Chapter Text
No, Steve did not want to work at fucking Scoops Ahoy of all places. But were they hiring and was he in need of a job? Yes and yes. So he applied. He even ended up telling Dustin about it because hanging out with children is just his life now, apparently.
Honestly, there were surprisingly less places hiring then he thought there would be, especially with the new mall opening. Pretty much any other store would have been better than Scoops, where they wore sailor outfits as their uniform. And yet, Steve was out of luck.
So now, with very little other options, he just needed to go to the interview, bring his Harrington charm, ace it, and get paid. Easy, right? Except Steve had a lot of trouble sleeping these past two years, which normally wasn’t too much of an issue, but his interview was early in the morning and Steve had gotten less than an hour of sleep.
Usually, Steve could power through it, but when he entered the mall, a wave of exhaustion passed through him. In a situation like this, Steve turned to coffee. Luckily, there was a coffee shop right across from Scoops Ahoy at the Starcourt mall. He probably shouldn’t be spending money when he still hadn’t gotten a job yet, but fuck it, he deserved it after the shit he’s been through. Courtesy of dear old dad.
The smell of coffee hit his nose instantly as he neared the shop. Fishing his wallet out of his back pocket, he looked at the menu. He didn’t really need to, since he typically just had black coffee anyways, but his eyes were drawn to it anyway. The names of the specialty drinks were stupid puns and they had a few little doodles of coffee cups around them. It was kinda cute.
He didn’t have to wait too long before he got to the front of the line. The barista had long curly hair and brown eyes, which widened for just a second as he saw Steve in line.
He looked familiar. Like weirdly so. What was that word when you felt like you saw something before?
“Hello, welcome to Déjà Brew. How can I help you?” Oh yeah, déjà vu.
“Um, just black coffee, please.”
He had rings, too, Steve noticed as the man grabbed a cup, writing something down on it. He wasn’t sure what he was writing, though, it’s not like black coffee was a difficult to remember order.
It only took a minute before the barista slid over the drink. Steve picked it up and looked at it. “Steve” was written on it, a little crown floating above the letters.
“I… I never told you my name.”
“I didn’t need you to. Who could forget King Steve?” Ah, so that’s why he was familiar. He must’ve gone to school with him. Which means the image of Steve this guy probably had in his head was… yikes .
“Ugh, don’t call me that.” Steve did not need to be reminded of his high school days.
“His majesty doesn’t like his royal title?” The barista set his elbows on the counter and plopped his head into his hands.
“No, not really. Not anymore, at least.”
“Hmm.” The barista hummed in consideration and stood back up, “Well, enjoy, Harrington.”
“Um, thanks…” Steve finally took note of the nametag on the barista’s apron, “Eddie.”
That name felt familiar too. Eddie. Eddie . It felt like more than just a random classmate’s name. He shook his head. Whatever, it didn’t matter.
Steve got the job. And he was excited about it. Well, as excited as you can be to wear a sailor outfit for hours in public. His first instinct was to tell Dustin, but he’d been shipped off to some summer camp and Steve didn’t know how to reach him. God, Steve really needed friends his age.
Speaking of which, Steve’s new coworker, Robin, seemed to hate him. He bet she was like that Eddie guy, only seeing King Steve the douchebag. Hopefully, he could show her that wasn’t him anymore by the time the summer was over. Maybe he’d even show Eddie he was a good guy now.
Eddie . The name still bugged him. For some goddamn reason, Eddie was stuck in his head. Eddie. Eddie . Where had he heard that name? The answer was there, somewhere, hidden under his massive hair in that brain of his, but it eluded him. God, Steve was halfway to marching next door and asking the man himself. But not in this fucking outfit, that’s for sure. If he had his way, this outfit would never leave the icecream parlor.
He didn’t go back to Déjà Brew. Not for a while, at least. Not until he slept through his alarm, a rare occurrence of actually getting more than a few hours of sleep, having to rush through his hair routine—which he refused to compromise—and didn’t have the time to make coffee as he rushed out the door. Not that he felt he needed it today. He was pretty sure he was addicted at this point.
“Black coffee. Please.” Steve huffed as he got to the counter, a bag with his uniform in it slung over his shoulder.
Eddie raised a brow at his hurried state, but didn’t say anything as he quickly made the drink. Steve basically snatched it out of Eddie’s hand, taking a sip and sighing.
“My savior!”
“Awww, do you really mean it, Harrington?” Eddie fluttered his eyelashes at Steve, who rolled his eyes.
“I was talking to the coffee, obviously.”
“Obviously . Well, I hope you and your knight in shining armor live happily ever after then, princess.” Steve furrowed his brow at that and Eddie just laughed, “You said I couldn’t call you king, not princess.”
“Right. I…” Steve thought about asking. Just who are you, Eddie? But he had a job to get to. “I gotta go. Uh, thanks. For the coffee.”
“It’s literally my job.”
“Right. Yeah. Of course. Um, bye.” Steve waved, feeling a little dumb.
Steve really shouldn’t be wasting his paycheck on coffee when he had a perfectly good coffee maker at home, but he couldn’t help himself. He didn’t know why he was so bothered with not knowing where he recognized Eddie from, but he was. So, he came in again.
“Oh? Royalty has returned to our humble establishment?”
“Yeah, I’m here to rescue my coffee from your evil clutches.” Eddie’s eyes lit up when Steve played along, smiling wide and Steve couldn’t help but smile back.
“So the princess has become the rescuer, huh?”
“Well what else is the princess supposed to do when her true love has been kidnapped by a horrible dragon?”
“Ouch, Harrington.” Eddie clutched his chest, feigning hurt, “I may be a dragon, but horrible? You wound me.”
“Well, return my lover and we’ll see about me being a bit nicer, how about that?”
“Hmm. You have a deal.” Eddie handed over the coffee with a flourish. “Your beloved, Sir Steve.”
Steve had so many questions dancing on his tongue. Who are you? Was I a dick to you? Why is your name so familiar? Did I know you?
Instead he just thanked Eddie and turned heel and returned to his sad little kingdom of icecream and stupid sailor outfits with his beloved coffee in hand.
Somehow, it became a habit for Steve to get coffee from Déjà Brew every morning. And every morning he didn’t ask. He kept saying he would, just so he could stop the itching question at the back of his head, but looking into Eddie’s eyes stopped him in his tracks every time.
Unfortunately, his newfound cowardice—at least when it came to Eddie—had burned a hole in his pocket. So, he picked up a few more shifts at Scoops Ahoy. Which meant more time in the sailor outfit and more time with his lovely coworker, who mocked him at every turn.
“Hey, Dingus. You don’t mind if I call you Dingus, right? You look like one.” Robin continued before Steve could complain, “How many girls have you failed to pick up now? I lost count.”
“Stop counting then.”
“Yeah, no. I don’t think I will. In fact,” Robin got this evil smile on her face that made Steve shiver internally, “Let’s use this.” She held up the whiteboard from the back and then drew a line down the middle, writing “You Rule” on one side and “You Suck” on the other.
Steve never got a point on the You Rule side. He blamed the outfit. It was definitely the outfit and not him. He hated it. He hated this goddamn sailor outfit. Especially the stupid hat. It was ruining his best feature! He cringed every time he saw someone he recognized from school walk by because please don’t let them see me like this. He supposed it was only a matter of time until someone came in to witness the embarrassing display in Scoops Ahoy that was Steve Harrington.
“Well I’ll be. King Steve is now Sailor Steve.” Shit . He should have known Eddie would wander over to this side of the mall one day.
“Yeah, yeah. Soak it in.” Steve held his arms out in defeat, figuring he’d let Eddie laugh it out just once. But he didn’t laugh.
“Oh I am.” Eddie’s eyes scanned Steve up and down, making Steve want to squirm under his intense gaze. “I wonder how many schoolgirl fantasies you are fulfilling right now, Harrington.”
“As if anyone wants to see this.” Steve gestured to the ensemble.
“I beg to differ.” Eddie leaned against the counter, letting out a low whistle. “I can’t believe they make you wear that… Wait, hang on.” Eddie leaned over the counter to get a good look at Steve’s legs. “Scratch that. I can’t believe they let you wear that! Those shorts are small , Harrington.”
Steve blushed a little under the scrutiny, “Shut up, dude. If they let me, I’d burn this uniform in a heartbeat.”
“Nah. You should keep it. Never know when it’ll come in handy.” Eddie winked.
“Yeah, I doubt that. What can I get you?”
“Coffee.” Steve blinked, confused, looking down at the icecream and back at Eddie.
“We… we don’t sell coffee.” Rolling his eyes, Eddie pointed down at the case of icecream labeled ‘Coffee’. Oh. Right… Coffee flavor. Steve began to scoop it out, “Don’t you get tired of coffee after working at a coffee shop everyday?”
“You’re the one who comes in everyday for a cup.”
“…you got me there.” Steve handed over the icecream to Eddie, who immediately licked a ring around the cone.
“Well, as enlightening as this experience was, I got my own job to get to.”
Steve flicked his eyes up back to Eddie’s—wait, when did he look down?—and nodded, “Yeah, see ya around.”
“You know Eddie Munson?” Robin asked, startling Steve, who forgot she was there.
“Yeah, I guess.” Steve said, turning to put the icecream scoop away before he realized what Robin said.
Munson.
Eddie Munson.
Eddie “The Freak” Munson.
Oh .