#here you guys get an extra thing this week because it is my birthdaaaay and I wanted to post a thing

[solarmorrigan]

It’s Eddie’s own fault, really, that things turned out this way (he says, as if he’s in any way displeased with the outcome).

It’s just that once they’d started dating, once Steve had realized that his touch was invited and welcomed, he’d become so open with his affection, whenever and wherever he could be.

He holds Eddie’s hand, he hugs him “hello,” he kisses him “goodbye” (and, frankly, any other time he thinks he can get away with it), he’s always pulling Eddie up close to him when they sit (or pulling Eddie right into his lap, or, once he’s been assured that he’s not that heavy, sitting himself on Eddie’s lap), he’s forever orbiting in Eddie’s space, and Eddie is living for it.

He’s never had anyone love him so openly before, so proudly. It’s fucking marvelous.

Naturally, Eddie starts looking for ways to return the favor; little ways to let Steve know that he’s just as loved.

And it starts with his car keys.

He asks Steve to grab them for him because they’re still on the counter and Eddie’s already halfway out the door. When Steve hands them over, Eddie makes sure to take a moment to lean in and peck him on the cheek with a quick, “Thanks, babe.”

And after catching the pleased, pink flush that spreads over Steve’s cheeks at that, there’s no way Eddie isn’t going to do it again.

After Steve brings him a beer the next time they’re watching a movie together, Eddie gives him a quick kiss on the cheek and tells him, “Thanks, angel.”

After Steve pays for dinner on date night (they take turns, no complaints, no skipping, no matter how much one or the other might argue I can get it this time), Eddie takes a furtive glance around the empty restaurant parking lot before pressing his lips to Steve’s cheek with a quiet, “Thank you, baby.”

After Steve brings him the towel he’d left inside the next time the kids are over to use the pool, he gets a big kiss on the cheek and a saccharine, “Thank you, sweetheart” (at which most of the kids groan and boo about PDA, which results in Eddie flipping them off while Steve kisses him full on the mouth, because they are mature adults).

If Eddie had stopped to think about it, he might have recognized it as a sort of (benign!) conditioning. He doesn’t actually stop to think about it, however, until one afternoon when Steve brings him lunch while he’s working on a campaign.

“Thanks, Steve,” Eddie mumbles, barely glancing up from his notebook.

It takes him almost a full minute to realize that Steve hasn’t moved – and only then because Steve pointedly clears his throat.

Pulled from his plotting stupor, Eddie blinks up at Steve, who is staring right back at him. “What?”

“Forgetting something?” Steve asks, glancing down at the sandwich and chips he’d brought in.

Eddie frowns, thinking back. “I said thank you.”

Steve raises his brows, clearly unimpressed that Eddie is still missing some kind of point, and then he tilts his head just slightly up and to the left, baring the side of his face.

Eddie stares, uncomprehending, for moment longer before– “Oh, shit, right!”

He pops up out of his chair and presses a kiss to Steve’s cheek, then another, and another, until Steve’s smiling at him and trying not to laugh.

“Sorry, darlin’,” Eddie murmurs against his skin. “Won’t happen again.”

“Better not,” Steve chides, but from the way his arms wind over Eddie’s shoulders, pulling him closer as he turns his head to catch him in a proper kiss, Eddie can tell that he’s far from displeased.

[Prompt: Cheek kisses]