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You could see it happen, just meters away from you. Just far enough that you couldn't do anything but scream his name as you watched him get swarmed by the bats. Even though your limbs were heavy with exhaustion and your legs protested, you ran to him, using your modified trash can lid as a shield and spearing the fuckers away. You couldn't focus on anything but Eddie, lying prone on the ground, and you swung your arm and stabbed a bat right through the heart.
The bats dissipated, and you were left alone with Eddie. Even though you felt like absolute shit, you knew that he was in worse shape, gashes on his sides and throat. You instantly abandoned your weapons and knelt down beside him, and you pulled his head into your lap. "Munson?" you whispered, and his eyes flickered as he looked at you. He was not doing too good. "Hey, there's my guy. We're gonna get you help, okay?"
"No," Eddie mumbled, his voice gurgling a bit. "I can't-"
"Yes, you can," you told him. "We're gonna stand up and go back to the trailer, and we're gonna get you help. You don't have a choice, Ed." You tried to control the shaking in your voice, because it was obvious to anyone that Eddie was in bad shape. But, if you got to the trailer, you could send Dustin to get help, and everything would be okay.
"I can't," Eddie insisted, his eyes wide. "I'm done for."
"Like hell you are!" you exclaimed. "I-I, Eddie, there are people that need you! Dustin needs you, Max needs you, I need you! Y-You can't just go and give up when there are people who need you! I know it hurts, Ed, I know it does, but you have got to hang in there. Okay?"
Eddie shook his head, and you chewed your lip. He was right, and you knew it; he couldn't make it to the trailer, and you weren;t nearly strong enough to carry him. He was going to bleed out and die right here in the Upside Down. You tried to think of something, anything, to do, and you nearly missed Eddie reaching up towards you. He tucked a little bit of hair behind your ear, almost a loving gesture, and he mumbled, "I've always loved you."
"Oh, whatever," you sniffled. You couldn't hold the tears back anymore. "Deathbed confessions..."
"Yeah," Eddie nodded. "Since the first day I met you, I knew I was going to marry you. I could just feel it."
"Really?" you whimpered out. You held him close, smoothing back his hair, and you watched as Eddie nodded again.
"Really," Eddie replied, blinking slowly.
"W-Well, why didn't you ever tell me?" you asked. The more you touched him, the more your clothes stained with his warm blood, but you didn't care. You just had to keep him talking until Dustin came for you. When Dustin showed up he would be able to help you limp Eddie back to the trailer, and everything would be fixed. You knew it wasn't that simple, but your plan needed to be simple to avoid your head exploding.
"I was scared," Eddie told you. His hands shook as he gathered up yours, holding you tightly, and he shook his head. "But I'm not scared anymore. I love you."
"Jesus," you uttered. "Eddie-"
"Don't say it back if you don't have to," Eddie told you quickly. "I-I don't want to hear you say it unless you mean it."
"I love you," you whispered to him. Your chest heaved with a heavy breath, and you watched Eddie's do the same. That was the deepest breath he had taken since you had had him in your arms, and, as you examined him again, you saw that the trickle of blood from his neck had nearly fully stopped. Did you...? There was no way. Did talking about you make Eddie grow more resilient? Did you make Eddie stronger?
"Glad to hear it," Eddie said, and your heart lifted. He was trying to be funny. He was trying to be funny for you. "Um," you started, wiping the tears hastily from your cheeks. "Y-You said you wanted to marry me?"
Eddie nodded. "Not one of those big, embarrassing weddings," he told you. His voice cracked and broke, but he was talking, and that was enough. Keep him talking until Dustin came to your aid, that was the plan. "I always imagined that you wouldn't want a real wedding, just something small... Am I right?"
You nodded. "I hate weddings," you admitted, and Eddie chuckled weakly.
"Yeah, yeah," he said. "I figured."
"Tell me more," you told him quickly. "Tell me a-about, like, how did you know?"
"Sometimes you just know things," Eddie said, and he paused to cough. Blood stained his lips as he coughed, but you could see color returning to his cheeks. He was going to be alright, you could feel it. "I saw you, and Gareth said something about you being new, a senior and all... You smiled at me, and I fell head over heels. I just knew."
Now, your tears were for a different reason. You actually remembered the moment well, the first time you met Eddie. You had been roaming the lunchroom on your first day at Hawkins High, and you had already felt like an outcast, starting a new school as a senior, and then you saw the badass devil illustration on a boy's shirt. You had looked up from the shirt to see the face, and those moonish brown eyes were already looking at you, and you had given him a friendly smile. Eddie had then come over and introduced himself, said some line about "You look lost", and offered to let you sit at his table with him and his friends. And the rest was history.
Since then, you had lost count of the amount of times that you went over to Eddie's trailer to watch a movie, to help study, to paint D&D figurines. Eddie was your best friend and you were his, and suddenly his pining made sense. He would let you borrow his clothes when you slept over, he always saved the last bite of his lunch for you (the man made a mean ham sandwich, what could you say?), and he held doors for you and offered you his hand to stand up and sit down. At the time, you thought it was him being a good friend and a gentleman, but it was so much more. He loved you.
"Eddie," you said softly. You didn't know exactly what to say, so you let your words fail you. Instead, you leaned down and softly kissed his bloody lips, not caring about the mess. To your delight, Eddie lifted his hand up and lightly touched your face as he kissed back, and you felt your stomach flip. He was going to be okay.
"Is this a pity kiss?" Eddie asked, his lips still against yours. "Like, 'you're dying. Let me kiss you goodbye'?"
"Does it feel like one?" you asked, lifting your face from his. "How do you feel?"
"Not great," Eddie admitted. "Everything hurts... Bastard bats. Those fuckers aren't metal at all."
Finally, you laughed, and you saw Eddie smile. Everything was okay. Eddie was cracking jokes, getting stronger by the second. You quickly called out for Dustin- "Dustin! Come here, I need help!"- but you turned your attention back to Eddie without missing a beat. "Maybe marriage is rushing it," you told him, and Eddie nodded in agreement. "I say we both have to graduate first-"
"Not that far away," Eddie told you, and you jokingly rolled your eyes.
"We should probably date for a while first too," you added, and Eddie nodded again. "But, sure, Munson. I'll marry you."
"Sick," Eddie said, and he coughed again. "Here comes Henderson."
"See?" you told him, sniffling away your tears. "Everything is alright."
