Work Text:
Once again, for the third time, Steve Harrington had helped save the world. This time with the help of two children and his mean coworker/new friend. Plus, he was wearing a sailor costume.
Considering his previous times saving the world, he would rate this one a whopping 4/10! Not good, but not the worst it could be. Also, it only happened a few hours ago, so his feelings on it could change.
After the gate closed, and the destroyed mall became silent, the exhaustion finally hit everyone.
Joyce and Murray (and just them. It didn’t take him long to figure out what happened) gave the Mall Fire story to the firemen and cops, and everyone was free to go.
Joyce took her kids (along with El, because where else could she go) and ran, getting in the hideous stolen car, just desperate to get away.
Nancy took home a shaken Mike and a pale Max, who didn’t even fight the comforting hand Nancy placed on her as she led them to her car.
That left Steve to pack Robin, Dustin and the Sinclair’s in his car. Strangely, he didn’t mind. Of course, they had all fallen asleep as soon as he left the parking lot.
So, he had to quietly turn around and shake Lucas awake, who looked startled until he realized where he was. He turned to his sister and poked her shoulder, but when she didn’t move, he sighed softly and picked her up. Steve watched until they were both inside the house.
Next was Dustin, who was much harder to wake up. The kid was drooling and if Steve didn’t hear the slight snoring, he would have assumed he was dead.
Steve gave up being nice and just flicked his forehead. Dustin finally opened his eyes groggily. Steve walked him to his door with a hand on his back.
When Dustin was about to open the door he turned back to Steve and gave a thumbs up and a toothy grin. Steve messed up Dustin’s hair and made him go inside.
Last but not least, was Robin. He actually had to wake her up to ask for her address, and she didn’t fall back asleep. They spent the drive there in tired but comfortable silence.
When he pulled up, she turned to him. “Hey Dingus.”
“Yeah?” Just this once, she could get away with insulting him.
“Don’t do anything stupid tonight. I can tell that’s something you would do.”
“Thanks Robin.” He sighed. “You have my number, right? Call me if you need to.”
“Don’t worry.” She stepped out of the car. “I’ll be calling you with job openings I find. Work won’t be fun if I can’t bother you, so be on the look for places.”
He smiled and nodded. “Got it. Thanks Robin.”
She slammed the door shut and walked into her house.
Then Steve was alone.
Logically, he should have gone home, passed out on his couch from pure exhaustion, and not wake up for thirteen hours. But he couldn’t will himself to go back to that house, that he knew would be completely empty, and quiet and too much.
He plugged a cassette in and drove around Hawkins. The windows got rolled down a few inches, just so Steve could smell something other than his own sweat and the kids he just drove home. The air smelled clean. He wondered if it was always like that, or if cutting off the evilness in it had purified it.
The houses and trees rolled on by, and Steve realized he had no clue how long he was driving or where he was going. Eventually he pulled over by Lovers Lakes and turned off his car.
Looking at the steering wheel mindless was his first thing to do, wondering what he should actually do with it. Go back to a quiet house, drive under the night sky, or basically anything, because he couldn’t actually care about what happened.
As he was thinking about his life choices, something outside cracked and Steve froze.
Maybe he was just imagining it. It could have been a raccoon or a fat squirrel, or nothing but the subtle breeze that had been blowing all night.
Sure, him getting out of his car was probably unnecessary. Grabbing the Nail Bat from his trunk might have been an overreaction. Steve creeping into the trees with the bat over his shoulder, ready to swing at any moment, could absolutely be considered overkill.
When he got just a few feet away from a clearing, Steve heard a branch snap.
So, Steve did the thing that anyone who had been beaten, drugged and just defeated a monster would do, and lunged forward, yelling and swinging his bat around.
He was greeted with screaming, and not from a monster from another dimension, but of a human, from his dimension.
Steve lowered the bat as Eddie “The Freak” Munson was backed against a tree with wide eyes.
“Shit! Uh- Sorry man.”
Eddie just blinked a few times then squinted his eyes. “Steve Harrington?”
Steve laughed and tried to hide the bat behind his back. “The one and only! How are you?”
The bat was kinda stabbing him in the back and obviously was still visible.
Eddie just laughed. “You look like Hell. I almost didn’t recognize you, with the messed face and weapon. Also never seen you in a sailor suit before.”
Steve looked down and saw he was in fact, still wearing his work uniform. At least in the dark, it was harder to see the blood stains.
“Yeah, was a uniform for my job. Scoops Ahoy, had good ice cream.”
Eddie raised an eyebrow. “You get fired or something?”
At first Steve was offended that’s the first thing that Eddie thought of, until he realized he talk about it in the past tense. He could just straight out say the mall burned down, but that would raise questions he didn’t feel like lying about in that moment.
“Yeah. Something like that.”
Eddie smiled and pulled out a small pack and lit a cigarette for himself. He held the pack towards Steve. “You look like you need one.”
Steve hesitated. He had been trying to quit after the kids complained he smelled like smoke too often and Dustin rattling on about the dangers of lung cancer.
Eddie shrugged. “It’s fine if you don-.” Steve grabbed one.
“Light me up?”
Now it was Eddie who stilled for a moment, before flicking on the light. Steve lit his then immediately put it up to his mouth.
“I already had one for myself, but dropped it when started swinging your really interesting bat around.”
Steve almost forgot about. He held it out in front of him, seeing the rusted nails (maybe rusted. At least some of it had to be dried blood.). He dropped it on ground.
“Right. Sorry about that.”
“Why do you even have that thing?”
Steve blew out a puff of smoke. He really didn’t feel like lying tonight. “This town is a dangerous place. Good to have protection.”
Eddie laughed. “Funny you of all people say that.”
“What does that mean?”
“King Steve, feeling unsafe in his own kingdom. Afraid there’ll be an uprising soon?”
Steve sighed. “I hate that stupid nickname. I was never any kind of royalty, and definitely never will be. That was High School Bullshit at its finest.”
The cigarette Eddie was holding stopped right before he took another hit. Eddie looked at him, puzzled.
“Who are you then?”
“What?”
“You’re not King Steve. I assume the same applies to Steve ‘The Hair’ Harrington. If not those, then who are you?”
Steve looked at the sky. It was steadily getting brighter, meaning sunrise would be soon. Apparently, he wasn’t going to sleep.
“Steve. Just Steve is good.”
“Kinda of boring.” Eddie laughed. “But it fits you.”
“I’m an adult now. Aren’t I supposed to be boring?”
Eddie went a bit quiet at that. Steve wasn’t sure why, until he remembered how old Eddie was.
“Shit, sorry. I didn’t mean-.”
“Relax, it’s fine.” Eddie pushed his cigarette on the tree until it went dark, then dropped it on the ground. “I can tell you’re stupid, but not cruel.”
Steve threw down his own cigarette and crushed it under his dirty shoe. “Hey, you know that saying ‘Three’s the year’ or something like that? Mean’s next year will be your year, right?”
Eddie smirked. “1986. Yeah, I think I like number the best. Good thing I waited.”
They both laughed quietly.
“Hey Eddie? Why are you out here?” Steve looked at the dark orange sky. “It has to be like, two or three in the morning by now?”
“I could ask you the same thing Harrington.”
He could ask, but Steve couldn’t straight up tell him everything. “I’ll tell you if you promise not to ask for details.”
“Only if the same rules apply for me.”
Steve nodded and slumped down, leaning against a tree truck as Eddie did the same thing.
“I don’t want to go home. It’s quiet there, and I honestly don’t think I can handle that right now. I’m not going to go into it much, but as you can telling,” He gestured to himself. “I’ve had one hell of a night. Going back to that empty house makes me wanna puke my guts out, more than I already have tonight. Everything felt like too much, so I just got in my car, played a cassette with my favorite song on, and drove around. I didn’t pay attention to time, or where I was going until I stopped by here. My windows were down, so I heard a noise and just assumed the worst, which is why you met my Nail Bat tonight.”
“What song?”
“Huh?”
Eddie was picking at the tree, trying to rip off some loose bark. “What’s your favorite song?”
“Don’t make fun of me. It’s Everybody Wants to Rule the World.”
“Tears For Fears?”
“Yeah. It a recent song by them, just a few months old.”
“I’ll be nice tonight.” Eddie decided. “I’ve never heard that song by them, but I still know you can do better.”
“Shut up Munson.” Steve put his head against the rough tree, ignoring how his hair was positively fucked up by now. “What about you? What brings you into this disgusting woods?”
“Everything and nothing.” He finally tore off the bark. He flung it somewhere in front of him, and it disappeared in the dirt. “I’m turning twenty this year and I’m still in high school. My only paying job is selling drugs, just like my old man. My uncle tries his best with me, he’s nice and patient, but I’m me. Sure, I’m in a band, and I’m in the head of a club! But it’s nothing. I thought when I turned eighteen my life would change. I would get away from Hawkins, from being known as ‘The Freak’. You probably don’t get it. Even when you were a kid, you probably got whatever you desired.”
Toys, clothes, objects, absolutely. Just one word and it was his. Parents he saw for more than a week? That was a completely different story.
“I don’t know about you, but I thought to myself ‘When you'll older, maybe then you’ll feel some control’. I could have control over anything, except for myself I guess.”
Eddie stopped staring at the dirt. “Control is a funny thing. You think you have it, until you see you never had any at all.”
“Tell me about.” Steve laughed. “I didn’t realize that until the understanding came in the form of a strong fist my junior year.”
“Yeah, no matter how many times I got beat, I always assumed I had the control behind the scenes. Being woke, and nonconforming, thought I was the only real one. My hit was my second time being held back. If I had any control, I would be far from here right now.”
“Where do you want to go?”
“Some place like New York. It’s easier to hide in a big city.”
“Understandable. Small towns are too small, too personal.”
Eddie plopped down onto his back and stared at the sky. “It’s a bad place, for someone like me.”
Steve adjusted so he was next to Eddie. The sky was half blue and half orange, Steve might have even saw a bit of pink in it. “What do you mean?”
Eddie smiled. “You’ve probably heard the rumors.”
“It’s not really a rumor, everyone knows you sell drugs. Pretty sure even the teachers know.”
“Steve,” Eddie chuckled. “You are so stupid. Just forget it man.”
“What? No, now you have to tell me!”
“Fine but promise me something.”
“Sure.”
“You’re not allowed to tell anyone or beat me up.”
Steve extended his pinky out. “Pinky promise.”
Eddie looked over at him, and rolled his eyes, but took the pinky anyway.
“I vastly prefer the company of men.”
Steve laughed. “That’s not a big deal man. I prefer hanging out with dudes too.
“Harrington.” Eddie wasn’t smiling anymore. “I really like men.”
“Like I said, so do I.”
Eddie sighed and pinched his nose. “Listen carefully. You know how you like girls.”
Steve nodded.
“The way you like them, is how I like boys.”
Oh. “Oh.”
“Yeah.”
That was the second time in twenty-four hours someone had told him something like that.
“Cool.”
“That’s all you’re going to say?”
“Yeah. I’m tired, but I do have one question.”
“You can’t get AID’s from being around me.”
“I know, I’m not that stupid.” Steve said. “Why did you tell me? I mean, just a little bit ago, you we’re calling me King Steve. The King wasn’t a very nice person.”
“Yeah, that’s true. But you’re not the King anymore, right? You’re Just Steve. And Just Steve seems trustworthy, I guess.”
“Oh. Thanks, for trusting me.”
“Doesn’t happen often. Don’t make me regret it.”
“I won’t.”
After that they just laid there, watching the sky slowly change colors. Steve could make out Eddie better in the morning light, he looked tired, but relaxed as he watched the sunrise. He also became clearing himself, and was glad Eddie didn’t break their silence to question the blood on his sailor suit, or the obvious red gunk on the bat that sat a few feet away from them.
Eventually Eddie sat up and stretched. He combed out his hair and yawned. “I need to get back to my trailer. Uncle Wayne probably thinks I got murdered or something.”
Steve nodded and the two stood up. “I think I’m falling asleep anyway. I’m just going to carefully drive home and crash on my carpet.”
Eddie smirked. “Sounds like a good plan. Looking at you, I’m surprised you didn’t pass out while driving here.”
Neither of them made any move to leave. Eddie took a step closer to him, examining his face from inches away.
(It might have been the pure fatigue taking over, but Steve could have sworn Eddie’s eyes lingered on his lips a few times.)
Eddie leaned in and Steve could feel his breath against his ear. “It was nice to meet the real Steve Harrington. I hope he’s in control more often.”
Then he backed up and waved. “See you around Harrington! Don’t forget your weird Nail Bat.”
Steve just nodded and waved awkwardly. Eddie turned around to walk to his van, his steps steady as he walked away from Steve and soon out of his sight.
He bent down and grabbed the bat and walked back to his car.
After tucking it away in his trunk, Steve turned on the engine, and made his way back into town.
It was more peaceful than he’d ever seen, probably because he’d never seen it at six in the morning before. Barely anyone walking, and store’s just starting to open.
One store in particular caught his eye. Family Video, with a large ‘Help Wanted’ sign hung in the window.
Not his dream job, of course. But a job of his choice, and control.
“I need to call Robin later.” He muttered as he was grabbing around for a cassette.
He played the first one he grabbed, and smiled when Everybody Wants to Rule the World, came on.