[ julie shrugs a shoulder, just looks down at the cigarette between her fingers. she definitely wants to argue that he does make a face because sometimes he does and it's totally hilarious. like he's just seen something he wants in a store window mixed with something significantly less wholesome. and what it means that she's so keyed in to the faces eddie is making during trials that she can pick out his expressions so often isn't worth thinking about too much. she's just observant is all. it's a skill she's had to work on since toying with stealth perks kinda hamstrings frenzy's ability to find people. ]
I only care this much now because you keep denying it. [ a pointed raise of her eyebrows punctuated by a drag on the cigarette. ] I just thought it was funny because I would never in a million years have guessed Harrington did it for you, let alone in his little sailor boy shorts.
[ to be fair, eddie would never in a million years have guessed that harrington would ever do it for him, either. eddie used to hate the guy - distantly, never really to his face, but when they were in school together, their circles couldn't have been farther apart. and then harrington graduated and eddie stayed behind, and truthfully, eddie forgot about him for a while. only remembered the guy existed at all when he met dustin henderson, and the stupid little squirt wouldn't shut up about him.
and then, you know. hawkins went to hell in a hand basket, and through a series of very unfortunate and traumatizing events, eddie got to know steve, and he figured out pretty quickly that - yeah. people do change, and steve - steve's a pretty decent guy. and also attractive, but that's irrelevant. mostly. it should be, but julie won't fucking let it go.
eddie doesn't say anything for a minute. he smokes his cigarette and he pointedly ignores julie, like he's not even gonna bother anymore with arguing if she's just gonna keep insisting that he's lying (because he is). he looks around the small, cramped tree house just to kill some time, rubs his tongue against the roof of his mouth to chase the rest of the acrid listerine aftertaste away, and it's not until he's burned his cigarette nearly down to the filter that he says anything. ]
... He's not what he seems, you know. Or, no - I guess he's exactly what he seems. Now. I used to hate the guy, but I barely knew him. Turns out, sometimes when you get to know someone, they're not as bad as you thought they'd be.
[ eddie turns his head and looks at julie pointedly, because this is not a sentiment that applies exclusively to steve. he goes to stub his cigarette out on the floorboard by his knee but then thinks better of it - with his luck, he'd light the whole damn treehouse up with them inside it - and rubs it out on the leg of his jeans instead.
he looks at julie again, offers a half shrug. presses his lips together for a moment, like he's debating his next words, and then just decides - fuck it. ]
Never saw him in shorts until here. He's got nice legs. Are you happy? [ he laughs. ] Jesus.
[ julie watches him when he goes quiet, trying to figure out what's going through his head, but she can't get it just from looking at him. maybe this is the point to actually let it go, is what she's thinking herself, and then eddie actually finally responds. nothing about it is particularly surprising (and she ignores the hell out of that pointed look), kinda cliché if anything, but it does make julie smile a little triumphantly. ]
Yes. [ she laughs a little herself, leans over and bumps him with her shoulder. ] God, that was like pulling teeth.
[ eddie reaches and pinches her leg in retaliation when julie nudges him with her shoulder, mostly just for something to do but also because she's kind of a little shit and he kind of hates that about her. unfortunately, it's also one of the things he really likes about her, too. ]
Yeah, whatever. [ he rolls his eyes, like she's being dramatic and exaggerating, like it was never that serious even though he's the one who was trying to dance around having to give a straightforward answer, or just straight up trying to lie. ] You're a freak.
[ he looks at julie, and it's clear in his expression that that's freak (affectionate) and not freak (derogatory). after a beat, he looks away... and starts to empty his pockets out into the small space between them, mostly just everything he stole from the cars down the street. when he fishes out the small, disposable camera, he turns it over in his hands like he's never really seen one before, at least not like this - but it seems pretty straight forward. he thumbs at the little wheel at the top right, winds the film, and then without really bring it up to his face, he turns it and points it at julie and snaps a picture, flash on and everything.
[ julie gasps and smacks at eddie's hand when he pinches her leg, laughing softly still at the same time. ]
Takes one to know one.
[ it's similarly freak (affectionate) on her end, a small smile staying on her face as she leans forward to put her cigarette out on the sole of her shoe, totally unprepared for when that flash goes off and blinds her for a split second, which she doesn't appreciate at all. ]
Oh great. [ she rubs her eyes with her thumb and forefinger, still with enough of a smirk on her face to give away that she thinks it's at least a little funny despite the deadpan delivery. ] Now it's like Harrington's here too.
[ eddie sets the camera down between them so he doesn't accidentally blind anyone again, still laughing a little bit under his breath about it. maybe he'd be more interested in taking more pictures - not just of julie - if he thought there was any way to get the film developed. as it stands, he briefly wonders if he could get away with taking the camera into a trial, use it to try to blind killers who expect flashlights and flashbangs over anything else.
his attention is easily drawn away though when julie mentions harrington for what feels like the millionth time in the last hour or so. he rolls his eyes, but there's something vaguely playful in his expression. ]
[ eddies eyes dart up to the sunglasses perched on her head for a moment before he looks back at her. occasionally, it strikes him just how... normal julie can be. how easy it is to get along with her outside of being chased and stabbed a million times.
he looks away from her, leans his head back against the wall, lulls his head to look at her again. her stupid little smirk. ]
You already stole my cigarettes. What more could you want?
[ her smirk turns a little impish as she looks at him, head tilted as if she's thinking hard about this, and she slouches against the wall with a shrug. ]
Better question is what you'd be willing to offer.
[ furrowing his brows slightly at her, like maybe he's trying to get a read on her, eddie looks at julie with a thread of curiosity in his gaze. he doesn't say anything right away, expression vaguely thoughtful. truthfully, they both know that he probably doesn't have a whole lot to give when it comes to bartering - she's the one with a whole ski lodge to herself, with dozens of suitcases to rifle through for more or less whatever she could want within reason, but he still makes a little show of contemplation.
eventually, his brow softens and the corner of his mouth slowly starts to curve up in the barest hint of a smirk. slowly, he leans closer to her, makes a small gestures with his hand like he's beckoning for her to come closer too. regardless of whether she obliges him, eddie tilts in kind of close to her ear, his voice real low like he's offering her something of high value that he doesn't want anyone else to know about. he doesn't even know what it is he's meant to be negotiating for, but does that stop him?
absolutely not. ]
I'll wear the costume for you.
[ that's right, that stupid little ren-fair looking bullshit he sometimes turns up in trial wearing, with the lute and everything. is he being serious? of course not, even eddie knows julie could never properly appreciate the art of balloon pants and dark red velvet. but that's what makes it funny.
just as quietly, like the offer is even tempting at all, he says, ]
[ it's not a real offer anyway. firstly she doesn't even have shorts — at best maybe she could steal some underwear from frank if eddie wants to see a pair of pale thighs so badly — nor does she particularly want to wear any. similarly she doubts eddie has much to offer, this is just a dumb joke conversation anyway. so when eddie leans toward her like he's got a real good deal to offer, it makes her curious. ]
[ so she leans toward him, head bowed, eyebrows raised. real intently listening. it takes a second for her to even process what he just said, and when she does her laughter comes out in a sudden bark that surprises even herself, and she clamps her hand over her mouth to muffle it as much as she can. ]
Shut the fuck up. [ still laughing, she puts a hand on his chest to shove him away. ] I hate that fucking thing.
[ almost immediately, eddie starts to shush her when she bursts out laughing with a finger held to his own lips - they are, after all, still hiding from the dredge. there's a grin behind his hand though, and he has to work to stifle his own amusement, pleased with himself for making julie laugh. granted, it's at his expense, but that's hardly anything new. and, you know, maybe it's worth it. eddie likes it when she smiles.
when julie pushes at his chest, eddie instinctively closes his hand around her forearm, mostly to keep himself from being knocked over regardless of the strength behind the shove. he doesn't let go though, barely even aware he's latched onto her as he smiles back, a teasing lilt in his tone. ]
Ah, the lady doth protest too much, methinks. [ he raises his brows slightly, tilts his head so he has to look at her through his lashes a bit. ] You like it a little bit. It's okay.
[ julie barely even notices his hand on her arm, too busy letting out an audible groan and rolling her eyes at his little bit. ] It turns me into a middle school bully, I've never wanted to wedgie someone so bad in my life.
[ like a bull seeing red whenever she catches sight of that stupid little cape, and then he does his stupid medieval talk and it drives her nuts. she wants to just push him over like an obnoxious child. julie gives him the tiniest little shake of her head, voice low since they're this close now apparently, refusing to let the amusement dancing at the edges of her expression fully manifest by pure strength of will. ]
You have no idea how much self-restraint dealing with you takes sometimes.
[ does she sound a little frustrated by that? it's probably just because she wants to bully him mercilessly and no other possible reason. ]
[ like almost every other time julie's threatened him, serious or otherwise, eddie appears unfazed. amused, more than anything, the corners of his mouth pulling just the tiniest bit as he works to suppress a smirk. a wedgie is pretty tame compared to her usual taunts, which only makes eddie thinks she's deflecting, and that only serves to amuse him even more.
idly, his thumb rubs a lazy line against her wrist that he's not even really that aware of. the thread of frustration in her tone intrigues him and he takes a second to just look at her. eddie's gaze flits up to the cheap sunglasses perched on her head, down to her eyes, down again for the briefest of moments to the shape of her mouth before darting back up.
he tilts his head, keeps his voice low. ]
No? [ eddie slowly lifts his other hand, reaches and nudges the arm of her sunglasses so they slide down over her eyes. absently brushes a loose strand of her hair back without much thought. ] If I'm so bad, why'd you come all the way out here?
[ two things that are pretty rare for julie happen at the same time; the question leaves her a little speechless, opening her mouth and closing it again when nothing comes out, and it flusters her enough that her gaze darts down to the space between them, even when she unconsciously leans a little into the touch of his hand when he tucks her hair back. ]
[ the thing is she plays the part well but julie's really not as confident or self-assured as she comes across. she masks it well, the bitchy, violent girl is a comfortable place to settle for her, but when it's like this? with nothing to lean on? only one person really knows that about her, and she's pretty fucking keen on keeping it that way. ]
[ it does piss her off a little, the way this has her floundering and unsure of herself all of a sudden, though at least the sunglasses hide the brief flash of panic in her eyes when she realises it. julie makes to move away a little, straighten up again. put some distance between them and make some attempt to save face here. ]
I, um-- [ she clears her throat, turns her head to look in any other direction to hide the fact that she's pretty sure her cheeks are a little pink. what a fascinating branch that is over there. ] I don't know.
[ ... jesus christ. fuck. what if she just jumped out the window right now? he couldn't stop her. ]
[ eddie watches her closely. watches the way her mouth opens and closes with nothing to say, notes the subtle shift toward his hand moving her hair out of the way. for as much as eddie thinks he knows julie, he also knows that he knows nearly nothing at all when it comes to the things that matter. when it comes to reading her beyond the surface, though he likes to think he's gotten past the first couple layers she likes to hide behind.
but he doesn't know what she's thinking. he doesn't know if by putting her on the spot, he's managed to dig under another layer of skin. what he does know, though, is that the moment's been lost, whatever the moment may have been, and that's - fine. julie clears her throat and pulls away and eddie doesn't hesitate to let go of her wrist so she can put however much space she wants between them. does he catch the new color in her cheeks? it's hard to tell.
eddie doesn't say anything right away. lets the silence hang for a few seconds after her i don't know. he looks at the random assortment of stolen knickknacks he's unloaded from his pockets, then starts to pick them up at a slow pace, filling his pockets back up. ]
Sure you do. [ he says eventually, only briefly glancing over at her. he picks up the disposable camera, considers giving it to her for her to keep, then sets it back down. ] I do all the dangerous dirty work, and you profit by undercutting my earnings.
[ or, you know. stealing his pilfered cigarettes. ]
[ julie watches him out of the corner of her eye, a brief frown of concentration on her face as she tries to figure out what he's thinking now that she's gone and embarrassed herself. unthinking, she pulls her knees up, wraps her arms around them with a snort at eddie's assessment. ]
[ she can still feel the ghost of his hand on the side of her face, but shrugs it off, turning her head to look down at the pile of stuff he's putting back in his pockets. still pointedly not looking at him, but that's no big deal. ]
Yeah, that's me. [ light, sarcastic. maybe lacking the punch she usually has, but maybe not. ] Big cigarette baron.
[ eddie's used to julie's sarcasm by now, but it hits a little different here, feels a little... empty in a way he can't quite put his finger on. enough to make him pause in the middle of gathering all of his stolen junk up, enough to make him glance her way again, only to find her with her arms cradling her knees.
it makes her look young, he thinks. not in a bad way, because it's not as if she's not young, but she just looks... like a regular person. like someone eddie could know outside of a place like this. he shoves a pen into his vest pocket, picks the camera back up and carefully balances it on the peak of one of her knees. she'd probably get more use out of it than he would, and besides - where the hell is he going to develop pictures in the middle of the woods. sure, nancy's boyfriend might know, from what he's heard, but it's still... doubtful. ]
Lucky for you, [ eddie says quietly, starting to shift up onto his feet, staying in a low crouch for now. he dusts his hands off on his haunches, then rests his arms on his knees. ] I kinda dig powerful women.
[ and that's all he says before he straights up a little and moves toward the window to peek out, looking for that freaky mass of... frozen meat, or whatever the hell the dredge is today. ]
[ julie's still got her head tilted, watching the pile of stuff as eddie gathers it all up, so she catches the way he pauses after she speaks. luckily him balancing the camera on her knee distracts her, and she picks it up. inspecting it to see how many pictures it's even got left. ]
[ how would she even develop it? maybe byers knows, but she doesn't want to ask him for anything. better him than ghost face though, she supposes. ]
Shut up.
[ she snorts at his little comment, powerful women, sure. tempted to push him over when she sees him pull himself into that little crouch, but she doesn't. winds up the camera instead and pushes up the sunglasses so she can look through the viewfinder. ]
Wait a sec-- Smile.
[ that's all the warning eddie gets before she snaps a photo. ]
[ eddie's still a little preoccupied with scanning the property for a creepy ass snowman creature, so when julie tells him to wait, he assumes she's picked up on something he hasn't - she's the one with plenty of hunting and tracking experience under her belt, all things considered, so eddie missing something obvious wouldn't be that surprising - but when he whips his head sideways to look at her, curious... he's immediately blinded. face full of flash, that smile registering just a second too late.
flinging up a hand as a delayed response, eddie squeezes his eyes shut and rears his head back a little, arm held in front of his face for a second as a useless shield. ]
Jesus - Chrrrist.
[ he blinks rapidly, trying to get the floaty white spots out of his vision, but instead of being upset about it, he just kind of laughs a little. it's fair, you know. eddie did the same thing to julie, and now they're even, even if eddie hadn't really intended to blind julie when he'd accidentally snapped a photo while fucking around.
with one hand still holding the edge of the little window, eddie rubs at his eyes with the other. ]
Maybe I'll start using flashlights a little more seriously.
[ he probably won't, but shit. he understands now why some killers get a little more aggressive (and a little more paranoid) when a flashlight is in play. ]
[ julie just smiles at him, absolutely smug and satisfied with that response, and tucks the camera away. ]
Flashlights are worse.
[ it's an offhand comment, not a correction or an argument, just a fact. like somebody opening the curtains when you haven't had enough sleep and on the other side of the window is the sun. she hates them. not as much as some of the other killers do, but still. they suck! ]
[ anyway, julie pulls herself up into a similar crouch and moves past eddie to clamber out of the stupid little treehouse, because obviously she's going first. it just makes sense. if eddie wants to argue with her about it he can argue with her butt while she climbs out onto the branch. ]
[ eddie peeks through his fingers at her, eyebrows lifting slightly. ]
... Oh? Noted.
[ the way his eyes crinkle a little near the corners suggests he might be smiling a little behind his hand. now that he's got confirmation that flashlights bother her at least a little, he might have to start picking them up more often and working on his aim instead of leaving them in chests or handing them off to the first person he runs into mid-trial.
you know. just for fun.
eddie drops his hand away from his eyes as julie gets up and moves past him. at first, he just assumes she's about to peek out and double check that the coast is clear, so when she just - starts to climb out, he scrambles a little. doesn't grab for her or anything because he doesn't want to fuck with her balance or her grip and send her plummeting fifteen feet to the ground, but there's some flailing. why does she always have to go first?
when she's out the window enough - because he is not going to argue with her ass - he leans out of the window and looks down at her, hissing, ]
Jesus, did you even check if it was clear? [ or is she just blindly trusting that eddie did a fine enough job of looking out? ] If your ass gets Tauntauned I'm leaving you here.
[ tauntauned. like when luke was on hoth and freezing to death and han sliced open a tauntaun and shoved him inside of its carcass to keep him warm. definitely the same thing as being consumed by the snow-dredge.
anyway. once there's room, eddie climbs out after her. ]
[ julie looks up at him once she's gotten on the little ladder, raises an eyebrow with a light shrug. ] You telling me I shouldn't trust your judgement when it comes to spotting killers?
[ he's certainly just up and fucking vanished from generators she knows he was on enough to make her think he's pretty good at it, but fine. maybe she was just too eager to get out of there. julie pauses her descent to look around, down what she can see of the street, into the windows in the house, over her shoulder at the gardens. no sign of the thing, and that snowman getup isn't exactly stealthy. she feels like she'd see it, right? either way it's definitely not close, they would've heard that fucking wailing by now. ]
[ she also gives him a blank stare at 'tauntauned', but resumes her climb down, clearly not making the link. she just shrugs it off and decides it's probably some fantasy shit she wouldn't care about. ]
[ between the both of them, she's the one with a... killer instinct (quite literally), so he'd put her judgement above his, but he's also not about to admit that much out loud, at least not right now. instead, he just rolls his eyes and shakes his head and worries about descending from this treehouse without either of them breaking their necks or being eaten alive at the bottom. does the dredge technically eat people, or is it just.. a void? either way, eddie doesn't really want to know.
it's quiet, and that's all that really matters. no creepy fucking wails means they should be relatively safe.
once julie's out of the way at the bottom, eddie hops down the last few feet. brushes his hands off on the front of his vest and takes an extra second to glance over his shoulder just to be sure they aren't being watched from afar, or approached from a distance. the gate's not far. eddie looks back at julie, cocks his head in the direction of the nearest exit and then starts to head for it, swiveling on his heel and walking backwards just to see if she's coming with. ]
[ julie steps back once she's on the ground so eddie has space to come down, looks up to watch him just in case he slips because it would be pretty embarrassing for both of them if julie came out here to save his ass and then eddie died from a short fall off the side of a tree. ]
[ quiet is good, but it's not safe, julie knows that. as she follows eddie toward the gate she casts the odd look around, just to make sure. almost misses it when she sees the snowfall way off to their right, who knows if it's even seen them, but the change in julie's demeanour is immediate. instantaneously drops her shoulders and runs at eddie, practically tackles him if not for the way she also wraps an arm around his middle and another over his legs to hoist him up on her shoulder without slowing down any. ]
[ regardless of whether or not it saw them, julie's not risking being slow about getting out of there, and she's faster than both it and, more importantly, eddie. so she's just gonna pick him up and sprint the fuck out of there and he can't stop her. ]
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I only care this much now because you keep denying it. [ a pointed raise of her eyebrows punctuated by a drag on the cigarette. ] I just thought it was funny because I would never in a million years have guessed Harrington did it for you, let alone in his little sailor boy shorts.
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and then, you know. hawkins went to hell in a hand basket, and through a series of very unfortunate and traumatizing events, eddie got to know steve, and he figured out pretty quickly that - yeah. people do change, and steve - steve's a pretty decent guy. and also attractive, but that's irrelevant. mostly. it should be, but julie won't fucking let it go.
eddie doesn't say anything for a minute. he smokes his cigarette and he pointedly ignores julie, like he's not even gonna bother anymore with arguing if she's just gonna keep insisting that he's lying (because he is). he looks around the small, cramped tree house just to kill some time, rubs his tongue against the roof of his mouth to chase the rest of the acrid listerine aftertaste away, and it's not until he's burned his cigarette nearly down to the filter that he says anything. ]
... He's not what he seems, you know. Or, no - I guess he's exactly what he seems. Now. I used to hate the guy, but I barely knew him. Turns out, sometimes when you get to know someone, they're not as bad as you thought they'd be.
[ eddie turns his head and looks at julie pointedly, because this is not a sentiment that applies exclusively to steve. he goes to stub his cigarette out on the floorboard by his knee but then thinks better of it - with his luck, he'd light the whole damn treehouse up with them inside it - and rubs it out on the leg of his jeans instead.
he looks at julie again, offers a half shrug. presses his lips together for a moment, like he's debating his next words, and then just decides - fuck it. ]
Never saw him in shorts until here. He's got nice legs. Are you happy? [ he laughs. ] Jesus.
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Yes. [ she laughs a little herself, leans over and bumps him with her shoulder. ] God, that was like pulling teeth.
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Yeah, whatever. [ he rolls his eyes, like she's being dramatic and exaggerating, like it was never that serious even though he's the one who was trying to dance around having to give a straightforward answer, or just straight up trying to lie. ] You're a freak.
[ he looks at julie, and it's clear in his expression that that's freak (affectionate) and not freak (derogatory). after a beat, he looks away... and starts to empty his pockets out into the small space between them, mostly just everything he stole from the cars down the street. when he fishes out the small, disposable camera, he turns it over in his hands like he's never really seen one before, at least not like this - but it seems pretty straight forward. he thumbs at the little wheel at the top right, winds the film, and then without really bring it up to his face, he turns it and points it at julie and snaps a picture, flash on and everything.
eddie laughs, a little surprised by the flash. ]
Oh, shit. Sorry.
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Takes one to know one.
[ it's similarly freak (affectionate) on her end, a small smile staying on her face as she leans forward to put her cigarette out on the sole of her shoe, totally unprepared for when that flash goes off and blinds her for a split second, which she doesn't appreciate at all. ]
Oh great. [ she rubs her eyes with her thumb and forefinger, still with enough of a smirk on her face to give away that she thinks it's at least a little funny despite the deadpan delivery. ] Now it's like Harrington's here too.
[ flashlight clicking jerk ]
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his attention is easily drawn away though when julie mentions harrington for what feels like the millionth time in the last hour or so. he rolls his eyes, but there's something vaguely playful in his expression. ]
I'm not putting on shorts for you.
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[ she shakes her head, reseats the sunglasses on top of her head, and fixes eddie with a playful smirk in return. ]
But I might be able to be bribed.
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he looks away from her, leans his head back against the wall, lulls his head to look at her again. her stupid little smirk. ]
You already stole my cigarettes. What more could you want?
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[ her smirk turns a little impish as she looks at him, head tilted as if she's thinking hard about this, and she slouches against the wall with a shrug. ]
Better question is what you'd be willing to offer.
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eventually, his brow softens and the corner of his mouth slowly starts to curve up in the barest hint of a smirk. slowly, he leans closer to her, makes a small gestures with his hand like he's beckoning for her to come closer too. regardless of whether she obliges him, eddie tilts in kind of close to her ear, his voice real low like he's offering her something of high value that he doesn't want anyone else to know about. he doesn't even know what it is he's meant to be negotiating for, but does that stop him?
absolutely not. ]
I'll wear the costume for you.
[ that's right, that stupid little ren-fair looking bullshit he sometimes turns up in trial wearing, with the lute and everything. is he being serious? of course not, even eddie knows julie could never properly appreciate the art of balloon pants and dark red velvet. but that's what makes it funny.
just as quietly, like the offer is even tempting at all, he says, ]
You know the one.
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[ so she leans toward him, head bowed, eyebrows raised. real intently listening. it takes a second for her to even process what he just said, and when she does her laughter comes out in a sudden bark that surprises even herself, and she clamps her hand over her mouth to muffle it as much as she can. ]
Shut the fuck up. [ still laughing, she puts a hand on his chest to shove him away. ] I hate that fucking thing.
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when julie pushes at his chest, eddie instinctively closes his hand around her forearm, mostly to keep himself from being knocked over regardless of the strength behind the shove. he doesn't let go though, barely even aware he's latched onto her as he smiles back, a teasing lilt in his tone. ]
Ah, the lady doth protest too much, methinks. [ he raises his brows slightly, tilts his head so he has to look at her through his lashes a bit. ] You like it a little bit. It's okay.
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[ like a bull seeing red whenever she catches sight of that stupid little cape, and then he does his stupid medieval talk and it drives her nuts. she wants to just push him over like an obnoxious child. julie gives him the tiniest little shake of her head, voice low since they're this close now apparently, refusing to let the amusement dancing at the edges of her expression fully manifest by pure strength of will. ]
You have no idea how much self-restraint dealing with you takes sometimes.
[ does she sound a little frustrated by that? it's probably just because she wants to bully him mercilessly and no other possible reason. ]
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idly, his thumb rubs a lazy line against her wrist that he's not even really that aware of. the thread of frustration in her tone intrigues him and he takes a second to just look at her. eddie's gaze flits up to the cheap sunglasses perched on her head, down to her eyes, down again for the briefest of moments to the shape of her mouth before darting back up.
he tilts his head, keeps his voice low. ]
No? [ eddie slowly lifts his other hand, reaches and nudges the arm of her sunglasses so they slide down over her eyes. absently brushes a loose strand of her hair back without much thought. ] If I'm so bad, why'd you come all the way out here?
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[ the thing is she plays the part well but julie's really not as confident or self-assured as she comes across. she masks it well, the bitchy, violent girl is a comfortable place to settle for her, but when it's like this? with nothing to lean on? only one person really knows that about her, and she's pretty fucking keen on keeping it that way. ]
[ it does piss her off a little, the way this has her floundering and unsure of herself all of a sudden, though at least the sunglasses hide the brief flash of panic in her eyes when she realises it. julie makes to move away a little, straighten up again. put some distance between them and make some attempt to save face here. ]
I, um-- [ she clears her throat, turns her head to look in any other direction to hide the fact that she's pretty sure her cheeks are a little pink. what a fascinating branch that is over there. ] I don't know.
[ ... jesus christ. fuck. what if she just jumped out the window right now? he couldn't stop her. ]
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but he doesn't know what she's thinking. he doesn't know if by putting her on the spot, he's managed to dig under another layer of skin. what he does know, though, is that the moment's been lost, whatever the moment may have been, and that's - fine. julie clears her throat and pulls away and eddie doesn't hesitate to let go of her wrist so she can put however much space she wants between them. does he catch the new color in her cheeks? it's hard to tell.
eddie doesn't say anything right away. lets the silence hang for a few seconds after her i don't know. he looks at the random assortment of stolen knickknacks he's unloaded from his pockets, then starts to pick them up at a slow pace, filling his pockets back up. ]
Sure you do. [ he says eventually, only briefly glancing over at her. he picks up the disposable camera, considers giving it to her for her to keep, then sets it back down. ] I do all the dangerous dirty work, and you profit by undercutting my earnings.
[ or, you know. stealing his pilfered cigarettes. ]
Very capitalist of you.
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[ she can still feel the ghost of his hand on the side of her face, but shrugs it off, turning her head to look down at the pile of stuff he's putting back in his pockets. still pointedly not looking at him, but that's no big deal. ]
Yeah, that's me. [ light, sarcastic. maybe lacking the punch she usually has, but maybe not. ] Big cigarette baron.
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it makes her look young, he thinks. not in a bad way, because it's not as if she's not young, but she just looks... like a regular person. like someone eddie could know outside of a place like this. he shoves a pen into his vest pocket, picks the camera back up and carefully balances it on the peak of one of her knees. she'd probably get more use out of it than he would, and besides - where the hell is he going to develop pictures in the middle of the woods. sure, nancy's boyfriend might know, from what he's heard, but it's still... doubtful. ]
Lucky for you, [ eddie says quietly, starting to shift up onto his feet, staying in a low crouch for now. he dusts his hands off on his haunches, then rests his arms on his knees. ] I kinda dig powerful women.
[ and that's all he says before he straights up a little and moves toward the window to peek out, looking for that freaky mass of... frozen meat, or whatever the hell the dredge is today. ]
I think we could probably make a run for it.
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[ how would she even develop it? maybe byers knows, but she doesn't want to ask him for anything. better him than ghost face though, she supposes. ]
Shut up.
[ she snorts at his little comment, powerful women, sure. tempted to push him over when she sees him pull himself into that little crouch, but she doesn't. winds up the camera instead and pushes up the sunglasses so she can look through the viewfinder. ]
Wait a sec-- Smile.
[ that's all the warning eddie gets before she snaps a photo. ]
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flinging up a hand as a delayed response, eddie squeezes his eyes shut and rears his head back a little, arm held in front of his face for a second as a useless shield. ]
Jesus - Chrrrist.
[ he blinks rapidly, trying to get the floaty white spots out of his vision, but instead of being upset about it, he just kind of laughs a little. it's fair, you know. eddie did the same thing to julie, and now they're even, even if eddie hadn't really intended to blind julie when he'd accidentally snapped a photo while fucking around.
with one hand still holding the edge of the little window, eddie rubs at his eyes with the other. ]
Maybe I'll start using flashlights a little more seriously.
[ he probably won't, but shit. he understands now why some killers get a little more aggressive (and a little more paranoid) when a flashlight is in play. ]
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Flashlights are worse.
[ it's an offhand comment, not a correction or an argument, just a fact. like somebody opening the curtains when you haven't had enough sleep and on the other side of the window is the sun. she hates them. not as much as some of the other killers do, but still. they suck! ]
[ anyway, julie pulls herself up into a similar crouch and moves past eddie to clamber out of the stupid little treehouse, because obviously she's going first. it just makes sense. if eddie wants to argue with her about it he can argue with her butt while she climbs out onto the branch. ]
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... Oh? Noted.
[ the way his eyes crinkle a little near the corners suggests he might be smiling a little behind his hand. now that he's got confirmation that flashlights bother her at least a little, he might have to start picking them up more often and working on his aim instead of leaving them in chests or handing them off to the first person he runs into mid-trial.
you know. just for fun.
eddie drops his hand away from his eyes as julie gets up and moves past him. at first, he just assumes she's about to peek out and double check that the coast is clear, so when she just - starts to climb out, he scrambles a little. doesn't grab for her or anything because he doesn't want to fuck with her balance or her grip and send her plummeting fifteen feet to the ground, but there's some flailing. why does she always have to go first?
when she's out the window enough - because he is not going to argue with her ass - he leans out of the window and looks down at her, hissing, ]
Jesus, did you even check if it was clear? [ or is she just blindly trusting that eddie did a fine enough job of looking out? ] If your ass gets Tauntauned I'm leaving you here.
[ tauntauned. like when luke was on hoth and freezing to death and han sliced open a tauntaun and shoved him inside of its carcass to keep him warm. definitely the same thing as being consumed by the snow-dredge.
anyway. once there's room, eddie climbs out after her. ]
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[ he's certainly just up and fucking vanished from generators she knows he was on enough to make her think he's pretty good at it, but fine. maybe she was just too eager to get out of there. julie pauses her descent to look around, down what she can see of the street, into the windows in the house, over her shoulder at the gardens. no sign of the thing, and that snowman getup isn't exactly stealthy. she feels like she'd see it, right? either way it's definitely not close, they would've heard that fucking wailing by now. ]
[ she also gives him a blank stare at 'tauntauned', but resumes her climb down, clearly not making the link. she just shrugs it off and decides it's probably some fantasy shit she wouldn't care about. ]
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it's quiet, and that's all that really matters. no creepy fucking wails means they should be relatively safe.
once julie's out of the way at the bottom, eddie hops down the last few feet. brushes his hands off on the front of his vest and takes an extra second to glance over his shoulder just to be sure they aren't being watched from afar, or approached from a distance. the gate's not far. eddie looks back at julie, cocks his head in the direction of the nearest exit and then starts to head for it, swiveling on his heel and walking backwards just to see if she's coming with. ]
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[ quiet is good, but it's not safe, julie knows that. as she follows eddie toward the gate she casts the odd look around, just to make sure. almost misses it when she sees the snowfall way off to their right, who knows if it's even seen them, but the change in julie's demeanour is immediate. instantaneously drops her shoulders and runs at eddie, practically tackles him if not for the way she also wraps an arm around his middle and another over his legs to hoist him up on her shoulder without slowing down any. ]
[ regardless of whether or not it saw them, julie's not risking being slow about getting out of there, and she's faster than both it and, more importantly, eddie. so she's just gonna pick him up and sprint the fuck out of there and he can't stop her. ]
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