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steddietogo · 5 months ago

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I had so much fun writing this for the @steddiesummerexchange!! @steddieasxshegoes hope you like this!

Word count: 8.9k

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— — — Steve finally turns to glare at Robin when one of the sunflower seeds she’s been throwing at him comes dangerously close to taking an eye out.

“Stop staring, dingus,” Robin laughs at him.

“I’m not staring,�� he protests. Steve was merely glancing at the hot metal head on a leather couch at the back of the bar, nursing his drink all alone. “If you stopped paying attention to me for a second you’d have noticed the blonde making eyes at you from the bar,”

“Where?” Robin asks, whipping around embarrassingly fast.

“Rob! You don’t just–”

“Oh my god, she’s hot,”

“You’re so obvious,” He hisses back. “Go talk to her,”

“What? No way,”

“Hey, maybe you have more game in Rome–” And the next sunflower seed bounces straight off his forehead but before he could retaliate, there’s movement at the corner of his eyes.

“Shit, she’s coming over,” he says and watches the absolute panic taking over Robin’s face. “I need another drink, good luck.” He narrowly misses the kick aimed to his shin, slipping away to give them some privacy because, dear god, Steve knows he would never hear the end of it if Robin doesn’t get laid at least once during their entire trip to Italy.

The bar is cozy, decorated to look like the inside of catacombs with picture frames lining the walls and chandeliers hanging low from the ceiling. It's much better than the ones Robin brings them to, back in LA, almost entirely lit by neon signs and plays music a little too loud for his taste these days.

But here in Italy, Steve is not confined to the rigid schedule he follows to keep himself rested and alert enough for emergency situations. Steve makes his way to the counter and orders himself another drink, settling back to people watch– definitely not just to discreetly ogle the lone metal head looking entirely too bored to be sitting in a nice bar in Rome.

— — — Eddie can feel the eyes of the fluffy haired man on him from across the bar. Nothing he isn’t used to though. He might even be flattered by the attention if he wasn’t too busy feeling sorry for himself. He didn’t plan on sitting in a bar all alone, on what was supposed to be his honeymoon vacation, sans a ring on his finger. But no amount of being desired by the masses on stage has made his love life any better. No amount of admiration saved him from his cheating ex. He’s not heartbroken, just tired; that relationship was long over before the cheating even started. Rick was only ever concerned about the fame and attention he’d get throwing Eddie’s name around.

He would just be rotting away at home if it wasn’t for Chrissy refusing to let him cancel the whole trip and basically dragging him to the airport by his ear. He suspects it’s also to keep him far away from the whole press circus his ex no doubt started to stir by now. He just hopes they’d leave the boys from the band alone. He’d hate to drag them down with him.

Since landing in Rome the day before, Eddie had slept, ate, slept again and landed in a bar for a drink or two, trying to feel some semblance of normal again. Maybe Chrissy thought the Italian sun would magically reset Eddie to the optimistic idiot he once used to be, but he owed it to her to try at least. From where he’s sitting, two weeks felt like it’s an eternity away.

Eddie watches as the man leaves his seat and walks over to the bar by himself. He likes the way his button up stretches over his shoulders. He’s conventionally attractive in the boy next door kinda way. Pretty, even. Eddie hasn’t slept with a stranger since the beginning of his career when he’d gotten caught by paps doing the walk of shame back to his place. Since then he’d been a lot more careful with everyone he’s been associating with.

This one is cute though and Eddie may be tempted to break a few of his own rules. There is something about being alone and depressed in Italy that makes him want to throw caution to the wind and just do something impulsive. He’s feeling a little too restless and itching for some human connection. Very tempted to buy the cute guy a drink and see if he would follow him back to his stupid big honeymoon suite.

Besides, wasn’t that what Chrissy wanted for him? To forget Rick and to enjoy himself? She’d also say that it's not healthy to throw himself at the first pretty thing so soon after a breakup, but whatever, she’s not here with him.

Eddie feels, more than sees, as the stranger’s gaze lands on him one more time. The blonde that he came in with looks cozy sharing a couch with another woman, so no harm no foul, Eddie decides. He sweeps up his jacket and makes his way to the bar.

“Hi,” Eddie says. The cute guy startles at his sudden appearance by his side but his grin is nearly blinding. “I’m Eddie,”

“Hey,” he replies. “Steve,”

Steve, he learns, is on vacation with his best friend. After speaking to him for a bit, Eddie is about 70 percent sure Steve has no idea who he is. Just the way he prefers. He buys Steve a drink and they flirt a bit. Eddie likes the way Steve’s eyes crinkle when he smiles and how he constantly runs his fingers through his hair like Eddie makes him nervous. Unfortunately, before he can make a move, their little party is crashed by Steve’s companion. Eddie can’t help but feel a tiny bit annoyed.

“Oh my god, I need a drink,” The woman comes barreling between them.

“You okay there buddy?” Steve asks her and she grabs him by the shoulders and shakes.

“Oh shit, sorry, did I interrupt?” She asks, finally noticing his presence, funnily enough.

“Don’t worry about it,” he waves her off.

“I’m Robin,” She stuck her hand out.

“Hi Robin, you have lipstick on your face,” Her eyes widen and she scrambles to fix herself using the reflection in the mirror behind the bar, frowning when she finds nothing on her face.

“No I don’t,”

“Made you look,” Eddie grins.

She narrows her eyes at him. “You’re good,”

— — —

They get another round of drinks, Steve buys this time, and they move to a bigger table. Robin sticks to them like a cock blocking barnacle but after a while later, Eddie doesn’t mind anymore. She’s weird and funny in a refreshing way he doesn’t get to see everyday. Plus, Steve looks more at ease when she is by his side.

“So, Eddie,” Says Robin, “What brings you to Rome?”

“Well, you can’t call it a honeymoon if you don’t marry your cheating fiance, so,” Eddie shrugs, watching the slight alarm on both of their faces. “Guess its a solo trip now,”

“That sucks, man,” says Steve.

“It's whatever,” he shrugs.

“You know what? Fuck that motherfucker,” Robin says, wine sloshing dangerously close to the rim. “You’re gonna have the best solo honeymoon ever and he’s gonna be soooo jealous of you!” Robin is kind of a light weight, but it's nice to see someone else enraged on his behalf.

“Yeah,” Eddie says. “Fuck him,” And then he buys a round of shots. This isn’t the way he saw his evening going when he approached Steve, but Eddie isn’t complaining.

“This is so stupid, we’re gonna regret this in the morning,” Steve giggles, slumped so far down his seat only his face is visible above the table.

“Shit! I forgot!” Robin exclaims.

Eddie frowns. “What’s happening in the morning?”

“We’re going to Tuscany!” Steve says and Robin gasps suddenly, repeatedly slapping Steve on the arm, her eyes wide as dinner plates as she looks at Eddie.

“You should come with us!” She exclaims. “There’s enough room in the air bnb i'm sure, you can bunk with Steve,”

“Come with you to Tuscany?” Eddie asks, puzzled.

“Or Steve can just take the couch,”

“Hey!” Steve protests. “But yeah, it’ll be fun,” he says, turning his big hazel eyes back to Eddie looking so hopeful and expectant; and maybe a little too gone on the alcohol too.

So, really, you can’t blame Eddie for saying yes to a half baked plan that probably wasn’t even going to happen. He’s drunk and a pretty boy is asking him to follow him across Italy. Most likely, the two are going to wake up the next morning with no recollection of the night, or they're probably not even going to make it to their train anyways.

So Eddie says, “Fuck it. Let's do this!”

— — —

Turns out, a drunk Robin is no less a planner than a sober one. Eddie is woken up with his phone incessantly ringing at 10 am on the dot, his presence being demanded at breakfast. At least he feels a little bit better after seeing the other two looking as bad as he feels. Robin is wearing two sunglasses stacked on top of one another.

Packing is no hassle, thankfully, as Eddie never bothered to unpack in the first place. Being hungover for more than an hour on a train isn’t really fun. He eyes Steve and Robin happily curled up and dosing away at their seats as he spends the better half of the train ride to Florence trying not to yak up the cup of coffee and pastry he had choked down at breakfast. Wanye would have laughed and told him he has been spoiled by all the soft mattresses in his fancy hotel rooms. And he wouldn’t be wrong.

They spend twenty minutes ambling around the city, looking for a specific hole in the wall Steve was determined to visit, then fall face first into plates of pasta in ravenous hunger. It's chaotic, better than being holed up in his room with nothing to do. Eddie might even admit it was fun if you ask him tomorrow.

Once their plates are just short of licked clean, robin rummages through her cross body bag and pulls out a paper map, unfolding it into a cartoonishly large piece of paper. “Do you not have GPS in your phone?” Eddie asks, eyeing the map.

“You’re in a foreign country, Eddie, what if you lost your network? Do you want to die?” Steve says in a scarily accurate impression of Robin, then gets a bony elbow to the ribs.

Robin clears her throat dramatically, points at a part of the map and says, “We’re here right now,” Here, Eddie assumes, is Florence in the map since the lettering was so small and crowded together it was almost impossible to read. “And we’ll be taking a cab to an airbnb here, about thirty minutes away. It's like a big ass villa we’ll be sharing with a few other people and there’s like a big ass pool there too, so we can chill out over there. Then at seven, we have a wine tasting-slash-dinner at a vineyard.”

“Oooh we’re getting drunk again?” Eddie asks.

Robin enthusiastically replies, “Yup! We’re on vacation, baby!”

— — —

The villa is gorgeous. It’s up on a hill overlooking rows and rows of vineyards and trees and has a huge breakfast nook, living room and outdoor dining place and his first thought after stepping into the place was damn, Chrissy is going to be so jealous. The host is a friendly middle aged man with an accent so strong only Robin could mostly understand what he was saying.

The pool is a nice idea too. After their initial tour of the property, they change into pool-side appropriate wear and make their way downstairs. Eddie tosses his hair up and sinks into the water, letting his fingers prune in one corner with his shades on, watching Steve and Robin splashing about like a couple of toddlers. He doesn’t understand where those two get their unchecked energy reserve from, Eddie is so close to dozing away.

He turns to the woman a couple feet away trying and failing to read her book in the ruckus the two are making. “I don’t know them,” he says, though she probably saw them arrive at the pool together. She gives him a polite smile and goes back to trying to read.

The vineyard they go to for dinner is a walkable distance away, or so Steve says, and then it takes them half an hour to walk there. Which both him and Robin complain about, a lot. There’s a small group taking a short tour with them walking around in the vineyard, taking a few pictures. He sends some to Wayne and gets a thumbs up emoji back, which was the equivalent of a heartfelt hug from him in text.

Dinner is good, the food and the company. They are given tiny wine glasses and get refills as often as they want. Everyone takes full advantage of it. He even makes polite conversation with a few of the others in the groups. Steve looks especially pretty in the firelight with a rosy tint to his cheeks.

Eddie feels relaxed and so much lighter than he had in months when they stumble back to the villa, swaying and leaning against each other, giggling about stupid things. “I’ll see y'all bitches in the morning,” Robin bids them goodnight and Eddie and Steve crash into a pile on top of the two seater couch in their room.

“Hey,” Steve whispers. “I really don’t mind taking the couch you know,”

“What? No way, Steve. I don’t mind sharing, I can keep my hands to myself, you know,”

Steve snorts, mumbling something that sounded suspiciously like ‘if only’.

“What was that,” Eddie asks, raising his eyebrows.

“Oh, nothing,”

Eddie absentmindedly draws patterns over a knee thrown over his lap, the heat of his skin like a furnace under his palm. He can’t look away from wine stained lips and flushed cheeks as Steve smiles softly at him, inviting. His hazel eyes drop to his lips then back up again.

Eddie didn’t realize how close they are, their noses nearly brushing– Steve almost fully on top of his lap– it would be so easy to kiss him. He just has to tip his head up to press their lips together, so he does it.

Steve’s mouth feels as warm and inviting as it looks. Eddie lets him press his tongue between his lips, big hands cupping the back of his head keeping him there. Eddie takes it as permission to get a little more handsy, slipping his hands under Steve’s shirt.

Eddie feels himself melting into the cushions as Steve tilts his head into the kiss. He pulls back and Eddie has to stop himself before he does something pathetic like whine, or maybe chase after his mouth. “You wanna move this to the bed,” Steve asks, sounding as breathless as Eddie felt.

“Yeah, sweetheart,”

— — —

Eddie wakes up fully nude under the covers feeling warm and satiated. He listens to the birds chirping outside the window and the soft snores from the man stretched out beside him. He flips to his side, watching Steve sleeping on his stomach, his ribs expand and contract with each breath he takes. His back is littered with moles and freckles and Eddie with his sleepy brain wonders how long it would take to trace every one of them. Some of them disappear under the scar tissue twisting over the side of his torso, starting at his hip and spreading almost all the way to just under his rib cage. He leans in, lightly brushing his fingers just over the shiny, raised skin.

"It’s from a fire a few years ago," Steve says, slowly blinking sleep out of his eyes. And at Eddie's raised eyebrows, he elaborates, "I'm a firefighter. Robin too.”

“Shit,” Eddie replies, suddenly feeling more awake. “You just got like ten times hotter,” Steve snorts. “You have to wear a uniform right? Do you have any pictures?”

“What am I? Just a piece of ass to you?”

“A very hot piece of ass,” Eddie says, pulling himself up on top of Steve. “Don’t sell yourself short, Stevie” And he leans down to kiss him, morning breath and all. They get distracted for long enough that Robin comes thumping on their door to get them out of bed.

— — —

Breakfast is once again a steaming cup of coffee, fruits, and a fresh croissant. Eddie has had more fresh fruits in the past two days than the entire year combined. He was also having a very nice time happily appearing in public without fear of camera flashes or crazed fans. Feeling the sun on his skin, living his best life, as the kids would say. Eddie was wearing one of Steve’s shirts open over a band tee and canvas shorts. His usual wardrobe, consisting mostly of ripped jeans and leather jackets, wasn't the most comfortable in the sun.

There are only two other couples in the outdoor dining area of the airbnb. A pair of retirees and the other two possibly honeymooners by the way they were all over each other. Eddie briefly considers how if he hadn’t been with them, Steve and Robin would’ve also looked like a heterosexual couple, not codependent platonic soulmates having a vacation together. The thought makes him huff a laugh into his coffee. Steve raises his eyebrows at him in question from his seat beside him, and he just shakes his head.

Robin drops the folded paper map on the table once she’s done studying, steals a sip from Steve cup, then winces. “That's the one toxic dude bro trait you have,” she says, glaring at the offending cup of black coffee with no cream or sweetener in it. Eddie has to nod his head in agreement. Even Eddie doesn’t drink his coffee black.

“What? It's not that bad,” Steve tries to reason.

“It’s actually really horrible, you just don’t have taste buds anymore because you burnt them off, apparently.” Eddie chimes in.

“Nuh-uh, you aren’t allowed to team up like that, no way,” Steve protests. Robin sneaks a sip from Eddie’s cup.

“Holy shit, there is no coffee in this, it's just milk and sugar!”

“No, its not,”

“Yes, it is!”

“Okay, calm down, children. Robin, weren’t you just gonna tell us the plan for today?” Steve interrupts.

“Fine,” Robin huffs. “First we make a ten minute walk from here to the rental place for the Vespas, then were going to go to Pisa, then Siena, then San Gimignano if we have the time,”

“We’re renting Vespas? That’s the most touristy shit I’ve ever heard,” Eddie says.

“Eddie, we are tourists,”

“But like, couldn’t we just rent a cab or something?”

“Yeah, but where’s the fun in that?”

“I don’t have a motorcycle license,”

“That’s fine, you don’t need it,” Steve chimes in, “It's just like riding a bike,”

Eddie grumbles under his breath, stuffing another piece of bread in his mouth. Steve exchanges a look with Robin.

“Eddie,”

“Hmrph?”

“You know how to ride a bicycle, right?”

“I- I just never learned to, okay?” Robin snorts.

“That's okay, you can ride with me,” Steve smiles, nudging him.

Later on Eddie sends a video to Chrissy of the sprawling vineyards and him on the back of a ridiculous red Vespa and matching helmet, clinging tight to Steve as they sped down a cobblestone road.

— — —

Pisa is nice. There is a lot more climbing involved than Eddie had expected, and is grossly underprepared for it. The view from the top of the leaning tower is cool. Cool enough to climb up and down multiple narrow stairs? Eddie isn’t sure. Steve and Robin barely break a sweat beside Eddie who is fighting for his life– maybe he should listen to Chrissy and cut down on the cigarettes– the damn firefighter stamina.

They take many dorky touristy pictures of them trying to hold up the leaning tower which he knows would make Chrissy laugh. Eddie does his best to occasionally answer the barrage of questions thrown his way after Chrissy sees his messages. She’s mostly just happy that Eddie’s having fun and isn’t alone. She also has a few questions about the sandy blonde hair woman in the pictures with him.

Before they set off to Siena, Steve pulls out a bottle of sunscreen and insists everyone reapply– then acts all affronted when Eddie says he wasn’t wearing any to begin with. His ass feels just about flattened after the almost two hour ride to Siena. They have lunch at another nice spot, walk around taking a million pictures of the Duomo, and climb more stairs to Eddie’s dismay, which Robin finds hilarious.

— — —

“So,” Robin says, “Eddie.” Steve groans. “That bad huh?”

Robin and Steve are sitting in the shade of a nice big tree in a park, Eddie having gone to hunt down food and water for them. His spirits are still high for someone who looked so close to passing out at the top of the leaning tower.

“He’s only the hottest, funniest dude I’ve met in like years probably, no big deal,” Steve throws an arm over his eyes. “Face it, Robs, I’m just cursed to never find love.” Robin rolls her eyes at his dramatics.

“Just ask for his number, dingus,” She says, like it's obvious.

Steve sits up. “I can’t, it’s probably like, just a fun vacation fling for him. And–” He continues before Robin can interrupt. “He just got out of a serious relationship, I can’t ask now, it's too soon,”

“It does even have to be like, ‘I wanna date you please give me your number’, It can be like, ‘we should keep in touch, let's exchange numbers’,” Steve makes a face in response.

Thankfully before Robin can attempt to change his mind further, Eddie comes trudging across the park towards them. “M’lady, M’lord,” he offers the paper bag of pastries to them, on one knee.

“M’dork,” Robin replies and Eddie throws himself backwards on the ground, pretending to get shot.

“Why do you wound me so, fair maiden,” He wails rolling around in the grass, making her snort and Steve complains about getting grass stains on his shirt.

— — —

Eddie almost falls to his knees and begs for mercy when he’s rudely awaken at 5 fucking am and Robin tells him that they will be spending yet another four hours on a train to Rapallo to yet another airbnb. He tells her that she and Steve are single handedly funding the entire organization. Robin tells him to shut up and drink his milk.

“There isn’t much walking,” Steve promises him as he coaxes Eddie from bed. “We’ll just swim in the ocean, drink and relax.” After breakfast they make their way to the train station. Thankfully, this time Eddie manages to pass out for a good amount of time during the train ride only waking to blearily change trains.

He’s well rested by the time they make it to their airbnb. They get ready for a beach day, then it's Vespa 2 electric boogaloo as they rent a couple for the day to get to the beach and back. Eddie shouts “Liar!” from the back seat when Steve tells him the beach is twenty minutes away. Steve argues, technically he wasn’t lying since they aren’t walking.

The beach, unfortunately for Eddie, is a lot more packed than he had expected. It puts him on edge, makes him feel like he might get recognised. He hadn’t realized how Steve’s shirt felt like armor the day before. No one was expecting Eddie Munson to be wearing a striped button up and canvas shorts. But having his tattoos out in the open feels like he was asking to be caught. So he swipes Robin’s orange cover up with little pom poms on the hem the second she discards it and tucks his hair under a sunhat.

The wonder twins are busy in the middle of a sandcastle building competition– which they asked Eddie to be the judge of– like little kids. He sits back and watches people with their friends and family, the two dorks in front of him fighting for sand at the same place like there isn’t sand anywhere else on the beach. He spots boats docked on the other side of the beach and gets an idea.

“Hey guys, I’ll be right back,”

— — —

Steve lays on his beach towel, eyes closed and listening to music on his headphones. Robin was off fucking around in the water with another cute woman she struck up a conversation with.

Eddie rushed off saying he was going to get them something to drink but Steve gets the impression that it's just because he wasn’t one for crowded places, though he didn’t seem too uncomfortable yesterday when they were going around Tuscany. He seemed to shrink into himself when they reached the beach, looking vaguely nauseous when he was sitting under the umbrella all covered up.

He wonders if he should go look for him and make sure he is doing okay, he’s taking a little too long for Steve’s comfort. Or maybe the queue is just really that long since the beach is crowded and Steve is being an overbearing mother hen like Robin sometimes reminds him that he has a tendency for.

Steve starts to slowly doze listening to the chattering all around him and the sound of the waves in the background of his playlist when he feels a shadow descend over him. He opens his eyes to find Eddie standing over him, still in Robin cover up– sans drinks– looking a little too pleased with himself. “Pack your bags,” he tells Steve. “And get Robin,”

Steve scrunches up his face in confusion. “Pack up? We just got here,” Steve yanks on Eddie’s hand and catches him on his lap when he goes down yelping, the sun hat knocked off his head.

“We have much better places to be Stevie, believe me,” he says cryptically, throwing his arms around him.

“You’re not making any sense, dude,”

“I rented us a boat,” Eddie says, grinning.

“A what?”

“A boat. You know? Those things floating over there in the ocean?” he points like he’s explaining to a child seeing a boat for the first time. Dick, Steve thinks fondly.

“When did you do that?”

“Like five minutes ago,” Steve wants to wipe the stupid grin off his stupid face so he leans in and kisses him. It doesn’t really work, Eddie’s still high on his new boat procurement adventure. He tugs in Steve’s hair, pulling him back.

“Come on, we’re losing daylight,” he insists.

“It's not even noon yet,”

— — —

Robin seems very excited by this new development, basically bouncing all the way to where Eddie leads them to a big boat. She brings along her new friend from the beach with them, a curly haired Spanish brunette– Go Robin, Steve thinks– though the boat Eddie had picked had a capacity for more than just four people.

The captain is a funny middle aged guy who’s happy to let them play music as loud as they want. He shows them around the coast and then stops further into the ocean where there are other boats and yachts some distance from them. Steve, Robin and her new companion waste no time jumping into the ocean and Eddie finally looks relaxed.

A little while later, Steve clambers back into the boat in his swimming trunks, sea water dripping from his hair. His shoulders are already turning a deeper shade of tan. He joins Eddie lounging under the sun, laying his dripping head on his shoulder. Eddie traces a finger through the droplets doting his arm.

"Enjoying yourself?" Eddie asks and Steve hums happily.

"Kinda feel like I'm seventeen again," He says.

"Oh? You were galavanting around Italy in high school, Stevie?” Eddie grins at him, teasing.

"Mhm. Summer after junior year, I got brutally dumped,” He explains. “Kinda deserved it though, I was a little bitch in high school," Then there’s a glint in Eddie's eyes like he’s imagining Steve in a preppy outfit and the ridiculous way he used to style his hair.

"My parents brought me along for their trip and their friends has a gay son, though I don’t think they knew he was gay or they wouldn’t have let me hang out with him otherwise," Steve thinks of Andrew sometimes and all the awkward fumbling they had done when they would sneak into each other’s rooms at night– something Robin calls his ‘Bi-awakening’. “So yeah, I left for the vacation straight and came back bi,”

"That is so trust fund baby core, holy shit," Eddie says, and Steve snorts.

"Was a trust fund baby. Past tense," He clarifies.

"Hm, what happened then?"

"I mean, I already knew my parents were homophobes but hey, at least they waited till I finished high school to kick me out,” He shrugs, feeling embarrassed the second he finishes spewing his whole story.

“I’m sorry your parents suck,” Eddie throws his arms around Steve and squeezes him until he laughs. Steve has always been an oversharer, a trait that had put off a lot of his past partners, unfortunately. Eddie is a good listener. He doesn’t seem too bummed out by his little trip down memory lane. But then, when did Steve start thinking of Eddie along the same line as the people from his past relationships?

“Whatever. They were really just cramping my style,”

“Yeah, I bet you looked real bad in those starched shirts and designer suits,” Eddie says, sounding like he really doesn’t mean it.

"Come get in the water with me," Steve says and Eddie whines in protest. "What? You don't know how to swim too?"

"I know how to swim!" He exclaims a bit too defensively. "I just don't want to get my hair wet," he pouts.

"You don't have to get your hair wet," He pulls Eddie up, "I’ll protect your hair, come on,"

Steve dives in first, watching Eddie carefully lower himself into the water just enough to keep his head above. "See? All good,"

He wraps his arms around Steve's shoulders, pulling him in for a salty kiss.

"CANNONBALL!"

"Rob, wait!" It was too late. Robin crashed into the water, way too close to them, sending a huge splash into the two, drenching them to the tip of their heads.

"Noooo," Eddie moans, looking like a drowned rat with his bangs plastered to his forehead. Robin's maniacal cackling reaches them as she surfaces. "She's so mean to me," he whines, hiding his face in Steve's neck.

"Aww poor baby," Steve coos, trying to hold back his laughter. "I'll help you wash your hair later, okay?"

"Promise?"

"Promise,"

— — —

Steve does help wash Eddie’s hair, though showering together ends up wasting more water than they were supposed to be saving on accounts of wandering hands. When they step out of the bathroom clean and loose limbed, Robin is on the couch with the TV on full volume, takes one look at their faces and says “Yuck,”

Eddie points at her and says, “Homophobe,”

They decide to order in for the night. Robin hooks up her (Steve’s actually) Netflix account to the TV and they argue on which movie to watch until their dinner arrives, then pass out in a puppy pile twenty minutes into the movie.

— — —

Thankfully, their train to Milan the next day is at a much more reasonable timing. Eddie still whines about having to move again. They make it by mid day and explore the city some more until it's time for dinner.

Eddie feels a pang when he thinks that he’d be saying goodbye to the two in less than a day. Which is dramatic, even for him. He’d barely known them for a week, yet he feels himself clinging to Steve harder and starting arguments just to annoy Robin more often.

When they go to bed, he falls asleep with Steve curled over his back and their fingers intertwined.

— — —

In the morning, Steve joins him on the couch in the balcony where Eddie is people watching through the railing with a cup of coffee. Steve and Robin are leaving soon to catch their flight back home and Eddie’s all packed up to get back to his luxury honeymoon suite in Rome, all alone. The prospect of another week alone in a foreign country feels more daunting than it had been in the beginning of his trip.

Eddie feels like the end of the week snuck up on him. He didn’t expect to like being in Italy so much, though he suspects that has more to do with the company than the country itself. Steve sits so close to him that he’s almost fully leaning on Eddie's shoulder, he’s going to miss his weight and his warmth, the easy way he holds himself near other people like he belongs in everyone’s space.

“So,” Steve says, their position reminds Eddie of the first night he kissed Steve, tipsy on wine, heart fluttering in his chest like butterfly wings. He wants to pull him in and kiss him again.

“So,” Eddie parrots.

“I guess this is it, huh?” Eddie hopes he isn’t imagining the hint of melancholy gleaming in his hazel eyes, he wants selfishly for Steve to miss him too.

“I had fun,” Eddie smiles. It takes effort.

“I’m glad,” Steve says, sounding so sincere. He tucks a stray curl behind Eddie’s ear, leans in to slot their lips together one last time. Eddie takes it eagerly, opening his mouth to him and happily goes along when Steve pulls him into his lap.

They say their goodbyes after breakfast and Eddie watches them get in a cab and drive away from him forever.

— — —

Steve stows their luggage away in the overhead compartment and plops down onto his seat, Robin engrossed in looking through the inflight movie list beside him. He drops his forehead on Robin's shoulder. “You doing okay over there?”

“Mhm,”

“It's okay to not be okay, you know,”

He lets out a watery laugh, feeling pathetic. “Its so stupid,”

“No it's not,” She pokes his forehead. “Don’t be mean to my best friend,”

“I think maybe I should’ve just sucked it up asked for his number,”

Robin huffs, “See, I can’t even say ‘I told you so’ when you look so sad,”

“Yeah, whatever, it's too late now. He didn’t ask either,” Steve reasons with himself.

“Hey, maybe you’ll run into him one day and he’d be like, your next door neighbor or something,”

“This isn’t a movie, Robs,” He sighs. “And I know all my neighbors already,”

“There, there,” She says, patting his head.

— — —

Eddie naps for a few hours, then gets a cab to take him to the train station. Time moves at a glacial pace. Eddie slumps on a bench and scrolls through instagram to pass time. Somehow his feed is full of cats running around causing chaos, cats in silly outfits, funny cat meme edits. And he thinks maybe he should get a cat. A black one, and he can name it Ozzy. Or Aragon. Maybe a cat would make him feel less lonely.

Eddie is about to close the app and go get something to eat when he sees it. It's a blurry picture of two men kissing on a balcony. The angle looks like it was taken from street level, but the tattoos and long hair is unmistakable. Fuck.

The picture already has more than half a million likes. He loathes to think how many other pages it has graced. And the comments were worse.

g3rry_ Hasn’t even been two weeks since the breakup news came out and he’s already with a new guy…

parkouch_ Smells like infidelity hmmm

gin_titanic Poor Rick :(

Corrodedjeff He should just leave the band at this point smh

RickWorld00 Anyone know who the other guy is?

Dusty_Hen05 What the fuck what the FUCK

— — —

He calls Chrissy in a panic.

“Did you see it?” is the first thing she asks him. He doesn’t answer as much as he lets out a high pitched noise like a kettle.

“Chrissy, what the fuck?”

“I know, I know,” She whines. “I’m trying to do damage control here, but Rick fucking posted a tweet saying he’s ‘taking time off from the public eye’ during this ‘trying time’ and now everyone is siding with him,”

“That bitch,”

“How’s Steve taking it?” Chrissy asks.

“I wouldn’t know, Chrissy, he’s on a plane right now on the way back to his real life,” He huffs. “Shit, he’s going to be so blindsided by this, I don’t think he even knew who I am,”

“You didn’t tell him?” she asks. “Shit, Eddie,”

“Book me flight babe, I wanna come back as soon as I can,” It takes some arguing and pleading to make Chrissy book a different flight straight from Milan. But she does it in the end and Eddie hopes he hasn’t screwed things up forever.

— — —

Eddie goes straight to Chrissy’s place from the airport. He has a hell of a time dodging camera flashes and finally makes it to the car she sent in one piece. He falls into her embrace as soon as she opens her door.

“Aww, Eddie, you okay?”

“Ahuh, never better,”

His eyes feel dry and sand from the lack of sleep. Chrissy shoves him into bed and threatens him to get some rest before they can have a serious conversation about everything. Eddie sleeps fitfully, but it's better than nothing. The sun is setting when he shuffles back into the living room. Chrissy hears his stomach grumbling from all the way across the room and they order take out.

“So, Steve,”

Eddie sighs heavily. “I fucked up Chris,” he says, stuffing a springroll in his mouth.

“Someone took a picture of you through your balcony, I hardly think that's your fault, babe,”

“I’m pretty sure he didn’t even know who I was, Chris. Like, how jarring is it going to be for him to just wake up one day and find out some people out there are accusing him of being a home wrecker just for kissing a random dude on a vacation?”

“It is a fucked up situation, I’m not going to lie, and Rick’s really been enjoying playing the victim,” she grumbles. “You know, it really would’ve helped if you had gotten the guy's contact details.” She didn’t need to tell him that twice. “We need to release a statement as soon as possible but we really just need to wait it out. There isn’t much we can realistically do,”

“I feel horrible,” he groans.

“Again. Not your fault Eddie,”

“I think I’ll lose my mind if I don’t find him somehow,” Chrissy snorts.

“Dick that good, huh?” She snickers.

“Gotta admit, Chrissy, it was a pretty exceptional dick.” Eddie sighs wistfully and Chrissy giggles.

“How are you gonna find him?”

“Maybe a PI? Is that too creepy? How many Steves are there in the US do you reckon?” He’s only half joking. Chrissy rolls her eyes and kicks him out of her house so he can go get some proper sleep.

— — —

Eddie takes a hot shower once he gets home, then is immediately reminded of Steve in the shower with him and his big hands holding him against the cold tiles. Then the quick shower turns into a much longer one.

Once he’s changed into his pjs, he pads down to the kitchen to make himself a hot cup of tea then settles in bed with his phone. He isn’t tired enough to go to sleep yet so he switches to a random channel on his TV and scrolls through the pictures they had taken in Italy, zooming in on Steve’s face more times he can count like a love sick– love? Really? –dumbass.

It's 2 am when he hears the sound of his front door opening and shutting that puts him on alert. With shaking hands he grabs his baseball bat from the closet (which Wayne left behind, Eddie wasn’t a sports kinda guy) making his way to the staircase, hoping and praying he’d imagined the whole thing and he’s not actually getting robbed. Or worse– someone has leaked his address online and someone broke in to see him.

It's too dark to see properly, but a figure is climbing up the stairs towards him, a little too fast for his comfort. Eddie swings, his bat connects with the stranger’s face with a crunch and he goes tumbling down the stairs with a pained shout. Eddie rushes to get the light switch and–

“EDDIE!” Rick was on the floor, clutching his bleeding nose. “Shit, I think I broke something,”

“What the fuck are you doing here, Rick?” Eddie screeches. “How did you get in?”

"What are you doing here, aren’t supposed to be in Italy, enjoying our honeymoon,” He spits back. The fucking audacity of this dude.

“Have you been breaking into my house all week?” Rick stays quiet and that's enough of an answer for Eddie. “I’m calling an ambulance,” The 911 operator tells him not to move him, not that Eddie would touch him with a ten foot pole.

“Who was that guy you were with?” Rick asks from the floor, still clutching onto his knee.

“I’m sorry, how is that any of your business?” Eddie snaps back, full of ire.

“Because,” Rick says, his expression pleading in the way Eddie just realizes he always looks like when he’s about to tell him how sorry he was and how nothing was his fault, actually. “I still love you, Eddie,”

Eddie laughs in his face, getting a tiny bit of satisfaction from the way Rick’s face falls. “Seriously? You broke up with me because I was too clingy to open our relationship and you see me with another dude one time and you can’t take it, huh?”

“I made a mistake–”

“Yes you fucking did, now deal with the consequences. You’re not my problem anymore,” The doorbell saves Eddie from the crocodile tears welling up in Rick’s eyes. How did he even put up with this for two years?

However, Eddie isn’t done with surprises for the day, it would seem. The door swings open, and there stands Steve– who looks just as shocked to see him standing at the doorstep– with Robin and another older dude he doesn’t recognise.

“Hey!” the older dude exclaims, pointing at Eddie. “It’s the guy!”

— — —

Steve has had a hell of a time since he and Robin had touched down. The second he had switched his airplane mode off he was bombarded with hundreds, possibly thousands of notifications. 72 missed calls from just Dustin and more cryptic messages from the party group chat– something about coffins? Did someone die? Steve didn’t understand.

Dustin hadn’t been much help when he called him back, babbling something about a front man of a rock band for some reason, but that was only until Robin pulled up a picture of him and Eddie kissing. Except, it was posted on some random instagram page he had never heard of instead of her camera roll, with the caption ‘Corroded Coffin frontman Eddie Munson spotted in Milan, Italy with his new beau’. And then it clicked.

His notifications continued to flood for the rest of the day, friends and coworkers were asking him about it. His high school acquaintances suddenly wanted to know how he was doing and wanted to catch up for ‘old time sake’. Yeah right, Tommy. The worst part was probably the comments nitpicking everything about his appearance and the random threatening DMs he’d receive occasionally.

Robin was quite most of the ride back home, but that was only because she was doing a deep dive into Eddie Munson and his band’s history. The only thing she said to him was, “I know many of their songs, Steve, and Dustin and Mike literally have a poster up like every wall in their house. How did we not know this?”

He slept fitfully, the adrenaline and confusion seemingly overriding the jet lag. The last straw was when his mom tried to contact him the next morning after eight whole years, just to berate him about their family name. “In public Steven? Really?” Steve didn’t have the energy to argue that a balcony is not a public space. There was little satisfaction in hanging up on her mid sentence.

He called up Argyle and begged to swap with his night shift so he'd at least have Robin by his side when dealing with all of it. Not that he thought any of their co-workers would be mean about it, he and Robin aren’t even the only queer people in the station. Besides, Captain Hopper wouldn’t let homophobic behavior slide given that he has a gay step son of his own that he loves very much.

Steve had tried and moderately succeeded in getting some sleep before his shift. Night shifts were moderately less hectic than morning ones– though sometimes it just depends on the night itself– so it opens up more time for ribbing from his colleagues

He had even walked in on the rookie Chance showing Dmitri, the Russian dude Hopper had history with (what kind? Nobody knows), videos of Corroded Coffin singles and performances, and Steve had turned on his heels and walked away.

The call had been a welcome distraction as he buckled himself in the back of the ambulance that Dmitri drove, with Robin. “I like your new boyfriend, he’s loud,” Dmitri had called back at him.

“He’s not my boyfriend, man,” Steve had sighed.

“But he does wish he was,” Robin the traitor had chimed in and then sat unperturbed by his glaring. That was merely minutes before he had rung the bell to the house he’s currently standing before, Eddie on the other side of the threshold.

“W-we got a call about someone getting hurt?” He stutters out, remembering his training and Eddie quietly steps aside to let them in.

— — —

Eddie barely processes shit. His monkey brain is just going Steve! Steve is here! In his sexy firefighter uniform! Stevie! Until Rick spots him and loudly goes, “Man, really?” Which clearly confuses Steve as his face does the whole, brows jumping up and eyes widening look that conveyed the message ‘What?’ without him having to say a word.

“Rick, shut up,” Eddie snaps. If Steve recognises that name, he doesn't show it.

Robin checks him out and splints his ankle, ruling out any serious injury in his hips or spine, except for maybe a nasty bruise from rolling down a flight of stairs. They load him on the gurney, then the back of the ambulance, working quietly as Eddie stood around fidgeting. He really just wants to talk to Steve about the whole thing, apologize for the whole mess.

“H-hey, Steve?” Eddie says and then almost falters when Steve’s attention is on him. “I just wanted to apologize about the whole thing man, you don’t deserve all that,”

“No, you don’t have to, it's not your fault,” Steve chuckles humorlessly. “Honestly, I just feel kind of stupid about it now that I think about it–” The older dude claps a hand over his shoulder, interrupting him.

“We gotta go buddy,” He says in a heavy Russian accent.

“Do you want a ride to the hospital?” Steve asks.

Eddie notices Rick looking at him expectantly from inside the ambulance. Ew. But he could bear it for Steve. He just needs to talk to Steve and Eddie’s scared that if he lets him go right now he might never see him again. So he gets in.

— — —

Steve wishes he would stop apologizing. Eddie would say ‘sorry’ and his brain would automatically translate it to ‘sorry people think we’re dating’.

“It's okay Eddie, I get it,” Steve sighs. “It's not even like we’re together, is it? I’m sure everyone would just forget about it in a while and you can move on–”

"I don’t want to forget about you," Eddie’s face is all scrunched up, “Shit, Steve I thought I was protecting you from the shitstorm that’s my life, since everything I touch turns to dust anyways, I thought maybe I could spare you if I left you alone,” He sighs, “But I failed in that regard too, I guess.”

"But–" Steve's jaw feels like it's on the floor, "Eddie, you don’t need to protect me, okay? I can take care of myself,” Eddie looks like a kicked puppy, all sad and hurt. Steve just wants him to smile again. “I mean, the amount of times we actually kissed in public, I’m just really surprised that was the picture that ended up online,” Eddie barks out a laugh.

“I don’t want you to think that I don’t want you, Steve.” He says, his gaze intense and pleading. Steve is rendered speechless. “I grew up in a trailer park with my uncle. I sold weed in high school and played dnd. It took me three tries to even graduate highschool. I'm not a good person, i'm nothing special, I don't run into burning buildings and rescue kittens from trees or whatever, and I know I kind of ruined everything before it even started but please, please just give me one chance, Stevie–"

“Are you seriously doing this right now? In front of me?” Rick interrupts, and Steve is not a bad dude who’d hurt people who can’t defend themselves but he really wants to smack the disgusted look on his stupid face. Robin flaps a hand shushing him, watching him and Eddie like they’re on her TV screen instead. Even Dmitri is quiet, no doubt listening in.

“Would you like to go on an actual date with me? Please?” Eddie finishes.

Steve is stunned to say the least. He had been distracted for most of the ride, he didn't even realize that they had stopped until the door of the ambulance swung open, startling Robin too. Then he’s being pulled away to do his job, leaving a distraught looking Eddie behind.

— — —

Eddie paces hidden behind the ambulance bay, burning through his third cigarette of the hour– which once upon a time wouldn't even be worth noting, but he's trying to do better here, goddamnit— thinking of what an idiot he'd acted like.

What was he thinking? Asking Steve, a good guy with a normal life, without paps shoving cameras in his face, to be with him. Eddie Munson, the wildcard, the drama.

Eddie can’t go anywhere without someone criticizing everything he does. Ironically enough, that was one of the main reasons he was so anxious to leave his small town home behind. So much for anonymity. The constant judgment is the one thing he hated so much about constantly being in the public eye. He’d love to say that he doesn’t care and that it never bothers him, but the truth is that it gets fucking exhausting how people already have preconceived notions about him everywhere he goes. He doesn’t want that for Steve.

He's never known peace a day in his life. Why would Steve willingly through his life to the wolves just to be with him? It was selfish of Eddie to even ask that of him. He’s put him through enough shit as it is with the picture and all the harassment from his so-called fans. He hates it. This was nothing like how he dreamed his life would be at just twenty eight when he was in high school.

Eddie knows he’s spiraling. He’s being over dramatic and catastrophizing, as Chrissy would say. God, he wishes she were to talk some sense into him. Yet he can't seem to move away from that spot, waiting for Steve to come out through the doors, he can't leave without seeing this through. If he gets brutally rejected, so be it. But on the off chance Steve might still want this? The idea that he might be worth giving up a little bit of peace for, seems way too tantalizing.

The doors to the ER open. Steve spots him and jogs over, the look of relief clear on his face. “Hey, you’re still here,” he says. “I was hoping I wouldn’t miss you,”

“Yeah, um, everything alright in there?” he asks– he doesn’t really care.

“Sure, yeah, Rick’s going to be okay,”

“So, um,” Eddie trails off, suddenly at a loss on what to say.

“Are you going to give me your number then?” Steve asks.

“What?”

“You did ask me on a date, right? Unless you weren’t serious about it. In that case–”

“No! No, I was serious, I swear.” Eddie can’t keep the disbelief off his voice. “You’re saying yes? After everything that happened?”

“Eddie, I really like you,” says Steve. “And I’ve read so many shitty things people have said about you,” Eddie cringes a little, he knows how vile those tabloids can get. “But that was not the man I had known this past week and I want a real chance to get to know you, if that’s okay,”

Before he can stop himself Eddie is careening into Steve, crashing their lips together in a desperate kiss that Steve reciprocates with the same intensity.

“That is so okay,” Eddie breathes. “Love that plan,”

“So,” Steve grins. “Number?”

———

#steddie #steve harrington #eddie munson #steddie summer exchange #rock star eddie munson #firefighter steve Harrington #robin Buckley #chrissy cunningham #modern au #mine #sorry its a bit late

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elizabethwritesmen · 10 months ago

Text

𝚠𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚕𝚘𝚟𝚎 𝚕𝚒𝚐𝚑𝚝 𝚕𝚎𝚊𝚍𝚜

chapter 4: with or without you

pairing: firefighter!steve x reader

summary: steve’s coma drags on and you drag on with it. you learn a lot, though, in his absence and get a glimpse into how he really feels about you.

warnings: completely inaccurate medical knowledge and descriptions (don’t come for me i’m not a doctor), pining, angst, idiots who can’t admit their feelings. smut to come. jealous and violent steve. (not violent towards you!)

a/n: eddie’s a mechanic for halloween, which is a little nod to @pinkrelish <3 love you and typ!! there SHOULD only be one more chapter but if it drags on there will be 2. i know for sure the next chapter WILL be a Christmas chapter! (:

chapter 1 | chapter 2 | chapter 3

The next morning, I woke up bright and early and went straight to the hospital. My parents showed up soon after me, worry a mask on their faces.

“Y/N, sweetheart, are you okay?” My mom asked, fretting over me momentarily out of nervousness.

“I’m fine, Mom.”

“I know how much you love him, I’m just worried about you. He’ll be ok, he’s a strong boy!”

“I know,” I smiled politely, but she was more optimistic than I was.

“Honey, why don’t you let her breathe? She’s stressed enough already,” Dad stepped in, pulling Mom away. “How is Steve, anyway?”

“Stable. Still in a coma. That’s all I know,” I shrugged, “They’ve told me more than anyone else but I’m not family so there’s only so much they can share.”

“That’s ridiculous. Where is his actual family at?” Mom outbursted, “I bet they’re not even concerned. They couldn’t care less about their own son! God, I’ve been more of a mother to him than that dreadful woman!”

“I know,” I sighed, “I’m not happy about it either, but it is what it is.”

“Maybe I could have his dad call the hospital and tell them to treat us as his family in their absence?” Dad suggested.

“Not a bad idea, they could sign a release or something.”

So he pulled out his phone and dialed Mr Harrington up, getting him after a few rings. He walked out of the waiting room and into the hallway to talk to him and Mom sat beside me, stroking my hair.

“What’s going on in that head of yours?” she asked me, “You’ve got that look in your eye.”

“What look?”

“The guilty look.”

“I don’t have a guilty look.”

“You’ve been my baby for decades, I think I know your looks. Spill!”

I sighed, “I saw Steve yesterday, before he got called into work and got hurt. He came to the music shop and brought me flowers, then took me out to eat. We went back to his house to hang out and, Mom, he has this huge picture of me on his dresser. Not me and him, just me. Like I’m his wife or something. I got overwhelmed when I saw it and I went off on him.”

“Why’d you go off on him for having a picture of you? I’d imagine that’s a good thing!”

“Because I’m sick of being lead on,” I shrugged, “Or at least I was. But now I’d let him lead me on forever if it meant he wakes up healthy and happy.”

Suddenly, a thoughtful look crossed her face. She bit her lip as if she was holding something back, and furrowed her brows.

“What is it?” I asked.

“You need to talk to your father about this.”

“Why?”

“Because he knows Steve better than you think, and I think he’d know exactly how to make you feel better about all this.”

“I will later,” I nodded, leaning back in my chair and waiting for Dad to get off the phone.

Only a few minutes later, he did exactly that, walking back into the room.

“They’re calling the hospital now and asking about faxing a release. Y/N should be informed of everything from now on.”

“Perfect!” Mom clapped, a small smile crossing her face.

“I’m gonna see if we can go in there with him.”

I walked to the nurse’s desk and asked, and she said yes, so I lead my parents into his room. He looked just as rough as the day before and my heart shattered a little bit.

“Oh,” my mom sighed, and I could tell her heart was breaking as well just looking at him. She and Dad really did care a lot for Steve. They always had. He was included in family trips, family photos, everything. They basically adopted him the second we became friends. I think at first they just felt bad for him, but it didn’t take long for pity to turn into love. He had that affect on everyone, everyone but his own family.

I sat in the chair by his bed, grabbing his fragile hand in my own and squeezing lightly.

“Hey Steve,” I quietly greeted, “I brought Mom and Dad to see you. I knew you’d want them here.”

My naive heart waited for a response, but of course, there was none. I could feel the pitiful eyes of my parents burning into my skull.

About an hour passed of them simply sitting with me. A couple other people dropped in, some of the firemen and Robin to be exact. Eddie was at work and wasn’t able to make it yet, but he had called me to see if everything was okay.

“You guys don’t have to stay here all day, I’m okay,” I told Mom and Dad.

“We’ll stay here until they make us leave.”

I smiled lightly at that, turning back to Steve. “You hear that? I think they like you more than they like me.”

“I’m gonna go get something to eat from the cafeteria,” mom got up suddenly, “but I think you two should talk.”

“About what?” Dad asked, but I knew.

She didn’t bother answering him, just shood him my way before making her exit.

“Tactful,” I scoffed, smoothing out Steve’s sheets and making sure he was covered up enough to be warm. If my dad noticed, he said nothing, watching in silence as I doted over the closest thing he had to a son.

“What’s going on, Y/N?” he asked.

“Well…. nothing, really, it’s just I feel a bit guilty because I went off on Steve yesterday before the accident. I yelled at him to stop leading me on and then I left even though he begged me to stay. I wouldn’t even let him get a word in.”

“I see,” he nodded in understanding, “And I heard from one of the firemen that he was on the way to the cabin when he got called in. Is that why?”

“Yes,” I nodded, “I mean, I’m assuming. I’m sure he wanted to make things right. Steve never could leave well enough alone.”

“Not when it comes to you, at least.”

“I can’t help thinking I messed things up for good. What if I never get to apologize?”

“You will, but you don’t have to. He forgave you before the words even came out of your mouth. He loves you that way.”

“I know, I know. I’m his best friend, he’d never hold anything against me.”

“No, Y/N, you don’t know,” Dad sighed, “Steve and I go golfing every month. It started as a way to cope with you being gone, both of us missed you and honestly I missed him. He’s like my own son and when you stopped being around, he stopped hanging around. We golf all day and then head to the house and your mom makes us a great spread of dinner.”

“I know that already, Dad. He told me.”

“What you don’t know is that the fifth or sixth time we golfed, he’d gotten real comfortable with me and started talking to me. He told me, ‘Mr. L/N, if Y/N ever comes back I swear I’m gonna marry her.’ I asked him what in the world he was on about and he told me that he knew you were the only woman he’d ever want the second he laid eyes on you at Scoops Ahoy. Nobody ever compared for him. None of those girls meant a quarter as much as you. Why do you think he hasn’t had a girlfriend all these years?”

“Are you saying Steve is in love with me?”

“Steve has been in love with you just as long as you’ve been in love with him.”

“Why didn’t you ever tell me? I would’ve come home right then!”

“Because, sweetheart, you were chasing a dream bigger than me or Steve or anyone. You flew away and I didn’t know if you wanted to come back, you seemed happy where you were. I didn’t wanna burden you with things that would make you feel guilty. Besides, I promised him I wouldn’t tell.”

“But you just did.”

“I don’t think he’d mind,” he winked, “I’m gonna go meet your mom in the cafeteria. You say your piece. He can hear you, you know.”

I smiled lightly as he walked away, turning to my handsome, bandaged up boy the second he was gone.

“Why didn’t you ever tell me, Steve?” I implored, sadness overtaking me. “This could’ve been so different. I never would’ve left.”

My parents stayed the whole day, just as they said they would, and they came back every day to check in. They really were worried about him, and about me as well. I never left his side. I was there every day, all day. And nobody seemed to mind. They all just respected me for what I apparently was; the girl Steve was in love with. But was I, though? All those things my dad said, I believed them but a lot of time had passed since then, and a lot of anger and distance had built up. There was a chance he didn’t even feel that way anymore. There was a chance he didn’t even mean it when he said it.

Two days before Halloween, Robin asked me what I planned on doing. She told me she was set to go trick or treating with Eddie and Candy, and they both wanted me to tag along. Apparently it was a tradition for all of them, and then afterwards they’d leave her with Wayne and do whatever adult activities they could find.

“Oh, Robin, that’s sweet but isn’t that you guys’ thing? I don’t want to intrude,” I spoke into the receiver of my cell phone from Steve’s bedside.

“Y/N, shut up. You’re just as much a part of this group as any one of us. And Candy specifically asked for you. She said she thinks you’re nice.”

I sighed, “Okay. Fine. It’ll have to be after visiting hours, though, I can’t leave Steve here alone until I absolutely have to.”

“Great! We’ll all meet at Eddie’s after visiting hours and go from there, sound good?”

“Yeah, where does he live now again?”

“He has a trailer, not far from the cabin. I’ll send you the address. Oh, and you have to dress up. Participation rules!”

“Robin, I am not in a dress up mood,” I scoffed.

“Y/N,” she sighed, “Nobody wanted to talk to you about this because we didn’t want to make you feel worse than you already do, but everyone agrees that you need a distraction. Something to cheer you up.”

“Who is everyone?”

“Me, Eddie, your parents. Wayne. My parents. The other guys from the station. Everyone. Steve is in a coma, but you’re not. You’ve got to carry on living.”

“So you’ve all been talking about me?” I asked, “Robin, if this is about me not being at the music shop I-“

“It’s not,” she assured, “Don’t even worry about that. I told you, stay with Steve however long you need and come back when you’re ready. Your job will be there. I’m not hiring anyone else, even if you don’t come back until he wakes up.”

I sighed, “Fine. You’re right. I’ll dress up and try to have the best time I can.”

We hung up, and I couldn’t help but feel the faintest spark of excitement, followed by guilt. I desperately needed something, anything besides a stale coma ward room. The only company I’d had that whole month was the people who visited Steve, never surprised to find me there perched beside him.

I didn’t have a lot of time to throw a costume together, but I managed. I was quite proud of it, actually.

I changed in the en suite hospital room bathroom, looking myself over in the mirror, cringing at the awful fluorescent lighting. I still looked cute though, or at least I thought I did.

I walked out of the room and did a little spin for Steve’s lifeless form, pretending he could see me for the sake of it.

“How do I look?” I asked, then followed up with, “I’m gonna pretend you said I look great.” I giggled at myself and sat back down beside him, “Only about five minutes until they kick me out. I wish you could come with us tonight, it would be so much more fun with you. This is my first Halloween here in years! Remember the last one we spent together? Oh, it was so much fun. Much better than that year’s Christmas party. I still cant believe you punched that guy!” If he’d been awake, he would’ve laughed at that, and I would’ve loved the sound. “I dressed up as an angel again. You liked my costume so much that night, I just had to recreate it for you, even if you won’t see it. You always did like me best in white. If Robin was here, she’d say it’s because white makes you think about us getting married. I don’t know about that, though. But I know I like that look you give me when you see me in it.” I sighed at the dead air between us, giving his hand a tight squeeze, “I wish you were awake, talking back to me. I can’t make it much longer without you, Stevie. I miss you, so much it’s killing me. I wish I hadn’t screamed at you that day. I should’ve just been honest about how I feel instead of lashing out about it. I know that now, but it’s too late.”

“Y/N,” the nurse, an older woman I’d become quite familiar with, interrupted, “Finish up as quick as you can. Visiting hours are over.”

“Yes ma’am,” I smiled as she walked away. I turned back to Steve and left him with the words, “I love you. I’ll see you tomorrow” and a kiss on the forehead.

Once I got to Eddie’s, I was struck with a bolt of pride at what I saw. He didn’t live in a trailer park, he owned his own trailer on about two acres of land. It was a nice one, too. One of those remodeled units with nice painted shutters and clean vinyl. And beside it was a little shed, overflowing with Candy’s toys and such. I imagined it was supposed to be his before she overtook the space with her things and smiled.

He opened the door, a grim look on his face and his daughter crying in his arms.

“Oh goodness, what’s wrong?” I asked.

“All month she’s wanted to be a fairy. Now, the day of halloween right before we go trick or treating, she wants to be a princess. The costume store is closed, there’s nothing that’ll make her happy.” He sounded simply exhausted, and my heart squeezed with pity.

“Hold on,” I offered, running to my car and rifling through a bag in the backseat full of rejected costume items. In it was a golden tiara with pink jewels on it, cheap but cute and it matched what Candy was wearing. I brought it back and presented it to her with a, “Tada!”

Her little eyes widened, taking in what I handed her as Eddie helped put it on her head. “Thank you!” she squealed.

“You wanna take the wings off or leave them on and be a fairy princess?” I asked.

“Leave them on,” she smiled, “Why don’t you have wings? You’re an angel! We could match!”

“I was supposed to but they were itchy,” I cringed and she giggled, reaching out for my hand. She jumped out of her dad’s arms and dragged me into the living room.

“Come look at my bag!” she ordered sweetly, and I obliged, taking in the pumpkin shaped monstrosity with a smirk.

“She’s showed me her bag ten times already, wonder how many times she’ll show it to you?” Robin chuckled, and I followed.

“It’s cute!” I assured.

We all piled into Eddie’s car, me in the back with Candy because she wanted to sit by me.

“How’s Steve?” Eddie asked on the way to whatever neighborhood we were going to.

“Same as he was a week ago,” I shrugged, casting my eyes down.

“Well same is better than worse, right?”

“I suppose so.”

Robin and Eddie exchanged a look, but then they dropped the subject as if they were silently agreeing it was better not to talk about it.

We arrived at a small park a few minutes later, parking next to a bunch of other cars and getting out. We looked silly, for sure. An angel, Jessie from Toy Story and what Eddie called a “sexy mechanic” but was really just him in blue coveralls and a wife beater, except the cover alls were tied around his waist. I suspected he pulled a couple random items from his closet and threw them together, but I had to admit, he looked nice. The short hair worked better for him than I would’ve ever thought, and while I missed his curls, he looked handsome and grown up. I was struck again with that bolt of pride for him and all he’d accomplished.

Candy wanted to stick beside me, so I held her hand as we walked from house to house. One house we came to was particularly nice, a sign out front that said “the Byers” in a nice cursive font. We knocked and, once the door opened, I gasped at who I saw.

There was Nancy, a baby in one arm and a bowl of candy in the other. The baby was cute, too.

Her eyes got a little wider when she saw me, “Y/N!” she exclaimed, “You’re the last person I expected to see tonight!”

“Hey Nance,” I grinned, “I know! I moved home a couple months ago!”

“That’s great! For good?”

“I think so, yeah,” I nodded. Things between Nancy and I had always been a bit awkward, granted I hadn’t talked to her in years or seen her. When she dated Steve, I tried to like her but she was always a bit cold towards me and then when she cheated on him I just gave up trying. Now, I didn’t know the dynamic, but it didn’t feel awkward at all. Just unfamiliar.

“Oh Steve must be thrilled about that. Does he know or did you get here after the accident?”

“No, he knows. I was with him that day, actually, until he got called into work.”

“Oh… Me and Jonathan went to the hospital to visit, but the nurse said a girl was there and I didn’t want to interrupt. That must’ve been you?”

“Yeah, I’ve been there every day. But you wouldn’t be interrupting anything! You should come by tomorrow, I think he’d like that!”

“Okay! We will!” she smiled, handing a chocolate bar to Candy. I couldn’t help but notice the flashy ring and band on her hand as she did so, and I grinned, happy they made it.

“That was weird,” Robin mumbled as we walked away.

“Not really,” I shrugged, “I figure it’s time we buried whatever hatchet there was. Guess we’ll see how it goes tomorrow.”

We hit a few more houses, and Candy got some really great stuff. Full sized bars, stuffed animals, all the fancy little treats. I was actually impressed. Finally, we reached the end of the street and she looked exhausted.

“Tired?” I asked her, giggling as she leaned into Eddie and almost fell over. She nodded, reaching up for him to pick her up but he was already carrying her bag and a separate bag full of extra stuff.

“Here, I’ll get you,” I sighed, and she nodded, reaching up to me instead and letting me carry her back to the car.

Once we were all settled in and on the way back to Eddie’s, we all breathed out a sigh of relief.

“I love doing this every year but I’m so glad it’s over,” Robin stated, and we all nodded in agreement.

“At least it passed faster than last year. Steve always wants to stop and talk to everyone he sees, it’s so exhausting,” Eddie chuckled.

“Yeah but I missed him, though. I wonder what he would’ve dressed up as?”

“Probably whatever Y/N told him to.”

I perked up at that, “I would’ve forced him to be a devil. Cause I’m an angel.”

“That would’ve been some freaky se-“

“Robin!” Eddie scolded, “Candy is in the back seat!”

“She’s sleeping, you nitwit. Obviously I would never say that if she could hear me.”

I looked over and, sure enough, she was dead to the world, her head reclined against her car seat.

We made a quick stop at Wayne’s, and Eddie gently carried Candy inside then returned to the car. “Where to now?” he asked us.

“24/7 liquor,” Robin perked up and suggested, eliciting smiles from both of us.

“Wanna get drunk in the hospital parking lot so Steve can kinda sorta be with us?” Eddie asked me, smirk on his face, and though the idea was admittedly flawed, I couldn’t help saying yes.

Eddie got a case of beer for himself, Robin bought a bottle of rum and I settled on two bottles of wine. I was positive none of us would drink all of what we had, but regardless, we were prepared.

Once we pulled into the parking lot, we all settled in comfortably, seats leaned back and limbs thrown wherever they fit. Surely there was some camera watching us and we’d get in some kind of trouble. None of us cared much. Eddie was a fireman, so he went hand in hand with the hospital and the law, and he had our backs. The whole fire station had our backs, really. They’d all grown a liking to me over the time I’d spent in that hospital room, visiting and talking with them like they were family or old friends.

I unscrewed the cap of my moscato and started with a big gulp, earning a giggle from Robin. “I know things are tough, Y/N, but they can’t be that bad.”

“I gotta drink double in Steve’s honor!” I exclaimed, taking another gulp. They followed suit, taking big swigs of their own.

“So. When the dingus pulls out of this coma, what happens?” Robin asked me suddenly.

“What do you mean?”

“Well you had that whole falling out with him and now he definitely knows beyond the shadow of a doubt how you feel, and I hope by now you know how he feels too.”

“I’m still not convinced he sees me that way, guys. A couple of cryptic comments does not a love story make.”

“Yeah, but it’s not just cryptic comments. He’s flat out told people how he feels and they tell you and you don’t believe them.”

“Maybe,” I shrugged, thinking it over, “I don’t know, I’m hoping he’ll get better and we’ll just forget all about it and pretend it never happened.”

“What if he does something crazy like propose marriage?” Eddie mused with a chuckle.

“Nah,” Robin shook her head, “Steve wouldn’t do that. Not right after getting out of a coma. My bet is they date for a year and he has us help him plan some extremely elaborate proposal and he’ll get me to help him pick the perfect ring.”

“Probably. What do you think the wedding would be like?”

“Guys!” I huffed, “I’m right here!”

“Well then tell us, what kind of wedding would you want?”

“Are we seriously talking about this?” I scoffed and they nodded, so I sighed and gave in. “I want a Christmas wedding with lots of red and green, lots of Christmas lights, a big beautiful tree. Christmas themed food and drinks. I want it to be like a winter wonderland.”

“I think Steve would like that. Then again you guys have never disagreed on anything.”

“That’s not true!” I half shouted, “We disagree all the time!”

“About what?”

“Well… about…. things!”

“What things?”

“Well I can’t think of them off the top of my head.”

“Sureeeeee,” they laughed as we all drank some more.

The night passed by entirely too quickly, but it was the most fun I’d had since Steve got hurt. I really appreciated being invited, and the fact that they’d been there for me in what was such a hard time.

The next morning, I showed up at the hospital bright and early, dressed comfy and warm. I looked a little worse for wear from the tiny hangover I was sporting, but it wasn’t bad at all. Just a little messy hair and dark circles under my eyes.

“Morning Steve,” I grinned as I sat beside him, grabbing his hand like always. I proceeded to tell him all the details of the night before, sparing none on the off chance that he could in fact hear me and wanted to know how Halloween went without him. “I’m probably gonna have to tell you all this again when you wake up, huh? Well it’s a good thing I never get tired of talking to you.”

“Y/N?” a voice called from behind me, and I turned to see Nancy, baby in her arms.

“Hey Nance,” I smiled.

“You look better than I expected. No hangover, huh?” she returned the polite gesture.

“No, not today. I’m surprised, I drank a lot!”

“I’m glad you all had a good time! A few years ago I would’ve offered to join the fun but those days are over for us.” She gazed sweetly at her baby and I couldn’t help but grin.

“Well, I think it’s great that you’re focusing on your family! I always knew you’d be a great mom. You just have that way about you.”

“Yeah, well, I hope so! It gets difficult sometimes and I feel like I don’t do enough but then he smiles at me and speaks his baby gibberish and the world fades.”

“He’s so cute,” I pouted just looking at his smooshy face, and she raised a brow at me.

“Wanna hold him?”

“I - I couldn’t,” I shrugged sheepishly.

“Believe me, you could. I hold him all the time, I love giving other people a turn!”

“Well… if you’re sure,” I reached out as she placed him securely in my arms. I melted instantly, rocking him gently back and forth. “He’s so perfect, Nance. I just adore him.”

“Just wait til you and Steve have one. It’s gonna be a whole different level of adoration.”

“Oh - me and Steve, we’re just friends,” I laughed her words off like they were nothing.

“You’ve both been saying that since high school and it’s not any more believable now than it was then.”

“You, you dated him in high school. Why would he date you or anyone else if he liked me?”

“Because he’s stupid. Believe me, he wished I was you. Why do you think I hated you so much?”

“I just assumed you didn’t like my personality.”

“Y/N, you’re like, the sweetest girl ever. Hating you was hard because you never gave me anything to work with. But I knew how he felt about you, so I couldn’t exactly like you either.”

“Well, I think you’re exaggerating. He loved me as a best friend. Or a sister, even.”

“Best friends and siblings don’t sneak off in the middle of the night to skinny dip together, you weirdo.”

I laughed at her bluntness, “I guess that’s true. But either way, your feelings for Jonathan are what broke you guys up. Not Steve’s feelings for me.”

“You’re right, and I wouldn’t have it any other way, but you should know that when I started caring about Jonathan, I stopped disliking you. Mostly because I finally understood how Steve felt. How awful it can feel to be with the wrong person. But I acted on it, and Steve never did. I think that says a lot about the kind of man he is.”

“Well I never disliked you. Not even when you cheated on him. I mean, I wasn’t thrilled with you, but I didn’t like, curse your grandchild’s cow or anything.”

“You’re so weird,” she laughed, walking over to Steve’s bedside. “I hope it works out for the two of you, I’d love if you stayed. Maybe we could finally have a chance at being friends?”

“I’d like to be friends,” I nodded.

“I hardly get to have intelligent conversations these days, with Jonathan working all the time. Let alone girl talk!”

“I have Robin but sometimes girl talk is hard with her. She’s very… unconventional. In the nicest most loving possible way!”

“I know what you mean. All of my friends have kind of embraced the party girl life, and the few that settled down have more kids than I do so they’re always busy.”

“Well I’m always here. And I never do anything after visiting hours, so I could come over one night if you wanted and we could have a good old fashioned sleepover?”

“That would be perfect! Maybe you could bring Eddie’s daughter? I have a feeling she never gets girl time and I bet he’d love the break!”

“Oh, that would be fun. And she likes babies so she’d definitely keep him occupied.”

“How about next week sometime?”

“That works for me.”

We made some more small talk, and we even included Steve in some conversations, though he couldn’t respond. But then the baby got fussy and she had to go. The next week, though, we had a sleepover just as we had planned, watching silly movies and doing a makeover with Candy. And after that, Nancy and Jonathan were invited every time we hung out.

Another month passed and suddenly it was Thanksgiving. My parents tried to convince me to spend it at home and not the hospital, but I wouldn’t budge so instead they just moved their celebration to evening instead of day so that I could join in.

I hung out with Steve for the whole day, then headed to my parents’ house to see the entire family already there.

“Y/N!” They all exclaimed when I walked in, and I gave everyone a quick hug. It was nice to see them all, I just wasn’t in much of a people mood, so I immediately sat down on the couch when greetings were over and leaned back into the cushions.

“How’s Steve?” Mom asked me.

“He’s okay. Still the same.”

“Oh honey, he’ll wake up soon. I just know it!”

“Maybe,” I shrugged, resting my eyes and waiting for dinner to be served.

Finally, a few minutes later, everyone piled their plates high with food and settled into the living and dining room.

I was interrupted in the middle of eating, though, by my phone ringing. It was the hospital. I dropped my plate on the table abruptly and answered, “Hello?”

“Miss Y/L/N?”

“Yes!”

“I was just calling to let you know that Steve has just woken up. You’re welcome to come and see him, the doctors are in with him right now but we’re allowing you to visit when they’re done if you’d like.”

“I’ll be right there!”

I didn’t even hesitate, grabbing my things and heading for the door. “Steve is awake,” I rushed out an explanation to my expectant mother, “I have to go.”

“Well do you want us to come with you?” she asked.

“No, stay and enjoy the holiday! I don’t want everyone to have to go home early!”

“Okay, well… call and update us! Give him our love!”

I nodded with a quick smile and left, gunning it to the hospital.

I rushed up to the coma ward, and the second the nurse saw me, she smiled.

“I’ve been waiting for you! The doctors are almost done, you can sit in the waiting room while they finish up!”

I nodded, walking to the small waiting room and eagerly pacing back and forth. It felt like it took forever for the doctors to walk in the room, but when they finally did, I breathed a sigh of relief.

“What’s going on? Is he okay?”

“He’s doing remarkably well. The only issue is that he doesn’t seem to remember the day of the accident at all. He says the last thing he remembers is putting up your Halloween decorations.”

“Oh,” I furrowed my brows, “But thats normal, right? And not a bad thing?”

“Not bad at all, and completely normal. With the kind of trauma his body went through, it’s natural that his brain suppressed it. It could eventually come back, or it could stay in a vault forever. But regardless, you’re welcome to see him now for a few minutes. He’s perfectly healthy from what we can tell, but we’ll be keeping him for the next two weeks just to make sure he doesn’t fall back into the coma.”

“Of course. Thank you, doctor,” I grinned, racing past him and into Steve’s room.

“Stevia!” I squealed as his eyes landed on me. He gave me a smile, the million dollar kind, reaching his hand out for me.

“There’s my girl,” he sighed, voice as content as can be and his eyes settled on me like they never wanted to look at anything else.

“I can’t believe you’re awake!” I grinned from ear to ear, sitting in my regular spot beside his bed and grabbing his hand.

“I’m so glad to be. I didn’t know how much longer I could listen to you talk and not be able to answer.”

“You could hear me?”

“Vaguely. Like it was a dream, but I caught some of it I think.”

“Oh, that’s so good! That means I wasn’t talking for nothing!”

“The doctors told me you didn’t leave my side the whole time I was here. Is that true?”

My cheeks flushed red and I stared down at my lap, “Yeah, I suppose it is.”

“There’s nobody else I would’ve wanted here.”

I couldn’t help the giddy look on my face, “A lot of other people visited too, you know. The whole fire station rotated in and out. My parents came a lot, and Robin and Eddie. Even Nancy stopped by with her new baby.”

“Nancy, huh? How is the baby anyway?”

“He’s the cutest thing ever.”

“I bet he just loves you,” he smirked, giving my hand a slight squeeze.

“I think he does,” I shrugged.

“My parents didn’t come by?”

“No. I’m sorry, they didn’t wanna interrupt their vacation. They called the hospital and put me in charge of everything.”

He nodded, “I expected as much.”

“Let’s talk about happy things, you just woke up!” I sighed, “Happy Thanksgiving!”

“Happy Thanksgiving,” he responded, “Wait, it’s Thanksgiving?”

“Yeah, and my entire family sends their love. They wanted to come but I didn’t wanna overload you with people.”

“Well… I’m really glad I got to spend it with you. Our first Thanksgiving together in what, 7 years?”

“Yes,” I nodded, “but you did miss Halloween. It was a lot of fun but I wish you’d been there.”

“I wish I’d been there, too. I bet you looked good in your costume.”

“Oh, shut up,” I laughed.

“No, really. You gotta wear it for me one day so I can see what I missed out on.”

“Well, you always did like me in white,” I smirked, batting my eyelashes at him.

“Oh, it was white? Damn, I really did miss out.”

“I’ll put it on for you as soon as you get out of the hospital.”

“Or you could wear it here tomorrow?”

“Wear a halloween costume to the hospital? That’s silly!”

“But it’s what I want!”

“Ugh,” I groaned, “Fine, but you owe me!”

“We can just call it even since, you know, you left for seven years and all.”

“But I also completely ditched my life so I could sit by your bedside crying over your lifeless body for two months, so…. We’re already even. You still owe me!”

Just then, the nurse walked in with an abrupt knock, “I’m sorry Y/N, you gotta go. You can come in again tomorrow during visiting hours. We’ll update you if anything happens tonight.”

“Okay, I’ll just say goodbye and be gone in a second,” I politely stated, and she nodded, leaving us in privacy. “Guess I have to go for the night.”

“It’s okay, I’ll see you in the morning, right?”

“Of course. And you can always call me if you need to,” I gestured to the bag in a corner of the room. His phone and charger were in it, and I quickly retrieved them for him, plugging the device in.

“Thank you. I - I don’t know what to say, I don’t know what I did to deserve you staying with me this whole time.”

“Steve,” I stopped him while he was ahead, “I’m never leaving you again.”

He looked like he might cry, overwhelmed with emotions and the stress from the coma. I leaned down and kissed his forehead, as I had been every night, and left.

Senior Year Christmas

The music was loud, drowning out all rational thought. I heaved out a deep sigh, wondering again why I let Steve talk me into having a party at the cabin. “It’ll be so much fun!” He’d said, his words a clever guise.

Now, where was he? Off in a corner talking to some guys he knew, while I sat on the couch, bored out of my mind, sick from the smell of shitty booze. He’d spent most of the night with me, as he always does, but I sent him away. After all the party was his idea, and I didn’t want to ruin it for him just because I wasn’t in a social mood.

“What’s got you so down, Y/L/N?” Danny Bolen, a boy from my grade, asked me, planting himself on the couch beside me. Danny was nice, the kind of guy who lent me pencils and complimented me in the school hallway.

“Just dreading cleaning all this up,” I shrugged, clinking my solo cup to his and taking a big swig.

“Harrington is gonna help, huh? And that band girl you always hang out with? And maybe that Munson kid too? I always see you around him.”

“Yes, of course, but they’re all drinking more than me, so..”

“Well I’d be more than happy to stay and help, too, if you’ll let me.”

I glanced at him to see only sincerity in his face, and I smiled, “That’s really sweet, Danny, but you don’t have to do that.”

“Nonsense, I want to. Especially if it’ll get you in a better mood, this is your party after all! Now what do you say we get you a fresh drink and try to have a good time?”

I nodded slowly, letting him grab my hand and hoist me off the couch. He walked with me to the kitchen and, once in the doorway, the people around us started to whoop.

“It’s mistletoe!” a girl yelled out, and I looked up to see that it was, in fact, mistletoe. I let out a sigh, glancing at Danny, and he looked just as awkward as I did.

“Who even put that there?” I asked him with a small giggle, and he shrugged. My mind drifted to Steve, wondering if he was witnessing the spectacle. I didn’t see him in the group crowded around us. “We don’t have to kiss, it’s just a silly tradition.”

“Yes you do! You HAVE to, those are the rules!” a random guy said, and I rolled my eyes.

“I’m fine with it if you are,” Danny said, low enough for only me to hear. After glancing at the eager people around us, I gave a curt nod.

He leaned in, and his lips touched mine just long enough for me to know it didn’t feel right, but I didn’t have to suffer it for long. There Steve was, pushing us apart, ripping down the mistletoe and throwing it in the trash.

“What’s your problem, dude?” Danny furrowed his brows and angrily asked Steve.

“No problem, it’s just a dumb tradition. I don’t think Y/N should have to kiss someone just because of a plant.”

“Is that it? Or do you just wish you’d been the one under it with her?”

“Don’t be ridiculous. I just… I want her to make her own decisions.”

“Steve,” I interjected with a hand on his arm. He turned to me sharply, expectantly. “I did make the decision. I told him it was okay.”

“You what?” he spat, “So what, you’re just kissing everybody now? Did Eddie get a turn? Bobby?” He turned to the closest guy to us, “What about you? Did you get a turn?”

“Steve!” I hissed, “Stop!”

“Seriously, man, just back off,” Danny spoke up, stepping between me and him.

“Oh, what a hero,” Steve rolled his eyes, shrugging off my arm, “The party is over, go home.”

“The party is over when she says it’s over,” Danny challenged.

“Danny, stop. Just go. All of you, please. Everybody.”

People filed out in droves at that, Danny lingering until the place was nearly clear and pulling me gently to the side.

“Are you okay here with him?” he asked me, nodding his head at Steve who was glaring intently in his direction.

“I am. He’s just angry for some reason, he’ll calm down when I talk to him.”

“I think I should stay here, you shouldn’t be alone.”

“I’m not alone.”

“Just in case he tries something, I-“

“Hold up,” I scoffed, “What are you trying to imply? I told you he’s just angry, he would never do anything to hurt me.”

“I’m sorry, I just don’t trust it. He’s not a good guy Y/N. I know you’re close or whatever but, listen, I’ve liked you for a long time and if you’d just realize he’s a piece of shit you’d see I could be so much better.”

“Get the fuck out of my cabin,” I growled, taking a step back.

“I’m just trying to-“

“I know exactly what the fuck you’re trying to do, you’re trying to weasel your way into my pants by being a hero. Well I don’t need a hero, I’m perfectly safe here with Steve and you can go the fuck home,” I went off. He looked taken aback for a moment before it turned to anger and he aggressively grabbed my arm, pulling me into him.

“I’ve been nothing but nice to you and you’re going to treat me like this? Do you even realize how much better I could do than you?”

“Let me go!” I squealed, trying to shake off his hold but failing. Steve once again interrupted us, though, pushing Danny roughly off of me.

“She said go the fuck home. Do I have to make you or are you gonna do it on your own like a big boy?”

“Fine, fuck this. She’s not pretty enough for me to care.”

He tried to storm out, but Steve grabbed him by the arm and yanked him hard, forcing him to turn around. Once they were face to face, Steve landed a hard right hook on the shorter boy’s jaw.

Danny grabbed the side of his face roughly, spitting out blood and glaring as he left. Steve turned to me, giving me a once over, eyes landing on my very red arm.

“He grabbed you that hard?” he asked, voice soft and sweet just for me, “Let me see.”

I pulled roughly out of his reach, “You need to go home too, Steve.”

“What?”

“It was your idea to have this stupid party and you ruined it! Why? I don’t understand what the big deal about me kissing him was!”

“I just-“

“Don’t even! You slut shamed me, too. YOU slut shamed ME! You have girl after girl falling at your feet and I haven’t dated anyone, not one single person, since the day I met you but you’re slut shaming me like I go around kissing ever man I see? Fuck you! Leave, now!”

“Y/N, please,” he huffed, hand resolutely on his hip.

“Steve, you made a scene. You embarrassed yourself and you embarrassed me by acting like a complete idiot. Thank you for getting him off of me but I don’t want you here.”

Our screaming match ended there, as he sadly cast his eyes downward.

“I’m sorry, I just… I just wanted to help,” he sighed, “I’ll see you later.”

As he walked outside, I was hit with a pang of guilt. I turned to Eddie and Robin and they both had shocked looks on their faces.

“I’m doing the right thing, making him go, right?”

They shrugged and I groaned, my head falling back. I knew I couldn’t go through with it.

I ran outside, just as Steve was climbing into his car. I was surprised to see it was raining, somehow I hadn’t noticed. I suppose I’d been distracted.

“Steve!” I screamed over the storm. He turned to me, expectant. “Come back!”

He did as I asked, “You changed your mind?” he inquired as he approached me.

“I know it’s bad at home. I’m not sending you back there. Not tonight.”

“I can go. I know you want me to.”

“No, I really don’t, I just want to know why you acted that way.”

“I don’t know why,” he shrugged, cupping my face in his hands and I shoved him off again.

“That’s bullshit, Steve,” I scoffed.

“I’m sorry, I just… I don’t know what came over me. I just got so angry when he kissed you, I don’t know why. I shouldn’t have said what I said. I don’t know what’s going on with me.”

“Well you need to figure it the fuck out because I don’t want this complicated mess. And if you can’t, I’ll leave.”

“What?”

“I’ve applied to a lot of colleges, Steve. Not all of them are close. I have my pick of them, too.”

His jaw hung open for a moment before complete melancholy overtook him, all the light draining from him. “Please,” he whimpered, “Don’t leave me. I promise I won’t ever act like that again. I swear, I’ll be better, I’ll do better for you. Please don’t leave me.”

He pulled me into a crushing hug and I sighed, giving into him like I always did. He was shaking against me, his clothes soaked and I was sure mine were too. He seemed so close to breaking down, terrified I would really leave him. Terrified to be without me. Despite it all, there was nothing better than his warmth wrapped around me.

“I’m not going anywhere, Steve.”

He held me for a while longer before pulling away slightly, “You’re freezing,” he commented, “Let’s go inside and get you some warm clothes.”

I nodded, following him back into the cabin and into my heart.

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