Chapter Text
Eddie had always been different. He didn't get the moniker Eddie 'the freak' Munson for nothing.
He’d been a freak to people all his life, he wasn’t sure exactly why. No one ever told him in a clear way; it was always vague. His clothes, his hair, his music, the way he looked at people, his tone, his vibe. Those were a few variations he'd gotten over the years.
He guesses he’s just always just had a harder time than most being normal. He still doesn’t really understand the way other people talked, moved or even thought. He felt like an alien.
Where Eddie was all passion and big movements other people were subdued and sneaky with all their hidden meanings. It was confusing as fuck.
Sad thing is, for a time he tried really hard to be like them.
A memory that always sticks out to him when he thinks back is from eighth grade. He was just a kid at the time. He’d been trying really hard to tone down his movements and mimic the way others talked and moved their faces.
This meant that rather than bouncing on his heels while waiting outside the door for class, he had just been rolling his favourite pencil back and forth between his fingers. The pencil was the perfect shape and size and the way its ridges pressed against his fingers calmed him. He’d had this pencil going on a year now, it was the best.
He thought the movement was chill enough that he’d look normal but apparently not.
Jason Carver rounded the corner and Eddie felt his stomach fill with ice. Most people tormented him but Jason had a special sort of vendetta against him.
He was shoulder barged as Jason passed which made Eddie stumble and drop his pencil. He made a squeaking noise and scrambled to pick it up, that was his first mistake.
“The fuck was that, freak?”
“What?” Eddie questioned, preoccupied with checking his pencil over for damage. That was his second mistake. The pencil was snatched out of his hands and his stomach rolled anxiously.
“Look at me when I’m talking to you for fucks sake,” Jason’s lackeys sneered down at him. He hadn’t gone through his growth spurt yet so was easily towered over.
“I’m sorry just--” Jason raised an eyebrow and Eddie fought back a noise of distress; look normal. “Can you give that back please?” Jason’s grin grew.
“What? This old thing? Think I might just keep it actually.” He laughed at the way Eddie's face crumpled. These people took a special kind of pleasure in taking his things. It upset him, they liked that it made him upset. He didn’t get what he did to make them hate him so much. He swallowed around a lump in his throat.
“Please-- just give it back-” Eddie rocked on his heels, too stressed to fight back the movement now. Jason and his lackey’s laughter only grew louder and crueller. It seemed to reverberate around the room, making his bones ache.
“Fine, you want it so bad, take it.” It was a miracle, Jason held out the pencil. Eddie looked up warily, looking for the trick before reaching to grab it and-
Jason snapped it.
His favourite pencil.
“Enjoy, freak.” Jason shoved him once in the chest and stalked off down the corridor, those cruel laughs getting quieter as they progressed. Eddie cradled the broken pieces in his hands, trying very very hard not to cry.
It didn’t work.
He took off running. Sometimes when he got upset he would run and didn’t have any control over where he went. This was one of those times. People stared as he went, people pushed at him or heckled him but he was a one track mind that said escape at that point.
He ended up in a deserted bathroom stall crying as quiet as he could manage.
He was trying so hard to be like them and still this happened, still they called him a freak. What was he doing wrong?!
He was absolutely fucking miserable.
He suddenly found himself thinking about his Uncle Wayne. He’d moved in with the man after his asshole of a father finally got himself locked up.
Wayne wasn’t like most people. He didn’t care about the odd things Eddie did. When he asked him later on in life he’d said that he would be a hypocrite if he did because Wayne didn’t understand most people either. He barely spoke but Eddie still felt more understood by him than he had ever by anyone. He couldn’t quite place exactly how because on paper they were very different but he knew that in some deep fundamental way, they were the same.
Except, Wayne never tried to be like everyone else. He was content being himself even though most people found him scary.
He was struck with the sudden thought that maybe he could be like that too.
These thoughts of his uncle and the steady presence he’d become in his life had helped calm him down enough to leave the bathroom. He would probably be late for class but fuck it.
Maybe a week after the pencil incident he was alone smoking outside under the bleachers when he spotted Jason. He was also alone. Spurred by his growing frustration, he found the guts to go and talk to the guy,
“Jason--”
“The fuck do you want freak?” Jason spat at him, immediately hostile at his approach. Eddie was entirely numb to the insult and didn’t even flinch.
“What is your problem with me?” He meant it as a genuine question but Jason’s jaw ticked and his fists clenched so he gathered it wasn’t taken as such, oops.
“What’s my problem?” He was pushed and stumbled back a little, “What is your fucking problem?” that… made no sense.
“I… don’t have a problem with you?” His face drew into a confused look which only seemed to piss of Jason further.
“God, you are such a freak.” Jason took an angry drag of his cigarette before stamping it out on the floor. “Here’s a word of advice,” He leant forward and Eddie fought the urge to move back, “Learn to shut up.” He growled before shoulder barging him on the way back inside.
Eddie stared after him, completely baffled and decided at that moment to give up.
So he didn’t. Shut up that is. If people were gonna treat him like shit either way, he decided he might as well stop trying so hard to please them. The only time people were even remotely decent was if they wanted something.. usually drugs. He was sick of it.
So, after that confrontation with Carver, he took a leaf out of Wayne’s book, stopped caring and just started doing what he wanted to do. He still toned down a few parts of himself, just so he didn’t constantly get odd looks, but all in all after that he was content being himself and far less exhausted overall.
He even ended up finding a group of people with similar interests. Turns out his passion for D&D was a pro for once with these guys, it made him a kick ass DM.
He felt free.
It all kind of went to shit when he was accused of murder.
A reputation as a freak satanist really doesn’t help your case and it wasn’t long before the entire town was vollying for his head.
If he was honest, it hurt. He’d never been cruel to anyone, something that couldn’t be said for so many, and yet now people thought he was capable of murder just because of how he was. He knew people misunderstood him but that just felt like a punch in the gut.
Luckily there were exceptions, exceptions he now owed his life. Dustin Henderson, a little nerd Eddie had taken under his wing and the rest of his group that he called ‘the party’. Most shockingly out of that group of Henderson’s was Steve Harrington.
Steve wasn’t the biggest ass to him in high school but he’d still laughed along and joined in when others shoved him. Steve was firmly in the dickhead box in his mind so imagine his shock when the man helped him run from the town that wanted him dead and then fought alongside him against an interdimensional mind controlling monster.
Madness.
It had been a real close call in the end for Eddie, he’d been used as a chew toy by a bunch of demon bat things and was certain he was about to die. Henderson ended up coming to his rescue and managed to drag him out and to a hospital.
The US government had swooped in to tidy up the whole Vecna mess, acquitting Eddie in the process. Unfortunately, despite the cover story, the entire town was still half convinced he was a satanist murderer so that wasn’t great.
He was home though, he never thought he’d see his home again for a while back there. But here he was, with his uncle, healing. He would just have to learn to shrug off those who thought he was a murderer like he’d learned to do before. It would be fine.
“How’re you feelin’?” Wayne had taken to asking him that every time he saw him, right now he was carrying a plate with a sandwich on to where Eddie was lying in bed. The bats fucked him up real bad so he’d just been pretty much glued there for the past week.
“I’m alright.” He accepted the offered plate with a small wince as the action pulled on one of his chest wounds.
“Still given’ you grief?” He gestured to Eddie's torso.
“Will for a while the doctors say.” Wayne grunted in response and watched as Eddie took a bite of the food.
“So, Eddie,” Eddie chewed and swallowed.
“Yeah?”
“I’ve been readin’ what the doctor gave us and it says we should start ‘physical therapy’”
Eddie grimaced, “Do we have to?” Wayne’s mouth ticked up in what Eddie knew was a smile.
“If you wanna get better,” Wayne shrugged and stood up with a groan, he wasn’t getting any younger. “When you’re done eatin’ get ready, we’ll go on a little walk.” Eddie groaned dramatically and flopped back, hissing at the pain the action caused. Wayne chuckled. “Holler if you need help changin’” Eddie stuffed his mouth with sandwich to hold back the annoyed retort. He was just trying to help but it made him feel a bit useless.
He did manage to get changed without help but it was a near thing. His torso had been absolutely obliterated, Eddie had to avoid looking down lest he fucking faint or something.
Wayne gave him the lopsided expression that meant he was smiling when he saw Eddie up and changed. “Ready?”
“As I’ll ever be,” Eddie shrugged. Wayne clapped him on the shoulder gently, careful not to hurt him.
“Let’s go then.”
Walking wasn’t the hardest task for Eddie, most of the wounds were concentrated on his upper body so the act of walking didn’t aggravate anything too much. It still took a lot out of him though. He lost a lot of blood, like… a lot. The doctors say he’s now anaemic as well as having a bunch of tissue damage.
He had pills and it would improve over time but it meant that for now he was out of breath and his legs were aching incessantly almost immediately into their walk. He had to breathe deep and steady so he didn’t throw up or faint.
“Doin’ alright there son?” Wayne looked worried.
“Yeah, can we just,” He panted, “Stop a second?”
“‘Course.” Eddie gave an appreciative smile and leaned against a tree. They had barely made it out of the trailer park and he was this fucked up, goddamn.
Wayne didn’t speak while the younger man regained his breath but with him silences rarely felt tense. Eddie just relaxed into the easy quiet, revelling in the lack of pressure to talk. It felt like he could actually process what was going on rather than just hanging on for dear life as the world raged around him.
“You ok to continue or do you wanna head back?” Eddie blinked up at his uncle, a little surprised by the sound of his voice.
“I think I can continue a little,” Eddie said, straightening up from the tree with a barely concealed wince.
“Sure about that? I ain’t gonna carry you back.” That was a lie, he would if he had to, he just wouldn’t be happy about it.
“Yeah-- yeah let’s go, Frodo never relented on his long arduous trek to Mordor, I shall not quit my own humble journey.” His voice gained strength as he monologued. Wayne stared at him a little confused but nodded all the same with a smile.
“That’s the spirit kid… I think” Eddie laughed as they began walking again. They didn’t manage much further before Wayne insisted they head back. Eddie wasn’t going to protest at that point.
It was rather pleasant minus physical complaints, he liked hanging out with his uncle. He’d missed him.
The metalhead felt his heart drop when they got back to the trailer park. There was a group of 5 teenagers sitting smoking and drinking in the small park near their trailer. There was no way around them. Wayne might be understanding of Eddie and he may be officially off the murder list but that didn’t mean people still didn’t talk.
“You’re alright, I’m with you,” Wayne put a comforting hand on his shoulder and guided him to start moving forwards again. He hadn’t even realised he’d stopped.
The group of teenagers stopped talking as they got closer and stared openly at the alleged satanist. Eddie suddenly felt self conscious of the way he was limping and breathing like he’d run a marathon, he usually dealt with stares by holding his head high but he couldn’t really do that very well right now.
“Oh my God, Amy, it’s him!” One of the girls whispered loudly and elbowed another in the ribs.
“Fuck, you’re right. I don’t know how they just let him walk around free after what he did.” This girl spoke louder and sneered at him, clearly not caring for discretion like the other.
“Maybe we should go-” said the first girl.
“Fuck that,” a boy, clearly a jock, stood up, Eddie vaguely recognised him from school.
“Adam don’t-”
“”Hey freak!” He closed the short distance between them, glaring with such honest disgust that the older boy had to make an effort to not recoil from the force of it. He fiddled with his rings, the motion soothing as he plastered on an easy grin.
“Can I help you?” His uncle's gruff voice cut off any smartass retorts Eddie would have produced. Probably for the best. Adams piercing glare snapped away from Eddie.
“You this freaks dad?”
“What’s it to you?” Wayne stepped forward, in front of his nephew so he was shielded. People found Wayne to be intimidating, his face was normally set in stone and he had a gruff ‘no funny business’ air to his words. It was enough for the young man to finally look a little unsure and back down.
“Fucking freaks,” He muttered, retreating back to his little pals. Wayne returned the steadying hand to Eddie’s shoulder and guided him the rest of the way home.
“People are assholes.” It made the younger snort but Wayne didn’t look amused in the slightest. He helped his nephew sit down and went about getting him a glass of water. “Even after bein’ proven innocent those--“ the rest of his rant was indecipherable as he mumbled the rest under the sound of the tap. He could imagine many colourful expletives.
“Thanks.” Eddie said as his uncle handed him water. The word was weighted, he wasn’t just thanking him for a drink and Wayne knew that. His uncle's hard gaze softened.
“Anytime kid. You’ve never been too good at gettin’ yourself out of trouble.” Eddie drank, humming in acceptance. He did have a tendency to piss people off. He started to rock himself back and forth stiltedly, a motion he wouldn’t normally grant himself but the situation called for it. Wayne never batted an eye at his oddities anyway so he felt safe enough to do so.
“Maybe you should invite those friends of yours over tomorrow?” Wayne suggested from beside him.
“Maybe?” He wasn’t entirely sure he wanted to see people right now. Hiding seemed so much easier. Wayne smirked and sent him a knowing look.
“It’d do you good, get you outta your head.” Eddie huffed a laugh, nothing got past him.
“Alright, fine. I’ll call them.”