for ididntrun

[spikedbats]

[ The first time it happened, Steve chalked it up to a fluke. What else could it have been? Clearly he had dreamt of their attempted attack on Vecna, and when he woke up to Dustin kicking him awake, that they would get it right that time and they would move on, with that initial failure being nothing but a bad nightmare, a fluke of the imagination.

Only it wasn't just one time. The chimes went off again, with the reminder of what they meant for Max. And then Eddie's blood would stain his hands, and he would rush to the nearest bathroom to scrub them off, suddenly incapable of drawing in breaths. And then he would fall asleep next to Robin, and wake up with Dustin kicking him awake once more.

It wasn't until the fourth time that he realized if he kept doing the same thing, that he would never get out of this hell.

He tried little things at first. Switching the order of things before they make it to the War Zone. Letting Eddie drive. Staying in the bus with Eddie while everyone else stocks up on supplies.

But still, Eddie sacrifices himself, and Lucas can never get to Max in time to save her.

It had to have been fifteen times when Steve started to question why. Why him? Why was he the only one who knew they were reliving the same events over and over, desperate to get it right? ]

I don't know if I can watch him die anymore... [ Words that he had uttered to Robin one loop, even if she promptly forgot them the next time he woke up. But at least she held onto those words long enough to ask him, why do you think it hurts so much?

The next loop he kissed Eddie for the first time, only for Eddie to sacrifice himself again. When Steve woke up and Eddie didn't remember any of it, Steve sprinted outside to let out the most guttural yell he could muster.

And all of that culminating to this. His master plan. He had figured out the basics: he needed to warn Erica about the hick that walked his dog by the Creel house; no matter what happened, something would always trigger the vines in the Creel house, but at the same time every loop something caused them to let go; if Eddie and Dustin were the distraction, he would buy Steve more time, every single time.

So, Steve convinces them again. That he's gone through this before, citing all the things he's learned each loop. How Lucas got Max a first edition Wonder Woman comic at a yard sale. Nancy wanted to intern for the Boston Globe. Dustin has a lucky d20 that frequently rolls a 19, and it's blue with white numbers. Eddie claims he doesn't care where he moves to so long as it's not in Indiana and he can drive back to Hawkins to visit Wayne within a day. Eddie learned Master of Puppets in a week after it came out, recording it onto a blank cassette so he could play it over and over, learning each chord. If Corroded Coffin doesn't pan out, he wants to work for a recording studio, even it's just to shadow someone, just to get access to that studio. Eddie wants, Eddie, Eddie, Eddie.

It works, and they're convinced. Steve takes Nancy and Eddie with him to the Creel house in the Upside Down and warns Erica to stay out of sight until the dog walker is gone. Robin and Dustin are to rig one of Eddie's speakers to play on top of the trailer in the Upside Down and reinforce every single fucking possible vent so that they don't have to worry about any bats getting through.

And yet, Steve doesn't feel convinced that this is going to work. But he knows, if it doesn't, he's out of ideas. It has to work. And if it doesn't? ]

Munson, you okay? [ Nancy has given them some breathing room on their long march to the Creel house. He suspects she knows despite Steve not having to say anything. Something about the way Steve looks at Eddie must be extremely obvious. Perhaps because it's the way Steve used to look at Nancy, when he was in love with her. ] We're almost there. We can do this. [ That might be more for his sake than for Eddie's. ]