Archive of Our Own ^beta

Three weeks had passed and the clean-up was still in full swing. Everyone was out of the hospital, save Max.

She’d finally woken up (thank God) and Steve visited her as much as he could but between the guilt he felt whenever he saw Lucas’ tired face and Max’s unseeing eyes and Steve’s frustration with the doctors for not being able to figure out what to do and his own inability to offer any real help, he started to give the hospital a wide berth.

He just hated feeling useless.

He thought Max probably understood. At a certain point, she’d kicked most of them out anyway, saying they were suffocating her with their “constant hovering”.

Steve wasn’t sure if it was actually for her benefit or for theirs.

They were all grateful when the creep of the Upside-Down stayed relatively slow, due in no small part to whatever the hell Eleven and Chief Hopper (who was alive apparently) were doing. Steve had neither the smarts nor interest to really understand what was happening in that department and it was all way above his paygrade anyway so he stuck to his lane which was…

Trying to help.

There was a lot of rubble to be cleared out and Steve was a guy with a relatively fit form (he wasn’t like he’d been in high school but he felt sturdy now - Robin joked that he was growing into his man body) who also just happened to understand the dangers of getting too close to the seams that now criss-crossed Hawkins so he often volunteered to go to the areas where everyone else seemed extremely wary.

Surprisingly enough, the others usually joined him. Sure, they all split their time between the heavy lifting and helping at the school, but Steve was still impressed by how committed everyone was to the back-breaking labor - Mike even showed up. Jonathan also joined sometimes (which was fine, Steve was mature and cool with that and he didn’t mention how awkward it was every single time and he tactfully didn’t point out how much Jonathan and his friend who was named after a sweater always reeked of weed) and, most shockingly of all, Eddie was almost always there.

Was he good at doing hard labor? No. Did he seem MUCH more comfortable away from the main volunteer zones and solely in the presence of Steve and his friends? Most definitely.

Sure, things had improved for him since the government made up a bunch of bullshit to get Eddie off the hook for the murders - he was fully exonerated by the time he’d gotten out of the hospital, though things had been touch-and-go for a minute while he was in there. It had really reached a fever pitch when Dustin ended up screaming at a cop who tried to handcuff an unconscious Eddie to his hospital bed while Steve attempted to sweet talk their way out of it but luckily no one got punched and/or arrested and then it all calmed down after that.

The feds vouching for Eddie had helped his reputation around town but only so much. He still got stares. So he just… hung around the rest of them.

He and Robin seemed to get along like a house on fire and he apparently respected Nancy and was friendly with Jonathan and his sweater-friend (Argyle, Steve corrected himself, trying not to be a dick) and obviously the kids adored him and with Steve…

Well, Eddie was never that far away from Steve these days.

Steve wasn’t sure how it really started… at first, Eddie kept his distance but then Robin started to invite him to things and Steve couldn’t help but notice how tight the skin and dark the circles around Eddie’s eyes were most days or the way he was abnormally quiet sometimes, his expression distant and gaze empty.

One time, early on after everyone was released from the hospital, somehow Robin had convinced them all to go do something fun which turned out to be bowling - Steve was of course very skilled at it, Jonathan was surprisingly better than he would have predicted, Nancy seemed borderline deadly with her precision, Robin was a whirling dervish, Eddie seemed to think the real game was “try to hurl the ball like a shotput as hard as possible into other lanes in order to piss off everyone so Steve would have to try and smooth things over” and Argyle cheered him on.

Robin and Nancy were whispering to each other as Jonathan sat between them. His expression was miserable but Steve still couldn’t tell if that was just how his face was always destined to look. Argyle had disappeared somewhere - probably to smoke yet again - and Steve sent Eddie a side-long glance before frowning when he saw how much the other man’s eyelids were drooping.

“Hey,” Steve prompted quietly, catching Eddie’s eye when he blinked and looked blearily at him. “You okay, man?”

Eddie scrunched up his face. It was oddly endearing and borderline adorable (though it felt kind of weird to think that about a guy his age, let alone Eddie Munson) - it was nearly enough to make Steve forget that Eddie had been torturing him all evening.

“Yeah, just…” Eddie yawned, jaw cracking as he tried to offer a nonchalant shrug. “Let’s just say I’m not sleeping all that great after certain events.” He rolled his neck, eyes going a little haunted. “Nightmares, you know?”

Steve sighed because, yeah, he fucking knew.

“I’m familiar,” he said, earning a slight smile from Eddie.

“When, uh…” Eddie looked at the others, like he was worried they were listening. He leaned closer to Steve, dropping his voice. “Does that ever get better by any chance or…?”

Steve stopped and thought about it before wincing.

“Well…”

Eddie huffed out a laugh, eyebrows raising.

“Jesus, it’s that bad?”

Steve shrugged. “I mean, I guess it’s easier now.” He shook his head, feeling tired. “Talking to Robin and staying busy helps me.” He swallowed and looked away. “The nightmares still show up though, so…”

Eddie just smiled at him even though his eyes remained a bit vacant. “Staying busy, huh?” He shrugged. “I guess I can do that.”

And ever since, Steve would get calls most mornings at his house or at the store, Eddie’s exhausted voice asking, “What do you have for me today, Hoss?” like he needed Steve of all people to give him direction or something.

Hell, maybe he did. Maybe Steve needed it, too - having someone want his help, having someone who was desperate for any kind of relief, was another way he could feel useful.

Robin, of course, thought it was hilarious.

“Was that your boooooyfriend?” she quipped after Steve hung up the phone, a lollipop in her mouth as she gave him a shit-eating grin.

Steve rolled his eyes. In the past, that kind of comment would have rankled him to the point of incoherency, but now, especially coming from Robin, he just let it roll off his back with resigned annoyance.

“Hah hah,” he said sarcastically. “You’re hilarious. You should try stand-up, really dispel the myth that women aren’t funny.”

She threw a pen at him. It pinged off of his forehead and landed on the clipboard in his hand. He gave her a dirty look before he picked it up because, well, he was supposed to be doing inventory.

“Eddie thinks it’s funny,” she observed in a sing-song voice.

Steve snorted, making tic marks. “Of course he does,” he muttered. “He thinks anything I find annoying hilarious.”

Robin sighed like Steve was tragic for some reason (but what else was new) and started chomping on the lollipop.

“So what’s the plan?” she asked, clearly bored and crunching loudly.

“We’re volunteering again tomorrow,” Steve answered because she’d asked and he was also bored. “Something with a lot of manual labor so I’m sure he’ll be super-duper excited.”

“Aw, too bad I have to work,” she sighed in faux regret. “God knows I love watching men get all sweaty.”

Steve huffed out a laugh. “Yeah, I’m sure you’re crushed.”

So the next day, Steve found himself on the outskirts of town - they were trying to clear the road near a particularly ugly red chasm in the ground so more emergency vehicles could get through. They’d been at similar tasks for most of the last week but what was less usual this time was that he and Eddie would be working alone. Robin was, of course, at work and Nancy was at the school and Byers was doing something with his brother and who the fuck knew where Dustin or the rest of their little gang was.

Honestly, that was fine with Steve. He hoped they were doing something fun and just being kids for once.

When Eddie showed up, Steve stared at him wordlessly with a furrowed brow. Eddie’s attire was so inappropriate that it bordered on comical. He wore his leather jacket, even though he knew they were gonna be shoveling gravel and rocks all day, regardless of whether it was unseasonably cool out. He wore his usual torn up jeans with his seemingly pointless chains and some impractical boots.

But his shirt… he wore a fucking crop-top of all things, the words “Twisted Sister” emblazoned across it.

“May I help you with something?” Eddie asked. He cocked his head, expression amused as Steve peered at his shirt. “My eyes are up here, Harrington.”

Steve huffed in annoyance, eyes jerking to Eddie’s face and trying not to feel called out. It wasn’t like he was being a creep or anything - Eddie’s shirt was just weird.

“What the hell are you wearing, man?” he finally asked, caught between exasperation and amusement.

Eddie pursed his lips and gave Steve a look, like Steve was the ridiculous one. “The jacket is because it’s chilly and I don’t want to catch a death of cold,” he explained in a deeply condescending tone as he gestured to the jacket, “but the shirt,” he swept a hand along said shirt, “is to keep cool in the event that I get sweaty from all the stupid uber-masculine labor you keep insisting we participate in.” He cocked his head. “Duh.”

Steve just stared at him for another moment, trying to not make eye contact with his midriff.

“Yeah?” he asked, fighting a smile and raising an eyebrow.

Eddie scoffed. “Yeah. It’s just as good as your, like, Springsteen getup,” he said, gesturing dismissively at Steve.

Steve looked down at himself. He wore a white t-shirt and jeans with a rag hanging out of his pocket and, okay, he could see the similarity but he didn’t want Eddie to know that.

“This is practical,” he pointed out.

Eddie spread out his hands. “So is this!”

Steve studied him for a moment before he finally shook his head and huffed out a breath.

“Okay, dude - whatever you say.”

Eddie had been quiet after that. Usually he and Robin would fill the silence with chatter but as of yet, he’d been leaving Steve alone.

That was fine, really. Eddie’s attention was overwhelming on the best of days.

Steve studiously didn’t watch when Eddie pushed his hair back and tied it into a low ponytail, revealing more of his face than Steve was used to seeing. He didn’t make a comment on how goofy it looked because, well, Eddie was making an effort and actually doing some shoveling today.

Also… maybe goofy wasn’t the right word. Steve would almost say it looked pretty as bits of hair fell from where he had tied it back, sending it wisping around his face but that felt weird and kind of mean, like he was making fun of Eddie and calling him a girl as an insult or something. He wasn’t really sure how to frame it as a compliment so he kept his mouth shut.

He was in the middle of trying to push an especially heavy rock out of the road when he noticed Eddie turn to him out of the corner of his eye.

“So…” he started, breaking the silence for the first time in nearly an hour. He put the shovel in front of him in order to lean on it. “How’s your girrrrrlfriend?” he asked in an annoying sing-songy voice, propping his elbow on the handle and then his chin on his fist.

Steve, remembering his conversation with Robin the previous day, wondered what he’d done in a past life to deserve such irritating people in his present one.

“What girlfriend?” Steve muttered, distracted.

The rock wasn’t budging.

Eddie rolled his eyes and walked over to help, the rock finally tumbling off the asphalt.

He then shoved at Steve’s shoulder. Steve gave him an annoyed side-long look.

“Nancy Wheeler?” Eddie said. “You know - junior sleuth with a shotgun.” He mimed cocking a shotgun with the shovel. “Pew.”

Steve grimaced, avoiding his eyes and going to the next rock. Eddie followed him but didn’t move to do anything productive this time.

“Ex-girlfriend,” Steve corrected. Surely Eddie knew that.

Even so, Eddie’s eyebrows raised. “Still?”

Steve tried to shrug, swallowing down the hurt.

“Yeah. She’s sticking with Byers. I’m surprised you didn’t notice - they’ve been together around you a lot.”

Eddie gave a one-shouldered shrug. “I guess I just don’t really make other people’s business my business,” he remarked in a superior voice.

“Unless it’s my business?” Steve asked, dry.

Eddie gave him a sunny smile. “You’re a lucky man, Harrington,” he said with a smirk and a wink. Steve tried not to frown at him. Eddie then paused, looking down to dig some dirt from under his nail. “So what happened?” he asked more seriously.

Steve sighed. “Nothing really. She told me she just wants to stay friends,” he said. When it came out more wounded than he’d intended, he cleared his throat and stabbed at the ground. “Which is totally fine, you know - that’s her choice and I’m just happy if she’s happy.”

He glanced over to find Eddie watching him a bit too closely. He tilted his head, like some kind of curious, fluffy-haired bird. He was barely sweating at all (unlike Steve) but there was a bit of dirt across the bridge of his nose. Steve had the weird urge to wipe it off.

“No offense, man,” Eddie sighed, “but that kinda sounds like a crock of shit.”

His tone was sympathetic but Steve still rolled his eyes, teeth setting on edge.

“It’s just… it’s not like she owes me anything, obviously,” he explained in spite of himself, in spite of knowing that he didn’t have to explain anything, “but I just thought that she and I were, I don’t know, more on the same level than we were before.”

Eddie cocked his head in the other direction when Steve didn’t elaborate.

“And…?”

Steve huffed, frustration cresting over him in an irritated wave. He jabbed the shovel at a rock with far more force than was necessary.

“And, like, Jonathan’s become this total burnout and Nancy deserves someone who at least wants to make an effort!” he exclaimed without even thinking about it but then he immediately ran out of steam and sagged, pinching the bridge of his nose as self-loathing washed over him. “Fuck, that was an asshole thing to say,” he grunted. He gritted his teeth, pressing his eyes closed. “That wasn’t fair.” He sighed, planting the shovel into the dirt next to the road. “Shit.”

He glanced over to find Eddie still watching him, his gaze slightly knowing but also somewhat kind.

“Hey, it’s not like I’m really pals with the guy,” he said. “You don’t have to mince words on my account.”

Steve tsked. “No, it’s not that, it’s just…” He shook his head, thinking back. “He’s been through a lot of bullshit and had way too much responsibility his entire life, more than I could ever understand, and it’s not fair of me to judge him for needing to take a mental break for a minute.”

Eddie looked mildly surprised before he smirked a little.

“Even if he’s a burnout?” Steve leveled him with an unimpressed look and Eddie laughed. “Hey, maybe Nancy likes burnouts.” He grinned and Steve tried to not let it bother him. “Perhaps that means even one such as myself could have a shot with her.” He didn’t sound remotely serious but before Steve could respond, Eddie snapped his fingers and pointed at him. “Ooh, better idea: I’ve got a lot of weed at home so, with a little bit of elbow grease and a lot of dedication, we’ve got a chance to make you the man of her dreams yet!”

He knew Eddie meant it as a joke but it felt oddly personal, like he was putting salt in a wound Steve didn’t even realize was there.

He wanted to ask Eddie why the fuck he even cared. Why was he asking this shit? Was it just morbid curiosity? Did he enjoy watching Steve hem and haw and pine over Nancy Wheeler?

He opened his mouth to ask exactly that but instead a confession poured out.

“I don’t want to change, man,” he said, far more raw than he’d intended - he was just so tired. He chewed his lip, stomach twisting. “I’m down for, I don’t know, ‘personal growth’ or whatever but I still want someone to like me for who I am and just… choose me.” He scrunched up his face, feeling like an idiot for taking Eddie’s joke so seriously. “You know?”

But when he glanced over, he found that Eddie was smiling more softly now. Steve looked at him in surprise, not really expecting that kind of expression on his face.

“Yeah,” Eddie said in quiet understanding. “I know what you mean.” When Steve just blinked at him, he cleared his throat and looked away, mouth twisting into a more familiar ironic smile. “But I was just trying to think outside of the box.” He threw out an expressive arm. “Blue-skying, you know?” He smirked. “Plus I’d kill to see you high.”

Steve deflated a bit. “Outside of the box,” he muttered ruefully, ignoring Eddie’s last comment and picking up his shovel again. “I’m not very ‘outside of the box’. In fact,” he said, pointing at Eddie with the shovel, “I’d argue I’m a very inside-of-the-box kinda guy.”

Eddie balked and gave him a look like he was worried Steve might have brain damage.

“Dude, I saw you waltz around hell, shirtless, after biting the head off a demon bat,” he observed with raised eyebrows, “that’s not very inside-the-box to me.”

Steve paused as he frowned.

“It wasn’t actually hell,” he eventually grumbled.

Eddie grinned and shot Steve a finger gun.

“Still badass though.” He knocked his shoulder into Steve’s and Steve fought the urge to scowl down at where they’d touched. “But lemme know if you change your mind about being a burnout - again, I have a LOT of weed.”

He winked and Steve looked away, stomach twisting oddly again as he mused on Eddie’s words for a moment before something occurred to him.

“Just… maybe you should cut it out with that shit,” he said, sounding old and tired to even himself. He put down the shovel and pulled up the hem of his shirt to wipe at his sweating face.

“Cut out what shit?” Eddie asked, an oddly distracted quality to his voice.

Steve dropped his shirt and met Eddie’s eyes.

“The drug-dealing, Munson.”

A cloud passed over Eddie’s face, his expression shuttering and his lips forming a thin line as he looked away. Taking a breath, he undid his hair, shaking it out and letting it shield his face.

Steve immediately wished he could see his eyes again.

“Some of us need to earn money and have limited means of doing so, Harrington,” he said evenly. To his credit, he didn’t sound mad and Steve had to admit that he had a fair point.

But…

“I’m not saying that because I think it’s bad or whatever,” Steve said honestly, “it’s just…” He sighed, the world-weariness catching up to him again like it tended to so often these days. “Dustin looks up to you, man.”

He felt lame saying it but it must’ve struck some kind of nerve because Eddie quickly turned away.

“I’m not a role model, Steve,” he said quietly, jamming his own shovel into the dirt.

Steve couldn’t help but roll his eyes as he snorted.

“Well, tough titties - you are one.” Eddie sent him a wary glance and Steve tried to smile. “You could at least try to actually finish school or whatever,” he said before wincing. “I know the whole ‘being accused of murder and having to be hospitalized’ thing fucked up you graduating, but there’s still time to show Dustin that he should care about his grades - honestly, I’m worried that he’s slipping at school so any little bit would probably help.”

Eddie dropped the shovel to put his hands on his hips, brow furrowing. Between the pose, the outfit, and his expression, he looked like the world’s most bizarre disapproving teacher.

It was oddly compelling - Steve suddenly pictured Eddie at age forty-five, trying to teach band to a bunch of rowdy teenagers with his hair in a bun while wearing a pair of small reading glasses, and he had to fight hard to school his expression.

“I’m sorry,” Eddie said, just this side of bitchy, “but is Mr. ‘I’m Not Going To College For Some Reason’ lecturing me about the importance of an education?”

Steve made a face, looking away.

“Dustin doesn’t look up to me academically,” he pointed out, pulling out a rag to wipe at his hands.

Eddie narrowed his eyes. “Uh, hate to break the obvious to you, bud,” he said in mock sympathy, “but he looks up to you in every aspect.”

Steve deflated a bit, hating that he knew Eddie was at least a little right. He huffed and ran a hand through his hair.

“I don’t even know what I would go to college for,” he admitted, avoiding Eddie’s eyes. He wasn’t sure why he was telling him any of this but… Steve supposed they were kind of friends now. He didn’t have many guy friends his age anymore. “I’d probably just be a business major and end up exactly like my old man.” He noticed that Eddie cocked his head once again, seemingly intrigued by this bit of information, but Steve truly didn’t want to get into it so he continued. “Plus I can’t leave this stupid town yet.”

Eddie’s eyebrows raised. “I wasn’t aware that you wanted to leave,” he said in genuine surprise. “I just kinda figured you were a hometown kind of guy.” When Steve gave him an exasperated look, he smiled a little. “I mean… you’re not stuck here like I am.” The smile dropped from his face and he fiddled with his rings, looking down.

Steve wasn’t naive enough to ask Eddie what he meant - Steve knew that he himself came from money and money afforded him freedoms that someone like Eddie Munson wouldn’t have. It was one of the reasons Steve never asked Eddie why he stayed in Hawkins, even after the entire town turned on him.

He knew Eddie was just as trapped as he was.

Steve pressed his lips together. “I’m gonna have to stay here until either this Upside-Down shit gets worked out or the kids all graduate and leave town,” he explained before pausing as he realized something and grimaced. “Ugh, and now Erica’s in the mix so that tacks on another few years.” He threw his rag down.

Eddie blinked in surprise before his brow furrowed. “That seems like an awful lot of responsibility,” he observed carefully. “Responsibility that, perhaps, their actual families should handle and not, you know…” He gave Steve a puzzled smile. “You?”

Steve gave him a despairing look. “Everyone’s parents are completely out of touch except for Mrs. Byers but she tends to get swept up into her own crap whenever shit goes down.” He sighed, kicking at the ground. “I mean, all of this started for me because Jonathan and Nancy got sucked into some bullshit - and they still usually disappear half the time.” He squeezed the bridge of his nose. “No one… no one really looks out for the kids,” he admitted quietly. He cleared his throat, suddenly embarrassed at the vulnerability in his own voice. He tried to stop looking so burned out and instead shift his expression into one of resigned annoyance. “Trust me, those little shitheads would all be toast if someone wasn’t around to knock some sense into them.” He offered an exaggerated shrug. “And I guess I’m that lucky someone!”

Eddie just studied him for a moment and Steve fought the urge to fidget. There was something oddly assessing in his gaze and Steve couldn’t really remember the last time someone had looked at him like this… like they were taking him very seriously.

The fact that it was Eddie fucking Munson of all people just made it that much weirder.

Eventually, Eddie hummed, a little smile twitching on his lips.

“Well, I don’t know if you heard, Harrington, but there’s this newfangled thing they call ‘community college’,” he pointed out with a sweeping hand gesture, like Steve was an idiot. Maybe he WAS an idiot because he felt his brow furrow at the idea as it had never really occurred to him as a real option before. “Some say there’s one near this very town… One that, perhaps, a bright young man with a misplaced savior complex could even attend!”

For a brief moment, Steve wanted to snap at him, for being obnoxious or stupid or pushing too hard, he didn’t know - but he stopped himself. He knew the only reason he wanted to lash out was because Eddie had a point.

So instead, Steve let out a small exasperated huff of air.

“Community college, huh?” he mused.

He wondered why he hadn’t ever considered it but the reason immediately became clear: if there was someone who would never go to community college, it was Nancy Wheeler.

God, that made Steve feel pathetic.

He shook his head, pulling himself out of his reverie.

“Fine,” he said decisively. “How about this: I’ll look into community college and you can, I don’t know, get your GED or something and become less of a fucking degenerate and we can both pretend to care about our educations until Dustin either graduates or realizes we shouldn’t be his role models.” He crossed his arms, eying Eddie. “Deal?”

Eddie’s smile got a mischievous edge. “There’s no way I’m becoming less of a degenerate,” he pointed out, smirking at Steve, big brown eyes looking at him from under his eyelashes.

Steve grit his teeth, the back of his neck feeling weirdly warm.

“Deal?” he asked again, not bothering to hide his exasperation.

Eddie sighed theatrically and held out a hand. Steve peered at it for a second before offering his own for Eddie to shake. As their fingers touched, Steve noticed that Eddie’s hand was warm and dry and kind of callused, sort of like how Steve’s had been when he was playing baseball every day back in high school.

Now Steve’s hand just felt as raw as the rest of him.

“Deal,” Eddie confirmed, pumping their joined hands up and down. When Steve went to pull away, Eddie instead yanked him closer. Steve stumbled forward, pulse tripping in surprise. “How do you feel now that you’ve made a deal with the devil?” Eddie asked, dropping his voice comically low and waggling his brows stupidly.

Steve let out a controlled breath, trying to not let it bother him.

“By your logic, I’ve already met the devil,” he pointed out testily, “so clearly I’ve dealt with worse.” He gave Eddie a sarcastic smile. “Frankly, I wasn’t that impressed so you’re gonna have to try harder.”

Eddie let out a small delighted laugh and released Steve, who took a full step back to get some air. He felt himself involuntarily flex his fingers, his hand feeling a bit strange and tingly.

God, he needed to get a grip. He clearly hadn’t gotten laid in a long enough time that any human touch was making him weird.

Maybe he could get Robin to give him a hug. That might help. He had a brief moment of insanity where he considered asking Eddie but it made something uncomfortable squirm in his stomach so he immediately banished the thought.

“Touché,” Eddie chuckled. He grinned and shook his head. “I can’t believe I’m letting you try to turn me into a better person.”

Steve resisted rolling his eyes again. “You’re a fine person,” he pointed out reasonably, like a nice guy.

He could be nice.

He didn’t miss the momentary look of surprise that crossed Eddie’s face but then it was gone so fast, Steve wondered if he’d imagined it.

“I could just use some work?” Eddie guessed, eyes playful.

Steve tried to relax his jaw as it kept growing tight during this conversation.

“Sure. Whatever.”

Eddie stepped closer to lean in again, closing the distance Steve had so purposefully put between them - the dude seriously had no sense of personal space. It made Steve’s skin prickle but he didn’t move away, part of him feeling like that would say something, would give away that it bothered him.

“Caaaareful, Harringtoooooon,” Eddie said in a sing-song voice. “Trying to fix me is a lost cause.”

Steve scoffed. “I’m not trying to ‘fix’ you,” he grumbled. “I’m not delusional.”

Eddie smirked, not moving away. A ray of sunshine hit his hair in a distracting way.

Steve was losing it.

“Sure you’re not,” Eddie said in that shit-eating way of his. “You just want me to be a more responsible co-parent for Dustin.”

Steve couldn’t help but frown, hating that he could feel his ears turning red, wishing that Eddie would back up and that he could stop feeling so goddamn weird.

“We’re not - I’m not a parent, co or otherwise,” he said, frowning even harder.

Eddie made a face like Steve was tragic. “Oh, Steve… I thought you said you weren’t delusional.”

Steve took a measured breath but then his throat constricted when he realized he could smell Eddie’s leather jacket. He could tell he’d smoked recently and he caught the scent of whatever Eddie put in his hair - slightly sweet with a hint of ozone.

It wasn’t bad.

Steve was deeply troubled by how not-bad it was.

“I’m no one’s dad,” he said like a normal person who wasn’t smelling Eddie like a fucking weirdo.

Eddie bit his lip. “You’re right.” His eyes twinkled. “You’re a mom.”

Steve pressed his lips together, blood rushing in his ears. If Eddie could just step back, give him some air…

“And what does that make you?” he shot back, acid on his tongue.

Eddie didn’t look remotely intimated. “Easy,” he said in a velvet voice, eyes glinting and fixed intently on Steve’s face. He grinned like a shark. “I’m your daddy.”

Steve wasn’t sure what he was going to do for a moment - his vision flashed red and the part of him that had grown, that was a better person, silently screamed: don’t fucking punch him!

But that wasn’t what he wanted to do, was it? He just wanted to get that stupid look off of Eddie’s smug, unaffected face and… and…

Steve realized he hadn’t said anything and he was breathing kind of hard. Eddie smirked even more.

“Aw, cat got your tongue, Harrington?” he goaded.

With that, Steve did the next logical thing: he grabbed the lapels of Eddie’s jacket, lurched forward and smashed their mouths together.

Eddie made a surprised sound, breath exhaling on Steve’s cheek and the smell of leather and cloves and tobacco and weed and that fucking hairspray or mousse or whatever he put in his hair (why did it smell good? That shit never smelled good!) washed over Steve and, God, what was he doing?!

He choked before stumbling backwards to gape at Eddie in abject horror, holding up his hands as he released his jacket like it had burned him.

Well, he’d certainly gotten that stupid look off of Eddie’s face.

Good job, he thought to himself, despairing. Great fucking job.

Was he gonna throw up? He felt like he might throw up.

What was WRONG with him?!

When Steve didn’t move and just continued to stand there in stunned silence, Eddie finally opened his mouth.

“Uh… what?” he asked in a shocked and breathless voice.

Steve felt like he had a fever but also all the blood had drained from his face. His hands were numb. He still hadn’t spoken like a goddamn weirdo but when he tried to say something, anything, all that came out was an odd croaking noise.

At that, he shot one last panicked look at Eddie and fled.

Twenty minutes later, Steve found himself hammering on Robin’s door.

“Robin!” he called out sharply. He sounded panicked. He supposed that was appropriate as he was panicked. “Please be home, it’s Steve!”

He was, like, 90% sure she should’ve been done with her shift by now but, really, he had no idea what time it was. He pounded on the door again before Robin flung it open, panic on her own face.

“What is it?” she demanded. “What’s happening - what’s wrong?” She blinked at him. “Why are you all dirty?”

Steve bounced on his heels, barely hearing her questions.

“Is your mom home?” he asked, hating that his voice broke.

When Robin bit her lip and shook her head, Steve grabbed her by the arm and pushed his way inside, shutting the door behind them.

“Steve, you’re freaking me out,” Robin said, breathing weird. “Is it Vecna? Is he back? Does he have someone?” Her eyes were wide. “Is it Max - is it Nancy?”

Steve blinked at her in confusion before realizing how he’d been acting and the fact that they lived in fucking Hawkins.

“No! God, no,” Steve hastily told her. She put a hand to her chest, taking shaky deep breaths as relief flooded her face. “Sorry. Just… something happened.”

“Not related to the Upside-Down?” she clarified. When he nodded, she took another deep breath. “Cool.”

With that, she hauled off and clobbered him in the arm.

“Fuck - ow!” he cried out - damn if she couldn’t land a punch.

“What the hell is wrong with you?!” she demanded.

Steve winced, shying away and holding up his hands.

“Shit, Jesus - I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to scare you, I’m just…” He took a tremulous breath and met her eyes. “I’m fucking freaking out, Robin.”

She blinked and seemed to really take in how he looked for the first time. He wondered what she was seeing. He couldn’t tell if it was obvious or not, but he was pretty sure he was shaking all over. His stomach was in knots and he felt weirdly sweaty but cold at the same time.

Her forehead creased. “Shit,” she said quietly. “Okay.”

She led Steve to her little kitchen, forcing him to sit at the table. There was an ugly tablecloth on it that Robin’s mom had bought a few months back - it was covered in weird, amorphous birds. They were creepy. Steve hated it and had told Robin as much on multiple occasions and now he couldn’t stop staring at it, their horrible little bird faces mocking him.

She calmly ran a towel under the tap before handing it to him, forehead creasing when he lifted his shaking hands to wipe at his face before running it down his arms and between his fingers. She then sat across from him, grabbing his now-cleaner hands in her own. Hers were a little clammy, probably from the stress of Steve bursting in and scaring the shit out of her.

She was a saint because, instead of scolding him for that again, she asked, “What happened?”

Steve’s eyes snapped up to her face, heart hammering.

“I fucked up,” he said, voice strangled and words caught in his throat.

Robin looked concerned. “Fucked up how?” Her eyes went wide. “Did you, like…” Her voice dropped even though they were alone. “… kill someone?”

Steve goggled at her. “What? No.”

She looked momentarily relieved before repositioning her hands and looking Steve squarely in the eyes again.

“Okay,” she said patiently. “Then how did you fuck up?”

“I…” Steve struggled to find the words before finally landing on, “I kissed someone weird.”

Understatement of the fucking century, he thought to himself as he winced.

To her credit, Robin still seemed to be taking this seriously - even though the seriousness of a weird kiss was clearly a monumental step-down from murder.

Her brow furrowed further. “Weird? Weird how?”

Steve stared into the middle distance, stomach turning at the memory in both shame and humiliation.

“Super fucking weird,” he answered eventually in a thick voice, “that’s how.”

When Steve couldn’t bring himself to elaborate, Robin glanced to the side as she thought.

“Hmm. Well, it can’t be Nancy because that wouldn’t be weird, that would just make sense.”

Steve rolled his eyes, almost relieved for the familiar treading ground.

“Yeah, except that’s never fucking happening.”

Robin’s eyes widened and she shot Steve a hint of a wicked grin.

“Ooh, was it Mrs. Wheeler?” At Steve’s incredulous look, she smirked. “Come on, you know she’s hot and it would definitely be weird since you dated her daughter.”

Steve rolled his eyes. “Yes, of course she’s hot and it would be BEYOND weird.”

Robin’s eyes narrowed. “It’s not Vickie is it?”

Steve scoffed. “I’m not that big of an asshole!”

Robin held up a hand. “Okay, okay - just checking.” Her expression turned tentative and concerned, her fingers tightening around his. “It’s not… it wasn’t like… one of the girls, right?”

Steve looked at her for a moment in confusion before it dawned on him that she meant Max or El and he recoiled in disgust.

“Robin!” he nearly yelled in scandalized horror, jerking his hands away from hers.

“Sorry!” Robin said defensively. “I’m just trying to figure out who could possibly be so bad that you can’t even get yourself to tell me!”

Steve felt sick in a whole new and exciting way.

“Okay, except I said ‘weird’ not ‘disgusting and illegal’!” he bit out. “Your bullshit guesses are actually starting to make me feel better about my terrible life choices!” He then paused, heart sinking a bit. “Shit… though now that I think about it, my kiss might have been illegal? I don’t know what the laws are.” He frowned, panic setting in again. “Shit.”

Robin blinked at him, clearly not getting it for a moment before her eyes widened almost comically.

“Oh my god,” she breathed. “Steve.” Steve couldn’t look at her, dreading what was coming. “Was it a boy?”

And there it was. He looked at the table, unable to lie but equally unable to say anything more. Robin flapped her hands.

“Oh my god, STEVE!”

Steve winced. “Goddammit,” he muttered, pinching the bridge of his nose.

Was this how Robin had felt when she confessed everything to him on that bathroom floor? Like she was going to vibrate apart while barfing forever? God, she hadn’t even known his stance on anything when she’d told him, either.

What a fucking nightmare.

Steve’s hands were tingling. He needed to breathe.

“Who was it?” Robin demanded, completely missing Steve’s little spiral and pulling at his arm. “Was it Jonathan?”

Steve dropped his hand to look at her in disbelief. “Jonathan Byers? What?!”

She shrugged, entirely unrepentant. “Sometimes it seems like you might have a vibe with both Nancy and him.”

Steve gaped at her. “There’s no vibe!” he insisted, but… if he was capable of kissing a dude without even realizing he wanted to, who knew what other shit he’d been doing that he hadn't noticed?

Did he have a “vibe” with Jonathan? Had he been vibing without realizing it?

Was he just doomed to vibe with dudes now?!

Robin opened her mouth and Steve pointed at her, cutting her off.

“If you ask if it’s one of the boys, I swear to GOD I will never speak to you again, Buckley.”

Robin held up her hands once more. “No, I know your stance on that now!”

Steve frowned at her. “Why didn’t you just assume that’s always been my stance?!” he asked mutinously through gritted teeth.

Robin shrugged. “I don’t know, but it’s good to have confirmation!” Her nose wrinkled as she thought again and Steve’s pulse felt weird. “Wait…” She stopped and peered at him. “It wasn’t Eddie, was it?”

Steve said nothing as his stomach dropped to his toes and his gaze fell to the table. His silence had to be damning because when he forced himself to glance up again, he found Robin biting her lip, eyes wide.

“Holy shit,” she breathed. “Okay. Wow.” She looked perplexed. “Wait… does he not know you’re straight?”

Steve sighed and put his hands over his face.

“You didn’t hear what I said,” he grated out in a strained, slightly muffled voice, “I kissed him, not the other way around.”

There was a long silence and when Steve finally risked a glance at her again through his fingers, her eyes looked about ready to pop out of her head and her eyebrows were almost invisible in her hairline.

“Do… do you not know that you’re straight?” she asked.

Steve groaned and dropped his head to the table.

“This is so fucked, Robin.”

“What even happened?!”

“God…”

“Steve,” she insisted, pulling at his arm and forcing him to sit upright. “Why did you kiss Eddie?”

Steve threw up his hands. “I don’t fucking know, alright?!” He huffed out a breath. “He was, like, being an annoying shit and it was pissing me off so I had this weird impulse to, I don’t know, wipe the look off his stupid face but then that somehow translated into me kissing him!”

Steve paused, breathing heavily. Robin looked about as shocked as he’d ever seen her.

“I’m annoying all the time,” she observed, eyes still bugged out, “and you’ve never kissed me.”

Steve grit his jaw. “Yes, I’m aware of that, Robin.”

She just looked at him for a moment.

“How was it?” she eventually asked, clearly fascinated.

Steve frowned, thinking back, a wave of exhaustion suddenly hitting him.

“It definitely wasn’t my best work,” he admitted, sagging down in his chair. “I kinda just banged into him with my mouth and then, instead of explaining myself, made a weird noise like a fucking idiot and proceeded to run away.”

Robin rolled her eyes. “I don’t mean your performance, Steve - I mean how did it feel for you?”

Steve stared at her for a beat, his neck and ears beginning to flush.

“It was…” He swallowed. “Besides me being awkward as all hell, it wasn’t, uh.” He searched for the right word. “Terrible.” Robin peered at him and Steve fought the urge to curl into himself. “Fine.” He sighed. “I think I’d kinda… maybewannadoitagain,” he confessed quietly in a rush.

A slow, pleased smile grew on her face. “Did he kiss you back?”

Steve winced. “It was hard to tell due to the panicking and running.”

Robin’s face split into a slightly manic grin.

“This is amazing.”

Steve scoffed. “How the fuck is this amazing? It makes zero sense, Rob.”

Robin exhaled through her nose, shrugging. “I know this is probably, like, confusing…”

“It’s beyond confusing!” he exclaimed, pushing away from the table to get to his feet and pace. “I like girls!” he said, gesturing wildly.

Robin made a face. “Yeah, and that’s fine!”

Steve huffed, shaking his head. “Well, that certainly means I can’t like Eddie fucking Munson!”

Robin frowned. “Cuz he’s a guy?”

Steve stopped pacing to wheel on her, putting his hands on his hips.

“Yes, Robin,” he said. “Obviously!”

Robin gave him an odd look. “It’s possible to like both guys and girls, Steve,” she said, like it was a well-known fact and not a crazy thing to say.

Steve scoffed. “What? I can barely wrap my mind around just being into dudes but being into both?” He threw up his hands. “Unheard of!”

Robin raised an eyebrow like Steve was being hysterical. That might have been fair but she didn’t have to be so judgmental about it.

“David Bowie likes both,” she said patiently.

Steve balked and shook his head like that would make her start making sense.

“What?” he asked incredulously. “I’ve never heard that. According to who?”

Robin smirked, infuriatingly smug. “According to David Bowie.”

Steve blinked, processing this frankly mind-blowing information.

“Regardless,” he finally continued, not feeling ready to unpack that quite yet, “that would require a big adjustment!”

Robin rolled her eyes. “It doesn’t have to!”

Steve crossed his arms. “Okay, what would you do if suddenly one day some dude walks through the door and you’re like ‘uh oh I think I still like chicks but I also kinda want to touch his butt and make him take his shirt off while I watch’?”

Robin’s eyebrows raised, a bewildered smile on her face.

“Is that how you’re feeling?”

Blood rushed to Steve’s face.

Jesus, was that how he was feeling?

That would be incredibly embarrassing.

Instead of examining this bit of troubling information, he flapped a hand at her.

“Just answer the damn question!”

To her credit, Robin actually seemed to give it real thought as she leaned against the table, chin on her fist.

She sighed. “Fine - I guess it would take some kind of adjustment, yes.” Then she squinted, still thinking. “But ultimately I don’t think it would really change me as a person? It would just mean there’s a dude I wouldn’t mind kissing.” She shrugged, leaning back. “Which would be weird but wouldn’t really mean anything.” She crossed her arms and looked to the ceiling. “Unless I, like, wanted to marry him or something.”

There was a pause and Robin looked at Steve again, something shining in her eyes as her face grew into a wide grin.

“Wait, do you wanna marry him?” she asked, like a giant shithead.

Steve scoffed again, hating how hot his traitorous face was getting.

“What?! No!”

“You doooo,” Robin sang at him, getting up to skip over and poke him in the chest. “You wanna have his baaaabieeees!”

“I don’t want - that doesn’t even make sense!” He shoved her hands away as she continued to poke at him. “I don’t wanna marry anyone, you fucking clown!”

Robin was undeterred, reaching up to now poke him in the face as Steve sputtered.

“Yes you do, you want a spring wedding and for me to be your maid of honor!” She tweaked his nose. “You want him to propose at Skull Rock, you old romantic!”

Steve whacked her hands aside and dodged away, moving quickly across the room to the other side of the table and putting some distance between them.

“You are so gross,” he muttered at her, “I fucking hate you - I’m having a crisis and you’re teasing me!”

Robin laughed. “So sue me for trying to make you take this less seriously!” She cocked her head, expression softening. “I’ve been there, Steve - it’ll be okay.”

Steve crossed his arms and hunched his shoulders.

“Yeah, well, pardon me for thinking I’d never be in this position.” He frowned, chewing his lip. “Also, it’s different with dudes, okay? If someone hears about this and they don't like it, they could.. you know…”

At that, Robin sobered and crossed the room to join him, laying a comforting arm around his waist as she tilted her head against his shoulder. Steve immediately felt some of the tension bleed out of his muscles.

“I know,” she said softly. “Although someone could react that way with me, too.” He saw an expression cross her face - it was fear. “It’s not unheard of.”

Something about how she said it made a little bit of Steve’s heart break for her and he felt compelled to pull her into a proper hug. She was kind and didn’t pull away, even though Steve knew he was still a bit sweaty.

It was nice and comforting and unfortunately didn’t make him want to touch Eddie any less.

“This is bullshit,” he grumbled into her hair. He wasn’t sure if he meant this specific situation or the broader state of things.

She leaned back to grin up at him. “On the bright side, now I can force you to move to San Francisco with me and I’ll know you won’t be completely repelled by the experience!”

Steve rolled his eyes but pulled her into the hug again.

“Yippee,” he muttered with zero enthusiasm.

Steve successfully avoided Eddie for a full four days after that. To be fair, it seemed like Eddie was also avoiding him as his almost-daily calls stopped. Every time Robin suggested reaching out, Steve felt his stomach hit his shoes and he would deflect, offering some lame excuse.

Was it mature? No.

Did Steve care about being mature at the moment? Also no.

He just had no idea what he wanted to do. Kissing Eddie again (like a real kiss, none of this boneheaded awkward crap) didn’t sound unappealing but where were they supposed to go from there? Make out? Have sex? Steve didn’t even know if Eddie was into dudes. He hadn’t seemed angry when Steve kissed him, mostly just completely and utterly shocked, but that didn’t mean he wanted to fuck.

Did Steve want to fuck?! Sex was great but sex with a guy seemed daunting at best. He had a hard time conceptualizing how it would even work. He figured blowjobs were involved but could he actually do any of that?

He knew he was mentally putting the cart before the horse in a big way but it was like having a song stuck in his head, only the song went: Do I wanna fuck Eddie does he wanna fuck me do I still wanna fuck girls could I actually give a blowjob David Bowie had sex with Mick Jagger (citation beyond Robin needed) and he still fucks girls so that must mean it’s fine but who am I kidding, I’m no David Bowie

And so the song went: over and over and over again.

Now he was at work, straightening the shelves during yet another mind-numbing Thursday afternoon shift, playing these thoughts through in his head once again. Robin wasn’t even trying to talk to him as he was pretty sure she was sick of him torturing himself over the situation. He had pointed out that he’d listened to her torture herself over plenty of girls, but her defense of, “Yeah, well, I hadn’t kissed any of them,” left them at a bit of a stalemate.

He stood from where he’d been crouched organizing tapes and suddenly found himself eye-to-eye with a copy of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. He’d never seen it but Robin had gushed enough about it to him (apparently Susan Sarandon was crazy hot in it or something) that he knew the gist. He frowned at the cover.

Gay.

It was a gay movie. Or at least it had gay shit in it.

A gay movie that was ostensibly for gay people.

He stared at it hard enough that he was surprised it didn’t catch on fire.

Did he want to watch a gay movie?

Steve frowned harder when he realized that, when he really thought about it, the main reason he didn’t want to watch it wasn’t that it was gay, it was because it was a musical.

It was then that the bell for the door tinkled and Steve glanced out over the shelves to see none other than Eddie Munson walk in.

Shit, he thought to himself and, before he even had a chance to consider his options or really think about what he wanted to do, he dropped like a sack of flour to the floor behind the shelf, not giving Eddie the chance to see him.

Robin glanced over at him with a befuddled look on her face from where she was at the counter and seemed to be about to ask what the hell he was doing when she clearly spotted Eddie. Steve didn’t miss the small disapproving turn to her mouth as she covertly side-eyed him before she schooled her expression.

“Hey, Eddie,” she greeted casually. Steve heard his sneakers approach the cash register, the chains on his jeans rattling. Steve pressed more firmly into the floor, like the world’s dumbest coward. “What’s up? Lookin’ for a movie?”

“Hey, Robin,” Eddie answered and Steve winced when he realized Eddie sounded very agitated. Frazzled, even. Shit. “No, I’m uh - I’m looking for Harrington? Is he here?”

Robin may have been a giant pain in the ass but Steve felt eternally grateful when she immediately shook her head.

“No, sorry - not today. Do you want me to pass along a message? I might see him later.”

“No,” Eddie answered hastily. “No, that’s - it can wait.”

There was a pause and then Robin asked, “Is everything… okay?”

Eddie let out an uneasy laugh. “No, everything’s fine. Just uh… wanted to get his thoughts on something.” It was obvious that he was trying to sound nonchalant but he was not succeeding. “You know, pick his brain!” There was an awkward pause and it sounded like he was turning to go when he stopped. “Actually, can you, like, tell him to give me a call when he gets a chance?”

Robin nodded. “Yeah, sure!”

“Thanks,” Eddie said, clearly distracted. “Bye, Robin.”

“See ya!” Robin called out as the little bell above the door tinkled again. She waited a beat before turning to lean over the counter to stare at Steve where he was still on the floor. “Find anything good down there?” she drawled, extremely unimpressed.

Steve grimaced up at her. “Would you believe me if I said someone told me they lost a contact lens and I thought I saw it?”

She put a hand on her hip. “Not really.” She peered at him, all cool judgment. “Is this how you’re gonna live now? Diving to the floor like a bomb just went off every time Eddie’s within range?”

Steve gave a weak shrug, unable to bring himself to get up. He wondered if his abject humiliation would be enough suffering to open a gate underneath him and he could just slip into the Upside-Down and no one would even know he was gone.

He winced. “I was more thinking just… total avoidance.”

Robin huffed, turning to her stack of tapes.

“Grow up, Steve,” she said, tone harsher than he was used to. “He clearly isn’t mad - he seemed more upset than anything.”

She glanced over and seemed to notice whatever was happening on Steve’s face - he assumed he wore the guilty and defeated expression of a man who very dearly wished that a floor portal would appear so some kind of monster could pop out and swiftly kill him.

Her shoulders sagged as she sighed before ducking under the counter to come sit on the floor next to him.

“Steve,” she said, more kindly this time. “It’s gonna be fine.“

“Is it?” he asked miserably. “Because it’s hard to see that as being a possibility at the moment.” He flopped over onto his back, putting his hands over his face and groaning. “What do I even say, Robin?”

“I’d start off with apologizing for avoiding him,” she advised, brushing his hair back with easy affection. “And then offer to, you know…”

She glanced around the store to check if anyone could see them before wrapping her arms around herself and miming tongue-kissing someone into the air.

“Great,” Steve grumbled, rubbing at his eyes. “Perfect. Wonderful advice paired with an image I’ll never be able to burn from my brain. Thanks for that.”

She kicked at him with one of her crossed legs.

“Stop being such a drama queen.”

“Apparently I’m some kind of queen,” Steve grumbled under his breath and he almost laughed when Robin’s answer was to kick him more squarely with her sneaker.

“It’s too early for you to be allowed to make those kinds of jokes,” she scolded, only half-serious as she pointed at him. “You have to earn that right.”

“How do I do that?” he asked.

She just looked at him for a moment before very slowly wrapping her arms around herself and pretending to make out with no one again, causing Steve to actually bark out a laugh this time.

Steve knew he was being ridiculous. It only took Robin bringing it up several more times before he begrudgingly had to accept that.

He needed to talk to Eddie.

Also… Steve missed him. Without Eddie, the only guys his age that Steve could hang out with were Argyle and Jonathan, which was just awkward but it was possible that, beyond the fact that Steve had limited options, he just liked Eddie and enjoyed being around him.

He probably enjoyed being around Eddie too much, but whatever. He could get over that if he needed to.

So he steeled himself, got into his car, and drove over to the trailer park.

He almost didn’t knock once he was at Eddie’s door but then forced himself, rapping at it before he could second-guess his choices once again - he’d been rehearsing this goddamn speech all day and he needed to get it over with before he drove himself insane.

He listened for a moment when there was no answer, fighting the anxious butterflies swarming his stomach.

“Munson?” he called, trying to keep his voice steady. “Can you open up? It’s Steve.” When he was still met with silence, he sighed. “I know you’re home, man - your van is literally sitting right there.”

He heard a muffled curse and then movement in the trailer, like someone falling over. Steve huffed out a laugh before swallowing as he heard shuffling footsteps inside growing closer, shaking out his hands to try and stop them from trembling.

He inadvertently took a deep breath as the door finally creaked open, revealing Eddie as he peered out, shoulders bowed and eyes wary. He hovered there, posture hunched… he looked terrified and Steve felt like puking yet again.

When Eddie didn’t say anything and just continued to stare at him like Steve was there to bash his brains in or something, Steve cleared his throat.

“Hey,” he said, grimacing when his voice cracked. “Uh.” He suddenly couldn’t remember what the fuck he had even been planning to say. “Robin said you wanted to talk to me…?”

Eddie eyed him warily. “I believe I specifically requested that she have you call me.” He shifted, one arm hugging around his middle like he was protecting his guts. “I wasn’t really expecting a personal visitation.”

Heart sinking, Steve winced. “Oh. Sorry.” He gestured back to his car, taking a step back. “I can just go if you -“

But Eddie shook his head. “No, it’s… it’s fine.” His Adam’s apple bobbed and Steve tried to not stare at it. “Uh, should I invite you in or…?”

Steve took a calming breath. “Sure. If you want to.”

Jesus Christ, this was so fucking awkward.

Eddie’s brow furrowed for a moment before he blinked rapidly and looked away.

“Okay,” he said softly, stepping aside.

Steve hesitated for a moment before walking in - Eddie was quick to back up and make room, very obviously avoiding getting too close to Steve.

Cool. That was cool. That was fine.

Steve kind of wanted to die but that was fine.

He tried to find his voice again, opening his mouth to speak but then Eddie hunched even more on himself and shook his head.

“Listen,” he interrupted desperately before Steve could even start, eyes a bit wild, “before you say whatever it is you wanna say, I just want to let you know that we, like, can forget the whole thing ever happened.” Steve blinked at him, growing concerned when he realized that Eddie was shaking like a leaf. “Just please don’t tell anyone about me.”

Steve paused, brow furrowing as he balked.

“What?” He frowned, deeply confused. “I’m not telling anyone about you?”

Eddie held up his trembling hands, face oddly pale. “Yeah, man. It doesn’t have to be a whole thing. I won’t, like, jump your bones or anything.” His eyes were wide, like a cornered animal. “You’re safe, I swear.”

Steve reeled, trying to process what the fuck was happening.

“I’m sorry,” he said slowly, “you do know that I’m the one who kissed you, right?”

Eddie gradually lowered his hands, his expression going from one of abject terror to something guarded.

“Is that how we’re choosing to remember it?” he asked carefully.

Steve felt lost. “I mean, seeing as that’s the reality of how it happened: yeah.” When Eddie just continued to look wary, Steve blinked at him. “Why the hell would I blame you?”

Eddie swallowed, eyes cutting away. “Well… they usually do.”

“They…?” Steve didn’t get it for a moment but then he realized that Eddie had had this happen before and been blamed for it and he felt a sudden swell of rage so intense he was almost dizzy.

But then he took a deep breath - he wasn’t here to get angry. He was here to apologize. Especially now, when he realized he’d been an even bigger dick than he’d initially thought.

“Okay, well, I’m not…” He swallowed. “I wouldn’t do that.” Eddie looked away. “So this happens a lot?” Steve asked, trying to keep his voice kind and nonjudgemental. “Dudes smash into you with a terrible kiss and then run away?”

Eddie let out an uneasy chuckle. “Okay, the particulars of this occasion were quite different from the norm - I’ll give you that.” When Steve didn’t say anything, clearly waiting for Eddie to continue, he shifted uncomfortably. “Let’s just say that guys sometimes make somewhat correct assumptions about me and then try to initiate something and subsequently blame it on me once they panic because who would believe the freak, right?” he said softly, eyes on the ground, a humorless smile on his face.

Steve tried very hard to keep his breathing steady, blood feeling hot.

“Anyone in particular?” he asked, only somewhat nonchalant. Eddie shot him an unsure look. “So I can beat them to death?” When Eddie let out a startled laugh, Steve tried to smile. “I’m only, like, 30% joking.”

“Well, I only just recently got absolved of murder,” Eddie pointed out, expression still guarded but even less terrified now. “Let’s not make me an accessory to another crime quite yet.”

“Hey, no one would trace it back to you,” Steve countered, still only partially joking. “I have the resources to make it look like an accident.”

Eddie blinked before letting out another helpless laugh. “That’s truly terrifying.”

Steve offered a one-shouldered shrug. “I once beat the shit out of a demogorgon with a bat - bashing in some asshole’s face wouldn’t be that hard, comparatively speaking.”

Eddie’s eyes went a little hazy as he clearly imagined it. “Officially, as a newly-exonerated man, I do not endorse this train of thought,” he said in a strangely thick voice with zero conviction. “But…”

Steve tried to smile. “But unofficially?”

Eddie swallowed, meeting Steve’s gaze. “Unofficially, I can’t say that there isn’t some level of appeal.”

Steve felt a little thrill run through him. “Okay, then officially the offer is off the table. But, you know, if you unofficially ever needed that…”

He mimicked swinging a baseball bat.

Eddie snorted before his expression shuttered again.

“Just why… why did you come over then, man?” he asked quietly. “If you aren’t here to, y’know, threaten me.” He said it like it was a joke and Steve momentarily considered just forcing Eddie to tell him who had done that shit to him before he realized he needed to focus on the conversation at hand.

“I came here to apologize,” he said.

Eddie’s eyebrows rose. “Apologize?”

Steve took a steadying breath, butterflies in his stomach.

“Yeah. Obviously.” Eddie still looked confused. “I shouldn’t have run and then avoided you - that was shitty. I was just kind of fully having a meltdown and didn’t know how to explain myself.” He cleared his throat, fighting the embarrassed shame and forcing himself to continue. “Also, I shouldn’t have, like, uh,” he swallowed, making himself get the word out, “…kissed you like that out of the blue. I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable.” He tried not to fidget as Eddie stared at him. “It just hadn’t ever really occurred to me to kiss a dude before and it kind of happened without me thinking about it.”

Eddie looked flabbergasted. “Hang on… so you’re not here to kick my ass, you’re here to take responsibility and apologize?” he asked, borderline incredulous.

Steve nodded, feeling unable to add the additional thought that was running through his mind: I’d also like to try kissing you again in a non-awful way sometime.

“Basically, yeah,” Steve said instead.

Eddie’s face went through a series of interesting emotions: first there was incomprehension, then disbelief, then bewilderment, and then, finally, a sort of shocked understanding.

“Damn, Harrington,” Eddie breathed in something like wonder, eyebrows raised as he chuckled. “You’re certainly full of surprises.”

Steve fought the blush threatening to overtake his face.

“Yeah, I’m a complex person or whatever,” he grumbled.

Eddie’s face broke into a more familiar grin and Steve couldn’t help but be relieved.

“I wouldn’t say complex,” he joked. “That might be too strong of a word.”

Steve rolled his eyes. “What, are you calling me simple?”

“Simple Steve,” Eddie hummed. “It is alliterative.”

Steve narrowed his eyes. “Is it too late to kick your ass?” When a little cloud of doubt passed over Eddie’s face, he cursed internally. “Sorry, too soon,” he said hastily, “I was joking. I meant that in, like, a playful way.”

Jesus, why did he ever have a reputation for being smooth?

But it seemed to have worked because the cloud completely disappeared from Eddie’s expression and he offered a smile.

“You apologize way easier than I would have expected,” he remarked, almost like he was impressed.

Steve huffed and crossed his arms. “Yeah, because I’m emotionally mature, asshole.”

Eddie smirked a little. “Clearly.” But then he hesitated. “So, uh.” His brow furrowed. “What now?”

Steve stared at him because… he didn’t know. He’d apologized and it seemed like Eddie had admitted to being into dudes but also Steve had kind of fucked things up with his approach and Eddie still hadn’t indicated any kind of interest in him specifically. Steve wasn’t really sure where they stood but, God, he was tired. He wasn’t sure if he had another serious talk in him.

“Well…” he started, rubbing the back of his neck. “I don’t know about you but I found that conversation insanely stressful and I seem to remember someone saying they have a shitload of weed, so…”

Eddie’s eyes lit up. “Oh, Harrington - you’re a genius.”

Steve was a genius. They hadn’t even smoked much yet (Steve was trying to pace himself as it had been a while) but the ritual of rolling the joints alone seemed to put Eddie far more at ease and there was a sort of… lightness to him that Steve had never really seen before. Like having Steve there, having Steve understand this part of him, having him apologize, had brightened his world in some kind of way.

It felt delicate but that was fine - Steve could do delicate. He could protect this moment. It was just such a relief, knowing that he’d been able to smooth things over.

“I can’t believe you’ve never seen Star Wars,” Eddie groaned theatrically, his head leaned back against the couch. They were on the floor because, why not?

Steve tried and failed to not look at the line of his throat.

“I don’t see what the big deal is!” Steve insisted. “What with the space monks and the teddy bears and the… dog guys.” He held out his hands expressively. “Also, why would they need to sword fight in space, dude? Makes no goddamn sense!”

Eddie blinked and then peered at him.

“Wait wait, waitwaitwaitwaitwait.” He held up a hand. “‘Dog guys’?” he asked incredulously.

Steve rolled his eyes. “Yeah, the one who… he flies a plane or something.” He squinted, trying to remember the VHS cover. “He’s tall.” He scrunched up his nose. “I think he’s friends with Indiana Jones?”

Eddie frowned. “Chewbacca?” he guessed, almost aghast. “Are you talking about fucking Chewbacca?!”

Steve tutted. “How the hell should I know?”

Eddie stared at him, shaking his head.

“Harrington,” he said emphatically. “Steven.” He leaned forward. “Steve.”

Steve fought the goofy smile trying to overtake his face - he liked when Eddie said his name.

“Yes?”

Eddie put a hand on his arm, face terribly earnest. His hand felt nice and warm and like it belonged there.

“You are, without a doubt,” Eddie said, eyes fixed on Steve’s face in a way that made his pulse trip, “the least cultured person I have literally ever met in the entirety of my life - which is saying a lot because we live in Hawkins.”

Steve barked out a laugh. “Excuse you,” he said, pointing a finger at him. Eddie’s hand was still on his arm. “I’m plenty cultured.”

Eddie’s eyes widened. “You didn’t know who Ozzy Osborne is,” he pointed out, thumb rubbing a small circle on Steve’s bicep. It was mildly distracting. “You’ve never seen Star Wars. Do you even know who’s president right now?”

Steve smirked. “Nixon?” he guessed, like a shithead. “Carter?”

Eddie rolled his eyes, obviously knowing that Steve was fucking with him. He pulled his hand away and Steve tried to ignore how much he wanted Eddie to touch him again.

“Okay, then how exactly are you cultured?” Eddie asked. He dramatically waved at him. “What music do you even like?”

Steve thought about it before shrugging.

“Duran Duran’s alright.”

Eddie’s nostrils flared for a moment.

“Duran…?” He leaned forward, clearly incensed. “Duran Duran?!”

Steve laughed again. “What’s wrong with Duran Duran?”

“What’s wrong with Duran Duran?” Eddie repeated incredulously. “EVERYTHING is wrong with Duran Duran!”

Steve shrugged, feeling giddy. “Their music’s happy!” he giggled. “It’s nice!”

He sincerely couldn’t remember the last time he’d laughed this much.

“No,” Eddie said, almost to himself. “This is bullshit, Harrington.” He leaned forward again, eyes intense. Steve gazed at him, transfixed. “We’re gonna listen to some real fucking music,” he informed Steve with great feeling, “and then we’re gonna watch fucking Star Wars and, so help me God, I am going to teach you how to be a proper fucking human being."

Steve raised his eyebrows. “That’s quite a list.”

Eddie staggered to his feet, pointing down at him.

“Stay right there. - your education starts tonight, Steve.” He shook his head, heading towards his room. “Fucking Duran Duran,” he muttered to himself.

Steve heard him rustling around in the back of the trailer when he was startled by a light knock at the door. He sent a perplexed look towards Eddie’s room but when the knocking continued, he hauled himself to his feet to glance out the window to see who was there.

“What the…?” he murmured to himself before striding forward to throw open the door. “Henderson? What the hell are you doing here?”

Dustin jumped before his brow furrowed, blinking at Steve in surprise before looking around, as if verifying that he hadn’t accidentally gone to Steve’s place instead.

Frowning, he wrinkled his nose. “What am I doing here? What are you doing here?”

Steve crossed his arms, relaxing a bit - if Dustin was being this obstinate, it probably meant there wasn’t a true emergency.

“I asked you first.”

Dustin rolled his eyes, like a little shit. “I’m here to talk to Eddie! Why,” he said emphatically, “are you here?!”

Steve frowned at him, annoyed that Dustin seemed to think he would have no reason to visit Eddie.

“I’m also here to talk to Munson!”

Dustin made a face. “What? Why?!”

Steve made a face right back. “For private… grown-up reasons, okay?” Dustin did not look sold and Steve tried not to feel flustered. It wasn’t like he and Eddie had even been doing anything, they’d just been hanging out. Dustin had no reason to be suspicious and Steve had no reason to feel guilty. “We’re friends!”

“Since when?” Dustin demanded.

“Since…” Steve stalled out, trying to think. “Since a while!” Dustin looked borderline offended and Steve frowned at him. “Oh my God,” he said, “are you mad I didn’t tell you?” He narrowed his eyes at Dustin. “So, what - I have to put out a freaking APB every time I get a new friend, Henderson? Do you want a goddamn newsletter?”

Dustin apparently wasn’t listening since he was now squinting at Steve’s face, gaze suspicious.

“Hey… why are your eyes all bloodshot?!”

“Why are you guys yelling at my front door?” Eddie asked calmly from where he’d appeared next to Steve, startling them both. “I know this is a trailer park, boys, but let’s not be total white trash.”

Steve heaved a sigh but stepped aside, allowing Dustin to storm in. As soon as he passed the threshold, he gasped as he spotted Eddie’s weed and lighter on the table. He whirled around to face Steve.

“Is that drugs?” he demanded, voice cracking. “It reeks in here! Are you high?!”

Steve sighed and shut the door.

“Henderson, stop having a fucking coronary - someone’s gonna think we’re killing a cat.” He grimaced, remembering the last cat incident. “Again.”

Eddie’s eyes went wide as he looked between Steve and Dustin.

“You guys… killed a cat?”

“No!” Dustin insisted as he glared at Steve, obviously betrayed that he was making him look bad in front of Eddie.

“Right, well, it actually got killed by Dustin’s… lizard… thing,” Steve explained to Eddie, gesturing vaguely. “I just helped cover it up.”

Dustin scowled, putting his hands on his hips. “For the last time, Steve, it wasn’t a lizard! We have a naming convention for these monsters - it’s not that hard to remember!” He crossed his arms, expression thunderous. “But that’s besides the point - were you getting Eddie high?” he asked in that shrill way of his. Steve threw up his hands in exasperation. “I knew you’d be a bad influence! You enjoyed that Russian shit WAY too much!”

Steve balked, fully incensed, ignoring Eddie mouthing, “Russian shit?” to himself.

“I’m the bad…?” Steve scoffed. “I’m the bad influence?!”

Dustin's expression was pissy. “Yeah!”

Steve shot an imploring look at Eddie who sighed.

“Listen, Henderson…” A small smirk crossed Eddie’s face before he schooled it into a painfully earnest expression. “Steve just kept pushing and pushing and pushing and I wanted to look cool so I caved to the peer pressure. I hope you can forgive him.” He put his hand on Dustin’s shoulder, the other going over his own heart. “And me.”

Steve crossed his arms. “You are such a dick,” he muttered.

Now Dustin seemed confused.

“You don’t seem high,” he said to Eddie, squinting at him.

Eddie smiled down at him. “I never do.” He clapped his hands together as Dustin frowned. “Now do you wanna tell me why you needed me so very badly at eight PM in the evening time?”

Dustin blinked and then bit his lip. “I have a problem I need help with.” He glanced at Steve, sighing through his nose. “I guess it’s fine he’s here since I was gonna ask him, too,” he grumbled.

Steve rolled his eyes and went to flop on the couch.

“Oh, well thank you so very much for accepting my presence!” he said sarcastically. “I’m glad I could at least be convenient for you.”

Dustin frowned. “Are you jealous that I came here first?”

Steve gave a shrug, crossing his arms.

“No,” he said even though it was a lie - he was very jealous. “You can do whatever you want. Clearly Eddie gives better advice than me so go ahead.”

Dustin sighed. “I wanted to get an impartial party’s point of view first! It’s nothing personal.”

Steve shrugged even more aggressively.

“Why would I take that personally?” he said, like someone who was definitely taking it personally.

Eddie snorted, causing Dustin and Steve to look over at him.

“You guys are cute,” he mused. “But as much as I’m enjoying this, maybe you should tell us the problem, Henderson.”

Dustin dropped his confrontational posturing, his shoulders drooping but, instead of barreling into whatever it was like he normally would, he hesitated.

Steve frowned.

“It might be nothing,” Dustin finally said, mouth pressing into a thin line. “But I’m… worried about something?”

Eddie and Steve exchanged a glance as Eddie went to go sit next to him.

“Even if it’s nothing, we could still weigh in,” Steve offered, concerned and unaccustomed to this version of Dustin as he hadn't seen him be this hesitant in a while.

He didn’t miss the approving look that Eddie shot him before he turned his attention on Dustin again.

“Yeah, Henderson,” Eddie said kindly. “Spill.”

Dustin started to pace in front of them.

“Okay, just…” He hesitated one more time before he launched into a rapid-fire explanation. “What do you do if your friend seems upset but, like, he always seems upset because some really bad stuff has happened to him but lately he seems even MORE upset than usual even though we’re talking about the old bad stuff all the time now, so it seems like maybe there’s NEW bad stuff that’s making him upset but he’s not talking about it?”

He stopped rambling, breathing hard. Steve and Eddie blinked up at Dustin before looking at each other.

“What,” Steve asked flatly.

Eddie winced as Dustin’s face fell. “Sorry, D-man, but that was basically inscrutable,” he said kindly. “Can you just… tell us what’s actually happening?” He offered Dustin a small smile. “You know, in a more specific, less confusing kind of way?”

Dustin deliberated for all of five seconds before opening his mouth again.

“It’s Will,” he said, sounding pained.

“Oh,” Steve murmured, suddenly understanding much better now.

“I just don’t get it,” Dustin continued in a rush, “he’s talking to us really openly about the Mind Flayer and Vecna and all that shit but those are the only things he talks about. And then he just seems… sad.” He pursed his lips. “I wanna help but I don’t know how.” His face looked conflicted. “I don’t think it has anything to do with the Upside-Down but maybe I’m wrong, I dunno.”

A strange look passed over Eddie’s face. “This is the younger Byers kid?” he asked. When Dustin nodded, Eddie chewed his lip, something oddly knowing on his face. “Hmm.” He bounced his knee. “Does he seem worried about telling you what’s happening?”

Dustin seemed to contemplate this. “Yeah. I think so.”

Eddie heaved a sigh, cheeks puffing out. “Okay. Well.” He worried his lower lip with his thumb for a moment before seeming to come to a decision. “I’m gonna tell you to say what I wish someone had said to me when I was his age - if I’d had any friends at the time, that is.” He got up to put his hands on Dustin’s shoulders to look deeply into his eyes. “Tell Will that, no matter what, you love him and will always be there for him. That it doesn’t matter if he thinks something’s wrong with him. That you don’t care if it’s something that anyone else would say is bad - all that matters is that he feels like he can talk to you.” Eddie dropped his hands and shrugged. “Then you let him come to you when he’s ready.”

Dustin’s eyes glanced to the side, obviously thinking hard.

“What kind of bad are we talking here?” he asked, voice uncertain. “Like… murder?”

Eddie scrunched up his nose. “Probably not.” He swallowed. “I mean, if he’s torn up about something, perhaps it’s a matter of the heart…?”

Dustin squinted at him. “What, like he has a crush or something?” When Eddie just shrugged again in a way that Steve thought was overly casual, Dustin frowned. “Who could he have a crush on that would be bad?” His forehead crinkled. “I guess it would be kind of weird and uncool if he likes Max or El but…”

“He doesn’t seem into them?” Eddie ventured. Dustin gave a slight nod. “I mean, are there any other clues you’ve gotten? Like…” Steve caught the almost imperceptible hesitant glance Eddie shot his way before schooling his expression. “Like is there anything that people have called him that seems to hurt his feelings more than anything else?” Eddie tried to give Dustin a small smile. “I hear he got bullied a lot.”

Dustin grimaced. “Yeah. Like, we’ve all been bullied but Will…” He sighed and looked into the middle distance. “I mean, I could tell it bugged him when people called him freak or zombie and when they’d say he’s a…” Dustin trailed off, his eyes going wide. There was a beat and then his brow furrowed, gaze going distant. “Shit.”

Eddie looked at him kindly. “When they’d say he’s a what, Dustin?” he asked gently, far gentler than Steve had ever heard him before.

Dustin didn’t seem to be listening, his mouth falling open slightly as he thought.

“Shit,“ he said again, seeming upset. He then seemed to remember that he was in the same room as Eddie and Steve because he blinked at them, eyes going a bit guarded. “If I’m right, I shouldn’t…”

Eddie watched him patiently. “You can tell us what it is, Dustin,” he said quietly. “It’s okay - neither of us would ever say anything to anyone.”

Dustin swallowed, seeming torn. “Uh.” He shot a look at Steve before his eyes fixed on the floor. “They call him, well… queer?” he said so softly that Steve almost didn’t hear it. Dustin made a face. “F… faggot, too,” he added quietly, mouth twisting. “All that shit.”

He continued to not look at either of them, missing how Eddie chest hitched, gaze going pained. Steve unfortunately saw it, a pit in his stomach.

“I mean,” Dustin continued, “all of us get called stuff like that sometimes but he’s the only one who doesn’t get mad about it - he just gets sad?” He stared at the floor like it would have any answers. “I assumed that’s because Will’s always been, well, a little sensitive but… he never talks about girls. He’s never cared about them at all - but does that mean it’s true?” He shook his head, brows furrowing again as he thought. “I didn’t even think people really did… that.”

Eddie’s expression was deeply sad. “They do,” he offered, also looking at the floor. “And it’s not, like, exclusively a sex thing. It can be about feelings - the sex part is what they use to scare people into thinking it’s bad.” Dustin’s brow furrowed further, obviously thinking a million miles per hour. “And, yeah, it’s possible that’s not necessarily what’s going on with Will but…” He cocked his head at Dustin. “It might be worth seeing how you feel about it in the event that it is.”

Dustin took a shaky breath. “I mean…” His face crumpled slightly. “It’s Will. I couldn’t…” He then cut himself off, eyes shooting to Eddie. “Wait, you said you wished someone had said that shit to you when you were younger. Are you…?”

Steve sat up straighter in alarm as Eddie’s eyes went wide, his Adam’s apple bobbing. He clearly hadn’t expected Dustin to remember that or put anything together but he also didn’t immediately dispute what Dustin had asked - Steve looked between them, heart tripping.

Dustin blinked before giving Eddie an imploring stare. “What about Chrissy?”

Eddie looked nervous as hell, reaching up a slightly trembling hand to card through his hair.

“I mean, well, with these sorts of things…. there’s a spectrum to it,” he stuttered and was he not saying no? Was Eddie actually telling Dustin? He certainly wasn’t playing it off. Steve could only sit there, stunned and frozen, heart in his throat. “Like, some people are only into one thing or the other but then some people exist, uh, you know, in between…?”

Dustin goggled at him. “Do they?”

“Bowie,” Steve piped up stupidly, surprising even himself when he spoke. “David Bowie likes both.” He realized Dustin and Eddie were now staring at him like they’d entirely forgotten he was there. “Dudes and chicks, I mean.” When all he got were two twin looks of utter befuddlement in response, he suddenly felt even more like a moron. “If that’s even what you guys were talking about,” he hastened to add.

Eddie shot him a harried look and let out a small exasperated breath.

“Yeah, Harrington,” he said, a bit shaky. “You connected the dots.”

Steve frowned at him before realizing Dustin was still watching him with wide eyes.

“David Bowie?” he asked softly, clearly confused.

Steve swallowed reflexively. “I mean, that’s what Robin said, anyway.” Eddie’s eyebrows went up and his expression seemed to indicate that he REALLY wanted to know the details about that conversation but Dustin just looked even more perplexed. “We were talking about, uh, some stuff and - and then she told me that he had, like, a thing with Jagger, apparently?” Steve swallowed, cutting himself off because Dustin was now looking at him in a way that made him nervous - he didn’t think he’d given anything away about himself but Steve still avoided his gaze and waved a hand at Eddie. “You know what? Munson’s doing a better job with this, you keep going, I’ll shut up.”

Dustin now looked downright suspicious but he just narrowed his eyes at Steve before turning back to Eddie.

“But, uh, yeah - it’s a thing,” Eddie blustered. Steve could see the slight tremor that was still in his hands as he felt his own stomach twist. “And Bowie’s rock and roll as fuck, so.”

Dustin’s expression turned a bit soft.

“He’s super rock and roll,” he agreed quietly.

Eddie chewed his lips, hands fiddling with his rings.

“So that’s…” He swallowed again, clearing his throat. “That’s, uh, okay? With you?”

Steve wrapped his arms around himself and sank into the couch, unable to do anything but anxiously wait on the sidelines, knowing that however Dustin reacted…

Well, it might mean something for Steve, too.

He watched as understanding dawned over Dustin’s face as he looked at Eddie, clearly seeing how scared he was. Dustin seemed to be about to say something but then hesitated for a moment, his expression turning resolute as he nodded to himself.

Without another word, he launched forward and wrapped his arms around Eddie in a fierce hug with such force that he knocked his own baseball cap off. Eddie stumbled before sending Steve a panicked look over Dustin’s shoulder but Steve just offered him his own bewildered look, chest squeezing.

“Of course it’s okay,” Dustin said with great feeling, slightly muffled where his face was pressed into Eddie's shoulder. “Of course it is.”

Eddie let out a shaky breath and tentatively moved to return the hug. Dustin just burrowed in deeper. It looked like a nice hug. They just stood there for a moment in each other’s arms while Steve sat and watched, an odd feeling washing over him at the sight - almost like jealousy but it felt more wistful than that; like he wanted to join in but didn’t know how.

“Shit, Henderson,” Eddie laughed, voice a little wet. “You’re gonna ruin my tough guy cred if you keep making me cry.”

Dustin pulled back, sniffing loudly, and Eddie lifted the tattered collar of his shirt to dab at his eyes.

Dustin shot a hesitant look at Steve. “And he hasn’t been an asshole about it?” he asked Eddie, like Steve wasn’t right fucking there.

Steve made a face, feeling at least a little legitimately hurt.

“Dude!”

Dustin actually looked apologetic.

“Sorry, just… you had a reputation at school!”

Steve frowned because, well, Dustin wasn’t wrong (the memory of it was enough to make Steve’s guts twist in abject shame and self-loathing) but he also wasn’t that guy anymore. He’d worked so fucking hard to not be that guy anymore.

He glanced at Eddie to find him giving him a soft look.

“Nah,” he said gently, throwing an arm over Dustin’s shoulders. Dustin beamed up at him. “He’s been really cool, actually.” He smirked a little. “Surprisingly, shockingly cool.”

Steve snorted. “Gee, thanks,” he drawled, even as he felt heat crawl up his neck.

Dustin smiled at Steve. “Good.”

Eddie chuckled and went to affectionately ruffle Dustin’s hair. It made that strange feeling squeeze in Steve’s chest again - it didn’t hurt but it was a kind of pang, like he was happy but was longing for something at the same time. It was just so sweet.

“You’re a good kid, Dustin Henderson,” Eddie said.

Steve cleared his throat, throwing Dustin his hat.

“Yeah - even if you are a giant pain in the ass.”

Dustin stuck around after that. All three of them were clearly exhausted.

Eddie tactfully removed any and all weed paraphernalia from the coffee table. When he very obviously brought everything back to his room, Dustin shot Steve a questioning look, to which Steve just raised an eyebrow.

Dustin made a face. “Sorry,” he said quietly, clearly cowed.

Steve just cuffed him around the back of the head.

“It’s fine.” He gave Dustin a pointed look. “Just try to remember that next time you jump to conclusions.”

When Eddie returned, he had something tucked under his arm.

“Well, Dustin,” he began, grinning like a wolf, “before you came here for aid, I was about to give Harrington here a little,” he wiggled his body and waggled his eyebrows, “musical education.”

Dustin immediately brightened. “Ooh!” He turned to Steve. “Eddie has great musical taste.”

Steve snorted. “Yeah - so he’s been very forcefully telling me.”

“Did you know he likes Duran Duran?” Eddie asked Dustin conspiratorially.

Dustin grinned. “He also loves Human League,” he said, like a traitor.

Steve crossed his arms, hoping they could both tell how unimpressed he was.

“Okay, we get it - the music I like sucks.”

Eddie smirked. “Clearly.” He then looked to Dustin. “So do you mind if I continue with my lesson plan?” he asked.

Dustin smiled. “Sure!” He gave them both a hesitant glance. “As long as it’s cool if I stay?”

Steve gave him a soft look, in spite of the fact that he would actually like to have some alone time with Eddie.

“Yeah, it’s cool.” He couldn’t help but glance at Eddie for a moment before looking back to Dustin. “The, uh, more the merrier.”

When he looked at Eddie again, he gave Steve a little wry smile before shaking his head.

“In that case…”

He then dramatically whipped out the album.

Steve squinted at it - the cover seemed familiar but then he remembered that they had a movie by the same title at the store.

“Is that Prince?” he asked before frowning. “He’s not metal, right?”

Eddie rolled his eyes. “Of course he’s not metal, Steve.”

Dustin mimicked Eddie’s eye roll. “Yeah, Steve.”

Steve felt his lips thin. “Okay,” he said slowly, trying to be patient in the face of Dustin clearly trying to endear himself to Eddie by annoying him. “Then why Prince?”

Eddie gave him a superior look. “I’m not gonna start with Anthrax or fucking… Possessed right out of the gate,” he explained, like that was obvious and like Steve had any idea who the hell Anthrax or Possessed were. “I’m not insane.” Steve didn’t bother pointing out that that was debatable. “The goal is simply to mold you into less of a complete philistine - not force you to like the same shit as me.”

Steve huffed out a laugh, slightly impressed that Eddie was being so reasonable (though he was pretty sure a philistine wasn’t a good thing).

“So you’re not trying to turn me into a metal head?” he asked, shooting Dustin an amused look when the boy made a face like he couldn’t possibly imagine such a thing.

Eddie grinned, sliding the record out of the sleeve.

“Listen: would I kill to see Steve ‘The Hair’ Harrington at a Judas Priest show?” he asked, eyes twinkling. “Of course. But is that just a pipe dream?” He sighed tragically. “I suppose only time will tell.” He stepped up to the record player. “Now Prince can be a bit poppy for my taste but I happened to see the movie on a whim and turns out the dude is talented as hell and can fucking shred on the guitar.” He put the needle down. “And you said you like happy, Harrington - can’t get much happier than Let’s Go Crazy.”

A song started playing - at first, it was just some guy (Prince, presumably) saying something that sounded like a prayer over top of some distorted organ music. Eddie spun around dramatically, arms outstretched with his face tilted towards the ceiling like he was receiving some kind of blessing.

He mouthed along to the words as Prince spoke:

“Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to get through this thing called… life.”

It certainly didn’t sound like any pop song Steve had ever heard before or even all that happy but he kept those thoughts to himself. Instead, he just watched Eddie, entertained in spite of himself. He glanced at Dustin who was staring at Eddie in rapt attention.

Eddie put his hands together in a mock prayer.

“Electric word, life - it means forever and that's a mighty long time.” He lifted a hand to dramatically bring it down like he was an old-timely backup singer. “But I'm here to tell you there's something else: the afterworld.” He put his other hand up to his mouth like he was holding a microphone. “A world of never-ending happiness - you can always see the sun, day or night.”

He grinned and pointed directly at Steve, who didn’t miss how his breath caught when Eddie looked at him, mirth dancing in his eyes.

“So when you call up that shrink in Beverly Hills… you know the one,” Eddie winked and a beat started up, causing him to tap his feet, “Dr. Everything'll Be Alright. Instead of asking him how much of your time is left, ask him how much of your mind, baby.” He tapped his temple and started to boogie with his shoulders. “'Cause in this life, things are much harder than in the afterworld. In this life, you're on your own…”

The beat started up to go a little harder, a guitar coming in. Eddie began to shuffle across the floor, wiggling his hips.

“And if the elevator tries to bring you down… Go crazy - punch a higher floor!”

Then the song took off, energetic and joyful, and Eddie sprung into full motion to dance across the room, kicking and pinwheeling his arms and Dustin let out a bright laugh as Steve couldn’t tear his eyes away, heart caught in his throat. It wasn’t like the dancing was impressive or anything but, like with everything else, the physicality with which Eddie threw into it, the way he swung his arms and shuffled his feet and moved around the room was, in a word, enthralling. There was a level of grace, of showmanship, that made Steve suddenly really want to see Eddie perform with his band.

After Eddie scream-sang the chorus, Dustin kept giggling so Eddie pranced over to him, pulling him to his feet as they held hands and danced together, Steve unable to do anything but let his face grow into a helpless grin. Eddie spun Dustin around the room, encouraging him to shake his hips. He was terrible at it, obviously, but Dustin tried his best to commit even 30% as much as Eddie and Steve put a hand over his mouth to stifle a laugh, warmth blooming in his chest.

Eddie howled the lyrics into the ceiling and Dustin tried to join in and that pang Steve had felt earlier came back full-force… they were just both so carefree, so different from less than a month ago, so alive, that he started to feel an odd tightness in his throat. He shifted, blinking rapidly as he found himself fighting the strange urge to cry.

Then Eddie did a stupid little shimmy, winking in Steve’s direction again before head-banging (even though this wasn’t remotely a head-banging type of song), and the overwhelmed emotion was gone as soon as it had come. Steve didn’t bother hiding his laugh this time though he did roll his eyes at Eddie while he did it. The other man just grinned before grabbing Dustin and dipping him.

Dustin let out a loud cackle and, unceremoniously, Eddie dropped him to the floor. Luckily he’d been dipped so far that he only fell about a foot onto the soft carpet but it was enough to startle another laugh out of both him and Steve. Eddie danced over top of him for a moment before jumping up to air-guitar, making Steve wonder if he actually knew how to play this song and…

Okay, yeah - Prince could fucking shred.

And just like that, the song was over. Dustin clapped from where he stayed collapsed on the ground and Eddie bowed as Steve chuckled at the two of them. Eddie leaned down to haul Dustin to his feet before glancing towards Steve as he doubled over to put his hands on his knees and pant, clearly a bit winded from his performance.

“So?” he asked between breaths, straightening to push his sweaty hair from his forehead. Steve found himself tracking the movement.

He watched Eddie for another moment and then gave a one-shouldered shrug.

“I guess it was okay,” he said, smirking slightly.

Eddie threw back his head and groaned as Dustin came over to fall back onto the couch next to Steve. It wasn’t very big so the only place for Eddie to join them was on Dustin’s other side, leaving Dustin between them. Steve tried not to be bummed that they weren’t closer.

However, he didn’t miss the momentary rueful look that passed over Eddie’s face as he flopped down - Steve wasn’t sure if it was disappointment in the fact that Dustin was acting as a literal barrier between them or just Steve’s basic music incompetence. He didn’t want to jump to any conclusions but something told him it was the former.

“Alright, if you’re gonna be that way,” Eddie said, “then we have to listen to the entire album.”

Dustin was still breathing hard. “Well, I like it.”

Eddie goosed him. “That’s why you’re my favorite.”

Steve huffed out a laugh before sighing. “Okay, fine - it’s good,” he admitted.

Eddie brightened. “It’s good?” he repeated like an excited child.

Steve couldn’t help the fond look that he was sure was on his face.

“Yeah…” He shook his head, knowing that this could potentially make Eddie never leave him alone about music but maybe that wouldn’t be such a bad thing. “I enjoyed it a lot, actually.”

Eddie clapped his hands together and pointed at him.

“Hah!” he crowed. “I knew it!” He leaned forward to grin at Steve. “Don’t try to play coy, Harrington - no one here’s gonna judge you for liking my freak music.”

Steve made a face. “That’s not what I’m worried about.”

Eddie tutted. “C’mon, at least a teeny tiiiiiny part of you still thinks about reputation and has trouble accepting that you could possibly like Prince.”

Dustin snorted. “Steve doesn’t care about that stuff anymore,” he said honestly.

Steve sent Eddie a pointed look. “Thank you, Dustin.”

Dustin smiled, guileless and sweet. “Yeah, I mean, at this point he doesn’t even seem to mind if people think he’s a loser!”

Steve frowned. “Okay,” he said, tone dry, “you can stop defending me now.”

Eddie laughed.

And so they sat, listening to music while Eddie and Dustin chatted about some sort of nerd bullshit, Eddie graciously trying to loop Steve in even though Dustin kept insisting he had “no interest” and was “a lost cause”.

After a while, Steve noticed Dustin dozing off on the couch as the record continued to play softly in the background. Steve sat up a bit, rolling his neck and checking his watch.

Jesus, it was late.

He glanced over to find Eddie watching him. Steve felt a thrum run through his body when Eddie didn’t bother pretending he hadn’t been looking when Steve caught him. They just stared at each other for a moment, Steve’s heart a steady heavy beat in his chest.

He swallowed.

“I should probably take him home,” he murmured.

Dustin let out a sleepy snuffle, burrowing into Steve’s side.

Eddie tilted his head down to look at him from under his eyelashes and Steve didn’t miss how it made his heart lurch.

“Oh,” Eddie said and it might have been Steve’s imagination but he thought he sounded disappointed. “You sure you’re good?”

Steve gave him a small smile. “Yeah, I’m plenty sober at this point and his mom is gonna freak if she wakes up and he’s not there.”

Eddie smirked. “Oh… are you not his mother?” he teased in a low voice and Steve was shocked to find that, upon examining it more closely, the prickle up his spine could have very well been attraction rather than annoyance this whole time.

He mentally kicked himself - he was such a moron.

Well, at least he knew what it was now. But still… what did Steve want to do with it?

He thought back to the evening - having their heart-to-heart, the bullshit Eddie had clearly been through, how good he was with Dustin, his silly dancing, how easy he was to be around, how much Steve could feel his body react to their proximity now that he recognized it for what it was.

He knew it might warrant some more thought but, right now, he just wanted to know what he wanted without overcomplicating things. After nearly a week of torturing himself, he thought he finally had some clarity. Sure - there were some finer points that he’d need to consider (like the fact that he’d possibly be losing a new type of virginity which was mildly terrifying and not a position he ever thought he’d be in) but it all seemed less scary here in the soft light of Eddie’s home.

Steve figured that, really, he knew exactly what he wanted. And now that he knew that, he assumed flirting with men couldn’t be all that different from flirting with women and if there was one thing he had confidence in, it was his flirting skills.

So instead of responding in annoyance like he normally would, he gave Eddie a small once-over before offering him a slow smile.

“Why?” he asked in his own low voice, eyelids feeling heavy. “Are you into that?”

Eddie’s eyes widened a little in shock before he let out an almost disbelieving huff of air, like a laugh, before shooting Steve a quizzical look. Steve was satisfied to find that Eddie seemed well and truly flustered.

Eddie then swallowed thickly and his gaze cut away to Dustin.

“Okay bud,” he said to the dozing boy rather than addressing what Steve had said. “Up and at’em.” He poked Dustin in the side before jostling his shoulder. Steve watched the softness on Eddie’s face as he woke Dustin up, warmth spread through Steve’s chest again. “Mr. Harrington’s gonna drive you home.”

Dustin winced and sat up, yawning.

“Alright,” he mumbled, rubbing at his eyes, “but I can just ride my bike back.”

“Like hell you are,” Steve said, tearing his eyes from Eddie to wrinkle his nose. “We’ve survived way too much bullshit for you to get run off the road or kidnapped by a serial killer.” He got up off the couch, ignoring the amused look Eddie sent his way. Clapping his hands, he kicked at Dustin’s feet. “Chop chop, Henderson - while we’re still young.”

“While I’m still young,” Dustin griped, yawning again.

Steve frowned at him before reaching over and flicking the bill of his baseball cap, sending it off of his head.

“Don’t be rude,” he said evenly. “Or maybe I’ll change my mind about the serial killers.”

Dustin groaned and leaned over to pick up his hat as Eddie got to his feet, chuckling. He briefly made eye contact with Steve before looking away again, something about his expression oddly shy as he ran a hand over the back of his neck. Steve couldn’t help but smile.

Once Dustin straightened and shoved his hat back on his head, Eddie wrestled him into a hug.

“Get home safe, little man,” he said, rocking them back and forth.

Dustin snorted and pulled back. “I will as long as Steve drives like a sane person.”

Steve balked. “Excuse me?” he asked. “Why are you copping an attitude about my driving? Are you being a little butthead to impress him?” He flung a hand in Eddie’s direction. “Because it’s not working.”

Eddie grinned, putting his hands into his back pockets and rocking on his feet.

“I dunno, it’s working a little bit.”

Dustin beamed at Eddie and Steve rolled his eyes before sending him a soft smile Dustin didn’t notice. Eddie swallowed reflexively, expression slightly hesitant as he offered Steve a small smile back.

“Okay, get a move on, Henderson,” Steve said, putting his hands on Dustin’s shoulders and frogmarching him towards the door. “Munson needs his beauty rest.”

Because he was a little shit, he couldn’t help but shoot Eddie a wink over Dustin’s head. Eddie just raised an eyebrow but Steve didn’t fail to notice how his ears turned red.

“Alright, alright,” Dustin acquiesced. “Bye, Eddie!”

“Byyyyye, Dustin!” Eddie sang.

Steve pushed Dustin through the front door and then paused.

“Put your bike in my car, I’ll be there in one sec!” he called after him before hanging back.

He turned to Eddie who shifted slightly - his expression was guarded and a little nervous.

“What’s up?” he asked and if Steve didn’t know him, he’d buy that he was being casual.

Unfortunately for Eddie, Steve did know him so he could hear the apprehension from a mile away.

“Just…” Steve tilted his head to examine Eddie, dragging his eyes up and down him like he had on the couch. Eddie shifted again, Adam’s apple bobbing. Steve stared at his throat for a moment before giving him a slight smile. “Would you wanna hang out tomorrow night?” he asked, dropping his voice to something a bit more intimate.

Eddie cleared his throat, blinking in surprise.

“Like… with Robin or…?”

Steve shook his head. “No.”

Eddie hesitated. “Anyone else…?”

Steve watched him, heart tripping.

“Nope,” he answered with more confidence than he felt.

Eddie took a deep breath, clearly processing this.

“My uncle would be around if we hung out here,” he said carefully, eyes wary like he was worried that Steve would think it was a weird thing for him to bring up.

Steve felt his face grow into a soft smile.

“I’ll have the house to myself tomorrow night,” he offered before peering at Eddie. “If that’s, you know… appealing.”

Eddie’s brow furrowed as he looked at Steve for a long moment, really studied him, but then his expression cleared a little and he gave a decisive nod though his smile was borderline incredulous.

“Yeah,” he said before letting out a small laugh. “Yeah, okay.”

Steve took a step towards him and Eddie’s posture straightened as Steve hovered into his personal space, leaning in until they were practically cheek-to-cheek. He could smell that leather-and-cigarettes-and-cloves-and-mystery-hair-product smell again and he took a deep calming breath of it.

“Okay,” he murmured into Eddie’s ear and grinned when he felt the other man shiver.

“Steve!” Dustin called, breaking the reverie and making Steve pull back to look out the door. “Your trunk is too small!”

He was struggling to shove his bike into the back of Steve’s car and Steve threw his head back and groaned because, of course. Of course Dustin would ruin the moment.

He glanced back to find Eddie looking amused. Steve was gratified to see that at least he was blushing a little.

“You better go,” Eddie said with a smirk. “He’s totally gonna bust your car or his bike or, quite possibly, himself.”

Steve let out a breath and nodded. “Yeah.” He still hesitated and Eddie looked surprised but pleased that he was having such a hard time leaving. “I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“Steve!” Dustin all-but shrieked.

“Okay,” Eddie laughed, shaking his head, like Steve was something remarkable. “See you tomorrow.”

“Steve, help - I’m stuck in the chain!”

Steve let out a growl of, “Oh, my God, this fucking kid,” before giving an exasperated shrug to Eddie and tearing himself away to jog to his car. “Jesus Christ, I’m not in the next county so stop screeching!” he hissed at Dustin, reaching down to untangle his shirt where it was caught in the chain and yank the bike from his hands. He shoved it into the trunk in one try. “Do you have any idea what time it is? You’re gonna wake up the entire goddamn neighborhood!”

Eddie’s bright laughter followed him all the way home.

The next day, Steve found himself dearly wishing he had work - at least then that would be a distraction. His stomach was a bundle of nerves and he couldn’t sit still, mind whirring. Before nine AM he found himself up and jittery so he cleaned the house, twice, before he forced himself to eat some lunch and found that he kept pacing by the phone until he sat down and stared at it. He waited all of ten seconds and then finally made the decision to just go ahead and call Robin.

“Hey, Rob,” he greeted when she picked up, grimacing when he heard how frazzled he sounded. “What’s, uh… how’s it goin’?”

“Hello, Steve,” she said back, clearly aware that something was up. “I’m doing just peachy. And how are you on this beautiful day?”

He swallowed. “Fine,” he answered, short. “Good.”

There was a long pause. “So you just called me to tell me how fine you are?”

He let a breath out through his nose.

“Well… okay, yeah - I apologized to Eddie,” he told her, bouncing on his heels.

“Okaaaaay,” Robin said, a smile in her voice. To her credit, she didn’t ask him why it took him so fucking long. “And how’d that go?”

“I’m pretty sure he forgives me.” Steve hesitated. “But nothing, uh, happened after that.”

Robin sighed before groaning. “Steve! Why not?”

Steve frowned. “Er, well, we were hanging out and then Dustin showed up, so…”

Robin barked out a laugh. “Wait, he wanted to hang out after you apologized?”

Steve twisted the phone chord in his hand.

“Yeah,” he admitted.

“Steve!” she chided. “That was probably the green light!”

“I don’t know,” he said. “We didn’t really talk about anything else happening.” He hummed and then sighed. “But, uh… we’re gonna hang out again tonight.”

Her tinny scream nearly deafened him and he jerked the receiver away from his ear, wincing.

“STEVE!”

“Jesus, Robin - calm down,” he scolded.

“STEVEN HARRINGTON!”

He tsked, though her excitement was a bit infectious. “Manage your expectations - we don’t know if anything is gonna happen!” He tried to take a calming breath. “I mean, I’m not even sure if he’s into me.”

She groaned again. “Stop being so defeatist! Get your kisses!” she said. “You get those kisses, Steve!”

Steve hung up on her.

A few hours later, he was sitting on his couch, nervously watching a TV that he hadn’t bothered to turn on. He’d done some pushups and gone for a run and showered and now he was just… waiting. Eddie was supposed to be there soon.

Did he want Eddie to have expectations? Steve realized the prospect of him not having any sparked a pretty clear feeling of disappointment inside of him so he tried valiantly to be excited rather than purely anxious.

He just had to not overthink things.

He was considering cleaning again when he heard a knock on the door, making him almost jump out of his skin. Taking a calming breath, he stood up and smoothed his hands over his jeans.

He was good.

He had this.

He wasn’t overthinking things.

When he swung his door open, he found Eddie standing there, bouncing restlessly. He froze as soon as he saw Steve, eyes going a bit wide. They just looked at each other for a moment until he held up a six pack.

“I come bearing libations!” he said, full of false bravado. He held up his other hand, which contained a bag from the video store. “And Star Wars.”

Steve briefly contemplated asking him what the fuck a libation was but quickly dismissed it. He could ask later. He smiled, relaxing slightly when he realized Eddie seemed just as nervous as he was. It was reassuring in a way.

He shot the video store bag an amused look.

“Cool,” he said with only mild sarcasm. He grabbed the six pack from Eddie’s hand and walked backwards towards his kitchen. “Shoes off but otherwise mi casa es su casa.”

Eddie snorted and toed off his sneakers, looking around the foyer before following Steve, shutting the door behind him.

“Nice digs, Harrington,” he remarked quietly, clearly a bit impressed as he put the bag on the counter. Steve cast a glance at him and noticed that he was fiddling with his rings anxiously before tugging at a strand of hair. “Want a beer now, or…?”

Steve decisively put the beer in the fridge. “In a minute.” He took a centering breath to try and calm the twisting in his stomach and turned to face Eddie. “I wanted to do something first.”

Eddie gave him an odd look. “Okay…?”

Steve steeled himself and stepped into Eddie’s space like he had last night, noticing how Eddie’s spine straightened yet again as he took a halting breath.

“Tell me if you want me to stop,” Steve murmured in a low voice before sliding one hand into Eddie’s hair, the other curling around his jaw to tilt his head into a kiss.

Yes, a base, animalistic part of Steve’s brain purred. Yes, this is how it’s supposed to be.

Eddie’s lips were soft but slightly chapped and there was just a tiny bit of stubble on his cheek and he let out a shocked exhale, his hands attaching to Steve’s sides before he shuddered and returned the kiss. His fingers dug into the meat of Steve’s hips and, emboldened, Steve ran his tongue along the seam of Eddie’s mouth, heart racing when Eddie parted his lips and tentatively let their tongues meet.

It felt like someone had set a firework off in his chest.

Steve was just about to really get into it when Eddie pulled back, breath labored.

“Wait,” he said in a strained voice. “Hang on.”

Steve swallowed and took a deep breath to calm his hammering heart, blearily blinking open his eyes to look at Eddie.

“Okay,” he said back, trying to shake the fog from his head. “Yeah, that’s fine.” With no small amount of effort, he released Eddie and let the other man take an unsteady step back. “Sorry if that was…”

But Eddie shook his head. “No, that wasn’t it. I just.” He swallowed, eyes a little wide. “I have to say something.”

Steve peered at him. “Okay?”

Eddie’s nostrils flared. “I wasn’t lying before - when I said that I knew what you meant about not wanting to change for anyone.”

Steve felt his brow furrow. “Okay…” he said again slowly, still not following.

Eddie ran a hand through his hair, not meeting Steve’s eyes.

“And, like, this is awesome but - but you want me to be this guy I can’t be for Dustin and I know at some point you’re gonna realize that and get pissed and I just wanted to tell you that before that happens.”

Steve tried to process this. “I don’t think I really have that expectation…?” he said hesitantly, not sure why this meant they shouldn’t keep kissing.

Eddie raised his chin, not seeming to hear him.

“It took me a long time to like myself, man - I don’t wanna throw that away, even if you think it’ll make a better person for Dustin to look up to.”

Steve wrinkled his nose, confused for a moment - nothing Eddie said was tracking since Steve clearly liked him. But he then actually replayed Eddie’s words and remembered their previous conversation. Understanding slowly dawned on him, heart hurting a little in sympathy. He crossed his arms and studied Eddie, knowing he needed to nip this in the bud and hoping the direct approach was the right one.

“Okay… you can drop the Dustin code,” he said in a calm voice. “I know I brought that up before but I don’t really care about that and I’m pretty sure that what you actually mean is that you’re worried I don’t think you’re good enough for me.”

At that, Eddie faltered, eyes wide and caught out.

“I don’t…”

“Dude,” Steve interrupted kindly, “shut up.” Eddie’s mouth snapped shut. “I would never…” Steve huffed. “Just.”

He frowned, trying to think of how to handle this. He liked Eddie, obviously, and didn’t want him to feel pressured to reinvent himself just for Steve of all people, but he also wanted to be honest. He didn’t want Eddie to stop being Eddie but he also wasn’t sure if staying the same forever was that good, either. He then thought back to their conversation they’d had while volunteering again, right before he’d kissed Eddie the first time.

“Okay - how about personal growth?” he asked, changing tracks. “Are you interested in that?”

Eddie blinked at him. “I mean.” He seemed to really think about it, brow furrowing. “Yeah.”

Steve smiled, shrugging helplessly. “Then that’s kinda all I need.”

“Steve…” Eddie sighed.

“Eddie,” Steve said seriously, “I don’t want you to change.” He tilted his head, thinking on it, mouth twitching into a smile. “Alright, so maybe I’d like you to get off my back about Star Wars and Duran Duran but besides that, yeah.” He let out a faux-tragic sigh and spread his hands. “Apparently I think you’re pretty neat as is.”

Eddie hesitated, brow furrowed as he thought.

“Okay, well… Duran Duran sucks,” he said weakly in minor protest, clearly still processing what Steve had just told him. “And Star Wars is really good.”

Steve rolled his eyes. “Yeah, so I’ve heard.”

“If anything, you’re the one missing out on being part of the zeitgeist,” Eddie continued in a blank voice, lacking any conviction and seeming mildly dazed. “Honestly, at this point it’s so mainstream that it’s almost passé.”

“Eddie,” Steve said, trying to be patient, “do you seriously want to talk to me about Star Wars right now? Is that really the best way we could be spending our time?”

Eddie blinked before a slow smile grew on his face.

“Depends. You’re the one that’s into nerds.” He raised his eyebrows. “Apparently.”

“What?” Steve scoffed. “No, I’m not.”

“First Wheeler and now me?” Eddie laughed, eyes bright. “Uh, yeah you are.”

Steve snorted, crossing his arms. “I’ve dated way more people who aren’t nerds than who are,” he pointed out.

“Yeah,” Eddie countered, “but were you actually into them?” He waggled his eyebrows. “I bet you’d loooooove to come watch me play DnD, wouldn’t ya, tiger?”

Steve gave him a once over, helplessly charmed and feeling just a bit smitten.

“Maybe,” he said, unable to stop himself from smiling.

Honestly, it didn’t sound that bad and seeing Eddie in his element had a certain appeal to it.

The obnoxious swagger immediately fell away as Eddie blushed.

“Shut up, no you wouldn’t,” he scoffed.

Steve grinned a little. “I don’t know, man - maybe you’re making me see the appeal.”

Eddie looked at him like he was a strange creature.

“In what way?”

“Well, you like it,” Steve said reasonably, ignoring the butterflies in his stomach, “and I like you.”

Eddie’s eyes went wide. “Like, as in…” he started to ask in clear disbelief, like he hadn’t JUST been giving Steve shit for being into him.

Steve put his hands on his hips, giving Eddie an exasperated look.

“Yes, Eddie - I’m interested in you in a romantic and physical way.” He raised an eyebrow. “I had thought maybe that was obvious seeing as I, you know, made a move on you.” He raised both eyebrows. “Twice.” He crossed his arms. “One of which quite literally just happened.”

Eddie still looked floored. “Huh.” He blinked. “So that whole David Bowie thing…?”

Steve snorted, feeling a bit embarrassed. “It may have come up because I was wigging out about wanting to kiss you again.”

Eddie’s breath hitched. “Shit,” he muttered, a little dazed again. “So you care enough about this that you talked to Robin,” he said almost to himself as he nodded absently. “Okay.”

He didn’t seem to mind that Robin knew so Steve eyed him and took a short step forward but Eddie kind of bowed his shoulders, almost shying away.

“Sorry, just like -“ He huffed, running a hand through his hair, clearly a little frustrated with himself. “Can I just have a second to recalibrate?”

Steve immediately nodded, though it stung just a bit.

“Totally,” he said in a way that he hoped was reassuring.

Eddie frowned before chewing his lip. “Like I wanna, uh, do that again but I’m feeling…” He flexed and then shook out his hands before rolling his shoulders. “It’s a lot, you know?”

Steve watched him, seeing the anxious energy practically radiating off of him like heatwaves from asphalt.

Well, hey - if Eddie needed a minute, Steve could give him a minute.

“Want a beer and we can start a Star Wars?” he offered.

Eddie shot him a sharp glance, like he wasn’t expecting that quick of an acceptance.

“Seriously?” he asked, brow furrowed.

Steve gave him a fond look and went to grab two beers from the fridge, popping them open and handing one to Eddie.

“Sure,” he said easily. He gave Eddie a smile that he hoped was reassuring. “Then you can recalibrate to your heart's content.”

He led the way to the living room, watching as Eddie eyed the couch. Steve decided to make it easier for him by sitting first - then Eddie could decide how close he wanted to be. He chose the far end and he watched as Eddie hesitated before sitting near the middle. It wasn’t right next to Steve but it was still closer than two guy friends would sit if they were just hanging out.

Steve took a small sip of his beer before setting it down, not really interested in getting drunk. When he glanced over and found Eddie gulping his down, he eyed the beer bottle and Eddie halted mid-swig.

“What?” he asked, clearly a little self-conscious.

Steve couldn’t help but smile a bit. “Nothing… I’ve just never had anyone have to get drunk in order to stand the idea of making out with me before,” he said conversationally, making sure that his tone was flirtatious rather than judgmental. Saying the words out loud made his pulse thrum at his throat, a small thrill running through him at his own boldness.

The teasing must’ve worked because Eddie snorted, ears a little red as he quirked an eyebrow.

“Oh, is that what’s happening here?” he asked, tilting his head almost coquettishly.

Steve gave him a little shrug. “Seems like it.” He settled more fully into his seat, arm stretched across the back of the couch, his fingertips landing near Eddie’s shoulder. “I guess I’m just used to a little more… enthusiasm.”

At that, both of Eddie’s eyebrows raised and he leaned forward to deliberately place the beer on the coffee table before slowly turning to face Steve more fully.

“I’m sorry,” he said, incredulous but obviously pleased by how Steve was acting, “are you calling me unenthusiastic?”

Steve just shrugged again. “Maybe.”

Eddie peered at him. “I don’t think I’ve ever been accused of such a thing before.” His eyes traced Steve’s face. “That kinda feels like character assassination, Harrington.”

Steve cocked his head, looking Eddie up and down, smirking.

“What are you gonna do about it?”

Eddie stared at him for a moment before huffing out a small disbelieving laugh and looking away, shoulders hunching again.

“Sorry, just,” he said, voice softer and a little vulnerable as he shook his head, “it’s super weird having you flirt back.”

Steve gazed at him, mentally kicking his past self.

“In my defense, I’m a moron and didn’t realize you were flirting until recently.”

Eddie barked out a laugh, looking at Steve with incredulity.

“Then why’d you get so flustered every time?”

Steve scoffed. “I wasn’t flustered - I was annoyed!”

Eddie gave him a look. “Oh, okay - sure, Steve.”

Steve narrowed his eyes. “Well, at least now I’ve figured it out but I can stop flirting if it’s so ‘weird’ for you.”

Eddie shot him a fake glare. “Don’t you fucking dare.”

Steve watched him for a moment and Eddie watched him back.

“Is the flirting part of the need for recalibrating?” he asked softly.

Eddie huffed out a sigh and ran a hand through his hair.

“Uh. A bit.” He cast a side-long look at Steve. “To be honest, it still feels like I shouldn’t be allowed to touch you.”

Steve felt a strange shiver run up his spine.

“Well…” he said, voice husky, “consider this permission granted.”

Eddie just looked at him for a moment before smiling a bit.

“Put the movie on,” he ordered easily and Steve felt that same shiver run through him from Eddie’s commanding voice. “I’m not touching anyone who hasn’t seen Star Wars, Mr. Big Talk.”

Steve stared at him, brain flatlining, until he realized Eddie was waiting on a response.

“Yeah, okay.” he acquiesced, sounding stunned and a little small. “I’ll put on the movie, sure.”

He got up, legs feeling oddly unsteady, and went to go set the tape up. After pressing play, he approached the couch to sit back down where he’d been before and he might have been imagining things, but it seemed like maybe Eddie had shifted closer.

Steve pretended to not notice.

The trailers for some boring bullshit played and then the screen went black before a musical sting played so loud that it made Steve jump. He frowned when a giant wall of text started scrolling up the screen.

“Aw, man,” he griped. “I’m supposed to read all this?” He waved a hand at the TV. “It’s a freaking novel!”

Eddie snorted, not even looking at him. “Remind me to never make you watch anything with subtitles.”

Steve made a face. “Ugh, subtitles. Robin tried to make me watch some weird Swedish movie called Persona and it was awful. I kept trying to read but then I’d miss what was happening on people’s faces and then I’d look at their faces and miss the words and, on top of that, the plot was super confusing but also kind of depressing and creepy and then afterwards I kept thinking about it and it made me feel weird and sad.” He shook his head. “It sucked.”

Eddie’s eyes were still on the screen as a giant spaceship showed up but he at least didn’t seem bothered by Steve talking so much.

“Well, not everything can be Teen Wolf,” he observed, lips twitching in amusement.

Steve’s fingers itched with the urge to touch him.

Instead he rolled his eyes.

“Whatever, man - Teen Wolf isn’t that bad. Lorie Griffin is hot in it and you practically get to see her boobs! Plus -”

He abruptly cut himself off, mouth snapping shut as he blinked in surprise at what he was about to say without even thinking about it, neck growing hot.

Eddie finally looked at him, a knowing glint in his eyes.

“Plus what?” Steve frowned and Eddie leaned forward. “Who else is hot in it, Steve?” he guessed correctly, like an asshole psychic.

Steve hemmed and hawed for a moment before hunching his shoulders.

“Plus… Jerry Levine is kinda attractive in it too, I guess,” he admitted so quietly that he would have been surprised if Eddie could hear him say it.

It was odd how easily the thought had come to him, though. He couldn’t even remember thinking any of that when he’d first seen the movie but he did remember how he’d been almost equally transfixed by both actors. He just hadn’t seen that interest for what it was but he supposed it was possible that his gay floodgates or whatever were open now and he was finally understanding his own mind a bit better.

He was less bothered by it than he thought he’d be.

Eddie barked out a laugh. “Stiles?” he crowed in utter glee, making Steve scowl. “You have it bad for fucking Stiles?” Eddie flung out a hand. “Michael J. Fox is right there and you go for Stiles?! He’s so lame!”

Steve frowned harder. “He’s funny!” he said in his defense before slumping down. “Actually, you know what? Never mind - I don’t have to explain myself to you,” he grumbled.

“Holy shit,” Eddie chuckled. “I was kinda joking before about you being into nerds but now I’m starting to think I was really onto something.”

“Shut up and watch your precious fucking robots,” Steve ordered, face feeling red. Eddie playfully shook his head but mimed zipping his lips, leaning back against the couch. They watched the movie for a moment, Steve nearly driven to distraction by this ever-growing, all-encompassing awareness of Eddie’s proximity (Eddie was right there - he was so close and Steve felt like Eddie was putting out some kind of energy field that was making Steve’s brain go haywire) until his nose wrinkled as he noticed something. “What’s up with her hair?” he asked quietly.

Eddie snorted and Steve glanced over to find that he was definitely closer than he’d been before. Steve’s pulse jumped at his throat, something like anticipation squirming in his stomach.

“She’s a princess,” Eddie explained, like that meant anything. He kept his eyes on the screen. “It’s space fashion.”

“It looks dumb,” Steve said, mainly because he knew Eddie would take offense and maybe that would make him look at him.

To Steve’s delight, Eddie gave him an unimpressed glare. Having Eddie’s eyes on him felt heady and weighty and Steve was mildly concerned that it was becoming addictive.

“Your hair looks dumb,” Eddie shot back but the easy grin that grew on his face right after betrayed how much he was joking.

Steve narrowed his eyes and, after a moment’s consideration, reached out a hand to tug at a strand of Eddie’s hair. It was as soft as it looked and he didn’t miss how Eddie’s eyes widened a bit.

“So says the guy with a perm,” Steve teased in a low voice.

Eddie swallowed and watched as Steve dropped his hand.

“This is my natural hair, asshole,” he murmured, though a smirk twitched at the corner of his lips.

Steve couldn’t help but smile. “Well, I actually like it so…” Eddie shook his head like Steve was an odd thing to behold and turned to face the screen again. Steve reluctantly followed suit. There was a guy in a black helmet. He looked kind of cool. “Who’s that?” he asked.

Eddie huffed out a laugh. “That’s Darth Vader, which you’d know if you would pay attention for more than two seconds.”

Steve opened his mouth to respond when he felt Eddie shift, the warmth of his body drawing closer, and then there was the unmistakable sensation of his arm draping across the back of the couch. As his fingers brushed across the nape of Steve’s neck and then down to his shoulder, Steve shut his mouth, swallowing as his stomach flipped. When he didn’t move away, Eddie shifted slightly closer again and moved more of his arm off the back of the couch to fully rest around Steve. He felt the hair on his arms stand up, scalp prickling.

“You’re stealing my move, Munson,” he observed quietly, not looking away from the screen but also not paying any attention whatsoever.

Eddie snorted but his hand moved to where he could reach past Steve’s sleeve and stroke at the bare skin of his arm, fingers moving in lazy circles, little tingles trailing in their wake. Steve’s stomach flipped again - it was odd, being on the receiving end of this. He was so used to being the arm-draper, not the arm-drapee, but he found himself slightly stunned by how much he liked it. He took a shaky breath when he felt Eddie put his chin onto his other shoulder, leaning in so close that he could feel his breath tickling his neck. His eyes fluttered shut and he could practically hear his own heartbeat.

“It’s everyone’s move, Harrington,” Eddie murmured into his ear as Steve fought a shudder, heat crawling up his neck. “It’s basically a cliche, I’m not stealing shit.”

Steve opened his eyes to keep looking at the screen, not comprehending anything that he saw.

“You calling me cliched?” he asked, shooting for blasé but sounding breathless instead.

“Nah,” Eddie hummed, lips almost brushing Steve’s ear, causing him to reflexively swallow. “I’d say you’re actually one in a million.”

And what could Steve do with that but turn his head and let Eddie press a kiss to his mouth, heart hammering in his chest. The other kiss had been nice but Eddie took the lead this time and it had intent behind it - like Eddie had plans for him - and Steve let out another shaky breath when Eddie lifted a hand to gently wrap it around his throat. It felt large and his calloused fingertips were electric against Steve’s skin and he could feel the shift of Eddie’s palm against his Adam’s apple whenever he swallowed, the metal of Eddie’s rings slowly matching Steve’s body temperature that felt practically feverish.

When Eddie deepened the kiss, his thumb lightly massaging Steve’s jaw to coax his mouth open (like he fucking needed coaxing), Steve lifted his hands to Eddie’s hair, gripping at it and holding him tight. Eddie made a deep, guttural noise and shifted closer, tongue stroking against Steve’s. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d really felt this lost in kissing someone, when he wasn’t just merely enjoying it but like he only existed in that moment, the heat of Eddie’s mouth blacking out the rest of the world.

It was like he was floating. Eddie leaned heavily against his side, his other arm still across Steve’s back so he could hold Steve closer, his chest moving unevenly against him as he bit at Steve’s lower lip, making Steve suppress an embarrassing noise that tried to wrench out of him. Eddie must’ve heard it anyways because he let out a breathless laugh against Steve’s mouth and he shivered when he realized he could feel Eddie’s smile rather than see it.

“Fuck, you’re a good kisser,” Eddie muttered, breath coming in short hot bursts across Steve’s lips. “I should’ve known but still.”

Steve couldn’t think of what to say except to make an impatient noise and haul Eddie in roughly by the hair to slot their mouths together again. Eddie let out a broken groan, the sound reverberating through Steve’s body and settling hot and warm in his groin. Steve felt an odd surge of possessiveness and sucked Eddie’s tongue into his own mouth, struck by the urge to have something of Eddie’s inside of him and he couldn’t even really begin to think what that meant and, besides, Eddie was now pressing against him even harder and Steve couldn’t really begin to think about anything.

They made out like this for a while, Steve fully losing track of time, until Eddie broke the kiss to breathe hard and lean in to nose at Steve’s neck, tongue just lightly grazing his pulse point. Steve blinked his eyes open when he heard the sound of some kind of laser going off and realized the movie was still playing.

“Hey - what about Star Wars?” he murmured, deeply distracted but still a little amused by how quickly Eddie had gotten sidetracked.

Eddie hummed into this hair. “You’ve seen some frames, that’s good enough for me,” he said impatiently, voice rough, “besides, Dune’s better.”

“What the hell is Dune?” Steve asked, barely able to concentrate when Eddie’s hand flexed against his throat.

Eddie let out a frustrated groan. “Ohhhhh my God, why don’t you know anything?” he muttered almost to himself in exasperation and, before Steve could register his offense at that statement, he found Eddie swinging a leg over his hips and settling into his lap as he draped his arms over Steve’s shoulders.

“Oh,” Steve said in surprise, head swimming as he looked up. “Hello.”

“This okay?” Eddie asked breathlessly, blinking down at him, hair haloing his face.

Steve swallowed hard and nodded. “Yeah, no - that’s, uh, that’s great.”

Eddie nodded himself. “Cool.”

With that, he bent forward and kissed Steve again, rocking into him. An embarrassing noise wrenched out of Steve, almost like a whine, when Eddie combed his hands into his hair and then fisted it, grip just short of being painful but then he felt himself jump when Eddie pressed even closer and it became obvious just how interested he was in what was happening because… yep, that was a dick poking into his stomach.

A hard dick.

Eddie’s hard dick.

Eddie seemed to notice that he’d frozen because he leaned back, breathing hard.

“Shit, sorry. Too much?” He started to shift further away but, almost of their own accord, Steve’s hands went to his lower back to hold him in place.

“Nah,” Steve said, voice husky. “Just kinda surprised me.” He rolled his eyes at himself. “I don’t know why but, uh, it did just a bit. I’m good.”

Eddie didn’t move but he still looked hesitant.

“We can stop whenever you want, you know,” he said quietly. “I may have to go jerk off but I’m sure I’ll find it in my heart to forgive you.”

Steve let out a helpless laugh and then a groan because he made the mistake of picturing that - he then dropped his forehead to Eddie’s collarbone.

“Thank you,” he said honestly. “I appreciate that. But, no, I’m serious - I’m good.” He massaged Eddie’s lower back where he was still holding him. “It’s just different from what I’m used to.”

“Bad different?” Eddie asked, but he sounded vaguely distracted as Steve’s fingers dug into his muscles.

“No. Just different.” Steve tilted his head to press an open-mouthed kiss to Eddie’s neck. Eddie made a strange cut-off noise and Steve smiled. “Like… with girls, you can tell when they’re into it but you have to learn to read the signs - at least until they want your hand in their pants and you can see if they’re wet or not. This is… more immediately obvious.”

Steve had a brief moment of concern that this wasn’t exactly a kosher topic to discuss while hooking up with a dude but then Eddie let out a shaky breath, legs tightening around Steve.

“I guess,” he laughed, somewhat self-deprecatingly. “I haven’t really done much with chicks.”

Steve pulled back to look up at him with incredulity.

“What, really?”

Eddie huffed and shot Steve a look. “Yeah, man - I’m kinda weird, in case you missed that. Plus I play DnD and listen to ‘devil music’ and got held back a couple of grades.” Eddie shrugged. “As such, the fairer sex has a track record of avoiding me.”

Steve gazed up at him with his ridiculously impressive hair, his jawline, his tattoos, his doe eyes and sweet smile and Steve found that he definitely couldn’t understand what he was talking about.

“Their fucking loss then,” Steve remarked seriously.

Eddie let out a shocked snort, shaking his head like Steve was crazy.

“Your dirty talk is bizarre,” he said in a low voice. “I like it.”

But Steve was distracted as he thought about what Eddie’d said and he frowned.

“And that’s… are you sure that’s not something you’d want?”

Eddie blinked in confusion before giving him a look, eyebrows raising.

“Are you seriously asking me if I’d rather be doing this with a chick right now?”

Steve gave him a helpless shrug. “I mean, I’d hate for you to feel like you’re missing out on something.”

Eddie bit his lip, giving Steve an assessing once over.

“Listen, for me… girls are more of the exception than the rule, okay?” He squinted, obviously trying to think of how to explain it. “They tend to be outliers.”

Steve blinked, processing this. “Huh.” He then couldn’t help but smile. “So like the flip side of me, yeah?” He shifted when Eddie settled more firmly against him again, weight coming to rest fully into his lap. He felt his pulse quicken as he realized he was hard, too. “Like different sides of two different coins.”

Eddie snorted. “So… not the same at all,” he said, though he sounded just as distracted as Steve.

“Sure,” Steve agreed, not remotely interested in this conversation anymore as Eddie combed his fingers through his hair. “Whatever.”

Eddie took the hint and kissed him, hard, letting a harsh breath through his nose as he ground down onto Steve’s dick, eliciting a keening noise that took Steve a second to realize had actually come from him. Eddie rolled his hips slightly, making Steve’s breath catch in his throat as it caused his erection brushed against Steve’s stomach again but it wasn’t nearly enough and Eddie must’ve felt the same because he pulled back slightly to pant into Steve’s mouth.

“Would you lie down for me?” he murmured breathlessly, though there was a rough edge to his voice.

Steve felt his pulse go triple-time. “Sure,” he agreed in a hazy fog, immediately missing Eddie’s warmth when he shifted backwards to allow Steve to move into a horizontal position.

Eddie seemed about ready to get close again when he squinted at Steve.

“How are you feeling about us doing this on your parents’ couch?” he asked, obviously trying to be considerate, which Steve had to begrudgingly appreciate. He also felt his head swim when he realized what Eddie was really asking about - that there was a prospect of them potentially ruining this couch.

Steve tried to not let his nerves show on his face.

“I mean…” He attempted a confident smirk. “It’s better than what they deserve.” When Eddie raised an eyebrow, Steve let out a helpless laugh. “I can also flip a cushion over if need be but they’ll never notice - they’re hardly ever here.”

He blinked when he realized Eddie had run a finger down his arm until he could brush his hand against Steve’s, his rings smooth in some places and hard ridges in others against Steve’s fingers. When he looked to Eddie’s face, he saw that the other man looked contemplative.

“Have they always left you home alone a lot?” he asked quietly.

Steve swallowed before giving a one-shouldered shrug, slightly caught off-guard by the question.

“Yeah,” he said honestly, though he tried to hide the hurt behind it, “but it doesn’t really matter.”

Eddie gave him a considering look before lifting up Steve’s hand to lick from his wrist, across his palm, and up his middle finger. Steve was worried for a moment that he might have a heart attack as Eddie then moved to place a sweet kiss in the middle of his palm.

“In that case,” Eddie said against Steve’s hand, breath tickling his skin, “I say let’s teach them a lesson.”

Steve gulped as he looked up at him.

“Okay, sure - hell yeah,” he said back, voice so breathless that it was almost comical.

Eddie snorted and seemed about to lean over Steve when he got a devious glint in his eye. He cocked his head before he deliberately pressed one hand to each of Steve’s knees and slowly pushed until his legs spread apart. He did it gently enough that Steve could have easily resisted but doing that felt insane when his body was screaming at him to let it happen. Eddie slid in between his knees, hovering over Steve and he took a halting breath, unused to being loomed over but finding his brain scrambled by how much he wanted Eddie’s solid weight on top of him.

“I always suspected you were a rebel, Harrington,” Eddie murmured before dropping down to kiss him senseless.

A jolt ran through Steve’s body again when he felt Eddie’s erection drag against him, only this time it was more intense as it pressed into his own through several layers of clothing. Eddie must’ve felt it too because he let out a harsh breath and let his head fall beside Steve’s before moving to mouth at his collarbone over his shirt.

Steve tried to get his brain back online.

“So walk me through this part,” he tried to say sensibly, “the dick part.” He wiggled. "The dick equation.”

Eddie huffed out a laugh, making his chest shift against Steve’s which in turn caused his stomach to swoop. He pulled back to peer blearily into Steve’s eyes. Their faces were very close.

“What’s there to walk through?” he asked.

Steve couldn’t help but balk slightly. “Well, I wanna do it right.”

Eddie rolled his eyes. “How about I take care of things and then you can see how you feel?”

Steve frowned. “What, just lie here?” He couldn’t help but feel a little incensed by the idea. “Like some kind of chump?”

Eddie shrugged, eyes on Steve’s lips. “I figured I could give you a blowjob and then you can see if you wanna do anything else from there.”

Steve stared at him, because while the idea of Eddie going down on him was nice (more than nice, he could feel himself getting dangerously hard from even just barely picturing it), he couldn’t help but wonder why Eddie would think he didn’t even want to contribute.

“Okay,” Steve said suspiciously after mulling it over for a moment, “are girls saying I’m bad in bed?”

Eddie let out a startled laugh, bracing himself on an arm to lift up a little and look Steve more fully in the face.

“What?”

Steve gestured between them. “You’re talking like someone who’s heard I don’t do foreplay. Are girls saying I don’t do foreplay?” He looked up at Eddie in a way that he hoped conveyed how serious he was. “Because I DO foreplay!”

Eddie looked slightly caught off guard but also amused.

“No one’s -“ He huffed out an exasperated breath. “We’re dudes, Harrington,” he finally said, just a bit wry, “we don’t need foreplay.”

Steve felt his eyebrows slowly rise.

“Wooooow.” He couldn’t help but let out a small sigh before humming as he then gave Eddie an assessing look up and down. “That sounds like a challenge if I’ve ever heard one.”

Eddie let out another exasperated breath but there was color high on his cheeks.

“It’s not necessary,” he insisted, like someone who had definitely never been treated to foreplay before.

Steve shook his head. “It’s a goddamn crime that no one has ever bothered doing that with you before,” he said, trying to keep his tone somewhat facetious since he could tell Eddie was at least a little legitimately embarrassed. “And to assume I would, what - just accept a bj without contributing anything?” He cupped the back of Eddie’s head in order to look deeply into his eyes. “I have a reputation for being a good lay, Eddie,” he informed him in mock seriousness. “That’s not a title I’m gonna part with easily.”

Eddie raised an unimpressed eyebrow but still squirmed a little against him.

“Fine, hotshot - then what do you propose?” he asked, like Steve was being a giant pain in the ass, but Steve didn’t miss that he kept shifting restlessly against him.

Steve smiled up at him. “Let’s switch places,” he offered.

Eddie gave him a wary look but then sighed and shrugged theatrically, pushing up and then flopping backwards, hair pooling around him like he was in a painting or something. Steve hastily shoved himself into a sitting position before hovering over him.

He then paused, mind working overtime.

Okay… so maybe he wasn’t 100% sure how to approach foreplay with a guy. But he could learn and this was a subject where Steve considered himself a quick study.

Taking a breath, he watched Eddie’s face for any shifts in his expression as he ran a hand through the other man’s hair, once more reveling in its softness, before trailing down to rub his earlobe and then his neck, fingers ghosting over his collarbone and then his side. He then reached up to Eddie’s shoulder before lightly tracing the tattoos on his arm, the pads of his fingers catching on some of his rings when he reached his hand. Steve felt Eddie’s stomach muscles twitch under his shirt when he pressed his palm to it.

“Aaaand what are you doing, exactly?” Eddie asked, just a bit breathless and somewhat amused.

“Trying to see what works for you,” Steve murmured. “Do you even know what you like since ‘foreplay is overrated’?”

Eddie huffed out a breath, raising an eyebrow.

“Here’s a crazy thought: you could just touch my dick,” he offered, legs shifting restlessly.

He had a point, Steve had to admit. But some combination of nerves and the desire to not be wrong about the foreplay thing made Steve take pause. He eyed Eddie’s body again, contemplating his chest for a moment.

That was a thought. Steve figured nipples were nipples - everybody had them (well, he assumed they did anyway as he wasn’t a biologist or whoever would have such nipple knowledge). Steve had encountered girls who weren’t that into having their nipples played with so maybe it wouldn’t do anything for Eddie but…

“Do you like having your chest touched?” Steve asked.

Eddie looked at him blearily. “What?”

“Like…” Steve mimed a pinching gesture.

Eddie only seemed more confused. “What?”

Steve tsked. “Okay, I’m just gonna show you - tell me to stop if you hate it.”

He groped Eddie’s pec and, yeah, there was less there than Steve was used to but again: nipples were nipples so when he felt Eddie’s through his shirt, he gave one an experimental pinch.

Eddie’s hips jerked slightly, eyes going wide.

“Okay,” he said in clear surprise. “No one’s really done that before. Huh.”

“Bad?” Steve asked, even though he knew he could probably take Eddie inadvertently humping him as a good sign.

Eddie nodded. “No, yeah, g-go ahead,” he stammered. “Keep showing me.”

Steve kept his eyes on Eddie’s face as he slipped his hand up his shirt - he had less hair on his chest than Steve (though, according to Dustin, everyone had less hair than Steve) but he could still feel that he had a light dusting of it as some brushed against his fingers. It was once again troubling how little it bothered him. If he was being honest with himself, the thing that had most worried him about the prospect of hooking up with a guy (besides the dick) was the different amount of body hair but it just… didn’t seem to matter now that he was here.

Growing bolder by the moment, Steve moved to grip Eddie’s nipple without any clothes in the way and rolled it more firmly. Eddie made a strange kind of noise, like someone had hit him, his eyes fluttering closed.

Steve didn’t look away from his face, entirely transfixed, as he slowly eased Eddie’s shirt up.

“This okay?” he asked.

Eddie just nodded wordlessly, biting his lip.

Steve let himself have a moment to look at Eddie’s chest, not failing to notice two tattoos that he couldn’t help but lightly trace his fingers over, causing Eddie to take in an unsteady breath. He still had marks all over him from the bats - there was a particularly large and angry scar on his side and Steve felt his stomach swoop when he realized he had one that was almost identical, like they were mirror images of each other.

He looked back to Eddie’s face as he leaned forward and tentatively licked at a nipple, hand continuing to roll the other. Eddie made the weird noise again, his hands going up to grab Steve’s head but, when he didn’t push him away and instead held him in place, Steve smiled to himself and kept up his teasing, now swirling his tongue in one direction for one nipple while his hand twisted in the other.

When he put his lips over him and sucked, Eddie made a broken sound.

“Shit,” he muttered, hips twitching. “Fuck.”

Steve freed his mouth to blow over where his tongue had just been and grinned when he saw Eddie’s skin break out in goosebumps.

“Starting to see the benefits of foreplay now?” Steve asked, unable to stop himself from sounding smug.

Eddie’s hands tightened in his hair. “Maybe just a smidge.”

“Just a smidge, huh?” Steve tsked. “That won’t do.”

And with that, he bit down.

Eddie, letting out a surprised sound, arched his back and lifted one of his hands from Steve’s head to cover his mouth to let out a muffled moan.

“We’re alone, Eddie,” Steve panted into his chest, reaching down with the hand he wasn’t using on Eddie to palm his own dick, which was getting hard enough that it was becoming distracting. “You can be loud if you want to.” He pinched down on his nipple again, causing Eddie to let out another cut-off moan. “There’s no one else home and even the closest neighbor is pretty far away.” He grinned, feeling slightly unhinged and half-drunk on the sounds Eddie was making. “You could scream and no one would hear you.”

Eddie let out a helpless laugh. “When you put it that way, it sounds like you wanna murder me.”

Steve moved his mouth to Eddie’s other nipple and Eddie’s hand flexed in his hair.

“Well, I’m not really doing my job unless you feel like you’re dying,” he said reasonably, though his voice was slightly muffled.

Eddie grunted. “Hah… petite mort,” he muttered. When he noticed Steve’s quirked eyebrow, he huffed out a laugh. “‘The little death’,” he explained between unsteady breaths. “French euphemism for an orgasm.”

Steve grinned at him. “‘Petite’ seems like too low of a bar,” he said. “Let's shoot for ‘grande’.”

Eddie laughed again. “That’s fucking Spanish. How the hell did you graduate before me?”

Steve sat up to take his own shirt off before slipping off Eddie’s the rest of the way and leaning down to kiss him again.

“I applied myself,” Steve pulled away to say seriously, unable to stop himself from touching Eddie’s hair.

At that, Eddie yanked him forward into another kiss, though this one was mostly teeth, his nails digging into Steve’s back in a way that made his dick press into the zipper of his jeans so hard that it was almost painful, both of their breathing becoming ragged. Steve pulled back to gasp against Eddie’s mouth, hand moving between them to fumble with the button of Eddie’s pants, pulling the fly down to reveal the other man’s briefs before he realized what he was doing and he hesitated, suddenly a little apprehensive again. Yeah, he was into this but….

This kind of felt like the point of no return.

A guy couldn’t really touch another guy’s dick with sexual intent and enjoy it and still consider himself purely straight. Well, Steve supposed there were guys who could and would do that but he wasn’t willing to be that in denial for the rest of his life.

On the flip side, what if he just… couldn’t do it? What if he took this step and found he hated it? What if he tried and it sucked and he couldn’t actually get into it enough to follow through? The idea of doing that to Eddie made his skin feel tight with anxiety.

“Hey, it’s cool if it’s too much,” Eddie assured him, even though he was breathless and hard and red in the face. Steve blinked at him, startled from his little spiral. “I wasn’t lying before.”

Steve gave him a smile that he hoped was reassuring.

“Again - I appreciate it.”

He then took a deep breath and eased the band of Eddie’s under/wear down, eyebrows raising a little when his dick was revealed.

Okay… Steve couldn’t help but be relieved when he realized he felt zero panic. If anything, he thought maybe he was feeling the opposite of panic - it was an odd moment of zen because he realized it had maybe been a bit stupid to be worried. Yeah, this was new equipment but it wasn’t like every girl he’d been with had been exactly the same. Everyone worked just a little bit differently and all that mattered was if the person wanted Steve and vice versa.

He didn’t feel scared of Eddie’s dick because it was Eddie.

Steve also realized that he’d actually seen plenty of penises before - he’d done sports for years, after all. He’d spent a lot of time in locker rooms and there was never much shame in those scenarios though he was now considering that maybe it hadn’t been that normal to actually look and see what other guys were working with. It had always been glances but… there had been a lot of glances.

On top of that, he remembered that he’d actually even seen hard dicks before since he’d watched porn and there was also that time he and Tommy had gotten their hands on one in the ninth grade and jerked off to it together which, again, Steve was now realizing might not have been completely normal for a 100% straight guy to do.

But in spite of these dicks, Steve thought (and maybe he was biased) that Eddie’s was really nice. He was flushed and curved and not big in a way that was intimidating like most of the guys in the porn he’d seen but still large enough that it seemed like he’d feel good in Steve’s hand. God, Steve was already imagining touching him, wasn’t he? That was yet another relief.

Seeing Eddie hard didn’t decrease his arousal - if anything, it increased it. Not only was he not scared… Steve realized he was fucking excited.

It was also gratifying how agitated Eddie was getting just from Steve studying him, like he could feel Steve’s eyes grazing over the length of him.

So Steve didn’t touch him just yet and instead let out a low whistle.

“Nice.”

Eddie’s lips pressed into a thin, impatient line. “I don’t know if anyone’s ever told you this, Steven,” he said, face getting even redder, “but it’s kind of a faux pas to make fun of a guy’s junk if you’re trying to hook up with him.”

“No, I’m being serious!” Steve insisted, unable to stop himself from smiling. “You’re a brave man for wearing those tight jeans.”

Eddie groaned, looking up at the ceiling and shifting his shoulders, almost like he couldn’t stop moving.

“My jeans are perfectly normal, thank you very much.” He took a steadying breath, obviously trying to center himself. “So do you… do you feel like you’d be able to…”

He seemed to be having trouble finding the right words but Steve knew what he was getting at.

Steve gave him another considering once-over, blood feeling hot.

“I mean, mechanically, it can’t be that much different from jerking off,” he mused, positioning his hand in the air in the way he would if he held his own dick before eying the angle of Eddie’s. “Besides - in for a penny, in for a pound, am I right?” he asked with a grin.

“What does that even…” Eddie cut himself off with a long exhale when Steve decided to rip the bandaid off and just go ahead and drag a loose hand over his dick.

Steve was right - Eddie felt, in a word, really nice against his palm. There was this kind of velvet drag to his skin, extremely warm and there wasn’t any pre-cum yet but Steve still felt the way his cock jumped when he lightly stroked at it, unable to not watch with fascination. He didn’t squeeze too tightly yet as he wanted to just feel him for a moment but he also didn’t really want to give the guy a dry handjob (he wasn’t a total asshole) especially now that he felt almost crazy with how much he wanted this to be good for Eddie. With that in mind, Steve reached his other hand under the couch to grab the bottle of lube he’d left there earlier that day.

When he pulled it out, Eddie blinked at it in surprise.

“Where the hell did you get that?” he asked, bewildered, though his pupils were blown wide and his chest was flushed.

Steve glanced at the lube in his hand. “Uh.” He wrinkled his nose, realizing that him just magically producing lube might be considered a little weird. “I may have been overly optimistic and stashed lube in various places around the house just in case?” he admitted.

Eddie looked shocked but thankfully he also seemed more than a little impressed.

“Okay,” he said, laughing slightly.

Steve could feel his face getting red. “Listen, a wise woman once told me that, when in doubt, use lube - and those are words I now live by.” He gave a little shrug. “Plus, like, I use it on myself too so it’s not as if it’s weird for me to have it on hand.”

Eddie’s eyebrows rose. “You use it?” he asked, like that was strange. “To…?”

Steve gave him a puzzled look. “To jerk off?” he answered, feeling even more confused when Eddie nodded and suddenly looked like everything made much more sense. “Wait, what did you think I was using it for?”

Eddie let out a breath, eyes cutting away. “Uh. You know…” He then made a very expressive gesture with one hand - he held up two fingers and drove them upwards, miming (ostensibly) Steve putting them inside himself.

Steve knew his eyes were wide as he stared at Eddie’s hand, mind blanking out for a moment.

“Well.” He opened his mouth before shutting it again. “I can’t say I’ve ever used it in that particular way before, no.” Eddie just nodded like he understood and a thought occurred to Steve. “Hang on - do you use lube for that?” he asked, unable to not sound incredibly intrigued.

Eddie met his gaze, his own eyes big and caught out before he made a yikes face and looked away.

“We don’t have to…” he blustered, clearly embarrassed. “Talking about this isn’t really necessary…”

“Oh no, nononono,” Steve said, pulling at Eddie’s chin to make him meet his eyes. “Come on, Munson, I swear I’m not gonna make fun of you - I sincerely am just very, VERY interested.”

Eddie took a slow breath before letting it out of his nose.

“Possibly,” he finally answered, still cagey. “A few times.” He peered at Steve, almost suspicious. “Maybe.”

Steve blinked, feeling a bit dazed as he imagined Eddie doing it (did he do it while jerking off? Did he just have to reach back at the odd angle and try to get those long fingers inside himself? How much would he have to contort his body to do it? Steve had of course heard jokes about people putting things up their asses during their “alone time” but he’d never known anyone in real life who’d actually tried it before) but then he shook himself back to the present.

He felt a smile grow on his face. “And you like it?”

Eddie’s neck was now as flushed as his chest.

“Do I have to answer that?” he asked, tone dry, but Steve could see how flustered he was.

Steve gave a half-shrug. “No,” he answered easily. “But like I said, I’m a perfectionist with this shit so knowing what you like would make my job easier.”

Eddie stared at him for a long moment, obviously struggling with whatever made it hard to admit that he was into butt stuff - Steve guessed it was probably at least partially due to that fact that it was the kind of shit bullies would mock first and foremost whenever they talked about two dudes being together. Steve, for one, had always thought that was a bit rich since they were usually the same guys who would then turn around and try to browbeat their unwilling girlfriends into doing anal but whatever.

Eddie’s lips were thin from how hard he was pressing them together, his gaze still apprehensive.

“Okay.” He took a deep breath. “Yeah,” he admitted quietly. “I do.”

Steve wondered if he should address how anxious Eddie was about this or tell him that he thought he was brave for being able to be so honest, but Steve wasn’t the best at words at times and he worried he’d fumble this and ruin it and sometimes the only way to make someone not feel weird about something is to show them how not-weird you find it.

So Steve just grinned.

“Cool,” he said easily, smiling even wider when Eddie immediately looked relieved by his response. “I mean, I once dated this girl who was kinda into butt stuff so I have some experience - and, like, buttholes are buttholes, right?” He shrugged, knowing he was probably oversharing but unable to stop himself. “Once you’ve dealt with one butthole, you’re probably prepared for any butthole."

Eddie stared at him for a moment.

“You just said ‘butthole’ a frankly concerning number of times,” he observed, mildly bewildered.

Steve gave Eddie a look. “I’m just saying: everyone has nipples, everyone has buttholes," he gestured his hands emphatically to really drive his point home, "it’s basically what unifies us all as human beings!”

Eddie let out an amused exhale, gazing affectionately at Steve like he was nuts.

“Seriously?” he asked, eyes shining. “How am I the normal one in this situation?”

“Buttholes are normal!” Steve exclaimed, smiling.

Eddie grabbed the sides of his face. “Stop saying buttholes!” he laughed before roughly releasing him. “How the fuck do you get laid so often?”

Steve winked at him. “I’m very charming.” He paused as he thought. “Okay, so maybe there’s a slight chance I don’t bring up buttholes this much with other people.”

Eddie snorted, shaking his head. “Gee, I wonder why.”

Steve couldn’t help it - he gave Eddie a soft look.

“What can I say - you make me wanna be silly.” Eddie blinked at this, lips parting slightly. “Not many people bring that out of me.”

Eddie looked at him for a moment, his chest moving a little unsteadily. Then, without a word, he grabbed one of Steve’s wrists and pulled his hand down to where he still had an erection.

He hadn’t flagged at all.

It felt like a punch to the chest and Steve took in a shaky breath, looking back up at Eddie’s face.

“Luckily it looks like I’m into you being silly,” he said, mouth ticking up in a smirk.

Steve felt his pulse start to thrum again.

“God,” he breathed. “You’re really hot, you know that?” he asked, unable to stop himself.

Eddie blushed immediately, squirming slightly when Steve put some lube onto his fingers and gently began to coat Eddie’s erection with it, his hand then settling more firmly against him. The angle was definitely different from how it felt when Steve jacked himself off and he found himself wondering if Eddie would ever let him do this from behind in front of a mirror so he could watch.

“You’re also talented,” he continued, pressing a kiss to Eddie’s collarbone, “and kind,” he pressed a kiss to the tattoo on his bicep, “and cool,” he pressed a kiss to his sternum, “and funny,” he pressed a kiss to his stomach.

When he moved back up to Eddie’s neck, he noticed that Eddie was so red in the face that it looked painful, chest moving unevenly, cock jumping with each word of praise. His eyes squeezed shut, breathing hard.

“What are you doing, Harrington?” he asked a bit warily, swallowing hard when Steve kissed his throat like he realized he’d been wanting to all week.

“Telling you what I like about you,” Steve murmured, hand still moving at a languid pace. Eddie’s legs shifted. “Why, you want me to stop?”

Eddie swallowed again. “No… it’s just different.” There was something slightly rueful in how he said it.

It was enough to make Steve take pause though he kept up his lazy stroking.

“Bad different?” he asked in an echo of Eddie’s earlier question.

Eddie huffed out a laugh, clearly remembering the same thing as he gave Steve an amused look.

“No, just…” He cleared his throat, eyes fluttering closed. “I haven’t really been the focal point when I’ve done this before.” He offered a one-shouldered shrug, shivering slightly when Steve twisted his hand. “Whoever I’m with usually doesn’t, uh…” He frowned, obviously debating admitting something. “Typically there isn't much talking and there aren’t many feelings involved, you know?”

Steve stopped moving his hand, eyes fixed on Eddie’s face as he felt his stomach twist in sudden apprehension.

“Do you prefer that?” he asked seriously, wanting to be sure that he was approaching this right.

Eddie met his gaze for a moment, something slightly scared there.

“Not completely,” he finally admitted before looking away to the side. “It’s just never really been smart to want something I can’t have.”

That strange protective urge swelled in Steve’s chest again and he once more fought the mental picture of taking a baseball bat to the face of whoever made Eddie feel that way.

But he tried to shake that feeling away for now as Eddie looked sort of shrunken into himself.

So Steve just attempted a smile. “Hey, I get that,” he said, instead of making the kinds of promises he wanted to make - he worried Eddie wouldn’t believe them if they were made in the heat of the moment. He just had to be sure to convince him another time. “But if it’s cool, I’d love it if you let me be corny with you.”

That seemed to break the tension a bit because Eddie finally looked at him again and huffed out a small laugh.

“Is that your thing?” he asked, arching an eyebrow. “Being corny?”

Steve made a considering face. “Sure - with the right person.” He then winked and Eddie wrinkled his nose, though he still seemed amused. Steve decided to see if he could break the tension even more. “So, do you want me to,” he did the same expressive upwards finger gesture Eddie had made earlier while blowing a raspberry, “for ya, or…?”

That startled a real laugh out of Eddie.

“Jesus,” he chuckled, shaking his head, “I can’t tell you how much of a relief it is that you’re this fucking weird.”

Steve blushed a little in spite of himself, knowing that, coming from Eddie, this was very high praise.

“Okay, but is that a yes, no, maybe…?” Steve asked.

Eddie studied his hand for a moment, tongue poking out adorably as he mulled it over. He finally met Steve’s eyes and smirked a little.

“Are you sure you’re up for that?”

Steve raised an eyebrow, cocking his head. “Do I need to give you the butthole speech again?”

Eddie let out a helpless laugh. “I’m gonna be worried if that’s one you have memorized.”

Steve was already rubbing more lube on his fingers. “Hey, I’m always prepared!”

Eddie watched him for a moment before he bit his lip. “I may, uh, also be prepared - I made sure I was clean down there before I came over,” he admitted a little bashfully, causing Steve to freeze. “What can I say, you’re not the only one who was overly optimistic.” Steve just stared at him, brain filled with static. “Uh… Steve?” he prompted when Steve continued to not say anything.

Steve blinked and then surged forward to kiss him again.

“That is so goddamn hot, what the fuck?” he muttered, causing Eddie to laugh into his mouth. He pulled away again to look Eddie in the eyes. “How do you wanna do this?” he asked, suddenly impatient.

Eddie smiled against him. “Well, I probably need to take my pants off first, man.”

Steve shook his head.

“Oh - right.”

He leaned back to help Eddie remove them (though it was kind of awkward because one of his hands was covered in lube so he mostly just got in the way - but that was fine as Eddie kept cracking up at how stupid he was being) and his eyes widened when he leaned back in and Eddie hefted one leg to be sandwiched in between them, ostensibly so Steve would have easier access to his ass, the other wrapped around Steve’s waist. He let out a shaky breath, not really trusting himself to fully look at Eddie’s naked body without potentially losing it.

So he swallowed and watched Eddie’s face intently, studying him as he moved one hand languidly around his dick, the other pressing his perineum before moving back to the tight ring of muscles he found there.

Eddie’s breath hitched and Steve felt his pulse in his entire body.

“Tell me if anything feels bad,” Steve said seriously.

“Jesus, fine,” Eddie groaned impatiently as Steve’s index finger circled him. “Maybe I changed my mind - maybe you should stop being so nice.”

Steve didn't bother pointing out that Eddie clearly liked it when he was nice and instead started to push into him - there was a brief moment of resistance but then he slid the first digit of his index finger in, breath hitching as he kept his eyes fixed on Eddie’s expression, trying to watch for even the smallest sign of discomfort. Eddie didn’t seem to be in pain as he just arched his back and whined, making Steve's head swim.

He hadn’t come in his pants since he was about fifteen but, right at that exact moment, he felt like a strong breeze could tip him over the edge. He tried to keep it together though and started to recite baseball statistics in his head while he continued watching Eddie's face as he slowly eased the rest of one finger in before gently dragging it out and then in again, pace almost torturously slow.

Eddie let out a slightly unhinged laugh.

“I’m not a girl, Harrington,” he gasped, hand scrabbling against Steve’s shoulder. “You don’t have to be so fucking gentle.”

Steve felt like he was having trouble breathing - he could feel Eddie's muscles from the inside and the tight ring of warmth made him feel like no blood was getting to his brain. He tried desperately to not picture his dick fucking into Eddie rather than his finger.

“No way I’m rushing this,” he pointed out in an attempt to stay sensible. “Besides, who says I’m taking it slow purely for your benefit?”

“You’re a sadist,” Eddie panted, leg tensing where he’d wrapped it around Steve’s middle. “I should’ve guessed.”

Steve grinned. “Only in specific scenarios.” Eddie keened when Steve slowly added a second finger. The noise went straight to his dick but he tried to stay on task, reminding himself that buttholes were universal but he still needed to check in and make sure Eddie didn’t want anything more out of what he was doing. “Am I aiming for anything in particular here or…?”

Eddie’s head was craned up, like he was pushing his skull as hard as he could into the couch cushions.

“Uh,” Eddie said, obviously distracted. “Not always.” He rolled his hips, gasping when it drew Steve's fingers deeper inside. "Movement is nice, obviously," he said, voice shaking a little.

Steve started to drag his fingers in and out, very slowly, matching the pace of his other hand that was still on Eddie’s cock.

“But sometimes there is something specific?” he clarified.

Eddie let out a shaky laugh. “I hear the prostate feels good but I haven’t - fuck - uh, I haven't really found that before.”

Steve swallowed, greedily watching every expression that crossed Eddie’s face.

“The prostate?” he asked, his own voice unsteady.

Eddie gave a half-shrug. “It’s supposed to be, like, the dude G-spot or something?”

Steve felt his eyes widen. “Where is it?” he demanded, suddenly desperate to find it if he could.

Eddie flapped a hand. “I don’t fucking know - somewhere up there!” His hand landed on Steve’s shoulder again, almost pushing him away before pulling him forward again. “I think it’s, uh, near the front?”

Steve frowned. “What, like here?” He angled his hand so instead of his fingers going straight up, he was aiming more towards Eddie’s stomach.

Eddie shifted, head lolling forward and his mouth dropping open. “Dunno, but it feels nice.”

Steve watched his face. “How about this?”

He crooked his fingers in a “come hither” gesture and just barely thought he felt his fingertips brush against something different but then he almost fell backwards when Eddie’s entire body spasmed, back arching as he threw a hand back over his mouth, foot nearly catching Steve in the face.

Steve eased off for a moment to let Eddie collect himself, though he didn’t remove his fingers.

They stared at each other.

“Holy shit,” Eddie breathed, little tremors running through his body as he let out a startled giggle. “Okay, yep - I think you found iiiiit.”

Steve grinned, finally feeling like he was in his element.

“Cool,” he said easily, blood hot. “Let me know if anything is too much for you.”

With that, he searched for that little nub pressed against the walls inside Eddie he’d felt before, making Eddie convulse again but he was ready for it this time - he moved with it and started to jerk Eddie off in earnest while sucking at a nipple again. Eddie made an odd sobbing noise, like he was in actual physical pain, but one hand went behind his head to grasp onto the arm of the couch while the other grabbed onto Steve’s hair so he figured he was having a good time.

Steve certainly was - yeah, this was taking a level of multitasking that he thought was, quite frankly, very impressive, but he was practically ambidextrous and the feeling of Eddie’s dick twitching in his hand and Eddie’s inner muscles fluttering around his fingers and the taste of Eddie’s skin on his tongue and Eddie’s nails digging into his scalp made him feel dizzy, like he was on another plane of existence, one where he was made for this sort of thing and he never wanted to stop. It was almost like his mind went wonderfully blank, the only focal point being the man in front of him.

He was completely lost in it when he felt Eddie’s hand tighten in his hair as he chanted, “Fuck, fuck, fuck,” in frantic urgency around the fist he’d shoved into his mouth. His leg was in a vice-like grip around Steve at this point, tensing and relaxing minutely as his hips rolled.

“Steve, God, I’ve thought about your hands so much,” Eddie babbled, swearing when Steve bit down again. “Holy shit, you’re so fucking hot, I've wanted you for such a long time…" Steve's head swam and felt himself helplessly rut against the couch, moving his hand around Eddie's cock so quickly it almost felt like a blur. Eddie made a broken sound. "Oh fuck, what are you even doing to me - I’m gonna come, man…”

Steve squeezed Eddie's dick, now swirling his finger against his prostate, not letting up on the pressure.

“Good,” Steve panted, mouthing Eddie’s chest. “Do it, come on.”

“Fuck,” Eddie gasped before his entire body tensed, clamping down around Steve’s fingers as he came all over his other hand, a whine ripping out of him as his eyes screwed shut.

Steve could only watch in rapt attention, hands slowing in their movements as Eddie’s body relaxed a bit at a time until he lightly kicked Steve in the side - at that, he stopped moving his hands completely before easing his fingers out of Eddie, being sure to move carefully as he watched him for any discomfort. Steve absently wiped his hands on his discarded shirt, unable to look away from Eddie’s face as he suddenly went boneless, a helpless laugh bubbling out of him as he lolled his head from side to side against the cushion.

He finally blinked his eyes open and stared back at Steve.

“So…” Steve started after taking a shaky breath, still a little dazed and hopelessly hard in his pants and unsure of how to proceed. “Was that okay?”

Eddie’s brow furrowed, his mouth falling open slightly before his eyebrows raised.

“Was that ‘okay’?” he repeated incredulously.

Steve shrugged because, while Eddie had seemed like he’d enjoyed it, it would still be nice to have a verbal confirmation.

Eddie goggled at him for another moment but he let out a wild laugh and launched himself upright to shove Steve onto his back before grabbing him by the belt loops to haul him in by the hips, undoing his pants and stripping them off in one smooth motion. Steve gaped up at him, stunned and completely turned on - he’d never really been manhandled like this in a sexual way before.

He was glad he would never have to wrestle again as he would, without a DOUBT, be unable to do so without thinking about this.

“That was, quite frankly, insane,” Eddie said, still breathing hard and apparently not noticing what he’d done to Steve without even trying. “So allow me to return the favor.”

Pulse hammering, Steve hesitated for some reason.

“Okay, but if you don’t -”

Eddie let out a harsh laugh. “Were you about to say if I don’t want to?” He yanked Steve’s boxers down without preamble, abruptly freeing his cock. He had an odd urge to cover himself for a moment but then his blood felt hot when Eddie stared down at him with naked appreciation. “You take care of everyone, Steve - let me take care of you.”

Steve was about to protest because he didn’t take care of everyone, but then Eddie doubled over and slid his mouth all the way down his dick in one fell swoop, causing Steve to choke and buck his hips. Eddie laid a forearm across his abdomen, holding him in place, effectively pinning Steve and he felt crazy from it, straining against him.

“Oh, my God,” Steve heard himself almost whine. “Holy shit, are you trying to kill me?!”

Eddie pulled off of him with a pop to grin in a way that was almost manic, his hand moving to where his mouth had been to jack Steve with long, confident strokes.

“You’re the one who said you should feel like you’re dying,” Eddie pointed out, borderline feral as he roughly shoved Steve further up on the couch so he could lean in closer to his erection and throw one of Steve’s legs over a shoulder.

With that, he swallowed Steve down again, making him see stars.

“Ohhhh, my God,” Steve groaned, sounding hysterical, “maybe you are the devil.” Eddie’s laughter vibrated around his cock and he fisted the couch cushions, his heel digging into Eddie’s back. Eddie sucked like his life depended on it and Steve couldn’t help but make a desperate noise. “Uh, this might not last that long?” he stuttered, gasping when Eddie wrapped his hand around the base of Steve’s dick again to meet his mouth as he bobbed his head. “Just, you’re really good at this and I’ve been on edge for a while now and -“ He shuddered, that familiar feeling starting to crest over him way too soon, head buzzing. “Shit,” he grunted, “Eddie, dude, I’m gonna -“

But then Eddie pulled off and he made a circle with his thumb and pointer finger into a vice-like grip around the base of Steve’s dick, the orgasm abruptly cut off.

Steve heard himself make a noise like a wounded animal.

“Oh, my God,” he whined, breathless. “Hoooooly shit - what the fuck?”

He jumped when Eddie dragged his lips up and down the side of Steve’s length before tugging one of his balls into his mouth to massage it with his tongue. When he let it go, Steve felt his chest heave as he’d forgotten to breathe for a moment.

“You ever heard of edging, Steve?” Eddie asked, a devious tint to his voice.

Steve panted, looking at the ceiling. His dick felt insane - he was so fucking hard but nothing was happening, it was like the blood was slowed down and trapped there. It didn’t hurt but it was DEFINITELY a lot.

“Does it involve being a giant bastard?” he asked, legs starting to shake.

He glanced down to see Eddie making a considering face.

“Actually, yeah - a little bit.”

He then grinned.

Steve was about to retort when Eddie released his grip at the base of his dick and sucked on the head of his cock before slowly sliding down again, the back of his throat fluttering against him. He then dragged back up, letting the head rub against the soft inside of his cheek, moving to tongue the slit. Steve swore as Eddie slid back down and sucked and swallowed around him, the pressure making him nearly incoherent and he whimpered when he felt his balls start to tighten again but then Eddie returned the grip to the base of his dick, once more cutting him off.

Steve felt something like a sob rip out of him, his whole body starting to shake.

“You fucking asshole,” he babbled, “you are so hot, what is wrong with you - I fucking hate you!”

Eddie massaged his balls again with his tongue and rubbed his face along Steve’s cock, lips catching on the head. Steve tried not to whimper.

“I know,” Eddie almost cooed, pressing a sloppy kiss to Steve’s pelvis. “You’re doing so well, Steve.” Steve let out a shaky breath, something about Eddie’s words and being pulled back from the precipice twice making that nice blank feeling fill his head again, his limbs turning to jelly. “Do you wanna come for real now?”

“Yes,” Steve murmured, shuddering and feeling stupid and pliant and like his insides were liquid fire.

“Good,” Eddie said kindly, slowly loosening his hand. Steve groaned as he felt his body tingle all over, blood flowing freely again through his dick. “But I want you to pull my hair this time, okay?” Steve blindly obeyed and reached for Eddie’s hair, uncoordinated and not even sure where he was anymore. “Steve?” Eddie prompted and Steve blearily looked down at him. “I’m gonna take care of you.”

“Fuck,” Steve gasped as Eddie slid his lips around him yet again, taking him all the way to the hilt. He bobbed up and down much quicker than before, groaning around him when Steve tugged at his hair. “Eddie,” he slurred, feeling half-drunk, his stomach tightening. He let go with one hand so he could frantically tap at Eddie’s shoulder. “Eddie, I’m close, I’m -“

Eddie pulled off but kept up the grueling pace with his hand.

“On my face or in my mouth?” he asked, voice rough.

As soon as Steve registered the question, he pictured Eddie swallowing him down and choked, his orgasm hitting him with a type of force he hadn’t felt in years. His vision fully whited out and he felt his body convulse like he’d been sucker-punched, one hand gripping Eddie’s hair, the other his shoulder, his heel digging into his back.

Once he shuddered back into his body, limbs trembling and lips oddly buzzing almost like he’d been holding his breath for a long time, he realized he had come all over Eddie’s face. He felt awash in hot embarrassment for a moment and was about to apologize before he blinked and registered that Eddie was grinning as he wiped a hand through the mess Steve had made on him.

“I guess there’s that question answered,” he chuckled before smiling at his fingers as they glistened. He then met Steve’s eyes as he drew them towards his mouth to slowly run his tongue over them. He made a considering face, like he was assessing how Steve tasted. After a moment, he sucked them both more fully into his mouth, gaze still locked on Steve.

“Jesus Christ,” Steve murmured in wonder, head swimming. “Who are you?”

Eddie grinned at him before grabbing Steve’s discarded shirt to clean off the rest of his face. He then threw it back on the floor (Steve might have to just throw it away at this point) and flopped back on the couch.

“More than one way to be a freak, Steven,” he said, almost smug as he nestled into the cushions and sent Steve a wink.

Steve felt his whole body flush. “Okay, you officially can’t wink at me in public anymore,” he said, sounding dazed as aftershocks continued to run up and down his legs. “I might get a boner so fast that I actually pass out.”

Eddie looked smug. “Well, then at least I’ll know what’s up if you ever faint around me.” He then gave Steve a slightly questioning look, pulling up his underwear. “I’m guessing that was good for you since you blew your load all over my face?”

Steve felt his eyes widen, slightly stunned, before he put his hands over his hot face to laugh into them.

“Oh my God,” he groaned, “you actually ARE gonna kill me.”

“Aw,” Eddie teased, leaning forward to goose Steve’s arm. “Is Dr. Foreplay scandalized by a little dirty talk?”

Steve dropped his hands and raised an eyebrow. “Dr. Foreplay?”

Eddie’s smile got a bit softer. “Yeah, I think you’ve earned that PHD, young man.”

Steve grinned at him, though he still felt a little shaky at the edges, like his insides were pudding.

“So can I consider you a convert?” he asked, trying to sound cool and confident but he was pretty sure he just sounded completely and utterly besotted.

Eddie let out a very fake, very deep sigh, like he was being inconvenienced.

“I suppose,” he said, like he was doing Steve a favor. “If you insist on it then I guess I can let you keep trying.” He then faltered for the first time since he’d gone down on Steve, gaze dropping and toying with his rings. “I mean, if you were interested in doing this again.”

Steve didn’t say anything until Eddie met his eyes again so he could raise his eyebrows.

“Dude,” he said seriously. “You just sucked my soul out through my dick and turned me into a giant mess, like some kind of evil sex wizard. Hell yes we’re doing this again.” He then cocked his head, gazing at Eddie. “Besides, like I said… I like you.”

Eddie studied him for a moment and Steve watched him right back - he could tell that Eddie still didn’t quite believe him.

That was fine, though. Steve could be persistent.

Instead of saying anything, Eddie slowly lifted up a hand and reached forward to drag it down Steve’s face and push him away, snorting when Steve spluttered. Steve then watched in dismay as he fumbled around for his pants and started to put them on.

Steve’s heart dropped. “Are… are you leaving?”

Eddie stopped and looked at him, seeming slightly surprised.

“You… don’t want me to?”

Steve fidgeted, biting a lip. “Not unless you want to?”

Eddie watched him for a long moment, expression thoughtful. He gently reached towards Steve and took his hand, thumb brushing across his knuckles as he seemed to really consider what Steve had said, gaze fixed on their joined fingers. That pang squeezed in Steve’s chest again.

Eventually Eddie cocked his head, something soft on his face when he met Steve’s eyes.

“Alright.” His mouth twitched into a smile. “Then I guess put Star Wars on again,” he ordered quietly, letting Steve’s hand go.

It wasn’t really any kind of admission of feelings but Steve supposed him not bolting was enough for now. He knew Eddie had been hurt before, he knew that there were wounds there that would take some patience to heal but what Eddie didn’t know about Steve was that once he committed, he was fucking committed.

So Steve just said, “Okay,” back, offering Eddie a small smile before slipping off the couch to pull on his boxers and go back to the VCR. He didn’t miss the mildly stunned look that flickered across Eddie’s face, like he wasn’t used to someone reacting that way, before something eased in his expression and he sank back again. “Where the hell were we?” Steve asked, pausing the movie and starting to rewind.

Eddie waved a lazy hand. “R2D2 and C3-PO were getting picked up by the Jawas,” he explained, like that meant literally anything.

“I’m pretty sure I understood, like, half of that,” Steve said, squinting at the screen.

Eddie sighed. “Trashcan robot and British robot were being picked up by the little guys in robes with red eyes.”

Steve gave him a sarcastic thumbs up and watched the screen. They sat in comfortable silence for a moment until he remembered a question that he’d been meaning to ask.

“So, like…” Steve fiddled with the TV settings. “When did you know you were, y’know… ‘David Bowie’?”

Eddie snorted from the couch. “Okay, the Bowie thing is cute but we can probably just use the word bisexual when it’s only the two of us, man.”

Steve kept pressing buttons, slightly distracted.

“Bisexual? What’s that?” When Eddie didn’t respond, Steve turned to look at him. Eddie was just staring at him, expression completely befuddled. “What?” he asked, suddenly self-conscious.

Eddie let out a slow controlled breath and rolled off the couch onto his feet, striding over to Steve. He hadn’t bothered putting his shirt on yet and his pants were still undone and lying low on his hips. Steve swallowed and looked up at him.

Eddie leaned forward and tipped Steve’s head back.

“You’re lucky you’re hot,” he murmured before pressing a sweet kiss to his mouth.

Steve just smiled in amusement when he pulled away.

“Thanks, I guess,” he said ruefully as Eddie straightened. He then frowned. “But seriously, what’s bisexual?”

Eddie peered down at Steve like he was fascinating.

“Maybe I was wrong,” he said instead of answering Steve’s question, “maybe you are complex. I mean, what are the odds that you’d be a silly grouch AND an idiotic genius?”

Steve gave him a dirty look. “I’m gonna try to not be offended by that,” he griped, though he allowed Eddie to pull him to his feet without protest.

Eddie smirked at him. “You shouldn’t,” he said in a low voice, fingers tracing Steve’s jaw. “It’s a compliment.”

He drew Steve into a very nice kiss but then Steve pulled back as he realized something.

“Ohhh, wait - does bisexual mean liking both men and women?” he asked, pleased that he figured it out. He grinned when Eddie blinked at him. “That’s it, isn’t it?”

Eddie gave him a blank look.

“My god,” he breathed in wonder, eyes raking over Steve’s face in naked appreciation. “You’re so fucking stupid.”

Before Steve could protest (because rude), he was being pulled back in for a more fevered kiss.

By some miracle, he made it to work before Robin the next day. They were opening and Steve was already in the store, sleepily trying to set up the cash for the registers. He’d dropped Eddie off on his way in and his heart was still light from the fact that Eddie had actually spent the night in his bed.

They hadn’t done much else except watch the rest of Star Wars (Steve kind of fell asleep though, much to Eddie’s consternation) and ordered pizza. At the end of the night, they didn’t even cuddle, really - Steve figured they might have to build up to Eddie accepting that kind of touch but he was patient so that was fine.

However, they did hold hands the whole night through. Eddie had even taken off his rings to put them on Steve’s nightstand before crawling into bed with him.

He felt nearly giddy at the intimacy of the memory.

When Robin bustled in, harried and stressed as usual, she nodded to him distractedly as she locked the door behind her.

“Hey,” she greeted.

“Hi,” Steve said. He then smirked. “Nice hat. You know it’s gonna be, like, ninety degrees out today, right?”

She scowled. “Listen, I woke up late and my hair’s a mess so I put on this beanie because I didn’t want everyone making comments about how stupid my hair looks because there’s always someone who has some smartass remark to make and I just don’t want to deal with it today because my mom already said something even though she KNOWS I hate it when she talks about my… hair…”

She trailed off and Steve glanced at her to find her eyes narrowed and her brow furrowed.

“Oh my God,” she said, ducking under the counter to invade his space, getting very close to peer at him.

“Jeez - what?” Steve asked, shying away.

She pulled off her beanie to whack him with it.

“Oh,” whack, “my,” whack, “God,” whack.

Steve winced away. “Stop that! What the hell’s wrong with you?”

“You had sex with Eddie, didn’t you?!” she demanded.

Steve balked, completely flummoxed.

“What?” he asked, extremely glad they were alone. “Why the fuck do you think that?!”

Robin crossed her arms. “You look tired and happy, Steve! Look at your face!” She gestured wildly to said face.

Steve frowned and glanced at his reflection in the blank computer screen. He kinda just looked like he normally did.

“I look the same!” he insisted, turning back to her.

Robin grabbed the sides of his head to force him to look at her, her eyes raking over his face.

“You look content, Steve,” she said with no small amount of disgust before releasing him. “You totally had sex with him.”

Steve stared at her for a moment before letting out a helpless laugh.

“Okay, so I was already gonna tell you…”

Robin gasped, hitting him with the hat again. “Oh my GOD!”

Steve grabbed the hat out of her hand and held it a safe distance away.

“What’s the big deal?”

“What’s the big deal?” Robin demanded. “You figured out you have some same-sex attraction going on and within, like, a week of that, you not only kiss a guy but you have sex with him - whereas I’ve known I was into girls since I was twelve and have yet to do ANY of that!”

Steve couldn’t help but smirk, feeling a bit smug.

“Well, what can I say, Rob - I’m an overachiever.” When she just huffed, he let out a laugh. “You’re the one who told me to kiss him again - I thought you’d be happy!”

“Sorry! It’s just… I expected you to, like, make out with him! Not, you know,” she frowned, nose wrinkling, “come all over each other or whatever it is boys do.”

Steve squinted. “I mean… we didn’t come on each other THAT much.”

“Ew.” She made a face. “This is bullshit, Steve,” she griped, huffing and crossing her arms. “This was supposed to be my gay summer.” She shook her head at him. “You’ve STOLEN my gay summer!”

Steve rolled his eyes. “We can both have…” he grimaced and sighed, “‘gay summers’, this isn’t an either/or situation.” He gave her a meaningful look. “You just have to put yourself out there.”

Robin narrowed her eyes at him. “No. No, no, no - you do not get to give me sage advice on being gay, Steve,” she insisted. “I have much more experience than you.”

Steve found himself smirking again. “Tell that to the hickies on Eddie’s chest.”

Lacking a hat to hit him with, she smacked him with her hands instead.

“Gross, disgusting, I cannot believe you, the audacity, you are so fucking rude -“

“Says the girl hitting me!” Steve laughed, pushing her away.

At that, Robin stopped and looked him up and down before sagging.

“Fine.” She gave him a small smile. “Was it at least good?” she asked.

Steve grinned a bit wistfully and nodded. “Yeah.”

She sighed and dropped her head before holding a hand up. Cheeks hurting from smiling so hard, Steve gave her the high five.

Epilogue

Steve was, once again, playing chauffeur.

Dustin had some kind of science competition to go to out of town but his mom had to work and she was horribly worried about him taking the bus and was equally worried about him riding with any of his friends because, apparently, the only person she trusted was Steve for some reason.

When Dustin told him this over the phone, Steve said, “I’m guessing that means she doesn’t know how many times you’ve almost died while I’ve been the one watching you, huh?”

“No,” Dustin hissed, obviously trying to keep his voice down, “she doesn’t and I’d like to keep it that way!”

Steve sighed. “Fine. I’ll be there at nine and if you’re not already out the door, I’m leaving your ass.”

“Great,” Dustin said, almost like he didn’t take the threat seriously at all. “I’ll see you then!”

And now here they were in Steve’s car - Dustin had managed to get up on time and even brought Steve a cup of coffee as a peace offering. To top it all off, he didn’t have to work that day and later he would be seeing Eddie so maybe he was feeling even more chipper than usual.

They were about halfway there when Steve realized Dustin had turned in his seat to stare at him.

“Steve,” Dustin began seriously.

Steve shot him an amused look.

“Yes, Dustin?” he said seriously back in an approximate impression of Dustin’s tone.

Dustin took a deep breath. “You know I love you, right?”

Steve frowned, faltering at the non sequitur.

“Uh…” He gave Dustin a confused look. “I love you, too…?”

Dustin turned to more fully face him. “You know that I love you no matter what?”

“What?” Steve glanced at him, brow furrowing. “Hang on,” he said suspiciously. “What is this? What’s happening?”

“You know that no matter what’s going on with you, you can talk to me,” Dustin continued undeterred, “even if it’s something you think other people would think is bad.”

Steve balked, heart starting to race. “What are you doing, Henderson?”

Dustin put a hand on his shoulder. “You’re very important to me and nothing could change that.”

Steve frowned at his hand and then his face before hastily looking back at the road.

“Dude, stop it.”

Dustin’s stare was very intense. “I love you, Steve.”

“Dustin.”

“I love you!”

“Dustin, cut it out!”

“You’re my best friend and I love you!” Dustin all but yelled at the side of his face.

Steve recoiled and slammed on the breaks, lifting his hands in surrender.

“Jesus, okay!” he yelped. “I make out with Eddie or whatever sometimes, are you fucking happy?!”

There was a beat where the only sound was the engine of Steve’s car turning over. Luckily they were in the middle of nowhere so there were no other cars on the road but Steve could feel the adrenaline rushing through his body like they’d been in a crash.

He looked over at Dustin who dropped his hand from Steve’s shoulder and blinked at him.

“Wait, what?”

Steve gaped at him. “Hang on,” he said, heart sinking, “is that not…?”

Dustin’s eyes bugged out but he didn’t seem upset.

“Eddie?”

Steve looked around the car, like there was anything there that could help him.

“Yeah?”

Dustin let out a bewildered laugh. “You and EDDIE?!”

Steve flapped his hands, starting to truly panic. “Yes! I mean, is that not what you…?

Dustin’s eyes kept getting wilder. “I’ve kinda just been doing this to everyone after I realized it was a good way to get people to tell me their secrets!”

Steve gaped at him.

“… What?” he asked, aghast.

Dustin let out a disbelieving laugh. “To be honest, I did wonder if you liked guys, but Eddie?” He shook his head in amazement. “Wow.”

Steve felt his stomach drop. “Dustin, doing that to people is incredibly uncool!” he scolded before sputtering. “Also, why would you think I like… why did you…?” He made a flailing gesture. “What?!”

Dustin shrugged. “It was the Bowie thing, Steve,” he said, tone patronizing. “Why would you and Robin just randomly talk about that?”

Steve stared at him as the reality of the situation hit him and he put his face into his hands.

“Oh no,” he moaned. “Ohhhhhhh, my God - Jesus Christ.”

When Dustin started to chuckle, Steve shot him a disbelieving look.

“Holy shit, Mike thinks Eddie’s so cool,” Dustin said, “he would hate this.” He must have noticed Steve’s face because he hastened to add, “Not that I’m gonna tell him!”

“Good, because if you did, you’d be dead,” Steve said in a dazed voice. He felt vaguely sick and like his skin was slightly too hot, head spinning slightly. “So you’re not, like, uh… grossed out?” he found himself asking as his stomach turned.

Dustin’s nose wrinkled. “Grossed out? Why would I be grossed out?”

“Because I’m, you know…” Steve stopped and swallowed, feeling stupid about the lump suddenly forming in his throat.

Dustin’s eyes got intense again. “No. No way.” He put his hands back on Steve’s shoulders, forcing him to turn in his seat so he would fully look at Dustin’s painfully earnest face. “I don’t care and I just want you to be happy and, honestly, I was worried about you being sad about Nancy and Robin forever but now you have Eddie and, don’t tell Nancy or Robin this, but I truly think he’s the only person who’s good enough for you.”

Steve stared at him.

“Robin and I are just friends,” he uselessly stated.

Dustin rolled his eyes. “Yeah, whatever.” His face then broke into a dazzling grin. “Oh my God, I can’t believe my two favorite people are in love!”

Though he was more than a little touched at Dustin’s immediate acceptance (not to mention being named as one of his favorite people), Steve grimaced.

“Okay,” he said, trying to reign Dustin in, “let’s not get ahead of ourselves.”

Dustin huffed. “Fine.” He then beamed again. “I can’t believe my two favorite people are mackin’ on each other!”

Steve stared at him. “Don’t say ‘mackin’,” he said, voice weak - the sudden spike and then drop in adrenaline had left him a bit woozy. “It makes you sound like you’re a million years old.”

“Getting down?” Dustin tried and Steve frowned.

“Ugh, God - no, just… no.” He went to shift the car into drive again when Dustin put his hand over Steve’s.

“Steve,” he said seriously, “I hope you know that this means that if you hurt him, I’ll have to kill you.”

Steve couldn’t help but feel a little disgusted and betrayed at that.

“Dude!” he exclaimed, turning to Dustin again. “I’m getting the shovel speech? I’ve known you for WAY longer than he has!”

Dustin cocked his head. “I mean… I’m gonna say the same thing to Eddie.”

At that, Steve softened a bit, letting out a bewildered huff of air and shaking his head.

“Okay, fine.” He gave Dustin a helpless shrug, feeling out of his depth. “I’ll… do my best.”

Dustin smiled at him, eyes suddenly looking a little wet. “I know,” he said softly. “I know you will.”

To his dismay, Steve could feel his own eyes begin to well up.

“Oh my God,” he groaned in a thick voice, hastily starting to drive again and trying to angle his face away from Dustin so it wouldn’t be obvious that he was wiping at his eyes. “That’s enough heart-to-hearts for today.” He then paused before frowning. “Unless you need to talk about anything, obviously,” he tacked on hesitantly.

Dustin just smiled.

“Nah,” he said, voice full of quiet warmth. “I’m good.”