[ 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. ]
[ the gate's not far, but even as they walk, eddie does a slow turn every now and then just to survey their surroundings, does a lazy little swivel just to be sure, but it seems fine, which honestly should be more of a red flag than it is. nothing ever goes "fine" for eddie any more - in fact, he can't really recall something in his life (or... afterlife, whatever the fuck this is supposed to be for him) went off without a hitch, so getting out of here scott-free doesn't feel like it should be in the cards.
because it isn't. it's during one of these half-assed turnabouts when eddie realizes something's wrong - precisely when he turns and sees julie charging toward him, almost the same way she does when she's in frenzy in a trial. only her arm isn't up, ready to jam a knife in his back. armed or not though, it's still pretty startling, so eddie throws his hands out a little like he's trying to calm a spooked animal. too bad he's the spooked animal. ]
Whoa, whoa, hey. Julie, what the fu— [ but there's a shoulder in his ribs before he can finish, and suddenly he's feet are just - not on the ground anymore, and he's more or less face to face with julie's ass. again. what the fuck? ] Jesus H. Christ, Jules!
[ that's a screech if anyone's ever heard one, but he wasn't exactly expecting to be picked up and hauled off, especially without a damn warning. eddie flails a little, only slightly panicky because he has no idea what's going on, and manages to brace his hands against julie so he can get a little bit of leverage and lift his torso enough to look behind them. ahead of himself, behind her. whatever. if his hands happen to plant right at the top of her ass, it's purely coincidence.
it takes eddie a second to catch sight of the dredge in all its fucked up winter glory, definitely slinking in their direction. and you know? this is fine. eddie's totally fine with this, with context. ]
[ julie's instant response is a hissed shut up in response to eddie's screeches, but judging by his next addition, it's definitely seen them. now that she's in motion though? she's not worried. there aren't many killers who can keep up with legion, and dredge sure as fuck isn't one of them. ]
[ clearing the gate bolsters her confidence, as does chancing a glance over her shoulder because she's pretty sure it's further behind them than when she started running. ]
Eat shit, Frosty the Slowman! [ she is feeling that adrenaline high for sure, because she usually doesn't, you know. yell insults at the killers who are a little (or a lot) more monster than person. ] This one's mine, you waste of a snowdrift!
[ julie... might regret that when she remembers later, but right now she's high on that untouchable feeling she used to get back home, when they would just barely manage to escape some stupid situation without getting picked up by the cops. even if it keeps following them, she knows she can lose it easy enough once the woods start to thicken around them as she runs deeper into the fog. ]
[ with every step julie takes, their odds of getting the hell out of here and losing the abominable snow-nightmare creep higher and higher, and eddie's mild panic reshapes itself into something closer to giddy adrenaline. julie's sick burns definitely help, and he finds himself laughing more than he expects to. frosty the slowman is comedy gold to him, apparently. ]
Yeah! Eat shit you goddamn slowcone! [ not as good as frosty the slowman, but he laughs all the way through, taking one hand off of julie so he can throw up a middle finger at the dredge's shrinking form. ] Can't take what's already taken!
[ whatever that means. eddie's just riffing off of julie and coasting on the high of shittalking a killer he would normally, in every other circumstance, never intentionally engage with for any reason. turns out he's a little bolder when he feels safe. wild that he feels safe draped over the shoulder of someone who regularly threatens to cut him open, and sometimes actually does. ]
[ julie's laugh comes out loud and bright, though more of a cackle than anything. she keeps sprinting until she's sure they're safe, where the woods are thick around them and there's no way the dredge could possibly know which way they went or how far away they are. then she breathes out a soft okay and carefully bends over to put eddie back on his feet. ]
[ and then stays bent over, knees slightly bent, hands holding her legs just a couple inches above her ankles while she catches her breath. holy shit. even boosted as she is by the entity, running that much with a fully grown person on her shoulder is still a lot. ]
[ normally, the woods creep him out a little - it's dark, and there's no telling who's slinking around in the fog at any given moment, especially this far from a campfire - but the fact that there are zero lockers out here makes eddie feel a lot safer. the dredge could probably catch up to them if it really wanted to, but at least there's comfort in knowing it's not gonna just - bust the fuck out of nowhere with no warning out here.
when julie puts him down, eddie's still laughing, still cruising on that adrenaline high. a little out of breath because being draped over julie's shoulder made it a little difficult to get a full breath, what with his ribs being crushed under his own weight, but he doesn't seem to mind. eddie looks down at her, shaking his head and grinning. ]
[ julie laughs and looks up at eddie, and she reaches out to put a hand on his hip and give him a light shove for his trouble. ]
Got you out of there, didn't I?
[ is she insane? maybe. she used to take dumb risks like this more when they first showed up, before the full scope of their situation had really set in. petty vandalism and theft all over the likes of macmillan and coldwind. running eddie out of there wasn't exactly hard, but it still felt good. ]
[ instinctively, eddie catches her wrist for a second when she shoves him, just to keep his own balance even though he's not really at much of a risk of tipping over. not as much as she might be, anyway. but he lets go just as quickly, expends a little pent up energy by pacing around in short back-and-forths in front of her just to get some of that adrenaline out of him. ]
Yeah, [ he says, a little breathy because it's tacked onto a light, curious laugh. why did she do that? eddie doesn't believe julie's just as brutal out of a trial as she is in one, but it still makes him curious that she came all the way out here just to make sure he didn't get his ass devoured by a creature she seemed to be at least mildly afraid of - and then scooped his ass up and carted him the fuck away like it was nothing, like his added weight wouldn't slow her down at all and also potentially put her at risk.
eddie turns on his heel, but instead of packing back the other way, he suddenly drops into a crouch in front of julie, his weight rested on his haunches. he ducks his head a little, just so he can see her face a little better, and raises his eyebrows slightly, a smirk pulling at the corner of his mouth. ] Doesn't change the fact that you're nuts.
[ his eyes dart back and forth between hers, like he's trying to figure something out, smirk fading but not in any way that should come off as concerning, and he subconsciously wets his lips. ]
[ julie looks back at him when he crouches, gaze meeting his, a smirk of her own tugging at her lips. she's quiet for a long few moments, just watching him as his eyes move, trying to figure out what's going through his mind. she has no idea though, never really does, he still manages to surprise her often enough. probably because he's a lunatic and a freak, a real 'takes one to know one' kind of situation. ]
Be pretty embarrassing for me if I came out here to save your ass and then you got eaten anyway.
[ she mirrors him, tongue darting out to wet her lips, briefly thinking about back there in the garden — eddie's hand splayed against her ribs when they were hiding, bodies pressed back against that fence, or tucking her hair away. ]
[ she shakes her head with another small laugh. what a day. ]
[ eddie watches her tongue peek out, listens to that quiet laugh and memorizes the way her eyes shine just the slightest bit more when she's smiling, and he thinks - fuck it. he likes to think he's good at reading people, and for the most part he is, but getting a read on julie feels impossible sometimes. or maybe it's not that hard, and eddie's just hoping if he doesn't look too deep, he won't find something he doesn't really want to find. like - rejection, or whatever else. why the fuck it matters to him whether or not a literal murderer likes him is anyone's guess, but.
well. she's not wrong about him being a lunatic and a freak. maybe not for the reasons she thinks, but it's not a bad assessment. ]
Yeah. [ there's that word again that he keeps repeating in lieu of anything else to say. he's distracted, so expecting eloquence from him here is maybe asking a little too much. eddie's eyes dart back and forth again, drop down for a brief, fleeting moment before snapping back up. he shakes his head slightly, and slowly shifts his weight forward onto his knees, balances between them and his haunches. when he speaks again, his voice is low, almost like he's talking mostly to himself and not julie. ] Oh, you're gonna kill me for this, but if I'm gonna die out here I'd pick you over that thing every time.
[ and then, kinda quick, eddie reaches up with both hands, holds both sides of her face, and pushes up onto his knees just enough so he can kiss her without having to pull her down to him, his heart hammering in his throat. ]
[ considering eddie doesn't seem to know how to stay in one position longer than a couple minutes at best, julie doesn't think much of it when he shifts onto his knees. if anything, she has a passing thought about the fact that she's still bent over in half like an idiot. ]
[ not that she gets much more of a chance to think or do anything about it, giving about a couple of seconds to be confused about whatever the fuck eddie just said before he has her face in his hands and-- oh. she makes a small noise of surprise that maybe comes out a little like a squeak, he might not be pulling her but julie still stumbles anyway and puts out a hand to grab eddie's shoulder for stability. ]
[ she does, however, kiss him back when the surprise wears off. puts her other hand down by the side of his neck and tilt her head into it. ]
[ if he's honest with himself, eddie's expecting a knife in the ribs for this, but he's accepted his fate - so when the sharp sting of a blade being wedged into his chest doesn't come, when a hand grabs for his shoulder and doesn't shove him backwards onto his ass - when another hand finds the side of his neck and julie's still there, he almost doesn't know what to do.
he knows he can't fumble this, though. not when it's going better than he anticipated, not when julie is kissing him back. eddie sighs through his nose, tilts his head too and slides one of his hands back, his fingers combing her hair away from one side of her face. ]
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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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because it isn't. it's during one of these half-assed turnabouts when eddie realizes something's wrong - precisely when he turns and sees julie charging toward him, almost the same way she does when she's in frenzy in a trial. only her arm isn't up, ready to jam a knife in his back. armed or not though, it's still pretty startling, so eddie throws his hands out a little like he's trying to calm a spooked animal. too bad he's the spooked animal. ]
Whoa, whoa, hey. Julie, what the fu— [ but there's a shoulder in his ribs before he can finish, and suddenly he's feet are just - not on the ground anymore, and he's more or less face to face with julie's ass. again. what the fuck? ] Jesus H. Christ, Jules!
[ that's a screech if anyone's ever heard one, but he wasn't exactly expecting to be picked up and hauled off, especially without a damn warning. eddie flails a little, only slightly panicky because he has no idea what's going on, and manages to brace his hands against julie so he can get a little bit of leverage and lift his torso enough to look behind them. ahead of himself, behind her. whatever. if his hands happen to plant right at the top of her ass, it's purely coincidence.
it takes eddie a second to catch sight of the dredge in all its fucked up winter glory, definitely slinking in their direction. and you know? this is fine. eddie's totally fine with this, with context. ]
Oooh, shit. Fuck that thing, keep going!
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[ clearing the gate bolsters her confidence, as does chancing a glance over her shoulder because she's pretty sure it's further behind them than when she started running. ]
Eat shit, Frosty the Slowman! [ she is feeling that adrenaline high for sure, because she usually doesn't, you know. yell insults at the killers who are a little (or a lot) more monster than person. ] This one's mine, you waste of a snowdrift!
[ julie... might regret that when she remembers later, but right now she's high on that untouchable feeling she used to get back home, when they would just barely manage to escape some stupid situation without getting picked up by the cops. even if it keeps following them, she knows she can lose it easy enough once the woods start to thicken around them as she runs deeper into the fog. ]
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Yeah! Eat shit you goddamn slowcone! [ not as good as frosty the slowman, but he laughs all the way through, taking one hand off of julie so he can throw up a middle finger at the dredge's shrinking form. ] Can't take what's already taken!
[ whatever that means. eddie's just riffing off of julie and coasting on the high of shittalking a killer he would normally, in every other circumstance, never intentionally engage with for any reason. turns out he's a little bolder when he feels safe. wild that he feels safe draped over the shoulder of someone who regularly threatens to cut him open, and sometimes actually does. ]
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[ and then stays bent over, knees slightly bent, hands holding her legs just a couple inches above her ankles while she catches her breath. holy shit. even boosted as she is by the entity, running that much with a fully grown person on her shoulder is still a lot. ]
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when julie puts him down, eddie's still laughing, still cruising on that adrenaline high. a little out of breath because being draped over julie's shoulder made it a little difficult to get a full breath, what with his ribs being crushed under his own weight, but he doesn't seem to mind. eddie looks down at her, shaking his head and grinning. ]
Dude. You're insane.
[ but like. insane (affectionate). ]
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Got you out of there, didn't I?
[ is she insane? maybe. she used to take dumb risks like this more when they first showed up, before the full scope of their situation had really set in. petty vandalism and theft all over the likes of macmillan and coldwind. running eddie out of there wasn't exactly hard, but it still felt good. ]
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Yeah, [ he says, a little breathy because it's tacked onto a light, curious laugh. why did she do that? eddie doesn't believe julie's just as brutal out of a trial as she is in one, but it still makes him curious that she came all the way out here just to make sure he didn't get his ass devoured by a creature she seemed to be at least mildly afraid of - and then scooped his ass up and carted him the fuck away like it was nothing, like his added weight wouldn't slow her down at all and also potentially put her at risk.
eddie turns on his heel, but instead of packing back the other way, he suddenly drops into a crouch in front of julie, his weight rested on his haunches. he ducks his head a little, just so he can see her face a little better, and raises his eyebrows slightly, a smirk pulling at the corner of his mouth. ] Doesn't change the fact that you're nuts.
[ his eyes dart back and forth between hers, like he's trying to figure something out, smirk fading but not in any way that should come off as concerning, and he subconsciously wets his lips. ]
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Be pretty embarrassing for me if I came out here to save your ass and then you got eaten anyway.
[ she mirrors him, tongue darting out to wet her lips, briefly thinking about back there in the garden — eddie's hand splayed against her ribs when they were hiding, bodies pressed back against that fence, or tucking her hair away. ]
[ she shakes her head with another small laugh. what a day. ]
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well. she's not wrong about him being a lunatic and a freak. maybe not for the reasons she thinks, but it's not a bad assessment. ]
Yeah. [ there's that word again that he keeps repeating in lieu of anything else to say. he's distracted, so expecting eloquence from him here is maybe asking a little too much. eddie's eyes dart back and forth again, drop down for a brief, fleeting moment before snapping back up. he shakes his head slightly, and slowly shifts his weight forward onto his knees, balances between them and his haunches. when he speaks again, his voice is low, almost like he's talking mostly to himself and not julie. ] Oh, you're gonna kill me for this, but if I'm gonna die out here I'd pick you over that thing every time.
[ and then, kinda quick, eddie reaches up with both hands, holds both sides of her face, and pushes up onto his knees just enough so he can kiss her without having to pull her down to him, his heart hammering in his throat. ]
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[ not that she gets much more of a chance to think or do anything about it, giving about a couple of seconds to be confused about whatever the fuck eddie just said before he has her face in his hands and-- oh. she makes a small noise of surprise that maybe comes out a little like a squeak, he might not be pulling her but julie still stumbles anyway and puts out a hand to grab eddie's shoulder for stability. ]
[ she does, however, kiss him back when the surprise wears off. puts her other hand down by the side of his neck and tilt her head into it. ]
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he knows he can't fumble this, though. not when it's going better than he anticipated, not when julie is kissing him back. eddie sighs through his nose, tilts his head too and slides one of his hands back, his fingers combing her hair away from one side of her face. ]
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