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Eddie learns the hard way that when people think you’re a devil worshiper and the whole town gets ripped apart like the very gates of Hell have opened and you nearly die in the process, the town tends to think that you had something to do with it all.
His torso got nearly ripped apart by the Demobats as he helped save Hawkins, but when he finally got out of the hospital (his name having been cleared by a government cover-up he still didn’t entirely understand), Eddie was still treated like the town pariah. His van tires were slashed so many times that Eddie gave up driving it, choosing to walk or get a ride when he dared to leave his trailer. Not that staying in his trailer was very comfortable. It got vandalized even more than the van did. Eddie didn’t even bother calling the cops about it anymore; he barely noticed it.
Which is why it is so surprising to leave his trailer and see Harrington, who is parked across the street at Red’s, checking on her now that she was finally out of her coma and home from the hospital, with his hands on his hips, glaring at the words spray-painted on the walls of Eddie’s trailer.
“Munson, what the hell?” Harrington grinds out through gritted teeth.
Eddie shrugs and lights a cigarette, surveying the words. “I didn’t write it.”
In three-foot-high letters, ‘SANTA WORSHIPPER’ is scrawled across the trailer. Eddie had heard the culprits arguing over the spelling in the middle of the night. They weren’t throwing anything, so he didn’t bother going out to stop them, though it had been hard not to correct their spelling choice.
“I don’t even like Christmas," Eddie sighs theatrically. Most people would have at least given him a courtesy giggle at that. Harrington only glares.
“Does this happen a lot?”
“No,” Eddie shrugs. “They usually spell Satan right.”
Harrington pinches the space between his brows and sighs. “That’s it, go pack you shit. Is your uncle home? He needs to pack too.”
“Uh-” Eddie stares at him, unsure of what he’s smoking. “Pack for what?”
“You can’t live here if you’re getting vandalized like this. You were cleared of all charges! You didn’t even do anything!” Harrington shouts like he wants the people surely eavesdropping in the nearby trailers to hear him.
“Where do you expect us to go, dude?” Eddie scoffs. “Whole town is in lockdown. Kind of got limited options.”
“My place,” Harrington shoots back immediately, his hands on his hips in what Henderson has dubbed his babysitter stance. “I’ve got the room. My parents weren’t in Hawkins when the quarantine started. It's just me there.”
“You want the town pariah to live with you?” Eddie scoffs again, waiting for the other shoe to drop. He knows Harrington is no longer the douche he was in high school. And honestly, he was never that big of a douche to Eddie; he just didn’t step in when Hagan was being a dick. Not that Eddie needed him to; he could fight his own battles.
“No,” Harrington grinds out between his teeth like Eddie is being difficult on purpose. Which, yeah, of course he is. “I want my friend Eddie to live with me so his place stops getting vandalized.”
“Oh, we’re friends now? Are we going to make matching friendship bracelets?” Eddie quips but continues before Harrington can answer. “They’ll still trash the place if we don’t live here. Probably trash it more.”
Harrington hesitates like he doesn’t have an answer to that. Eddie takes a long drag on his cigarette and looks him over. “Why do you really want us to live with you?”
Harrington pauses for a long moment like he doesn’t know what to say before dropping his hands from his hips and staring at Eddie, defeated. “It's a big house. I don’t want to be there alone.”
Eddie has never seen the other man look so vulnerable, even when he was half naked while fighting supernatural creatures in the Upside Down. Eddie considers teasing him but brushes it off as soon as the thought comes. He takes a final drag of his cigarette and grinds it out on the stair beneath his boot. “Well, if we’re doing you a favor, can’t say no to that. I’ll tell Wayne to pack.”
They move into Harrington’s mansion that afternoon, Wayne in the guest room on the ground floor and Eddie in the guest room across from Harrington’s room. (“Of course your highness has two guest rooms,” Eddie says with an eye roll that has Harrington blushing.) Eddie doesn’t want to admit it, but it's nice being at the Harringtons’ house. Not just for the bigger space and the pool, but no one dares vandalize the Harringtons' place. No one calls their phone with death threats. Hell, being taken in under Harrington’s wing even gets Eddie fewer glares and yells in public.
As the months pass, sometime along the way Harrington becomes Steve. Becomes Eddie’s friend. And despite what Eddie tells his traitorous heart and libido, Eddie wants Steve to become something more.
***
Life with Hawkins under quarantine functions much like life before. The teachers at Hawkins High took pity on Eddie being so badly hurt in the ‘earthquakes’ they let him finish his schoolwork in the hospital, so it turned out 86 was his year after all, and he finally got his diploma even if he didn’t get to walk across the stage. Eddie is pretty sure they just didn’t want a ‘devil worshipper’ corrupting the fresh kiddies, but whatever. He was done with school.
Corroded Coffin plays every Tuesday at the Hideout to the same few drunks. Hellfire, functioning with their same name because fuck everyone else, continues playing D&D, now with Will the Wise and often Lady Applejack. It turns out that Baby Byers is not just a kickass D&D player, but he also has superpowers-somehow able to sense the Upside Down shit before it starts.
Eddie continues selling weed until it runs out, selling what was left of Reefer Rick’s stash and then buying out Argyle’s supply that he’d brought with him from California (which was admittedly better than anything Eddie ever got from Rick) and selling that for a much higher profit. Maybe it is a bad idea to sell drugs under the military’s nose, but Eddie is betting that they have more important things to focus on.
Steve’s house is the unofficial meet-up spot; there’s usually a kid or three there doing homework. Robin is nearly always there, and the first time Eddie walked in on her and Steve cuddling on the couch, he was surprised by the hot spike of jealousy he felt.
“Sorry,” he says stiffly, turning to leave the room. “Didn’t mean to interrupt.”
“What?” Robin asks, lifting her head from Steve’s shoulder. It is only then that Eddie realizes she had been asleep on Steve, not kissing his neck like he thought.
Still, seeing them cuddled up together is doing something to his insides that Eddie doesn’t feel like thinking about for too long.
“Watch the movie with us, Eds?” Steve asks, looking at him hopefully.
Eddie is about to say no when Robin sighs and squints at the TV where The Breakfast Club is playing.
“God, Molly Ringwald is so hot.”
The words come out before Robin seems to fully comprehend them. Once she realizes what she said, Robin freezes. Steve freezes too, his eyes darting between Eddie and Robin in concern. Eddie’s brows raise, and he looks back at the screen.
“I don’t know,” he muses, “Judd Nelson is way more my type.”
Eddie isn’t not out, but he’s also not out out. Wayne knows, his bandmates know, and he doesn’t exactly hide it, but it never stops feeling scary. Robin grins at him in a mix of relief and solidarity, and Steve just nods thoughtfully, which is wild. Eddie isn’t sure why, but he had always thought Steve wouldn’t be okay with gay people, let alone being secure enough to nod at the idea of another man being attractive. Knowing he might regret this, Eddie sits on the other side of Steve, tucking a throw pillow against his chest, trying to pretend his heart is racing from the thrill of coming out to two more people and not because Steve's arm is pressed against his.
***
Knowing that Robin likes girls makes it easier for Eddie to finally understand her and Steve’s relationship. He thought they just liked the whole ‘will they/won’t they’ dynamic. Those two codependents left Family Video to get a job at the local radio station, somehow coming up with the idea to use the station as a cover-up for their work on the Upside Down. They then went on to decide to not just get Nancy and Jonathan jobs there, but Eddie too.
(“A job?” Eddie scoffed at Steve when he told him. “I have a job.”
“What are you going to sell when the weed runs out, Munson?” Steve sighed, hands on his hips. “Shouldn’t you have a backup by now?”
“Can’t I just go work at the pizza place with Argyle?” Eddie asked. Argyle was taking not being able to leave the quarantine zone much better than Eddie was, and Eddie had lived in Hawkins before it happened. Oh wait, maybe that was why he was taking it better.)
Eddie still isn’t sure how he lost that argument, but he likes working at the Squawk well enough. He likes picking songs for Robin, especially when he is picking them to make a code for their crawls. He had always wanted to work in music. This was something close to that.
Working with Steve proves to be difficult. Not because he didn’t like Steve, but because he liked Steve. He lived with Steve. He worked with Steve. Hell, he got a ride to and from work with Steve!
Eddie spent more time with Steve than apart these days. It made it hard to ignore his crush which he finally allowed himself to admit was the cause of the rumbles in his chest he gets every time Steve smiles at him.
They use the basement of the Squawk for headquarters, and Eddie realizes quickly that Syeve always tenses up while they’re down there. He is the first one up the stairs the second that the meeting is over. Eddie teases him about it once, but the haunted look in Steve’s eyes keeps him from bringing it up again.
***
The group is in the basement of the Squawk planning out the next crawl. Eddie shifts restlessly and tries to focus. The crawls just feel so futile. They have been over every inch of the Upside Down. If Vecna is there, shouldn’t they have found him by now?
Nancy and Hopper are arguing over something, and Eddie lets his head drop back against the wall with a sigh. This could take a while.
Learning Hopper was alive was weirder than any of the Upside Down shit, honestly. He decided to keep pretending to be dead, functioning in the shadows and living in his abandoned cabin to keep the military from noticing him and functioning under the radar. At least Supergirl wasn’t wanted by the military anymore. Whatever Owens did for her kept her legally as Jane Hopper. She was nervous around the military, didn’t go anywhere other than school and their houses, but at least it was better than her life before, as Eddie understood it.
“You think they’d stop arguing like this before every crawl,” Steve sighs, shifting against the wall they are both leaning against so that his arm brushes Eddie’s.
Eddie waits for him to pull away but he doesn't and Eddie can feel the warmth of him through his jacket.
“Right?” he whispers, his fingers twitching as he is hit by the sudden urge for a cigarette. “Think it's cause she’s his future daughter-in-law?”
Briefly Eddie wonders if he shouldn’t make jokes like that with Steve since Nancy is his ex-girlfriend but Steve lets out a soft chuckle and nudges Eddie’s arm.
“I think you’ve cracked the case,” Steve whispers.
“Was that a Sherlock Holmes reference? You spend too much time with Henderson.”
“Maybe I need someone else to spend my time with then,” Steve whispers. Eddie looks over at him in surprise. Maybe he was crazy or just too hopeful because that felt like flirting. And the way Steve is looking at him through his eyelashes…hell if Eddie didn’t know better he would think he was being hit on right now.
He swallows hard and whispers back, “Yeah. Maybe you do.”
Steve opens his mouth but before he can say anything his mouth shuts with a snap and a look of horror passes over his face. Eddie looks at him in concern, following his line of sight in time to see Will and El looking over their shoulders in surprise. It's a bit creepy, if Eddie’s being honest, the way they move in sync, the mirrored expressions of confusion on their faces as they stare at the wall.
No, not the wall. The dead phone on the desk by the wall, shoved in the corner and forgotten since they cut the wires so it couldn’t be bugged and traced back to them.
“What’s wrong?” Hopper asks, turning from his argument with Nancy, crossing his arms over his chest and frowning at his kids in a look of parental concern Eddie never once saw on his own father’s face.
“The phone,” El says slowly. “It is ringing.”
“That phone?” Mike asks, pointing at it like there was another phone hidden in the basement. “It’s dead.”
“It is ringing,” El insists.
“That’s impossible,” Lucas says, though he doesn’t sound very sure about it.
“After everything we’ve seen, aren’t you used to impossible by now?” Will asks, taking three short steps to the phone and lifting it from the receiver.
Beside him, Steve sucks in a short gasp of breath, and Eddie is suddenly overcome with the urge to snatch the phone from baby Byer’s hand and hang it up, certain that a demon or a monster or worse is going to reach through the receiver and grab him.
Nothing happens.
Will shrugs and goes to place the phone back on the cradle. “There’s nothing there.”
“See, I told you it’s dead.” Mike shrugs, looking a bit too relieved to have not been expecting something to have happened.
El grabs the phone from Will’s hand before he can hang it up, and Eddie twists a strand of his hair around his finger, nervously biting on the end.
El frowns, “There is static.” Her brow furrows, and from the corner of his eye, Eddie sees Steve shift like his overprotective self is going to fight whatever is on the other end of the phone Eddie is beginning to suspect is not dead. Honestly, Eddie has seen how protective Steve is of these kids. He might not ever win a fight, but he’d sure throw himself into one if he thought it’d help them. Eddie wants to tell him to calm down, that it's just some weird electricity thing or something, but he doesn’t believe the words himself, and he doesn’t want to draw anyone’s attention to Steve’s panic.
“Can you hear anything else?” Joyce asks nervously.
El closes her eyes like it will help her listen harder and shakes her head. “Just static.”
She places the phone back on the cradle, and Eddie lets out a sigh of relief, his shoulders dropping from where they’d been huddled near his ears.
His breath hasn’t even left his chest before Will and El both let out a cry and slap their hands over their ears.
“What is it?” Hopper demands, placing his hands on El’s shoulders as his eyes frantically scan her for signs of injury. “What’s wrong?”
Joyce is patting down baby Byers, glancing around the room, looking for whatever foe is attacking them. Eddie’s mouth is dry, his hair tickling his lips as he twists it tight enough to cut the circulation off in his finger.
He seems to be the only one who noticed that the Wonder Twins weren’t the only two who reacted when the phone apparently started ringing.
“It’s so loud!” Will cries, pressing his hands tighter against his ears as he yells, presumably so they can hear him over the phone that isn’t ringing, at least not to Eddie’s ears. “You can’t hear that?”
Joyce shakes her head. “No, baby. Should we unplug it?” She looks at Hopper desperately.
“It is unplugged,” Max says, holding up the cut phone cord in case anyone doubts her.
“You flinched.” There is something in Dustin’s voice Eddie hasn’t heard outside of a D&D campaign. He looks over at Dustin to see him staring at Steve in confusion and accusation. Damnit. Eddie wasn’t going to point it out, but it seems Henderson has no such qualms. “Steve. You flinched when they did.”
Steve ignores him, and Eddie notices the tightness around his eyes and the tense set of his shoulders. His arms are crossed tightly against his chest. Eddie had thought it was because he was holding himself back because he didn’t have a foe to swing his nail bat at, but now Eddie wonders if he is holding himself so tightly because he doesn’t want to reach up to cover his ears.
“Steve, can you hear the phone?” Robin asks, her voice barely a whisper from across the room as she stares at her best friend in shock. Eddie can barely hear her, so it doesn’t surprise him when Steve doesn’t look her way. He probably can’t hear her over the ringing that has El whimpering and baby Byers bending at the knees.
“Take the phone off the hook!” Jonathan snaps at the room at large as he places a comforting hand on Will’s back.
El turns to the phone, removes one hand from her ear with a flinch, and stretches her hand to the receiver like she plans to use her powers to crush the phone or something, which would be cool. Eddie loves seeing her powers. Before anything superhero happens, though, El’s shoulders slump, the sound clearly gone as Will drops his hands from his ears and straightens with a sigh. Eddie swallows in relief, which is short-lived as he looks at Steve, whose expression is carefully blank as he lifts the dead receiver to his ear.
“What,” Steve says into the phone, his voice flat, no intonation. It is not a question. It reminds Eddie of King Steve stalking the halls of Hawkins High, looking down his nose at anyone who dared look at him in a way he didn’t like.
El and Will are relaxed, no sign of their earlier discomfort to be seen. Eddie assumes that means the phone isn’t ringing anymore now that Steve has answered it. Makes sense; that's how normal phone calls work, but nothing about this is screaming ‘normal’.
“Uh, Steve-” Lucas hesitantly begins. “That phone doesn’t work.”
“Who has who?” Steve asks, his brow furrowing as he ignores Lucas. Eddie can’t take his eyes off him, but in his peripheral vision he notices everyone in the room staring at Steve in shock and confusion. Steve must notice this at the same time because he flushes and turns his back on the group, huddling the receiver closer to his ear.
“Steve…”Robin says softly. “Who are you talking to?”
Steve waves her off, tucking the phone tighter against his ear. Eddie takes a small step closer, sees the white knuckles on Steve’s hand clutching the phone.
“I don’t know who you’re-Billy, slow down!” Steve says in exasperation.
“Billy?” Max gasps, gripping the edge of the desk and leaning into Steve’s space. “Did you say, Billy?”
“Holy shit, is Steve talking to a ghost?” Mike whispers.
“Ghosts aren’t real,” Nancy says, but the hesitation in her voice says she’s willing to believe they are. They’ve seen even freakier shit than Eddie has, and he has no problem believing there’s a ghost on the other end of that line. Surely none of them won’t be able to believe it either. They’ve fought literal monsters and been in other dimensions. Ghosts on the phone lines are nothing compared to that. Eddie is a little surprised that it's Steve who can hear them, but that’s just some of his old King Steve judgment.
Steve flinches and shakes his head at Max. “Paperboy! Paperboy, sorry I-” Steve sighs and runs a hand down his face as Max slumps against the wall like a marionette with its strings cut as she learns whoever Steve is talking to isn’t her douche of a stepbrother. Personally, Eddie wouldn't have been in a big hurry to talk to Hargrove, but hey, to each their own. He knows Max is carrying a bunch of guilt she shouldn’t be over Billy’s death.
But still, Paperboy? Eddie furrows his brow and exchanges a look of confusion with Mike, the only other person not staring at Steve like they’ve never seen him before. What the hell kind of name is that?
“It's been a long time,” Steve sighs. “Why are you calling me now?”
There’s a pause while Steve apparently waits for an answer from the ghost, but all Eddie can hear is Steve’s words running on repeat: It’s been a long time. Has this happened before? Has Harrington heard ghosts before? Damnit just when Eddie was thinking he could get his crush under control, Steve had to turn into some hot ghost medium.
“I don’t know who you’re…El doesn’t have a sister.”
Steve’s words cause an instant reaction.
“What? Don’t talk to the ghosts or whatever shit that is about El!” Mike cries defensively, picking up a cup like he plans to throw it at Steve. Dustin grabs his arm to stop him before he can, which is good because Eddie has seen Mike throw enough times to know that cup wouldn’t have hit his desired target.
Hopper glares at Steve, trying to tuck El against his chest, but she won’t let him. She is staring at Steve with something like awe, but it is hard to see with the worry on her face. She shoves Hopper’s arms off her and goes to stand next to Steve on the side he has the phone to his ear.
“Eight what?” Steve asks, brow furrowed. At least he is as confused by this whole ghostly business as everyone else is.
El gasps and goes to take the phone from his hand, but Steve holds the receiver tighter and shakes his head at her. Steve looks down at her as he asks softly, like he wants only El to hear, “Do you have a sister? Number 8?”
El looks sick, looking up at Steve like he tried to push her over. Eddie knows the girl has seen some shit, far too much shit for someone so young. She looks absolutely terrified as she whispers, “Kali?” The word is barely more than a breath, like she is afraid for them all to hear the name. “Is that who you’re talking to?”
Steve shakes his head, patting her shoulder in reassurance. “I’m talking to Paperboy.”
“Right, Paperboy, of course,” Robin laughs nervously, pacing behind Steve so she’s within arm's reach should he need her.
Steve keeps his hand on El’s shoulder, whether to comfort her or steel himself, Eddie can’t tell. He’s not sure even Steve knows. “So Vecna has eight-”
El slumps as if her legs collapsed, and Hopper steps towards her, wrapping his arms around her, tucking her against him as Steve’s arm falls off her shoulder. El folds against Hopper like he can hold her up for a while.
“Not Vecna?” Steve sputters, standing up straighter in shock. El perks up, looking at him with hopeful eyes. “Then who the hell has her?!”
Its confusing to say the least, trying to follow a conversation when you can only hear half of it and one person (ghost? spirit? Eddie isn’t sure how to define the entity on the other end of the line) doesn’t seem to be particularly helpful judging by the pained expression on Steve’s face and the way he keeps having to ask questions to get the ghost to explain better. Eventually Eddie is able to piece it together. One of the generals that took over Hawkins when it became a military state after the quarantine has El’s sister, Eight, or Kali, as El whispers. They were using her for experiments. They are using her blood to try to make more like her, like El. They had her trapped in the lab in the Upside Down because, of course, those sickos would use Vecna’s playground for real estate.
“How do you know all this?” Steve asks, running a hand through his hair. Now Eddie knows he’s upset. He never tousles that mane for anything. Whatever the ghost says has Steve putting his free hand on his hip, such a normal reaction that Eddie sees Steve do ten times a day when he’s with his gaggle of kids. Eddie can’t believe how normal Steve is acting about getting intel from a ghost on a dead phone. Been a long time echoes in his mind again. Just how often did this happen to Steve?
Steve suddenly turns to face the wall, clutching the phone tighter to him and whispering like he can block everyone in the room from hearing. “Are the others with you? Are you guys-”
Others? Eddie is so focused on the thought of Steve ‘the Hair’ Harrington being able to talk to ghosts, plural, that it takes him a moment to realize that Steve stopped talking mid-sentence.
He sighs, whispers into the phone, “Bye, Paperboy. Thanks.”Before he hangs up the receiver softly, almost lovingly. Eddie has never been jealous of an inanimate object before, but hey, this day was having a lot of firsts for him.
Steve straightens and turns back to face the room, looking nervous. Eddie tries not to stare at him because he knows they all are, but it's hard not to. Steve flushes under the scrutiny as Robin starts to babble.
“Ummmm, who was on the other end of the phone?” Robin asked, a slight note of hysteria creeping into her voice. “Was that a ghost? Can you talk to ghosts? Can you see ghosts?” Her voice grows higher with each word, and Steve’s shoulders hunch higher around his ears the longer she speaks.
“It was Paperboy,” he shrugs like that would answer all their questions. Everyone is staring at him, and Steve looks like he wants nothing more than to run up the stairs and leave the basement-even more so than usual.
“You said Billy,” Max says, her voice carefully neutral, but she can’t hide the slight tinge of hope in her words.
Steve flinches. “Yeah, I’m sorry I didn’t think about how that’d make you feel. It wasn’t your Billy.”
Max snorts and waves his words away. “He wasn’t my Billy.” She slumps and crosses her arms over her chest. “He was a dick.” No one corrects her, but even Eddie can hear the affection in her words. Lucas reaches out and squeezes her hand in comfort. Max threads their fingers together and leans against his arm. Ugh, these kids were so cute. Eddie was going to lose cool points awing over them.
“His name was Billy, but he doesn’t like to be called that. It upsets him; he can’t remember who he was before he died. He remembers he was a paperboy, so that’s what I call him,” Steve explains quickly, like he hopes that will answer all their questions, but all it does is create a million more.
“Why can’t he remember who he was?” Will asks softly.
“He can remember his job but not his name?” Jonathan asks, confused.
“The name is the first thing to go,” Steve explains.
“How do you know that?” Nancy asks, her reporter face on.
“How many ghosts have you talked to, Steve?!” Dustin asks, throwing his hands up in the air. “You said that like it's common knowledge. How do you know that?!”
“Can you see ghosts too?” Joyce asks, cutting off Dustin’s tirade.
Steve shakes his head no quickly. “I can only hear them. And only through a phone.”
“You are like me?” El asks, sounding both hopeful and betrayed that he hasn't told her before. Which fair.
Steve shakes his head. “No. I’m nowhere near as cool as you.”
El smiles sadly and shakes her head no. “You are.”
Eddie isn’t sure if she means Steve is as cool as her or just that he is like her with the whole superpower thing, which is wild enough for anyone, let alone Steve. But Eddie has a more important question he needs answered.
“You said,” Eddie licks his lips. “You said it's been a long time.”
Steve looks at him, and for just a second his face looks so haunted that Eddie wishes he could take the words back. He has a billion questions running through his mind, but he decides to take it easy on him and divert the attention of the group elsewhere.
He cuts Steve off from answering his own question by turning to El, who is still staring at Steve like she’s never truly looked at him before. “Right! So the crazy military lady has your sister. What are we going to do about it?”
***
The plan isn’t great, but plans thrown together based on information from a ghost probably never are. At least that’s Eddie’s assumption. He’s never talked to a ghost before, so what does he know?
Through a lot of luck and bribery, they get a small rescue group into the Upside Down and the doctor’s lab. Hopper, El (despite Hopper’s attempts to dissuade her), Nancy, Jonathan, Steve, and, surprising to all of them (including himself), Eddie.
(“What?” Eddie asked when Steve looked at him in surprise after he volunteered. “I can’t let you guys have all the fun.” he grinned and bumped his shoulder against Steve’s in a totally platonic, why do you ask way, and added, “Besides, what if you need a really cool metal concert?”)
The rest of the group would be causing strategic distractions throughout Hawkins at the Upside Down gates to have as many military personnel away from the lab as possible.
Eddie was mostly left out of the plans Hopper made to get Kali out of the lab without causing the military to track them down and kill them to get her back. When Eddie asked about it, Hopper waved him off with a “Don’t worry about it, kid.”
To him, that meant Hopper didn’t have a plan at all and was planning on flying by the seat of his pants. So yeah, Eddie is very much worried about it.
Turns out he has every right to be.
Somehow they make it into the Upside Down lab, which was freaky enough in the right side up, so Eddie would have preferred not to see it in all its Upside Down glory. They managed to disarm and knock out the guards; Steve surprisingly got a good hit on one. Eddie had heard enough about his track record to be shocked he won a fight. The doctor is disarmed, and Hopper is holding her arms behind her back while El whimpers, a noise only she can hear bringing her to her knees. They are in front of the door that Kali is behind, but they can’t get into it. It's locked, and the stubborn doctor won’t give them the code.
“Give us the code!” Hopper repeats for the umpteenth time, slamming the doctor's head against the glass cage where a piece of Venca’s vines is writhing. The doctor spits blood and laughs.
Eddie feels sick. He was expecting monster violence, not human violence. Why is one so much easier to stomach?
He’s about to ask as much out loud when, from the corner of his eye, he sees Steve stiffen. He turns to look at the phone on the doctor’s desk, and Eddie’s mouth goes dry. It isn’t ringing, but Steve picks it up anyway.
He doesn’t say anything into the phone, but after a second he turns to Jonathan, who is closest to Kali’s door, and repeats a string of numbers. Jonathan blinks at him and hesitates for a moment before slowly typing the numbers into the door lock. Eddie isn’t the least bit surprised when the door lock flashes green, and there’s the sound of a lock turning. Steve is talking into the phone again, but Eddie can’t hear what he’s saying over the sound of the doctor shouting and Nancy and Jonathan running into the room to free Kali.
After a few minutes, they get Kali out of her weird cagey thing and destroy the thing making the noise that was causing El and her sister to be in so much pain. Eddie looks at Steve to see if the noise affected him. It didn’t seem to. He’d been wondering if he was a bit more like the numbered girls than he wanted to admit.
“We have to kill her,” El says, standing in front of the doctor and raising her hand like she plans to do it herself, which badass, but also she’s like fifteen.
“No,” Hopper says, shaking his head at his daughter. “We need to make it look like an accident. Can’t have them thinking we did it.”
“Umm,” Eddie looks around at the guards they knocked out, the cameras in the corners, and the prisoner they helped escape. “I think that cat is out of the bag?”
Hopper sighs and turns to Steve. “Get them out of here.”
Steve, who usually doesn’t need to be told twice to do anything when it comes to the safety and well-being of anyone else, hesitates. He shoots a look at the phone, and Eddie notices El and Kali look at it as well. Shit, was it ringing? Another ghost call? What now?
Slowly, Steve reaches towards the phone and lifts the receiver to his ear. Whatever he hears on the other end of the line causes him to flinch, and he looks at Doctor Kay, his face a mask of anger.
“It's for you.”
She frowns at him, still trying to fight the hold Hopper and Jonathan now have her in.
“It didn’t ring,” she laughs before frowning at Steve. “Ohh, you’re like the girls here.” She twists her neck, and Eddie knows she’s trying to get a closer look at Steve’s wrist as he picks up the phone and places the receiver to her ear. “Idiot, I’ll just call for he-”
Her words cut off as her eyes widened in horror. Steve doesn’t look at her as he stretches the phone cord as long as it can and places the receiver out of her reach. He places a hand on El’s shoulder and nods for Eddie to follow him out. He does so gratefully, not needing to see another person die, even a shitty one.
“I want to kill her,” Kali says, her voice causing chills to race up Eddie's spine.
“Be my guest,” Hopper says just before the door shuts behind them.
They don’t hear a gunshot, and it's a few minutes before the others join them. Eddie can see the slumped form of the doctor on the floor and blood surrounding her. He doesn’t want to ask how Kali killed her.
“We need to find my friends,” Kali says after she and El separate from their hug. “They’re here somewhere, but I don’t know-”
“I know where they are,” Steve interrupts her, gesturing for them to follow him as he takes off at a jog down the hallway.
“What?” Nancy asks, shifting her shotgun in her arms as she runs, looking at Steve in concern. “How?”
“Bruce told me,” Steve calls back over his shoulder.
“Who the hell is Bruce?” Hopper sighs from behind Eddie.
Eddie doesn’t know, but he can figure out the context clues enough to know that Bruce is who called Steve on the phone no one else heard ring. Just how many ghosts did Steve talk to? And how did they know where everything in the lab was?
Eddie has so many questions about ghosts and Steve’s ability to talk to them, but he shoves his questions down for when they aren’t in the middle of a rescue mission. Steve’s, or rather Bruce’s, initial is as good as the door code, and Steve takes them straight to four separate rooms where they find Kali’s friends in various states of mistreatment.
It is clear they were tortured and used for experiments to some extent-whether by giving them Kali’s blood or something else Eddie tries not to think about. He tries not to look at the obvious wounds and emaciation of their bodies, but it's kind of hard not to. One of the girls, Dottie, can barely walk; she’s so malnourished. Steve doesn’t say anything, just swoops her up into his arms and leads the way out of the lab. Watching the object of his affection literally sweep a damsel in distress off her feet to lead her to safety was Doing Things to Eddie and weirdly causing a surge of jealousy.
“If I didn’t like girls, I’d probably fall in love with you for that,” Dottie giggles, resting her head against Steve’s chest and closing her eyes.
Eddie tells himself the feeling of relief he gets is from getting the group out of this sicko’s lab and nothing else.
***
Murray is waiting for them with an unmarked van when they leave the lab. Kali had wanted to show them the mothers that were being experimented on so they could save them too, but Steve shook his head slowly and told her there was no point.
“That’s who the second call was,” he tells her softly. Kali looks at him for a long moment, like she isn’t sure what he means, but his intel just got her and her friends free, so she chooses to trust him. Their much larger group than before they arrived at the lab piles into the van, and Eddie ends up sitting next to Steve totally by accident, all right.
He is still tense and nervous, his hands gripping his spear because he refused to take a gun. As if he can sense his tension, Steve places a hand on his knee in comfort.
“It’s all right, Eds, we’re okay,” he whispers.
Eddie nods even though he won’t believe they’re okay until they are out of the Upside Down.
“They’re going to hunt us down,” Axel, the tall skinny guy with the shaved head and the tattoos, whispers from where he is curled against Kali. Their whole little group of five is so cuddled up for comfort that they look like a giant blob of limbs. “They’re going to hunt us down and try to take us back. Or kill us like they wanted to when they found us.”
“I wish they had killed us,” Mick whispers, her voice thick. She is quickly shushed by everyone else, and Eddie blinks back tears and tries to ignore their conversation as best as he can in the small space.
“Do you think this dust is poisonous?” Steve whispers, leaning his head closer to Eddie’s like he too is trying to drown out the others.
Eddie turns to him gratefully, a bit startled to see that Steve is close enough he can count the freckles across his cheekbones. Eddie swallows hard and waits for him to pull away; he doesn’t.
“I think it's like ash?” Eddie chokes out. “Maybe?”
Steve hums thoughtfully. “From what fire?”
“Maybe Vecna just smoked a sick-ass blunt,” Eddie blurts before he can think it through. God, Steve Harrington being in his personal space turned him into an idiot.
Steve blinks at him as a smile splits across his lips, before giggling. Honest-to-God giggling.
Eddie stares at him in shock before his own lips stretch into a smile.
“Holy shit, Harrington, you just giggled at my stupid joke.”
“Shut up.” Steve rolls his eyes, leaning back against the wall. Eddie missed him being closer, which was stupid because he was right there. “You’re not going to go back to calling me Harrington, are you?”
“Why not?” Eddie asks with a shrug. “It’s your name.”
Steve pauses for a moment, fiddling with his nailbat. “I like it when you call me Steve.”
Eddie swallows, trying not to think about scenarios where he could call Steve by his name that he just knows Steve would punch him over if he could read his thoughts. “Okay,” he whispers, trying to understand the grateful look Steve shoots him. “Steve it is.”
Steve smiles at him, and ugh, Eddie’s heart flips dangerously. He turns away, tuning back into the other conversations in the van.
“We can get you out of Hawkins. Somehow,” Nancy reassures the group when there is a break in their conversation. “We’ll find you somewhere safe.”
“No,” Axel growls. “I wanna stay. I want to kill those fuckers.”
“Language,” Steve mutters softly like a reflex. Eddie nudges him in the ribs reproachfully, and Steve blushes. After everything the group has been through, they deserve to say a few swears.
“We’re staying,” Funshine agrees, “But they will look for us.”
“We have somewhere to hide you,” Jonathan promises, and Eddie feels the van begin its familiar turns to the Squawk.
***
Kali and her group assimilate into their dynamic, well not perfectly and not easily, but enough. They get cleaned up and their wounds treated, and Joyce fusses over them like crazy because she’s never met a person she couldn’t mother. They all seem to like it, even when they try to pretend that they don’t.
It’s weird having new people around, people who didn’t know about the Upside Down, who didn’t know about Eddie being accused of murder. People who he thinks are his people, definitely more his speed than Harrington. At least, that’s what Eddie would have thought once. Now that he knows Steve, he knows he’s more his speed than Eddie ever would have guessed, even back when he admired him from afar.
“Yeah, I’ve been there,” Axel laughs under his breath one day as a smaller number of their group sits in the basement coming up with a plan for a crawl.
Somehow the military hasn’t tracked Kali and her group here yet. The group is careful to never have people come to the radio station by car who don’t work there; everyone else uses the tunnels for travel. Eddie walks the tunnels so much he could map them. Wait, maybe he should map them.
“Been where?” Eddie asks, only half listening as he watches Steve write notes on the paper on the projector base, his baseball cap turned backwards so he can see his notes better.
He can feel Axel’s eyes on his face, and Eddie glances at him out of the corner of his eye. Axel looks pointedly between Steve and Eddie before leaning closer to whisper for only Eddie to hear, “Crushing on straight boys is the worst.”
Eddie’s face flushes at being caught out. He was usually so good at hiding his feelings; not even Robin, his queer person in arms, had called him out on it! Liking Steve was Eddie’s closest-guarded secret. He had never told a single soul. Hell, half the time he barely let him admit it to himself.
He wants to deny it, brush Axel off, but it's almost a relief to have someone to commiserate with. Eddie can’t take his eyes off Steve as he stands and stretches so his back pops. Eddie’s eyes trace the line of his spine as he whispers in vehement agreement, “The worst.”
***
Days turn into weeks, and still the military has not managed to find Kali and her gang. They all have their theories
Dustin thinks that the military is looking for them in the Upside Down. Dottie, ever the optimist as Eddie is learning, is hoping theyaren’t looking for them. El assumes they are looking but just haven’t found them yet. Max is pretty sure that they have already found them but are just waiting to strike. Most of them agree it is because they are focusing on finding Vecna, not a bunch of misfits and runaways no one else would miss.
Personally, Eddie thinks it's because without Dr. Kay at the helm, no one else is very interested in torturing a bunch of pregnant women and babies for the chance to make weapons. Oh, someone would take her place one day, but hopefully when that day came, they would all be long gone. The second that quarantine lifts, Eddie is leaving this godforsaken place.
When enough time passes that they feel it is safe enough from the military to begin their search for Vecna, they plan another crawl. Eddie is not looking forward to it, but he never looks forward to anything Upside Down related. At least during crawls, he gets to be in the squawk mobile with Steve, even if Henderson is there too. That is probably a good thing, actually; it keeps Eddie’s crush from getting any bigger and prevents him from doing anything truly stupid, like telling Steve about it.
They are packing up and heading upstairs. Steve is at the top of the stairs, ready to be the first one out of the basement as always, when he stiffens, coming to a stop so suddenly that Eddie runs into his back.
“Whoa, Steve, you alright there?” Eddie asks, placing his hand on Steve’s back so he doesn’t fall back on him.
“The phone,” Steve says breathlessly, stepping around Eddie and pushing past everyone else on the stairs to get to the dead phone that isn’t ringing. Everyone heads back downstairs, curious. Eddie wonders if Steve ever told anyone he had gotten a call in the lab; Eddie hadn’t mentioned it. Judging by the curious looks on the kids' faces, no one else had said anything either.
“Hello?” Steve asks, cupping the receiver to his ear. Kali’s friends look at each other in confusion. Axel makes a twirly motion near his ear, and Funshine lightly slaps him to put his hand down.
Whatever the ghost says causes Steve’s back to go ramrod straight, a look of pure panic on his face. Eddie doesn’t think; he pushes past the group to go and stand next to Steve, placing his hand on his shoulder for comfort. The touch startles Steve, and he jumps. Eddie frowns and goes to pull away with an apology, but Steve reaches up and grabs his hand, holding it pinned between his hand and shoulder. Eddie is glad he isn’t facing the rest of the room because he knows he’s blushing like crazy.
He is standing close enough to Steve that if this were a normal phone call he would be able to hear the person on the other end of the line. As he can’t hear ghosts, all he hears is Steve’s side of the conversation.
“Griffin?” Steve asks, his voice whisper soft, but everyone else has gone so deathly silent it is easy to hear.
“Griffin?” Mike whispers behind them. “I thought the ghost went by Paperboy?”
“Or Bruce,” El adds helpfully. The noise of alarms from the Party tells Eddie that no, they had not known about the call in the lab until now.
“How many ghosts have Steve’s number?” Dustin asks nervously.
“He’s a popular guy,” Eddie calls over his shoulder. Cause honestly, if he weren’t so sure he’d strike out with definitely heterosexual Steve Harrington, he’d give him his number too. Well, he already had his number. But well, Eddie knew what he meant.
“What do you mean it's a trap?” Steve asks, and everyone shuts up as the attention goes back to him. He listens for a while, rolls his eyes twice. Eddie can’t help but think about how absolutely metal it is to roll your eyes at a ghost giving you advice.
Steve relays the ghost, Griffin’s, information quickly. The government has set a trap around various spots in the Upside Down, hoping to catch whoever killed the doctor. They laid the traps ages ago and have been waiting for someone to step in it. That’s why it seemed so quiet. They were playing offense, not defense. Eddie wrinkles his nose at that. Either that came from Steve, or his ghost was into sports. Honestly, either one seems likely.
“Thanks, Griffin,” Steve says softly before hanging up the phone.
“That was a new ghost,” Robin says, picking at a loose thread on her sweater. “How-how many ghosts can you talk to?”
Steve shrugs, and the movement causes Eddie to remember his hand is still on his shoulder. He drops it quickly and tries to calm his blushing. The knowing look Mick gives him tells him he failed.
“He’s not a new ghost. I’ve talked to him before.”
“What?” Dustin cries, throwing his hands up. “When?! That is pertinent information to share, Steve! When did all this stuff start?”
“It's not important,” Steve brushes him off, waving a hand through the air.
“Uh, people are communicating with you from beyond the grave to help us defeat Vecna. That seems important to me!” Robin insists, but the look on Steve’s face causes her to bite her lip like she has to physically restrain herself from continuing to talk.
“Hey guys, they’re Steve’s ghosts all right,” Eddie says, coming to Steve’s defense at the dejected look on his face. “If he doesn’t want to tell us, he doesn’t have to.”
The kids protest loudly, and Eddie is honestly dying- which might be a poor choice of words on his part- to know more, but the look of gratitude on Steve’s face keeps him holding firm on his stance.
***
Despite the meager protests of El and Kali, who just want to defeat Vecna already, the crawl is canceled. Everyone who took the tunnels there uses them to get home, and Steve and Eddie drive back to their house together after checking the Beamer for bugs, breathing twin sighs of relief whenever someone walkies to tell them they got home safe.
“They aren’t watching the houses,” Eddie muses. “That’s good. Means they don’t know who killed the doc.” Steve nods in agreement, not taking his eyes off the road. Eddie fiddles with the rings on his fingers before asking hesitantly; not sure if he should bring this up or not. “Would the ghosts tell you? If the government was watching us?”
Steve is quiet for so long that Eddie is about to tell him to forget it, to apologize for asking, but he answers slowly like he was really thinking about it. “I don’t know. I don’t know how they know the stuff they know now. Or why they’re helping me again.”
“When did they help you before?”
Steve sighs and pulls into the driveway, killing the engine so they sit in the dark. They forgot to turn the porch light on again. Eddie can barely make out Steve’s profile in the dark.
“Something bad happened to me when I was a kid,” Steve says slowly, and Eddie holds his breath, certain that if he so much as breathes too loudly, it will startle Steve and he’ll stop talking. “The same thing…it happened to five other boys before me. They didn’t make it out.” Steve is quiet for a long moment. Eddie reaches out slowly and places his hand on Steve’s, where it still clutches the steering wheel. Steve doesn’t react, but he doesn’t push him off. “I only got out because of them. They told me what to do; they helped save me.”
Eddie wants, no, needs, to ask more. Needs to know what the hell happened, how the ghosts saved him. But he can feel Steve’s fingers shaking, and he knows that Steve telling him that much had to be a big step for him. Eddie squeezes his hand lightly before letting go and opening the door, causing the overhead light to turn on and Steve to look over at him slowly, blinking tears from his eyes. Eddie has seen a lot of things, but he has never seen Steve ‘the Hair’ Harrington cry.
“Hey,” Eddie whispers, reaching up to brush the lone tear that managed to sneak out off Steve’s cheek. He panics for a brief moment, as that was probably not something guys do with other guys. Steve doesn’t seem to mind; if anything, he leans into Eddie’s touch, which is causing Eddie’s brain to just about short-circuit. “Thank you for telling me.” Steve rests his cheek against Eddie’s palm, and Eddie feels like he is about to do something truly stupid if he doesn’t put some space between them right now. He quickly gets out of the car, nearly forgetting to undo his seatbelt in the process. “I don’t know about you, but after tonight I need a smoke. I still have some of Argyle’s Cali stuff left. Wanna join me?”
“God yes,” Steve sighs in gratitude, following him out of the car.
***
Nearly a month passes before they decide to risk doing another crawl. If they’re caught, they’ll end up in prison, but hey, what’s a lifetime in jail compared to the end of the world?
They linger on the stairs waiting to see if a ghost will call them, but when Steve heads upstairs without issue, they decide it must be safe. That or the ghosts' calls have stopped as suddenly as they began.
Steve, Eddie, and Dustin are in the Squawk van, following the lights like usual, when Steve suddenly stiffens and grabs the walkie from where it rests on the center console. He barely has his hand on it when Henderson leans over the seat to snatch the walkie from Steve. “If it's a code red, I should do the talking! You’re driving!”
“They can’t hear you, dipshit!” Steve snaps, grabbing the walkie back from Dustin and swerving as they grapple for it. If a cop shows up, they are so getting pulled over.
Eddie’s heart sinks. They can’t hear Dustin? Henderson squabbles for a second before the meaning of the words sink in, and Eddie’s heart is beating so fast it almost hurts. Can the ghosts reach Steve through the walkie now? Something bad must be happening.
Steve swears before talking into the walkie, “Hargrove? Is that you?” Eddie notices he doesn’t push any button to talk.
“What the actual fuck?” Dustin whispers, and Eddie nods his head in agreement.
“Holly?” Steve asks in surprise, ignoring Dustin and Eddie completely. “Holly Wheeler?”
Steve spins the car around in a move straight out of a movie, so they are racing back the way they came faster than Eddie can comprehend. Dustin is screaming. Eddie is staring at Steve, wondering when he will stop getting so hot.
“Okay,” Steve nods along to whatever the ghost of Billy Hargrove is saying. “I’ll tell her.” He rolls his eyes and snaps as he speeds the car even faster, “I said I’ll tell her!”
Eddie doesn’t know what Hargrove says or who Steve needs to tell, but apparently Hargrove has left the walkie because Steve chucks it at Dustin, who fumbles it but manages to catch it. “Code red at the Wheelers. The Demogorgon is after Holly.”
They pull up in front of the Wheelers, and the lights are going nuts. Nancy’s car is already there, doors still open. They get there just in the nick of time. Mr. Wheeler is bleeding upstairs, but they manage to save Holly and stop the Demogorgon from ripping into Mrs. Wheeler too badly. She still has a nasty cut on her arm. They call an ambulance to get Ted and stuff the Demogorgon's body into the Squawk van despite Steve’s protests about the blood and the smell so the cops don’t ask questions.
They drive off before the cops get there, taking El with them and leaving Mike and Nancy with their mom, who is frantically asking questions while she clutches Holly to her.
They head to Steve’s house, radioing everyone to meet them there so they can fill them in. Hopper arrives sooner than expected, and El and Joyce nearly fall on him in relief. When Max gets there with Lucas, Steve motions for her to follow him into the kitchen. Eddie doesn’t mean to overhear, but he was trying to get away from the lovefest around Hopper and picks up enough of the conversation to know Steve is telling Max about Billy calling him and helping them save Holly. Eddie understands suddenly who Billy wanted Steve to tell something to.
“He says if you don’t stop blaming yourself, he’s going to haunt you. And he’s not very good at it, so it won’t be scary, just very, very annoying.”
Max snorts, and Eddie peeks around the wall to see her wrap her arms around herself, looking down so Steve can’t see what Eddie is sure are tears in her eyes.
“I’m serious, Max,” Steve says gravely, placing his hand on Max’s shoulder. “He said he’s going to move your skateboard into a different room every night so you never know where it is. And he’s going to open the tabs on all the sodas so they’re flat. And he’s-”
Max lets out a strangled sob and throws herself at Steve, who doesn’t even waver at having a fifteen-year-old’s whole body weight land against him. He hugs her tight and whispers, “He loves you. He said he knows he didn’t show it and he’s sorry, but he did. It wasn’t your fault, okay? You can’t blame yourself.”
Max is crying harder now, and Eddie begins to feel like he’s intruding, so he slips back into the main room.
***
A few hours later, the Wheelers all arrive, sans Ted, who is in the hospital and will be fine despite the copious amount of stitches he got in his stomach. With the Demogorgon trying to take Holly, everyone can sense that this is a Big Deal. Eddie has a feeling that if this was a movie, they’d be rearing up to the climax. Vecna has upped the ante. They needed to, too, now.
Their entire ragtag army is piled into Steve’s house, including Uncle Wayne, who had just gotten off work and took one look at their drawn faces and Nancy’s mom’s bright white bandage and the death grip she has on a terrified Holly and sat down at the table like he was ready to finally get some answers that he very much deserved. Eddie probably should’ve talked to him about all this shit sooner. Probably, definitely, whatever he was telling him now.
They’d used the tunnels to get Kali’s gang there while they waited for the Wheelers to arrive. They are huddled in a corner near the open window like they can’t get enough of the fresh air. Eddie feels bad they went from the lab to the basement, but at least in the basement no one is torturing them.
Joyce, Hopper, Murray, Argyle, and Jonathan are sitting at the table with Uncle Wayne. Judging from the smell, Argyle and Jonathan definitely smoked something before this meeting. Eddie is a little annoyed they didn’t include him. Eddie is on the smaller couch (because, of course, the Harringtons have two couches in their mansion that Steve swears isn’t a mansion), sitting sandwiched between Dustin and Steve. Robin is on Steve’s other side, and this couch is definitely not meant for four people. Eddie is nearly in Steve’s lap, not that he’s complaining. Eddie has his arm on the back of the couch behind Steve, careful not to let his arm fall forward and rest on his shoulders. Will, Max, Lucas, El, and Erica are sitting on the floor, El leaning back against Hopper’s legs and Max and Lucas holding hands.
The Wheelers are on the other couch. Holly is cuddled in her mom’s lap, Karen’s arms wrapped tight around her littlest daughter as Mike and Nancy sit on either side of her, so close they are pressed against each other and Eddie can’t tell where one ends and the other begins. It hurts Eddie a little to look at them.
Everyone is quiet. Nancy just got done explaining the Upside Down to her mom and Holly (and Uncle Wayne, thanks, Nancy). Karen is taking it very well, surprisingly. Certainly better than Eddie did. There haven’t been any tears or explicits at all.
“You knew all of this from the beginning and didn’t say anything to me?” Karen asks quietly, looking at Joyce in betrayal.
“I wanted to protect you, keep you safe,” Joyce says, not flinching down from the other woman’s stare.
Karen scoffs softly. “You weren’t protecting me by not telling me the danger my babies were in. You were just keeping me in the dark. I can’t help or protect you when I don’t know you need it.”
“I’m sorry, Mom,” Nancy begins, but Karen waves her hand, brushing the apology off.
“I don’t need an apology,” she sighs and looks around the room at their ragtag group and the bare-bones explanation she has of how they all play a part in this. “Is there anything else I need to know?”
Eddie can hear the hope in her voice that she’ll say no, but instead, Mike pipes up unhelpfully, “Steve can talk to ghosts.”
Karen looks at her son in shock as Steve whispers an affronted “Dude.”
“But that’s it, Mom, I swear!” Mike says, holding his hands up placatingly.
“Not cool, Wheeler,” Eddie says, placing a comforting hand on Steve’s shoulder.
Mike looks at him, confused, as Will whispers, “That wasn’t yours to tell.”
“Oh,” he looks uncomfortable as he mumbles, “Sorry, Steve.”
“I’m sorry, did you say Steven can talk to ghosts?” Murray interrupts, looking around at them in shock. Oh right, Eddie had forgotten he hadn’t been there for any of the phone calls. Steve didn’t like them talking about it, so most of them didn’t. At least not in his earshot. Apparently not in Murray’s earshot either.
Steve looks uncomfortable with all of their gazes on him, which is fair. There are a lot of people. Eddie squeezes his shoulder in comfort. Sighing, Steve drags a hand down his face.
“Right, guess I’ve put this off long enough,” he says, straightening, knocking Eddie’s hand off his shoulder with the movement. He puts his arm on the back of the couch and tries not to feel rejected.
“You don’t have to tell us if you don’t want to,” Eddie reminds him, glaring at the kids when they protest.
“I think I need to,” Steve argues. “If Vecna is back, and he decides he wants more gates and more trauma victims…” Steve pauses and swallows. “If that happens, I think it would be better if you all know.”
“Trauma victim?” Robin whispers, “Like more than the general Upside Down-related trauma stuff?”
Steve nods slowly. Eddie's stomach clenches. He’s not going to like this story, is he?
“I grew up in Denver. Right before I moved here, back in 1979, there was a serial killer.” He swallows and wrings his hands together. Eddie stares at him in shock. Whatever he had expected Steve to say, that had not been it. “We called him the Grabber. He took six boys. Killed five of them. Those are the ghosts I hear. Bruce Yamada, Billy Showalter, Griffin Stagg, Vance Hopper, and Robin Arellano.”
Hopper straightens at the name Vance, and Steve closes his eyes when he says the last name, Robin. Eddie isn’t sure if Steve knew all the boys before they died, but he would bet the little bit of money he has that Steve knew Robin. Is that why he always calls Buckley Robs? Can he not bring himself to say her full name?
There is silence for a moment as Steve’s words sink in, as the weight of those five names and them being ghosts truly hits them all. They had all known he was talking to ghosts but hearing the ghosts’ full names really makes it hit that those were people once.
Something about what Steve said, plus what he told him in the car, is clicking together in Eddie’s brain, but it's Murray who catches it first. Conspiracy theorist extraordinaire Murray, who looks at Steve like he is seeing him for the first time, says, “You said this sicko took six boys. But you only hear five ghosts.”
Steve looks at Murray for a long, loaded moment, and when he swallows, Eddie can see his throat move. The pieces click, and Eddie knows before Steve says it.
“I was the sixth boy.”
Steve doesn’t whisper it, doesn’t shout it. He might as well have. The room is so quiet Eddie can hear the tiny hitch in Steve’s breathing as he continues. “The Grabber got me, and he kept me in his basement for five days. That’s when the calls started coming.”
And oh-oh, Eddie’s a fucking idiot. No wonder Steve is always so desperate to get out of the Squawk’s basement. No wonder he didn’t want to live all alone in this big house with his real literal ghosts.
Movement from the corner of his eye, and Eddie sees Robin wrap her arms around Steve, pulling him against her like she needs proof that he is really there, not locked in some freak’s lair. And honestly, Eddie needs that too. He reaches out and threads his fingers through Steve’s, who clutches his hand like a lifeline as he continues, his voice steady like he’s not recounting a lifetime worth of trauma.
“They saved me. The boys told me things they had done to try to escape, how to fight him. Warned me of things he’d do if…” Steve trails off and looks at the kids in the room, Holly and Erica, but the Party too. He decides to skip whatever he was about to say, but the death grip on Eddie’s fingers tells him what it was well enough. His stomach lurches.
“The calls stopped after the basement. I haven’t had another one. I thought maybe it was the trauma, that I imagined it. But then the Upside Down happened, and I knew it was real.”
There is a long moment of silence as the weight of what Steve had just shared truly registered.
“What happened to the Grabber?” Hopper asks, his voice deadly calm.
Steve hesitates for a second and closes his eyes, and Eddie knows the answer before he says it, just like he knows Steve’s bracing himself for their reaction. For the last second before they all know. Eddie squeezes his hand tighter to tell him he’s not going anywhere.
Steve keeps his eyes shut as he admits, “I killed him.”
The words are barely out of his mouth before Eddie says vehemently, “Good.”
Steve’s eyes flicker to his in relief.
“I hope you made him suffer,” Funshine says gravely from across the room.
Steve shakes his head. “It was pretty quick. I just wanted him dead. I wanted to escape.” He bites his lip, and Eddie is pretty sure he’s fighting back a smile as he says. “The boys, though…they made him suffer. Whatever’s out there after death, they’re going to make him pay for what he did.”
Eddie feels shivers race up his spine at the thought. Good. That fucker deserves whatever Hell he gets.
A sniffle beside him catches his attention, and Eddie turns to look at Dustin, who wipes his nose quickly, tears shining on his face.
“Henderson,” Eddie begins, but Dustin waves him off, leaning over Eddie to grab Steve and pull him into an awkward hug. Eddie is squished in the middle of it, and Robin’s limbs are also all tangled up, and the four of them are like a blob, a tangle of limbs and hair and tears as Dustin sniffles.
“It’s okay, Henderson,” Steve says softly, and his face is so close to Eddie’s he can feel his breath misting warm across his face. “I’m alright.”
“You’re not supposed to be comforting me right now, Steve!” Dustin sobs, clutching Steve (and Eddie in the process) tighter. “I’m comforting you!”
An undeterminable amount of time later, Steve finally manages to escape all of the hugs and comfort everyone insists on giving him. Eddie can tell he’s uncomfortable. He likes to be the protector, not the protected. Huh, that actually makes a lot more sense now that Eddie knows what Steve has been through.
Eddie slips out the back door to find Steve sitting in the dark at the edge of the pool, his knees curled to his chest so his feet don’t touch the water. Eddie shuts the door loud enough to catch Steve’s attention and goes to sit cross-legged beside him. He lights a cigarette and passes it to Steve, who grabs it gratefully and takes a long drag even though he doesn’t usually smoke.
“Thanks for sharing all that,” Eddie says, nudging his shoulder lightly. “It had to be hard to talk about.”
Steve nods in agreement before exhaling a plume of smoke, and damnit Eddie should not have found that as hot as he did.
“I didn’t tell them everything,” Steve whispers, and Eddie’s blood chills.
“Oh?” he says softly, wanting to ask for more information but also not sure if he wants to know.
Steve shakes his head slowly, looking over his shoulder to make sure the door is shut. Eddie’s pulse speeds up.
“My mom could hear ghosts too. And she would get these dreams…” Steve pauses and shakes his head. “They weren’t dreams. They were visions. She could see the future."
Eddie thinks of Mrs. Harrington, who he’s seen around town, and has a hard time thinking of the woman in the well-cut pantsuit and immaculate hair and nails talking to ghosts.
“My little sister got her dreams from her.”
Eddie blinks in surprise. “You have a sister?”
Steve smiles as he nods. “Gwen. She’s eleven months younger than me. When I was in the basement, she had dreams of me. Tried to help save me.”
“What happened to her?” Eddie asks nervously because he doesn’t know of any Gwen Harrington in Hawkins, and he’s lived in Steve's house long enough to know there are no pictures of her.
“We got separated,” Steve sighs around a mouthful of smoke. “Once I escaped the Grabber, CPS saw the state of our house and our father. My dad’s sister and her husband took me in, but they didn’t want us both. Gwen ended up with my mom’s sister, which was probably better for everyone. She knew a bit about Mom’s dreams, so she believes Gwen’s. At least a little.”
Eddie gapes at him for a moment as all of this information sinks in. “Shit,” he sighs before taking a deep drag on his cigarette. “I can’t believe I spent so long thinking you were just some rich asshole.”
Steve laughs. “Oh, I was. When I got here, I was so messed up. I was such a dick to so many people.”
Steve turns to look at him, his expression so earnest Eddie wants to lean in and kiss him.
“I’m sorry if I was ever a dick to you.”
God, Steve talking about dicks and Eddie in the same sentence should be illegal.
“It's cool, man,” Eddie says with a shrug. “It was just high school shit, right?”
“Yeah but didn’t high school like just end for you?” Steve teases lightly. Eddie usually gets pissed when people mention him failing senior year twice, but the teasing look on Steve’s face cools any heat Eddie might have felt at his words.
Still, Eddie gasps theatrically and places his hand over his heart. “You wound me, Harrington!”
Steve stills and grabs Eddie’s hand, pulling it down off his chest. “Blake.”
Eddie is so focused on the fact that Steve still hasn’t dropped his hand that he just stares at him, the word taking a moment to register. “What?”
“Blake,” Steve licks his lips before explaining. “My name before I moved here, and the Harringtons made me change it. It was Stevie Blake.”
Eddie’s heart melts a little, and he smiles at Steve, turning his hand in his so he can squeeze it comfortingly. “Stevie Blake. I like it.”
***
With Vecna trying to kidnap Holly, they all knew it was time to fight. They came up with a plan, and before Eddie could wrap his mind around it they were breaking into the military base to drive Murray’s fortified van into the Upside Down. For once, things seemed to be going according to plan, and they were almost out of sight of the gate when the van hit a pothole and Eddie and Steve, who were standing at the back near the open door to keep watch for Demogorgons and military, fell out of the van.
“Shit,” Eddie swears, rolling to his knees with a grunt. That was going to bruise.
“Fuck,” Steve swears in agreement getting to his feet. The van doesn’t stop and Eddie frowns, throwing his hands up in a ‘what the hell’ gesture until he sees what the people in the van surely do.
A whole horde of Demodogs and Demogograns heading straight towards them.
“At least it's not bats,” Eddie whispers, his throat dry as his scars begin to ache. Steve barely has time to agree before the monsters hit the van and they are both sprinting towards it trying to help. A Demogorgon peels off from the pack and heads straight for them. Eddie wants nothing more than to turn and run the other way but he keeps his feet going forward, swinging his spear at the monster the second it's within reach.
Eddie is fighting like hell but he’s never been particularly skilled at throwing punches, only taking them, and the Demogorgon isn’t throwing fists its throwing claws. And Steve is fighting too but he’s only ever won one fight, so Eddie doesn’t have high hopes for them. The second Eddie thinks that he sees Steve stiffen, sees his stance move like he’s taking directions. Eddie’s eyes dart to the walkie strapped to his belt and he knows that a ghost is helping them.
Whatever the ghost tells him to do works and Steve manages to win, defeating the Demogogoran and hitting it with a killing blow with his bat like he was hitting a homerun.
He reaches down to help pull Eddie to his feet and they race down the streets in the weird red light of the Upside Down until they catch up to the van, where everyone looks no worse for wear and there are multiple demobeast bodies on the ground.
Eddie accepts the hand Lucas offers to help pull him up, Robin yanking Steve up beside her.
“Which boy was that?” Eddie asks once it's clear no one is hurt and the van keeps moving.
Steve looks at him in surprise before smiling. “Vance,” he laughs softly. “He was always good for a fight.”
“If you ever talk to him again, tell him thanks for me,” Eddie says, leaning his arm against Steve’s.
Steve smiles at him. “I will.”
***
The battle is brutal and painful and somehow both longer and shorter than Eddie expects. To everyone’s surprise, they all survive, although in various states of wear and tear. In the end, it isn’t Kali or El or even Will who kills Venca. Oh sure, they’d all helped, but it is Joyce who delivers the killing blow. Eddie is so going to create a D&D character after her.
You fucked with the wrong family.
God, what an utter badass.
They are all exhausted and the van's tires popped so they are stuck walking out of the Upside Down. Hopefully the gate they opened by having Supergirl lift the metal zipper, as Robin liked to call it, off the gate Vecna ripped open was still clear, because they couldn’t exactly walk out into the military base.
Eddie and Steve are bringing up the rear, lagging behind. For as much as Eddie wants to get the hell out of the Upside Down and never return, he wants to make sure he sees everyone else get out before he does. He does not want to have to go on a rescue mission because one of the kids decided to do something dumb and stay in the Upside Down. They are walking past a payphone when Steve tenses. Eddie stops walking and gestures to the phone.
“Answer it, I’ll wait.”
Steve looks at him gratefully and goes to answer the phone. Eddie watches him pick it up, sees the small smile on Steve’s face as he whispers, “Hi Robin.”
Eddie scans the area, keeping watch even though he knows Vecna and his monsters are dead.
He tries to give Steve privacy and not listen in as he watches the figures of their group get smaller as they head down the street.
He really is trying not to listen, but his ears pick up when he hears his name.
“Eddie doesn’t like me like that.”
And what?
Eddie’s heart drops into his stomach. Did a ghost just out his crush to Steve? He fidgets nervously and watches Steve finish his conversation. Thankfully, his name doesn’t come up again.
“Will I hear from you guys again?” He pauses for a long moment. “It's okay to move on, you know. You guys don’t have to wait for me.”
Whatever the ghost says causes Steve to laugh, a watery sound. He whispers goodbye before hanging up the phone and walking to Eddie, looking at him nervously.
Aw shit, that ghost totally told Steve. Damn those ghosts and their omnipresent powers.
“Umm, I heard my name,” Eddie mumbles, twisting a strand of hair around his finger. “What did he say-”
He cuts off with a startled sound as Steve reaches out and grabs the collar of Eddie’s shirt. He’s holding it too carefully for Eddie’s brain to panic that he’s going to hurt him, but his closeness is causing a whole other level of panic.
“Um, Steve?” Eddie asks breathlessly, “What are you-”
“Can I kiss you?” Steve interrupts. And oh, Eddie has never liked being interrupted until that moment.
“Hell yes,” Eddie squeaks out, and the exuberance in his voice would be embarrassing, but Steve’s pulling him closer and kissing him with enough intent that any other thoughts flee his mind. Steve’s lips are warm and he tastes like Gatorade and cigarettes. Eddie curls his fingers into Steve’s hair and tugs him closer, half-expecting Steve to tell him off for messing up the locks he spends so much time styling. Instead Steve makes a breathy moan against his lips and Eddie nearly dies on the spot.
They separate sooner than he wants, but they are still in the Upside Down. Steve holds his hand as they begin walking, which almost makes up for not getting to kiss more.
A thought occurs to Eddie, and he turns to look at Steve, raising his eyebrows as he asks, “Did I just get wingmaned by a ghost?”
Steve laughs, the sound bright and unexpected as he nods.
Eddie smiles softly. “That’s pretty cool,” he says, the smile slipping off his face. “I wish I could have met Robin. I wish I could have met all of them.”
Steve smiles a bittersweet expression that doesn’t match the tears in his eyes. “I wish we could have met them all too.”
***
They all go back to Steve’s house, or, well, Eddie’s house too. He’s lived there long enough he might as well start claiming it. No one wants to go to the hospital, and no one wants to be alone, so they create their own little hospital in Steve’s parents' bathroom. Uncle Wayne and Murray both have experience as combat medics, and Hopper, Joyce, and Karen all knew how to patch up the more superficial wounds. Thankfully, no one is hurt seriously enough that it couldn’t be fixed with a needle, thread, and Steve’s parents' alcohol stash. Or Tylenol for the littles.
Argyle decides to help out by ordering a truly ridiculous amount of pizza (though he only ordered two with pineapple, which was progress). It took the delivery man two trips to bring all the pizzas to the door, and if he thought it was weird that Eddie ‘the Freak’ Munson answered the door to former King Harrington’s palace, at least he didn’t comment on it.
There is a weird feeling in the air. They were all overjoyed that they had defeated Vecna, of course, but that didn’t mean things were safe or over yet. Kali and her gang were still presumably wanted by the government for the murder of Dr. Kay and possibly for being experiments. Hopper was still presumed dead. El was always going to be walking a tightrope existence, wondering if the government would turn on her like they did her sister. And Hawkins was still under quarantine and martial law. Sure, they’d defeated the final boss, but the campaign was far from over.
Trying not to think about all that, Eddie leans against the couch, talking to Dustin, a half-eaten slice of pizza on the plate on the floor beside him, when Steve comes downstairs after getting his arm stitched up. The adults all follow after him because, of course, Steve insisted on being the last one to get their wounds looked at.
“There’s pizza in the kitchen,” Jonathan says sleepily from where he sits slumped against his little brother on the couch.
“I’ll get some later,” Steve says, making a beeline for Eddie. He stands before Eddie and kicks his legs apart, gesturing for him to move them wider. Eddie stares up at him in shock but does what he’s told, his face warming an uncomfortable amount as Steve sits down between his legs, leaning back against his chest.
Eddie doesn’t know what to do or where to look. He has never had someone make such a blatant show of affection before. Eddie has always been a hookup or a shameful secret. Being shown affection in public was not something he was used to. He had not expected Steve to want to be out, even to their group of people-most of whom were some kind of gay or had at least proven they were okay with it. Just because Eddie was out to these people didn’t mean he expected Steve to be, at least not so soon.
Slowly, giving him the chance to pull away, Eddie wraps his arms around Steve’s chest. Steve spies the pizza beside them and goes to pick it up.
“Is this yours?”
Eddie has to clear his throat before answering, “You can have it.”
Steve mumbles thanks and Eddie finally dares to look up at the group, certain everyone will be staring at them in shock. Almost no one is looking at them, and not in a ‘oh my god two guys are cuddling; I can’t look’ disgust kind of way. More like ‘it's just Steve and Eddie being Steve and Eddie; why would I look’ kind of way.
The only ones looking are Uncle Wayne, who is smiling at them fondly and lifts his coffee mug at Eddie in silent approval. Robin is grinning at them knowingly, and Eddie flushes, wondering if Steve already told her they kissed. When would he even have had time? Eddie wonders sometimes if those two can read each other’s minds. Or maybe they saw them kissing by the phone booth. The thought hadn’t occurred to Eddie at the time, and now that it has, he can’t help flushing.
“You’re blushing, Eddie,” Dustin says with a slight tinge of disgust. Eddie looks up at him, affronted. “You’re cuddling my babysitter, and you’re blushing.”
“Watch your tone,” Steve says lightly. Dustin kicks him. Steve slaps his leg in retaliation. Eddie marvels that this is his life now.
“I can’t believe I once thought you were cool,” Mike sighs.
“Watch it, Wheeler; that’s my boyfriend you’re talking to,” Steve says around a mouthful of pizza.
“Boyfriend?” Eddie wheezes, feeling like he got sucker-punched. He’d never been a boyfriend before. Steve didn’t want to just kiss him for fun? He wanted to be his boyfriend?
“Well yeah,” Steve twists in his arms enough so they could make eye contact. “I mean, aren’t you?” he whispers, suddenly unsure.
“Hell yeah,” Eddie whispers, deciding that if Steve didn’t care about the people in the room and being affectionate, he wouldn’t either. He leans down so his lips brush Steve’s as he whispers, “Boyfriends.”
“Oh, gag, don’t kiss our babysitter in front of us,” Erica pretends to barf. Eddie flips her off and kisses Steve briefly before pulling away. He catches Will smiling at them from across the room, and Eddie knows that at least one of Steve’s kids won’t complain, even teasingly, about Eddie dating their beloved babysitter.
Steve sighs happily and leans back against Eddie, wrapping Eddie's arms tighter around his chest as he twirls one of the rings on Eddie’s fingers. Steve’s eyes slowly droop shut, and Eddie thinks he’s fallen asleep. He jumps as badly as Steve does when he sits up straight, Eddie’s arms falling off him in the process. Eddie can feel his heartbeat in his throat as Steve slowly turns his head to the right to stare at the phone on the wall.
Eddie knows, without being able to hear any other sound than the hitch in Steve’s breathing, that it's ringing.