the shire is burning [eddie munson x OC]

chapter forty two

Time heals all wounds.

Or at least, time allows for black eyes to slowly fade and for busted lips to scab over.

It takes nearly a week for both Steve and Eddie's faces to get back to semi-normal. But they do, slowly and surely. As the wounds on their faces heal, Willow watches as some of the internal wounds heal, as well.

Her and Steve are no longer avoiding each other, working together rather than forcing Robin to trade her shifts around. He's back to picking the girls up from school, and Willow accepts the offer most days, solely because Eddie is a bit busy. He's planning a particularly brutal campaign in honor of Halloween, now only three weeks away, as well as trying to dedicate more time to band practice with Corroded Coffin.

Willow still attends their show on Tuesday. This time, she plays nice with the groupies that pine hopelessly after the boys. She still isn't sure where they came from, not recognizing them from school, but she lets bygones be bygones.

Especially when Eddie makes a point to makeout with Willow in front of them after the latest show.

Their kisses have gotten more intimate these days. It's no longer quick pecks goodbye - they grow deeper, sometimes getting them scolded by a passing teacher in the hall or a groan from one of the younger members of Hellfire that catch sight of it. Willow's worry of their makeout lessons being useless to them after Jason has disappeared. Any excuse Eddie Munson finds to stick his tongue down her throat, he takes. And each time, it still drives her just as crazy as the first time he'd done it.

Jason leaves them alone. Nothing came of the fight at Denny's. No one called the cops, no one pressed charges. They should all consider themselves lucky. Although, Jason seems to be a bit distracted lately, as the deadline for O'Donnell's project is nearing. October 11th. It was currently October 9th. They had two days to finish their partnered reading, and clearly, even with the extended deadline, their class was filled with chronic procrastinators.

And maybe O'Donnell had sensed that. Maybe she was starting to go soft. It had to be the only sensible reason she'd offered the day up as a work day for all partners to catch up on their projects.

Willow had finished The Hobbit over a week ago, all the work to be completed alongside it also finished. It was why she wasn't too worried when Eddie refused to broach the topic during class, instead choosing to talk about anything and everything else.

"What if I made a NPC based off of the Headless Horsemen?" he muses as he looks down at his notebook he uses for campaign planning, small doodles filling in the margins.

Willow rolls her eyes, "Eddie, you still haven't answered my question. Have you finished the reading or not?"

"Oh! What about something sort of inspired by the Shining? Obviously not entirely, but loosely -"

"Edward Munson," Willow's tone grows serious. Again, she isn't worried for her grade.

She is, however, mildly worried about Eddie's grade. Her part of their deal to upkeep was getting him to graduate, after all.

His eyes meet hers, a shy smile on his lips, "Pulling out government names, are we?"

"Have you or have you not finished the reading?"

"Willow Jenkins, your lack of faith in my scholarly abilities wounds me, quite frankly."

Her shoulders sag, sighing deeply, "Okay, great . You haven't."

"I never said that!"

"You're avoiding the question. You definitely haven't."

Eddie drops his pencil softly against the notebook, finally offering Willow his full attention. "Listen, I have read some of it. Just not... all of it. I still have time."