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panic tastes like metal but safety smells like him by Darebear_21
Fandoms: Stranger Things (TV 2016), Stranger Things RPF
24 Dec 2025
Tags
Summary
Panic tastes like metal.
It's thick and suffocating.
It lives in Steve’s mouth, his lungs, his memories—cold Russian steel, demo-bats, red lightning and hands that had beaten him relentlessly. The nightmare don’t stay in the past. This trauma follows him, making him wake into breathless fear and a body that forgets how to breath.
But safety smells like Billy.
Who's carries the heat of the California sun and who holds him with steady hands through the worst of it. And coaxes air back into his lung with patience and quiet praise, all while Eddie sleeps beside them, heavily medicated, bandaged, healing, and breathing.
And when the morning comes, the proof of their warmth and love will always chase away the cold of the Upside Down and the fear of its darkness taking those he cares about with it.
——
(Also Billy calling Steve every pet name he can.)
Series
- Part 3 of Where Broken Boys Are Held