Random OneShots

The district sleeps alone tonight

By: lilyinmay on Ao3

Steddie

~~~~~

The moon hangs in the sky and Steve silently begs it to tell him of its audacity, daring to shine such a bright light on the carnage that was tonight, and on the scars that are going to stay with them all.

His foot taps against the ground, erratically, and the chatter of their reunited party resounds as if it's the only important sound in the world. The military around them and the people uprooted from their homes from the earthquake look like they're lost. Steve envies them a little, wanting to know what it must be like to not know where one's home is.

Because this home, right now, for all that it is strong, and for how much Steve loves it, feels broken.

Steve sighs heavily and glances up past the reunion of the Hopper-Byers that seems to have gone on forever. Something quiet nestles uncomfortably in his heart as he looks at Eddie, sitting on the other side of the road. Everything in him aches at the sight.

After a moment's hesitancy, Steve pushes himself off of the wall he'd been leaning on, arms folded over the jacket he'd slipped on without checking the tag. He ignores the concerned glance of Joyce, because he really can't find it in himself to even entertain feeling something akin to a mother's love - whatever that must feel like. Instead, he heads over a few paces to where Robin's rambling about something to a very-fed up looking Nancy.

"Hey, anyone been over to see Eddie?" he asks, trying to keep his voice low for no apparent reason at all.

"Uh," Robin taps her chin as she thinks. "I tried, but he said he wanted to be left alone."

Steve's eyes flicker to Eddie, a knawing in his chest. He remembers that feeling.

"His deeper wounds were cleaned up earlier by some of Owens' more trained paramedics who actually know what they're dealing with, but there's a lot of people to get round, so they'd only done the basics. They told him to do the rest."

Pulling his gaze away from Robin, Steve allows it to just float and finds Eddie again, and then zones in on the untouched gauze and cleaning equipment sat next to him on the windowsill he's sitting on. The glass looks to have been shattered, and a hallowed, blacked-out room frames Eddie, making him look even more haunted and tired.

Without another word or a glance to the girls, Steve heads over to Eddie with a small jog. Breifly, he remembers doing the same over to Max that day in the cemetery, and he clears his throat. He's not thinking about that now. He can't.

"Hey, man," he greets, and honestly doesn't bat an eyelid when Eddie just stares ahead as if he hadn't even heard him. "Rules of the Party - no-one's allowed to be alone on the first night."

Eddie's mouth quriks, but Steve thinks it's more bitter than anything else. He lingers awkwardly and sees the flashes of everything in Eddie's big, expressive eyes. Steve shakes his head and with a small defeated huff, and moves slowly to pick up the cleaning stuff, aware of the man's flighty disposition.

"Rule number two - all wounds have to be cleaned. You got a whole road of recovery ahead, and trust me when I say it helps if you don't have physical wounds being a pain in the butt."

Eddie just shrugs, as if he'd already considered the emotional toll of it all, and Steve gives the man an awkward smile before continuing wordlessly. He inches close to him.

Steve's midway through trying to keep the gauze steady between his fingers, his eyes fixated on how much they've trembling and how close they are to Eddie's wound. He can't let the gauze touch it, can't seem to close the very invisible boundary between them. He shakes his head, steps backwards, shakes his head again.