#pridethingsbingo

Beautiful Steve Harrington bent over him, talking, shouting, commanding. Now he would’ve been a good leader of battalions.

“Stay with us Eddie, we’re getting you out of here!”

Eddie flopped his head from one side to the other, trying to tell Steve to leave him. A dying vampire was too dangerous to take around people. They’ll do anything to survive. Again, been there, done that, not doing it again.

“On three, Eddie. It’s gonna hurt, but I’ve got you.”

no

“no.”

“One.”

“No.”

“Two.”

“I need- Steve-”

“A hospital, Eddie. You need a hospital. And I’ll get you there. You just keep talking.”

“No, Steve. I need- Please, Steve, leave me.”

“Not on your life, dude. Stop using what strength you have fighting me!”

Eddie shuddered, spasming against the ground and Steve’s hold. The magic of his immortality fought hard. It wouldn’t let him just die, gently shuffling off this mortal coil. Eddie couldn’t-

His hand shot out, gripping Steve’s cheek hard, pulling him down, pressing his ear to Eddie’s mouth.

“Beautiful Steve Harrington, I need you,” his voice coiled around, sinking into his victim’s heart, promising everything, promising eternity. His magic pulsed through him, pushing him to live, do whatever was necessary to fight off Death. “Need to bite your lovely neck. Can smell your blood, it’s mouth watering. Please. Say yes, Stevie. It’s the only way. Can only live if- Fuck! No!”

He shoved with the last of his might, breaking the connection. Steve fell back on his ass, staring at Eddie with wide lovely eyes, wide calculating eyes, wide remembering eyes.

“Vampire. You, not Vecna.” His eyes hardened with determination. Eddie could tell what we was thinking, even without Jeff’s telepathy power, and wanted to throw his head back and groan in frustration. Can’t this dude not throw himself into danger just once?!

“Eddie. It’ll save you? Yeah? Just need my blood? Okay. Come on, sitting you up.” Steve’s strong strong arms pulled his shoulders off the ground, sitting him up against him. Eddie shook his head against Steve’s shoulder.

“No. Steve. You have to go. I need too much. too much. need it all. please go.”

Steve cupped his head, looking at him so soft. “It’s okay. Take what you need.”

He pressed Eddie’s mouth against those two little moles. like two little vampire bites.

Eddie couldn’t stop his tongue from lapping out, licking the skin there. Salty. Sweaty. Warm. Maybe I can drink just enough for Death to stop looming. Just a little. get more later…

He ran his teeth along the muscle, feeling for the vein. His gums itched, his fangs slid down.

Eddie bit in. Steve jerked against him. Eddie’s arms wrapped around him, holding him hard. Steve’s hand gripped Eddie’s hair at the scalp.

Eddie sucked and burning red blood flooded his mouth, flooded his senses. Red heat slid down his throat. Golden light burst before his eyes. He sucked harder.

Golden liquid daylight. Burning scarlet rays of dawn- steve steve steve only steve there’s so much life in him need need, need it all

Eddie lost himself in the first rays of sunlight he’d truly felt on his skin in hundreds of years. He stood before the sunrise and felt the golden warmth saturate his body, filling every dark dying crevasse of his body, wrapping around his stormy soul, waking it up for first time in so long. He felt so so alive.

He bathed in the heat, reveling in the light.

Hands on him.

Darkness fell around him.

Strong hands ripping him away from that light. He fought hard, clawing at whoever held him flat against the cold, ashy, dead earth. Steve was his. He needed it all. It was his, all his, only his. He’d kill any vampire who tried to take it- him away.

He growled low and long, predatory dark promises rumbling from deep within.

A voice.

He knows that voice. It’s one of his. His Family.

Why would one of his try to take Steve from him!?

no

No, they wouldn’t take Steve.

They’d try to save Steve.

“We have to turn him, son.”

no

not Steve

not lovely beautiful daylight Steve

they couldn’t

he wouldn’t let them

His magic built, roiling within him. He shoved off from the ground, bursting from the bodies holding him down. He pulled Steve from Wayne’s arms, cradled him in his own, and ran.

He could hear Gareth calling him back, Jeff shouting to please let Steve live, Freak trying to use his powers of melody to stop him in his tracks.

But he could feel a spark in Steve, felt that he still lived, that his soul still resided within his body. He wouldn’t let anyone take those from him.

He jumped straight up through the red, pulsing portal, landing hard on the balls of his feet in their old home.

Eddie would get Steve to the hospital, Steve would live a happy mortal life.

Time, and his surroundings, blurred. He ran through trees and neighborhoods, through downtown, through the hospital’s doors.

He held Steve out, “Save him.”

The doctors took him away.

Eddie sat down heavy on a waiting room bench and tipped his head back against the wall, closing his eyes against the bright lights.

Red burned behind his eyelids.

He wanted the golden daylight back.

He pushed his magic outward, following the feeling of Steve, sensing that he was still alive back there with the doctors. He saw that little golden spark still within Steve, glowing and unwavering in its strength.

Eddie heard them before they made it the door. He should stand up, update them, check on the kids.

But that glow.

He just wanted to keep an eye on it a little longer. He needed to keep it safe. What if he stopped watching and it stopped glo-

“Eddie!” Dustin collapse against him, sobbing, and Eddie slammed back into his own body.

“Kid.” Eddie wrapped his arms around Dustin, hugging him tight. “Hey, I’m okay. I got Steve here in time. The doctors have him, he’s okay.”

Dustin reared back, glaring at him from a tear stained face, and spoke tense and low. “You asshole. You’re a vampire and didn’t think to mention that? You didn’t think it might be important to our battle plan? We would’ve strategized differently! And then you, a vampire, went and almost died? What, are you new?”

Gareth snickered, it’d been a long time since anyone had accused Eddie of being new.

“Yeah, asshole,” Jeff pipped up, arms crossed over his chest, “why didn’t you call the rest of into whatever little campaign this is? No, we had to feel your magic pulling life force from us to know you were dying somewhere? It’s a good thing Wayne could see where you were. ‘Cause what was your little Steve Plan there, hm?”

Eddie met Wayne’s eyes above the group, they were always tinged with sadness, but now Eddie had put that look on his face. Blood hot tears pricked at his eyes and his nose scrunched up trying to hold the tears at bay. He hadn’t even thought about Wayne seeing his death, being helpless to do anything but watch. Wayne circled the group and sat beside Eddie, pulling him in with an arm around his shoulders.

Eddie buried his face against Wayne. “I’m sorry, Wayne. I’m sorry.”

Wayne pet his hair and squeezed his arm. “I know, son. Just gotta talk to us when things are going down.”

Eddie nodded against him. “Is everyone else okay? There’s a bunch of kids involved. Wanted to keep them safe, but I didn’t-”

Wayne sighed, pulling his magic around him. “Yeah, kid, they’re gonna live. The one girl’s gonna have a battle of it, but she’s strong. And your Steve’s girl is glaring daggers at you from the other side of the room, so you might want to talk to her.”

“Wayne, she’s his friend, not his girl,” Eddie leaned back, wiping at his cheeks, “but you know that, don’t you, you old so and so?”

Wayne just shrugged with that inscrutable frowny smile gracing his face. Eddie would take that over him looking sad any day.

He stood and his boys, his Family pulled him into a squishing group hug. Their vampiric energies pushed and pulsed around him, checking him over.

They hadn’t had one of their own come this close to final death since Gareth decided to come to America via the Titanic. Thankfully, the cold just sent him into a deep hibernation sleep until they found him in a hospital. And now Eddie had almost been eaten by bats. He was sure he’d never hear the end of it once they learned about that little detail.

He sent out a pulse of his own magic to them, reassuring them back, and stepped back sending a glance to the group across the room. He had some explaining to do.

-

Hours later, after the kids and teens who needed medical attention had been seen, and Max was finally out of her first surgery, Eddie was allowed back to see Steve.

Gareth had smoothed the way, gently coaxing the nurses into believing Eddie was Steve’s family. Eddie knew how careful Gareth was about using his powers of persuasion, so he was truly grateful to him.

Steve was dozing when Eddie entered the room. He moved a chair closer to the bed so he could watch him.

He really was lovely. Like a fallen hero, he lay sheathed in white, hands clasped over his chest; Eddie thought a sword laying flat along his length wouldn’t look out of place. He reached out, brushing the back of fingers along Steve’s side-

Steve jerked, huffing out a laugh, he met Eddie’s eyes. “Dude, that tickles.”

Eddie blinked at him. “You’re awake. How do you feel? They said with the amount of blood they had to transfuse, you could have complications and side effects and-”

“Hey, Eddie, come here,” he patted the bed next to his hip. Eddie perched on the bed and Steve took his hands in his. “Eddie, I’m fine. I feel fine, no chills, no fever, no aches- well, except for my neck, but that’ll take a little longer to heal, you really chomped on hard, dude.”

He laughed and Eddie stared. Did this dude really have that big a death wish? Did he not understand how delicate mortality was? How close he came to a quick forever death?

“Steve. I should get a nurse. They can explain how much blood I took, how close you came to dying. If I hadn’t been stopped, I would’ve-” His throat closed and his face flushed, guilt and shame waged within and he gripped Steve’s hands harder. He forced out, “Steve.”

Steve pulled him forward, tipping Eddie against his body as his shook. Steve held him and soothed him, rubbing a gentle hand along his back and pushing a hand into his hair, tucking Eddie's face against his neck.

“Shhhh, Eddie, it’s okay. I’m okay and you’re okay. We’re both alive-” Eddie huffed and Steve rumbled a laugh, “okay, undead or whatever. But, here’s a secret, baby, I was always going to be okay. Even if you took it all and killed me-”

Eddie grumbled against him, “Being okay because you’d ‘be in heaven’ or whatever would not be my takeaway if I was the reason those kids had to bury you. No offense, but we’d rather-”

“Eddie, no, I mean it literally.” Eddie leaned back far enough to look at him, staring in confusion at Steve’s gentle smile. A blush graced Steve’s cheeks and he huffed a laugh, looking up to the ceiling. “Yeah, I’ve died, like, I don’t know, eight times? That I know of? And yes, a couple of those have been for the kids. So, yeah, if you had killed me, I would’ve come back eventually. Might’ve take a little bit to recover that much blood, so I guess this worked out. So now my body just needs to recover from the bat attacks.”

Steve blinked bashfully at him.

Eddie’s brain was taking a moment to process. He held up a finger and stood. Hands moving, unable to land in one position, he took a deep breath, and spun on his heel to walk to the window before spinning to walk back to the bed, he pointed at Steve.

“You’re immortal?”

“Yep! Seems that way.”

“Not a vampire?”

“Not that I’m aware? Would I definitely know if I was a vampire?”

Eddie blinked. “Yeah. You’d know if you were a vampire. Kinda hard to miss it, I’d say.”

“Hm! Well, then, nope! Not a vampire. Just your garden variety immortal guy.”

Eddie’s mouth opened, no sound came out. Is this what a vampire stroke felt like? “Do the kids know?”

Steve shrugged. “I don’t think so? But they’re smart and have seen me beaten so bad I died, so maybe? Or they think I’m hardy? Didn’t really come up.”

Eddie’s hands came together in prayer at his lips.

“Eddie? You okay?”

Yep. Just having my understanding of the universe turned upside down. Ha. Ooooh wait, we’re both-

“Steve?”

“Eddie?”

“Would you do me the honor of going to dinner with me? Once you’re fully recovered, of course.”

Steve smiled at him, radiant and golden. “It’s a date.”

🫶

Daylight - Taylor Swift

I've been sleepin' so long in a twenty-year dark night

(Now I'm wide awake)

I once believed love would be burnin' red

He knew Eddie had been pretty surprised when Steve easily agreed to be his...platonic...date when he’d bought two tickets for a full on regency ball with no date lined up, but Steve hoped to use the evening to finally get Eddie to see him in a different light. Years earlier, Steve had thought they were heading towards being something, but then they fell into being just friends, bros, and Steve just wanted to...check. See if they could finally be more.

His phone vibrated in his pocket with an incoming text.

[text] Eddie: You close?

Steve aimed his phone up at the chandeliers, snapping a photo.

[text] Steve: *photo of two huge, gold chandeliers*

[text] Eddie: *photo of a mirrored wall of liquor*

Steve stood on tiptoe, looking over the sea of high hair, feathers, and towering hats to locate the bar. He spotted it in the far back corner of the room and started picking his way around all the wide, elegant ballgowns, making sure not to step on any trains or ribbons.

He almost felt under-dressed by comparison; some of the outfits were just so detailed and extravagant, layered with so many different fabrics and patterns and floofs and ruffles! He walked past someone with a giant white wig with an actual, fake bird in it, while Steve had just curled his normal coif and pinned it up around a fake gold tiara.

He was so nervous to show Eddie his look, he’d imagined so many different reactions, some hot and steamy, some sweet and loving, but the closer he got, the more nauseous he felt. The bar came into view and he tipped his chin up, pushed back his shoulders, and swished around one particularly wide skirt.

[text] Steve: *photo of Eddie’s back. His tamed curls tied back at his neck by a ribbon.*

Steve watched Eddie pull out his phone and check his text. His head popped up and he spun around. The bright smile on his face slid off, his eyes widened and his jaw dropped. Steve brushed his hand down the black velvet bodice as a crimson flush crept up Eddie’s neck and cheeks.

Steve was frozen, waiting for Eddie to say something, anything. Eddie’s eyes were flitting over him, taking in the image he made.

Instead of lacy flounces and layers of brocade, Steve had found a simple black ballgown, the sleeveless bodice was velvet and looked kind of like a corset, the full skirt was a shiny black material with a black velvet flower design that he loved to just pet.

Robin had helped him with the delicately thin gold lines swirling around his arms and shoulders. And at the last second, she’d added a long gold chain necklace with a gold locket that hung just below his chest, giving him the illusion of cleavage.

He’d forgone finding a mask that wouldn’t mess up his hair and asked Robin’s artist girlfriend to glue gold body glitter and gems around his eyes. She’d gone above and beyond anything Steve could’ve imagined, creating an intricate design of interlocking swirls and flourishes. It almost made Steve want to cry when he thought about how he’d have to destroy it once the evening was over.

Robin’s girlfriend had waved a hand and said it was all about the femoral nature of art? Steve didn’t think she meant it in a blood, sweat, and tears kind of way, but didn’t ask for clarification.

Eddie still hadn’t said anything, but his hand kept raising up as if he wanted to touch. Steve wanted him to touch, but then the hand would just drop away.

Steve glanced down, gripping a handful of skirt, and looked back up at Eddie through his thickly mascara-ed eyelashes. “Well? How do I look?”

Eddie physically shook himself out, taking a stumbling step toward Steve. Eddie’s hand came up again, as if to touch Steve’s shoulder, his neck, his cheek, before he tucked his hand behind his back.

Steve’s knees trembled slightly, his heel tipped to the side. Eddie was so close and yet so far. Steve just wanted-

Eddie’s eyes darkened, dipping down Steve’s body, his hands ghosted up Steve’s arms, settling to not quite cup his waist.

Eddie swallowed hard as his eyes met Steve’s, boring into his soul. “Did you come here to tempt me? Like a beautiful and seductive sorceress, you show me my true heart’s desire, yet you cover yourself in a golden spell so I can’t touch you without marring you, without destroying you. Is this a trap, Stevie?”

Steve’s eyes widened, oh, he really liked that. He realized he wanted to be Eddie’s Stevie, beautiful, dark, and mysterious, at least for the night. He licked his lips, he didn’t know how to play along.

“I just- I wanted you to see me. Do you...think you could-” He didn’t know how to say what he wanted without laying his heart bare, without allowing Eddie the chance to stomp his heart into a thousand pieces. He blinked wide eyes at Eddie, hoping he knew what he meant.

Eddie’s hands finally touched him, holding his waist firmly in his big hands. He stepped in closer, his boots inching under the edge of the skirt. Steve’s hands gripped his skirt, not knowing if he was allowed to touch.

Eddie’s eyes dipped, looking at his pink painted lips, before taking in the curls around the tiara and landing back on his eyes. “Stevie- Steve, I-”

“No.” Steve interrupted, “Stevie. Please, Eddie, I want,” - he shook his head, eyes lowering - “I don’t know what, but I like when you call me Stevie.”

Eddie’s hands brushed up and down his velvety sides and back. He suddenly pulled Stevie in close. Stevie gasped, wide eyes meeting Eddie’s, his hands clutched at Eddie’s arms. Eddie’s nose brushed Stevie’s. His lips ghosted close, not quite touching, not giving Stevie what he so desperately wanted. Stevie’s eyes closed, waiting. Eddie wet his lips, tongue licking across Stevie’s for a mere breath of a moment, before moving back.

Stevie’s eyes fluttered open, tears pricking at the corners. Eddie was still holding him close, one hand pressed hard against his back, one much lower. He just wasn’t almost-kissing him anymore. He was looking at him.

“Eddie?” he said, voice tinged with a sad whine.

“Stevie,” Eddie said, his voice different. It was no longer theatrically deepened, but sounded like they were hanging out at home on the couch and he had a question about the show they were watching, “did you come here to seduce me? Because, if you did, you didn’t have to. I was already yours, honey.”

Oh, Steve blinked at him. All that time thinking Eddie didn’t see him, didn’t want him like he wanted Eddie...and yet. Well, the evening just got a little lighter, Stevie smiled, his shoulders loosening.

He slid his hands up Eddie’s shoulders, clasping his hands behind his neck and looked at him through his lashes, pouting out his bottom lip. “So. How do I look? You like it? Because it was all for you.”

Eddie smirked, humming a low growl, and pulled him flush against his body by the low hand on his ass. “Yeah? You got yourself dressed up all pretty and painted just for me?”

Stevie nodded, smiling sweetly.

“Baby,” Eddie breathed out, “you gonna let me ruin you tonight, Stevie? Smudge all this pretty gold all over your body? Splay your pretty curls across my pillow?”

Steve shuddered, eyes drooping heavy. “Please.”

“Fuck. Let’s get out of here.” Eddie stepped back, sliding his hands along the velvet, griped Stevie’s hand and started walking away. Stevie planted his heels and tugged Eddie’s hand so he had to twirl back around to him. Eddie stepped back in. “Baby, what’s up?”

Steve stepped back, planting his hands on his hips, pouting a frown at Eddie. “Eddie, I drove all the way here for your nerdy, olden time fancy ball. I bought this dress, it took two other people to get me all made up, I have eyelash glue on my face. So, we’re staying and doing all the weird ball stuff. The dancing. The people watching. The five course meal. And then you can take me home and ravish me.”

Eddie blinked at him a few times, glanced around the enormous, crowded ballroom, and nodded. “Yes, to the dancing and people watching, but we’re leaving before the meal. We’ll swing through somewhere for drive through. But then I’m ravishing you for the whole weekend. Deal?”

Stevie grinned at him. “Deal.”

Eddie tucked one hand behind his back and held his other out for Steve to take. Stevie smiled at him, sliding his hand into the crook of his elbow. They turned to walk out to the dance floor, the crowd parting before them.

“Do you wanna talk about it? They seem to be down there waiting for you?”

Eddie rubbed his face hard with his palms and pressed hard against his eyes.

“It’s our day of remembrance. We started it about 50 years ago to remember our families, our original families, pre-turning. We do a little thing out in a field and then we sit around and share stories and memories.”

“That’s really sweet, Eddie. What happened this morning?”

Eddie shrugged then sighed. Suddenly he flopped back, hard, the back of his head thudding against the wall above the couch. Steve reached up to rub it, sliding his fingers into Eddie’s hair to scritch at his scalp.

“I remember them less this year than last year. And less than the year before and the year before that. They’re disappearing.”

“Who?”

“My brothers. My dad. Mom. I had friends and I can’t even remember their names. You’d think being a vampire came with perfect memory, but nope. It’s like when you’re a regular mortal and you can’t really remember being a kid, all you have are impressions and bits of memories; playing in a river or running across a field or your brother putting a frog in a bed and everyone screaming, but all the details of the surrounding memory is gone.

I have whole decades that are just poof! Gone, because nothing exciting happened, just living life every day. But even then, I thought I’d always remember them. Their faces, their laughs, their birthdays. But so much of them is just impressions now, things I think I remember.”

Steve interlaced their fingers, squeezing tight, their clasped hands resting on Eddie’s knee.

“What impressions do you have of your mom?” Steve asked, gently.

He wasn’t anywhere as old as Eddie, but he understood intimately, the feeling that he was betraying people because he couldn’t remember them. The never ending cycle of impotent anger and sadness when a memory was right there out of reach.

Eddie brushed his thumb across Steve’s knuckles, his eyes going distant.

“Swimming in the river together at dawn. She loved the water with the amber and peach sunlight glittering on the surface. Teaching me to sew and weave when I was small. She was so tall and then one day she was smaller than me. It took a really long time for her to realize that I’d become different.

I apprenticed away from home and then I was working and living in another village for years before I was turned. She was old and grey when she realized I hadn’t aged past my 30s. She just brushed my hair back and held me, tucked small against her. I buried her in the church’s cemetery with the best view of the sunrise over the river...”

Tears ran down his cheeks as memories resurfaced, unfocused eyes stared, lost in the past. Steve could do nothing but sit beside him, a solid presence to come back to, a lighthouse showing him the way back through time.

Eddie blinked out of his reverie and looked over at Steve, lips twitching in a sad smile, eyes still wet and wavering. “Thank you, Steve.”

“You’re welcome, dear heart. I know how it feels to suddenly feel so unmoored from your past.” Steve smiled, small and tinged in shared pain. “Maybe later, we should write it all down, every little thing we can remember from our first lives. We’ll go to a big bank in the city and keep the memories in a safety deposit box.”

Eddie breathed a laugh, smiling so sweetly at Steve that his belly tightened. “That’s a great idea. Bet the others will wanna do it, too.”

Steve nodded, then tipped his head, realizing he’d forgotten to ask. “What was her name? Your mom.”

Eddie’s eyes softened.“Marjorie.”

His belly warmed, knowing he was just handed a delicate and precious part of Eddie’s story. He’d keep it safe for the rest of their time on Earth.

Wayne knocked on the door. “Edward, you ready to go?”

“Yeah, just gotta get dressed and we’ll be right down.” Eddie stood and headed to the bed, shaking wrinkles out of his dress shirt.

“Edward?” Steve asked, face scrunched up

“Yeah? What’s wrong with it?” Eddie looked back at him, an eyebrow raised.

“Just thought it’d be more olden timey, you know, like Edwin or something.”

Eddie barked a laugh. “Nah, Edward was a really popular name in 1700’s England. You know, the kings and all.”

“Right right. Wait. You’re ­British?!”

Eddie tipped his head back laughing.

Marjorie - Taylor Swift

The autumn chill that wakes me up You loved the amber skies so much Long limbs and frozen swims You'd always go past where our feet could touch What died didn't stay dead You're alive, you're alive in my head