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theshippirate22 · 1 year

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Eddie had seen some weird shit before.

I mean, he’d almost gotten eaten by rabid demon bats, and he’d watched Nancy Wheeler-resident priss- go ballistic with a sawed off shotgun, and he’d watched Chrissy crumple up and float into the air via the power of some eldritch horror.

Yeah, he’d seen some Weird Shit™️

However, nothing he’d seen in his 19 years of life as weird as this. Not demobats, or a gun obsessed honors student, or a literal magic murder. This was the weirdest thing he’d ever seen, no contest.

Steve fucking Harrington- you know, the most popular guy at Hawkins High, Hawkins’ most eligible bachelor, teenage heartthrob Steve Harrington- was sprawled on his stomach on the coffee table. His knees were on the couch behind him, feet kicked up to rest against the back of it, and his face was on the floor.

Well, that wasn’t true. His face was buried in Andrea Wheeler’s stomach and he was saying “Nom nom nom,” over and over again into her onesie, tickling at her sides to make her squirm.

Andrea saw nothing wrong with this, giggling incessantly with her pudgy baby fingers fisted around the longer parts of his hair.

The laugh that burst out of Eddie couldn’t have been stopped; that was a fact. It didn’t help that when Steve heard him, he instantly shouted “Ah shit!” and tried to lift his head, but Andrea refused to loosen her grip and yanked on his hair, which was immediately followed by “Ow! Shit!”

Eddie had to lean against the doorway to support himself. His sides ached from laughing so hard and he was gasping for breath not managing any words except “What are you doing?”

Steve managed to extract her fists and look up, flushed pink in shame all the way to the tips of his ears. He scrambled off the coffee table and the second he was out of her sight, Andrea started to cry.

“I was just playing with her…” Steve mumbled, sweeping her off the floor and slipping his knuckle in her mouth for her to chew on. “I didn’t know you were coming over.”

“I didn’t know you were on babysitting duty again.” Eddie wiped a few of his tears away, managing to keep his face straight. “I get why you’re her favorite now, though. You are committed to the bit.”

Steve rolled his eyes, pink flooding back into his face. He wouldn’t even look him in the eye. “Yeah… what can I help you with, dude?”

“Oh, come on. Don’t get shy. It’s cute, you know?”

“Oh, gee, thanks.” He pushed into the kitchen, setting Andrea in the high-chair-esque thing strapped to the counter. She instantly started to cry again so he handed her a wooden spoon She fumbled with it for a minute before sticking it in her mouth.

“I’m not shitting you, I’m serious. She’s gonna turn out a lot better than any of us did.”

“God, I hope so.” He pulled the box of baby oatmeal from the pantry and set it on the counter. Andrea threw the spoon and reached for him, starting to cry again.

Eddie picked up the spoon and set it on the counter in her reach, but he didn’t look away from Steve. Andrea did not accept the reoffered toy, and threw her head back to scream.

Eddie winced- God, this kid had a set of lungs on her- but he didn’t miss the way Steve’s shoulders slumped a bit and his eyes drooped heavily. But he sighed deeply, and gave Andrea his hand. She took hold of his thumb and pinky in each hand respectively and gnawed on the fingertips of the other three. “Will you grab her bottle?”

He crossed over and opened the fridge. There were three bottles- again with the Weird Shit; most twenty-something men didn’t have containers (plural) of their ex’s breastmilk in their fridge, but what did he know- all of which were labeled with a sticky note bearing a day of the week. “Which…?”

“There’s one from Tuesday, I think. Whichever is oldest.”

Eddie retrieved it, realized it was just about empty and grabbed the Thursday one too just in case. “What’s gonna happen when your parents come home and find all this stuff?”

“They won’t.” He poured some of the powdered oatmeal into a bowl, dumped in the Tuesday milk, stirred it, contemplated, then added some of Thursday. “Come home, that is.”

“Why not?”

“They don’t live here anymore. Like they own it and everything, but they bought a house in Miami, and they’d rather be there, so that’s where they live.”

He sat at the barstool across the counter from him. “And are we happy about that…?”

Steve shrugged. “I don’t know anything different. They’ve always been gone.”

Eddie wanted to say something, to take this away from him, but he was afraid anything he said would be interpreted as pity and it wasn’t, and Steve didn’t want that anyway.

Besides, Andrea had started to make a game out of biting the spoon every time Steve put it in her mouth, and he was starting to get frustrated again very quickly.

“Hey, can I have a turn?”

Steve stared at him. It was certainly no secret Eddie had no interest in the baby; the first time he’d been handed her, he looked positively horrified and Steve had laughed and taken her back.

“I don’t ever get to feed her,” He added quickly. “I only ever see her when Nancy’s around, and… well, you know.”

Steve wiped Andrea’s mouth with the spoon, set it back in the bowl, and pushed it across the counter to him.

Eddie had never fed a baby; there wasn’t anyone younger than, like, 13 in his life besides Andrea. He’d watched Steve do it long enough to figure it out though.

She regarded him with some suspicion for the first couple spoonfuls, but eventually, she warmed up to the fact that he had the food now.

Steve leaned back against the counter behind him, tipping his head against the cabinets and closing his eyes.

Eddie cocked an eyebrow. “Steve?”

“Hmm?” He mumbled, not opening his eyes.

“You do know you can tell Nancy no, right? You don’t have to babysit every time she asks.”

“I offered.” He yawned. “She doesn’t like asking me, but I know how important it is for her to finish her dissertation, so I don’t mind.”

“You know, she could send her to daycare.”

“Absolutely not. Books said no.”

It had been a while since Steve had referenced The Books. They weren’t a necessary now that she wasn’t a newborn, but what The Books said, goes. It had been weird enough watching Steve spend so much time reading while Nancy was pregnant and after Andrea was born, but it was equally weird hearing how much he’d learned and how much he talked about them. He’d never get used to that.

“Look, it’s not a big deal.” Steve added. “It’s like three times a week, is all. She needs the time. She’s got to write the dissertation.”

Eddie set the spoon down to look at him. “I don’t know, maybe she should’ve thought of that before she got knocked up on a one-night stand.”

“Eddie!” Steve snapped, staring him down with the bitchiest face he’d ever seen.

“Sorry, sorry. I’m just saying.”

“She’s our friend. The least we can do is help her. It doesn’t matter what happened, Andrea is here and someone has to watch her. I can do it, so I should. It’s what friends do.”

Eddie nodded haphazardly. He’d heard the whole spiel before. “Well, you’re my friend. And I’m worried about you.”

“What- Why- I’m fine!” He spluttered indignantly.

“Yeah? Alright. Go take a shower.”

“Why…? Do I need it?” He lifted his shirt to sniff-test and grimaced. “Okay, yeah, I do. What’s your point?”

Andrea started to fuss because the oatmeal was gone. Steve and Eddie lunged to grab the box at the same time. Steve got it first, just because his arms were longer, but Eddie yanked it from his hand and started to pour some more.

“That’s what we’re talking about.”

“We? Who’s ‘we?’ What are you talking about?”

Eddie sighed, stirring in more of the Thursday milk to get the consistency right and offered it to Andrea. “What do you think I’m doing here?”

“I don’t know, man. I thought you needed something.”

“Buckley sent me. So did Wheeler, actually. This is your intervention.”

Steve rolled his eyes, propping his hands on his hips. “I don’t need an intervention.”

Eddie raised his eyebrow suspiciously. Eyed the sink full of dishes- Steve hated dishes in the sink- the stack of mail overtaking the kitchen table, the dirty towels in a wad on the floor in front of the laundry room like a free throw that didn’t quite make it.

“What?! Okay, so it’s harder to do stuff when I’ve got the baby. Whatever. I’m the only person that lives here.”

“Steve.”

“It doesn’t really matter anyway. What if I went to your house and started nitpicking the state of your room? Because, I guarantee it’s worse than this.”

“Steve.”

“I don’t need an intervention. Nothing’s wrong. You’re all delusional because you think I’m completely incapable of everything, even though I’ve been-“

“Steve.”

“What?!”

He hadn’t realized until now that Eddie had stood up and crossed around the island to stand right by him. “You do know Nancy finished the dissertation two weeks ago, right?”

“How do you know that?” He swallowed hard, obviously irritated at being caught in his lie.

“Because she told me. Right after she told me that you’ve called almost every day for the last month to offer to babysit. You never go out with Robin anymore, you don’t want to come get high with me anymore, you don’t even take the kids to the arcade anymore. We’re worried.”

Steve rolled his eyes again, starting to turn around like he could walk out of the conversation because it was so unbearably ridiculous, but Eddie grabbed his shoulders and steeled him where he stood.

“Steve.”

“What.” It wasn’t a question; it was an ultimatum.

“Do you have postpartum depression?”

Steve gave him the dirtiest look that could’ve been possible. “Har har, you’re hilarious.”

“I’m not fucking with you, I swear. Do you?”

“Oh, yeah, I’ve got a mental illness that only new moms get because of a newborn over a baby I’m not even the father of SIX MONTHS after she was born! That’s definitely what-“

Eddie wasn’t here to argue. He roped his arms around Steve’s neck and pulled him down against his shoulder in a kind of violent affection that reinforced that Steve was being a moron, but Eddie was here. He wasn’t going anywhere.

Steve tried to push away at first, but Eddie didn’t let go, if anything pulling him closer, and eventually, his hands fell away from Eddie’s chest and wrapped around his waist. His shoulders relaxed, his face buried into Eddie’s neck.

“She needs me.” He mumbled. “She needs me. She needs me.”

“Who does?”

“Andrea.”

“Yeah, but she’s gotta be with her mom sometimes too. She needs her too. Nance said she’s with you more than her.”

“She needs me.”

Eddie swallowed, running a hand lightly through Steve’s hair. “This is about Mike, isn’t it?”

And Eddie’s stomach started to ache when he felt Steve’s silent sob vibrate through him. “They never call me anymore. They’re at the arcade right now, and they never even asked.”

“Yeah, yeah I know.” He mumbled, hating how his voice cracked uncomfortably. “They’re shitheads. It’s not your fault.”

“I’m not ready. I can’t do it yet. I’m not ready.”

Eddie didn’t know what to say. He couldn’t fix this. So, he rubbed Steve’s head and murmured reassuring nonsense while he thought of something better.

Robin thought this would happen. “Eddie,” she’d said to him. “What do you think will happen when the kids learn to drive?”

Eddie had given her the weirdest look. He hadn’t gotten it then. But Claudia had asked Steve to teach Dustin and he was so strange about it, always claiming he was too busy to give Dustin a lesson. Too busy for Dustin.

Karen had taught Mike. He was the oldest anyway; it made sense for him to get his license first.

“Why would it matter?” Eddie had asked.

She just shrugged, looking far off. “They won’t need rides anymore.”

“Yep, that’s how that works.”

She must’ve known he wasn’t quite getting it, but she just shook her head dismissively and murmured, “He’ll think they don’t need him anymore.”

“Who will?”

But she’d left it at that. That was the end of it.

He felt stupid now, with Steve pressed weakly against him and tears dripping down his neck. He should’ve known exactly what she meant, he should’ve stopped this.

Instead, he mumbled, “You’re gonna be okay,” another time.

Andrea fussed again, reaching pudgy, flexing fingers in Steve’s direction. Up! She demanded. Don’t forget about me!

Steve pulled himself away quickly, swatting at this eyes with his sleeve to try and wipe all of it away and lifted Andrea up onto his hip. “Sorry. That was weird. I couldn’t, uh… I’m just… You don’t have to… Don’t…” He stammered, looking anywhere but at Eddie and finishing unconvincingly with, “I’m fine.”

Oh hell no.

“Absolutely not.” He reached for her, despite Steve’s protests and her grip on his sweater but took her anyway and let Andrea lock her fists around the collar of his vests. “Go take a shower. I got it. Take a break, Stevie, I’m on top of it.”

Steve looked drained-the redness in his eyes didn’t hide the darkness underneath them, and no amount of masking could hide the slump in his posture- which is probably why he didn’t try to argue much, especially after Eddie added, “Go! Don’t think about it! Just let me take care of you.”

Steve closed his eyes, running his hands down his face and mumbled out a soft, “Okay.”

He started towards the stairs, pausing to grab the laundry on the floor Eddie had pointed out earlier, and was promptly told to leave it, which he did but he seemed more annoyed about that than the commandeering of his baby.

Andrea let go of his jacket for just long enough to take hold of a piece his hair and babbled something, following it with a deep sigh.

Eddie nodded. “You’re right. What are we going to do with him, huh?”

part 2? more of the comfort part of hurt/comfort? let me know!

#steddie #steve harrington #eddie munson #i promise this was supposed to be funny but it got away from me #steddie hurt/comfort #steddie angst #steddie fluff #i love andrea wheeler with all my heart okay #yeah i know she’s not canon but she’s real to me

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