for inhairently

[thefreak]

[ Eddie had accepted that he was dying. It didn't matter if the bats were falling around them, or that Dustin had found his way back to Eddie, despite all of Eddie's attempts to keep him from coming down after him. He had made peace with it. It's not like he had much to live for, anyway. If they had managed to kill Vecna, what proof were they going to find to prove Eddie's innocence?

As far as Hawkins was concerned, he was as good as guilty. And even if he did survive, even if he did get his name cleared, what then? He's still a two-time supersenior with no future. It had always been a pipe dream, running the hell out of Hawkins.

So as he lay there, with Dustin hunched over him, he let go. And he thought to himself, this is it, maybe now he'll find peace.

Only peace never came. Because the next time he opens his eyes, he realizes he's still in that same hell that he thought he died in, only instead of Dustin accompanying his torn-to-shreds body, it's -- ]

Harrington? The fuck is going on? [ His voice comes out strained, and he is suddenly aware of every single part of his body that the bats had torn into. And in that moment he can't help but wish, even just for a moment, that he had died, if for no other reason than to stop feeling that unbearable pain. ]

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[inhairently]

[ Coming back here on his own had been a pretty stupid decision. Steve realized that about fifteen minutes ago, when he’d climbed back through the fissure in Eddie’s place and into the Upside Down, then watched in abject horror as it sealed behind him. Nancy and Robin’s shouts for him to wait are still bouncing around in his skull as he trudges through the trailer in search of sheets or a blanket he can use to wrap Eddie’s body in, and he’s not sure if it’s because he can still really hear them — like they’d heard Dustin at the Wheelers’ — or if his brain just isn’t letting go seeing as that might be the last thing he ever hears from either of them.

It’ll be fine, though. The recovery mission is still on, he thinks. It’s just more complicated now. He just has to survive, find a way out, and bring Eddie with him.

Easy.

There’s a musty old comforter in Eddie’s bedroom (which isn’t a jab at Eddie — everything in the Upside Down is musty) so Steve bundles that in his arms and heads outside. He thought he’d be more anxious about it. There hadn’t really been time to catch more than a glimpse of Eddie’s body as Steve dragged Dustin, kicking and screaming, out of the Upside Down. Now, as he kneels on the ground next to Eddie and sets the comforter aside, he’d expected to feel… anything, actually. Anything at all.

Instead there’s just emptiness in his chest — a big hole where an emotion should probably be. He regards Eddie’s body with a clinical sort of reserve as he debates the best way to do this.

And then he sees Eddie’s chest rise and fall with a breath.

Or did he? It’s so dark, it’s hard to tell. It could just be a trick of the dim light but —

Shit, no, Eddie’s definitely breathing. He’s alive.

Suddenly that emotion-shaped hole in Steve's chest is full to the brim with too many things. Relief and joy and, above all, sheer fucking panic because he has absolutely no idea what to do. Eddie need a hospital, like, now and the nearest way out of here could be miles away, if any ways out even still exist.

Before he can do anything, Eddie actually wakes up and speaks and for a second Steve stares at him with wide, owlish eyes like he's just witnessed a genuine, praise-Jesus-hallelujah miracle from God. Then he relaxes, and when he opens his own mouth he manages a sort of unaffected, casual tone that doesn't reflect the jumble of emotions he's currently cycling through. ]

Told you not to be a hero, man.