was imagine-multiples

He began digging into the box pulling out a mix of clothes to be separated. Please god let these be washed, he thought as he tossed a pair of boxers into a pile. Steve glanced around at everyone crowded into the gym. Some folks were laughing, that same couple of kids were still running around playing tag, dangerously running in between a volunteer making the rounds with scalding hot coffee. Others still looked shell-shocked, and he couldn’t blame them. Most of the people that stayed at the relief center had lost everything— homes, loved ones, and they didn’t even know the half of what had really been going on below their small town. Most of them were still blaming the “cult” Hellfire. The whole town had turned on Eddie ‘the freak’ Munson without even batting an eye. 

“Steve!” he heard a familiar voice shout from across the gym. Steve looked up from the donation pile and saw Dustin Henderson running at him. His curly hair had been gelled down in the front like a mullet thanks to Steve’s help styling it. It had taken the kid a while to get it to lay just right but he’d gotten pretty good at it by now, even letting one perfect Superman curl rest on his forehead. Steve was impressed.

“Hey, moving a little fast there Henderson, someone must be real excited to help me sort some old laundry,” he said.

“Ew, gross,” Dustin gagged. “No, I can't, I'm busy!”

“Busy with what? School’s been called off for the rest of the year what could you-”

“We need a ride to the hospital!”

“Hospital? Why are you okay? What happened?” the questions flew out of Steve’s mouth a mile a minute. “Is it Max? Is she okay?”

“Steve, relax,” Dustin motioned with his hands. “Breathe… ready? In… and out.”

Steve felt ridiculous being patronized by a fourteen-year-old, but he followed and took a deep breath in through his nose… and out through his mouth.

“It’s nothing bad,” Dustin assured him. “It’s Eddie. He’s being discharged from the hospital.”

Steve felt his heart pick up. After the demobats swarmed him in the Upside Down, Eddie nearly died from the loss of blood. 

By some miracle, Dustin had pulled him back to one of the gates and got him back into Hawkins. When Steve, Nancy, and Robin got to the scene Eddie had already passed out. Steve remembered going numb at the sight of Eddie’s body as color started to drain from his face. There was a rage in his heart that he’d never felt before, he’d wanted to scream and cry, to run to Eddie’s body and shake him awake, but, most importantly, he knew he couldn’t give up on him. They loaded him into the stolen RV and raced to the hospital, clumsily weaving in and out of traffic as people rushed to flee Hawkins. Lucas and Erica were already there, with Max being hauled out of an ambulance and into emergency care. Nurses rushed to load Eddie onto a gurney, his curls were messy and sticking to his face with sweat, his lips had started to turn gray as they pulled an oxygen mask over his head. Steve held a clenched fist to his mouth. 

“You better live, Munson,” he said in a whisper so quiet he wasn’t even sure he’d said it. The words were caught in between his fingers and Steve held them so tightly. Like if he let go, so would Eddie. “I swear to god, you better live.” 

“So can you give us a ride?” Dustin asked, pulling Steve back to the present.

He cleared his throat. “Sorry, who’s us?”

“Me, Mike, Erica, and Lucas, duh.” 

“Yeah, alright,” Steve sighed. “But you have to help me finish with these donations.”

“What why?” Dustin whined. 

“Listen, I’m not supposed to leave until all of these boxes get sorted. We aren’t gonna get to Munson any sooner if it’s just me doing this, so grab a box and start sorting.” 

Dustin stomped his foot, but obliged and slid a box towards himself. “Aw gross! This one’s all some dude’s underwear!”

“Never said it would be glamorous,” Steve said as his mind drifted back to Eddie. His wide eyes and goofy lopsided grin. The way he always carried a faint smell of cigarettes and leather.

What? He was just excited to see him alive again, that’s all.

+

They had been waiting by the front desk for almost an hour now. Steve was fiddling with one of the pins on Eddie’s vest. Eddie hadn’t gotten the chance to ask for it back before shit went down with Vecna, and now Steve was a little glad he hadn’t.

 It was a cool vest. He’d hate to see it get ruined. And now it can get back to its rightful owner. Steve thought. 

The kids were practically berating the poor receptionist. How much longer? Is he ready yet? What’s taking so long? 

“Hey guys,” Steve finally spoke up. “Let’s give it a rest, huh? He’ll be out any minute-” 

“Well, isn’t this a nice surprise,” Eddie’s voice, a little raspier than before, caught everyone’s attention as he rounded the corner, followed closely by his uncle. He looked weak, like he hadn’t slept, at least not a lot. His hair was a mess, not greasy thanks to the hospital showers, but even wilder than usual. But he was still here. 

“Eddie!” Dustin hollered and ran over to him, throwing his arms tightly around his shoulders. Eddie winced a bit as his uncle steadied him. 

“Still a little tender, man,” he gritted his teeth.

“Shit sorry!” the boy backed off frantically, but Eddie just looked down at him with a warm smile. 

“It’s alright. It’s nice to know that someone still cares.”

Steve could have sworn he heard the receptionist scoff quietly at his words. He whipped his head around to look at her and saw that she couldn’t stop herself from glancing at Eddie. A look of horror and disgust flashed across her face every time she did. What the hell did she know? And who was she to judge him? He wanted to march up to her and tell her what really happened. That Eddie was a hero, that he helped save their town from a psychotic science experiment that wanted to take over the world. And yet, somehow, Steve knew that she’d be more inclined to believe some twenty-year-old was sacrificing teenagers to Satan. The police had cleared Eddie of the murders in the month since, and yet she still stared. So much for all that constitutional innocent ‘til proven guilty shit. 

“We got you this,” Erica spoke up and handed Eddie a t-shirt. Quietly, Eddie’s uncle excused himself to his car.

“New and improved Hellfire logo!” Mike smiled. “Our friend Will drew it! See we redesigned the pit fiend’s face and added more fire this time!”

“We figured since your last one got trashed in the-” Lucas caught himself. “The earthquake… we could replace it for you!”

Eddie looked down at it for a long time before speaking again. “Looks awesome guys, your friend is really talented.” 

Steve took this as his opportunity to finally say something. “And— I brought you this,” he said and held out Eddie’s vest. Eddie’s eyes widened in delight, and instead of Steve feeling the denim leave his fingers, he felt Eddie pulling him into a hug. 

“Do my eyes deceive me or is that Steve Harrington coming to pay lil ol’ me a visit?” Eddie clapped him on the back while Steve stumbled for a moment before stiffly reciprocating the hug. 

“Yeah, it’s me,” Steve laughed a bit. “You, uh, you forgot this last time I, you know, saw you.” 

Eddie pulled away, that big lopsided grin on his face. He looked down at the vest and snatched it away, snapping it dramatically to admire it. Eddie held the shoulders delicately between two fingers flipping it around from the front and back to examine the vest closely. 

“And she’s in pristine condition,” he grinned. “If I didn’t know any better, I might think you actually liked this dingy old thing.” 

“Hey, I’m not the kind of guy to wreck another man’s possessions. My mother raised me with respect, thank you.”

“Indeed she did,” Eddie could not wipe that stupid grin from his face as he turned his back to Steve and began to maneuver himself into the arms of the vest. As he went to lift it onto his shoulders Steve heard him wince. 

“Woah, easy there Munson,” Steve quickly reached out to help try and lift it on. “Need a hand?”

“Nah,” Eddie said, a bit dejectedly. “Seems like I’m still lacking a bit of movement. Maybe you can hold onto this for a while longer?” Eddie shrugged off the vest into Steve’s hands. “Besides, it looked better on you anyway.” 

Heat crept to Steve’s cheeks. He felt his chest get light, like that feeling you get when you crest the top of a roller coaster, but only for half a second. “Oh, sure…” he said quietly. “But don’t go thinking I’m a storage unit, Munson. For that, I’ll have to charge you.”

“Hm, I’m a little tight on cash at the moment,” he hummed and turned back to face him. “But I’m sure we can come to an agreement where we’re both happy.”

There was something mischievous in Eddie’s tone that only made Steve’s blush deepen. His dark brown eyes seemed to see right through him as Steve clutched the vest for any kind of stability in this moment. The longer Eddie looked at him the more he felt it get harder to breathe— he felt himself freeze up. Steve only tore his eyes away from Eddie’s when Lucas spoke again. That was new. 

“I’m gonna go see Max.”

Steve never froze. 

“See you guys later?” Lucas took off down the hall as Steve continued to look down at the hospital’s speckled floor.

“‘Scuse me,” the receptionist finally broke the silence. “You need to sign these before you can leave.” 

Eddie practically skipped to the counter and the woman rolled her eyes. With an aggressive amount of pressure and unneeded flourish, Eddie scribbled his signature at the bottom of the page. 

“You’re free to go,” she said flatly.

“Hey, you should hang onto that!” Eddie leaned over the counter excitedly, taking his bottom lip between his teeth as he smiled at her. “My signature could make you a lot of money one day!” 

“Yeah, if the serial killer convention rolls into town I’ll be sure to have this on standby,” she spat. Steve watched Eddie’s face fall, his shoulders slumping as he took a step back. 

“Hey!” Dustin came to his defense, jabbing a finger in the receptionist's direction. “Eddie’s band, Corroded Coffin, fucking rules, alright? And you’re gonna regret being such a-”

“Henderson,” Eddie stopped him. All the joy that had been on his face before was gone. His voice was low and timid when he spoke again. “Leave it, man. Let’s just get out of here.” 

They started towards the door, Steve being the last to follow them out. He watched as Eddie slowly turned himself back on. His shoulders rolled back so that he stood confident and tall again, his gate picked up a bit more pep as he slung an arm around Dustin’s shoulders. Steve turned to glare at the receptionist. She glared back.