Chapter Text
“Why does it always happen to me?”
Is what Eddie would be thinking if anything like this had ever happened to him, or anyone, before. But somehow, he thinks he has either missed the epidemic of giant razor-teeth-flower-monsters sweeping the country, or this is a first.
“Shitshitshitshit SHIT!”
It is so easy when watching horror movies to throw popcorn at the screen and tell them to stop yelling when trying to hide from monsters and killers, but it’s much harder keeping your mouth shut when actually faced with it. Your bod is almost forcing it out of you, trying to calm you down the only way it knows how. Besides, Eddie doesn’t remember seeing any ears in his admittedly short glance.
He seems forced to face the end of his life as close to a budget Sci-fi horror as possible though, his own personal hell, as the only hiding place for him to skid behind is a large stone pillar to the back of the ruined structure.
Go explore Starcourt ruins they said, lots of old shit from shops to find they said. ‘They’ being literally just Gareth. Asshole.
He’d had to abandon the stack of records he’d found when the really cool monster statue next to the old comic-book store had turned out to be, in fact, not a statue at all.
His brain hadn’t even had time to freak out efficiently yet.
Like, holy shit! That’s a real monster! He’s being chased by a real monster with a face that open up into a big flower with rows and rows of teeth and he’s going to die while holding a Duran Duran record! People will find his body and think he liked Duran Duran.
The only reason he hadn’t dropped it yet was because he had needed something to desperately clutch onto while hiding and now it was too late to throw it away, too scared that any movement will draw the creature to his location. Although with the chittering and chirping noises growing closer by the second, Eddie assumes it has already probably found him.
Its loud and almost wet footsteps echo through the empty halls and bounce off of the beam where Eddie is crouching. Almost like it is teasing him. Well, it didn’t need to, he was sufficiently scared already. His eyes having long welled up with tears and his lip trembling so hard he had a moment ago been worried it was making a noise and giving him away. Its hard to accept death, especially your own, when your body is still telling you to fight against it. To get up and go. But this is it, his story is about to end. The monster is on the other side of the pillar, he can almost feel its hot breath boiling the back of his neck where the hairs stand on end.
“You gonna stand there all day, man?”
Wait. Huh?
To the best of his ability Eddie tries to make his eyes adjust through the tears but he must be really out of it because all he can make out is a man in a bright yellow sweater wrapped in a long coat. Is his subconscious creating a dream man to give him one final gift before the end?
“What’s your name?” The figure asks, smirking at him now.
“Eddie.”
“Nice to meet you Eddie, I’m the Doctor.” He shoots him a wide smile. “Run!”
And Eddie does.
If not only because ‘the Doctor’ had grabbed him by the arm and pulled him onto his feet and away from the safety of the pillar. He chances a look over his shoulder as the strange man leads him away and can see a large chunk missing out of the beam just under where his head was only moments ago, a very confused looking monster stood next to it spitting plaster and dust out of its mouth.
Quickly Eddie decides that looking back will only make him spiral so instead he looks forwards. And what he sees confuses him just as much. This man glows. His hair is perfectly styled and falls carefully around his neck but the rest of his clothes have seen better days. A ratty and worn in coat with tears and scratches everywhere Eddie looks. And the man’s eyes…It almost look like-
“Come on!” The trance is broken as the man calls over to Eddie who has only just realised the Doctor had dropped his hand, so he had just been stood with his arm outstretched. It looks like his hands were occupied with something metal and long now, lots of threads of the stuff all balled together. Maybe wire? And Between his teeth is a small metal rod with a glowing blue end that he produced from his coat and kept occasionally pointing at the wires.
“What is that thing?” He asks while trying to control his shaking.
“It’s a Demogorgon. And it’s a long way from home.”
“Okay, and what are you?”
“Hm?”
“You’re not a human, I figured out that much.”
The man stops fiddling with the wire rope just long enough to give him a surprised but excited look.
“Oh Eddie Munson, you are good.” Is all he gets before the Doctor goes back to pointing his device at the wires.
“Okay, is there at least something else I can call you?”
“Like what?”
“An actual name?”
“Namesnamesnames, God people are always asking me that. It’s a good job I picked one out. You can call me Steve Harrington, or just Steve, or Harrington. Whatever works best for you dude.”
“Are any of those your actual name?”
“Tell me Eddie, what is an actual name? I respond to them; I picked them to represent me. Meets all the criteria for a name- Anyway come help me lift this.” He shakes the now pulsing wires up and beckons Eddie to come over. “If you grab those two corners, and I pull…bam, there we go!” He punches the air triumphantly as, what Eddie can now see is a wire snare trap, hangs tightly from the tree above them.
“Forgive my scepticism, space boy, but I don’t like the idea of catching a demon monster with the same shit you’d catch a rabbit in.”
“If your rabbits need 100 million volts of electricity to stun them then something has definitely gone wrong since I was here last.”
“100 Mil- Should I be holding this shit?!”
Steve gives him a funny look as if it is ridiculous for Eddie to even begin to worry about the very real possibility of 100 million volts shooting through him. Fucking aliens.
“Do you plan on touching the big blue button at the base of the tree?”
“No…”
“Then you’ll be fine. Come on man, bring your shit.”
They hunker down behind the tree as the Doctor moves some last-minute cables. Already in his head Eddie can hear himself using ‘Steve Harrington’ and ‘the Doctor’ interchangeably and it’s freaking him out how fast all of this is coming to him now. Sure, they’re hiding behind a tree to drop a super-powered electrical blanket on an outer-space flower monster. And the man next to him is from space. Whatever.
“With that much electricity, wont we still be in risk here?”
“Nah, the cage keeps all of the electricity inside, it’s like a super clever little trap. Glad I thought to grab it.”
‘Yeah, me too.’ Eddie thinks to himself.
It wasn’t long after he had that thought that the sound of loud, wet footsteps could be heard, accompanied by that screech that sent familiar dread crashing down Eddie’s spine in a cold wash. It was here.
“Any second now…”
Its head emerged from the forest, closed up like a bulb as it stalked their scents through the undergrowth.
“Just a little further…”
It must have caught a whiff because the next second it was facing them, face opened up to display its sharp teeth and empty void of a throat. It charged towards them and their little clearing, paying no mind to any of its surroundings. One second its feet were barrelling at them with so much power that Eddie though it might kick straight through him and the next it was gone. Or, taken.
Eddie looks up and sees the wires tangling around the creature like they have a mind of their own, the Doctors arm pulling back from pressing the bright blue button.
“Gotcha.”
The wires spark to life.
It let out an anguished roar as the sparks bounce off of its body and seem to dance down it’s arms. And Eddie cannot believe that cartoons were right, you can see the skeletons of things hit with enough electricity. Its body writhes and gargles as its bones snap one by one before crumbling. They can both see every individual snap and shatter. It looked painful. So terribly painful.
“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry…” The Doctor whispers out under his breath, refusing to look away from the suffering creature and it hits Eddie just how much it looks like any other animal when it is in pain. He tries to imagine it as a wolf or mountain lion, something equally as likely to see him as prey. Suddenly he isn’t enjoying its fate quite so much.
It all comes to and end, not with a shriek or a cry, but with a quiet fizzing as the last of its bones and skin seem to melt and join the pile on the floor. The creature was dead.
They both take a moment to adjust themselves, reeling from what they just did.
“It is over?” Eddie asks quietly.
“Yeah.” Steve responds, wiping the small tear gathering under Eddie’s eye that he hadn’t even noticed was there. “It’s done. Sorry you had to see all that but completely melting them is the only way to stop them reforming and it wouldn’t have let me take it back to its home.”
“Still didn’t feel like the right thing to do…”
“It did try to eat you.”
“I know. Still.” Eddie kicks absently at a stone, pointedly not looking at the now dissolving pile of sludge on the floor.
Neither of them speak for a long moment before the Doctor breaks the tension with a sigh, throwing his arm around Eddie’s shoulders.
“Come on man, let me show you my ship.”
“That is not a ship.” Eddie almost laughs at the deeply offended look Steve gets on his face. “That is a box”
“She’s my ship! Come on, just have a look. He beckons Eddie towards the front doors.
“I’m not getting in a box with you.”
“Seriously? We just fought a flower faced alien together, but you draw the line at stepping into my ship?”
Eddie plants his feet and crosses his arms, shooting a judgmental look towards the other…man, alien, thing?
“You calling me easy? Look, I don’t know how they do it on Mars-“
“Not from Mars.”
“-But down here you’ve at least got to tell someone your name before you beckon them into a creepy little shack in the woods. Especially one marked ‘Police’.”
Eddie watches as the man seems to look back at his box, back to Eddie then scrunch up his face in thought. It struck him that even if what he was looking at wasn’t human, it was a damn good copy.
Before he had a chance to yell at him some more the man spins around on one leg, stupid coat flowing after him.
“Oh stupid! Stupid!” He wacks himself in the forehead a few times before turning back to Eddie with a half smile-half grimace. “When you travel like I do certain things get all…jumbled around or dropped completely. I forgot the entirety of the year 3000 once. Didn't miss it much, too similar to the 2000’s.” He seems to look off into the distance for a second before snapping back into himself with a loud ‘anyway!’ Causing Eddie to jump.
“Point is! I seem to have forgotten some customs of the 80s. So let me rewind. Would you like to go into my ship to explore the ship. No euphemism, no expectations. I’ll even stay standing right here if you like.”
You see, if Eddie told this story to someone, he would pretend it was harder to get him into the police box. If they asked, he would spin a tale of how cautious and careful he was, of how stupid it would have been for local drug dealer Eddie Munson to climb into a small space marked ‘Police’ with a strange man. He would tell them it took longer than it did because the alternative, that being one single lopsided grin from the spaceman made him drop all his defences and come running along to every word he said easily, was far too embarrassing.
So, slowly, he steps towards the box.
‘Some lousy ship.’ He thinks as he runs his hand over the chipped paint on the doors.
Aliens, monsters and spaceships are all apparently real and what does he end up with? A ball of energy wrapped in a coat and a wooden cube. Not even a cool, futuristic cube. With lasers and shit. Just wood.
“It’s gonna be a bit cosy. Both of us, in your prison ship.”
“Its-It’s…It’s not a prison-“ Comes the response with the exasperation of someone who’s had to explain as such many times. He raises his fingers and snaps with as much passive aggressiveness as an alien can convey in a small finger click, and the police box doors swing open.
Eddie can’t keep the look of awe off his face. Sure, the big monster thing from space was a rude awakening but at least it looked alien. There was something more mind breaking about someone who looked just like you and spoke just like you being…up there.
He quickly turns his attention towards the now open doors before he can begin to spiral. He didn’t need the pretty spaceman to see him faint. Unless he was going to catch him in his arms. Actually, that wasn’t a bad idea-
No! No, spaceship to explore. Small, pathetic spaceship but alien nonetheless.
“We’ll make do I guess, I’m good at squeezing into a tiny ball on the floor so we can-“ He calls back to The Doctor while shaking his head, walking into the box.
“Three…Two…”
“-fit ourselves together like Jenga, do they have Jenga on Mars…Holyshit-“
“One.”
“It’s…It’s…” Eddie can’t force the words out of his mouth, they seem just as lost as his thoughts in the suddenly never-ending expanse of glowing orbs, control panels and random accessories lining huge walkways. Before he could even utter his next word, the previous were rolling back over him in a repeated echo from the room.
“I have a feeling I know what you’re going to say.”
“It’s…”
“I honestly get it a lot, don’t worry.”
“It’s…smaller on the outside.”
“Yes, it is bigger- Oh, wow, that’s a first.” Steve looks at him in bewilderment from where he had strolled in behind Eddie, leaning on a white railing leading from the door into the centre of the, now undeniably impressive, spaceship. “But yes, I suppose it is.”
Eddie takes a few seconds to ground himself, bounces on his feet a couple times to make sure the weird grid flooring isn’t a hallucination. And then, with one cautious look back to the Doctor, he takes off running.
Not out of the ship like any other rational person, no. He sprints up the walkway until he reaches the central console covered in button, levers and all manor of weird and wonderful shapes. But he can’t stay looking at it for too long or he’d lose his nerve, so he laps it a few times, running backwards with his eyes moving rapidly across its surface before shooting off in another direction. The route takes him down a far too dramatic spiral staircase to a deck below the entryway and console, long wires and machinery poking through from the space above.
Despite the magic of the room, the fear and giddy excitement he felt seeing more corridors that led further into the ship away from the main room, this small landing under the console helped him calm down slightly. Because sure, this was a ship. An outer space…ship. But at the heart of it? It was just a machine. Someone built it, it needed maintenance and upkeep just like anything else. It had wiring. If he removed the bigger-on-the-inside thing, it was all technology Eddie was familiar with.
“…You doing okay down there?” Comes a voice from above.
Eddie looks up and spots the Doctor sat on the walkway above him, legs dangling over the side as he rests his face against his arm on the railing.
It took him a few seconds, a few deep breaths, but Eddie answers with a cautious “Y…yeah. Followed by a much more determined “Yes. I think I’m good.”
He receives a huge blinding grin is response, smushed slightly against the arm. “Good!” The doctor yells before dropping down onto Eddie’s level through the railing. “Well then, Eddie Munson of Earth. Welcome to my TARDIS.”
“TARDIS?”
“Time And Relative Dimension in Space, Timelord technology. This old girl has got me through a lot.” The ship seems to rumble slightly, bringing a smile to the Doctors face. Eddie cannot physically stomach the idea of the TARDIS being alive right now, so he shelves that thought for now and focuses on the unfamiliar word.
“Timelord?”
“That’s me. Not a Martian.”
“So, you’re a lord? With manors and shit?”
Steve chuckles to himself. “Wrong word to be focusing on. I mean, I do have a manor but that’s not-“ He shakes his head. “Anyway, we’re all Lords. That’s my people’s title. Well, a lot of them. If you don’t get through the academy, you’re not technically…But by association most people know us all as Timelords.”
“Okay, I think I get it. But if that’s your title, what is your…species? What’s your version of ‘Hello, I’m a human’?”
In the back of his mind Eddie is aware of something more rational screaming at him to breakdown, to realise that asking someone what species they are is an insane situation.
“Gallifreyan. From the planet Gallifrey in the constellation of Kasterborous. Basically…a long way away.”
“Gallifrey…” Eddie rolls the name over his tongue, trying to comprehend the fact that this was real life, and he just said the name of a real planet with a civilisation on it. A civilisation of Lords. Lords of…time? “Wait, yeah, wrong word focus. What do you mean ‘Time’ lord?”
Instead of answering, Steve grabs him by the arm and yanks him back up the stairs to the main console before whirling around to face him. Eddie can feel his face heating up at the proximity as the Doctor looks into his eyes.
“Think about an event, any event, that has already happened.” He says, placing his fingers on the side of Eddie’s head and closing his eyes. “Somewhere you’d always wished to go but missed out on. You weren’t in the right place or time for it.”
And Eddie’s mind goes blank. He can’t think of a single thing other than how close they are, how the Doctors warm hands feel against him, how the small beauty marks scattering the others face make him look so human. But he’s not, he’s an alien. An alien with a ship who probably goes around probing people and…Well, Eddie wouldn’t mind a bit of probing honestly-
“Oh! Uh, Eddie, I should warn you I can sort of…see your thoughts right now. Imagine a door closing over anything you don’t want me to see and I’ll uh, I’ll not look.”
Well, that’s mortifying. But the light dusting of pink across Steve’s face is so cute it almost makes it worth it. He scrunches his eyes closed and tries to focus on the task at hand. Thinks of something he wanted to do, somewhere he wanted to be. And only one time and place materialise in his brain. It’s not that interesting or wild, but it’s true. And it’s only a second after he comes to the realisation himself that the Doctor seems to smile a little and open his eyes.
“I understand.” He says, which is silly. How could he? But…It feels nice all the same.
“Doctor…Steve, what are we-“
But he has already run off, rounding the TARDIS console while pushing and pulling at random controls. As he goes, the ship seems to jolt into life causing him to lurch forward.
“Might want to hold on to something! She’s not as young as she used to be.” The TARDIS gives a particularly strong jolt at that causing Steve to fall back against a railing with a sharp ‘oof! “Touchy in her old age too, clearly!” He yells while dragging himself back to the console with a hold on a big red lever.
“But Doctor, what are we doing? We’re not taking off, are we? Jesus Christ am I in space?!”
Steve doesn’t respond. But he does extend a hand to Eddie across the console, willing him to move away from his white-knuckle grasp on the railing and come towards him on the console. And It’s just a hand, it’s just a beckon to come help but Eddie can’t help but think of it as more. If he takes that hand, he’s in. It will pull him into this crazy, magical, terrifying world and…He’s not sure he can ever come back. If he gives in and goes with this brilliant and dangerous man, he’s going to be changed forever. If he just takes his hand…
Pushing off from the side, Eddie manages to throw himself against the console and takes a strong grip of Steve’s hand with a determined and decisive look. The Doctor gives him a wide, beaming smile and in that moment, Eddie knows this man will destroy him. And he’ll let him.
With one last squeeze to Eddie’s hand, Steve pulls down on the lever in his grasp and a loud whooshing sound picks up around them, momentarily deafening Eddie as the ship shakes around them.
“Eddie?”
“Mhm?”
“You can open your eyes now. We landed.” A squeeze to his hand brings him back to earth. Quite literally if they’ve really done what Eddie thinks they have. Something he can’t bring himself to fully acknowledge just yet.
But upon opening his eyes he is met with a caring face almost exploding with excitement, a goofy smile framed with fluffy brown hair and backlit by the cooling down lights from the console.
“We’ve landed?”
“We’ve landed.”
“Um.” Eddie takes a deep breath. “Where have we…parked?”
“Not quite the right question.” Steve says as he strides towards the TARDIS door, swinging it open and poking his head out to check before beckoning Eddie over.
Well, he didn’t immediately die in the cold vacuum of space so that was a good sign. And that sounds like…Cheering? Yeah, Eddie can definitely hear excited yells wafting through the open TARDIS doors along with a bright beam of sunshine. Had they simply flown sideways? That wasn’t a particularly impressive display of the ship. Took a lot of shaking and effort just to fly through the wood.
Except, that couldn’t be right. It was November. It was cold as shit and 3 O’clock brought nothing but depressingly dark and pale skies. Hell, it was only a few seconds away from raining when he had been ushered into the TARDIS. So why is it-?
“You gonna stand there all day, man? Come see!”
Steve draws him out of his spiralling thoughts from where he stands with his hands on his waist by the front doors, hip cocked slightly and shooting Eddie an arched eyebrow of amusement and slight impatience. Fine, okay, Eddie is fine. He can walk outside. He can push down the feeling of different and humour the stupidly pretty alien.
With more confidence than he feels, Eddie marches down the corridor and down to the doors, brushing up closer than was strictly necessary to the Doctor as he yanks open the front door.
The first thing he sees is nothing. A bright beam of hot sunlight blinding him as his eyes adjust from the TARDIS lighting, obscuring anything other than a few trees to the sides of him.
But as he struggles through the light for what felt like hours but was most likely a few seconds, a building comes into view. A very ugly and familiar building.
Just down from the grass bank they had apparently parked on stood the foreboding concrete slab that was Hawkins High. Its crumbling, pothole covered parking lot was full to the brim with students and families, most in various stages of celebration.
And they are all wearing their graduation gowns.
But…Why would they be…
Oh. Oh Jesus Christ.
Just under the un-welcoming blocky letters proclaiming the schools name there is a huge fabric banner stretched from one side to the other.
Proudly displaying ‘Congratulations Class of 84’.
“I’m gonna be sick.”
“Nononono you’re okay, remember? You’re okay.” Steve tries to be reassuring, flapping around him and trying to rub his shoulder in an encouraging and awkward manor. “Just a light bit of time travel, hardly even moved.”
Eddie glares up at him from under his bangs. “I’m in fucking 1984!”
“Ta-da!”
“Doctor!”
“Right, yeah, sorry. It’s been a while since I did this for the first time. Especially not with someone as far back as you. You don’t even have the internet yet…” He shakes that line of thought from his head knowing it will only confuse Eddie more. “I’m sorry, I should have eased you into it. Not cool.”
Eddie nods before taking another peek at the parking lot again. He lets out a puff of air as if that would help him actually expel the mess of emotions from his body.
“S-so.” He gets out around a shaky breath. His legs feel wobbly, so he doesn’t feel particularly bad about leaning most of his weight onto Steve. “We travelled through time.”
“Yeah, we did.”
“In a little blue box.”
“In a little blue box.” Steve repeats to confirm Eddie hasn’t lost his mind in the last few seconds.
“And you could tell I wanted to come here?”
The look he gets is slightly sheepish, as if his ability to do these incredible things is an embarrassing little personality trait comparable to singing in the shower. “I can read minds. Well, that’s the easy way of putting it Timelords posses a uh, telepathic ability. It’s not constant, I can control it.” He waves his hand around his head trying to indicate the invisible force. “I could see where and when you wanted to go…among other things.” He coughs to hide a slight pang of embarrassment. Eddie feels too overwhelmed to be shy about his previous imaginations.
‘Can you hear what I’m thinking right now?’
He says inside his own head, giving the Doctor a strange, studying look over squinted eyes which is returned with a look of mild exasperation.
“If you’re testing if I can hear you, the answer is no. Like I said, I can control it. And it’s usually a two-way allowance.”
“This is crazy.” The urge to pace and spiral was only just losing in his mind against staying there and leaning more into Steve. “You do get that, right? Or is this all normal for you now?
It’s the right thing to ask apparently since Steve’s face lights up immediately.
“Absolutely insane! I mean, we just time travelled! Who does that?!” He says slapping Eddie on the side a few times in excitement. His mood is infectious, and Eddie can feel a bit of the nausea slipping away already as he returns the gesture with a childish little jump. “I’ve seen all of time and space Eddie, but the way my people see it…They don’t understand that there is a difference when living it. Any old idiot can look through an untempered schism as a cosmic photograph of the universe is projected into their mind forevermore, but how many people get to say they have Travelled through time and space to Hawkins High Graduation 1984?”
Only a few words of that made any sense to Eddie, so he decides to focus on the familiar.
“I’m going to bet only two. Not the most glamorous of fought for travel destination.” He said with a small laugh, staring down onto the cracked concrete.
“Yeah well, they don’t know what they’re missing.” Steve responds softly, eyes firmly planted on the back of Eddie’s head as he takes everything in.
But Eddie didn’t notice. He was too busy taking his first steps away from the Doctor and towards the bank for a better look.
As was to be expected, no one had spotted them. They were too busy taking pictures with family and congratulating each other. Shit Eddie never got to do. It was hard to get a read on whether the emotions welling up inside him were sadness or bitterness but whatever it was brought a stinging feeling to the corner of his eyes that he made sure to rub away before the Doctor could see.
1984 was supposed to be his year.
Yet here he was, two years later, still stuck in the same loop. Although, Eddie supposes, maybe this was his chance to break the cycle. It wasn’t the most common method but who’s to stop him using a bit of extra…time to prepare for his exams. He and the doctor could whiz around the planet for years and still drop him off in time to take all of his finals. He’d have all the time in the world to study. Something told him Steve wouldn’t be too keen on his super impressive time machine spaceship being used to cheat high school exams.
It's as he looks up to tell the Doctor as such that Eddie sees his gaze already firmly planted on the parking lot and students below, a slight pinch to his eyebrows in concentration, or perhaps confusion?
“You alright?”
It takes Steve a moment before he even glances at Eddie, calculating eyes still scanning the crowd for whatever has caught his attention.
“Hm? Yeah, yeah I’m… good. Something just felt-“ He cut himself off as if he himself didn’t even know what the feeling was, struggling to find the appropriate words. “Familiar. I think something felt familiar.”
Eddie missed the significance of the phrase. It all felt familiar to him because it was, he had already lived this. Well, not this exactly. If memory serves, he was nursing a bottle of cheap vodka on the trailer park swing set right about now.
He went to give some sort of snarky reply to clear the thick tension surrounding them, but his voice caught in his throat. All at once his senses felt like they were on fire, goosebumps raised along his arms and he felt a shiver of something run down his back. The tension paralysed him. Suffocated him in a primal warning of wrongwrongwrong but he couldn’t figure out why.
Mirroring the Doctor’s look he scanned the crowd, eyes jumping from one happy family to the next, the cheers and celebrations sounding more and more like screams the longer he looked and his gaze became frantic and desperate, bodies merging together in his blurry eyes until they started to create dancing shapes and swarms in his vision and the screams were calling out from the shapes and the cries in the darkness became mangled and strained as the flashes of cameras became blinding so blinding against the suddenly freezing air and-
Someone was looking at him.
He felt it before he saw it. That almost magical human ability to feel eyes on you, the slight tingle everyone gets urging them to find and hide. But then he spots him. Eddie’s eyes zero in on him as his mind separates the jumping celebrators from his target. In the whole entire crowd, only one has his trained on them.
Tommy Hagan.
The jock stares up at them over the dirt path and grass verge. Even from his distance Eddie can see the quizzing look on his face. As if even he doesn’t know why he’s looking over at them. As if the same feeling of being watched had drawn his attention.
Because Eddie also noticed the Doctor was staring directly at Tommy. Must have been the whole time. But the Doctor wasn’t there anymore, the thing that stood in his place had eyes of fire and stars. They burned brightly with horror and love, the combination so dizzying that Eddie had to take a step back. But as he did, his shoes landed on a fallen twig and snapped it clean in half, the loud crunch accidentally breaking the orbiting tension around the Doctor. And when Eddie looked back, Tommy was busy slapping his basketball buddies on the back with a wide grin. The moment was gone.
When Steve turned his eyes back on Eddie, they were back to that comforting brown that betrayed his age. Like nothing else had ever been there.
“You ready to go?” Is all Eddie gets as an explanation, so he just answers with a nod and one last glance over his shoulder to the now retreating school and it’s flimsy ‘Congratulations’ banner.
“One way trip back to Hawkins 1986 then, Doctor?” Eddie calls as he barrels off into the TARDIS like he had lived there all his life, running up towards the console and staring back expectantly at the Doctor who was…still stood by the door. “Hey, you good back there?”
Steve slowly shuts the TARDIS door before making his way in after Eddie. “Yeah, I’m…Really good actually. But I have something I want to ask.”
“Okay…” Eddie moved away from the random button he was idly pawing at, sensing this conversation might need his undivided attention.
“We don’t know much about each other, and we have just met but- I had a good time today, I haven’t enjoyed myself in a long time. Long, long time. It’s too big a universe for me to be floating around by myself and I understand that now. I need someone to keep me going, keep me grounded. Someone to make me come back here again. So basically, I wanted to ask…” Steve looks up from where he had been fiddling with a button on his coat to finally look at Eddie. “Would you want to travel with me?”
And for a moment Eddie is struck silent. For the first time maybe ever in his life, he can’t think of what to say. He could do this again? And not just the once, many more time to come after too. And he was wanted. Someone wanted to share that with him. Hell, potentially one of the coolest men in the universe wanted him.
But he couldn’t just leave could he? He had…shit he needed to do here! He had a band to make big…with bandmates who had all left across the country for college. He had a job he was expected at…that he only got to make his now dead uncle proud. Jesus. Maybe he really didn’t have any reasons to stay.
But…
“I’m a coward, Doctor.”
“What?”
Eddie let out a big sigh before continuing. “I’m such a coward. I see trouble and I- I run. I’m not made for fighting or saving the world. Someone is in danger or hurt and all Eddie can do is…run away. You don’t want someone like that on your team.”
There’s a few seconds of painful silence before Steve chuckles slightly under his breath, the noise giving way to a bright and genuine smile.
“What’s so funny?” Eddie snaps defensively.”
“Eddie, I’m always running. Never stopped running. I stole a time machine just so I’d have more places to run to.”
“But that’s different! What you did today with the flower thing-“
“Demogorgon.”
“Whatever! What you did…” He takes a breath and looks down. “It came so naturally to you. I can see it, in your eyes. They’re full of stars but they’re also full of war and blood and combat. I can’t compete with that.”
He doesn’t have time to start feeling embarrassed at his flowery words before a gentle hand is cupping his neck, pulling him in until his forehead is resting against the other mans, nowhere to look but into those too-old eyes.
“I don’t want you to compete with that. I want you to stop it, stop me. You’re right, I’ve seen so much, and some of it was not good. Some of it was dark and cruel and painful. But the rest of it Eddie? It’s beautiful.” His thumb idly starts moving against the back of Eddie’s neck. “It’s so beautiful. That is what I want to share with you. We can deal with the rest together. I’ve not had someone to make me focus on the good for longer than you can imagine.”
“You really are an old man…”
“Slightly rude.”
“Slightly ancient.” They both giggle into each other. “Sorry, I’m sorry- I can’t ever just leave deep moments fester I have to ruin them.”
“I don’t think you could ruin anything.”
And that does it. For some reason, that makes Eddie’s choice for him straight away.
“Well, you’ll have lots of time to find out, won’t you?
He breaks away from Steve’s loose hold and starts pretending to busy himself with buttons on the console that he could not even begin to pretend he knows the point of. He tries to contain the growing smile on his face but its so hard when Steve’s thoughts can be heard so loudly in the room. You can practically hear the penny drop.
“Wait- You’ll come?”
“Buy me a drink firs-Woah calm down Space Boy!”
But the Doctor can’t hear him over his own excited laughter and cheering as he spins Eddie around in a circle, dancing the both of them around the main console. It strikes Eddie that under the dorky outfit, he must actually be quite strong, or maybe he was used to different gravity? Damn, he needed a little notebook for all of his questions.
Because he was going to be a time traveller.
When Steve eventually puts him down long enough to fist pump the air a few times, Eddie takes the opportunity to ask,
“So, where first Doctor?”
And he knows he will never get tired of that smile as Steve proudly says, “I have no idea, lets find out!” And pulls a random lever.
Later, eating Cheetos in front of the Doctor tiny TV while curled up on metal chairs:
“So…Year 3000, huh?”
“Mhm.”
“Any good?”
“You wouldn’t like it. Too wet.”
“Ah.”