#also it features 'eddie as steve's bi awakening' which is a concept i'm allergic to writing now lmao

[xenon-demon]

I SAW JEALOUSY, JEALOUSY AND RAN OVER PLEASE DO TELL ME MORE (⁠☆⁠▽⁠☆⁠)

HELLO SAILS I LOVE THAT CONCEPT SO MUCH I'M SO GLAD YOU ASKED :D

I saw a tiktok... probably about 10 months ago now talking about how Canon Steve has Straight Leading Man Syndrome™ (aka he's the manly cool guy who is written to be So Cool and So Masculine in a way that loops back around into him having some Baggage around being the platonic ideal of a Straight Man™ that reads as very queer) and how this means the writers would never allow Steve to be bi despite how well it fits his character. SOMEHOW thinking about that tiktok turned into a 5+1 about 5 times Eddie made Steve feel jealous, and 1 time Steve does something about it.

The 5+1 roughly pans out as follows:

Steve being jealous of how Eddie is so unapologetically himself (set during their high school days, when Eddie is being Like That and Steve is still suffering under the weight of the King Steve mask)

Jealousy over Dustin having a Cool New Brother Figure Friend (complete with some internal musings about how Eddie is - at least from Steve's perspective before knowing him - who Steve wants to be; self-assured, doesn't care what people think, liked by the people Steve wants to like him)

Jealous of how Eddie is well aware of his sexuality and comfortable acting on his attraction to men (post-Vecna; they're Friends now and Eddie comes out to Steve, Steve is Not Accepting of his own bisexuality yet but definitely knows there's Something going on there, especially with how he feels when he hangs out with Eddie)

Traditional jealousy; Eddie comes back from a weekend trip to Indy with hickies and Steve is SO NORMAL ABOUT IT. This is when he realizes oh shit, he's definitely bi, and definitely into Eddie.

Jealousy about how Eddie knows things about the queer community (like where to find gay bars in Indy, and the basics of the hanky code); this is set after Steve comes out to Eddie as bi (but does not confess his feelings due to a fear of rejection) and Eddie is like "hmm okay would you like to come to a gay bar with me then?" and Steve agrees.

THE BIG ONE: At the gay bar, Eddie hits it off with a guy and Steve gets So Worked Up watching them make out that he pulls Eddie away from the guy and makes it Super Obvious how he feels, and Eddie goes "thank fuck I was doing this on purpose to make you jealous so you'd make a move". They bone about it and live happily ever after <3

Essentially it's a nice mix of jealousy in the traditional, I'm-in-love-with-you-and-mad-you're-kissing-other-people sense and jealousy as a vehicle for musings on who Steve is and who he wants to become, especially post-character development. I like this concept So Much even if I'm unsure when I'll ever actually get around to writing it lmao.

Send me an ask about my WIPs!