Mystery - Dio
Beck had wanted to stay up and help Eddie clear space for her things but the full weight of the day landed on her hard and she fell asleep on the couch despite her best efforts.
After he and his uncle had talked through where to put Beck's things, Eddie rearranged the third bedroom and then started trying to fix his own bedroom, which was in no way ready to be shared with another person. Piles were drawn down, clothes were hung up, and a few things he had been missing like a pack of spare strings were rediscovered. When he finally quit around 10 pm it wasn't perfect since his organization style was still light chaos, but it was definitely better and there was space for her in the room now.
He had planned on waking her up to get her to bed but she looked just like a little misplaced elf, asleep on his couch by some incredible stroke of luck. As gently as he could, he slid his arms under her and lifted her off the couch. She startled and struggled to focus her sleepy eyes on him.
"What time is it?" she asked, draping her arms around his neck and curling into his chest.
"Time for bed," he murmured, carrying her into his room.
He lay her down and was starting to tuck her in when she pushed herself up.
"Not sleeping in my clothes," she mumbled.
Eddie helped her pull off her jacket, satiny blouse, and jeans, draping them over the back of his desk chair before helping her pull on the Hawkins Middle School sweatshirt and pajama pants he had set aside for her. The memory of New Year's day flashed vividly before him as he watched her curl up and fall quickly back to sleep.
He changed as well and climbed into the bed beside her, cuddling up to her as he loved to do. He drifted off while listening to her breathing in the dark, and it dawned on him that this was the first of many coming nights he would be able to fall asleep with her in like this.
The morning was a scramble of planning and getting ready for school. They each surprised the other as Beck realized Eddie was a rather peppy morning person and Eddie watched her drag around slowly while he goaded her into speeding up.
"I will bite you, if you tell me to hurry again," she snapped as she brushed out her hair with the saddest brush in the world that she was borrowing from him.
"Oooooo," he purred in her ear, "yes please." But he jerked away from her as her teeth snapped shut far too close to the tip of his nose.
Beck didn't want to risk getting her things until her mom was at work, so during lunch that day the two of them snuck out and drove to her house. Eddie stuffed down his envy at seeing their big, old construction house for the first time, reminding himself that she hadn't been happy here no matter how nice it seemed. But damn it was nice.
They had brought trash bags and Beck haphazardly stuffed clothes, music, shoes, books, and makeup of all kinds into the bags as she swept the room. She couldn't get everything this way but she could get enough to make it until the petition was heard. Worried someone would think they were robbing the house, they chucked the bags into the back of the van and drove straight to Eddie's trailer.
The rest of the afternoon was spent sorting out what Beck needed now and what she would store to take with her when she eventually left. When she finally had a pile of clothes and things that she would need on a daily basis, Eddie presented her with a "gift"; he had totally emptied out the dresser in his room for her, jamming everything of his into the closet.
He was surprised to see her start crying and rushed to pull her into his arms.
"What is it?" he asked, stroking her hair until she calmed.
"You've just done so much," she said, voice choked with tears.
"I wish I could do more," he said, holding her chin so he could look into her eyes.
Beck kissed him, her lips salty from her tears, and began folding her clothes into the dresser. About an hour later, she closed the last drawer.
"I feel weird taking over your room," she said, sitting on the edge of the bed and surveying a room she never would have guessed she would be occupying.
"This is your room too," Eddie pointed out, sitting beside her. "I would tear down every poster, should they offend you."
She laughed and he leaned in closer. "Should a shoe trip up your blessed foot, it would be incinerated."
"So within a week you have no shoes?" she cut in and he stuck his tongue out at her.
"Every item that did not please you would be cast away."
"So you're sleeping on the couch then?" she teased, bursting into laughter as he threw himself to the floor, pretending she had stabbed him in the heart.
He crawled back to her, resting his chin on her knees and staring up at her with his huge doe eyes. Beck traced the edges of his face with her fingertips, and he closed his eyes, enjoying the gentleness of her touch.
She leaned forward and softly kissed each of his eyelids. He pulled himself closer to her as she nipped at his jaw and kissed the corner of his mouth dodging away from him as he tried to meet her lips with his. She guided his arms around her waist and kissed the corner where his jawline met his neck, then his Adam's apple, then the tip of his nose, and then between his eyebrows.
Each time, Eddie kept trying to kiss her, growing harder as he realized this was now a game. With a low growl, he pushed up her shirt and kissed her stomach before unbuttoning her jeans and working kisses as far down as he could. She fell back on their bed, pulling him with her, and her fingers tightened in his hair as he traced the plane between her hips with his tongue. The sharp pain made him harder than the teasing had and he groaned loudly.
"Uh uh," she chided gently, pulling his face back up to her. "Your uncle is sleeping so you'll have to be quiet."
She continued to dodge his lips, forcing him to plant kisses everywhere else he could reach with her still fully clothed, his erection pressing hard between her legs.
"Goddamn it, Beck…" he finally begged and the sound made her belly clench.
"What do you say?" she said, pressing a hand to his chest to force distance between them. She had guessed that he would react well to being teased but this was better than she had expected.
His breath was ragged as he leaned forward to whisper into the shell of her ear, "Please."
She pulled his lips to hers and he exploded into a frenzy of movement. He seemed to be everywhere at once: pulling at her clothes, crushing his lips against hers, his hands clutching everywhere he could reach. Catching her wrists in one of his, Eddie pinned her hands above her head and ground his hips down into hers while sucking at her throat. She bucked back up into him and when he met her eyes, her pupils were blown with desire.
"My turn," he growled, sounding almost feral, and Beck had never been more turned on.
Several orgasms later they both lay panting, red faced and glowing. Beck lay with her head on Eddie's chest and listened to his heart slamming wildly as he tried to draw deep breaths.
"What do you think?" she asked, meeting his eyes. "Successful christening of our bed?"
"Hell yes," he panted and she was rewarded with his beaming smile, lips flushed red and hair wilder than ever.
That evening it became clear exactly when Beck's mom realized her daughter's room was half empty and that her daughter would not be coming back. The phone started ringing around 5:30 pm and did not stop.
Beck finally answered, hoping to prevent Eddie from answering because while it would be rewarding to hear what he might say in the short term it would likely backfire.
Her mom started shouting at her the minute Beck answered. "I have given you everything and you run away from me?!"
"I didn't run away," Beck snapped, reminding herself she was safe here. "I moved out. There is a legal difference I'm sure you can appreciate."
"You're too young to–"
"I'm not actually. I'm more than old enough legally."
"If you are so sure of that then you won't care if I call the police."
"Call them!" Beck snarled. "They can add it to my petition!"
Eddie could hear the chilling silence from where he stood by the refrigerator.
"If that is how you want this, then fine. You are on your own. You can live–"
Beck hung up, shaking. She did not want to hear what classist vitriol she was sure was about to come spewing out of her mother. She had moved to lean against Eddie when the phone rang yet again. But before she could answer it, someone behind her yanked the cord from the phone, completely disconnecting it. She turned around to see Wayne Munson.
"You don't take shit like that from her while you live here," he said, pinning her with his gaze before grabbing his things for work.
He started out the door while Beck and Eddie stared at one another. He had known the whole damn time. All their plotting and planning and he knew the core reason she was here was her mother. And Eddie was right; he had simply offered his home to her.
Beck tore off after him as the realization sunk in. "Wait!"
Wayne stopped next to his car and she caught him in a tight hug.
"Thank you," she whispered.
To Eddie's great surprise, he watched his uncle gently kiss the top of her head before prying himself away and getting into his car.
"And for the love of GOD use protection!" he shouted out the window at them as he pulled away, grinning in a way that reminded Beck strongly of his nephew.
She turned back to Eddie and burst out laughing as he pretended to melt into the floor, cheeks flaming in embarrassment.
And then, incredibly, the week settled.
Beck woke up with Eddie snuggling her, got ready for school, did the same things she always had, and went home with him or had someone drop her off. It was one of the strangest living arrangements at Hawkins High but within only a few days it felt to her like this was how it had always been, like her mom had been a bad dream.
D&D on Friday was a complete godsend for both of them, an anchor in the bizarre upheaval that had been the past week. If only the rest of her adventuring party would be of some damn use in trying to solve the larger mystery of Strahd's attacks on Ireena rather than just trying to rush at the undead vampire lord.
The party continued their way through Castle Strahd. They had been able to locate the Sunsword in the catacombs beneath the castle and had beaten the hell out of a mirror that the Count had used to trick them into thinking he was attacking. Now they made their way into an abandoned dining room.
"The table is laid for a grand banquet though everything remains untouched. This magnificent event never took place, cancelled by tragedy," Eddie whispered, forcing them to lean in. "A crumbling husk of a cake sits in the center of the table. It once would have been a work of art, pearls of sugar and icing flowers decorating it's five layers, but it is now sunken and desiccated. And atop the cake stands the figure of a woman, delicately featured and alone."
They all rolled for perception and Jeff found the matching groom figure crushed beneath the table while Todd located a study off to the right.
"Before you, there is a portrait, but you can hardly make sense of it," Eddie said, rising to his full height over the table and gesturing into the air. "Why would Count Von Strahd have an ancient portrait of Ireena in his castle?"
"Bullshit!" Beck exclaimed without thinking, causing Jeff to laugh. "She's pretty young, right?"
"Do you want to roll history, Beck?" Eddie asked with a dangerous grin. She glowered at him since they all knew her investigation based checks were usually terrible.
"No I don't, Edward," she crooned at him, a smile playing on her lips as it was his turn to glower. She had stumbled on old yearbooks when he was at band practice and his full name delighted her.
The guys started to snicker but the look he gave them shut them up fast.
"Gareth?" she asked and he flipped through his notes.
"Yeah she's 19."
"So the vampire has a picture that looks like her but isn't her," Todd concluded. "But how big of a deal is that?"
"You really think there are that many people who look just like someone else?" Jeff asked skeptically.
"Maybe she looks like her enough?" Beck suggested. "Like I'm sure if we went through a hundred DMs we could find at least a dozen metalhead DMs with long hair."
That caused laughter but when she looked over at Eddie she saw a wince of pain. She had been teasing but apparently that had landed more than she had meant.
As the game continued, Todd's gnome rogue was isolated and hypnotized so that when they stumbled on a captured Ireena, they had to fight their own party member, with Eddie controlling his actions, to protect her. All this to have Strahd show up and "save her" from them. Frustrated, the party agreed to end there for the night.
"Well that was more brutal than usual," Jeff huffed as everyone headed out. "See you two!"
Beck waved and turned to Eddie, catching his elbow. "I didn't mean that seriously."
"Yeah I know," he said, trying and failing to sound chipper.
"Then what's wrong?"
"It's not worth it. Just sounds dumb."
"And that started stopping you when?" she teased and got a genuine smile in return. "I'm asking, so if I don't like what I hear it's my problem. Just tell me."
He sighed heavily and hugged himself protectively, hands holding his shoulders. "There is no one else like you, even how you look is one in tens of thousands. But you could go literally anywhere else and find someone just like me. I'm sure there's a trailer trash metalhead DM in a pretend band in every town in this damn state."
"Don't talk about my boyfriend like that," she snapped, catching him off guard. He ducked his head, digging the toe of his shoe into the cracked wood.
She stared at him in half confusion and half annoyance. "Is that seriously how you see yourself?"
He shrugged.
"I literally don't know how to get you to see yourself the way I do," she said, reaching up to hold his jaw. "Guess it's my turn…"
"For what?" Eddie asked.
"You'll see."
He didn't have to wait very long to find out what she meant. Sunday afternoon, after disappearing for most of the morning, Beck met him at his van with an index card with her neat tiny writing on it and a D20.
"Better get going," she said as she handed it to him.
He opened the unfolded card and read 'where a brave knight protected a (literally) fair maiden.' He looked up, ready to ask what she meant, but she was gone.
What followed was a scavenger hunt of locations, each card narrated in the tone and style he used when DMing.
The bleachers, the library table where they had built her character, the wall he had spray painted with his declaration of love, the stacks at the school library which required a persuasion check against an amused janitor, backstage where they had their first kiss, the back of his van with another folded into Piece of Mind in his glovebox, the movie theater in the mall, the rock where they had stargazed…
And each one showed a piece of himself that he hadn't seen before. She showed him how heroic and creative and sexy he was to her and how truly unlike anyone else.
Finally, in the growing twilight, he stomped through the melting snow to their little pine tree, where Beck waited.
"Beck…" he breathed, "I can't believe you did all this."
She grinned and slipped her hands into his back pockets, pulling him to her. "I hope it's clear now: I love you and there is no one else like you."
"I guess I believe you," he whispered before lowering his lips to hers.
After so much sweet and sour, thought I would add some spice. ;)