#this one has a lot more you rule because it turns out Steve is amazing at getting high rolls
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Thinking again about the fact that when Eddie and Dustin finally convince Steve to play DnD with the party, all of them, but especially Eddie, quickly become exasperated with Steve who has extremely high charisma, and decides that he can fix almost any situation by flirting with whoever they were in conflict with. Especially the fucking monsters, this man is bound and determined to himself a monster boyfriend and until it happens, he will make every single person they come across fall in love with him. So naturally, this happens a lot:
Steve: I’m going to flirt with them
Eddie, exasperated: Steve, you can’t date this monster, he’s trying to kill you-
Steve: Hot.
Steve: I’ll flirt with them harder then
#ravenpuff rambles#steve harrington#eddie munson#hellfire club#stranger things#steddie#Steve is a monster fucker and this essay I will-#they actually get him interested in playing because they were showing him the different monsters and Steve kept going#‘Hot. Also Hot. Hooot. Can I date this one? Oh HOT.’#the monsters really did it for him. (and like also it made Dustin excited and you know he loves that kid)#Eddie: I should have known inviting you to sessions would go like this but for some reason I had hope you would behave#Steve: I am behaving. I’m using my highest stat determined by Dustin and Will to my advantage.#(Also I think Dustin and Will helped Steve build his character. Eddie wanted to do it but Steve insisted it should be a surprise)#(I don’t know much about dnd so I can’t go any further but I know this bitch would want high charisma (for good reason!))#Robin loves to sit by and watch the sessions play out and she is always encouraging Steve to flirt more#there’s a new You Rule You Suck board#this one has a lot more you rule because it turns out Steve is amazing at getting high rolls
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Why didn't Ed always protect Stede?
I'm a bit late to the party and only really got into OFMD with S2, so I've started watching S1 really thoroughly only recently. And I've noticed that there's this narrative in the fandom that Ed and Stede are super protective of each other, particularly Ed--but as I've gone through S1 (number redacted) times, it's been driving me nuts how much Ed doesn't protect Stede.
Sure, there's the meme we all love when Ed stands in front of the firing squad--but for most of the scene before that, he's been standing and watching Stede beg for his life. He's upset, but he doesn't intervene until it's nearly do late. And before that, Ed doesn't say or do a thing about Calico Jack treating Stede like shit--sure it's believable that he just doesn't notice the passive aggression, but not even catching the "Steve" thing? That's something that isn't even intervening, Jack could be making an honest mistake. But the thing no-protection moment that's really driven me nuts is this moment
In the scene before this, Ed and Stede have just had an incredibly emotionally intimate conversation. Ed is clearly at least half in love with Stede at this point. This is a relationship that means something important to him, this is a person he cares for deeply. And…and Izzy almost murdered Stede in front of him, because of him, and he just looked away.
But at the same time, Ed does love Stede, he does intervene to protect him from the English--at great personal risk and cost. By the end of S2 Ed's much better about this kind of thing (though I'd argue he's never as super-protective as I've seen suggested).
So what was going on here? Ed's a total softie inside, especially with Stede, so why was he like this?
And I've got a theory! Here goes:
Mr. "greatest pirate who ever lived" is, in fact, an overachieving rule-follower (cough teacher's pet cough).
Ed doesn't intervene to help Stede because Ed conforms himself to the rules set by whoever has the strongest personality in a room, or whatever "code" is being pushed on him/is easiest to follow.
I think this is part of why Ed often struggles to identify what he wants, or hold onto a firm sense of his self-identity. And I think it's a lot of why he's so attracted to Stede, and why that relationship is so important to his development: Ed is much less likely to follow the rules when he's one-on-one with someone, and spending a lot of time alone with Stede gives him much more mental space to understand what he wants.
And just like Stede is most successful when he doesn't try to follow the traditional rules of pirating, Ed is most successful--in his relationship with Stede and outside it--when he doesn't obsess over bending to the rules, and instead picks and chooses which ones to follow and which ones to discard.
I have a partly-written super-long version of this where I go episode by episode looking at how the rules theme works with Ed's character mechanics, but I'm just going to focus on the topic question here (I might get around to posting the long version, but I also might be distracted by something shiny;) )
So let's start with The Art of Fuckery and the thing that was driving me crazy.
Ed's core conflict in this episode was whether he'd going to send Stede to "doggy heaven." Why would he follow Stede to doggy heaven? Because according to Izzy, Stede is categorized as a pet, and Ed has "a policy regarding pets aboard your vessel." It's a rule. Ed has to follow it.
And Ed fully intends to follow it, right up until the kraken turns up and the rules go out the window. And then he's in a safe space with Stede, drowning in memory of the good rules he broke (don't kill people you love). But Stede rejects the idea that Ed breaking that rule makes him a bad person. He appeals, instead, to friendship. And offers his own rule: that they could pretend the murder thing never happened.
Because that's the amazing thing about Stede: he lives at the intersection of aristocratic and pirate rules (which isn't supposed to exist, and which drew Ed to him), and he makes up his own rules.
When Ed's with Stede, he can follow different rules, unlike anything he'd imagined. Can even sometimes make up his own rules. Can actually pay attention to himself, think about what he wants, what he likes and fears.
But when Ed's in a crowd, or alone with someone trying to impose something on him, he conforms. So when Izzy invokes Pirate Rules and steamrolls Ed ("no you're not doing this,") Ed lets him.
It's a character flaw, and it's a serious one...but it's also one Ed works on when he stops complaining about the treasure hunt business. And when he and Stede discuss the idea of co-captains, and arrangement that would break the rule that "a ship has only one captain."
Which Ed is able to do because he's in a safe space. Calico Jack disrupts that, and introduces a succession of games with clearly defined rules, which Ed follows one after another. And Ed has so little self-awareness, is so easily swamped by Jack's personality, that he doesn't notice how Jack's treating Stede, let alone defend him, and he bows to every hint of pressure.
And all that culminates in Ed having to make a decision: follow pirate rules, where everyone's just at "various stages of screwing each other over," or do what he wants. Go help his friend, the guy he loves.
Which just ends up with him being absorbed right back into the pirate system of rules. He tries to use this at first, faking a confession on the grounds that he's a "life is cheap sort of guy." But Izzy's outsmarted him, and Izzy invokes pirate rules again: that Ed told him the rule for a first mate was "above all loyalty to your captain."
Ed doesn't call out for the Act of Grace until the last minute. He could have done it at the trial--he didn't. This is a hard thing for him to do, because he's surrounded by rule-following pressure, from Izzy and from Chauncy. The last time he was in a situation like this, Ed just looked away and let Stede die (he thought).
But the thing about Ed is that he's "half insane." For years, he used the combo of being considered "mad" and also having Izzy around to have his cake and eat it too with rules, to be the world's greatest pirate and also hang onto his own authentic self.
As a result, Ed got good at finding loopholes. Places where you can follow the rules and break them, at the same time. Getting run through, but in a place that missed "all the important bits." Being sentenced to death, but asking for an Act of Grace.
It's a big deal when Ed steps in front of Stede like that. He's acting against pirate rules, risking being absorbed by the rules set by the English.
He does it for Stede--and that starts to set him free. After that, Ed's never just following the rules again. He actually can't, even when he tries: his going kraken at the end of S1 and start of S2 is doomed from the start and full of contradictions, starting with the fact that he's on Stede's ship, the ship with hidden passages where rule-breaking can be hidden until it's needed.
Ed struggles a lot to figure out which rules to follow ("I will abide by the guidelines"), which rules to set aside ("Can we take it slow?"), when to make up his own rules ("So we're innkeepers now."). And Stede helps him, telling him things like "This can be whatever we want it to be," and "you're not a dick, life's a dick."
I don't really have a clever conclusion to this particular meta. It's a messy thing, and individual figuring out how to their life does and does not intersect with society. This theme doesn't resolve neatly, it just stops at the end of the season, like the tension between Ed/kraken/Blackbeard.
But there's a lot of hope here, I think. When Ed acts to protect Stede, and to fight alongside him, he's not just being a protective partner. It's a learned action, the physical manifestation of a decision Ed's made about who he wants to be in the world. Rules be damned.
#ofmd s2 spoilers#ofmd#ofmd s2#our flag means death#ofmd spoilers#ofmd meta#ed teach#stede bonnet#blackbonnet#izzy hands#gentlebeard#i swear there really is a much longer version of this this theme is hella iceberg#every single episode has references to rules guys this is A THEME running straight through EVERYTHING and i'm a moron for missing its size
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hi! i'm not sure if youre alright with it and im sorry if youre not, but could you write some non sexual domination with steve or eddie? so its consensual but not really for pleasure. something like reader and him having agreements on things she should and should not do, things she wants to improve but has a hard time with and punishments and maybe she breaks a rule and he gives her a spanking and lots of after care of course. again, sorry if its somthing youre not comfortable with
I'm sorry if this one seems rushed as well! I hope you enjoy!
masterlist
if you want to make a request click here
!WARNING! brief mentions of spanking, one spank is mentioned, depression and anxiety is mentioned, dom/sub dynamic but not in a sexual way! I think that's it.
It was simple. You do certain things and get rewarded for doing those certain things, but those things are so hard to complete no matter how simple they are! Your relationship with Eddie is amazing and what’s great is he’s always there to help no matter what. He wants nothing but the best for you. Which is why the two of you have come to an agreement to bring your dom/sub dynamic out of the bedroom and into normal everyday things. No you weren’t doing spicy things out in public (no matter how many times Eddie jokes about it), you were simply doing what your dom asks. Following tasks…following his rules. Not for sexual pleasure, no. For your well being. Making sure you’re taking care of yourself.
The rules were simple, but sometimes mentally…it was hard. It was hard to remember to take your meds on time, brush your hair, brush your teeth, wash your hair. These are things you’re supposed to automatically do, like it's nothing! But your anxiety gets in the way. Your depression stops you. You hated it and wanted to better yourself, but no matter how times you’ve tried it just didn’t work. It would last about 3 days and then it would all just stop, so you and Eddie decided on rules and if those rules are broken then you get punished. Again not a sexual thing. A lifestyle to help you.
“Okay, Princess. What are your tasks for today?” Eddie asks you as he walks to the front door. He had gotten you up and ready for the day while he got ready for work. You followed him around the trailer as he got ready to leave. Finally he turned and looked at you “Sweetheart?” He asked, making you blink, “Oh! Um…Make myself lunch, clean up the living room, and do laundry.” Eddie nodded “Aaaand?” He said, watching you, “Take my meds?” He smiled and nodded “Yup! You’re so smart.” He said while pulling you into a hug “I’ll be back around 6 tonight.” He said while kissing your head “I love you.” He said against your forehead. You smiled and squeezed him a little tighter “I love you too, Eds.” He smiled and kissed you one more time before leaving for work. You smiled and closed the door and turned around to look at the trailer, “This shouldn’t be too bad.” You said to yourself and walked to the room to get the laundry together.
~ 4 Hours ~
You had separated the laundry and managed to get all the under clothes in the washer, but the only issue is they’ve been in there for about an hour now…maybe longer? The jeans pile and the shirt pile laid on the floor of the living room. The living room wasn’t messy. The only thing to pick up were some cups and empty candy wrappers…which were still on the end tables. The only task you actually got done was taking your medicine and that’s only because Eddie called to make sure you did take them! Your first mistake was turning on the tv and finding out your favorite movie was on, your second mistake was finding your favorite nail polish on the end table and your third mistake? Convincing yourself all your tasks were done. That’s another problem you have. You find something other things to do and just tell yourself everything on your to-do list was done!
You sat on the coffee table sitting criss crossed while you painted your nails and watched the movie. You were so engulfed by nail painting and the movie that you didn’t realize the door was opening. Eddie walked in and kicked off his boots and looked over at you. He smiled thinking how cute you looked while painting your nails, your tongue was sticking out as you concentrated. He walked a little closer and his smile slowly fell when he saw the two piles of clothes on the floor in front of you and then looked at the end tables and saw the trash still sitting there, “Princess.” He said making you jump. You smiled wide and got up and made your way over to him hugging him tight “I missed you!” You exclaimed while wrapping your arms around him. Eddie hugged you back, but it wasn’t a squeeze that he usually gave you after work. You pulled away and looked up at him frowning “Are you okay?” You asked. Maybe he had a bad day? Eddie took a small step back and crossed his arms “How did your tasks go?” He asked “Oh! I got a load of laundry done and I took my medicine.” You said smiling, completely forgetting about the trash and the other two piles of clothes. Eddie nodded his head “Where’s that load of laundry?” You turned around to point at the laundry basket, but found that it was empty which made you frown, “I thought I put it in the basket.” You said quietly. Eddie bent down a little so he was making eye contact with you and gently took a hold of your face. His thumb and fingers squishing your cheeks “I think you need to take a closer look at the living room, Sweetheart.” He said while turning your head back towards the living room. You looked around and you were confused at first until it clicked. Your eyes widened and you looked back at him ‘The load is still in the washer…” You mumbled. Eddie chuckled almost like he was amazed “Did you even look at the floor? What about the tables? Huh?” He said, “Try again.” He said making you look back. You sighed when you finally saw what he was talking about. How could you be so stupid. You looked down “I didn’t clean the living room and I didn’t finish the laundry.” You said. Eddie did nothing but nod and take your hand and started to walk to the bedroom.
The small walk to the room had you confused, but once Eddie sat down on the bed man spreading you realized you were going to be punished. A small blush made its way on your cheeks and you played with your fingers “Come on, Princess. You know the drill.” He said while patting his lap. You sighed and slowly made your way across his lap. You put your face in the bed and held onto his thigh. His hand ran up and down thigh, pushing your soft night shorts up so the bottom of your ass peaked out. You shivered, his rings were so cold against your skin, “Now…before I start tell me what you did all day.” He always did this. Made you explain your day so you can figure out what you did wrong and if you lied then your punishment would just be worse. “I…I started the first load of clothes and took my medicine.” He hummed signaling for you to continue “I separated the rest of the clothes. I turned the tv on for background noise and saw that a movie was on…and I also found my nail polish.” You mumbled, “Okay. What was your first mistake?” He asked “I turned the tv on?” You asked “Right. I’ve told you no tv until you finish your tasks.” He said as he stopped rubbing your bottom “I think 10 spanks is good, yeah?” You nodded your head “I won’t make you count this time.” Again you nodded and responded with a quiet ‘okay.’ Eddie brought his hand up and spanked you. You silently thanked him for not going so hard this time, you guessed it was because he didn’t think of the issue as a huge one.
After the 10 spanks he slowly lifted you up and gently set you down on his lap. Your legs on either side of him making you straddle him “How are you feeling?” He whispered while wiping the small tears that threatened to fall. You sniffed “I’m okay.” You said quietly “Lay on your tummy for me, okay?” He said which you just responded with a nod. You climbed off of him and laid on your tummy. Your bottom hurt, but it wasn’t as bad as his other punishments. You watched as he moved around the room and grabbed different things. Finally he was back by you and spread your legs a little “I’m gonna pull your shorts down, alright Princess.” He always announced what he was doing when you couldn’t see what he was doing, it made you feel safe and it made him more comfortable with you knowing what he was doing. You could hear a cap being opened and already knew he was going to put soothing cream where had spanked you. Even though it wasn’t harsh, the cream still felt nice against your burning skin. You let out a small sigh and closed your eyes as he massaged you. Every now and then he would leave little kisses on the back of your thighs, “Do you want to wear these shorts or just one of my shirts?” He asked standing up. You sat up and turned around to face him “I kinda wanna wear my shorts until we go to bed.” You said. Eddie nodded and leaned in to give you a small kiss on the lips, “How about you finish the laundry while I cook us some dinner.” He said. You pouted not really wanting to do the laundry right now, but the pout just made Eddie give you a stern look “Okay.” You said and stood up from the bed, but before you could walk out the room Eddie scooped you up and carried you to the living room “Finish the laundry and I might make you a milkshake.” He said while setting you down.
Well now you had something to work for.
#eddie munson#eddie imagine#eddie munson fluff#eddie munson smut#eddie x reader#steve harrington#steve harrington imagine#steve harrington fluff#steve harrington smut#steve x reader#billy hargrove#billy hargove imagine#billy hargrove smut#billy hargrove fluff#billy x reader#imagine#oneshot#fanfic#reqs open#request
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𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐮𝐬
Girl, I’m so sorry it took me this long, that’s why I added some smut. Hope you enjoy it! @jellycolors
MY INBOX IS OPEN, SEND IN REQUESTS IF YOU WANT TO <3
!IF YOU ARE A MINOR DNI, THIS PIECE OF WRITING HAS +18 CONTENT!
trigger warnings: established poly relationship (?), threesome, blowjob, dom!reader (for like ten seconds), degrading, boy x boy making out, innocent play, mean!Eddie and Steve, penetration, cum swallowing, double penetration, creampie , hair pulling, traumatized Dustin
pairing: Steve x Henderson!reader x Eddie
word count: 1.8K
It has been a few days since Steve and I let Eddie join us. A few days only thinking about that night. After that night Steve and I have been meeting up with him, just to hang out as he is not a freak as everyone paints him to be. He is actually a really nice boy just with different interests, that’s all.
“Steve, can we talk?” he nods in agreement. I sit on his lap, like I normally do and start playing with his hair. “ Do you think we could invite Eddie into the relationship? Like we all have great chemistry together and when we meet up we have so much fun.” Steve doubts for a few seconds, standing up while walking around his room in circles.
“ We could try it, I mean, we should make some rules so we don’t fuck this thing up” he sits next to me, pressing a kiss on my lips.
“Let me call him!” I run downstairs, where the phone is, almost falling. I ring his number. One beep, two beeps, three beeps and then he answers.
“ Hello?” he asks, sounding kinda sleepy.
“Hey.. this is (Y/N), i was–” he cuts me off.
“Hi there beautiful” he says in a raspy voice.
“ Could you come to my house?We both need to talk to you.” my voice shakes a little bit, because I’m nervous if he is going to like the idea, if this is going to work out
“Is everything okay?” he asks with concern.
“Yeah, I’m just a little bit nervous that’s all. Can you come in like thirty minutes?” he agrees and hangs up not before throwing a “ see you soon sweetheart” that makes me blush.
I don’t have to go upstairs back to Steve, because he has come down, he is laying on the sofa going through different channels. “Babe” he turns around “he is coming in like thirty mintues, is that okay?” I ask.
“Of course. Should we talk about how we are going to ask him, how this is going to work? Just to have something in mind.”. I lay next to him, my head resting on his lap.
“ The only thing I do mind is if you end up spending more time with him than with me” he pouts.
“I would never do that babe” I cup his face and I give him small kisses all over his face, making the both of us laugh. While we wait for Eddie, we talk about small details on this three way relationship thing that might happen. Steve and I are focused on our conversation until the bell rings, that makes me jump from my seat. “I will get that” I say walking towards the door. When it opens a clearly nervous Eddie is at my door. “Hi there, pretty boy” I greet him as I pull his t-shirt, dragging him towards where Steve is sitting. He sits in one of the armchairs while Eddie and I sit on the sofa.
“Soo…” Eddie starts, brushing his hand through his hair, “ what did you guys wanted to talk about? You seemed nervous on the phone” he asks looking at me.
“Well.. Umm basical-” I start but Steve cuts me off
“ We want you to join us, like a relationship of three. We both like you, the other night was amazing and from these past days of us hanging out we both have come to the realization that we want you to join us. It is okay if you don’t want to, we understand that it is something different, but we thought we might ask you” he says with such confidence that catches Eddie and I off guard.
“Ouff I mean this, this is a lot to take on.”he looks at our deceived faces “Oh my god nonono” he freaks out “I like both of you and I would love to try this out, but I’m already considered a freak imagine if someone knew all of this.” he starts walking in circles. I stand up, almost running towards him. I make him stop, our gazes locking.
“ We can keep it a secret if you want to, okay?” I look over to Steve.
“Yeah buddy there is no rush.” he walks slowly towards us hugging me from behind and placing a kiss on Eddie’s forehead, his lips move to the back of neck, sucking into my skin leaving for sure a mark. Eddie takes notice of this and goes for the other side, the sudden feeling of both of their lips on my skin provokes me to moan.
“God (Y/N), you get turned on so easily it is actually pathetic” whispers Steve looking straight to Eddie “Don’t you think Eddie? Don’t you think she is just a pathetic slut wanting to be fucked dumb?Come one Eds tell her” he dictates, grabbing my face, forcing me to look straight to Eddie.
“A fucking pathetic whore, that’s what you are. You are already a mess and we haven’t even started” he says in a husky voice while his hand caresses my cheek moving some hair out of the way. His thumb moves all around my cheek, then it stops near my mouth. I take advantage and move my lips towards it, sucking it looking into his eyes with the most innocent look I can do. “Holy fuck” he whispers in a moan. I take my finger out of his mouth and I turn, both of the boys are looking at me. I grab their hands and guide them towards my room. With the door closed, I let myself fall into my bed.
“Kiss” I demand, they both exchange a weird look. “I said kiss,” I try to demand in a confident voice. I don’t even know how this is happening but I have the two hottest boys of Hawkins making out in my room. Steve's hands are the ones behind Eddie’s neck, showing off who has dominance, while Eddie’s hands pull Steve closer by the waist. One of Steve’s hand pulls Eddie’s hair, forcing his head to roll back a little bit allowing him to start kissing his neck.
Start to take my clothes off, only leaving my underwear, my hand playing with the hem of my panties. As their make out session becomes more intense, t-shirts and jeans flying out, the two boys becoming more naked by the moment, I can’t help but start touching myself, they are so into each other’s mouths that they don’t realize what I’m doing, not until I hit the right spot, a loud moan coming out my mouth, forcing the two boys to stop and look at me.
“Look at her Harrington, demanding us to kiss for her own pleasure” the smirks on both their faces, make me kinda nervous, I know I’m going to pay for this.
“On your knees, and behave okay?” Steve takes his hand out to help me get up and out of bed. I do as I am told, both boys towering over me while their dicks are in front of my face. First I put Steve’s dick on my mouth while with one of my hands I start to jerk off Eddie. The silence of my room is now interrupted by the moaning of the two boys. “Good girl, you are doing amazing” Steve wipes a small tear falling down my face. I keep switching between the two boys, one being harder on me than the other.
“If you don’t stop I’m going to come(Y/N)” he moans, but I don’t stop, deeping his cock as far down my throat as I can, I gag and some tears fall from my eyes, but all of this is worth it when I look up and see his eyes closed, his mouth half open and his hands all tangled on my hair. When he rolls back his head I just know he is about to come, and then it comes the feeling of a warm liquid inside my mouth, Eddie pulls out as I swallow. “You are such a good girl, you know that, right?” he asks. My eyes say it all, he leaves the room to go to the bathroom to clean himself and just recover before coming back.
In the meantime Steve lifts me up and throws me into my bed so hard that I bounce a couple of times. He crawls, his toned back muscles even more defined now, he trails my legs with kisses. “So needy, aren’t you?” I cry as the only thing I want at this very moment is someone inside of me. “Then beg for it sunshine” he says sticking two of his fingers inside of me while his thumb circles my clit.
“Holy fuck Steve!”I scream, sinking my nails on his shoulders for support. “Please Steve fuck me like the slut that I am, I need you” and with that being said he just slides into me knocking the air out of my lungs “fuck” I mouth as Steve pounds on me. When he starts to increase the rhythm is when my moans become louder. Eddie soon joins us. With a harsh movement Steve turns me over, in all fours, the boys whisper something to each other, then Eddie lays under me “lay on top of me” I just follow his instructions, he enters me so easily like I was made for him, while Steve enters my back.
“Oh fuck!” they both start pounding into me, the same rhythm, if one goes slower the other copies him, if one of them starts to catch some pace the other does too, like if the three of us were connected somehow. Eddie’s hands are squeezing my tits while Steve is pulling my head backwards. “Oh, I-I think- I think I’m going to come, fuckk” my hands gripping Eddie's shoulders for some support. “Then come for us baby” Eds husky soft tone being the reason a tightening feeling appears on my abdomen. The arousal felt all over my body like alcohol at a summer party, slowly spreading from my stomach to the rest of my body. The boys seem to have already finished as they let out loud groans, they pull out while a trail of white liquid comes out of me.
“That was amazing guys” I say laying in between the two boys. Before we can shower, loud steps come from the stairs. Someone knocks on my door. “Holy shit” I whisper.
“(Y/N) THE NEXT TIME YOU AND STEVE ARE HAVING SEXY TIME MAKE SURE I’M NOT ABOUT TO COME HOME, THIS SHIT WAS TRAUMATIZING TO HEAR!”Dustin screams from the other side. “Why are Eddie’s car keys outside you-” he stops all of the sudden, coming to a realisation “HOLY JESUS FUCKING CHIRST (Y/N), DISGUSTING, I DIDN’T NEED TO KNOW THAT!” He makes a gagging sound followed by the sounds of running downstairs.
“It is going to be awkward when I have to leave,” Eddie says. We all just laugh.
tag list ( it's only u hoe) @eddiesdungeon
#eddie stranger things#eddie munson#joseph quinn#eddie munson x reader#eddie x reader#steve harrington smut#steve harrington#eddie munson smut#steddie smut#steddie#steve x henderson!reader#Eddie x henderson!reader#steve x eddie x reader#stranger things#bi eddie munson#bi steve harrington#i am an eddie munson simp and im proud#eddie smut#joel hokka
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Writer Self-Rec Fics Ask Game
Rules: writers list your top 5 favorite fics of yours and then send this to 5 writers! :)
oooh this is fun! I'm gonna bend the rules slightly and do 5 recs of my own work AND 5 recs of other people's work and those can then carry the chain on if they want!
Okay so for my work I have to say
Memory Served and Court of Public Opinion (I'm combining these because CoPO is the sequel! It's darker than all my other work and full of fun twists and turns!)
Burnin' Up (I cannot put into words how much I love this series and I'm so sad it's coming to an end soon!)
Forgotten Lands AU (This is a newer one and there's not a lot there at the moment but I have so many ideas and I just loved diving into the world of fantasy!)
Fixer Upper (This one hit me out of nowhere and has taken me on a wild ride into the world of Mechanic!Curtis and I totally blame @sweater-daddiesdumbdork for my Curtis Obsession!)
As Long As You're Mine Pt 1 and 2 (I never expected I would write mob stuff because I very much live in the world of fluff and rainbows and all things happy, but I love this and I did struggle picking between this one and Nomad's Girl!)
As for other writers:
I absolutely LOVE @sweater-daddiesdumbdork 's work that its near impossible to pick just one but I love Life's Short So Make It Sweet and The Pack series! Also all of Amber's Halloween series are amazing!
@time-for-a-lullaby is the QUEEN of Chris AUs! The Boston Brute got me obsessed with Hockey! Out of Left Field was AMAZING and Cowboy Chris makes me weak at the knees
@anika-ann writes the best Steve. Her work is so poetic that I feel like I'm reading a classic. Her Attached Series is amazing and makes me wish I had a professor Steve in my life
@stargazingfangirl18 is the QUEEN of Smut and everyone should BOW DOWN! Necessary Arrangement is INCREDIBLE and I cannot wait to get my hands on the published version! I'm also so happy that she is back and I can fully dive into more of her work!
@drabblewithfrannybarnes has the BEST Hockey AU with all the faves! I don't think I could actually pick which one is my favourite! Also she's another fave of mine that has returned and I can feel nature healing!
I could honestly go on and on with fic and writer recs because there are SO many amazing writers on this site so just go give them some support! Engagement has been real bad lately and as much as us writers say we write for ourselves, we share our work for you guys and it shouldn't be a one-way street, we should be getting more engagement than just serial likes in return for sharing our work. So just drop a comment in the replies or reblog because you will get so much more out of us!
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stranger things ● summer of 86 pt 5 ● e.munson
warnings
idiots in love to the nth degree, lots of internal angst, robin and barb are gay and we're all here for it -you're going to see a lot more from them soon, trust-, affectionate touching / petnames, mentions of alcohol/smoking/w**d, swearing, eventual filth, reader suffers from gifted kid burnout but is.. also a workaholic apparently, mentions of the annoying and oh so judgmental small town mindset, internalized confusion / fear due to sexual pref -being gay in the 80's isn't fun and when I write Barb and Robin in a more romantic way, this will be reflected, marital conflicts ( tommy and carol , other 'couples' mentioned ) and tons of other stuff..
reader/you are a female with female parts. you/reader are the oldest Byers. you/reader have a very specific personality / clothing style and/or nicknames and petnames. this is yet another self indulgent thing and i'm not sorry at all.
word count
1701 exactly. for any context needed part 4 <- is here.
summary
"Hot date, right?" He's only half teasing, trying to fight off a surge of jealousy at the thought. You laugh and shrug. "Job interview count, Eddie?"
"Another one? Jesus H.Christ, woman, do you ever sleep?" he's laughing but he's looking at you in concern.
taglist + shoutouts
-- taglist is here <- click on that to be added to my taglist, (other fandoms incl.) and if you're here for Gareth/Steve/other guys content and you don't want to be tagged in my Eddie things let me know, pls?
@allelitesmut i love you sm, your tags always make my day and it means the world to me that you like reading the stuff I post. <3
@caravelofthesun
@chaoticcancer
@dylanwritesgood
@eddiemunsonspantschain - babe ily sm and I don't know what I'd dI o without knowing you, you're awesome. hope you're having a great day, feel free to ignore.
@eddiemuns0nl0ver
@just-a-blue-nerd
@music4life42
@tbmunson bestie.. babe.. babesss. i love you so much and idk what i'd do if i'd never met you, you are amazing and you always inspire me.
@slyisbehindyou
other links
masterlist ● eddie's masterlist ● about + rules
"Hey guys, give me a second." you stop outside the record store and turn to look back at Barb and Robin. They share a look and burst out laughing. You pout, flip them off and wander into the store. Eddie is rearranging a clearance bin with his headphones in, as you approach him you can hear Metallica playing faintly.
You tap his shoulder and he jumps, whirling around with a glare in doe eyes that seems to soften as soon as he realizes it's you. He chuckles, eyes roaming slowly as he takes in the heels, the stockings, the way your skirt fits just a little too well… all of it.
"Hot date, right?" He's only half teasing, trying to fight off a surge of jealousy at the thought. You laugh and shrug. "Job interview count, Eddie?"
"Another one? Jesus H.Christ, woman, do you ever sleep?" he's laughing but he's looking at you in concern. You shrug. "It's a legal secretary gig.. for Albright? Here in town?"
Eddie chuckles. "Figured you'd go back to Boston."
"There's nothing there for me. I uh..got homesick." you admit and he'll die before admitting it but he's glad you're not leaving, even if he never acts on the way he feels because he knows it'll never happen.
"According t' my mom this one is gonna pay. Like.. big time. Yeah, Albright got several big cases back to back and she's swamped with paperwork but she has zero time." You give an evil laugh, "means I get to do a lot of organization."
Eddie snorts because he can't help it, the fact that you're giddy about organizing a ton of files which is completely his opposite, should be more than enough further proof that you and him won't ever work.
He pouts a little. "Aw, this mean I won't see you at my gigs?"
"No? Why would I stop coming? Angel really needs the help." You're laughing and stepping closer, Eddie steps closer to you too, a hand just barely grazes your hip and you can feel the way your breath catches over just a simple accidental touch. "Besides," you add, tilting your head slightly to look up at him, " Maybe I enjoy the scenery."
Eddie rubs his chin. A smile that spreads lazily across his lips and draws your gaze down to them. "The scenery, huh?"
"Mhm." you've got a hand against the front of his Hellfire shirt and the scent of him surrounds you, it taunts you and ultimately, before you can stop yourself, you've stepped closer. Much closer.
Robin is laughing and Barb is tapping her wrist. You use your grip on the front of his shirt to pull yourself up closer and you give his hair a little fluff. And you're biting your lip again and he fixated, breath hanging in his throat. You laugh softly as soon as you remember the envelope your little brother Will gave to you to give to him and you find it, pressing it into his hand.
"What's this?"
"All I know is that Will wanted me to give it to you."
"Ooh. It looks fancy."
You laugh softly, hand catching in wild and thick locks, "My little brother doesn't do anything half-assed." and after a few seconds, you pout. "I need to get going. I'll see you tonight?"
Eddie chuckles as he smiles and nods. "You know where I'll be."
As you walk out, Eddie has to lean against a wall and take several deep breaths to pull himself together. And he fans himself, chuckling quietly. "Go get 'em, sweetheart."
Nearby, Gareth Emerson bursts into laughter. "Holy shit.. is this Eddie Munson speechless for once?"
Eddie flips him off as his cheeks darken. "Shut up, Emerson."
"Not gonna happen. I still say you're wrong this time and she wants you. The tension just now, dude" he fans himself and laughs again, "enough to smother anyone else present."
"Look.. I'm not saying I don't want her. I am saying she's 'grown', Emerson. She's got her shit together. In what world is a girl like that ever gonna settle or be happy with a guy like me, huh?"
"Ya never know, Munson."
–
The heels are killing your feet. You're excited because you just landed the job and while it isn't being a lawyer, it is still adjacent to the field you chose so long ago.
You're still on the high from it when you happen to catch sight of Eddie's new motorcycle parked outside of the laundromat across the street. Your mom realizes you haven't heard a thing she's asked so she follows your gaze and smiles to herself as soon as she picks up on the way your eyes linger and roam over the tall boy.
"Airhead!"
"___, are you okay?"
You zone back in right around the time your brother Jonathan throws a piece of French fry at your nose. And naturally, he's teasing you, he's quick to tell your mom that things between you and Eddie are "intense", to quote him directly.
"Are not!"
"I dunno, it looks pretty intense to me." your mom is teasing you and you pout. "I like him. He seems sweet, I mean from what I've seen when I see him around town."
You laugh softly and nod, agreeing. "He's different than the other jerks."
"She admitted it!" Will and Jane laugh when they say it the whole time.
Once they're gone to the arcade to meet their friends and Jonathan's left to meet Nance, this leaves you alone with your mom.
"Hey mom?"
"Yeah, sweetie?"
"Like.. do you think it's possible to look at a person and just know theyre.. nevermind. This is crazy. Insane."
"No, tell me. I'm your mom. You can talk to me about anything."
"Do you think it's possible that you can look at a person and you know you're going to love them?"
"Yeah. I did.. with Hopper. And I almost let my own fear mess it up, more than once.. don't make my mistake, sweetie."
"I'm scared."
"Yeah, I know that feeling. Just go with it..whatever it is you're feeling, I mean."
You nod. Laugh softly. "Easier said than done."
Your mom laughs and nods. "I know what you mean."
–
There are even more people at the show tonight and Eddie is thrilled. He's also nervous as hell.
You make your way into the bar and as you're hopping over to hurry and start mixing drinks, you lock eyes. You give him a thumbs up and he gives you that lopsided charmers grin.
"I see what you mean, Gareth. Dude goes silent when she's around." Jeff chuckles as he says it and Eddie grumbles, flipping his friend the bird. "Fucking do not!"
"You do!"
"Do not!"
As the band begins to warm up, you smile to yourself. "Amazing as always, handsome." you mumble to yourself as you wipe down the bar.
And unbeknownst to you, Wayne happens to be sitting a few seats away. Close enough that he's heard you. He chuckles to himself.
Both of you are so clueless it's not funny.
–
The show has just ended. Eddie is loading his setup into the back of Jeff's dad's truck when Wayne surprises him by wandering out into the back.
"Hell of a show tonight, kid."
Eddie laughs. "You saw it?"
Wayne shrugs. "Sometimes I come to watch." and he drags a hand over his head, smirks at his nephew, "I wasn't the only one watching."
"Oh you weren't, huh?"
Wayne catches sight of you walking out with some of the other girls, you're sandwiched between the two girls laughing and talking. Wayne catches sight of the way Eddie is staring and he speaks up. "She was watching too, kid."
"Yeah, she kinda had to. She tends bar,man."
"She clocked out at 10, kid. Angel only needs her from 7 t' 9."
Eddie gapes. Then he laughs. "She probably stayed to talk to the other girls."
Wayne shrugs. "I dunno about that kid."
"Trust me. That's all it is, it has t'be."
You've spotted Eddie in the alley out back of the bar. You tell Tanya and Sheila goodbye and you turn back, slipping up behind him. "Boo." You're laughing as he turns around, a mocked 'scared' look on his face as you shrug.
"Always trying to scare me, woman." Eddie shakes his head. You laugh softly. Step up into him and toy with the front of his denim vest as you stare up at him. His eyes catch on the purple streak of hair and before he can stop himself, he's reached out for it, passing it through his fingers as he chuckles quietly. "Whens that..uh, the secretary gig start?"
"Tomorrow. I'm kinda torn between nervous and excited."
And he doesn't say it but he's excited too. Because until today, he'd been assuming you were only back for the summer. That when fall came around, you'd be leaving for Boston again. Now that he knows you're not, if he were more optimistic, he'd make a move.
He's tempted to go for it, the only thing that stops him is you're not the kind of girl who is just gonna settle for him, you've got all this stuff ahead of you and he knows this and refuses to get in the way of it.
He's excited also because he can look at you and tell that this job is something you really want.
And he's happy for you. Proud of you because you seem fearless and nothing seems to stop you from going after what you want. If he didn't love that about you it might actually make him a little jealous.
"Don't overdo it, alright? Even Supergirl needs rest, doll."
"I'll keep that in mind, Eddie. I'll see you later. I need to get home. You were amazing up there tonight, as always." you give his hair one last little fluff until the next time you see him and reluctantly, you step away, walking over to your moms car.
Your mom is right.. and it's getting to a point where you can't fight the direction you're being pulled. The problem is…what should your next move be?
#eddie munson#eddie munson fanfiction#eddie munson imagine#eddie munson imagines#eddie the banished#eddie munson x byers!fem reader#eddie munson x fem!reader#eddie munson x reader#eddie munson x yn#<- my writing ● eddie munson#<-warning | idiots in love / heavy flirting and PDA ● mentions of alcohol/w**d/smoking ● see above.#<- warning | female character ● byers sibling ● female parts / clothing / hair + personality and nicknames / petnames#fandom ( stranger things ) ● season ( post 4.. au with no sci fi ) ● character ( eddie munson )#-- the next part is gonna have a lot of barb/robin interaction plus eddie/reader. i just wanted to get this out because the idea was cute.
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tag game: stranger things edition
Thank you @maniac-maniac-maniac for tagging me!
Btw anyone can play if they want to! Don't feel like you have to wait to be tagged 🦋
Ride or die ship (your otp)
I- I don't really have one... I don't like Mike and El; she's on another level. I think I have to ship a couple, it would be Argle and Jonathan?? Or Robin and Vickie. Oh! Robin and Nancy!
Most annoying ship
Mike and El... I hate how she feels as if she isn't good enough for him while she is literally the main character? And I can't have El being insecure because my girl is BITCHIN' 👏👏👏
Second favourite ship
Me and Eddie <3 <;3 <3
Favourite platonic relationship
STEVE AND ROBIN! They are platonic SOULMATES! Absolutely amazing chemistry by the actors.
Underrated ship
Joyce and Jim; they were already Mother ™ and Father ™ even before going on their date at Enzos.
Overrated ship
Mike and El, AND Steve and Nancy. I mean I do like the trope of Female Character Has Big Ambitions with Boyfriend Who Has None. But Steve and Nancy are too dissimilar. As well as Nancy and Jonathan - there is no chemistry there.
One thing I would change in canon
Eddie's death duh.
Something canon did right
... Introduce Eddie, I'm SORRY I'm being annoying but c'mon he is the best thing about the goddamn show. It was boring for me before.
A thing i'm proud of creating for the fandom PLEASE BRAG ABOUT YOURSELF I WANT TO SEE/READ YOUR ART
It's so old, but my Vampire!Eddie Boyfriend headcanons. Looking back it could do with a lot of editing, but the idea that Eddie was actually turned into a vampire because of the bat bites was brilliant (credit to whoever came up with that first).
A character who is perfect to me (wouldn't change a thing)
I got TWO, season 1-3 Hopper, because I really loved his whole punch first ask questions later. And his weight, I loved his weight. I think his weightloss in season 4 wasn't just for Stranger Things, I think he genuinely wanted to be skinnier. Which ... I mean his body his rules, but I loved him more when he was heavier tbh.
And OBVIOUSLY EDDIE. HOW DID THEY COME UP WITH THE PERFECT CHARACTER?! They could have made him a one, maybe even two sided drug dealer who couldn't graduate high school. But no, he has so much heart and SOFTNESS. I actually fell in love with him after the cafeteria scene, when he was with Chrissy. He just became this caring, open, kind guy who also had a LUNCHBOX full of fcking DRUGS.
The character I relate to the most and why
You already hate me by now because I've spoken about Eddie so much, but yeah ... Eddie. It's one of the reasons why he's so well-loved. The outsider, the one everyone thinks is weird - I think all can relate on one level or another. Especially growing up ... not so well off. Seeing Eddie live in a trailer but he's still so popular; it gives a lot of gratification (if that's the right word?)
Character(-s) I hate the most and why
Mr Wheeler - he is literally such a shITTY DAD. WTF. In his daily life he doesn't care about his family, or show any interest in them.
STEVE'S PARENTS - WHERE ARE THEY? WHAT ARE THEY DOING? I mean they could be travelling for work but that's still neglect.
Billy - if he wasn't a good looking character no one would like him. In the original script he was actually supposed to called Lucas the n-word because he's racist. And in the scenes with Lucas, there are underlying motifs that show his racism. So, yeah, I hate racists.
Martin Brenner aka Papa. Motherf*cking asshole.
Something I've learned from the fandom
Um... that the majority of us really love big-haired, soft-hearted, drug dealers? I mean okay, I don't really get into fandoms anymore because of bad past experiences. I guess what I've learnt then, is that everyone has their own opinion - doesn't mean yours is wrong or any less valid.
Three tags i seek out on ao3
I don't go on Ao3 a lot, but Hopper, basically just Hopper omg ahahha. Or soulmate AU.
A song I strongly associate with my otp/favourite character
I gots no songs I associate with my otp but I do for Eddie - The Sails of Chiron by Scorpions. It's a bit of rock but also ... really sensual?? I found it because Eddie made me fall in love with 80s heavy rock.
No pressure tagging: @sardonic-the-writer.
#tagging game#tag game#tag game stranger things#stranger things#eddie munson#joyce byers#lucas sinclair#will byers#nancy wheeler#mike wheeler#dustin henderson#steve harrington#robin buckley
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What Can Be Found Beneath
Steggy Week 2k22, day 6
Prompt: multiverse/What If…?
Summary: Peggy loves her new shield. She knows where the idea came from.
AO3 link here. Thanks to @steggyfanevents for organizing!
“I’ve a bone to pick with you.”
She sees Steve jump a bit at the sound of her voice before he turns to her. The confusedly guilty panic that he is trying to cover fills her with a strange sort of laughing affection that she quickly covers herself; the fact that he faces her anyway brings with it a more sober sort. Brushing both aside, she continues.
“You’re an artist, are you not?”
Steve peers up at her with a cautiously raised eyebrow. “I guess you could say that,” he agrees.
He’s in uniform now - one that actually fits him, although only because he’s been around SSR headquarters for long enough to endear himself to the staff at the supply office - and walking on his own, with only the aid of a stick. Each time that she can see him, can reassure herself of his wholeness and presence, it soothes over the scars of worry which had formed as she saw him fall, bullet-wounded.
“Well,” she says, gathering herself, putting on her captain’s voice - the one she’s had the whole time, but which only recently gained the title, “every artist I know of adheres to the simple rule of signing their work.”
“What are you—”
She lifts the shield in front of herself, still somewhat delighted by the weight of it on her arm. “I know for a fact that Howard would never have selected such a simple piece of kit himself, especially back when it was as unassuming as I imagine it is beneath the splendid paint job. It isn’t either innovative or flashy enough to be of interest to him. You, on the other hand…”
It’s unlikely that anyone has ever told Steve how darling he looks when he blushes, the rosy tint to his cheeks favoring his coloring immensely, reminding her of the ways in which he contains multitudes, reckless and awkward and tough and lovely and underestimated all at once. She makes a note of that - she would like to be the first to mention it to him, someday.
“I might have…Well, when you spend as much time as I do just hanging around without an official job, you’ve got to find something to do. Howard might love the sound of his own voice, but he’ll also listen to me, and he doesn’t just think I’m some pain in the neck.” He shrugs. “So when he said he was putting together a uniform and maybe even a couple pieces of equipment for you, I might have made a suggestion or two.”
The fact that he refers to it as a uniform rather than a costume sends a flashing warmth through her. She feels the smile spreading before she’s even really considered it. “Then I owe you quite a lot of thanks,” she says. “Howard’s gadgets and enhancements are all well and good, but this is certainly my favorite bit.” Tilting her head slightly, she adds, “But why did you think to pick it? A shield, no matter how rare the material, isn’t exactly standard military issue, at least not the modern military.”
Steve gives a small shrug, a tiny, side-mouthed smile of his own. “I guess it reminded me of you: tough and…well, special, just for what it is at the core. The sort of thing that most people overlook because they have a particular idea in mind of what they think a weapon or a hero should be, even if it means that they might miss out on something pretty amazing.”
Peggy has gotten compliments before: shallow ones from beaux about her skill on the dance floor and from passing men on her looks, valued, admiring ones from her sisters at school or at Bletchley, from her parents and brother at various points over the years, even those from her superiors that she tried not to appreciate because putting stock in what they said would only pain her when they discounted her contributions down the line.
She doesn’t think that she has ever felt more struck by someone’s words. Perhaps it is because they are so simple or so earnest, given without agenda, said in a way that made her feel so particularly seen without feeling exposed, without making her want to close herself off or hide her vulnerability.
Perhaps it is because Steve is the one saying them - Steve, who understands what it is to be overlooked and underestimated without having to be told. Steve, smart and determined and gentle and so very and instinctively good, whose opinion she values in a world where she so often has to remind herself that what others say and care about does not matter, that their view of her is not reality.
For a moment, she almost wants to touch over her chest, not drawing strength from the Union Jack so recently added there or even what it symbolizes about what she has driven herself to become, but to hold the words in place where they have struck her so tenderly in the heart.
She swallows. “Next time,” she says softly, “you should tell me when you’ve given me something like this. You should tell me that it was you.”
“Next time I convince Howard to make you a uniquely aerodynamic shield from the rarest metal on earth, I guess I could mention it.” He puts his hands in his pockets, that little smile still there, even though she thinks that he must be able to feel what is in the air between them.
In the midst of a war, she keeps telling herself, is not the time to act on these sorts of feelings. She reminds herself of her new role, of the importance of what they are doing, of how imperative it is that she and Steve not distract each other from this crucial work, and of the ways in which she must remain above reproach in order to please or appease those in charge, even if she has little respect for them.
One day, she promises herself and him, however silently. One day they will have won this, and they can speak openly, step together into something new. But for now, she can be glad, at least, to have him as a friend who believes in her and what she can be, who she can rely on to know her as she knows herself.
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Teen Heroes Masterlist
Started: 12/28/22
Updated: 1/23/23
Status: Ongoing
Ao3
Description: Teen Heroes is a series that combines four series on my Ao3 account that I was writing for the other Fandoms I'm in combined with the MCU and DCU (Well, they're still trying to get their legs under them so I guess it'll mostly be the DCAU, the video games and the characters from the old DCEU before James Gunn stepped on board as well as the characters that are still left in the DCEU after James Gunn took over).
The series From My Ao3 Account Involved In This Series:
Ninjago (Which Will Hopefully Be An Anime One Day)
World Of Light
The Little Club Adventures
No Matter What Your DNA Is, You're A Hero
I am basically rewriting all these series through this one. Because the original ones are...... meh.
Warnings: This series is going to get Riverdale and The Amazing World of Gumball levels of crazy. There will be many hijinks, wacky adventures, chaos, (hopefully a lot of laughs) and dimensional travel. So if crazy, off the rails (and sometimes emotional) adventures with bleeding heart (I mean this in a positive way), super-powered teenagers are your thing, you've come to the right place. There will also more than likely be crackfics. Lots of them. Memes too. Whole stories dedicated to them.
Notes:
The Timeline is also more than likely fucked. I make references to media that shouldn't even exist yet by the MCU's timeline and some characters are younger than they should be (Like Jason) while still having their backstories (Like Jason). All in all, the timeline is fucked, nothing matters, characters (like Carol and The Guardians) show up way before they're supposed to but we're gonna ignore it all in the spirit of fun.
P.S. when I say nothing matters, I mean canon. Canon doesn't exist in this series, we're all just along for the ride. Welcome to fanfiction, baby! Hope you all enjoy this goofy, sometimes serious, sometimes emotional, sometimes utterly ridiculous series!
P.P.S This series is also gonna be full of original characters. Lots of them. And running gags, brick jokes, theater references, musical references, movie references, and tons of other references! Fanfiction, woooooo!!!!!
P.P.P.S Civil War did not happen. Everyone's braincells turned back online and they talked things out like ADULTS!!! Also, NO ONE IS DYING!! Tony's not dying, Vision's not dying, Pietro didn't die (and will continue not to), Natasha won't die, Gamora won't die, Loki also will not die (to everyone's eternal suffering), Coulson also didn't die, Steve's not gonna go gallivant around in the 40's and Aunt May WILL NOT DIE AND I WILL FIGHT ANYONE THAT SUGGESTS IT!!!! That is all.
P.P.P.P.S Also the Sony-verse is part of this. Which means Eddie the living human disaster fire will show up and become "The Hobo Uncle". Venom will be "Fun Uncle".
♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡
Main Stories
The Girl & The Spider
Peter Parker hadn't really been expecting to find a girl breaking into Mr. Delmar's Bodega. Especially not for her backpack that she left behind. He especially didn't expect her to run away from him in fear either. Confused by the girl's reaction, Peter goes back on patrol only to run into her again on a rooftop, drawing. Curious, Peter manages to strike up a conversation with the girl (without her trying to run away from him again) and gets to know a little bit about her. The next day, Peter learns that the girl is a transfer student at Midtown as part of a new program the school is trying and that she's there for six weeks as per the program's rules. As Peter gets to know the girl more, he finds that he's starting to fall in love with her. But he has the nagging feeling that she's hiding something.....
Oneshots, Crackfics, Stories Inspired By Memes or Video Skits I've seen On YouTube Or Inspired By Cartoons I've watched
Multiverse Shenanigans & Adventures
AUs
Movie Adventures
Video Game Adventures
Book Adventures
Adventures In The Simulation Room
Chatfics, Texts, Incorrect Quotes & General Mayhem
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One Line One Fic
Rules: pick any 10 of your fics, scroll somewhere to the mid point, pick a line, and share it! Then tag 10 people.
Tagged by the amazing @captainjimothycarter :) thank you thank you
this turned into a ranking, of sorts, in my head, but ended up being a mixed up order and I love them all it was so hard to choose. Also, they are all for Steggy, who’s surprised lol
1.) A mighty ocean or a gentle kiss
Peggy’s still in her pajamas and her hair is falling out of the bun she’d fallen asleep in. She’s pulling things out of his cabinets and trying to put something for breakfast together. He knows she’s a terrible cook, but she’s got the kettle on the stove and toast that isn’t burnt on two plates. He’s surprised that she’s up before him. He knows she hates mornings, but here she is trying her best to make the morning a bit more bearable for him.
2.) I will love you without any strings attached
Dinner is, of course, delicious. Not long after they’re finished, his mother stands from the table, insisting they needed pictures. “Of course, you need pictures. I’ll get my camera while you two clear the table. Just set the dishes in there, I’ll get them later.”
3.) Madame President
“I know that, Angie, but at the end of the day, I’m not the president, Thompson is and if he doesn’t think education is important enough to include, we’ll just have to convince him.”
4.) I’ve got a living room floor (and I got it deep down in my soul)
“Yes, I hope to finally be moved in,” she breathed, mind flashing to the pictures she’d set out when Steve came in. Steve said something, she saw his lips move, but she couldn’t hear him for a second. She blinked, and Steve watched as the skin on her forehead wrinkled in confusion. “I’m sorry, I didn’t hear you. What did you say?”
5.) Support System
He’s struck by this as he turns the corner to walk in the kitchen and she’s laughing at something Sarah and Michael are saying, playing with her favorite set of blocks. Her hair is loose and messy, and her socks are mismatched, one with polka dots and the other with rainbow stripes. She’s got the same red lipstick on as she did in the park, but it’s softer because of the hour of the day.
6.) Pull me tight and close your eyes
Peggy grabbed two mugs from the cabinet, trying to push the memory from her mind. She finished making tea and brought them into the bathroom. She set one down next to Steve, but before she could move to set her own down, he grabbed her hand. Though the water had worked to warm him, she could still feel the chill under his skin. “Stay.”
7.) Keep my eyes open so you could get some rest
He curls closer, burying his head in her neck. Steve knows she’s right, but he has a feeling the intel will come in early and they’ll be out in the cold winter and he’ll feel worse.
8.) And the sun won’t resign, until you’re by my side
It’s no secret to everyone on the base that when Peggy’s gone on a mission, Steve hardly sleeps. It’s also no secret that he uses many of the operations going on to distract him from his missing Peggy, but Coulson knows Steve well enough to see through him.
9.) Hold my hands when they’re shaking, run your fingers through my hair
In hindsight, Steve thought, they should’ve just locked themselves in the bunks and taken a nap together. While he wasn’t expecting the BUS to be silent, there were a lot of people who wanted to speak with them today, for some reason.
10.) Power and Compassion
Peggy took his hands in his and pressed a quick kiss to his lips. “Hey, look at me,” she whispered. He met her eyes and gave her a weak smile. “You’re going to be fine, darling. I know being in front of people and in crowds isn’t your thing, but once we’re done, we can watch a movie and you can sleep in my room all curled up in blankets with popcorn and some decaf tea. Angie is visiting family this weekend, so it’s just you and me.”
tagging anyone who wants to do this :)
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Steve Rogers - Sex Headcanon
Warnings: Smut, Light bondage, NSFW, 18+
Word Count: Too long, as usual.
First of all, Steve Rogers loves sex.
He’s a bit touch starved after waiting for the right woman, but when he finds you and things move into the physical affection stage, he’s all over you.
During sex, Steve loves that he can pick you up with little effort
He likes doing it against the wall
Standing, almost any position
Likes that he can hold your hips still even when you start to squirm when he hits the right spots
In general, holding onto your hips, your butt, and even when he gets to curl his hands around to grasp your inner thighs, Steve is thrilled. Captain America is an ass man.
He loves your legs too, though.
Likes to pin you down for prone bone.
He hates to admit how much using his strength against you turns him on.
But you love it too and when he realizes that you like the same positions he does, it gets more intense.
Like, he’ll pick you up while he’s standing and lift you to his shoulders, draping your legs over his shoulders to eat you out.
When Steve learns that you not only can orgasm multiple times, but that you enjoy it, he starts to let go a bit more.
At first he was careful in bed. He kept things slow and gentle, not being entirely sure of his strength. But once he gets comfortable…
He goes feral
It starts when you ask him to tie you up. The idea is only familiar to him from Tony and Thor’s jokes about 50 Shades of Gray.
Steve hates 50 Shades of Gray. He thinks Christian is an ass who doesn’t respect women.
But back to the topic: bondage. He’s willing to hear you out about why you want that. And eventually, he says yes.
The conversation about bondage goes like this:
You’ve never done bondage before. Despite having several past relationships and experiences, you’ve never trusted a man like that. Erotica tastes aside, reality is a beast of its own.
And without the feeling of complete safety that Steve Rogers inspires in your heart, you won’t have even brought it up.
But you trust him without reservations.
The idea of bondage for you is totally psychological. To have your hands restrained and be blind folded takes the pressure off of you. Sometimes your mind starts going during sex and it ruins your enjoyment.
It’s not like you’re thinking about the groceries or anything, just that you start planning your next move. Should you kiss him now, or do you need to moan louder? Does your moaning sound like a dying cat? Maybe you should keep it down.
So the blind fold is important.
And you don’t want to be able to move because you’d try to plan that too. Sometimes you put a lot of pressure on situations to be perfect. Perfect because you made it perfect, you mean. Your expectations are of yourself.
This is one reason you hate not being able to achieve orgasm. That matters to Steve a lot and he always but your pleasure first. The man is selfless and sweet. And when your mind decides to shut down the orgasm buttons, you hate disappointing him.
Steve is sold on the idea of bondage once he understands that it’s only an option because you feel safe with him. And he likes being the only person you’d trust to be this vulnerable with. All the 50 Shades objections vanish for him once you explain that part.
When you tell him that your struggles orgasming sometimes are from your own pressures to be good in bed, he gets it.
He loves that about you, your desire to please him and make things good. It motivates him to accept the offer of bondage.
Because it makes perfect sense that being forced to be the recipient and having control stripped away would fix that for you.
Steve says that you’ll have to let him make the plan. Which is *so* Steve Rogers it’s almost funny.
On a random Tuesday you get dinner with a friend and come home late. The lights are off which is weird because you expected Steve to be home. When you step inside you call out for him but no reply. Kicking off your shoes you wander to the kitchen and when you reach for the light switch, a hand grabs your wrist.
You give a small scream as a body presses you into the wall. Then you recognize the feel and the scent of his aftershave.
Steve has you pinned to the wall, wrists on either side of your head, feet spread apart and his big body caging you in.
It’s happening. It’s so happening. And you feel thrilled and scared and outrageously excited.
He’s excited too, you can feel it pressing into your back. The man’s been planning and fantasizing, clearly.
“Do you still want this, honey?”
His first words to you are the reason that you want this. It warms your heart at the same time your panties are growing wet.
“Yes, Steve. So much. Please.”
He rolls his hips, pressing his body against you and you can’t control the moan that passes your lips.
“Red means we stop. Yellow is slow down. If I’m going to do something that I think you need to consent to, I’ll ask ‘is this okay?’ and you’re going to say “Green” if you want it. Understand?
“Pick a safe word, doll.”
Eagle is your safe word. Your mind just liked the whole patriotic motif, you supposed.
Once the ground rules are laid out, Steve turns you around and with a tap on the curve of your ass, signals you to jump up.
With your legs around his waist and arms curled around his neck, he carried you upstairs to the bed.
Blindfold goes on first. Then cuffs that are lined with something soft that feels like shearling.
You know without asking that he picked them because he thought handcuffs would be too aggressive. Again, your heart flips.
“I’m going to push you, baby. I want you to wring every bit of enjoyment you can out of this. I’m going to make you come hard. You with me on that?”
You’re with him. You’ve waited a long time to try this.
“I have a plan for aftercare too,” he says.
And that’s your first hint that he’s about to go feral on you like he sometimes does when he’s keyed up from a mission.
Steve Rogers has freaking stamina for days. The man could kill you with sex if he wanted to.
(His sex drive is high… all that waiting for the right girl makes a man horny)
He undoes the halter tie of your dress and pull it down, slipping it over your legs.
He uses his mouth first. And it’s frustrating that he left your panties on.
(The outfit was something he’d suggested. You’d thought he just liked the sundress and had been complimented when he’d said you’d look great in it today. Now it was clear he’d been planning all day. Probably longer.)
He’s been planning since the night you told him two weeks ago. Before the conversation was even over. You felt safe enough with him to ask for such a private and vulnerable fantasy and that turned him on in a mental way he can’t even explain.
So he starts by teasing you.
He kisses your mouth, slow and sensual. His tongue flicks against yours but never quite for as long as you’d like. And he knows how you like it by this point in the relationship. So you’re well aware he’s teasing you.
His mouth begins to wander to your neck and he laps at the sensitive spot. Your thighs clench in response. You’re soaked now, so wet it’s a little bit embarrassing.
He finally finds your breast with his mouth, taking an aching bud in his mouth and drawing on it. Softly. Gently. Lapping and teasing without the friction you needed to enjoy it.
Your breath came in pants now and you spread your legs to open yourself to encourage him to continue. Because there’s somewhere else that really needs attention.
Instead he turns to the other breast and gives it the same attention. Slower. And softer. Stroking with his tongue until your nipple was painfully tight.
His hand trailed up to cup the breast he wasn’t sucking on. The pad of his thumb made teasing circles and you moaned, arching your back into his mouth.
He chuckled and released the aching bud with a pop. Fingertips swirled the nipple he’d just abandoned, coating it with his saliva. He pinch it just right and your hips jerked.
Arousal was a living breathing thing inside your body now, clawing at your lower belly, turning breath into unsteady pants.
“How are you doing, baby?”
The bastard knew you were dying. Sweat was starting to burst from your pores. Your entire body was hot with need.
“Please, Steve…”
“Mmmhh? What do you need, doll?”
“I need your to touch me.”
“Where?”
“My pussy. I’m so wet for you, please touch me. Get inside of me.”
He purred. This was the moment you realized that you’d created a monster. Because he was getting off on the power play.
(This wasn’t actually when the monster was officially created. No, that would be later when you were done and he got to see your dazed face and tear filled eyes from the magnitude of what he’d drawn your body.)
He let go of the nipple and flattened his palm on your ribs, sliding it down inch by inch until he paused on your low belly.
He toyed with the band of your panties.
“You’re wet for me? Does this needy pussy want my fingers or my mouth?”
“Both!!”
He laughed again. But he went ahead, so it was worth it.
And heaven help you, there were fireworks. The bondage was working wonders for your mental need to be out of control. But Steve took it higher when he forced your legs wide and pinned them to the mattress.
And while spin class workouts did amazing things for your thighs, nothing topped super soldier strength. You were stuck. Legs pushed flat to the bed, hands cuffed to the head board and nothing stopping the extremity turned on man with his head between your legs.
He lied about giving your his mouth and fingers. At first he only used his mouth on your clit, licking around it, touching the tip of his tongue over it in slow flicks, then finally, finally, sucking.
Your body seized at the shock of pleasure, white hot and raw jerking through nerve endings frayed from lack of fulfillment.
He knew what pitch he needed to hear you moan at before he added his fingers.
He knew it because Steve Rogers is a man who studies all the angles of a situation and knows his enemy. Or in this case, knows his lover.
He rubs at your G-spot with the pad of his finger and you scream.
Your head falls back on the pillow and tears start to flow because it’s not enough.
“More, oh, please. Steve, I need-“
He growls. “I know what you need, babydoll. And I’ll give it to you when you’re a good girl and you hold back that orgasm for me. I don’t want you to come yet. Don’t you dare come. If you do I’m going to have to take you over my knee.”
Just the idea of him spanking you almost makes you lose it.
He backs off the intensity. And you start to sob from the brutal frustration of being taken so high and left without release.
His name begins to fall from your lips like a litany, as you start to beg.
“Steve! Please, I want to come!”
“Not yet. Hold back. You be my good girl and hold back. I don’t want to spank that sweet behind until it’s red, but I’ll do it.”
Your scream is gargled by a wave of pleasure that makes your whole body roll as it rips through you from head to toe.
“Let me come, damn it!”
Smack. He’s light and there’s a sting on your right inner thigh.
“Hold. It. Back!”
Screams become sobs. You can’t hold still. You’re fighting the restraints and trying to move but he’s not allowing it. All you can do is clench around his fingers and cry.
“Come for me, baby.”
Release floods you in a second when he gives permission.
The cord of tension snaps. Your muscles lock. The scream you felt building is nowhere to be found. Your voice disappears in the violence of the orgasm. It’s totally silent as your body takes control.
Your channel clamps down around his fingers. The orgasm pulses through your body like being set on fire.
Then you scream. And the muscles that had gone stiff suddenly quiver with release.
If Steve hadn’t held you down through it you’d have been snapping your hips and arching into the sensations, away from them.
He keeps going, pushing you through it until the orgasm is finished.
Then you cry.
Honestly crying, because of the intensity of the release.
You’d expected to get off. You hadn’t guessed that you would get obliterated by the world’s most intense orgasm.
Steve immediately crawls up and takes off the blind fold.
“It’s okay, doll. I’m here. You’re okay, you’re safe. Hold on to me.”
You move, trying to reciprocate when his arms go around you, but they’re still cuffed.
This makes you cry harder.
Steve rips them open, letting you free.
And then you’re in his arms and you can cry properly.
He rolls over with you in his arms, one arm tight around your waist, the other cupping the back of your head.
What shocks you is that he’s not nervous, apologizing, or asking if you’re hurt. He’s petting you and whispering sweet nothings in your ear.
“It’s okay, baby. Let it out. I’m right here, not goin’ anywhere. Hold on to me, sweetheart. I’ve got you.”
The warm hand moving over your back is a delicious comfort. Almost as good as being held to the strong chest by arms thicker than most people’s legs.
When the storm of emotions passes, you blink up as Steve, a bit confused.
His smile is gentle and his eyes are filled with warmth.
“I did my research. You came down from that hard, didn’t you?”
Your answering “yeah,” is slurred.
He kisses your forehead. If you weren’t already boneless from your release, that would have finished you off.
“You were such a good girl for me. I can’t wait to do this again.”
With a tired smile you arch an eyebrow.
“But we can’t be done. I haven’t had you inside of me yet, soldier.”
Steve’s eyes go wide at the remark and you smirk.
“I still need you to fuck me, baby. I need to feel you finish on top of me and collapse into my arms. Please.”
You said please. And if he didn’t get assist a lady who needed his help, what kind of a hero was he?
#steve rogers#captain america#headcanon#smut#steve rogers smut#avengers#lemon#lemon rambles#chris evans#reader#steve rodgers x reader
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Just The Benefits (1/2)
Pairings: dark!Steve x you
Warnings: smut, slight overstimulation, dark!Steve, dark!Nomad!Steve
Later in the series: noncon, breeding kink, slight degradation kink, slight praise kink, mentioned dark!Tony, dark!Bucky
Please do not interact with this blog if you are under 18. Your media consumption is your responsibility.
Summary: Y/N wanted the benefits and nothing more. That was the agreement… right? Steve decides it’s not enough.
Word Count: 1600
A/N: This is my first ever fic! I’m really hoping you’ll enjoy this but I also appreciate all feedback <3 I’m planning a second instalment for the fic, which will be longer than this one. I’m out here pretending like someone is going to read this.
Nomad!Steve is the most attractive Steve and you can talk to a wall if you disagree.
(This GIF does not belong to me)
It was convenient. The idea of no strings attached was that it was always supposed to be easy and mutually beneficial. You were enjoying the life of an Avenger and there’s no need to add anything to the mix.
That’s how you found yourself under Steve’s mercy every week. You’d be lying if you said you didn’t feel anything for him but right now, all you could think about was making sure you didn’t tap out from his girth.
You were bent over his king-size bed, stuffed full of his cock. He cooed praises into your ears and took on a languid pace. He pressed your head down with one arm, wiping your tears on the sheets, wrapping the other around your waist. His cock was moving in and out of you like a piston, making a squelching noise that your loud moaning drowned out.
“Sweetheart, I’m going to speed up” he moaned, and you whimpered in response. His speed had you lurching forward on every thrust, the room reverberating with the sound of skin slapping.
His cock repeatedly battered your cervix, which was becoming more sensitive by the second. You cried out as your eyes crossed and your muscles went limp, the crashing waves of your orgasm possessing you.
“That’s it, baby, cream my cock. I’m so close.” his grunts filled your ears as he leaned over you. The hand that was holding your head made its way to your neck and he pulled you up flush against him while the other hand began toying with your engorged clit. You were full-on crying from the overstimulation now; he hadn’t slowed down since you came. You were on your tippy-toes, trying to alleviate the pressure on your abused cunt.
After a few more thrusts, he pushed in one last time and squeezed your body before giving you some experimental thrusts. He pulled out and held your almost-passed-out frame by the hips and lifted you onto the bed.
“Jesus Y/N was I too rough?” You weakly shook your head as you closed your eyes and held his hand. He tucked you into his sheets, tossed the condom across the room and rounded the bed, settling beside you.
“Y/N?”
“Yeah?” you mumbled.
He paused as if he were pondering what he was going to say. In reality, he began taking in your naked, tired form that looked unreal yet ethereal on his bed. With your back to Steve, you had no idea he was feasting on the sight in front of him.
“What is it?” the slight raspiness of your voice alluded to your exhaustion.
“I don’t want to be friends with benefits anymore.”
You turned around to face him and propped yourself up on your elbow. The surprise of his statement was overriding your body’s pleas to sleep.
“Did I… do something?” You were honestly unsure of what to say.
He paused again. “It’s not enough for me. I know we came into this saying no strings attached but I care way too much for you.”
You weren’t sure what you were expecting but it certainly wasn’t that. Steve took your silence as a cue to continue.
“I think I love you. No, I-I know I love you. I want the whole thing with you, not just sex. I’m tired of pretending I’m okay with just sex. You know, I had feelings for you before you agreed to this. I had a feeling you might not say yes to a serious relationship so I proposed this arrangement.”
His speech initially started with uncertainty but as he spoke, he became sure of himself. He was sure you would agree. You two were perfect together and there was no denying it in Steve’s mind.
You got out of bed and began rummaging through the clothes strewn on the ground.
“I cannot believe you asked me to do this with your feelings involved. That was very manipulative and…” you trailed off. Did you want this? No. He messed with you. You affirmed it to yourself and picked up the rest of your clothes. “You were manipulative and this isn’t going to happen anymore. I told you I didn’t want a relationship to cloud my judgement with my missions.”
“Where are you going?” he began getting out bed, panic slightly evident in his voice.
You weren’t going to cry. But you were slightly hurt that he had a hidden agenda and that you were too stupid to not notice it. You turned to leave before he gripped your forearm.
“I know you’re angry, but you want this too.” He towered over you. The unexpected calm in his voice was unsettling.
“You’re scaring me, please let go.” He let you break out of his hold.
“FRIDAY, lock my doors and don’t open unless I say so,” he commanded.
He was beginning to chip at your resolve but you were determined to not show it. You glared at him again instead.
“FRIDAY, contact Tony and tell him Cap locked me in his room.”
He stared at you and stared back. Under the façade of toughness, you were crumbling and scared out of your mind. You didn’t want to stay and find out why he locked the door. What could he do when the entire team would question your whereabouts the next day?
The seconds stretched on before he finally spoke again. “You’re making a mistake. You want this.”
“Tony has overridden your request, Steve. Y/N, the door is now unlocked.” FRIDAY called out.
You turned and speed-walked out of the room, not turning back to look at Steve who was now lowly chuckling to himself.
He wondered if you really thought this was the end of this conversation.
You turned to your missions to help you cope with the loss of one of your best friendships. You give men a little bit of space in your life and they think you owe them the world. Worst of all, you should’ve seen this coming. Little touches, smiles that always reached his eyes and hugs that lasted a little longer they should. Not mentioning walking you to your room after training, making your breakfast and taking special care of you after a particularly difficult mission. You were truly a fool for not realizing it sooner.
Everyone is scared of something, even the Avengers. For you, it was this new side of Steve. You weren’t even sure how to act around him anymore. The relationship was on the low and not many people knew about it; Bucky knew for sure, and now, Tony must have an idea as well. Tony didn’t ask you why Cap locked you in your room. That should have been the first red flag that your teammates weren’t on your side.
You proceeded as if things were normal around Steve and he did too. There was no reason not to, right? He just acted out because of the rejection, you thought to yourself.
All the Avengers sitting down for dinner was a rare occurrence, but this particular Friday, there was a crowd in the dining room of the compound.
You were happy today. Your paperwork had been a breeze and you had a good weekend planned for yourself. Around the table, Tony, Rhodey, Thor were bickering, Clint and Nat were silently observing while Steve and Bucky were engrossed in a private conversation of their own.
“After dinner, we should play a game” Sam piped up through a mouthful. Clint snickered to himself and Sam continued.
“I’m serious, we should play truth or dare… something like that. I barely know anything about you guys, minus things like your favourite way to take a target out.”
“I think it should stay that way” Nat slightly grinned and continued eating.
“Honestly, I agree, I feel like I know nothing about you guys,” you commented, wiping your mouth and clearing your empty plate. Tony grabbed it for you and made his way to the sink. “I wasn’t aware that we were in high school. But tell you what; hide and seek would be interesting with this crowd.” Tony contemplated before finishing his thought: “Barnes and Romanoff should try to find us. That would be a kicker.”
“That sounds a lot better than truth or dare. I’m game” Nat said before getting and stretching. Bucky quietly chuckled and everyone began to clean up the table.
“So this is really happening?” Rhodey laughed as everyone made their way to the living room.
Bucky and Nat stood in front of everyone and negotiated rules. You smiled to yourself, thinking about how blessed you were to be a part of something so amazing.
“Okay then, 5 minutes to hide and 30 minutes to be found. If you’re found you have to do their paperwork for a week.” Clint finalized and everyone nodded.
“Alright, off you go,” Nat said before settling into a couch, observing everyone that scrambled off.
Thor looked lost, unsure where to go. He rarely stayed at the compound. You pointed him in the direction of the gym before racing past and making your way to your spot. There was a supply closet that you had a feeling Nat wouldn’t bother checking. Bucky knew of it, but you had a back-up escape route in mind if he decided to look there. You got to the closet and silently slipped in before sliding the door closed and settling into the corner. After a few minutes, you heard light footsteps that became louder. It hadn’t been 5 minutes yet. Whoever was coming to your spot, you were prepared to tell them to buzz off before the closet door opened to reveal Steve.
He stepped in and closed the door behind him.
Part 2
Masterlist
Tagging some people I want to be friends with 🥺
@smutsonian @imanuglywombat @nastybuckybarnes @candy-and-writing @speechlessxx @mariessecretfantasies @mypoisonedvine @harryspet @nsfwsebbie @cherienymphe @imdarkinme @ironlady1993 @darkficsyouneveraskedfor @sherrybaby14 @mcudarklibrary
#dark!steve x you#dark!steve rogers#dark!steve smut#dark!steve x reader#dark!steve#dark!tony#dark!tony stark#dark!bucky barnes#dark!bucky smut#dark!bucky#dark!bucky x y/n#dark!bucky x you#smut#mcu#darkmcu
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Real or Fake? | Bucky Barnes x reader
Requested by @edencherries / Summary: Nat and Steve try to set you and Bucky up by sending the two of you to be a fake couple on an undercover mission at a fancy gala. Will you two still be pretending by the end of the night?
A/N: okay so I absolutely love how this one turned out. Yes, I used Hunger Games (if you’ve read them, you know) as an inspiration for the whole real or fake thing. Obviously it is fiction and a hair cut/growing a beard isn’t a good disguise for the Winter Soldier, but this is my story and I can write whatever I want. (You’ll understand this after you read it)
@edencherries I hope you enjoy! Thank you for requesting!! xx
Tag list is at the end. Let me know if you want to be added xx
Go follow my fic rec blog! ---> @imaginationgonewild0912
**MASTERLIST**
Requests: {OPEN} CLOSED
** Rules for Requesting **
** Who I Write For **
********************************************************************************************NOT MY GIF, CREDIT TO OWNERS
“and that’s why we are going to send the two of you in there.” Steve is standing at the end of the table with his arms crossed over his chest.
“Come again, who are the two you are talking about?” You ask, looking around the table. You wanted to make sure you heard him correctly.
“You two, y/l/n.” Nat motions to you and Bucky with her fingers, “It’s time for you to be the undercover couple instead of Steve and I.”
“They’ve seen enough of Romanoff and Rogers to know who they are. It would blow the whole mission.” Tony explains.
“Okay but won’t they recognize me as the Winter Soldier? It’s not like that is a secret anymore.”
“Exactly.” You add, “So, it can’t be me and Barnes.”
“I’m not against it being you and I.” Bucky says from across the table, “I just don’t want to put you in danger because someone makes me out as the Winter Soldier.”
You can’t help but blush at Bucky’s protectiveness. I mean, if he doesn’t care about it being you and him, then you shouldn’t either. You relax in your chair to hear what Tony has to say.
“Yes, well that’s why you’re going to have to cut your hair and grow this out.” He motions to his chin, “Just a little scruff. That’ll probably be just enough to hide the Winter Soldier look.”
Bucky subconsciously runs his fingers through his long hair, “If you say so.”
“You guys are going to really have to play the part.” Nat begins, “I mean, you two have to look like a married couple, in love. Not all embarrassed to touch or look a each other like you’re doing now.”
“We get it, Nat.” You mutter.
“Good.” She smiles, “Lets go get you your wardrobe picked out then. The GALA is in a week.”
~
“Barnes would like this one.” Nat holds up a dress and you scrunch your nose up at it.
“Why does it matter if Barnes likes it? Shouldn’t I be the one who likes it?”
“because he’s going to be your husband.” Nat shrugs and browses through the remaining dresses.
“Fake husband.” You correct before finding a dress that you adore.
“Not enough cleavage.”
you groan, “Nat! Come on. I don’t want my hoohas out in the open.”
She sighs, “Alright alright, go try it on.”
You do as she says and when you come out wearing the dress, her mindset changes, “Okay, fine I actually like it.”
“Then I’m going with this one.” When you turn to leave you hear her mutter something about Barnes is going to love it.
~
“We really have to try on tuxes? I have plenty.” Bucky says to Steve.
“yeah but you need a new one for this gala.” Steve shrugs, “Plus, Tony’s paying for it so why not.”
“Are you sure that sending y/n and I is a good idea? We don’t talk that much.”
“You guys are going to be great. I mean you two work well together. I’ve seen the two of you out in the field. The chemistry is great.”
“yeah but that’s.. not even close to acting like we’re married and in love.”
Steve sighs and puts a reassuring hand on Buck’s shoulder, “Look, you got this. Y/n is a beautiful woman and you two work well together. Who knows, maybe you two will fall in love by the end of the night.” Steve shrugs.
Bucky rolls his eyes, “Yeah right.” If only he knew.
~ Night of the Gala ~
Nat had spent the afternoon getting you prepared for the gala. She went over the target and what needed to happen tonight while she helped with hair and makeup. And by helping, I mean she told the ladies what to do.
“And most importantly, have fun with Barnes tonight! It’s a luxurious night at one of the most anticipated parties of the year.”
“Okay, but we’re still on the job. We still have to get intel on the target.”
“Yeah but you two have to play the part, so you still get to have fun.” She fixed the bottom of your dress so you could see the final look in the mirror, “You look stunning!”
You tilt your head as you admire your reflection in the mirror. Getting dolled up like this was a rare occurrence, so this was a treat. “Its not too much?”
“No, it’s perfect. Tonight is going to be great.” She gives your shoulders a gentle squeeze, “We should get you to Barnes. He’s probably waiting for you.”
~
“I don’t know if I like this new look.” Bucky rubs at the stubble on his cheeks and chin.
“Facial hair is popular now. All the ladies love it.” Steve hands Bucky his suit jacket; you’d be down any minute now.
“When have I ever had to worry about what the ladies loved on men? They loved me anyway.” Bucky chuckles as he slips the suit jacket on.
“Yes, well, some of us weren’t that lucky.” He peeks over his shoulder when he hears you and Nat’s voice, “Look, if the night goes well, look in the left pocket of the jacket.”
Bucky looks at his best friend in confusion, “What?”
“If the night goes well, left pocket.” Steve quickly mutters out, but it was more of a jumbled mess as you and Nat approach. It leaves Bucky wondering what the heck Steve meant and if this was a mission, why would it matter if the night went well? He didn’t wonder for long, because his attention was somewhere else as soon as he laid eyes on you.
You wore the dress with such a confidence he wondered where it could have been all this time. Yeah, he’d seen you out in the field, kicking ass, but this was a different side of you; a different confidence. He doesn’t think he’s ever seen you outside of your field uniform. Well, there was that one time... Knocking is very important.
“You..You look..” Bucky was tongue-tied. There wasn’t a word in the dictionary that could describe you. Not a word that would capture the immense beauty of what he was looking at in this very moment.
Luckily, Steve jumped in, “I think he’s looking for.. beautiful, stunning. You know somewhere along those lines.”
Bucky suddenly felt underdressed. did he put enough gel to slick his hair back? Did it look okay? Was his suit good enough? Did he put on enough deodorant? He put on his underwear, right?
“Your new look fits you well.” You motion to your face with your finger, “You look very handsome.”
He clears his throat as he fiddles with his coat, “It’s scratchy.”
You giggle, “facial hair is very popular now though. The ladies love it. I know I do.”
Bucky wasn’t sure why, but that comment made him feel giddy inside. What the hell was going on with him? Snap out of it Bucky! “Should we get going?” He holds his arm out for you and you gladly take it, slipping your arm through his, “Yes we should. Don’t want to be late!”
~
When you arrived at the event, the two of you signed into the party under fake names of course. As you made your way to your table, you two began searching the crowd for the target.
“I haven’t spotted him yet.”
“Yeah I don’t...” You take another look and you finally spot him as he enters the room. “He’s just entered the room.”
Bucky pulls your chair out for you, “Yeah I see him.”
“Apparently we’re supposed to gather intel on the guy, but Nat never specified what kind.”
“Steve didn’t mention it to me either. I guess we’re supposed to keep an eye on him?”
So, that’s exactly what the two of you did. You two played along as the happy couple, talking with the others at the table while dinner was served.
“So, how long have you two been married?” The woman asks with a smile. Oh god, you two didn’t even go over anything like in the car.
“4 years.” Bucky smiles at you as he takes your hand in his, “But we’ve been together for 6.”
“Oh that’s so wonderful! My husband, Carl and I have been married for 30 years!”
“Wow 30 years? That’s.. amazing.” You comment, thankful Bucky took the lead.
“You want to know the secret?” She leans in closer, “the sex!”
“Oh?” Bucky asks, raising his eyebrows questionably at you.
“No no!” She laughs, “I’m only messing with you two. This is going to sound so cheesy, but it’s love. It really is.” She looks longingly at her husband, “If you two love each other, that’s only half the hard work it takes to making a marriage last. The other half is being truthful. And of course respect, and trust. There’s a lot that goes into a happy and healthy marriage.”
You didn’t know if it was on purpose, but Bucky gently squeezed your hand at the end of the lady’s advice. Something about Bucky shifted after the two of you talked to that older couple. Bucky kept his hand on you, whether it be to hold your hand, put his hand on your thigh or even around the back of the chair. It left you feeling confused, because from what you’d heard, Bucky wasn’t one for physical affection. You weren’t sure if he was playing the part well or if this could somehow be real affection toward you.
The two of you swayed softly to the music. Bucky held you close to him, one hand in yours and the other on your waist, “Are you enjoying the night?”
“We’re technically supposed to be on a mission.”
“Yeah but we can still enjoy ourselves.” He pulls away to look down at you, moving a piece of hair of your shoulder, his fingers grazing your soft skin.
“Are you enjoying it?”
He chuckles, “I asked the question first, doll.”
You playfully roll your eyes and shrug softly, your eyes dancing around the crowd to make sure the target hadn’t left, “It’s only pretend..”
“Is it though?”
Your eyes snap back to Bucky’s.
“Is it only pretend?” His hand leaves your hip to run his finger along your cheek, “Are we really faking this?”
The skin on skin contact sends a shiver down your spine, goosebumps covering your body, “I don’t know, Bucky. Are we?”
He smirks softly, “You really don’t know how to answer a question do you? You’re supposed to answer it with an actual answer, not a question.” His hand moves to your neck, cupping your cheek as if he was going to...
And then his lips meet yours. Bucky Barnes was kissing you. Oh god but was this real or fake? Was this a part of the married couple look? Was he only playing his part of your pretend husband? Even with the confusion, you returned the kiss. Your hands going to the back of his neck. If you were being honest, you didn’t want it to end.
Bucky’s lips slowly leave yours, his eyes locked on yours.
“Real or fake?” You whisper, gulping, “The kiss, was it real-”
To answer your question, his lips pressed against yours again.
~
As the party neared its end, you and Bucky decided it would be a good time to leave. Walking out of the event center hand and hand, Bucky remembered Steve’s advice. He patted his jacket and felt something in the inside pocket. When he pulled it out, it was a hotel key. The same one hosting the gala.
“That sly bastard.”
When the two of you opened the hotel room, inside it was only one large king size bed and a dozen roses sitting on the bedside table with a bottle of champagne and of course two glasses. There was also a note -
if you’re reading this, it means the night went well and our plan worked. Please make sure you give us credit at your wedding. Also, order whatever you want because Tony’s paying. We’ll tell him that later.
p.s. don’t be mad, this wasn’t a real mission. We picked the guy out from the guest list and told you to watch him. - Nat & Steve (aka Matchmakers)
Marvel tag list: @hommoturttle , @iheartsebastianstan , @5jacobm5 , @lovely-geek , @fangirl-swagg , @1-800-thanos , @jessyballet , @katiaw2
All my works tag list: @blossomreed , @mggstyles , @simonsbluee , @thewolf-and-thesheep , @obxrafejjwhore , @abbiesthings , @itstaskeen , @reniescarlett
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Agitation (or disturbance of the mind)
Here is my piece for the Harringrove Big Bang!! I’m so so proud of how this piece turned out and I’m so excited to share it! @harringrovebigbang
Read on Ao3 (highly recommended. It’s over 16k).
Special thanks to my beta readers @thinger-strang @crispysteve without whom this story would’ve been scrapped in many fits of emotions.
Art for this story to be linked soon by @thedogsled
Check out this amazing moodboard by @memes-saved-me !!
Enjoy!
-
Steve Harrington is a liar.
He always has been.
Nearly everything about him is a perfectly crafted facade.
From the story of his family’s move to Hawkins when he was eight, to the smile that slides easily onto his face when he tells Robin I’m fine.
Steve is a liar.
But it's all out of necessity. All for the greater of some good he isn’t all that clear on anymore.
It was always about protection.
Protecting his friends and everyone in Hawkins from the truth about Hawkins National Laboratory.
Then it was about protecting himself from his powers.
From the way his words had a knack of worming their way into someone’s brain. Of setting up shop inside and clanging around until they could do nothing but bow to his suggestion.
Just because he could get his way with the right inflection and the telltale shiver down his spine, didn’t mean that that was okay.
It was drilled into him the first night he arrived in Hawkins.
After his file was stamped with a large red mark that read defective, he was given to one of the scientists and her husband.
The Harringtons.
A normal new family from Eastern Oklahoma.
That’s what they told everyone.
That’s what they made sure Steve parroted to everyone in his brand new school.
His new father took a cigar to the tattoo on his wrist, welting the flesh with an ugly burn. He ignored Steve’s screams and tears.
You have to fit in here, Steven, he had said, the cigar smoldering between his fingers, Steve clutching his wrist, eyes shining with tears. You have to fit in and be normal.
So Steve lied.
He smiled and told everyone he came from a normal family from normal Oklahoma. He said that he lived in a normal house, and read normal books, and played normal sports.
And he tried, and failed, to convince himself the lab was a dream.
-
“We should do something after this.”
Steve was careful to keep his voice casual. He didn’t want to let Robin in on how much he was dreading returning to his empty house tonight.
Robin didn’t acknowledge him. She was sorting the returned movies, placing them in piles of genre so they could easily be returned to their proper section.
Steve quietly lifted his leg, and lightly kicked her hip.
She glared at him.
“Quit ignorin’ me. Just say yes, or no.” It’s not like if she said no it would crush him or anything. No. It’s fine.
“I just have a bunch of homework that’s all, like, due tomorrow,” she said it slowly, as though telling him a beloved relative had died.
Was it that obvious how lonely he is?
“Don’t worry about it, Buck.” Robin took school real serious. She had perfect grades every year and had already applied to sixteen colleges and universities, including four Ivy League options.
So Steve didn’t blame her for not skulking around with him.
With college-less, nowhere bound Steve.
“I’m really sorry,” she began, getting that sad look in her eye like that night in the mall bathroom when Steve spilled his drugged-out guts. Literally, and metaphorically.
“Nah, I was just lookin’ for something to do. It’s okay, Robin. Really.”
And it was.
Almost.
It’s just that, Steve’s not got a lot going for him right now.
He’s got a big empty house, and a brain that likes to give him excessive nightmares, and one age-appropriate friend in the whole place.
But he doesn’t wanna talk about all that shit.
And Robin looked like there was something on the tip of her tongue. Something her teeth were barely holding back.
So Steve just scooped up the stack of neatly ordered Action films, and made his way over to the far shelf, taking himself out of the situation before it would get to a place that would only make him lie more and more.
Robin means well. He knows she does.
It just feels like a lot of her well-meaning chats end up with Steve lying through his fucking teeth and Robin nearly in tears of frustration at his lack of openness with her.
She feels like being tortured and drugged together gives them a close kind of kinship very few share.
Steve feels like he’s got just too much fucked-up baggage to dump on her.
Not when they’re trying to put the Upside Down behind them.
Not that Steve could ever put it behind him.
He felt something build in his gut. Something hot and heavy. Something that always meant his powers were scraping at the walls of the neat little cave he had shut them in. Something that meant his skin would burn until he unleashed some of his pent-up energy.
He took a deep breath, blowing out the air slowly through his nose.
He had rules to his power. Rules he had given himself, mostly. Things he’d never use his powers for.
He tried to avoid his powers at all costs, but he had seen what could happen if he tried to tamp them down. It was less dangerous to open the lid of the box just a tiny bit.
Especially if he did it right.
He made his way back over to Robin, finding that spot in his brain that made a shudder zip down his spine. The spot that was made of cold and electric heat.
It was always too simple when he let the power take over.
Locate her feeling. Let him consume him.
And then just, twist it as much as he wants.
“Robin,” he spoke slowly, honing his suggestion. “You don’t have to feel bad about not spending time with me tonight.”
He felt her sadness and guilt about the evening recede about as fast as the tide.
She really shouldn’t feel bad about ditching him, especially not when her education is the main priority.
He matched her lazy grin, wiping his nose discreetly, only a small drop of blood smeared against his hand.
The rest of the shift passed without incident, and the roaring feeling in Steve’s gut had been sated enough for the time being.
So he pushed it back out of his mind, and returned to his empty house.
He was saving up to get his own place. He really was. But it was easier this way. He didn’t pay any bills, had lots of space to himself, and a pool in the backyard (that he never used).
And it’s hard for him to explain, but there’s something tugging him back into this house all the time.
He doesn’t know if it’s because it’s the only home he ever knew after the pain and fear that was his childhood in the lab, or if it’s something else that makes him feel tethered to the too-big house.
Sometimes he thought there was a sense of safety in the old place.
With parents that spent excessive amounts of time doing research for things he didn’t understand but was sure were important, it was largely an emotion-free place.
Which was good for Steve.
High emotion situations made his power boil up and spill over the edge like a pot of water on the stove.
A place like his empty house, he could keep everything in check. Not get his feelings tangled with those around him. Not catch thoughts that were just beginning to be molded into something brand new.
He clambered into bed, punching his pillows around in a way that was decidedly not petulant.
There was a steady silence in the old house. A silence that was as depressing as it was easy on his brain.
And there wasn’t silence.
Creaks.
Creaks issuing from downstairs. From the floorboards in the hallway.
Footsteps.
Steve was out of bed in a second, bat held aloft in as close to ready position as he could maintain while bolting down the stairs in his socks and faded green gym shorts.
He knew how to navigate the house without a sound. Practice of tip-toeing around a volatile not-father kinda ended up giving him something useful.
The creaks were still progressing, moving up the hallway from the back of the house, where his parents’ empty bedroom sat still.
The person was getting closer, lumbering slowly as if they were trying to be quiet themselves.
Steve adjusted his grip on the bat, taking proper batting stance, ready for the intruder to round the corner into his section of the hall.
First sign of a person, and Steve would swing.
No questions asked.
The floorboard before the bend in the hall gave a loud sound, and he could’ve sworn he heard someone curse under their breath.
He closed his eyes, and swung.
His bat sailed through the air, and connected with, not an intruder.
And then he was filled with an overwhelming sense of fear. A completely feral state of fight or flight made him nearly bare his teeth in an animalistic growl. He felt fear, and dread, and pure stubborn, stupid resolve.
It nearly blinded him, the emotions were so thick and clear.
And then there whooshed out of him, as though being sucked up by a feelings vacuum, leaving him empty and confused.
His top lip was covered in blood.
He had a lot of fucking questions as he stared at the bat, hanging by it’s long nails in the hallway wall, the ominous creaking moving past him towards the stairs.
The footsteps that were caused by no one.
It’s official.
Steve’s lost it.
He’s fucking crazy.
He’s hearing footsteps and voices swearing quietly, and he’s going mad and completely batshit and should be tucked away in a padded room for the rest of his life.
He didn’t even bother to wrench the bat out of the wall as he stumbled after the imagined footsteps.
He clearly needed to get a good night’s sleep, and to forget that anything happened at all tonight.
-
Billy hates Harrington’s house.
He doesn’t, really. It’s given him excellent shelter while he pulled himself together, and it’s out of town enough to serve as a good base for the little gang of Lost Boys he had accumulated.
It’s just that, the old house likes to make a lot of noise.
It keeps him on edge.
Every squealing door hinge, and every creaky floorboard sets his teeth on edge and makes him whip around in a frenzy, expecting to see a demogorgon snarling at him from the sitting room.
He nearly had a heart attack when he heard the thuds coming from upstairs.
He generally liked to avoid the top floor of the house.
Harrington’s bedroom was up there, and it wigged him out something fierce. He’d only been in the dilapidated version of it one time, his first night in the house he had claimed for safety.
He didn’t intend to stay the night in there, he had just stumbled upon it, and curled up in the bed.
He remembers not sleeping the entire night. He was so scared after coming to in the library, something slimy and disgusting slipping its way out of his throat.
The whole place had been screaming, as though the Upside Down itself was alive. Alive and being horrifically murdered.
He didn’t know what it was called then, all he knew was that Harrington’s house was the first one he came across, and that Harrington’s room was depressingly empty and impersonal.
But, there was a thudding coming from that general area, and if some kinda shitty creature was making its way into the house, he needed to hedge it off before it did any damage.
He took hold of his ax, never far from his side these days, and slipped out of his cot.
The floorboards in the hallway were creaky, and he tried to walk slowly, muffling his footsteps as much as he could in his heavy boots, not wanting to warn the monster he was coming for it.
He cataloged the crew in his head: Hopper had his troop of three in the basement where they were resting up for the supply run tomorrow. Timothy was on nightwatch with his team of five. Billy was in a pack with four others; Heather Holloway, her mother, Janet, and the two boys they found skulking around the library the same night everyone seemed to wake up. One of the boys was called Andrew. The other hadn’t spoken a single word the entire time they’d been trapped.
Billy liked to call him by different names each time he referred to the kid. Trying to get him to laugh. He couldn’t’ve been more than seven years old, and he was trapped in this fucking hellscape with the rest of them.
Andrew was thirteen. Billy didn’t like to look at him much. Andrew reminded him of Max. Which made Billy feel empty and achy in a way he didn’t think was very productive for survival.
But Andrew took a shine to Janet Holloway. Probably missing his mother and needing more comfort than his thirteen-year-old self was willing to admit.
The Holloway women were a hell of a lot feistier than Bill originally gave them credit for, saving his ass in a scrap just as often as he had been there for theirs. Heather and Janet were equal parts caring and soft, with the right amounts of clever and bossy to take point on their team.
Billy let himself be the muscle.
He let himself be the watchdog and attack dog. He took nightwatches and never let his weapons out of his grasp.
Everyone had a role.
And that was perfectly okay.
They had to keep together in this world. They wouldn’t survive it otherwise.
They’d all lost enough people to understand that.
One of the boards gave a hefty creak under his left foot, and he breathed a quiet fuck through his bandana, listening for more of the thudding.
It had stopped about forty seconds before, Billy had counted, and he couldn’t hear any other sounds of something forcing its way inside. Plus, the nightwatch hadn’t sounded any alarms.
He took another step, ax held ready and aloft in case he came face to ugly face with one of the horrible creatures that prowled the night.
He rounded the corner, and there was a loud bang on the wall next to his head.
He jumped as paint chipped off the wall and flew all over him.
He was hit with a feeling of intense fear, and adrenaline rush that caused all the blood in his ears to rush. He looked wildly around, seeing, nothing.
Billy bared his teeth, ready to go down fucking swinging.
As long as he took the fucker down with him, that’s all that matters.
Save the rest.
And he stood, ready to fight, ready to die.
And there was nothing.
Nothing in the hallway. He was all alone.
None of this shit made any sense. He hadn’t dreamed the wall cracked beside his head, and looking back, there were holes in the wall, and a big dent that had splinted the white paint and drywall beneath it.
There was some fucked up shit going on, and Billy didn’t like it one bit.
He continued down the hall, creeping to the stairs to check the original source of the noises that had woken him up.
Harrington’s room was pretty much just as he remembered it from that first night in the house.
It was sparse and sad-looking. The covers on the bed were all jostled and thrown around, the horrible spindle-like vines covering nearly every surface in the room.
They had cleared the tendrils in other rooms, cutting them and burning them back, ensuring the vines didn’t start creeping over them when they weren’t looking.
Billy didn’t fancy being covered and tethered by the slimy black vines. He was pretty much over all this Upside Down shit.
He took a cursory look around Harrington’s room, not noticing any signs of forced entry from a creature, really nothing was out of place.
The meager school trophies on the bookshelf next to the closet looked rotted and tarnished, just like everything else in this absolute hell called a parallel universe. There were few pictures in this room, much like the whole house. It had taken Billy a long time to notice the lack of inhabitancy the house had. The way it seemed to feel so cold and empty, it would be that way in the real world too.
His eyes swept over the dilapidated dresser, cataloging the room quickly for anything that should worry him.
Billy deemed the whole scene safe, and made sure to close the door tightly as he retreated back downstairs.
-
Steve’s going fucking crazy.
He was still in bed, his alarm clock ringing angrily at him as it had for the past six minutes.
He hadn’t slept at all last night.
Something just felt. Off.
The feelings in his chest were scrambled, and they felt foreign to him. Like he had taken in somebody else’s emotions.
But proximity was the key to his power, and he was alone. Alone alone.
Like, the closest person was Mrs. Gardfeld in the next house, all the way across their combined, much too big, yards.
It felt like. It felt like someone was in the house with him. Someone was in the house with him, and they were scared, and stubborn, and tired, and a flurry of things that made Steve feel ill.
And he couldn’t push them out.
He couldn’t find the chasm between this slew of someone else’s shit, and his own messy cocktail of feelings.
The other feelings were like those awful vines in the tunnel. Snaking around under his feet, wiggling up his ankles and keeping him stuck in the mud. Wrapping around his own emotions and squeezing until they just merged into one.
He’s lost the metaphor.
Doesn’t matter.
His feelings are fucked and his brain is fucked and his day is fucked.
And he has to work a double at Family Fuckin’ Video.
He found his way out of bed. Not going very far, just standing next to his warm nest of blankets, debating getting back in and hiding for the rest of his life.
He was going to be late for work.
He didn’t really give a fuck.
Keith would be all smug and probably make some remarks about Steve not even being worth the less-than-minimum wage he was making.
He took a shower, not so much cleaning himself as letting the lukewarm water cascade down on him and hope it got rid of the stench of sweat and anxiety and bad sleep that was clinging angrily to his skin.
His brain was empty.
Empty save for the pounding otherness that were these horrible fucking feelings.
Robin didn’t even have the heart to call him out for being nearly half an hour late.
“You look like shit.”
No, she just called him out for looking like shit.
“Y’know, it’s really wonderful to have such a caring and thoughtful friend in these trying times.”
She rolled her eyes. He always told her one day she was gonna get stuck like that. With her eyes permanently fixed towards the ceiling in exasperation.
“Drop the attitude, Steve Harrington. Just because you didn’t sleep doesn’t mean I have to suffer.”
Sometimes it was hard to tell if she was joking. Steve just clenched his jaw and stared at her blankly. Either she would get mad at him, or sigh and roll her eyes.
She sighed and rolled her eyes.
Bingo.
She wasn’t actually mad at him.
“You okay?”
“Jus’, some weirdness. Bad vibes.”
He couldn’t give her more than that. Couldn’t say I can feel someone else in my house and I don’t know if someone is hiding in my house or if I’m going crazy, oh and by the way, I was one of those freaky lab kids and I can manipulate and feel people’s thoughts and emotions, by the way.
That’s too much for a slow shift on a Saturday morning.
That’s too much for really any time of any day.
No, Steve fully plans to take all that shit to the grave. Like a real man, his dad would say.
“Well, if you could take your bad vibes back to rewind duty, that would leave all the good vibes up here to me.” She shooed him off with her hand, landing a quick slap square on his left asscheck when he groaned and dragged his feet dramatically on his way to the back room.
Not that Steve would ever actually complain about rewind duty. Steve preferred doing it to anything else in the place. Especially re-shelving. That was just asking for someone to come ask him for a movie recommendation. Steve only watched the same five campy old westerns and when he recommends any of those, people seem to wanna get out of his face right quick.
No, rewinding was dull and monotonous and solitary, all the shit that Steve really needed on a day like today.
There was a strict routine and he didn’t have to think or do anything.
Just sit. New tape. Rewind. Put in case. Put in re-shelve bucket. New tape. Rewind. Put in case. And again and again and again until all the tapes were ready to go.
Hawkins tended to take out a lot of movies on the weekend. Not much else to do when you aren’t sixteen and ready to hit up any party you could possibly weasel your way into.
So, Steve had about fifty some odd tapes to rewind from the past few days and he was feeling benignly excited about sitting in the small room for most of his shift.
It was easy to pass the shift like that.
Sitting with the quiet whirring of the tapes being tracked back to the beginning. Not having to deal with anyone’s thoughts except his own tedious ones about when he should take his lunch break and reminding himself to check the TV Guide for anything good tonight.
It was an odd emptiness that took hold of him throughout the day. And he almost felt, well.
Lonely.
He almost felt lonely.
Which is fucking bonkers because that horrible feeling of someone else had well and truly fucked him over last night, and well into this morning, but he kind. Missed. The other presence.
He’s officially crazy.
Someone find this boy a padded fucking cell because Steve Harrington has officially gone all kinds of batshit bananas wacky.
He’s feeling lonely because the horrible not his feelings of fear and anger and betrayal and desperation aren’t clogging up his little brain sink. Even when they were, the brain sink was threatening to burst and leak all over his brain kitchen.
Or something to that effect.
He let his eyes unfocus, watching Jaws at double speed and backward for the fourth time that day.
There was something about the foreign feelings he just couldn’t quite wrap his head around.
Something twinging in the back of his brain, screaming at him to open his eyes and pay attention.
But that’s never been Steve’s strong suit.
-
“Stupid. Fucking. Vines .”
Hopper muttered to himself a lot.
It was usually too muffled underneath his own bandana face covering and the hefty beard he had been sporting to discern whatever he was thinking, but it’s not like hating the awful black tendrils of gross plant/monster/everything-that-made-up-the-Upside-Down hybrid of vine-ish tentacles was something that just Hopper experienced.
It was a sentiment they all shared as they hacked away at the new growth in the dilapidated Bradley’s Big Buys.
They had already ransacked the general store five times over, and took as much as they could salvage from the wreckage of the other-dimensional mall.
Supplies were needed, and they had to be smart about it.
Things had been quiet lately.
Not many beasties out and about since the night they all seemed to come to.
Hopper had said something about the gate closing and the brain being cut off from the body.
Billy hadn’t listened.
He’d been scared off his ass and all that had really registered was clear for now.
So, they made supply runs. And poked around town for any survivors left to take back to Basecamp Harrington. Only Billy called it that.
They had the runs down to a system.
Pry away any vines they could, burning them back as they went, making enough room to slip into the bargain store, gather as much canned food and grimy medical supplies as they could manage, and book it back to the relative safety of the big house on the edge of the forest.
Nobody talked about what they’d do when they ran out of supplies. When they’d exhausted their resources and were stuck with nothing but the vines on the ground and the spores in the air.
Billy got it.
It’s not like he wants to hear he’ll probably die of starvation and/or a gangrenous infection before he’s eighteen.
They just. Make do.
Ration food and keep each other safe.
Always thinking about the minute they’re in and the minute coming up. Not looking too far forward.
There’s nothing to see too far in the future.
Billy crashed the blunt end of his ax through the sliding door at the front of the store, clearing away as much as he could.
Janet and Andrew would slip inside first go, taking as much as they could carry with them. Next round, Heather would take the little one and gather anything left.
Billy would keep watch.
He always kept watch.
Things had been too good for too long.
After the first wave of those who didn’t make it, the whole broken side of the Earth was too kind to them. Not sending horrible fleshy monsters to nearly suck out their very souls.
Billy didn’t think this could last for much longer.
Heather took the little one by the hand, rushing past her mother and Andrew as they returned with their supplies. Billy did a quick scan of them, noting no new injuries. Nothing out of the norm.
Supply runs were choreographed down to the minute.
Should the group not return in forty-five minutes, a search team was sent out.
The small group trudged back to the Harrington safehouse, keeping in the shadows, not a single one of them daring to speak. Billy walked slightly behind the others, never letting himself relax for a single second.
Things were too quiet.
-
The feeling hit Steve over the head like a sack of bricks being whacked against his skull.
Walking into his home was like walking into a stinking den of fear and anxiety. The air was clogged with so many emotions Steve felt like he was choking on them, slowly being crushed under their weight.
Whoever was emitting all these, Steve felt sorry for them. He can’t imagine living with this much bad energy taking up space in someone’s brain. He could barely cope with his own terrible bullshit. He doesn’t know how someone could cope with this.
He tried to move through his evening to the best of his ability.
He nearly set the house on fire when he left the tin foil covering on his frozen meal, causing the microwave to spark angrily at him, the potatoes underneath the corner of foil that had nearly caught fire to smolder and blacken.
Even in the shower, the water as hot and steamy as he could stand, he felt that prickle he couldn’t get rid of.
Like if he could just close his eyes and reach out far enough, his fingers would brush someone else. Someone nearby.
He’s felt it before. That there was a person just out of reach. A person he could feel clear as a bell, but couldn’t alter. Couldn’t manipulate. Just had to experience everything that was going on inside and try to hold on for the ride.
He wore headphones to bed, blasting a mixtape Robin had made for him last month. Something with a lot of heavy guitars and girls wailing about society.
He doesn’t think it was all that good, but it helped. Helped him feel like maybe the person wasn’t seeping into his own soul.
And the whining synth of Patti Smith finally let him get some goddamn sleep.
“Hello?”
It was his house.
But it wasn’t his house.
It was a blank void. It was nothing. It was nowhere.
But for some reason, his brain kept telling him it was his house.
“Harrington?”
It was Billy. Hargrove.
But it wasn’t Billy.
He was dirty, covered in soot and horrible black sludge that made Steve’s stomach churn.
“Why are you in my house?”
Billy looked around the blank void all around them. Water sloshed on the floor, lapping at Billy’s black boots. Steve observed his own toes.
He was barefoot, but he couldn’t feel the water.
“This is your house?”
Steve didn’t want to explain.
“You’re dead.”
“Could be soon.”
Nothing Billy said made any sense. But then, Billy never made much sense when he was alive, either.
He was an enigma to Steve. A big question mark all wrapped up with a gorgeous face and perfect body.
“Where is this to you?”
Why was Steve’s brain so adamant on declaring this place his house?
“Somewhere safe.”
-
So.
That’s something.
Dreaming about Harrington.
Not necessarily something that Billy wanted to have happen to him while he was experiencing the worst possible time in his life.
Or maybe he did.
He’d said it in the dream.
Somewhere safe.
It’s what he felt in that blackness.
Safety. Warmth. Hope.
All the shit he hasn’t felt since he opened his eyes in the rank-ass library.
That darkness was like a harness, keeping him grounded to something real. Tucking him in gently at night and kissing him on the head.
It made waking up that much shittier.
Knowing he’d be on nightwatch with Heather and Janet tonight, he used resting up as an excuse to lay on his cot, hardly moving in the clouded air.
He needed to process.
There was something so fucking weird about that dream.
It felt real in the moment, and he didn’t question anything that had happened.
Why there was water on the ground at his feet? Why Harrington was there wearing pajamas Billy could only describe as skanky? All of this made perfect fucking sense to dream Billy.
Awake Billy, had some fuckin’ questions.
Mostly, those previously listed. As well as: what the fuck?
He blames seeing Steve specifically on being in his house. That makes sense. You tend to think about a guy quite a lot when you’re living in the broken shell of his family home. He blames seeing Steve in those itsy-bitsy shorts and a homemade cropped t-shirt on the well repressed sexual interest he refused to admit he felt towards the guy.
All that made sense.
But everything else.
Steve said he was dead.
Was he dead?
Was this Hell?
Purgatory?
He’s read The Divine Comedy, and this doesn’t quite match up with any of the shit Dante waxed on about.
And dream Billy didn’t think that was a weird thing to say to someone. To accuse them of being dead. He just said could be soon and then acted like that was a normal fucking response.
His head was spinning out of control.
The only thing that made sense was when Billy said they were somewhere safe.
Because, they were.
Even in the void place, he knew they were safe.
There was a small tapping sound on the wall next to the open door frame.
The door had long since rotted right through.
“Miss Janet sent me to see if you’re alright.”
Andrew was always calling Janet Holloway Miss Janet.
It makes Billy wonder if manners like that were beaten into him by a father like Neil.
He hopes not.
He likes Andrew too much for that.
Andrew hovered around while Billy swung himself out of his cot.
He changed out the bandana over his mouth and nose.
Most of them slept fully dressed, even with their shoes and socks still firmly on their feet.
You had to be ready to go at the slightest sound of Bad in this place.
Plus, everything was so goddamn dirty, what’s a little mud in the sheets in the grand scheme of things? And the rancid rotting smell of the Upside Down did wonders to cover the smell of body odor.
Billy followed Andrew down the L-shaped hallway, to the sitting room where he found Janet and Heather huddled together on one couch, the little one between them.
“Apparently something happened on the run last night.”
Billy’s blood ran cold. He couldn’t make out Janet’s expression under her face covering. The little one got up from his spot on the couch, standing in Billy’s shadow. He liked to do that. Billy figured he felt safe behind someone so much bigger and stronger than him. Someone with a big fuckin’ weapon that was never too far away.
“Who’d we lose?”
“No one. Everyone’s okay. Hopper just called all of us for a discussion, then went to the basement.”
The basement was Hopper’s domain with his little chunk of the crew.
He had found some busted up H.A.M. radio from somewhere he refused to explain, and spent all the time he wasn’t watching over his shoulder for threats or gathering supplies from smashed grocery stores, trying to fix it up, tuning it to different crackling stations, and yelling into it.
El. El, I need you to copy if you can hear me. El!
-
The pillow was a mess of blood the next morning.
It was congealed and cracked and tacky against his face and made the pillowcase stick to his cheek and his bloody upper lip in a way that kinda made Steve wanna puke a little bit.
His nose had bled in the night.
He never got nosebleeds.
Unless he used his power.
And that dream.
That blank void space and that mucky scraggly Billy lookin’ like the hunky star of some apocalypse movie.
Wait.
Blood forgotten, smeared on his face and neck, Steve tossed himself towards the phone on his nightstand, smacking his shoulder against the wooden corner and tumbling to the floor, his legs still tangled in his sheets on the bed.
He couldn’t deal with anything, snatching the phone up and punching in the only number that was grinding through his head.
“ Pick up pick up pick up pick up pick up, ” he muttered into the receiver.
His upper body was still flopped over to the plush carpet, legs twitching and shaking on the bed with his anxiety.
He’s had some massive fucking realizations and he needs backup.
“This is the Byers.”
“Put El on the phone.”
-
“Oh. Steve’s covered in blood again. The Upside Down must really be back,” Dustin said in complete monotone as Steve opened the door.
Steve couldn’t give less of a fuck right now.
He felt like he was on the verge of a major breakthrough, all coming in the neat package of a major breakdown.
He felt manic and shaky and so what if he forgot he was covered in the aftermath of a superpower-nosebleed-explosion?
“Shut up. Just get in.”
El had rallied the old troops from St. Paul, calling everyone at the ass-crack o’fuck in the morning and saying something about catching some weird Hawkins vibes all the way from Minnesota.
It was a fucking weak excuse, but explaining the whole Steve situation was just not really in the cards today.
He’s got an agenda and they need to stick to it.
Robin said she’d gather Max on the way to Steve’s place, and Nancy was probably hauling Mike and Lucas over faster than a speeding gun or whatever that expression is, so all Steve had to do was get his story straight.
“And maybe you should think about putting on a clean shirt? At the very least. I’d say, maybe just start over. Take a shower. Powerwash your face, even.”
“When the fuck did you become sarcastic ?”
“Right after you became friends with the coolest chick on the planet and then decided you’re too good for her.”
“ Chick. Don’t call Robin a chick. And I’ve told you, we’re just friends. I’m not too good for her.”
Really, Steve thought she was too good for him.
Well, that, and there’s the whole part where she’s super totally not into guys at all.
“So, what’s this all about, anyway? Mike said on the phone that El called him and left a really cryptic message.”
“Look. She called me to explain and ask if everyone could meet here,” Steve lied. “I’ll give you guys a recap once the rest of the gang shows.”
“But she thinks there’s something going on with the Upside Down? Again ?”
“I think she knows there’s something going on with the Upside Down.”
The more Steve sat with the memory of how Billy looked in that dream, the more he was certain of where he was.
Billy had been ratty. His normally perfect hair was long and limp, greasy on top and matted around his face. He was sporting a patchy beard, nothing like the fuckin’ pornstache the guy had been rocking all last summer.
And he was filthy. Covered in grime and dirt, and Steve’s sure if he’d looked harder, he would’ve seen traces of that viscous black goo that only meant bad news.
There was a squeal of tires, an alarm signaling the arrival of Nancy in her mother’s station wagon, toting her brother and Lucas.
“I’m in this now, Lucas Sinclair!” came Erica’s voice from the entryway.
Steve was tapping his foot impatiently.
“Erica, you accidentally found out about all this!”
“So did you!”
The Sinclair siblings’ bickering was only cut by the sound of the Wheeler siblings snapping at one another in turn.
“Am I the only one that thinks it doesn’t make sense to meet up this early? El and Will are like, seven hours away!”
“Mike! It doesn’t matter. We all have to talk and figure out what’s going on.”
The sounds of arguments all quieted abruptly as the four people rounded the corner and caught sight of Steve.
“Oh, Jesus. Who kicked your ass this time?” Mike snipped at Steve.
Oh, yeah. He keeps forgetting he’s covered in his own nose blood.
“What? It’s nothing. I kicked my own ass. Just take a seat.”
“I told you to-”
Steve didn’t wanna hear it.
He loves all these people, but his head kinda felt like it was full of mushy jelly and runny pudding and all the loud talking wasn’t doing much to help.
He stepped out onto the porch, snagging the pack of cigarettes he kept stowed in the flower box next to the door.
It took two to finally tame his nerves any.
Sitting there with all the people in his house waiting for an explanation, he kinda felt like his haphazard plan was shit and going to fall through immediately.
Just tell them El called. Tell them she saw Billy in the nowhere place and she thinks he’s alive. Easy as pie.
The tell-tale sound of a skateboard making its way closer and closer announced Max before he saw her.
Robin was pedaling next to her, helmet lopsided on her head and not buckled underneath her chin.
They were talking animatedly to one another, their laughter dying as soon as they saw Steve waiting for them.
“Fuck. So this is real.”
“Why does everyone think I got the shit beat outta me?”
“Your ass gets creamed every time some spooky shit goes down in this place, Harrington,” Max informed him.
She was a little Billy replica, all the way down to the way the corner of her mouth twitched up when she said his name.
It would’ve been sad. The way she tried to become her brother after losing him so violently last summer.
But something like relief settled into his bones, strong and real and wait ‘til I tell her Billy’s not dead and he was laughing. Curling in on himself cackling so hard his stomach had already begun to get sore
“Fuck. He’s lost it,” Robin sighed, ditching her bike next to Dustin’s and heaving Steve up, both hands underneath his armpits.
-
Nobody dared speak.
“And you’re sure? You’re positive you heard one of those things?”
Janet had her arms twisted over her chest, her jaw tight as she watched Hopper’s every move.
“It’s not really a sound you forget.”
Billy’s hand was shaking, he was gripping the ax so hard.
“So, we’re fucked,” Angela said harshly. Her cold voice sent ice down Billy’s spine. “If those things are back, we don’t stand a fucking chance.”
Hopper scrubbed his hand over his brow, sighing through the cloth over his mouth and nose.
���It just means I have to try harder. I can get to El, I know I can.”
Hopper said that a lot. But he never explained what getting to El meant.
Heather had explained she met El once, but she said it was weird and she only saw her like some kind of shadow, a figment in this dark empty place. Somewhere as cold and broken as the Upside Down felt.
The little one was leaned up against Billy, his left hand balled in the edge of Billy’s leather jacket. He stood like that a lot. It was grounding for Billy. Kinda like holding Max’s hand when she was young and still thought he was the coolest person she’d ever met.
“But, you only heard something, right? So it very well could be nothing.” Timothy was good at keeping mediator. He always kept a level head and talked slowly and calmly. They needed someone like him in this nightmare.
“They make this noise. This kind of wet chirping. Like this gurgle that just sounds like they’re watching you, ready to pounce out at any time, shrieking and attacking. It’s not a sound you forget.” Hopper had this horrible haunted look on his face, and Billy fucking believed him.
“Then we up nightwatch. Stick together,” Billy offered. He never usually piped up with strategy, but that’s the best he’s got, and frankly, he thinks it’s the only way they’d all be able to make it through.
“Exactly. We move in a pack now. Keep track of everyone together, and stay aware of what’s around us. I think we should do a major run and then lock up for a few days to see what goes down.”
Hopper leaned back in the ratty armchair he was taking up, looking around to see if anyone challenged his ideas.
Billy had given up his alpha male attitude the second Hopper yanked his upper arm and nearly screamed at him, asking Billy if he was ‘one of the flayed’ all while aggressively checking him over for injuries.
First time any of Neil’s lessons actually sunk in.
Respect and responsibility.
If that fucker could see Billy now, doing nothing but respecting authority and taking responsibility for all these peoples’ lives.
“We should rest up. Take a run tonight. Get a lay of the land,” Timothy said with an air of finality. Nobody argued.
Hopper nodded.
Everyone broke out from the Harringtons’ living room, milling around to get prepared for tonight’s run. Taking stock of what they needed to keep going for the next few days.
Billy was itching to slide back into his cot and try to seek out that space if he can. The empty space where Harrington and that warm feeling of safe existed.
The little one stayed clinging to his jacket, and Billy took a loose hold of his wrist, trying to provide some kind of basic comfort to the tiny kid.
“You wanna go raid the cabinet?” The kid stared up at Billy with big eyes. Billy could never tell what color they were in the gloom. He thinks maybe green.
The cabinet was a large door, built into the wall of the sitting room, and clearly where the Harringtons kept their games.
They had these excruciating couple thousand-piece puzzles, the pictures peeling and faded on the pieces. They had Trivial Pursuit and backgammon, and all kindsa shit.
The little one went and pulled out the checkers board. That was the only game Billy knew how to play anyhow.
He and Max used to sit for hours, playing with this dinosaur-themed checker game Max’s dad got for her one birthday.
It helped, playing a game. Helped pass the time. Help bait the anxiety.
Helped them all feel a little bit closer to human.
-
“I don’t. Get it.”
Apparently, Nancy was not the only one, if the blank stares Steve was receiving from around his living room were anything to go by.
“Yeah, why did she call you ?” Mike’s snitty tone was really grating on Steve’s fragile nerves.
“She said, she called to make sure everyone could come over here before she told you all to just show up this early on a Sunday morning and then she kinda explained what happened.”
Max was white as a sheet, tracking Steve like he was playing a horrible joke on her.
“And she saw Billy. Billy Hargrove .”
Steve nodded at Dustin.
“Why does she think he’s in the Upside Down?” Robin asked, perched on the coffee table, sitting closest to where he was standing nervously.
“She just knows .”
It was frustrating, trying to impart the seriousness of the situation without just spilling his guts.
He rubbed absentmindedly at the cigar burn on his wrist.
“I just don’t believe this. I talked to her three days ago, and she’s still having trouble with her powers. She can barely move a book, and hasn’t been able to get to the void since July, and you’re saying she accidentally saw Billy Hargrove, who we all saw murder a bunch of people and then get killed -”
“Shut up! He wasn’t himself!” Max shrieked out over Mike, the only time she’d even opened her mouth since Steve had mentioned her stepbrother’s name.
“Even if he is alive, El couldn’t have seen him! It doesn’t make sense!” Mike’s voice rose over Max’s, and Steve has a fucking headache and he’s over it.
“It was me! I had a dream. I went to the void. I saw Billy in the Upside Down. I called El to say she saw him.”
Everyone went dead silent, staring at him.
“Steve,” Robin began, searching his face.
It was like all the wind that had been filling up his sails, powering his energy ship, had suddenly quit blowing.
Steve was tired.
He sank to the floor, crossing his legs where he sat.
“I need you all to shut the fuck up for a moment and let me explain, because I only wanna say all this shit once.” He covered his bloody face with his hands. “I’m like El.”
That statement hung in the air for a moment.
And then there was a roar of noise.
“How could you keep this a secret?” Dustin shouted.
“Not in a million years !” Lucas decided. Erica yelled something back at him, vaguely defending Steve, which was nice.
“You mean you came from the lab?” Mike had a look on his face like he’d swallowed a particularly bitter lemon.
“Everybody, shut the fuck up!” Max roared, glowering at each person until they were silent again.
In all this Robin hadn’t said a word. She was pale, staring at Steve.
“Look, I don’t wanna go into it because it fucking sucks to think about,” Steve still hadn’t uncovered his face. “But yeah. I was in the lab. I got out because they decided I was a failed experiment. My mom worked at the lab and she took me and we pretended like the three of us moved here from Oklahoma and my dad told me never to tell anyone. And I haven’t. Didn’t even tell El. She recognized me from then. Don’t even know how, I left when she was like, three. Doesn’t matter. I’m a freaky lab kid and last night I fell asleep and saw Billy in that-what’d you call it? The void? Yeah, I saw him, and he’s covered in dirt and gross black Upside Down shit, and he’s fucking stuck there, and now we’re here.”
There was another silence.
Steve didn’t dare to look at any of them.
He didn’t want them to laugh in his face. Tell him he was making all this shit up and leave him alone to deal with Billy trapped somewhere else.
He wanted them to take his word for it. To quietly believe this crazy fucking shit of a story because the scared other feeling was back and clawing at his spine and making him want to burrow into the ground and find somewhere safe and secure and-
“Okay.”
Of course it was Robin.
It was always Robin.
Steve let himself look at her.
She was pale, but she was smiling at him.
“Just like that?”
“Just like that.”
Steve nodded once.
“Okay. Uh, great.”
“Wait, if you’re defective, no offense, then how did you see Billy?”
Steve stared at Max weighing his answer carefully.
“Because, well, the defective thing, that was all, I didn’t mean to, that was before I really understood what I could do. Don’t get me wrong, it really worked out, but it was an accident.”
“Spit it out, Sailor Man.”
“ Erica .”
Erica just rolled her eyes at Lucas.
“Okay. Uh, before I explain, just, just keep in mind that I have rules, and I don’t use my powers if I can avoid them, and I’d never use them to be a creep, but-”
“Steve!”
“Fine!” The words were right there, ready to tumble out of his mouth and ruin his life forever.
There was no going back after this.
The second they knew, everything would be different.
“I can feel other peoples’ emotions and, like, change them.”
Another silence.
“I don’t understand.”
Nancy was the last person he’d ever want to have this conversation with.
He knows what she’s thinking. He knows that the great anger brewing inside her is because she assumes he made her like him. Made her attracted to him.
Made her want him.
“I don’t use it like that. I would never, put something there that shouldn’t be there. It’s just, When someone feels something near me, I can tap into it. Let it become my own feelings. And then I just, change it. Just a little.” He cast around for a harmless example because so far, everyone was staring at him like a goddamn creep. “Robin!”
She startled slightly when he yelled at her.
“Okay, so Robin. I’d never, ever make you feel something not true to you. Like, I’d never make it so you were into me when you’re totally not, right?” He cast a glance at Nancy. “But, like, the other day, when you felt really shitty when I invited you over and you were studying, I just, I made it so you wouldn’t feel bad. I felt all this guilt you had for leaving me alone when you thought I was having a shitty day, and I made it so you didn’t feel guilty because you shouldn’t. That’s the kinda level I allow myself to work on.”
The look Robin was giving him was breaking his fucking heart.
Worse still, was the feeling of betrayal that began eating away at her.
“So, right now. You can tell what we’re all feeling?” Even Lucas, ever the level-headed one, couldn’t look him in the eye.
“I don’t want to. I don’t try to, but I can’t really avoid it. I just try to ignore it. But sometimes, sometimes if I bottle it all up for a while, it comes crashing out of me, and that’s when bad shit happens. If I don’t use it occasionally, it only wakes things worse, and I-”
“I can’t hear this.”
Robin’s anger crashed through Steve like a wave, nearly knocking him over. She stood, towering over him.
“When we were in that bathroom, all drugged out of our minds. I-” she sniffed, rage tears pooling in her eyes. Steve likes her eyes. So crystal blue. “Are we even really friends?”
Her last question was nothing more than a whisper.
And it made Steve wish he was never born.
He gaped at her like a dead fish.
“Rob, of course we are! I would never-”
“Because I hated you. And then one summer. Two whole months where we’re close enough that you can get all up in my brain, and suddenly I’m telling you shit I’ve never told anyone before.”
“It wasn’t, Robin I swear, that whole time, I never once used-”
She held up her hand, cutting him off.
A sob caught in his throat as she turned on her heel.
She slammed the door closed behind her.
Another fucking silence.
Steve couldn’t look anyone in the eye.
Their feelings were enough for him now, betrayal and anger and disappointment rushing into his lungs, drowning him. Choking him.
“You’ve used them on all of us.”
It wasn’t a question.
It was just a statement. The coldest he’s ever heard Dustin sound.
“I just want everyone to be happy.”
“Jesus, Steve. You realize that’s actually totally fucked up, right? You can’t just make us feel whatever you want,” Dustin bellowed at him, standing up like Robin had done, looking down at Steve where he sat pathetically on the floor.
And, when it’s put like that.
Sure.
It’s kinda fucked up.
But he’s only ever meddled in a way that’s good. He only ever tries to make his friends feel the positives. Hell, on the night of that stupid Snow Ball, he’d given Dustin enough self-confidence to make Madonna seem insecure.
All he does is try to help.
“All I do is try to help.”
More fucking silence.
Steve was so goddamn sick of silence. All he had was silence. He had the nothing, empty quiet. And he didn’t want it from the people who were supposed to make his life loud.
“El won’t be here until later tonight. I think we should just meet up then.”
Steve buried his head in his hands, biting back sobs as the small group filtered out of his house.
This is why he had wanted to take this secret with him to death.
He told everyone who he really is, and now they all hate him, and he’s completely alone, and wherever Billy is he’s fucking scared and-
“Steve?”
Max’s voice was small, mirroring the way she was curled in on herself in the plush armchair near the wall.
“Do you really think Billy’s alive?”
Steve nodded at her, desperately begging her to stay. To help him.
“I know he is.”
“I have an idea.”
-
He doesn’t remember falling asleep.
Doesn’t remember much of anything in this place.
He studied the water lapping at his muddy boots, dragging his toes through it to make the water wave and ripple.
It didn’t make a sound.
“I want to help.”
Billy knew Steve was there even before he spoke.
Something about the warmth he brought to the void place.
The safety.
“Don’t know if you can.”
Steve’s lips twitched into a ghost of a smile at that. His face was covered in blood, dried and flaking away from his skin, painted all the way down his face and neck, some staining the collar of his shirt.
“There’s a lot you don’t know about me.”
“That happens when the only interactions you have with a guy are to beat his ass.”
Steve cracked a real smile at that. Something big and bright that made Billy’s gut twist in a way he didn’t quite like.
“You’re forgetting all those other times we spent together. You’re not very subtle, you know.”
Yeah, Billy knows.
Mostly because he wasn’t trying to be subtle.
He had talked to Steve about his bitchy ex while they both had their dicks out in the shower. He was trying to be very much un-subtle.
“Wasn’t trying to be.”
“I know.”
Oh.
Steve knows.
And all he had done was stare blankly at Billy.
Nice.
“I need to know where you are.”
“Why?”
“Because I can help.”
Billy just blinked at Steve.
“Do you know El?”
Something funny happened to Steve’s face. He kind of gave a little smile that flickered into a frown and landed on something a little pinched and awkward.
“Yeah. How do you know her?”
“Hopper keeps saying he needs to get to her. None of us know what he’s talking about.”
And with that, Steve’s eyes went huge, and his jaw dropped. The water at Billy’s ankles sloshed quietly.
“Hopper’s there? Chief Hopper? Jim Hopper is there?”
“Jesus, yeah. Been here since we all woke up.”
Steve acted like Billy had told him that Farrah Fawcett herself was on her way to shave his head.
Meaning, he looked struck fucking dumb.
“I’m gonna need you to explain.”
“I don’t know. Don’t remember much. Crashed my car on one of your shitty backwoods roads, and then everything is just, kinda, gone. I woke up in this shithole version of the library and Hopper found me here and we’ve kinda set up camp.”
Billy shrugged lamely. Something was dripping, he could hear the sound of it far behind him.
“There’s more of you? How many?”
“Not as many as there should be.”
Steve’s mouth pinched, and his big droopy eyes went all sweet and sad.
“Where are you? Where’s the camp?”
Billy was suddenly embarrassed. There was a sound like a stream flowing over rocks.
What’s he supposed to say? The hellscape skeleton of your house oh and by the way all your stuff is here and I slept in your bed once because I was scared and sad.
“Someone’s house. Don’t know whose.”
Steve huffed some air out of his nostrils, his mouth pinching again.
Billy hadn’t realized someone could make so many different expressions just by pursing their lips in different ways.
“Find out. We’re coming to get you.”
A crash of a wave, and Billy was back in hell.
-
Steve sucked in lungfuls of air, tossing the towel that had been covering his eyes to the ground.
“You saw him.”
Max was sitting in front of him, the t.v. playing static behind her.
“Yeah. He’s okay. I mean, he’s really gross. Like, he’s-sorry. He’s okay.”
Max was still staring at him like she didn’t quite know how to proceed.
“But he’s in the Upside Down?”
“Yeah. And there’s others. He said Hopper’s there, that he’s been trying to contact El.”
“Wait, Hopper? He’s alive?”
“Billy said all of the flayed woke up after the Fourth of July in the Upside Down. He doesn’t know anything that happened in this world, and Hopper was there and they’ve set up, like, some kind of camp, or whatever. He said they’re in someone’s house. He doesn’t know who.”
“ Fuck .”
Yeah, Steve agrees with that sentiment.
This whole thing was like, kind of a lot.
And deep inside him, those other feelings had yet to leave him alone all day.
There was some kind of disappointment knocking about in his brain.
He knows it’s Billy.
All of those other feelings, it’s whatever Billy is feeling right that minute wherever he is.
And it only happens when Steve is-
“Max, he’s here.”
She whipped around behind her, staring at the front door like Billy could waltz through it at any moment.
“No, no not here, here .” She clearly didn’t understand. He used the towel to wipe the fresh blood from his upper lip, still having yet to clean himself up any. “The camp, the safeplace, it’s here. They’ve set up in my house!”
It felt like a revelation on par with the greatest inventions. Steve felt like the scientist that landed the man on the moon or the very first person to melt cheese onto fries.
A genius.
“So, he’s, I mean, he could be, just, here .” She looked over the room wistfully, and Steve knew how she felt. Like she wanted to pierce her hands into thin air, tearing a hole in between the two worlds and ripping Billy straight outta hell.
(Really, she just filled him with a wave of fierce determination, but Steve likes to take poetic license on other people’s feelings sometimes.)
“And you can feel him.”
“Yeah.”
“Is he, okay?”
And he knows this question.
Not the okay he assured her of when he first saw Billy. Soothing that he wasn’t missing any internal organs or possessed by any monsters.
She wants to know if he’s held it together.
“He’s scared. He’s always scared. But he’s really fucking stubborn, and he- I don’t know why he feels these things, but sometimes he gets kinda sad. Almost like he’s lost something, and sometimes, it feels like he’s caught fire, and his insides are just going up in flame and he gets overwhelmed by them. And sometimes he feels-” He hadn’t meant to continue.
“Tell me.”
He’s pretty sure Max knew what he was going to say next.
She just wanted it confirmed.
“Hopeless. Sometimes he feels hopeless.”
She sniffed, her eyes shining as she looked anywhere that wasn’t Steve.
“But, we know now. He doesn’t have to be hopeless anymore. We’ll find a way in, and we’ll get him out.”
He didn’t want to manipulate her.
He didn’t want to cross the boundaries everyone clearly thought he already had.
But he was positive he would find a way to Billy. He was positive he would get him out and get him home.
He sent a wave of that determination and hope and conviction to her.
“Yeah. We’ll get him.”
-
“Hopper, man, some funky shit is going down.”
Hopper whirled around quickly, halfway to his feet and asking who's been hurt before Billy raised both hands, acting like he was calming an anxious horse.
“Nah, sorry, shoulda worded that better. I just mean, something’s happened to me. With me, maybe. I don’t know. Just hear me out. This shit’s gonna sound, insane.”
Hopper didn’t say anything as Billy explained, beginning with that night when the wall shattered next to his head, and ending with his most recent trip to the void place.
Billy shrugged lamely when he finished explaining.
“So, Harrington, huh? Never woulda guessed he was like her. You sure you didn’t see a little girl anywhere in the blank place?”
“No. It was just us. Both times.”
Hopper leaned back in his chair, scratching a hand through his thick beard.
“The first time one of the demogorgons showed up on our side was behind Steve’s house. Took Will Byers from his shed. They live some few miles away. Second time was in Harrington’s backyard. Took Barbara Holland.” Hopper sighed, looking in the direction of the busted radio. Billy could more or less see the cogs turning in his head. “If you see him again, tell him where we are. Tell him I think the walls are thinnest here. That maybe he and El could tear through. Better yet, tell him to find me if he can.”
He clapped Billy on the shoulder, looking right at him in that way he did sometimes. It always made Billy feel like a little kid.
“Thank you, kid. You might’ve just saved us.”
Billy felt awkward and didn’t really know what to do with his face. Thankfully, Hopper turned away from him, cutting the moment short and moving back to fiddling with the old radio.
Billy ducked his way up and back to the furthest bedroom on the ground floor, taking a seat on his low cot and digging his palms into his eyes.
He didn’t know how the void happened. If he could only get there in his sleep, or if it was Steve’s doing somehow.
“C’mon, Steve. Where are you? Come find me, Pretty Boy. We gotta talk.”
When he moved his hands away, he was in that blank place.
Billy was taken aback a bit, thinking somehow he had created the place around him.
Until he saw Steve, standing nervously and staring at Billy.
“I felt you. What’s wrong?”
“Sorry, you felt me? What in the fuck’s that supposed to mean.”
“Don’t worry about it. What happened? Are you guys okay?”
Steve wasn’t covered in blood anymore.
In fact, he looked freshly showered, his hair slightly damp and soft-looking without product.
It’s how he always looked right after having a post-practice shower. Clean and warm. Soft and inviting.
“I talked to Hopper. He told me to give you a message.”
Steve’s eyes lit up, and he took a step towards Billy, the water rippling where his foot disturbed the surface.
“He said, well. He told me where we are. Apparently, we’re at your place.” Billy tried to smirk a little, act like this was brand new information to him.
“Yeah. I gathered.”
“He thinks the walls are thinnest at your place. Said that maybe you and El could tear through easily. That mean anything to you?”
Steve nodded so hard his bangs flopped right into his eyes.
He pushed his hair out of his face, tucking some behind his ear. Billy tracked the movement.
“We’re going to try tonight. Maybe around six. Can you guys be ready by then?”
“We don’t have any way to track time around here. Don’t even know if it’s day or night, really.”
Steve bit his soft bottom lip, looking at Billy like he wanted to cry for him.
“Then I’ll come and get you before. Warn you when we’re about to start. Make sure everyone stays close. I don’t know how long we’ll be able to keep it sustained, and we want to get everyone out if we can.”
“Steve, man, what in the fuck is going on? I’ve been shut up in this place for, for I don’t even know how long, and all of a sudden, you just start showing up in my head and telling me that you’re gonna take point on this big fuckin’ rescue mission.”
Billy doesn’t want to admit it to anyone, least of all Steve Harrington, but he’s scared, and confused, and he genuinely wishes that he had died in that library instead of waking up.
“I’ll explain it when you get back.”
And Steve smiled at him and the corners of his eyes crinkled and Billy didn’t quite feel like he wanted to die anymore.
-
“Where are they?”
El didn’t even say hello when she pushed Steve’s front door open, just made straight for Max and Steve in the sitting room.
“They’re all being dicks,” was Max’s answer. “Steve told us about how you two know each other, and everyone kinda freaked.”
“I mean, it’s pretty freaky.”
“Yeah, sure, but they didn’t need to be such shitbirds about it.”
Somewhere between feeling harshly angry at Steve and his powers and hearing her brother’s voice crackle through the television speaker, Max had pretty much ensconced Steve as her sidekick.
Which he didn’t mind in the least.
It was kinda odd seeing the Byers in his house.
Jonathan looked. Exactly the same.
Like literally. His hair had grown out since his mother had taken a pair of scissors and a bowl to it last summer, and he looked just like the Hawkins Jonathan Steve was used to.
It was kinda nice.
At least one thing hasn’t changed.
Especially because Will is pretty much unrecognizable.
He had shot up, growing until he could nearly look Steve in the eye. And thank God, he must've followed Jonathan’s footsteps and stopped letting Joyce cut his hair.
It was longer, adn shaggier, but it made him look so grown up.
Nearly as grownup as El, her hair nearly down to her shoulder blades, the top of her head coming up on Steve’s chin, showing off the signs of her own growth spurt.
Even Joyce was sporting a new look. Longer hair with bangs that were swept off her face.
She gave Steve a comforting hug, and those were just the same.
Unease filled the room.
Nobody knew what they were walking into. El had to have given them the basics, and Steve figures she explained some on the long drive back to town, but there had been even more developments since the last they had spoken this morning.
Steve sifted through the borderline panic of Max and the Byers, clinging onto the fierce calm that El was radiating. Probably for his benefit more than her own actual experience.
“I know where Billy is. We talked. I have an idea.” He took a deep breath, bracing himself for the feelings. “Hopper’s alive.”
It took a second.
El’s carefully maintained calm wavered for a moment.
And then it crashed down.
Disbelief, relief, denial, anger, hope, joy.
Everything a person could possibly feel at once poured out of El and Joyce both, nearly knocking Steve off his feet with the sheer velocity of the emotions.
“Saw him?”
“No. But Billy mentioned him. He said he’s been trying to get to you.”
El’s eyes filled with tears, and Steve could feel the satisfaction, the pride, welling up in her that Hopper was still thinking of her. That he was trying to reach out.
“My powers,” she trailed off.
“Yeah. I know. But, he said, well, he told Billy to tell me, he thinks the walls are thinnest here. Maybe in the woods outback. He thinks we can do it.”
Sorry,” Joyce interrupted. She had gathered herself somewhat, but her feelings were still shaky.
She always felt like she was trembling emotionally. Joyce felt everything nearly as viscerally as Billy did.
“I think we’re not on the same page. Steve, you spoke to Billy? El said she sensed him.”
“Steve is like me. From Papa.”
“You mean, from the lab?” Jonathan clarified.
Everyone was staring at Steve again and he felt like burrowing a hole right through the floor and hiding underground forever.
“Yeah, I got out when I was a kid. My parents were pretty hell-bent on hiding it from everyone. But. You know. Cat’s outta the bag now. But yes, it was me who saw Billy. He’s in the Upside Down. A bunch of people are. Including Hopper. It sounds like they were all taken and the flayed people out here were like, fake. Like evil twin versions.”
Sure, it’s a shitty explanation.
It’s the best he can do, okay? Leave him alone.
“So, what’s his plan, then?”
That’s the good thing about the Byers, though. They get the whole, priority thing. Now’s not the time to focus on shit like Steve’s fake life. Not when the Upside Down is concerned.
“Billy didn’t say much. Just that he thinks maybe El and I could like, band together to open it. I don’t really know how, I mean, I haven’t thought about it much, I just spoke to him, but that's the idea. I told him I would meet him in the void or whatever before we go so he can gather everyone and get ready.”
“So, is it just us?” Will asked quietly, biting the inside of his cheek. He was disappointed. His friends not being where they were needed. Not being there to see him for the first time since his family moved away months ago.
Steve shrugged.
He was battling his own disappointment and hurt at everyone ditching him.
“No. Let’s start calling. We need to stick together for this one. Billy hasn’t said anything about how bad the Upside Down has been, and we need to be ready to fight off anything that tries to get through.”
“Max is right. They should be here.” Will was already making his way to the phone placed on the side table. “They need to be here.”
Jonathan caught Steve’s eye, jerking his head slightly to the hallway.
Steve followed him, already knowing the line of questioning that was about to hit him.
“I knew you called El. I picked up this morning. Now the story makes a lot more sense, I guess.”
“Yeah. I’ve been getting this weird feeling for a couple months, but I finally put it all together. Probably would’ve happened faster it is was El.”
“I don’t know. She’s been struggling a lot. She practices every day, but,” he sighed” I don’t know if she’s strong enough to make this work.”
He’s worried, adn scared, and has that exact same tremble-feeling that his mother does.
“I know. I just don’t think we can leave them any longer. Billy said they’ve already lost people. I don’t know what it’s been like for them, but they’ve been stuck for fucking months, and-”
This time, it hit him so hard he really did blackout.
His vision clouded around him, and his whole body burned with the raging fear inside of him.
He could hear something, could hear someone screaming, adn something, something that sounded horrible, and so very very like a-
-
“Demogorgon!”
It’s like it had come out of nowhere.
This towering figure, long and thin in all the wrong fucking ways.
And the sound. Billy realized what Hopper meant about how it’s not something you forget.
They were in some form of a ready position.
Billy among the front of the group, holding his ax he had never let go of in the first place.
His heart was pounding.
We’ll be out soon. We’ll be out soon.
He didn’t believe it.
How could he?
How the fuck is Steve Harrington going to get them out of the worst place ever? No offense to him or anything, but the guy could barely make a goddamn milkshake without spilling something on the sticky tile floor of Scoops Ahoy! and now, Billy’s life is in this guy’s hands while he stares into the jaws of a monster that looks like it stepped right out of H.P. Lovecraft’s wettest dreams.
It’s not like this is the first time he’s had this realization, but he is in way over his fucking head.
“Steve,” Billy grumbled to himself through gritted teeth. “If you can hear me, get us the fuck outta here.”
The thing ahead of them wasn’t moving. It stood in the line of the trees behind Steve’s house.
It was staring down the clump of people on the other side of the backyard.
The air was still.
Billy’s ears were ringing.
He stared the thing down.
Its long fingers twitched.
Someone screamed.
And the thing charged.
It roared like nothing Billy had ever heard before. A shriek that seemed to vibrate Billy’s bones and tremble the earth underneath his feet.
It charged.
Sprinting forward on long thin legs, it loped with a grace that turned Billy’s stomach and made his knees wobble and threaten to give out.
Plant your feet.
It rang through his head, Steve’s voice from, some time Billy couldn’t remember. Or maybe Steve was just the little voice that commanded his bravery now.
Either way, he dug the balls of his feet into the cracked ground, and waited.
Don’t stop fighting.
He swung.
The ax clocked right into the side of the thing, barely cutting into its thick leathery skin, but it slowed it down.
Well, actually.
It made it change course from attacking the group as a whole, to honing in on Billy.
Which was less than awesome.
Billy wrenched the ax out of its tough body, thick, sticky black goo connecting the ax with its entry point as he drew it away.
He swung again, nearly hitting the same place.
The thing cried out, roaring over the sound of screaming and gunshots.
Hopper had his rifle trained on the flowered head of the one Billy was furiously chopping into like a tree.
There were two more, two he hadn’t noticed in his preoccupation with the one in front of him.
He didn’t know who was who. Which gunshot belonged to which gun, which shriek belonged to which animal.
He didn’t know if the cries of pain were from the awful beasts or the people in his camp. He was hoping the former.
He swung again. There was a sickening sound of the metal blade connecting with something solid. Something like bone.
Hopper shot it, once, twice in the head.
It was whining, making a high-pitched noise as it staggered about.
One last blow to the side of the thing, and it was finished.
The monster flopped onto the ground, dark liquid oozing out of it, its body nearly split in half where Billy had hammered it with his ax. A great gaping wound that showed sticky dark entrails.
Billy turned.
His brain was working in slow motion as he charged into the battle still raging.
He didn’t know how many of the things had arrived.
All he knew was taking them out.
His arms were sore from the force he was putting into each blow with his ax. His muscles threatened to give out at any moment.
Drive them back. We’re coming.
The thought was shoved into his head. He didn’t know where it came from but he believed it.
“Help is on the way!” He shouted to no one and everyone.
He had taken down two more demogorgons with the help of the others. One was missing its body, a petal head lolling on the ground, getting trampled on in the fight.
-
Steve had felt the demogorgon before Billy saw it.
It was an odd feeling, almost like it was a black hole sucking up everything he thought and felt before he could cling onto it.
It made him feel cold, and empty, and just like the Upside Down felt.
“We don’t have time!”
El was insisting on contacting the others. She was livid with them for abandoning Steve, but things were taking a turn for the small group trapped in that hellscape.
“Steve’s right. If there’s a demogorgon there, that means the Mind Flayer has gotten some strength back, wherever he is.”
Steve nodded at Will gratefully.
“But, what’s the idea? You two open the gate. Then what? We wait for those things to come through to our side?” Jonathan asked, kinda harshly, if you ask Steve.
Steve rubbed his eyes, his fists pressing against them so hard he was seeing odd shapes.
“No. I go through. I get them. I bring them back.” His head was a fucking mess. Billy was all over the place. Fear, desperation, and a horrible calm that only came when things looked like the end. Plant your feet, he thought, trying to get his feelings to Billy through the thin dimensional wall. Don’t stop fighting. “For the past few days, all I’ve been able to feel is somebody else’s fucking fear and this stupid stupid stubbornness and I know it’s Billy, and I know he’s in trouble. Like right now. The demogorgons are coming for them, and he’s so scared. He’s so fucking scared and he thinks he’s gonna die, and he’s trapped .”
He looked at each person individually, glaring at them all in the eye.
“We don’t have time.”
So it was decided.
He brought El outside, and stared into the shimmering water of the pool.
The pool where a demon came out and dragged Barbara to her death.
It gave him the fucking creeps. Well, it more gave him the severe anxiety, but there was something about it that made it seem like it was the best place to try and rip the fold between himself and Billy.
Drive them back. We’re coming.
He wanted Billy to have some hope. Something like a lifeline that would keep him fighting the monsters.
He had wrenched his nail bat out of the wall it was still planted in from a few nights ago, and stood next to El, ready to try.
“To be honest, I don’t know how to help you.” It was the only thing that scared him about this plan. “I don’t have the same powers as you. The telekin-the moving stuff around. I don’t know how to open this.”
She looked at him thoughtfully.
“In Chicago. Kali. When I’m angry my powers are better,” she took his hand. “Make me angry.”
Steve closed his eyes.
He tried to push Billy to the side, clinging onto the first bit of El he could sense.
Her anger was like a melted core running through her. Driving her in a lot of ways.
He grabbed onto it.
Papa. Everything he did to your mama. Being locked in isolation. Fights with Hopper. Being trapped in the cabin. Feeling alone and not knowing how to fix it. New kids at school being mean. Techs in the lab that treated us like rats. The smell of skin burning. Parents that called you a freak.
He didn’t know when he had stopped using El’s ready-made rage, and began siphoning his own straight into the beating heart of her fury.
His gut began to feel white-hot, and he could feel the blood dripping down his lip.
Lying to everyone. Being abandoned for the truth. Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit.
Steve was livid.
He’s never felt an emotion consume him like this. Felt one feeling take over so completely it’s like there was nothing else in the world.
He opened his eyes.
There was blood flowing steadily from El’s nose, and he knew his was doing the same.
He could feel his heart pounding against his ribs, his body going into overdrive to divert all of his energy to his powers.
The rift glowed red through the clear pool water, splitting open like a seam on a well-worn shirt.
The burn on his arm ached, and he pushed into it.
He remembered being held down on his father’s desk. Remembers the cigar being forced against his skin, bubbling up and disfiguring the tattoo beyond recognition.
He remembers his father, this is for your own good, Steven. You’ll tell everyone you had an accident. People won’t question a burn like they will a tattoo.
Like no one would take one look at the quarter-sized mark and know what would make it.
He remembers getting the tattoo.
It was nearly the same process.
He was strapped down in a chair, his screams going ignored as the needle drove into his skin over and over, leaving a neat black number behind.
001
Number One.
The first in a series of children bred for something more, and beaten into acceptance.
His head felt like it could explode. He didn’t know what was going on around him, was barely aware of El’s sweaty hand in his, and the bright red light coming from the cracked bottom of the pool.
It was open.
Number One took a deep breath, and dived into the pool.
-
It was the little one that noticed it.
Billy had been trying to yell at him to get back inside, to keep himself out of harm’s way.
They had killed six demogorgons, and more were certainly coming.
The trees in the forest were rustling in a way they never did on their own.
The little one was pointing frantically, his eyes wide and scared.
Billy turned, and his blood ran cold.
Something was moving in the pool.
It was making the thick non-water slosh around dangerously, the dark liquid lapping over the sides and staining the concrete.
There were vines crisscrossing over the surface of the liquid, and Billy approached it carefully, hoping whatever was coming out would be trapped underneath them.
“This is the last fucking thing we need,” Hopper gritted out, cocking his rifle and aiming at the sludge.
And then Billy’s head felt like it had been cracked open.
He was blinded with pain and rage and
Help me, Hargrove!
He started swinging his ax wildly at the vines. Trying to break them apart enough for a body to fit through.
His heart thundered in his chest, and he dropped to his knees, ripping at the slimy black tendrils.
He shoved his left arm in.
It was like dousing his arm in ice. Like the liquid was made from the purest essence of cold.
He searched frantically with his hand, finding something solid and yanking with all his strength.
He had to put both arms in, grabbing hold of whatever he could, using his body weight as leverage to extract Steve from the cold.
He was limp when Billy finally got him out, but breathing heavily.
He opened his eyes, wiping his face free of the goop and blood covering him, and grinned at Billy.
“Told’ya we would get you out.”
They shepherd him inside, most of the gang speechless and struck dumb from the events of the past while.
Steve was given a change of almost clean clothes, and allowed to use some of their bottled water ration to clean the freezing black fluid from himself.
He wasted little time, and was down in the Upside Down version of his living room with everyone else.
“We can’t be long. El had to use a lot of strength to open it, but she’ll need her strength to close it, too.”
Nobody knew what in the fuck Steve was going on about.
Nobody but Hopper, that is.
He still had disgusting pool sludge all over his front from when he pulled Steve into a tight hug when he had gotten his bearings back from his journey through the rift.
“We can’t send people through that shit. It took all of Billy’s muscle to get you outta there.”
“So we drain it,” Steve insisted. “My parents drain it sometimes, I know how to do it.”
“I’ll keep watch. Make sure nothing tries to make itself known.”
Billy had barely wiped himself off.
He didn’t care anymore about how freezing that shit was, he just wanted to surge forward, and get back the fuck home.
Hopper studied them both.
“Bring weapons. Yell if you need help.”
Billy nodded once, and turned on his heel, following Steve out the back door.
Steve led him to a wooden shed on the side of the house. Billy had to clear the vines away from it before Steve could pry open the doors.
It was full of pool equipment, and it didn’t take long for Steve to locate a large grubby pump. He knocked it against the wall of the shed until the filter attachment clattered off, leaving bigger openings for the sludge to, hopefully, run through.
“Shit. This thing is electric. You got electricity?”
It was the first time Steve had really gotten a good look at Steve since being in the Upside Down.
He looked exactly as he had in the void place. His hair had a lot more disgusting black fluid in it, and he overall looked kinda shitty with the flecks of grime and blood on his face, but he looked bright. Alive. Strong.
“How did you do it? Take me to that place. Figure out we were here.”
Steve flushed. Billy had become overly aware that his face was completely covered under his bandana. Steve should cover his face.
He drew another one of his back pocket, and, he didn’t know why, but he tied it around Steve’s face.
Seriously, he could’ve just handed it to the guy and called it good there. But no. He had to set his ax on the ground, propped against his leg, wrap his arms around Steve’s shoulders, and tie the bandana like this was some intricate ritual.
All while Steve just stared at him with those fuckin’ eyes of his.
“It’s a long story.” Billy could barely hear Steve speak through the dirty cloth now covering his mouth and nose. “I’ll tell you when we’re back. When we’re safe.”
“I’m holding you to that, Harrington. Can’t have a guy poking around my dreams and shouting in my head without knowing his intentions.”
It was as close to flirting as Billy dared right now.
Right before they tried to journey between worlds.
“Good to know you heard me. I was trying to give you something of a pep talk.”
“Well, it worked. I would’ve just put my arms out and let those things rip me to shreds if I hadn’t have known.”
Billy didn’t know what Steve’s face was doing behind the cloth, but his eyes dropped, and Billy imagined that little cinch of his mouth that he had noticed Steve doing so much in that void place.
-
Billy meant it as a joke.
He really did.
And the Billy that was torn to bits in the mall wasn’t this Billy. Wasn’t the real Billy that was made out of real Billy materials and real Billy personality.
But it still made Steve feel queasy, thinking about his arms spread wide, black goop pouring out of his mouth and nose as the Mind Flayer decimated him.
“We’ve got a lot to talk about, Billy. Just, not now.”
And Steve turned off, hauling the pump back to the pool and taking calming breaths.
The pump sank without much effort, like there was some kind of gravitational pull at the bottom of the pool.
Steve had connected the thickest hose he could find, adn sent Billy off with the extension cord to find an outlet that didn’t spark and threaten fire.
Before no time, the pump was humming, and pushing black slime through the hose and onto the dead grass.
They didn’t need to get it all out, just as much as they could shove everyone through.
Steve closed his eyes, trying to reach El like he had Billy.
We had a hold up. Shouldn’t be long.
He could feel her on the other side.
She promised she would stay close enough to the rift that Steve could get in touch with her.
He could feel something slither down his spine, a wordless confirmation from her.
The liquid in the pool was slowly edging down, leaving a stain on the once-white walls of the pool.
“Gather everyone up. Tell ‘em to meet out here. Tell ‘em to leave it all behind.”
Billy was still staring at the edge of the forest when he commanded Steve.
It was odd, being in his house that’s not his house.
Everything was so. Wrong.
From the way the house seemed to be crumbling down, reduced to its studs in some areas, to the way it was still clearly his house. Paintings his father had bought. Elegant furniture his mother selected.
It was all there. Just under a thick layer of dirt and nightmares.
He thought idly about his bedroom, wondering if it would look like it did on his end. A little messy, the sheets typically rumpled and unmade.
He resisted the urge to wander upstairs, reminding himself he was on a mission.
“It’s time. Don’t bring anything. It’ll probably be ruined along the way.”
Everyone looked grave. Steve tried to smile at them, tried to push through some calmness to them all. He had forgotten Billy’s bandana was tied around his face. He sent one last wave of quiet confidence around the room, and led the group through the kitchen.
They had barely rounded the corner of the kitchen island when they heard a strangled yell from outside.
Steve put his head down, and sprinted through the shattered glass doors, skidding to a halt in the threshold.
Billy was staggering backward, his ax forgotten on the ground and his left hand was clinging wildly to his right shoulder.
His jacket was in tatters, thick blood dripping bright crimson down his arm, standing out like neon against the dark, dirty ground.
Steve didn’t feel himself moving forward. He didn’t feel his hands raising in front of him.
He just felt anger. The same anger from before that had ripped through him like a raging forest fire and straight into El.
The thing shrieked.
It backed away from Billy, twisting and writhing as its horrible screams filled the air, making the hair on the back of Steve’s neck stand on end.
Fierce fury was exploding out of him, and he grit his teeth against the pounding in his head.
“You don’t get to hurt him,” Steve barely barked out.
All went still, and the demogorgon snapped into pieces.
Steve felt like he could pass out where he stood.
He had never felt so wrung dry.
His vision was waning at the edges, and he felt an arm around his waist, coaxing him toward the red light now barely shining through a thin layer of slime in the pool.
“Hold your breath, Pretty Boy.”
-
Steve was limp against him, and Billy was doing his best to ignore the searing pain in his right shoulder as he held Steve close to his side. He had fumbled off both of their face coverings, moving clumsily through the pain of his injury.
He took one last breath, and jumped into the rip between worlds.
He plunged into the water, the crystal blue of a chlorinated pool.
It was the best feeling in the world.
Being covered and surrounded by clean. The heated water doing more to soothe Billy’s frayed nerves than anything in his life.
He kicked hard, swimming one-armed to the surface, Harrington a dead weight in his injured arm.
His head broke the water, and he took in deep lungfuls of clean, crisp air.
Someone was tugging at Steve, and Billy, for the first time in his fucking life, was glad to see those kids Max was constantly hanging around.
A woman Billy didn’t know was fawning over Steve, feeling for a pulse, and looking relieved when she felt his hot breath against her palm.
“There’s more coming,” Billy coughed.
He barely managed to get the words out, dripping muck and grime on the cement by the pool, when it felt as though he was hit from the side by a speeding train.
He buried his nose in bright orange hair, hugging Max back as tightly as he could manage.
He was exhausted, and feeling her there, alive and okay, was all that was keeping him standing.
“I thought, I mean, we all thought you were dead. We saw it. That thing killed you .” Billy realized, with a whole lotta horror, that she was crying. Sobbing outright into his dirty chest.
“Yeah, I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about.” How could they have seen when that monster just came at him?
“Oh, you’re bleeding.”
And if she only just realized he was hurt?
Max frog-marched Billy inside, to a very pale-looking Nancy Wheeler, sitting ready with a first aid kit.
Billy had to peel his clothes off his body, the fabric stuck to him like a second skin.
Nobody was speaking, and more of the people locked in the other place came traipsing into the room, fluffy towels wrapped around their shoulders.
Hopper was the last to come in, holding the woman tight to his side underneath the striped pool towel.
“Steve and El are closing it back up.”
There was a quiet murmur around the room.
Nancy patched up Billy’s shoulder, Max still stuck to his side like glue, the little boy from camp pasted to his other side.
He had no idea how much time had past when Steve finally came traipsing into the room with Max’s little friend, both of them sporting matching bloody noses.
Steve looked like shit.
His face was covered in blood, old and new, and he still had some of the gross not-liquid in his hair from the Upside Down.
But Billy doesn’t think he’s ever been happier to see someone in his life.
“I’m sure everyone has questions,” said the woman tucked against Hop’s side. El, Billy assumes, had taken her place on Hop’s other side, wrapping the towel around her shoulders as well.
The woman launched into a story that made Billy feel like his brain was oozing out of his ears.
A monster. One they had all met before. Playing body snatcher in their sleepy little town.
Apparently, one had been wearing a Billy meat-suit and wreaking havoc around town, which made Billy wanna throw up until he died.
Which, not-Billy, had died. Fuckin’ brutally. And in front of everyone. Which sure as shit explained why Max wouldn’t let go of his sweaty hand.
The story made Billy queasy, and he took to studying everyone in the room instead.
All the kids were there, even the one that had been following Steve around like a little shadow, but they were all glaring in the very much opposite direction of Steve.
Steve himself was pressed almost against the wall, looking like he’d collapse if the wall weren’t supporting him.
“What’s up with the cold shoulder?” Billy muttered to Max.
“They’re mad at Steve right now. He’s been lying to us all.”
It was all he got out of her before everyone started moving around.
The woman, Joyce Byers, he’s learned, had finished her story, and the group from the Upside Down had begun clamoring for rides home, or maybe something to eat.
Billy just saw Steve manage to slip away before he followed him.
It took some doing, shaking off the little one, who still wasn’t speaking, and looked ready to burst into tears when Billy told him to stay behind in the living room.
But Janet Holloway took the kid’s other hand and gently led him back into the living room.
Billy nodded at her, and sped up the stairs.
It was weird, being in Harrington’s actual room.
It was messy, and looked like Steve spent most of his time here tossing clothes on the ground or twisting up in his bed covers like a tornado.
But it was oddly comforting.
Being in Steve’s real room, and not some perverse dirty copy.
Steve was standing, facing the bed, peeling his borrowed jacket from his shoulders and leaving it there on the floor.
“I never said thank you.”
Steve startled at Billy’s voice.
“Yeah. No problem.” Steve’s tone was light and airy, but Billy heard him sniff.
“Max said the little shitbirds are mad at you. Something about you lying.”
Steve turned around, giving Bily a watery smile.
“It’s a long story.”
“I got time.”
So Steve told him.
About the lab.
About the experiments.
About the torture.
He explained that he had rules. Never making anyone feel something they already didn’t. Never altering someone’s opinion of, or feelings towards him.
Billy grit his teeth as he imagined Wheeler giving Steve a hard time about that.
Steve was silent for a moment, not looking at Billy.
“It’s okay if you hate me. I mean, everyone does now.”
“You'd be able to feel if I hated you. You and those powers of yours just saved my life, Pretty Boy. I’m pretty sure I’m feeling the farthest thing from hatred just about now.”
It was as close to a confession as Billy would let himself get.
But if Steve knows what he’s feeling at any given moment, then that means that he knows, and he didn’t-
“Quit it. Insecurity isn’t a good look on you.”
Steve sounded tired, and he flopped back onto his bed, staring at the ceiling with his arms out.
At first, it didn’t sit quite right with Billy.
He had barely even begun to identify what he was feeling when Steve swooped in and just point blank told him what the emotion was.
Billy spent nearly all of his time being a big fuckin’ facade.
He tried his very best to hide any emotional tell from anyone around him.
He prided himself on being a chameleon. That nobody would ever truly know how he felt in any given situation.
And here’s pretty boy Steve Harrington. Who is feeling just as, if not more, strongly as Billy is.
But, it takes out all the parts of emotions that Billy hates dealing with.
Showing them. Talking about them.
He’d never once had to grapple with the words to explain how he feels to Steve.
Steve would just.
He’d know.
And god, that’s kind of a nice idea.
Billy sat down gently on the bed.
“Alright.”
Steve’s head popped up to stare incredulously at Billy.
Billy just grinned at him.
#this fic is named after kind of a throwaway line in rocky horror but thats my favorite movie and i thought it fits :)#i worked so hard on this and i'm really proud pls like it i'm begging#yikes writes#yikes gets pathetic in the notes#harringrove#harringrove big bang#harringrove big bang 2021#harringrovebigbang2021#harringrovebigbang#also look at me writing something in-universe for fucking once#steve harrington#billy hargrove#powers!steve#experiment!steve#i hate using the ! like that but whatever
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hysteria pt four | stranger things ; t.hagan
tag list babes || req rules / fandoms + characters;reqs open || got a req or ? || masterlist
CHAPTERS ;
one - two - three can all be found by clicking. my stranger things masterlist is here.
AUTHORS NOTES;
So this one uh.. It's gonna move a little slow. Just a litttttle. But it's gonna start heating up soon, I promise. Also, yikes. It's been a while since an update and for that, I feel horrible. There's more angst and internal stuff happening here though so yeah.
Huuuuge hugs and thanks to everyone who reads my posts and you have no idea how much the little interactions truly mean to me, how much they keep me going without any of you even realizing, whether it be comment / like / reblog and reblogs with tags. You guys are so amazing and like.. I'm just sitting here mindblown.
SUMMARY;
-- best friends / neighbors turned strangers / neighbors turned more, maybe?
PAIRING;
Tommy Hagan x Fem!Reader (beyond female parts, bits of personality and outfit descriptions, feel free to use your imaginations)
WARNINGS;
ANGST. Tommy is his own damn warning label. I repeat, Angst. This chapter is also short and filler, but.. I needed filler.
TAGLIST;
@AURUMBELIS
@ALLELITESMUT
@ARIES-ARCADE
@COLE22ANN
@EBONYBLOOM
@HEYAITSKLAUDIA
@HCLOANGCLS
@HOESHII
@ICEQUEEN1371
@KRYS-ORION
@LETSBEDRAGONSTOGETHER
@LOUDERFORTHEBACK
@MUSICHEALSSCARS
@SECRETSICANTHIDEANYMORE
@SCOOBIESSNACKS
@THECHOICESLOOKGRIMM
@UNTITLEDAREA - these are all the names on my stranger things taglist. if you’d like to be added, please click the link at the top of the post.
OTHER STUFF;
set in season 2 where vecna / the upside down / its other horrors and death will not and have not occurred. The storyline between Nance and Steve will be in here in bits -and probably a lot a bit different on Tommy's end, but yeah. This is meant to be angst / pining / hurt comfort / friendship and romance all in one. Oh.. If anyone is wondering, I am writing this as Tommy being in love with two of his best friends (One being reader, a female and the other being Steve, male) so if you're wondering, he's bi in the 80's just like the actor played him. Also writing this in the frame of mind that people can love more than one person + some issues I feel Tommy has going on in his own mind and stuff. So if he seems as intense as he did on the show, this is really what I'm going for. If he leans more to females here though, tis because I happen to be one and this is what works best for me, my default setting of m/f. But there will be hints of his unrequited feelings for Steve.
The light is still on in your bedroom window and Tommy knows he should be trying to sleep, but he’s just not tired and his mind won’t shut down already. So he’s leaned in the frame of his bedroom window, smoking. Staring out across the road to your window. You wander in, cloaked in a big pink towel and the second you do and he realizes you’re about to be in a state of undress, he squeezes his eyes shut. Not because he wants to, but because it’s the right thing to do and watching you just feels wrong somehow.
Maybe it’s because he knew you so well. Maybe it’s because deep down, he doesn’t feel like he’s good enough. After all, you did just kind of drift away back then. You were the first person to have enough and distance -second counting his father, but he doesn’t count him anymore. And he’s spent all this time wondering why you chose to. What was the final straw?
He thinks back to the fight with Steve earlier in the afternoon.
How it came to blows because Steve didn’t want to hear the truth and all Tommy is trying to do is help him see it for himself. All he’s trying to do is be a friend. Protect him. Thinking about Steve’s reaction to what he told him earlier just gets Tommy frustrated all over again.
He takes a few deep breaths and thumps the cigarette out into the grass below. And across the street, your bedroom light is still on. Now you’re wandering around in a pair of knee socks and a thin t-shirt. Dragging your hand through your hair as you twist yourself up in a red phone cord as you pace your bedroom, the phone to your ear. The window’s open just a little. Just enough that he can hear Bon Jovi float out softly on the night air. He makes himself get away from the window and falls back across his bed, taking a few long and deep breaths.
And for a minute or two, he heavily contemplates finding that old blue flashlight. Turning it on and shining it into your window once the lights off. Because lately, he really misses the fact that once upon a time, he could do that whenever he wanted and he’s always wondered what made you pull away from him back then.
What had he done?
He tugs off his shirt and then his jeans and he slips into his bed. Tossing and turning because for another night in far too many, his mind is noisy. Jumbled. And it won’t just shut down. Everything is okay, he’s got no reason to be this tense and yet, he knows he does. And he can feel unease settling in, waiting on the other shoe to drop for some reason.
Because everything is changing and he doesn’t like it. And he can’t do anything to stop it, no matter what he tries.
– ( your side of the window)
“Joey, I told you at school that I don’t want to talk. There’s no talking about this, damn it. We’re done. I’m done. Just..” you take a deep breath and rub the bridge of your nose as you fall back across the bed, “Leave me the hell alone. Please?”
“Babe, c’mon. You don’t mean it. You never mean it.”
“I mean it. Trust me, Joey. I really mean it this time. Stop callin.” you slam the phone down and wander over, sinking down to sit in your window seat. And even though you know you shouldn’t and you know it’s a bad idea, you find yourself watching Tommy Hagan’s bedroom window for the third time in a week. Leaned against the frame of yours, a bare leg hanging out your window. The soft pink flashlight is sitting on your desk, if you could just get the nerve to do it…
But you’re the one who stopped talking to him to ‘set him free’ back then because it was easier than just telling him how you really felt and why it always upset you so much whenever he went on and on and on about Carol. And you try to tell yourself you did the right thing and he’s happy, but deep down, you hate what you did. You long for a chance to go back. To say what you wanted. To risk ruining a lifelong friendship and making things awkward because lately, you’re starting to realize that anything is better than nothing.
You actually go as far as picking up the soft pink flashlight but as soon as your hand curls around it, you let it fall to your window seat. And you sigh, slinking back over to your bed. Falling across it to stare at the ceiling.
You really wish you hadn’t done it now because you miss your best friend. Even having him as only that is better than not at all. And you’re realizing that now..
#tommy hagan#tommy hagan imagine#tommy hagan fanfiction#tommy hagan x reader#tommy hagan x fem!reader#tommy hagan x reader imagine
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Gilded: Chapter 2: Our House (The Mess We’ve Made)
Mobster! Steve x Reader
Summary: Steve doesn’t like to be questioned, and you learn that the hard way. When he wants something, he gets it, and now he wants to have everything over with as quickly as possible. But there are a few bumps on the road.
Warnings: mafia au, swearing, violence, blood, threats, violence on women, slight mention of a rape, fluff, I mean, Steve is very demanding here, but it’s a theme so…
Word Count: 6087
A/N: I’m beyond excited that you guys liked the first chapter so much and are giddy for the next one. So, here we have it. More of our arranged couple and more mafia stuff. Let me know what you thought, and again, thank you for reading! xx
Series Masterlist __ Masterlist
< Previous Chapter
“You did what? Are you fucking kidding me right now? Y/N, I love you, but you must have hit your head real hard because this is not like you, at all,” Caroline reasoned, but you could see she was close to losing it completely.
They were both waiting for you to come home that night, and you first had to make sure neither of them would talk about anything you were about to reveal. You trusted both of them with your life, that wasn’t the issue, but you were afraid that if they talked outside of your apartment, Steve might know and the things he could do to them would be the core of your future nightmares, you were sure of it. When they finally agreed, you got to explaining. But you didn’t even get a full sentence out before they started jumping in it, asking questions and wildly swatting their hands, trying to make you see just how stupid of an idea it actually was.
“Do you think I don’t know it sounds insane? I do, but also like, it’s gonna take care of so many issues, and, I mean, all he needs from me, as far as I understood it, is to go to a few events with him, go to some vacations with him and that would be all. I mean, I can still have the job I actually enjoy and don’t have to slave in that fucking pub with all those weirdos, and I won’t have to worry about money,” you tried to sound reasonable and sensible, but from the looks on your best friends’ faces, you weren’t doing too good of a job.
“Right, right, cool. So, you wanna tell me that the most notorious fucking mobster in America will let you live here, with us, while he parades you around the city at night? Or that he doesn’t have enemies you should worry about? Or what about the fucking police, Y/N, huh? Have you thought of that? You will be affiliated with a known criminal, and they will start to notice you and your life won’t be as easy as you picture it,” Aidan sighed and massaged his temples, the stress of it all getting the best of him.
You sat down next to them and smiled at them fondly. It was sweet that they worried so much about you, and just the mere thought that there were people on this planet who gave a shit about you, even to the point of yelling at you at 11 PM on Wednesday night was heartwarming. You understood their reservations, you really did, but you also knew this all before you said yes to Steve. You knew it wouldn’t be as easy, and while you weren’t sure whether you would have to live with Steve in Manhattan or somewhere else, or if he let you just be on your own, you knew you could take it. The police didn’t scare you, you’ve had enough training in diverting the police from yourself, so the police was the last thing on your mind. Besides, you were signing petitions left and right to defund them, so… You were pretty sure they already knew your name from the demonstrations in front of their precincts.
Enemies were a bit more challenging to handle, but you were sure Steve wouldn’t want his new wife to die on his watch. How would that look for him? So really, all that was at stake was your sanity and your integrity, and thinking about it, Steve didn’t ask you to do something illegal. The only thing he wanted from you was to be a good girl, marry him and be by his side. And you could do that. And you were only human, Steve was a sight to behold, so you didn’t mind being connected to him, even though he specifically told you he wasn’t attracted to you.
That one still stung, but maybe it was for the better. You wouldn’t have to worry about doing something stupid when the other party was completely uninterested, and knowing it, you could just never let your body have even a minor crush on him, so the situation really resolved itself even before anything could have happened.
“I really think I can gain more than I can lose, you guys. I didn’t imagine my life being like this, far from it, and maybe Steve and his money can help me get where I want. And I won’t even have to sleep with him or anybody else. He even talked about putting a no-sex clause in our contract so that I would be safe even on paper. You always tell me that I’m not taking enough risks and that I stay rooted in my comfort zone. Well, this is quite the improvement, isn’t it?” You laughed, and they both just shook their heads but chuckled nevertheless.
“You are a psychopath, babe,” Aidan muttered but gave you a side hug, and Caroline soon joined.
“We love you and worry about you, that’s all. But if you feel good about this, then so do we. I just hope he’s ready for our wrath if anything even remotely bad happens to you,” Caroline said, and the three of you started to laugh. You would bet somebody like Steve would be scared shitless from two 20-something-year-olds who, one who was scared of wasps so much she almost fainted every time she saw one, and the other having a hard time peeling a grapefruit. Yup, they were the combat duo you would bet your money on in a fight, for sure.
Waking up, you had a good feeling about the decision, even more so than the night before. You had mulled it over and over in your head, seeing that this was the way out of everything and also your way to a lot of those things you wanted to have by now. You even thought of the saying, sometimes, the only way out is through, and this was your through. There was no foreseeable way of getting out of debt, of getting out of the depression caused by your hectic and unsatisfying life. Your way through it was accepting Steve’s money and his help for a year, freeing you from the shackles of your current life, in a sense.
That it would come with a different kind of shackled you were sure of, but everything was better than your life now because you really couldn’t even call it a life. You wanted so many things, see so many places, but the world wasn’t made for the people playing by the rules, slaving in their ordinary jobs. No, this capitalist world was made for sharks, and you had been disguised as a sheep for too long.
When you got to the gallery, you were welcomed by a sight that surprised you, and not in a good way. Where you were used to sitting every day for the past two years was another girl. She was pretty, and you bet she was wonderful, but at that very moment, all you saw was that somebody replaced you.
You swiftly unlocked the door and walked in, the girl standing up immediately to greet you with a shy smile and a wave. You couldn’t be a complete bitch to her, after all, this was way above her pay grade. So, you just nodded and strode towards the offices where the director sat.
“Good morning, Ms Y/L/N. I see you have met Laura, our new receptionist. And before you say anything, I just wanted to tell you that we appreciate everything you had done for this gallery for so long and that we thought it was time for you to learn some other skills, as you are more than capable of that,” he smiled warmly, and you weren’t sure if it was a nice way of saying you were let go of, or if you were promoted.
“What does that mean, Mr Jones?” You asked incredulously, not really in the mood to search in between the lines.
“You have become my personal secretary, Ms Y/L/N. Congratulations! I know you have the aspiration of becoming a curator, so, this way, you could get a little closer to art even though there is still some way to go, naturally,” he winked and chuckled, and you let yourself relax with the news.
Wow! Your life was already taking a turn for the better, and all you had to was to go with your gut and risk a little. You wanted to laugh out loud at the universe and its mysterious ways of working. But, thinking of mysterious, your mind suddenly pictured Steve and his devilish smirk, and your smile faltered.
“And may I ask, why now? Don’t get me wrong, I’m extremely grateful for the chance, and I will do my best to succeed in expectations. I just wonder what happened that the chance has come now?”
Mr Jones scratched the back of his neck, and you gritted your teeth. You already knew that it wasn’t the universe praising you for your bravery. No, this had nothing to do with the universe.
“More things have come together, to be quite honest, Ms Y/L/N. First, my long-time secretary left for her maternity leave a few weeks ago, as you might remember, and I have been looking for her replacement ever since. And I forgot what an amazing student we had here, who is already established with the clients and with our partners, and that this will be a win-win situation for everybody. And your fiancée was quite adamant that your resumé is remarkable and that I should give you a chance,” he smiled and piled gathered in your throat.
How Steve managed to persuade Jones to do this was beyond you when you left him only a few hours ago, most of which were during the night, so there wasn’t much room for negotiation between the parties. You just hoped people wouldn’t start treating you differently when they realised your affiliation. That was the only thing you obviously didn’t think through: the opinion of the society. And since the New York society had been one of the most judging and selective ones even back in the 19th and 20th century, you knew not that much has changed since. People were afraid of Steve, with a good reason too, and now they might become frightened of you too. Fucking awesome.
“I want to assure you that my fiancée won’t be present in my work life, however notorious he is,” you tried to sound as confident in what you were saying as you could, but you weren’t sure if you were doing a good job. But Mr Jones just smiled and sat down, signalling for you to sit down opposite of him, and he started talking about business and about what the job actually was. And while you tried to give him your full attention, there was this angry voice in your head, ready to bite Rogers’ head off. He would meet your famous wrath sooner than you thought, but it was all his fault anyway.
The job was, actually, quite impressive. As your boss told you, you got to meet several artists already, you could sit in the meeting where they decided what kind of art the gallery was interested in, and you soaked all that in like a sponge. You were radiating by the end of the day, and the wrath subsided a little, but only till the moment, you saw a black SUV parked in front of the gallery and one of the turtlenecks standing beside it.
You decided that if Steve could do what he wanted, so could you and so you walked in the opposite direction than was the car, leaving the turtleneck yelling your name and running after you. But you ignored him completely, even when he reached you and patted your shoulder, slightly bewildered that you recognised him and still decided not to do as he said. Oh, these obnoxious mobsters needed to learn that they couldn’t get everything they wanted.
“Miss Y/L/N, please, you need to come with me. Mr Rogers is waiting for you in the car,” he said, and you finally stopped and looked him deep in the eyes while you folded your arms across your chest. You hoped you looked intimidating, but since the guy was wearing a pair of sunglasses you couldn’t be entirely sure whether it worked. But you didn’t relent and just stared him down, and when he shifted uncomfortably, you knew you were winning this contest.
“Would you please come with me? Mr Rogers hates to wait,” he mumbled the last thing, and you would have snickered if you weren’t so determined to be the tough guy there. It was only when you heard other footsteps somewhere behind you, and the guy in front of you actually flinched that you realised the big boss himself was there to get you.
“No, Mr Rogers really doesn’t like to wait, Y/N. Is this the way to treat your fiancée?” Steve asked when he reached you, and you shuddered from the poisonous undertone in his voice. Safe to say, it might not have been the best strategy to try and walk away from him, but you had decided for it once, and now you were gonna stand by your decision.
“Oh, I don’t know, darling,” you hissed but continued before he could comment on your behaviour, “is intimidating my boss to give me a promotion a way to treat me? You really think you have control over everything and everyone, Steve, but let me tell you something. This is my fucking life, and you have no fucking right to march in and do as you please!”
He just raised a brow, and his nostrils flared before you felt his hand on your upper arm, squeezing it so tightly you were sure your arm wasn’t getting any blood. But you didn’t want him to win, which would definitely happen if you pleaded with him, so you just gritted your teeth and stared him down. Steve nodded at the guys around him to leave you two, and they took a few steps back, sure enough to protect their boss but to give him at least some privacy with you.
“Who the fuck do you think you are, talking to me in that tone, huh? I think you’ll understand soon enough that disobedience is punished greatly here, honey! So, stop acting like a brat who gets off from causing scenes in public and come with me. And, for your information, this is a fucking order, and I dare you to move from me again,” Steve spat in your ear, and you trained your eyes on the ground.
Well, not your best idea, you had to admit that, and you valued your own head enough to just shut up and follow him. And by following him, you meant walking beside him because Steve obviously didn’t trust you enough to let go of your arm, even if his grip loosened slightly.
He thrust you in the car with a force that could scare many, but it only just slightly surprised you. When he finally sat down next to you, he bid the driver to just go and stared out of the window, not addressing you in any shape or form, and you huffed in annoyance.
“Look, Steve, you brought me here for a reason, so what do you want? I thought we agreed to meet tomorrow and not today, in broad daylight in front of my job.”
“Show some respect!” He roared, and you saw the eyes of the bodyguards, or whatever they were, flick towards you in fear. It was funny how such huge men were clearly so afraid of one of them. You remained calm, however, and just remained looking at him. Then you realised something. He didn’t mind your mouth the night before that much when the two of you were alone, but he couldn’t stand it when people were around. He needed to be the man, his people needed to know that nobody treated him differently and that not even his future wife could disobey him, let alone publicly. You swallowed your pride and shifted your gaze elsewhere.
“I’m sorry, Steve, I’ve had a long day, and I’m taking it on you now. I just wished you spoke to me before you called my boss, but still, thank you for the opportunity,” you muttered meekly, and the triumphant look on Steve’s face spoke volumes. He just hummed and patted your shoulder, his own shoulders slacking and relaxing. These people were so easy to read, you were actually quite astounded that they weren’t played like violins by some secret agents or something like that. Well, you thought, at least you could play them, and it would make your life a little easier if you did it well enough.
“I came because we needed to discuss more things, honey. I had a pressing matter to attend to yesterday so I couldn’t stay longer, but I have the whole afternoon reserved just for you today, so we can go over all the parts of our agreement in great detail and that we can start planning our wedding,” he flashed you a smile, and it was your time to tense up because if you were to have a wedding soon, which was clearly something Steve wanted, you needed to get a move on and that stressed you out. The arrangement might have been just for a year, but you knew that Steve’s wedding was supposed to be magnificent, showing all that he obtained and all that the mere mortals couldn’t have. You included.
But then you realised something.
“Sure, but I need to take care of something first if you don’t mind,” you added quickly seeing the mobster next to you tensing up again. “As I no longer work at Joey’s pub, I need to get my things from there. My boss called me this morning telling me that I still had my work shoes and other stuff there and that I should pick it up or they’ll throw it away.”
“Just give the address to the driver, we’ll get it, and then we’ll go to my place- oh, excuse me- our place and discuss what we need,” he said simply, and you followed his orders.
The rest of the drive was silent, and you could unwind a little, reminisce about the 24 hours you have had. From taking the subway anywhere you needed to, to driving in an armoured SUV with the most prolific mafia boss of the USA, your life took quite the turn. You needed to set some boundaries with Steve, but you needed to do it tactfully and, most importantly, alone. You hadn’t known him at all, but you knew the type. There would be reasoning with him as long as he thought he had a free choice and knew that his position wasn’t neither threatened nor questioned.
This was a part of your agreement that you actually didn’t mind. Joey’s pub was not the fanciest of places in New York and while some of the customers were lovely and tipped well, the weekend sort was made of sleazy assholes who would touch you without your permission and not having to be around them would definitely be something you could get used to.
The boss who’s name wasn’t Joey, surprise, surprise, but Thomas, nodded your way when you came in. The pub was only half full, but the odour of mixed sweat, beer and vomit was ever the same. Gosh, how you couldn’t wait to be out of there.
Taking the places of the little box by the box with beer cans, you scanned the supply closet one last time and nodded as a goodbye. However, when you turned around, you bumped into somebody, and it sent you flying back a bit as you didn’t expect anybody to be there with you. You looked up to see Thomas standing there, looking pissed.
“Funny! I never knew you were on the market, pussycat. And now I find out you are newly engaged and to Mr Rogers no less? I thought you said you didn’t want a relationship,” he sneered as he neared you and you instinctively took a step back. That he had a crush on you, you knew, and you told him multiple times that you weren’t interested, that you weren’t looking for a boyfriend and that you just wanted to be left alone. You scoffed at his immature behaviour now and tried to push around him without saying a word because you knew there was no talking to people like him. But he wouldn’t let you go, of course.
“Maybe if I fucked you, you would see that I deserve you just as much, huh?” He hissed and took your already sore arm, yanking you towards him till you were pressed tight against his chance. You still remained calm, knowing that trashing and screaming would get you nowhere.
“Let me go, Thomas. Steve is outside, and he is waiting for me, so I suggest you take your disgusting hands off of me and just let me go,” you tried to reason, but, again, there was no such thing with dumbasses like him. What was more, he probably didn’t like your remark about his disgusting hands, and so, without warning, he slapped you right across your left cheek.
That made you gasp for the first time because till then, you really thought he was just playing and that he would let you go, but now seeing the bewildered look on his face, you suddenly realised that maybe you didn’t have the upper hand in the argument.
“Like fuck he is, what would Rogers do in these parts, huh? I bet it wasn’t even him who called me last night and that you were just trying to get the upper hand. But guess what, you fucking whore, you are not getting out of here until I fuck you unconscious,” he roared and you gulped, trying to think of possible escape routes. But you were in a fucking supply closet, so there was literally just the one door, and Thomas was occupying the whole space in front of it. So, you’d just have to fight your way through. You were a little rusty, but this big-bellied idiot would stand no chance.
But before you had the opportunity to execute your plan, the door behind him flew open and revealed one fo the turtlenecks (you made a mental note to actually learn their names because this was just awkward) and a very angry-looking Steve.
Thomas faltered in his movement towards you and checked who had the audacity to interrupt him. The shock and fear on his face were priceless.
Steve didn’t waste any more time as he lunged himself at the man and punched him straight in the nose, and the sickening crack you heard must have meant Steve broke it. But you couldn’t bring yourself to care enough to pity Thomas. You warned him, even though you didn’t expect Steve actually coming to your rescue. There were some advantages to being tied to him, it seemed.
The turtleneck then took Steve’s place by Thomas, probably so that he wouldn’t escape and Steve marched towards you, still looking too pissed for you to stand calmly under his searching gaze.
“Did he hurt you?” He sneered but didn’t wait for your reply as he checked your face, seeing your puffed left cheek which told him all he needed to know. The bruise already forming on your arm was both from him and from Thomas, so he didn’t comment on that, but Steve wiped the trickle of blood in the corner of your mouth before he turned around and now calmly walked towards Thomas.
“Next time that degenerated brain of yours even thinks of her, I will come and slice your throat. Am I clear?” Steve spat into Thomas’s face who just nodded, probably glad that he got out of it so easily. What he didn’t see coming (and to be honest, neither did you) was the turtleneck suddenly pulled out a big-ass knife out of somewhere and the air filled with the bone-chilling cries as he cut Thomas’ finger off as if it was the most normal thing to do before he wiped the knife on Thomas’s shirt and tucked it back in his pocket. The blood flowing from the wound was thick and almost purple, and you had to shut your eyes at the scene. But the image was already seared into your brain forever.
“Fucking rapist,” Steve said and kicked the already laying man, motioning to the turtleneck and you that you were to follow him. But your legs weren’t listening to your brain, as you were just watching Thomas writhing in pain, wailing and sobbing, and all that because he dared to touch you. An involuntary shudder shook your body, and it as only when you felt an arm around your torso, pulling you to the person’s side that you woke up. Steve didn’t say anything as he came back and wrapped his arm around you, walking you out of there, probably used to that people were dazed when they saw that much blood. And that was just a cut-off finger, how would it look if a person actually bled out there?
“Here, have a piece of chocolate, it should help you,” Steve whispered into your ear as he handed you a little piece when you finally made it to his car, and you took it without question, savouring the sweet taste on your tongue as it streamed into your system like the most delicious medicine. You took a deep breath, your brain recognising that it was a different environment and that the stench of the pub was long gone as was the blood.
“You didn’t have to do that,” you heard yourself saying meekly, but there was no reprimanding him, there was no anger in your voice and Steve heard that. He knew it was the shock of the scene talking because you weren’t one of them. You didn’t see blood on an almost daily basis as he did and you had the right to be surprised.
“I actually had to, Y/N. He touched you, he hurt you and nobody hurts what’s mine. And you are mine now or will be very soon, and I can’t have dickheads like him running around the city thinking they are invincible. You are under my protection, and the whole world has to realise that,” he tried to make you see his point, and when you nodded solemnly, he saw you understood it. You might not have been ok with it, but that was another thing, and that would take time. Steve hoped people wouldn’t be so dumb and try anything on you, but, the truth be told, inwardly he knew he would have to protect you more often than not because some people had a death wish.
“Are you up to discussing our marriage, or do you want me to drive you home?” He asked, and you looked at him for the first time since the pub scene. You shook your head and chuckled a little, not understanding where was this coming from. It was apparent that there were many layers to Steve Rogers, but his mood swings were giving you a headache already. One second he was the infamous mobster and the other he impersonated a caring boyfriend?
“I’m fine, Steve, thank you. I was just taken by surprise because I thought I would have to take him down myself, and I probably wouldn’t cut off his finger in the process, but we all do our things. I’m good for a discussion, if you are,” you gave him your best encouraging smile and Steve stared at you in disbelief for a moment before he averted his eyes towards the driver and gave him a signal that he was to take you two to Steve’s mansion.
Three hours later, you regretted your decision greatly. Steve and you had been talking the whole time, trying to reach a compromise that would be suitable for both of you considering your marriage and your wedding. You were quite surprised when Steve came up with things that were up for discussion because you really thought he would just come with a set of rules for you to follow, and that would be it. Well, the set of rules was there, but so were other things, like where you’d like to live (it was either the New York mansion which he called the apartment or some villa he had in Hamptons, apparently), what were the countries he could take you (which was actually a nice touch) and others. You didn’t give a damn about a lot of the stuff, but the countries were something that caught your attention.
“I would love to visit different places, that’s beyond doubt, but I do not wish to be taken to California, ever,” you insisted, and while Steve tried to inquire why it was that California was on your hard-no list, you wouldn’t budge. You just told him that you weren’t a fan of the hot weather and the swarm of people you heard was in LA and that it was the only place where you wouldn’t go with him, under no circumstances. After a while, he gave up and just jotted it down with a nod.
“Now, to the sex thing, do you want it on paper that I don’t want you in this way or are you good with my word?”
You felt your cheeks heating up, but you tossed your pride away again. This was a business meeting, and Steve was actually extremely honest with you, so the best you could do was to be frank with him as well.
“I’m good with your word, thank you for asking. What I’d like on paper is that you won’t trade me with information. I don’t wanna wake up one morning to be chained by some of your pistol-buddies who wanted to fuck Steve’s wife,” you raised a brow, and Steve chuckled and licked his lips, which was something that got your attention. You snapped at your brain to stop the thought flooding your brain, and a part of you considered putting licking his own lips around you on the hard-no’s list for a second.
“Alright, I will never do that, and I will put that in our contract. Now, have you decided where you want to live? And no, your own apartment isn’t an answer. I’m willing to pay the expenses so that your friends can stay there, but you are coming to live with me, either here or in Hamptons. So, which one is it?”
“Here,” you answered after a while, “I have my job here so I can’t be going back forth to Hamptons every day. Speaking of my job, will you require my presence at every meeting? I’m just asking if I even have a chance attaining my job as is, or if I should quit now because you will never let me go there again.”
“I would have let them fire you if I thought about not letting you work there anymore, now, wouldn’t I? Most of the meetings that I will need you are at night, so your work is fine. I hope your boss will give you enough vacation days because we will need those, but other than that, I think you will be fine at the gallery. Besides, I’ve assigned a personal bodyguard for you who will go everywhere with you, so you won’t have to worry about anybody attacking you,” he concluded, looking proud of himself. You, on the other hand, were bewildered.
“A personal what now? Steve, I can’t just show up at work with some huge guy in all black following me everywhere I move. I saw the looks from some of my coworkers, and they would never accept me if I had a bodyguard, c’mon,” you were desperate now because just the thought made you shudder.
“This is not negotiable, so just learn to live with it. Alright, I think that’s all from that, and we will both sign it before the wedding. Now, the wedding will be next week. I already hired planners, so that the only thing you need to care about is the wedding dress. It’s just for a show, and if it were up to me, we would just go to the city hall, but the world needs to see this wedding, so we’re doing it in the Weylin. Write down your favourite colours and flowers, the cake will be red velvet, and that’s not negotiable, but everything else you want, you write down, and the planners will do it. Also, write down all the guests you’d like to invite, family and all that, so we know how many guests we’re having,” Steve rambled on, but your mind wandered towards your family.
None of them would be attending the wedding, and your heart gave a painful tug at the thought. You had always wanted your dad to walk you down the aisle, and he was so excited to do so, but now that wasn’t possible. And your beautiful mother… The memories made your eyes water, but you blinked the tears away quickly enough so that Steve wouldn’t see them. But he was used to reading people, so he saw your reaction to him mentioning a family very clearly, he just decided against commenting on it. Yet.
“Alright, I’ll send you all the lists by Saturday, if that’s good enough, and I’m actually good with red velvet. It would be a problem if you said some cakes with loads of nuts because I’m extremely allergic to a majority of those, you should know about that, but red velvet is fine enough,” you nodded, and Steve did as well, glad he didn’t have to fight you on that one. Not that it would be a fruitful fight since the red velvet was his favourite type of cake on Earth.
“I want you to move in before the wedding, I’ll have a room set up for you tomorrow, and you can bring whatever you want from your home. You will have access to my credit card, but I’m warning you, excessive spending will not be tolerated, alright?”
You scoffed and rolled your eyes but bowed your head in mocked understanding. Steve had obviously spent his life with women only caring about the sum on his credit card, while you couldn’t care less. The card would be good for the wedding dress, but that was about it. You realised a long time ago that the fashion industry was one of the most dangerous ones for the environment, and while you still shopped from time to time, you tried to reduce it to a minimum. And if you did shop, you loved local stores and fair-trade manufacturers, who vowed to keep the well-being of the planet their number one priority.
“I’ll take it that you understood it. Fine, so, you’ll move in tomorrow, I think my people can manage it till that. So, they’ll pick you up, let’s say, around 8 PM? That enough time?”
You blinked and took the information in. He wanted you to move in tomorrow. Not in a week so you’d have time to actually pack and say goodbye to your friends, even if you still planned on meeting them every other day or so. You wanted a goodbye sleepover where you’d just laugh and drink and hope that the year would be a good one. Or, at least, not a disastrous one.
“That’s definitely not enough time, Steve. Can’t it wait till next week? I need to say goodbye to my friends, and it’s already late, so we can’t do it tonight and just… Give me at least till Saturday evening, Steve, please,” you tried to bargain, and while you saw he wasn’t the greatest of fans, he agreed eventually. That ended your discussion, and you were soon driven away from the house you would soon call yours.
/ Next Chapter >
Taglists in reblogs :) xx
#gilded#Steve Rogers#steve rogers fanfiction#steve rogers imagine#steve rogers story#steve rogers x you#steve rogers x y/n#steve rogers x reader#steve rogers reader insert#mafia au#mafia boss steve rogers#au mafia boss#mobster au#mobster Steve Rogers#arranged marriage#Avengers#avengers fanfiction#marvel#marvel fanfiction#MCU#MCU fanfiction#steve rogers series#series#multiple chapters#angst#fluff#violence#swearing
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