Baring Teeth ~Eddie Munson x Reader~

NINE

{ +18 SMUT AHEAD}

A deep breath in.

A deep breath out.

Gaining the courage to see the other side of the screen was always challenging, because it was always different. Ever changing. He changed. He worsened, with each passing day, with each passing minute, with each passing second.

The screen lit up after a few seconds and Wayne's face came up on screen.

"Hi there Son." He greets in a grunt. His hair was gone, no eyebrows, no beard, no sideburns. He was skinny, skinnier than the last time he had a call with Wayne, and his eyes were now filled with weakness rather than the strong man he once was.

"Hi Wayne. Interrupt your nap time, old man?" Eddie replied as he leaned against his balcony with phone in one hand and cigarette on the other. He always needed one when talking to Wayne, because it was always painful, the reminder of a limit of time that one day will reach its end.

"I nap all day. I really just want to go fishing again." He says with a chuckle this time, a weak one, but Eddie still smiled at him, reciprocating his laugh.

"Oh come on, as if you ever caught something bigger than the size of a hand." Eddie joked and it was a bluff really, Wayne was an excellent fisher, and that worked in getting dinner on the table a few times in his childhood and teenage years while he lived with him. Wayne looked into the camera completely offended and shook his head.

"I didn't raise you to be a liar!" He exclaims and Eddie finally lets out a chuckle while taking a drag out of his cigarette. "You know, that's the reason I'm like this." Wayne says pointing at the camera, at what Eddie is holding in his hand.

"Yeah, well... You smoked way too much when I was a teen, like two packs per week." And Eddie knew the reason for it. Getting the money for his medication, for his treatments, for the hospitalizations in the specialty facility was nothing cheap, and Wayne had to work double shifts and even weekends to be able to provide for it.

The stress of not being able to pay for Eddie's health was something that Wayne could barely stand, living off cigarettes and whisky, barely eating anything, his defenses falling gradually, his immune system deteriorating, but Eddie was alive. That's all that mattered.

"Hey, it was my guilty pleasure." Wayne jokes with a chuckle but Eddie's eyes felt distant as he looked at his uncle, his guardian, his father. Because maybe if he wasn't the way he is, just maybe–

"Is that Eddie?" Wayne looks up from the camera and nods, and Eddie hears a female chuckle from far away.

"Hi Lu." Eddie greets her and he receives an 'Hola' from far away. She was the caretaker of his uncle because he didn't want to be taken to a hospital or a geriatric. He wanted to be in the peace of his home, his trailer, and that was final.

"How are you feeling boy? I know your date is coming soon–"

"Yeah, it already happened. Lasted one day as always, nothing new." Eddie shortly replies, taking another drag of his cigarette and Wayne gives him a nod after a sigh.

"Alright, remember to visit Murphy, you have to do the–"

"Check ups, once every two months. I know Wayne, you don't really have to take care of me like that anymore." Eddie says with a hint of sadness behind it, and Wayne frowns at that, chuckling softly.

"You're my boy, I'm always going to take care of you, no matter how old you get." He replied with a wrinkled smile and Eddie felt the lump in his throat starting to form. He gulped it down, feeling the all too well burning begin to happen in his eyes, but he gets interrupted by Wayne's coughing, making Eddie look up at him alarmingly.