Cas

For @kaspurrcat . Happy seasonal whatever it is you celebrate at this time of year ! Hope you enjoy your @steddieexchange fic !

Read it on ao3 here

Eddie didn't have a soulmate. He was almost certain of it.

He was almost twenty-two, most soulmates met or crossed paths way before they turned twenty-one.

If he had a soulmate, wouldn't they have shown up by now?

He was pretty sure your soulmate was supposed to show themselves in a near death situation? At this point he was pretty well versed in that department.

He had seen the light. The pearly gates had been calling. He had sacrificed himself for the greater good and all that bullshit, and if you were to believe Wayne, that was a one-way ticket to nirvana.

But the big guy upstairs had kicked him back to the mortal realm with little to no ceremony. He had followed the voices, like a good boy. You know the way they had preached each Sunday at church when he was knee high to a grasshopper. But instead of fluffy clouds and dudes playing harps, the voices had led him back to the blood red skies of the Upside Down.

Maybe he hadn't gotten a free pass after all.

Waking up in Steve Harrington's arms once was an anomaly, his stupidly honest big brown eyes pleading for Eddie to be alright. It wasn’t the worst experience in the world, at least someone other than Dustin had been there to put his insides back in the right place.

The second time Eddie came back from the dead under Steve Harrington's capable hands, it was just getting weird.

Harrington was like a cockroach; you couldn't kill him, but did he have to always be there when Eddie was on the brink of death?

The pair of them really needed to stop jumping head first into lovers lake, it never ended well for either of them. It was getting to where he was pretty sure his near-death experiences were more near Steve experiences these days.

Big headcanon in my steddie!dads ‘verse that anytime Nancy has to go out of town and Robin can’t go with her, she always crashes at steve and eddie’s, and that usually goes something like this:

Robin: nancy in morocco for five days :(

Steve: What is your ETA

Robin: i’ll be there in an hour

and then steve and eddie have this convo:

Steve: Robin’s staying for a few days

Eddie: Sick, wanna make her babysit? Date night?

Steve: *pout*

Steve: But…Robin’s coming.

Eddie: okay nvm

And then they all just hang out at home, and Robin is the most chaotic aunt in the world. 

Robin, to Moe: Are we making friendship bracelets?

Moe: No.

Robin: 😦

Eddie, with 10mo Hazel: Can you watch Hazel while I –

Robin, still in bed: Yes.

Robin: Gimme.

Robin: *dancing around the room with Moe and Robbie to tinny Disney music coming out of a plastic toy*

Robin: Does that thing have batteries we can throw away or what?

Steve: *Walks into kitchen after letting Robin help Robbie unassisted to see that an entire bowl of popcorn has been spilled on the counter*

Steve: Okay…were you watching her.

Robin: Yeah. 

Robin: I just let her do it.

Robin: Actions have consequences or whatever.

Steve: Can Actions or Consequences clean it up?

Eddie, to Steve: You were right.

Eddie: If we left, who’d be here to watch Robin?

Robin, crouched on a kiddie car and careening into the sofa: Who put this couch here?

Patre0n | Bsky

Dangerous Dreams

Written for round 1 of the @steddiebingo and for week 1 of @steddiesportsau

Prompts: Hurt/Comfort | Olympic Sports

Words: 2,023 [also on AO3]

Rated: T

Tags: Figure skater Eddie; Coach Steve; Past Stancy; Injury; Sexual tension

Notes: Prequel to this one

It’s long past dark by the time Steve walks Nancy to her car. They're the last ones to leave the rink as usual, all of the other athletes and coaches long gone. Some things never change, he guesses.

“You really don’t have to do this,” she says, eyeing the bag with her clothes and skates that he has slung over one shoulder. “People will jump to conclusions if they see us together like this.” 

Steve huffs, opening the trunk and throwing the bag inside. 

“Like what, that we’re dating again? I’m your coach, aren’t I? I’m allowed to look after my athletes.” 

She shrugs, playing with a strand that has escaped from the updo she has thrown her hair into for practice. 

“That’s not how the tabloids are going to see it and you know it.” 

“Yeah, well,” he smiles drily. “Let them think what they want. I don’t care about their opinion.” 

She raises her brows at him, fumbling in her jacket pocket for her keys. 

“Oh, yes? What about the opinion of a certain loud-mouthed, curly-haired figure skating prodigy?” 

"Hey, maybe he can help," Robin says, sweeping a hand towards Dustin who's just walked into Family Video for his regularly scheduled afterschool bug Steve and Robin time, interrupting their conversation.

"Oh come on." Steve shakes his head. "The kid doesn't want to hear about my trash heap of a love life."

"Oh, no, I absolutely want to hear about that." Dustin perks up at the opportunity to learn about Steve's trivial suffering.

"We're trying to figure out why Steve goes on a million dates but can't seem to find someone he actually likes," Robin fills Dustin in. "Tell him, Steve."

Steve groans, dragging his hands over his face before splaying them out sarcastically, as that's the only thing he can really do in protest right now. Dustin's looking at him expectantly, and Steve has no choice but to tell the kid all about Linda and Heidi and Brenda and Lucy and whoever else he's been out with recently, doing his best to answer any subsequent questions as PG as possible.

"Well of course you haven't found the one yet, you keep trying to date a bunch of normal, basic, girly girls. That's not your type," Dustin informs him once Steve's done talking.

Steve raises his eyebrows. "Oh, it isn't?"

"You can't really be that stupid, can you?"

"No, please, Henderson, enlighten me on what you think my type is."

"You're into nerds," he says like it's completely obvious.

Steve scoffs. "I am not into nerds. You know, just because I hang around you little weirdos all the time does not actually mean I want to hang around even more weirdos in all the other aspects of my life too."

"Seriously, Steve, think about it," Dustin argues. "Think of all the girls you've actually been really genuinely into in your life. They've all been nerds! Nancy-"

"- is not a nerd."

"She's a straight-A student and a journalism super geek. She's a nerd."

Steve rolls his eyes and sighs grudgingly. "Alright, fine, but-"

"And you were into Robin-"

Robin wrinkles her nose. "Ugh, don't remind me."

"-who you can't deny is definitely a nerd," Dustin continues.

"You know what, actually, he does have a point," Robin says.

Steve looks at her in betrayal. "Don't encourage him!"

"That girl you told me about that you liked in middle school who was super into Star Trek, and the other one who wanted to write a fantasy novel one day- oh and the elementary school crush who was always reading a new book every day..." Robin lists, ticking each one off on her fingers.

"I told you all that in confidence!"

"They were all nerds!"

"Exactly." Dustin grins, vindicated and insufferably smug. "Ergo, you, Steve Harrington, need to find yourself a nerd."

"I am not into nerds!" Steve protests hopelessly.

"What more proof do you need?" Dustin says. "You're into nerds."

"Totally into nerds," Robin concurs.

Steve huffs and throws up his hands. "Fine! I'll admit I'm into nerds if it will make you two shut up about it!"

Eddie happens to wander into the previously empty store at that exact moment, catching the tail end of the conversation as he approaches the counter. "What's all this about nerds?"

Steve freezes, glances Eddie over and stares at him strangely for a few long seconds. "Holy shit," he mutters.

His gaze cuts to Robin, whose eyes go wide when she meets his look. "Holy shit," she agrees.

"Oh my god."

"Oh my god."

"Dude."

"Dude!"

Eddie blinks at them. "Are you two having some sort of joint stroke or something?" He looks at Dustin as if the kid might have a better clue of what's going on. "Can you understand them?"

Dustin shrugs, equally mystified. "Don't look at me, man. They're weird."

The incomprehensible parroting conversation is still going on.

"Okay," Steve's saying, taking a deep breath in through his nose and exhaling determinedly.

"Okay?"

"Okay."

"Okay." Robin grins and shoves at his shoulder.

Steve finally turns back around and leans on the counter in front of Eddie with a classically charming smile. "So, Eddie, are you free on Saturday?"

Eddie smiles back despite his confusion. "Yeah-"

"Oh my god!" Dustin bursts out suddenly.

"Oh my god," Robin agrees with a knowing smirk.

Eddie glances at Dustin. "Oh no, not you too."

Steve exhales a long-suffering sigh and pushes himself off the counter, marching around to grab Eddie by the hand and drag him away from Dustin and Robin. "So. Saturday?"

"He's into nerds," Dustin whispers, wide-eyed.

Robin nods sagely. "He's into nerds."

"gay or european" also goes for middle-aged women btw. that lady with short hair no makeup and sneakers isn't a lesbian she's just german

its 1am and i am overwhelmed with love for a person who kindly and knowledgeably answered questions on a forum about niche topics. this is not the first time and it absolutely will not be the last

I wanted to figure out how to identify/describe a silver blade vs a steel blade for a fic, and I found a post on silver-collecter.com from 2010, and answers from a man named uncle_vic:

in this same thread, olewheat asked about another silver piece; uncle_vic explained that blades were not made from silver, because it'd be too soft - often carbon steel would be silver plated, and eventually get pitted.

after a volley of questions, several users asked if they could contact uncle_vic directly. vic responded, very kindly:

I am always, always charmed by a clearly veteran hobbyist helping out new people on a forum, and i wanted to see what else uncle_vic posted, what other nuggets about his life i could learn, and it turns out he was a pillar of the community:

He joined in 2006, when the website was only 2 months old, and throughout the next 6 years, he helped many identify their silver pieces, and welcomed them all with: "Hi there and thanks for joining us", and always ended with a "Regards, Uncle Vic"

He helped so often, he'd post on the social thread to let people know he'd be gone without internet access for an extended period of time!

These often didn't get many interactions, but he did so anyway, like a journal made public: one about how a hurricane was reaching him in Baton Rouge; several about his fishing trips, like this one in 2011:

A year later, he wrote a similar vacation post, which became his final topic on the forum, titled: "Gone fishin'".

In May 2012, 3 months later, a newer user asked Vic what type of fishing he liked.

Vic replied: (content warning for cancer)

This was Uncle Vic's last post on the silver-collecter.com forums. Unflinchingly honest, and this time, instead of his usual "Regards", he ended with "Keep the Faith".

According to the obituary posted in the same thread, he passed away the next day, at his camp on the Tickfaw river -- well known for fishing.

--

This isn't the first time I've come across kind, dedicated forum users, usually knowledgeable retirees, who suddenly stop posting; it certainly won't be the last. But everytime I fall in love with them, and in turn, with humanity even more, to see what we leave behind.

A retired Cajun lawyer from Baton Rouge found a silver collecting forum from a hobbyist magazine in 2006, and decided to spend the next 6 years, up to his dying day, sharing his life, his love, and his knowledge with strangers.

Thank you, Uncle Vic, for the forum users you helped; thank you for the countless, anonymous users who found your posts through search engines like me.

I'm glad your corner of the internet exists so that, 12 years since you've been gone, I can visit and you can still teach me a whole lot about identifying silver and silver makers.

Like, even the Wall Street Journal thinks Trump has fucked up.

And they are run by Jeff Bezos.

Today's contributor spotlight features Em, @emchant3d our wonderful social media mod!

They will be writing a work based off of Chivalry, by Frank Bernard Dicksee 🌟

COMMISSIONS INFO

New commissions sheet ayeeee. Details and such in the form heh

Thank you for the interest 🖤

(you can also support me with a cup of piping hot coffee on here ☕️)

3 slots left at the moment 🤍

I want to be safe and comfortable and happy. And I want everyone else to be safe, comfortable, and happy with me. Why can’t we have this

Steve actually loves science fiction but it’s infinitely funnier to piss Dustin off by repeatedly mispronouncing the names is the characters in Star Wars because, “It’s Skywalker, Steve. Not Stair-Master! And his name is Luke, not Lucas! No one is named Lucas.”

“I think at least one person is.”

“In the movie.”

Dustin has recently discovered Doctor Who and is kinda a dick about explaining it to Steve. He heavily implies that Steve isn’t smart enough for the show like Steve’s mom doesn’t have a friend in England that tapes the new episodes and mails it to them.

Steve could share that information with Dustin but he’s not going to. Instead, when Dustin brings up The Doctor, Steve says, “Woah, Doc Hagan got a tv show?”

“It’s not a show about your dentist, Steve!”

If Steve is trying to round up all the kids and they’re being particularly annoying, he’ll clap his hands together and says, “C’mon, Ghost-bangers.”

The first thing he did after facing the demo-dogs was to memorize the entire D&D monster guide. He could tell Dustin this but D&D seems insufferable to him and it’s going to be way more satisfying when he catches the kid bullshitting an explanation and can call him out.

Robin knows about the stack of HG Wells books shelved in the den and Eddie definitely knows something is up. But Dustin? Nope.

There’s literally a picture on the mantle in the living room of him and his mom dressed as Spock and Nurse Chappell at a Star Trek convention when he was eight. Dustin walks passed it twice a week and has never noticed.

Part 3 to this

Eddie was completely willing to let bygones be what they were.

He did a shitty thing unintentionally. Steve has been doing shitty things for years with zero consequences. They’re even, right?

It’s not like he’s ever going to see Steve again anyways. He doesn’t throw parties anymore and Eddie doesn’t even have a VCR to warrant going into Family Videos.

So, bygones. As in, bye, gone to the stabbing feeling in his chest when he thinks about what happened for too long.

“Robin Buckley’s being weird.”

Eddie blinks back into the chaotic mess of the art room, “Isn’t she always weird?”

“I mean,” Jeff shrugs. “She been glaring at you the entire class. Did the same thing yesterday, too. I don’t even think she’s blinking.”

Eddie looked over his canvas and, yeah. She’s glaring at him. He turns his frown upside down and gives her a little wave which - “Oh. Oh no.”

“Dude,” Jeff hisses. “She’s coming over here.”

The nervous energy that typically hovers around a Robin is strangely absent when she stops next to his table. It’s a little intimidating. As is her cryptic ass greeting, “It’s been four days. You need to apologize.”

“For what?” He asks and then realizes what this is. “Did Steve Harrington really send his coworker to bully me?”

“I’m more than his coworker,” She scoffs. “And that’s not the point. You need to apologize to him. For-.”

“Apologize for what, not watering my club down to make him comfortable?”

Thats not what happened and Eddie knows it. He knows he crossed a line but he doesn’t understand it and it makes him defensive. He can’t make himself shut up, “You can tell him I’m sorry he can’t take a joke.”

Robin’s eyes narrow and then she turns around, calling across the room, “Mrs Keller, does this paint stain?”

“It’s washable.”

Robin nods once to the teacher and then immediately turns around and flips Eddie’s paint tray into his lap. She grabs the bottle of paint he was using and coats him in blue paint before dropping the bottle on the floor.

Her voice is low and unapologetic even as she grabs a handful of napkins for him, “He doesn’t even want an apology. Do it anyways.”

Eddie is left stunned, as is their deathly quiet class, but Robin just turns to the teacher and declares, “I will accept my detention now.”

Werewolf Steve who is in wolf form playing fetch with Eddie and Robin. Robin's tosses are high but not far, and Steve dances in circles under the stick until it comes back down and he can catch it. Eddie tosses far but not high, and Steve always has to dart to catch it before it hits the ground.

Eddie has the stick in his hand, looks at Steve then the stick and back a couple of times. And Steve, yeah he can be patient, but now is not the time for Eddie to contemplate! It is time for him to throw. Steve let's out a little bark that snaps Eddie out of his thoughts. Eddie winds his arms back, Steve wiggles slightly as he gears up to run. Eddie throws and Steve bolts-

Except there is no stick. It takes a full second before Steve realizes. He turns back and Eddie still has the stick in his hands. Robin is cackling, arms wrapped around her middle as she wheezes. Eddie is laughing too, tears steaming down his face.

Steve huffs and turns on his heels away from them. "Baby, I'm sorry!" Eddie calls in between laughter. The stick lands pathetically next to Steve. Steve glances down at it, makes sure they are watching, turns his nose up at it and walks away.

Written for @steddiesportsau.

Read the Coverage

Prompt #1: Friday Night Lights | Word Count: 2771 | Rating: T | CW: Language | Tags: Pre-Steddie, S2 Canon Divergence/Mild AU, Football Player Steve Harrington, Hawkins High School Football, Let It Be Known: Eddie Munson Did Not Sign Up For This Willingly

Also on ao3.

It was only supposed to be an unfairly issued punishment for a bullshit charge of attempted destruction of school property. The old, if you want to mess with the school's footballs so bad, then maybe you should be on the team nonsense that only a smooth-brained coach could cook up.

An ultimatum to either suck it up and accept the forced task of throwing practice passes to the JV losers, or be suspended, all but guaranteeing himself a third senior year. All because Coach Watkins saw Eddie snag a football from one of the asshole jocks, cock his arm, and send it flying into the trees in a nice spiral Uncle Wayne had taught him as a kid. Back before it was quite so blatantly obvious that sports weren't gonna be an interest in his life. 

Now, months later, he's having a helmet shoved on his head mid-game because Carver, the asshole starting quarterback, is being carted off the field. Knee blown out.

Two minutes ago, Eddie was reading a book on the bench. Now, Steve Harrington is pulling Eddie's jersey off his back, shoving a pair of pads into them, before demanding he put his arms up. 

He does, not sure what other option he really has at this point. Harrington yanks the jersey down over his head, settling the pads onto his shoulders, then slides his hands under Eddie's jersey. Eddie hears the click, and feels Steve yank them tight. Too tight. 

They're not really gonna make him play football in an actual game, are they? That's absurd.

"You should've been padded up," Harrington says, and then pats Eddie's thighs. Eddie is wearing his bottom pads, but if he wasn't, would Steve Harrington try to strip his pants off him too? "Why weren't you dressed out?"

"Uh, I don't really play," he starts, but Steve Harrington, the only remaining captain on the field, is too busy dressing him before they have to resume play. 

Into battle