Chapter Text
Eddie’s shoes made a wet squelch with every step through the field. The mud was made even worse by the kids walking in front of them, tearing up the water-logged grass with their sneakers. He and Robin chatted idly as they supported Steves’s weight on either side, trying to burn off some anxious energy left over from killing Vecna.
His left shoe sunk into a puddle, and the cold dirty water seeped into his soles and pooled at his toes. Great. Now he was going to be cold, as well as caked in mud and what he refused to admit was demobat guts.
All the fantasy books he had read throughout the years had done nothing to prepare him for the reality of fighting monsters. Turns out being a hero wasn’t fearlessly killing the monster and coming home to a parade thrown in your honor.
It was being scared shitless and coming home broken, beaten, and absolutely fucking filthy.
Finally, they reached the edge of the field where a stretch of the dense forest stood between them and the road. In front of them lay a massive felled tree that came up to his hips. It stretched along the edge of the forest, like castle walls. A mess of moss and lichen covered the trunk so thoroughly that he could hardly see the bark underneath.
Getting across that slippery mess was going to take more energy than he had at this point.
He leant against the tree near Robin, not caring about the moss staining his pants. They were being burned either way. Exhaustion settled into his bones the second he stopped. As if gravity had finally caught him, throwing the weight of the day onto his shoulders. Or maybe Steve was heavy.
Steve flopped down between them and groaned, clutching his side. Eddie quickly wrapped his arm back around him, in case he lost his balance. When Steve didn’t protest, he edged a bit closer, Steve’s body heat starving off the chill.
The party followed their lead, and sat down too, all deciding to take a much-needed break.
The familiar whirl of Max's walkman rewinding broke through the sound of the wind.
“You don’t look so good there, buddy,” Dustin said.
Dustin was right, Steve looked like shit. His skin was dull and pale, with dark rings bruising his under eyes and his hair clung to his forehead with sweat. The makeshift bandages around his waist had already soaked through with blood. Eddie thought he might have collapsed already if it weren’t for Robin and him taking turns holding him up.
Robin shot him a panicked look, her hair a matted mess around her blood-smeared face. She held onto Steve’s arm tighter in shaking hands. He wished he could say it was because of the cold.
“Should we take him to the hospital? I think we should take him to the hospital. Steve? Look at him, he looks like he could kneel over and die right now,” Robin rambled. “What if it’s rabies? Oh my god, you don't think I’ll jinx it right? I take it back!”
Steve shook his head. “No hospital remember, too many questions.”
“But what about the rabies-“
“He doesn’t have rabies, he’s just a little beat up. Plus, he doesn’t have any of the symptoms, right, Steve? No fever, hydrophobia, no delirium, no aggression.” Dustin checked off the symptoms with his fingers.
Robin looked at Steve closely, as if searching for signs of disease.
“Kid, I will be angry in a second if you don’t stop talking. You’re not helping,” Steve warned, his words slurred with exhaustion.
“I was-“
“Yeah no. That’s a no. I’m fine,” Steve said as he swatted away Robins’s hand that was checking his temperature. “Or I will be fine. I need a hot shower and some sleep and I’ll be good as new.”
Dustin shot Steve an unimpressed look. “Good as new.”
“Someone is going to look after him right?” Eddie asked.
Eddie hadn’t known Steve for that long, but he knew that he was too stubborn to ask for help. That or he didn't even think of it as an option. Too used to protecting others or fending for himself. Which was stupid.
No one ever gets very far by themselves.
“Yep, one thousand percent,” Lucas said and Max was quick to nod beside him.
Robin opened her mouth.“I’ll do-“
Steve cut her off. “Robin, I love you, but I would rather die.”
“I would be a totally good nurse, you’re missing out,” Robin joked, but her voice was brittle.
Eddie raised his free hand. He didn’t want to intrude, but they were running out of options. “Ah, I could? I mean, Steve said I could crash at his place until my trailer gets fixed, anyway. So win-win.”
“You’re going to look after him?” Nancy asked, her eyes now focused on them and not the dark nothingness of the forest.
“Hey! No need to say it like that." He pouted. "I look after people all the time.”
She blanched. “Selling people drugs is not looking after them.”
Only someone who’s never smoked weed before would say that. Maybe he could convince them to party with him one time, call it a bonding session or something. Not the kids though. He so didn’t want to look after paranoid kids. Or even worse, if they got all sappy. Nope. Just the four of them.
“Um yeah, it is. It’s medicine. I’m practically a pharmacist.”
Nancy’s brows furrowed. “Didn’t you fail chem twice?”
He wiggled his eyebrows. “You been looking at my grades, Wheeler?”
A burst of laughter left him when she gagged.
“I was in your class.”
Oh right. He had forgotten about that. That happens when you only show up every now and then.
“Back to Steve over here,” he said, changing the subject. “Don’t worry, I’ll be a good little nurse. ”
She looked at Steve for permission. “Steve?”
Steve nodded, and he looked even more sickly than he did a few minutes ago. “Yeah, whatever. Can we just go now?”