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penny00dreadful · 1 year

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It's my birthday! 🎂

So here, have a snapshot of one of my WIPs. A Steddie vampire story with a twist!

Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 AO3

There was a knock at the door.

Eddie recognised it immediately, drying off his hands on a nearby tea towel and walking through the house to open the front door.

“Hey Robbie.”

Robin didn’t say anything, she never did anymore. She didn’t even really look at him, just glanced up to meet his eyes, hunched in on herself before dropping her gaze back to the floor and shuffling inside, coming to a stop in the sitting room doorway.

“Wayne is asleep upstairs so I’m afraid you’ll have to deal with the cartoons today instead of your own personal Eddie Munson concert.” Eddie smiled, trying to force some levity into his voice but it didn’t work. Levity wasn’t something any of them were really capable of anymore.

Robin didn’t acknowledge that he’d said anything but just moved forward, lowering herself down into the side of the couch deepest into the room and curled into herself even more, waiting for him to turn the tv on and switch to the right channel.

It must be one of the really, really bad days. Usually she liked him to make as much noise as possible around her, to keep her brain from fucking her up on the inside too much but today? On days like this? He knew nothing would work. He just had to be there around her to make sure she didn’t get so lost in her head she couldn’t come back out.

Eddie didn’t want to think about where they would be if the government hadn’t provided him and his uncle the house directly across the road from the Buckleys by pure coincidence. He didn’t want to think about where she would be or what could have happened in the last month had he not been here to distract or just exist around her whenever she called.

He sat down gently next to her, not touching her but close enough if she needed him to reach out. Some days she just needed to be away from her parents house. They just didn’t understand the kind of trauma she’d been through. Not the way everyone else in their group did. Wayne didn’t know exactly what had gone on with the Upside Down either, but he didn’t push. So sometimes she just needed to get away.

Other times… other times she got so caught up and lost in memories and what if’s that she had to remove herself and be with someone familiar.

Eddie waited for Robin to move first. It didn’t take long. Barely two minutes into sitting together she slowly tipped to the side and placed her head on his shoulder. He glanced down at her but she hadn’t taken her eyes off the tv, her face was the same blank mask it always was now, void of emotion. He curled an arm around her and pulled her closer, settling in for a long afternoon being with her on the couch in silence.

They didn’t speak. Conversation wasn’t something that happened with Robin anymore. Sometimes he'd pull his guitar out and spend hours playing to her, or around her. Sometimes he’d ramble at her until his throat was dry, talking about DnD or whatever movies he’d caught on the tv recently, whatever books he’d been reading or music he’d been listening to. Just to fill the void. She always stayed quiet. She just needed distraction and someone around her to keep her from her worst thoughts and Eddie was happy to provide that.

And it wasn’t just Robin. Once they'd landed back in the Rightside-Up, he’d had to pull himself together and start taking care of their little fractured Fellowship because really he was the best candidate. He was the newest member so he shouldn’t have been as attached as everyone else had been.

But deep down he knew that was a lie. He might have had the least amount of time with him but it had been time enough for something to burrow deep into his heart.

A month ago they had all failed. The cracks in the earth had carved through Hawkins, making it almost uninhabitable. Having his name cleared wasn’t exactly the big shiny fuck you comeback he'd hoped. The town had mostly emptied and people had fled, never to look back. But hey, at least he could go outside again, right?

In the aftermath of everything, the Party, the Fellowship, the family was… destroyed.

Scattered.

Adrift.

They all stayed within Hawkins.

Just in case.

Because Vecna wasn’t dead. He hadn’t died. He was still alive, still kicking, still plotting their demise so they couldn’t leave. Eddie wasn’t sure how everyone had convinced their parents to let them stay, or convinced them to stay with them. He had only needed to share a look with Wayne.

He understood. Maybe it was something behind the eyes. They need to see this through to the end.

They had to finish it.

Robin was… broken. Afterwards she watched everyone move around her as if in a perpetual daze, wilting. A shadow of her former self. Eddie had a front row seat to her deteriorating state. Sometimes he’d come home from a gate patrol to find her sitting silent and dead eyed on his porch. Sometimes he was the only one who would be able to get her to eat, often something hot and fresh courtesy of Wayne and his own quiet worry.

Nancy had been enraged and vicious ever since. Throwing herself into research and action with military precision and no one was allowed to step a foot out of line. It scared all of them. She’d lash out at each of them with the barest of provocation, biting and angry and determined to eviscerate Vecna after what had happened.

When the California Crew finally arrived back and Eddie had to break the news to them all over again… that was the first night he’d gone to Loch Nora.

Dustin had joined Nancy in her anger for the first week, spitting and cursing at all of them in turn. Blaming himself, blaming Eddie, screaming and furious.

It had only ended after he’d punched Mike in the jaw in a fit of rage.

El had stopped him from beating Mike to a bloody pulp, holding him still with an outstretched hand, gentle but firm. Dustin had been frothing at the mouth, spitting at her to let me go, he deserves it! The prick deserves it, how dare he say that!

El had looked at him with wide, sad eyes before she whispered “Steve would be so disappointed.”

Silence echoed through the house in the wake of her statement before Dustin collapsed in on himself, wailing and screaming his anguish out into Eddie’s hair who held him through it for hours.

Nancy had stormed out, disappearing into the treeline behind Eddie’s house and coming back an hour later with rips and tears in her clothes, her knuckles bloodied and dried tear tracks down her face. She was still angry and driven after that, but not quite as dictatorial as she’d been before.

When he learned Will had named Mike the heart of the Party in some busted old pizza van, Eddie thought there was a bit too much bias there because he couldn’t see how. But it got him thinking because if Mike was the heart, Steve had been the soul.

And the soul of their Fellowship was gone.

None of them knew how to move forward, to keep going. Eddie could see from his distance as the newbie of the group and through the crumbling foundations of their friendships that all of them had always relied on Steve to keep them together. But they’d never told him. They’d never admitted it. They didn’t know if he knew. But he had to have known, right? Had to have known how important, how fundamental, how central he had been to all their lives.

Even Eddie who’d officially known him the shortest amount of time was fucked up over it. He’d known of him in school, but he’d only ever really gotten to know him in a few short days before it was all over. His perception of everything had been turned on his head. Steve is-

Was.

A good dude.

It had almost been unfair. He was unfailingly kind, overwhelmingly pretty, stupidly brave and incredibly loyal. It had felt like a gift to know him, even if it was just for a few days. He’d give anything for just a few more.

Mike, Will and El were getting to the stage where they could start telling stories about him. Funny, embarrassing, heartbreaking stories that made them laugh and cry in equal measure.

Lucas and Max were not there yet. They couldn’t be in the same room as the stories if they tried.

No one dared try to speak of him around Dustin. It was just too raw.

According to Hopper, his parents had just straight up abandoned the house and Hawkins. Their son was dead and they’d heard about it on the news. The story of the ‘earthquake fissures’ and the ‘plucky few who loved their hometown so much, they refused to leave’ had gone global along with a tribute to those who’d laid down their lives to keep the town safe. Steve’s name was at the top. Finally, something his parents could give a shit about.

The Fellowship tried, they all really tried to keep themselves together. Two weeks after Steve died and the most raw of all of the feelings had changed to an ever present and consuming dull ache rather than a sharp pain, they’d all had a sleepover. Like they always used to do, apparently. Eddie hosted. They all had keys to Steve’s house but no one could stomach even the sight of it. It hurt too much.

Nobody spoke much that night. As much as they could have pretended everything was back like it used to be, everyone felt the shift. Something within them had broken irreparably.

They didn’t have any sleepovers after that.

Eddie looked down as Robin shifted against him, getting to her feet. He wasn’t sure how long they’d sat in front of the tv together, but it had been long enough for the sun to go down. He watched her cross the street, only tearing his eyes away when her own front door closed behind her.

He glanced down at the keys to his van and was starting up the engine before he even realised he’d moved. He just needed a moment… away.

He wasn’t sure when he’d made it a habit to go to the Harrington house, but over the last month he’d found himself escaping there more and more often, courtesy of the upper classes' complete lack of common sense, hiding a spare key under the doormat.

It should feel weird being here but instead it just felt… hushed.

Familiar.

Steve was stained here, even if it was all concentrated in his bedroom. It was the only place in the world that still seemed to carry a shard of him.

He didn't want to think about how creepy being here was. He chose to simply ignore it. Pretend it wasn’t weird to wrap himself in a dead pretty boy’s duvet and stare at a dead pretty boy’s trophy shelf like it would contain the answers to the universe while he tried not to collapse under the weight of keeping everyone else afloat. The whole house would be perpetually still and quiet. It was a tomb of memories, unnervingly silent, holding on to echoes of him like a museum dedicated to him. Every time he touched something outside Steve’s bedroom, he felt like an alarm would go off and security guards would descend. Each time he looked to a corner of the ceiling he expected to see a security camera blinking down at him.

It was unexplainable and inexplicable, curling up in Steve’s bed, so he just did it, rather than dwell on it. He could feel bad about it later, when it no longer brought him comfort. Being here gave him the will to power through just one more day trying to keep the threads of the Fellowship together. It made him feel kind and loyal and brave. Like whisps of Steve were reaching out and lending him his strength. It was the only reason he’d gotten through the first week of Dustin blaming him for Steve’s death, of Robin staring blankly at nothing. He would have caved in on himself otherwise.

It wasn’t often that he allowed himself to fall asleep here in the dusty memory of Steve’s space but whenever he did it was fitful and thankfully, relatively dreamless.

Tonight was not one of those nights.

He knew he was dreaming as soon as he saw him.

It was the same dream he’d had for the last month.

But knowing and being able to change how it went were two different things and each time Eddie was forced to play his part exactly as he had the night Steve died.

It had been the thing Dustin had lashed out at Eddie for the most. Eddie was supposed to be the distraction with him. Steve had decided at the last second that he just couldn’t leave his baby brother out of his sight. Eddie understood, he got it. So he’d agreed to swap out. He went with Robin and Nancy to the Creel house. He’d thrown molotov’s harder than anything he’d thrown before, but it hadn’t mattered. Vecna had crashed through the attic window and disappeared when they went down to check.

The trudge back to the trailer had been tense and twitchy, only broken when they’d heard Dustin screaming through the treeline.

That sound was the most terrifying thing he’d ever heard because he knew that Steve would never have let Dustin get hurt.

So if Dustin was hurt, it could only mean that something had happened to Steve.

Eddie never ran harder in his life but in the end it hadn’t mattered. Dustin had Steve’s body clutched in his arms, begging his friend, his brother, his dad to come back to him.

There was so much blood. Red and black blood mixed around him, caked on the end of his nail bat, covering his hands and spilling out of his mouth like he’d torn into those bats again, the same as he had back at the lake.

One whole side of his neck was missing. Eddie had moved around, pressing onto the other side with two fingers, looking for a pulse he knew wouldn’t be there. Dark red blood that had coagulated into chunks had gushed suddenly out of the open wound and Dustin screamed, high and horrified and Eddie thought his skin was going to turn inside out at the sound.

Of course there was no pulse and no breath. His body was cold and unnaturally still, his wide open honey brown eyes were dull and unseeing.

Steve was dead.

So completely and utterly dead that no one tried to make the argument to save him because there was nothing there. Just an empty shell wearing Steve’s beautiful face.

Nancy stared down at him, ghostly pale and shaking, muttering to herself “Not again, please don’t take him too.”

Dustin fought, kicked and screamed, growled and bit when they tried to pull him away. He refused to leave him there, in the Upside Down, but what could they do? Steve was the strong one, he was the athlete. The large built tank. Eddie, Robin and Nancy were all skinny and completely muscle-less. The only reason they were able to get Dustin out was because all his thrashing had damaged his ankle further, the pain making him go limp and dazed long enough to pull him back toward the gate under Eddie’s arm.

Eddie had to pull himself together very quickly to try to usher these three out. He’d have to take care of them, he knew it empirically, he could see it on their faces. He didn’t know how he was going to do it. He’d just have to remember what Wayne had done for him and try to follow his lead.

One moment he was helping Dustin up the trailer stairs, the next moment he realised Robin wasn’t with them. He looked back and his heart fell out of his stomach at the sight that greeted him.

She had laid down on the ground next to Steve and taken his hand, still and quiet. A thought had entered Eddie’s mind, of how Quasimodo’s story had ended in the book and it terrified him.

Nancy had whispered to her for minutes though it felt like hours as he watched, eventually coaxing Robin up and leading her back towards the trailer, though not before they both tenderly kissed Steve’s cold face and Robin fixed his hair exactly how he liked it. She glanced up at Eddie with a watery sad smile as she passed.

“There is all that I ever loved.” She whispered to him with one final look back to Steve, confirming Eddie’s worst fears.

She would have been content to lie next to him, waiting for death to come to her, joining her soulmate in eternity.

She hadn’t uttered a word since.

But before the dream could continue into the agony of Dustin turning his rage back on Eddie, he awoke with a jump.

He wasn’t quite sure what had woken him from his slumber at first. He was surrounded by the smell of Steve that had long faded but he could still imagine it. The stillness of the house around him set him on edge and made him feel watched. But Steve’s room was always separated from that feeling. It felt safe and protected.

That feeling disappeared into dust as the bedroom door creaked.

Eddie shot up from the bed, swinging one of Steve’s nail bats at the dark figure looming in the doorway.

It was too broad to be Nancy or Robin or Joyce or Jonathan, too tall to be any one of the kids or Argyle, too short to be Hopper. Was this the Demogorgan he’d heard stories about? He hadn’t seen one yet.

Eddie brought the nail bat down with as much power as he could muster, which was not a lot considering his nerd arms, aiming right for the shoulder-neck junction.

A hand shot out, grasping the bat just above where Eddie’s fingers clutched desperately to it, stopping it dead in a strong, immovable grip.

Eddie yanked backwards, attempting to pull the bat with him but felt it ripped from his hands with incredible force and he braced, squeezing his eyes shut and tensing his body.

He was going to die. This is how he died.

“That’s mine.” A voice said to him with just the faintest tinge of amusement.

Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 AO3

#steddie #steve and robin #steve x eddie #stranger things #eddie x steve #eddie and robin #steddie fic #stranger things fic #fanfic #penny00dreadful #steddie vampire fic #steddie fanfic #vampire au #steddie vampire au #happy birthday to me #vampire steve #vampire steve harrington #Return of The King Steddie #happy anniversary to me

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penny00dreadful · 1 year

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Return of The King - Part 2

Last time it was my birthday, this time it's my 1st wedding anniversary! 👰 I like to celebrate by getting my stuff out there! So here, have a part two to my 'Steddie vampire fic with a twist' which has a title now!

Part 1 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 AO3

He was going to die. This is how he died.

“That’s mine.” A voice said to him with just the faintest tinge of amusement.

Eddie’s heart stopped. Like fully stopped in his chest for a second and his stomach dropped out of his ass before his heart kicked back into high gear. He couldn’t breathe and time seemed to have crawled to a stop as he stared at the dark figure in front of him, looming somehow large and threatening despite their similar heights and the lightness in his tone of voice. His brain was firing off warning signals left and right telling him the thing in front of him was a predator and he was prey, a constant blaring signal telling him to run, get away, escape, hide.

“What are you doing in my room?” Steve Harrington asked him. His face was completely obscured by the darkness and he was more intimidating than Eddie had ever seen him. He was further in shadow than anything else in the room, like he was sucking all the residual light into the void of his figure.

Eddie was frozen on the spot, he couldn’t move, the terror coursing through him had completely locked up every part of his body. He felt like his heart was getting dangerously fast, almost to the point of bursting, lodging itself in his throat like it was looking for an escape route. He could feel adrenaline starting to flood through him, making him shake and his eyes must have been as wide as saucers.

Steve was dead. Steve was dead, how was he here? How could he be here?! It had been a month, he… his neck was gone, his body was cold, he was… he was empty, there was no life-

How could he be here?!

This had to be some completely fucked up Vecna shit. This was god damn low, even for him. To use Steve in this way… it was barbaric. Eddie didn’t know how long he’d be able to take it before his heart either gave out or broke in two. He knew he wouldn’t be emotionally strong enough to keep himself from giving into Steve if he started to push his buttons and if Vecna was in his head then it was only a matter of time.

At least Vecna was targeting him. Eddie couldn’t imagine the devastation if he’d targeted the kids or Nancy or god forbid, Robin. If it was Robin who’d been sent visions of Steve… Jesus he didn’t even want to think about what it would do to her.

Steve cocked his head to the side and though the movement itself wasn’t inherently dangerous, the motion was enough for Eddie’s terrified state to kick his body into movement, making him jump backwards. His knees stayed slightly bent, like he was just looking for an opportunity to bolt.

“Woah, Eddie.” Steve said, sounding cautious. “It’s okay, I’m not gonna hurt you.” He raised his hands as if to placate him but again the movement caused Eddie to flinch back, hip checking the foot of the bed painfully hard and sending him crashing to the floor. He fell flat on his ass, scrambling backwards until he collided with a thump against the wall under the window, unable to tear his eyes away from the approaching shadow.

Everything was starting to hurt now, not physically but emotionally. The reality of what was staring him in the face, some fucked up mirage of a dead pretty boy sent here to psychologically torture him to death was crushing down on top of him. Eddie’s throat was closing with grief, he couldn’t swallow anymore and his eyes were burning. His brain was crying out in devastation and his heart was crumbling around him. It hurt, it fucking hurt.

And he was alone.

He was here, all alone.

No one knew where he was.

No one even knew he came here to get away.

He was going to go missing again, presumed dead again…

They might never find him.

And he was struggling to remember a favourite song, any song that had brought him any kind of joy over the last month.

God this was all so fucked.

As the shadow of Steve got closer, Eddie continued to try to back up, to get as far away from the thing his brain was telling him was hunting him. He just ended up slipping against the floor as he kicked his legs out, his breaths were coming in short and sharp, he starting to hyperventilate and shit this really wasn't going well for him.

He curled up into himself, just waiting for the inevitable emotional and physical blows to come crashing down, digging his fingers into his hair and resting his forehead on his knees.

“Ed-”

“Can you just... give me a minute, man?” Eddie sniffled, his voice shaking. “I’m trying to get a handle on a favourite song.”

“I’m not Vecna.” Steve’s soft reply came, his tone of voice understanding.

“Uh-huh.” His knees were starting to get damp and he tried not to think of all the shit Wayne had to suffer through in life by taking a train wreck of a nephew in all those years ago. “Real convincing. Sounds like something Vecna would say, you dickless lump of unseasoned bolognese.”

Silence pressed in around him as he waited for the strike. Something to cut through him physically or emotionally. Rip him limb from limb, pop his eyes, punch a hole in his chest or just plain torture him until he expired.

Instead he heard a muffled exhale, something halting and breathy that almost sounded like-

Eddie looked up incredulous, his hands still clutched into his hair. “Are you laughing? Are you seriously laughing right now?”

Almost against his will, he felt his body start to come down from the panic gripping him.

Because he could see Steve highlighted by the moonlight spilling in the window, his face, his cheeks, his nose, his moles, his eyes, the part of his brain screaming predator quieted, now only whispering rather than shouting. The darkness of Steve’s figure seemed to lessen, no longer terrifying and unknowable, but familiar and comforting. There was no way to describe how he looked other than angelic. Ethereally beautiful in an almost unsettling way that made Eddie think of brightly coloured frogs that secreted poison and venus fly traps sitting motionless and open.

But now that Steve was no longer this looming, threatening presence shrouded in darkness he didn’t feel quite so dangerous anymore. Well, that was a lie. But he didn’t feel quite so dangerous towards Eddie. It was like just looking at him had helped the calm settle over his bones.

Steve shook his head, his hand still covering his mouth trying to quieten the giggles coming through but it was a rapidly losing battle. Eddie’s own mouth was starting to curl up against his will, his disbelief was bubbling into mirth in his chest, threatening to explode forth.

“Stop laughing at me!” Eddie found himself giggling through his words, Steve’s own laughter had become infectious.

Steve exploded, throwing his head back with loud braying cackles that made him sound like a demented witch, listing dangerously to the side before he caught himself.

“I’m not- I’m not laughing at you, Eds. I swear.” He giggled. “You’re just really funny.”

“That’s laughing at me!” Eddie had to hold himself back from swatting at Steve’s leg. While Steve’s laugh filled him with light, made him so warm and alive and bright in the dark room, Eddie still couldn’t shake the feeling that he was still on the wrong side of the predator/prey relationship.

“I wasn’t laughing at you.” Steve sighed away the last of his giggles. “I was laughing at what you said. I told you, you’re funny.”

Steve Harrington thinks I’m funny.

Eddie’s heart rate was starting to pick up again but this time it had nothing to do with fear. Steve’s smile grew fractionally wider, blinking across at him, so warm and bright and full of life.

“I’ve been called many things sweetheart, but funny’s not usually one of them.”

“Well maybe they can’t see what I can see.”

Eddie felt his eyes grow soft and the smile slip from his face while his heart shattered and reformed a million times over. He nudged himself closer, just by a fraction, just enough so he no longer had the safety net of the wall behind him.

He held his hand out to Steve, palm up, who’s look had morphed into confusion and a bit of concern at the change in attitude before he placed his hand palm down in Eddie’s.

Eddie could feel the ridges and wrinkles of his palm, the warmth of his skin, the rhythmic pulse of a heartbeat under his wrist, too slow to be anything human but there and strong.

“Fuck.” Eddie whispered into the air between them. “It's really you, isn’t it?”

Steve tightened his fingers, holding his hand firmly but softly at the same time. “It’s really me.”

Eddie allowed his eyes to roam over Steve’s figure. He was so whole. His neck was all there, not a scar or wound in sight as though he’d never had his throat ripped out by tiny gnashing teeth. His eyes were glittering and thoughtful in the moonlight so much the same as they used to be but there was something different in them too. Their usual hazel-honey colour was present but there was a starling yellow undertone to them that hadn’t been there before. It only flashed occasionally when they caught the light just right. It should never have been visible except to someone who’d spent entirely too long gazing at those eyes and Eddie was exactly that kind of pathetic human to have committed them to memory.

Steve’s cheeks were steadily starting to go pink under his gaze and god he was right here. He was right in front of him with their hands intertwined and it felt so good but it also hurt. It still hurt so much, like he was going to be snatched away at any moment.

Eddie chewed on is lip. “You were dead.”

Steve nodded. “I was.”

“Are you-” Eddie swallowed. “Are you still dead?”

He didn’t feel still dead but what other explanation did they have?

“I don’t know.”

“What do you know?”

Steve shrugged, casting his eyes around as though looking for the answer in his dusty old bedroom. His eyebrows furrowed slightly and he sniffed. Eddie thought he might be smelling the air, but there was no smell here other than dust and that stale scent that often clung to fabric when it was left alone for too long.

Steve’s eyebrows relaxed and a sly smile slowly spread itself over his face. He pulled his hand out of Eddie’s grip to place his elbows on his knees and his hands under his chin like he was a teenage girl ready for gossip before looking Eddie directly in the eye.

“Have you been sleeping in my bed?”

Oh god, it was so creepy. It was so creepy what he’d been doing. Eddie glanced over at the rumpled sheets, a far distance from how the bed had been when he’d first found it, all clean lines and hospital corners which he couldn’t recreate if he tried.

His face was getting hotter and his heart was getting faster and Steve could definitely see his blush if the widening smile was anything to go by. Eddie suddenly felt pinned as prey again but very different than before, trapped under Steve’s fiery stare.

He needed to get his solid footing back, he needed… he needed to chill the fuck out. Get back on track and try not to tackle the man in front of him and pin him down or roll over and beg Steve to rip him apart.

Steve was still staring at him like watching Eddie squirm was the most interesting thing he could be doing, like he could tell exactly what Eddie was thinking, like a cat watching a mouse caught in a trap.

“I have come to a decision.” Eddie announced, with all the false bravado he could muster.

“Oh yeah?” Steve asked, not swayed in the slightest.

“You’re not Vecna.”

“Duh.”

“Okay, smartass.” He grinned. “You’re not Vecna, you’re not as dead as you used to be, but you don’t know if you’re still a little bit dead?”

Steve sat up, running a hand through his perfect hair. God damn it of course it was perfect, it looked so soft. It flopped back down over his forehead making him look even more devastatingly handsome than before. “Yeah, I figured I could use your help with that.”

For some reason that was what made it hit him all at once.

Steve was here.

He was back.

Something was wrong, he wasn’t back the same but it was him.

Eddie wasn’t alone in this anymore.

The Fellowship… things might be able to get better.

Fuck.

It was like he could finally see in colour.

Like he’d been looking at shadows on cave walls his entire life and was now able to go outside.

It was like he was back into himself in an instant, the Eddie who’d been desaturated with trauma and drowning in responsibility was brought back to life.

He had so much energy, he was almost bouncing with it. He had to find out everything. And he had never been the type to be able to put a book down once it got good. He always had to chase until he got answers and those big goddamn eyes were looking back at him, alive.

“What are you?” Eddie was scooting forward until he was well into Steve’s personal space.

“Uh,” Steve’s boyish confidence seemed to leave him all at once, recoiling slightly as Eddie leaned into him, poking his cheeks and examining his eyes up close. He swatted Eddie’s hands away from his hair, but not before Eddie got to feel it. The famous hair, buttery soft and silky and so thick. “I don’t know. I don’t know what I am, I was hoping you might have some idea, you’re the Lore Master or whatever.”

Eddie sat back a little and tilted his head. “I think you mean Dungeon Master but Lore Master is also an objectively cool name so I’ll take it.” It was a really cool title after all. “I assume I'm the first one you've sought out?”

Steve smirked again. "You're very sure of yourself."

Eddie didn't want to say that if Steve had had the misfortune to visit anyone else first it probably would have been a disaster of epic proportions. He didn't want to say that he'd have known about it immediately because he was now the one who was called first whenever someone had a breakdown or some shit went sideways. He didn't want to say that if it had happened that Steve had visited anyone else, the Fellowship could have ended up broken beyond repair. More than it already was.

Instead he just shrugged.

Steve shook his head. “No, Eddie, I don’t want to see them yet. Not until I have this,” he gestured to himself, “figured out.”

“Right.”

“But everyone’s doing okay?” Steve smiled, as though just the memory of them was enough to light up his life. “I’d say you’ve been driving them crazy with your dice game. Everything that had happened must have given you some great ideas? And you’re probably run ragged driving them everywhere, now that I think about it. Probably more than I was with the cracks everywhere. At least you have a night off for sleepovers and that kind of thing, right?”

Eddie looked over at him, Steve had so much hope and joy in his face at the idea that everything was continuing on as normal and Eddie wished he could keep it that way. “No. We haven’t been doing any of those things.”

“Why not?”

God, this was going to be difficult.

“Everyone’s kinda… fucked up.”

“What? Why? Do they need help? What happened?” Tension had taken over Steve's body in a flash, that animalistic danger was radiating off of him again in waves. He looked like a snake coiled to strike.

Eddie held a placating hand out. He really should be scrambling back because the energy Steve was giving off was terrifying but it also wasn’t because it wasn’t directed at him. He just knew, deep down in his soul that Steve, this Steve, would never hurt him. Eddie felt safe, wrapped up in a bedroom, isolated in a house no one knew he was in with an apex predator who could probably snap him in half.

He managed to get a hand on Steve’s sleeve, gently pulling his gaze back to himself. “Sweetheart… you died. That’s what happened.”

Steve’s shoulders slumped in surprise. He looked shocked. “Really? That’s it?”

“That’s it? That’s it? Hell yeah, that’s it! Stevie baby, you fucking died. Don’t tell me you thought they wouldn’t be mourning you?”

“I mean, I knew they would for a little bit but I thought they would have moved on by now.”

“I don’t think you understand how important you are to the group. Everyone was- still is devastated! Jesus, I’m still in mourning and you’re sitting right in front of me!”

“You?”

“Yeah me! You were my god damn lifeline for the worst week of my existence. I’m supposed to just move on from my knight in shining armour who died tragically and selflessly before I could really get to know him? Get real. I was about two seconds away from wearing a black veil to your memorial.”

“I think you should’ve.”

“Probably best that I didn’t.”

They sat and considered each other for a long moment. Eddie catalogued all the information he’d gotten about this Steve so far. He certainly seemed like himself. So he could possibly be some kind of Vecna sleeper agent. He said he needed help with the whole being dead thing. So was he back to life? Undead?

He didn’t look like how he’d expect any undead creature to look. Even in the pale moonlight Eddie could see the healthy glow to Steve’s skin, felt his thick hair, he seemed strong. He could move incredibly fast. When he was unknowable in the shadows he seemed terrifyingly dangerous. Like he radiated fiersome predator energy without meaning to. Even now that instinct to run, get away, escape, hide was still there at the back of Eddie’s mind but it was less scary than it had been and was now more... thrilling.

Though that could have something to do with Eddie’s own fucked up sexual proclivities.

Overall Steve still seemed Lawful Good. Goofy, bitchy, charming, handsome, sexy, gorgeous…

Okay, moving on.

Eddie was pretty sure he was settling on what Steve might be. He wasn’t rotting, he wasn’t non-corporeal, he wasn’t leaking black ichor or trying to eat his brains. There was just one last thing he needed to see to confirm his suspicions.

Time for the plan of attack.

“Let me see your teeth.” Without warning Eddie surged forward, managing to just barely brush Steve’s top lip with his finger before his wrist was caught in a rock solid grip.

“What the hell are you doing?”

“Figuring you out.”

“What does my mouth have to do with it?”

“Your mouth is very important.”

Steve cocked an eyebrow at him, but still held him firm.

Eddie pouted, attempting to play up the dramatics as much as humanly possible. “Stevie!” He whined, shaking the wrist that was still being gripped, allowing his hand to flop around. “You’re no fun.”

“I'm plenty fun, you’re just a menace.”

“I’m not a menace, I’m your Lore Master.” Eddie tried to dip his voice as low as it would go, taking on that rumbling timbre he usually used for his baddies or whenever he needed to reduce someone to liquid in the bedroom.

He felt a grin spread over his face as Steve’s cheeks got a little pinker and his eyelids fluttered just a tad before he schooled his expression back into one of exasperation. Eddie looked over his face again trying to pinpoint why the whole undead thing felt a little… off.

“You know, you look… deceptively normal.”

“Should I not look normal?”

“Well if my suspicions are correct, I would have expected you to look… I don’t know, paler? More dead? Red eyed?” His wrist was still being held prisoner so he leaned forward and stared at Steve wide eyed in a way that usually unsettled people, trying to get him to crack again.

Steve only seemed amused. “What are your suspicions?”

“What are yours? You must have an idea by now.”

“I do but,” Steve huffed and shook his head, “I don’t know if I’d be correct. You guys are the smart ones who know all about this nerd supernatural stuff, I just know what I’ve seen in movies and shit.”

“Okay, well just before I say what I’m thinking I want to check your teeth again.”

“Okay.”

Steve finally released his wrist, allowing Eddie to reach forward and pull his top lip back.

Damn, that was disappointing. They were just normal regular human teeth. Eddie still had a finger on his lip when he just barely caught a mischievous glint in Steve’s eye.

Steve raised his tongue, pressing it against the roof of his mouth and Eddie yelped and snatched his hand back as two short fangs shot down from his gums sliding over his canines.

Steve laughed, his fangs catching a little on his bottom lip. Eddie had apparently left all sense of self preservation behind, throwing himself forward again, practically climbing onto Steve’s lap to get a closer look, grabbing the fangs between his fingers and wiggling them to see how firm they were.

Yep, they were really set in there and they were so short and stubby. There was no way to describe them other than cute.

He angled his head to look up into the roof of Steve’s mouth where his tongue was still pressed, watching in awe as he removed his tongue, his fangs slowly retracting back up into his gums, leaving two small holes in their wake.

“Oh, gross.” Eddie said, fascinated. “Do it again.”

Steve just cocked an eyebrow and angled his head to give him a better view. There was a bump in the roof of his mouth and as Steve pressed against it, slower this time, the two holes in his gums opened wider, his fangs lowering in time with the press of his tongue.

“Looks like some kind of muscle.”

Steve lowered his head and it was only then that Eddie realised how close they were. Their noses nearly touched, Eddie was in his lap, knees on either side of his thighs but Steve didn’t seem to mind, his hands lightly resting on Eddie’s hips.

Maybe don’t try and fuck the apex predator for Christ's sake, he thought to himself but he couldn’t find it in himself to move. He looked down at his own hands and pressed his fingers together.

“My fingers are numb.”

“Yeah, there’s some kind of venom coating the fangs.”

“What? Dude!” He smacked Steve lightly on the chest. “You couldn’t have given me some kind of warning?”

“You didn’t exactly give me a chance, you just kinda…” Steve moved his hand in an arc, “dove in.”

Eddie shrugged before taking a deep breath in. “Well, I believe I have come to my conclusion.”

Steve smiled at him, wide and sharp and enchanting. “Care to share with the class?”

“Maybe.” Eddie tried to put on an over the top performance of being coy, trying to ignore precisely where he was sitting. “What do I get in return?”

Steve’s smile somehow turned sharper. It was hungry and predatory and Eddie’s heart stuttered. “You’ll take what I give you.”

Eddie had to bite down on his cheek and he had to bite damn hard to try to get some control over himself otherwise his heart was going to fly off into the stratosphere. He swallowed around thin air and forced his voice to come out evenly.

“Vampire.”

Steve nodded, squeezing his hips lightly, just once. “I thought so too.”

Part 1 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 AO3

@romanticdestruction, @darkwitchoferie, @justforthedead89

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