#oops ate chicken and dumplings last night while my own tastebuds are messed up from tn allergy season starting so this happened

[starrystevie]

allergy season attacks hawkins particularly badly one year and it hits steve like a freight train. stuffed nose, headaches, body chills, fatigue, the works. he's never been good at being sick; he gets too whiney and too dependent on those around him even though he can indeed get out of bed to make his own bowl of cereal. and poor eddie has no idea what to do so he makes steve the thing his momma would make him when he was sick, the cure all to feeling better: chicken and dumplings.

eddie's in the kitchen for hours as he tries to perfect the recipe, calling up wayne to help decipher his sister's handwriting from an old recipe rolodex, shooing steve out of the kitchen when he comes in moaning and pitiful and seeking cuddles. the dumplings might turn out too tough and lumpy and the broth a little too salty, but he's proud of himself nonetheless. eddie carries the bowl into their room on a little tray with a gentle smile and extra biscuits on the side, and pulls a chair up to the bedside to spoonfeed steve like the miserable baby he is all because of a stuffy nose.

but the first bite has steve grimacing, causing eddie's smile to shift into a frown as he blows on another bite so it won't be too hot.

"you don't like it?" eddie asks, pouting and giving the puppy dog eyes to end all other puppy dog eyes.

and steve doesn't have the heart to tell him that he's never liked chicken and dumplings, even when his great-grandma made it that one time she visited and made the dumplings from scratch. so he forces himself to smile, forces his face to unpinch and happily take another bite as eddie offers it.

"no, it's not that," he says as well as he can around a mouth of food and stopped-up nose. "just can't taste all that much right now, you know 'cause of the mouth breathing and stuff, and that bite was just a bit too hot and... umm..."

with no more excuses coming to his allergy-riddled brain, steve opens his mouth like a baby bird and eddie grins like there's no place he'd ever want to be and feeds him another bite of his least favorite food in the world. or well, that's not entirely true since this version is his new favorite, and it's all because of the love that was put into it. so he'll hide his disgust and eat the goddamn chicken and dumplings if it means steve will get to see more of those smiles from eddie.