Together, until the end | Eddie Munson

The mess

The headache starts again. Vivien goes into her room almost completely dark and sits on the bed, holding her legs to her chest and burying her head between her knees. She wants to scream, she wants to cry, she wants to break something.
"Fuck. FUCK!"

But she can't panic so she searches furiously through the various messy tapes on the bedside table, as one catches her eye: Queen

Why? That's all she thinks. Everything was going so well. She felt at home again, Will and the others, her mom's fine, Hopper's alive, and Eddie is hers. She sighs slowly at herself, trying to chase away the nervous tears that fill her green eyes.

When the sound of Eddie, gently knocking on the door frame brings her back to reality. With curly tufts framing his face, his eyes rest on her figure, asking if he could come in, while Vivien nods.
Slowly he makes his way to her and kneels, noticing the girl's absent look.

She doesn't say anything, she has tears running down her cheeks, but there were no hiccups falling from her mouth. Eddie knows she wouldn't start the conversation so he starts

"Why you?" he asks as the girl rests her headphones on her shoulders
"Because the asshole after almost killing Max now wants to get me, that feels right."
He stared at her for a few moments realizing how destroyed she is. She had a hard life growing up, but it seemed to keep getting worse
"...but why you? I thought Vecna took people suffering from...trauma or something. Guilty."

Vivien sighs but doesn't respond, bringing both hands to cover her face and lowers her head on her knees "I am sorry that you have come across all this shit..."
"Hey no this is not about me, it's about you"
The girl turns her head to the side avoiding his gaze.

"Do you want to... talk to me about it? I mean, it would help you, I have no idea..." he asks, getting closer to the girl

Vivien brings a hand to her face to dry some of the tears with her palm "It's a long story." and emits a frustrated puff "It's a mess."

She closes her eyes but feels one of Eddie's hands caress her face. "Hey, hey, look at me." He gently lifts her chin "If something from the past upsets you and would make you feel a little bit relieved to talk about it I'm here. I'm not going anywhere."
"Do you trust me?"

"Of course." she replies nodding
"Then talk to me. I'll listen to you, I'm good at this."

Vivien takes a deep breath. "But really, it's not necessary"

"I won't force you to tell me, but I'm worried." he sits next to her on the bed and fixes her hair behind her ears gently looking directly at her with his big brown eyes "I would lie if I didn't tell you that...shit i'm scared too"

Eddie makes her feel something and that feeling is love. She loves him, she loves him. Why can't they live quietly?

If she's gonna open up to anyone...that's Eddie
"Promise me that...I don't know- this won't change anything"
What if he looked at her differently? What if he walked away from her and blamed her for everything?
"Viv how can one thing change what I feel about you or the way I see you" his eyes flow over the girl's body with palpable tenderness "Don't be afraid to tell me anything."

"I left him alone..." is barely a murmur, almost as if she didn't want to be heard

"Alone- who?"

POLICE SEARCH MISSING BOY. Date is November 6, 1983.

"I-umh" her lips tremble as she tries to pull herself together

"Don't worry, take your time. No one will judge you. At least not me."

"On November 6, 1983, the night my brother disappeared..."

At her sentence he straightens his ears, shame weighs on Vivien's words.
He'd already heard about his brother and what happened to him, Dustin had mentioned it to him, but he doesn't know everything.