MARCH 23RD, 1986
📍reefer rick's boathouse
09:12 AM
sensing movement and noise outside, eddie stirred awake. he looked down and smiled and the blonde still dozing and bundled in his arms. glancing back up, he saw a figure swiftly move past the window.
"shit," he whispered, looking down at tillie, unsure what to do. "shit."
the door flung open loudly, and four people walked in; dustin, robin, max and steve. eddie exhaled upon seeing them, thankful they weren't somebody else.
"shh," eddie hushed as they walked in. "she's still sleeping."
"delivery servi—" dustin's eyebrows furrowed mid sentence as he looked at the two of them laying in the boat. "why are you shirtless? and why is your hand up her shirt..?"
"did you not hear me, man?" eddie hissed. "shut up."
tillie began to gently wake up herself upon hearing the voices. "it's fine," she mumbled. "i'm up."
she opened her eyes and tried to adjust to the world, blushing as she remembered the position she'd fallen asleep in. slowly, she sat up and eddie let out a dramatic groan.
"you're killing me, mats," he sighed.
"you're the one who told me to get on top of you," she reminded him.
"yeah, because i knew you wouldn't be able to handle it if i was on top," the boy replied.
robin, steve and dustin looked between each other with a smirk, before bursting out into laughter. tillie rolled her eyes and began climbing out of the boat, and max held her arm out to help.
"real mature guys," tillie muttered.
"yeah, what are you, twelve?" max replied, as eddie climbed out of the boat.
tillie reached down and grabbed his t-shirt, throwing it in his direction and trying to to stare at his abs as she did so.
"thanks," he told her, pulling the hellfire shirt over his head. once he was done, he grabbed their jackets from the boat and passed her the hoodie, which she immediately put on. "cold?" he asked, offering the blonde his jacket too.
she politely shook her head. "i'm fine, thanks."
eddie nodded and pulled his gaze away from her, grabbing the bag of food from dustin and rummaging through it. he pulled out some cereal and began eating it straight from the box, taking a seat on the edge of the boat. he held the box out to ask tillie if she wanted any, to which she denied.
"so we got, uh, some good news and some bad news," dustin began. "how do you prefer it?"
"bad news first, always," eddie responded, his mouth full of honeycomb cereal.
"all right. bad news," dustin said with a nod. "we tapped into the hawkins pd dispatch with our cerebro, and they're definitely looking for not only you, but tillie too," he explained. "also, they're, uh, pretty convinced you killed chrissy and that tillie is helping you."
"like a hundred percent kind of convinced," max clarified.
"and the good news?" eddie asked.
"your name hasn't gone public yet," robin responded. "but if we found out about you, it's a matter of time before others do. and once that gets out, everyone and their shallow–minded mother is gonna be gunning for you."
"yeah, especially considering tillie's—" steve begun, earning glares from the others. "what?"
"i thought we said it was best not to tell her that," dustin hissed.
robin nodded, whispering, "it's only going to make her feel worse."
"okay, she's right here," tillie interrupted. "what is it?"
steve sighed. "your mom has been really trying to expose your name and eddie's. she's been on the news and stuff, saying that you're a traitor to the family and most importantly, a traitor to chrissy, and that you're somehow involved with her death."
tillie swallowed and looked down at her feet. "charming as always, mother," she mumbled.
she wasn't bothered about her mother saying that she helped in chrissy's death, because she knew she had not in anyway, nor had eddie. it was the term 'traitor' that upset her, because she knew she would have died before ever betraying chrissy in such a way.
eddie tilted his head and looked over at her, softly furrowing his brows as if asking if she was okay, to which she nodded, but kept her focus on ground.
"so, what?" eddie questioned. "they're hunting us? hunt the freaks, right?"
"exactly," robin replied blankly.
"so, before that happens," dustin said hastily, noticing his friend's dampened expression. "we need to find vecna, kill him and prove your innocence."
"that's all, dustin?" eddie replied sarcastically. "that's all?"
dustin nodded casually. "yeah, no, that's pretty much it."
"listen, eddie, tillie, i know everything dustin is saying sounds totally delusional, but we've actually been through this kind of thing before," robin told them. "i mean, they have a.. a few times, and i have once. mine was more human-flesh-based and theirs was more smoke-related, but bottom line is, collectively, i really feel like we got this."
"yeah," steve confirmed. "see, we usually rely on this girl who has superpowers. but, uh, those went bye-bye, so.."
"—so we're technically in more of the," robin continued.
"kinda.."
"brainstorming phase," max finished for the two of them.
steve repeated with agreement. "brainstorming."
"there.. there's nothing to worry about," dustin began to splutter, making steve scoff.
eddie and tillie stared at them blankly for a moment, before the wailing of sirens interrupted them.
"tarp, both of you, tarp," robin instructed, and tillie got back into the boat with eddie to hide from the cops, as robin and steve threw the material over them.
"you okay?" eddie whispered, the two of them laid on their sides opposite each other, their faces in close proximity.
"fine," matilda nodded with a hum. "she's said worse."
"you're not a traitor, you know that, right?"
"yeah," tillie mumbled. "still not a nice thing to hear though."
slowly, the siren sound became distant, and tillie sat up and removed tarp off them, without giving eddie chance to reply. "what's going on?" she asked the other four, who were stood staring out of the window.
"i don't know," steve replied, making his way towards the door. "we'll check it out. stay here."
"there's not exactly anywhere else for us to go!" eddie hollered after them, watching them leave. "idiots."
— 📻🪐🏹 —
not much happened this chapter but this is literally the only scene with eddie this episode sooo
tysm for almost 150k reads!! that's actually insane wtf ilysm
me after writing pros and cons lists about killing certain people:
WORD COUNT — 1102.