[ 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. ]
[ it'd be an out and out fucking lie if julie said she hadn't been thinking about this for some time now, basically since they first met, but this is still not on the extensive list of ways she'd thought about to kiss eddie for the first time. she mumbles something a little incoherent against his lips, just a slight warning as she carefully bends and lowers herself onto a knee without pulling away from this. ]
[ though-- the temptation to shove him on his ass is there, for a multitude of reasons, but julie manages to resist it. she instead lets one of her hands slip down to his chest, balls it into a fist in his jacket to hold him. ]
[ eddie doesn't have a fucking clue what she murmurs against his mouth, but he nods anyway like he understands. to his credit, he is listening, but it's a little hard to focus when his heart's beating up in his ears and his mind is screaming at him not to fuck this up, but he figures if he's not bleeding out from a knife wound in his gut, he can assume that whatever it was she was trying to tell him was positive.
the hand pushing through her hair settles at the back of her neck, fingers tangled up in it so it stays out of her face. his other hand drifts from the side of julie's face, following her arm to her wrist, where she's gripping at the front of his jacket which is... more attractive than expects it to be. he opens his mouth a little, just so he can tentatively catch her lower lip with his teeth, and sinks some of his weight back onto his heels, tugging her with him so they don't drift apart.
eventually, though, he pulls away, but only enough so there's space for him to breath. eddie swallows, darts his tongue out over his lower lip like he's chasing the taste of her mouth even though it's only been a literal second since he broke away. he clears his throat, eyes open halfway and focused on the shape of her mouth, hand still buried in her hair. ]
So, uh. [ he clears his throat again because his voice is a little gravelly, and then he laughs a little under his breath. ] If you're gonna gut me... at least give me a head start?
[ julie moves with him easily, intensely focused on the feel and the taste of his lips and mouth against hers, pretty sure she can taste a hint of those stupid listerine strips which registers as faintly amusing enough to make her smile just a little. ]
[ when he pulls away, she opens her eyes to look at him, bites her lip out of uncertainty because... what now? do they talk? do they go back to kissing? do they act like this never happened? a whole bunch of questions go through her mind, pretty much detailing every reason she's never kissed him no matter how many times she's thought about it. part of her already thinking maybe they should just totally lie to themselves and brush this off as being because of the adrenaline when he speaks and interrupts that thought. ]
I'm not gonna gut you. [ she laughs, a little breathless, tilts her head toward his. ] Just surprised you actually went for it-- if you knew how many times I had to stop myself... [ she trails off into another soft laugh. all that self-restraint and now they're kissing in the dirt in the woods. ]
[ the way she bites her lip makes eddie want to surge forward and kiss her again, but he shows a sliver of self-restraint and forces himself to look up at her eyes instead, fingers flexing lightly against the back of her skull. he has no idea what she's thinking, what's about to happen from here, but the faint amusement threaded throughout her expression makes him feel like maybe he's okay, like he's not in as much danger as he was anticipating when he tossed caution to the wind and took a risk in kissing her. and even if he was at risk of being sliced open, this was definitely worth it.
but julie reassures him that she's not interested in spilling his guts all over the forest floor (right now), reveals that she too has been thinking about exactly this, and though eddie's had a feeling that there's been something here between them, it still comes as a little bit of a surprise. she's thought about kissing him? more than once? eddie could toss every luck offering he has into the campfire at once and he still doesn't think he'd be lucky enough. he's never that lucky.
julie laughs, and she smiles, and not for the first time eddie's a little awestruck by how pretty she is. he smiles too, laughs to himself because it's absurd to him still that julie's thought about kissing him at all, but you know? maybe he's finally due for one nice thing amidst all the bullshit. ]
Yeah? ... Me too. [ the tree house, the lodge, the countless times he's thought about trying to grab her through a doorway during a trial, just to try and kiss her and throw her off her game (and definitely not for no other reason), all the dozens of moments in between. his eyes shift back and forth between hers, but this time there's a little mirth behind them. his thumb rubs a lazy circle behind her ear. ] Don't hold back now...
[ eddie doesn't wait though and takes his own advice instead, using the hand on the back of her neck to pull her back in so he can kiss her again. ]
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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. ]
no subject
... 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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[ though-- the temptation to shove him on his ass is there, for a multitude of reasons, but julie manages to resist it. she instead lets one of her hands slip down to his chest, balls it into a fist in his jacket to hold him. ]
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the hand pushing through her hair settles at the back of her neck, fingers tangled up in it so it stays out of her face. his other hand drifts from the side of julie's face, following her arm to her wrist, where she's gripping at the front of his jacket which is... more attractive than expects it to be. he opens his mouth a little, just so he can tentatively catch her lower lip with his teeth, and sinks some of his weight back onto his heels, tugging her with him so they don't drift apart.
eventually, though, he pulls away, but only enough so there's space for him to breath. eddie swallows, darts his tongue out over his lower lip like he's chasing the taste of her mouth even though it's only been a literal second since he broke away. he clears his throat, eyes open halfway and focused on the shape of her mouth, hand still buried in her hair. ]
So, uh. [ he clears his throat again because his voice is a little gravelly, and then he laughs a little under his breath. ] If you're gonna gut me... at least give me a head start?
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[ when he pulls away, she opens her eyes to look at him, bites her lip out of uncertainty because... what now? do they talk? do they go back to kissing? do they act like this never happened? a whole bunch of questions go through her mind, pretty much detailing every reason she's never kissed him no matter how many times she's thought about it. part of her already thinking maybe they should just totally lie to themselves and brush this off as being because of the adrenaline when he speaks and interrupts that thought. ]
I'm not gonna gut you. [ she laughs, a little breathless, tilts her head toward his. ] Just surprised you actually went for it-- if you knew how many times I had to stop myself... [ she trails off into another soft laugh. all that self-restraint and now they're kissing in the dirt in the woods. ]
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but julie reassures him that she's not interested in spilling his guts all over the forest floor (right now), reveals that she too has been thinking about exactly this, and though eddie's had a feeling that there's been something here between them, it still comes as a little bit of a surprise. she's thought about kissing him? more than once? eddie could toss every luck offering he has into the campfire at once and he still doesn't think he'd be lucky enough. he's never that lucky.
julie laughs, and she smiles, and not for the first time eddie's a little awestruck by how pretty she is. he smiles too, laughs to himself because it's absurd to him still that julie's thought about kissing him at all, but you know? maybe he's finally due for one nice thing amidst all the bullshit. ]
Yeah? ... Me too. [ the tree house, the lodge, the countless times he's thought about trying to grab her through a doorway during a trial, just to try and kiss her and throw her off her game (and definitely not for no other reason), all the dozens of moments in between. his eyes shift back and forth between hers, but this time there's a little mirth behind them. his thumb rubs a lazy circle behind her ear. ] Don't hold back now...
[ eddie doesn't wait though and takes his own advice instead, using the hand on the back of her neck to pull her back in so he can kiss her again. ]
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