for charmingdingus

[thefreak]

( Eddie should be dead. He remembers feeling life leave him and remembers saying goodbye to Dustin. So why is he still drawing in breath? It hurts like hell, and he's almost certain if he doesn't get help soon, he will die, for real this time.

Maybe that's why Eddie doesn't immediately make a beeline for Dustin's house. He tells himself it's because he isn't one hundred percent sure which one is Dustin's, but that would be a lie. He's dropped the kid off after Hellfire before, after all.

He could try the Sinclairs, but Eddie still feels guilty for how he maybe sort of manipulated his friends into choosing Hellfire over watching Lucas in the Championship game. Besides, he has no idea what happened with Max, and Eddie only has so much time.

It makes perfect sense to go to Harrington's house. Besides, it's nice and big, and it has plenty of beds for him to crash on and hide from whatever creatures were still lurking around the Upside Down while Vecna was weakened. At first, it didn't seem like Steve was home much, not that Eddie could blame him. Still, he was running out of time, and he needed to get Steve's attention somehow.

And so, he waited until Steve turned on one of the light sources in his bedroom. Steve might not know Morse code like Henderson, but as long as he notices it and comes to Eddie's rescue, that is all he needs. The rest would work itself out. It had to, otherwise what the hell is the point of still being alive down here? )

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[charmingdingus]

[Steve was exhausted. Which meant a lot coming from him. He was no stranger to long days, days that felt all at once like a month and also no more than an hour. The Russian base under Starcourt was a day like that. Days like that, he isn’t even sure how long he was trapped under there.

After he got dragged under lovers lake was similarly long. His time in the upside down blending together until he couldn’t tell how much time had passed since he found his way out of the other dimension and they fought Vecna.

Today was exhausting for all those reasons and for others entirely. Dustin wasn’t coping well. Steve can still hear his screams as he dragged Dustin away from Eddie’s corpse. Apologizing over and over that they had to leave him. He practically had to carry Dustin out, his leg injured as it was and Steve was hardly running on all cylinders after his own run in with the bats. It took forever to calm Dustin down when they got back. Steve had spent most of the day at his house, convincing him again and again that they couldn’t go back for Eddie’s body. That it wasn’t safe. That he was gone.

Steve sighs again at the thought as he trudges up the stairs to his room. He was only able to leave because Claudia finally slipped a sleeping pill into Dustin’s dinner. He doesn’t blame her. Nobody had really slept since they got back and it wasn’t doing anyone any good to be that physically exhausted, not when they were already emotionally spent.

He turned on the lamp by his bed as he went to sit down. The mattress squeaking slightly under his weight as he sits, his hand immediately going to rub his eyes. He knows he should sleep too. But every time he closes his eyes, he sees Eddie. The last look the other man gave him before they parted ways melding into his lifeless stare up at the sky as Dustin screamed and cried beside him.]

Shit.

[Steve murmurs into the empty room as he drops his hand. He’s so lost in his thoughts he almost doesn’t see it. Almost doesn’t acknowledge the way his light is flickering just so.

When he does notice, he jumps, falling sideways off the bed. He stares as he slowly pulls himself back up.

Its too controlled to just be regular flickering. And it’s not as fast as when the electricity signifies the presence of a monster. It’s just a careful blink. Again and again and again.

Steve spins around, as if expecting someone to be in the room with him, but of course it is empty. At least in this dimension.]

Hello?