February 1987

In theory, Andy knew that she had a type. In theory, she would always daydream about all those musicians with long locks, who looked like they could give someone the best night of their lives. Those were the types that her eyes would go to first, no matter the setting.

In practice, she somehow ended up with assholes. The complete opposite, clean-cut, idiots who hid behind the masks of good guys. It was almost a given, how she would often go down that road, thinking it was the safer one.

And yet, she found herself with a man who fit the type she daydreamed about. The one that was the baddest of the bad on the surface, but had a heart of gold hidden behind the untamed hair, cloud of weed, and the guitar pick he wore as a pendant.

They had been at his place for hours, doing nothing in particular. They talked a bit, kissed a bit more, and ended up with Eddie picking up his guitar and Andy watching him in silence as he played, thinking how fucking lucky she got. Stupidly lucky, if she was being honest. With how they were acting just a few weeks ago, they should both thank their lucky stars that they had managed not to push the other one miles away.

Eddie was playing one of her favorite songs, and it didn't escape her notice. How could it? He did that a lot - little things here and there, that showed her he still paid attention, that he cared just as much as he did before. What made it even more special was that Andy couldn't remember telling him just how much she loved Talk Talk. Maybe he noticed that she had multiple copies of the same album, or maybe he picked up on the fact that it was the record he would have to replace with the one he decided to play - Andy had no idea, but she appreciated his attention to detail all the same. It truly warmed her heart.

Eddie had been stuck in his own thoughts, focused on the way his fingers plucked at the guitar strings, but after a while, he started to look Andy's way more and more.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" he asked, smiling bashfully as he looked away from her and down at his guitar. It still amazed Andy how someone who she once saw as pretty extravagant could have been shy and adorable like Eddie was.

"Like what?" Andy couldn't stop a smile from appearing.

"I don't know," he shrugged awkwardly. "Cute and all that."

"As in, I'm the one that's cute, or like you're cute?"

"Andy, you're always too cute for your own good. It's borderline worrying, given that you're hot as fuck at the same time."

"Funny you should say that 'cause I happen to see you the exact same way," she told him. It was something she thought about many times before, but never really said, and it seemed like a perfect opportunity to do it then. "But to answer your question, I have no particular reason to look at you in any particular way. You're just hot with that guitar."

Eddie laughed, and Andy could swear she saw a blush appear on his cheeks. "Thanks, babe. You look hot even when you're just sitting down and staring at me."

"Ha-ha, make fun of me being crazy about you - low blow, Munson," she joked, hoping that Eddie would understand that she wasn't being serious. "But in all honesty, I was thinking a bit. I'm still getting used to… I don't know - being treated well?" she awkwardly finished, not sure how to express her feelings.

"That shouldn't be something that requires getting used to," Eddie looked deep in thought as he gently placed his guitar to the side. "I know that Jared was an asshole to you and all, but I would be lying if I say I wasn't under the impression that at least someone treated you right."

It was a little weird, hearing her boyfriend saying that he hoped another man treated her right before, but that was just the type of guy that Eddie was. Way back when, when he told her that he didn't care what happened before as long as she was his from then on, he meant it. And him wanting to know that she had good experiences before him just went to show that he cared more about her wellbeing than being the best of them all.

He was the best of them all, no questions asked.

"In all honesty, I'm not sure if any of them are worth the mention," Andy admitted after a brief silence. "I would argue that not even Jared is worth the mention, except he was around for a while, which gives him that advantage," she rolled her eyes. Andy knew where the conversation was heading, and she was, for what had to be the first time, completely fine with sharing her experience in the few months she was away from Hawkins. "I don't talk about LA, but I think I might have to change that."

"I don't want you to do anything you don't feel comfortable with," Eddie immediately shook his head. He knew that it wasn't her favorite topic, and the last thing he wanted was to make her feel as if she is pressured to talk about it. "I only need to know what you want me to."

"And you have no idea how thankful I am for that," Andy told him as she got up from the ground. Eddie sensed what she was doing and he opened his arms wide. Without much care, she plopped herself into his lap, looking directly at him. It wasn't going to be the most comfortable story, but at least it would be told in the most comfortable position. After all, it was in his arms that she felt the safest, by far. "I always knew that I was going to leave at one point, but I never really expected that I'd have to run."

"It was right after StarCourt, right?" Eddie asked and she nodded.

"We've had a lot of close calls before that night, but StarCourt was something else. I never really cared much about Billy - in fact, I didn't care about him at all, he was a violent asshole. Did I ever tell you I smashed a plate into his head one time? Nearly knocked him out!"

"You hadn't but Steve did," Eddie chuckled.

"In my defense, I was defending Steve's ass. But yeah, even if I didn't care about Billy, seeing him die… so brutally… I don't dare compare it to the shit you saw last year, but I'd say it was just as bad. And for the longest time, we thought we lost Hop. And he was, in a way, our leader, you know? At the end of the day, we were all just kids battling shit that shouldn't exist, and other than him with a gun and El with powers, we had nothing. That night, we lost him and El lost her powers and I've never felt as useless and as hopeless as I did then. I was out of Hawkins even before the dust settled. Back then, I thought that it would be easier if I didn't have to see it. See all the places, all the people that reminded me of everything bad that happened, and with Hawkins, it was always more bad than good."

"That sure does sound like Hawkins," Eddie joked, but Andy knew that he meant what he was saying. She will never forgive that town for what they did to him.

"Yup. Anyway, I went on the road. I had no particular plans, and California made sense in it that I knew that Joyce and the kids went there, so I would at least have someone around if I needed help in some capacity. I figured that the Upside Down was connected to Hawkins and Hawkins alone, and in a way, it is - we don't see portals in other towns, do we? But after everything we've been through, Upside Down followed. It didn't matter which state I was waking up in - I still had horrible dreams. I would still hear Max's screams as she watched Billy get killed, I still saw El's face when they told her that Hop was dead. So, I started drinking. I started smoking weed. Well, not started, I did both before, but you get me - I started doing it every night. And before I knew it, I was meeting random men. And I let them use me for sex so that I could use them for forgetting. It sounds… pathetic, but when I had someone else in my bed, someone there to distract me, for just a few hours, I didn't have to think of all the things I ran away from."

"Andy, that's not pathetic," Eddie told her. He gently placed his hands on her hips, and he circled his thumbs in a comforting manner, making Andy wonder if he was aware of the calmness that his touch could bring to her. Something so simple meant so much. "You were going through a lot and you didn't have proper help. No one has the right to judge you for the way you struggled to repair something you didn't break yourself. You shouldn't judge yourself for it, either," he comforted her.

"It's so strange because I'm not judging myself," she frowned as she struggled to find the right words. "Like, so fucking what, I had sex? The world keeps spinning, it doesn't change shit about shit. I don't have a problem with what I did as much as I have a problem with not trying a more mature approach, first. But then again, what the fuck was I supposed to do? If I went to a shrink saying that I saw a monster rip someone to shreds, they'd lock me up."

"Andy, we're still stupidly young," Eddie reminded her. "You were practically still a kid then. And with what you told me about your parents, it's not like you had an adult that you could ask for help. Well, maybe Joyce, but-"

"But she had enough kids to take care of," Andy finished in his stead, reminding herself of the excuse she used back then when convincing herself not to reach out to the only adult whom she could speak with freely. "Anyway, I ran and I did stupid shit. And most of the guys I dabbled with weren't exactly the nicest dudes I could find. We used each other, and that was it. It'd numb the pain for a little while and I'd usually feel like shit afterward."

"It's a hell circle," Eddie nodded, looking at her with a look that screamed understanding. There was not even an ounce of judgment in his eyes, and Andy wasn't sure what she had done in a past life to deserve someone like him. "Last year, when the dust somewhat settled and I got released from the hospital, I had the same feeling when it was a question of being around people. I'd feel guilty for not spending time with the few that still cared, so I would force myself to socialize, at least a little. And that would end up with me feeling like shit because what right did I have to have friends and have a life when Chrissy lost her life and when Max was practically learning how to walk again and… And then I'd feel guilty for leaving people out again. It's a never-ending circle of wrong decisions and dark thoughts and it's why it took me so long to let you in. I wish I had it in me to do it sooner."

"You did it when you were ready," Andy reminded him. "That was all I wanted and I'm happy that it happened. But yeah… back to where we started… with the finest truck stops could offer and a cheating high school sweetheart, I can't say that I had much luck with being on the receiving end of affection. In a way, I feel like you're spoiling me rotten. You're so… thoughtful. Kind. Attentive. Making me wonder what I did to deserve you.

Eddie laughed, and when he opened his eyes and looked at her, Andy could see nothing but pure and utter adoration. "Andy, babe… You are the exact same to me. Every day, I feel appreciated and comfortable and…"

Loved. He wanted to say loved, and he would have been absolutely spot on. But he didn't say it and as relieved as Andy was that they still weren't ready to float that word around, she was glad that deep down, he knew what it was.

"I know," she confirmed, leaning closer to him. Forehead to forehead, they stayed like that for a little while, both reeling in from the emotions of the conversation they had. "If I could make you feel one bit the way you make me feel, I will be a very happy woman."

"Right back at you, beautiful."

She wanted to say it then, but a part of her knew that they weren't ready for it yet. But she knew that he understood, and she was pretty darn sure that he felt it too. It was impossible not to feel love when for the first time, possibly in their entire lives, they felt safe. Safe, understood and appreciated. Of course it was love. It just wasn't the right time to call it that.


March 1986

If Andy could set fire with her eyes, Eddie Munson would be burnt to a crisp. She was pissed, way more pissed than she could recall ever being. And while she understood that in his situation, 'attack first, ask questions later' was a justifiable method, she still couldn't erase the sight of a broken bottle pressed against Steve's neck.

Keeping a firm grip on the oar she took out of Steve's hands once he was free of Eddie's threats, she thought of all the ways in which she could use said oar on Eddie. One nice, hard smack on the back of his head seemed like the best possible idea she'd had in a while.

Andy was only half listening to what the rest of them were saying to Eddie. She knew the story by heart, after all, having been dealing with this shit for years at that point. There was nothing she could say to him that Dustin, Max, Steve, and Robin couldn't cover on their own. While they were bringing Eddie up to speed on the whole parallel universe that existed under Hawkins, Andy was going over the present events and looking for possible solutions.

The dude was screwed with a capital S. With an innocent girl brutally murdered in his trailer, with him being the only witness to it, there was no way that any authority figure would stop to listen to his explanation. And even if they, by some miracle, did try to listen, what the hell was he supposed to tell them? That an invisible force pulled the cheer captain onto his ceiling and broke every single bone in her body? No one would believe it. Even Andy had a hard time believing it at first, and she'd seen plenty of shit of a similar origin. Hopper would have believed him, but he wasn't around to fix things for them that time, was he?

They would have to find a way to get to the higher-ups in the government, the same ones that made them sign NDAs and came up with stupid cover-ups, but it wasn't like any of them had secret agents on speed dial. Andy knew that they must have been watched from time to time and that perhaps that watch would enhance given another round of supernatural bullshit that had started firing at Hawkins, but where to find them. Does she have to walk in the middle of the city square to yell about parallel universes and Demogorgons for them to find her? Or would they just point a little red dot to her forehead and be done with it?

Eddie Munson was as good as dead unless they somehow create a miracle. And while they did manage to do the impossible time and time again before, she struggled to see a way in which they could make it happen then. And even if Eddie was somehow safe and free, that still doesn't solve the fact that they have another round with supernatural bat-shit crazy beings to deal with. And to make matters worse, this one seemed to have a conscious.

Demogorgons were easy. At the end of the day, they were animals. Supernatural beings of immeasurable strength, but animals, and very much killable. This Vecna thing? They're fucked. They are fucked with a capital F, and all of them know it.

"I realize this might not be high on our list of priorities but, um," Eddie started, and the only reason why Andy paid attention to what he was saying was that she could feel his eyes on him. "Why does baby Harrington look like she wants to kill me with that oar?"

"Probably because she does," Dustin answered, rolling his eyes when met with an eye-roll from Eddie himself. "You tried to kill her brother - what the fuck do you expect?"

"I was defending myself - for all I knew, you were the lynch mob coming to get me!"

"Which is exactly why we told you who we were when we entered the boathouse," Andy reminded him, speaking up for the first time in a while. "If you ever touch Steve again, I won't hesitate to retaliate. And I was born first, so you can drop the Baby Harrington speech."

"Well, I'm sorry for not being aware of the finer details of your birth certificate."

"You sure are cocky for someone whose only hope is the handful of people standing here with you," Andy was pissed and she didn't bother hiding it. She knew that Eddie had too big of a personality, but she also knew that then was not the time for boasting about it. "I'm not implying that you should kiss our asses in gratitude, but at least you can tone down on the witty comebacks, as it's not the time or the place for those."

"Andy, come on," Robin tried to be a mediator and settle the tension that was rising higher and higher by the second. "He was scared shitless - he didn't know what he was doing."

"Maybe, at first," Andy shrugged. "That bottle stayed closed to Steve's neck a little too long for my liking."

"Are we sure she's not a part of a lynch mob because I somehow felt safer when I was alone," Eddie commented. Andy wanted to bite back, wanted to tell him to go to hell and that he was an ungrateful asshole, but the look that Dustin gave her from behind Eddie's back made her bite her tongue.

Dustin seemed to think that Eddie didn't know any better. Andy begged to differ, as he wasn't stupid by any means, and as freaked out as he was, he had plenty of time to come to terms with his current predicament. After all, it's not like she had group therapy after dealing with her own kind of Upside Down shit. He'll either have to grow a pair, or he'll die trying. Or even worse, drag some of them into trouble with him.

She did trust Dustin, though. Other than his little experiment when he thought that raising a demo dog was a good idea, he was a good judge of character. After all, he was one of the few people that saw Steve past the hair and stupid comebacks. If he trusted Eddie then by extension, she trusted him, too. As long as she could keep a safe distance between them, she would be willing to make sacrifices to make it work and actually try to save him.

Andy only half listened to their plans, still too agitated. Her brain was working in the opposite direction - while all of them were focused on what they can do then, with what they are given, she was wondering if there was a way for them to reach El. Last she heard, the girl still haven't had her powers, but even powerless, she knew more about the Upside Down than all of them. It would be a huge safety hazard for her, but if they had managed to keep her safe last year, they would be able to do it again, Andy was sure of it. And like so many times before, she seemed like their only chance.

She wished El was there. Hopper, too. Nancy, Jonathan, hell, even psycho Murray. Even one person more would make their whole predicament feel a little more… survivable.

Listening to their plans, even half-heartedly, Andy couldn't help but notice one too many loopholes. "I hate to point out the obvious here, but if we were able to figure out where Eddie was hiding, I'd argue it's only about a matter of time before others find him, too."

"We can move him around if needed," Dustin insisted. "For now, this is the safest place he can be in. The next destination would be the Wheeler basement."

"Dude, if Ted Wheeler finds one more stranger in his basement, he might just call it into the cops himself," Steve spoke up and Andy was glad that he beat her to it - at least that way, she wouldn't be the only one that was pointing out the negativity.

"Do you have any better suggestions?" Dustin snapped at him, so clearly exasperated with every single part of that. Andy could relate on a deeply personal level.

"He could stay at our place," Steve shrugged. Andy would have murdered him then and there in cold blood if that wasn't Eddie's best chance. Inviting a suspected murderer, no matter how sure she was in his innocence, to stay in their home, was the worst possible idea ever, but it was also the last place anyone would bother looking for him. Their parents aren't home anyway, and there's plenty of space for him to be hidden and safe, and god willing, as far away from Andy as possible, at least until she calmed down after the earlier incident.

"I vote staying here for the time being," Eddie spoke up, very likely sensing the animosity that radiated off Andy. "And if all else fails, your place it is."

"Sure," Andy shrugged, despite knowing she had little to no say in that matter. "I'll go outside for a smoke you let me know what the heck you decide," she announced, no longer patient enough to have a longer conversation.

Once outside, and with a descend nicotine fix in her, she had managed to clear her head a bit. While she thinks her reaction to Eddie nearly murdering her brother was justified, so was his reaction, and it would be idiotic of her to hold it over his head for the rest of… however the fuck long this takes. After all, they were always ride or die for each other - now all she needed to do was to get used to being ride or die for Eddie Munson.

Eddie Munson, of all fucking people. The weirdo who acted like a weirdo for no other reason than for wanting to be different. She shared classes with him - Andy knew damn well that he was smarter than he pretended to be and that school was nothing more than his playground. She wasn't surprised to hear that he was yet to graduate, even though he should have gotten his diploma years ago. He was the type of guy that stayed in his own little world, and all things considered, wasn't an ideal companion in a life-or-death situation.

But then again, she only knew him on a surface level. For all she knew, he might surprise her. Wouldn't be the first time that her judgment of someone was completely off-base.

The rest of the gang made their way out of the boathouse before she could even finish her smoke. Eddie stayed behind, obviously deciding to stay hiding there. She followed them to Steve's car, listening to the plan of bringing food and other necessities to Eddie when they could, even debating whether or not someone should keep watch on him. Andy hated the fact that it was a good idea - it was the easiest way to keep him safe, but it also meant that sooner or later, she'd have to take watch, and she still wasn't exactly in a friendly mood.

"Of all people," she mumbled under her breath, talking to Steve as the two of them fell behind others, who were all but running to get to the car. "Of all people, we had to end up with the most eccentric, impulsive, and panicky person around. Eddie fucking Munson."

"Dustin says he's not that bad," Steve reminded her. "I know that Dustin tends to see the good in people but he all but worships the guy. There has to be something good about him."

"I'm sure there is," Andy agreed, somewhat begrudgingly. "He's probably just misunderstood. I just wish he didn't get off on the wrong foot with me with fucking trying to kill you."

"Funnily enough, that's not what I'm holding against him," Steve chuckled.

"Pray tell, what could be worse than a broken glass bottle against your jugular?"

"Believe it or not, I would rather take 20 broken bottles to my neck than see him checking out my sister again," Steve grunted in annoyance, and Andy laughed out loud.

"Dude, are you high?" she laughed. "Trust me, he wasn't checking me out. The dude doesn't know where he is and had just learned that there's a parallel universe full of monsters out to blood. My ass was the last thing on his mind."

"Not when it was in his line of sight when you walked out," Steve pointed out, and Andy had to admit that she couldn't claim he wasn't wrong.

"You might not like to hear this, as my brother, but I have a nice ass," she joked, laughing at the disgusting face that Steve pulled in response. "Still, the dude was probably just frantically looking around. I wouldn't dwell on that too much."

"Yeah, well, if he tries flirting when you're alone with him, make sure you nip it in the bud."

"Steve, I'm looking for a chance of survival and exonerating a falsely accused murderer - the last thing I want is to look for a potential boyfriend."

"Good," he sounded proud. "Make sure Munson gets that message, too."

Andy didn't have any energy left to fight with him on it. Sooner or later, he will have to realize that Munson wasn't going to make any moves on her. And if by some miracle, he is insane enough to try, he will likely be met with a broken bottle to his neck, to taste his own medicine.

"Whatever you say, Stevie," Andy sighed, metaphorically throwing in the towel on this entire conversation. "Let's just make sure we know what our plan is. And if it gets to him hiding in our place, where the hell we're going to keep him."

"Yeah, not like we don't have 3 spare bedrooms no one ever uses," the irony in Steve's voice was a painful reminder of just how fucking empty their home is. It also served as a reminder to Andy, as it was one of many reasons she left. When your house doesn't feel like home, that's a major red flag.

"Are the two of you taking a casual stroll or what?" Dustin yelled at them, peeking through the back window of Steve's car. "Chop-chop! We have groceries to buy, plans to make, and people to save! Fucking move a little!"

"When the fuck did that kid start cursing so much?" Andy wondered.

"I'm afraid he learned it from us," Steve grimaced. "Let's get going before he threatened us, too. I've had enough near-death experiences for one afternoon."