Uh huh, and what happens when Solvunn gets scared the goats are no match for you? All that's left is Thorne.

[ He’s being evasive, sure, and it’s only because he refuses to let Clarisse have this so easily. She was a key component in finally pushing he and Steve in the right direction—probably the biggest component, actually—but does she really need all of that to go to her head? Eddie thinks not. So he intends to be stubbornly evasive for a little longer, but, he really is totally incapable of the art of subtlety and may as well spill and get it over with. ]

A few months. He was pretty upset, you know.

[ He doesn’t say, but it’s clear he’s talking about Steve. Again. And while they hadn’t really discussed it, it had been Clarisse and Dustin one after the other, all in the comparatively recent wake of Nero’s death. Anyone would be upset by that. ]

And—even though you’re totally twisting my arm here? I wasn’t totally ecstatic to be rid of you either.

[ He wasn’t ecstatic at all. Eddie uses humor for a lot of things: as a shield, to relieve anxiety, and to show affection. In some form, he’d known Clarisse for hundreds of years, and that’s the rapport he’d formed with her. Despite the intense level of teasing and bullying she’s capable of, it really wasn’t a connection he ever wanted to lose. ]