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Melissa was seriously bumming Steve out.
It was his fourth first date of the month, and he was starting to give up hope. Stacy had chewed her gum too loud throughout the movie they were watching (Top Gun, in Steve’s opinion, was too good to be distracted by loud chewing noises and sharply manicured nails practically tearing his hand to shreds). Brandy just wanted in his pants, which would be fine if she was nice about it at all (she wasn’t). Darlene had an old lady’s name (Robin was saying that he was being extra nitpicky at this point, but Steve just couldn’t see himself with a Darlene). Now, Steve had to listen to Melissa drone on and on about her dead cat.
“...and it’s not like Socks was the only one who died, but it still hurts so bad, and I can’t stop thinking about how scared he must’ve been…”
Steve had no idea how she got started on this topic, but he was considering going to the bathroom of the diner they were having dinner in and trying to squeeze through the window. Luckily, Robin chose that exact moment to knock on the glass that separated the table that was currently soaking up Melissa’s tears. They both startled at the noise, and Robin gestured frantically for Steve to come outside.
“I’m so sorry, Melissa, I have to go. It’s been…” Steve eyed her running mascara. “...lovely.”
“Wha-?”
“Bye!”
Steve practically bolted from the restaurant; if he had coattails they would have been flapping. The dinging of the bell above the door brought Robin from her spot at the window, eyeing Steve as he grabbed her hand and started rushing off in the direction of his parked car.
“Thank god, Robin, I was about to climb out the window,” he panted, slamming his car door and turning the key before she even sat down.
“Dude, what did you even do to make her cry like that?” Robin asked, buckling her seatbelt as Steve peeled away from the curb.
“I have no idea! One second, we’re flirting over the menus, and the next she's sobbing about her dead cat!”
Robin sucked air through her teeth, wincing. “Yikes, man.”
“We hadn’t even ordered drinks yet, Robin!”
Robin hummed and patted his shoulder in sympathy. “Turn here,” she muttered, and Steve complied before he fully registered the request.
“Wait, why are we going to Eddie’s?”
“See, that was what I was going to tell you before you started ranting about Melissa Drysdale’s dead cat.”
“Is Eddie in trouble?” Steve’s heart stuttered. Ever since the whole Vecna thing, Steve and Eddie had gotten close. Eddie had started hanging out with the group more, sharing babysitting duties with Steve, and coming to all the parties the rugrats had forced Steve into having at his house. They had started hanging out alone, bonding over weed and cigarettes and sharing secrets they hadn’t with anyone else. They had become honest-to-god friends, and if King Steve from years ago could see Now Steve hanging out with Eddie the Freak, Steve’s sure there would be punches thrown. “Did someone key his van again?”
“No, no…” Robin paused, gnawing on a thumb nail. “Well, not as far as I’m aware.” Steve waited for an explanation, and when none was forthcoming, he sighed gustily. “Look, I’ll tell you when we get there! If I have to explain it twice I’ll lose my mind.” Steve rolled his eyes but nodded anyway, and flipped on the radio to take up the silence. Van Halen wailed about dreams, and Robin bopped her head along with the beat, feet on the seat and knees pressed against her chin. Steve’s stomach twisted as he wondered what on earth was making her feel so awkward.
A few tense minutes later, Steve’s Beemer pulled into the parking lot of Eddie and his uncle’s apartment complex. The government, overflowing with generosity after the whole ‘serial killer’ and ‘portal to an alternate dimension on your living room ceiling’ fiascos, gifted Wayne and Eddie with a nicer apartment in the complete opposite side of town to their old trailer. The living room itself was bigger than their entire trailer had been, and the two of them didn’t really know what to do with all the space. At least they could now display Wayne’s mug collection fully. (Eddie had explained the whole thing to Steve when he had come over to help them unpack. Apparently, Eddie gets Wayne a corny mug every Father’s Day, including a ‘Happy Mother’s Day’ one with florals creeping up the sides, and a ‘Women want me, fish fear me’ one that Eddie seemed especially tickled at considering Wayne hated fishing and hadn’t been on a date since the early ‘70s.) Steve turned the car off, and Robin was out of the car as quickly as Steve had gotten into it.
Eddie’s apartment was on the third floor, and by the time Steve made it up the stairs, Robin was bouncing on the heels of her feet as Eddie opened the door. Steve suddenly felt all 86 degrees of the late July heat. Eddie stood in the doorway, backlit against the light of the apartment, in a self-cropped Def Leppard shirt and ripped black jeans that had met the same fate as the shirt, chopped roughly into above-the-knee shorts. His bandana was wrapped around his head, pulling his hair back into a ponytail, and his tattooed skin was glistening with sweat. Jesus Christ, why was it getting harder to swallow?
“Hey Robin!” He beamed, cheeks dimpling and doe-eyes crinkling at the corners. His eyes flicked to Steve, grin softening into a smirk. “Steve.” Steve pulled at his shirt, trying to get some air against his suddenly sweaty chest. Eddie snorted, and moved out of the way to let a panicky Robin into the only slightly cooler apartment. Steve followed, and as soon as Eddie shut the door behind them, Robin was babbling.
“Okay so you know how I was hanging out with the kids today because someone-” Robin eyed Steve. “-had a date and someone else-” Robin glared at Eddie. “-made up some bullshit excuse about helping his uncle with something?” Steve nodded. The kids had wanted to see Aliens, and needed an adult. Steve gestured with a hand for her to speed up and get to whatever got her so upset. Eddie ambled to the kitchen, and the sound of running water pulled Robin’s focus. “Are you listening to me, Eddie?!”
“Yeah, I can hear you, Buckley. Keep going.” His voice was punctuated with the sound of ice cubes dropping into ceramic.
“Well, the little shits wouldn’t stop bugging me about getting a boyfriend,” Eddie groaned in commiseration as he walked out of the kitchen with a mug of water in each hand, handing them to Steve and Robin in turn.
“You were looking flushed, Harrington.” He murmured into Steve’s ear as the cool ceramic met his sweaty hand. Steve cleared his throat and hurriedly took a sip of water. Eddie chuckled, grabbing a strand of hair that had fallen out from the bandana and pressing it against his lips. Steve looked away from his big brown eyes, turning his gaze to the mug in his hand that read ‘Kentucky’ in bold yellow against an illustration of a sunset. Eddie had never been out of Indiana. Robin’s, from what Steve could see, had a drawing of an old man in a beach chair with the words ‘Retired and loving it!’ printed above him in bubble letters.
“Is Wayne retired?” Steve asked.
“No.”
“Guys, focus!” Robin shouted, nearly sloshing her water out of the mug and onto the carpet with the force of her arms flailing. “As I was saying, the kids can’t let go that I don’t have a boyfriend, apparently, and so I might’ve…” She paused, biting her lip and taking a sip of water. “I might’ve told them that Eddie and I are dating,” She rushed out, looking anywhere but Eddie. Steve choked on the water he had sipped through her speech, nearly snorting it out of his nose. Eddie was silent for a few seconds before bursting into raucous laughter.
“Eddie’s gay, Robin.” Steve found himself saying as Eddie crowed in the background, even though he already knew she knew.
“I know that, Steve! So am I, in case you forgot!” She shouted to be heard over Eddie’s increasingly painful sounding laughter.
Eddie had come out to them one night when they were all gathered in Robin’s living room, watching The Rocky Horror Picture Show. He mentioned it casually, saying something about Brad and his corset, and though it sounded laid-back, Steve could see Eddie’s hands shaking when he pulled at a loose string in his ripped jeans. Robin had pointed out how Columbia’s corset didn’t cover her chest fully, and Eddie grinned at her and leaned his head against her shoulder. Steve had clasped a hand on his shoulder in support, and later, when Steve was on the edge of consciousness in his sleeping bag, he could hear Eddie explain to Robin that he had never been so scared to come out before. He had always worn it hanging out of his back pocket, pinned to his vest. But this time, he actually cared about the people he was coming out to, it wasn’t just a ‘fuck you’ to ambiguous assholes. He had said that he wasn’t even this nervous to come out to Wayne, because he had already been kicked out once before, what was one more if it didn’t work out. Steve had fallen asleep to the sound of Robin zipping her and Eddie’s sleeping bags together, and had dreams he preferred to ignore about corsets and who was in them. The next morning, Eddie had declared that he was going to refrain from coming out to the rest of the group until Robin was comfortable enough to in a show of, what he called, ‘fag and dyke solidarity’.
“Alright, well if you want to pretend to be boyfriend and girlfriend, I’m in.” Robin sighed in relief at Eddie’s words after he had straightened up from where he had been bent over the countertop in hysteria. He held a finger up, stopping her sigh in its tracks. “On one condition!”
Robin looked at him questioningly, cocking her head to one side. Eddie smirked sharply, licking his tongue over his teeth in a way that definitely didn’t make Steve’s stomach swoop.
“I get to be the girlfriend.”
-
They got to show off their new “relationship” at the end of the week. Steve had to cancel several dates in order to sit in on Eddie and Robin trying to hash out the specifics of how they got together and to practice holding hands and giving each other kisses on their cheeks. It wasn’t hard for Eddie to adjust, he was touchy-feely with all of his friends. Robin, however…
“You know, maybe it's good I’m getting this practice in now,” she had said after Eddie had wrapped her arm around his shoulders and tucked his head under her chin. “So that when I actually get a girlfriend, I’ll know what to do.”
Eddie had sniffed and wobbled his lower lip, looking up at her through his bangs. “Is that all I am to you? A practice girlfriend?” Robin snorted and shoved him off her chest and into Steve, who watched it all with a weird feeling in his stomach that he couldn’t identify.
Now, though, the three of them plus Nancy were piled into Steve’s car. Robin had given up her passenger seat with minor grumbling after Steve gave her a warning look and a quick glance at Eddie so as not to alert Nancy to the whole ruse. Robin opened the door for Eddie, who cooed in delight and pulled her hand into his, lacing their fingers together and laying his head on her shoulder, his hair fluffing around them both outrageously. Steve watched through the rearview as that same feeling in his stomach made a sudden and unwelcome resurgence. Nancy jostled his shoulder and raised her eyebrows.
“You alright, Steve?” she asked softly, voice getting lost under Eddie and Robin’s argument about whether Jason or Michael Myers would win in a fight.
“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine,” he muttered, shifting gears and pulling out of Nancy’s driveway. They had decided to meet up at the Wheeler’s, Robin being picked up by Eddie, in order to carpool in Steve’s car to the party that was being held at the Byers-Hopper house. It was part housewarming party, part ‘we saved the world and can’t tell anyone else’ party. Mike had spent the previous night at the house, helping Will and El unpack. They had decided to move back to Hawkins after spring break, but had only now been able to find a house. Hopper had gone back to work as a cop, everyone getting over him still being alive quicker than Steve had expected. “Why would I not be fine?”
Nancy gave him that look, the look that he always hated getting when they were dating. The look that meant ‘I know you’re lying to me, shithead, I’m not an idiot.’ Only this time, he really wasn’t lying. Or he didn’t think he was. He didn’t know what the weird twisting in his stomach meant, or why it happened when he saw his two best friends interacting. He was fine. Maybe.
“Look, it’s alright if you’re jealous,” Nancy’s soft voice was almost too quiet for Steve to hear, especially against the roar of the A/C and the soft tinny vocals of Belinda Carlisle filtering through his speakers. Especially especially against the progressively ridiculous reasons the back seat’s residents were giving for their pick in slasher movie victor.
“Why would I be jealous, I’m not jealous,” Steve’s hissed whisper was distressed even to his own ear. Nancy leveled him with that stare again, big blue eyes seeming to glow in the midday sun. He huffed.
“It’s okay if you have a thing for Robin, Steve,” she said, gently, reaching over a hand to rest on the hand that rested on the gear shift.
“Okay, well I can tell you with one-hundred percent certainty that I do not have a thing for Robin.” Nancy hummed, and withdrew her hand, but kept her eyes trained on Steve’s face.
“Ow, what the fuck? Did you just bite me?” Robin’s voice sounded from the back, and Steve looked at the rearview to see her shake out a finger, holding up to her eyes as if to check for rabies. Eddie cackled from where he was resting on her shoulder, and she shoved him off.
“Oh come on, babe, you know you like it,” he snickered, grabbing her finger and bringing it back to his lips despite her struggling to wrench it from his grasp. He kissed the bite marks and looked up at Steve to make eye contact with him in the mirror with a leer. “There, all better.”
Steve could feel his face getting hotter, and he tore his eyes away from the back, pulling into the Byers-Hopper driveway a little-too recklessly, nearly hitting Hopper’s police car. “We’re here,” he gritted out, fixing his hair in the glass of the window as he got out. After he willed his blush down, he straightened and turned around, only to come face-to-face with Nancy’s probing gaze, mouth screwed up like it used to when she was figuring out a particularly hard math problem. His blush returned with a vengeance. “I really don’t have a crush on Robin, Nancy,” he said, trying to push all the sincerity he could into that simple sentence. The look went away on her face, and she smiled warmly up at him instead.
“Alright, Steve, I believe you.”
His responding sigh was cut short by Robin ruffling his hair as she walked past him, arm in arm with Eddie. “C’mon, slowpokes! We have a party to crash!”
Steve could see Eddie bump his hip against Robin’s as they walked up the porch stairs of the modest, yet cozy-looking, house. There were a few boxes under the cover of the porch that they side-stepped as they went to ring the doorbell. When Joyce opened the door, she hugged each of them in turn, including a very shocked and uncomfortable Eddie, and let them inside. Steve watched Robin hold the door open for Eddie, and wrap her arm around his waist, bringing his arm up and around her shoulders and something inside Steve burned. He looked back at Nancy, who was eyeing him up again and sighed. This was going to be a long night.
-
They got dragged to another movie night the next week, Eddie and Robin showing up together with Max, Will and El. Steve picked up Mike, Lucas and Dustin and tried, in vain, to ignore Mike and Lucas bickering in the back. As soon as Dustin had gotten in the passenger side, he started shuffling through Steve’s cassettes to find the one Steve kept specifically for him, popping it in and singing along to Queen loudly and off-key. Steve was already getting a headache.
His mood worsened when he pulled up to the movie theater to find Eddie, Robin and the others already waiting out front, Robin running her hands through Eddie’s hair and giving him tiny little braids as he talked with Will. The two of them had gotten along great when they first met, bonding over their little nerd game and being social pariahs. Steve parked and gave a few cheerleading claps to get everyone out of the car.
“Hey-a, B-Team!” Eddie called as they walked up. He was wearing black skinny jeans and a tank top that looked like it used to be a t-shirt with an illegible band logo on it until someone got crafty with some scissors and cut not only the sleeves but a good quarter of the sides off as well. Someone needed to take the scissors away from him. Robin tied off one of the braids with a tiny hair-tye and looked up at Steve, smiling. She was carrying her letterman under her arm and a bag slung over her shoulder. Steve raised an eyebrow at her cargo.
“It’s always cold in the movies, dingus,” She said, jostling his shoulder with hers. “Plus, I’ve got cokes for each of us in the bag.”
Steve shrugged and followed the group in, ignoring the way Robin’s hand snaked over Eddie’s shoulders. He walked to the concessions stand to grab some popcorn while Eddie got tickets for everyone, accepting all the other’s crumpled bills and shoving them in his pockets after he had paid. Honestly, Steve had no idea how anything could fit in his jeans, as tight as they were.
“-ir? Sir?” The bored teenager behind the concession stand shook him out of his staring, and he flushed as he pulled out the money, counting out singles until he had the right amount. He gestured the kids over, and they took one small popcorn for every two of them. Eddie made a beeline for the napkin station, grabbing a straw.
“What are you doing, Eds?” Robin asked, going to stand next to her ‘boyfriend’. Steve and Dustin watched as Eddie put the straw to the butter nozzle and stuck the other end into the bag of popcorn, moving it up and down to distribute the butter evenly.
“Making the best popcorn you’ll ever taste, Robby.”
“We’re not doing Robby.”
“Rob, then,” he said, and started grabbing napkins to shove under the bottom of the paper bag in order to catch the excess butter that had begun leaking. “Alright, who's next?”
As the kids lined up to use the butter straw, Steve saw Eddie rub an arm as if trying to warm it up. Steve was about to chide him for the skimpy shirt, but Robin got to him first, dropping her letterman around his shoulders. He grinned at her and gave her bangs a little yank. “Thanks, sweetheart.” Steve felt something ugly squirm in his chest, and he turned back towards the kids.
“Alright, c’mon kids, we’ve gotta get to our theater before the trailers start because Dustin won’t shut up if we miss them.” He clapped his hands again for good measure and started heading off towards one end of the hallway.
“Steve?” Eddie called, stopping him in his tracks. “Our theater’s the other way, man.” Steve groaned to himself and turned brusquely around to stop in the other direction, going into the theater that Eddie pointed out with one long, be-ringed finger. Steve rushed into the theater so he didn’t have to see Robin stick her hand in Eddie’s back pocket.
Throughout the movie, which was some flick about two brothers and a group of fashionable assholes who happened to be vampires, Steve couldn’t tear his eyes away from Eddie and Robin, who sat in front of him with their heads leaned in towards each other, whispering. They shared their popcorn, Robin tossing pieces into Eddie’s mouth. Robin grabbed Eddie’s hand at one point, and fidgeted with his rings as they both watched the movie. Steve really doesn’t want to address the weird anger he felt at their small shows of affection. Logically, he knew it was all fake, he knew it was all for show. That didn’t seem to stop the small worm of jealousy that burrowed in his chest and seemed to stay there any time he watched his two best friends show each other endearment. Fine. Nancy was right, he was jealous. He just didn’t know why he was suddenly jealous of Eddie as if he still liked Robin. He thought he was over her, but apparently the feelings had returned. Dustin gave him a look as he sighed again, his face flickering in the light of the movie as the protagonists started setting traps for the vampires.
“Dude,” Dustin leaned over to stage whisper at him, ignoring the glare that Max shot at him for talking during the climax of the film. “Are you good?”
“Yeah, I’m fine,” Steve said, sounding anything but fine. In front of them, Eddie leaned over to whisper something in Robin’s ear that made her burst into an ugly, snorting laugh, waving away the several shushes that were pointed her way. “Just peachy.”
Dustin followed Steve’s gaze and his eyebrows raised knowingly. “Oh,” he said, drawing it out until it was a word with seven letters instead of two. “Well, I’m here if you wanna talk about anything.” His eyes went between the two sitting in front of them and back to Steve several times while he did something unreadable with his eyebrows. Steve rolled his eyes and slouched further in his seat.
“Yeah, yeah… Thanks, Henderson.”
Eddie turned around suddenly, as one of the vampires was ranting about his friend that the main characters had killed or something, and gestured at Steve. He leaned down until his head was square in between Eddie’s and Robin’s.
“Do these vampires seem pretty-” Eddie started whispering in Steve’s ear, his breath brushing across his neck and causing his hair to stand on end. Steve shivered.
“-Fruity?” Robin finished in his other ear, and the two were snickering like five-year-olds again. Steve furrowed his eyebrows as he glanced back at the screen, and then back down to how Eddie was dressed.
“Oh my god, they’re all so gay,” he whispered in awe, setting the two off in another round of stomach-aching giggles, and he couldn’t help the laughter that burst from his chest, leaning his forehead against the backs of their seats. Mike leaned down to thump the back of his head, trying to get them to shut up, but it was a futile effort. The dams had burst, and Steve sat leaned down between them for the rest of the movie. The three of them booed and threw popcorn at the screen when the last vampire died, and Steve thanked whatever deity that was watching that their group were the only ones in the theater at 2pm on a Tuesday. The credits were rolling soon after, a children’s choir singing the Ten Commandments or something, and Steve stood up to stretch his back. It pop-pop-popped as his spine realigned itself from crouching over for the past 30 minutes. Eddie stood, eyeing Steve as he stretched with an unreadable expression, and peeled Robin’s jacket off only to toss it over her head, cackling at her muffled curses. He stretched his arms above his head, showing off the entirety of his torso through his stupid shirt. How had Steve never noticed the dragon tattoo that curved under the waistband of his-
His thoughts ground to a halt as his vision suddenly blacked out. Robin had thrown her jacket onto Steve’s head now, and the terrible twosome brayed like donkeys at his frustrated and blushing face as he shucked the offending garment from it. Steve grumbled as he gathered the trash that the not-so-tiny terrors had left strewn across the floor. He had worked in customer service, he knew the custodians didn’t get paid nearly enough to clean up after rowdy teens. Eddie vaulted over the seats to help, and Steve threw Robin’s jacket back at her.
“Hey-!”
“I don’t see you helping clean up, Buckley.”
She huffed and followed the line of younger teenagers out the doors. Will and El stayed behind to clean up their own messes, because they were saints, and the four of them exited the theater and blinked their vision back to normal in the sunlight. They dumped all the trash into the cans outside the doors, and Steve watched the kids as they all talked excitedly about the movie. Dustin was ranting about inaccuracies in the vampire lore of the movie, as Lucas and Mike had a silent conversation using only their eyebrows above his head. El and Max had their heads together and were whispering about something, and Robin was holding the door open for everyone. Will was staring wide-eyed at Eddie as he slung an arm over Steve’s shoulder.
“I cannot wait ‘til I can come out to them,” Eddie muttered into his ear, nose pressing into Steve’s hairline. Steve kind of wanted to scream.
“Why’s that?” Steve mumbled, matching Eddie’s tone as he turned to face him.
“Because Will desperately needs a cool older gay mentor and I am fiending to be that for him,” On the word fiending, he grabbed at the air above Steve’s shoulder. “He looks like he’s had a religious experience just from watching some ambiguously gay vampires stare longingly into each other’s eyes.”
Steve snorted and, soon, they were out in the heat once more, Eddie letting go of Steve to mess with Will’s hair, punching him lightly on the shoulder on his way to link arms with Robin. Steve stared after them, feeling the loss of Eddie’s arm like the loss of his own limb. Robin glanced behind her, meeting Steve’s eyes with a small smile. She gestured with her other arm, and when Steve caught up to the group, she threaded her free arm through Steve’s.
That night the three of them hung out at Steve’s. Robin was curled up in his dad’s leather armchair, Eddie was laying on the ground with his legs up on the couch next to Steve, who had one leg up and the other outstretched next to Eddie’s head.
“Yeah, I mean the movie was alright…”
“Oh, shut up, Robin, it was awesome.” Eddie bounced his foot, only in his white tube socks and Steve had the weird urge to grab it. “I mean, punk gay vampires? It really doesn’t get better than that.”
“The girl was pretty hot,” Steve said, seceding to Eddie’s ‘good movie’ point. She was pretty hot, in Steve’s opinion. Whenever he wasn’t distracted by Eddie and Robin in front of him, his eyes were drawn to her big curly brown hair and even bigger brown eyes. Eddie pushed himself up on his elbows, flattening Steve with an unimpressed stare despite Robin nodding along with Steve’s point.
“Okay one: her name was Star, did you even pay attention?” Eddie started, counting down on his fingers. Steve watched the silver metal glint in the soft light of the one lamp they had turned on. “Two: that was all you got from the movie? That one of the characters was hot?” Robin started giggling, shaking her head as she lowered it in her hands. “What? What are you laughing at?” Eddie asked, sounding deranged. Robin took a deep breath, meeting Eddie’s eyes evenly.
“It’s just-” She snorted again, biting her lip. “I had to sit through the whole movie with you whispering about how hot you found Michael in my ear.” Eddie flushed and rolled his eyes, laying back down on the carpet with a dull thud. Steve couldn’t stop the chuckles that escaped his chest at the pouty expression on Eddie’s face.
“Shut up, Robin.”
“Oh, Robin, look at the way his legs look straddling that motorcycle. Oh, Robin, his chest in that white t-shirt is unfairly sexy. Oh, Robin, his earring is so cool.” Eddie grabbed a pillow that had fallen off the couch to throw at Robin, and she dodged it with a laugh. Steve’s chuckles faded slightly as the stupid jealous feeling came back. Weird.
-
As July drew ever closer to August, Steve was feeling more and more antsy. Soon, Nancy would be off to Emerson, and Jonathan had decided on one of the countless branches of the Ivy Tech Community College to be close to his family. Robin was taking a gap year, still unsure on what she wanted to do. Which left Eddie and Steve. Steve wasn’t convinced he even wanted to go to college, preferring working with Robin at Family Video to any other option for ‘furthering his career’, whatever that meant. His dad was pissed at him, but when was that new, and his mom barely acknowledged him whenever they were home.
Eddie had graduated with Robin and Nancy, flipping off Principal Higgins and causing a minor riot in the faculty as he flounced off stage waving his diploma and shooting the crowd devil horns. He had gotten a job at an alternative music store a town over, the owner having the opposite reaction to seeing Eddie than every business in Hawkins. She seemed to think that Eddie’s notoriety would bring in a crowd of people. Steve was a little peeved that she was using Eddie as some sort of freak show, but Eddie didn’t seem to mind. He seemed to be happy to coast through his new job, still dealing passively on the side even if very few people wanted to buy from him. He had been acquitted without ever being arrested, the government stepping in and spinning some story about him fending off the real serial killer who was shot down before he could be taken into custody. The town wasn’t as forgiving at the government, however, and most of them still regarded Eddie with open hostility. His van was often vandalized, and he would get shouted at whenever he simply walked down the street. He took it all in stride, shouting right back at them, and Steve would have to pull him away before they would come to blows.
So, Steve was feeling antsy to make the most of the rest of the summer, even if most of the group would be staying put in Hawkins, as they were still in school. So one evening, when it was just Eddie, Robin and Steve laying on the floor of his big empty house stoned out of their minds, Steve came up with a plan.
“Okay, so…” He drifted, watching the air blown from the ceiling fan play with Eddie’s curls. He was in loose purple plaid pajama bottoms, slouching low on his pale, slightly freckled hips, and an oversized gray t-shirt with a graphic of a fish printed on it, interspersed with numerous small tears and holes (apparently it had been a payback gift from Wayne in return for the fish mug). Robin laid next to him, their ankles overlapping, in her own pajamas; a loose, nearly threadbare green tank top and sweatshorts that almost reached her knees. Her feet were covered by the biggest, fluffiest socks Steve had ever seen in his life. According to her, she ran hot at night, except for her feet. Weird.
“So what?” Eddie asked, turning onto his side to pillow his arm under his head and stare at Steve through his mane of hair. Robin groaned at the loss of his overlapping leg, and got up to plop down in front of him, turning onto her side and pulling Eddie’s arm around her waist in one stumbling move. Steve opened his mouth to explain his plan.
“You know you don’t have to act like you’re dating when you’re… when you’re just with me, right?” was what came out instead, and he was met with two pairs of red-tinged and very confused eyes.
“We’re not?” Robin croaked, voice scratchy from the coughs that wracked her body when she had taken her first hit. Steve had rubbed her back through them as Eddie ran to get her some water.
“You’re spooning,” Steve said, proud at how well he was keeping the bitterness from his tone. Eddie furrowed his eyebrows behind Robin’s hair, which was stuck up in multiple plaits and twists from Eddie trying to show Steve how to braid earlier.
“Oh my god, we are,” Eddie gasped out with a laugh, and soon all three of them were giggling and snorting.
“What were you saying?” Robin asked after everything had settled down again.
“Huh?” Steve had gotten distracted again, this time at Eddie’s long fingers as they drew swirling designs into the carpet. “Oh, right.” He sat up, feeling as if he was pulling himself through very thick water. “Right. We should go to my parent’s lakehouse for a day.”
“Oh, we so should!” Robin pulled herself upright as well, dislodging Eddie’s arm and head from where they had been draped over her shoulder and waist. He groaned as his head hit the carpet.
“Your parents have a lake house? Dude…”
“I was thinking we drive the… the rugrats up to it this weekend.” Steve’s tongue felt heavy but he pushed through valiantly. Robin nodded violently, and Eddie still had his brows pushed together in thought.
“Like… a lake house lake house?”
“Oh I haven’t gone swimming since…” Robin started and then trailed off, pursing her lips. “Well since Lover’s Lake, actually.” They all quieted at the reminder of the Watergate debacle, until it was interrupted by Eddie snorting.
“You’re not fucking with me are you?” At Steve’s confused look, had he missed a thread in the conversation?, Eddie continued. “You actually have a lake house?”
-
That Friday, Steve’s driveway was packed with what felt like several hundred children and their bags, nearly overflowing with how much they overpacked. Only Max seemed to pack a normal amount for a single day of swimming, her small drawstring bag slung over one shoulder, her hair french-braided down the middle, wearing a one-piece that zipped up to her neck. Everyone was in their bathing suits with varying forms of cover-ups. Most of the boys wore button-ups over their trunks, except for Lucas who just had a towel draped over his shoulders. El was wearing a pair of shorts over top of her one piece, short hair pulled back with a headband. Robin wore a one piece and a small shawl tied around her waist, giant sunglasses hiding half of her face. Nancy and Jonathan couldn’t make it; Jonathan’s friend Argyle was flying in and they were driving to Indianapolis to pick him up. And Eddie…
“Goddammit, if he doesn’t get here in five, I’m strapping you losers to the roof and leaving without him.”
“Cool your jets, Maverick,” Robin said, trying and failing to shove Dustin’s backpack into Steve’s overstuffed trunk. “He’ll get here when he gets here.”
“You think I look like Tom Cruise?” Steve asked, touched.
“No, but you are wearing those ridiculous aviators.”
“Oh you’re one to talk about ridiculous sunglasses,” Steve grumbled, reaching over to flick them down her nose. Steve could see the kids in his peripheral watching them banter as if they were watching a tennis match. They were interrupted by the sound of squealing tires on asphalt, Eddie tearing down the street like a bat out of hell. Hm. There was a joke about demobats somewhere in there…
He pulled haphazardly into Steve’s driveway, everyone scattering from the car like it was on fire. Eddie hopped out as if nothing was amiss.
“Hey guys!” He grinned, wide and dimpled, and pushed John Lennon sunglasses up into his curls. Add one more pair of ridiculous sunglasses to the list. Eddie swaggered over to where Dustin was trying to explain to Robin exactly why he needed to bring so much on a day trip like an hour away at most. He pinched a piece of Dustin’s patterned shirt in between his fingers as if testing the fabric quality. “You brought out Weird Al, again,” he sniffed. “That’s brave.”
“Where were you, Munson?” Steve watched Eddie cock his head in confusion at his tone, smile dimming slightly.
“It’s like-” Eddie flipped his wrist to look down at his watch. “-8:30, man.” He moved behind the van to wrench open the back doors, needing a few good tugs to get them to respond. Steve gestured for the kids and Robin to begin loading the rest of their bags into the van.
“Well, I told you to be here at 8.”
“Trouble in paradise?” Robin singsonged at them as she walked back from where she had thrown Dustin’s clanking backpack into Eddie’s van, ignoring the kid’s shouts of dismay. Eddie reached out to push her face away but, as he caught Will and El watching him intently, wrapped his arm around her shoulders instead. That didn’t help Steve’s mood. His eyebrow twitched.
“Look, it’s fine. Whatever,” He huffed, ignoring the sting in his chest at the confused glance Eddie shot Robin. “Let’s just get a move on.”
He turned, walking towards his car and trying to match his breaths to the rhythm of his footfalls. He opened the driver’s side, and leaned against the car as Eddie started delegating who was riding where. Steve lost himself for a second in the movement of Eddie’s arms as he pointed, the muscles shifting under his skin. They were surprisingly toned. Steve hadn’t expected someone like Eddie to work out, but evidently he did. At least a little bit. His legs were out again, his swim shorts ending just above mid-thigh. How did Steve never notice that he had tattoos on his legs-
“Steve!”
Steve startled, Dustin already sitting in the passenger seat and staring at him incredulously. “Are you driving us or not?” El and Max sat in the back, talking about a book that Max had brought for the car ride. Steve swiftly got into the driver’s seat, busying himself with the seat buckle and ignoring Dustin’s obvious staring. Turning on the car, he glanced back out the windshield at Eddie’s van, making eye contact with him as the van sputtered to a hesitant start. He grinned at Steve, giving him a thumbs up, and Robin in the passenger seat made a hand heart. Eddie looked over at her and then back at Steve, making kissy faces as he peeled out of the driveway. Steve felt his face heat. That was… huh.
Dustin was uncharacteristically silent as Steve pulled out and in front of Eddie, who was waiting in front of Steve’s mailbox. As Steve passed, he caught Eddie’s eyes again, making an over-the-top shocked expression as he slowly raised his middle finger into view. Eddie stuck his tongue out and Robin rolled her eyes.
“Are you done flirting?” Dustin spoke up as soon as Steve’s car was leading the way to the lake house. El giggled from the back.
“Woah, woah, woah! I was not-” Steve floundered brushing a hand through his hair. “I was not flirting, Dustin.” Steve pressed his hand to his cheek, willing away the heat he felt there.
“It’s alright, Steve. I know you still have a crush on Robin,” Dustin said with a wide, teasing grin. He could feel the girls’ eyes on him from the back seat, clearly enjoying his misery.
“I do not have a crush on Robin.” Steve could say that with certainty, now. He wasn’t letting himself think about it too hard, but he had a feeling he had figured out why he was jealous.
“Yeah, sure, Steve. And I suddenly have collarbones.”
“You really should get over her, Steve.” Max’s voice piped up from the back, leaning up to prop her chin on Dustin’s seat. “Her and Eddie make a super cute couple.”
“I don’t know about that,” Dustin grimaced. “They feel more like weird siblings than a couple.” He turned his body fully, adjusting his seatbelt so he could talk to her easier. Steve bit his lip, trying to hide a grin. “I mean, I’ve never even seen them kiss.” Oh, Jesus, that would be the day. Steve laughed to himself, trying to imagine Robin kissing a man.
The rest of the trip was spent mostly in silence, the girls reading and chatting softly in the back, and Dustin bopping his head to the music when he wasn’t shooting furtive glances at Steve. Everytime Steve glanced in the rearview, he would catch a glimpse of Eddie headbanging to something, strumming an air guitar in a way that caused Robin to frantically hit his arms back onto the steering wheel.
As they turned down the winding driveway surrounded by trees, the decently sized lake house came into view. The gravel crunched under his feet as Steve stepped out of the car and into what felt like a thick wall of heat.
“Jesus…” Eddie stepped up next to him, craning his neck to stare up at the house. “You really weren’t kidding.”
“What, did you think I was leading you all out here to murder you?” Steve shot out, huffing under the weight of the three bags he wrenched from the trunk. Max rolled her eyes at him, tugging one bag from his shoulder in a way that offset the rest enough to fall. El laughed lightly, and tried to tamper it down at his teasing warning look. Eddie leaned down to grab the two bags that fell, ignoring the hand Steve held out to grab them back. His arms flexed under the strain.
“I mean yeah, kinda, but-” He whistled, turning towards the house and starting down the path to the porch stairs. He looked over his shoulder back at Steve, winking. “What a way to go.”
Robin sidled up next to him, snapping in his face. “Hello? Earth to Steve!” He blinked furiously, shutting the trunk a little too forcefully. “What crawled in your tighty-whities and died?”
Steve ignored her and went to the back of the van, only to find it empty, each of the kids carrying their own bags. He scrubbed a hand over his face and pushed his hair back, shutting the back door of the van with a loud thud. His hair was already limp in the humidity. He power walked towards the porch where everyone was gathered, shuffling under the weight of their bags and waiting for Steve to unlock the door. He nearly dropped them as he fumbled them out of his pocket, and he avoided Eddie’s grin as he held the door open for everyone. Jesus Christ, why was he so flustered?
It was quick work to get everyone in their swimsuits, everyone just shucking off whatever coverups they wore and rushing out the back doors towards the lake with whooping laughs and screeches.
“Hey, don’t forget sunscreen!” Eddie shouted at the kids before they could step a toe into the water. They all groaned and trudged back up the sandy path. “God that was awful, Steve, you can stick to being the mom.” Robin snorted and grabbed one of the about seventy bottles of sunscreen that they had packed. Steve had packed about five himself, everyone else bringing one that their moms had given them, and Eddie had brought a nearly empty travel bottle of SPF 100 for himself.
Steve pulled the battered t-shirt he wore one the drive over off in one well-practiced motion. Eddie stuttered mid-joke, eyes catching on Steve’s chest and licking his top lip in a way that brought a twist of pleasure to Steve’s gut. Robin whacked Eddie on the chest to stop him from staring and he cleared his throat, flushing a dull pink, and resumed the story with only a small quaver in his voice. Steve pulled his sweatshorts off as well, trying to keep himself from looking to see if Eddie’s eyes lingered on his legs as they had on his chest. Steve grabbed his own SPF 50 and squirted a generous amount into his hand, turning back towards the group to pass it to Mike, who was chatting with El instead of actually using the sunscreen break to apply sunscreen. At Mike’s protests, Steve pointed at him with his free hand severely, causing the kid to roll his eyes but open the cap anyway. Damn, he would make a good dad.
Eddie pulled his tank top over his head and Steve lost his train of thought, sunscreened hand pausing mid-spread. He hadn’t actually seen Eddie fully shirtless before, just caught glimpses from under his torn crop tops and tanks. Those glimpses paled in comparison to the full experience. He had a few tattoos on his chest; one skull above his left pec, the dragon peeking out from under his swim shorts, and what looked like a line of D&D dice under his right pec. His gnarled scars from the Upside Down seemed to glow silver in the light filtering in from the glass sliding doors, and Steve had the passing thought that they matched. His swim shorts sat low on his hips, doing nothing to hide the V of his hip bones and the start of a dark trail of hair. He had a small layer of body fat across his chest and stomach, softening the hard lines of his torso. Steve wanted to grab at it and good god, where did that come from-
He busied himself with spreading the sunscreen over his torso. The kids ran off once again towards the shore, ignoring Steve’s shouted “Wait ten minutes before getting in!” with a flagrant insubordination that Steve did not appreciate. Robin and Eddie snickered at his face, Robin rubbing sunscreen into Eddie’s shoulders as he held his hair up in a loose approximation of a ponytail. Eddie gestured Steve over with a jerk of his head.
“You want me to get your back?” He asked as Robin finished with his own back, wiping the excess sunscreen onto her legs, and walked out the door with a loud parting smack on Eddie’s ass. “Ow! Jesus, Rob, was that necessary?” Robin just winked at him, walking out the door and down to where the kids were already playing chicken, Max on Lucas’ shoulders and El on Mike’s. Dustin and Will were crouched in the water, searching for skipping stones, and Robin joined them when she reached the shore. Steve was shaken from his watch by the small clinking sounds of Eddie’s rings being pulled off one by one and being laid down on the counter. He turned to watch the last ring be taken off of Eddie’s long pointer finger, and it felt almost… wrong to watch it. Like he was intruding on something private. Eddie grabbed one of the discarded bottles of sunscreen and shook out a solid handful of lotion. “Alright. C’mere, big boy.”
Steve swallowed down his gasp at the shock of cold lotion on his bare skin. “You’re not gonna draw a dick on my back, are you?”
“Me? I would never!” Eddie gasped in faux offense. “I can’t believe you would think so poorly of me!” Eddie’s hands swooped in broad circles across Steve’s back, before taking a sharp turn downward as he dug his fingers into Steve’s sides, causing him to squirm with an unmanly yelp. Steve turned his head slowly over his shoulder to see Eddie’s face grinning with unabashed pleasure. “Are you… ticklish?”
“No!” Steve answered, far too fast to be even remotely believable. Eddie’s grin turned deadly, hands locking over Steve’s hips like a vice as he tried to wriggle free.
“Oh no, you’re not getting out of this one, Steve,” Eddie whispered, dangerously close to Steve’s ear, as his hands crept back up to his sides, to start tickling him in earnest. Steve shouted with laughter, bucking from Eddie’s grasp as if he were fighting for his life. Eddie cackled along with him, pressing his fingers in with more force the harder that Steve tried to get away. Eddie spun Steve around until they were face to face, Steve’s back pressing into the edge of the counter and his fingers stilled over Steve’s own demobat scars. His mischievous grin cooled into something softer around the edges as he met Steve’s eyes, and Steve realized all at once how close they were. He could feel Eddie’s panted breaths against his cheek, and his hands were still on Steve’s bare skin, moving in seemingly involuntary circles around the bite marks. Eddie’s eyes, so big and so brown, flickered down to Steve’s lips, and Steve could feel himself leaning in before Eddie jerked his entire body away.
Steve let out a breath he hadn’t realized he had been holding and watched as Eddie shook out his hands as he walked away from where he had pressed Steve into the counter. He made his way to the door, flip flops slapping against the tile of the kitchen, and he reached up to pull his hair into a messy bun. His back muscles flexed and Steve couldn’t stop the small sound that left his lips, breathless and wanting. Eddie turned, wrapping a rubber band once, twice, thrice around the hair he held.
“Are you coming, Steve?” he asked, sounding like he had just run up a flight of stairs.
“Yeah,” Steve said, not tearing his eyes away from Eddie’s tattooed back. “Just gimme a second.”
“Alright.” Eddie said, awkwardly shouldering open the door. The sounds of Max splashing off of Lucas’ shoulders and into the water rang clearly through the now open door. She was spluttering about El cheating, and Steve saw El surreptitiously wipe her nose. Eddie walked out to the lake, sliding the door shut behind him. Steve watched him sidle up next to Robin, pushing a strand of hair behind her ear before whispering something into it. Her eyes snapped up and met Steve’s, and his face burned. He quickly looked away, not wanting to see the question in her eyes. He leaned heavily onto the granite countertop, hanging his head with a gusty sigh. His eyes caught on Eddie’s rings and his stomach flipped.
Shit.
-
So Steve liked men. That was fine. It pushed a lot of things into perfect clarity, in retrospect. Steve was assuming that straight guys didn’t usually try to avoid looking at other men changing so intensely, that they didn’t get flustered when seeing another man stretch enough to lift up the bottom of his shirt, that they didn’t lose all form of cognitive speech when showering with other guys after swim practice. It was kind of a relief to suddenly have a reason for flips that happened low in his stomach whenever he had play-wrestled with one of his friends. When he laid in bed the night of their lake trip, hair still smelling like water and skin sun kissed, he had a minor crisis about whether this revelation meant that he hadn’t ever liked girls. It didn’t make sense, he had genuinely enjoyed both his physical and emotional relationships with women up until this point. But as he lay and imagined kissing a man, he felt the same heat in his stomach that he had gotten when he imagined kissing a woman. He went to bed confused but, after waking up and eating some plain buttered toast, he came to the realization that if someone could like one gender, why couldn’t they like two? It settled in his brain and, as he unlocked the Family Video for his opening shift, he let himself admit that he liked both men and women.
Robin had walked in later that day to relieve him of his shift, and as he whistled while taking off his vest, she quirked an eyebrow at him.
“You seem… lighter today.”
“Thanks!” he grinned at her, and strode out the door with a newfound pep in his step, choosing not to notice her baffled look of pure bewilderment.
It calmed slightly when he unlocked his big, empty house and toed off his shoes at the door. His parents were out of state for another week, and it always felt so lonely being by himself there. It was too big for just one person, and he formulated a fix as he microwaved a TV dinner. He was going to have a party. After all, he had something big to celebrate.
Not that he was going to tell anyone. Yet.
He invited everyone the next day, telling Robin over work and calling everyone else over the store phone as Robin ate her lunch of yogurt and handfuls of dry cereal that she scattered into the cup like they were sprinkles. Nancy was first, and he could hear Mike shouting something in the background as she picked up.
“Hello?”
“Hey, Nancy! It’s Steve.” He twirled the cord of the phone with his fingers, leaning against the counter and making eye contact with Robin through the break room door.
“Oh, hey Steve!” There was a clattering noise from her end, and more shouting from Mike. He caught the whispered threats Nancy hissed at him, even through the palm she slapped on the mouthpiece on the handset. “Sorry, Mike wants the phone,” she said apologetically, noticeably not rushing Steve through his call at all. He chuckled.
“No biggie. I’m going to be throwing a party this Saturday,” Steve said, cutting to the chase anyway. Nancy hummed through the phone, tone sounding surprised, and Steve took that as the go ahead to continue. “It’s not gonna be anything big, just me, Robin, probably Eddie, and you and Jonathan if-” Steve interrupted himself, feeling a little presumptuous. “- if you guys wanted to, that is.”
“I would love to!” Nancy said, and Steve could hear the grin in her voice, even as a loud smack rang out alongside a yelp of pain from Mike. “I’ll ask Jonathan when he gets here. Would it be alright if Argyle comes, too?”
Steve mentally smacked himself. He forgot that Argyle was visiting. He hadn’t really met the guy yet, not properly, but he seemed like a nice guy. If a little… out of it. “Yeah! Of course he can!” Robin sauntered out of the break room, dropping her yogurt cup into the trash, and started stacking tapes while side-eyeing his grin. He finalized the times with Nancy and then hung up the phone before he could hear Mike complain one more time.
“How’s Nancy?” Steve jerked at how close Robin was to his ear, and then rolled his eyes at her tone.
“She’s good. Still dating Jonathan.” Steve started grabbing tapes from the return pile, shoving them in the rewinder while looking directly at Robin. “Which I am happy about because, like I have said several times now, I am over Nancy.” Robin eyed him with suspicion, but dropped it anyway, going back to sorting her stacks of tapes. Steve took a tape out of the rewinder, shoving another in as he picked up the phone again, slotting it under his ear and against his shoulder. He dialed Eddie’s number.
“Hello?” It wasn’t Eddie. Steve straightened from his slouch against the counter involuntarily, shooting a panicked glance at Robin. She didn’t even look up from her pyramid of VHS tapes, her tongue sticking out from between her lips in concentration. Steve ignored the click of the rewinder finishing another tape and threw the case for the tape at Robin, knocking over her pyramid. She turned slowly, eyes shooting daggers, and made a questioning gesture that was far too violent for work.
“Hi Mr. Munson!” Steve nearly shouted, and Robin’s face cleared of confusion. She winced, and Steve pushed his hair back with his free hand, as if that was going to help his confidence at all. He hadn’t actually met Wayne Munson yet; every time he’s been over to the Munson Residence, he had either been sleeping or at work. Steve was a little intimidated by the man, if he was honest with himself. In all the photos framed at their apartment, Wayne rarely smiled, and when he did it was only a small upturn to the corners of his mouth. He spoke with a deep drawl, which made Steve wonder where the man was from. It definitely wasn’t a Hoosier accent by any means. Steve nervously cleared his throat, trying to will away the nerves. “This is Steve?” he paused, realizing that Wayne might not even know who he was. “Harrington?”
“Oh, Eddie’s friend,” Wayne intoned. Steve smiled, a little wobbly, at being called Eddie’s friend by someone who meant so much to Eddie. “Do you… want me to get him?” Wayne’s voice continued after a prolonged silence on Steve’s end.
“Oh! Oh, uh… yes please.” Robin mimed choking and Steve flipped her off, ignoring the scandalized gasp of the woman holding a baby who was looking at Disney movies. Steve could hear Wayne put the receiver down and the faint sounds of someone walking across creaky floor boards. A door opened, and Steve could hear Eddie plucking at the strings of his guitar. Steve busied himself with scrounging for the tape case that he had thrown at Robin, getting himself tangled in the phone cord and having to awkwardly hop over it to extract himself.
“Hey, Steve!” Eddie’s voice was chipper and Steve’s heart stuttered a little in his chest. “What’s up?” Steve was all at once reminded of his crisis. Eddie was gay. Steve was gay (-ish? Was there a word for liking men and women? Steve put a pin in that thought.) Eddie was the reason Steve realized he was gay-ish. Steve was inviting him to a party, where they would both be drunk and probably high. Eddie was a very tactile person. Steve was kind of known for hooking up with people at parties. This was all adding up to… something. Steve was never any good at math.
“Hey, Eds,” Steve said and immediately cringed at the over-familiar name, missing the counter when he went to lean his hand on it. Robin stared at him with clear interest, taking over his rewinding job. “Uh- I’m having a party. Saturday. If you… wanted to come?”
“Yeah, of course I want to come.” Steve could practically feel Eddie’s smile through the phone, sounding charmed by Steve’s fumbling. “Want me to bring party favors?” Steve could tell he was wiggling his eyebrows, and he pursed his lips to keep the smile off his face. Robin started checking out the mom from before, scanning two Disney movies and one Don Bluth.
“Yeah, that’d be great. Show up whenever, I’m not setting a specific time.”
“What’s the occasion? Finally get a girlfriend?” Steve chuckled, managing to keep it from sounding too nervous.
“Nah, nothing like that, just-” Steve glanced at Robin as she flashed a strained smile at the departing mother, dropping it as soon as the woman’s back was turned. “-Just wanted to hang out with everyone before they all scatter.”
“Well, I’ll be there,” Eddie said, and Steve turned from Robin to hide a smile into the collar of his polo at how giddy he felt. It was like he was 15 all over again, fawning after the first girl to show him attention. He had to get his act together. “I’ll let you go, Steve. To my knowledge, you’re still at work.”
“Yeah, it’s kind of a spur-of-the-moment thing.” Steve turned back over his shoulder, taking a tape from Robin’s hands to rewind it himself. He shooed her away to do something more fun around the store (not that there was much) and she began hunting for a movie to put into the TV. “I’ll uh… I’ll see you then, Eddie.”
“Bye, Steve,” Eddie said fondly, and the dial-tone began ringing just a second later. Steve hung up the phone and turned his attention back to the rewinder. Robin slipped up behind him, yanking on one of his earlobes.
“Uh- what the hell was that?”
“What was what?”
“The stuttering, the blushing the-” She clasped her hands and brought them up to her face, batting her eyelashes at Steve like a damsel in distress. “Oh, Eds, will you please come to my party?” Steve flushed, furrowing his eyebrows and darting his eyes away from her. “Dude, you were so shy!”
“I was not! I just-” Steve sighed. “I just want him to like me.”
“Steve.” Robin leveled him with a serious look, setting a hand heavily on his shoulder. “You’re his best friend. He likes you a lot.” She turned away, pushing The Outsiders into the VCR. “Trust me, I hang out with him enough to know.” Oh right. Eddie and Robin were ‘dating’. Something soured in Steve’s stomach. Even if he managed to confess to Eddie, they couldn’t really date yet (and when the hell had ‘hook up’ turned to ‘date’ in his mind?). Steve sighed through his nose, going back to his job like a man going to the gallows.
“Thanks, Robin.”
-
The rest of the week went by in a blur of last minute planning and grocery stops. It was only going to be six people, so it wasn’t like it had to be anything spectacular, but Steve still wanted it to be fun. He stocked up on chips and drinks, just pop since Jonathan had promised to bring the alcohol. Robin had tagged along for a lot of the grocery trips, minus Eddie for the first time since they started the whole charade. He had apparently been booked for too many hours by his boss, and he had been lamenting how exhausted he was everytime the three of them met up after they were all off work.
The house would feel even emptier when Steve would pull up his driveway after a night of hanging out at the local ice cream shop or chatting on the swings of a playground. He would get changed in silence, brush his teeth while trying to ignore the echoing of the running water, and he would lay in bed, staring up at the ceiling as if it could suddenly make him feel less alone.
That was usually around the time that he would start thinking of Eddie. It wasn’t intentional, but at some point every night since the lake house, Steve would find his mind wandering to Eddie. Eddie shirtless. Eddie with his hair up. Eddie’s dimples as he grinned. Eddie rolling a joint, his long fingers deft and his rings glinting in low light. Eddie bringing those long fingers to Steve’s chin. Eddie’s tongue darting out to lick his full lips. Eddie’s big Bambi eyes hooded, looking up at Steve through his long eyelashes. Looking up at Steve from where he was kneeling-
Well. If he jerked it to the thought of one of his best friends, that was no one’s business but his own.
Saturday came quickly, and that morning Steve picked Robin up to help set up. She didn’t do much outside of picking out a collection of tapes for the party playlist, setting them up in front of the tape deck as if she was stacking tapes at work. Steve was in the middle of pouring Doritos into his mom’s Pyrex when the doorbell rang, and Robin slid on sock-covered feet to open the door.
“Hey, baby!” She shouted, ushering Eddie into Steve’s house with a friendly slap on his ass. Steve flushed at his yelp, and managed to spill a handful of chips onto the granite countertop. Robin left Eddie to fumble with the canvas bag he had brought and grabbed the chips, shoving them in her mouth before sauntering back over to the tape deck.
“Hi, Steve,” Eddie smiled up at him, setting his bag down on the counter in front of the rainbow of bowls Steve had set in a line. He busied himself with pulling something out of his bag, having to dig, and Steve took the time to admire him. He was wearing his black bandana wrapped around his head like he had in the Upside Down, hair loose around his shoulders. Steve caught the glimpse of silver in his ear beneath his frizzy hair, and it instantly dried his mouth out. Since when did Eddie have piercings? He had forgone shorts, wearing a tight pair of ripped blue jeans instead, tucked into big chunky Doc Martens. Over a cropped white Iron Maiden shirt, he was wearing a red and black floral denim vest, pierced with countless buttons and safety pins. It was the most color Steve had ever seen Eddie wear. Steve was suddenly reminded of the denim vest he still had, hung up in his closet like it belonged there. He had tried to get the blood stains out, but he just made them soak into the fabric worse, and he had been too embarrassed to give it back. As he dug in his bag, tongue peaking past his lips, his chain bracelets jingled and rattled, and Steve noticed a matching chain necklace just barely hidden underneath the collar of his shirt. Steve had the ridiculous urge to grab it and pull their faces together. Keep it together, Harrington.
“Got it!” Eddie hooted, pulling a handful of tapes from his bag triumphantly, bowing low to an imaginary audience. He popped back upright, turning the full force of his grin towards Steve, who nearly popped the bag of chips he was opening. “I thought I would bring some of my own tapes so we could have some variety!” He fanned the stack of tapes like playing cards, peeking his eyes over the top and fluttering his eyelashes before losing his grip on them, causing them to clatter across the floor. Eddie tilted his head back and let loose a prolonged swear before leaning down to pick them back up, and Christ why was that so attractive to Steve?
Suddenly, Dolly Parton began blasting through the speakers set into the ceiling.
“Holy shit!” Eddie gasped, jolting upwards once more, staring straight at the ceiling like it was magic. “You have speakers in your ceiling?”
Steve shrugged, once again reminded of their wealth disparity and feeling guilty about it. He was brought out of his gloomy mood by Eddie shimmying his shoulders to the beat as he walked into the living room. Steve poured the last bag of chips into the purple bowl and followed. Eddie had set his tapes down haphazardly next to Robin’s pyramid and was singing along to ‘9 to 5’ loudly, headbanging to a song that Steve didn’t think anyone had ever headbanged to. Robin pushed Eddie’s tapes further away from her own on the table the tape deck was set up on, wrinkling her nose at the bands.
“I really didn’t take you for a Dolly Parton fan, man,” Steve said and, when Eddie pointed a finger to his ear with a shrug, repeated it in a shout.
“What kind of self-respecting homosexual doesn’t like Dolly, Steve?” Eddie grabbed Robin’s hand to ding into like a microphone, and she tolerated it for all of five seconds before walking off towards the phone to place an order for pizza. “Besides, this song is practically The Communist Manifesto. Dolly told The Man to fuck off long before I ever did.”
Steve shrugged and left Eddie to the tape deck, walking back over to the kitchen to get the two-liters of pop set up with a stack of red solo cups next to them. Before long, there was another ring of the doorbell, and Steve was letting in the last three guests.
“Hey, guys!” Steve projected over the loud music, and Eddie looked up apologetically, cranking the knob down until it was at a bearable level. “Hey, guys!” He said again, at a friendlier volume. Nancy smiled at him as he gestured Jonathan and Argyle into the house. Jonathan nodded at him, and Argyle clapped a familiar hand on his shoulder, even though Steve wasn’t sure they’d ever had a conversation one-on-one. Eddie had put in a different tape, something loud and fast with guitar riffs and hoarse voiced singers, and Jonathan was bopping his head along softly.
“I didn’t think this was your type of music, Steve.”
“Oh, it’s definitely not,” Steve replied. “Eddie commandeered my tape deck.” They both turned to where Argyle had come up next to Eddie, and they were both nodding along to the music as they chatted. Eddie threw his head back with a loud laugh at something Argyle said, arms wrapped around his stomach like it hurt. Steve’s breath stuttered in his chest and he noticed himself smile softly, feeling a little muzzy around the edges like a half-developed polaroid.
“They seem to be getting along.” Steve jolted out of his reverie at Jonathan’s voice; he had almost forgotten the man was there.
“Yeah, they do.” They did; Eddie was lifting up his shirt to show Argyle some of his tattoos, and Argyle was nodding along sagely, pointing at one he liked. Jonathan held out his hands to Steve, and it was then that Steve realized he held one six pack and one twelve pack of beer. Steve took them, and Jonathan went to find Nancy with a parting smile at Steve. The pizza arrived when Steve was setting the beer on the counter, and soon everyone had a drink and a plate of food. The start was a little awkward; Robin chatted mainly with either Eddie or Steve, the former being as touchy feely as he could be to sell the dating ruse. Jonathan and Nancy talked mainly to each other, but Argyle seemed completely in his element and chatted up anyone who would talk to him. After food, everyone seemed a little more comfortable, and Eddie hopped up to grab everyone’s empty plates and brought them to the kitchen. On his way back over, he grabbed his canvas bag and waved it at Steve with a grin.
“Alrighty, ladies and germs, who wants to get high?”
There was a chorus of cheers and Eddie pulled out a baggie of a few pre-rolled blunts and a black Zippo lighter with various doodles carved into it. When everyone had a few hits, Steve got up and waltzed over to the tape deck. Eddie’s tapes were still sprawled over the table, and Steve skimmed over them without recognizing anything beyond Journey, and went to his own pile. He grabbed a Wham! album and slotted it in as the other tape ended.
“Aw man, what’d I tell you. I knew it was gonna be pop,” Eddie was saying to Argyle as Steve went back to sit down. Eddie was sitting between Robin’s legs, his back to her front, and she was talking with Nancy and Jonathan on Eddie’s other side.
“Hey, what’s wrong with pop?” Steve huffed, offended on George Michael’s behalf.
“Nothing, man, don’t let Edward-o dull your sparkle,” Argyle said, eyes red. Steve blinked at the nickname, glancing at Eddie, who had his fingers tangled in his own hair, bringing it in front of his mouth as he smiled at Steve. “I don’t rag on you for not liking reggae,” Argyle directed this sentence at Eddie, who turned his attention back to him fully.
“I like some ska, does that count?” Argyle seemed to consider that, pulling on the brim of his hat in thought.
“Yeah, sure, that can count.”
Eventually, when talking got a bit stale, Robin suggested games. They started with Monopoly, which ended with Eddie and Robin shouting at each other and Nancy quietly counting her stack of fake bills. Steve had suggested something more fitting for a party, and everyone had collectively decided on spin the bottle. Steve personally thought that spin the bottle only really worked with way more people than their meager six, but Nancy seemed genuinely excited, so spin the bottle it was.
The first one to spin was Nancy, and when it landed on Argyle she simply giggled and gave him a chaste peck on the lips. He laughed as he sat back, and jostled Jonathan’s shoulder. To his credit, Jonathan only looked a little uncomfortable. Argyle spun and landed on Jonathan, and he smacked a wet kiss to his cheek. Jonathan groaned and wiped his face with the back of his hand, and while he got ready to spin, Eddie got up to change the tape to a Led Zeppelin album. The bottle landed directly at his feet as he sat back down, and he raised his eyebrows at Jonathan as if asking if it was okay. Jonathan, more than a little zooted, gestured him over with an easy-going smile, and Eddie grabbed both sides of his face, bringing him in for a slow kiss on the lips. The circle hooted and whistled, and Eddie pulled back from Jonathan’s dazed face with a grin. He patted Jonathan’s cheek as he tossed his hair back and sat back down in his seat. The song changed to something slow and soft, guitar sounding almost melancholy, as Eddie spun.
“Hm, The Rain Song,” He muttered to himself, before the neck of the bottle landed squarely in between Steve and Robin. Eddie raised an eyebrow. “Does that mean I need to kiss them both?” he asked the room at large, and Nancy nodded enthusiastically. Steve could see the two empties next to where her hand was holding a third. Eddie shrugged at her, leaning towards Robin first, only looking a little awkward. They had a silent conversation using only their eyes, and Nancy, Argyle and Jonathan cheered them on. Eddie let Robin lean in herself, sitting still in front of her. Steve relaxed himself. Robin had never kissed anyone, and Steve was worried Eddie was going to go full throttle. But Robin must have told Eddie that she hadn’t kissed anyone before, or maybe he could sense something, because he let her take control of the situation. She pecked him on the lips, quick and dry, and he reciprocated by kissing her nose, causing her to wrinkle it with a shaky smile. He turned towards Steve and- Oh.
Oh shit.
Steve was so preoccupied with making sure Robin was okay that he completely forgot he was next. Eddie met his eyes, gaze soft and questioning, and Steve gave him a barely perceptible nod. Eddie bent forward, he was on his knees and Steve was sitting so Eddie had a bit of height on him, bringing one hand to Steve’s chin and the other landing heavily on Steve’s thigh. Steve sucked in a breath through his nose, and Eddie’s lips met his to the sound of gentle, morose guitar. Steve’s eyes fluttered shut, and Eddie’s lips moved softly under his, kissing him once, twice, thrice using the same rhythm he used to tie his hair up. Eddie pulled back, flushed and avoiding eye contact, sitting back in his spot while twirling a strand of hair through ring-clad fingers. Steve blinked heavily, panting like a dog. He could feel his heart in his throat, thumping away like a woodpecker, and he hoped to god no one could tell the revelation he was having. Not only was Eddie hot, he was also an extremely good kisser. It really wasn’t fair. Steve felt like he hadn’t had a good kiss in years, since Nancy. And god, that was a sobering thought. He had been in love with Nancy, capital I capital L In Love. He glanced at Nancy, where she was swaying slightly and watching Robin spin with a look of pure concentration. And he suddenly realized how similar Eddie and Nancy looked. Their curly brown hair, their big Bambi eyes, their pouty lips. Oh shit. Oh fuck.
Oh shit.
Robin’s bottle landed on Nancy, and her face flared bright red immediately, nearly obscuring her freckles with its intensity. Nancy just laughed, and scooted towards Robin with a drunken single-mindedness. Robin frantically looked at Steve, who gazed back without even really seeing her, and then to Eddie, who grinned widely at her, face still a pale pink from kissing Steve. She inhaled deeply, and squinted her eyes closed tightly, gripping her fingers into the shag carpet as Nancy brought both of her delicate hands up to Robin’s hot cheeks and kissed her gently. When she pulled back, Robin made a sound like a tea kettle, and Steve was glad everyone was already either stoned or drunk or both for her sake. Nancy sat back down heavily, leaning into Jonathan’s side clumsily. Eddie wrapped an arm around Robin’s shoulder, pulling her into his side and leaning down to mouth something into her hair. She laughed breathily, nuzzling her face into his bare arm.
God, Steve wanted to be her so bad.
Nancy decided that everyone should play truth or dare next, seemingly wanting the full high school experience before going away to college. Everyone agreed, Steve only nodding, and Eddie grabbed the empty bottle from the middle of the circle, setting it down neatly next to Nancy’s other empties. He caught Steve’s stare, looking like a deer in the headlights, and mouthed that he would clean them up later over Robin’s head. Steve nodded dumbly, apparently that was all he could do at the moment.
Truth or dare proceeded as it usually did, people asked boring or sad questions for truth and being dared to do stupid shit like make a prank call (Jonathan; he called his old science teacher, asking after his refrigerator. He got booed for being cliche, but he shrugged it off. Steve guessed he was too high to be very creative), ding dong ditch the neighbor (Robin; she nearly talked herself out of it before being bodily pushed out the door by Eddie), and jumping from the roof into the pool (Eddie; Nancy had sobered up enough at that dare to put a full stop to it before it even happened, and Steve breathed a sigh of relief. Robin apparently really wanted to get back at him for pushing her out the door). Robin puffed out a sigh that rustled her bangs at the last one, and ran into the kitchen to grab something else for Eddie’s dare.
“Are they dating?” Argyle leaned over and stage-whispered to Steve, eyeing Eddie with all the seriousness someone as high as he was could muster.
“Eddie and Robin?” Steve asked, and at Argyle’s nod, he nodded back, feeling a bit like one of the baseball bobbleheads his dad kept in his home office. “Yeah.”
“Hm,” he replied, scratching his head under his hat while staring at Robin as she returned to the living room while brandishing a jar of something unidentifiable above her head. Eddie started shaking his head violently and she nodded pushing it into his face. “Could’a sworn they were both gay.” Steve choked on his spit, Argyle patting his back through his subsequent coughing fit. Steve glanced around the room, hoping to god that Jonathan and Nancy hadn’t heard, but he found them watching Eddie try to bite the arm that Robin was forcing the glass jar in his face with in rapt fascination.
“What is even in this?” Eddie asked, sounding slightly in awe as he eyed the mixture with disgusted interest.
“I ‘unno,” Robin replied, eyes unfocused in the way they always got when she drank. “You gotta drink it, though.” Steve grimaced. Eddie swirled the jar, looked up at Robin, shrugged and downed it. Everyone groaned in disgust. Eddie smiled, raising his hands in triumph, only for his eyes to immediately widen. He stumbled to his feet and ran to the bathroom, and no one could escape the sounds of retching into a toilet. The remaining five people eyed each other with panic, before following. Robin kneeled down next to the toilet, reaching over to gather Eddie’s hair up as he shivered through his heaving. The rest of them crowded in the doorway of the half-bath wincing in sympathy with every convulsion. Robin rubbed her hand in slow circles on Eddie’s denim-covered back, shushing him as he whimpered “You’re okay, baby, I’m sorry,” she murmured, looking genuinely upset with herself. Eddie loosed his grip on the toilet seat to push her face with a limp hand. Was it a little disturbed that Steve was jealous of Robin being able to hold Eddie’s hair back as he vomited into a toilet? Probably. Did it stop his stomach from lurching with jealousy, anyway? Nope.
“It’s alright, babe. It was-” He cut himself off with another dry-heave, coughing in the aftershock. “It was totally worth it.”
The party wound down after that, Eddie using the spare toothbrush Steve had thrown at him to brush his teeth and rinse his mouth. He chatted to Steve the whole time he brushed, mouth dripping toothpaste in a way that should’ve been unappealing. It wasn’t.
It was already nearing two in the morning, so Steve busied himself with gathering blankets and pillows to give to everyone to sleep on the couches and floor, roping Robin into it as well, much to her chagrin. He had offered the guest room to anyone who wanted it, and Eddie and Robin called it immediately, fist bumping over their score of an actual bed. Steve caught Argyle watching them with a raised eyebrow, and he made a mental note to tell them about his suspicions after the other three left the next morning.
When everyone was settled, Steve laid in bed, hearing Robin’s faint snoring from down the hall, and he replayed his kiss with Eddie over and over in his head until sleep dragged him under.
-
Dungeons and Dragons nights were held on Mondays in the Wheeler’s gym sock of a basement. Steve had started sitting in on them, ever since the whole Vecna thing. It made him feel better to see everyone gathered together, and it seemed to comfort everyone else. El was learning how to play, being taught by a patient Will and an impatient Mike, and she was surprisingly good at it, if Eddie’s faces were anything to go by. Max sat in the corner with Jonathan, talking about music, Steve guessed, and Nancy occasionally sat in and offered her own opinions. Based on Max’s expressions, they weren’t usually good opinions, but Max tolerated her anyway. Robin and Steve would sit on the couch, playing a movie practically on mute after one too many angry hisses from the geek squad. Robin would leave Steve to eavesdrop on the game and, usually, Steve would content himself with sitting in front of the TV and pretending to hear it. Maybe flipping through whatever magazine he could scrounge up from under the couch.
The first Monday night since the party, however, was different. Steve sat himself on the sofa directly behind the makeshift gaming table, ignoring Robin’s questioning look. It put him to the back and a little off to the right of where Eddie was propping up his books and flipping through his notepad. Eddie glanced up at him, cocking his head like a puppy, before shrugging and grabbing a few tiny figures out from the bag he had slung over the back of his folding chair. He had commandeered the nicest one the Wheeler’s had to offer at their first session outside of school, claiming that since he was the DM (whatever that meant) he deserved the most comfortable chair. Steve thought it was a little rich of him to take the nicest chair when he spent most of the game standing up and shouting in stupid voices, but he wasn’t going to say anything. Especially not today, not when he was situated in the perfect position to get an eyeful of Eddie’s ass in his skinny jeans.
Robin plopped down on the other side of the couch, propping her feet up in Steve’s lap and opening the same Cosmo that Steve had read at least four other nights. Steve was pretty sure she only read them to make fun of them. Eddie sat down and the session began. Steve tried to pay attention to the story but, honestly, it was really confusing. Everytime he thought he was following, Eddie would break out his dice, black and red because of course they were, and then the kids would roll their dice and there seemed to be a lot of math happening. Steve hated math. He settled for just watching Eddie’s profile as he told the story, face emotive and voice ever changing (and yes, whenever he stood, slamming his hands on the table with overdramatic growls and shouts, Steve got a front row seat to Eddie’s ass). The energy was infectious, even if Steve could barely follow the story, and by the time they took a ten minute break, Steve was literally on the edge of his seat.
Eddie, already standing from the dramatic cliffhanger he left the kids on, leaned a hand down on the back of his chair and looked at Steve as he turned to face him. He was wearing a black ringer tee with yellow sleeves, the silhouette of a band printed on with their name above. Steve squinted at the font, trying to decipher their name when Eddie’s chuckle brought his attention away from his chest.
“Are you enjoying the show?” Eddie asked, letting go of his chair to spin a ring around a finger almost nervously.
“Yeah, man. I’m not sure I completely understand what’s going on, but-” he faltered at Eddie’s blinding grin as he straddled the folding chair and propped his crossed arms on the back. He laced his fingers together and propped them under his chin and gestured with his head to go on. “Uh- well I like the characters you made.” He really liked the way Eddie played the characters, going from a meek and shy prisoner to a loud and angry jailer within the drop of a hat, but he wasn’t going to say that. Eddie grinned, smile splitting his face.
“Thanks, Stevie.” Steve’s heart stuttered in his chest, and how could the addition of a single letter punch the breath out of his lungs so thoroughly? He could feel his mouth gaping slightly, and he could feel Robin’s eyes burning a whole in the side of his face. “You know, you could always join. I could…” He paused, bringing a hand up to cover one side of his mouth as he smiled, pulling on his bangs slightly. “I could teach you how to play.” He looked down, hand sliding fully into his hair and ruffling it slightly. He looked back up at Steve, through his thick eyelashes. “If you wanted.” Steve whined.
It was buried under the sound of the kids stomping back down the stairs, chips and drinks in tow, and Eddie turned over his shoulder to yell at them for taking so long and the spell was broken. And so was Steve’s brain. Eddie turned and shot him one more smile before launching back into the game at full throttle, and Steve was left staring at the back of his head, mouth agape as if he had short circuited.
Robin stood up abruptly, dropping the magazine into her spot and manhandling Steve up with her. At Nancy’s questioning tilt of head, Robin whispered a quick “Getting some fresh air.” at her before pushing Steve bodily out the basement door. The cool night breeze was a shock to Steve’s system and he took in lungfuls of air like he was dying.
“Dude, what the hell was that?!” Robin practically shouted, only quieting down at Steve’s frantic glance around at the neighboring houses. “Do you have anything you need to tell me, Steve?”
Steve looked up at her, feeling a low thrum of panic in his chest. “Was I that obvious?”
“Obvious about what, ‘cause I’m not too sure I know what’s going on.” She sat on the door stoop, patting the concrete next to her as an invitation to sit that Steve did not take. He started pacing.
“Okay so…” He stopped, trying to rewrite the sentence in his head several times before metaphorically scratching it out completely. “I think I’m gay?” Robin blinked.
“Is that a question?”
“I don’t know, am I gay?” Robin raised her eyebrows at him as he paced.
“Steve, no one can answer that but you.”
“Okay then I’m gay,” He replied, feeling some of his nerves abate at Robin’s open expression of support. “I guess.”
“You guess?”
“Well I still like girls!” He howled, catching himself on the last word and reeling back the intensity. He didn’t want to set off the neighbor’s dog who already hated him from one too many late night break-ins to Nancy’s room.
“... But?”
“But I also like guys.” Steve sighed, sitting down heavily next to Robin. “I don’t know, is that even possible?”
“If you’re feeling it then it’s obviously possible, goober.” Robin knocked his shoulder with hers, and Steve let out a weak chuckle. He leaned his head down into his hands, scrubbing his fingers through his hair. He could feel them shaking, but he felt a lot lighter. “So…” Robin started, leaning back on her hands and looking at him out of the corner of her eye. “Eddie?”
“Yeah. God, yeah.”
She grabbed his shoulder, wrenching him back and forth. “Oh my god, you like Eddie!” He hushed her and she hunched down with an apologetic grimace, waving her hands around her face as if she was lowering her own volume. She settled back down, and he leaned on her shoulder until he was pushed off by the force of her excitement returning. “Oh my god he kissed you!” she whispered, open mouthed grinning at the heat that spread across his face. “Oh my god!” She drew out the last word until it was several times its former length and Steve brought his hands up to rub across his forehead. The movement had the added benefit of hiding his face from her grin.
They sat in comfortable silence for a few more minutes, letting the sounds of the breeze in the leaves and the chirp of distant frogs calm the nerves from their conversation. Steve let his head fall back on Robin’s shoulder, and didn’t object when she started petting her hands through his hair.
They jerked away from each other at the opening of the door, Dustin peeking through and staring at them with barely concealed confusion. “There you guys are, we’re packing everything up.” Steve sighed, smacking his legs as he stood.
“Guess that’s my queue to get ready to drive everyone back.” Steve gave Robin a noogie as he walked past her back into the house.
“It’s really just me and Lucas, though,” Dustin was saying at his shoulder, though it barely floated into his brain as his eyes caught on a stretching Eddie, top riding up and showing his dimpled back, his low-rise pants and… was that-
“Max and Robin are riding with Eddie and Will and El go back with Jona-”
“Is that a tramp stamp, Eddie?”
Eddie’s shoulders jerked up, his arms dropping their leisurely stretch to grab at his chest. He flipped his head around to see Steve, laughing lightly at the spook he had been given.
“Man, someone should get you a bell.” He turned away from Steve again, but lifted the back of his shirt as he did so, showing off the black ink that barely showed above his waistband. It read ‘bite me’ in bold caps. Steve swallowed, and Robin, who had followed Steve and Dustin in from outside, patted his shoulder consolingly, though her manic grin gave her schadenfreude away. “Like it, Harrington?”
“I-”
Robin, bless her soul, walked up to Eddie and started helping him gather the game board and tiny figures that sprawled across the table, drawing his attention away from where Steve’s gaze hadn’t left Eddie’s lower back. Dustin eyed him warily before going to grab his own bag of dice from the table. Steve shook himself out of his trance and grabbed his keys out of his pocket, twirling them around his finger as he made his way out to the driveway, going upstairs to leave through the front door. He always made a point of saying goodbye to Nancy’s parents. They had treated him nice enough when they were dating, and he didn’t want to seem rude. Well, Mrs. Wheeler treated him nice enough. Steve wasn’t sure Mr. Wheeler felt anything other than disdain for everything and everyone.
The night cooled his blushing face again, and everyone was lingering outside by the various cars parked in the driveway. Steve leaned against his car, waiting for Dustin to get out of the basement. He watched Robin, Eddie and Dustin come out of the basement door, Robin’s arm wrapped around Eddie’s waist, and Eddie flailing his own arms as he told some wild story to Dustin. Eddie never came in or out through the front door; Nancy had told Steve that her parents kind of were terrified of him. Steve softened at the scene, feeling full with how much he cared about the three. He didn’t even have it in him to feel jealous over Robin’s arm, and she grinned at him, wiggling her eyebrows and looking to her side at Eddie with a knowing look in her eyes. God, why did he wait so long to tell her, she was amazing.
“Oh, Steve!” Eddie called before getting in his van, jogging over with Robin so he didn’t have to shout. “I was wondering if you wanted to come to my band’s show on Wednesday.” Steve was already nodding before Eddie could finish the sentence. Robin smiled from over his shoulder, seemingly unable to contain her giddiness at Steve’s embarrassing crush.
“Yeah, yeah I’d love to, Eds.” Eddie seemed to glow at the nickname, and Steve knew he was well and truly fucked. Eddie rattled off the location and left to his van with a parting grin that was so bright Steve felt like he had to squint against the shine. Robin pulled Steve into a hug before she left for Eddie’s van as well.
“Now that I know, you need to turn up the Harrington charm to a hundred, dork. I can’t stand the dead fish look you keep giving him whenever he smiles at you,” she murmured into his neck, and Steve fought to keep his blush down.
“You’re right. Of course you’re right,” he sighed, watching Eddie in his van over Robin’s shoulder as he pointed at the label of a tape to Max who nodded along to his explanation with surprising interest. Robin pulled away, patting his chest as she walked away. “Wait, what do I wear?!” He shouted after her, suddenly remembering that he was going to a metal show and he looked like he ate New Wave music for breakfast.
“You’ve still got his vest right?” Robin shouted back, somehow not drawing Eddie’s attention from his rambled tirade on metal music. Steve nodded and she nodded back, pulling herself into the passenger side of Eddie’s van with ease. Steve watched them drive away, Eddie throwing him devil horns as he peeled out of the Wheeler’s driveway. He watched after them until a cleared throat from behind brought him back to his body. He turned to find Dustin and Lucas staring at him, the last kids in the driveway. He unlocked his car, letting Dustin into the front seat and Lucas sprawled across the backseat until Steve pestered him enough to put on his seatbelt. They were barely out of the driveway before the kids started up.
“It’s kind of sad how obvious your crush on Robin is, dude,” Lucas said, raising his hands in surrender as Steve shot him a warning look in the rearview.
“Can I go one car ride without someone accusing me of liking Robin?”
“If you were less obvious about it, no one would bring it up,” Dustin replied, the little smart ass, and Steve rolled his eyes. He tuned them out, and turned his thoughts to the way Eddie had smiled at him. He just had to wait until Wednesday.
Tuesday dragged, Steve’s only solace being the time he spent gossiping with Robin during their shift. She teased him about Eddie, he teased her about Vickie, who she had called and invited to Eddie’s show after an impressive amount of needling on Steve’s part. When he got off at 5, he drove Robin to her house, ignoring her dad’s glare through the living room window. Apparently he shared the kids idea that Steve liked Robin, although he was far less supportive of the idea. He drove home alone, and ate a disappointing microwave Marie Callender’s pot pie, and flipped aimlessly through TV stations until settling on The Golden Girls. He found himself getting surprisingly invested, and lost track of time until it was dark. His footsteps echoed as he brought his plate to the sink, making a mental note to do the dishes the next day, and walked himself upstairs to his room. He fell asleep early, not having anything to do but stare at the ceiling and wait for Wednesday.
-
Steve shuffled awkwardly on the pavement outside of the bar that Eddie was playing at. It was a few towns over, Hawkins not ready to let Eddie’s band play there yet. Eddie had told him a few weeks ago, laughing with self deprecation and tugging on an earlobe. Steve had told him that the bars in Hawkins were horseshit anyway, and who wanted to listen to music at The Hideaway. It had gotten Eddie to smile genuinely, and Steve felt lighter than air at getting Eddie to stop looking so upset. He tugged at the vest he was wearing, yelping when Robin slapped his hands away from his fiddling. Vickie, from her side, laughed softly, flushing almost as red as her hair when Steve playfully glared at her. He had layered the vest with a pair of jeans that nearly matched the color of the vest and a plain black tee that he hadn’t worn since the disastrous Halloween party he went to when he was still dating Nancy. It smelled a little musty from hanging in his closet for so long, but Steve hoped his cologne was enough to save it. Robin and Vickie were chatting at a mile a minute as the line inched closer to the door. It was a way bigger crowd than Steve was expecting; Eddie really undersold how many people would be there. When they got to the front, the bouncer checked their IDs and lazily drew big X’s on their hands in a thick black marker.
The bar was sticky, both in temperature and floor texture, and they trudged their way through the crowd, Steve grabbing Robin’s hand and Robin grabbing Vickie’s, in order to find a booth. It was easier said than done, and they wandered aimlessly for a minute before someone called Robin’s name. He turned, and made eye contact with Jeff, who was waving them over with an easy-going smile.
Steve had met Eddie’s band before, but really only in passing as he showed up to Eddie’s apartment and they left. They had seemed wary of him at first, but at Eddie’s insistence, they introduced themselves. Gareth played the drums, Jeff the guitar, and Grant the bass. Steve was a little confused as to why they needed three guitarists, but he had kept that to himself.
Jeff stood in front of a booth where Grant and Gareth were sitting, and Steve, Robin and Vickie slid into it at Gareth’s gesturing hand. The three already sitting trained their eyes on Steve like hawks, eyeing his chest and glancing at each other with knowing smirks.
“Hey, guys!” Steve said with an uneasy grin at their odd behavior. “Where’s Eddie?” Robin smacked his arm and he turned to glare at her. “What?”
“I’m sorry, he had no manners. This is Vickie,” Robin said, waving her hand in front of Vickie as if presenting her. The boys introduced themselves, one by one. “And you know me. Obviously.”
Steve drew his eyebrows together. He hadn’t known that Robin had met them already, but now that he thought about it, it made sense. She had been hanging out with Eddie more frequently to cement the fake relationship. He looked from Robin to the band then back to Robin.
“Do they…”
“They know,” Robin said with finality, and Steve watched Jeff try and hide his grin in his hand. Vickie looked confused, her eyes glancing from Robin to Steve, smile frozen on her face.
“What do they know?” She asked, voice sounding small and unsure at being left out of something.
“That me and Eddie are dating,” Robin replied easily, and Steve barely caught the fleeting look of disappointment that fluttered across Vickie’s face. Steve knew it. He would gloat about it to Robin later.
“To answer your question, Harrington,” Gareth said, chin in his hand. “Eddie is getting ready. He apparently needs more time than the rest of us to pretty himself up.” Gareth rolled his eyes, but Steve could see the hint of a grin from behind his hand. The six of them kept chatting for the next few minutes, until Grant tapped his watch with an apologetic smile, sending the band out of the booth and into the makeshift backstage. A few minutes later, they were walking onto the stage, grabbing instruments and tuning. Eddie came out last, hair loose around his shoulders, wearing a black and white checkered tank top tucked into his black ripped jeans. His chain wallet was on, rattling with his heavy booted footfalls and, as he met Steve’s eyes, he grinned and gave him a little finger wave around the guitar pick he held.
“Is he wearing eyeliner?” Steve asked the room at large, and Robin laughed before going back to talking with Vickie animatedly. Steve couldn’t believe he was friends with someone so rude, leaving him to deal with Eddie in eyeliner alone. Eddie walked up to the microphone, tapping it with a ringed hand, the clanking of his chain bracelet being picked up in the feedback. He winced, but continued adjusting the microphone to his height. He leaned into the microphone, and Steve followed the bob of his throat with rapt attention.
“Test, test. Oh, good, this thing is on,” Eddie said into the mic, grinning at the scattered laughter that ensued. “Hi, everyone. We’re Corroded Coffin.” He looked across the crowd, squinting in the stage lights, and met Steve’s eyes with a wink. “Hope you brought your ear plugs.”
And they were off, starting so suddenly that Steve nearly got whiplash. Vickie jerked as well, hands halfway to her ears before catching herself and setting them on the table with a self-deprecating grin at Robin. Robin smiled back, and Steve would’ve been watching them with a fond smile of his own if his attention wasn’t fully caught by Eddie.
Eddie, who was strumming his guitar hard enough that Steve was starting to realize where the muscle definition in his arms came from. Eddie, who had a divot of concentration in between his eyebrows that Steve wanted to press a thumb into. Eddie, who was singing into the microphone with a rasp in his voice that Steve had never heard from him before. Eddie, Eddie, Eddie. Steve was fully lost in his movements, in the twinkle of his eyes in the spotlights, in the glint of his teeth as he opened his mouth to sing. Steve’s eyes tracked a bead of sweat that dripped down the outstretched length of his neck and he had never wanted to lick anything more.
A few original (or at least Steve thought they were original, he couldn’t recognize many metal songs anyway) songs in, Robin leaned over, hair tickling Steve’s neck. “You might wanna at least try to contain yourself. You look like you’re gonna jump the stage and ravish him in front of everyone.” If Steve’s face could get any hotter at the mental imagery she put in his head, it would, and she wrinkled her nose in disgust at his expression. “God, don’t actually think about it!”
“I wasn’t-” He started, but cowed under her flat glare. “I wouldn’t jump on the stage,” He finished instead, ducking his head to stare at the sticky table. He suddenly had to move, to work off some of this frenetic energy. He stood as well as he could from in the booth, moving towards the other side to leave the table. “I’m gonna go get some pops, any requests?” Robin called for a coke, and Vickie asked for water, and he was off, weaving through the crowd with an ease that rivaled a baby deer. The bartender took one look at his x-ed out hands and rolled her eyes.
“No alcohol, kid.”
“I was actually gonna ask for two cokes and a water,” he replied, a little peeved at her tone. She nodded, grabbing some plastic cups, and Steve turned back towards the stage, tapping on the bar with his practically nonexistent nails. Eddie was playing a solo, headbanging to the beat, hair flying out with his movements. Steve’s eyes were drawn to where some strands were stuck to Eddie’s skin with sweat. He licked his lips.
“Steve?” Steve startled, ripping his eyes from Eddie, and turned to find Joyce and Hopper standing at the bar. Joyce was smiling widely at him, eyeliner slightly smudged around her wide eyes. Hopper looked like he was in pain, though Steve kind of always thought he looked like he was in pain. Joyce reached out and brought Steve into a hug, all five feet and three inches of her, and Steve wrapped an arm around her in return. Hopper looked down at Steve from underneath his impressive eyebrows, his hair and mustache starting to grow back in from where he had been shaved. “Are you here to see Eddie?” Joyce shouted in his ear over Eddie’s impressively loud vocals.
“Yeah! Me, Robin, and her friend Vickie are here. Are-” Steve stopped himself, unsure of how to ask politely what the hell they were doing in a bar two towns outside of Hawkins on a night that a metal band was playing. It really didn’t seem like either of their scenes. Joyce had always given Steve hippie vibes, very Stevie Nicks, and Steve wasn’t sure if Hopper had ever even heard music before in his life. “Are… you guys here to see Eddie?”
Joyce laughed, grabbing her beer and following Steve to chat as he brought the drinks back to their booth. He tried to make eye contact with Robin in advance, to let her know that Joyce and Hopper were apparently coming to their booth, but she was laughing at something Vickie said, hands flailing. Steve could see what Robin saw in her, she reminded him of Molly Ringwald, all wide eyes and petite features under her bright red shock of hair. “No, actually, we had no idea he was performing tonight! Isn’t that so funny?”
“It is,” Steve said with a semi-strained smile, trying to wave his head enough to catch either of their attention, but to no avail. Eddie was sawing at his guitar on stage, before letting go of it to grab both hands on the mic as he sang something about a bell. Steve thought he recognized this song as something Eddie had played before, headbanging along in his van as he drove Steve and Robin somewhere. He finally made it through the drunken throng of people, setting the tiny plastic cups down in front of Robin, only splashing her a little. “Hi, Robin! Joyce and Hopper are here!” He said with faux cheer, gesturing behind him at the two adult adults. Robin choked a little on the sip of coke she took, bringing the back of her hand up to wipe where she had sputtered. Vickie turned in her seat to smile nervously at the two newcomers.
“Hi guys!” Joyce waved. “Don’t worry about talking to us for too long, we just wanted to say hi!” Steve could see right through that, knowing for a fact that only Joyce wanted to say hi. Hopper looked like he would rather be eating glass or willingly hanging out with Eddie alone. Hopper kind of hated Eddie. Steve knew there was a little bit of tension between them that Eddie tried to cover up with wise cracks and frenzied laughter. Steve had to assume it was leftover from Eddie being a drug dealer and Hopper being the chief of police. Robin introduced Vickie, and Steve slid into the opposite side of the booth, having to prop his arm up on the back of the booth and crane his neck over his shoulder to watch Eddie. “It’s so nice, you coming all the way out here to support your boyfriend,” Joyce was saying to Robin, and Steve hid a snort into the rim of his plastic cup, eyes never leaving the long dark line of Eddie practically straddling the microphone stand as he nearly screamed into it. Eddie kind of looked like he wanted to deepthroat the microphone, and Jesus Christ that was working for him.
“Is this what he calls music?” Hopper muttered under his breath, not deterring Joyce from the ramble she was directing at the increasingly flustered Robin and Vickie.
“Yeah,” Steve croaked out hoarsely, before swallowing some more coke to hide his embarrassment. “It’s growing on me.”
Hopper grunted, raising a thick eyebrow, and with a surprisingly gentle hand on her lower back, pulled Joyce’s attention back to him. She looked up at him, having to tilt her head back to meet his gaze properly, and Steve always thought it was so funny how big of a height difference they had. “Oh, right, we’ll leave you kids alone! Have fun!” Joyce said, and soon it was just the three teenagers again.
“Oh my god, that woman is a force of nature,” Robin mumbled into her hands as she threw her head down to rest on the sticky table.
“Does Mr. Hopper not talk or something?” Vickie asked, looking from Steve to Robin with a half-formed smile on her face.
“Or something,” Robin replied, and Vickie giggled. Eddie’s voice had stopped its roaring, and Steve almost cursed himself for missing the ending of the song. He turned back around over his shoulder to watch the band talk briefly before Eddie walked back up to the mic.
“Alright, for our last song, we’re going to slow it down a bit,” he said, turning the pegs on the neck of his guitar, tossing his hair behind his shoulders and starting to strum a few slow and melancholy sounding notes. “This is Led Zeppelin’s The Rain Song.” Steve’s eyes widened uncontrollably, and he felt the dull heat of Robin’s hand landing on his arm and slapping it a few times. He peeled his eyes away from Eddie to meet hers, and she was smiling at him with her lip caught between her teeth. She mouthed ‘oh my god!’ at him, dropping her jaw after the last word, and Steve couldn’t help but turn his body fully back towards the stage. Eddie was already looking at him, lips upturned into a smile as he crooned about summertime and smiles and Steve felt like he had been punched. But like, in a good way.
“It is to you, I give this tune,” he was singing, and staring directly into Steve’s eyes. Eddie’s eyes were deep pools of tar, and Steve couldn’t wait to drown in them. Get stuck like the dinosaurs had, he had already stopped struggling against the pull of them. He pulled his own bottom lip in between his teeth against the keen that threatened to break out of his chest like a xenomorph, bloody and painful. Steve didn’t even notice when the nearly eight minutes of moody guitar had trailed off to an end, only coming out of his stupor when the crowd started applauding and the band took themselves back stage with parting devil horns and ‘thank you’s shouted out.
Steve turned back to the table, snapping his mouth shut against whatever he was going to say at the wide-eyed stares that met him head on.
“Okay, I’m gonna tell you the truth ‘cause that was a lot-” Robin said to Vickie, eyes lingering on Steve’s face before turning towards her fully. “-and I don’t want you thinking my boyfriend is hitting on Steve.” She paused, glancing at Steve again. “Well, Eddie was definitely hitting on Steve, but he’s not my boyfriend.”
“Oh,” Vickie said, blinking her big eyes in clear confusion. “Um, then why-”
“I’m gay,” Robin blurted out, gritting her teeth at the word vomit that was about to spill. Steve gestured with a thumb as if to say ‘do you want me to leave?’ and Robin shook her head at him frantically, and he sat back down from where he had risen slightly as if to move. “Uh, a lesbian. Obviously. I’m not a gay man-” She cut herself off with a high-pitched giggle, and Steve motioned for her to take deep breaths. She complied, sucking air in desperately like she was dying. Vickie watched her, seemingly frozen, eyes impossibly big. “I asked Eddie to pretend to be my boyfriend because he’s also gay- Oh, shit I probably shouldn’t’ve outed him-” She turned her eyes, as wide as Steve had ever seen them to a spot just over Steve’s shoulder.
“Nah, it’s alright, I don’t mind,” Eddie’s voice sounded from over his shoulder, the rest of the band following just behind and looking awkward. Steve stood, clapping a hand on Eddie’s bare shoulder to stop himself from pulling the man into a kiss that definitely wasn’t fit for public. Eddie grinned at him, bringing a hand up to toy with Steve’s wrist, trailing a long finger across the bone that jutted out from his thumb. “Do you want us to leave?”
“No,” Robin whined into her hands, sounding like a deflating balloon, and the low whine turned into a genuine squeak when Vickie put a lithe hand on her shoulder.
“It’s okay, Robin. I-” She stopped, glancing at the pack of boys that surrounded her with a nervous edge.
The first time Vickie had met Eddie was when she and Robin were making sandwiches. He had been freshly released from the hospital and police custody, shady government officials not only giving his uncle an apartment for two but also a clean record (at least on the murder front). He came to help, neck and side wrapped in so many bandages that Steve privately thought he looked like a mummy. He was joking as he usually would, making comments on the fashion sense of the people who donated clothes, though Steve could tell being in public was wearing on him; he kept twitching at every person who passed, folding clothes with a severe concentration that Steve realized could only be fake. Few people came up to him directly, but Steve could hear snatches of whispering that quieted as soon as Steve turned his glare on them. About halfway through the day, Eddie had waltzed up to where Robin and Vickie were chatting, leaning on the table and startling Vickie so bad that she dropped the knife she was using to spread peanut butter.
“I’m losing my mind, Buckley,” he had whispered at her, recoiling as Steve came up to stand behind him, and he only relaxed when he turned and realized it was Steve. “I feel like I’m gonna be shanked the second Steve leaves to piss or something.” Robin had made a sympathetic noise, not even looking up from trying to spread jelly evenly on her slice of white bread. “Oh, hi,” he said, after he finally noticed Vickie, and stuck a hand out for her to shake. She had full-bodied flinched backwards, laughing thinly and glancing around the room with a clear panic. Eddie pulled his hand back instantly, eyes wide in regret. “I’m Eddie,” he had said, uselessly, as she clearly already knew who he was. Robin watched the exchange with wide eyes, and Steve had thought that if Vickie hurt Eddie, he wouldn’t care that Robin liked her, he would have to set her straight. Metaphorically speaking. She definitely liked boobies.
They had cleared up the panic, Eddie going back over to folding clothes and Robin explaining the government-given story to her gently, Steve standing by like a guard dog the whole time, and Vickie had nodded. She had shot Eddie ‘I’m sorry’ glances every few minutes for the rest of the day, but only verbally apologized when they had come back the next day to help some more. He waved it off, but Steve could see his fingers shaking as he played with his hair.
Back in the present, Vickie was eyeing Eddie with the same clear panic she had on that first day. Instead of backing herself into a corner, however, she steeled herself with a deep breath. “I like girls, too.” Robin gaped a little, and Steve couldn’t tell if she was breathing or not, so he gave her a kick under the table as he scooted over to let the rest of the band into the booth. “And boys,” Vickie added softly, and Steve’s head shot up to look at her. She was avoiding eye contact with everyone, picking at the chipping varnish on the table with blue painted nails.
“Oh, nice! Love to meet a fellow bisexual.” Jeff held out his fist towards Vickie, and she cautiously bumped it with her own.
“There is a name!” Robin crowed, kicking Steve’s foot excitedly, practically glowing with the knowledge that she has a chance with Vickie. Steve’s blood froze in his veins, eyes widening at Robin blurting out the fact that for some reason, they had been talking about whether or not there was a name for people who liked both women and men. He turns to look at Eddie next to him, going for casual but feeling as stiff as a Barbie doll. Ken doll? Both. Eddie was already looking at him, eyes half-lidded and cheeks sucked in in thought. He turned to Gareth next to him, jabbing him in the side with one of his bony elbows.
“See, I told you,” he said, ignoring Gareth’s complaints of pain. “Baby gays.” Plural. The extra ‘s’ echoed in his brain like a gunshot.
The group chatted on, teasing and pushing each other, and through Steve’s haze of vague panic, he smiled at Vickie and Robin holding hands on the booth seat. Both of their faces were flushed, and they kept throwing each other shy little glances. Steve was avoiding eye contact with Eddie, his presence a warm and solid wall to his left. Robin leaned away from Vickie and into Steve’s space as she was snort-laughing at something Grant was saying.
“Remember, Harrington charm.” Robin whispered, making pointed eyebrow movements. Steve breathed in and then out. He could do this. There was no room in Steve ‘The Hair’ Harrington’s vocabulary for wimping out. He turned, feeling less like a Barbie doll and more like a Stretch Armstrong. With how smooth he was. Maybe the metaphor could use some work.
“Hey, Eds.” Eddie turned from where he had been leaning on his fist and following the conversation. His eyes were wide and guileless and so goddamn sweet Steve was sure he could get a toothache. “You were great tonight, man.” Eddie beamed, taking in the praise like a flower taking in sunlight, growing from the exposure.
“Yeah? Thanks, Steve.” He was genuinely touched, and his fingers tangled in his hair, covering his mouth like he did when he was shy. Steve felt something warm and buttery melt in his chest at the fact that he was privileged enough to be able to identify most of Eddie’s little… Eddie-isms.
“I didn’t know you could sing so well.” Eddie flushed and giggled, honest to god giggled, and then widened his eyes at his own reaction. He shook his head, toying with a ring and looking down so his hair covered his eyes. “Seriously, Eds, I’m not kidding.” Eddie looked up at him, eyes so big and hopeful that Steve couldn’t help but drift in towards them. Eddie’s breath caught in his chest as Steve got further into his space, keeping eye contact the whole time. “I couldn’t take my eyes off of you.” Eddie’s lips parted seemingly against his will, eyes shuttering and turning back into the liquid pool of black that had beckoned to Steve from the stage. Steve leaned in, infinitesimally closer, and Eddie tilted his chin up and up until-
“Hi again!”
They jerked apart, Eddie looking at Joyce and Hopper as they walked over again, significantly drunker than the last time Steve had seen them. Steve groaned slightly, wetting his lips and glancing at Robin, who was looking at him in slight awe.
“You did amazing, boys, really great show!” Joyce was gushing, and Steve couldn’t find it in his heart to be mad at her for cockblocking. She was just so… nice. Like a mom should be, he guessed. His own mom wasn’t around enough for him to get that feeling anywhere else, and he basked in it whenever she offered it. Which was just about every time they talked. “Gosh, just fantastic.” She was slurring, and Eddie laughed a little breathlessly at her.
“Thanks, Ms. Byers.” Eddie said, setting off a round of thanks from the other boys. Hopper nodded from behind her, looking like a doberman protecting a chihuahua. Or maybe just a really big and scary schnauzer. His mustache was very defining. “Date night?” Eddie asked, nodding towards Hopper with a shit-eating grin. He loved to get on Hopper’s nerves. Eddie had told him one night, when they were lying side by side on Eddie’s living room floor and passing a joint back and forth, that Hopper was always kind to him, in a gruff way. He would always let him go with a slap on the wrist. Eddie had theorized that he felt sorry for him, he was the one that arrested Eddie’s dad. The sympathy Hopper clearly had for Eddie did not stop him from finding him unbearable, however, and Eddie made sure to push every last button the man had. Hopper glared at Eddie, looking like Sam Eagle in a Hawaiian shirt.
“Yep,” He answered, and that was probably the only word Eddie would get out of him the entire night. “You… you did good, kid.” Or maybe not. Eddie blinked, clearly not expecting the complement, and Joyce beamed at the two of them, her hands clasped in front of her chest like a Disney princess who wore way too much flannel.
“...Thanks, chief.” Eddie’s words sent out another round of thanks from the band, this one far more hesitant.
Hopper grunted, and looked away with his arms crossed, seemingly scoping out the exit. Joyce noticed his glance, and said her farewells, rubbing a hand through Robin’s hair and giving a parting thumbs up to Eddie. They turned, and Eddie, regaining some of his gusto, pulled his nose up into a pig snout and stuck his tongue out at Hopper’s retreating back. Vickie erupted into giggles, covering her mouth with the hand that wasn’t glued to Robin’s, and Robin looked at her like she was a sky full of stars.
“So… Eddie…” Jeff started, glancing at the others in the band with a smirk they returned. “We noticed that Steve is wearing your battle vest.” Eddie’s head snapped up, eyes agape and face steadily turning an alarming shade of red. “Any particular reason?”
“I- no, he…” Eddie bit his lip and glanced at Steve out of the corner of his eye, and Steve felt very out of his element.
“Oh, did you want it back, Eddie? I’ve been meaning to give it back-”
“No!” Eddie grabbed Steve’s hands where they were in the process of taking off the denim vest, stilling him. He looked back at Jeff, who was wearing the smarmiest grin that Steve had ever seen, Gareth and Grant not too far off with their own grins. “Uh-” Eddie looked at Steve, who had thoroughly lost the thread of this conversation. Eddie let go of Steve’s hands and sank down into his seat, and Steve noticed that his flush extended down his neck and onto his chest. Eddie grabbed two fistfulls of his hair and pulled them across his face to hide it entirely. “Shut up, Jeff.”
Steve looked down to where Eddie was practically melting against the tacky vinyl, and then to Robin, who shrugged. Vickie looked like she was having the time of her life. Steve downed the rest of his coke like a shot.
-
That Friday, Eddie came into the Family Video as if a man on a mission. Steve and Robin were in various states of lounging behind the desk, Steve with his head buried in his arms on the counter, and Robin lying on her back on the gross carpet, her feet propped up next to where Steve was standing and barely showing over the particle board countertop. It was four, and they both got off at five. It was a deadly waiting game, one with very few distractions since the TV had broken the week before and Keith had yet to call in a repairman and the weather was so sweltering that people stayed home, the ones that did go out only going out to swim. The door jingled and they both scrambled to stand and force a smile on their faces at the customer.
“Hi, welcome to Famil-” they chorused, before registering who, exactly, had walked through the door.
“Hi Eddie!” Steve grinned, feeling a familiar fluttering in his chest. They hadn’t seen each other much since the show; Eddie had gone out of town for a day with Wayne to pick up some car parts or something for Eddie’s van. Steve had not sulked throughout Thursday, no matter what Robin said. He was just really into The Golden Girls recently, and watching them alone while eating dry cereal from the box was not pathetic. It was his lazy day! He could do whatever he wanted! “Need a movie?”
“Yes, actually I do, Stevie Nicks!” That was a new nickname, but Steve found he didn’t hate it. It was kind of fun, and who didn’t like Fleetwood Mac? “I have decided to hold a movie night for the gremlins tonight. What say you two?” He was loud as ever, putting on an exaggerated British accent and bringing his long arms out as he bowed as if deferring to their judgment. Robin snickered, fixing her hair from where it had been pushed up on the carpet in the reflection of the powered off computer screen.
“I’m down. I was actually uh-” She paused, chewing on her lip. “I was actually thinking of coming out to them. Soon.” Her fingers stilled in her hair, pulling it down around the sides of her face like a curtain. A slightly greasy curtain. “I mean, it went so well with Vickie…” She flushed and Eddie cooed, propping himself up on the counter with one arm and reaching to pinch her cheek with his other. She swatted his hand away, puffing her cheeks out to deter him from pinching them, which only made her make a truly embarrassing farting noise with her mouth as he squished the air out of her cheek. Steve watched it all with a warm grin, feeling so full. God, he loved them so much.
“I think it’s a great idea, Robin,” Steve said, reaching up to brush the back of her hair out himself, laying the strands flat. She sighed happily, and leaned her head back into his hand like a cat. Eddie was still leaning almost fully over the counter, balancing on his stomach with his feet bent up behind him. From this angle, Steve could see down his loose t-shirt, and he licked his lips before tearing his gaze away and busying himself with reorganizing the candy. He had to stop being so horny in public. After the show, when he was tucked into his bed, he remembered how he had almost kissed Eddie, in front of everyone and in public, and his brain broke, a few hours too late. He barely had a foot out of the closet and suddenly he was ready to make out with Eddie in front of God and all his angels. And the weird patrons of the hole in the wall bar that smelled like several things had an orgy in it and then collectively died. Bisexual Steve was a whole different animal than Straight Steve.
Eddie pushed himself off the counter, backing up a few steps and Steve was worried he had made him uncomfortable with his blatant ogling, until he was running and vaulting over the countertop. Steve and Robin shouted and scattered, but Eddie landed perfectly on his feet, arms over his head and bowing like a gymnast.
“Oh ye of little faith.”
He grabbed the phone that sat out of reach of customers, or at least out of the reach of customers that didn’t vault over the fucking counter.
“Oh, yeah sure Eddie, go ahead and use our work phone.” Robin droned as Steve frantically checked the countertop for marks or damages.
“Thanks, Robin, I will!” he chirped, and began dialing a number. Robin threw her hands up and looked at Steve as if he could control Eddie in any way.
“Don’t look at me, he’s your pretend boyfriend.”
The next several dozen minutes were spent with Eddie calling all the kids, suggesting movie night, and then chatting their ears off until one of them got bored and hung up. The last hour of their shift flew by, and by the time Eddie was hanging up with the Byers-Hopper household, Keith’s car was pulling into the parking lot. Several panicked seconds of pushing Eddie out from behind the counter followed, and the three of them were playing it cool as Keith walked through the door. Well. Playing it cool was a very broad term if it applied to what they were doing. Steve and Robin were standing shoulder to shoulder and wearing matching grins like the kids in The Shining, and Eddie was casually leaning against the counter on the customer side and pushing a tape across for Steve to scan. Keith looked over it all with a mostly nonplussed and partly irritated expression.
“Keith, Keith, Keith the Teeth, how are you, man?” Eddie asked, smiling widely with what Steve called his ‘do not pet, I bite’ grin. Keith rolled his eyes as he walked into the backroom to clock in, waving at Robin and completely ignoring Steve. Eddie’s grin faded as soon as Keith’s back was turned. Steve grabbed the tape, The Labyrinth, to check out, keying in an employee discount for Eddie without even thinking about it. Robin cocked her hip against the counter, watching Eddie with a quirked eyebrow. Eddie handed over two crumbled bills, and Steve stuck them in the register.
“Thanks for coming to Family Video!” Steve and Robin chorused, and Eddie grinned and rolled his eyes before sauntering out of the store and going to lean against his van, waiting for them to clock out. It was a quick affair, and soon enough they were bounding out of the store, stripping off their vests as if they burned.
“Why do you hate Keith?” Robin asked, as soon as Eddie was within earshot. He hummed, picking at his nails absentmindedly before shaking his head and meeting Robin’s eyes.
“Oh, he beat my high score on Tapper and then decided to quit Hellfire because, and I quote, he ‘didn’t play with losers’.” Steve snorted, and Eddie rewarded him with a soft grin. “Which is extra funny because I literally beat him again the next week.”
The drive to Eddie’s was quick, Robin riding with Steve for once since no one was around to see if Robin rode with Eddie and held his hand enough or whatever. Steve really couldn’t wait until the pretend relationship thing was over. Steve parked in the visitor parking, him and Robin walking in a comfortable silence up the stairs to Eddie’s door. Steve knocked, and Eddie answered, in the same worn out band shirt and baggy blue jeans he had rocked up to the Family Video in. Steve still found him incomprehensibly attractive anyway.
“Welcome, welcome. Mi casa and all that,” Eddie said, pulling them inside. “Alright, who wants to pop some popcorn and put it into bowls and who wants to start queueing up the movie?” Steve was already heading into the kitchen, leaving Robin to take the shiny new tape out of its box and get it started on the TV.
“You seen it yet?” Steve asked conversationally, as he opened the pantry and grabbed a few bags of popcorn. Eddie bumped his hip against Steve’s as he reached up above the pantry to grab a few mugs. Steve smiled to himself at the contact as he unwrapped the plastic from the bags.
“Labyrinth? Yeah, I saw it in theaters.” Eddie was reaching up again for a few more mugs, setting a total of nine mugs neatly in a line across the countertop. He tweaked them until all the handles were pointed in the same direction before nodding firmly to himself. Steve thought it was adorable. “David Bowie’s pants hide nothing. It’s like a loose hotdog in a plastic bag, man.”
Steve choked on his own spit, missing the start button on the microwave. “I won’t be able to see anything else when we watch it now, Eds.” Eddie grinned conspiratorially at him.
“All a part of my master plan to get you to like boys, Harrington.”
Steve cleared his throat, opening the microwave probably a bit too early. “What if I already do?”
Eddie stared at him, before his face lit up like a Christmas tree. “I knew you were bi! I totally called it!” He grabbed Steve’s shoulder and shook it a few times before hopping on the counter and grabbing a few big bowls from the cabinet above the stove. His shirt raised, at perfect eye-level to gawk at, and Steve made eye contact with the small black letters that peek-a-booed above his pants. Steve licked his lips. Eddie hopped down and dropped the bowls in front of Steve, grabbing the popped bag and tearing it open. Eddie nodded down at the next bag, and Steve snapped out of his stupor to put the next bag into the microwave. Before long, they had three big bowls full of popcorn, and a frontline of mugs waiting for people to pour drinks into them.
Eddie and Steve wandered into the living room with the bowls, Eddie carrying one in each hand despite Steve offering to carry all three, where Robin was sprawled on one couch, kicking her leg back and forth. The movie was in and paused at the first sign of ‘coming soon to video’.
“Jesus, you guys took so long.” She moaned, immediately going to grab at Steve’s bowl.
“No popcorn ‘til the kiddos get here,” Steve chided, and Robin groaned louder, rolling her whole body with her eyes.
“God, fine, mom.”
“Don’t talk to your mother like that!” Eddie reprimanded, setting his bowls on the coffee table and smacking her hand away when she reached for one of the other two bowls instead.
A door sounded from down the hall, and Wayne Munson walked out, dressed in a thick flannel and worn down jeans despite the heat outside. He leaned down to grab his work boots from where they rested by the front door and sat on the couch opposite to Robin to pull them on.
“Hey, Robin.”
“Hi, Wayne!” She replied, before turning to Steve, cocking her head at Wayne as he leaned down to unlace his boot. Eddie took the hint before Steve could figure out what she meant.
“Wayne, this is Steve. I don’t think you’ve properly met, yet.” Eddie started, pushing Steve to stand in front of Wayne. Steve swallowed, surreptitiously wiping his hands on his jeans. Wayne looked up at Steve, his face a stone wall. Steve stuck out his hand to shake.
“Hi, Mr. Munson.”
“Steve,” he nodded, pulling on his other shoe and grabbing Steve’s hand. His grip was strong, and it took everything in Steve not to wince. “I know your daddy.” Steve swallowed again, throat suspiciously dry.
“Ah…” Steve said, looking away sheepishly. “Well, I can promise you that I’m nothing like him.” Wayne studied his face for a few long seconds before nodding. He glanced at Eddie, raising an eyebrow in silent conversation, and Eddie blushed.
“Well, Steve, if you ever need anywhere to stay, you come here. Alright?” Steve nodded against the sudden fullness of his throat and blinked away the tears that sprang to his eyes. Wayne clapped a heavy hand on his shoulder before grabbing his keys and walking out the door, giving a parting hug to Eddie.
“What just happened?” Robin asked, and all Steve could do was shrug.
The kids showed up within an hour after Wayne left, being dropped off by Jonathan and Nancy. Eddie had promised over the phone that he and Steve would take them home if they could get there. The movie is started without much fanfare after everyone had decided whether they want water or Sprite (Mike complained about the lack of Coke, but Eddie threw popcorn at him until he shut up). Eddie flips the lights off and grabs a few blankets that he sets in front of the TV to be stolen whenever they’re needed. El grabs one almost out of Eddie’s arms burrowing under the thick fleece and pointedly not sharing with Mike no matter how hard he shoots his puppy dog eyes at her. Max sprawls on the floor, her back to Lucas’ legs, and he buries his hands in her hair, braiding it absentmindedly as they both watch the movie. Will and Dustin lean their heads together and talk in what Steve assumes are supposed to be whispers about how cool the puppetry is. Robin is still sprawled across the couch, only ceding half of it to Eddie and Steve, her legs in their laps. Eddie is practically on top of Steve’s lap. Steve can smell his shampoo. And Steve cannot. Stop. Noticing. David Bowie’s junk.
“Told you,” Eddie leaned over to whisper in his ear, close enough for Steve to feel his lips against his earlobe and his hair on Steve’s collarbone, as soon as Bowie showed up for the first time.
“You were surprisingly extremely right in your description,” Steve replied, reaching up to catch one of Eddie’s ringlets between his fingers and giving it a small yank, watching it bounce back into place.
“Now imagine it on the big screen,” Eddie said, if Steve wasn’t imagining it, a little breathlessly. Eddie grabbed his mug of Sprite just as Robin adjusted her leg, and it spilled over Steve’s shirt. “Shit, I am so sorry, Steve,” Eddie said, ignoring the shushes he got from the gathered teenagers, walking off to the kitchen to grab paper towels.
“It’s alright,” Steve called after him, fanning his shirt to dry it, until Robin kicked his leg hard. “What?!” he hissed.
“Go after him, dumbass!” she hissed back.
Steve went after him. Eddie was kneeling on the counter again struggling to grab an unopened roll of paper towels from the top of the fridge. He grabbed it with a victorious ‘ha!’ before nearly toppling off the counter. Steve reached a hand out to steady him, hand firm against Eddie’s back. “You alright?” he murmured, meeting Eddie’s wide eyes with his own.
“Yeah…” Eddie dropped down to sit on the counter, legs open, as he tore the plastic off of the roll and tossed it in the vague direction of the trash can. He unspooled a few squares, and used his outstretched foot to pull Steve in to stand between his legs. Steve’s breathing picked up, Eddie’s long, beautiful hands dabbing at his chest with a practiced nonchalance that did nothing to hide the furious blush that crept down his neck. He looked up from Steve’s polo, and their faces were inches apart, Eddie’s breath hot on Steve’s cheek. Eddie bit his lip, eyes flicking down to Steve’s lips and Steve grabbed him by his legs, pulling him in and crushing their lips together in one fell swoop. Eddie groaned against his lips, dropping the crumpled paper towels over Steve’s shoulder as he went to grab Steve by the back of his neck.
Steve gasped his mouth open at the nails that scratched his scalp, pulling lightly on his hair, and Eddie’s tongue licked between Steve’s lips like it belonged there. Steve suddenly decided that it very much did. He moved his hands up Eddie’s thighs, curving them around until he pressed his hands under Eddie’s shirt, right where he knew the tramp stamp was. He dug his nails in as Eddie did something with his tongue that had Steve seeing stars.
Eddie pulled away, and Steve gave him lingering pecks as he did. “Come to my room,” Eddie whispered into his mouth and Steve let out a wounded noise. “I’ll get you a new shirt.” Steve nodded dumbly, unmoving until Eddie pushed him away to stand, grabbing Steve’s hand and yanking him down the hallway. The only person who looked up at their departure was Robin, who was on the couch facing the hallway. She took one look at Steve’s rumpled hair and gave an enthusiastic thumbs up. Eddie opened his bedroom door, pushing Steve in and crashing their lips together again before the door was even shut. His deft fingers untucked Steve’s shirt from his jeans, pushed up his chest and raked through his chest hair. Steve moaned breathily, and Eddie grinned against his mouth. “God, you have no idea how long I’ve wanted to do that, Steve.”
“Is that why you-” He cut himself off to yank his damp shirt over his head. “-why you gave me your super special battle vest?”
Eddie’s flush got impossibly redder, and he licked his lips. “Nah, it was you biting the head off of that bat that did it.” He combed his fingers through Steve’s hair, pulling slightly to tease another groan out of him. Who was Steve to deny him? Steve pulled Eddie back into him, and Eddie pushed until they were toppling onto the bed. Eddie swung his leg around Steve’s waist, straddling him and captured his lips again with messy licks. Steve pushed his tongue against Eddie’s and bit his bottom lip, slowly pulling as Eddie sat up. He was beautiful above Steve, face flushed and lips kissed red. Eddie reached up to pull his hair into a ponytail, wrapping his hair tie once, twice, thrice. He grinned wickedly down at Steve, and Steve leaned up to kiss his throat, punctuating his kisses with bites, and he reached up to tug on Eddie’s ponytail-
“What the shit?!” Eddie toppled off of Steve, landing on his back and hitting his head against his headboard. Steve sat up, and stared at Dustin, who looked like he had just walked in on his parents having sex. Which, now that Steve thought about it, he kind of did. “Wha- You-!” Dustin floundered for a second, face slowly turning red, and Eddie scrambled to his chest of drawers, pulling something out at random and throwing it in Steve’s face. Steve took the hint and started pulling the shirt on as fast as he could, only realizing it was on backwards when he stood. “You’re cheating on Robin?!” Dustin finally squeezed out, sounding on the verge of tears and there was a hot second of silence before Eddie and Steve started scream-laughing. Footsteps pounded down the hallway, everyone rushing to see what was happening.
Robin was the first to get there, her hands over her eyes and she only removed them once she peeked through her fingers enough to see that there were no shirtless men in the room. “What’s going on?” She asked, as the others slowly gathered around Eddie’s open bedroom door.
“Eddie, he’s-” Dustin was cut off by pained gasps for breath from both Eddie and Steve, and he glared at them until they calmed down, faces twitching with unshed laughter. The second they looked at each other, it would be over. “He’s cheating on you. With Steve.” The hallway filled with gasps, a real highschool soap opera, and Robin took one look at the two men in Eddie’s room and suddenly all three of them were laughing. Dustin’s eyebrows fell, not understanding, and the crowd of rubberneckers in the hallway looked to be in a similar boat.
“I’m so sorry Dustin,” Robin started, speaking through gasps of laughter. “You are just so sweet.”
“Does someone want to explain what’s going on?” Max asked, hair pulled back into a french braid and eyes flicking from person to person as if someone was going to give the answer away by looks alone. Five minutes later, everyone was back in the living room, sitting on the couches as Robin, Eddie, and Steve stood in front of them (shirts pulled around to the correct position).
“You were faking?” El was the first one to speak after the explanation, eyebrows lowered in confusion and a little hurt. “The whole time?”
“Yeah, we were. I’m sorry for lying,” Robin started, anticipating El’s qualm before it ever left the girl’s mouth. “But I wasn’t ready to tell anyone that I didn’t like boys.” El nodded, pursing her lips but staying silent as she digested Robin’s words.
Dustin still looked traumatized, eyes wide and staring at nothing as if he was having war flashbacks. Max and Lucas had taken it in stride, nodding along to their explanation with ease, and they laid together on the couch as the others asked questions. Will was staring at the three of them openly, and Steve knew that at some point they were going to be getting a lot more questions from him. Mike looked peeved.
“What’s up with you, Wheeler?” Eddie asked, eyeing the kid as if to stare him into not being homophobic.
“First my sister, and now Eddie?” Mike blurted out, and Steve blinked at the full force of an angry Mike Wheeler glaring directly at him. “I don’t get it!” There was a pause before Eddie and Robin were laughing again, and Steve glared down at Mike.
“What can I say, Michael, his motherly ways and polo shirts drew me in.” Mike made a disgusted face, but stopped glaring at the very least. The three adults turned back towards Dustin.
“Henderson, you alright, man?” Dustin turned his eyes toward Steve, big and watery, and Steve tamped down the urge to gather him in his arms and hug his expression away.
“... Did I do anything to make you feel like you couldn’t talk to me?” He finally asked, face crushed at the possibility of him somehow making his friends uncomfortable.
“Oh, oh god no, Dustin.” Steve answered immediately, bringing the kid into a hug. Eddie brought a hand down on his head, ruffling his hair, and Robin patted his shoulder. “I didn’t even really know until like…” He looked at Robin and Eddie, who gave him an encouraging smile. “Super recently.”
“I wasn’t ready to come out to anyone, not just you, Dustin,” Robin said, looking into his eyes with an uncharacteristic seriousness. “Don’t blame yourself.”
“I was ready to come out like months ago, but I decided to stay in the closet in a show of fa-” he cut himself off, eyeing Will cautiously. “A show of gay and lesbian solidarity with Robin.” He looked around the room smiling at the kids widely. “I knew you guys were a good bunch. And if you weren’t I would kill off your DnD characters brutally before kicking you out of Hellfire,” he finished, his grin turning sharp. The kids made eye contact with each other fearfully, except Max, who only rolled her eyes.
The movie was started up a few minutes later, and everyone had more or less gone back to their previous spots, except Eddie was fully on top of Steve this time, Robin keeping her feet to herself. Eddie tucked his head into Steve’s neck, occasionally pressing warm kisses into his skin.
During a ball scene, Bowie spinning around the main character in the poofiest dress Steve had ever seen, Steve leaned down to kiss Eddie’s earlobe. “How about I take you on a date tomorrow.”
“Hm, I dunno, Harrington. My schedule is pretty tight,” Eddie said into Steve’s collarbone, and Steve could feel the shapes his mouth made around the words.
“My treat, anywhere you wanna go.”
“Guess I can’t say no to that,” Eddie said, and Steve could feel his smile against his skin. It was probably the best feeling he had ever felt, and he couldn’t believe he could feel it whenever he wanted.
“You don’t have a dead cat, do you?” Eddie chuckled, shaking his head into Steve’s chest, his hair tickling the underside of Steve’s chin.
“Can’t say I do, Stevie.”
“Perfect.”
And it was.