Chapter Text
It starts, as most terrible things do these days, with a tweet. (Or whatever the fuck tweets were called nowadays, Eddie is mostly still on the hellsite to watch the dumpster fire in real-time).
Eddie’s first extravagant purchase once the band made it big, was a cabin on a lake for his Uncle Wayne. Except Uncle Wayne is a stubborn, ornery old man, so technically it’s Eddie’s cabin and Uncle Wayne is the permanent caretaker of the property. And cabin is really an oversimplification of the four point five million dollar dwelling that takes up 4,764 square feet of prime Shadow Mountain real estate, with five bathrooms (three full, two ¾ bathrooms), five bedrooms, a four car garage (three cars and one “toy” aka a boat that his tenacious uncle is technically the ‘caretaker’ of as well), a double-sided fireplace (because that is cool as fuck to Eddie), a clawfoot tub (Eddie is bougie now, so sue him), and a walk out basement with two story deck that overlooks the private dock on the best fishing lake in the area. But, the exterior and interior are mostly wood, so, technically it falls under the cabin classification.
Eddie is generally only at the cabin for holidays or the occasional mental health break, his main residence is a loft in LA. This time he finished a tour and is taking a few months off before the band reconvenes to write a new album. Wayne remodeled one of the basement bedrooms into a fully soundproof recording studio so the break is mostly from the others in the band since spending months and months touring and living on top of each other generally leaves them all hating each other unless they take a break. So, Eddie spends September through November at the cabin. Normally his uncle is a man of few words, but this particular break lands during football season so Uncle Wayne uses his few allotted words almost exclusively on Steve Harrington, the second coming of football-Jesus, quarterback to the Indianapolis Colts (first coming of football-Jesus is that forehead guy in every commercial, from what Eddie unwillingly gathers). And sure, Steve Harrington has a real nice ass in those tight, white leggings, but Eddie just about goes crazy after three months of hearing constantly how amazing the dude is for being able to throw a weird-shaped ball made of pigskin.
So, when Eddie sees Steve Harrington’s name trending December twenty-seventh because people are worried he won’t be able to play after a concussion, Eddie does what everyone does when they want to gripe and let everyone know their opinion. He tweets. Eddie retweets the headline, Steve Harrington Suffers Concussion During Raiders Game, “Meathead Jock suffers brain damage while playing with his balls, in other scintillating news, water is wet.” The backlash is immediate, as expected, but from who is the surprise.
Eddie is scrolling all the butt-hurt twitter replies, joyfully needling trolls, replying to the dude-bros how of course he doesn’t support a sport that seems to champion domestic violence and sexual assault (there are a few confusing replies, one from Mike Wheeler, saying ‘WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS’ and Max Mayfield which just says ‘I’M IN YOUR WALLS’), when his phone lights up with an incoming call from Dustin Henderson.
“Hey, man,” Dustin says, cutting off Eddie’s ‘hello’, “Can’t talk long, I’m in Indianapolis at the hospital where my brother is for concussion monitoring because he was knocked unconscious yesterday by some douchebag. You remember my brother, right? The one I always talk about? Steve Harrington?” And then Dustin hangs up.
Since when the fuck is Steve Harrington Dustin’s fucking brother? Like, sure, Eddie maybe only half listens to Dustin when he goes on about his amazing, heroic, fantastic brother Steve, but if Steve Henderson was really Steve Harrington, Eddie would know. Right?
As if responding to his mental thoughts, a text comes in from Jeff in the band’s group text: Dude, WTF? Like, I hate football as much as anybody, but thats waaay harsh.
Chrissy: ☹️😩😦😢
Gareth: Dustin is going to kill u y wud u do this 2 me his movie sounds sic and I was rly looking forward 2 bing in it.
Freak: Dustin said I could be a corpse, you know its always been my dream to be a sickass corpse.
Jeff: yeah, a little warning next time if you’re going to burn bridges.
Chrissy: ☹️😦😩😢
Eddie: WHY DID NO ONE TELL ME DUSTIN’S BROTHER STEVE IS STEVE HARRINGTON??
Gareth: wtf. How did u not no. He wont shut up abt him.
Jeff: like?? Who else did you think his football playing brother was?
Eddie: WHY WOULD I ASSUME HIS BROTHER IS A FAMOUS NFL QUARTERBACK WITH A DIFFERENT LAST NAME.
Jeff: Do you just not listen when other people talk? They met in a big brother/little brother program after Dustin’s dad died, Steve was there for community service.
Well, fuck.
Chrissy: ☹️☹️☹️
🎸🏈
Eddie adores Dustin Henderson. The guy is too smart and makes it everyone’s problem. He’s a dorky little explosions/special effects guru that directed one of the band’s music videos after Freak found him on YouTube. All of Dustin’s content was videos on the pros of practical effects and anti-too much CGI, with lots of practical demonstrations. Dustin wore a Weird Al t-shirt to their first pitch meeting and had a 20-sided dice patch on his shoulder bag. They all immediately hit it off, including Dustin’s crew, his friends since elementary school who called themselves the Party: Mike Wheeler, Will Byers, Lucas Sinclair, and Erica Sinclair. Eddie and Dustin instantly became good friends and Dustin and the Party regularly plays D&D with the band when the band is in town. Dustin talks a lot, and Eddie is guilty of not fully paying attention to all his stories, especially when he starts spouting off sports statistics or waxing poetically about his fantastic older brother that can do no wrong and shits gold, or something. Eddie also smokes a lot of weed when they play D&D, especially if Mike Wheeler is taking a stab at DM instead of Eddie. Look, Eddie did know Dustin has an older brother named Steve, and has even liked a pic on Dustin’s grid of him and his brother dressed up as Attack of the Clones era Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker. But how was Eddie supposed to know that the hot guy posing in Jedi Robes with Dustin is The Steve Harrington? Eddie is used to looking at Steve Harrington’s sweaty helmet hair and his perfect ass in football leggings, not perfectly styled and costumed at the Indiana Comic Convention. Sure, Steve Harrington’s face is hard for the average layperson to avoid, but Eddie easily avoids the jock’s handsome visage. All the streaming services Eddie subscribes to are top tier without ads, and Eddie has a personal assistant to mark articles for him to read and curate the news stories he pays attention to. So, Eddie has never seen Steve Harrington outside of his uncle’s TV screen. (And wow, just thinking about how Eddie lives his life now has him wondering if his high school self would punch his current version of himself in the face. He grew up bouncing between his conman dad and his pain pill addicted mom and blue collar uncle, mostly living in a trailer park, and now he has turned into a self-entitled, rich asshole.)
And okay, maybe Eddie should have actually read one of the articles shared about Steve Harrington’s Grade III concussion. Late in the third quarter Steve Harrington took a hit so bad it left him unconscious on the field and was carted off the field in an ambulance, and a sideline brawl started when Linebacker Vontae Mack went after the Defensive End that was guilty of the late hit on Harrington. Harrington will likely need four weeks to recover from the concussion and is done for the season unless the Colts manage to win all their playoff games without their five-year starting Quarterback.
And maybe Eddie shouldn’t have alluded that Steve is guilty of domestic violence and sexual assault while trolling his twitter replies, which how was Eddie supposed to know that’s out of line, didn’t every football player have a criminal investigation or hush money bribe in their background? Isn’t that a requirement to play in the NFL? Well, hooboy did Eddie manage to piss off more than just conservative dude-bros. Model Robin James, who is known for her gender-queer brand, is spitting receipts of Steve’s donations and commitments to LGBTQ+ charities throughout the Midwest. Indie music’s darling sad girl Jane Hopper is touting the youth sports organizations Steve not only donates to but actively coaches for low income kids on a variety of sports. Nancy Wheeler, reporter for the Boston Globe and ex-girlfriend of Steve Harrington is asking for Eddie’s sources for his alleged accusations (And yes, she is related to Mike Wheeler, his big sister, Eddie is learning all sorts of facts about his friends lately). X Games athlete and loud n’ proud liberal activist Max Mayfield is actively threatening Eddie with violence. (Maybe Harrington really is a football-Jesus.) Someone who is in Eddie’s corner is reality star and professional douche-bag, fuck-boy Billy Hargrove, who is gladly tweeting how Steve Harrington is a pansy. So that’s not really doing Eddie any favors.
Steve Harrington himself is quiet on social media platforms, besides posts assuring fans he’s recovering well and cheering on the Colts’ back-up quarterback, Bryan Drew. A few weeks later Steve is a guest on the New Heights podcast (yes, Eddie listened to an entire episode of a football podcast, gross). He mostly talks about the Colts losing in the first playoff round, how well the team performed against the Chiefs and how they only lost by three points against one of the league’s best offenses. Steve is asked about his thoughts on Eddie Munson, who absolutely responds: “Who? Sorry, I don’t know her.” And when pressed further manages to throw shade at actual problematic football players: “Are we sure he isn’t getting his midwestern cities confused? Mistaking Indianapolis for Cleveland, perhaps?” Eddie is offended, of course, he’s an Indiana boy too, the whole band is from a small town in southern Indiana. He did not confuse his cities, but he isn’t about to admit that he called out Steve Harrington because he was irritated and horny for his ass.
Eddie is apparently barely a blip on Steve Harrington’s radar. Which really only makes Eddie even more irritated and horny for his ass. Thank god Uncle Wayne is anti-technology and has no idea Eddie has gotten into a kerfuffle on the internet about Steve Harrington. How embarrassing.
🎸🏈
“Dustin is willing to forgive you,” Mike Wheeler relays two months after The Tweet, “If you apologize to Steve in person.”
“Okay,” Eddie agrees immediately. He is absolutely willing to apologize, he misses being friends with The Party, Steve Harrington does seem to be an actual good dude despite his choice of career (which has not helped Eddie’s horny situation), and he is honestly scared of Max Mayfield hiding in his walls. She has been friends with Dustin and the rest of The Party since middle school and has easy access to his personal information. “Name a time and place man, I’ll be there.”
The time and place is the set of Dustin’s horror movie, Murder Death Kill. The whole Party has been excited for this movie for months, it’s Dustin’s first full length movie he’s directing himself, an indie film with a tiny budget. The Party all helped write the script about college campus murders that point to a loner, artsy, moody, bullied kid being the murderer (Mike Wheeler) but the murderer is actually the young up and coming quarterback who kills the previous quarterback, so he’ll get his chance on the field and then kills a bunch of other people to throw off motive (Lucas Sinclair). The movie ends with the jock getting away with everything and killing off the main suspect but makes it look like a suicide. It’s dark as fuck, gory as hell, and the band had been so excited to all get minor roles until Eddie blew up their friend group. Only Mike Wheeler will talk to him from the Party, and he had finally negotiated a truce all hinging on Eddie’s apology.
“Are you sure you got this? you’ve got to sound sincere.” Chrissy reminds him, moments away from The Apology. Chrissy is an angel in human form, she is one of two people that Eddie had never been able to say no to (the other being Uncle Wayne). And the other guys in the band always send Chrissy when they want Eddie to agree to something he normally wouldn’t agree to. The band spent an embarrassing amount of time coaching Eddie on apologizing, Eddie is pretty sure that Gareth and Freak don’t think he’ll actually do it, which makes him want to apologize out of spite even though he genuinely wants to apologize to Steve. Eddie is a big boy now (sometimes), he can own up to his mistakes (when they can’t be avoided).
“I’ve got this, it will be sincere, I really do want to apologize.” Eddie says for the millionth time.
“Okay, but sometimes when you are trying to be sincere you come off as a sarcastic asshole,” Chrissy responds while the rest of the guys nod in the background.
“I swear I got this, this isn’t like the time I had to apologize to Jason Carver back in high school, it’s gonna be fine.” Eddie says to all their doubtful faces. Back in high school, Eddie had infamously ‘apologized’ for ‘stealing’ Jason’s girlfriend, Chrissy, but the sarcastic, faux apology had ended with Eddie branded as a satanist and hunted by the basketball team.
Eddie is a bona fide rockstar. Corroded Coffin has sold out stadiums all over the world, he’s has beautiful people throw themselves at him, he has met tons of other equally famous people at award shows and industry parties, he’s no inexperienced noob. But one glance at Steve Harrington walking toward him makes Eddie forget the entire English language. Steve always looks so little on the football field, all the other players towering over him giving the illusion that he’s short and slim. But the guy is stacked standing next to the ordinary sized Dustin Henderson. Steve truly is the statue of David ideal, muscled but not overly so, perfectly chiseled jaw with aquiline nose, perfectly sculpted arms shown off in a tight, white, wife pleaser tank top. He’s just about as tall as Eddie, an inch or two shorter. He looks perfect. Eddie wants to defile him. Steve isn’t even looking at Eddie, he’s looking at Dustin while Dustin says something that had him wildly gesturing, knowing Dustin he could be saying something about crazy Orc lore or tree frog mating habits, but Steve looks entertained and even lets out a laugh, showing off his perfect, white teeth against his tan skin. His brown hair is styled back, short on the sides long on top, and his honey brown eyes are warm. Chrissy helpfully reaches over to push Eddie’s chin up so his mouth closes.
Eddie’s brain restarts and he takes a step forward to greet Dustin, stumbles, rights himself, smooths down his black Metallica t-shirt and looks up only to see Steve staring at him with an amused smile. Jesus Christ, Eddie had been more cool around the Hemsworth brothers. “Steve. Harrington.” Eddie says, and nothing else.
“Eddie Munson,” Steve nods back, still amused.
Dustin lets out a clearing throat noise, and Eddie notices that Will, Lucas and Erica are also present, peering over Dustin’s shoulders all with critical expressions. Erica has the judgiest expression on her face that Eddie has ever seen. Right, time to get this genuine apology over with. “So, look, I’m totally sorry, I definitely did not put two and two together that Dustin’s amazing older brother Steve is the one and only Steve Football Jesus Harrington-“
“Oh god,” Freak moans in the background. Chrissy lets out a nervous giggle.
“-and that doesn’t excuse what I said, and then kept saying, it’s just, Steve Harrington is everywhere, man, and I was, nope, no excuses or whatever, what I said was fucked up and I’m sorry.” Eddie ends, for some unknown reason, with jazz hands. Eddie can hear Gareth slap his hands over his eyes and Jeff’s sigh.
Steve laughs, not meanly, still amused, “It’s fine, man, you’re forgiven.”
“I am?” Eddie says at the same time Dustin yells, “he is?” and Erica lets out a disgusted, “hmph.”
Steve shrugs, “You didn’t say anything worse than I’ve heard from, like, my dad, you gotta have thick skin in this job. I once had an eighty-four-year-old grandma call me a dumb bitch to my face after I fumbled the ball in my first NFL game, so, no sweat, man.”
“Well, it was a really dumb fumble,” Erica says, agreeing with one ancient football grandma.
“What the fuck,” Eddie mutters, wondering how a grandma looked at Steve’s angelic face and didn’t immediately cry tears of joy.
“Steve!” Dustin huffs.
“You don’t have to be so nice, Steve, it’s only us here,” Lucas speaks up. Will nods along, and what the hell? Lucas, Eddie understands his loyalty to Steve, Lucas went to UCLA on a football scholarship, but Will is a gay, gothic horror artist, pretty much the antithesis of football.
“Guys, I appreciate you and the others defending my honor or whatever, but it’s really no big deal,” Steve assures the Party.
“It wasn’t the worst apology in the world, I’d rate it a solid six,” Erica muses.
Eddie wheels back like he’d been shot. “A six! That was a seven, seven point five at best!” Steve laughs and even Dustin grins a little and then immediately frowns.
Chrissy bustles past Eddie, “Steve Harrington! It’s so nice to meet you! You wouldn’t remember me, but I actually saw you play back in high school,” she gushes as she shook Steve’s hand for a solid two minutes.
“You did?” Eddie says the same time Steve says, “wow, really?”
“Yeah, you were at Roane Prep around the same time we were all at Hawkins High. I was a cheerleader at a few of the games against each other,” Chrissy explains.
“Small world!” Steve grins, “Go Tigers!”
“Shit, really?” Eddie gapes, Steve Harrington remembers Hawkins High’s mascot. Eddie grew up in the same county as Steve Harrington, what the hell?
“We’ve talked about how we would have gone to Hawkins High if we had been in public school,” Lucas reminds Eddie.
“Well, yeah, but that was you and the rest of the Party, not Steve Harrington,” Eddie defends himself.
“How would Steve and I have met if we didn’t live near each other?” Dustin asks dubiously.
“I don’t know! Don’t use logic on me! Haven’t we covered how I have a hard time associating Steve Harrington as your brother?”
“I grew up in Loch Nora,” Steve says to Eddie.
“Shit, I was just down the highway in Forest Hills,” Eddie marvels, what would have happened if he had met Steve back in high school?
Steve, sensing Eddie’s train of thought, says, “You would not have like me back then, I was a bit of a douche, the only things I cared about were swimming and sleeping with girls.”
“Swimming?”
“Yeah, I was obsessed with going to the Olympics.”
“What happened?” Eddie wonders. Swimming to the Olympics to running the gridiron seems like an extreme change.
“A girl almost drowned in my pool. Had a bit of PTSD for awhile,” Steve shrugs casually, but Eddie can see tightness in his shoulders.
“Almost? Well, it’s a good thing we didn’t know each other back then because I would for sure have drowned. I can’t swim, not even float, I sink like a boulder every time.” Eddie comically mimes dog paddling.
“He’s also a jellyfish magnet, he’s been stung twice!” Chrissy brings up as she bounced in place. Steve barks out a laugh, grin easy again.
“I hate all sports, but not you,” Freak says apropos of nothing, awkward as always, “I’m Freak.”
“His name is Doug, but if you call him that he’ll bite,” Jeff advises, “I’m Jeff.”
“Hey Jeff, and thanks, Freak. And you must be Gareth then?”
“That’s me,” Gareth shoves his way to the front to shake Steve’s hand after Jeff.
“Now that we’re all friends, let’s get this show on the road!” Steve claps his hands.
“You’re so embarrassing, dad,” Erica rolls her eyes.
Steve ignores her, “C’mon Dusty-buns, let’s make a movie!”
Wait, what?
🎸🏈
Steve not only has a small role in the movie, he’s the murdered quarterback (“If Tom Welling can pass off as a high school freshman when he was like twenty-five, then Steve can play a young twenty-something college quarterback!” Dustin exclaims) and Eddie’s only scene is with Steve’s only scene, he’s the quarterback’s metal-head, scuzzy, drug hook-up, their characters are Adam McCoy and Steve Hetfield (nod to the Hatfield and McCoy feud, but with a metal twist).
Eddie and Steve have done a few dozen takes, they’re taking a quick break while Mike, Dustin and Lucas argue about their separate visions for Steve’s death. Eddie and Steve are sitting on a grassy lawn, both covered in varying degrees of fake blood at this point, when Eddie nudges Steve’s foot with his own and then leans in close, “hey, man, are we really good? I really am sorry, I only think before I tweet like seven percent of the time.”
Steve snorts, and it isn’t adorable, nope, “We really are cool. I mean, it sucked that Dustin’s very cool idol who happens to be a rockstar thought I was—whatever, it’s fine.”
Uh, no, that is not fine, Eddie wants to comfort Steve, wipe that sad look in his eyes away, he wants to kiss away his sadness until Steve as pink and smiling, and what the shit is with this cheesy nonsense in Eddie’s head? “It’s not fine, Steve, Stevie, no, I was so insanely jealous, look, you’re crazy hot and my uncle thinks you’re the most amazing guy on the planet, so instead of telling my old man to shut up I told the internet that you suck, and that’s awful, I’m sorry.”
Eddie has always been into pretty-boy jocks, so he’s used to all manner of no-homo reactions, but Steve, just smiles wide and asks, batting his eyelashes, “You think I’m hot?”
Eddie lets out a bark of a laugh, “Uh, yeah, I have eyes, big boy.” Steve just fucking giggles, like he’s twelve and not on the cusp of thirty and one of America’s most famous sports ball players. Eddie snorts, leans into Steve, and wants.
On their next take, Steve really hams up his dying chokes, reaching for Eddie desperately, and Eddie wails, “Adam”, over and over, pretending he’s Rose floating on a door in the frigid ocean, saying he’ll never let go while a mysterious figure plunges a knife into his body.
Later, Steve takes a picture with Eddie’s posed dead body, complete with Eddie’s tongue sticking out comically, Steve poses like he’s Grant Gustin with the Oliver Queen’s tombstone. Steve posts it: finally met this guy, I think it went rather well. Eddie shares Steve’s post with his own caption: It’s true folks, you can be killed with kindness.
🎸🏈
Steve is only in California for filming the one scene, he has to return to Indianapolis to coach some peewee basketball team, so The Party hosts a dinner gathering in their shared loft to say goodbye to Steve. Dinner is a generous term, it’s a stack of cheap pizzas and an elaborate family salad that Steve had delivered when he saw there wasn’t any vegetables. Eddie and the rest of the band aren’t going anywhere, their new album is going slow and the rest of the group all still get to film a scene or two.
Eddie, in a weird bid to bask in as much of Steve’s presence as possible and see if he can get the nice guy to finally crack and get tired of Eddie, plasters himself to Steve all night long. He’s steadily drinking the bourbon that Freak brought, so he’s tipsy when Steve asks Dustin how Suzie is doing. “Dustin! You’re still with that Mormon girl? Haven’t I educated you enough on the perils of monogamy?” Dustin groans, and Erica lets out a long-suffering sigh.
“Perils of monogamy?” Steve asks in confusion, nose wrinkling adorably. What Eddie would give to blow Steve’s little Midwestern, sheltered, straight mind wide open.
Eddie steps back so he could gesture grandly and begins his long rant, “Yes, the perils of monogamy! It goes against nature, it takes away a person’s autonomy and freedom.” Steve’s expression is completely blank so Eddie dug in deeper, “Monogamy fosters the expectation that you, and you alone, must meet all of your partner's personal needs. You end up sacrificing goals or aspects of your personality to please another person. Monogamous partnerships force people to suppress their innate sexual desire, we are but humble primates, we should be embracing several sexual partners at the same time. And, lastly, you must not forget that monogamy is a tool of the patriarchy, it gives an advantage to men, it's not an equalizer.”
“Because Mormons who infamously had multiple wives were know to be anti-patriarchy,” Dustin mutters, which Eddie ignores.
“That’s… a lot,” is Steve’s reaction.
“I myself am polyamorous and pansexual,” Eddie declares as he leans back into Steve’s space.
“That sounds exhausting,” Erica complains, and Eddie doesn’t think he’d seen her face not judgey for the past three days.
“So are the rumors true about you and the rest of the band all in a big poly group thing?” Steve asks, not arguing with him much to Eddie’s annoyance.
Eddie cackles, the craziest rumors circulate about Corroded Coffin, and they all think it’s hilarious and pull all sorts of antics to start even more rumors. “Unfortunately, no, Freak is ace, Jeff is lame and married, Gareth is tragically straight, and Chrissy is a boring monogamy seeking lesbian.” Eddie and Chrissy really tried to have a relationship back in high school, she left her all-star boyfriend and pissed off her very Christian family to be with him, but Chrissy finally admitted that the only person she wanted to kiss was the goth girl Paige in her chemistry class, and Eddie only felt relief when they agreed to be best friends instead.
“So how do you keep multiple partners straight? Well, not straight, but like, how do you not mix them up? Like who is allergic to shellfish or flowers or who likes blue or who hates Bill Murray?” Steve asks.
“If I can’t keep those things straight,” Eddie giggles as he says straight, “then that’s on them for not being more memorable.”
“Ah,” Steve frowns, which was the first time Eddie manages to make Steve uncomfortable. It doesn’t quite feel like the win he thought it would.
🎸🏈