#platonic stareth

[fandoms-in-law]

Trying for Happier Shades

Summary: When Steve was a child he cut a friendship connection in the middle of an argument. Now he's facing the friendship he failed to repair as the connection through Eddie. If only that wouldn't include explaining his powers and witchcraft to Eddie who'll want to test it.

Part of my With Steve AU: au idea, Nets& Webs, A Chain is Forged, Following Ropes

Author's note: On AO3 this is in 3 chapters but I prefer posting things as one shots on here so there's been a delay for it coming to tumblr as I finished the last chapter, but I am leaving an indication of how the chapters are spaced in.

~

~CH1~FP

Steve had known that sooner or later this would happen. He’d expected it as soon as Dustin managed to stop raving about Eddie enough to name the other members of Hellfire instead of mentioning the names of their DnD characters.

He still didn’t feel ready to leave his home and see Gareth Emerson waiting for him, hand half raised as if he’d been debating about knocking.

“You saved Eddie’s life.” Gareth stated, glaring at Steve less vehemently than he had in years.

Steve took it as a hopeful sign, stepping forwards and closing the door since he did still need to head out. Eddie had asked him to hang around if the entire party ever gathered at the Munson’s new trailer, wary about people holding onto the mob mentality against him. “Because he never deserved death and that place had already taken too much. Also Dustin and his ropes.” He smiled heading towards his car and gesturing in what he hoped would be understood as an invitation.

Gareth followed, waving at the car on the road beside the Harrington driveway. “Ropes?” He asked, climbing in beside Steve.

“Hard to explain, even harder than what actually happened during the earthquakes.” He commented, knowing that anything other that a flat refusing to say more would be taken in similar ways.

“Looks like you should try doing both.”

Pulling off, Steve shook his head, “Not without Eddie. Some of that you should hear from him.” He put the radio on then, not loud enough to discourage conversation but enough to make it comfortable if they didn’t talk further.

Surreptitiously he also looked at the connection between them, biting back a smile seeing it a pale pleasant colour for the first time in years.

~

The drive over to Eddie’s hadn’t been entirely quiet. Of course Gareth was going to question more about the friendship they once had and how abruptly it ended. Steve was only surprised that he didn’t push more after he claimed to be the one to blame for it.

Eddie however knew nothing of their shared history and opened the door excitedly only to pause hanging out of it for a moment, “Hey Gareth… and Steve?” He looked between them in confusion. “When did you two get close enough for Steve to give you lifts places?”

Gareth shrugged, heading to get himself a drink as he replied, “’Bout ten years ago, had an argument we never talked out.”

“You’ve hated him the entire time I’ve known you.” The comment was said while gesturing and staring at Steve, apparently hoping to make him explain more.

“Ask Steve. He’s claiming guilt for it but not explaining more than saying it’s a long story.” Gareth rolled his eyes, leaning on the counter.

Steve gestured out the door, exclaiming, “It is! And the kids are here! They do not get to know it.”

“You mentioned Dustin and ropes before;” Gareth stated flatly, unsurprised when said boy hurried through, “Doesn’t he already know it?”

“Nope.” Steve crossed his arms, pressing his lips into a thin line after replying and staring at Dustin’s curious look.

The question was easily predicted, “What do I have to do with rope?”

“Nothing, unless it’s in your game I bet.” He scoffed, looking at Eddie curiously to see how he was reacting to anything that had been said so far, especially since he’d helped prevent everyone demanding answers when he had to explain to Hopper, Joyce, and Murray. “You trying to capture someone? New friend? Enemy? Rope could be useful for that.”

Disappearing back into the living room after deciding whatever Steve was hiding wasn’t currently interesting, Dustin called back, “You’re so weird Steve. No, we don’t need to tie anyone up right now.”

“Noting that idea for getting an ally to them involved though.” Eddie decided, tapping his chin in exaggerates thoughtfulness, following him through with Gareth just behind him.

Steve smiles, backing away as the game is focused on and soon underway.

~

For all the times that Steve had tried to explain what he could see and do, facing Gareth made this feel like the most difficult attempt. Suggesting Gareth and Eddie come over to his home the day after DnD so he actually could have time to explain did not make it any easier to face.

He might be relatively certain of getting believed and certain that while neither Gareth or Eddie were known for patience they would let him explain in his own time, he also knew starting with the reason he was explaining anything was probably the best idea.

Bluntly stating “I can see the threads that connect people to what they care about. Gareth and I were friends until I cut the thread in the middle of an argument,” was not the way to explain.

“You cut the thread? Just like that?” Gareth challenged, before frowning as he realised that sentence wasn’t something he understood.

“I was eleven!” The protest was automatically given, “I didn’t know anything about it really. And I tried to fix it, tied it back together, attempted to start again.”

“And it took, didn’t it?” Eddie broke the staring contest between them, watching his friends attentively.

Gareth shook his head, sounding dismissive as he simply said, “Eddie.”

“No. You’ve always held a grudge against Harrington. Me, I never liked any jock but saw them as all the same, only got personal against Steve because you hated him specifically and he was king for a while.” Eddie explained. “You could never see him as nothing to you.”

Gareth’s expression twisted at that being pointed out, “How do they even form anyway? Like how can anyone even see that stuff?”

With that question Steve focused on trying to fully explain what he could do, what he’d learnt about his powers since then and how it appeared to him. He couldn’t say that he wasn’t grateful for the phone ringing.

“Steve, can you get to Family Video?” Robin asked as soon as he answered it, quickly adding, “Keith left early and a rush has hit.”

He was already grabbing his car keys, used to jumping in to help when their boss decided to neglect the store rules over shifts, “Sure Robin.”

Gareth followed him out as he headed for the door, loudly protesting, “Where are you going? That can’t be all the explanation!”

Steve didn’t glance back, “Work. Robs needs help.”

“And we’re not important enough-” The angry words were interrupted by Eddie’s hand and chuckle, having realised how close the pair were.

“Gareth! We’ll wait till tonight. No campaign is good if all the info is given at once.”

From inside his car, Steve called back, “Thanks Eds.”

“But what about-” Gareth glared, gesturing as Steve drove away, wondering what Eddie would say to calm it, as well as if they’d still be at his when the shift was over.

“He said Dustin makes connections from rope so how thick must his connection to Robin be? Those two are closer than anyone.”

~

Steve had only taken Robin with him to Jemima’s shop a few times, but knowing that he still needed to finish explaining meant he made a detour to it on the way to dropping her home.

“I need sage and nettles. Probably a stick of willow too.” He mentioned as an explanation

Robin climbed out with him, thinking for a moment before asking, “Who are you clearing the air with? That’s what you usually want those things for, isn’t it?”

He’d only mentioned the charms he did and what was used in them a few times so he nodded to agree while answering, “Gareth.”

“Eddie too?” She confirmed, a gleam in her eye.

Steve shook his head, scrunching his nose a little in confusion at the mention, “Nah, he seems okay with everything I’ve been able to explain so far.”

“You’ve not got to being a witch yet then?” Robin surmised, smirking.

He was stopped from crossing his arms, or placing them on his hips by the ingredients he’d already picked up. Jemina rarely chatted with him if there were other people around, but he was sure she was listening to the conversation to gossip about it later. “You’re the one who told me to start with seeing connections between people and shit before witchcraft.”

“And I stand by it but the witchcraft is what’ll get the bigger reaction from Eddie. You want me to help?”

“Yes.” Back at home he was glad to have Robin there, especially given the dramatics Eddie pulled off at seeing him make a charm and use it to start explaining witchcraft and how it worked with his natural powers.

~CH2~FP

A week had passed since Gareth made up with Steve and they hadn’t really spoken much. There was clearly some awkwardness felt by Gareth over all the years where their connection would be strained so Steve wasn’t surprised when the next chance they had for a private conversation was begun, “Are we acting awkward or biting the bullet and getting to know each other properly again?”

“Getting to know each other. You’re not risking Dustin trying to force us to talk.” Steve chided, too used to trying to corral the kids into behaving to avoid it when talking about them.

He got a curious look at the comment, “Let’s start with; what’s with that kid?”

“I told you,” He rolled his eyes, thinking it was obvious enough, “He will make connections with rope from the start and when I didn’t share an obvious interest talked until he found or made one. Little genius who needs to eat humble pie more often.”

Gareth snorted, “Sounds like Eddie does him good then.”

“Yeah.” He pushed his hand through his hair, “Hated that at first.”

“Let me guess, you thought he’d replace you?” He asked somewhat smugly.

Steve clicked at him, smirking as he said, “And you said we don’t know each other still.”

Gareth narrowed his eyes at the implication Steve knew him still, “Prove you know me and I’ll work on getting to know this new you instead of asking questions back and forth for hours.”

“Okay,” Steve straightened, deciding what to mention and smirking at Gareth, “You play the drums and helped form Corroded Coffin because your dad only gave you patterns to practice and the band gave you an excuse to learn more skills and heavier beats. You prefer cupcakes to bigger cakes or cookies, but go for cookies more often because they usually have fewer crumbs. You hold grudges long after you’ve forgotten why, or do you know why you hate Cole Riddell?”

“Not the specifics but he’s a jerk.” Gareth stared, stunned at the summary of him before asking, “How’d you know the cake thing?”

“Lucas was wondering why you kept brushing the table when he got sent in with cupcakes one session. Said you ate a few and I remembered you doing similar things when we were kids and grimacing the one time I had you over for a birthday because of the size of the cake my parents got.” Steve leant against the wall, wondering if he should know these things about Tommy and Carol too when he wasn’t sure he did.

“You’ve still been paying attention?” Gareth sounded astounded by the thought.

“Never stopped thinking of you as a friend, hoping you’d let me apologise.”

A glare was shot at the comment, paired with a vehement exclamation of “No apologies!”

“Why not?” Steve asked. He was sure there definitely were things he should be apologising for, even beyond the argument and cutting of their original connection.

“I don’t want any!” Gareth raved, “You saved Eddie, apparently broke NDA’s just so I could know everything. There’s nothing to apologise for, especially not from like a decade ago.”

The connection between them was glowing and thrumming with how must Gareth meant the words he was saying, and though Steve hadn’t meant to look at it, now he had he could only slowly nod in acceptance of that.

~

Not that Steve would ever say so, but he was amused that Gareth’s way to get to know him again was oddly identical to how Dustin and his friends acted after deciding they liked him. It involved a lot of requesting lifts around as well as trying to talk him into hanging around during DnD campaigns.

He was giving Gareth another lift to one when Gareth brought up his powers again, asking, “So Dustin’s connections with you two are rope? And yours to Robin is a chain?”

“Yes.” He nodded, turning into the trailer park.

“And ours is solid but has been negative for years?”

He glanced over somewhat warily at the additional clarification, before focusing on parking, “Exactly.”

“So what’s yours and Eddie’s?” Gareth asked, adding slightly harshly, “And don’t give me bull over only being connected through Dustin.”

Steve thought for a moment, hesitating into a growing awkward silence noticing Eddie leaning out of his front door curiously. That’s enough to keep his reply carefully worded while he climbed out of the car. “Everyone who worked closely together through the shit that happened has thick connections now, unlikely to ever vanish, so yeah, Eddie and I have a pretty strong connection.”

“I flirt and he doesn’t punch me.” Eddie called, having heard the end of his words, “It’s strong, perhaps even a rope, I bet.”

Gareth groaned, looking between them. “I timed asking that badly, didn’t I?”

Steve nodded, “You wouldn’t get much more out of me than that anyway.”

~CH3~

Steve wasn’t under any illusions about how curious Eddie was likely to be about witchcraft and his version of powers. It was actually one of the reasons why he never wanted to tell the younger teens even if he occasionally thought it would be nice to have someone else plan how to use it against the monsters.

Once, after Starcourt, Robin had admitted that she was sure there were a lot of questions that she wasn’t thinking to ask, just because of how she learnt about witchcraft in the midst of fighting Russians and then the Mindflayer. They’d placed a bet between them that Eddie would ask all those questions for her now, since he’d been told about them after everything was calm again.

Neither of them predicted that Eddie’s first questions outside of the initial ones was going to be; “I wanna know how you can change a connection other than by breaking it.”

“Eddie, I told you it’s-” Steve began to reply, glancing around the store which had been mostly empty for the last hour given it was a Tuesday evening and the after work rush of people returning their videos was long over.

“Ah, ah, ah!” Eddie placed a finger on Steve’s lips, gesturing around them, “Show me. I want to know, not just be told.”

He narrowed his eyes, torn between suspicion and curiosity over what the hell Eddie meant. “What do you mean ‘show you’? You can’t see them.”

“Change one.” Eddie replied with a broad grin, “Do it so I can see the effect.”

Steve shook his head, “I’m not doing that unless people consent.” It was somewhat of a lie, given his most often use of his powers was calming customers down by painting the connections, but if he was doing it on request then the people he was doing it too had better agree and there wasn’t a large number of people able to.

He got an incredulous look at the restriction, “People consent? You don’t do it often?”

“When I was a kid and my parents were pissed,” He rolled his eyes and tried to lean back as if that was all, but Eddie’s stare remained, “And for the truly horrible customers if they’re with someone I can affect their connection with.”

“I will get you to show me, even if I have to lurk in Family Video forever more.” Eddie decided, but headed out of the store immediately instead of trying to see it that night.

~

“Why is Eddie trying to talk me into letting you mess with my connections?” Robin asked a few evenings later when she’d decided to have a sleepover at Steve’s house.

Steve groaned at Robin’s question, “He wants to see it happen. I said only if people consent.”

“Don’t you use it to calm the kids when you’ve got a migraine?” She looked at him as if trying to figure out what the issue was.

“Charm bags,” He corrected, holding a finger up, “Different method to painting the connections and can be thrown at them too.”

Robin burst out laughing, curling into the cushions of the couch. “That’s why games of catch randomly start at work? Keith hates it when he sees them.”

“Added bonus there.” He grinned, before he had to check, “You refused to let me do anything, right?”

“I said I wanted to talk with you first but given how reluctant you are the refusal is cemented.”

Steve sighed, relaxing, “Thanks Robs. I just don’t want to damage something accidentally.”

“You won’t. I believe in you.” She reassured him, stretching over to pat his shoulder.

~

“Paint our connection purple.” Gareth stated after Steve had invited him and Eddie in.

Steve groaned, realising who the request actually came from easily. He directed a half-hearted glare at Eddie before focusing on the request to ask, “Gareth, do you even know what feeling is usually felt when a connection is purple?”

“Nope, but it’s a cool colour so it has to be good,” Eddie insisted. It didn’t offer any confidence on that actually being the case.

Steve carried on looking at Gareth, “Are you sure you want to do this, Gareth?”

“Yes. I’m just as curious about your powers as Eddie is.” Gareth had thought for a second, brow furrowing slightly at the repeated question, but nodded.

“Fine, for five minutes then I’m taking the added colour away.” Steve resolved, moving through to the living room and fetching the clock from the mantelpiece to time it better, “Please don’t hate me if it goes wrong.”

“We’re asking for it, Stevie. And I trust you.”

~

There wasn’t really a guide to the colours connections appears with. Steve generally knew what how light or dark a colour was meant but had spotted though his times trying to calm customers that colours had different impacts on each person.

Sometimes the yellow that calmed his father just made someone relax but other times they’d become cheerful, laughing at anything they said. More confusing still were the times the colour being put on a connection caused tears.

Once he’d told Robin about what he was doing and her theory was that colours meant different things to different people and that might impact how any colour changes the way a connection feels.

Now Steve only hoped that was true as he looked between Gareth and Eddie, “Before I do anything, what do you think a purple connection feels like?”

“Royalty, right? That was mentioned in history at some point, I think.” Eddie easily replied, but Gareth looked thoughtful.

“You don’t know how it’ll affect us either, do you?” He asked before continuing, “But purple is safety, calm, and confidence.”

He shrugged a little, “One colour has got so many different reactions and I’ve rarely seen purple colour a connection naturally. I also don’t know if colouring it will permanently change it. I don’t think it does but it feels like the bigger a colour difference is it’s more likely to and it does impact the connection even when I remove it.”

Eddie’s eyes turned shrewd, “So what colour is our connection currently?”

“Bold blue. It tends to settle on that recently.” Steve barely looked at the string before replying.

“Not far off from purple, so change away, let’s experience it.” Eddie gestured imperiously and Steve sighed, realising his last delaying tactic had failed.

He watched for a moment more before focusing on the connection and changing its colour to purple, making the colour solid from the start despite the temptation to ease them into the change.

“You know how much you scared me, right?” Gareth asked unexpectedly, staring at Eddie as if they were about to fight.

Eddie turned, raising a hand to his chest in a familiar gesture though his eyes had darkened in a way Steve hadn’t seen before, “Worried over little old me? When on earth are you talking about?”

“Going on the run, no communication with us at all and then turning up in hospital acting like everything was fine and this guy wasn’t playing bodyguard while injured cause our town is full of assholes.” Gareth ranted, and Steve was ready to call the experiment off before five minutes had gone if the pair before him actually fought.

Eddie near growled, “I needed normalcy! You’ve heard the shit I’d gone through, was it a crime to want not to think about it? Do you expect an apology?”

“No, but a promise to leave a note if shit happens again would be nice!” Gareth snapped back, “Or getting the people helping you to give us a heads up you’re safe even!”

“I had other-” The tone in Eddie’s voice was harsh and he was almost yelling so Steve wiped the colour from their connection, stopping the words.

He also stepped between them, “Chill, both of you. I removed the purple because that is not something to fight over. Take deep breaths.”

“Should’ve asked you to check my band was okay, Stevie,” Eddie muttered, throwing himself onto the sofa, “Should’ve, didn’t, thought they’d be safer to be left out of everything.”

While the connection between Gareth and Eddie was blue again it was darker than before, with a green tinge that hadn’t been there too.

He looked between them again, Gareth folding into a chair, “Want to keep talking about it?”

~

Gareth and Eddie had managed to get back to the original bold blue connection before they left Steve’s the night before but the experience had impacted Steve just as much.

He realised now that he’d been playing with peoples relationships all to try and calm down situations: The realisation sat heavy in Steve’s mind so he turned to the spell books now, looking for other ways to calm the customers he’d encounter.

“So Eddie getting you to temporarily change his connection to Gareth means you need to study your spell-books?” Robin asked, flicking the page he was reading over.

He pouted at her, “Made me realise that doing it to the worst customers could be bad, even if I reverse it as they leave.”

“I don’t think so.” She commented, “In fact I’ve had a few women say you’re a miracle worker for their relationships after their husbands kicked off in the store around you. Sounds like you did good with whatever colour change then.”

Steve frowned for a moment before smiling, “I still want to look for other ways, but that’s good. I might keep doing it then.”

[fairysteve]

wait steve as a casino dealer

he works with argyle and robin, and sometimes helps out as a bartender

eddie and gareth are there with the rest of the corroded coffin and steve is definitely flirting with both of them (mostly to get them to spend more money)

but oh? they flirt back?