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He watched the smoke drift up in a small cloud before eventually swirling into nothingness and dispersing itself throughout the air above him, carrying his mind along in a drifting haze. He brought the joint to his lips, eager to exhale the smoke and watch it dance above his head again, but was distracted by the loud shout, "Mayfield! Seriously, the bleachers? You know you're still visible from the school, right?"
Eli turned his head at the sound of his best friend's voice, a wide goofy grin spreading across his face when he saw Eddie crossing the small track field to reach him with a small smile of his own. "You're only busting my balls cause you want some," he crooned jokingly as he blew on the cherried end and passed it to the dark-haired man, chuckling at the simpering look he received in return as Eddie plucked the roach from his fingers, "Oh, spare me the innocent act, it's your weed anyway."
"Did you pay for it?"
Eli sat up from where he'd been lying flat on the bleachers and raised an eyebrow at Eddie, watching the way the smoke drifted around him for a few moments on his exhale. "You never make me pay for it," he joked as he leaned forward and took the joint back from where it was perched between Eddie's fingers, watching as the other man stretched languidly along the bleachers beside him before shooting him a playful grin.
"Not a very good drug dealer then, am I?"
"Pretty shitty one, I'd reckon," Eli mused as he let out the smoke he'd been holding in and flicked the ashy end of the joint to the grass beneath their feet as he added, "The weed's pretty good though."
Eddie reached up from where he was sprawled across the bleachers, wrapping an arm around Eli's neck to pull him closer to his own height and to effectively pin him in place while the other hand ruffled the dark blonde strands on his head. He let out a bright laugh at the way Eli tipped his head up to glare at him with a muttered, "You would be done for if I shaved my head."
"I think I'd perish," Eddie said with fake seriousness, moving the hand that'd been in Eli's hair to his own chest and schooling his features into a saddened expression as he dramatically lamented, "Oh, Elijah, I would simply die!" His acting almost cracked when Eli went red in the face at his full first name and his hand immediately motioned for him to quiet down, looking around the field beside them to see if anyone was listening in on them. "I mean, there really is no better feeling than running a hand through these luscious locks, you should try it!" he declared finally, reaching up one final time and ruffling the longer ends of his hair that hung past his ears with a gleeful laugh before bringing the joint back to his lips for a large inhale, "Did I nail it or did I nail it?"
Eli rolled his eyes dramatically at the performance but the expression cracked when Eddie leaned up again to pass him the last of the joint with a hand flourish and a playful wink as he announced, "Puff, puff, pass, hot stuff."
"Puff, puff, pass," Eli echoed as he brought it to his lips and took the last hit in all at once, holding it for a few seconds before blowing the smoke from his nose like Eddie had taught him months ago during one of their smoke sessions. His eyes flashed over to the other man as he did the small trick and he caught the slow smile that spread across his friend's lips as he watched, his eyes following the smoke as it dispersed in the autumn air.
Once the joint was gone, Eli unceremoniously dropped it between his feet and used his black boot to grind it into the grass enough to get rid of the cherried end. "Thanks for sharing with the class," Eddie chuckled, lifting his head from the bleachers to look across the field and the school beside it almost absentmindedly before asking Eli, "Wanna cut the last hour? I have something to show you." Even despite the casualness in his tone, Eli could see the way Eddie hunched in on himself slightly and began nervously drumming his fingers against his thighs as he waited for a response, something clearly running through his mind that was bothering him.
"Is it worth getting lunch detention from Ms. Sumter again?"
Eddie's entire demeanor changed as he scoffed playfully and jumped down from where he'd previously been sitting on the bleachers, doing an impressively graceful twirl to face Eli before bowing with an emphatic, "Worth all of the lunch detentions in the world, my fine friend. Even with Ms. Sumter." The brunette stretched his hand out for Eli to take as his face spread into a slow, cocksure grin that made Eli's heart speed up in his chest.
"I'm fully expecting pot-of-gold level prospects, Eddie, you mustn't disappoint." With that, he took Eddie's outstretched hand and pushed off the bleachers until he was standing beside his friend, swaying slightly in the wind at the headrush the action had given him. Eddie, despite his joking nature and their easy-going relationship, didn't say a word about his stumble, instead holding out his arm fully in Eli's direction to offer him something to lean against if he needed it. Once he was convinced that Eli was okay to stand on his own, he had dropped his outstretched arm and subtly slowed his gate in an effort to stay a tad closer to Eli's side as they'd walked towards his car in the front lot.
And Eli... Eli just knew he was fucked.
++++++++++
The drive had taken a little over an hour, mostly spent with Eli rifling through Eddie's cassette tapes to find anything besides heavy metal, to which he whined halfway through the trip, "Would it kill you to carry some Doors or Rolling Stones around? I am drowning in Megadeath, Metallica, and Black Sabbath over here."
"And what a way to go," Eddie sighed dreamily before leaning across the gear shift a bit and shoving Eli's hands to the side as he procured one of the cassettes shoved to the side with another well-timed flourish and a shit-eating grin pointed in his direction, "How about some Motorhead to soothe your weary soul?"
"Watch the damn road," Eli nagged jokingly, grasping Eddie's chin to turn his face back towards the road and plucking the cassette from his fingers, "If you don't watch your back, I'm gonna start sneaking Beatles cassettes in here and ruin that ladies' man reputation you have going on."
Eddie's answering laugh would better be qualified as a squawk, his eyes going wide as he turned to face Eli again and asked, "'Ladies' man'? What have you been taking without me? Most of the prim and proper ladies of Hawkins would rather die than be spotted with 'The Freak'." He said the last two words with a spectacular inflection in his tone, like he was announcing the next grand act at a circus, but the look in his eyes and the tight lines around his lips as he spoke gave him away. Eli's heart ached at that look that he'd grown familiar with.
"Heather Grant and Sarah Palmer would beg to differ," Eli said lightheartedly, leaning across the small space in Eddie's car and nudging the man in the ribs playfully.
"Ah, former customers of mine," Eddie answered immediately, looking back at Eli with a scandalous grin and adding, "and I never mix business with pleasure."
Eli scoffed to diffuse the tension that'd built up in him at Eddie's gaze and turned his face towards the window when he replied, "Bullshit to say you don't still get laid though."
"Now, who ever said I don't get laid?"
They continued bantering back and forth for the last half hour of the ride and, when the car finally stopped, Eli looked around at their environment with an awed, "What am I looking at?" There were large, slanted moss-covered rocks surrounding the parking lot where they'd stopped on all sides and thin trees with the beautiful autumn-colored leaves between them that let small streams of light through to the ground below. They both stepped out of the car at the same time, Eli immediately moving towards the two large slanted boulders immediately in front of the car and Eddie leaning his body against the half-opened car door as he watched his friend explore the entrance to the park.
"Turkey Run State Park," Eddie said simply, his tone bordering on shy as he shut the car door behind him and stuffed his hands in his pockets before moving towards where Eli stood, "My old man took me here when I was a little kid a few times and I always really liked the water, but there's a few trails here that are more secluded. Thought you'd like to smoke with a view." With the last words, he procured the small tin that he often carried around while at school or band practice full of joints and lighters for different occasions, a sleek black on the outside with assorted stickers along the top.
Eli chuckled and nudged his friend playfully in the ribs, "What, the track field doesn't have enough ambiance for you?"
Eddie's lips tilted up slightly at the corners and he gave Eli a good-natured shove back when he said, "Oh, it has plenty of ambiance, just not the kind I'm looking for!" He flung an arm around Eli's neck and gave him an over-exaggerated kiss on the cheek before opening the tin in his hands, pulling out a joint and the Zippo to light it with, holding both items out in his free hand like an offering to his friend.
"Dude, we haven't even gotten on the trail," Eli teased, letting out a small laugh as he looked around the parking lot and main trailhead for anybody that might bust them. Once he was adequately convinced that they were alone, he plucked the procured joint from Eddie's fingers and put the filtered end to his lips, cupping his hands around the other end while he used the Zippo to light it.
Eddie didn't say another word as he led Eli onto one of the side trails, clearly less traveled than other larger ones on the trailhead from the small bits of overgrowth intersecting parts of the walkway, and Eli didn't want to say something that might break his concentration on leading them to the path. They pass the joint back and forth until it's about halfway burned down and they're already a quarter of a mile deep into the trail, the daylight peeking through spots in the deadened leaves on the trees above them, at which point Eddie buts it out against a nearby tree's bark before packing it back into his tin beside the others.
It's not long after that they arrive at a pair of steep bluffs, a thick rope hanging down in the crevice between the two that is triple tied around one of the trees at the top in a way that makes Eli nervous the second they step up beside it. "Oh, Christ, Eddie. You didn't mention there was rock-climbing involved in this adventure," he breathed as he tilted his head back and squinted to see where the bluffs ended and where the surface began.
"All of the best adventures do," Eddie announced, tilting his head back on a care-free laugh before sprinting up to the rope and grabbing one of the notches on it to pull himself up, "Just like rope-climbing in gym class!"
Eli bent down to roll up the cuffs on his jeans and muttered to himself, "As if anybody in the history of ever has enjoyed the rope climb!" As soon as they were sufficiently rolled up and he had looked up to see Eddie already halfway up the rope, hooting gleefully to himself, he made quick work of climbing behind the man to try to match his pace.
It, luckily, didn't take very long to traverse the entire rope due to the large knots that were tied along the length of it to help grip onto something other than the bluffs and once Eli's head peeked over the surface of the rocks, he let out a breath at the sight that immediately greeted him. "A waterfall," he murmured, taking Eddie's hand when he extended it to help him gain his footing on the bluff and repeating, "Holy shit, Eddie, where did you find a waterfall near Hawkins?"
"Technically not near and technically, we're not at the waterfall," Eddie explained, nonchalantly placing a hand in the small of Eli's back and walking him forward until they were standing on the far edge of the bluff, pointing down at the clearing next to the stream that the waterfall was pouring into that was filled with sightseers before adding in a whisper, "We got the best seats in the house."
With that, he flopped down onto the rock below his feet and sprawled out on the ground, propping himself up on his elbows so that he was still able to see the spot where the water gushed over the cliff parallel to them. Though they were too high up to feel the immediate spray from the water, the smell hung in the air and Eli breathed it in like he'd never taken in fresh air before as he took his place on the ground beside his best friend. He heard the sound of Eddie's Zippo clicking open beside him and he looked over to see the man hunched forward slightly, cupping one hand around the end of the joint between his lips and using the other to light it.
Eddie closed his eyes on the inhale, breathing in deeply and holding it in his lungs for several seconds before tilting his head back and breathing it out into the wind rushing above their heads. Something about the ease of the action and the relaxed look on Eddie's face made Eli's face heat up just at watching the action, his eyes following as Eddie swiped his tongue along his lower lip after his second exhale.
Then Eddie turned to him with the joint between two fingers, his lips slowly tilting up into a lazy grin and his eyebrow lifting as he looked at Eli expectantly. There were a few seconds where Eli's brain was still reeling from the lip thing and he was just staring at Eddie with his lips slightly parted in awe, something that inspired the other man to light the joint between his own lips before sliding it between his parted ones.
Except when he pulled his hand away after placing the joint there, he had brushed one of his knuckles under Eli's chin and his grin had gone sharper for just a split second. Eli nearly spluttered on the smoke in his mouth but he inhaled it instead, dropping his head and averting his eyes from Eddie's deep brown ones in an attempt to not give his flushed cheeks away.
A part of him, the dominant part in that moment, told him that he'd imagined the gentle touch and the smirk on Eddie's lips, told him that he was making something out of nothing. He stayed quiet while they finished the joint and stretched out on the rock beneath him once it was butted out, staring up at the evening sky above them while his brain reeled from the feeling of Eddie's skin on his still.
His mind kept drifting towards fantasies where he would be free to roll over on the bluff in that moment and press breathless kisses to Eddie's face and body, to show him how much he adored every piece of him, but he knew it would be selfish. It wasn't the attraction that scared him, nor the fear of judgement from being attracted to a man, but it was the possibility of hurting Eddie more. Of making the man who's already called "The Freak" around their school by nearly everyone outside of their friend group earn the new title of "The Queer". He knew, regardless, that he shouldn't be having these thoughts about his best friend because him nearly going into cardiac arrest everytime Eddie playfully kissed his cheek or ruffled his hair or pulled him into a tight hug was putting a strain on what they had. He was happy with what they had.
Instead of allowing his mind to continue down the rabbit hole, he relaxed back against the bluffs beneath him and let his mind drift far away from Hawkins.
++++++++++
Something about that visit must've been special to Eddie because after that day, the bluffs of Turkey Run became their new hideout. Whenever they weren't playing campaigns at Hellfire or hanging out at one another's trailers, they were lying on the bluffs side-by-side and basking in it; the breathtaking waterfall that sat so close while they were that high, their easy back-and-forth banter that led to uncontrollable laughing fits almost every time, and a disconnect from the outside world that didn't exist for either of them anywhere else.
And the thing was, it didn't become "The Hideout". It didn't become a place to bring Dustin or Lucas or Mike, nor did it become a place for Eddie to smoke with his band mates. It was theirs.
It'd been a month since they'd first started climbing the bluffs to their spot and, on that particular day, Eddie had lit a joint before Eli's head had even popped above the surface of the rocks, masking the shaking of his hands by drumming his fingers against his thighs while he inhaled deeply from the joint. As soon as Eli was on stable ground beside him and had brushed off his dark jeans, he said a soft, "I know what Jason said bothered you, Eddie. You know you can talk to me about it, you can talk to me about anything."
Eddie's scoff blew out a cloud of smoke and he immediately pinched the bridge of his nose between his forefinger and thumb as he breathed, "'s not my first time being called a 'faggot', Mayfield, definitely won't be my last. Just another label for something they don't understand." His tone was exhausted and Eli's heart broke even more at the defeated sound of his voice, both of them aware that nothing could be done to stop it until one or both of them was out of school, maybe not even until they'd left this town.
"They just want us to fit into their boxes, but you know we'll never be like Carver or Cunningham."
"Boyfriend and girlfriend?" Eddie shot Eli a playful grin before bringing the joint back to his lips, inhaling deeply and letting his eyes slip closed as he held in the breath for several seconds. Eli knew the feeling, the slight burning in his lungs when holding in the smoke and the immediate release of tension the second it was released, the high that would spread through his mind and body. When he blew out the breath and opened his eyes finally, those dark brown eyes landing on Eli's own pale blue, Eli realized that he had been staring at him for... a while. He looked away immediately to hide the slight embarrassment at being caught but then he heard Eddie's quiet, "Shit, sorry, man, I wasn't even realizing that I was hogging this."
Eli furrowed his brows in confusion and when he looked from one of the groups of tourists below back towards Eddie, the man had already closed the few feet between them and was standing just a few inches away with the joint held out in his fingers. Normally, there wasn't a noticeable height difference between them when they were standing in groups or sitting together, but from this distance, Eli had to crane his neck slightly to fully take in Eddie's face and he regretted it the second he did.
Eddie looked... hurt. For the first time since Eli had met him two years ago, he was able to see the slight pinch in his brows and the tight lines around his mouth and the slight sheen of tears in his brown eyes. He wasn't even consciously aware of it when he reached up and brushed his thumb across the crease in Eddie's brow, his palm coming to rest on the soft curve of his cheek.
Those moments at his locker only a few hours before kept playing on a repeat in his head, the joyful smile Eddie had on his face as he'd dipped his head behind Eli's locker door and pressed a joking kiss to his cheek before crooning his name in the way he always did before teasing him. Eli had just grabbed his last book from his locker and was dropping his hand to close it when it slammed shut right in front of his face with a noise so loud that it instantly drew the attention of half the hallway.
He recovered from his wince only to see Jason seething at them, blue eyes narrowed in disgust and jaw clenched, "What the fuck is going on here, faggots?"
His words hadn't been what had stung, nor the looks of disgust they received from some of the others in the hallway as they watched, but the look on Eddie's face when he'd turned back to look at him. He had looked humiliated with his normally pale cheeks a dark pink and his lips slightly parted like he was still caught off guard, something out-of-character for his quick-wit. Embarrassment wasn't something Eli was used to seeing on his friend, especially since Eddie often went out of his way to make an example out of himself by raising his voice at the lunch table so it carried farther or dancing around in joy whenever he was cracking jokes with his friends in the hallway.
He had never been one to back down in the two years Eli had known him but that day, that word, had been all it took for Eddie to loudly scoff and turn to go to his next class without any answer. To anyone else, it would've been been a sign of disregard. Eli, however, could see the tightness in his shoulders and the way his hands fidgeted at his sides as he shoved his way past the onlookers in the hallway, trying his best to stay calm despite the shame he probably felt.
"Talk to me, please," Eli pleaded softly even as he dropped his hand from Eddie's face and his friend stood there for a few moments, no doubt stunned by the overt display of affection, before finally opening up.
He didn't talk about what'd happened earlier, nor did they talk about the way Eddie had started dialing back his usual affectionate gestures afterward, but Eli understood. Instead, he listened as Eddie talked about his proudest accomplishments in DnD and his electric guitar (which Eli knew from years of being friends was his proudest possession, one that he'd saved the money up to buy himself) and about Dio's new Sacred Heart album.
Eli stood beside him and listened.
++++++++++
After that, there had been a slight tone-shift in the relationship. It wasn't anything too noticeable to anybody around them and it didn't affect their time together drastically, but there was a new feeling that hung in the air between them whenever they were alone together. Eli tried his best to never acknowledge that slight tension and Eddie, for all of his expressiveness in every other endeavor, had never given any inkling that he noticed it either. And so they continued to hang out as if nothing had changed (because, Eli reasoned in his head, nothing had changed. Why would anything have changed?)
The benefit of being immediate neighbors to one another came the next month whenever the harsh winter cold started to set in and the bluffs that had become their spot were completely covered in ice and snow. With Christmas coming up, Eli's mom was constantly picking up extra shifts and Max was always with the younger members of their party, almost always Lucas.
In fact, Eli had literally just come home from dropping Max off at Lucas' house when Eddie had tapped on the partially cracked window of their living room with one of his large metal rings and lightly whistled to get his attention. As soon as Eli's head whipped around to face him, he was able to see Eddie's face in the window and the beaming smile on his lips when their eyes finally met, "You gonna let me in? I brought treats."
"How did you even know I was alone? I literally just got back from dropping off Max," Eli asked as he dropped his car keys on the counter and made his way back to the front door, sliding his jacket onto the rack before opening it to let Eddie in.
"I saw when you left to drop her off at - oh, no, lemme guess this one," he paused a moment in the doorway and hummed loudly for dramatic effect as he seemingly pondered before proudly shouting, "LUCAS! Oh, that little rascal is trying to marry into your riches, isn't he?" He stepped inside the trailer and closed the door behind him, turning to Eli with a mournful look on his face and a head shake that indicated his disapproval. "Who would've ever guessed it of Sinclair? You think you know a guy," he sighed dramatically, grabbing one of Eli's hands between both of his and murmuring, "until they take your idea."
Eli felt his breath stop short in his lungs the minute those words left Eddie's mouth, the implication immediately sinking in and making his head spin in a way that had him automatically dizzy. He doesn't know how long he paused before his brain finally seemed to reset, a nervous laugh bubbling from his lips as he said, "Well, you're shit o-out of luck with money. Unfortunately, I'm flat broke."
Eddie gave a small shrug, ruffling Eli's hair as he ducked past him and dropped unceremoniously onto the hand-me-down couch with a playful smile, "That does put a strain on my plan."
There was another pause between them where Eli's brain was still stuck on Eddie's earlier words and where Eddie was seemingly oblivious to his entire dilemma, his fingers drumming absentmindedly along the small coffee table beside where he was stretched out. Eli, on the other hand, excused himself to the kitchen and grabbed both of them a beer, his mind still running over the look in Eddie's eyes whenever he had spoken earlier. His brain was stuck on the feeling of Eddie's hands enveloping his, those deep brown eyes staring into his own as he spoke, the soft timbre of his voice around those words.
Then, that same voice drifted in from the living room and Eli nearly dropped the beers in his hands when Eddie asked, "Are you alone for the night?"
It was a reasonable question; his mom almost always worked graveyard shifts around this time of year and Max was doing a small Christmas celebration with Lucas' family in preparation for them leaving over winter break. He knew that his brain was messing with him, that he was seeing something out of nothing and breaking his own heart, but he tried to make his voice casual when he replied, "Yeah, Max is gone all night and mom doesn't come home till 5."
He used the bottlecap opener on his keys to open both beers when he passed the counter and stepped into the living room, sliding both beers onto the coffee table and knocking Eddie's feet aside so he could sit on the couch beside him. Eddie didn't hesitate in pulling his legs up until Eli was sat and immediately sliding them back into his lap, smiling at the defeated sigh Eli let out at being trapped to the couch. "Ah, but you are so comfy," Eddie teased, stretching to lean over and grab both of their beers from the table, passing Eli's to him and clinking their bottles together with a small, "Cheers."
Eddie drained a quarter of his in two swallows and set the bottle back on the table with a happy sigh, looking back at Eli with a satisfied grin on his face that immediately had the other man chuckling, "You come over here for my comfy couch and free beers, Munson, I know your true motives."
"Oh, no, no, my good sir, you've mistaken my intentions," Eddie said in that voice that Eli had grown all-too-familiar with during their DnD campaigns as he leaned up on the couch, slipping a hand into his front pocket and procuring a baggie about a quarter the size of his palm, "I've come to bestow a gift upon the fair Mythriel of Taemorden, if he accepts the journey that comes with it." He held up the baggie in the small distance between their faces and Eli was able to make out four tiny squares, brightly-colored and immediately distinguishable from the weed and pills that they both used much more regularly.
Eli let out a disbelieving laugh, his eyes wide and his lips tilted up in amazement as he asked, "Where did you find acid? We haven't used any since-"
"Since right after you came here in sophomore year," Eddie finished for him, the smile on his face growing as he looked at Eli and added, "I remember that night every time I order Antonio's Pizza."
His friend let out an embarrassed groan and covered his rapidly reddening face, "Eddie, their delivery drivers still stare at this house every time you order from there! I will never be able to live it down."
"That's why they're my favorite pizza place," Eddie joked, rolling off Eli's lap just in time to miss a punch to the shoulder and narrowly missing knocking into the coffee table on the way down, "Now, that's not very nice, Elijah!" He opened the small baggie between his fingers and dropped half of them into his left palm, holding it out to Eli with a shit-eating grin as he said, "Peace offering?"
Eli paused where he was leaned forward on the couch, narrowing his eyes at his best friend and whispering conspiratorially, "Double-dosed?"
"No other way, sweetheart."
"How long does it take to kick in?"
Eddie leaned up from where he was lying flat between the couch and coffee table, resting his head on his arm where it was slung across the couch cushion beside Eli and saying, "About 30-45 minutes, but it'll take over an hour to peak."
There was a short pause before Eli reached out and took the two tabs still held in Eddie's outstretched palm, a smirk on his lips as he said, "No time to waste then." He set both of the tabs under his tongue, his smile only growing in width when he watched Eddie quickly follow suit with a matching smile of his own.
++++++++++
The acid had taken, as predicted, about 45 minutes to kick in and when the effects first set in, they were nearly unnoticeable. The sharpening of colors around them, the buzzing feeling in their bodies like they were on the lawn at a rock concert, the way that every little thing became infinitely amusing. Once the buzzing had grown in intensity and the shapes on the TV began to morph, their colors brighter and the lines more overlapped than Eli could remember them being before, they made their leave to Eli's room.
Eli busied himself with searching through his vinyls to find something to play in the background, remembering from their last trip that music became amplified and more electric with acid. As soon as the Jimi Hendrix vinyl was on and the opening guitar rift had started drifting around the room, Eli dropped unceremoniously onto the bed beside Eddie. Well, by onto the bed, he moreso dropped onto Eddie who was on the bed.
"Christ, Mayfield, take me to dinner first," Eddie groaned at his friend, pushing the man until he was on his back beside him and cackling at the offended face Eli made once he was settled into the mattress, "Oh, simmer down, sweetie, you can lay on me all you want. Just no flopping."
"That's the only way you lay down! Don't be a hypocrite," Eli grumbled, pulling some of the blankets that'd been pushed to the lower half of his bed up to where he was lying down and moving his fingers along the soft fabric to feel the texture under his sensitized skin. He dropped his face slightly lower on the bed to brush his cheek against the same fabric, his eyelids fluttering closed at the blissful feeling.
Eddie let out that genuine laugh that always melted Eli's heart and turned to face him with a soft smile as he said, "There usually aren't people underneath me when I flop."
"Usually?"
"You know, the 'ladies'," Eddie moved his fingers in quotations around the last word, quoting Eli back to himself sarcastically, "they love it, drives 'em wild."
Eli tried to pout but the expression got lost on his face with an involuntary giggle, his hands shooting up from where they were tangled in the blankets to cover his reddened cheeks. As soon as Eddie heard the small noise, he followed soon after with a wheezing laugh and the two of them fell into another fit of laughter, heads tossed back and tears in their eyes, for what felt like minutes. When it finally ended, Eli rested back against his pillows with his eyes closed, his hands intertwined on the pillow above him, and a carefree smile on his lips.
He almost thought he was hallucinating when he heard Eddie's small, awed, "Christ, you look gorgeous."
When the compliment finally sunk in, Eli's eyes fluttered open and immediately focused on Eddie, turned on his side facing Eli and propped on an elbow so he could look down at him. His face instantly flushed again under the scrutiny and he let out a soft groan of embarrassment, wondering when his face would stop heating up every time Eddie so much as looked at him.
Though, he noted, he didn't think Eddie had ever looked at him like that. He knew that the acid was affecting him by how defined Eddie looked, the blurriness of the outside edges of his hair painted against the bright colors of the background of his room, and the way that all points of contact between their bodies felt... fuzzy. Not in the literal way, but in the way that skin feels when it's next to a low-voltage electrical current.
He could also feel the acid in the way his thoughts were working now, the constant litany of doubts that were running through his head being amplified by the way Eddie was still looking at him. That was why, when Eddie moved his free hand up to hold Eli's chin and leaned in, Eli rushed to cup a hand over his best friend's mouth and said in a voice that was so scared, "Not while you're high, Eddie. I don't want you to wake up in the morning and regret-"
Eddie's response was muffled against his hand, but he could still hear the clear, "Eli, I won't-"
"If you feel the same way in the morning, Eddie, then I'll still be here," Eli assured, frustrated at the way his voice shook in simultaneous joy and fear, but trying to get his point across nonetheless. He'd gotten what he wanted, what he had dreamed of ever since his sophomore year of high school, but he was so scared that this was just an impulse. That he was just Eddie's experiment in something so taboo in their small town because of their close friendship, or maybe it was because he'd seen the way Eli looked at him when he thought he was focused on other things.
But Eddie, somebody who prided himself on consent being key and respecting others in their decisions, backed off immediately with a serious nod and a small brush of his thumb along Eli's cheek as he pulled away. "I can live with that arrangement," he said, his lips curving up into a bright grin soon after as he added in a stage-whisper, "and speaking of arrangements, I'm thinking you and I should go outside while this is still peaking and play in the snow. Mayfield, I have been staring at it dreamily out of your window, dreamily, wondering if it really is as fluffy as they say."
The change in subject immediately lifted the weight off Eli's chest and he thought, hopefully, that they would be okay. Eddie was always the best with diffusing tension out of the two of them, always the charmer and always the comedian.
"You've felt snow before," Eli giggled and, even still, leaned up to scoot down the bed towards his dresser to retrieve some winter clothes for the both of them.
"Yes, I have, but," Eddie paused for dramatic effect and Eli found himself stopping in his tracks where he was perched at the end of the bed, turning his head towards his friend to hear his excited, "I have never felt snow while on acid."
"You're right," Eli agreed soberly as he stood from the bed and began rifling through his drawers, pausing for a moment before pulling out a large stack of winter clothes he'd stored there last January, "it is in the name of science and experimentation." He threw Eddie a beaming smile over his shoulder before turning to toss him half of the stack, snickering when the pile hit him square in the chest with a soft 'thud'.
Neither of them hesitated in putting the oversized hand-me-down winter clothes over the ones they were already wearing and sneaking out onto the porch in the night, trying to hide their laughter as they made their way out to the small back area behind the trailers that had nothing but empty space and several inches of snow. The feeling had been even better than they'd both predicted, both of them taking off their gloves and pressing their bare hands into the snow to feel it only to devolve into childish giggles when Eddie mumbled, "It's like a... cold cloud."
They stayed out there way too long, soaking their clothes and their skin in the cold, both of their faces pink from the exposure by the time they finally piled inside. It didn't matter because it took no time at all to undress from their soaked clothes, hanging them up on the shower curtain rod side-by-side, and throw on more of Eli's warmer clothes. It didn't matter because as soon as they got into the bed, already piled high with blankets and pillows from Eli's sensitivity to the winter chill that crept throughout the trailer, they huddled together even closer to make sure neither stayed cold for long.
And neither of them could remember a time where they'd fallen asleep faster.
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Eli woke the next morning disoriented for the first few minutes, his only real awareness of his surroundings being that of a warm body surrounding his, puffs of hot air against the sensitive skin of his temple, and a breeze against his left foot that had him rushing to pull it back under the blanket and into warmth as soon as possible. Except that into warmth had been in the warm space between Eddie's calves and not even a minute after he'd made contact, he felt Eddie's lips move against his temple as he grumbled, "Your fucking foot is freezing, Elijah."
"Don't call me that."
And without even missing a beat: "Would you prefer sweetheart?"
Eli blinked against the early morning light filtering through Eddie's hair, which was all over his face and neck, but stayed silent to not dignify that with a response. He hoped that the silent treatment would be enough for the older man to think he was asleep, but no dice. Instead, he felt as Eddie's lips moved from where they were pressed to his temple until they were brushing against his cheekbone, his sleep-husky voice whispering against his skin, "Or how about handsome?"
His lips moved again immediately, stopping at the curve of Eli's ear and crooning softly, "Gorgeous, you're not paying attention to me and I'm needy in the morning."
"I don't know who you think you're fooling but you're needy all the time."
"And he lives! Oh, my sunshine! The light of my life and apple of my eye," Eddie continued singing to him in that early morning voice and Eli tried to slow his heartbeat by breathing evenly, knowing that his friend was pressed close enough to feel it if he wanted but knowing even better that there was no way to hide the blush on his face or the shy smile that'd begun spreading across his lips at the attention. He felt Eddie move the hand that'd previously been resting on the bed beside him up to his dark blond hair, combing through the strands as his singing died down into a quiet humming that he could feel against his ear and the soft pulse point resting right behind it.
At first, Eli simply closed his eyes and basked in the sensation, thinking that this would be it: a soft hum in his ear and a hand combing through his hair that would put him right back to sleep. Until he heard Eddie's humming stop and his voice replacing it with a quiet, almost shy, "Did you mean what you said last night?"
And therein lied a problem, an out for Eli that he wasn't sure was intentional or not. The way that Eddie had phrased it allowed Eli to deny knowing what he was talking about, giving him the opportunity to simply laugh it off and act like he had no clue what happened last night at all. He could picture it in his mind, simply making a joke about the double-dose being a bit too much after years of not using and passing the ball to Eddie's court by asking him what he was talking about, something that would also give him an opportunity to deny if he wanted.
Instead, Eli blinked his eyes open slowly, taking in a shaky breath and murmuring, "Yeah, I meant it."
Eddie pulled back a few inches then, just enough to take in Eli's entire face and stare into those pale blue eyes with a sleepy smile on his lips. Eli would've sworn that he was still under the swoon of the LSD, doubts drifting in his mind that his friend was still high enough to be this impulsive, but that thought was cut short when Eddie whispered, "You look even more gorgeous like this."
Eli's lips tilted up into a matching smile as he stared up at Eddie, noting the way the morning sunlight streaming in through his window behind the man made his curly hair stand out like a halo behind him and his smile widened at the thought of Eddie as an angel. He wondered if the overwhelming happiness in his chest at the sight was some after-effect of the LSD or if it was just him, then he wondered if this was the same thing that Eddie was seeing when looking at him. If the wonder in his eyes was anything to go by as he stared down at Eli, then it had to be, so he simply asked in his own sleepy voice, "Like what?"
"Soft," his friend responded with no hesitation, that smile still firmly fixed in place and his hand still combing through Eli's hair calmingly as he spoke, "and sleepy. Like you're comfortable enough to fall right back to sleep with my fingers in your hair."
"Mm, and your voice. You sound nice when you first wake up," Eli admitted dreamily, reaching up to brush a hand through Eddie's morning hair and smiling when the man pressed a small kiss to his palm as it passed his lips, adding breathily, "Kiss me good morning?"
"Whatever Your Majesty wishes," Eddie murmurs jokingly, leaning in and brushing kisses all along the sharp lines and contours of Eli's face, a huffed laugh leaving his lips when the man below him whined impatiently at the chaste touches, "I thought you wanted kisses, don't be a brat."
Eli made a falsely affronted face for a few moments, Eddie's grin finally breaking him and sending him into a fit of giggles. He threw his arms around Eddie's neck and tangled his fingers in the metal-head's messy hair, pulling him down until they were hovering just a few inches apart and whispering into the air between their lips, "I thought I was 'Your Majesty'."
The playful energy stayed for a few seconds before evaporating the moment Eddie's eyes flickered up to meet Eli's own, the dark brown in his eyes slowly being eclipsed by his blown pupils and a hunger in his expression that Eli had never seen directed at him. Then, in that husky voice that sent shivers through him, Eddie teased, "I'll call you anything Your Majesty requests, but only if you move closer."
Eli didn't need to be told twice, running his tongue over his lower lip and leaning in to catch Eddie's mouth with his own, biting back a groan when Eddie's hand tightened in his hair and dragged him forward slightly at the initial contact. The kiss wasn't what Eli thought it would be with Eddie, all teeth and tongue and pushing and pulling, dominant and wild like his best friend.
However, he couldn't find himself upset at the difference between his expectations and reality when the reality was Eddie stroking through Eli's dark blond locks with one hand while the other holds his chin reverently, tilting his head up into the lips pressing against his own softly. So softly, in fact, that Eli started feeling that familiar prickling in his nose and stinging in his eyes that told him there were tears forming, something that caused a sudden spike of embarrassment to run through him.
"Shit," he muttered as he pulled away, immediately pulling Eddie down until their bodies were flush together and burying his face in the man's long hair to hide. However, Eddie, the fucking gentleman, straddled Eli's thigh to get leverage to gently push away from his friend and moved his hands to hold his face so tenderly, dipping his own head down until their eyes finally met.
"We can stop whenever you want to," he promises quietly, moving both hands until they're cupping the sharp angle of his friend's jaw and catching one of the tears that'd fallen from those sky blue eyes with his thumb while cooing softly, "Will you tell your best friend in the whole wide world what's wrong? What has that pretty head of yours in shambles?" He trailed his right hand along Eli's cheek until it was brushing back a stray lock of his hair and massaging his temple comfortingly, smiling affectionately when the blond's eyes slipped closed at the blissful feeling.
He allowed himself to bask in it for a few more moments before finally admitting in a small voice, his eyes still closed, "The kiss was... a lot. It w-wasn't bad, but it was - I don't know, like, what word to use - what's the word? Overwhelming?"
"I'll take that as a compliment," Eddie teased, his grin softening when Eli's eyes opened and focused on him with a halfhearted scowl, "Seriously, though? It was a little bit overwhelming, I swear my heart was just-" He brought the hand that'd been settled on Eli's jaw to his own chest and thumped his palm against it rapidly, mimicking a frantic pulse, his smile turning fond when the overdramatized action managed to pull a laugh from his best friend.
"You're a dork, Munson," Eli laughed breathily, his fingers absentmindedly running through the hair at the nape of Eddie's neck as he stared up at the man on top of him admiringly.
Eddie, who looked like a damn painting seated against his thigh, wrapped in Eli's oversized charcoal-grey winter sweater with his wild dark hair still framed by the light behind him and his full lips tilted up in that smile that never seemed to disappear as he crooned, "I aim to please."
And this time, Eli didn't even pause before whispering, "Then kiss me."
The second press of lips was more desperate, Eddie pitching forward from where he was resting on his thigh and capturing his lips in a hard kiss, the hand that'd previously been resting against his own chest moving to the back of Eli's neck to hold him close. Eli dropped one of his hands to Eddie's waist to stabilize the man, his grip unintentionally tightening when Eddie nipped at his lip and dragged his tongue over the spot immediately after to soothe the sting. Eli was lost in the press of his slightly chapped lips against his and the fingers that played at the nape of his neck and the uptick of Eddie's lips that he could feel against his own when he let out a soft groan at the sensations.
Eli gasped at the well-timed pull of Eddie's fingers in his blond hair and Eddie dipped his tongue past his lips, running it along his own teasingly while his grip still stayed fisted in the strands at the back of Eli's head. The feeling of Eddie's tongue moving alongside his and the press of their lips was intoxicating, leaving Eli feeling breathless almost in an instant, trying not to focus on the obscene sounds of their mouths moving together or the groans that would occasionally slip out.
He used the hand at Eddie's waist to pull their bodies flush and smiled in satisfaction when Eddie separated the kiss on a broken moan at the feeling of his rapidly-hardening erection rubbing against Eli's thigh, backing away to pant out, "Shit, sorry, I - I should not have opened up straight with the hot-and-heavy. Are you okay?" He finally blinked open his eyes and looked down at Eli, fully taking in his dilated pupils and spit-slick lips spread into an amused grin. "Oh, you little shit," he chuckled breathlessly, using the hand in the back of Eli's hair to pull his head farther back, firmly but not roughly, and asking in that husky voice, "Are you teasing me or do you want more? We don't have to go farther."
"And what if I want to? Go farther, I mean."
Eddie's face immediately changed, his expression kind when he reached up one of his hands to brush his fingers soothingly along Eli's jaw, his voice soft as he answered, "Then I'll teach you what I know and, if there's anything you want to try that I haven't, we'll learn together."
"I've never done... any of this, so I doubt there's anything I'd want to try that'd be new to you," Eli replied with an amused huff, closing his eyes at the feeling of the hand in his hair gently massaging his scalp but trying his best to stay on topic as he breathed, "I've never gone below the belt with anyone, guy or gal."
Eddie pulled his hand away from Eli's hair and chuckled disbelievingly as he declared, "Bullshit, Elijah, you literally scored with Paige Matthews in like, your third month at Hawkins! You told me right after we became friends that you touched your honorary first boob!"
"I did not phrase it like that, but yeah, I did, and we would've gone further if we hadn't been interrupted," Eli shot back, his lips twisted in an amused grin as he added, "that's beside the point though, I'm interested in when a boob became 'below the belt'? To think the virgin knows more than you do about all of this!"
"Not like I would care anyway, women aren't my drug of choice," Eddie responded easily as he reclined further back on Eli's thigh, a catlike grin spreading across his face as he looked down at his friend, "but you like both? Like, women and men?"
"For as long as I can remember. People in California didn't really care about all of that; people that like both, people that like neither, people that like either-or. You got the occasional asshole that would call you a 'fag' or a 'fairy' in the hallways at school, but that was about it as far as judgement," Eli explained, the hand that was resting on Eddie's waist playing with the hem of the sweater he wore and the thin strip of skin that had become exposed when Eddie had leaned back on his knee farther, "It wasn't until I came to Hawkins that I had to stay in the closet, plus living with Billy made it even harder."
He tried to suppress his flinch at the mention of his step-brother, trying to clear his mind of the awful way that he'd been killed only a few months ago and the lasting horrific impact it had on his little sister to witness. He knew he couldn't explain everything that happened to Eddie, though, not yet. Maybe someday.
However, of all the reactions he could've guessed for, he had not expected Eddie's weak, sad chuckle as he'd looked at Eli with regret, "So, you were in a place that was safe and you came here, why? Didn't you have family in California that you could've stayed with until you were 18?"
"Our dad wanted me to stay with him since I'd grown up my entire life in that school with the same people, but I couldn't. Mom wouldn't let Max stay back in California with him and I so she'd be stuck here alone," he said with a wince, thinking back to how his mom and dad had argued for hours on end about where the kids would end up, but they had left it up to Eli to decide for himself in the end, "Billy's dad was mean as a snake and he took... everything out on Billy. Billy couldn't fight back against his dad or our mom, so he took it out on Max and I whenever we were alone. If I would've left Max to come here alone with him then he would... I - I don't know what he would do, I just couldn't leave her."
Eddie nodded in understanding then and, when the silence between them began to stretch on, he leaned forward to press a chaste kiss to Eli's lips before whispering in the small space between them, "I know it's selfish to say, but I'm pretty happy you came here."
"So am I," Eli said immediately, not even needing a second to think that, out of all of the messes that have happened since he'd come to Hawkins, the good in this town outweighed the bad. He'd suffered more losses and felt more fear, sadness, and anger than he'd felt before in his 18 years, but he'd gained so many people. He'd had friends back in California, a large group of collective weirdos that partied almost constantly together, but they had been friends more out of solidarity than anything. They hadn't been family, not like everyone here in Hawkins. Not like Dustin or Mike or Lucas, not like the Byers family or Eleven or Jim Hopper (who Eli considered an extension of their family anyway), not like Steve "The Hair" Harrington or Robin Buckley or Nancy Wheeler, and certainly not like Eddie. There was a faint, foreign smile on his face as he repeated, "So am I," and pulled Eddie in for another slow kiss.
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