&&. Max + Eddie 005 - Blog Posts
zccming·:
.
max was comfortable with silence, silence was safe most of the time. she could live there for a while if needed. she knew full well that she wasn’t the best with words, and usually, if ever, people didn’t come to her for her motivational speeches. more often than not, it looked like this, max going to someone and offering herself up as a shoulder, someone to share the load of a burden with if only for a little while. at least, lately, that’s what it looked like.
she watched eddie not speaking, setting her bowl down when he did, quietly indicated, nah, me either. it was the thought that counted or whatever, right? when eddie frantically verified that she was alright, max kept an expression of stone as she nodded. she was more or less in one piece, so was he, so was steve, so was everyone. now she wasn’t happy all of this had happened, but the relief that came with doing her rounds and seeing her friends alive and breathing was enough to propel her through a sleepless twenty four hours at the hospital, and a long ride on her board back home.
their wordless processing ended though as eddie confessed, his voice uneasy. max hadn’t really seen him like this. not for a long time, not since they’d gotten closer. instantly, she jumped to all of the ways she could fix this, which started with calming eddie down and ended with something along the lines of throwing callahan in a deep deep pit he couldn’t crawl out of. “you’re not a monster.” she said swiftly and with such conviction she hoped it knocked into him like a punch, like he’d have no choice but to believe it. “you were innocent then and you’re innocent now.” max wouldn’t tell him it was okay because she knew he didn’t feel like it was. “they haven’t released names yet, i don’t think anyone other than…us saw it happen.” she used reason to talk him down.
when none of that seemed to work and he shook his head and began a spiral, max yelled, hopping to snap him out of it “eddie!” she took his hands and offered the following words like a get out of jail free card, “steve will not let anything happen to you. i will not let anything happen to you.” she laughed a wryly, hoping to make everything feel less heavy, “you think robin, and nancy, and literally anyone else would let that slide? fuck no.” she shook her head, then offered her final comfort, “we’ve figured it out like four times before, we’ll do it again. you’re a vet this time, munson. you just gotta screw your head back onto your shoulders.”
+++
eddie scoffed, slumping further back into the couch, wishing it would swallow him whole. “yeah, and just like ‘86 nobody’s gonna believe me. real fucking nice.” he didn’t mean to snap at her, neither of them had anything to do with the utter chaos that was currently playing out in hawkins. but the rational part of his brain had long since bid its farewell and he simply hoped that max knew this. what did it matter if he was innocent or not? when people already stared at him , mistrusted him without a solid reason. now they had one and eddie didn’t want to imagine what the scalding looks burning into the back of his head could soon turn into. because he knew it, he’d lived it, and he couldn’t again, never again.
he gave her hands a short, tight squeeze before he relased them, carding his fingers through his tangled hair. taking deep breaths, he squeezed his eyes shut for a moment. this was just max, just max. meaning only good. trying to calm him. there was no reaosn to get upset, not with her. his mouth felt awfully dry. when he opened his eyes again they were fixed to the ceiling, looking at nothing in particular. “yeah, yeah, well, you remember what happened last time, right? i’m a vet, sure, but ... i almost wasn’t. almost wasn’t anything anymore.” and his lip quivered slightly at the memory, it was still fresh as day. a swarm of demobats circling around him, knocking him to the ground. a sharp sting in his side soon followed by agony and a fade to black, a teary goodbye, a faint white light. a faint white light that, for some reason, perhaps divine intervention, had faded into a shrill green-ish one, the distinct hue of hospital fluorescents.
but what good had it ever done, dwelling on the past? dwelling on what almost had been, eddie munson, only good for running, it seemed. ‘don’t try to be cute, don’t try to be a hero’. he should’ve just listened to steve, stayed a decoy. heroism clearly didn’t suit him. thinking of... he sat up a little straighter. “how’s - how’s steve? have you seen him?”
zccming·:
it had been approximately…well, max had lost track of how many days it had been since she’d snuck into lucas’ tent. ever since then, her world seemed to be all out of sorts, like she was constantly running after her brain so she could shove it back into her body. when she wasn’t working, she filled her time with watching plenty of bad television, hopping from friends house to friends house, and lurking in the arcade more than she usually did. with all that was going on in hawkins, the least of her worries was her feelings.
needless to say? when eddie came knocking, she was glad. it was like his eddie senses started tingling and he knew she needed to be spending less time with her real step-brother, and more time with him. despite how grateful she was, a mildly irritated expression was plastered across her face as he dragged her to the roof of his trailer, only letting a smile shine through when he produced a joint from them to share.
“i thought you left for chicago without telling me, asshole.” max teased, snapping twice, then gesturing for the joint. she placed it between her lips, inhaling deeply and closing her eyes. she was grateful eddie interrupted himself before she could even start to get into the headache that was her life as of late. did she start with the weirdo time warp they’d gone into at the lake or the fact that one of her longest friendships was in serious jeopardy? luckily, she didn’t have to figure it out.
instead, she turned her head to face eddie, holding the joint out for him as she curiously raised her brows. she hadn’t seen him this giddy since…well…ever. it was a nice sight. he deserved it after all the shit hawkins had put him through. or, life in general, really. “alright…” max said slowly, nodding a little, as if to say, go on, “what is it?” she propped herself up on her elbows, getting excited as her own theories carried her away, “did you win the lottery? steal something really cool? ooh no, i got it, you were the one who egged hawkins p.d, weren’t you? i knew it.”
+++
he rolled his eyes at her snapping but passed the joint willingly. unoccupied fingers now drumming restlessly against the side of his thigh. the last time he'd been this excited must've been a few weeks after the events of spring break '86, when he'd rushed home early from school one thursday afternoon to tell wayne that he was finally going to be part of a graduating class this year.
he scrunched his nose up in excitement and relief as max finally asked him what it was about, god, he felt jittery, laughed gleefully as she guessed wrong and wrong again. eddie propped himself up on his elbows, too, took the joint from her hands. pinching it between his thumb and pointer finger he took a few quick puffs and passed it right back to her.
"nuh-uh.", he shook his head, a devious glint in his eyes, and suddenly his current position wouldn't do, he had an unbearable itch to move. with a strained groan he lifted himself further up until he was sat cross legged in front of her, scooting closer. knees moving up and down. "you're never gonna believe it, red, i swear im telling the truth, alright. scout's honor, on my mother's grave and all that jazz.",he'd lifted his hand to rest over his heart for a few seconds, eyes searching max's.
here went nothing. eddie inhaled deeply, frowned as he tried to think of what to say, how to say it. what to say first, rather. how to phrase it. oh, where to begin. blurting it all out at once, somewhat incoherently, seemed to be what his brain had settled on.
"steve!", he simply exclaimed, scrunched up his nose again as he bit down on a grin. hands flexing at his sides. "i mean, I - well, he, or, we, more like - it's nothing.... nothing, like big and official and whatever but.... i mean, we're sort of -" gesturing about wildly, it was impossible for him to get the words out at the same volume that they were racing through his mind. " we're.... uh, i guess we're kind of.... kind of unofficially and as of yet, like, not super seriously....dating? "
where: the roof of the munson trailer
what: some quality sibling time
who: @zccming + eddie
it had been approximately twenty-two hours since steve and eddie had been subject to an unlikely relationship counseling session, deep in the woods surrounding skull rock, orchestrated by one murray baumann. approximately twenty hours since steve had left his trailer - not that eddie was counting. he was. and eddie munson was for all intents and purposes ecstatic. he couldn’t remember the last time he’d felt this happy, this light-hearted. his thoughts had not wandered off to the upside down once in the last twenty-two hours, the ever-present threat lingering in the air all but forgotten, replaced entirely by steve, steve, steve.
really, eddie munson felt wonderful. fantastic. about himself, the world. god, he couldn’t give a rat’s ass about what the upside down would throw their way next. with steve by his side, he was sure he could conquer anything. eddie was happy, extremely happy, but most importantly, he was fucking itching to tell someone, anyone.
well, not anyone. one person in particular came to mind with whom he wanted to share the happy news first. max mayfield - sister from another mister. and.... mother, too, but eddie couldn’t think of an adequate rhyme for that one. sib from another crib. anyway.
eddie had bolted out the door, knocked on max’s trailer and all but abducted her, the two of them now comfortably laying on a blanket on the roof of eddie’s trailer. eddie toyed with the joint between his fingers as he leaned back on his elbows, a dumb smile on his face. a stupid little lovesick grin. eddie felt like he could burst.
“max, what’s been goin’ on with you lately? what’ve you been up to?”, he asked, tilted his head to the side to face her. “ok, no, wait. i need to tell you something first. something.... major.”
