Chapter Text
One minute he's flailing in the water, kicking his limbs to get back up while running out of air, and the next the sky is red and everything smells a bit rotten and he's engulfed with flapping wings of creatures who let out unnerving chittering sounds. He's fending them off with an oar he grabbed nearby, when suddenly something wraps around his neck and he's harshly pulled backwards, hitting the ground.
Steve's back is burning from getting dragged across the floor covered in vines, goo and gore.
Panicked, his hands come up to tear at the slimy flesh that's constricting his airflow. Pointy leathery bumps from the tail pierce through the thin skin around his throat.
Shit! Fuck! Ow!
Steve is thrashing on the floor, clawing against the strong hold. Pain zaps through him every time another winged monstrosity dives in to snack on his torso, burying their sharp teeth in his abdomen.
Steve fights the dawning whiteout from the sensory overload and agony, chasing the creatures off the best he can while simultaneously tossing and turning to get the chokehold to release.
A dull bang registers in the cloud of his head, and then finally the scorching torment at his stomach stops.
Nancy appears in his field of vision with an oar, and she and Robin try to annihilate the bat which has its tail around him.
In the distance Steve thinks he hears Eddie chanting. “Kill it! Kill it!”
Yes please. Kill it.
Then there are more creatures and everyone is fending for themselves. The winged monster tries to drag Steve away from the group but he will have none of that. In one final attempt he reaches back and pulls the bat in.
“Come here!” he hisses, but it just doesn't let go. His fight or flight response takes over, and the next thing he knows he's free of the asphyxiation and his mouth tastes like death and ashes. Glutinous goo is dripping from his lips as he gets up. Steve has the upper hand now, one hand still wrapped around the creature’s tail.
Fucking hell!
With all his remaining power, he smashes the bat onto the ground again and again ‘til Steve is sure it'll never move again. He's panting, clutching his abdomen with one hand and wiping his face with the other after spitting out the rest of the foul tasting goo.
The remaining bats take off, leaving the group some time to catch a breath.
An oar clatters to the ground. Eddie is cursing. Nancy is running up to Steve with concern.
“Steve! Are you okay?”
Warm blood is coating Steve's hand, pressed against the largest wound on the right side of his stomach. He doesn't dare check. It's pulsing under his touch, and the slightest pressure shoots waves of agony through his whole body.
“Well, they took about a pound of flesh, but other than that, yeah, never better.”
Robin's nervous ramble about bat rabies is cut off by a swarm of bats emerging from the horizon. They have to get away, so they follow after Nancy into the nearest woods.
Steve's feet feel heavy and each step disturbs the wound. He clenches his teeth and soldiers on until they finally find shelter under a big rock formation. No one moves till the screeching is finally subsiding. Thunder is still roaring in the distance and the red lightning is coloring the sky ominously.
After checking for unwanted danger nearby, Robin is the first to leave their cover. When Steve tries to follow her quickly, his vision gets hazy. Darkness draws in at the edges of his field of view and he loses his balance, stumbling back a few steps until he hits the rock wall for support.
“Oh, sh… shit.”
Now that they’re no longer in a life or death ‘running from monster bats’ situation, Steve’s body has decided to let his adrenaline crash and he can now fully feel the repercussions of the bites. What was once a dull ache before is now a scorching and pulsating pain. Steve has to swallow through the oncoming sensation of blood and bile in his mouth. Steve lulls his head back against the wall and exhales in anguish. Nancy is the first one back at his side, fussing over him.
“I'm fine. I'm fine.”
“No, no, no. Steve, you're not. You're losing blood. Come on, sit. All right?”
With grunts and tension throughout his whole body, Steve complies and uses the rock wall to slowly descend. Hesitantly, he lifts his hand from his abdomen. Blood is oozing from the deeper wounds, and Steve hisses and curses. Nancy starts to rip up her sweatshirt to create a makeshift bandage. Robin crouches down at the cave entry to evaluate Steve’s wound.
“Okay. So the good news here is I'm pretty sure wooziness is not a common symptom of rabies. But, um, if you start having hallucinations or muscle spasms or you start feeling really aggressive, like you wanna punch me or something, let me know.”
God, I love you Robs. But please shut up.
“Robin?” When she confirms that she heard Steve, he continues. “I kinda wanna punch you.”
She chuckles at the joke while Nancy gets ready to patch Steve up. He grits his teeth as she tightens the dressing. It hurts like hell, but at least it effectively stops the bleeding. Thanks to Nancy’s support, he manages to duck out of the cave just in time so she can warn Eddie about the vines.
“It's all a hive mind.”
Funny enough, Eddie looks just as lost as Steve felt the first time around. Steve considers laughing, but the movement would probably hurt too much, so he bites down the joke and aims for an explanation instead.
“All the creepy crawlies around here, dude. They're, like, one, or something. You step on a vine, you're stepping on a bat, you're stepping on Vecna.”
They just made it through the revelation that Nancy is apparently a gun holder now when Steve manages to catch something out of reflex. It’s Eddie’s battle vest jeans jacket.
“For your modesty, dude.”
Thankful, he nods towards Eddie, but the words of gratitude die on Steve’s tongue when an earthquake shakes the ground, sending the four askew. Nancy is the first to collect herself, maybe because Steve managed to grab a hold of her before she went tumbling over, like Robin and Eddie. She determinately stomps into the woods, knowing the way to her house – and the guns that were stored there – best. The others follow, Steve bringing up the rear.
The nervous tension is killing Steve, plus he could really use a distraction from the ache emitting from his torso, so he catches up to Eddie. The usually quick-witted guy is surprisingly quiet ever since they found themselves on the other side of the gate, and Steve thinks about his first encounter with the monsters of the Upside Down back at the Byers’ place.
I kinda wish I wasn’t alone back then to deal with the fallout.
There is this nagging little feeling inside Steve that is somehow drawing him to Eddie ever since they found the guy frightened in the boathouse. Some invisible thread is pulling Steve back into Eddie’s orbit again and again, like a moth is drawn to the flame, or how sunflowers seek out the source of light.
It might be Eddie’s optimism, even after all the events of the past couple days. The smile and the wit that are on his lips. Naturally, Steve falls into step with the metalhead without even thinking. For the first time, he easily separated himself from Robin… and it was in order to be near Eddie.
Maybe it’s the big brown eyes that kick off Steve’s urge for protecting?
Steve racks his brain about something to say to strike off a conversation, so he can bring Eddie back out of the little shell he disappeared to when they entered the flipped dimension.
“Hey, man. Uh… Listen, I just, uh… I just want to say thanks. For saving my ass back there.”
Every time Steve thinks he has the loud metalhead figured out, or managed to grasp even a little bit of him, he gets turned around because Eddie is suddenly talking about some guy named Ozzy, and Steve is just as lost as he was before.
Apparently it shows, enough that Eddie takes mercy on him.
“Doesn't matter. It's very metal, what you did. That's all I'm saying.”
Is ‘metal’ just like ‘bitchin’? So… I’m cool, I guess?
“Thanks.”
Maybe there’s a little question mark in his tone, but Steve is not completely sure what to think about Eddie’s statement.
“Henderson told me you were a badass. Insisted on the matter, in fact.”
“Wait, Henderson said that?”
No way in hell did Dustin say anything nice about me. Not to Eddie. Twerp is literally annoyed with me all the time. I don’t understand his stupid dragon game or anything he says about physics. 90% of our car rides we argue about stuff.
Eddie is already busy laying out to Steve how much Dustin apparently worships him. And isn’t that a whole revelation? Eddie keeps talking, putting on a full show with overexaggerations that have Steve’s ears warming in flattered embarrassment as he ducks his head a little.
The rest of Eddie’s feat doesn’t really register, because for whatever reason, the metalhead leans way into Steve’s personal space, leaving him flustered. He’s so close Steve can see the wrinkles in the corner of Eddie’s eyes and the different shades of brown there, swirling together like a pool of chocolate, only distorted by the eerie blueish tint of the lighting in the Upside Down. Like the pull of a magnet, Steve sways forward a few inches, his gaze dropping to Eddie’s plush lips, and for a second Steve wonders if the rambling metalhead will shut up if he breaches the distance and kisses him, testing out if the lips are as soft as they look.
I just need to lean forward a little bit. Just- -
Wait. Weren’t we just talking about Dustin? What did he say? Ah, yes. Dustin thinks I’m badass and Eddie claims he’s jealous of me.
“Ha… Right…” It’s more a mumble than a coherent sentence. Steve uses his elbow to guardedly push Eddie away, just to get some distance between them, because clearly Steve isn’t capable of using his brain if Eddie is too close.
And then Eddie is suddenly talking about Nancy and how she jumped after Steve without thinking, how they all just followed him down to this hellscape without a doubt. “Cause that was as unambiguous a sign of true love as these cynical eyes have ever seen.” Eddie says and Steve knows he should care, it's just hard with Eddie so close to his face, being full of theatrics and big eyes and those plush lips. He barely registers the sentence, only catching half of it when Eddie steps away, and it's like Steve is coming back from a trance.
“If I were you, I would get her back.”
"You know, at some point she might have been it for me and I wanted her to ignite my spark", Steve confesses quietly as they keep walking, "but the romantic love I had for her, it's gone. I don't have those kinds of feelings for Nancy. Not anymore."
“... So you never, uh, you know.”
Steve follows the motion of Eddie's hand as he taps his own wrist to emphasize his question.
He wants to know if Nancy and I sparked?
It's not common to ask about soulmates. A lot of people tend to be evasive about the topic. It's not a taboo, either, but normally one does not stick their nose into such private matters. But they're currently wandering a hell dimension haunted by monsters straight out of a fantasy game, so maybe normal doesn't really apply to them anymore.
But what if Eddie is asking for a reason?
Nah, that would be stupid.
"No. We didn't."
Steve lifts his bare arms to show Eddie, still covered in upside down grime and blood. Not really a sight to behold but it's enough to get his point across.
"Did you ev- -”
Steve's question is cut off when the ground starts shaking once more. He stumbles back a few steps while Eddie nearly topples over.
“Ahh… Goddamn it.”
Then Robin is screaming after Nancy, and both young men have to hurry after them. Steve's question is seemingly forgotten.
It’s only thanks to Steve that they manage to contact the kids and find their way back out of the Upside Down hellscape. He might have looked like he was having a psychotic break, babbling about hearing Dustin “in the walls,” if the shocked faces of his friends were anything to go by, but apparently ‘crazy’ just saved their asses.
Only, when they prepare to climb back to their reality, Vecna goes full supervillain mode and traps Nancy in a vision of what is about to happen.
Steve catches her and soothes her when she snaps out of it hyperventilating. When they finally make it back to the Right Side Up safe and sound, Nancy fills them in on what she saw - the gates devouring Hawkins, spilling an army of monsters into their world. Into their home.
Quite presumptuous of Vecna, is it not?
To think we wouldn't at least try to stop him.
They all agree that they'll go down fighting, and the next thing he knows, Eddie is hotwiring the Winnebago of his neighbor’s so they can go and stock up on weapons to defeat the evil wizard.
Impressed by how fast Eddie works, Steve comes up behind the driver’s seat, craning his neck so he can see what’s happening.
“Where'd you learn how to do this?”
“Well, when the other dads were teaching their kids how to fish or play ball, the closest I had to a father was teaching me how to hot-wire. Never thought I’d use it, it was just for fun at the time. Comes in really handy now, doesn't it?”
With nimble fingers, Eddie cuts the wires and twists them together to create a new connecting pathway. Steve is so drawn into watching Eddie hotwire, seemingly with a flick of the wrist, that he has to try hard to comprehend Eddie’s answer. He nods dumbly and tenses when someone moves up into his space. It’s just Robin, so Steve deflates as he registers her presence.
“Uh, Eddie, I'm not sure I love the idea of you driving.”
Right! Eddie is still a wanted man. Having him driving a stolen vehicle around Hawkins really isn’t the best idea.
Steve’s answer dies in his throat when Eddie turns back to him and only stops short of his face with a wide grin and a mischievous sparkle in his eyes.
“Oh, I'm just starting this sucker. Harrington’s got her. Don't ya, big boy?”
What?!
It takes a bit for Steve’s brain to get back online, really registering what Eddie just said.
Is Eddie flirting with me?
They stare at each other in surprise. Steve's blood is running wild. Half of it is pumping downwards as "big boy" is echoing in his ears, his fantasy is running away from him where it could be used. Like the bedroom. The other half is rushing through his heart, sparking even more desire for the curly metalhead. Steve would have never imagined Eddie would be flirting with him.
Sure, he heard the rumors in school. The slurs that were thrown at Eddie in the hallway, back when he had buzzed hair.
But he would have never expected he'd be on the receiving end of Eddie's flirts, even if rumors were true. Eddie's whole 'non conformity' thing doesn't really scream "I'm interested in suburban washed up jocks who bullied me in school". But then again, there was no reason to constantly invade Steve’s personal space all the time, or to lean in a little bit too close.
There is not enough time to think things through as Eddie starts up the Winnebago with a roar. Upbeat music is blasting from the radio as Eddie hops out of the driver’s seat.
“Hey! Open this door!”
“Hey!!”
The owners of the camper are banging at the door, screaming. So protective Steve springs into action, taking over from Eddie.
“It's just a car,” he mutters as he hits the gas. In the backseat the kids are going crazy, everyone is screaming.
He maneuvers the Winnebago out of the trailer park and successfully gets them on the road to ‘The War Zone’. If he hits a few trash cans on the way, no one has to know.
The drive on the quiet street lined by trees is scenic, almost peaceful. It brings back one of Steve’s deepest desires - packing up his imaginary future family in a Winnebago like this, driving around during holidays, exploring the country. At one point the person in his dream might have been Nancy, sitting where she’s sitting right now in the passenger seat, but they both know she’s not anymore.
Even though she admits Steve’s wish sounds nice. Aside from the kids.
“If only I had some practice,” Steve says with a smile, pointing back at the passengers in the back.
Eddie is good with kids.
Shut up!
Music is playing and the rest of the drive is going by fast.
Their trip into ‘the War Zone’ is even faster when Jason shows up, his goons in tow. They take off as soon as they get all their supplies.