Hawk’s End is a funny little town, in the Kingdom of Roane. Most avoid it, deterred by the whispers of magic running rampant. Others are drawn in by those same whispers.
Truth is, it’s a haven, of sorts. It’s a welcoming community for anyone, whether they be human or magical or anything in between. Those who are frightened and therefore angered by such a thought are not tolerated. It’s home to a diverse community of whatever one may think of, from dragons to centaurs to dryads, or even elves, satyrs, dwarves, and all different kinds of shapeshifters (yes, including vampires and werewolves, they’re quite kind, actually).
Steve Harrington is an elf. A light elf, to be exact. He thrives on sunny days and feels dreary on rainy ones. He needs lots of sunlight or he’ll fade away– literally. It’s why he’s going out today, actually. The oracles have predicted a stormy week, so he’s going with his friends to the lake to soak up as much sunlight as he can before he’s stuck feeling dreadful.
He’s got potions he can drink to make the lack of sunlight more bearable, and the lights inside his house harness the energy of the sun itself (in small amounts, of course), but the best cure has always been spending a good, sunny day outside, absorbing the energy of the stars.
He’s in the middle of packing his bag for the day ahead when he hears the familiar clacking of clumsy hooves darting up the stairs. Moments later, his door flies open, and there, with sunglasses perched upon her soft, floppy ears, skin and fur glistening with freshly applied sunscreen, is his best friend, Robin
Luckily, he’d dimmed the lights in advance, or she’d have to wear special SPF 500 sunscreen for vampires and other darkness dwellers.
“Dingus!” She bleats, her nose twitching in barely contained excitement. “Are you ready?”
“Just about,” Steve laughs, packing with a bit more haste.
They’d met a couple of summers ago, working as trail guides in a nearby scenic park. They’d help the humans through areas particularly heavy with magic, so they wouldn’t get confused, turned around, and lost. Magic tended to render compasses useless.
They weren’t quick friends; Steve wasn’t always the sunshiney person he tries to be today, and Robin had tried with all her might to hold onto those preconceived notions she had about him. Hell, he had brushed her off as just another pan-flute playing satyr.
However, after an event they both refer to as The Oopsy , during which they lost three hikers and had to go through the forest’s thick magic to find them (which inevitably got them fired), they realized, “Oh, hey, this person isn’t so bad.”
Robin informed Steve that she is lesbian and plays the trumpet, thank you very much, and Steve tried to relate to her by fumbling around with some sort of metaphor that sounded a bit like Oh, that’s cool, I also like to blow things in my free time, if you catch my drift.
And, well. They’ve been inseparable ever since.
“So, I got Nancy to agree to come,” Robin says, as Steve is shoving his sunglasses case in the front pocket of his backpack.
He lets out an impressed whistle as he slings his bag onto his back. They head downstairs together.
“How’d you manage that?” He asks. “Is she having trouble sleeping again? Nightmares? Or, well, morningmares?”
The Wheelers are vampires. Steve had dated Nancy once, back in school, but the whole light elf and vampire thing was a lot of struggle to go through and it put more strain on a relationship that wouldn’t have worked very well anyway, based on who they are as people alone. It doesn’t mean it didn’t send Steve down the path of being the palest he’d ever been in his life, but looking back now, he knows it was for the best.
“Less that and more like her sleep schedule is messy from all the studying she’s had to do for college. She said she needed to loosen up and have fun later anyway, and I told her I’d play her a lullaby on my trumpet tomorrow morning, so she can fall asleep easier,” Robin rambles, following close behind.
“A lullaby. On a trumpet,” Steve says, doubt dripping from his words. He turns and looks at her with a raised eyebrow, then picks up the picnic basket he’d left by the front door.
Robin shoves him from behind, and he laughs as he stumbles.
“Don’t question satyr magic, you assmunch!”
He hands her the picnic basket, grabs his keys from the tray by the door, and then they exit his house together.
“So, now we’ve got Nancy, then there’s-”
“Dustin's at summer camp,” Steve says, a bit sadly. “The other kids are coming, though. Argyle and Jonathan are bringing half of the little sh*ts. And, well, wherever those two go, Eddie is bound to follow.”
Robin shoots him a look over the hood of his car as they both climb in.
“You’re failing to mention he goes wherever you are promised to be,” She teases.
“Yeah, sure, when pigs fly.” Steve rolls his eyes.
“I’m sure someone’s made that happen by now,” Robin says, her nose wrinkling.
Steve pauses in his movement to put his seatbelt on. “... yeah, probably.”
Robin immediately takes control of the radio. She’s claimed on multiple occasions that she doesn’t trust him to drive and operate the radio at the same time. You nearly hit a family of centaurs while searching for a song you like once, and suddenly you’re not allowed to touch the radio!
They make their way to Lover’s Lake without any centaur-related incidents. Usually, Steve is left to pick up at least half the children he’s made friends with, but with Jonathan bringing Will and Jane, and the Wheelers being neighbors with the Sinclairs, he knows he has no worries. He’s relieved. He feels a bit bad for finding peace knowing he doesn’t have to pick up Dustin.
Six kids at twenty, he thinks to himself as he pulls into the shady parking area. What am I doing?
He spots Argyle’s van and Nancy’s station wagon and parks beside them, waving cheerily when he hears multiple excited shouts.
“Steve!”
He gets out of his car and is immediately crowded by his younger friends.
“You have to hear about the new invention Dustin is making at camp-” Mike begins, his already pasty skin looking nearly translucent with the SPF 500 he’s slathered in.
“-- he’s making some sort of communication device using mathemagics–” Lucas adds.
“I told him to stop trying to make mathemagics happen,” Erica says, shaking her head. “It’s never going to happen.”
“It’s supposed to display an image of a person as you talk!” Will beams.
“I think it will be cool,” Jane says in her quiet way.
Steve reaches out and pats her on the head, nodding in agreement, eyes wide with just how genius Dustin is. He’s never let the fact that he’s human in Hawk’s End make him feel like he isn’t special. He’s got an amazing mind.
In fact, none of his human friends are any less special because they don’t possess magic. Dustin, Lucas, and Erica are all purely human, and they’re all the smartest people he’s ever met. Erica would be joining Dustin at camp next summer when she turns thirteen. Lucas uses his brain to calculate how to make the perfect basketball shots, combining his intellect and athleticism into one wild flurry that is insane to watch on the court. He’d been the star player this year.
Jonathan, Will, and Jane are all humans, but Will inherited the powers of sorcery whereas Jonathan did not. Jane is an orphaned sorceress that was found in a bad situation and taken in by Jon and Will’s stepdad, Jim Hopper, the head werewolf of Hawk’s End.
That leaves Argyle, a date palm dryad who is a bit too comfortable around flames, considering being relocated from the coast, always having a joint somewhere on him ready to be smoked. And then Eddie, who always manages to appear when Argyle is smoking his special Purple Palm Tree Delight.
Eddie is a sort of shapeshifter, specifically a crow. He also happens to be the subject of Steve’s desires… not that Steve is ever going to do anything about it. Anytime he sees Eddie strutting around, his dark hair shining purple and blue in the sunlight, his charm melts in his brain and sinks to his toes, making the butterflies in his stomach go wild on the way down.
Speaking of the little sh*t–
“Where’s Eddie?” Steve asks, interrupting the chattering children.
“Our feathered friend said he’d be late,” Argyle says, the fronds that make up his hair shifting in the pleasant wind. He gently smacks Jonathan’s hand away from where he was trying to sneak one of the dates nestled in the circlet on his head. “Something about his van breaking down so he’ll have to fly.”
Steve shades his eyes with his hand as he looks up, scanning the skies for any sign of a dark bird overhead, but no luck. He does, though, find a grumpy-looking bat hanging from a tree limb, staring down at the group.
He grins. “You coming down anytime soon, Nance?”
In the blink of an eye, he had the petite girl standing before him, her skin just as pale as her brother’s, and her piercing blue eyes more alert than they should be at this time of day. Mike was showing signs of being sleepy, but it wasn’t often he could go out on days like this. Nancy’s sleep schedule must have been extremely f*cked.
“I’m sorry, I’m trying to have fun, I swear,” She says, looking a bit lost.
“We’ll get you all loosey goosey, don’t even worry,” Steve assures, chuckling at the face she makes at his phrasing.
She looks exhausted and worn down. He tilts his head with a sympathetic smile. She smiles back, her fangs poking out just a little bit. He’d found it cute back when they dated, and still does, just in the friend way.
Robin, however, is absolutely endeared by it. He turns to look at her and finds her turning away, a blush joining the freckles on her cheeks. When he turns back to Nancy, he sees whatever blood in her system tinting her cheeks a pale pink, her eyes stuck on Robin. He wonders if she knows, if she somehow read Robin’s mind. She swears up and down that not all vampires have that ability, and that she certainly doesn’t, but sometimes she just knows things and it’s a bit frightening.
They all eventually make their way down to the shore of the lake, barefoot (and barehooved) and hissing at the temperature of the sand. Steve can already feel his body soaking up all the sunlight as he sets up their chosen spot with the help of Jonathan and Robin. Everyone else heads down to the water. They spread out some towels, then set up the umbrellas that Nancy and Mike had brought. Steve sets the picnic basket under them for now.
When he’s done, he motions for Jonathan and Robin to go ahead and join the others where they’re already laughing and splashing in the water. He tilts his head back, letting the breeze and sun wash over him.
It’s gonna be a good day, he thinks, breathing in the clean air.
He’s startled out of his peace by a sharp call ringing throughout the air, and he only has a moment to open his eyes and see a dark shape f*cking divebombing him from the air before the shape morphs into a humanoid shape with large black wings spread wide.
“Haha-hey, Stevie,” Eddie stutters through his full-body laughter, his grin wide, his dark eyes glinting with mischief. “Your eyes and highlights are absolutely popping today, might I say.”
Steve punches his arm, not too hard, but enough to make Eddie wince, still giggling.
“What, did I scare ya?” Eddie asks, leaning in close, his grin turning into a smirk.
“Noooo,” Steve drawls, deadpan. “It’s not like you just came out of nowhere and tried to give me a heart attack or anything.”
He frowns and shakes his head as he examines whatever the f*ck Eddie is wearing.
“Dude,” he says disapprovingly. “It’s summer. You’re gonna burn up.”
“Chill out.” Eddie rolls his eyes, pushing up the sleeves of his flannel. “I’m a crow, Stevie. Black feathers and all. I can handle some heat. Besides, these jeans have rips, they’re practically air-conditioned.”
He ruffles his wings and shakes out his fluffy hair as if to prove his point, but all it does is draw Steve’s attention to the way the colors shift in the light. Steve knows Eddie doesn’t have to keep his wings out, that he can shift them away, but he also knows that Eddie likes to leave them out in the sun.
Eddie laughs softly and moves to meet Steve’s gaze.
“Do you think I’m a pretty bird, Stevie?” He teases, reaching out to poke Steve right in the cheek.
Steve huffs and rolls his eyes, stomping away from the other boy.
f*ck, f*ck, sh*t, f*ck, f*ck.
He hears Eddie laughing as he follows behind him, but doesn’t turn around.
Steve makes it down to the water just in time to see Mike send a wave of water into his sister’s face. Everyone freezes, eyes carefully trained on Nancy. She’s staring her brother down, blue eyes beginning to turn red, fangs growing larger and sharper.
To his left, Eddie whistles lowly. He leans in close, lips nearly brushing against Steve’s pointed ear. “This ain’t gonna be pretty,” he whispers.
Under the alarms blaring between Nancy being close to committing fratricide and Eddie’s proximity to him, Steve vaguely thinks the crow has a death wish.
Then, Nancy giggles, her grim expression coming to life with a bright smile as she sends a wave of her own back at Mike.
Everyone relaxes at once, going back to their business. Steve blows out a relieved breath, feeling a bit lighter knowing Nancy is having a good time. He glances beside him to comment to Eddie, but finds the man is gone, nothing but a pile of clothes on the ground where he’d been standing.
“Wh-” Steve starts.
Then, like before, he hears Eddie’s familiar call ring out from above. He watches as the crow swoops over the lake at a decent height, then shifts into his wingless, humanoid, swim trunks clad form, limbs tucked in.
“Cannonball!”
The splash is so large it soaks Steve, all the way on the shore.
Max really doesn’t want to be in Hawk's End. She wants to be back home in the ocean. Her mom had broken up with that piece of sh*t Niel after he and his asshole son caused them more problems than they deserved, and dragged Max all the way to Hawk’s End, in the middle of the kingdom, away from the sea.
She hates it.
First of all, she absolutely despises lake water. It’s murky and the fish taste completely different. Second, the other merpeople inhabiting the lake had no interest in her or her mother. They were put off by their ocean-specific powers, clearly still feeling a bit iffy about sirens.
Idiots, she scoffs to herself. It’s 1986. Sirens haven’t eaten sailors since 1886.
She wouldn’t want to eat anyone from here, anyway. They’d probably taste like… sadness and burgers, probably.
Thirdly, there are some weirdos up at the surface of the lake, hollering like the world is ending, and she’s about two seconds away from swimming up and telling them to shut the f*ck up so she can sleep in and be moody about the move. How is she supposed to be an angsty teen in these conditions?
She huffs, bubbles billowing around her.
Screw it all, I deserve to have fun.
She makes her way to the surface, near some rocks she can hide behind. Peering out, she finds the rowdy bunch, splashing each other and laughing all merrily and stuff. She rolls her eyes. She had to leave all her friends back on the coast, so seeing these numbskulls so happy makes her heart clench.
She scans the group, wondering what she can do to cause a little bit of mischief.
She picks out three pairs of siblings, two groups seemingly human, the other vampires. Then, a dryad that seems vaguely familiar. She frowns at that, wondering why. She examines his hair more closely and realizes, oh, maybe he’s from the coast, too. Gods, she misses home.
There’s some sort of elf, a light elf, if she’s gotta guess. His brown hair has blonde highlights and his skin seems like it’s vaguely glowing. Upon his shoulders is a freckled satyr, her furry legs dripping onto him. Max wonders if wet satyrs smell like wet dogs.
Across from them, playing chicken, are what looks like two humans. Upon further inspection, though, she sees the boy lifting the younger girl onto his shoulders has hair that shifts color in the sun. There’s really no telling what some people could be, sometimes.
The satyr girl topples over in the water after a good shove from the smaller girl, and she takes the elf boy down with her. The two remaining upright manage to cheer only for a moment before the boy’s legs are taken out from under him by the elf, and they go crashing.
Isn’t this lovely? Max gripes to herself.
She watches a bit longer.
She realizes many things. One of the human boys is cute. He bickers with his sister a lot, and he keeps making the younger vampire angry, which is funny. She giggles to herself as she hears him calling the vampire an oversized mosquito… then promptly denies ever having done so.
The dryad and the oldest human brother are the calmest and quietest, floating on their backs, anchored together by their hands like little otters. She won’t bother them. They’ve got their sh*t figured out.
The satyr and the older vampire seem to be dancing around each other, but with the way the satyr keeps nervously babbling up a storm, Max can’t find the heart to mess with them, either. They seem like they’re on the right track.
Then, her eyes catch on the elf and the boy with the color-shifting hair.
The dark haired boy is definitely the loudest and most obnoxious, and he’s proving that point by leaping onto the elf with a battle cry, dunking him under the water. When the elf surfaces again, he slaps the other’s chest, cheeks redder than Max’s own fiery red hair. They’re clearly close, but her siren instincts are telling her that they haven’t quite gotten the courage to do anything about their obvious feelings, despite them definitely being returned.
Bingo.
Those two clearly need some help.
She waits for an opportunity, and finds it when the dryad shoots up, snapping his fingers.
“I totally forgot I brought a floaty thing!”
“I’ll go get it,” the dark-haired boy says, wading out of the water. “Try not to miss me too much, folks!”
It’s go-time.
“Hey, man, wait up!”
Eddie’s already smiling before he turns to see Steve jogging to catch up. He’s moving a bit awkwardly, but Eddie guesses running in soaked swim trunks isn’t exactly easy. He waits for Steve to catch up.
“Did you miss me already?” He asks when he finally makes it, wiggling his eyebrows.
“Ha, ha, ha,” Steve laughs sarcastically. “You wish.”
“Maybe,” Eddie teases with a grin as he continues his quest for the inflatable float, now accompanied by a handsome companion. He sneaks a greedy glance at Steve and has to forcibly wrestle his thoughts back into PG territory. “Who am I, if I am not terribly missed when I leave?”
“An idiot,” Steve snarks with a roll of his eyes.
Eddie cackles and throws his arms over Steve’s shoulders, relishing in the warmth between them, even if it’s tacky with their slowly drying sweat and lake water.
“I’m an idiot no matter what, Stevie,” he jokes, giving the other boy’s shoulders a little shake.
They finally make it to the parking lot, and Eddie lets go of Steve to jog over to Argyle’s van, confirming running in swim trunks is absolutely miserable, sheesh . He opens the sliding door and spots the inflatable at the back. He climbs into the van and almost sets his hand on the float when the door slams behind him.
He rolls his eyes.
“Very funny, Steve,” he calls, grabbing the inflatable.
He turns back towards the door and jiggles the handle, frowning when it doesn’t budge. He looks out the window at Steve, who’s just standing there with a smug smirk, dangling a set of keys in Eddie’s face.
“Hah,” Eddie laughs nervously, utterly confused. Sure, they joke around with each other but they don’t do things like this. Steve has never been anything but harmlessly bitchy and a sweetheart. His pranks never crossed into cruel territory. “You do know I can unlock it from inside, right?”
He hopes the f*ck so, anyway.
He looks down at the handle and spots the lock with a triumphant grin, sliding it into the unlocked position. Yet, when he goes to slide the door open again, it still won’t move.
Confused and a bit outraged, he looks back up, out the window, ready to give Steve a piece of his mind, no matter how much he likes the boy, but… Steve was gone.
“Come on, man, this isn’t funny!” He cries, smacking the window.
He wouldn’t leave me here. He wouldn’t.
It’s the middle of summer and he’s too big to climb into the front to crank the windows down. This is bad. He f*cking hopes Steve is still hanging around, just waiting for Eddie to get adequately freaked out before he lets him back out.
“Steve, please!”
He tugs on the handle a few more times, flipping the lock back and forth, wondering if he was just being stupid, but nope. It was well and truly stuck.
He really thought maybe he and Steve had something good going. He thought maybe he had a shot, maybe Steve could like him, too. Gods, is Steve finally mad at him for all the flirting? Did he push it too hard with the pretty bird comment? Is Steve still an asshole? No, he doesn’t want to think that. He can’t.
Steve isn’t like this, he just isn’t.
His breaths come a bit quicker, and he starts mumbling, “sh*t, sh*t, sh*t, sh*t-”
Next thing he knows, he’s too short to reach the handle.
f*ck, he panic-shifted.
But… oh, sh*t, he can get into the front seat now!
He hops through the middle of the front seats and shifts back, throwing open the front door with a bit too much force, halfway dreading the door would be just as stuck as the back one. He climbs out and looks around, searching for any sign of the elf, to no avail.
When he goes back to grab the float, he examines the sliding door and finds it had been jammed with a f*cking stick.
He blows out a despaired breath, not knowing how to feel other than angry and hurt.
What did I do to deserve this?
He takes a few steps down the trail to the lake when he spies Steve leaning against a tree, smirking. He waves at Eddie, and Eddie can’t help the anger that pushes him to take off running, chasing after the boy.
Steve cackles, an unfamiliar sound, and darts away, cutting into the woods.
Eddie follows.
Max really is not used to human legs, especially not running. Her only hope to avoid getting caught is to go through the trees, hoping the brush and such provide obstacles to outrun the boy chasing her.
At least this Steve dude is fit, she thinks.
She can't stop cackling as she runs, hopping over stray roots and swerving around thorns. The boy chasing her is fast, but not as fast as Steve. She enjoys the speed she’s able to get in this form.
“f*ck! You know what?” She hears the boy behind her shout in frustration. “I’m not doing it like this.”
She glances behind her in time to watch him drop the float, to see his body morph into something else, something small and black and–
Is that a crow?!
When he lifts off and begins flying towards her, her eyes widen, and she turns to look where she’s going instead of gaping and jogging like an idiot. She’s surprised she didn’t trip and fall while watching his spectacle.
So. He’s a shifter. Great. How am I supposed to outrun a bird?
She starts ducking and weaving around the trees, hoping they’d be obstacles to him, but, of course, he’s a bird, so, it wasn’t much trouble for him, apparently. She can hear him yelling, no cawing, at her. She’s a siren, so she doesn’t really listen to birds often, especially not crows, but she’s never heard one so angry before.
And crows, like, always sound angry.
Luckily for her, she can see the glimmering of the lake just a few yards away.
She pushes even faster, her legs (Steve’s legs) pumping furiously to make it to the water. In a bout of desperation to slow him down so he wouldn’t see her shift back into her natural form, she grabs a low hanging limb and pulls it with her as she runs, then lets it go when it begins to slip from her fingers.
Behind her, she hears an outraged squawk as the leaves make impact with the crow’s small body.
His wings are still beating a distance behind her, but it doesn’t matter. She made it to the water’s edge.
She dives in near the rocks she’d been hiding behind before, using her arms and legs to kick down into the depths where she’d be unseen before she shifts back into herself. Her tail immediately works to take her away from the spot she dived, quickly enough to come back to the surface a few yards away to watch him hover above the water, looking for her.
When he gives up and flies away, back toward his group, she lets out a manic giggle and sinks down into the water.
This will be interesting.
Steve is just trying to relax, peacefully drifting on his back, when heavy hands land on him, shoving him down into the water with a surprised yelp. He scrambles back to the surface, lungs aching where he hadn’t been able to take a breath before going under.
He emerges from the water with a gasp and wipes the water from his eyes, before whirling around to face his attacker, ready to lecture one of the kids, probably Mike, about water safety, but…
It’s Eddie standing there, his jaw clenched and eyes burning a hole into Steve’s.
“You know, I really thought you were different,” he spits, shaking his head. “Back there? That bullsh*t?”
Steve flinches, absolutely, completely, and utterly confused.
“What?” He asks, eyebrows drawn together. “What are you-”
“Don’t!” Eddie interrupts, his voice cracking. His eyes are shining with angry tears.
Steve knows Eddie cries when he’s mad, especially when there’s a lot of people present, but he’s never been the cause of it, and he has no idea what he could have done to cause it today.
Their group has gone silent, watching with concern. Steve reaches for Eddie, hoping to calm him down enough to figure out what’s going on, but he steps away from him, his hands held out before him like a shield.
“Eddie, I have no idea what you’re talking about,” he says softly, trying his best to deescalate whatever the hell was happening. “Whatever happened, I’m sure it was a misunderstanding, I would nev-”
“How am I supposed to misunderstand you trapping me in the f*cking van, Steve?”
First of all, what?! Second of all, Eddie never calls him Steve. It’s usually Stevie, or some sort of pet name that makes his stomach flutter. He won’t lie, it hurts to hear him say it.
Robin steps forward ducking her head and holding out her hands in a calming way. “Eddie, Steve’s been here the whole time. He never left.”
Eddie scowls. “You’ve gotta be sh*tting me, Robbie.”
“She isn’t,” Nancy says. “He was playing chicken with me, Mike, and Lucas before he took a break a couple minutes ago.”
Everyone nods, and even Jane speaks up and says, “I’ve been keeping a hold on him so he wouldn’t drift too far away from us.”
Which, Steve hadn’t known, and would be absolutely endeared by if one of his favorite people wasn’t currently accusing him of doing something cruel. Eddie seems like he truly believes it too, which is even more concerning than it already had been.
“So what, you’re all in on it?” Eddie asks, but it’s clear he’s lost some steam after Steve was given an alibi. He looks lost, his arms coming up to wrap around his waist. “Haha, let’s prank Eddie today.”
“No,” Steve stresses gently, trying again to reach for Eddie. Eddie eyes him cautiously, but doesn’t pull back when Steve settles a hand on his elbow. “Did you see who did it?”
Maybe he was just putting the blame on Steve because he didn’t see the culprit?
“Did I see– yeah, I saw who f*cking did it, it was you.” Eddie says, jerking away from Steve’s hold again. “I saw you.”
“Where’s the floaty thingy?” Argyle asks out of nowhere. Jonathan nudges him, whispering, not the time, man, but poor Argyle’s halfway stoned out of his mind.
“I dropped it chasing this asshole through the woods,” Eddie huffs, gesturing towards Steve. Owch. “He jumped in the water, and I didn’t go after him because I didn’t want to get my feathers wet.”
“How was he supposed to get over here that fast?” Erica asks, quick to defend Steve, her arms crossed. “Clearly it was something else trying to mess with you by looking like him.”
Eddie’s staring down into the water, his arms loosening from around his waist.
“It was kind of weird,” He mumbles. He hesitantly looks up at Steve and just stares, like he’s searching for something. When it seems like he’s got his answer, his shoulders drop. “You’d- they’d been laughing weird. It sounded nothing like yours.”
Like Argyle, Steve’s stomach refuses to read the room and flutters at the implications of Eddie knowing what his laugh sounds like enough to know what it wouldn’t sound like.
“And they were mean,” Eddie continues. “More than your usual, y’know,” he gestures at Steve, “bitchiness.”
“Hey!” Steve protests weakly, knowing Eddie’s right.
“And they never said my name,” Eddie finishes.
The group goes silent again, sharing glances, trying to figure something out. Steve’s about to just call it and say that they just go home, when Mike clears his throat and jerks his thumb over his shoulder at a pile of rocks just beyond a bend in the shore.
“I did hear a splash from over there earlier,” he says, eyes flitting between the older teens. “Should we go look?”
Steve’s out of the water before anyone else. If whoever this is, is going to steal his face to mess with Eddie, he wants to be the one to find them.
Eddie is behind him, but not as close as he usually would be, probably still a bit hesitant to be near Steve, and Steve doesn’t even blame him. If something that looked like Eddie trapped him in a hot car in the middle of summer, he’d be pretty confused and upset.
As they approach the rocks, he tries to prepare himself for just about anything. He’s got his fists in a ball, ready to start throwing down, even if he is historically bad at fighting. Except, when he rounds the corner, all he finds is…
A teenage girl?
She’s alone, only her head poking out of the water. Her red hair drifts around her mesmerizingly.
“Hello, there,” she grins, her hand coming up out of the water to wave and–
“A mermaid,” Lucas breathes, his eyes trained on the green webs between her fingers.
“Oooh, so close,” the girl tilts her head. She smiles wide, revealing pointed teeth. “Wanna try again?”
Erica jabs her elbow into Lucas’ side and hisses, “She’s a siren, you butthead.”
The siren flicks her shimmering green and blue tail out of the water with a smug smirk, sending water splashing onto the group. “You got it. The name’s Max.”
She dives down under the water, and when she comes back up, she’s–
“Well, this is freaky,” Steve says, staring at himself. He frowns at how his nose looks from this angle. His ears are f*cking huge. “Is that really what I look like?”
Eddie snorts beside him. “Yeah, yeah, you’re beautiful, we know.”
He thinks I’m beautiful? Steve thinks, his heart doing flips. Then, Wait, sh*t, stop getting distracted.
The siren, Max, takes a moment to shift back to her normal form, and when she does, Steve knows what he has to do.
He puts his hands on his hips. Now that he knows it’s just a kid and not a threat (he hopes), he feels a bit more prepared and qualified for this. He’s got some experience handling little sh*theads, he’s sure this’ll be no different.
“What’s your deal, kid?” He asks. “It’s dangerous to trap someone in a car in the middle of summer. What if he hadn’t been able to get out?”
Max rolls her eyes. “I wasn’t going to leave him. I stayed nearby in case.”
Well, at least she's not completely heartless.
“So, what?” Eddie asks, finally stepping in closer to Steve. If it were anyone else, Steve knows Eddie wouldn't have calmed down so quickly, but he's as experienced in handling troublesome kids as Steve is. “Why do it?”
Max hums, tapping her chin, feigning thought. After a moment, she shrugs her freckled shoulders. “I was bored. And annoyed. You guys are really loud, you know?”
Nancy squats down to Max’s level, and Steve winces. That’s not always the best idea. Some kids appreciate it while others find it condescending. He carefully watches the siren’s face for any sort of negative reaction, but it doesn’t change much other than an arched eyebrow.
“Sweetie, you know, you could have just asked us to keep it down,” Nancy says. Max makes a face at being called sweetie. “There was no reason to do that to Eddie.”
“Well, that isn’t much fun, is it?” Max asks with a laugh. “It’s how I had fun back on the coast, I don’t see why it should change now that I’m here.”
Interesting…
“You often lock people in cars for fun?!” Mike asks incredulously, wildly looking around at the group. “This chick has issues!”
Max scowls. “What? No. Dude. I shift into people and prank them so they–”
“But sirens only take the shape of what people find attractive!” Mike exclaims and–
… Oh.
“Exactly,” Max says as if Steve’s entire world isn’t shifting around him.
Eddie thinks I’m attractive?
He turns to look at Eddie and finds him blushing, looking anywhere but at Steve. He’s vaguely aware of the group pretending they’re not watching, but it doesn’t matter. Nothing else matters.
“Ed…” He tries.
“Yeah,” Eddie breathes, scratching the back of his head, eyes on the ground. “I, uh. Yeah.”
Steve opens his mouth to say something, say anything, but he’s faced with the harsh reality of what his charm does when it comes to Eddie Munson: he forgets how to form words, his mouth opening and closing like a fish, his stomach starts going wild with butterflies, and his brain turns to absolute mush.
“Oh my gods, you guys are hopeless. Hey, crow boy!” Max shouts.
Eddie turns to look at her, muttering something along the lines of, “What do you want you meddling little sh–”
Max ducks under the water once again, disappearing for a moment only to emerge with dark color shifting hair and big ol’ dark eyes glittering with mischief. Steve’s breath hitches as he catches on, and resists every urge to slowly sneak away. He’d be silent, like a ninja. Tip-toeing away like it’s his favorite hobby.
“Thats- that sure is me,” Eddie rasps, his eyes beyond wide.
“Uh huh, you got that right, hotshot,” Ed– No, Max, replies, co*cking her head to the side. Before their eyes, she shifts back. “You know what that means?”
Steve knows his face is red, it’s practically on fire, but he loses all ability to care when Eddie turns those wide, hopeful eyes onto him.
“Stevie…”
“Yeah, Eds?” Steve manages, a small smile creeping onto his lips.
“You li–”
“Yes! Yes, he likes you! You like him!” Max screeches. “Holy sh*t, you guys are gonna make me barf!”
Eddie whirls around and points a finger at her. “Shut it! Shut! It! I can forgive you for the van thing but I swear if you interrupt us one more time…” He lets the threat hang in the air, and Max grins, putting her webbed hands up in surrender.
“Alright, bird brain, I got it,” she says.
“Great! Now, Steve and I are gonna go retrieve that floaty from the woods,” he turns his finger onto the rest of the group, “and you unhelpful onlookers are going to make friends with this siren chick because she’s clearly lonely, and I’d rather her be on our good side than not!”
“I am not lo–”
“I said shut it!” Eddie interrupts.
“Fine!” Max shouts.
“Fine!” Eddie shouts, just as petulantly.
Steve already knows these two are gonna give him many, many headaches.
“Let’s go, Stevie,” Eddie huffs, grabbing his hand and pulling him towards the woods.
Steve is helpless to follow.
Eddie is having a wonderful day. Which, just a few minutes ago would have been said in the most witheringly sarcastic, bitter voice. However, he's just been slapped in the face with the realization that oh sh*t! Steve Harrington thinks I'm a catch!
He drags the elf behind him into the woods, their hands connected in a tight, returned grip. They don't dare speak until they get to where Eddie’d dropped the inflatable during his chase, the leaves and broken limbs crunching beneath their feet with every step.
He spots the stupid thing just a few yards away and squeezes Steve's hand where it's stayed in his grasp the whole time. He receives a squeeze back.
When they approach the float, Eddie doesn't bother picking it up yet. No, he swings their hands between their bodies, taking measured breaths while he gathers his thoughts.
“So, some random siren from the coast changes into me for you, and you for me,” He says with a small smile, finally looking up at Steve after spending their walk avoiding doing just that.
“She has a name,” Steve reprimands softly, giving Eddie a look.
Eddie rolls his eyes. “She trapped me in a hot van, let me be spiteful.”
Steve gives a little amused shake of his head before reaching out to take Eddie’s other hand.
“I like you, Eddie. A lot.”
Eddie’s eyes widen, still surprised to hear Steve say it, even though it's been obvious for like ten minutes now. Maybe he just didn't fully believe it until he heard it from the boy himself.
“I like you, too,” Eddie replies, unable to wipe the smile off his face. “sh*t, sweetheart. I've liked you for a good, long while, now.”
Steve steps a bit closer, their hands dropping lower between them, the tips of his long, pointed ears turning a pretty shade of red.
“I've liked you since you flew into the lunchroom window in tenth grade,” he says, his lips fighting a smile, but he loses.
“I'm glad that got me something other than a concussion,” Eddie laughs.
Eddie releases his hold on Steve’s hands, which makes the elf pout for a moment, before Eddie settles them around his waist instead.
It feels like his heart is beating in his throat when Steve hooks his arms around his neck.
“So. You like me. I like you,” Steve says, tilting his head teasingly. “What are we gonna do about that?”
Eddie kisses him, is what he does.
They're both smiling too hard for the first few seconds of the kiss to be anything more than silly, teeth-bumping awkwardness.
Eventually the desire for a proper kiss won out, and their lips finally began to move in sync, fitting perfectly like puzzle pieces destined to be together.
Eddie’s chest feels like it's exploding with a tingly feeling that leaves him tilting his head ever so slightly to the right, deepening the kiss.
When they separate, it takes him a moment to open his eyes, but when he does, the first thing he sees is Steve’s bright expression, his smile so strong his next-to-golden eyes are nearly shut.
And, really, he needs to give Max his thanks.
Even if she did nearly commit shiftercide.
By the time the two lovebirds come stumbling out of the woods, their lips red and swollen, cheeks flushed, and damn hair sticking every which way, Eddie carrying Argyle’s precious inflatable, Max has already been sworn into their “Party.”
Apparently they’re missing one of their members, a human boy named Dustin, who's currently at some sort of science camp trying to mess with something Lucas calls mathemagics, but they swore she’d like him.
She never expected to gain friendship out of this whole thing. She thought she would be miserable in Hawk’s End, left to brood in the depths of the lake and prank random idiots for kicks. She never thought the first idiots she decided to prank would adopt her into their group, like it’s nothing.
But, she finds herself playing with them in the lake, pushing them around on Argyle's floaty faster than any of them expected her to swim, relishing in the feeling of genuine fun for the first time after moving to the coast.
And she thinks maybe the cute human boy, Lucas, might be interested in her. Her abilities keep reaching out to him but she feels no need to shift forms. Call it a hunch.
Eddie eventually sneaks up beside her in the water and bumps their shoulders together.
“All's forgiven,” he tells her, a mischievous look, rivaling her own, taking over his features. “I think we'll be great friends, Red.”
And Steve– well…
“If you ever need anyone to talk to, I'm around,” he says at the end of the day, the sun setting, storm clouds beginning to roll in. “I don't know if you have, like, any way to communicate down there–”
“Dude, we have phones, it's 1986, not ye olde whatever,” Max snorts. “Mathemagics , or whatever it is Lucas says.”
Steve laughs and continues, “I'll be stuck in my house during this storm, and I'll need someone to talk to while I'm all cooped up. Maybe you can borrow a phonebook. My last name's Harrington.”
She nods, feeling a bit overwhelmed by all the kindness she was shown, even after what she did.
“Oh!” Steve says, snapping his fingers. “When it gets all cleared up, you can come hang out at my pool!”
“I'd like that,” Max says, trying to hide how choked up she is. “Now, uh, go home before you fade away, or whatever it is you light elves do in the darkness.”
When she watches them walk away, exchanging waves as they go, she feels light.
