Beyond the Battle: Action & Consequence (Steddie, Stranger Things)

Chapter 30: Defences

It had been nearly an hour and a half since they had last heard from those surrounding the house. Nothing had moved since. Other than making sure Will didn't do himself an injury, Steve was keeping himself busy keeping an eye on everyone else. They had shifted everyone and everything they might need to the living room and it was tense to say the least. 

Dustin, Mike, Lucas, Erica and to Steve's surprise, Gareth were the only ones really doing anything as they worked on the electronics they had spread out on the dining room table. DnD had had to take a back seat when everyone had moved to the same room.

"Your guys doing okay?" he asked Eddie quietly, walking up beside his boyfriend.

"Well as can be expected," Eddie replied, glancing over at where Jeff and Frank were sitting. "Gareth seemed to be in his element. Knew he was a bit of an AV nerd, but thought it was mostly to do with music stuff."

"Hidden talents come in really useful with this crowd," he replied with a small smile. "Did you know Erica can do complex math in her head?"

"In her head?" Eddie replied. "I knew she was quick with numbers, but that sounds way too advanced for me. Math is probably my least favourite subject next to High School English. If they'd only let us get away with addition and subtraction, maybe a bit of multiplication."

"Tell me about it," he agreed, "and I wasn't even very good at the simple stuff. Still have no idea how I graduated math class."

"Harrington charm?" Eddie asked with a small grin.

"On this one, I might have to agree with you," he replied. "How are you doing?"

"Would it be weird to say I feel kind of itchy?" Eddie replied, grin disappearing.

"Itchy how?" Steve asked.

"Like there's something under my skin," was the quiet answer. "All I can think is I'm remembering the bats."

"Yeah, this business has a way of messing with all of us," Steve agreed. "Robin called it PTSD, which stands for something, but she was rambling when she was telling me, and I didn't quite get it."

"Our Robs is a fountain of knowledge, but sometimes it does take her a while to get to the point," Eddie agreed, the grin coming back for a little bit. "How about you?"

"If I see another candy bar, I might hurl, but other than that, I'm doing fine," he replied.

"Fine as in really fine, or fine as in how you make your mom nervous?" Eddie checked.

"Really fine," Steve assured him. "I know the nosebleeds look gruesome, but mine are only little ones and I promise I am not pushing it too hard."

"Just remember, you aren't any more disposable than El and Will, okay?" Eddie said, leaning in close for a moment.

"Okay," he promised.

It was hard to explain how natural what he was doing felt. Throwing things around, going into the Void, that was difficult and not always pleasant, healing wasn't like that at all for him, even if his nose seemed to be making everyone else think otherwise.

"I think we've got it."

Dustin's voice dragged his attention away from Eddie.

"You've done it?" Hopper asked, walking over to the dining room table.

Steve hurried over so he could take a look at the mess of wires and bits of walkie and phone that were spread around. It was all Greek to him, but it did seem impressive.

"Yes," Mike said.

"We patched the walkie in to the cellular phone and then used..." Dustin began to say.