Chapter Text
Out of the trio of you, Eddie and Volt, it’s usually Eddie that would be considered the enigma. You’re occasionally shy but friendly, Volt is the ultimate dazzling showman, and Eddie is the quiet one that looks grumpy that nobody can quite get a read on.
But if you ask Eddie, you are the most confusing one of all.
Because he doesn’t understand how you give him affection like it’s nothing.
Not that it seems that it means nothing. No, each touch is so clearly gentle and careful, but it’s easy for you. You gravitate towards him, rather than being repelled away.
Even before you joined them romantically, you’d lean closer over Eddie’s shoulder to watch him work on a repair technique that he was teaching you, eyes fixed and curious and your shoulder and chest bumping him from behind. You didn’t adjust yourself or jump away, even when Eddie was caught off guard and accidentally zapped you slightly with static electricity—you were so focused on learning what he was doing that you probably didn’t even notice.
The night of the reset, you had taken his hands so quickly, squeezing them and holding on as if it was your own life on the line. You’d met his eyes and looked terrified, and all that fear and care was for him. And Volt too, of course, but not just Volt, as Eddie was accustomed to. You’d been shaking, but you’d held tight until the very last moment you could, until you had to free your hands to make the repairs on the faulty wire. Even then you’d shakily and awkwardly brushed his hand and then his knee before fully pulling away, as if you couldn’t force yourself away.
And now, as if it hadn’t felt earth shattering enough to Eddie then, it’s like a floodgate has opened.
You trace gentle patterns on his arms and hands whenever you can, when he’s leaning on the bar to speak to you, when you’re in bed, or any other time you’re close enough to him to reach (which is often, you both seem to make sure of it.) Sometimes you’ll just take one of his hands in yours and smooth the pads of your fingers over his callouses or trace the deep set lifelines on his palm. Sometimes you look down as you work, smiling as if you’re looking at the most serene piece of art, and other times Eddie thinks you don’t even notice you’re doing it— you’ll hold entire conversations, even sometimes rather animated ones, while at least one finger stays lingering against his skin.
You give him the easiest kisses on the cheek or forehead. You don’t hold back or seem embarrassed, you never seem to care who’s watching. You just lean in with a sunshiney smile and press a soft kiss to his skin. He may be the one that holds lingering electricity within him but Eddie swears he feels a jolt down to his core even just at those quick kisses.
You’re just so warm. You seem to relish in looping your arm through his or holding his hand when walking somewhere together or patting his cheek or brushing his unruly wiry hair out of his face. It’s a gentleness and kindness that Eddie believes simply can’t be faked.
The casualness with which you shower him with simple affection is something Eddie had to get used to. In some ways he’s still getting used to it. At first he wanted to pull away, not because it felt bad or because he disliked you, but because it was much too real. He didn’t dare entertain his thoughts that the human who’d come crashing into their lives trying to naively fix everything was not only a genuinely nice person but also that they had any sort of care for him. It wasn’t possible, so he didn’t dare want it.
Besides, it wasn’t familiar, and he liked familiarity. Volt, as unpredictable as he seemed, was actually rather consistent and easy to know, at least for Eddie. Volt knew Eddie inside and out, knew what Eddie liked and didn’t, and while his touches were no less loving or frequent, they were familiar.
So when you showed up, brand new and bright-eyed, touching Eddie like he was worthy, like he was safe, like he wasn’t broken… it did something to him.
You had started to become familiar. And while it shocked and sort of scared him, he absolutely adored it. He adored you.
Still, after love confessions and endless firsts, with no way to doubt that (somehow) you do love them both with your entire being, Eddie feels weak in the knees when you touch him so easily.
You’re doing it now, even. Eddie is sitting at the bar after closing, nursing a double after a particularly tiring shift, and you’re sitting beside him, your head on his shoulder and one of his hands laced with yours, your thumb shifting up and down across his skin. You let out a content sigh and Eddie can’t help but smile softly.
“You’re gonna kill me one of these days, spark,” Eddie whispers, his head falling sideways to rest on yours.
You frown and squeeze his hand softly. Eddie can feel the jolt of tension and worry that sweeps across you. “What do you mean?”
“I don’t mean it in a bad way, I promise,” he assures. “I just… you handle me so gently.”
“Yeah?” You reply. You know there’s more to what he’s saying, but you know it takes him a bit to get there sometimes, that the silence is comfortable to steep in.
He nods slowly. You can’t see, but his eyes are heavily lidded. He’s awake, but probably only being this honest because he’s so tired.
“I know why Volt tolerates me, we’ve been through so much together. Came from the same source and all.”
You just nod in acknowledgment.
“But I had to get used to why you do. Had to wrap my head around you not fleeing after how much of a dick I was to you, and now how much joy you seem to get out of being here still,” Eddie murmurs. You hear the ache in his tired voice, but it’s laced with affection. “You touch me so easily, it’s something I’m not used to from others beyond Volt. You’re so soft, and loving, and you don’t seem to ever hesitate to touch me… it’s just really, really nice, is all.”
You feel your heart prepped to explode, now. Eddie is rarely so verbally honest. You know he loves you from the way he shows it, the way he remembers every little detail about you, everything you like and don’t like so he can make you the happiest when it comes time to make you a drink or get you a gift. He caters to your whims and does things he thinks are silly or out of his comfort zone because he knows he’ll get to see your eyes light up and sparkle like a room full of fairy lights. He takes care of you, often silently or with gentle, stern rebukes to your protests, and he never makes you feel like a burden for it. You know he loves you, and he says as much too (in quiet murmurs that still often make him flush scarlet), but you know he struggles to say much else so openly and honestly without feeling like an exposed wire.
“Eddie…” you whisper, and he can hear the fond smile in your voice. “First of all, Volt and I don’t just tolerate you, we love you. Entirely. But it makes me really happy that you like when I touch you because I hope I never have to stop. You’re just so comforting to be around, it comes naturally. You’re my safe place.”
Even from just his cheek resting on your head you feel that he blushes. He squirms slightly but snuggles closer to you, unlinking his hand from yours only so that he can slip it around your waist to pull you closer.
“Like I said, you’re going to kill me,” he mutters softly. The affection in his voice is like pure liquified honey.
“Aww, baby,” you croon softly. “Can’t have that. But I don’t want to hold back from loving you, so I hope it gets easier to feel how wanted you are.”
“You do make it really easy, spark.”
“I’m glad,” you say softly. You wrap your own arm around him and pull him in close. His head falls from your head to tuck into your shoulder, and his hand slips away from his drink to encircle your waist with both arms. His face is hidden but you can feel how loose and content he is in your arms. “I love you, Eddie.”
“Love you too…” he mumbles. He’s clearly exhausted, and he leans against you with all of his weight. You lean slightly against the bar, pulling him with you, so neither of you slip off the barstools. You rub up and down his back with soft strokes of one hand and run your fingers through the base of his hair with the other, your touches gentle and steady.
He lets out a little shiver as you reach the bottom of his back and give gentle little scratches along the base of his spine. Your hand on his back slows but deepens in pressure, not a full massage but hopefully luring him even closer to rest. The fact that he’s so pliant and soft in your arms, not tense or afraid or frenzied with work, is one more way his love is shown.
He lets out a long, slow sigh that fades into a content groan near the end. He nuzzles his face into the crook of your neck, as if he can burrow himself into your hold.
You know you’re eventually going to have to move, but for now you can’t bear the thought. You don’t care if you cramp up or get exhausted yourself— you don’t want to waste a second of getting to feel Eddie curl into you, chasing the sensation of your touch.
Eventually you do move, but neither you nor Eddie are aware of it. Volt finds you both slumped against the bar, still holding each other as much as possible while both asleep while sitting on stools. He spends time carefully extracting you from each other without waking you, just long enough to carry you each to bed. He puts you next to each other and smiles fondly at the way you both gravitate towards each other even while still asleep as he places a blanket over you both, Eddie’s face returning to its place tucked into your shoulder and your arm draped across him, your fingers seeming to twitch with the desire to trace his skin even when unconscious.
Eddie does wake slightly hours later, finding himself in bed, curled up facing you with Volt behind him. Half asleep, he ever so gently tugs Volt’s shirt to get him to snuggle closer, which Volt does like it’s second nature. Eddie slips his arms around you again and presses against you, feeling the warmth of your skin and your soul, too tired and blissed out with a sleepy haze to be flustered.
The love he’s feeling sends electricity firing through all of his wires, his body feeling unable to contain so much joy.
But he wouldn’t trade this feeling for anything.