Steve never yelled.
It was something everyone knew and no one talked about. All his anger was quiet, a rage simmering just beneath the surface.
And sure; he’d raise his voice to be heard over the cacophony of the kids he’d unwittingly adopted, but everyone agreed that wasn’t yelling. That was just making sure he was heard.
Even Eddie, as his boyfriend, had never heard him yell before. And there’s something to be said about following the leader: even when they argued, even when tensions were high, Steve never yelled. So Eddie didn’t, either.
He wished he could take back the one time he did.
Eddie was hot-tempered. He knew this. Everyone knew this. Hot-tempered and a knife-sharp tongue, cutting down to the marrow with just his words. He’d never use his fists. This is also something everyone knows.
Eddie’s animated, larger-than-life, and he continued that trend in his arguments. Hands flying out to prove a point, but never to strike.
Everyone knew why. Everyone who knew Eddie knew what happened when he was nine, when Momma died and Daddy tried to find happiness at the bottom of a bottle.
That was the summer he moved in with Wayne. Wayne was a kind soul, slow to speak and even slower to anger. He was even-tempered, which meant it took a lot to get him mad, but once he was there, he wasn’t letting go easy.
So Eddie never raised his hands. Steve never raised his voice. Steve never raised his hands, either.
Eddie wished, with everything inside of him, he hadn’t raised his voice.
Because there’s something to be said about following the leader. When Eddie yelled, Steve followed.
Eddie didn’t know what they were arguing about anymore. Something stupid, he’s sure, but all he heard was blood rushing in his ears as he argued with Steve.
Steve, unflappable Steve, unshakeable Steve, argued back. He raised his voice.
Then, suddenly, he stopped. “Shit,” he whispered, eyes wide and not completely present. “Shit- I- sorry, I- I’m-” he shook his head, started to back up, almost tripped on nothing. Caught himself on the counter. “Sorry, sorry, I didn’t- didn’t mean to-”
Abruptly, everything was silent. Eddie’s blood stilled as something ugly rose up in his throat. “Steve?”
“I’m sorry,” he whispered again. “I’m not- not him, I swear, I don’t- I didn’t-” he shook his head again.
Eddie almost cursed when he finally realized what was happening. A panic attack. “Steve,” he said, slowly, calmly. “Stevie, baby, can I touch you?”
“I’m sorry,” Steve whispered again, gasping for breath.
“No, babylove,” Eddie murmured. “My fault, isn’t it? I should’ve known. Can I touch you, Stevie?”
He nodded, lip trembling. “‘M sorry.”
“No, sweets. You’ve got nothing to be sorry for, c’mere.” He tugged Steve into a hug, nudged his face into the crook of Eddie’s neck, rubbed soothing hands down his back. “Breathe with me, baby, c’mon, you can do this. Come back to me.”
Steve choked on a breath. “‘M sorry,” he mumbled again, and here were the tears, here’s what Eddie had been waiting for. He knew crying would likely trigger a headache, so he made a mental list of things he’d need to prepare.
“Not your fault,” Eddie promised him again. “I’m sorry, sweetheart. I never shoulda yelled, that’s on me.” He smoothed his hands down over Steve’s back again. “Come back to me, baby, where are you?”
Shaking hands grabbed at Eddie’s shirt, just above his hips. “Eddie.”
“That’s me,” Eddie agreed. “Take a breath for me, sweets, c’mon. In and out.” A shaky puff of air hit his neck, and he gently squeezed Steve. “That’s good. That’s so good. One more, Stevie, c’mon, just one more breath.”
Slowly but surely, Steve calmed down. He let out one last sigh and unclenched his hands, wrapping them around his boyfriend’s waist. “Sorry.”
“Not your fault,” Eddie promised again. “You okay?”
Steve sniffed. “Think so. I, uh… didn’t know that would happen.”
“Wanna talk about it?”
“No.” He sniffed again, pressed his fingertips into the divots of Eddie’s spine. “I’ve tried, my whole life, to be anybody but my dad. He… he would yell, and I remember thinking as a little kid that… dads aren’t supposed to scare their kids.” He shrugged. “I don’t think it was ever a conscious decision, not to yell. Just a… side effect, I guess, of not being like him.”
Eddie sighed. “And here I come along and fuck it all up, huh?”
Steve shook his head. “You make everything better, Eds. Even if we argue. Because I know we’ll be okay.” He managed a huff of a laugh. “I, uh, don’t actually remember what we were arguing about anymore.”
Eddie chuckled. “Me neither, Stevie.” He pressed a kiss to Steve’s temple. “Okay?”
“Okay.” Steve lifted his head to kiss Eddie properly. “I love you.”
“I love you,” Eddie answered instantly. “Always.”
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Kiddads headcanons: (Lark and Sparrow)
Sparrow:
drinks red wine out of a coffee mug every morning.
Sometimes mixes in actual coffee with the wine (it's fucking disgusting and makes Lark gag)
Low-key kinda an alcoholic in the way that white upper-middle class suburban moms are
Still wears the friendship bracelet him and Lark made for each other as kids, along with a bunch of those beaded circle bracelets and the leather strappy ones.
Abso-fucking-LUTELY rockin' the 'Burks.
Still really likes art and painting but feels weirdly guilty about it so he only does it when everyone else is out of the house.
Has so many crystals it's a fire hazard. (Rocks rock!)
Keeps them right next to the Incense too.
Eats reeses peanut butter cups when he's really drunk and cries about how guilty he is cause they're not vegan as he is actively shoving them in his mouth. He never remembers this in the morning.
Actually, weirdly does not like weed. It makes him paranoid and he starts acting like Lark.
Took shrooms once as was convinced he had prophetic doodler dreams where he saw the end of the world.
He was convinced because it's true. That's literally exactly what happened.
Before he lost his love wolf powers, he got drunk and wandered around in wolf form until he got caught by the pound and Lark had to pay 30 bucks to get him back.
He read homestuck as a kid and LOVED jade but he grew up and ended up more like roses mom.
Both him and Lark watched gravity falls as kids and routinely argued over which twin they were.
Hero once told sparrow that his ponytail made him look like a dead anime mom and it mentally fucked him up for 2 day before he cut his hair down to his shoulders "just incase"
Sparrow doesn't have a favorite. he loves both his children equally. (its hero)
Sparrow believes in his heart that he's a bad father and thinks that Lark would do a better job than him (despite evidence to the contrary)
When Sparrow started doing yoga, both Lark and Henry had a heart attack cause he would do EXACTLY what barry did and start just yoga-ing mid-conversation.
Sparrow is still afraid of snakes.
Sparrow still has dreams about when Lark died in Oakvale, and it scares the shit out of him. Because of that moment, Sparrow is so afraid of Lark dying alone on a mission that it has gotten them into screaming matches because Lark refuses to stop going off on his own.
Sparrows favorite TV show actually IS the sunrise because it's been so long since he's seen it. He paints it a lot.
Sparrows second favorite TV show is gossip girl.
Sparrow thinks Harry Potter is stupid cause real spells are nothing like the Harry Potter ones.... but like.... he also owns a hufflepuff sweater.
If sparrow paints when he's blackout drunk he always ALWAYS paints the doodler. He burns the paintings cause they give him nightmares.
Sparrow feels like he, personally, is the reason the doodler was released. Because his drawing is what started the whole mess.
However, he feels like Henry is responsible for what Lark did.
Sparrow participated in heros training but he wasn't the main source of it. And he's the one who made Lark cut it off.
Sparrow has no idea if either of his kids are actually his. He asked both Rebecca and Lark if the timing lined up and they both just grimaced.
He played barbies with his kids when they were little and considered going to AA meetings after hero made the dad barbie get drunk at 3pm and fall asleep on the couch crying.
Sparrow has seen ALLLL the barbie movies #dadofadaughterthings
His favorite is Princess and the Pauper.
Sparrow was the one who set the school on fire. After he became a love wolf, he wrote a letter of "apology" to the school suggesting they make their classrooms less flammable.
Sparrows favorite kiddad (aside from lark) was Terry Jr. But he wasn't really all that close with him. it's like when you just observe someone from the outside and get invested. They still hung out tho. But both Lark and Sparrow are personally closest with Grant.
Sparrow is more afraid of Lark dying than he is of himself dying.
Lark:
For the longest time, Lark had pretty short hair, especially in comparison to sparrow who grows his out. But after code purple Lark stopped really caring about cutting it.
Lark bitched about normal never washing his mascot costume but Larks bomber jacket hasn't been washed since before normal's birth.
He smells like cigarette smoke all the time.
Lark drinks black coffee like normal people drink water. he drinks it hot when he can, but he also drinks it cold out of a fucking flask like a psychopath.
His ass never sleeps, or when he does its like 4 hours a night. he's constantly running on 14 cups of coffee and a prayer.
like and share if both you and your twin have ADDICTION ISSUES.
speaking of addictive shit, lark does not drink. he's too fuckin on edge to allow himself to be in a vulnerable position. especially since he has to willingly put his mind at the mercy of the doodler shit.
he did, however, smoke weed a lot with nick as teenagers.
Lark didn't get that moment of being absoultely alone in the world like sparrow did when he watched lark die, so lark literally just doesn't comprehend how much it would effect other people if he died. so he's an insensitive asshole about it.
He cares if he dies, but only in the sense that he feels he's the most capable of the kiddads of fighting the doodler and keeping everyone alive, and dying would inconvenience that.
He got arrested for trying to sneak a gun into hero's 1st grade classroom, quote, "in case of emergencies. its fine. she knows how to use it." unquote.
shockingly, this arguments was not taken well by the police.
Lark lives with sparrow because both of them are a fucking wreck without each other and they need that other half to stabilize them.
Lark knows a shit ton about the rocks on old earth from henry and he HATES that its legitimately helpful knowledge on the plane where its really easy to loose your mind and forget where you are and knowing the geology of the terrain really helps navigation.
He wore his glasses one time. for his drivers test. and has never worn them since.
He's is a really really good driver. he doesn't follow any of the traffic laws, but he's never gotten pulled over, and he'll get you places 3 hours early. He knows how to parallel park too its insane.
during one of the "camping trips" with hero, Lark pretended to be a bear to "keep her on her toes" and got shot in the shoulder.
His ass has like three prepper bunkers.
Lark is no longer afraid of snakes. (lie)
he's not a vegan anymore, and he'd never admit it, but Lark actually still prefers a lot of the "vegan substitute meats" that he ate as a kid.
Larks hair is curlier than sparrows because sparrow brushes his and makes it fluffy rather than curly, but Lark hasn't brushed his hair a day in his life.
Lark definitely has a favorite. its hero.
Larks least favorite of Normal's spouses is Lincoln (he slapped him that one time)
When he was alive, Lark and Terry Jr. had that awkward relationship of like "our friends are friends, but I don't really like you"
The main reason Lark grew out his beard, doesn't wear glasses, is all in an effort to not look like Henry. It mostly works until it doesn't.
Sparrow doesn't make that effort to avoid looking like their dad, and sometimes, he looks just like Henry. Especially when he's being kind and fatherly to hero and normal. Lark feels really bittersweet about it.
Lark knows that the doodler is his fault.
Sparrow has walked in on Lark trying to wrap up actively bleeding wounds in the bathroom in the middle of the night so many fucking times they have a jar for it now.
This is extra annoying to sparrow because sparrow HAS HEALING SPELLS. there is NO REASON for Lark to be actively staining the carpets with blood on his tromp through the house.
Lark is the main one who was training hero, the training was much much more brutal when sparrow wasn't there.
He's deffo the one who made her kill a deer with her bare hands.
Lark got the idea from batman to make contingency plans for if any of his friends turn on him. They're all 10 pages long. Sparrow found his and Lark had to make a whole new plan cause now that one was compromised.
Lark was bribed into playing barbies with the kids and then got yelled at by sparrow when he made his barbie kill all the other barbies.
Grant got prescribed anxiety meds, and Lark made a huge deal about them dulling your senses and instincts so he doesn't take them.
Lark should be on anxiety meds.
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