#idk what to have wayne say to steve and eddie after he catches them kissing

[frankenstein-ate-my-left-shoe]

@steddiemas week 3 - Eggnog, Baking, Sweater, Pine

rating: T | words: 1,670

this isn't late idk what you're talking about

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The feeling of Steve’s lips on his cheek haunts him for days after Steve helped him decorate.

Every time he looks at the tree, every time he sits down on the couch, hell, if he even looks at that damn spot in front of the couch, he can feel Steve’s kiss.

And now, a week later, he’s on his way to Steve’s house to help with his decorating.

“You’re abnormally quiet.” Max says, startling Eddie out of another round of Steve Kiss Reminisce (good thing too, as this one had started to push on past the first chaste cheek kiss into Steve lips on his neck, his collarbone, his ches—), “Hello?? Earth to Munson?”

“Shut up. Sorry, What?”

“What are you thinking so hard about?”

“The next campaign.” he answers immediately.

She squints at him from behind her coke-bottle glasses, “Uh huh. Sure you were.”

“I was! Gotta figure out this new royal character…”  he argues, pulling into the Harringtons’ driveway, “He can’t just be any ol’ Joe Schmoe.”

Max scoffs as Eddie shifts into park, unbuckling her belt at the same time she’s opening the door. “Yeah okay.”

Eddie swears he hears her mumble something else, but it’s too quiet. Something that sounded a lot like “As if it’s gonna be anything but a Steve clone..” but that couldn’t be.

He follows her to the front door, catching up to her when the door opens in front of them. 

“Wow, it smells great in here.” Max says, marching through the door like she owns the place

“Steve’s been baking since he woke up,” Robin says, ushering Eddie through the door behind her, “He’s super excited about this cheesecake recipe he found, and has been making truckloads of gingerbread.”

“And roast!” Steve calls as Eddie wrestles his boots off his feet without untying the laces.

“And roast,” Robin echoes, “It’s been taunting me with its smells for the last four hours.”

Steve emerges from one of the kitchen doors as Eddie finally removes his boots, a mug in each of his hands, “Eggnog or hot cocoa, Ed?”

Eddie about folds at the sight of him. Maroon sweater today instead of the yellow one that haunts both his dreams and nightmares, plain white apron tied snug to his waist, fuckin’ flour smeared on his cheek and in his hair..

“Nog me up, big boy,” he says, super chill-like, reaching for the mug that isn’t streaming steam into the air.

Steve snorts a laugh and passes him the mug, ushering him and Robin back into the living room after Max.

The living room looks like Christmas threw up all over it.

The tree is only maybe a third of the way built, one of those put-together-yourself artificial trees that, given how wide around it is even now, will certainly be close to scraping the ceiling by time it’s fully assembled.

There are boxes and totes and shiny tinsel garland strewn about everywhere, green gold and red ornaments that have many a’dollar on his and Wayne’s similarly colored collection, and an already impressive length of popcorn and cranberry garland that three of the boys are working on on the carpet.

Well, Lucas is working hard on it, Dustin seems to be helping by lining up the next pieces on the floor in front of Lucas (popcorn, popcorn, popcorn, cranberry, popcorn, popcorn, popcorn, cranberry..), while Mike sneaks handfuls of the stuff into his cheeks.

Robin plops onto her usual spot at one end of Steve’s couch, picking up a long mass of crinkled ribbon as she does, and Max sits in the recliner at one end of the room, taking the mug of hot chocolate Steve hands her once she’s settled.

“Joyce will be here with El and Will soon, and roast will be done in a couple hours so chop chop on that tree.”

None of the boys acknowledge him, so Eddie takes it upon himself to. “You got it boss, where do you want me?” 

He busies himself with shedding his hat and jacket, completely missing the spluttering cough Steve does before responding. “You wanna help Mike finish assembling the tree?”

“On it Jefe,” Eddie says, spinning on his heel to salute Steve, following the spin around again to look down at Mike (still on the floor). “Let’s go Micycle, up and at ‘em.”

With plenty of colorful commentary, he and Mike manage to snap the monster of a tree together in almost no time at all. 

The hooked ends of each branch are passed up to Mike on the ladder once it gets too tall for either of them to manage, and, in a bit of trivia that only Eddie is privy to now, Mike similarly gets entranced by ‘fixing’ the branches as Steve did with Eddie’s tree.

Robin’s gotten all the wire-edged ribbon un-crinkled, Lucas and Will are finishing up the last few feet of the garland, El and Dustin took on the task of laying out the ridiculous amount of lights and checking for blown bulbs, and Max has moved to the center cushion of the couch in order to lay out all the best ornaments and check that they all haven’t lost their hooks.

So, once the ladder is no longer needed, Eddie leaves Mike to his fluffing and moves to sit beside Max in Robin’s vacated spot closest to the tree.

This also gives him the perfect sightline to the kitchen where Steve is contentedly flitting about all over the kitchen, back and forth from sheets of cookies to the still simmering roast, and back again with a new colored frosting in hand.

Back and forth, back and forth, Eddie watches Steve move around the kitchen with the practiced ease only someone overly familiar with a space could have. Shit, if Eddie tried to move from one spot to the next like that in his kitchen? Well, one, there’s not that much room in his, but more imoportantly, he’s barely ever got a clue where one thing is on any one day, despite Wayne insisting he puts everything back in the exact same place.

…Whatever. All that to say that it’s quite entertaining, like watching him dance…

Should he join him? He could picture it sure, sliding into the room and being so familiar with the place that he and Steve have become one fluid machine.. 

Before his imagination has gone too far off the deep end (the Harringtons’ kitchen definitely did not just morph into a cramped and dingy but well-loved kitchen of a two bedroom apartment in Chicago, (he lies)), Eddie’s attention is yanked back with a sudden sharp tug at his hair.

“Ow! What the–” Eddie reaches to where the few strands had definitely been pulled free, only to find several somethings hooked into his hair. “What are you doing?”

He turns, and Max looks almost offended that he’s protesting. “I’m decorating the tree.”

”You may be blind, but you know damn well I'm not a tree, Maxine.” Eddie grumbles, trying to pull out the baubles and wincing when a hook gets stuck.

Instead of helping, Max hooks another ornament into his hair. “Might as well be with all the pining you’re doing.”

Eddie freezes, looks over at her, and sputters out a high pitched “What are you— no I’m n— he– I–” then leans in closer, “Again, I reiterate, you’re blind.. How the fuck do you know that?”

“You’re too quiet.” she shrugs, “Except the sighing. You’re doing a lot of sighing.”

Okay, fair, “How in the hell’d you know it was Steve?”

She gives him a shit eating grin.

Aw shit..

“I didn’t.” she grins, and Eddie’s mortified, but before he can even say anything, Max continues on with, “I’m kidding dude, I knew it was Steve. You always start sighing like a wife awaiting her husband’s return from war whenever he isn��t around; it’s even worse when he is…”

Eddie goes quiet for three whole seconds. “Well, I’m outta here.”

The others look up from their tasks “Wait, what?” Lucas asks at the same time Dustin says, “Eddie? Where’re you going?”

“I have to go lay down in the middle of the road before the 5:30 bus comes along.” he says, already at the door and tugging on his sneakers. “I’ve only got 3 minutes to get down onto Main Street.”

“Wh–”

“It comes down Cornwallis at 5:35, might be simpler to go there instead” Max calls after him

Eddie snaps his fingers and points in her direction, “You’re a real one, Mad Max. Well, It’s been great guys, but I’ve been embarrassed past the point of no return, and as such, I must never return. Aideau.”

He gives a fake little bow to the protesting gremlins and turns to the front door, only to find Steve standing against it, his arms crossed and face scowling.

“There will be no getting run over by buses on my watch, Munson. Get back in there, dinner’s almost ready.”

“...I don’t think the apron’s helping your tough guy schtick, Dingus.” Robin calls, very obviously trying to stifle laughter.

Steve ignores her, “Quit being so dramatic, Eddie, the ornaments aren’t that bad.”

Eddie forgot about the things to be completely honest, but Steve steps forward from the door, grabs him by the shoulders, and spins him back toward the still tinsel-covered mess of a living room, “Now get back to it, I’d like to have my tree done before Christmas.”

There’s a teasing tug at his hair, a shift of clothes, then one of Steve’s arms is wrapping over his shoulder and holding out a newly freed ornament for Eddie to take.

He does, and with a little nudge, Eddie’s back in the living room and Steve’s heading back to the kitchen.

There’s a short pause, Robin still doing her best not to laugh, the boys are thoroughly confused, then Max says, “Can I borrow that garland when you’re one with it? I just thought of a much better use for it.”

dividers from @steddiecameraroll-graphics!

[stevethehairington]

the way i was about to go to sleep but then i was Hit with Good Phrasing for the next scene of wayne pov 2: electric boogaloo so now the doc is open and sleep has been pushed off fjsks