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Steve leaned heavy against the rough tree trunk, nearly dozing off, the dappled sunlight kissing his eyelids. He could hear the kids nearby at the picnic table, arguing over their stats and characters and whatever else goes into their little game.
Eddie had joined him under the tree after he decided he wasn’t needed, the kids were just messing around with their characters he’d told Steve. He’d sighed, rolling up his long sleeves and pulling his hair into a loose bun. Steve could smell the thick layer of coconut scented sunscreen Eddie wore over any bare skin, a tropical vacation Eddie could never go on.
Eddie had his acoustic guitar and notebook out and his gentle strumming was making Steve’s head feel heavy, his chin hitting his chest before popping back up. The sound of Eddie’s low voice brought Steve closer to the surface right before another wave a cotton thick sleep tried to pull him back under.
“Once, I had an empire in a golden age
I was held up so high, I used to be great
They used to cheer when they saw my face
Now, I fear I have fallen from grace”
Eddie paused to scratch something out in the notebook. Steve had heard so many stories about Eddie’s centuries on Earth over the previous eight months since they defeated Vecna, but this wasn’t one Steve had heard yet.
He wondered if it was a story from Eddie’s past; not all of Eddie’s songs were based on his memories, though many were, especially after they had begun keeping diaries, preserving their pasts. Steve saw it in Eddie’s eyes, long forgotten memories floating to the surface, needing to be released and shared to lessen their weight and his heart.
“Power went to my head and I couldn't stop
Ones I loved tried to help, so I ran them off
And here I sit alone behind walls of regret
Falling down like promises that I never kept”
Eddie stopped, bending over to write, cross things out, and write some more, while dread pierced Steve’s chest, sinking slow and heavy into his belly. He hoped the song was fiction, but the regret seeping into Eddie’s low, melodic voice told him every word was terribly true.
Eddie told him that after the last of his family died, he left all he had known in their villages behind, struck off on his own. Steve noticed how he’d brush over details of those first decades on his own, during his travels across Europe.
Steve had started thinking of Eddie’s past as Pre-Wayne and After-Wayne. All his stories before Wayne took him in were soft and idyllic, painting the English countryside as the perfect life, though Steve knew from the history books that it certainly wasn’t. And then his stories picked up decades later when he was living with Wayne in a small house in the thick forests of the south of France.
He was starting to get an idea of what happened in between. Steve rolled his head towards Eddie, the tree bark biting into his scalp, and watched through his lashes as Eddie picked his guitar back up.
“My foes and friends watch my reign end
I don't know how it could've ended this way
Smoke billows from my ships in the harbor”
Steve could picture it perfectly, wishing he could go back in time just to hold him.
People look at me like I'm a monster
Now they're screamin' at the palace front gates
Used to chant my name
Now they're screaming that they hate me
Never wanted you to hate me
A tear escaped his lashes, running down the curve of his cheek, finding a home on his collarbone. He closed his eyes and listened.