Rcbinbvckleys·:

god, I miss him so much. please come back :((

zccming·:

.

it was weird enough that eddie had stopped by during her shift, but his entire demeanor was enough to send a jolt up her spine. shut up. max looked physically taken aback, “what gives?” she asked in return, but eddie would up answering her with a string of paranoid questions. wondering how he might know, max shifted in her seat behind the counter. his sense of urgency was suddenly adding up and it seemed worth her while to pay attention. 

to max, eddie was so blatantly wondering about here whereabouts because he went through something, at the same time. she scooted a little closer to the counter, “i was with the boys, well not lucas, but the rest of them. will’s mom…” max started, a distant look glossing over her eyes. apparently, it wasn’t going to get any easier each time she disclosed this information, “we went to the edge of town,” she mustered up the courage to glance back up at eddie, “something tried to get us, but we made it out.” the way she put it wasn’t exactly comforting, but she thought finishing it off with a little sarcasm might make it better. max tilted her chin up to reveal a bandaid, “so stoked to have another scar!” she flashed a sickeningly enthusiastic smile, then her expression dropped along with her chin.

maybe the fabrication of an unaffected demeanor would rub off on eddie. her hopes weren’t high, but she had to try something to chill him out before he lost all his marbles. “nothing weird since,” she hummed, “except you, right now.” figuring that this conversation might be best continued privately, max exited the booth the counter sat inside, grabbed eddie, pulled him back inside after her, then sat him down in her chair while she pulled the blinds down in the windows. this warranted an early lunch break. after a couple of quiet moments spent gnawing on her cheek and staring at eddie, max asked, “so? what happened to you two days ago? that’s why you’re so freaked, right?” max had been at the border, heard about the cemetery from lucas, and now this. truly, how much worse could it get?

+++

he listened intently, brows drawn together in concentration. and he felt his stomach drop as max affirmed his  suspicions - something had happened. something weird. to her, too. whatever the fuck had been going on in hawkins since, well, seemingly since the dawn of time, it was back. it was happening again and eddie was, quite frankly, absolutely terrified.

“something.”, he echoed, brows pulled into a nervous frown. “’something’ tried to get you. not someone. something.” and his voice pitched up slightly, the way it did right before it got all loud and panicky, so albeit unexpectedly, startling him, max pulling him back into the booth was a welcome gesture. giving him the opportunity to take a couple calming breaths in the process.

if he hadn’t been on the brink of the second or third nervous breakdown in two days, eddie would’ve snorted with laughter at the way max drew the blinds and sat him down - like a scene right out of a film noir, where the detectives finally sit their subject down and interrogate them. he cleared his throat. 

“i was....hanging with nancy.”, he said, and that statement alone was odd enough for his tastes. it was about to get even weirder. “we, uh, that’s hopper and his kid, nancy and i. well, we went..we were investigating and we sorta, uh.” he looked up at her, sheepish smile on his face. “long story short we burnt down benny’s.”

a moment of silence, eddie’s eyes darted around as he tried to gather his thoughts, remember what was important. “long story a little longer - there were eggs. in the diner. big, big, freaky alien eggs that have hatched, max.” and his voice went shaky and breathy and intense at the last two words. “there was this, this goo on the ground and we thought it was blood but! but it wasn’t. and then - the eggs and. yeah. burnt it down. went home. as if nothing happened.”

he cleared his throat, purses his lips as he exhaled, deeply. “it’s happening again, isn’t it.” it’s not really much of a question. “i can’t fucking believe this.”

Come crawling faster, obey your master.

mmuscles·:

WHO: thad bradshaw & you!  WHERE: downtown hawkins

this hick town in the center of nowheresville, usa! gave a new definition to the meaning of shithole. thad felt the soles of his shoes get significantly filthier as he stepped through this indiana idea of a downtown. all for nancy, he supposed. the thought made him roll his eyes, but at the end of the day, he definitely couldn’t afford to start senior year without a babe on his arm. 

desperately convinced she was on the brink of breaking up with him because she hadn’t written, thad did the only rational thing and drove to her hometown to make sure they wouldn’t happen. he hadn’t announced his arrival to her yet, of course. if she was prepared to split it off, he’d have to woo her back into his arms, and that started with buying her flowers. thad was kicking himself for not stopping sooner, or calling the florist back home for an order, because no matter where he stopped in, he couldn’t find anything suitable. entirely irritable, he firmly grasped the shoulder of the nearest passerby, effectively stopping them in their tracks, “excuse me,” he cleared his throat, belated. “could you happen to point me in the direction of this town’s most bangin’ florist?”

+++

he didn’t usually do this. strolling through downtown hawkins, hands in his pockets, lazily nodding along to the music coming out of his walkman. it had been two years, but some of the local hicks still thought he was the epitome of evil, a drug-dealing sadistic satanic murderer who’d corrupt their precious youth. who had so viciously killed poor chrissy cunningham in his trailer. the memory made him clench his jaw, he quickly pressed his headphones tighter to his ears, trying to drown out the sounds of that night he recalled - his own desperate screaming, the squelching, the cracking. eddie blinked. dug his nails painfully into his palms until he could fully concentrate of ratt’s ‘round and round’ again.

it wasn’t what he usually did but it felt...nice, in an odd way, and considerably safe, seeing as how he hadn’t been attacked by any of the late jason carver’s angry goons yet. no, he was simply enjoying a lazy walk to melvald’s unbothered -

- well, not completely. “woah, what the hell, man.” a string of curses fell from his lips as he suddenly felt a hand of his shoulder, forcefully jerking him around. eddie pulled his headphones down, stared at the other with confusion, outrage, maybe a hint of disgust. the man in front of him looked eerily like an exact carbon copy of jason, he noted, had the same aura to him, too. “the fuck is your deal, man?”

his mouth dropped open slightly, an amused grin curling at his lip, oh, he really had to hol it in, trying his best not to bark out a laugh. “i’m sorry, what was that? did you - you just asked me about hawkin’s most ‘banging’ florist ?” eddie snorted, trying to hold back his laughter. “listen, i don’t know where you think you are but... this is hawkins, man. try melvald’s, i guess, they got like a bouqet or something sometimes. “

stevehharringtcns·:

.

standing by the door as he looked at eddie, steve felt a little too naked for his liking. sure, he was used to walking shirtless around his place, but of course he was alone, and now, having eddie standing in front of him and staring at his bare chest made him feel… something. he didn’t feel uncomfortable, it was eddie after all, but he definitely felt something once he felt his eyes on him. he was almost sure that his face had turned into another shade of pink, but he was hoping that eddie wouldn’t realize it.

it was getting a little bit too awkward just standing there, but he didn’t know what to say. he was just waiting for eddie to finally say something and that’s when eddie finally spoke about eggs. eggs? steve wasn’t sure if he had heard that correctly, but he didn’t say anything until the other was done with his sentence.”why don’t you… come inside? it’s probably for the best if you just don’t stand there talking about… eggs.” he said as he moved away so the other could make his way inside. once the two were both inside, steve closed the door behind him as he started making his way to the living room - something that wouldn’t happen if his parents were home, but luckily for him, he was alone.

“make yourself at home.” steve offered, as he motioned towards the couch, before looking at the other and crossing his arms over his chest.. what was this about? why was eddie in such a hurry to see him and why did he seem so nervous? “what… what’s this conversation about the eggs… and fire? did you eat some bad eggs at benny’s? because that wouldn’t be that surprising.” he said with a small shrug of his shoulders.

steve couldn’t help but to notice that eddie really seemed nervous about whatever was going on, but he didn’t know what to do. “just take a seat, eddie and… breathe or something. what’s going on?” he asked yet again, waiting for an answer. everyone seemed to had gone through something lately and steve wasn’t even in town to see it. had he really missed that much just by being gone?

+++

eddie nodded, still unable to form a coherent sentence because holy fuck, steve harrington had opened his door shirtless, wearing only shorts, and eddie would save that image and treasure it forever, lest he might never see it again. “yeah. yeah, inside. inside is good.”, he muttered and pushed past steve, thinking to himself that his pattern of speech oddly represented that of hopper’s kid and -

- yeah, that was another thing to unpack. because eddie could’ve sworn he’d seen her open the door to the diner with... well, what exactly, that was the question. not her hands, no, it seemed like it had been her... mind? perhaps eddie was losing his mind here.

he let his gaze wander around the entry way, the living room, couldn’t help that his eyes widened at the sight of steve’s home. because damn, he’d known that steve’s family was loaded or whatever. but he’d never been in a house as big as this. it was ridiculous. he plopped dowon on the couch, hands shaking, fidgeting with his rings. “i ... fuck. i don’t know.”, he muttered, nervously chewed on his bottom lip. foot tapping restlessly. eddie buried his face in his hands for a moment, trying to calm himself.

“i was hanging out with wheeler - nancy.”, he clarified, squeezing his eyes shut for a moment as he tried to recall that night’s events. “and, like, a bunch of other people and she took us to benny’s. which was shut down, there was this fight and...well, we went into investigate, or whatever, and there..then the flashlights, and they...”

eddie trailed off, restless, he couldn’t sti still anymore. he jumped up, began pacing around the room. leaned his back against the wall for comfort.”you know the freaky shit that happened two years ago?”, eddie said and gulped, feeling the phantom burning of his scars hot under the material of his shirt. “it’s back, harrington. it’s back. we saw some shit in there, man, like some...some fucking alien...monster...upside down eggs. they had tears in ‘em, steve, and... i don’t know. the diner burned down. “

eddie looked up at him, felt the prickling of hot tears in his eyes, brows pulled up, face twisted into a grimace. “it’s happening again. i can’t...are you ok? someone said you were at the cemetary and that...people got pushed into graves and all, i just...wanted to check on you.” he averted his gaze to the ground. “didn’t want to be alone.”

backtowheeler·:

— ✎ —

“Thad,” Nancy confirmed, glancing over at Eddie. “Laugh all you want, but he’s a good guy,” meaning he’s really not, but it’s not like they had to get into that tonight, and for the most part? Nancy did like her boyfriend, he could just be a bit… much at times. “He’s into cars, so he doesn’t understand what it means to drive something just because it gets you from one place to another.”

Matching scars are metal as hell, though. “Are you saying I’m metal?” She asked, her face turning up into a grin. Nancy Wheeler was not metal, she wouldn’t even consider herself a badass, but hey maybe scars were metal. “No, no, this is my first rodeo with committing arson against the best diner in town,” she glanced down at her hands. “Jonathan. First time we ever dealt with… anything like this and Demogorgons? They like blood,” then she looked back at Eddie, and said, “remember that,” just in case this was what they were dealing with. “So we had the bright idea to cut our hands to lure it to his house. God, that feels like forever ago.” Probably because it was five years ago.

It wasn’t often that she was able to tell people about her memories of dealing with the Upside Down. Either they were there or she just couldn’t say anything. “And Steve. Oh my god, he was such an asshole back then,” then a laugh. “Get this, I held a gun at him. Like, ready to shoot him and all. I would have never shot him but…” realizing she was rambling, she settled back in the seat. “Anyways, that’s how I got the scar.”

+++

eddie nodded to himself, steered the car onto through hawkins residential area onto the main roads leading up to the trailer park. "think i mightve run into him a couple days ago.",he mused with a shrug. deciding it was better not to go into much detail about that particular encounter. "he seemed alright." meaning he really did not but who was eddie to judge, at the end of the day.

he broke into a grin at her question, nodded eagerly. "yeah, man. wheeler, you're like, one of the most metal people alive. ozzy's gnawing at another bat as we speak, just so he can keep up with you.", eddie laughed, fingers drumming against the steering wheel to the melody of black sabbath's 'paranoid'.

remember that. he shifted uncomfortably in his shit, oh, yeah, he definitely would. there was that queasy feeling spreading in the pit of his stomach again as the night's events started replaying in his head. "noted.", he muttered, more to himself.

the mention of steve, however, had a grin tugging at eddie's his lips, he glanced at her from the corner of his eye, a low chuckle bubbling up in his chest. "king steve? an asshole? why, that is shocking news to me!"

backtowheeler·:

— ✎ —

Whatever the hell this….shit is, was gonna catch up to me eventually. Nothing truer could be said for anyone who had ever experienced what went down below Hawkins. It felt too good to be true. It felt too easy to just say yep, that’s a wrap on all the weird shit. It would never be over. No matter how many times they’d defeat it, something would come crawling back whether it be as massive as someone like Vecna or as small as… hatched eggs? Nancy had already started mentally working on her hypothesis. Baby Demogorgons was her top thought, although thinking about Dart and how tiny he had allegedly been, she was starting to think otherwise. They were human sized, carrying something big enough that could possibly only continue growing.

“Still, I was hoping you would get to see an actual crime scene. Not so much… whatever was in there,” she told him, truth in her voice. Nancy didn’t really have a partner to lean on anymore whenever she got some sort of lead. It was part of the reason why she asked Eddie to come. She didn’t want to ask any of their younger friends and considering the two of them never got much one on one time together? She thought it could be a bonding experience. Plus, there was nothing more metal than some blood, gore, and crime, right? It’s what they were always singing about. 

When the keys were unwillingly snatched from her hand, Nancy let out a sigh. “Fine,” she conceded, mostly because of the throbbing pain in her hand. She walked in the direction of where she had parked, blowing on her hand as if that would stop the pain. “Just promise me you won’t crash my mom’s station wagon?” She asked. Nancy had never ridden with Eddie while he had been behind the wheel so she had no indication of his driving, but if she could guess? She figured it was much worse than her own.

+++

eddie clasped a hand over his heart, brows drawn up, lips twisted into a pout. “oh, geez, wheeler - you wanted to take me out to see a crime scene? little old me? oh, i’m touched.” and he wiped an imaginary tear from the corner of his eye, then let his hands fall back to his side, grinning. not willing to abandon his theatrics even in the face of impendind doom and evil. ‘cause that’s what this was, eddie thought, a queasy feeling in the pit of his stomach. this was only the beginning and eddie wasn’t sure if he wanted to stick around to see the end of it.

not running away had nearly gotten him killed the last time around. he nodded, hummed, a pleased little sound when nancy didn’t put up a fight and followed her to the car. “i’ll have you know i’m an excellent driver, wheeler, thank you very much.”, he retorted, swinging the keys around his fingers. though he promptly stopped as they hit his knuckles with full force, cursed under his breath. “pinkie promise. you know, i used to give max a ride to school everyday. gave dustin rides home after hellfire - actually, your brother, too. you can ask him, i’m sure he’ll vouch for my driving skills.”

though he skillfully glossed over the fact that one of the reasons he’d given max a ride to school almost everyday was that max was an absolute menace to society everytime she drove a car, and eddie very much wanted to see her live to graduation. he unlocked the car, quickly hopped in, an appreciative glance around before he looked back at nancy.

“not bad.”, he said, nodding to himself. “i mean, i’d take the van, any day. but not bad.” eddie shrugged, turned the keys in the ignition before his attention was drawn back to her hand. “you should get that checked out, wheeler. looks pretty nasty to me.”

So apparently men's crop tops were a thing during the 80s...

walkie talks || steddie

steve: that's not what i meant, eddie! i just want a private talk, that's all...

steve: i wanted to come over but i wasn't sure if you wanted to see me...

steve: i've been trying for days to get on the... right fucking channel, or whatever

steve: i just... i wanna know what happened back in the cabin

eddie: a private talk on a walkie line any of the shitbirds could intercept at, like, any moment, huh?

eddie: gotta say i probably wouldn't have fist bumped the air if i'd seen you pull up in my driveway

eddie:... i say drive way like it isn't a trailer park

eddie: anyway

eddie: thought it was quite obvious what happened at the cabin. *you* made it quite obvious, chief.

stevehharringtcns·:

.

it was funny to think that steve used to think that he would never make his way inside of eddie’s trailer when he was younger. the two were apparently incompatible back then, but now, steve would gladly spend his days with eddie if he could. it was better than spending time at his place, especially when his parents were around. steve also wasn’t sure when eddie’s opinion became so important to him, but it was definitely important now. that’s why he was sort of nervous to show him his new haircut. who could tell what his reaction was going to be? maybe he liked his hair the way it used to be, and he had to admit that the other’s face scared him a bit once he first saw it.

smiling once the other approached him and kissed him, steve smiled as he wrapped both of his arms around the other’s waist and brought him closer to him. “do you really love it or are you just saying that because i’m your boyfriend? because you have to tell me if you don’t.” steve said with a small chuckle escaping from his lips, before he kissed the other’s cheek. steve could feel his knee starting to hurt, mostly because he had probably been standing for too long now. he knew that they both needed to sit down, especially since eddie had messed up his ankle pretty bad. he looked down to check out the other’s ankle and frowned when he noticed that it was wrapped in bandages.

“what are you doing up? i thought we both agreed that we’re supposed to… you know, get some rest and all of that. you’re hurt.” steve said as he shook his head slightly. he could feel his face turning hot, but he thought that might have just been from being in eddie’s presence. who could blame him after all? “c’mon, let’s sit down.” steve said as he let go of the other and sat down on the couch carefully enough not to hurt himself. that area was a sensitive one, but he wouldn’t admit it out loud, even if eddie wouldn’t make fun of him. 

steve smiled up at the other as he watched him, feeling himself relax on the couch. he was used to this couch now, but who could blame him? he spent a lot of time there. he ran a hand through his hair, a little shocked when he felt it so short. it was hard getting used to it, but he knew that he could probably still rock it. “it’s weird getting used to have short hair…” he said, nodding his head. “you know, i think you would look pretty good with short hair too. maybe you should try it out.” he said, a teasing tone in his voice as he looked over at eddie. he knew how much the other liked his hair, and who could blame him? he looked good.

+++

eddie was glad for the support that steve's arms around his waist proved to be, relaxing ever so slightly, he wrapped one hand around the back of steve's neck, the other resting on his biceps. it allowed to him to shift his weight, relieving his injured ankle of the burden of fully supporting him. still, eddie tried his best to keep his reaction under control - no need for steve to worry, after the man himself had only recently gotten out of hospital. this was a minor injury at best, fat more benign than the wounds steve had suffered. so he put on a brave face, gave his boyfriend a smile.

"oh, so you think you have me totally at your mercy, huh? that you've wooed me into being a dishonest man? why, i detest your accusation!" said with all the theatrics and bravado he could muster up - lacking in execution but not passion. eddie gave a slight chuckle." no, steve, princess, I assure you that i love it. totally honestly. cross my heart, and all that. "

a sharp pang of guilt in his chest, he grimaced as steve took note of his injury. eddie waved his hand, but stopped himself shirt of saying 'it's nothing'. instead he sighed, rolled his eyes and plopped down on the couch next to steve, swinging his legs over his boyfriends lap. "yeah, yeah, sorry. ill rest. im resting now, aren't i?" then, snuggling closer, he took hold of steve's arm and added : "not that id be opposed to not-resting. cause that new hair of yours is really making me want to not rest, babe." and eddie wiggled his brows suggestively, added a wink for good measure.

soon replaced by a frown, he fervently shook his head. "me with short hair? no man, i definitely can't pull that off. besides - that's sort of my whole thing here. ever seen a metalhead without long, luscious locks?"