Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

„Easy man, I said easy!“, Steve said but Eddie had already flipped the boat into the lake.

„Sorry dude“, he said, holding onto the back of the boat before it could slip further into the water and away from the shore.

„Here you go.“ Steve turned around to hold his hand out for Robin to get into the boat but she already stepped forward holding onto both Steve´s and Eddie´s hair.

„Yeah, I´m just gonna do that.“ And in she went.

Next was Eddie. Steve still held his hand out but instead of taking it, Eddie jumped and landed next to Robin, Steve having to hold onto the ground, to not be pulled towards the water by the shaking boat.
Why was he like this, Steve thought. As if the whole situation isn´t already stressful enough for all of them. Now Eddie also had to get on his nerves being his extravagant self.
Nancy stepped forward, grabbing hold of Eddie´s hand, which he held out for her to gently help her step into the boat.

„Wheeler“, he said, guiding her.

„Thanks“, was her quick answer to that unexpectedly chivalrous behaviour of Eddie.

Steve gave him an angry side-eye. Did Eddie know that Steve and Nancy used to be a thing and did he purposefully ignore Steve´s gesture only to show Nancy all of his attention? Was he trying to prove anything? As if he didn´t already try to steal Dustin from him by using his D&D metaphors that Steve didn´t understand and by agreeing to follow Dustin´s stupid theory even though Steve had said no to his „adventure walk into the woods“.
Steve wanted to go next but Dustin took a step closer and tried to get into the boat by holding onto Steve´s back. Eddie held him back by pushing him backwards by his cap.

„Hey, hey, hey, you trying to sink us? This thing holds three people tops, okay?“

„It´s better this way, okay? You stay here with Max“, Nancy interfered, before Dustin could defend himself. „Keep an eye out for trouble.“

„You keep an eye out!“, Dustin blurted out. Nancy looked at him confusedly.

„It´s my goddamn theory“, Dustin said angrily.

„You heard Nance!“, Robin said from the back of the boat where she had taken a seat.

Steve wondered since when Robin called her Nance instead of Nancy. Maybe they both got a little closer during their whole investigation operation on which they gladly refused to take Steve with them. Nancy had never quite understood Steve´s and Robin´s relationship and Steve had to admit that it wasn´t easy explaining why he had no interest in dating Robin - which he actually did have at a time – without outing her to Nancy. Steve had made it very clear several times that he and Robin were actually ´only´ really good platonic friends. And Steve was very happy that he had Robin as his friend and not a girlfriend because like this they´ve had fun that Steve didn´t want to miss. Thinking about how he didn´t have that many close friends that he was as open with as with Robin, if you didn´t count Dustin and the other much younger kids.

But Steve was happy that Robin and Nancy seemed to be getting along well, or at least, better. He had seen them talking in the woods earlier, while he was trying to guide them towards skull rock. But he was too occupied by finding the right path and keeping Dustin from leading them into the wrong direction, that he couldn´t hear what they were talking about. He could have sworn that Nancy´s face flinched when she was explaining something to Robin but he was sure that it wasn´t because of something Robin did or may have said.

„Who put her in charge?“, Dustin´s words pulled him back into reality. Seemingly Dustin was just as confused in this shift of dynamic as Steve was.

„I did“, Robin said confidently letting there be no possibility for negotiation.

„Compass“, Nancy demanded, holding her hand out.

With a salty look Dustin pulled the compass out of the front pocket of his hoodie, giving it to Nancy.
Eddie and Robin meanwhile had taken a seat in the front of the boat and had the oars in position, ready to go.

„Hey, there you go!“, Steve said, throwing his backpack at Dustin, who took a few steps backwards. Then he gave the boat a good push and swiftly stepped on board, taking a seat next to Nancy.

„You said three!“, Dustin exclaimed angrily, looking at Steve with a look that told him that he should have known Steve wouldn´t have left the others without him.

„Sorry…“, he whispered an answer, giving a little goodbye wave with his hand and turning his head around to focus on the lake.

„Bedtime at nine, kiddos!“, Robin shouted back at Dustin, Max and Lucas who just flipped them off looking not at all surprised by their behaviour.

„Miss you already!“, Robin stood up, waving at them, before sitting back down and focusing on keeping a steady rhythm with Eddie who held the other oar.

Slowly they found their way towards the middle of the lake, Nancy keeping her eyes on the compass. Steve held tight onto the flashlight, trying to light the way which wasn´t as productive as he wanted it to be because soon, they found themselves surrounded by nothing but black water and the black night air. The only things the light managed to make visible were layers of fog that the top of the boat pushed through and the backs of the two people sitting in front of Steve.

He let his eyes wander towards Eddie. Taking in his appearance now that he had him still in front of him. His jeans vest seemed to have a lot of self-made pieces on it. The back was cut out and had been replaced with a black piece of clothing that showed the word “Dio” in red wavy letters. Steve had never heard of that band. On the sides were smaller labels from clubs or bands, Steve thought Eddie had sewn on himself. Just like the little metal rings that held the right sleeve together at the end where a slipper sat that had to be broken. Steve´s eyes wandered down towards a metal chain which left Eddie´s right back pocket and lead towards the front of his jeans, loosely hanging down onto the bench. On the left side there was a black bandana with a skull hanging from his pocket, almost touching the floor of the boat.

Steve wondered if that was just a handkerchief like his grandpa used to have around to clean his nose with. But if it was, then Eddie probably wouldn´t have it hanging out of his pocket that prominently. It had to be another weird fashion statement, Steve thought. Maybe inspired by one of these weird musicians that looked like Eddie.

„Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, slow down guys!“, Nancy disturbed the quiet and Steve´s inner chain of thoughts.

Robin and Eddie tried to get the boat to stop, then turning around to Nancy who ducked a little forward so that everyone could have a look at the compass in her hand.
Steve turned the flashlight around. The needle of the compass turned around itself quickly, shaking a bit whenever it changed direction.

„Guys? What´s going on?“ Dustin´s voice appeared out of nowhere out of the walkie-talkie. He seemed to have noticed through his binoculars that the boat had stopped.

Robin grabbed the walkie-talkie as Dustin asked again and answered him. „Uh, Dustin your compass has gone from wonky to wonky with a capital aah!“

Steve gave his flashlight to Eddie who was the only one not holding anything in his hands at the moment.
He took it, keeping the light onto the compass in Nancy´s hand but putting on a confused look when Steve started to take his shoes off and dropping his socks next to them.

„Steve what are you doing?“, Nancy asked who had also noticed what Steve was doing next to her.

„Somebody has to go down there and check this out. Unless one of you three can top being a Hawkins High swim co-captain and a certified lifeguard for three years, then…“, Steve quickly looked around in the three concerned faces facing him „it´s gotta be me. No complaints, all right?!“
He stood up, shaking the boat so that everyone had to hold on to the wood.

Just when Steve thought one of them would actually say something, preferably one of the girls telling him that it would be too dangerous to go down there and that they preferred him to stay with them on the boat Eddie jumped in and said: „Hey, I´m not complaining. I do not wanna go down there.“

The nerves of this guy, Steve thought. He´s the one being brave here, the one doing a sacrifice for the group, for Dustin´s theory that not he but Eddie had wanted to check on and now Eddie was the one who rather wanted to stay in safe waters. Why did he even agree to follow them onto the lake then?

Steve´s eyes wandered from Eddie´s calloused face downwards to his hands that fumbled something out of his jacket´s pocket.
His ringed fingers pulled out a plastic bag, turned it around and threw it´s insides into the boat next to his feet.
Steve turned around to grab his sweater and pull it over his head. A quiet „hey“ and a rustling sound made him turn around again.

Eddie held a little cigarette package between his teeth, so that his hands were free to wrap the plastic bag around the flashlight that Steve gave him. Once he was done, he snapped the little package away from his mouth and gave Steve the flashlight back.

„Good luck“, he said looking up at Steve.

„Thanks“, Steve answered before he threw his sweater at Munson, who had now a single cigarette dangling between his lips, throwing probably a bit harder than he originally intended to.
Robin snapped her hand forward grabbing the cigarette before Eddie could light it and threw it over board with a dry „gross!“.

The cigarette landed next to the boat swimming on top of the black water. The black water that seemed like a wall that Steve needed to break through at any moment now, that is going to make his body flinch by its coldness and darkness, leading him into a scary, unknown world.

Just as Steve thought he had mentally prepared for his dive Nancy´s voice reached him, nothing more than a whisper, but she said his name.
Once again Steve turned around, almost thankful for getting another moment to breathe and a more or less secure stand in the boat. Maybe a last chance for him to be talked into staying here.
„Be careful“, were the words that left Nancy´s mouth, which slightly curved upwards into a scared smile.

Steve nodded, feeling three pairs of eyes resting on him. Before the concern could reach him too and would get a hold of him, making him overthink the situation more than he´d like to he faced the water again. There was no going back now. And he jumped.

He felt how his feet left the boat, leaving it shaking on the surface of the water. The sudden cold pushing any thought out of his brain for a moment until the adrenaline kicked in and made him regain consciousness of his body and his situation. Steve opened his eyes to see less than he would have hoped. Trying to calm his pulse to make it easier to hold his beath for longer he followed the beam of light down towards the bottom of the lake. It took him a few seconds, that felt like an eternity in this cold that surrounded him and squeezed him tighter the closer he got to the ground until the light would show more than just dust particles swirling around.

Steve could see the sand on the ground, big stones, a few strands of some sort of seagrass and surprisingly many little skeletons. As he got closer, he examined those skeletons that seemed to be perfectly intact just like someone skinned them of the flesh. After a look around Steve noticed a red glimmer coming from next to him. He couldn´t tell how long he had been under water already. It felt both like an hour and just a few seconds. He had already breathed out a large amount of air to make it easier to stay underwater, but he felt like it would still be enough to examine the red light beneath him and make it to the top again.

In between a grassy patch of the ground there was an oval hole. Probably as long as Steve was tall and half as broad. Thick tentacle-like black veins seemed to hold it in place, surrounding it in big knots and streaking through the sand away from the middle.

Steve pushed his free hand out, feeling deeper than where the bottom of the lake should have been already to feel a thick skin-like membrane that closed the hole. The light seemed to be coming from underneath that barrier and lightened Steve´s fingers that pushed slightly to check how strong this membrane is.
Suddenly one of those dark tentacles slapped against Steve´s hand from underneath the wall. Steve almost gasped, dropped the flashlight and tried to get back to the surface as quickly as possible.

With big movements he broke through the water next to the underside of the boat that was bobbing slowly on the water. His first big breath of air was almost painful but Steve was given a few seconds to catch his breath to form words again whilst Robin, Eddie and Nancy tried to calm themselves down from Steve´s sudden appearance that splashed water everywhere.
„I found it“, were the first words that left Steve´s lips breathlessly.

„You found it?“, Nancy asked with big worried eyes.

Robin took hold of the walkie-talkie again, wanting to break the news to Dustin, calling him „a goddamn Einstein“.
But there was no answer coming back. Instead, Steve explained what he saw, clinging onto the edge of the boat.

„It´s pretty wild. It´s more a snack-size gate than the mama gate, but still, it´s pretty damn big.“

A sudden jolt shook the boat, nearly dipping it so far over that water flooded over the edge that Steve held onto. He was pulled back into the water, his head going underwater again, only being able to hold onto the boat with one hand as the force let go of him.
With shaking hands Steve was able to grab hold of the wood with both hands again while the other three were shouting because of that sudden shock.

For the time of a heartbeat everything was quiet. Breaths filled the air next to the sound of splashing water that subdued as quickly as it came. Steve´s gaze met the three pairs of in panic wide opened eyes that fixated him, hands stilled in motion, trying to grab him.
Then it happened again. Something rough and strong had found its way up to Steve, tightly lacing up around his left leg and pulling him underwater with a force that made Steve lose his grip of the boat and making every attempt of fighting against it impossible.

The sudden movement also brought movement back to the people inside the boat who were now screaming at each other and screaming after Steve.

„What the hell was that man?“, Eddie yelped.

„Nancy, really what happened?“, Robin whined, hoping that Nancy could explain to her that everything was in fact okay.

Nancy´s ears felt like they were miles away, the screams of the two others sounded like they came through big clouds so that they were reduced to only a dull mumble.
The clouds were quickly yanked away as a hand grabbed hers, holding her back. Only then did she realise that she was standing where Steve had just jumped into the lake, leaning over the edge of the boat about to jump as well.

„You´re not going in there are you?“, Eddie asked her with a shaking voice.

„Just wait here“, Nancy said, her voice sounded like it came from another person, it sounded determined instead of scared, how she felt.

She could hear the other two screaming at her to stay, but Nancy had already gathered all of her willpower and jumped head first into the water.

Quietly Robin sat on the edge of the boat, her knuckles turning as white as her face as she pinched her fingers into the wet wood, about to drop herself backwards into the lake.

„No, no, no, no, no, no, no“, Eddie said quickly in an attempt to make her stay with him. „What are you doing? She said wait!“

„Yeah, I heard her“, Robin said with sudden confidence in her voice, but her face looking scaringly empty.

„She´s in charge“, Eddie said turning his hands into fists, pointing at the space, where Nancy had just been sitting.

„Are you kidding me, I made that shit up“, and Robin´s hand went up to her face to hold her nose closed while she let herself fall into the unknown dangers of Lover´s Lake.

With curses and angry gestures Eddie stood up, looking around to see that he was the only one left in a boat surrounded by nothing but darkness. And this darkness felt like it was coming closer with every second that he remained there, with every second that the three others got further away from the boat. It felt like this darkness would capture him and would do indescribably bad things to him. Worse than anything that could lurk underneath the water surface. And suddenly the only way out, the opportunity to escape this darkness, to dive into this dark, cold lake full of nightmares seemed like a good idea.

Chapter Text

Steve´s lungs almost felt like they were bursting. That sudden pull had left him almost no time to catch his breath. He was being pulled down towards that same red glimmer that he had just examined a minute prior. That crusty tentacle grabbing his leg pulled him right through where there used to be the barrier separating the lake from the secret dimension on the other side of the gate.
A change in temperatures, from the ice-cold water into a damp warm air told Steve that he had now entered the Upside Down.

Steve could finally breathe again, but the thing dragging him away made him slither over a rough sandy ground, scraping the skin on his back. He landed in a particularly big knot of tentacles, breathing heavily as the one holding onto his leg eventually let go of him.

Slowly Steve sat up, looking around. He found himself at the ground of Lover´s lake, but there was no water. Next to him was a broken, old boat that had been laced by those dark tentacles that also seemed to grow like roots through the entire ground as far as Steve could see. The air was filled with dusty particles that sparkled with electricity beneath the dark clouded sky. He could hear thunder rumbling in the distance and red gloomy lightnings shot through the sky, lighting the scenery menacingly.
As far as he could see around him there were tall, dark, bare trees surrounding the lake area like a forest of needles.

A sudden snarl let him turn around. Slowly evading backwards, trying not to trip over the dark roots in the ground Steve could see the outline of a flying creature coming towards him through the foggy air. Soon the squawking came from everywhere as two more of these creatures made their way towards Steve who felt paralyzed.

The next shot of adrenaline that reached his brain made him snap out of his trance and quickly turn around to find the broken boat next to him. Luckily there was still an oar laying in there, waiting for Steve to pick it up. Just in time to smack the first bat-like creature that had reached Steve into the ground.

The initial euphoria left him quickly, as now the other two bats flew around him, attacking him and having to see that the hit with the oar had made almost no damage to the first.
Steve´s breath was once again taken away. One bat had started to strangulate him with its tail, yanking him backwards, leaving him choking on the ground. One of his hands tried to loosen the grip of the creature´s tail around his throat while his other hand tried to hit the body.

These bats seemed to be working as a team, because Steve, now being held onto the ground, became an easy target for the two other bats, which now sat down next to his stomach biting into his flesh.
Steve screamed with the last bit of air inside his lungs. Still holding onto the tail around his throat in order not to suffocate he had only his legs left to try and repel the bats that drove their teeth into him over and over.

The pain inside of his body was soon unimaginable and had reached every single cell in his body, his mind begging for it to stop. There appeared little stars in front of his vision, as the strength started to leave his body and made him go slack, thinking that these were his last conscious seconds.

Steve´s screams echoed in the woods and in his mind. The lightnings shooting through the sky as red as the bloody stains in the sand and wounds on his body.

Just as Steve felt like his body and his mind collapsed, he became aware of shadows around him and with a shaky look downwards he could see that his stomach was no longer attacked by the bats.
The sound of dull hits made their way into his ears as his vision became slightly sharper again. Robin, Nancy and Eddie stood next to him, all of them holding oars and attacking the bats.
Screams of encouragement and caution filled the air as both teams fought each other brutally.

Steve´s arms hurt from holding onto the tail around his throat, but he noticed that the power of it had decreased. Gathering his last strength, he was able to lift the tail off of his throat biting into it to make it release him fully.
Quickly Steve was the one who had control over the creature, yanking it through the air and slamming in into the ground.

Robin and Nancy got together, having killed their bat, ready to help the other two with theirs, watching as Eddie drove his bat down with the oar, cutting it open with the end of it.
The last remaining bat was repeatedly smashed into the ground by Steve, painting it with red stains, its squeaking sounds fading as Steve stepped onto the body of the bat, ripping it apart.
His foot still rested on the creature´s bleeding out wing. The other half was thrown away into the roots nearby.
Panting, Steve spit out a mix of his own blood and the creature´s dark viscous body fluid.

Slowly his gaze wandered around trying to assess the situation, but not able to fully comprehend everything that had just happened yet.
Eddie cursed and threw the oar away, as Nancy stepped closer towards Steve, asking if he was okay.
Gasping she stared at Steve´s wounds, who now looked down for the first time, seeing how much damage the bats had done to him.

“Well, they took about a pound of flesh”, he said, his voice still rough from all the strangulation. “But other than that, yeah, never better.” He tried to let his voice sound a little light-hearted on the last two words, ignoring the actual circumstances that they found themselves in.

Robin disturbed their quiet exchange of worried looks. “Uh, do you guys think these bats have, like, rabies?”

“What?”, Steve asked, looking down at her examining a dead bat with a flashlight that she had brought.

“It´s just that rabies is like, my number one greatest fear. And I think we should get you a doctor, like, really soon. Because once the symptoms set in, it´s too late. You´re already, like, dead…”
Steve and Nancy looked at Robin incredulously. Squeaking sounds in the distance made them look up again.

Six more bats appeared in the sky, screaming as they flew towards the group. Robin and Eddie gathered themselves behind Steve and Nancy.

“All right. There´s not that many”, Steve said silently, ready for another fight, about to coordinate their attack and calculating their chances. “We can take ´em. Right?”

But the bats landed a few meters in front of them, surrounding the gate which still emanated red light.
They screamed at the four that had braced themselves to jump and collect the oars again, but there was no attack. The bats just sat down around the gate guarding it like dogs, slamming their claws into the black knots.

Then a big red lightning stroke the sky and made another, this time huge crowd of bats visible that came closer rapidly.
Nancy´s eyes widened and Eddie put on a defeated whiny face, throwing his hands into his hair in disbelieve of their hopeless situation.

“You were saying?”, Robin muttered, as Nancy pulled on Steve´s arm.

“The woods. Come on!”, was all she said before she started running.

Ignoring the pain inside him, Steve did not hesitate another second before he followed her, Eddie and Robin running behind him as fast as they could.
It wasn´t easy to keep a steady and quick pace, because the ground was streaked by those black tentacles that were easy pitfalls. Also, who knew what they belonged to, you better not wanted to step onto them and summon another monster to attack you.

The woods seemed like an endless, itself repeating labyrinth with every pointy tree resembling the next. The only thing consoling Steve was that he thought he knew this place was in theory build like the real world that they had just left. So, he could tell that Nancy was aiming to reach skull rock by the rough changes in direction that she made.

After a short while Steve´s lungs and his insides were burning. He desperately needed a break, even though he tried to convince his body to keep running.
And finally, a familiar outline appeared in between the sameness of the woods.
The four gathered under the big rock, catching their breaths, afraid to breathe to loud and being found by the swarm of bats searching from the sky.

“Oh… okay. That was close”, Robin said, as the bats were out of view, slowly standing up again.

“Yeah. Too close”, Eddie answered out of breath.

“Oh, sh- shit”, Steve panted, leaning onto the rock as his vision threatened to black out.

“Steve? Jesus”, Nancy quickly stepped forward.

“I´m fine. I´m fine”, Steve answered, knowing full well that this was a lie.

“No, no, no. You´re not. You´re losing blood. Come on, sit, sit. All right?”, she said quietly while guiding Steve to take place on the forest floor.

Steve grunted in pain, scooping his hand over a wound on the right side of his torso, trying to shield it from Nancy´s view.
The wound was squelching, the blood coming from it having soaked the hem of his trousers.

Robin sat down in front of Steve with a horrified face.
“Okay, so the good news is I´m pretty sure wooziness is not a symptom of rabies.”, she spoke quickly, her voice shaky. “But if you start having hallucinations or muscle spasms or you start feeling aggressive, like you wanna punch me, or something, then you should totally let me know.”
“Robin”, Steve shushed her flood of words.

“Yeah?”

“I kinda wanna punch you.”

Robin laughed half-heartedly. “Sense of humour´s still intact. That is a good sign.”

Meanwhile Nancy had ripped the lower hem of her sweater apart for her to use it as a bandage for Steve.
She helped him lean forward so that she could tie it around his stomach. Robin stood up, trying to grant Steve with some privacy.

Eddie had stood there the whole time staring at Steve, trying to calm the whirlwind of emotions inside him. He could feel his in awe slightly opened mouth get dry, closed it quickly and swallowed. Feeling completely out of his mind he had stared at the sight that Steve offered: Hair a streaky mess, his eyes closed, head thrown back, biting his lower lip in pain, letting out little hisses, whenever Nancy´s bandage touched a wound on his blood smeared, muscular torso. Sweat made his biceps glisten and his curly haired chest was heaving.

There was something about Steve in that position. Eddie had already had a thought like that earlier, when Steve had taken that hefty bite out of the bat and had smashed it into the ground, ripping it apart with one hand. The way he had looked so casual doing that, spitting the bat´s blood onto the ground, that had started to drop down his chin… But Eddie quickly tried to shake those thoughts away, turning around like Robin did and examining the ground.

He adored Steve. No, he respected him. He was a fighter. Always first in line to protect his friends, never backing away in the face of danger. Always keeping a cool head and even in moments like this where he was evidently injured and in pain, he still tried to not be a burden and trying to get by himself.

Or was this just typical Steve Harrington? The ladies´ man and King of Hawkins High with his stupid muscles and stupidly great looking hair. Intentionally getting himself in danger and playing the hero with the sole intention to get all of the girls´ attention? Since Dustin and the other kids weren´t here he had to at least make the girls feel concerned for him, having to show them how brave and bold he was?

Did he know what was waiting for him on the other side of the gate? Did he purposefully drag Eddie and the two girls down here to become an audience for his heroic fight with the bats? Would he do that? Expose the others to danger for him to act like he had everything under control the whole time? But he didn´t seem to have had much control over the situation before he and Robin and Nancy arrived to save his ass. Or was that just a little miscalculation in Steve´s plan? If, then how did Eddie notice this but Nancy and Robin didn´t and still presented Steve with their whole attention, pampering him instead of cussing him out for his risky actions?

“Too tight?”, he heard Nancy whisper, as she seemed to be done patching up Steve.

“No, that´s good”, Steve answered leaning back down onto the rock, panting and grunting.

Steve and Nancy exchanged a few coy looks, before Steve mumbled a breathy “thanks”.

After Eddie had enough of these two enjoying their little moment, he decided to go for a few steps and crawl onto a big rock near them, which also had these dark roots tied around it.
Red thunder was rumbling in the sky, as he spoke to the group again trying to get a few of his questions answered: “So uh, this place is like Hawkins, but with monsters and nasty shit?”
“Pretty much”, Nancy answered. She had helped Steve to get up, holding onto his right arm that she carried around her shoulders, her other arm supporting his back.

Just as Eddie tried to make his way back down, she snapped back at him. “Be careful. Watch out for the vines! It´s all a hive mind.”

“It´s all a what?”, Eddie asked, his hands out, trying to find balance on the rock.

“All the creepy crawlies around here, dude”, Steve said incidentally, leaning onto the bigger rock. “They´re like one or something. If you step on a vine, you´re stepping on a bat, you´re stepping on Vecna…”

Eddie nodded, carefully stepping down. “Shit.”

“But everything from our world is still here, right? Except people?”, Robin asked.

“As far as I understand it, yeah”, Nancy said.

“So theoretically, we could go to the police station and steal guns and grenades and whatever we need to blow up those bat things that are guarding the gate?”, Robin concluded.

“Yeah, I highly doubt that the Hawkings PD has grenades, Robin. But guns, yeah sure”, Steve said, whose strength and humour appeared to have come back a little.

“Well, we don´t have to go all the way downtown for guns. I have guns…”, Nancy said, standing in the middle of the other three. “…in my bedroom”, she added, turning around to Steve.

Eddie reached the ground again, frowning at what Nancy had just announced. “You, Nancy Wheeler, have guns, plural? In your bedroom?”

“Full of surprises, isn´t she?”, Robin exclaimed with a tone as if she was scared that a fight could break out between the two others.

“A Russian Makarov and a revolver”, Nancy stated as if she hadn´t heard Robin.

Eddie´s eyes went back and forth between the two.

“Yeah, you almost shot me with that one.” Steve had stepped two steps forward and stood next to Nancy now, but his eyes lingered on Eddie´s disbelieving expression.

Nancy rolled her eyes at that and said with a playful tone and a click of her tongue: “You almost deserved that.”

Steve´s eyes met hers quickly and before his mouth could form into a little, almost cocky smile, something hit him square in the face.
His arms shot out in defence, as he stumbled a step backwards and caught what was thrown at him. He held Eddie´s jeans vest in his hands.
He pursed his lips, Nancy and him staring at Eddie with an angered and confused face.

“For your modesty, dude”, Eddie said with an empty expression.

Steve only nodded slightly, before an earth-shaking grumble made all of them loose their stand.
Robin sprinted into Eddie´s arms, her shier force tackling both of them to the ground where they stayed, limbs intwined, waiting for the earth to calm again.
Nancy fell backwards onto Steve, who tried to catch her with the arm, that he still held Eddie´s vest with.

“Oh my god!”, Robin shouted, her back pressed onto Eddie´s chest.

Both of them slowly sat up, as the earthquake subdued, glancing around.
Once all of them caught their breath again, Eddie urgently said: “Yeah so guns seem like a pretty good idea to me.”

“Yeah, me too”, Robin said.

Steve and Nancy separated again, Steve eventually putting on Eddie´s vest.

“So, what are we waiting for?”, he said sternly, grabbing the flashlight, switching it on and walking first into the woods, past Eddie and Robin who still sat on the ground, rubbing their limbs.
They slowly got up and followed him.

Chapter Text

The four made their way through the night. The pointy, bare and vine-tied trees soon surrounding them just like a cold, damp fog. The sky still rumbled and lit up rhythmically, a light breeze rustling a few leaves on the ground.

Soon Nancy took the lead, Robin staying close to her at all times.

“Couldn´t we have tried a road or something just slightly less creepy?”, she asked her.

“I think we´re getting close. We´re almost out of here, don´t worry”, Nancy calmed her down, giving her a comforting look and squeezing her hand for a moment.

Eddie followed the two girls with a slight distance. Steve walked behind him, still holding the flashlight and keeping an eye on the ground.

“Eddie”, he said out of nowhere.

“Eddie. Hey, man. Uh…”, he started again, because Eddie had just kept on walking, before he then hesitated and turned around.

Steve quickly found his place next to him. “Listen, I just, uh…”

Eddie then kept on going, his eyes focused on the path in front of him, unsure of what Steve wanted to talk to him about.

“I just want to say thanks”, Steve said and Eddie now looked at him, slowing his movements. “…For saving my ass back there.” And Steve gave him a quick and subtle pat on the back, almost regretting having touched him as Eddie said “Shit.”

Steve looked onto the ground quickly and then back at Eddie, who continued. “…You saved your own ass, man.”

“I mean, that was a real Ozzy move you pulled back there”, Eddie said, nodding in Steve´s direction.

“Ozzy?”, Steve asked, trying to hide his confusion.

“When you took a bite out of that bat”, Eddie explained and smiled proudly, pulling his eyebrows upwards.

When Steve just kept looking at him not at all enlightened, Eddie´s smile softened and he asked further. “Ozzy Osbourne?” He waited for an answer or at least a change in Steve´s expression, but there was none.

Steve´s gaze left Eddie and he looked to the front and then to his right. Damn he had absolutely no idea what Eddie wanted to tell him. He should have just said thanks and kept on going. He should have known that his and Eddie´s words would quickly drift apart from each other again because of how different they were. But he had tried at least, to be nice, to approach Eddie, to maybe find some nice, comforting words for him. Since this was his first ever experience with the Upside Down or anything related to that.

“Black Sabbath?”, Eddie kept asking, only getting an absentminded “mhh?” as an answer.

“He bit a bat´s head off onstage.” Eddie didn´t take his eyes off of Steve, hoping that shortly the penny would drop and he wouldn´t stand there feeling so disjointed. Again.

“I don´t- “, Steve mumbled finally, slightly uncomfortable about the sudden shift in topic.

“Don´t know? Doesn´t matter”, Eddie added quickly, not ready to completely end the conversation there yet. “Very metal, what you did! That´s all I´m saying”, he tried again with a strong nod towards Steve, at least giving him that little compliment. Or rather trying to make him understand that this was what he was trying to say.

“Thanks”, Steve answered finally, still squirming a bit uncomfortably underneath Eddie´s look and his close presence.

“Henderson told me you were a badass”, Eddie said, mouth close to Steve´s shoulder, now stepping a bit ahead of him.

“Insisted on the matter, in fact”, Eddie tried to keep the pretty one-sided conversation going.

“Wait, Henderson said that?”, Steve´s answer was quick, like Dustin´s name had pulled his attention back into the talk.

“Oh yeah.”, Eddie said, happy to finally have gotten a reaction out of Steve.

“Shit. The kid worships you, dude! Like, you have no idea. It´s kinda annoying, to be honest.”

Now Eddie, who walked in the front let his eyes wander around the forest and Steve´s eyes focused on Eddie´s figure and his long wavy mane whose strands slightly moved whenever a breeze touched them.

“Tss”, Steve chuckled, not knowing why Eddie would tell him that now. Was that true? Or was Eddie just pissed, that Dustin liked him more than Eddie? Maybe that´s why he seemed so reserved all the time and slightly annoyed by Steve´s presence. Maybe he was angry for having ended up in this situation, initially wanting to prove something to Dustin. Dustin who wasn´t even here to see what had happened. And because Steve once again proved himself as the fighter. Maybe Eddie wanted to mock him.

“I don´t even know why I care about what that little shrimp thinks, but, uh, I guess I got a little jealous, Steve.”

Steve´s mouth unintentionally shifted upwards into a smug little smile, as his name fell from Eddie´s lips. Now he had his answer, or at least part of an explanation for Eddie´s behaviour.

He looked at him walking on his left. Eddie´s eyes still piercing him.

Their eyes met as Eddie continued. “I guess I couldn´t accept the fact that Steve Harrington”, he stretched out his name before going on, “was actually… a good dude”, he concluded, keeping his face forward, but turning his eyes around to be able to see even the slightest change in Steve´s expression.

Steve licked his lips quickly, his mouth all of a sudden feeling pretty dry. His heart fluttered as Eddie said his name like this again. No, that couldn´t be it! It was because of the compliment that he had just gotten from him. Because Eddie didn´t seem like a person to him that easily acclaimed if he liked someone. Even less if he had something to prove. And Eddie did feel like someone to him, who wanted to prove a lot. Steve thought about his use of language, especially whenever Dustin was around or his eccentric clothing style. Even though, both kind of did fit to him.

Steve thought further. He wasn´t someone who just assumed someone´s personality because of the way they dressed, okay maybe he was a few years ago, but he had changed to the better. He held himself more and more accountable for thoughts that he´s had, whose content were actually hurtful or plainly incorrect. A lot of that inner work had been caused by Robin coming out to him. Steve had heard about gays and lesbians before, mostly from church or bullies or what society had made up about them and soon found out that rumours are in almost every case wrong and harmful and that getting to know the person instead of the stereotype is a gift. So, he didn´t want to link Eddie´s appearance to anything personality related anymore, trying from now on to be more open to his approaches.

Eddie kept explaining further, probably because Steve had been so lost for words, dwelling in his thoughts that he had completely forgotten to show any sign of attention.

“Rich parents, popular, chicks love him. Not a douche? No way man, no way! That, like, flies in the face of all the flaws in the universe and my own personal Munson doctrine.” Eddie clutched his hands onto his heart.

Maybe, if Steve himself wouldn´t have been so rigidly fixed on Dustin´s approval – like Eddie had just admitted to having been, too - he and Eddie would have gotten along better from the beginning. And no-one would have had any prejudices against the other. Maybe now, that Eddie seemed to have opened up a little to him, proving Steve´s first thoughts of him wrong, he would find it easier to talk to him and who knows, maybe even make a new friend along the way.

There was a little pause, Eddie still checking out Steve for any kind of reaction to what he was saying, now standing closer to him, their shoulders touching a little as they kept on walking.

“Still super jealous as hell, by the way!”, Eddie said, jumping even closer towards Steve, forcing a reaction out of him. Their faces got extremely close, before Eddie took a step backwards, smiling sheepishly, for having startled Steve a bit by his closeness.

“Which is why I would never have jumped in that lake to save your ass”, he admitted with a negligible tone.

Steve´s face dropped the tiny smile that had danced over his lips. His heart skipped a beat. Just a few seconds prior he had felt like he and Eddie had made some improvements and now all of that delight had been shattered by one sentence.

Steve didn´t even know why, but Eddie´s honest statement hurt him. He didn´t know why he also cared about his opinion in the matter. Despite their initial difficulties with one another, Steve would have hoped for a bit more reliability, at least after what they just had been through. But maybe Eddie wasn´t just someone to easily sacrifice himself for his friends to make sure they are okay, like Steve was. Thinking, how maybe Eddie had never had someone he felt that close to and most likely had never been in a situation several times, like Steve, where he had to fight for his life and the ones of his friends.

“Not under any, uh… normal circumstances”, Eddie concluded, looking around scared, his eyebrows knit together above tired, watery eyes.

The look on his face justified Steve´s thoughts and got him right in his feels. He actually felt really sorry for Eddie. In this moment he had sworn to himself to be even more careful and approachable around Eddie and to try to make him feel like he´s an important part of the group now. Letting him know that he, Robin and Nancy didn´t just see him as the freak, letting him know that he could rely on and trust them if things got rough.

The only thing being in the way of that promise being Steve´s loss of words, that always seemed to occur whenever he could feel Eddie´s gaze on himself or when Eddie was talking to him.

A snapping branch in the distance made both of them shudder and stop their movements. Steve swung the flashlight around, but the light could not detect wherever that sound had come from.
Slowly their trances lifted and cautiously they set foot after foot further along the path.

“Nope”, Eddie mumbled more to himself than to Steve.

“Outside of D&D, I am no hero. I see danger and I just turn heel and run.”

Eddie walked in front of Steve again, as if he wanted to disguise his embarrassment and wanted to shield himself from any judgmental look Steve may give him.

“Or at least that´s what I´ve learned about myself this week.” The words didn´t leave Eddie´s lips easily. He gulped in between some words, struggling to find the right ones, as if confessing to this flaw that he had found in himself physically hurt him.

“Give yourself a break, man!”, were Steve´s first words that he actually spoke out loud after this long while being caught up in his head.

He wanted to sound casual, not making Eddie feel like he pitied him and not wanting to impose any sentences of empty meaning on him, trying to make him feel better about himself. He felt like Eddie was self-aware enough to see through set phrases, especially if they´d come from Steve in these circumstances.

Instead, Steve – casually – lifted his hand, wanting to give Eddie´s chest, no, better just his shoulder, a little empathetic pat. But Eddie had stopped walking, and had turned around to face Steve, accidently pushing his hand away with his. Both hands brushed together for only the fraction of a second, but Steve suddenly became aware of a warmth that Eddie´s hand had transferred to his.

Both boys now stood directly in front of each other, so close that Steve could feel Eddie´s shuddering, warm breath on his face, his eyes following the small fume coming out of Eddie´s mouth in the cold air.

Very quickly the warmth against Steve´s hand had spread into his arm and had reached his stomach, making its way down his legs and up his torso from there. Against any logic Steve felt how his heartrate quickened, the intense pumping only spurring on the heat.

Eddie´s eyes pierced his again, a determined look, one of Eddie´s hands pointing towards Nancy and Robin, who slowly started to disappear between the woods.

“The only reason I came in here, was ´cause those two ladies came in straight after you”, Eddie said, glancing quickly in Robin´s and Nancy´s direction.

Steve´s eyes mimicked his, a bit erupted by the sudden break of eye-contact, trying to process what Eddie was saying.
Yeah, Robin, Nancy, they are great, Steve thought, being way too overwhelmed by his body reactions at the moment to develop a rational thought.

His mind seemed to have taken in that vapour coming from Eddie´s breath, turning it into a dense fog. His ears seemed to have let him down as well, maybe under the influence of the fog, but they made Eddie´s words turn into a blur. Eddie was so close to him that his smell found his nose, numbing him even more. A cloud of aftershave, a slight hint of mint and musk, and weed, Steve supposed, surrounded him, isolating him and his counterpart from the world around.

“Because I was too ashamed to be the one who stayed behind. But Wheeler right there, she didn´t waste a second. Not one second. She just dove right in.”

“Now, I don´t know what happened between you two, …”, Steve heard Eddie´s voice reach his brain again and automatically turned his head towards the source of the sound.

His eyes met Eddie´s. They were so different than all the eyes Steve had ever looked at, he noticed now, being so up close. Big and a warm tone of dark brown, framed by beautiful, upwardly curved, dark lashes, that were batting at Steve whenever Eddie blinked. The white of his eyes shone like stars through the air of the night, brighter than any star Steve had ever seen in the sky. Eddie´s irises moved away from Steve´s sometimes, but only for tiny moments, before they found their way back, looking slightly upwards into Steve´s again.

Steve´s mind was so empty and so full of thoughts at the same time. He only noticed that Eddie had made a short break in between his sentences as he heard his voice chiming in his head again, leaving behind a comfortable buzzing sound.

“… but if I were you, I would get her back.”

Steve´s brain short-circuited, having noticed words that sounded like an action was expected from him. In a last attempt, trying to decipher Eddie´s words, hoping he hadn´t asked him a question, Steve dragged his eyes away from Eddie´s, latching onto his lips. But other than he would have dared to hope, Eddie´s lips didn´t help him back on track.

Instead, Steve´s mouth slowly opened, as if it could mimic Eddie´s movements, and as such, could finally translate those into the words that had been spoken to him. Steve could feel himself blushing, the heat pooling in his body finally having reached his face and even his open mouth could not contribute to releasing any of the heat and cooling himself down.

Steve´s gaze was glued onto Eddie´s lips. Completely hypnotised, his head was being gravitated towards them and he found himself admiring the other man´s soft mouth. Eddie´s lips seemed so plush and lush, having a reddish-pink tone that resembled the colour of Steve´s cheeks by now, and a cute little lip heart forming atop their opening. The corners of his mouth oh so gently curved upwards, passing Steve´s glance onto two sweet dimples and a little stubble surrounding them. Absentmindedly Steve found himself imitating the other´s movements again as he saw Eddie´s tongue slowly dart over his lower lip, leaving it somewhat glistening.

“´Cause that was as unambiguous a sign of true love as these cynical eyes…”, Eddie touched his heart again with one of his hands and almost, if his mind would have had any connection to his lower body, Steve would have lifted his, too, and would have laid his hand on top of the other´s.

“… have ever seen.”

Chapter Text

Like a lightning bold cutting through Steve´s body he was torn out of his cloudy state of mind, losing hold of the ground beneath his feet. Before he knew that this was actually his reality and he didn´t just evaporate into the sky as a cause of all of his emotions, he landed on the ground. The impact tearing all air inside his lungs out in one strong motion, the fog inside his brain leaving with it.

“Goddamn it. Here we go again”, Eddie complained, holding onto a wooden root.

The ground had not stopped moving as Steve´s ears detected a different voice than the one he had just been so dreamily ensnared by. Automatically panic shot through his veins, when his brain told him that Robin had screamed.

“Nancy! Nancy, where are you going? Nancy!”

His leading instinct abruptly coming back to him, he quickly let Eddie help himself to get up on his feet again and both started running.

His eyes still felt a little dazy, searching for the two girls in the darkness as the ground ´s motions started to calm down, hoping that nothing bad had happened to them.
After a few seconds of his heart almost jumping out of his chest, he found Robin´s silhouette in between the tree trunks, her urgently waving the two boys towards Nancy, who had run a few metres further.

Red lightnings in the sky lit up the figure of Nancy standing in front of what could have been a meadow, if it had any grass or flowers on it. Instead, the ground was dark, bare and had the same vines growing trough it as the rest of the scenery had had. Once in a while there were little dried out scups and brushwood, but the scariest thing were several fallen power poles, partially overgrown by nature and those dark vessels. The steel had been broken into peculiarly outstanding pieces, as if something or someone had let out all their anger on it.

Steve wondered what would be strong enough to make steel burst like this. If maybe the poles had been fractured by a lightning or an even bigger monster than the bats, or, hoping that this last theory would be true, this was just because, fitting into the whole aesthetic of this dimension.

The four had stopped next to Nancy at the end of the forest, taking in the view.
In the distance, they could determine the outline of a house. Nancy´s house. It was almost invisible in this darkness, having been camouflaged by the nature overgrowing it.

“Come on!”, Nancy said, stepping forward.

Steve, whose heart had finally calmed down from beating so hard and fast, glanced over at Eddie´s back in front of him.
And suddenly the heat inside is body was back, shooting up from zero to a hundred so quickly, that goosebumps glazed his skin in the cold air of the night. Steve was very thankful, that Eddie´s vest only covered his body minimally, because otherwise he would have felt like his skin would melt away.

What was that? He felt like his mind and body had teamed up against him. He had been in worse situations and had always been able to keep a cool head. Maybe the bats really had done more damage to him than he wanted to admit. Maybe it was the amount of blood that he had lost, or the constant adrenaline shots that kept his body on edge. He even considered the possibility that the faint smell of weed coming from Eddie´s vest had made him high.

And all of a sudden, another thought captured his brain. Steve had not only already completely failed at being accountable for Eddie and being a reliable interlocutor, like he had planned on being, he also very likely creeped him out even more by whatever trip he had just been on.

He had never felt that utterly embarrassed in front of another guy and Steve almost wished another gate would open beneath his feet and swallow him, as Eddie looked back at him over his shoulder, asking: “Are you coming, Steve?”

Should he say something? Apologize? Or just act like nothing had happened? He didn´t even know if Eddie had even recognized anything. After all it was night and Steve´s face was dirty, so he may have not even seen him blush so hard? Maybe to Eddie it had looked like he was just very focused on the conversation. Even though he had not answered anything and had just stared at him…? Shit! Maybe this was all just inside his head. But what would he say if Eddie would ask him about it? How would he ever be able to look Eddie in the eyes again? These beautiful, big, brown eyes of his, that had stared so deeply into his soul. Steve almost tripped over a vessel in the ground. No! What was he even thinking? Get it together, man, he scolded himself. You´re just not being yourself today. It was a rough day, and he was injured and tired and…

He almost bumped into Robin. They had reached Nancy´s house.

She opened the door, carefully. Steve had been going second, since he still had the flashlight and since he thought that he might be able to concentrate better, if he kept Eddie out of his sight.

The inside of the house, unsurprisingly didn´t look much different that the outside. Even in here the black, smeary vessels tied themselves around anything they could find.

“Might be time to get a maid, Wheeler”, Robin joked to ease the tension.

But no-one laughed or even recognized that Robin had said something.

“Come on. I don´t want to stay here longer than we have to”, Nancy muttered, being the first to lead the others upstairs.

Eddie had closed the door and went third in line. Steve, still observing the living room with his light, went last. For not even a second, he had thought that Nancy was walking in front of him, only to realize that it was, in fact Eddie again. His hair did resemble Nancy´s quite a lot from behind in this darkness.

Once again, he heard a blur running through his head. Now, he could have sworn that it sounded like Dustin. Like he was far away, maybe behind a wall, or talking through a walkie-talkie.
Did he get mad now? Did he now also imagine voices? Voices from people who at the moment were far away in another dimension?

No, he was sure that he heard something. Something real. But it was too incomprehensible to understand the words. His movements stilled. The light searched the room for something. Or someone. But Steve couldn´t see anything.

Meanwhile Nancy, Robin and Eddie had reached Nancy´s room. She opened her cupboard, grabbing a paper box off of its top shelf, then putting in down on her desk.
The sight of a pair of pumps let all three´s expectations down, as the cover was lifted.

“Those aren´t guns”, Eddie detected desperately.

“These heels are pointy, but I was hoping for something along the lines of a deadly projectile, Nance”, Robin said.

“I don´t understand…”, Nancy frowned.

“Maybe you left them somewhere else”, Eddie suggested.

“There´s a six-year-old in the house. I know where I keep my guns!”, Nancy exclaimed, her resolution coming back to her. “And also, I threw these away years ago.”

Her gaze fell onto her shoes, then landed on some notes next to the package on the table. She took them in her hand, flipping through them.

“I get, that grades are important to you, but perhaps studying can wait until we get out of here?”, Robin said, hoping that Nancy would react to what she said.

“These are from sophomore year chemistry… And this, this wallpaper, this is an old wallpaper!”, Nancy pointed at the wall, then turning around, frantically walking up and down in her room. “And this mirror, it went to a yard sale. And you…”, she picked up a teddy bear from her bed, “you are not supposed to be here. No, I gave you to cousin Joanna two years ago.”

She had reached her bedside table, finding her old diary. She picked it up, quickly flipping the pages, trying to find the latest entry.
November, 6, 1983, said the date in the corner. Beneath it, her scribbled words began to explain, how she and Steve had made up on that day and how Barbara finally knows about them.

“What is it?”, Eddie asked urgently, since Nancy had ended her monologue.

Robin took a step closer towards Nancy, slowly putting her hand on her left upper arm, gently rubbing on it. Scared, she told her: “Nancy? You´re freaking me out.”

“I think the reason that my guns aren´t here…”, her eyes were still glued to the date, “is because they don´t exist yet.”

“They don’t… exist?”, Eddie asked, his tone making clear how close his nerves were to snatching.

Nancy ignored that. “This diary should be full of entries. It´s not. The last entry is November 6, 1983. The day Will went missing. The day the gate opened. We´re in the past”, she concluded aghast.

Robin and Eddie exchanged worried looks.

“Dustin! Dustin!”, they heard Steve´s muffled shouts.

Confusedly they ran back downstairs, finding Steve running around the living room, lighting every corner with his flashlight.

“Can you hear me, Dustin?”, his voice became louder and more frantic. “Dus- hel- hello! Hello? Dustin!”

Nancy, Robin and Eddie lingered there for a moment, before Robin whispered: “Maybe he really does have rabies.”

“Steve? What are you doing?”, Nancy shouted at him.

Steve startled and blinded them with his light.

“He´s here! Henderson. That little shit, he´s here. He´s like… here in the walls or something. Just listen!”, Steve panted breathlessly, his eyes widened madly.

A quiet pause.

“Dustin”, Steve said again, nodding. As if Dustin had answered him, he began shouting his name again and again.

And then, really, there was a quiet mumble, only detectable when Steve wasn´t shouting, but the other three could actually hear Dustin.
Soon, all four of them began shouting his name, searching underneath the tables, inside cupboards, behind the curtains.
Dustin kept talking, but didn´t give them an answer that they could understand.

“All right, either this kid can´t hear us or he´s being a total douchebag”, Steve said, realizing that shouting for Dustin seemed pointless.

“Will found a way!”, Nancy remembered. “He found a way to speak to Joyce through the lights!”

She ran towards the nearest lamp, desperately trying to switch it on, trying the switch and checking if the lamp was connected to the socket.

“It´s not working!”, she said defeatedly.

Meanwhile Steve examined the chandelier above the dining table. The light coming from his flashlight seemed to be doing something to the candles.

“Guys? You seeing this?”, he asked around.

Little red shimmering, electric particles flew around the chandelier, making its lamps glow faintly in the darkness of the room.

They gathered around the side of the table. Nancy was the first to hold her hand out and feel into the swarm of firefly-like fluffs.
As soon as she touched them, they started to react to her and lit up in a warm, orange light.
Dustin´s voice began swimming around them again and then all four lifted their hand to reach into the light beam. Wherever they touched it, the particles began lighting up.

“It tickles”, Steve found out.

“It kinda feels good”, Robin answered, letting the swirl dance around her fingers.
Eddie laughed at her statement.

“Does anyone know Morse code?”, Nancy asked, having pulled her hand back.

Steve and Robin shook their head no.

“Wait, does SOS count?”, Eddie asked, about to deny as well. He looked around at the others, who had turned towards him, unsure if they´d laugh at this question. “Is… Is that good?”

Eddie was given full access to the chandelier. Steve still holding the flashlight in place.

S – three short pats into the swarm, O – three long, S- three short pats again. Eddie repeated the letters over and over, hoping that somehow, they found their way into the real world and hoping, that Dustin could decipher the meaning behind the blinks.

Quicker, than they had hoped, Dustin´s voice swirled around them again. This time louder and clearer. He gave them the instructions, to go to Nancy´s room, sit in front of her bed and wait, until he would give them new orders. Whatever his plan was, could take a few minutes to install.

So, the four made their way upstairs again, settling down on the carpet in front of the bed. After a few quiet minutes the light, Steve shone onto the bedding, began swirling with the little glimmery particles again. Nancy let her hand wander around in them, lighting them even more. The orange light was a welcome difference in the dark and blue surroundings that they had spent the last hours in.
Dustin´s voice reached them again. He asked them, if they could see anything. On the other side of this dimension Dustin must have brought some sort of light source to this place. Big enough to be able to communicate through text. As an answer, Nancy made the lights glow again. Faint laughter filled their ears.

All of their eyes were drawn towards the glimmery light beam that hovered over the blanket, reacting to Nancy´s hand like the ocean moving under the influence of the moon.
Mesmerized by the beauty of this spectacle, the tension floating around them seemed to have come to a halt.

Eddie´s gaze met Steve, kneeling right next to him, only separated slightly by Nancy in between them, who had bend forward towards the light. Eddie´s lips were pressed together, his wide eyes resting on Steve´s face that was gently illuminated by the warm light. The orange tone giving his face a softer look, letting him appear much livelier than before.

A single strand of hair fell down his forehead, landing between his eyebrows. Eddie felt the sudden urge to reach it with his hand, to gently push it out of his vision, gliding his fingers through Steve´s hair, following its way behind his ear, only to end up in his neck. He wanted to let his hand rest there, mildly caress his skin. He wanted to reach his thumb out to grab his chin, turning his head around to get a better look at him. He imagined how he would be able to feel the little stubble on his jawline, maybe even letting his thumb wander over his lips. Holding him in place for as long as he would let him, rather for as long as it would take Eddie to get enough of him. Long enough to take in every detail on this man´s face, wanting to marvel at the sensation of their gentle connection. Eddie could almost feel the tickle in between his fingers, and definitely feel it in his stomach, his chest, his heart.
His heart making another big jump as Steve´s face actually turned around to him, lighting up like the particles around Nancy´s hand and giving Eddie a big, genuine, relieved smile.

For a moment their eyes held each other, both stilled by the other´s look. Dustin´s voice was it then, that made them come back to reality.

“We´re not moving it. But we´re gonna unplug it. Stand by!”, he reassured.

The little fireflies dropped in the air, like a firework falling towards the ground, losing its sparkle on the way. The only light remaining was the one coming from the flashlight.

“Okay, try it now!”, Dustin ordered.

Nancy searched for approval in Robin´s face to her left. Eddie started nodding too, patting her shoulder to encourage her and also because his hands were a sweaty, trembling mess that somehow needed to get out the energy that threatened to boil over inside him.

Nancy hesitated for a moment and Eddie then lifted his hands above his head, ranking them through his hair and clutching them together, nervously waiting for whatever to come next.
Nancy´s hand finally reached the beam of light again. This time, having her pointer finger out, as if to use it like a pen, drawing letters into the air. As soon as she had started, the orange light brightened up in front of them again, tinting the room in a warm atmosphere.

Eddie couldn´t keep himself from turning towards Steve again. The way the light softened his facial features was intoxicating. It made his lashes stand out and brushed away the shadows underneath his eyes, that had become the colour of molten bronze, glistening dreamily.

Steve´s eyes were focused on the letters that had appeared in the air. Four drawn lines eventually building an H and an I.

“Hi!”, Dustin called happily. “That worked!”

It was as if a ton of rocks had simultaneously lifted from their chests. All four releasing a pent-up breath.

“Yes, yes!”, Eddie shouted through his teeth, feeling something brush against his shoulder. He looked down to see that Steve´s hand had reached him, giving him a few quick pats, before it lingered there for another moment only to be taken away again.

Eddie unclenched his fists at the loss of Steve´s touch, stretching his right arm out to brush over Steve´s shoulder blade, running it down his upper arm quickly, scared of doing too much. But the look that Steve gave him then quickly filled him with a new feeling of confidence and his hand leaped back up again, giving Steve´s shoulder a last gentle squeeze.
“Hi!”, he shouted at the light then, filled with a euphoria that he hadn´t felt in a very long time.

Nancy looked around in their faces, grabbing Robin´s hands, who had had them folded together as in a prayer, squeezing them excitedly.
Eddie started biting on his nails and then his fingers, as he saw Nancy gather herself again, writing new letters into the light.

S. T. U. C. K.

Affirmations left the other three´s mouths at that word, patiently waiting for Dustin´s answer.

“Uh, you can´t get back through Watergate?”, he asked.

They looked at each other in confusion.

“What the hell is Watergate?”, Steve asked the others.

“´Cause it´s in water and it´s a gate…”, Robin considered.

“Oh”, Steve said, quietly surprised.

“That´s cute”, Eddie meant, with a silent side-glance at Steve.

“Ah, no it´s… uh”, Nancy mumbled, pointing her finger out to answer Dustin.

G. U. A. R. D. E. D.

“Perfect, yes, yes”, Steve said, as they heard Dustin turn that word into a sentence, drawing the right conclusions.

Eddie had been squirming uncomfortably on his knees, that slowly had started to flicker, still feeling so full of energy that he reached his hands out to applaud at the letters Nancy had drawn.
Dustin explained that he had developed a theory, that could help them out of the Upside Down.

“Genius child”, Robin sighed, closing her eyes, throwing her head back into her neck, not letting go of Nancy´s left hand, that she still held in her lap.

“We think that Watergate isn´t the only gate. That there is a gate at every murder site.” Dustin´s words echoed in the corners of the room.

“Does anybody understand what he´s talking about?”, Nancy asked through frowned brows.

The other three denied. So, Nancy drew a question mark into the light.

“Okay, seriously? How many times do I have to be right on the money before you guys just trust me?”, Dustin´s roughed voice shouted at them.

Steve looked up into the air. “Jesus Christ. This kid´s gotta get his ego checked”, he said, sounding disappointed.

“It´s his tone, right?”, Eddie observed playfully, leaning forward to look at Steve over the silhouette of Nancy.

“Oh yeah, totally!”, Steve answered, pulling his brows up a little, smiling amusedly.

Eddie´s gaze lingered a little longer on Steve, his eyes opened widely, lips slightly parted. Was that a flirty undertone that he could detect? Did he really just flirt with Steve? King Steve? Or did his yearning mind attribute more to the exchanges than there is or was? Because this whole time, whenever he and Steve seemed to have had a little moment together, just the two of them, Eddie has had his suspicions. Just a tiny feeling that made his stomach jump and his heart flutter. But this feeling started to grow every time he and Steve locked eyes. And to be frankly, there had been quite a few of those moments now. But before he could further analyse or weigh up any chances, Nancy had interrupted him with a question.

“So… so how far is your trailer?”

“Uh… seven miles”, Eddie estimated quickly.

“Nancy? Uh, I know your house here is, like, weirdly, creepily frozen in time and shit, but haven´t you always had bikes?”, Robin asked her.

All of them stared at Nancy, waiting for an answer.

“Yes! They should work. Let´s find them, come on”, she said, being the first to stand up again.

Chapter Text

One by one they got up.
After this long time kneeling on the ground, their legs didn´t immediately comply and rather shaky they followed Nancy downstairs into the garage. On the way out, Steve grabbed the door, holding it open for the others and letting them go first. His and Eddie´s eyes met for a second as they thanked him, going on.

Soon they found themselves on four partially too small bikes, driving through the cold night.

Eddie had begun to explain the way, but the other three told him that they knew where the trailer park was, since their friend Max lived there now, too.

Still Eddie took the lead while driving. On the one hand he wanted to escape this dimension as quickly as he could and on the other hand, he wanted to sort out the thoughts, that Nancy had interrupted.

Robin and Nancy rode next to each other, trying to keep up with Eddie´s speed. Steve, who went last because he was quite exhausted from the day and his injuries, was kind of bewildered by how quick Eddie lead them. He thought that a chain smoker like him, might have some problems with his lungs and his stamina. Rather than Steve, who was usually pretty athletic.

The main roads lead them further out of Hawkins. The nature here seemed more like in the actual world. There were less vessels tied around the trees, who still had some of their leaves, and the ground contained grass and little bushes. The sky however hadn´t changed. Dark clouds hung in it, alternately being lit up red by thunder and lightnings. Screeching sounds in the distance told them, that the danger was still lurking for them, making the four speed up their movements.

Eddie drove like his brain had activated the autopilot. He felt like without it the fear inside him would make him unable to keep going at this speed. He had to force his breathing to stay rhythmic and deep, instead of flat and panting.

As he felt like he had calmed down a bit, his thoughts began to unwind what he had started earlier.

He was torn between two sides. Between knowing what he saw and at the same time not trusting what he saw, because he didn´t know how much his brain may have compromised that.
The only thing that Eddie felt sure about, was that Steve wasn´t going to be homophobic towards him, if he found out about him. He knew that Robin was a lesbian, and he didn´t know what was going on between her and Nancy but it definitely seemed like more than friendship. So, Eddie didn´t worry about being called slurs or worse.

He had been very aware of Steve´s little moment back there in the woods. He had seen him gaze at his face like no straight man would ever. The way Steve had licked his lips and had started blushing and how dilated his pupils were, while he had stared at Eddie´s lips, almost as if he wanted to kiss him, was now forever engraved in his brain. He had practically seen Steve´s brain lagging, trying to process these newly arised feelings. He had noticed how Steve liked to touch his shoulder every now and then, how he had smiled when Eddie had touched him back. He saw Steve looking at him very often, he could feel these sparks between them, whenever their eyes locked.

But that was exactly the part where he didn´t trust himself. The feelings. He already found himself in a situation that became worse, even though he told himself several times, that it could not possibly get any worse now. And yet it did, every time. He just felt like he had started to get along well with Dustin, Mike, Robin and now also with Nancy and most importantly, Steve. He didn´t want to ruin anything again, by acting weird, by pushing further than he should have. Not now, that he had just met people who seemed trustworthy and, for once, didn´t run away from him, because of his reputation. Even though, he had understood if they would have. Or rather, he didn´t quite understand yet, why they had stayed. Maybe it was better if he just buried his feelings deep, deep down and swallowed every bit that ever tried to rise up again.

But maybe that was what he needed right now? His reputation. These little flirts here and there with Steve had gone unnoticed by the others, and if not even Steve picked up on them, how would the others? Eddie was well known for his teasing and straight-forward personality. Maybe he could let the flirts seem like just a little banter between boys? Because Eddie really liked seeing Steve squirm underneath his presence, his looks and his words. He might as well give it another go. There was still the hope, that he might pick up on it and return the flirts, maybe even finally figuring himself out. If, what Eddie had suspected about him, was the case.

His gaydar had never let him down before. It had already been tingling by how Harrington was so obsessed with his hair, the way he used to stand, his hand on his hips, slightly bucked to one side. And the fact that Steve, how Dustin told him, had tried to date (or fuck) almost every girl in Hawkins but quickly pulled back each time, because “it just didn´t feel right with her”. If that didn´t sound like internalized homophobia to Eddie, or just plain obliviousness. Also, Eddie had gathered enough practical knowledge about, that real straight guys never pick up on his flirts, because they would never even consider the possibility, it just went directly over their heads. So, what did Eddie have to lose?

Meanwhile Steve caught himself checking out Eddie´s figure again. He had been staring at Munson´s ass for way too long now. Which, he hadn´t stared actually! He had just noticed that Eddie had a pretty round and firm-looking butt (for a man!). It stood out even more, whenever he lifted himself from the saddle to sprint a bit, driving in a stand-like position.

Steve´s stomach pulled itself together. The feeling startled him a bit, but it didn´t feel new. Otherwise, he would have thought that the whole exertion might slowly knock him out, but this was different. It felt like something dropped inside him, or rather like the feeling when you drop down the stairs, thinking there is another step when there isn´t.

He was very unsure of what caused all of these weird and unfortunately very intense emotions inside him all of a sudden. It couldn´t be Eddie, could it? No, why would he? He just happened to be there every time that these feelings washed over Steve.

But what if Eddie really was the reason behind all of this? Steve couldn´t even try to like him in the beginning. In fact, he had been jealous and weirded out by Eddie, if not even enraged by him sometimes. But still, he had been kind of obsessed with him. Yeah, but that was because he had wanted to compete with him. He wanted to be better than him, wanted Dustin to like him more, he didn´t want to share the spotlight with him in the group.

But he also felt like something had changed. He had gotten to know Eddie better and even started to like him. Maybe – just like Eddie had admitted earlier, too – he couldn´t accept the fact that he wasn´t so bad after all. Maybe he still wanted to hold onto the previous anger and hate in some way, and this was the reaction to knowing that it was actually unjustified. Because Steve had suddenly gotten to know the vulnerable side of Eddie. And now he felt guilty of having been so biased from the beginning. And… for fucks sake, yes, Steve thought he was handsome. Period! There´s nothing wrong about admitting that, because he´s definitely not into men.

But maybe that´s what made him feel so uncomfortable, having this loud, energetic guy around, that was so openly and proudly himself that Steve became aware of all the insecurities that he so often tried to shake off. Insecurities that he could no longer tape down with all the girls that he went out with, that he seemed to find no connection with. With everything that Eddie was and had done, he seemed to have bruised Steve´s momentarily fragile ego.

Allowing himself to finally have that thought lifted a weight from Steve´s heart. And slowly the thoughts inside his head started to puzzle themselves together, the lost middle piece seemed to be found. But something still felt off inside Steve.

To give himself a break from thinking about Eddie without end again, his eyes moved over to Nancy and Robin, who quietly took in the dark scenery around them, sometimes exchanging comforting looks, giving each other a small smile.

And Steve finally realised what had happened between the two. They slowly seemed to have fallen in love with each other! At first Steve wouldn´t even have guessed it, because all the looks they gave each other and the hand holding, the closeness, that was just normal stuff that all girls do, don´t they. Ok yeah, Robin liked girls in that way, but Nancy? No, she was much more the type to link that behaviour to a strong friendship instead of something romantic. But still, Steve knew Nancy and knew that she wasn´t usually that touchy with anybody. Not her close friends and not even with Steve back then, until she had warmed up with him in their relationship.

But maybe this had changed? Nancy and Robin seemed a lot closer since their trip to the psych-house. And maybe that was it what they were talking about earlier, that Nancy and Jonathan aren´t happy together anymore (because Nancy had figured out that she likes girls). Steve hadn´t had much time to have a deep talk with Robin lately, so he wasn´t quite sure, but he guessed that maybe she focused on Nancy now, instead of Vicky, because for the first time, she has her feelings reciprocated with her.

The four of them had passed a street enclosed by street lights. As they left the last beam of light and found themselves surrounded by darkness again, Steve was being presented with another possible answer to his feelings. An answer that had way less to do with Eddie, thankfully.

He had already noticed this earlier. Eddie kind of resembled Nancy in the darkness. His long, dark, wavy hair, his plush lips, his big, bright eyes, even his physique, reminded Steve of a woman. Not that Eddie was in any chance like one, though, but theoretically, all those are attributes being found in women. Maybe that was it that had played a trick on Steve´s already exhausted mind. He still felt some kind of feelings for Nancy, further to the fact that he had never gotten over her and Jonathan being together, while he seemed to find absolutely no connection to any girl in Hawkins, dreading the thought of staying alone forever. Because Nancy was the only one that he had ever felt such a strong connection to.

And now there had been Eddie with his all-encompassing presence, so close to him the whole time, that all those things that Steve had liked in Nancy, had always found attractive in women, had been presented to him so clearly, that his brain wanted to relive the emotions that he still felt. Because Steve knew how much he was yearning for a genuine relationship with someone again. However, his brain had slightly, (or actually not so slightly), confused a lot in its emotional uncertainty. But he would allow it, since again, it was a very tough day for Steve.

Now, he kind of felt relieved. Relieved for having figured out what he had tried to ignore as best as he could, since that first encounter with Eddie in the woods and also relieved, because now he could actually feel happy for Nancy and Robin. If his theory about what he thought had happened, was true.

The thought if Nancy ever truly liked him, if she actually likes girls, was gladly pushed aside by Steve. For him it only reinforced the fact, that no matter how much he still clings onto the relationship he used to have with her and the butterflies he used to feel, he and Nancy were no longer the people they used to be. They had drifted apart long ago and would never feel like that for each other again, which Steve had now fully accepted.

With lighter hearts but overworked lungs the group had reached the trailer park.

“Here. This way. Right over here, this one”, Eddie said, jumping off the bike and throwing it onto the ground in front of his trailer.

“That´s gotta be a world record. Most miles travelled inter-dimensionally”, Robin gasped, putting her bike down.

Steve was coughing from the particles in the air as his feet found the ground again. He was still barefoot and would have started to freeze, if the long bike ride wouldn´t have made him hot and sweaty.
Eddie had slowly stepped forward to open the door. The outsides of the trailer, dark vessels growing through broken windows and ranking themselves around the dirty metal of the trailer, allowing a glimpse of what the inside would look like.

With shaky hands and a squeak Eddie pulled the door open. He laughed a bit as he could sneak a look inside.
“Doesn´t even look worse than usual.”

But as soon as he had stepped inside and had followed the vines towards a big knotty centre that they build above the living room, his voice fell silent.
At the ceiling there was a red shiny gate, exactly like the one on the ground of Lover´s lake.

Robin, Nancy and Steve had followed Eddie inside, their eyes focusing on the same spot.

“Goddamn”, Steve said, as he turned off the flashlight in his hand.

“This is where Chrissy died”, Eddie explained, looking at the others to his right, wanting to keep his eyes off of that spot before all those overwhelming feelings threatened to overflow him again.
“Like, right where she died”, he added with a shaky voice.

The membrane that sealed the gate started to writhe wetly and started to move like a beating heart.

“I think there is something in there”, Robin said quietly, not knowing if it was already a good time to panic again.

“What the hell is that?”, Eddie asked, as the membrane was being pushed downwards from the other side, by a long shadow, how it looked.

It withdrew itself from the gate for a little moment, only to push forward with full force again, breaking through it, ripping the thick skin apart.
All four immediately jumped backwards, yelping and running into each other, as they bumped backwards against the kitchen counter.

With worried eyes they witnessed, how – apparently - a wooden stick trashed onto the separating layer of the gate, opening it to the other side. Pieces of this skin started raining to the floor, as the gate slowly lost its red shimmer. Instead, a more yellow light shone through it.

Steve was the first to gather himself again and stepped closer towards the gate.
“No way”, he breathed out as he looked through it.

As there was no further attack on them, Nancy, Robin and even Eddie came closer towards the middle of the room again, wanting to see what lured on the other side of the portal.
Their worst apprehensions were quickly thrown away, as they stared into the eyes of four people through the ceiling: Dustin, Lucas, Erica and Max.
They were standing upside down in the middle of Eddie´s trailer, waving at them and greeting them happily.

“Hi”, the four slowly answered back, first having to comprehend what they saw.

“Holy shit. This is trippy!”, Robin sighed, finally being able to smile genuinely again. Eddie next to her had held onto his knees, bending forward, breathing deeply, relieved.

“Bada bada boom!”, they could hear Dustin´s laugh reach them, sounding like it had to wander through a layer of water on the way.

“We have to get you guys down here again”, Dustin said. “Don´t worry, we already have a plan, that just needs some execution. Just wait a minute, we will be back quickly!”

“Do you think we can just pass it easily?”, Eddie asked the group, not wanting to feel hopeful too quickly again.

“Yeah, I think so, it should let us through just like the one in the lake. We just need to be able to reach it properly”, Steve explained. “Don´t worry!”, he added, giving Eddie a small smack onto his back, “We will quickly be back home.”

With his thoughts now figured out, Steve felt much better now being able to console Eddie a bit.

Eddie meanwhile wasn´t so sure if Steve´s words made him feel better or worse, since the other, real version of his trailer was the place where he had seen Chrissy die in front of him. Eddie didn´t know if he preferred the old surroundings, because there was evidently no certainty that they were any safer there. Not with an open gate to a freaky dimension so close to them, literally inside his living room.

After he had ended his inner monologue, he walked up to Robin and Nancy underneath the gate again, watching as Lucas and Max brought his mattress into the room.
Steve had sat down on a chair next to the kitchen counter, examining his bloody bandage.

As the mattress landed on the ground, a stingy feeling of embarrassment flooded Eddie. He was glad, that Steve sat away from the others, because otherwise he would have seen the dirty, yellow-stained mattress on the other side of the gate.

“Those stains are, uh… “, Eddie had started to piece together an excuse, but he had absolutely no idea what reasoning could make the spots less weird. “I dunno what those stains are”, was what he decided on, to end the sentence quickly.

“Mmm”, was all that Robin gave back with a disgusted sound and a side-eye, scrunching her nose like Nancy did.

As both girls pulled their eyes away from the stains, Eddie gave them one last look.
He didn´t even remember anymore what all those stains were. Yeah ok, a few of them were very obvious (hopefully not for Robin and Nancy). He remembered that he had wanted to put on a new bedsheet since a while now but had somehow always put it off. Instead, he sometimes had slept on the couch or in his van or his uncle´s bed, when he was away at night. Recently he had been okay with that, since he thought it would be absolutely futile, putting on a new sheet, if he knew it would immediately get dirty again. And so, the stains just had kept on adding lately.
But now he didn´t know if he wanted to land on that mess and also, have his friends land on it.

Dustin had stepped onto the mattress, waving Eddie away with his hand.

“Not quite sure how these physics are gonna work. But, uh… here goes nothing!”, and he threw several tied sheets into the gate. With a plop-sound the sheets reached the other side, falling down onto the floor.

“There we go. And if my theory is correct…”, Dustin´s hands let go of the rope and to everyone´s surprise it was being held in the air by the gate.
“Abracadabra”, he said.

“Holy shit”, Max commented.

“All right. Pull on it, see if it holds!”, Dustin commanded.

Robin exchanged a quick look with Steve. He nodded and waved with his hand towards the rope, indicating at her to go first.
Robin pulled on the rope and let her feet let go of the ground.

From the other side they could hear Erica say: “That is the craziest shit I´ve ever seen in my life. And I´ve seen some crazy shit!”, with a big nod towards Lucas. She and Dustin high-fived each other.

“Guess I´m the guinea-pig, then”, Robin said, jumping up and climbing towards the ceiling.

Nancy held her hands out, so she could help her if needed or catch her, if she should fall.

On the other side of the gate, the four kids had stepped back from the mattress, clearing the space for Robin to land safely.

Panting she had reached the ceiling, her upper body already in the lighter version of the trailer. And with one last pull she lost grip of the rope and fell backwards onto the mattress.

“Oh, thank God”, she said, sitting up happily. “That was fun!”

As Dustin helped her up, Eddie looked at Steve and Nancy, waiting for clarification on who would go next.
He didn´t know if he wanted to leave immediately or if he rather wanted another moment alone with Steve down here. But Steve had already nodded towards the rope. He wanted to let Eddie go next, because he thought he knew how much he wanted to leave the Upside Down.

“All right. I guess I´ll go”, Eddie said, maybe sounding a bit sulky, grabbing the rope. He pulled himself upwards, his feet holding onto the knots between the sheets.

“Easy, easy”, Steve said encouragingly and Eddie could have sworn that he felt Steve´s touch on his leg for a second.

Quicker than he thought, he had reached the gate and had already lost the grip onto the sheets, the gravity pulling him downwards. He landed on the mattress.

“That… was fun! Shit!”, he said relieved, as Robin held her hand out to help him up.

Steve chuckled, turning over to Nancy. “See you on the other side.” He grabbed the rope and held it out for her to reach it.

“On the other side”, she said, both hands closing around the fabric.

Chapter Text

On the warm lighted version of the Munson Trailer all eyes were directed onto the gate in the ceiling. The landing pad was kept clear, for the next person to land on it.

But as no-one had started to peak through the hole of the roof and everything stayed quiet, Dustin stepped forward to examine, what could take Nancy and Steve so long, or if any of them needed help.

“Oh shit”, he said flatly.

Now Steve´s voice became audible for them, shouting maniacally. “Nancy. Hey! Hey! Stay with me. Nancy! Hey, wake up!”

“Vecna”, Max concluded shook.

Steve tried his best to shake Nancy awake, to scream loud enough so she would be able to hear him, even though a part of his brain knew that it wouldn´t help, just like with Max on the graveyard. Nancy´s eyes had become a milky shade of white, staring into an empty void. Her body stood upright, but was otherwise caught in a slack trance.

“Get music! Quick!”, Steve shouted at the others watching.

Immediately they had started to part, but were quickly reminded that they were in a foreign trailer and had no idea where to search. Their eyes had landed on Eddie, who started running to the back of the trailer, leading them to his room.

His room was a mess. Various items of use and balderdash were stacked on every surface and the ground, only a small path towards his bed was cleared to walk through. The little lamp at the ceiling provided not even close to enough light in the room whose walls were plastered with dark posters. Instantly everyone began to turn everything inside out, looking for any kind of music that would help them.

Erica had stayed in the living room to communicate between the groups, but soon she came running into the room, shouting: “Steve says you need to hurry!”

“Yeah, no shit!”, Dustin screamed, who held a walk-man in his hand, still searching for some headphones to plug into.

“We´re trying, we can´t find anything!”, was Max´ answer, digging through a drawer, throwing clothes onto the already messy floor.

“Seriously, what is all this shit?”, Robin attacked Eddie, who picked through different cassettes on the naked bed, next to the dumped bedsheets.

“I mean, what are you even looking for”, said Eddie, overwhelmed, throwing more tapes onto the pile. He was desperately trying to not go through another Chrissy-moment again. Two in two days had really been enough for his mental capacity and he really didn´t want to lose a friend now. He could never forgive himself if another person had to die, because he hadn´t been of help.

“Madonna, Blondie, Bowie, Beatles, music! We need music!”, Robin answered, her voice trembling, almost sobbing.

Enraged by this comment, because Robin had all of his available music literally in front of her eyes, Eddie grabbed the Iron Maiden cassette out of her hands, screaming back at her, frantically.

“THIS. IS. MUSIC!!!!”

Gasping, Nancy fell backwards, her body snapping out of her trance, her eyes taking in her surroundings again.
Steve had immediately wrapped his arms around her, catching her, guiding her to the ground.

“It´s okay. It´s okay, it´s okay”, he cooed, pushing some hair out of her face, gently stroking her arms. “It´s okay. I´m here. I´m right here.”

It took Nancy a while until her breath had calmed down again and her body had stopped shaking. Tears still streamed down her face, as Steve gently held her in his arms, stroking her slowly, to let her know she was safe now.

Erica had told the other´s to stop searching and to calm down, since Nancy had woken up and seemed to be safe again.

With tears in their eyes, from the exhaustion and panic, they ran towards the gate again, wanting to convince themselves of the truth.

Steve couldn´t even say anything. He just looked up at the others, slowly nodding, as if to say: everything is fine again, down here. He wasn´t even mad that they had taken so long to find music, because all that mattered in this moment, was that Nancy was awake again.

Dustin, Max, Robin, Lucas and Erica had partially wrapped their arms around each other, trying to calm their nerves, breaths and heartbeats. Eddie stood there, apart from the others feeling like he had failed. Only through what seemed like a miracle, Nancy had been spared from a gruesome death. He hadn´t quite understood how music would have helped her escape Vecna´s curse, but still the feeling of being so stuck and defenseless gnawed at him.

Robin saw how Eddie had stared to the ground, fidgeting with his hair and his rings and she walked over to him, pulling him into a hug.
“I´m sorry, Eddie. I didn´t mean it like that, really.”

Even if that wasn´t the reason why Eddie felt so disjointed, by God, the reasons for that had just kept on piling up over the last days like the stuff in his room, the hug felt really good. He noticed how much he had needed a hug, by the way he clung onto Robin, probably for longer than he would have usually allowed. But Robin also needed this hug. She had disguised her offer as an apology, that she meant in retrospect, but that wasn´t the actual reason. She had felt that it wasn´t her comment that had thrown Eddie off, but the confrontation with another possible victim, killed by Vecna. She couldn´t see him stand there so alone, caught by his thoughts and anxiety with no-one to care for him. Also, she just needed to feel someone´s strong embrace, that in return made her feel better, too.

After another few minutes, Nancy had gathered enough strength to finally leave the Upside Down. Steve had helped her climb up the bedsheets and just a few seconds later she had landed on the mattress.

Robin who had knelt right next to it, immediately offered both her hands for Nancy to grasp and gently she grabbed her shaking arms, trying to lift her up. Eddie had jumped in to lend a hand and to help Nancy sit up, because Robin´s arms hadn´t seemed to have found their strength back yet.

Quietly and with a thankful look towards Eddie, Nancy let herself fall into Robin´s lap next to the mattress. Both girls wrapping their arms around each other, hiding their faces in each other´s necks, softly rocking back and forth.

The other members of the group had stepped back, to let them have their moment in private, letting themselves fall down on the sofa or in front of the furniture.
Steve was quick to climb through the gate, landing on the mattress with a huffed sound.

“Jesus”, he said, his eyes wandering over the stained mattress. With a disgusted look that made his forehead crinkle, he peeled himself off the bedding. Eddie had dodged his gaze.

Still, nobody dared to break the silence that had spread out between them. Nobody knew what to say or what to do next. It felt easier to let this moment last a little longer.

Eventually, when the silence had begun to no longer feel comforting but rather dreadful, Max whispered a proposal.

“We could go over to my trailer. Maybe it- maybe we all feel a little better over there”, she said looking up at the open gate.

Steve nodded, looking around the room to find any approval of the others. They nodded back at him, slowly getting up and following Max over to her trailer. It was still night and the air was cold. Not as cold as the Upside Down but still uncomfortable enough to make their drained bodies shiver. The events of the last hours lasted heavy on all of them and their exhaustion was no longer deniable.

“We should all rest a bit”, Steve said.

Nancy looked at him as if the last thing she wanted to do now was rest, but Steve couldn´t be persuaded. He knew what she wanted to say and knew, that she wanted to explain what had happened to her, what she had seen, what made her gain consciousness again, wanting to plan their further procedures.

“We can do nothing now, Nance. Not at the moment, we are all way too exhausted to do anything right now. We need to rest! At least for a few hours.”

That there were no counterarguments to that, showed again how much they needed to sleep. Max and Lucas brought blankets and pillows for everyone and soon, they had distributed onto the couch and the floor.

Not everyone was immediately able to close their eyes and to sleep. Even if Steve had urged them too, no-one really thought that they could even fall asleep. Not after what just had happened.

Dustin and Lucas laid on the couch, heads resting on either end, feet meeting in the middle. Erica and Max had tried to get comfortable in two armchairs, blankets wrapped around their bodies.
The silence had been filled with thoughts, that sluggishly declined. After a while, deep breathing and quiet snores could be heard.

Robin, who had waited until the others had closed their eyes, rested her chin on top of Nancy´s head on the floor, still gently running her fingers through her hair, rhythmically trying to lull her to sleep.
Eddie had taken place on a thin old mattress, that they had brought to the living room, his thoughts slowly losing the fight against the urge to give in to sleep. He hadn´t slept this comfortably in days and rather quickly, he dived into dreamland.

Steve was the only one who had still been awake by now. He had tried to clean his wounds and had thrown away the temporary bandage that was Nancy´s piece of clothing. In a drawer underneath the sink in the bathroom, he had found a first aid kit and had started to put new bandages around his stomach. His wounds thankfully seemed to have stopped bleeding, but the holes, where the bats had sunken their teeth into his skin seemed deep. He was still in pain, he realised now, that his brain wasn´t distracted by other emergencies anymore. He had found a bottle of pain-killers and quickly choked down two of them alongside a glass of water.

When he seemed to be done patching himself up, he staggered into the living room again. Goosebumps made his skin tingle. He was wearing nothing but his dirty pair of sweatpants and the fatigue made him feel even more cold now.

His eyes lingered on Eddie´s vest that he had put down on a chair. For a moment he considered, if the rigid denim would be too uncomfortable to sleep in, but he was too tired to care. He slipped into the vest, overlapping the front, so it might warm him up a bit. Being embraced by the last blanket along with Eddie´s vest made him feel comfortable.
Almost as soon as his head met the pillow, his eyes closed contently and he drifted into sleep. The last thing he had been aware of was the slowly heaving body of Eddie next to him and a subtle but somehow familiar smell that swirled around in his head.

Chapter Text

Eddie was woken up by sunlight, that had flooded the room. He needed a moment to recall where he was and why he was here. He had slept better than he had hoped, the fact that he had slept at all was unbelievable. His brain must have been too overworked to process the night before and develop nightmares.

He seemed to be the first one to have woken up, because it was still quiet around him. Other than breathing, snoring and birds chirping he could hear nothing.
Slowly, he sat up, careful to not make any sound that might wake up the others. His body felt stiff. He had slept in the same position for the whole night. He looked over to the person to his right. Steve had laid down on the mattress next to him, his body turned towards him.

Eddie smiled. He pushed his hair out of his face, which had been plastered onto his cheek by his sleeping position. Then he decided to lay back down, now facing Steve.

He took his time to admire Steve´s face again. Now that it felt like he had all the time in the world to study his features. The early morning sunshine had a similar effect on his face as the orange glimmering particles from the night before, but much stronger. Eddie noticed, that Steve must have cleaned his face before going to sleep, but his hair was still dirty and stringy.

Once again, he had the desire to run his hand through Steve´s hair, tugging the strands behind his ear and tickling the soft skin of his neck. He really had to hold himself back to not give in to this urge and to wake Steve up by it. So, he just adored the view in front of him from afar.

Steve´s lashes rested on his cheeks, his mouth was slightly open and a tiny drop of drool threatened to land on the pillow beneath him. Eddie would have loved to wake him up with a gentle kiss, if they had found themselves in different circumstances. Much different. But hey, he could dream.

Then his eyes wandered down towards Steve´s hands that had clawed into the tip of the blanket, holding it close to his chest. Eddie chuckled softly, as he noticed, that Steve had slept in his denim vest. In fact, Steve had wrapped himself in it. The front pieces of the vest overlapping, hiding the bare chest that was heaving smoothly underneath.

Eddie knew this behaviour all too well. He loved wrapping the blanket around him tightly at night and holding onto a pillow in front of him, to be able to sleep, feeling protected. In his dream-version of waking up with Steve he imagined how they both held onto each other, letting each other know they are safe and loved and cared for. Steve would still wear his vest and Eddie would sleep in one of Steve´s shirts, letting his head rest on his chest, letting him listen to his heartbeat, stroking the back of his head.

Eddie thought, that if Steve ever gave him his jacket back, he would probably never wear it again. He wouldn´t wash it either, even if it was dirty with soil and blood and other body fluids. But he would relish the smell that Steve may have transmitted to the vest and the fact that he had slept in it. He didn´t even know, if he would want to have the vest back. It was his favourite piece of clothing, yes, he had put so much love and time into perfecting it, but he´d rather see it on Steve, if he was being honest. Especially the way he had worn it now, without a shirt underneath. Eddie smirked contently.

Instead of pushing the next thought away, he decided to explore it for a while. Underneath his vest was that other bundle of hair that Eddie wanted to run his fingers through. He imagined, how his hands would wander down from Steve´s neck towards his chest, playing with the curly hair there, being able to feel the warmth that his muscular pecks would emanate. He really enjoyed the thought of this circumspect skin to skin contact. He imagined how honest and special and meaningful it must feel in that moment and once again his fingers tickled. He didn´t go any further down from there (for now, at least).

Actually, he laughed at himself internally, for having these thoughts about Steve. He had never had romantic thoughts about anyone like that before. Sexually, yes, but never that deep and significant. And those feelings usually never lasted longer than a night or two. A few days prior, he would have never thought that he would ever have thoughts like that about Steve Harrington. Not even the sexual ones. He would have declared you the freak if you had told him two days ago that he was now basically drooling and imagining fake scenarios at the sight of Steve just sleeping soundly. But well, a lot had happened in these two days.

Next, he heard a quiet ruffle behind him. He turned around to see that Nancy had escaped Robin´s grip around her body and had sat up. Slowly, Robin shifted next to Nancy and she stroked Robin´s face and arm to wake her up fully.

Eddie had sat up, too, looking at the two girls, not saying anything yet. They seemed to be very comfortable in their closeness, but only when they felt unseen or unjudged. Somehow Eddie admired the way Robin and Nancy treated each other so kindly. He wished, that this treatment between boys wouldn´t be frowned upon so much. That it could just seem like the two boys weren´t actually boyfriends but just two very close platonic friends.

Maybe that´s what gave them more confidence to be close to each other. Because it was more normalized between girls. Eddie found it very weird that men would instantly be called gay for the most absurd reasons and that girls could kiss and tell people that they lived with their girlfriend and sometimes people still would say how good friends or roommates they were. Not that they didn´t face discrimination, too. But still.

It´s a weird world they lived in. Even weirder now.

Soon the ruffling of the bedsheets and blankets had woken up all of them. Stiffly they yawned and stretched and rubbed their eyes free of sleep. It was morning now and light outside, the first neighbors leaving their trailers, unknowing and innocent.

Steve had gotten up, wiped his chin and brushed through his hair a few times with his hand. He had started to pull aside the mattresses and blankets on the floor and the others helped him clear the couches too. Then he took a chair from the dining table and put it in the middle of the room. He waved towards it, looking at Nancy, who then sat down on it.

“Now we can talk”, Steve said, sitting down on the sofa.

Eddie had taken a seat next to him and Erica. Dustin and Max stood, leaning against doorframes, apparently, they couldn´t sit discussing yesterday´s events.

Lucas sat in an empty armchair and Robin sat down on the floor, her back resting against a shelf. She had wrapped her arm around her knees, rocking her body back and forth to stay calm.

Nancy needed a moment before she was able to talk, she had to remember what exactly she had seen and how to put this into words.
She had leaned forwards, resting her elbows on her thighs, holding her head, as she started speaking towards the ground. Her voice sounded hoarse after this long time being quiet.

“He showed me things that haven´t happened yet. The most awful things. I saw a dark cloud spreading over Hawkins. Downtown on fire. Dead soldiers. And this… this giant creature. With a gaping mouth. And this creature wasn´t alone. There were so many monsters. An army. And they were coming into Hawkins. Into our neighborhoods. Our homes. And then…”, her eyes teared up and she wiped the forming tears with her shirt.

“Then he showed me my mom. And Holly. Mike. And they… they were all…”, she stopped.

“Okay, but… he´s just trying to scare you, Nance”, Steve sighed, not sure if he should look up from the floor. “Right? I mean… I mean it´s not real.”

“Not yet”, Nancy whispered. “But there… there was something else. He showed me gates. Four gates. Spreading across Hawkins. And these gates they looked like the one inside Eddie´s trailer, but… they didn´t stop growing. And this wasn´t the Upside Down Hawkins. This was our Hawkins. Our home.”

Quietly everyone took in this information. Folding their hands, biting their nails, shaking their heads.

“Four chimes”, Max broke the silence. “Vecna´s clock. It always chimes four times. Four exactly.”

“I heard them too”, Nancy admitted. Scared, everyone´s eyes went back to her.

“He´s been telling us his plan the whole time”, Max added.

“Four kills”, Lucas started. “Four gates. End of the world.”

“If that´s true… he´s only one kill away”, Dustin stated.

“Oh Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ!”, Eddie mumbled to himself, hiding his face in his hands, tearing his hair.

“Try ´em again. Try ´em again!”, Steve said urgently, looking at Max.

Max immediately turned around to reach the phone typing in Joyce´s phone number. The line was ringing, but nobody picked up.

“Anything?”, Dustin answered after Max had hung up the phone a few times.

“No. Rang a few times, then went to busy signal.”

“Maybe you punched it in wrong. Try again”, Steve commanded.

“I didn´t punch it in wrong!”, Max spat out.

“Well, I don´t know”, Steve sounded disgruntled.

Dustin interfered. “Dude, I think she knows how to use a phone.”

“I´m just saying, she could´ve typed it in wrong.”

“Same shit”, Max said, hanging the phone up again.

“How is that possible?”, Lucas asked.

“I told you Joyce has this telemarketer job”, Dustin explained. “She´s always on the phone. Mike won´t stop whining about it.”

“Okay, yeah, but this phone´s been busy for, what, three days now? That´s not Joyce”, Max sighed. “No way. Something´s wrong.”

Nancy had stood up. “She´s right. It can´t be just a coincidence. It can´t be.” She went to the window behind her chair, looking outside. “Whatever´s happening in Lenora is connected to all of this. I´m sure of it. But Vecna can´t hurt them. Not if he´s dead.”

With a sudden energetic twist, she turned around, her voice sounding determined now.
“We have to go back in there. Back to the Upside Down!”

Now many voices overlapped.

Steve quickly said: “Whoa whoa, no, no, no. What?”

Even Eddie shook his hand and head. “Nope! Nope!”

Steve got up, on his way to make Nancy sit down again. “Let´s think this through!”

“What is there to think through?”, she answered angrily, opposing him.

“We barely made it out of there in one piece”, Steve reminded her.

“Yeah, because we weren´t prepared!”, Nancy stated. “But this time we will be. We´ll get weapons and protection. We´ll go through the gate, we´ll find him in his lair and we´ll kill him!”

“Or he´ll kill us!”, Steve said, trying to be realistic. “The only reason that you survived is because he wanted you to. He´s not scared of us.”

“And for good reason!”, Robin had stood up, filling the spot to Nancy´s other side. “We were wrong about Vecna. Henry. One”, she stuttered. “Sorry, what are we calling him now?”

Everyone answered a different name at once.

“Right”, she said, still confused. “We´ve learned something new about Vecna/Henry/One. He´s a number like Eleven. Only a sick, evil, male, child-murdering version of her with really bad skin. But my… my, my point is, he´s super powerful. He could turn us inside out with a snap of his fingers. It´s not a fair fight!” She had become breathless.

“So then why fight fair?”, Dustin asked with new found conviction. “You´re right, he´s like Eleven. But that gives us an upper hand. We know Eleven´s strengths. And weaknesses.”

“Weaknesses?”, Erica asked unbelieving.

“When El remote-travels, she goes into this sort of trance-like state. But the same is true about Vecna”, Dustin explained excitetly.

“That would explain what he was doing in that attic”, Lucas threw in.

“Exactly!”, Dustin said. “When he attacks his next victim, I´ll bet you he is back in that attic, physical body defenseless.”

“Defenseless?”, Steve wondered about the other´s sense of security. “What about the army of bats?” And to prove his point he pointed at the wounds on his stomach and choke marks around his throat.

“True. We´ll have to find a way past them. Distract them somehow.”

“And, uh how do we do that exactly?”, Eddie said, standing up, trying to become a part of their plan in the making, offering to help in any way.

“No idea”, Dustin admitted and Eddie fell back into the couch again, now even more frustrated. “But once they´re gone, he doesn´t stand a chance. It´ll be like slaying sleeping Dracula in his coffin.”

“That all sounds good in theory, but there is no pattern to Vecna´s killings. At least not one that I can decipher. We don´t know when he´s going to attack next. We don´t even know who he´s going to attack”, Robin explained her point.

“Yeah, we do”, Max said quietly, looking onto the ground, calculating. “I can still feel him. I´m still… marked. Cursed. I ditch Kate Bush, I draw his focus back to me.”

“Max…”, Lucas shook his head in disbelief of her offer. “You can´t. He´ll kill you.”

“I survived before. I can survive again”, she said, more trying to convince herself than the others. “I just need to keep him busy long enough so that you guys can get into that attic. And then you can chop his head off. Stab him in the heart. Blow him up with some explosives Dustin cooks up. I honestly don´t care how we put that asshole in his grave. Just…”, she looked around in the sacred faces turned towards her. “Whatever it is… whatever you do… try not to miss!”

That last part came out so casually, that nobody really knew how to react to that. They chose to look onto the ground or check, what the person next to them did, processing what they would have to implement now.

“Please don´t look at me like that!”, Max said to Lucas. “I don´t want to spend my last hours with you guys being so ropy. We might as well… well, try to stay positive from now on. We can worry later, when we´re actually executing the plan.”

“How can I stay positive with an attitude like yours?”

Max shrugged with her shoulders, looking down again.

“Hey, these are not going to be your last hours. We´ll take care of that!”, Lucas said then, with a calmer voice.

“So… what now?”, Erica asked.

“First of all, we need to get ourselves weapons”, Nancy said. “Anybody an idea?”

“Um… yeah actually!”, Eddie spoke up, trying to sound casual. “I know a store, ah, wait…”

He stood up walking over to the phone, grabbing the telephone book from the kitchen counter. After flipping through the pages for a moment, he slammed the book onto the table and said: “Here!”
The other´s gathered around him, trying to get a look at what he had found.

His fingers pointed onto an announce on the bottom left. In front of the American flag was a man dressed in war paint and uniform, holding a gun, pointing at something to his right. Underneath him there was a banner which held the words “The War Zone”. The text below promised black powder, ammunitions, firearms, accessories and government surplus.

“Check this out”, Eddie said, leaning forward. “The War Zone. I´ve been there once. It´s huge”, he explained, excited to help. “They got everything you need for, uh… well, killing things, basically.”
He looked around, as he spoke, noticing that Steve had gotten very close to his right, his shoulder nudging his a little. As he ended the sentence, he shifted his weight on his feet, bucking his hips into Steve´s direction. To Eddie´s surprise he didn´t move away from the discreet touch.

“You think fake Rambo has enough guns there? Is that a grenade? I mean, how is any of this legal?” Robin asked, not entirely convinced yet.
“Well lucky for us it is, so…”, Eddie said, smiling proudly. “So, this place is just far enough outside of Hawkins. As long as we steer clear of the main roads, we oughta be able to avoid cops and, uh… angry hicks.”

“If we´re trying to avoid angry hicks, maybe we shouldn´t go to a store called the War Zone”, Erica considered.

Dustin pointed at her, agreeing with her point, but Nancy interfered quickly.

“Normally, I´d agree, but we really need the weapons. So, I think it´s worth the risk.”

“Me too”, Lucas joined in.

“But is it worth the time?”, Dustin asked. “It´ll take all day to bike there and back.”

“Who said anything about bikes?”, Eddie asked him.

“What you got some sort of car that we don´t know about?”, Steve questioned Eddie.

Coming back up from his leaning position, Eddie said, a smug grin forming on his lips: “It´s not exactly a car, Steve…”
Steve´s eyes widened, as he noticed how close Eddie´s face was to his now, staring seemingly right into his soul again.

“…it´s not exactly mine, but, uh…”, Eddie took his eyes off of Steve´s, looking around into the other´s faces again. Steve was petrified and couldn´t take his eyes away. “…it´ll do.”

And with that Eddie turned his head towards Steve again, his heart jumping at the sight, that Steve was still looking at him. Eddie´s and everybody else´s eyes on him, Steve became uncomfortable quickly and dragged his eyes towards the table, making it look like he wanted to take another glance at the announce.

Eddie had turned around now, towards Max, who stood apart from the others in a corner of the room.

“Hey, Red, uh you got a ski mask or a bandanna, something like that?”, Eddie asked. “I need to get some stuff out of my trailer, before we can leave and I don´t think that I want to be seen wandering around here in the daylight.”

Max nodded, after making a thoughtful, calculating face. “I do have something, but, uh…”, she said, turning around to search for the thing in her room.

A minute later she handed something hairy and wobbly to Eddie. It was a face mask that looked like Michael Myers. The face white, brown frizzy hair on it, cut open at the eyes and the mouth.

“Well…”, Eddie frowned at the mask in his hand. “Better than nothing, I guess.”

“Hey, Harrington?”, he asked Steve, who could no longer pretend to read through the announces in the telephone book.

“Yeah?”

“Do you wanna come over? I could borrow you some clothes if you want to. Unless you say you rather wanna walk around in that bloody sweatpants and bandages? Y´know, since we´re trying to be low-key… might catch some stares for that”, Eddie suggested, looking him up and down, clarifying his words.

Eddie would love to see Steve in more of his clothes, even if that meant not having him around shirtless anymore. In his head he already pondered what clothes he would give him, how he would like to see him dressed up. Finally making him ditch the hideous jeans and polo-shirt combo.

“S-sure”, Steve answered.

“I wanna come over, too!”, Dustin said. “I haven´t even had the time to explore your room properly. Just had a quick glance at all the D&D stuff there.”

According to Nancy´s look, it wasn´t the time to go explore each other´s rooms now and talk about D&D, but Dustin had already grabbed the doorhandle, waiting for Steve and Eddie to follow him.
Eddie thought that it might not be the best idea to let Dustin have an unrestricted look at his room for several reasons, but it seemed like he couldn´t be persuaded anymore. He slipped the mask on his face, sarcastically mumbling something under his breath that sounded like “this is definitely less noticeable…” and was about to leave.

Steve interrupted them. “Maybe, while we are over there for a few minutes, you guys could gather some food. We will be driving for two hours maybe, we might as well take some breakfast, because I really don´t wanna have to stop and buy some on the way.”

The others agreed.

“Oh, and we´ll need money, like, a lot”, he added.

“I have some saved, I could get it. Y´know it´s actually…”, Eddie looked at the kids. He rather kept the story about him making his money by selling drugs to dudes who had no idea how much they are worth, a secret. “Um, you know… don´t worry about it…” The others looked at him confused.

“I know where my mom keeps some of her savings. I could give it back to her later, this is more important now”, Max said.

“Okay, then let´s go”, Steve said now, urging a bit.

Eddie, Dustin and Steve quickly made their way over to Eddie´s trailer, dodging the police barrier tape and slipped through the door.
Despite the gate at the ceiling, which had regrown its separating barrier overnight, the sunlight coming in through the windows and light curtains gave the trailer a more homely flair. Even though the trailer was messy, it seemed like a cozy place.

Dustin walked around every room, taking in the view, asking questions about all the different mugs and caps on the walls and admired the music and D&D posters in Eddie´s room.
Eddie, who had snug into his room before Dustin could, quickly gathered some items like a full ashtray, some comic magazines that could have passed as porn magazines, a box of condoms and some dirty underwear and stuffed them into a drawer. Even a bottle of lube had quickly been scooped underneath his bed, next to a bra that he had no idea who it belonged to, and one of his toys.
Steve had waited in front of the bathroom, not wanting to sneak a look into Eddie´s room, waiting for him to hand him some clothes.

Eddie, who now searched inside his cupboard for some fresh clothes had decided on a black T-shirt with a white Black Sabbath logo and some bats in the front and on some grey sweatpants, that seemed big enough to fit Steve.
He handed him the pile, staring down at him.

“Do you need some fresh underwear too?”, he asked, his eyebrows arched up.

Before Steve´s embarrassment could start to develop a blush at that question, his free hand slightly pulled the waistband of his pants away from his stomach and down, to check if his boxers were as blood-drained as his sweats. They were.

Eddie didn´t want to stare. But this little movement of Steve´s pants had exposed a small trail of dark hair that wandered downwards from his belly button, ending somewhere beneath the fabric of his bloody boxers.

There it was, Eddie thought. He had found another handful of hair that he wanted to roam and explore with his hands. Only with permission, of course. He had to swallow hard, force his eyes into Steve´s again, to get his answer.

“Um… yeah, that would be great, actually.” “Thanks”, Steve said sheepishly, as Eddie gave him some plain black boxers additionally.

Steve locked himself in the bathroom, quickly changing into Eddie´s clothes. They felt comfortable and even smelled good. Not like weed or cigarettes and sweat, but like freshly-washed. A different smell than his laundry at home, but he liked it. He looked at a square mirror that was put onto the washing machine in the corner. It didn´t look too bad. The clothes fit him well. Normal sweatpants, the shirt wasn´t exactly what he would wear, but he wasn´t picky at the moment.

His eyes landed on Eddie´s denim vest. For a moment, Steve considered if he should wear it on top of the shirt. He didn´t know why he wanted to, he kind of got used to it by now. He might say he was cold, that´s why he wanted to wear it. But it was dirty and smelly by now. Steve ended up deciding against it. He folded his dirty clothes together, the vest on top, leaving the bathroom again.

Eddie had stood there, leaning against the fridge, right in front of the bathroom door, as Steve came out. Immediately Steve´s nose became aware of the smell of cigarettes again, because Eddie had lit himself one. Steve almost would have asked for one too, if Dustin wouldn´t have been here and if they had more time.

Eddie looked tempting, leaning against the fridge with his shoulders, head thrown back, mouth sucking on the cigarette, the smoke enclosing him like his wavy, puffy hair. One of his legs was bend at the knee, stabilising himself with his foot against the metal door.
As soon as Steve had closed the door behind himself, Eddie looked up and at him, squeezing the remains of the cigarette into an ashtray on the counter.

“Not bad, Harrington!”, he said teasingly, but honest. “You should consider changing your style. Or is it the polo shirts that the ladies fancy so much? Not that I know…”

“Thanks…”, Steve answered the first bit flatly, then just putting on a confused look. Was Eddie complementing him or did he want to mock him again? Steve had absolutely no idea when it came to this man.

“I would´ve lend you some shoes as well, but I think they´d be too small for you”, Eddie said, only partly able to suppress the cocky smile that crawled up his lips.

“Ah, man, that´s too bad”, Steve thought. He really didn´t want to walk around barefoot any longer.

“Is it?”, Eddie smiled. Finally, having had the chance to smoke a cigarette, clearing his thoughts, he found himself in a pretty seductive mood. And he loved the effect his words could have on Steve.

“You know what they say about guys with big feet.”

Dustin had come out of Eddie´s room, looking at the two men in front of him.

“What do they say?”, he asked innocently and genuinely interested.

Eddie almost laughed out loud at that question. Steve´s eyes had opened wide at his comment, not being able to hold back the blush any longer.

“Well…”, Eddie started, looking from Steve to Dustin. “They say it means the person has a greeeaaaat personality, yeah…!”

Dustin slowly nodded once, not really trusting Eddie´s amused tone.

“You got a great personality, don´t you, Stevie?”, Eddie winked at Steve, who had lost all of his facial expressions, besides being as red as a tomato. The blush made his cheeks burn with heat and he almost choked on his answer.

“S-s-sure…”, he stuttered.

Dustin looked even more confused now. His gaze flickered between the amused and self-satisfied Eddie and the uncomfortably sweating Steve, not sure what he had just witnessed happening.
Eddie´s hand snapped forward, to give Dustin a slap onto his cap. He pushed the front down into his eyes.

“Don´t gawk like that.”

Before the situation could get any more uncomfortable, Eddie grabbed the little bag that he had picked up from his room and put the mask on again. By the door he said: “We should really go!”

Silently, Steve and Dustin followed him over to Max´ trailer again. Inside, the others had already packed everything they needed for the drive.

Chapter Text

“So… what´s your plan now, Eddie? What car is big enough for all of us? Where is it? How do we get there?”, Nancy asked, looking at a clock. “The store opens at 10, so we might be able to get everything done, before rush hour.”

Eddie explained, that they´d “borrow” a neighbor´s camper. Shutting down any discussions of his plan, he told them to just follow him, he would take care of everything else.

So, all of them sneaked out the back of Max´ trailer, following Eddie in a line, carrying backpacks with food and money. Running slalom in between other campers and trailers, they had soon reached the camper Eddie had chosen.

He gave them instructions, to follow him behind the backside of the car one by one. As he reached it, he pulled open one of the windows in the back, jumping inside, landing on a soft couch.

“Steve next”, he whispered. “Help the others inside.”

Steve jumped in, too. Robin and Nancy helping the kids to reach the window and Steve guiding them inside. Quickly, they all had made it inside, closing the window again, ducking down, to not be seen through the other windows.

Eddie had walked up to the front of the camper, locking the door and letting himself fall into the driver´s seat. Steve had made his way next to him, following Eddie´s hands with interest.
Eddie had reached underneath the dashboard pulling some cables out. Then his right hand reached into his little bag, grabbing some pliers and putting them between his teeth. His hands sorted out the cables, taking the pliers from his mouth again, cutting through two red and a blue one.

Steve´s lips formed into a soft smile, as he studied Eddie´s work. He noticed, that Eddie had poked his tongue out through his lips, a little unconscious behaviour that he always did when he was focused on something. It had happened when he sent the SOS signal to Dustin through the light, or when he watched Nancy drawing the letters and when he climbed up through the gate. Suddenly Steve became aware that the fact that he had observed this a few times already, meant that he had been gawking at Eddie´s lips for way too often now. He shifted his gaze onto Eddie´s precisely working hands again.

Steve leaned closer, looking with a mix of scepsis and admiration. “Where´d you learn how to do this?”

“Well, when all the other dads were teaching their kids how to fish or play ball, my old man was teaching me how to hot-wire.” He took the pliers to get rid of the plastic ends on the cables now, uncovering the copper wires.

Twisting the bare ends, he added: “Now I swore to myself, I wouldn´t wind up like he did, but now I´m wanted for murder, and soon, grand theft auto. So, uh… I´m really living up to that Munson name.” He laughed, looking back at Steve over his shoulder. Steve gave him a quick look of approval.

Robin had arrived at the front, pressing onto Steve´s back, pushing him even further forward, so he was now trapped between Eddie and Robin.

“Uh, Eddie, I´m not sure if I love the idea of you driving”, she admitted, slightly concerned. Steve opened his mouth, as if he wanted to say something to that, remembering that this was a good objection, but Eddie answered swiftly.

“Oh, I´m just starting this sucker. Harrington´s got her.” Steve´s and Eddie´s eyes met again, Eddie smiling so much, that his dimples showed again, eyes narrowed a bit.

Steve´s heart skipped a beat as Eddie´s face came even closer to his, almost whispering seductively.

“Don´t ya, big boy?” His pointer finger brushed alongside Steve´s jawline, reaching the underside of his chin with a luring movement.

Steve´s eyes widened again, lips pursed, before parting, completely frozen in time. Eddie had already turned around and focused on his work again, but Steve´s eyes were glued onto the dashboard, his vision becoming blurry.

The touch of Eddie´s warm hand against his skin had lit up the heat inside of him again, that admittedly, had never been fully extinguished since the first time Eddie had touched him accidently in the woods. And suddenly, the thick walls that Steve had built up inside his brain, knowingly and unknowingly had been scattered by one single tiny gesture.
He found himself in the ruins of those brick walls, that his brain had to cross doing the greatest mental gymnastics at times. The former neatly composed puzzle pieces flew around in his head like a snowstorm.

And now a thought slowly crept out of the dark parts of Steve´s brain into the lightened ones, no longer held back by any blockages. A thought that he couldn´t fully comprehend yet, but it constricted his throat and filled him with bare fear.

His heartbeat pumped wild inside his ears. It had been Eddie all along! Steve knew it wasn´t just the remains of his feelings for Nancy. It wasn´t just that Eddie had some attributes that he found attractive in women. It wasn´t just his weakened ego or his jealousy or the desire to compete.

It was Eddie all along! His beautiful, wavy hair, that framed his face, so in tone with his big brown doe eyes and full lashes. His smile that sent shivers through Steve, his cute dimples and those plush, pink lips that he wanted to know how they´d feel on his. Even Eddie´s figure, his broad shoulders, but narrow waist, his firm-looking butt, his warm and soft and slender hands, even his smell that had captured Steve more than once.

Somehow this knowledge had been in his mind already, recognizing all the feelings that he´d had, but there seemed to have been a missing connection. Suddenly everything made sense. And if only for this moment.

This realization and the fear that had come with it would have made Steve sick with panic, if he didn´t know how much he liked it when Eddie was gazing at him, close to him, flirting with him. And Steve was, like, a hundred percent sure now that Eddie was flirting with him and not mocking.

No, but this could not be, not really. He- he wasn´t actually… gay. He had always liked girls. Girls in every way possible. He was definitely straight! There was no chance! That thought came soared up from in between the debris.
But his newfound sense of freedom and ease didn´t give it a voice. Instead, the only tangible thing left was the wish to explore, to chase these euphoric feelings, to take initiative.

A sudden vibration beneath his feet, paired with dull knocks and screams to his right, made Steve´s eyes focus again. His head twitched around. In less than a second, he became aware of his situation again. Eddie had managed to start the motor of the camper, that must have alarmed the owners, who now screamed at them through the windows, pulling on the locked door.

Eddie smiled like a little kid in front of Steve. He took in Steve´s confused and overwhelmed expression, waiting for him to take the lead. Steve pulled himself together, immediately, urging Eddie out of the driver´s seat.

“It´s just a car”, he told himself, finding his place. “Everybody, hang onto something!”, he screamed at the others in the back.

With shaking hands, he pushed the gearshift into drive, pressing down onto the gas pedal. Behind him, everybody´s shouts overlapped.

A little jolt told Steve, that the tent, that had been attached to the side of the camper, was torn of.

“Hold on! Hold on!”, he shouted several times, trying to dodge trash bins and other trailers.

Finally, having arrived on the even and tarred street, he gained control over the camper, not yet going off the gas, in case they were being followed.

After some time, realizing nobody followed them, calmness called in inside the camper. In the back Nancy and Robin had provided everyone with some cornflakes and milk and additionally leftover candy bars. The passenger seat was still empty, therefore the sofa and the benches around the little dining table were taken.

Eddie stood up, walking up to the empty seat in the front.

“Can I sit here?”, he asked cautiously. He didn´t want Steve to be all alone here driving them while everyone was busy eating. But he also didn´t want to annoy Steve with his presence, if he rather wanted to drive in quiet.

“Yeah, of course, man, sit down!”, Steve said happily.

Eddie sat down, looking around between Steve driving in his clothes and the street in front of him. He didn´t quite know what to say, so he just focused on keeping his mouth full with cereal.

It was a nice silence between them. Just each other´s company seemed to be good enough for now, no words needed, just having the time to dwell on one´s thoughts.

After some time, Eddie had finished his little meal, slurping the remaining milk out of the bowl.

“How´s it handle?”, Eddie asked, his voice sounding louder than he thought after this silence. He tried to sound casual, to not force conversation onto Steve, waiting for how he´d react.

“Not half bad”, Steve answered, looking at Eddie. “Considering that this is a… house.”

Eddie chuckled and so did Steve. They exchanged a few shy looks, not really knowing what to say next.

“I´m sorry, actually, that I couldn´t borrow you any shoes, dude. Sucks to drive like this, doesn’t it?”, Eddie said, wanting to somehow keep talking to Steve.

“Oh… don´t worry, it´s okay. I´m gonna find some at the store”, Steve said.

“Okay…”, Eddie was unsure about his next words, but he wanted to say them, wanting to ease some tension that his flirting earlier might have created.

“And I´m sorry, if I kind of made you feel uncomfortable earlier, y´know…”

“Oh… oh no, you didn´t”, Steve answered trying to sound cool. “Was just, a bit… I don´t know… uh, unexpected, I guess…?”, he added with a chuckle.

Eddie laughed a bit with him. Okay… so Steve at least acknowledged that he was flirting with him.

“…Because you are usually the one who´s initiating the flirting?”, Eddie teased. His mouth was quicker than he could hold it back. Damn, he just couldn´t help himself around Steve. He didn´t want to create a new uncomfortable situation. But Steve answered with just of a teasingly whisper.

“Maybe, yeah. And because usually the flirting doesn´t really get me like that…”

Eddie felt like he might explode. He felt so hot and flustered inside, that he didn´t know how to give a snarky remark back. Eddie always had the last words. Checkmate! Steve was flirting back! He would have only dreamed of that.

For a few minutes there was an awkward silence between the two, each listening to their thoughts again.

“It´s kinda funny, actually… more, like, silly rather… but… I´ve always had this dream, sort of…”, Steve began speaking after a while, waiting for an encouraging look from Eddie.
Eddie turned his head around to face him, nodding, his big eyes focused on what´s to come.

“… that I´d have this, like, really big family… I´m talking like a full brood of Harringtons. Like five, six kids.”

“Six kids? Jesus, Harrington!”, Eddie laughed. But it wasn´t a laugh to make fun of Steve, it was to show his surprise. Steve sighed, with a guilty smile.

“Yeah. Six little nuggets. Three girls, three boys.” Steve kept his eyes focused on the street, his brain floating in this dream, but his head was still halfway turned towards Eddie.
Steve laughed. “And… and every summer, I figured all of us Harringtons we would pack into something like this…”, his hand gestured around the camper, “and just see the country…”

Eddie´s gaze lingered on Steve´s face, completely drawn in by him pouring his heart out. Eddie reckoned that this was the first time, that Steve ever told someone about this dream of his and Eddie didn´t quite know how to feel about this honour of being that someone.

“… You know, just show them all the great places. The Rockies, Grand Canyon, maybe Yellowstone. End up in some beachside town in California. Spend a week parked in the sand. Learn how to surf or something…”

“That sounds beautiful”, Eddie said honestly, his voice low. He found it adorable, how Steve had dreams like that for his future. And him having a realistic chance of his dreams coming true one day. But something inside him, maybe the jealousy, made him feel upset. Was this Steve´s way of rejecting him? Telling him how he wants to find a wife to live out his dream?

Steve looked him deep in the eyes. “Yeah, does it?”, he said dreamily.

Tenderly, Eddie answered back. “Yeah!” He noticed how Steve´s eyes wandered down towards his lips once, before quickly finding their way back up again.
He didn´t know how to handle this tension between them. It wrapped around him, pulled him in, he felt like he could cut the air with a knife. He decided to lighten it up with some laughter again.

“Well, uh, except for the part with the six kids. Don´t know if that´s always gonna be such a dream…”, he laughed.

“If only I had some practice…”, Steve laughed with him, gesturing towards the kids in the back.

“All right, fair. Gotta admit, you´re really a great babysitter, Harrington!”, Eddie admitted.

Their eyes found each other again. Both still smiling.

“You know, you can just call me Steve, Munson!”, Steve insisted.

“Okay… Steve”, Eddie breathed. Calling someone by his name had never felt more intimate than now. He almost started blushing. Quickly, he turned his eyes away, fiddling with his rings and fondling a strand of hair in front of his face.

“No, but sometimes… I don´t know, sometimes I think I´d be a terrible dad…”, Steve said, the atmosphere suddenly shifting again.

“Why´s that?”, Eddie asked irritated.

“You know, my dad, both of my parents, they never really cared much about me. I was alone for the most part of my teenage years and… I mean not that it was better when I was a child… but, sometimes I think that´s why I care so much about other people… that they feel cared for and not so alone… and I´m just scared that once I´d have my own kids… that I´d just, kind of… fail… at being there for them and… just screw everything…”

There was a short pause between his sentences, but Eddie didn´t want to say something yet, feeling like there was more that Steve wanted to say.

“I´m just scared that I´d end up like my parents. Having kids that I don´t care for, being better off with a divorce but for whatever reason not pulling through on that… and…”

“I know that feeling…”, Eddie said, quietly.

“Really?”, Steve answered quickly. He had never hoped that someone would understand what he was going through.

“Yeah… I mean, I live with my uncle since… yeah it´s been a few years now…”, Eddie began. He didn´t know how much he could or should or wanted to say, once Steve knew, there was no taking it back.
“… my parents never cared shit about me, either. My dad, I probably mentioned something earlier… yeah, well last time I saw him, he was in jail and still had some years ahead. I don´t even know what he´s up to now. And my mom, well she couldn´t care for me, because… I mean, she couldn´t even take care of herself. She became an addict… and I ended up having to care for myself and for her, too. Until… until they took me away from her. She… she ended up overdosing herself… and that´s how she…”

Eddie didn´t take his eyes off of his rings, that he twisted around his fingers. He didn´t want to look at Steve, didn´t want to see his pitiful face or worse, seeing a repulsive look on him.

“Shit”, Steve said, quietly, having to process everything that Eddie just said. He had already thought that Eddie might have had some problems with his parents, might have had a rough childhood. But definitely not like that. And here was Steve, complaining about his parents, when compared to Eddie he had a pretty good time.

“I´m really sorry to hear that, Eddie.”

Eddie took a long breath. “Yeah, don´t be”, he laughed uncomfortably, “s´not your fault.”

The silence that now wrapped around them was no longer comfortable, it was a weight on their shoulders, making it hard to breathe.

“What I was trying to say is… your worries are not unjustified. I feel the same. I´d rather have no kids, instead of having some who end up suffering the same way. That kind of goes on from generation to generation. I´d rather break that cycle”, Eddie finished his thoughts, knowing that Steve understood them.

Steve nodded. Wow, he had never felt so understood. He would have never thought that he would ever have such a deep and personal conversation with anyone. And definitely not with Eddie Munson! But he was glad that he did now, glad that it was Eddie he was talking to. Even if the whole topic brought up an uncomfortable tension, talking to Eddie now felt so natural and easy. He didn´t feel like he needed to be someone he´s not and he felt completely unjudged by him.

Steve felt as easy as the camper, floating on the street that raised and lowered, gliding through the curves. His eyes landed on Eddie as often as they could, his body relaxing, as he finally allowed all these beautiful, tingly feelings to flow through his mind. Maybe this really was the connection that he had been looking for this whole time.

Eddie had completely turned around in his seat, his head resting on the headrest, knees pulled upwards, eyes resting on Steve. Steve in his clothes. Steve so close to him. Steve, who turned around to face him every so often. Steve, giving him soft smiles, whenever he met his gaze. Just Steve in all his yet to be explored beauty.

“Let´s change”, Eddie´s voice shook them both awake. “Let me drive. You should take a break. And you should really eat!”, he urged.

Steve smiled, that Eddie cared for him that much. At the next possible halt, he stopped the car and stretched his body. He gladly took the bowl with cereal and the chocolate bar from Eddie and got comfortable in the passenger seat. In the back, he had noticed, were Max and Lucas, quietly talking on the little couch. Nancy and Robin sat next to each other at the table, Nancy´s head resting on Robin´s shoulder, both having their eyes closed. Dustin and Erica found themselves in a quiet, but heated discussion, drawing on some papers.

Next to Steve, Eddie had taken place in the driver´s seat, bringing movement into the camper again. Against what Steve had feared, Eddie drove very gently and carefully.

“To come back to our topic…”, Eddie said, looking at Steve eating his cereal. “… I mean, if that brings you any comfort… just look around. I think everything you wish for is already here.” Eddie´s shoulders twitched and he grinned at Steve.

“Kids in the back, driving a fancy camper, on our way to see the coolest army supply store out of Hawkins… yeah okay, the circumstances could be a bit better, but it´s close…”, Eddie added theatrical.

Steve laughed so genuinely, like he hadn´t in many days. He almost would have teared up at that statement. He took a deep breath, nodding at Eddie´s heartfelt words. Because it was true. As he looked around, he found himself surrounded by his best friends, people that he cared for and people that cared for him. He felt right, here. He felt home. At home, like he had never felt at his parent´s house, no matter what he had tried. And he realized, that he didn´t need a wife and six kids, not a great job and no big house to be happy. He needed this!

“Eddie…”, he just whispered, blinking slowly, his gaze wandering down onto Eddie´s lips, seeing the tip of his tongue dart out to dampen them. Wow… when had been the last time that Steve had felt butterflies like this, the last time he wanted to kiss someone this badly, when had been the last time he hesitated? But he had reasons to hesitate this time. Eddie was driving, and everyone in the back could see them. Maybe Eddie didn´t want Steve to kiss him, maybe he should wait until both figured themselves out a bit more…? He didn´t want to ruin whatever was growing between them now, by going too hard too fast. He didn´t even know if he wanted to kiss Eddie already. All these feelings were still somehow new to him. He wanted this to last. He wanted to take his time, for once.

Steve´s eyes landed on Eddies hand, that had rested on the gearshift the whole time. This time the signal that his brain sent out arrived in his hand and he lifted it slowly, glancing backwards quickly, to see if anyone would notice, and put his hand onto Eddie´s.

The second that both of their hands connected, the world seemed to stop spinning. The relieve both of them felt was otherworldly, as if everything that ever happened had the sole intention to lead to this exact moment.

Steve could feel the warmth of Eddie´s skin flooding his body again. Only this time he relished the feeling, stroking Eddie´s soft skin with his thumb, even exploring the shape of his rings with the other fingers.

Steve´s hand was cold on top of Eddie´s, but it was a beautiful contrast to his warm skin. It cooled Eddie down, who really had to concentrate on the road in front of him now. He didn´t dare move his hand, wanting this gentle caress to last forever. Even though their bodies were connected at one spot only, the feelings caused by this connection topped every emotion that he had imagined to feel in his dreams this morning.

Chapter Text

The rest of the drive was quiet again, the comfortable atmosphere had made them forget what mission they actually found themselves on.

Once the camper was parked next to other cars and trucks in front of the army store, the old known tension came back to them. This was only incited by how many people were already here, loading weapons into their cars, crowding the place.
Dustin and Lucas had agreed to wait inside the camper with Eddie, who couldn´t go outside.

Erica and Dustin, who had been planning on some weapons to build and what else they would need in order to be prepared for a fight, showed the others their ideas.
On different papers there were drawings of wooden sticks with knifes attached to the ends, trash bin lids with nails slammed into them to attack the bats (inspired by Steve´s bat) and bottles with gasoline and cloths to fire onto Vecna.

Briefly they build teams who would focus on different things to buy. Erica and Max would search for nails, hammers, knifes and sticks. Robin and Steve said, they would get everything needed for the explosives and would also look out for some stealthy and protective clothes. Nancy headed out for her own mission. She wanted to buy a big gun and enough ammunition.

As soon as they stepped inside, they saw just how overstocked the store was. The aisles were full with people and filled shopping carts. People were discussing which guns were the best and what they needed most in case of the end of the world.

Eddie really hadn´t exaggerated. This store really offered everything one could dream of in need of weapons to prepare for the apocalypse.

Quickly, the teams split up, wanting to grab everything as quickly as possible before running into someone they knew or being asked weird questions. But between all the other people there, them buying knifes, guns and many containers of gasoline didn´t seem to bother anyone.

Steve had reached the corner of the store that offered any type of uniform and body armor. He strolled through the shelves and clothing hangers, grabbing camouflaging army jackets, vests and gloves. Inside of a little changing room, he reluctantly slipped out of Eddie´s sweatpants, putting on a pair of trousers made out of strong material with lots of pockets at the sides. They weren't as comfortable as the soft pants Eddie had given him, but still stretchy enough so he could move swiftly. Then Eddie´s Black Sabbath shirt was overdrawn with a thick jacket. Steve added a pair of socks and dark, durable boots and his look was complete.

He looked at himself in the mirror. He looked good, he thought. If he showed up to school like this, all the girls would have swooned over him in this uniform. Hopefully Eddie would feel the same, when he saw him, noticing that Steve had chosen to keep his shirt on underneath.

Opening the curtain, that had shielded him from the other customer´s views, he put the other clothes he had picked up into his shopping cart. Eddie would fit into the jacket that Steve fit into, and he thought to have picked the right size for Dustin, too.

Robin came around the corner with her shopping cart, full with clothes she had picked out for Nancy and herself. She waved Steve over to a shelf with more inflammable liquids.
“How many of these do you think we need?”, she asked, reading the description on the container.

“Like five or six, at least”, Steve answered, grabbing several bottles, loading them into the cart.

Robin still held her container in her hands and just as Steve wanted to grab it from her to put it down, he noticed that her eyes no longer fixated the words. She stared away from him, off into the distance.
Steve tried to follow the direction of her look, landing in another corner of the store on the backside of a head with flaming red, short hair.

“Vickie”, Robin whispered.

Vickie stood with her back towards the two in front of a turn around bracket, flipping through some little packages with sale stickers on them.

Steve´s eyes wandered back to Robin´s face, studying her expression. Her face looked dreamy but frozen. Steve didn´t know for sure what went on inside her mind, he didn´t know what had happened between Robin and Nancy and how Robin´s feelings for Vickie might have changed. But maybe he could find out, asking subtle questions, letting Robin decide what she wanted to tell him, giving her time.

“What are you gonna do Robin? Just stand here and gawk at her?”, he couldn´t quite supress his teasing tone.

“Shut up”, Robin said, her eyes pulled away from Vickie, landing on their supplies. But then her head moved upwards again, taking another, almost agonized look at Vickie.

“Yeah, maybe that´s just what I´m gonna do…”, Robin said quietly. Steve couldn´t tell what feelings lingered behind her tone, but it seemed to be a lot of conflicting ones.

Robin startled next to him, but she didn´t pull her eyes off of the view in front of them. Steve wanted to see what had caused Robin to frighten all of a sudden and saw Vickie, now in the arms of a tall and lean, blond guy in a polo-shirt and sporty jacket. Steve recognized him from his school years. Their faces were close and they seemed to be talking. Or flirting, because suddenly, the guy pulled Vickie closer and kissed her profoundly.

They stayed conjoined like that for longer that it seemed appropriate in this public setting.

Steve could only finally pull his eyes off of them, as he noticed, that Robin had grabbed the shopping cart next to him, strutting away quickly. In the last second that she had still stood next to him, Vickie´s gaze had met hers. But before she could smile or wave at her, Robin was gone.

Steve followed her, assessing if Robin was in the mood to talk about this, letting her emotions out or if she just wanted to remain silent.

“Robin…”, he said finally, patting her arm comfortingly.

Robin looked up at him with an annoyed and frustrated face.

“Steve… don´t!”

“I wasn´t…”, Steve didn´t even know what Robin thought he wanted to say. Convince her that the kiss must have been completely platonic?

“Well… I should have known. And you should have known, too. There is the final evidence and only proof I need.” She moved her hands all over the place before letting them fall down her sides again with a shaky sigh.

Steve wasn´t entirely sure, but he could have sworn Robin sounded less disappointed and more… relieved now? Because now she knew she was right from the beginning and didn´t need to hold on to the little hopes anymore that she had had? Finally having proof that any approach would have been in vain. Well, actually, Steve had always thrown his theories about Vickie liking girls at her. Robin had been the more realistic one the whole time.

But still he felt sorry for her. For having another failed romance before it could have even started. But then he remembered Nancy. Maybe Robin felt torn apart between these two girls. Maybe she still had feelings for Vickie, now knowing that they would never be reciprocated and at the same time having gotten close with Nancy but still being unsure about her feelings and how earnest it would get between them. Fearing the same completion happening over and over. Always being disappointed.

If Steve was right, then Robin found himself in quite a similar situation as he did. He definitely needed to find the time to have an undisturbed deep talk with her again. But considering their current situation, that would have to wait. If they´d ever be given the opportunity for such a talk after their fight against Vecna.

Compared to this suicide mission, the fulfilment of their love lives sounded ridiculous.

Robin stayed quiet for the rest of the time, that they were running errands. As soon as they checked their list and made clear they had everything they needed, the groups came together again.
Quickly, the teams showed each other what they had found, but Nancy interrupted them, urging them towards the checkout.

“Jason and his gang are here! We need to go. Now!”

Panicking, they searched for Jason and his friends around the store, making sure they wouldn´t follow them leaving the store and seeing their camper, or worse, seeing them with Eddie.

Max and Erica made sure to load the items onto the cashier counter, ignoring the weird looks of the cashier and Nancy and Robin quickly put everything in strong plastic bags, ready to leave.
Luckily Eddie and Max had gathered enough money, because the five shopping carts were loaded with expensive goods. Steve took a handful of bank notes out of Eddie´s little bag, counted roughly and pressed them into the waiting hand of the cashier.

“Here you go”, he said shortly, grabbing his cart and walking away, before he could take any change.

Outside, they had to slither trough a mass of people and cars, keeping their faces turned downwards to avoid conversation. Out of breath they reached the offside parked camper again, ripping open the door, scaring the left three inside.

“We gotta go!”, Steve said, pushing his bag into Eddie´s arms, immediately jumping into the driver´s seat again.

The other four followed him, quickly shutting the door and stowing the bags, explaining what had happened inside the store.

As they pulled out of the parking lot, Steve saw Jason and his gang load their items into his car. Jason´s eyes met his intensely. Did he know that Eddie was hiding with Steve and the others? Judging by his look, yes. So, Steve pushed down onto the gas, trying his best to get out of their view, before they could follow them, because Jason´s car seemed to be able to easily catch up with the old camper.

Chapter Text

This time, the passenger seat stayed empty.
Nancy and Robin had made everybody gather around the table in the back, working on their final plan to defeat Vecna.

In theory all of it seemed easy, each phase of the plan preparing the next. Max and Lucas would go inside Vecna´s house, luring him in, waiting for his attack. Erica would stay positioned on the playground outside the house to tell Nancy, Robin and Steve inside the Upside Down when to get ready. In the meantime, Dustin and Eddie would stay at Eddie´s trailer, securing it for the bats´ attack, that would follow. On top of his trailer, they would set up loudspeakers, connected to his electric guitar.
Eddie would play some heavy metal music to draw away the bats from Vecna´s house in the Upside Down, so that Nancy, Robin and Steve could get inside. Then, they could hopefully slaughter Vecna in his trance, without having to fight against him, just in time to save Max.

Now the only thing left to do was preparing all of their weapons. Dustin and Eddie would equip themselves with the knifes and self-made nail-shields, Nancy had her gun and Robin and Steve would carry the explosives.

They agreed to find a quiet and empty space somewhere off the road to prepare everything. Soon Steve drove the camper along some muddy trails in between meadows and trees, stopping far enough away from the road, where nobody would accidently find them.

Once the camper was parked and the motor stilled, the kids were the first to step outside the camper, grabbing the bags and examining the bought items.

Eddie stood up from where he had sat during the drive, looking through the windows, if somebody beside the kids was walking around outside. He and Steve were the last ones inside the camper.

Steve got up, now standing in front of Eddie by the door, stretching his arms above his head and moving his sore neck around.

Eddie noticed how his shirt on Steve lifted and exposed a tiny line of skin between his bandages and the hem of his trousers. His eyes wandered down Steve´s long, muscular-looking legs onto the boots he had bought. They were big and chunky and completed this whole uniform look. Steve must have been at least another inch taller in those shoes and with him in this upwards stretched position he looked outright massive.

For a second, the image of Steve grabbing Eddie by his hips whirred through his mind, shoving him backwards, pressing him against the wall. One of Steve´s strong hands held both of Eddie´s wrists tied above his head, his other hand grabbing onto his neck. Steve stared down at him with big eyes, full of desire, holding his head in place for his lips to crash onto Eddie´s.

Eddie swallowed, clearing his throat as he tried to shake that thought away as quickly as it had come. Since when did he want to be manhandled like this? Usually, he was the one in charge, pushing someone into a wall, devouring their body.

But well, men in uniforms had always made him weak in the knees. Especially when they were a few inches taller than him, staring down at him with a lustful gaze. The imagination, that he could seduce the other into doing this to him, made him hot. That he was the one pulling the strings after all.

Steve had looked at Eddie, wondering why he hadn´t gotten outside yet. With a swift motion of his hand, he showed him to go first.

“What a gentleman”, Eddie said teasingly, with a nod in Steve´s direction.

He even went further to grab Steve´s hand, letting him guide him a step closer towards the door. His first instinct whenever he felt flustered around Steve was to throw a cocky remark at him. He didn´t have a fight or flight instinct, but rather a fight or flirt one.

“For you always, Milord”, Steve chuckled with a little curtsy.

He almost whined as Eddie´s fingertips glided over his palm. He could feel the roughened tips, probably a consequence of him playing the guitar for years. He couldn´t help but wonder how Eddie´s fingers would feel on other parts of his body.

Eddie still made him feel all tingly inside, but now Steve was ready to flirt back and add to the tension between them. It felt so much more natural now, almost as easy as flirting with girls, despite this back and forth of their power dynamic being something new to Steve. All the years before, the girls had been turned on by his flirting, but they had never flirted back so intensely. Nothing a girl had ever done had made Steve feel as shaky and squirmy as Eddie´s words or looks. He loved everything about this. Even more the fact, that he could have the same effect on Eddie now, stripping him of his cock-sureness.

As both stepped onto the long, green grass they locked eyes again. Suddenly surrounded by everyone else again, shyness took over.

“I think I´m going to go find Dustin and prepare our shields”, Eddie suggested, fiddling with his rings again.

“Um, yeah… I´ll be here with Robin…uh, preparing our stuff”, Steve answered, gesturing around.

The group had split into little teams again. Max helped Nancy with some adjustments on her new gun and Erica and Lucas added the knifes onto the wooden sticks.
Robin had sorted out everything by the door of the camper, sitting down on a little box. Steve sat down next to her.

The first few minutes were quiet between them, Steve handing Robin empty glass bottles to fill with gasoline and a piece of fabric.

Both of them wanted to talk to the other about what had happened in the last few days, but neither really knew how or where to start.
Steve thought he might try comforting Robin again, for what they had just seen at the store.

“It just doesn´t make sense…”, he started casually.

“What doesn´t make sense?”, Robin asked confusedly.

“That was Dan Shelter. At the store. He graduated, like, two years ago.”

“So?”

“So he´s in college. Which means he was visiting on spring break. Fast Times was returned, like, I don´t know, a week ago? Right? Unless she´s got some horndog brother we don´t know about. Which is possible. Or she´s just really into Judge Reinhold… Nah”

Robin rolled her eyes at Steve´s monologue, once again trying to convince her that Vickie might not be straight.

“Steve!”

“What?”

“I don´t care about Vickie anymore! And I don´t understand why you still do, with everything that´s going on and the undeniable proof that we just became witnesses of.”

“Yeah… I mean I get you there, but… I still have hope”, Steve mumbled.

Robin shook her head amusedly by Steve´s stoic optimism.

“Not everything has a happy ending”, she added.

“Yeah, yeah… believe me, I know”, Steve answered after a while.

His gaze started wandering along the meadow, gliding over to Nancy and eventually landing on Eddie in the distance. His shoulders dropped and his lips pursed in helplessness.
Robin followed his eyes, chuckling quietly, as she noticed who Steve was gazing at.

Suddenly, Robin disturbed their momentary silence, staring at Steve with big eyes that demanded to hear nothing but the truth.

“So… what is going on between you and Eddie?”, she blurted out energetically.

Steve´s eyes widened in panic, jumping back to Robin. Shit! Had they been that obvious? He turned around, if anyone had overheard Robin´s question, but luckily everybody looked occupied.
He wanted to answer, but honestly, he himself didn´t even understand what had happened.

Robin stayed persistent, as she got no answer. “Steve, I know you. I have been working with you long enough and regrettably have been present enough times when you have flirted with literally every girl-customer, that I memorized every single move of you. You are flirting with Eddie Munson!”, she determined.

“I… I… am not flirting with him… I…”, Steve stuttered. It wasn´t that he was scared to admit it, not in front of Robin, but something inside him seemed to hold him back. As if saying it out loud would make it scary again and would drown him in consequences.

“Well, he certainly is! …Steve…”, Robin said quietly, trying to comfort him. She didn´t want to make it sound like she accused him of something, she was just so excited, to maybe share some of her gay knowledge with Steve. Helping him figure things out. But she didn´t want to force him to tell her anything. Just making sure, he knows that he could always talk to her, whenever he was ready.

“I just said I noticed. But I can be wrong, of course. Sorry, I didn´t want to assume anything…”

“No… you´re right, actually”, Steve sighed, but he started smiling really quickly, as he saw Robin giggle next to him, clapping her hands in excitement.

“Oh my god! Really? I knew it! I knew it! Tell me everything!”

That was exactly what Steve loved so much about Robin. She was always so excited about everything and loved to listen to his stories. She was always happy for everyone around her, even though she rarely had something similarly great happen to her.

“Okay, but only when you tell me what´s going on between you and Nancy”, Steve demanded jokingly.

Robin was silent, immediately. Her look landed on Nancy to her right, a blush spreading across her cheeks.

“Okay. Promise.”

Steve started to explain everything from the very beginning. From how Eddie originally annoyed him and made him feel awkward all the time to thinking maybe he wasn´t as bad as everyone always said, to his weird out of body experience that was caused by their hands accidently touching. All the way to how Steve had found literally any justification for his feelings, telling himself that it was because Eddie reminded him of Nancy, because he couldn´t find a girlfriend and because he was scared of his future if things kept going south like this. He told her about the many looks between them, the shoulder-touching, Eddie constantly flirting with him and how that made him feel and then told her about their heartfelt talk about their fears in the camper this morning.

“I saw you holding hands, actually”, Robin admitted, smiling. “Was very cute!”

Steve grinned contently, thinking back about Eddie´s warm and soft skin underneath his hand and all the swirly feelings that gave him.

“And you know, earlier, when he touched my neck…” Steve took a deep breath.

“Oh yeah… still can´t believe I had to witness that”, Robin laughed. “But it was funny, seeing you so star-struck!”

Steve gave her a look that was the perfect mixture between annoyed and embarrassed.

“I don´t know, that completely, like, shattered everything inside me. I don´t know what happened, but it was like a tsunami crashing over me, it made me feel this heat inside again, but at the same time I had goosebumps all over my body and my heart was beating like crazy… I mean at first, I was so creeped out by Eddie being such a close talker all the time, because it made me feel so uncomfortable having his face practically in mine and his eyes staring right up into my soul. But now I think I know why I felt like this. I just couldn´t pinpoint this feeling. And now, I mean… I kinda really like it when he´s so close to me. It feels… so good now, somehow.”

Robin´s smile grew even bigger. “Yep!”, she said, popping the p. With an even prouder smile she added: “I think you´ve just had your bisexual awakening, Dingus!”

“My what?”, Steve said horrified.

“Bisexual awak- wait you… do you even know what bisexual means?”, Robin asked. She had told him a few things about being gay, her struggles, how she found out she was a lesbian, what prejudices were awfully wrong and which were kind of true, what words to never use again, but she hadn´t talked about any other sexualities with him.

Steve shook his head, his face showing that he still had to process that there seemed to be more options than being just straight or gay.

“Bisexual is someone who is attracted to girls and boys. Or rather women and men, in our age now. You know, some people are attracted to both, so they might date women and then a man and then a woman again. Whoever you fall for, really.”

“That´s a thing?”, Steve asked with a tone, as if he had just learned, that aliens, monsters and different dimensions existed. He always felt like nothing could surprise him anymore after all of that, but hearing that there is a word for his feelings, adding to the fact that this meant he might not be heterosexual, really flashed him.

“Yeah! Very much so!”, Robin answered. “Isn´t this kinda how you feel?”

“I don´t know actually. This is all so new to me. I mean, yesterday I would have sworn on my life that I´m straight. And today… I mean, I can´t be gay, for sure. I love women. You know that. Remember our boobies-talk?”

“Yeah”, Robin laughed.

“See, I love boobies, I was always attracted to women and now I have feelings for a guy? Okay, a guy with long hair and some kinda feminine features, I guess, but who´s somehow also so masculine in a way… I don´t know, Robin. What if I´m just making all this up in my head. What if I just like the attention Eddie gives me?”

“I mean, I at least, knew very much that I´m not attracted to guys, but it still took me a long time to really figure out what that means to me and to accept that. Everybody has to figure that out for themselves. But if you ask me, I think it might just be a good idea if you try something new. Since it doesn´t seem to feel right with the girls at the moment. And you were never shy with trying a new option before. So why not just make your own, new experiences? You know, you don´t have to label yourself, or anything yet, maybe just try and see. You can go as far as you feel comfortable and do whatever feels right to you. And when you feel like something is too much, then don´t force yourself into it.”

Steve listened to Robin´s advice. She was probably right.

With girls he had never waited long to either end things with them or jump directly onto the next. He rarely waited for the right time to do anything, it rather became repetitive habit, what he did in which order and where it would lead him. It no longer felt special, it was just what he needed to do to reach his temporary goals. Or that´s what he thought. But with Eddie it felt so much more sincere and exciting than ever before. This time he didn´t know what to do or when to do, and he never knew where it would lead him.

And even if Steve thought he knew what step might come next, he didn´t want to rush this time. Another reason might be, that Steve sometimes felt like his brain had completely forgotten how to flirt. Eddie made him feel like he was flirting for the first time in middle school, like a virgin touched for the very first time. Every imprinted ritual in his head seemed to leave him within Eddie´s proximity.

“But what if I figure out in the end, that I don´t really like Eddie and that I´ve just made everything up and I hurt him.”

For the first time, Steve felt really scared. The whole situation felt so scary all of a sudden. He didn´t know, if he really rather wanted to find out that he was straight and had been all the time or find out that his whole life was a lie and would from now on never be the same again.

Because figuring out that he wasn´t straight would bring so many consequences for him and his future. How would he be able to live with that? Could he tell anyone? Did he need to tell anyone? Robin would always support him, he knew that, but what if Dustin and the others found out? Would they hate him and distance themselves from Steve? Or worse, would they tell everyone else? Would Steve have to live his life in hideout, never being able to trust anyone, ending up as an outcast, detested by society?

Robin´s answer made him snap out of that vortex of thoughts in his mind.

“I think you just need time to process all of this, to take things slow with Eddie and maybe figure out more along the way. Your fears shouldn´t block your way towards happiness and being your true self. Communication is key, and by the way, I´m pretty sure, that Eddie will not judge you for any of your fears. I mean, he definitely knows what you are going through right now. We all went through kind of the same stages in the beginning. He will understand, if you tell him. And if you really care about Eddie that much, then I don´t think that your feelings are untrue or that you´re just making anything up.”

Robin made a short break, letting Steve take everything in.

Steve felt, like for the first time, he was the one being cared for, receiving advice instead of giving. Even though he had felt like an outcast temporarily, like he didn´t belong to either side of society, Robin´s phrasing of “we all” made him feel like he´d be accepted in this new group, like he belonged, without having to pretend to be someone he´s not.

He liked the thought of having this little, very personal secret, that he and Robin and Eddie and even Nancy now shared and connected them in a way. He even felt connected to all the people elsewhere, that felt like him, even though he didn´t know them or their story, but them sharing the same truth. Suddenly he felt like he could float, like the fear inside him was pushed away by this newfound sense of belonging.

“Well, when I had my gay awakening, I also questioned myself a lot, but I remembered a lot of moments or thoughts where I should have known that I was gay already. But it kind of never clicked for me before. In retrospect everything made sense. Think back, if you want to. Have you ever kinda felt special about some boy? Ever admired someone more than “you should have” or imagined something with a boy instead of a girl?”

Steve dove deep into his memories. He searched even in the darkest parts of his brain, next to the parts that had gotten illuminated just this morning, as the walls crashed inside him. He tried to stay neutral, not allowing his anxiety or internalized behaviour of the last years make him overlook something.

Then indeed, he found a memory. He felt embarrassed, now, that he analyzed the meaning behind it, even though he said he wouldn´t judge himself for his feelings at the moment.

About two years ago, when Billy Hargrove, Max´ stepbrother had joined his year in school and had started to bully him and became somehow obsessed with beating Steve in every way possible, Steve had developed some very intense thoughts about him.

To be honest, Steve knew he still was kind of an asshole back then, still caught up in his bad-boy and people-pleasing behaviour, freshly wounded by Nancy dropping him for Jonathan.
He had been so annoyed by Billy purposefully grinding on him during basketball, teasing him with comments and staring at him naked in the shower. Steve had already suspected, that Billy might secretly be gay, that this was the reason why he would stare at his dick so much in the shower, making comments on it, searching for Steve´s closeness, touching him inappropriately. But Steve linked Billy´s internalized hate to him letting his anger out on Steve and thus imposing this toxic heterosexuality.

Sometimes, Steve would fantasize about standing up against Billy´s bullying, putting him in his place. He imagined how, when they´d be alone in the shower after basketball, he would push Billy down onto his knees, making him suck him off. He would call him a little fag, asking him how he liked having his mouth finally filled by Steve after having asked for it so desperately with his behaviour, finally making him shut up.

One time, Steve had touched himself under the shower to the thought of filling Billy´s mouth with his cum, making him gag around him and swallow everything. With his rising lust he extended the image to smearing some of his cum on Billy´s lush lips and jaw, pulling him up by his hair again, keeping hold of his neck, to kiss and lick him clean. He could see how dilated Billy´s pupils were, his ocean-blue eyes begging for more behind his long and gorgeous lashes.
In his mind Steve was possessive and dominant in a way that he wouldn´t have felt comfortable to be like with girls, feeling like they couldn´t give him what Billy could in his imagination. Being so submissive and desperate for him. This thought with a girl instead, felt somehow off, it didn't give Steve the same kick.

But after Steve had finished, the lustful clouds leaving his brain and clarity taking over again, he had felt so dirty and uncomfortable and guilty, that he had banned that image into a cave for the rest of his days.

He had always thought that this was just a way to deal with his anger and imposed homophobia. He still remembered how great it felt to beat Billy up that one night, despite almost having lost that fight, but at least having stood up against him. He had never linked the realization that he had enjoyed this sexual imagination a bit too much than he probably should have, to the thought that he might be attracted to guys.

“There is one, actually. Holy shit!”, Steve breathed out.

“Do you wanna tell me about it?”, Robin asked, trying to hold back her excitement.

Steve blushed, ruffling his hair uncomfortably. “Um, I don´t know… It´s kinda… weird. I don´t wanna gross you out…” He tried to laugh to shake his embarrassment of.

“Okay, you don´t need to. But I´m always here if you need to talk. You still have all the time to explore. There will maybe come more memories where you now realize, you should have known. But if not, that´s okay, too. But… if you say you want to explore this more with Eddie… just be sure to not make him feel like this is just an experiment and you´re going to leave him once you got what you wanted. That might really hurt him.”

Steve felt, like Robin´s last words were also her own experience on the matter. Had someone used her as just an experiment before?

“Has Nancy used you as her experiment?”, Steve blurted out.

“No! Oh god, no. I mean, yeah, she wanted to indulge in her new feelings, but she didn´t just use me and then ran away”, Robin explained quickly.

And then it was Robin´s turn to talk for a while.

She started with her and Nancy hanging out more both at school and after school, about Nancy complaining about Jonathan and asking Robin about boys, which lead to Robin eventually coming out to her. How just as both girls were spending so much time researching Nancy´s theory and them preparing to meet Dr. Hatch at the psych ward, they also started to have these little intense moments that felt like more. How Nancy had kissed her for the first time, telling her about these new feelings inside her, mentioning that she thinks she might be bisexual.

“I mean, it doesn´t surprise me that Nancy figured out all by herself. She was always the smart one”, Steve said, pressing a piece of fabric into a bottle.

“I was so overwhelmed when she told me. I mean, not that I didn´t like her, too, but I was so scared that I might scare her away. That I ruin my chance of having a girlfriend by saying weird stuff again, not knowing how to shut up and when to do what. I mean, she at least has some experience, I haven´t even kissed someone before that. I was lucky enough she still wanted to be my friend after I came out to her. I didn´t want to lose her”, Robin said.

“And I still had this crush on Vickie, that I knew I should just let go of. I just felt torn between options, for once. Not that I really have options, but I was scared that I might not develop feelings for Nancy, forcing myself into a relationship, just because I finally have someone show interest in me. And that I would eventually have to tell her I don´t like her like that and then she would leave me.”

Robin took a deep breath after this waterfall of words left her mouth.

“But so far, the butterflies are still there. It just feels so, so right with her. And I feel like we have all the time in the world to take things slow, and just enjoy the moment, instead of rushing something just to have it done.”

Steve followed Robin´s words, smiling happily. His first reciprocated crushes had felt just the same to him, but the more girls he had gotten with and then had broken up with, his erratic infatuations soon made him rush everything, losing the desire to dwell in the moment. Now he realised even more, how his behaviour stood in the way of him developing genuine feelings and building a fundamental relationship, that he was yearning for. How breaking contact at the smallest inconvenience wouldn´t help him reach his dreams.

“I know I should have said something earlier, I´m so sorry, I feel so bad. I feel like I´m breaking some sort of code or secret rules with dating your ex-girlfriend now”, Robin panted, her face full of worry.

“Relax, Robin. I´m happy for you two. Really! That thing with me and Nancy is long gone and we were completely different people back then. That is already forgone and forgotten”, Steve reassured her.

“I´m glad we´re finally having this talk!”, Robin sighed, letting herself fall back against the wall of the camper.

Her eyes wandered over the other little groups preparing for their fight. Eddie and Dustin had now started to play with their shields, running around and play fighting.

“I can´t believe how we´re sitting here, talking about our love lives like we are not about to face doom again. I kind of have this terrible… gnawing feeling that… it might not work out for us this time.”

“You think we shouldn´t be doing this?”, Steve whispered.

“I think we´re mad fools, the lot of us, for doing this, but if we´re not stopping him… then who will? We have to try, right?”

Steve nodded, suddenly the ease between them seemed blown away. “Yeah.” Then he grabbed a bottle from the ground.

“To killing Vecna”, he said.

Robin also took a bottle, holding it close to Steve´s. “Slash Henry.”

“Slash one”, Steve said, clinking their bottles.

Chapter Text

Eddie had followed Dustin over the meadow, to a place where the grass was low enough to build a little workplace. Around them, they set up several piles with different sized nails, hammers and not to forget the two trash bin lids, that they had picked up on the way.

They used two little mesh baskets to hold the lids down, thus being able to hammer the nails through the metal.

Dustin seemed to enjoy the alone-time with Eddie. He talked non-stop about his D&D campaign, about how he already looked forward to the next, telling him about some ideas that he´s had for it and gushing about how cool he found Eddie´s room.

Eddie relished this moment with his new friend, too. He listened to Dustin´s ideas and felt utterly perplexed by how carefree he seemed with all of what lied ahead of them in the next hours. Talking like
it´s nothing, like it was just a game they played for one night. But Dustin had been through something like this many times before, he had told him. He was tough and Eddie had great respect for him.

But he couldn´t help but let his eyes wander off during Dustin´s endless speech, almost hitting himself with the hammer several times. He looked over at Lucas and Erica in their chairs on top of a small hill, Nancy and Max, sawing the front part of the new gun off, and Robin and Steve by the camper, seemingly in a deep discussion.

Just as Eddie had cursed out loud again, for having missed the nail and instead, hitting his thumb with the hammer, Dustin looked up at him.

“Jesus, man. What are you doing? Can´t keep your eyes focussed on the nails?”, he teased.

Eddie just rolled his eyes at that comment, sucking on his painful, throbbing thumb.

“So, who is it? Robin or Nancy?”, Dustin kept asking.

Eddie frowned at him, like he didn´t understand what Dustin seemed to imply.

“What? You think I´m gawking at Nancy and Robin?”, he exclaimed in disbelief, mumbling with his finger still in his mouth.

Dustin just lifted his eyebrows like that suprised defense confirmed his theory.

“I mean, not to disappoint you, but I think your chances are quite low. Nancy already has a boyfriend and Robin is soo picky. I´ve never seen her go out with a boy. She always hangs around Steve, but they always deny having feelings for each other. I don´t know why they´re not dating. I´ve already told Steve last year, that Robin would be perfect for him. She cracked a secret Russian code for us. And I mean look at them!”

Dustin pointed towards the two, filling their bottles with the inflammable liquids.

“They´re together all the time, they might as well just admit it finally.”

Eddie shook his head.

“Maybe you should believe them, if they tell you they´re just friends. Why would they lie? Besides, I thought Robin is much closer with Nancy.”

“What? Robin and Nancy? No, they don´t even really know each other that well. I guess they are friends now, but I don´t think they really like each other. I think Nancy doesn´t like how close Robin is with Steve, because she used to date him. She even asked me sometimes, if they were dating now, or if Robin had a boyfriend.”

Eddie smiled again. Dustin must have been very oblivious, but he didn´t blame him for not being able to connect the dots. Because for Eddie, the links pictured together a very different image.

“Well, I´m just saying. You weren´t with us in the Upside Down. You have missed quite a lot, my guy”, Eddie said.
He didn´t want to assume anything, or extend his theories onto Dustin, he just wanted to mess with him a little. Testing how he would react and bend these new pieces of information to fit into his viewpoint.

Also, he wanted to see, if Dustin picked up on his hints and maybe say something homophobic. Eddie couldn´t really imagine Dustin to, because he really was the friendliest person he had ever met, but he could never know for sure, where the friendliness ended. But then Eddie knew, to keep quiet from now on.

Now Dustin looked at him in disbelief. “Go on, tell me”, he said slowly. “What do you mean by that?”

Eddie laughed quietly. “Nothing. I was just saying, they seem very close.”

Dustin sat down in confusion. Eddie tried to focus on his work again, but his eyes flashed over to Steve every once in a while.

Dustin was quiet now, trying to decipher what Eddie could have implied.

Eddie could see Dustin´s head almost smoking from thinking. Probably remembering Nancy leaning on Robin´s shoulder to catch up on some sleep during their drive and them sharing a blanket the night before. Trying to perceive them in a different light. Dustin wasn´t stupid, he probably just needed a little wink into the right direction.

“All that I´m saying is, that… sometimes you don´t fall in love with who you are expected to…”, he said then, trying to keep the shakiness out of his voice and his eyes focussed downwards.

Now he had to wait for Dustin´s reaction. If there was one.

After what felt like an eternity, Eddie dared to blink up at Dustin, to find him stare down onto the grass with an empty face.

After another while, he opened his mouth, his voice nothing more than a raspy whisper.

“Oh…”, another pause, “OH!”, he said surprised, his eyes opened wide and staring right at Eddie now.

Then his head moved around quickly. Jumping from Nancy to Robin, back to Nancy, to Eddie, to Steve and then back again onto Nancy and back to Steve and then landing on Eddie again, like his brain had to rebuild the connections inside.

“No way!”, he shouted. Eddie startled, shushing him with his hands, to not draw everybody´s attention onto their conversation.

Eddie´s heart was beating fast, still not sure how to interpret Dustin´s reaction, who seemed caught in a trance again.

“Robin… and… Nancy. You mean they are…”, he whispered, but his excitement and surprise were unmistakeable.

“Hey, hey…”, Eddie tried to calm Dustin´s imagination down. “You haven´t heard that from me, right?! You have heard nothing!”

Maybe he had gotten too far now, he didn´t want to out Robin and Nancy by accident. Hell, he didn´t even know if he was spreading a big, fat lie.

“Don´t worry!”, Dustin answered immediately, with a firm voice. “I won´t tell anyone!”

With his fingers, he mimicked how he shut a zipper on his mouth, locking an imaginary lock and throwing away the key.

Eddie´s lips formed into a smile, letting out a shaky breath. He didn´t want to, but it was almost like a habit, to look at Steve, whenever he needed some relief.
He immediately regretted, having looked over, because he saw Dustin twitch on his seat, pointing at him now.

“And that means… Does that mean…? You and… Steve? Are you looking at Steve? You were looking at Steve! Weren´t you?”, Dustin stumbled over his words, trying to keep his voice low and following Eddie´s gaze with narrowed, calculating eyes.

“No way!”, Dustin added convincedly, before Eddie could confirm or deny.

Eddie was almost scared, of what might follow now. For many boys the thought of two girls together seemed almost acceptable, some even found the thought arousing, but two men together… that was disgusting and abnormal for most.

“I… I didn´t know you were… into boys”, Dustin murmured, like he didn´t want to make Eddie uncomfortable with his interested and persistent manner.

Eddie took a deep breath. “Now you know why they call me a freak… Because I´m a queer…”, he spoke slowly, his voice dripping from pain.

“Really? Oh god”, Dustin said, incredulously. He had never quite understood how the others could hate Eddie so much, if he was actually such a sweet guy. Yes, he might have this strikingly conspicuous look and attitude to him, but Dustin wouldn´t have called someone a freak for that.

He saw, how Eddie evaded his look, punching the nails through the lid with force. He hated seeing Eddie so uncharacteristically silent and aggrieved. And now Dustin understood, that it wasn´t just all the people around him that made Eddie feel this way right now, he was very likely just as scared, that Dustin would act like them, too.

“Oh, but Eddie that´s okay. There´s worse than that”, he said with a cooing voice.

And Dustin didn´t mean the bullying by this, he meant the word that had turned into an insult for Eddie, one that he had probably started to believe underneath his façade.

To help ease the sudden tension of their conversation, Dustin added with an amusing tone: “You know sometimes, I would eat so many of these delicious nougat bars that I would end up with so bad constipation… one time my mom even told Mr. Clarke about it, because she made me stay home from school some days… that is bad!”, he concluded his point, hoping for Eddie´s expression to soften.

Eddie appreciated this attempt of a turn-around, laughing slightly. “Okay, okay. I don´t need to know the details.”

“Thanks, man”, he added, holding his hand out to fist-bump Dustin.

Dustin´s mouth formed into a big smile, bumping back with an energetic move. “Not for that, man. You told me your secret and now you know mine.”

Then their hands wandered down again, grabbing a pair of nails to finish their shields.

After not so long, Dustin shook his head slightly, now speaking more to himself than to Eddie. “No but really, how does he do that? That´s crazy!”

Not really caught up on the current topic, trying to follow Dustin´s thought process, Eddie asked: “How does who do what?”

“Steve! That guy is unbelievable. You´re telling me that he pulls all the girls and guys now, too! That he could have literally anyone?! The power this man has! No wonder, they call him ´King Steve´…”
Dustin smiled baffled at Eddie. Then his expression became a more demanding look, tilting his head.

“How did he pull you, huh? Steve doesn´t really seem like your type, if I can be honest with you.”

Now, Eddie laughed. Louder and genuinely. He felt really relieved and amused by Dustin´s questions.

“Really? What did you think my type was?”

“I don´t know… girls, I guess?”, Dustin smiled helplessly. “But, like, girls that are nerds, like you and not popular jocks. But don´t distract, go on!”, Dustin urged.

“Yeah, I mean you´re right, somehow. I would have never thought that I´d fall for our Lord and Saviour Steve ´the Hair´ Harrington!”, they chuckled.
“I don´t know, he must have put a spell on me or something, that he has me in a chokehold like that…”

“Like in D&D…?”, Dustin threw in.

“Yeah, maybe that´s a good comparison. You know, when Steve was pulled through the gate in the lake and we eventually followed him, there were these weird bats that attacked him.”

Eddie stood up, his voice had become the tone he always used, explaining the story during their Hellfire meetings. His gestures imitated the fight scene.

“One held him down, choking him with its tail and two others were biting into his stomach. When we arrived and had killed two bats, Steve got up, bit into the tail of the bat around his throat, swung it through the air and rammed it into the ground several times. And then he put his foot onto the body of the bat and ripped it in two pieces.”

Sitting down again, his voice got back to normal, but having a slight admiring tone underneath.

“He looked so unbothered, kind of, as he threw the other half away. And I mean, he was panting, like, very hard and he was shirtless the whole time, he only wore his sweatpants…”

Eddie stopped, before the thought of Steve like that made him hot and sweaty again. Dramatically he waved some air to his face with his hands, to substantiate his affection.

“Is that why you gave him your vest? Because you couldn´t keep your eyes off of him?”, Dustin teased.

Eddie looked down, with a slightly guilty smile, his intentions detected by Dustin.

“Maybe…?”, he giggled, warmth rising up into his cheeks.

Holy hell. Now he was already giggling at the thought of Steve. What came next? Would he twirl his hair and roll around the floor soon? Yep, he was in deep!

“Okay, one more question? Because I really need this answered now and for all!”

Eddie looked up at Dustin, not really knowing what to expect.

“How do you feel about Steve´s chest hair?”, Dustin asked with the sincerest tone.

Eddie certainly did not expect this question. He started laughing again, having to wipe tears away from his eyes, holding his twisting stomach.

“What?”, he asked, as he could speak again.

“You heard me. Steve is so hairy. Like, I told him he should try to tame that jungle, but he persists on telling me that ´the ladies dig it´.”, Dustin pointed quotation marks into the air, waiting for an answer.

Eddie tried his best, not to blush, as the thoughts he had had about Steve´s pecks and his chest hair flooded his brain again.

With an incidental tone he answered: “I mean, I don´t know how the ladies feel about it, but I don´t really mind it, I guess.” He couldn´t hold back the tiny smile that crawled up his lips.

Dustin pulled his eyebrows upwards again. “You like it!”, he determined with a chuckle. Then he shook his head again, breathing out loudly, like he couldn´t believe what he just heard.

“Wow. If I didn´t have the most gorgeous girlfriend already, I would pay Steve to teach me. That is… unbelievable.”
Dustin´s attention landed on his shield in front of him, catching up on his work again.

“But do you think Steve likes you back?”, Dustin asked after a while.

“I´m not a hundred percent sure, if Steve… you know… is ready to… to date… a boy, but I kind of feel like there is something between us. It´s like…”

“Electricity!”, Dustin filled the gap.

He still remembered very well, when Steve taught him his first lessons about girls, back then, when they were searching for Dart the little Demodog in the woods.

“Yeah”, Eddie answered. Dustin seemed to have understood this whole thing.

“I mean, as I know Steve with girls, he is not picky at all. Like, you might actually have a decent chance. And if not, then I will have a talk with him! Maybe he will listen this time”, Dustin laughed. “That would be so cool, actually! Because Steve is, like, our mom. And until now, I kind of felt like you are rather, like, the cool uncle, but you could be the dad, too. Our dungeon dad!”

“Please don´t call me that!”, Eddie panted, knowing that it was already too late to change Dustin´s mind. But his heart swell at the knowledge, that Dustin accepted him and even welcomed him into their type of family.

Eddie stood up, taking a look at his handiwork.

“How´s the feeling?”, Dustin asked.

“Light. But durable”, Eddie concluded, swinging the shield around. “Deadly. But reliable.”

Then, he put his foot on the little basket beside him, pointing his arm outwards.

“Hear me now”, he started dramatically. “There will be no more retreating”, he lowered his arm, hand formed into a fist, “from Eddie the Banished.”

“Hey, you´re really ready for bat-tle”, Dustin said, chuckling at his words.

Eddie turned back around to look at him.

“You get it?”

Eddie put on a questioning expression.

“Bat-tle. B-A-T. No?”, Dustin groaned. “I thought I had a good one.”

Eddie quickly dropped the look, putting on a smile and running forward to tackle Dustin.

“What are you doing? You son of a bitch!”, Dustin said, attacking Eddie back.

They wrestled and tussled and shouted at each other for some time, before Eddie decided to fight unfair and pull at Dustin´s underwear.

“No wedgies! No wedgies!”, Dustin screamed, laughing.

Then, Eddie held Dustin´s face in both of his hands, separating both of them for a moment.

“Never change, Dustin Henderson. Promise me?”, he said calmly.

“I wasn´t planning on it”, Dustin said out of breath, but touched.

“Good”, Eddie said, finally breaking their contact. “Good!”

“Good!”, Dustin reassured.

Both of them got back to their shields, playing for a while, imagining to prowl a mysterious forest on a secret mission. They made their way forward, reaching Erica and Lucas, examining their work of the last hour.

Now, all of their weapons seemed to be ready for battle. Now, the final step left to do was the execution of their mission.

Chapter Text

Sooner, than Eddie would have liked, the sky started to turn into an ocean of yellow and orange waves, the sun going down, taking the light and warmth of the day with it.
The realization of his situation hit him like an avalanche, an all-encompassing nervousness spreading in his body.

Steve shouted, for all of them to get together again, to collect their weapons and tools and go back inside the camper again.

The sudden quietness between them made Eddie realise even more how serious their mission was. Not even Dustin, who always seemed so cheerful, talked much and looked very tense all of a sudden.

Eddie was given another plastic bag from Steve, who told him that their clothes were in there. He flipped the bag around, to make the jackets, trousers, gloves and belts land on the table.

Steve explained, what he had bought for who. He gave Eddie a new pair of pants, that were made of a much thicker, protecting material and a similar, green vest to wear over his leather jacket. He received fingerless leather gloves and a belt with throwing ammunition.

“We´re matching. Because we have the same sizes. I thought I just buy everything twice”, Steve said with a little tuck on Eddie´s shirt on him underneath his uniform.

Dustin got the same vest, but smaller and something that looked like a mesh blanket with fake leaves attached to it.

“It´s camouflaging. So you can escape into the trailer without being attacked, when the bats come for you”, Steve explained at Dustin´s odd expression, holding the mesh out, not knowing what to do with it.

Eventually, Steve helped him put it on. Robin and Nancy alternately locked themselves inside the little bathroom, to change into their new clothes.

Robin came out, wearing camo-pants, big boots and a matching jacket. On her head there sat a red beret hat. Nancy wore a similar uniform, stripping on her gun around her shoulders.

As Eddie stepped inside the tiny bathroom, to change into his armor, his arms were trembling. He had to sit down on the toilet seat, before his legs would give in, to put on the new pants. He put the vest and the belt on top, the weight of his outfit lasting heavy on his weak-feeling body.

He looked into the mirror above the sink. His skin was pale and he had dark rings underneath his eyes. His fingers found the tap, pulling on it, to let cold water run down the drain. Holding his wrists out, to cool his pulse, he then decided to gather some water with his palms, dipping his face into the cold liquid.

This made his senses tingle and some clarity nestle in his mind again. He repeated this for a few times, before he grabbed a towel from the side, drying his face off.
He took a deep breath, letting his eyes wander over the little pile of stuff next to where he had put the towel down. Among other things like toothbrushes and deodorant there was a little bag with makeup utensils.
Eddie´s hands were quick to examine the bag. He found a little palette with dark eyeshadow and a black eyeliner.

Before his gigs with his band, he would take his time to put on some eyeliner to match the aesthetic and to feel more confident and attractive during their appearances.
A sudden jolt of boldness shot through his body. If he thought about it, this situation was no different. Basically, he was just getting ready for a gig.

So he opened the little palette and dipped his pointer finger into the darkest colour. He examined, how pigmented it looked on his finger and then lifted his hand, to smear some on his eyelids. He dragged the line outwards, wiped across it a few times, to give it a smudgy look.
To finish it off, he grabbed the eyeliner pen and drew two precise lines along his upper lash lines. His hand had stopped shaking, easily falling back into this internalized skill.
With a pop of his lips, Eddie threw away the pen, with an abrupt boost of energy.

Next, he grabbed his black handkerchief with a skull on it from his back pocket, folding it neatly and tying it around his head. He didn´t have a hair tie, but this would make his hair stay in place and complete his outfit. With a last adjustment of his strands, he stepped back, taking a look at himself.

He looked hot, and he knew it.

With a much stronger feeling of self-confidence, he left the bathroom again, not caring about how the others might look at him or what they might think.

Steve shot around, as Eddie stepped into their middle again, looking like a whole new person, but also looking more like himself than ever. Once again hypnotized by Eddie´s outright beauty, he forgot why he had stood up and forgot how to snap out of this state of mind. Eddie didn´t just look pretty, he looked astonishingly fantastic.

The dark eyeshadow complemented his eyes perfectly, the warm brown popping out even more now. Steve was surprised by how expertly Eddie had applied the makeup. This combined with the bandana around his hair and the battle armor gave him an irresistible look. This was the first time that Steve saw someone with makeup look even more masculine and strong.

He noticed, how Eddie got closer to him. His heart was jumping inside his chest, not knowing what Eddie was going to do to him. If he was going to do something to him. He almost hoped it. Looking like this, Steve would have allowed Eddie to do almost everything with him.

Gently, Eddie´s eyes latched onto Steve´s lips, his mouth forming into a seducing smile, showing his dimples. He came closer until their faces were only a few inches apart, then he slowed down. Steve´s eyelids had already fluttered close, his lips poking out slightly, to welcome Eddie´s onto his. But as the air around his opened mouth still felt cold, he opened his eyes again, trying to see what made Eddie make him wait.

Steve had already completely forgotten where he was and who was around him. The only thing he seemed to notice, was how Eddie´s ringed hand lifted upwards and nestled down on his chin. His fingers gave a gentle, but firm push upwards, closing his in awe dropped jaw.

Eddie wanted to say something, throw a cocky little remark at Steve, for staring at him so blatantly. Something along the lines of ´close your mouth before your drool hits the floor' or 'keep it in your pants, Harrington'. But his brain seemed swept clean. This cute and somewhat unhinged reaction of Steve made him lose all sense of sass. So he just ended up streaking his finger along his jawline, meeting his eyes again and giving him a little wink, as he made his way past Steve.

A pent-up breath, that might have turned into a little wimpery moan, if Steve´s mouth was still open, left his nose. He swallowed hard, as his brain rebooted.
Then, he cleared his throat, fully turning away from the others as if nothing had happened, and walked back to the front of the camper, sitting down in the driver´s seat.

Luckily, the only people around Eddie had been Robin, Nancy and Dustin, who all already knew what was going on between Steve and him and who he didn´t fear judgement from.
Erica, Max and Lucas sat around the table towards the front. Max was listening to music and the two siblings sat with their back towards Eddie.

As he sat down on the couch in the back, next to the other three, who just became witnesses of his flirting, Eddie smiled proudly.

Robin and Nancy exchanged knowing looks, but Eddie couldn´t quite interpret all the meanings that lingered behind their expressions. The girls seemed to be able to hold a whole conversation just by the way they moved their eyes or lifted their eyebrows.

Dustin poked Eddie´s side with his elbow.

“Definitely electricity!”, he nodded. “By the way… nice eyeliner. Suits you!”

Eddie gave him a warm look back.

As they drove back along the roads, the sun started to vanish completely. The silhouettes of trees and houses outside looked frightening in the dark. The headlights of the camper only lightened a little area in front of them. The horizon seemed to wait for them with all kinds of cruel abeyances.

Chapter Text

The whole drive back to Hawkins felt like a dive into deep water, the further they got, the further away they got from the exit. The pressure and growing tension strangled them, keeping their mouths unable to form words. Their thoughts circled around their plan, going through every step again and again.

Then, the camper came to a halt.

With a few last looks and nods, but no words, Max, Lucas and Erica got up. They grabbed three lanterns, opened the door and left into the night.
Through the windows, the others saw them walk up the little trail, that lead towards the house, whose windows were closed with wooden shingles.
As the camper started to gain speed again, the three kids started to leave their view.

After what only felt like seconds, the camper had reached the trailer park. Parked between some trees afar, the vibrations of the motor stopped.

Steve and Nancy were the first to stand up. They met in the middle of the little hallway.

Robin and Dustin got up, too. They followed the others to the little table in the middle, sitting down on the benches there, waiting for one of the others to say something.

Eddie felt like his body had become one with the sofa. With a lot of inner convincing, he was able to give his legs the order to make him stand up. After two shaky steps, he had reached the backside of the bench, clawing his fingers into the seat padding, in case he might pass out from the nervousness.

“Okay. I wanna run through it one more time”, Nancy said quietly, pacing back and forth as much as she could in the little space of the camper.

“Phase one”, she asked, looking for an answer from the group.

“We meet Erica at the playground”, Robin asked with a surprisingly solid voice, trying to calm Nancy´s anxiety down with her understanding. “She´ll signal Max and Lucas when we´re ready.”

Nancy nodded. “Phase two.”

“Max baits Vecna”, Steve answered. “He´ll go after her, which will put him in his trance.”

“Phase three?”, Nancy asked then, with a look towards Eddie and Dustin.

“Me and Eddie draw the bats away”, Dustin said.

Eddie gave Dustin an affectionate pat on the head, letting him know he´ll always have his back, which made the younger boy smile.

“Four.”

“We head into Vecna´s hopefully newly bat-free lair, and… flambé”, Robin explained, shaking one of the bottles, she had secured on a belt around her body.

Nancy nodded again. With a strict tone she ordered: “Nobody moves on to the next phase until we´ve all copied! Nobody deviates from the plan, no matter what! Got it?”

“Got it”, everybody answered at once.

Loaded up with all of their weapons, they left the camper. The air of the night felt cold, even through their thick layers clothing and little clouds of fog hung in the air. The grass below their feet was glistening moistly and shimmered in the dim light of some lanterns in the park.

The group made their way along the trailers, reaching Eddie´s without any complications.

Steve opened the door, stepping inside the darkness of the living room. His hands found the light switch to his left, enlightening the space.
Quickly, they gathered around the chain of bedsheets, that still floated in the air, connecting the two dimensions.

Steve had already put his backpack and other weapons down, as Eddie closed the door behind him. Dustin told him to be careful, climbing up to the ceiling. With his axe he rammed into the regrown separating layer of the gate, opening it again for all of them to climb through.

The others watched, how Steve´s upper body had reached the other side of the trailer, his hair standing up from his head, before he let himself fall completely into the other dimension, landing with a casual somersault.

As Steve looked up at the others again, with a shrug of his shoulders, Robin whispered sarcastically: “Woo, what does he want us do to? Applaud?”

Her and Nancy exchanged a sneaky look, but Eddie, who heard Robin´s words, chuckled too.

They waited for Steve to get the mattress and place it underneath the gate, for them to land on. The mattress from the Upside Down didn´t look much dirtier than the one that still lied at their feet.

Nancy prepared herself to go next. She put her armor down, stepping forward. Immediately, Robin fell to her knees next to her, holding her hands out for Nancy to use as a ladder.
She thanked her quickly, using the energy of Robin pushing her upwards to dive through the gate.

Steve on the other side helped her up.

Next, Robin and Eddie decided to get some chairs to throw the other twos´ backpacks and weapons through the portal. Nancy and Steve collected everything from the mattress and stowed it aside.
Then, Eddie grabbed onto the sheets, pulling himself upwards from his chair. He landed on his back just a second later.

On the spot, Steve held his right hand out, for Eddie to grab it and help him back onto his feet. Eddie took hold of Steve´s hands with both of his and a warm smile on his lips. The sudden force of Steve´s pull – who tried his best to seem especially strong with lifting Eddie in his heavy uniform – made Eddie crash into his chest.

Steve tried to catch him, by putting his left hand onto Eddie´s hip. For the time of a heartbeat, they stayed connected like that, before Steve gained knowledge about where his hand had landed. Carefully, he guided Eddie a step backwards. With a side-eye onto Nancy, Eddie walked to the side of the mattress, his fingers losing the hold of Steve´s hand.

Now, that all of their stuff had landed, Robin and Dustin were the last to go. Robin landed with a muffled scream, before Dustin did, and both were helped up by Steve and Eddie.

Quickly, they equipped themselves again, opening the door of the camper. Immediately, a surge of cold air found its way into the trailer, stirring up the dust particles around them.
Red thunder and lightning shot through the overcast sky, lighting up the scenery once in a while, as the group stepped down the stairs onto the grass.

Steve turned around abruptly, as Nancy and Robin stepped ahead of him.

“Hey, guys, listen”, he looked at Dustin and Eddie, who stood next to each other with a questioning look at Steve.

“If things here start to go south, I mean, at all, you abort! Okay? Draw the attention of the bats. Keep them busy for a minute or two. We´ll take care of Vecna. Don´t try to be cute or be a hero or something. Okay? You guys are just…”

“Decoys!”, Dustin answered with an annoyed undertone. He started to feel like his mother gave him a talk about consequences.

Steve nodded.

“Don´t worry. You can be the hero, Steve”, Dustin reassured.

“Absolutely. I mean…”, Eddie jointed this tease of Steve´s ego. “Look at us. We are not heroes.”

Eddie chuckled, hoping that Steve remembered what he had told him the first time in the Upside Down, knowing that he wouldn´t put himself into any more unnecessary danger. Dustin´s look agreed with him.

Steve sighed, but seemed convinced, that Dustin and Eddie wouldn´t do something stupid in the heat of danger. He gave each a last intense look, before he turned around again.

“Hey, Steve”, Eddie blurted out, his body jolting a step forward, before Steve could run away into the night. His left hand shot out and was able to brush alongside Steve´s. His name and this sudden touch made him turn around again, coming back a step.

Even though Eddie was already very close, definitely close enough to talk to him, he got even closer. His hand had found its way around Steve´s. He could feel, how Eddie´s warm and slightly sweaty hand wrapped itself around his cold one, gently squeezing. Eddie´s eyes looked upwards into Steve´s, wide and somehow afraid-looking underneath the preppy makeup.

Steve was so perplexed, that he didn´t know what happened to him, as Eddie closed the tiny gap between them. His hand was still there, providing a cozy embrace for his. But his other arm had snug around his back, pulling him even closer into his chest. Reflexively, activated by the sudden closeness that his body had begged for, for such a long time already, Steve leaned into the hug. His arm slid around Eddie´s back.

Steve awaited, that Eddie would lean his head against his shoulder, maybe even nestling in the crook of his neck for a moment, but Eddie´s mind followed a different idea.

A hot breath by his ear whispered three little words into Steve´s captured brain. “Be careful, Stevie.”

Hearing his name like this out of the other´s mouth sent a shiver down his back and made the hair on his neck stand up, like the goosebumps that raised on his arms and legs. As he thought, it couldn´t get any more intense than that, the pair of lips that was so close to his ear settled down on the flushed skin of his cheek. Steve´s eyelids flickered at the tender skin contact. A crumb of what he had imagined Eddie´s lips could do to him and yet it felt like everything he had ever dreamed of.

The next feeling, a sudden contrast to the soft contact before, the brush of a peaky stubble alongside his jawline, ripped his eyes open again.

Eddie had pulled his face back, opening the embrace again, but still standing chest to chest with Steve.

Steve suddenly noticed the cold air around his right hand, where Eddie´s had been just moments prior. His hands had now found the collar of Steve´s jacket, fumbling with it, acting like he just wanted to adjust it, before Steve went into the fight.

The sound of Eddie clearing his throat made Steve´s eyes focus on the man´s face in front of him again.

“And… make him pay”, Eddie said nonchalantly, but as he stepped a few steps backwards Steve could see the fire in his eyes and behind his cheeks, even in the darkness of the night.

Steve gulped, trying to swallow the tornado of feelings inside him.

“Mhm, yeah, sure… will do”, he stuttered with a raspy voice.

With one last look and a wipe of his fingertips on the area, that Eddie had given the tender kiss to, he turned around.
He tried to run off to Nancy and Robin, who had stopped and waited for him a few meters in the distance.

Eddie looked at him, until he was swallowed by the darkness of the horizon. Then his gaze met Dustin next to him. He just stared with big eyes and pulled-up brows, but his look was clear.
Eddie just shrugged his shoulders, putting on a proud smile and supressing another giggle escaping his throat.

“Let´s get to work”, he said.

He and Dustin had a lot to do, before their phase could start. They had to prepare the trailer for the attack from the bats, sealing every possible entrance like the windows and the door.
They started gathering big metal pieces and fences from trailers around them, using the tools they had bought and gotten from inside the trailer to attach the pieces to Eddie´s trailer.

Breathlessly and sweaty, the two stepped backwards, to take a look at their work of the last hour. They had examined every opening from the inside and outside, if it was properly closed.

“Not bad”, Eddie concluded.

“Not bad at all”, Dustin agreed.

Eddie gave him a quick pat on the back, before he said: “Now for the fun part.”

Both of them headed back to the trailer again, making their way to Eddie´s room in the back.

Eddie gasped, as he opened the door, taking the first look at his guitar, hanging in front of his mirror.

“Jesus Chr- … It´s like, she was destined for an alternate dimension“, he said in awe.

“What do you say, Henderson?”, he snacked the guitar from its halter. “Are you ready for the most metal concert in the history of the world?”

“Is that a rhetorical question?”, Dustin said, chiming in with Eddie´s anticipation.

As an answer, Eddie threw the belt of the guitar around his shoulders, carrying it in front of his body like a trophy.

“Let´s do it!”, he said, throwing the guitar onto his back, ready to conquer his stage.

On top of his trailer, they had put his loudspeakers in place, connecting his guitar to them. Now, they had to wait for their signal. They were ready for the attack. Ready as one can be.

Chapter Text

Robin, Nancy and Steve had reached the forest at the end of the trailer park. They switched on their flashlights, as the darkness of the woods encircled them.
They still had a long way in front of them, until they would reach Vecna´s house. They stayed quiet for the most time of their walk, eyes focussed on the ground, to not step on any of the vines in between the roots of the trees.

After a while, Robin spoke up.

“Uh… I don´t mean to freak anyone out, but I swear I´ve seen this tree before”, she said nervously.

“That´s impossible”, Nancy said.

“That would suck, right?”, Robin added, panting. “If Vecna destroyed the world because… ´cause we got lost in the woods?”

“We´re not lost, Robin”, Nancy tried to calm her down, but Robin just laughed ironically.

“Robin, hey! Watch out for the vines, please! Hive mind, remember?”

“Thank you!”, she gave back, but ran off alone. Nancy sighed.

“Uh, don´t worry about her”, Steve said calmly. “She´s just stressed. You know, scared.”

“Yeah. Yeah, I… I know. It´s just…”

“She´s a super klutz?”, Steve asked.

Nancy chuckled at that. It was true, but that´s what she found so cute in Robin.

“She did tell me that it took her longer to walk than most babies, so…”

Now Steve chuckled. “I really shouldn´t laugh. When I was a baby, I actually crawled backwards.”

“Crawled backwards?”, Nancy asked.

“You know, I´d push with my hands like this. Beep. Beep.” Steve imitated his crawling with his arms. “Always in reverse, you know?”

“Come on, it makes sense. You push to move, right?”, he said, as Nancy didn´t answer.

“No. No, it doesn´t make sense”, she laughed.

“Well, it did in my tiny, little Harington brain”, Steve defended himself. “That was, until I reversed my little baby butt down a flight of stairs and thumped my head really good. Yeah.”

“Wow. That explains… so much!”, Nancy said.

“Yeah”, Steve laughed quietly. “I think it kinda does.”

He took a moment to sort out his thoughts, then he kept going.

“I think, like, right out of the gate, I´m super confident. But I´m also, like, an idiot. Which is just… I mean, it´s a brutal combination. But I mean, the good news is, I get a big enough thump on my head, I can change, right? I can learn…”

Steve looked over at Nancy, to see if she was still following his speech.

“I kinda feel like… sometimes you think you have everything figured out and that is when you get that thump on your head and it kinda rocks your whole world upside down. It comes out of nowhere, you´d never expect it to happen. But it does. And it turns everything around, it shows you everything that you knew, that you held onto, but it shows you what it´s really like. It makes you reflect on your behaviour and what you possessed…”

Nancy nodded at his words, like she understood this feeling, that Steve tried to describe and where he meant to go with that.

“And… I mean, I kinda feel like I owe you a ´thank you´, too. Because you gave my head quite the thump back then, but… I don´t know, I feel like, I still needed this, sort of… recent one, too, because it… I mean, what I´m trying to say is… that one kinda made me realize that…”

Steve stopped for a moment, to figure out the words he was trying to say.

“It was kinda… the thump that showed me, that there is another way. You know, that I don´t have to keep crawling backwards… not forever, at least… that I could also… crawl forwards. In a way… do you… does that make sense?”, he asked helplessly.

Nancy´s big eyes looked at him. “Actually… that makes perfect sense, if you ask me. I mean, I have gotten this thump quite recently, too.” She laughed freely.

“I mean, um… Robin told you about it, didn´t she?”, she asked then.

“She did actually, yeah”, Steve smiled. “Congratulations…? By the way… for having a girlfriend now.”

“Thanks, I guess. And you? Are you… official, yet?”, Nancy asked further.

Steve´s eyes widened momentarily. “Oh, I mean… no, I don´t… actually… um… we haven´t really… talked about that really, yet”, Steve mumbled sheepishly. Out of habit he ran his fingers through his hair, trying to fix it somehow.

“I don´t even really know, if… what my feelings are… what I am…”, he added, knowing that Nancy would understand his struggle. “It´s all, kind of, really new for me…”

She nodded. “I know what that´s like. I mean, it took me quite some time, too, to figure that out and to really, kinda wrap my mind around it. But the thing that helped most, actually… was talking about it. With someone you really trust. Someone you know won´t judge you. And I mean, if you have the chance to, just do what feels right. Your body will tell you when you´re ready and it will tell you if it´s right. Sometimes it needs action instead of just thinking about it over and over again.”

Steve took a deep breath. It felt good, talking so openly to Nancy. To have someone, who shared his feelings. He knew, that with her and Robin, he would always have someone to talk to, if he needed to. He wondered, how it would be to have Eddie around all the time, too. How much fun they would have, together. Even if this whole thing between him and Eddie wouldn´t work out – which he didn´t even want to think about, because it made his heart ache – he would have Eddie as his friend. Or so he hoped, at least. He remembered, how great it had felt to speak to Eddie, how easy it had been and how understood he had made him feel.

And in this moment, Steve swore to himself, to give it a chance. He might not have all of this new stuff figured out yet, but was very sure of his feelings for Eddie by now and he felt sure about Eddie´s feelings, too. Like Nancy said, sometimes it needed some action, instead of blank thoughts. And if he never stepped ahead of his thoughts, he might miss his opportunity completely. How hard could it be? Eddie had showed him with every encounter that they had, how much he wanted him. Now it was Steve´s time to finally get what he had been dreaming about.

He didn´t even dare to think about how he was running into the arms of death himself and might never have another chance to talk to Eddie. No! Whatever would happen, he would make it out of there.

“It is kinda funny, isn´t it?”, Nancy´s voice appeared in his ears.

His head spun around. “What?”, he asked confused.

“How far we´ve come. I mean, we used to date… and then we… okay, I broke up with you and then I started dating Jonathan. And I thought, that´s it. I thought we´d stay together forever. But when he moved away that changed so quickly… And I mean, we´ve changed, too. Both of us.”, she moved her finger in between her and Steve.

“We were completely different people back then. But I think, we´ve really changed for the better now. I mean, look at us. Who would´ve thought, huh?”, she concluded.

Both of them laughed at the thought.

“I would´ve never thought that far. If someone had told me that my ex-girlfriend will break up with me and would later get together with my future best friend, who will come out as a lesbian to me and that I would find out that not only my ex, but I as well, am, very likely bisexual… And that I´d end up crushing on the local drug dealer and alleged satanist Eddie Munson… and that said drug dealer would start flirting with me like there´s no tomorrow, and that I´d actually like that… Oh man!” His hands imitated how his mind exploded.

“And I mean, if you told me back then what else would happen, like, where we´d stand right now… I don´t even know what I would´ve done then. I would´ve gone through a whole panic attack, I think. I mean sometimes, now, I feel like I´m about to go through one… But yeah, we´ve come a long way, indeed”, Steve answered with a shaky laugh.

Sudden footsteps in the distance frightened them and they turned around, to examine the woods with their lights. But it was just Robin, who came running towards them.

“Hey! Hey guys! Awesome news!”, she panted breathlessly. “Looks like were weren´t going the wrong way after all.”

“Come on!”, she urged the other two. “Let´s go.”

Steve shouted at her, to slow down, as she ran off into the darkness again, so they wouldn´t lose her, but Robin just shouted back, that they could just hurry up.

Squeaking screams in the sky, that got louder and louder, told them that they were getting close. Soon enough, the forest cleared and the silhouette of a house became visible in the fog. A huge swarm of what looked like at least two hundred bats sat on top of its ceiling and flew circles around it in the air.

Their eyes wandered over the scenery, landing on a spot of orange light across the house on the playground.

“Erica”, Steve detected.

Nancy told the others to switch off their flashlights, so the bats wouldn´t see them get to the playground. Slowly and silently the three sneaked along the grassy trails towards the climbing frame with the light beam.

They hid underneath the slide. Steve turned his flashlight on again, behind the cover, showing Erica that they had arrived, by poking his hand through the glimmer.

Now they had to wait. It couldn´t take much longer, since they had spent a long time traversing the forest.

Erica´s sudden voice made them jump, as she told them: “Okay, she´s in. Initiate phase three.”

Her words swam around them, just loud enough to startle them, but quiet enough to not draw the bat´s attention onto them.

Robin grabbed the walkie-talkie from a side pocket of her backpack. She held it close in front of her mouth, speaking to Dustin on the other end.

“She´s in. Move on to phase three.”

“Copy that. Initiating phase three”, he answered back.

___________

On top of Eddie´s trailer, Dustin had put the walkie-talkie down, connecting two last cables with each other and flipping several switches on the loudspeaker.

“Let´s hope they hear this”, he said, kneeling down.

Eddie looked at him, to see if he was ready. He opened his vest, to have better control over his guitar, and to cool himself down a bit. When Dustin gave him the final nod, he grabbed around the guitar pick, that hung around his neck on a necklace. With a strong pull he ripped the ribbon apart. His fingers freed the pick from the rest of the necklace and held tight onto it.

“Chrissy, this is for you!”, he said, wangling his guitar in place.

With a scream, he striped the strings. A loud chord ripped through the air, hurting their surprised eardrums, that had gotten used to the silence around them.

___________

On the other side of the forest, the first heavy metal chords were heard, turning into a fast rhythm.

The bats on top of the building snarled at each other, jumping up into the air and spurting each other on to follow this new, unknown sound. With loud movements of their skinny wings, the crowd of bats moved over to the woods, quickly disappearing in the dark sky.

“Okay, it´s working. Let´s go”, Nancy said, with a last examining look at the house in front of them.

Steve took one last moment to listen to Eddie´s guitar play, before he stood up and followed the two girls.
Eddie must have really given his all, because even inside the building Steve could hear the different chords and how fast they followed on one another. Eddie´s finger work must have been perfection.

_____________

“Eddie!”, Dustin screamed into the noises. He and Eddie had enjoyed the metal music for a good minute now, but in between the red clouds, he could see the first bats coming their way and they became more with every passing second. “We gotta lock down in T-minus thirty seconds!”

To make his words clearer, he held out his hands, showing three fingers with his right hand and a circle with his left.
Eddie showed him, that he understood.

Through his binoculars, Dustin tried to calculate, how fast the bats flew towards them and when they had the last chance to get back into the trailer, without them attacking them.

“T-minus twenty!”, he shouted and signed.

Eddie nodded, before he bent backwards to play a ferocious guitar riff, that marked the beginning of a solo. If he wouldn´t find himself in such a near death experience situation, he would have enjoyed the solo more, filling out the stage, providing a show for his audience.

“T-minus ten!”

With clenched teeth and in concentration shut eyes, Eddie put all of his last energy into concluding the solo.

“Five!”

With shaking hair, the last chord was played and the sound of Metallica swelled away.

“One!”, Dustin screamed, now audible again.

Without taking another breath, Eddie stripped himself of his guitar and both of them jumped forward, landing on the roof of a car, parked next to the trailer. Their feet met the ground, as the swarm of bats reached the trailer park.

Just in time, they made it inside the little cage, they had built around the front door. With Dustin shouting behind him, Eddie closed the fence. The bats gripped onto the cage with their claws, screaming at the two boys behind it and trying to reach inside with their tails.

With heavy beating hearts they were able to close the door of the trailer behind them, gaining the knowledge, that they were now safe in here. Both of them panted heavily, needing a minute to calm down from their escape.

“Dude!”, Dustin said breathlessly. “Most. Metal. Ever!”

“Oh my… Oh my god…”, Eddie breathed out. He looked over at Dustin, who put his arms up to rest them on his, jumping in excitement.

Eddie started jumping, too, screaming the adrenaline out of his body, celebrating his epic guitar play.

___________

The wooden door with the colourful glass window squeaked, as Steve opened it. He was the first to have a look inside the hallway. This house was even more overgrown with the vessels, than the other two he had seen. And these vines were moving and making squelching sounds. The rotting smell that they discharged, stung inside his lungs and made his nose twitch in disgust.

“Oh shit”, he whispered, because the floor left almost no space for them to plant their feet.

“That´s not good.”

With a look over his shoulder, he decided to be quick. His eyes jumped across the floor, finding a way into the middle of the hallway. His feet followed this plan, landing in the little spaces, that he had identified.

“Shit”, Robin whispered, her voice almost inaudible.

Robin´s hand found Nancy´s, immediately, clinging onto it. Nancy gave her girlfriend´s hand a few soft pets, looking into her eyes, to tell her, that she´s here for her.

“It´s okay”, she said with a cooing voice. Her other hand had made its way up to Robin´s face, gently cupping her cheek. Her thumb ghosted over the soft skin underneath Robin´s eyes.

“You got this. I´m always by your side”, Nancy reassured her, lifting her other hand, that Robin still held and pressed a careful kiss onto her palm.

Robin nodded slowly. Her hand left the other´s almost plaintively.
Then she gathered herself, stepping inside the little gaps, that Steve had already crossed.

Nancy followed her. Every once in a while, she told her: “Like that” or “Good job” or “That´s right”.

Cautiously, they followed Steve up the wooden stairs, looking out to keep their hands and feet away from the vines.

Chapter Text

The walls of the trailer were rumbling beneath the thrashing and bashes of the bats. Their srceeches echoed through the insides.

Dustin and Eddie stood back onto back in the middle of the trailer, holding onto their shields and swords. They walked in slow circles, their eyes wandering along the walls, examining the metal pieces in front of the windows.

Suddenly, the thrumming sounds stopped and the only sound to hear was the heavy breathing of the two boys inside.

“Hey dipshits!”, Dustin screamed in a moment of superiority. “Give up that easy, huh?” His voice was almost frantic.

“Shh!”, Eddie shushed him angrily. “Is that really necessary?”

Almost immediately, the clattering sounds appeared again, starting on top, then reaching the walls of the trailer, as well.

“They´re on the roof”, Eddie determined quietly.

“Shit, shit, shit”, Dustin whispered.

Slowly, they made their way towards the kitchen counter, eyes focused on the ceiling, weapons ready for the attack.
The rattling sounds seemed to come from one specific spot above the kitchen: A small hole for the air conditioning.

“They can´t get through there, can they?”, Dustin asked nervously.

With one strong punch, the plastic casing broke apart, its pieces landing on the floor. The head of a bat appeared through the now opened hole in the ceiling, opening its mouth with many rows of sharp teeth, screaming at them.

The shrieking sounds were mixed with yells from the boys underneath, who wasted no time to hit the bat with their swords. Blood and spit dropped down onto the floor. But the poking motions of the knifes appeared to make less damage than necessary get rid of the bats entirely. More and more claws and heads poked through the opening.

Eddie took a step backwards, looking around, to find anything that could help them to close the hole.

“Eddie!”, Dustin screamed. “I need you!”

Eddie´s eyes fell onto the chair next to him. He grabbed it and pulled it closer, telling Dustin to get out of the way. With one swift motion, he jumped onto the chair, let his sword fall onto the ground and punched his shield with both arms into the wooden ceiling. Thankfully, the nails inside the lid drove into the wood, sealing the opening.

With their wooden sticks, they punched against the lid some more, to really secure it.

“Holy shit. Holy shit!”, Eddie panted, once he made sure the shield stayed where it should be.

“Nice”, Dustin commented on his idea.

“Thanks.” Eddie held his hand out, to high-five him.

“Are there any other vents?”, Dustin asked shook, as he could hear more thrashing sounds from the walls.

“Oh, shit”, Eddie breathed out, running into his room. “Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit!”

As they reached the door, a handful of bats had already made it into the room, coming through a little vent in the floor.
Both of them swung their swords through the air, being able to slit some of the bats open, who fell bleeding onto the floor.

“Give me some space!”, Eddie shouted, who didn´t have his shield anymore, to block his body from the attacks.

He ran into the corner, where the bats had found an entrance. With a firm push he threw his bedside table onto the side, kicking in onto the hole in the ground. It provided at least a momentary seal, so that no more bats could to find their way inside his room.

Eddie heard Dustin scream behind him. He looked around, to find a bat sinking its teeth into Dustin´s leg, while he tried to fight of three others with his knife and shield.
Eddie stung into the bat, dragging it away from Dustin. Bleeding, it landed on the floor, its movements stopping.

Eddie grabbed Dustin by his clothes and yanked him backwards. He grabbed the shield from his hands, stepping in front of him, to shield him from more attacks.
Under screams and squelching sounds, with blood splashing everywhere, he was able to kill the remaining bats in the air without them being able to hurt him.

Suddenly it was quiet inside the room. Last weak screeching sounds came from the dying bats on the floor.
Eddie stumbled backwards, closing the door behind him and locking it. Then he turned around to look at Dustin, who had sunken to the ground in the small hallway.
He was wimpering in pain, his right pant leg soaking with blood.

“It´s all right. We got this”, Eddie said with a forced calm voice.

He kneeled next to Dustin, trying to examine the wound. According to the holes in the fabric, there seemed to be four bites, that had to be quite deep, but no big wound. Eddie was bewildered, that the bats were able to bite through the protective fabric of their trousers.

“We need to get you through the gate. We have no bandages here. And I think our job here is done.” He looked around.

The rattling sounds on and around the trailer became less frequent, but they weren´t sure for how much longer they were safe inside the trailer. Eddie hoped, that the bats had understood, that there was no other way inside the trailer and had – at least partially - flown away again.

___________________

Steve was the first to reach the top of the stairwell. He helped the other two find a stable position in the long hallway that lied ahead of them.

Nancy gave her flashlight to Robin, grabbing her gun from her back. Robin secured both lights inside the pockets of her trousers, as Steve equipped himself with his axe.
A sudden rumble made them lose their stand. They tried to hold onto each other, instead of grabbing onto the vines around them. They bent down, to hold onto the floor, before they would fall backwards down the stairs.

As quick as the rumble had come, it left.

Robin opened her eyes again, loosening her grip on Steve´s arm, that had stabilized her by grabbing her shoulder.

Just as she wanted to breathe out, she heard a slither sound near her feet. She saw, how a tentacle had wrapped itself around her ankle. Before she could try to shake it off, it had crawled up her leg, yanking her off her feet and tying her to the wall.

Her whole body was now being wrapped up by vessels, that sprawled her body out. She screamed for the other two to help her, who had just stood there perplexed, watching in disbelief, how Robin was being captured.

Nancy jumped forward, thrashing the back of her gun onto the vessels, that held Robin´s arms tied. Steve covered the other side, his axe trying to cut the tentacles in two.
But they weren´t given a chance to free Robin, because as they started their attack on the vessels, they were grabbed from behind, very quickly ending up in the same position as Robin.

Nancy had lost her gun, she tried to reach it, to shoot onto the vessels, but her limbs were held so tight, that she couldn´t move.
Now, they even slid their way around their throats, choking them, making them gasp for air and shushing their screams.

____________

“Stay here for a moment”, Eddie told Dustin, standing up again.

Eddie grabbed the chair, that stood in the middle of the kitchen. He took it to the mattress in the living room, pushed the mattress a bit to the side, and put it down again. He shook his head, looking up to the gate, then going back to the kitchen.

Dustin´s eyes followed him pace through the room. Eddie seemed to build some sort of stairs, so that Dustin wouldn´t have to climb up the bedsheets through the gate.
Eddie ended up positioning a big cupboard underneath the portal, placing the smaller table next to it and then adding the chair on top.

“I´m gonna do the same on the other side, too, okay? Can you stay here for the while? I´ll be quick!”, Eddie said to Dustin, who agreed to his plan.

Quickly, Eddie climbed up his provisionally ladder, checking if it was stable enough. Then he grabbed the rope and let himself land on his mattress. Dustin could hear the furniture scratch along the floor on the other side.

After about two painful minutes, Eddie´s head poked through the ceiling again. He held onto the edge of the gate, letting his lower body glide through first, planting his feet on the cupboard.
Then he walked up to Dustin, bending down.

“Here, I got you.”

Gently, he put his arms around Dustin´s back and underneath his legs, to pick him up.
He carried him towards the table, stepped on top and told Dustin, to hold onto the edge of the gate. He would slide through past him, helping to catch him on the other side, making it easier for him to land on top of the cupboard again.

A sudden loud noise made both of their heads turn around. The rattling came from Eddie´s room.

Apparently, the bats were strong enough, to push the table off the vent, opening their entrance again. The swirling sounds of wings was heard, not only from inside Eddie´s room, but also from around his trailer again.
This unexpected success seemed to spur on the remaining bats anew, that had momentarily rested outside. And to add onto their despair, clanking sounds above the shield in the kitchen became audible once more.

“Shit! We gotta go! Quick!”, Eddie panted.

Dustin tried his best to claw his hands into the slick material of the gate, pulling his body upwards.

“Can you do it alone?”, Eddie asked urgently, because he had noticed the wood of his door to shatter fragmentally.

“I got it!”, Dustin answered quickly.

So, Eddie jumped down from the table, grabbing it with both of his hands, and ran towards his door.

The table wouldn´t do a lot, he thought, but getting the big cupboard positioned in time, before the bats would crash through the door, was impossible.
He had reached the door, pressing the table against it, as a lout rattle made him jump in panic. A look wasn´t necessary, for Eddie to know, that the lid had given up under the force of the bats.
He turned around, more and more bats already finding their way into his trailer. At first, they seemed to fly around in confusion, not knowing where their prey was hiding. Eddie stared into the swarm of bats, that swirled around his living room like a tornado. He knew, that the door behind him would burst any second, and that the table wouldn´t drag it out much longer.

Next to him was the bathroom. He wanted to step inside, hide in there, curl up in the bathtub, hoping he´d be safe there, hoping that he´d wake up from this nightmare.
But he knew that it was hopeless. The bats would eventually find him in there. He had no way to escape.

And then, another thought hit him like a lightning bold. The bats might not have become aware of him yet, but not long and they would find Dustin. The gate was open and the red light coming from it looked alluring, Dustin on the other side would have no chance to hide or to run away fast enough, once the bats had passed.

Eddie did the one thing, that he would have never thought he needed to do. But it was the only right thing to do, the only possibility. He didn´t think about any consequences, didn´t waste the time to consider the odds.

He grabbed his sword from the ground, jumped forward to collect his shield as well and shouted at the bats, to get their attention.
He ran to the middle of the living room, pushing the cupboard onto the ground, so that Dustin wouldn´t follow him back down here again. If he was given the chance, Eddie could still climb up the line of bedsheets later.

Now he had the attention of the bats.

Dustin on the other side screamed at him, shouted his name repeatedly, telling him to stop. But Eddie knew, that there was no chance of stopping this now.

“Stay quiet! Or they will follow you up there! Run away, hide! And don´t you dare follow me in here again!”, Eddie yelled. He had reached the door by now, ripped it open, to lure the bats outside of the trailer again, to keep Dustin safe.

He needed to get the bats away from here as quickly and as far as possible and needed them to stay away.

His eyes found the four bicycles, that still lied on the ground in front of the trailer. He grabbed one, jumped on top and started kicking the pedals as quick as his legs could move.
His hope, that he was quicker than the bats could fly, was quickly drowned. Not even two trailers further, one bat hit him with such a sudden force, that it threw him off the bike, landing roughly on the ground.

The fall pressed the air out of his lungs. His whole body hurt from the brunt onto the concrete.

The bats had gathered around him. Eddie couldn´t tell how many there were. As the sky lit up, he was able to see, that there were less bats that had originally flown towards them, but still a whole lot. His theory, that something must have called a big part of bats back to the house, seemed to be true. He hoped earnestly, that Steve, Robin and Nancy had everything under control and were able to conclude their mission as quickly as possible.

He held onto his shield. He felt stupid. He should´ve known, there was no escaping. But a last hope nestled inside his brain. Maybe, he was able to kill enough bats, so that he could run into the trailer again, climb up through the gate, grab Dustin and flee as quickly as they could. Up there, they might have more chances to hide.

He started laughing, frantically. His brain was clinging onto this hope, telling himself that this time, his plan would work out, that he would make it. That he was able to take it on with so many bats, all by himself.

The last drop of realism inside him started laughing, too. It laughed at him, for being so stupid and naive. For thinking, that after all this fighting, after everything that had happened in the last days, it wouldn´t come worse. Maybe, he thought, maybe he wasn´t so scared after all, now. Maybe this was the best thing to happen. He couldn´t go back, not to what his life had been last week. He had nothing to fight for anymore.

Yes, he did! His hopefulness had spoken up loudly. He did have a reason to fight. That reason might not be himself, but it was Dustin, who was injured on the other side of the gate. Steve, who he needed to tell how much he really liked him. His uncle, who he wanted to explain to, what had happened in reality. His friends, his band even the students that would want to join his D&D club, that he wanted to look out for…

And even, if he would lose this battle, he would fight until he couldn´t anymore. For the people that meant the most to him. For the people he loved.
And with that, the crowd of bats thrashed into Eddie. Many of them hit the shield, or were cut open by the knife, falling onto the ground. But then, the bats started working together against him. The tails were hitting his arms and legs, finding a way to wrap themselves around him.

___________

After agonizingly long minutes Steve, Nancy and Robin fell onto the ground. The vessels around them had snapped, leaving them panting and breathless on the floor.

Coughing and with tears in their eyes, they tried to sit down, sorting out their thoughts. They had survived this attack. Vecna must have been strongly wounded, otherwise the vessels wouldn´t have let them go so freely.

“I don´t believe in a higher power or divine intervention, but that was a miracle”, Robin whispered with a raspy voice, watching the tentacles slither away.

She helped Nancy back on her feet, handing her the gun.

“Then we better not waste it”, Nancy gave back, turning around, cocking her gun.

“Phase four”, Steve announced, adjusting himself.

“Flambé!”, Robin ended the sentence. She grabbed a bottle from her belt and held her lighter ready in the other hand.

Carefully, the three had found their way up the attic. A scary view offered itself.

Vecna, floating in the air, being held up by the vessels coming out of him, that grew into the ceiling.
He was completely still, caught in his trance.

Robin wasted no time. She lit up the piece of fabric, waited just the split of a second, until the fire reached the inside of the bottle and threw it at Vecna´s chest. With a fiery explosion, his body lit up in flames. The vessels holding him snapped apart, letting the burning body fall onto the ground.

Vecna landed on his chest, trying to reach back up again, as Robin had already prepared the next bottle and threw it at him. He had found the strength to stand up, but the next explosion shook his body, making him tumble backwards.

Daring, Nancy stepped forward, using this chance, to fire the projectiles into him. She made him evade backwards further and further, until one last explosive from Robin and Steve made him crash through the wooden shingles.

The fiery body fell into the darkness of the night.

__________

Eddie landed on the concrete again. His body felt like it would rip apart, his limbs were being pulled into every direction. His vision became blurry, as tears rose up in his eyes and ran down his cheeks. He couldn´t breathe anymore. He wanted to scream, because the bats had landed next to him, sinking their teeth and claws into his flesh.

The pain became so all-encompassing and so agonizing, that Eddie wished to just die. He just wanted this torture to end. He closed his eyes, hoping that the next time he would open them again, he would wake up literally anywhere else than in this madness.

It seemed like his wish was finally granted. He could feel how the pressure on his throat and his limbs was taken away. He started to feel warm and dizzy, which he thought had to be something different than the blood overflowing his body.

With the last bit of willpower, he opened his eyes a bit. The sky was empty. The bats that had filled it, fell motionless onto the ground. There were no more screeches to hear, just the dull sounds of bodies hitting the ground.

He had done it, he thought, at last. And he closed his eyes.

Chapter Text

Eddie´s eyelids fluttered open. It took him a moment for his brain to process the signals around him. Keeping his eyes open was too overwhelming, his vision was blurry anyway.

Slowly, he leant into the darkness again, but his mind started to become more and more active. He could hear a voice around him. It sounded like it was coming through a veil. Cryptic and incomprehensible. His head was spinning and so felt the world around him.

A sudden slap onto his cheek made him open his eyes again. Weakly, his pupils tried to sharpen his surroundings. It was dark, but there was an even darker shadow right next to him. It moved and it was talking to him. His ears could only hear a mess of mumbles, but then his brain slowly started to detect more.

His eyes were finally able to focus on this shadow next to him and his ears could hear the cries coming from it. His brain seemed to have found the connection to his lower body again, because Eddie became aware of shots of awful pain pumping through his body. An anguished hiss, that had to come out from his own mouth, found its way into his ears.

“Eddie! Eddie! Eddie!”, the silhouette next to him held onto this word, his name, like a prayer.

Eddie wanted to answer, but his tongue had not been activated yet, and so, the movements of his mouth weren´t followed by any sounds.

“It´s okay, Eddie! Oh, Eddie! I got you, I´m here for you! But you have to stay with me, okay? You have to keep your eyes open for me!”

The person had slung his hand underneath the back of his head, the other started rubbing circles on his cheek.
This rhythmic movement was something, that Eddie´s brain could focus on. It distracted him from the pain, keeping him awake.

“Du-s-tin”, Eddie was able to gargle.

“Yes, Eddie. I´m here. I´m here!”

Eddie dared to let his eyes have a look at his lower body. The emerging realization of his situation still felt like a daunting nightmare, but his brain didn´t have the necessary capacity at the moment, to worry much about it.

His stomach was bleeding. His originally white Hellfire T-shirt was dark red now, and even his green camo-pants showed dark spots. Next to his body, there laid the dead bodies of the bats that had attacked him. Their mouths were still opened, Eddie´s blood running down their skin. Dustin must have ripped them off of his body, after they had collectively stilled.

This look was too much. Eddie could feel, how against his will, his eyes shut and his vision blacked out again. His mind, however, was thankful to give in to this sleep-like state once more, that his shivering body craved so much.

_________

Nancy ran forward to the hole in the wall. The shingles next to her were still burning slightly. Robin and Steve stepped next to her. With beating hearts, they examined the fiery body that had landed on the little trail in front of the door.

They exchanged a quick look, agreeing to run downstairs. The hallways were cleared of the vessels. As Vecna had lost his power, they slithered backwards into the walls and had seemed to stop their movements altogether by now, slowly dissolving. Did that mean, that Vecna was finally defeated?

Nancy was the first to reach the door, ripping it open to see onto the body behind it. The mass was no longer burning. It had turned into ashes, that dimly glimmered, the embers fading.
After a few seconds, the body couldn´t have been called a body anymore. The ashes flowed onto the ground, leaving nothing behind, but a few patches on the grass.

They had made it!

Afraid, of celebrating their success to early, the three exchanged another few worried looks with each other. None of them seemed to be able, to wrap their mind around it, just yet.
Then, Robin sighed out loud, breaking their silence. Next, she screamed in a high pitch, jumping, holding onto Steve and Nancy.

They started to join Robin´s dance, laughing, that they had really made it.
Nancy let herself fall into Robin´s arms. They clung onto each other, calming one another with their presence.

“You did so great, Nance, that was… that was… absolutely amazing!”, Robin praised her.

“You were great! Without you I couldn´t have done much to him!”, Nancy admitted happily.

Steve stood next to them, taking in their gleeful embrace.

“Oh, come on, Steve. Get in here!”, Robin said then, pulling him in by his arm. “You were great, too!”

Robin gave Nancy´s forehead a quick kiss, just because she had it right in front of her mouth, as they stood, which made Steve let go of them.

“Okay, I don´t have to be part of that”, he said, turning around playfully.

Nancy smiled sheepishly, but took advantage of their little moment of privacy, to pull her girlfriend in for a gentle peck on the lips.

Robin smiled back. “Okay, Dingus, the show is over. You can turn around.”

____________

The walkie-talkie around his belt started to crackle. Dustin had already forgotten, that he had it with him.

“Dustin, Eddie, we made it! Vecna is dead, dead, dead!”, he heard Robin´s cheers loudly through the device.

A massive weight lifted off of Dustin´s shoulders. He had already hoped, that the bats falling dead from the sky, had meant that Vecna was defeated, but he didn´t want to hope that far, just yet. Also, he had another problem right in front of him, right now.

He grabbed the walkie-talkie, pressed onto the recording button and yelled: “You guys need to get back here, immediately. Hurry up! Eddie is injured!”

He didn´t have to wait long for Robin´s answer. “We´re on our way. Hold tight.”

Dustin had tried his best, to make Eddie gain consciousness again. He gently lowered his head from his lap onto the ground, robbed towards his legs and held them upwards. He didn´t know if this was the right thing to do, with all the wounds that Eddie had, but he was desperate.

It didn´t seem to work. Eddie would only lose more blood like this.

His walkie-talkie started speaking to him again. This time it was Steve. He asked, what happened and how strongly Eddie was injured. Dustin could tell that he was running, by how breathlessly he talked to him.

Quickly, Dustin explained and was provided with orders, how to care for Eddie´s wounds temporarily.

Dustin lowered Eddie´s legs again. He stripped his belt off, then tried to free Eddie from his. With quick hands, he wrapped both around Eddie´s thighs, pulling them tight. This would stop the bleeding, at least for a moment.

Next, he took the bandana from Eddie´s head, opened the knot and folded it, so that he could press it onto the wounds on his stomach.
With his finger he checked under Eddie´s nose. He was still breathing.

_____________

Steve, Robin and Nancy decided to drop their backpacks and leave everything, but the walkie-talkie behind, to make it easier to run back through the forest.

They didn´t dare to stop running, even though their lungs were bursting and their muscles hurt. In between breaths, Robin tried to reach Dustin again, asking if he still had everything under control. He was crying, as he answered, telling them that Eddie had blacked out again, after being awake for a minute. Steve took the device and gave him orders, what to do to his wounds, so that Eddie wouldn´t lose much more blood.

Steve felt, like he had never run that quickly in his whole life. Now, that he didn´t have to check the ground for the vines anymore, he kept his eyes focused on the horizon, waiting to see the end of the forest.

Soon, he had to tell Robin and Nancy, who got a bit slower, that he would run ahead of them. They should contact Dustin, in case something happened.

And finally, the woods got lighter. Steve could see the first silhouettes of the trailers at the park.
He shouted for Dustin, so he could answer and Steve could follow his voice.

After a few loud exchanges, Steve entered the battlefield. He made his way through the dead bats on the floor, towards the middle, where Dustin held the unconscious Eddie in his arms. He stroked his cheek, telling him that Steve had arrived now and that everything would be okay again.

Steve would have almost started crying, too, as he saw Dustin like that, and even worse, seeing Eddie like this: bleeding out and slack.
Immediately, his survival instincts kicked in. He knelt down next to Eddie, taking a quick look at how Dustin had tried to take care of the wounds and then tried to lift Eddie up.

“We´re bringing him inside”, Steve said. He saw, how Dustin struggled to get up. “Can you walk?”, he asked.

Dustin just nodded. He limped behind Steve towards the trailer, following through the open door back inside.

Steve´s eyes took in the mess of the trailer. He didn´t ask out loud, what had happened here, but he was very curious to know at a later time. How could their plan have ended up like this?

“He built a ladder for me”, Dustin explained the chaos on the floor. He bent down to lift up the big cupboard again, but quickly gave up.

Robin´s voice disrupted him. Kneeling on the floor, he listened to her voice coming from the walkie-talkie.

“Where are you? We are here now.”

“Inside Eddie´s trailer”, Dustin answered flatly.

Steve put Eddie down on the couch momentarily, not without having a look to check, if he was about to wake up again and if he was still breathing.

In that moment, Nancy and Robin had reached the door, stepping inside. They stopped in their movements for a second, to process the chaos inside the trailer.

“We have to get him through there. We have no chance to nurse his wounds down here”, Steve explained with a look at the gate.

Rapidly, he, Dustin and the two girls set up the cupboard again. Dustin showed them, how Eddie had positioned the table and the chair beneath it, to climb on top.
Steve ordered Nancy and Robin to go through the gate first. He would carry Eddie up there, but they had to pick up his body on the other side, without hurting him more.

______________

Eddie´s eyes opened again.

This time he found himself in a much warmer and lighter space. `It must have worked`, was one of the first thoughts his brain produced. He had woken up in heaven. Maybe not literal heaven, but judging by the greenish-brown eyes that stared into his, he was close. This, or the angels in heaven looked like Steve Harrington.

“Eddie”, Steve sighed relieved. “Thank god, we have you back.”

Eddie´s eyes wandered around. This time, his brain gained consciousness much quicker.

He saw Nancy, Robin and Dustin kneeling next to him on the floor, leaving him some space. He saw, that he was in his trailer. The real version of his trailer. He laid down on the floor, his legs rested upwards on the couch and his shoulders and head were being held by Steve´s lap and arms. He gently stroked over his forehead, shoving his hair aside, and looked down at him with a now warmer smile.
Eddie closed his eyes. This must have been his worst nightmare and most wonderful dream at the same time.

“Hey, hey, keep your eyes open. No more blacking out, okay?”, Steve said strictly, but his good intentions were heard in his tone.

“I can´t lose you”, he added, only audible for Eddie´s ears.

“Steve”, Eddie whispered. He couldn´t believe what had happened. That he had made it. That Steve and the others had made it. If his whole body wouldn´t have hurt that much, he would have gotten up and kissed Steve on the spot. He wouldn´t have cared, if the others watched.

“How do you feel?”, Dustin´s shaky voice came from the side.

Eddie´s eyes found him, giving him a smile, but telling him: “Honestly, I feel like shit.” His voice was still raspy and his mouth felt uncomfortably dry.

“Eddie”, Steve said slowly, waiting until Eddie´s eyes found his again, until he spoke further. “We have to take care of your wounds.”

Eddie nodded. He lifted his head, trying to sit up, but Steve held him back, stroking over his cheek.

“No. You stay right where you are, Mister. You´re still too weak to get up.” Steve tried to lighten up the tension around them with an attempt of a playful tone.

“Okay. If you say so, …Stevie”, Eddie answered dreamily, letting Steve´s strong hands hold him down. “We have a first aid kit in the-“, he started, looking over at Robin and Nancy to his right. Robin shook a little box in her hands.

“We´ve got it, already. But thanks.”

“Oh, okay…”

Eddie rested his head on Steve´s thighs again, letting his eyes ghost over his face.

“How did you get me down here?”, he asked.

Steve and Dustin answered at the same time. Eddie frowned at the mix of words. Then, Dustin shut up, to let Steve explain and start over again.

“I carried you. The others helped me to rebuild your stair system and then we gently lifted you through the gate.” Steve spoke slow and clear, so that Eddie could comprehend the words he said.

Eddie´s cheeks would have flushed, if he still had enough blood in his body, because the thought of the others having to carry his unconscious body through the gate, made him feel embarrassed. But at the same time, he deplored, that he hadn´t had the chance to enjoy being carried by Steve´s strong arms. But maybe they had the time to repeat this at another time.

Nancy´s voice reached his ears. “Eddie, I´m going to cut your trousers open where the wounds are, okay?”

Eddie nodded. “Do whatever you need to do.”

He noticed, how Nancy started working on his legs. She was very careful, trying not to touch the wounds with the cold metal of the scissors. She cut the seams of his trousers open and then cut off the legs at the hight of his thighs. Quickly, his camo-pants turned into shorts.

Eddie had focused on Steve´s face for most of the time. His soft facial features made his mind calm down from the pain. Steve had held the eye contact with Eddie, caressing his skin and letting him know, he would be okay.

As Nancy was done, Steve´s eyes landed on the wounds. He pressed the air out through his teeth, biting on his lower lip, as he saw the blood smeared legs of the man beneath him.

“My eyes are up here, Harrington”, Eddie joked through the pain.

That Eddie was still in the mood to crack jokes and flirt with him in this situation made Steve chuckle.

“I know, Eddie. I just tried to avoid them for a moment, because I know I´d lose myself in them again.” His voice was nothing more than a whisper, only intended for Eddie´s ears.

Eddie swooned at those words. His face nudged into the comfy skin of Steve´s palm.

Robin and Dustin exchanged a quick glance above Eddie´s leg, but they just agreed to keep going with their work, letting the two boys have their little moment. Also, it might distract Eddie from his pain.
Dustin had prepared a bucket with water and some swabs, to clean the wounds, before Robin put band aids and bandages around them. Luckily, the thick material of his trousers had held back some of the scratches of the bats, but still, the bite-wounds were deep.

Then they moved onto his stomach. Nancy told Eddie, that she would cut open the sides of his shirt, so they could fold it upwards and could reach the wounds better.
Eddie nodded again. The wounds on his stomach were much bigger. The bats had taken complete bites out of his skin, instead of just ramming their teeth into it, or scratching.

“I buy you a vest for your protection and you just leave it open during the fight…”, Steve scolded Eddie, but he couldn´t answer, because he tried to focus on his breathing. "Well... but look, now we´re matching again. We´re gonna get the same scars" he added, noticing too late, that this might not be the best thing he could have said right now.

“This is going to hurt, Eddie. I´m apologizing in advance”, Dustin announced, a clean swab in his hands.

“Don´t worry about me”, Eddie answered, his eyes not leaving Steve´s. “I got myself a strong, young man in uniform here, that will take care of me.”

Steve smiled at those words, even though he knew, he was the one doing the least at the moment. Eddie hissed in agony, so Steve grabbed hold of his left hand, and wrapped his around.

“Squeeze, if it´s too much”, he whispered. And Eddie did. His fingernails scratched into Steve´s skin, but he didn´t care, even if it would leave marks behind.

“Talk to me”, Eddie pressed out through his teeth. “Tell me anything”, he pleaded, his eyes closed from the pain.

Steve stuttered for a moment, not knowing what to tell Eddie, that might distract him a bit.

Robin interfered, who had her hands free at the moment, because Dustin and Nancy worked on Eddie´s stomach.

“Maybe you wanna tell him about your realization from earlier. You didn´t want to talk to me about it, but I guess Eddie might be right contact person for this, or not?”

It was definitely Robin´s best trait, to say the most inappropriate things in tense situations and then laugh about it.

“I mean, yeah, it´s probably better if I talk to him about that stuff, but definitely not in front of you all. I mean, we have a kid here…”, Steve said, his breathing had sped up.

“Hey!”, Dustin shouted at him. “I´m not a baby anymore.”

“My, my, Steve, now I wanna know even more what it was about, even though I know I´m gonna regret it afterwards”, Robin laughed.

“Guys, can we please focus on the wounds here!”, Nancy threw in, bewildered by how easy the others seemed to take this.

“No, no, it´s good. It distracts me”, Eddie said. “If it doesn´t distract you too much?”, he asked.

Nancy shook her head, indicating the others to keep going with their conversation.

“Go on, Stevie, tell me. Now I wanna know”, Eddie added with a teasing look at Steve, before his face winced again.

Steve decided to throw the rest of his reputation and self-respect out the window.

“I was having a talk with Robin yesterday… and … and I talked to her about you… and me and…” Steve noticed, that Eddie had closed his eyes again. He was listening, but he didn´t care that much about the content of the speech. He just needed words to listen to, that might cheer him up a bit. And also, Robin, Nancy and Dustin looked too concentrated on the wounds, as that they would really listen much to what he had to say.

Steve knew, that whatever he would say now, would stay between them. It was just a matter of distraction right now.

“Okay… Robin told me to dig for some memories. Because I just couldn´t believe that I develop feelings for a guy from one day to another, without ever having had thoughts like that.”

“Or maybe I´m just special”, Eddie said while breathing out. The fact, that Steve had just admitted his feelings for him still hadn´t quite settled in his head.

“Yeah, or that”, Steve said with a little smile. It was working.

“Well… and I actually did find a memory, which I´m telling you now, I won´t go into detail! But I mean, I didn´t even like him, he was such an asshole, that´s why I never even questioned my… thoughts.”

“And… who was it?”, Eddie asked quietly.

Steve mumbled something, but it wasn´t comprehensive the first time, so he tried again. He hoped, that only Eddie would be able to understand that name, but a sudden yell let him twitch.

“Billy Hargrove?!” Dustin´s eyes almost popped out of his head. “Jesus, Steve! Every day I learn something new disturbing about you…”

Eddie chuckled. Steve blushed embarrassedly, trying to shield his face with his right hand. He wondered, what else Dustin had heard about him, that unsettled him that much.

The wounds were cleaned now and Robin had started bandaging Eddie. Steve tried to move his lap, so that Eddie´s lower body lifted a bit from the ground. This helped Robin to reach around his stomach.
With a sigh, Eddie´s back touched the ground again.

“No need to be embarrassed, Stevie”, Eddie said with a little smile and stroke of his hand. “He was an asshole, yes. But he was also hot”, he admitted.

“Thank you”, Steve said louder than intended. “Finally someone who agrees with me on that. The other guys always agitated themselves, how such a ugly guy could get all the girls. I mean, I jumped in on that, but…”

“They were probably just jealous”, Eddie explained. “Man, I wish I could´ve gotten a chance to have a taste of Billy Hargrove… I bet he – “

“Oookay, we´re done!”, Robin interrupted Eddie´s very open declaration. Steve´s look showed how thankful he was, to change the topic.

Eddie felt much more stable now and put his legs down from the couch. He was still nestling in Steve´s lap.

Robin and Dustin let themselves fall backwards onto their arms. They sat down on the floor in front of the couch and Nancy stood up to go to the kitchen to get a glass of water.

“Here, drink up”, she said, as she handed Eddie the glass.

“Thank you”, Eddie said, but his hand was still too weak to carry the full glass.

Steve´s hand came to help immediately. He wrapped his hand around the glass and around Eddie´s fingers, guiding it towards his lips. He even helped him sit up a bit, as he felt better again.
Nancy had also searched in the bathroom for some pain killers and handed Eddie two pills. He sat up now, his back leaning against Steve´s chest. Nancy sat down next to the others.

Eddie still felt very weak and so much more tired, but he felt too comfortable in Steve´s arms, as that he wanted to sleep now. He wanted to know what had happened.

Robin was eager to explain every detail of them defeating Vecna and Dustin interrupted her very often, to add his experiences.

Eddie listened to all of this, happy that he could just follow the conversation with his ears, letting the rest of his body rest. His head had found its way into the crook of Steve´s neck, his forehead pressing onto the soft and warm skin there. His hands were both held by Steve´s next to his legs.

One time, when nobody was looking and when Eddie had almost fallen asleep - he almost thought he had dreamed it - he felt how Steve´s lips found his hairline, planting a gentle kiss there. Eddie pressed his head even closer towards Steve´s neck, his eyes falling shut.

“I think someone really needs to sleep now”, Steve said quietly. Eddie nodded into his shoulder.

Eddie was too tired, to really follow the next conversation much, but he heard, that Nancy, Robin and Dustin wanted to take Eddie´s car and drive back to Vecna´s house to collect Max, Lucas and Erica. They would bring them to Max´ house later, where they would sleep then.

Eddie yawned and rubbed his eyes. The medicine really started to knock him out. Before he knew, Steve was by his side again, asking if he should carry him, or if that hurt too much.

Eddie asked, if he could be carried. He didn´t know where Steve would take him, but he would have gone anywhere, where Steve would bring him.

“I thought we sleep inside the camper tonight. It´s a more neutral area than the trailer”, Steve explained as they stumbled through the cold night air.

Eddie was thankful, that he didn´t have to stay inside his trailer, so close to the gate. Not after what had happened.

Gently, Steve laid him down on the pull-out couch in the back. After the hard concrete, the mattress felt soft underneath his body.

Steve stood in front of the bed, being watched by Eddie. He discarded himself of his tight trousers, shoes and jacket, until he stood there in just Eddie´s underwear and his Black Sabbath shirt.

“Do you want me to help you undress?”, Steve asked carefully. He didn´t want to force Eddie to undress, if he didn´t want to or if it would hurt him.

Eddie was too tired to speak, so he just nodded again, with a pleading look.

With skilled and wary hands, he helped Eddie out of the vest and the rest of his shirt. To get the pants off, he looked for another pair of scissors in the drawers and ended up cutting the seam open entirely.

Not long, and Eddie was undressed. His body started shivering in the cold air. Steve wasted no time to strip his shirt off and hand it to Eddie.

“Might be a bit dirty, but…”, Steve whispered, helping Eddie put the shirt on. The rest of his sentence trailed off, as he saw into Eddie´s face so close to his.

His lips almost looked pouty, his eyes were filled with gratitude and a tiny bit of pity. Steve´s hand moved upwards, to shove Eddie´s strands out of the collar of the shirt.
Steve really wanted to kiss Eddie, but he felt like he might take advantage in this situation. He knew, that Eddie wanted to kiss him, too, but this wasn´t the right time for their first kiss.

Instead, Steve´s hands wandered down again, finding Eddie´s and wrapping themselves around his. He took both of them and lifted them to his mouth. Alternately he gave each backside a kiss, his eyes not leaving Eddie´s for a second.

Eddie winced at this heart-felt gesture.

Steve´s lips curved into a little smile. “I´m sorry, I know, my hands are always cold.”

“No, that´s not it…”, Eddie started, but he couldn´t finish his words anymore. To make up for an answer, he took both of Steve´s hands and guided them towards his face, cupping his cheeks with them again.

He closed his eyes, as their skin connected, leaning into the cooling palms of Steve. With another deep connection of their eyes, he turned his head, planting one kiss each to the underside of Steve´s hands. He hoped that this gesture was able to convey all the words he couldn´t say at the moment, all the emotions that swirled around in him, that he couldn´t even try to explain with words, and so much more.

According to Steve´s look, he understood perfectly. He came closer, grabbing the blanked at the end of the couch, spread it on both of their bodies and laid down next to Eddie, facing him, entwining their fingers again.

Knowing, that Steve was with him, and that he was safe with Steve, Eddie closed his eyes. The feeling of both of their hands being connected, let him know that Steve was there with him the whole night.

Finally, he could let his body rest.

Chapter Text

Unsteady dreams shook Eddie´s body awake. The events of the last days and especially last night repeated itself inside his head. Each time he spiralled deeper and new ways of pain and death and despair offered themselves.

Each time his eyes opened harshly and Eddie became aware of how violently he was breathing, he wished he could have fled these dreams earlier. It took him a solid minute to understand what had happened, and that he had just been dreaming. The incidents of the night prior flashed in front of his eyes and he started perceiving the pain of his wounds again.

He had slept on his back, because of the wounds, which he usually never did. He felt like he was imprisoned in his body and this position.
The nightmares made him break out in a cold sweat, but now that he was awake, the blanked wrapped around himself made him uncomfortably hot. With his free arm, he peeled the blanket off his body.
The cold air around him made his skin grow goosebumps, but the coolness helped calming his body and his mind.

To calm himself some more, he let his eyes wander around in the camper. It was still night outside. The darkness filled his surroundings, making the outlines of the furniture blurry. His mind travelled to the one spot of his body, that still felt quite warm.

He turned his head to his side, to find Steve laying next to him. He slept on his side, his hand still holding Eddie´s.
The sight of Steve next to him, the feeling of him touching him, reassured Eddie that he was okay now. The events of the last days are over. And they could only hurt him inside his head at the moment. His body was being protected by Steve right now, even in his sleep.

A few times this night already, when Eddie had woken up, Steve had woken up, too, or had been awake already, talking him through his arising panic. This helped Eddie to ground himself quickly and with Steve´s other hand stroking his cheek and his hair, he fell back asleep quickly afterwards, too.

Soon, Eddie´s neck started to hurt from this turned-around motion. He didn´t want to let his eyes off of Steve´s pretty face, but eventually his gaze landed on the ceiling above him.
Now, he focused on the warm embrace around his hand and Steve´s steady breathing. Before he noticed, his eyes closed again and he drifted into sleep.

Inside and outside the camper, sunlight slowly arrived. It was uncomfortable first, to open his eyes to this much light, so Steve blinked a few times, to identify his surroundings and then closed his eyes again.
He took a deep breath, trying to stretch his legs and chest as much as he could, without waking up Eddie next to him. He waited a few more minutes, for his body to wake up, until he opened his eyes again.

Steve had not slept very well. He woke up every hour, if not even more often. Sometimes he was being woken up by his own nightmares, sometimes by Eddie´s. All in all, he felt like he hadn´t slept at all.
His whole body felt tense, because he hadn´t moved the whole night. He didn´t dare, because he didn´t want Eddie to wake up and he wanted to keep facing him, in case he woke up from a nightmare. Also, the couch didn´t provide much space for the two of them.

But that didn´t matter. In fact, Steve liked it, because like this, he was extra close to Eddie, keeping him safe in between the backrest of the couch and the end.
Eddie next to him had lost the contact of his hand. He slept on his back, his hair spread out around his face. Steve would have gotten closer, if that didn´t mean that he would have to lay his head on Eddie´s hair and ended up having it in his nose and mouth. Steve imagined, what it would feel like, waking Eddie with a tender kiss on his cheek.
Eddie´s face looked dirty, but Steve wondered, how the oncoming stubble on his cheek would feel like on his lips. He wanted to indulge in it with his hands, his nose and even his own cheeks, taking in the feeling of Eddie´s skin as strongly as he could.

His mouth felt very dry. But it wasn´t just because of that thought, he hadn´t had something to drink in a few hours now and his habit to open his mouth in his sleep, only added to that.
Very carefully, he tried to rid himself of the blanket and roll off of the mattress. His feet found the cool ground. Steve looked down on himself, before he stood up. His body was dirty. Sweat and soil and blood sticked to his skin, even though he had worn a whole uniform during their fight. He thought back, trying to remember when was the last time that he had showered, but he couldn´t recall it.

Quietly, he made a few steps forward to reach a shelf and grab a glass from it. He filled it with water from the tab and drank it at a draught.
After that, he took the time to really stretch his body. He yawned, his hands touching the ceiling of the camper as he did. His body still felt tired and drained, but having shed the heavy clothes yesterday evening, gave him a feeling of ease.

As he sat down, he noticed that his wounds haven´t hurt during the night or his stretch. Instead, Steve became aware of a tickling itch underneath his bandages.
Was it the dirt, that had found its way underneath his protection? Or was it worse, did he get an infection now?

Afraid, Steve pulled his bandage open at the back, warily untying it. The layers started with a brown-ish tone from the dirt, turning into white and clean ones, then becoming more and more red.
Steve examined the layers he took off. It wasn´t fresh blood, that sticked to the bandage and his wounds didn´t bleed now. In fact, they looked okay. The wholes from the teeth and the deep bite wounds seemed to have regrown skin from the insides of his flesh. There was no scaly skin on them, but healed skin. The smaller scratches from the claws had disappeared completely.

The itch must have come from the healing. Scar tissue showed, where the bats had done most damage, but compared to the day before, it seemed like almost nothing.

A quiet yawn interrupted Steve´s thoughts. Eddie had woken up on the couch in the back, his blinking eyes trying to adapt to the sudden brightness.
Steve grabbed another glass from the shelf, filled it with water and went back to Eddie. He sat down next to him, offering him the drink.

“Good morning”, he whispered.

“Mornin´”, Eddie answered, stifling another yawn. His voice was deep and raspy. Steve´s heart jumped momentarily.

Eddie took the time to sit up with his back against the wall, next to where Steve had taken place. Gladly, he took the glass and drank a few sips, before he handed it back. Steve put it on the ground next to him.

Eddie looked up in Steve´s eyes, wiping his eyes for a moment, as he saw Steve smiling at him.
But instead of asking ´how did you sleep?´, because both of them knew it was bad, and it was an idiotic thing to ask, Steve just held the eye contact. And Eddie, instead of lying an answer, decided to rest his head on Steve´s shoulder.

He was a bit scared at first, because he still felt a bit dizzy from sleeping and at the same time still being sleep-deprived, that Steve wouldn´t reciprocate. Because now was a new day, the apocalypse was over and everything that had happened yesterday might not be relevant and real anymore.

But before those thoughts could root in his brain, he felt how Steve nudged his head closer to Eddie´s and taking his hand into his again.

Steve had pulled Eddie´s hand over into his lap, which Eddie now really became aware of. Steve wore nothing but his black underwear, and even though Eddie´s face and shoulder touched Steve´s naked skin, he was much more nervous about the one clothed body part that his hand was so close to.

His eyes wandered down Steve´s muscular chest, down his chest hair and followed his happy trail, that was cut off by the boxers, to his hands. Both of Steve´s wrapped around Eddie´s, that slowly started to become sweaty. And not only his hand. Eddie noticed, how the shirt and the bandages he wore added to the heat arising in his body and he had to pull away from Steve to undress himself some more.

“M´sorry. I kinda feel too hot right now in all of this”, he muttered and gestured down his almost naked body. He realised too late, how stupid he must sound.

“Oh, it´s all right, I mean, I´ve been kinda naked the whole time”, Steve said light-heartedly, but his voice stilled, as he saw Eddie´s torso for the first time. Last night, when he had helped him undress, he didn´t focus much on it, before he had given him back his shirt, but now…

Steve swallowed, trying to stop staring at Eddie. But he couldn´t help throwing some furtive glances at Eddie´s chest, finding some more tattoos on his pale skin, that he wanted to investigate further.
Then, his eyes wandered downwards past the bandages, to a place that the long shirt had pretty much covered until now. He didn´t want to stare, but he couldn´t pull his eyes off of that area.
He heard Eddie chuckle and immediately, Steve became aware of how obvious his staring must have been. He wanted to melt into the floor, as he also started blushing at Eddie´s next words.

“Once again, Harrington, my eyes are up here!”, Eddie laughed, pointing at his eyes and then at Steve´s.

That he had used his last name again, to tease, instead of the cute nickname he had given him, made Steve feel even more embarrassed now.

“S-sorry”, he gulped, forcing his eyes onto the bedding. He didn´t need to look, to know that Eddie was smiling, satisfied with how easily he could make him fluster.

But Steve liked the teasing. He knew, that Eddie enjoyed it, too, and that none of them had to be ashamed of what they did to the other.

Eddie was now kneeling in front of Steve, leaning closer. Steve looked up at him again, noticing how Eddie started to close the space between them, but a sudden eruption made him stop.
Eddie´s eyes had landed on Steve´s lower stomach, his eyes opened wide.

“Your wounds…”, he started bewildered, “how did they heal so quickly?”

Steve looked downwards, too. “Oh, I don´t really know, either. Luck, maybe, for once?”, he chuckled.

Then he saw, how Eddie looked down his own stomach, examining the bloody patches on his thighs, as well. With a frown, their eyes met each other again.

“It doesn´t hurt anymore. I mean, at least my legs don´t hurt.”

Then, he let himself land on his butt, shaking the mattress a bit, taking a look at his legs. Steve came closer, to follow Eddie´s hands. He started to peel off a little band aid on his lower leg, that had covered a scratch. Eddie winced a bit, as the glue sticked to his skin and the hairs on it, but as he had gotten rid of it, both boys´ eyes grew wider.

Underneath the band aid was no open wound, no blood, no partly healed scratch, there was nothing but healthy, normal-looking skin.
Eddie tried again. He peeled of several smaller band aids, each time finding nothing peculiar underneath. Then he moved on to the bigger bandages. Two on his upper thighs. Carefully, he lifted one side of the big sticking plaster, trying to see underneath. The fabric was bloody, but not from fresh blood. And even more strange, there seemed to be no wound, where that blood could have come from.
Eddie removed the plaster completely. The area underneath still looked a bit swollen, but the wound had regrown skin and had grown close, only a few scabby lines showing how big the wound had been.
Soon, Eddie´s legs were completely free of any form of band aids and with a questioning look at Steve, who nodded at his unspoken question, he moved on to his stomach.

“Here, let me help you”, Steve said, sliding his hand around his waist, to untie the bandage in the back. Slowly, he unwrapped Eddie´s stomach, waiting for the fabric to turn red or Eddie to tell him to stop, when it started to hurt.

After a while, the bandage became loose around Eddie´s stomach, because it didn´t stick to any smeary wounds. His stomach looked swollen and red and pitted, but there were no open wounds and deep cuts in his flesh like the night before. It wasn´t as healed as Steve´s stomach yet, but at least the wounds were closed with new-grown skin and scar tissue.

“That is crazy!”, Eddie breathed out, securing himself with his arms behind his back.

Next to him, there had appeared a big pile of bloody band aids and metres of bandages. They looked nasty and quickly a stinky smell found Eddie´s nose.

“Ew. I could really use a shower. And new clothes.”

Steve agreed, taking the pile into his arms and throwing it into a trash bin in a shelf under the sink. Eddie in the back had opened the window, that they had climbed through the first time, stealing the camper.

The fresh air brought in the smell of fresh grass and some gusts of wind shuffled his hair strands. He held his face out into the fresh morning air outside the window, taking in the view.
The camper was still parked in between big trees near the woods at the end of the trailer park. The sounds of birds chirping and leaves rustling made his mind feel at ease.

Then he could feel the mattress shift underneath him again. He turned around, keeping his arm resting on the window frame. Steve sat down next to him again, his gaze alternating between the nature outside and Eddie´s face.

Eddie noticed, that Steve had come much closer, than he normally would have. He enjoyed this proximity, but their timidness made it hard to tell what exactly was going on between them.
Steve had lifted his hand again, but this time it went past Eddie´s hands. He reached his face again. Eddie looked up at the man kneeling in front of him, feeling, how his hand made it to his ear, raking his finger through a small strand there and tucking it gently behind his ear. Steve repeated this movement a few times, even though all of Eddie´s front strands were now tucked behind his ear. Eddie had closed his eyes, thus hoping to be able to feel this little touch more intensely. His head leaned into the touch, and his chin automatically gravitated upwards, as Steve´s hand found his way to his neck.
At first, he could feel his fingers gently stroking his skin there, but then the movement stopped. Eddie´s eyes fluttered open again. He could see, how Steve´s eyes were drawn in by his lips. He was breathing visibly, so many thoughts swirling behind his eyes.

Eddie moved his hands now, too. His left hand sneaked forward, stroking Steve´s arm, wrapping his hand around his softly, his right hand latched onto Steve´s arm that nestled in his neck. He moved from the elbow upwards, Steve´s eyes following his touch. As his fingers danced over his shoulder and up his neck to his jawline and his ear, Steve´s eyes found Eddie´s again, blinking many times, to process the sight.

The hand by his ear stretched now, stroking over his cheek and ghosting through the hair in his neck.
Steve swallowed again, as he shifted on his knees, trying to get even closer to Eddie, because just moving his head forward didn´t feel like enough. His brain felt so overwhelmed and empty, the only thing he was aware of being the touch his hand on Eddie´s neck and Eddie´s hand on his neck.

He had done this a thousand times before, why was it such a big deal now? He knew what he had to do. He… he didn´t actually. Not really. He knew what he ´had to do´ with girls, what made him reach temporary goals, but this in front of him wasn´t a girl, it was a boy, and not just ´some´ boy. It was Eddie freaking Munson. The one that he would have never imagined, he would catch feelings for. Eddie who was so much of his own person, that it frightened Steve at times, Eddie who seemed so tough and vulnerable and unapologetic at the same time. Eddie, who wasn´t like anyone he had met before and who he genuinely wanted to get to know every little detail about.

For once, all those temporary goals, that in his dreams led Steve to his one big goal, seemed to be utter bullshit. This time it was different, because everything about it was different than he knew, but that was what made it so much more exciting. Steve felt like he had missed something all these years, something that he now had the time to explore differently. What he used to know didn´t help him here, but the knowledge of what he ´wanted´ to do did. This time, whatever he wanted to do, he did it because it felt right for him. It didn´t matter where exactly it would lead him, but he knew for sure, that it would lead him further to happiness.

Steve held his breath, as he saw how Eddie had closed his eyes, leaning forward. Automatically, his eyelids dropped, his brain ready for releasing shots of endorphins, at the touch of Eddie´s lips on his.
Eddie´s nose tip had already found Steve´s, nudging it softly, helping him find his way closer, as a loud repetitive beat against the metal door made both of them jump.

Their eyes ripped open, their beating hearts now being spurred on by anxiety, instead of excitement.

“Shh! Maybe they´re still sleeping”, a voice outside the camper scolded another.

“Steve…? Eddie…? Are you awake?”, the other voice asked loudly.

Steve sighed and rolled his eyes. “Robin.”

Then, with an apologetic look, he freed himself from Eddie´s touch, standing up and opening the door.
Nancy and Robin stepped inside, each holding a tray with plates on it.

Steve, who both girls had already seen exposed like this, didn´t mind letting the two girls in while he was wearing nothing but boxers, but Eddie grabbed his shirt quickly, trying to cover himself up a bit.

“We made some breakfast at Max´ trailer and thought we´re gonna bring you some, instead of asking you to come over. It´s already pretty crowded over there”, Nancy explained.

“But we don´t wanna bother you much”, Robin said, who had seen Eddie slip on his shirt and now looked Steve up and down.

But Steve just shrugged his shoulders. “Excuse me. You did already bother us with your loud beating, and all of our clothes are dirty and bloody and stink…”, he defended himself.

“Yeah, I can smell that.” Robin waved her hand in front of her nose. “You guys need a shower, ASAP.”

“Steve, your wounds!”, Nancy said, after Robin was done.

“Yup, their almost fully healed. Eddie´s look great, too, we just checked.”

“But how is that possible?”, Nancy frowned, sitting down on the bench.

“I don´t know. But I don´t really care, either, since now, neither of us is gonna die because of those.”

Nancy looked, like she wanted to discuss this more in depth, but Robin saw her face and told her not to worry about it now. She held out her hand, for Nancy to take it and pulled her up again. At the door, Nancy turned around quickly, to say: “Max, Lucas and Erica are all fine, by the way. They were already waiting for us to pick them up. Maybe you´re gonna come over when you´re done eating and hear for yourself.”

“Yes, we won´t need long.”

“And, thank you, for the breakfast”, Eddie shouted at Robin and Nancy, who now stepped outside.

When Steve closed the door, Eddie stood up from the couch and walked over to the table. The plates were filled with scrambled eggs, two toasts with butter, ham and cheese and next to them there was each a glass with orange juice.

Steve showed Eddie to take a seat. They had only now realised, how hungry they actually were. The adrenaline had kept them on the edge yesterday, but now their batteries needed to be recharged.

“Oh, that looks nice!”, Eddie said, licking his lips.

Steve had grabbed two forks for them and when he sat down, both immediately started to chug down their eggs and toasts.

“I have a question, though…”, Eddie started with a full mouth. “Nancy and Robin… are they together now, or…?”, his sentence trailed off.

“They are. Robin told me… yesterday”, Steve answered. Yesterday´s conversation felt like it had been several days ago. “But it´s still pretty new. I didn´t even know that Nancy broke up with Jonathan. Her boyfriend before Robin.”

Eddie nodded. “I mean I kinda knew that Robin was gay, but Whe- Nancy? No, my gaydar was quiet.”

“Your gaydar?”, Steve asked amusedly.

“You know, it´s like… gay people can sometimes tell when someone else is gay. It´s like a feeling, but usually supported by very obvious gay things that these people do, that raise your suspicion. And so far, I´ve been right every time.” Eddie smiled at Steve. That contagious smile, that made Eddie´s dimples pop and Steve´s heart flutter.

“I wouldn´t have guessed either, because I knew, that Robin had a crush on this other girl. But I think they make a cute couple.”

“They do. Do the others know about them? The kids?”

“No. That´s why Dustin is so obsessed with pairing me and Robin. And it´s not that I wouldn´t trust him with that, but Robin doesn´t really know him like I do and it´s her decision who she tells and when.”

Eddie swallowed, remembering his talk with Dustin, but then remembering, that Dustin had promised to keep quiet.

“I mean, I guess he knows about us now, anyway”, he added.

“Yeah, I guess. And I don´t really mind, to be honest. Dustin is one of the most accepting people I know. He won´t go around and tell everyone else. Not without consent.”

After this, both focused on eating again. Instead of talking much more, their knees found each other underneath the small table, holding body contact, smiling whenever their eyes met.
When they were done, Steve piled up the trays and plates. He grabbed his dirty clothes from the floor, attempting to put them on again.

“I´m gonna bring these back real quick, and talk with the others what we´re gonna do now. Probably gonna call the kids´ parents or drive them home. We´ll see. Is it okay, if I leave you alone here for a while?”

“Yeah, that´s okay. Maybe I can sleep a bit more. Probably better if nobody sees me outside, yet”, Eddie said, his lips pressing onto each other.

“I´m not gonna stay long”, Steve reassured. Eddie´s sad look made him want to lean in again, pull his body close and even execute what Robin had interrupted earlier, but he knew that he wouldn´t be able to detach from Eddie then. Instead, he grabbed both of his hand again, like he had done a few times already now, lifting them up to his mouth and gave each a tender kiss.

Eddie looked back at him with such desire, that Steve felt like Eddie would jump at him any moment and finally take what he wanted so much. For a long second, Steve stood there, hoping that Eddie would do it, giving him a last chance to persuade him into staying here with him.

Instead of taking Steve´s hands and return the kisses, like he had done last night, too, Eddie said teasingly: “You better go now, before I change my mind!”

And Steve turned around and left the camper with the trays and a last, quick smile.

Chapter Text

Not long after Eddie had fallen asleep again, he was woken up by a rattling noise from the front. He opened his eyes a bit, to see that Steve had opened the door and stepped inside. Quietly, he walked up to the couch in the back.

Eddie had turned around to face him and had closed his eyes again, because he still felt kind of tired. He felt the mattress move next to him. Steve laid down next to him, letting his hands brush over Eddie´s hair and then rest it in the crook of his neck.

The cold hand on his face made Eddie crawl a little closer to Steve. Their foreheads almost touched now, and Eddie could feel Steve´s breath on his face.

“The others are fine, we called their parents, explained everything to Max´ mom and now we just have to go home”, Steve whispered.

Eddie wondered, how their parents must have reacted to their kids staying away for a few days, experiencing what could´ve been the last minutes of the world and then just call and say that they´re fine and want to be picked up.

“Do you always just go home afterwards?”, Eddie asked, his big eyes now focused on Steve. “You have been through this several times, too, right?”

“Yeah. But never that intense, I would say. It sounds stupid, but it´s the only thing we can do now. Somehow just try to keep going and move on from it.”

“But what if it comes back? It did before, right?”

Steve nodded slowly, his expression blank. “This time it feels like we really made it. But we can never know for sure, I guess. Sounds just as stupid, but best is not to worry, for now.”

“Okay”, Eddie breathed out, not sure if Steve´s words calmed him down.

“By the way, I brought you new clothes. I hope that´s okay, I took them from your wardrobe…”, Steve waited for Eddie´s reaction.

“Oh, yeah, sure, that´s great. What did you pick?”, he wanted to know, now sitting up, interested in Steve´s choice.

Steve, who pulled his hand away, a bit thrown off by Eddie suddenly lifting, went to grab the pile he had put down on the table.

“Nothing special. Just new underwear and pants and a shirt.”

“Nothing special? You don´t think my clothes are cool?”, Eddie asked, tilting his head.

“I meant I just picked something basic… I… I like your style actually, it suits you”, Steve tried to explain himself.

“Basic, aha. Metallica is basic for you?” Eddie had grabbed a dark shirt and folded it open.

Steve´s annoyed look showed him, that he didn´t want to discuss this more with him.

“I´m just messing with you, Stevie. Metal´s not for everyone…”, Eddie teased and once again stroked along Steve´s jawline with his index finger.

“Munson, I swear to god, if you keep doing this…”

“Oh, is that a threat? What? What if I keep doing this?”, Eddie smirked, licking his lower lip, staring into Steve´s eyes with a feisty look.

Steve´s eyes widened, trying to process this situation, thinking of a remark or an action to answer. Now he licked his lip seducingly, staring up and down the man in front of him, that wore nothing but boxers, while Steve was dressed in his uniform.

Very slowly, he stepped closer to Eddie, looking down into his seductively opened eyes.

“Big words for someone as naked as you”, were the first words that Steve´s brain decided on. He didn´t know if it made much sense, but his tone definitely put the right emphasis on it.

Eddie swallowed, as Steve stepped in front of him, and he noticed that Eddie didn´t back out backwards. The tension between them reached such a high level, that they felt like the little air that was left in between them sparked.

Eddie noticed now, how much taller Steve really was than him, the big boots adding to this feeling of superiority of him. But Eddie was dominant, he had managed to stay laser-focused and in charge with much stronger looking men. He kept the eye contact, knowing full well how to use his charm. And he was dying to find out how Steve would react, when he would break.

Eddie let his hands fall to his sides, wanting Steve to take initiative. And he did. He raised his hands and grabbed onto Eddie´s neck with a firm grip. He moved so slowly, that Eddie could follow his movements easily and could back out, if he wanted to. But Steve wanted this to last, he wanted to see, if his teasing could have the same effect on Eddie that it has on him.

“I think…”, Steve started, his voice composed, “I´m gonna have to do this…”

He held the eye contact, moving his face closer to Eddie´s. But before Eddie could close his eyes, in anticipation of finally feeling Steve´s lips on his, Steve´s strong hands turned his head around, to expose his neck.
Without a warning, Steve lowered his lips onto the soft skin below his ear. Eddie felt like his heart would rip his chest apart any moment. His head was captured by Steve´s grip and his mind was captured by the hot breaths against his skin and the pair of hot lips against his favourite spots.

Steve could taste the slightly salty taste of Eddie´s sweat on his neck, but he didn´t mind. He pressed exactly three sloppy kisses along his jawline, then went down a bit and positioned the last underneath his earlobe.

Eddie was so caught off-guard by this, that he lost himself in this attack on his neck, completely forgetting that he wanted to stay in charge.
Way to soon, Steve pulled himself away from Eddie, whose mouth escaped a whiny sigh at the loss of Steve´s lips and hands on his skin.

He blinked a few times and Steve could see how dilated his pupils have gotten. Steve smiled, since this had been a first success. Eddie had kissed his cheek before and now Steve replied the favour. It was indescribable, how his body yearned to keep going, but he wanted to see Eddie flustered, too. Letting him know, that Steve wasn´t as inexperienced as he might think.

Eddie ripped his eyes open. He had stood there, his arms hanging low, offering his body to Steve, that he needed a second to gather himself again, gaining control again. Steve used this second, to grab the shirt from the table and throw it at him.

“Get dressed. Dustin´s mom is gonna drive us home”, he ordered, still smiling at how star-struck Eddie looked, as he caught the shirt.

“Wait, like, now?”, Eddie asked.

“Yup, I just wanted to pick you up from here and bring you some clothes.”

“You´re… When you say ´us´ and ´home´… you mean…”

“Yup again, I´m gonna take you home with me.”

“Mh”, Eddie said, still not done teasing. “You´re gonna take me home to you and finish what you started? You´re that easy to get, Harrington?” There it was again, his fuck or flirt instinct.

In reality, he was very touched by Steve´s offer to go home with him, since he really didn´t want to go back to his trailer and still didn´t want to be seen outdoors.

“First of all”, Steve said sternly, taking another threatening step towards Eddie, “I remember you flirting with me for several days now, at every occasion that you got. Second of all, maybe I am easy to get, but I still decide, who I´m going after and who not… and third…”, Steve´s mind couldn´t come up with another reason. This whole back and forth with Eddie was too intense to be able to think straight.

“… if you don´t want to, you can stay here”, Steve ended his sentence with a shrug of his shoulders. “You wanna stay here?”, he asked, lifting his eyebrows.

Eddie took a deep breath. He had never let anyone take away his position of power ever before. This was the first time that he enjoyed taking the opposite role. Seeing Steve so sure of himself and so dominant all of a sudden made Eddie so extremely horny, that he was scared, that he might get a boner in front of Steve.
The fact, that he only wore a pair of boxers and Steve was dressed in this hot uniform only made it worse.
He could already feel how the blood left his steamy brain, leaving him unable to react.

“No, no. I would love to go home with you”, Eddie was able to answer then, smiling sheepishly.

He turned around quickly, putting on the shirt and new pair of jeans. He picked up the underwear, deciding to change into it, after he´s had a shower.

“Okay, I´m ready”, Eddie said afterwards.

“Good. We better take all of our clothes”, Steve suggested. “Are we just going to let the camper here?”

“Yeah, I think that´s what´s best. They´re gonna find it eventually.”

Together, they sneaked out of the camper and in between the trailers to find Max´ one.

Dustin´s mother had already parked her car next to the car of the Wheelers. Both mothers discussed with Max´ mom, with the kids throwing excuses into the conversation to defend themselves.
Dustin waved at Eddie and Steve and showed them to take a seat in the car. After a few loud minutes, Dustin was ordered to get into the car, while his mom discussed some more with Miss Wheeler.

“Hey, Eddie, how are you? Steve said your wounds are already healed? How´s that possible?”

“Hi Dustin. Yeah, I feel pretty good, actually. But I have no idea, this freaky shit is your area, not mine.”

“I think I have an explanation”, Steve interrupted Dustin, who wanted to ask more questions. “I went to Eddie´s trailer this morning, to grab some fresh clothes and the gate was gone. Completely gone, like, you can´t even see any remains of it. And yesterday, when Vecna died, all the bats immediately lost their power… Maybe the Upside Down collapsed and the gate disappearing had some effects on our wounds, too?”

“That could be”, Dustin said. “My wound is gone, too. And Max says, she definitely felt how the curse let go of her, when Vecna died. But anyway… where are you gonna go now, Eddie? You could stay over at my house, if you want to?”

“That´s nice, Dustin, but Steve already asked me to stay at his house and…”

“Oh, okay, I understand”, Dustin said with a mock sad expression.

Finally, his mother had ended the conversation and took a place in the driver´s seat.
“Hi Steve, Eddie”, she greeted them both, looking back at them.

“Hi, Mrs. Henderson”, Steve said.

Eddie just said “Hi” coyly. He was not sure, if Dustin´s mother had heard about the murder allegations about him, but as it seemed, Dustin had told her everything about how much he liked him. Soon his mother started to talk about how much Dustin loved the D&D meetings and how thankful he was to have found a new friend in Eddie at school.

After a while of shy conversation, Steve and Eddie were dropped off at Steve´s house, saying goodbye and thanking them for the drive.

“Wow, that´s a big house!”, Eddie said surprised.

“It´s big, but usually I´m alone there. Wasted space if you ask me.”

When Steve saw, that Dustin´s car was far enough away, he took Eddie´s hand and guided him towards the front door. He opened it and let him inside.
Eddie quietly took in these big rooms that seemed so clean and vacant, until Steve asked him, if he wanted to go see his room. He nodded.

Steve´s room was big, but not even half as full as Eddie´s room. There were a few posters on the walls, but everything personal seemed to be hidden inside organized drawers.
Steve let himself fall on the bed, holding his hand out for Eddie to follow him.

“So… would you rather have a shower or a bath?”

“A bath sounds nice”, Eddie gave back, sitting down on Steve´s neat bedding.

“A bath it is”, Steve said, turning around to grab two towels from a wardrobe. He put both on the bed and then went to open a door on the other side of his room, that led into a bathroom.
Eddie could hear him fiddle with the drain and then heard water splashing into the tub.

Steve came back into his room, holding both his hands out. Eddie took them, letting Steve pull him up.

“I think we should still get a shower before we go into the bath, because the water will get nasty really quickly if we go in like this”, Steve explained, still holding both of Eddie´s hands.

Eddie nodded, letting Steve guide him out of his room again. They reached another bathroom at the end of the hallway, that had a big open shower in the corner. Steve closed the door behind them, pulling Eddie close again.

“Can I help you undress again?”, he asked sweetly.

“Oh, I´m begging for it”, Eddie answered. Actually, he had never begged before, and he thought that not even Steve would ever get him this far. But he had already thrown a lot of his principles out of the window with Steve. He´ll allow it, if he asks so nicely.

With a cheeky smile and eyes full of desire and anticipation, Steve let go of Eddie´s hands, to grab the hem of his shirt. Gently, he pulled it upwards and above his head, making sure to be careful with the remains of his wounds. He placed the shirt on a chair beside him.

Now Eddie took a step closer, opening the zipper of Steve´s jacket, that he still wore. He was very pleased to find Steve´s bare chest underneath.
Eddie breathed out loudly, getting rid of the jacket completely.

“Oh, you have no idea, what your chest did to me, Steve.”

“Really?”

“Mhm, when you were fighting that bat down there, ugh, hot!”

Steve chuckled, seeing this reaction out of Eddie.

“My turn again”, he said, waiting for a little move of consent from Eddie, before his hands moved downwards, fiddling his jeans open.

Eddie helped him, sliding them down and stepping out of them. Before Steve could really realize it, his pants were gone, too, just like his socks. Now, they only had to remove their boxers to step into the shower.

They had been here before. It wasn´t a big deal. But what would follow now, felt like a big deal. Steve´s heart jumped inside his chest, because he had never undressed a man, had never had another man that prominently naked in front of him, had never had this amount of desire to see one naked. His nervousness flooded him again, but it was a welcomed feeling, because its origin was the excitement Steve felt.

His mind hadn´t really processed what he was doing, and neither the pretty obvious next step that seemed to follow. Now, Steve felt like there were endless possibilities of what he could do and not do. This was unexplored territory that he stood across. He might not do everything right at first, but it didn´t matter, because it felt right. And because Eddie was with him and he trusted him and wanted him. Wanted him right now, just like this.

Both boys stood chest to chest, feeling the respective warmth that their bodies sent out. Their eyes met with dazy, lustful gazes.

This was the moment, Steve thought. He could see Eddie´s eyes begging for more, the way he had only ever imagined Billy to look at him in his dreams. But this was real and Steve wanted to give him whatever he craved, needed it for himself just as much.

His hands flew upwards, grabbing Eddie´s neck like he had done earlier, pulling his lifted chin closer to his. He felt, how Eddie´s hands found his waist and his shoulder, holding him tight.
Steve felt like his brain exploded under the amount of endorphins shooting through his body, as his lips finally met Eddie´s.

Their kiss was soft and gentle at first. Their lips brushing against each other, before both of them felt ready to lean into it more. Their heads tilted slightly, noses touching. Their kiss felt like a slow dance, the way their mouths parted and adjusted, to welcome the other one on top.

This kiss was a whole new experience for Steve. He didn´t have to lean down much to reach Eddie. The firm grip, with which he held him tight felt so good, Steve felt so wanted and secure. The little stubble on Eddie´s face, that brushed over his added to the fireworks that sparked behind his eyes.

Breathless, they pulled apart, their eyes opening slowly.

“Oh, for fucks sake. Finally!”, Eddie panted, licking his bottom lip, shyly looking up at Steve.

Steve chuckled bashfully, his flushed cheeks burning red.

“I wanna do it again. Please”, he whispered, still out of breath.

Eddie looked at his rosy cheeks and plush lips. How could he say no to that.

When their lips found each other again, Steve even moaned quietly into the kiss. Eddie swallowed his wimpers, his hands finding his neck and holding it secure.

After a few more sloppy kisses that left them absolutely breathless, Eddie pulled away.

Nonchalantly, he grabbed the seam of his boxers, pulling them down and throwing them aside. Then he grabbed around Steve´s wrists to hold him close.
Steve gulped, keeping his eyes strictly focused on Eddie´s face.

“Too fast?”, Eddie asked. He didn´t want to make Steve uncomfortable or move too quick, but he thought that Steve had planned to take the shower with him, before the tub in the other room overflowed.

Steve just shook his head, the blush spreading onto his shoulders.

“It´s okay, Steve, you can look”, Eddie cooed, stroking his arms.

“Do you want to take the shower alone, do you want me to wait outside or turn around?”, Eddie kept asking with a comforting tone. He wanted Steve to talk about his boundaries with him, showing him, that he wouldn´t judge.

Steve shook his head again, fiddling with his boxers, before he let them fall them down and his foot shook them away.

Eddie´s head dropped, taking a quick glance at Steve´s former clothed body part.

“Oh”, he laughed slightly, looking up at Steve again, who tried to dodge his look. “It´s okay, Stevie. Don´t worry your pretty little head about it.”

“It´ll go down again… I… I´m sorry, this was just… I´ve wanted to do this for quite a while now… and it felt so much better than I thought…”

Eddie smiled at Steve´s words. “I´ll take it as a compliment, then, …big boy!”

Steve´s eyes widened, his blush reaching a new shade of red now.

“I swear to god, Eddie, this is not helping.” Steve tried to sound annoyed, but couldn´t help the little embarrassed smile that curved his lips at the sight of Eddie´s grin.

“Come here”, Eddie cooed, pulling Steve inside the shower now. He felt like this was the time, that Steve needed a little guidance.

Eddie turned the tap on, letting the cold water run down the drain at first.
He turned around to Steve, pushing him against the tiles on the wall.

“I think this takes a moment. But I think I know how we could pass the time.”

And with that little approving look of Steve, he sank his lips onto Steve´s once more. This time he fully took charge. He let his teeth pull on Steve´s bottom lip and even latched onto his jawline, kissing his way up to his ear.

Then, Steve´s hand found its way onto his back, pulling him closer. Steve moaned, as their chests touched, but then he startled and quickly let his hand fall down.
By pushing Eddie closer, their groins had touched. With a girl that wouldn´t have meant much, but now Steve became awfully aware of Eddie´s dick mere centimetres apart from his. He started panting and Eddie removed himself from him.

“You okay?”

“Yeah… just… a bit nervous”, Steve answered out of breath.

Eddie nodded. “Okay. You let me know, when it´s too much, okay. I´ll stop immediately”, he reassured.

“Yes.”

Eddie´s hand checked the water coming from the shower head, noticing that it was warm now.

Steve grabbed a bottle of body wash from the side, opened it and grabbed Eddie´s hand. He opened it, spurting some of the soap into his palm, then guiding it onto his chest.
“I want you to do it.”

Eddie didn´t have to be asked twice. He started spreading the soap on Steve´s chest, taking his time to roam his fingers through his chest hair and cup his pecks. Eventually, he started to reach his shoulders and arms. Steve leaned into the touch, having closed his eyes, lowly humming at the gentle caress. Eddie took the showerhead to clean his upper body, seeing how the dirty water flowed down into the drain.

He wanted to devour his chest and neck, that was fully clean now. The glistening look of the water on him made the view even better. But he held himself back. He didn´t want to go too fast on Steve, he wanted him to find his own pace.

Steve had opened his eyes again, taking some more of the body wash.

“Can I?”, he asked, then sinking his hands onto Eddie´s shoulders.

To warm up, Steve started on his arms and hands. Eddie had closed his eyes as well, which made Steve gain more confidence to start cleaning his chest. It was good, that Eddie didn´t look and therefore didn´t see Steve´s coy eyes wandering his body. Involuntarily, his hands started trembling with excitement, as his gaze found Eddie´s dick dangling between his legs.

Steve pressed his lips together, checking quickly, if Eddie might have opened his eyes, but he hadn´t. So, he kept going, thoroughly cleaning and massaging Eddie´s chest and back, making sure he didn´t go too hard on his healing wounds. Whenever his fingers glided over one of his tattoos, he wiped the foam away, wondering about the meanings behind those motives.
Then he also took the shower head, washing the dirt off.

He pulled Eddie in for another quick kiss, before he asked, if he could move on to his legs.

“Of course, pretty boy”, Eddie panted, his voice trembling with anticipation.

Eddie watched, how Steve squatted down, wrapping his hands around his calf, gently lifting it, placing his foot on his knee.
With both of his hands, he moved up and down Eddie´s leg, drawing circles on his thigh and even reaching up to his hips once or twice. He repeated the same process on the other leg, letting Eddie adjust the water jet, to clean it off.

Eddie smirked, when Steve stood up again and he now sunk down, stopping his face exactly in front of Steve´s dick. Steve had to swallow at the look that Eddie threw up at him, conditioning his body to not send all of his blood downwards. But Eddie acted shy, just focusing his eyes on Steve´s legs now, even though his face was still very very close.

As both of them were finally cleaned then, Steve searched around the bathroom.

“Shit, we forgot the towels in my room. Ah, well… then we have to be quick.”

He grabbed Eddie´s hand again, both stumbling along the hallway, securing each other to not slip and fall, leaving behind a little trail of water droplets.

They had made it to Steve´s room again, the cold air on their warm skin giving them chills.

Steve checked the running bathtub, turning the water off and adding a bath salt to it. He splashed around in the water, making the surface turn into a bedding of foam, whose fresh scent started to fill the air.
Eddie grabbed both of the towels, put them down on the toilet seat and stood next to Steve.

He stepped in first, checking that the water wasn´t too hot and wouldn´t hurt his wounds. Then he held his hand out to help Eddie inside as well, making sure to keep his eyes focused on his face.
They took place opposite of each other, their long legs slightly bend, resting against another.

“How many girls have you invited in here already? Am I the first guy to bathe with you?”, Eddie asked teasingly.

“Actually, you are the first person I ever shared a bathtub with. I rarely used this one, so yeah, you´re my first.”

Steve smiled back at Eddie, confirming his hope but denying the other assumption. Then he leaned back, closing his eyes.

“This is nice.” He stroked through his hair a few times. “But my hair is nasty!”

“I could wash it for you”, Eddie´s mouth suggested, before he could really grapple the thought. Oh, how he wanted to rake his hands through Steve´s gorgeous hair.

“You would?”, Steve asked positively surprised.

Eddie nodded eagerly.

“Oh, yeah, I´d like that”, Steve grinned. He grabbed a bottle of shampoo from the corner of the bathtub, giving it to Eddie.

“Turn around”, he ordered nicely.

With some splashy waves, Steve turned around in his sitting position, holding onto the sides of the bathtub, to lean his head back.
Eddie grabbed a little cup from the side as well, filling it with water from the tub and pouring in over Steve´s head. His hands made sure, that Steve wouldn´t get any water in his eyes and that his hair was wet enough, before he applied some shampoo.
He smelled the foam that build up on Steve´s hair, savouring that smell for later. His hands massaged Steve´s scalp, while Steve hummed in approval.

After a little while, when his hair was already shampooed enough, but Eddie kept going because he didn´t want to stop yet, Steve asked, remembering something Eddie had said this morning.

“This morning, you said something about that you can tell when someone is gay…”

“Mhm.”

“Um… Did you know that I… well, wasn´t straight? Can you tell that just by looking at me?”

Eddie chuckled. “At first, no! And it wasn´t really knowledge then, either, I just assumed stuff, when Dustin told me something about you.”

“Dustin talked about me with you?”

“Yeah, but not much. He just said that you are one of his best friends, and how cool you are and that you kind of adopted the whole bunch of them. That you are, like, their mom…”

“The mom? No, if then I´d be the dad!”, Steve exclaimed, sitting up slightly.

“Well, that´s not what I´ve heard”, Eddie laughed. “But he also told me about how you gave him tips for styling his hair and how serious you take yours and how you try to find a girlfriend and go on many dates, but never find one that you want to keep. And he complained, that you won´t admit your feelings for Robin, because you obviously have a crush on her.”

Both of them laughed.

“And I just thought, that it could be the other way around, too. I know Robin from school, and even without really knowing her, for me it was kinda obvious that she´s not into guys. Even more after I heard a bit more about her from Dustin and then met her. And I thought maybe you are unsure, too. You go on date after date, hoping to find the right one, but quit so easily, because it never feels right. I mean on the counter side, you were a pretty homophobic dickhead in High School, which could have been internalized homophobia as well… but I don´t know… sometimes it´s little things, like how you style your hair, or how you stand…”

Steve shifted again, trying to turn his head around to look at Eddie. “I know, I was an asshole…Those were not my best days… but wait, how do I stand in a gay way?”

“It, it doesn´t always make sense. Straight people might stand like that, too and that means nothing. It´s just a little addition to the suspicion sometimes…”

“No, really. Tell me”, Steve insisted.

“Okay. You have… like, a mom-stand, somehow”, Eddie laughed, letting his hands down. “You buck your hips in one direction and you either cross your arms and tilt your head or you have both hands on your hips, like you´re scolding your kids, especially with that disappointed look then.” He mimicked Steve´s look.

Steve shook his head in disbelief, but smiling quietly. “And that really is an indicator?”

Eddie shrugged his shoulders. “It could be, if you say so. If you… agree.”

He wanted to know, if Steve really was ready to face his queerness. He might like Eddie, like him a lot, might want to touch him, but if he wasn´t ready to acknowledge his feelings and would rather hold onto his heterosexuality publicly, then Eddie wanted to know now.

“I mean… I guess you´re not fully wrong...”, Steve started, staring into the bubbles, fiddling through them with his hands. Eddie waited for him to keep going.
“Eddie, can I ask you something?”

“Anytime.”

“How did you know that you were gay?”

“Oh well…”, Eddie started. He grabbed the cup from the side again, filling it with water to rinse Steve´s hair.

“I mean, first of all I have to say, that I´m still questioning sometimes, even now. Because…”

Eddie tried his best to sort out his thoughts, to put them in a logical order, for Steve to keep up with the terms and everything.

“Robin told you about bisexuality, right?”, he asked.

“She did. It´s when you are attracted to both men and women”, Steve quoted.

“Okay, good. Have you ever heard of the word pansexual?”

“No.”

If Steve was baffled by this new term, he hid it well, so Eddie kept explaining.

“Well, pansexuality is when you are attracted to people regardless of their gender identity.”

“But isn´t that what bisexual is, too?”, Steve asked, a bit ashamed of his question, because why would there be another term for it, if it was the same.

“It is similar in some ways, yes, but the main difference is, that a pansexual person could describe themselves as gender-blind, so they have no preferences with who they are dating and gender doesn´t play a role for them. You could say this isn´t a point on their checklist for finding a partner. And this includes people, who are neither a man or a woman.”

“You mean trans people who have the opposite genitalia?”

Eddie chuckled at Steve´s words. “Trans people can be a men and women. And to answer your question, yes, the genitalia doesn´t matter either, but there are also trans people that don´t fit into these two boxes.”

“But everyone´s born with either a vagina or a dick…”, Steve tried to follow.

“Yes, but that doesn´t determine who you are. There is much more than just black and white. Just because I like D&D and listen to heavy metal, doesn´t mean that I am sacrificing innocent people in the name of satan. You might think that when you look at me, but I hope when you get to know me, you see who I really am.”

Steve nodded, trying to extend that metaphor onto his new knowledge. “Okay…”

“That might be a lot, now, for the beginning. But what I was trying to say by that is, that sexually I would describe myself as pansexual, because I am attracted to people regardless of their gender or their genitalia. It just doesn´t matter to me, I just like to fuck, you could say. But romantically… I mean, I´ve never really been a very romantic person and I´ve never been in a romantic relationship, but…”

“You´ve never been in a relationship?”, Steve spat out.

“No. In middle school I was still way too childish to even think about that, and I never really liked the girls my age and now in High School, well you know my reputation. Being called a satanist freak doesn´t really attract anybody.”

“It attracted me!”, Steve interrupted again.

“Stevie… You were basically forced to be around me for several hours, would you really have spent time with me, voluntarily, before getting to know me through Dustin?”

Steve´s expression went blank. “I mean… I…”

“It´s okay, Stevie. I don´t judge you for it, really. But to finish my sentence: I tend to only develop crushes on men. I don´t know why, when I clearly have no problem with fucking women, but I can´t really see myself in a relationship with them. And I have never found someone who was genuinely interested in me to spend more than one night with me and also, it´s hard to keep a relationship like that a secret in a little town like Hawkins. So, romantically speaking, I´d say I´m definitely gay.”

Eddie waited a moment, for Steve to catch up.

“Sometimes it still confuses me, that I am somehow both, but I think I figured it out enough to know it for sure. So, to answer your question: I had several little moments, when I obsessed over some boys or older men than me, or when I started to develop sexual thoughts about them. But I never quite investigated that more, because I was also attracted to women and saw that as a proof for being straight. I thought everybody feels like me, but how I found out, they don´t. I think I really started questioning, when I noticed that my way of feeling doesn´t really align with the majority of society. Straight people don´t imagine what it´s like kissing the same gender, or what it would be like to have sex with them and they don´t admire every body type, their attraction seems to follow very specific rules. I always thought those rules are crap and I never understood why some people could rule out ever being attracted to someone outside of what they usually go for. I could see myself falling in love with a man, instead of a woman, not for the fact that he´s a man, but for the fact that I fall in love with his personality, his smile, his dreams… just everything except for what´s in his pants. And that applies to everyone. At least in a sexual way. Romantically, how I said, I happened to fall for men, but honestly, who knows what my future has in stack for me. I´m open to anyone. Love is one of the things that is very hard to rationalize. It just happens and you can´t really choose who you fall for, but you can choose if you want to act on it.”

Eddie took his hands down, again. Steve´s hair was fully rinsed now and he turned around to see him better.

“Actually, that was very wisely framed of you”, Steve admitted.

“Yeah? Sometimes I feel like my words make no sense to others. It´s just like a waterfall that drowns them”, Eddie laughed.

“No, I understand that. It kinda resonates with how I feel now. I still can´t believe how my life turned around in the last years. I mean, I feel like I´m a whole new person now, but I wouldn´t wanna have it any other way.”

He smiled at Eddie warmly.

“Come here, your turn now”, he added.

Eddie turned around, but accidently brushed his wounds against Steve´s knee while doing so. He winced, holding his side.

“I´m sorry!”, Steve said quickly, trying to comfort Eddie. “Are you okay? Does it hurt a lot?”

“It´s okay. It was my fault, but it´s okay already.”

“Man… I told you not to be cute or be a hero yesterday…”, Steve came closer, shoving Eddie´s hair from his shoulder and peppering it with tiny kisses.

“Oh, so you don´t think I´m cute?”, Eddie asked with a mock indignant tone.

“I think you´re very cute, actually. Particularly with that bandana and the eyeliner.”

“Mh, I hoped you´d like it”, Eddie mumbled, enjoying the kisses.

Steve grabbed the cup from Eddie and started wetting his hair. He started shampooing it just the way Eddie did, taking his time to work from his scalp to his tips, massaging thoroughly.
After rinsing his hair, he leaned a bit out of the tub, trying to reach a little container in a shelf next to it. He grabbed it and put it on the floor, taking a comb and a bottle conditioner out of it.
He distributed the conditioner in Eddie´s hair and gently started to comb through his locks, detangling them. Every once in a while, he pressed kisses onto his neck or his cheeks. Then he rinsed again.
Eddie turned around again, leaning his back against the wall of the bathtub, letting its coldness calm his body from the heat of the water and of the closeness to Steve.

Steve had longed for the little container again, pulling out a washcloth this time. Instead of asking, if Eddie wanted to clean his face from the smudgy makeup, he wet the cloth, scooped closer, lifting Eddie´s legs above his and asked a simple “Can I?”

Eddie nodded, closing his eyes. He felt how Steve´s left hand held onto his cheek, holding him in place. Carefully, he scrubbed the cloth over his face and eyes, taking off the dark colours and the dirt.
The contrast of the slightly rough washcloth and Steve´s soft hand on his skin cheek made Eddie´s skin tickle.

“That looks much better”, Steve whispered when he was done.

Eddie opened his eyes again, seeing Steve´s face very close to his, still having his hand on his cheek. Eddie slid even closer, resting his legs around Steve´s back, pulling him in for a kiss. It felt so unreal, that he could just do that now, whenever he wanted to. And he wanted to take every chance he´s got.

Their kisses became sloppy again, Eddie couldn´t restrain himself and pushed Steve´s chin backwards, to have full access to his neck.
He peppered his skin with kisses, listening to Steve´s speeding up breathing and the little approving whines that escaped his lips.

Eddie would have loved to suck on his skin and mark him with hickies, letting everyone know, that Steve was his now. Letting Steve know, how much he wanted him, giving him something that he would be able to see the next mornings in the mirror, that would remind him of this exact moment.

But he didn´t. He didn´t know if Steve was ready for that yet and he was scared of making the wrong move, and that all of a sudden, Steve would jump away from him and reject him.

“Eddie!”, Steve moaned. As it seemed, Eddie wasn´t the only one surprised by that sound falling from his lips, because momentarily, Steve shut his mouth with his hand.

Immediately, Eddie´s dominant side took over again, grabbing that hand from his mouth, entwining their fingers and holding it down.

Against his ear he mumbled: “Oh no, Stevie, tell me, do you like it when I do this?”

Steve nodded, keeping his mouth shut.

“What was that, sweetheart, I´m afraid I didn´t hear you.”

Sweetheart, oh shit. That name made Steve´s blood boil, of all things exactly in that area, that he wanted to keep relaxed.

“Mhmm, you´re such a tease”, Steve panted.

Playfully, Eddie grabbed some of the hair at the nape of his neck, pulling slightly backwards. Then he pressed a kiss onto the corner of his mouth.

“What was that, Stevie?”

Steve breathed out shakily. “Ugh, I like that, Eddie. Please, more.”

“That´s what I thought.” And Eddie went back to attacking Steve´s neck again.

Even Steve himself was surprised, by how easily he fell into this submissive role, but it just felt too good, being taken care of by Eddie. His mind was swirling uncontrollably.

Meanwhile, Eddie switched to the other side of his neck and then went back to kiss his puffy lips. He could feel himself getting hot. Steve completely devoted himself to Eddie´s lips and his hands roaming up and down his back, not caring about the sounds coming from him anymore. His hands had rested on Eddie´s thighs, holding them, squishing the soft flesh but with his rising desire, his hands found Eddie´s butt, that he had wanted to touch, pulling him closer. This made Eddie grind on him, their dicks touching and Steve could feel that Eddie was half hard now, too.

Steve did it again. Now, Eddie´s crotch stayed close to him, his legs clasping behind his back. This new feeling made Steve see little stars behind his eyelids, his whole body felt like an exploding firework.

Both pulled their lips apart for a moment, to catch their breath.

“If you want me to stop, you better tell me now”, Eddie panted.

He didn´t know what he might regret more later, stopping now or keeping on. He didn´t want to stop at the moment, but he also didn´t want to push Steve into it. He didn´t know if he ever got another chance with him and he would love to take it then, now, but if Steve would decide to give him a real chance, then he wouldn´t want to rush now. Although he´d had enough casual sex in his life, that had always been kind of rushed, it was nothing new to him. But this was Steve in front of him, that he wanted to explore and show so much and try so much with, this was far past casual for him.

“Eddie…”, Steve muttered quietly. “I… I want to kiss you, I want to keep kissing you… but I think that´s all I want to do for now. Even though, I…”, he looked down on himself with an apologetic look, “I mean usually I never really wait, but I… you…”

Eddie thought, that Steve would say ´because you´re a guy´ now. He understood, that this was all still new to Steve and that exploring was fun, but going for the real thing wasn´t always so easy, even less if you just figured yourself out. He was scared that Steve didn´t really mean it with him, that he would eventually go back to girls again once his brain could think rationally again.

“… you really mean a lot to me and I wanna take my time with you. I feel like in the past I just got to know someone to end up having sex with them, it was almost like a habit or a coping mechanism, and afterwards I always moved on again, because I lost feelings. I don´t want it to be like that anymore, not with you.”

Eddie swooned at those words from Steve. He didn´t know what words to use that would explain how relieved he felt or that would make enough of an answer that says ´I understand and I feel the same and I…´ no, it was too early for that word. So, Eddie just held onto his face and kissed him again, putting all of his endearment into the kiss. Steve inhaled deeply, as if he was taking all of this in, knowing exactly what Eddie meant to say.

“God, I have so much that I wanna show you, that we could try. Only if you want to, of course”, Eddie said when he pulled away again.

Steve smirked. “What have I gotten myself into… No, I´d love for you to show me.”

“I promise, you´re not gonna regret it! But for now, I think this is really good.” Eddie gestured around the tub and in between their faces.

Steve nodded softly. “Do you want to turn around again?”

Eddie complied. Gently, Steve grabbed onto his hips, pulling him closer towards his chest. He didn´t care that his dick was touching the lower part of Eddie´s back, he wanted to feel him everywhere. Automatically, Eddie leaned his head backwards, resting it on Steve´s shoulder and taking his hands, wrapping them around his body, where it wouldn´t hurt him.

This embrace felt wonderful, the warmth and closeness letting him forget all the trauma of the past days for a moment. The only thing that mattered now, was Steve by his side.

Chapter Text

It was the next morning. Eddie woke up, finding himself in unknown surroundings. He blinked his eyes open a few times, to take in the room around him, to find out and remember, that he was in Steve´s room and had slept in Steve´s bed.

His body felt restricted, but in a beautiful way, because Steve´s arms were wrapped around him, holding him tight. One of his arms provided a comfy space to rest his head on and the other one had slung around his stomach. Their legs were intwined and Steve´s hips pressed against Eddie´s from behind, closing every gap in between them. Steve´s forehead rested against Eddie´s neck, the warmth of his breath noticeable on his bare skin.

Eddie closed his eyes again, enjoying the embrace, that had let him sleep so peacefully and kept him in a carefree mood.

He would have never thought, that one day not long after he had dreamt about it, he would wake up in Steve´s arms, having him close with his whole body telling him how much he needed him close and how much he wanted to keep him safe. He had never had a morning like this. He had never cuddled with one of his hook-ups. Aftercare was always done rather without much romantic physical touch and if they ever crashed at his house, Eddie often chose to sleep on the couch to avoid weird encounters at night or the next morning. Most times, when he had woken up, his hook-ups had already left, or he had snuck out earlier, sometimes leaving a little note with a made-up reason on why he had to leave, so that they would find an empty trailer, when they wake up and would leave then.

Eddie loved this casual sex, but if he was being honest with himself, he also wanted to have something more. He wanted somebody, that he liked being around, that he would like to have around his home often and without any guilty feelings the day after. Someone, that he could teach stuff and build trust with to do things that both of them enjoyed during sex. And he really also wanted to know, what it´s like having a partner that really loves you and how much more intense everything must feel and a partner, that you do stuff with other than sex.

His mind wandered to Steve again. The touch of his naked, warm skin on his send shivers through his body. What would it feel like to devour his whole body? He wanted to have the possibility to touch Steve whenever he wanted to. He wanted to roam through his hair, he wanted to stroke his soft cheeks and he wanted to kiss his glossy lips and leave him absolutely breathless and he wanted to hold his hand and kiss his hands and wrap his arms around his waist and hold him close and smell his hair, when his head was resting on his shoulder. And he really didn´t care who might see them. He wanted everyone to know how much he adored Steve and that he was only his.

If he thought even further, he imagined, how he would walk up to school with Steve, just like those popular straight couples did. The cheerleader girl, with her already graduated boyfriend, that drives her to school and kisses her goodbye in front of everyone and he, who prominently lets his hands glide under her skirt to grab her ass and lift her up a bit, while doing so, to let everyone know, she was his.
He wanted everyone to turn their heads, to wonder, how Eddie was able to pull King Steve. He wanted to see all the disappointed girlies stomp their feet at seeing, that they no longer have a chance with Steve. He wanted Steve to proudly show him off as well, letting them know that he loves Eddie now and wasn´t ashamed of him or what the others might think about him dating a boy now.

Eddie noticed himself blush at that thought. He always found these popular students with their imposed behaviour really annoying, but deep down, he just wanted to be admired by them, too. And if it was just for one day.

Then he remembered, what had happened to him. The murder allegations and everything that followed Chrissy´s death and he quickly tried to swallow all of those overwhelming feelings, reminding himself, that Steve and Dustin admiring him, was actually all he needed to be happy.

Holding onto those images with Steve, going onto sweet dates with him and kissing him in public places, to distract himself from the scary images in his head, he ended up falling asleep again.

After a little while, Steve woke up. He smiled, as he saw, that Eddie slept calmly in his embrace and that he had slung his arm around Steve´s, giving him something of the comfort back. He noticed, that his arm underneath Eddie´s head felt pretty dizzy now and that he needed to go to the toilet urgently.

Trying to ignore the feelings, he stayed in bed, not wanting Eddie to wake up and trying to keep this calm closeness going as long as possible. But after a few more minutes, the need for a change in position became more and more urgent.

Very slowly and carefully, he retreated his arms from Eddie, stopping a few times in between, because Eddie shifted a little, and eventually pulling his legs from the entangled mess of their limbs. He waited another minute, before he left the bed, to make sure that Eddie wouldn´t wake up from him. Then he sneaked into the bathroom.

The bathroom still smelled like the bath salt that they had used yesterday and it immediately took Steve back.

When he washed his hands, he looked into the mirror above the sink, looking at how dishevelled his hair looked. He had let it airdry yesterday, because he had taken care of Eddie´s hair, putting conditioner and others of his styling products in and gently blow drying it to make his beautiful curls pop out.

He remembered, for how long he and Eddie had stayed in the bath yesterday, kissing and snuggling, until the water was cold and their hands turned into wrinkly sponges. In between kisses they had talked a lot. Steve had asked some more about his new feelings about boys and told Eddie how he felt and if that was common. He remembered, how great it felt for Eddie to tell him that he also felt like this about boys and that those thoughts are totally okay to have. They proceeded to gush about guys and girls and exchanged what they liked about them and Steve had never felt so excited during a conversation, because he had never had someone who agreed with him in so many points.

Then Eddie had asked him, daring how he was, what Steve liked about his body, since Eddie had already admitted to being very fond of his chest. Steve was a bit surprised by this question, because he couldn´t decide on what to answer. He didn´t want to say something too cheesy or too sexual, but he couldn´t just say that he couldn´t choose a favourite, because having Eddie naked in front of him was too overwhelming for his brain, could he? But eventually he confessed to it. All of it. He even told Eddie about how confused he had been in the Upside Down, because he couldn´t comprehend these new feelings for Eddie´s hair and eyes and lips and dimples and his broad shoulders but narrow waist and his somehow so firm butt and slender hands and also his tattoos now.

He remembered, how baffled Eddie had grinned, when Steve had told him about all of this, like he had also never had someone tell him how beautiful he was. And that thought made Steve feel so angry, for some reason, that he just couldn´t stop telling Eddie everything that he had found in him. It felt so good, letting all of this out and at the same time, also convincing Eddie about his beauty and making him blush.

“Now I feel, like I can ask you and I´m really sorry actually, that I didn´t really listen back then, but… what were you telling me in the woods?”, Steve had asked.

Eddie had laughed. “Actually, I told you about Nancy, that she wasted no time following you into the lake and that Robin just went in exactly after that. I told you to get her back, because I was convinced that this was a prove of her love to you.”

“Oh…” Steve had ruffled his hair.

“If I would´ve known, that Nancy and Robin already were a thing then I might´ve interpreted that differently, but well… I didn´t really know all of you that well, or what happened between you guys. And if I would´ve known that my suspicion about you staring at my lips was actually right, I might´ve tried to subliminally seduce you a bit more. If you would´ve even listened to it”, Eddie had said with a chuckle.

“Oh god, was it that obvious?”, Steve had asked, but hadn´t tried to hide his embarrassment anymore.

“To be honest, I was kinda confused. Because I wasn´t sure if this was some sort of tactic of you, to not answer and try to appear mysterious or something, even more after your battle with the bats, but when I saw you gazing at my eyes and lips and you licked yours and… honestly, my dear, you looked like there was absolutely no thought behind your eyes!”

Both of them had laughed, because Steve had already explained how star-struck he had been in that moment.

“And still I didn´t know…”, Steve had answered then. “I don´t know how, but when you touched my jaw like that in the van… that kinda was the all-enlightening moment…”

“Oh, like this?”, Eddie had asked seductively, luring Steve closer with the exact same movement and pulling him in for another kiss.

“Ye- yeah, exactly like this”, Steve had mumbled in between the kisses.

“I should´ve listened to Dustin earlier. I just couldn´t believe that you´re not a dick anymore. And at first, I really didn´t wanna give up on that, I tried to hold onto it, told myself you´re just doing everything risky for the attention of the girls, but I already knew, I was head over heels, I just didn´t wanna admit it. And all because of seeing you fight that Demobat with your bare hands and while being almost naked…”

“Honestly, exactly how I felt. I shouldn´t have been so caught up on wanting to be Dustin´s favourite, I didn´t even give you a chance in the beginning…”

“You´ll give me a chance now?”

“I think I already gave it to you. Would you give me a chance? A real one?”, Steve had asked, holding Eddie´s face in both of his hands.

“Didn´t I already, too?”

“No, I really mean it. I´m not good with explaining how I feel. This is all still new to me and I can rarely express my emotions in words, but I could show you. I wanna show you!”

Eddie nodded eagerly, too taken aback to form a verbal response. Steve pulled him in for a kiss again.

“I wanna show you in so many ways. I can´t wait, I kinda wanna do everything at once, but I also wanna take my time with you and not wanna ask too much of you for now.”

“Stevie… you´re all I want. And don´t worry about anything for now, okay. We´re gonna find our own tempo. We can do anything we want, whenever we want to, no rushing and no unnecessary waiting, if we don´t feel like it”, Eddie had cooed.

Now Steve had nodded at his words.

“You said, you have a lot you wanna show me?”

“Hm, yeah, I mean… You don´t have to, that was just a thought, we´re gonna take it real slow, if that´s what you want”, Eddie had stated.

“But what, if I want you to show me?”

Eddie´s eyebrows lifted, surprised by Steve´s sudden interest. “Then I can show you whatever you want me to.” Unintentionally, his mouth had formed into a devilish grin, multiple images of Steve wimpering below him, Steve tied up, Steve on his knees, Steve a total mess, flashed behind his eyes.

Steve had to swallow, at this look on Eddie, because it only made him want this more.

“Stevie?”

“Mhm?”

“Do you, by any chance, know what my hanky stands for?”

Steve had shaken his head. He had already thought, that it might be in his back pocket for a reason, because Eddie had always worn it, but he had rather thought, that it was an accessory, inspired by one of his favourite musicians.

“There is something, that´s called the handkerchief code. And different colours mean different things, just as the side on which you wear it. I wear a black bandana in my left pocket…” Eddie had hesitated for a moment, because he feared, that he might scare Steve off by what he might tell him. He knew, that Steve wasn´t inexperienced, but he reckoned, that he didn´t have much insight into anything really BDSM-related.

“…which means, that I´m into BDSM and that I´m a top.”

He had waited for Steve to say something. To maybe or hopefully show, that he understood and knew what that meant.

“I´ve heard about that…”

“Good. Basically, it means, that I like to tie my partners up, I want them to be disciplined, and I like to punish them, if they misbehave. I like to inflict some pain on them, if they´re down for it. I like it, if they totally give themselves to me. But this is only possible, if there´s mutual respect and trust. As a submissive, you really need to be able to trust your dom and you need safewords, so that both know when to stop. You need to talk about your limits.”

Steve had heard about these sex practices and had even heard from some other guys, how they would like to tie the girls up, they had sex with. But for Steve that had started to sounded like a punishment, once he saw how toxic some of the boys were. He couldn´t understand, how the girls might enjoy themselves like this and he started to hate, how condescending the guys would talk about girls or what they made them do for their pleasure.

Steve had always tried to make sure that his partners enjoyed themselves and he really prided himself with making them feel good, even though he had to admit, that he treated them badly with everything that followed. Breaking contact by leaving the next morning and never talking to them again.

But now he was interested in this. Trust and respect, Eddie had said. That´s exactly what he wanted and that combined with sex sounded like a dream. Would it mean, that he could get more of what Eddie had teased him with earlier?

“Have you ever done something along that vein with your partners?”

Steve had been a little thrown off by that question.

“Not really… I mean, most of them were one-night-stands, so you don´t get really freaky then. And many of the girls were very inexperienced, so I had to do most of the work…”, Steve had tried to remember.

“With ´freaky´, what exactly are we talking about? What was the freakiest you have ever done?”, Eddie had wanted to know further.

With everybody else, Steve would have been too uncomfortable to ever talk in detail about it, but with Eddie it just felt normal, somehow. Not like something you need to frown upon, because society tells you it should be nasty and nothing you need to improve on in front of each other like it had been for him with other boys.

“One time, there was a girl, that was okay with trying 69… and one time I was able to make a girl squirt, but she was so freaked out by it, that she started crying after because she thought she peed my bed and she felt absolutely awful about it. I told her she shouldn´t worry and just try to enjoy it maybe… but well”, he had twitched his shoulders.

Eddie had chuckled slightly, nodding. “Okay.”

“And you? I mean, you don´t have to say it, only if you´re comfortable…”, Steve had asked. Now he really wanted to know.

“Oh well… One time, my uncle surprised me home with a guy, that I had tied to the bed and I had been edging him for a good hour or so. I was sucking him off for the third time that night, while I had a vibrator shoved inside him. He was a mess…”, Eddie had remembered. “Good, that Wayne didn´t see the butt plug I was wearing”, he had snickered.

Steve´s mouth had fallen open. “You… you…?”

Eddie had given him an encouraging look to ask his questions.

“You do this with people you have just met?”

“Usually, yes. But those are people who know what they´re in for. They want me to do it and so you can agree on stuff much quicker than with someone who is new to it. It easier to keep it casual, like this.”

“Okay… And… you…”, Steve had muttered, all of a sudden, a bit sheepish by the topic he was about to ask about. But Eddie´s unjudging looks made him feel okay about asking. “You have… have you ever… like, y´know… um, been fucked by someone?” Unintentionally his cheeks had flushed. He tried not to think about, how Eddie might allow him to give it to him. He had wanted to press his thighs together.

“Yeah, I have. But I always stay in control. It´s pretty good actually, once you´re prepared for it.”

“Wow”, Steve had breathed out. “It doesn´t hurt?”

“It can hurt, if you´re going too quick or too rough, if you´re not ready for it. But the more you do it, the easier it gets. And the orgasms get more intense”, Eddie had explained with a smile. “But we don´t have to do any of this. Nothing, if you want to. That was just because you asked me about it, doesn´t mean that I expect anything of that from you”, he had added with a sincere tone.

Steve had nodded again. “Maybe we can start slow. You said, you like discipline… how far does that go?”

“I kinda let that slip a bit earlier, do you remember?” Eddie had come very close again, holding Steve by the hips with one hand and holding his neck with the other. “I told you to tell me, if you liked what I was doing to you. I wanted you to give me a verbal answer and I pulled your hair – just like this – to show you that there would be consequences, if you wouldn´t answer me…” Eddie´s voice sounded feverishly seductive. Automatically Steve´s eyes had closed again, letting the words and touches flow over his body and take in his mind. He didn´t know that he liked this so much and that he wanted this to keep going. He wanted, no he needed to be good for Eddie, needed to hear him say it, needed him to give him the reward that he craved.

“This is for both of our pleasure. I want you to openly show me how much you like it and I want you to follow my orders. Otherwise… I might give you a little punishment… nothing that you wouldn´t be okay with, of course”, his voice had gotten back to a more sincere tone again. “That´s why it´s important to have safe words and a talk about limits. But if you´re good for me… then I will reward you, of course.”

“Mhm”, Steve had nodded, eyes still closed and caught up in a haze.

“Did you understand?”, Eddie had asked, testing out this new knowledge in Steve.

“Yes”, Steve had answered, his eyes flying open, looking directly into Eddie´s with such a hunger behind them. “I kinda really like that, I think…”, he had admitted with an abashed smile. “I have never been treated like that, but it feels good when you do it…”

With that, Eddie had gone back to devouring his skin again. “Feels good if I take good care of you, Stevie…? Oh, so pretty for me, so eager to learn and for me to kiss you, huh, pretty boy?”, Eddie had whispered into his skin in between wet sloppy kisses onto his neck, shoulders and chest, while still holding Steve´s chin upwards.

“Yeeees”, Steve had sighed, totally indulging in this touch that satisfied the want inside him. At that moment, he would´ve let Eddie do anything to him, letting him take anything he needed from him, taking whatever he would give him.

In the mirror, then, his eyes found a special little spot on his neck. Eddie´s kissing and sucking had left a small red mark below his left ear. Steve turned his head, to get a better look at it and to see, if there were more to find. But this really was the only one. Gently, his fingers stroked the mark, remembering how good it had felt, when Eddie had kissed him there and the sounds that he was able to draw out of him by that. Steve chuckled to himself, thinking about how Eddie´s lips would feel on more parts of his body, hoping to find out soon and maybe even getting more marks all over his body, as a reminder and a reward.

He looked at himself again, smiling sheepishly, by the thought of how much he had liked Eddie to manhandle him. In all of his relationships and hook-ups with girls, he had never had one that ever made sure to give him back, what he gave them. He was never kissed so endearingly on the neck and cheeks, had never heard how much they wanted him, what he did to them, had never gotten so much, without them requiring something back in return.

It had always been Steve, who had told them how beautiful they were, what he wanted to do to them and who took care of everything, putting his needs behind. But inside, he was dying to be devoured and taken care of and hearing praise and receiving love and just for once, being the one, who got good stuff done to him.

Maybe, over all those years, that´s what he was conditioned to hate. Everyone around him made it look nasty, if girls enjoyed themselves during sex, if they took what they wanted and if they were vocal about it and if they took charge. Opposite, it was a shame for a man to indulge in this, to not be the giver, to not take from the girls what he desired, to even wish for being treated like this.

Steve didn´t care anymore, what anybody might think about it. He wanted to have fun, too. He wanted to be treated with care and love, too. And if that makes him look like a waste of a man, then so be it. He had never felt more wanted by someone, than with Eddie yesterday, and they haven´t even done more than kissing. This was what he had been looking for this whole time. The feelings, that had been activated without sex, but that he was very sure, would only be intensified by it. The longing for physical contact, for romantic gestures, for spending time together, for getting to know every little detail about the other person. It was right in front of him, sleeping soundly in his bed. And if he didn´t take his chance now, he knew, that he would hate himself forever.

An overwhelming joy spread inside Steve´s body and he rushed back to bed, to lay down next to Eddie again. This time he was on the other side of the bed, so that he could look at Eddie´s face.
His chest rose and fell quietly, his dark lashes rested on his finally clean cheeks and his lips were slightly parted.

Steve took in this beauty that laid ahead of him, welcoming all the thoughts, that he had given the boot a few days earlier. It felt so completing now, acknowledging these feelings, that made his heart swell with joy. He wanted to touch Eddie´s soft skin again and scooped a little closer to him, putting his hand on his arm. Eddie shifted a bit, noticing, that Steve had come back and came closer, to cuddle again. Both smiled, as their arms slung around each other again, and Steve couldn´t help himself and pressed a few small kisses onto Eddie´s hair and forehead.

Eddie opened his eyes and looked up at Steve.

“Good morning, beautiful”, Steve whispered.

Eddie pressed his eyes shut and hid his face in Steve´s chest, chuckling quietly. Then he pressed a little kiss there, answering with a cute, raspy morning voice: “Mornin´ gorgeous.”

Both looked at each other with silly smiles, agreeing to stay like this a little longer.

Chapter Text

The next few days felt like a haze. Since everything that had felt like a nightmare, the days Steve had spent with Eddie together had felt like a dream, almost unreal, too good to be true.
Several times, he had to stop himself and pinch his arm, to realise, that this was his reality now.

The nights with Eddie were still hard, both of them suffered through nightmares and panic attacks, but keeping each other company helped a lot. Even Nancy and Robin had come over to Steve´s house or they had met at Robin´s or Nancy´s house to spend the evenings and nights together.

It was weird, that nobody in Hawkins yet seemed to know the truth and with Joyce, Murray and Hopper having arrived just a few days ago, too, it might take another while until the police was able to clear everything up. If it was even possible. Eddie´s name had yet to be cleared, too and he was still afraid to go outside, so Steve and the others spent most of the time with him in either of their houses.
With Jonathan having come back to Hawkins, Nancy and he had the time to have an honest talk about their relationship. Like Nancy had already suspected, Jonathan felt just like her. They agreed on officially splitting up, following their own dreams now and both introduced each other to Robin and Argyle. Funnily, both had gotten close during the events of last days and weeks, which made it another bit easier to move on without bad feelings.

Steve was very happy, that Mike and Will had come back to the group, because Dustin and Lucas had the idea to host a D&D event at Steve´s house, this time with the whole group together. Will and Eddie got along immediately, Eddie leaving his spot as the Dungeon Master to Will, so that he could finally start his story. Even Steve participated, or he tried with some help from Eddie and together they were able to cheer him up a lot.

When Eddie and Steve were alone, they were cuddling a lot. They cooked together and watched movies, they took long baths and washed each other´s hair, did face masks (that Steve suggested to Eddie) and of course they hung on each other´s lips most of the time.

This evening, Eddie seemed especially relaxed. He and Steve sat on some loungers in Steve´s garden, while Eddie told Steve about his afternoon. He and Wayne had finally met after the day that Chrissy had died. Before, Eddie couldn´t risk to contact him yet, so Hopper had to send some people out to find him, so that he could tell him the truth and connect him and Eddie again.
Steve had given them space in his living room. He had gone for a long walk, wanting to give both of them the time to talk and reunite and he felt like he didn´t quite belong there. At least not yet. When he had come home again, Wayne was still there, thanking him for letting Eddie stay over and for taking care of him this whole time.

Steve was unsure of what Eddie had told his uncle about him or how much, but he appreciated to hear, that Wayne was relieved now and happy to have Eddie back. He told them, that he was given access to a hotel, that the police had picked out for him, since their trailer had been investigational space. He also told them, that he and Eddie might have to move into a new trailer once everything was settled again, because both of them agreed, that going back to the old one, wasn´t a good option.

Both of them had little blankets wrapped around themselves, as Eddie grabbed a cigarette. Steve admired from beside him, how the smoke rose up around him and the little dim end of the cigarette illuminated his face slightly. It was dark already and he started to freeze.

“Come here”, Eddie said, shifting in his seat and reaching his hands out, as he saw a shiver shaking Steve´s body.

Steve got up, unwrapping himself and taking place in Eddie´s lap. The chair was a bit too small for the both of them, but he ended up hanging his legs over the side and resting his shoulder and head against Eddie´s chest. With a free hand, Eddie tried to spread the blanket over both of them again, pressing Steve close to him to keep him warm.

In the darkness, Eddie couldn´t quite see Steve staring at him, but when he took the next inhale from his cigarette, Steve started to free one hand from underneath the blanket and grabbed his jaw. A bit confused, he breathed out the smoke, not able to turn around to not directly hit Steve with it anymore. But Steve started to plant tiny and soft kisses along his jawline.

“You´re so soft”, Steve determined, rubbing his forehead and cheek against Eddie´s.

“That´s because I finally shaved today”, Eddie whispered, giving Steve a kiss against his own soft cheek.

When the cigarette left his lips once more, Steve pulled him in by the chin, pressing their lips together.

Not long, and Eddie´s lung started to ache, trying to hold the smoke in longer, so he breathed it out, forcefully into Steve´s open mouth on his. Greedy, Steve inhaled the smoke from Eddie, closing the gap in between them again through the smoke.

“Again”, he breathed. And so, Eddie gave Steve one more breath of smoke.

The darkness making Steve tired and his eyes a bit useless, only made the sensation of the smoke filling his lungs more intense. The warmth that Eddie sent out, directly into his body, made him glow even in the coldness of the early night.

Eventually, Eddie pressed the cigarette into the ashtray, now having both of his hands free to pull Steve closer to him.

His hands found Steve´s shirt, slowly gliding underneath it and feeling his soft skin. He felt cold and Eddie´s hot hands on him made him break out in goosebumps. Steve tried to shift in Eddie´s lap, sitting in between his thighs to be able to kiss him easier.

Soon Eddie´s lips weren´t enough anymore and he went on to kiss down his neck. The stubble had felt great the last days, but was also a bit irritating for his skin, so Steve enjoyed the soft skin underneath his lips now. This was another new sensation, that he had hoped to feel soon.

Eddie exhaled loudly, letting his head fall back and giving Steve unrestrained access to his neck. He hummed slightly, as Steve started to suck on his skin and licked over the places that he had grazed along with his teeth. When Steve rooted one of his hands in the nape of his neck, stoking his hair out of the way and pulling on it, Eddie let his hand go down Steve´s torso towards his ass.

They had touched each other a lot the last days, very slowly becoming more and more confident with each other. For Eddie it was in theory nothing new to see a man naked, but with Steve he wasn´t just hooking up, this was what he had always imagined love making to be like. It was repetitive, which made Steve warm up with the concept of having a man underneath his hands and lips and gave Eddie a glimpse into what it meant to explore without having certain rules and limits.

They became pretty comfortable with being naked around each other during their many hot showers and baths, because Eddie had always felt pretty confident in his skin, like Steve usually, but it helped him to feel confident like this, too.

Eddie had given him a tour around his tattoos and Steve had shown him scars from older battles and fights. They had taken step after step further with each time that they were making out and the repetitive aspect of it also calmed their nerves, because they already knew that they had done this once and it had been okay and this time it will be okay, too.

Steve really needed that. He always loved to be in a relationship and it´s what he wished to have for a long time and with Eddie now being around him day and night, he took every chance he got to tell him how beautiful he found him, how much he liked spending time with him and to snuggle.

Eddie on the other side was new to this feeling. He had never thought he would wake up next to the boy of his dreams every morning, being able to kiss him whenever he wanted to, to make food together, to watch movies and listen to music and to develop this sincerity after such a short while.

As Steve´s other hand found Eddie´s stomach, and Eddie felt how freezing cold his hand was, he slung his arms around Steve and stood up.

“I´m gonna take you inside, you´re freezing cold, Stevie.”

Steve just smiled at those words and used the moment to hide his face in the crook of Eddie´s neck. He could feel his cheeks warm up, because this was the first time that someone carried him bridal-style and he really enjoyed it. He didn´t even worry about being too heavy for Eddie, because he seemed to hold him with ease.

Eddie reached the couch and gently dropped Steve on it, kneeling down in front of it and keeping his hands around his waist for a moment longer.

Steve gazed lovingly into his eyes. Even in the darkness Eddie could see his pupils flickering and his lashes batting at him. Before he could take his arms off of Steve, he had grabbed his face with both of his hands pulling him in closer again and kissing him deeply.

While Eddie was being pulled onto the couch and into Steve´s arms, he managed to grab a blanket from the side and wrap it around the both of them before they went back to kissing.
Quickly, they turned into an entangled mess again, the kiss becoming more intense and their hands starting to wander again.

Eddie smiled into the kiss, when Steve played with the hem of his shirt, attempting to pull it off. They separated for a moment, for Steve to help Eddie out of his shirt and to throw it away.
Steve´s hand immediately got back to caressing Eddie´s soft skin and he chuckled as Eddie shivered from his cold hands. Then Steve discarded himself of his own shirt.

“I thought you wanted to warm up”, Eddie whispered.

“And I thought you wanted me to warm up… Am I not doing that?”, Steve asked back, wrapping himself around Eddie´s warm body.

“All right”, Eddie answered, leaning back and giving Steve more space to snuggle while putting the blanket on top of him again.

Eddie started to roam through Steve´s hair, gently caressing his scalp and rubbing rhythmically to make him sleepy. He could hear Steve´s breath become longer and deeper before he sighed.

“I would´ve never thought I ever get to have something like this”, he whispered, pressing a kiss onto Eddie´s peck. The body contact no longer made Steve anxious or uncomfortable, he started to feel how much he actually needed this and how much he wanted Eddie.

“It´s really nice, isn´t it?”, Eddie agreed with a quiet chuckle.

“…Eddie…?”

“Yeah…?”

Steve slowly tried to sit up and to look at Eddie, but the darkness made it hard to really notice his facial features. He leaned forward again, trying to reach the little table at the end of the couch and pulled on the string of the little lamp there. The light was warm and made him feel even more comfortable with Eddie.

Steve took another moment to put together what he wanted to say and Eddie waited until he was ready.

“I don´t want to sound rushed or anything, but… I really enjoy being around you and you make me so happy, I feel so at peace around you, I want this to keep going, what we have between us…”

“Are you gonna ask me to move in with you?”, Eddie teased. He didn´t mean to interrupt Steve´s sweet love confession, it was just that he wasn´t used to be treated like this, to have somebody tell him such sweet things and he was simply overwhelmed, that his brain started to overcompensate.

Steve smiled. “That sounds tempting and that would be amazing, if my parents never came back, but… actually I was gonna ask you if you wanted to be my boyfriend…”

Eddie´s eyes grew wide. He would have never thought that day would come. He seemed frozen, felt like he had to be dreaming, because this could not be true. This had to be one of his brains´ very well instructed fantasies after this hell of a ride.

“Eddie?”, Steve asked gently, stroking his arms.

“Y-yeah…”, Eddie found his way back to reality. “You want me to be your boyfriend?”, he asked unbelieving.

Steve nodded strongly, smiling at him. “If you are okay with that…”

“Only if you are okay with being my boyfriend, too!”, Eddie giggled freely, pulling Steve into a big embrace to let some of the endorphins out.

“Yes, of course!”, Steve laughed, pressing kisses onto Eddie´s face.

After a little moment of them squeezing each other, their eyes found each other again and Eddie couldn´t help but smile like an idiot, seeing Steve´s eyes illuminated like in the Upside Down again, knowing that this was the moment he fell madly in love with him.

“I´ve never had a boyfriend”, Eddie said more to himself than to Steve, his brain still trying to understand.

“Guess what… Me neither”, Steve whispered back. “But it feels fucking amazing!”

“It does!”, Eddie said, his voice shaking with happiness.

“Can I tell you one more thing?”, Steve asked, the anticipation making him forget about his former worries.

“Yeah, of course”, Eddie said.

Steve took a deep breath. “I want to touch you. I want you to touch me, I want…”

“You wanna…?”, Eddie said with a teasing voice, his lips forming into a devilish smile.

Steve blushed immediately. “I mean… We don´t need to rush… I just… I never waited long which doesn´t mean that I´m just horny and want to get off with you, I… I really really like being so close to you and I feel how I want to go further with you, I´m not intimidated by it anymore. I really want it.”

Eddie swallowed. “I´ve never been one to wait long, too, but opposite to you I´ve never had anything more than a one-night-stand and those surely weren´t vanilla, so… We might need to compromise a bit, talk about it beforehand or something…”

“I´ve thought about it. And what you told me in the bathtub. And I still want you to show me. Maybe we don´t need to do everything the first time and not everything at once, but I just… kind of… feel this skin-hunger, like, I want to touch you and to make you feel good and I want you to do the same to me. But I also want you to do to me whatever you really want.”

“We can take it as slow as you want to. Maybe you can still show me something new, too. How to make love”, Eddie laughed. “No, honestly, I really wanna know what that´s like… I would´ve never thought how intoxicating it could be to kiss you and feel you…”

Steve scooped a little closer on Eddie´s lap, pressing their crotches against each other and holding his face in his hands before kissing him again. Both sighed into the kiss, that quickly became sloppier again, with both of them tugging at each other to get closer together.

Steve was glad, that Eddie started to take control again. He grabbed his head and tilted it, to get a better chance to kiss his neck. He didn´t hold back this time with sucking on Steve´s skin and licked up to his ear.

Steve could feel Eddie´s dick twitch as he did so, then feeling his hot breath reach his ear as he whispered into it.

“I can´t wait to have you all laid out for me, baby. Can´t wait to touch every spot of you. Gonna touch spots you´ve never even dreamed of.”

Steve moaned. He would´ve never thought that someone calling him baby with such lust and affection could turn him on this much. The thought already felt way too good, Eddie finding all the little spaces that he aches to be touched at and thus satisfying this need inside of him.

“Wanna go to my bedroom?”, Steve asked.

“Yes”, Eddie answered quickly and lifted Steve up. He slid his legs around him and held onto his back.

“You think you can carry me all the way?”, he laughed.

“Probably not”, Eddie sighed, letting him down by the door. And to his surprise, Steve took the chance now and pressed him into the wall.

He gasped as his back hit the wall and Steve´s leg pressed in between his thighs. His hands had found his wrists and Steve gathered both of them in one of his hands behind Eddie´s back. His other free hand found a tight grip at the nape of his neck, so that he could kiss down his collar bones to his nipples. Eddie´s head fell back as he let this attack happen. Steve´s big hand holding both of his wrists in one and him having to bend down a bit to reach him making his mind swirl with ideas for other times where he would like to be manhandled by him.

He moaned, as Steve´s tongue swirled around his nipple and his teeth scratched along it. His thumb cared for the other one, which made Eddie turn into a gasping mess underneath him.
“Fuck, I like it when you moan”, Steve whispered out of breath.

Eddie smiled, a little embarrassed for giving in so easily. “I really wanna take off my pants, Stevie”, he urged him.

Without wasting another second, Steve kneeled down to open Eddie´s pants and slid them down in sync with his boxers. He could feel the anticipation flow right into his dick, as he saw Eddie´s hard one right in front of his face.

He looked up at Eddie, whose head still rested against the wall.

“I really wanna touch you”, he said again.

“All right”, Eddie smiled, thinking about how they have made it not more than two meters away from the couch. “Let me get out of my pants first.”

“Right”, Steve answered, getting up again and taking his pants off, while Eddie stepped out of his and shook them aside. In only his boxers he knelt down again, getting comfortable between Eddie´s spread legs.

Eddie reckoned, that Steve might start slow, with kissing his legs and hips, like he had maybe done with girls, but he was surprised, as he felt Steve´s cold hand grab around the base of his cock immediately.

“Shit, Steve!”, he opened his eyes again to have a look at Steve.

And the sight was breath-taking. Steve looked up at him with his big puppy eyes, knowing exactly what this was doing to Eddie. Then he opened his palm and licked along it to wet it. Quickly, his hand started stroking around Eddie´s cock, which made his head fall back again. He couldn´t help the throaty moans that escaped him as Steve´s tongue found his tip and started exploring.

He licked up and down his slit, curled around the top and licked from the middle up to the top again. Steve was an expert when it came to figuring out what he liked just from hearing his moans change. Soon, he could feel himself get better and better. He started to breathe through his nose and found out what made Eddie twitch and whine. The feeling of Eddie´s hard dick on his tongue was intoxicating and the taste of his precum made him close his eyes. His own neglected dick became more and more distracting.

Steve could hear Eddie getting close and so he started a rhythm with his hand and mouth, trying to get him to cum.

Suddenly, Eddie grabbed his arms and pulled him upwards, connecting their lips again. He could see Steve´s confusion as they parted for a moment.

“Oh, pretty boy, let´s get to your room now, shall we?”

“I really wanted you to cum”, Steve swallowed.

“In your mouth?”, Eddie asked with wide eyes.

“Yes”, Steve whispered back, now a little bit embarrassed for wanting this so bad.

“My god”, Eddie said, connecting their lips again, hungrily. “We can do that later, baby. I would love to cum in your mouth, over your whole face!”

Steve moaned into the kiss. He wanted Eddie to turn him into a piece of himself, he needed Eddie everywhere. He exhaled loudly.

“Come here”, he said quickly, lifting Eddie up and carrying him to his room quickly. He managed to get him up the stairs and find all the light switches on the way. In front of his bed, he let him down.
The friction against his dick had felt amazing and he couldn´t wait any longer to take his boxers off. Eddie saw his distress and got to work immediately. He walked behind him and pushed him down onto the mattress, climbing in between his legs and pulling the waistband of his boxers down.

Steve lifted his butt a bit, to make it easier to take it off. After Eddie let the fabric fall down onto the floor, he took Steve in.

“You look absolutely beautiful like this”, he said, letting his fingertips graze his thighs.

Steve started blushing a bit by this honest statement. He had never felt more beautiful. He had never had a more beautiful sight in front of him than the boy he was head over heels in love with, kneeling by his feet and about to blow him.

Goosebumps arose on his skin, as Eddie took the hair tie from his left wrist and gathered his hair strands together into a ponytail. This was the first time, that Steve saw somebody do this with such lust in their eyes, staring right into his.

Eddie bent down, both of his hands planted on his hipbones and before his lips finally touched Steve, he gave him a cocky grin.

“Can´t wait to paint you with cum, darling.” And then his lips closed around the tip.

Steve moaned loudly. Those damn pet-names would be the death of him. And, of course Eddie was skilled. The way his tongue swirled around him and his hands pumped him in sync made him see stars quickly. Steve knew what he was equipped with and that it wasn´t easy taking him in whole, but Eddie made it seem like it was nothing. His throat relaxed around him and when his tip reached the back of his throat without Eddie gagging of having to pull out, that was enough to send Steve over the edge.

His whole body was shivering and he felt like he was entering a different dimension as Eddie sucked him off. He swallowed everything that Steve gave him and didn´t stop when he was done. In fact, it seemed to amuse him to keep going until Steve was a writhing, begging, whiny mess below him. His legs started twitching without his control and even his mouth couldn´t be stopped anymore.

Finally, Eddie showed mercy and with a pop, let go of Steve´s already soft again dick.

Steve clumped together like a baby, breathing heavily and having to calm his twitching body. Eddie got next to him, gently stroking him through the aftershocks.

“You okay?”, he asked.

“Yeah”, Steve gave back. “Jesus Christ. I-I think I´ve never cum as hard as that e-ever before”, he breathed out with closed eyes.

Eddie chuckled proudly. “You´re not already getting tired, are you?”

That seemed to awaken Steve. He propped up onto his elbows. “No. I´ve got so much more that I wanna do!”

“Good. And what were you thinking about?”

“I want you to come in my mouth. And… I want you to come… in me”, he added.

“We can do that”, Eddie smiled at him, to show Steve that he really didn´t have to feel embarrassed about wanting this. “What do you wanna do first?”

Steve took a moment to think. “I want you to touch me. I want you to finger me and fuck me, if I can take it, and then I want you to come on my face.”

Eddie smiled excitedly, then nodded.
“Do you have any lube here? And condoms?”

“Of course”, he said, facing away to search in his nightstand. He threw both at Eddie, who caught the items and put them down next to him.

“All right. When you´re ready, lay down again. Hands above your head and pull your knees up to your chest.”

Steve was quick to do as he was told and tried to calm his speeding up heartbeat. Somehow, he felt like he was being at a medical appointment.

“Everything all right, Stevie?”, Eddie asked.

“Yeah, it´s just… a weird position…”

“If you wanna change, tell me, but this will be less painful if you keep your legs at an angle like this for now.”

“Okay.”

“You let me know, when I should stop, right?”

“Yes.”

“Good boy.”

Immediately, Eddie could see the smile getting back onto Steve´s face again and felt him relax underneath him.

To start slow, Eddie got in between his legs and started kissing him, then his chest and down his legs. While their hips were pressed together, he could feel how Steve got hard again, which would make this a whole lot easier, too.

Quietly, Eddie opened the bottle of lube and spurted some on his fingers, rubbing them to warm up and gently lowered them against Steve´s rim.
Steve gasped at the sudden touch, but stayed calm and relaxed. Eddie pressed some kisses against the underside of his thighs and started circling his hole, before pushing his finger into just millimetres at a time.

Steve seemed to like being touched at the beginning, because his breath started to come out in little gasps. Eddie took his other hand and some lube to stroke his dick at the same time, which would make the way in further less painful.

Eddie worked slowly and retrieved his finger every once in a while, circling Steve´s hole again, before going in deeper again.

Steve had closed his eyes, calm enough to fully surrender to this new feeling. It actually made him feel good to be touched in this area.

He remembered, how when he was masturbating, he would sometimes in moments of unbotheredness go from his balls over to his anus and just gently caress the area from the outside. The light touch of his fingertip felt like a tickling spark, some new type of aroused. He would never go inside though, or admit to himself that he would enjoy or want that. But like he somehow had suspected, it did feel really nice.

“You think you´re ready for another finger?”, Eddie´s voice broke through to him.

“Yes. But slow please.”

“Of course.”

Eddie slid another finger inside and could see Steve´s face wince a little. He stopped, waiting for Steve to tell him something. He thought, that maybe he should have discussed the color-system with Steve beforehand, but also, he expected Steve to tell him if he needed to stop.

“Still okay?”

“Yes, it´s just… new. But not bad.”

Eddie kept going with two fingers, stroking Steve´s dick until he started moaning and clenching around his fingers.

“Do you think you could take a third one?”, he asked.

Steve just nodded this time. Eddie remembered, that Steve had shown interest in his kinks and so he gripped the base of his cock tighter and stopped the stroking.

“I want an answer, baby. Do you think you could take a third finger?”

“Yes, Eddie. Please, try it.”

“Good boy! So good for me! I can´t wait to feel how tight you are around me!”

Eddie loved how he could make Steve moan and fluster so easily and he could also feel him get looser around his fingers. But still Eddie doubted, that Steve would be able to take him this first time. He wouldn´t want to disappoint Steve by not trying, but he feared that Steve might not recover so quickly from this little defeat and he wanted him to remember his first time as something fun and positive. So, he withdrew one finger and focussed more on trying to find Steve´s sweet spot instead of opening him up further.

Eddie knew what he had to feel for and judging by Steve´s moans and him shifting in his position he had found the right one. Since he knew that it had never been touched, Eddie was rather gentle, not wanting to overstimulate Steve and to get him used to the pleasure slowly.

After another few minutes of Eddie gently curling his fingers inside Steve and stroking his cock in sync, Steve´s moans started to turn into more of a desperate whimper.

“Do you want me to keep going, baby?”, Eddie whispered into his ear, planting open mouth kisses to every spot he could reach with his hands still in action.

“Ngh, please… I think I´m ready…”, Steve whispered back.

“I could just make you cum like this, if you´d prefer that, honey.”

Steve sighed at Eddie´s thoughtful tone of voice but he lifted his head to look at him. “I really want this. It´s okay if it´s not perfect the first time, but I really wanna try it.”

“Okay”, Eddie breathed out, closing the gap between them and kissing Steve with all the passion he had in him.

After they separated again, Eddie lifted his slick hands. “I´m just gonna wash them real quick, be right back.”

It took only a few seconds until Eddie came rushed into the room again, his hands still partly wet, reaching for the condom immediately.

Steve watched how Eddie lifted the package to his mouth and ripped the corner open with his teeth. He blushed, knowing that he used to do the exact same move earlier to impress the girls he´d been with. With skilled hands he rolled it on, a free hand already grabbing for the lube again and smearing a good amount on top.

Steve, still caught in the moment, but all the more excited looked at Eddie for a little guidance.

“Well… how do you want me?”, he said, trying to sound seductive while batting his lashes.

“Well, how do you want me?”, Eddie stole his question, leaning forward to kiss his upcoming giggle away. “If you want a little… let´s say… recommendation, if you don´t have something particular in mind… I´d say get on your knees, back facing me.”

“I´d have that then, please”, Steve smiled while turning around. He got comfortable on his knees, spreading his thighs apart and robbing backwards until his back almost got in touch with Eddie´s chest.
Eddie pushed his hips against Steve´s soft butt, letting his hands wander over his squishy hips and thighs and stroking the soft skin in between his legs while pulling him closer.
He took his time to suck some more marks against his throat and shoulder-area, before he grabbed his dick and with a few strokes lined it up with Steve´s hole.

“Are you ready?”

“Yes, Eddie”, Steve whined, leaning forward a little and offering his backside to Eddie even more.

“All right, baby boy, you let me know once it´s too much”, Eddie repeated quietly, more so to calm himself before he gently pushed forward.

He could feel a little bit of restrain, but Steve seemed to be relaxed. He breathed calmly through his nose and Eddie tried to dive just a little bit deeper with each exhale he made. But despite the amount of lube they used, Eddie could feel how he wouldn´t get in much deeper without hurting Steve.

“You okay? How does it feel?”, he checked in on Steve who had been quiet.

“It´s not bad, but it feels like a lot. Can we just go like this for now?”

“Of course. It´s all your decision, Stevie”, Eddie said, caressing Steve´s torso. “Do you want me to move a little?”

“Yeah, but slow, please.”

Eddie did as he was asked, slowly moving his head in and out of Steve, making sure to not get in too deep and to not slip out entirely before going back in.

Steve let his head fall back against Eddie´s shoulder, seemingly enjoying this. His head turned around, so that he could press some kisses onto Eddie´s cheek. “Feels good, baby”, he smiled.

“Yeah?”, Eddie smiled back.

“Yeah, not bad for my first time. It feels better than I thought.”

“You´re doing very well actually. And I can tell you it´s gonna feel more intense and better each time you try it. I can´t wait to find out what you´re capable of after a little bit of practise.”

Steve chuckled to himself, attempting to rock back against Eddie´s dick and making him slide in deeper. But after about two centimetres he stopped, tensing up.

“Ouch”, he pulled away. “That was too quick”, he stated, trying to cover his failed attempt of surprising Eddie up with a little laugh.

“Don´t need to rush, sweetheart. We´ve got all the time in the world”, Eddie shushed him, almost pulling out of him completely. “You know… I have an idea, why don´t we try something else…?”, he tried to tease him.

Steve seemed on board. “And what are you thinking of?”

“What would you say if I asked you to fuck me?”, Eddie whispered into his ear again and he could feel the goosebumps arise on his skin the moment his words had settled.

Steve swallowed hard. He turned his head around to see if Eddie might be joking, but as he saw his serious and excited face he nodded quickly.

Way too soon, Steve felt Eddie pull out of him and the sudden separation made him pout a bit. But the sight of Eddie, ready on his back with his legs spread apart for him made him rebounce really quickly.

Eddie pulled the condom off of him and threw it across the room onto the floor, before he handed Steve the lube.

Steve seemed a little perplexed with how quick this was moving. “Um, could you maybe… uh, show me what to do… how to prep you…?”, he asked shyly. He hadn´t really focussed on what Eddie had done to him earlier, he had enjoyed it way too much.

“Of course”, Eddie smiled warmly. “Start slow, on the outside. And then when you´re ready you can start putting one finger inside and move yourself up to more of them”

Well, that sounded obvious, Steve thought. Honestly, kind of like he would do to a Vagina. And when Eddie let his head rest against the mattress and his eyes closed, Steve could feel his nervousness subdue and his instincts take over again. He looked at Eddie´s almost soft dick and let his hands find their way to it by taking a long route over his thighs.

“Did it feel good inside me?”, Steve asked, trying to keep his doubts out of his tone.

“Pretty much. You´re really tight, baby and so, so hot…”, Eddie answered, his breath hitching once Steve´s hand closed around his base.

Steve smiled to himself, new fiercefulness taking over his body. Soon, his hands found their own ways and even his mouth started to contribute, sucking on Eddie´s cock. He wanted Eddie to have a good time after all and didn´t want it to feel rushed to him, so Steve took his time before one of his hands found the way down from his balls to the little ring of muscles.

Steve could feel Eddie twitch mildly at the touch of his cold hand against his skin and he sighed. Steve took some more lube and started to pay attention to how the skin below his fingertips felt. Eddie´s breath quickened and he could even hear him choking down some outright moans that threatened to escape his throat.

This only spurred Steve on to test out how long Eddie could fight this. His heart skipped a beat as a high-pitched throaty moan came past Eddie´s lips as the first finger found its way inside.

Steve smiled proudly. He kept going with his rhythm, seeking out how Eddie reacted to his touches and kept going until there were three fingers inside.

Eddie was a full out mess by now. His bangs were sticking onto his forehead, his hips pushing further onto Steve´s hand and his hands grabbing the bedsheets.

“God, you look so beautiful like this”, Steve sighed, taking Eddie´s head into his mouth again and letting his tongue slide over his slit. He could even taste a bit of precum now and for some reason the salty taste made him even hornier.

“God, Steve, plea- fuck!”, Eddie choked out, his dominant side almost falling apart.

He reached down to grab Steve´s wrist and told him: “Fuck, baby, gotta go just a little deeper and you´re gonna… ah! Ohhh… goooood, right there!”

Steve felt so overjoyed by having caused this reaction out of Eddie that it wouldn´t have taken much for him to come untouched just by watching him like this. He made sure to keep hitting that spot that made Eddie´s moans shoot out unfiltered and made him buck his hips up at him in an attempt to catch the right angle.

Steve remembered how Eddie had stretched him by scissoring his fingers and he wanted to know if Eddie would react to it as well. And he did.
Not even a minute later, Eddie´s moans coming out more frequent, he grabbed Steve´s wrist again.

“Babe, if you´re gonna keep going like this I won´t last long. So, if you want to get inside, I´d recommend you do it now”, he panted.

“Oh, yes… of course”, Steve said, trying to find another condom and quickly putting it on. He also managed put some lube on top before Eddie was practically throwing himself at him.

“Lay down, baby, my turn again, I wanna ride you.”

Steve let Eddie push him down and watched in awe how he positioned himself on top of him and without wasting another second, let himself sink down on it.
Eddie was much quicker to take Steve almost the whole way inside and after a little check in, he started rolling his hips.

The feeling of Eddie´s hot walls squeezing him in flooded Steve and his head fell back against the mattress. His hands somehow managed to find Eddie´s hips and held onto them before the extasy made his head swirl. He would have wanted to look at the show that Eddie provided, wanted to see how the two of them conjoined, the way Eddie´s hard dick bounced against his stomach or the pretty face he made, but each time he opened his eyes, they automatically rolled back again and the pure sight threatened to push him over the edge.

Soon, he started to feel so light, that his legs automatically shifted, so that he could meet Eddie´s movements and the filthiest moans left his throat. The room was filled with moans and begs and curses and the heat brought both of them extremely close to their release.

“Steve, I want you to cum inside of me. Cum for me, baby… argh…”, Eddie tried to keep himself together.

“Fuuuuuuck…”, Steve moaned, this command making him give in finally. “Eddie, ah… cum on me. Fuck, cum on me, please”, Steve begged, his hand moving down to Eddie´s hard dick and attempting a quick rhythm.

That was enough to send Eddie over the edge and while he rode out his and Steve´s orgasm he tried to lean forward as much as he could to get his cum to land on Steve´s pretty face.

It took them a minute to calm down from their high, Eddie´s movements having stilled but both boys´ eyes still closed and caught up in the haze.

Eddie was the first to look. Carefully, he lifted his hips so that Steve would slide out of him, then repositioning himself on his hipbones.

As Steve slowly opened his eyes again, his breathing having calmed down, Eddie smiled and said: “Not as far as I hoped it would go…”

“Well, then that´s gonna be on the list for next time”, Steve smiled back, assessing the white drops of Eddie´s release on his stomach and chest.

Eddie let his hands roam Steve´s torso, his thumbs smearing through his cum and rubbing it along Steve´s skin, tracing over the red marks his lips left earlier. Then he lifted his right hand and brought it up to Steve´s face. His thumb landed on his plush and kiss-bitten red lips. Before he could really let his thumb graze along his lips, Steve parted them and started swirling his tongue around it. He savoured the taste and sucked a little on the tip, before he let it go again.

Eddie´s lips parted and this devouring look came back to his face that made Steve break out in goosebumps again. Eddie leaned forward crashing onto Steve´s lips and moaning praises into his mouth while his other hand ruffled through his hair.

After a few breathless minutes they separated and Eddie laid down next to Steve stretching out his now sore knees. Steve turned around to face him.

“That was amazing”, was all he could say for now and he closed his eyes for a moment again that they used to calm down some more.

Steve could feel Eddie shifting next to him and looked at him holding his hand out to him.

“Come here, sweetheart, time for a shower”, he said with a warm smile on his lips and Steve let himself be pulled into Eddie´s arms and then be guided into a warm and comforting shower.