Stevehharringtcns·:

xihopper·:

@eddiemcnson··

While El didn’t know Eddie very well, she could tell there was an inherent kindness in him. Even if his appearance may frighten those who were…well, who were close-minded, if not outright bullies. In any case, she knew everyone who had been down in the basement the night of the Wheeler’s barbecue was a good person. She trusted her friends’ respective judgment, and they had all seemed to like Eddie. It made her smile to think about the way Steve had been sitting in Eddie’s lap. She had the sense that it was not simply due to a lack of seating. If that was the case, she thought maybe she would have liked to sit in a certain someone’s lap, but it didn’t matter. It wasn’t available.

The sight of Eddie pulled her from her thoughts, and she approached him with a little bit of shyness. Making friends was a skill that still felt fragile to her even after all this time in Hawkins, around people her own age. “We met at the Wheeler’s,” she said. “Do you remember? I was playing DND. It was my first game. I rolled a 19.” She smiled at the memory, still pleased, recalling how excited everyone had been. “But I didn’t tell you my name,” she added, frowning a little. Had that been rude? There were so many people in the basement, and everyone had been focused on the game. “I’m Eleven,” she said finally, offering him a soft smile. “People call me El.”

+++

see, eddie wasn’t really used to being ... approached. he’d been told he wasn’t very approachable, with his long unruly hair, his gory bandshirts, the tattoos, the rings, it all played into his mean and scary metalhead image. however, anyone who’d ever so much as exchanged a word with him had soon come to know that eddie munson was, in fact, extremeley approachable. tough on the outside, soft on the inside, that whole shtick. not that eddie would ever admit this to someone out loud, but yeah.

so it surprised him to say the least when he saw her come up to him out of the corner of his eye, all nerves and smiles. eddie in turn couldn’t help but mirror her smile, he nodded. “yeah, yeah i remember. gotta say, that was a wicked roll for your first ever game, man. ever thought about joining a party?” being back in that basement, steve on his lap, eddie had found himself wishing he could go back to a simpler time. when all he cared about was passing his senior year - third time’s the charm, right? - and planning wicked hellfire campaigns. he missed the club, missed dnd, missed ... everything. living in hawkins had ben literal hell on earth, but it did have its moments.

“holy shit.” there it was. of course, she’d seemed familiar - maybe he hadn’t seen her around before, but he sure had heard descriptions. holy shit. “holy shit, you’re - el. yeah, you are. you’re the...you know, the superpower girl, right?” an excited glint in his eyes, eddie smiled a wide and toothy grin. “it’s, like, so great to meet you. i’m eddie.”

stevehharringtcns·:

who: steve harrington & open

where: middle of the road

what was he doing? was he really about to go to a barbecue that was being thrown at the wheeler’s house? he had been invited, of course, but something didn’t feel right on just showing up there. how was he going to react when he saw nancy? and worst of all, how was she going to react? all of these thoughts were going through his mind as he drove - he should have been paying the attention to the road, but luckily he snapped out of his own head just in time to spot someone crossing the road right in front of his car. without even thinking, steve hit the brakes as hard as he could, his body leaning forward with the abrupt stop and before he knew it, he was honking the horn in protest, before sticking his head out of the window to get a better look at the person who was standing in front of his car.

“what the hell are you doing, dingus? you can’t just… walk in front of my car like that, you could have damaged it! i mean, you could have gotten hurt.” steve said, shaking his head as he ran a hand through his hair - both of them had been lucky, he thought to himself as he took a deep breath. “you going to the wheeler barbecue or what?” he asked, once it got awkward enough - they couldn’t just be there forever and the person didn’t seem to move, and steve definitely couldn’t run over them.

this was, objectively, awful. eddie was walking along the side of the road - not totally sure where he was - heaving and groaning and overall in a sour mood, dragging his feet like a little kid tired of walking. who'd have thought hawkins got this fucking hot in summer? he'd looked forward to getting away from the vicious chicago sun but had found his former hometown positively scalding, temperatures steadily climbing. he'd gone out to chill at his former favourite spot, that bench in that clearing in the woods behind hawkins high, to get a little piece of mind, have a smoke, be alone with his thoughts for a moment. he'd gone out there at, like, 12 this morning.

now, eddie wasn't sure what time it was, he'd forgotten his watch at home, but it was definitely past 12. he hadn't meant to fall asleep, it just happened. he'd only wanted to close his eyes for a couple minutes, next thing he knew he'd dozed off and awoken to bright piercing sunlight and what was definitely going to be a wicked sunburn on the back of his neck. some punk had stolen his bike so eddie was reduced to finding his way back to the trailer park.

he didn't know how long he'd been walking out there, leathe racket tied around his waist, only wearing a muscle shirt - he'd left the vest at home, which was inherently stupid because that vest was his best feature - pants cuffed, familiar black bandana dangling out of his back pocket. no cars had passed him, until -

- "harrington....?" eddie blinked a couple of times, made sure that this wasn't a heat induced hallucination. no, definitely, without a doubt, that was steve harrington's car. his fave lit up immediately, lips twisting into a big smile as he did the only thing he could think of. which was jumping in front of his car.

"harrington!", he called out, skillfully ignoring steve's outraged comments. he waved at him eagerly, then made his way around the hood of the car and yanked open the door to the passenger seat. "are my eyes deceiving me? do I truly find myself within the presence of king steve?"

he climbed into the passenger seat, stopped himself short of pulling steve into a hug. pull yourself together, man. the grin never left his face, leg bouncing excitedly because holy hell, that's steve and eddie's been looking forward to seeing him again for ages now.

"the wheelers barbecue? - well, im going now.", he said with an eager nod, pulled the door shut. "wheeler won't mind if you bring a plus one, will she?"

zccming·:

.

it was weird enough that eddie had stopped by during her shift, but his entire demeanor was enough to send a jolt up her spine. shut up. max looked physically taken aback, “what gives?” she asked in return, but eddie would up answering her with a string of paranoid questions. wondering how he might know, max shifted in her seat behind the counter. his sense of urgency was suddenly adding up and it seemed worth her while to pay attention. 

to max, eddie was so blatantly wondering about here whereabouts because he went through something, at the same time. she scooted a little closer to the counter, “i was with the boys, well not lucas, but the rest of them. will’s mom…” max started, a distant look glossing over her eyes. apparently, it wasn’t going to get any easier each time she disclosed this information, “we went to the edge of town,” she mustered up the courage to glance back up at eddie, “something tried to get us, but we made it out.” the way she put it wasn’t exactly comforting, but she thought finishing it off with a little sarcasm might make it better. max tilted her chin up to reveal a bandaid, “so stoked to have another scar!” she flashed a sickeningly enthusiastic smile, then her expression dropped along with her chin.

maybe the fabrication of an unaffected demeanor would rub off on eddie. her hopes weren’t high, but she had to try something to chill him out before he lost all his marbles. “nothing weird since,” she hummed, “except you, right now.” figuring that this conversation might be best continued privately, max exited the booth the counter sat inside, grabbed eddie, pulled him back inside after her, then sat him down in her chair while she pulled the blinds down in the windows. this warranted an early lunch break. after a couple of quiet moments spent gnawing on her cheek and staring at eddie, max asked, “so? what happened to you two days ago? that’s why you’re so freaked, right?” max had been at the border, heard about the cemetery from lucas, and now this. truly, how much worse could it get?

+++

he listened intently, brows drawn together in concentration. and he felt his stomach drop as max affirmed his  suspicions - something had happened. something weird. to her, too. whatever the fuck had been going on in hawkins since, well, seemingly since the dawn of time, it was back. it was happening again and eddie was, quite frankly, absolutely terrified.

“something.”, he echoed, brows pulled into a nervous frown. “’something’ tried to get you. not someone. something.” and his voice pitched up slightly, the way it did right before it got all loud and panicky, so albeit unexpectedly, startling him, max pulling him back into the booth was a welcome gesture. giving him the opportunity to take a couple calming breaths in the process.

if he hadn’t been on the brink of the second or third nervous breakdown in two days, eddie would’ve snorted with laughter at the way max drew the blinds and sat him down - like a scene right out of a film noir, where the detectives finally sit their subject down and interrogate them. he cleared his throat. 

“i was....hanging with nancy.”, he said, and that statement alone was odd enough for his tastes. it was about to get even weirder. “we, uh, that’s hopper and his kid, nancy and i. well, we went..we were investigating and we sorta, uh.” he looked up at her, sheepish smile on his face. “long story short we burnt down benny’s.”

a moment of silence, eddie’s eyes darted around as he tried to gather his thoughts, remember what was important. “long story a little longer - there were eggs. in the diner. big, big, freaky alien eggs that have hatched, max.” and his voice went shaky and breathy and intense at the last two words. “there was this, this goo on the ground and we thought it was blood but! but it wasn’t. and then - the eggs and. yeah. burnt it down. went home. as if nothing happened.”

he cleared his throat, purses his lips as he exhaled, deeply. “it’s happening again, isn’t it.” it’s not really much of a question. “i can’t fucking believe this.”

🎸

“Living after midnight, rockin’ to the dawn. Lovin’ ‘til the morning, then I’m gone. I’m gone.”

zccming·:

it had been approximately…well, max had lost track of how many days it had been since she’d snuck into lucas’ tent. ever since then, her world seemed to be all out of sorts, like she was constantly running after her brain so she could shove it back into her body. when she wasn’t working, she filled her time with watching plenty of bad television, hopping from friends house to friends house, and lurking in the arcade more than she usually did. with all that was going on in hawkins, the least of her worries was her feelings. 

needless to say? when eddie came knocking, she was glad. it was like his eddie senses started tingling and he knew she needed to be spending less time with her real step-brother, and more time with him. despite how grateful she was, a mildly irritated expression was plastered across her face as he dragged her to the roof of his trailer, only letting a smile shine through when he produced a joint from them to share. 

“i thought you left for chicago without telling me, asshole.” max teased, snapping twice, then gesturing for the joint. she placed it between her lips, inhaling deeply and closing her eyes. she was grateful eddie interrupted himself before she could even start to get into the headache that was her life as of late. did she start with the weirdo time warp they’d gone into at the lake or the fact that one of her longest friendships was in serious jeopardy? luckily, she didn’t have to figure it out. 

instead, she turned her head to face eddie, holding the joint out for him as she curiously raised her brows. she hadn’t seen him this giddy since…well…ever. it was a nice sight. he deserved it after all the shit hawkins had put him through. or, life in general, really. “alright…” max said slowly, nodding a little, as if to say, go on, “what is it?” she propped herself up on her elbows, getting excited as her own theories carried her away, “did you win the lottery? steal something really cool? ooh no, i got it, you were the one who egged hawkins p.d, weren’t you? i knew it.”

+++

he rolled his eyes at her snapping but passed the joint willingly. unoccupied fingers now drumming restlessly against the side of his thigh. the last time he'd been this excited must've been a few weeks after the events of spring break '86, when he'd rushed home early from school one thursday afternoon to tell wayne that he was finally going to be part of a graduating class this year.

he scrunched his nose up in excitement and relief as max finally asked him what it was about, god, he felt jittery, laughed gleefully as she guessed wrong and wrong again. eddie propped himself up on his elbows, too, took the joint from her hands. pinching it between his thumb and pointer finger he took a few quick puffs and passed it right back to her.

"nuh-uh.", he shook his head, a devious glint in his eyes, and suddenly his current position wouldn't do, he had an unbearable itch to move. with a strained groan he lifted himself further up until he was sat cross legged in front of her, scooting closer. knees moving up and down. "you're never gonna believe it, red, i swear im telling the truth, alright. scout's honor, on my mother's grave and all that jazz.",he'd lifted his hand to rest over his heart for a few seconds, eyes searching max's.

here went nothing. eddie inhaled deeply, frowned as he tried to think of what to say, how to say it. what to say first, rather. how to phrase it. oh, where to begin. blurting it all out at once, somewhat incoherently, seemed to be what his brain had settled on.

"steve!", he simply exclaimed, scrunched up his nose again as he bit down on a grin. hands flexing at his sides. "i mean, I - well, he, or, we, more like - it's nothing.... nothing, like big and official and whatever but.... i mean, we're sort of -" gesturing about wildly, it was impossible for him to get the words out at the same volume that they were racing through his mind. " we're.... uh, i guess we're kind of.... kind of unofficially and as of yet, like, not super seriously....dating? "

Season 4: Chapter Six — The Dive

mental wounds not healing

          life’s a bitter shame

                 i’m going off the rails on a crazy train  [meet: eddie munson]

who’s that? oh it’s (EDWARD) EDDIE MUNSON. i hear they’re TWENTY-TWO and are known as THE FREAK around CHICAGO/HAWKINS TRAILER PARK. they’re also a EMPLOYEE/ (ASPIRING MUSICIAN) at ‘SHADY RECORDS’,. they’re known to be ENGAGING+HUMOROUS and MOODY+OVERBEARING. some people say they remind them of :

the smell of smoke, cologne and vanilla

browsing through a stack of vinyls and cassettes for half an hour until ou find the right one

the overwhelming expectations that come with being a ocietal outcast

a bandana in your back pocket, no matter what outfit you’re wearing

tw drug mention, death mention

what’s left to say about eddie ‘the freak’ munson - props to jason carver for the most inventive of nicknames - that hasn’t already been speculated aobut? the list goes as follows: freak, metalhead, trailer park trash, dungeon master, outcast, drug dealer, murder suspect, runaway, satan worshipper. miss anything?

after the dust settles, after that whacky fucking week, after chrissy's incident happened and he was on the run and in the ‘upside down’, fighting vecna - after all that has passed, after he’s cleared of all charges, he actually manages to army crawl his way towards that D in miss o’donnell’s and he graduates. two years late but hey, he got there. it’s like he predicted - eddie walks on stage, flips the principal the bird, snatches his diploma and runs like hell. the week after graduation his van leaves hawkins trailer park for the last time in a long time - eddie’s wasted no time.

;he drives around for a bit, settles in chicago. college is just ... not gonna be an option, but he’s got his music and a new band and he knows they’re going to take off, he just knows it. they play small venues but the crowd is bigger than in hawkins - fucking everything is bigger than hawkins, he thinks to himself - and even though he’s still labeled ‘weird’ and ‘freaky’ in chicago, there are just...a lot more weird, freaky people here than in hicksville indiana. so he’s not complaining. the opposite, actually.

still, they make a decent amount of money from their gigs but not enough to support themselves so eddie finally caves, takes that job at ‘shady records’. pay’s awful but his boss and co-workers are fucking angels and the people coming are never looking for belina carlisle or eddy huntington, no, they’re asking for the smiths and van halen and eddie’s face lights up everytime someone asks for his metal recommendations.

so, chicago is not what he expected but he’s making it work for him. he’s got a decent amount of friends there but ... eddie can’t deny he misses his hawkins friends. the hellfire club, the upside down gang. so he comes back every few weeks, checks in with his uncle and may mayfield, catches up with his friends. eddie’s not ‘officially’ the head of hellfire club anymore, in his absence he has passed his dungeon master duties on to the only worthy candidate, one will byers. but eddie still takes his time in chicago to plan some epic campaigns for when he pays hawkins a longer visit.

his boss has closed the store for the summer, taking the time to take a road tripe around the states, but he’s payed eddie in advance and hey, he’s not complaining, he’s packed his bags and drove back to hawkins to move back into his old room for the summer. a little apprehensive - staying in hawkins that long, that town always meant trouble. but mybe this time would be different.

he’s been back a couple of weeks now - and he’s still adjusting, because there are some things that one could do and say in chicago but....not in smalltown indiana. he’s back to being looked at funny and being called a ‘freak ‘ -though he has to say he sort of likes the attention, he doesn’t really stand out that much anymore in chicago - and no one’s asked him if he’s ‘flagging’ yet, which is a question he hears regularly but hey, he still keeps that bandana in his back pocket, just in case.

stevehharringtcns·:

dvstybuns·:

“What? No. No one broke into your house. You got mad the last time I did that, so I stopped.” Dustin replied to Steve, frowning at the question. If someone else had, Dustin would have called the cops - and then left. He wasn’t about to try to fight off a burglar at Steve’s house; his parents could afford to replace it all, anyway. And then all hell broke loose when Steve and Eddie realized why he’d used a Code Red. 

In theory, Dustin knew that Code Red meant Code Red and he wasn’t supposed to use it for other shit. He knew that! He didn’t need this lecture right now, damn it. “Okay, but you wouldn’t have gotten here as fast if I’d told you the real reason I needed to see you!” Dustin replied, voice rising to match theirs. Not that he had any real reason to be annoyed at them. “But fine! Whatever! I won’t use Code Red again unless I’m dying, okay?” He grumbled at Eddie, looking at Steve for some sympathy here. Not that he was really expecting to find it, but still. Of the two, Eddie seemed more pissed right now. 

Sitting down on Steve’s couch, he looked to the two older boys for guidance. He had asked them both for help because they were both like big brothers to him, or dads even. Older male figures that he looked up to and respected, even if just thinking that made him want to gag. Dustin loved them, and he trusted that even if their advice was shitty, it came from a good place because neither would actually actively want to ruin his life. 

“No, I know I need to take her on dates!” Dustin shook his head, leaning forward and resting his elbows on his knees. “I can do that. I can be romantic,” He murmured quietly, nodding at Eddie’s advice as he took it in. “Um, actually, we can’t go away somewhere because of the fucking border,” He reminded them, brow screwing up in confusion at the mention of a cabin. That seemed pointed, for some reason, and Dustin had no clue why. 

Was something else going on here? What was happening with them? Was this about a girl or something?

Pausing, Dustin took in the rest of Eddie’s advice. Okay, that was solid. That was something he could do. But that was also mostly what he was already doing. “I guess… I don’t know. It’s like, when we were talking over Cerebro or the phone, it was easy. Now that she’s here, I’m just…” He paused, looking down at the floor. It shouldn’t be embarrassing to admit - they both already knew how dorky he was. It was just hard being vulnerable sometimes, although he knew Steve and Eddie wouldn’t really judge him. Steve had been around for the fiasco that was the Snowball, and Eddie had known him for years too. Talking about this with them would be fine. Easier than talking about it with Mike and Lucas, for sure. 

“…I’m nervous. I really like her, and it’s been a long time since she’s been around me in person. What if she realizes that I’m weird or something and doesn’t like me anymore?” Dustin admitted quietly, avoiding looking at either of them.

When Eddie asked to leave, Dustin looked up at him sharply. “What? No! I asked you both here for your advice! Just because you don’t know much about girls doesn’t excuse you!” 

@stevehharringtcns··

.

these stupid walkies had only given steve headaches. he could have easily had a talk with eddie at his cabin, but of course they were interrupted by dustin. and since it was a code red (or so they thought so), they couldn’t exactly ignore it. “eddie’s right about this, you can’t just go on and about saying code red when you feel like it! you know that my dad would kill me if something happened to the house while he was out. just don’t do it again.” he said, feeling like he was done lecturing dustin. sometimes he did feel like a babysitter. he shared a look with eddie, nodding his head slowly. he thought that he didn’t need to say anything as they made their way inside of the house, watching as dustin took a seat on his couch.

as much as he wanted to focus on dustin, steve couldn’t help but to feel bad that he was there with eddie like everything was okay. he decided that it was for the best to not bring it up to dustin. he liked to believe that dustin looked at steve for some comfort, and the way he had talked about eddie before, he definitely saw him the same way. he wasn’t going to bring him into their mess. but then again, it was kind of hard to do when he felt eddie’s stares burn into his head and the occasional jabs, even if subtle, that the other threw his way.

“a cabin is a really good place for a romance, if two people are alone. that much is true, dustin…” he said, giving eddie a look for a couple of moments, wanting for him to stop. what had happened at the cabin wasn’t his proudest moment and he felt sick every time he thought about it, but this wasn’t the best time to fight about it. although that he thought he would never hear the end of it from eddie. if he had been given a chance to talk to him before getting interrupted, maybe they wouldn’t be like this now. but it didn’t matter, steve wanted to focus on dustin. “look, this isn’t about me and the dates that i’ve gone to, ed- dustin.” he said, correcting himself at the end and clearing his throat. “clearly we’re different because i was popular back then and dustin is… well, dustin.” he said with a shrug of his shoulders.

steve listened carefully to dustin’s concerns about suzie. in all honesty, dustin made it seem like suzie was going to leave at any moment, but steve doubted that. after meeting her, she seemed way too nice to do something like that and she cared about dustin. steve pursed his lips as he nodded his head, thinking about on what to say next. “have you… you know, tried talking to her about it? maybe asking her?” he asked, raising an eyebrow before shaking his head.

“you’re not… okay, you’re definitely weird, but that’s past the point! she fell for you during that… camp or whatever it was. and even after that, she still wanted to talk to you through those stupid walkies. if she does all of that for a guy that’s miles away, then i definitely don’t think she’ll think you’re weird. or maybe…” he said, looking over at eddie for a couple of moments, a glint in his eyes as he pursed his lips and looked at dustin. “maybe she likes you because you’re weird.” he said, nodding his head. he thought if he was actually talking about himself. he let out a sigh as he sat down next to dustin and patted the other on the shoulder with a smile on his face. 

“i don’t think you have to worry about suzie thinking you’re weird. right, eddie?” he asked, feeling his heart pounding as he looked at eddie for a few moments, giving him a look. he wanted the other to agree with him and forget about what was going on between them for a couple of moments. this was about cheering up dustin and giving him some advice as he asked. they could fight later.

“how about this? you’ll go home tonight and ask suzie what are some of her favorite movies and tomorrow you can stop by the video store and rent them out, okay?” he asked, smiling at dustin. “it’ll be on the house.” he assured, patting the other on the shoulder again. he wasn’t the best at advice, he thought, but a movie always seemed to help whenever he had a date. even if he didn’t pay that much attention to the movie.

@eddiemcnson··

+++

eddie threw steve a sharp look, then sighed heavily. it was better to leave his own resentment out of this - for dustin's sake. and he was instantly reminded of a line he'd heard countless times in his childhood, over the sound muffled shouting and breaking glass - "not in front of the kid!"

besides, he didn't stand a chance when dustin looked at him like that so, slightly disgruntled, he plopped down on the couch. steves comment about popularity drew an eye roll from eddie. "ah, great, stevie ,amazing, real nicely done. makes him feel real special i bet." though eddie knew what he meant. he himself hadn't been exactly popular in high school, either, especially after the whole town had accused him of satanic ritualistic murders. still, that hadn't exactly gotten in the way of his dating life, seeing as it had been nonexistent in hawkins. a lack of options, if anything. perhaps a lack of adequate social skills, too.

he leaned in, gave dustin a shrug and a comforting smile. "as much as I hate to say this but i agree with king steve over here. and anyway, the hell's wrong with being weird, anyway? i'm weird. you're weird. i wouldn't like you if you weren't weird, henderson. you see...", he trailed off, pursed his lips, fingers drumming against his thigh as he thought of how to phrase it. "freaks and weirdos, yeah, they, like, attract each other. we're like magnets. when I first saw you, i mean, you definitely looked odd with your fucking weird al shirt." he chuckled slightly at the memory, feeling a little more comfortable now despite the lingering tension between him and steve." but wheeler, he looked, like, disgustingly, boringly normal. "and he made a fake gagging sound to accentuate his words. " but i still came up to you two and asked you to sit at the hellfire table. because i could just tell you two were freaks. hey, think of it like this - weird is just like another word for special."

a reassuring smile he gave dustin a comforting pat on the back, freezing as his fingers lightly brushed steve's from where the other's hand rested on dustin's shoulder. he pulled it back, perhaps a couple of seconds too late. "yeah, go... go with what harrington here says. dinner and a movie, yada yada. take her to the arcade - you said she digs computers and that shit, right?"

@dvstybuns