aw hell
so the model ship scene. where ed’s getting excited about all the trinkets stede’s got while izzy crowds around him trying to corral his behavior. and then ed snaps at him and complains that he’s sick of the life he’s living and urgently needs something new.
my focus has always been on the element of passive suicidal ideation that the scene introduces in ed and i just kind of assumed that the purpose of that rant was to communicate to the audience what ed was communicating to izzy.
but now im actually parsing that that’s what the scene is showing us. ed communicating his discomfort to izzy, in fully explicit terms, with no obfuscations. he’s genuinely trying to share that he’s struggling. and izzy’s response amounts to “not the time, suck it up”
and then a handful of scenes later we see him communicating this exact same discomfort to stede, who responds with sympathy and a suggestion. no wonder ed fell so fucking fast, that probably felt like night and day
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(this is not at all based on my personal experience this week with a water main break and myself having grown up as a trailer park kid and my fiance as... not)
----
It's 2006 when Eddie and Steve buy a small little 2-bedroom house and all is going well until there's a water main break in their neighborhood. Thankfully, it's fixed quickly but there's something called a "boil water precaution" until the water company tests for bacteria, etc. The recording instructs them not to drink, consume, or really use the water much at all until they receive a follow-up with an all-clear. Steve has no idea what the fuck is happening or what that even means; meanwhile, Eddie just sighs, shoves himself off the couch, and trudges into the kitchen.
"What-- what are you doing, Ed?" Steve stares, confused, in the doorway of the kitchen. Eddie's got three big pots out, filling them with water from the tap, and sets them all to high heat on the stovetop.
"Boiling water? You heard the same automated call I did, right?" Eddie stares back at Steve, equally as confused but for different reasons.
"But, why don't I just, I dunno, go to the store and get a couple packs of water bottles? Or a big jug?"
Eddie freezes on the spot-- in all the many, many times he'd seen his folks and then Wayne boil water for him to drink, he'd never considered that as an option because it was never proposed as an option. Money was tight, boiling water was free, and that was simple math.
"I-- well, yeah. Huh. I guess, yeah, I guess we could do that." Eddie chuckles to himself, turning the burners off and feeling a slight sting of embarrassment. It's been years now, and he knows that Steve doesn't look down on him for his upbringing but reminders like this of how impoverished his childhood was compared to Steve's will always hit that tender spot in his chest.
Steve clocks the lack of eye contact, the soft voice, the hunched shoulders when he starts emptying pots over the dirty dishes they'd meant to wash but would now have to wait. He crosses the threshold of their little peach kitchen ("we are painting this room immediately, Steve") and takes the pot from Eddie's hands, pouring the rest out himself.
"Y'know, it's actually pretty cool that you know how to do shit like that. Make something from nothing, fix problems."
Eddie rolls his eyes, just a touch. "You do too, I was with you through the whole almost-apocalypse thing, remember?"
Steve huffs out of his nose. Of course he remembers that. That's how they'd ended up here in the first place, but that's not his point. Once the last of the three pots is emptied, Steve pulls Eddie into him, hugging him so tight and swaying him side to side until Eddie finally laughs.
"Y'know I love you, right?"
Eddie pushes back just enough to look at Steve with his warm eyes, salt and peppery hair starting to crop up just at his temple, and arms still wound tight around his waist.
And yeah, there are a few things Eddie Munson knows for sure: boil water if the pressure was cut off for too long, a can of beans and white rice make a damn good meal, and Steve Harrington? Well, Steve Harrington loves him.
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