60 <3
60: ‘You’d be a great dad’
in which Eddie has some insecurities about where exactly he fits in with this dream Steve has of a great big family, and Steve opens up about his dreams of their future | 1.5k
Eddie’s been unusually quiet all day and now he’s chewing on his lip, eyes trained on the book he’s reading even though he hasn’t turned the page in over five minutes. A quiet, thoughtful Eddie is nothing new, nothing concerning in itself. They all have their introspective days that aren’t necessarily bad, but not good either. Days that are hardly bearable with the heaviness they can bring.
Steve is worried that it’s one such day for Eddie. Usually when he has those, he’ll just drape himself over Steve and enjoy his company, his warmth, his touch in silence until he’s ready to resurface.
But Eddie hasn’t really looked at Steve all day either, and Steve is really starting to worry. He tries not to spiral and it’s surprisingly easy around Eddie because he trusts him, he knows Eddie would let him know if he misstepped, if he said or did something that upset him. Maybe it’s that trust that makes Steve sit down on the floor, facing Eddie.
“You know you can talk to me about anything, right?”
Eddie blinks back into reality and looks at him with wide, confused eyes, a frown between them that Steve wants to smooth away with gentle touch. He keeps his hands to himself, though.
“Huh?”
“You’re…” Steve gestures vaguely before dropping his hands in his lap again. “Gone. Care to let me follow?”
Eddie smiles the smallest, tiniest of smiles. The secret one that’s reserved only for Steve and for the little things and moments that find their way back into his life, bringing with them memories of good times. Sometimes Eddie will smile at a song he hasn’t heard in ages the same way he does when Steve says ‘I love you’.
Steve has dubbed it Eddie’s I am safe and life is good-smile and it’s quickly become his favourite. Seeing it right now settles something inside him and he dares to reach for Eddie’s hands now, his heart going a little crazy at the touch.
“It’s just,” Eddie starts after a while and pauses then, swallows, looking anywhere but at Steve. He lets him search for the words the same way Eddie always waits for Steve to find his own. It’s what they do. It’s why they work so well together.
“It’s stupid, maybe. But it could also be really fucking not, and worrying might be appropriate, so I thought why not worry, right? It’s… Nancy told me something.”
It’s Steve’s turn to frown now. What would Nancy have to tell Eddie that makes him worry like that?
“Nancy told you something that makes you—“
“I don’t think she meant to,” Eddie cuts in. “I don’t even know if she meant to tell me in the first place.”
“Tell you what?”
Eddie sighs and meets his eyes, and he looks so vulnerable, so worried, so small that Steve can hardly bear it. “You want a great big family. Five kids, maybe six. A good life, a happy little family — or a big-ass family, actually. And, and that’s great, Stevie, you deserve that! All of that and more, I would fight the whole world if it refused to give you that. But…”
Another sigh, a shaky one this time, and Steve still doesn’t understand why Eddie is worried. Still he holds his hands, still he waits until Eddie can breathe right again.
“But what?” he prompts after a while when Eddie doesn’t continue, his voice nothing but a whisper as if he’s afraid of spooking his boyfriend. Maybe he is.
“I just… You’re, like, the love of my life or some shit and I want to give you that, I want you to have that family. But like. I wonder… I wonder, where do I fit in? Do you, like, see me there with you? Do y—“
“Yes,” Steve says, his tone leaving no room for interpretation or doubt.
“You see me there? With you?” Eddie sounds so incredulous as he asks, but underneath that there’s still that vulnerability, the fear that Steve doesn’t.
He nods and begins to play with Eddie’s fingers, tracing the rings, the knuckles, the finger tips just so he won’t have to look at him.
“Every step of the way, Eds. I just… I never told you because I know you need to break free first, free of Hawkins and, like, maybe free of me for a while there, or maybe forever. And I wouldn’t be mad. I won’t be. Okay? Don’t let me suffocate you or anything. You deserve your freedom just like you say I deserve my family.”
He swallows the lump in his throat because he doesn’t want Eddie to leave him but he would never stop him. Plus, Steve has never told anyone but Nancy what he wants from life — and telling your buddy is different than telling the person you’re sharing your bed and your heart with. Telling your someone makes it more real. More prone to cracks in the surface, and Steve is tired of cracking.
Still, he perseveres because this is Eddie.
“I see you there, determined to build something we could easily buy, but you’re dead set on building this crib yourself. I stand by with the band aids you’ll inevitably need, leaning against the door frame of the room we only half painted because we ran out of paint and then got distracted.”
He smiles, Eddie chuckles, and the words keep coming.
“I see you there after a long day, because maybe I’m a teacher, maybe a social worker, maybe just… I don’t know. But you’re there and it’s not so bad anymore. I see you being the fun dad, the one who lets me barbecue while you’re off playing with the kids and turning into everyone’s favourite. I see you having every kid be scared of you until point two seconds after you first open your mouth. They’re giggling and you don’t know what to do with it but your eyes shine so, so bright and you’re happy. You’ll turn around to look at me, swarmed by half a dozen kids, and later at night, half asleep and happy, you’ll say, Let’s get another one.”
Steve is smiling, he’s smiling so hard and still his voice is shaking, still his cheeks are wet, and yet he can’t stop.
“Everyone loves you because how could they not? You’re in a band and you’re pretty damn good, and the kids will miss you when you’re touring the whole world, but you’ll send so many letters and post cards and gifts. You’ll almost go into debt just spoiling the kids even when you’re not around for a few months or so. And their friends will be so jealous and when you find out, you’ll be even more dramatic about everything.”
He laughs wetly and clings to Eddie’s hands now like they’re a life line saving him from the icy cold waters of reality and cracks in the surface of hopes and dreams. Eddie, wondrously, is clinging right back.
“I’ll be the boring, strict one telling them to do their homework and study and shit, while you’re there, mister favourite parent, mister Three Times Senior Year Is the Charm, telling them to take life at their own pace. And we’ll get into fights about it maybe once or twice, but even that’s okay because in the end they’re all fine, they all go their ways, and you’ll still be there. You’ll be there when they don’t need their dad anymore, and you’ll be there because they want you to be. Because you want to be. Because there will be so, so much love in this family.”
Steve looks up now, his heart wide open, his cheeks wet, his hands shaking in Eddie’s hold. Eddie doesn’t look much better, and Steve feels like he’s already said too much but he needs to say this one thing, to make Eddie understand, make him believe.
“But no matter if any of that happens, or how it happens or with whom… I know you don’t really believe me, but Eddie Munson, I think you’d make a great dad.”
A sniff, followed by a beat of silence. “You do?”
“Yeah,” Steve rasps. “I really fucking do.”
Eddie pulls him forward then and wraps him in a bone-crushing hug. Steve kisses the side of his neck, his cheek, his temple, but Eddie doesn’t pull back far enough for a proper kiss. This is fine, though, this is perfect, and Steve hugs him right back.
“Hey, Stevie?” Eddie whispers after a while, his face still hidden in the crook of Steve’s neck.
“Yeah?”
“I… I think I can see that, too.”
And now it’s Steve’s turn to bury his face in Eddie’s neck because if the world sees the happy tears on his cheek, it might be tempted to ruin this moment somehow.
“I love you,” he whispers into Eddie’s shirt. “I love you so much.”
“Even though I’ll be the favourite parent?”
The laugh that bursts from Steve is wet and happy, and Eddie holds him all the way through it. Every step of the way, Steve thinks. Maybe this is the first.
thank you for the prompt, beloved! it got a teensy bit out of hand whoops?
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