Archive of Our Own

This description will contain spoilers for both parts of this series. DO NOT READ THIS if you would like to enjoy the work with the intended uncertainty about Steve's version of events.

 

Part 1 is the teleplay of an episode of the reality TV show Hoarders, featuring Steve Harrington, age 45. All we can see is what the audience sees, which is muddled by the party trying to keep the secrets of what really happened in Hawkins in the 80's, and the fact that nobody (even the party) believes that Steve is lucid, but (SPOILERS) Steve has correctly worked out that Eddie has been alive this whole time, secreted away somewhere by the government. This is tagged as Steve/Eddie because Steve never got over his feelings for Eddie, and they will eventually get together in part 2.
Will and El sacrificed themselves post-S4 to take down Vecna, and they are truly dead.
There is not really a happy ending to the first part, other than Steve successfully cleaning parts of his house.

Part 2 is a more typically-formatted work that captures the events following the release of Steve's episode of Hoarders. SPOILERS: Eddie owns a television. There will be an eventual happy ending, and this work will be rated E.