There's something... off about Steve. Eddie can't quite put his finger on it, but he started noticing it a long time ago. Long before they actually met. Back at the tail end of his King Steve days.
He'd gotten glimpses, like he was seeing behind a mask. The way Steve usual smirk and swagger would drop, just for a moment. But he didn't look upset about losing friends... he looked haunted. Something so empty and lost about him. The moment would be over as fast as Eddie saw it, the whole King Steve persona slipping back on just as easily as it slipped off.
The look on Steves face stuck with him though. There was something so unsettling about it. Something so wrong. Because Steve was the spoilt, rich, popular kid. He had distant parents, everyone knows that, but... Eddie didn't want to think about what could've shaken up Steve Harrington so much, what could leave him looking so traumatized. He doesn't want to know.
But, of course, Eddie never got so lucky.
He's surprised, yet not at all, when he finds out that Steve has been dealing with the alternate dimension bullshit for years. It makes so many little things make sense. Makes the sudden loss of social status, the complete 180 in his attitude, seem reasonable.
And that should've been it. As nice as it was, saving the world with Steve Harrington, Eddie understands how things are. Even with his reputation shredded, hanging out with the town freak- now town 'we still think he's a murderer no matter how much they clear his name' level freak- is far, far below Steve.
But Steve keeps seeking him out. He keeps knocking on the trailer door. Ringing him up. Turning up to D&D sessions early so he can talk his way into coming back to hang out with Eddie.
Sometimes the King Steve mask makes a return, more often a mutation of it. But, for some reason, there's no masks on when it's just the two of them. Steve is freely and openly weird. He admits to things that Eddie knows he wouldn't usually share without pressure. But he shares them with Eddie.
Eddie asks him. But Steve just... smiles. Changes the subject with such ease that it isn't until later that Eddie even realizes that he never answered. He's kind of impressed.
Eddie learns to love it. He's got such deep insights into Steves psyche now that he can read him better than Robin can. He makes a point of correcting Robin too, enjoying the confusion and frustration he causes. Especially with how often she jokingly threatens him for stealing her soulmate.
And he is. It takes him a while to realize that he is... but he is. He's essentially stealing Steve.
He doesn't like groups. Not a lot. He likes having quiet moments with a couple people, he likes spending alone time with people, and it's no different with Steve. He likes knowing that he definitely has all of the attention and that the other person has all of his.
So maybe he feels a little possessive over their alone time, over the way Steve is so open with him specifically. With him exclusively. But it's not getting in the way of anything, it's not a problem.
Until, one day, Eddie notices Steve slipping away behind a mask. It's not the usual King Steve or variant. That throws Eddie off. It makes him too curious to ask, to look too close as to why. He wants to know more about the mask Steve is creating.
It's suave. Confident. It gives Steve an air of romance, something about it making him seem so much more slick. Like the persona of an old romcom movies male lead. It makes him stand a little straighter, it has his eyes wondering so freely. It makes Eddie blush.
Eddie stops him one day. He has to make sure Steve understands that, whatever he's doing with this new mask, Eddie isn't feeling friendship things about it.
Steve gives him that smile again, the one that makes it clear that Steve has figured something out that Eddie hasn't. He doesn't change the subject this time. He pointedly steps closer, grabs Eddies hand.
"Maybe I don't want you to feel friendship things about me," Steve says. He doesn't have the usual slick tone of his new mask. He looks a little nervous. "Maybe I only wear this mask with you."
Steve doesn't let him kiss him, ducks to the side far too smoothly. He still has Eddies hand in his. Eddie can't help but narrow his eyes, suspicious of the playful grin he's getting.
"Let me take you on a date first. A nice dinner, some expensive red wine..."
"Fuck you," Eddie is grinning though. Revels in the way his bluntness makes the mask slip again, this time because Steve is too amused to hide it- something that is more and more common.
It's more rare, these days, to see Steves masks slip because of whatever horrors he's remembering. It's almost always because of Eddie, making him smile, making him laugh. Not even his King Steve mask can hold up against Eddies odd, feral charm.
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MICHAEL: How come you and I have never talked about your father? About his murder, I mean.
DAVID: My father told Phil Bartoli: "If my son the prosecutor goes after you, you're finished. So bye bye, Phil, because you've had it. You're going to take a fall". See, my old man, he made jokes about the fact that he was an outfit guy, and he had a law abiding son. But I think that he was proud of what I do. He wanted me to improve on his life, not imitate it. If I speculate on who, I'd be provoked to pick up a gun and kill. And that would be betraying exactly what my dad was so proud of.
Crime Story s1ep21: Top Of The World
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