Archive of Our Own ^beta

There is broken glass at his neck, Dustin yelling something that’s maybe supposed to be pacifying, and a terrified Eddie Munson with wild eyes terribly close to his face. And Steve thinks to himself I’m not entirely sure how to work with this.

It takes a bit. It takes a little more fear and too many close calls, in Steve’s humble opinion. It takes almost being devoured by those god-forsaken creatures, a vest with patches sewn on with bands he’s never heard of, and a stroll through the least romantic forest Steve has ever been in. There is a frantic, but horribly earnest energy Eddie exudes, something Steve doesn’t entirely understand, but he wants to. God, he wants to.

He wonders if he should be more panicked about the effect that Eddie Munson seems to have on him. But there’s government conspiracies and supernatural creatures and kids who need him, so he decides that he will allow himself to not worry about one thing. He gets this one thing.

Later, he sits by the RV with Robin,  as everyone prepares for what is probably the end and watches Eddie and Dustin play fight in the field together. The sound of Eddie’s dramatics is carried by the wind and Steve can only stare.

“Not still jealous, are you?” Robin nudges him with a raised eyebrow. And god, Steve loves her, but if she could not see him as he is, right down to his core at all times, that might be nice.

Steve aches and he knows it’s not the wounds on his stomach. 

“I have this terrible, gnawing feeling,” Robin looks at him, still seeing him for all that he is, “It might not work out for us this time.”

“You think we shouldn’t be doing this?”

“I think we’re mad fools, the lot of us, but if we don’t stop him who will?” Steve looks out again. At Dustin, Lucas, Erica, Max, Nancy. Eddie, still waving around a sword, egging Dustin on. 

“We have to try, right?” Robin continues, a desperate earnestness in her expression.

“Yeah.” Steve clinks a glass against hers, wonders what trying looks like in the face of the impossible, and finds a flutter of hope alive in his chest. 

Hope lives in his chest even as he starts to walk away from Dustin and Eddie in the Upside Down. Don’t be heroes. It’s an order, it’s a threat, it’s a plea. Look at us, we are not heroes. Please let it be a promise, too. 

“Steve.” Eddie, with his rocker get-up and a million words that, for once, aren't coming out faster than he can think them, levels his gaze at Steve. 

Steve would give anything to read his mind at this moment. What does Eddie Munson think about right as they are about to charge into battle, his Uncle? Dustin? The funny-in-an-extremely-unfunny way that he’s about to help save a town that threw him away without a second thought?

“Make him pay.” And all Steve can do is nod and put one foot in front of the other because he knows that’s what’s gotta be done.

So he does. And they do. Get it done. They really do. Vecna falls and Steve looks wide-eyed at Nancy and Robin.

It feels easy which should have been a warning. 

They leave the Creel house in stunned silence. The silence is broken by a wailing in the night and Steve refuses to believe that there is another creature out there ready to devour them whole. 

They are so tired.

The awful wailing releases into the abyss once more and Steve can’t place it until Robin gasps out Dustin and then he is running as fast as he can towards the trailer. 

He stops in his tracks as Nancy and Robin run past him and takes in the view in front of him. Dustin, with Eddie in him arms, surrounded by the corpses of those fucking bats, holding him as he– 

“Steve! ” Nancy’s yelling breaks him from his trance and he rushes towards Dustin’s side, falling to his knees, and takes the weight of Eddie’s head into his lap. 

There’s a moaning sound from Eddie and Steve wants to laugh with relief. It’s a short lived relief as he takes in the amount of damage across his entire body and the fact that they need to go and go now if they’re going to get out of this hellhole before the gate closes on them. 

Nancy has shifted into action immediately, ripping off her jacket and wrapping it tightly around Eddie’s abdomen. Dustin lets out a whine alongside Eddie who lets out another pained groan.

“What happened?” Is all Steve can get out.

“Couldn’t–couldn’t let them get to the kid or the house or–or the fucking town, man,” Eddie grits out, “Couldn’t let them go anywhere except right where I was.” 

“I fucking told you–” Steve starts but Robin interrupts him with a sharp “Steve!” and he’s really starting to hate the sound of his own name.

“Not important, we need to get out of here,” Nancy cuts him off as a rumbling of distant earth sounds off.

Steve looks down at Eddie covered in too much blood starkly contrasted against his bloodless face and wonders just what the plan is to do that.

Dustin’s crying sounds painful and Eddie lifts up his hand to pat him against the side of his face. “None of that now,” and doesn’t he sound awful choking on his own blood to try to comfort somebody else. “You’ll be alright…this is gonna be my year, remember?”

“Eddie–” Dustin's voice sounds wrecked and Steve doesn't know what to do.

“I love you, man,” Eddie says this, uncharacteristically serious, and that’s what finally pushes Steve into movement. 

“Robin, I’m going to need you to help me carry him.” Robin nods vigorously and nudges Dustin out of the way to be on the opposite side of Steve.

“Okay, on three, we’re going to get him up and then steady him like we’re his crutches. Got it? 1…2…3, lift.”

The scream of pain Eddie lets out is one that Steve is ready to forget as soon as he hears it. All three fumble and end up back on the ground, Eddie falls half propped up against Steve, head thumping into the crook of his neck. The hairs on the back of Steve’s neck stand up as he feels the sensation of too shallow breath landing against his skin.

“Munson, you’ve gotta work with us, we have got to get you out of here.”

Steve pulls back and maneuvers Eddie in order to look him in his eyes. They’re becoming less focused by the second and Eddie coughs, blood dribbling out of the corner of his mouth. 

“‘...save my people…I have failed,’” Eddie says with a quiet laugh to himself and Steve has no idea what the fuck he’s talking about.

“I am not letting you die for this goddamn town, Munson.” Steve motions to Robin to try again. They lift and they steady him, barely. This time Steve ignores the grunts of pain as best he can. They start dragging him towards the trailer, towards the gate. “You hear me? Of all the bullshit that’s happening today, that is not going to happen .”

Eddie doesn’t respond, potentially too busy not dying or, more likely, trying to muster up the energy to make his last words a reference to something Steve knows nothing about.

Steve spends his energy on watching Dustin and Nancy hoist themselves up and then down through the gate and handing over Eddie to them who has finally passed out, which makes him entirely unhelpful.

Once through the gate, they’re back into the world that should make more sense, but doesn’t because Robin says, “Do we dare take him to the hospital or will the crowd of demon hunters make their way there?”

“I don’t think we have a choice,” Nancy purses her lips, taking stock of the wrecked figure of the town’s pariah. 

Dustin, who hasn’t let go of Eddie since they’ve gotten back, looks up at them with such a wounded expression and Steve wants to kill Vecna all over again just for making Dustin as miserable as he currently is. 

Steve takes a deep breath and looks determinedly at the world outside of the trailer. “Let’s go.” 

From there it is a whirlwind of situations and surprises. Steve can only hold on desperately to all the people he cares for, but damn, does he wish he had more than two hands.

Hawkins is mostly in ruins because the world can’t be saved without consequences and Steve wishes he could feel worse about that. But all of the kids are safe and Vecna is dead and Eddie is–

“Motherfucker –” Eddie groans in pain and Steve winces in empathy because he knows those wounds hurt like a bitch even despite the amount of painkillers pumping through Eddie’s veins.

“I usually prefer people to use my first name, but I’ll give you a pass this time,” Steve’s mouth quirks up as he appreciates this version of an Eddie who looks exhausted and hurt, but gloriously alive. 

There is a beat as Eddie takes in the vision of Steve sitting in a hospital chair next to his bed. Eddie squints at him like he’s trying to figure him out and Steve gets an inkling of that same uncomfortable sensation Robin gives him when she strips him down to the bare essence of himself without even trying.

Eddie shakes his head slightly before croaking out, “Dude, where’s Henderson? Is he alright–” And then Eddie begins to remove the flimsy sheet as if to get himself up out of the hospital bed and Steve has worked too damn hard for Eddie to kill himself by falling flat on his face.

Steve quickly grabs his hands to keep them still and it’s like he’s pressed an off switch that he wasn’t entirely sure Eddie even had but Eddie halts and gives him a wide-eyed stare.

“Hey, none of that, he’s fine. We’re all fine, except for you.” Steve means for that to come out disapprovingly, but he can’t keep the relief back far enough to not make itself known. 

“Everyone? Even Red?” The urgency in Eddie’s voice makes a home in the pit of Steve’s stomach and all he wants is to be able to reach over and smooth out the worried expression on Eddie’s face. He keeps his hands on Eddie’s.

“Yeah, man, Max and Lucas and everyone are okay. It all turned out okay, it…” And then Steve can’t help himself, “God, what were you thinking, Eddie?” 

There is a pause and it is both the heaviest and the lightest Steve has ever felt as he follows Eddie’s gaze towards Dustin speaking in a low voice to the other kids in the hallway just outside the room.

He looks back over to Eddie and he feels…god, he just feels and isn’t that a miracle on its own.

“You weren’t thinking were you,” Steve says without cruelty, and lets out a huff of what could have been laughter or maybe just a desperate attempt to make sure his lungs are still working. 

Eddie shrugs with a tired, but unapologetic expression, “Sometimes the support has to cause some damage for the greater good of the party.”

Steve thinks he might be losing it because that made some semblance of actual sense. Too much time around Henderson is causing his brain to malfunction. 

Eddie scans Steve’s face with a look Steve for the life of him cannot decipher. It reminds him of the same look he gave him before they parted in the Upside Down. Like there’s something he means to say, but doesn’t know how to say it. 

“Harrington…Steve. I–” 

“Eddie!” Steve lets go of Eddie’s hands as the kids rush in from the hall to see him. He considers telling them to slow down and let Eddie breathe, but Eddie says, “So turns out Mordor was metal as hell” and far be it from Steve to interrupt whatever they’ve got going on.

Days later, when Eddie is released on the condition that he continues bedrest, Steve volunteers to take him to his house which is still standing despite it all. Steve’s sure that if he cared any more about books or poetry, there was probably a metaphor somewhere. He might ask Nancy about it later.

The first couple nights, everyone comes over to the Harrington household after spending the day volunteering to help the town pick itself back up. Eddie spends most of his time healing uncomfortably with what could pass as sleeping, but Steve knows it’s just passing out from pain and exhaustion over and over again. 

As the new normal settles in, the nights when they are alone are quiet which is disconcerting considering the…everything Eddie seemed to be in the Before. Eddie puts on this persona when the others are over, that he’s unbothered and happy to be there, but Steve knows it’s not that simple. 

He misses his uncle who, after a heartfelt reunion, left town due to Eddie’s desperate begging to be safe, not stupid. Which was rich considering, Steve thought bitterly. 

And the sleep became harder. For the both of them. 

Steve begins a habit of sitting outside the bedroom Eddie is laid up in just to hear him breathing at night. He doesn’t have a better excuse, only the truth. He sits there, in Eddie’s vest, and tries not to think too hard about what it means because he still gets this one thing. 

It’s this that allows him to hear when the pure exhaustion stops carrying Eddie through the night and the nightmares settle in. Tonight, Eddie begins to choke on nothing but his own terror and Steve thinks fuck it before rushing into the room to wake him up. 

“Eddie, Eddie , hey, ” Steve places his hands on either side of Eddie’s face as Eddie gasps awake.

“ Steve,” Eddie sharply draws in his breath and Steve wants to keep him from hyperventilating himself to death so he presses his forehead against Eddie’s and starts taking his own deep breaths as if he tries hard enough he might be able to start breathing for him.

Slowly, their breaths start to even out in tandem and Steve pulls away slightly and smiles crookedly. “Hey, buddy.”

Fatigue still evident, Eddie manages a half-hearted glower. “‘ Hey, buddy’ is all you got for me after that?”

Steve shrugs with a tired grin, “Tank is empty, man.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Eddie exhales a shaky breath, “I get that.” 

Steve is suddenly very aware that both of his hands are still on Eddie’s face. He draws them back to himself slowly, but Eddie reaches out to grab one of his wrists, gentle but firm.

“Do you…need something?” Steve asks in a soft voice.

“Yeah,” Eddie whispers back and guides Steve into a sitting position on the edge of the bed, eye level to Eddie who is propped up against what is essentially a pillow throne the kids built for him.

They stare at one another in the dim light the moon has casted through the window and Steve sees a knowing grin growing on Eddie’s face. Eddie lets go of Steve’s wrist and tugs lightly on the vest he’s wearing.

“Is that my vest, Harrington?” Eddie’s question comes across with more fondness than Steve imagines Eddie meant it to and he has a choice to make.

Standing on the precipice of this fragile thing they’ve created is terrifying, but Steve has been scared so many times before and he has to try. 

“Yeah. Yeah, it is,” Steve says with unquestionable sincerity, needing Eddie to understand. He almost had to live in a world where the vest was all he had left, so forgive him for keeping it close at hand.

Steve, still haunted by the sight of Eddie as he laid bleeding in Dustin’s arms, places his hand against the side of Eddie’s neck and wipes the phantom blood off of Eddie’s lips with his thumb.

Eddie licks his lips, swallows nervously, and Steve determines uncertainty isn’t a good look on either of them. 

So he kisses him.

Eddie’s hands come up his sides to steady him into the kiss and Steve nearly combusts at the feeling of being held.

When they pull apart, still holding one another, their eyes meet, and they both give into the urge to laugh at themselves.

“Shit,” Eddie breathes out, smile turning into a grimace, his body aching from the movement reminding them both Eddie is still just barely not torn into a million pieces. 

“We gotta get you in better shape, Munson, because I want to do that again.” Steve decides to push his luck and begins to settle into Eddie’s side, carefully laying his arm across his injured chest.

Eddie’s arm comes up around his back and doesn’t respond, still trying to reorient himself from both the pain and Steve Harrington’s lips on his own. 

They're both quiet for a moment, breaths matching up once more. Steve wonders about what comes next. There’s too much up in the air. They haven’t entirely cleared Eddie’s name, Hawkins is reeling, and while Steve watched Vecna die, he can’t bring himself to believe that they’re fully through with the Upside Down.

But for now, he’s lying in Eddie’s arms and he wants to let that be enough. He chooses to let that be enough.

“If everything were okay tomorrow, if everything was…” And Steve can’t say normal because normal doesn’t exist and Eddie knows that better than the rest of them even before their lives were taken over by monsters and mayhem. “If everything just was, what would you do?” Steve asks, ignoring the palpable surprise Eddie is giving off, hoping, praying (if that is such a thing anymore), that Eddie will just give him this without question. 

“I don’t…” Eddie starts out and Steve tenses, preparing for something. A rejection, maybe. Instead, he gets a chuckle of disbelief, “That’s the kinda power that will go to my head. But, it sounds like you have something in mind?” 

“I think I would just drive,” Steve says honestly.

“Drive where?”

“Anywhere. Take the kids and just go somewhere else. Far away from this town and see the world we’ve been working so hard to save.” 

Steve suddenly wonders if Eddie will think him silly or frivolous. “I know that’s not–”

“‘Well, I've made up my mind, anyway,’” Eddie cuts him off before he can begin spiraling, “‘I want to see mountains again, Stevie, mountains.’ ”

Steve’s face scrunches up in confusion. “Again? We live in Indiana?” 

Eddie sends a pleading look up to the ceiling and Steve wants to be offended, but it costs too much to pretend to be unhappy.

“It’s like a metaphor, Steve,” Eddie says and Steve wants to laugh because of course it’s Eddie Munson who’s giving him lessons on metaphors. 

Steve lifts his head up to give Eddie a skeptical look, eyebrow raised and before he can even react, Eddie presses his lips against his forehead. Eddie gives him a devilish grin when he realizes just how badly that causes Steve to short circuit. 

Steve rolls his eyes and lets his head fall back onto Eddie’s chest and smiles to himself as Eddie slightly shakes with laughter. He closes his eyes and thinks, Mountains, sure. I can work with that.