a/n: this was inspired by prom queen by beach bunny, those words have always really stuck out to me and made me think of eddie trying to conform. i thought it would be even more heartbreaking to put it in wayne’s pov, because i love wayne caring about his boy.

“If I get more pretty, do you think he will like me?”

~ end

Years later, on Corroded Coffin’s new album, Wayne finally heard the full product. He stood crying in the kitchen next to their record player, as he listened to the words of Eddie’s teenage torment.

In the times Eddie was convincing himself that he was supposed to be a girl, Wayne could hear Eddie picking up his guitar in the dead of night and plucking out chords. He would hear a gentle, pained voice amongst sobs choking out words to a song Eddie was writing.

That this boy wouldn’t make him feel unloved again.

~~

Over the years, the two boys grew closer. They moved to Chicago with Eddie’s band, where they put out their first album.

He gave Eddie a kiss on the forehead and watched lovingly as the boy shuffled in the other’s strong arms. He wondered if this was the person who’d made Eddie try to be his old self, who made his boy so unhappy. He hoped to whatever god there was that this boy was going to accept his Eddie.

Wayne came home late to his boy smiling in his sleep on the couch, cheek pressed against the shoulder of the Harrington boy. There was a snuffed joint in the ashtray and a few empty bottles of beer on the floor.

Wayne still longed to see his boy the way he was before he was affected by whoever made him question who he wanted to be.

~~

He finally saw Eddie happy again one night.

Despite all the questions Wayne had brewing, he knew better than to ask them. It wasn’t like Eddie would answer them.

His boy still wasn’t happy. He didn’t see him that way until after the earthquake. Even then, he wasn’t himself.

Eddie seemed to be perfectly happy as *Eddie*.

Eventually, Wayne’s boy came home in his old clothes. He looked just as dejected as the other days he’d come home crying. Every time he asked what was up, he shut him down. Oh, that was another thing, he was Eddie again.

But even though Ella insisted, Wayne couldn’t help but notice that “Ella”
still wasn’t happy. “She” still came home crying, as unhappy as before, possibly even moreso.

Eddie never seemed the type to pretend to be something he wasn’t, so why was he doing it now?

He tells Wayne he’s not a boy, he was wrong; he wanted to be a girl again.

Wayne had no problem making Eddie comfortable, so he did what she wanted. She wanted to be called Ella again, wanted Wayne to take her shopping for new clothes.

Wayne wonders why his boy is suddenly curling his hair again, putting on lip gloss, wearing little black dresses. He watches Eddie come home with makeup stains trailing down his cheeks, like he’d been crying.
It gets to the point that Eddie asks Wayne to stop calling him “he”.

it’s so much WORK