letitroll: (006)

[personal profile] letitroll 2022-09-15 08:33 pm (UTC)(link)
It feels like it's been forever when Hargrove finally opens his eyes.

This whole damn thing is fucked up, Eddie had made sure to tell everybody who would listen, not that he even understands a third of it. First Hargrove practically loses his damn mind, or at least goes radio silent enough to actually make him worry, which, considering the source, is pretty damn impressive in itself. He's used to the asshole's moods, to the game of hot and cold that he gets, at least. Eddie might not have much of a reputation to salvage trying to pretend, but he gets that Hargrove feels otherwise. He hasn't had the 'luxury' of a whole town writing him off almost before he could read just because of who he was related to. Eddie stopped giving a shit what people thought somewhere between getting his head shaved when he was twelve because of a lice outbreak at school and his first black eye at fourteen (well, the first one he hadn't actually instigated, anyway) because he hadn't quite caught on that it wasn't 'normal' for a guy to want to kiss other guys in Hawkins.

Hargrove's still figuring his place out. Still hasn't caught up to the shitshow, which is fine. Mostly.

Except then the mall caught fucking fire, or whatever they were saying happened, and Max called, and pretty much everything dropped out from under him after that.

Eddie's not an angry guy, usually. He's mostly figured out that anger doesn't actually solve anything, that you can do a lot more damage with a few well-placed words anyway. Sure, he puts on a good show, shouts and mocks at the top of his lungs, but it's not anger. It's the jester mocking the kings and queens because he's the only one that can get away with it because nobody takes him seriously anyway. Cheap entertainment with a little truth thrown in. But this. It seethes and twists in his chest, heavy and unfamiliar, because Hargrove's just lying there, pathetic and broken, and nobody will tell him a damn thing about why. About what the hell even happened, because a fire doesn't poke giant holes in people big enough they have to wire their damn chest closed.

But then the beeping starts up, not the plodding slow thing but something more rushed, and Eddie sits up, leans over the bed as Billy comes to.

"Hey. Hey. It's okay, man. You're... I've got you." He squeezes his hand reassuringly, his own eyes wet in relief, trying to soothe some of the blatant panic he can see in Hargrove's eyes, and shit if that's not a new one.