wanted the children for, isn’t it?” Joyce hissed. “He needs their energy to merge the two worlds and anyone older would be harder to control.”
“But the only way to get to the Upside Down is through a gate, I thought,” Titus said cocking his head to the side. “We don’t have access to one, and I don’t know how Eleven opened one in the first place.”
Will and Joyce exchanged a glance.
“We don’t know how either,” Will admitted with a wince. “And since One can only do it through using others, kinda suggests he doesn’t know how she’s doing it either.”
“Don’t think I didn’t notice that you were tossing monsters around,” Kali said, sitting up. “So what’s the story with that? Because there absolutely is one.”
“Oh yeah,” Joyce said nodding her head once. “It’s a doozy, but since we have to find away to get into the Upside Down, you might as well hear it.”
~
Steve rushed to El’s side and checked her pulse. She was alive, but her heartbeat was erratic and thready. Mike was there just an instant behind.
“We need to get her out of here!” Dr. Owens growled.
“But what about our children?” one of the braver parents cried.
Ted turned to her and put his hand on her shoulder. “This was a trap to lure this kind girl to be kidnapped like our children. So we’re going to have trust them to get them back.”
The woman looked up at the house and then she nodded. “We’ll just keep looking then. The police were absolutely useless so there is no point in going back to them with what we just saw. They’d only deny it.”
She turned to the other parents, sans the Wheelers, and said, “All right, this turned out to be a bust bu–”
Just then the door slammed open and four children came scrambling out of the house with two demodogs hot on their heels.
Suddenly there were two shot gun blasts that hit the two one right after the other, slowly the monsters down so the kids could escape into the arms of the parents out on the street. Steve managed to flame them before they got to their feet, Ollie making sure they stayed down.
“Where’s my mommy?” Teddy asked, looking around at all the faces in the crowd with a heartbreaking crack to his voice.
Karen ran up to him and put her arms around him. “She works, baby. You know she’s been worried sick about you. She’ll be so happy you’re safe.”
“I can take him to her shop!” Mr. Richards said, holding his own kids tight to his chest, his wife sobbing into their backs. “It would be my honor.”
Karen turned to Teddy. “You want to go with Mr. Richards to see your mommy?”
Teddy nodded and followed them out to their car.
Mrs. Tower held on to Bianca with everything she had as the two of them just sobbed in relief of seeing each other again.
One of the other parents came up and grabbed Bianca’s arm. “Where’s my Rosie?! Why are you here and she’s not?!”
Mrs. Tower was on her feet in an instant. “You leave her alone! She’s been traumatized!”
“Where is my daughter?!” the woman continued to scream. “Where is she?!”
Ted and one of the other dads rushed forward and pulled her off of Bianca as she continued to scream and kick her feet.
“I’m really sorry about this,” Dr. Owens said coolly. “But your screaming will absolutely bring monsters down on our heads if allowed to continue.” Then he slipped a needle into the side of her neck.
The woman collapsed in Ted’s arms and he looked at Dr. Owens in shock. “What did you give her?”
“Just a little something to calm her down,” Dr. Owens huffed. “I wasn’t expecting it to knock her out, if I’m honest.”
Ted and the other dad looked at each other and then woman in Ted’s arms. They both nodded.
“We can put her in the back one of the cars,” Murray huffed. “We really need to get out of here. Preferably before tall, dark, and creepy comes back.”
Dr. Owens walked over to El where she was prone on the ground. He gently turned her over and lifted her into his arms. “We need to get her somewhere safe.”
Mike came up to him. “There is a cabin that she’s been staying at. With the military forces in shambles thanks Kali and her friends–” Murray cleared his throat. “And Murray apparently, they’ll be busy elsewhere. Plus it has the best access to a pseudo deprivation tank in the form of a bathtub.”
Dr. Owens nodded. “You’ll be coming with me. Who else is coming?”
Vickie stepped up. “I’m training to be a nurse. I think I’ll be the most help with you.”
He nodded. “Anyone else coming with?”
“Me!” Max said, raising her hand. “I need to stay with her!”
There was no explanation given, nor did Dr. Owens ask for one. He turned to Lucas.
“What’s with the look?” Lucas asked defensively, crossing his arms over his chest.
“I’m waiting for you to tell everyone that you go wherever she goes,” he said primly, jutting his chin over at Max.
Max and Lucas grinned.
“Yeah okay fair,” Lucas said with a shrug. There was a beat and then, “I go where she goes.”
Steve just shook his head. He finally turned to the kid who had run out from behind the Creel house. “Okay, I think you and I need to have a little talk about running headlong into danger when you don’t have all the information.”
Dustin and Erica looked at each and snorted in derision.
“As if we haven’t been doing same thing since 1983,” Erica said rolling her eyes. “It’s like on brand at this point.”
“And I owe you ice cream for life for that little mistake,” Steve said, snapping his fingers at her. “And you were eleven!” He turned to the kid. “How old are you anyway?”
He muttered something under his breath that sounded vaguely like ten.
“Wait!” Erica huffed, crossing her arms in front of her chest and cocking her head to the side. “I know you, don’t I?”
The kid suddenly turned away and threw his hand up to cover the side of his face. “No!”
“No,” Erica said darkly. “I do know you. You’re that Tina’s little brother, Darren right?”
“It’s Derek!” the kid shouted, turning to face her. She smirked and he knew he’d been tricked into revealing who he was. “Shit.”
“Derek Turnbow,” Ted said cocking his head to the side. “You’re one Holly’s main bullies. I don’t know how many times Karen has had to go the principal because of you.”
Derek looked around him and actually saw the people who had caught him for the first time. What he saw a bunch of frightened parents and some battle hardened kids with a nerdy guy who had that look in his eye that made you cross the street to get away from. Then there was two other adults.
Those two were the real ones. One had a fucking flame thrower on his back and clearly had used one before and the other was a chick who from all indication was controlling fire. Like actual honest to God fire.
But he had also seen other people seriously tossing monsters around like rag dolls. So okay yeah, maybe these people did in fact know more than he did about Mr. Whatsit.
He sat down on the ground and crossed his legs. “So I don’t know how much you know, but I can only tell you what I’ve learned.”
“Well,” Steve said cocking his head to the side. “You best start yapping on the run, because this place will absolutely be teaming with monsters if this Vecna guy figures out how to open a gate.”
The parents piled into their cars and drove off with the unconscious woman, Ted and Karen took a walkie talkie off of Erica and were promised they would be kept in touch.
Ollie looked around and let out a sigh. “Looks like I’m coming along with this dog and pony show whether I like it or not. Lead on, MacDuff!”
They all walked off to get into the remaining vehicles. Steve turned back to see Derek still sitting there.
“Well come on,” he huffed. “Grab your stuff and let’s go.
Derek grabbed the paper he had been holding onto for dear life and hurried after them.
More Fairy Tales! Yeah, yeah, I know I’ve been doing a lot of those but here me out.
Puss in Boots. Now, I’m a little unsure of who should be be Puss, Robin or Dustin. I am leaning more on Dustin as Eddie is the supposed Marquis de Carabas.
Picture this, Eddie is left penniless after his mother dies and is left with a talking cat. A cat that offers him fame and fortune if Eddie provides him with a sack and a pair of boots.
Which Eddie finds weird, but okay, so what? He likes weird. So a sack and nice pair of boots, the two only real inheritance that he actually got, but gives them to the cat anyway.
So first Dustin goes out to Sinclairs and tells them that his owner, the Marquis de Carabas, wishes to trap on the ogre’s land, and is willing to give them one third all they trap if they help Dustin lay the traps.
Erica and Lucas, a brother and sister team who are great hunters agree. Dustin brings home one third to his master to eat and then final third he presents to the king as tribute from the Marquis.
Then he come to the Byers brothers who are great fishermen and tells them that his master the Marquis is a generous man who wishes to fish in these waters and is willing to let them keep one third of their catch if they fish for him.
They agree.
Dustin passes out the other two thirds same as before, the king very pleased with this Marquis de Carabas and talks him up to the Prince Steven about this is what a good noble is like.
Dustin goes to Hopper and asks him to make mead for the Marquis and in return he would get to keep one third of the mead to himself. Hopper agrees.
Again Dustin gives a third to king and a third to his master. His master is now living comfortably and really wants for nothing.
Then Dustin goes to the Wheelers. Nancy, Mike, and Holly are servants to the terrible ogre Vecna and Dustin promises them a third of the orge’s wealth if they tell Dustin all about Vecna.
They agree.
Dustin listens for three nights, tales of the ogre and his powers and then returns to his master every morning with these tales.
Eddie is happy with the food and drink but thinks the cat has delusions of grandeur thinking that Eddie could defeat this ogre and marry the prince but goes along with the plan for the next day anyway.
He goes out to swim as instructed and is happily splashing along when suddenly Dustin cries out, “Help! Help! My master the Marquis is drowning!”
Eddie who could swim well enough is confused until an actual Greek god dives into the river to save him and brings him to shore.
While Eddie is coughing and sputtering (not because he was drowning but because he’s face to chest of a very wet Prince Steven) Dustin explains to the King, Steve, and Steve’s driver, best friend, and advisor, Robin that Eddie or rather the Marquis de Carabas had been swimming in the gorgeous lake outside his castle he got pulled out into the fast flowing river unexpectedly. Only Robin narrows her eyes at this, but the king and prince are eating it up.
More to the point the Marquis’s clothes were back at his castle and he was very much naked and cold.
King orders Robin to dress Eddie in some of the prince’s things and let the Marquis warm in the carriage.
Satisfied that Eddie and Steve were safely ensconced in the carriage, Dustin ran on ahead to the castle. He stops at the Sinclairs and tells them to tell the pasting king that hunting grounds belong to the Marquis and how wonderful a master this man is.
They agree, knowing that if they say so, the arrangement will continue.
He does the same thing to the Byers, Hopper, and the Wheelers. Sing the praises of the Marquis and they will continue in their new found wealth.
And so they do.
Then it was time for the final part of the puzzle. Vecna is a fearsome ogre to be sure and Dustin is absolutely shaking in his boots (pun absolutely intended).
But he goes up to Vecna and butters him talking about his dense forests filled with game perfect for hunting and he wonders if the ogre could turn into a deer. Vecna bursting with pride does so.
“What a grand creature you are!” Dustin enthuses. And then butters up the surrounding farmland and asks if he can turn into a bull.
And Vecna does.
“Impressive!” Dustin assures him. Then he talks about the hives and the mead that flows like honey in his kingdom, and asks if he could turn into a bear.
Vecna does.
Dustin asks about the fish, but no. Vecna cannot turn into something that breathes water. But he does turn into a moose and Dustin nearly yelps in fear. The creature before him is even bigger than the bear.
“All large and magnificent creatures,” Dustin acknowledges. “But can you turn into something small like a vole or mouse?”
Vecna grins and turns into a mouse.
With all the instinct afforded to his noble species, Dustin is on the mouse-like form of Vecna in an instant, killing him from one breath to another.
Dustin tosses the dead mouse out the window and tidies up a bit, just in time for the carriage to arrive.
The King impressed with Eddie’s servants praising him, the large castle and all its glory offers the Prince’s hand in marriage, which Eddie readily accepts.
Steve is told later the truth and absolutely laughs delighted with ruse against his father. Dustin is made a lord and is absolutely pampered by Lady Robin who also moves in with them.
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Tags: POV Outsider, POV Multiple, Plant POV, Sentient Plants, Found Family (Implied), Unreliable Narrators (Collective), Quiet love, Mutual Pining (sort of), The Plants Are Watching, Emotional Support Flora, Possessive Greenery
Summary:
The greenhouse has rules. Boundaries. Bite reflexes.
Then the boy arrived loud, chaotic, snack-laden, and completely unaware that every living thing in the greenhouse wanted him gone.
So naturally, he stayed.
And now the plants are having a crisis about it.
This rec is a part of Theme Weekend. The theme this weekend is Outsider POV.
Know a fic that deserves extra love? Submit through our asks!
Hey all! Just a heads up, I'll be going on hiatus starting tomorrow and then this will be back the first Saturday in June.
Until then watch Eddie charm everyone he meets.
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 |
~
Steve kept the leftover food warm and simmering on the stove as he tinkered around the kitchen.
Robin came in and leaned on the counter. “You don’t have to wait for him, you know? You could just leave him a note.”
Steve looked up from where he was scrubbing the backsplash above the stove. “Huh?”
“Eddie,” she clarified. “You don’t have to wait for him. He’s a big boy, he can take care of himself.”
He blinked at her for a moment and then to the sponge in his hand. “Oh.”
She raised her eyebrows and cackled as he turned a bright red. “I’m guessing you didn’t even notice you were waiting for him?”
Just then Eddie loped through the door and grinned. “Waiting for who?” He looked between them and then giggled. “Aww, was Steve waiting for little ole me? You shouldn’t have.”
If it were possible Steve would have turned a darker shade of red.
Eddie cackled and wandered over to the stove to see what Steve had saved for him. He lifted the lid and was struck by the delicious scent of pot roast.
“Buckley...” he moaned. “This smells divine!” He got him a plate and dug into the pot for slices of beef and roasted veggies.
“Don’t look at me,” she said holding up her hands. “I do a lot of things well, but pot roast is not one of them. That is all Steve.”
“Marry me!” Eddie crowed clutching his hands to his chest.
Steve choked on his own spit at that. “God, Munson,” he gasped once he got his breath back. “Buy me dinner first!”
Eddie looked scandalized. “Should have known you’d be high maintenance! The wedding is off!”
Steve and Robin were practically doubled over with laughter as Eddie continued his rant in the most ridiculous fashion.
“That’s it!” Eddie cried. “I’m taking this delicious pot roast and leaving! How dare!”
He picked up his plate and carried it to the canteen, nose in the air.
Steve started counting back in his head from ten. Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four...
Eddie shuffled back in. “And if I said I didn’t want to eat alone?”
Steve and Robin cackled and got themselves a plate. Then they walked with Eddie to the canteen, where they all sat down at one of the tables.
“Thanks, guys,” Eddie muttered as he dug into his food. “Just feeling a little lonely after getting off the phone with my uncle.”
“It’s no worries,” Robin said with a gentle smile. “We get it. It’s hard adjusting to life after being scheduled for everything. Bed times, awake times, food times, all mapped out for you and suddenly you have to consciously choose to do those things now.”
“So what’s your story?” Eddie asked her. “I know Steve’s, but why did you decide to become a...” he waved around him, “whatever it is you do here?”
Robin cackled. “I love my parents but they never should have had a child. The only reason I went to formal education instead of being home schooled on the run, was because my grandparents threatened to take me if they didn’t. So I wanted to become social worker to step in like in cases like mine where the parents aren’t fit but well meaning and get them placed in with family members like my grandparents.”
Eddie cocked his head to the side. “Huh. That’s actually pretty cool. Good for you. Sometimes all it takes is that one person who cares to make all the difference.”
“So how’s your uncle?” Steve asked, spearing a potato and shoving it in his mouth whole.
“He’s good,” Eddie said brightening up a little. “Stubborn as a mule and twice as bitey. But he is getting on in age and with no one to help on the farm, it’s taking him longer and longer to get all the chores done and then he has to do it all over it again.”
“I forgot he owned a farm,” Robin said, “I’m sorry he’s having trouble.”
Eddie tilted his head to the side for a moment and made an ‘O’ with his mouth. “It’s in my file, isn’t it?”
“There are a lot of things in that file,” Steve said. “And knowing who your people were was one of the most important. We like having our patrons having strong connections to the community and especially ones outside of the criminal life they had before.”
Eddie scoffed. “You get others in here besides non-violent offenders? Adults I mean. I assumed that Steve’s mom and Hopper were court ordered.”
“Sure do!” Robin said beaming. “A lot of times places like rehab centers and stuff have a long wait list and so they’ll get sent here where we act as buffer for whatever it is they need. We set them up with our psychiatrists, get them into group therapy, and if they need to go through withdrawals, then we have Nurse Sinclair come and help them through it.”
“Oh that’s cool,” Eddie said, around a bite of beef. “That’s because of Steve’s mom, right?”
“Yeah,” Steve said pushing his food around on his plate. “She was the first adult this place had, mainly because they wanted me to help her stay sober. When I wasn’t around she would go right back to the booze. Which is a hell of lot of pressure to put on your teenage son. So I make sure that doesn’t happen here.”
“I thought you liked the Whitfords?” he asked, furrowing his brow.
“Oh I do!” Steve replied hotly. “It’s that they’re also people who make mistakes and having my mom’s sobriety be reliant on me was one of them.”
“I’m not sure I’d be so forgiving...” Eddie hedged.
“Them paying for my college helped soothe the pain a little,” Steve said with a grin, holding up his finger and thumb close together.
Eddie snorted. “Yeah, okay.”
Soon they were done eating and Steve carried the plates back to the kitchen to wash.
“So what happens when you have a full house, chore wise?” Eddie asked as he and Robin walked out to the back to seat on the patio. “I mean I see a shit ton of dishwashers and a kitchen that would make Benny sell his own grandmother to have, but it’s just the three of you?”
Robin sneered when he pulled out a pack of cigarettes but didn’t comment on them. “We hire temp help to come in and take some of the burden off. But they don’t like us being full. A lot of them time they send someone who could use our services off to one of the halfway houses instead because we’re at half or better capacity.”
“That sucks,” he said around the cigarette. He lit the cigarette and made sure to blow it away from her face.
“It does,” she admitted. “We keep telling them that if they let us have more people we could run at full, but they’re also sexist and homophobic, not wanting to send people to them queers.”
“I know you and Chrissy are together,” Eddie said. “But I figured the Boss was straight.”
Robin snorted. “He’s about as straight as Springsteen.”
Eddie wrinkled his nose. “I don’t know what that means.”
“It means,” she said with a twinkle in her eye. “He likes to kiss the boys.”
Eddie’s eyes went wide. He might have heard that rumor about Bruce Springsteen kissing his bandmate but just chalked it to just that, a rumor. But if Stevie liked the boys... He shook his head internally. He couldn’t think like that. Steve was essentially his landlord. That is all.
“I’ve met plenty of straight guys who like to kiss the boys,” he said instead. “They make you their dirty little secret and then go back to their girlfriends when it’s time for the white picket fence.”
“Sounds like you’re speaking from experience,” Robin said cocking her head to the side. “And yeah I get it. I’ve met girls like that, too. But Steve is the genuine article. We’re all queer around here, even if Steve hasn’t put a firm stamp on a specific label yet.”
“You would know more than I would I guess,” he huffed, taking another drag of his cigarette. “Every time I think I have everything settle the universe pulls the rug out from under me and I’m flailing again.”
“This about your uncle?”
He let out of the smoke and then nodded. “Yeah. He’s not a spring chicken anymore and I worry he’s really going to hurt himself.”
“That’s hard,” Robin said. “Especially with him being so far away and you not being able to leave the state.”
“It sucks ass,” Eddie agreed. “And not the fun way.”
She burst out laughing. “Yeah. That.”
Eddie let out a sigh. He knew he had his friends and he knew he count on the three people here to have his back.
Yes, that was an insanely optimistic view considering he had only known them for a little more than a week, but he could feel it in his soul that they were his people too.
He finished the cigarette and ground out the remaining ash so that he could stick the empty butt into his pocket and settled back to just chat with Robin.
She was funny and smart and he could see why Steve and Chrissy loved her. They talked until the sun set and then went inside when the bugs decided to make them their dinner.
~
Eddie got home the next day to see Dustin and Lucas with two kids he didn’t know. They were both dark haired and pale, but in very different ways. The first one had curly hair that brushed the tops of his shoulders and he had a confidence that came from being well off. The other kid had a bowl cut, and rounded shoulders of a kid who had been bullied most of his life, probably starting with one or both of his parents.
Then they said a magic word and Eddie skidded to a stop.
“You can’t use fireball in this small a hallway!” Lucas cried. “Are you trying to kill all our characters before we even get started?”
“I didn’t say I was going to!” the bowl cut hair cut one huffed. “I just was listing off the spells I have!”
“Don’t scare us like that, Will!” the curly haired one sighed.
Eddie couldn’t help it, he sidled up to them and sat down at the table and placed his clasped hands in front of him on the table. “Hello, good gentlemen. I couldn’t help but overhear your conversation about fireballs and hallways.”
The four boys looked at each other than at him suspiciously.
“What’s it to you?” Dustin asked, jutting his chin up.
Eddie rubbed his chin. “Me and my friends used to run a D&D club in high school.”
Lucas eyed his skeptically. “Then what’s you’re favored class?”
“Oh, a bard absolutely,” Eddie said with a smirk. “But that’s mainly because I play guitar. But I really love a good magic user. Wizards are pretty good, and magic user is so fucking generic but I hope they expand to others.”
All four of the boys looked up at him in awe and suddenly they were talking over each other trying to ask Eddie as many questions as they could.
Eddie burst out laughing. “One at a time boys, one at a time.”
They all calmed down, and Dustin grinned at him with that gap-tooth grin of his.
“I know you know who I am,” he said, still grinning. “But this is Lucas, Mike, and Will, we were playing a one-shot to see if we liked each other’s style of play.”
Eddie nodded to each of the boys. “Lucas and I have met. How did tryouts go?”
Lucas lit up. “I got on the team! It’s going to be so great and maybe next season I’ll be on the varsity team!”
“What sport do you play?” Dustin asked, cocking his head to the side. “I play hockey. When my mom lets me anyway.”
“Basketball,” Lucas admitted. “Steve helped me get ready to try out and I was so sure I wouldn’t make it, but Steve said I would and I did!”
“I’m too awkward for sports,” Will admitted. “I prefer to stay in the house and draw.”
Eddie laughed. “I draw all my characters too.”
“I don’t believe you,” Mike said skeptically. “I think you’re just a tryhard.”
“Mike!” Dustin squealed. “What the fuck?!”
Mike shrugged and then lifted his chin in defiance. Like prove him wrong.
“You got the back of character sheet I can borrow?” Eddie asked the other three. Lucas hastened to hand him his.
Eddie flipped over the paper and began sketching away. All the boys leaned over to see what he was drawing. It was too light for them to make out much.
“You got some markers?” he asked without looking up.
“I’ve got some!” Will said, digging into his bag and pulling out a pack of off brand markers.
Eddie pulled them to him and with the help of the markers brought the picture to life. There was a demon in the middle with an ax one side and the a morning star on the other. Above the demon read the word “HELLFiRE” complete with the lower ‘I’ and underneath was the word ‘CLUB’.
He turned the page around so all of them could see. “So what do you think, Michael? Am I artsy enough for you?”
Mike turned a bright pink and ducked his head.
“That is so cool, Eddie!” Dustin cried. “Is–was Hellfire the name of your D&D club?”
“Yep!” Eddie said cheerily. “Ran the club successfully for six years.”
“Six years?” Will asked tilting his head to the side in confusion.
Eddie coughed and flushed a deep red. “I was great at art, D&D, and drug dealing, not so much anything else, so it took me a couple of years to graduation.”
“You dealt drugs?!” Mike asked eyes wide. “My mom would kill me right now if she knew a drug dealer was in the house!”
Eddie shrugged. “I was what you call a low level pusher. Weed, shrooms, and gateway drugs. And I refused to sell anything harder than that. Getting high and happy, fine. Needing an extra boost for energy during finals, okay. Steroids and other hard drugs, fuck off.”
“That’s crazy,” Lucas said. “Is that what you were in jail for?”
“Three strikes and you do hard time,” Eddie admitted ruefully. “Though last time was a dodge. I hadn’t dealt in over a year because I had graduated finally and was working at the local garage fixing cars. Someone got bad blow and a couple of kids died. So they cops went for me because the accuser was a pretty, blond, rich boy with good family values. It was either try to beat the murder charges knowing full well they wouldn’t side with me or cop to a lesser charge of drug dealing and get five years. Only the judge decided to give me eight with the possibility of parole at six. The rat bastard.”
“So you were in jail for six years?” Dustin asked.
“Yup!” Eddie said dryly. “But like I said I don’t do that anymore. Not even weed. So you kids are looking to score, you’re out of luck.”
They burst out laughing.
“Yeah, okay,” Mike said. “You’re pretty cool.”
“Wait until you find out about the metal band I play guitar for,” Eddie said with grin.
Suddenly there was another explosion of questions about his band. He settled back and answered the best that he could.
Hey all! Just wanted to remind everyone I am going on hiatus next week this story won't be back until June. But don't worry, I won't go leaving you on a cliffhanger!
And in this we see filming end...
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 |
~
Award season while filming a movie was a nightmare, because that meant you had to pick and choose what to miss out on and what you had to appear at.
Steve had been nominated for his role as Sean in “Dancing in the Dark” but for the wrong god damn category.
Even thought Evan was more a support role to Sean’s madness, the studio who had bought the distribution rights had submitted to the different award shows as the other way round. Steve for Best Supporting Actor and Eddie as Best Lead Actor.
Robin was apoplectic with rage when she found out.
“Why are studios so fucking stupid?” she hissed for the billionth time.
Steve snorted. “You do realize it’s because I’m gay, right? They don’t want an openly gay actor winning Best Lead Actor.”
She stopped short and turned to him, eyes wide. “What. The. Fuck?”
“Never mind that most horror is queer coded in the first place,” he said with a shrug. “Never mind that you’re gay too. The Academy isn’t ready for a gay actor winning Best Lead Actor.”
“Yeah,” Robin huffed. “And I maintain that Marlon Brando and fucking Kevin Spacey don’t count.”
Steve grimaced. One came out as bisexual much later in life and the other said he was gay to excuse touching little boys.
“Well it doesn’t matter because it won’t be me,” he said dryly. “And even if Eddie wins it would still be a closeted person winning the award.”
It was Robin’s turn to grimace. Because, yeah. Eddie was as gay as Steve was and while he was never shown to have girlfriends every single woman who was attached to him in some way, was labeled as such, even if it was just the once.
That didn’t stop the rumor mill of course suspecting he was gay, but no, he wasn’t out.
She was absolutely fine if Eddie never came out because his business was his business and not anyone else’s. But some part of her wished he would because it would mean the world to a lot of people, especially the dork in front of her, pouting.
“Have you decided which shows you’re going to?” Robin asked, turning to face him head on.
“I think the Golden Globes for sure are out,” Steve huffed. “That’s when we’ll be back to filming after the holidays and Jim would kill me for sure if I took off in the middle of that and with the BAFTAs so close to the SAG awards, I’ll probably be skipping that one too.”
“The BAFTAs are a weird one anyway,” she agreed. “With you getting the nom and Eddie not, it kinda feels weird without him.”
He nodded. “Yeah.” He laid his head back on the sofa and sighed dramatically. “Filming in January with summery weather just feels wrong. I miss good ole Indiana winters when it was actually winter not this pseudo spring weather we get in SoCal.”
Robin snorted. “No you don’t. You hate being cold and wet. You’re only looking at it through rose tinted glasses because you were really young when you left. Trust me. Indiana winters are dog shit.”
He shoved her playfully. “Way to harsh on my vibe!” he said in a mock Valley girl impression.
“I think you’re mixing decades there, champ,” she huffed shaking her head. “The youth of today would be appalled.”
Steve snorted as he tried to hold in his laugh, but Robin’s neutral expression as she calmly batted her eyes at him, just caused him to burst.
He doubled over with laughter.
“Well,” Robin said with a grin, “I’m glad you’re feeling better but it is absolutely ass that Hollywood at large hates gay people.”
“Yeah,” Steve said wiping a tear as he caught his breath. “But one day we’ll take over the world.”
Robin smiled. “Hell yeah we will.”
~
“Cut!” Jim said burying his head in his hands. “Louise! For the last fucking time, the line is ‘I can’t see it,’ not ‘I can’t seen it’. There is no ‘N’ at the end of ‘see’.”
“Sorry,” she muttered, “I’ll get it next time I promise!”
Louise was a co-worker of Rhett who was supposed to be telling him that she doesn’t see Darius as ‘gay’.
“Everyone take fifteen!” Jim growled. “And then we’ll take it from the top. AGAIN!”
Eddie wandered out to the parking lot to have a smoke. Just as he lit up and blew out his first puff of smoke, Steve’s Bimmer pulled up to one the slots marked for talent.
He shook his head. They were supposed to getting ready to film the conclusion of the movie where Rhett finds out that Devin and Darius are two separate people and that Rhett had been in love with Darius the whole time.
Steve jogged up to him and tilted his head to the side. “Hey, what’s going on? I thought we were going to be shoot the climax.”
Eddie snorted. “Supposed to is doing a lot of heavy lifting today as Louise can’t fucking say her line right to save her or anyone else’s life.”
Steve let out a dramatic sigh. “Shit. Again?” Eddie nodded. “God damn it. This is such bullshit. Why do they hire these people if they can’t act?”
“It’s because she’s a pretty comedienne coming right off of a very successful comedy tour,” Eddie said dryly. “The producers didn’t think our names would be a big enough draw for the film.”
Steve rolled his eyes. “Yeah, that tracks. God dammit.” He snatched the cigarette right out of his hand and took a long drag before handing it back. “I can’t believe we have three more weeks of this shit.”
“After we come back from holidays,” Eddie said clicking his tongue. “I get why we get all of December off, but it feels like a nightmare when we’re so close to the end of shooting.”
“At least all the sex scenes are at the end,” Steve said with a sigh. “The only thing better would have been if they’d been at the start, but this is the next best thing.”
“Aw...” Eddie said leaning into Steve’s space, “you don’t want to get all sexy and naked with me...” He batted his eyelashes innocently.
Steve snorted. “Not with two cock slings and a intimacy coordinator present.”
Eddie, who had been inhaling a puff of his cigarette, started to cough. Steve couldn’t have meant that the way it sounded, right?
Steve slapped him on the back. “Careful there, can’t have my blindingly hot co-star up and dying on me before we finish filming this movie.”
Eddie’s eyes were watering. This man was trying to kill him, there was no doubt now. “Man, don’t say those things.”
“Sorry,” Steve said with an unrepentant smirk. “Horny gay man over here who hasn’t gotten properly laid in YEARS!”
“Wait, what?” Eddie said, eyes wide as he stomped out his cigarette butt under the heel of his tennis shoe. “There is no way that there isn’t a line of hot gays and bis trying burst down your door for the chance to date Steve Harrington, heartthrob.”
“Only the ones that want to sell the scoop to the media,” Steve scoffed. “Or for the ‘privilege’ of been in my bed. They don’t want me, they want the illusion of me.”
“How can you tell?” Eddie asked, furrowing his brow.
Steve turned so he was leaning against the wall with his shoulder. “I have a three date, no sex rule. And they have to private dates. No cameras, no phones just the two of us. I have yet to have any one of them agree to the terms.”
Eddie winced. “Two hours with my phone? I don’t know if I could do it.”
“I guess that’s no to the date then,” Steve teased.
Eddie opened his mouth to say something, but he was being called back on set to do the scene and had to leave.
But all day, when his mind wasn’t on the scene or making sure to hit his mark, he was thinking about Steve’s three date rule. And how it must have come from a place of deep hurt. Like if you couldn’t be present on a first date with the guy and actually try and get to know him, then why were you with him? The prestige? The fame? The attention? But not the dorky sweetheart with a heart of gold.
So yeah. If he ever got the chance to date Steve, he would give up his phone for that man. Because he deserved the right sort of attention.
The one that came without fame or money or the media.
Just the two of them.
Yeah, he could do that. He would do that.
~
All right, Steve had to admit that the sex scenes on this movie were way better than with Robin’s film.
There was far less blood for a start. And less slippery meant that Steve could actually concentrate on acting and not accidentally poking Eddie in the eye.
The bed was a definite plus. As was the mostly empty set. There were way more people on the set of “Dancing in Dark” because of the safety concerns.
The intimacy coordinator was a nice woman named Jenny who was there to make sure everyone had a good time and did their jobs.
And once Jenny finished explaining that she wasn’t there do their jobs for them and really worked with both of them about what they were comfortable with showing.
It was getting to point of the movie where Darius and Rhett had been fooling around a little but because Rhett only used petnames, Darius didn’t know that Rhett didn’t actually know his name.
That was until Rhett called out “Devon!” during sex as he climaxed.
The awkward conversations after Darius stormed out with Devon and Darius alike had already been filmed and it was just Steve and Eddie finishing up the last scenes of the film.
“Devon!” Rhett cried and Darius froze.
“Wait, why are you calling out my sister’s name?”
Rhett blinked down at him. “What do you mean your sister’s name? That is the name you put on your coffee order every time you come in.”
“So all this time you thought you were dating Devon and not me?” Darius asked, his voice quivering.
“No...” Rhett said, but it was too late, Darius jumped to his feet and grabbed his clothes, dashing for the door. “Wait!”
He scrambled around for some pants but by the time he was dressed enough to not flash his neighbors, Darius was long gone.
“Cut!” Jim called out. “And that’s scene!”
A cheer went up and Steve stepped back onto the pavement covered in a long heavy coat to cover up all his bits.
“Congrats, boys,” Murray Bauman said clapping his hands. Murray was Jim’s producer and life long friend. “This is going to make waves. No doubt.”
Everyone was clapping and congratulating everyone else for a job well done.
Steve went to his trailer and got dressed, removing the last vestiges of Darius in the mirror. He was Steve Harrington again.
He walked out of the trailer to find Eddie waiting for him. They fell instep together as they walked silently to their cars.
“No one really talks about how much ending a role is like grieving a loved one,” Eddie mused, pulling out a cigarette.
He offered the pack to Steve, who took one. Eddie lit both of their cigarettes and leaned against his car. He took a drag and blew out the smoke.
“It’s horrible,” Steve murmured as he mirrored Eddie’s action. “And what’s worse is that I won’t even have time to sit in Darius for a minute before getting back out there and filming the next one.”
Eddie nodded. “So what’s next for Steve Harrington, heartthrob?”
Steve snorted and shook his head. “I’m finally doing an action film. It’s not a super hero movie or ‘The Mummy 4’ either of which I would have killed for, but it’s going to be fun. We’ll actually be filming on location in some pretty exotic places.”
“So no award shows for the Stevie?” Eddie asked with a pout. “I was really hoping to see you at the Oscars.”
Steve burst out laughing. “No, I’ll be at the Oscars. They’re doing most of the indoor stuff on the old back lot. Then I’ll be flying out at the beginning of April.”
Eddie wiped his brow. “Phew! I don’t think I could have survived it if you weren’t there.”
“I’ll be there,” Steve said softly. “Trust me. I want to see you win Best Actor.”
Eddie shoved his hair in front of his face. “Come on, we all know it’s going to go to Billy Hargrove for that stupid war movie. It’s all people having been talking about for months. Horror movies don’t win at the Oscars.”
Hello! Just so you are aware I am going on hiatus next week, but unlike poor 'Scarlet Lie' readers, you won't be left on a cliffhanger. This story is almost done though. Just one more chapter for me to write, which means when this story comes back on the 2nd of May, it'll be a run up to the finish.
Poor Eddie just blue screens in this.
Chapters: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 |
~
“Whose lame idea was it to make the bad guy’s castle FUCKING MOVE?!” Jeff huffed, slamming his fist on the table when they arrived just as the castle vanished in the morning mist.
Eddie sat back in his chair and eyed his best friend for a moment. He looked around. “Anyone else think that, too?”
There were a few uncomfortable glances and people shuffling in their chairs as none of them wanted to cop to it.
Eddie leaned forward, resting his elbows on the table and propping his head up on his hands. “Well too damn bad. This is to help make sure, one- you are of the right level before taking on the boss, two- draw out the game so it last all year, and three- for dramatic tension. If you want I can make so you reach the castle in time, but Vecna a CR 20.”
The table fell dead silent as they took that in.
Will cleared his throat. “I liked it.” Every head in the room turned to him in shock. “I mean, we are just being forced to play smart instead brute forcing everything, right?”
Eddie smiled at him. “That’s right, Will the Wise. Because while D&D is combat based, the whole focus doesn’t have to be on one battle after another.” He turned back to Jeff. “So what will it be, Flynn of the Emerald Hills? You want to take on Vecna right here, right now while everyone at the table is barely a level ten? Because with ten of you, technically you could do it. Everyone would die and maybe that includes Vecna but probably not.”
Jeff scowled. “No. Of course I don’t want to TPK with three more months to play.”
“Then let’s go,” Eddie said smirk. He settled and his voice changed. “My apologies, gentle folk. We have missed the castle yet again. But have no fear, we are close to determining a pattern!” Then he dropped the voice. “All right roll, Mike.”
Mike picked up his D20 and rolled the die. He peered at it and then his character sheet. “A seventeen plus my bonus of five, that makes twenty-three.”
Eddie scribbled something down on a piece of paper and then tossed it to Mike. Mike read it and then nodded.
“I do nothing right now,” Mike said to the unasked question.
Eddie nodded approvingly. Mike was having his character play the long game. He even had a special stat for Cam’s loyalty to the party verses to his master. And at that moment it was a dead heat.
The game continued without a hitch but definitely more subdued after Jeff’s outburst.
After they were cleaning up, Jeff offered to swap Danny cleaning crew so he leave a little earlier to get ready for his date.
Eddie was wiping down the table when Jeff appeared at his elbow.
“I wanted to apologize for being a dick earlier,” he muttered as he pushed chairs in. “I guess I got all caught up in the moment and got frustrated.”
“Right,” Eddie said with a huff of annoyance. “I think I know where this is coming from. Because you didn’t come straight for me, asked whose idea it was thinking that maybe Steve had come up with the idea?”
Jeff ducked his head. He let out a low, drawn out “Fuck,” as he scrubbed his face. “Yeah, I guess I did.”
“Then I’m going to let you in on a little secret, Jeffy,” Eddie growled, turning around and leaning against the table, arms crossed. “Steve Harrington has almost every scrap of information and lore a single person can have access to and not be fucking Gary Gygax, so yeah I go to Steve for ideas because he’s got the lowdown on everything and anything you want to know about D&D.”
Jeff stared at him for a moment. “Wait, what?”
“It’s true,” Eddie said with a shrug. “I come to him with ideas and he points me in a few different directions where I then chose which path I want to lead the campaign down.”
Jeff’s brain finally caught up. “Holy shit, the list. The one from the start of the year. I knew Steve was the author but I thought the kids had helped him find all that stuff.”
“You want to see?” Steve asked from the doorway to the kitchen. “My dragon’s hoard?”
Jeff looked up to see Steve leaning up against the door frame, arms and ankles crossed. He had a huge smirk on his face. Behind him was Lucas. The freshman had his hands on his hips and a matching smirk on his face.
“I would be a fool if I said no,” he muttered. “And my mamma didn’t raise no fool.”
Steve waved him forward. “Well come on then.”
Then he led the way to the front room, the other three following like ducklings. He went to a locked cabinet on the side next to all the VHS tapes and knelt in front of it. He pulled out his keys and quietly unlocked the cabinet. He opened both doors wide and stepped aside.
Jeff let out a low whistle. He could see both basic and advanced rule books, magazines carefully filed and at least three or four three ring binders.
“What’s in the binders?” he asked, tilting his head to the side.
“All the loose stuff I’ve found over the years,” Steve replied with a shrug. “Photocopies of articles in other magazines, stuff like that.”
Jeff frowned. “Why do you even have all that? You don’t play, and it can’t be just because the kids do. So why hoard it like this?”
Steve and Lucas shared a glance and Steve just shrugged.
“No seriously, Steve,” Jeff pressed. “This must have cost a fortune. Like I know you’re rich or whatever, but not even Gareth has a half of this shit and he does play.”
Steve snorted. “This collection is nothing. Like one of the baseball cards my dad has could pay for this collection two to three times over.”
Jeff let out a small whine, but he knew that if he kept pushing Steve about it, he would absolutely shut down. And maybe that was the crux of the matter. Maybe it had to do with Steve’s trauma, just latching on to something he could control. So he held up his hands in surrender.
“Right,” he huffed. “You don’t want to talk about why you have it, fine. But I guess the easiest question is what don’t you have?”
Steve grinned. “Only a handful of things I’m not sure even exist anymore.”
Jeff rubbed his chin. “What is your prized possession? Not the most expensive or the one that was the hardest to find. Your favorite.”
Steve lit up and immediately turned back to his collection, riffling through it. About two minutes later he stood up with a magazine in his hands. It was in a plastic sheath to protect and Jeff could see it was a really old and tattered copy.
He held it close to his chest for a moment and then gingerly handed it over. “It’s the very first instance of the barbarian class,” he said softly.
Jeff looked down at the magazine in his hands and then back up to Steve. “So tell me about it.”
So Steve did, haltingly at first then with encouragement from Lucas and Eddie, more animated.
“And there is this thing that they can do,” he finished, “that they haven’t codified yet for the main game, but I really hope that they do. It’s like Viking beserkers. Where when they’re super hurt they go into this rage state where they act only on instinct, just mowing down their enemies!”
“Wait, what would be the stats on that?” Lucas asked, cocking his head to the side.
So Steve rattled off all the advantages and disadvantages to this “rage” state to a very, very attentive audience.
Jeff and Lucas both turn to Eddie and turn on their best puppy dog faces.
“What’s with the looks?” Eddie asked, as he backed away slowly.
“You have to allow it in the game,” Lucas pouted. “Come on, it would be so freaking cool!”
“Yeah, Ed,” Jeff agreed. “You have to allow barbarian rage, just think of how bad ass that would be!”
Eddie smacked his lips for a moment. “Well not this game. We are like weeks away from the finale. There is no way to incorporate into the game this late in the campaign–”
Lucas and Jeff started to protest, but he cut them off by holding up his hands.
“That’s not say I won’t allow it ever,” he continued. “And maybe I’ll throw in a minor bad guy that has it so people can see how it works.”
The whole time Steve was just grinning.
“That’s going to be awesome!” he said brightly. “And I didn’t even have to beg.”
“Pity,” Eddie said before his brain caught up to his mouth, “I would have liked to have seen you on your knees.”
He slapped both of his hands over his mouth, eye wide with fear. “Shit! Forget I said that!”
Lucas tilted his head to the side. “I don’t think I’ve heard a guy saying that to another guy before.”
“That’s because if someone like Eddie here were to say something like that outside of people he trusts,” Jeff said with an eye roll, “then he would get the shit beat out of him. And judging with how many of our number swing for the other team, I doubt Stevie here is going to hit Ed for that dumb ass remark.”
“Hit? No,” Lucas said with a snort. “Hit on? Probably. Steve swings for both teams.”
Jeff and Eddie looked over at Steve with wide-eyed shock and amazement.
Eddie lowered his hands slowly as he thought about it. “No, no. Now that I think about it, that tracks.”
Jeff half shrugged. “Yeah, probably.” He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. Then he started counting off on his fingers. “Eddie, me, Steve, Gareth for sure, um... Will is a sure bet he leans that direction... and I think Danny.”
Lucas’s eyes went wide. “You think Will is gay?!”
Jeff looked over at him. “I mean he might not have not noticed yet, he’s only a freshman, but sure. Will blushes a lot when Mike or Eddie talk to him. Hell, he does it around Steve and Gareth, too.”
Lucas frowned for a moment and then smacked his head. “Yeah, I’m slow. In my defense, I got a girlfriend fairly early and have not been paying attention to the love lives of my friends. Though now I’m really starting to think otherwise.”
“This is why I love ladies’ night,” Steve said with a grin. “El, Max, Robin, and Nancy all come over and we paint our nails and absolutely gossip like mother hens. We had this all on lock months ago.”
“Wait, why do you get invited to ladies’ night?” Lucas asked. “You’re not a girl.”
Steve shrugged. “My house, my rules.”
Lucas looked around at Steve’s sweet setup for movies and then shrugged. “Yeah, I’d even let my sister do my hair if it meant I got to watch movies here.”
“Or...” Steve said shaking his head. “We can have a guys night, too. There will be way more guys than girls, but it could be fun. Like after a session we can watch movies and have a sleepover. It’d be a blast.”
“Yes!” Jeff said excitedly. “We absolutely need to do that!”
And they all got to planning, but poor Eddie was stuck in boot up mode. His brain kept going over and over the little news that Steve absolutely would hit on him. Him! Personally. Holy shit.
Jeff hit his arm. “So what do you think, Ed? Hell yeah to movie night?”
Eddie pursed his lips and nodded. He wasn’t about to tell Jeff that he had already had a movie night here, but another one would be good.
Hey guys! I just wanted to let you know that this one might nearing its end soon. I'm not sure if it'll end at 11 or 12 chapters, but regardless it is ending.
I'm not sure what's next after this, but I'll let you know.
In this we have Steve and Eddie bonding.
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5
~
Eddie was just trying to eat his breakfast. He was supposed to go in today and get trained on the grill as well as be introduced to the rest of the crew. But it seemed that the kids had chosen violence this morning.
They were screaming about something.
Eddie finally looked up to see that Dustin had taken something from Max and was playing keep away.
Then Dustin threw it to keep her from getting it. It landed in Eddie’s cereal with a splash and both kids stopped their squabbling with an abrupt stop.
“Shit.”
Eddie looked down to see a white sock with Grogu on the side. He let out a pained sigh and opened his mouth to bark at them when Steve came in to see the ruckus was about.
Steve looked at the scene before him and barked out a laugh. “I didn’t know we were having socks for breakfast, I’ll let Robin know to make enough for everyone.”
Dustin snickered. Then Max’s laugh burst out of her and suddenly everyone was laughing.
Steve grabbed Eddie’s bowl and carefully removed the sock from it. “Someone come get this. Preferably the owner, please.”
Max came forward and snatched it out of his hand. She turned on her heel and ran off.
Steve raised an eyebrow at Dustin who went bright red. “We’ll talk later, but if you’ve already had breakfast, go play elsewhere, please.”
Dustin scuttled off the opposite direction that Max had fled to.
“Come on, Eddie,” Steve said with a sigh. “We’ll get you some new cereal.”
Eddie dutifully followed Steve into the kitchen where Robin was cleaning up.
“We don’t usually open another box of cereal until one is completed,” Steve said over his shoulder, “to cut down on waste, but I figure this is a special case.”
He dumped out Eddie’s bowl into the disposal and let it run for a second and then washed out the bowl and dried it. He set on the counter and got a box of cereal out of the cupboard, setting down next to the bowl.
“You pour as much as you want,” Steve said with a grin. “I’ll go get you a banana. You know where the butter knives are.”
Eddie picked up the box with a blush. It was his Grape Nuts. So he dutifully poured himself a bowl and dumped a bunch of sugar on it.
When Steve saw the amount of sugar in the bowl he huffed out a laugh. “That’s certainly one way to make it palpable.”
“Hey!” Eddie huffed. “I like the crunch, okay?”
“Sure thing, rockstar,” Steve teased, holding out the banana. “Here’s your banana.”
Eddie groused but took the banana and cut it up to sprinkle all over his cereal, then handed the knife back to Steve.
“You ever worry about letting delinquent kids and former convicts have access to knives,” he asked, “no matter how dull?”
“We count them every night and if any of them go missing we have people turn out all the stuff,” Steve replied with a shrug. “It’s sucks, but searches are a part of the deal with staying here. Those with parole officers have it even worse because they get to submit to our searches and their PO’s, too.”
Eddie wrinkled his nose. “I guess I should have read the fine print.”
Steve leaned forward and whispered, “We have a warning system for when the cops do it.” He winked and then straightened up. He looked behind him but Robin had already finished cleaning up and had moved on.
“Since they have to do it when you’re home,” he continued, “we’ll flash the phone extension light so you can hide what you need to.”
Eddie reared his head back in shock. “Why would you do that?”
“Because sometimes you get POs that are more like POSs and will ruin your life over a cigarette butt claiming it was weed,” Steve said. “And I absolutely refuse to let them.”
He straightened up and knocked on the counter. “Have a good day!”
Eddie gulped and nodded, then watched as Steve walked away. Eddie had had experiences with halfway houses before. His dear old dad had been in far too many.
They broke down in to two camps. The drug fueled nightmares where not even the threat of cops could make the cockroaches scatter. Or religie types were curse words were forbidden, no alcohol or anything they might deem inappropriate for their sinners.
But this place seemed to be none of those things. And yeah, that could change once he got comfortable, but he had a feeling it wasn’t going to.
He let out a sigh and poured milk into his bowl, taking it back out to the canteen to eat. He sat down and really thought about this place.
He munched on his cereal and by the end of his bowl, he came to the conclusion, Steve’s kindness only made him hotter.
~
The next couple of days was exhausting for Eddie. Benny had him working hard. But Eddie was starting to get a rhythm for it and even the wait staff was starting to be impressed by how well he was integrating into the well-oiled machine that was Benny’s Diner.
He come home just before dinner and wanted to scrub off every inch of his skin to get the smell of hamburger and bacon off. He loved both, but it certainly wasn’t his scent of choice.
He walked into his room and was halfway undressed when the extension light on his phone started flashing.
“Shit!” Eddie hissed, pulling back on his clothes, cussing out Powell for doing his first surprise inspection today.
He managed to pull his pants back on and throw a shirt over his head by the time Officer Powell knocked his door. He smoothed out his hair and then opened the door.
Officer Powell scowled. “I’m here for a room inspection.”
Eddie stepped back out of the way to let the man in. There was nothing to find, because Eddie hadn’t had time to blink let alone buy anything that was uniquely his.
“Sorry it’s a bit of mess,” he explained as Powell tossed through his things, “I just got off work and was about to get a shower.”
“I was able to verify your employment with both the government and Benny,” Powell said gruffly. “Congrats on getting something so quickly.”
Eddie bristled. That statement didn’t sound congratulatory, it sounded incredulous. Like he couldn’t believe trash like Eddie could get job so fast and at such a good place too.
“I’ve been lucky since getting out,” he said, through gritted teeth.
Powell looked up him with a smirk and Eddie knew that the officer had been needling him on purpose. That just raised his hackles further. He couldn’t believe this asshole had a hold over his life for a whole fucking year.
“Looks like you’re lucky again,” Powell huffed. “No drugs. This time. And you better keep it that way. One slip up and it’s back into the clink with you.”
Eddie held his hands up. “I’ve been good and I have no attention of toeing the line.”
“You best believe it,” Powell huffed and turned on his heel, leaving the room without another word.
Eddie sat on the bed hard and just blanked out. He wasn’t sure how long he sat there before there was a gentle knock on his door. He looked up to see Steve standing there.
“It’s always the hardest the first time,” Steve said softly, coming into the room. “It’s not that it gets better, just that you get used to the violation.”
“Fuck, yeah,” Eddie said running his hands through his hair. “I thought I got used it in lockup, but out here it feels worse.”
“It doesn’t help that Powell is one of a very small handful of black POs and feels he has to be hard ass to prove he can hack it,” Steve said with a nod. “Doesn’t make it right, but it’s part of why.”
“The other part being that he’s just a huge asshole?” Eddie huffed with a smirk.
Steve huffed out a laugh. “Yeah, pretty much. But I’m always here if you need me. I’m not just a pretty face. I have a degree in psychology and criminology and I’m here to help.”
“Not just a pretty face, huh?” Eddie teased.
“Dude,” Steve grinned. “I have a mirror, I know how good I look. That was never a doubt in my mind about my attractiveness. But maybe if it’ll get you past it, I’m not just some dumb bunny. I’ve worked hard to get where I am and live up to the legacy that the Whitmans left behind.”
Eddie cocked his head to the side. “Those were the people who ran this place before you did?”
Steve nodded and came to sit down on the bed next to him. “They put their heart and soul into this place, but they got old and they really were worried about being overpowered by an ex-con and so they started training me to take over. Put me through the amount of college that would the state would allow to let me do so.”
“That’s really sweet,” Eddie said. “You said that the kids and adults together thing was your idea?”
“Yeah,” he murmured picking on a loose thread on his jeans. “Back when my parents divorced my dad ran off to Mexico with his mistress and left me with an alcoholic mother. A mother who was trying so hard to get sober but there was a three month wait list for the rehab center so she was sent here until she could be admitted. Somehow, someway a judge let her keep me with her until then. But my being there had more of grounding presence to just my mom.”
“How’s that?”
“There was another man there,” Steve explained. “He was also waiting for rehab. He taught me how to play chess and would buy me Boppers and mystery novels. Always with another adult with us of course. Josh, Mr. Whitman would be the most frequent chaperon, would take turns trouncing us at chess. But anyway. He went and turned his life around. He became Chief of Police.”
Eddie’s brain took a moment or two to catch up. “Wait are we talking about the Chief of Hawkins Police? Jim Hopper?”
“Yep!” Steve said brightly. “I can’t go into details, but he got low after his daughter Sarah died. He just needed something to latch onto and I guess I helped. He’s got an adopted daughter now and she’s his whole world.”
“Well, I’ll be damned,” Eddie breathed. “I guess if Hopper can crawl out of hole to become Chief of Police then anyone could do anything.”
“Yep!”
Eddie let out a shuddering breath and then another. “Thanks, man. I just shut down and couldn’t even think.”
“It’s better than the alternative,” Steve said with a rueful smile.
“What’s the alternative?” Eddie asked, tilting his head to the side.
“Trashing the room,” Steve said dryly. “And believe me when I say it’s not just guys that pull that shit, it’s just makes up most of them.”
Eddie blinked at him for a moment and then looked around the room. Powell had left things askew and he could see the appeal of just trashing it all the way. “I’m sorry.”
Steve waved him off. “It’s fine. I get it, plus most of the time afterwards they are so remorseful that they never do it again.”
Eddie understood that too. “How do you not break yourself? Who keeps you from doing the same when the system fails one of your charges?”
Steve was silent for a moment and then let out a little huff. “Robin and Chrissy help. And I can call the Whitfords anytime I want if I need advice.” He snapped his fingers. “And my mom of course! She’s always willing to listen.”
“Sounds like you’ve got a great support team,” Eddie said wistfully.
Steve bumped their shoulders together. “You do too. You have us and your friend Jeff. And don’t forget you can call your uncle now.”
Eddie straightened and his eyes lit up. “Oh my god, I completely forgot!” He looked at his watch, dinner time was almost over and crumpled. “Shit I should eat first.”
“Nah,” Steve said getting to his feet. “Come down when you’re ready and I whip you up some leftovers. You need your uncle right now more than you need to adhere to some arbitrary timeline.”
Eddie’s lip quivered. “Thanks for being so nice after I was dick to you the first day.”
Steve just smiled. “Because everyone needs a kindness once in awhile.” He patted Eddie on the shoulder and walked away without saying goodbye.
Eddie picked up the phone and dialed a number he knew better than anything. He nearly sobbed when he heard the gruff ‘Hello’.
“Uncle Wayne!” he breathed. The actual sob on the other end of the line caused Eddie to break down and cry too.
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Hey all! Welcome back to this fic! It is happily moving right along and I'm happy to share it with you!
In this we have chaotic bestie Robin, and chaos gremlin Eddie deciding to make Steve's life just a little bit more... interesting.
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 |
~
There was a pounding on the door to Steve’s hotel room that echoed in his head in the worst ways.
He blinked blearily as he took in the room trying to figure out what was the cause of the pain between his ears.
He saw the littered beer cans and wine bottles, the mess of candy wraps and spilled popcorn. Then he realized the reason he was so warm.
Eddie was wrapped around Steve’s waist like a limpet. A cute limpet, but a limpet nonetheless. He carefully extricated himself from Eddie’s grasp and padded over to the door, where the person was still knocking loudly.
“Room service!” a voice finally called out.
Steve opened the door and looked out at the guy. He opened his mouth to hotly protest that he never ordered room service when the smell of the food hit his nose.
He paused for a moment. “Let me grab you a tip, just a moment.”
The guy smiled broadly and happily took the two twenties off of Steve and left him with a cart covered in all his favorite breakfast foods.
He blinked down at it for a moment and then let out a sigh...
Steve knew that they wouldn’t be able to get breakfast after 10am and nine was that sweet spot of not being to early but also not pissing off the kitchen for being too close to the end of breakfast service.
His phone started singing ‘Bitch’ by Meredith Brooks and he let out another pained sigh. Now he knew the fairy god mother of his breakfast feast.
He picked up his phone and muttered, “Hello, Robin.”
“Good morning!” his best friend chirped happily. “When I came in to check on you last night, it looked like you had a lot of fun!”
The sound of her voice resounded like a church bell inside of his head. “Ow. Not so loud.”
“Aw...” she said, her voice even louder then it was before. “You two looked sooooo cute curled up on the sofa together! I got pictures!”
“What?!” Steve whisper-yelled.
Then the phone disconnected and before Steve could call her back, Eddie stirred on the sofa.
He cleared his throat. “Morning, Eds. Robin sends us breakfast with the kindest of regards.”
Eddie snorted and sat up, rubbing his eyes. “She’s the bitch who sent us food knowing we had been up until the wee hours to the morning.”
“She sent us waffles.”
Eddie was up on his feet and by his side in an instant. “What kind?”
Steve lifted the cloche to reveal three large fluffy white waffles topped with sliced fruit and absolutely smothered in whip cream.
Eddie stole the plate and held it to his chest. “She’s forgiven!” Then he scurried back to the sofa to dig into his prize.
Steve just shook his head as he put on an egg white omelet that had ham and a creamy white cheese on the inside and two slices of turkey bacon on his plate and wandered over to the sofa to join Eddie.
He handed Eddie a fork and giggled when he saw that the other man had began eating it like an Eggo frozen waffle. With his hands.
“Here you go you heathen,” he said with a snort.
Eddie looked over at his plate. “That’s a pretty light breakfast even for you, Stevie.”
“I’m a little queasy from the hangover,” he admitted taking a bite of bacon.
Eddie shook his head and put his plate down on the coffee table. He stood up, licking and wiping his fingers off on the front of his shirt and wandered over to the ensuite coffee machine. He filled it with a nice dark roast and set it running.
“The coffee will help,” Eddie promised.
His phone went off at that exact moment and he frowned down at where it was on the floor. He picked up and turned it over to read the message.
‘THERE IS A BOTTLE OF ADVIL UNDER ONE OF THE CLOCHES. YOU’RE WELCOME!’ And yes the whole thing was in caps. Just looking at the message hurt his head.
He lifted a couple of the cloches before he found the bottle of Ibuprofen. He poured orange juice (with no pulp) for both of them and took his prizes over to Steve.
“Bottoms up, Stevie,” he said handing him the bottle and one of the glasses. “That will help your head.”
Steve did as he was told and downed a couple pills with the orange juice. “How are you not affected by this? You aren’t bright eyed by any stretch of the imagination, but it also doesn’t feel like you’re suffering either.”
Eddie barked out a laugh that ended up hurting both of their heads. “Make no mistake, I am in agony, but I’m what my uncle calls walking hungover. There is just something about hangovers and me that has me able to function regardless of how much pain I’m in.”
“Lucky bastard.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Eddie said downing his own dose of pain killers. “It doesn’t feel that when the bells are ringing let me tell you. But at least it means that I can be nurse to all my poor friends who can’t function.”
“Cheers to that,” Steve grumbled.
They ate in relative silence only pausing to get more food or coffee when it was ready. It was nice. Calm.
The next thing he knew Eddie was nudging him awake.
“Hey there, sweetheart,” he murmured. “Sorry to wake you, but I’ve got a meeting with my agent at two and it’s almost one.”
Steve groggily opened his eyes and stretched. “I didn’t mean to fall asleep on you like that.”
“Nah,” Eddie said brightly. “I fell asleep too. I just have an alarm on my phone two hours before any event to make sure I’m ready on time.”
Steve put on his glasses and peered at Eddie. That was then he could see that Eddie had changed and his hair was wet, indicating that he had least washed his hair.
“I’ll see you tomorrow at work, then,” he muttered.
“That you will, Stevie boy,” Eddie murmured back. He waved and then slipped out of the hotel room, leaving Steve alone.
He let out a long sigh and flopped back on the sofa, arm thrown over his forehead dramatically.
He had really enjoyed himself just hanging out with Eddie. He had other friends. Robin. Dustin. Hell, he’d even been hanging out Martin from “Dancing in the Dark.” The up and coming star was actually a blast.
But hanging out with Eddie was as easy as breathing.
Steve did a sniff test of his armpit and winced. Yeah, it was time for a shower. He got up and gathered all the things he needed for it, setting his phone on the coffee table.
He took his time. Unlike Eddie, he didn’t have any appointments today. Wanting a proper day off for a change. He just reveled in the heat from the water, just letting everything wash away.
He stepped out of the shower with just a towel around his waist as he used another to dry his hair. He was working on getting most of the water out of his hair as he could to put in the leave in conditioner when he saw his phone light up with a notification.
Steve frowned for a moment and then his phone did it again. That was strange.
He picked up his phone and saw several notifications from a lot of his social media accounts and two missed calls from Bob.
“Shit!”
He called right back. “Hey,” he greeted when Bob picked up immediately. “What’s up?”
“Where were you?” Bob asked, panicked. “I’ve been trying to get ahold of you for almost an hour!”
“I was taking a shower,” he replied with a frown. “I just got out. What’s going on?”
“You haven’t seen?” Steve could feel the incredulity just oozing from the manager/agent on the other end of the line.
“Nope,” he said as he put the phone on speaker. “Like I’m not even dressed yet, Bob.” He started to change that very thing, pulling clothes out of drawers.
“Holy shit,” Bob hissed. “A paparazzo snapped Eddie coming out of the hotel with his hair wet and shoes in hand. It looks like a fucking walk of shame after having sex!”
Steve blinked at him for a moment and then burst out laughing. “Please tell me no one is taking this seriously.”
There was silence on the line for a moment before Bob said quietly, “Why aren’t you?”
“Bob,” Steve said gently. “You’re new to me and my life, so you might have not had a chance to experience this yet. But Eddie does it on purpose.”
“On purpose?!” Bob shrieked. “Why on earth would he do that?”
“Because he is a chaos gremlin at heart,” he explained. “And the hilarious part is is that he is not out of the closet the way I am so the tabloids are always running their mouth about me turning him gay. He waits twenty-four hours and releases a statement about how we are only good friends and that we were spending our off hours together, nothing more.”
Bob was so silent that Steve had to make sure that he was still on the line.
“That is diabolical!” Bob finally hissed. “I just looked it up and he does this with everyone he stays overnight with, but not with people he’s actually dating. His poor agent must pay their hair stylist a shit ton in hair dye to cover all the grey hair he must be giving them.”
Steve chuckled. “Normally I’d agree with you, but she’s chaos gremlin instigator and it was entirely her idea the first time he did it.”
Bob was silent again. “All right, I looked into how Keith handled in it the past and he just ignored it. Which while fair, is incredibly boring.”
Steve blinked for a moment or two as his brain processed that statement. “Oh? What did you have in mind?”
~
“Steve Harrington, in a move that has stunned entertainment pundits,” the entertainment reporter was saying, “has come out and said that any and all talk about who he is or isn’t fucking, is none of our damn business.”
Veronica Stiles smirked at the camera. “Harrington, who is under new management, has decided to come out swinging, it seems. When he was cruelly outed almost a decade ago he has kept himself to himself since. But now with a comeback well on its way, Harrington has decided to swing for the fences. And if you ask me, I’d say he knocked it out of the park.”
She turned to her co-host, who was a forty-something man in a dark suit. “Freddie, what do you make of Steve Harrington’s statement?”
“I say good for him,” Freddie huffed. “I’ve been in this business for twenty years and I remember the absolute shitshow that was what he had been put through. It was more than a nine day wonder and while ignoring it is fine too, telling people to fuck off is better.”
“Indeed!” Veronica said with a grin. “He’s got three movies coming out this year and there is talk about him being nominated for his role as Sean in ‘Dancing in the Dark’.”
“God,” Freddie breathed. “I wish he would but horror films don’t make it to the Oscars. You’ll see him at the SAG awards, the Golden Globes, or hell maybe even the BAFTAs but I don’t think the Oscars will bend even for one as amazing as Robin Buckley’s directorial debut.”
“What a pity that would be,” Veronica said shaking her head. “We can only hope they see sense this year.”
Hey all! We are back! And if all goes well, I only have a chapter and half left to write so we are nearing the end of this one.
I've already started my next story, but first out will be the Rockstar AU I've been sharing on WIP Wednesday.
And here we come to my favorite use of PMS of all time.
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 |
~
January got the Hellfire group kicked out from the drama as they were starting to practice the school musical.
Steve had to actually go into the Prin. Higgins office and harass the man into letting them have it at his house.
They were going to force the club to close down because it ‘had to be on school property’ and refused all other meeting places.
When Steve pointed out that not only did most of the clubs have events off campus, parents had already signed release forms for the club to do just that.
And since the club had yet to even use one of its approved ‘field trips’ let alone its entire allotment. So Steve was able to get all future sessions at his house until end of April as ‘field trips’.
Even Jeff and Taylor had to admit that made Steve the club’s hero and had lost their last excuse to keep Steve at arm’s length.
It was actually the first session at Steve’s house that Mike figured out who Camazotz was.
“All righty, Mike,” Eddie said rubbing his hands together. “You’re going to need to roll an eighteen or higher on your intelligence check to succeed.”
Mike pressed his lips together and then looked over his sheet. He nodded. He picked up a bright orange sparkly D20, but Will held out a plain red one with gold numbers.
“Here,” he said, “use this one. It’s my lucky D20.”
Mike grinned and took the die. He began rolling it around in his hand and then threw it.
The whole group watched as the die bounced the length of the table to rest right in front of Eddie’s DM screen.
Eddie leaned forward and absolutely cackled in delight. “Natural twenty. Roll again to confirm.”
Mike took the die from Eddie’s hand and rolled it again. This time in landed in front of Taylor and the entire table leapt to their feet in a roar.
“Nicely done,” Eddie said with a grin at the second natural twenty. He began scribbling on a page from his notebook as he spoke. “You remember when you were taking your orders at the convent to be a paladin the legend of one of the order. You also remember that the paladin in question had a scar under his neck in the shape of a dragon.”
He handed Mike the note and he read it. He looked around at all the other players and quietly slipped the note into his pocket.
“So what are you going to do Sir Michaelis?” Eddie asked, lacing his fingers together and resting his chin on them.
Mike rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “Nothing for now. I’m going to keep an eye out though.”
Eddie nodded. “You’ll have a plus six to all spot checks regarding this character. I will let you know when to roll.”
Then he turned to the rest of the party. “Does anyone question Sir Michaelis?”
Everyone kinda looked around at each other in confusion. They didn’t know what to do that wasn’t metagame.
“Everyone roll a perception check,” Eddie said silencing their confusion with a simple phrase.
Everyone but Mike rolled their dice. Most of them rolling high enough for Eddie to say. “You notice your traveling companion seems a bit withdrawn and preoccupied.”
“Do we know why?” Jeff asked, leaning forward to examine the board that had all their figures on it.
“No but Sir Camazotz seems uneasy about something too,” Eddie explained.
“Oooh,” Danny said, “Maybe it’s a PMS thing. You know Paladin Moody Syndrome?” The table cackled, even Mike.
“Yeah,” Mike said with a big grin on his face. “Let’s just go with that.”
Eddie looked up at Steve and the two shared a grin. Mike was getting closer to the truth and it was exciting.
As they were cleaning up. “Hey, Mike when did you want to do a mini sesh to discuss what you learned in game?”
Mike shrugged. “I could come early next week?”
“Sounds great!” Eddie enthused. “I’ll see you all next week.”
They all said goodbye and filed out to their respective cars to go home. As always there was a handful left that would help Steve clean up.
This time it was Taylor, Brian, and Dustin, with Eddie being the one constant.
“Hey, thanks for helping me clean up,” Steve said, handing a dirty plate to Taylor to put in the dishwasher.
Dustin snorted. “Eddie makes us do it on rotation. He said it was the hallmark of a good guest.”
Steve looked over at Dustin and then Eddie. “Is that right?”
“Yep!” Eddie said from where he was wiping down the counter. When he was done he turned around. “My uncle always said that when you visit, you leave the house the condition you found it in or better. And that’s carried me through life.”
“So are you threatening to debuff them,” Steve asked with a chuckle, “or offering them bribes in temporary stat boosts.”
Taylor and Brian looked at each other and then said at the same time, “BOTH!”
Steve cackled. “Yeah, I could see that. Gotta make sure it’s not the same rotation of people doing the work for the boosts.”
“I really wish you’d play, man,” Taylor said, loading up the dishwasher. “I know you think it’s too hard or whatever, but I really think you’ll enjoy it.”
He shook his head. “I’m just not built for that, sorry.”
Brian cocked his head to the side. “You a baseball fan?”
“Well, yeah,” Steve said, rearing his head back in confusion. “I was in Little League until high school, why?”
“Okay,” Taylor said jutting his chin up and cracking his knuckles by linking them together and stretching out his arms. “Let’s do this.” He started pulling out stats and things about baseball and Steve absolutely kept up.
Eddie, Dustin, and Brian all looked at Steve as if he had grown an extra head.
“Holy shit,” Dustin huffed. “I didn’t know sports had so many stats.”
“I don’t understand the point you’re trying to make,” Steve said, crossing his arms in front of his chest and shifting his weight to his back foot.
“The point, Stevie,” Eddie said cocking his head to the side, “is that D&D is a hell of a lot simpler than that. Like that is DM levels of keeping track of shit.”
“For real, man,” Brian said shaking his head. “Like the only person’s stats you have to worry about are your own. But you just spouted off the stats of four teams and at least a half a dozen players and I’m willing to bet my mother’s chocolate chip recipe that you could do that for swimming and basketball too.”
“Ooh...” Taylor said seriously. “That’s a pretty dangerous bet and not one Bri would make if he wasn’t one hundred percent sure he was right. His mom’s recipe is the stuff legends.”
Steve frowned. “I’m still not sure what you mean.”
Eddie opened his mouth to answer but Dustin stopped him. “Steve what is a monster that is like a large flowering plant?”
“That would be a shambling mound,” Steve said quickly, snapping his fingers. “Or shambler as it’s more commonly known. It’s basically a vaguely human shaped mound of rotting plants and shit.”
The three other older teens stared at him shock.
“What is the difference between a knight and a paladin?” Dustin pressed.
Steve rattled off the differences off the top of his head and soon Eddie and the other two were doing the same. Just firing off questions about D&D and especially the lore.
It was some time around the fourth or fifth round of questions that Steve finally got it.
“Holy shit,” he muttered. “I’m a nerd!”
Dustin rolled his eyes. “Yes you are. But more importantly, Steve, you’d make an excellent DM.”
“Oh.” Steve wasn’t sure what he thought about that if he was honest.
“But hey, you don’t have to do anything you don’t want to, man,” Taylor said holding up his hands in surrender. “But maybe try it out with a couple of people you trust and see if you like it.”
“I wouldn’t have to start with all the guys in the club?” Steve asked, chewing on his bottom lip.
“Oh hell no,” Eddie said, his eyes wide in horror. “God that would be a nightmare for everyone involved.”
Steve let out a sigh of relief. “Yeah, I could do a couple one on ones with like Dustin or Erica. I think I could handle that.
Dustin nodded sagely but everyone else frowned.
“What is an Erica?” Taylor asked tilting his head to the side.
Dustin and Steve burst out laughing.
“She’s Lucas’s sister,” Steve said at the same time Dustin said, “She’s a nerd.”
Steve snorted. “Don’t let her catch you saying that, she’d kick your ass.”
Eddie snapped his fingers. “No, wait. I do remember you’ve brought her up before. She’s your final nugget, right? Something about the ‘Scoop Troop’?”
Steve and Dustin shared matching evil grins.
“She’s got this really cool half-elf ranger,” Dustin explained, “named Lady Applejack. She completely kicks ass.”
“Just how old is this kid anyway?” Brian asked, wrinkling his nose.
“Eleven,” Dustin and Steve said together and then burst out laughing.
“You know...” Taylor said with a grimace, “you two act more like siblings then I do with own little brother. It’s almost creepy.”
Dustin lit up. “You really think so? That would be so cool, being Steve’s little brother.”
Steve smiled and ruffled his hair. “You’ll just have to share me with Max, and then I’d completely agree with you.”
Dustin cocked his head to the side as he considered it. “Yeah, that’s fair. She could really use an older male figure who wasn’t a complete ass.”
Brian shook his head. “That has got to be the weirdest duo of all time, Max Mayfield and Steve Harrington. If I hadn’t witnessed it myself on several occasions I would have thought Lucas was pulling my leg when he told us how tight you two were.”
Steve just shrugged. “Billy Hargrove was an ass, but I think on some level he did care about her, he just wasn’t taught how to express it and so it came off as hostility.” He shrugged again. “I mean that’s what Dr. Hughes has been saying in my sessions with him, anyway.”
“For your trauma of being in the mall when it burned down right?” Taylor asked.
Steve opened his mouth to correct him, but Dustin nudged him, his jaw closed with a snap.
“Something like that,” he said through clenched teeth.
Eddie could feel the distress rolling off of him in waves, so he got Brian, Taylor, and Dustin all bundled off so he could talk to Steve.
He led him over to the sofa and sat him down. “Hey are you okay?”
Steve ran his fingers through his hair and let out a shuddering breath. “Not really. I mean the therapy is good, great really. But it feels like I’m being dragged over hot coals over and over again and everything just hurts worse than when I started.”
“Yeah...” Eddie said with a grimace. “I forced through court mandated therapy when I first went to go live with Wayne and it absolutely feels that way for awhile.”
“Yeah well,” Steve huffed. “It sucks.”
“Did you ever read the ‘Chronicles of Narnia’ books?” he asked tilting his head to the side. “You know, ‘The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe’ and all that?”
“There was more than one?” Steve asked, rearing his head back.
“There’s technically seven,” Eddie said with a half shrug. “A story set before the first book and one set during the first book when they’re queens and kings and then four sequels.”
“Okay...”
“Right. So,” Eddie said, sliding closer to Steve on the sofa. “So there is this scene from one of the later books where Lucy and Edmond, the two younger ones, are on an adventure with their dipshit cousin Eustace–”
“I think I’d be a dipshit too if my parents named me that,” Steve said, wincing. “Holy fuck.”
Eddie laughed. “I know right. Well anyway. They land on this island and Eustace turns into a dragon because he’s a greedy dipshit...”
“I see...” Steve said, but he really didn’t.
Eddie waved that way. “I’m just setting up the metaphor. Bare with me.”
“Okay,” Steve said with a small smile.
Eddie wanted to melt in its glory, but he had to focus. “Right, so Aslan the lion shows up and tells him if he wants to be a boy again, all he has to do is scratch off his skin.”
“Ew.”
Eddie laughed again. “Ew indeed. Only Useless, I mean Eustace is having trouble getting it all off. He’s scratching but not deep enough, so Aslan helps him by really digging his claws in to shed the scales. Only it ends up really hurting him. Like large amounts of pain, but once all the scales are off, Aslan lets him bath in the lake and the cool water soothes the raw skin and makes him a boy again. ”
“Oh,” Steve said softly. “I see now. I’m Eustace and Dr. Hughes is the Jesus lion. It hurts because he has to get through all the layers I’ve built up over the years.”
“That’s right, sweetheart,” Eddie soothed, taking Steve’s hands. “Just like what we’re doing for the kids, you’ll get through this too.”
