Chapter Text
It was an average day in Hawkins Indiana.
This didn’t really mean much, seeing as an average day could involve magnets going haywire, Russian bases underneath local malls and supernatural serial killers.
So excuse Steve if he was on edge even on an average day. It didn’t help being in a large empty house in the middle of the woods. And finding the exsanguinated bodies (thank you Robin for that fun new phrase) of wildlife on his front porch and the hood of his car did not make it any easier.
Robin had offered her couch to crash on after the third dead squirrel showed up. He had turned her down because while they were platonic soulmates and all, he still had an active dating life and he needed privacy for that.
“Maybe a feral cat has taken a liking to you.” Dustin had suggested at one point. “Mews used to bring my mom dead birds and stuff all the time.”
Steve snorted at that. “Yeah, I don’t think a cat could take down a full grown raccoon.” Besides, he hadn’t seen anything like a cat around the house. In fact, he hadn’t seen or heard any wildlife since the bodies had started to show up. Well, except for bats that he would glimpse flying from the trees as the sun was almost gone, leaving him with chills and aches in his scars.
Nancy had brought up the possibility of a stalker and offered one of her guns. Steve had quickly turned that down as well. But his bat full of nails and an ax lived comfortably under his bed.
It had come to a head when he brought a nice girl home. Her name was… Edith? Evelyn? Emily? Something with an E. And while she wasn’t the most mentally stimulating, they definitely hit it off sexually. They had moved on from heavy petting to stripping for a bit of skinny dipping, giggling into kisses as they tried to reach the pool without letting go of each other, shedding clothing like a trail of breadcrumbs.
Her leg caught on something and they both went tumbling down to the pool deck. He did his best to twist them, to spare her the brunt of the fall, but they both ended up stunned and panting for air.
“What the fu-“ they looked down at what they had tripped over, and the-girl-with-e-in-her-name screamed at the sight. A deer, a whole ass deer with its stomach torn wide open sat bleeding into the pool, turning the water a ghastly pink.
Out of the corner of his eye he spotted movement, the shape of a figure shifting in the tree line. “Fuck this.” He grunted and stood, careful not to step in the viscera as he moved. Grabbing the closest weapon, a pool skimmer hanging on the fence, he marched towards the forest. “Stay here” he called without looking back, moving to face whatever fucker had been harassing him.
He should have maybe called in some help, he realized a little too late. Robin, maybe Hopper, hell even Nancy or Jonathan would have been good to have his back. Hindsight was 20/20 and all that.
He thought this as his back hit a tree, knocking the wind out of him and making his vision swim. The skimmer fell to the forest floor and he gasped out both from the returning ability to breathe and the sense of strange déjà vu that settled in him at what he saw and felt.
Large, frightened brown eyes and something sharp at his neck.
Eddie.
He looked so very different now, his hair matted and tangled with bits of what appeared to be the Upside Down to the point it reeked of death and decay, the angry scars pulling at his pale skin visible under the dirty and torn clothing. Whatever had happened since Vecna had not been kind to him. But then there was the fangs and the ears and the wings.
Sharp canines showing under his snarl, delicate but sharp points peeking out under his mat of hair, and large, pitch black leathery wings stretched behind him. Oh, and there wasn’t a broken bottle against his neck, but sharp claws.
But the fear, the terror in his eyes was exactly the same. He didn’t want to hurt Steve, he wanted to protect himself.
“Eddie.” He finally said, surprise clear in his voice. The single word, the name, seemed to hit the other man like a slap and he jumped back. His wings folded behind his back and he crouched as if to make himself smaller, less of a threat.
They were locked in a strange sort of staring contest, unmoving as they waited for the other to decide what to do. So Steve moved first. “Eddie,” he said again, softer, and took a slow step forward.
Eddie snarled, a frightened warning as he crouched lower. “Hey man, it’s me, Steve.” He continued, undeterred as he took another step. Eddie didn’t try to move away, though he continued to growl.
He kept his voice low, his body as relaxed as he could, like he was approaching a stray, trying to convince it he meant no harm. “You look like shit, man. Let’s… uh… let’s go back to my place and get you cleaned up, hm?”
It could have taken minutes or hours, but Steve didn’t care. He kept slowly making his way towards Eddie, until he was knelt right in front of him, close enough to touch. “I have some bagel bites in the freezer. You must be hungry. C’mon-“
He had reached to put a hand on Eddie’s shoulder and in the next moment he was pulled into a crushing hug. He let out a surprised sound that definitely wasn’t a squeak but soon melted into the embrace. Could you blame him? Dirty and scared and changed, Eddie was alive.