So I Wrote This Yesterday And Now It's Become A Whole Thing

It's okay if it takes a little longer than you thought.

🎆 🍔 New Years Eve Steddie please!

You got it! Here are the boys finally meeting!

Eddie rubs a tired hand over his forehead. “My shift’s over in literally five minutes. Would you…would you feel comfortable enough to go to the diner next door with me? I’ve got some Advil in my employee locker. And I could get you a cheeseburger.” The guy goes completely quiet and still. He goes to try and shimmy around with the door, maybe get it off its hinges or something, make sure he’s not choking or— But then he sniffles softly. “That sounds really nice,” he says, “you’re really nice. What’s…what’s your name?” “Eddie, and yours?” “Steve,” he breathes. “Sorry I’m such a sack of crap. Wasting your time.”

Thank you for the ask!

WIP Weekend Ask Game!

We know that Facebook is brainscorching your parents and tiktok is brainscorching your cousins, but some of you refuse to admit that you got your brain scorched here. However unlike those sites there isn't an algorithm here you just make bad choices.

So... I'm writing a fic. It's been sitting on my drafts for over six months, that's why I think it's time to post it even though I barely have anything more written.

Maybe now that it's published I'll have more motivation, anyways; here it is:

Erlking. / (ˈɜːlˌkɪŋ) / noun. German myth: a malevolent spirit who carries children off to death.

Jonathan just wanted to find his brother and was looking wherever he could, and if 'wherever' meant Harrington's backyard, he would look at it.

It was just that Jonathan was expecting to find his brother. Not... King Steve and Eddie 'The Freak' Munson having a pretty enthusiastic make up session.

Or. Stranger things through out the seasons with established steddie, Steve being friends with everyone, Hopper and Wayne being surrogate fathers and death lurking at every corner of Steve's life.

Archive Warnings:

Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death (temporary).

Categories: Gen, M/M

Fandom: Stranger Things (TV 2016)

Relationships:

Steve Harrington/Eddie Munson, Jonathan Byers & Steve Harrington, Jonathan Byers & Steve Harrington & Nancy Wheeler, Steve Harrington & The Party, Steve Harrington & Wayne Munson, Robin Buckley & Steve Harrington, Steve Harrington & Jim "Chief" Hopper, Steve Harrington & Everyone, Minor or Background Relationship(s)

Additional Tags:

Steve Harrington-centric, Queer Steve Harrington, Queer Eddie Munson, Canon Rewrite, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Established Steve Harrington/Eddie Munson, Secret Relationship, Jonathan Byers & Steve Harrington Friendship, The Party as Family (Stranger Things), Steve Harrington Acting as The Party's Big Brother, Steve Harrington Has Bad Parents, Steve Harrington Has Absent Parents, Platonic Soulmates Robin Buckley & Steve Harrington, Protective Eddie MunsonProtective Wayne Munson, Protective Jim "Chief" Hopper, Found Family, Everyone Loves Steve Harrington, Final Boss Vecna, Death, Temporary Character Death, Major Character Undeath, Talks About Death, Body Horror, Torture, Suicidal Thoughts, Grief/Mourning, POV Multiple, POV Outsider, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Self-Indulgent, Gratuitous use of italics, Good Babysitter Steve Harrington, Dead Dove: Do Not Eat, Graphic Description, Tag – Freeform.

Adding onto Steve's crime spree from this (and this and this)

Eddie has determined that he's not asking the right questions in life.

Is he questioning the man? Yes. Every day.

Is he asking Wayne for help when his van shits the bed on Thursday? No. When his van is still unusable come Saturday, did he ask his friends if he could catch a ride to band practice? No.

Did he ask if he could get a ride home? Also no.

It's raining and Eddie regrets his life choices so hard, he doesn't notice the Porsche 928 until it blows through the crosswalk he was about to step onto. He's hit with a tidal wave of frigid early November street water because, of course, he is.

"Fuck's sake," Eddie swore, pushing his wet hair out of his face. In his perphery, the Porche slams on its breaks and rolls back into the crosswalk beside him, but he barely notices. Talking to the driver, the world, or god, Eddie does not know when he rants, "Thanks! Thanks for that, I really need pnumonia. Thanks for bestowing-"

"Sorry, man," Steve says, an apologetic wince sticking out of the open window of the Porche. "Wanna ride? I can take you where you're going."

Eddie looks at the car, then at Steve, and then back at the car and signs, "...Fine, but only because this car is beautiful and not to expunge your guilt."

"Dude, I don't think a sponge is going to help."

Eddie rolls his eyes but sticks his guitar in the trunk before sliding into the passenger seat. He has to physically stop himself from touching everything. He's never even seen a Porche before, wow.

Steve's in the driver's seat looking like he's dying for Eddie to ask about the car so he can talk about it. Honestly, Eddie wants to ask about the car. He probably should have asked about the car but instead, he shakes the water out of his hair like a dog as payback.

"C'mon, man," Steve complains, wiping the water off his face. "Watch the leather."

Eddie gives him directions and then bites the bullet. He asks the wrong question, "You trade in the Beamer?"

"No way. That's my baby," He says. "I'm just borrowing this lady."

The conversation is actually nice. None of Eddie's friends know anything about cars but Steve seems to know a lot. He can almost forgive the guy for being a jock and the psychological warfare he's bestowed onto Eddie's brain the past week and a half, but then-

“It sounds like - shit," Eddie says, echoing the same sentiment as Steve at the sight of flashing red and blue lights in the rear view. A question he should've been asking all along occurs to him, "Did you steal this car?"

Steve gives him an annoyed look and then rolls down his window, smiling that All-American smile, "Heya, Hop. Didn't think you were working today."

"This car was reported stolen."

Eddie swears, sinking into the leather with the hopes that it eats him. Steve doesn't even hesitate, "Let me guess, Mrs. Woolledge? Crazy she knows what all her neighbors are doing but not that her kid's on dope."

Hopper doesn't say anything and the silence is loud so Steve adds, "It's not stolen. It's my dad's car. I have permission."

"From your dad?" Hopper asks, getting an annoyed nod from Steve. "Same dad that's out of town?"

"Well, Hop. There's this thing called a phone."

"You get that MRI...right? Throw the keys out the window," Hopper says. Eddie's mentally preparing on how he's going to explain this to Wayne when he calls from jail. Steve protests. Hopper demands, "Throw. The keys. Out. The. Window. Now."

Steve seems to realize that he's pushing his luck because he does just that. He even gets out of the car when Hopper tells him to. Hopper tells him to get in his truck and Steve straight up lies, "Hop, I'm taking my friend home. We're working on a school project together. At his house.”

Eddie curses Steve's entire bloodline from start to finish when Hopper lookings directly at him still in the car, "That true?"

Say no. Say you don't know him. Say you know nothing. Say anything but, "Yes."

"What subject?'

"History," Steve says at the same time Eddie says 'Art' and then rolls his eyes, "Art history, yeah?"

Hopper nods like he thinks they're full of shit and then tells them both to get in his truck.

Steve protests but more about leaving the car on the street than anything else while Eddie briefly thinks about the psychic his mom used to know. He wonders if she could curse someone for real. Maybe he can call her from jail.

He's fully ready to see the police station that he fails to realize where Hopper's going until they’re in Forest Hills. He turns and looks at both of them and says, "I'd like to know what grade you get on this project."

"Aye, aye, Captain," Steve says with a salute, pulling Eddie out of the car. Once they're inside, Steve peaks out the blinds like, "Yeah, he'll sit there for a while. He thinks I'm lying. Wanna smoke?"

Eddie is baffled, "No."

"Okay," Steve shrugs and flops down on the couch. He pulls a set of keys out of his pocket and adds, "Spare key. We just gotta wait until he's gone and can circle back for your guitar."

The only thing Eddie can think is, “what the fuck” and he doesn’t even know which part he’s talking about.

I need to see Steve at his breaking point, kneeling in absolute defeat. Whimpering, crying, sobbing with a sword under his chin forcing him to look up that man who is now nothing but a stranger.

But, once he was a familiar and friendly face around the castle. Often running around with the outcasts and playing music in the town square. Telling stories of great heroic adventurers to the children that flocked around him to listen. A tall but scrawny thing with a mouth that knew not when to bite its tongue.

Steven makes a pathetic image for a prince. His skin is stained with tears, grime, and blood. Blood from his knights. Brothers in arms that he’d known since he was a mere child.

He’s nothing now, has nothing.

A fallen prince awaiting death.

Edward has his dark tresses tied at the nape of his neck. His eyes are dark as night, focused and fierce in his gaze. His chest heaves and exhaustion is evident, but he stands proud.

Vengeful.

Such a far cry from the once cowardly and impish man that Steven had known him to be.

Even with the sting of betrayal, the broken bond among him and children, adolescents now, that he had come to care for… he understands why someone would follow him.

He has the stance of a leader and the final unwavering judgement of a king.

Humilated, he thinks of his people, the children (his children), and even the servants that had joined the revolt against the crown. He wishes them a better life, a kinder one than he and his parents had given them under their family rule.

Steven trusts… he trusts in his people’s judgment, despite it all, and their faith in their soon-to-be King Edward.

Accepting the fate of their decision, his cries quiet but he makes no move to wipe the mess he’s made of himself.

Steve raises his chin just a bit higher and tries to steady his breath. Leans his head against the sword that’s at the side of his neck now, a swing away from finality, and looks up at the people’s king.

“Whatever kind of king you choose to be,” his mouth is parched and heavy with the taste of ash, “be a loving one.”

His closes his eyes, and waits.

“Then, my first act as King will be that of good faith to the people. Prince Steven… I show you mercy.”

unsure whether it would fit the vibe or steve's character in your ficlet about joyce not liking him but it would be deeply entertaining to me personally if someone made a bitchy comment about it being ironic that joyce assumed steve was cheating considering nancy cheated on steve w jonathan when joyce explains what happened/the miscommunication.

Part 1 part 2 Ooooh. Ohhoho. Okay my knee-jerk reaction was of course Robin or Eddie. Possibly Max or Dustin (though whether Steve would tell any of the kids is highly questionable and scenario specific). Little protect Steve attack dogs the lot of them.

But consider. It's Hopper. Joyce tries to talk to him about how to go about apologizing and making things right with Steve. She doesn't want a very public spectacle of it but may have to be a little overt and obvious in order to ensure anyone Steve told (which seems to only be Robin, Eddie, and Will, not even Hopper even if he's sniffed out that something definitely happened. Steve was working up to bringing it up!)

And when she mentions that she only said all that because she thought Steve was cheating on his girlfriend, Hopper snorts. It's not a laugh, he's kinda pissed, actually, and says. "Well. That's ironic."

Joyce falters and goes "what? What's that supposed to mean?"

Hop only knows the story because sometime after vecna Murray of all people mentioned casually how Jonathan and Nancy got together on their little whistle blower field trip in '84 because of him, Steve had gone "what? Nancy and I didn't break up until after they...got back..." And Hop dealt with the emotional fallout alone because Robin was with her grandparents or something. So he'd watched as Steve just. Crumpled in and reexamined every interaction he and Nancy had had since then, and how she hadn't been the one to officially call things off with him, and how she'd flirted in the Upside Down when she was actually still dating Jonathan. But mostly how he had to find out two years later from fuckin Murray, and how much that hurt whatever friendship and trust had been built between Nancy and Jonathan and Steve.

So Hopper had heard all about Steve's issues regarding infidelity between his parents, how it was the reason he went off the deepend in '83 which brought him apologizing through the Byers' door and into the world of monsters. And how Steve thinks it's a shitty thing to do to someone who trusts you, and who you supposedly care about. How Steve just wished they had thought to at least tell him. Because he knew there were vibes and tension and electricity between them, but he hadn't known they'd already acted on them. He broke up with Nancy because he was more invested than she was, and hadn't even told him where she was going for two days, and figured trying to help her repress the trauma from the Upside Down wasn't what she actually wanted, despite the way she also encouraged ignoring it. He just couldn't believe she didn't break up with him first, after what she'd done. He didn't want to unknowingly be his mother.

Hop respects Nancy Wheelers tenacity and bullheadedness. Her determination to burn the Upside Down and the lab down to the fucking ground. She's got, for the most part, a good head on her shoulders and will likely succeed in whatever she chooses. A trailblazer that he'd trust to find the truth in whatever conspiracy comes her way. He just doesn't trust her around his fucking kid.

Jonathan Byers, he thinks, is a very good brother who needs to chill the fuck out and let himself be a kid again. He's incredibly awkward around Steve (and now Hop knows why) and kinda jumpy. But he'd trekked across the country to save El. It wasn't really his responsibility to tell Steve anyways. Hop keeps an eye on him, but he can't actually hold a grudge against him. Just a little wary.

All this to say, hop snorts out his "that's ironic" to Joyce, and she looks confused.

So he goes. "Well. Not that it's our business, so much, but Nancy getting with Jon had some overlap with her relationship with Steve."

"what do you mean?"

He raises his eyebrows. "Joyce. I'm saying Nancy Wheeler cheated on Steve with Jonathan back in '84, and didn't even bother break up or tell the kid herself. He broke up with her that weekend for other reasons, and Murray told him this past summer on accident. So. Pretty ironic for you to accuse him of cheating."

Joyce gasps. "They did that?"

"yep. Pretty shitty of them. 'parently" and Hop should maybe not say anything else, but she'd accused his kid of cheating and tore into him for it and made him feel like he wasn't safe in Hopper's house too. "Kid has got major issues about it. Seeing his dad chest on his mom all the time without even bothering to cover it up and his mother's...reactions to that, really fucked him up. Finding out about Jon and Nancy really put a wrench in the friendship he'd tried to have with them." He leaned forward a bit. "So, yeah. Really fuckin ironic you'd accuse my kid of being a cheater when all he did was kiss his boyfriend goodnight."

"Hop...I had no idea..."

Hop shrugs. "You'd better be careful how you tell him. At least right now he knows it's a you problem. Explaining that you thought he'd cheat on a partner when you've been talking up Nancy and Jonathan's relationship? Yeah, in his brain that'll make him think it's a him, problem, trying to figure out what he did that you'd think he'd do something like that."

"oh goddammit."

"yeah. Not a very nice situation to be in. Good luck on it. Love 'ya." And he walks out of the kitchen.

Want to make a minor adjustment to my Steve With Much Older Siblings post from yesterday. I think it’d be a much more interesting dynamic if he’s actually their half sibling from an affair.

Their father had an affair with his secretary and then married her when she got pregnant. It broke up their family and they blamed Steve for it for years.

When they stayed over for their weekend with Dad, they were either outright cruel to him or pretended he didn’t exist. When they were old enough to stop coming over, they did. It’s only after growing up and maturing that (most of) his siblings were able to acknowledge that Steve was never at fault for their family breaking up.

They tried to mend their relationship with him, especially after realizing how absent his parents are, but by then Steve was old enough to build up his own resentment. It’s an uphill battle.

It’s a lot of actually coming around for holidays and a lot of teasing when they do. It’s actually picking the phone when the hospital calls, something that’s happening with increasing frequency.

Steve has never asked any of them for anything until one day, he shows up on Richie’s front porch smelling like death and gasoline. He’s got blood drying all over him and is visibly shaking, and Richie thinks that he’s been hurt in the earthquake but Steve barely acknowledges the concern, “I need you to represent my friend.”

“What?”

“You’re the only lawyer I know, and -“ Steve takes a big shuttering breath. “They’ll kill him, Rich. He never hurt anybody but no one will listen. They’ll lock him up and it won’t be fair, and Dustin can’t… I never ask you for anything but. But I need…”

“Eddie Munson?” He asks incredulous. “You’re friends with Eddie Munson?”

Eddie: Hey, Robin, you know that fae folklore where some fairies have to count salt when it's spilled in front of them?

Robin: Yeesss, where are you going with this, buddy?

Eddie: Well, if Steve trips in front of a fairy, do you think it would have to count his moles?

Robin: I don't know, depends on if his moles taste like salt or not:

Steve: *walking back into the living room* Okay, got the popcorn! I might have - EDDIE!

Eddie had gotten up, grabbed Steve’s face, and licked the moles on his cheek.

Eddie: *gasps* Robin! It tastes like salt. . .AND butter!

Steve: *blushing* Yeah, that's because I ate a couple of pieces. Jesus.

Eddie: *thinking about counting Steve’s moles* I wish I was a fairy.

Steve: Dude! We do NOT like to be called that!

Eddie gaped at him the rest of the night, trying to figure out if he was a mythical creature or not when actually Steve has yet to tell Eddie he's bisexual.