Photograph - Def Leppard
Eddie watched Beck sleep and did not know how in any world he had become so lucky. He traced her bare shoulder with the tip of one finger, continuing the line he started with his gaze, taking in the curves of her naked back down her waist and hip.
This moment and everything that had led up to it had filled his black little heart to bursting.
He snuggled back up against her, breathing in the scent of her naked skin.
Eddie and Beck had planned on meeting at the library so it scared the hell out of him when someone started throwing little rocks at his bedroom window. He had been working on a guitar solo for Corroded Coffin, but even his beloved guitar took a backseat to the return of his girlfriend.
Beck laughed delightedly as he picked her up and spun her around in the snow. She loved, always loved, the way he kissed her when they had been apart for any amount of time. It was so fierce and intense, as if this kiss had been building since the moment they parted.
"You going to let me come inside?" she said when their lips broke. "Or is there another kink I should be aware of?"
He grinned at her, resting his forehead on hers. He was so happy to have her back that he couldn't even think of a smartass thing to say in reply.
His uncle was out hunting for the day since he had the day off so the two of them curled up into one ball on the couch, relaying the events of the holidays. Beck had somehow escaped a week with her mom unscathed and this was worth celebration unto itself.
"Aaaand," she said coyly, "I have a new Walkman so you will have to help me make good use of it. That is if you don't mind teaching me about metal."
She watched him physically repress the urge to start listing off bands which was both hilarious and appreciated.
"Well nothing that exciting here," Eddie said, clearing his throat. "Just my uncle and I but he did get me a new guitar pedal."
"I don't know," Beck said, tracing her fingers along the legs of the spider peeping out from his Rainbow band shirt. "Presents and a tree with family sounds nice."
"You just said you got a Walkman."
"She handed it to me before we got in the car to drive up to Detroit. No tree and no wrapping paper. Just here, please listen to this the whole four hour drive."
"Seriously?"
"Yeah but it's always been like that. My dad works at a newspaper so they wouldn't close and it's not like law offices close for the holidays either."
Eddie starting pushing her off him, causing her to roll over awkwardly with a squawk.
"Come on," he said, helping her to her feet.
"What? Why?"
"You'll see."
They were knee deep in snow as he pushed through the woods that surrounded the trailer park.
"At what point," Beck huffed, out of breath from wading around, "do you tell me where we are going?"
"Turn about is fair play," he said, looking way too happy for her liking. Also he didn't look a tiny bit winded which was deeply unfair because she was ready to keel over dead. Stupid long ass legs to her short ones, she grumbled inwardly.
She followed him up a small hill and tried to catch her breath before looking down into the little wooded basin before her. It was covered in pine trees of all shapes and sizes, each bearing undisturbed piles of snow on their lush branches. The silence was also complete, making her breath sound harsh in her ears.
Eddie watched her survey one of his favorite spots in Hawkins with growing pride. He followed her down into the basin, trying to force his memory to hold how much she looked like a wood elf as she moved through the pines with her platinum hair streaming behind her and her cheeks rosy with cold.
"How did you know this was here?"
He shrugged and ran a hand through his hair.
"I get bored and walk around the woods here. Hawkins isn't too bad if you know where to look. Here," he held out a big red Christmas bow that he had pulled off a neighbor's mailbox on their way. She took it with a quizzical look so he gestured around them. "Pick one and that will be our Christmas tree."
"Ours?"
"For the future," he murmured, catching her hand.
Beck's heart felt like it could fucking burst so she began to look for a tree, afraid for him to see how emotional he had made her. Somewhere off to the upper right she found it: a Virginia pine with thick branches and soft needles, only about Eddie's height.
"Picking a lil' one I see," Eddie said, helping her tie the bow around the top of the tree.
"We're in high school and I don't graduate until next year anyway. It'll be bigger when we're ready for it," she said and Eddie knew he wore one of the stupidest grins of all time.
They climbed back out of the basin, radiating joy between them. Eddie started down the incline in front of her tentatively.
"Be careful. It can be – son of a BITCH!"
As he was getting ready to say it could be slippery, his feet skidded, sending him harmlessly to his knees. But as he slid down the hill, his shirt bunched up around his arms and snow coated his torso. He jumped to his feet, brushing off snow as fast as he could and swearing a blue streak. When he finished zipping his coat up, he looked up to see Beck doubled over and laughing so hard she could hardly breathe.
"Oh you think this is funny?" he said with a devious smile.
"Fuck yes," she laughed, wiping tears from her eyes.
He rushed back up the hill toward her, earning a shriek as she tried to dart away from him. He caught her around the waist and lifted her off her feet before gently dropping her in a deep drift between a few trees. She waded back out and no matter how many times she rushed him, he was able to easily hold her off with his longer arms. For kicks, he shoulder checked her gently down the small hill and she rolled to a stop, laughing helplessly.
"Do you admit defeat, Beck: Elf of the Secret Wood?"
"Fine, I do," she said and he offered her hand.
With a yank, she pulled him down into the snow with her and rolled over on top of him.
"You liar," he breathed. He loved the feeling of her on top of him, of being held between her thighs.
"Barbarian, remember?"
He cupped her cheek and she turned her face to kiss the center of his palm before running her tongue up the base of his palm. In return he pressed his hips up into hers, holding her ass with his other hand. The way she held his eyes as she slipped his thumb into her mouth…
"You devious little witch!" he yelped as she stuffed a handful of snow up his shirt. He squirmed out from under her and brushed the snow off his bare skin while she cackled.
"Just remember: you may be bigger and faster, but I have wiles."
"God save me, you do indeed," he agreed, satisfied to see her blush deeply. "Come on. It's getting dark and we don't want to get stuck out here without good light."
They were both starving and soaked completely through when they made it back.
Eddie dug around and found a Hawkins Middle School sweatshirt that was too small for him but would fit her. Bottoms would be a lot harder because where he had no ass at all she was wide hipped, but mercifully his pajama pants were baggy enough.
Beck idly flipped the channels on the TV while he slid a frozen pizza into the oven. He caught a familiar song and whipped around.
"Go back!"
Beck went back two channels and it was indeed the beginning of The Dark Crystal.
"I thought this was a kids' movie?" she asked as he joined her.
"Not hardly!"
"But there are puppets?"
"You are in for one of the best movies in the last five years," he said. "Trust me."
By the time the movie was over, they had finished the pizza and Beck had to admit that she had a new appreciation for movies with puppets.
"That was wild," she said as the credits rolled. They were both stretched out along the length of the couch with her sitting between his legs and leaning back against his chest.
"See?! Not a kids movie."
She got up and stretched, noticing the way his eyes roamed her stomach as the sweater lifted so she bent further backward. She knew the exact moment he realized she had not put her bra back on from the way he shifted, closing his legs and leaning forward.
"Anything sweet I could nibble?" she asked, half serious and half teasing.
He snapped his fingers and popped up.
"New Year's tradition!" he exclaimed, rummaging in the kitchen. She watched him drop a bag of marshmallows, a box of chocolate bars, and a box of graham crackers onto the counter. "I know New Year's was yesterday but I wanted to share."
She joined him in the kitchen, watching him break up chocolate and the crackers. "Missing a campfire though."
"No need!" He flipped on the gas stovetop burner and grinned over at her. "Still a fire and still works."
As they skewered marshmallows on forks he explained. "That was one thing my old man really liked doing. He would take us camping every summer and on New Year's we would set up a tent in the living room and make smores."
"I've never once been camping," Beck said, gently toasting her marshmallow as Eddie's caught fire and he tried to blow it out.
"Really? Never?"
"My parents don't take time off, remember?"
"This summer then," Eddie said, carefully sliding the crispy marshmallow off the fork. "There are some good spots out on Lake Jordan."
Again Beck was hit with that feeling of overwhelm as she turned off the burner and ate her smore. She had never made plans with a guy for the future before. Correction: she had never been with someone she wanted to plan for the future with until now. She felt like she was on the edge of something huge and new, terrifying and electrifying.
Eddie finished eating and started toasting a second marshmallow, noting the way she was looking at him. He had laid more cards on the table than he had meant to but it was how he felt. Sometimes things just fell out of his mouth and he had to make do with where they took him. He had managed to check himself from telling her he loved her but that was only a matter of time as well.
Beck joined him, playfully hip checking him away from the burner. This was where she had the advantage because while he had speed and height, she easily sent him flying into the hallway.
"I was done anyway," he said, sticking his tongue out.
Beck popped the golden marshmallow directly into her mouth as he munched his way through his second smore. She really favored them over the other components, especially when the sugar had just started to caramelize.
"Good tradition," she said.
When she looked over at Eddie, his gaze caught her off guard.
"What?" she asked.
"I love how you look in my clothes," Eddie said. Yep it was official; literally anything would fall out of his mouth right now.
"And I love how you look without them."
There was a half second where Eddie was stunned into total silence, and Beck immediately began wishing her own death would come. Fucking stupid thing to say but she meant it.
Then he pushed off the counter and lifted her face to his. Her lips tasted like burnt sugar and marshmallow and his hands were in her hair. In response she wrapped her arms around his neck as she deepened the kiss with her tongue. When their tongues tangled the sweetness of chocolate still lingered in Eddie's mouth.
They stumbled a few steps toward the hall before he lifted her off her feet to carry her the rest of the way. Beck wrapped her legs around his hips and he kicked the bedroom door shut behind him.
They fell onto his bed and Beck straddled him, immediately working his shirt off. He helped her pull it over his head and her look was pure desire as she leaned forward to run her tongue along the hollows of his hips. Gasping, he repressed the urge to buck, afraid of hitting her in the face.
He needed to feel her skin against him more than he could possibly say, no longer satisfied with running his hands up under the borrowed sweatshirt, and after some teasing she obliged. Perched over him, Beck watched Eddie take in her naked chest and torso and felt like Aphrodite herself. He reached up, caressing her stomach, hips, and breasts before, in a burst of energy, lifting her and rolling on top.
His tongue traced her nipple while his hand slid up between her thighs and increased the pressure there. Beck arched her back and when he lifted his head she pulled his face back to hers, fumbling with the fly of his jeans. When she succeeded, he gracelessly pulled them off.
And then she looked at his goddamn alarm clock. Her face showed a bright flash of panic and when he looked over he saw that it was quite a bit later than she usually stayed. He tried to hide his dismay as he rested his forehead against hers.
"If you need to go…"
"I'm sorry. It's… just a bad habit."
"No I get it," he said, starting to roll off of her but Beck pulled his lips back to hers.
"Let me finish," she murmured. "She's not coming home tonight. The roads to Indy were too bad."
"So you… you don't have to go?"
"Not tonight."
"Then would you… stay with me tonight?"
Beck's heart was slamming.
"Yes," she murmured and slipped her hand beneath his boxers.
"Jesus Beck," he moaned, dropping his head to hide how red his face was. At every turn, she never failed to push every button of his in exactly the right way.
He pulled out of her reach and worked the pajama pants off of her, sliding off her underwear as well. Every perfect inch of her was finally exposed to his gaze and his touch.
Eddie worked his way back up to her lips, licking the insides of her thighs and hips as he went. He reached between her legs and felt her fingers tighten in his hair, sending a thrill through him.
When the friction threatened to overwhelm her, Beck pulled his hand away and began to yank his boxers off.
When they joined the pile of clothes on the floor, Eddie quickly located a condom in his nightstand. Their lives were batshit enough without an unplanned pregnancy to worry about.
She guided him inside her while he kept his gaze intently on her face. He knew neither of them were virgins but also neither were particular experts and he wanted this to work, to be as good as he could make it.
"Is this–?"
"Yes!" she exclaimed breathily.
Beck clutched desperately at his shoulders as he began to thrust. In all the time she had known him, he had been a largely frenetic ball of energy and this was especially true of the sexual tension between them. But now, when it mattered most, he intentionally slowed down, placing his weight on his forearms and building the delicious friction between them.
When Beck came, it felt like her mind had exploded. Eddie watched her ball her fists into the sheets and the cry of pleasure that came from her was a goddamn honor.
She rolled them over so she now straddled him, picking up the tempo and reveling in the way he grabbed on to her hips and thighs, pulling himself as deep as possible. Beck would have been lying if she had not been waiting to see what his always expressive face would do and it did not in any way disappoint.
The feeling of his fingertips tracing her skin and then being pulled tight to him woke Beck and she turned her face to his.
"What time is it?"
"About six in the morning," he said, gently kissing the crook of her neck.
"Your uncle home?"
He sat up to look out the window at the yard in front of the trailer.
"Looks like yes."
"Then I guess we'll have to be quieter this time," she teased.
And all too eagerly, Eddie leaned forward to kiss her.