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Steve went to bed a while ago, his head hurting a bit too much to handle the fireworks show that Hopper and Jonathan were putting on. Eddie went with him, though he wasn’t tired, at Robin’s insistence.
She’d given him a look that said enough.
They’d all been dreading this day, at least a little, because of Starcourt the year before.
Steve was asleep in Will’s bed, curled up against Eddie’s side, breathing even.
Until it wasn’t.
Until his hands were gripping Eddie’s shirt like it was a lifeline, his feet started kicking like he was running from something.
He was whimpering in his sleep, clearly terrified of something, but Eddie couldn’t be sure what.
Steve tended to have a wide variety of nightmares: reminders of his childhood traumas, reminders of the Upside Down and Russians, and terrible visions of something that would hopefully never be the future.
They all caused him to struggle to wake up, and usually he was crying uncontrollably for hours when he finally did.
Eddie tried to prop himself up slightly, ready to try to hold Steve as still as he could.
Steve fought him off though, mumbling something in his sleep.
Eddie let him, knew better than to actively attempt waking him up during a nightmare.
He kept a hand on him, adjusting as Steve shifted in the bed. Trying to talk to him quietly, barely whispering reassurances that he was safe and loved and everyone would protect him.
Sometimes that worked. It wasn’t quite enough to wake him up from it, but he’d calm down and drift back into a mostly dreamless sleep.
Not this time.
He started sobbing, tears streaming down his cheeks from his still-closed eyes. He wasn’t quite tossing and turning, but he was moving enough that Eddie didn’t want to stay too close just in case either of them ended up hurt.
It killed him, but he put space between them.
“Eddie, no!”
Eddie flinched at the despair in Steve’s voice.
He heard a knock on the door, but couldn’t pull himself completely away to open it, so he yelled for them to come in.
Robin and Max were at the door with wide eyes, Dustin and Will standing behind them.
“Is he okay?” Robin started as she walked in.
“He’s having a nightmare.”
“Why can we not just wake him up?” El asked curiously.
“He wakes up on his own. If you try to wake him up he could accidentally hurt you.”
“But he is hurting,” she said, deep frown settling on her features as she watched Steve moving in bed.
Robin sat down on the edge of the bed just as a firework went off in the backyard, making her jump.
Steve’s eyes shot open, and he stopped moving.
But he wasn’t awake.
“Please stop. I can’t-“ Steve’s voice was pained, like he was being tortured.
“Hey, why don’t you rugrats go get Joyce or Hop or something?”
The kids hesitated, clearly not wanting to leave Steve even for a moment, but finally all turned to grab an adult from the firework show.
Joyce came in only a minute later, eyes wide and searching.
“Steve?” She asked as she got close to the bed, watching his open eyes crying silently now. “Sweetie, can you hear me?”
“This only happened once when I was around. He’s like, lost in the nightmare. He says when this happens is when he can physically feel what’s happening instead of just picturing it.”
“Bless his heart,” Joyce sighed. “Do you know what the nightmares are?”
“They’re different all the time,” Eddie said quietly.
“No, not her! I’m the one you want, right?” Steve yelled suddenly.
Everyone jumped and Steve and Robin shared a long glance.
“Maybe the Russians? We’ve had a lot of reminders today.”
Joyce placed a hand on his face to wipe his tears, but Steve flinched and curled himself into a ball.
“No, no, no,” he repeated.
“It’s okay, honey. It’s Joyce. We’re all gonna keep you safe,” she said softly, her hand still stroking through his hair.
She was trying to comfort him, but it seemed like the touch just made things worse. After another minute, she pulled her hand away and Eddie could see she was fighting back tears.
He put his hand on her shoulder as he heard a few more people come in.
“It’s okay. When he wakes up, he’ll be happy to know you tried,” Eddie said, though at this point, he figured if Steve knew that everyone was watching him have a nightmare, he’d be embarrassed at best, ashamed at worst.
“Maybe we should give him space,” Max suggested from the corner.
She suffered from terrible nightmares, too. She hated sleepovers now, usually chose to take the guest room of Steve’s house instead of on the floor in the living room with everyone just in case she had one. El would sometimes go with her, but most of the time, Max preferred being alone.
Steve was similar in that he usually hated anyone trying to take care of him, but Eddie and Robin usually didn’t give him a choice.
“Max is right,” Hopper said from the door, though he looked just as concerned as Joyce. “If he wakes up to all of us standing around him, he’s just gonna feel worse.”
“Let me get in there,” Wayne mumbled from behind Hopper.
Wayne had never seen Steve’s nightmares firsthand, just heard recounts of them from Eddie, but he’d felt terrible for the boy. He had his own share of nightmares from the war, and wouldn’t wish them on anyone.
Eddie and Wayne shared a look, one that had Eddie moving so Wayne could sit on the bed with Steve instead.
“Alright, everyone but Wayne and Eddie out!” Hopper said just loud enough to make a point.
Wayne wasn’t paying attention to everyone leaving, too focused on reading the situation at hand and preparing for whatever it might take to get Steve out of it.
“He ever punch when he’s in a nightmare?” He asked Eddie as he sat down close to him.
“Only once with Robin, then she learned to leave enough space that she could get up if he started throwing his hands around. It’s happened to me a couple times because I don’t want to leave him alone.”
“Alright, just stay right there for a few minutes. I’m gonna try to hold his wrists so I know if he’s gonna punch.”
“You aren’t restraining him, right? He doesn’t like to be restrained,” Eddie started nervously chewing on his hair.
“No, son. Not restraining. I’m gonna let him go if he starts to push against me, but it’s just so I know when he’s gonna start throwin’ his hands around.”
Eddie nodded and watched as Wayne sat back against the headboard of the bed and pulled Steve completely into his lap.
Steve wasn’t fighting it, but he was letting out little “no, no, no”’s until Wayne got him completely settled with his head against his chest, ear pressed to his heartbeat.
“Alright, bud, we’re gonna get you through this. You and me, kid. Just us. I’ve got you right here, you hear my heart? I got you.” Eddie watched as Steve’s crying continued to get worse. “Oh! You know that stupid Garfield mug? Broke the handle on it again. Damn thing seems like it’s giving up for good. I’ll have to steal the one you keep at the house.”
Steve’s whimpering was a bit quieter, his body relaxing a little more into Wayne.
“Tomorrow’s s’posed to be nice, maybe we should head out to the lake and fish. Leave Eddie behind, he scares the fish,” Wayne smirked over at Eddie, who was only holding back a comment because he was still too worried about Steve.
Steve was now silently crying, and Eddie knew he was probably closer to awake than asleep.
“I know you’ll probably say Eddie’s welcome, but that kid don’t shut up. Don’t know how you put up with him. Of my two boys, I’d much rather take you fishin’ and take Ed to a bar.”
Eddie bit his lip at the implication that Steve was one of Wayne’s boys. He knew Wayne adored Steve, but didn’t realize he was ready to adopt him as his own.
“There you are, bud. You awake?” Wayne was talking softer than Eddie had ever heard, and when he looked at Steve, he realized why.
Steve had finally managed to wake up completely, and his whole body was shivering, more from fear than being cold.
Eddie still found a blanket at the end of the bed and covered him, watching as Wayne mouthed a quick thank you over Steve’s head.
“You want me to keep talkin’?” Wayne asked.
Steve nodded.
“You got it, though this is more what Eddie’s good at. Ya know the first night he lived with me, I couldn’t get him to even say hello? Poor kid was like Bambi, didn’t trust anyone or anything, big brown eyes watching every breath I took until he was in his room. The next day I woke him up with pancakes, the recipe you like most with the cinnamon apples, and he hasn’t shut up since.”
Steve let out a breath that could have been a laugh if he wasn’t coming down from one of the worst nightmares Eddie’s seen him have.
Wayne’s hands were running along his arm and back, comforting and keeping him warm.
“Maybe we can head back to the house, I can make us those pancakes in the morning before we go fishin’. That sound good, kid?”
“Yeah, dad.”
Eddie’s eyes widened, and he saw Wayne’s hands freeze.
Then Steve was trying to pull away, his eyes shining with unshed tears that hadn’t been there a moment ago.
But Wayne pulled him back, held him against his chest and placed a kiss to the top of his head.
“I’m not lettin’ you go yet, son. Not unless you would rather be with Ed.”
Steve shook his head.
Eddie didn’t take offense to it, he was with Steve all the time and he knew Wayne was the best at giving support in times like this.
“You wanna talk about it?”
“What?”
“Anything.”
Steve shook his head.
“You ever talk about it with anyone?”
Steve shook his head.
“You think you should?”
Steve nodded.
“I ever tell you about when I got back from Vietnam?”
Steve shook his head.
“Is it okay if Ed sits down on the bed with us? Maybe you can hold his hand.”
Thank every god for Wayne Munson. Eddie was practically crawling out of his skin with the need to have his hand on Steve, make sure he was really okay.
Steve nodded.
Eddie sat down on the other side of Wayne, letting his head rest against his shoulder while Steve propped his legs in his lap.
“Everyone cozy?”
“Mhm,” Steve said.
“Yeah,” Eddie replied.
“When I first got back, I couldn’t sleep at all. Sometimes I’d drift off in my chair when I got too tired, but I’d usually wake up so quick my body didn’t even know I fell asleep. That went on for months until Jim got back. He was so much younger than me, ya know? Didn’t seem right that he had to go through what I did. We met for lunch a few times, we talked. He didn’t have much to say, neither did I, but sometimes we had a story to share. And ya know, dammit if it didn’t help.”
Eddie remembers back when he first started living with Wayne how he would sometimes have Hopper over for dinner, but never explained how they even really knew each other until he was older. Even then, he didn’t say much except that they had a lot of similar war stories.
“Didn’t have the time or money for professional help, but sometimes just gettin’ stuff off your chest can help. Ya know, I cut back my hours at the plant. Don’t need to work all that overtime now that the government bought us a house and pays the bills on it. Kinda nice to just have some time for doin’ what I wanna do. Maybe we could start takin’ a few hours a week to go fishin’. Maybe have lunch at the diner and chat.”
Eddie could feel tears running down his face at Wayne’s offer, at how much he cared for Steve.
“You’d wanna do that with me?” Steve’s voice was shaking, and Eddie didn’t have to see his face to know he was crying.
“I’d love to, bud. You’re my kiddo, ya know? Just as much as Eddie is.”
Steve let out a sob, and curled further into Wayne’s chest. Eddie squeezed his knee, letting him know he was there if he needed him.
“I love ya, kid. You’re gonna be just fine, alright? Not gonna let anyone or anything hurt you.”
“Thanks, dad.”
“Anytime, kiddo.”
They stayed there for a while, probably close to an hour, Steve holding Eddie’s hand while Wayne talked to them both.
Eventually, everyone was heading home and Steve decided to head back with Wayne and Eddie instead of staying with the Byers as planned.
“Get some rest, honey. We love you,” Joyce wrapped her arms around him and squeezed as he said his goodbyes to everyone.
The ride back was quiet, Wayne driving them both in his truck, the radio playing old country the whole way home.
When they got home, Steve decided to take a quick shower before he went to bed, said he didn’t feel clean.
Wayne furrowed his brows, but nodded.
Eddie kissed him once on the forehead before letting him head to the bathroom.
Wayne turned to him when they heard the shower turn on, his face pained.
“Has he ever talked about his childhood?”
“Not much. Said he used to spend summers with his grandparents and cousins when his parents didn’t wanna take him with them. He hated it, but didn’t say much about it.”
Wayne looked, somehow, worse.
“Has he ever been scared to be touched? Even just a hug? Outside of the nightmares?”
Eddie nodded.
“I mean, not so much with me or Robin anymore, but sometimes with the others, yeah.”
Wayne put a hand on his shoulder and gave him a sad smile.
“It’s not my place to make assumptions, but I think he had plenty of good reasons to hate staying with his grandparents and cousins. Just promise me you’ll listen if he talks to ya? No interruptin’ or judgin’.”
“Of course. I love him, I don’t want him to hide stuff from me,” Eddie responded.
“I know. I love ya, kid.”
“Love ya too,” Eddie was slightly confused, but didn’t ask. Steve would be done soon in the shower and he wanted to make sure he had some of his clothes to wear to bed.
Wayne made his way to his own room, giving a quick knock to the bathroom door and yelling that he loved him. Eddie heard a “love you, dad” in response.
Eddie had viewed Wayne as his dad for years, had called him dad sometimes when he let his guard down a bit. Wayne just had the natural protective, caring personality that a good father has, and Steve wasn’t immune to it.
When Steve made it out of the shower, Eddie was pulling the extra blanket out of his closet for Steve to wrap himself in like he did anytime he had a nightmare.
Steve walked over to him, towel wrapped around his waist, and leaned against him.
Eddie let his hands rest on his hips, right where the towel rested.
“Doing okay, sweetheart?”
“Yeah. Thanks.”
“Anytime.”
“Thanks for sharing Wayne with me.”
“Oh, angel, I don’t make that call. Wayne pretty much adopted you day one and I just had to let it happen,” Eddie smirked.
Steve giggled and kissed Eddie’s collarbone.
“I’m gonna talk to you about it all someday. I will. I promise.”
“No rush, sweet love. When you’re ready, though, I’m right here. So is Wayne.”
“I know. Love you.”
“Love you so much.”
As they fell asleep in Eddie’s bed that night, he realized what Wayne was alluding to and his heart broke into a million pieces. If he was right, then Steve had horrors unimaginable even before the Upside Down.
But Eddie would be here to listen to it when he was ready. He knew it would be hard to hear, but not nearly as hard as it had to be for Steve to live with.
And they both had Wayne, who wouldn’t let either of his boys hurt if he could help it.