solace | eddie munson x reader [y/n]

030

In the few days leading up to Christmas, you'd kept as close an eye on Eddie as humanly possible. He had gone back to work for a few shifts which seemed a good sign of things returning to normal. Although, since his mom's birthday, he had been smoking much more.

He was high all the time. And that's saying a lot because Eddie was usually high anyway. This, though, was something far beyond what you had seen in the months of knowing him. Red-rimmed, glossy eyes was the only way anyone saw him that week.

If that was his way of coping, fine. You couldn't really say anything to him. At least it was better than drinking and throwing shit around.

The reason it hurt was that it felt like he was pulling away from you. Maybe with the weed numbing his brain, he felt like he didn't need you to lean on. Again, you weren't going to make a fuss about it because he was in a bad place; you feared that bringing it up might trigger his anger.

The one thing that slowed his increased smoke habit was Christmas festivities.

You had spent Christmas Eve night at the trailer watching the classic cartoons with Eddie and Wayne. The old man had started snoring in the recliner halfway through The Year Without a Santa Claus, making you two giggle from the couch.

The both of you stayed up to see midnight, arguing over which of you would be Snow Meiser and which would be Heat Meiser; it settled on you being Snow and Eddie being Heat, which he only agreed to when you told him it was because he's so hot.

Not long after, you fell asleep on the brown couch beneath the warm glimmer of the Christmas tree.

Eddie was fully reclined on the length of the couch while you laid on top of him, legs between his as your chest pressed to his stomach. Your hair was sprawled out across him as your head rested on his heartbeat, tucked under the crook of the boy's neck.

You were still in this position when Uncle Wayne woke up bright and early. He smiled to himself at the sight of you two, close as could be. The grizzled man was heading out to volunteer at the Roane County Community Center cooking takeaway holiday meals for less fortunate families.

It was something he did every year, and Eddie usually went along to help out too (even though he was on packaging duty since he can't cook for shit). The curly-haired boy grew up eating dinners from the community center; his mom picked up meals there when money was especially tight.

After he took Eddie in, Wayne began the Christmas tradition of helping prepare meals out on North Highway. He was a good person through and through and wanted to make sure those poor families had something to eat for the holidays.

Nothing made him happier than the sight of mothers and children with bright smiles as they took their plates; in each of them, he saw Eddie and his mother.

The sunlight pouring into the trailer's living room was warm on your eyelids before you opened them to the new day. You were eased into awareness by the sensation of Eddie rubbing your back, up and down slowly with his hand of rings. His body radiated warmth between your embrace of him. When you snuggled more into the curve between his neck and shoulder, he knew you were awake.