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Eddie Munson was many things. He was 35 years old. He was tall, handsome in an unconventional way with his teased up curls and honey brown eyes. He was metal, but he was soft. He was the quintessential rags to riches story. He was a failure, but he was also a success. He was the lead singer and guitarist for world famous heavy metal band Corroded Coffin. He was also the main lyricist.
He had writer’s block.
He was losing faith in everything. He hadn’t written a single good song in over two years. The band was getting restless. The fans were getting judgy. Pop and grunge and r&b groups were putting out an album a year, sometimes more, but Corroded Coffin hadn’t released so much as a single in two.
His band was on the verge of breaking up and it was all his fault.
“I’m going home,” he told them one evening after tossing out idea after terrible idea. “Reset. Maybe I just need a change of scenery.” They agreed without fight and everyone went their separate ways. He could only hope it wasn’t the last time.
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Wayne met him in Indianapolis at the airport. He fell into his uncle’s arms and didn’t let go for a solid five minutes. He was tired. He was so so tired. Of everything.
Eddie was uncharacteristically quiet on the drive home, the drive to a house Eddie had never actually lived in, but was home anyway. Because it was where Wayne lived, the house Eddie had bought him after his first big advance. Wherever Wayne was would always be home.
Wayne didn’t say anything, but he kept looking over with concern. Eddie was rarely quiet. He collapsed into the spare bedroom, his room with all his stuff that Wayne set up when he moved, even though Eddie had never been back to it. He didn’t move for the rest of the day.
It was the middle of November. Eddie rambled around the house. He didn’t write a single thing.
It was Thanksgiving. Eddie rambled around the house. He didn’t write a single thing.
It was the start to a very chilly December. Eddie rambled around the house. He still hadn’t written a single thing.
“C’mon, son. Time to quit your moping. We’re going to get a Christmas tree.” Wayne said, dragging Eddie off the couch and pushing him towards the shower.
“But it’s only December 1st! It’s too early.”
“We need some cheer ‘round here. So we’re going.” Wayne countered. Eddie looked around. There were blankets and clothes all over the furniture. He’d left dishes piled on the coffee table. He didn’t even have the lights on, a dull grey din filtering through the living room windows.
“It’s Saturday. It’ll be crowded.” Wayne just glared at him.
“You ain’t done nothing but move from the bedroom to the living room to the kitchen and back again. Time to do something. So we’re going to decorate.” Eddie grumped about it, but he got in the shower anyway.
An hour later they were pulling up to a bustling Christmas tree lot in the middle of town. Lights were strung up around the perimeter fence and there were fresh cut wreaths and garland on every post. Trees of various sizes already in netting lined the entire fence and there were trees in stands in circular rows inside, a whole maze of them. There was a shiny new sign at the opening in the fence, hand painted by the looks of it.
Buckley-Wheeler Christmas Tree Farm Established 1987
Lot hours 11am-6pm Wed-Sun. Closed Monday and Tuesday
Cut your own by appointment only
It was, indeed, quite crowded. Families milled about with small children running between the trees. Men hemmed and hawed at every tree their wives picked out. Women measured twice before moving to something else. Somewhere a dog barked.
Wayne dragged him to a small shed in the middle of the lot. It was hidden in the center of the maze of trees. There were two women inside chatting. They looked about his age but he didn’t really remember them. They were familiar in the way most people his age were. He might have seen them around, but he didn’t know them.
“Ladies.” Wayne took off his ballcap and rubbed at his shaved head. He never was much of a people person.
“Mr. Munson! It’s so good to see you again!” the woman behind the table with a small cash register exclaimed. She stood and ran around the table to give him a hug. Eddie just blinked, not sure what he was witnessing. Wayne didn’t know anybody. Wayne didn’t do people.
“Hello, Eddie.” a quiet but confident voice said from behind the table. It was the other woman who had been sitting there.
“You know me?” he asked, glancing behind him to make sure she was talking to him. Of course she was, though. He might not feel it, but he was still famous.
“Of course I do. We all do. Who could forget your lunch table rants? Small town famous before you made it big.” He blinked at her. He had no idea who she was. She stepped forward and held out her hand. He shook it.
“I’m Nancy Wheeler. The woman talking your uncle’s ear off is my partner, Robin Buckley. We run the tree farm.”
“How do you know my uncle?” he asked. He didn’t mean to sound suspicious but it still came out that way. He’d been in LA too long.
“Wayne has done a lot of work around the farmhouse for us. He’s been a real angel since we took over the business.” She smiled fondly at Wayne and Eddie’s mind was blown. He didn’t know what to do with any of this information.
“And your young man always overpays me.” Wayne placed a gentle hand on Nancy’s shoulder and squeezed. “Now, can I pull one of you ladies away to help me ‘n Eddie find a tree?”
Robin practically bounced as she dragged them away. Eddie glanced back to see Nancy smiling at them, her eyes on Robin the whole way. He knew that look. Maybe they were partners in more than one sense of the word.
Robin rambled the entire walk through the tree lot. She talked about the different types of tree, how to keep it healthy through Christmas, what size was best based on the space she somehow knew they had, and even which trees grew best in which climate. He wasn’t sure she stopped long enough to take a breath. It should have been annoying. She made it endearing.
They were back towards the middle, with the 5-7 foot trees, and Eddie zoned out while Wayne listened intently. He looked around at the throngs of people. For the most part, they left him alone, though there were a few teenagers who gave him lingering stares, like they weren’t sure they were really seeing him. Across the empty space in front of the shed was a man, probably a farm hand. He was helping a woman with three little kids and the large, rounded belly that showed a fourth on the way. He had shoved a tree through the netting ring as if it was nothing and had it tied off and to the side in the blink of an eye.
Eddie watched as he chased the oldest kid around, picking him up and threatening to throw him through the net. The little boy squealed and wiggled while the second oldest clung to the man’s leg, demanding he let her brother go. The woman held the littlest one against her and smiled at the man. He winked at her like he knew her. Hawkins was small, though, Eddie had to remind himself. He probably did know her.
He put the kid down and picked up the wrapped tree, lugging it to the front where a minivan was parked. He tossed it on top like it was light as a feather and began to tie it down while the woman buckled kids into carseats. She tried to give him cash and he refused it, waving as she drove off. Eddie couldn’t stop watching him.
He wore a thin flannel shirt that pulled at his arms and chest as he moved. His jeans were rugged and dirty and he wore big brown boots. His hair danced around his face, something familiar about it he couldn’t quite place, in the gentle breeze. He was probably the most attractive man Eddie had ever seen. And Eddie lived in LA.
“Down, boy.” Wayne elbowed him in the stomach and Eddie tore his eyes away, back to his uncle and Robin. He cleared his throat and Robin chuckled at him with a knowing glance. At least he wasn’t about to get punched. The world was changing, but it wasn’t that different from when he was in high school. Not yet. Maybe one day.
“Steve!” Robin bellowed, calling the man over.
“Rob!” he yelled back. He sauntered, literally swaying his hips from side to side, as he made his way over to them. There could have been a nuclear bomb dropped and Eddie wouldn’t have noticed for staring at those hips.
Eddie’s eyes widened with sudden realization. She had called him Steve. He did know that man. Steve. Steve Harrington. King Steve “The Hair” Harrington. He was a year behind Eddie in school but everyone knew King Steve. He was unavoidable back then.
“Wayne! It’s so good to see you!” Steve exclaimed in a direct echo of what Robin had done earlier, right down to the enthusiastic hug. Now Eddie knew what Wayne meant by “your young man”. He was immediately identifiable as Robin’s perfect match.
“Can you help an old man with a tree?” Wayne asked. Steve laughed heartily. His eyes danced and his grin lit up his entire face. Oh Eddie was in DANGER.
“You aren’t that old, old man.” Eddie leaned in to whisper to his uncle as they walked towards the tree Wayne had picked out, Steve following close behind. “You’re only 58.” Wayne just winked at him and pointed to his tree. Steve stepped forward and assessed the tree, nodding. He grabbed it and hauled it toward the middle, toward the net ring, again lifting the hefty tree as if it were nothing.
They led Steve and the tree to Wayne’s truck, where Steve tied it down into the bed carefully. He took the handful of bills Wayne handed over and then tried to hand some back, claiming it was too much. Wayne refused.
“Do you need me to stop by later and get it set up?” Steve asked with a slight wheeze, finally showing a little effect of the effort of his manual labor. He wiped at his brow with his sleeve, leaving a little smudge of dirt on his forehead, looking as if it was artfully placed there intentionally, and it was so disgustingly charming. Too damn charming. Eddie wanted to stop staring.
He couldn’t stop staring.
Wayne glanced over at Eddie.
“I’ve got some young, strong arms here. I think he can manage. But maybe if you have some free time at some point you could help me with the lights on the house?” Steve flashed that hundred watt smile again.
“I’ll be there at 6:30.” Steve nodded, his hands on his hips, and turned to Eddie. “It was good to see you, Eddie. Glad you’re back in town.” It was the first time he’d spoken to Eddie at all. His smile went soft, shy almost, but he held Eddie’s eyes when he spoke.
“Yeah. Glad to be back.” Eddie winced internally. All the things he could say, and that’s what he went with? Steve raised his hand at his waist, just a little, in a small wave goodbye. He turned and walked away. Eddie just watched him go, admiring the view. Steve’s pants were far too tight and if Eddie wasn’t careful, his would be too.
Wayne cleared his throat from inside the truck and Eddie jumped. He blushed as he slid into the passenger seat and buckled his seatbelt.
“Not a word, old man.” Wayne just smiled and drove off.
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Steve was there at 6:30 on the dot. He helped Eddie climb on the roof and they hung strings of multicolored lights while Wayne directed them from below. He was surprisingly easy to talk to.
Steve was charming. Helpful. Friendly. Everything he wasn’t back in school. Eddie didn’t know what to do with it.
He invited Eddie to the farm on Monday to help with the preparation for the town’s Christmas festival. Wayne agreed for him. So Eddie went.
Steve was charming then, too. He showed Eddie around, gave him a tour of the land and all the trees. He showed him the house. They weren’t kidding when they said Wayne had done some work for them. Eddie could see his touch all over the place. It was in the remodeled walk-in pantry, the trim and the lighting in the living room, in the plumbing in the bathrooms.
Eddie was surprised to learn Steve lived there with Robin and Nancy, just the three of them. There were way more rooms set up than the three of them needed, especially since it was pretty obvious Robin and Nancy shared a room and Steve had converted the attic to be his bedroom. Some were generic guest rooms, but some were set up like kids lived there… science posters and trophies and dungeons and dragons books stacked next to old av equipment in one, old skateboards and girl band posters with comics scattered everywhere in another. Those rooms were dusty, though, time capsules that hadn’t been touched since the early 90s.
Steve didn’t offer an explanation. Eddie didn’t ask.
He showed up on Tuesday too.
He spent more time with Robin. She talked near constantly and he didn’t mind. She didn’t seem to care when he interrupted or talked over her and he didn’t mind when she did it to him. He could see himself being friends with these people.
And then he showed up at the tree lot on Wednesday. And Thursday. He helped price and net the trees. He helped set up wreaths. He took pictures with the teenagers that had been skulking around, finally getting the courage to ask if he was who they thought he was.
And then Eddie just kept going back. He took them out to dinner. He brought in hot chocolate when it was cold, ice water when it was unseasonably warm. He didn’t think 60 degrees was necessarily warm, but then, he’d spent the past seventeen years in California. He’d forgotten what winters in Indiana were like.
He still couldn’t write songs. He’d pick up his guitar and idly strum and nothing would come out. But he was starting to feel happy again. It was progress.
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It was early on Saturday the 15th. Far earlier than Eddie would have liked to be up, but Steve was a morning person and they had to get set up for the Christmas festival. Steve had asked for help. Wayne would have said yes for him if Eddie hadn’t agreed readily, powerless to say no to Steve Harrington and his effortless charm.
He was painting a few touch ups on the wooden train display that was set to stand near the line for Santa Claus. Robin was reinforcing the stands on the display, idly chatting away. Eddie had lost her train of thought.
“Steve’s not like he was in school,” he interrupted. Robin stopped hammering. She grew quiet. Eddie had never heard her quiet before. He looked at her over the top of the coal car. She wasn’t looking at him, staring down at the hammer in her hands instead.
“He’s not, no,” she finally said. She didn’t look up. Eddie waited. “Things really changed for him senior year. You left in 84 so you didn’t see. He and Nancy broke up and it was kind of messy.” Eddie raised his eyebrows and Robin finally noticed he was staring at her.
“Yeah, they dated for like a year before realizing they’re better friends than lovers.”
“And you’re cool with that? Just like… living with them? When they’re exes?” Eddie asked. Robin just frowned at him.
“It was over fifteen years ago, dude. Why would I care? He’s my best friend. The other half of me. Platonic soulmates. My hetero life partner. We’re ride or die. I trust them both with my life. I’m not worried.” He nodded. He couldn’t think of a response. He wished he was that strong, that secure.
“What happened?” he asked. She sighed and sat down. Eddie crawled around the plywood display to join her.
“She lost a good friend. She realized a few things.”
“She’s a lesbian?”
“Among other things.” Robin chuckled softly and nudged him.
“Did Steve? Realize some things?” He was fishing and he knew it. He knew she knew it, too.
Steve flirted with just about everyone that set foot on the tree lot, with every waitress in every restaurant, with every person they crossed on the street when they hung out. But he was spending all his time with Eddie. He touched Eddie, a hand on the shoulder or a bump of the hip, when he didn’t need to. It was Eddie he watched, Eddie he called to talk to late at night.
Eddie had fallen hard and fast, but he had no idea if Steve’s soft smiles and glances meant anything. And he was too afraid of rejection to ask.
“That’s not for me to say.” Robin finally responded, eying him warily. He held up his hands in acquiesce. It was as much an affirmative as it was a dismissal. He’d take it.
“It was really when his parents died. Middle of his senior year. Nancy broke up with him in November and then in January he finds out their plane went down. No survivors. He was the sole living relative. Inherited the entire Harrington fortune.” Eddie let out a whoosh of a breath. He didn’t know. Hadn’t known. How would he? He’d left town and it’s not like he’d been friends with any of these people before he’d graduated.
“I didn’t know.” Robin patted his arm.
“Yeah, well, he fell apart and then he pulled it all back together. Graduated high school. Stayed in town until Nance and I graduated. Then he asked what I wanted to do with my life. I said this. He bought the farm the very next day.”
“Wait. Steve owns the farm?” It was Robin and Nancy’s names on the sign. Their names on the business license. Their names on the house.
“Steve made everything happen. He kept the previous farm hands on for a few years, paid them double to stay and teach him everything they knew. He ran everything while I learned the business. Nancy graduated college, came home, and then she just… never left. We’re a package deal now.” Eddie hummed in the back of his throat. He wanted to be a package deal. Part of the group. One of the can’t haves without the others.
But he was a rockstar. A musician. His life was in LA. If he could ever pull himself together and start writing again.
He didn’t want to leave.
“He likes to take care of people. He has a good heart.” Robin broke him out of his head. She stood up and stared down at him. “If you break it, Nancy will kill you and I’ll hide the body.”
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It was December 23rd. Eddie hadn’t written a single thing. But he had spent every single day with Steve and Robin and Nancy. Every evening with just Steve. And all hours of the night on the phone. Steve was the first thing he thought of when he got up. He was the last person he spoke to before he fell asleep. They spoke every night.
“You’re coming to my Christmas Eve party tomorrow night, right? Most of the family’ll be there.” Steve whispered sleepily. Eddie could hear the smile in his voice, could picture him laying in his own bed, eyes lidded, half asleep. He glanced at the clock in his bedroom. It wasn’t midnight yet. Still the 23rd. Still tomorrow.
“Wouldn’t miss it, sweetheart.”
Eddie was long past needing Wayne to say yes for him.
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Eddie and Wayne were fashionably late. The long driveway to the farm house was filled with cars. The house was lit up from top to bottom and he could hear music and chatter through the open door. It was cold, bitingly so, and he could smell snow in the air.
They walked in and looked around. The house was packed full. People were running in and out of the kitchen. An older couple sat on the couch chatting with another older woman and a teenager who looked like she’d rather be anywhere else. Wayne grabbed them both drinks and immediately abandoned Eddie for the couple on the couch.
“You made it!” Robin launched herself at his back and he had to scramble to catch her without dropping his drink.
“I have no idea who any of these people are!” He practically had to yell over the noise. Robin wiggled her way around to his front. She started pointing at people.
“That’s Nancy’s brother Mike and his boyfriend Will.” She pointed at a couple sitting at the bottom of the stairs watching them.
He recognized Will immediately. He wrote the bestselling fantasy horror series An Academic Study of Monsters of the Upside Down. It was six books in and Eddie hadn’t been able to get enough, reading and re-reading them. He wrote under the pen name Pendragon, but Eddie would know him anywhere. Will looked at him with just as much awe, both a little starstruck at the other.
He learned that the guy in the living room taking pictures of the tree was Will’s older brother Jonathan, also Nancy’s ex apparently, and he worked for a small magazine in California. The fashionable man standing with him was his partner Argyle, owner of a west coast famous pizza chain Eddie had never eaten at.
The couple on the couch with Wayne were Joyce and Jim Hopper, Will and Jonathan’s mother and stepfather. He remembered Jim Hopper. He used to be chief of police and the barrel of a man had always scared him. He had to remind himself he didn’t sell pot anymore. He had nothing to be worried about. Robin pointed out Jim’s daughter, Jane, a preschool teacher apparently, talking with a rather tall young man she identified as Lucas. A computer programmer.
The woman talking to the couple on the couch was Nancy’s mom and the teenager was her younger sister Holly, home from her second year at college. There was another young woman, half asleep on the couch, that Robin pointed out as Erica, sister to Lucas, wife to Dustin, whoever Dustin was, and a powerhouse in her own right so he better not ever think of her as anything other than herself, never as how she relates to the others.
“Which one is Dustin?” he asked, looking around. He had a name for every face so far, but there was a lot of noise in the kitchen so many he was back there with Nancy.
“He’s not here yet. He’s actually picking up a present for Steve. He’ll be here soon.” He had no idea how any of them related to Steve. He had only halfway followed how they all related to each other.
He didn’t see Steve.
He didn’t even get a chance to ask where Steve was when he came dancing out of the kitchen. He had a soft yellow sweater on, a white rag thrown over his shoulder, and a baby on his chest. The baby was the spitting image of Erica, so Eddie knew it wasn’t Steve’s, but the sight of him dancing with this tiny little human did something to Eddie he wasn’t ready to examine.
Steve bounced the baby and sang softly to her, gently cradling her tiny black curls, his whole hand covering the back of her tiny little head. Eddie was going to go feral. Steve being gentle. Steve being a caregiver. Steve holding a baby. Eddie wanted to tear Steve’s clothes off and ravage him right there in the living room. He was losing his goddamn mind.
Headlights beamed into the house as a car came careening up the driveway. It stopped with a squeal of the brakes. Robin practically screamed in his ear and pulled him back into the doorway to the dining room. Car doors slammed. Another young man, “Dustin” Robin yelled in Eddie’s ear, came charging into the room with two large suitcases in hand. He dropped the bags and made a beeline for Steve.
“Gimme my daughter, heathen! You’ll corrupt her with your sports nonsense.” He took the baby from Steve, despite Steve’s protests that he was just getting her to sleep, and stepped aside with a sly grin. He nodded towards the door and Eddie turned to look, a heartbeat of a second after Steve did, the whisper of a name in his ear.
Max.
There was a young woman standing there. She had long, wavy red hair. Freckles all over her face. The bluest eyes Eddie had ever seen. She was short and slim, bundled up in the brightest green. She was, in a word, stunning.
And she was staring at Steve with tears in her eyes. And Steve was staring back like he’d just seen a ghost.
Nobody said anything. Not a word. The chatter stopped immediately and only Nat King Cole on the record player kept the silence at bay.
Max took a step forward. She shuddered with a sob and suddenly she was in Steve’s arms. He’d crossed the room and gathered her close to him. They were both crying. Steve picked her up, spun her in circles, put her down. He pulled back and pulled her right up against him again. Max was sobbing. Steve had tears freely streaming down his face as he took shuddering breath after shuddering breath, her name a whispered with each shake. He leaned back enough to gently cup her face, his eyes roaming like he couldn’t believe she was real, laughing in delight. She laughed right back and held him tight.
Oh.
Shit.
This was. He didn’t know who this was. But this was not just a family friend. This wasn’t just a kid he used to babysit. This woman was clearly something else. Something more.
Eddie’s heart shattered in his chest. He couldn’t breathe. He had thought… it didn’t matter what he had thought. Clearly he’d been wrong. He shoved his drink into Robin, still standing somewhere behind him, and slid out the front door.
He didn’t hear Robin call his name. He didn’t hear the door slam behind him. He was halfway down the driveway when he realized Wayne had the keys. That was fine. He could walk home. He needed the air.
“EDDIE! Eddie, wait!” He did hear that. He heard the pounding feet behind him. He stopped but he couldn’t bring himself to turn around.
“Where are you going?” a tearful voice asked. He sniffled, rubbed at his eyes. He wouldn’t let Steve see him crying. He was stupid to think it had mattered anyway.
“I’m just… I think there’s been a misunderstanding. I’m going home.” He looked up at the dark sky. The frozen ground. The trees in the fields beyond the house. Anything but at Steve.
God how had he been so stupid? He should know better. There were a million reasons he left Hawkins in 1984. Reasons why he ran the day after graduation. The lack of gay people was only one of them. Being here with Steve, with Robin and Nancy, with Wayne, he’d forgotten all those reasons. He remembered now. He wouldn’t forget them again.
“What happened? You just got here. I wanted… I wanted everyone to meet you.” Steve hadn’t even bothered with a coat. He was standing there, lost and confused, in just his jeans and sweater.
“Look. I misread the situation, okay? You’ve got your… person. You should go be with her. I’m sorry I wasted your time.” He spit the words right at Steve with a cruel venom he hadn’t seen in himself since he left LA. Eddie watched a whole range of emotions flit across Steve’s face, from confusion to anger to sadness to confusion again.
“I don’t… I’ve got… She's my sister!" Steve cried out. Eddie's eyes narrowed. He remembered high school. And Robin had said it… he was the sole living relative. King Steve was an only child.
"I haven't seen her in three years. She was in New Zealand working on a contract. She's a special effects artist. They wouldn't let… she couldn’t come home until it was over. I didn't know she was coming home today! Eddie, please. She’s my sister." He was near tears again.
"You didn’t have a sister before." It wasn't at all what Eddie wanted to say. It was the only thing he could say.
"You graduated and left, man. You weren't around for my senior year. You didn't see… I fell apart. For awhile there. Things were hard. But I ended up getting to know these half feral kids. Kind of adopted them? You met a bunch of them in there already.” Steve nodded back towards the house. “There were two though… Dustin and Max. I took them in when they had nowhere else to go. They're my brother and sister in everything but blood. They needed a family. They needed ME. Max especially. But I think… I think maybe I needed them more. They're family. The only one I’ve got, really." Steve was rambling. He could see the desperation in his eyes, desperate to make him understand.
It clicked, then. Family didn’t have to be blood. Found family. Saving someone and being saved in return.
"Oh. Oh!" Eddie's eyes went wide. He got it. She was his sister. Steve nodded, hope in his eyes. "So it’s not… you’re sing…you don't have anyone special?" Steve stepped forward, into Eddie’s personal space. He could see the tear tracks on his cheeks.
It had started to snow at some point during the drama. Heavy flakes collected in Steve’s hair, on his lashes. He didn’t even try to shake them off, just looked at Eddie with hope and fear in his eyes.
"I do. I have you. You're special to me, Eds. And I'm yours, if you'll have me."
Eddie cupped Steve's face in his hands, a mirror to the move Steve had done on Max. A million words flew through his brain, poetic and lyrical. He could say them all and still not say enough.
He said none of them.
He leaned in and kissed Steve instead.
The reaction was immediate. Steve surged into him, wrapped his arms around Eddie's waist. Underneath his coat, as close to skin as possible. He kissed back with enthusiasm. With certainty and a wealth of experience. He kissed like he was drowning and Eddie was his oxygen.
Music sang in Eddie's head. Entire symphonies composed in seconds. His writer's block was definitely cured. If he didn’t have a band to go back to after this, he had a promising solo career ahead of him. He’d be happy either way.
So long as he had Steve.