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Getting Steve Harrington to play with the Hellfire Club should have earned Dustin the Purple Heart.
It took three straight days of begging - Dustin would show up at the Family Video every day during Steve’s shift, explaining the plot of Eddie’s previous campaign while Steve leaned on the counter, half-listening, half-staring at the brown haired girl with the high ponytail wandering around the horror section.
“So Lady Applejack went up to one of the cultists, and said, ‘If you don’t free our friend, I’ll free your head from your body!’”
“Uh-huh.”
“And she took out her kukri thingy and pointed it right at him, like, hah!”
“Uh-huh.”
“Then the guy - Harrington, you’re not even listening.”
Steve shakes his head quickly, jolting himself out of his girl-fueled haze. “What? No, man, I totally am.”
Dustin stares at him blankly. “Yeah, right. Okay, so, what was the last thing I said?” He challenges.
Steve is silent for a few moments, before making a bold attempt. “Uhhh… something… about… Applejack? Like.. hang on, like the My Little Pony?!”
Dustin’s palm smacks the center of his own face in defeat. “Dude, you just have to play to get it, okay? Eddie’s new campaign starts next week. I can help you set up a character, and…” A look of mischief passes over Dustin’s face as he continues. “I don’t know, I think Eddie said something about some cute senior girl joining the Hellfire Club, or something.”
“What?” Steve says, so loud that it catches the attention of the girl with the ponytail. She turns to stare at him, and a blush creeps across his cheeks almost instantly. He waves, and she laughs to herself before picking a VHS off the shelf, looking at the back.
“You are massively hopeless,” Dustin says, sighing as if he was disappointed in Steve’s performance. “Just play one game with us, okay? You don’t even have to stay for the whole campaign. Just one game.”
Steve groans, as if the idea pains him, but nods. “Fine. Fine, I’ll play one game, alright? Now get out of my store.”
Dustin raises his hands in surrender, a huge grin on his face. “See you tomorrow, Harrington!” He says, waving as he backs out of the door, the chime ringing out as he exits.
As soon as Dustin is out of earshot, Steve turns to Robin, saying, “What am I getting myself into?” But it’s too late - Robin has already moved to help the girl with the ponytail, talking excessively about her favorite slashers, much to the girl’s delight.
Just his luck.
—
Dustin was serious about showing up the next day to help Steve set up his character. He walks into the Family Video carrying a huge red and black book, a stack of paper, and a pencil, with a set of dice loudly rattling in his pocket. Creating Steve’s character was… easier than expected. Dustin helps him set up his stats and explains what they mean, as well as running him through the variety of classes and races he had to choose from.
Steve ends up playing… Steve, a human fighter. Dustin complains about how boring it is, and how his character should be named something cool, like, Xandrian or something, but Steve insists that he doesn’t want cool, he wants easy. A fighter it is then.
“Finally,” Dustin announces, with an air of drama that he must have inherited from spending so much time around Eddie, “The most important thing of all. Your dice.” He digs around in his pocket, before pulling out a small, rattling bag. “These are for you!”
Steve looks uncertain, but reaches for the bag, opening it slowly and pulling out a green and black marbled twenty-sided die. The numbers are inked with gold. He looks from the die to Dustin in quick succession. “For me?”
“Well, yeah,” Dustin says, suddenly looking embarrassed, adjusting the cap that sits atop his curls. “You know, I figured you didn’t have any, but you need a set to play, so I stopped by the game store by my house and… you know… I thought you’d like them.”
Steve might not understand Dungeons & Dragons, but he understands this. He reaches over the counter with his free hand, placing atop Dustin’s head and shaking it quickly, causing Dustin to laugh and exclaim, “Dude, cut it out!”
“Thanks, Henderson,” Steve says, grinning. “I’ll take good care of ‘em, promise.”
—
Two sessions into Eddie’s campaign, Steve thinks he’s kind of starting to get it. There’s a lot of rules, so Dustin recommends he sits next to Mike, which means half of the session is Mike leaning over to Steve, instructing him on what dice to roll when and what sort of things to add, or subtract, or whatever. There’s way more math than Steve expected, but it’s weirdly… fun?
Part of that fun comes from Eddie himself. Steve is starting to get why the kids like to hang around them so much. His energy is contagious, their storytelling dramatic and engaging. It’s sometimes impossible for Steve to believe Eddie wrote this themself, sitting up at night in his trailer scribbling away at a notebook, coming up with the next big twist that would make his players scream and grab at their hair and curse Eddie’s name. He’s heard enough about their previous campaign with Eddie to know that he’s in for a treat once they really start getting into it.
The Hellfire Club unofficial official seating chart is as follows:
On the right side of the table sits Lucas, Mike, and Steve. Sitting opposite of them, on the left side of the table is Erica, Gareth (one of Eddie’s friends, Steve guesses), and Dustin.
(When Steve first met with the Hellfire Club, Dustin knew he would be in trouble.
“You told me there’d be a cute senior girl playing with us!” Steve exclaimed, gesturing towards the table, where Eddie was working on setting up their DM shield. He looked up from his notes, glancing between Steve and Dustin, before shrugging, leaving Dustin to deal with the flustered and betrayed Steve Harrington.
“Okay, yeah, well… uh-”)
Seated at the head of the table is Eddie, partially concealed by what Steve quickly learned was called a DM shield. He’s never been able to peek behind it, per Eddie’s rules, but Steve has figured out Eddie keeps a few key things back there, including, but not limited to:
* His campaign notes, and the Dungeon Master’s Rulebook thingy
* At least two bottles of water
* At least three sets of dice
* A handful of pencils
* An endless supply of mini-figures to triumphantly place on the board in front of his players as they announce the next fierce enemy they’ll be forced to face.
Steve had also learned that sitting next to Eddie is… loud. Eddie gets really into the whole role-playing part of Dungeons & Dragons, which Steve figured out the hard way, when Mike confronted a suspicious NPC and was immediately faced with Eddie standing up and leaning across the DM shield towards Mike, yelling at full volume in a weirdly accurate British accent and pointing menacingly at him. Their curls hung wildly in his face, their various metal rings glinting in the bright stage lights, and there was sweat forming on his forehead.
He took this really, really seriously.
At this moment, they’re about an hour into session three. They’re into the more narrative part of the session, free from fighting any bandits or goblins or whatever else Eddie tries to kill them with. They’ve decided to split up and ask around the town of Eelry for any information on the evil sorcerer they’ve been hearing about. They split up into teams of two based on who they’re sitting across from at the table, putting Lucas and Erica together, Mike and Gareth together, and Steve and Dustin together.
“I wanna check out the tavern,” Dustin declares, before Steve has a chance to even peek over at Mike’s notes to remember which places they had to check out.
“A tavern? Like, a bar?” Steve asks, looking over at Eddie for confirmation.
Eddie shrugs. “Yeah, I mean, kind of.”
“Huh,” Steve says, thinking about this. “Yeah, okay. We’ll go to the bar.”
“Tavern,” Eddie corrects.
“Whatever.”
—
The joke starts like this - a human fighter named Steve walks into a bar. Tavern. Whatever.
Eddie sets the scene for the two of them. The tavern is cozy, consisting mostly of dark wood, with a bar on one end and a stage on the other, rows of benches and tables between them. There’s a halfling woman behind the bar, doing the classic ‘bartender cleaning a glass’ move. There’s a few other boring sounding NPCs sitting at the tables - two dwarves play a complicated game of chess together, and a human man sits by himself. But what catches Steve, The Human Fighter’s attention is the figure on the stage.
Eddie describes her as a tielfing (“Kind of like a devil person,” Mike supplements from next to Steve.) with chin length black hair and bright red skin. Her horns curl from her forehead like ram’s horns, and she plays what Eddie describes as “a sick, blood red lyre”.
She’s absorbed in her music, playing something for an audience of no-one, but she grins as Steve approaches. Meanwhile, Dustin’s character, a spooky vampire guy named Drac (“You know, like Dracula!”), goes to talk to the bartender.
She momentarily stops playing, sitting down atop a stool that’s been provided for her on the stage. Near her feet is a small bucket for tips, which he learns, after a quick Perception check of 12, is completely empty.
Steve digs into his many pockets, pulling out two gold coins, and placing them squarely in her tip bucket. The gold clinks loudly as it hits the bottom.
“Well, well, well,” she says, her smile only growing, revealing sharp canine teeth. Her tail swishes softly behind her. “Thanks for the tip, stranger. Got any requests?”
“Uh-” Steve panics, just the slightest, but recovers quickly. “No, I don’t think so…” His voice trails off, as Steve The Player thinks of what to say. “I wanted to ask you a few questions, if that’s okay.”
(“Persuasion check, Steve,” Eddie asks coolly, his hands folded under their chin. As per usual, Steve can’t tell what he’s thinking.
“Persuasion check, yeah, totally,” Steve rambles to buy himself some time as he scrambles to pull his character sheet from where it sat under his half-finished bottle of water. “Uhh, whoa, 16! That’s pretty good!”)
“Questions, huh?” She repeats, looking Steve up and down not-so-subtly. “Buy me a drink first.”
Steve finds a smile quickly growing on his face. “Sure, sure.” He rushes up to the bar, orders two glasses of beer from the halfling in the middle of talking to Drac, and returns to see the mysterious tiefling woman now seated at a bench. She taps the table in front of her, motioning for Steve to join her.
Steve sits, handing her a glass. “There,” he says, propping up an elbow on the table. “Now will you talk?”
She takes a sip of her drink, staring at him the entire time. “Ask nicely, sir. What’s the magic word?”
“...Please?” Steve says reluctantly.
“Good boy,” she responds almost instantly.
(The tension around the table is thick. Everyone except for Steve and Eddie are completely silent. The blush on Steve’s face is far too noticeable. Eddie, on the other hand, appears one hundred percent in character, grinning at Steve with a combination of joy and mischief. They’re leaned back a bit in their chair, relaxed.
“What’s… going on?” Erica leans behind Gareth to whisper to Dustin.
“Uhhh… I have no idea.”)
Steve coughs loudly, clearing his throat and attempting to recover before he continues. “Right. So, I’m trying to figure out-” Steve rambles on about the sorcerer they’re looking for, getting minimal answers from the tiefling, who seems to just be sipping her drink contently. The most information he gets from her is that she’s heard rumors of weird stuff happening in the nearby mountains, but that’s all she knows. The townsfolk don’t talk to her much, due to her appearance.
(Steve, despite himself, is beginning to get a little frustrated. “God, Eddie, does she know anything else?”
“Aww. Roll me an insight check,” they supply rather unhelpfully.
Steve grabs his d20, glaring a little at Eddie as he does. Something about the whole encounter, the pretty girl flirting with him, along with getting unclear answers, has him a little hot and bothered, to say the least.
“Uhhh… 6? No, wait, 7.”
There’s the sound of various sighs and groans from around the table. Despite not being involved in the scene, the remaining five players seem pretty invested in Steve, The Human Fighter and this tiefling woman.
“Ahh, it’s fine,” Eddie says, waving a hand in the air as if dismissing the roll. “I won’t be hard on you. It’s pretty obvious - she’s not focused on anything you’re saying. She’s just staring at you. Like she wants to devour you.” He adds that last bit with a sly smile that makes Steve’s chest feel tight. This is gonna be something he’ll have to internally examine on his drive home, he thinks.
“Damn!” Gareth exclaims, and the brief break in the silence makes Dustin and Lucas explode into laughter.
“Go get her, Harrington!” Dustin shouts, grinning.)
“Listen, uhhh…” Steve starts. “It’s pretty obvious you’re into me.” He’s regained a sense of confidence along with this new piece of information, it seems.
“Oh, is it?”
“I mean, yeah,” Steve shrugs. “And I don’t know how dating in Dungeons & Dragons works, but -”
Eddie clears his throat, and Steve knows he’s in trouble now.
—
“The tiefling woman - and, I will remind you, you still don’t know her name. Real gentleman-like, Harrington. Anyways, the tiefling woman grabs your hand across the table, and stands up, and before you know it,” Eddie pauses for dramatic effect, something Steve has learned is a classic Eddie move, “She kisses you to shut you up.”
The table explodes in screams and laughter. Dustin and Erica are both clinging to Gareth, Mike is covering his eyes, and Lucas is standing up, hands on his head.
Suddenly, the overhead lights feel very hot on his face. Steve can feel himself sweating. Eddie, never one to give up the bit, leans across his DM shield, his lips puckered dramatically and his eyes already closed. They look like they’re fighting off a smile in favor of fake-kissing.
Steve is at a loss for what to do, so he does what he does best - he acts without thinking. He leans forward, his lips meeting Eddie’s in a sudden kiss.
It feels like everything’s slowed down around him. Steve’s kissed plenty of girls before, but kissing Eddie feels… different, somehow. His lips are soft, just like the last girl Steve kissed. He reaches out to grab Eddie’s shoulder to steady himself, and their curly hair brushes past his knuckles. Flashes of thoughts go through Steve’s mind - the way the girls he hooked up with would tie up their long hair before they -
“Holy SHIT!” Dustin shouts, and it’s loud enough that it jerks Steve out and away from the kiss. Eddie is staring at him with wide eyes. Steve’s hand still rests on their shoulder. It’s hard to even think over the commotion at the table, as everyone attempts to grapple with what they just saw. Steve pulls his hand away, but the motion causes part of Eddie’s DM shield to fall apart with a loud BOOM against the table. Eddie scrambles to cover up their notes and repair the DM shield before anyone can look.
“15 minute break!” Eddie shouts over the noise. “Go on, get out of here!”
The party immediately complies, rushing to get out into the hallway so they can discuss what went down, leaving Steve and Eddie alone.
There’s a few seconds of silence between them, before Steve attempts to explain himself. “I’m sorry, man, I thought - we were supposed to - I mean, the whole role-playing thing, right? Like, acting it out? We… fuck-” He trails off, waiting for some sort of reaction from Eddie.
Eddie isn’t looking at him, still attempting to gather his notes. Their long hair partially shields his face as he stares down at the table.
“I didn’t know you kissed boys, Harrington.”
Steve feels his body tense up. He feels something of a panic rising in his throat.
“Uh, I don’t.”
“You do now.” Eddie stares at him. There’s something else he wants to say, Steve can feel it, but then they shake their head. “Don’t worry about it, man. I’m not gonna tell on you, or whatever.”
“Oh.” Steve says, pursing his lips. It’s hard to stare at Eddie for too long, so he pretends to look for something in his very empty notebook.
“Besides.”
Eddie speaking again forces Steve to look at them, and they’ve got a little bit of a smile on their face.
“You’re not a bad kisser, Steve.”
—
The rest of the session goes on without a hitch. After the kiss, the tiefling woman leaves Steve to sit at the table alone while she gathers her things from the stage and heads out of the tavern. Drac learns a little more information than Steve did from the bartender, which he quickly shares. The rest of the party meets up, discusses their new intel, and comes up with a game plan for the next session.
“So we’re gonna go up to that mountain, find the sorcerer dude, and kick his ass,” Erica repeats, grinning. Combat’s her favorite part of Dungeons & Dragons, Steve quickly learns.
“Exactly,” Lucas agrees, then puts his hand in the center of the table. “Hellfire Club on 3?” He suggests. Everyone quickly complies, placing their hands on top of his.
“1, 2, 3 - Hellfire Club!”
“Ugh,” Eddie proclaims from his seat, hands over his heart dramatically. “You six are just disgustingly sweet.”
The party cleans up and splits off from one another to head home, and Steve tosses Dustin his keys, having promised him a ride home. “Go start my car. Swear to God, Henderson, if you even touch the pedals, I’ll-”
“Yeah, yeah, I know,” Dustin says nonchalantly. “I won’t mess up your car. Just don’t take too long!”
Steve hangs behind with Eddie once again. Eddie doesn’t seem to mind, asking Steve how he’s liking the campaign and what his shirt size is so he can hook him up with a Hellfire Club t-shirt. Right before Eddie starts to leave, Steve speaks up.
“Hey, uh, by the way,” he starts, running a hand through his hair nervously. “So, just for my notes, or whatever - what was the tiefling lady’s name? You never told me.”
Eddie shrugs. “You never asked.” For a moment, Steve thinks they’ll leave it at that, but they smile at him instead, continuing, “But for your sake, I’ll let you know.”
“Oh, really? Thanks.”
“Yeah, no problem,” Eddie says, holding open the door as he turns to face Steve, looking exactly like the troublemaker Eddie Munson he had heard about.
“It’s Edith.”
—
Steve actually shows up early to pick up Robin for their shift at the Family Video, something that clearly surprises Robin.
“I didn’t think you were capable of being on time, let alone early,” Robin teases as she sits down in Steve’s passenger seat.
“Yeah, well, I…” Steve sighs. “I needed to, uh, ask you about something.”
“Are you having girl problems again?” Robin asks. “Seriously, Steve, I really think you need to-”
“No! No, it’s not that,” Steve interrupts. “I just wanted to know, uh…” He can feel Robin staring at him. “How’d you know you were gay?”
Robin is silent for a moment, before she places a hand firmly on Steve’s shoulder, grinning.
“Ohhh, my dear friend Steve. This is gonna be a fun shift.”
—