𝙲𝚊𝚛𝚛𝚢 𝚘𝚗, 𝚕𝚎𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚐𝚘𝚘𝚍 𝚝𝚒𝚖𝚎𝚜 𝚛𝚞𝚗.

𝚂𝚊𝚒𝚕 𝚊𝚕𝚘𝚗𝚐, 𝚕𝚎𝚝 𝚢𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚙𝚊𝚝𝚑 𝚞𝚗𝚏𝚘𝚕𝚍.

𝙰𝚗𝚍 𝚒𝚝 𝚠𝚘𝚗'𝚝 𝚝𝚊𝚔𝚎 𝚕𝚘𝚗𝚐,

𝚆𝚘𝚗'𝚝 𝚝𝚊𝚔𝚎 𝚕𝚘𝚗𝚐,

𝚆𝚘𝚗'𝚝 𝚝𝚊𝚔𝚎 𝚕𝚘𝚗𝚐.

𝚈𝚘𝚞 𝚔𝚗𝚘𝚠 𝚒𝚝'𝚜 𝚐𝚘𝚗𝚗𝚊 𝚐𝚎𝚝 𝚋𝚎𝚝𝚝𝚎𝚛.

𝚈𝚘𝚞 𝚔𝚗𝚘𝚠 𝚒𝚝'𝚜 𝚐𝚘𝚗𝚗𝚊 𝚐𝚎𝚝 𝚋𝚎𝚝𝚝𝚎𝚛.

𝚂𝚊𝚢 𝚊 𝚙𝚛𝚊𝚢𝚎𝚛, 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚋𝚛𝚘𝚔𝚎𝚗 𝚋𝚘𝚗𝚎𝚜.

𝙲𝚊𝚞𝚜𝚎 𝚠𝚑𝚘 𝚌𝚊𝚛𝚎𝚜?

𝚆𝚎'𝚛𝚎 𝚊𝚕𝚕 𝚐𝚘𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚑𝚘𝚖𝚎.

𝙰𝚗𝚍 𝚒𝚗 𝚠𝚘𝚗'𝚝 𝚋𝚎 𝚕𝚘𝚗𝚐,

𝚆𝚘𝚗'𝚝 𝚋𝚎 𝚕𝚘𝚗𝚐,

𝚆𝚘𝚗'𝚝 𝚋𝚎 𝚕𝚘𝚗𝚐.

𝚈𝚘𝚞 𝚔𝚗𝚘𝚠 𝚒𝚝'𝚜 𝚐𝚘𝚗𝚗𝚊 𝚐𝚎𝚝 𝚋𝚎𝚝𝚝𝚎𝚛.

𝚈𝚘𝚞 𝚔𝚗𝚘𝚠 𝚒𝚝'𝚜 𝚐𝚘𝚗𝚗𝚊 𝚐𝚎𝚝 𝚋𝚎𝚝𝚝𝚎𝚛.

𝙸 𝚐𝚘𝚝 𝚘𝚗𝚎 𝚏𝚘𝚘𝚝 𝚒𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚐𝚘𝚕𝚍𝚎𝚗 𝚕𝚒𝚏𝚎

𝙾𝚗𝚎 𝚏𝚘𝚘𝚝 𝚒𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚐𝚞𝚝𝚝𝚎𝚛.

𝚂𝚘 𝚌𝚕𝚘𝚜𝚎 𝚝𝚘 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚘𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚛 𝚜𝚒𝚍𝚎,

𝚂𝚘 𝚏𝚊𝚛 𝚏𝚛𝚘𝚖 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚠𝚘𝚗𝚍𝚎𝚛.

It was funny.

Lennon could remember being so tired that she accidentally fell asleep in the exact position she found herself in all those weeks ago. It was easy for her to find comfort in Eddie's bed. It scared the shit out of her how comforting it was.

But this time it was different.

She had the warm air from the vent above fanning her face as she lay with her eyes closed, bundled in a white hoodie and her black denim jacket, overly exhausted both physically and mentally, but she couldn't find sleep.

Eddie asked if he could get a shower while she 'slept', and Lennon couldn't tell if her sleep troubles were because she was entirely sober now or if Eddie needed to be there with her to feel relief. She didn't think she could fall asleep no matter how badly she wanted to.

Her bones ached from the cold outside, her muscles hurt with exhaustion from the game, and her head was a minefield. There was so much she wanted to do with Eddie. There was so much she wanted to tell him. She wondered how easy it would be to see him now that school was out. But even then, she couldn't go anywhere public with him.

She couldn't fathom the idea of people judging her for holding his metaphorically blood-soaked hand. She wanted to tell everyone to fuck themselves, but she had no authority in Hawkins. She was the new girl, the fresh meat. She had no foundation, no power there. She had to build herself up if she were going to tear down those rumors herself.

She moved from her back to sit up, removing her denim jacket and wondering if she was just uncomfortable in her shoes and coat. But even when her jacket was placed across the room with her shoes underneath the chair by Eddie's computer, she still didn't think she could dream.

She was conscious the entire time Eddie was in the shower. The only company she kept was the sound of the radiator outside and the soft buzz from the several lamps Eddie had scattered around his room.

She laid still with her hands crossed over her stomach, wondering why she was so tired and unable to fall asleep.

She could hear the door outside Eddie's room pop open but she stayed still. She kept her eyes closed as she listened closely to the sound of Eddie's feet against the carpet of the hallway until he was inside his bedroom.

There was shuffling, soft grazing of clothes being picked up from the floor and desktops, and accompanied breathing from afar. Lennon continued to keep her eyes shut as she listened to Eddie's quiet pacing.

It had been about twenty minutes since his shower and about five of which he spent moving around the room restlessly in silence, not wanting to wake Lennon from the sleep she was still trying to reach.

"Eddie," she called out, causing Eddie's head to snap in her direction.

His eyes were bugged and his heart rate increased when she called his name. He thought she was asleep. He thought she would definitely be asleep by now.

"Shit. I didn't wake you, did I?" he pondered innocently.

Lennon smiled to herself and shook her head, still unable to open her heavy lids. "No," she smiled wider. "What are you doing?" she asked groggily.

"Uhm," Eddie quickly tossed a handful of dirty clothes into the hamper underneath the water-stained corner in his room. "Nothing. What's wrong?"

Lennon could tell he got closer by the sound of his voice. She guessed him to be by the dresser but there was no telling when she couldn't open her eyes.

She sighed happily and pulled her weak bones up into a sitting position. She still struggled to peel her eyes open but she managed with much restraint.

"Can you come here?" she pouted sleepily, opening her arms and finding the room to look a lot cleaner than it had when she first arrived. His clothes were picked up and the lights by the door were shut off, making the room seem dimmer and more welcoming than before. She found Eddie standing in the middle of the room wearing a pair of old plaid pajama pants and a stained, wrinkled Iron Maiden shirt. His hair was still dripping wet, dampening the collar of his shirt as he approached her and the image made Lennon even more happy for some reason.

"Are you okay?" he asked quietly, stopping a few feet from her.

"Closer?" she weakly waved her hands to usher him closer.

Eddie furrowed his brows but smiled despite his bewilderment. He had taken one step closer, bringing them much closer than he expected her to want.

"Closer," she sighed, waving for him to come closer which caused his smile to broaden.

Lennon looked up at Eddie and smiled cheekily, leaning forward and pulling him into a tight embrace to close to gap he failed to fill himself.

"Oof!" Eddie gasped as she brought him down on top of her, causing his feet to stumble as she leaned back and took Eddie with her.

"That's better," she hummed into his chest and managed to tilt their bodies closer to the appropriate length of the bed.

"You've got some strength in you... Jesus..." Eddie teased, using his elbows and knee to keep him from squashing her.

"I should hope so," she grumbled sleepily, closing her eyes and refusing to loosen her grip around his waist. "I just worked my ass off for that game tonight."

Eddie breathed heavily from his nose and rolled his weight to the side so he wasn't directly on top of her. She kept a sturdy grip on his torso but he managed to sling his legs around her body to get more comfortable. His elbows rested on either side of her arms as she clung to him for support. Her eyes had shut rather quickly and the slow rise and fall of her chest let Eddie know she was comfortably satisfied.

He shifted slightly and laid his head down on her shoulder, gently whipping the wet hair out of his eyes and settling down on Lennon's chest and stomach.

"Yeah," Eddie slid his hands underneath her biceps and warmed his fingers underneath her weight. "You looked incredible out there."

He pressed the tip of his nose into her skin and snaked his left arm up the underbelly of her upper arm and played mindlessly with a strand of hair that had fallen from her ponytail.

Lennon hummed appreciatively. "You were pretty amazing with the boys," her arms ran up his back and rested between his shoulder blades now that he was positioned lower than her. She could make out the harsh thumping of his heart in her diaphragm and once he was lain on his stomach, she was pleased with his company. "I wish I could tell a story even half as brillaint as you can."

Eddie made a strange sound in the back of his throat as he grew with disagreement.

"I don't know," Eddie stared up at her chin and grinned. "I have to sit on my words for a while before getting anything like that. You have such an effortless, instinctual way with words. That's talent."

The sound of his voice and the vibration of his chest against hers soothed her aches and pains away which made sleep much easier to find.

"You can't keep doing that," she shot back drowsily.

"Doing what?" Eddie scoffed, having done nothing wrong to have provoked her teasing comment.

"Talking," she grumbled, tightening her grip around him and nuzzling closer to the wet strands of hair at the top of his head.

"I can't talk now?" he laughed, easing her nerves with his anatomy.

"Mmhm," she pouted and furrowed her brows. "Don't do that either," she complained, causing Eddie's body to bounce with humor. "You're gonna cause me to fall asleep," she complained with a childish look of discontent.

Eddie sighed into her hoodie which smelled sweetly of her perfume. She always smelled like vanilla and sandalwood and her clothes always had that weak weed smell lingering in the undertone. It suited her perfectly. Her humor and empathy was deep like the woody notes and her exterior and kindness was sweet like the light ones with an essence of mystery hidden beneath it all.

His mind was racing with thoughts of her and she was still with him. He didn't think he would still be so enraptured by her when in her company, but she always surprised him.

"Okay," he smiled, shrugging and quickly moving to place a gentle kiss to the tip of her chin before trailing down her jaw and onto her neck.

His eyes were roguish but Lennon would never know. Her eyes were peacefully shut and her body was being lulled to sleep by Eddie's tender puckering so there was no way for her to know Eddie's secret plans.

He knew what he was doing but there was a sense of accomplishment when she didn't suspect his seemingly innocent kisses to be intensifying the longer she allowed them. He was getting away with doing something that was bound to get him in trouble whenever she found out. But he couldn't stop. It was too tempting.

"You can't do that either..." she giggled with a deranged drawl to her sleepy voice after a minute of his gentle kissing.

Eddie chuckled having satisfied himself with the art he painted in her skin. He knew there was a chance she would've felt it, but he had a way of working in an arpeggio that allowed him to turn his tender kisses into sharp sucklings which she failed to noticed. And that satisfaction was too grand not to smile upon.

"Fine," he set a cloud of warm air over her neck as he breathed heavily. "And it all began the day that he was born. The boy looks up, the sky's blue, the sun so warm..."

"What the hell are you doing?" she started to laugh deliriously.

"I can't talk, I can't laugh, and I can't kiss you," he listed off her rules. "You never said I couldn't sing. And if you have a problem with White Lion, there's something wrong with you. At time spent. The young ones on the loose!"

"By the angels..." she turned her head and giggled.

Eddie chuckled and let his singing turn to a hum. It didn't take long for Lennon to fall asleep shortly after that.

She had been encapsulated by his body, finding security underneath the pressure he supplied and she had been lulled to sleep by the soft buzz from his deep, resonating song. Eddie didn't even finish the song before the grasp she had on his torso loosened considerably and the weight of her arms got extremely heavy.

Eddie wasn't nearly as tired as Lennon was and considering it was must have been somewhere around ten at night, his mind was awake and thinking about her.

He found her pulse against his forehead and waited a few minutes before trying to wiggle free to turn the lights off.

As soon as he lifted his head off her shoulder, leaving a large damp spot in his wake, she winced and Eddie immediately froze.

He was on his elbows when she sighed and fell back to sleep. Eddie stared at her relaxed face and laid there admiring her when she couldn't see him watching.

She had a scatterplot of freckles across her face that weren't overly noticeable before. Her jaw wasn't tensed but her cheeks looked slightly sunken when she slept. The blush on her face remained pink but the redness of her lips went down as she eased off of her earlier elation.

After a few minutes of sculpting every dip and curve of her face, Eddie tried moving again and managed to crawl to his side before she stirred again. Her hands clutched his sides and she too shifted to her side.

Her arm was underneath his body and her other one was wrapped securely around the other side. She had pulled her nose to his chest and Eddie knew he was stuck now. His face went slack as he shot Lennon a look of disbelief that she would never see.

Eddie sighed and settled back on one of his elbows in defeat. He knew he wouldn't be able to go to sleep if he tried. He couldn't get up and play guitar to keep him busy or even sneak a quick smoke break in between now and then. He couldn't risk waking her up. He knew she didn't have an easy week. She needed some rest.

So, after scanning his room for something to entertain himself with, he stopped at the book he kept by his bed. Eddie contemplated actually reading the novel Lennon lent him because he definitely did not read it to finish that paper she helped him with, but now he had no choice.

He read all her annotations and followed her directions which got him a C in Ms O'Donnell's class, but he hadn't read anything else. He didn't care about the story, he only cared about Lennon's interpretation of the novel.

He sighed when he reached over Lennon and felt the cloth-bound book between his fingers for what felt like the hundredth time since meeting her.

He opened the first page, preparing himself for the worst and the next thing he knew, his uncle was coming home and he had reached the last three chapters of the book.

Eddie flinched when the sound of the front door pulled him from the eighteenth-century English moors. He hadn't realized he was reading for so long until his uncle started mumbling and groaning in the kitchen about the lights being left on.

Eddie's uncle's head popped out from the open doorway with a look of irritation before his eyes fell to Lennon curled up into his chest, still keeping her arms secured around him.

"Well ain't that cute," he stated sarcastically. "You know what ain't cute is running up my electricity bill, boy," Wayne spoke lowly to make sure he didn't bother Lennon.

"But isn't this kind of arrest easier to forgive?" Eddie offered him a guilty smile as he closed the book over his thumb and presented Lennon's backside to his uncle in hopes of catering to a sentimental part of the man that Eddie knew existed deep inside his cold carcass. "I'm stuck."

"So this arrest should hypothetically be the easiest arrest you will ever get yourself out of," Wayne grumbled in disbelief.

"You have bail?"

"Yourself," Wayne hissed blandly. "To get yourself out of."

"You'd be surprised," Eddie smiled like he did when he was a child found smoking cigarettes at the age of ten when he visited his uncle. It got him out of trouble then, it continued to get him out of trouble many years later, and it still got him out of trouble now. Eddie managed to pull that old man's heartstrings because something changed in Wayne's posture when Eddie smiled.

"Be more mindful next time, would you?" he asked politely.

"Yep," Eddie pressed his lips together in a straight line and gave his uncle a thumbs up.

"And you make sure she gets home alright, you hear me?" Wayne insisted protectively.

He could excuse the lights, but he wouldn't excuse his nephews lame attempt to leave an innocent girl high and dry after getting whatever he wanted from her. It only happened once. The first time when Eddie was about fifteen. And ever since Wayne ridiculed him and taught him how to treat a girl, even the ones he didn't want to see again, he never did it again.

And it was different with Lennon, Wayne could see that very clearly. She wasn't like any of the other girls or women Eddie brought home. She was clean, polite, innocent, and if that weren't enough, he could see the change in Eddie. His nephew was acting differently with her. He spoke differently and respected boundaries with her which was never an issue in the past with women but still meant something to Wayne's opinion of her. Lennon was different and Wayne wasn't going to have his nephew corrupt her.

"Jesus," Eddie rolled his eyes. "Obviously," he grumbled.

"You better," Wayne shot back groggily. "Night, Eddie," he flicked the switch and turned everything in Eddie's room black.

"Wait!" Eddie hissed in a yell-whisper, causing Wayne to come back to the doorway. "Can you leave the light on for ten more minutes? I just have three more chapters and-"

"You have got to be kidding me..." Wayne grumbled and walked away, leaving the cheerleader and the drug dealer in utter darkness.

Eddie sighed and slid the ribbon into the page he didn't get to finish and tossed the book towards the foot of the bed. He had laid down beside Lennon with a weary head full of possible endings to the story. That soon dissipated when she shifted in her sleep and pulled him closer if that were even humanly possible.

Eddie's eyes closed at the reassuring feeling and nuzzled his nose into the top of her head, catching a whiff of dried hairspray and lavender. He wrapped his arm around her and sighed before she mumbled something.

Eddie wondered if Wayne and he had woken her up but her eyes were still closed and soft snores filled the air after the words left her lips. It was incoherent at first and it was a long string of words Eddie didn't quite comprehend when she was dazed and groaning into his chest. He didn't think they would ever make sense since it was like hearing only half a conversation.

It took him a moment to realize what she said but when he did, a softhearted smile spread across his tired face.

"Of course's it's Eddie. It's always been Eddie... Always will be Eddie."