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stevebabey · 1 year

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Eddie has a test.

It took some time to formulate, a few too many times with guys careless with his heart, who leave behind more heartache than happiness littered in their memory. It’s fucking hard to tell.

More than once, there’s been a dude who promises between kisses i’m not going anywhere and takes more than his fill during a night which Eddie desperately hopes is passion and not some misguided lust. Only to wake a familiar empty side of the bed, them gone — skipping town, back in the arms of their parent-approved girlfriend, or back to spitting his name out with the word freak.

It’s what the test is for.

It’s specific, purposeful, all intending to weed out the straight boys who liked to dip their toes in the pool of queerness and leave Eddie to any consequences of the heart. Eddie doesn’t want to turn cruel, to be too jaded after feeling used too many times. It’s what the test is for. Protect the heart, see what interest is genuine.

Right now, he’s putting the test on Jared. New in town and in Eddie’s life, he’d captured the metalhead’s gaze from the glint of his pierced ear and light eyes that lingered. Kissed a little mean, and with too much teeth, but Eddie chalked it up to excitement. Jared seemed good. Nodded and smiled when Eddie found himself wrapped up in yet another DnD spiel. Said he found it endearing.

The test is simple.

A bid, a nudge, for attention. Never anything big or too exciting— that always got him specifically warped smirks designed to lead him along. Just something minuscule, like will you come take a look at my notes? or can i play you that riff once more? to see if it gave.

The pattern runs deep in Eddie’s dating history; same ol’ jerks who couldn’t bother to come and look at his new DnD sketches are always the ones who are only leasing a new sexuality for a month. It’s like setting a minefield and seeing who stumbles on a landmine, the bids getting ignored is as early as a warning sign he’ll ever get.

He tries the test on Jared.

It’s a Thursday night and Jared’s round at the trailer, lounging on Eddie’s sheets and still a little flushed from the night’s earlier activities. Usually it’s a good sign when the guys stick around after sex, not flying out the door once they’ve got what they want. By now, Eddie has drifted away from his bed, skittish thoughts already off and away with new campaign ideas.

He’s scrawling in a character design, some new boss, half troll, half hellhound, that requires a lot of finicky details worked out. The page is covered in scribbles, nothing in any semblance of lines and a crude first sketch is in the middle. It’s not quite the vision he had in mind but it took him an hour, so he’s hardly going to erase it. Besides, it looks pretty fucking metal to him.

“Hey,” Eddie calls out, a bit soft. No pet-names used— most of the time boys didn’t like them and wrinkled their nose. Those that didn’t mind, never returned them. “Can I show you the sketch I’ve been working on?”

He pauses, then launches into an explanation without waiting for a response, “It’s for the new campaign I’ve been planning, one of the bosses, and honestly, those little shrimps have no idea what’s coming for them.”

Jared, still slouched on the bed, peeks up a bit at the noise. He hadn’t really been doing much, just leafing through some of the junk beside Eddie’s bed. If Eddie let himself hold any hope, he would say it’s because he wants to know more about Eddie.

“Huh?” Jared asks, genuine enough that Eddie thinks maybe he didn’t hear him.

“A DnD boss?” Eddie says, eyebrows raising. He barrels on, thinking about how Dustin had helped propose the new boss, with a grin spreading across Eddie’s face. “Dustin, the little twerp, challenged me to pick a random combination of creatures and mash em’ together- see what crazy abilities come from it.”

“Who’s Dustin?” Jared asks, failing to sound like he cares. His eyes have wandered elsewhere, head falling back on the pillow and Eddie’s initial question about the sketch is long, long gone.

Oof. And that’s like 3 failed bids at one time because Eddie talks about Dustin all the time. Jared clearly isn’t interested in Eddie Munson, just what he can offer. Eddie’s heart grows a little colder.

“Look, I think I’m gonna get going, yeah?” Jared says, maybe sensing Eddie’s mood change as he begins to sit up and tug his shirt back over his bare skin. His sticks his feet in his shoes, laces them up. Eddie nods, tucks his notebook behind him and walks him out, plastering on a smile the whole time.

After ambling down the stairs to the trailer, Jared turns back, after searching the surrounding area for leering eyes, and he reaches out and gives Eddie’s hand a squeeze. Just a split second, before it flies back to his side.

Eddie would like to believe that he’s at least worthy of a goodbye kiss. Even if some wicked part of his brain says he’s not, that boys like Eddie Munson don’t get sweet goodbye kisses. Don’t get good relationships, just mindless flings.

The thought makes hurt flares in his gut, Eddie so desperately trying to protect his hope, and so before Jared can say anything, some pitiful goodbye, Eddie leans out the doorway and says, “Don’t call me.” then slams the trailer door.

It follows him around for the next week, his own personal storm-cloud to keep his head grey even when it’s sunny out. He mopes to Robin about it during her shift, probably the only other person he can talk to about it.

“So, you tested him? What does that even mean? Is there a gay test you know about that you haven’t told me about? That would be so uncool, man.”

She’s talking as she types, half paying attention to the computer. Steve is out in between the shelves, putting out a new batch of films— Eddie knows because he’d instinctively sought him out when he came in. Harrington was a pretty boy, sue him for wanting to enjoy the view.

Didn’t help he was also decidedly declared not-a-douchebag by Eddie during the whole upside down spiel and had the duality of biting off that bat’s head and somehow being the world’s biggest sweetheart for his friends. Friends that now included Eddie.

What can you say? Going through that much together, including killing a death wizard and getting dragged out of an alternate dimension certainly forms some strong bonds. Plus, Steve was hot.

(Eddie denies the crush on the basis that would. never. happen.)

At the reminder of Vecna, Eddie winces and supposes he should be lucky he gets any sort of attention after that whole scandal. But it doesn’t stop him from draping himself across the front counter, laying pathetically with a pout on his lips. He shakes his head fervently at her question.

“Not a gay test, Robin.” He stresses. “It’s the Eddie-Munson-is-this-boy-gonna-stick-around-test.”

He rolls up onto his elbows and props his head into his waiting palms. “Gotta make sure I’m not being treated like some common whore.”

It’s meant to be a joke, a usual joking lilt to his voice, but the end of the sentences comes out a bit too bitter to land that way.

Robin’s sympathetic expression makes Eddie’s chest twinge in a way he doesn’t like. He waves her off. Slumps back down a bit before deciding he’s done enough wallowing in the public eye.

Robin doesn’t say anything as he pulls out his usual notebook, pages weathered and filled. Eddie usually hangs around the store on days without plans, flits between Robin and Steve, and scribbles in his notebook. She bites her lip, gaze moving between the book and the resigned expression on Eddie’s face as he turns to the latest page— the strange hellhound troll mashed up boss.

“Okay, I’ll bite—what’s the test involve?” She asks, pausing in her typing for a moment. Her hands don’t stop moving, still stressing the fabric of her pants twitchily. Eddie perks his head up, clutching his pencil a bit tighter and rolls right into it.

“It’s not even really a test, technically, but doesn’t matter- that’s just what I call it - it’s like a bid?”

Robin raises her brows and they disappear under her fringe. “A bid?”

“Yeah! A bid!” He waves his arms around as he speaks, gesticulating a bit wildly. “It’s like— like asking them to come look at something stupid and small, just to see if they’ll give your interests time of the day, yanno?”

He punches a finger down into his sketchbook. “A guy who can’t even be bothered to look at a sketch I worked on for an hour? Douchebag.”

Eddie’s tone turns a bit sing-song as he continues, like it’ll somehow distract from the bleakness of them. “Ergo, not sticking around.”

Robin’s hands finally stop their messing, becoming completely still against her legs. She finally swivels her body to face Eddie, a furrow between her brows. Her lips are quirked up, just a bit, like she knows something Eddie doesn’t. He feels his apprehension grow as he slumps his chin back into his hands.

“You mean, like how Steve is with you?”

Eddie stands a bit straighter at that, some flushed combination of disbelief mixing with delight flooded his body.

“What?” It comes out a bit more squeaky than intended. Eddie clears his throat, waves his hands, anything to stop that smirk from spreading across Robin’s face — he can feel his cheeks glow a bit warmer at the mere idea. “What is that supposed to mean?”

Robin smiles a bit and nods over to where Steve is. “Try it, test him.”

Eddie follows her nod, casting his eyes across the store to find Steve. He finds him situated in the romance section, a pile of cardboard box stacked beside him, the top box open and ready to be unpacked.

But Steve’s clearly been distracted by the first film in the box — he’s sunk deep into his mom-stance with one hip popped, one hand on his hip, the other holding the film as he reads the back cover of it very intently.

Eddie watches for just a moment, watches Steve squint and pull the case just a bit closer, wrinkle his nose adorably, snort a little laugh at whatever he’s reading — and dammit, this is just a fast track to insanity if Eddie watches him any longer.

“Steve,” he calls, too hesitant and too quiet. Steve’s head doesn’t move, he just flips the cover back over, marveling at the front. Eddie tries again. “Harrington!”

Steve’s head pops up, eyes skirting about to see who’s calling him. He doesn’t move when he sees it’s Eddie calling, just raises his brows. “Yeah?”

Eddie swallows, tries not to think of Robin paying close attention to both him and Steve. He grips his notebook a bit tighter even though he’s not entirely convinced Robin’s right. Steve Harrington doesn’t like DnD — not even for Dustin who has self-proclaimed himself Steve’s ‘adorable little brother that he never had’. Steve is hardly going to care if it’s Eddie asking.

“Do you wanna take a look at this sketch I’m working on?” He asks, as casual as he can.

Steve’s features give away just a hint of surprise, a blink as he comprehends what’s been said. Eddie holds his breath, ready to turn to Robin and say ‘I told you so!’ and to pretend that he’s not secretly hoping Steve will say yes.

“Sure,” Steve says, slotting the film back into the cardboard box and beginning to meander between the shelves towards the front desk. Eddie doesn’t even get time to be surprised because Steve’s suddenly there, in front of him, all expectant.

Eddie opens his mouth, thinks the better of it, and snaps it back closed. Instead, he thrusts the notebook to the side along the countertop, opened to the page of the sketch and doesn’t say anything. In the background, Robin snorts lightly. Eddie shoots her a glare.

If Eddie could look at Steve, he’d see the lightly amused expression on his face, but Eddie only focuses on the book. Really focuses. God, if he looks at Steve he’ll probably get some stupid mooned expression on his face that would totally give away his tiny stupid not-a-crush.

In his peripheral, he can see Steve sidle a little closer and lean over to peer at the page. And while he looks over it intently, Eddie let’s his eyes drift up, taking in the side of his face.

Curses his stupid handsome face. Then curses it some more when Steve lights up in recognition, turning to Eddie, excited to have a sliver of an idea what Eddie’s showing him. Normally, it’s all mumbo-jumbo to Steve. Not that he hasn’t tried to keep up but those kids are ahead of the curve and Steve wasn’t about to embarrass himself asking them to slow down their explanations.

“Woah, is this that one that Dustin was talking about?” Eddie thinks there might be a bit of genuine excitement leaking into Steve’s words.

“The weird like, mashed up, uh, what’s the word? Hyp- hypb—“

“Hybrid,” Eddie supplies, voice cool. His heart is not feeling so cool. Jesus Christ, Steve wasn’t supposed to pass Eddie’s test— he wasn’t even supposed to be tested. In order for that happen, they’d have to even be fooling around and Eddie blames his building blush on that mere suggestion.

“Yeah!” Steve raps his knuckles against the countertop and takes a second look at the drawing, closer this time. He looks back up at Eddie, so he knows he’s completely sincere when he says, “This is really cool, man.”

“Okay.” Eddie breathes, sounding a bit stupid. He remembers himself, remembers Robin watching him essentially bluescreen at the praise from Steve and wrenches his awed smile into a familiar smug type of grin.

“Of course it is, Steve-o,” He quickly amends, reaching back and tugging the notebook back. It’s closes with a quick snap, like Eddie’s afraid Steve will take another look. “She’s not finished yet, of course.”

Eddie had to bite his tongue to keep it from either taking an insanely egotistical route to pretend Steve’s praise hadn’t had a profound effect on him, or even worse, start trying to suddenly be humble — oh this ol’ thing? it’s nothing really, just threw it together quickly— Eddie nearly melts against the counter in relief when the bell on the front door saves him.

A customer enters the store, instantly taking Steve’s attention and he bounds off to help them, an easy smile on his face.

Eddie waits until Steve and the customer wandered off into the aisles to release his breath. He doesn’t look at Robin, just turns and presses his forehead down against the countertop. Then raises it just a bit, and thunks it back down, a couple of times for good measure.

“Okay, okay—“ Robin’s gone a bit wide eyed and she waves her hands at Eddie’s pathetic form, his head still bonking against the counter. “Stop doing that. Jesus, Eddie, are the dramatics always necessary?”

His motions stop at Robin’s words and Eddie’s whips his head up. He narrows his eyes at her, and as if to prove his point, exaggeratedly jabs a finger at her.

“Hey! Never deny my right to be a drama queen. It is my god given right as an American citizen—”

“He passed.” Robin says, cutting off what was about to be a very long rant about god knows what. Eddie just didn’t want her to say what she was about to. “Your test. He passed, didn’t he?“

That. He didn’t want her to say that.

“He’s being a good friend! A very good nice friend!” Eddie counters, only sounding a little bit whiny which takes half the conviction out of his words. He slams his hands down against the wood. “That test is for— it’s not for him! It’s for—”

An annoyed noise comes out of Eddie’s throat and he aims for one more thunk of his head against the counter before tugging it back up and meeting Robin’s smug expression. She’s too smug. Her whole face is smug smug smug and Eddie scowls. He points a deliberate finger at her again.

“Different context, alright? That—” He waves an arm behind him, in the direction of Steve carelessly. “—doesn’t count. Nope. Not- that’s not how the test works.”

Robin sighs, as if she realises how fruitless it is to keep chucking this argument between the two of them. Her hands finally resume their typing and Eddie lets his head drop again, this time resting it against the wood a tad more gentle. He slumps, blowing a pointless raspberry as he tries to evacuate every thought that’s entertaining Steve as more. Or Steve wanting more of Eddie.

“Look,” Robin says suddenly, halting her typing once more. Eddie rolls his head so he can see her but doesn’t bother to lift it. She’s sideways in his vision, but still barreling on in that Robin way. “One last thing and then I swear, I’ll leave it.”

Eddie raises his brows. Says nothing.

“Have you considered,” She pauses, and appears to be trying to pick her words carefully. “whether anyone else is putting their bids on you?”

Eddie wrinkles his nose, knowing exactly what she’s hinting at. Subtlety has never been Robin’s strong suit. It’s even more obvious when her eyes dart across the store — Eddie seriously doubts she’s talking about the random customer that had just entered.

“Just think about it?” She pleads, and Eddie feels his annoyance at how easily he can feel his heart roll over. “See if you notice any bids from... anyone! Anyone at all.”

Eddie picks his head up, chances a glance towards Steve and admits, there’s no harm in trying. Even though, Steve had surprised him today Eddie can find a dozen reasons to chalk that up to. A dozen reasons that don’t include mutual feelings.

Eddie mulls it over, because because what are the chances really? Steve putting bids out to him? To specifically Eddie? The chances are slim to none.

So the answer he gives is, “Sure.”

He’ll get to tell Robin later she can stuff it and wipe her smug expression off with the most righteous i told you so on the planet. There was no way she was right about this, right?

Part two. Part three.

#this is not nearly as edited as most things that come out this blog #but i was going for those rambly posts i see of them all da time #<3 #steddie my beloved #ruby writes steddie #steddie #steve x eddie #steddie ficlet #steddie fic #posting this at an odd time bcos it’s not what da usual followers expect #anyways i trust the gay ppl…… they will find this

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infinite-orangepeel · 9 months

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his teammates caught him & eddie messing around behind the bleachers again :/

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rabbitsatanist · 2 years

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starman-jpg · 11 months

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It's Karma Baby (1/2)

I don't really write a lot of things, but this got stuck in my head and I actually wanted to write it. I will gladly take any critiques, but please be a little nice about it. This is my first time writing anything like this. Without further ado...

Steve brings Eddie’s hand to his lips, gently kissing his knuckles, “I’ll be right back, okay? I’ll ask for something for the pain.”

Eddie smiles and nods, staring at Steve with all the love he has.

How can someone so perfect and so in love with Eddie? It still boggles his mind.

Steve smiles, leaving one last kiss on Eddie’s hand before gently setting it down on the hospital bed. Steve gets up, bracing himself on the chair as he sways. Eddie notices and tries to sit up in the bed, hissing in pain as he stretches his wounds.

“Steve?” Eddie says, his voice laced with concern.

Steve gives his “I’m all good” smile, gently waving Eddie off.

“I’m fine. I just got up too fast. Now lay down and I don't want you to be more injured.” He says with a little laugh, releasing any anxiety Eddie had.

Steve walks towards the door, allowing Eddie to unapologetically look at his ass. (It’s a nice ass, sue the man.)

“I hate to see you go, but I love watching you leave.” Eddie calls out, teasingly.

He expected Steve to turn around, maybe roll his eyes fondly and smile that just screams I love you, you dork.

Steve stumbles into the wall, hitting it on his bad side as he mutters a string of curse words, pressing his hand to his side. His back presses into the wall as he takes a couple stabilizing breaths. Eddie sits up again, looking at Steve worried.

“Steve?” He gently calls out.

Steve slowly brings a bloodied hand from his side and looks down at it confused before suddenly dropping to the floor.

“STEVE!!” Eddie cries out, unable to do anything but be useless on the bed. “Shit! Shit! Shit!”

Eddie’s panicking now. He can’t do anything to help Steve and if the blood that's seeping through Steve's shirt is any indication, he’s not doing “fine”.

“Help! Help! Someone get in here!” He yells, trying to hold back his tears and failing. “Please! Help!”

Uncle Wayne comes crashing through the door, quickly spotting Steve collapsed on the floor.

“NURSE!!” Wayne calls down the hallway before dropping to his knees to Steve, pressing his hands against his wound.

Eddie is inconsolable in his bed, still calling out to Steve. Asking Wayne if he is okay, when clearly he’s not. The nurse comes rushing in with another by her side. They ask Wayne to move aside and quickly look over Steve. They lift up Steve’s shirt seeing his bite ooze blood and other Upside Down gunk from his body.

They call for a doctor and everything seems to happen in a blur. There’s suddenly five more people in his room as Wayne goes over and wraps Eddie in a hug, gently bringing his head to his chest and running his fingers through his hair. Whispering to him that Steve will be fine. He’s a fighter.

Quickly, Steve is on a gurney and rushed away and everything in the room is silent except for Eddie’s hiccuping sobs.

---

It could be hours before anyone hears anything about Steve.

Wayne called Hopper and explained what happened with Steve. In a matter of minutes everyone was piled into Eddie’s room.

The kids are distressed, Dustin the most. Robin looks like she’s about to break down at any moment, with Nancy trying to calm her down. The others are either pacing the room or sitting with their heads in their hands waiting for any information.

Hopper and Joyce are trying to find out any updates on Steve. But since they’re not family, they can’t release any information. Which is bullshit. It doesn’t stop anyone from perking up when Hopper or Joyce come back into the room with a slow head shake.

Eddie stares at the place Steve collapsed, seeing a little splatter of his blood on the otherwise pristine floor.

“He didn’t tell anyone,” Everyone turned their attention to Eddie, “did he?”

There was a collective shaking of their heads and Eddie sighs in defeat, quickly wiping away any tears in his eyes. Eddie leans into Wayne, who has not left his bedside, and sighs.

All they could do now is wait

EDIT: Now there's a part 2!

#steddie #steddie my beloved #steve harrington #eddie munson #wayne munson #stranger things s4 #eddie x steve #steve harrington doesn't take care of himself #stranger things #steve x eddie #established steddie #drops this and runs away peaking through a bush

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ao3whore · 1 year

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Steve and Wayne have the softest relationship. there’s mornings when Eddie hasn’t woke up, and the two of them drink coffee and fold laundry. there’s them watching sports together at the harrington mansion, because neither of them had ever had someone who had wanted to do that with them. so many months of Steve and Eddie not having their shit together, but Wayne was still there, waiting for the two of them to pull their heads out of their asses and see that Steve was family already.

#steddie fic #steddie #steve harrington #wayne munson #uncle wayne #eddie munson #steddie my beloved #stranger things

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whothe-hell-ismary · 1 year

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Half Love/Half Regret

Steve probably shouldn’t find it as funny as he does. He’s surrounded by his friends, his family, who care about him enough that they staged this shindig. Spurred on by Eddie, of all people. They just want him to get clean, healthy, stop self-destructing. He just can’t stop laughing.

He can’t remember the last time he laughed this hard. He’s curled in on himself, almost falling off the sofa as his body heaves. Robin has wrenched her hand out of his and is standing now, glaring at him through the tears in her eyes, but he still can’t stop. He can feel Eddie on his other side, can just imagine the way he’s looking at him, how everyone is looking at him.

It’s touching, really. Everyone is here. The Party, Robin, Nancy, Jonathan, and Eddie all surrounding him in his living room. He didn’t know what was happening at first, thought he’d really lost his mind and had forgotten it was his birthday or some shit.

They’d gingerly herded him to the sofa, watching him with their sad eyes as they sat in a circle around him. Then the stories started. Dustin had been the first to go, told him how much he loved having him as a big brother and he couldn’t imagine facing the rest of his teenage years without him. Lucas followed, spouting off some weird basketball anecdotes, then the rest of the kids. By the time they got to Nancy, Steve realized what was going on. This was an intervention.

Eddie had ratted him out. What an ass.

Steve had been able to hold it together through Nancy and Jonathan’s speeches, but when it got to Robin and she immediately started sobbing, he just couldn’t keep it up anymore. One look in her tear-filled eyes and Steve lost it.

He’s not sure how long it’s been. He’s on the floor now, gasping for breath as his laughter finally starts to subside. He takes his time sitting up and reorienting himself. He looks around, sees the disappointed eyes watching him. He knows they think he’s really lost his shit now, Nancy’s probably already sent some secret signal to have the local psych hospital come pick him up.

“Guys, I appreciate all this, really, but I don’t need an intervention.” Steve sighs, rubbing a hand over his face to hide his grin. Eddie snorts above his shoulder.

“Steve, look, I… I’m sorry I told them, but I had to, man. If you keep on like this, it’s gonna kill you.” Eddie has the decency to look a little guilty, at least.

“Keep on like what, man?” Steve shakes his head, watches as Dustin throws his hands up in the air in disbelief.

“Steve.” Eddie deadpans, turning so he’s fully facing him and staring him right in the eyes. “I know you’re a little fucked up after everything with the Upside Down, after…Vecna. We all are. But, dude, you’ve literally been buying drugs from me multiple times a week. For months.”

Steve sighs again, opens his mouth to respond but Eddie’s not done.

“I wasn’t worried when it was just weed. But… shit Steve. That other shit is literally going to kill you. I was just going to refuse to sell you anymore but I figured you’d just go get it somewhere else ,and that’d be even worse. I didn’t know what else to do other than this.”

Robin sits down next to him on the floor, grabs his hand again. Steve can feel her shaking and feels awful. What a clusterfuck he’s gotten himself into.

“Steve. I love you. We love you. So much. You know we’re here for you, and you know we know what you’re going through. Please don’t do this to yourself, just let us help.” She’s crying again, and Steve’s had enough.

He gently removes his hand from hers and stands up, glancing around the room again.

“Look, just… just wait here one second, okay?” He heads for the stairs, hears someone following behind him, knows they no longer trust him to be alone. He knows it’s Eddie without looking. He knows the way the air shifts around Eddie’s body at this point… knows what his footsteps sound like, knows how his jeans swish as he moves, can feel the nervous, anxious energy radiating off of him like always.

“You gonna wipe my ass for me too, Munson?” Steve asks over his shoulder, taking the steps two at a time. He hears Eddie sigh but doesn’t get a response.

Steve turns into his bedroom and heads straight for his closet, reaching into the back corner and pulling out his old backpack. He throws it onto the bed and leans back against the wall, crossing his arms as he glares at Eddie.

“Go on. Open it.”

Eddie’s clearly confused, but steps over to the bed, unzipping the backpack and peering inside.

“Steve, what the actual fuck?”

Steve starts laughing again, doesn’t answer and instead grabs the backpack and heads back downstairs, Eddie hot on his heels. He gets to the living room and dumps the contents in the middle of the floor, in view of everyone.

6 months worth of weed, Special K, and a few other special goodies lie on the floor, untouched. All eyes are on him.

“Steve, again I ask… What. The. Actual. Fuck.” Eddie’s the one with his arms crossed now, so many emotions running across his face that Steve can’t tell if he’s relieved, angry, or just really confused. Probably all three, really.

“I’m not doing drugs, guys. Yeah, I… I bought them. But I’ve never taken any of it. Other than the weed every once in a while when the headaches get really bad or something.”

“Then why the hell did you buy all of this from me?”

“Please don’t make me answer that.” Steve groans. He suddenly doesn’t think it’s funny anymore, realizes he’s actually backed himself into a corner here and it’s about to turn into a whole other kind of intervention.

“Uh, you kinda have to, man. You have literally given me thousands of dollars for drugs you had no intention of using. Why on earth would you do that?”

Steve’s frozen. A real deer in headlights. He can’t think of a single good excuse other than the truth, and he’s not about to blurt that shit out in front of all these…

“Because he’s in love with you,” Max blurts from her spot in the recliner, smirking like she’s just found the cure for cancer but isn’t going to share it for less than a billion dollars. Steve hates her.. Wants to murder her. Like, yesterday. He’s never driving her anywhere again, definitely. The scales of favoritism have tipped back towards Dustin. Fuck, even Mike is above her at this point.

Steve hears soft, uncomfortable laughter from a few corners of the rooms, but he can’t take his eyes off Eddie. Eddie, who’s still just staring at him, eyes narrowing but not in an entirely unpleasant way?

“Steve?” His voice is soft, hesitant. Steve’s done for. He might as well spill the beans. He had his crisis silently and privately months ago, he knows everyone in this room loves and supports him no matter what, Max already fucking spilled the beans for him, the little narc.

“Yeah…yeah because I’m in love with you. Or something,” Steve mutters, shoving his hands in the pocket of his hoodie as he starts rambling. “I think I realized when I thought I lost you, ya know, to Vecna. And I just… I just wanted to be around you all the time, I think? No, I know. I did. I still do. And I knew you wouldn’t want to just hang out, like why the fuck would you want to hang out with me? So, I figured I’d just be a paying customer and you’d have to spend time with me and then we could be friends and hang out for real and then… shit, it just spiraled, man. I’m so sorry.”

Eddie takes a step towards him but Steve stumbles backward, hitting the patio door as he tries to keep space between them.

“You can have the drugs back, too. I don’t want the money back! I don’t need it, you need it more than me. But… I mean I’m not going to do the drugs so you might as well re-sell them or something, whatever you want, I-”

“Steve, please shut up.” Eddie’s in his space now anyway. Steve is trapped against the door and Eddie is close, closer than he should be, why is he so close?

“I love you too, you fucking idiot.” Eddie’s eyes are twinkling, his smile taking over his face, and all Steve can do is stare.

“You…what?”

“I. Love. You. Too.” Eddie leans forward, presses a soft kiss to the corner of Steve’s mouth after each word. “And you’re a fucking idiot, can’t forget that part. Why the hell did you ever think I wouldn’t want to hang out with you? I’ve been ass over tits for you since you brought me YooHoo in that boathouse, babe.”

Steve’s laughing again, and this time those beautiful butterflies in his stomach accompany the laughter.

Eddie’s hand cups his jaw as he rests their foreheads together. “How about we start spending some quality time together without the business transactions, yeah?” “Yeah. Yeah I’d really like that, Eds.” Steve brings their lips together and as he hears the cheers and fake gagging erupt around them, he thinks what a beautiful clusterfuck he’s gotten himself into, indeed.

#this is awful i'm sorry #its been in my head forever i had to get it out #please excuse any errors and the fact it doesn't flow and isn't fleshed out #steddie my beloved #pining idiots

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