Chapter Text
Steve has volunteered to wake up Eddie. He slowly steps closer to the man, currently leaned back against a tree in the shadows. After all the events he had to go through the past couple days, Steve can’t blame him for catching a nap before they’re off to the final battle tonight, hopefully the real final one this time.
Eddie's leather jacket is haphazardly thrown over him like a blanket, slipped down a bit during his slumber by how it's bunched up in his lap. Quiet snores drift from him, peacefully asleep. Steve stops a few steps short and takes in the sight.
He looks different without his great bravado. Small, curled up like this.
No longer larger than life.
Steve remembers the big speeches on the cafeteria tables. The devil horns to throw off the jocks or the teachers. The wolfish grin when Eddie knew he had all the attention on him.
Right on brand, Eddie is wearing his Hellfire shirt, the sleeves bunched up, showing off slivers of Eddie’s multiple tattoos.
Thinking about it now, Eddie was always able to capture Steve's attention. Sure, the last few days together especially, but if Steve is honest with himself, he noticed the quirky metalhead already back in school, while he was knee deep in denial about his sexuality. Probably why he felt so irritated by Eddie back then. Steve had been drawn to the neverending flow of energy, to the beautiful brown eyes sparkling with joy.
Joy that was drained from him after his run-in with the Upside Down. Not completely. Steve has seen bits and pieces of it spark up today at the clearing, but it’s subdued.
Not that Steve can blame him. A lot has changed since his first encounter with the hell dimension, forcing him to grow up a lot faster. Eddie, however, had a lot more time under the assumption that monsters were only an invention of his little adventure game.
Sometimes Steve has to remind himself that Eddie is his age, and even though Steve himself sometimes feels like a single dad in his forties, he's barely out of high school. Often Eddie acts like he has everything figured out, but it's just an act. It's imminent now, when he's quiet. He looks so young. So lost.
Steve clocks the dark bags under his eyes and has to fight the automatic response to touch his own face where the dark under eye area is probably mirrored.
His heart aches when he has to think about denying Eddie some well deserved rest, but they have to get going soon.
Steve slouches forward a bit so he can rustle Eddie carefully, his name already on his lips, but then he feels it.
The warmth spreading through his fingertips from Eddie's forearm is more than the normal temperature of human skin. It's surging through Steve's veins with such a high intensity, his whole skin feels like buzzing. A joyful tickle has him shivering. Steve feels like he just won a game of tag. Boyish and wild. He feels light and happy and a little out of breath.
The glow is spreading from within the core of his chest. Similar to the sizzle of a sparkler, small flecks of bright blazes pop up, buzzing under his skin. There is an unexplainable sense of pleased pride running all the way to his fingertips. The feelings inside of him get bigger and bigger, threatening to burst out of him.
Then everything settles into a comfortable sensation of safety, something Steve hasn’t felt in a long time. It’s similar to the sensation that bubbles up inside him when he crawls into Robin’s bed after a nightmare and she holds him close until he can fall asleep, only more intense. More content. It’s the strange combination of floating away weightlessly and being more grounded than ever.
Is this real? Is this happening to me?
Steve has to fight back tears of pure bliss and relief. He sparked!!
Sure, the timing sucks, but he has a soulmate!
The universe has granted him his person!
He wants to jump with joy, scream it from the top of his lungs.
Steve is so overwhelmed, he barely feels the stinging burn of the manifesting soulmark, the visible connection to the person who belongs to him. Whom he belongs to. Destined to be with, linked like fitting puzzle pieces.
Holy shit!! I can't wait to check my mark out! I should show Robin.
Shit! I definitely need to talk to Eddie first!
"Dingus!!" Robin's sharp voice bellows over from the Winnebago and bullies its way through the haze in Steve's brain.
"What's taking so long? Get up our weirdo and let's go! Chop chop!"
Robin claps her hands a few times to emphasize her point.
Fuck! Shit! She's right. We've more pressing matters!
Steve looks down on his inner arm covered by his sleeve, debating if he should get a short glance but decides against it. He'd probably stare at it for hours and they really don't have that time right now.
I can do that later. After we defeat Vecna.
Steve moves his grip to Eddie's shoulder, and squeezes a little tighter than his soft touch before.
"Eddie? Hey man, we gotta get going soon. You need to get up now."
Steve lightly shakes his soulmate awake (his soulmate? Doesn't that feel crazy?). Eddie slowly stirs from his slumber and rubs his eyes. Steve can feel Eddie stiffen under his touch, then the man draws in a sharp breath. Steve follows Eddie's wide eyed gaze to his shoulder, where he sees nothing out of the ordinary. Reluctantly Steve withdraws his outstretched hand, suddenly feeling a bit out of depth. The intensity has him sweating, and he slowly wipes his hands on his jean clad thighs before putting both hands in his pocket.
Maybe Eddie wasn’t sleeping as peacefully after all…
Steve meets Eddie's eyes, still fixed on him, wide awake and highly alert.
"Sorry." Steve shrugs. "I didn't mean to spook you. We just need to get going."
He nods his head in the general direction of the rest of the squad, who are already loading up the camper.
"It.. it's fine." Eddie coughs a little, his voice still rough from sleep.
"You good?"
"Not really..."
And Steve can't really blame him. They're about to face a superhuman wizard who can cast trances on people, trapping them in visions to kill them and bring doom over their world. So, yeah, Steve is not really okay either.
Stupid question. Way to go, Harrington.
“Um…”
The awkward tension between them doesn't last very long with Dustin barreling in, flailing his limbs, motioning them to hurry up with a clumsy looking wave.
"If you're done with your little chit-chat here, we really need to get going!"
The tone once again reminds Steve he has to teach the kid some behavior lessons once they're done with the evil world destroyer. Dustin is already on Eddie, pulling him up. Eddie gets up with a dramatic groan.
Dustin hurries away to the others and Steve follows, dragging his legs over the meadow, after shooting a very exaggerated eye roll at Eddie which has the man’s lips twitching up in the corners.
They get back to Hawkins exactly on time after a little stop where Nancy went over the whole plan once again, emphasizing to always radio in before moving on to another phase of it. They all get changed into battle gear. Outfits they managed to snatch up at The War Zone combined with stuff from Eddie’s and Max’s trailers.
Max, Lucas, and Erica get dropped off first. They are all in an unspoken agreement that there’ll be no heartfelt goodbyes.
“See you in a few hours,” Steve calls after them before he pulls back into the road, driving them up to the trailer park.
The gate in the ceiling is right where they left it. As the most agile, Steve is once again the first one to go through. He looks back up through the opening with a pleased grin after landing his flip.
Damn, that felt awesome.
He grabs the mattress from Eddie’s bedroom and lays it out under the gate so the others can get through safely. Weapons and gear are also tossed through and get gathered in the living room.
They make quick work together, barricading the property as well as they can. If everything works out, they’ll need the trailer and the gate intact if they want to make it back out.
With everything in place and Vecna located, Robin, Nancy, and Steve are about to set off, but not before he reminds Eddie and Dustin to stay safe.
“If anything goes wrong, like, at all, you abort. Understand?”
When Steve leaves them behind to follow after the girls, he can’t shake the gnawing feeling of uneasiness. He shoulders the backpack full of equipment and clenches his fingers around the ax.
Let’s end this bastard.
They're just up the staircase in the Creel house when the next earthquake hits. Being mindful of vines that are covering the ground all over the rundown place is not really an option when you're busy not crashing down the stairs. Steve clutches the railing.
Nope. Not doing that again. One time as a baby was enough.
They make it through the rumble without tumbling over, but their relief is short lived when the vines start snatching them. Cold slimy leather wraps itself around Steve's throat and he gets pulled backwards.
Come on! Again? What's with these creepy-crawlies and their obsession with choking people?!
Maybe it's Robin's pained groan, or the way Nancy struggles against the constrictions, or maybe it's Steve's newly born fear of what happens after being restricted, the aching reminder on his stomach flaring up as he fights the vines. He'll not give up. Not now.
Not when Vecna's lair is only a few steps away.
Not when Max is risking everything to get them this chance.
Not with Hawkins on the line where all their friends and families live.
Not with his soulmate, somewhere in the hellscape buying them time.
Before the vines can capture his wrists, Steve brings his arms up at the constriction around his neck. In one last ditch effort, he yanks at it with a burst, clawing his nails into the gooey substance. With a revolting squelch it tears apart, making his stomach churn. The moment Steve is free he lunges forward and grabs the ax from the floor and swings it down at the vines that are right in the middle of wrapping around his ankles. As soon as the weight around him disappears, he sprints over to Nancy and Robin and hacks off their vines too.
They all gasp and heave for air as they gather in the middle of the hallway. More vines are slivering up the stairs, like a messed up gross version of snakes, as if snakes weren’t repellent as they are.
Nancy loads her gun and fires while urging them to move. “Let’s go! Go!”
Steve turns on his heels, Robin in tow, and sprints up the narrow stairs to the attic. Luckily they scouted the whole place already, because now they would be lost without the concrete layout.
With a loud thud, Nancy slams the door shut behind them, locking out the vines. Robin tugs out one of the molotov cocktails from Steve’s backpack and hands it to him. Her shotgun ready, Nancy leads them further into the room.
There he is, suspended from the roof with vines extending from his back. An unsettling sight that runs a shiver down Steve’s neck, and he has to fight the urge to soothingly run his fingers over the skin there.
In his trance, Vecna doesn’t realize they are there or he’s too busy with Max to notice. Not like it matters. Nancy locks eyes with Steve and nods.
It’s time! For Max.
Robin lights up the first cloth and Steve throws the bottle with precision, hitting One in the chest right in the center. The glass bursts and he lights up like a candle.
A heart-rending screech erupts as Vecna drops to the ground.
Die, you bastard!!
Steve throws the next molotov and Nancy steps up with her shotgun. They don’t even give Vecna time to react, hitting him with all they got. He can’t escape Nancy’s rain of bullets, stumbling back. He howls as Steve hits him with another bottle, engulfing him in flames once more.
Vecna puffs up, ready for a counterattack, when Nancy hits the final shot. With nothing to hold onto this time, burning and shot, he topples back and crashes through the attic window.
The scream is deafening. Thunder and lightning roar in the sky. Bellows and howls erupt, and then it’s quiet.
Robin is at the window first, leaning out to look down.
“Oh Shit! I think we got him!”
But Steve needs to be sure. He sprints down the stairs and the hallway, trampling over every vine on the way, now all laying unmoving on the ground. He bursts through the front door just in time to see Vecna roll over with a low rumbling groan.
The disgusting face morphs into a grimace when he sees Steve approach.
“You think it’s over? No. This…”, he coughs and snarls after each strenuous breath.
“This is just the beginning of the end.”
Robin and Nancy emerge in the doorway, taking in the scene before them with wide eyes. Pained, he grins and howls, sounding more and more mad.
“I’m a god here. The original explorer. You can’t kill me.”
“Wanna bet?”
With a deep calming breath, Steve adjusts the grip on his ax. He steps up to Vecna with a quick stride. The scent of burning skin and ashes invades Steve’s airway as he lifts the weapon over his head.
Finally Vecna seems to realize what’s in store for him. He wheezes and brings up his hands defensively, but it’s too late.
“Nooooo- -”
The awful piercing shriek is cut off when the metal blade rips through his jugular. With a final gurgling and a stomach-turning squelch followed by breaking bones, Vecna gets decapitated. Black goo is leaking from the open wound as his body stops moving and the flames eat away the rotting flesh.
Steve spins around to the girls, who stand frozen in the doorway up on the porch, then drops the ax. It hits the ground with a clank, right as Steve turns over and empties his stomach content onto the burned ground.