CHARACTERS: Eddie Munson and Nancy Wheeler SETTING: Backdated to around the first weekend of December, in a Vallo equivalent of Target SUMMARY: Christmas shopping and some mild teasing each other on crushes. Eddie gets hit in the face with pillows RATING: PG
Eddie sighed, forearms crossed on the handle of the handle of the shopping cart, bent over so that his chin could rest on them as he pushed the cart along after Nancy.
“You know, this wouldn’t be half so bad if it wasn’t for the non-stop Christmas tunes,” he sighed. “How come these stores always have to choose the worst Christmas songs to play. I mean, it’s been what, almost forty years? You’d think they’d have come up with something better than Last Christmas by now.”
Nancy was convinced that despite never knowing who any of these singers were, they had some of the better holiday songs she had ever heard of. Last Christmas was a classic it seemed. Even if the song had only come out two years prior to what Nancy last remembered. Ah, the surrealness of time travel.
She was humming along though as she looked at the variety of Christmas wreaths and picked one up before already making her way to the mini decorated houses.
“That’s because the present day society knows you can’t go wrong with anything from our time. Do you think we have space for a tiny village anywhere in the house?”
“Okay, I’m going to stop you there because there are lots of things you can go wrong with in our time. Do you remember those horrible tracksuits? Oh, especially those… what was it – teal? – ones with the purple triangles?”
He glanced over her shoulder at the tiny houses. “I could make space in the attic if you wanted one,” he said after a moment. “I’d say there’s probably room in the living room, but if we’re getting a big tree,” and Eddie wanted a big tree, if only if he got to see Steve’s face light up at it – decorating the tree with him was now the thing Eddie was looking forward to the most out of all these Christmas decorations, “then there probably won’t be room with the nine of us there.”
“Hmm.” Nancy stared at the houses for a few second. In her mind, she was back in their house, checking out the spaces available to decorate, trying to figure out where the best locations were for any kind of decor at all. “Garlands,” she decided. “Something over the doorways. And banister. Maybe some mistletoe to hang somewhere obvious.”
Her decor mumblings were mostly her talking to herself though, so when she placed the house back on the shelf, it was like a flipped switch and she looked back at her shopping companion. “Eddie, I don’t think you would care about anything bright and colorful in any year considering what you wear! Music though is a different story.”
Eddie fought the smile that threatened to appear at the mention of mistletoe, because yeah, mistletoe somewhere – maybe not somewhere obvious, but somewhere where Steve was likely to fall prey to it, well, that sounded nice.
“Hey, I’ll have you know that I don’t hate colour on everyone.” Steve had that terrible yellow sweater that he somehow, against all odds, managed to pull off, after all. But before the line of questioning could go to far down that way, he changed the subject. “But mistletoe, huh? You wanting to put the moves on Hopper?” He nudged her with his elbow. “You little minx, you.”
Oh, Nancy was fully aware he didn’t hate it on everyone. She could take a guess on who he liked it on but she didn’t say anything, just kept a smirk on her face as she continued to peruse through the shelves. A smirk that promptly fell off her face as she wrinkled her nose at Hopper. “As much as I respect the man, that’s an absolute no. He’s like a dad or an uncle to the rest of us! No, actually, I’m just thinking of stuff that is pretty easy to put up. Something on doorways, just pin it and it’ll look pretty. Something for Robin.”
She paused and grabbed a box of artificial greenery garland, particularly one without any lights. “She said she’ll do the indoors, so I’m going to give her something totally uncomplicated. She’s adorable but she gets distracted easily, so this will do. And I could give her the mistletoe too, she’ll know where it goes.”
Nancy probably didn’t mean it that way, but it sure sounded like she was implying that she was getting the mistletoe for Robin’s sake. Maybe not so they could smooch in doorways, but that wasn’t entirely removed from ‘Robin will know where to hang it.’
So he smirked at her. “Adorable, huh?”
Nancy had turned to put one box in the cart when she glanced up at him with a questioning look before realizing what she had said. It was possible that half the stuff was meant to be in her head, but she had a tendency to talk to herself through planning, especially if the person with her was not as talkative.
“I just mean…” She shook her head and turned back to grab two more boxes. “I mean. Yeah? You know. Like…” Putting those in the cart as well, she scowled at Eddie as she felt her own face grow warm. “Stop smirking.”
If Nancy wanted Eddie to stop smirking, that was entirely the wrong way to go about it. His smirk grew.
“No, please, Nancy. Enlighten me.”
He actually didn’t disagree with her. Robin was adorable, in a kind of awkward, non-conformist kind of way (which was, really, Eddie’s favourite kind of people). But this might prove to be interesting.
“You know. It’s adorable. The babbling. It’s endearing. And I already told her that, so it’s not like you can go tell her and be all ‘oh my god, guess what Nancy said’.” Nancy raised her hands, her cheeks probably growing hotter by the second. “Like, I’m not saying anything false. It’s a general fact. We all like Robin and her babbling.”
Speaking of adorable. Eddie grinned. “Relax, Nancy. I swear on the grave of Ronnie James Dio, I’m not going to go to Robin with anything that we talk about on this most sacred of shopping trips.” He emphasized this statement by raising his right hand and placing his left fist over his chest. He paused for effect. “Though, it seems like her babbling’s been rubbing off.”
Nancy rolled her eyes and turned away from him to grab a box of pinecones off the nearest shelf. Did she have plans for those pinecones? No, other than to just hold it in her hands as she turned back to Eddie. “Things are… different. Not different between us two or anything. Just in my head, strictly.
“I mean, yeah, we hang out, more of it here than back in Indiana. Obviously. But it just feels different? It’s like sometimes she’ll say something or do something that makes you have this feeling like you got a helium balloon in your stomach and it just made you lighter on your feet for a bit. And sometimes you can’t breathe. I have absolutely no idea if any of that makes sense.” She raised the box of pinecone up and took a look at it before going “Oh no, these have glitter on them.”
“Ugh, blech. Banish the glitter,” Eddie said, waving a hand. “Glitter is forbidden, I’ve decreed it.” But now that that bit of wisdom had been bestowed, he smiled at her. “It sounds like someone’s got a bit of a crush.”
Nancy absolutely agreed – on the glitter at least. And she put the box back and went looking for one without glitter. “I don’t– I don’t know. Do I like spending time with her? Yeah, of course. I also would say I had pretty good sleep when it was in her company but that was like literally right after Murder Mansion and we were all camped out in the living room so I don’t know if it counts.”
“And how much time do you spend staring at her lips?” Eddie asked, and then reached out to the counter. “Hey, check out these skull ornaments!” He tossed them into the cart before Nancy could protest.
“I don’t! Much…” she replied, giving just a raised eyebrow at the ornaments. She supposed if she was dragging him around with the cart, she might as well let him indulge in his own ornaments. It wasn’t like she was going all out like the people did on Pinterest with one specific theme.
“I stared a little when she was all grown up and all but who wouldn’t be staring? That was a totally normal reaction. Besides, it’s not like… it has to mean a crush crush. Like have you never met someone you thought would make a great friend and you just had to be a really good friend with them? Isn’t that a thing?”.”
“I wasn’t staring when Robin was all grown up,” Eddie said. He had stared at Steve a little – okay, a lot – that first day. He was still kind of bitter that he missed most of hot older Steve because he was too busy being middle school aged and stealing cars with Hopper. “Anyway, I think we’re pretty great friends. How often do you stare at my lips. You can be honest if it’s a lot.” He turned to Nancy and puckered them, then winked at her. “And I mean, I know I’m just naturally uplifting, but do I ever give you that helium-balloon-in-the-stomach feeling?”
Nancy’s hands found a small holiday-themed throw pillow. With a scowl, she picked it up and tossed it at Eddie’s face.
Eddie laughed, catching the pillow after it bounced off his face. He turned it around in his hands to get a look at the design. “Wow, pillows, too?” he asked, dropping it into the shopping cart. “You’re really going all in on this decorating thing, aren’t you, Wheeler?”
“You wouldn’t want me being the Grinch for Christmas.” Nancy had half a mind to put the pillow back on the shelf because the whole purpose of it was to throw something at his face but now that she looked at it, it did look cute. Would look great on the sofa. Or just in her bedroom, that was fine too.
“Maybe in another life, you and I could have made magic, Eddie Munson. You and those lips. I’m sure they’re great. Not in this one though! Steve got dibs first.”
Eddie shot Nancy a pleased grin at that, but went to diligently studying the decorations on the shelf instead of saying anything. He and Steve were keeping things quiet right now – it was easier to figure out how they fit together without the seven other people they lived with getting involved. They both agreed on that much, at least, even if it was increasingly hard not to curl up next to him during movie nights or kiss him when he was preparing lunches in the morning.
He froze, then laughed. “Oh, we gotta get this,” he said, pulling the decoration from the shelf.
Nancy sighed, and gave a shrug. “You would pick that one up, Munson.” She tilted her head in thought before saying “should we get one of those large blow-up decors of snowmen or whatever that seem to be a popular thing in this time?”
Eddie thought about it for a little bit, and then shook his head. “Probably better not to,” he said. “Whatever it is that Henderson and Wheeler the Younger are whipping up is going to blow any inflatable snowman out of the water. I’m thinking like, basic, non-flashy stuff outside just to really highlight how cool that reindeer their building is.”
“Hmm, yeah. I guess you can buy that one in your hand then.” Nancy made a whole show of scoffing but she wasn’t a stickler to what their house would end up looking like. Pinterest had too many pictures that looked so perfect, but she preferred theirs to have their own touch. Plus, she was having a hard time keeping a smile off her face right now, especially with what she was about to say next.
“So, you know you don’t get to tease me about Robin without me teasing you a bit about Steve, right?” It didn’t go past her attention that he hadn’t responded to her comment about Steve’s dibs on his lips.
Eddie tossed the decoration in the cart, and at Nancy’s teasing, he pulled his hair across his face to hide his grin. He dropped it again a moment later.
“What? Me and Steve? Ridiculous! The man listens to Taylor Swift, Nance. He probably thinks Motorhead is a car dealership.”
Eddie was a terrible liar in general; this was doubly true when it wasn’t a lie that he particularly wanted to tell.
Nancy briefly noticed another shopper behind Eddie and decided to tug forward their cart so they could get out of her way. Then she stopped and leaned forward against the cart as she returned his grin. “Please. You would totally teach him how to play Taylor Swift on the guitar if he gave you those puppy eyes.”
There was absolutely no denying it, not with the knowing smile that Eddie gave. Truth was, he had already learned some Taylor Swift songs – not a quick guestimation based on how well he could hum Lover like he had when Steve had nearly fallen victim to Eddie’s nightmares; he’d genuinely sat down and had listened to them until he’d gotten them note perfect, so that he could, someday, surprise Steve (they were simpler than the songs he normally learned, so it hadn’t taken long, but regardless, he’d listened to far mor Taylor Swift than he was willing to ever admit to anyone).
“Alright, alright, you got me,” Eddie said, throwing up his hands. “I’m a complete sucker for those big brown eyes. You can’t tell anyone though. I will sneak into your room and blast Slayer at 2am every night if you do.”
Nancy frowned, half tempted to throw another Christmas themed pillow at him. “I would not tell anyone! It’s a big deal for both of you. Even if we’re in a time where it’s pretty normalized, that’s not something we’re really used to openly talking about.” Realizing that she was about to veer in Serious Talk territory, she turned her frown into a smile. “You wouldn’t dare anyway, Munson. You know I got guns in my room.”
Eddie shot her a grateful smile; he had no issues talking about his sexuality. He hadn’t even gone to any significant lengths to hide it in Hawkins: he didn’t talk about it, and people assumed that he was straight because people generally assumed that everyone was straight, but he’d never made a habit of caring about what people thought about him. He knew things were different with Steve though, who was just figuring all this stuff out.
He squinted at Nancy. “Do you? Because last I checked, those were shoes you had hidden in your closet. Scary: yes, deadly: maybe, but guns?”
He was sure he was going to get hit, but it was worth it.
And he was right. Nancy grabbed a felt ornament, the closest she could find and tossed it at his face. “Alright, we gotta finish up here as soon as we can and head home, so come on. Keep following!”