It happens like a fever dream.
The first time Steve gives Eddie a swift smack on the ass, it’s obviously just an old jock habit that stuck with him. It wasn’t meant to have Eddie’s knees going weak, or turn his blood hot under his skin, or give him a brand in the shape of Steve Harrington’s hand, or— Nope, because Eddie’s not even into that.
But then, it happens again.
Or, Steve keeps accidentally awakening Eddie’s new kinks.
thinking bout firefighter steve tonight but specifically firefighter recruit steve.
because there is something very very interesting to me about Steve going into a very intense training program for a very intense and important job when his body has only ever known high intensity situations as not just life-or-death, but also end of the world.
throwing that guy into these training exercises that throw his body back in time to being nineteen and dragged under water or eighteen and burning a monster alive while fighting a concussion or seventeen and swinging a bat with thirty seconds warning without actually being any of those situations?
It could be disastrous. It could be retraumatizing as hell. It could throw him back ten steps in his recovery and make him feel small or weak or useless.
But it's Steve, right? And there is something so very interesting about the idea that maybe this sort of thing would actually be healing.
Reminding his body as well as his brain what it's like to go into a fight with the sole intention of saving rather than killing; reminding every broken piece of himself how to work together for the good of it.
Reminding himself that some tragedies are preventable, that some lives can be saved by regular people who put in the work, that even though the kid who fell through the ice or the cat stuck in the tree aren't world ending that saving them still matters.
It's not about being big and strong and tough, even if he doesn't mind the teasing he gets from friends that he knows mostly do it to cope with their own fears of watching him go into those kinds of situations again at all, it's about the trying.
The helping.
The "I just want to help."
That's why Steve Harrington becomes a firefighter. That's why the endless list of hard parts of the job are worth it.
Because maybe the war in Hawkins was always about saving the little guy too, and maybe that realization can be the thing that saves his life.
EDDIE MUNSON Stranger Things | 4.08
✨🌈☀️send this to ten people you're happy to see every time they pop up on your dash/notif and wish them a good day🌟🌈💥
ria 🫶😭🙏 thank you this is so nice!!
those damn mosquitos out and aboutttt
“I just need to know what happened, the truth of it,” is Wayne’s simple plea.
Steve shakes his head, heart in his throat, all he can say is, “Wayne, I would never hurt Eddie, I’m— I love him.”
Wayne doesn’t seem surprised by that at all, just calmly counters, “Don’t you mean loved?”
Or, Wayne gets suspicious about what really happened to Eddie when he notices that Steve Harrington keeps taking his mugs.
daisy jones-adjacent au. part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. tw substance abuse, ptsd, references to past torture (canon, the russians.)
Writing the album is, somehow, the easy part, even after Steve put his foot in his mouth.
He had his suspicions, but he shouldn't have asked that. It was a dick move, and he's been trying not to be a dick for the past few years. So, he apologized and didn't bring it up again.
Eddie softened after that. Like he wasn't expecting Steve to apologize. He accepted it, and things have been good since.
Well, more than good, if Steve's being honest. Things have gotten a lot better since.
He's noticed a few things, even after their permanently discontinued game of "truth or truth." Mostly, the things Steve has noticed have been about Eddie, like:
There's more. A lot more that Steve has noticed, but listing everything about Eddie's brilliance and stubbornness, his courage and obnoxiousness, his gorgeous face and sharp tongue would take all day. Steve has noticed a lot over these few weeks spent hunched over instruments and notebooks at his house, and he thinks Eddie has noticed him in return.
He hopes so.
It's been a long time since Steve has wanted to be noticed beyond the superficial adoration of fans. It's been a long time since Steve has wanted to be known.
✨🌈☀️send this to ten people you're happy to see every time they pop up on your dash/notif and wish them a good day🌟🌈💥
okay 1) you’re lovely 2) I SEE YOU trying to sneak this new fic past my inbox 👀👀👀👀
✨🌈☀️send this to ten people you're happy to see every time they pop up on your dash/notif and wish them a good day🌟🌈💥
thank you wynn!! 🙏🫶
✨🌈☀️send this to ten people you're happy to see every time they pop up on your dash/notif and wish them a good day🌟🌈💥
hehe thank you this is sweet 🙏
“Evening, sir.”
It’s the Harrington boy. Again.
“I told you, son, it’s Wayne,” he manages a smile, harder to do these days, like chipping it out of cement and dusting it off. But he gets it done.
Steve doesn’t have the Henderson boy with him today, that’s a first.
“Where’s the curly one?” He steps aside, letting Steve into the trailer door, more rickety than before. No money left to fix it after repairing the bulk of the earthquake damage.
“Dustin? He doesn’t wanna watch the game, and trust me, you don’t wanna listen to that kid complaining the whole time,” Steve walks by, sorta chuckling to himself, “I always miss the replay ‘cause he makes me change the channel to those D&D cartoons during the commercials, just like—”
He stops in front of the couch, looking over his shoulder at Wayne like he’s afraid he messed up somehow. Wayne noticed that look often from him, less and less, but still often. All that confidence he carries can drop on a dime, sorta reminded him of—
“Like Ed?”
“Yeah. Sorry.”
“I just need to know what happened, the truth of it,” is Wayne’s simple plea.
Steve shakes his head, heart in his throat, all he can say is, “Wayne, I would never hurt Eddie, I’m— I love him.”
Wayne doesn’t seem surprised by that at all, just calmly counters, “Don’t you mean loved?”
Or, Wayne gets suspicious about what really happened to Eddie when he notices that Steve Harrington keeps taking his mugs.
Inspired by that hilarious JQ photoshoot
written by @starrystevie with art by @paintedpatroclus for the steddie big bang.
releasing in october 2023; full excerpt under read more
after finding out that his father passed away and that the munson family home in townsend, tennessee is now uncle wayne's, eddie munson makes his way back to the little house nestled on the out skirts of the appalachian mountains. he brings along someone to help with the heavy lifting, to help carry boxes and clean out the junk the house has accumulated over the years. in walks steve harrington with his hands and arms open and ready to do much more than just the heavy lifting. together, the two work through eddie's grief and anger, acceptance and closure. it's all wrapped up in a family house in the mountains of east tennessee. it's where eddie learns how to let go, hot to let people in, and how to live as free as the winds blowing through the overgrown weeds. and if it means seeing steve trying to catch crawdads in the sunshine and seeing the stars twinkling in his eyes in the moonlight, then eddie's happy to be along for the ride.
even more daisy jones-adjacent things. parts 1, 2, 3, and 4. tw mentions of substance abuse, talks of blacking out.
It hits number five.
The song about losing, the song Steve helped write, the song with Steve's vocals, hits number five. It's the highest Corroded Coffin has ever gotten on a chart, and it's the highest Steve Harrington has, too.
They're ecstatic, Chrissy is smug, and the record company offers an album.
If, and only if, Steve Harrington continues to work with Corroded Coffin.
Eddie scared himself by saying "yes" first and scared himself even more by agreeing with Steve. But, he reasons, if they're going to be writing an album together, he needs to get the hell over himself.
Easier said than done, but Eddie has always had an "A for effort" kind of mindset.
He's always been the one writing most of the songs. He's always been the one with too many words in his head, always itching for a pen, always thinking in terms of guitar tabs and staff notation when Archie is feeling especially pretentious. Eddie has always done most of it, which has always worked. Jeff helps with lyrics because "I need to make sure you won't make me say anything stupid," Gareth has no interest beyond writing his own drum parts, and Archie, despite knowing the most formal music theory of any of them, doesn't care beyond cleaning it up.
But Eddie needs to write with someone now, and he realizes very quickly that he can't work with someone he hates, or, worse, barely knows.
"Let's play a game," he says, setting down his guitar and kicking his feet up on the couch. He and Steve have long since abandoned writing in the studio and instead decided that Steve's house - a little stucco bungalow with a pool and other cars always in the driveway - would make for a better venue.
Steve scowls when he sees Eddie's feet on the couch, but he stops humming to himself and starts paying attention. "What kind of game?"
"Truth or truth."
"Don't you mean truth or dare?"
"Nope," Eddie says. "Truth or truth. I ask a question, you answer it honestly, then I have to answer my own question. Then you ask, I answer, you answer. Rinse repeat, you get the drill."
"How do you win?" Steve asks, looking up at Eddie from where he sits on the floor.
"You win if you ask a question the other person refuses to answer."
"Sounds like I can just give up as soon as you ask."
"You could," Eddie admits. "But where's the fun in that?"
A tiny, barely-there smile pops up on Steve's face, and that's how Eddie knows he's starting to get somewhere.
Yeah. He's on edge around Steve. He thinks that anyone in his position would be. But Steve is admittedly impressive and mysterious and pretty, and all of that calls to Eddie's lesser instinct to push.
