#phantom!eddie

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The (now) third time Eddie "hears" from his secret admirer is definitely not when he was expecting. It kind of makes sense, if his secret admirer really is into him still he'd know that Eddie plays at the Hideout on Tuesday nights. But if he's being honest with himself, the rose flung up on stage while they were still drowned in spotlight was the second most surprising thing of the night. Actually, make that third.

First was the size of the crowd. Being accused of a ritualistic murder does have one benefit then, it has a tendency to make you seem more metal than you might actually be (especially within the metal community). The dingy little bar was actually packed tonight. So many people were there to see Eddie and his bandmates that it was the start of his nervousness. And Eddie never gets nervous about playing, it’s like breathing to him.

Secondly (and the second reason for Eddie to be nervous that night) was that Steeeeve Harrington himself was there to see him play. Him along with Buckley AND Nancy Wheeler had even dressed up for the occasion, pulling out as much black and grungy looking pieces from the backs of their wardrobes as they could find. Eddie swears Wheeler is wearing one of the old band tees Robin stole from him and Steve is wear-holy fuck. HOLY FUCK. Steve Harrington is wearing his (His! Eddie Munson’s!) battle vest. How the fuck he managed to keep it is beyond him but…yep. Eddie’s vest looks just as good on Steve now than it did in that upside-down hellscape.

Only a second had gone by in the time it took Eddie to process all of this before the lights go down and the spotlight is blinding him to everything beyond the stage.

“Get your head in gear, Munson, you’ve got a whole bar full of people to blow away… shit” Eddie mumbles to himself before stepping up to the mic.

And of course, no matter his surprise or nervousness about anything (or anyone) in the crowd that night, the show goes off without a hitch. He’s saying his goodbyes to the crowd as they cheer, holler, and whistle for them, some people are even throwing things. A couple of coasters with phone numbers scrawled on them are frisbee’d onto the stage around him, one (1) singular pair of panties (wtf this is insane), and from his right, just before the lights come back up in the bar, a single red rose tied with a black ribbon.

Time slows down. That’s the only way he could’ve snatched it out of the air the way he did.

He catches it and the crowd lets loose a few wolf whistles. Eddie grins so wide his face hurts. “Thank you guys so much, we’ll be here next week!” he jeers and lifts the rose in his hand in the air like he’s showing it off. The lights finally come up, and Eddie looks directly toward where the rose came from, trying to see if he recognized any of the faces. The only face he recognizes is Steve’s, off a good bit to the left from where the rose came at him, and who is also looking around for who it would’ve come from. Steve looks up at Eddie, and shrugs, he didn’t see anything either.

‘Of course he’s going to act like he didn’t see anything if he’s the one who threw it.’ Eddie’s brain helpfully supplies.

Nope. NOPE. Not going there, that’s so impossible. Steve was a good friend, even if he was blissfully unaware of the affect he had on Eddie.

Eddie shrugs back at Steve before turning back to the guys and helping them pack up their stuff.

“What does this one say?” Gareth asks him when they’re lugging the last of the equipment off the stage.

“Ermph durnup.” Eddie mumbles around the rose stem in his mouth. He sets the amps he was carrying at the back door to be loaded into his van (Which Steve was so graciously helping with). Eddie spits the rose out into his hand as Steve comes back into the doorway. Now ALL of them waiting on Eddie to read out the note. Even Robin and Wheeler have come backstage to watch them work. “Haven’t read it yet.”

“What’s happening now?” Nancy asks, confused. ‘Was she really never around during any of the re-tellings of this story?’ Eddie thinks to himself

“My secret admirer threw this to me as we were wrapping up our set.” Eddie waggles his eyebrows at the older Wheeler “I tried to see who it was, but by the time the lights came back on and I could actually see past the stage, the crowd was already thinning out.”

“They probably didn’t want to be recognized just yet? Even I looked around as soon as I could see again, but yeah, everyone had started dispersing.” Steve chimed in from the doorway he was leaning against, arms crossed across his chest. Damn were his arms always that huge?

“Uh_uh yeah, I do love a guy with a flair for dramatics.” everyone chuckled at that

“Of course you do Munson” Steve smiled at him “Now hurry up and read it!”

“OK, OK, this one says ‘You alone can make my song take flight’.” Eddie sings the line softly, redness creeping up his cheeks as his friends react around him.

“Ew, that’s so gross I’m gonna barf.” - Robin

“That’s so sweet!” - Nancy

“You’re going to be talking about this for weeks aren’t you?” - Gareth

Various well-meaning eye rolls come from the rest of his bandmates as they take care of the amps Steve had been neglecting.

And Steve, Steve was looking at Eddie with the warmest, fondest smile he’d ever seen.

Hmm…

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Pt. 4 will be here! Thank you for reading!!

Now on AO3! Several Notes of the Most Amiable Nature

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Eddie's first day with Steve was...frustrating. In more ways than one. And each reason bled into the next.

It was mostly Eddie getting frustrated at..Eddie; getting fed up with himself for not understanding and immediately picking up something new as soon as he started. Feeling ashamed for having to ask questions, and this time it was Steve he was having to embarrassingly ask the simplest questions about the computer system, the checkout process, everything.

Then it was: getting unreasonably frustrated at sweet, understanding, patient Steve for being...sweet, understanding, and patient. Steve, who would answer every question he had no matter if he'd asked it before, no matter how many questions Eddie asked him. He shouldn't have to tolerate Eddie for being thick in the skull.

And then again getting frustrated at himself for his stupid feelings for Steve making him confused. What about this secret admirer? What would happen if he fell for Steve completely and snubbed this secret admirer whenever he figured out who it was?

'Well then that's his fault for taking so damn long.' Eddie found himself thinking bitterly.Then kicking himself internally for his next thought: 'But what if Steve is your secret admirer? Then it would be just fine!'

Internal meltdowns aside, Eddie's first day turned into Eddie's first week, first month.

It was at his first shift alone that he found the next rose.

Eddie came in for a closing shift on a slow weekday, trading off with Steve who had opened that day.

"Hey man, welcome to the ghost town."

"Ugh this is going to be horrible on my own, what do you even do when it's this dead?"

"Well I literally did every single thing I needed to do within the first two hours so I just sat in the back on the spinny chair until I heard someone come in."

Eddie giggled at the thought of Steve spinning for hours on end "And did anyone actually come in?"

"Three whole people." Eddie groaned "Yeah, and only one of them actually rented something."

"So that's our whole Tuesday average right there; there's not going to be anyone else coming in."

Steve looked at him with sympathy "Sorry man, at least the spinny chair is free if you get really bored."

"Gee thanks Steve." Eddie rolled his eyes, "So what is there left to do, big boy?"

Steve looked at Eddie sheepishly.

"Oh no,"

"Yeeaaah... I literally did everything. Including a full vacuum, and I dusted everything too."

Eddie groaned loudly and planted his face onto the counter.

"Sorry Eds, I just.." Eddie picked his head up to look at Steve when he paused, setting his chin on counter to watch Steve rub the back of his neck nervously "I just knew it was going to be your first shift alone so I wanted to make it easy for you..I didn't think about you having exactly nothing to do."

Eddie's heart gave two big thu-thumps at that, giving Steve a soft smile. "Thanks Steve. I appreciate the thought."

Steve looked up and they locked eyes for a moment (damn, Steve's eyes really were beautiful...), before Steve looked away, looking for his things from behind the counter "Well anyhow, I better get going; Make sure you count the drawer before anyone comes in."

Eddie could see a blush running down his neck, turning red under these two little freckles that looked perfectly positioned for someone to bite.

“Yeah, yeah, I got it Stevie; have fun doing whatever it is that Kings do on their days off.” Eddie said, waving his hand in a shooing motion.

Steve turned his gaze back to Eddie, the soft look from before hardening a bit, “Not much to write home about, especially for a King whose lost his crown.”

Eddie’s grin dropped with his stomach directly into his feet “Steve—“

“It’s okay Eddie.” Steve cut him off

“No, No, I’m sorry; I know you hate that King Steve shit, I’m sorry I said it. Everyone knows you aren’t that guy anymore, especially me.” Eddie was starting to pace, pulling his hair in front of his face, “I know I’ve made fun of you about the King shit before, shit, I did just a couple weeks ago and I really didn’t mean it I swear. You are still a King to us, you know, the party, just more like a beloved ruler, someone who looks out for their subjects instead of expecting to be feared by them—“

‘Stop, stop, holy shit stop talking!’ Eddie’s brain screamed at him. Eddie forced his mouth shut and looked up at steve in a panic, Steve’s gaze had softened again, and internally, Eddie breathed a sigh of relief. “….y’know?”

Steve surged forward and lifted Eddie up in a big hug, spinning him around in a circle before setting him back on his feet, face still buried in Eddie’s curls.

“Thank you..” Steve whispered.

Eddie squeezed Steve just a bit tighter “You’re welcome, Stevie.”

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Eddie realized he had been leaning on the counter for the last two hours in a daze when someone finally came in, the bell ringing startling him out of it.

He snapped up straight “Welcome to Fam— oh, hey Robs.”

“Hey doofus, how’s your first shift going?”

“Uh..good I guess? I’ve been standing in this one spot since Steve left.” Eddie stretched out as he spoke, realizing how stiff he’d gotten.

“…why?”

“Just thinking I guess,” Eddie shrugs “I should probably do something, huh?”

Robin laughed as they both split off into the shelves, Robin to pick up a tape for a movie night with Vickie (“Nice! Congrats, Buckley” Eddie said with a suggestive eyebrow wiggle), and Eddie into the horror section to pick out some tapes for the front. He was going to be opening tomorrow anyway so why shouldn’t his faves be on the suggestion display?

“Let’s see…Halloween, Little Shop of Horrors,” Eddie laughed to himself as he picked up Gremlins and Ghostbusters, thinking fondly of his own gremlins.

Eddie was heading to the sci-fi aisle next to grab Star Wars when a flash of red amongst the mostly black covers of the horror movies caught his eye.

“What the fuck?” came Robins voice from somewhere behind him, “Eddie, you dropping shit over there? You’re not cursed or something are you?”

Eddie registered her voice changing from amusement to concern, but he couldn’t move his gaze from where it was locked even if he tried.

Robin came up behind him quickly, he could feel the warmth coming off her as she came around his side to wave her hand in front of his face.

The movement broke the trance and he shot his hand up to grab Robins wrist. “Are you seeing what I’m seeing?” he asked, Still looking past her onto the shelf.

“Am I seeing what? You hallucinating or somethi— ohmygod.”

“So you see that too.” Eddie nodded his head before dropping Robins wrist and stepping over the the display.

There, sitting between two tapes on one of the middle shelves, is a red rose with a black ribbon tied around its stem.

“Wow, you have a full-on stalker, Eddie.” Robin laughs before muttering something to herself that Eddie didn’t catch.

Eddie picked up the rose carefully, turning the tag over: “Eddie, There will never be a day when I won’t think of you”.

“Holy shit,” Eddie exclaimed, snapping his head up, “Steve said only three whole people came in today..maybe he could tell me who they were.”

“Eddi—“ Robin started to say, but he was already hurrying behind the counter to call Steve’s cell.

“C’mon Stevie, pick up…”

“Eddie? Everything okay?” Steve said as soon as he picked up the phone. Oh no, he sounded worried..

“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine Stevie, I just wanted to ask you something.”

“Oh okay? Shoot?” now he just sounded confused. That was much better than worried.

“I found another rose.”

“Holy shit!! Thats great! What does it say??” Eddie could hear another voice on the line “Hold on, Dustin!” Steve snapped, pulling the phone away from his mouth “Sorry Eds, wait, you found one? At Family Video?”

“It’s good man, tell Dusty I said Hi, and yes, it was on one of the horror shelves. Listen: you said you cleaned everything today, including dusting off all the shelves right? So do you remember which of the three people came in after you did that? And Please tell me that only one person did and it was the one person who happened to rent something.” Eddie rushed out.

Robin had come over to the front counter now, just listening. Why wasn’t she jazzed about this? Wouldn’t she also want to know who it is?

Steve was silent on the other end of the line (Dustin was very much NOT) while he thought. “All three came in after I dusted everything…it was really slow..But honestly I couldn’t tell you who the three were, probably couldn’t even pick them out of a lineup.”

Eddie sighed heavily, “Damn, I knew it was a long shot”

“Sorry Ed’s, my memory is super shitty nowadays.” more chatter from Dustin filtered through the call.

“I know Stevie, it’s not your fault.” Eddie knew his voice sounded pained, he couldn’t help it, he didn’t want Steve to feel bad though.

“Hey—Damnit Dustin, I’m trying to comfort your father here, would you PLEASE calm down?!”

A lot of questions shot through Eddie’s head at that, directly after the need to laugh at Dustin getting louder as if just to spite Steve. ‘Father’?? ‘Father’??? Is that how the kids saw him? Eddie knew the long running joke about Steve being the party’s mom but the added implication that Eddie was their dad? Was it them who said that first? Or was it Steve just pulling something out of thin air just now to make him laugh?

Steve was still talking “Eddie, Dustin thinks you should look up who was the person to rent something earlier, which is what I told him you were going to do in the first place.” Saying the last part under his breath.

Eddie grinned at the thought of them bickering in the front seat of Steve car.

“Yeah I was already, but you can tell him I didn’t think of that and that it was a good idea.”

“He said that is a good idea, he didn’t actually think of that.” Steve spoke to Dustin with a smile in his voice.

“Thanks Steve, have fun with Dustin, tell him I said to listen to his mother.”

Steve’s wonderful laugh came through the other end as he hung up the phone.

Eddie told Robin what Steve said happened that day as he checked out the tape for her.

“Hmmm.. Maybe it’s Steve that left it for you.”

Eddie froze. Was she in his head? “What makes you say that?” he asked, his voice small. It was really weird to have someone else make the suggestion that his traitorous brain kept on repeat.

“Well, he was there when the last one was thrown at you, and he was just here earlier today when he knew you’d be coming in AND just ‘can’t remember’ any of the three people that came in today? Sounds fishy to me.” Robin rattled off the reasons like she already had it prepared.

She grabbed the tape from his hand where it was still frozen above the counter and headed for the door, “By the way, there should be a couple boxes of new tapes in the back if you want to start going through them. The checklist is with them on the orange clipboard.” and with a wave, she was gone.

Eddie did in fact start going through the new tapes, needing something to occupy himself after everything….after a quick search to see who had rented a tape earlier in the day (an easy enough search for the last transaction before Buckley, turned out to be old Ms. Wilson who rented The Wizard of Oz).

And if he also looked up to see who had rented The Phantom of the Opera in recent months (there was a lot of people, he didn’t even make it past the ‘B’s), that was nobody’s business but his.

He picked up new copy of Phantom from the box, flipping through the sheets on the clipboard to make note of how many copies they got in.

There was no Phantom listed in the printed copy, so Eddie flipped to the back page to write it in manually where whoever did this last hadn’t bothered printing a new copy, just writing in the new titles at the bottom. Looks like whoever it was had already written in Phanto—

It was like Eddie’s brain did a record scratch and freeze.

The handwriting

It was the same as..as…

Eddie bolted up off the floor where he was sitting, tripping over the stacks of tapes around him.

He threw himself over the counter to where he stashed the rose.

Eddie compared every letter he could; Every. Single. One. Was identical.

So he had three possibilities. Keith, who was now gone, Robin, who should still be a lesbian, or..

Steve.

Eddie picked up the phone behind the counter and called Robin at home.

“Robin speaking!”

“You still like boobies right Robs?”

“Eddie? Uh yeah?”

“Okay good.. just boobies right?”

“Yes Eddie, just boobies, why are yo-“

“Cool, see you, Robin.” Anything she would’ve said was cut off by Eddie hanging the phone up on the hook.

Eddie nearly sprinted to the back office and started searching. He wanted to be sure.

He finally found what he was looking for, both Steve and Robin’s applications.

And there it was. Eddie had his answer.

Steve’s handwriting was the same as Eddie’s secret admirer.

Eddie plopped backwards into the office’s spinny chair in a daze.

Steve.

It was Steve this whole time. Beautiful, perfect, sweet Steve. The mother of his children..

Fuck, he should’ve guessed that. The roses only started reappearing after he told Steve, and Robin was right, he was right there when the rose was thrown at their show. She must’ve helped with the first one and left it for Steve after class.

That little bastard has been faking it the whole damn time.

‘I bet if I look, Steve will have rented Phantom a bunch of times, too.’ Eddie thought disbelievingly.

Eddie grinned and leaned back in the chair. Then, an overwhelming sense of giddiness overcame him and he spun himself in a circle, laughing like a madman.

‘Steve was right, this is pretty fun.’

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Pt. 5 here!!

Now on AO3! Several Notes of the Most Amiable Nature