#hawkins halfway house for homeless horrors

[trensu]

ETA: now on ao3 as Hawkins Halfway House for Homeless Horrors

ETA2: now with an additional snippet

okay, how's this for an AU

We know that Steve wants to be a dad. Like, his literal life dream is to have a minimum of six children. SIX. who wants that?? crazy people, that's who. but we forgive him his insanity because he's sweet and will actually probably be a really good dad and there's not enough of those in the world.

the downer is that it's the late 90s, he's a (still) single guy in his thirties, and every adoption agency on the planet would rather give their children to a heteronormative couple who don't even want kids than to a single dude who would dedicate his heart and soul to giving his kids a happy healthy home.

He's bemoaning his fate to Robin at a bar they recently discovered. It's a weird little joint, kinda tucked away on the outskirts where Steve could've sworn didn't exist just last week. The patrons were kinda weird too but neither he or Robin could put their finger on why or how. If Steve had been a little less miserable, and Robin a little less caught up in comforting him, they might've noticed how everyone else in the bar kept sneaking curious glances at them or how they somehow always kept most of their features hidden.

They didn't though. Even when they were interrupted by a handsome black gentleman who called himself Jeff. Jeff said that he couldn't help but overhear their dilemma and that he's actually part of an agency that is more open minded about potential foster or adoptive parents. Steve's a little deeper in his cups than he intended, and doesn't question that some random guy in a bar is offering him a chance of having children. Robin is not as far in her cups and finds it a bit suspicious.

She was going to say something about it but Jeff looked her in the eye and said, "Everything is fine. There's no reason to worry. I'm only trying to help."

"You're only trying to help," Robin murmured back blearily. "Everything is fine. Yeah. Yeah, 'm not worried."

Jeff gives Steve his card and tells him he can stop by the very next day if he'd like, since his schedule is open.

The next day, Steve is regretting having gotten so drunk. Not really because of the hangover (though holy shit, he is NOT twenty anymore he needs to stop drinking like one). No. It's because Jeff had just finished giving him a tour of the facility full of rambunctious children in need of a home.

Actually, that had been pretty okay even if the other adults in the facility startled at the sight of him and the children kept ducking into other rooms to hide from him.

No. It's because Jeff had just introduced him to a child named Dustin who sneezed unexpectedly and somehow turned into a kitten.

"Um," Steve said. Jeff sighed.

"Dustin hasn't gotten back control over his shapeshifting since his mother's passing, but I assure you he's been improving."

"...shapeshifting," Steve said, numbly.

"Yes. Dustin tends to go for cat shapes, like his mother did." Jeff bends down to pick up the loudly mewing tabby kitten. "We've managed to get him to shift mostly into a domestic shorthair, rather than a cougar cub."

"That's great," Steve squeaked as he tried to tamp down the growing hysteria in him. "Really, really great. Y'know what, Jeff, this whole thing's been great but I think I'm still kind of drunk so I'm just gonna go--"

"No, wait," Jeff says, quickly placing the Dustin kitten on his shoulder before reaching out to grab Steve by the elbow. "Please. Look, you seem like a good guy. I did a quick scan of you and everything, and I really think if you'd take a moment to sit down and--"

"JEFFORD BILLANY JONES."

Jeff's shoulders hunched, nearly dislodging Dustin from his shoulder. He sighed again and turned to face the man storming towards him and Steve.

"Eddy, you know none of that is my name."

"I'll call you whatever I want since for some unfathomable reason, you've brought a human into my sanctuary. Why is there a human in my home, Jeffamy."

"Eddy, let me explain."

"It's Eddie in front of the human," Eddie said.

Steve's brain was experiencing some sort of malfunction because Jeff had been calling this man Eddie, except if he concentrated, the way Jeff said Eddie and the way Eddie had said Eddie sounded very very different except it hadn't because they both sounded like Eddie except for how Jeff's Eddie sounded different from, the same as, different, just like--

A pair of ringed fingers snapped aggressively in front of his face, startling Steve from an impending aneurysm.

"You. Who are you, who sent you, what do you want."

Steve stuttered something incoherent. He's pretty sure he's had a mental break from reality. There was some sort of sentient black sludge creeping across the tiled floor, wrapping a tendril around Jeff's leg.

"What is that?" Steve squawked. Jeff beamed at him.

"Oh, this is El! She's a Monster Under the Bed. She hasn't decided on a form yet, but that's okay, we love her just as she is."

"Jeff," Eddie snapped. Jeff looked at Eddie stubbornly.

"You told me we needed all hands on deck."

"How dare you, I'd never stoop to using boat metaphors."

"Don't distract me with blatant lies. Eddy, you said we needed help. You said you'd take anyone at this point."

Steve has not been able to stop staring at the sludge creature (El?). He's beginning to realize that he can't quite remember what Jeff looked like, or any of the adults they had seen. He's noticing that some of the children that have been scampering about had looked off. Like the boy with the bowl-cut they had passed by earlier who had looked...frosty around the edges. Or the girl he thought had had red feathers in her hair but is now suspecting the feathers were something more than decorative.

Ringed fingers snap in front of his face again. Steve finally focused on the man named Eddie who was actually named Eddie which was different from Eddie somehow. Now that he's able to shove away the confusion that is this man's name, he's struck by the fact that Eddie was quite possibly the most gorgeous man Steve's ever seen. He had wide, dark eyes that made Steve think of seabeds in the deepest of waters. His hair was a riot of dark brown curls that for some reason brought to mind swirling schools of fish.

"Answer my questions," Eddie demanded. Steve blinked and, with some difficulty, remembered the previous interrogation.

"Uh, I'm Steve. Jeff invited me because I want to be a dad."

Eddie barked out a laugh.

"Oh, is that right? In that case, welcome to Hawkins' Halfway House for Homeless Horrors! I'm sure Jeff would love to finish introducing you to the rest of our children. Have you met Mike? He's a ghoul! Or Lucas! He's a werewolf and his dream is to become a basketball star. They both have very sharp teeth so watch out for their tantrums."

Jeff scowls at Eddie before turning back to Steve. Steve was starting to feel faint and he was no longer sure if he regretted drinking the night before or regretted not drinking more.

"Steve, it's okay. Eddy is making it sound scarier than it actually is. You said you wanted to be a dad, and we need foster parents that can help these kids learn how to blend in with humans. That's what the halfway house is for, but there's only so much they can learn while living in sanctuary. We need a way to have them experience the human world more directly while still keeping them safe, and I think you're the solution we've been looking for. What do you think?"

"I think I need to sit down," Steve said thinly. Eddie snorted derisively. Steve was slightly offended but honestly everything was a bit too much right now and he really would like to sit down for a moment just to process. Because monsters are real, apparently, and some of them need parents. Which was terrifying to think about but also not so much? Because all kids were little monsters some of the time right? If Steve could have a moment to get his bearings...

"This was a terrible idea, Jeffathan."

"I think it was a great idea, actually. I really think this could work."

"No. I forbid it. Don't do this again."

Then there was a sweet and beautiful humming. It made the edges of Steve's mind go fuzzy and soft. He blinked slowly and looked for the source of the sound. Eddie stared at him intently and when he spoke, his voice was like music.

"Steve," Eddie said. "Steve, do you want to make me happy?"

Steve nodded dumbly. He wanted that more than anything in the whole world. He wanted to make Eddie smile. He wanted Eddie to never stop singing.

"It would make me very happy if you went home and forgot everything you saw here today," Eddie continued.

Steve made a sad sound. He didn't want to forget. He didn't want to forget beautiful, gorgeous Eddie and this place that could make his dream come true.

"Please, Steve," Eddie's lyrical voice took on an aching mournful tone. "If you don't, you'll break my heart. I'll never be happy again."

The sadness in the song made Steve feel like the world was ending. Eddie couldn't be sad! Steve would rather die than make Eddie sad!

"I forget," Steve mumbled through the fog in his mind. "And you'll be happy?"

"So happy. I'd be the happiest man alive if you do that one little thing for me, my sweet Steve."

Steve nods again. "Okay."

"Good boy," Eddie croons. Steve felt like he swallowed the sun at those words. He followed Eddie as Eddie guided him through the halfway house. Eddie hummed his lovely song the entire way.

"Go home and forget," Eddie sang one last time as he helped Steve get behind the wheel of his car.

"Yeah," Steve replied dreamily and drove away.

--

The telephone rang shrilly through his apartment. Steve stumbled out of bed and picked up, only fumbling it a little bit.

"H'llo?"

"Steve, what the hell, I've been trying to get a hold of you all day! Where have you been?" Robin's voice rang out, making Steve flinch. He scrubbed his free hand over his face tiredly.

"Home? I just woke up," Steve said. It was weird that he was fully dressed, he thought dazedly, but it wouldn't be the first time he's passed out drunk in his street clothes. Was he wearing this shirt yesterday? He could've sworn he'd worn the navy one.

"What? Just now? It's like five in the evening!"

"Huh. That'd explain the weird dream," Steve mumbled.

"Was it the one where you get seduced by a giant squid? Because I don't need to know more about your weird tentacle fetish."

"I don't have a tentacle fetish! I had the dream ONE time, and I wasn't being seduced, I was getting drowned and it was terrifying!"

"To-may-to, to-mah-to."

"Whatever, this one was weirder anyway."

"I find that hard to believe but now I'm morbidly curious. Hit me with it."

"...I don't remember."

"There goes my entertainment for the evening."

"Was there a reason you called, Robin?"

"Yes! I met this girl named Chrissy and I swear Steve, she's the most beautiful woman I've ever seen..."

Beautiful. Steve had the faint impression of dark eyes and silver rings, but it was quickly washed away like a child's sandcastle in the tide under the onslaught of Robin's ramblings. As he listened to his best friend, he couldn't help but feel there was something he'd forgotten. There was something he'd been planning on doing today, wasn't there...?

...oh, well. If it was really important, he'd remember eventually.

#stranger things #steddie #steve harrington #eddie munson #trensu tells stories #jeff doesn't understand why eddie hates humans so much #the man who raised eddie was human after all and eddie loved him #eddie: uncle wayne is a god among men how dare you compare him to a human #jeff: well i think uncle wayne would've liked steve and he'd totally agree that my idea was awesome #eddie: BLASPHEMY #jeff sighs the sigh of someone who has unfortunately grown used to the nonsensical dramatics of sirens #look guys i just want steve to adopt a horde of monster children #and for eddie to slowly fall in love with single dad steve #is that too much to ask for? #hawkins halfway house for homeless horrors

[ao3feed-steve-eddie]

by Trensu

Steve wanted to be a dad more than anything. Unfortunately, he was a single dude in his thirties which meant no adoption agency in the world was willing to give him a chance. Or at least no human adoption agency.

Words: 2103, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Fandoms: Stranger Things (TV 2016)

Rating: General Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: M/M

Characters: Steve Harrington, Eddie Munson, Robin Buckley, Jeff (Stranger Things)

Relationships: Steve Harrington/Eddie Munson, Robin Buckley & Steve Harrington, Robin Buckley/Chrissy Cunningham

Additional Tags: Pre-Slash, Kid Fic, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Originally Posted on Tumblr, steve harrington wants to be a dad, Siren Eddie Munson

#IFTTT #ao3feed #fanfic #steddie #steve x eddie #steve harrington #eddie munson #stranger things #ste

[trensu]

I set myself a goal to have this fic finished and postedon ao3 by Halloween. As you can tell, I have failed miserably since it's neither finished or posted. In my defense, my hands were in much more pain than usual for most of October and so far November's not looking so great either.

Still, I feel kind of shitty about missing my goal, so I decided to post the first couple of scenes here. This fic is part of the Hawkins Halfway House series and we'll be meeting Billy in it. Enjoy!

Eddie was enjoying a quiet, little Horrors-free day with House. He’d dropped off Max and the Sinclair siblings with Steve in the morning since they hadn’t been able to hang out with Dustin and El for longer than any of the little Horrors deemed acceptable. El had been living with Steve for about a year now, and Dustin nearly twice that long. The transition hadn’t been as painful as expected but the kids were not used to being apart from each other, so an arrangement was reached that every other weekend, the kids could spend the night together either at House or at Junior.

This weekend, the kids had opted to stay at Junior with Steve. Depending on how things went, they might stay longer seeing as the kids were on some extended human holiday weekend as of the night before. If that happened, then Eddie planned on having some slow lazy mornings. However, it was now past lunchtime and he really needed to restock their stores of red meat, thanks to the pair of werewolf cubs in his care. He had very quickly become the local butcher’s favorite customer because of them.

Eddie had just about convinced himself to get going and be a responsible adult when the phone rang. Eddie made his way over to where House decided to keep the phone hooked up this week. He leaned against the wall, already fiddling with the phone cord, as he answered.

“Hawkins Halfway–”

“EDDIE,” Dustin screeched over the phone. “You have to come over right now. Steve is DYING.”

“What?” Eddie asked, bolting upright from where he had slouched. He heard the voices of the other kids over the line.

“He is bleeding. Blood should stay inside humans,” El said seriously.

“Bleeding? Where? What happened?” Eddie asked, resting the phone between his shoulder and ear to free up his hands. He got a bit tangled in the cord in his hurried searching of his pockets for his keys.

“Guys,” Steve’s voice broke through. “Guys, I’m fine. Oh god, Dustin, who are you calling? What did I say about using the phone? Junior, what did I tell you about letting the kids use the phone?”

“This IS an emergency!” Dustin protested, loudly.

“There’s so much blood,” Lucas could be heard in the background. “It’s like that time I ate a rabbit just before the moon set.”

“See, Eddie? HE’S DYING!” Dustin shouted directly into the receiver.

“You called Eddie? Dustin, give me the phone,” Steve said. After a brief scuffle, and what sounded like the handset being dropped to the ground only to get hastily picked up, Steve was speaking directly. His voice sounded funny. “Eddie, hi!”

“What happened? Dustin thinks you’re dying,” Eddie said.

“I’m fine! Nobody’s dying,” Steve said. Then, presumably to the kids, “Give me some room, I don’t want to drip on any of you.”

“Steve, are you bleeding?” Eddie asked, his worry mixing with irritation.

“Yeah, but I’m okay. It’s a bloody nose,” Steve said, which explained why he sounded weird.

“And a bloody mouth,” Lucas added.

“His eye’s busted up, too!” Erica said loud enough for Eddie to hear.

“Yes, thank you for that,” Steve said to the kids in that bitchy tone Eddie secretly enjoyed hearing. “Go watch some TV while I talk to Eddie. I promise I won’t fall over dead.”

“I’m coming over,” Eddie decided out loud.

“You don’t have to, honestly, the kids are freaking out over nothing,” Steve insisted.

“You’re due for a home inspection anyway. See you in ten.”

Eddie hung up before Steve could protest.

–

Eddie didn’t have a chance to knock on the door before it slammed open and he was swarmed by the kids.

“He’s in the kitchen,” Lucas told him.

“We couldn’t remember how much blood humans are supposed to keep inside,” El said.

“Yeah, so Dustin freaked out,” Erica snorted derisively.

Dustin started to argue that his concern was legitimate, but Eddie pushed past all of them to get to the kitchen. There, Eddie nearly swallowed his tongue because Steve was indeed in the kitchen. Shirtless. And bent over the sink. The steam rising from the running water dampened his chest hair and made his skin dewy. The muscles in Steve’s arms flexed distractingly as he scrubbed almost violently at a bloodied shirt.

Eddie didn’t have much time to enjoy the view because as soon as he finished processing the vision, he caught sight of Steve’s face. He immediately understood why the children panicked. Steve’s face was a mess. Steve had done his best to clean up most of the blood, but his nostrils were still rimmed with some, and the split lip started to bleed again when Steve looked up at Eddie. The skin around his eye was puffy and bruised.

“It looks worse than it is,” Steve said immediately. “No concussion!”

Eddie covered the distance in a few long strides. He reflexively reached out to touch Steve’s face, then pulled back when he realized what he’d been about to do. Eddie had been adamantly ignoring the small crush he was harboring for his kids’ foster parent. Unfortunately, it meant he had to forcibly ignore opportunities to touch Steve as much as possible. In this case, it resulted in Eddie fluttering his hands uselessly around Steve.

“What happened?”

“First, you should know that I handled it and I was already planning on calling you to give you a rundown of the situation. I wanted to clean myself up a bit before calling but that didn’t go as planned, obviously.”

“Steve.”

“I’m fine, really. I’m more worried about Max.” At Steve’s words, Eddie’s whole body tensed.

“What happened to Max?” Eddie asked before it occurred to him, “She wasn’t with the other kids. Where is she?”

“She ran to her room as soon as we got home. She’s kind of shaken up. I haven’t had the chance to talk to her about what happened because the others saw me and were freaking out the whole ride home.”

“I can talk to her,” Eddie said immediately. Steve nodded as if he hadn’t expected anything different, and began to explain what happened.

“I took the kids to the park nearby to burn off some energy before dinner,” Steve said. “Max stayed in the parking lot because she wanted to practice using her skateboard.”

While Steve spoke, Eddie maneuvered himself around the familiar kitchen. He grabbed a clean kitchen towel and dug out an icepack from the freezer. After wrapping it up, he handed it to Steve, who delicately placed it over his eye.

Steve continued to explain how he made sure he settled in a spot that would give him a good view of both the parking lot and the playground. Everything had been going well. All the kids were having fun, although Max had tumbled a couple of times while trying to find her balance on the skateboard. Then Steve had been distracted.

Erica had gotten a bit too into a game of chase. She had started to get a little wolfy around the edges. Lucas had immediately shielded her from view by throwing his hoodie at her face. Steve guided her a farther away from the playground to somewhere more quiet and secluded to give her a moment to calm down. Once she had collected herself, she and Steve rejoined everyone at the playground. Steve had given the playground a quick lookover to make sure everyone was still accounted for, but when he’d looked for Max over at the parking lot, a man was with her.

Steve had been too far away to hear what the man was saying, but the man was way too close to her. Max had frozen in place. If the unknown man approaching her hadn’t been alarming enough, seeing her freeze like that set off all sorts of bells. While Max wasn’t Steve’s foster kid, he knew her well enough by now to know that, when cornered, Max's first instinct was to fight, not flee or freeze.

“I ran over there as soon as I saw what was happening,” Steve told Eddie, as if Eddie would ever doubt him. Steve had a protective streak to rival a werewolf. “By the time I got to them, he had grabbed her by the arm.”

Steve had shoved the man away from her the moment he had gotten within reach. From there it had devolved into a fistfight that left Steve in his current state. Thankfully the other kids were too wrapped up in their playground games to realize what was happening at the time but one of the other parents at the playground had seen and used the nearby payphone to call the police. The cops showed up to break up the fight. As far as Steve was aware, the man who had grabbed Max was taken away by the cops. They took some statements from witnesses, but Steve, to Eddie’s utter lack of surprise, insisted on going home with his kids rather than going down to the station.

Eddie was grateful for that. He had seen how cops treat people they consider less than human, even when they didn't have an ounce of supernatural blood in them. Little Horrors in distress were not always great at keeping their human faces on.

Once Steve finished updating Eddie, he went to reassure the other kids while Eddie made his way to see Max. Eddie had barely stepped into the guest room Junior had made for Max before Max shot to her feet. She was very pale, made even more apparent by the dark red feathers that had sprouted through her hair and along her face. Her hands were rough and clawed.

“He found me,” Max said. “Billy found me. He tried to take me away.”

Eddie swore under his breath. It was just as he had suspected. He didn't think the cops would hold Billy for very long. He had to start planning a defense but first, he wanted to comfort Max, offer some reassurance. He stepped closer to her but slowed his movements at Max’s flinch. Instead, he redirected and leaned against the dresser close to Max. Her jaw was tense. She crossed her arms, clutching at her elbows.

“But he didn’t,” Eddie said firmly. “You’re still here. Steve stopped him and you’re safe.”

Max’s breath hitched.

“Is…is Steve mad at me?” Her claws dug into fabric at the elbows of her hoodie, nervously shredding it. “I have my backpack in the closet. I can leave. If he’s mad.”

“What? No, no, no, Max, Steve’s not mad at you. He’s worried, but he’d never get mad at you for something like this.”

Her voice dropped to a shamed whisper.

“But Billy hurt him so bad. He broke Steve’s face,” her breath hitched again, but she had yet to break into tears. It hurt Eddie to see her try so hard to keep it together. “It's all my fault, he’s going to be so mad.”

“Max Mayfield, listen to me,” Eddie said fiercely. “None of this is your fault. This is all on that hunter. Steve doesn’t blame you and he’s not mad at you.”

She gnawed at her lip, eyes cast down. She didn't believe him, he could tell.

"Billy's going to come back. He’ll hurt Steve again," Max said.

"If that happens, and I'm not saying it will!" Eddie said. Though he knew she was right about Billy. Billy was a stubborn, possessive, and angry man. "But if it does, it still wouldn't be your fault. He's a grown up making his own awful decisions, okay?"

"Okay," she said despondently, though she no longer sounded like she would break into tears.

"I need to let Steve know what to expect but he'll probably come up here after to check on you if you're okay with it."

Max nodded jerkily, not looking at him. Eddie suppressed a sigh. Max had been making so much progress, opening herself up more to others and getting attached to things that interested her. If Eddie hadn’t hated Billy already, the sight Max retreating into herself again because of his reappearance would’ve done it.

"Do you want to be alone? Or do you want some of your friends up here with you?" Eddie asked.

Max shrugged. Eddie glanced over at the unmade bed. The underneath looked darker than it probably should be. He smiled tentatively at Max.

"I think El is already under the bed, so if you want to be alone…"

An oozing black tendril squirmed out from underneath the bed to wrap gently around Max's ankle. Some of the stress that pinched Max’s expression eased at the touch. She easily dropped to the ground and scooched into the cramped space beneath the bed.

“You are safe, Max,” El’s voice hissed from the dark space.

Eddie left the room and closed the door quietly behind him. It was time to fill Steve in on some things he had hoped would never come up.

#trensu tells stories #hawkins halfway house for homeless horrors #i wanna say I'm about halfway done with the fic #but since my job has me typing 8hrs a day 5 days a week #ive stopped typing at all when off the clock in the hopes that the brief respite will give my hands some time to recover #they haven't hurt this bad in a LONG time and idk what's triggered it #but as soon as im physically able ill writing finish this fic and post it on ao3 #stranger things #steddie #hhh: tradition

[trensu]

This is a completed one shot I plan to post on ao3 eventually. (Okay I just don't want it on ao3 before I post the one other one I've been working on). It's a bit of backstory for Wayne and Eddie in the Hawkins Halfway House au. Enjoy!

Wayne sat in his small boat, lazily gripping a fishing pole. The coast was barely visible on the horizon, and his boat was the only one around for miles. His cooler already had his catch of the day to take back to the ramshackle cabin he was staying at during his fishing trip. Now he fished to relax.

He was almost drowsing when he heard the quavering voice. It startled him to alertness. Wayne was alone, too far from any other living thing to hear any voice other than his own and the occasional squawking of water birds. Yet, he could hear it.

Someone was singing. The voice, light and soft, barely floated above the sound of lapping water. Wayne couldn’t make out the words of the song but the tune was almost familiar. It would sound sweet, but the voice was unpracticed, fading in and out, sometimes picking up speed and other times slowing almost to a stop.

Regardless, something about it invited proximity. Unthinkingly, Wayne got to his feet to try to pin down the voice. Thankfully his boat was a modest size, only big enough for a group of four and space for their catch. It was only a couple of yards to the front of the boat, and the voice got louder the closer he got.

He leaned over the rail to see where the voice was coming from and there, a few feet away, a little head bobbed above the water. Dark, tangled curls framed large dark eyes, and floated in the water around it. It was a child.

“What on earth,” Wayne murmured to himself. There couldn’t be a kid here so far from shore and any other boats, without a single floating device in sight. The kid couldn’t be older than three or four years old, how long had they been treading water?

Wayne could feel worry start to build in him but it was dampened as the kid swam closer, making the clumsy song louder. The words of the song were mumbly and slurred together. He didn’t know what the kid was singing but as he listened he knew, suddenly, that the kid was starving.

He felt the hunger like it was his own. The child was so hungry, won’t he feed them? Didn’t he want to fill their belly? Please, please, he would feel so much better if he fed them.

The kid was in his boat now. Their skin was pale, almost iridescent, and their hair tumbled past their shoulders. Their body was small and worryingly thin. It didn’t occur to Wayne to question the child’s nudity and sexlessness aside from the vague concern that perhaps the child was cold. Even that faded to nothing because he knew the kid was hungry, so hungry.

Throughout it all, the child’s voice tripped and meandered through the song. Every now and then, alarm would surface in Wayne’s mind but the child would stumble back into rhythm and the worry faded. Wayne at some point had sat placidly in a vacant seat while he watched the child half walk, half crawl towards him.

The child got to him, tiny hands reaching towards him, and Wayne thought maybe he should pick them up. The calm shattered when the child opened his mouth wider than any human child should be able to, revealing rows of pointed, serrated teeth, and bit down on the closest part of Wayne they could reach. The song dropped abruptly, and Wayne screamed.

The teeth sunk into the thick leather of Wayne’s boot, the points of them barely deep enough to prick at the thin skin of his ankle. Instinctively, Wayne kicked out hard. The child was sent clear to the other end of the boat, banging up against the railing.

The child wailed in pain but it didn’t sound human. It was a piercing, shrill whistle mixed with a strange low moan and intermittent clicks. Wayne scrambled back, falling off the seat and smacking his elbow against his cooler. The lid popped open and icy water sloshed over, soaking his sleeve.

The child oriented themself and started crawling awkwardly, quickly, towards him, hungry, hungry, hungry. In a panic, Wayne plunged his hand into the cooler, grabbed one of the fish and flung it at the child. The fish slipped and flopped across the floor. The second it was in reach, the child snatched it up with a triumphant squeal and tore into its belly.

Wayne watched, stunned, as the child ate the whole damn thing, not a single scrap left behind. The child looked up at him with those huge dark eyes, face and hands smeared with fish guts. Wayne’s heart hammered in his chest as the child tried to crawl towards him again. He threw them another fish, and then a third.

By the time the kid finished the third fish, their eyes had gone heavy lidded and a pleased, clicking hum permeated the air. Wayne didn’t give himself a moment to think. He dove forward, scooped the child up, and flung it overboard. The child shrieked but Wayne didn’t care. He started the boat’s engine and sped off towards the coast.

What the fucking hell was that?

–

By the next morning, Wayne convinced himself it had been a nightmare. He’d fallen asleep while fishing and had a horrible nightmare. He didn’t look at the boots he wore yesterday. He decided today he was wearing his spare boots.

Wayne spent hours on his boat, filling up his cooler again with fish of varying sizes. He had started to relax when he heard the trembling singing again. He immediately scanned the water and there, a few yards away, bobbed a little head above the water.

A part of Wayne panicked, but it was small and hard to hear over the stumbling notes of the song. The child swam closer and the song got more audible over the sound of water. The child was hungry again, Wayne could feel it, but it wasn’t the ravenous, hollow bellied hunger from yesterday. Wayne watched the child dig their tiny claws to the side of the boat and climbed in.

Wayne grabbed a fish from the cooler almost before the child flopped on deck. The child snatched the fish thrown at him and giddily bit into it. The song stopped again but by then, the panic Wayne felt lost its mindlessness and became more fearful caution.

He threw the child two more fish and took their distraction to look them over more carefully than he had been able to yesterday. The child’s skin looked human for the most part, aside from the faint iridescence. However, the skin took on a scalier appearance along the child’s calves and forearms, where slight protrusions extended like the fins of a bony fish. There was a smattering of scales along the child’s rib cage, but heavy around the three slits they had on each side.

The child finished the third fish and scrambled over the side of the boat. There was barely a plop in the water. The kid swam fast but they only swam as far as to keep themself out of reach. Then it bobbed in the water watching Wayne, unblinkingly.

Wayne decided to call it a day, and started up his boat.

–

Wayne’s annual fishing trips were two weeks long. He always stayed at an abandoned cabin along the coast of Lake Michigan. Wayne saved his time off every year for this vacation. It wasn’t difficult to do, since Wayne had no family of his own to tend to and he rarely got sick.

Wayne never dwelled on it as he went about his daily routines, but when he was out here on a fishing trip, the loneliness sometimes crept in, uninvited. His parents had passed on years ago and he had no siblings to speak of. His childhood was such that he never had much opportunity to develop any intimate friendships. By the time he reached adulthood, he really never learned how to go about creating said friendships.

He was kind, polite, and quiet. Nobody ever had a single bad thing to say about him, but neither did they ever try to connect beyond the standard pleasantries. It didn’t necessarily bother Wayne; loneliness had lost its sting ages ago, and now carried a gentle familiarity when it visited unexpectedly.

However, Wayne knew that loneliness could do strange things to the mind. He wondered for a while if perhaps he had simply gone crazy. One look at his boots from that first encounter convinced him that it was very real.

–

By the fifth day, the child no longer sang. They also stopped running (swimming?) away right after eating. They stayed in the boat with Wayne for an hour or two. They would watch Wayne unwaveringly. It unnerved Wayne a bit, so to distract them both, he started talking to the kid.

It started with him verbalizing mundane observations (‘sun’s pretty hot today’), to simple recalls (‘last year, I caught a fish as big as you’), to more involved stories (‘the day I was drafted was the worst day of my life, I honestly don’t know how I’ve made it this far in life to meet you’). The child watched him throughout it all. Sometimes Wayne caught them mouthing along as he spoke.

By the eighth day, the child had pinned themself to Wayne’s side. They curled their scaly arms around Wayne’s leg, rubbing their forehead against Wayne’s knee with a happy, clicking hum as Wayne fished. Wayne had taken to giving the child his flannel to wear during their visits, for his own comfort rather than the child’s. The child appeared unbothered by their nudity. The clothing baffled them but they kept it on when Wayne wrapped them up in it.

That evening, Wayne tied his boat to the dock as usual. He gathered up his things and made his way to shore. As he walked, he heard the distinct sound of claws scrabbling wood. When he turned, he caught the child climbing up the wooden pole on the dock. The child pulled themself onto the wet planks of the dock and froze when they saw Wayne.

They stayed that way until Wayne started back towards the shore. He heard small wet footsteps behind him. He peeked over the shoulder to see the child following him. The child once again froze in place. After a moment, Wayne shifted his hold on his things to free up a hand.

“Well? Come on,” Wayne said, arm outstretched. The child beamed, shark teeth on display as his eyes crinkled with joy. The child tugged at the flannel Wayne had tied around his waist, and clumsily put it on before tucking their little hand in Wayne’s.

He gave the kid some more fish for dinner (‘fish!’ the child said, one of the few words they could actually speak) and made them a bed on the lone, lumpy couch in the cabin. The kid let themself be tucked in, though they were plainly confused about the whole thing. When Wayne woke in the middle of the night to use the bathroom, he had a small, heavily sleeping child plastered to his side, little claws hooked in his sleep shirt.

This continued for a few more days. Throughout them, Wayne soaked in the feeling of finally, finally not being alone in the world. The child listened to all his stories, and attempted to tell him stories of their own. They would find things in the water and show the items to Wayne, chattering excitedly. They had started to pick up some of the words Wayne taught them.

It was such a fulfilling time that Wayne began to worry, because his vacation was almost up. They only had three more days left together before he had to leave. The worry twisted his stomach and tightened his throat as the child sat across the rickety card table eating another fish for breakfast.

Wayne decided not to think about it.

–

Leaving the child at the lake on his last night broke his heart. He yelled at them when they tried to follow him on the dock. The child looked so confused. They whistled at him sadly, not even trying for words. Wayne stormed away before his will left him.

He couldn’t say the song woke him because never actually fell asleep. One minute he was tossing in bed and the next a strong, overpowering song flooded his senses and dragged him to the dock wearing only his pajamas.

At the dock, he sat on the damp wood, legs dangling over the edge. In the water there was a person, the most beautiful person he'd ever seen, with long flowing hair and delicate bone structure. Wayne wanted to get closer, needed to be nearer.

The song gentled until it came to a natural end. Wayne’s senses slowly returned to him. Then Wayne saw rows and rows of serrated teeth and impossibly round, large eyes. The person had no nose and their hair looked like seaweed. Not a person. A creature.

Before fear could overwhelm him, he heard excited, happy whistles and clicks. There, not too far from the creature, was the child. They watched the creature with an adoring expression.

“It told me you fed it,” the creature said. The child edged closer to the creature but the creature ignored them.

“Excuse me?” Wayne said.

“The abomination,” the creature said, tilting their head to where the child floated but didn't actually acknowledge them even as they creeped a little closer. “You should’ve let it starve.”

“Did you,” Wayne said as it dawned on him. “Did you abandon them here?”

“It cannot go into deeper waters,” the creature shrugged.

“Is this your kid?”

“I do not know what that–oh, I see. I am technically one of its progenitors, yes,” the creature said coolly. “It is not meant to exist. It is the product of trickery and fertility magic.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“A human wanted to keep me,” the creature said. “The human used some sort of power to create this thing, thinking to tie me to land like a selkie with its coat. The tie didn’t take and now there is this thing in the world. It is a mix of human and siren and it should not exist.”

The child kept swimming closer to the creature, making small entreating chirps. The creature finally acknowledged the child only to eye them dispassionately. When they got too close, the siren pushed them back. The child pouted and drifted at a distance for a while before attempting to get close again.

“I attempted to care for it. Siren offspring are rare. I did not want one to go to waste,” the siren said. “But sirens are hatched nearly full grown. This one is…it should still be gestating in its egg, were it a true siren. It can barely sing. It cannot dive deep. The abomination is hardly functional.”

“So you left them to die?” Wayne asked, aghast. The siren tilted their head.

“I left it. Whether it died or not would be decided by its own actions. The Lakes have little tolerance for the weak.”

The child got close enough again, without the creature noticing. They wrapped their tiny arms around the siren with a sweet smile. The siren reacted violently. With a shrill, angry whistle it grabbed the child by the hair and yanked them off. The child shrieked as the siren sent it spinning in the water.

“What are you doing?” Wayne yelled at the siren. “They just want to be held!”

“I am not prey to be held and drowned,” the siren hissed. The siren bared its teeth at the whimpering child. “Sirens know better than to get close to things larger than them, unless they want to be eaten."

The child’s pitiful sounds made Wayne’s heart ache. The siren, on the other hand, seemed completely unmoved. If the siren cared so little, it made no sense that it was here.

"If you just left it to die, why come back?" Wayne asked coldly.

"I thought I'd be collecting a corpse. I did not want to risk polluting the water with its unnatural state."

Wayne leaned over the side of the dock stretching out his arm and coaxing the child back. The child looked torn. They kept inching towards the siren then squirming towards Wayne when the siren chittered warningly at them. Eventually, the child made their way to Wayne. They reached up to him making little needy clicks. Wayne pulled them from the water and held them close, ignoring how soggy his pajamas with the water dripping from the kid. The siren watched all this blankly. Wayne smoothed down the kid’s hair in an attempt to soothe some of their distress.

“Are you claiming it?” the siren asked.

“What?”

“Are you keeping the abomination?”

“Does it matter?” Wayne asked irritably. “Why do you care?”

“I want to know whether I need to return to retrieve a body later or not,” the siren replied simply.

The kid had burrowed themself into Wayne’s chest. Their little claws caught on the threads of his pajamas as they sang to themself. The song was different from the one Wayne heard from him those first few days. It was sad. Lonely. They seemed to understand that the siren did not intend to stay.

“Well, I ain’t abandoning them,” Wayne said gruffly. “Did you at least give them a name?”

The siren made a sound Wayne couldn’t hope to decipher. At Wayne’s blank stare, the creature seemed amused for the first time.

“I do not know if there’s a human word for it. In our tongue, it means to go against a current or perhaps in a circle. A foolish and dangerous endeavor depending on circumstances.”

Like a whirlpool, Wayne thought, or an…

“Eddie,” Wayne said.

“If you’d prefer,” the siren said. It watched the two of them for a moment, bemused. “If it survives to maturity, you’re welcome to return it to the Lakes.”

“Awfully kind of you to offer,” Wayne said flatly with absolutely no intention of letting go of Eddie any time soon. The siren tilted its head.

“If you say so,” it said. Then it sank in the water with barely a ripple and was gone. Eddie squirmed in his arms and let out a little mournful cry as they tried to get to the water.

“Hush now,” Wayne said softly. “I won’t leave you alone. You’re coming home with me. What do you think of that, Eddie?”

Eddie blinked their big dark eyes at him. Their face broke into a big, toothy smile that two weeks ago would’ve scared the living daylights out of Wayne. Now, in the moonlight, surrounded by the cool waters of Lake Michigan, Wayne found it kind of cute.

#stranger things #eddie munson #wayne munson #sirens #im gonna tag this with #child abuse #just in case #i dont really count what happens as that because it's between supernatural creatures #and i dont think they have the same views or morals as humans? #trensu tells stories #hawkins halfway house for homeless horrors

[trensu]

the last chapter of hawkins halfway house is up!! thanks to everyone who read it and commented!! here it is on ao3 if you prefer. enjoy!

Steve pulled into a long driveway hesitantly, driving past the large tree with the rickety basketball hoop attached. He wasn’t entirely certain this was the Munsons’ house. He’d had a hell of a time finding it, firstly. He'd driven in circles for a while there. He’d nearly given up finding it, but every time he thought of quitting, something spurred him on instead. Secondly, he couldn’t quite remember what it looked like. However, as soon as his eyes landed on this odd looking house, something in him pushed him to go, go, get closer. 

He must’ve given in to that push because one moment he was in the driveway and the next he was at the front door. He didn’t even have the pie he baked with him. He should have turned back to the car and grabbed it, but he was so close. He lifted his hand to knock, to get inside, when the door was yanked open with more force than Steve thought was necessary. 

“Huh. I wasn’t sure it would work,” Eddie Munson said. “But here you are. Yay.”

It was the least enthusiastic yay Steve had ever heard.

“Uh, hi?” Steve greeted bemusedly. “Did I get the day wrong? You said two days.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Eddie said flippantly. “Get in here before I change my mind.”

Steve was jerked indoors unceremoniously, Eddie’s cool hand wrapped around his wrist.

“It’s your lucky day,” Eddie continued, again not sounding particularly happy about it. “I have been outvoted by the adults, the children, and House.”

“Um.” Steve almost tripped as he was dragged through the foyer. He hadn’t decided if he wanted Eddie’s hand off him or not. On the one hand, the guy was unfairly pretty. On the other, Steve may as well have been leashed to a hurricane.

“The only one on my side was Mike. And yeah, okay, ghouls are by nature sulky but damn, that kid takes it to a whole other level. If he was agreeing with me, I did something wrong somewhere.”

Steve was a pretty fit guy with a great sense of balance, but he was struggling to keep up. Eddie powered through the house, completely disregarding Steve’s stumbling steps. Steve barely caught sight of the empty dining room and living room entry as Eddie took him to the hallway deeper in the house. 

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Steve said. “And, christ, dude, let me go. I’m not a toddler! I can walk on my own.”

“No,” Eddie said. “I let you go, you’ll get lost, and everyone will think I did it on purpose. I’m tired of everyone being mad at me because of you.”

“Me? What did I do? We only met two days ago,” Steve protested. 

Eddie let out the loudest, most aggrieved sigh Steve had ever heard in his life. Steve scowled. He wanted to say more but his attention snagged on the hallway they stormed through. It had a faded green rug right down the middle over an old but well cared for wooden floor. A window let in a patch of sunlight at the end of the hall giving it a warm, cozy atmosphere. All in all, a very normal hallway one could find in any other house.

Except their steps did not bring them any closer to the end of the hall. There were two standard bedroom doors on the left and three on the right, except no, actually, it had two large filigreed doors on the right and one sliding glass door leading outside on the left. But that didn’t make sense, that wasn’t an exterior wall which was why it didn’t have a sliding glass door, it had something that looked like a castle drawbridge, what. While Steve gaped at the doors, Eddie took two left turns but Steve couldn’t understand how because they were still in the same hallway. 

“H-How–the doors–changing–?” 

“They’re not changing. They’re doors. We’re walking past them,” Eddie said as if speaking to a toddler. Steve at this point felt as lost as one so he supposed it fit. “Oh, but watch out for the Random Room. The door to that does appear and disappear wherever it wants. Mostly harmless, but if it’s yellow, do not go in it. Don’t open it. You think this hall is confusing? HA. In fact, to be safe, don’t even touch it if it’s yellow.”

Steve felt queasy. Eddie noticed and slowed to a stop.

“If you throw up on the rug, I’m kicking you out. House hates it when the rug gets wet. Last time that happened, House withheld hot showers for two weeks.”

Steve whimpered as a wave of vertigo hit him. It left him almost cross-eyed. 

“Hey. Steve? Hey!”

The grip on his wrist loosened and traveled to his elbow. Steve unconsciously returned the grip. Eddie’s other hand grabbed the opposite shoulder. How unfair that Steve couldn’t appreciate such a gorgeous man touching him. A migraine bloomed behind his eyes and knocked him off balance. 

“Ahhh, fuck.” Steve heard Eddie say. 

“Swear jar,” Steve managed to mumble before everything went black. The last thing he was aware of was Eddie’s hands slowing and gentling his fall.

–

Steve gradually came around to the sound of familiar voices. He kept his eyes closed and his head as still as possible. The migraine had not disappeared completely and he did not want to trigger it to full force again.

“I can’t believe you didn’t blindfold him, you ass,” Jeff said irritably.

“I didn’t think I had to! You know, since House is soooo enamored with him,” Eddie responded, equally waspish. “Besides, didn’t you give him a tour? Twice?”

“Yeah, of the areas safe for the public.”

“Oh.”

In the ensuing silence, Steve attempted to orient himself. He was laid out on something with rough fabric but plenty of give. A couch, maybe? A variety of spices perfumed the air in a particularly pleasant way. It brought up memories of cozy moments, of comfort; nothing specific, but so good that it melted some of the tension that always came along with his migraines. The migraine ebbed farther away the more he relaxed.

“I really didn’t think it was going to be a problem.”

“Hm.”

“What, it’s my fault House doesn’t know how to handle a crush? Have you seen this guy? He’s, like, stupidly handsome, the bastard. With the hair and that smile and–if anything, this is his fault! Why’s he going around seducing House, huh? Do you see what he’s wearing? That shirt makes his shoulders look so–ugh. I feel bad for House now, it had no chance.”

“I don’t think House is the one with the problem,” Jeff said mildly. Steve heard some soft footsteps. The cushions near his feet dipped under new weight. “Steve, how’s your head?”

“He’s awake?” Eddie yelped.

Steve ignored him and cautiously cracked open an eye. Jeff sat in the small space Steve had left near his feet. He grimaced. Steve’s shoes were still on; he hated having shoes on the furniture. Steve struggled into a seated position, ignored the dull throb that inspired, and tried to regain his senses.

“Not great,” Steve croaked. Jeff scooted closer to him, eyeing him critically. Steve didn’t want any fussing, so he added, “But I’ve been worse.”

“Any nausea? Dizziness?” Jeff asked.

“No, not right now. Not anymore.”

“That’s good! Do you remember how you got here?” Jeff had a really nice smile, Steve couldn’t help but notice. 

“Not really? I don’t even know where here is,” Steve replied, looking around the room. 

It was small. It had a single window, opened and overlooking the wooded area behind the house. Underneath it was a metal sink with a deep basin. There were cabinets lining the wall and a small wooden table, probably to make up for the limited counter space. Eddie sat there on an old wooden chair. There seemed to be a very faint dusting of–glitter? something that put off a dim glow–across his cheeks. He had tugged strands of his hair to cover the lower half of his face, but his captivating eyes were in full view so Steve could see the glare aimed at him. Steve frowned at him in return, resisting the childish urge to stick his tongue out at him. 

“Hm,” Jeff said, getting Steve’s attention again. “Can you tell me what you do remember?”

“I came over today because Wayne and Eddie invited me. He dragged me into the house like some caveman,” Steve said, throwing a haughty glance at Eddie, whose glower did not waver. “It made me dizzy and I guess I passed out in the hall. I don’t know how I got in this room.”

“This is my workroom,” Jeff said. “Eddy and I brought you here.”

Steve nodded slowly. There was no accompanying throb of pain in his head. Steve sighed with relief. Taking the lack of pain as encouragement, he got to his feet. 

“Thanks, that was really nice of you, Jeff,” Steve said pointedly. “Could you please tell Wayne I’ll have to take a raincheck.”

“What?” Jeff asked worriedly. 

“I’m not going to be good company if that migraine comes back today. I’m going home,” Steve said matter of factly.

“NO!” Eddie and Jeff shouted simultaneously. Eddie had leapt out of the chair and Jeff had gone so far as to reach for Steve’s arm. Steve tensed.

“Uh, I mean,” Jeff started placatingly. “There’s something I can try that should help with that, I think.”

“I got ibuprofen at home, I’m good,” Steve said firmly, dodging around where Jeff sat to go for the door. Before he could get to it, Eddie rushed over and planted himself in front of it.

“You can’t leave,” Eddie said.

“Please move,” Steve said, taking a step closer to Eddie.

“You can’t leave,” Eddie repeated. 

“Yes, I can,” Steve said. This time Eddie stepped closer.

“But you won’t.” His beautiful brown eyes bore into Steve. “Because you know something’s not right here. Something’s been off with you for a while now, right?”

Steve’s jaw clenched. Eddie was correct on both counts. Something weird happened when Eddie took him into the house. More than that, things have felt weird in his daily life for months, ever since he and Robin met Jeff at that bar that disappeared off the face of the planet as far as he could tell. There were hazy spots in his memory; he remembered some things but everything felt shifted to the left, obscuring certain details and distracting with other details. 

“You’re going to stay because you have questions,” Eddie said and, in Steve’s opinion, nobody’s voice should sound so smooth and enticing, much less someone with eyes like Eddie’s. It wasn’t fair. “And we’re the only ones who can answer them.”

For the sake of his pride, Steve continued the standoff for a few beats longer. Then he loosened his shoulders in a careless shrug. He went back to the couch where he seated himself comfortably, not sparing Eddie a glance.

“I’ve changed my mind, Jeff,” Steve said, putting as much social charm in his voice as possible. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Eddie scowl again and he tried not to smirk. “I’ll stay a while longer.”

“Great!” Jeff said. “Eddy’s right. We do have some answers, but things will be easier to explain if you let me try out this remedy on you first. It’s gonna be a bit…different, but the good news is that talking helps it work. What do you think?”

“Is it going to hurt?” Steve asked warily.

“No, it’s totally painless. Do you want to try?”

Steve’s life had been weird for months and he was tired of not knowing why.

“Yeah, let’s do it.”

“Awesome! This wouldn’t have worked if you hadn’t consented,” Jeff said. Steve braced himself. Then Jeff pulled out an egg.

“What’s that?” Steve asked, like an idiot.

“An egg,” Jeff replied with a teasing smile.

“Yeah, but why?”

“No clue. I’d ask it, but eggs aren’t known for being chatty about existentialism,” Jeff said. Steve blinked as the words sank in, then laughed in surprise.

“Not what I meant,” Steve said between giggles. Jeff grinned at him.

“I know, but you seemed tense. I thought I’d lighten the mood,” Jeff said. “Did it work?”

“Quit flirting, Jefftopher,” Eddie cut in sourly. He had plopped himself back on the wooden chair, watching the proceedings and fiddling with his many rings.

“Maybe the man who caused the problem should shut up and let the man who’s fixing it do what he wants,” Jeff sniped back. 

Eddie’s scowl weakened into a contrite expression. There was a moment of tense silence that reminded Steve uncomfortably of the silence that permeated his childhood home after every argument his parents had. Steve also didn’t know how to respond to the casual acknowledgment of men flirting together. Steve cleared his throat.

“So, uh, what’s the egg for?” he asked.

“To fix a problem,” Jeff said pointedly at Eddie. He returned his attention to Steve. “This is something my bisabuela taught me. I’m going to take this egg and kind of…rub it over you. It’s usually a remedy for kids, but it works on adults, too.”

“You rub eggs on kids?” Steve asked, baffled. 

Eddie snorted. Steve stifled the flicker of pride at making a gorgeous guy laugh because so far Eddie’s been very unpleasant and Steve should have higher standards. He didn’t but, according to Robin, he should. Jeff shot a quick glare to Eddie before explaining.

“I know it sounds weird, but I’m gonna ask you to trust me here,” Jeff said. 

Steve nodded because why not. This definitely was not the strangest thing to have happened today. Steve had the feeling this was not the strangest thing to have happened to him in the past few months, either, though he couldn’t remember anything weirder. 

“According to my bisabuela,” Jeff explained, “this is used to cure mal de ojo.”

“What’s that?”

“It translates to evil eye. It’s kind of like a curse.”

“I’ve been cursed? How?” Steve asked, jerking out of Jeff’s reach. “Are you a witch?”

“I’m not a witch,” Jeff said in a tone that said he’s had to explain this before. “I’m…witchy.”

“What’s the difference?” Steve asked impatiently. Jeff sighed. Yeah, Steve thought, Jeff’s definitely had to explain this before. 

“I’m the first in my family to have…magical inclinations, for many, many generations. In that time, any knowledge we had was lost since there was no one to teach it to, you know? The only one who could teach me anything was my great grandmother and she only married into the family. 

“Anyway, bisa was a curandera. She taught me some of her folk medicine, including this one, but I don’t think of myself as a curandero because my magic doesn’t respond to a lot of her teachings. Honestly, most of my magic is instinctual. So, I’m not a curandero and I’m not a witch. I’m witchy,” Jeff finished. 

“Okay,” Steve said as if he understood. Jeff was going on about magic like that wasn’t completely crazy, but things were already so weird and Robin had read a book about different folk medicine around the world. He retained nothing Robin had told him about it, of course, but he knew folk medicine actually existed, unlike magic. “So what’s the egg supposed to do?”

“Like I said, it’s supposed to be used for mal de ojo but when you get down to it, mal de ojo, or any curse, is all about negative energy. Your thing wasn’t caused by mal de ojo, but it did carry ill intent.”

Eddie huffed at this but didn’t make any comment. 

“The egg draws out negative energies. Technically, it’s supposed to be done as a whole-body sort of thing, but again, your situation is different so I’m tweaking it to fit. I’m going to pass the egg over your head, neck, shoulders, and chest. Is that okay?” Jeff asked. 

Steve nodded after a brief moment of consideration. It wouldn’t hurt him, he figured, and he had nothing to lose if it didn’t work.

“Okay, let’s start,” Jeff said. He took the egg and started at the crown of Steve’s head. He trailed it down the side of his face. “While I do this, why don’t you tell me about something good that happened in your life recently.”

And so, Steve, who wasn’t a chatty person by nature, started telling Jeff and, by extension, Eddie about his car getting fixed by an older fellow two days ago. It was an unexpected act of kindness and the stranger was sweet enough to invite him in for lemonade. Steve glanced at Eddie to see his reaction to Steve’s retelling. If Steve wasn’t mistaken, he’d say Eddie’s perpetual glower had lightened. 

While Steve spoke, Jeff placed the egg against the crown of his head again, and trailed it down the center of his face. He repeated this to the other side of his face. Then he started on his neck with the same upward and downward movement.

“You made a good impression on Wayne,” Jeff said. A little wick of pride lit up in Steve’s chest. Wayne seemed like a tough guy to impress. 

“He’s usually a good judge of character,” Eddie admitted begrudgingly. 

Jeff moved the egg from Steve’s neck down to his shoulders. Then he dragged it over Steve’s chest, particularly over his heart. He pulled the egg away from Steve.

“Okay, let's see how this worked,” Jeff muttered more to himself than to Steve.

Jeff took the egg over to the sink where a glass of water Steve hadn’t noticed earlier waited. He quickly mixed some salt into the glass and then cracked the egg open. The egg white and yolk plopped easily into the glass. It looked like any other egg, in Steve’s opinion, but apparently Jeff didn’t like what he saw.

“Eddy, how many times did you sing to him again?” Jeff asked.

“Um,” Eddie scrunched his face in thought, “Both times you had him over. Once when House moved. Well, twice now after the car thing. And that time with Dustin. So…five times?”

“Wait, you sang to me?” Steve asked incredulously.

“Sure did, babe,” Eddie shot him a sharp smile. Maybe literally. Something was going on with his teeth but Steve couldn’t make his eyes bring it into focus to really tell.

“Okay, we’ll do this four more times, I guess.” 

Jeff dumped the glass’s contents down the garbage disposal, rinsed it thoroughly and prepared it. He grabbed another egg and settled himself next to Steve again. 

“Tell me about somewhere that made you happy.”

“I used to swim a lot,” Steve said after a moment’s thought. He let the movement of the egg soothe him. “I loved being in the pool, but the lake was my favorite place.”

Steve caught movement from the corner of his eye. Eddie had leaned forward, resting his elbows on the tabletop. He watched Steve with deep, dark eyes.

“What lake did you go to?” Eddie asked.

“Lake Michigan. My parents had a vacation home somewhere along its coast. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen it in person but it’s big. Huge. It shocked me every time I saw it. Being underwater there is like nothing else; it makes you feel small, but like in a good way? I don’t know but I loved it,” Steve reminisced. “I haven’t gone since, huh. High school, I think? I still dream about it sometimes.”

Jeff finished with the egg and took it to the sink. Eddie finally looked away from Steve. He fiddled with his rings instead.

“It’s a good lake. It has good water.” 

Eddie said it like it was dragged out of him but even that didn’t mask the fondness in the words. It was a strange comment. Steve didn’t know how to respond to it, but Eddie didn’t seem to expect a response. Jeff finished at the sink and grabbed another egg.

“Alright, third one. Let me think of another question,” Jeff said.

“What exactly is the point of these questions?” Steve asked him. “I mean, I don’t feel any different yet so what are we doing?”

“You have a lot of bad energy built up,” Jeff said. “It’s going to take a few more tries to draw it all out, but the questions help it along by drawing in positive energy to replace the bad stuff. You have to be patient.”

“I guess that makes sense,” Steve said. As much sense as anything else that was happening, anyway.

“Got it! Tell me about something you’re good at. What do you do that you take pride in?” Jeff was already sliding the egg down Steve’s face.

“...how honest do I have to be with these questions?”

“As much as possible. Lies invite negative energy,” Jeff said. “Though I’ll tell you right now, I do not want to hear about any sex stuff.”

Steve choked on his own spit. Eddie cackled.

“It’s not that!” Steve insisted. “It’s just…kinda dumb.”

“If it’s something that makes you feel good about yourself, it can’t be dumb,” Jeff said kindly.

“...it’s hair,” Steve mumbled.

“Hair?” 

“I have good hair. I like it,” Steve said, unembarrassed. “That’s not weird.”

“It isn’t,” Jeff agreed. The egg was at Steve’s neck now.

“It’s not just that, though,” Steve continued. “I taught myself the best ways to take care of my hair, but also how to take care of other types of hair. And I know how to style hair in different ways, and different types of braids. I liked braiding my exes’ hair a lot.”

Jeff finished circling the egg over Steve’s heart. He motioned at Steve to keep talking while he took the egg to the sink for a check and disposal.

“I haven’t had the chance to do that much since I took a break from dating, but then El wanted to show me how to do it and–oh! El!” Steve sat up straighter as a hazy memory became a little clearer.

Eddie had tensed all over the minute Steve mentioned the little girl.

“What about El?” Eddie asked protectively. Steve shook his head.

“She lives here,” Steve said, carefully examining his memory. “And…she has curly hair? She showed me her braiding skills. She’s a sweet kid.”

“Yes she is,” Jeff agreed easily. “Fourth egg, here we go. Tell me about someone you love.”

“Robin,” Steve answered immediately.

“Ah, the girlfriend,” Eddie said with a smirk. “Please tell us more about her, some of us are dying for more details.”

“She’s not my girlfriend,” Steve corrected. “She’s my best friend. We’re soulmates but, like, platonic. With a capital P, Robin likes to say.”

Steve knew he was grinning like a dope but he didn’t care. He wasn’t going to hide how much he loved Robin from anyone. It had lost him more than one girlfriend, and he was more than okay with that. Jeff ran the egg along his shoulders. He smiled at Steve’s enthusiasm but Eddie wore an odd expression, like he was trying to puzzle him out.

“You don’t get it,” Steve surmised.

“No, I do,” Eddie said.

“Your Robin is our Chrissy,” Jeff said, finished with the fourth egg.

“Oh,” Steve said, surprised. “People don’t usually believe me. They think it’s weird, but it isn’t. Robin knows me better than anyone else. I’d do anything to make sure she’s safe and happy and I know she’d do the same for me. Like, she doesn’t really like having pets around, right? But after I had to give up Dust–”

Steve stopped.

“Dustin is a cat, isn’t he?” Steve asked weakly.

“Sometimes,” Eddie replied, carefully examining Steve’s reaction.

“But not always,” Steve said.

“No, not always.”

Steve let that confirmation settle in his mind as it helped clarify the question about El’s curly hair as well. A boy who turned into a cat and a girl with magic hair. And someone witchy was rubbing eggs on him. He suspected his car hadn’t needed any fixing the other day, either. Weird. Everything was so weird but…it felt right. 

He thought about the first time he stepped onto a boat as a kid. Everything had tilted and swayed with the movement of the water. It felt so strange. It had knocked him off his feet once or twice but after a while, Steve had learned to keep balance while it bobbed in the water, and it was just like walking on land. It didn’t feel wrong at all.

“That egg was looking pretty good compared to the rest. This last one should do it,” Jeff said brightly. “Tell me about a good dream or a goal. Something that motivates you.”

“I’m not sure my dream is going to bring on the positive energy,” Steve smiled crookedly. “I’ve been having pretty bad luck with it.”

“How so?” Jeff asked. He’d finished the head and neck quicker than before, Steve noticed. The swipe on his shoulders felt almost perfunctory. He wondered if that was a good sign.

“I keep getting rejected,” Steve admitted. “Nobody wants to let some guy adopt a kid, apparently.”

“That’s your motivating dream? To have children?” Jeff questioned. He circled the egg over Steve’s heart.

“Well, yeah. I told you about it that time at the bar, remember? And you told me–” Steve paused. 

Jeff extracted the egg. 

“What did I say, Steve?” Jeff asked as he calmly went to the sink one last time with an egg.

“You said you could help me,” Steve said thoughtfully. “How? With a witchy thing? No. No, you said you knew children who needed homes. Is…is that what this place is?”

Jeff inspected the last egg. He looked satisfied with what he saw. He disposed of the egg.

“My part’s done,” Jeff said. “The negative energy has been removed. It’s not going to hurt you any longer, but it doesn’t exactly undo what’s been done. Eddy’s abilities are…well, Eddy is–”

“A freak,” Eddie said cheerfully.

“He’s unique,” Jeff corrected.

“Thank you, Jeffua, you’re so sweet,” Eddie batted his lashes at Jeff. Steve felt a completely irrational spark of jealousy that he fervently tamped down. He had focus. There was a chance here, an opportunity, and he had to grab it with both hands.

“Look, I answered everything you asked me and you said you’d answer my questions, so answer me,” Steve cut in. “Is this place–could I really adopt–?”

“Undecided,” Eddie said coldly. Steve flinched.

“Eddy, c’mon man,” Jeff sighed tiredly. “You owe him information, at least.”

It was Eddie’s turn to sigh though his was more put upon. 

“Fine! But we’re taking this to the dining room. We still have an insane amount of lemonade to get rid of and the chairs are comfier. Steve, how do you feel about blindfolds?”

It turned out his opinion on blindfolds didn’t matter because they had to blindfold him either way.

–

To Steve’s disappointment, Jeff chose not to accompany them though he gave Eddie a stern reminder to behave. Steve sat himself in the same chair he used in his prior visit while Eddie busied himself with the fridge and cabinets.

“If you’re going to be here, you might as well be helpful and get rid of some of this lemonade for us,” Eddie said, placing an entire pitcher of lemonade in front of him along with a cup.

Eddie grabbed his own pitcher and glass combo, and seated himself across Steve. Steve wondered if the pitchers were part of a set. They both were textured like ice, but they had different shaped spouts and Eddie’s was round whereas Steve’s was rectangular. Eddie poured himself some lemonade and chugged it quickly to pour a second one.

Steve reached out to get himself some lemonade because he was a bit dehydrated, too. His fingertips brushed the handle for a split second before he yanked his hand back with a pained yelp. It burned. 

Eddie leapt to his feet and anxiously pulled the pitcher away from Steve. He took Steve’s hand in his own, frantically turning it every which way and prodding.

“Shit! Shit, that was an accident! I forgot! House, I forgot, I didn’t do it on purpose!” Eddie said loudly while leaning closer to inspect Steve’s fingertips. 

“What was that?” Steve asked incredulously. “It burned me!”

“No frostbite,” Eddie said, relieved, and not actually answering Steve’s question. “Jesus H. Christ, you nearly gave me a heart attack.”

He looked up at Steve through his lashes with what Steve could have sworn was a small pout.

“You’re trying to get me in trouble, aren’t you?”

Steve became very aware of how close Eddie had gotten, and how his ringed hands were cradling his own fingers. Steve really could drown in those dark eyes. He heard Robin’s voice in the back of his mind yelling at him about Standards. He forcibly reminded himself that this man has been nothing but rude to him from the very start.

“No,” Steve replied, tugging his hand back. “Is your pitcher cursed?”

“No,” Eddie said, getting up and retrieving a pot holder. He handed it to Steve. “It’s not cursed. Will learned a new trick but he forgot some people can’t withstand sub zero ice. Use the potholder and you’ll be fine.”

Steve did so. He sipped at his lemonade as Eddie settled across from him again. He pursed his lips at the tartness of the drink. Eddie didn’t speak. He fiddled with his rings, brow furrowed.

“Okay, let’s do this,” Eddie said after the quiet got to be too much. “You have questions. Hit me with ‘em.”

“Why didn’t the pitcher burn you?” Steve asked. Eddie had grabbed both pitchers barehanded without so much as a flinch. Eddie raised an eyebrow at him.

“Really? That’s your first question?”

Steve’s eyes narrowed.

“Is there a limit?”

A smirk spread across Eddie’s full lips. He leaned forward and opened his mouth to reply. Before he could, however, the cabinet door closest to Eddie opened and slammed shut loudly, making both Eddie and Steve jump in their seats. Eddie slumped back in his chair sulkily.

“No,” Eddie said grudgingly. “I’m built for cold temperatures. That’s why the pitcher didn’t affect me. Next question.”

“You…sang to me and it messed with my head,” Steve said haltingly. He could only vaguely remember the song. He had the outline of it, but not the substance. He knew it was beautiful. “What are you?”

“A siren. Next.”

“Like, fish people?” Steve asked. 

If Steve had known better, he’d have brought Robin with him to this place. She was the one that read about weird stuff all the time. Currently he’s working off of only vague recollections from some of Robin’s many, many ramblings.

Eddie splutters indignantly.

“I am not a fish! Sirens aren’t fish! We’re powerful creatures born of the sea,” Eddie said, outraged.

“Like fish,” Steve said, keeping his expression blank.

“We’re magical beings! Fish aren’t magic,” Eddie said. “Sirens are the ocean’s spirit made flesh, the voice of the sea, we are not…oh, you did that on purpose, you bastard.”

Steve smirked at Eddie who flopped back in his chair. He tried to hide it, but Steve caught the hint of a grin on Eddie’s face before he vanished it in a sulk.

“Only a little bit,” Steve reassured him. “I really don’t know much about…magic stuff.”

“I’m not sure if that makes things better or worse,” Eddie mused.

“It hasn’t helped me much so far. So your siren music hypnotizes people?”

“Technically, siren song is a lure. It’s how, historically, sirens made sailors crash their ships on rocks and whatever. Mine doesn’t work exactly the same way.”

“Why does–”

“That’s none of your business.” 

Eddie shut down the question immediately. Eddie’s expression had gotten stony and the glare had returned. Steve considered pushing. He had been promised information after all. However, Eddie wasn’t really what he wanted to know more about; or, more accurately, learning more about Eddie wasn’t a priority at this time. Steve looked away to glance about the dining room instead. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Eddie relax minutely.

“What is this place?” Steve asked instead. “Has it always been here? I’ve been in Hawkins for years and I’ve never seen it before.”

“It’s been around for about a decade. This is Hawkins Halfway House for Homeless Horrors,” Eddie said. There was a curl of amusement in his reply. Eddie must have been the one to name it, and was quite pleased with himself about it. It was annoyingly endearing.

“That’s a mouthful, but it doesn’t really mean anything to me,” Steve said in the most unimpressed tone he could just to ruffle Eddie’s feathers. Scales? Whatever. He succeeded either way, but Eddie kept his tone even when he responded.

“It’s a bit of a misnomer,” Eddie admitted. “It’s more of a community center than anything else. The magical community is mostly made up of people humans consider to be monsters or creatures or other horrible things. It makes surviving difficult.”

“Oh,” Steve breathed as the implications sunk in. “That’s why you’re so, uh, you know, with me.” Steve makes a helpless gesture.

“Humans in the know generally want to kill us, so yeah, that’s why I’m so ‘you know’ with you,” Eddie replied sarcastically. “So we made this place. Me, Jeff, and Chrissy, with Uncle Wayne’s help. We offer daycare services, shelter and food to Horrors who are struggling or displaced. 

“Uncle Wayne and Jeff teach them how to better blend in with humans if that’s an option; how to navigate the bureaucracies and day-to-day of the human world, that sort of thing. Me and Chrissy help rehome the Horrors who can’t or don’t want to assimilate to the human world.”

“That’s amazing,” Steve said with genuine awe. At Eddie’s look of surprise, he insisted. “No, like, it’s so cool that you help people like that. There was a time when my parents first cut me off that me and Robin struggled. We could barely afford a place to live, so a lot of the time we had to go without food. I didn’t think we were going to make it until we found out about a food bank in one of the surrounding towns. It was almost an hour’s drive away but it was the only way we survived. I don’t know what would’ve happened to us if we didn’t have that, so the fact that you set something like that up is amazing.”

Eddie tugged his hair over the lower half of his face, obscuring a strange faint glow that suffused his cheeks. It made his eyes look bigger and darker. It took Steve’s breath away. Eddie shrugged awkwardly.

“Yeah, well,” Eddie mumbled. “It was mostly Uncle Wayne. If he hadn’t won House off a baba yaga in a card game, we wouldn’t have been able to do any of that.”

“A baba yaga?”

“Irrelevant,” Eddie waved off the question. “House is ours now and it helps protect everyone in it.”

“It’s alive then?” Steve eyed the dining room cautiously.

“Eh, depends on your definition of alive. It’s got some personality, at least, even if it’s brainless,” Eddie said the last part louder than the rest.

Eddie squawked as the chair he sat on was jolted backwards and landed on the ground with a loud, insulted, slam. Steve stood up in alarm, but Eddie simply rolled over with a groan.

“You prefer birdbrain instead, House?” Eddie said. Eddie yelped as the chair aggressively righted itself, narrowly missing Eddie’s foot. “I’m kidding, I’m kidding!”

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, it’s fine. House and I have a playful, only slightly injury-prone, rapport,” Eddie said. “Drink more lemonade. There’s still an entirely full pitcher in the fridge besides these two.”

“It’s kind of sour,” Steve admitted, sipping reluctantly at the cup. Eddie smoothly exchanged pitchers with Steve. He poured himself a cup from it and chugged it. He jumped when Eddie slammed the empty cup down on the table with a grimace. Eddie poured another cup but let that one sit.

“Must be Mike’s. He’s a moody little punk,” Eddie snorted. “No sweetness in him at all.”

“Hm, like you then.” 

“Oh, I’m plenty sweet when I want to be, sugar,” Eddie responded with a wink. The words caught up with Eddie and his face twisted into something like a wince. He pulled into himself, looking away and fiddling with his rings again.

“Is Mike one of the kids that live here?” Steve asked to get them back to the task at hand.

“Nah, he and Will have adult siblings they live with. They come to play with the other kids when Nancy and Jonathan can bring them over. It doesn’t happen too often so the kids go kind of crazy when it does. Hence the endless lemonade.”

“That’s kind of cute,” Steve said with a smile. “Wayne said each kid made their own pitcher, so if Will and Mike don’t live here that makes it…five kids? Pretty sure there were seven pitchers on the table last time I was here. I’ve met Dustin and El. Lucas, too, though I don’t remember that encounter too well. Who are the other two?” 

“Max and Erica,” Eddie said. “They were with Lucas that day, too.”

“I don’t remember them at all,” Steve admitted.

“Probably for the best. They’re the most skittish around humans,” Eddie shrugged. 

“Oh. Does that mean I won’t be able to meet them any time soon?”

“Hell no,” Eddie snorted. “That’d be a recipe for disaster.”

“But I can meet with some of the other kids, can’t I? Jeff said I might be able to foster and–”

“Steve.”

“What?”

“I don’t know who you are,” Eddie said. Steve blinked.

“I’m Steve? Harrington?”

“No, just–who are you? Uncle Wayne and Jeff think you can be trusted. House likes you. But you should’ve never been able to find us at all.”

“Well, Jeff gave me his card at the bar,” Steve said, but Eddie shook his head.

“No, you don’t get it. You shouldn’t have been able to see the bar for Jeff to find you to begin with. Gareth’s bar is within magical boundaries. Humans don’t even register it exists unless they already know it’s there, which they’d only know if someone within the community told them. I asked around, and nobody knows you. Nobody’s spoken to you. 

“Jeff looked you over and you have not a drop of magic in you. Yet you bypassed one of the central protections our community has in place. I don’t know who you are and I'm supposed to give you one of my little Horrors? Why should I? Your own human agencies don’t think you’re fit for kids.”

“They won’t even let me try,” Steve snapped. “Look, maybe I won’t be the best father, God knows mine was shitty enough, but these agencies aren’t denying me because of that. They’re denying me because I’m an unmarried man.”

“Then get married and make your own kids,” Eddie said callously. 

“No, that’s not the point!”

“You’re making your own life harder, why do you even bother?”

“Because I want a real family!” Steve’s words were almost a shout.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Real families love each other,” Steve said. “Marriage doesn’t mean there's any love there. My parents were married for decades and they hated each other. I was an only child, their only child, and you know what? I don’t think they ever told me they loved me. Not one single time. I don’t think anyone loved me until I met Robin. Robin was the first person I ever felt was my family, and I’m so, so grateful to have her in my life. 

“I won’t pretend to know what it’s like to grow up a monster in a secret magic world, but I know how it feels like to grow up alone and unwanted. I would never, never, let my kid think for a single moment I didn’t love them or want them in my life,” Steve said. “And I refuse to get stuck in a loveless marriage that’ll only make them miserable.”

Steve grabbed at his cup and took a sip in an attempt to collect himself. It was sweeter than the other lemonade had been, Steve was relieved to find. Eddie wore a thoughtful expression. He tapped his fingers on the table for a few beats, then leaned forward to catch Steve’s eyes with his own serious gaze.

“There’s something you need to understand about my little Horrors,” Eddie said grimly. “They live here with me because they have nothing left. They have no one else. You wouldn’t just be fostering a monster child, you’d be taking in a child who has already experienced more loss than most human adults. They’re going to have needs specific to what they are and what they’ve experienced. Do you understand?”

“I hear what you’re saying,” Steve responded with equal gravity. “I don’t know their needs or circumstances, but I want to learn. Give me a chance to learn, Eddie. Please, at least let me try.”

They held eye contact for a small eternity. The flickering hope in Steve’s heart roared to life when Eddie gave a single sharp, wordless nod.

“We’ll take it slow, but okay,” Eddie said, “you can try.”

–

“Steve, relax, you got this,” Robin said, watching Steve pace back and forth in their living room.

“What if he hates me?” Steve said, knowing he sounded irrational.

“Dustin already met you, remember? He’s one of the ones that wanted you to stick around.”

“Yeah, and then I forgot about him!” Steve said.

“But he knows that wasn’t your fault! It’ll be fine, you worrywart.”

Eddie hadn’t been pleased when Steve told him that Robin would have to be looped into the whole ‘magic exists’ secret, but Steve had been adamant. It helped that Jeff and Chrissy asked him how successful he’d be if he had to hide stuff from them. Eddie relented at that point.

“Now get outta here before you make yourself late, dingus,” Robin said, smacking his arm.

Steve made it to Hawkins Halfway House so quickly he suspected House may have made an unplanned move. Hopefully Eddie wouldn’t notice, otherwise he’d be scowly the whole visit. He did his best not to run up to the door and was mostly successful. Jeff opened the door after one sharp knock.

“Hey Steve,” Jeff greeted with a smile. “They’re waiting in the living room for you.”

Steve made his way to the living room. There, Dustin sat at the coffee table doodling something in a notebook. His tongue poked out in concentration, completely caught up in whatever it was he was doing. Eddie lay sprawled on the couch flipping idly through some car magazine. He glanced up at Steve briefly before returning his attention to the magazine.

“Pretend I’m not here, Steve-o,” Eddie said. 

Dustin finally noticed Steve and shot to his feet with a wide grin. He rushed over to Steve. Dustin stuck his arm out for a handshake. Steve took his hand and shook it firmly, to Dustin’s delight.

“Hi, I’m Dustin. I’m a shapeshifter and I’m almost ten years old,” Dustin said in a very rehearsed way. Eddie faked a cough. “Oh, yeah! Thanks for taking care of me when I got stuck in my cat shape in town. I promise I wasn’t perving on Robin in the bathroom that time.”

Steve heard Eddie’s horrified whisper of ‘oh my god.’ He looked from Dustin’s earnest expression to where Eddie was fully hiding under the magazine. Steve burst into laughter. Dustin joined in without hesitation. 

“Hi, Dustin,” Steve replied when he caught his breath. “I’m Steve. Eddie said we could hang out and get to know each other a bit today.”

“Heck yeah! I’ve got a ton of questions,” Dustin said enthusiastically. He grabbed Steve’s hand and tugged unrelentingly. “Come here, come here.”

The two of them settled on the floor at the coffee table. Steve leaned against the couch a little in hopes that it would make rising to his feet later a less stiff, achy experience. Dustin took up his notebook and pencil again. Steve caught a glimpse of scratchy writing before Dustin pulled it close to write.

“First question,” Dustin announced. Steve braced himself for any number of awkward, personal, getting-to-know-you questions. “Can you really shed your skin? Like a lizard?”

“Uhh,” Steve said. He ignored the snorting, barely concealed giggle coming from behind him. “Well, um, I guess kind of…not really?”

Dustin eyed him suspiciously.

“I’ll mark that as a maybe,” he scribbled in his notebook studiously. “Next question! Is it true humans have extra teeth to make them smarter when they grow up? How does that work? Is there brains in the teeth?”

Steve muddled his way through a rough explanation of wisdom teeth as Eddie continued to snicker behind him. Dustin looked unimpressed by the eventual answer but that was fine. Eddie was warming up to him and Steve was already willing to do just about anything for this curious little kid. He was finally on his way to becoming a father.

eventually i'll probably write more in this 'verse, but right now i'm just glad to have finished the premise of the 'verse lol. thanks again to all who read along!

#trensu tells stories #hawkins halfway house for homeless horrors #steddie #buckingham #steve harrington #eddie munson #jeff stranger things #dustin henderson #stranger things

[trensu]

okay, so it turns out that the hawkins halfway house fic is going to have six chapters, actually. i'm not gonna post anything on ao3 until i have the final chapter done. i'm currently working on that sixth chapter, but here's the rest of chapter five in the meantime.

Continued from here

-

The man chuckled goodnaturedly. “Didn’t say you were. What’s your name, son?”

“Steve,” he replied. The man chuckled again.

“Thought so,” the man said. At Steve’s questioning gaze, he shrugged nonchalantly. “You look like a Steve. I’m Wayne. Why don’t you come inside? The kids made a batch of lemonade earlier today and there’s a phone you can use to call a tow.”

Which was how Steve found himself seated at a dining table that seemed too large to fit in the room even though he and Wayne were clearly able to move around the place without crowding one another. Maybe the table looked bigger than it was because of the multiple frosty pitchers of various sizes haphazardly lined up on it. Each one seemed almost dangerously full. Steve was sure one unexpected bump would turn them into a river of lemonade.

“That’s…a lot of lemonade,” Steve commented.

“A couple of the kids’ friends are visiting,” Wayne said. “We don’t see them very often. One of them learned a new trick to keep things cold. He was only going to do one pitcher, of course, but you know how kids are. Everyone wanted to make their own lemonade and told Will he had to do it again for each one.”

Wayne used a potholder to grab the handle of the nearest pitcher of lemonade. If Steve didn’t know any better, he’d say the pitcher was coated by ice half an inch thick. Obviously the pitcher had to be made of fancy decorative glass like the kind his mother would’ve bought. Wayne poured two glasses of lemonade, handing one to Steve which he took gratefully. Wayne eased himself into one of the chairs. Steve joined him. He drank half the glass before asking.

“So where are the grandkids you’ve been chasing? The house seems pretty quiet for that many children,” Steve nodded at the series of pitchers.

“They’re not my grandkids. I’m not as lucky as all that,” Wayne said. “I’m just here to lend a hand where I can.”

“A volunteer? Is this like a daycare?” Steve asked, trying not to seem too eager. This could be something. It wouldn’t be parenthood, but maybe he could volunteer to help kids in some small way. He’ll have to look into that later. Robin would help him find something, he’s positive.

“...you could say that, I suppose. As for your other question, they’re all out back, probably in the woods burning off energy with some of the grown-ups supervising.”

“Well, I’ll try to be out of your hair before they come back,” Steve stood, taking both of their glasses to the sink and rinsing them out. He waved Wayne away when he protested about guests doing chores. “If you could tell me where your phone is to call a tow truck, you don’t have to get up.” 

“Son, I don’t need no mollycoddling,” Wayne said gruffly. Steve flushed.

“No, that’s not–I didn’t mean–” Except he did. Wayne had been out in the heat and sun with him for who knows how long, risking heat exhaustion for a total stranger. It was also evident in the way he moved that he had some joint pain, particularly in the knees. Steve sighed. “Heat exhaustion is no joke. I used to be a lifeguard, it can get pretty bad for, uh, people of your age group.”

“You’re as bad as my boy, I can already tell,” Wayne said. “Thank god Eddie’s out there with the kids or he’d give me a talking to, as if he had a leg to stand on. I’m able to get around just fine without anyone’s hovering.”

“Uncle Wayne,” a soft solemn voice interrupted. Steve jumped when he saw a kid at the dining room entrance. He hadn’t heard anyone approaching.

“Jesus,” Steve muttered to himself. “Pay attention, Steve.”

The kid had shorn dark hair and big eyes. They wore a dress that looked like it’d been owned by at least two kids previously, and a pair of old light-up sneakers. They held a cane in their hands.

“Well, hey there, little miss,” Wayne greeted jovially. “Do you need anything, El?”

“You forgot your cane,” El said each word carefully. She walked up to Wayne, leaned the cane against the dining table, and held his large hand in her two small ones, as if to reassure him. “Let Steve help. He is nice. Dustin said so.”

El must have him confused with some other Steve she knew, but damn if that wasn’t the cutest thing he’d ever seen. By the way Wayne smiled at her, he seemed to agree. He heaved a big sigh, as if relenting was a big favor he was granting her, and accepted the cane.

“Fine, fine, but only because a sweet young lady asked me, too,” he said. El grinned which lit up her previously somber face. “Why aren’t you outside with the others?”

“Too much sun,” she said. “Hurts.”

Steve could sympathize. Too much sunlight sometimes triggered migraines that would knock him down for an entire day, or more if he was unlucky. El looked a bit putout she wasn’t outside with the others.

"Sometimes, it’s better to stay inside when it’s like this. There’s always something fun to do indoors, too," Steve said.

“There sure is,” Wayne agreed. “Weren’t you practicing your braiding? Why don’t you bring your doll over, and you can show us how to do it.”

While El went to find her toy, Wayne showed Steve where they kept the phone. However, they were having some difficulty getting a call to actually connect. Steve tried the number for the towing company, the bookstore he and Robin worked at, and his own home phone to no avail. After the third attempted call ended with Steve nearly slamming the phone into its base, Wayne picked up the phone and listened to it for a moment before dialing a number. After a bit, he hung up the phone much more gently than Steve had.

“House is acting strange. I’ll ask Eddie to look into that. Or maybe Jeff. I think it likes him better, but don’t tell Eddie that,” Wayne said. “I can give you a ride home if you need it, once everyone’s back.”

“Thanks, Wayne,” Steve said with a rundown sigh. “I might have to take you up on that.”

By then, El had returned with a couple of long haired dolls. Once the three of them had settled in the spacious living room, El handed Steve one of the dolls.

“Uncle Wayne knows how, but it hurts his hands,” El explained why she only brought two instead of three dolls. Wayne grumbled something under his breath that sounded suspiciously like ‘didn’t raise no narc.’ Steve suppressed a smile and tried to match El’s seriousness. “It is important to know how. I can show you.”

When Steve Harrington was in high school, he not only had the title of king, but had also gotten dubbed ‘The Hair.’ Steve earned that nickname for a reason. He had hair care down to an art. One of his favorite things to do with his various ex-girlfriends was helping them with their hair. All that to say, Steve knew how to braid hair. Steve knew how to braid hair in multiple different ways. 

There was not enough money in the world to get him to tell that to the little girl very patiently instructing him at that very moment. In fact, he made sure to fumble a couple of times so that El had the opportunity to correct him. She patiently did, each time, until Steve finished a braid to her satisfaction.

“You did it,” she beamed at him when they had accomplished a single braid.

“I had a fantastic teacher,” Steve nudged her, making her giggle. “Are you going to grow out your hair so you can have braids, too?”

“I do not know. Can hair do other things?” El asked. 

Steve reminded himself he was speaking to a child and should not go on with his detailed hair care lecture that Robin constantly made fun of him for; though, Steve liked to point out, it never stopped Robin from following his instructions. Steve claimed all the credit for her excellent hair, regardless of Robin’s indignant protests.

“Well, it depends on what kind of hair you have. Do you have straight hair or curly hair?” Steve asked.

“I have not decided yet.”

“I’m not sure that’s something you can decide, honey,” Steve said gently. 

“I can,” El replied simply. “Which is better?”

“Both kinds are good in their own way,” Steve said. “But I like curly hair. Curls are cool.”

“Curls are…cool?” El paused in thought and nodded to herself. “Yes. Dustin and Eddie have curly hair. I think they are cool.”

“I don’t think I’ve met them, but yeah, their curls are probably very cool.” 

El’s brows furrowed in concentration for a moment. Her short hair started to grow, as quick as a videotape on fast-foward, into dark ringlets. They continued to grow until they reached past her chin. She pulled one of them in front of her face, studying it, and letting it spring back in place. She looked up at Steve with a shy but proud smile.

“Curls are cool,” she said.

“Um.” Steve’s brain stuttered. He looked over to Wayne, who sat there watching them placidly as if nothing had happened. “Y-Yeah. Like that. Cool, very cool.”

“Did I do it wrong?” El said, curling in on herself as she took in Steve’s no doubt panicked expression. “Human hair is supposed to grow. Jeff told me.”

“That’s right,” Wayne said gently. “It grows like that but a lot slower. I’m sure Steve can explain. How often do you get your hair cut?”

“Uh,” Steve swallowed, trying to ignore his jangling nerves in the face of Wayne’s calm demeanor. “Um. Every–every few weeks. But, uh, R-Robin, my friend, likes hers longer and goes once a year, I-I think.”

“A year is a very long time,” El said quietly. She had shrunken her posture even smaller, eyeing Steve apologetically. “I am sorry I scared you. I did not mean to.”

She sounded so guilty and nervous, it sent a pang through Steve’s heart. She was a little girl who had been nothing but sweet the entire visit and Steve was freaking out over…what? Fast growing hair? Ridiculous.

“It’s alright,” Steve said, forcing more confidence into his voice than he felt. “I’m the one that reacted badly, so I’m sorry. I’ll try to be better.”

Out of the corner of his eye, a tension he hadn’t even noticed loosened from Wayne’s shoulders. Wayne’s grip on his cane relaxed, too. It struck Steve that if he had reacted aggressively, he had no doubt that Wayne would’ve put a stop to it one way or another.

“It’s okay. I understand,” El said, patting his arm as if she’d seen someone do it once but hadn’t had the chance to try it herself. Delicately but with intent. “Mike says humans are…scaredy-cats. That means you get scared easy.” She paused and her brow furrowed. “I do not know why there are cats. You do not look like a cat.”

At El’s earnest confusion, all of Steve’s pent up nerves and fear popped like a balloon into a fit of giggles that were only slightly off kilter. El let out a few shy giggles, too, and the last of the tension left Wayne as he relaxed back into his armchair completely.

“I really don’t,” Steve agreed. “But I like cats a lot.”

El lit up.

“Dustin is sometimes a cat!” she told him excitedly. She cupped her hands as if holding something little. “He is a very small cat.”

Yeah, Steve thought, sure. Why not have a boy turn into a cat with a girl who could fast-forward hair growth? Steve planned to get himself a drink later tonight. He thought he handled this pretty well, all things considered. He deserved a reward.

–

The three of them were playing the tamest game of Uno Steve had ever played in his life when he heard shouting. Wayne sighed a long-suffering sigh that was belied by a fond grin.

"Here comes trouble," Wayne said. El giggled in response. Steve took the opportunity to put down a draw four card for Wayne. Wayne took notice and scowled at Steve. Steve gave him his best innocent look but the effect was ruined by the sound of the front door slamming open.

"HOUSE!" a man shouted. "What the hell? Are you proud of yourself? Are you pleased? You made small children walk for an extra hour out in the blazing sun!"

The shouting was accompanied by stomping footsteps and exaggerated huffing and puffing. Laughter rang all the way through to the living room as children reacted to the dramatics. El brightened at the sound and quickly abandoned the card game to run to the foyer. The loud man seemed to take the kids’ laughter as encouragement. 

"More importantly, you made me walk an extra hour, House! These boots were not made for walking. Hey, El! Do these boots look like they’re for walking?"

“No,” El laughed.

"Maybe you should've worn tennis shoes instead, like I told you," a woman's voice pitched in.

"Don't know what you’re whining about," another man added. "I'm the one who had to carry Erica for, like, ten blocks."

"Hey, this is not my fault! None of this would've happened if House hadn't decided to move somewhere else without bringing us along!" the first man protested.

“I’m telling Nancy you got us lost,” a boy said petulantly.

“Not if you ever want to hang out with us again you won’t,” grumbled the first man in response. Then he called out, “Uncle Wayne, you in here?”

“Living room,” Wayne called back as he drew four cards to continue their game of Uno, despite the disappearance of their third player.

“Uncle Wayne!” a chorus of children’s voices rang. Soon, a horde of kids tumbled into the room.

A white boy with curly hair and a black boy both cried out excitedly when they saw who was in the living room. “Steve!”

Steve blinked in surprise. How did these kids recognize him? Had they seen him working in the bookstore? Steve was pretty sure he hadn’t seen either of them in the store before. 

The two other boys with them didn’t recognize him. They were both frighteningly pale, though in slightly different ways. The kid with the bowl-cut carried a blue tint in the skin around his lips, eyes, and fingertips in a way that made Steve shiver with a sudden chill. The other boy’s skin held a gray pallor that reminded Steve uncomfortably of corpses.

“This is Steve?” the boy with the blue-tinted skin asked curiously.

“This is Steve?” the gray boy echoed in a much more unimpressed tone.

“Steve?” Steve heard coming from the hallway. It sounded like the shouting man.

“Shit,” the curly haired boy said. The other boy shoved him.

“Way to go, doofus,” he said with a scowl.

“Hey! You said his name, too!”

“Yeah, said. Not shouted.”

“We said it at the same volume!”

“No we didn’t!”

“Have we met?” Steve tried to interrupt the bickering. His question went unheard under the boys’ loud voices. 

Before he could ask again, a man entered the living room and Steve’s mouth went dry at the sight of him. He was gorgeous. Rangy but firm, with a headful of dark curls that made Steve think of swirling schools of fish. His eyes were big and dark like seabeds. He wore a black sleeveless shirt with some sort of band logo on it. It was worn thin, and damp with sweat. The man glared at him like he wanted to flay him alive.

“You,” the man hissed. 

“Eddie,” Wayne said. Eddie whipped his gaze to where Wayne sat, unconcerned, in the armchair.

“Is that his car outside?” Eddie asked shortly. “How is he here?”

“Ed, calm down,” Wayne said.

“He shouldn’t be here,” Eddie growled. 

“I think he should,” Wayne said with a calm shrug. 

“Me, too!” the curly haired boy piped up.

“Children’s opinions do not count in this conversation,” Eddie snapped. “All of you, get to your rooms. Chrissy–”

“She took the girls upstairs the second you started your hissy fit,” a handsome man interrupted as he joined them in the living room. Steve vaguely recognized him from the bar he and Robin stumbled across months ago. Jeff, maybe? The word Jeffathan popped up in his mind, which was absurd. 

“Take that back, Jeffiam. I do not throw hissy fits,” Eddie said in a tone that Steve personally thought verged hissy fit territory. He chose not to offer up that particular thought to the conversation happening around him. Also, Jeffiam? What on earth? Jeff rolled his eyes.

“Sure,” Jeff said in a way that clearly stated disagreement. “C’mon, boys. We’ll let Eddy and Uncle Wayne figure things out with Steve.”

A series of loud complaints rose up. It almost distracted Steve from how odd Eddie’s name sounded when Jeff said it.

“You guys can stay up an extra hour past bedtime if you come along without fighting,” Jeff said.

The gray boy whooped and ran off the moment the words left Jeff’s lips, with the blue boy close at his heels. The two boys that recognized Steve shot him apologetic looks but chased after their friends with no other complaints. Jeff gave Eddie a stern look. 

“Think this through before doing anything, Eddy,” Jeff said, before turning on his heel and leaving.

That left only Steve, Eddie, and Wayne in the living room that was almost painfully quiet now that El and the other children were gone. Wayne looked as peaceable as ever, but Eddie more than made up for it with the glare that had not let up since he saw Steve. 

Steve had questions. A lot of questions. He couldn’t even begin to articulate his questions. His car broke down though there wasn’t anything wrong with it; the phone in the house wouldn’t connect his calls; a little girl grew her hair at will; there was possibly a child who could transform into a small cat; an entire building seemingly relocated without anyone noticing; and somehow, despite the impossibility of those things, all of it felt almost familiar.

“What is going on?”

“Why are you here?”

Steve and Eddie spoke simultaneously, though Steve’s words came out incredulous and Eddie’s were angry as hell. Wayne watched them both warily. He didn’t interject.

“I didn't come here on purpose,” Steve said defensively. He didn’t owe this man any explanation, he thought irritably, but Wayne had been so kind to him the whole time. Steve didn’t want to pick a fight with his nephew. “I was going grocery shopping and my car broke down. Your uncle was nice enough to let me use the phone but it didn’t work, otherwise I would’ve been long gone.”

“The phone works fine,” Eddie sniffed. “House just doesn’t like you.”

Wayne snorted.

“The problem is the other way around and you’re being too stubborn to see it, Ed. His car worked fine when I was behind the wheel.”

“You got into the car with him?” Eddie asked, aghast. “Uncle Wayne, stranger danger!”

“I am not a child, Eddie.” Wayne rolled his eyes, which seemed to happen a lot around Eddie. Steve thought about how Wayne had gripped his cane in that tense moment after El’s hair trick, and the way he had eyed him during it.

“I’m pretty sure he can take care of himself,” Steve muttered. Eddie puffed up like an angry cat, indignant at the comment.

“Nobody asked you,” Eddie snapped.

“Alright, what the f–” Steve paused, remembering there were children in the house, and course-corrected. “What the heck is your problem with me, man? You’re acting like I insulted your mother or something, but I’d remember you if we’d met before and we haven’t.”

Even as he said that, Steve couldn’t be sure that was true. A sense of familiarity lingered doggedly at the edges of his mind. Eddie’s beauty was breathtaking but it didn’t feel new. 

“Don’t take it personally, Steve,” Eddie sneered. “I don’t like any humans.”

Wayne coughed.

“You don’t count, Uncle Wayne, you’re a god amongst men,” Eddie said without missing a beat. For a brief moment, Wayne smiled crookedly at his nephew.

“You’re not human?” Steve asked, looking Eddie over more closely. He didn’t look inhuman. Then again, neither did El and she proved she wasn’t human pretty easily.

“Nope!” Eddie said with a mean sort of cheeriness. “But it doesn’t matter because you won’t remember any of this.”

Eddie started to hum a tune that muffled Steve’s mind. It was a beautiful song coming from the beautiful man, and Steve wanted to give him anything, everything, he wanted.

“Steve,” Eddie said his name like a song. “I want you to for–”

“Eddie Munson, that’s enough,” Wayne’s sharp tone cut through the hum in Eddie’s words.

The enchanting tune stopped abruptly. The absence left Steve reeling, like his mind was not fully connected to his body. He didn’t like it. Steve couldn’t tell if he wanted the song back or to never hear it again.

“This man has done nothing but be sweet to the kids,” Wayne said. “How many times has he shown up now?”

“It doesn’t mat–”

“Yes it does and you know it,” Wayne interrupted. “Twice with Jeff’s card and this is the second time House moved to find him.”

“But–”

“Dustin went missing for days looking for him, Eddie. You’re being stubborn and that put Dustin in more danger than Steve has so far.”

Eddie’s mouth audibly snapped shut at that declaration.  Eddie jerked back as if struck. A broken musical sound escaped his throat unthinkingly, and it sent a lance of pain through Steve’s heart. Steve wanted to do something to erase that pain from Eddie’s face, but his mind still hadn’t quite gathered itself. His tongue felt heavy and clumsy in his mouth.

“I understand why, Eddie. You’re not wrong to be cautious,” Wayne said. “But what was the point of getting House if you’re not going to trust it?”

Eddie blinked rapidly, eyes red-rimmed. He didn’t look at Wayne. Eddie’s fists clenched and unclenched at his sides. Then his shamed expression shifted into one of steely resolution. He stalked towards Steve. It would’ve been frightening if Steve had had his wits about him. Cool hands cupped Steve’s face and all he could see was deep, dark eyes he wanted to drown in.

“I don’t know how long it’ll take House to find you again,” Eddie said, and the music in his words was gentler than before. It kept Steve’s mind calm. “But I need you to leave.”

“Eddie,” Wayne said. 

The song strengthened to override the interruption. Steve wanted to kiss Eddie. He’d do anything Eddie asked for a kiss.

“Steve, will you be a good boy for me?” Eddie asked.

“Yes,” Steve gasped. He wanted to be so good for Eddie.

“Today is going to feel like a dream,” Eddie said.

“Nice dream,” Steve murmured hazily. A flicker of a smile from Eddie made his stomach swoop pleasantly.

“Yeah, a nice dream,” Eddie said. “You have to leave me now, but I’m going to miss you so much, Steve.”

Steve whimpered. He didn’t want to leave if it would hurt Eddie. He tried to lean forward, to press his forehead against Eddie’s and promise him his life if it would make that smile come back. Eddie's cool hands held him firmly in place.

“Listen to me. I’ll be so sad with you gone, so you’ll come back to me, won’t you? Come back to me in two days, Stevie. Promise me?”

“Promise,” Steve mumbled. “Two days. I’ll come back. I will.”

“I know you will. Now, go and I’ll be ready when you come back to me.”

–

The next thing Steve knew, he was in the parking lot of the grocery store and it was much later in the day than Steve had originally planned. As frustrating as the car trouble had been, Steve couldn’t regret the loss of time. Wayne was such a nice guy to have helped him fix his car and his nephew was gorgeous. His good old Harrington charm still worked like a dream because he got an invitation to visit again in a couple of days. He could scope out the nephew and see if there was maybe a chance for some romance in his future. 

He might as well try, since he had no luck in the adoption front yet. Though, he thought they mentioned something about running a daycare? There may have been some kids running around at some point during the car repairs. Maybe he could volunteer to help out Wayne with the kids. It wouldn’t be the same as fatherhood, but it would be something. 

Steve grinned as he got out of his car and headed into the grocery store. He couldn’t wait to tell Robin. Things were starting to look up!

I do not do those reader tag list things. If you’d like to keep up with my stuff please follow my writing tag: trensu tells stories

#hawkins halfway house for homeless horrors #trensu tells stories #stranger things #wayne munson #eddie munson #steve harrington #el hopper #steddie #i swear the sixth chapter will be the last one #after this fic is properly finished #everything else i write (IF i write it anyway) will just be random oneshots set in the 'verse #i do want to write more since i have backstories for all the kids #and eddie's backstory in particular i'm pretty excited to play with #but my seasonal depression is going to be kicking in soon and my carpal tunnel's been acting up a bit #not too bad but it can definitely get worse if i don't take it easy #and i have to start working on a sewing project that has a specific time frame for completion #but damn it! i wanna finish this fic!!

[trensu]

A part of a continuation of Hawkins Halfway House for Homeless Horrors which is also on AO3.

Robin liked to make fun of him but she didn’t understand his early bird tendencies. Steve grew up playing multiple sports. That kind of lifestyle gives the body expectations. If Steve didn’t do his morning jogs, he’d be crawling up the walls halfway through the day with all his pent up restlessness. He’d tried on multiple occasions to convince her to join him since it hadn’t escaped his notice that Robin was also full of restless energy. She laughed in his face every time.

Okay, she might also have been laughing at him for his jogging outfit, but screw Robin! What did she know about athletic clothes? And there was nothing wrong with yellow! It was a happy color! Why wouldn’t he want to wear his favorite color doing one of his favorite activities?

He ran his usual route. It took him down the main street where he got to see all the shop owners get their stores ready for the day. He waved at Mr. Newby as he jogged past his electronics shop. He liked Mr. Newby. He’d helped Steve pick out the walkman he used during his morning run, and then fixed it when Steve dropped it and Robin stepped on it two days after Steve bought it. When Steve jogged past the diner, Benny gave him his usual nod of acknowledgement, which Steve returned with a smile.

Steve mapped out his jog so it lasted him the better part of an hour and finished with a quick circuit around his neighborhood. Between the main street and his neighborhood was a pleasant patch of green. There were enough trees to attract small woodland critters but not so many trees as to block out the morning sunshine. It provided a nice division between living quarters and the modest shopping district Hawkins boasted.

Steve started to slow his strides now that he was entering the last leg of his route. He looked down to fiddle with the walkman clipped at his waist in order to fast-forward the tape to the next song. In the moment of distraction, Steve tripped over a ball, of all things. Steve managed to catch himself before earning what would’ve been his third concussion. Feeling a bit huffy, Steve bent down to grab the ball that nearly murdered him.

It was a well-loved thing. A red, white, and blue basketball, scuffed up and worn smooth from use. He had no idea what it was doing at the side of a road near the woods.

Except no, wait a minute.

Steve blinked rapidly, trying to clear his eyes. He was on the sidewalk in front of an unfamiliar house. A black boy was peeking over the battered old fence surrounding the house. He had a bandana tied around his forehead and a sheepish expression on his face.

“Sorry!” the boy called. “I didn’t mean to throw it so hard! Can you give it back, mister?”

“Uh, sure,” Steve said, still trying to figure out how he arrived here. He didn’t recognize the street at all. Instead of throwing the ball back, he walked it over. The boy grinned at him when he handed the ball over the fence.

“Thanks!”

“No problem, kid,” Steve smiled back. The boy looked ready to dash back to the big tree off the driveway that had an old basketball hoop attached to the trunk. Steve cleared his throat. “Hey, could you tell me what street this is? I think I got myself turned around.”

“Oh, sure!” the boy said. “This is Upside Down Avenue. If you go that way and turn right, you’ll be on Flayer Drive, but if you go this way and turn left you’ll be on Creel Street.”

“...I don’t think I know those. Do you know which direction to get to the shopping district?”

The boy opened his mouth to reply but was interrupted by barking. He let out an ‘oof’ when he was bowled over and out of view. The barking grew louder and more agitated. Was this a dog attack? Dogs could do some really bad damage on a kid. There wasn’t any screaming but what if the kid had hit his head and lost consciousness?

Steve, in his worry, ran and leapt over the fence. He barely cleared it but the fact he cleared it at all would be very impressive later when he wasn’t trying to save a kid.

When he landed on the other side, the boy was sprawled on the ground with a very, very large puppy on him. It growling and tugging at the collar of his shirt. It didn’t appear to have actually bitten the boy, though, so that was good.

“Erica, get off me! He was just asking for directions!” the boy said over the growling. He rolled over, taking the large puppy with him. He grabbed at the long black fur on the puppy’s neck and yanked her off him with surprising strength.

The puppy struggled out of the boy’s grasp and plopped down next to him. It had stopped growling and seemed to be sulking. The boy got to his feet and tried to dust himself off but the grass stains were not going to come out either, Steve knew this from experience. Steve crouched down next to the boy.

“Are you hurt?” Steve looked closely. He thought he had seen some scratches on the boy during the scuffle, but they were gone when he tried to find them now. “I thought that dog had you.”

“Nah, that’s just my dumb little sister. She can’t hurt me that bad,” the boy said with a shrug. The puppy let out a yappy sort of bark and the boy stuck his tongue out at it. Steve looked between the two of them.

“Your sister?” Steve asked. The boy’s eyes widened and a small growl started up in the dog.

“My little sister’s dog!” the boy yelped. “That’s what I meant. This is my little sister’s dog.” The boy looked really nervous. He was probably embarrassed. Steve gave him a smile.

“That’s alright, I get my words mixed up sometimes, too,” he said easily. Steve thought the dog snorted at that, but that was ridiculous. He probably imagined it. He got up and went over to grab the battered basketball that had gone flying when the boy had been bowled over. He threw it to the boy who caught it with ease. “So, you like basketball?”

The boy’s face lit up. “Yeah! I wanna join the team when I go to school.”

“Heck yeah, bud,” Steve grinned. “I used to be captain of the basketball team when I was in high school. It’s a lot of fun. What grade are you in?”

“Fifth,” he said. “But I’ll be going to Hawkins Middle School next year so I wanna be ready to try out by then. Hey, hey, can I show you what I can do? And you can tell me if I’ll make the team or not?”

Steve checked his watch. His run had already gone longer than it should have, and he still had to figure out how to get back to familiar ground so he could get home. On the other hand, he was stuck with another lousy afternoon shift. He didn’t technically have anything urgent to get done before then. He ran a hand through his damp hair to clear it from his face. He wondered where the kid’s parents were; they’d probably freak out about having some random guy watching their son shoot hoops. The kid looked at him so hopefully, though.

“Sure, I can do that,” Steve said.

The kid pumped his fist in victory, but the puppy started barking loudly. It circled the boy agitatedly. The boy tried to shove the puppy away but the puppy pranced out of reach before circling him again.

“Shut up, Erica! You’re spazzing for no reason,” the kid snapped.

“Lucas!”

A red-haired girl stomped across the yard at an alarming speed. Wisps of hair not tied back with the rest whipped around her face as a gust blew over the yard. Lucas nearly dropped the basketball with how quick he turned to see the girl. He did trip over the–still shockingly big, seriously, Steve didn’t know puppies could get that big– puppy who had stopped circling him the minute the girl shouted but had sat directly behind Lucas. The ball rolled over to where Steve stood.

“Max!” Lucas said, flustered, as he picked himself up. But Max didn’t acknowledge him. Instead she planted herself firmly between him and Steve. She glared at Steve furiously.

“Who are you?” she demanded. “You’re not supposed to be here.”

“Max, it’s fine,” Lucas said, reaching out to touch her shoulder but she shrugged him off roughly, her wide eyes never leaving Steve even as the wind picked up.

“No, it isn’t. He could be anybody,” she said. Her hands were balled into fists and trembled slightly. She saw him noticing and paled. She crossed her arms defensively so her hands were completely hidden. In response, Steve relaxed his stance. He kept his hands in full view and kept his movements gentle. He knew what fear looked like when he saw it.

“You’re right,” Steve said calmly. “I’m Steve. I got lost and Lucas was nice enough to let me know where I was so I can try to find myself back.”

“You told him what?” Max asked, alarmed. It was Lucas’s turn to get defensive.

“He was on the other side of the fence! It wasn’t a big deal. And now the fence let him in, so it’s all okay anyway.”

“It will be,” Max hissed. “Eddie heard Erica barking. He’s on his way.”

“Shit,” Lucas groaned, burying his face in his hands.

“Language,” Steve scolded reflexively. A stronger gust of wind blew around him. His eyes started to water from all the wind. He rubbed his eyes to relieve some of the grittiness and kept them at a squint to protect them from the wind. He could barely see anything.

“How did you get here before Eddie?” he heard Lucas ask Max, apparently ignoring Steve’s scolding entirely.

“I told you, I’m a zoomer.” For the first time since she arrived, Max’s voice held a hint of playfulness.

“Zoomers aren’t a thing,” Lucas snorted in amusement.

The wind let up enough by then that Steve could open his eyes, just in time to see a man walking towards them. The puppy shot off towards the man and then kept pace with him, yipping the whole time. If it weren’t a dog, Steve would have thought it was tattling on him. With the wind whipping that dark curly hair around, Steve couldn’t get a good look at the man’s face, but he moved his body fluidly and with surety. Seeing such confidence in movement always made Steve’s stomach swoop pleasantly.

When the man reached them, he placed a gentle hand on Max’s shoulder.

“You can cool it now, Maxie,” the gorgeous man said, gesturing vaguely upwards. His voice was tender and low and Steve had the ridiculous desire to swim in it. Max didn’t look at Eddie but nodded firmly once. The wind around them finally died down. “Why don’t you three go inside?”

“But nothing happened! Erica is making it sound worse than it was,” Lucas protests. “And I still need to practice!”

“You can practice later. Go inside now,” Eddie said. Lucas looked ready to argue but Max grabbed his hand and started to drag him back. Lucas all but melted when her hand touched his, and he followed her, starry eyed. The puppy was close at their heels. In unspoken agreement, they both waited until the kids were out of sight before conversing. Steve reached out to shake Eddie’s hand.

“Hey, I’m Steve–”

“I know who you are,” Eddie scowled. “How did you get in here? That fence is warded and I know you don’t have Jeff’s card anymore.”

Warded was a weird way to say locked, and Steve had no idea how Eddie knew the guy that scammed him that time. Unless it was someone else? Jeff was a common name…but there was only one Jeff that gave him a card. Steve shook his head.

“I don’t know if the gate was locked or not. I sort of jumped the fence?”

Eddie blinked at him. “You…jumped the fence.”

“Yeah? I mean, I don’t go around jumping into people’s fenced off property, but I thought Lucas had gotten hurt so I kind of reacted without thinking.” Steve ran his hand nervously through his hair. Eddie had eyes that were…wow. They’d probably be prettier if they weren’t glaring at Steve, sure, but Steve wouldn’t survive if Eddie’s eyes looked at him with the same softness he had when he had spoken to Max.

Eddie stomped over to the fence and hovered his hands over the top of it. Then down the side of it without ever actually touching the wood. Whatever it was that he was doing, it made his brow furrow. He looked back to the house, scowl still firmly in place.

“What are you doing?” Eddie asked loudly.

“Nothing!” Steve responded. He was literally just standing there, confused as hell.

“I’m not talking to you,” Eddie snapped at him, then returned his attention to the house. “You let him jump over like it was a regular fence? What are you up to, huh?”

Steve felt a retroactive burst of fear when he remembered electric fences existed. He felt stupid a split second later because the fence was the plain wooden plank kind. It wasn’t even a good wooden fence. Frankly, it looked about ready to collapse in on itself.

Steve was about to say so when he saw the house shiver. It shifted like a guilty child shuffled their feet.

“What the fuck,” Steve said instead. “What the fuck.”

Eddie let out a long sigh.

“Seriously, did you see–”

A captivating song flooded his senses. There was a brief moment of ‘this has happened before’ but it was washed away before Steve could grasp it. It wasn’t important. What mattered was that beautiful Eddie was singing his beautiful song.

“Go home, Steve,” Eddie said while the song swirled around them. “Forget.”

–

Steve threw his keys in the bowl kept near the entry. Far more gently, he took off his headphones, coiled them around his walkman, and set it next to the bowl. On the couch, Robin lounged and read one of her weird literature books. Clearly she was enjoying her day off. She looked up when Steve entered.

“Hey dingus, what took you so long?” she asked.

Normally, Steve’s morning run cleared his head. It helped him get ready and focused for the day. Today, though, Steve’s mind felt like a muddy puddle. He half wanted to go on another run but that probably wouldn’t have made a difference.

“Steve?” Robin asked. She wore a concerned expression. Steve realized that he hadn’t answered her question.

“Got turned around,” Steve mumbled.

“You got lost,” Robin said in disbelief. “On the run you’ve been doing every day since we moved here?”

Steve shrugged. “Some kid gave me directions, I guess? But I'm home now.”

He didn’t know why he said that last part out loud. It seemed important but obviously Robin could see he was home. Robin’s expression became even more concerned.

“Are you okay?” she asked. Steve nodded numbly. He didn’t want her to worry. There wasn’t any need for it. He was home now.

“Yeah, I’m just tired,” Steve said. “I think I’m gonna take a nap before work.”

“Okay, if you say so.”

Robin did not sound convinced but she let it go, much to Steve’s relief. He headed to his room. A nap would help him get his head straight.

#trensu tells stories #hawkins halfway house for homeless horrors #stranger things #steve harrington #lucas sinclair #erica sinclair #max mayfield #eddie munson #steddie #this is one scene of maybe four total #Eddie is a very stubborn guy so it takes him a while to warm up to steve okay #he'll get there eventually

[trensu]

Here is the second chapter of the newest installment in the Hawkins Halfway House series, which I've named Tradition on ao3. (I haven't posted this chapter on ao3 but it'll be up before end of day today, I promise) It's still gonna have the Hawkins Halfway House for Homeless Horrors tag here just to keep the tracking easier for you guys.

ETA: this has now been posted on ao3!

--

It was hard to meet people as a queer man in rural Indiana. Harder still when the ‘man’ part of that description was…malleable. As if that wasn’t enough of a challenge, it was far more difficult when the queer man in question wasn’t particularly interested in sex.

Sirens used what people would consider ‘sex appeal’ to attract humans but that was only because sailors, having spent months at sea surrounded by the same faces, tended to desire newer, prettier faces that could be convinced to warm their beds. A siren’s song created an illusion of something a human could not resist. Sirens themselves, as far as Eddie had learned, had no real sex drive and not only couldn't copulate with humans, but also didn’t procreate in a way humans would recognize.

Eddie, however, was a freak of magical happenstance so he really couldn’t tell if his own minimal sex drive was due to his siren heritage or if it was a trait uniquely Eddie. He didn’t mind kissing and petting his partners. He actually quite enjoyed it, but things got awkward when his chosen partner would start fumbling at the fastenings of his pants. He’d have to redirect their hands and attention elsewhere before they encountered something unusual.

In the end it didn’t really matter how Eddie came about his lack of sexual appetite. It always resulted with a lonely Eddie after his partners finally had enough of his reluctance and left him. So when a charming man with gorgeous eyes and kissable lips seemed perfectly happy with Eddie’s boundaries, Eddie was over the moon.

He had been such an idiot.

“I could do other things,” Eddie told the man shyly the first time they met, after taking the man’s hands from where they’d wandered to the fly of his pants and placing them back on his waist.

“I’m sure you could, baby,” the man said in a way that made Eddie shiver pleasantly. “But we don’t have to do anything at all if you’re not feeling it right now.”

Eddie scoffed.

“This is the whole reason people come to these clubs,” Eddie said with a roll of his eyes. He was lonely. He wanted company and some physical closeness. “Besides, I’m very good with my mouth.”

“With lips like those, I believe you, but I’d love to get to know someone as beautiful as you in other ways, too.”

“Yeah?” Eddie asked, surprised and stupidly susceptible to flattery.

“Mmhm. I’m Billy. Why don’t I give you my number and we can get together for coffee tomorrow instead?” Billy smiled, all gleaming white teeth and fluttery lashes.

How could Eddie say no to that?

So, because Eddie was lonely and dumb, he said yes. They went for coffee, during which Eddie was the center of Billy’s undivided attention. When Billy asked him out to dinner, Eddie said yes. Their pretty waitress spent the whole time flirting with Billy, but all of Billy’s sweet words were given to Eddie. When Billy invited Eddie to his place for a movie night, Eddie said yes.

Halfway through the movie, when Eddie was in Billy’s lap, kissed breathless and squirming, Eddie decided he would say yes when Billy’s hands wandered. Instead, Eddie’s muscles locked when Billy tried for the button of Eddie’s jeans. Billy pulled back to look at him and Eddie squeezed his eyes shut.

“No, it’s fine,” Eddie said.

He could weave a subtle little song so Billy wouldn’t see anything out of the ordinary. Sure, he hadn’t sung since he was a teenager, but it must be instinctual to him as a siren, right? He could make it work.

He could make sure Billy enjoyed himself. Then Billy would continue to hold him and shower him with honeyed words. They could keep having dinner dates and movie nights and things would be fine. Good. Maybe even better.

“Go ahead,” Eddie insisted.

“Baby, do you want to?” Billy asked, voice soft and coaxing. Eddie wanted to say yes. He’d done sexual stuff before and enjoyed it well enough. He could figure this out, too, and enjoy it. Probably. If he had to.

“It’ll be fun,” Eddie said. For you, it’ll be fun for you was better left unsaid. Billy didn’t move. Eddie tried to dip into another kiss to break the sudden awkward atmosphere. Billy’s hands cupped his face, halting him midway.

“Eddie, look at me,” Billy said.

Hesitantly, Eddie did as he was told. He liked to believe that Billy’s beautiful blue eyes reflected the color of the ocean Billy grew up alongside. Not that Eddie would know; he’d never been near any oceans. Eddie loved having Billy’s ocean eyes on him, normally. Now he was afraid to see them dim in disappointment.

“We don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do,” Billy said. He sounded so sincere, Eddie cringed. Billy said that now, but would he say it again in three days? In two weeks? Months later? Better to break his own heart now, Eddie thought.

“What if I never want to?” Eddie asked through a lump in his throat.

“Then we never will and I get to keep you as my boyfriend,” Billy said with his charming smile.

“Boyfriend?” Eddie asked, stunned. Billy’s smile grew wider.

“Yeah. That alright with you?”

And foolish, needy Eddie laughed out a yes and pulled beautiful Billy into a kiss.

After that, Eddie began slipping vague details about himself into their conversations where before he had been reticent. He told Billy how he worked at a community center that helped the disenfranchised.

“Where’s the community center? Would I know it?”

“Nah, it’s a tiny nonprofit out of town.”

Eddie told him about his annual fishing trips with his uncle.

“I used to go fishing with my dad. Where did you go for it? Maybe we’ve bumped into each other before.”

“No, you probably wouldn’t have seen me. We switch it up every year to keep things interesting,” Eddie lied through his teeth.

They always went to Lake Michigan, but it was a special time with his uncle. As smitten as he was, he didn’t want to have to share those moments with Billy. At least not yet, Eddie had thought to himself, maybe a couple years down the line. Instead, he distracted Billy by telling him about Jeff, his best friend since childhood.

“That must be nice. I never had one of those. When did you guys meet? Was it here?”

“Man, I don’t even remember. It was so long ago! We must’ve met through family friends or something since I was homeschooled for a while,” Eddie half-lied.

He had been homeschooled when he hadn’t yet learned how to wear a more human guise, but he remembered perfectly the circumstances under which he and Jeff met. Jeff had been the first person to ever say Eddie’s name right. It had taken him a few tries, but he’d nailed it in the end. That wasn’t something Eddie would ever forget.

Eddie was so pleased by how eager Billy was to learn more about him. He asked questions about every tidbit of information Eddie slipped him. Eddie believed Billy was genuinely interested in him. He was too charmed to ever take note of the kinds of questions Billy would specifically ask.

Two months after their first encounter, Billy showed up to their dinner date wearing something new. It was a cheap ball chain necklace. From it hung what looked to Eddie like the end of a cat’s teaser toy. The feathers, however, looked nothing like the brightly colored plastic ones found on those toys. They looked like real wing feathers, with strong, black shafts and well-groomed vanes and barbs. The feathers were a very dark red.

“My little sister made it for me,” Billy said when he caught Eddie looking.

“You have a sister? You’ve never mentioned her,” Eddie said, surprised that it hadn't come up before. Billy nodded easily.

“She’s a lot younger than me. I get overprotective,” Billy said with a laugh. “Half the time, people assume she’s my kid. She hates it.”

“Will I get to meet her?” Eddie asked hopefully. “I’m great with kids.”

“I don’t know,” Billy said teasingly. “Will I get to meet your family, too?”

Eddie, senseless in his infatuation, said yes.

He was met with resistance from the start. He figured Uncle Wayne would be reluctant because he was a solitary man; he was never really comfortable around new people. He didn’t expect Jeff, his oldest friend, to flatly refuse.

“Why not?” Eddie balked, stung by the rejection. Jeff shook his head.

“I don’t like him,” he said.

“You haven’t even met him yet,” Eddie pouted.

“No, but that shirt you wore the other day was his, wasn’t it?”

“What does that have to do with anything?” Eddie asked, exasperated.

“It had a stink on it,” Jeff said.

“What, you don’t like his detergent?” Eddie asked, purposely obtuse.

“You know that’s not what I mean,” Jeff said irritably.

“Then be more specific! Was he born under an unlucky star? Is he possessed by a malevolent spirit? What did you get from the goddamn shirt, Jeff?”

“I don’t know! I don’t know what it was but it wasn’t good, and I don’t like it,” Jeff raised his voice. Jeff never raised his voice.

“For all you know, he could’ve just bumped into someone that got themselves cursed. You know that shit clings,” Eddie said. Jeff was one of the most amiable people Eddie knew. He didn’t understand where this was coming from, and it hurt. “C’mon, Jeff. Just this one time? He’s important to me and he wants to meet you because he knows you’re my best friend.”

“No, Eddy,” Jeff said, almost sadly, but not relenting even an inch. It pissed Eddie off.

“Fine,” Eddie spat. “Fine! Then you can be on babysitting duty while he’s visiting instead.”

“You’re bringing him here?” Jeff asked, appalled.

“Yes! Just because you don’t want to meet him doesn’t mean he shouldn’t get to meet Chrissy and Uncle Wayne.”

“Dustin and El live here. They still can’t keep their human shapes consistently! You’re going to let some random human–”

“He’s not a random human! He’s my boyfriend,” Eddie interrupted. “But I’m not an idiot, Jeff, of course I’m not going to let him see Dustin and El. They’ll be upstairs while he’s here. House can hide the upper level from him easily. And since you’ll be watching them, there shouldn’t be a problem.”

Jeff had conceded with a scowl. He made sure to tell Eddie he was doing it for the kids. Eddie had sneered at him. The two didn’t speak for the days leading up to the planned dinner. It was the longest fight they’d ever had.

When Billy visited for dinner, House looked like a small, cozy one-story home. Billy was his usual charming self. He wore the necklace his sister had given him that popped nicely against the light button-down he’d worn for the occasion. He’d brought Eddie flowers and some cupcakes from the local bakery as a dessert to share as well.

Uncle Wayne didn’t speak much, but that wasn’t unusual for him. Between Eddie and Chrissy, they were able to keep conversation flowing throughout dinner. After Billy left for the night, Eddie had eagerly asked two of his most favorite people what they thought of him.

“He smiles an awful lot,” Wayne said.

“Yeah,” Eddie sighed like a sap. He didn’t notice the suspicious, unhappy slant to Wayne’s mouth. Chrissy’s smile, when he asked her, was wobbly but he hadn’t noticed that either.

“Does he make you happy, Eddy?” she asked him. Eddie nodded, tugging a lock of hair over his face to hide his lovestruck smile.

“He does, Chris,” Eddie confessed. “He really, really does.”

That time he did see how her expression wobbled. She threw her arms around him in a tight hug. They stood there for a minute, swaying in the quiet.

“I don’t know about him, Eddy,” Chrissy said, tightening her grip when he tried to pull back. “I love you so much. I want you to be happy. I don’t know about him, but I trust you.”

At the time, the brief sting of Chrissy’s doubt was easily assuaged by her faith in him. He felt relieved and hopeful. Much later, he got sick with shame whenever he remembered that conversation.

#hawkins halfway house for homeless horrors #hhh: tradition #trensu tells stories #i added a new tag specific for this fic of the hawkins halfway house series #just to help differentiate it from the original story

[trensu]

Hey, who wants to see a deleted scene from ch6 of A Series of Forgettable Events? No? Nobody? Too bad!! I'm sharing it anyway! I just really liked it and I was sad I couldn't fit it in the fic without disrupting the flow of the story. As far as I'm concerned, this is part of the Hawkins Halfway House 'verse canon. Enjoy!

--

It had been two days since his car broke down and he met Wayne and Eddie. They had invited him over for dinner, which was so kind of them. If anything, Steve should’ve been the one to treat them to dinner for all their help with his car. Instead, he baked them a pie last night.

Technically he baked them four pies.

Four pies had not been the original plan.

He made a simple, classic apple pie because who didn’t like apple pie? And the apples had been on sale! However, when he pulled the pie out of the oven, it struck him that apple pies were, well, kind of boring. Plain. And what if the Munsons didn’t like apples? To be safe, he would bake a second pie! There had to be cherry filling somewhere in the pantry.

He remembered, as he left the cherry pie to cool, that Robin hated cherry pie because the cherries weirded her out. (“One day I thought, hey, it’s kind of like an eyeball,” Robin had shuddered. “And ever since, anytime I eat cherry pie, I feel like I’m chewing eyeballs. It’s awful.”). What if the Munsons were weirded out by cherries? Thank goodness he’d found pumpkin filling in the pantry while searching for the cherry.

Then Robin came home with fresh rhubarb one of their neighbors gave her on the way in…

(“You are, like, the worst combination of people pleaser and daddy issues,” Robin said when Steve had pulled the third pie out of their dinky oven.

“Why do you always say things in the absolute worst way possible?”

“My other option was to call you insane–because you are–but that just didn’t have enough pizzazz.” Robin went so far as to do some jazz hands, but Steve had ignored her to stick the rhubarb pie in the oven.)

Insane. Steve was insane and he didn’t want to look insane visiting the Munsons. In the end, Robin decided for them both: pumpkin pie for the coworkers, apple pie for the neighbors, and the rhubarb pie for themselves. Cherry would go to the Munsons.

That had been the plan when he woke up this morning, but he’d rolled out of bed strangely agitated. Throughout the whole morning, he kept grabbing his keys to head over to the Munsons, not really thinking much of it until his hand was on the doorknob. Then he’d remember that it was barely midmorning and nowhere near dinnertime.

They had invited him over for dinner, right? Maybe he should show up earlier. Just in case. If he was wrong, he could at least bribe them with free pie! Who says no to free pie?

Shit, maybe he should've made a cake instead.

#hawkins halfway house for homeless horrors #trensu tells stories #steve harrington #robin buckley #steve & robin #stranger things #i really did like this scene #it's a little one so it shouldn't matter so much #but i tried so hard to fit it in and it just wouldn't work!!! #i was all bummed out and resigned about it never seeing the light of day #then i remembered i could just make a random tumblr post about it! #now i can rest easy lol

[trensu]

The third chapter to Hawkins Halfway House: Tradition is here! I posted it earlier on ao3 if you prefer to read it there. if you prefer tumblr reading, then you can catch up with this specific fic through my hhh: tradition tag or the overall series in my hawkins halfway house for homeless horros tag.

The week after dinner at House, Eddie went to Billy’s apartment for a family dinner and met Max for the first time. There wasn’t much of a family resemblance, Eddie noted, but Billy had mentioned she was from his father’s second marriage so he hadn’t thought much of it at the time. Max was small, pale, and quiet. Billy had to nudge her to introduce herself. She stumbled a bit under his hand, before righting herself.

“Hi, I’m Max,” Max mumbled in a sullen tone. Billy rolled his eyes and scrubbed his hand roughly over her hair. She winced, and endured it.

“This one, I tell you,” Billy said. His smile was wide and gleaming as always. “Maxine Hargrove. Don’t take her mood personally, babe. She’s just a cute little grump, aren’t you Maxine?”

Her wince morphed to a scowl, but said nothing.

“That’s alright,” Eddie reassured. He stuck out his hand to shake. “Hey, Max. I’m Eddie.”

Max blinked in surprise. She made no move to take Eddie’s hand.

“Maxine,” Billy said, annoyed. “Manners.” 

She glared at Billy but took Eddie’s hand and muttered, “Nice to meet you.”

“Go wash up for dinner, but be fast about it,” Billy told her. “Don’t make Eddie wait.”

Dinner was awkward, but Eddie had been expecting that, so he happily chatted about anything and everything. He figured eventually he’d stumble on a topic that would interest the kid. He wanted Billy’s sister to like him. He didn’t have much luck on that front during their first dinner. Or their second, or even their third.

Eddie had tried not to feel discouraged by Max’s ambivalence. Kids normally took to him more easily than that so it was a bit of a blow to his ego, but nothing that would keep him from trying again. That being said, he really didn’t know how long it would’ve taken if it hadn’t been for the feathers.

Eddie insisted their next date be a trip to the arcade with Max. Billy had grumbled but conceded when Eddie hammed it up by batting his eyes at him. Eddie whooped in victory and he could’ve sworn Max had smiled at his antics for a split second.

The arcade had been noisy and full of flashy lights like any other arcade. Eddie had eagerly led Billy and Max to his favorite games and taught them how to play. Billy went along with it but it had been obvious he was bored. Max, on the other hand, took to it like a duck to water. She all but glued herself to Dig Dug.

“We should hit up the skeeball in the back, next,” Eddie said excitedly when Max finally lost the game. “Jeff and I used to play against each other and I lost to him almost every time. It’s still mega fun!”

Max had ignored him to add another quarter to Dig Dug and continue her game. 

“Maxine,” Billy said with obvious annoyance, “Listen to you betters and stop acting like a brat.”

He grabbed Max to yank her roughly away from the game. Max yelped in either surprise or pain but did not struggle in Billy’s grasp. Eddie was startled enough by the exchange to intervene

“Billy,” he’d said, unconsciously putting himself between the two siblings. “You and I can play some pinball instead and keep an eye on her. It’s not a big deal.”

Eddie gave Max some more quarters, and placed a calming hand to Billy’s chest to maneuver him to the pinball machine two consoles down from Dig Dug. For a while, it hadn’t been a big deal. They each played their own games with Eddie looking over at Max every once in a while to make sure she was still safe and happy. 

Then one of the other kids in the arcade got impatient waiting for her to lose at Dig Dug. They started to squabble when he sabotaged her game, and it escalated to shoving. It was rough enough that she banged up against the game opposite them. 

Max picked herself up furiously. That was when Eddie saw it. Dark red feathers had sprouted along her hairline. She raised a hand to strike the kid, who had already turned away to start playing Dig Dug. Her hand had dark, wickedly curved claws. 

Eddie reacted quickly. He slipped off his jacket and threw it over Max. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and started to speak soothingly to her as he guided her away from the noise and the crowd. Max squirmed under his arm but he held firm to keep her steady without hurting her. Eddie had been herding them to a secluded booth. Billy showed up at his elbow.

“To the car,” Billy growled, eyes darting around to see if anyone was watching them. 

Eddie nodded and the three of them ended up in Billy’s Camaro. Billy slammed the driver’s door closed behind him, but Eddie paid it no attention as he slid into the backseat with Max. Eddie carefully unbundled Max from his jacket. Max scooted as far from Eddie as possible the moment she was free. Eddie didn’t try to stop her.

“You’re safe,” Eddie reassured her. “I got to you before anyone could see.”

“That was stupid, Maxine,” Billy said with a scowl. “You know what happens when you do shit like that.”

Max hunched her shoulders defensively.

“I didn’t do it on purpose,” she glowered.

“Billy, c’mon, man,” Eddie said. “She’s a kid. Kids can’t always keep their human faces on. It’s not her fault.”

“You’re taking this well, Eddie,” Billy said, eyes flicking up to look at Eddie through the rearview mirror. 

Eddie had been so caught up in damage control, he was only now struck with the implications of the entire situation. Max wasn’t human. Billy was aware of this. Was he something other than human as well?

“I’ve seen weirder stuff,” Eddie said cautiously. “Are you two…phoenixes?”

“I’m a hundred percent human,” Billy replied with a gleaming grin.

“So Max is a phoenix? From her mother’s side, I assume?”

Max glances up to the rearview mirror to meet Billy’s eye. Eddie figured she was trying to gauge if Billy thought Eddie was safe to know their secret. At the time, he didn’t question the act of silent communication between the siblings. He’d even thought it was sweet that they could rely on each other. Whatever she read in Billy’s expression made her glare at Eddie.

“So what?” 

Eddie met her scowl with his most dazzling grin.

“So nothing! I’ve never met a phoenix before,” Eddie said cheerfully. “I thought you were all extinct. It’s awesome that you aren't.”

Max clearly hadn’t expected such a positive reaction. She didn’t appear to know how to respond. Eddie carried most of the conversation, with Max contributing occasionally but only after checking with Billy. He learned that they didn’t know any other phoenixes. Max had been home-schooled for her safety so she hadn’t been given the opportunity to interact with other children much. Going to the arcade had been one of the few times Billy deemed it safe enough to go in crowds with her.

“And look how that turned out,” Billy had said stiltedly. 

“We had fun and no one saw anything,” Eddie replied affably. “I’d say it went great.”

By the time they reached Billy’s apartment, Max was less wary but still not completely at ease which Eddie thought was reasonable. Her feathers and claws had disappeared which had been Eddie’s primary goal anyway. Max ran to her room the minute they got into the apartment, slamming her door loudly behind her. Eddie lingered at the apartment door.

“I should probably go home,” Eddie said. “Give you guys a chance to wind down from all that.”

“I’m sorry our date got ruined, baby,” Billy said, leaning close and tucking Eddie’s hair behind his ear. His hand cupped Eddie’s cheek. Eddie leaned into the touch.

“It’s fine,” Eddie quickly reassured him. Then he did the stupidest thing of all. “You know, if you’d like to give Max a chance to spend time with kids her age, maybe you two can come over to mine. I know a couple of kids who’d love to meet her and won’t freak out over some feathers.”

The hand at his cheek trailed down to grip his jaw. Eddie found himself pulled into a bruising, close-lipped kiss. When Billy pulled back, a slow triumphant smile graced his features, making him all the more beautiful. Eddie’s heart skipped a beat as it always did when Billy smiled at him.

“You’re too good to us, Eddie,” Billy said. Eddie melted at his words because he was a smitten moron.

Over the next few weeks, Billy and Max came over to visit Eddie several times. House didn’t hide from fellow supernatural creatures so the Hargroves got to see it in all its splendor from their very first visit together. To Eddie’s delight, Max quickly befriended El and Dustin. El hadn’t quite mastered her human form yet, so more often than not she’d piggyback Max in her black, sludge-like form, speaking quietly as they went about their games. Max would act bored and exasperated whenever Dustin espoused his myriad animal facts but she would make snarky comments that showed she'd paid attention and remembered all the stuff Dustin told her.

Eddie only ever had Billy and Max visit when he knew Jeff wasn’t around. Chrissy would make herself scarce whenever they came over. Uncle Wayne treated Max as kindly as he did any of the other kids, but he kept conversations with Billy short and distant. Eddie didn't let himself get too bothered by this; he knew they'd come around once they got to know Billy better.

While the children entertained themselves, Eddie would cuddle up close to Billy to watch TV in the living room. If the kids were playing outside, they’d spend long quiet moments kissing deeply. Eddie almost always ended up pulling Billy down on top of him to enjoy the solid weight of Billy’s warm body pressing him into the couch. It was nice. Good. Eddie was the happiest he’d ever been in a relationship.

He should have known something was wrong. House never kicked them out, but if Eddie hadn’t been so enamored, he would have noticed that whenever the Hargroves were there, doors tended to stick a little, and the TV and radio would get occasional flares of static. House reacted to their presence, even if it wasn’t as aggressive and loud as it had been with visitors it didn’t like. He never thought anything of it.

It went out of his mind entirely when Billy asked him to watch Max. It was the first time he’d asked Eddie to spend time alone with Max. Eddie was thrilled.

“My buddies invited me camping next weekend. I wasn’t planning on going. I didn’t want to leave Max alone and obviously I can’t bring her along,” Billy explained. “But I haven't seen them in a long time. I thought since she likes spending time with the kids here so much and you’re so good with her, maybe…”

“Yeah,” Eddie blurted. “Yeah, of course! El and Dustin will be stoked to spend the weekend with Max.”

Billy flashed him his bright white grin. 

“I knew I could count on you, babe.”

The week leading up to it, he spent nearly every evening with the Hargrove siblings. He ran by his ideas for weekend activities with both of them. He suggested movies, crafts, and even some physical activities like a swim in a pond Eddie liked in particular. He really wanted the weekend to be fun for all the kids.

Max got quieter as the week progressed. Her responses became more curt. She retreated to her room earlier and earlier. Eddie assumed she was nervous to be away from her brother for so long.

“Kid, you'll be having so much fun, you won't even notice Billy’s gone,” Eddie insisted cheerfully. 

She shrugged off his attempts at comfort, and clenched her jaw shut against any response Eddie may have wanted to hear. So Eddie backed off. He convinced himself she would be fine once the weekend came around. 

Eddie hated himself for his self-delusion.

#trensu tells stories #hawkins halfway house for homeless horrors #hhh: tradition #in which billy continues to be a manipulative bastard but at least max is here now #things will get better for our eddie eventually #i promise

[trensu]

an excerpt of the newest chapter of the halfway house fic based on this past post. Enjoy :)

“Steve, come get your furry little menace! He’s chewing up my laces again,” Robin grumbled.

“Maybe if your laces are ruined, you’ll finally buy a new pair of shoes,” Steve snarked. Steve walked to the living room to find Robin attempting to tie her old Converse only to snatch back her hands every time the kitten took a swipe at the laces in question. “He’s just a baby. He wants to play.”

“He can get his own laces to play with, then. And there’s nothing wrong with my shoes. I’m not going to go buy new shoes when these are perfectly functional. And my favorite color.”

Steve scooped the kitten up even as he kept reaching for the laces and cuddled him to his chest. Steve rubbed gently behind the kitten’s ears until the kitten relaxed into tiny purrs.

“What do you think, Dustin? Should Robin get new shoes? Raise your paw if you agree with me,” Steve said. He lifted the kitten’s right paw and waved it a bit, making the kitten squirm. “See, he agrees with me.”

Robin snorted and rolled her eyes at his teasing smile. “I still can’t believe you named him Dustin.”

The kitten chose that moment to start climbing up Steve’s shirt to reach his shoulder. His tiny claws pricked at Steve’s skin through the thin fabric but they were so small, they barely hurt at all. Steve laughed as the kitten settled on his shoulder and began to mew at the top of his lungs.

“It’s not my fault he looks like a Dustin,” Steve insisted. When he brought the kitten home two days ago, Robin tried to name him something else but Steve put his foot down about it. He found the kitten, and he thought the kitten was a Dustin, so no other name was allowed. 

Dustin let out another mew so loud he nearly toppled over. Steve pulled him off his shoulder with an amused huff. Dustin wriggled incessantly in his hands. Steve lost his grip on him but thankfully he had gotten him close enough to the ground by then that the fall was negligible to a cat.

“Okay, okay, we’ll play for a little while, you needy baby.”

He and Robin were waiting for payday to run to the pet store for more supplies. They were lucky that their neighbor across the hall had an old litter box that her cat had outgrown, and a couple of spare food bowls. She had even given them a few cans of wet food, cooing over the kitten all the while. Dustin, apparently, was a charming little guy. He obviously took after Steve. Robin had punched him on the arm when he said as much.

In the meantime, they were using old bits of string and a little orange ball Robin had stolen back when they worked at a mini-golf place. The kitten seemed to enjoy them well enough but Steve planned on getting him fancier playthings and some catnip. He rolled the ball across the floor and the kitten chased after it. He pounced on it, wobbly, which sent the ball rolling again for another chase. Steve laughed. Robin giggled along with him.

“He’s lucky he’s adorable. Otherwise we’d be having problems, him and I,” Robin said with a grin. Her mischievous demeanor softened slightly. “I’m glad you found him, you big old softie. Now you can stop moping so much.”

Steve ducked away when she reached to ruffle his hair. 

“Yeah, yeah,” Steve said, lightheartedly. “Maybe if I do a good job with him, someone will finally let me have a kid.” 

The kitten had apparently gotten bored of the ball and was attempting to climb up the back of the couch. Steve quickly grabbed him so he would damage the upholstery. He booped the kitten’s nose.

“What do you think, baby? Will I be a good dad? Be honest.”

Dustin grabbed his finger and gnawed at it while making the most precious sounds. A purring mew.  Steve’s heart melted; though from what he had read, he really shouldn’t let Dustin get accustomed to using his hands as playthings.

Steve resigned himself to losing half his paycheck to cat toys.

Continue on Ao3

ps: i do not do reader tag lists or whatever those things are called. i tag all my writing with 'trensu tells stories' so please just follow that tag if you wanna keep up with my stuff, thank you

#trensu tells stories #hawkins halfway house for homeless horrors #stranger things #steddie #buckingham #(at least the full chapter on ao3 has that ship; it didn't quite make it in this excerpt) #not my favorite chapter tbh #like it's fine #but i feel like some parts got kinda clunky maybe #i'm already mostly done with the fifth chapter i think #though depending on how i tie that one up i might split it into two chapters #i haven't decided yet #i'll be glad when i'm done with it #i have so many unposted wips i could be working on #you know i haven't touched my st/tma fusion fic in MONTHS?? #and that's the one i really really wanna finish!! #it's been kind of a daunting project though #so as you can tell #i've been distracting myself with other wips

[trensu]

Chapter 4 of HHH: Tradition! Things get tense in this one. I will be posting it on ao3 later today. The chapter is now up on ao3, if you prefer to read it there.

Billy dropped Max off after dinner on Friday. Things started out awkwardly. Max was unusually tense and taciturn. El and Dustin, however, were both determined to get Max into the spirit of things. When Eddie presented the selection he’d rented from Family Video, they let Max pick out the first movie to start their All Night Movie Marathon–named so by Dustin, though not once had he or El ever successfully stayed awake the whole night. 

Max picked The Rescuers Down Under and El picked Thumbelina. Dustin couldn’t make up his mind, so Eddie told him to decide after watching the movies the girls picked. El clung to Max the entire evening while Dustin goaded Max with his constant commentary throughout the movies. 

“I could totally shift into that bird,” Dustin bragged.

“But you are small,” El said with concern. “Would you become an egg?”

“No!” Dustin exclaimed.

Max cackled. “Dustin the egghead!”

“Shut up, I wouldn’t be an egg!”

Between Dustin’s antics and El’s sweet disposition, they had successfully gotten Max to relax and enjoy herself. It was a relief, even if it was at Dustin’s expense. It was healthy ribbing, in Eddie’s opinion; Dustin’s ego went wild when it wasn't kept in check.

Halfway through Thumbelina, they had all fallen asleep sprawled on the couch together as Eddie had expected. Eddie carefully carried Dustin to his room, and just as carefully carried Max to her designated room after. El woke up a bit when Eddie tried to move her upstairs.

“Max said I could stay in her under-the-bed” El mumbled, barely conscious.

El nearly always stayed under Dustin’s bed rather than in her own bedroom at night. Eddie couldn’t tell if it was a fear of abandonment or if it was a Monster-Under-the-Bed trait that El preferred to be under occupied beds. Either way, it was a harmless enough request.

“You don’t want to stay in Dustin’s under-the-bed?” Eddie whispered gently, just to make sure. The sludgy pool that was El quivered in a way that Eddie and the rest figured out long ago meant no.

“Billy is gone,” El said softly. “She might be lonely.”

Eddie gave El a squeeze where she oozed in his arms. She was the most endearing kid Eddie had ever met. It hurt to think about how the world at large would react if she ever revealed herself to it.

He helped her slip under the bed even though El was capable of doing it herself. She slipped under one thing only to reappear under a completely different thing on the other side of House all the time. After making sure everyone was settled in, Eddie put himself to bed, too.

Saturday started with pancakes, followed by a hike deep in the woods where human hikers wouldn’t dare venture. Max had emptied out her backpack so that El could join them without having to endure too much sun exposure. Dustin had almost immediately shifted into his mountain lion cub shape. The hike ended up being an amalgamation of chase, hide and seek, and explorer games rather than a regular hike. It easily became an all day event until tummies started rumbling mid-afternoon after they'd run out of snacks. The four of them trudged back to House to eat a late lunch. 

Eddie lamented Chrissy and Uncle Wayne being away on an outreach mission since they were the ones who could cook a good meal. He and Jeff mostly muddled through the task when they were gone. However, Jeff still avoided him more often than not over the whole Billy situation which left Eddie tasked with feeding the kiddos by himself. 

His attempt resulted in sandwiches. There was a very meaty sandwich for Dustin, who was always more carnivorous after a mountain lion shift. Dustin hadn’t yet learned to make a full set of human teeth so he gnawed at his sandwich with mismatched human and cub teeth. Meanwhile, Max, who never ate much, got a simple PB&J. She, fittingly, ate like a bird, tearing up her food into small morsels and picking at them bit by bit. 

As for El, nobody knew what kind of sustenance she actually consumed. She treated food like eating was an interesting experiment rather than a necessity, and never appeared to experience actual hunger. In this case, Max handed her bits of her sandwich that El dutifully inspected before letting it sink entirely into her sludge body. Dustin tossed strips of lunch meat in the air so El had to whip out a tendril to catch them. Eddie, who was a rebel at heart even as an adult in his thirties, let them have fun with their meal. 

After they had eaten, it was family game time.

“We can play Connect Four!” Dustin said. 

“That’s only for two players, doofus,” Max rolled her eyes at Dustin.

“Candyland? More players,” El suggested timidly.

“That game’s for babies,” Max sneered.

“But…colors are pretty,” El said in a hurt tone that made Max scowl and squirm guiltily though she made no move to apologize.

“Let’s play Mousetrap,” Eddie chimed in to defuse the tension. “That one has lots of colors, too, El, and enough little mice for everyone.”

After a few rounds of Mousetrap, they switched to Uno. When that got a little heated, they took turns playing Connect Four. Then, it was bedtime again. Surprisingly, Max suggested they sleep in the living room with sleeping bags like an indoor camping trip. Dustin excitedly agreed. El hesitated. 

“I cannot fit under the sleeping bag,” she said sadly. “I do not want to sleep upstairs by myself.”

Before Eddie could tell her she could stay under his bed so she wouldn't be lonely, Max butt in as if she had expected this.

“Just sleep under the couch. We'll pretend it's a sleeping bag. I can stay next to you,” she said.

With that decided, Eddie got them their sleeping bags and plenty of extra blankets and pillows. El slid under the couch and Max arranged her sleeping bag so close that the edge of it actually tucked under the couch a little bit. Dustin lay his sleeping bag on the other side of Max, grumbling all the while that he wanted to be next to El, too.

“Dusty,” Eddie said, knowing how much the nickname ruffled Dustin’s sometimes real feathers. He hoped to draw Dustin's grumbling to himself. “You get to have El around all the time. Let Max have a turn.”

“Yeah, Dusty.”

Eddie mentally sighed. He should've seen that one coming. With a screech, Dustin shifted to a feline shape–thankfully of the housecat variety rather than any kind of big cat–and went at Max, claws first. Eddie was well practiced at catching felines by now.

“Ope,” Edde grunted, catching Dustin mid-leap before he could get at Max. “Not today, kitty cat. We're going to play nice, so Billy will let Max come over again in the future. Got it?”

Dustin and Max glowered at each other for a few seconds longer. Finally, cat-Dustin looked away with a conspicuous yawn. He meowed loudly at Eddie. Eddie got the hint and dropped Dustin into his pile of blankets where he started to knead them. His purring was obnoxiously loud as if he were making a show of how unbothered he was about the confrontation. 

Once they were settled, Eddie came up with bedtime stories on the spot until they had all drifted off. He stuck around a good hour after the kids had gone to sleep, half to make sure they were indeed sleeping soundly and half to pick up the discarded games and to clean the dining table of any stray crumbs or sticky residue from their meal earlier. 

He checked in on the kids once more before going upstairs to his bedroom where he tiredly took off his shirt and pulled on some pajama pants. Taking care of kids all day was exhausting. He fell asleep almost before his head hit the pillow.

Slightly before midnight, Eddie woke up to the sensation of something cool and viscous curling cautiously around his wrist that hung over the side of the bed. He muffled a sleepy groan in his pillow before dragging himself closer to the side of the bed. He reluctantly peeked over.

"El, we've talked about this," Eddie mumbled with as much patience as he could muster. "You can't go into people's bedrooms without asking. Those are private spaces so you gotta knock first."

Another tendril made an appearance to splat against one of the bedposts a couple of times. Even in his half-asleep state, Eddie’s lips twitched into a small smile at El’s efforts to abide by the rule. The tendril around his wrist gave a tiny tug, as El’s soft voice drifted up.

“Eddie,” she said. “Is a secret a lie?”

That caught his attention. Eddie sat up slowly to not to break the hold El had on his wrist. Eddie cleared his voice, partly to get rid of the roughness sleep brought but also to buy himself a few more seconds to think.

“Secrets are different from lies,” he replied, carefully. “Secrets can be good, like a surprise present, but some are bad.”

El was still under the bed though her grip on Eddie hadn’t slackened. She quietly mulled over Eddie’s words. Eddie had to bite his tongue hard to not immediately start asking questions. El needed time to process new information and rushing the process only made her nervous and confused. Eddie distracted himself by shoving the covers a round enough to bring his legs into a crisscross, hoping the movement would wake his mind up quicker.

“What is a bad secret?” El asked, voice dropping to a whisper at the words ‘bad secret.’

“Uh, it depends?” Eddie said, biding time for his brain to catch up. That was a more abstract question than Eddie was prepared to answer after being woken in the middle of the night. However, there must have been a reason El woke him up to ask him at this hour. “I think keeping bad secrets makes you feel…bad. Like sad or scared. Maybe angry, too. How does your secret make you feel?”

“...scared.”

“You wanna tell me about it?,” Eddie asked. “You can come up on my bed if you want and we can talk.”

After a moment’s hesitation, El oozed out from under the bed and squirmed on top. She gathered into a nervous puddle on the mussed sheets in front of Eddie. Eddie twirled his fingers around the tendril El had on him into a facsimile of a handhold. El looped her tendril more securely on his fingers.

“I won’t be mad,” Eddie said. “I just want to help, okay?”

“Promise?” El’s voice wobbled.

Eddie crossed his heart. “I promise.”

“Max wants to run away,” El said nervously.  

“What?” Eddie asked sharply. El rippled back, tendril going loose and pulling away. Eddie immediately wanted to smack himself. “No, no, it’s okay! I’m not mad. I’m just, uh, surprised. What did Max say, exactly?”

“She said we will get hurt. She is angry because we want to stay.”

Edde felt a jolt of fear run through him, though he did his best to maintain a calm exterior to not frighten El. Why would Max think they’d be hurt here? Had he done something to make her feel unsafe? He thought they’d been getting along well.

“Are they still downstairs?” Eddie asked. 

“Yes.”

“Okay, good. We can go and let Max know that House will keep us safe,” Eddie said. “Do you want to come with me?”

“No,” El said, seeping onto the floor and creeping back under Eddie’s bed. “I can go to under-the-couch by myself.”

Once she was fully under the bed, Eddie pulled on a hoodie. He practically tiptoed towards the living room to avoid startling the kids. As he made his way downstairs, he heard hissed, angry whispers going back and forth between Max and Dustin.

“If you use a small shape, you can fit in my backpack with El,” Max insisted. “We have to go now.” 

“No,” Dustin said mulishly. “We can’t leave Eddie and Jeff! And what about when Chrissy and Uncle Wayne come back?”

“They don’t matter,” Max said angrily. “The grown-ups don’t care! We have to go!”

“Eddie cares!” Dustin’s whisper was more of a stifled screech, mortally offended on Eddie’s behalf.

“Whatever! We have to leave, come on.” Max was also raising her voice now. Eddie walked softly into the living room.

“Hey, guys,” Eddie interrupted. “It’s getting kind of loud here. Everything alright?”

“Max is trying to make us run away!” Dustin tattled at once, pointing at Max accusingly.

“Shut up!” Max snapped back. “He’s lying! We’re playing, leave us alone.”

“Okay, sure, but you said something that made El feel a little scared. Can we talk about that first?”

Max turned to stare at El, who had crept out from underneath the couch, in betrayal.

“You told him?”

“Eddie helps,” El said meekly. 

When Max whirled around to face Eddie, she looked furious. Eddie hadn’t learned yet that when Max felt scared, she became angry and aggressive. Max stared him down, body tense.

“She’s right, Max. I just want to help. Let’s talk about this,” Eddie coaxed.

Eddie kept his posture open and his voice relaxed which he learned, through trial and error, helped calm down all sorts of situations. He also made sure to maintain a full view of all the kids and in case Max decided to try to book it. Max glared at him as if aware of what Eddie was doing.

“No,” she snapped.

“Okay,” Eddie placated. “That’s alright, but I want you to know you’re safe here. House doesn’t let anyone in that would hurt us.”

Max scoffed.

“House doesn’t do shit.”

El and Dustin gasped in shock. Eddie was suprised, too. Max had never spoken like that to him. He couldn’t dwell on that for long, though. Max had sprouted feathers again, more than he’d seen before, and her claws appeared. The skin not covered in feathers looked dried out and gray as her face twisted in fury.

“Me and Billy come here all the time and House doesn’t do anything,” Max shouted.

As she spoke, a wind started blowing through the house, not very strong at first but quickly gaining speed. Eddie hoped it wouldn’t wake Jeff, wherever he’d had House hide him this time.

“Max,” Eddie raised his voice to be heard over the wind. “Of course House didn’t do anything. You and Billy are our friends.”

“We’re not friends with monsters,” Max yelled at him, voice cracking. 

Max turned to Dustin and El. El clung to Dustin who had his arms wrapped tightly around her, El’s ichor almost dripping in his hold. Dustin, wide eyed with fear, kept looking from Eddie to Max, for once speechless. Max’s fury tinged with desperation as she begged them once more.

“You have to leave,” Max said. “I can–I can distract him.”

El trembled and Dustin jerkily shook his head. The wind was strong enough to start shoving around the furniture.

“Max, we don’t understand,” Eddie tried. “Please slow down and–”

Max screamed in frustration and launched herself claws first at Eddie, knocking him over. She tore through the hoodie like tissue paper, leaving thick gashes from his shoulder to his sternum. Eddie cursed at the pain. He took advantage of the proximity to wrap the struggling child in a firm hug. He hadn’t had to handle an out of control little Horror in a while, and he wasn’t prepared for this.

“Let me go, let me go!” Max screamed, flailing. 

“Max, please, I want to help,” Eddie said, almost desperately. 

Amidst the worry, Eddie was also confused as hell. Phoenixes were not aggressive creatures, from what he'd read and heard about them. When cornered, their most common escape tactic was a flare of flame to get enough space around them so they could fly away. They'd never simply launched themselves at a threat, and they rarely used their claws at weapons. Their strongest weapon and defense was fire. So why hadn't Max used her flames?

Another gust of wind made him nearly lose his footing. Details tumbled together in Eddie's mind. Wind. Feathers. Claws. Girl. He cursed himself for his stupidity. Max wasn't a phoenix at all. Max was a– 

“Aww, babe,” a voice from behind him said in a sadistically amused manner. “Is Maxine giving you a hard time?”

The wind stopped abruptly at the words and Max froze in Eddie’s hold.

Eddie’s first bewildered thought was: he came back early? Eddie’s second thought came on the heels of the first and made something cold trickle through his veins the longer he thought it: why did he barge in so late at night?

“Not enough of a hard time, it looks like,” Billy sneered. “What's the point of having a harpy if you don't do as you're told Maxine? You know what happens when you don't listen to me.”

Eddie turned to see behind, instinctively pulling the frozen child closer to himself. Billy stood in the foyer with a crossbow hefted on his shoulder. There were four other men entering House that Eddie didn’t recognize. All of them were wearing feathered necklaces and all too familiar shirts. Billy had cleared out a drawer for Eddie at his apartment, Eddie remembered with dread. Eddie had been so happy to fill it.

“Billy?” Eddie was ashamed of how his voice cracked on the name as he recalled Max’s words. How could he have been so blind?

“Hey, baby,” Billy said with a cruel twist to his lips. “Did you miss me?”

#trensu tells stories #hawkins halfway house for homeless horrors #hhh: tradition #billy's gonna get what's coming for him #i promise #we're just not there yet

[trensu]

Just FYI, I've posted to ao3 an xmas themed oneshot AND posted what I have for the next installment of hawkins halfway house. Here are some links for anyone interested:

A Mad Munson’s Xmas

Eddie flopped on his bed, completely and utterly stumped as to what to get Steve for Christmas. Steve could get anything he wanted. And what made matters worse, Steve never really expressed any actual wants. No new clothes, or accessories, or sports toys or anything else. Not that Eddie could afford to get him anything really good, even if Steve had mentioned wanting something.

Tradition

Steve made a pained face at the reminder of their rocky start. Eddie would’ve found it funny if he wasn't so nauseous. Eddie wanted to run. Unlike Max, his first instinct was always to run. But Max was the one at risk, and Steve was in the line of fire. Eddie steeled his nerves and told Steve the story.

#trensu tells stories #hawkins halfway house for homeless horrors

[trensu]

Chapters: 3/5 Fandom: Stranger Things (TV 2016) Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Steve Harrington/Eddie Munson, Robin Buckley & Steve Harrington, Robin Buckley/Chrissy Cunningham Characters: Steve Harrington, Eddie Munson, Robin Buckley, Jeff (Stranger Things), Dustin Henderson, Eleven | Jane Hopper, Lucas Sinclair, Erica Sinclair, Maxine "Max" Mayfield Additional Tags: Pre-Slash, Kid Fic, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Originally Posted on Tumblr, steve harrington wants to be a dad, Siren Eddie Munson, Alternate Universe - No Upside Down (Stranger Things), Sirens, Werewolves, Found Family, 5+1 Things Series: Part 1 of Hawkins Halfway House for Homeless Horrors Summary:

Steve wanted to be a dad more than anything. Unfortunately, he was a single dude in his thirties which meant no adoption agency in the world was willing to give him a chance. Or at least no human adoption agency.

Chapter 3 is up, for those of you following this tag here

#trensu tells stories #hawkins halfway house for homeless horrors #ao3 #stranger things #steddie #sirens #werewolves #its a tweaked version of a previous tumblr post #not much was changed so you won't miss out if you skip it #also i've decided this will be a 5+1 sort of deal which is why the chapter count increased

[trensu]

Chapters: 2/4 Fandom: Stranger Things (TV 2016) Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Steve Harrington/Eddie Munson, Robin Buckley & Steve Harrington, Robin Buckley/Chrissy Cunningham Characters: Steve Harrington, Eddie Munson, Robin Buckley, Jeff (Stranger Things) Additional Tags: Pre-Slash, Kid Fic, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Originally Posted on Tumblr, steve harrington wants to be a dad, Siren Eddie Munson, Alternate Universe - No Upside Down (Stranger Things), Sirens, Werewolves, Found Family Series: Part 1 of Hawkins Halfway House for Homeless Horrors Summary:

Steve wanted to be a dad more than anything. Unfortunately, he was a single dude in his thirties which meant no adoption agency in the world was willing to give him a chance. Or at least no human adoption agency.

Forgot to post this update here but I did actually make a second chapter to this. Idk how many people have only read the tumblr stuff, so I thought i’d let you all know just in case!

#hawkins halfway house for homeless horrors #trensu tells stories #the second chapter isn't anything i've posted on tumblr btw #totally new stuff #steddie #stranger things #ao3

[trensu]

So curious about Hawkins Home Steve - does he have a tragic backstory? Steve + head trauma = him not really thinking twice about headaches or foggy memories, but also siren song tends to do that anyway! I love how the kids are already essentially in love w Steve and are trying to get him back. Dying to read Eddie's reaction to him being wrong about Steve! Need to know what's going on in that angsty head of his... love the bits of backstory about his apprehension towards humans, the heartbreak of letting something slip through to hurt the kids... him really trying to not let Steve in (physically and emotionally) There's also something particularly tasty in fics when Steve's finally acknowledged as a Good Guy (also give the man a hug... both of them honestly.) Chomping at the bit to know more about Billy and if he comes back... i love how Billy v Steve showdowns + steve protecting the kids manifest in AUs and i'm so so intrigued at how much you've set up, especially from an outsider POV. Also wondering if Steve would be upset about the memory wipes, though i expect he would immediately understanding given the safety of the kids, but I also feel like this is a lot of fodder for angst between those two .... 👀 (also I peep eddie's power over steve waning - and if there's a limit on how often you can use it before stuff starts to slip through...) Sorry for the long ask - and feel free to ignore since I know there are more parts in the works. In love with the concept of this AU!

Anon, i'm LOVING your ask! It makes me so happy to see people, like, ENGAGING with stories in general, but seeing it happen with my silly writings specifically? i'm ECSTATIC!!

i'm not gonna say much because 1) they're mostly just little scenes percolating in my brain that may never actually get put to (virtual) paper and 2) if they miraculously DO get written, i don't want to spoil anything. that being said i'll give you that a) there is LORE i've made up regarding Eddy's siren genetics and b) ooooh, boy do I have a billy appearance/scene/possible oneshot for this 'verse already half written that i think you'll enjoy

one concrete thing i'll give you, because i don't think i'll write it, like, directly into the fic, is that the reason steve is able keep fragments of things so far is twofold.

firstly, the human brain doesn't like gaps in perception and will straight up make up stuff in order to make things make sense so steve's mind is keeping bits to keep his memories somewhat linear even though they've been scrubbed of any intricate detail. secondly, steve just really really wants to be a dad. i've always liked the concept of a goal or ideal being so important to someone, emotionally and mentally, that it can overcome seemingly impossible odds. so steve wants to be a family man so much that even magic can't take it away from him because his very heart is clinging to any scrap of hope for that dream to come true.

#trensu replies #anonymous #hawkins halfway house for homeless horrors #not plot relevant but half the reason i wanted to write any of this is because i sincerely do not relate to steve's desire for parenthood #like #i like kids #but you could not pay me enough to become a parent #though i do know people who genuinely dream of having kids some day #so this is kind of an exercise to see things from that perspective #apparently the concept is too bizarre for me to contemplate unless i include literal monsters lol #idk what that says about me as a person #but it's probably nothing flattering XD