Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Mutants existed. There was evil in the world. There was also good. And some mutants didn’t want to grow up to be an X-Man. X-Woman? X-Person. Some just wanted to live their lives, go about their days, and enjoy the last hours of summer before school started back up again without the looming concept over them - and the jet plane under the basketball court.

If one didn’t want to go to the Xavier School for the Gifted, there were other options. Mutants weren’t actually forced to go to the school, as some parents would have their children believe. It was just the most known option because of its more famous alumni. A vast majority of mutant children actually attended various public schools, and many had the appearance of tolerance. It was public school. If you weren’t bullied for having a lisp or not having great lung capacity so you couldn’t run the mile in the gym, you were bullied for having a forked tongue. It’s just how life worked.

One of said alumni from the Xavier School actually managed to start a community of sorts after he graduated and came back from the war. He wanted something simple, quiet, and somewhere where he could grow a family. It wasn’t a private school, nor was it a mandatory living situation. It was simply a small community on the far outskirts of a small town in Indiana that had a few mutant families living in peace and harmony with the humans around them. They attended the public schools, they worked in the town, but they were able to come home to people who were like them and they didn’t have to rein in their powers.

The Compound - or Camp Mutant as the kids called it since it was very much in the woods - was a series of cabins that a mutant, Jim Hopper, created with his wife, Joyce. She was also a mutant, but she didn’t go to the Xavier school like Hopper did. They found one another after Hopper got back from Vietnam, having grown up in the same area and reconnected. Joyce’s mutant sons joined them, as well as Hopper’s adopted daughter. Slowly but surely, word spread of their little haven and they added more families, or people who left their families in search of acceptance. There were some humans among them, family members who didn’t want to quite let their children go without them because love was a factor involved. And as long as they pitched in around the land, it was alright with the rest of them. 

When the kids weren’t in school, they were expected to help out with chores. Being on the outskirts, Hopper encouraged an almost self-sustaining lifestyle for the community. They weren’t hiding from anyone, nor were they not allowed to go into town, but sometimes it was just easier growing your own vegetables than going to the grocery store every week. Unfortunately, no one had mutant powers to control plants. So it was good old fashioned tilling of the soil.

Eddie Munson had been 13 when his powers started making their appearance. Eddie hadn’t known either of his parents to have powers, and he lived with his Uncle Wayne, who was definitely not a mutant, so with puberty came an extra special surprise. He had been singing along to a Judas Priest record when he sang a little too loud and blew out all the windows in their trailer. Wayne had walked in, surveyed the mess, and just called Eddie his ‘Little Banshee.’ He called up his old army buddy and soon packed up him and Eddie and moved them to the Compound. Eddie got a little different family history in that car ride than he was used to.

So, Eddie got to grow up around other mutants just like him. They had their own cliques at the school and their own interests, but they always came home together. Eddie had to try to remember to control his volume, Jonathan had to remember not to look through the walls of the locker room, and Nancy had to remember to look where she was going - or else there’d be a girl-shaped hole in the wall. That was just high school.

“Eddie. I had that dream again.”

Eddie placed the book he was reading on his chest. Standing in the doorway of his room was El. She was Hopper’s daughter and a telepath. Before she came into Hopper’s care, she had been experimented on and used as a weapon since she had the ability to project images into people’s minds. Hopper’s gift had enabled him to get her out of that situation and safe. She couldn’t touch his mind, so she stuck to his side like glue after that.

“What dream was that, sweet pea?” Eddie asked, sitting up slightly and gesturing for her to come sit on his bed with him. She crossed the room and gingerly sat on the edge of his bed.

“The one about the sad boy. The one like us,” She explained. She was never one for many words, and Eddie liked that about her. She was to the point and would never lie.

“You know we don’t actually go out and Find mutants, right? That’s Xavier’s whole schtick. Are you sure they’re not on the way to him now?” He asked. El tilted her head to the side, either considering Eddie’s question or hearing something that Eddie would never hear in his lifetime. He didn’t know the extent of her powers and sometimes he was afraid to ask. They never talked about her time before besides just ‘bad.’

“They have not found him. Noticed him. Not like I have. You have to go and get him. I can feel his pain. He..he has these scars on his back. Like I have scars.” Eddie sat up a little straighter, his ears ringing.

“Are you sure? Scars?” El nodded. “Did you see anything about where he might be?” She shook her head. “Any clues?”

“I can…see if I can find him now that I am awake. Do you think that could help?” She whispered, her eyes watering slightly after Eddie’s line of questioning. He felt guilty, suddenly springing all these questions on her after she only had a dream about the man, not knowing what to do besides follow the dream.

“I’ll help, Supergirl. Here, hold my hands. Let’s find this kid together,” Eddie said, lowering his voice to sound commanding and - if he was being honest - a poor imitation of Hopper. It got El to laugh though, so he counted it as a win.

El moved up onto the bed, crossing her legs and mirroring Eddie’s position. She took his hands in hers and closed her eyes. Eddie followed suit. He actually had no idea how he was supposed to help, but he figured that keeping El company would maybe help keep her calm and focused. Not that Eddie was a calming presence to be around naturally, but he had his moments.

“Are you sure this is going to work? What if I can’t find him now that I’m awake?” He heard El whisper to him. He cracked an eye open to see her scrunching her face in concentration.

“Then you try when you’re asleep. No harm no foul. The weight of the world does not rest on you finding this kid right this second,” Eddie answered. He tried to keep El calm, reaching out with his own mind to dull the sounds that were coming into the room. Soon, it was just the two of them and their breathing.

“Thank you,” she whispered. Eddie smiled before closing his eyes again.

It took a few moments. Eddie just concentrated on his breathing and making sure his palms weren’t too sweaty. But soon, the darkness behind his eyes gave way to light.

He was in a dining room, that he was sure of. But the tables and chairs and walls were all a stark grey. It felt cold and antiseptic, like a hospital or a morgue. Eddie looked around as best as he could, trying to reach out to touch, but he could still only feel El’s hands in his. He forgot how realistic her visions could be. Eddie was about to open his mouth to ask where they were, but someone came into the room.

A boy. About Eddie’s age. Definitely Eddie’s type. His brown fluffy hair fell over his eyes as he walked through the dining room. His eyes were…red. He had been crying. He went out of the room behind Eddie.

They were in a bedroom. Plaid monstrosity that it was. The boy was standing in front of a mirror but. He was gone. He was the mirror. Or the mirror was him. Eddie was confused because vampires weren’t a thing but here was what felt like proof.

Proof. That’s what he needed. He needed proof of where the boy was.

He quickly scanned the room. There were textbooks on his desk. Homework. Still in school then. So actually around the age that Eddie was, he surmised. Tacked above his desk was a basketball team schedule. Eddie tried peering closer, but all he could make out was the team name, Vikings maybe? The jacket on his chair was red. He didn’t know where else to look to find a location.

The boy turned on his radio, breaking the overbearing silence with the end notes of some pop number. Indiana. The host said Indiana. Hell they were in the same state.

Eddie’s eyes started to fade to black.

“I’m sorry Eddie, I tried to hold on for longer but I couldn’t!” El wheezed out. He blinked his eyes open, shaking his head as if to clear the fog out of it. But he couldn’t forget the look in the boy's eyes. He leaned forward, pulling El into a hug.

“You did perfect, El. You did so good.”

“So you’ll go get him?”

“Yeah I’ll go get him.”

The week passed with little fanfare. He drove the girls to the middle school - Jonathan took the boys, they alternated weeks for sanity's sake - drove them home, half paid attention in class, played Dungeons and Dragons with the non-mutant friends he made when he moved here, and did his chores and maybe homework when he got home. In between those moments, he was thinking of the boy. It wasn’t every day that El dreamed about people, and less often that other interested parties didn’t pick out on them first. Will thought it was a sudden proximity thing, like since they all lived in Indiana, something clicked in El’s brain to make her pick up on his wavelength. Lucas thought that that was weird, since wouldn’t she dream about every mutant in Indiana all the time? That opened up a can of worms of an argument about how many mutants there were per state if there’s a certain percentage of mutants per population. Eddie left the room when they all started doing math.

He thought it would be harder to find him, which was the crux of the issue. He was expecting to put a lot of effort into finding a dream person. At least some days spent at the library trying to find the school just based on the colors of the letterman jacket he saw and the word ‘Vikings.’ Maybe even ask her again if they can try and spot some outside details. Why she came to him with this dream issue, he didn’t exactly know. She normally told Hopper or Will about these sorts of things; Will because he was also a mind wizard (Lucas’ words not his) and Hopper because…dad?

But finding him doesn’t take any effort at all. In fact it took so little effort that for a second Eddie would’ve completely passed by the kid if it wasn’t for the ill-placed crack in the flooring that caused him to trip into Eddie.

“Oh my god I’m so sorry are you okay?” He asked, picking up Eddie’s books off the floor where they had fallen.

He couldn’t speak. His mouth was open, sure when isn’t it. But the hazel eyes he Literally (requested) dreamed about were staring into his own. The hair, the slightly crooked nose, the moles that dotted his face and neck. Here he was. In the flesh in front of Eddie.

His eyebrows furrowed. “I didn’t hit You too hard, did I?” Eddie shook his head, trying to choke out something of a response, when the boy's attention was drawn elsewhere.

“STEVE C’MON. COACH IS WAITING. LEAVE THE FREAK.”

Eddie rolled his eyes at the very original insult. He couldn’t help but notice the way Steve’s eyes flashed. Not in anger or another emotion, but a completely different color. Well, that’s new.

“I’m sorry about them. And the trip. I didn’t mean to,” the boy, Steve - Eddie mentally corrects, looks back to Eddie with his hazel eyes. Eddie finally found his words.

“No problem, man. I’ve had worse. In both insults and accidental injury,” he teased. He got Steve to raise an eyebrow and smirk at him. Win.

“STEVE”

“I gotta-”

“Yeah you gotta-”

Steve gave an awkward thumbs up to Eddie before dashing off to join the rest of the guys at the end of the hall. They were all wearing red letterman jackets. With a viking patch on the left arm. He felt Nancy sidle up next to him.

“They’re here for the basketball game. I gotta cover it for the paper. You want to come or do you want to stand here and drool from afar?” She asked, flicking his curls with a pen. He waved the pen away from his face.

“I’ll drool up close thank you very much. Lead the way, She-Ra.” She rolled her eyes and started making her way down the hall, following the direction Steve and the rest of the team just left.

“I told you not to call me that, Eddie.”

“Yeah well, don’t win a fight against a semi truck and then maybe I’ll think of a new nickname,” he shrugged, catching up with her and slinging an arm around her shoulders. He Felt how she rolled her eyes at him.

“I don’t have super strength. How could I win a fight against a semi?”

Eddie snorted. “You just have to stand there. It comes at you. You’re left standing, it’s not. You win. Simple math!”

“Alright Banshee.”

“HEY NO!”

As expected, the game was boring and very loud; enough that Eddie could feel a headache coming on. What was not boring, however, was watching Steve. While he had only gotten to see a dreamlike fragment of the boy from El, watching him in person was simply magical. The whole game, he sat on the sidelines with Nancy and tried to figure out what the boy's abilities were and why El felt called to him in particular. Nothing physical, as much as Eddie could see. Maybe if he got Steve’s clothes off - nope. Not the time for that train of thought.

There was something off about the way he sounded which was the only thing that Eddie could tell. An aspect of Eddie’s gifts was that, when he tuned out everything else and focused, he could hear everyone’s heartbeats. It took some getting used to and many many headaches, but he could focus and only hear one at a time. And Steve’s didn’t sound human. Or at least regular human. There were too many things going on that Eddie couldn’t exactly get it down pat, but the different sound of it was sticking with him.

A few other things he learned at the game. The team - and subsequently Steve - were from just a couple towns over. And from what Eddie could see, and ask Nancy about since she was the one with all the notes, no mutants whatsoever on the team or practically even at the school. Her notes weren’t that extensive, but the lack of mutant abilities was underlined with ‘on purpose??’ in big letters. Which made Steve all the more interesting. An anomaly.

It also meant that Eddie couldn’t just go up to him and say, ‘hey I know you got some funky genes like I do and maybe we should talk about that? Over coffee sometime?’

So he resorted to being creepy and deciding to just follow the guy.

It wasn’t that hard, really. Which was probably more concerning than anything. After the basketball game, Eddie stayed behind to smoke out by his van while he waited for the other team to come out. They did and, to Eddie’s delight, Steve didn’t get on the smelly bus with the other guys. Oh no. He waved goodbye to his neanderthal basketball buddies before getting into his own car. A beautiful burgundy BMW that luckily had a visible license plate for Eddie to memorize and write down when he grabbed a pen out of his backpack.

The next part was more embarrassing for Eddie if it ever came out. That Saturday, after finishing the house chores with Wayne, Eddie drove over from Hawkins. He had no plan besides hope for the best. He wasn’t about to rope any of the kids into helping him, especially Max. Even if her speed would’ve made this go faster, the bullying and teasing from her would’ve been relentless. So he did the stupidest thing ever and just…drove around. He found where the high school was, no cars in the lot. No burgundy BMWs on Main Street. Nothing at the local theater. He was really and truly feeling like a complete stalker at this point.

He was about to give up the rest of his dignity and start driving into the residential neighborhoods when he spotted a potential car in a parking lot. Burgundy BMW and…“Thank god,” Eddie whispered, checking the plate numbers against his scrawled note. He pulled into a spot far away from the car and sat for a minute. Looking around the lot, he saw a video rental place, an arcade, a dry cleaners, and a couple places he couldn’t see the names or themes of. With no movement towards the BMW, Eddie hopped out of his van and moved towards the video rental place. A grumpy brunette man was working behind the counter, and he and Eddie talked about horror movies for a minute before Eddie deduced no one else was in the store and this was definitely not His grumpy brunette, and so he left.

Opening the door to the arcade, Eddie immediately had to close it again. There was a reason he didn’t go to the arcade back home. Taking a deep breath, he opened the door and tried to focus through all of the screeching noise that was coming back to him. The kids yelling, the machines making all their winning and losing noises, let alone all of the mechanics he could hear coming out of them. The feet, the eating, the heartbeats, the coins running through the machines. Eddie backed up against the wall and breathed deep, thinking on the heartbeats. Closing his eyes, he remembered the sound of Steve, his vibrations. Eddie focused on what he remembered and, thankfully, he heard the same noise here. He walked through the crowds, doing his best to keep that heartbeat at the forefront of his mind before he could lay eyes on the person themselves.

Luckily it didn’t take long. The arcade was only so big. But there he was, leaning against a pinball machine and talking with another kid. Eddie focused through the crowd noises and started to hear snippets of their conversation.

“Dustin, c’mon. I told your mom I’d get you home for dinner,” he heard Steve sigh, running a hand through his truly impressive hair. Eddie wanted to get his hands in it. The boy playing the machine sighed.

“Dude, just one more quarter I’ve almost beat my high score!” the kid, Dustin, pleaded. It was endearing to watch Steve just roll his eyes and hand Dustin a quarter. No fight in the boy, just fond exasperation.

“I’m going to go and exchange my tickets for one of those kazoos so I can play it to tune out your talking,” Steve said, pushing himself up and off the machine. Dustin just waved him away.

It wasn’t five steps before Steve bumped into Eddie again. This time also accidentally because Eddie was concentrating so hard on not hearing everything else that his actual visual reaction time was a bit slow.

“Oh my god I - hey! You’re that kid…” Steve’s eyes widened as he took in Eddie and realized the similarities of their last meeting.

“Eddie. Hi. Yes. We’ve done this before,” Eddie tried to smile, but it came out more like a grimace. The sounds snuck up on him, and as much control as he managed to have, he could feel a headache coming on.

“What..what are you doing here? You must live in Hawkins and..that’s an hour away so…” Steve’s eyes narrowed, backing up slightly. Eddie gulped.

“I just..I needed to talk to you? If you’ll let me?” Eddie just outright begged. He had no idea what he was supposed to do in this situation. Just coming out and saying ‘yes hi our telepath has had dreams about you and you’re the prettiest person I’ve seen, please come live with me in our little compound mutant community?’ would sound absolutely bonkers.

Steve’s eyes narrowed ever so slightly more, but he nodded. “But we stay here. I’m not going anywhere with you.” Unfortunate for Eddie’s hearing, but it would have to do to get him to listen to him.

“Fine. Okay. So…” He started. Bit the inside of his cheek. Steve just stared at him with a raised eyebrow. He had looked so much nicer the other day when he wasn’t outwardly glaring at Eddie like he was now. “Okay..”

“Eddie.” He grunted. Eddie breathed out once quickly through his nose.

“Okay so. My friend, more like a little sister, has been having dreams about you. Nothing weird. She’s a telepath, you see. A mutant. And she’s been having these dreams about you and she saw that you were sad and alone and she asked me to come find you and. Honestly at the school that was just an accident I really had no idea how I was going to Start to find you and Poof there you were in all your…well you. So. Here you are. Here I am. Sent on a quest by a literal child.” Eddie finished his certifiably insane explanation to see Steve’s expression having changed from one of annoyance to one of blankness. That was it. His expression was completely blank, as though what Eddie had said not only hadn’t shocked him, but also didn’t phase him in the slightest. Eddie had no clue how to interpret that.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m not a mutant.” Those were Steve’s only words before he started to turn back to the kid, to Dustin.

Eddie swore under his breath, definitely not liking where this had headed. El’s voice rang out through his head. Scars. Scars on his back.

He reached out, both with his powers and with his arm. As his hand connected with Steve’s bicep, the world around them fell silent. Steve gasped, turning back to face Eddie.

“What did you do?” He asked, his eyes wide and his voice having taken on a tremble that Eddie recognized from when Mike was about to have a panic attack.

“No one can hear us, Steve. I’m sorry. I know this is weird. I really do. But I just had to come and find you.”

“But why? I’m noth- no one. I’m no one. I can’t help you with whatever it is you want.” Eddie dropped his grip from Steve’s arm, but the silence outside of their own little bubble remained. It felt like it was just the two of them in the world.

“I don’t need your help. I’m here to help you, sweetheart. I came here for you.” Steve shook his head, but Eddie could only stare. He had no idea why, other than that El could feel his pain. That’s all. But he wasn’t about to divulge that information to this stranger that he was very obviously freaking out.

“You can’t…shit, Dustin,” Steve gasped and turned around. Eddie’s concentration broke as they both turned to look at the boy still standing at the pinball machine. Except this time he wasn’t alone.

“Guys seriously, I don’t want any trouble. Steve! I can leave if you want the machine. Look, my quarter is still good. STEVE!” Dustin was cornered by three older boys with his hands raised in defense. Eddie didn’t know how long he had been yelling for Steve for, but by the look on the kids face, he was getting annoyed with how long it was taking Steve to acknowledge him.

Steve stormed over there, shoving his way through the cronies and wrenching the ringleader away from Dustin. Eddie tried to follow, but the noises were getting to him after he had silenced them for so long. The headache was getting stronger and he stumbled towards the growing crowd.

Punches were thrown as the ringleader clearly didn’t like being touched as he tried bullying a child, and a crowd had formed as Steve fought off the three grown ass children. They were probably a year or so younger than Steve and had been bullying a middle schooler for quarters. The wonders of humanity.

An adult broke through the crowd just as the ringleader landed a punch to Steve’s jaw. Yelling ensued, and the crowd dispersed as the adult grabbed onto the ringleader and his little cronies. Steve started to walk away with Dustin holding onto him, but he made eye contact with Eddie through the crowd of people. Eddie tried pushing through, but the steadily growing group of onlookers wouldn’t move fast enough.

It felt like an eternity being pinned in Steve’s gaze. So Eddie got to watch in slow motion as Steve leaned down to whisper in Dustin’s ear. Just as he tried to hear what they were saying, every machine in the building started going off. Eddie screamed and dropped to the ground, covering his ears as the noises overwhelmed him. Everything was happening at once and he couldn’t filter it out quick enough.

People rushed over to Eddie as he lay curled on the ground with his hands covering his ears. He rolled over just in time to see Dustin pushing the glass door open and a girl with a strawberry blonde high ponytail and a yellow pleated miniskirt rushing him through. She placed a hand on his shoulder as they ran out of the building together.

Through the screaming noises pounding through his head, he heard it. Her heart sounded like Steve’s.

Chapter Text

Eddie went home dejected. And with a throbbing headache that he felt in his eyes. He probably shouldn’t have driven with it, but he could only chug water in the back of his van for so long before he ran out and couldn’t do anything else in town. He wasn’t about to drive through each neighborhood on the hopes that he’d spot the car or Steve…Stevie? Or Dustin again.

El was waiting for him on the front steps of his trailer. “You need rest,” was all she said as she stood up and followed him into his room.

“That obvious?” He grumbled, opening the door to his room and flopping down on the bed. At least here the curtains were closed and the sunlight was blocked. El brought a cool washcloth and laid it over his forehead.

“Thanks, Supergirl,” he smiled at her, gesturing for her to come lay down with him. She smiled and laid down next to him, careful not to jostle the cloth or Eddie himself.

“I’m sorry it didn’t go well,” she whispered into the dark. “Can we try again tomorrow?”

“We?”

“You’re not going to get very far with him. I can tell.”

“How can you-...oh. Right. Yeah, it wasn’t pretty,” Eddie sighed, remembering the look in Steve’s eyes right before Eddie crumpled to the ground. Actually, the same look when Eddie first got there. Confusion. Distrust. Fear. That one was the strongest.

“You think he’s pretty,” El giggled. Eddie snorted. “Your thoughts are very loud about that part.”

Eddie hummed an agreement, not surprised that she glommed onto that fact. He could hear his own thoughts on what he felt about Steve. How he sounded. How he felt when Eddie grabbed him. His eyes. His heartbeat. Eddie’s hum turned into a thump noise. Not a regular heartbeat but different and still beautiful.

“Is that what his heart sounded like?” El asked as Eddie continued making the noise, never wanting to forget it. He nodded, still hearing the sounds of the vibrations through Steve’s body. “It’s very pretty. Why does it echo like that?”

“No clue kiddo. No clue.”

Sunday afternoon, El told Hopper that Eddie and her were going for a drive and not to wait around. Eddie was expecting some kind of pushback, but the girl had pull. If he had said that, things definitely would’ve been questioned. They didn’t get out of the compound grounds without a raised eyebrow from Nancy first, but it was still easier than if he and El had simply gotten into the car and drove off. If they had left without saying anything, Eddie was sure Hopper would’ve sent someone to follow them. It wasn’t Eddie’s fault that he was a magnet for ‘shenanigans’ as Wayne explained.

El fiddled with the radio before finding a classical music station. If she looked into his head, she could feel Eddie’s head still throbbing from whatever had happened at the arcade yesterday. As much as she wanted to, she couldn’t hone her powers to the point of banishing headaches, no matter how much the kids kept trying. Eddie smiled gratefully at her before they continued the drive in silence. He could feel her poking around in his head, trying to see different memories of what happened yesterday and he could definitely feel her confusion at the girl with Dustin at the end. She focused on that part, which made Eddie focus on that part. He could see the memories rewinding and fast forwarding and pausing as she played with his brain.

“I hope you know that this is the weirdest part of your power. Being able to see what you’re doing in here,” Eddie finally said, seeing Steve leaning over Dustin to whisper on pause.

“I think Dustin is a mutant, too.” She ignored his statement for one of her own. Eddie looked over at her with an eyebrow raised. “You were about to follow them and then every machine started going off after Steve said something. Steve didn’t make it happen himself. I think he asked Dustin for a diversion. So he could protect him. I like him.”

“Steve or Dustin?” Eddie asked, his fingers drumming on the wheel as they pulled into the town limits.

“Both.”

They sat in the van, idling in front of the town's library, and Eddie laid his forehead against the steering wheel. El just sat next to him, her eyes closed. He didn’t question her when she said to pull over and park the car, but after 20 minutes of just hearing the rumble of the engine and static since she switched the radio to in between stations, he was getting a bit stir crazy.

“El?”

“Shush.”

He huffed, leaning back now against his seat, eyes closed. It was another five minutes before she opened her eyes and turned the radio to an actual station.

“Start driving. That direction.” Eddie pulled the van out onto the street with a grimace.

“Anything more specific?”

“No.” Eddie pursed his lips and nodded, going in That Direction.

She continued to point, saying ‘turn here’ when necessary, but with the amount of loops they ended up making - “We’ve seen this diner three times now.” “I know shush” - it felt like the memories she was reading were getting a bit skewed. It was another ten minutes before she smacked her hands against her legs.

“Why is this so hard! I know it’s around here somewhere!”

Eddie pulled over, cutting the engine in front of a house - he hoped they wouldn’t look outside and see a van and think it’s sketchy and call the cops - and grabbed her hands so she couldn’t smack herself again.

“Hey hey it’ll be fine. I don’t want you wearing yourself out okay? We’ll just drive around for a bit longer, maybe something will seem familiar. And hey, you said they’re close right? Maybe I can hear him?” He tried to offer that up. But he really had no clue if his powers would be That specific. He was hoping that Steve’s heartbeat was unique enough that he could easily pick it up but…well Eddie didn’t exactly practice seeking sounds Out.

“Are you sure?” She asked, her eyes shining. Whenever she got frustrated with herself and her powers, Will or Hopper were normally the ones to calm her down. Or Max. Eddie wasn’t great about handling children crying. Or about to cry.

He hoped honesty would work. He never liked being lied to. “I don’t know, darlin’. But I’ll try my hardest. For you And for the boys.”

It got El to softly smile. That’s really all that mattered.

Eddie closed his eyes and tried to focus on the sound of Steve’s heartbeat that he remembered. The metallic noise. Almost hollow. Shifting. Moving more than any heart he had heard before. Not the blood moving through it, but the heart moving. Staying still. Beating faster than it should. Slower. And finally-

“This way,” he whispered, his ears picking up on the faint sound of the heartbeat. Close, like El said.

He started the van back up and pulled onto the street, driving so low under the speed limit that he was sure someone walking would be able to keep up with them. But he didn’t exactly feel comfortable driving with someone else in the car while his mind was literally streets ahead and not knowing where he was currently.

The sound got louder the closer they got, turning down side streets with a more finite destination in mind. He was able to concentrate less the closer they got to it since it was growing louder. It was helpful, being able to drive a more normal limit so the sound got louder quicker.

“There!” El finally yelled, jumping in her seat as she pointed out the BMW in a driveway at the end of the block. Eddie shook his head to clear it before pulling in in front of the house that the BMW was parked in. He put it in park and turned off the engine again. He wasn’t focusing on just Steve’s heart anymore, but he could still pick it out in the background noises he heard. He felt it growing quicker. They had been spotted. Eddie turned to El as she unbuckled and had a hand on her door.

“Alright, here’s the plan. No mind reading. No finishing their sentences for them. No ‘persuading’ them against their will. We go and talk to them like civilized people,” Eddie stated, encouraging El to look back at him with a hand on her shoulder.

“Human civilized or mutant civilized?”

“Mutant civilized and Joyce is watching everything you do through a tiny hole in the wall.” Her eyes almost bugged out of her skull at that. Using Joyce may have been a dirty ploy, but he needed best behavior. It would work on him certainly. She nodded before hopping out of the van.

He unbuckled and got out himself, closing the door much softer than El had slammed hers shut. They made their way up the front walk together and Eddie noticed a curtain on the second floor flutter back into place.

Showtime.

El was the one to reach the front door first, knocking rapidly before Eddie joined her on the porch. There was some shuffling heard on the other side, a few whispers that Eddie wasn’t going to tune in on, before hearing a laugh. The door then opened to a woman, a mom if the sweater was anything to go by. Eddie felt comforted by her appearance, even with Steve glaring behind her at Eddie.

“Hi kids. What brings you to our neck of the woods?” She asked, drying her hands on a dish towel.

“Hello ma’am. My name is El and this is Eddie. We would like to speak to you all about…” El looked up to Eddie. He could see that she was trying really hard to not read the woman’s mind about whether or not she knew about the mutant aspect of her..sons? “...about some events that transpired yesterday. If that is okay with you.”

The woman smiled wide and put a hand to her chest. El could out-polite anyone Eddie knew, bringing out the ma’ams like it was no one's business.

“Well aren’t you sweet, honey. C’mon in! I’m Claudia, Dusty’s mom-”

“No they’re not coming in,” Steve finally spoke up behind her, blocking her from stepping back any further to let them inside.

“Steven, hush. You and I both know this boy was gonna turn up again. And I highly doubt they’d send a child if it was any sort of this evil doing you’re so worried about. You’re gonna run yourself ragged, dear, if you think everyone is a villain like in Dusty’s books. He doesn’t have that look in his eyes.” She patted him on the chest and Steve, very reluctantly Eddie noticed, stepped back to let everyone through. Well, Eddie noted, at least he had Claudia’s approval.

Claudia led them into the living room, gesturing for Eddie and El to sit on the very comfortable couch. She sat on the arm chair and Steve stood behind her. Dustin finally came bounding down the stairs, curiosity apparently getting the better of him if Steve’s annoyed face had anything to do with it.

“Dustin, I told you to stay upstairs.” Yep there it was.

“Not on your life, Steve. I wasn’t gonna miss this. What are your powers?” Dustin bounced onto the couch next to El, making her jostle. He smiled a big toothy grin, apparently getting his mom’s sense of trust.

El looked over to Eddie, who just shrugged. “I am a telepath. And Eddie can..do things with sound. It is quite impressive. I saw you do something in his memories. What is your power?”

“I can manipulate electricity!” Dustin seemed excited to share, covering up the groan from Steve. Eddie wondered again if the whole town was like how Nancy’s notes said about the school. All human.

“How does that work?” El asked, her head tilting to one side. Most of the mutants at the compound had more internal powers, except maybe Mike technically, so El didn’t have a lot of experience with someone who could physically control something. Besides Eddie. And even then that was stretching the definition.

“You said you saw his memories?” Dustin looked over to Eddie, who nodded. “I made all the machines go haywire at the arcade yesterday. They listened to me!”

“Dustin!” Steve gasped, but was ignored. Eddie couldn’t take his eyes off him.

“Can you read my thoughts?” Dustin asked, looking at El intently.

“Eddie told me not to. But I could if you wanted,” She whispered the last part while leaning closer to Dustin. Claudia laughed while Steve looked affronted again. Eddie groaned into his hands.

“Why’d you tell her she couldn’t?” Dustin asked, now moving his focus to Eddie. He squirmed under the sudden attention of both El and Dustin. His eyes flicked back to Steve, who was still looking at him under a glare but his eyes looked more curious than anything. Baby steps.

“After yesterday…I didn’t want to offend anyone, really. I didn’t want something being said that we weren’t supposed to know or..maybe your mom didn’t know about your mutation and..I just wanted us all to have as normal a conversation as possible. I feel really bad about how wrong things went yesterday and I just…we just..wanted to talk. As normally as possible,” Eddie explained, repeating himself a few times in the ramble.

Claudia laughed. “Well that’s very sweet of you dear. I’ve never met any more mutants than these two so this is a delight.”

“How’d you find this house? How’d you find us?” Steve asked. Eddie lifted his gaze to meet Steve’s.

“I listened. What are your powers, Steve?” For the first time in the conversation, Eddie saw Steve falter. He could spot the cuts on his knuckles from yesterday, punching those kids for Dustin.

“Strength,” he only said. Eddie felt rather than heard his heart speed up. A lie.

Steve could maybe get away with the concept of a strength mutation. He was built like he could fight, and Eddie could see in his eyes that he was assessing Eddie. He saw it enough in the mirror to know what to look for. But he could also remember how Steve wasn’t pulling punches yesterday and how those kids could hobble away from the fight, even with a few teeth missing. Steve was particularly strong, sure. But his mutation wasn’t in strength. He didn’t carry himself like Nancy, like his limbs weren’t correct. He was holding himself just fine.

Eddie just hummed an affirmative. He wasn’t about to call out the lie, especially with Dustin having grown quiet next to El.

“So what brings you both here? I’ve heard of the Xavier School recruiting kids but I’ve never heard of kids recruiting kids,” Claudia prompted, easing some of the tension in the room with the topic change. Her heart rate had sped up as well after Eddie’s question of Steve’s powers, but it had managed to slow down by now. She was protecting him too, it seemed.

“Well..um…we’re not exactly from the Xavier School.” Steve cocked an eyebrow, but his arms unfolded and he looked less tense, so that was a win for Eddie. “El’s dad actually went to the Xavier School but…he didn’t exactly like the vibe so he created this safe haven.”

“Camp Mutant!” El piped up. Eddie laughed.

“Yeah, Camp Mutant. But it’s more like a compound. A community of sorts. Where mutants and their families can live without hiding. It’s right outside of Hawkins and we go to the school there, but when we’re home we can be surrounded by our own people without…ya know…all the hiding. And it’s not like we hide it at school either. They’re tolerant…in their own way.” Eddie finished explaining and saw Claudia looking up at Steve.

“In their own way?” Dustin chimed in, looking confused. Eddie pondered on it for a minute.

“Well…Nancy runs the newspaper but not because of her mutation. Because she’s that good. And I still get shoved by jocks, but that’s because of the whole Dungeons and Dragons club, not because I’ve got some special genes in me,” he mused out. Dustin’s eyes lit up.

“You have a D&D club?!” He practically shouted. El giggled.

“You still didn’t answer why you came here,” Steve interrupted whatever tangent Eddie was about to go on about the Hellfire club.

“We want you to come live with us,” El stated matter-of-factly .

It was silent for a long time. Too long, in Eddie’s opinion. He could hear the buzzing from the refrigerator and a cat moving around upstairs, hopping down from the bed and padding down the stairs and starting to eat its dry food.

“What about my mom?” Dustin was the first one to break the silence. His voice was the smallest Eddie had heard come out of him, so he rushed to fix the sadness he could feel coming out of Dustin. But El got there first, thankfully.

“Everyone is welcome at the compound. Eddie’s uncle is human. So are Nancy and Mike’s parents. Mr. Sinclair was the one to seek us out, actually, so Mrs. Sinclair and Lucas and Erica could find more of their own. It’s not exclusively mutant,” El answered patiently. Eddie saw Steve’s arms flex. He felt his mouth dry up.

“Look I know this is kindof out of the blue and very weird. And I really am sorry for that. But I..we…just thought that we should offer you this. I don’t know what your situation is here, but sometimes…it’s nice not to hide. You know?” Eddie flicked his gaze up to Steve’s eyes at the last part. He thought he saw them flash again, like he had at school.

‘Strength, my ass.’

‘Ass is a bad word, Eddie.’

“El!”

“You said I couldn’t read their thoughts, not yours,” she simply shrugged. Dustin cackled, earning a smile from Claudia. Steve still hadn’t budged, but his eyebrow raised as though he knew that El had called out Eddie after looking at Steve. Like he knew that Eddie had been thinking about him. Couldn’t exactly help it with him looking like that, though.

“Dusty, it Would be nice for you to not have to hide. And you, Steve. I know you’ve taken upon yourself to be Dustin’s guardian and I can never thank you enough for that but…I think you both need to experience life without your hackles raised,” Claudia said, almost too calm for the situation. Like she had given this some thought before and now the opportunity to help her son and whatever Steve was to her family. She talked about him the same as Dustin but there was something else there, some modicum of protection like she wanted to shield him from something.

“Ma-” Steve started.

She turned to face him in the chair and grasped onto his hands. “Not everyone is your parents, Steven. You shouldn’t have to hide all the time. I think it would do the Both of you some good.”

Eddie was able to watch in real time as Steve’s defenses crumbled at this woman’s words. Whomever he was to her, he loved her. She loved him too, that much was clear.

“If you wanted to come see for yourselves before making any decisions, you can. It’s not like an immediate need. We just wanted to offer,” Eddie spoke up, feeling bad for interrupting the moment but knowing that saying they weren’t forcing the boys to go, that it was ultimately Their Decision, was worth seeing more worry drain out of Steve’s posture.

“Can we go now, Ma? I wanna see Camp Mutant! El showed me the setup they have there and it looks Wicked!”

“El I thought we agreed-”

“Dustin asked. And consented. I just showed him things. I didn’t…lurk as you are worried about.” Dustin cackled as Eddie dropped his face into his hands. He was beginning to regret this, almost.

“If it’s alright with Eddie, we can go,” Claudia interrupted what looked like Steve about to nix that idea, based on the betrayed look he got on his face looking at her.

“Really?!” Dustin, El, and Eddie all asked at the same time.

“We’ll follow you two back to Hawkins in Steve’s car. How does that sound?” She asked, mostly looking up at Steve again. It was more of her checking on him rather than asking, it seemed. Her mind was already decided. She just wanted to see if he’d go along with it without fuss, like Eddie had seen Joyce do as she overpowered Hopper’s decisions. They knew each other well enough to intercept arguments like this. Steve’s jaw twitched but he nodded. Dustin whooped before running to go find his shoes.

Eddie stood up, making his way over to Steve as Claudia followed Dustin to clean herself up and find shoes of her own rather than slippers, presumably. Steve still watched Eddie like he was ready for a fight to start. Eddie kept his hands to himself this time, visible in front of him so Steve could see.

“I’m sorry about yesterday. I didn’t mean…well for any of that to happen. I didn’t mean to freak you out, I just…I’m sorry. I don’t know if you told Dustin about me saying El was dreaming about you,” Steve snorted, so that seemed to be a no, “but I am sorry about…really everything. It sounds nuts. But we try to look out for our own, ya know?” He still wasn’t about to say that El had helped him dream about Steve himself, already seeing a glimpse into the life that Steve wasn’t happy in. He still seemed ready to bolt and that wouldn’t be a good look for the whole situation.

“Thank you. I appreciate that,” Steve finally said. Eddie heard his heart race, the sound feeling like music. He couldn’t help but close his eyes so he could focus more on that feeling. “What are you doing?” Steve asked after a few moments. Eddie opened his eyes again, feeling almost groggy after being sucked under the sound.

“You have the most beautiful sounding heartbeat,” Eddie couldn’t help but whisper it. He felt Steve’s heart race faster as a blush covered his cheeks and stretched down his neck.

“CMON, DAYLIGHT'S A-WASTIN!” Dustin yelled from the front door, already running out with El chasing him and laughing.

“See you there, big boy.” Eddie winked as he turned to follow the kids out.

The ride back was significantly less tense than on the way there. A kernel of doubt still wiggled in Eddie’s mind about whether or not they wanted to stay, but he wasn’t about to make any assumptions. Dustin seemed excited about the prospect, but he wasn’t worried about that kid.

Steve was his concern.

He wasn’t related by blood to Dustin, Eddie easily sniffed that out. But he was clearly important to the family. And they felt important to him that he was willing to throw down against whatever danger came their way if his mutation lie was anything to go off of. Plus, with Claudia looking to him about things made it seem like they were almost parenting Dustin together, so Steve’s word would be final no matter what it felt like. But whatever - most definitely parent related, like Claudia had mentioned - had made Steve so suspicious of everyone would take ages to break through. Eddie couldn’t escape the gnawing feeling growing in his stomach over wanting to see Steve relax for once. Trust anyone outside of Claudia and Dustin. Maybe even trust Eddie one day. That would be perfect.

“Stop worrying about Steve. Dustin is bringing him around to the idea,” El’s voice broke through his spiraling thoughts. Eddie almost swerved the van.

“I thought I told you to stay out of his thoughts,” Eddie groaned, righting the van and continuing through Hawkins. They were getting close.

“I’m not in his. I’m in Dustins. We’ve been talking this whole time.”

“Jesus Christ.” Eddie rubbed his forehead with his fingers. “Well then can you please tell them that we’re getting close?” El nodded. She gave him a thumbs up as Steve honked the horn behind them also as an affirmative. It was nice to hear. “Can you let Joyce know we’ve got company coming back with us?” Eddie remembered. It wasn’t like the compound had outer defenses, but at least this way they wouldn’t be met with Wayne’s rifle for assuming to be following Eddie and El in a bad way. She nodded again.

The rest of the drive was silent, but it wasn’t long before they turned off out of town and headed towards the ‘boonies’ as Nancy had so eloquently put it. It was another thirty minutes before the paved roads became dirt and the trees started to grow bigger around them. They weren’t living amongst the trees like Ewoks or whatever it looked like from the outside. But the trees were a good cover. The further one drives into the woods, they will eventually find cabins and trailers, clearings in the trees providing functional living and gardening spaces.

But it did look a little like Endor as you drove through. Eddie did enjoy that part.

As they headed towards the front gate, nothing more than just a car deterrent - one could very easily walk around it in the bushes, they were greeted by the sight of Hopper, Joyce, and Wayne. Eddie slowed the van down and saw Steve follow his lead in his rearview mirror. Joyce went to unlatch the gate so they could drive through, but Wayne stopped them before they fully drove past.

“Alright how many strays you pick up this time, kid,” Wayne asked, leaning his arms against the open window frame. Hopper was frowning at El behind him, arms crossed. He could feel the tension, unfortunately able to hear El’s heart rate speed up as she witnessed his disappointment over technically not telling him where they had taken their drive.

“Technically none. But three people who are not strays are in the car behind us. They just wanna look around. And..maybe..join us if they like it enough..” Eddie mumbled the last part. Wayne just huffed out what Eddie knew was a laugh, even if it definitely didn’t sound like it. More like a grunt. But he was in the clear, that’s all that counted.

He pushed himself up and off the window before waving them both through. Eddie saw as Dustin waved enthusiastically at the adults from the backseat of the bimmer. Joyce waved back, laughing.

Eddie pulled up in front of his and Wayne’s trailer before shutting off the van and hopping out. Steve parked his car and sat, eyeing his surroundings. Dustin was less fearful and practically sprinted out, helping El hop down from the van’s height and started asking her a million questions. The new noise got people’s attention and Eddie could tell it was only a matter of time before the other kids had swarmed. And - yup.

“You’re new!” Max appeared out of practically nowhere and almost slammed into Dustin by accident in her excitement. She got bad at controlling her ‘brakes’ the more excited she was.

Eddie made his way over to Steve’s car, knocking on the front window for him to roll it down. Claudia had already made her way out the car and was shaking hands with the adults who had followed them up from the gate. He jumped at the noise, focused on Dustin being slowly surrounded by more kids. “You can’t meet everyone trapped in your car like this, Stevie,” he softly spoke once Steve had rolled the window down a bit.

“They’re all mutants?” Steve whispered. Eddie could see mist starting to prick the corners of Steve’s eyes. So it wasn’t nerves that had Steve frozen. Eddie smiled, looking over to the group now. Dustin was talking excitedly with Max, Lucas, Erica, and he could see Will and Mike making their way over to join.

“All those kids? Yeah. Some of the parents too but…they wanted their kids to grow up with other mutants so they came here.” Eddie didn’t know what it was about seeing all the mutant kids together that had Steve almost crying like this, but if he was a betting man he would guess it had something to do with the scars on his back and the comment Claudia had made earlier about his trust issues. Eddie wanted to focus on getting him here first before he went on a revenge spree for whatever happened to the boy.

“STEVE C’MON!” Dustin yelled for him, breaking him out of the stupor. Eddie watched as he quickly wiped his eyes before gesturing for Eddie to move out of the way so he could get out of the car. He smiled at Steve, earning a grateful one back. It was unexpected, but Eddie felt a zing run through him. Maybe that was Steve’s power.

They walked over towards the group, all chattering excitedly as they all did introductions and power explanations and it was all a cacophony of noise that Eddie was more used to. He could see the adults still talking a few feet away, knowing that they were giving Claudia the more explanatory run-down of their operation that Eddie wasn’t exactly capable of giving.

Steve surveyed over all the kids, answering their questions when they asked, before he turned to Eddie again. “So how many families do you have living with you here?”

“Well..we’ve got five blood family groups? Then we’ve got some family friends that got like adopted in...a couple runaways that live in their own trailer or cabin that just wanted a place to stay with other mutants..” Eddie was counting on his fingers, trying to remember who all was related to who.

“Runaways?”

Eddie paused his counting to look over at Steve. “Yeah. Some kids or teenagers either don’t want to go to the Xavier school or never got the permission from their parents and they hear about a mutant community in Indiana and find their way here. But most parents want what’s best for the kids and when they find out they’re here, they give them permission to stay if they’re underage. No one is here illegally or under false pretenses.”

Steve just hummed, his eyes moving across the cabins that he could see, the gardens, the seemingly simple lifestyle that Eddie had grown to love.

“Hopper! That stupid generator is on the fritz again! Get one from this century I swear to god!” A voice cut through the kids' chatter. Eddie and Steve turned to the source of the griping, seeing some of the teenagers walk towards them. Eddie yelped as Steve almost fell into him, stumbling over his apparent shock.

“ROBIN?!”

Chapter Text

“STEVE OH MY GOD!”

Eddie watched in real time as the pair sprinted towards one another, stumbling into each other’s arms and ending up in a pile on the ground. Everyone had been shocked silent, watching the pair sob into each other’s arms. Eddie certainly hadn’t been expecting anything of this nature, but the words they whispered to each other shed some light into Steve’s mysterious past. He couldn’t turn it off.

“I thought I’d never see you again. When your parents said you had left I just-” Robin sobbed into Steve’s hair.

“I never went anywhere, Rob. They found out about what I had been doing. They kept me in the house,” Steve whispered. Eddie felt horrible for hearing. He tried to focus on anything else, but everything focused on Steve. His heartbeat was going a mile a minute and Robin’s wasn’t far behind. He had never heard this coming from her before.

“I should’ve looked harder. I’m so sorry. I never meant to leave you.” Eddie watched as they rocked each other back and forth. Robin’s hands were gripping onto Steve so tightly, he was shocked she hadn’t ripped through his shirt. Their legs were overlapping to a point of not knowing who was who.

“You never left me. I missed you so much.”

“Robin?” Dustin’s voice wavered through the air. She looked up and cried out, opening an arm. Dustin ran forward from the group of kids and fell into their huddle. Eddie could hear the whispers of apologies and weeping.

It felt like several minutes before they began to stand up. Dustin first, pulling up Robin and Steve. They clung to each other like a missing limb had finally been found. They looked out at the sea of people, all the parents and kids looking at the pair like they had seen a ghost. It wasn’t entirely inaccurate, since that’s how Robin reacted when she saw Steve.

Robin had come to the Compound years ago, her mutation making it easy to hide amongst the humans but she couldn’t do it anymore. Something had happened in her hometown, an abandonment or Something by those closest to her, betrayal of some kind, that had made her swear them off and run away. She never gave much explanation besides saying she was 18 and that she had let her parents know she was safe. Her and Nancy had become close, but there was this void of what she wouldn’t mention. She’d rather come out as liking girls than say what had gone wrong. Some of the reasoning was coming to light.

“What’s going on here, honey?” Joyce finally stepped forward. She had taken to checking in on Robin in her own little cabin. Robin wiped her face with the back of her hand.

“Um well..” She started, her voice still thick from the overwhelming emotions of the reunion with Steve. Eddie’s eyes fell to where Steve gripped her hand, seeing him squeeze once. Eddie felt his heart sink. By now, Nancy, Jonathan, and Argyle had joined the group. Everyone came out to see the commotion since Robin had screamed. “Argyle not now. I want to feel this,” Robin whispered.

“Sorry, my dude. You felt too sad. I wanted to help ease some of it,” he raised his hands in apology. But Robin only smiled.

“I know. I want..Have to feel this. Okay so.” Robin started again, “Steve and I grew up together. His parents…” her eyes flicked to him and he just shook his head once. Eddie could hear his heart racing, could only barely make out what Robin was saying; it was so loud. “His parents weren’t the best when it came to his mutation, so he would leave home and stay in my basement sometimes. My room. My parents were fine with it since they knew but..Steve’s parents weren’t. I thought they sent him away but if they..if they..” Robin started to cry again, turning and burying her face in Steve’s neck. They wrapped their arms around one another again.

“Steven, honey, I’m so sorry,” Joyce came over and laid a hand on Steve’s arm. He gave her a watery smile, too wrapped up in Robin’s arms to meet her eye.

“I’ve made my peace with it,” Steve said.

Lie.

Robin cleared her throat and leaned back, wiping away the tears and smiling now. “But you’re here! You came! I can’t believe they gave you my letters after all these years!”

Steve cocked his head to the side. The soft background chatter had died down again. “What letters? What are you talking about?” Robin’s eyes widened, her grip on Steve slacking a little.

“The letters I had sent you? Telling you where I was? I’ve sent them monthly since I got here. You never got any?” Steve shook his head. “I’m gonna kill your parents.”

Steve snorted, loudly. It broke something in the tension. The kids started chattering amongst themselves again, as did the parents, but Steve and Robin were still looking at each other like they were still talking. Maybe that’s what Steve’s power was? Some kind of mental communication? But that wouldn’t make sense. El would’ve said something.

“Robin, sweetie. Oh how you’ve grown,” Claudia finally made her way over and gave Robin a large hug. Robin laughed and hugged her back, still gripping on to Steve.

“Mrs. Henderson! I’ve missed you! How’s Mews?” She sniffed, wiping her nose again as they broke apart.

“Still kickin’. I’m so glad to see you.” Robin got her cheek cupped by the woman - which meant a great deal to her as well, if her immediate relaxation was anything to go by.

Claudia turned to Joyce and, upon mutual adult agreement, everyone gathered for a large family dinner. Robin and Steve stuck to one another like glue, occasionally squeezing the other’s hand for confirmation that they were still there. But Dustin had migrated away from them to join up with the other kids. While the parents set the large outside table that they occasionally used for big meals like this for housing everyone, the kids had gone more into the clearing and they were showing off their powers.

Sitting backwards at the table, leaning against the top and facing towards the kids, Eddie watched as Erica ran up a tree, even going so far as to try walking on one of the branches. Her powers hadn’t grown that quite nimble yet, so Max caught her as she fell. Will made Dustin’s cap fly off his head and land on Mike’s. And Mike, well - 

“AIM AWAY FROM THE PEOPLE, MIKE!” Nancy yelled as she sat down next to Eddie. Jonathan and Argyle sat across from them as Eddie spun on the bench to face the table and the new additions.

“So what do you think of-” a boom interrupted Eddie’s words “-Steve and the Hendersons joining us?” The kids shrieking laughter followed his question. Eddie was sure there was now one less tree in the forest if the ground shaking was anything to go by.

“Well if Robin is holding onto Steve that tightly, I don’t think there’s any chance of him ever leaving here,” Jonathan nodded over to where the two were huddled, still whispering to one another. Eddie closed his eyes and took a deep breath, trying to focus on anything else but the thrumming of Steve. He felt Nancy grasp his hand under the table and he rolled his head to look at her, smiling softly. She squeezed his fingers in hers.

“They sure do love each other,” Argyle pointed out. His ability to tap into people’s emotions was unnerving, especially since they didn’t know what exactly he could do or what he could feel. He was often able to interpret the ‘vibes’ of people without actually needing his powers to do so and he could calm anyone down with the weed he grew behind his little cabin. Once he told Eddie that he got high so he could only feel ‘himself’. Eddie never asked about his powers after that.

“Do you think they’re..” Eddie couldn’t even finish his thought.

“Eddie, you do know that Robin’s a lesbian right?” Nancy tugged on one of his curls, trying to tease some of the stress out of him.

“Well maybe it was a young - pre-realizing she was actually gay - love I don’t know how it works,” Eddie grumbled, humming under his breath. Anything to add more sound to the noises around him. He couldn’t risk accidentally focusing on the wrong thing and hearing what those two were whispering to one another. It felt wrong to even think about trying, what with how they reacted to seeing each other again. They needed time to themselves.

“Nah, my friend. That is a soulmate level bond but only ever platonic. I’m feeling no romantic feelings there. At least towards one another. He thinks you’re cute though.” Eddie’s head snapped up and looked at Argyle.

“Pardon?”

Argyle just motioned him zipping his lips shut. Eddie threw a fork.

Dustin asked his mom if he could spend the night here, practically begged her. Steve wasn’t about to leave Robin so quickly, that was very apparent, so arrangements were made. Mrs. Wheeler had a spare bedroom, so Claudia spent the night in their cabin, while Dustin went with the kids. They had deemed the event of some new mutants worthy enough of having a whole kid sleepover at the Hopper-Byers cabin. Steve wanted to stay close to Dustin, so the older teens joined in too. It was like one big sleepover.

Eddie had run over to his trailer and grabbed some clothes for Steve to sleep in, hoping he’d be okay with sweats that were too big for Eddie. They weren’t exactly the same size, which Eddie was definitely Not focusing on so that’s why he definitely didn’t know that his and Steve’s waists were different and that Steve might have difficulty pulling up pants that perfectly fit Eddie. Wayne gave him a wave off when Eddie asked if he’d be okay with Eddie gone for the night, stating that maybe he’d finally get some sleep since Eddie whistles in his sleep. False, never been proven. Said just to get under his skin.

The kids and teens were all sprawled around the living room, with Dustin showing off his technological prowess by making the radio flip channels without having to be near it, even getting channels that they weren’t in the range for. Hearing a British news broadcast was possibly the weirdest part of the night so far.

“What powers do you have, Steven?? If you’re the mutant who Robin has talked about, you’re cooler than Hopper,” Erica finally piped up, her attitude ginormous for her age. Steve and Robin looked at one another, Robin nervously giggling.

“You’ve talked about me?” He asked, seemingly surprised. Eddie noticed the blush that was rising up from his neck.

“Well! Sometimes I can’t help it. You’ve got some pretty sick powers! I’ve only got a mimic tongue. That’s pretty low on the totem pole of cool powers here,” Robin shrugged. Nancy nudged her, shaking her head against Robin’s self depreciation. Nancy actually loved Robin’s power. She could hear and understand any language spoken to her, and even speak it back to them. But outside of the interaction, she couldn’t just start randomly speaking another language. So they were learning languages together. Joyce assumes that as Robin got more comfortable or more practice with her powers, she’d keep the ability outside of the interaction. But it’s not like a lot of people were speaking other languages in Indiana.

“What’s Hopper’s power?” Steve asked instead.

“His skin can turn into diamonds. No mental manipulation. No emotional either. And indestructible when he gets into that form,” El explained, proud of her father figure. She smiled wide. Steve mirrored it.

“Please, dingus?” That was a development, Eddie noted, “They think I’ve been lying when I said I knew someone cooler.”

“Well if it’s for your dignity,” Steve joked, rolling his eyes. Robin brought up her clasped hands in a pleading motion. Steve looked around the room, slowly and accessing, before finally landing on Eddie’s. Eddie only smiled softly, cocking his head to the side. “You..you all have been so kind today and..with Robin here..fine.” Robin fist pumped into the air. Eddie felt his stomach flutter.

Steve stood up - the sweats that had been too big on Eddie were fitting Steve perfectly snug, he noticed - and rolled his shoulders. Except it wasn’t only his shoulders that rolled. Eddie had no conceivable way to describe it, but it appeared as though a silver wave washed over Steve’s entire form. And within seconds it wasn’t Steve there anymore. It was a girl.

“I KNEW THAT WAS YOU!” Eddie leapt to his feet and pointed at the girl with the strawberry blonde hair in a ponytail and a cheer uniform. She shrugged before another silver wave washed over her and there stood another Eddie in what Eddie was wearing.

“Holy shit,” Nancy whispered. Holy shit indeed.

“I can’t believe you’re still using Chrissy as a girl form. That’s so rude,” Robin grumbled, arms crossed against her chest as she leaned back against the couch. A silver wave and Steve was back to girl - Chrissy? - form.

“You’re the one with the crush on her, Robin. Not me! I can’t help that after you waxed poetic about her so often growing up that I can perfectly visualize her in my head. Why change what’s easy?” She flicked her ponytail and put a hand to her hip. Steve hadn’t apparently bothered to change the clothes to anything different than what Eddie had given him this time, so seeing a cheerleader type in his oversized sweats and Led Zeppelin t-shirt was a little weird.

“Yeah but seeing you like that makes it feel like I have a crush on you and -” Robin proceeded to make fake vomit noises.

The cacophony of sounds that interrupted her retching as everyone else finally got over the stupor of seeing Steve’s mutation in action almost made Eddie drop to the floor. He did stumble, but Jonathan caught him in time to lower him to the ground. Steve looked at him questioningly but got so caught up with the rest of the kids that he was quickly distracted. He changed back to his regular form so at least Eddie wouldn’t have to keep making eye contact with the cheerleader. The kids immediately started bombarding him with questions on his powers - their limits, when he had learned, if he was born with them - and Steve tried answering. But there was some hesitation that Eddie picked up on, from his seat on the ground, with how forthcoming Steve wanted to be about his powers; like he wasn’t used to talking about them or had learned to keep them secret for longer than he was letting on.

Slowly, too slowly in Eddie’s opinion, the kids came to the conclusion that they needed sleep more than they needed answers. Plus, Steve told them that he needed sleep and using his powers like this, changing as they requested was draining him. They piled together, sleeping bags and blankets scattered across the living room while the older teens took the couches and other blanket piles - Steve and Robin in one with Nancy, Jonathan, and Argyle in another - and Eddie squished onto the love seat.

He didn’t last there long. The longer he laid there in the silence, the louder everything became.

So he moved into the kitchen after an hour of staring up at the ceiling. Sitting down on the ground, back against the fridge, he turned on his Walkman and started the music. With the headphones on and his eyes closed, it was the closest thing he was going to get to sleep tonight.

On his second go through of the Ride the Lightning album, he felt more than heard the vibrations of someone near him. Cracking open an eyeball, he hissed out a swear as Steve sat down next to him.

“For being able to hear my heartbeat, you have a really bad perception of things going on around you,” Steve joked, watching Eddie as he scrambled to get his headphones off and press pause on the tape.

“I wasn’t expecting anyone to join me, darlin’,” Eddie grumbled, feeling out of his depth with the sudden intrusion. “Why have you joined me in the kitchen instead of laying nestled with our fair Lady Buckley?” He asked as he got everything situated and out of reach from his flailing limbs.

Steve pursed his lips. “As much as I love her…she kicks in her sleep. Plus I..never really sleep well in a new place. In any place, really..” Eddie watched as the blush he had come to very much enjoy tickled his ears, as though he was embarrassed he said the last part of that and hadn’t meant to.

“I think Joyce keeps some hot chocolate somewhere in here…I can make you some if you want?” Eddie offered, trying to keep that small smile on Steve’s face. He looked over at Eddie, shock coloring his features more as the blush spread. It was a good look on him.

“Really? You’d be okay with that?”

“It’s really not that big of a deal. C’mon, help me up and I’ll get started.” Steve laughed as he stood up, dragging Eddie up with him. He groaned, feeling the effects of sitting on the linoleum for an hour, as he popped his shoulder.

“So why were you on the floor listening to music?” Steve asked as he sat down at the table in the kitchen. Eddie set his Walkman on the table and proceeded to poke around the kitchen for what he needed.

“I was getting a headache and the fridge is cold. That normally helps. There was too much noise in there, ya know?”

“You moved from a silent room and you chose to come in here and listen to…more noise…” Steve continued his thought, trailing off. Eddie snorted, finding the cocoa mix in the back of the cupboard. A power explanation for a power explanation, he supposed.

“It's a different noise. Like..I can predict this noise because I’ve heard the album before. I can pick out the sounds and focus on them. I can hear the guitar and the bass. And with the headphones on, it surrounds me in a way that blocks everything else out. I can just focus on the one thing without having to use my powers to try harder and focus,” Eddie paused, looking over at Steve mid-explanation to see him with his head cocked to the side again. He breathed in, trying a new approach. 

“I can hear…god almost everything. Sound vibrations is where my mutation lies. So every sound is practically amplified because I can Feel the vibrations and pick it out. In there? With all the kids? I can feel their heartbeat, I can feel the blood moving through them. Hell, I can feel Mike’s powers Thrumming in him half the time if he isn’t calm. And Max’s heartbeat is so fast even when she sleeps. So coming in here, with the music, helps me focus on one thing.” Eddie breathed out after his explanation, measuring out the milk for two cups. It was oddly quiet for a few moments. Eddie could hear the pattering of Steve’s heart and the hum from the refrigerator.

“…am I bothering you then? By being in here with you?” Steve whispered. Eddie whipped around, almost spilling the milk, to see Steve looking at his hands on the table. Eddie quickly made his way over to the table, crouching in front of Steve.

“No. Absolutely not. Honestly..listening to you is helping.” Eddie saw Steve’s mouth twitch, a smile threatening to break through the hurt puppy look on his face.

”What do you mean? I haven’t really exactly said much..” Steve trailed off again, his hair flopping down his forehead as he looked down at Eddie on his knees in front of him. Eddie hummed, knowing that what he was wanting to say next could make Steve uncomfortable. But if they had gotten this far with Steve still around, Eddie knew he’d have to risk it to get him to trust Eddie.

”Your heart. I know I said before that it sounds,” Eddie sighed heavily, “god, like nothing I’ve ever heard in a person before. It’s beautiful and soft and it sounds fuckin magical.” He got to watch as a gorgeous pink shade crossed over Steve’s face as the grin broke through the hurt look and his eyes softened at the corners.

“I’ve never heard that before,” Steve said, lower so most people wouldn’t have been able to hear him. But Eddie could’ve.

Eddie sucked in a breath, noting how Steve wasn’t pulling away from him when he put his hands on his knees to stabilize his hunched position in front of the pretty mutant. “Now don’t get me wrong. Whatever form you have on now is really something,” Eddie felt Steve freeze under his hands, “But I would be remiss if I didn’t attempt to find words that befit a lovely musical heart such as yours.”

The muscles Eddie could feel under his hands on Steve’s legs had gone stiff, and Eddie could hear his heart having sped up. He cocked his head to the side. “What’s wrong? I’m sorry if I said something-”

“Whatever form I have on?” Steve interrupted him quickly, his eyes having taken on a wild look to them. Wide and frantic.

Eddie bit the inside of his cheek. “I-I’m sorry, Steve. I didn’t mean to offend your mutation if that’s what happened. I just thought that. Well..like you see images of Mystique where she’s her natural blue self and you had this silver sheen when you changed and then it kinda sounds like there’s the strain on your heart so I just…I assumed…” Eddie trailed off, unsure of how to proceed. He couldn’t meet Steve’s eyes now, and he shuffled away from the boy, his ass quickly falling off his heels and skittering across the linoleum like Steve burnt him.

He dropped off the chair in front of Eddie and scooted closer to him, nearly crawling so he could take Eddie’s hands in his own. “You said whatever form I’m in. You know.” Steve whispered, forcing Eddie to look into his own hazel eyes. Eddie furrowed his eyebrows together, but he could hear the excited patter of Steve’s heartbeat and suddenly felt like he didn’t need to have apologized for whatever had just occurred. A thought popped into his head, unfortunately. What he had heard mentioned about Steve’s parents, how Robin reacted to him being here, the scars.

“What do you really look like, Stevie? What happened to you?” Eddie whispered, twisting his hands so he could grip Steve back and interlace their fingers.

He’d never admit this to anyone else, but Eddie would swear that he could hear the heavens opening up and angels singing when Steve looked at him like that. Like Eddie was the first person to See Him without a care in the world. They had been staring into each other’s eyes, so Eddie got to watch as the beautiful hazel turned to silver. When the form changes had happened earlier in the living room, they had been quick. Not so much a blink and you miss it quick, but quicker than what Eddie was experiencing now. It was as though he wanted Eddie to see his form change as the silver slowly dripped down his skin.

He was staring into a mirror.

Not a mirror image of himself, like Steve had changed into earlier for the kids amusement. But El’s dream finally made sense. Eddie could almost see himself in Steve’s skin as he slowly transformed into his normal appearance. His clothes stayed on - which Eddie was grateful for since he wouldn’t have known how to react if he came to find out that Steve had technically been naked this whole time - and his hair still looked like it had texture but everything else. Everything else was an almost glass-like silver that had Eddie flicking his eyes all over Steve’s skin as he found himself staring back in a thousand different angles.

He held up their joined hands, the skin still warm. Eddie had the thought that Steve’s hands should’ve been cooler to the touch with how they looked like they were just glass reflecting Eddie’s skin.

“You look like a mirror…” Eddie finally whispered, stroking his thumb across the back of Steve’s hand. He felt the shiver. He’d never seen a mirror bend before and now he saw his thumb applying pressure to Steve’s skin, denting into the glass. “Have Robin and Dustin seen this?”

Steve shook his head. “I don’t like showing people. My parents…god when I was born they just hated seeing me. I learned pretty quick how to put some color on,” Steve snorted self-deprecatingly. Eddie’s hands clenched, but Steve was quick to run his thumbs across Eddie’s hands. “If I slipped up, they’d get mad. But it’s hard to keep appearances for so long. Tires me out, especially when I was younger. I’d be at home alone like this and then they’d come home and…” He trailed off, but Eddie could interpret easily. “It got less frequent when I was able to control it easier, quicker. It used to take awhile to change.”

‘Scars on the back scars on the back’, Eddie couldn’t help but chant through his head. “But you showed me?” He couldn’t tear his eyes away from where they were connected. He wanted to see if he breathed on Steve if his skin would fog up like it would on a mirror or window. Or if maybe they sprayed him with water he’d get extra shiny. Steve was quiet for a few moments as Eddie spiraled.

“You knew that I was faking. I thought you’d want to know why. I guess I didn’t really think..I’ll change back I know it’s freaky-”

“Don’t you dare, Steve. This is gorgeous..” Eddie whispered before he realized what he was saying. His eyes widened, whipping up to look at Steve. The silver boy looked back at him, his smile still wonderfully crooked as he raised an eyebrow to Eddie. “I mean..”

“Gorgeous, huh?”

“Steve?” A soft voice interrupted them. Eddie felt visual whiplash as he watched Steve change back into his…non-mirror self. He wondered how he came up with this appearance. Maybe saw his parents and filled in where the genes made sense? Both parents had brown hair so Steve must have as well?

“That’s Robin. I should probably,” Steve gestured with his head back towards the living room. Eddie still had a tight grip on his hands.

“Oh. Yeah..check on your fair Lady Robin,” Eddie teased, grimacing a little bit to himself. Steve snorted and moved to stand up, effectively hauling Eddie up with him. He stumbled into Steve’s broad chest until he found his balance.

“I think she’ll kick your ass if you call her my lady,” Steve whispered closely to Eddie’s ear before he stepped back, finally letting go of Eddie’s hands as he moved to make his way out of the kitchen, “Hot chocolate some other time, yeah?”

Eddie felt his heart flutter again. “Does that mean you’re staying? Here? With us?”

He watched as Steve paused in the doorway, one hand curled around the frame as he smiled to himself. Like he only just realized what he said once Eddie acknowledged it. “Huh. Yeah. I guess it does.”