#freak stranger things

[undreaming-fanfiction]

The Corroded Coffin used to think they'd be the new Metallica or Judas Priest. But where their passion and hard work never lacked, their big break just never came.

What did come, however, was an unexpected change of their career path.

It started innocently enough - they went through yet another failed meeting with recording studios, they'd travelled pretty far and it was for nothing. Instead of going back to Hawkins and risking another one or Eddie's road rages, they decided to break into an abandoned house and drink their sorrows away.

That is, until their empty bottles started collecting themselves, something invisible touched Gareth's shoulder and the dusty floor started showing written messages.

Jeff wanted to flee. Gareth to faint. But Eddie and Freak just shrugged. Eddie gestured towards the approximate ghost location and said "by the power of I don't give a shit anymore, I compel you to sit down and stop it, we'll clean the bottles when we leave tomorrow."

The rattling stopped. There was a moment of silence when the Corroded Coffin actually thought it had worked, but then the ghost overcame its shock and physically threw Eddie, his bandmates and their things out.

They sat on the wet grass for a while and contemplated their whole exitence. Eddie was pretty shaken about the whole thing because he'd just managed to royally piss off a ghost and lived to tell the tale. But apart from absolutely terrifying...it was also fun?

And his friends seemed to think the same. Jeff patted his shoulder and said: "not bad for a first touch with the unknown, huh?"

They stayed in the area and tried again. They decided to tape over their promotional video - not so great, they had to admit after rewatching it - and started documenting their ghostly encounters. And maybe it was just the timing, maybe it was their interactions and personalities, but it worked. They showed some of their tapes to a local TV station and they got a cautious yes, more than they ever had with their music.

They got assigned a small crew, Fred with a camera and Chrissy for sound, wrote their own episodes and did plenty of research. And they got to try quite a lot of different approaches with their ghostly friends. Eddie was amazing at taunting the ghosts, making them appear if there were any present. Gareth had a wonderfully calming presence, managing to save the CC's ass several times. Jeff was the brains, he made sure they'd always know the history of the house and the probable identity of the ghost. And Freak decided to dabble in the occult sciences with a terrifying precision. There could never be enough salt in Eddie's van for all the circles he made.

It all went well until they learned of the Creel House in Hawkins. They went there, did their research and before entering the house, they ordered some pizza for dinner. They assumed it would be over by midnight, thinking it was just another sad story of an unresolved murder, but the ghost of Henry Creel was out for blood.

Oh, and he also controlled the spiders of the house. That was new.

To set the scene: The crew had fled the house about an hour ago. Eddie was crouching behind an old table, blocking Henry's barrage of kitchen knives, shouting "IS THIS THE BEST YOU'VE GOT?!". Gareth was behind the table with Eddie, but he went more into the wailing territory with "I DON'T THINK THIS WILL HELP YOU MOVE ON, HENRY!". Jeff had blocked himself in the pantry and kept trying to identify the triggering moment - "I think he's re-enacting the murder of his mother, guys! Does that help?!" (it doesn't). And Freak gave up on salt circles and was now tossing handfuls at salt around the house with a questionable technique but unwavering determination.

Suddenly, a car horn.

Then, a bitchy male voice: "Are you coming to get your pizza or what? I have other customers to get to!"

Eddie gritted his teeth as Henry added heavy pans to the mix and hit his shoulder. "We're a little busy surviving here! Ask Chrissy to pay you!"

There was a muffled and annoyed "ugh" from behind the door and then: "Is it Henry again?"

Eddie just blinked. Gareth was more ready to answer: "Sure is! He's not a fan of our exorcism!"

And the pizza guy didn't leave. He just huffed and said something that sounded suspiciously like "amateurs".

Eddie wanted to punch him.

But before he could do that, the front door opened. Gareth held his breath, half expecting a sound of knives hitting their target.

Instead, they heard a few more steps and then: "What the fuck, Henry?!"

A faint whispering reached their ears, but they couldn't decipher it. But the pizza guy could.

"I don't care they didn't get your permission, Henry. Yeah, it's annoying, but what are you going to do? If more people die in this house, it's going to get demolished. You know that. Yeah, I know the house is old, but it's great for your spiders, right? They'd be homeless. Do you want to make your spiders homeless, Henry?"

They dared to peek from behind the table, and Eddie had to pinch himself. Because in the middle of the dusty dining room stood one of the prettiest young men Eddie had ever seen, hands on hips and arguing with something invisible.

The man completely ignored them.

"That's what I thought. Now, apologize. No, they can't hear you, so get creative."

All four CC members stared as words formed in the spilled salt: "SORRY".

The pizza guy seemed to be pleased. "Good job, Henry. Now, let me get them out of here and I promise I'll get the Party to bring you some new spiders when they capture them outside, yeah? Three knocks, slide them in a glass behind the door. Got it. Take care, Henry."

Only then did he look at Eddie and the others and frowned. "That's your cue to leave. Get your stuff and go, now." And as they were quickly collecting their scattered notes and recording equipment, he added: "and say goodbye when leaving. Don't be rude."

Four rushed "Bye, Henry!" and "Sorry, Henry"s later, the Corroded Coffin was standing on the grass outside, feeling the setting sun on their skin and smelling fresh pizza. Gareth promptly paid for the delivery, and everyone proceeded to thank their mysterious savior.

"I'm Steve," he said after they'd all expressed their thanks, "and you're stupid. Do you really do this without anyone who sees and hears them? Do you just stumble blindly into haunted houses for a fun and stabby time?"

Eddie had to swallow down a very bitchy response of his own. "Sorry to stroke your ego even more, pretty boy, but a man of your talents is hard to come by."

And Steve, to Eddie's massive shock, just cocked his head and fluffed his hair, probably out of habit, but damn. "Well, consider yourself lucky because I'm open to job offers," he said with a wink that brought Eddie back into his teenage fantasies. "You need someone like me, and I assume you pay better than pizza delivery. Do you?"

Turns out, their producer was willing to get one more person on board, especially when they finished processing the leftover footage from the Creel house.

Steve was an amazing addition. He was snarky, self-confident, easy to look at and most of all, he was fun and compassionate. Watching him communicate with ghosts of kids and help them move on made Eddie's icy heart melt.

But one day they were on a site of an unfortunate teenage death, Steve was chatting with the ghost of a 17 year old girl like they'd known each other for ages, he was laughing, cracking jokes, and then:

"No, he hasn't kissed me yet."

Eddie turned around on his heel and stared at Steve, snickering to himself and talking to a misty figure next to him. And worst of all, they were both staring right at Eddie.

"Hasn't even asked me out, no. You'd think he'd be interested, but I guess I'm doing something wrong."

And Eddie's head short-circuited, and all the repressed fantasies from nights next to Steve in their trailer came back with vengeance. He howled and threw himself at Steve, kissing him right on that bitchy mouth. "Doing something wrong?! Steven Harrington, those shorts of yours are doing everything right, but how about you say something, huh?!"

Steve returned the kiss to the cheering of the CC guys, Chrissy's clapping and Fred's disgusted noise, and shrugged when they broke apart. "I knew you'd get it, eventually. Oh, and Heather?" he turned to the ghost. "You're the best wingwoman ever, in this life and after."

Four good things came from this ghostly encounter:

After the kiss, Gareth finally gathered enough courage to ask Chrissy out. She said yes.

The episode with Heather became the most watched episode of the CC's show.

Steve and Eddie remained in an equally blissful and teasing relationship for the rest of their lives.

And finally...

The TV station decided to design official merch for the CC's show: incredibly short shorts that said on the backside: "DOING EVERYTHING RIGHT".

#steve harrington #eddie munson #corroded coffin #steddie #steddie drabble #steddie fanfiction #steddie ficlet #gareth emerson #jeff stranger things #freak stranger things #chrissy cunningham #drumcheer #not proofread we die like my sleep schedule

[kitchen-spoon]

Steve who finishes hair school in Indianapolis then moves to LA because he wants to do hair for movies.

He can’t find a job on a film set right away so in an attempt to get closer to the industry he starts booking at home hair drying & styling through an app.

When he starts its mostly older rich ladies who book him before dinners with their husbands business partners or soirées with their girlfriends. It reminds him a bit too much of his own mother but he pushes that aside in hopes that one day he gives the right rich lady an at home blow out.

That day comes but it isn’t a rich lady. Instead cut to Chrissy manager of newly famous up and coming band corroded coffin, desperate and scrambling. It was the day the band was meant to be shooting their music video for their latest single but the hair stylist they booked called in sick that morning. Out of desperation Chrissy gets on the app and hires Steve. He has 4 stars and over 20 positive reviews and she is running out of options.

Steve sees the name chrissy and sees its for a music video and assumes he is going to be doing some fun bouncy youthful hair for an up and coming pop star. Imagine his shock when heavily pierced and tattooed lead singer of corroded coffin Eddie Munson sits down in his chair with his curly birds nest of hair. Steve does his job though, detangling and defining Eddie’s curls. Steve is even more shocked though, when it turns out Eddie is actually super sweet and…kind of charming? He might even be flirting?

Steve is unsure through the whole day and all of the touch ups he does. There is plausible deniability to all the light touches and brushing against one another that happens. Until the end of the day when Eddie comes to him looking frustrated. Instantly Steve’s stomach drops, he seemed happy with the style all day! If he didn’t like it why film a whole music video with it?

“Steve.” Eddie stops in front of him. “Look, I’m just gonna be blunt.”

Steve’s eyes go wide and he clears his throat, “uh, yeah sure go for it.”

“Am I an idiot who has been flirting with a straight guy all day?” Eddie asked.

All the air left Steve’s lungs, he couldn’t help the small wheeze that escaped him. “No you haven’t I- god Eddie.” Steve started giggling with relief, he even felt a little dizzy with it. “I’ve been trying to keep it together all day, thinking I was delusional and you were just really nice.”

“Oh,” it was Eddie’s turn to widen his eyes. Then a huge smile broke out in his face. “No delusions there, I was definitely flirting with you all day.” He paused taking one of his curls between his hands and separating it causing it to frizz. “And uh, would love to keep flirting with you over dinner tonight…if you’re interested?”

Steve smiled reaching forward taking the curl from Eddie. He began smoothing it back together and smiled warmly. “I’d love to.”

#eddie munson #steve harrington #steddie #stranger things ships #steve x eddie #stranger things #stranger things one shot #famous eddie munson #chrissy cunningham #corroded coffin #gareth stranger things #freak stranger things #jeff stranger things #rock star eddie munson #hair stylist steve harrington #modern au #stranger things drabble #stranger things modern au #steve harrington pov #eddie stranger things

[withacapitalp]

How to Rehabilitate a Jock Pt 20

Part Nineteen Part One Link to ao3

A huge thank you to so many people but it's especially @thefreakandthehair for betaing, being the best, and generally encouraging all of my nuttiness. Also a big shout out to Bowie ( don't remember your Tumblr my lovely!!) for doublechecking some sensititvity reading for me. Y'all rock!!!

Jeff had the decency to wait until Frank was safely in his house before he called Eddie out on his shit. 

“What the fuck are you doing, man?” Jeff sighed the second the door closed behind Frank, leaving only the snow, Eddie’s headlights, and two best friends about to have an incredibly awkward conversation. 

“Driving you dicks home?” Eddie tried, hoping that he could fool Jeff into not having the uncomfortable conversation that was already beginning. He kicked the van into reverse, throwing a hand casually over Jeff’s seat as he turned and began to maneuver his way back to the road. 

“Eddie.”

It wasn’t much. It wasn’t anything really. Just his name, nothing more, nothing less, but it was Jeff’s tone. 

That voice, the voice he always used when he was trying to cut through Gareth and Eddie’s bullshit. Corroded Coffin had lasted all these years because of balance. Frank was their rock, steady and sure; Eddie and Gareth were the stream, bouncing and playing and whirling around in a daze; but Jeff was the earth around them. Jeff was everything, and Eddie might be their leader, but Jeff was the one that held everything together. 

And he was the only one who could get Eddie to drop the act with just one word. 

“Honestly, dude? I have no fucking idea what I’m doing,” Eddie sighed, slightly curling in on himself as he focused on the road. The snow was only mildly awful at the moment, but winter in Indiana could turn on a dime and Eddie wasn’t looking to run his van off the road just because Jeff was grilling him about his stupid little completely non-existent crush. 

“Well, what do you want from him?” Jeff asked, dragging the first word slowly out as he thought about what he wanted to say. Sometimes the other members of Hellfire would do things like that— talk slow or choose words carefully, just to try and avoid Eddie’s sparky temper. 

Unfortunately for him, Eddie was already worked up about this particular topic. 

“Great question!” Eddie snapped, going to throw his hands up before choosing to be wise and hold the wheel steady. A small squall was beginning to form around them, and his visibility was starting to cut to next to none.

“Okay, okay,” Jeff said, placating to Eddie’s need to be a bit of an asshat, “So what happened between you and Steve that’s got Gareth so pressed?”

If it was any other person in the car with him, Eddie might have been able to fake it. Even Frank might have fallen for a lie about Gareth’s hatred of jocks and conformity and how Steve was just a representation of that. 

But it was Jeff. Jeff, who was their Earth, who knew that Gareth’s grudge wouldn’t have lasted this long if it wasn’t motivated by protectiveness. That the only reason Gareth wouldn’t have started to warm up even a little bit was his need to make sure his people were safe. 

Few things in life were assured, but death, taxes, and Gareth Winston’s need to protect his own were all a given.  

“Steve probably doesn’t even remember, so it doesn’t matter,” Eddie muttered, evading the question just as he narrowly evaded a pothole that seemed to appear out of thin air on the road in front of them. The storm was picking back up again, and this was not the conversation to be having right at this moment.  

“Well, do you want him to fuck you?” Jeff asked bluntly, cutting through the fat and straight to the juicy meat of the problem. 

“Jeff!” Eddie blurted out, a nervous burst of laughter escaping along with his name. He took the risk of looking away from the road for a few seconds to give the other boy a wild-eyed look, but Jeff seemed unphased, cool as a cucumber as a lion’s smile began to curl on his face. 

“Do you want to fuck him?” 

Unbidden, a dozen images flashed through Eddie’s head. Steve in his bed. Steve shirtless. Steve underneath him with his hair splayed out on the pillows, wrists trapped in gleaming silver cuffs as he begged so pretty for—

No. 

No no no no no no NO. 

“Dude!” Eddie groaned, turning away from the road again to shout at Jeff. 

And then it happened. 

Jeff’s shit-eating grin disappeared, his eyes growing to the size of dinner plates as he shouted a wordless warning cry and Eddie had less than a second to turn back to the road, slamming his foot on the brake and throwing his arm out to protect Jeff from the inevitable crash. 

There was something on the road in front of them. The snow made it impossible to see beyond the shape, but, whatever it was, it was massive. Huge, and hulking, with a dark shadow that sent a chill down Eddie’s spine, and he was sure his van wouldn’t survive the impact. 

But no impact came. 

His tires skidded, the van turned half a quarter, but no collision, no smashing glass, no pain. Just twin panting from him and Jeff, and an empty road all around them. 

“What was that?” Jeff whispered when he was able to form words again. 

“A deer, I guess,” Eddie murmured back, not really feeling all that sure of his answer. He had never seen a deer like that, but he also hadn’t really seen anything. His wild imagination wanted to run with it, but there was no point. Whatever it was, it was gone, and that’s what mattered. 

He leaned back against his seat, his heart still racing as he patted Jeff’s chest twice, slightly assured when he could feel Jeff’s heart pounding through his shirt as well.

“Sorry.” 

“Shouldn’t’ve distracted you,” Jeff mumbled, lacing his fingers together to hide how badly they were shaking. 

“Hey, not your fault,” Eddie said, knowing how Jeff’s anxiety tended to latch to any blame it could when it got tripped like this. Eddie tested the van, carefully pulling back onto the right side of the road. They stayed quiet as Eddie turned them towards Jeff’s house, driving at a turtle’s pace with both hands on the wheel. 

“I want to help him,” Eddie offered into the silence, eyes firm on the road. “If I can.”

When Jeff didn’t immediately respond, Eddie thought that was the end of the conversation, but as they approached Jeff’s neighborhood, the boy next to him spoke up again. 

“Steve needs the help. Something’s really wrong with him, Eds.”

“You’re turning over to Gareth’s side?” Eddie joked, the words thin and frail and instantly disappearing the second he put them in the air. 

“No,” Jeff replied, no veil of humor over his words. “There’s something wrong with him like there’s something wrong with me.” 

“There’s nothing wrong with you,” Eddie said on instinct, hating the bitter scoff Jeff gave. He pulled up to a stop sign and put the van all the way in park, turning in his seat and giving Jeff his full attention 

“Look at me.” Eddie ordered, waiting until Jeff’s dark eyes met his own in the dim light of the streetlamp before speaking again. 

“There’s nothing wrong with you, Jeff. Nothing.” He said, making sure that there was zero wiggle room in his voice. 

Because there wasn’t, and Eddie hated that his best friend thought there was. There was something wrong with Hawkins, with the country they lived in, with the world. There was something wrong with a species that somehow made color a defining factor in a person’s worth, but there was not, and never would be, anything wrong with who Jeff was.

“Fine, then something wrong happened to both of us,” Jeff amended, a ghost of a smile crossing his face at Eddie’s insistence. “Either way, just be careful with him,” 

“Aren’t you supposed to be giving Steve the shovel talk? Not the other way around?” Eddie joked, putting the van back in gear and turning onto Jeff’s street. 

“When you get him, I’ll give him the talk,” Jeff promised, crossing his heart as he did. 

When, not if. Just one word instead of the other, but a flush of warmth flooded Eddie from the top of his head to the tips of his toes. There wasn’t a chance in hell that Jeff was right to use the word ‘when’, because Eddie’s chances were not even ‘if’, but he loved the positivity. 

“Have a good night, man,” Jeff said as they pulled into his driveway, holding out a hand for a quick shake as he unbuckled his seatbelt.  

“Hey,” Eddie called, grabbing the edge of Jeff’s coat as he stepped out of the van. “Us freaks stick together. Always.”

It was a little reminder, just a hint of a conversation they had over a year ago, but judging by the way Jeff’s eyes softened and his shoulders lowered, he knew exactly what Eddie was reminding him of. 

“Always,” Jeff echoed, squeezing Eddie’s wrist once before he hurried towards his darkened house and slipped inside. Eddie waited till the porch light turned off before sighing heavily, resting his head against the steering wheel for a moment before reversing again. 

Back to the lion’s den. 

The house was dark as Eddie quietly let himself back in, but the glow of the pool and the embers of the fire crackling in the fireplace gave just enough light to see the aftermath of the party. It wasn’t half as bad as some of the messes Eddie had seen from Steve’s previous parties, but it was still pretty messy. There would be a lot of cleanup coming tomorrow, and Eddie’s heart ached when he thought about Steve spending Christmas Eve alone cleaning up his house. 

Damn this boy. Eddie didn’t even celebrate Christmas, and here he was worrying over Steve about being alone for it. 

Maybe Wayne wouldn’t mind having one more person over for dinner. Usually it was just the two of them, but Wayne loved his strays almost as much as Eddie did, and Steve was an easy guy to care about. 

Eddie would ask him tomorrow morning. Call before anyone woke up and see what Wayne said. Then he would offer to help clean and ask Steve when it was just the two of them. After all, no one should be alone on the holidays. 

Eddie was so lost in his thoughts, that he almost missed the sound of an angel singing somewhere up above. 

Are you lonesome tonight?

Do you miss me tonight?

Are you sorry we drifted apart?

But no, there was no missing that voice. Eddie was a connoisseur of music, but he already knew that almost any other song was ruined for him. He was the cat caught by the canary instead of the other way around, lost in the sound of a voice he hadn’t heard in years. It was deeper now, fuller, grown almost into a man from the boy he had been the last time Eddie heard him sing.  

Does your memory stray to a bright summer day

When I kissed you and called you sweetheart?

He climbed the stairs slowly, drawn like a moth to a flame, knowing it would burn, but needing to be close anyway. 

Do the chairs in your parlor seem empty and bare?

Do you gaze at your doorstep and picture me there?

Outside the room now, Eddie could see it all while still staying hidden. Steve was sitting on the floor, his head leaned back against the bed that was filled to the bursting with his sleeping children. 

His entire self was on display for Eddie, not just his body, but his soul and his mind, a gift being given without knowing, and Eddie was too selfish not to take it. 

Is your heart filled with pain?

Shall I come back again?

This was the boy Gareth couldn’t see, but the one Eddie couldn’t stop looking for. A boy who knew their first memory together. Without a doubt. Who had never forgotten, no matter how much Eddie tried to convince himself he had. 

There was no other reason to pick this song. 

Tell me dear, are you lonesome tonight?

And without permission Eddie was thrust into a memory.

Despite it only being his sophomore year, Eddie was more than used to getting detention. In the two years since he had moved to Hawkins, Eddie had earned his ‘problem child’ status at least twice over. This particular afternoon, he was stuck sitting at a graffitied desk in the detention room because he dared to argue when his teacher told him that it was valid to not believe in evolution when it went against your religious beliefs. 

Evolution. The base of all humanity. 

She was wrong, but she was the one with all the power, so Eddie was the one in trouble. 

Still it could’ve been worse. Wayne had given him the van for his fifteenth birthday, so he wasn’t stuck waiting on the steps for a ride home after missing the bus. It wasn’t technically legal, but Hopper tended to look the other way as long as Eddie continued to give him discounts on ‘merchandise’. 

All Eddie had to do was wait out the clock. Mr. Whiter had already fallen asleep at the desk up front and at six, Eddie would be free. Maybe he could even stop at Benny’s. The man always gave him extra fries to bring home to Wayne, and Eddie was making good money now that Rick was in the slammer. He was the last dealer left in town, so things were looking up. 

Well things would be looking up, except the kid next to him refused to stop sniffling. 

Eddie muffled an irritated sigh, sliding his eyes over to take stock of the boy sitting across the way. Clearly a freshman, and obviously his first time in detention. He was looking around the room with wide-eyed horror, slightly terrified of every single thing he saw, and obviously trying to brush tears away from his bruised cheek and busted lip. 

Normally, Eddie would just tell him to shut up. That detention was barely anything to have to deal with in the grand scheme of things, but he had seen the fight that landed the kid in detention, and it had been bad enough to warrant some misery. 

One second he and another boy (obviously a friend given how upset the kid was) were laughing by his locker, and the next second they were exchanging blows. It had been bad, taking three teachers to separate them, and somehow this kid had gotten in trouble for the whole thing!

But Eddie had seen the start, and it was the other twerp that had thrown the first punch. Yet somehow, he was already on the bus home and this schmuck was stuck in detention with the Freak of Hawkins High

The unjustness gnawed at Eddie’s soul, and the longer the kid sat there doing nothing but brush at his already dry cheeks, the harder it was to ignore him. 

Fuck it. There were worse ways to spend an afternoon. 

Eddie grabbed his notebook, slamming it open to a fresh page and dragging his favorite purple pen across the paper, taking a cursory glance at Mr. Whiter’s snoring form before sliding his chair over to the other boy. 

“Hi!” Eddie said, throwing a big smile in the kids direction and hoping that would grease the wheels a little. Eddie knew how intimidating he could look to the rest of the world, and he liked it that way, but it sometimes made it hard to make friends. 

Sure enough, the kid startled the second Eddie spoke, looking at him the way a deer looks at the hunter right before they hear the death shot. He didn’t seem like the type to just outright tell Eddie to fuck off, but he did look massively uncomfortable with Eddie invading his space.  

Oh well, what was the worst that could happen?

“Wanna kill some time?” Eddie offered, holding up his notebook before placing it down on the desk in front of them. A tic tac toe board sat in the middle of the page, and a scorecard was up in the top corner with the word ‘Eddie' on one side and the words ‘Random Kid 'on the other. 

A barely there smile glanced across the kids face as he looked down at the page, and then those big brown eyes were on him. Eddie waited patiently, forcing his body to stay still which was actually a pretty herculean task— not that this kid knew. He had the worm on the hook and the line in the water, and now he was just waiting for the curious fish to bite. 

Whatever the kid was looking for, he must’ve found it because that same soft, shy smile was gifted to Eddie as he leaned down, rooting around in his backpack for his own pen. When he found the one he was looking for, he carefully crossed over Eddie’s purple writing, replacing ‘Random Kid’ with just one word instead. 

“Well, Steve, let’s hope your tic-tac-toe powers are better than your fighting skills,” Eddie joked, pleased when instead of getting mad, Steve’s cheeks darkened in a pretty little blush, and he simply ducked his head with a soft protest and an embarrassed smile. 

They played a few rounds in relative silence, the occasional quiet groan or cheer when one or the other managed to clinch a victory. It was nice, a little boring, but far preferable to what they had been doing before. 

And then Steve’s pen died. 

It was a slow death, long and drawn out with some furious scribbling to try and get one last juice for the squeeze. 

“Here, man, just take mine. I’ve got a spare somewhere,” Eddie offered, not even thinking twice as he gave away his favorite pen, even though he never let anyone borrow that pen. Wayne had gotten it for him on a day trip to Indianapolis for his birthday, just a tiny trinket to commemorate the day, and Eddie loved it to death. 

There was no way Steve could have known that, and yet he was looking at the pen like it was a live snake. 

“Why are you being so nice to me?” Steve asked, his eyes narrowing as he looked down at the clearly treasured object in front of him. 

Eddie looked up at the other boy, furrowing his brow. 

“Why not?” Eddie said with a shrug, going back to his notebook with a plain black pen. He was scratching out another tic-tac-toe board to add to the dozens that were already on the page, but paused when he saw Steve wasn’t picking up his own pen. 

“People aren’t just nice,” Steve insisted, giving Eddie an unexpectedly guarded look. “They always want something…so what do you want from me?” 

“I want to make this afternoon a little less unbearable, I want to fight the system, and I want to make you feel better.” Eddie offered, quirking his head to the side and picking up his favorite purple pen to offer once more to the other boy, “Isn’t that enough?” 

They stared at each other for a long second, until Steve’s face broke into an incredulous smile and he ducked his head down. 

“You’re really weird,” he said with a soft laugh, taking the pen. It was a lovely sound, like birds singing in the morning, or the first soft strum of a guitar as practice began. 

Eddie needed to hear it again.

From there they were off, talking about everything and anything. Eddie shared about all of the  ridiculous reasons he had gotten detention over the years, and Steve explained that the other punk from the fight was Tommy, apparently his best friend for his entire life. They had lived next to each other since Steve had moved to Hawkins as a kid, and had done every single thing together. The reason Tommy had started the fight was Steve had told him he wasn’t sure he wanted to go to basketball try-outs tomorrow. 

“It’s not that I don’t like it, I just want to try some other stuff too you know?” Steve said, looking up from their game to catch Eddie’s eye, “We’re in high school now, so it’s the time to try something new, isn’t it?” 

“Sure it is!” Eddie agreed eagerly, holding himself back from going on a diatribe about the laundry basket devils that ran the school and instead talking about all of the clubs he was in. He couldn’t really see Steve enjoying Marching Band or Creative Writing, but Drama might be a good fit, or maybe Art. 

“You could even join the new club I’m trying to start if you wanted,” Eddie offered, trying to stay casual but practically vibrating at the thought of having someone else to show Higgins that Hellfire was worthy of a place at the table. 

“A new club?” Steve asked. 

“Yea, it’s gonna be great,” Eddie started, taking a deep breath to start his long rant about the joys of dungeons and dragons, “So it’s called—”

“Alright boys,” a nasally voice droned from the front of the room. “Time to pack it up.”

Both boys jumped at Mr. Whiter’s interruption, and Eddie rolled his eyes, frustrated at being stopped right as he had started to get to the good stuff. The geometry teacher either didn’t notice or didn’t care, too eager to get back to his own home to do whatever geometry teachers did when they weren’t at school. 

If Eddie had to guess, it was probably fucking their wives with compasses while reciting geometric formulas as foreplay. That seemed right. 

“And don’t let me catch you in here again, Mr. Harrington. I would hope your parents had taught you better,” Mr. Whiter said as they trudged past him. His blank potato looking face was only showing the barest hints of disappointment, but that was still enough to make Steve cringe away.

“Yes sir,” he whispered, all joy from the last hour they had spent together vanishing in an instant.

“What? No warning for me Mr. Whiter?” Eddie inquired, batting his eyes and trying to take the attention away from Steve. 

“I don’t particularly like wasting my breath on hopeless cases, Mr. Munson,” Whiter droned, half raising one brow, as if shocked that Eddie would even bother to ask for an admonishment. “Try to get your homework done tonight, will you? I’d hate to add another zero to my gradebook,”

Hot shame rushed down Eddie’s spine, replaced quickly by a lightning fury that made his lips loose and his logic take a quick hike. 

“Well, I don’t particularly like making promises I can’t keep, sorry Tighty-Whiteys!” Eddie declared, grabbing Steve’s hand and dragging him away before they could get in any trouble because of Eddie’s big fat mouth. 

“Jesus H Christ, that guys a dick!” Eddie shouted, both boys laughing breathlessly as they burst through the doors of the school. 

“You gonna do the homework?” Steve said through his giggles. 

“Now? Hell no!” Eddie swore, cackling as he did and jumping up onto the low wall next to the school. “Gotta fight the system however you can, Stevie. Trust me. Listen to your elders.”

“Whatever you say,”  Steve said, continuing to laugh at Eddie’s antics. He idly looked around the parking lot, his mood starting to darken as he looked again, searching the parking lot again, but Eddie wasn’t exactly sure what for. 

Then Steve sighed, plopping down on the curb and wrapping his arms around his knees resting his chin on top of them and rapidly blinking. 

“What’re you doin’?” Eddie asked with concern, shocked at Steve’s sudden turn and hopping down from his spot on the wall. 

“My parents aren’t here,” Steve muttered glumly, staring out at the empty lot instead of looking at Eddie as he sat on the curb next to Steve. “The school called after the fight, and they knew when I was getting out, but my dad’s probably going to make me wait ‘till after dinner or something.”

It wasn’t exactly the most damning thing to say in the world, Eddie could think of a dozen things that his dad had done to him that were worse, but the thought of making his own son wait for hours in the cold and dark still made something in his stomach squirm. He could never imagine Wayne doing anything like that to him.

Steve curled up even tighter around himself, completely unaware of Eddie’s internal struggle. 

“God, I bet they’re so pissed.” Steve whispered into his knees. “And now my dad’s going to have to come get me, and he’s going to be even madder about that—”

“Why don’t I give you a ride home?” Eddie offered in an instant, shocking even himself with the boldness of the offer. He had just met the kid only an hour ago, but Steve’s genuine nature touched something in him, and there was a magnetic pull to want to help him that Eddie couldn’t quite explain just yet. “Then at least they won’t be mad at you about needing a ride, right?”

It would make more sense for Steve to say no, to try and play it off, but instead he was giving Eddie a watery smile and a look of gratitude as he nodded, starting to stand. 

Eddie had never really worried about what the van looked like, but as they walked towards where it was, Eddie jogged ahead, trying to throw the multitudes of wrappers and junk into the back where Steve wouldn’t see. Luckily for him, the younger boy seemed enraptured by the simple fact that Eddie had a car at all. 

“I want something cool like a Beemer or a truck, but my mom doesn’t want me to get a car ‘till I’m 18,” Steve said idly, pausing and furrowing his brow as he did, “She’s really weird about me driving for some reason.” 

Hopefully, she wouldn’t feel too weird about a random guy giving her kid a ride home in a kidnapper van. 

“Pick a tape for us to listen to,” Eddie offered as he climbed into the driver's seat, fighting with his seatbelt as Steve perused his choices. Unfortunately, Steve quickly skipped over all of the metal that Eddie had at the front of the pack, but soon familiar notes began to sing, and Eddie’s shoulders relaxed as he recognized the song. 

“Ahhhh, The King. A good choice,” Eddie commented as Elvis’s voice began to croon out into the air between them. 

“Who could hate this song?” Steve asked rhetorically, a wry grin on his face as the tune began to take shape.

“I always loved that nickname,” Steve said off handedly, staring out the window at the rows of corn, “King.” 

“You should steal it then,” Eddie said automatically. Sure, Steve was a kid right now, but Eddie could see it in his eyes. A few years, a couple more inches, and that kid would have the world eating out of his palm. That sweet nature, that funny little humor, ‘King’ wasn’t too hard to imagine when it came to Steve. 

“Maybe,” Steve replied, drawing out the word with a tone that showed that he wasn’t sure about that. He gave Eddie a few more directions, and they got closer and closer to their time being done together. A strange desperation started to make Eddie’s heart race, like he could feel the two of them pulling back into their roles, backing away from whatever they had this afternoon. 

“It’s got a good ring to it. King Steve,” Eddie pushed, pausing and making the turn into Loch Nora before he put his heart on the line. 

“Why don’t you blow off basketball try-outs tomorrow? Come to my club I’m starting instead. You can meet my friends.”

It was a chance, a choice. Steve could make the right one, and be one of them, or he could get sucked into Hawkins and all of it’s hell hole small town bullshit. Eddie was giving him an out. 

“That sounds really fun,” Steve said in a small voice, a secret smile shared between them before it was ruined by a shout from the house in front of them. 

“Steven!”

It was a woman’s voice, and Steve’s entire body stiffened. No more smiles, no more relaxing, Steve was a rod of pure steel, with a blank unaffected face. A man and a woman, Steve’s mother and father presumably, were standing on the porch together, twin faces of disappointed gravity that stole all of the air out of the van. 

“Well, wish me luck,” Steve laughed without humor, his fingers worrying over the straps of his backpack as he started to unbuckle his seatbelt. 

“See you tomorrow?” Eddie asked, already knowing in his stomach that he wouldn’t. 

“Tomorrow,” Steve said, the word so thin and frail now. 

And he was gone. Out of the car, and most definitely out of Eddie’s life. But if he was losing this like he seemed to lose everything, Eddie wanted to at least say a proper goodbye. 

“See you later Alligator!” Eddie shouted through the window. Steve turned back, haloed by the setting sun, looking far too angelic for a gangly fourteen year old. 

“In a while Crocodile,” Steve called back with a slight laugh, just a shadow of his former self, turning and rushing to his waiting parents who gave Eddie one last glare before slamming the door shut. 

Eddie waited a second, staring at the locked door and listening to the song on the radio, wishing that the burning in his eyes would just disappear the way Steve had. 

Do the chairs in your parlor seem empty and care?

Do you gaze at your doorstep and picture me there?

Is your heart filled with pain

Shall I come back again?

Tell me dear, are you lonesome tonight?

Eddie opened his eyes again, back in the present, to find Steve already watching him. 

In another world, things worked out differently, but not in this one. 

In reality, Steve didn’t come to Hellfire the next day. Tommy was at his locker bright and early, there to laugh the whole thing off and drag Steve to try-outs come hell or high water. Eddie had seen the whole thing, and he had known then and there Steve wasn’t one of them. Steve’s cheek was still bruised, but there were finger shapes on his wrist that definitely hadn’t been there the day before during detention. He had glanced at Eddie, but quickly glanced away, agreeing loudly that try-outs were going to be awesome. 

When Steve had caught his eye that day, when he had tried to say he was sorry without words, Eddie hadn’t been in a place to listen. He had a thousand chips of his own weighing on his shoulders, and an inability to see anything but his own opinion as right. 

There was no way to be two things at once, not back then. 

But that bruised beat up kid was in front of him again, big hazel eyes begging for forgiveness again. And this time, Eddie finally felt ready to give it to him. 

“Hi Alligator,” Eddie whispered, the words barely able to get out past the lump in his throat. A small smile graced Steve’s lips as his eyes began to shine in the dark. 

“It’s been a while, Crocodile,” Steve whispered back. 

Tag List: @paopaupaus @zerokrox-blog @surferboyzaza @whatever-is-a-good-name@minjintea @addelyin @5ammi90 @hagbaby420 @shinekocreator @bornonthesavage @starxlark @electrick-marionnett @resident-gay-bitch @ash-a-confused-enby @classicdinosaurdeathpose @valon-whomsttf @rotten-lil-goblin @thereindeerlady @love-ya-kash @kerlypride @sparkle-fiend @thefreakandthehair @flowercrowngods @milf-harrington @sadcanadianwinter @gothbat99 @hotcocoaharrington @henderdads @lightwoodbanethings @colorful565 @h0n3y-dw @craterbbox @sourw0lfs @lesliiieeeee @bidisastersworld @tinynebula @ravnlinn @bonescaro @mexmatch @cottagecoredreams @joruni @hellykelly @maegan1116 @farewell-wanderlvst @desertfern @due-to-the-fact-that-im-a-slut @anythingforourmoonyedits @eerielake @fandemonium-takes-its-toll @sidekick-hero

#Steve joins hellfire au #Steve harrington #Eddie munson #steddie #steddie au #steddie ficlet #st #stranger things #stranger things 2 #stranger things au #post stancy breakup #post s2 #Steve and eddie #st au #stranger things 2 au #steve harrington #Writing(with a capital W) #Jeff stranger things #freak stranger things #Steve has ptsd #Flash back #Flashhhhh backkkkkkk #hehehe

[ent-is-indecisive]

id : a digital painting mimicking a polaroid of the members of corroded coffins packed close together and doing the metal hand sign./end id

oct 3 : reputation/school/combative for @eddiemonth

realising i have no notion of time passing and will probably not get very far in this month of challenge. but also i want to show off the many cool eddie relationships with other characters

#birdsongisland #eddie month #stranger things #eddie munson #gareth emerson #jeff stranger things #freak stranger things #corroded coffin #eye contact #this is done in 1h30 with like 1 ref pls dont come at me

[corrodedcoffinfest]

Welcome to Corroded Coffin Fest!

This is a fanworks challenge/event that is all about Corroded Coffin. It will take place from July 1st thru July 31st.

Thanks so much for showing interest in this event during this post! If you have friends that you think would like to participate, please considering reblogging this announcement!

The calendar of prompts is located here:

Since there are so many events going on (and we love to see it!) we've decided to set a word count range for this event, so the love can be spread around to more events.

GUIDELINES:

Ideas for works include: fic, art, gifsets, fanvids, moodboards, edits, playlists, or anything else you can think of to celebrate Corroded Coffin!

For fics, there is a word count minimum/maximum of between 300-1000 words per drabble. We'll use wordcounter.net to check the word counts before reblogging, so make sure you stick to that range!

Do one prompt, do them all. Hell, do them all twice! It's totally up to you. You can pick and choose what you're interested in. And we're not going to police how you interpret the prompt. Just use them as a jumping off point to be inspired by the boys of Corroded Coffin, and then share that inspiration with us! (Not everything has to be band related, we encourage you to explore other parts of their lives, too!)

Submissions can absolutely be connected to other prompts from the event, or even past works, but should still be able to stand alone each day.

Every morning a new prompt card will go up, reminding everyone of what that day's prompt will be.

All submissions should include any pairings featured, content rating and any content warnings (CW) or tags that you think are appropriate. Please put the prompt you are fulfilling as well, just to keep things straightforward. A sample could look something like this:

Prompt Day 9: The Hideout, Word Count: 666, Rating: M, Pairing: None, CW: Underage Drinking, Recreational Drug Use, Tags: Corroded Coffin, First Gig, Partying, Eddie, Gareth, Jeff, Freak, The Hideout

Also, please consider putting any explicit material under a read more cut, because anything rated E that's not hidden under a cut will not be reblogged.

For the artists! Your art submission must be posted on the same day as the current prompt in order to be reblogged by this blog. Your piece of art (or other creation) must be Corroded Coffin focused, using any combination of the guys, together or solo. Of course, other characters can be included, too! But you need to have at least one of the CC band members in it for it to count for this event. Thank you!

All ships are welcome, as long as they include at least one member of Corroded Coffin: Eddie, Jeff, Gareth & Freak. (Who I look forward to learning the name of from you all, time and time again!)

Please tag us here @corrodedcoffinfest when you post your work for the day so we can reblog it!

Be respectful of your fellow participants and readers. We're all here to have fun and share the love of all parts of Corroded Coffin.

Definitely feel free to ask me anything if the rules weren't clear in places, or if I straight up forgot something (or if you just have anything else you'd like to ask). You can send an ask/message to this blog or reach out to @thisapplepielife.

Please submit your post by 11:59 PM EDT on the day of the prompt in order to not be missed for reblogging.

 If posting on AO3, please feel free to use the collection associated with this event: Corroded Coffin Fest AO3 Collection after your submission has been reblogged by this account.

Most importantly, have fun! We can't wait to see what Corroded Coffin fanworks come out of this new event!

More info below, including full prompt list with jumping off suggestions, the warm-up rounds for April, May & June, and a spreadsheet you're free to use:

PROMPTS:

JULY 1ST - FIRSTS

First gig, first check, first award, first...anything.

JULY 2ND - IN THE BEGINNING

How did Corroded Coffin come to be?

JULY 3RD - BEST FRIENDS

Who are the best friends in the band in your head? Let's find out.

JULY 4TH - EDDIE

We all know Eddie. Let's hear some more about him today.

JULY 5TH - ON THE ROAD AGAIN

Get them out on the road, in any way you see fit.

JULY 6TH - HEARD IT IN A LOVE SONG

Let's have some romance. Any pairing(s) that tickle your fancy.

JULY 7TH - CELEBRATE GOOD TIMES, C'MON

Let them celebrate! Maybe that's a birthday/holiday/celebration show. Maybe it's a wedding, etc.

JULY 8TH - BAND POLITICS

Fight! Fight! Fight! Not everything goes smoothly all the time.

JULY 9TH - THE HIDEOUT

Catch them there, every Tuesday, playing for five drunks.

JULY 10TH - PRIDE

Let's see them celebrate Pride! Or let's see them be proud, etc.

JULY 11TH - JEFF

Let's spend some time with the guitarist of Corroded Coffin.

JULY 12TH - OW!

Injuries happen. Tell me more.

JULY 13TH - SEX, DRUGS & ROCK N ROLL

Tell us about the seedier parts of being in a band! 18+ for adult content, please!

JULY 14TH - AND THE WINNER IS...

It's time for awards season. Do they win? Lose? Let us know.

JULY 15TH - LET'S TALK ABOUT THAT

Press Tour/Interviews. Sometimes they need to promote themselves.

JULY 16TH - STRUGGLING

They're working their asses off, grinding it out, but they haven't hit the big time yet. Or they're struggling in other ways...

JULY 17TH - "THIS ONE'S FOR YOU"

Dedicate a song to someone special.

JULY 18TH - FREAK (GRANT, FRANK, GOODIE, ETC.)

Whatever name you given him, let's all focus on the bassist of Corroded Coffin.

JULY 19TH - IN THE GARAGE

Get them in the garage. Band practice, fixing the van, etc.

JULY 20TH - UNDER THE COVERS

Let them cover some real songs. Or, you know, get under the covers in another way...

JULY 21ST - HATE THIS TOWN

Hawkins. How was it dragging them down? Or, maybe they hate LA...

JULY 22ND - ALTERNATE UNIVERSE (AU)

Use your imaginations and put them into a whole new world!

JULY 23RD - UP AND COMING

They're finally gaining a little traction. Or maybe they're up...and coming. *wink wink, nudge nudge*

JULY 24TH - BEHIND THE SCENES

What's it take to get this show on the road? Or, what are they really like, off-stage? Let's get a peek behind the curtain.

JULY 25TH - GARETH

Bang them sticks! Let's catch up with the drummer of Corroded Coffin.

JULY 26TH - TOUR DATE

Let's focus on a specific show.

JULY 27TH - YOU'LL BE IN MY HEART

Navigating love while on the road.

JULY 28TH - BACK TO INDIANA

Let's go back to Hawkins and/or Indiana. Send these boys home.

JULY 29TH - BEHIND THE MUSIC

You know there's drama. A story. Probably enough for VH1 to come knocking.

JULY 30TH - FAME & FORTUNE

They've made it big! Now what?

JULY 31ST - YOUR SONG

A Corroded Coffin song? A work inspired by a song? A song that makes you think of Corroded Coffin?

WARM-UP ROUNDS:

Let's get a little practice before the full event in July!

Here's a prompt each month leading up to the event to work out the kinks and get in the rhythm of it all!

APRIL 15TH - TAXED

It's tax day. Do they need to pay their taxes? Is this a write-off? Or, are they just taxed from being on the road? Tax them.

MAY 15TH - GET A JOB

Put 'em to work. First jobs, side hustles, etc. Surely they've had some other jobs besides being in the band. Tell us about them.

JUNE 15TH - BAND ON THE RUN

Are they late for a gig? Running from monsters in the Upside Down? On a tour from hell?

Same guidelines as the full event will apply.

SPREADSHEET:

If you'd like a spreadsheet to help you keep track of the prompts and your progress, here's the one I personally use for other events, and will be using myself for this event. If you'd like to use it yourself, just go to File>Make a Copy and you'll get a version you can edit in your own Google Sheets.

Thanks for showing interest in having a Corroded Coffin event this year! ❤️🦇🖤 - @thisapplepielife (and thanks for the help and adding to the prompt list, @wormdebut!)

#corrodedcoffinfest #corroded coffin #mod post #rules #guidelines #eddie munson #gareth stranger things #jeff stranger things #freak stranger things #fanworks event #event rules

[corrodedcoughin]

How many times has corroded coffin tried to incorporate ‘pyrotechnics’ into their performance (eddie lighting the spray from an aerosol can on fire and screaming because he scared himself. Then the rest of the band screaming because he turned to face them while still spraying the can and almost melting an amp, Jeff’s eye brows and a drum) before they had to be stopped?

#you don’t want to know the answer #the bar owner let them off with too much stuff in the name of entertaining himself and a hope for insurance money #stranger things #eddie munson #corroded coffin #jeff stranger things #gareth stranger things #freak stranger things #sometimes Steve sees Eddie get this look in his eye and Steve immediately goes to hide his hairspray. he knows that look and he promised #Wayne he’d never have to see Eddie with blank spaces where his eyebrows should be ever again #once was enough. especially when Eddie started drawing them on as ridiculously as he could and wouldn’t wash them off #even when he was going in to town or Wayne’s partner was coming over #it’s okay though. Wayne’s parter had met eddie before and he understood well enough #Steve was not willing to give even the slightest opportunity for Wayne to be disappointed in him though. so that’s why his hairspray is in #a safe now with the key hidden somewhere eddie will never look but Steve will never forget #his yearbook on the photo of Eddie

[thefreakandthehair]

@eddiemonth prompt, oct 20th:  Cryptids & folklore | Bury Me Low - 8 Graves | Tactical a/n: eddie convinces corroded coffin to go cryptid hunting. ao3 collection | tumblr masterlist

"Dude, are you fucking serious?" Jeff asks. Gareth and Freak hum in agreement, the former leveling Eddie with a disbelieving look.

Eddie nods wildly, hair flying in front of his face. "C'mon, it's October. It's all spooky and gray and misty outside. Don't you want to explore the woods just a little bit? You've never wondered what's out there?"

Gareth rolls his eyes. "No, I haven't. You've heard Wayne's stories, man. Why the fuck would you wanna see any of that with your own eyes?"

"Oh please, you don't believe any of that shit, do you?" It's Eddie's turn to roll his eyes this time, biting back a laugh. No one has heard Wayne's stories of the Wild Men or the Mud Mermaids more than Eddie.

Freak shifts on the stool he's sat on in Gareth's garage. "If you don't, why do you want us to go in the first place?"

Because I'm bored.

Because I'm curious.

Because I know believing in monsters is silly but I want to find out anyways.

"C'mon, if you're nervous we can stop by Warzone and get some gear or whatever. I'm going, so are you coming or not?"

Jeff sighs and sets his guitar aside. "Alright. Fine. We're not gonna let you go out there alone."

"But if any of us eat it out there, so help me God." Gareth takes a few steps toward Eddie and pokes him in the chest.

Eddie grins and rocks on his heels, all excited energy. "Load up the van, my fair gentlemen. We're walking into Mordor."

#eddie munson #eddie munson fic #eddie munson fanfic #eddie munson fanfiction #eddie month #gareth stranger things #freak stranger things #jeff stranger things #corroded coffin #stranger things #eddie month prompts #stranger things fic #stranger things fanfic #stranger things fanfiction #myblurbs

[steddieas-shegoes]

how lovely to love them

for @strangerthingsocweek prompt 'love in every form'

rated t | 909 words | cw: mention of alcohol/being drunk | tags: side steddie, side platonic stobin, meg needs a break, meg gets a break, established relationship

💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗

Meg looked at Gareth. Then Eddie.

“And you two thought you could just get away with that?”

They looked at each other and back at her.

They shrugged in sync.

“Getting drunk and flipping the furniture of the hotel room upside down.”

They shrugged again.

Meg had a migraine, a Corroded Coffin induced migraine.

“Where was Jeff?”

“His room.”

“That’s why he’s my favorite.”

“You’re lying. We all know Gare Bear here is your favorite,” Eddie said as he pulled Gareth into his side and rubbed his hair. “He just had a little too much tequila.”

“And your excuse?” Meg crossed her arms over her chest, raised an unimpressed brow.

“Steve abandoned me.”

Meg rolled her eyes. “Him and Robin have platonic soulmate night every other Thursday night. You never do this shit. Try again.”

“I had bottom shelf vodka.”

Meg nodded, her worst fear confirmed. “And how did that happen? Who let that happen?”

“I’m not a kid! I just forgot to ask for the better stuff in my drinks and then it was too late,” Eddie protested. “We fixed it; Why are we still in trouble?”

“Because this kinda shit can’t happen again. It’s funny when it happens once, but then a rock band gets blacklisted from all the decent hotels because of what they’ve done in the past.” Meg rubbed her hands over her face and through her hair, taking a deep breath. “This time it’s fine, but if it happens again, you’re on an alcohol ban until the tour is done. Period.”

“But-“

“No!” Meg pulled them both into hugs. “I know it was harmless and you were gonna fix it anyways. I know you guys rarely even drink or do stupid shit like this. But I love you guys and people are stupid about rockstar shit like that. I don’t want you to ruin your careers over something silly.”

Just when she started to pull away, Steve barreled through the door with Robin, Jeff, and Freak behind him.

“What happened?” He asked, rushing to Eddie, pulling him towards him and checking him over for any physical evidence of something being wrong. “I just saw the texts.”

“I’m fine.” Eddie kissed his nose. “Meg didn’t kill me.”

“Was that on the table?” Steve turned to look at Meg, who was busy whispering with Robin. “What did you do?”

As Eddie and Gareth explained their side of things, Robin pulled Meg further from the group.

“Sorry it took so long to get back here. We may have had a little too much wine ourselves,” Robin half-apologized, though there was no need for one. “I promise we came as soon as we got your texts.”

“It’s okay. I smoothed it over and everything’s fine,” Meg sighed, letting her head drop to Robin’s shoulder. “They’re gonna give me gray hairs. Will you still love me when I have to box dye my hair every four weeks?”

“I will love you even when you have wrinkles the size of a canyon on your face, my love,” Robin kissed the top of her head. “But I’d rather that not be at the very young age of 27. You need a break.”

“The tour-“

“The tour doesn’t need a break. You do,” Robin wrapped her arms around her, squeezing just above her waist the way she liked. “Steve agrees. He’s gonna cover for you while we take a few days off.”

“But-“

“I love you. They love you. That’s why you’re doing this. And when you’re back, the boys will be nice and behaved because Steve’s gonna make them regret they ever fucked up in the first place, right dingus?” Robin yelled across the room.

“Yeah. Community service hours in the form of helping me study for my midterms as punishment!” Steve knew they hated having to sit still and work on flash cards for hours. It was the perfect punishment.

Meg looked at Robin, then at her boys across the room. “So where are you taking me?”

“Lake Tahoe since we’re already close. You’re gonna shut off your phone and everything will go through me first. I’m like a pasta strainer,” Robin pointed at the boys. “They’re the noodles I’m holding back.”

“Okay, fine. But Steve has to promise to call if there’s a real emergency,” Meg agreed.

“I will!” Steve yelled from Eddie’s lap on the couch.

“And if there’s an emergency of someone’s creation, I’ll kill them. And then you.”

“I’m sure you will!” Steve was smiling at her, then turning back to Eddie with a serious face. “If you fuck this up, I’ll come back from her killing me just to kill you again, do you understand?”

“Sir, yes sir,” Eddie smirked at him before saluting at Meg.

“Alright losers. Come give me a hug,” Meg said. She’d never left them alone while on tour, or recording, or album release tours, or anything.

They piled into her one by one, hugging her and telling her to relax and have fun.

“I love all of you idiots,” she said fondly. “But if you bother me for anything less than someone dying or a show getting canceled, you will never see me again.”

***

As she walked with Robin to their Uber taking them to the airport, she reached for her hand and squeezed it.

“Isn’t it kinda nice to love so many people in so many ways?” She asked.

Robin squeezed her hand in response. “Yeah, we’re pretty lucky.”

#stranger things #strangerthingsocweek #original character #corroded coffin #robin buckley #eddie munson #steve harrington #side steddie #gareth emerson #jeff stranger things #freak stranger things

[spookyscarydemonbabe]

Halloween

A/N- This is a fic i’ve been so excited about! I’m glad that i’m finally able to write a little bit more for Wayne, i loved his character and i thought he was such an amazing father figure for Eddie, it’s a shame we didn’t see more of him 🥺 This was originally from my halloween event that i had to unfortunately cancel, the premise was for each character to be correlated with a horror movie and the fic would be written in a way where it was either similar to the premise of the movie or just had something in general to do with it.

Summary- It’s Halloween night, and after taking you and the boys out trick or treating, Eddie’s Uncle Wayne has a very exciting surprise for all of you.

Genre- Fluff

Warnings- This is written as if the reader and the boys are children, around 8-9 years old.

Tag List- @thatsthewaythechrissycrumbles @munsonology @esme-viridian @ghosttownwherenoonegoes (i know you’re not on my tag list but i do know how much you adore uncle wayne and i thought you’d really love this 🥰)

(my tag list is always open, let me know if you’d like to be added 🖤)

Word Count- 3.1k

“Don’t stuff yourselves full of candy!” Wayne yelled out from the living room, walking his way down the hall into the doorway of Eddie’s bedroom where you and the boys were hurriedly stuffing the pockets of your jackets with fun sized candies from your pillowcases, “We’re getting snacks there tonight, i don’t want you too full when we get there.”

“Yes Mr. Wayne.” You and the boys said almost in unison.

He had been kind enough to take you all trick or treating that night, giving your parents a break and letting you all go together just like you did every year. You were hoping that sooner or later they’d let you go by yourselves but they always told you that you’d have to wait until middle school.

“Where are we going?” Eddie asked his uncle, his oversized jean jacket hung over his small frame as he helped you into your sweater. He was a year older but he had always been so much bigger than any other kids your age.

Wayne smiled and shrugged as he held the door open, watching as Grant helped Jeff into his jacket and Gareth stuffed a few more twizzlers into his pockets.

“Surprise.” He could see just how excited you all were. If there’s one thing he knew about kids, it’s that they loved surprises, “But you’ll have to wait until we get to the truck for me to tell you, so move your butts if you want to get there on time.”

In almost in instant you were pushing the boys out of Eddie’s room and into the living room, waiting for Wayne to give the ok for you all to head out to the truck.

“Where do you think he’s taking us?” Gareth asked as he fixed the knitted cap over his curls.

“I dunno,” Jeff shrugged, reaching into his pocket to pull out a reese’s cup to snack on, “what else is there to do on Halloween? We already got our candy.”

“Maybe he’s taking us home,” Grant yawned, already close to a sugar coma, “we were out for a while…”

“What about a cemetery?” You said, looking up to Eddie with a mischievous smile to match his.

“I don’t think he’s taking us to any of those places.” Eddie finished doing the buttons on his jacket, “He went over to the hall closet with all the blankets, we don’t need blankets in a cemetery.”

Wayne walked out from down the hall, a few folded blankets in his arms as he smiled seeing you all waiting patiently in a neat line,

“All ready?”

You all nodded, all smiles and giggles as Wayne opened the front door for you, each one carefully going down the concrete steps and wandering over to Wayne’s work truck. He locked the front door and walked over to the bed of the truck, undoing the hatch and laying a blanket out across it, setting the rest of the pile on the end,

“Alrighty kiddos, one at a time,” He reached down and helped Eddie into the bed of the truck, groaning as he lifted him, “each one take a blanket alright?”

Each of the boys nodded, wrapping their blankets around themselves as they set next to one another in the bed of the truck to keep warm. Wayne had saved the softest one for you, handing it to you and letting you get all comfortable, all of you still confused as to where he was taking you.

“Now,” Wayne started, “I know you kids have been real excited about tonight, and since it’s my year again to watch you i figured i might as well make it a little special.” He smiled bigger seeing the smiles on your little round faces, “I’ve asked your parents about it, and they agreed that you’re all old enough, so i’m taking you to the drive in tonight to go see Halloween.”

You couldn’t help your excited giggles, looking at one another and seeing just how much you were anticipating going to see that movie. Eddie had even suggested the five of you sneaking out to go see it.

Thank god Wayne found out about it before it was too late, he had no problem taking you all to see it.

“Is it really scary?” Grant asked, “I don’t know if my dad wants me watching scary stuff before bed…”

“It’s not too scary,” Eddie said as his head popped out of the blanket he had wrapped around himself, “don’t worry, i’ll tell you when all the scariest parts are.”

“Now, Eddie’s done this before, but i don’t know if you kids have. I’ll drive the truck up and you’re gonna hide under those blankets when i pay for the tickets.”

“We get to sneak in?” Jeff said with a smile, “Just like the big kids do?”

“You bet,” Wayne put the hatch back up, walking around to the drivers side as he told you exactly what to do, “and i’m gonna make sure to be real careful with you kids back there, what are the rules when you’re in the truck?”

You each went one by one listing off Wayne’s rules. You had to have heard them at least a million times before.

“No standing up while you’re driving, we have to be sitting down.” Eddie went first and Wayne nodded, looking to you second.

“No horseplay. Especially when we’re on the road.” You went next, looking to Grant who was sat next to you.

“If we have an emergency, we have to knock on the back window.” Grant glanced over to Gareth and Jeff, who were busy already trading the little candies they had in their pockets.

“Boys?” Wayne said, grabbing their attention.

They both looked up to Wayne, their little hands already fussing around with a shared bag of jelly beans, already completely lost.

“Last rule?” Wayne asked them, “No scaring me when i’m driving.” He said sternly.

“I know you kids like to joke around, and that’s all fine and well, but someone can get really hurt. Alright?”

“Yes, sir.” You all said in unison.

“Perfect! Now, who’s ready for that movie?”

The five of you jumped in your seats, nothing but smiles on your faces and a mess of giggles

The sun had started to go down, the sky a mix of darker blues and oranges, and Wayne lifted the hatch back onto the truck as you all had gotten comfortable in your spots. Each of the boys around you as you laid in the middle, your back against the cabin where Wayne sat and your fuzzy blanket wrapped around your body. The boys had their blankets wrapped around themselves as you did, ready to hide themselves from the employee sitting inside the ticket booth. Eddie knew this plan well.

You and the boys had a giggle as the truck started up, vibrating beneath you as you sat comfortably in the back. You watched the trailer get smaller and smaller, the gravel road beneath the truck making the bed rock back and forth.

Once Wayne pulled out onto the road, the drive was smooth, you and the boys keeping an eye out for the white screen out in the distance, not being able to help the excited laughter.

“Is it really scary?” Jeff asked, snuggling himself deeper into his blanket.

“Not really,” Eddie turned to him, “I mean, it’s scary, but not scary scary.”

“You said that about Alien!” Gareth shouted.

“Don’t you love that movie?” You asked.

“Well…. yeah…” Gareth shrugged and looked down at his lap, “But it was scary when we saw it the first time!”

“But it was a really cool movie.” Grant said, the rest of you agreeing, “No aliens pop out of anyone’s chest in this movie right?”

“No,” Eddie said with a laugh, “but there’s lots of blood, and Michael Myers has this huge knife that he uses, and i know there’s adult stuff in it but Wayne always tells me when to cover my eyes so i’ll know when it’s coming.”

“Why do we have to cover our eyes?” You asked him, pulling out a little fun sized Twizzler from your pocket and popping it into your mouth.

“Cause it’s grown up stuff! We’re not allowed to see it yet! That’s what Wayne always says.” Eddie looked over his shoulder and smiled big as soon as he saw the few cars lined up beside the ticket booth, “We’re almost there! Everyone get all covered up.”

The five of you quickly got settled into the bed of the truck, scrunching up your little bodies as tightly as you could, laying your blankets over yourselves to keep hidden. Though you couldn’t help but let a few giggles slip out as you felt the truck inch closer and closer.

It was hard to not figure out that there were five little bundled up kids under those blankets in the bed, but when Wayne pulled up to the ticket booth and asked for ‘just one ticket’ the man in the booth played along gladly, smiling as he heard your collection of giggles when the truck started up once more.

You all quickly sat up and tossed the blankets up, huddling together around them and laughing,

“He never even knew we were all back here!” Jeff laughed.

You all turned your heads and smiled in awe of the drive in.

Every time you went it was always a treat. It was different than a normal movie theater, kids playing catch in the grassy space in front of the screen, practicing their cartwheels and playing their games with smiles on their faces. There were chairs and coolers set up in the beds of trucks as parents watched over their children playing, blankets laid out next to cars with snacks and drinks laid out over them, moms putting bug spray on fussy kids. Everyone was always so much friendlier at the drive in.

“What snacks are you guys gonna get?” Gareth asked as he opened the little plastic wrapped around a tube of smarties.

“I want popcorn-“ Eddie started, quickly cut off by Grant,

“With extra butter!” He insisted.

“We definitely don’t need any more candy.” Jeff smiled as he started taking the little fun sized treats out of his pocket and setting them into the bed of the truck as Wayne pulled into a spot.

You hadn’t even gotten a chance to trade candies before rushing to leave the trailer, but that little window of time you’d have between the opening trailers and Wayne grabbing the snacks would be perfect. And it was just the right time for it too, the little bit of blood orange sun peeking out from the darkening clouds in the sky provided just enough light to still see around you.

The spot was perfect, right in the middle of the screen, not too close and yet not too far either. The vibrating beneath you ceased as Wayne shut the truck off, stretching as he stepped out from the drivers seat,

“Great job sticking to the rules kids,” He walked over to the bed and leaned into it, “that ticket guy had no idea you littles were back there, i think i brought along some professionals.”

You all smiled with one another, the thought of another trip to the drive in already on your minds, and the excitement of breaking the rules only made it all the more fun.

“You kids figure out what you wanted for snacks?”

“Yes, popcorn please?” You asked him with puppy dog eyes, hoping that would be enough to convince him to get you each your own large popcorns. You knew he never gave in but it was always worth a shot.

“Of course! Can’t go the the movies and not get popcorn! What about drinks? Eddie,” He pointed over to his nephew, doing his best to remember their usual drinks from whenever he took you all out to dinner for your sleepovers, “you’re getting your Pepsi?” Eddie noddies and smiled, and Wayne slowly went down the line, guessing one by one, “Grant wants a Sprite, and i know one of you likes Dr. Pepper…” He looked between Jeff and Gareth, Gareth speaking up as soon as he heard the mention of it.

“Me! It’s me, i want it!” He shouted excitedly.

“And i want a lemonade please.” Jeff said with a smile.

Wayne nodded and looked to you,

“Little miss? You like to get… that red cream soda, don’t you?”

You nodded with an excited smile on your lips.

“Alright, and everyone wants popcorn?”

“Yes please!” You all said in unison.

“Perfect. Eddie, you help them set up the back of the truck so you’re all bundled up while i get the snacks.”

“Yes sir.”

Eddie stood up in the bed of the truck, stretching his arms up over his head, the four of you following his lead and doing the same, giving Wayne a little wave as he took off to the snack bar.

You each made sure to help one another out, grabbing the two biggest blankets and doing your best to lay them out flat for one another in the bed so you had a comfortable spot to rest on. The rest of the blankets were used to keep yourselves warm, though you were sure you wouldn’t need them. You were bundled up enough with your jackets on, but for the end of October it was quite nice out.

The trees still had a little bit of green on them to contrast with the browns and yellows and oranges of fall. The breeze outside was just enough to still let you have fun outside with the boys whenever you wanted.

The drive in made it all the more fun.

Grant and Jeff each sat at your sides, Eddie and Gareth sitting next to them with just enough wiggle room around you all to take the candy from your pockets and move it into the middle. While Wayne was grabbing the snacks, you figured it was the perfect time to trade your candies before the movie started.

“Ok, Eddie gets all the Almond Joys to give to Wayne,” Jeff started as he took fistfuls of candy out of his pockets, “does anyone else want anything specific?”

“I want the peppermint patties!” Grant shouted as he tossed his candy into the center.

“Ugh, they’re yours.” Eddie groaned, “I don’t know why you like those so much, they taste like toothpaste.”

“They do not!” Grant argued back as you giggled, watching them have this argument again for what felt like the hundredth time.

“(y/n)?” Gareth asked, quickly getting your attention, “If i give you two of my Pop Rocks, can i have your Ring Pop?”

You looked down and peeked at the candy in his lap, smiling when you saw he had exactly what you wanted,

“Ok, but only if i can trade you my cherry Jolly Ranchers for your Airheads.”

“Deal!”

You sorted the candies amongst yourselves, each of you ending up with exactly what you wanted. A little bit of excitement erupted when you all realized there was much more to trade when you got back to the trailer.

Without even realizing it, the sky had turned from orange and purple to a deep navy blue, the moon and stars so clear when you tilted your heads up in awe.

“Alright kiddos, line up,” Wayne approached the truck bed, his arms full of popcorn bags and a tray of drinks in hand, it was shocking he could do it all so easily, “Eddie, here’s your Pepsi.” He handed Eddie one of the tall paper cups and a small bag of popcorn from the bundle, making his way down the line and giving you each your snacks, “Grant, you’re Sprite. Jeff gets his lemonade, and Gareth, you’re Dr. Pepper. And little miss gets her red cream soda.”

You took you drink and popcorn with a little giggle, your legs hanging off the back end of the truck as you wet your popcorn into your lap. The boys each got settled into their spaces, Eddie laying against the back while Grant sat on the other side of him, Jeff and Gareth laid next to each other on their stomachs over the blanket while Wayne grabbed his folding chair from the truck and set it up next to the bed to watch the movie with you.

You gave him a quick smile as he set the little cooler he packed next to the chair,

“Thank you Mr. Wayne for taking us to the movies.”

“Anytime little miss!” He smiled back to you and sat back in his chair, looking at the giant white screen and seeing the other families around you gather up their own kids to get ready for the movie.

The sky was black, the stars were brightly scattered, the moon was hanging perfectly right at the corner of the giant screen, and as soon as the lights were turned off you could hear the excited chatters of children and their parents, the groups of middle schoolers who crammed themselves into an older siblings car, and the annoyed teenagers who came there for a night alone. You even let a giggle or two slip when you heard how excited the boys were behind you.

“Hey Eddie?” You turned to him as he sat behind you, “Will you tell me if it gets too scary?”

“Yeah! Come up here and sit between me and Grant,” He grabbed the drink next to him and moved it into his lap, Grant doing the same for his popcorn as you moved to sit between them, your back against the truck as you saw the screen illuminate from the projector, “i’ll tell you when the scary parts happen and we’ll make sure you’re ok.”

“We promise (y/n).” Grant said as he turned to you with a smile.

Jeff and Gareth saw the three of you sitting together against the truck and quietly moved themselves to sit with you, Jeff in front of Eddie and Gareth in front of Grant.

“I’m so excited!” Jeff whispered.

“Me too!” You whispered back as you heard the theme song quietly start to play.

Wayne looked over and smirked as he saw you all sitting together in the bed of the truck. Bundled up in your jackets, sharing your candy, enjoying your popcorn with your eyes wide with excitement as the opening credits started to roll.

He knew that Eddie had it rough the last few year with all the family issues, but he knew that this is exactly where he was meant to be.

With his friends, watching a scary movie on halloween night just like kids are supposed to, hopped up on sugar and basking in the excitement of being able to eat candy for days. Wayne smiled to himself knowing that Eddie and the rest of you would be remembering tonight for a while, and so would he.

Maybe he’d take the long way home this time.

#stranger things #stranger things 4 #eddie munson #gareth emerson #jeff stranger things #freak stranger things #corroded coffin fic #corroded coffin fanfic #corroded coffin #hellfire club fanfic #hellfire club fic #hellfire club #wayne munson #uncle wayne

[inkeddownc0ffee]

One sided love or is the other side just blinded?… Part 2

——— Part 1 ——— Part 2 ——— Part 3 ———

Pairing: Best Friend!Eddie Munson x Fem!Best Friend!Reader

Summary: Eddie Munson is the readers best friend, but Eddie is finding himself catching feelings for his girl best friend, and can’t help himself but feel jealous when he sees his crush falling for Steve “the hair” Harrington

Warnings: Cursing, Slight angst, Mentions of drug dealing, Heart break

Robin practically threw herself out of Steve’s car and began to ramble out a thank you before rushing into the school doors, making you sorta confused, you always see Robin anxious but this time, what could she be anxious about?

But right when you realize that she was holding her trumpet case you left your loving glance to the fancy car and began to panic.

“WE HAVE EARLY BAND TODAY, I CAN’T BE LATE, MR. MORGAN WILL KICK ME OUT IF I’M LATE” You yelled in a panic, making Eddie chuckle a little before waving your instrument case in front of you, out of your reach.

“Don’t worry princess, your butler made sure he returned your golden sing song spit filled thing back to you after you forgot it at his house” Eddie teased making you glare and get on your tippy toes and snatch it from his grasp and run to the school.

Eddie sighed as he watched you disappear into the school, putting a hand on his head. His eyes went back up as the fancy car of Harringtons left the schools property.

Were you just into rich guys or something? Eddie began to pull at his hair a bit and kick the tire of his van. “Stupid ass van.”

You never really told your best friend Eddie exactly about your little crush on Harrington, but in Eddie’s eyes

It was obvious

Ever sense you started to work at Family Video after school, every time you would see Steve anywhere you would stop and just stare at him, Eddie couldn’t even imagine how u acted around him at work.

It hurt Eddie’s heart every time he saw your eyes go on Steve, he just wished you would look at him like that.

Eddie began to hear the group begin to walk up, making him stable himself, trying to look casual.

“woahhh, when did u get a cool ass new van” Gareth said as he stared at the van, making Ed smile a little.

“Well, my last baby gave out on me, my uncle helped me pay for this beauty” Eddie leaned onto the van.

“You have to let us take a look inside” Dustin protested, going to go open one of the back doors, having Eddie look down at his watch than back up.

“Sorry Henderson, it’s already 7:15, I’ll let y’all have a small tour after Hellfire? That sound good?” The whole group nodded fast, them all rushing into the school.

The day went by painfully slow, well for Eddie at least. You and Eddie had begged and promised the principal that if y’all shared all the same class periods y’all would finally put effort into graduating, and he actually agreed.

And after your early band class, y’all were together all day, and Eddie watched you day dream about Harrington almost every class, and how he knew your thoughts were of Mr. Good Hair is because every time he regained your attention your face would flush.

He knew it wasn’t out of embarrassment, he knew you way too well, he was the only one who could read the lines of your actions like a book.

You were now at your locker, grabbing your backpack and your uniform for work that u kept handing up in there. Your fingers than touched the soft plush you had in your locker making your heart begin to flutter as you took out the little chocolate brown teddy bear you got for Steve, today was gonna be the day you finally asked him out. Than suddenly.

THUD

You squeaked, looking over to see Eddie leaning onto the locker next to yours, a sinister smirk plastered to his face.

“Did I scare ya princess?” You punched his arm softly making him laugh.

“Stop doing that asshole!” You glared at him. He chuckled a bit until he looked down at the little bear you held in your hands, smile fading a bit as he read the “to Steve” tag.

“Uh you can change in my van, I know u hate changing in those gross bathrooms.” Eddie said, changing his tone a bit. You scoffed a bit.

“If you promise not to look” you said with a smirk making him laugh nervously, hiding the blush in his face as his smile came back.

“Now I know I’m the freak of Hawkins but not like that” he exclaimed with his hands slightly in the air making you laugh. Once you stopped he smiled and motioned with his head to leave.

“Don’t want you to be late” You smiled and began to walk to the van.

Eddie always drove you to work and to school. Yes you had a car but why use it when you have your best friend to drive you.

Once you got right outside the van you looked over at the Hellfire club that was sitting outside.

“Wait don’t you have Hellfire today?” You asked, looking over at Eddie.

“Yeah, but Family Video ain’t that far from here, so I told them to wait, don’t worry you ain’t ruining anything.” He explained as he opened the back door for you.

“You can cover the window with the blanket, just honk when you’re done” he pointed over at the black and white flannel blanket laying on the floor. You nodded and covered the back window with the blanket, and began to strip out of your school clothes, laying your panties behind the drivers seat and change into your work uniform.

Afterwards you climbed over the seat and honked the car. You saw a couple people look over at the van and scoff, mostly the basketball kids. Eddie quickly opened the drivers door and hopped in.

“alright, buckle yourself in princess, this may not be a easy ride” Eddie smirked while putting in his song disk and turning the volume up almost to the point your ear drums wanted to commit suicide.

Family video was bout 5-8 minutes away from Hawkins high, so your eardrums weren’t busted yet as Eddie pulled into a disabled parking spot and turned down the music.

“You know going in a disabled parking spot is illegal without actually being disabled right?” You looked over at Eddie with a questioning smile, Eddie began to chuckle.

“Well if u don’t remember I already sell illegal shit, and plus I’m gonna only be here for a second so the princesses legs don’t hurt from walking at a far spot.” Eddie smirked, earning a eye roll and a giggle from you.

“Yeah yeah, don’t worry about picking me up today, Steve said he would take me home after work.” Eddie’s heart dropped and slowly gave you a silent nod. You smiled then closed the door and ran inside the store.

Eddie sighed as he looked up at the review mirror and then noticed something pink beside his seat. Eddie raised an eyebrow and looked in the back, slowly putting his hand on the odd object. His eyes began to grow wide as he slowly pulled up the fabric of your pink panties you wore earlier.

You stumbled into the store, placing the little teddy bear in your pack, Robin and Steve looking up from the counter.

“How are you always arriving somewhere last minute” Robin asked sarcastically, leaning over the counter with her head in her hand.

“Don’t blame me that Eddie always runs into red lights” you laughed as you walked over.

“You still are hanging out with the freak?” Steve asked. Your eyes furrowed a bit.

“Eddie really ain’t a freak, it’s just the popular kids don’t like him and trying to get everyone else to not like him” Steve shrugged.

“he’s still a weirdo tho” he mumbled. You slowly looked away from him, you hated the way everyone saw Eddie, no one now days gives people a chance to show they aren’t that bad to be around, it always depends on what you like and how you look. If you liked basketball and had a jock body, everyone loved you. If you liked metal, games, band, science or anything like that you were seen as a freak or nerd.

After a few hours you were putting up some returned tapes in their designated areas when you began to overhear Steve and Robin.

“Steve, you know she’s with Johnathan, you can’t keep trying to get with her” Robin said as she looked at Steve who was leaning on the counter.

“You don’t understand, she stares at me with those precious eyes, and plus she barely ever sees Johnathan, he’s all the way up in California” he groaned as he put his hands in his hair.

“Steve-“

“No Robin. You don’t understand, you have barley been in a relationship, I love Nancy.” He cut Robin off making her sigh.

Your heart went into your stomach, looking at your pack on the counter with the bear in it but slowly went back to work, even with your heart almost shattered.

Eventually the Family Video’s store hours finally came to a closing, Robin flipping the sign on the door to closed and turning off the LED signs.

“God you never realize how boring listening to someone try to explain a movie plot for you to find until you look at clock and not even a second has passed by” Robin said dramatically.

“Yeah, but it sucks more when your the first person they go to” you mumbled making her smirk.

“Hah, loser”

Steve than walked out from the back, his car keys in hand, letting them dangle off his fingers.

“You ready y/n?” Steve said looking at you. You tightened your grip onto your backpack strap and nodded.

“Yep” y’all both walked to his fancy car, getting in and Steve starting it up. You placed your backpack into the floor and began to look around the inside of the car, who knew you would be so lucky to be in Steve Harringtons car.

“It’s a nice car isn’t it” Steve said making you leave your trance and blush a bit.

“Yeah, you have a cool car” you admitted, looking away to try to hide your face, Steve smiled and began to drive.

Your heart began to race as your eyes went to your pack, slowly unzipping it and staring at the teddy bear that stared back up at you with its button eyes. Steve glanced over.

“What you got in there?” Steve asked as he put his eyes back on the road. You gulped as your hands wrapped around the little bear and took it out of it’s hiding spot.

“Well…. This, I wanted to give it to you” you shakily handed it to him. He looked down at the stuffed bear for a second than you.

“What’s this for?” He questioned, looking slightly confused. You took a deep breath before letting it all out.

“Steve, I really really like, like really like you, ever since I started working with you I just noticed how funny and handsome you are, and you aren’t the Jack ass everyone said you were, I just love who you are and I would really really like to be with you” you stammered out.

Steve’s eyes went on the road, before slowly stopping at a stop light.

“Um Y/n, how do I say this, I uh don’t like you in that way, I’m sorry, but my eyes are on Nancy” he said, not looking at you.

Now that broke your heart completely, leaving you there silent for a moment.

“Oh.. that’s fine” you muttered, looking down at your lap.

The rest of the ride was just completely silent, Steve pulling into your driveway after what felt like centuries. You grabbed your backpack and opened the car door and went to leave.

“Here, um take this back” Steve handed you back the bear. You silently looked at the plushie.

“Give it to someone else, someone who likes you like you like them.” Steve’s added. You gave him a silent nod and shut the car door, quickly going inside your house, watching from the window as his car pulled out your driveway and back onto the road.

Than in a instant, all the tears began to pour, making you put your hands over your mouth as you went to your room and slid down against your door , holding your head as you sobbed.

Your reaction wasn’t Steve’s fault, if he didn’t like you that was ok, right?

Of course it was ok because it’s his life, just because you like him doesn’t mean he has to be with you, but it still hit you hard like a brick.

Your rubbed your shoulders, what were you supposed to do, no one was here to tell you that there’s always other fish in the sea, you lived alone unlike Eddie.

Your head immediately went up, looking at your car keys that sat on your dresser.

Eddie always knew how to comfort you.

You quickly grabbed the pair of keys off the wood and rushed out to your car with your mascara running down your cheeks.

A/N: Yess I finally finished part 2!!!! I promise that part 3, the final part to this little series will be out soon! If you want to be tagged please comment that you would like to be tagged!! I’m thankful for all the support y’all have given me! Have a nice morning/afternoon/night!

Tag List: @amira0303 , @grotesquelysilent , @br66klynbaby

#eddie munson x fem!reader #eddie munson x reader #eddie munson fanfic #female reader #reader insert #steve harrington #robin buckley #jeff stranger things #gareth emerson #freak stranger things #dustin henderson #mike wheeler #stranger things #stranger things 4 #st4 #slight angst

[noxturnallyevermore]

I wish people would include Wayne Munson and Corroded Coffin more in Steddie fics

Like, I understand not including Steve's parents (though I wish people would address Steve's parent issues in a healthier way), but the fix-it fics that don't at least include Eddie reuniting with Wayne are heartbreaking to me cause how're you gonna revive him just to be with Steve? What about his life before S4, y'all?

:((

#steddie #steve harrington #eddie munson #wayne munson #corroded coffin #gareth stranger things #jeff stranger things #freak stranger things #i actually dont know what to tag for him #but know that i included him you guys 😭

[kitchen-spoon]

Rockstar Eddie 90’s Drabble {steddie}

Steddie I 2.7k I 1/1

Sorry for any spelling mistakes etc..

Its 1992 and corroded coffin has made it big. Eddie and the band are famous now, selling out stadiums and living their dreams. He is one of the most talked about metal musicians of the era. And to make it even better Steve has been there for all of it since 1987 technically earlier but it took them awhile to get their shit together.

Being famous means getting to live with luxuries and Eddie loves spoiling Steve with them. Going to the spa was a big hit. Eddie was nervous at first but knowing Steve and his penchant for self care especially hair care he should have know it would soon become one of Steve’s favourite indulgences. Which is exactly why Eddie was suggesting it for their current situation.

As time went on all the upside down action began to catch up with everyone in the party but Steve especially. Chronic migraines, memory issues and random bouts of nausea just being the start of it. When they moved to California it was Gareth that brought up the idea of using marijuana medicinally, siting his uncle who had been using it for his arthritis for years.

Steve was hesitant at first, ever since star-court he had stayed away from anything stronger cigarettes but as time went on things were only going to get worse so he gave it a chance. As predicted it did not go well at first. Steve was already an anxious hyper vigilant person and the weed just heightened that, making him extra paranoid. But with work and a lot of patience from Eddie they found a way to make it work. They made a routine and stuck to it every-time which was why Steve was so thrown for a loop when Eddie suggested he take some edibles before they hit up a spa in the city.

“I know its scary baby but think of it as a trial run for Europe.” Eddie took Steve’s hands in his own, ducking his head down to catch his boyfriends eyes. “The tour starts in a month, and you know how flying affects your migraines, especially long flights.”

Steve bit his lip, “It does get really bad.” He sighed. “But I don’t know, I got so freaked out with just you and the guys around. I don’t think being in public is gonna go better than that.”

“Then I’ll rent out the spa.” Eddie said immediately like it was the easiest thing in the world and not a thousands of dollar decision. For Eddie though spoiling Steve was the easiest thing in the world money truly was no object and would never be enough to show his gratitude for how fiercely Steve stuck by his side during his and the band’s rocky climb to fame.

“Eddie no.” Steve shook his head, unable to hold back his smile.

Eddie couldn’t help but smile back “Fine what if we go somewhere more exclusive, less people.” He raised his eyebrows. “Less chance of being recognized too, everyone there will be so rich and up their own ass they won’t care about lil ‘ol me.”

“I’ll consider it. But we also need to outline a plan and have a quick evacuation set up.” Steve tried to sound stern but he knew he was already going to give in to his boyfriend’s plan.

“Consider it done Stevie.” Eddie squeezed Steve’s hands as he got up. “I’ll take good care of you baby don’t worry.” He leaned down and gave his boyfriend’s forehead a kiss before disappearing off into his office.

***

Eddie’s new plan consisted of them driving out 2 hours to Joshua Tree where he had an emergency hotel booked and one of their regular drivers on stand by incase they needed to make a hasty exit. He also got the edibles from their regular source and was sure to check the dosage 3 times over before letting Steve even look at them.

About 30 minutes away from the Spa Steve ate the gummy’s. That ensured he was still be sober during their check in which he insisted and gave him 30 minutes to acclimatize to the environment before they started to kick in.

Steve began to feel it as he and Eddie walked on the warm stone path outside the spa building, fluffy white robes on, pinkies linked. They were making their way to the heated pool to loosen up before their couples massage. Then they were getting facials and sitting in a mud bath then getting scalp treatments at Eddie’s request. The day’s itinerary was planned by Steve with special consideration of him being high. It also gave him reassurance that there was a structure he knew they’d be following. When Eddie first started getting money and in turn started spoiling Steve, Steve felt guilty. He always tried to hold back, having to be pushed by Eddie to actually get what he wanted, to ask for the cucumber in his water, to book the facials and the mud bath. Now though Steve knew Eddie enjoyed it as much as he did because he knew it made Steve happy. It also kept him looking young so he couldn’t complain too much.

“Baby.” Steve barley whispered, his palm sliding into Eddie’s so he could squeeze his boyfriend’s hand.

Eddie glanced over at him, a calm smile on his lips. “Its okay sweetheart I got you. Its still early only 2 other people are here and they are on the other side of the spa.” Eddie kept his hand in Steve’s guiding him over to the warm salt water pool.

Steve slowly waded into the water with the help of his boyfriend, settling against Eddies side in the far corner of the pool. He took a deep breath embracing the light headed floaty feeling washing over him.

“Feeling okay sweetheart?” Eddie’s voice made him jolt, momentarily forgetting where he was. Steve moved to sit up but Eddie settled a hand around his shoulder, his musician fingers sliding slowly over Steve’s bicep. “Sorry didn’t mean to scare you. You just look very content, its Sexy.” Eddie leaned in closer his lips brushing Steve’s ear.

Steve giggled, twisting his head away from Eddie to avoid the ticklish light touches. It made the water splash around them making Steve giggle more, he opened his eyes gasping and slapping a hand over his mouth. “Sorry” he whispered but Eddie was already shaking his head.

“Don’t be, nobody is around you’re all good.” Eddie smiled, brushing Steve’s hair back. “You’re enjoying yourself its what you’re supposed to do.”

“Okay,” Steve agreed easily with a nod. He leaned his face into Eddie’s hand and closed his eyes letting out a pleased hum when Eddie began scratching his nails over his scalp.

They stayed like that for another 15 minutes before making their way back inside the spa building for their massages. Eddie kept an arm wrapped around Steve the entire way, his fingers continuing to brush Steve’s shoulder when he felt his boyfriend get tense at the sight of other people.

“Hello, for Eddie and Steve?” A woman wearing what looked like scrubs asked them.

Steve stayed silent but gave her a nod trying his best to keep his face neutral. Most of his paranoia when high was with other people and having to interact with them. He was always afraid they could tell and were judging him. He always feared he was acting weirdly but couldn’t tell and nobody was saying anything and he unknowingly embarrassed himself or even Eddie. Because he was openly associated with Eddie his actions impacted his boyfriend’s reputation and he would never want to do anything to tarnish it.

“Okay Stevie c’mon time to relax.” Eddie’s voice made Steve blink, not even realizing he had zoned out. He looked around and both massage therapists were gone. “Lets get you undressed honey, that okay? Can I take this off?” Eddie’s fingers were wrapped around the belt of Steve’s robe but were still, waiting for his reply.

“Wha- yeah, yeah of course.” Steve said, his eyes focused back on Eddie’s face and he was met with a fond smile.

Eddie undid the belt of Steve’s robe then brought his hands up sliding them along Steve’s collarbones then over his shoulders, his arms catching on the robe and dragging it along as his hands continued to move across Steve’s body. Once the robe was off he hung it on the back of one of the chairs then made his way back to Steve.

“Arms up here big boy.” Eddie patted his own shoulders.

Steve giggled, his face turning pink as he followed Eddie’s instructions.

“These okay to come off too?” Eddie’s hands rested at Steve’s hips, fingers dipping just beneath the waistband of Steve’s swim shorts.

Steve bit his lip, his cheeks still burning, “mhmm” he nodded.

Eddie smirked back at him slowly dragging the shorts down until he was crouched. He tapped Steve’s ankles getting his boyfriend to step out of his swimsuit one foot at a time.

“Good job baby, now go lay down I’ll be right there.” Eddie took Steve by the shoulders and faced him towards the beds.

He folded Steve’s swim shorts up and placed them on the same chair as the robe. He then worked to undress himself, folding and hanging his own swim trunks and robe. He made his way over to the two beds smiling at Steve’s who was laying face down with his head turned to the side so he could watch Eddie.

“Want me to cover you?” Steve shifted up onto his elbows as Eddie got closer.

“I’m all good sweetheart don’t you worry.” Eddie gave Steve a quick peck then moved to cover his boyfriend up before worrying about himself.

A few minutes later there was a light knock on the door and the massage therapists were back. Soothing spa music began playing through the speakers, and oil was poured on their backs. Steve let Eddie’s pinky slip away from where it was wrapped around his own, turning his head into the rest and closing his eyes.

The massage felt amazing, it was like Steve could feel each individual line of his muscles being untangled and smoothed out. It created a low level hum throughout his entire body, like every single nerve ending was being stimulated all at once. He could hear groans come from Eddie every once and awhile and hoped he wasn’t being to loud either. Steve was glad Eddie was feeling good though, he knew his boyfriend’s back had been giving him issues lately.

Eventually the hands left his skin and he heard the door close once again. Steve kept his eyes closed for a little longer, breathing until the buzzing in his body calmed down enough that he felt he could stand up without bucking at the knee. He still moved a little too quickly though, feeling a little light headed as he sat up. Steve kept his eyes closed, focusing on the sounds of Eddie’s light snoring as he got his bearings. Once he was able to move again he made his way over to Eddie’s table, smoothing his hands through his boyfriend’s hair. Steve got a bit caught up in the motion, his heart jumping a little when Eddie snuffled awake, turning his head and kissing Steve’s palm.

“Morning sweetheart.” He reached a hand out, wrapping it around Steve’s bare waist and pulling him closer. “Ready for the rest of our pampering?”

“Yeah, c’mon”. Steve took the hand from his waist into his own, attempting to tug Eddie up. He ended up stumbling back into his own table, catching himself before falling on his bare ass.

“Alright stumerella, lets go.” Eddie chuckled as he pushed himself up off his bed.

Steve giggled at the nickname even though he didn’t quiet get it. He accepted Eddie’s help getting re-dressed, only smacking suggestive wandering hands away once. Maybe if he was sober he told Eddie who just wiggled his brows and moved on.

The kept their swimsuits on in the mud bath, laying side by side with their heads tilted back and hands intertwined beneath the mud as 2 aestheticians applied masks to their faces and cucumbers over their eyes.

“How you feeling baby?” Eddie asked once the women left the room. They’d be back in 20 minutes to wash the masks off and scrub them down on a wet table.

“Really good.” Steve sighed, his hand squeezing Eddie’s. “I think I could do this again…if you were with me.”

“Hmm sounds great to me, I don’t think I’ve ever been pampered this much.” Eddie tried to smile but his mask pulled and cracked.

“We’re gonna be glowing after all this, like…like glazed donuts or something.” Steve giggled.

“We’re gonna be krispy kreme level glazed…god I wish we had one here.” Eddie sighed.

“God me too, I could eat a whole dozen to myself right now I think.” Steve agreed.

“I’ll get some when we tour the US again, you’ll have to come to every show in a state that has one.”

“Hmm deal if I get a dozen every time.” Steve nodded lazily. “Now I’m so hungry.”

Eddie chuckled, “the munchies are upon us, took longer than I thought.”

“Hey!” Steve pouted.

“Hey! Nothing, I’ve watched you eat an entire tub of ice cream then throw basically all of it up because it gave you a stomach ache.” Eddie was laughing now.

“Whatever, you thought you had jaundice that one time because you and the band smoked for hours while trying to write for the album and you didn’t leave the studio for so long everything had a yellow tinge.” It was Steve’s turn to laugh.

“That was for the sake of creative process!” Eddie defended. “You are so lucky I don’t wanna mess up this mask or I’d mud wrestle you right here right now.”

Steve burst into laughter, just as the door opened again and the aestheticians returned. His teeth clacked as he snapped his mouth closed. They said nothing and Eddie gave his hand a reassuring squeeze.

The mud mask was wiped away with warm cloths and a bunch of serums and oils were rubbed into their faces. Then they made their ways over to the wet room where they were wrapped in seaweed then scrubbed down with a giant natural sponge. They both opted for the lotion after and were thankful for it as it was basically a second massage.

All that was left was the scalp massage which was what Steve was looking forward to the most. He and Eddie kept their pinkies linked as they laid on their backs, heads tilted back into water basins. Two new aestheticians came in and steamed their scalps, then it was a dry brush through, shampoo with a scalp massage, rinse, hair mask with a neck and shoulder massage while it sat, rinse, conditioner.

Once they were alone again Steve was the first to speak. “You’re curls are going to look amazing baby, like a like a shampoo commercial or something.”

“Hmm not as good as when you do them for me though, you have magic hands baby.” Eddie replied.

“Its why I’m a hairdresser…wait that was an innuendo wasn’t it.”

“It was but it doesn’t matter, i’m the only one who gets both types of magic,” Eddie tugged Steve’s hand up to his lips, placing a kiss on Steve’s knuckles.

Steve rolled his eyes but his cheeks still turned pink “Can we go eat now?” He asked as he sat up. “I’m pretty sure it wore off now so i’ll be okay to be in a restaurant.”

“Sure sweetheart whatever you want.” Eddie sat up as well, pulling Steve over to him.

Steve went over easily, standing between Eddies legs allowing his boyfriend to koala wrap himself around Steve. Steve rested his head on top of Eddie’s his own hands wrapping around Eddie’s upper body.

“Thanks for today.” Steve whispered into Eddie’s damp hair. He played with it idly, fingers wrapping around random strands of hair to define their curl.

“You don’t need to thank me,” Eddie’s hands tightened around Steve’s waist. “I love spoiling you and am so happy I found another way to do that.” He moved back so he could look at Steve.

“I love you.” Steve smiled shyly.

“I love you too.” Eddie grinned, he leaned up pressing his lip’s against Steve’s for a sweet kiss.

As they pulled back Steve’s stomach made a loud grumble causing them both to burst out in a fit of giggles.

“Lets get you to that restaurant sweetheart.”

#eddie munson #steve harrington #steddie #stranger things ships #steve x eddie #stranger things #stranger things one shot #rockstar eddie munson #corroded coffin #famous eddie munson #90’s #80s #eddie stranger things #rock star eddie munson #gareth stranger things #jeff stranger things #freak stranger things #this was meant to just be a little blurb but here we are two thousand words later #i am projecting on to steve #steve is me #girls who smoke weed

[withacapitalp]

How to Rehabilitate a Jock Pt 18

Part One Link to ao3 Part 17. Part Nineteen

Thank you to @stevethehairington for being supportive af and the worlds best beta and @thefreakandthehair for encouraging everything I do y'all rock!!!

Step Eighteen: Get Some Supplies

Eddie had spent quite a lot of time watching Steve in the last few weeks. Observing the way Steve spoke, the way his smile curled slowly on his lips when he thought no one was watching, the way he noticed almost everything, but was somehow still so oblivious. Eddie saw it all. 

But by far the most interesting thing about Steve was the way he could switch at the drop of a hat. 

It was the most interesting, but also the most frightening. It was like the headlights on the van all over again- one second Steve had been joking around with him, saying things that made Eddie’s heart race and his chest sink heavy with guilt; and the next his entire face went blank, a hard protective look in his eyes and a painful tension setting his spine perfectly straight. 

All because of the sound of a car. 

Eddie had no way of knowing what happened to Steve to make him like this, but curiosity was eating at him again, completely pushing aside the fact that he had almost spilled the entire bet to Steve in a fit of regretful shame. 

Well, not completely pushing it aside. Eddie’s heart was still racing like a jackrabbit, but that was besides the point. 

“What’s wrong?” Eddie murmured. 

“Nothing,” Steve replied immediately, his voice so dead it killed something in Eddie too. Steve carefully pulled away from Eddie, leaving cold handprints where his warm palms had just been against Eddie’s skin. “Stay here.” 

Not a chance. Eddie knew whose car that was, and he knew that if Hargrove was here, then nothing good was about to come of it. He waited maybe two seconds before following Steve out of the kitchen, tracing his steps to the front door that was slightly ajar, slipping out the door and onto the porch-

And walking directly into Jim Hopper’s back. 

Hopper startled like he had been shot, and Eddie reared back on instinct, nearly hitting the door in his effort to put space between himself and the police chief. When Hopper saw who bumped into him, he practically growled, his eyebrows furrowing into one long fuzzy stripe as he gave Eddie a completely unwarranted death glare. 

Rude. And uncalled for. 

It wasn’t like they were friends, but Eddie and the chief usually had a pretty good rapport. Kind of like Tom and Jerry, if Tom was the chief of police in a podunk Indiana town, and Jerry was a trailer kid who dealt drugs on the side for grocery money. Usually Hopper regarded him with put upon fondness, not straight hostility, and the shift was… disconcerting to say the least. 

Luckily for Eddie, Hopper seemed to have a bigger target for his rage tonight. A target with a blue camaro and even worse anger issues. 

Steve had only been outside for maybe thirty seconds, but that thirty seconds was long enough for him to get in trouble. Hargrove had gotten out of his stupid car, leaving the engine idling as he swaggered up to Steve, a condescending smirk in his face as his eyes flashed dangerously. Max had also scrambled out of the car, and was on her way around the hood and over to Steve’s side. 

This wasn’t going to be good. 

But, before anything could go wrong, Eddie was reminded they weren’t alone. 

“Is there a problem here, Hargrove?!” Hopper barked just as Billy reached towards Steve, putting every ounce of authority he had into his growling tone, making even Eddie shudder. Eddie had only gotten that tone out of Hopper once or twice during his many run-ins with the law, but each time it scared the bejeezus out of him. 

“No sir,” Hargrove spat out, instantly taking a step away from Steve. It seemed that even his impervious armor of assholery could be penetrated by Hopper’s power. 

Hop started down the steps of the porch, and Eddie burst into action, scurrying after him and attempting to look at least a little bit intimidating as he came to Steve’s aid. 

Mission probably not accomplished, but Eddie hoped Steve at least appreciated the gesture. Hargrove was fucking scary, and if he could beat Steve’s face in, Eddie was pretty sure that Billy might actually kill him if Eddie decided to take a swing. 

“Max, go inside,” Steve said softly as they came over, a gentle hand pushing against her arm and urging her towards the safety of the house. She pushed back, giving Steve a silent glower. Little Red was stubborn, almost as stubborn as Steve, and it was obvious she didn’t want to go anywhere without knowing nothing bad would happen to her babysitter. 

It was admirable, but it was also really, really, stupid. If anything happened, Steve would one hundred percent focus on protecting her first, which might get him hurt. Eddie wasn’t great in a fight, but he knew how to find people’s weak spots, and anyone with eyes knew that Steve’s weak spots were the people he loved. 

“Please,” Steve whispered, taking his eyes off of Billy to give her a silent look. 

Another switch. The guard dog was gone, a sweet chocolate lab in its place. Soft and careful not to hurt as he nudged his pup away from the mountain lion that wanted to devour her whole. 

Max sighed shortly, stopping to press a quick hug to Steve’s side and an even quicker flick of her middle finger towards Billy before she ran over to the porch. She sat herself down on the bottom step, her fiery red hair standing out in the dark as she leaned forward with her hands on her knees, watching them all like a hawk waiting to take flight. 

It was a compromise, and enough to keep her out of the fight that still seemed to be coming. 

“I’ll be back to get her at 8 sharp tomorrow, Harrington. She better be out here waiting,” Hargrove stated, bristling with barely concealed fury as Hopper and Eddie both flanked Steve. 

“I’ll drop Max off sometime in the afternoon, Billy,” Steve replied coolly, leaning casually backward as he crossed his arms. He was a picture of calm, a complete deviation from the rest of them. “If she’s gonna be later than 3, I’ll give you a call. Mkay?”  

Steve finished his sentence with a bitchy little smile, and Eddie bit his tongue, hating the way that his pants were starting to feel tight. It should not have been so much of a turn on to see Steve act like an ass, but when he was using his powers for good, there was something incredibly alluring about watching the former King tear someone down without so much as a swing of his fist. 

Hargrove’s nostrils were flared, and he looked like he swallowed an entire bag of lemons. He opened his mouth, probably to say something stupid, but Hopper wasn’t having any of it. 

“Anything else?” The man asked rhetorically. Before Billy could even shake his head, Hopper continued, putting his hands on his hips, “Good. Then scram before I bring you in on trespassing charges.” 

Hargrove deflated like a balloon, and Eddie barely resisted the urge to scoff. Of course Billy was the same as any other bully. It always went that way- they were all cocky and confident when they were with someone they thought they could beat, but if someone with actual power over them showed up, they instantly showed their belly. 

Eddie had no doubt that if Steve was out here alone, words would fly at the very least, and Steve might’ve even ended up with some new bruises. But the prospect of spending Christmas Eve in a cell seemed to be enough to get Billy Hargrove to fuck right off and leave them alone. 

Good riddance. 

“I could’ve handled that,” Steve complained the second Billy’s car disappeared around the corner. The annoyed face he was making at Hopper was ridiculously cute, and honestly, unfair. Eddie probably could have handled just the scrunched up nose, or the adorable little pout, but together they were a deadly combination that left him wanting to clutch his chest and beg for mercy. 

God, he was down bad for this boy. 

“Mhm,” Hopper hummed, raising a brow. 

“I could have!” Steve insisted. He turned to Eddie expectantly, waiting to hear his DM back him up. 

“You definitely could have,” Eddie reassured, despite not being entirely sure that Steve actually would have gotten out of that on his own, “but as much fun as bringing you to the hospital tonight sounds…”

The unsaid words spoke louder than Eddie had intended, and he even managed to get Hopper to bark out a short unexpected laugh. Eddie broke into a grin and shot Hop a smirk, the smile fading as Hopper seemed to realize exactly who had made him laugh and quickly went back to his angry scowling. 

What was his problem? 

“Thanks for the vote of confidence, Babydoll,” Steve said with a roll of his eyes, dragging Eddie’s attention back over to him. Behind them Hopper seemed to choke on air, but Steve didn’t seem to notice, too focused on his next mission. 

“I thought you couldn’t come tonight?” Steve asked Max as he walked towards where she was sitting. 

“Mom and Neil decided to go to a resort for the holiday, so it was just me and Billy alone for Christmas.” Max sighed as she stood, casually stretching her arms high above her head. “I’d rather step in front of a bus then deal with that so I gave him five bucks to drive me here.” 

Her movements and her tone were nonchalant, uncaring and almost lazy, but Eddie wasn’t fooled. Max was chewing on the inside of her lip, and she was avoiding eye contact like the plague. Most people might’ve missed it, but Eddie was good at looking. 

And Steve was too. 

“Sorry about your mom,” Steve murmured as he pulled her in for a hug. Max let him hold her for all of four seconds before pulling away roughly, tossing one braid over her shoulder and sticking her nose in the air. 

“I don’t care,” Max declared, despite all of them knowing how very much she cared. 

“Well El is going to be thrilled. She’s been stuck with just the boys all night,” Steve offered, giving Max an out from the big feelings talk. 

“I’m sure she was fine,” Max muttered, kicking at the ground, “not like anyone was missing me.” 

Eddie had spent the better part of his life being unwanted. From his parents, to his teachers, to basically the whole world. Not only was Eddie the local freak, he was also a barely closeted gay man in a small Indiana town. He had gotten good at being okay with being left behind or abandoned.  

But seeing that part of himself in the little girl in front of him hurt in a way he didn’t even think to expect.

Luckily, Steve seemed to have this handled. 

“Lucas was missing you,” Steve said teasingly, crushing her against his side as he dragged them both up the stairs. “I was too. Now that you’re here I can finally start karaoke. I’m thinking of starting with "I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas.”

“Fuck off Steve, that song sucks and you know it,” Max complained, trying to wiggle out of his grip. Steve held her tighter, turning back to give Eddie a ‘watch this’ look before taking a comically long breath in.

“I WANT A HIPPOPOTAMUS FOR CHRISTMAS,” Steve crowed at the top of his lungs, startling the silent frigid air of the night with the force of his voice, “ONLY A HIPPOPOTAMUS WILL DO!”

“Oh my god, you suck!” Max shouted, finally escaping his grasp and clapping her hands over her ears. Her tone was angry, but Eddie could see the huge beaming grin that was overtaking her face. Once again the unstoppable force of Steve Harrington had managed to smooth things over. 

“I can see me now on Christmas morning creeping down the stair!” Steve continued without a care, giggling like a kid as he did. “Oh, what joy and what surprise! When I open up my eyes! To see a hippo hero standing there!”

Now Max was laughing too, holding her stomach as she tripped towards the front door to try and run from Steve’s singing. He held up his hands in mock trumpet form, vocalizing the instrumental parts of the song as he followed her in, leaving the front door wide open. 

And leaving Hopper and Eddie all alone outside. 

The silence materialized out of nowhere, the tension thick enough to cut with a knife. As much as Eddie wanted to just run into the house after Steve and never even look at Hopper again, he held back. Yes, this was awkward, but Eddie could deal with awkward. He was good at awkward. He regularly stood on lunch tables for fun. He could do this. He would have them back to their normal bantering rivalry before midnight.

“Hiya chief! So how’s-”

“Are you selling Steve drugs?” Hopper demanded, cutting him mid-sentence and rounding on Eddie with fury in his eyes. 

Eddie, unable to help himself, did the absolute worst thing he could have in response. 

He laughed. 

He couldn't help it. The question was just that ridiculous. He had sold to Steve in the past, even jacked up his price with the ‘rich douchebag’ tax, but it was only ever weed. A joint here and there barely counted as drugs in Eddie’s book. Steve wasn’t even one of his regulars. And since joining Hellfire, Steve hadn’t even mentioned Eddie’s side hustle. 

“Chief, even if I was, would you really expect me to tell you?” Eddie snickered, still in shock that he was being asked this by Jim Hopper of all people. Was he worried that Steve was going to give Jane drugs? It couldn’t be that, there was no way anyone would ever think Steve would do that. 

So Hopper was just… weirdly overprotective over Steve. He almost sounded like a dad. 

“Cut the crap, Munson,” Hopper growled, taking a menacing step forward. “I’m serious. I don’t know what game you’re playing here-”

“Dungeons and Dragons,” Eddie supplied, still chuckling at how insane this conversation was. 

“-but!” Hopper continued, putting emphasis on the word and on ignoring Eddie, “nothing better happen to him, or so help me god-”

“Hop!”

Hopper was cut short by the sound of Joyce Byers. She and Steve were standing in the open doorway, twin disappointed looks on both of their faces as they took in the scene in front of them. Steve hung his head low, softly muttering to himself as he plodded down the steps and grabbed Eddie’s wrist, tugging him back towards the house. 

“Handle this?” Steve begged as they passed her. 

Joyce, who was in the process of lighting a cigarette, gave him one short nod, eyes already locked on her target. Eddie didn’t really know Mrs. Byers all that well, but he had dealt with enough irate mothers to know when to stay out of a woman’s way. 

“You promised you wouldn’t act so crazy-” Eddie heard her hiss to Hopper from behind their backs. 

“I am concerned! Am I not allowed to be concerned?!” Hopper exploded, and Steve slammed the door before they could hear anymore, pressing his back against it and groaning as he hid his face in his hands. 

“Why does everyone think I’m doing drugs?” Steve muttered. It was definitely a rhetorical question, but Eddie couldn’t help being a bit of a jackass. 

“I mean it’s not like I’ve never sold to you before, Sweetheart,” He pointed out, sticking both hands deep in his pockets and letting the smirk on his face grow three times as big as Steve groaned even louder. Eddie wasn’t exactly happy to be threatened by the chief of police, but it was nice to know that there was someone who was looking out for Steve. 

Hop was no Wayne, but every person needed a grumpy old man to watch over them in Eddie’s humble opinion, and if Hop was Steve’s, then Eddie could handle a few words thrown his way. 

Steve slowly slid down the door as he grumbled and mumbled, ending up cross legged on the floor, staring up at Eddie with the most pitiful pout known to man. 

If it was anyone else, Eddie would have kept the joke going, teased them to oblivion until they were both laughing until their stomachs hurt. But Eddie was a weak, weak man, and Steve’s eyes had somehow grown inhumanely wide and sad, and there was only so much he could take. 

“Come on, let’s go check on our completely clean, absolutely drug-free cookies,” Eddie offered, sticking a hand out to Steve to help him up, “just to prove to Hopper that I’m not your hookup.” 

Steve heaved the world’s biggest sigh in response, but took Eddie’s hand anyway. As he stood, rather than letting go, he intertwined their fingers, pulling Eddie into the kitchen and squeezing their palms together once before he went for his oven mitts. 

“By the way, I didn’t get to thank you,” Steve said randomly as he slowly lifted the tray filled with cookies out of the oven. 

“Thank me for what?” Eddie asked, reaching a hand towards the fresh treats, his mouth watering at the delicious aroma filling the air. 

“Hey! Too hot, you’ll burn yourself,” Steve said, jostling the tray to one side as he smacked Eddie’s fingers away before they could get singed. He placed the tray down far from Eddie and began to transfer the cookies onto a cooling rack. 

“I meant thank you for having my back out there… you didn’t have to do that,” Steve explained, his voice getting uncharacteristically shy as he continued to stare down at the cookies and avoid looking at Eddie in any way. His shoulders were curled inwards, and his bottom lip was caught firmly between his teeth. 

Eddie could have lightened things back up, made a joke about Steve’s innate ability to get into trouble, or pulled some bullshit insult about Billy’s intelligence to make them both smile and shake their heads, but he didn’t. There was something about the hesitancy sitting in Steve’s body, the way he was almost holding his breath, waiting to see why Eddie had gone after him when Steve had told him to stay behind. 

Like he couldn’t understand why someone would want to protect him instead of the other way around. 

“I didn’t want you getting hurt by him again,” Eddie stated, feeling his cheeks get stupidly warm as he did. It wasn’t like some big declaration of feelings or love, but the way the words laid his soul bare felt just a shade too close for comfort. 

“I would’ve been fine,” Steve protested, wrapping two cookies in a paper towel and handing them over to Eddie to test taste, shooting him a wry little grin as he did. “Billy won’t touch me now anyway. Not after last time. Max made sure of that.” 

“There shouldn’t have been a first time, and there won’t be a second,” Eddie said firmly, ignoring whatever weird joke Steve was making about Billy’s thirteen year old little sister being able to stop her eighteen year old brother. “Hargrove might be able to kill me with a single punch, but I’ll die fighting for your honor, Stevie.” 

“Well, I appreciate the gesture, but I don’t need anyone else dying on my watch,” Steve said softly, his smile disappearing as his eyes faded somewhere distant and sad. 

In an instant they were back in no man’s land, unmoored and untethered to the reality around them. Steve wasn’t at a party with him anymore, just lost in some far away place that Eddie couldn’t reach. Somewhere painful, and empty looking, and all Eddie wanted to do was pull him back and protect him from whatever was trying to steal his happiness. He wanted Steve to let him in, unhook the heavy cape that was set on his shoulders and unburden himself from whatever guilt was holding him hostage. 

Whatever it was, Eddie would help. He could make this easier, at least a little bit. All Steve had to do was tell him. All Eddie had to do was ask what was wrong. 

The time for being cautious was past them, and the time for being afraid Steve might run was over too. They had to be close enough for Eddie to at least know something about whatever was torturing Steve so badly. 

And Eddie had to care enough about Steve to put him over his stupid little crush. 

So despite the fact that his heart was threatening to leap out of his chest, and the dread was making his fingers ache, Eddie took a deep breath in and forced himself to speak. 

“Hey Sweetheart?” 

But unfortunately, the universe had other plans. 

“Steve!”

“What!” Steve yelled back to Mike, breaking away from Eddie and turning just in time to see all of the kids pile into the doorway like a pack of rabid animals. 

“Now that Max is here, can we do White Elephant?” Lucas pressed, impatiently drumming his fingers on the wall.

“Please?” Will added, quickly shooting a look over to his friend before turning back to Steve with barely hidden glee. 

“Fine,” Steve sighed, dragging out the word as the kids cheered and ran out of the room.  

The wild tornado of children had passed as quickly as they came, but whatever moment the two of them had been having had long since passed. Sharing Steve was gone, and Babysitter Steve had come back in full force. There was nothing wrong with him, nothing that would take precedence over his kids at least. 

It was admirable, but Eddie kind of hated it. Actually, more than hate. Eddie despised the fact that Steve was no longer with him, lost in taking care of the rest of the world once more. It was a good trait, something to respect, but it meant that Eddie had lost his chance to dig past Steve’s walls a bit more, and maybe finally get some answers. 

“Oh wait, Eddie what were you going to ask me?” Steve said, halting in his pursuit of the kids and turning to face Eddie. 

It was sweet that he cared, but it was pointless. This wasn’t the time anymore. 

But…

The supplies he had in the lunchbox in his van might just be the perfect way to get Steve to open up a bit. 

“I was going to ask if you maybe wanted to make some not clean kinda full of drugs cookies for us to enjoy later?” Eddie asked, mentally apologizing to Hopper. Steve quickly looked around to make sure no one else was listening, his eyes wide as a secretive smile already started to pull at his lips.  

“Ask me again once the kids are asleep,” Steve whispered in his ear, intertwining their fingers. Eddie steadfastly ignored the full body shudder rolling through his body, already calculating how much of a profit loss he was going to have to go through to get Steve to finally talk. 

Taglist: @paopaupaus @zerokrox-blog @surferboyzaza @whatever-is-a-good-name@minjintea @addelyin @5ammi90 @hagbaby420 @shinekocreator @bornonthesavage @starxlark @electrick-marionnett @resident-gay-bitch @ash-a-confused-enby @classicdinosaurdeathpose @valon-whomsttf @rotten-lil-goblin @thereindeerlady @love-ya-kash @kerlypride @sparkle-fiend @thefreakandthehair @flowercrowngods @milf-harrington @sadcanadianwinter @gothbat99 @hotcocoaharrington @henderdads @lightwoodbanethings @colorful565 @h0n3y-dw @craterbbox @sourw0lfs @lesliiieeeee @bidisastersworld @tinynebula @ravnlinn @bonescaro @mexmatch @cottagecoredreams @joruni @hellykelly @maegan1116 @farewell-wanderlvst @desertfern @due-to-the-fact-that-im-a-slut @anythingforourmoonyedits @eerielake @fandemonium-takes-its-toll @sidekick-hero

#Steve joins hellfire au #Steve harrington #Eddie munson #steddie #steddie au #steddie ficlet #st #stranger things #stranger things 2 #stranger things au #post stancy breakup #post s2 #Steve and eddie #st au #stranger things 2 au #steve harrington #Writing(with a capital W) #Jeff stranger things #freak stranger things #Steve has ptsd #el hopper #eleven hopper #Steve and el #Jim hopper #Joyce byers #Billy Hargrove mention

[steddilly]

Ghostbusters AU but it’s Corroded Coffin who hunt ghosts by day and rock out by night. Steve is their very attractive receptionist who Eddie is dating.

#ghostbusters au #steddie #corroded coffin #corroded coffin as ghostbusters #they wrote their own theme tune for their commercials #eddie munson #steve harrington #gareth stranger things #jeff stranger things #freak stranger things

[corrodedcoffinfest]

Corroded Coffin Fest - April 15th - Masterlist

Big, big thanks to those who participated in this first warm-up round for Corroded Coffin Fest! Missed out? There'll be another chance on May 15th! Start working on your "Get a Job" submissions now, if you'd like to join in on the fun!

Color-Coded Ratings Key: General, Teen, Mature, Explicit.

Here are all the submissions from yesterday's prompt:

APRIL 15TH - TAXED

It's tax day. Do they need to pay their taxes? Is this a write-off? Or, are they just taxed from being on the road? Tax them.

is that tax fraud? by @steddieas-shegoes | Rating: T | CW: Language | Tags: they’re just so stupid, and I love them, look Steve is here!

Who Will Buy My Memories? by @thisapplepielife | Rating: T | CW: Language | POV: Eddie | Pairing: Steddie | Tags: Eddie Munson Lives, Established Relationship, Welcome to the 90s, Fluff, Corroded Coffin on the Road

I tell you folks, it's harder than it looks by @dreamwatch | Rating: T | CW: Language, description of injury, hospitals | POV: Steve | Pairing: Steddie | Tags: Exhaustion, Eddie Munson needs a hug, arguments, but it all works out, workaholic Eddie Munson

LET DOWN AND HANGING AROUND (CRUSHED LIKE A BUG IN THE GROUND) by @wormdebut | Rating: T | CW: Swears, Smoking, Angst | Pairing: None | Tags: Eddie, Gareth, Jeff, Freak

Corroded Coffin Fest will be back on May 15th for the second warm-up round! 🦇

#corrodedcoffinfest #april warm-up: taxed #ccf warm up: taxed #masterlist #eddie munson #corroded coffin fic #gareth stranger things #jeff stranger things #freak stranger things #stranger things event

[smeddiemunson]

actually don't want to know anything about the eddie book but if freak gets a real name. can someone tell me? if he doesn't i'm gonna continue giving him a new name every time i write him.

#eddie munson #freak stranger things #grant/david/paul/xavier/mickey you are real to me